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| Tuesday, February 6th, 2007 | | 9:45 pm |
Of poopies, puppies and pappies
Being a dad is great. Until 20 minutes ago, I was sitting in the living room of my beautiful house, next to my beautiful wife, watching Jim Cramer's Mad Money while my beautiful baby sat on the floor half playing with his Baby Einstein toys and half watching the show, usually whenever Cramer hit the "SELL! SELL! SELL!" button.
It was then that I noticed a certain mal-odor coming from Alex's direction. Kate noticed too, and started to pull him up when I happened to notice the overflow sitting in a small pool around where the baby was sitting. I yelped for her to hold him out. This wasn't just poopies. This was a five-alarm poopie explosion.
"SELL! SELL! SELL!"
We team carried Alex to the bathroom, him giggling wildly all along because, well, he was partially upside-down. Alex giggles a lot. In his position, I would be quite mortified, but he possesses that magical self-confidence required to blissfully continue trying to make the kitty pop up while being covered in used yogurt.
After the team-carry to the bathroom, we worked efficiently together. I held on to a foot in each hand and repositioned baby while Kate attempted to figure out how to get diaper and clothes off without hazmat gear and without turning the house into a superfund site.
Eventually, we get Alex mostly cleaned off and simultaneously ready for a bath. Kate said, "I'll finish up here. All you have to do is throw the diaper away and clean up the floor in the living room." I agreed, pitched the diaper, grabbed the wipes and headed out to the hardwood floor in the living room.
And a miracle happened.
It was completely clean.
I stood there puzzled a moment. The dog sat down next to me and looked equally puzzled. We stared.
I looked at the dog. The dog looked at me.
The dog licked its lips.
So as you can see, my rock-star lifestyle is completely unabated by life as a dad. Can anyone suggest a product optimized for dealing with baby poo doggy halitosis? | | Monday, January 29th, 2007 | | 6:17 am |
Life of Pi I listen to audio books during my two hours of daily commuting. I take Great Courses. I read novels. I listen to a lot of non-fiction, from works on astronomy to business books. But for an accident, I probably never would have found Yann Martel's Life of Pi. The accident is that it was misclassified on one of the audio book rental services that I use. I was browsing the math section and there it was. I didn't read the description... the title made it virtually certain that along with being in that section that I would find it interesting. It became very quickly clear upon starting the book that it was misclassified, and it gave me the rare pleasure of reading a novel without knowing *anything* about it. I didn't know what you'd know from seeing the cover. I didn't know what you'd know from reading the blurb in the link I provided above. I enjoyed the book a great deal. It is quite rambling. The author takes the liberty to babble about religion, metaphysics, zoology or just about any other topic for pages on end. Normally this would bother me, but this is one of the rare cases where the author writes in such a way that I'm happy to bask in the babble. This was all the more extreme an experience for having no idea where the author was going. Those who have heard of the book or have merely clicked on the link above know that it is a story of a survivor of a shipwreck. (Since you won't even manage to buy the book without knowing that much, I don't worry about that much of a spoiler. Only my unique path enabled me to be surprised by this. The lifeboat is on the cover.) That said, for the first third of the book, we follow young Pi's life in India before his trans-Pacific voyage begins. After chapter upon chapter of talk of religion and animals, and a brief description of the voyage itself, the author's simple "We sank." is a typically jarring and fun transition. Our hero ends up alone on a lifeboat save for a 450-pound bengal tiger. This tiger is no Disney-like tiger that becomes his friend. This is a plausibly hostile tiger that is the greatest danger to our hero but that he becomes psychologically dependent on as time drags on. The story is an inspiring one of courage and perseverance that never ceases to be fun. I'd recommend this novel to any of you. If any of you have already read it, I'd love to know what you think. | | Sunday, January 21st, 2007 | | 8:57 pm |
Minneapolis / St. Paul
Many of you know that I didn't fly for years after 9/11. The security measures were so intrusive that I preferred driving, and my lifestyle was compatible with taking the time to drive around when I wanted to be elsewhere.
Work now requires more travel than I'm used to and doesn't allow the time to drive everywhere. The security nonsense is less offensive than it was initially, but it seems that I have the worst luck of my life on general travel problems. Recently I spent 12 hours hanging out in a Detroit airport. Today I tried to fly to Louisville, KY and ended up missing my connection from Minneapolis / St. Pual by minutes. So now I'm in a crappy Days Inn waiting on a flight in the morning. They took three hours to find one of my two bags for me. The other is missing, potentially permanently. If it doesn't just appear on my connection in the morning it is probably lost.
Suck. If anyone reading is near this airport and wants to meet up for breakfast, holler at 626-705-6996 . | | Friday, January 19th, 2007 | | 2:21 pm |
| | 6:49 am |
Frost
Yesterday there was frost on my car. Frost! I'm afraid to go outside today. | | Sunday, January 14th, 2007 | | 9:35 am |
Lovely weekend This is shaping up to be a very relaxing and enjoyable weekend. Yesterday, we had an ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) doooook and athena_51 over for an abortive BBQ. It was abortive because Kate recently purchased us a new grill, but didn't refill the propane. There was some left, but unfortunately just enough to heat up one side of some burgers. We migrated inside and finished the burgers in skillets and they were still yummy. The afternoon was spent with many beers, much good conversation and the two of them reeming pandashrugged and I at Turbo Cranium. A good time was had by all. Last night, we trekked up to West Hollywood for Kate's Uncle Boris's 70th birthday. This was what I've come to think of as a traditional Russian birthday celebration complete with about 40 people, lots of singing and dancing and Russian food that we don't normally get to have. We only stayed for about three hours because of needing to get Alex home and in bed, but the time that we were there was a lot of fun. Today I expect to be very relaxing. I got up early in the morning because if I don't, I make the start of the week harder. (I get up most days at 4:30 now!) But aside from early rising, I plan to keep my vices to a minimum today, just lounging. After I finish typing this, I'll probably spend an hour in a bath reading. After that, I'll walk slowly out to lunch. After that, maybe a little diddling on computers. Good weekend! | | Wednesday, January 10th, 2007 | | 5:47 am |
apples and iphones
I have a small portfolio that I trade very aggressively. Most of the trading is based upon technical analysis, but occasionally I take some position based on something fundamental. Yesterday closed out one of the larger of those positions.
I knew that Macworld was going on. I knew the iPhone was going to be announced yesterday. I knew that analysyts were talking about how they expected Apple to sell 2-3 million of the things in the first year, and how Apple had produced 12 million units. I knew that the stock had been languishing for weeks off of a high. It seemed like a good time to be holding Apple calls. :-)
It turned out that I didn't know about the announcement of the deal with Google, and I didn't know about iTV actually being shown or for sale as soon as it turns out that it will be. (Good time to own Tivo puts? :-) ) Anyway... things went really well.
Relatedly... those iPhones look extremely awesome. Apple ususally does a pretty good job. I happen to be a cingular customer, so I should be able to get it when it comes out mid-summer for cheap / free by extending my contract. I suspect my phone is going to run OSX! | | Tuesday, January 9th, 2007 | | 6:30 am |
Pass the KY?
I'm going to be visiting Louisville, KY this week. Do any of ya'll hail from nearby?
We do the large majority of our printing from that location. I've never had the opportunity to visit there and thought that it would be a good time as it coincides with some the completion of some improvements to the bindery process that we're bringing online. It should be fun. I've met some of the KY management when they've visited California, but it'll be nice to meet everyone else. I've been here over four months and there are people in my reporting tree that I still haven't met. This trip will introduce me to most of them. | | Sunday, January 7th, 2007 | | 5:44 am |
Gone shootin
I can't believe I'm up at regular time on Sunday. Well, a little later than regular. When did I become such a morning person.
Today I'm running off to somewhere in Palm Desert to shoot with a bunch of co-workers. The CEO is bringing his gun collection. What could possibly go wrong? Should be fun. | | Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007 | | 9:33 pm |
I've created a monster... As pandashrugged was sitting over pepper steak tonight, her nose buried in a book instead of eating, she proudly announced, "Alex is sitting at a nine-month level!" with such joy and pride. She's cute. | | 10:56 am |
Economics and sleep I've been having tremendous fun rereading Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt. I read this book once before way back in college and had forgotten how powerful it is in its arguments and manner of communication. If you have even a passing interest in economics and haven't read it, I highly recommend it. More practical and almost as much fun is reading Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems by Richard Ferber. Several of the books I've read on children have been helpful in providing some information that I didn't have, but most tend to be written in a style and from a perspective with which I find it hard to sympathize. For a change I feel like I'm reading something written by a scientist. I realize this author is extremely controversial, so let me add that I'm fairly close to the beginning of the book and so far most of material is laying groundwork for what is to come. So I'm not advocating things that he may advocate later in the book... but I am enjoying the process. Alex has a hard time sleeping, and I'm hopeful that this book will yield useful insights in making his life better as well as making the process easier for me and Kate. | | Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007 | | 5:16 am |
Happy New Year! This weekend Kate, Alex and I spent time together and generally relaxed. About the most strenuous thing that I did was spend some time doing some goal-setting for 2007. This is what passes for resolution-making for me. Somehow describing it that way keeps a more positive focus. One thing I hope to do more of in 2007 is keeping up with all of you through LJ, so you'll probably be seeing more me often. One interesting New Year event was noticing that the Free State Project reached their goal for the First 1000 pledge at the exciting last minute before the deadline. It'll be interesting to see what happens. While this pilot program being successful doesn't ensure that the program will be successful, its failing probably sinks the project. My long-held belief is that the FSP is full of people who have not fully emotionally realized that New Hampshire is much more full of snow and cows than of technology jobs. If even this small, most-committed group has a substantial number of those who made the pledge bail out, we have to assume that the participation in the main drive will be minimal. I'm suspect this will happen, though I hope that it doesn't. Another interesting thing I noticed was the success of a similarly ambitious project that I've written about here before: http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/ . I don't get the snowglobe thing, but I'm glad he made it. This project became media- and attention-seeking in a way that made it less fun to follow it than it might have been otherwise, but the initial idea was just downright brilliant, and I'm glad it worked out for that reason if for no other. Happy New Year! | | Friday, January 6th, 2006 | | 6:57 pm |
Itsa (gonnabea) boy!
We got our ultrasound and have a picture of a bouncing, baby penis. :-)
I had no preference between boy or girl, though Kate was itching for a boy. I'm glad it worked out. We're half way there. I can't wait! | | 5:28 pm |
I think I am married to the most wonderful woman in the world. I cannot imagine how in a million years I could be so lucky! Really, I should do something special to show her how much I love her. Does anyone have any ideas? | | Tuesday, December 27th, 2005 | | 3:12 pm |
| | Friday, December 2nd, 2005 | | 12:16 pm |
Anyone need a snowmobile? This rules. Kyle MacDonald started in Canada with one red paperclip with the goal of trading it for a house. He's willing to take several steps, of course. So far he has "traded up" for something better six times and now has a snowmobile! There are so far dozens of offers for the snowmobile including several cars and various other cool items. I imagine this is going to get a lot harder the closer he gets to his goal. His story is really cool and people would be inclined to participate with small-value items just to be part of it. Trading a fish pen for his paperclip is cool enough to do even if you happen to value a fish pen more highly than a paperclip. People will be less inclined to casually trade down to a snowmobile just for kicks. Also, in general, the more valuable the items become the more fixed the market value is likely to become. Fish pens and even neon Budweiser signs gain a lot of their value from presence in a particular place and tickling widely variant fancies. Snowmobiles likely have a fairly liquid market in Canada and thus people are likely to know exactly what they are worth. It'll be fascinating to see if he can overcome this. Granted the snowmobile in question was previously owned by a minorly famous person, which could help. I think that the only way he will make it is by sticking to things that have a wide distribution of valuations in the market. A painting might be a better choice than an ounce of gold because trading up might be possible by finding someone placing an extremely high value on the painting. Of course, people who are good at exploiting such markets are typically in the business of doing so. It's hard. I wish Kyle the best of luck. I wish I needed a snowmobile. :-) | | Wednesday, September 14th, 2005 | | 3:35 pm |
Two pink lines.
Kate and I are going to have a baby! | | Friday, August 19th, 2005 | | 9:29 pm |
| | Thursday, June 9th, 2005 | | 7:47 pm |
First stop a the World Series
I just got back from my first visit at the 2005 WSOP. I had planned to stay through this weekend, but overall I was disappointed and decided that I'm better off playing here, at least for the side action. The range of games that they're spreading is pretty good, but the games are some of the tightest that I've seen. Much easier to beat the games here.
The tournaments are breaking records in size again, and appear to be good. I'm sure I'll go back and play a few more of those. I had a real chance in Wednesday's $1000 NL with multiple rebuys. I had built up to about T16000 while still playing 100/200 with a 25 ante. This was already good, and I got into a hand with the one person at the table who covered me.
I had QQ and made it T700 in front. The guy who covered me made it T2000 in back and I called. Flop is QJ2. Check-check. Turn is an off-suit 6. I bet 3500 and he goes all in! I call and it turns out that he has AA. River peels an ace. Crushing. T32000 at that stage of the tournament puts me in an unimaginably good position. Ah, well.
I still don't have my seat in the big one. I probably won't pay cash for it, but I will probably get back and play a few more supers. And a few more small events. I'd spend more time there if the cash games were better, so instead I'll stick here, beef up some more and then go play a couple events and supers in a couple of weeks. More on that here at the time. | | Tuesday, April 26th, 2005 | | 12:59 pm |
More poker and life in general Things continue to go really well on the poker side. My rush continued through my first week, providing me with about eight weeks worth of income from my old job. While I do think that this is a rush and I don't really expect to maintain this level, it's a really nice place to start. One of the big things that I'm having to cope with right now is trying to find a decent rhythm of a schedule. I find myself wanting to be at the casino all the time, and simultaneously finding myself realizing that I've been there too long or haven't had enough sleep. The beginning of the first week was great... I was getting to bed early, getting up between 5:00 and 7:00 excited to get there, and staying until about when Kate got off work. On lucky days, I'd catch the no limit game from the night before still running with tired people straining to get even. On less lucky days, I'd have a relaxed breakfast and help start the game with fresh, new people. Both worked well. Now, I've been wandering back late at night when the games are sometimes better, and have occasionally stayed all night. It's important not to turn into one of those people I mention taking advantage of above. :-) It's tempting to just keep playing, particularly when the games are good. I think this would be almost insurmountable but for my life with Kate. Wanting to be at home when she is at home keeps me one something approximating a regular schedule, which ultimately I think is best. In other news, Kate and I got to hang out with madbard and theinimitable_l on Saturday. We had dinner at BJ's and played Cranium Turbo edition. Fun. It's odd... though I seem to spend more time at the casino than I did at work each week, I seem to have more time for and more energy for a social life. In addition to hanging out with friends more, my brother is staying with us and will be here for another couple of weeks before flying back to Florida to drive the whole family out moving here. Also, in the next month or two, I have a virtual parade of friends visiting. sunyata__ is visiting town in a couple of weeks. logorrhea, one of my oldest friends, is coming to stay for a week. I think it is going to be a wonderful summer, and it is so wonderful to have the flexibility to enjoy it. Right now I'm off to look at an apartment my brother is considering renting when they get here, and to stop by and help him tote the bar exam review books that he's going to buy. Then it is off to the casino. Catch you all soon! |
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