Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Zoe
Zoe (zo'e) [Greek Zoe, literally, life]
Much of my world these days revolves around my daughter Zoe. She was born June 2nd, 2004. She's also the reason it's difficult to not post more because she really demands one's attention!
I want to keep track of my early impressions of her in the first days and months of her life.
The reason my wife and I named her Zoe, I think, had to do in large part with how she came to be. Back in the spring of 2001, we seriously started pursuing fertility treatments. Going through fertility treatment is an emotional roller coaster. One begins to think one's making progress, but then one's hopes are dashed. First my wife tried chlomid. Then we went through a few rounds of more advanced hormones with inter-uterine injection. Finally we went on to try in-vitro fertilization (IVF). The first round elicited many viable embryos. But the first attempt yielded no pregnancies.
The embryos had been harvested and frozen in June 2003. In September 2003 we tried another cycle, and this time my wife got pregnant! At first there were two fetuses, but eventually one did not live. It was very difficult to find this out at an ultrasound appointment where we could see the two fetuses and one of them with its heart not beating. But eventually the other one did keep on developing and resulted in our beautiful baby girl.
Each stage of the fertility treatment was a new level of hope. Now these stages continue on. For example, Zoe was born early because my wife is diabetic and the baby was getting too large. So we had to worry--will her lungs be developed enough? Well, thankfully they were so she did not have to go into the neo-natal clinic at the hospital. Then the next thing was worrying about whether or not she was eating enough. She had some difficulty learning how to latch on. Then there was the lingering diaper rash.
At the moment things are really good with her. The one slight problem is that almost every evening she gets very cranky and has inconsolable crying. Eventually babies get over this colic thing, and it will be a relief once she is.
It feels like we've had her forever already, but of course she's only ten weeks old. She's grown so much already. It is such a joy to see her develop. We are so glad she is alive.
p.s. Sometimes my wife and I like to joke that she's our unfrozen daughter, and our world must "freighten and confuse" her. (This is a reference to an old skit on Saturday Night Live by Phil Hartman who played an unfrozen caveman lawyer.)
Much of my world these days revolves around my daughter Zoe. She was born June 2nd, 2004. She's also the reason it's difficult to not post more because she really demands one's attention!
I want to keep track of my early impressions of her in the first days and months of her life.
The reason my wife and I named her Zoe, I think, had to do in large part with how she came to be. Back in the spring of 2001, we seriously started pursuing fertility treatments. Going through fertility treatment is an emotional roller coaster. One begins to think one's making progress, but then one's hopes are dashed. First my wife tried chlomid. Then we went through a few rounds of more advanced hormones with inter-uterine injection. Finally we went on to try in-vitro fertilization (IVF). The first round elicited many viable embryos. But the first attempt yielded no pregnancies.
The embryos had been harvested and frozen in June 2003. In September 2003 we tried another cycle, and this time my wife got pregnant! At first there were two fetuses, but eventually one did not live. It was very difficult to find this out at an ultrasound appointment where we could see the two fetuses and one of them with its heart not beating. But eventually the other one did keep on developing and resulted in our beautiful baby girl.
Each stage of the fertility treatment was a new level of hope. Now these stages continue on. For example, Zoe was born early because my wife is diabetic and the baby was getting too large. So we had to worry--will her lungs be developed enough? Well, thankfully they were so she did not have to go into the neo-natal clinic at the hospital. Then the next thing was worrying about whether or not she was eating enough. She had some difficulty learning how to latch on. Then there was the lingering diaper rash.
At the moment things are really good with her. The one slight problem is that almost every evening she gets very cranky and has inconsolable crying. Eventually babies get over this colic thing, and it will be a relief once she is.
It feels like we've had her forever already, but of course she's only ten weeks old. She's grown so much already. It is such a joy to see her develop. We are so glad she is alive.
p.s. Sometimes my wife and I like to joke that she's our unfrozen daughter, and our world must "freighten and confuse" her. (This is a reference to an old skit on Saturday Night Live by Phil Hartman who played an unfrozen caveman lawyer.)
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Yet another political star from Predator?
Rather than enlisting the bizarrely ideological Alan Keyes in the senatorial race in Illinois following Jack Ryan's post-divorce meltdown to face new Democratic star Obama, I think the Republicans should have courted Carl Weathers or Bill Duke instead. It would mean that a cheesy sci-fi 80's movie like Predator would have spawned the careers of two governors (Jesse Ventura and of course Ahnold) and a senator.
Recent presidential quotes . . .
These are a couple of my favorite recent quotes by Bush:
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." 8/5/04
"Tribal sovereignty means that; it's sovereign. I mean, you're a — you've been given sovereignty, and you're viewed as a sovereign entity. And therefore the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities." 8/06/04
(This response elicited uncomfortable laughter from a conference of minority journalists he was addressing.)
What a stupid, little twerp of a president we have now. It would be more funny if it weren't so depressing.
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." 8/5/04
"Tribal sovereignty means that; it's sovereign. I mean, you're a — you've been given sovereignty, and you're viewed as a sovereign entity. And therefore the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities." 8/06/04
(This response elicited uncomfortable laughter from a conference of minority journalists he was addressing.)
What a stupid, little twerp of a president we have now. It would be more funny if it weren't so depressing.
Where's Leni Riefenstahl when you need her most?
Watching the opening ceremonies for the Athens Olympic Games last Friday I had the sudden thought: Too bad Leni Riefenstahl died last year. Not only could her services have been used to capture this kind of larger than life spectacle, but she also could have filmed the Democratic National Convention in Boston a couple weeks before that.
Was that a convention? Looking back on it now (and keeping Riefenstahl in mind), it seemed less like a convention than a week-long party rally a la Riefenstahl's. By the time it was Kerry's turn to speak, I was so worn out from a week-long emphasis on events from 35 years ago I didn't even watch his speech. Yes, it may be important to remind us yet again that Kerry served in Vietnam, but geez does it really matter that much? I watched much of the convention on C-SPAN. Highlights of the convention for me were Carter's speech and Obama's later in the week.
I was truly disturbed by a report I heard on the radio program that delegates were not allowed to hold up unapproved signs advocating peace in Iraq. If the Democrats worry so much about alienating those "swing" voters in the middle, don't they risk becoming irrelevant to their own political base? Isn't a large part of the fun of watching a political convention the somewhat tacky home-made signs? Also, if the sign for Al-Jaazera's network needs to be covered, shouldn't the same principle be applied to Fox News?
OK, so they don't want to look like McGovern's 1972 poorly managed convention, but can't they be somewhere in-between anarchism and fascism?
I was sorry that I missed Al Sharpton's speech just because he departed from the scripted version he had submitted to be approved. Staying on message is important, but when this becomes so transparent to the audience the effect comes off as phony at the least. I would have loved to have been back stage when Sharpton departed from the teleprompt, just to see all-hell break loose!
There's a thin line between "staying on message" and creating a so sanitized convention. Even though I think it's terrible that the major networks decided not to cover most of the convention, can they really be blamed if they're being asked to cover such manipulative garbage?
There's an essay by the Frankfurt School critical theorist Adorno titled "Reconciliation Under Duress" which, if memory serves, criticizes Sartre's and Lukacs's political engagement as bad aesthetics, and it was this title that rang in my ears for much of the week.
Was that a convention? Looking back on it now (and keeping Riefenstahl in mind), it seemed less like a convention than a week-long party rally a la Riefenstahl's
I was truly disturbed by a report I heard on the radio program
OK, so they don't want to look like McGovern's 1972 poorly managed convention, but can't they be somewhere in-between anarchism and fascism?
I was sorry that I missed Al Sharpton's speech just because he departed from the scripted version he had submitted to be approved. Staying on message is important, but when this becomes so transparent to the audience the effect comes off as phony at the least. I would have loved to have been back stage when Sharpton departed from the teleprompt, just to see all-hell break loose!
There's a thin line between "staying on message" and creating a so sanitized convention. Even though I think it's terrible that the major networks decided not to cover most of the convention, can they really be blamed if they're being asked to cover such manipulative garbage?
There's an essay by the Frankfurt School critical theorist Adorno titled "Reconciliation Under Duress" which, if memory serves, criticizes Sartre's and Lukacs's political engagement as bad aesthetics, and it was this title that rang in my ears for much of the week.
Sunday, August 08, 2004
Presidential Bonfire
The modern phenomenon of the presidential library/museum is an odd one, and it makes one wonder how the whole thing got started. With our current president, one wonders what a W Presidential Library would look like given his stated disinterest in reading. Maybe instead of a library the national archives should build a presidential bonfire in his honor. They could maintain a constant fire that his right-wing zealot friends could use whenever they want to ban a new book. In an interview W was asked what he thought of his potential historical legacy, and he said he didn't care because we'd all be dead. So apparently he doesn't give a damn about this kind of thing.
