Second Child

I tried for a while to save the domain name for our kids, and run a blog about each of them. This is from Rowan’s (birth name Ruth).

Ruth Laurel
boy. I should check this more often
October 4th, 2007 at 5:33 pm (daily life)

I’ve been putting a few posts and video over at phillbecker.com.
Quick over view: she started crawling @ 6months, walking @ 9 1/2 months, running shortly after that. Spent the summer in NY at the cabin, birthday at Nana/Pop Pop’s place. Ear infection over and done while I was out of state in August, everything’s fine now. She is just now cutting molars: 4 at a time (yay).

Ruth is very physical and agile. She runs, climbs and beats Eddy up all the time. She’s a good eater and a snuggle bug. Lots of pictures and some video that just hasn’t made it online yet. I’ll get to it.
/update
pb

Comments

6 months now
February 24th, 2007 at 10:14 am (Uncategorized)

Ruth had her checkup the other day and is doing fine. Still no sicknesses, ear infections etc. Her first tooth cut a couple days after the checkup, she started crawling a little (actual crawling, not just “commando”) and decided standing was better.

Stats: 26 3/4 ” long
14 lbs 14 oz
43.7 cm head circ.

Why the heck does the medical system use 2 different systems for measurement. Go all English or give it up and go metric like the rest of the world. nevermind

She’s generally happy. Ruth definitely knows what she wants and how to get it. If she’s interested in exploring, don’t try to play. Standing and holding onto fingers or the walker is much more enjoyable than crawling. Now she can sit and play with thing. In fact, this morning was her first experience in a restaurant high chair and it went very well.

We’ve introduced spoon foods, and she still takes a bottle. She’s just about given up nursing, but not completely. Favorite food seems to be sweet peas. They spray really well when she goes “PBBbbBBBBBBBBbbbBBB!!!”

There’s this funny thing about giving her a bottle… she needs her head covered with a blanket. Otherwise she’ll grab and push the bottle away, grab your face or anything else she can reach. The blanket gives her something to hold onto and rub on her eyes. Of course, it also gives her a weapon to grab with both hands and sweep away the bottle from time to time.

Allison took her to a high school dance marathon last night. Where Eddy cowered from the noise and people and lights and mascots, she apparently grooved to the bass beat and had a grand time with all the people and stimulation.

Time to baby-proof the house, I guess

I hate dreaming.

October 2nd, 2007

It’s not that dreaming is bad or I have nightmares or anything like that. It just seems that dreaming is a waste of perfectly good sleep time. In my dreams, I’m usually active or doing something or interacting… realistic dreams. I don’t have abstract, pretty color, flying / falling, or fantasy world dreams. Sci-fi sometimes, but still first-person and active.

So my brain acts like I’m doing things and thinking about what’s going on and trying to reason things out, which is difficult at times. When I wake up (or usually when I’m woken up) I have to switch gears, clear the dream out and get real-world functions going again. Since my brain has been active, I usually feel more tired after 6-8 hours of dreaming sleep than if I just crash for 3-5.

[there was probably more to this that’s gone]

new iPod firmware

June 12th, 2007

I’m not a fan of computer hardware that behaves the wants to, rather than the way I tell it to. My wife thinks it’s a control issue. She’ probably right.

I was getting peeved that the music on my (gifted) iPod wasn’t readable by anything that couldn’t decode the iTunes database structure. Well, the music is readable, but you can’t tell what song you’re clicking on unless you memorize the length and size of every song. The names are replaced with things like FWOX.mp3 in folders of similar names with dissimilar tracks (not of the same album). Plus you couldn’t copy (decoded) music from the iPod to another computer unless you purchased it through iTunes and were transferring it to one of your five approved machines. And you couldn’t play open-source music formats (ogg, flac, etc)

Well, I fixed that.

[probably more that’s missing]

new iPod firmware

Tuesday, June 12th, 2007

I’m not a fan of computer hardware that behaves the wants to, rather than the way I tell it to. My wife thinks it’s a control issue. She’ probably right.

I was getting peeved that the music on my (gifted) iPod wasn’t readable by anything that couldn’t decode the iTunes database structure. Well, the music is readable, but you can’t tell what song you’re clicking on unless you memorize the length and size of every song. The names are replaced with things like FWOX.mp3 in folders of similar names with dissimilar tracks (not of the same album). Plus you couldn’t copy (decoded) music from the iPod to another computer unless you purchased it through iTunes and were transferring it to one of your five approved machines. And you couldn’t play open-source music formats (ogg, flac, etc)

Well, I fixed that.
(more…)

Posted in Technical | No Comments »

Vegan Birkenstocks … suck

I bought a pair of vegan birk sandals in April 05. For $90 you’d expect a pair of shoes to last more than 2 years, especially when they’re only seasonal wear.
I took them in the other day to get resoled, and the guy said fixing them would be “throwing good money after bad.” The footbed (the pride and joy of birks) was cracked, and the synthetic straps were tearing on both feet. Now they no longer (according to the birkenstock USA website) carry 100% leather-free sandals, so replacing them is as pointless as repairing them.

Just for grins and giggles, I’ll post the email exchange I’ve had with customer service. More if they bother replying again.

From: Phill Becker
Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2007 12:17 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: My sandals are falling apart

I bought a pair of synthetic leather birks from a local shoe store here in April 2005. They started wearing thin this last winter, and I took them to a repair store today only to be told they were beyond repair. The straps are splitting on both shoes (right where they attach to the base) and the base is cracked on one.

I bought these sandals partly because I wanted to be able to repair them and keep wearing them for a long time. If 2 years is the max lifespan of Birk. sandals, I will never buy another pair. My Tevas lasted 5 years of hard abuse. I guess I expected more from legendary Birkenstock.

If you would like me to send the sandals back so you can examine them for quality control, please let me know. Otherwise I’ll wear them until they fall off my feet, then never buy another pair.

pb

On 6/8/07, Consumer Relations wrote:

Hello,

Thank you for emailing us at Birkenstock Distribution, USA!

Please Read our FAQ’s below for an answer to your inquiry.

We are the US distributor of Birkenstocks, and run as a company separate to other suppliers and retailers both in the US and internationally. So unfortunately, we do not do direct business with the general consumer base. And since all of our retailers are independently owned and operated we do not have insight to their specific inventory.

We are the US distributor of the Birkenstock Classic Brand only.

We no longer carry or represent Birki’s, Footprints, Tatami, Alpro, Papillio and Betula.

For more information on those lines of Bikenstock, please contact the appropriate distributor…

Tatami / Newalk / Footprints :

Web :http://www.tatami.com/tatami_usa.html

Ruth’s almost first steps

June 2nd, 2007

9 1/2 months old and walking. Yesterday she was walking a few steps between Allison and I. Back and forth, getting up and going again on her own. Naked, of course.

This video is the second round, a few minutes later. With a diaper on. I’m sure someone would never forgive us if her first steps (and tushy) were plastered on the webby for all to see.

Today she was walking down the hall (20 steps or so) at various speeds and even pulled up on the wall to launch herself.

It’s official. She walks before 10 months.
Did I mention her food of preference right now is canned, organic, beans & rice. Tons of it.

pb

Posted in Misc | 3 Comments »

Most valuable bag

Sunday, April 15th, 2007

Burger King just about rips off TX A&M with one of their burger bags.

“In football, the “twelfth man” is a crowd that helps a team to victory through cheer. This bag, emblazoned with a #12 on its bottom, is like the twelfth man of your lunch. Because while you can’t actually eat it, the meal you are about to enjoy wouldn’t bepossible without this MVB.”

I checked the A&M trademarks page for possible violations, but it looks like TAMU only uses the “12th Man®” phrase with numerals, not all spelled out.

That pretty much deflates my post, because I was going to get pissed about it. I mean, the seahawks already tried to steal the twelfth man, and now a burger chain was trying to.

But, no. They weaseled around it, so… nevermind.

Posted in Fun | No Comments »

I voted… sort of.

Tuesday, November 7th, 2006

I went in with every intention to vote today. I was pissed that there was not a single Green party candidate on the sample ballot I saw, but I thought I’d vote for the lesser of the evils. However, I never actually saw the real ballot.

We just moved, and I changed my address with the DMV, and they said they would forward the address to the registry of voters. So I didn’t know if I’d vote at my old polling place or a new one. The old one worked fine. I got checked in, went to go to the machine and someone had to “get it set up for me.” I was sure that we weren’t getting electronic voting machines, but I was wrong. I asked for a paper ballot and was told “It’s electronic or nothing.”

“Fine. This fkng sucks. Scratch my name off, I’m not voting.”

Blank stares.

“Just record him as a canceled ballot.”

Yay. I wonder if that counts as “none of the above” like in “Brewster’s Millions”?

Posted in Political | 1 Comment »

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