Dads View

My little five year old wants to go into business for himself!

No, seriously, he’s not a full blown capitalist …he’s just curious about how the whole supply and demand “thing” works.

The other day we were in our local TV appliance store looking at new televisions when I casually asked my son which TV he likes.
He walks directly over to this giant 70″ Plasma TV and says matter-of-factly

“LET”S GET THIS ONE DADDY!”

From 10 feet away I spot the sales tag:

“ON SALE! Only $17,995″

Yeah, that’s right… the price of new Honda Civic!

I broke the bad news to him and we ended up leaving the store after ordering a much cheaper LCD HDTV (that I ended up canceling …but that’s another story..)

For the next several days my son kept asking me why we couldn’t buy his favorite television.

We talked about “good” debt (like a house you live in) and “bad” debt (frivolities that break) but I wasn’t making any impression.

So I started using units of currency that I was sure he would understand:

• 5,000 Chicken nuggets
• 60 bicycles
• How long daddy has to work to pay for it…LOL

I then flippantly added

“Why don’t you set up a lemonade stand and you can buy the TV for yourself!”

His eyes lit up…he was instantly captivated by this novel idea of becoming a five year old entrepreneur!

Over the next few days he was on a mission…gather everything he needed to open up his first business!
He spoke of nothing else…day and night…LOL!

So the day came to set up shop on our sidewalk. Of course I had to decide what to charge for my son’s homemade lemonade (actually Countrytime). Anyone know the street price for lemonade? The seven year old businessman living next door charges a $1.00!
Well, we set the price and opened up shop:

Then came the real surprise… Customers!
In a little over 2 hours my son sold over 20 glasses!
A special thanks goes to my neighbors and the anonymous strangers who gave my son a crisp dollar bill and a cheerful “keep the change”.
You brought excitement and joy to my son’s business adventure.

I hope you remember this story the next time you see a young boy or girl with a lemonade stand…
Please stop and buy a glass!

I’ve been using Photoshop for several years now and have become familiar with it’s great capabilities and its limitations. Recently, I had taken some important photographs that didn’t come out as intended. My fuzzy photographs usually go immediately to the recycle bin, since I’ve never found anything that could make usable pictures out of them. Until Now.

Focus Magic is a tool that can literally do the impossible…make an unusable blurry picture sharp!

In general there are two causes for a blurry or fuzzy picture:

• Camera or subject motion
• Focusing either in front of or behind the subject

Focus magic can correct both of these mistakes and probably give you a usable picture in the process.

My five year old son has been studying caterpillars and butterflies in his preschool class. His interest has been insatiable! So I shouldn’t have been surprised when I came home from work yesterday and was introduced to his new pet…a one inch long brown furry caterpillar that he had found crawling across the playground after school!

We then realized that we had another problem…what do we feed this little guy? We had no idea what kind of caterpillar this was…let alone what he preferred to eat. We gave him some spinach but by today there was no sign that he had touched any of it. My son’s little pet would starve to death if I didn’t do something.

Google to the rescue! A search for “caterpillar pictures” brought me to this site about caterpillars:

What is this Caterpillar?

Which has hundreds of pictures of every kind of caterpillar you can imagine. Clicking the link for “Hairy/Spiny” eventually led to his identity.

And here he is… the Eastern tent caterpillar

Another search for “eastern tent diet” led to this page:

Eastern Tent Caterpillar–Entomology Leaflet 142

which says “Hosts: Cherries and apple are the favored food plants. Plum, peach, hawthorn, pear, rose, and some of the deciduous forest and shade trees may be attacked, especially when favored foods run out. ”

So he likes fruit trees!
We happened to have an ornamental pear tree planted in front of our house. I wonder?

Yes. He began eating like a caterpillar possessed…probably his first good meal in days.

I hope this helps you keep alive that little creature that your child brings home tomorrow

The moon is our closest celestial neighbor and one of most interesting and easy objects to study with your child.

Each month the moon goes through obvious changes that are caused by the motion of the sun and moon but every once in a while, the earth and moon put on a spectacular show visible on earth for only a few hours. In October 2004, a complete lunar eclipse was visible in much of the world. The pictures below were taken from my backyard that night with my ordinary Sony DSC F717
5 megapixel digital camera. See below for some simple tips to take your own moon pictures:

Tips to take your own lunar pictures:

• Switch your camera to manual mode
• Bracket your shots
• Use a tripod

The moon is actually quite bright. To get a good picture, your camera should actually use about the same settings as a bright sunny outdoor picture on Earth!

I really can’t remember when I wasn’t a photographer.

I grew up in the 60s and 70s in a family of photographers. Both my mom and dad were avid shutterbugs using such classics as the twin lens Rolleiflex and 35mm Leica.

I began my lifelong hobby at about 7 or 8, using a simple little camera (called a brownie) shooting black and white pictures in my backyard.

Those beginnings gave me an appreciation for the simplicity and magic of capturing lifes moments to share for another generation.

I hope to share and nuture that magic in my now 5 year old son who is already taking great interest in seeing these frozen snippets of time.