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April 26, 2006

standard question check

how's Naomi doing?
She's doing wonderfully. She crawls around and gets into every conceivable cabinet, bag, box, purse, and loves to pull everything out and examine it. She will be walking very soon, as she is pulling herself up to a standing position every chance she gets, but she's too scared to take a step right now.

How's Jenn doing?
She's exhausted from trying to watch Naomi all day and still trying to do stuff, like work on invitations, clean the house, etc. She ends up having to watch Naomi most of the day, if only because Naomi loves to be around her mother and will always want to see what Jenn is doing, and sit in her lap, etc.

How's work?
Gearing up for another product release. I feel like I'm burning out -- I don't want to get into release mode again (working all hours, sleeping on the couch, etc.). At the same time, I've got political stuff to deal with as well. Makes me wonder why I put up with this.

Then I come home from work and remember.

Posted by spoof747 at 08:09 PM | Comments (0)

April 20, 2006

beard papa san francisco opening May 12

woo hoo -- the corporate website for Beard Papa's (here) now shows a grand opening date for the San Francisco location. I posted about this previously.

Posted by spoof747 at 10:50 AM | Comments (0)

April 18, 2006

sigh

sometimes i just bring trouble upon myself.

Posted by spoof747 at 04:18 PM | Comments (0)

April 14, 2006

tv show review: how i met your mother

This is my current favorite show to watch. Its not because I miss the good ol days of Friends (and by that, I mean *old* because Friends had lost it for a long time) but there's something very sweet and genuine about the show. On some level it has to do with how the main character, Ted, is written. He's just a good-hearted fellow, looking for Ms. Right. He's earnest, a bit whiny, and of course he has that tv show sense of humor that most people wish they had. (Tangent: a lot of people aspire to having a quippy sense of humor, but forget that tv shows have writers who actually sit around and come up with these lines and zingers).

Naturally, Ted is written in such a way that guys identify with him, and girls would like to date a nice guy like him. At the same time, they've set up (for now, at least) the "Will they won't they" dynamic with Robin, who is Ted's dream girl. The twist the show started out with is that this story, told in flashback to Ted's kids 25 years later, refers to her as "Aunt Robin", implying that she does not end up being the one. The show's creators proudly point to this as making their show different, but during this first season of character development, its largely a MacGuffin. Robin and Ted are still dancing around each other, one having feelings when the other does not, and then the two switching positions. Fans of the show are still speculating on how the two might still somehow end up together in spite of the initial "Aunt Robin" reference. (Are the kids adopted? Are the kids from a first marriage?, etc.) Amusing, and yet indicative of how strong the pull of a "Will they won't they" relationship is on television.

The cast is rounded out by Ted's best friends, engaged couple Lily and Marshall, played by Alyson Hannigan and Jason Segal, and Doogie Howser, I mean Barney, played by Neil Patrick Harris. I'm a big fan of Alyson from her role on Buffy, and she's got good range. Jason Segal's Marshall isn't very developed so far, except to serve as Ted's best friend going back to college. He's a big guy who is used for a lot of the "socially awkward" jokes that occur on the show (country kid from Minnesota in the big city, etc). Barney is an interesting character, at least how he's written so far. He is a sharp-dressing womanizer (who, in a later episode reveal was originally sensitive, granola-eating, and Peace Corps-ready before he was dumped for a sharp-dressing womanizer at the time, cueing his transformation) who is somehow dorky and has game at the same time. I'll make a Friends reference here and say that it seems like that the creators wanted a quippy character like Chandler from Friends, but they tried really hard to distinguish this character as being different from Chandler, who in his initial Friends incarnation was a lovable loser who was not good with the ladies.

How I met your Mother
Mondays @ 8:30pm on CBS

Posted by spoof747 at 02:10 PM | Comments (0)

April 13, 2006

commuting vignette #4 - hostile questioning

scene: Exiting BART station to Market Street. A guy is standing at the top of the escalator with a sign saying MacArthur BART and asking for a BART ticket to get to there.

me: Sorry.

him: What are you sorry about? That Gavin Newsom is going to GET THE CRAP PUNCHED OUT OF YOU? (last bit said while he was getting in my face)

I'm still puzzling over that statement.

Posted by spoof747 at 11:35 AM | Comments (0)

April 12, 2006

checking in

so i haven't checked in in a while. normally its because of work and how crazy it can get there. This time, it has been the exact opposite. we finished up a product release at the end of March and have been in that lull period in between releases. I even snapped this shot on the first day of working after the release went out.

This was taken as I got home from work.

Sad, that is the first time that I've actually left work before the sun has set for months. Even sadder, I had to get help from Daylight Savings to even see the sunset. But its gotten somewhat better since that day. We're still dealing with cleaning up the loose ends from the previous release and prepping for the next one. At the same time, I haven't really felt like posting because I've just been wanting to spend time with Jenn and Naomi as much as I can.

So ironically, now we're on the cusp of the next release, so there is all the preparatory work and the gearing up that happens. We've got a nervous client (as usual) and more people that have joined them who insist on meddling (i suppose that is as usual too). What is so hard to understand about us trying to be consultants that offer a cohesive solution? Why do the clients insist on tinkering with this and tweaking that. Maybe its just gives they justification for their jobs, since we're the engine that develops the product, after all.

I'm tired. Not the usual sleep late wake up early long hours tired. I think this is more like fatigue.

Posted by spoof747 at 11:28 AM | Comments (0)

April 02, 2006

parental musings

I always wonder what other parents think and what they think of how we're raising Naomi. Jenn and I are keenly observant when other parents make value statements about what they let their kids do and also their reactions when we talk about what we let Naomi do. Its funny to sometimes see parents break out all their toys that they have for their babies, which we have as well, but when Naomi wants other toys, we give her my keys to jangle, Jenn's purse to turn inside out, etc. It seems so old-fashioned of us to do so (that's not to say we didn't buy the baby cell phone and the baby keys, she just doesn't like them as much as the real things). Its so funny that now that we are parents, everything that other parents do, whether their friends or just people we see at a restaurant or somewhere, we are keenly curious to see how other people parent.

Its not like we have any real idea of how to do this, we're making this parenting thing up as we go along. As is everyone else, but you've got your range of parents, from the people who stockpile up on the books and can quote you every popular "method" out there to the ones who subscribe to the spoken wisdom handed down to them from their families. We probably lean more towards the spoken wisdom approach. Generally, my feeling is that every parent brings their child up in a way that they feel addresses the issues from their *own* childhood. People take stock of how they were raised and try to remember the good and the bad. For example, one thing that I've always appreciated about my dad is that he raised me in a "logical" way and for everything he taught me to do, he had a reason for it. And he indulged my asking him for those reasons, every time. Even when I would debate him or argue with him about them, he would still try and explain to me why I was being raised the way I was. That's something that I would be happy to continue with Naomi.

Then there is the whole issue of teaching traditions and customs, something that a few thousand years of Chinese civilization has produced quite a few of. As I mentioned earlier, my dad prioritized logic over tradition in his kids' upbringing, so Peg and I aren't very big on traditions, or very aware of them for that matter. On the flip side, Jenn was raised to uphold the traditions and customs that her parents followed. As a result, I guess I now have a more nuanced view of the teaching of traditions. I don't mind passing them along, as long as they "make sense". That in itself is a loaded term, but what I mean is as long as I feel they provide value and are consistent, then we should adhere to them and teach them to Naomi and her future siblings. One thing that I have a hard time with is when people pick and choose which part of the traditions to follow, because then that defeats the whole purpose of the custom in the first place. It should be an all or nothing type of proposition. If you teach the custom of always deferring to elders, even when they are basically crazy, then you need to a) follow it yourself, and b) follow the "intent" of this custom, which is to show respect. If you complain and grumble while going through the motions, then that isn't want the tradition is meant to do. I guess I have a bit of a hypocrisy detector as well -- which Naomi will most likely have too.

Posted by spoof747 at 01:51 AM | Comments (0)