I just heard some sad news on talk radio - Rock 'n' Roll metal health specialist Kevin Dubrow was found dead in his Las Vegas home this morning. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Rock 'n' Roll community will miss him - even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying his contributions to popular culture. Truly an American icon.

I demand we as a nation stop imposing our beliefs upon those who wish to live peacefully while committing piracy on the high seas. There is no reasonable reason to have our military protecting even our enemies freighters which have been legitimately commandeered by pirates. This is just another example of our imperialistic behavior and forcing our culture of freedom upon the world.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,301370,00.html

Hurrah for death.

1. Ten months is quite a long time, but it seemed to have gone so quickly. 206 months is even longer, well, I am not that much in a rush to send him on his way.

2. I think my child sees dead people. Or is opening all the cupboards in the kitchen.

3. Ethan has some amazing traits. Like his father's temper and his mother's perfection. Amazing does not always equal good. Ethan gets terribley upset when he cannot do something just how he wants, hopefully he will get better over time controlling himself.

4. Soft fuzzy things rule. This picture says it all. At a BBQ last weekend he chased this little dog around and would try to bury his face in the dog's side. This was decidely the cutest thing anyone has ever seen.

5. Eating is an exercise in clothing changes. When we tried to introduce non-pureed food Ethan would gag on everything. Usually that would bring up anything we had feed him in the last 4 hours too. Thankfully he is getting over that and he is getting much better. In fact, he hasn't thrown up in the last week and half now.

6. Eating is an exercise in clothing changes (II). Evidently there is not a clean way to eat chicken and rice puree. It must be smeared across the face when trying to avoid a spoonful. Vegetables, those must be smeared in the hair. Fruit based things, those are allowed entrance into the mouth unobstructed.

7. Bedtime is ... entertaining. When we pray before putting Ethan down he will attempt to leap between my and my wife's shoulder. We have sort of adopted a three way hug as we pray now to keep Ethan from diving too much.

8. Bedtime is ... entertaining (II). Ethan has no need for a security blanket, but come bedtime after I set him in the crib he will lay on his bellow flat out and wait. He is waiting for me to put the blanket over him which he will then curl around himself all tight like.

9. Shapes go in the box. Well, sort of. The circle goes in the circle hole. The square goes in the circle hole ... AAAARRRRGGGHGHHHH! It won't fit. IT WON'T FIT! (see #1).

10. Bathtime and pee time coincide quite often. Thankfully pee time is not immediately after bathtime since we lotion him up and dress him on our bed.

11. Teething isn't fun. Unless you like lots of drool. And your fingers bit. And lots of crabbiness.

12. On that note, brushing teeth is not for forgetful people. Or more specifically for forgetful people's babies. Somehow we need to make a note to brush his teeth (all two of them now) before we put him in the crib.

13. Swinging upside down and head butting the bouncey ball is a grand old time.

14. When in doubt, it belongs in the mouth. Keeping things that might possibley cast doubt upon Ethan off the floor is a full time job.

A special thanks to mrgrey for the title of today's parenting update.

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_electoral26.3e41beb.html

This has potential to change things greatly if it were to take. I recall in 2000 the left was absolutely upset about how the electoral college works because Bush won. They demanded change, and were thinking that they would like to change states to have all of their electoral voes changed to the winner of a hypothetical national popular vote. The left hates this idea of splitting the votes by district though.

It would not change any action I take by voting since I am not in California it could affect presidential elections. So, it is an interesting thing to look at.

http://www.princeton.edu/~rvdb/JAVA/election2004/Election2004textured.gif

Here is a map broken down by districts. One of the remarkable things to notice is the fully blue areas tend to be cities and rural areas tend to be red. Certainly there is some variation.

http://www.race2004.net/maps-2004/mapnader.gif

Here is a map broken down by state to compare how the electoral votes were actually cast in 2004.

Now, looking at both of these maps shows that there could be some large gains for the republicans over all. Specifically California would be a huge gain by breaking up a normally democratic state of 55 electorial votes into ~33/22. Other states like Michigan, Illinois, and even New York could give large gains of up to 10 votes per state.

The democrats would likely fair better in smaller states, such as in the south west, along the mississippi, and even the south. But by each state, they would gain fewer districts by gaurentee. And ofcourse the two from each state would likely still go to republicans.

Now, one thing to remember when looking at these maps is that they do not necessarily show how things would have gone. Just as I mentioned above about a hypothetical national popular vote, these district maps are also rather hypothetical. Some folks will currently not vote because they may live in a particularly slanted state currently and their vote will effectively not be counted since their state is pretty much decided. The same would happen at a similar level if it were districts which voted for their own electoral vote.

All the above is guesswork at what might happen, but regardless of that, is it a good idea? If we could ignore today's ramifications, does it make sense for states to divide their electoral votes? Currently two states do divide their electoral votes, but they are both rather small and otherwise inconsequential. It is mainly the large states which could alter the election at this point.

Currently we have states that do not get touched on in presidential elections, or if so, only token visits because the state's outcome is pretty well determined before the candidate is even announced. It is the swing states that occupy the majority of a candidate's time. This change would certainly alter the current practice.

Currently the states elect a president, compared to districts, or even the people. The scope of the federal government has grown considerably since the time of the founding. Each state can choose individually how their electoral votes are distributed, so therefore a change would not be unconstitutional. But the majority of states do cast their votes in the same way, is there need for a change?

1. Like father, like son. Most of my baby pictures I have a black eye. Ethan's first shiner came from the table in the livingroom.

Much of my youngest years I was a pretty clumbsy kid. That has continued, but a little less obviously so. Ethan is following in his father's footsteps of being a little clumbsy. On Saturday he was cruising with the help of the table, but managed to trip and fall on the toy mentioned in '8' and continue to bump right below his eye on the table leg. It took about 10 minutes to get him settled down and playing again.

2. Baths are the best.

This is mainly daddy's job. I'll have my wife strip him down and bring him to me in the bathroom while I draw the bath. He usually arrives a little before the tub is ready and is still filling. I'll sit him down on the end away from the faucet, but he'll get on his knees and crawl down to the faucet and toss his head under. Or he'll put his hands under the running water trying to grab at the water. Much yelling in glee is accompanied. I'll get him all cleaned up and start draining the tub and he'll play by the drain, seemingly trying to stop the water from going away. Then I slide him back down to the other end of the tub and turn the water back on for a final rinse. Again he'll rush down to the water to play again.

3. Chewing food? Bah, gag me with a cheerio.

Ethan's first tooth finally broke through the other day. My wife finds this upsetting as he likes to bite her toes. But that isn't the topic at hand. He seems to have trouble with thick food or food with chunks. We have tried a number of things, but inevitably it leads to him gagging and throwing up what he has currently managed to eat. His doctor, who hasn't seen him for this, is sending us to a gastro-something-ologist, but from our research we should be taking him to an infant speech therapist. I guess we'll see what happens, but hopefully we can get him on some more solid food than cereals, purees, and yogurts.

4. Grass is cool. Leaves are like little tasty snacks all spread out upon it.

We have had a very dry summer so far, but at a family reunion on a lake a couple week-ends ago they had a very lush and green lawn. This was Ethan's first oppertunity to crawl around on grass. At first he was not too sure of it. But then he discovered leaves that had fallen from a crab apple tree and he was in love. Daddy, mommy, and one of the nieces were pretty much following him around trying to keep him from eating all these leaves. Then he discovered some potted flowers...

5. Babies do the cutest things in bed.

After we pray and put him into bed, he will lay flat out for a second and turn up his hands. I will then lay the afghan over his back and he will grab it with his hands and curl it around himself. In the morning we will usually let him yammer away for a few minutes before we head in to grab him incase he is just babbling a little and might fall back to sleep. Well, when we peek in the door we know it is time to get up when he is standing n the crib holding onto the slats likehe is some sort of prisoner. He'll also start his excited babbling saying he is ready to get up.

6. Babies do the stinkiest things in their diaper.

Oh dear, I thought formula diapers stunk. And they do. But diapers with chicken or other meat just blow them away. We have a diaper pailthat is supposed to reduce the smell, which it does fairly well. But when it comes time to change the bag it stinks the whole room up for a bit of time.

7. Monosyllabic babbling is for chumps. Multisyllabic babbling is for Ethan.

Ethan never really liked to do the repeating a single syllable babbling. He seems to have skipped that for just random babbling now. Certainly nothing approaching a real word, but we can see each day he is getting better a making harder consonant sounds. It is pretty exciting to hear him working through different noises.

8. Why would one want to put shaped blocks into holes similarly shaped? It is much more fun to have daddy do that and then rip the lid off and dump them so he can do it again.

We bought two toys recently which every kid has had or should have had. The tower of rings and the shape blocks which fit into holes. Well, Ethan likes to play with both. The tower is for dismantling after daddy stacks the rings. The box of blocks I will try to show him how to put the block in. There are two of each shaped block. Well, I'll put one in and try and get him to put the other in. Well, he will look at it, then look at me, then smile and take the top off the box and dump all the blocks I have put in.

9. Daddy reads too slow. Next page.

We have a small cache of cardboard books. Everyone has seen these, there are all ove 10-15 words per page with brightly colored pictures. Usually before I can read those 10-15 words Ethan is attempting to change the page on me. I am thinking he is not likely going to be an intellectual if this keeps up, or he's already smarter than me.

10. Alarm clock? No need, 6 is when daddy gets up anyways.

I really don't need an alarm clock too often anymore. Usually come 5:30 or so Ethan will be up babbling in his crib. Sometimes he'll go back to sleep, other times he'll be up and ready to go for the day. Well, atleast an hour before he needs to go down for a nap. It would be really nice to have him stay down for the extra hour of sleep he really needs, especially on weekends. Oh well, atleast he is sleeping through the night most nights now from about 8:30-9:00 until 5:30-6:30.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,290337,00.html

"How long are we going to allow a person - from any country in the world - to come to our own house to say there's a dictatorship here, that the president is a tyrant, and nobody does anything about it?" Chavez asked during his weekly television and radio program.

I suppose Chavez won't be talking at the UN again.

It was Neveah's fault I think, she is just a little girl, about a year and half old now. And she did it before she was even born.

One of the girls from church announced that she was pregnant, out of wedlock, infact she had stopped seeing the father, and was considering giving her daughter up for adoption, but was not completely sure what she was going to do. That night my wife and I made a number of discreet calls to find out what the process of adoption was, and went headlong into research mode about adoption. In fact, we didn't sleep a wink that night, as I recall calling into work the next day. After about a week of research we found that the cost to adopt from a known mother (no finding fee for a mother) would be about 10 to 12 thousand. We could certainly afford that, and get it together in the couple months before the girl gave birth. Our hearts had gone into full parenting mode at this point and we brought up our intent to the girl's parents, and asked if she was still considering adoption. Sadly she was not, but we cannot blame her, infact we celebrated that she was going to keep her daughter. Neveah was born shortly
after and is growing up a cute little girl.

As I mentioned, my wife and I had gone into full parenting mode. And God certainly agreed it was about time for us, as we are batting 1000. My wife came off her birth control and the following month she is feeling quite a few changes come upon her. From the moment of the first test coming back positive until the 20 week ultrasound we were terribley excited to find out our baby's gender. Though in hindsight were actually looking forward to finding out it was a little girl. But God had other plans for us, not the least of which was trying to think up a name for this little boy. We had already picked out two great names for girls. We had dreams of all the things we could do to spoil a little girl, get her a pony and all that kind of stuff. And certainly a spoiled little girl we would have had, she could do no wrong in my eyes.

Having our little boy is a good thing. A little girl would be too easy to spoil. A little boy, well, they are not so spoilable as the results are far more disasterous. A little boy needs to be taught to be a man over his years. A little boy most definitely does not get a pony. Ponies are for girls. A little boy gets a frog, a turtle, and a snake. And he gleefully brings them to his shrieking mother. A little boy becomes a man who has responsibilities. A boy is a responsibility. A little girl is a delight of a father, but a boy is a reflection of the father.

My wife makes me incredibly proud each day. My wife flat out tells me that she doesn't want our son to be a sissy; take that feminists. He is well into the crawling stage at this point. Infact, he is more or less to a climbing phase, where if there is something that he can climb on, he will pull himself up to standing and declare his victory in a monosyllabic cry of "AAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Occasionally he will be less than successful in his climb to standing and fall backwards. This often leads to him bumping his head as he rolls back onto the floor sprawlling. My first reaction is to leap to his aid and comfort him. My wife reminds me, we don't want to raise a sissy. So, I stop and watch, and after a little fussying not bringing his mom or dad to the rescue he will roll himself over onto his tummy and begin his climb again.

We have cordoned off a rather large area to keep our little boy in sight or earshot. Between doors and chairs laid on their side the little guy can roam the kitchen, diningroom, and livingroom. The livingroom contains what we believe are toys, the diningroom contains what he believes are toys, and the kitchen is where he tears out dad's leg hair while trying to climb him. He can get from one end of his zone to the other in the matter of seconds if there is something that he wants. Otherwise he usually meanders around looking for things to interest himself.

We were watching a show on DVD the other day. When we hear an audible thump from under the diningroom table. Shortly after we hear the intake of breath which can mean only one thing. This was not a simple fall over, this was much more than that. I arrive and sweep him up into my arms and onto my shoulder before he lets out a his cry. It is at this point I see that his lip is cracked and there is a little blood. After a little patting and walking he settles down and we cleanup his lip. In less than a couple minutes he is back on the floor in a pile of toys rolling a ball around and seems to have completely forgotten his lip. He is back in his own little world mashing his toys together.

It is really exciting to have a son. Seeing him grow now, even for the 7 and half months that we have had with with us, growing, learning to use his arms, hands, and fingers. Seeing him figure out how crawl, sit, and climb things. Knowing that he is learning something new every day. Every bit of having a little boy is amazing. Certainly there are times where I am going out of my mind in frustration, but it is impossible to even remember those after his next smile or scream of delight. Raising a boy is something that I could not imagine, but actaully doing it is one of the most pleasent events in my life. I thank God for this little boy, and pray that he will help me raise him right.

Senator Byrd would like to see another black man lynched. Big surprise.

Or this is how it would be reported if a Byrd were a Republican.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,290061,00.html

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,285935,00.html

I worked at a Bob Evans in Traverse City as a teen. I bussed, dishes, cooked, hosted, and even waited twice. I also started at minimum wage and was up to a couple dollars over that when I finally quit a few years later. I would go in clean and come out covered in grease. Definitely a starter job for someone (well, I had done farm work since I was twelve), but not too shabby as far as I am concerned.

It was an interesting place to work. The general manager was having an affair with the head waitress, at least everyone thought. There was a mother daughter team that started there a while after I had. The daughter wound up daiting, and getting knocked up, by one of the line cooks. There was a college girl who waited tables who would come back every summer who reminded me of Cordelia from Buffy in her self centeredness. I helped on of my best friends get a job there, where he met a waitress who he knocked up.

There were two types of people who worked at Bob Evans. The kids and the lifers. The kids pretty much universally laughed at the lifers, that is until they would realize they were on track to become a lifer. We (the kids) saw this job as a means for gas and date money. So, what we got paid wasn't important, there was no pride in our work, and very little was taken seriously. The lifers were an odd bunch. They would enshrine their work area and there were constant turf wars to retain control and power over their domain. Each would see his own area as the center of the store and would jockey to gain control over areas ouside their own. It was a terribley small potatoes world, but it was the world they could be their own masters.

I'll toss in some political comment here quick. When I worked on a farm I earned less than minimum wage, that was from about 12 until 16. At Bob Evan's I started at minimum wage, but I quickly was making more. Minimum wage is not meant for raising a family, or even to be a livable wage. At $5.25 an hour that is about $10,500 a year if you work full time. I worked probably about 20 hours a week, so I would have made about $5000 a year working. Bob Evans was able to keep me employed during highschool because I was paid so little. In short, I was able to have a job because they did not have to pay me a livable wage. If they had to pay me the equivelent of $20,000 a year, then I would not have had a job in highschool because they would not be able to afford to pay me.

I will try to make sure my son as he grows up, and is a teen, gets a job at somewhere similar to Bob Evans. First, learning to work at a young age is terribley important. And you might as well cut your teeth on something pretty unimportant. Second, even though I said there were two kids of people, there were actually a lot more, but I don't have time to tell each of their individual stories. Some are sadder than others, some are pathetic, and some iteresting, even encouraging. He should have the oppertunity to meet these sorts of folks. Not today, but as he gets older.

1. Celebrating my own first Father's Day was a pretty normal Sunday, except I was greeted by my hat rack when I got out of the shower.

2. 15.5lbs is easy to lift, but rough on the back after an hour or two.

3. When your baby starts to crawl, it is very similar to not crawling, just there is a little more, "Where did he go, love?"

4. "... is for chumps, dad." will most likely be my son's first words. He uses them whenever there is something he doesn't want to do.

5. Pureed green beans are for chumps, dad.

6. Dad thinks watching our pastor bounced up and down in front of Ethan is funny. Ethan thinks watching dad bouncing up and down is a riot.

7. His kleenex-box-foo is strong.

8. Dad is going to suffer some terrible accident before he can create a wedding photo album.

9. Some things digest better than others. Or atleast they come out lookin a lot less like what went in.

10. There is a cute little red head down the road who is three months younger than my boy. He seems to want to chase skirts already.

We visited some friends the previous week and met their new little daughter. She is 2 months old today. After the visit my wife and I both noted that she was jaundaced a little, but also very small for her age. Our friends took her into the doctor last week and it sounds like she is having some trouble with her liver and bile ducts. They will be running some additional tests this week and possibley doing some surgery. However, there is a high chance that she will need to have a liver transplant if this is what they think it is, if not now, by the time she is two, or atleast before she is an adult. Please keep our friends and their daughter in your prayers.

The trick to these lists is pick a number of things you are going to say, like 10. Then start writing them. If you find that you come up short, write a couple forced ones not caring if they are funny or enlightening. Then, cut and paste them all around in a different order so that forced ones are intermingled instead of all at the end and it looks like you ran out of good ones.

1. Link-a-doos. Not just a cute name, but incredibley cool toys. And a delicious part of this nutritional breakfast.

2. Being married is wonderful when having a little kid. No self respecting man could ever go into a pharmacy and pick up something called magic butt cream.

3. Just because the prior 5 nights have been completely uneventful and slept through does not indicate that the next couple nights you will not be up 4-5 times.

4. Those toys that are a mat with tent bars and trinkets hanging from them are great. Infact, it is one of the few things that keep the little guys attention long enough for him to not mind being on his back.

5. Walks are the best, how else will the little bugger get sleep during daylight hours?

6. Car rides are still iffy. However, hanging a couple toys from the handle improved the situation. I still don't like the idea of a 10 hour drive to visit the folks though.

7. Sunday morning schedule: Wake up the little guy. Change him. Feed him. Put the nice sunday clothes on him. Wipe the spitup off the nice sunday clothes. ...

8. I thank the Lord that our little guy is as healthy as can be. It is heart rending to hear of issues that cause harm to little kids.

9. Sitting and standing and walking requires balance. Balance is for chumps and people who want to sit, stand, or walk. And I am going to voice my displeasure that I cannot do any of those things yet.

10. French dressing, bad. Dill pickle juice, bad. Strawberry, good, oops it fell out, put it back in dad, oops, it fell out, put it back in dad, oops.

Like any proud dad, here are some pictures of our little boy.

http://www.crazydays.org/index.php?module=photoalbum&PHPWS_Album_op=view&PHPWS_Album_id=14

+Friend ArcherB: This comment here pretty much sold me.

I browse with friends +1 and fans +1. I figure these folks are rather insightful in some fashion or another, so I like to see what they have to say. I also read their journal entries, even if I am not commenting in them all the time. Foes and freaks, they are unmodified. Mainly I use the foe tag as a reminder that what I am reading is probably an idiot.

+ Friend blinder: He has me set as a fan a while back and cancelled it slightly less than a while back. I haven't seen much of his posting recently since he was previously "friend of a friend" status. Anyways, this post not only brought a great big grin to my face, but is 100% accurate in the context.

+ Friend Cyberdyne: This fellow has been on my fans list for quite a while. I figure it is about time I reciprocate. He also posted in the same discussion that caused me to friend blinder.

+ Foe Jeremiah Cornelius: Wow, head injury baby. If there was an official Hate America First organization, this guy would probably be ready to head up the group. He seems to think the US can do no right, he probably assumes that the US created AIDS to kill poor people.

Yesterday was Ethan' 3 month birthday, not that we celebrated at all, but it is still a day of note. It has been quite exciting to see how he has grown in these few months, and how much he has changed over even this short while.

The List:
1. Diaper changes are not so bad now. He actually enjoys them for some reason now, or has terribley confused himself on when to smile and giggle.

2. Bath time has improved considerabley. We are using a bit warmer water now, which he seems to like. However, about 1/4 the time he pees as soon as he is in the baby tub. Putting lotion on him afterwards is still pretty bad though.

3. Smiles are quick. Amazingly quick. Cameras are slow. Terribley slow. Grandma is sad and likely to have to visit to see Ethan smile. I suppose we can expect them in the spring.

4. Newborn stuff doesn't fit. Evidently if you keep feeding the kid he grows. Lucky for us we have some cloths for 3-6 month from all the baby showers and stuff. But we are certainly going to need to fill in some holes.

5. The amount of food consumed before bed does not have a direct correlation with sleep time. Infact, it can be an inverse relationship if any exists. We have fed him 6 ounces before bed and he can wake up at 3am. We can (like last night) not be able to get a full ounce into him and he doesn't wake until 7am.

6. He puts the lotion on the baby and he gets the scream again. Evidently this little guy is has dry skin. But he also hates having lotion put on. Not just after the bath, but also when I am changing him he will scream and fuss. I even try to warm it up some on my hands before rubbing it on his back.

7. Sleep is good. For the last week or two we have been able to get him to take some naps, which has helped considerabley. Before he would be very crabby by 6pm, often starting around 3pm. We would try to put him down but he just wouldn't sleep, he'd just cry. Well, now he is taking naps and doing much better.

8. He still isn't walking, but certainly not from a lack of trying. I can let him hold my hands (fingers) and pull him into a standing position. He will then try to keep himself up and only use my hands for balance. He will even try to take a step, but will lose it at that point.

9. Crawling isn't happening either. But he seems to know how it is done. He will push his chest off the floor (or crib) and loook straight forward. He will also start moving his legs and sort of shimmy his lower end forward. I fear we will have a mobile little guy before we are quite ready.

10. I'll probably go to hell if I mention that he has better agility than Michael J. Fox in a political ad, so I won't do that. But Ethan is getting pretty good at grabbing things. He will reach out and fumble with grabbing a little plastic chain or a couple little stuffed animals. He can also grab his hands together, which he does usually giving a manical look on his face. I couldn't be surprised to find he is plotting something.