Starting Soccer, pt 2a (Opening Day!)
Today are the first games for the boys. Paco went first. Although we missed our first practice this week because we never received the email from the city league, Paco was very excited to get started.
Of course, no game would be complete without butterflies. Paco ran out to start and immediately returned, crying, after the first scrum for the ball. He didn’t like that he didn’t get the ball. Then he said that everyone was too fast. (Paco is actually among the fastest of kids his age.) The shyness is new for him, as he is usually the the first to introduce himself.
Thankfully it was an aberration from our usual Paco. He got back in there and gave it another go. This jittery shyness is a theme, I bet and both kids will overcome it eventually.
Spring Soccer, pt. 1
Today Nacho had his first soccer practice. He wanted to do a sport for more than a year and just as we began to look at youth sports last spring, the world shut down. So he was, to put it lightly, more than thrilled to start soccer.
He struggled a few times. Thrice he came running back to me asserting he wanted to quit. Thrice he went back and kept at it. I was proud to see him persevere through his frustration.
Weeding
I spent part of my weekend working on the back yard. When we bought our home last summer, both the front and back had been neglected for a long while. What green did cover the ground was a mix between crabgrass and nutsedge. After months of spaying herbicide to kill what was up, watering until new weeds emerged before repeating the process, I was finally down to the last few stubborn weeds.
Not long after I started the two older kids decided that they wanted to help. First came the eldest with his toy shovel asking what I was doing. I explained that the remaining weeds had roots that went deep into the ground and needed to be dug up by hand. He began to help by digging around some of the smaller weeds. Of course, little brother realized there was fun to be had. I couldn’t help but recall all the times I decided to “help” my dad when he was doing yard work and reflected on how he must have felt having to stop work to teach me how to pull weeds correctly or make sure I was doing ok. But those were some of the earliest, and still fondest, memories of doing something with my dad.
I forgot to snap a photo of the full bucket when we finished. But it was a real threat to do something with my older two boys.
Simplified Research
Dropbox/AcademicWork/Projects/Inprogress/mssBook Then, I still have to navigate within that folder between my archival material, grant reporting, the book proposal, and the manuscript. It’s a mess.
Family photos
My wife has been wanting family photos for a while. Back in 2019, we agreed that “next year” we’d do it for our Christmas cards. Of course, that didn’t happen. A few weeks ago a member on one of her Facebook groups said she wanted to do free photo sessions to give back and get back into a rhythm for when the world opens up. Needless to say, we’ve very happy with the outcome.
Gabby and Mommy, January 14, 2021.
Been a hectic two weeks bringing baby number four. Iâve not had the time to immediately get a birthday shot up. I took this just after Gabriela was born. It was early in the morning and Lucia had not progressed much; so little in fact that they hadnât even called to set up for an epidural. The nurse told Lucy she had a while to sleep, or relax. I took my shoes off and started to doze. Less than five minutes later, Gabby was here.
#monochrome #sonyalpha #sonya7ii #newborn #family #blackandwhitephoto #35mm
Sunday Bike Ride, January 3, 2021. . . . . #blackandwhitephotography #monochrome #shotoniphone #family #vsco #lightroom #iphone12promax
Untitled, November 28, 2020. . . . . #vscocam #iphone12promax #blackandwhitephotography #monochrome
Thanksgiving 2020
Neither isolated nor alone. And while we miss our extended families and friends, it was a beautiful meal and day of thanks.
Coffee after Mass
Went for a quick coffee after Mass with the big kid. He got a hot chocolate and really enjoyed the time hanging out with me. Although he won’t say it, I think his favorite part was ordering for himself instead of standing passively while I do for him.
Just out of frame are our masks. This location has large sliding doors that are open in the winter when the Arizona weather is finally bearable. But it also means on a day like today we could actually sit down, and just enjoy some time together.
A quick coffee* after Mass (*it was a hot chocolate for him), November 22, 2020, Feast of Christ the King.
Open spaces.
Untitled, November 14, 2020.
Swing state (of mind), November 7, 2020
Power ranger or Luchador?
The Halloween costumes get a lot of use when you’re a toddler.
Trying on halloween costumes
The Crypto State?
Bruno Maçaes, writes at City Journal
But here are my provisional suggestions on how things could go. The critical issue is, of course, taxation. It is here that crypto issues the more determinate challenge to the core powers of the modern nation-state. Some in the crypto space believe that the slow erosion of the state’s tax powers will eventually determine its final collapse, at least as we know it today. Others have told me that they expect all nation-states to disappear over the coming decades, with the notable exception of China, which alone, they maintain, has the political and social resources to penetrate or disable fundamental choke points in the crypto system. China is responsible for something between half and two-thirds of global Bitcoin mining, but local authorities have made it clear that they regard the crypto space with enormous suspicion. In 2017, China banned fund-raising through initial coin offerings, and all digital-currency exchanges were shut down. If Beijing decides to cut off the Bitcoin network in China, it could make it hard for mining pools to sync their data on blockchain with the rest of the world.
The Chinese case does offer a possible template for the ongoing power rivalry between crypto and nation-states. In this scenario, crypto systems would double down on their technological superiority, while states would necessarily appeal to their secret weapon: the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force. But a second scenario seems much more plausible, at least outside China. Public authorities and crypto systems could reach a grand bargain or agreement, whereby the state would be able to tax crypto-assets in exchange for security guarantees for crypto. Legacy institutions and structures in the political world aren’t going away anytime soon, so it’s critical for blockchain projects to be able to interface with them. I believe that legacy systems can also benefit from this. The Swiss canton of Zug has taken initial steps in this direction: recently, it announced that beginning in 2021, taxes can be paid using Bitcoin and Ether.
Why the debate might have been the best in 20 years
It’s been a busy news week, and I forgot to post this. I wrote up a short piece arguing what has been a minority view on the debate. While the debate may have been overshadowed by the growing number of cases inside the upper-reaches of American government, I still wanted to get this note out here.
Sunday prayer
A quiet moment at the end of Mass when the big kid started to figure out that everyone uses the time after Eucharist for quiet reflection. He asked Jesus to make his brain smarter so he could get better at Chess—that’s a good start, I think.
Post-communion prayer. When I told Nacho we use the time after communion to pray for God to heal our hearts and help make us better, he asked if he could ask Jesus to make his brain smarter so he could beat the ârobot on the chess game.â
