It's Dai Time

Katie & Scott & Simon & Cecily.

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2010 in review

January 1, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Happy new year to all the gents and ladies out there!  It’s time for a very brief year in review.

2010 Resolution Recap

  • In one year, be at or below 180 pounds. – Success!
  • Find at least 15 minutes each day to read to my son. – Failure!

2011 Resolutions

  • Read at least one book per month.
  • Read to Simon at least 3 times a week.
  • Write something (short fictional prose, a poem, an essay) once a week.
  • Learn to play the guitar.
  • Defeat Hunter in Marvel vs Capcom 3.

Game of the Year 2010

I played a bunch of games that I thoroughly enjoyed this year, but none as much as Red Dead Redemption.  It’s the first Rockstar game I’ve ever finished, and despite very shaky story arcs and character development in the Mexico portion of the game, its open world was one of the first I actually enjoyed simply exploring.  In addition, the last 45 minutes or so of the game is sublime.  Whoever wrote everything starting from the farm-upkeep/child-raising missions onward should be given a huge pat on the back and a bonus.

Movie of the Year 2010

After Simon was born, we didn’t really get a chance to go to the theater much, so I am quite appreciative of Netflix and the different video on demand services we have on our home computers/consoles.  Which is all to say: we didn’t see as many newly released movies this year as we normally would have in past years.  Anyway, it’s Toy Story 3.  That movie was amazing.  It exceeded even my high Pixar trilogy expectations going into it.

Things I “discovered” in 2010

  • Taylor Swift (I know, right?)
  • All your clothes get stained with breastmilk when you have a baby
  • I was in the minority for liking the LOST finale
  • Babies drool a lot when they’re a bit older
  • I’m as good a designer as I am/was a producer
  • Feeding your baby solid food might seem like an encouraging milestone until they poop
  • grubhub.com

It’s hard to write anything other than: 2010 was the year we had a baby.  That single event eclipses everything else that may have happened this year in importance that it’s hard to remember what else even happened.  Did anything else happen this year?

Simon Oliver

May 30, 2010 / / 0 Comments

SimonI’ve tweeted about it, told people on the phone, and put up pictures on both Picasa and Flickr, but I thought it might be nice to post something here as well.

We had a baby. If you were reading through my year26 posts, you were aware that Katie was pregnant and that our due date was March 5. Little Simon Oliver decided he couldn’t wait quite that long and was born in the early hours of February 26, 2010. He weighed a healthy 7 pounds, 7 ounces and Katie was able to bring him home a few days later.

Of course, that means Simon just celebrated his third month birthday and he is much bigger than 7 pounds now. Being a father is nothing short of awesome. Our lives have completely changed, of course. Our days now revolve around Simon and we’ve had to change our routines and assumptions about what we can do at any given moment.

Aside from all that, there’s something about having a baby that changes you in a way that is a bit more unanticipated. It makes everything else seem suddenly less important. When I look at Simon, it’s as if he’s the only thing that exists in all the world. I suppose it’s a bit like falling in love, except multiplied by infinity.

Day 365: this is it

February 11, 2010 / / 1 Comment

The last day.  The final piece of this year-long puzzle.  The coup de grace.  My 26th year of life.

In some ways, this was an ordeal.  There were days when I had to actively remember that I had a blog post to write and stumble to my computer, fighting off sleep, only to stare at an empty text field for fifteen minutes before going to look at random stuff on Facebook.

But in many ways, this wasn’t that hard.  Once I got the ball rolling by not failing to write a post for the first month or two, it was pretty hard to miss a day.  It became part of my daily routine.  Much like Katie always takes her prenatal vitamins before bed, I always write my post before I go to sleep.  I’m sure having a small (but devoted?) readership that would judge me harshly if I slipped was also a good incentive.

Really, it became just another thing I did each day.

And I liked it.  I think I’ll be done now, for a while.  I think 365 daily posts in a row is enough.  While I enjoyed the routine of forcing myself to write each day (maybe something I can use in next year’s NanoWrimo?) and I loved the conversations it would occasionally bring up with the friends who read these posts, I think I’d enjoy a nice break.  After all, any day now, the amount of free time I have is going to change forever.

I appreciate any of you who stuck with me for a whole year, anybody who joined midway through, or even if this is the first blog entry of mine you’ve ever read.  Knowing that there were people who were interested in my rants and thoughts and ideas was great.

Thanks especially to my wife, Katie, for putting up with me coming to bed half an hour later than I would have otherwise for an entire year.

That’s it.  We did it.

Day 1

February 12, 2009 / / 0 Comments

I’ve decided, partially inspired by the 25 Things epidemic on Facebook, partially because I miss writing, and partially because I’m a narcissist who loves a challenge, that I will write a short blog entry every day of the 365 days from today (my 26th birthday) until my birthday next year.

What will I write about? I’m not certain. I can’t guarantee that each day’s entry will be fascinating reading; in fact, I can probably guarantee the opposite. There will be days when what I write about will hold no interest for you whatsoever. There may be days when what I write about spurs you to engage in a discussion with me (or others) about the topic. I’m not really doing it to pound out 365 juicy bits of prose that can later be compounded into a bestselling Web 2.0 self-published book – although if I actually complete this, I may do that anyway. Minus the bestselling part.

Also, this is the only post that will show up on the front page of this blog. For all future posts, click that year26 link that’s on the right side of this page.

A few guidelines for myself: it’s not the length of the entry, but the content. I’ll try to keep things under 500 words a day so I don’t burn myself out or overwhelm anyone reading this. I’ll attempt to also keep up with everything else I’m doing in life – this daily post should not take away too much time from my busy life.

And…I’m 26 years old. Two baker’s dozens. And while I’m no Dakota Fanning or Michael Phelps, I feel like I’ve done OK with my 26 years so far. I’m very happily married, own a house and two cats, work in a job that I adore, and have enough extra income and savings to be able to not worry about dining out or splurging on entertainment from time to time.

If there’s anything I miss, it’s theatre and improv and, in general, storytelling on stage. I feel like I’m often too busy for such things now, although that’s really an excuse, just like I’m “too busy” to exercise. Perhaps this year I’ll persuade myself to audition for a community play or local troupe. Or, like I always threaten, maybe I’ll finally direct a hit Youtube series on inner city life.

Lastly, this Onion article about being 26 is only partially correct.

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