So I’m talking to Noah about poop.
Why? Um…I don’t know…for some reason we’re talking about it…I can’t remember why…these things just happen. Ask Christy.
I like to remind Noah every once and a while about where poop goes, just in case he happens to forget that it has a proper place. When he was potty training the saying went, “Poopoo goes in the toilet, NOT in your underwear.”
This was a constant mantra. We said it over and over again. I would ask him, “Noah, where does poopoo go?”
To which he would reply, “IN THE TOILET!”
…and I would continue, “Poopoo does not go in your…”
And he would answer, “…underwear.”
Good job, everyone’s happy.

Today I bring it up again…

Daniel: “Noah, poopoo goes in the toilet, huh?”
Noah:   “Yeah…”
Daniel:  “But it does NOT go…”
Noah:   “In your flip-flops”.

---

Nathaniel comes running into the studio, clearly frightened, without his pants on…
we’re talking shirt and underwear only.

Daniel: “Nathaniel, where are your pants?”
N: (out of breath from running) “Um…a little spider was on them, so I took them off.”
D: “What?”
N: “Can you come over and kill it?”
D: “Wait, can you explain to me how this happened again?”
N: “A little black spider was on my pants…”
D: (interrupting) “…ok, so you were sitting on the couch watching Star Wars, and you saw a black spider crawling on you, so you took off your pants and came over here?”
N: “Yeah…it fell down from the ceiling on to my pants.”
D: (speechless…and trying to figure out how he came to the conclusion that removing his pants was the best way to avoid this spider…)

“…fair enough.”

So I’m walking down by the mall in Burbank, and I think to myself that it might be a good time to use whatever is left on that Starbucks card…you know, the one that is burning a hole in my pocket (OK, when ISN’T a good time for Starbucks? Eh? Amen? Can I get a witness?)

Closest Starbucks is inside Barnes & Noble. OK, no problem…let’s do this…

But what I didn’t realize was that a Barnes & Noble Starbucks is really an Un-Starbucks. Why? Because as the manager told me that himself. Well, not exactly like that…he said, “We are just a cafe that serves Starbucks coffee…”
Ahhhhhhhhhhh, I see. But I should have been tipped off to this fact about a hundred times before the manager had to put it so succinctly…why, you ask?

-There was no one there
Only on the rarest of rare occaisions do I go into a Starbucks and find it completely empty. And usually these times are at the crack of dawn, or five minutes before closing. Never during the daytime is a real Starbucks empty…people are always there drinking, eating, and being merry. It’s like Christmas every day.

-They wouldn’t take my Starbucks card
There was a sign on top of the register that said, “We are not currently set up to take Starbucks gift cards…”
Really? No Starbucks cards?
Laaaaaaaame…that’s why I came in the first place! …to spend my Starbucks card. Oh well…I’m here, I might as well order something…

Now you truly see my brilliant mind at work.

-There was much to-do about taking my order
The two “baristas” (I say facetiously) that were working decided to take my order on the front and back side of a blank receipt because they couldn’t find the correct pen in order to write on the cup. Ok. I get it. You can’t find the pen…that’s cool. But don’t be frantic about it, that just makes me nervous.
THEN, the nice boy taking my order couldn’t find what I ordered for a good 10 minutes. I had kind of moved over to the bar area and had already gotten one of the drinks before he rang me up.
He asked for help twice, once from the other barista and once from the manager. It wasn’t that hard…I ordered an Iced Grande Caramel Macchiatto for Christy (her favorite iced drink), and a Caramel Espresso Frappuccino for me. The latter drink is the one that tripped the dude up for the long haul.

-The manager had to get involved
Any time a manager has to get involved in a simple situation, I know we’re all in troube. Me, you, and America. It’s just not good…
So the manager comes out and says to me, (in a somewhat suspicious tone, I might add), “That’s a drink I’ve never heard of in the four years that I’ve worked here.”
This took me by suprise, so I stuttered out that it was a new drink they branded this summer that was just a caramel frap with a shot blended in…it’s nothing new, just a new name.
He then instructed the wee little barista to ring me up a frap with an add shot. This is when he gave me a quote about how it must be a new thing and they don’t carry all of the new drinks because they’re not a Starbucks…just a cafe that serves Starbucks coffee. Of course I’m a little confused by this since all of the menus look pretty much the same, and they offer a similar selection of pastries and drinks.

-There was tax
Any Starbucks located inside of another store (i.e. Ralphs, Albertsons, Target, and so on) charges you the same sales tax as the normal store. Why? I don’t know. It’s stupid. So I pay another dollar for tax instead of the already pricy amount I would have paid at a regular Starbucks.
Boo. Not my favorite.

Sooooo…what can we learn from this, boys and girls?
A Barnes & Noble Starbucks is a fake.
It’s an Un-Starbucks…a Stunbucks (as Andy Bernard might say).

I’m not a complainer, nor do I delight in the failure of others. But this was experience was like…5 strikes and you’re OUT.

Even the cups sing the tall tale of the Stunbucks.

EDIT ADD:

Thursday:
The kids wake up around 8am and stumble into the kitchen for their morning bowl of cereal–which they finish by about 8:30 (finally…geez…I can knock out a bowl of cereal in about 5 minutes…3 if I try).
At 8:55 Noah comes in to the dining room where I’m sitting and asks “Can I have soooooooome lunch?”
“Noah…you just had cereal. How could you want lunch? No…no lunch. Have some water.”
“OOOOOOOOOOOH! OK! COLD WATER!!!!”

…problem solved.

Now they are playing Go Fish. Super cute.

---

I greatly underestimate the value of mom-hood…but more on that in a minute…

Christy loves school. She loves it a lot, and she happens to be a very good student. She spent 5 years getting her B.A. (thank goodness…since my freshman year was her 5th year in college…in other words, if she had graduated on time, we would have never met) and has been enjoying the process of getting her master’s degree in Pastoral Studies at APU.

Today was the first day of “The Great Test of Daniel’s Fatherhood Abilities of 2008″…also known as GTODFA’08.

Christy is taking this 7-day, 9-to-5 class at APU…leaving the kids all to me for this week…and it is a little overwhelming. I don’t think I have EVER spent this much un-interrupted time with the kids, and I’m noooooooot exactly sure what to do with them…

Which brings me back to this time when Nathaniel was just like a week old. And you know babies, when they’re only that old they just sleep and poop and sleep some more (sheesh, thank goodness THAT is over). And Nathaniel was a good baby–we just hauled him around and he was content with whatever in his carrier. But this one day I just looked at Christy and said–totally serious–”So…what do babies do when they get older? I mean…like before preschool or whatever?” Like I just couldn’t fathom what a child would do all day without being at school or having some sort of organized activity to take up their time. I think her answer was something along the lines of, “I think they just play with toys and stuff…”
“Oh…right. Toys.”

But I still don’t really understand what these kids could possibly do ALL DAY for 6 more days.

We certainly can’t play Playstation the WHOLE time…right?

WHAT DO I DO WITH THESE LITTLE, WONDERFUL PEOPLE?

I kind of also thought about this movie…which is soooooo old…

So the day after we moved into our Burbank house, there was a parade that included a Batmobile and a Back to the Future-style pimped-out DeLorean right outside our house.

SCORE
Burbank: 1
Everywhere Else: 0

After living here for almost two months, I have started noticing other awesome things that come as a result of living in Burbank. And of course, I will share…
…and of course, I will name it something ridiculous, like “Why Burbank Rules” and give it a number…and of course, I will use the phrase “of course” far too often.
Of course.

Tonight I walked into Starbucks and sat next to a dude that was reading and editing a script. A SCRIPT…like, a MOVIE SCRIPT. FOR A REAL MOVIE.
I mean, I really had to restrain myself from not totally staring and/or trying to peer over his shoulder to see what it was all about.

Also, we have iPod vending machines in our mall…

…and we have Donitas.

Ok, just kidding…that place actually looked weird. I mean, just look at the logo. It looks like a trendy donut place except for the fact that the “O” looks like it’s dripping blood. Does anybody else notice this? It was even creepier in the poster on the wall (it’s far too small to see from here). Is this appealing to anybody? I don’t know…I certainly don’t want a blood donut. Let me just say that I walked on the OTHER side of the mall…

…be on the lookout for Volume 2 and beyond…

In other (entertainment) news, EW posted a few lists this week. One of them is the 100 NEW classic movies. Check it out, it is very interesting. I have actually only made it through part of this magazine. I got held up on the classic movie list–you know how I am about lists–and since I AM in the film business, I feel compelled to see at least some of these movies that I didn’t see a while back. I actually (wait for it) went to Blockbuster AND Hollywood Video tonight to rent a few of these movies. If you are a long-time reader, you know that I don’t rent things…so this means business.

Today the Midway Praise Choir and Orchestra presented an abbreviated version of the worship musical called “3:16 The Numbers of Hope” to our church congregation during the normal Sunday morning worship services. This is the first time we have done something of this nature–a hybrid of performance and worship time–with our people. It seemed to be well received.

I have my own thoughts about the experience, and Christy and I talked a lot about it on the way home, but I’m curious about what all of you Midway-Xangans thought about it. Please drop a line via comment here and let me know what you thought!

Two movies today. One was awful, and one was fantastic.

I’ll make this quick. I will not beat around the bush. I will get right to the point and not just add filler stuff. No fluff here, just the facts.

“Don’t Mess With the Zohan” was terrible. This was the first movie of The Great Harkins Double-Feature of 2008 and it was a total dud.
I am usually a fan of Adam Sandler. I liked him on SNL, but his movies have been hit and miss for me. Spanglish was great, and I liked 50 First Dates…but this latest movie was horrible. It was stupid, gross, lame, not funny, dumb, yucky, unrealistic, retarded, and did I mention gross? We actually thought it was so lame we walked out. We never walk out of movies. We usually pick good ones. This was not that. Ugh. Do NOT waste your time and money. This was bad.

On the other hand, “Get Smart” was awesome. It is everything a blockbuster comedy should be. Steve Carell is hilarious, and with a fantastic script, he is soooooooo funny. I mean, this will probably be the biggest comedy of the summer. I laughed all the way through it…by all means, if you like comedy, go see this movie. I can’t recommend it highly enough. The appeal for this is broad, and the comedy is not stupid humor, it is FUNNY stuff.

Also-I heard that Love Guru has been getting really bad reviews. Blah. Don’t think I’ll see it.

So I’ve been thinking about a blog entry I’ve wanted to write for a few days now, but it involves a video clip that I can’t get right now…so it must be delayed. So here’s some other thoughts for this summer Friday…

Christy and I have been sleeping in this week–sleeping in for the first time in several years.
I don’t know what happened, but the boys and us just got on this really weird schedule where we’re all waking up late…like at….get ready…here it comes…8:30.
I KNOW! THAT’S SO LATE!

So we’re lame. Just bumming around the house, working and finally feeling like we’re settling in to our new place.  I mean, I’m writing this from Christy’s laptop while lounging on the couch at 9:30AM without a shirt on while the kids watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I love my life.

So it’s a hard balance between fun and work. Some days we goof off and I only work a few hours, and other days I’m in the studio for 12-14 hours. It just depends on the day and what I’m doing.

Today is Friday…which means several things:

1) A new summer movie comes out. I love Fridays in the summer.
2) A new summer movie means a trip to Harkins
3) Going to Harkins means traveling EAST on the freeway.
4) Traveling EAST on the freeway on a Friday is certain death unless you reach your destination before 2pm.
5) Henceforth, we will be going to Harkins for a double-feature. Christy and I will see a movie at the 2ish time, and then our friends from APU-area will join us for the highly anticipated GET SMART with the world’s funniest dude, Steve Carell.
6) Since it would be a HUGE waste of money and time to drive back from Chino Hills to Burbank, we will jump on the 15 fwy and just head down to San Diego. Cause why not?

Anywho–if you want to join us for Get Smart–we’ll be seeing it at Harkins at 5:30pm. We’d love to see you there!

I’m a goal-oriented person. If I don’t have any real specific goals, I make them up for myself (i.e. I’m going to finish off this entire gallon of ice cream and then beat the next four levels of Lego Indiana Jones). It’s just how I’m built. In fact, my top strength according to the StrengthsQuest StrengthsFinder test-thingy is “Achiever”…which means exactly that. I like to make lists of things to do and then accomplish them.

So back in the Winter quarter in my grad program I was required by one of my professors to make up a two-year plan. A plan for my career with steps between where I was then and where I would like to see myself in two years. Easy enough? No. It was totally hard. But I did it…and now that I’m 3 or 4 months into the two years, let’s check out where I’m at…mostly because I need to see this list. In fact, you may be completely bored with this radically self-indulgent post.
And I would be OK with that…this is not the most riveting information available for reading on the web. Just a warning…

So I had to write this in paper form, but I’m just going to give you the bullet points…I mean, unless you REALLY want to kill yourself with boredom.

Two-Year Plan
(Year one)

-Move to Burbank (nailed it)
-Quit full time job (check)
-Orchestration lessons with Steve Bartek (still working on it. This is a tough one…)
-Working more for Joe (check)
-Arrange a Big-Band song for my friend Dave (have not done this)
-Finish the score for movie “Love Bites” (working on this the next week)
-Record my original song “One Page at a Time” (have thought about it several times)
-Purchase a full-size keyboard for my studio (not yet)

(Year two)

-Learn Sibelius (probably will do this summer)
-Buy higher quality sound samples (not yet)
-Join AFofM (not yet)
-Join SCL (no need to yet)
-Join ASCAP (no need to yet)
-Participate in ASCAP workshops for film composers, etc…(again, no)
-Purchase new workstation, including a MacPro and two 30′ displays (not even close…this is definitely a “next summer” plan)
-Learn Digital Performer (nope)
-Learn ProTools (started this)
-Learn more about/investigate/possibly buy Gigastudio (not yet)

OK…well…I’m off to a good start…

I’ll keep you posted on this other stuff…
or…I guess…I’ll keep myself posted…because surely you’ve stopped reading this by now.

Also–started watching “Waiting for Guffman” last night.
Hilarious.
I can’t wait to finish it…

In order to be as cool and hip as you really want to be, you’re going to need to download the BRAND new Firefox 3.0 today. Evidently they’re trying to set a world record for the most downloads in 24 hours. So, GO!!!
Not to mention it’s absolutely the best browser for PC or MAC (yes…better than Safari…which my die-hard-geek-loyalty-to-Mac persona hates to admit).

Why is it the best, you ask? Um…it just is.

If you really want to know, ask a fancy IT person…you know, like this guy:

Happy Father’s Day to all you dads out there.

We were in San Diego for FD and Nathaniel left his present for me at home. So this is what I woke up to this morning…
He made me a card at school…complete with it’s own white paper bag-envelope. Or as Andy Bernard would say, a bagvelope.

I asked him who was on the front of the bag, he said it was him and me, of course!

The picture was on the front of the card, and here’s the message inside.

I knew I was funny.

Just kidding…ok, but on the serious, that is the best present anyone could ever get me. If you’re a dad and you’ve ever received something like this from your kid, then you understand.
I love my family soooooooo much. Wow…