When you have a child you hear a lot about television, and toys. Specifically how much, if any television, and the sort of learning toys or active toys that are appropriate for children. For the most part I would like to tell all those who have advice about these things to blot it out their ass (though I will be offering my own opinion here, duh. I should point out though that I have already blown it out my own ass, saving a step in the whole process. No need to thank me).

First television, or at least the television that was. I am not currently trying to keep my baby away from television, though I also don’t watch dumb-ass baby shows (with minor exceptions(Classical Baby).), so the baby has little interest in the television (though she loves end credits, for some reason). I do find most of the modern kids shows to be mind numbing, and there will be no Barney or the like going on in this house, but that isn’t to say that all things that were ever televised for kids is bad, and in some cases I think that having watched them I am a better person. several of these stick out so clearly in my mind that I think they are part of how I am today, good or bad. Thinking that I am good, however, these are the things I will expose my child to, in hopes that she develops memories of them like I have.

Schoolhouse Rock
There are a large number of these on the internet, but a few leap out as my favorites:

My Hero Zero

Three is a Magic Number

Conjunction Junction

Interjections!

Sesame Street
Have you watched any new Sesame Street episodes? They suck. Elmo should be beaten to death with a tire iron, for example. The classic episodes have a wealth of good stuff, though, and these are just a few of my fond memories from childhood.

Rubber Duckie

Pinball (favorite of all)

Ladybugs’ Picnic

The Alligator King

Commercials
I have always thought that most of the best of television was in the commercials, and here are some of my favorites from over the years.

I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing

Tootsie Pop (3!)

Tootsie Roll

I’m a Pepper

Mean Joe Green

Macintosh

Two All Beef Patties

Toys
Let me first say that I hate toys that make noise. I think they stifle the child by doing the work of the imagination are are just entertainment devices. I think that some of the educational toys are fine, but that for the most part they have a short useful life. I’m not sure if my girl child will react to toys in the same way as I did when I was a child, but I can only judge my own memories. When I think back, it wasn’t the flashing lights and real sound robot that was my favorite but rather some other classics.

Tinker Toys
I always wanted more of these than I had, and I never really got good at building with them, but loved them al the same.

Lincoln Logs
I actually already bought these for my daughter, and I played with them now, and enjoyed it. I am going to have to get more though because you need a lot of them if you want to build more than a simple building.

Erector Set
I never had one of these as a child, but wanted one, and now I am not an engineer, so I blame the fact that I was erector setless.

Legos
One can never have too many legos. Duplo or other large blocks are worthless though.

Barbie
I admit that I have never really played with Barbie, as I am all man, but they seem like a good toy, and it will encourage my daughter to be skinny and pretty at any cost

G.I.Joe
The big G.I. Joe is the perfect compliment to any Barbie doll, as he can go off and kill the enemy by day and return to Barbie’s home cooked meal in the evening.

I know that girls may not tend towards playing war, but even now I look at this Amazon search result and get excited.

Let the brainwashing commence.

I’ll pause while you deal with the shock of this revelation.

However, all is not dark on the health horizon. I joined the YMCA a few weeks ago, and have actually been getting in some weight workouts with a personal trainer. I don’t really need the trainer to concoct a workout for me, as I have a pretty good understanding of what needs to be done to get results from a workout. My problem has always been with motivation, and a trainer is a great way to help with that. Normally I would just stop after I got a little tired, but the trainer is there to make sure I finish the sets I need to get in. And, since I have already paid, I haven’t missed a training session yet. I am responsible for my own cardio, and so that area has been lagging behind, even though it is the easiest for me. I do plan on getting it in each day this week, and forever after that. It was funny the first day with the trainer. I was doing curls with like eight or ten pound dumbbells, like a woman, I thought. If it was weight for a woman, then I am a woman because the next day it was real trouble to move my arms properly. I am responding quickly so far though, and have had less trouble than at first, though my weights are still pretty light. Focus on form first, though, and worry about the weight later.

I hope to reduce my body fat to that of ground chuck before too long. Mmm, hamburger.

First of all to look back at the last year.

I suppose on paper, and from an outside perspective there would seem to be an adequate amount of activity in my life for the last year, after all there was a child of mine produced during this time. For me personally, however, it seems like I didn’t do much of anything. I bought some stuff. I remember that. I went on a pretty long vacation, and that was nice. Really though, it seems like I didn’t get all that much done. There were numerous things I could have done, and even wanted to do, but it seems like I always felt tired or just ran out of time and ambition to finish projects. I wrote almost nothing, built very little (so little as to be considered nothing), and didn’t progress mentally of physically.

I would have some top ten lists of thing like movies or music or events or concerts or other things, but as I explained above, I did nothing and therefore can report on nothing.

So that was my last year. I’m not sad about it or anything, but I think it is a little lame to have entire years pass where you look back and can’t really identify progress you have made. Each year is a waste of something like one-and-a-half percent of my total like (if I’m lucky).

On to the coming year.

There is much that I would like to get out of the new year, just like every other year. I suppose these things will take the form of resolutions, but they are just hopes and plans. I have no way to judge if any of these have more of a chance at succeeding this year than any other, though I suspect that they do not.

Fist off comes the normal grab bag of run of the mill resolutions. We will include here the Lose Weight, Eat Healthy Foods, Exercise, Keep the House Clean, and Organize Life (as a catch all) resolutions to this list. These are the standards, and though I am just lumping them together here, my plan is to take each of them seriously and try to obtain all of them. I have specific plans for each of these, but I won’t bore you with the details of them here. I’m sure if you wanted to find my plans, surprisingly similar ones can be found littering my archives.

In addition to these standard resolutions, I would like to add a couple more this year (because the standard ones should be so achievable that I will have extra time and energy to pursue other things).
I want to dramatically expand the amount I write. I’m not that good a writer, and I have little hope of ever becoming a good writer, but I do enjoy it when I do it, so I would like to do more of it. In addition to increasing the amount that I update this site to at least twice a week (modest enough to achieve)(I have noticed that my writing here is more in the journal of the events in my life vein, and less if the what the fuck is he talking about vein. My plan is to do more of the latter and less of the former)(also I’d really like to increase my use of parenthesis), I would like to get to work on one crappy novel, a children’s story (in epic form) for my child, and perhaps another play. The plan is for all of these to amuse me, and to never be published, except possibly through this site. As such there is little pressure to actually produce real quality, and I should be able to as least make some progress. I know that resolutions are supposed to be specific and attainable to work, but mine are vague and expansive. So lump it.

My yard is something of a mess, so I resolve to start gardening as a regular activity in 2008. I need to read up on the topic and figure out what kinds of things would be a good idea for this area, and my yard specifically. Nothing too complicated to start, but it would be nice if my house looked less abandoned.

I want to buy less stuff this year. I bought too much last year, and I failed to save any money. That is a little too irresponsible for my new position as head (hah!) of a household.

I think I will throw in the resolution of finishing the projects I start. Even if they are just fun ones for myself, I think it is important to actually get some of them done so that I can feel like I am getting something done.

I think that that is enough for the upcoming year. Stay tuned to this bat-station for updates on the exact dates that I fail in each of these plans.

I did manage to build a cradle for the baby. I also got the wood to build a crib, but haven’t gotten around to that yet. Cradles are easier. It is really a Cratel anyhow, as I have made it to resemble a fruit crate for fun. I’ll go and take a quick picture for you all to enjoy.

There is a mattress that goes in this already, and I just have to shellac it to finish it up.

I also have finished the laying of the hardwood on the second floor, with a couple of spots left to be filled where an irregular piece is required. I’ll get to that soon though. It looks really good already, and I can’t wait till it is sanded, stained, and varnished. Those steps will likely wait a little while though. It looks like the next item on the agenda is the exterior painting. I can’t wait because this should have the greatest impact in the smallest time of anything we have yet done. I hope to be starting on the kitchen remodel by mid-summer.

There have been numerous things I have wanted to write about over the past weeks, but I can’t think of them just now. I hope to get back in the habit again. So many dreams.

Also, have you looked at the selling prices for Last Days of Disco? Absurd.

First of all, how are you? It’s been a while since I have said anything here, but that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been thinking of it.

Now that we have the pleasantries out of the way, on to business.

I am currently working on the hardwood floor on the second floor. There is much of this to do, and it takes far longer than it seems like it should. I’m sure professionals would look at my work speed an laugh, but that is how it is, and I am doing it as well as my deteriorating body will allow. We are about a year and a few months behind on this, but that is how it goes sometimes. What is in now looks really sharp, and I think the whole project will be a success at the end, even if we did do the baseboards a little wrong. I’ll keep you updated on the project.

I am still as fat as ever, so no progress on that front.

My next project that I am just starting in on is the Wieland Archive. This will be housed at the appropriately named website and will contain a database of archival information. This will consist primarily of items my father has collected over the years, as well as pictures and letters. I think at the end the archive will contain in the area of 100,000 items or so. It may well be the most complete collection of anybodies life. Entering the information will take years, I suspect, so all the better to get started. I was thinking about using regular blogging software to handle all this, but have instead decided to create my own content management system to run it. It should be pretty lean, as few bells and whistles are needed, at least on the back end. I’ll still try and keep the front end pretty. I’ll let you know when the first version is up and running.

We got a 2005 Prius, and are quite happy with it in the first couple of weeks.

Over at EatMe I have put up the first part of my Thanksgiving dinner menu. I will try and get to the rest of it as soon as possible, for those of you who are interested.

I am currently running Firefox 3 alpha (which installs with the ominous name “Minefield”), and haven’t really have any trouble yet. The pages seem to load very fast, but aside from that there don’t seem to be many immediately noticeable changes, but of course most of my extensions failed to work. I am also running the new Thunderbird 2 Beta1. There are some front end changes in this one, and it seems to work well so far, but I am still very new to it. It is prettier for sure. They have also added tagging, which some people will love, but isn’t a feature I use all that much. I think Mail for the mac had it, but I don’t think I ever used it. My testing of MS Word 2007 continues, and I love it. It is really nice to use, and I may actually buy it when the beta runs out. I am going to download the new version of Open Office today, so I’ll be better able to compare.

Must watch more Christmas movies.

We have actually been making some progress on the house. Work in what will be the nursery is proceeding, though slowly. It took us a long time to finish the paint prep, but we are now halfway done with the painting, and will finish soon. It looks pretty good. I also put up a new light fixture.

The biggest thing that happened recently was an impromptu reunion of sorts. Tlcnyc came all the way from New York, and Commander Plaza, Babs, and Tojo all made the trip up from Las Angeles. We saw other people from the past too. Some of them were just gathered for a bbq, and some were here to bid farewell to Oldboy, who is now in Korea. We all went to Kcan’s house for bbq in the afternoon and then came back here to hang out for the evening. It was all big fun. So good to see so many people that I haven’t seen in so long. I am the worst at staying in touch with folks. LilChaCha was there with her baby that must be about a day short of a year now. My nephew’s birthday is today.

On this coming Sunday I will have been married for one year. It doesn’t really seem like all that long, but I guess stuff has been happening. Pregnancy and all.

I actually have some things I have been wanting to write, but I haven’t yet sat down to do it yet. Will it ever change? I doubt it!

At home we recently replaced the ropes in a couple of old double hung windows. This is both harder and easier than I thought it might be, but it is really great that we could do it, and actually get them working properly. No more propping up the window with a board for us. Only like twenty-six or so to go!

Over on my movies blog I have begun reporting on the Netflix movies I am seeing. This seems an easy to keep up with content.

Speaking of seeing stuff, I have been watching the new Studio Sixty on the Sunset Strip (you can even watch this weeks episode online), and aside from having a kinda stupid name, it is pretty good. I really liked Sports Night when it was out, and felt like I was in a special club of people who actually watched it on TV. I never really watched West Wing, though I am sure it is of similarly high quality. Sorkin can just write. The show isn’t perfect, I’m not all that big a fan of the new studio president character, but it is pretty good, and I will keep trying to catch it regularly. Also Dr. Who starts again this week on SciFi. I am also watching Eureka on Tuesdays. It is sillier, but I find it distreacting and pleasant.

I think that a resurgence of non-crappy music is about to begin in a larger way. It seems that there are suddenly enough good things coming out all at once that it may be signifying the new sound for this era. About time too. I don’t know what is supposed to be hip, but I do know that all of the stuff I have been hearing for years has been pretty bad. Pop, the so called alternative music, and hip-hop have really been sucking for a while. Maybe as long as eight years. It is only now that there seems to be a little innovation. I just hope this creativity doesn’t get swallowed up by the existing crap, as has happened in the past.

In addition to Tally Hall, I also like the newly popular OK Go, though it may be for their clever videos, more than the quality of their music. Either way, I think that they are on the right track.

In other news, we have started to work on the house again after an extended layoff. There is still a substantial amount to do, but hopefully we can get all of the upstairs finished, at least in general, by this winter. There are still walls and stuff to finish, but the largest job is still the hardwood, that has now been sitting, piled up, for more than a year. At least it had time to acclimate to the environment in the house. Other major things still include the Kitchen and the exterior, though for the outside I think most of the work will be done by someone less half-assed than we. I think we will have to wait until at least next spring to start on those things, mostly due to the larger costs they represent.

This goes out to Tojo, who will undoubtedly follow in this guy’s footsteps.