Lillie Is Here

Notice: this blog is being repurposed to chronicle my experience as a foster dad. Foster with intent to adopt, if you want to be precise.

Yesterday, we received custody of Lillie. She is six months old, is beautiful, quiet, and happy--though as the letter from her previous foster family notes, "she can get real mad when she's ready for her bottle." We spent the day in a cloud of happiness and vague awareness that difficulties would ensue, but that for the time being all was perfectly blissful and so let's just enjoy the moment.

And so we did.

Later, we can get into details--of my and my wife's particular forms of first-time parenting cluelessness, of her current physical condition, of the feelings that welled within me every time I looked at her or at my wife, of the much different feelings that welled up whenever I contemplated the journey ahead of us. Let's just say for now that difficulties did indeed ensue, right around bedtime. But difficulties and all, Day 1 was utter joy, happiness, and relief.

On Family Recipes

Granny Dot's brisket:
1 1/2 c oil
1 c soy
2 T Lee + Perrin
2 T dry mustard
1 c dry red wine
2 t dried parsley
1/2 fresh lemon

Marinate 1 day or more; roast @225F for 8 hrs.

On Like

SELECT test, c1, c2, CASE WHEN c1 LIKE c2 THEN 'TRUE' WHEN test = 'done.' THEN NULL ELSE 'FALSE' END AS AreAlike
FROM
(
SELECT '01 Nulls' AS test, NULL AS c1, NULL AS c2 UNION

SELECT '02 Equal vals', 'Corbin', 'Corbin' UNION

SELECT '03 _ on left end of equal vals', 'Corbin_', 'Corbin' UNION
SELECT '04 _ on right end of equal vals', 'Corbin', 'Corbin_' UNION
SELECT '05 _ on both ends of equal vals', 'Corbin_', 'Corbin_' UNION
SELECT '06 _ replacing right 1 char', 'Corbin', 'Corbi_' UNION
SELECT '07 _ replacing left 1 char', 'Corbi_', 'Corbin' UNION
SELECT '07 _ replacing left 1 char', 'Corbi_', 'Corbin' UNION
SELECT '08 _ replacing right 2 chars', 'Corbin', 'Corb_' UNION
SELECT '09 _ replacing left 2 chars', 'Corb_', 'Corbin' UNION

SELECT '10 % on left end of equal vals', 'Corbin%', 'Corbin' UNION
SELECT '11 % on right end of equal vals', 'Corbin', 'Corbin%' UNION
SELECT '12 % on both ends of equal vals', 'Corbin%', 'Corbin%' UNION
SELECT '13 % replacing right 1 char', 'Corbin', 'Corbi%' UNION
SELECT '14 % replacing left 1 char', 'Corbi%', 'Corbin' UNION
SELECT '15 % replacing right 2 chars', 'Corbin', 'Corb%' UNION
SELECT '16 % replacing left 2 chars', 'Corb%', 'Corbin' UNION

SELECT '17 [] around 2 chars with 0 good', 'Corbin', 'Cor[ac]in' UNION
SELECT '18 [] around 3 chars with 1 good', 'Corbin', 'Cor[abc]in' UNION
SELECT '18.1 [] around char range with 1 good', 'Corbin', 'Cor[a-f]in' UNION
SELECT '18.2 [] around exclusionary char range with 1 good', 'Corbin', 'Cor[^a-f]in' UNION
SELECT '19 [] around 1 good char', 'Corbin', 'Cor[b]in' UNION
SELECT '20 [] around 1 bad char', 'Corbin', 'Cor[x]in' UNION
SELECT '21 [] around *', 'Corbin', 'Cor[_]in' UNION
SELECT '22 [] around %', 'Corbin', 'Cor[%]in' UNION
SELECT '23 escaped [] for % on left end', 'Cor%in', 'Cor[[%]in' UNION
SELECT '24 another combo test', 'Cor%in', 'Cor[%in' UNION
SELECT 'done.', NULL, NULL
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On Esoterica

My wife has a bookmark in her internet browser entitled "Anything Ever Written About Kribia". How awesome is that? It would be awesomer if it was a folder.



Of course, I have some pretty awesome bookmarks too.

On Having an eHarmony Je Ne Sais Quoi

Online Dating Advice: Exactly What To Say In A First Message « OkTrends: Ok, here’s the experiment.
We analyzed over 500,000 first contacts on our dating site, OkCupid. Our program looked at keywords and phrases, how they affected reply rates, and what trends were statistically significant. The result: a set of rules for what you should and shouldn’t say when introducing yourself online.



OMG U R kidding right?? LMAO!!!

On Knights and Pins

[Event "Correspondence"]
[Site "gmail"]
[Date "2009.08.20"]
[White "Me"]
[Black "Sam Temple"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 e5 7. Nf3 Be7 8. Qd2 0-0 9. Bc4 Nbd7 10. 0-0-0 Ne8 11. h4 Nc5 12. Nxe5 h6 13. Ng6 Be6 14. Nxe7+ Kh7 15. Bxe6 Nxe6 16. Ng6 Nxg5 17. Nxf8+ Kg8 18. hxg5 1-0

Notes: Black is troubled throughout the game by a weak center and passive opening play. 12. Nxe5! exposes the pin on the d pawn. Pressure is maintained from there on. The bishops are allowed to sit on their original squares through most of the game and their influence is key in creating opportunities for the active knight from move 12 to the end.

On Vietfusion

One of my favorite byproducts of European colonialism is Vietnamese cuisine. Especially the iced coffee and banh mi. Holy crap dude that's good.
Another favorite is jazz.