My wife and I just had our second child a week ago. My boss and colleague were saints and rallied around me to allow me a week at home with my family. (This is in stark contrast to my previous boss who forced me back to work while my wife was still in hospital with our first child.) As such, since baby #2 is attached to mommy's breasts 24/7, I've been keeping the toddler busy and entertained. It's been nice alone time for us and a good time for mommy to bond with the new baby.
This morning my little guy broke my heart. Ever since the new baby arrived, my toddler has seemed much older and grown up to me. He seems to be developing at light speed, acquiring 3 new words in 1 week, effectively doubling his vocabulary This may have something to do with vying for attention with his new baby brother, or it may just be a coincidence. So anyways, we were at the local playgroup this morning. My toddler is going through a pinching phase. Any kid that gets too in his face suffers a pinch. We are trying our darnedest to get him out of it, and it is working, but it's slow. However, he is a good sharer if another child approaches him slowly and with supple warning, and especially if she happens to be one of his self-proclaimed girlfriends.
He had just finished having a breakthrough. A little girl came up to him when he was playing with a toy that he had wanted particularly badly and had finally gotten his hands on. Normally he would respond by pinching the intruder and claiming dominion over his newfound possession. This time though, he leaned in to the little girl and gave her a big kiss and proceeded to hand over the toy! She then returned his kiss and gave the toy right back. What a brilliant display of love and sharing!
Right after that he was playing with another toy. I looked over at him and he just looked so big, mature, and indescribably adorable. I suddenly had this flash of him with a little lunch pail waiting outside for the school bus. I totally lost it, right in the middle of the building, amidst all the playing children and chatting parents. I just started crying all by myself, watching my little boy grow up before my eyes.
Shortly after this, he came over to me, showed me the new toy he had found, and uttered one of his new favorite words: "Daddy". The tears just kept on coming.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
It all came together
If you haven't noticed, I've been conspicuously absent from the blogosphere over the past couple of months. The reasons for this are numerous, but allow me to summarize.
1. Our house was on the market for longer than we anticipated and we needed to sell it because we are moving 3500km across the country in July and our current house is the downpayment for our new house.
2. My wife was pregnant with our second child and due May 11.
3. Our first son, Sacha, who is 20 months old, had a major sleep regression about six weeks ago, and so I have been totally sleep deprived.
At some point during this sick cosmic joke, my panic attacks threatened to reemerge. I also battled with debilitating chronic anxiety that was so bad at one point I was not eating much and lost five pounds.
So as I often do when I am faced with such challenges in my life, I sat down and had a nice long chat with the Man upstairs. I do not think I have ever prayed so hard in my life. And sure, skeptics will say it is just a coincidence, but I am convinced that God answered my prayers and looked after me and my family.
Today, May 15, 2008, will forever be known as the day everything came together. Well, almost everything.
Last week, after having a flurry of interest in our house, we received two offers in two days. This generated a bidding war which resulted in us accepting an offer for slightly above asking price and the exact possession date we wanted/needed. Things were looking great, but then it looked as if the buyers might be having second thoughts. So I spent the whole week worrying about whether the deal would go through or not. They had until tomorrow to lift all the conditions on the offer and finalize the sale.
At the same time, Sarah passed her due date. Three days later, she couldn't take it anymore. She requested my assistance in bringing on labor, and I was more than willing to oblige (in a fashion similar to that which got us into this mess in the first place). Eight hours later we had a beautiful baby boy. (You can see all the details at our website).
As I walked up and down the hospital hallways, keeping Sacha entertained, my cellphone rang. It was my real estate agent. The deal went through. The house is sold!
Just as I had earlier when my new angel emerged into the world, I fell to the floor and started bawling my eyes out. Sacha was confused and everyone around me looked at me funny, but I have never experienced physically feeling a weight come off of your shoulders.
Now, for all of that to build up to the last minute and all be wrapped up in one fell swoop like that, to me, reveals that God does listen when I pray. Whatever it was, and whatever the explanation, it sure does feel good!
Maybe now I'll post more often. Oh, who am I kidding. I have two boys under the age of 2. I'm screwed. And for the record, I may need to pray a little harder still. Sacha's sleep is still a work in progres.
1. Our house was on the market for longer than we anticipated and we needed to sell it because we are moving 3500km across the country in July and our current house is the downpayment for our new house.
2. My wife was pregnant with our second child and due May 11.
3. Our first son, Sacha, who is 20 months old, had a major sleep regression about six weeks ago, and so I have been totally sleep deprived.
At some point during this sick cosmic joke, my panic attacks threatened to reemerge. I also battled with debilitating chronic anxiety that was so bad at one point I was not eating much and lost five pounds.
So as I often do when I am faced with such challenges in my life, I sat down and had a nice long chat with the Man upstairs. I do not think I have ever prayed so hard in my life. And sure, skeptics will say it is just a coincidence, but I am convinced that God answered my prayers and looked after me and my family.
Today, May 15, 2008, will forever be known as the day everything came together. Well, almost everything.
Last week, after having a flurry of interest in our house, we received two offers in two days. This generated a bidding war which resulted in us accepting an offer for slightly above asking price and the exact possession date we wanted/needed. Things were looking great, but then it looked as if the buyers might be having second thoughts. So I spent the whole week worrying about whether the deal would go through or not. They had until tomorrow to lift all the conditions on the offer and finalize the sale.
At the same time, Sarah passed her due date. Three days later, she couldn't take it anymore. She requested my assistance in bringing on labor, and I was more than willing to oblige (in a fashion similar to that which got us into this mess in the first place). Eight hours later we had a beautiful baby boy. (You can see all the details at our website).
As I walked up and down the hospital hallways, keeping Sacha entertained, my cellphone rang. It was my real estate agent. The deal went through. The house is sold!
Just as I had earlier when my new angel emerged into the world, I fell to the floor and started bawling my eyes out. Sacha was confused and everyone around me looked at me funny, but I have never experienced physically feeling a weight come off of your shoulders.
Now, for all of that to build up to the last minute and all be wrapped up in one fell swoop like that, to me, reveals that God does listen when I pray. Whatever it was, and whatever the explanation, it sure does feel good!
Maybe now I'll post more often. Oh, who am I kidding. I have two boys under the age of 2. I'm screwed. And for the record, I may need to pray a little harder still. Sacha's sleep is still a work in progres.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Round 3 Predictions
If you haven't noticed already, it seems last year's success may have been a complete fluke (as one would suspect with something so unpredictable as sporting events). At least my original pick for winners of the Cup, the Detroit Red Wings, are still holding strong. Of course, you could have looked at the Las Vegas odds and determined the same thing! Anyways, I got my arse kicked in the 3rd round. I only predicted the DET v COL series correctly and so am now 7 for 12. That's bloody awful. For what it's worth, I'm picking DET and PHI to win the conference finals. We'll see.
By the way, my sparse posting is not due to any sudden lack of interesting things to write, but merely due to a very stressful life. We are trying to sell our house to no avail, our 20 month old is suddenly no longer sleeping, we have a baby on the way in 1 week or sooner, and we are moving in 3 months. So when I actually do have free time, I basically go to sleep.
By the way, my sparse posting is not due to any sudden lack of interesting things to write, but merely due to a very stressful life. We are trying to sell our house to no avail, our 20 month old is suddenly no longer sleeping, we have a baby on the way in 1 week or sooner, and we are moving in 3 months. So when I actually do have free time, I basically go to sleep.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Second round
The first round was not as successful as last year. In order to match my previous success, I have to be perfect from here on in. Here are the results:
DET v NSH- Predicted DET. DET won.
SJS v CGY- Predicted SJS. SJS won.
MIN v COL- Predicted MIN. COL won.
ANA v DAL- Predicted DAL. DAL won.
MTL v BOS- Predicted MON. MON won.
PIT v OTT- Predicted PIT. PIT won.
WSH v PHI- Predicted WSH. PHI won.
NJD v NYR- Predicted NYR. NYR won.
So of all the series, I only got two wrong, one of which went to a 7th game overtime.
I've given up on predicting the number of games because I got destroyed.
Here are my second round picks.
MTL v PHI: MTL wins
PIT v NYR: NYR win
DET v COL: DET wins
SJS v DAL: SJS wins
Wish me luck!
By the way, I make no guarantees of success, so anyone foolish enough to bet their house on these predictions will be accountable for their own losses. I'm not talking about you Keith. You wouldn't do such a thing.
DET v NSH- Predicted DET. DET won.
SJS v CGY- Predicted SJS. SJS won.
MIN v COL- Predicted MIN. COL won.
ANA v DAL- Predicted DAL. DAL won.
MTL v BOS- Predicted MON. MON won.
PIT v OTT- Predicted PIT. PIT won.
WSH v PHI- Predicted WSH. PHI won.
NJD v NYR- Predicted NYR. NYR won.
So of all the series, I only got two wrong, one of which went to a 7th game overtime.
I've given up on predicting the number of games because I got destroyed.
Here are my second round picks.
MTL v PHI: MTL wins
PIT v NYR: NYR win
DET v COL: DET wins
SJS v DAL: SJS wins
Wish me luck!
By the way, I make no guarantees of success, so anyone foolish enough to bet their house on these predictions will be accountable for their own losses. I'm not talking about you Keith. You wouldn't do such a thing.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Cup predictions
Last year I decided to take another run at capturing the Nerd of the Year award by constructing yet another mathematical way to predict the outcome of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Since I only follow the NHL during the playoffs, I have no intuition with regards to which teams will win. Therefore, I must rely on math and statistics. Previous years had been complete failures. Last year, however, I hit pay dirt.
There are 15 series in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Using the statistical method I devised, I correctly predicted the outcome of 13. And the initial run of my algorithm predicted an Anaheim/Ottawa final with Anaheim victorious, as actually happened.
How does it work? I first take all the teams in the NHL and find the correlation between numerous team statistics and how many wins each team earned in the regular season. Those numbers are always somewhere between 1 and -1. I then multiply each correlation by the actual value of the statistic for every team in the playoffs. For example, the correlation between the 5 on 5 goals for/goals against ratio and wins is 0.83, a strong correlation. So for each team that is in the playoffs, I multiply 0.83 by, in Detroit's case, 1.41, to arrive at a value. Once I have obtained that value for each of the 14 stats I have for each team, I add them all together to come up with a score for each team.
To predict which team will win a given series, I compare their scores from the above calculation. Detroit has a score of 43.3 this year and Nashville 36.0, so I predict Detroit will win. Simple, effective, and it requires no sporting intuition on my part, which is a good thing, because I have none.
However, I thought this year, since I had a 86.7% success rate last year, I would get a little more ballsy and try to predict in how many games each victor would defeat their opponent. Below are my predictions for the entire 15-series playoff. However, if my predictions prove less than perfect in the first round, I will adjust predictions based on which teams are competing in subsequent rounds. I will consider the accuracy of my initial prediction of the final however, including the winner of the Cup. For the sake of my success rate, I am really going for picking the teams. How many games it takes is a total crapshoot. If I get that right, I'll shat. I'll keep you up to date on my success as the playoffs progress. Here goes!
Round 1
DET v NSH: DET in 4
SJS v CGY: SJS in 5
MIN v COL: MIN in 7
ANA v DAL: DAL in 7
MTL v BOS: MTL in 6
PIT v OTT: PIT in 7
WSH v PHI: WSH in 7
NJD v NYR: NYR in 6
Round 2
DET v DAL: DET in 5
SJS v MIN: SJS in 6
MTL v NYR: NYR in 7
PIT v WSH: WSH in 7
Round 3
DET v SJS: DET in 6
NYR v WSH: NYR in 7
Round 4
DET v NYR: DET in 6
There are 15 series in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Using the statistical method I devised, I correctly predicted the outcome of 13. And the initial run of my algorithm predicted an Anaheim/Ottawa final with Anaheim victorious, as actually happened.
How does it work? I first take all the teams in the NHL and find the correlation between numerous team statistics and how many wins each team earned in the regular season. Those numbers are always somewhere between 1 and -1. I then multiply each correlation by the actual value of the statistic for every team in the playoffs. For example, the correlation between the 5 on 5 goals for/goals against ratio and wins is 0.83, a strong correlation. So for each team that is in the playoffs, I multiply 0.83 by, in Detroit's case, 1.41, to arrive at a value. Once I have obtained that value for each of the 14 stats I have for each team, I add them all together to come up with a score for each team.
To predict which team will win a given series, I compare their scores from the above calculation. Detroit has a score of 43.3 this year and Nashville 36.0, so I predict Detroit will win. Simple, effective, and it requires no sporting intuition on my part, which is a good thing, because I have none.
However, I thought this year, since I had a 86.7% success rate last year, I would get a little more ballsy and try to predict in how many games each victor would defeat their opponent. Below are my predictions for the entire 15-series playoff. However, if my predictions prove less than perfect in the first round, I will adjust predictions based on which teams are competing in subsequent rounds. I will consider the accuracy of my initial prediction of the final however, including the winner of the Cup. For the sake of my success rate, I am really going for picking the teams. How many games it takes is a total crapshoot. If I get that right, I'll shat. I'll keep you up to date on my success as the playoffs progress. Here goes!
Round 1
DET v NSH: DET in 4
SJS v CGY: SJS in 5
MIN v COL: MIN in 7
ANA v DAL: DAL in 7
MTL v BOS: MTL in 6
PIT v OTT: PIT in 7
WSH v PHI: WSH in 7
NJD v NYR: NYR in 6
Round 2
DET v DAL: DET in 5
SJS v MIN: SJS in 6
MTL v NYR: NYR in 7
PIT v WSH: WSH in 7
Round 3
DET v SJS: DET in 6
NYR v WSH: NYR in 7
Round 4
DET v NYR: DET in 6
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Exhibit B
I present to you Exhibit B in Pharmadaddy v. Mother Nature. As I mentioned earlier, we woke up on the morning of April 1 to a disgusting display of natural cruelty. Of course, once I got home the snow stopped. However, I still could not get into my driveway. Thankfully my wonderful neighbor with whom I share a driveway has a snowblower and so reduced my workload immensely. I still spent two hours shoveling though. Not my idea of a good time. What follows is a set of photos showing the ginormous mound of snow next to my driveway that has accumulated throughout this incessant winter. Warning: These pictures are not for the faint of heart. Viewer discretion is advised.
Experience exshmerience
Although I am not American and so in no way have a say in who gets elected as the next president of the United States, I'm still free to comment on it. So let me just say that Hillary Clinton recently did a great disservice to all of us who still think, maybe naively so, that there must be some honest, hardworking politicians left. If you haven't seen the video yet, feel free to watch it below. Essentially, Clinton was caught in a blatant lie when recalling a story from her trip to Bosnia while she was First Lady. The story was so obviously fabricated it disgusts me. And the response by her aide could be considered hilarious if it were not so concerning coming from the campaign team of a woman who could become the next PUSA. The whole thing could be considered the greatest fabrication of her campaign, except then one would not be considering her incessant assertion that her years of experience in office make her a better choice than Obama. Just goes to show that no amount of experience can undo a propensity toward blatant dishonesty in the pursuit of power and glory.
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