"Not My First Rodeo" (Me, About My Second Rodeo)

Everyone said second labors are much faster than the first, but we really had no idea how true that was.  Three pushes and Wesley was out!  Six pounds, five ounces.

Vicki did great, and is thrilled to be done with the dieting!

The Big Day

It was certainly the most harrowing experience of my life. All the more terrifying considering we hope to go through it again at some point.

We called the doctor's office around 5:30am; Vicki was in a bit of pain but her water had not broken and her contractions were not very consistent. The doctor on-call told us, in a way which clearly indicated he was not quite awake, to wait until the contractions became more consistent. We both tried to get some rest again. I was much more successful, unsurprisingly.

At 9ish Vicki woke me up to tell me the contractions were becoming unbearable. We called the office again, and this time our doctor was on duty. He told us to come in.

We got to the hospital around 9:30am. Turns out Vicki was at 8cm already. A bit flustered, I scrambled to tell her family and wondered if they would be able to get here in time.

Vicki was fully dilated pretty soon, but we tried a few things to get the baby to turn around before trying to push. Eventually they had Vicki start pushing at 1pm. She started off making good progress, but after about two hours or so, things got stuck somewhat. The nurse started telling Vicki to rest every other contraction, and I was getting increasingly anxious watching the baby's heart-rate drop during every push. All the while the possibility of resorting to a C-section loomed, something none of us wanted.

At the three-hour mark we decided to try suction. The room bustled as preparations were made; scrubs were donned, and the doctor put Vicki into stirrups which were of course too big for her. The plastic suction grip was attached, some violent maneuvers ensued, and baby Warren was out, a full mane of hair adorning his impressive torpedo of a head. Born face-up with the cord around his neck, he looked exhausted; his cries were so feeble as the pediatrician whisked him to the warming bed. I cried too, watching him there, both of us so helpless.

The first week had its share of anxieties too. Warren wasn't sleeping well the first few nights, and I was afraid I might go crazy, anticipating the next three weeks of the same. Turns out Vicki's milk took a while to come in, and the little guy managed to drop to 5.1 lbs by that Friday. We started him on formula at that point, which eased his fussiness a lot at night and he soon returned to his birth weight. Tomorrow we find out the progress he has made since then.

Life, as Vicki and I have known it up to this point, appears to have been changed forever...

Warren Tran Shih

Born May 26, 2014, 3:57pm

5 pounds, 11 ounces; 19 inches

Daly Tripper

It's been a few weeks now in our new city! We took advantage of the weekend and made a trip to Golden Gate Park.

While we waited for the Muni at the Daly City BART, an elderly Asian lady tried talking to us, but we couldn't understand her. Finally she pointed to something behind us.  Turns out we were waiting at the wrong stop; she must have noticed we were waiting for the 28-bus after seeing us rush to catch the one that just left.  I was impressed that she put in the effort to let us know!

We ate and picked up some random necessities at different shops.  We even dropped by an estate sale along the way.  It turned out to be a really nice, sunny day, which was a huge contrast for me, being cooped up in gloomy, foggy Daly City all week.  Here's a picture of us waiting for the bus again, enjoying our first (quite cheap) "self-serve boba" milk tea:

Public transportation gluttons

Hitched

photo:  Alan Harris

Wow.  It really happened!  I put in my share of time and effort, but really Vicki gets all the credit.  Somehow we managed to pull it off in these past three months.

I'd like to give a very heartfelt thanks to everyone who went out of their way to attend.  If it wasn't the most complicated ceremony/reception arrangement possible, it must have been close to it.  It meant so much to us to be able to see all of your faces.  Friends and family came from as far north as Seattle, as far south as Texas, as far west as Taiwan, and as far east as France.  As much as Vicki and I dislike being the center of attention, we are so moved by the love and support you all have shown us.

And as if coming out all that way wasn't enough, everyone gave us so much!  Thank you all for your kind generosity.

It would be impossible to adequately thank everyone who helped make this happen.  We definitely could not have done it without the help of: Vicki's mom, aunts and uncles; her sisters Karen, Mimi, and Betty; and her bridesmaids Joanne and Ann.  A special thanks to groomsmen Ben and Joel (and their wives, Claire and Joanne) for throwing me a blast of a party and as well as staying so on top of things throughout the entire marathon of a day.

And a heartfelt apology to all those we couldn't invite.  Hopefully we will get to see all of you in the near future.

Thanks again, everyone!

P.S. I also deeply apologize for the band at the reception.  Yikes.

Blame it on the Tron

I watched old school Tron the other night. So much awesome kitch in that movie, I couldn't stop grinning during the whole thing.

Some things I noticed, since last time I watched it, a few decades ago:

The "Watseka" street sign sounded really familiar. Lo and behold:

View Larger Map

I live within 10 miles of Flynn's! We'll have to pay homage some time. Here's the wider shot.

I don't think they used the same spot for Tron: Legacy, though.

I also don't remember this blatant Easter egg:

They even sampled the Pac-Man sound effects. I remember Pac-Man being such an incredible craze at the time (we sang the "Pac-Man Fever" song in school once, badly), but somehow I never caught it here.

The Messianic overtones of the movie were pretty interesting too — Flynn being the User/god, come to inhabit the world of programs in order to save them. I certainly didn't pick that up as an 8-year old. Then again, it's only these days that I spend any time wondering whether our reality is just a computer simulation.

Here's a bit of dialogue I liked quite a bit.  Flynn has just revealed to Tron that he is actually a User, and not just a program, like the rest of them.

Tron: "If you are a User, then everything you've done has been according to a plan, right?

Flynn: "You wish! You guys know what it's like; you just keep doing what it looks like you're supposed to be doing, no matter how crazy it seems."

Tron: "That's the way it is with programs, yes..."

Flynn: "I hate to disappoint you pal, but most of the time that's the way it is for Users, too."

Tron: "Stranger and stranger."

Wise words.

The Hills are Alive! Run!

On June 30^th I joined one crazy crew of fans at the Sound of Music Sing-A-Long at the Hollywood Bowl. It's kind of like the Rocky Horror Picture Show, but for kids. And strange fanatical adults.

These photos were shamelessly stolen from Claire. Of course I only stole the, uh, relevant ones.

Claire kept snapping pictures so I decided to start pointing out the object of interest in each one, in case it wasn't obvious. This is the only example I stole from her site though.

We pretty much baked for the first hour or so before the sun dipped past the trees, during the pre-game entertainment.

The pre-game was emceed by Melissa Peterman, who was actually quite entertaining. So much so I am almost tempted to check out an episode of the show of Reba where she apparently is part of the cast. Almost.

The real endurance part of this mad race was the endless costume parade. Of course it's cute in the beginning but wow, two hours? Yikes.

One of the winners of the costume contest is pictured here. They're the curtains that Maria uses to make play clothes for the kids.

One of the great scenes in the movie, complete with subtitles by which to sing-a-long.

This (third from the left) is the actress who played Liesel in the film.

Heh, I'm pretty wiped out at this point. All in all, lots of fun! Thanks to Steve and Sophia for putting it all together.

Tom's Birthday

Happy Fourth! A while back (May 10^th of this year) the McCaa family celebrated Tom's birthday.

TJ!

These photos are all from Carly's camera, which is probably why she's not featured in any of them, unfortunately.

Ah, I miss San Diego.

Obsession

Last night I went to see the movie Obsession on campus, hosted by Students for Peace and Justice. Nonie Darwish, founder of Arabs for Israel and featured in the film, spoke to the audience afterwards. Overall it seemed the main point of the movie was to make strong parallels between radical Islam and Nazi Germany. By the end I distinctly felt that the implication was that war is the only logical solution, although it was never stated directly.

Watching many clips of how children are indoctrinated to despise the United States definitely had me thinking about my recent thoughts about belief. I certainly don't think that war is the answer to this kind of situation, but then the question becomes, what is? Education? Information? The invention of the internet has certainly been a revolution of sorts. Perhaps it can continue to enable global mind-change.

Something else happened that night which really left an impression on me, so much so I wrote a letter to the editor of the Daily Bruin:

I attended the showing of "Obsession" on the night of the 24^th. As people were filing in, there were people from other groups handing out informational flyers to those waiting in line. I took one and put it in my backpack, looking forward to reading it more closely later. What surprised me was that upon entering, our bags were searched and this flyer was removed — I was told that I could not bring it into the theater. The response to my look of astonishment was that it was policy and that I could retrieve it after the show.

While I imagine there could be valid motivations for UCLA to make this kind of policy, I found the situation ironic considering that presumably the goal of hosting such events is to educate by showing different sides of issues and letting people decide for themselves. Especially disconcerting was the fact that as I left, the confiscated flyers were nowhere to be found. When I posed the question of where they were to the security guard enforcing their confiscation, he had no idea.

I hope to find out the history of this policy. And I would appreciate it if the groups that endeavor to enforce it would do so with greater respect and integrity.

Richard & Susan's Wedding

Susan, Richard

Whoops. These are pretty long overdue — I had drafted this up but never posted it.

Richard and Susan got married! Last year October!

Needless to say it was a beautiful ceremony.

Richard was a touch nervous (but of course you can't tell).

Richard actually asked me to arrange one of the pieces performed in the wedding. It was neat to hear it played by some real musicians.

Chris played an original on her guitar as well.

During the reception I had a great talk with Tammy Flemming. She's very approachable and is a lot of fun to talk to. Overall the wedding was very well done and a lot of fun.

Taiwan 2005

Okay, trying to catch up on the past year — only nine months late! My cousin was married in September of last year and I made a quick visit to Taiwan for the tea ceremony, which was a week or two before the actual wedding. This my uncle Hong-Sie, aunt Lo-Ying, their grand-daughter Mao-Mao, and my mom at lunch. Uncle Hong-Sie and and aunt Lo-Ying were so hospitable, carting us around everywhere.

On the way to the wedding

Whenever I try to get my mom to treat me more like an adult she brings up things like this photo, where even a woman at her age gets relegated to the center seat when her parents are around.

A photo collection of the wedding couple.

My cousin Yu-Chow's wife and her son. I think they were married a year or two before this; unfortunately I wasn't able to make it to that wedding.

My uncle Chiu-Che, his two daughters, and grandma.

My cousin Jonathan and I. How is it I'm the oldest but the shortest of the cousins?

Jonathan's girlfriend Jia-Jia.

My cousins are so musically talented. I'm just a hack in comparison.

Grandpa enjoys a story from one of the relatives.

My cousin Candy entertains grandma.

The mother of the bride, the groom, and my aunt Yung-Hui.

My cousin the bride performs the tea ceremony.

The happy couple at the reception.