History ... Live. OWS

www.ustream.com/theother99

Last night I got sucked into history.

Regardless of your views on the whole Occupy Wall Street ordeal, technology has made our world one crazy fast paced world.

Last night via Google+ I was directed to a Live Stream on livestream.com where NYPD were evacuating OWS Protestors from Zuccotti Park in NYC. Stream after stream started to pop up as police officers arrested peaceful protestors and started trashing tents, supplies, food and cleaning the park. One stream was coming from what was called "the Kitchen" in the middle of the park and as the protestors were chanting tear gas flied in and the stream went dead. Other streams started going down and people in the chat rooms wondered if the NYPD was interfering with the channels by firebombing (sending a lot of traffic to the sites). I believe people's batteries started to die, or they got arrested and the cops turned off their phones. It was crazy to watch and participate live via social networks, it was about 2:00 am California time but people were still going strong in NYC. Cops everywhere, protestors getting tired, real conversations being broadcasted live for the world to see. Thousands of people were jumping from livestream to livestream as #OWS was trending on Twitter. It was fascinating.

Marcus Yam for The New York Times

When I woke up this morning, I turned on the computer (luckily in the comfort of my warm home) and the streams were back up. People have not slept. This one "Occupier" has been streaming for almost 12 hours. People have brought him batteries to keep his 4g livestream going. Strangers have found him on the street to say thank you, and that they were watching his stream from home. His is a true citizen journalist! His stream has been on national and international news shows.

One attractive female who shared her twitter handle received over 2000 new followers in a matter of minutes. You can actually see her in the NY Times photo above! (bottom left)

One crazy side note, some people did not want to be filmed. I guess this particular guy's stream that I'm linking to has a phone with the words "LIVE STREAM" on the other side of his phone. He was verbally abused and physically abused in front of 10s of thousands of people. Just so you know, if you are in public, you can be filmed.

Now, police are keeping Zuccotti park empty as court rulings are being decided and marches are being planned.

This is America, this is the 21st century, this is crazy.

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

Meet the newest addition to our family!

A few days ago the beloved goldfish we won at the Encino Street Fair left this world. Have you ever tried to explain the floating dead fish to a 2 year old? We had a proper burial (the toilet) and told Z that "fishy" went bye-bye and probably wouldn't be back.

We even used the words "died" and dead".

Interesting.

Anyway, we picked up this female Beta today and Z seems to like her! I mean, as much as you can like a fish. 

Cheers!

-marc

Living Room Mess Time-lapse

This was taken before we went to Texas, but I'm just now getting around to posting it. And please, apologies for the crappy camera. My poor iPhone has been dropped, stuffed into pockets with keys, and sucked on by a 4 month old so the camera is not as crisp as it used to be. But you still get the picture. :)

We try to pick up the house every night, so in the mornings this is what it looks like.

Through out the day, Z gets her toys out ... and I move stuff around too.

More toys...

Even more toys!  

Can you spot I?

So we either try to pick up before mom gets home after 5 or we let her see how much fun we've had (and convince her to help us clean up!)

Much love y'all!
-marc

MOVEMBER

Welcome to Movember! (Maybe a few days late...but hey, I have kids!) Before we get into the important details of Movember, let's discuss the non-important.

Is it NO SHAVE NOVEMBER? or Grow  Moustache November? Because ... I would rather just not shave. And I remember my brother, Blake Blackwell, not shaving last November. Y'all let me know which movement you think is more prominent.

Anyway, the important point of the month is to raise awareness for men's health. More specifically, men's prostate cancer. CHECK YOUR BALLS GENTLEMEN! Remember the old Tom Green special where he reminded us all to check for lumps? Still sticks with me. So if something as simple as not shaving can help 1 more young man to remember to be conscience about his health, well so be it!

You can check out my profile on MOVEMBER.COM here: http://mobro.co/marcblackwell

Here's to a cancer free world some day. Wouldn't that be awesome?!

Only November 3rd and lookin' good! (Spot the two munchkins in this one?)

Cheers!
-marc

What did you do on Halloween?

Halloween was probably one of the craziest days I or my family has had in a while. Here's how it went down:

3:30am Texas Time (1:30 am Cali time) - Woke up in Azle, TX and packed rental car with suitcases, strollers, and babies.

4:45am - Dropped off Rental car, shuttled to Dallas Love Field to check in, make it through security, eat breakfast and board plane.

6:30 am - Take off from DLF. Short stop in New Mexico. Crazy flying with 2 babies! (they were good though)

9:40 am - Land at LAX. Get luggage, (2 suitcases, 2 carseats, 2 babies, two carry on bags) and board shuttle for our car.

10:15 am - Get our car, load the luggage and babies, drive down the congested 405 towards home.

10:45 am - Get In-and-Out, go home, unload car and put Z down for a nap.

11:30 am - NAP TIME!

1:30 pm - Wake up, feed babies, start getting ready for Halloween!

2:00 pm - Decide we are going to go to that Halloween party, so we find a babysitter. Start making costumes

3:00 pm - Get out of the house for some last minute costume shopping.

5:00 pm - Arrive at Z's little boyfriends house for some trick or treating. Still putting last minute touches on costumes for everyone. Eat pizza.

6:30 pm - Trick or treat! We were all exhausted, so we didn't make it too far...but we still did it!

7:00 pm - Take girls home, bathe them, attempt to put them to bed in the middle of a 2 year old major melt down.

7:20 pm - Pick up babysitters. Give them the run down.

7:45 pm - Arrive at "adult" Halloween party and make a drink.

8:45 pm - Finish drink. Decide we're too old for the party and head home!

9:30 pm - Pass out.

:)

What did you do for Halloween?

Cheers,
-marc