exvigilare

This is SO cool! No, my week hasn't improved, but look at the power of ten. Hattip Instapundit. John, you'll love this.

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I was wrong, my week can get worse....anybody know a good employer? I'm looking.

It's nice to know I have friends that care about me. John emailed to check on me, so I told him about my week:

Monday - no answer about the job they kept me hanging....There may be a problem with your earned vacation and sick time.

Tuesday - rejection of promotion, possible mass hilarity because of my um, aggressive comments in the interview, embarrassment imminent, I'm sure. Yes, there's definitely a problem with your earned vacation and sick time.

Wednesday - sorry, but supervisors don't get a pay raise this year. And you get yet another manager because of hierarchy restructuring, this one may be worse. And all that vacation time that you'd built up over the last few years? You lose most of it, and we won't let you take what you do have.

Thursday - oh, by the way, you loose your 1st cycle comp (about half of your mortage payment) because you did the right thing, and those supervisors that cheated get to earn extra! Senior manager crosses arms and basically says tough and he doesn't want to hear about it. I think I detect a snicker as I walk away.

Friday - how can I get screwed on Friday?

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I'm going to try not to talk politics today. I think I need the break, and you can probably find better blogging on it at any number of sites. Besides, since I know I'm not in any danger of losing my annual raise, and have been passed over (in a non-biblical sense) for yet another promotion, I don't feel much like working. What I'd like to do today is let you have a peek at my life and my family. Since I am at work, though, today will be an ongoing update. A true blog, as it were. Check back frequently throughout the day - I'll try to keep up a regular conversation. I should make an attempt to look like I'm working today.

A few days ago I mentioned Emma's challenge sleeping through the night, and the very pregnant Mrs. D's difficulty with Emma not sleeping through the night. Here's the deal. Like a lot of little ones, Emma made up her own mind when it was time to move from the crib to the bed. We didn't push her but rather gave her the option. Totally up to her. She could climb out of her crib without much difficulty anyway, so she didn't feel like a baby prisoner (at least, I hope not). She wasn't one of those babies that climbed out regularly - I think she realized the inherent danger of dropping unaided several feet to the floor.

So she moved into her "big girl" bed - very exciting for all of us. The missus and I made a big deal about it, Emma helped pick out her new bedding. Now we have Strawberry Shortcake coming out of our ears. We kept up the bed rail thingy that slips under the mattress to keep her from rolling out, but she never really had an issue with it so it didn't last long. Probably just in the way from launching herself into bed at night, anyway.

When Emma was a baby, she couldn't fall asleep unless she was holding onto mine or Tracey's finger. She'd clutch it tight in her cute little hand until she was out, then we'd have to extract our digits without waking her. Always a challenge. She doesn't require that kind of physical contact to fall asleep anymore, but what she does seem to need is one of us next to her in her bed. Every parent's challenge is dealing with this kind of attention - if you keep doing it the pattern is set. If you stop doing it, nobody sleeps for several days. Guess what we've done? We've tried to sleep. Tracey will usually lay with her weeknights until she falls asleep; I'll take it on the weekends. So now Emma is used to falling asleep with someone next to her. If she wakes (hah - when she wakes) and no one is there with her, she'll get up to find Mummy and make a fuss until Tracey gets up, goes into Emma's room and lays with her again. Emma may do this several times a night, as well. Now Tracey waits for Emma to come in, and loses even more sleep.

So we bought one of those door handle covers that little hands can't open. Tracey told Emma the entire first day what was going to happen so she wouldn't be surprised. Emma watched Tracey put the cover on and she understood that she wouldn't be able to wake up Mummy during the night. Emma did well that first night until she heard the creaking floorboards outside her door (pregnant women have to pee a lot - have you noticed?). She cried out, and Mummy answered. So much for not laying with Emma at all in the night.

Okay, mummy sleeps downstairs where Emma can't find her to wake her up. I thought for sure that I'd be up with her constantly, but Emma slept pretty much all the way through several nights. We don't really like to close her door and lock her in, partly because of the meanie grownup locking in thing, and partly because she has a whole house humidifier in her room and I have an irrational fear that the pressure will build up and blow off the roof (hey, it could happen).

The missus is 25 and a half weeks preggers, and quite large (in a very lovely kind of way). She needs more pillows than last time - a lot more pillows. Answer - different bed. So now she sleeps downstairs (no, we're not fighting!). I don't care for that very much, but if it helps her sleep, then okay. Last time I had to buy a big squishey chair (that we still have) for her to sleep in. So of course Emma wakes me up at 3:30 this morning. Where's mummy, she says? Daddy come sleep in my bed. Oh, no.

update: Tracey has decided she doesn't like being referred to as the fair madam, the missus or Mrs. D. I wanted a clever little nickname that would be catchy and draw a smile from both of my readers. What ideas do you have?

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Fun. Susie had a map on her site with the states that she's visited. If you follow the link, you can also find one for the counties that you've visited. Here's mine:



create your own visited country map

A couple of disclaimers, though. When you click on a country to say that you've visited it highlights the entire country. This is particularly deceiving when you look at Canada and Russia.
I also used to work on cruise ships as a musician, so quite a few of the countries that I "visited" were for short lengths - sometimes just long enough for a quick drink.

Here's my states (again, as a musician on tour I got to "see" a lot of ground):

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In my email 5 minutes ago:

It is with great regret that I inform you that there will be no merit increases this year.

Can this week get any worse?

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Fun from Scrappleface:

(2004-01-23) -- A flash poll taken after last night's Democrat presidential debate in New Hampshire shows the clear winner was 'unnamed Democrat.'

Previous polls have shown that while no named Democrat candidate could beat President George Bush, the 'unnamed Democrat' runs neck-and-neck with Mr. Bush in a head-to-head matchup.

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Jonah Goldberg has a good argument why you should vote for George Bush even if you're not absolutely crazy about him.

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Another quiz, this one found at Venemous Kate. Ethical Philosophy. Some of this does surprise me.

1. St. Augustine (100%)
2. Spinoza (73%)
3. Kant (72%)
4. Aquinas (71%)
5. Ayn Rand (62%)
6. Plato (59%)
7. Ockham (50%)
8. Stoics (48%)
9. John Stuart Mill (44%)
10. Nietzsche (40%)
11. Jean-Paul Sartre (39%)
12. Cynics (39%)
13. Aristotle (35%)
14. Jeremy Bentham (35%)
15. David Hume (34%)
16. Prescriptivism (34%)
17. Nel Noddings (27%)
18. Epicureans (20%)
19. Thomas Hobbes (12%)

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Joshua has examined their ratings and found the difference between Kerry and Edwards - there isn't one.

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Those of you who know what I was hoping for today.....I didn't get it.

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Neophyte Pundit pointed out this site, check it out. It's a detailed election projection for 2004. Fascinating.

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This is ridiculous.

January 27, 2004 -- EXETER, N.H. - Wise-cracking funnyman Al Franken yesterday body-slammed a demonstrator to the ground after the man tried to shout down Gov. Howard Dean.

Hmmm. This sounds like the actions of a reasonable man, don't you think? This would undoubtedly receive the kind of negative attention that would bury Franken, right?

The tussle left Franken's trademark thick-rim glasses broken, but he said he was not injured.

Franken - who seemed in a state of shock and out of breath after the incident - was helped back to his feet by several people who watched the tussle. Police arrived soon after.

"I got down low and took his legs out," said Franken afterwards.

Well, maybe not. I sure hope he's okay. Franken, I mean - why would we care about the victim? If Rush Limbaugh "body-slammed a demonstrator to the ground" after that demonstrater said something nasty about Bush, would we hear about it? I think yes. If Sean Hannity "took out" someone's legs, would we see it on the news? Certainly. If Hugh Hewitt viciously attacked a harmless tree, would we see the photos? Absolutely. If Al Franken though, did anything like this, how would CNN report it?

Franken emerged from the crowd and charged one male protester, grabbing him with a bear hug from behind and slamming him onto the floor.

"I was a wrestler so I used a wrestling move," Franken said.

Of course, what was I thinking? As always, thanks for the crack reporting, CNN.

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Lee has found a diet that works for him. This is so obvious, I don't know why it hasn't been published yet. He'll make a fortune!

And he found another penguin game. Curses!

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Don't you wish you could be in New Hampshire to really get a feel for the campaign on the ground? Matt Labash is experiencing New Hampshire like no one else.

Up at the campus's Dominic Hill, John Kerry prepares to march down to the debate with a firefighter's union and their bagpiping corps, who are playing something that sounds like Dean funeral music. For a moment, Kerry's bus, the "Real Deal Express," almost grinds its candidate into the pavement as it hurtles down the hill. A line of Deaniacs obstruct the way, causing Kerry and company to knock into the back of their bagpipers, who are getting their kilts flipped up and worse. The Deaniacs then burst through the line, and the Kerry supporters start pushing back. The whole thing plays like a battle scene from "Braveheart," or it would've if "Braveheart" had featured a man dressed like a giant penis getting hip-checked into a snow-bank.

Read the whole thing.

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Physics Geek has an interesting analysis of the chemical composition of women. His prior post (The ABC's Of Ex-Girlfriends..) may explain:

D is for dumped. Does D need to be explained?

Ouch.

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