Homeworlds

That first intake of air into your tiny lungs, the cool air of the OT rushing headlong into every nook and cranny of your lungs as you take your first breath (and using it to make known your displeasure at being yanked out of Mummy's womb in the only way you know how). Opening your mucus covered eyes to the harsh spotlights that illuminate the stage that is your Act 1, Scene 1. The strange sensations you hear and feel as pairs of hands first cradle, clean and finally wrap you up so you're snug and warm. A pair of hands that you instinctively know to be your Mother's reaches out and holds her to you, her body warming yours as you lie snuggled in her arms, the sound of her voice soothing you even as you can't understand a single word she says. You're Home. And then some annoying blob you can't discern (because your eyesight has yet to fully develop) starts firing bright strobes in your face. Hi Daddy.

Things are happening so fast I haven't really had the time to sit down and think about what's going to happen in a week's time. I'm going to be a father, I've thought it about it from time to time in the years before today but never really dwelt on it because the thought seemed so abstract, did I tell you how I felt when I first saw you on the ultrasound machine screen? I couldn't stop this big shit-eating grin from appearing on my face even as your mum and I watched you fidget while the sonographer tried to get good data on you. You're a frisky one you are, all through these 38 weeks you've been inside Mummy you've never let a day go by without running a marathon inside her womb. Kicks, punches, somersaults, especially before and during mealtimes.

I can't wait for you to be out so I can hold you. I'll try to give you the freedom to try anything once but I'll step in if I think there's something you shouldn't be doing. I won't tell you what to do but rather let you know where the chips lie and let you make your own decisions. I'll try not to talk down to you, I'll treat you with the respect you deserve as a human being but always remembering that you're a growing child I'll be there to correct whatever behaviour is inappropriate. You'll always have a loving home and a warm bed to come home to no matter what you do or how old you are. I pray that I'll know how to recognise that someday when you'll know more about something than I do and to trust you in your decision making when that day comes. I pray I know when to hold on and when to let go. I hope you never speak to me with fear in your heart, I hope you never speak to me with disrespect. I hope that you'll grow up with the fear and knowledge of God by your side. I have hopes and dreams for you but they're not the sort that involves medicine or law school for there are far greater things to strive for on this Earth. We'll get to that in due time.

By the way, I finally found something on how they used a ultrasound machine to check you for developmental defects (medspeak for is you a normal baby), it's called Nuchal Translucency and I'm still in awe of they do it.

I was listening to a couple of old records yesterday, Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings came up, I remembering hearing the choral version, Agnus Dei, the first time on Homeworld, a computer game I was crazy about way back then. It was background music to an intro to a scene in which the player was in a desperate race to save these 6 barges full of cryogenically frozen Hiigarans from being blasted into oblivion as they set out on their epic journey to find their Homeworld. First off, Homeworld was already mind blowing in it's conception and execution in the first place, here it was, a space game which truly felt like a space opera. The voicework, the scale of the game, the backstories, they all just came together so perfectly you just knew you were playing a piece of gaming history.

Enter Adagio for Strings, it just blew me away man, blew me away, it was the saddest piece of music I had ever heard, juxtaposed against the backstory, it was all I could do to blink back the tears. You just have to buy the game and play it to experience it. Samuel Barber was a freaking genius, notwithstanding his "one hit wonder". The many ways in which this piece of music was used is a testament to the raw emotion it invokes in anyone who listens to it.

54 people died and 440 were injured when a passenger train derailed in Japan yesterday. The 23 year old train driver had apparently overshot the platform at an earlier stop and was behind schedule because he had to back the train up. There is speculation that he was speeding to make up for lost time and didn't slow down at a bend in the tracks causing 4 of 7 carriages to jump the tracks and pile up against an apartment block scant metres from the railway tracks.

In the midst of impending new life death works overtime.