Today I was eating one of these things and I just thought to myself, "Is there anything better than this combo? Orange Sherbet + Vanilla Ice Cream?"

And I just couldn't think of anything more awesome.

How about you? Favorite Ice Cream?

I'm sitting down for a minute before I go into Nathaniel's big talent show.

I'm posting this blog from my iPhone, so I'll keep it short and sweet. As much as I love my phone, typing for any extended period of time becomes annoying and cumbersome.

Every year Nathaniel's school puts on a Spring Talent Show. Nathaniel auditioned back in January and made it...he sang a song from High School Musical 3 (of course). So I made a track for him, and he's been working on his dance moves for weeks. It's going to be awesome and adorable. Turns out he's kind of a Casanova, too. Girls from his school are falling all over him after seeing his act during the practices. He's had two different play date invites since last week. HAHAHA.

For those of you that can't make it, a professional DVD is being made and will be on sale from me for approx. $5,000 each.*

...I only need one buyer...

*Actual price may vary.

I had a dream that I got a very important job, and not only was I feeling oh-so creative for this job, I also had the right tools at my disposal in order to complete the job and make the client happy with me.

Then I woke up.

And even though I spent large amounts of cash on studio monitors, displays, cables, controllers, fancy sample libraries, and even some last-minute RAM to try and make it happen...it did not...happen...

Although after many hours of trying and trying again and driving all around buying this and that and charging up my visa and guitar center cards, my computer still decided to crash and/or glitch every other 5 minutes.

Now let me clarify--all ye who wish to speak ill of the Mac--the problem was not necessarily the 5 year old PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0 Processor with 2 matching HD 23" displays and 8GB of RAM, the problem was more with the interface (or plugin--called "Play") that I was using in Logic for the expensive EastWest samples. It's a beast. And I was using it on several tracks...using up ALL of my processing power and memory, and making my work sound like trash due to the constant malfunctions.

Blarg.

So then in order to make a decent sounding product, I had to bounce each track to an audio file and disengage the plugin on each track as I went. So yeah, basically I spent at least half of the day doing THE LONG, TEDIOUS, ARDUOUS thing that my computer could have done on its own if it were newer...

Poop.
Time to upgrade.

Anyone got an extra 6k?

Footnote:
Sorry for the rant. I'm frustrated...but I'll be fine in the long run...

So I have come to the point where I need to be a little more "official" about my business.

I went to the bank today to open a Business Checking account, and the guy asked me what my business name was.

Uh.

What?

I have to have a business name? Ok...Iiiiiiii'mmm goiinnnng to need to think about it.
(Keep in mind, I don't have a lot of formal business training. I should have taken a class or two in college....dangit).

So here's your task, xangaland and all of ye on the interwebs.

WHAT SHOULD I NAME MY BUSINESS?

I'm a freelance Arranger/Orchestrator/Composer for Film & TV (and a lot of other stuff) and need something that is along those lines...

I've had a couple of ideas, but frankly, I am at a loss.

Help me, o great people that read this blog.

I need to put a treadmill in my studio.

Anyone got an extra one out there that you want to donate to the Daniel-Doesn't-Want-To-Buy-All-New-Clothes-Because-He-Sits-on-His-Butt-All-Day fund?

Seriously, it's not good for my health to be so sedentary. I need to move more, and I've oft longed for a way to burn a few calories here and there during the day.
Not to mention, I recently (in the past few years) fell in love with treadmills. I used to hate them, but their ability to tell me how far I've walked/run and how long I've been doing it for has really won me over.

So, if you have an extra treadmill, you can send it my way. I'll take real good care of it!!

I'm sick.

blah.

THE BEST SHIRT EVER!

And just for you young'ns that have never seen one of the greatest trilogies of ALL TIME (right up there with Star Wars & LOTR)

I give you THIS:

I wasn't able to watch the show, but I listened to some of the results while driving home from San Diego.

Let me just say that I saw Slumdog Millionaire on Saturday (and Gran Turino), and Slumdog was a fantastic movie. It was brilliantly made, and deserves to be recognized as a great film...

But it was NOT--repeat--NOT the Best Picture of the year.

Nor did it deserve to win Best Score.  I paid attention to the music, it was fine...but it was not worthy of that award.

So if Daniel was on the Academy of voters, what would he have voted for?
Best Picture: Dark Knight (by a miiiiiile)
Best Score: Wall-E (even though I didn't really like the film).

How about you?
Oscar thoughts?

I know you are all dying to know how our little parenting experiment went yesterday.

And in the LONG run, so am I...

But nonetheless, here's what we know so far:

(Nathaniel will now be referred to as "N" for the sake of time)

N really liked the idea of being in charge for a day, and as we explained all of the responsibility he would carry for that time, his eyes became bright with excitement. (hmmmm...note to self...)

He woke up early to get himself and Noah dressed, made a lunch for the both of them, and was responsible for "driving" himself to school. Since he couldn't drive, he walked with mom. He did not enjoy the looong walk to school. This all went fairly smoothly except for the fact that Noah was not too keen on taking direction from N. He never is...they ARE brothers...(if you don't have a brother close to your age, you probably don't understand).

Even though things were going well so far, it was after school that the responsibility of being a parent really got to him.

Christy and N walked home...and N immediately got to work doing "parent" chores. He cleaned out the car, did laundry, washed dishes, scrubbed the floors (ahhhh...we are such mean parents!) AND scrubbed the toilets...and more. He also was in charge of making dinner (Christy helped with the fire-type things...you know...cooking) and he had yet to do his homework. I think he also cleaned up the back yard and took out the trash.

I mean, he worked HARD, from 3pm until about 7:30pm. At this point everyone relaxed to watch a little bit of American Idol from the previous night. FINALLY N got a chance to "play".

During all of these chores he was also responsible for tending to the needs of his brother, Noah. So when N sat down to do his homework, Noah came in to ask him for some water...and if he could have a snack...and so on and so forth.

I THINK N got the point.

Being a mom and dad is hard work. It's more than just making the decisions or getting to have your way all the time.  Being an adult carries a lot of responsibility to it, and is something that is not the job for a seven year-old. Little boys like to play, and have fun...and they don't need to whine and complain when they don't get their way. Of course, no one is perfect, and kids are going to be kids...but I think this was a good lesson in "Let the mom be the mom and the kid be the kid". And please N, please don't complain and argue when you don't get your way...

OK

So HERE'S the interesting part:

He didn't necessarily like all of the work, (or let's just say he hated it-punishment successful), but we learned that he LOVES structure. He thouroughly enjoyed the fact that Christy gave him a detailed list of the things he needed to accomplish, and could refer to the list and work until they were done. Which is totally weird since that is pretty much exactly the way I am. (Refer to strengthsquestfinderthingy about my top strength being "achiever"). He loved, loved, loved, loved, LOVED the list.

So in order to give him some more solid structure, we are going to set up a weekly calendar for after-school activities including homework, play time, special events, etc...so that he can rely on the calendar and hopefully avoid the feeling a loss of control in his life (which may be the reason for his behavior of late).

So all in all, I think this was a success. Lesson learned.

And it wasn't just N that learned a lesson...so did we.

It is interesting that the more you learn, the more you know you don't know anything.

And you can take that one to the BANK.

Peace out.

Any of you out there that think parenting is easy, you're an idiot.

Parenting is HARD.

Not just the state of being a parent, but actually parenting--raising your child with purpose and direction--is very, very, very difficult.

Can I get a what-what?

So lately our elder son has had somewhat of an attitude and is lashing out in a control-freak sort of way. I can't blame him since his only two models for living are avid horn-locking control-freaks. It's natural for him to have those tendencies.  But recently it has been out of control and disrespectful to others in an embarrassing way.

I mean, come on...shouldn't a seven year-old know that the world does not revolve around him/her?

Apparently not.

So Christy and I had a little meeting last night to discuss what we would do to have an attitude adjustment. She came up with this idea that is quite brilliant, if I say so myself. Since Nathaniel so badly wants to be the boss of everybody in the universe, for one day, he will be.

So today, Nathaniel is the parent. And with all of the fun that comes along with being in charge of other people will also come the responsibility. MUAHAHA.

Today when he gets home from school he will do his homework and then proceed to do all of the mommy chores (times TEN). So he's going to clean the kitchen, scrub the bathrooms, clean up the house, clean out the car, make dinner, do the dishes and put them away, and so on, and so forth...

HA

WE'LL SEE WHO STILL WANTS TO BE IN CHARGE AFTER TODAY!

And who knows. It may not work. I don't know...every step in this crazy life of being a parent is trial and error for me. I wish I knew what I was doing, or at least FELT like I knew what I was doing.

Any thoughts?