This is long overdue. I have added several new blogs my psuedo-blogroll.
Most notably is Doctor Pistachio, who is a friend of mine. I've been reading the blog for weeks and just haven't gotten around to putting it on the list. It's pretty funny, if you don't mind occationally reading about biology.
La Shawn Barber's blog is pretty good. She is a Christian conservative and has an interesting take on a lot of things. I haven't been reading her recently because I lost her rss feed and I can't find it anymore. I don't know what happened.
And last, Rhymes With Right is a conservative blog written by a teacher (I think middle school but I not 100% on that). He usually has some interesting things to say about current events, particularily ones involving schools.
mwz
Monday, May 30, 2005
Memorial Day Parade
Today we went to the Memorial Day parade that our little suburb puts on. It is a little parade but it's only a (giant) block away from our house and it's kind of fun to go to.
It was Frances' first parade and she seemed to like it a lot. She nicely sat on my lap and watched. We think that she got a little bit of sensory overload. After a bit of a break in the parade, given time to let some of it sink in, she seemed quite happy. A couple times she stood up (still on my lap) and jumped with excitement.
On another note, there were these annoying kids near us. I will usually dismiss a lot of bad behavior due to the excitement of the parade. For instance, we were sitting next to them near the curb. They had their space, we had ours. As the parade progressed, they started crowding us. It got to the point that they were actually standing in the street, directly in front of us. That was pretty irritating, especially since I was holding a baby, who I thought might want to see some of the parade. So I moved. The kids didn't seem to even notice.
That was one thing, I can easily chalk that up to excitement. So even though it was irritating, I could understand.
What I cannot understand is that when they would get a peice of candy that they didn't want, they would drop it into the street. What kind of spoiled brats throw away candy in the street? When I was a kid and I got parade candy, I ate it. It didn't matter if it was a tootsie roll, I ate it because it was candy.
Then of course, they threw their wrappers on the ground. I very nearly said something but instead I bottled it up so I could spew it onto my blog.
I talked about those kids with Arial on the walk home and she said that it probably wasn't their fault. She pointed out that their parents (or guardians) weren't any more considerate of others. They had parked their chairs in the middle of the sidewalk at the corner. So to go by them either direction you had to go into the grass. They didn't seem to mind that we had to push our stroller through the grass. A minor inconvenience but indicative of a parent (or guardian) who doesn't care if their kids litter.
mwz
It was Frances' first parade and she seemed to like it a lot. She nicely sat on my lap and watched. We think that she got a little bit of sensory overload. After a bit of a break in the parade, given time to let some of it sink in, she seemed quite happy. A couple times she stood up (still on my lap) and jumped with excitement.
On another note, there were these annoying kids near us. I will usually dismiss a lot of bad behavior due to the excitement of the parade. For instance, we were sitting next to them near the curb. They had their space, we had ours. As the parade progressed, they started crowding us. It got to the point that they were actually standing in the street, directly in front of us. That was pretty irritating, especially since I was holding a baby, who I thought might want to see some of the parade. So I moved. The kids didn't seem to even notice.
That was one thing, I can easily chalk that up to excitement. So even though it was irritating, I could understand.
What I cannot understand is that when they would get a peice of candy that they didn't want, they would drop it into the street. What kind of spoiled brats throw away candy in the street? When I was a kid and I got parade candy, I ate it. It didn't matter if it was a tootsie roll, I ate it because it was candy.
Then of course, they threw their wrappers on the ground. I very nearly said something but instead I bottled it up so I could spew it onto my blog.
I talked about those kids with Arial on the walk home and she said that it probably wasn't their fault. She pointed out that their parents (or guardians) weren't any more considerate of others. They had parked their chairs in the middle of the sidewalk at the corner. So to go by them either direction you had to go into the grass. They didn't seem to mind that we had to push our stroller through the grass. A minor inconvenience but indicative of a parent (or guardian) who doesn't care if their kids litter.
mwz
Sunday, May 29, 2005
Post
I wanted to get a new post up because I haven't in a while. My whole families been sick. We came down with a cold a week ago and we still have it.
Colds are sneaky. With the flu, you feel bad, you throw up some, you start to feel better and then you are better. But a cold has such a maze of symptoms that you never know when your getting better.
This cold started with aches and a sore throat on Sunday. We thought we were getting better on Tuesday. But then on Wednesday the cold struck back with runny noses and general head fogginess. Friday started the coughing and that is where we are still. Who knows what's next?
On a completely unrelated topic, I heard a little ska-punk on the radio last night and it really took me back to high school. There were a couple years there when ska really came out of the woodwork. It was a lot of fun to go to the shows. With ska, it didn't really matter if the band was good or bad, it was still fun. I suppose that is what it's like for people who listen to disco, a nice memory trip. Who knew you could rationalize listening to disco.
mwz
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
I'm back
I've been out of town for a while. I have returned but not before Frances caught a cold and gave it to Arial and I. It is really sad to see Frances feeling sick. I'm sure she doesn't know why she feels bad and that must make it worse. She also doesn't know not to violently shake her head in an attempt to get away from the tissue. This tends to create a trail of snot across her face.
We are getting better at blowing her nose, even if she doesn't actually blow.
Today she got macaroni and cheese. Not mac and cheese from a box but home made using real cheese. Frances loved it. It was a pretty safe bet that she would. It provides two of her favorite foods, pasta and cheese. All the pasta made its way into her mouth. A good portion of the cheese made its way onto her face. But thankfully, none of it made it to the floor, which would have been a mess.
As a side note, I discovered that using nacho Doritos to scoop the macaroni was quite good. Possibly a little over the top cheesy but good none the less.
mwz
We are getting better at blowing her nose, even if she doesn't actually blow.
Today she got macaroni and cheese. Not mac and cheese from a box but home made using real cheese. Frances loved it. It was a pretty safe bet that she would. It provides two of her favorite foods, pasta and cheese. All the pasta made its way into her mouth. A good portion of the cheese made its way onto her face. But thankfully, none of it made it to the floor, which would have been a mess.
As a side note, I discovered that using nacho Doritos to scoop the macaroni was quite good. Possibly a little over the top cheesy but good none the less.
mwz
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Health Care Rights
One of the guys at QandO and Ezra Kline have been bantering back and forth about universal health care. The QandO guy, McQ said that "Rights don't involve, involuntarily, the assets of others." Ezra came back by calling libertarians "callous" and making the argument that universal health care is "a right because the citizens and government have decided it's a right".
That has really started to bug me. Just because governments have decided to provide it to everyone, doesn't make it a right. It just makes it a government provided service.
What about this situation? The emergency room has been flooded with patients from some big accident (we've all seen this on ER). They only have so many staff members. Some people are going to wait until someone can get to them. Some of those people will die. That sucks but have their rights been trampled on? Does the government need to make sure that there are always enough doctors and nurses at the hospital to handle a major crisis?
What about someone out in the middle of farm country who gets injured and dies on the long car ride to the hospital? Was the government responsible for that person's death because they didn't have enough emergency clinics scattered across the plains? Are city dwellers more equal than farmers?
The problem is one of limited resources. Until we have unlimited resources some people are going to needlessly suffer and die. It's really depressing but that is the way it is.
mwz
One final note: In a way though, health care by itself is a right. You have the right to seek any treatment that you can afford. In other words, I have the right to own a gun but that doesn't mean that the government must provide me with one.
That has really started to bug me. Just because governments have decided to provide it to everyone, doesn't make it a right. It just makes it a government provided service.
What about this situation? The emergency room has been flooded with patients from some big accident (we've all seen this on ER). They only have so many staff members. Some people are going to wait until someone can get to them. Some of those people will die. That sucks but have their rights been trampled on? Does the government need to make sure that there are always enough doctors and nurses at the hospital to handle a major crisis?
What about someone out in the middle of farm country who gets injured and dies on the long car ride to the hospital? Was the government responsible for that person's death because they didn't have enough emergency clinics scattered across the plains? Are city dwellers more equal than farmers?
The problem is one of limited resources. Until we have unlimited resources some people are going to needlessly suffer and die. It's really depressing but that is the way it is.
mwz
One final note: In a way though, health care by itself is a right. You have the right to seek any treatment that you can afford. In other words, I have the right to own a gun but that doesn't mean that the government must provide me with one.
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Baby Blogging
As I just posted, I haven't had a whole lot of time to post. Frances had a pretty big weekend.
On Friday, she finally said "mama". She didn't mean the word "mama" but she figured out how to make "M" sounds. That was a nice surprise just before Mother's Day.
She also got her first major cold on Friday. She was up quite a bit that night. I even got up with her and had her sleep on my chest (while I reclined on the couch). My theory is that keeping her head relatively vertical keeps the sinus pressure down.
Since we had friends over, Frances got a lot of attention too. She seemed to enjoy that. It turns out that our friends are good with babies. Who knew?
Her sleep schedule was all messed up because we were out and about during her naps. The excitement and the cold didn't help either. But she was a trouper and wasn't too grumpy.
Well, if there was anything else, I've forgotten and it is lost forever.
mwz
On Friday, she finally said "mama". She didn't mean the word "mama" but she figured out how to make "M" sounds. That was a nice surprise just before Mother's Day.
She also got her first major cold on Friday. She was up quite a bit that night. I even got up with her and had her sleep on my chest (while I reclined on the couch). My theory is that keeping her head relatively vertical keeps the sinus pressure down.
Since we had friends over, Frances got a lot of attention too. She seemed to enjoy that. It turns out that our friends are good with babies. Who knew?
Her sleep schedule was all messed up because we were out and about during her naps. The excitement and the cold didn't help either. But she was a trouper and wasn't too grumpy.
Well, if there was anything else, I've forgotten and it is lost forever.
mwz
Weekend with Friends
It's been a while since I've posted but I've been busy.
This weekend we had our college friends visiting from out of town. Our entire core group of friends came. It was a lot of fun. I thought that after the first "how are things going" we would run out of things to say (since we don't have common classes and stuff to talk about). But it turns out there was plenty to talk about. A whole weekends worth.
Unfortunately, now I'm paying for it. I have a big deadline coming up at the end of this week and since I didn't work this weekend at all, I'm spending most of my waking hours working. If I hadn't caught a cold, it wouldn't be so bad.
mwz
This weekend we had our college friends visiting from out of town. Our entire core group of friends came. It was a lot of fun. I thought that after the first "how are things going" we would run out of things to say (since we don't have common classes and stuff to talk about). But it turns out there was plenty to talk about. A whole weekends worth.
Unfortunately, now I'm paying for it. I have a big deadline coming up at the end of this week and since I didn't work this weekend at all, I'm spending most of my waking hours working. If I hadn't caught a cold, it wouldn't be so bad.
mwz
Thursday, May 05, 2005
Babies
I have recently discovered that I don't think I could adopt a baby. Maybe a toddler but not a baby. At least not after having my own.
With Frances, everything was wonderful. I liked her regular smell and I didn't mind her disgusting smells so much either. It didn't disgust me when she spit up. I'll even eat things that she's slobbered on.
Arial has started baby sitting for a couple from church. The baby is cute enough (not as cute as Frances but I don't see how any baby could be). But I've found that I don't like how he smells and his spit up kind of turns my stomache a little.
It really makes sense when you think about it though. Evelutionarily speaking, I should be attracted to protecting my offspring and not so much someone else's. Although, now that I really think about it, it could be that I am so used to Frances' smell that any other baby smell is bad, just like how every other baby looks wrong because they don't look just like Frances.
So back to my thesis. I don't think I could adopt a baby because smell and tending to their needs are the only ways to connect to a baby. Before they can give you any feed back, you have to be carried through (emotionally) by your intrinsic love for the child. I think it would be hard to really nurture a baby whose smell you didn't like.
A toddler though, can interact with you. You miss out on shaping a good portion of their personallity but you can fall in love with their smiles and giggles and their personallities. We are not looking to adopt but if we were, I would stongly consider a toddler.
mwz
226
With Frances, everything was wonderful. I liked her regular smell and I didn't mind her disgusting smells so much either. It didn't disgust me when she spit up. I'll even eat things that she's slobbered on.
Arial has started baby sitting for a couple from church. The baby is cute enough (not as cute as Frances but I don't see how any baby could be). But I've found that I don't like how he smells and his spit up kind of turns my stomache a little.
It really makes sense when you think about it though. Evelutionarily speaking, I should be attracted to protecting my offspring and not so much someone else's. Although, now that I really think about it, it could be that I am so used to Frances' smell that any other baby smell is bad, just like how every other baby looks wrong because they don't look just like Frances.
So back to my thesis. I don't think I could adopt a baby because smell and tending to their needs are the only ways to connect to a baby. Before they can give you any feed back, you have to be carried through (emotionally) by your intrinsic love for the child. I think it would be hard to really nurture a baby whose smell you didn't like.
A toddler though, can interact with you. You miss out on shaping a good portion of their personallity but you can fall in love with their smiles and giggles and their personallities. We are not looking to adopt but if we were, I would stongly consider a toddler.
mwz
226
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Illegal Immigration
I'm not going to post any links for this because I'm lazy but a couple days ago (or longer) Arnold Schwarzensomething (I'm also too lazy to look up the correct spelling) said something to the affect of "we should close the borders". The next day, he said that he meant "secure" not "close" which I thought was reasonable.
In some of the blogs I read, they said that left wingers were all up in arms that Arnold said he wanted the borders closed. For some reason, I didn't really believe that anyone would be that stupid to think that he actually wanted to close the borders.
But tonight I caught the begining of O'Reilly and there was a guy arguing against border security and he said something like "Arnold said he wanted to close the border, but later back tracked". I couldn't believe that he actually thought that the simpler explanation was that Arnold, an immigrant himself, wants to close down the borders and keep out foreign students and scientists and all the goodness that comes with new blood in our country.
Yeah, that is much more likely than it was a slip of the tongue.
And while I'm on the subject, when did it become controversial to believe that our immigration laws should be enforced. I know a quite a few immigrants who jump through all sorts of crazy hoops to stay and work in the country. A lot of them are PhDs who we really should be wooing. But they willingly jump through them.
But when we treat illegals to free health care and welfare services and have sanctuary cities where they won't be deported, it has to be a slap in the face to all the hard working legal immigrants.
It's all very lame. Just enforce the laws.
mwz
226
In some of the blogs I read, they said that left wingers were all up in arms that Arnold said he wanted the borders closed. For some reason, I didn't really believe that anyone would be that stupid to think that he actually wanted to close the borders.
But tonight I caught the begining of O'Reilly and there was a guy arguing against border security and he said something like "Arnold said he wanted to close the border, but later back tracked". I couldn't believe that he actually thought that the simpler explanation was that Arnold, an immigrant himself, wants to close down the borders and keep out foreign students and scientists and all the goodness that comes with new blood in our country.
Yeah, that is much more likely than it was a slip of the tongue.
And while I'm on the subject, when did it become controversial to believe that our immigration laws should be enforced. I know a quite a few immigrants who jump through all sorts of crazy hoops to stay and work in the country. A lot of them are PhDs who we really should be wooing. But they willingly jump through them.
But when we treat illegals to free health care and welfare services and have sanctuary cities where they won't be deported, it has to be a slap in the face to all the hard working legal immigrants.
It's all very lame. Just enforce the laws.
mwz
226
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