Bringing up baby: 3 December 2012

Highlights:

Day at daycare with Tilly,

Tilly's Celebration party.

***
Tilly was born in the lull period between Christmas Day and New Year. We begin to face the implications for his life-long tribulations.

1. It may be difficult to have people come to his birthday party. Potential guests would have made long-term holiday plans not involving coming to his party. For instance, this year his overseas cousins and aunty and uncle are not coming. His daycare is closed and his friends will not be available.

Partial solution: have a party for him and his friends before daycare closes for the year and before all his friends leave. That means a party on 3 December 2012.

I got permission from daycare, and agreement from Daddee. Aunty joined in and provided assistance on the day.

We had 5 foil helium balloons - stars, and farmyard theme. We had homemade cake, and fruit jelly.

We had fun.

***
I'm still Tilly's possession. I can't play with any other kid without his permission. He got quite unhappy. 

Bringing up baby: 2 Dec 2012

Highlights:

First Santa parade,

Helping Tilly to accepting his bath,

Bedtime routine with Tillly including Brush Teeth, and lights out.

Bringing up baby: 1 December 2012

I should have remembered the first rule of Parenting.

1) Expect to have your plans upstaged.

Our plan for today: be relaxed; receive delivery of new dishwasher; I go to work for two or four hours; I come back and play with Tilly for the afternoon.

Upstaged.

What happened today: woke up early, relaxed and watched Tilly asleep. Relaxed, and looked after Tilly until 0820.

0820: Tilly inserted a pomegranate seed up his left nostril.

0825: Dadee came to our rescue and calmed things down a bit.

0830: we received the new dishwasher.

0855: Dadee tried the Remove Pomegranate Seed technique he learned from the Internet - close other nostril, and blow hard into kid's mouth until object comes out of nostril.

0855-0915: Tilly fights us off.

0915-0930: Dadee and me battle to get Tilly into the car and carseat.

0940: we get to local A&E.

0940-1000: Tilly is calm and discovering new territory. "Digger!"

1000-1020: Tilly fights off forcep-wielding doctor.

1040-1150: Tilly is calm and re-discovering new territory of Starship Children's hospital out-clinic A&E section.

1150-1220: Tilly and Mummee finds the kid's play area previously mentioned by receptionist 30mins ago, and plays there happily.

1220-1225: 3 medical staff wrap Tilly up firmly in a sheet and distract him, while Daddee closes Tiily's right nostril, and blows hard into his mouth until pomegranate seed pops out and hits Daddee on the cheek and bounces onto the floor; Mummee claps delightedly and cheers for Tilly and Daddee, praising both indiscriminately.

1230-1240: try to pay to get out of car park.

1245: got out of car park.

1250: arrive at work.

1300: start work.

1820: finish work.

1824: play with Tilly as he discovers the beauty of my work place and shows them to me.

Tilly had great fun with the shallow steps which led zig-zag up the slope. He invited me to pretend-jump (like he does with his friends at daycare). I did. We laughed with pleasure. We walked, handholding. We ran, handholding.

He is so much fun.

Tonight after his bath we had a lot of fun too. He and I hid beneath a pile of pillows.

Daddee is very tired from his exertions today. He's my hero.

Bringing up baby: artwork 27 Nov 2012

27 November 2012 (c) ^_^ 2012

Medium: paint, hands, card.

Bringing up baby: The Cat in the Hat reaction

A few days ago.

***

Tilly really understood the plot. He was really into it. He was charming.

I'd forgotten the storyline. His reaction reminded me just how exciting it was.

Story time started as an onerous event, with much procrastination on his side. Many other books were skimmed through, to prolong eventual bedtime.

Daddee open the cover of the book. He started reading.

"The sun did not shine.

It was too wet to play.

So we sat in the house

All that cold, cold, wet day."

Tilly was still distracted, fiddling with his toothbrush cover.

Daddee continued as best he could. Then the plot became much more exciting.

The Cat in the Hat!

The fish talks!

The Cat does ambitious things! Oh no! The fish and the cake! The books and the rake!

Oh no! The ship and the books! Tilly could hardly bear to look!

The Cat has a fall! Despair, oh tragedy! Oh that poor ball!

And look at the mess the Cat made in the hall.

Does this stop the Cat? Never; never that.

His onslaught continues, with Thing One and Thing Two, 

But here comes our hero with his marvellous net.

His capture of Things completes the whole set.

And here's more suspense - mother is approaching; 

With the mess encroaching, 

Will our heroes escape without her reproaching?

The Cat! The Cat! The Cat saves the day!

He cleans up his mess, and puts fun away.

Still an unreliable Cat for all that.

Our heroes are safe, and the fish is happy once more 

Swimming peacefully in his glass bowl.

***

This book has become his book du jour, surpassing Green Eggs and Ham.

Am I sad? Yes. Yes, I am.

He sits through this book, I must say

All patience and eager when the Cat comes to play.

Reading from page one, to the finish.

Which is the best he has yet accomplished.

So I miss his skipping pages, I miss his versions.

Daddee loves he can read a story without diversions.

Bringing up baby: Tilly does clean up

Tilly cleans up his mess (c) ^_^ 2012

Narwhal vs Orca - People rule, and outsourcing drools!

This subject fascinates me. I can't pin down why I am fascinated. It ticks several of my interests.  

This story is about David vs Goliath. It is about community strengths vs corporate structure. It is about people vs design. It is about project management. It is about people management. It is psychology. It is sociology. It is technology. It is about nerve-wracking competition. It is about gaming. It contains role-playing and a DM. It is about preparedness. It is about high performance, and doing things to the best of your ability. 

It is loads of stuff.

It is about People.


In no particular order:

Tech analysis

• Inside Team Romney's whale of an IT meltdown "Orca, the Romney campaign's "killer" app, skips beta and pays the price." - Ars Technica
• Built to win: Deep inside Obama's campaign tech "How Obama's tech team built a "force multiplier" with Amazon and a narwhal." - Ars Technica
• How Team Obama's tech efficiency left Romney IT in dust "Obama campaign's tech team beat Romney by using opposite strategy—"insourcing."" - Ars Technica

Marketing analysis

• Ground Game: Orcas versus Narwhals "What we do hasn't changed - only how we do it." - Campaign Lexicon

Stats analysis

• Orca meets Narwhal - How the Obama Ground Game Crushed Romney "A look behind the math" - Communities Dominate [Ed. This is the most interesting analysis, imo pov.]

Journalist analysis

• When the Nerds Go Marching In - The Atlantic
• The Romney Campaign’s Ground Game Fiasco - The Daily Beast 
• Orca Failed; but So Did Obama's 2008 Version of the Same - The Atlantic 

Republican analysis

• The Unmitigated Disaster Known As Project ORCA - Ace of Spades 
• ORCA, meet Narwhal. This is how it’s done. - Red State 

Disclosure wrt the 2012 USA elections: my opinion is - ultimately the message carried the day. 

Not the candidates. Not the technology. If people weren't motivated enough to vote, then they didn't vote. If they didn't vote, then it's because of the message.