On Being a Father

It's a little surreal. I have always had it in mind that I'd like to have a child at some point, but that's been a little thought in the back of my mind. Now he's here. Even after we knew he was a boy and we'd seen a few ultrasound images of him, I never had an idea in my mind of what he'd look like. Now I can look at him.


Sometimes when I do look at him I just don't believe it. There he is. 20 years of adulthood (give or take) and 10+ years of marriage to his mother, a bit of difficulty, and then nine months of preparing, and there he is, sleeping.

Things more experienced folks would tell me about fatherhood have, mostly, come true - but not exactly as expected. The lack of sleep everyone talks about - it's real, but it's not that big of a deal. I was concerned that I'd turn into a zombie by the second week, but instead, we got into a bit of a rhythm. People said my life would no longer be my own - it would be all about the boy. That's also mostly true, but it's not this wrestling match to get my old life back. We make small adjustments and we can do pretty much exactly what we had always been doing.



The biggest thing I learned when we got Nina (our dog) was that it wasn't all about training her; the best success came when I figured out how to adjust my way of thinking a bit, too. Now if I could just understand why she thinks dirty diapers are delicious...

Elias John

First, a picture:


This was taken last week as he was speeding toward a recovery from jaundice. Higher bilirubin levels in newborns are pretty common but it's still disconcerting when you've fought for nine months (or more) to bring this baby into the world and it's not 100% text book. That hose connected to a flat fiber optic light "jacket" that wrapped around his torso and delivered a wavelength of light that assists in the dispersion of bilirubin. Irony is that I write about fiber optic equipment every day.

This kid showed up two weeks ahead of his due date and was still 8 pounds, 11 ounces at 21 inches. Not bad. In the following two weeks, he's clearly found his lungs and a taste for milk (or formula - he's not that picky). He clearly is more easily comforted by his mom than by me, but that's fine.

Either way, we hoped and prayed for a healthy baby, and as of today, that's just what we got.

St. Vincent (Redux)

Here's another live version of this fantastic song:


And if that didn't do it for you, check this shit out:


HOT damn - that's a lot of sound from two horns and a guit-fiddle.

DJ Format + Chali2na

I got to this party late, but better late than never. If you liked De La Soul back in the day, Tribe Called Quest, Pharcyde, Handsome Boy Modeling School, Gorillaz, etc. - you'll dig Format.

My Literary Friends

My friend John Porcellino has been making comics for a long time. His King Cat series was in full swing by the time we lived together in 1989 and it's still running today. He posted that his book "Thoreau at Walden" was on super sale for under $5 on Amazon, so I jumped. It's pretty fantastic.

Another friend competed on the Bravo show "Work of Art" and won the competition that had the artists design a book cover. His interpretation of The Time Machine not only won on the show, but was published by Penguin on the H.G. Wells classic. Got that from Amazon, too. His cover reminds me of the books from the 70s. There are elements of ethereal, surreal, and fantastic, and I'm excited that he won. (He shouldn't have been booted from the show the next week, but that's grist for a different post, I suppose.)

DeKalb, IL once again the epicenter of the universe.