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I want to do something similar called Octet in various places. Combine science, art, technology and such without the excessiveness of TED. Of course, the time to do this now is not there.

[From Geeking Out]

Eli Michael Kaplan, born at 4:13PM PST and weighing in at a hefty 8lbs, 1 oz, 19 inches in length.

More photos here.

On a personal note: this birth means so much more to me because of a birth in our family that did not happen this year. I know it was a bittersweet emotion for my family, which makes Eli’s birth all that much more of a miracle.

On a blog note: Eli will have his own site (elimichaelkaplan.com) so not so much content here. I have some record industry things queued up.

Amy’s water broke this evening, and since she hadn’t yet had contractions, we are now in the hospital, Pitocin drip in place. Amy and I are both on our Mac Book Pro’s, sharing a connection from my AT&T broadband on a Cradle Point WIFI device that serendipitously came to our house Friday.

My parents picked up our pugs, and we’ll get the house cleaned and such Monday. All the family is converging upon our area in the next two days. The baby should be here within 24 hours or so.

Very excited. Check Facebook and Twitter for updates as usual.

Today marks the day that a count down widget on my desktop at work turns over to 0. It is the day Amy is now full-term. That means any day between today and June 30 (the due date) is OK for our son, named Eli, to hello world his way into my sleeplessness.

If I can try to make a promise right now, as we gear up for the birth: I will not make this a dad blog. This blog is personal, yes, but will remain mostly about the music business, technology and assorted obsessions.

But who the fuck am I kidding, I’ll post a lot of baby photos. Deal.

A lot of other things are happening this month not related to children, including some absolutely killer developments we’ve been doing at WBR in the Technology department. My last post about data is a hint, but just the tip of the iceberg for what we are doing. At some point we’ll show it (maybe DrupalCon in Paris in the fall), but we can’t do that yet.

Tomorrow I will have commentary on the iPhone 3GS and hopefully soon get my hands on a Pre and have some things to say about that. Until then I’m going to go fold onesies.

For the last year I’ve been running a lot, about 20 miles a week on average. I run because it makes me feel good, reduces stress, gets me outside and keeps me in shape. But I also run because I can, and being that I was never into sports as a kid, its the first time I’m actually OK at an outdoor activity which is also a competitive sport.

This weekend I ran my first half-marathon, and actually my first race period. I’ve never done a 5k or 10k before, I just decided to skip those and go straight to the 13.1 miles.

Monday I ran the Laguna Hills Memorial Day Half Marathon. The race started at 7AM, but we had to arrive by 6AM. The night before I couldn’t sleep at all. Partly out of nerves, and partly because Amy wasn’t with me (as she’s 8 months pregnant right now). I knew I could run the distance, as two weeks ago I did a full “dress rehearsal” through Burbank and Glendale, that included much more hills than this run had. As well, Saturday I did four miles of hills in Griffith Park to prep for the hills on the run (I had heard they were brutal. They weren’t).

I arrived at the event at 6AM and waited around, people watching. There are an interesting set of people who run these things it seems. Marathon veterans, kids from local cross-country teams, etc.

The actual event start was anti-climactic. We lined up in the chute and at 7AM the horn sounded and everyone was off. The adrenaline and the pack mentality made me go way faster than my usual pace, so I finished the first three miles in about 26 minutes. To conserve energy I pulled back a but to an 8.5 minute mile and stayed there for most of the race.

A few things came to mind during the race:

• The hills weren’t bad at all. Very gentle and very little grade.
• Goo packets (those flavored glucose things) are horrific for my stomach. They effected my time
• Take water when its given
• You get tunnel vision at some points where you completely loose track of where you are, who you’re running near, etc. It was nice. I zoned out completely from mile 8 to 10.

All in all, the race was great. I came in at 2:04, which was longer than I wanted. I would have had under two hours had the Goo not given me a stomach ache. I felt great at the end, was able to pick up my pace for the final mile and nothing felt better than crossing that finish line. I can understand how this becomes addictive. I like running on weekends as a solitary experience, but the race felt even better because of the people cheering us on, the fellow runners as well as being outside and enjoying the scenery.

It was also funny that this is the first time I ever remember my parents cheering me on for something I was actually enjoying doing. This wasn’t soccer, which I hated. It’s funny that at 30, I finally participated in a sport that I was enjoying and doing well in. I guess you have to start sometime. At least I gave my parents the opportunity to be “sports parents” in their 50s/60s.

My next challenge I suppose is a full marathon. My plan (given I have a baby coming soon, this might change) is to run the Rock and Roll Las Vegas marathon in Vegas on December 6, as part of Team Challenge, which benefits the Chrons & Colitis Foundation. Since half my family is touched by Chrons disease, that seems appropriate. Plus Zappos is sponsoring.

See you in Vegas? Who’s with me?

finally, a metal detector app will be possible.

[From Magnetometer in next iPhone confirmed? : Boy Genius Report]