WHY BABIES ARE LIKE ALIENS

**Disclaimer**

1. I love my son. I haven't even met the little guy yet and I'm already completely retarded about him.


2. That being said, I am going to get to be his Dad, which means I'm completely entitled to have fun at his expense.


3. The aliens we are dealing with here will be of the Ridley Scott variety, or alternately, the one making an appearance in the diner scene of Spaceballs.


4. Your baby's mileage may vary.

Alien	Baby
Starts life as an egg.	Same.
Can not survive early development without a parasitic relationship with its host.	Same, although said host generally feels better about having a baby.
Robs the host of valuable nutrients and energy.	Gives the host ample opportunity to enjoy the brunch buffet.
Exits the host in a violent and destructive fashion.	Usually the worst thing that happens is that the new Dad faints.
Has an unusual shriek used for rudimentary communication.	Yep, got that too.
Requires a woman's special talents to be brought into order.	Same here - no flamethrowers, please.
Excretes gooey slime that dissolves practically any object it comes in contact with.	Have you SEEN my diaper??
Brings drama and tension to its environment.	You'd better believe it.
Plenty of sequels.	Let's go for just one more, ok? :-)

BLOG POST ROUNDUP 2/13/2007

Hi all - I'm trying out a new blogging software from Performancing, so this seemed an easy way to give it a test run.

Here's some of the top blog posts I've read today:

• Benfer's Blog - I Don't Remember What Happened on Lost, It Happened So Long Ago... - Since I'm behind on "Lost", I had to skip down to his discussion of NRH's instrumental service - and I'm very glad I did


• Wade's Rantings - Tate-ism #5 - GREAT picture. I hope to get a lot of these from my kid


• Most Innovative Churches - not a blog post, but found on Church Marketing Sucks. Vote in this running poll for the church you think is the most innovative. My vote? Mars Hill Bible Church, led by Rob Bell.


• babygadget - The Big Go-go - Yeah, just go check it out. I hope I can buy this for my boy :-)


• Splendid Pictures Around The Net - The Life of a Turtle Begins - Yep, turtles are cute.

NOW I'M AN "AWARD WINNING" WEB DESIGNER

iParenting award for "We All Use Math Every Day"
Originally uploaded by Stop Looking At Me Swan.

Yep, looks like my 15 minutes of fame have started. iParenting has named "We All Use Math Every Day" as one of their top sites for 2007. I do all the layout, code and administration for this site, and co-designed it with my good buddy Rondo. You'd better believe this is high-quality resume material, here!

HOW TO NOT KILL CREATIVITY

I didn't expect to post about this next, but I couldn't help myself...

With the squid arriving soon, I've found myself drawn to any and everything about parenting, education and generally raising kids. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that I was recently drawn to this video from the afore mentioned TED Talks. Their description serves it best:

Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than ... all » undermining it. Robinson is author of "Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative", and a leading expert on innovation and human resources. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 20:03)

Future parent or not, educator or not, I think this is required material. Because if we can't nurture our creativity, we can't hope to solve the problems of the future.

AND THEN, JESUS GOT A MYSPACE PAGE

Okay, what is wrong with the world? A blog from a bible translation makes the front page on del.icio.us?? And it's about mapping New Testament social networks??? Oh I am IN!

SICK DAY

Things haven't been intensely great out here at the Swan household of late. In short, the Spouse of Swan and I are sick. Nothing mental, just the standard respiratory agony - sinuses filling, noses sneezing, mouths coughing, chests... congesting? Anway, it's been rough recently.

So maybe being in bed with an open laptop for a few days isn't all bad - I've updated the blog! Yep, new look, new widgets (really, that's what they're called), new... oh... I usually like to do these things in "3"s and I totally don't have anything else at the moment.

And, if you can believe it, I've kinda missed blogging regularly. I'll get topics in my head randomly and think "that would make such a good blog topic!" Yeah, seriously, I do. Being the good blogger I've written these moments of epiphany down, and plan to talk about them greatly.

Oh, and have I mentioned the best topic of all: Swan the Sequel: Spawn of Swan!



More on that later. :-)

YOU CAN'T COUNT TO TWO

Okay folks, I know it's been a while since I posted. See, I'm working on a new design for the ol' blog here, and when I'm done, it's going to be fantastic. In the meantime, why don't you keep yourself occupied:

(This embed will probably break my template. I don't care, just love it and move on.)