Adriano Fires Up the Formula

IMG_0048.JPG, originally uploaded by defmonk2007.

This kid makes me feel like a three star chef...he's simply ecstatic about anything [ugh, formula] that I whip up for him.

The Siblings Union

Adriano Day 1, originally uploaded by defmonk2007.

They've all bonded in a way that makes the WGA look like simpering blue-hairs. If they join in revolt....I'm screwed.

BabyWatch: Welcome Adriano

Very few events deliver on anticipation. Tahiti was one of them, a place every bit as beautiful as the pictures. Adriano is another. As long and cumbersome as this journey has been, he really is great. We're probably programmed to feel that way, but, geez, I am feeling it good.

The other reason is that the end of this process (birth and pregnancy) is the start of another. So, the high anticipation of seeing the face that you've imagined for months is replaced by the anticipation of the potential of this kid. It's hard to feel let down in that cycle. Sure, I'm all Lion King and shietz, but that's what it is.

So, we're headed home today. Last night the IUOS (that is, the International Union of Siblings) made a desperate midnight pitch to add the appellation "Marley" to the kid's name. In a clever move, they argued that (i) this name is a rough concactenation of the names Margaux and Allie (coincidentally, the leaders of the IUOS) and (ii) it should appeal directly to my proud Jamaican hertiage. As in most arguments, number two is the killer.  I'm going to make an impassioned plea this morning to fill in the empty middle name field with this one. 

Keep your fingers crossed.

BabyWatch: Zero Hour

I'm packing and blogging at the same time. We're off to the hospital to let the baby loose.  In true Neumann fashion, he's decided to be scheduled. None of this waiting for contractions stuff. So, hopefully, by midday tomorrow I'll be holding my son in my arms. I couldn't be happier.

BabyWatch: T minus 6 days

This kid is going to be named Adriano. Look, this name is way out front in the polling, Brooke C made a special call just to say how much she loved it and his namesake (the great Brazilian striker) scored two goals in his first game after rehab. Talk about alignment of the planets.

Anyway, this project is in neutral. The kid is way too smart to come out. It's like he knows we're at war in Iraq (and bristling at Iran), that the sub-prime mortgage market collapse promises our future enslavement to Asian sovereignty funds and that these Santa Monica mornings have been cold as hell.

Heck, I may call my own Mom to see if I can get a redo.

Experiential Disintermediation: All Reality, All the Time

Lacking an engaging hobby, I spend far too much time driving the nuances of normal events to conclusions in extremis. You can't share a strong drink anywhere in Los Angeles without a good bellyache over the WGA strike, so I've had lots of opportunity to nuture my proto-hobby.

My two-beer conclusion is that "it'll all be fine." Chasing with two neat Glenfiddichs leads me to conclude that the WGA strike is really the first step in experiential disintermediation.

Maybe in the absence of experiential interpreters (OK, writers), technology can lift us to a place where unfiltered first-person experience replaces replaces regurgitated written stories...

Maybe the surge of reality programming isn't just the dumbing-down of our culture, but a technology driven sea-change accelerated by the willful absence of the WGA writers...

Why should we be seperated from experiences? I mean, does some snotty Ivy-grad-cousin-of-a-producer really see something in the world that I cannot? With a web camera at every vantage point feeding an infinite number of channels, could I click up a comedy or a drama every hour? Can YouTube make me laugh or cry?

{Blogging's great, I don't have to conclude, summarize or even make a great deal of sense}

BabyWatch: T minus 10 days

Adriano pulled way out ahead in the Baby Naming Derby, with David in a close second. I suspect that some of my colleagues may be stuffing the ballot box (Ashley S.)

For those of you who have a continuing interest in the progress of things...there is none. After last week's fireworks, the whole thing has gone quiet. This kid is just not going to cooperate and emerge at a time that is convenient for me. Geez.

BabyWatch: T minus 14 days

After a promising weekend contraction fiesta, our still unamed male progeny continues to resist his Mom's creative effort to give birth to him. She powerwalked for an hour and nothing. Not even a little cramp (even though I was cramping all over).

The name derby continues, with the following submissions:

Tristan - too uppity, too Teutonic.

Emiliano - Latin flair, but not that catchy

Cheech - If he didn't blunt so much, I might give this further consideration.

Adriano - I could sneak in this sports name, because it has the Latin thing going, but the world class striker of the same name in now in rehab in Sao Paulo. Ooops.

Some derivation of Al - low flava in this name, but I could give ups to my suegro and my gran compadre at the same time.

All submissions will be considered.

Look, Mom, music on my page....

Thanks to the geniuses at Yahoo! Music (with some hrefs borrowed from Mr. Rogers), I now have enabled music on my humble little blog....

Courage

Cambiando Lonches

Desperate Measures

Yes, there is a "Maternity Salad". Well-educated, aware people buy it with the hope that it will send them into labor. And, they drive all the way to Studio City to get it.

Why wouldn't a clever restauranter capture the unbridled consumptive desires of parents-to-be and the desperation late-term moms who just want the little alien to pop out? Heck, any given weekend you can find the sidewalks of Santa Monica jammed with $1000 strollers dangling $800 diaper bags. This pregnancy thing makes your brain weak.

So in the 38 week of pregnancy, I'd even try salad to give my poor love the merest chance of relief from this ill-designed process. (Why didn't Apple design human reproduction? You'd get a tidy little pod delivered to your door that happily morphs into an Ivy League grad).

For you doubters, here it is: http://maternitysalad.com/thesaladarticles.html

No Sight, but Insight

The Next Generation iPod

What if physical community ever married digital media?

The Price of Shame....

Yes, I was squarely aligned to get that most precious prop in the blogosphere....a direct link from the esteeemed http://www.fistfulayen.com/. The shame caught me like this:

"I wanted to link to you somewhere but Defmonk is some rental properties. :)ian

Hey, everyone needs a side gig! Thanks for the props. Totally unnecessary, but greatly appreciated. I really thank you for putting in the effort to create another useful person. It's not easy to do. I hope guys had a great holiday! MLW

Ha! My pleasure!Yeah we're having a great time. You?Just posted my "best of 2007" list: http://www.fistfulayen.com/blog/?p=141 ian "

Like I needed a more forceful reminder that, after more than 15 years of 'net-pimping, my own presence comprised only a hastily assembled FrontPage version-caveman site I threw together to rent some properties I owned (when I rolled like that). I pay for some superzilla hosting package on DomainDirect and that's the best that I've done in three years. Damn.

So, I'm taking the plunge. I'm Blogger-blogging (as if I don't work for Yahoo! and like Google needs another unique).

It's time.

A Tribute to Fistfulayen.....

Love it.

A couple of things occurred to me.

Proprietary media is a leper colony, around which we’ve built a high fence. Ugh, nobody’s rushing in. The only technologists that want any part of it are the insane and the accolytes. So, we get tremendous innovation around, say, maps not music. Maps?

I am mystified that the geniuses that created html ignored the natural progression of things (text => image => audio => audiovisual => immersive) and left the MediaWeb high and dry. Maybe they knew…

You want the collective genius on a problem? Like you say, create an open standard. Funny how all the best minds these days are working in non-proprietary enviroments. (An aside: I’m always fascinated by industries, like visual or fashion design, that rely more on authenticity, innovation and speed-to-market than proprietary rights — are we there yet?).

IMHO, content owners need to seduce the big, juicy core of innovative technologists (the ones between the raving lunatics and the drooling fanatics). The MediaWeb is half of it, but the other half is the Content Dial Tone.

See, you’ll get your MediaWeb because it is an irresistable idea and seamlessly logical. But, can you imagine if all content is hung out there on APIs with embedded business terms? YouTube go home. The collective genius pulling down content streams to power the MediaWeb? Ouch. Go ahead, content owners, turn the dials on the stream rates to filter out the dreck (the low-rent business models). Still works.