So, it looks like Obama has hit the ground running. In the first 48 hours he has released three executive orders: closing Gitmo in Cuba by the end of this year, using the Army Field Manual as guideline for fair and equitable treatment of detainees, and no tolerance for torture.

I think he's going to be a very good President. His approval is at 77%. That's pretty astronomical. A lot of the coverage is focusing on the fact that he's the first African American president, which is interesting and all, but I don't think it's relevant to the kind of president he's going to be. It's just one of the many traits that makes him who he is, and he is acting not as a black man or as a white man, but as representative of the most powerful nation in the world, and other people will be interacting with him in that capacity.

More Obama posts in the future, but now I'll be posting about Lily.

So the other day, I was sitting on the floor, playing with vast collection of multi-sided dice (you know, like normal people do) when Lily came up and said, "Whatcha doin', daddy?"

I said that I was looking at these dice, and that one was called a die and more than one were called dice. She pointed to the twelve-sided die, and said "What's that one called?" and I told it had twelve sides, so it was called a twelve-sider or a dodecahedron, which is an awesome word for a two-year-old. She's been reciting it all weekend in a little sing-song voice, "Doe-deck-a-hede-ron!"

I'd actually been familiar with the word since I was about 10. I saw it in an episode of Doctor Who ("Meglos", the one with the cactus Tom Baker) and I impressed the hell out of my math teacher later that year by knowing the word for a twelve-sided solid off the top of my head.

Later on, when building a line out of my dice, she paused to look up and say "You're the best daddy in the world," which I knew, of course, but it was nice to hear.

For a brief while , she was also saying, "You're a towel!", if somebody mentioned a towel or "You're a duck!" if somebody mentioned a duck.

I asked "Is that your new catch phrase?" and of course she replied,  "You're a cat-phase!"

Cross posted at: http://jugularjosh.livejournal.com/8387.html

Lily's been...active, these past couple days. She wandered into our bedroom and started pulling the covers off of me. "It's light outside. Time to wake up,daddy."

In the bathtub, she found her nipples and asked, "What are these?" Fortunately, Jen was there to field that one.

Jen found some measuring tape and said "Lily, we're going to measure your little body so we can buy you a belt."

"Don't measure my little body!" Lily exclaimed.

The other evening, she want wanted to play on the computer because she saw daddy doing it. I put her on my lap and held her far enough away that she couldn't touch the keyboard.

Lily: "I can't reach it."

Me: "That's a feature, not a bug."

Lily: "I don't know what that means"

I think, as she gets smarter and more independent, the trick is getting her to behave without dampening her spirit. I've always thought the saddest song I've ever heard was Flowers are Red by Harry Chapin. It's about a boy who colored his pictures of flowers in all these different colors. The teacher punishes him until he gives in and tells the teacher that "flowers are red, and green leaves are green." When he goes to a different school, he continues mechanically painting flowers red and green, to the dismay of his new, kind teacher.

(In the live concert versions, Chapin extended the song's ending to: "There still must be a way to have our children say..." before featuring the little boy's chorus again and bringing the song to a better conclusion. A version of this is featured on his album Legends of the Lost and Found.)

According to wikipedia, The idea for the song came to Chapin when his secretary told him about her son who brought his report card home from school one day. The teacher had written a note in the card saying: "Your son is marching to the beat of a different drummer, but don't worry we will soon have him joining the parade by the end of the term."

And I'm happy to have a smart, inquisitive little girl. I just wish she didn't have a photographic recall of where I hide my cookies.

Cross posted at:http://jugularjosh.livejournal.com/7716.html

Jen and I went down to Philly for the wedding of our friends Karen and Andrew. Along the way we stopped to visit some other friends.

First we stopped down where Jen used to work. We were expecting her friend Stacey to be seven months pregnant. We weren't expecting her to be a mommy already. She'd had her baby very early, but she's back at work already because the baby is in the hospital full time. (She's saving up her maternity leave for when she can really use it) And the baby is healthy, with none of the health problems that afflict preemies. She's just tiny. Jen and Lily plan to come down there one Tuesday to see them.

After that, we met Tom and Jen at the Plymouth Meeting Mall. We were planning on eating at Bertucci's, but they had put in a Dave & Busters in in the interim, so we went there instead. Tom was dressed up as Batman and kept telling us how Batman (and it was the Adam West Batman, he was very insistent about that) could beat up Superman with nothing more than a sock filled with kryptonite soap. (See also, this comic) Dave & Busters had a very disappointing selection of games, however, we had a fun time on the seven player trivia game. Jen won 104 tickets in one game. She bought two kazoos and some Dora temporary tattoos.

After Tom was removed by mall security for waving some lime rock candy at a guy in a Superman shirt, Jen and I walked around the local IKEA for a bit, then Jen went into the store to change into her wedding dress. Somehow she left her wedding dress in the car, so she just changed into it in the parking lot.

We set out for the wedding from there, but there was a car accident on the road we needed to travel, so we spent almost two hours traveling twenty miles. When we got to the intersecting road, we turned left, as the google maps directions instructed us, and not right, as we actually needed to. So we wound up at a prison and not at a country club. Hilarity ensued. But really, who among us has not made that mistake?

We finally got to the country club, entering the room literally less than a minute before they started playing the wedding march. The ceremony was nice. It was short, which is always good. Weddings are one thing that don't need any padding, and I think this was a good one. The had what they needed to make it great, and nothing more. Also, no reading from Corinthians. It was quick, it was fun, and it was appropriately dignified.

After the ceremony, we went to get our seating card. Ours says "You are seated at table thirteen." Jen did a quick count and noticed twelve tables, none of which were labeled. So we picked one at random and sat down and ate appetizers, and discussed which lies we wanted to tell people at our table. We figured since we didn't know anyone there, we could just reinvent ourselves. I decided that I had come from the future and I was there to ensure that the wedding went off successfully. I had accomplished my goal early on, so now I was relaxing and there to enjoy the party. Jen decided that she was in the US Marshals, and she was there as part of the witness protection program.

Then they moved us all to another room, one that actually had thirteen tables, and we abandoned all our carefully laid plans.

Even though we didn't know anybody, the wedding reception was very fun. Our table-mates were fun and friendly. Karen looked like she was having a HUGE amount of fun.

I am enormously fond of Karen not in the least because she shares my bleeding heart sensibilities and my untidy stew of neuroses. I've only hung out with Andrew a few times, and I mostly know him through Karen. They clearly make each other very happy. When I first met them, I was afraid that they were going to be one of those couples who live together forever, but never get married. I am pleased beyond words to have been wrong about that.

Karen and Andrew are a very good couple. I want to say that they deserved the happy ending they had this weekend, but there are no happy endings, because nothing ever ends. It's just a beginning. Tim was the best man at our wedding, and he had a nice quote on the topic.  For the life of me, I can't remember the exact words, but the sentiment was that "Every step each of you has taken has been towards this, and now every step you take will be taken together."

So here's to a happy marriage and a happy beginning, Karen and Andrew!

Cross posted at: http://jugularjosh.livejournal.com/7642.html

Resuci Annie is out of the office today, which is good news, because working with her is like having a Caesarian section every day.

Jen bought our sister-in-law a gym membership for Christmas and she got three one-month passes for herself. She gave two away and she's using one for herself. Since the clock is running on them, she's trying to go to the gym as often as she can.

I asked Lily what she thinks mommy does at the gym. I expected her to say "She runs around", because that's how she answers me whenever I ask what she did at preschool.

Instead, she thought about it and said "Umm...plays with monkeys?"

Heh.

Speaking of monkeys, we saw The Forbidden Kingdom, which is an interpretation of the Chinese Epic, Journey to the West. Journey to the West was formally set down in the 16th century, but it existed in folk tales for easily twice that long. The central figure, the Monkey King, is a trickster figure as old as human myth. The story has been told and retold since before there was an America. But in none of these interpretations is there a goofy white kid from New York City. Jesus Christ, Hollywood. You've got Jet Li and Jackie Chan in your movie. Do you really need an audience identification character?

Other than that, really good. The two leads are undeniably appealing, (and they did spend a lot of screen time abusing Whitey, so bonus) Yuen Woo Ping always choreographs great action scenes, and it had the appropriate mythic feel.

Lily's new thing is lining things up. She'll dump out all her toys, and then spread them in a long row. She calls this "Doing her work".

Last night, Lily was in the bath tub, I was upstairs and Jen stepped into the kitchen to do some dishes. She could still hear Lily splashing around in there, and would poke her head in to check on her every couple minutes. After Jen had wrapped up the dishes, she went back to the bathroom and found that Lily had pooped in the tub, and then arranged the little turds in a neat little line along its edge.

Blech.

"Are your hands clean, Lily?"

"They're pretty clean, mommy."

New Who

So, we saw the Christmas episode of Doctor Who, "The Next Doctor". Pretty decent. Easily the best of the Christmas episodes. David Morrissey was having a lot of fun with the role, and David Tennant gave a nice, understated performance.

In other news, it looks like 26-year old Matt Smith has been cast as the 11th Doctor. Not only is he barely out of diapers, but his previous acting experience has primarily been opposite Billie Piper. Fuck! This is a slap in the face to all Doctor Who fans! A SLAP IN THE FACE!

Ehhh....seriously, I'm not thrilled about the choice, but we'll wait and see. Right now, it seems like a bigger line of turds than one on our bath tub.

Jen and I went to New York last Tuesday. It was nice. We did all the touristy things, Central Park, FAO Schwartz, watching the skaters at Rockefeller Center, walking up Times Square. It was neat. I wanted to see MOMA, but they're closed on Tuesdays.

Cross posted at:http://jugularjosh.livejournal.com/7303.html

Golly, my little corner of the world finds itself in the news again. What is wrong with this place?

Delightful.

In other news, Toyota has reported its first operating loss since 1941. Since they seemed to have turned a profit in every other year they've been in operation, including the year we dropped nuclear bombs on them, I can't help but see bad things ahead for the industry.

Lily said to me the other day "You've got a monster in your nose!" She had previously found a ladybug up there. I know it's not the most attractive nose in the universe, but sheesh! I told her that I was going to make a blog post about all the weird things she's said about my nose and she said "You're ka-razy!"

There are things that make you proud of your kid, and then things that remind you that kids are sometimes very selfish. We told her that Santa was flying around the world and giving presents. "For me?!" "For you and every little girl and boy!" "Not for them!" she said and maintained this, to the point where she said that she'd rather have nobody get any toys if she had to share them with other girls and boys. Isn't that precious? Fortunately she forgot all about this in the morning.

I got Jen Birdscapes, a cool shirt (hers is a pink baby doll though), a sun jar and another nature book. Lily got a ton of stuff. She got me a tube of toothpaste. My friend Dave got an X-Box 360. I feel a little bit cheated.

Lily's new word is going to be defenestration because she keeps throwing her dollies out the window of her dollhouse.

Cross-posted at: http://jugularjosh.livejournal.com/7077.html

So, I've gone off my diet a bit in recent days, and I've been partaking of some of the delicious cookies my mom sent up. I tried to sneak one out of the tin, but Lily caught me, and I couldn't eat one and not offer it to her, so I said "Close your eyes and daddy will give you a treat." She squinted her eyes shut very tightly and she looked like a little baby tree shrew. I gave her the cookie and she thoroughly enjoyed it. Then as soon as she was done, she squinted her eyes shut again, and said "Daddy, I'm closing my eyes!", thinking that it was this act that got her the cookie.

I wonder what goes on in her little head. She got up early the other morning and she was calling "Mommy! Daddy!" across the room. When we didn't come over fast enough, she clarified, "It's me, Lily!", and I'm just surprised that such a little kid understands that other people might not have share her viewpoint. I think that will be a healthy trait for her.

I'm ready for Christmas. I'm taking off from the 25th to the 5th, so hopefully my batteries are recharged. I want to hit NH, to visit Tim and have that delayed visit and Jen wants to go to NYC.

It's bitterly cold right now, with wind chills below zero. I skipped my company Christmas party, because traffic was going to be so terrible during the ice storm. Weather wasn't bad in the morning and I was wondering if I made a mistake, but by noon, we had over three inches of ice and snow. So I stayed home and baked cookies with Jen and Lily. (Check out the video section of the myspace page for a video of Lily helping out with the cookie dough)

Cross posted at: http://jugularjosh.livejournal.com/6833.html

Lily threw up over the weekend. I felt so bad for her, because she did it overnight and we didn't find it until the morning. We usually keep the doors between our rooms open, but we happened to have them closed that night.

So I wake up, and I see Lily sleeping on top of her blanket in front of the gate we have in the door jam to her room. I figured that she must have woken up during the night and fallen asleep there when she couldn't get out. She woke up a short while later, in a very good mood. She asked for her Baby Bear, so I picked her up and carried her over to the bed, where I saw that she had thrown up. She got her sheets, her blankie, her whale and Baby Bear.

"Oh," I said, "You threw up" and she answered in the smallest little voice, "I'm so sorry" and I felt terrible because she thought this was all her fault. I tried to explain that it was okay and it was an accident, but she just kept saying "I'm so sorry."

We did wind up washing Baby Bear, so that was a good thing. She takes Baby Bear everywhere and the thing was getting more than a little scurfy.

At work, a friend asked which holiday movie I'd be watching with Lily on Christmas Eve. I said it would probably be Dora saves the Mermaids.

Two months ago, Lily had two favorite videos. One was the Little Mermaid and the other was Dora the Explorer. Jen was out one Saturday morning, and we had watched Dora three or four times. I really couldn't stomach another viewing just then, so when Lily started begging for Dora during the closing credits. I said "Hey, let's try this other Dora video" and I unwrapped the plastic and popped it in the DVD player.

In a way, I feel sorry for Lily, having found her ideal movie so young. It's got Dora and it's got mermaids. It has Dora turning into a mermaid. Her joy is complete.

Speaking of peaking, I was thinking about two things I like that has seen their peak and aren't really suited to the world in which they now find themselves. I'm talking about comic books and role-playing games. For a while, they were both pretty mainstream. My old boss at Dreamscape said that if you had the money to open a comic book store in the early 90s, then you would make a profit. . Everyone thought that their Death of Superman was going to fund their retirement, so they bought ten copies at time. But it had an initial print run of 4,000,000 copies and something like that is never going to be collectible. When people caught on to that fact, the speculator boom started to die and as the industry had adapted to serve that segment, a good percentage of comic shops took heavy hits as well.

Role-playing: Odds are that if you went to college in the late 70s/early 80s you probably played at least one game of Dungeons & Dragons. People on a message board I frequent point out that Barack Obama went to school during that time frame, and it's possibly, even likely, that he was exposed to it. But the niche it occupied has been replaced by video games to a very large extent. You can slaughter orcs at your kitchen table with twenty-sided dice or you can do it in front of your 50 inch TV in surround sound. I'm as enthusiastic an RPG partisan as you're likely to find, and I know which one I'd prefer.  There are fewer people being introduced to RPGs every year. The hobby has fallen below that critical mass where people recruit their friends into the game. There are some things tabletop RPGs do better than video games, but you'll never know that if you're never exposed to them in the first place.

Both of them are slowly dying. As the current customer base ages out, they'll shrink down even more. I don't think they'll die entirely, at least not within my lifetime. They'll be kept alive if for no other reason than that they serve as a source of intellectual proprieties.  Which comic book can fuel the next summer blockbuster? How can we package D&D as a new video game?

Maybe this is just bleak and my natural pessimism is showing. What do my fellow geeks think?

Cross-posted at: http://jugularjosh.livejournal.com/6435.html

Lily says funny things

She was singing her ABC song. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V dubble U X Y and Z. Now I know my ABCs. Next time won't you sing with robot.

Then I was giving her a bath last night. She scooped up some bubbles, rubbed them on one of the lenses of my glasses and said "You're a pirate daddy!" Any time any one covers an eye, she says "You're a pirate."

She was at craft show with Jen where an Amish man was showing off his handcrafted baskets. Lily took a look at his hat and announced out loud, "Mommy, he's a cowboy!" Heh heh heh.

I was supposed to go up to New Hampshire this past weekend, but work was like "We need you to come in! It's the most important thing EVAR!" (Pause) "What, you've canceled your plans? Nevermind."

We made the best of it, and managed to have a reasonably nice Sunday at least. Our family movie was Ever After (Yay, Angelica Huston! Boo, Drew Barrymore!) and we made some hummus with the food processor we had received for the wedding and were just now unboxing. If you are the considerate person who gave us that gift, it's holding up wonderfully!

Cross posted at: http://jugularjosh.livejournal.com/6235.html

I haven't written a lot lately because things have been so toxic at work. I went in on Monday, half-expecting to be informed that I'd be gone before the end of the year. But Monday was tolerable and on Tuesday I had a brief meeting with my boss's boss, Lord British. Things turned around literally overnight. One day they were bad, the next day one of the reports I had written had been sold to a client, I uncovered enough material to complete my current project and learned that Lord British was tapping me to head up our database improvement program. Today is also my one year anniversary here at my job.

Also this morning, I met my weight loss goal. I'm down sixty pounds, to 160 from 220. I'm a little sad that I've reached it. I'm happiest when I'm striving towards something and marking my progress on the calendar gave me a little pick-me-up in the AM.

Thanksgiving. It was okay. We split it up, with my side of the family in the morning, Jen's mom in the evening. Lily had a good time.

We're continuing movie night. We split the Jungle Book into two Sundays because Lily fell asleep the first time. She got really scared by Kaa, the constrictor snake, who hypnotized Mowgli and then coiled him up. She was watching nervously, then blurted out "I don't like this!" And I can't blame her. I think the only thing more disturbing than a snake that pacifies a little boy and takes him smiling to his death is a snake WITH THE VOICE OF WINNIE THE POOH who does it. I mean, Jesus Christ. Where there really no other voice actors available?

That's enough to give me nightmares. Though I was amused by how Shere Khan dealt with Kaa. Kaa tries to hypnotize Khan, who smacks him down with his free paw. "I can't be bothered with that, I have no time for that nonsense."

Crossposted at: http://jugularjosh.livejournal.com/6091.html

I was driving to work last week and listening to National Public Radio, as I often do.  National Public Radio, where integrity washes over you like lava, with the pleasing familiarity of a medium-roast coffee and a sensible muffin.

NPR has commercials, even though they don't call them that and they take a different form than the usual 30 ads you find on commercial radio. The host of the show will say,( with pleasing vocal cadence and unmatched enunciation),  that this program was made possible in part from a grant from the Archer Daniels Midland Company. "Archer Daniels Midland, Supermarket to the World." And then they go into the news or traffic reports or whatever.

But then there is the occasional disconnect, like the ad wound up on the wrong station. I heard Carl Kassell telling me about Twilight, the movie about sparkly emo vampires in love with high school girls. I mean, WTF? Do they think this is the best way to reach fourteen year old girls?

I did like this bit from an interview with the actor who played the lead vampire though:


Heh.

Cross-posted at: http://jugularjosh.livejournal.com/5749.html