So the Sunday before last Tiff and I had just finished the weekly routine of talking to the folks when we both got a hankerin' for some snicker-doodles (which, in my opinion, are second only to macaroons in the cookie universe). So as I was editing pictures on my computer she went to the kitchen to make the cookies. Around this time she began having minor cramps which she had had before and are normal during pregnancy, no big deal. Just as the cookies were ready the Trailblazer game started which I began to watch in bed as we both settled down. Tiffany said that she thought the cramps were getting slightly worse so I suggested she call her obstetrician to make sure it was normal. She declined and said she didn't want to make a big deal of it. At about half time she was in a significant amount of pain and I suggested that we start timing the pain just so if we did have to call the doctor we could give him how often the pain was and for how long. So I pulled up a neat little timer/stopwatch application on my Mac called Minuteur to measure. After another quarter of prodding she finally decided to call the doctor. He suggested we go into the hospital just to be safe and do some tests.
The Blazer game had ended and the Hospital wasn't too far away so we went. At this point she was in a lot of pain and was thinking these were more than just typical cramps. I'll never forget Tiff being a little short (which is very rare) with the lady at the hospital that was taking our information because Tiff felt that she was taking way too long and was being a little too chatty. After going from a large room to a smaller room to the smallest room we were seen by a nurse by the name of Leah. One of the first things she did was run a simple test just to see if Tiff's water had broken and to our great surprise it had. I remember asking the nurse several times: "Is it go time?!? Is it go time?!?" About this time panic set in because it was only the day before that we had even thought about what we would need to take to the hospital. So I practically ran down to my car and went home to franticly put several bags together. Our cat Pi was a little confused and scared by my urgency and showed this by bushing out his tail and running around with me. When I got back to the hospital our obstetrician was there and Tiff looked like she was in a large amount of pain. After the epidural Tiff was in heaven and played Bejeweled on my phone while we waited.
Around 4:20 she began to push and at 5:10am on Monday March 19th, 2007 our little Finn Michael was born. When he came out he was a little deformed with a large cone head and a squished little nose. One thing that amazed me was how fast everything happened. It was so much more overwhelming than I thought it would be. While I dealing with the emotions of seeing my son for the first time I was making sure Tiff was ok and cutting the umbilical cord. After three days in the hospital plus one to put him under the light to help with jaundice he is healthy and happy at home.
I know it sounds cheesy and cliched but there is nothing that can prepare you the feelings you experience when you see and hold your child for the first time. It truly is spiritual.
Everybody told me that my life was going to change when I had a child and I now see that they are right but not in the way they told me (less time for TV, computers, and leisurely activities). Instead fatherhood has given me a more peace and happiness. It has expanded my capacity to love and has improved my life in more ways than I can put into words.

You know when you hear a song, walk out of a movie, or observe another form of art that is so creative that it uplifts and inspires you to appreciate life a little more. Well I recently had this experience after viewing a slide show of popular photographer George Lange which can be found here. I'm just warning you, you'll want to view it multiple times and each time you'll find something else to love and be inspired by. It's these kinds of things that inspire me to want to be a better photographer, home video film maker, web designer, and person.

First off, I hope that you all like the new template. I think its nice and clean while still being modern and sexy (that was for you Soto). Also wanted to point your attention to the right side panel where I added the "Current Favorites from my RSS feeds" section. No, no, it isn't spam. It's a cool feature which will show my marked favorite stories from the over 60 feeds I check daily.

So I implore you to take a gander at what I'm digging and check back frequently since it will change almost daily. There is also an RSS feed for my favorite stories from my RSS feeds. If that isn't the epitome of "meta" I don't know what is. :-)
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PS The links at the very bottom right are spam. I thought I'd add google ad sense to my blog out of curiosity if people would actually click on the links. Call it a little social experiment, if you will, in which I will reap all of the benefits. (insert sinister laugh)

Over the weekend Ann Coulter decided to make some a bigoted remark...again. This got me to thinking that maybe she is a mole for the very people that she preaches against, sent to give the left media ammo to show just how crazy the right can be. I admittedly have read her books and I do find them amusing, much in the same way that I find the op-ed columnists at the New York Times amusing (who I am convinced are Sith Lords). I consider them both on different sides of the spectrum of crazy to the point of amusement.
Recently on one of my favorite websites Digg.com there have been a growing number of submissions and comments that are planted by far lefties posing as far righties to make them look crazy. This in an effort to persuade the fairly young readers of the site that being a conservative is crazy. So now I'm convinced that Ann Coulter is doing the same thing only in a much more public and obvious way.