“…baby step onto the elevator… baby step into the elevator… I’m *in* the elevator.”
This year has been a bunch of baby steps, not only for Lee but for me too. Thankfully, that seems to be coming to an end. With the move back to LA coming up soon, things should ramp back up, personally and professionally.
I’m really looking forward to it.
So I haven’t posted much in awhile on Lee (let alone anything!), but I’m feeling the need to do so regularly again. Anyway, here’s a recent vid of Lee crawling, not his first time, but certainly not far into his budding ability. It’s on Facebook currently, so mind the jump. Will post directly here soon.
Children surely have been born designed with multiple survival mechanisms, though many pale in comparison to what know and are used to from most creatures in the animal kingdom.
Lee is no exception and as his father and a new parent, it’s pretty powerful to watch and experience the reactions to his mechanisms.
Top three survival instincts noted to date:
1. Cuteness!
Babies are generally cute and again, Lee is no exception. He gets so much attention, both from family and complete strangers. Something so adorable is just hard to ignore or refuse lavishing one’s attention on.
2. Crying
Ugh. Probably his most powerful instinct and mechanism is ironically, his most vulnerable, at least it would be if he wasn’t of the modern home sapien erectus clan. His cries are so gut wrenching, at least as a parent, especially within the first weeks of birth, that your own senses go on hyper vigilance. If they were the cries of any other adults kids, it might be different, and most times it is just plain irritating.
3. Limb Movement
Babies have little to no great control over their limb movements at first. And some like Lee, can be excessive and violent in their motions. And while his or any other baby’s range of motion and motor control is far from a great defense, it still could do some good since their motions are quick, unpredictable (well okay, not completely unpredictable), and seemingly violent.
Of course, all this motion day-to-day is just he or she developing their motor control, but there are times when it seems to more defensive or reactionary to something they don’t like or startles them.
Regardless of what is and isn’t a survival instinct, he remains super cute.
2009, baby, children, family, fatherhood, instincts, lee, parenting, survival
So today I get one of my fabric partners regular shipments of my mail from the last few months from my west coast office.
These deliveries are always so horrific to open, since still nearly half if not more of my life routes through the LA office: all of my DF responsibilities (taxes, corporate filings, chargeback notices, merchant notices, etc.), Green Gurus (nearly the same minus merch stuff since we’re not active), much of my personal stuff (subscriptions if I have any, health ins crap, etc.), and a host of other misc items.
Today was no exception of course. Not. These last few weeks have been killing me and everything I’d come to create in my nearly 7 years in LA, has been coming to a head, rather their end, including: Green Gurus, sustainably powered hosting and data storage plans, etc. I’ve been doing the best to minimize this but now into my 6 month here in PA, things just are really fraying from either end, faster and faster.
The only good note I can think of these days is my son Lee. I’m doing my best to not dump my negative energy into him and more and more am coming to enjoy time spent with him. It’s tough though, what with my losing my salary last week, amongst everything else: Rivertribe plans were just winding up, SolarHoster/InfinityDrive were still hanging on, barely, Tristan’s wish to move us to Ohio, my enrollment into ITT Tech with full tuition coverage but no living expenses covered, and no vehicle of my own still.
Anyway, Lee’s gaining about a 1-lb a week right now and still looking very handsome and cute.
Incidentally, my Flickr uploads haven’t been coming through in about a week or so and Yahoo is taking forever in identifying the issue. I’ve uploaded half again or more, of what’s there already, but they’re just not showing up. So I’m thinking about switching over to Picasa maybe. I don’t relish the idea of having to recreate all my sets there, but at least it’s free and it works.
2009, baby, distinctivefabric.com, green gurus, lee, rivertribe, solar hoster, startups
Sometime last week I started resurrecting the old outdoor adventure company, well at least its services anyway.
I started working at what had been called Schuylkill River Canoe & Tube, then Valley Forge Outdoors, then Hidden River Adventures, and what was to become Rivertribe, at the age of 16, in the summer of 1995. I progressed from in my 6+ years there from the new guy handling equipment at the beach/dock, to serving as one of its general managers. After the company closed its doors in the fall of 2001, I headed west to California, where I spent close to 7-years.
Now back in PA where it all began nearly 15-years later, I’ve found my long-lived hope of returning to the river business as a way of life reemerging stronger and clearer than ever before. I’d been hedging around my interest in doing this with the previous company owner and was getting a lukewarm response. So I decided to step things up a bit and started throwing a website together at my previously registered domain, Rivertribe.org.
I simultaneously emailed a bunch of former employees from the old river days and some new potential teammates while building out the site and renewing my discussions with the old boss. So far feedback has been good and the owner is more cooperative than before.
I’ve also partnered up with an old friend Cory, who has really taken to the Rivertribe concept and so we’ve been hammering away at all the details over the last week. It’s starting to get pretty intense, what with my other efforts at starting up the SolarHoster and maintaining my work with the fabric company, not to mention the still new tasks the baby has brought with his birthing.
Needless to say my time has been nearly completely devoured these last few weeks and I’ve been posting here less frequently than my previous goal, but that’s just how it goes sometimes.
Be sure to check Rivertribe.org and as always, can be found streaming bits away on Twitter.
2009, baby, business, distinctivefabric.com, past present future, rivertribe, solar hoster, startups
Nothing but ice today, as I quickly found out first-hand. My first step onto the ice put me flat on my back in less than a second flat. Lesson learned: test the walking conditions before walking with baby; thank god I wasn’t carrying him.
The ice came off the car in these razor-sharp pieces.
So this is the basic technique we’ve been using to feed Lee, when he’s being too fussy to feed from the breast:
We use a little 1.5 tsp-sized syringe to drop in the breast milk alongside our finger; he goes through about 1 every 2-3 mins at the fastest and 15-mins at the slowest. Whether or not this is a measure of our speed of dispensing it, varies based on who’s feeding him. If it’s me at 4am, then it sometimes takes me 10-15-mins for one; other times I squeeze it all out in less than 5.
We’re still trying to get him stop fussing at the breast, but Tristan’s just getting frustrated and doesn’t like to see him upset. It’s definitely something that takes getting used to and should work itself out with practice.
Baby’s coming any day now, Tristan is going insane with the wait and feels like it’ll never happen. I keep promising it’ll be over soon, but my words seem to be falling on deaf ears.
Nothing for it but to wait it out and do whatever I can to keep her occupied until then.
Tough timing though trying a new job, prep for the cross-country move back again, and a slew of other equally complicated details. But I’m confident everything will work. I always work things out with half or less the trouble perceived from the start.
Now if only she could share in my optimism…
I must vent. Now.
DistinctiveFabric.com, Inc. is tanking (or so Josh and I think), but what the hell do we really know anyway? We’ve only been running this damned thing for four and half years now and barely with any involvement from its founder and our chairman, Adam. Guess this is what you get for putting a couple of first-timers in executive seats and a declining economy. Ironically enough, our sales have only been going up since last August, but our previous debt carried over, coupled with an inconsistent cash flow, just hasn’t weathered the dip in December as well as we’d hoped and planned for.
SolarHoster.com is failing before it even runs.
InfinityDrive.net is failing. Again.
GreenGurus.net…is all the above and more: I can’t even log on or into the damn site.
The baby is due any day now and we’re broke. Tristan wants to move back to Cali. I want to stay and I want to go. I wanted so much to birth Rivertribe finally.
Now all of my business ideas are crumbling. And I can’t get a job because either:
1. My credit is so bad they won’t hire me
1a. I’m overqualified on paper due to past employment
2. I never finished school and got a degree and the necessary experience
3. The economy sucks ass cause the rest of this country shares in some of my misery
I’ve lost hundreds of keyword domains I never should have bought in the first place.
I’m now thirty freaking years old and my life is miserable. Okay not really. I still fight and fight and fight for success. I have no idea of what drives me. I had hoped to figure that out with a whole lot more in life before having a child.
Now what? God only knows. Actually, I’m now giving serious thought to starting up a church. A fucking church. Jesus Christ. I must be insane.
Either through “Order of the Jedi” – I now own orderofthejedi.net and jedichurch.net
Or through “Moon Temple” – I now own moontemple.org and moonchurch.org
I’m fucking crazy. I’ve always known it. And I always see people thinking the same freaking thing, even if they deny it when asked.
Well, if I’m crazy I might as well build my own crazy house, heh?
–
Update 1.15 10:50am: Feeling a might bit better now. Course, the wee hours of the night often leave me despairing more so than the light of day.
2009, 30th, age, baby, business, daily log, employer, green gurus, hosting, infinity drive, past present future, pregnancy, religion, rivertribe, solar hoster, startups, the river, tristan, work
My primary source of income has recently dried up and am in great need of immediate employment. Require a net minimum of $2,800 per month in salary just to cover essentials for me, my partner and our baby due in two weeks.
Any leads anyone can share with me would be immensely appreciated!
Employment history below.
–
EMPLOYMENT
Distinctivefabric.com, Inc. – Present
2079 E 15th St, #330, LA CA 90021
Chief Executive Officer
*Management of corporate affairs, taxes, corporate filings, license/permit renewals, etc.
*Oversee web development, product creation and launches, marketing campaigns, sustainability integration, etc.
*Excel in dynamic and fast-paced order fulfillment, Internet startup and management environments.
The Do LaB / Lightning In A Bottle Arts and Music Festival – Present
2023 Bay St, LA CA 90021
Senior Production Artist, Assistant Director of Sustainability
*Assist in design, building, installing, and transporting large-scale art installations and event productions
*Co-manage client-relations pre- and post-production
*Assist Director in greening company operations and country’s leading sustainable arts and music festival
*Co-manage 200+ paid and volunteer staff
*Excel in management and coordination of multi-tasking, high end installations and client-interfacing
Green Gurus, LLC – Present
2079 E 15th St, #330, LA CA 90021
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
*Manage team, clients, corporate affairs, marketing, web development, etc.
*Excel in dynamic and fast-paced Internet startup and management environments.
Rooftop Promotion: April 2003 – April 2004
Gardena, CA
Director of Media Relations
*Coordination of artist promotions through press and radio contacts
*Managed Filemaker database of press and radio contacts
*Excelled in multi-artist PR
Hidden River Adventure: August 1996 – November 2001
Monocacy, PA
General Manager
*Managed inventory, equipment, group bookings, ecotours, transportation, staff, maintenance
*Lead carpenter and builder of corporate offices
*Excelled in customer relations
COMPUTER EXPERIENCE
*Applications: Microsoft Office XP, Word and Excel; Apple OS X; Google Docs: Document, Presentation, Spreadsheets, Adwords, Adsense; Open Office, KOffice, The Gimp; Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver; QuarkXPress; Transmit, Fugu, Telnet Launcher, Filemaker, Drupal CMS, Plesk and cPanel; Abelton Live, Reason
*Languages: Basic UNIX, PHP, HTML/XHTML, CSS
*Browsers: Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, Opera
*Social Networks, Utilities and Apps: Basecamp, Wiki, WordPress, Blogger, Twitter, Flickr, Picasa, Posterous, Facebook, Myspace, Tribe, LinkedIn, YouTube, Revver, Vimeo, Digg, Hugg, etc.
EDUCATION
Santa Monica Community College
Santa Monica, CA
Computer Science
Pursued completion of undergraduate degree
The Bradley Academy / Art Institute
York, PA
Multimedia
Pursued completion of undergraduate degree
2009, baby, business, ceo, employees, employer, equipment, flickr, music, past present future, social networks, startups, talent, the do lab, the river, tristan, wordpress, work
