Today is one of those days when I look at all 100GB of music in my iTunes library, and I don’t want to hear any of it. What’s wrong with me?

Date posted: June 20, 2008 | Filed under music | Comments Off on Bored with Music.

Nerf office war. Looks like viral marketing, in which case it’s pretty good viral marketing.

Date posted: June 20, 2008 | Filed under humor, shortlinks | Comments Off on

Mars lander finds bits of ice, according to NASA. Ice, bitches! If it’s true, this could be a huge step for travel and colonization.

Date posted: June 20, 2008 | Filed under other, shortlinks | Comments Off on Ice on Mars

You had the misfortune of finding your way into the most unfriendly house possible, and paid for it with your life. We’re really a bird-loving house, if you can believe that; the fact that we have four cats does not diminish our respect for your beauty or abilities. When my pregnant wife brought you out to me, a look of focused concern on her face, I knew things weren’t good for you, even before I saw the blood on your breast. You were fighting to hold on, even though every nerve in your body was screaming FLY AWAY DAMMIT, but we could tell your back was most likely broken and all the wires were crossed. Instead, you laid in her small hand and defiantly stared at us with one dark eye, all three of us knowing what was coming and powerless to stop it.

Adios

In death you look less like a warrior and more like a disheveled pile of feathers, earthbound and cold. I apologize for not being skilled enough to capture your real essence: master of the sky, weightless and free, the way we all wish to live.

Date posted: June 19, 2008 | Filed under life | Comments Off on Sorry, Buddy.

Code Rush is a fascinating documentary on the early days of the web, highlighting the efforts of Netscape to release open-source versions of Mozilla all the way through to their acquisition by AOL. I’ve read about some of the historical moments recorded here, but it’s fun to turn the clock back and see them on tape.

As I look back at that time period, I wish I’d been more forward-thinking and gotten more heavily involved in the Internet earlier, but I was still working in print design. (How I ever made a living at print design is still a mystery to me; I wasn’t very good at it). I’ve long been considering a part-time return to college to get an edumocation in computer science so that I can start building things instead of just making them pretty. One of the things I like best about designing for the web is problem solving, and, lord knows, there’s a ton of that in programming.

Date posted: June 18, 2008 | Filed under art/design, geek, history | Comments Off on Where Were You in 1998?

DSC_1280

Date posted: June 17, 2008 | Filed under garden | 1 Comment »

Good morning little one. Your mother and I spent our weekend in a large, cold conference room at the hospital with a trio of other expectant couples and a very nice doula talking about you. The object was to learn about policies and procedures at the facility and to get all us parents-to-be prepared for what’s coming. What this actually translated to was a series of talking points outlined with Xeroxed handouts and punctuated with unintentionally hilarious videos produced in 1983. They starred awkward couples with feathered hair, going through the stages of natural childbirth. The first couple was pretty relaxed even though it looked like they were late to a Journey concert, and when the baby finally did appear we were all relieved to not be staring at the husband’s bald spot anymore. The second segment made an example of how expectant mothers often need something to focus on while laboring: the husband said soothing words, massaged her back, and then held up a photograph of a cat. I don’t know how your mother is going to handle labor, but I’m pretty sure staring at a picture of our cat would make her feel rather foolish. I think some pictures of the things she’s not been allowed to have might provide more of a focusing effect, like a plate of sushi or a vodka tonic. GET THIS BABY OUT, MOMMY WANTS A DRINK.

We talked about medication and procedures and choices and outcomes, and the one thing that struck me about some of the other women was that they knew less about what was coming than I did. It’s not their fault, really; we live in a society that separates the realities of birth and death from everyday life, which is really backwards: none of the four women in the class had seen a live birth, something our ancestors’ women were guaranteed at an early age. I got the feeling, based on comments made by the doula, that some women view inducement as a procedure no more troublesome than a routine dentist’s appointment. A few of the women seemed to have limited knowledge about C-sections, and during the video when they yanked the uterus out of the woman’s stomach and flopped it around like a gutted fish to examine it, it wasn’t just us guys who looked queasy. Had that been my wife and I was in the room, it would take three nurses and 150 cc’s of strong horse tranquilizer to keep me from pulling that surgeon’s testicles directly over his head for a quick “exam”. I think a strong case for natural childbirth can be made solely on the bedside manner of surgeons vs. obstetricians: the surgeon in the video was pulling on the baby’s body to get the head out of the incision like a plumber working over a clogged drain.

I did learn a lot from the classes, though, and it was very helpful to see the birthing rooms (very swank, with a commanding view of the city), the recovery rooms (not as swank, but they’ll do) and the rest of the hospital. From what it sounds like now, many of the hospital policies are in line with our wishes—the “bed” can be moved to provide a natural birthing position; the mother can move around as much as possible before delivery; and baby stays with mother in both the birthing and recovery rooms. They’ll even do the exam in the room after delivery, which is what we’re going to request.

Let me say for the record that I am constantly amazed and awed by the strength and poise your mother has shown over the last six months. Your mother is the quarterback, offensive line, and coach all in one, but I’m just the water-carrier. I’ve been remiss in my duties as father-to-be and birthing coach lately, but I plan to make up for that in the coming months. Today you’re going to get poked a bit by the OB, and we’re going to have a serious discussion about the birthing plan, which is still under development, but we have a much better handle on what we’d like and what we don’t like.

Finally, we’re thrilled you like collard greens as much as we do, because the amount of leafy vegetables we’re getting from the organic farm is pretty ridiculous. Keep that appetite up, kid.

Date posted: June 17, 2008 | Filed under finn | Comments Off on Dear Rutabega.

There’s a wide variety of beautiful lighting fixtures at Barn Light Electric, although I don’t know how the prices stack up to other suppliers.

Date posted: June 16, 2008 | Filed under shopping, shortlinks | Comments Off on Barn Light Electric

Remember when we were kids, and we’d play games out in the street or in someone’s backyard, and we’d call a do-over? Somebody’d kick the ball into a bush, or a car would come down the road right in the middle of an important play, and it was universally understood that things would just rewind a couple of minutes and start again, like erasing a videotape. Well, I’d like a do-over for most of yesterday, please.

It started out on an upbeat note; Mr. Scout brought over the window regulator for the Jeep and we tore the door down to put it in; unfortunately, the part was not a match to the one in my Jeep, and there seemed to be no way to use parts from the replacement to fix the broken unit.

We then decided to take advantage of the weather and go back to the pick & pull yard to hunt more Jeeps. It seems that parts (and part vehicles) are more plentiful for Grand Cherokees than for the regular model, both online and in the junkyard, and my particular model (2-door, second generation, power window) is even rarer than the 4-door. We did however find a junked PT Cruiser, which featured luxurious bucket seats that are supposed to be bolt-in replacements for Scout seats. Eight bolts later, we were walking up to the pay area with the seats on our heads, but not before making a detour to a section of the yard we hadn’t seen before, featuring some ancient Detroit iron: a three-porthole Buick, a rounded early 50’s Ford, and a pair of Opels, among other things. I shot about ten pictures, and we were on our way. As we got up to the counter, the redneck in charge of shoplifting told me they have a strict no-camera policy, and made me erase my memory card after giving me some bullshit about smashing lenses.

Returning to the Scout we’d found last week, we pulled a lot of plastic and other rare parts, having no luck pulling the hubs or the seat bases. It was about this time I checked my phone and found this lovely sight:

broken iPhone

I don’t know when or how it happened, but it was enough to ruin my day right there. Strangely, I can still call in and out, and the touchscreen still works on the damaged areas. I’m going to visit the Apple store to see if there’s some kind of repair they can make; if not, it looks like I’ll be purchasing a 3G iPhone earlier than I planned.

My afternoon was spent working on an illustration; I decided to experiment with an idea I’d had a few months ago to see what results I’d get, using the negative space instead of the positive. The results were a lot less than I’d hoped for.

The linework looks cheaper, like a quick marker drawing, and not expressive like I’d imagined. It also could be because I’ve been having problems getting my cutting nibs to vary line weights properly—they seem to get dull very quickly, which is not what I’m used to. If I could regulate line weight better, I’d be happier with the results.

I took the same sketch and started making a traditional cut, and about three-quarters of the way through I realized the initial sketch, while reasonably good, did not capture McCain the way it should, and the resulting piece looks like someone else (Jen says it’s Ed McMahon). His head is not as long as I’d made it here, and his distinguishing features aren’t represented well enough.

There were several highlights from yesterday, so it’s not like I was constantly followed by a black stormcloud: we have Andersen 400-series windows officially on order for the front porch. Jen had a great client meeting on a new project, and we got our second delivery from the organic farm (I don’t know how we’re going to eat all this lettuce, chard, and spinach). I was just hoping to produce a success of my own, something I’m sure everyone can understand.

So it’s back to the drawing board for Jeep, phone, and scratchboard.

Update: One trip to the Apple Store, my choices were thus:

1. Continue to use the busted phone and guess at everything on the left side of the screen.

2. Wait until July and buy a new 3G iPhone for $200, but take an additional $10/mo. hit on my data plan.

3. Spend $250 to replace my iPhone with another 1st gen model.

I chose 3, because I’d love to have the 3G but I don’t want to pay AT&T an additional $120/mo. for features I may not even use. As it was, when the Genius rang me out, he told me happily they’d just reduced the replacement cost from $250 to $199, so I “saved” a little more money.

Upon inspection of the iPhone cases available at the store, only a select few might have protected my phone from catastrophic screen damage, and they tended to be the ugliest offerings on the shelf. (Imitation calfskin? stitched black leather? I don’t think so).

Date posted: June 13, 2008 | Filed under art/design, general, life, photography, porch | 2 Comments »

Hello little one. I don’t have a whole lot of time to write today, but I’d just like to say thanks for re-arranging your room and cleaning up before the doctor’s visit yesterday.

We’re glad to see the placenta has raised to the right place, which means the chances of having to use the escape hatch instead of the front door have decreased dramatically. The checkup looked great, and you’re growing at a perfect rate: the tech said you’re around one pound ten ounces, and your heartbeat is strong. Our only concern right now is that you’re facing ass-first; if you don’t move yourself around some, the OB is gonna have to lay hands on your mother and spin you right round baby, right round.

Date posted: June 11, 2008 | Filed under finn | Comments Off on Dear Ear of Corn.