Erik's Blog

Clay Keepsake – Three Months Old

Erik R. — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:47:53 +0000

A friend of my parents gave us a “clay keepsake” gift. I had never heard of such a thing, but the value was immediately obvious to someone who has photographed his infant daughter’s body with a quarter for scale. The idea is that you flatten out some “clay” (really some kind of space-age polymer), press your kid’s hands into it, place it in the oven (the clay, not the kid), and what you get is a keepsake that will let you remember the size of your child’s hands at the time of the molding. Including the 15 minutes in the oven, the box announced that the whole process “takes only 20 minutes from start to finish!” Yeah, right…

The following timelapse video records and hour of arts and crafts time. It’s pretty hilarious to me, especially when Nora’s cries come out like little mouse squeaks.

The final result!

Fun with depth of field.

The final result. On the box, they show a photo with the kid’s two hands out of frame towards the clay. Since we don’t have a photo like that, nor can I imagine posing her that way, I put in a giraffe shot.

Bill Shannon – Dancing on Crutches

Erik R. — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:59:21 +0000

A tweet by Ze Frank got me watching some videos of Bill Shannon. On crutches from a disability for most of his childhood, he has invented a new style of dance. Ze, as usual, summarized it perfectly with only one word: Inspiring.

Performance

Technique

Stuff I Seen – June 2009

Erik R. — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:51:53 +0000

Like the “Stuff I Thunk” series, the “Stuff I Seen” series relays information from my brain into my blog, only the SIS series is narrowed down to thoughts provoked by stimulus from my visual cortex. Let us begin, shall we?

I was walking with my father-in-law and we decided to cut through a playground. There were a group of about eight ten-year-olds standing together looking at something on the ground. One of them said, “I have no idea what that is, but it’s disgusting!” As we approached, my brain began guessing what it was that they were looking at. I figured it was probably a dead bird, or maybe an unusual insect of some kind. When we walked by them, neither my father-in-law nor I could resist the urge to see what it was. There, on the ground, was: a condom. I remarked, “Heh, they don’t know what that is.” My companion replied wisely, “They will. They will.”

On my morning walk one day I saw a slightly overweight Latina immigrant with a small child. Her shirt had a phrase in English which she, nor her boyfriend or husband, most likely couldn’t read. It said: “My other boyfriend is MUCH HOTTER.” Classy!

Stuff I Thunk – June 2009

Erik R. — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:50:18 +0000

Not so much thunk as overheard on American Dad:

Heisenburg’s wife was unhappy because when her husband had the time, he didn’t have the energy. And when he had the position, he didn’t have the momentum!

Not a lot of quantum physics sex jokes out there, I’m guessing…but then I don’t work at CERN.

You know you’ve been thinking too hard about parenting when…. I dreamt that the entire human population was preparing to switch over from a “bad behavior is punished and good behavior is ignored” system of government and law enforcement to a “bad behavior is ignored and good behavior is rewarded” system. I was a senior member of the team that was outlining guidelines and getting everyone ready. I was in charge of the department dealing with traffic laws. For some reason, because this was such a huge paradigm shift, we were all changing the side of the road we drove on. Sounds like the doings of Supreme Leader Obama and his fascist communist regime.

I wonder what percentage of YouTube videos are still viewed using a cathode ray tube, the technology that the video sharing site took its name from. If it’s higher than 2%, I’d be surprised.

The Flickr iPhone web interface is absolutely outstanding! It should be used as an example for anyone designing a website for handheld devices. I am consistently impressed with the simplicity and intuitiveness of using Flickr on my iPhone. There are several Flickr iPhone apps and none of them come close to the ease of Flickr’s own web interface in Safari for browsing photos. The native apps are only good for (and are required for) uploading.

Foosball

Erik R. — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:03:41 +0000

One thing I learned when I moved to Europe is that I really, really suck at foosball. The pub culture in Denmark, England and Spain has resulted in a very high average foosball skill level of any 20-40-year-old you find in a bar. I can probably beat the majority of ten-year-olds, but any older than that and you should bet on my opponent. This one foosball table at my in-laws social club always attracts my eye. I love the worn look of the wooden players. What better subject to play around with aperture and depth of field?

Male pattern baldness.

Foosball players seem like an interesting subject for other photography experiments with lighting and shadows and such.

Even More Nora Clothes

Erik R. — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:02:02 +0000

Nora continues to look faaaa-bulous in all her new clothes. Today she hit a milestone: she had her first real laugh. She’s been smiling a lot more lately, but this was an actual “ha ha” giggle. Needless to say, her mother and I were overcome with joy. I think the reason that it’s so difficult to capture a laugh or smile in a photograph or video is that, aside from pleasure gained from digestive tract pressure release, she requires a true eye-to-eye human connection to smile at the moment. The camera breaks that connection. Not to mention the Pavlovian punishment of a big flash in the face whenever she comes close to a smile…

I love hats. Hats (not all) do great things for the aesthetics of the human face, in my opinion.

Put that camera down and hug me!

Fine, I’ll just go to sleep, then.

Red and white shorts.

Running in place.

Pink dress with stylish white sweater. Ladies keep their feet together.

Goofing around. This is probably the best captured smile so far.

Nora wishes you a great weekend.

Three Months Old

Erik R. — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:50:31 +0000

Today is a big day. First of all, it’s Saint John’s Day (San Juan), which is a holiday in many, many Spanish towns and cities, including León, Mondragón and Colindres. San Juan is a thinly veiled pagan solstice celebration including local witch-burning bonfires. So all the shops are closed and everyone (except me) is off work today.

Secondly, later today there will be a fútbol match between Spain and the United States of America. I plan on taking my miniature American flag to a local bar to get ridiculed. Nora, being half-Spanish and half-American, will have allegiance issues. I’ve already made a bet for a beer with a friend, and he gave me a one-goal spread. Sounds expected to leave my mouth this afternoon: USA! USA! USA! Awwww…

Thirdly, Nora turned three months old today. Naturally we had another party. This time she was fully awake, but no where near fully aware. At her three-month checkup the other day she was only at the 10th percentile of weight. This means she needs to start eating more or risk getting beaten up by the other kids on the playground.

The party did not start well.

Three months old!

Marga tans quicker than Nora or I.

Birthday girl close-up.

The old wrist suck. I was proficient at this maneuver at her age as well.

“Mommy, what’s that on your head?”

If you don’t get that camera out of my face, this fist will!

Happy birthday, Nora! Let’s go watch some fútbol!

Dual Nationality

Erik R. — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:20:48 +0000

According to the laws of my native country, the United States of America, I will never be eligible for dual citizenship. If I apply for Spanish citizenship, I will automatically lose my US citizenship. This is not true, however, of my daughter. She has Spanish citizenship by birth, and can apply for US citizenship as the child of a US citizen. Because she did not actively request her non-US-citizenship, but acquired it automatically, she is allowed to hold both Spanish and US citizenships. While I do not know exactly what legal ramifications this will have on her banking or taxes, I think that in the long run many more things in her life will be facilitated by having dual citizenship than hindered by it. So, on June 1, 2009, we visited the US Embassy in Madrid and registered her to be a US citizen.

A funny thing occurred when her passport arrived in the mail. She and her mother were out for a walk, and the doorbell rang. I answered it and the guy said he had a package from the US Embassy in Madrid. I immediately knew what that was and buzzed him up. When he got to the door, he informed me that I had to pay 10.15€ in C.O.D. shipping charges. I said, “One moment,” and went to get my wallet. It was then that I realized that I didn’t have any money. You know how some days you run out of cash in your wallet and forget to go to the bank to fill it back up? That’s what happened to me that day. I managed to scrape together six 1€ coins, and then found two more in a drawer. I told the guy, “Look, man, I’ve got 8€ here. Hold on a minute and I’ll go look upstairs. There’s sure to be a couple coins lying around up there.” He said, “Nevermind, I’ll pay the other 2.15€, just sign here and give me the 8€.” Whew! I mean, jeez, it’s not like you should be required to have money on hand when you’re home alone! Anyway, we finally got Nora’s passport.

Nora’s official national ID card for Spain. The woman who processed our application was a little concerned because she wasn’t looking directly at the camera in the photo. C’mon! The same woman never once looked to see that the baby we were carrying was the same as the one in the picture. Photo IDs for infants are such a ridiculous idea anyway since all babies look more or less alike. And it’s valid for five years. What a joke!

This document came in very handy on our flight to Madrid. In theory she didn’t really need any documentation, but the airline staff were very happy that she had some.

Nora’s US passport. We used a photo that I took on her two-month birthday. In case you were wondering, the US Dept. of State does not mind you using a fairly heavily photoshopped photograph for your passport. I removed a lot of shadow from the background.

This document is almost more important than her passport. It’s the paper that gives her official US citizenship and serves as her birth certificate for any transactions in the United States. “Official” Spanish birth certificates consist of a photocopied handwritten page of an official registry book. We Americans prefer more fancy borders and seals.

In theory her US Social Security card will be mailed to us sometime the the next few months.

This is an infant bodysuit that I designed for her. Order yours today! It’s still a little too big for her, but I made her wear it for this blog post.

Posing with her Spanish ID card and US passport.

You want ID? Oh, I got ID! You want the one with the birdie or the tilde?

The observant among you may have noticed an interesting detail about Nora’s surname(s). You see, in Spain, everyone has two surnames. We originally filled out all the paperwork for her US passport using both surnames. But when we got to the embassy, the woman there strongly suggested that we put a hyphen between them, otherwise the Americans would get confused. And don’t we know it! Both Marga and I have had much, much hassle in foreign countries because they don’t understand the surname customs of our own countries. So, in the spur of the moment, fueled by a strong distaste for hyphenated surnames, we decided that, in the US, Nora will only have one surname, and in Spain she will have two. The embassy woman told us that this decision was highly unusual, but Marga and I both agree that it’s for the best. Our experience tells us that the difference of name in both countries will actually make things easier rather than harder.

Her Holiness, the Bishop of the Church of the Giraffe

Erik R. — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:13:48 +0000

Baby bath towels are pretty doggone cute. We have one that’s a monkey, another that says “Nora” on top, and this one that’s a giraffe. When she started smiling the other day after her bath, I ran to get the camera, but with the big machine in front of my face, the smiling stopped and the contemplation began.

Let us pray to The Long Necked One.

Amen.

Siesta Haiku

Erik R. — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 10:03:15 +0000

Last Sunday, after a meal which was preceded by almost an entire bottle of wine and sirloin steak, I chose to not disguise my sleepiness, like the other gentlemen, on the sofa in front of a boring Sunday movie about 90’s American suburbia, and actually lie down on a bed. After a short time, my sister-in-law entered the room and placed a little white slumbering monkey on my chest. As I lay there, I composed a haiku. To not forget it, I recorded it with my new iPhone 3.0’s voice memo system. Thus I present it to you now.

Child on chest supine
Belly filled with food and wine
A moment divine

That’s my belly, not hers!

Yes, you can see my underwear here. But you can see her diaper, so we’re even, right?

I was only acting asleep. Nora really was.

Sleeping chin dimples.