Pete Dudchenko » 5 Things…

5 Things They Never Tell You About Becoming A Parent

Pete Dudchenko — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 05:06:30 +0000

My wife and I recently had a son and while it’s been a blessing and a joy, I can’t help but take a few minutes to share some items that no one prepared me for when they told me about the joys of parenthood:

5. The shooting pains that develop in your lower back.

I don’t know if this is from leaning over to pick him up or from holding him all the time but whatever is the cause, it feels like a small knife in my back whenever I lean over. Oh the joys of getting older.

4. Rocking back and forth for no apparent reason

I first noticed this on a business trip in my hotel room as I was working at night. It was my first trip away from my wife and son and I was typing away at my computer when I noticed that the screen was moving. When I stopped typing I realized that the screen wasn’t moving, I was. Apparently the constant rocking I had been doing to put the little guy to sleep had been so ingrained in my muscle memory that I was doing it without knowing.

3. There’s always a feeling like you have a burp cloth on your shoulder.

I was at work and had the nagging feeling like there was a burp cloth on my shoulder. The weird thing is, those burp clothes will never stay where they need to be to do any good! If he spits up, or as soon as you lean over (Ouch! Back pain!) the burp cloth never fails to fall down or avoid spit up from hitting your clothes.

2. At least one room in your house will look like a clown threw up a rainbow from all the colors of the baby toys laying around.

In our case it’s more like three rooms but as soon as I started my first assembly of some of the toys we had bought or received as gifts, I quickly noticed that color stimulation is a big thing for infants. One would think there is a direct correlation between the number of colors per square inch on a toy and the chances of them going to Harvard.

1. People asking “hows they baby” is really just small talk. They don’t really need a 30 minute explanation.

SAT Questions for this Generation

Pete Dudchenko — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 17:16:53 +0000

I remember taking the SAT back in high school and just the other day I was wondering if they ever update the questions to stay current. Are kids today answering the same questions that I answered years ago? I certainly hope not. I mean times have changed and we really need to come up with questions that kids can relate to in today’s world. So in an attempt to help further childhood education, I propose the following questions be added to the SAT’s immediately:

4Squares is to Twitter as MobWars is to…
a) Facebook
b) Flickr
c) XBox
d) None of the above

Define “LOL”:
a) Lots of luck
b) Laugh out loud
c) Lame, overly lame
d) Listed on Letterman

What is the next logical item based upon the following release sequence of gaming consoles:
Atari 2600, Nintendo (original, not Super NES), PS2…
a) Wii
b) Intellivision
c) Apple IIc
d) Pong

If Tom can text at 12 words per minute. How many seconds would it take him to text out the following sentence:
“Dude, I’ll be there at 4:00?
a) 30 seconds
b) 60 seconds
c) 90 seconds
d) None of the above

If you have 200 friends on Facebook and 20% of them commented on your latest status update. How many comments would you have?
a) 4
b) 40
c) 60
d) None of the above

Ok, your turn. Did I miss some? If you think you can do better, let’s hear it in the comments section.

5 Things About Getting Started with a DSLR Camera

Pete Dudchenko — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 06:19:39 +0000

I recently ordered a Canon EOS 50D DSLR camera and while waiting for it to arrive, I’ve had some time to research taking photos. Luckily in today’s digital age, there is plenty of free information out there for getting started with a DSLR camera. Since we also live in a world of A.D.D. I thought I might summarize the basics of what I’ve learned so far. Think of this as a “Cliff Notes” version on DSLR camera photography and getting started.

Now I should premise this that my so called “expertise” in DSLR camera photography has been built through about three days of nothing but Internet research and no actual field work (like I said I’m still waiting for my camera to arrive). In other words, I’m about as dangerous as my grandmother behind the wheel of a car but all of this information below is based upon pretty common concepts that I’ve pulled from various sites and can be a good starting point if you’re looking to get started with a DSLR camera.

1) The “Exposure Triangle” – This is probably the first thing I came across when graduating from a point-and-shoot to a DSLR camera. Essentially, the Exposure Triangle refers to three variables to consider when taking a DSLR camera photograph. They are Aperture, ISO and Shutter Speed. I’d say that of the things I learned, this is probably the most important to review if you ever want to get off of the automatic settings for your DSLR camera and more into priority and manual modes. Check out this link on The Exposure Triangle to learn more with using your DSLR camera.

2) Correct Exposure is only part of the equation – Once you get the concepts of the Exposure Triangle figured out, that doesn’t mean the DSLR camera photos will suddenly become professional quality. The next step is to figure out how to get a creative DSLR camera photo that is properly exposed. You can have a properly exposed DSLR camera photo using a number of different combinations with the variables above. Finding the one that is best suited for the story you are trying to tell is what makes the difference between a good photo and a great photo. Watch this video on creating a creatively correct exposure.

3) Learn your DSLR camera settings – Seems simple enough but have you seen some of the manuals? Holy crap that’s boring! Besides, who wants to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to be sidelined with a thick booklet that contains probably 70% of information that I (as a beginner) am not ready for anyway? Again, this is where the Internet comes in handy. I went to YouTube and just searched for my DSLR camera’s brand and model number and I found instructional videos that told me more than I needed to know about how to get started. Plus in many of the videos I found suggestions on where to set my lesser used settings to get the best general results so I can leave them there until I’m ready to learn more about them.

4) Rules of Thirds – This is less about the technical settings of your DSLR camera and more about the artistic aspect of photography but I bet some would argue this is as foundational as a rule to learn as the Exposure Triangle. The Rules of Thirds basically states that if you divide your viewfinder into three horizontal and three vesicle sections, the intersection of each area is where the interesting points should go. A common mistake when taking a photo is to place the horizon at the center of the photo. This is conflicting and instead the horizon should go 1/3 or 2/3’s of the way down the picture to emphasize either the ground or the sky.

5) Learn the rules, then break them – If we all followed the same rules then we’d stop being creative. One common suggestion I’ve come across is that when it comes to photography, rules are more guidelines than rules. Sometimes breaking a rule makes the photo more interesting. Take a look at photos that others have taken and see what feedback they get on some of the photography discussion forums and you’ll start to understand what rules work and may not work in certain situations.

That’s all for now. Check out some of my older photos (using my point-and-shoot camera) on my new photos section of the website and let me know what you think. More photos from my new DSLR Camera coming soon (once it gets here).

5 Google Wave Invites To Share

Pete Dudchenko — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:19:59 +0000

I was a little surprised this morning to get an email invitation for Google Wave as I thought the invites went out yesterday. Since I was lucky enough to get one then I figure why not share the love. I have five Google Wave Invites to offer and all you have to do is leave a comment below (be sure to fill out your email correctly).

I’ll select five from the list and announce the winners on Monday. Good Luck!

**UPDATED 10/10 – Thanks for everyone who commented. Google Wave Invite Winners have been announced.**

5 Funny Customer Service Rep Quotes from Directv

Pete Dudchenko — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 05:09:26 +0000

My recent experiences with calling Directv have been anything but pleasurable. In fact, if it weren’t for the monopoly on the NFL games they have, I would have dumped them long ago. Here are 5 actual quotes that I’ve heard from their customer service reps:

1) (When trying to order the Nebraska football game on Saturday…) “Sir, is that baseball or the NFL?”

2) “I’ve gone ahead and escalated your issue to a technical rep but they won’t call you or let you know if the issue has been resolved. You’ll just have to wait until next Sunday to hope the problem was fixed.”

3) “Are there any NFL games on right now that you are having trouble watching?” (This was asked when I called in on Monday at noon)

4) (Again when trying to order a Nebraska football game…) “Did you say you wanted to watch the Cubs vs. Brewers?”

5) “I’m sorry you can’t see the New Orleans Saints game on tv. We can try to fix that for you, or if you like, the Steelers are playing on the local station instead.”

Now I undertsand not everyone knows sports but for a company the promotes itself as a sports authority, their reps are anything but.

Updated RSS Feed

Pete Dudchenko — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:06:24 +0000

For all three of you that follow my RSS feed (ok, I’m kidding, three may actually be an over-exaggeration) I wanted to give a quick announcement that I’ve updated my RSS feed URL. I noticed that while my titles came through on my RSS reader (Google Reader), my post body and images were not appearing so I’ve migrated over to feedburner and if you’re interested, the new URL is:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/PeteDudchenko

You can also click on any of the RSS links I have on this page as well. The old URL will still be around but this one will be better for reading.

5 Cool New BlackBerry Apps

Pete Dudchenko — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:43:03 +0000

There are a million BlackBerry Application reviews out there but I wanted to take a moment to focus only on the newer BlackBerry Apps, and by newer, I mean newer to me. I’ll try to focus only on new BlackBerry apps that have come out in the last few months or so but if I mix a few up, apologies in advance:

SocialScope

This new BlackBerry app is invite only and if you’re looking for an invite, I’m sorry but I was just one of the lucky ones that got in early. Let me tell you though, it’s awesome. For those unfamiliar, SocialScope is a Twitter/Facebook app rolled into one. I can create groups, update my statuses, post pics and more all from one app. If you can’t get SocialScope and want a Twitter recommendation, I would go with Ubertwitter.

Link: SocialScope

WordPress for BlackBerry

Finally! An application by WordPress where I can actually post pictures and posts directly to my blog. There were alternatives but this one seems to do it better than the others and with much less hassle.

Link: WordPress for BlackBerry

Evernote

Evernote is awesome for taking notes either at work or for personal needs. The cool thing is that it allows you to tag your notes (just like GMail) so multiple classifications is easy to do. Plus it has textual recognition capabilities for words that appear in photos and a great search capability too which makes finding information easier. The BlackBerry App makes it so easy to access my notes right on my phone, or even add new notes which are later sync’d with my computers. I especially love the ability to record a voice note on my BlackBerry and then sync it to my laptop to transcribe later.

Link: Evernote for BlackBerry

WorldMate Live

This is great for anyone travelling. I use the free version but there’s also a pay version as well. The nice thing is that once you receive an email confirmation from say, booking a flight or a hotel, you just forward it to a specific email address and Worldmate will parse through all the data to make it easy for you to see when you leave, what airline, what gate, hotel address, etc. All of which is accessible from your phone if you also have this app.

Link: WorldMate Live for BlackBerry

Food Network

Don’t laugh, this app has really come in handy when at the grocery store trying to figure out dinner for the night. Its more than just a recipe list, it offers a breakdown of recipes by different categories such as “quick and easy” or “healthy.” You can even save recipes in your own area for future reference. Makes “what’s for dinner?” much easier to deal with.

Link: Food Network App for BlackBerry

5 Things I’m looking forward to with the NFL season

Pete Dudchenko — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 02:44:00 +0000

1. At this point, everyone is a contender

As much as I go nuts during the offseason, it’s always fun to look at the draft and training camp and see how teams adjusted to their needs. I think if you ask almost any fan they feel they have a chance right now (sorry Detroit). At the very least I think everyone feels they are set up to perform better this year than last year.

2. Did the Saints do enough on defense to make them a legit contender this year?

I’m a fan so see my comments above on being biased but I think they did improve. If you look at the team last year they were plagued by injuries which basically put them back to the same “D” they had in 2007 (plus Vilma of course). Now, they’ve got a healthy bunch, and have added significant upgrades to their secondary which most would argue was the biggest weakness the last few years. Pair that with a new Defensive Coordinator who likes to pressure QB’s and it sounds like great potential.

3. No more Favre News

Sorry Packer fans (or should I say Jets fans or Minny fans?) but regardless of how you feel about whether he should retire or not, I’m just a little tired of how this news seems to trump everything else that’s out there. Maybe the media is really to blame here? What about charity work players offer during the offseason? Maybe let’s get to see more information about the recent draft picks and what we can expect? Heck, let’s spend the time learning about the different formations teams like to run to help educate fans about what they might see.anything but Favre.

4. I’m feeling kinda Sunday

There’s something fun about the tradition of having people over to watch the game, eating food, drinking beer and watching the same exact commercials for the next 16+ weeks. I think I’ve leaned more about heavy duty trucks during football season than any other time of the year.

5. Twitter and the NFL

I think this year is really going to be interesting for the fans and perhaps a headache for the PR departments of each team. As the season progresses, players now have the opportunity to speak directly to the masses to say anything they want. Did they feels the ref made a bad call? They can tweet it. Did they not get the ball enough? They can tweet it. It will be interesting to see what sort of censorship is placed on players through their use on Twitter. I personally can’t wait though. Especially for training camp. I don’t live in the same city as my team but through the fans taking pictures and updating observations on Twitter (not to mention the players and the media) it should make it a lot easier to keep up on the latest news.

Introducing 5 Things…

Pete Dudchenko — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 02:35:00 +0000

(Pic via nufiveoh)

I’m starting a new segment for my website called “5 Things” which is a list of five new things to investigate, to try, recommend, whatever.

Basically its a way to get me to post more frequently without spending hours on trying to come up with content, but more importantly, its a way to quickly find some good conversation starters. If you’re interested in tracking this, I’ve added a new category called, “5 Things.” (betcha never would have guessed that).