Ian Week #31 Battle Report

Ian became 7 months old on Thanksgiving Day and currently weighs over 18 pounds (Maia was 16 at the same time). He wears size 3 diapers and 6-9M clothing and can vocalize "da" and "ma".

Ian is rolling over now and usually travels 1 - 3 Ianlengths (Imperial measurement) from his original position. He uses rolling more as a method of getting things than transporation, but seems eager to start crawling as soon as possible. There is still a little patch of missing hair on the back of his head where he wiggles his head vigorously against the carpet when excited.

He eats solids in the form of mixed pastes and loves eating more than many adults. However, each meal usually ends in crying when he wants to desperately keep eating but has no room in his stomach for more food.

• Things he loves: Amber the cat, eating, drool, trying to watch TV
• Things he dislikes: people cleaning off his face, naps, being alone for four seconds while we leave the room to get something

He is on an iffy nap schedule, sometimes taking a 90 minute nap in the morning and an hour nap in the afternoon, or only catnapping while in a carrier or the car. Each nap is accompanied by 5 - 10 minutes of outraged crying before immediate silence, like an old phone that drops from 55% to 2% in a blink. His nights are pretty consistent, sleeping from 8 PM to 6 or 7 AM.

We are all good in orbit around him. I'm starting to get free time back in my schedule again and Rebecca is planning to go back to work in January!

Review Day

There are no major spoilers in these reviews.

Squid Game:
This show had an intriguing premise but poor execution. The conceit of desperate people willing to do things and the divide between super-rich and poor has been done before, and the importance of these themes faded into the background after just a couple episodes (3% did it all better). Squid Game might have been more successful as a tight miniseries with 4 or 5 episodes -- by the penultimate episode, I was watching at 1.25x speed to skip through the lingering camera shots that mistook "wasting time" for "building tension". Character development is pretty muddled although there are a few nice moments throughout. Free on Netflix.

Final Grade: C+

Best of Standup 2020:
This special allowed us to skip the often-draggy bits of hour-long standup specials and enjoy the best parts. There are a few great laughs to be found (we plan on watching the Michael McIntyre special as a result) but most of the jokes are just chuckles. This is great, though, because by the time we realized a comedian wasn't amazing, the special had already moved on. Free on Netflix.

Final Grade: B-

Arcane:
This fantasy show based on the lore of a computer game (League of Legends) took me by surprise. I've never played the game and rarely like serious animated shows but this show stands strongly on its own. The style is moody and well-animated, and the plot is pushed forward by characters doing what they think is best, rather than contrived situations. You don't need to know anything about the associated game going in -- even Rebecca liked this. Free on Netflix.

Final Grade: A

Arcane League of Legends (Soundtrack from the Animated Series):
(This refers to the album containing original songs by contributing artists, not the three similarly-named albums with the original score). The music for Arcane includes songs written just for this show by artists as varied as Imagine Dragons and Fantastic Negrito. Each is a pretty catchy listen and worth the purchase of the 30 minute album. (The original score, spread across three albums, is also good, but not as worthwhile without the visuals to accompany it).

Final Grade: B+

Data Day: Puzzle Boat Contributions

Our work team finally finished Puzzle Boat 8 at the end of November, 38 days after starting it. Here is a graph of puzzles solved by each teammate, starting with Puzzle Boat 6 where I had no idea what I was doing. I joined the team thinking "I like crossword puzzles, sure!" and then spent the next three months itemizing cats.

As I've said before, I wholeheartedly recommend the puzzles from P&A Magazine -- they're definitely worth the money if you find your typical newspaper puzzles a little too easy.

Advent of Code Day

It's that time of year again!

I feel like I started out much slower this year, owing to the fact that I'm now in my forties and near death. However, the cobwebs are slowly clearing from my brain and I'm managing to stay competitive each night at midnight.

You can keep up with my daily progress on my company's competition leaderboard (which I also run). The best hour of coding I spent in 2021 was automating updates to the board so I wasn't sitting up at 2 AM waiting for the last stragglers to finish a coding puzzle.

Easy Photos Day

This is Maia's first school picture, taken at Kids Under Construction preschool. Future realtor, perhaps?

Maia has been pretending to be a cat somewhat regularly these days. The cat ear headband actually made it through the entire morning without getting lost.

Here is Maia snuggling with her friend while rehearsing for the Christmas program.

Chad Darnell's 12 of 12

12 pictures of your day on the 12th of every month

12:52 AM: Going to bed after placing 5th in our work's Advent of Code competition.

8:54 AM: Showered and ready for the day.

9:00 AM: Good morning!

9:09 AM: English muffins for breakfast.

9:32 AM: Low-key lying around the living room.

10:05 AM: Playing with my hair is always a hit.

11:27 AM: Rebecca and Amber watch the Great British Baking Show while Ian naps.

2:58 PM: Maia shows off her new board game, a present from her weekend at the grandparents'.

3:15 PM: Maia's most recent work of art.

3:25 PM: Ian and Grandpa.

6:09 PM: Chicken fingers, broccoli, and tater tots for dinner.

11:53 PM: Ready for tonight's puzzle.

Twelve 12 of 12s

a recap of 12 of 12 posts from 2021

January: Eating a banana like a monkey while carrying a swaddled baby bunny.

February: Reading the book where Pete the Cat learns that his mom is not qualified to be a licensed substitute teacher because she cannot read the signs outside of any classroom explaining what subject is taught there.

March: Things are growing everywhere!

April: We made a nature trail.

May: Two-week checkup.

June: Enjoying my pancakes.

July: Recreating classic works of art.

August: At the beach with the Smiths.

September: Vigorous photobomb.

October: Loving the bouncy chair.

November: Glasses lover.

December: No girls allowed.

Top Reviews of 2021

Here are the experiences I gave the highest ratings to in 2021. Go discover something new!

Television Shows

• Arcane (A) (Netflix)
• Truth Seekers, Season One (A) (Amazon Prime)
• Lupin, Part One (A) (Netflix)
• Lupin, Part Two (B+) (Netflix)
• Schitt's Creek, Season Six (B+) (Netflix)
• Vice Principals, Season Two (B+) (Amazon Video)

Movies

• Blindspotting (B+) (Amazon Video)

Music

• Bright Night Flowers by Jon Fratelli (A-)
• Psycho Jukebox by Jon Fratelli (B+)
• Six: The Musical, Studio Cast Recording (B+)
• OK Orchestra by AJR (B+)
• The Attractions of Youth by Barns Courtney (B+)
• Superbloom by Misterwives (B+)
• Arcane League of Legends (Soundtrack from the Animated Series) (B+)

Games

• Walkabout Mini Golf (A) (Quest 2)
• Ori and the Will of the Wisps (A-) (Switch)
• 7 Wonders: Duel (B+) (Board Game)
• Oculus Quest 2 (B+) (PC)

Books

• Artifact Space by Miles Cameron (B+)
• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (B+)

2021 Timeline

A smattering of events from 2021

• COVID vaccines started trickling into our family.
• Migrated an ancient forum into Discourse.
• Started running again.

• Got rid of the pool table.

• Had the new patio constructed.

• Got my COVID shots.
• Built a nature trail in our common area.
• Overhauled the official Don Maitz website.
• Ian was born.

• Took the month off and was busy with Ian stuff.
• Had the first and last poker game of the year.

• Maia went to many summer camps.

• Maia had three birthday parties and continued weekly summer camps.
• Socialized like it was 2019.

• Went to Sandbridge with the Smiths.

• Maia started preschool at Kids Under Construction
• Turned 42 and got a new VR headset.
• Passed the AWS Machine Learning - Specialty exam.
• Hired a babysitter to watch the kids once every couple of weeks.

• Spent Halloween weekend at a house rental in Shannondale.
• Did Halloween as the Berenstain Bears.

• Had two family Thanksgivings and a Friendsgiving.
• Finished Puzzle Boat 8.

• Participated in Advent of Code.
• First COVID quarantine event of the year.
• Spent post-Christmas at a cabin in Waterford.

Memory Day: Snapshots

This picture was taken 21 years ago, on December 25, 2000.

I was home from my fifth year of undergrad and my sister was home from being a Charlottesville townie. We both arrived with cats (Kitty for me, Leia and Oliver for her) to stage a battle royale around my parents' house. You can tell that we had not lived in this house full-time for several years now, as the office in the background had mostly become my dad's tuba storage and practice room.

My freshman roommate's stepmom bought me that shirt for Christmas in 1996 and I wore it every Christmas until it disintegrated, somewhere in the early aughts.

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas from our family!

Here is one of the songs that Maia would have sung at her preschool program, had it not been canceled due to COVID exposure.

Advent of Code Day

3rd place: I'm $100 richer!

Cabin Day

End-of-the-Month Highlights Day

New photos have been added to the Life, 2021 album.

• Events
  • Rebecca and Maia went to Claude Moore for Christmas lights on S 12/4.
  
  
  • Rebecca taught anatomy virtually for yoga teacher trainees on S 12/5.
  
  
  • Maia visited the grandparents and made cookies, F 12/10 - S 12/12.
  
  
  • Maia got hit with a 102.9 fever after school on M 12/13.
  
  
  • Maia had a negative COVID/Flu/Strep test on T 12/14.
  
  
  • Maia's preschool class was cancelled for COVID exposure on W 12/15 and we went into quarantine ourselves for a few days.
  
  
  • Maia tested negative for COVID, AGAIN, on M 12/20.
  
  
  • Elizabeth, Steve, and Catherine came by for a visit enroute to Fredericksburg on H 12/23.
  
  
  • Had Christmas visits with Rebecca's parents on F 12/24.
  
  
  • Had a nuclear family Christmas in the morning, then dinner with my parents on S 12/25.
  
  
  • Stayed at a nice cabin in Waterford, M 12/27 - H 12/30.
  
  
  • No plans for New Years.


• Projects
  • Competed in our company's Advent of Code challenge again for the 4th straight year.
  
  
  • Started working on Puzzle Boat 5 on F 12/3 to see if I can solve one on my own.


• Consumerism
  • Enjoyed watching Michael McIntyre: Showman on Netflix. Currently rewatching The Good Place with Rebecca, who hadn't seen it before.
  
  
  • Enjoyed listening to Golden Age by Woodkid.
  
  
  • No new games this month.

December's Final Grade: B+, would have been better without all the COVID!