Had I seen these posts before mine I would have, at the very least, included them at the end of my write-up. Or else I would have simply directed you to more eloquent words on the ‘Net than I typically provide. As it stands, both Matthew Baldwin and Ken Jennings seem to share my opinion (or some form of it) regarding the Lost finale. That means a lot to me, because Matt is far funnier than I could hope to be and Ken is far smarter than I could hope to be. In addition Jason Kottke posted this amusing video regarding the mysteries that “don’t matter” even though “all of this matters”.
Month: May 2010
Music soothes the savage beast
Last night was just another hiccup in what has become a much easier nighttime routine for our little brat… I mean precious little one. Seriously, I’m kidding. Kayleigh’s been acting out lately but it’s the usual stuff. She’s still a wonderful joy to be around in the right increments of time…
Anyway, the little scutch had opted for a short nap which meant that half an hour before her bedtime she was already overtired. For those of you without kids and unaware of the concept of them being overtired, it’s the same thing as with adults – they get “punchy.” She was briefly lucid enough to give her grandparents goodnight kisses and willingly come upstairs in my arms to brush her teeth. But somehow between the bathroom and her bedroom the whole ordeal became too much for her to handle and, again, with the wailing and moaning and gnashing of teeth.
This is how diaper changes become a 2 person job – assuming you don’t have a good restraint system in place. When a toddler switches moods, it’s easy to lose site of the tricks of the trade picked up over months of parenting. Frustration wins out over common sense and suddenly there’s two grown adults trying to to figure out how to pin down a 22 month-old without resorting to wrestling moves. Then it hit me: doesn’t this kid like music. So I broke out my dulcet tones, often described as a cross between Tony Bennet and Frank Sinatra (assuming that by crossed you mean “literally smashed into one another”), and tried to remember the opening lines of Kayleigh’s most recent most favorite song:
And amazingly, she shut up. So I passed the third line to The Woman because I don’t want to prevent Kayleigh from continuing to enjoy music (also because it’s a miracle if I can remember more than two lines of any song) and the rest of the process proceeded with little fanfare. That’s not to say the she went to sleep easily, but at least the portion that involved diapers and pajamas and books was uneventful.
Once again Jim Henson has come to my rescue. The fact that Kayleigh not only enjoys Sesame Street but can also identify characters such as Kermit and Fozzie Bear is a source of some pride for me. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a lot of the newer kiddie entertainment with my little girl, but watching her shake her groove thing to the psychedelic sounds Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem is a lot more fun that singing that damn Caillou song for the umpteenth time in a row.
For the record, “I don’t know how to thank you guys”/”I don’t know WHY to thank you guys” is still one of the greatest comedic lines in a movie. And while Kayleigh might not get all of the humor, our daily viewings of “Movin’ Right Along” have slowly morphed into watching more and more of The Muppet Movie together.
I just can’t wait for her to actually get the “fork in the road” line and laugh with me.
‘Tis better to have loved Lost than…
So I used to watch this TV show about these people who crashed on a tropical island with polar bears, dead people, smoke monsters and lots of mangoes. There were all sorts of mysteries about the reason for the people being there, the origin of those already on the island, why the winning lottery numbers were evil, where the Egyptian statue with 4 toes came from and how a 10 year-old boy grew 6 inches in less than a month. It was called Misplaced or something like that… Lost! That was it. Lost.
Anyway, the audience grew frustrated because after a few years all we had learned was that polar bears don’t do well in Tunisia (although they are smarter than Sawyer), Jack has the world’s lamest tattoo (next to Megan Fox), DUIs will get you killed off the show, Cheech Marin is still the go to Hispanic filler actor and Kate will screw up even the most fool-proofed plan. Maybe some more was revealed, but thanks to the writers’ strike episodes were spaced out months apart and everybody soon forgot what the show was even about. Rather then stretching the agony out over a few more generations and risking a “Heroic” drop in ratings, the mysterious guy in Jacob’s cabin decided to end the show after season six. That meant yesterday.
At this point you should have been able to figure out that I’m talking about the Lost series finale – an episode so hyped that it fell only 93 million viewers shy of MASH’s viewership record. Maybe some people are just planning to watch it at a different time when they can fast forward the 45 minutes of commercials…
You’ve probably heard about how the show polarized the audience much like a high-frequency sonar fence, with dedicated Losties on one side and a power-hungry evil smoke monster on the other. Personally I’m sick of everybody either hating or loving something – can’t anybody have a lukewarm reaction these days? Just stick me in the middle and fry my brain with those sonar beams, because the finale didn’t provoke me too much either way.
For starters I did, in fact, like the ending. Sorta. You see, I liked the explanation of the “sideways” timeline. I liked the gathering in the church. I liked the cyclical nature of the closing shot (I’m a sucker for cyclicals…). There were a lot of things to like. But I also feel that I just saw watched the finale for seasons 5 and 6 and am waiting for information regarding those pesky first 4 seasons. I’m certainly no hardcore Lostie – The Woman didn’t start us watching it till the show was halfway through its second season and we never really gave much thought to the Internet tie-ins – so there’s bound to be some “questions” I have that were “answered” in some form elsewhere. But that isn’t exactly my problem.
To some extent I guess I really just wanted some acknowledgment of it all. Speaking to a co-worker who liked the finale better than I, she suggested that just a little shoehorning of the DHARMA Initiative into the grand scheme of finality would have worked. Something along the lines of showing how they were one of many ways that civilizations had tried to understand the Island over the centuries. Right now it feels like 80% of the first 4 seasons was like Communism – merely a red herring.
Don’t think that I’m trying to convince anyone that they shouldn’t have enjoyed the episode or the series as a whole. Also don’t think that I’m fishing for explanations. I’m nearing 600 words into this post and don’t really feel like putting together a list of questions about the identity of the man in Jacob’s Cabin or how Walt was special or the origin of the statue or even why Aaron ended up in purgatory (bummer, man). Maybe it’s the fact that those questions were even asked at some point that’s bothering. It seems as though many of the “mysteries” were completely irrelevant – in a way it makes much of the series seem not as good in retrospect.
After all of the hype and whatnot I feel, as my sister said, “unfulfilled.” It was far from the lowest point the show hit, but didn’t hit the high point either. Oh well, it is… was… is just a show. And on the bright side I’ve already enjoyed excellent season finales from Community (the best show on TV), 30 Rock and Medium and look forward to more tonight with How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory. Then I can enjoy life with an empty DVR.
See Daddy in the window
Looking back over the last year or so, it’s rather amazing to see the changes in Kayleigh’s behavior around people. Especially me.
When Kayleigh was a newborn she was very easy going around me. In fact, being held in my arms and hearing my voice often got her to sleep faster than anything else. But as any parent can tell you, newborns, babies and toddlers are very different creatures. After a suitable number of months passed by with her mother and I filling ye olde traditional family roles, her attachment issues became rather singular. Gone were the simple days of letting her pass out in one arm with a beer or Wii controller being put to use by the free one so that I could give Mommy a break. Instead it was “huggy Mommy” this and “huggy Mommy” that.
To make matters worse, my work schedule eventually ran afoul of her sleep schedule. Kayleigh fell into the habit of an early bedtime, and that meant that getting home past 6 PM ran the risk of the “nighttime routine” already being in progress. At the very least we began the procedure shortly thereafter. And thus she made the connection between my getting home from work and the dreaded state of sleep coming soon. Much to my dismay I began to be greeted with tears and wailing and moaning and gnashing of the teeth.
But like I’ve said, life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop… no, wait… Ferris Bueller said that. I said something about newborns and babies and toddlers and how different they are and how much things change. So more change happened. Kayleigh bedtime moved later and later until we weren’t even heading up stairs until after 7:30 most nights. This gave me the chance to actually play with my little girl after tossing off the shackles from the daily grind. Now my arrival became a time for rejoicing, not lamenting.
She may not willingly admit it to anyone at this time, but Kayleigh seems to really like her old man now. Daddy coming home gives her even more options for amusement with Thomas trains and juggling balls and oven mitts. So as it gets close to the right time, she starts asking (or telling) Mommy to “see Daddy in the window.” And that is The Woman’s cue to pick her up and let her walk in our bay window. From that perch the wee lil’ one gets to jump up and down excitedly and ask for high fives through the window as I come up the walkway.
Kayleigh isn’t going to be mistaken for a Daddy’s girl anytime soon. Her preference is still obvious to anyone who spends more than 5 minutes around us. But she has at least started to express a preference that I remain a part of her life and spend a little time with her under certain terms – and that’s a big deal after the past few months. Just the other day she asked The Woman if she could “See Daddy at work”. That phone call was a major high for me. Even if all of my co-workers weren’t completely enamored with her I’d still say yes. Fortunately they all are, which makes her visits to the office a nice break for everybody – right up to the diaper change.
Everybody’s linking for the weekend
Hmm, I seem to recall I used to share things found on the Internet that amused me. Maybe I should give that another go…
- Have you seen Hyperbole and a Half? I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as hard as when I read her description of how a fish almost destroyed her childhood. The posts tend to be on the long side, but much of that is thanks to the terrible drawings.
- Fake Science makes posters with that old 50s/60s look based… er… less than reputable facts. They take on issues like ICP’s wonderment with magnets and the current distribution of oil.
- Yet another good one from tumblr – The Big Caption. Adding great typographic commentary to The Big Picture. This shot from Thailand was just ripe for some good ol’ fashion sarcasm.
- Matthew Baldwin, of defective yeti fame, is trying all the snacks in his new office’s vending machine and rating them for our pleasure over at Vending Spree.
- My new source for all things hip: Kitsune Noir.
- We haven’t had the chance to try any of these yet, but after seeing dishes like strawberry shortcake sliders, smashed new potatoes and cochinita pibil, Simply Recipes found a place in Google Reader for me.
Probably forgetting something. Oh well, that should carry you through to the end of the work day.
Dandelion Wine
Believe it or not
I actually made a music post! Is it any good? Who knows, it’s not like I read it…
Is it just me, or does anyone else out there cringe at the thought of reading your own writing? There’s an inherent distrust in the notion that I can do anything that requires some sort of talent. Even though many people have complimented me on my writing, I can only assume that they are being nice. Obviously anything produced by these clattering fingertips could barely resemble coherent English let alone something friends, family or total strangers would find interesting or entertaining.
Self-deprecation can be fun for you, too!
In all seriousness, while I would never actually call myself a good writer it does appear as though I am a natural one. Just like falling off a bicycle, it comes rather easily despite long breaks between efforts. Perhaps shortening those gaps would produce something resembling quality content. At the very least it would produce quantity – and that’s darn close alphabetically speaking!
Anyway I’m trying not to let my indecision with regards to the use of domain names, subdomains, and subfolders get in the way of continued blogging. Isn’t there a cute baby video or something laying around here I could post? This meta-crap is getting old.