andrew ager, dot com

Naomi Mary Ager!

Delivered Friday, October 3, 2008, at 12:41PM.

Stats:

7 pounds, 11 ounces

20 inches long

October 4th, 2008 | Tags: baby, laura, Naomi, october 3 2008, The Girl | Category: Anniversaries, Home Life, Photos, The Girl | Leave a comment

“Hey, can I call ya Joe?”  Nice first words!

And after that easy-going niceness, we get fully-formed sentences, cogency, coherency, and … this might have gotten a bit more interesting.

Palin’s GOPAC boot camp seems to be working well right now.

Palin: “I’m not gonna answer maybe the the moderator wants me to … “  I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.

Liking ThinkProgress’ liveblog tonight, too.  538’s at it tonight, too, along with Andrew Sullivan.  Those places are all far more insightful than I!

9:25PM — Palin seems to be coming off a little better right now.  Is it the chipperiness?  If so, it makes me gag.  Still, Biden’s a little lecture-y.

9:31PM — Her climate change stuff is CRA-ZEE.

9:40PM — Palin on Iraq is really not very good.  Biden is VERY GOOD here, best of the night.  CNN’s tracker seems to agree.

9:47PM — Palin’s voice is like fingernails on chalk.  I can’t stand it!

Oh, goddammit, it’s not hate of “our freedoms.” Stop it.

Biden was even better on Pakistan; Palin even worse.

9:54PM — I just can’t believe Palin is an actual candidate.  Biden’s not all that and a bag of chips, but COME ON.

10:00PM — Palin on the defensive a bit, as Biden *finally* finds his stride.

CNN’s tracked uncommitted voters seem to generally prefer Biden answers to Palin answers.

10:10PM — Did she just say “how is Main St. viewing theocracy”?!?  Huh?  Biden on the “what if I’m Pres.” bit was awesome, Palin, not so much.

10:16PM — Good, Ifill’s pressing Palin on her Cheney-esque “expansion of power” bit re: the vice-presidency.  Anyway, Biden’s better at answering this stuff.  A lot better.

Palin rarely bumps up high in the audience response; Biden seems to hit big peaks regularly, at least in the second half.

10:22PM — Wow, she’s really falling apart.  Who’s “Lingel”?  538 Part 2points this out:

9:12 CDT: [Sean] Palin on Biden’s teacher wife: “God bless her, her reward is in heaven, right?” That is the sound of every teacher in America voting for Barack Obama. Wow. What a mistake.

That there was a good catch.

This one had been way more fun than the Presidential debate. I think Biden started slow, but powered through by the midway point to win it outright.  Palin confused things with chipper mannerisms early on.  Biden wins.  She’s a freaking joke.

October 2nd, 2008 | Tags: biden, palin, Politics and Policy, presidential debate, veep debate | Category: Politics and Policy | Comments (1)

Apparently, The Girl is stubborn.

After last week’s version, she flipped back to a head-up position.  So back we went to the hospital last night to try again, this time with the goal of inducing labor after the successful version in order to avoid further baby flips before the due date one week off.

Three attempts later, she was still head-up, spine-across.  Stubborn, this one.  So we’re in for a scheduled C-section on Friday morning, preceded by an attempt at a version following full spinal anesthesia to relax the abdomen.  That’s apparently a far more statistically successful maneuver than the normal version technique, so we hope that it works.  A successful version would be followed by immediate induction of labor rather than a C-section.

So we’ll have a daughter on Friday one way or the other!

October 1st, 2008 | Tags: birth, children, medical, The Girl | Category: Health or the Lack Thereof, The Girl | Leave a comment

So the last two weeks have been pretty crap for lifting.  I hit the heavier squats in recent weeks with what turns out to be incorrect form in my grip, which resulted in terrible shooting pains in my forearms up through my biceps.  Fun!  So after some advice from friends and re-reading the Squat chapter in Starting Strength (and taking another week off), I hit the gym again today.

Moved the bar position up about 1 inch on my back, and shifted the way my grip worked … and boom! Instant fix.  Moved 245 lbs. in regular 5×3 sets.  Easily, I might add!  Nice to get back on track with this stuff.

September 29th, 2008 | Tags: squats, weightlifting, working out | Category: Health or the Lack Thereof | Leave a comment

Hmm. Before a few words on our impending economic doom, a few notes on the debate, after settling for a few days.

I thought it pretty even between McCain and Obama, even after reading all the commentary afterwards that punditized it for McCain, and polled it for Obama.  Problem was, I wasn’t among those who needed to see Obama do something (anything) remotely Presidential: I’m already “in the tank” as the term of art goes these days.  So I saw a solid, unglamorous performance that was perhaps a touch stronger than McCain.  I’m glad I seem to be in the minority, in that respect!  Polls are humming along upwardly for Obama, and trending down for McCain.  Woops!  I really can’t wait to see what happens on Thursday night … it’ll be 90 minutes of pure comdey, I’m sure.

So anyway, we seem to heading quickly towards economic doom.  Perhaps even becoming a banana republic! So we have an economic/financial FAIL splatted atop a political FAIL, which appears to add up to a complete and total FAIL.  Not so good.  Although the opportunity now to recraft a bill that doesn’t suck, as so many economists seem to think about the current thing, seems to be overall good … the likelihood of that happening pre-election seems slim.  So that will allow the FREE MARKET to exert its holy self in all its fiery purity, and cleanse the economy.  Right?  Right?  I think I’ll dress up as Failed Economic Policies for Halloween.

September 29th, 2008 | Tags: economy, FAIL, global economic collapse, Politics and Policy, screw the free market I want some nationalizing | Category: Politics and Policy, Rant | Leave a comment

9:06PM — Er, John — Kennedy’s already out of the hospital.  But a nice message nonetheless.

9:10PM — Old McCain speaks well about accountability/responsibility. Obama is talking to the audience, not McCain (McC isn’t looking at O either).  McC = “change Warshington.” O = people are hurting.

9:15PM — McC will fix economics by reigning in federal spending?  What?  O’s on the slight defensive here … but points out the miniscule nature of earmarks in comparison to the rest of the budget quite well.  Moves into bottom-up/normal-folks benefits vs. “fixing Warshington.”

Hmm, “maybe 932 million dollars isn’t a lot to Sen. Obama.” Ow.  Obama hits back well though — earmarks are a niche issue.

TPM notes that Obama sports a flag pin, McCain does not.

9:28PM — Um, Barack, “programs that don’t work” after a list’o’stuff isn’t all that great an answer to “what would you cut.”  McCain’s coming on better on this bit (esp. killing ethanol spending).  Hint: refer to the WAR and the shitloads of money pouring into that … since it’s foreign policy debate!

… a few minutes later, thanks.  30 minutes in, and we finally get to Iraq!

9:34PM — Nukes are good/bad: good energy, bad costs/returns.  Tough sell, too.

9:36PM — Federal spending restraint - path to happiness!  Christ.

9:40PM — I don’t get McCain’s argument at all.  Well, yes, it’s great to have a great strategy … but we ought not BE THERE anymore.  McCain’s about the present of the Surge, not about the future.  Which isn’t looking stunning.

9:48PM — Obama: “Capture and kill bin Laden.”  Wow.  And McCain just compared bin Laden and Petraeus? Double Wow.

…And on to the next beer for me…

9:56PM — Obama on McCain’s lack of prudency is pretty good.  Nothing really jumping out besides the Petraeus/bin Laden thing.

10:00PM — Bracelet war!

Travel confers knowledge of deep international issues, I guess.

10:05PM — I don’t know that I agree with McC on Iran, but he does appear to know his stuff, and is clearly in comfortable territory here, far more so than on the economy stuff. Obama is doing quite well, too, actually, and brings up working with players rather than democracies only … which is probably more realistic.

McCain mangles Ahmadenijad.  Heh.  Pretty thin causal chain there, John-o.

Agree with Sullivan, Obama’s out-hawking McCain pretty well.

10:12PM — Spain jab! Detail quibbling again from McCain — earmarks, preconditions, etc.

N. vs. S. Korean height differential?  Huh?

10:17PM — Good stuff on Russia from Obama; assume that McCain will have equally good stuff here.  If he doesn’t, big fail. So-so intro for McCain, but getting stronger.  He’s got this whole region down — McCain, that is.  Classy agreement with general principles by Obama.  Pointing out his agreements with McCain definitely pulls Obama more towards the center than he’s being portrayed (he’s never been anywhere but, really, but our politics make slight drifts into screaming left/right differentiations).

10:23PM — Obama’s sliding of the Russian issue into alternative energy/economic points.  Interesting.

McCain’s doing better than I expected, but I suspect he needed to be even stronger.  No major gaffes, but Obama seemed ever so slightly more on top of things, and a little more flexible, reasonable overall. Obama comes off surprisingly hawky, which is good for him overall, especially against McCain.  He’s particularly good at throwing credit to McCain for bits and pieces, which is mature, but McCain gives no credit to Obama, it’s all “he just doesn’t get it,” or variations on that.  Not exactly across-the-aisle politics there.

10:34PM — Holy shit! McCain just compared Obama to Bush!  WTF! Weird way to end it there (that’ll stick longer than the paean to veterans).

September 26th, 2008 | Tags: election, Politics and Policy, presidential debate | Category: Politics and Policy | Leave a comment

Via.

September 26th, 2008 | Tags: bailout, dark knight, joker, mashup, Politics and Policy, youtube | Category: Internet Eh?, Politics and Policy | Leave a comment

37, whoa.

And, whee!

September 25th, 2008 | Tags: 37, andy, birthday | Category: Anniversaries | Leave a comment

Letterman:

More succinctly, Indexed:

Cray-zee, is what I say.

September 25th, 2008 | Tags: cancel the debate!, election, mccain, obama, Politics and Policy, reactions | Category: Politics and Policy | Leave a comment