A new definition of heavy

Okay, so given the choice between categorizing myself as a light drinker, or an average or heavy drinker, I'll choose heavy, if we're talking about a party occasion such as Cinco de Mayo. But I have to say Evite's drink calculator brings a whole new meaning to the word 'heavy':
I've had some pretty drunk nights and I don't think any of them involved me drinking 3 beers and an entire liter of booze in two hours.

Lucas's First Real Dinner

Lucas is such a picky eater that I generally end up cooking one thing for Jen and I, and then making Lucas either something completely different or at least a heavily modified version. This isn't what I want to be doing for the rest of his childhood/teenage years. The goal is that he eats what we eat. So I decided to start transitioning him that way. I started off light on him, by making something I was pretty sure he would eat all of and that Jen and I would like too. I made some chicken strips by breading chicken with Bisquick and baking it, along with some oven fries and corn. And he ate every bite! It's weirdly satisfying to have your child eat everything you want him to when it's been a kind of struggle for 2ish years.

20 Week Ultrasound

Sorry it's been a while since I posted (over a month!). I let myself get out of the habit of writing and it became a hard thing to get back into. But I'm back and plan on posting several times a week again. Stay tuned!

We went in for Jen's 20 week ultrasound last week, where they check on the fetal development, make sure there are no red flags, and if it is at all possible, they also try to determine the sex of the baby. The pieces all looked to be in the places they were supposed to be and all the development seems to be progressing the way it should. As far as the sex goes, unfortunately we didn't get a printout of the picture the ultrasound tech took of the "region" but here's what he said: "Yep. 100% boy. No doubt about it."

So that's two boys for us. We've already started thinking about names and doing a little research. I looked through a long list of atheists (some surprising names on there) and there were definitely some names that I think would make great names for our new boy. As before with Lucas, we're going to keep our name ideas to ourselves and not make a final decision until after he is born.

I will post the ultrasound video this week. I don't have any info I need to blur out of this one so it's a simple matter of d/l the file to my computer.

Cool poem... chew it over

Much Madness is divinest Sense –
To a discerning Eye –
Much Sense – the starkest Madness –
'Tis the Majority
In this, as All, prevail –
Assent – and you are sane –
Demur – you're straightway dangerous –
And handled with a Chain –

–Emily Dickenson

MERT

Friday I completed my Medical Emergency Response Team Training. So now I can be helpful or something. Actually, the hardest part of the whole thing was getting good at taking a blood pressure. I hope to never have to use any of my training, but I'm ready just in case.

Oh, and I got a 2-way radio... someone is supposed to come show me what to do with it. I have no clue; am I supposed to carry it on me all day? What's the etiquette in meetings? I suppose if there really is an emergency I need to respond to that I would need to have the thing on me. My hope is that the designated ERT channel doesn't have chatter on it unless there's an actual emergency. I really want to be helpful but I also don't want to be the asshole disrupting meetings.

Okay, maybe I should try listening...

I always forget how much more of the song you hear when you put headphones on. And now I realize that the song "Sheep" by Pink Floyd is a totally obvious attack on people who follow with blind faith. I know what you're thinking, "Duh dumbass, the song is called 'Sheep.' Where the fuck have you been?' And I have no idea how I missed this before. Although in my defense, the best and most blatant part of the song is spoken in a kind of computer voice that you can barely hear over the background music. It was only with my headphones on that I caught it. It's pretty funny, at least to me. Here's what that part says:

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want
He makes me down to lie
Through pastures green He leadeth me the silent waters by.
With bright knives He releaseth my soul.
He maketh me to hang on hooks in high places.
He converteth me to lamb cutlets,
For lo, He hath great power, and great hunger.
When cometh the day we lowly ones,
Through quiet reflection, and great dedication
Master the art of karate,
Lo, we shall rise up,
And then we'll make the bugger's eyes water.

Catch-up #3: Death in the Family

On Tuesday my mom called to let me know that my grandmother (my Dad's mom) had passed away earlier that day. She had been suffering from Alzheimer's for a few years and had taken a turn for the worse in the last week. She apparently died in her sleep sometime Monday night/Tuesday morning. She was the last of the three grandparents I spent a good amount of time with as a kid and felt pretty close to, the others being my Dad's father and my Mom's mother. Even though I knew for a while that she was slipping away and had said my goodbyes a couple of years ago, it still hit me in a weird way.

My Mom waited to call me Tuesday until around 6p so that the news wouldn't affect my day; it was very thoughtful of her, unfortunately Tuesdays I have class until 10p so I still had quite a bit of my day left! I found myself only half listening in my History class. Then in my English class I tried to participate at my normal level, which is a lot, but every time I started to give an opinion on the pieces we had read or on a theory derived from them, I felt like I didn't know what I was saying. I wasn't even sure if I was making any sense or if it was even English coming out of my mouth. It felt like there were thousands of words spinning in my head and I had to locate and grab each one individually to make it come out. On our break in class I actually decided to ask the teacher if I was making any sense. She said I was completely and asked if I knew what was causing me to feel like I wasn't, so I told her about my grandma. It felt good to get out what was in my head and kinda spill my guts a bit.

I don't know when any sort of memorial will be but apparently it won't be for a little while. It'll be nice to get together with family and remember her.

Catch-up #2: First Obstetrician Appointment

Monday was Jen's first visit to her obstetrician for this pregnancy. It was a pretty easy visit, really just a catch up to make sure the doc is on board with what's going on and that Jen is doing good so far, which she is. We once again got hear the heartbeat. Pretty much all that happened was we got a look at how much the doc is gonna cost us this time around (not too bad, but more than 3 years ago of course) and they sent Jen to get some bloodwork done. We have some more interesting appointments coming up in the next few weeks: nuchal translucency, ob recheck, and the ultrasound where we learn the baby's sex.

Catch-up #1: Lucas's Potty Training

We had tried potty training a month or two ago, and Lucas wasn't ready for it; frankly, I'm not sure we were ready either. Jen decided to try again this past weekend and Lucas said he wanted to. This time it went really well! Over the weekend he only had two minor accidents and both were while we were out shopping. Both were also mostly our fault for not getting him to a bathroom quick enough. The only thing that he didn't do was poop; he held it all day both days until he was in a night-time pull-up. But now he's even doing that. I think he was a little scared at first, but now that he's done it he's totally into it.

The great part is that his daycare is all on board with it too and helping him out. Jen's mom did so as well on Tuesday as I'm sure my mom will tomorrow. He's just having about one very minor accident a day. I believe if he can keep this up for a month (pull-ups for naps and an accident or less a day) he can move into the next classroom, which is a ton cheaper! We need to check if he can still wear a pull-up for naps. He won't be doing that for too long, maybe a couple months but if they won't take him until he's fully trained then we'll push that timeline up. He's already peeing very little during sleep and not pooping at all so it shouldn't be too hard.

Whirlwind week...

And I've neglected to post about it. Expect to see a few blogs posted today catching up.

Good quote I ran across tonight

"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."
- Stephen F. Roberts

Random observation

This morning I dropped Lucas off at daycare around 9:20 and headed to work. While cruising along Hwy 87 I passed a car where the lady driving was doing her makeup at around 65-70 MPH. Now I have two issues with this. One being the obvious "what the fuck are you doing putting on makeup while driving?" But my mind went a step further. I could sort of understand but maybe not condone doing your makeup while driving on a Monday morning if it was like 7:30am, you know you're gonna be stuck in stop-and-go traffic and you had a long weekend and weren't able to get up on time. But this was 9:30, when clearly the road was going to be somewhat open and traffic-free. In fact it makes it worse because the traffic sometimes goes from 70 to 0 at this time of the morning around Curtner so you have to be extra cautious. So unless this lady works until 3am, I have no friggin' clue how she could be running late enough to justify in her mind doing her makeup at 9:30 at full freeway speed.

Emergency Response Training

I'm working on becoming a member of Apple's Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT). Here's a description of what that's all about:

"The Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT) program provides advanced medical emergency training to non-HealthCare professionals. This training furnishes each MERT member with the skills to provide immediate and temporary care to a seriously ill or injured employee at the workplace. This care is delivered during "everyday" emergencies and in the event of a local disaster (such as an earthquake, explosion, Haz- Mat spill, etc."

Basically it entails 36 hours of training, including CPR/AED, First Aid, fire extinguisher, bloodborne pathogens and building evacuation. Today I completed my CPR and AED certifications and next week I'll be taking First Aid. The bulk of the rest of the training is done on 3 consecutive Fridays, all day. I'm really looking forward to being able to help people out.

Lent again

Lent starts again tomorrow, and once again I find myself wanting to try giving something up for "40 days and 40 nights." Although I'm completely against religion, I do like the idea of testing yourself and restricting your intake of something that might give you pleasure but isn't necessarily good for your "soul" (although I'm for sure not giving up what the dude in the movie did, f-u-c-k that [pun intended]).

Last year I gave up beer for a couple months. It wasn't that bad. I still allowed myself some alcohol but the beer restriction did drastically cut down my drinking. So I was trying to think of what to do this time around. I'm really working on getting back into weight loss. I've kinda stopped working on weight loss; I'm still at my lowest weight in a long time and haven't gained anything, but haven't really lost anything in a couple months.

So here we go. I've decided to give up beer again. But that didn't seem to be enough. I want to go big this year. So along with beer, I'm going to cut red meat and chocolate from my diet until Easter. Hopefully that should give me the kick in the ass I need.

Show Review: Foo Fighters @ Oracle Arena, February 2, 2008

The Foo Fighters have been on my short list of bands I've really wanted to see live for many years, but for one reason or another have never been able to make it. So I was greatly relieved to get a chance to see them on their tour in support of their latest album, Echoes Silence Patience and Grace. And the song set reflected the fact that they are still an active band; one quarter of their songs came from their most recent album. Also of interest was the fact that the next album that was most heavily represented was their 3rd, There is Nothing Left to Lose, from 9 years ago and that only two tracks came from their album previous to ESP&G, one acoustic track and the last encore.

Anyway, about the show. It was a very oddly paced affair. Just when you thought they were going to launch into a full-frontal assault of rock with a tune like 'Breakout', they would mellow out into a laid-back jam like 'Learn to Fly.' It was a nice touch for them to add a second auxiliary stage at the opposite end of the arena so that almost every attendee got a more 'intimate' look at the band, but even that contributed to the off-kilter feel. Even though the stage was at my end of the venue, with the "almost acoustic" nature of the songs they played while out there, it almost felt like the 5 song session was one long bathroom break.

Now, don't let this feel like an indictment of the show. In fact, it was a bad ass rocking concert and I had a blast. The set (including the 3 song encore) was a full 2 hours and 19 songs long. I think the pacing is more a reflection of Dave Grohl as a maturing rocker. He reflected on some past Bay Area shows, at more intimate venues like Slim's. He also half-jokingly referred to the general state of the air in the arena: "Is pot legal in this city?" It seemed like a good rock show from an artist who has been in the public spotlight for 17 years.

Overall, a solid 3 out of 4 stars.

Set List:
Let It Die
The Pretender
Times Like These
Breakout
Learn to Fly
Cheer Up, Boys (Your Makeup Is Running)
This is a Call
Stacked Actors
Skin and Bones
Marigold
My Hero
Cold Day in the Sun
But, Honestly
Everlong
Monkey Wrench
All My Life

Encores:
Big Me
Long Road to Ruin
Best of You

And so begins our second journey

A couple weeks ago was one of the coolest and most exciting weeks of my life, and I'm just now prepared to talk about it fully in blog form.

First off, Jen got her next certification as a CME (Certified Manager of Exhibits). It's representative of many hours of work on her part and is a great compliment to her silver-level CTSM (Certified Trade Show Marketeer) certification.

A couple of days later, I was offered the job at Apple which, as I've talked about elsewhere on here, I enthusiastically accepted.

While I was working on all the paperwork for my offer, we got some even better news. Jen is pregnant! I guess that's what happens when both of our companies have Christmas shutdowns at the same time. ;) Anyway, she really wanted another kid and I decided I was cool with having one more. She managed to get pregnant the second month off the pill.

Apparently her doc is now into doing ultrasounds really early on, so we did what they called a "viability ultrasound" at 6 weeks. I'll scan the pic tonight or tomorrow, but don't expect much; it looks like a blur with spots. But we did at least find out the due date, which is September 16.

More details to come on this blog!

First day of the new semester

Back to school! I have 3 more classes to take to get that Associates degree, and 2 of them had their first meetings tonight. First up was History 4B, which is the history of Western civilization from just prior to the French Revolution until today. The teacher seems alright, if a little underwhelming in his tone and cadence. He does seem to know his crap at least. He's got a Masters in religious history (intriguing to me at least; I'm waiting to see how this colors his history), a Ph.D. in some other history thing (I forget what), and he was apparently one of the authors of HIPAA (weird). Seems like an easy A, knock on wood.

The class was lightly attended, to the point where the teacher was asking us to tell friends to join the class so it wouldn't get canceled. The really crappy part is that this is the only section of Hist 4B offered this semester and I need it to graduate, so if they cancel it I'm screwed.

My later class is English 1B, in which we're going to read short stories, poems and a play and write about them. Seemed incredibly boring to me at first, but the teacher has a fun attitude and some of my classmates kept things light-hearted, including the girl sitting next to me who actually at least pretended to think I was funny. I don't think this will be as easy an A but since it's been like 12 years since I took an English class, it's hard for me to judge after one night.

Dangers of blogging

As a history buff, it should have occurred to me earlier that one of the dangers of blogging is reporting on an event before all the details are in. Take for example, my last post.

Now I can't say for 100% certain that what I had was food poisoning, and I further can't be sure that if it was, I got it from my dinner. But we'll just say that I had quite a terrible Saturday and spent the day in bed, eating a bit of rice, apple and toast, along with some VitaminWater and club soda. By my count, I ate the equivalent of 15 WeightWatchers Points all day; I'm supposed to eat 39. And I won't be eating a burger for a while. Or returning to The Counter.

On the bright side (and as Monty Python says, "Always look on the bright side of life."), I did drop 4 pounds. So I've got that going for me. Which is nice.

First Beer Bash and Dinner

Every 3-5 weeks Apple has a Beer Bash on our main campus. Now, while the invite posting always says "Badged Personnel Only", I still never felt comfortable as a contractor going down there, even though technically I was a "badged personnel" person. So tonight was a New Products Beer Bash, where they toted out the new MacBook Air and also showed off the updated Apple TV. First off, let me say the the MacBook Air kicks major ass. It's tiny, it's light, yet it's a fully functional laptop. The whole "full-size keyboard" thing doesn't sink in until you pick it up. You sit there and realize, 'Yes it weighs 3 pounds, yes it's tiny as hell, but holy crap, I'm not missing anything I've come to expect from a laptop.' I'm totally getting one.

The updated Apple TV looked pretty sweet. My initial reaction to the product almost a year ago was 'ho-hum' but now it looks pretty nice with the whole HD thing and the beginnings of streaming movies through it. Now, I have no insider knowledge leading me to this conclusion, but I would say it's a safe bet that within the next year or two this product will support you ripping all of your DVDs to your Mac and streaming them through it.

The overall Beer Bash experience was very cool. It was packed in Caffe Macs (where they held it) but not to the point of uncomfortableness. They were serving ice cold kegs of Marzen, Guinness, Harp and Heineken, along with wine, water and soft drinks. There was some decent-looking finger food, of which I only sampled the pizza bread (tasty enough). They also gave out MacBook Air posters, and if I can find an image of it I will post it. I heard from other employees that the poster thing is not the norm, but I hope it may be going forward because it's a neat memento.

My parents offered to take me to dinner to celebrate my new job and I picked The Counter on Santana Row. It's an "upscale" burger joint where you can custom order your burger down to the type of lettuce. It was very tasty and all of us were highly pleased with the food. I'll have to give it one more try before I toot its horn too much; suffice to say it was gooooood. I've decided next time I'll try a chicken "burger" with peanut sauce, scallions and shredded carrots for a Thai experience.

Job update

So I started at Apple this week as a full-time employee. I've been working here as a contractor since August and they offered me a position last week. I'm part of the User Experience team for Apple Support; basically our team is in charge of the design of all pages under apple.com/support. As a contractor I was wholly focused on one project, our so-called "Online Self Service" drive. Now I'll be picking up other areas of the site along with my main project.

It's been great so far to actually be on the team and not just a "hired gun." A cube recently opened up next to my other team members so yesterday I was able to move there and actually feel connected to them. I've got a nice new MacBook Pro for my work computer. I've already used my employee discount to buy a nice new bag for my laptop and a shirt for Lucas.

The name of this blog is...

The name of the blog, "The Bright Center of the Universe," is based on a Luke Skywalker quote from Star Wars (later retitled as Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope). C3PO asks Luke where he has landed and Luke replies, "Well if there's a bright center to the universe you're on the planet its farthest from." I thought this quote was rather apropos for a blog, in that sometimes in life we as individuals feel like we are far from the warmth that others can offer us and it helps to share your experiences with others, even in a disconnected medium like the Web. Of course, there are some times that you feel like you are the bright center, and those times are worth writing about too.

Look for me to put down in blog form my random thoughts along with some well-formed ones. Hopefully I can add a chuckle to your day or give you something to think about. I welcome your comments.