The Column

As a Father: THE THERMOSTAT IS NOT TO BE TOUCHED   On 8/8/18, Griffin was born.  I was born on 8/1/88, which is his birthday backwards. I think that's pretty neat. It feels weird to say "I became a dad", because it feels weird to be  a dad. The whole thing feels weird. Weird and good.  Griffin is the first baby I've spent more than 5 minutes around. The first baby that I've held while he cried. The first baby I've soothed. The first baby whose diaper I've changed. The only baby I've ever wanted to hold. I always wanted a kid because I have some romantic feelings about life and love and purpose and our biological imperatives and existence and stuff... but it turns out that having a kid also comes with some other neat things. The prospect of getting to shape an entire person as he grows up is really exciting. I really look forward to each of his individual stages of development. I can't wait for it to have "all gone too fast", as ...

Motto: Life, One Second a Time I had a kid. I'll write about that next time. It's tough to try to get everything I want to say about that together and typed and whatnot - so I'm going to postpone that one and throw out this one. I've got several Columns already in mind right now. Actually that gives me the Top 5 topic.  Here's the playlist of all of six videos . I'm not writing any more on this topic. That video marked the end of the longest-running creative project I've ever done. This is a cathartic Column. Top 5: Titles of Columns that I've been Trying to Write for the Past Few Days 5. "Sixth Second-A-Day" 4. "Feature: Analysis of Human Attractiveness" 3. "Make Stuff" 2. "Self Help (Yourself)" 1. "Griffin" Quote: "You said you were moving onto something better - and I thought 'I bet I know what that means'." - Ed -

Motto: Let's Get It Started In Here Our baby is going to be induced two days from now. Tomorrow we go in for pre-induction medical magic. That means basically everything I do right now I'm doing for the last time as an individual without any children. This is the last Column I will write as a non-father. This is the last time I'll write the word "ambidextrous". This is the last time I'll go on a nice little Sunday outing. It makes everything seem arbitrarily important. Every thought is good enough to write about. Every little thing is worthy of savor. That's probably why I'm on a hot streak of Column writing. Next time I write something in here, I'll have to start each of my opinions with " As a father... "  Melissa says I should proof read these Columns before I actually post them. She's noticed a number of times where I start somet It's amazing how much the weather affects everything and everybody. If it's a nice da...

Motto: Optimism Meets Realism Meets Writing Fifteen million seven hundred sixty-eight thousand minutes! Fifteen million seven hundred sixty-eight thousand  moments so dear! Fifteen million seven hundred sixty-eight thousand  minutes! How do you measure, measure 30 years? I measured 5 years using the Life Tracker. I know that doesn't account for the other 5/6ths of the data you asked about. Sorry I don't know what to tell you. That's right. I started a retrospective of the past 30 years of my life with a R.E.N.T. joke. Clearly I'm going  deep  with this Column. Five Years ago I wrote a Column  talking about how awesome turning 25 is and how awesome the next 25 years were going to be. I wrote how I was excited to relive every day I had already been alive, but with " at least my current level of understanding and faculty, my current level of independence and capability ". Looking back I see what I was getting at... but I might take a slightly less...