Not everyone is built to strive, but for those that are—strive on. It’s what you do. We all need you to do it well.”

Great quote from a wonderful blog I recently discovered.

Formidable machines indeed…

The glances of women are like certain apparently peaceful, but really formidable, machines. You pass them every day quietly, with impunity, and without suspicion of danger. There comes a moment when you forget even that they are there. You come and go, you muse and talk and laugh. Suddenly you feel that you are seized; it is done. The wheels have caught you, the glance has captured you. It has taken you, no matter how or where, by any portion whatever of your thought which was trailing. Through any absence of mind, you are lost. You will be drawn in entirely. A chain of mysterious forces has gained possession of you. You struggle in vain; no human succor is possible. You will be drawn down, from wheel to wheel, from anguish to anguish, from torture to torture. You, your mind, your fortune, your future, your soul; and, you will not escape from the terrible machine until, according as you are in the power of a malevolent nature, or a noble heart, you will be disfigured by shame, or transfigured by love.

Les Misérables - Volume III: Book Sixth, Chapter VI (Wilbour Translation)

I’m on a brief hiatus from writing due to time and energy constraints. Instead of longer posts, I’ve been posting links on Facebook and jotting notes on topics that come to mind for future posts.

My second son Ben was born on October 23rd and, quite honestly, we’ve had our hands full! The mental/physical transition from one child to two is quite different from the transition to your first child - in some aspects easier, in others however, almost inconceivably more difficult.

Once again, the talented Erin Sage adeptly captured these joyous times.

The experience from our first instilled a sense of confidence that made the delivery, first days, and transition home much less stressful. We knew there would be limited sleep, lots of newborn diapers, and the overwhelming joy of new life. We knew how to hold the baby to support his neck, but also that he wasn’t made of fragile glass. We knew we didn’t have to check his breathing every 4 minutes around the clock - short of an abnormal occurrence, he’d be ok.

The biggest adjustment for me has been the mental realignment required to re-prioritize one’s time, dedication and energy to what feels like two priorities which both seem to warrant being first. I’ve become completely dedicated to an intense relationship with my son, now I have to chop up my thoughts and energy to be divided amongst another human whose development and friendship is also a tremendous value. We’ve struggled with the realization that our time will now be allocated towards the development of two humans, which means A) our oldest son cannot continue to receive the dedication he’s enjoyed until now, and B) our new son cannot receive the same level that our first did. Seems like a loss for all parties until you realize the long-term benefits to all. Teaching a child to think is one of the most rewarding and fulfilling things I’ve ever done, but it takes lots of time and patience to be done correctly. The biggest tradeoff with multiple children is the cost that each one will get less parental energy, with the reward being the companionship of a sibling.

I suspect we’ll see some almost synergistic learning between the two when they get older, and that potential offset is comforting. Most importantly, our boys will be separated by only two years so they’ll very likely be close friends - this is the ultimate reward for the current parent sharing reality.

Work:
I’ve stayed pretty much heads-down in programming over the past few weeks… hopefully things will slow down towards the end of this week. I ended up developing a full Java-based SQL parser that generates ad-hoc model objects for complex queries. The persistence framework now supports standard one-to-one entity/table OR’ish generation and the “sql2java” utility will handle any cross-sectional data that transcend table boundaries, but don’t align wholly with full relational objects, i.e., “Select two columns from every table”. The generation tool just takes the tedium out of setting up such data views. I’ve also templatized support for most of the prevalent MVC-type api’s. Essentially, you point the tool at a schema, generate the entities, generate any cross-sectional models, specify which front-end, and push the go-button. The result is end-to-end CRUD and precise finders for all entities and read-only views of the sectional models. Technically, ~75% of a java based web application will be up and running - depending on how fancy the front-end is.

Music
It’s Galax week. I’ll be heading up for an afternoon or two. Five years ago, I’d be burning a week of vacation to go Monday-Sunday and play music 10-12 hours a day until my fingers literally cramped to a halt - this year I’ll be totally content with a few hours total. Life changes.

Culture
Lots of stuff going on with health care “reform” and economy… none of it good. ;] The only positive I can cite is that it *seems* that more people are waking up to the deadly threat facing us with socialized medicine. Of course the growing objection is only on practical grounds, but this starting point creates a chance talk about the more important moral case for objection. That conversation gets a lot more interesting.

Home
Sam has changed. The first signs of a new sense of independence and freewill caught me a bit off guard. The ubiquitous terrible-twos are here I’m afraid. After seeing him transition into this phase, I’m convinced that all kids reach a point where their expressive cognition exceeds their language and reasoning. How long they stay in this phase and to what extent they actually escape it is largely due to how we as parents navigate the storm.

We’ve established very structured and consistent boundaries with Sam from the beginning and that work is already paying off. He has melt-downs, but in just about every case he can be reasoned out of the mindset. He does very well with either-or negotiations - binary reasoning. An example from a recent melt over leaving our shoes (flip-flops) on at the pool.

Mom/Dad: Either we take our shoes off, or we leave the swimming pool - your choice… but those are the only two options.

Sam: Shoes off….

The options have to be reasonable, and more importantly, they have to be absolute. To abandon the established options, e.g., allowing shoes in the pool, is a recipe for terror.

I find his ability to manage and accept this type of communication very promising.

Very seldom do I encounter excellence in-person. It’s rare to meet that individual that leaves you in solemn acknowledgment that some people do strive to summon the best within them; the type that gets so intimately lost in their work that it actually becomes an extension of their existence, under full introspective control.

On Wednesday, I met such an individual. Erin Sage, an obviously prodigenic enthusiast of photography, lent her undivided attention towards the effort of enabling two entranced parents an opportunity to etch their unparalleled era of happiness into memory. She carries an instantly conspicuous manner of warmth and familiarity that becomes insolent once you realize that you’ve just met her.

Her ability to wrangle and seize the essence of the moment demands attention. In a manner that seemed to defy all existential boundaries, she’s bent on finding the right angle, distance and mood to grab a split-second drop of life. Granted, the subject of this engagement offers little in the way of aesthetic obstacles, Erin managed to capture a perception of joy and beauty that must typically evade sensation.

This quote from The Fountainhead comes to mind:

I will indefinitely hold her work not only as a persisted tribute to the love and value that Sam adds to my life, but as a vivid reminder of what talented, driven and passionate individuals are able to achieve.

I urge everyone to abstain from showing support, or even projecting an indifferent consideration, of the anti-life, anti-man, anti-capitalist “Earth Hour” movement.

As rational alternatives, I suggest these counter-movements that celebrate life, man, reason, capitalism, prosperity and joy.

• Alternative to Earth Hour
• Edison Hour on Facebook
• Human Achievement Hour

As part of a promotion at audible.com, several books are on sale including the unabridged version of Atlas Shrugged.

I highly recommend the audio book version. Not only has it proven to be a very convenient format for enjoying the story, but also a way to share the story with others. I keep the stack of 50 CD’s in a case that I leave in my car and occasionally will put on my desk at work. I’ve loaned it out on two separate occasions - both of which were facilitated by the format of the media.

To get this life-changing novel for $4.95 is a incredible value.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, I just realized that you must be a member to get the sale price. This fact was conveniently excluded from their add as well as the site. Still a great deal if you were to join for 3 months (minimum) @ $7.95/month, which would allow you three books at no additional charge plus the sale price on Atlas. Essentially, one could get 4 books for $28.80 total.

I finally gave in to the most recent reindeer game on Facebook. This turned out to be an enjoyable effort.

• 1. Despite countless hours spent gaming up until I was 18 or 19 years old, and the successful completion and mastery of many games, I have never defeated Mike Tyson in the Nintendo classic bearing his name.
• 2. I drive to Dunkin Donuts just about every morning to feed both my own addiction to hazelnut flavored coffee, and my Labrador’s daily scarfing of a single glazed munchkin. The drool is nearly unbearable – his too.
• 3. I’ve read more in the last five years than the preceding 27 combined.
• 4. I’m an avid enthusiast of digital camouflage.
• 5. My proudest moment as a musician was entering the Ryman auditorium from the performer’s side entrance before playing on the Opry. I still have the sticker on my case.
• 6. I once owned over 40 flannel shirts from Abercrombie & Fitch – back when their clothing had its last fading remnant of class – not that flannel imparts classiness.
• 7. I very rarely hear humans expressing rational thoughts on the radio.
• 8. John Mayer’s Continuum would be one of my desert island albums. How extremely rare to find an artist with intellectually rich penmanship, a soulful voice, and instrumental aptitude that’s so highly esteemed.
• 9. I spent nearly ten years of my childhood racing go-karts at the state and national level.
• 10. My wife and I are just about polar opposites. Sam will definitely have an array of ideas and attitudes to emulate.
• 11. I’ve never liked my hair. It’s curly when it’s long, straight when it’s short and I have both a cow-lick and a bald spot from a birthmark. I tried clippers in high school once. Unfortunately the anthropometric summary of my head represents a mathematical anomaly - of which hair is a necessary mitigating agent. Extracting physical appearance as a component of my self-esteem has been a wonderfully rewarding endeavor.
• 12. I think Google Maps, with its current feature set and considering the nature of the web as a software platform, is the single most impressive application I’ve ever used.
• 13. As a 12 year-old I had growing pains so badly on one occasion that I literally could not walk.
• 14. I was oblivious to the potential amount of joy and love that a human can sense until the birth of my son.
• 15. One of my 10-year goals (5 years ago) is to have a fully functional, CNC-enabled machine and woodworking shop at home – It’s currently about 2/3 complete.
• 16. I think America has seen her brightest days.
• 17. Bach’s Prelude No. 1 is my favorite classical piece.
• 18. I’m currently learning to weld and sew.
• 19. Only once in my life did I encounter what athletes refer to as “the zone.” I don’t subscribe to any form of the supernatural, but that one-hour period of time will forever standout an inexplicable breach of my consciousness and actions.
• 20. On a 2006 music trip to Europe, Air France “misplaced” about 20K dollars worth of our irreplaceable guitars and gear for 24 hours.
• 21. I used to make light sabers using flashlights and green poster board. Luke was a pansy when he carried the blue one - I chose to emulate excellence.
• 22. I think I could enjoy being a truck driver because there would be plenty of time for music, audio books and introspection, but I couldn’t handle the time away from home.
• 23. I think humans are fundamentally moral, but after being battered by irrationalism for thousands of years, today one has to really develop and nurture a mindset of independent and critical thinking to hold any aspiration of escape from the clutches of modern philosophy.
• 24. In a streak that ended cold in 2007, I’ve consumed an estimated10,000 pop-tarts.
• 25. I think every individual is capable of more than they realize. With focus and mental discipline the human mind is capable of immense achievement.

by Craig Biddle at 8:23 PM

The religious tradition of saying grace before meals becomes especially popular around the holidays, when we all are reminded of how fortunate we are to have an abundance of life-sustaining goods and services at our disposal. But there is a grave injustice involved in this tradition. It is the injustice of thanking an alleged God for the productive accomplishments of actual men.

Where do the ideas, principles, constitutions, governments, and laws that protect our rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness come from? What is the source of the meals, medicines, homes, automobiles, and fighter jets that keep us alive and enable us to flourish? Who is responsible for our freedom, prosperity, and well-being?

Is freedom a gift from God? It is not. Freedom, the absence of physical coercion, is a political condition resulting from the rational, principled thought and action of men—men such as Aristotle, John Locke, the Founding Fathers, Frederick Douglass, and American soldiers.

Did God make the ambrosia that melts in your mouth, or the asthma medicine that keeps your child alive, or the plush recliner in which you relax, or the big-screen TV on which you watch your favorite show? Did God create the jetliners that bring friends and family from afar, or the stealth bombers that keep the barbarians at bay, or the music that warms your heart and fuels your soul?

Since God is responsible for none of the goods on which human life and happiness depend, why thank him for any such goods? More to the point: Why not thank those who actually are responsible for them? What would a just man do?

Justice is the virtue of judging people rationally—according to what they say, do, and produce—and treating them accordingly, granting to each man that which he deserves. If someone spends the day preparing a wonderful meal, justice demands that he, not God, be thanked for doing so. If someone provides his family with a warm, safe, comfortable home, justice demands that he, not God, be thanked for providing it. If a policeman or fireman or doctor saves someone’s life, justice demands that he, not God, be thanked. If a loving spouse or child or parent or friend provides you with great joy, justice demands that he, not God, be acknowledged accordingly. If a philosopher discovers the principles on which freedom depends—and if others put those principles into practice—justice demands that they, not God, be given credit.

To say grace is to give credit where none is due—and, worse, it is to withhold credit where it is due. To say grace is to commit an act of injustice.

Rational, productive people—whether philosophers, scientists, inventors, artists, businessmen, military strategists, friends, family, or yourself—are who deserve to be thanked for the goods on which your life, liberty, and happiness depend. This holiday season—and from now on—don’t say grace; say justice. Thank or acknowledge the people who actually provide the goods. Some of them may be sitting right there at the table with you. And if you find yourself at a table where people insist on saying grace, politely insist on saying justice when they’re through. It’s the right thing to do.