Mommy is upstairs sleeping and Daddy is downstairs watching Baby.

Since I went back to work I’ve been sleeping in the second bedroom so I can get enough sleep to function at work. At first glance people think it’s not fair that I make Stacie take care of the baby all night, but we’ve talked about it and decided it was really the only sensible option. While most of her nights are fairly tiresome, because I’m getting a healthy amount of sleep I can actually do my job, and when I get home I’m not a sleep deprived lunatic. That means I can run to the market, clean up the house a little, and make dinner. Then tonight at 8 o’clock she went to bed early, and I’m staying up for another 3 hours to watch the baby before I head off to bed.

I have to say again how nice it was to have so much help over the first few weeks. Whether it was gifts of clothing and diapers or homemade meals, it really made it a lot easier to bring Luke home and get used to this new arrangement.

I’m posting from the laptop, so you’ll have to wait until the next post to get some new pictures. Hopefully this weekend I can get to some video I’ve taken and you can see this little guy in action!

Tonight we learned all about breast feeding! It was actually pretty interesting. So far I haven’t been too into the whole reading and learning aspect of being pregnant, I think mainly because there is a ton of info out there that I don’t need to know. But how breast feeding works and the benefits seem very real and useful to me, so I was interested. Tomorrow we start the birthing type classes, so we’ll see how that goes.

Over the weekend our big goal was to ascertain baby furniture, and we succeeded! Unfortunately it won’t be here for 10-12 weeks, haha. The baby will be in a basinet for a couple months though, so everything should work out. We also met and interviewed a daycare lady on Friday, and it looks like the baby will be set in the Fall!

Something I’ve been researching for months is a high-def camcorder, and I’m pretty much set on which one I want. I’d been watching the Canon HV20 for a while, but they just announced a new version (HV30) which has a few notable improvements. For the techno geeks, it has a newer LCD, and it also has a 30p mode. I hate working with interlaced footage, and being able to film 30p out of the box should be a nice improvement over the 24p of the HV20 (not to mention the HV30 has 24p also). My only concern is that it won’t be out until February (or Amazon is saying March 1st) and that is cutting it a little close. Hopefully I can get one right away and start learning the ropes in time for the baby.

I’m on call for jury duty this week because I was a dufus and didn’t call during vacation. Luckily though I didn’t have to go today and I don’t have to go tomorrow. Who knows, maybe I’ll luck out and not have to go all week!

Hope everyone is well. Visit Paul’s site and Luna’s site for some cool videos.

Head on over to see some awesome stop animation from the Lunaverse!

Off to Palm Springs for a conference on Matematicas! Should be fun, and I get to drive, so that’s always a plus.

After mastering the 3×3 rubik’s cube, my next goal is to master the 4×4. First step would be to actually get one of course.

In case you don’t read comments on other blogs, Chris really wants you to visit his Lunaverse.

Sister’s bday this week. Yay!

Chris has finally joined the blogging community, and the last myspace link can be removed from my page!

Also, I’ve started putting recently undead people at the bottom of my friends list, so other than family at the top, eventually the list should be an indicator of who has been alive the longest. Go visit Chris at the Lunaverse!

I’m going to make a Jason Parx blog post now. Please set aside the next 3 hours of your life.

I’ll go in chronological order over interesting events from the last two weeks. First up is something that I’m very proud of.

Right before the 4th of July a hose on top of the water heater cracked and started spraying water. In my fear I called Mike Diamond plumber. They quoted me $321 to replace the hose, which I later learned was a $10 part and a 20 minute job to fix. Total they wanted over $2000 to replace the entire water heater. Luckily my dad has done that before. The next day we headed out to All-American and bought a new water heater and hoses all for only $462. A few hours later it was installed. That’s a quality savings of over $1500. Boo yah. Not only did we save money, but I got to spend time with my father and learn something from him. Who knew a broken water heater could be such a good thing.

A few days later I had the pleasure of hosting a bachelor party for my brother. It was a pretty mellow affair, but I think everyone had a good time. I was again blessed to spend time with my family and this time be able to do something special for them. The wedding is this Sunday and I’m looking forward to it. This is a picture from our rock-paper-scissors tournament.

This next entry is a frustrating one. The weekend of the bachelor party we purchased a new 2007 Camry.

You’re probably wondering how this could be frustrating. I’ll keep it short and post links for people that want more info, but the main idea is this: The car makes me motion sick. I get car sick very easily as a passenger, and this is due to unexpected accelerating and decellerating. I have never in my life though gotten sick while I was driving, because I can fully anticipate the motion of the car as I press the gas or brake pedals. Unfortunately the Camry has some peculiar behaviors that take away my ability to predict acceleration and decelleration. Unfortunately a 10 minute test drive didn’t make me nauseous, and I would never have thought it could be a problem. If you’d like to read more about these behaviors read here and here. I’ve driven the car 300 miles, and every time I drive it I end up nauseous. Ultimately it looks like we’ll be selling the car and finding something else. We’ll end up losing money, but that’s a better alternative than being motion sick every time I drive it for the next 10-15 years. The next challenge is finding something that doesn’t exhibit these behaviors.

On to more positive experiences, this last weekend we went to Seaworld with Stacie’s Girl Scout troop. The troop is dissolving and this was their last big trip. We got to spend the night in front of the Beluga Whale and Polar Bear exhibits. Super cool. Here’s my best picture from the trip.

And finally my last picture is the least exciting of the five, but it’s not my fault that it came last chronologically. We rented the Rug Doctor from Stater Bros. to clean our downstairs carpet. Every now and then the dog likes to pee on it, and over the last two years it’s built up a few spots. It did a super awesome job too.

That’s about it for now. I will be heading off to Taco Bell pretty soon here to eat with Luna, and I might visit a Honda dealer to test drive a Civic. I hope you’ve enjoyed my Jasso style post. I certainly have.

I expected the gun bashing to start shortly after the horrible murders at Virginia Tech. yesterday. Something bad happened with a gun, so people who think with their emotions automatically assume guns are the cause of violence.

What I did not expect was the USA bashing. Here’s an excerpt from the Times of London:

“Only the names change—And the numbers,” read a headline in the Times of London. “Why, we ask, do Americans continue to tolerate gun laws and a culture that seems to condemn thousands of innocents to death every year, when presumably, tougher restrictions, such as those in force in European countries, could at least reduce the number?”

YOU FREAKING IDIOT. Read some of the data for pete’s sake. What a downright fool.

If someone is determined to obtain a gun and kill someone or rob a store, they’ll find a way. But when you take guns away from private citizens, you are taking away their ability to defend themselves! The lunatics that kill people will find a way to kill people.

What if a student at that school had been carrying a gun? What if the teacher that died trying to hold the door shut was carrying a gun? Would 32 people be dead? No, probably not.

Not all opinions are created equal. Everyone is entitled to have one, but you can still be a total idiot. Any gun haters out there? Anyone think guns are the devil and fly around shooting people all by themselves? Anyone want to argue that countries with stricter gun control are safer?

Bring it.

UPDATE: Heard about this story today. A few years back two students retrieved guns from their cars and successfully subdued someone on campus killing people. Imagine that…guns saving lives!

UPDATE 2: Here’s more data about how England’s crime rates have increased dramatically since they outlawed handguns. My favorite fact is “53 percent of English burglaries occur while occupants are at home, compared with 13 percent in the U.S.”

I can’t stand political correctness, but even I can be influenced by crazy people. Everytime I say "Merry Christmas" I feel uneasy, because political correctness lunatics cry foul anytime a person is offended. I’ve heard this crap so many times, but no more!

In a recent Zogby poll they found that the phrase "Happy Holidays" is more offensive than "Merry Christmas," and by a HUGE margin. They found that 95% of people are not offended by Merry Christmas, while 46% are offended by Happy Holidays. This is political correctness at its most retarded. In an effort to not offend 5% of the population it ends up offending half the population.

Equipped with this new information I will gladly declare "Merry Christmas" all season long.