Why now?

Tin is now 4 months old and has been diagnosed dystonia. It’s nothing as fatal as it sounds, but we still need to stay focused and keep up with the physical therapy. If we do, everything should be fine by his first birthday.

Apart from being a web enthusiast, I’m also a kinesiologist. While Mrs is a genuine super-mom who handles both of our boys well, I need to help as much as I can to develop Tin’s motor abilities. And who fits better than his own father?

Going freelance will hopefully provide more schedule flexibility, in opposite to company lifestyle, where you’re expected to be available nine to five.

What’s next?

I’m not leaving Adria Media Zagreb completely, though. We managed to find a win-win relationship. I will still collaborate on a new projects to join the company blockbusters Croportal, Roditelji and Story.

If you are from Croatia and find the above sites exciting, check out the 2 new job openings.

I also have an extensive list of faithful clients from all around the globe, which should keep the cash flow steady. If you can see me helping your project, shoot me a message.

Last, but not least, I’d love to finally bring to life some of the ideas that have been laying around for a while. A couple of pro-bono PSDs are also waiting for a chop.

— Bring it on!

The whole family is super-euphoric. We all know what to do.

We named Tin after Tin Ujević, the famous Croatian poet. When I was a high-school graduate, I took classes on Croatian poetry and choose Tin Ujević’s opus as a theme for my final exam. Now you know.

The Christian name of Tin Ujević was Augustin (or Augustine) after St. Augustine. And one of St. Augustine’s influential quotes particularly matches certain modern pedagogy rule:

Cum dilectione hominum et odio vitiorum
(Love the sinner and hate the sin)

Don’t judge the person, judge the act.

Instead of
— “You are bad (correct yourself)”
we should communicate
— “That behavior was bad (I love you, but please don’t do that again)”.

Move focus from the child itself to her undesired behavior. This way, the kid is not offended, and she has a chance to re-think her acts.

I hope I’ll remember this next time they cross my boundaries. Kids are adorable.

Men are basically smart or dumb and lazy or ambitious. The dumb and ambitious ones are dangerous and I get rid of them. The dumb and lazy ones I give mundane duties. The smart ambitious ones I put on my staff. The smart and lazy ones I make my commanders.

Every human has the optimal role within its little ecosystems — family, friends, sports team, interest groups, workplace.

Unfortunately, one’s virtues and vices can’t be always recognized early.

Gathering the team is like solving a puzzle. Each piece has the exactly right spot in a picture that no other piece could replace.

I had a quest.

My Old Man asked me to find a decent mobile phone for him. He wasn’t after anything fancy — “Just to have the large letters on a display”, he requested.

My Dad doesn’t care about the model and make. His only concern is avoiding troubles he used to have when sending text messages. He is having trouble reading text on the small screen.

To make things harder, my Dad is a tiler. Tilers have enormous fists and fingers. Probably, the largest of all builders. When your hands are like paws, you’re having trouble using a small keyboard.

So I bought him a Nokia. I found a model that has both — large display with large letters and fairly large buttons.

I have two phone numbers.

The phone I use to talk to my parents is a personal one and we have cheap calls, since we’re on the same carrier. When he calls me on my business phone, they charge him much more than they should. But Dad keeps calling me on that phone. I wondered why.

When I gifted the new phone to my father, I added my business phone number, just in case.

This new phone has large letters on the large display and large buttons. The phone also has large icons which you can assign to any contact in the address book. When I added a new phone number, I automatically assigned an icon to it. Since then, my father calls me to that number.

I will have to remove the icons.

Illustration by Marko Kršul

Did you know I bake cakes? No? Neither did I… However, despite your entirely justified skepticism – I’m proud to announce that at the time of this writing everyone who tasted my cherry cake is feeling perfectly normal. Hooray!!

If you have some leftovers, most importantly a slice or two of yesterday’s bread, a spoon of milk and an egg, you can make him a quick French toast. For those of you who by any chance didn’t know how to prepare this simple meal, let’s explain.

Step by step

1. First, pour the whole egg and some milk in a bowl and beat it with a fork, until you have a yellowish consistent liquid. Add some salt and/or some Parmesan cheese if you like.
2. Next, slice your yesterday’s bread and prepare the pan. Pour some oil in a frying pan and warm it on a stove.
3. Soak bread slices in the mixture (prepared in the step one) and dip them into the hot oil. Be careful when doing this – the oil might start jumping on your hands! : )
4. Fry each side of the bread for about a minute and a half, at the most.
5. Take it out from the pan and place it somewhere out of reach from your starving child, at least until it gets a little bit colder (for obvious reasons).
6. Serve with butter and milk…
7. Enjoy… Yummy!

How it should look like

Here are some pictures displaying the perfect coloring of the famous French toast from… well… Croatia:

We wished something different—a sports car, something the whole family will enjoy, so we bought a brand new Porsche 911 Carrera Turbo. Don’t ask me how—i’m still under impressions myself. We just went into a store and picked one… oh, i wish we have more of such moments.

The car is all beautiful and shiny. The engine is made with such precision and with care for details—there’s no unfinished or rough edges—one could keep touching it whole day. We choose red color variance, so it’s easily spotted—it’s something i couldn’t care less if i wasn’t a father. The interior of the car is in gray and silver, with chromed gearshift. The state of the art, if you ask me.

Now, i know i could have bought so much more for that value. Maybe i should have spent this money to buy my kid tons of chocolate, but you don’t buy your son 1/24 model every day! What’s the most important and a real joy for a parent—Luka will have a great time playing with it. At least ‘till his birthday, when grandma and grandpa will probably buy him a bike.

This is what my son Luka looks like in the morning when i’m leaving to work.

Luka is not drawing recognizable objects yet, but he has an affinity for visual arts—at least he likes reading comics. Almost every day we spend about thirty minutes behind my drawing table, playing with those thick wooden color sticks especialy made for kids’ safety. Usually someone must be near him, otherwise he looses interest. If your child already has some drawing skills, he/she could draw a flower on a piece of paper him/herself. If drawing a flower is still a bit complicated for him/her, draw it yourself or print our example.

This picture of a flower itself is nothing special, but if it would engage some more senses (like a sense of smell) it would be a bit more interesting. Choose some neutral, non-agressive deodorant spray or stick and put some on your drawing. Tell your kid to smell a flower. He/she will love it! It’s almost like a real one, isn’t it? Have a fun!

Intro

This little handsome on your left is the center of our world (my wife’s and mine). I didn’t want it to be that way, but it just happened. It is that way from the first moment i saw him in a hospital (i was there near my wife during deliverance). He occupies our time a lot, but we still can manage to do some activities, besides feeding, cleaning after him and playing.

Some secondary level activites (besides our jobs and internet) are going to a movie teather, having a good time spending evening with our friends drinking red wine or beer, eating enormous amounts of chinese food and different sorts of other spicy meals, walking and playing with our dog, …

Why writing a blog?

Lately, there have been a few posts discussing about how to achieve popularity of your blog and how to become world known blogger: 1, 2 and 3. I read those posts, but felt no need to join the race (not that i think bad of someone who did, on contrary).

“maratz.com” blog’s purpose is to be some kind of my public journal. It is my public journal and honestly if someone doesn’t find its’ content interesting, probably it’s a person i wouldn’t meet in the real world neither. On the other hand, a few of you who are actualy reading it, i guess we have some similar oppinions and i’m pleased to know someone of my kind.

A few less known, but my usuals are Dexlo, Moments and Cody Lindley (no particular order).

Sharing Tips

The coding tips i’m bringing once in a while are here for the sake of my moral obligation to return something to community. If you like it—use it. If you don’t like it—that’s your loss. If you know better—share it. If you know better, but don’t want to share—get out of here, i don’t need you.

Well, i’m proud i found a way to make designer’s kid quiet for a few moments: prepare 1 whole egg, 1-2 dcl of baker’s flour, half teaspoon or less of salt, some chocolate (preferably Nutella), 2-3 dcl of milk and 2 dcl of water. Mix all ingredients, ’till you get a creamy fluid.

Use this to bake a few pancakes. When you’re done, put melted chocolate or Nutella on each pancake, roll them and call your precious to this delicious meal.

Additionaly, warm some milk, add a teaspoon or two of honey, and pour everything in his/her favorite cup… Perfect! Now go, go, go! You have exactly ten minutes to do some work!