All Good Things

I had to say goodbye to another friend this week. Saj, sometimes referred to in this blog as "Lab" has gone on to better fields and ponds and more plentiful tennis balls and squirrels to chase than we could ever dream of. She was thirteen. By conventional wisdom that made her ninety-one in human years, and yet she still had a streak of puppy-like enthusiasm up until even her last days.

We got Saj (pronounced "Sage") on New Years Eve 1999. The ridiculous spelling of her name I place solely on the shoulders of my sister, who was so incensed that I came up with the best name for the puppy that she insisted on adding her "creative" (cough cough) flair to the name by throwing together random letters and assigning them to the sounds made by the word "Sage" (think Gob Bluth from "Arrested Development.")

She was five weeks old when she came home - too young, really, but her mother stopped feeding the pups and she came home with us and assumed for years that she was human. She played the part well, but not flawlessly. Setting aside the four leggedness, and the persistent facial hair, she was too loving, too loyal, too faithful, and too eager to please to ever pass as truly human. It is in some ways astounding she lived to the age she did. When she was six months old or so we came home to find her carrying my mother's brand new dogwood sapling around the yard in her mouth like a chew toy, happy as you please. Lab's, if you have never lived with one, are a force of nature - particularly in puppyhood. Saj was no exception.

She was my dog only for a short time - I left for college, and she stayed home. I visited, and I loved her dearly, but by the time I was in a position to take her with me she belonged to the whole family equally, and it would have been unfair to take her into a crummy college apartment. She was the epitome of a family dog.

We brought Beagle to meet Saj the day the Wife and I adopted him more than six years ago. Despite a rough beginning in which Saj tried to eat Beagle, the two of them became... if not friends, precisely, at least companions. Beagle was all dog where Saj still held on to the illusion that she was mostly human. Beagle taught her to embrace her inner dog, to play with toys, to roughhouse and play with other animals. Saj taught Beagle very little, because he is a beagle, and too stubborn to learn anything much. He did at least learn to stay out of the reach of bigger, less patient dogs. As I write this I am looking at a picture of the two of them sharing Saj's pillow. You can only see their heads in the photo, but as was typical of their relationship, Beagle is undoubtedly stretched out to take up the maximum amount of space on the oversized pet bed, and Saj has her head alone on the pillow beside him. Saj was a giver. Beagle's a jerk. We love them both.

I will miss my lab. I didn't want to make this a terribly somber post, because it's somber enough that she's gone without adding to it. Dog's lives are so much shorter than ours I sometimes wonder if bringing them into our lives is worth the inevitable pain it brings. But I don't wonder for long. The answer is yes. If everyone in the world could strive to be the type of person their dog believed them to be, what a fantastic world would we live in? They love freely and ask little in return. A ball, a bowl, a bed, and a little love.

The title of this post refers to the phrase "All good things must come to an end." The problem with the phrase (besides being the title to a rather weak ending to Star Trek, the Next Generation) is that I don't entirely agree. I won't get into the theological debate about pets and heaven, and I'd thank you to not share your own thoughts on this forum. As with many theological issues, I like C.S. Lewis' take, and that's all I'll say. But I do not believe the good that came from Saj's life has come to an end. You were and are loved Saj, and our lives are better for you, and you continue to share in that. Rest easy girl.

Dragon*Con 2012

Over Labor Day weekend, the Wife, Olivia, and I made our way to Atlanta for geek-Mecca: Dragon*Con 2012. For the uninitiated, Dragon*Con is a science-fiction, fantasy, geek-(excuse me, pop-) culture based convention taking up the better part of downtown Atlanta's hotels for a long weekend once a year. Officially, five of the largest hotels in downtown Atlanta play host to the affair, but since the entire block of rooms set aside by the convention sells out within two hours of being announced, attendees tend to take up a great deal more hotel room space than at just the host hotels. We, for instance, planned our trip in late May/early June of this year, and were not able to find a reasonably priced hotel room anywhere near downtown. Of course, over Labor Day weekend, Atlanta also played host to two college football games, a NASCAR event, and Braves Baseball. But mostly it was nerds in steampunk gear.

Dragon*Con consists of panel discussions and Q&A's presented by guests both famous and obscure. This year's guests included actors from shows like Star Trek TNG; Stargate (all of the iterations); Battlestar Galactica; and Firefly to name a few; numerous writers of sci-fi, speculative fiction, alternative history, and fantasy; and lots and lots of fanpersons who hosted discussions on their pet fandom.

Here's a quick rundown on the good, the bad, and the ugly from Dragon*Con this year.

The Good

James Marsters. As you can see from the picture above, we had a chance to chat with Spike (of Joss Whedon's Buffy and Angel). Super nice guy, and obviously appreciates cute babies. Asked us to check out his band, and you can too - Ghost of the Robot, downloads available on iTunes. Can't speak to the quality as I haven't actually checked them out yet (Sorry Mr. Marsters), but I figure he can take the time to speak with me and let me flash a camera in his face, so the least I can do is pimp his new project.

People watching. This is the most entertaining part of Dragon*Con if you can ignore the massive crowds. Lots of off the wall costumes (which undermine my belief that I am an informed geek, since I haven't the foggiest idea what most of these people are going for). Some of the costumes are just sad, but many of them are incredibly intricate and impressive. And they are everywhere. We were in the distinct minority by not dressing up. Mostly this was a logistical decision. Or laziness. Whatever.

Celeb Spotting. The majority of Dragon*Con's celebrity guests are B-List, if we're being honest, but it's still pretty cool to rub elbows with people you've watched on TV for years. Besides meeting Mr. Marsters in the Con's walk of fame, we were yards away from the likes of Michael Dorn, Jonathan Frakes, Jewel Staite, Adam Baldwin, Jason Momoa, and Richard Dean Anderson (that's right, MacGuyver).

The Bad

People Navigating. The crowds are obnoxious. Not the people - everyone is a geek at this thing, so most people are pretty friendly. But the sheer mass of humanity if ridiculous, especially on Saturday when the Dragon*Con parade takes over downtown. There is no such thing as moving quickly through these crowds, and the simple act of grabbing lunch in a food court is a two hour proposition. Several of the host hotels have elevated walkways above street level (super convenient, right?). Yeah, they reek of body odor, and require you to tiptoe slowly behind the three hundred other bodies compressed into the same small space and headed in the same direction. Fun times.

The celebs... some of them. So, the downside of being in close proximity to celebrities you've loved watching for years is that you may be disillusioned by them. Some actors are nicer than their on screen personas. Some, not so much. Also, some of the actors seem to enjoy the Con atmosphere... too much. The number of actors we saw in panels who were apparently drunk or hungover was a little embarrassing. While they may be more entertaining this way, to my mind it shows a lack of respect for the fans.

Parking. Same as people navigating, only with cars, SUVs, and lots of pedestrians to avoid killing.

The lines. A necessary evil of any Con of significant size, any popular panel required lining up an hour or more in advance. Apparently if you've ever been to Comic*Con (Dragon*Con's more trendy, popular cousin from San Diego) you scoff at these type lines because yours have been known to be twelve hours or more. But I don't like waiting. Fortunately, as mentioned above, the people in line with you are mostly nice, like-minded nerds who are willing to wait for the same thing you are.

The Ugly

Spandex. Seriously folks. It's a privilege, not a right. There are a lot of scantily clad people at Dragon*Con. And there are a lot of scantily clad people that have no business being scantily clad people at Dragon*Con.

Furry Fans. Tails, leggings, ears, whole body animal costumes, and a whole subculture I'm glad my daughter was too young to ask about.

Inconsiderate fans. In a group this size, I honestly expected much more of this, and so was pleasantly surprised at how rare the truly rude or obnoxious fan was. Unfortunately, while they were in the minority, the instances I saw were glaring. For instance: while I'm fairly certain the host hotels only permitted assistance animals, we saw at least one con-goer walking a distinctly non-working animal through a (carpeted) lobby, where said animal, probably scared out of its mind, promptly shat in the middle of foot traffic. The fan saw this, and promptly scurried away laughing. Seriously.

What we learned

All around, the Con was a great time, and we'd likely do it again one day. Without kids. Olivia was fantastic - better than she had any right to be all weekend - but the logistics of moving with a small child (particularly as she gets older and more able to locomote on her own) are limiting in an environment like this. We also discovered that the opportunities to take cute photos of your baby with famous people are less accessible than we expected, at least if you don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on posed photos. All told, there is less to be gained by bringing your kids than by leaving them with grandparents.

We also learned that staying downtown (and thus, planning further in advance) is the way to go. While a few hotels offer shuttle service into downtown, there are no good ways to get in to the city for this event. Also, while the night life aspects of Dragon*Con are for people younger than me (sad to admit), there are a number of late evening panels and events we didn't get to attend because we were staying outside of the city. Had we been closer to our room, it would have been an option. Also, we would have punched a puppy for a place to put our feet up for an hour or so in the middle of the day, and might have saved some money and time on meals if we had stuff in our room to return to.

We will probably pass on 2013, but there are better than average odds we will go back one day. Hope you fellow nerds have a chance to go one day as well.

Year One

Olivia turned one a few weeks ago. This is shocking in a number of ways. It is a trite, cliched, and utterly true expression parents use in describing the growth of their children when they say "time flies." It is equally and paradoxically true that it is difficult to remember clearly what life was like before kids. I don't get it either, but both are true.

One year is a great age. Of course, as I understand it, they are all great ages until somewhere between eleven and thirteen when every child suddenly needs to be beaten daily and locked in an Iron Maiden until they turn twenty-five. But that's a ways off. At year one, Olivia has a lot of personality. She is very social, and rarely fussy. This has nothing to do with her age or any successful parenting strategy and everything to do with luck. (Don't worry - whenever the hypothetical number two comes along we'll get our payback.) She loves books - being read to, throwing them, pulling them off shelves, tearing the pages, and (just to drive her aunt Sara crazy) dog-earring the pages. She also loves music, and has developed the fascinating habit of keeping a beat with her feet when songs she recognizes come on . I'd say she could replace the drummer from Nickelback, but I'd like her to maintain some standards.

She has just started to become somewhat pickier about what she eats. I don't think she actually cares what she consumes so much as she likes to screw with us about when she's willing to eat it and when she's going to throw it on the floor and laugh. Or feed it to the dogs, and then get angry at them for having the nerve to eat it. The good news though is that there is nothing (or virtually nothing) she can't eat now, which makes feeding her when we are out and about much easier. Where we used to have to stop and feed her healthy organic strained squash, we can now throw a bag of Oreos at the kid and watch her go nuts.

Olivia is tentatively trying to walk. What this means in real terms is that she is walking all over the house with one hand on walls, furniture, bookshelves, etc, then taking her hand off of said "support" for about one second, realizing she is free-standing, and plopping on her butt and crawling away. We're signing her up for a Five K in a few weeks. Nothing like the deep end of the pool to teach a kid to swim.

This past year has been pretty amazing. Part of me wants to take five and enjoy this phase a little while longer, but that's not how this whole thing works. I do look forward to seeing what comes next.

Another Sci-Fi Battle: Stormtroopers v. Redshirts

Umm... fair use?

As my posts on the Borg Cube v. the Death Star were fairly popular (it's all relative - this is a noncommercial blog after all), I think treatment of another cross-franchise conflict is in order. This one was suggested by a friend of mine, and I've decided to consider the question carefully, despite it being a little absurd. Why absurd? Well let's consider - Stormtroopers and Redshirts are the cannon fodder of the Star Wars and Trek universes respectively. Both have a talent for ineptitude. Stormtroopers (despite Obi-Wan's comments regarding the accuracy of blast points on the broad side of a Sandcrawler) have no more ability to hit what they are shooting at than Death Star engineers have of building a space station without a glass jaw. Redshirts, on the other hand, are famed for dying more easily and in more contrived fashion than the hero of the original King's Quest games (dude could trip over a cat and fall to his death. Seriously). Stormtroopers do die by the truckloads, but usually because of something a Jedi-related, and in mass casualty Death Star explosions that have little to do with their own inability. Redshirts have no particular reputation at all regarding an ability to shoot, kill, maim, or otherwise influence any part of combat. This is generally because they die of fright when the blasters come out. Or when a Tribble coughs. You know. Whatever.

So, taking all of this in to consideration, the question is not really one of who would win in a fight. I don't think there's much of an argument to be made that Redshirts (singular or in huge numbers) could take down a like force of Stormtroopers (but by all means if someone has an argument for them, please make it). Rather, I think the better question is, which set's seeming supernatural ability would prevail in a fight? The Stormtroopers' ineptitude (which would result in a draw) or the Redshirts' deathwish (thus Stormtrooper victory)?

I'm tempted to answer the question with a resounding "who cares?" but that would defeat the purpose of sparking nerdy discussion. Needless to say, the battle would be one of the most painful to watch in the history of science fiction. It would almost certainly take hours, and involve Redshirts jumping out from behind cover while dropping phasers as Stormtroopers fire into the ground, or behind themselves. I'd estimate there is a roughly 5% chance of the Redshirts prevailing outright due to massive "friendly fire" casualties in the Imperial ranks. Ultimately though, I think the Redshirts resort of falling on jagged rocks or giving in to congenital heart defects even as the blasters continue to miss them by miles, and the Stormtroopers would prevail in spite of themselves.

Feel free to discuss in the comments, or suggest any other sci-fi faceoffs that need to be considered.

On Father's Day

This weekend represents the first time I have been a father on Father's Day. Last year at this time, the Wife was showing, so I will admit that I pressed the definition of technical fatherhood with a local restaurant's "Dad's Eat Free" Promotion. I think I heard the waiter cursing lawyers under his breath the whole time, but I got my free hot wings. This year is a little different, what with the baby being on the outside and all. I may or may not take advantage of the free wings again.

Fatherhood has been a frequent subject, directly and indirectly, of the posts in this blog. It is not the whole of what a man is when he has a child or children, but it certainly does its share to define him as a person. Fatherhood changes you. Hopefully, if you are a father, you have experienced love before - love for your parents and family, and ideally love for the woman you share a child with. But the love of a father for his child is completely different from these other loves. Not to say greater, but different. Unlike a parent or a spouse, a child is a child -  completely helpless and dependent on you for survival, knowledge, skills, affection, everything. A father's love for his child is as deep and resounding as it is because it resonates with hopes and dreams you have for that child's future, with our responsibilities, with the joy of watching that child grow day-by-day, and the delight of seeing them develop into the person they will become. These are all things that, by and large, are not all that similar to our love for our parents and spouses. Adult parents and spouses don't need our help to survive, they have their own hopes and dreams, and, by the time we meet them, they are generally far along the path of character development. But a father has great power in shaping a child, morally, ethically, spiritually, physically (although this latter aspect is mostly genetic). As Stan Lee is credited with saying, with great power comes great responsibility.

Fatherhood gives you new perspective. In an ideal world, it gives you added patience. At a minimum, it frequently exercises the patience you already had. Children need all the time. They are the definition of consumers. They consume time, energy, resources, and until they reach a certain age they are unable to communicate what it is that they need to consume. Hence the patience thing. Objectively, they give you nothing in return. Subjectively, nothing they could ask of you is too much for the joy they bring.

I cannot fully describe what it is like to be a Dad. Even if I could it would mean nothing, because despite shared experiences most fathers would have, every experience of Fatherhood is unique. To anyone who hasn't yet experienced fatherhood, my descriptions would be inadequate in any event. All I can say is that there is nothing like it in the world. Olivia's laughter brings me more delight than the view from the heights of a  mountain, her smile is more beautiful than a sunset, and the simplest demonstrations of her ever-expanding set of skills - gripping a spoon, standing, throwing toys on the floor - are more awe-inspiring than the greatest feats of man's ingenuity. Watching every single "first" as she experiences it is priceless. I love this child more than words can say, and she has me utterly and completely at her mercy. Thankfully, she is still too young to fully understand that.

It is humbling to think that there are people who loved me this way as well. Intellectually we all know, unless we are from a rough background, that our parents love us. We see demonstrations of it all our lives. You never doubt your parents' love for you, but you do not fully appreciate it either. It is something else entirely to go from conceiving of a parent's love for us in the abstract, to experiencing it, and realizing that your own father and mother experienced that for you - had those hopes and dreams for you, felt the same pressures and fears, delighted in you the same way you do in your own child.

So this is my twist ending - this post is only ostensibly about my own experience as a father. As yet, I am too inexperienced with the concept to have anything more to say than rambling sentiments on the subject. But what my experience has taught me is, I think, a better and deeper understanding of my own dad. Somehow, socks and ties seem an insufficient gift this year, and in any case, the Wife does all the gift buying anymore because she's better at it than I am. The only gift I could come up that seemed appropriate for my old man this year was the public embarrassment of a blog post sappier than any Hallmark Card I could ever hope to buy. Happy Father's Day Dad. I love you too.

requiem

I don't normally spend much time on this blog on things that are very serious. There's enough seriousness in mainstream media that I think there are better ways to spend my efforts on a glorified vanity page.

But some things should not pass without being noted.

Tonight I lost a friend to cancer. Fred was diagnosed a little over a year ago, but by the time they found it, it was metastatic. He fought, and he kept living life to the fullest extent he could. He traveled. He did projects around his house I'm not sure I could have managed with a healthy body thirty years younger. He spent every moment he could with his friends and family. Two weeks ago he went into the hospital, and he never left. Today was his birthday.

Fred was a good man. That phrase gets thrown around, but the truth is there are too few good men left. He expended himself for others more than most people I've ever met. He was a committed Christian, and even in facing this disease he would tell anyone who would listen that he was not afraid of dying - just the suffering beforehand. I'm a Christian too, and I believe we are promised eternal life, but I'm not sure I could honestly say the same thing were I in his shoes. In any event, even the part that worried him is behind him now and he is better for it. This side of heaven just feels a little emptier now.

I met Fred through the Orangeburg Part-Time Players, a community theater group in my home town. He was a founding member, had served onstage or off- in every capacity possible at one time or another, and had literally built the stage the group called home with his own hands.  I was a stupid teenager who got talked into trying out  for a musical by a girl. Despite that, Fred still thought I was worth calling a friend. We worked on many plays together, and he gave me my first summer job during college. We stayed close and I saw him nearly every time I came home to Orangeburg, even when I no longer considered Orangeburg home. He was at my wedding, and my sister's, and he got to meet my beautiful daughter Olivia, for which I am profoundly grateful. He called out the best in the people around him, probably in large part because we knew there wasn't a thing in the world he wouldn't do for us. We wanted to give our all in return.

The worst part of growing up, I think, is that time isn't trucking by for you alone. Everyone else is getting older right along side you. If you live life at all, if you love and share your life with other people, then inevitably you open yourself up to hurt when time takes it's inevitable toll on those around you. And cancer is one of the more pernicious ways this happens. I've lost family to it. Recently a wonderful woman who was a surrogate mother to half my high school class lost an incredibly long battle to cancer. And now Fred.

The last few weeks, visiting Fred in the hospital, a line from one of my favorite bands has played on loop in my head:
There is God in the way that life comes to an end; in the way we all draw to a close; 
In the saying of soul to the house of the skin; you're too weak now to really oppose...
It has kept repeating not because it was easy to see God in the way my friend died, but because I had to remind myself that God was in it even though I couldn't see it. Fred is home. The loss felt by those of us still here does not change that at all.

There will probably not be any grand media coverage, no CNN updates about Fred's passing. He was not a celebrity except to the patrons of the OPTP. And the passing of good men is rarely noted as it should be. But he will be remembered, and those of us who remember him are better for having known him. I am, truly, incredibly grateful to have been able to call him a friend.

Requiescat in Pace, my friend. Until we meet again.

Who needs sleep?

Parents who are fortunate enough to have infants that sleep through the night (that being defined, in parent-speak, as a six hour window while it is dark outside) are both envied and despised by the rest of the parenting population. For a brief, magical period of time, we were those despised parents, who woke every morning at five a.m. to our daughters gentle nonsense coming over the monitor only a little bleary-eyed.

Then, one day a few months ago, Olivia decided to wake up at three. Then two. Then three again.

We were in denial for a while. Just a phase. Just a few off nights. She got thrown off by going out of town, by the change in time, by teething, by the state of modern political discourse. Ultimately, we had to admit, she was not sleeping through the night anymore. We got a night here or there, but nothing consistent.

As I have noted previously, Wife is the most awesome wife ever. While these middle of the night wakings are a bit of a pain for me, it is she who gets up to deal with them the vast, overwhelming majority of the time. Our usual midnight dialogue: Me: "grumble grumble work in the morning snore"; Wife: (as she stumbles to the nursery) I hate you." Yet, awesome as she is, Wife is not superhuman. When faced with a choice, at three a.m., between rocking our infant for an hour to soothe her back to sleep in her own room, or plopping her between two warm adult bodies in our own bed, keeping a firm finger on her pacifier, and going back to sleep immediately herself, Wife will choose the latter in 99 out of 100 cases. (The 100th being the "kick the husband until he fixes it solution.") The other alternative is the "cry it out" approach, which we were grand proponents of before we had a real live kid. This approach has the added disadvantage over the rocking solution of interrupting both parents sleep equally. I therefore reject it out of hand.

This is how we have come to the tradition of having the baby in the bed with us when I wake up in the morning.  Or, put another way, having a baby in the bed wake me up in the morning.

I'm usually a snooze alarm guy. I know, intellectually, that I am not getting useful sleep after that first alarm goes off. My response is "shut up, my bed is warm and cozy." But now, when I roll away to hit the Snooze, I run into an issue. In that instant, my sleeping infant daughter, so sweet and gentle, who is normally the rough diameter of a large roll of bounty paper towels and fits neatly between the Wife and I... that daughter expands instantaneously to take up the entirety of my side of the bed. While still asleep. So....I guess I'll take my shower ten minutes earlier...

I've also discovered how tall my little girl is getting in the worst possible way. While her tiny head still rests neatly at shoulder level with Wife and me while she sleeps in our bed, her feet are now in a position to do serious damage to her future siblings should her dreams call for tremendous kicking. (I think she replays the 1994 World Cup in her dreams about once a week). Awesome way to wake up. Really.

The best though, is when she wakes up in our bed, happy and bubbly, at 4:13 A.M. wanting to play. These days will never come again, and she's so cute and happy, and just wants to play with Daddy's hair and taste his nose and it's adorable. BUT IT'S 4:13 IN THE FREAKING MORNING.

Sleep loss is part of the package deal, and it creeps up on you in all kinds of subtle and not so subtle ways. The 2:30 kick in the boys being one of the less subtle ways. Nonetheless, it's worth it. I wouldn't trade it for all the sleep I could ever want.

Still...when the grandparents come to town, I'm taking a damn nap.