Zachary Winston Williams: Spermatogenesis

Welcome to Zach's Blog

After seemingly endless prodding, teasing and thinly veiled condescension from friends and family, my wife and I have finally succumbed to peer pressure and have entered the 21st century. That's right, we are now officially "blogging". Besides, what better way to introduce ourselves to this mysterious and novel medium than through the shameless exploitation of our wonderful little boy, Zachary Winston Williams. Since before he was even born Zach has been a constant source of "oohs" and "aahs" which I have piously and painstakingly documented with my camera. Indeed, you- the common citizen of the Internet, will no longer have to miss out on precious moments such as "Baby's first dirty diaper" or "Baby blows milk out his nose all over mom".

During the first months of his life, Zach has had his photograph taken ad nauseum. I have countless photos of myself, Lesley, friends, family and a few complete strangers holding our son in every possible setting imaginable. There are so many photos in fact, that it would be impractical and maybe even a bit cruel to post them all here. So in order to conserve both available memory and the readers sanity, the plan is to pick a 'small' handful of the best pictures and include a link to my flickr website for those with the fortitude to tackle the rest.

On my son's behalf, I would like to extend my sincerest appreciation and gratitude for your interest in his life. I hope all of you will enjoy watching him grow and develop over the next months and years. I know I will.
~Kacy

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Spermatogenesis

The following is a poem I wrote as a joke for Lesley while she was preparing a lecture for her Anatomy and Physiology class. To my surprise, she thought it was good enough to show her students. To my further surprise, they actually liked it. Now the poem has been published in a magazine and I can't help but feel a little proud. But since it was originally intended just to get a chuckle from Lesley, I admit I'm a bit embarrassed. If I had known that it was going to get this much attention, I would have put more effort into it.

Anyway, for publication I was asked to change the title. I decided to go with a suggestion from one of Lesley's students and thus "The Making of Z-Dub" was born. Enjoy.

"The Making of Z-Dub"

Spermatogenesis occurs within the balls!
Where spermatogonia undergo mitosis on seminiferis walls

On the lumen side, both day and night
Mitosis creates a spermatocyte

Meiosis is needed to create spermatids
But they're still not ready to make kids

For acrosomal caps, bake for 5 weeks (at 96 degrees)
And get flagellar tails for swimming ease

It's now a full grown spermatozoon
Next, mix with semen for proper flowin'

To the seminiferous tubule it goes!
Tis' but the FIRST step to your parenting woes