Joshua Zamrycki's Weblog

I really want to write an entry telling you about my plans for New York, the results from my back x-ray, Emily's weekend at the swimming pool, or the exciting new acting jobs I have coming up... but it's just too darn hot! I think I'll just shift my brain into neutral, play some Neverball, wait for Emily to wake up so I can rock her back to sleep, and then sweat in bed for a while.

Posted by Joshua Zamrycki at 1:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I checked the video footage from the other night when Emily took her first steps and I'm sorry to report that the momentous occasion did not get recorded. I am happy to report, though, that she has done nothing but practice everyday since then and, just yesterday, broke her previous record of eight steps by going on a leisurely walkabout consisting of 15 unaided steps!!! All in under a week.

We did manage to record one interesting event that resulted from that fateful night. Besides walking for the first time, Emily also climbed down from the couch for the first time. The very next morning, we were there to put it all on film. Here it is, between flying through the air and attacking the camera. Enjoy:

Posted by Joshua Zamrycki at 12:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

According to researchers, New York City has an estimated 50,000 homeless people. In two weeks, that number will rise to a whopping 50,003.

Jan, Emily, and I are very much looking forward to our trip to New York in two weeks. We've got our dates confirmed (Aug 10-18) and our flights booked. Now we just need a place to stay while we're there. We'd really like to see you so, if you'd like to host the Zamryckis, just drop us a line and maybe you will be the lucky winner of a few days with this adorable little girl:

Posted by Joshua Zamrycki at 9:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

It's 4:30am and Emily is wide awake. We're exhausted. Something strange is happening to Emily these past few days. She has reached a completely new developmental stage and her mind is on overdrive. Three days ago she refused to go to sleep until 1am and chose to spend the entire evening practicing all of her skills. I guess it paid off because she is now officially walking! Yes, whereas she had only taken a single step prior to the "Hell no, I won't go (to bed)" evening, Emily amazed us all by first taking two steps before falling down. She then stood up and took four steps. Her next attempt quickly followed and she reached six steps. At this point, we tried to grab the video camera to document the milestone but I'm not sure if the lens cap was on or off - I haven't had a chance to check the camera yet. Anyway, she finished off the night by taking eight Frankenstein-like steps from the sofa to the table. I think such a momentous occasion deserves more creative writing and flowery explanations, but my brain is mush at the moment. I'm gonna put some earplugs in and try to go to sleep now. In the meantime, here is a video from a couple of weeks ago of Emily training for this Olympic feat.

Posted by Joshua Zamrycki at 4:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I came home from work today with a bouquet of lovely flowers under my arm and a cute little card with a doggie on the front in my left hand. Today was Jan and my two year wedding anniversary.

To celebrate, I took Jan out to eat at a great little Greek restaurant in the middle of Gracia while Val came over and watched DVDs in case Emily woke up. We realized that this was the first time that we had gone out for dinner alone since Emily was born! Amazing.

We had a great time just chatting about non-baby related things. To be honest, it was a little strange at first since we hadn't gone out on a "date" in such a long time, but after some much needed dolmades, a horiatiki salata, some mousaka, and some Greek wine, we were whisked away back to our honeymoon.

So I've got a wife and a kid and a grownup job now. Who'd a thunk it?

We have had to take in all of the plants and flowers from our balcony because the facade of our building is being redone, so our living room now looks a makeshift jungle scene - with all pots and soil well out of the reach of curious little hands. The anniversary flowers are on the dining room table between the thoughtful cards we have received. Thank you, one and all.

Posted by Joshua Zamrycki at 10:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Jan's dad took her driving yesterday. She hadn't driven a car for 14 years. They went to a quiet secluded country road near their house (not very hard to find). Emily and I stayed at home. Though her dad only let her drive for about two miles, Jan came back confident and excited. Rumor has it, she did very well and only needs to work on hitting third gear instead of skipping straight from second to fifth. So cute :)

Posted by Joshua Zamrycki at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Being here at the in-laws' house has been nice and relaxing for Jan and myself, but it's been absolutely wonderful for Emily. She is almost a completely different person than the one we carried on that fateful flight to Stanstead just six days ago where we fortuitously finagled an empty seat for Emily to occupy. Contributing to this staggering metamorphosis have been the caring hands of her grandparents, vast stretches of unexplored carpeting, the cool grassy garden, the towering staircase, all sorts of new and exciting foods, but most of all, Chelsea (affectionately known to us as Billy Bun Bun).

Everything stops when Chelsea enters the room. Emily drops whatever toy/food/furniture she is holding and shrieks with delight. I'm not kidding, she shrieks! And she doesn't stop shrieking for hours on end. The only other time we have ever seen her like this is when we're on the street and she spots a doggie. Emily points, smiles, and shrieks. Well now she's got a 24 hour house cat to lust after.

Chelsea didn't know what to make of our little girl when they first met. Emily may have come on a little too strong. Maybe even bordering on aggressive. Screaming and chasing and swatting and ear pulling and fur grabbing have all been met by woeful stares from Chelsea and firm "No"s by her parents (all promptly ignored). Sometimes she attempts a delicate caress but inevitably clenches her hand and pulls away a fistful-o-fur. We're trying to introduce the word "gentle" into her vocabulary. But even five days after they first met, the novelty hasn't worn off - Emily still chases poor little Billy Bun mercilessly around the house.

Yesterday, Chelsea would take no more. He finally stood his ground and retaliated from a fierce open handed slap to the face with a decisive claw-thrash to the hand. Emily staggered back in confusion while the tears slowly began to well up. It was an important lesson for out little girl to learn. But not the right one, I'm afraid. Now, instead of respecting the cat's space, she charges at him with a flip-flop extended in front of her like a gladiator's shield. I don't think we'll be getting a cat any time soon.

Posted by Joshua Zamrycki at 9:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

It only took me about 10 minutes to pack. Jeans, t-shirts, a sweatshirt, underwear, and socks. Then it took another 10 minutes to pick out which of Emily's toys we should bring. I'm sure I'm forgetting something. Jan packed all of the important stuff. Oh well. It's only a week in England. Whatever I don't bring I can probably find there. As long as I bring my work laptop with me. I need to connect every couple of days just so they don't think I'm on extended vacation. OK, off to the in-laws I go for six days of English weather, English food, English telly, and English babysitters. See you all next Thursday!

Posted by Joshua Zamrycki at 12:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Happy ten month birthday, Emily.

We're getting dangerously close to a year here, folks. Our little girl is almost all grown up. Well, if you consider pooping your pants, eating flip-flops, screaming at the top of your lungs when you can't reach the remote control, and drooling on the furniture being grown up.

But seriously, folks. I was watching some videos we have of Emily on her five month birthday and that baby is a world away from the little princess we live with today. So many changes in such a short period of time! It's mind-boggling.

Thoroughly modern Emily

So, what are the new items on our little girl's resume this month...

• The pointing has gone beyond a mere ability in her vast repertoire. It is now Emily's trademark action. She'll point at things that she recognizes and enjoys (the window, the shower head, a mirror, us) but she'll also point at things that she wants (a glass of water, my phone, BBB, some more broccoli). If it's very special, she'll whip out the patented "double point"! If you see both of those hands pointing at something, you know she means business.
• Emily went through a phase a few weeks ago where she would not allow us to feed her. Tight-lipped and arms flailing, she refused to let us put the spoonful of cereal or vegetables or fish anywhere near her mouth. We quickly discovered that she had seen us feed her so many times that she was now convinced that she could do it herself. We quickly redesigned her diet to only consist of bite sized morsels and she now feeds herself at almost every meal and between meal snack. I must point out that this only includes solid foods and not her milk (boob or bottle) or the mealtime water that she refuses to drink from anything but a big girl cup. Some assistance is still required with beverages.
• After two more positive experiences this month, we are now much more comfortable leaving Emily with a babysitter at night and attempting to recover what semblance of a social life we may still be able to salvage.
• Build a tower and Emily knocks it down. Put toys in a box and she dumps its contents. Put a hat on your head and she'll make sure it's removed. Emily has always sided with entropy as opposed to order, but just recently there has been a glimmer of hope. Take the little red plastic cup and put it inside the little yellow plastic cup and Emily will inevitably take them apart. But only recently has she started putting the plastic cups back together! We don't expect her to start cleaning her room any time soon, though. The square, circle, and triangle wooden blocks, after being removed from their respective holes, instead of being inserted into their proper places, still end up in her mouth.
• Emily has developed a new smile that consists of shutting her eyes very tightly, opening her mouth, and showing all of her teeth. Jan isn't a big fan of the new smile. Emily has another new face she's working on that looks remarkably like Mick Jagger in concert.
• Comprehension tests: We're in her bedroom and I say "fish" and she excitedly points to the fish - her favorite mobile in the world. We're in the office and I say "cow" and she quickly points to the cow in the window - and then she says "booo", trying to imitate my "mooo" that follows this point. She's lying down on the changing table and I say "hands" and she extends her arms to me with a big smile knowing that it's time to sit up. I think we'll work on different constellations next and see if she can point them out in the night sky.
• Emily will happily hand you one of her favorite toys. She'll crawl up to you with said toy in tow, reach out her chubby little hand, and offer it to you. You can then take it from her but you are expected to give it back within 10 seconds or you'll get an earful.
• Say "bye bye" and Emily will limp-wristedly wave goodbye with a vacant look of intense concentration on her face. It kinda looks like a seagull with a broken wing, but it's very cute all the same.
• We don't know when it happened exactly, but last week we noticed that Emily had two new teeth, just outside the two upper bunny teeth that were already there, bringing the grand total now to six!
• As always, saving the best for last, Emily is standing. Her current record is eight seconds. She's been standing while holding on to things for months, but this free standing is a sight to behold. It used to only follow from holding on to the sofa while standing. She would release, raise both hands in the air, and wait to see when gravity would get the better of her. Now, she is able to start from a sitting position and simply lean forward and stand. Two significant standing-achievements are eating a piece of cheese while standing and, I kid you not, just today she took her first step. Maybe she didn't have any intention of traveling from one place to another, but she stood up, took one step and, instead of falling down, she remained standing - solid as a rock!

Tom, Leo, and Emily.
The Brat Pack.

Chillin' at the Parc de les Aiguas.

Posted by Joshua Zamrycki at 11:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

My plan for tomorrow was to go to the cop shop with AmJan to hand in the paperwork for our permanent residency applications. We both received a letter from the government at the same time saying that we were (finally) eligible to get a shiney new residency card that only has to be renewed every five years instead of every two years. Whoopee.

Anyway, I received a call this morning from a dubbing studio asking if I was free tomorrow to dub some extra bits for an animated feature I had voiced last year. Now that the animation was complete, they needed to touch up some of the audio. I agreed to come in and had to cancel with AmJan. Sorry Jan. Looks like I'm up early tomorrow for a 9:00am dubbing session.

Literally five minutes later, I get a call from another recording studio. They want to know if I'm available tomorrow to record a voice over for a Nissan X-Trail commercial. Publicity jobs are few and far between for me so I was more than happy to say "yes!". Across town at 11:00am: booked.

I kid you not, I get another phone call 10 minutes later from a third recording studio in Barcelona. They heard my voice on the internet and wanted to book me in to record a voice over for a Movistar commercial. "Yes, sir!" and away we go!! That's my 1:15pm spoken for.

The gods must have known that I was already scheduled for an x-ray tomorrow afternoon at 5:30pm to check out my fubar'd lower back, because the call I got about an hour later kindly requested my collaboration on a corporate video first thing Monday morning. What the fudge?!? I don't record a single thing for over a month and then all of a sudden jobs start falling out of the sky? Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I just find it infinitely fascinating :)

Posted by Joshua Zamrycki at 9:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Dear Rimax,

First off, I'd like to thank you for your Alum Plus 500 GB multimedia player. I had been searching for a way to rid myself of the hundreds and hundreds of CDs and DVDs that make up my video collection for a long time. If I had to reshuffle all those discs one more time to maintain the alphabetical order of all my films and TV episodes, I would have surely gone mad. Mad, I tell you!! I saw your multimedia player in my local computer store and thought, "Sure, it's kinda pricey, but imagine the convenience of having my entire video collection in one small, sleek looking device that can connect directly to any TV!". Yes, it's all about convenience. I was convinced.

Now please allow me to offer some constructive criticism. While both the player itself and even the box it came in are absolutely lovely in their sleek design, would it have killed you to have the same people work on the player's user interface? Seriously, I plug it in to my TV and it looks like an old 8-bit Nintendo video game reject. I mean, who designed those "icons"?! But I can look past the aesthetics of the menu and setup screens. It's the usability that is unforgivable. Why can't it display more than 19 characters of the file name? I've got an entire season of episodes all apparently named "Curb Your Enthusias", each cut off before I can read the episode name. And I guess the preview window seemed like a good idea at the time, but who wants to watch the first few seconds of every file that is bypassed while searching for the film they want? You usually just see the opening titles, anyway. I appreciate the ability to turn off the preview window, but the player doesn't remember this setting and so I have to turn off the preview every time I use the machine. Annoying! Finally, with a 500 GB hard drive, you know that people are going to be storing about a gazillion files on there. Would a search function be too much to ask?

In all fairness, almost all my videos play perfectly from your player. The video is smooth and the audio is just as good as if it were played from my DVD player. It's annoying that a few video codecs aren't recognized, but you covered your ass with the warning on the box. Shame you didn't plan for upgradeable firmware to future proof this substantial investment. Also, music and photos display with no problems, but I don't have any need/desire to play these items on my TV.

In summary, I am happy with your product but not nearly as happy as I should be for the money I spent. Cheers to your Marketing Team (for getting my money), and jeers to your Interface Team (for making me question my purchase).

Posted by Joshua Zamrycki at 11:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)