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...And Little E Makes 3 Should We Talk About The Weather?

Goin’ to the grandparents

A veritable multimedia feast for you here tonight, as we get Evan ready for a trip to his grandparents’ house a few minutes away.

Evan's going over the river and through the woods
All decked out. On an average day, Evan is much better dressed than his daddy is.

Evan's going over the river and through the woods
This outfit is Mr. Flibble-approved.

Evan's going over the river and through the woods
Dear Evan: please file this “doggy hat” photo under “things Dad never would have dressed you in”. Love, Dad.

And a little audio clip, taken by sticking my camera in the windowsill in Evan’s bedroom. Keep in mind, we’ve got a nice thick blanket tacked up over the window, and it’s kept the room nice and toasty, but the wind is blowing so hard here (still!) that this is just what you hear while sitting there:
[audio:https://www.thelogbook.com/earl/podcast/windy.mp3]

Good thing that Daddy’s bed is next to that window, while Evan’s crib is all the way on the opposite wall. Still, we both have snotty noses today.… Read more

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...And Little E Makes 3 Critters

Ain’t it funny how the night (and the kitty) moves

Apparently cats take things in shifts and I didn’t realize it. Evan woke up a little while ago and announced that he required feeding…

Evan

And while I wasn’t at all surprised to find a kitty occupying his crib with him, I had to engage in a bit of a Tennant-ism after rubbing my eyes and turning on the lights:

Evan and Olivia

What? What!?

Evan and Olivia

What??!?? 😯

Oberon was unavailable for comment. Apparently somebody’s realized that Evan’s side of the room is warmer than daddy’s side… 😛 … Read more

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Funny Stuff Should We Talk About The Weather? Toiling In The Pixel Mines

Wind and/or wuthering

Man, the wind blew last night. Right out of the north too, which means “right into the window of Evan’s room, which leaks air like it’s barely there.” I tacked up a blanket across the window, so the cold air didn’t reach him (his crib is by the door, and more importantly, by the central heat/air vent over the door, which was keeping him nice and toasty), but the bed I’ve been sleeping in there during my “overnight baby shift” is right under the window, so…yeah, I got a bit cold. Even my cats didn’t stick around. Draft dodgers!

After reading Flack’s tale of attrition by pizza, I was instantly reminded of my first TV job, and the fact that I had only part of one night’s training. Bearing in mind that I had been working in radio for about 4 years at that point, I think it was probably a big help that I had basic theory of timing out commercial breaks, etc., down…but still, it came as a surprise to me when, about four hours into my shift, she announced that it looked like I had it all figured out, and that she was going to leave and go hang out with her boyfriend. She also made it clear that she wasn’t going to come back to check on my work, or for that matter come back at all. She was quitting on the spot.

I finished out that shift to the best of my ability, without any major issues. Needless to say, the next Saturday night, I was working that shift instead of her.

The funny thing is, several years later at another local gig, I ran into someone who shall remain nameless who was apparently the person with whom she went to hang out after leaving me to my fate. We had a little laugh about that and said that the last time he saw her, she’d said the same thing – which came as a bit of a surprise, since he thought he was her boyfriend. My only reply to that was “Well, I guess she’d finished training you.”

It’s strange how well that joke didn’t go over at the time, but I still think it was funny.… Read more

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...And Little E Makes 3 Music Television & Movies

Time Crash. Awesomeness.

David Tennant + Peter Davison? Sign me the heck up. Already got a DVD cover on hot standby:

Time Crash DVD cover

Grab your own copy of the cover here if you’re so inclined (or just want to gawk at my insomnia-and-E.S.-Posthumus-fueled Paint Shop Pro dabblings). I literally used the only still photo the BBC has provided so far (and then that one from the Sun too), so design greatness it ain’t, but it’s just a tad more epic than the original “two guys standing there” publicity shot. 😆 I’m really looking forward to this. If they’d managed to shoehorn Sylvester McCoy into the same little special, I’d be happy beyond belief. But this’ll do nicely. Davison and McCoy were my favorites among the original Doctors, and I don’t care if he has put on a bit of weight, Davison looks great. (I wish that when people looked at me and said “you’ve put on a bit of weight,” I was looking like that guy instead of the fella in the mirror.)

It’s official: despite the glut of CDs I’ve played for him, from Scott Joplin to Vangelis to Moody Blues, Evan’s officially approved darn-near-guaranteed-to-work sleepytime CD is a “baby mix” I assembled for him, whose playlist goes thusly:

  1. “Lullaby” – Raymond Scott
  2. “Radio Sheffield” – BBC Radiophonic Workshop
  3. “Popcorn” – Hot Butter
  4. “Sleepy Time” – Raymond Scott
  5. “Sea Sports” – BBC Radiophonic Workshop
  6. “Apache” – Hot Butter
  7. “The Music Box” – Raymond Scott
  8. “Milky Way” – BBC Radiophonic Workshop
  9. “Telstar” – Hot Butter
  10. “Nursery Rhyme” – Raymond Scott
  11. “P.I.G.S.” – BBC Radiophonic Workshop
  12. “Syncopated Clock” – Hot Butter
  13. “Tic Toc” – Raymond Scott
  14. “Wheels” – Hot Butter
  15. “Summer Intro” – Neil Finn

(The Raymond Scott tracks are basically the entirety of Soothing Sounds For Baby Volume 1, the Hot Butter tracks are all from Popcorn, and the Radiophonic Workshop stuff is all from BBC Radiophonic Music. The Neil Finn track is from the Rain soundtrack.)

So…in other words…Evan’s got a thing for kinda trippy experimental electronic music from the 1960s and ’70s. But man, does that mix knock him out like a tranquilizer dart. Now, I know that he’s not gonna remember any of this stuff, and that these early “preferences” of his will wind up in my memory only, but that music is now inextricably linked with my son in my mind. I also donated the little light apparatus to his room that once powered my glowin’ Dalek; it simply projects its patterns straight onto the ceiling above his crib now. And he seems to dig it – until the colors shifting and the music lull him to sleep.

If he was older than, say, a month, I’d say it’s time to break out some Floyd.… Read more

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Funny Stuff Television & Movies

Surely I’m not the only one…

Well, a little preamble here. My wife has been home now, either madly pregnant or madly mom, for almost three months. In that time, she’s begun to watch an inordinate amount of E!, which – from my own observations in passing through the room – has got to be one of the most inane, disposable, worthless channels on the cable lineup. I can see taking in one episode of True Hollywood Story now and again, maybe once a month if there’s a good one on, but sitting there watching it non-stop? Jesus. Discovery evidently isn’t putting seasons of Deadliest Catch on DVD fast enough for us.

Keeping Up With The CardassiansAnyway, I’ve gotten to see a number of promos lately for something called “Keeping Up With The Kardashians”, and surely I’m not the only one who hears that title and immediately makes the mental leap to these people instead. Now that’d be an interesting reality show – talking about the good old days of the Bajoran occupation, comparing notes on torture techniques, and sanding down those pesky neck ridges. That’d almost make more sense. Who the heck are the Kardashians? Maybe this is just the sound of me being older than dirt, but isn’t a prerequisite of celebrity that people recognize you on sight or on mention? Who are these people? Sorry, E!, but you’re cheating. You don’t get to invent celebrities just so you can build reality shows around them. How Truman Show is that?… Read more

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Critters Gadgetology Home Base Should We Talk About The Weather? Television & Movies

Of dogs, storms, and really amateurish artwork

We had a pretty loud storm tonight, but there was more fanfare about it on TV than there was actual storm. (It had raised all kinds of hell in Tulsa, though, so it was worth at least watching the TV coverage to keep an eye on it.) One big clap of thunder woke Evan up. This was also one of the first times in months that Xena came into the house. I’ve gotten to where I let her sit out rainstorms out on the side deck, but when we’re talking hail and worse, yeah, I’m a softie, the dog gets to come in. Naturally, she crashed out, Olivia played with her tail, Obi slept next to her, and she stood guard over Evan. Everybody loves the little guy.

Today was one of those days where I just didn’t have the brainpower to do anything useful, and was leaving the Avid powered down for the whole day (the first tornado watch was popped on us before noon), so I did a little bit of just-for-the-sheer-heck of it design work, and joined the ranks of those who do fan-made Doctor Who DVD covers. Rather than do the 37th cover for some well-known episode that hasn’t even officially been released yet, however, or a “fantasy football” cover for a lost story, I decided to go way off the beaten path: I thought I’d do a DVD cover for a fan film. I altered the basic template a bit and added the now-standard “From the world of BBC-TV’s Doctor Who…” wording that accompanies spinoff productions like Big Finish’s Dalek Empire audios, and came up with this:

Daemos Rising DVD cover

(You can download the full-res printable version here. The nifty 3-D mockup abo0ve was generated by an insanely useful program called Imandix Cover, which you can download free here.) While I’m happy with the intent of the artwork, the actual execution is just a bit crap – since it was all done with screencaps from the DVD itself, the main artwork, when you look at it really close up, is very pixellated. Still, I’d like to think I wasn’t a zillion miles off stylistically; I’ve posted it to the forums at Outpost Gallifrey, where I’m sure that my assessment of “crap” may be confirmed very quickly. 😆 But not to be dissuaded, I’m already working on another cover, this time for a series of irreverent “I Love The ’80s”-style documentary segments that aired in 2003. So if I want to burn these to DVD, I can put a cover on the DVD that’ll look something like:

Who @ 40 Weekend DVD cover

I tried to be a little more…well…artistic with this one. K-9 and the time vortex are screen grabs, while the TARDIS is a 3-D model that I rendered myself. I’d like to tackle Shakedown: Return Of The Sontarans soon, just because…well…it’d be kinda relevant at the moment. 😉 For giggles, I ran my old Countdown To Looking Glass cover through Imandix, which didn’t like the dimensions and chopped some of the artwork off:

Countdown To Looking Glass DVD cover

…oops. Guess I need to take that one back to the drawing board before I go too far into Who territory. Though ironically, I still like the CTLG artwork better than either of the Who pieces.

Also on my to-do list: an official Doctor Who DVD cover for Olivia vs. the Dalek. 😆… Read more

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...And Little E Makes 3 Critters

E.G., a.k.a. C.U.B. (f.y.i.)

I’m Earl Green, and I’m a complete and utter bastard.

I say that because that’s pretty much how I feel on this first-ever night of “let the baby cry it out.” Mom is tired – no, scratch that, she’s exhausted and frustrated – and I’m supposed to be watching the baby. Except that Evan, after some baby formula and a diaper change and a bit of swaddling – decided that he doesn’t like having Mom all the way across the house from him. (Try working a graveyard shift for seven years, kiddo.)

Problem: Mom’s going back to work at the beginning of November. And then it’s gonna be the Evan & Dad show all day. He’s got to get used to me, and he’s got to trust me. I love looking after the little guy, and as much of a drag as it may seem to some folks out there to look after a baby, I have to admit, it’s kinda cool. I guess there hasn’t been enough of a routine set in for me to find it pure drudgery yet.

So tonight he’s got something bothering him, and I cannot figure out what it is. So he gets to cry it out for a bit. I hate that. What’s worse is that we’ve had to close the nursery door while he’s at it. Anytime he gets quiet, you’d think I’d rejoice, but no, I get paranoid and want to go make sure something really bad hasn’t happened (i.e., “Hey little guy, are you still breathing?” “Yeah, here, tell me what you think of my lungs – WAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!”). And if we leave him screeching for about ten minutes, Oberon will run in there to his rescue. And when I say “run in there”, I mean “run into the nursery and take a beautiful flying leap to land right on the edge railing of the crib and then jump down to see what’s wrong with his little buddy”.

And today had gone so well otherwise. … Read more