What are words?

People talk about children's first words. The way that I understood it is that the word would be pretty clear. Thinking about that, that was a stupid assumption. Alice has been signing for a while. Are those her first words? She's also been saying "uh oh" for maybe a month now. Usually when she throws something on the floor, drops something, or fills her pants. So, a word (phrase?) in context. Is that her first word? Lately she's been saying "baah" and signing book when she sees a book. So, closer to an actual word sound and in context. I don't think that anyone else would be able to recognize it because of her thick baby accent. Is that her first word?

After the first milestones like "can sit up themselves" I assumed that they would continue to be easily identifiable but I feel like I'm in the national art gallery and trying to find the work of art that defines the post-renaissance contempt for impressionism. In other words I don't have any idea and I could go right by it without even realizing it.

Eleven Twelfths

We're getting close. We're just one month away from no longer telling other children that Alice is "zero years old". I don't really understand where the days went. I look at the pictures and I'm like "Hey, I remember that! I was there!". She's changed so much, but... somehow... she looks the same to me. Is that weird? Normal probably, but still weird.

It's been fun, but my heart still twinges each morning when I go into work. Some days are easier than others. Every work day now feels like a race to be done in order to be home and maybe enjoy some sunlight before it's dark. Soon I'll have to come home at 1 pm for that to happen, so we'll just have to turn on all the lights in the house and pretend.


Hope you enjoyed the unicorn chaser.

Exceptionally stupid

This is a rant post. About tech stuff. Angry. You've been warned.

One of the things that people don't seem to understand in programming is exceptions. Some you need to deal with. Some you need to fail as soon as you can and let the issue bubble up the stack until some over all wrapper code deals with it.

For example, if you're testing input from a user to make sure that it's a number, you might try to convert it to the number and if it doesn't work, you can assume that what they entered isn't a proper number. Simple.

Other things like the disk being gone, the db down (for a db driven app), or, you know, your language not understanding utf-8: Fail early. Fail fast. I flagged something in a code review today and it turned into a 15 minute discussion / argument for something that was the least of the problems with the code.

The code in question was along the following lines by doing some processing on a string:

try {
byte[] utf8Bytes = myString.getBytes("UTF8");
}
catch (Exception e) {
// just return the original
return myString;
}

Now, one the code was littered with "catch exception" everywhere, which just drives me batty, but that is a different rant. My issue was that if java you are using doesn't understand utf-8, then perhaps that would be an exceptional case. Rather than trying to deal with that issue or letting UnsupportedEncodingException bubble up, just wrap the exception in a RuntimeException and be done with it.

When an exceptional case happens, let the exception happen.

People writing code to protect against a future case and things that might happen one day drive me insane. And not the good insane either. Oh no.

*sigh* I think that there might be a reason why they put us in small rooms with padded walls at work.

New toys and continual frustrations

I used some birthday money and bought a new toy the other day - a Gary Fong Lightsphere Collapsible Basic Kit. It was more money than I wanted to pay for a bit of plastic, but with the amount of indoor photography I've been doing it would help a bit. Today I used it for some outdoor photos. You can't do bounce flash when outside no matter how shinny the leaves are. I still need more practice and I'm not 100% sold on using the amber done - at least not with auto white balance. The biggest trouble I have is trying to fit the domes into the "lightsphere" cone thingy. I have not figured out a way to do it in under 10 minutes so far. I'm sure that there is a trick, I just don't know it yet.

Points of interest

Looking at the last bunch of posts have all been about my new family. I have not blogged about work or tech for quite a while. I could talk about the cool stuff we're doing at work like finally moving from JEE 1.4 to JEE 6. How we're going to jump 2 major versions of java. How we are abandoning our planned migration to svn and just go straight to git. Or I could talk about biking and my routes to work. The construction in our area. Or our need to get a second vehicle which will most likely be a van. I could talk about my interest in photography and the different techniques that I've been trying. I could talk about the works of fiction that I've been reading - sometimes a couple of books a week. The likes of Redshirts, World War Z, The Big Bang Bundle, the the Humble eBook Bundle, or the first 2 books of The Kingkiller Chronicle (excellent books).

Like I said. I could blog about those. But I use this blog for the things that bounce around in my head. The things that occupy my in-between moments like brushing my teeth, standing in line to order coffee, or making dinner. And for the most part that's family.

Our family.

Dealing with the bumps

Yesterday we went to one of those local farms to do the "picture of the baby in a pumpkin patch". You know, something that no one has done before. I learned a couple of things from this experience:

1) Farms might not be the best for a huge pile of pumpkins. Might be better to stop at a roadside thing where people are selling pumpkins and plop the kid into the pile. The local mega-grocery store even has a huge pile out front.

2) Llamas around here don't have cool ear decorations like they do in Peru.


3) Just because you plan something, doesn't mean that it will work out. Alice really wasn't feeling the moment. Based on the crappy night and fever last night, I'm sure she wasn't feeling physically well at the time either.

Is it wrong that this is my favourite picture from our visit?

Who's Your Daddy?

Tonight was special. At the end of dinner Laura said that Alice knows my name. I have a hard time figuring that out because if you talk to a baby, do they look at you because they understand what you said or because you're talking. I said that I didn't think that she knew my name. Laura said "of course she knows your name" and asked Alice where daddy was. She looked up and right into my eyes.

She knows who I am.

This is a good memory.

I have to admit that at that moment some dust flew into my eye and made them water. I had to blink a couple of times to see again. After helping to take care of someone for 10+ months it feels amazing that she knows my name. Well, my new name. It was unexpected to happen tonight. You don't expect to get any feedback other than crying. Then you get smiles. Then arm waving. Then you see the understanding in the eyes. Then this.

I think that I'm going to melt into the floor the first time she runs over and hugs me.

Update: based on Laura's comment here are the more relevant pictures to me being a daddy.

Full circle

It's weird. After close to 10 years I'm sitting in the same area that I had been as a co-op. I've been in a different buildings, different offices, but now I'm back. The floor has been totally redone, so it does not resemble the place where I had been a co-op. But it is.

So much has happened. Births. Deaths. Travel. Weddings. Funerals. Time.

Nothing has stayed the same, but it's like everything has stayed the same. Very weird.