Andrew is such a smiling little sweetheart. That is when he isn’t spitting up a ton or screaming like a demon. When he really lets it rip it is chilling. But when he is in his quiet times he is the sweetest little boy ever. I got up with him this morning at 3 or 4, can’t remember. He’s already eaten but I tried to settle him down so Allison could sleep. I rocked him, cuddled him, talked to him but finally it was me putting him in the bouncy seat while I played Skylanders. He watched me play and passed out. Continue reading Things are Looking Up
Tag Archives: Harley Davidson
Say What!
I just love Andrew’s little expression in this photo. Grandfather got him the Harley-Davidson onsie. I took a ton of photos of Andrew but this one had the best expression. His eyes almost look brown in the photo. For now he has blue eyes but I think they may turn.
We had a visit from our friends Derek and Michelle and their boys today. Eva played really well with their older son and their younger son did much of his own thing. The kids were good together and they made their own pizzas for lunch. We enjoyed a very nice visit.
Smoky Mountain EvaBear
Evabear and I are in Knoxville, TN today. We work up very early so that I could finish some setup for my demonstration. The hotel’s access point for wireless on my floor was broken, it also happened to be located directly below me in a guest’s room and so at 10:30pm the hotel was not able to fix the issue. I spent my late night in the lobby. It was about 12:30 when I gave up and said I’d get things working in the morning. When you go to bed at 1:00am 5:00am comes really quickly. Continue reading Smoky Mountain EvaBear
Cruising with EvaBear

Photo-A-Day #1867
After my demonstration today I drove back to the airport and along the way I saw a Harley-Davidson Shop, Grand Rapids Harley-Davidson. This was a really nice and friendly shop. They had a nice dealer pin there as well. One of the things I miss from no more travel is that I haven’t been to a Harley-Davidson shop in such a long time. I have over 90 dealer pins from all around the country and I haven’t gotten a new one in such a long time. So I picked up a couple pins (Me, Dad and John’s Dad) and then took a bunch of photos of EvaBear around the shop
After the Harley-Davidson shop I continued on and saw that there was a Steak and Shake off one of the exits so I got off to stop for lunch. EvaBear came with me and I took a bunch of EvaBear photos there too. When I was leaving I asked for one of the little cars for Eva and also for a photo with EvaBear. EvaBear fit in perfectly. EvaBear is such a conversation starter and I decided that EvaBear now will have her own gallery on my Facebook photo pages. I’ve created EvaBear Adventures. The strange thing I found on Facebook is that if you send mobile uploads of photos you can’t go and move it to another folder, however other photos in folders can be moved so I’ve started moving the EvaBear photos into that one gallery.
In moments of geekdom today I was in a Ford Focus rental that had Sync. I paired my phone with the car and was able to listen to my podcasts, get my GPS turn by turn through the radio plus I even made a call with it. I liked the technology but didn’t like how I had to connect it each time I got back into the car.
The other geeky thing I did was record an episode of Geek Dads Weekly with Daniel M Clark while using Skype on my Droid. You can hear for yourself how the show came out, but I thought it ended up pretty good.
Daniel has started something really awesome, it is called Daniel Destroys. The inspiration for this send up of the SuperFriends cartoon was Ron “Aalgar” Watt’s reviews of Transformers Generation1. Daniel is doing a loving review of the Superfriends and boy is it funny. I am sitting in the lobby of a hotel and laughed out loud, loudly. Check it out.
All Shined Up

Photo-A-Day #1820
When I got home tonight I saw that my Dad had his motorcycle out and it was all shined up and ready to ride. He took it for a ride today and yesterday. I noticed how shiny it was and how the engine looked. I was drawn to the metal and curves. There is nothing like a Harley-Davidson engine. These bikes are beautiful. Continue reading All Shined Up
BenSpark’s 2009 Christmas Wish List
Seems like some of my favorite people are giving their suggestions for Christmas gifts. I like stuff and I have some cool fun ideas to share. The items in this list are either ones I own outright, got from advertisers and sponsors or really really want. Also please know that all links that go to places where you can buy stuff are affiliate ones.
Stuff I Own.
1. – Okay, the Canon Powershot Camera I own is not available right now. I love my Canon SD800is but if I was to upgrade to a new Canon Powershot I’d go with Canon PowerShot SD980IS 12.1MP. This camera has a 3 inch screen so I can use one of the items I got from sponsors called the Flipbac. I’d love to be able to finally use that. Why there was no 2.5 version made first is anyone’s guess. 2.5 inch is pretty much the standard size of the LCD that many cameras have right now. But 3.0 inch is the new standard that I see coming.
2. – iPod Touch – Before I bought my Droid I used my iPod Touch everywhere for checking e-mail updating twitter and games on wi-fi. I still enjoy using it very much to watch movies and podcasts. I am loving me some Gary Vaynerchuk Wine Library Tv, Cali Lewis on GeekBrief.tv, Help my Business Sucks and Aalgar’s Loving Reviews of Transformers. These help me get through my morning workouts.
3 – Flip Mino HD – I have 4 of these and have paid for one. After I bought my first one I won 2 more and was given one by my friend Dina Riccobono. I gave one to Allison and kept one for myself and put a custom SkinIt on this one which I broke going down a children’s slide. I gave another one to my sister and I kept the one from Dina to replace my one that broke. (Well, the screen broke but it still records fine so I carry both with me.
4. – An iFrogz Custom iPod Skin – I own a half dozen iFrogz products from silicone covers for my iPod Touch to a sweet cover for my Dad’s iPod nano that protects, covers and yet displays the Harley-Davidson symbol on it. And Eva’s earpods. That is what she calls her iFrogz Tadpole which is so great for her. Check out those products through the link below.
5. – My DaVinci – If you are looking for a very heartfelt gift for a loved one then this is a fantastic one. Allison got me one of these of our first family photo taken the day after Eva was born. Yeah, we didn’t get a family photo till the day after she was born. Score one for the “photographer” in the family.
Items I was given by friends, Sponsors or advertisers, also stuff I won.
6. – An Amazon Kindle – I received an Amazon Kindle from Dina Riccobono at the Wings and Pings TweetUp and it has completely changed the way I read books. I bought Chris Brogan’s Book Trust Agents as well as Crush It from Gary Vaynerchuk.
7. – Poken – I received a Poken from Pokengirl (Vanessa and Juliet sisters who run the business and who are awesome.) I really like the relationship that we’ve formed from a simple tweet of me asking if Pokens were worth it. A Poken is a digital business card, I use it at all my conventions.
8. – Phototrackr – I have an original one of these. I just received 5 of the newest edition, the mini photo trackr. So some of you might be getting one of these soon. Be on the lookout for a great contest on the way.
9. – XShot – I’ve gotten so many of these and given so many away. I love this product and it goes with me everywhere. If you haven’t gotten one of these yet, you are missing out big time, missing being part of the photo.
10. – HP Pavilion DM3-1040US 13.3-Inch Laptop – I just bought one of these but I used a $100 card that I received from Tony Welch (@frostola) at Blog World Expo. It is a perfect size computer for travel and doing simple tasks for blogging, it is fantastic.
Stuff I Want
11. – LEGO – Sure I’m nearing 36 years old but I completely love LEGO. For a while back in 1997-199 I was ordering sets from the LEGO online shop almost daily. I have all of the first sets that LEGO did for Star Wars, tons of them. They are awaiting the day when Eva is ready to sit down and play with them and not scatter them across the room like leaves on the wind.
LEGO has even gone digital with tons of video games like LEGO Rock Band. I learned that there are many great songs on that disc that I’d love to play.
12 – Funky Belt Buckles – I’m enjoying showing off my inner nerd with my Autobot Belt Buckle but I would also like the Decepticon one as well as the Thundercats one. Then the more I look around I see that there are other ones that I’d like. I see a Cookie Monster one and an Oscar the Grouch one, my two favorite Sesame Street Character. Then you get into superheores and I like this Superman one.
13. – Rock Band for Wii – Guitar Hero is a fun time but then you add Drums and singing to the mix and you have a party. But then there is also Band Hero so how do you decide?
14. – Transformers: 25th Anniversary Matrix of Leadership Edition. This is a Box Set of the complete US run of the Transformers Generation 1 cartoon. This remains to this day my absolute favorite all time cartoon series. I also would love the G.I. Joe Box set. I really wish that I started collecting those comics at the same time I was collecting Transformers. I’d love to have the whole set of those, the comic books were really good. And like my Belt Buckle above I’d like to have the complete set of Thundercats episodes, Seasons 1 and Season 2. I really thought that was on much longer.
15. – Nikon D90 – I’d love an upgrade to my DSLR. I love my D80 but come one it is 10 more numbers higher. 🙂
Actually, what I really wish for:
I wish that people would join Team Eva’s Farm. This is the charity that we as a family are really getting behind. Team Eva’s Farm is a Heifer International Team and you can join to help us raise $1000 to stock Eva’s Farm. Just click the sidebar thermometer to help donate and to join the team.
Fun at Kidz Wurld

Photo-A-Day #1688
This morning we brought Eva to a place called Kidz Wurld. It is an indoor kids play area. Eva had a great time and really liked the kitchen play area as well as the bounce house. They even have these little cars that are on ramps that the kids can ride on. Eva loved those.
iFrogz Headphones for my Little Tadpole
I worked from home today. What I usually do on Thursdays when I work from home is I work on some video production. I’ve been asked to help on on various special projects as of late and that suits me just fine. I love the chance to get to use the special talents that I have and get paid to do so. Sometimes when I am home I need to keep Eva entertained so that I can get work done. She likes to take things off the desk and hand them to me. She took my headphones of the desk (big giant Sony ones) and tried to put them on. I knew it was finally time that we could try out the iFrogz Tadpole set that I had gotten for her when she was born (yeah I was too excited about this product)
The Tadpole is a an iPod case that was custom designed for kids. Look at the photo above. Eva is holding on to the case with the handles on either side. Those are 100% silicone and the case is a nice fun bright purple and the headphones include a bright green also. This iFrogz device converts my old iPod into a portable children’s entertainment device. I have a 5th or 6th gen (I can’t remember the gens) 80GB iPod Video. I upgraded tot he iPod Touch and never looked back. I’d love to see iFrogz create a Tadpole set for the iPod touch for when we upgrade those devices. I like that I was able to re-purpose something I already owned sot hat my daughter could enjoy it. I also got a funky tie dye wheel art for it which serves two purposes. it looks cool and it discourages Eva from thinking that she can control the iPod herself (not yet at least).
If you may be worries about Eva’s hearing… don’t. I set the volume controls on the iPod to be very, very low and because of that she is unable to make the volume higher either on purpose or accidentally. And she loves watching her Tinkerbell movie on it. We just got the 10th Anniversary Tigger movie too and that has a digital copy that I need to synch with the iPod as well.
So, speaking of IFrogz and talking again today about things iPod related I went and ordered my Dad a nice set of items from iFrogz that he can use to keep his new iPod safe and still show off the fancy Harley-Davidson Logo. Interesting that Dad is more of a cool Rockstar than I am. He’s got the Harley-Davidson to go along with the iPod. That is something I really want someday. I miss my motorcycle. It wasn’t a Harley but it was fun to ride.
Today I checked out a few very cool things. One I learned about from Chris Pirillo. It is called Your World of Text. The cool thing about this is that you can type in YourWorldOfText.com/ANYTHING. So I created http://www.yourworldoftext.com/benspark hop on over and drop a little note, maybe some old school ASCII art or something. How about your twitter name. Whatever you’d like as long as it is something you’d say to my face. 🙂
The other cool or rather interesting thing I worked with today was creating a Twibbon for people going to IZEAFest. I had a hard time making that initially but eventually I got it right, you can go and support the fact that you are going to IZEAFEst by going to http://twibbon.com/join/IZEAFest-2009 It totally works right now.
Dad’s Got New Tech
No not me, my Dad has a brand new 8 GB iPod Nano. It is engraved with the Harley Davidson Emblem. Months ago I got a postcard from my Harley-Davidson credit card. A special deal was happening where if you took a test ride on a new Harley you get a free 8GB iPod Nano with a special inscription.
I haven’t been on a bike in a while so instead if riding it myself I gave the postcard to my Dad so he could get a sweet ride on a new Harley as well as the iPod Nano. It finally arrived today and it looks fantastic. I’m a bit jealous. 🙂
Today I went for a little team building session. We went bowling. I didn’t do so well. I bowled an 85. So tough. But after that we went to Phillips Candy House. I got some chocolate covered pretzels for me and some fudge for Allison. There were so many delicious chocolates including these Turtles.
Full Circle: Round and Round
In addition to today’s photo I took a bunch of other nice ones. They are up on Flickr.
Yesterday began year 5 of Photo-A-Day. I’ve taken one photo every day for four straight years. When you look at it in one shot it is a huge number of images. People ask me how I could take so many photos. The only way I could do that would be to do a little at a time.
If you are going to accomplish anything worthwhile it is going to take time, every day little by little. Some days I didn’t have the best photos. Some days I had awesome photos. Some days I didn’t want to take a shot. Some days I would take any old thing just to have a picture. But some days I went out looking for something fantastic to shoot. The point is… each day I did something.
There is a saying that was made into a book by a Bill Hogan: How Do You Eat An Elephant? One Bite At A Time! While I don’t want to necessarily put away a pachyderm I do want to get healthy. So in order to do that I have to do something to become more healthy each day. It could be something as simple as avoiding eating a piece of candy or more complex like a nice long workout.
Is there an Elephant You Want to Eat? If so what is it?







