Perpetual Off Night

The blog is dead. Long live the blog.

2006-07-18T23:48:00.000-05:00

Effective immediately, I'll no longer be using this site anymore.

But before you toss that confetti in the air, I am now conducting my bloggy business at a new address: http://daddydemocrat.com/. Please update your bookmarks and feed subscriptions forthwith. See you around.

(The content will remain live on this site so as to make sure that permalinks don't break for others. I'm too lazy to test all the possible scenarious with referrals. Most of the content here, however, has also been imported into the new blog home, and with enhancements.)

Lentz Lunch

2006-05-23T22:08:00.000-05:00

One of the nice things about working on a college campus is that you never know who you'll get to talk to or what you'll get to talk about before the day is over. Today I went to the grill for a quick sandwich and found Bryan Lentz there talking to a colleague. Bryan is our top-notch candidate for State Rep. in the PA-161, and I enjoyed the chance to sit with him and hear about how the campaign is going.

Bryan always impresses me whenever I run into him. He's a natural for politics, and I mean that in all the best possible ways. He first got my attention in November, when he contacted our Township Dems a few weeks before the local-only election. With nothing asked in return, he mobilized his volunteers to help us staff the polls. They didn't wear Lentz swag. They just showed up and worked their tails off for our candidates. "Right now, the most important thing we have to do is get Democrats elected," he told me. Bingo. Candidates need to ask for help, and I'm more willing than most to work for them. But you have to be impressed with a candidate who, in the big-money era of politics, scratches your back first.

Lentz has a lot of the good-guy charisma that reminds me of Ed Rendell, but without all the bluster. He's campaigning hard, wearing out shoes as he goes door-to-door across the district. While he's shown fund-raising prowess, the organization is running on the fuel of people power. I'm a grass-roots guy at heart.

It's a great moment to be an uppity blue in this area. Not only are things naturally trending in our favor with the slow dismantling of the famous Delco machine, but the candidates we're attracting are amazing. Having both Lentz and Joe Sestak, who is running for Congress in PA-07 against wacko Curt Weldon, makes our full slate into a dream team. Almost an embarrassment of riches. I've never been so excited about the ticket as I'm going to be this November.

If you're a Dem and you live in Southeastern PA, your time is now. There are great candidates practically growing on trees—men and women who you can be proud to be associated with. If you have a shred of hope that government can be better than the mess that the the so-called Republican revolution has created, get yourself to a candidate's web site or local headquarters and get to work. Do not sit this one on the sidelines.

Technorati tags: PA POLITICS DEMOCRATS BRYAN LENTZ PA-161 PA-07

The son and the heir

2006-05-18T21:00:00.000-05:00

Mom: You know, I'll still be your mom when you're 10, and when you're 15. I'll still be your mom when you're 40 years old and have your own family and your own house.
Lad: Will you live with me then?
Mom: Sure. I can live with you if you want.
Lad: Okay! But I'm going to need your furniture. And your hall light fixture.

A.B.C. Always be closing.

I hate to ask—for fear that I don't want to hear the answer—where I am in this plan?

Technorati tags: CHILDREN PARENTING

A new generation of Beats

2006-04-30T12:38:00.000-05:00

When we leave the room, we often are often able to listen in on free-form poetry performances by our son. Check out this, transcribed (in secret) from yesterday's orations:

the good fairy came
& she didn't like
the holy water spirit
of the United States of America

holy liberty sauce
with cheese
& God made it
& he came back one more time
& he want to heaven.
Freeze!

& peace for all
& a police officer for all
& Jesus for all

& liberty
& liberty for all
& liberty for all
& liberty for all
but not justice
just liberty

I promise, he's never heard a beat poem in his life!

Technorati tags: POETRY CHILDREN

Somebody wanna confess to teaching this to him?

2006-04-29T19:33:00.000-05:00

Me: I'm trying to get you to relax and calm down a little bit.
Lad: I don't want to relax. I need to wock and woll.

What next?

Technorati tags: CHILDREN PARENTING

Gotta Make the Donuts

2006-04-25T21:11:00.000-05:00

Early in the morning tomorrow, a troop of groggy web-heads are going to show up on the campus. Normally, the members of the team I'm heading up call this sort of function "making the donuts," referring to the old Dunkin' Donuts ads.

Except this time it's no ordinary batch. We're showing up early to perform the cutover of the College's brand new web site. (If it's April 26th, you can visit www.swarthmore.edu to see it.)

The launch day is the culmination of two years of work. Two years of committee meetings, sketches on whiteboards, wireframe drawings, contract negotiations, software demonstrations, load tests, usability tests, story drafts, war rooms, and massive quantities of pixel-pushing. We designed. We redesigned. We refined the redesign. We redesigned the refined redesign.

Five consulting firms. Thousands of emails. On the eve of the launch, I can say that the project has been exhausting/heady/crazy/thrilling/cool. Possibly insane. Fun.

The resulting site is a labor of abiding love. And for those who don't quite love the project, it is a labor of great pride. Although I have had the honor and responsibility of leading the project across the finish line, I've never worked on a project that coordinated the good efforts of so many good people. It's astonishing what it takes to make a modern college web site.

It takes a village.

I could try to name everyone who helped. It would be pages long, and still manage to miss an important contribution. Sometimes, you just have to credit the village.

Tomorrow is just the first step in a comprehensive plan to make the site better from top to bottom. We call that Phase II. Phase II awaits. But first, the donuts.

That reminds me: I'd better pick up donuts for everybody on my way into work tomorrow.

Technorati tags: WEB TECHNOLOGY

The thought that counts

2006-04-22T17:18:00.000-05:00

At this very moment, the lad is shouting "God is great. God is good. Let us thank Him for our food, with liberty and justice for all... And many more!"

(Can you tell he was at both a birthday party and a church service today?)

Technorati tags: CHILDREN PARENTING

Stupid Moments in Advertising

2006-04-17T22:24:00.000-05:00

The copy for a current Mercedes-Benz magazine advertisement reads "YOU'RE NOT BUYING A CAR. YOU'RE BUYING A BELIEF." (Yes, they used all caps.)

I know that marketers love to ponder the sophisticated courtship between brands and customers' identities. Still, I'm convinced that with a MSRP over $85,000, a Benz customer will probably want his new belief to come with a car. A very nice car.

Technorati tags: ADVERTISING HUMOR

The Quote Machine

2006-04-11T20:23:00.000-05:00

After watching a performance by a singer on a certain popular talent competition...

Lad: That singer was kinda bad, kinda good.
Mom: What was the bad part?
Lad: The judges said...the judges said she was broadway.
Mom: Oh, and what was good about her?
Lad: I like the way she en-vib-er-ated.

Later, when asked to shoosh for a minute...

Lad: I can't stop my motormouth. I need my motormouth to keep going.

Then, as left him in his room at bedtime, in response to a request:

Dad: Hmm...I don't know.
Lad: Well, you think about it.

Technorati tags: CHILDREN

All work and no play makes daddy a bad blogger

2006-03-26T23:42:00.000-05:00

With the full press at work to get the Super Big Project out the door, I don't expect to be taking much time for posting this week.

While I'm off summoning the web demons to do my bidding, I'll mention that our son, who knows his letters but cannot yet read, has already come to the conclusion that the Internet is where you go to investigate information. He's always coming up to me and asking if I can help him find things on the Internet. Pictures and information of animals are always high on the list.

The lesson is clear for librarians and publishers alike. If kids who don't even read already know that the web is where you look for information, it's not just the matter of convenience that has caused the search engines, wikipedia, etc. to dominate own the mindshare. At that point, the Internet is information, a deeply-embedded part of culture.

This weekend, our new research interest was bats. We visited my parents 19th-century farmhouse this weekend. Bats live there. Lots of them. I grew up with bats around me, so apparently I was taking them for granted. Every night at dusk, bats came swarming out of the eaves. And as a teenager, I guided tours in a local cavern, where early morning tours usually meant a few bats would fly into you as you. Sure, I knew about echo-location and some other basic facts. I had no idea, though that bats are so cool. Don't believe me? Seriously.

When you know your child is gonna grow up just fine.

2006-03-18T15:21:00.000-05:00

Normally my parenting posts and political posts don't converge, but today they are joined.

Son-of-ours wanted to know what his daddy was reading on the computer this morning. I explained it was news about an election.

Me: People are talking about who should be our next president. Who do you think we should pick to be the president?
Lad: We should pick a lady. [Parents beam.]
Me: I think so too. That would be a really good thing.
Lad: We should pick a lady who won't lose.

I also told him that there was going to be an election between Santorum and Casey. I explained that Santorum was our current senator, but that a lot of people were tired of him, and that mommy and daddy were going to vote for somebody else.

He offered only a two word response, "Santorum out!" and pointed his thumb over his shoulder.

Kid, you are just too cool for words.

Technorati tags: CHILDREN POLITICS

The inevitable phase of boyhood

2006-03-14T21:13:00.000-05:00

Me: I'm hungry. We should get some dinner.
Lad: I'm hungry too.
Me: I'm hungry like a bear.
Lad: I'm hungry like a meat-eater!
Me: A meat-eater?
Lad: T. Rex. I'm a T. Rex. Grarh!

Technorati tags: CHILDREN

Welcome surface warfare officers!

2006-03-10T20:45:00.000-05:00

The day's traffic report says that there's been a burst of traffic originating from a private web site for Naval SWO's. One presumes that this connection is a couple posts on this site about Ret. Vice-Admiral Sestak, who is running for Congress here in PA-07.

I was a little surprised at the traffic. Any lurkers want to let the rest of the us in on the scoop?

Technorati tags: PA Politics Democrats PA-07 Joe Sestak

The waters of March

2006-03-10T19:03:00.000-05:00

Spring really arrived in Pennsylvania today. A light breeze with the temperature in the 70's. Blooms are just around the corner. Everyone I know had a little touch of spring fever. Some had a pretty big touch. (You know who you are!)

Even though I have a lot on my mind now, I'm taking the day to just feel the warmth, and have a little gratitude. I was listening to music at work, when one of the most beautiful, graceful songs ever recorded popped up on my iTunes rotation, Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Waters of March" ("Águas de Março").

And the riverbank talks
of the waters of March.
It's the end of all strain.
It's the joy in your heart.

Technorati tags: HAPPINESS MUSIC

We're all dopes in the ports show

2006-03-09T23:03:00.000-05:00

Fearful of a mid-term election that could "go national," "spell realignment," or "trigger armageddon," how thrilled are Congressional Republicans right now? RoveBushCo handed them the big fat present in the ports fiasco: an issue that they can showcase back home in tight races to distance themselves from an unpopular administration. In fact, I'm sure there were some that were looking forward to a veto, just so they could override it.

Surely the President wanted the the deal to go through, but I doubt that the politcal arm of the administration was afraid to sacrifice it. A corporate sale left incomplete is not the kind fiasco that could tarnish a legacy, and it sure takes our attention off of the whole corruption meme that would otherwise be dominating the news cycles for the last few weeks.

Xenophobia sells. Truly, a master stroke. Watch congressional approval numbers get an uptick in next week's polls.

Technorati tags: POLITICS

Busy man

2006-03-07T21:53:00.000-05:00

Mom: Who wants to go see pop-ball's basketball team play this weekend?
Dad, age 35: I will!
Mom, age perfect: I will!
Boy, age 4: I won't, because I have a lot of projects to do.

Later, while explaining why he likes to gobble up ice cream quickly: "I eat ice cream fast so my gums and my teeth will be unaffected."

Do you get the sense that this child has an explanation for EVERYTHING? How are we going to manage this when he'll able to thoroughly outsmart his clever parents by the age of seven?

Technorati tags: CHILDREN PARENTING

Globetrotter Wannabe

2006-03-07T21:30:00.000-05:00

Parenthood put the brakes on some ambitions earlier in married life to see the world. This is just a reminder to myself that I'm fascinated by the world, and I've only seen a small fraction. College education for the offspring, be damned!

Create your own visited countries map.
(Via Big Monkey, Helpy Chalk.)

Technorati tags: TRAVEL

Plea to science fiction scriptwriters

2006-03-06T21:29:00.000-05:00

We're not really big science fiction fans in our household, but we've been cowed by critics and friends into finally watching the DVD's of the Battlestar Gallactica remake. Indeed, they are as good as advertised. My favorite part is that the scripts spare no one. Being innocent or helpless does not protect a character. Cute kids are kinda the red shirts of this universe.

The constant threats of complete annihilation raise the table stakes.

Just one small kvetch, since both Gallactica and The Matrix used the premise that the machines wanted access to the human mainframes. Dear writers: the word is mainframe is soooooo 1982. I know how hard it is to write about fictional technology without sounding bogus. But your core audience for this stuff is very tech-savvy, and it just makes you sound like posers when you use dead slang that the cool geeks would never use.

Ok. You may resume scary, scary Cylon assault.

Technorati tags: TV

Geography Whiz

2006-03-05T23:33:00.000-05:00

How proud we were of our clever little boy when he saw a drawing of London appear in a cartoon for a few seconds and exclaimed: "Look, mom! It's Mary Poppins Land."

Either we're letting him watch too many DVD's, or we're developing his visual literacy excellently well. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Technorati tags: CHILDREN

The Second Banana (and other recent experiences of parenting a four year old)

2006-03-01T21:39:00.000-05:00

My schedule this AM allowed me to be the one to drop Booch at school. After we put his bag and coat on the hook, he turned to his schoolmates and said: "Sorry, everyone. I didn't bring my mommy with me to school today. I just brought my daddy. Sorry." One thing I learned long ago was to never let your self-esteem be governed by a preschooler.

After dinner, we sang some songs. (Current favorite: Louis Jordan's "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens.") When he was done, he leaned back on me, looked up and wistfully said: "I really like to watch TV. I think I haven't watched enough TV today." Oops.

Our good sleeper is developing some bad habits. A few nights ago, he came crying into our room. We got him calmed down, but he reported that he was having bad dreams about "mean bad guys." (Hey, it was bound to happen eventually.) He's been in to wake us up every night since. We're not having any of it, but he's on the verge of getting in trouble now. Two nights in a row, the complaint was that his nose was stuffed up. Ok, valid enough. But then last night, without a good excuse to go with he came in at 2:00 AM with "I can't find my astronaut toy."

And, oh, with the chatterbox. He had a pretty significant speech delay. At two years, six months, we were practically dancing when he treated us to a few words. We would dream of the day when we could have a two-way conversation with our son. He's so charming and sweet, but now HE WILL NOT SHUT UP! I knew it was getting bad when I recently resorted to giving him little sugarless mints to suck on, just to give myself two minutes without the running monologue.

Technorati tags: CHILDREN PARENTING

Real numbers

2006-02-22T21:03:00.000-05:00

Before I took him off to preschool this morning, I received this little explanation from the lad:

In my calendar it's the 21st. In Mommy's calendar, it's the 22nd. It has every number that might exist. And here [holding up a piece of paper] it shows that it's a long time until Easter.

He's also working very hard on his Easter list. He wants two things: chocolate candy and strawberry candy.

Technorati tags: CHILDREN

Chicks

2006-02-21T22:57:00.000-05:00

I don't normally think of myself as naive. But I recently found out something that's making me reconsider.

Do you remember back to when you were very young, and your teacher introduced your class to an incubator with a couple eggs in it? Remember how the eggs hatched, and for two weeks you and your classmates diligently cared for the babies? You gave them cute names and took turns feeding them? Then when two weeks passed, the growing chicks were sent away to live out the rest of their chicken lives on an area farm?

Lies! It turns out that those little chicks were likely sent off to a zoo, where they were euthanized and fed to animals that like to eat wee tender chickens. Snakes, for instance, think they're delicious.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not squeamish about the food chain. I'm certainly down with the program of misleading small children. (Santa Claus, anybody?) Really, who wants a sobbing preschooler on their hands? Heck, our guy just saw "Curious George" at the movie theater with his grandparents and reported back to us that it was very scary.

I'm mostly shocked and outraged because I've been duped! Why did I never suspect what the teachers were up to? I'm normally so very suspicious.

Technorati tags: CHILDREN PARENTING

Knight night

2006-02-20T23:55:00.000-05:00

Sir Booch was visiting with his various grandparents for a few days. We're glad to have him back home. The house misses his energy when he's not here. He climbed all over me when I got home from work. Then we had a massive game of hide-n-seek, which is a hoot with a kid who insists on barking like a dog whenever he's hiding.

As usual, we continue enjoy playing at knighthood. Swords, castles, armor, dragons. Favorite quote of the night: "I dub thee Sir Mom."

Technorati tags: CHILDREN

Rally the Dems

2006-02-19T18:47:00.000-05:00

Deena Beard and I drove over to Bryn Mawr to attend the petition-signing rally for our major Democratic candidates this afternoon. (I understand that Geeky Mom and Atrios were both there. I didn't see Her Geekiness, despite looking for her. And I wouldn't know Atrios if I tripped over him.) I also got to see some of our friends with the Lentz campaign. (Lentz staffers helped us with poll-staffing in the recent municipal elections. While I'm sorry that he wasn't given a shot with the *&!$ county establishment, having him run for the PA-161 State House seat means that we can all commit to busting our humps for him.)

Young State Reps. Michael Gerber and Josh Shapiro definitely appear to be party up-and-comers. I expect to see them running for higher office someday. Joe Sestak is clearly refining his four-point security platform that he tried out on the Swarthmore College Dems a couple weeks ago. Lois Murphy looks to be a great shot at a pick-up in the PA-06. Notably absent was Bob Casey, although his petitions were there. (I don't know if he wasn't there because of other commitments, or because this wasn't expected to be his kind of crowd.)

Rendell was vintage Rendell...Capable of visiting the well for whatever pixie dust he uses to work himself up into a spirited enthusiasm for the business of politics. The section that got the crowd cheering was on the importance of the Party reclaiming the morality frame. If you've been paying attention to the remarks of prominent Democrats for the last year, you know that it's one of the major themes that Democrats are trying to hit on. When he closed the section saying "We're golden rule Democrats," you could see that it plainly resonated as a catch-phrase in the room. I did a search on the term "Golden Rule Democrat" in some search engines, and it's clear to me that this is actually a slogan that's working its way around the DNC, DCCC, etc. You'll find that several other Democratic candidates are using the phrase. If it works, go with it, say I. I'm not terribly fond of sloganeering and talking points, but if we're going to reduce the message of the Party to a single phrase, it had better be a powerful, simple, resonant core value like the Golden Rule.

Technorati tags: PA Politics Democrats Ed Rendell PA-07 PA-06 Joe Sestak Lois Murphy Bryan Lentz Election-2006

Everybody's doing it

2006-02-18T23:04:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I have a Johari Window too.