Monday morning baby-blogging

Finally uploaded a heap of photos from the last couple of months (sigh), and there are some real winners there, so it's time to blog some!!


Here's Speck helping put laundry into the dryer.
(13 months)


And here she is modeling some of the clean underwear, heh.
(14 months)


A gratuitous Easter shot, just since the others are less than flattering...
(13.5 months)


Oh shoot, and one more, just because it's been so long and I love so many of them...
(13.5 months)

Will save the fun 15-month playground shots for next time. (Also, a couple of videos still to process, but hope to have some documentation of Speck walking by the end of this week...)

Friday bits

• How much sugar is in various foods and drinks? See it visualized in terms of stacks of sugar cubes . . .
  (via Boing Boing)
  
  
• If you're 25 now, here are some life skills/lessons you should have acquired, from having something to talk about other than school to knowing how to do things for yourself.
  (via kottke)
  
  
• Very spiffy interactive map of the White House -- especially detailed on the bits that underlie the residence. You can see what's where, and there's a lot more than you might think from watching The West Wing!
  (via Atrios, I think)
  
  
• A fantastic visual on what it means to say that America has become socialist . . . (That is, um, thinking such a thing reveals your goofiness!)

Mitzvah

I love Improv Everywhere, which stages crazy events with large groups in public places just for the fun of doing so (here's a great review of a participatory outing). This most recent, where they threw a wedding reception for a random couple, brought a little sunshine to my day. (The video wasn't working when I went there, but who cares!)

(via kottke)

Speechless

Sometimes the mind just reels at the level of baseness of some rightwingers. Of course, the killing of a doctor who performed abortions was just karmic comeuppance and not the result of twenty years of spittle-flecked violent/eliminationist rhetoric from the right . . . (One hopes that there's a big bucket of karmic comeuppance out there for this guy someday!)

Edit: Wow, when you read this, I guess it makes the depth of gall less surprising. They really took the phrase "peaceful and legal" to its outer harrass-y limits!
(via Hunter's Twitter stream)

Disheartened, heartened

Two posts that both capture some truth about the mixed feel of our current times -- brimming with hope for change and healing, painfully aware of the grim legacy of the last eight years, uncertain which to hold onto. Somehow, I'm happier to blog them together than separately.

First, from Rafe, a post titled How America discarded its moral compass, which tracks our increasing comfort with our national maltreatment of our detainees. It concludes,

It’s only now that I’m really seeing the degree to which the things that I really do cherish about America have been debased. Everybody knows that the government has abandoned the values of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence when it was expedient over the years, but it’s only in recent times that we see such widespread belief that it’s not even wrong to do so.

Then, from Bitch, Ph.D., a reaction to the nomination of Sotomayor for the Supreme Court and its reaffirmation of the American promise of possibility for all:

When the President, a Hawaiian-born black man from a broken home, nominates a Bronx-born Puerto Rican woman to the Supreme Court, you can't help but feel like maybe the Constitution and the Separation of Powers and Equality Under the Law and We the People and all that stuff really, actually, might be true.

Yeah, let's hope that some of that stuff might hold up after all . . .

Quote of the day

True, we love life, not because we are used to living, but because we are used to loving. There is always some madness in love, but there is also always some reason in madness.

- Francesco Petrarch

(via whiskey river)

The beauty of space

Fantastic shots from the Hubble, available as wallpaper. A mind-blowing array...

(via Medley)

Today's Twitter fave

Again from Hunter:

Yeah, um... when you're reduced to defending *slavery*, your talking-points canary is officially dead.

Spectacular metaphors for 400, Alex!

Better on my worst day...

I had my first stretch as a solo parent this week, with Spouse away for four days. When this first came up (it was a conference), I was a bit panicked by the mere prospect -- how would I do without somebody else to trade tasks with, somebody else to whip Speck off to a store while I crashed on the couch, would I have the energy to keep her entertained while maintaining my enthusiasm? In fact, none of that was really a problem, in part because we're pretty used to our routines, in part because Speck is quite fun and easy to play with at this point, and in part because she understands so much that it's easy to suggest little tasks for her to do while, say, one brushes one's teeth, or even to get her interested in watching or being part of the action.

However, this was a really crazy and tiring week anyway. But not the solo parenting -- it was a week of Too Many Things that would really have used a half dozen adults around to share the fun. Part of that is because Spouse and I are committeefolks, which means that we have election-related responsibilities, and Tuesday was an election. But that was just the start of it. (This may all be too boring for words, but I can tell that I need to vent it before I can subside into the coming weekend in peace.) Without stretching, I can list the following:

1. Monday: (work morning, pick up baby at 1:30)
   • Lunch out with Speck, cut short by her need for a nap, which was going to conflict with the next planned errand. Go to Ward Leader's office (around 12 blocks away) after 3 for election materials, entertain Speck (grumpy!) while waiting for audience, trek back home again (with now-napping baby).
     
   • Wash and refill bottles and pack Speck up for staying overnight at her grandma's (clothes, meals, etc.); get her up from nap, fed, and to Gammy's (6 blocks away) by 5ish. whew!
     
   • Dinner (was tired of all the walking, so had sushi near Gammy's), then home, where plans for early bed were foiled by the need to post an election guide (this) to my local political website and by the desire to finish a nearly complete Letter to Speck (here) in honor of recent developments. Also, pull together materials for Election Day, make sure I've ordered coffee and donuts for election volunteers, have easel for hanging sample ballot near election site, etc.
   
   
2. Tuesday: (off work for election)
   • Up at 5, dressed and out of house, quick stop by Gammy's (with extra breakfast, since hadn't packed a full jar, sigh) on way to Starbucks for coffee and donuts for crew; to election site to help with setting up machines, finding chairs that should have already been there for us, etc. Stay at election site, making sure we had enough folks working at all times, making small talk during long stretchs of low turnout, occasionally helping out when somebody took a break. Stayed until around 1, running on basically coffee and donuts.
     
   • Pick up Speck from Gammy's, take her home, nap with baby in afternoon, relatively uneventful baby time at home and playground for bulk of day, quick bath and bed.
     
   • Neighbor comes over to sit while I go back to election site to help break everything down, make sure that the voting machine receipts (duplicate copies) get handed out to the appropriate people (and copies filed in the Commissioners' box), confirm that somebody will take a copy to the Ward Leader and get other materials back to the City Commissioners' office that night.
     
   • Home around 8:45, after which I still have to have dinner, wash all the dishes and bottles from Speck's extended Gammy stay, fill new bottles and pack new meals for Wednesday, and then maybe get a few minutes to put my feet up and get online or watch TV. Somehow it was well after 11 (which is mighty late in Parent Time) before I headed to bed.
   
   
3. Wednesday: (work morning, pick up baby at 1:30)
   • First morning up with Speck solo; planned an evening bath rather than a morning shower, so rest of routine relatively easy. Speck a bit feisty and I a bit groggy means I tripped coming up the stairs with baby and bottle, but no dire injuries resulted. All dressed, fed, and ready to leave house a little ahead of usual schedule (no time allotment for Spouse's toilette, basically).
     
   • Afternoon mostly normal (fun lunch food experimentations), but needed to run to vet (8 blocks away) to pick up prescription for cat (just diagnosed) and then to pharmacy. Got tangled up between stupid pharmacist and over-busy vet staff, so Speck just rode around in a stroller for 1.5 hours while I shuttled back and forth between the two until everything sorted out (this is about needle guages! the mind reels). Intended trip to shady playground now starting at 5:30, so poor Speck only gets a little time on this and that before being pulled away (from chalks!! so cruel!) to head home (still, past usual bathtime). Superfast Speck dinner, bath, bed.
     
   • Usual evening routine for me of late dinner, followed by stream of obligatory bottle-cleaning, shot and special food for sick cat, looking at list of new foods that Speck might try the next day (but no lunch to pack! yay!), etc. No idea where the time went, but my planned relaxing bath started around 11:30, so I didn't exactly read a novel...
   
   
4. Thursday (off all day):
   • (Now nonchalant about solo morning routine.) Have pediatrician appointment (11 blocks away) in morning for 15-month check-up and shots. It's at 10:45, which probably seemed like a great time three months ago, but now falls directly inside usual morning nap hour. Try for calming morning routine with no success, but instead Speck falls asleep in stroller at 10:30 while I'm picking up some milk on the way (because most of a gallon went off prematurely in our fridge! sigh). Check into peds without stowing stroller, am called while Speck still sleeping -- even though I told them she could use a little longer to sleep, they have me wake her at 11 to weigh and measure, but then of course we wait another half hour for the doctor. grump.
     
   • Lunch, semi-normal early afternoon, but Speck, weary from her traumas and probably responding to the two booster shots, crashes early for long nap. This has the benefit of making my other errand possible: trip to local market center (17 blocks away) to pick up our biweekly installment of farm-share produce (we already missed the first one due to logistics). Luckily we get there in time, all the produce (lettuces galore!) fits in the basket of the stroller, Speck seems spacy and transfixed by passing scene. We return home tired (and hot) but triumphant!
     
   • Made evening routine late again so that Speck could test out a new toy that seemed a good reward for a long day: this play sink. It was a huge hit -- I had to drag her away after half an hour (and despite the fact that she hadn't eaten dinner and was nearly asleep on her feet), soaked and happy. Good dinner (tasty new foods!), speed bath, in bed amazingly by usual time.
     
   • Wash, sort, pack lunches, do baby laundry, eat dinner. A few minutes online to update grandparents on latest Speck stats, a token TV show on the Tivo, and actually managed goal of heading up to bed before 10! Yay, I've made it! (Spouse arrives home very late at night and is there to respond to morning baby cries.)

For what it's worth, here I am at work a couple of hours after I intended to leave (and with the office closing early for the long weekend, no less!). Not interested in avoiding baby and Spouse, but just luxuriating in the absence of any structure or urgent obligations. Spouse has fetched Speck from Gammy's and is off entertaining her in some way, and I have only myself to answer to for whether I head right home, stop for lunch, or (as looks to be the winner) blow a couple of hours catching up on the last few days of Web activity. This is what represents decadence for a busy parent: not specifically being with or away from loved ones, or even of doing any particular thing (although that novel is looking good), but having no demands to fill, no structure to stick to, nothing expected. (To the degree that that circuit ever actually turns off . . .)

Have a great long weekend, all!

Twitter quote of the day

Just curious: how OFTEN does one have to read the deranged rantings of the ignorant in order to be sufficiently broad-minded?

Medley

And now for something completely different

Total silliness for the day after a dullish election day: the pig-based audiometer. Ridiculous (and, um, what on earth?!?.

To Speck at 15 months

Wow! what an amazing few months it’s been since last I wrote. Your abilities to manipulate your world and interact with us have been exploding, with a heap of skills having emerged in just the first two weeks of May. Couldn’t possibly wait to write again.

First, some externalities. My mocking about your two teeth must have dented your pride, because very quickly after your first birthday you started building more, such that you now have eight fully emerged, including two molars. (Your stoicism while all that was going on makes me a bit nervous about your pain threshold, but that seems ok for now.) You’re still not walking, although your skill with the walker/push toys is way up; you can steer around objects, change course, and even navigate some irregular grassy zones. Also still not talking, no new words, but you’ve figured out that shaking your head means “no” (although, as with much of your communication, there are times when it means something else entirely). You’ve started doing a bit of climbing onto low ledges and furniture, but Mom’s initial panic at this has subsided a bit as you don’t seem singlemindedly driven to scale the heights. Yet, anyway.

You’re a master of finger foods now, from Cheerios to cheesy pasta (sneakily laced with peas or carrots), and are good enough with a spoon that we sometimes let you work your way through most of a lunch of shepherd’s pie. (Usually at breakfast we’re too desperate to get out of the house, so you just get a few dips before Dad shovels the rest in.) We’re still exploring the list of foods that you might eat, so there’s lots of nibbles off of parental plates, to varying success.

You’re also master of your fingers in other ways. You’ve almost stopped playing with the shape-sorter, so completely have you mastered its small challenges. (Luckily Gammy has a more complicated one in reserve.) You stack blocks as high as yourself (over and over again compulsively). You’ve also figured out the motion of twisting your wrist for toys that require it, of holding a bottle or sippy cup and tilting it upward as needed, and you regularly disassemble pansies in a methodical way as you ride in your stroller. Plus you can put your finger into a finger puppet and dance it around!

So, that crazy two-week period! All of this, seemingly at once:

• You learned to drink through a straw, pretty much on the first try. This saved a rather grumpy lunch, at the slight cost of Mom’s frozen and tired hand holding the glass of ice water for your explorations.
  
  
• Shaking head to mean “no” arrived during this time. (Previously it had been reserved for rockin-out to music, or to enjoying the wind in your stroller. I don’t know how you came to give it meaning, or whether we just reacted as though it had some and you played along...)
  
  
• You started to share, especially letting other kids on the playground borrow your green walker, although you of course want it back after a short stretch. Still, going from fear at their approach to rolling it toward them as an offering was a noteworthy evolution.
  
  
• You first did an action that was clearly pretending – specifically, you held a big lego block up to your ear as if it were a telephone, and then gave it to me to continue the charade. (You have also been much amused when I mime feeding your bear with a spoon, although you haven’t yet gone that direction yourself.)
  
  
• I had cut up some pieces of apple for you and you actually pointed to the rest of the apple instead – sure enough, you bit right in and ate most of it that way! We think that your enjoyment is a mix of food tastiness and teething relief, but it’s cute either way to watch you open wide and attack.... This also quickly generalized to bananas, making snack time a whole lot easier.
  
  
• Most recently, you learned/decided to snuggle. You had always hugged Golden Bear, and then done some flirtatious demonstrations toward the dog’s bed or a pillow on the floor, but you only recently made the leap from that to actually hugging Mom or Dad (and especially to pointing to a book with a picture on the cover of a baby hugging her mommy, and then miming the same). I think we hadn’t realized how much we were looking forward to this – unlike the long vigil for the first smile – until it finally got here. Still enough of a rarity to be treasured. yay!

Wow, in the two days between writing and posting this, you took your first unsupported steps! I’m not sure you even realized it when you let go of your walker and just stood upright, rocking your hips a bit as though jammin’ to the music, and then took two steps toward me to be picked up. But your grandma and I sure noticed! Big things coming now!!

Also, had my first outing that felt like a shared parent-daughter time: we were just biding our time before meeting Gammy, but we ended up playing on a big cozy coffeehouse couch (wheee! fluffy cushions!), sharing some blueberry muffin, reading a book, and generally snuggling side by side. The time just flew. More and more, better and better!

Quote of the day

How much of the day are you aware - just basically aware of what life is presenting - rather than being lost in waking sleep, in being identified with whatever you're doing, almost as if you didn't exist?

To what extent do you blindly drift from one form of comfort to another, from one daydream or fantasy to another, from one secure place to another, in order to avoid the anxious quiver of discomfort or insecurity? How much of your energy is used to fortify a particular self-image, or to simply please others in order to gain approval, instead of devoting your energy to living a genuine life?

- Ezra Bayda
At Home in the Muddy Water: A Guide to Finding Peace within Everyday Chaos

(via whiskey river)

Still room to be boggled

I thought that the Bush Administration had already maxed my capacity for amazement and outrage, but these overtly religious military reports just blow my mind all over again. Bush is, I suppose, welcome to his feeling that he's on a Mission From God, but our government needs to keep a clearer head in its affairs!

Monday morning cuteness blogging

A smattering of the other pre-Easter pics of Speck, this time showing less glamor and more of her personality...


"What, more photos?"


One of my favorites -- cute and mischevious in equal measures...


Obligatory grin shot!

Crap-tacular

All that torturing, that is, which increasingly appears to have been aimed more at finding (nonexistant) connections between Iraq and Al Qaida, or supporting the claims of WMDs, than at finding any critical/time-sensitive information...

More and more the timeline is raising the question of why, if the torture was to prevent terrorist attacks, it seemed to happen mainly during the period when we were looking for what was essentially political information to justify the invasion of Iraq.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Most great torturing nations have put the bulk of their energies into obtaining false confessions...

Edit: from Hunter's Twitter feed, my sentiments in a nutshell:

After eight long years, I am tired of begging for basic laws to be enforced. I'm tired of it being our job, and of it being partisan.

Amen. (sigh)

Bad news, good news...

Bad news:

The first relocation of an entire population due to climate change -- and it's not that their island got flooded, but that salt water infiltrated their water supplies and soil to the degree that the land was unlivable. Another avenue of fun.

Good news:

A major health-care alliance pressures moderate Congressfolk from both parties to support inclusion of a public option in any healthcare reform. Keep up the good fight!

Laughed out loud:

Amazon reviews for a gallon of whole milk. Priceless creativity, these Internets...
(via kottke)

A hard way to come by perspective

Sometimes I am frustrated by the State of Affairs in our country, but when I see things like a nation that likes its girls/women better dead than literate, it's hard not to breathe a sigh of gratitude for being elsewhere. I certainly didn't choose where I was born, and clearly those girls didn't have much say either...

(via Sybil at Bitch, PhD)

Friday randomness

A bunch of links to stuff that I've accumulated lately.

• More from the comeuppance department: Justice Scalia scoffs at calls for privacy protections until surprised by a dossier on himself, compiled by students from publically available sources.
  
  
• Hilarious: the Amazon.com knee-jerk contrarian game, which consists of looking at the one-star ratings given to all-time classic books and music. Don't miss the extra examples in the comments (the grammatical critique of Whitman is my personal fave).
  (via kottke)
  
  
• Hard to have kids in this modern age? Two views:
  
  
  1. Grandmas (or parents!) who take bath pics beware: you could be charged with child pornography.
     (via Atrios?)
     
     
  2. Parents who are nervous about kidnappers and the like: take solace in the fact that the world is no more dangerous than in your own childhood, despite the media hype. Balance caution against the value of independence...
  
  
• Today's doubletalk: when the Chinese do it, it's torture; when we master the same techniques... oh, you know the story.
  (via Talking Points Memo)

And what's a random list without a random baby photo??
Have a good weekend, all!

Things you like to hear

From the Twitter feed of a White House correspondent:

As overseer of stimulus money, Biden says he's trying to get money out the door by shedding red tape but not accountability.

That seems like the right combination. Keep on 'em, Joe!

A ray of hope

Looks like the Democrats are going to make Specter earn his stripes on their side of the aisle, giving him just under two years to prove himself worthy of full seniority...

(via Talking Points Memo)

Way to rain on my sunshine

The very thing I fear for my daughter, the assault of expectations and marketing, distilled into a grim and frightening montage. Effective, cautionary, depressing as hell.

(via Rebecca's Pocket)

Tuesday baby-blogging

Finally finished processing the fabulous shots we got from friend Kay at Easter (in response to Grandma's latest desire for costume portraits), so gotta post a couple more. She was so serious for much of the session that they have a very classical look to them, rather than our usual mischevious grinner...



Will pull out some with more color/smiles another time...

Quote of the day (snapshot of this modern life)

Have not settled on whether to call this weekend "unproductive" or "relaxing."

nowthis (Twitter feed)

From the department of holy crap (or just crap)

A variety of stories that have been piling up in my tabs...

• Quite shocking, the NYTimes company might actually follow through on its threat to close the Boston Globe, although it may still just be trying to strong-arm a variety of its unions.
  (via Atrios)
  
  
• Truly horrific: Elsevier actually publishes a fake journal so that a major pharmaceutical company can cite nonexistant research in support of its products. In how many ways is this wrong?!?
  (via NowThis, in a tweet)
  Update: they have a whole division dedicated to this sort of fake authenticity! ack!!
  
  
• Republicans will blaim anything on a conspiracy. Sure, we liberals cooked up a pandemic as a plot to expand the reach of government...
  
  
• Wonkette makes a good case for getting rid of the White House press corps, which seems to do more along the lines of gossip columns than breaking real news or analysis.
  (via Follow Me Here)
  
  
• Jason Kottke has an interesting defense of Twitter, which really extends to all online networking and socializing -- that is, it is neither more nor less inane than in-person socializing, but people seem to expect More, somehow, from all the bells and whistles.

Quote of the day

Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night.

- Rainer Maria Rilke

(via whiskey river)

The *what* caucus?

Hey, look, a show of spine by Congressional progressives!! Indeed, if healthcare reform under Obama can't manage to provide a strong public option, then it will have to be judged as a failure. I'm glad that somebody's making that case from the inside.

Tuesday puppy

I dunno -- maybe it's the heat, or maybe my life has felt too stressful lately, but I sure appreciated this adorable corgi pup. (Glad somebody else is paper training him though! :)

For a niece (five years old!)

For Genevieve
(Five Years Old)

You clasp the little ball so tightly
One would have to break your hand
to wrest it,
As one breaks off the branch
To get the fruit . . .

And one waits . . .
A time comes
When the fruit just drops,
The time of ripeness.

And a time comes
When the world just falls,
The time of sleep.

- Simeon Dumdum, Jr.

(via whiskey river)

Ah, hindsight

There's nothing like a national emergency to make one rethink one's earlier (idiotic) high horse...

Just like real folks

Just a couple of weeks since Vermont, and already this development hardly makes a ripple. (Signed the bill without comment, no less!) Perhaps the tide has already turned.
(via Talking Points Memo)

Edit: more here.

With opponents like these...

Wow indeed. Hard to disagree, but still, that's a pretty positive assessment from somebody who worked for the Other Guy...

Monkey see...

Um, can't completely decide whether to be amused or creeped out by this hell-and-brimstone babble sermon given by a toddler. It seemed to inspire the congregation, anyway...

Extreme biking

I have to say that the degree to which this man and his bike seem like one organism is mindboggling, but one envisions years of accumulated crashes and injuries that went into such smoothness and aplomb... eep.

(via kottke)

Edit: completely unrelated: Harvard Bookstore offers bike delivery to its local customers. An excellent way to steal business back from the Amazons of the world...

(via GirlHacker)

Space station

I've never really paid attention to the International Space Station, its size, assembly, undertakings, except in the most peripheral way. Found this graphical explanation of how it came together fascinating -- like Eliot, I had no idea how big the whole thing is, let alone how many trips have gone into putting it together. Pretty spiff. (Of course, I still don't really know what they're doing up there...)

(via Follow Me Here)

These two things have nothing to do with one another

...but apparently I need to post them together. Um, trying to be productive at work, I guess.

• Hospitals can greatly reduce the spread of drug-resistant bacteria by empowering low-level staffers to make suggestions and to call higher-ups on lapses. We need to do this and more!
  (via Rebecca's Pocket)
  
  
• Fantastic: the Washington Post apparently sponsored a contest for Peeps dioramas in honor of Easter -- the entries vary from the hilarious to the dead-serious (or, as serious as one can be with Peeps). The winner totally rocks!
  (via Bitch, Ph.D.)
  

Happy Monday, all!

Friday baby-blogging, spring color edition

A color shot from that same Easter photo shoot, this one from toward the end when Speck got to exchange her formalwear for a swimsuit. She's, um, snuggling with the dog bed here (so proud).

Quote of the day

The wages of sin are death,
but after taxes are taken out,
it's just a tired feeling.

- Paula Poundstone

Daunting

I like to think of myself as environmentally conscious -- at the least, we recycle compulsively, try to buy recycled products, and make produce choices that tend toward the local, at the edges at least. Still, contemplating switching to cloth diapers (and all the additional handling) is very sobering, and somehow this graphic (especially the entries for beef!) almost makes me cry. Awareness is good, being willing to deal with some costs and inconveniences is responsible, but there are so many competing inefficiencies in every aspect of life in America that I sometimes feel that one can barely make a convincing difference, even with committed effort (and time is too often an unmeasured resource). Still, one can only try...

(via kottke)

Collective guilt

I know that the human species has driven countless others to extinction, and yet I still find it very difficult to look at these photographs of now-extinct species. I don't know whether it's just the awareness that such creatures were alive in the last century or so, or the specifics of the stories, or just the thought that nobody will ever see any of these striking animals again.

(via Follow Me Here)

Peck, peck, peck

The pure natural force of moral rightness continues to press against the wall of hatred and fear. Polls of young people show that this is the direction that history is leading us, and those who oppose equality will be less and less relevant with each passing year. Am reminded of this quote:

The avalanche has already started; it is too late for the pebbles to vote.

-- Kosh (from Babylon V)

Momentum may come slowly in the early days, but over time . . .

(article via Atrios; quote via Medley)

Snort

Monday giggles: Breaking: Obama puppy nominee faces uphill battle in Senate. Very apt.

Poem of the day/week

the believer considers
----------------------------------

the glorious day
the glorious vision

sometimes joy floats
on a dark sea
white flecks of foam

hopelessness was easier
the comfort of slow decay
nothing required
a calm gentility
in the gathering dust

the promise - a service
in this world and the next
all I wanted was to sleep
close my eyes a little
there is always something to do

if no one comes to the door
in the middle of the night
seeking attar of roses
will I be relieved?

we could wrap ourselves
in the beauty of it all
and disappear
a mountainside, a forest retreat
breathing prayer words
to the moon and stars

the world refuses to fail
is not past saving
the wind stirs the leaves
at my door
and pulls at my sleeve

- Kim Hodges

(via rec.arts.poems, more than a decade ago, and it's stuck with me every since)

That guy is up to something

Rafe discusses Obama's cleverness in keeping Gates on at Defense in anticipation of the major changes he wanted to institute, and notes that a lot of commenters misjudged the choice and its motivation.

Operating under the assumption that President Obama doesn’t have a plan that serves his own goals rarely leads to solid analysis.

Heh. So far, pretty clearly true.

Still crazy after all these years

Paul Krugman traces the history of craziness of the Republican party in the last few decades, and marvels that the mainstream press keeps covering the ludicrosity. I guess everybody loves a circus, but this one has consistently dragged our whole nation into its madhouse antics. Not funny.

(via Atrios)

Tomorrow's past

A neat view of Google street view, and how someday we might look back to see what our neighborhood, street, or even house interiors looked like (through the Magic of Internets).

(via kottke)

Friday baby-blogging

Can't let the front page go without Speck photos! Local mom Kay came over to Grandma's house yesterday to shoot some Easter-theme casuals, and it looks like she got some great stuff, even though Speck maintained a completely serious expression until the last five minutes. Here are a couple of the dozen pics that Kay mailed us to whet our appetite for the whole CD of photos; obviously, the color shots will be worth seeing, given Speck's red hair and the variety of colorful props that were around, but I like the effect of the black-and-white versions for now. (Worth clicking for the full-size view!)


Easter baskets are for emptying...


serious look
(love the little back-lighted tuft of hair)
Happy Easter, all!

The Bushh/Rove legacy

The GOP apparently operates unhindered by the existence of facts, as they continue to claim that Gates' reprioritization of Defense spending equals cuts, when in fact the Obama Defense budget is larger than last year's. Sigh.

Morning funny

From DK Hunter's Twitter feed:

BREAKING Franken beats Coleman in MN-Sen election for 28th consecutive time. Wins $10 gift card; needs 2 more wins for juicer, Senate seat.

Stay tuned...

Did somebody draw the shades?

I swear that I can barely ever remember seeing a pundit of color in the last decade -- there's a crazy right-winger on Fox, and there are a couple who come out on Election Night, but watching this video (which is interesting for other reasons), I just kept thinking, Has the arrival of Obama suddenly made networks realize that there are brown talking heads out there as well as white? Or, um, made them willing to hear what black folks think? Maybe it's just me . . .

Quote of the day

It is not upon you to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.

- Pirkei Avot
Ethics of the Fathers

Activist legislators

Vermont just became the first state in the nation to institutionalize gay marriage through the legislative process (including a resounding 2/3 vote to override a veto), rather than through court proceedings. I'm happy to say I have a friend who was there to cast one of those votes; congrats to Vermont for electing an intelligent and unintimidated legislature.

Beating a sick horse

Man, I knew I hated that new Tropicana oj packaging, but am still shocked to see it produced a 20% drop in sales in a single month. I guess when people find it that hard to find what they're looking for (the brand and the type of juice), they just grab something else.

Still, didn't they recently say they were getting rid of the new look? As of this week, all I've seen is a 5% tweaking, so that the font-size declaring the pulp content, etc., is more legible. They've still left all their brand recognizability (logo, font for brand name, etc.) and half of their user-friendliness on the cutting room floor.

(via kottke)

No more golden goose

Am very interested by this announcement that Gates expects to shift defense spending priorities. Some big long-time pork projects (Star Wars, anybody?) may have to justify their continued existence, rather than relying on institutional momentum to keep them alive. Perhaps we can stop spending a billion per plane on magical high-tech and get some armor on the personnel transport in Iraq and Afghanistan...

(via Talking Points Memo)

Big stick!

Nobody's speaking softly with a threat like this:

The New York Times Co. has threatened to shut the Boston Globe unless the newspaper'sunions swiftly agree to $20 million in concessions, union leaders said.

Yipe! Imagine a city the size of Boston without even one major paper! One presumes they'll work something out, but still, eesh.

Auth

Really liked this political cartoon from Sunday about the amount to be done and how the GOP would like Obama to be spending his energies...

Wednesday baby-blogging

Three views of Speck at around 12-13 months.


Looking At Things in swing (featuring Very Long Lashes)



Pure Cuteness (voguing for camera)



Toothy Grin (now with 4 teeth!)

She's very fun to play with and watch take in the world right now, but she's also more unpredictable -- on schedule, mood, etc. -- than before. And has developed a rather piercing scream, which we hope will *not* be displayed at a dinner with visiting relatives on Friday . . .

Quote of the day

Long experience has taught me this about the status of mankind with regard to matters requiring thought: the less people know and understand about them, the more positively they attempt to argue concerning them, while on the other hand to know and understand a multitude of things renders men cautious in passing judgment upon anything new.

- Galileo
(in a letter to Don Virginio Cesarin)

(via kottke)

Today's schadenfreude

Ok, not really, just a sort of cynical humor: a billboard on wheels urges let's not Rush to failure . . . Nice one.

(via Talking Points Memo)

*Somebody's* got to do it

Perhaps the Spanish will save us the trouble of trying to (muster the political will to) punish the Bushies for their disregard for the rule of law by taking justice abroad. TPM calls this the Pinochet Treatment, which feels about right. Sad that we're no more able/willing to hold our political leaders accountable than Chile is.

Baby names

What To Name the Baby can be a question that haunts parents. Even what criteria to use (sound? links to relations? etc.) is pretty tough. Then you have to do the negative tests -- doesn't remind you of any past or current nemeses, doesn't set the kid up for terrible playground taunts, doesn't make a terrible acronym, blah blah... Anyway, just loved this test that Medley and NowThis applied (among others) to names they considered for their son:

that it be something that would work for him whether he ends up a Supreme Court Justice, a plumber, a football player, or a gay opera singer.

Perfect. Dunno what a similar list would be for a girl -- Supreme Court Justice, elementary school teacher, soccer star, and punk rocker? heh.

"Nobody could have foreseen..."

Except those that did. (See that deregulating the financial industry in 1999 might well "wreak havoc" on the nation's financial system.)

(via boing boing)

Information versus assumption

I feel like I should have more to add, but really I just want to send you to what Rafe has to say against offering advice. Most of the time, people who offer unsolicited advice merely reveal their disinterest in knowing more about my own motivations, criteria, thought process; they have the Right Answer in advance. I don't know why I would be interested in guidance given so blindly.

I think my mother sometimes finds it frustrating that I won't just tell her what to do in the case of various decisions large and small, but I honestly don't presume to know how she would weight or value the pros and cons, especially given that her world view can differ from mine in unexpected ways -- thus I prefer to offer her an assessment of the situation, some information on the likely results of different choices, perhaps my estimation of what stresses or pleases her most, and then leave the decision to her. Will I someday find it impossible to do likewise for my daughter, given many years of making choices about and for her? I hope not -- she's already a distinct personality and likely to have her own way of approaching the world from early days. But perhaps it's a trap of parenthood that we always see our judgment as Better, our wisdom as Deeper. Something to guard against, I think.

Poem of the day

I am not I

I am not I.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .I am this one
Walking beside me whom I do not see,
Whom at times I manage to visit,
And whom at other times I forget;
The one who remains silent when I talk,
The one who forgives, sweet, when I hate,
The one who takes a walk where I am not,
The one who will remain standing when I die.

- Juan Ramon Jimenez

(via whiskey river)

Hard not to agree

Lighthearted, but somehow also captures the feeling out there that we somehow have the Wrong Guys in charge of fixing our careening economy: Hey, Paul Krugman, the song. On the more serious side, Paul Volker seems to be keeping a low profile, but I think he's at least one guy "in the room," as Ampersand wishes, that has a good head.

Monday morning baby-blogging

Way overdue for new photos -- have just uploaded a heap. Of course, the big news is the arrival in the last 10 days of the ability to walk with support. Both Grandmas apparently worked on this using a cute baby-scale stroller, but now it's something she wants to do regularly. Yesterday the weather was nice and she made it down our dead-end street (slowly, with a toddler's interest in every garage door and unexpected pebble) pushing our version of the walker...


A longer video (including more angles and a fall and recovery) can be found here. Will post some other recent photos later in the week.

A "range of opinions"

Echidne has a good brief post on the media as a gatekeeper to acceptible views on public issues, through the selection of which "opposing views" (and representatives of each) are presented. It's hard not to notice the frequent pairings of right-wing crazies with barely-left-of-center moderates and think that perhaps the state of public views is being shaped by more than the facts... More liberals! More feminists! Let the public outgrow its fears!

Department of hypocrisy

This photo series is pretty damning: it itemizes the earmarks put into the omnibus spending bill by congressfolk who later decried the very phenomenon of earmarks (and voted against said bill). Nice pairing of quotes with images of the projects supported by those hypocritical earmarkers...

Quote of the day (And I'm Already Fluent edition)

Human language is like a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, when all the time we are longing to move the stars to pity.

- Flaubert, from "Madame Bovary"

(via Paul Spinrad, blogging at boing boing)

Tuesday link-dump

I seem to be piling up things that I mean to blog, but then not getting back to them. So, no great unifying post, just an assortment of things worth noting:

• I greatly enjoyed the Jon Stewart-Jim Cramer dust-up and interview, but it certainly seems like many of the criticisms there could be applied to the entire media in recent years. Just letting liers say their piece unchallenged is a huge disservice to our public discourse and undermines our chances of making any good national decisions.
  (via rc3.org)
  
  
• In the category of Alarming Economic Developments is that of renters stranded by their landlords' foreclosures -- talk about downstream effects you don't see coming! eesh.
  
  
• There are ways that the ubiquity of Google creeps me, but I have to say that this phone system seems like it solves a lot of pesky and widespread communications problems. Are there really enough phone numbers for all these layers, if it takes off?
  (via Medley)
  
  
• Amazing: an article debunking many of the claimed benefits of breastfeeding. Its benefits are trumpeted so widely and insistantly that this feels like heresy, but the piece is just unpacking the science to show that there's not much statistical robustness there, and revealing the heavy social forces arranged to control maternal choices. When you know the lengths of mental and logistical hardship that moms go through to give their babies this supposed elixir, such info makes it feel like a cruel, repressive prank has been played on a whole generation! (Maybe it's just one thing that women can concretely battle when so much of motherhood feels completely out of control? Lemonade at best.)
  (via a local breastfeeding group)
  Edit: It's worth noting the response here. In particular, the original author's dismissal of scientific results is based on outdated analysis...
  
  
• Grim: images of Detroit's Beautiful, Horrible Decline. Such grandeur in ruin is rare in large cities -- what's novel here is that things aren't getting torn down and replaced. Still, quite a sad collection, a sense of a lost civilization.
  (via rc3.org)
  

More than a pinch

Despite my own balance sheets, I don't really care what happens to Wallstreet. But I have to admit getting a little freaked by all the stories of overwhelmed social services and people starting to form tent cities of the homeless. Lots of these folks were middleclass just a second ago, and it feels way too much like the outskirts of the Depression. Can the stimulus possibly come soon enough to stave off a really dire situation for a substantial portion of our population?

Passing

This year the whirl of life feels a little too much, and the possibilities of Lent are lost to me in the wind. Was grateful for this little poem that captures a good sense of balance . . .

Without warning

A diarist at DailyKos does a great job of summarizing why women don't recognize potential abusers: in a nutshell, it's because much of their early behavior is indistinguishable from The Perfect Guy, and the controlling, undermining, and isolation slip in very gradually. Excellent points, and a service to anybody whose relationship is starting to make them wonder.

Synergy

Here's an interesting note linking transit and housing. To anybody living in a large city that is well served by public transit, it's pretty clear that good nearby housing increases transit use, and availability of nearby transit increases the desirability of housing. Unfortunately, planners and developers seem to forget this, concluding that "park 'n' ride" is the only answer for transit expansion. Think again. Strangely, this is yet another arena in which economic arguments may force things in the right direction where logic and activism could make no headway . . .

(via Atrios)

Up with science!

Yay, Obama Administration! This is a standard I can surely applaud: "aimed at insulating scientific decisions across the federal government from political influence." More like this!

Friday sentimentality

Heedless

I am your landscape;
you climb me and
play in my foothills
inseparable from
the other terrain
of your childhood

I am also your weather;
you lean into my winds
wailing against
the irresistable gale
or learning how
your will can bend me

How long will it last,
this intimate grounding?
How soon will you
push off into wider lands
respond to other calls
perhaps even cease to hear
far away behind you
my echoing hollows?

-- acm

Edit: poem title changed 3/9/09

Fed headache

Man, when the explanation of what the Fed is up to is as complicated as the explanation of how banks got us all into this mess, you gotta feel like it's a bad day. Either we're giving these guys money so that they can start lending again, or we're buying up their bad debt to get them back to being viable entities. But playing shell games is not the right way to improve the banking industry or improve the confidence that the American people put in it!!!!

Belatedly deterred

What is the proper response to economic arguments against the death penalty? A sad commentary on what gets valued, for sure...

Branding the stimulus

I find myself surprisingly pleased with this new logo just announced for stimulus-bill-related projects. I guess it's partly that people will be made aware of the penetration and effectiveness of these undertakings, but partly a response to the logo itself, which is at once high-tech corporate and low-tech patriotic. I like the focus on "green" projects and also nuts-and-bolts stuff, and the way that the little flag element seems to emphasize that we're all working together. Perhaps it's a more modern version of this, although I'm not sure that the WPA has really been known as much for its graphics as for the ubiquity of its products.

(via Talking Points Memo)

The human factor

A fascinating short talk by local professor Barry Schwartz talks about why neither regulations nor incentives will ever be enough to guarantee good outcomes, whether you're talking about economic behavior, judicial decisions, or just regular folks caring about their jobs. Both can be important in avoiding the worst possibilities, but it takes reasonable application of knowledge and judgement -- what he calls "wisdom" -- to produce what we might consider "right" (or moral) outcomes.

Schwartz argues that in the long run, well-intentioned rules can actually lead to worse outcomes by undermining the development of practical wisdom, replacing it with the kind of rote behaviors that have frustrated anybody interacting with a local bureaucracy; similarly, incentives can stand in for our own judgement of what outcomes are really "right." He offers some prescriptions for "remoralization" of the workplace and public space in general; not least is to celebrate those who are demonstrating the moral values we believe in, even in tiny ways. Go, be inspired!

(apologies that I can't retrace my steps to how I found this!)

Becoming a comic stereotype

It finally happened: Spouse and I just had an email exchange about the quality of Speck's poop. I guess I must relinquish all claims to normal civilian adulthood.

Quote of the day

Do not feel overwhelmed by the length of this journey. All you ever need do is focus on one thing, what you are doing. Stay on the path and put one foot in front of the other - that is all. There is joy in the struggle.

- Philip Toshio Sudo
Zen Guitar

(via whiskey river)

Winning the framing game

The Democrats actually seem to have some useful angles on pegging the residual Republican reactionaries for the extremists they are. Anyway, I like the sound of this:

The last time Rush Limbaugh said he wanted the President to fail, virtually every single Republican in Congress followed his lead and voted against the President's plan to create or save 3.5 million jobs.

Maybe the Dems have some game afterall!

Hard to take it in

Obama's budget plan treats the public like adults -- telling it like it is. Imagine! including the actual cost of the war, the need to invest in the long-term, etc. I hardly remember how to function with real information!

(via Talking Points Memo)

To Speck at one year

Well, Little Bit, you’ve been with us a whole year already! Hard to believe. Some things are almost unimaginably different---our tiny helpless newborn now stands upright, expresses opinions, and giggles hysterically at the word "yucky." Of course, the one-year-old, like the one-week-old, still screams at many diaper changes or at having her arms fed into sleeves (SLEEVES! These people are trying to kill me!), and you're still a pretty serious chow-hound, so we can see some continuity. . .

How to summarize the past year? Angst over breastfeeding has given way to angst/certainty that you will never give up the bottle (now at some 35 oz/day!) for inefficient solid foods, although the occasional banana chip or cheddar bunny gives us hope. You transformed from a needy sack of potatoes into a wriggly upright-sitter and now into a busy crawler, stair-climber, and cat-chaser. We’re starting to feel like all this ever-changing novelty is a normal part of our lives, though there are times when your new demandingness (ENH!!) can drain us dry. Still, we’re crazy about our and your emerging personality---from the affectionate head-butt (endearing to parents, if alarming to cats) to your obsession with music of all kinds (sadly, we have yet to catch you on film "rocking out" to rock tunes and ABC’s), love of the bath (now with buckets!), and pranksterish grin as you hide behind the bathroom door or get into a game of doing something minor you know you shouldn’t. You helped us out by having a semi-regular schedule from the beginning (expect to feed me every 2.5 hours!), sleep-training yourself at nine weeks, and still being relatively predictable in eating and sleeping habits. However, taking only two half-hour naps per day can be tough on your caretakers, even with a bedtime around 6:30pm, which gives us a little adult time to eat, watch TV, and do our computer-using or mail-sorting silliness before collapsing into bed between 9:00 and 10:00pm (those 6am wake-ups have slain our night-owlish ways!) Recently, Gammy has started having you over overnight a few Friday nights per month, which lets your parents grab a few drinks, sleep in, and generally recharge for your next onslaught of energy.


Your temperment can catch us by surprise. You will launch yourself down a slide head-first, scamper through a tunnel, and walk the length of the couch to reach something appealing, but nothing will induce you to sit on the rocking-horse giraffe that your grandparents sent for your birthday. Similarly, when at a gathering of other kids and parents, you might grab some toys and watch your peers intently, or you might get overwhelmed by all the input and wail for rescue. Your dad tried taking you to a weekly tumbling class for a while, but a fair number of the activities made you cry; we hope that you’ll see the merits of such things eventually, but only time will tell.

What does engage you unreservedly?

1. Things that are blue. You always end up with one hand tightly gripping the blue block/ball/shape/car while the other hand plays with other pieces or pulls you jerkily across the floor. Apparently your father had a similar color preference as a child, so this is just the first expression of the many ways in which you will enjoy the benefits of your warped genetic heritage. Sorry, kid!
   
   
2. Manual manipulation. You love to handle and work things, and can focus on such activities for remarkable stretches of time. Some favorite pastimes include opening and closing our bedroom door (or our magical closet pocket door), poking buttons of your own "keychain" and "remote" (and resetting our humidfier), and, most of all, playing with toys like the house that allow you to drop balls, deliver mail, turn numbers, open and close a window, press a doorbell, flick a lightswitch, play a radio tune, and spin and handle other things---I think the first time you were introduced to this toy, you worked so hard pushing, flipping, crawling around, and exploring (for some 45 minutes!) that you nearly needed defibrillators afterward. Two other faves in this category are a simple set of stacking buckets (which can be infinitely put into and out of each other, stacked upside-down or towers knocked over, and rattled and banged) and a music table where motions of levers, sliders, and keys are rewarded with jammin’ tunes or instructional chat. You’re still figuring things out---shape sorters are still mostly for inserting the circle-shape over and over, and wooden puzzle pieces more for removing than putting back---but you attack these activities with an intensity that is fascinating to see (and probably portends a geeky future in the math, science, and engineering fields like your folks; you can blame thank us later).
   
   
3. And I suppose it would be silly to overlook love of cameras. We never get out our still or video cameras without weathering a series of assaults, as you interrupt whatever cute thing you were doing to grin and approach, hand out, to say, "can I have that? surely I can have that!" resulting in a host of unpresentable, if lovable, shots.

What else? You got two teeth at six months and apparently decided that that was enough---hints of the upper pair have been coming and going for a month or more. Similarly, your hair has at last become three-dimensional, but only faintly so, sparing us (or your grandma) any temptation toward clips or bows (or, really, any need for brushing). No idea how you’ll look when you have real Kid Hair, but we look forward to finding out.

On the speech front, you’ve replaced your early hits "ging ging" and "dye dye dye dye" with lots of conversationally inflected jabber along the lines of "enh? Enhh!" although we do recognize a multi-note "hi!" and you can be induced to say "mama" while looking at pictures. (Your mom anticipates her heart melting the first time it’s directed at her!) Even more, we have become aware in recent weeks of how many words you recognize and understand---light, bottle, music, nap, books, kitty, and stairs are just the most obvious (as well as "potty" over at Gammy’s house), but you respond to a wide variety of suggestions and questions that indicate that you probably have hundreds of words in context. Your mom is trying to introduce some sign-language signs that might help you communicate until your words come together, but Dad and Gammy have enough else going on that they don’t always do likewise, so this effort may or may not succeed---if not, then you’ll have to be strategic rather than sentimental about your choice of early words to learn so that we aren’t stuck watching you sob with a finger pointing adamantly off into the distance . . .

Well, that’s about it, Pook. (One of us sometimes calls you "pook," short for the embarrassing "pookie-poo"---the other favors "Gaster," derived from the real-name-homophonic "Melanogaster," a species of fruit fly (don’t argue).) At one year you’re poised on the cusp of many things---walking, speech, a blossoming of opinions and desires---that will change your life and ours again to an unforeseeable degree. But nothing can match having you arrive on our doorstep and rewire our lives from top to bottom so that we could watch your little self unfold (and try to stay out of the way). Am reminded of my attempts to teach you the game of Chase---you’re not sure about why you should run away, especially since you like being scooped up and snuggled/tickled whenever a chase ends, but you love to play anything silly. Thanks for coming along and bringing us your giggles, and thanks for reminding us that sometimes the best part of the game is being caught. None of the rest really matters.

Friday baby-blogging

Busy day, so not much posting time. But I thought you might enjoy this recent video of Speck playing at the playground (yay for the Little Kiddies section!), complete with current chirping vocalizations and favorite explorations.



We're in the midst of an explosion on the communication front -- she recognizes a ton of words now (from music to nap to slide) and is definitely trying out some specific sounds. Could be months or days; one never knows....

Two bits on work

Seeing this image of people queuing up for a job fair, one cannot help but think of job (and bread) lines during the Depression; although I don't think it was anything that dire in this instance, people are clearly worried. For a visual antidote, however, I really recommend this amazing collection of photos of people at work -- gorgeous images, and intriguing insights into parts of the world and the production process that we rarely think or hear about. [I gotta say, though, that the complexity of the nuclear plant control room gave me shivers!!!]

(second link via kottke)

One less headache

Man, Spouse and I really hated the redesigned Tropicana packaging -- it looked like a generic brand, and it was nearly impossible to sort through and find the specific kind (half-caf, no-pulp, whatever) that you were trying to buy. Amazingly, the company has relented and is returning to user-friendly packaging. I'd love to hear the chat they're having with the consultants and designers who thought that this was a good idea...

Shut up, Grandpa!

Making a mockery of all those "up hill both ways in the snow" rants about how Kids Today Have It Too Easy, these kids in China have to use a zip line to get across a river on the way to school, since the washed-out bridge hasn't been rebuilt.

Once might be an adventure, but every day . . .
(via kottke)

Aspirations

I've always been a fan of geek merit badges, but I gotta say, this one is something I'd really treasure. Not holding my breath, though -- it would take so long to get there that I'd probably have lost my job (even if I'd have warmed the hearts of our tech. department). I used to take pride in keeping my In-box under a single screen, but those days are long, long behind me...

Quote of the day

If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder... he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in.

-- Rachel Carson

(via A Mindful Life)