Just thought that I'd share the news (I am very excited).

Samuel Khandi Cushman was born this morning at 10:26am. He's 8lbs 2oz and 19.5"

here are some pictures

Congratulations! Something tells me he'll be coding in no time!

Congrats! Very cute, and quite a full head of hair!

I'd say he looks just like you, but I don't know what you look like...

Congrats.

Yay! So cute!! Congrats man! ... on the baby and the cute wife!

Congrats on the little climber!

It's amazing to think about what kind of world he'll grow up in. Will he think of CDs in the same way we think of vinyl records?

It's amazing to think about what kind of world he'll grow up in. Will he think of CDs in the same way we think of vinyl records?

Cripes, considering the kid is only hours old, it's likely he'll think of MP3's the same way we think of vinyl records.

(Fast forward X years in little Samuel's life...)

Samuel: "Hey, look at this old piece of junk my dad gave to me when he cleaned out his garage!"
Friend: "Whoa. What is it?"
S: "He told me it's some kind of music player."
F: "Music Player?"
S: "Yeah, evidently, before the RIAA took over the world, it was legal to play your own music wherever and whenever you wanted."
F: "You mean instead of having songs from carefully-selected, commercially-successful artists pumped directly into your brain?"
S: "Exactly. Dad says that you could buy 'Compact Discs' in 'music stores' and put the music data inside this metal box."
F: "Really? With any type of music you wanted to?"
S: "That's what he tells me."
F: "Wow... How did people choose their own music without the RIAA to tell them what's good and what's not?
S: "I dunno... Dad says that people just picked music that they liked, but I really don't know how people decided what they liked and what they didn't."
F: "So that's all it did? Played music? In a box that big?"
S: "Well.. He also said something about some kind of primitive games and programs and crap that could run on it, but it all seemed kinda lame to me. He kept going on and on about this program he wrote that could beam 'playlists' or something to some kind of antique handheld computer. It sounds like he was really into it."
F: "Wow. Your dad must have been a real nerd."
S: "Yeah, pretty much."
F: "So who invented it?"
S: "I dunno, Dad says it was invented by some crazy British dudes."
F: "British dudes?"
S: "Yeah, you know, the people who lived in New Texas before the U.S. took it over? They were called the British."
F: "Oh, you mean, the ones who drink tea all the time and have the funny accents and can't spell anything right."
S: "Yep, that's them. Well they used to have their own country."
F: "Ahh... Okay. So this music player, computer thing was invented in New Texas, but before it was called New Texas."
S: "Yeah. Dad says that America used to get all their cool things from the 'British', including their music, but this thing never really caught on in America."
F: "Well then why did he like it so much?"
S: "Well, apparently it was too far ahead of its time, and nobody wanted to buy it... Not enough people understood it to make it profitable. So my dad and a bunch of his fellow geeks kinda held onto theirs as long as they could. It all sounds like some kinda cult to me. They would spend all sorts of money modifying them, fixing them up, writing all kinds of goofy programs for them... This one completely insane dude devoted like years of his life to maintaining some kind of online manual for it... Crazy stuff."
F: "Wow. All that hassle just to listen to music."
S: "Yeah, unreal, isn't it?"
F: "Oh well. I'm glad I don't have to choose my own music anymore."
S: "Me too. What a piece of junk."
F: "I know... Let's go blow it up."
S: "All right!"


(I'm truly sorry for the ridiculous satire above, but I'm less than 48 hours away from handing in my final project paper for my Masters degree, and I really needed a study break.)

So the RIAA are the Priests of the Temples of Syrinx, then?

Thanks, that was great. Hopefully I'm not completely insane quite yet...

/me retreats to his cave under the waterfall...

In reply to:

---

"Yeah, you know, the people who lived in New Texas before the U.S. took it over? They were called the British."

---

You could've thought of a better name, cripes, I'll be moving to France if that's the case.

Mr. C, congrats on the new arrival! although when I read the subject I assumed you'd got some new way of cooling the empeg!

Congrats on your "bundle of joy", GOOD THOUGHTS (TM) to you and your (expanding) family.

Pix are lovely, Samuel is lovely, all is lovely - arrrrrrr

Heck, it must just be the way the New Texans like us think, I hadn't looked in this thread, because I assumed it was about cooling fans!

Belated congratulations

So the RIAA are the Priests of the Temples of Syrinx, then?

Well if they are, can we assume that the empeg team moved off planet to "find a better way" and is comming back to liberate everyone?

/me retreats to his cave under the waterfall...

Careful there, don't make any rash decisions.

Oh, and Cushman, congrats!

Congrats! Welcome to insomnia

I forgot to thank everyone for their well wishes! Thank you very much!

My wife and I are very happy with the way that things are going right now. The little guy only wakes up 2 times a night to eat (about average) and at all other times he's being a very good baby. Next week I return to work, but it won't be too bad because I telecommute, and my wife is going to be a full time mom. It's exciting because I'll be able to be around a lot more than most people are with their kids.

I think that (especially these days) it's very important to spend as much time with your kids as possible, because there is no better person to raise a child then their own parents. It's sad that many people are forced to put their kids in daycare while both parents go to work - a byproduct of our possesion-obsessed society. We've chosen to simplify our lives to the point where we can be comfortable on one income, and not sacrifice our child's development for that luxury car or 3-car garage.

We've chosen to simplify our lives to the point where we can be comfortable on one income, and not sacrifice our child's development for that luxury car or 3-car garage.

That's really the ideal situation, provided circumstances allow it. As long as "simplifying" doesn't involve selling one's empeg, I'm all for it.

I simplified by not having a kid.

It's all about ME ME ME!!!

I think I'd be living out of a cardboard box before I sell my Empeg.

...and even then I'm not so sure.

I think I'd be living out of a cardboard box before I sell my Empeg.

"What's that thing?"

"An mp3 player for my car."

"Uh. . . what car?"

Somehow I missed this earlier.

Congratulations! He looks like he's going to be a heartbreaker...as long as he doesn't get too many of his looks from you.

The next few months are going to be strange - eventually you'll come to realise that your body is on autopilot, and quite able to adjust to the loss of sleep. Just as that realisation hits you, the little guy will start sleeping through most of the night, and you'll find yourself waking up at strange times and wondering why!
It's great that you're going to see a lot of your son. I missed too much of my son's first year - he was often asleep by the time I got home. I've been making up for it since though, although being a full-time Dad means that I sometimes go stir-crazy!

Tony - Great Satire. I think that you should put that on riocar.org too.

Tony - Great Satire. I think that you should put that on riocar.org too.

I'd say thank you, but most of the credit should be reserved for several of the other members of my project team for my capstone course, since it was their ineptitude, cluelessness, and overall lack of effort that created the situation where I had to work many nights straight on very minimal sleep.

Anyway, nah, something like that wouldn't play too well on riocar.org. It's very OT, and without the context of this thread, I think most of the humor would be lost.