Rainy days

Just one of those rainy autumn days what you don't feel like doing anything but curling up.  The baby is closing in on 5 months, and she's perfect cuddling material; independent head movement, not so fussy, giggly and curious.  Enough to warm a father on a cool rainy sunday.

A few of my buds have entered into fatherhood this summer too, so this next year will be a year of firsts for us all.  Very cool to be able to share this feeling with those closest to you, and share the happiness along with the anxiety...this is life.  Live it and love it.

The girl, or The Bear as we call her is presently napping for now over 1.5hrs which is nearly record time.  Mommy's out do it's daddy day today, but mommy will be pissed at the map time because The Bear only sleeps for 25min with mommy.  Daddy's got the Magic Touch - oh yeah!

Biggest change so far? My To Do list grows longer and longer like a tapeworm (ed. bad analogy) as free time evaporates taking care of the bear.  You have to force yourself to be efficient, doing what you can as she sleeps.  That also means figuring out your priorities, which is a good thing: focus on what matters most, and realistically that is my daughter.  Who can say no to those eyes?

The 4am feed

Sorry if I haven't posted in a while, but you could probably surmise that the reason is closely linked to why this post it's at 4am...

Oh baby!

Coming up on 4 months and what a ride it continues to be.  The funny thing how nature works, she pushes your limits - I sweat it feels like just when you've had enough them something new happens and you're right back into it.  Something better happen soon because these 4am feeds are killing us!

Don't get me wrong we love being parents more than we could have ever imagined. But now as I walk down the street our in the mall and I see other parents, I find myself giving ' the nod'.  It's like a secret handshake or so, a subtle gesture that you share with only those who would understand and who understand you.  It almost feels like we're war vets who have gone through battle together - you share the same battle wounds, experiences and struggle but just don't talk about it anymore....just nod in knowing that you made it through, soldier. You made it through.

Blast Off

This week marks an end of an era - the final space shuttle mission after around 30 yrs will happen July 8th.  Sniff sniff..

Every time I see that footage of the space shuttle taking off it takes my breath away. The raw power of the rockets, the speed of the acceleration - even the crisp aesthetics of the black and white shuttle.  Its unreal, to think that humans are being blasted into space, and after 135 missions that era will end.

To be sure, there will be a next generation of space travel, but THIS is the program that "launched" it, in my opinion.  When you step back, it is a bit extravagant - spending boatloads of money and burning up fuel just to send some people into the sky, for what?  My wife and I are on different sides of the coin here.. I am a space junkie, and she can't understand the fascination at all.

But the exhiliration! Imagine feeling the rumble and thrust of multiple g-forces as your world (literally) drifts away to the point where it seems insignificant.  I've read that viewing the earth from space triggers a sense of euphoria, utter calm and peace.  Talk about getting away from it all.

Its tragic that there have been casualties in the space missions, disastrous ones.  I remember as a kid watching on the news as the Challenger exploded upon ascent, and I called out to my mom.  Space flight continues to be a challenge and a desire - its exciting to see that Virgin Galactic is planning to start in 2012 its sub-orbital flights for people with tons of money (ticket prices start at $200k I believe, and they've sold over 400 so far).  The dream is still alive and thriving!

I am a space child, and I love to be spaced out.  In due time, in due time..
Blast on

Happy fathers day

What a feeling... All the cliches are true.  You really don't know the feeling until you experience it. My first fathers day was a day filled with awe, emotion, and unrivaled pride.

Weird though, sometimes it still doesn't sink in that I am now a daddy (although every day I ask my daughter, ' who's your daddy?').  It's a state of perpetual bewilderment and amazement that after nine months of baking in mommy's tummy you are actually a real, live human being that we created out of love. Wow.

It us an indescribable feeling of victory and satisfaction, and to be honest right now she's seven weeks and every day feels like fathers day.  And every day when I look into her eyes I feel that same awe and amazement.  I hope it never changes.

Happy fathers day to all the new and old dads out there.  Relish every moment and make it last.

Baby wonder

We're into the fourth week of new baby, and the wonder of newborn baby is still here - I hope it lasts for quite a while.

it's the joy of taking about it.  I went around to my coworkers, with a box of timbits and I had this glow upon my face.  Now every day at work I just can't wait to go home!

It also helps that she's a really good baby - only cries when hungry, and otherwise a good eater and very friendly.  And very very cute.  Mom and dad made a beautiful baby (I'm sure every one does!)

As for a status update, I've had 3 dumps and 2 pees on me, the wife's got none.  Hrmm who's really winning this one?

A new perspective on priorities, and newfound respect for all parents.  This is the life.

One week of amazingness

My daughter was born just over a week ago - wow, just saying "my daughter" wil take some time to get used to. It's like when you get married and you first transition from calling your girlfriend your wife.  Different, but gratifying.  Takes a while to get used to, but I love it.

I wanted to document the first week because there were a lot of firsts this week, and a whole lot of learning:

Night 1- hospital, setting alarms to wake up every three hours.  This was a rough night because we were running on fumes being up all night, and meeting with visitors all day. It was tons of fun butt wer were exhausted! But we managed to get up and feed and stuff. Whew.

night 2- now we're at home, things are a little different.  figured out how to change a poopy diaper at 3am!

Night 3- ok, now she's crying, the breast feeding isn't working as well as hoped.. Need to use the syringe, don't want baby to have nipple confusion.  Oh man she keeps crying!

Night 4- oh ok so maybe we weren't feeding her enough...jackpot!  Parent win!

Night 5- difficulty falling asleep, how come? I see, she's a little cold.. Ok lets swaddle her up, hit the mitts and hat, she's our bundle of joy!

Night 6- still crying, but fully fed. Hrmm, wait, what's that sound? What's that smell? Great looks like she's got gas.  Ok I heard that you can have skin to skin tummy time to help pass the gas - awww man she just pooped all over my chest! Help, help!

Night 7- ok now what- she's warm, fed, burped, peed and pooped-or is she? She's quasi latching on but breastfeeding isn't working right.  Awww no, now she won't take the syringe. Still wailing! Mommy and daddy are going nuts!! Aright honey you win, for your 1 week bday you are getting a bottle.  Ahhhh what a beautiful sleep that night was...

So it took us a week but we've kind of got it figured out now...so far.  But what a journey; however every night the wife and i hit the sack with our bond closer than ever- teamwork, you know?

Can't wait for week two.

Gett Smartt!

Whew! So it finally happened but I took the dive and got a Smartphone - now this may not sound like much, but I've been hesitant (for some reason I can't really explain) on the mobile phone scene.  Here's some history:

- late to get a mobile
- late to get a colour screen
- late to get on the txt'ing scene
- late to get a smartphone

So now what? Well I took a great leap and jumped into the fastlane with the Atrix - aka the brand new superphone.  Yep, now you're talking to the Early Adopter!

What a change, this is one of my coolest toys ever, and a definite game changer.  I guess one of my hesitancies with phone upgrades was that the world kept changing too fast and your device would be obsolete - but now it looks like the plateau of stability is here and any phone now will last quite a while with great features.  I'll save the drab about the features for one of the millions of phone blogs out there.

So what's next? I think it means I'll be more active on this blog and on my tweets!
Now I actually feel smarter too.

On Egypt

The power of the People is phenomenal.  I must admit that I was skeptical, but seeing it in action in Egypt showed me that people can really rule the country, not just the statesmen.

Persistence, dedication, good reason, throw in some good portions of civility to get the global backing, and you have the foundations of a ripe revolution.  Not to mention some momentum, from Tunisia.  The Egyptian people have been at it for weeks now, and the movement is growing stronger now that public servants are on sporadic strike.  In effect, I suppose this is holding the country hostage, but isn't that what Mubarak was doing?

I'm not very much into politics or policy but this has really piqued my interest, especially seeing the sentiment of the global leaders.  Can they push to have a leader step down? Isn't this like a political takeover?

The way that everything came together, and the speed, is a sign of the times.  Here the internet, specifically Facebook of all things, was a catalyst to help mobilize and communicate the masses.  Then the government chops the internet (What??!) and so google allows a mobile phone app to continue the messaging.  Wow, now you have web companies starting to pick political sides..

Sign of the times - get with the programs.  Lets see how it all pans out, all the best to the Egyptian people.

The Paint is Dry!

Chalk up another line in the victory column - the paint is done, and the stickers are up!

We went for a "woodland animals" theme in the room, so we painted it a soft yellow, and i stenciled on some light green grass at the bottom.  And we went to town with some cool stickers of trees, leaves, birds, curious bunnies and funky-plaid porcupines.  Don't forget about the giraffe growth chart behind the door!

It looks great, and now its become our Fun Room!  Pics to come!

Time is ticking to Baby

We're expecting our first child in a few months, and while the original "shock and awe" has worn down, the subdued sense of panic and urgency is still there.  Everyone has said from the get-go that you won't have time for anything, and so very soon after we first learned about the baby my mind has been ticking about my to-do list.

One item that's been on my agenda was to do some wiring in my basement, or what my wife likes to call "the dungeon".  There aren't any sockets or lights down there (its a crawspace, fairly large but only about 4ft high).  Fiddling around with a flashlight is tedious, so I'd wanted to figure out a way to get some power in there.. either some sockets or lighting or whatever.  I started to get pumped up for my mini-project: electrical wiring!

In my mind I'm wondering, if I screw this up then could I create a fire-hazard? What if I overload the circuit?  Do I know what I'm getting into? There's tons of information online, and at HoDe by the way, so I read up and took it to task.  First step, finding an existing powerline, then from there make a socket, then a couple of switches.

The sense of accomplishment, the joy and the elation that comes from figuratively and literally turning on that switch is so illuminating.  Victory was mine! HA! Take that, home project - no outsourcing to an electrician this time.  I relished in the basking light of my new lights.

Next on the list: painting the baby room.

what it all means - get down to the mathematics

I'm reading this book about the biography of Zero, and for all the math-geeks out there its actually pretty interesting.  It talks about the evolution of math theory, and some of the politics along the way between science and religion (the "universal war" I suppose).

One of the main issues with Zero's adoption was the duality of nothing and infinity.  While we understand the concepts now, back in the day people couldn't grasp it - or wouldn't.  The book carries many stories about how math'ies started to develop ways to convince people to embrace zero/infinity. Lo and behold, one of the stories involves what is known as The Harmonic Series:

1/1 + 1/2 + 1/3 + .... + 1/n

this is the mathematical expression that is graphically shown in the picture at the top.  The question of the day was, what is the answer to this sum?  This was questioned by some guy Zeno who postulated that if Achilles ran twice as fast as a rabbit, who had a 1m head start, he'd never catch up because he's always 'just behind'.   Google it for details, but the short of it is that now we take limits and that clears up everything.  Errthing.

rolling with the punches

So the baby is on the way and everything looks fine and dandy on the outside, but a bit of a scare came from just a simple checkup on what we thought was nothing..

Nothing turned out to be a hectic day on tuesday, as we were eventually faced with a surgery decision: take a risk and potentially lose the baby, or take a risk and likely have a premature baby?  Gaa, one of the toughest decisions and not something we were planning to decide. Luckily we had multiple resources and multi-opinions from Dr consultant/friends that guided us to the right direction.  Whew.

This is the start of parenthood - one large, long worry. I guess its worth it!

my name is BioData!

The stigma of online dating is nearly gone - or is it?  This 'wildcat' is on the prowl.. grr

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0iz3QT_cgY

Kickoff

Its done - officially the blog has begun, with the name of "nth harmonic"

Whats that?

Its a term that came to me randomly, but I thought about it and it piqued an interest.  Harmonics are waves that are multiples of each other - that means they are all independent, but at certain times they will all align, perfectly.  So I thought about it on a people sense.. we're all different, but somewhere along the way we are the same.  We all ride our own independent wavelengths, but we can all come together.  Living in harmony.