Photos were taken with a Kodak CD83 and edited using SnapSeed application on the iPhone. I don't think I'm fancy, just wanted folks to know what was possible with a really basic digital camera and a free iPhone app.
Monday, October 24
My little pumpkin...
Photos were taken with a Kodak CD83 and edited using SnapSeed application on the iPhone. I don't think I'm fancy, just wanted folks to know what was possible with a really basic digital camera and a free iPhone app.
Friday, October 21
Your hippy rant for the month...
So, I'm getting sick of always apologizing for not blogging. For one, the person I'm really apologizing to is myself, and a public apology is therefore not only self-indulgent but also kind of creepy, and for two, why do I feel the need to put made-up pressure on myself and stress out about (let's be realistic) an online diary?
To be fair, this is the same person who in the 7th grade tried to psyche out her diary...
Actual excerpt from the Yuppy Hippy's Diary, circa June 1997:
Yup. That happened.
So, anyhoo, the reason I haven't been blogging is I went to NY for another wedding (a week-long adventure), then came home for a week of dealing with a cranky, doesn't-want-to-travel-anymore baby before going to the Outerbanks for a big family vacation and then coming home with the sniffles to an also sick husband and two dogs who were convinced we would never come home.
Also, I really don't want to talk about Dodge and I feel like that is supposed to be the next logical post. So, skipping the mandatory "Why we are putting Dodge up for adoption and what kind of horrible human being I am" post, let's move onto my second favorite subject to ramble on about to The Husband late at night....
"Up All Night."
You know...the new television series with Christina Applegate and Will Arnett. And Maya Rudolph. How do you get a cast like that and manage to screw it up so badly!?!?!
For one, the characters are such a weird jumble of cliches...and they're mostly opposing ideas. So the parents were supposed to be these awesome cool party people who found themselves thrust into parenting and all of a sudden don't know how to be cool anymore? Yet, they've managed to go out drinking and partying on more than one occasion while parenting a 6-month-old...which I think puts them squarely in the "still hip" category. (My category, as I like to call it.)
Oh, and the father character is wicked dorky? Was he always wicked dorky or did this suddenly happen when his sperm made contact with the egg? If he was always wicked dorky, then why are they shown to be such a hip and happening party couple in the opening credits? How come he has to act all weird around the surfer guy if only 10 months ago, he was perfectly capable of hanging out with cool people?! And if Applegate's character is so bitchin', why did she drive like a 1995 BMW?!?!!
I don't mind when a television show or movie stretches the elements of truth to make something funnier or more exciting...but it's like they don't even care which cliches they throw on these characters so long as some of it sticks. The new parent gags have all been overdone, so has the "clueless rich person" character that Arnett is so super-awesome at playing...why can't they focus on the whole "stay-at-home" dad thing and Applegate's working-mom conundrum??
Aside from their personalities, their careers/lifestyle are also a crazy mix. So, they're well-off, but need to haggle on the price of a car, but the former-lawyer-husband-father character doesn't know how to haggle even though he was at one time a pretty sneaky lawyer? Why can't they keep the old crappy BMW and still purchase the kid-friendly SUV? (And, c'mon, that should have been a minivan. SUVs are still wicked awesome. Amiright?!?! Where all my Subaru Outback owners at?!)
(To throw in a thumbs up, I will say Arnett's trip to the supermarket -- the one where he purchases fancy cheese because he cannot find the regular cheeses -- did ring true to me. The Husband is CONSTANTLY bringing home "fancy" dijon mustard in a glass 3-ounce bottle because he can't find the regular, squeeze-me-out-of-an-upside-down-plastic-container condiment" aisle.)
But don't get me started on the "Ava" character. What kind of level of famous television personality is she? They've clearly got some Oprah/Ricki Lake undertones going on...but her level of celebrity allows her to be hunted down for autographs in the parking lot and outside storefronts, yet anonymous enough to get drunk and take the stage at a drag queen cover band show? And she's best friends with her producer?! Where are all her famous friends? Oy vey.
But probably the tipping point was this week's episode which showed our empowered, well-researched protagonist preparing for a natural birth (with an 18-page birth plan -- that punchline actually worked on me)... but we leave her in the Labor & Delivery room all loopy on an epidural and listening to a young, male doctor tell her the baby's head is too big for a vaginal delivery.
Wow. Way to screw over American women everywhere who are constantly being told their bodies are somehow unable or ill-equipped to birth their babies. I hate to go all Hippy-Earth-Mother on you, dear readers, but this really got to me. You won't find a better example of how media plays into the notion that a 33 percent c-section rate is acceptable (and totally normal) and using an epidural to manage pain is an expected part of the process. (I won't even get into how many women are advised to use pitocin to "speed" up their labors -- never mind the undue stress it might cause the baby and themselves.)
It just sucks that this is the qualified medical advice we are not only given in the hospital, but also via societal pressures. Booo. Why couldn't they show the hilarious aspects of a natural birth? You know, complete with the swearing mother who squeezes the blood out of her partner's hand and then turns are mushy/gooey/lovey dovey when the disgustingly bloody/bodily-fluid-covered baby is placed on her chest? Why not show her try a million different positions while the poor husband fills up a birthing tub that doesn't get used because she can't stand the idea of water?
I mean, you don't have to glorify this whole hippy movement I seem to be a part of, but at least give American women an IDEA of what it might be like to have a baby without being strapped to an IV and told that having an epidural and then pitocin and then a c-section is the "rite of passage" women have been experiencing for hundreds of years.
To be fair, this is the same person who in the 7th grade tried to psyche out her diary...
Actual excerpt from the Yuppy Hippy's Diary, circa June 1997:
"Dear Diary,
In two weeks I will be getting contacts.
NOT!!!!!!!!!!!
I got them today!"
Yup. That happened.
So, anyhoo, the reason I haven't been blogging is I went to NY for another wedding (a week-long adventure), then came home for a week of dealing with a cranky, doesn't-want-to-travel-anymore baby before going to the Outerbanks for a big family vacation and then coming home with the sniffles to an also sick husband and two dogs who were convinced we would never come home.
Also, I really don't want to talk about Dodge and I feel like that is supposed to be the next logical post. So, skipping the mandatory "Why we are putting Dodge up for adoption and what kind of horrible human being I am" post, let's move onto my second favorite subject to ramble on about to The Husband late at night....
"Up All Night."
You know...the new television series with Christina Applegate and Will Arnett. And Maya Rudolph. How do you get a cast like that and manage to screw it up so badly!?!?!
For one, the characters are such a weird jumble of cliches...and they're mostly opposing ideas. So the parents were supposed to be these awesome cool party people who found themselves thrust into parenting and all of a sudden don't know how to be cool anymore? Yet, they've managed to go out drinking and partying on more than one occasion while parenting a 6-month-old...which I think puts them squarely in the "still hip" category. (My category, as I like to call it.)
Oh, and the father character is wicked dorky? Was he always wicked dorky or did this suddenly happen when his sperm made contact with the egg? If he was always wicked dorky, then why are they shown to be such a hip and happening party couple in the opening credits? How come he has to act all weird around the surfer guy if only 10 months ago, he was perfectly capable of hanging out with cool people?! And if Applegate's character is so bitchin', why did she drive like a 1995 BMW?!?!!
I don't mind when a television show or movie stretches the elements of truth to make something funnier or more exciting...but it's like they don't even care which cliches they throw on these characters so long as some of it sticks. The new parent gags have all been overdone, so has the "clueless rich person" character that Arnett is so super-awesome at playing...why can't they focus on the whole "stay-at-home" dad thing and Applegate's working-mom conundrum??
Aside from their personalities, their careers/lifestyle are also a crazy mix. So, they're well-off, but need to haggle on the price of a car, but the former-lawyer-husband-father character doesn't know how to haggle even though he was at one time a pretty sneaky lawyer? Why can't they keep the old crappy BMW and still purchase the kid-friendly SUV? (And, c'mon, that should have been a minivan. SUVs are still wicked awesome. Amiright?!?! Where all my Subaru Outback owners at?!)
(To throw in a thumbs up, I will say Arnett's trip to the supermarket -- the one where he purchases fancy cheese because he cannot find the regular cheeses -- did ring true to me. The Husband is CONSTANTLY bringing home "fancy" dijon mustard in a glass 3-ounce bottle because he can't find the regular, squeeze-me-out-of-an-upside-down-plastic-container condiment" aisle.)
But don't get me started on the "Ava" character. What kind of level of famous television personality is she? They've clearly got some Oprah/Ricki Lake undertones going on...but her level of celebrity allows her to be hunted down for autographs in the parking lot and outside storefronts, yet anonymous enough to get drunk and take the stage at a drag queen cover band show? And she's best friends with her producer?! Where are all her famous friends? Oy vey.
But probably the tipping point was this week's episode which showed our empowered, well-researched protagonist preparing for a natural birth (with an 18-page birth plan -- that punchline actually worked on me)... but we leave her in the Labor & Delivery room all loopy on an epidural and listening to a young, male doctor tell her the baby's head is too big for a vaginal delivery.
Wow. Way to screw over American women everywhere who are constantly being told their bodies are somehow unable or ill-equipped to birth their babies. I hate to go all Hippy-Earth-Mother on you, dear readers, but this really got to me. You won't find a better example of how media plays into the notion that a 33 percent c-section rate is acceptable (and totally normal) and using an epidural to manage pain is an expected part of the process. (I won't even get into how many women are advised to use pitocin to "speed" up their labors -- never mind the undue stress it might cause the baby and themselves.)
It just sucks that this is the qualified medical advice we are not only given in the hospital, but also via societal pressures. Booo. Why couldn't they show the hilarious aspects of a natural birth? You know, complete with the swearing mother who squeezes the blood out of her partner's hand and then turns are mushy/gooey/lovey dovey when the disgustingly bloody/bodily-fluid-covered baby is placed on her chest? Why not show her try a million different positions while the poor husband fills up a birthing tub that doesn't get used because she can't stand the idea of water?
I mean, you don't have to glorify this whole hippy movement I seem to be a part of, but at least give American women an IDEA of what it might be like to have a baby without being strapped to an IV and told that having an epidural and then pitocin and then a c-section is the "rite of passage" women have been experiencing for hundreds of years.
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