I've read a few times recently about how childless people don't understand why people would ever have kids. Their parent friends always say they love having kids but they only ever say complain about the kids themselves.

Having kids is like being in high school again. In high school having a crush on someone can be the totality of your life. You lose sleep over them. You live to see them and talk to them. Being close to them is definitely the best thing that could possibly happen in your life. But if you lose your crush, to someone else or even to nobody, it's terrible. Nothing could be worse.

Kids are like that. The simplest smile or laugh makes a terrible day a good one. But their problems are such terrible harassment that you have to complain about it. What's hard about it is teenagers are designed to have ridiculous crushes. When you're over 30 it can be a bit too much.

Two weeks ago, flew from Dulles Airport to Dubai International Airport. I spent a couple days adjusting to the time change before walking aboard USS Ronald Reagan via the Sandbox. While Reagan steamed around off the coasts of Iraq and Afganistan, I managed to find time while working to buy a hat and watch nighttime aircraft recovery from the LSO platform After 11 days underway I flew off Reagan in a COD to Bahrain International Airport. From there I flew to Frankfurt, and from Frankfurt back to Dulles. When I re-entered the U.S. the customs agent said, "Welcome home," after stamping my passport. And people say Americans aren't polite.

My parents have a beach house that they rent out. They want to give it a new name, so they asked me and my brothers if we had any suggestions. Bad idea. We (mostly my brothers) proposed:

( Puns Ahead! )

Anyone want to go to an mc chris show? May 17th (Sunday) down in DC. Tix are only $12. More details at the DC9 website.

Also, I'm microblogging now. Follow me over here on Twitter.

Jeez. "Microblogging". What the hell have I become?

If you effectively cap the pay of senior executives at financial companies that take government bail-out money, no companies will take the money. You see, it's the senior executives who vote on whether or not to accept the bail-out money, and it's a stupid, stupid person who votes themselves a massive pay-cut.

If you don't want banks to spend U.S. government money in ways that benefit them more than your constituents, don't give them a big check with no strings attached. The banks have a legal obligation to their shareholders to make as much money as possible, and none to help your constituents.

Sincerely,
Common Sense

January 16, 2010 is a long time to wait for what will surely be the greatest musical ever. In addition to the obvious awesomeness, Bono and The Edge will be making their Broadway debut in it, too.

*sigh* I'm just counting the days.

I a dad again, or twice, or something. Anyway, it was a girl, which is the really big news. First one in four or five generations. Mommy and baby are going fine and resting at the hospital. Delivery was much quicker than last time and kinda caught us (and the doctor) by surprise, but everything worked out. Despite it only taking a few hours, though, I'm completely exhausted.

I bought vodka at the liquor store last time I was there because I was out (if that's not a good enough to buy liquor, I don't know what is). On a whim, I decided to have a vodka martini last night, instead of a proper one with gin. God help me, but I liked it as much, if not more, than one with gin. I had another one tonight, and still enjoyed it.

I have tried to maintain a certain level of decorum and civility, but it appears that time in my life is over. I'm already feeling an urge to make primitive tools to hunt animals with, so that I can have food and warm clothing.

At some point in time, some famous scientist proposed a demon who could selectively sort molecules. He proposed this demon as a way to separate two types of gasses that mixed together in a box. And I can't remember the stupid scientist's name! And before you suggest it, I'm not thinking of Laplace's Demon - he's more of a philosophical tool, from what I understand.

When my son cries at night, I'm supposed to let him cry. I'm not supposed to go upstairs and check on him unless I think there's a "legitimate reason", like a dirty diaper or he's too cold or he's dehydrated. If I do think he's up for a legitimate reason (I always do), I'm supposed to be emotionless when fixing the problem. I'm not supposed to pick him up unnecessarily, I'm not supposed to tell him "shhhhh...", and I'm not supposed to rock him.

But I do pick him up unnecessarily. I do tell him "shhhh...". And I rock him. He puts his head on my shoulder and tucks his blanket under his arm, and is quiet. And I love it. I know it's wrong, and I know I'm going to keep doing it until he's too old for it.

I'm looking to run an L5R one-shot on January 18th, which is the Sunday before MLK-day and Inauguration. It'll run up in Baltimore from, say, noon to sometime later in the evening. The adventure is called Hindsight. It was written by Chris-and-Jenny-and-others for Origins, like, eight years ago. It has very solid pre-gen characters who have interpersonal relationships. There are six pre-gens, and right now I have 3 definites and 1 probably. If you know L5R, it's a first-edition game and everyone's rank 3. If you don't, the system's simple and the PCs are advanced beyond beginners.

If you're interested, email me.

MULDER: You know, it's interesting you should say that, because I've always wanted a peg leg. It's a boyhood thing I never grew out of. I'm not being flippant, I've given this a lot of thought. I mean, if you have a peg leg or hooks for hands then maybe it's enough to simply keep on living. You know, bravely facing life with your disability. But without these things you're actually meant to make something of your life, achieve something, earn a raise, wear a necktie. So if anything, I'm actually the antithesis of Ahab, because if I did have a peg leg, I'd quite possibly be more happy and more content not to be chasing after these creatures of the unknown.

X-Files episode 3X22 "Quagmire"

First, everyone should see King of Kong: Fist Full of Dollars. Probably the first feel-good documentary I've ever seen. It also made me realize just how hard it is to compete at the world-class level at anything that doesn't pay you money for being good at it.

Second, my brother pointed out Abstruse Goose, an xkcd-like webcomic, to me. In particular, I agree with most things in True Things.

Two reasons:

1: He killed himself because no one wanted to believe his science. He could see no other explanation for his data and theoretical results, yet he couldn't convince his colleagues that he was right (note: he was right).

2: His grave. The only thing on his tombstone, other than his name and born/died dates, is S = k. log W. He kills himself and all he wants is one permanent record of his science? Hard core, man, hard core. Also, look at it. I hope people remember me as looking that awesome after I'm gone.

The whole point of my fairness post (below the "it's a baby" post) was to make the point that fairness is just another way of saying the way you think it should be. Fairness is whatever you define it to be. You need to define fairness before you say if something's fair or not.

I stole it from somewhere on the internet that I can't find.

Wendy had a second ultrasound today for the new baby, and found out the sex of the baby. It's a girl.

A girl.

Assuming everything goes well, she will be the first female born into my family in at least four generations. I have only brothers. My dad has only brothers, one of whom adopted a girl and had a son. My grandfather has only brothers, one of whom had a son. My great-grandfather had only brothers, none none of whom had kids.

This is a really big deal. I have to get the family charter out - I think it needs to be changed. I'm pretty sure it still uses primogeniture, so we'll have to change that so that she can inherit any money the wife and I might have left over when we die. It might also be difficult for other people in the family to contribute to her college education, I'm not sure - I'll look into that, too.

Jack and Jill live in a small town with one well, from which they both draw the same amount of water every day. The well is a public resource, owned and run by the government and supported through income taxes. Jack makes $10,000 a year and is taxed at 10%, or $1,000 per year. Jill makes $100,000 per year and is taxed at 5%, or $5,000 per year. Is this policy unfair, and if so, to whom?

Pretty unrelated, I found the UAW discussion in the comments to this blog post fascinating.

First, this article is some of the best political news I've heard in my entire life. Three cheers for political independents who want reasonable things and think politics are stupid.

Second, I'd like to welcome back to the country everyone who said they'd leave if Bush won a first or a second term. Even though you're probably not reading this.

Finally, I just realized I'm not the youth vote anymore. Shit, I'm old.

I realized at the wedding last weekend that there are a number of people who don't know that my wife is pregnant, and due around Valentine's day of next year. Well, she is and she is.

And that's half the battle, I suppose.