Music of the Moment

What's in my CD player:

"Dissertation Honey", The Plot To Blow Up the Eiffel Tower
High-speed blend of hardcore and jazz. Like nothing you've heard.

"Calculating Infinity", The Dillenger Escape Plan
I don't normally listen to hardcore, but if you are going to listen someone singing "MUFF BWAA BWAA!!!!", it might as well be the best in the business. Dillenger's music combines bizarre time signatures with clever mood changes.

"Zwan", Zwan
The Smashing Pumpkin's Billy Corgan is back with music that is unique but still unmistakably Corgan. Loud music that doesn't make you want to slit your wrists.

Under the Radar

We have a new baby in the house.  The little guy is so tiny and helpless and wondrous, it makes me want to hold him and think of nothing else.  His arrival also means that I am rejoining the community of the sleep deprived.  As I write this, I clutch a cup of warm coffee which is keeping me awake but not alert.

It seems like parents of newborns tend to disappear from society for a few months.  "Where is so-and-so, I haven't seen him at the gym recently... oh, that's right, he has a newborn at home."  We begin to slide under the radar of our friends, clubs, church, and parties.  After a while, we will re-appear here and there, toting the little tyke in a car carrier, and everyone will rave at how good we look when in fact we have pasty skin and circles under our eyes.

As I sip my now-cold coffee I wonder how long it will be before I call up a friend to go for a beer, or attend any kind of meeting outside of work and home.  I probably will not finish this entry before I need to hurry off to change a diaper or find a dropped pacifier.

But it's only for a time, and I'm quite sure that I will fondly look back 18 years from now and wonder where the time went.  So I guess I am happy to be tired, needed, and drained.  The father of a newborn only gets one chance to do it right, and I don't believe in regrets.

Gotta go, baby's crying...

Well, Now I've Done It

Against my better judgment, I've started a blog.

This all started out because one of my co-workers is a somewhat famous blogger -- not Wil Wheaton famous, but very well known nonetheless -- and he sat down in my rather Dilbert-esque cube today and said, "You mean, you don't have a blog?" I actually cannot imagine anyone bothering to read my thoughts on a computer screen, but then again if so many folks are so heavily interested in my esteemed co-worker's thoughts then maybe there's a random person or two out there who might enjoy this humble experiment.

Well there you go.

I've entitled this blog "Am I The Only One?" because I frequently ask myself this question. When presented with the tidy categories which are available to us -- Religious vs. Agnostic, Republican vs. Democrat, progressive vs. establishment -- I often find myself without a category, and wondering if I am indeed the only one that is uncomfortable with the choices.

Thanks for joining me on this little experiment, and please drop me a note with your thoughts -- no category required.