That was quick...

So 2 days after I start writing a post about how I long for an iPhone, what happens? Linnea cracks and we go get an iPhone! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. It's sickening that I'd rather read web pages on the little iPhone screen than my computer right now, but I'm completely infatuated with it. I guess I should plug it in and put some songs on it, but I'd rather browse the internet or whatever else with it. Plus I never re-installed iTunes after my last reformat. Hopefully I'll get around to adding music to it before I actually find myself wanting to listen to music...

iWant iPhone

I've wanted an iPhone since the first commercial I saw on TV. I still remember it. It was some brief teaser ad, and it confused me more than anything. What? An iPod phone? How does that work? Get me one! Too bad once they finally came out it cost $400 with an extra $25/month on the cell phone contract. I resigned myself to the idea that I couldn't afford one until I left school and got a real job. But I still wanted one...

Anyway, with a recent budget making session, Linnea and I have figured out how much weekly "allowance" we can have for random spending. I can easily cover the now $30/month ($35 if I want to text) with part of this allowance, but how do I get the $200 to buy the phone in the first place? Now the excitement is brewing and I try to develop schemes to get that money. Luckily my birthday and Christmas are coming, so I can just ask for cash. I still want it NOW though, ever since we learned I could afford it, I've noticed myself in multiple situations per day where I could really use the email/internet the iPhone offers. Not to mention my dreams of watching movies on it on a plane, for example.

Since I want it so bad, it's really easy for me to rationalize getting it now: I need it so I'm not bored between sessions at the conference this week, we need it so we have GPS going to Angela's wedding next weekend, etc. We'll see what happens I guess.

NOTE: This is post dated because I literally wrote all but one sentence on the date it says, and I finished it right before the next post, ironically.

8:00 AM

I just realized that I make my Eight O'clock Coffee brand coffee at eight o'clock every morning.

Thanks, White Sox

Well the season is over for me. While a first round elimination is a little disappointing 3 years removed from a World Series Championship, I can't complain too much about the White Sox this season. Yes, they lived and died by the long ball (chicks still dig it though...), but they were only expected to finish 3rd or 4th in the Central this year.

So thanks, White Sox for exceeding expectations. Thanks, White Sox for stumbling into AL Central champions in stellar fashion. Thanks for Swish even though he slumped. Thanks for the true ROY Cuban Missile. Thanks, White Sox for the beautiful sight of The Kid in your uniform. And absolutely most important of all, thanks, White Sox for staying in the playoffs one game longer than the Cubs! But please trade choker Javier Vasquez. Ozzie was right. You know he would have lost 3 in a row if you made it to game 5.

Aside: sorry to the two readers I have left for not posting. It's been a crazy hectic semester. I'll try harder once I get through these two presentations I have to give at a conference next week, and the midterm right after them!

Welcome to St. Paul

My friend Adam just moved to St. Paul, and had a wonderful "welcome" by the police:

I had a "run-in" with a cop in full body armor last night in downtown St. Paul. Jana and I went to see the taping of the Daily Show at the Historical Museum (this is all during the RNC), and just outside the building we were in (across the street and down about a block) is where all of the peaceful protesting was going on. We went out for dinner after the show got out, at about 7:30p or so, and on the walk back to our car after dinner some bicycle cops came up behind us and started telling us where to walk. We ignored them and took a right to get to our car and they freaked out and started pushing me (actually physically pushing me) to go straight instead. I threw my hands up and went "woa man, just walking to our car here" and in response, he waved his mace at me telling me to get moving in his direction. We walked up about a half a block to where a news van was (FOX) and Jana walked up to their open door telling them that innocent people are getting pushed around and maced just outside their van completely unprovoked and they should be filming it. I had continued walking forward and was yelling at Jana to hurry because the bike cops were just about to get up to her again (they were riding VERY slow so they could ride next to the walkers). The cop that had pushed me earlier got to where I was standing and waved his mace in my face again and told me to keep walking. I then looked him in the eye and said "Thats my wife right there and I am waiting for her". He ignored me, and I yelled "Thats my fucking wife, you just wait a second ass whole! You're out here pushing us around and we were just out to dinner and we are walking back to our car". By that time Jana had got to where I was and we grabbed hands and continued walking. We were with 3 other friends that were at the show with us and at dinner with us. Two of them were way ahead of us because they walked very fast to get away from it all, and the other was holding up his phone the whole time yelling "this is all on tape! You're on video right now!"

Needless to say, it changed the way I look at cops completely. I felt like I was in a video about the 1960s. I have never seen so many guns, mace cans, or tear-gas rifles in my life. Just walking to the Daily Show at 2:30p (we had to get there early to get a seat) I must have seen 250 cops in full body armor. If anything, Jana and I felt LESS safe with them being there, and as it turns out, we WERE less safe. The only harm that I received both verbally and physically all night was from a police officer. AND I WASN'T EVEN AT THE PROTEST. Even if I was, it should not have mattered. I was walking peacefully to my car holding my wife's hand and strolling along. How these officers thought we were some kind of threat is beyond me. What kind of judgment is he using pushing me around?

Jana and I got home last night (9/4/08) at about 9:30 and were just happy to be home and away from it all....

Comcast SUCKS

OK, I take back all the good things I ever said when I found out that Comcast was going to carry the Big Ten Network. Why, do you ask? Let me tell you. This morning, while video chatting with my mom so she could see her grandson, I noticed the clock said 11:00, so I swore, jumped up and switched the channel to Big Ten Network HD. I didn't want to miss kickoff for the Illini. Anyway, what was on TV? The Northwestern University Wildcats versus the Southern Illinois University Salukis.

WHAT? Last week they showed a few seconds of another game and then it switched to the Illini, so I waited. Then I waited longer. Then I went online to see if they actually kicked-off yet, and it was already like 3 minutes into the game! I called BTN and they said they were already on the phone with Comcast, and Comcast was just showing the wrong game in our area.

So I waited. Sat in my chair, watching the crappy Wildcats, the butt of Big Ten Football, play the "Football championship subdivision" Salukis. What the hell? So now it's halftime, and I already tried talking to Comcast. Local numbers were busy, and I was on hold for 15 minutes with their nationwide 800-number before hanging up, since I'm sure they were aware of their HUGE MESS-UP. I was also 95th in line for online chatting, but then I had to feed Louis. Anyway, it's halftime and I call BTN back since they answer their phone in like 2 rings with no automated menus! Yeah, you heard right, BTN had no automated menus. Bravo, BTN. Ok, so the lady who answered after the 2nd ring said they got ahold of Comcast right after everyone called in at kickoff, and that Comcast said they were "working on it." YOU CAN'T PUT THE RIGHT GAME ON AFTER A WHOLE HALF OF FOOTBALL??? Somebody needs to get fired.

It's now almost through the 3rd quarter and the only Illini I've seen is the updates they give in the NW game (which proves their equipment is actually working since they showed clips, so someone really does need to get fired, because it's airing somewhere out there, but not 2 MILES FROM THE STADIUM).

One Fine Face

I'm sitting at work humming the same tune in my head that I've been humming in my head since I woke up this morning. What is it?

"One Fine Face" by Ernie and Elmo on Elmo's Greatest Hits.

Ocho Cinco

I can't wait to see "Ocho Cinco" on the back of Chad Johnson's, oops, I mean Chad Ocho Cinco's jersey again this year. I love that he legally changed his name to stick it to the NFL for fining him when he did it before.

Never mind the fact that it should really be "Ochenta y cinco."

Boo State of Illinois

I just found out today that my only reason for voting has been non-existent this whole time. Frank Calabrese, a senior at the UI, is running against incumbent Naomi Jakobsson for State Representative. I have been really excited about this because Frank wants to fight for increased University funding, among other things I strongly agree with. Not to mention he's an Orange Krush member. ANYWAY, I was perusing his website today to find out that his district, 103, which includes most of C-U falls about 500 feet short of my house! Well, it's really a little bit more than that, but literally 4 seconds in the car. CRAP. He's the only reason I was going to stroll into my polling place this year. Forget the Presidential election, this is a major catastrophe. Oh why did I buy a house in district 105? I've even disliked Jakobsson since the last time I voted (when I still lived in 103).

The worst part about it is that Jakobsson thinks Calabrese is a joke, and they're even spinning some crap about how since he wasn't elected student senate president, the students must not like him. Exqueeze me? Baking powder? I love how they exclude the fact that most of the 30,000+ students don't even know when that election is, not to mention that those who do know when it is only know about the candidates from their names written in chalk on the quad! They're also claiming Jakobsson has a record of strong support for the UI. Yeah, so much support that our funding has been dwindling recently. Good job Naomi, I guess I better vote for you since you have my best interests at heart. OH WAIT! I can't even be sarcastic about that BECAUSE I'M IN THE 105TH DISTRICT BY 2 FEET!!!

The moral of this story is that you should vote for Frank Calabrese on election day since I can't.

Update: One of my friends says he lived next door to Frank, and didn't think too highly of him, so I don't feel so bad for living outside the district anymore. I still don't like Naomi Jakobsson though.

NEW WEBSITE!!!!!!

I made a website last weekend. I'm so excited about it. Hopefully it makes up for my recent crappy blogginess a little bit. I would blog about why I decided to make it, and how I made it from scratch basically, but I talk about it on one of the pages, so you can check that out there. You wouldn't believe how much of a pain in the ass it is to make rounded corners!

Anyway, I guess some day I might make this blog's layout match my web page, but maybe not, because I'm sure I'll want to change my website's look every now and then. Oh yeah, there's also a link on this sidebar to the site. So, let me know if you like it, or if you have any suggestions.

Happy 2 years!!!

Happy 2-year anniversary honey. I love you so much. It's been the best 2 years of my life, by far.

p.s.: I made that heart myself!

One Month

My son is one month old today. If you never got a link to his blog, let me know. That's where all the pictures are. Anyway, I had a bunch of cool stuff to talk about here, but I either forgot about it, or I'm too tired to type it out right now. I've really been concentrating on keeping Louis IV's blog updated so that everyone knows what's been going on and who he's been meeting, so my blog is kind of riding the pine right now. It's really hard too. I don't know how many times each day some random thought pops in my mind, or something neat happens, or I read something amazingly cool, and I just don't have time to write about it. I would say it eats at my insides, but if it really ate at my insides I would just blog instead of playing Call of Duty 4 in my free time. Speaking of that, I'm really kicking butt. I don't know what happened, but something just clicked one day. That's for another post though, that will probably not get posted. Excluding my brother and brother-in-law, I'm pretty sure there's only one other dude who even cares. He knows who he is.

I guess I'll just ramble quickly about some other things since I don't really want to post anything else after this post for a day or two, since I don't want to overshadow a post about my son, even though it was only about him for a second. How about those White Sox? I don't know what to think anymore. Every time they start winning, they just go back to losing (see: tonight). Oh well, hopefully they can hang on until October. It's almost like the collapse of 2005, except that they had about a 16 game lead before tanking in the second half. I remember it well, I was scared for my life. Luckily the game I picked to go to was when they broke their longest (7 games) losing streak of the season by hitting 4 homers in a row against Randy Johnson. That was amazing to watch. That season turned out o.k. though... Oh, and what do you think about that Brett guy? I dislike the Packers greatly, but I've always had a great respect for Brett's playing. Unfortunately this month long stink has left a bad taste in everyone's mouth.

Alright, I'm up for feeding the little dude, hopefully I'll get my posterizer ramped up again soon.

Throne

My new rocking recliner. Main purposes: rocking the baby, watching TV, PS3

The Cardinal of the Kremlin

Since my last post about fiction novels, I completed Patriot Games, and just yesterday I completed the next-in-line Clancy, The Cardinal of the Kremlin. I didn't think it could get any better than what I've already read from him (especially since this book was not made into a movie), but man, was I wrong. I'm pretty sure Cardinal is my favorite so far. It deals more with "spy" type stuff rather than military. It has a hint of special-ops, which is cool because Clancy introduces some of the characters that were in Rainbow Six. Clancy is an absolute master at weaving characters that seem to have nothing in common together, and eventually having them meet in later books.

Overall, this book was awesome and I recommend it. But you know, I recommend all his Jack Ryan / John Clark books. While they're all intricately woven together, each one can easily stand on its own without any loss to the plot. Next in line for me is Clear and Present Danger. I'm hesitant to go get it from the library because they take a while to read, and my little "vacation" is just about up and it's business time again.

Things I found 02

Unfortunately, well not unfortunately for me the new dad, but unfortunately for the new thing I started a couple weeks ago called "things I found," having a baby kind of hindered my ability to peruse the things I normally peruse online. Well, here are some stale things I found the week before my son was born, and one from today.

If you're lucky, they'll make a sign for your name, instead of spelling out the letters. Did any of your students do this Grandma? [Kottke]

I guess they make "cat"s out of some pretty expensive metal. [Tribune]

This stuff does happen. Straight out of Clancy... [Tribune]

Viva Watermelon! [Sun Times]

Line cutter!

Kottke posted about a guy who encountered a line-cutter at an Apple store when the iPhone 3G was released. I linked to Lance's site to read the entire entry, and it was absolutely amazing. Not only was it written with a great attention to his thoughts and details, but I started getting mad at the line-cutter myself! This blog entry is probably how I would envision my blog if that's what I did for a living. Unfortunately when I post, I get too excited and try to get it published quickly rather than being patient and adding the details that made that post so wonderful.

Read it! You'll be happy.

5 days

I've been Dad for 5 days. It's finally sinking in that I have a son. It's still a little weird for Linnea and I to refer to him as "Little Louie." It's not that he doesn't look like a Louis, because when I look at him it reminds me of my grandpa (Louis Sr.). We had been calling him "Little Guy" for about 5 months, so it's been hard, but we're getting used to it.

In case you hadn't figured, my posts here will be more sporadic for a little bit with the baby, and trying to update his blog. Also, if you have experience with private blogs, any ideas how I can get around the 100 reader limit?

It's a boy!

Well, it happened. We thought he'd never come, but Louis IV was born on Monday, July 7th 2008, on his due date ironically enough. He was born (naturally, with medication thank God) at 4:08 pm, 10 pounds 11 ounces, 21 inches. I'll talk about him more after describing the events preceding his birth.

It started on Sunday night, well Monday morning. We went to bed around midnight, planning on sleeping in since we had to go to the doctor as Monday was Linnea's due date. Linnea was up constantly with some more pain than usual, but nothing as regular as contractions. We should have thought something was up; for a change I was waking up when she would get up. I usually sleep through her midnight bathroom breaks. She started feeling strange and called the Labor & Delivery nurses at the hospital. They said it was probably nothing, but she could come and get checked out if we wanted. As soon as she hung up the phone she started getting strong pains about every 4 minutes. Contractions 3-5 minutes apart is the usual go to the hospital time, so I guess we were lucky she wasn't feeling strong contractions before then. Most people feel them for quite a while (5-12 hours) before going to the hospital. We got to the hospital at 5:00 a.m. on Monday. She was at 3 cm. Later in the morning her doctor showed up (just back from vacation, fortunately. We gave her another day away from the office), and Linnea was almost at 4 cm. The doctor decided to get things moving along and gave Linnea something to strengthen the contractions. By noon she was set up with the epidural and ready to go. We got a scare when it stopped working for about an hour, but it started working again just in time. Linnea was fully dilated around 2:30 p.m. and with only an hour of rock star pushing, we had our son.

I can't even describe the moment my son came into this world. I was overcome with unexplainable emotion and started crying. Not sobbing, but they were definitely rolling down the cheek. I couldn't even say a thing, maybe a squeak, but no words. It was all I could do to even smile at Linnea. The moment was easily in the top two of my life. I can't choose between my wedding and my son's birth, because they're totally different. In a way they were both an affirmation of overwhelming love for somebody, but the indescribable nature of watching your child come into this world sets it apart somehow. I still can't believe he's ours when I hold him, but big things tend to take a while to sink in for me. I'm sure bringing him home tomorrow will help. I really can't wait.

Back to the little guy. If you don't know babies, he is absolutely HUGE. Babies are about 8 pounds on average. He looks like he's 1-2 months old already! Every time I walked by the nurses station yesterday I heard some mention about the "big boy" or heard his weight being mentioned. One nurse told us that he had the biggest hands she's ever seen on a newborn. I guess we're going to be throwing away all the newborn diapers (up to 10 lb) we already opened... We had a couple of slight scares, but he is absolutely fine. Right after he was born they needed to take him to the nursery to monitor him. The reason was unclear at first (I think the nurses don't realize the terms they use are way over everyone's head), but since he was so big he had trouble adjusting his blood oxygen levels. Unfortunately that means we couldn't hold him until about 8pm. By that time my anxiety had definitely built up, but it was a huge release to hold him for the first time.

Everyone was here when we got to bring him to our room for the first time (Grandmas Krista and Laura, Grandpa Lou - Louis Jr., and Uncles Dylan and Christian). We passed him around and took pictures of him with everyone (email me if you want the link). We fed him and convinced the Grandmas to change his diaper. We chose to have him sleep in the nursery so we could take advantage of our last two solid nights of sleep. This morning we got the second scare. The pediatrician who checked out all the babies in the morning came in at 8:30 a.m. to inform us that the murmur she heard last night (normal for newborns I guess) hadn't gone away by the morning (not normal). My heart sank as I stared blankly at the doctor trying to not look too much in shock. Linnea and I were pretty bummed, and we couldn't get him from the nursery yet again. The doctor came back at 10:00 a.m. to let us know the eckocardiogram (sp?) showed no holes in his heart (which would cause a murmur), so we were sufficiently elated and went to get him! Everyone came back today and we all hung out with the little guy. Unfortunately, my family had to go back home, but will be back in a few weeks. Grandma Krista was pretty sad to say goodbye to her grandson. I'm sure Grandpa Lou and Uncle Christian were too, but they didn't express it as much. Grandma Laura will be staying for a week to help take care of everything, and Uncle Dylan is in charge of Bailey.

Anyway, my battery is about to die, and I don't feel like reaching for the cord. From now on, baby updates and links to all his pictures will be on his own blog site. We're paranoid, so it'll be private and you'll have to get invited to see it, so email me if I don't send you an invite tomorrow.


- Dad (Louis III)

Thanks for a good 4th, CU

I hope everyone had a safe and fun 4th of July. Happy birthday USA! Anyway, Linnea and I got pretty lucky this year. Usually, we head up to her Grandma's house on Lake Geneva and hang out with her family, and go out on the boat to see the fireworks on the lake. We couldn't do that since Linnea's ready to pop. Luckily, due to the construction at Memorial Stadium (usual fireworks venue), they put on the fireworks right down the street from us! It was awesome, we sat on our patio with our mosquito candles and had a perfect view. Then we just walked inside when done, and watched the line of cars behind the house for about a half hour.

For those keeping track, the Little Guy still doesn't want to come out yet. We have no idea what's going on anymore, because we've already had all of the "signs" that tell you you're supposed to go into labor soon.

Things I Found 01

Taking inspiration from something on kottke.org, I've decided to post an almost-weekly entry linking to really interesting articles or information I found online over the week. Enjoy.

Even Bill Gates hates Windows. [Endgadget]

Don't swat the honey bee. [News Gazette]

Maybe they'll make "anti-matter" like in Angels and Demons. [Chicago Sun-Times]

Nick Swisher really is that awesome. [Chicago Sun-Times]

People in my building are hanging with Harry Potter. [Chicago Sun-Times]

You can sell your life on eBay (including friend introductions) for $380,000. [Chicago Tribune]

Good thing I didn't play PS3 this week. [Endgadget]

Segways to protect Olympcs. [Endgadget]

Tiger hurting 10 years = new, SUPER TIGER. [Daily Illini]

According to Uni Watch, White Sox were the first team to put names on back of uniforms, use separate batting practice jerseys, only MLB team to wear shorts, and celebrate half-way to St. Patrick's day. [ESPN]