I am on a fantasy high. Fantasy baseball 2009, ladies and gentlemen, has begun.

Baseball and mathematics – it doesn’t get much better than this. And my absolute favorite part of the fantasy baseball season is the preseason draft. My league’s draft was this past weekend and I have been giddy with excitement for the past month in anticipation of the big day. I scoured the Internet, read all the articles, perused all the player projections, created and refined countless spreadsheets and draft-day cheat sheets, formulated my strategies, and participated in more than my fair share of online mock drafts. And I think it paid off.

This is my seventh year in this very competitive league. I still remember back in 2003 when Barry Bonds, John Smoltz, and Kerry Wood helped carry my team to their very first championship victory. I’m now coming off two straight years of first place finishes so expectations are high. Anything less than the stellar team that I managed to draft would have been a disappointment. But just check out the talent that will undoubtedly score me the league’s first ever hat trick:

I understand that very few of you will be interested in this, much less have any idea of what I’m even talking about, and to you I apologize. But I doubt you’re still reading, having given up after the mention of “player projections”.

Remember when I did a voice for a pilot episode of a cartoon series called Sincopats, and then the recording studio tried to rip me off so I turned down the job, and then everything worked out in the end? Well, the first four episodes of the series have been posted on the production company’s Web site.

Feel free to check them out here!

I had an uncontrollable urge to scan another old photo last night.

me, Jean, Kristin, Lori, Melissa, Tara, Usama, Roy, Brent

Here we are, my junior year at college, celebrating at Kristin’s house. I first titled this photo “Resident Assistants Christmas 96” because, well, we were all Resident Assistants at Binghamton University and this was Christmas. Then I noticed the champagne glasses and the date “1/97” written on the back of the photo (an early form of embedding meta data?) and realized that a better title would probably be “Resident Assistants New Year 97”. But was Brent an RA? He was certainly heavily involved in the Hinman College community, but I’m ashamed to admit that I don’t remember if he was an RA or not. He was my freshman and sophomore year roommate for goodness sake! So I widened the field by naming it “Hinman College New Year 97”, though a more appropriate title would probably have been “Hinman College (and Jean) New Year 97” since she didn’t even go to our college. Whatever. We were all friends. 🙂

Spring weather has happily been with us for a couple of weeks here in Barcelona so, now that the vernal equinox has officially come and gone, I think it’s about time I did a little much-needed spring cleaning. Two things have been nagging me for a while so here we go:

1. The background of this web page. I loved the snowy landscape and found it quite peaceful and appropriate for a subliminal backdrop to my writings, but it was starting to jar with my actual surroundings. I hope you find the new spring-flavored decor to be a refreshing change. I really do put a lot of thought into these things 🙂

2. My facial hair. The beard and long(!) hair were necessary to keep warm over the winter months. But, as mentioned above, it ain’t so cold no more. I have therefore streamlined my aerodynamics. Have fun rolling over the image below to see the dramatic before and after:

(2 * kids) + (job) – (sleep) = those eyes

Sebastian is one month old. How the heck did that happen?

This is how it happened…

Saturday February 14, 2009

4:00pm – The call
Emily and I were downtown with a few friends enjoying a high-flying rusty circus performance and chocolate lollipop-making expo (I know!) in a sunny little plaza in the Gothic quarter. Jan called a few times just to let us know she was OK. I should have known then that something funny was underfoot. After a filling buffet lunch and impromptu game of restaurant-hide-and-seek, Emily and I decided to head home. Just then, Jan called one more time to earnestly suggest that we head home. We headed home.

5:00pm – TV time
Jan was having “mild contractions” when we got home. She was totally relaxed but had an air about her that suggested that she would have had her bags packed and waiting by the door if we were planning a trip to the hospital. We were not. This boy was to be born here at home. So instead, Jan had started preparing the house. She suggested I begin by inflating the birthing pool. The pump didn’t work. We placed an emergency call to Ed (who was on standby) and he delivered a brand new foot pump within the hour. We put Emily down for her afternoon nap and, with the house nice and quiet, we sat in the living room and watched some TV. We finally caught up on our backlog of 30 Rock and Flight of the Conchords episodes while I foot-pumped the pool.

6:30pm – Reinforcements arrive
Sonia, our midwife’s assistant, arrived at about 6:30 – just as Emily was waking up from her nap. Emily and I played in the (empty) pool while Sonia attended to Jan in the bedroom. I have no idea what they did in there. Some sort of pregnancy stuff probably.

8:30pm – The bedroom
After rushing back into town upon hearing of the current state of events, Juls finally came to the rescue by inviting Emily to her house for a sleepover party. Labor seemed to pause with the hectic atmosphere created by so many people in the house. But once we were all alone, Jan and I moved into the bedroom for a little peace and quiet. Jan relaxed, put on some meditation recordings, and practiced her hypnobirthing exercises while I gently caressed her arm, scratched her head, a did a sneaky sudoku on the bedside table while she had her eyes closed.

9:30pm – Labor begins(?)
How long was the labor? That’s a difficult question to answer. The end is pretty clear, but when do you start counting? At this point in the proceedings, Jan was dilated 2-3 cm and the contractions were coming at regular intervals. Still too early to get in the pool or even hop in a bath, we had some more relaxing to do. The garden hose we bought to fill the pool from the kitchen sink wouldn’t connect to the tap so I started to fill the pool bucket by bucket.

Sunday February 15

12:00am – Into the pool
Midnight arrived and Sonia said that Jan could finally get into a bath while I topped up the pool. She wasn’t in there for more than 30 minutes before we transferred her into the warm and welcoming birthing pool standing proudly in the living room. The room was dimly lit with a few candles and the house was snuggly warm. The calming scent of essential oils and elixirs was in the air. Both her surroundings and Jan herself were very serene. I spent most of the time leaning over the side of the pool, holding Jan’s hand, performing breathing exercises with her, and making bad jokes.

3:30am – The nitty gritty
Our midwife, Ariana, arrived just in time for the fun to begin. The contractions were getting more intense and Jan, who had previously been breathing calmly through each contraction, was now performing some sort of ancient toning ritual with every surge. It’s a good thing the pool had handles on the inside because, right about now, Jan was making full use of them. As the moment grew closer, Jan started to experience what I can only describe as electrical shivers. Ariana and Sonia were quietly observing from a distance, making full use of the pool’s transparent sides and a tiny flashlight to monitor the situation. Sonia told us that the little boy, at this point still without a name, would be joining us very shortly.

4:45am – Sebastian is born
Ariana told Jan to reach down and feel the head that was now peeking out and staring me in the face with its cold purple gaze. Just a moment later, the beautiful little boy popped out and gracefully swam to freedom. Sebastian was a caulbearer. In medieval times the appearance of a caul on a newborn baby was seen as a sign of good luck. It was considered an omen that the child was destined for greatness. Or it meant he was a vampire. In any event, our great new boy snuggled into Jan’s arms in the warm early-morning candlelight while Ray Lamontagne played softly in the background. Mommy and baby were gently toweled off and left to rest on the couch while Sonia and Ariana quietly put the house back in order.

6:00am – We’re already home
Maybe the nicest part of having a home birth was the fact that, once it was all over, we were already at home! No long hospital stay with nurses coming in every hour to test this or monitor that. Once the cord was cut and the placenta dutifully delivered, we were free to snuggle up in our own bed and bask in the magic. We were all sound asleep by 7:30am.

Monday February 16

4:00pm – I’m home!
The front door opened and a not-so-little voice asked, “Where’s my brother?”. Emily was filled with excitement, anxiety, pride, and pleasure. But mostly excitement. She stroked Sebastian’s head, tweaked his nose, smiled an enormous grin, and enthusiastically ran around the house collecting clothes, dolls, blankets, milk bottles, and diapers that her new little brother would undoubtedly be needing. Our little family was a little bit bigger.

But I didn’t go down without a fight.

I was dead set against making the jump from my pocket-size point-and-shoot to a bulky and inconvenient reflex. In fact, I just recently bought myself a brand new Canon SD880 (happy birthday!). But I was curious. How much better could the images actually be? Is it really that much fun to use a DSLR? What kind of flexibility does having interchangeable lenses really provide? I wanted to know.

So, after much research (hey, you know me!), I found an amazing deal on a new Nikon D40 (happy… Ash Wednesday?) and let me tell you, I haven’t looked back!

My kids will only be young once (probably) and I love having quality photos of my family and friends. My only regret is that I didn’t make the jump earlier.

There is a world of difference between the image quality of a point-and-shoot camera and a DSLR. It really is fun to use a reflex camera. I never knew how important a good lens was for good photography. I still have lots to learn about f-stops, apertures, and composition techniques, but I enjoy learning new things and look forward to the process.

I still carry around my Canon pocket rocket in case I want to video anything. That is the reason I bought it in the first place. But my new Nikon will be with me whenever real photos need to be taken.

The day after I got the camera, I brought Emily (and the Nikon) to the park for an impromptu playground romp and photo session. I think I took 155 photos.

My Trusty Steed

Lost In Thought

Chute

I’m Hiding

It turns out there’s a happy ending to the tale of woe I wrote about last week (where I turned down that cartoon job). I got a call from the studio saying that they would now be able to pay via nomina with the standard social security payments and wanted to know if I was still available for the project. Of course, I said yes.

Turns out the producer “spoke” with the studio and explained how important it was to have the actors he had originally chosen.

I could have easily missed out on some work here and I was very happy to let this job go in an effort to communicate the seriousness of our community of professional Barcelona-based English-language dubbers. Luckily, it didn’t come to that and the desired outcome was reached.

I shared this story on a local actors’ web forum (of which I am the site moderator) to reiterate the fact that we are stronger if we work together. We are so few and so good at what we do that there is no reason to think that we will do anything but benefit in the long run if we all stick together, stick to our guns, and stick up for our rights as professionals.

We start dubbing on Monday.

Emily had a great time at her very first Purim carnival this weekend. We went to a Jewish school on the other side of Tibidabo with one of Emily’s friends from nursery (thanks, Tony, Shani, and Asia!). True, the falafel were poor, the giant inflatable shark was scary, and Emily was severely traumatized when the bouncy castle collapsed on them, but all of the kids in costume was fantastic, the playground was tons of fun, and the weather was phenomenal. Happy Purim, everyone!

I turned down a job offer today to voice a cartoon series. That really hurt. I had already done the first couple of episodes as a promotional tool for the client and, now that there was serious interest from investors, they were ready to go ahead with the series. I was really looking forward to doing this job, too. Too bad the studio is refusing to pay the actors fairly. When the client found out that the studio couldn’t get me to agree to do the job they contacted me directly. This is what I wrote to them:

Yes, I spoke with the studio this morning. They had previously sent an email stating the job details and the proposed pay which all looked absolutely correct and in line with the Catalan dubbing actors’ convenio. I was very happy to see that the project was going ahead! But in our telephone conversation, the studio mentioned how they were not willing to pay any of the actors via nomina nor would they give them the alta/baja in seguridad social, and they would instead require all of the actors to send facturas in order to be paid. I pointed out how this was in direct conflict with the stipulations laid out in the convenio and they agreed and were well aware of what the proper procedure was but insisted that this was how they as a studio worked. I was disappointed in their response and told them that I could not possibly undercut my fellow professional actors. As much as I’d love to work on this project, with you, and with the studio, sending facturas for dubbing work is not something that professional dubbing actors should be forced to do simply so that the studios can save a bit of money on their end. I was able to make an exception for the ‘maquetas’ that we did together in the past but this no longer looks like a promotional “one-off” job that could be considered as publicity instead of dubbing. I feel very strongly about this as do all of the other professional dubbing actors whom I respect. I hope that the studio agrees to adhere to the convenio so that we may be able to work together in the future. I’m sorry that this has happened and I urge you to speak with the studio in an attempt to get them to do the right thing.

I have since spoken with the other two actors who were approached to voice the series and they feel the same way. Now let’s see if the studio decides to do the right thing or if they troll the bottom of the barrel to find a desperate actor willing to sell their principles.

I haven’t had much time (or energy) to blog recently, what with Sebastian’s recent arrival, Emily’s inauguration of the Terrible Twos, my return to work, and the arrival of Jan’s parents (who are currently staying with us and have yet to purchase their return tickets). Notwithstanding, I am sympathetic towards your universal cry for more photos of the Little Boy. This is why I took advantage of every last second of my non-existent free time to assemble a humble collection of photos depicting Sebastian’s first couple of weeks as an oxygen-breathing member of our family. Here is the first one:

Sebastian (2 hours old)

Look like anyone you know?

Emily (9 days old)

Displaying all of the photos here on this page may not be the most efficient method to share them, so please feel free to click on the following link to enjoy a full-screen smattering of images taken from Sebastian’s first two weeks:
Sebastian – The Beginning