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Archive for the ‘Parenthood’ Category

Please pack your knives and go.

Posted in Design, Parenthood, tagged , , on September 17, 2009 | 4 Comments »

I’m risking bragging about my son’s birth here, but there are no gushing bodily fluids in this story.  I’m talking about him birthing a product.  He’s an industrial design student and was part of a three-person team to develop a Chef’s backpack.  The team’s design process was nicely depicted and discussed on the hip design [...]

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What was–or is–your favorite toy?

Posted in American culture, Design, Parenthood, tagged , , , , , , , , , on September 11, 2009 | 2 Comments »

The current issue of ID (International Design) magazine has an article in which famous designers describe their favorite toy. Most picked items from their childhood.  The write-ups are priceless.   Who knew that Paul Budnitz (Kidrobot founder) rode his Big Wheel until he was so big that he had to have his dad nail a  plywood [...]

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Phone a friend? Or not….

Posted in Parenthood, tagged , , , on August 22, 2009 | 2 Comments »

Our kitchen is a bit crowded right now.  My son and two friends are making french fries.  I am making ketchup.  (One of those ridiculous things I try just once, for fun, like making bagels, or brioche, or sushi.)  My recipe tells me to peel four tomatoes.  I don’t know how, and I think, I [...]

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Retracing Thoreau’s steps

Posted in American culture, Parenthood, tagged , on August 6, 2009 | 1 Comment »

My oldest son is a minimalist.  He lives very frugally both by choice and necessity.  So it is no wonder that he has spent part of this summer re-reading Walden Pond and physically retracing Henry David Thoreau’s footsteps.  He took me on one of those  journeys on Sunday.  It was magical, and inspired some interesting [...]

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Inside/Outside Jobs

Posted in American culture, Parenthood, tagged , on June 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

One of my biggest adjustments to “real life” (as an industrial designer) post-college was having to be indoors all day.  In fact, I’ve never gotten used to it.  So, I tell my sons, and their friends, to think hard about that reality when they choose a career.  The fact is, most careers are indeed lived [...]

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Not-so-innocent high school video class assignments

Posted in Parenthood on April 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

So I’m taking a brief break from creating stuff for my blog….my son made a couple videos that I am sharing.  The first is a mock commercial for condoms.  (I guess any public health message was fair game, for this assignment.)  If you don’t “get” this one, you will when you read the credits. The [...]

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Steal This Idea, Please

Posted in American culture, Parenthood, tagged , , on March 31, 2009 | 8 Comments »

I had a Eureka! moment yesterday. It took the combination of  three observations: The Economist once wrote that an enormous–and largely under-reported–driver of the Irish Celtic Tiger economic boom was the sizeable mass of college-educated women entering, and also returning to, the Irish workforce. In my world I am surrounded by women who have taken [...]

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A teenager’s summary of start-up company financing

Posted in Parenthood, Start-ups on March 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

My thirteen-year-old recently asked me, Mom what is the point of raising these “grants” [his word for an investment funding round] for your company? All you do is spend one grant trying to get another grant. Woah. Kinda stopped me in my tracks. A family friend overheard this statement by my son, and said, (with [...]

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Places where things get made; Pittsburgh

Posted in American culture, Design, Food porn, Parenthood, tagged , , , , on March 21, 2009 | 6 Comments »

I like being in places where things get made.  I grew up next to a humming Detroit Diesel Allison factory and freight train line.  Those noises and smells are instinctively comforting to me.  Pittsburgh is a city whose very existence has to do with making things.  I love this place.  I love the grit, the [...]

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Only three more days

Posted in Parenthood on January 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

For three more days I can say, “Oh I have three teenage sons.”  No, I am not adopting out the one who gives me fits.  (Depends on the day, which one that is.)  It’s far less sinister than that.  You see, I just got off the phone with son #1, and I wished him “Happy [...]

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