The important things

I can get bummed out sometimes. A lot of the time it's related to being stuck inside (unexercised), sometimes it's because I see people I care about posting anti-vaccine crap. Sometimes it's because I feel behind on things.

Then I look at my family and all the rest falls away. Only happiness is left.

Happiness. Laughter. Love.

The Future

The future is just a kind of history that hasn't happened yet.

— Bruce Sterling

Robotic Cookie Overlords

Tonight as I was putting non-bake cookies onto wax paper to dry, I was thinking that it would be really cool if I didn't have to do this. Yes, it was mostly because my back was killing me and I was standing in our 3 season sunroom which was below zero. But think about it. A fridge that can know what you have in it and order replacements. Drones that fly purchases to your home in 30 minutes. A programmable robot that can make cookies in your own home. The smell of a small batch of freshly baked cookies, within an hour of thinking of it. Well, unless you schedule cookies to be baked or that robots truly become much smarter than they are and can anticipate human feelings and how to correct them. Imagine that - your smart phone figuring out that you've had a bad day, so by the time you get home there are some still-warm cookies and some hot coco waiting for you. Yum.

Now, I'm not the first person to think of a totally automatic house. Not even the bad things that could happen like Ray Bradbury's There Will Come Soft Rains. There can always be a downside.

But I just want some freshly made cookies.

Good times

It's that time of the year - time for reflection, family, friends, and staying in the warm as much as possible. Things are good. I'm having fun. Best of all, Alice looks good doing her toque and mitten power move.

Simplicity of the Star

At work they had a cube decorating "contest". I put up a single decoration and wrote a sign explaining it. I hope that I'll win.

And they came upon the cube seeking the decorations and they despaired because they could not find them. And lo, Jim appeared before them and told them to fear not, for a star adorned it.

But they could not see the star and grew afraid. To which Jim replied that to see the star of the holidays they only had to look for where stars are – in the heavens. So they looked up and were all like “but I still can’t see it” and Jim was like “it’s up there… no, to the left… my left… it’s on the light. Just look at the light.”

And they rejoiced at the tiny red sparkly star which symbolized everything that a tiny red sparkly star stood for.

With the joy of the holidays filling their hearts (which grew 3 sizes that day), they went on to vote for Jim’s cube in the decorating contest because they knew that was the right thing to do.

Everything is a spaceship

The other day Laura laughed when I drove through the steam coming out of a manhole cover. It might have been because I made a spaceship noise when I drove through it.

That's what I'm usually thinking about when I'm in motion. A ship navigating obstacles. Moving, timing things to be efficient, banking around corners. You know, the usual. I love walking through forested trails and I'm likely not thinking that I am a spaceship then, but I don't spend a lot of my walking time in the forest. Such is life.

So, if I walk by you and you think that you hear a "pew pew pew" sound, it's probably just the wind.

Captured the memories

Today on the radio I heard about a service called Soundportraits that will interview someone and capture how they remember events and relate parts of their life. I really like this idea. I wish that I had done this for my grandmother before she passed away. They provided a list of questions that they use for interviews.

Since I don't trust that these links will work for long, I'm going to paste the list here.

1. Tell one thing that your Mother taught you.
2. Tell one thing that your Father taught you.
3. What was your most spectacular fall or tumble?
4. What was your favourite present from childhood?
5. When did you really get into trouble as a child?
6. If you had $100 to give away, who would you give it to?
7. If you could have a perfect day, what would be in it?
8. Who has been kind to you?
9. What is your earliest memory?
10. What are you really good at?
11. What is the most beautiful place in the world... and why?
12. What is your pet peeve... what drives you crazy?
13. What was your best Hallowe'en costume?
14. When were you first on stage? How did it go?
15. What was the hardest thing you had to do yesterday?
16. What is the hardest thing about school or work?
17. What is your favourite song? Why?
18. What is your favourite food? Why?
19. What do you think is the biggest difference for children today from when your parents and your grandparents were children?
20. What is the most important thing about being a good friend?

I really like this idea.

No biking until next season

This year I made it to November 14th or 15th biking (I think). Cold, snow, and getting sick ended my biking for this season. It's been good and I had the extra challenge of picking up (and sometimes doing drop off) of Alice from daycare.

While shortly I think that we'll become a 2 vehicle family, I've really enjoyed being able to move around with the bike trailer. Yes, it's slower, I'm super careful with it, it's harder to get from place to place and it makes me much more tired. But I've enjoyed it very much. I love our car, but my general happiness level is so much better when I'm biking.

So that's it for the season - outside at least. Now I have to setup the trainer in the basement to ensure that the crazy level in our house stays manageable.

Two too

Well, we've survived two years with a child so far. Hopefully we have not messed her up too much. And Laura and I have not killed each other. I call that a win on all fronts. I have a hard time believing that it's actually been two years. The time has flown past in a bit of a blur. It's been good. I'm happy.

Sleds go fastest on tile

A screaming happy toddler in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted on by an external adult

Just... follow... the... instructions.

At work we're moving from Win XP to Win 7. Finally. The testing and paperwork involved was stupid and drove me nuts. However, for testing cots I'm always more surprised when it works on XP rather than 7.

Anyways, there are carefully documented steps on the wiki on how to set things up. But people like to go off the rails sometimes. I have no idea why, I figure that it's all a big conspiracy with the weather to give me a headache. Anyways, about ten times today I have conversations like this:
Co-worker: "Uh, I did what you told me (12 times) and it doesn't work. You have to come and fix my machine."
Me: "Did you follow the instructions?"
Co-worker: "No, I decided to do something else. And now it doesn't work. You have to come fix it."
Me: "Please follow the instructions."
Co-worker: "Just tell me how to fix it"
Me: "Go back and follow the instructions. You seem to have missed step 1." (I said "one", "two" and "the first part" to 3 different people)
Co-worker: "Okay"
Pause for 5 minutes
Co-worker: "Hey, that got things working. Thanks!"
Me: "No problem"

Normally I get crap like this. It's not too bad because it trickles in. But this week it's 1/2 the group switching to Win 7 and the other half is the next week. The part that pisses me off is that these people are supposed to be technical people. I warned them several times to follow things closely and just make sure they do the steps. It's not from lack of understanding or clarity of the instructions. They read them and then decided "hey, I know better. I'll do it this way instead". For the few people that can dig themselves out of a hole that's fine. But when you don't understand what the instructions are explaining, why are you trying do your own thing. Stop. Wasting. My. Time.

*deep breath*

The week is almost over. Almost there... just 4 more days until the weekend...

More and more a little person

Every day Alice becomes more and more of a little person. Someone that perhaps is a pain to deal with sometimes, but most of the time wonderful. We can discuss things. I can explain that she can't do something, or I can explain steps that need to be taken.

Examples always help. The other day she was taking apart a stack of laundry baskets to get to her favourite. I asked what she was doing and she replied along the lines of "rocket-ship daddy", which is where she sits in the basket and I lift her up and make rocket noises... fun for all, if tiring. Well, I didn't want to do rocket-ship where she was unstacking the baskets, so I asked her to take it into the living room and make sure she restacks the baskets. If she did that, then I'd play rocket ship. So, she carried the favourite basket into the living room, came back and restacked the baskets, then proceeded back to the original basket to await her ride. She understood.

All the time she's getting more fun. It's nice now that I can explain the less-fun tasks that need to be taken care before the fun starts again.

I've got a super computer. Now what?

For the first time in my life, I have a computer that would make me an envy of my peers. It's pretty shinny too.

I'm hoping that this will keep me happy for quite a few years. My old macbook has done a good-enough job for the last 6 years. It felt like such an extravagance at the time. Now it seems almost silly that I got the model that I did. Ah well. This time I got a computer with such good specs that it's silly. It's sooo fast and quiet and best of all it's not putting out so much heat I'm worried about my bits getting cooked. No, I'm not talking about 1's and 0's when I say bits.

I now have a bigger screen, tons of memory, an all day battery charge, SD card reader, an SSD and (this might sound silly) a lit up keyboard. Oh and it also helps that I can run the latest OS because apple decided my computer wasn't going to be supported anymore.

Now I have to figure out what to do with my old laptop. I figure perhaps server by the tv. I just need to figure out what I steps that I need to do to get it there.

Another thing to do is I have to figure out a cool name for the new machine. Silver Lightening? Quicksilver? Steve? So many possibilities.

They should've sent a poet

Tonight the sunset was wondrous. The reds, oranges, yellows, all mixed with the blue of the sky and thin translucent clouds, fading to purples and blacks. When I crossed the river the sky was mirrored in the water. I simply don't have words for how wonderful it all was.

I chose not to take a picture. I felt that any snapshot would never come close to the impact that sky had. It would just become another sunset picture. It sure didn't feel like just any sunset. So I'm choosing to ask you to imagine it. All it's complexity and beauty. Each time you think about it, it will be slightly different in your mind's eye. Different, yet wonderful.

They should've sent a poet

Sad loop

I don't know exactly what causes it, but sometimes I get into a "sad loop". I feel a bit sad, so I surf the 'net, I don't find anything really interesting, so I feel sad, so I decide to surf the 'net, ... Which all makes me feel that I'm wasting time, which makes me feel sad, etc etc etc.

It's hard to drag myself out of these moods. I see a pile of dishes which would be a better use of my time than the 'net. I just have such a hard time moving my ass to start doing them. At some point I have to explain that I didn't get anything done, which also contributes to the sad. Drrrr...

Looking at pictures of when we were doing something fun helps. I'm reminded how awesome we are as a family.

"Look at the source of the awesome, holding the camera."

Car, drive thyself

Self driving cars can't come fast enough. I read somewhere that people were saying that it would have as big a societal change as the internet has. I totally believe that, as a lower bound of change.

This weekend we drove to Pickering and back in about 22 hours, with little to no sleep. I blame the child that decided to prevent us from sleeping starting at 12:30 am and us finally giving up at 4 am and just deciding to come home. Even with a nap today after we got home, I'm so tired. We tried to be as safe as possible driving home, but really it's not a good idea to drive at any time when tired.

How would we have traveled if no one had to be awake and alert? We might only travel at night. You climb into your car bed and fall asleep. In the morning you're somewhere else and you can get refreshed. We would no longer waste a day for "travel".

We've been on night trains and we've taken a sleeper bus before. It's never good sleep, but it's something. Maybe it's just bad sleep with a human driver and it would be smoother with an automated. I don't know. I'm going to be surprised later if any of this makes sense. As I said, I'm tired.

TL;DR: self drive cars, good. No sleep, bad.

88 miles per hour

With my buddy being on leave, it's back to just me on our "team" at work. It's kind of a support role, it's kind of a tools role, with some R&D and library and common components too. Jack of all trades and all that. My problem is that for some tasks I require a certain amount of thought, of focus. I can't context shift from one task to another to get things done. I need time to do it. You might even say I need to get up to speed on each issue before working my magic.

88 mph, time, speed, magic. Yes, I'm making a weak reference to a modified DeLorean. Until they reached that speed, the machine didn't do what they tasked it with. It just wasted gas.

That's the way that I feel about work a lot of the time now. I don't have enough time to get up to speed on whatever I'm trying to work on before being interrupted and losing track. Many days I swear I can count between 15 and 90 seconds between one person leaving my cube until the next one shows up. That leaves me getting very little of my stuff done and a whole lot of frustration. Now, if I had a uniform ability to focus during my entire time at work that wouldn't matter, but I don't work this way. I have peak focus times. Prime time. And that's when I seem to get the most visitors.

I used to work around this by wandering in at 10 and leaving between 6 and 8 pm. I would say that I got all my work done after 4. Yes, even on the days I left at 6, I'd have a solid 2 hours of work. Now-a-days, I don't think that I even get that.

What makes this better? Going home to my girls. Work washes out of my mind, as it should.

The best parts of my day

Diaper up!

It's funny how annoying a habit can be, yet how endearing at the same time. Alice likes to get out as many diapers she can carry and bring them into the living room. She's literally come in with an huge arm load, drops the diapers, and then go back for more. Then she lays out each one of her stuffed toys on a diaper, one toy per diaper, diaper tabs to the feet until our living room looks like a toys r us war zone.

There is something surprisingly maternal about how she takes care of her toys. I find it very cute how she's doing it. You know, until I have to tidy of the mess or try to change her and there are no diapers in the change table. Ah well. I'm sure that without this post I would have forgotten about this in 10 years.

Proper toy / diaper placement is important. Note: toys not usually placed so closely together, was done for staging.

Bike: fix or replace?

I've been using my current bike for 6 years now. If you take my earlier estimate, that would put the amount of km's on my bike in the ballpark of 14 000 km. Some parts of the bike have certainly been showing their age. I recently took the bike in to be fixed because I had a flat at work. Then they discovered that I had also busted my rear axle. Again. They said the inside of the wheel was pretty torn up so they recommend I replace the wheel too. So I got that fixed. But then about a month later my tire had a bulge on the side which was rubbing. The tire looked a bit rough and cracked. So I got that replaced too. This time the guy also recommend that I replace the super stretched chain and front and rear gears. I decided to delay that fix.

At what point does it make more sense to just replace the whole bike? Does that ever make sense for a bike with easily changeable parts?

So far what I can remember changing on my bike includes

• rear tire, twice
• rear tube, at least twice
• breaks, at least twice
• seat
• rear wheel
• shifter cable or 2
• probably some break cables

I also need to change the handle grips soon I think. They are worn through in places and when it's hot I get rubber bits on my hands. For good or bad, it being "hot" probably won't happen again for 6 months.

*sigh*

Ah well. As they say, know thyself. And I know that I'm not gentle on things. If I get a more expensive bike I probably won't keep it in any better repair than my current one. It's probably better to just continuing repair / replace things as needed. I figure that if I keep it under 100 $ / month (!), it will still be cheaper than the bus. And I'll be happier which I figure is worth at least 3 $ / month. So ya.

Aside, searching for info it looks like I started to bike to work 8 years ago. Good to know.

A man without fire

Or, well, at least a working furnace. First I installed the nest in the summer and it worked great. Now as things are getting colder I simply told it to heat the house. Nothing. It didn't work. I checked the logs and apparently the heating wires don't have any power. So, I pull out a volt meter that I barely know how to use, and with some sleuthing figure out that a little black box in the furnace is converting the 24V of power down to 3V, which isn't enough to run the nest. No idea why it steps it down. So in order to make things comfortable, I hook up the old thermostat and check that the heat comes on. No worries.

Then this morning it's cool in the house. I can't get the heat to turn on. I don't understand why. I feel like a failure. I can't get a wire to tell a box to make a flame. I don't pretend to be a handy man, but shouldn't I be able to fix it? I can't. It's pissing me off. Why can't I fork myself, become an expert in all professions needed around the house: mechanic, bike mechanic, world class cook, plumber, electrician, carpenter?

*sigh*

Time to read a poem that I got the other day.

Has a nice ring to it

Today could have gone better. Dad had surgery and it took close to twice what it should have - because there was a goof. Not a small goof either. Pretty scary when thinking about it.

While I waited most of the day with my mom and brother at the hospital with nothing much to do other than wait, I kept on trying to spin my wedding ring. Nervous habit, or perhaps comforting habit it's hard to tell. But today I had forgotten to put my rings on. I wasn't exactly doing my normal routine. But I missed my wedding ring so much. A lot of the time I don't wear my ring when traveling and it doesn't really bother me too much - I think that it's because I'm with Laura. Having it on reminds me of her, of us, and being close. It's nice.

*sigh* Like I said, today could have gone better.

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness snuggle the crap out of them

Bus Collision

Today has been a bit of a sobering day. A bus hit a train, leaving at least 6 dead. One of my co-workers who sits like 3 cubes away "missed" that bus. Apparently he tried to flag down the driver, but the driver didn't stop. So he had to take the next bus. I would assume that the bus was fairly full, which if my co-worker had gotten on the bus he would have been near the front of the bus which was sheared off in the collision.

I've ridden a bus my fair share over the years and I would never have imagined dying on one. For collisions they are usually bus vs something smaller than the bus - and the bigger thing usually wins.

Perhaps it is morbid but I'm often thinking about death as I'm riding my bike to and from work. I feel by thinking about it and identifying the possible causes of injury I can be better prepared to avoid it. I've pictured myself being killed by a bus quite a few times... The buses are just so wide and the side mirrors are inconveniently located a head height.

I'd rather show up late to work than dead. In the physics equation of collisions, on my bike I'm pretty always going to be the softer object with less mass. And you know what they say, whether the stone hits the pitcher or the pitcher hits the stone, it's going to bad for the pitcher.

So, I'm going to redouble my efforts on getting from point A to point B alive and well. There's no prize for almost not getting injured.

Picture of me demonstrating safe biking technique.

How to find the memories

Thinking about all the digital content that we're generating of our life - the pictures, the videos, etc, I was wondering how some future person will find all the "important" or "quality" memories. At some point it will be impossible to go through them by hand and people will have to rely on a digital agent to do the work. I'd think that it would figure out "good" memories by checking the photos / videos for people smiling, laughing. Maybe cross reference that against a digital calendar for important dates like "Frank's wedding" or "trip to Cuba". These digital agents might even create slideshows automatically. Perhaps finding a song played a lot in your music album or recognized from some videos.

In a way it will be great to hand off boiler plate work of like "make me a scrap book" to a computer. On the other hand it will be creepy that software will be able to know and guess so much about us.

Trial by toddler

Dear diary,

It has been a long journey to get to this point. Some days it feels like countless years, but it has been less than two. Tonight the tiny person was testing me with every single action. It's difficult to remain cool in times like these, but then I just think WWID? and then I sit down and have some hot chocolate.

You would think that someone so small that depends on you for almost everything would be more lenient. Alas it is not so. It seems counterintuitive to evolution, but they try to break you and force you to break down crying in an ball of despair. Lucky there is an easy remedy for this - tea and cake, but of which we keep well stocked.

I must sign off now. I believe that tonight will require multiple applications of cake.

Yours in my hour of trial,
Jim

Best parts of the days

Life is pretty good right now. My biggest complaint might be about headaches, but that's another topic.

One of my favourite parts of the day is when I'm leaving the house. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather stay at home and play and have adventures. It's the send off that I love. It's better than a 21 gun salute. Laura and Alice go to the front window and wave. Not just any wave - almost anyone can do that. This is a special wave. A manic, double arm wave where you are bouncing up and down like your bottom is on fire. All the time with a huge smile. It's really hard to top that.

It's one of the things that makes my day.

Getting into the swing of things

The Art of Negation

Lately Alice has been showing off her mastery of negation. "Mommy AT wok. Daddy na AT wok! Alice na AT wok!" It's really interesting seeing her work these things out and the joy (really, joy) she experiences being able to express a newly learned construct. Pretty cool.

And for no particular reason, here's a picture of her looking cross eyed at my car keys and wearing my shoes. I guess she was on her way to "wok".

Alice go wok! Bue bye!

A raccoon with opposable thumbs

Living with a toddler feels like living with a raccoon with opposable thumbs. Anything packed becomes unpacked and spread across the floor. Boxes emptied, cupboards purged, wallets cleared out, closets unloaded, and purses dumped. It is possible to clean up, but the raccoons come back and they like the mess. They like it just fine.

*sigh*

Easy bedtime

I think that tonight Alice was ready for bed. I left her to play for a bit. Did a small photo shoot with her, then did the whole PJ's thing. Then I was going to put some laundry in, I told her to get her toothbrush. When I popped back, she was waiting at the bathroom sink, patiently waiting for me to get her toothbrush. So I gave it to her and let her run around a bit more. Then she climbed up on me and asked for a story. I told her to get me one, so she got one and came back. Then we walked to the bathroom to wash off her toothbrush. Then she walked to bed.

I... when did she start working with me to get her to bed?

Now I can only assume that this is some toddler mind game she's playing on me. Looking closely at the evenings events, it's the only explanation that makes sense.

I miss the stars

I love living in the city, but the thing that sucks here is the light pollution. I've complained about it before and I keep on debating on figuring out if there is a local push to get a bylaw passed to limit the light pollution. If they just make it for new fixtures or renos, I would think that eventually the problem would be fixed, or at least mitigated.

However, that's not a short term thing. I want to see the stars now. After watching a news story I found out there's a site called telescope.com that will will help you figure out what kind of telescope to get based on what you would like to look at. It had not even occurred to me that you'd get different designs based on what you want to see - I mean, don't they just all show you stuff that's farther away?

*sigh* I'm so ignorant.

So, that made me think. What part of the night sky do I want to see? What do I want to do with it? How much do I want to learn?

• The moon. I'd love to see more detail of the moon.
• The (local) planets. The rings of Saturn? Jupiter's moons? Yes, that's what I'd like to see
• I've love to see these things, but me being me, I'd love to take pictures of them as well.
• I'm lazy. Like, super lazy. So I think that if one day I actually bought a telescope, I'd like one of the ones where I say "Computer! Show me M42! Engage!" I think that I'd rather go out, do some quick setup, say "ooohhh!" and then go inside for some hot chocolate. I don't think that I want to spend 3 hours trying to find the moon. There is a reason why I still use "auto" on my dslr. :-/

So, what telescope should I order before Laura comes home? Nothing. The advice seems to be that I've got a long way to go before thinking about buying something.

But I do miss the stars.

Online shopping: both easier and harder

I love online shopping more and more. I've bought clothes online since I didn't want to bother going to the store. It's easy when you eliminate your choices to a single store and just have to decide among the products they offer.

My biggest problem is when you're allowing your choices to extend against all the stores on the internet - or even half a dozen. Some stores might offer similar products, but perhaps not the exact same one. Others might have free shipping but it will take 3-6 weeks, while others charge more yet it will arrive sooner. Do I trust the ones that I've dealt with in the past, or do I trust a new company? Should I favour the stores that have brick-and-mortar store close by in case I have to return it, even if it costs more? Should I wait for a sale? Is last years model an acceptable compromise since it's cheaper? What about refurbished?

Ahgghgg! It seems to be I'm stuck in analysis paralysis. I think that I need to read The Paradox of Choice. But where should I buy it? Amazon, or Chapters, or....

The hard way, the easy way, and the in-between way

I'm not sure that I mentioned, but I finally bought a Breville Duo-Temp 800ESXL espresso / cappuccino machine to make coffee.  (Yes, I'm adding keywords to be able to find this post again). My father-in-law pointed out a great one day sale and I snatched it up. It's really felt like an extravagance.

I was talking to my parents about the new machine and I'm pretty sure that they think that I'm totally nuts. Mind you, this is from the people who just switched back to instant coffee. Oh the horror. *shudder* Anyways, they couldn't understand why I'd 1) get a big expensive machine and 2) spend so much time making coffee - the quote was "instant coffee is made in seconds!". I guess my attempts at making coffee didn't blow their minds.

I was trying to see it from their side and question myself why I was doing this. I think that it's similar to why I bought a dslr. I have the time, interest and honestly the disposable income to try an entry-level "something". Something that I believe that will require another skill set to master and involved some artistry. I might not be great at it right now, and might not ever become great at it, but I find these things fun and a nice hobby to have. It's healthy to have a hobby or two, right?

Another thing that I find is that faster isn't necessarily better. Sometimes the older ways that are slower are still around for reason. They might be better, or more interesting, or varied. Would it be good to live in a Star Trek future where a replicator could make a perfect [fill in food name here] everytime? Yes, it would be awesome, but perhaps not as intesting. Not as much fun. How would you truly appreciate success unless you knew failure?

Two hobbies at the same time

Update 2020-03-19: I'm trying to fix the steam wand. I've found a helpful site

The Good Husband's Guide

• Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal ready on time for her return. This is a way of letting her know that you have be thinking about her and are concerned about her needs. Most women are hungry when they come home and the prospect of a good meal (especially her favourite dish) is part of the warm welcome needed.
• Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so you’ll be refreshed when she arrives. Touch up your deodorant, zip up your pants and be fresh-looking. She has just been with a lot of work-weary people.
• Be a little silly and a little more interesting for her. Her boring day may need a lift and one of your duties is to provide it.
• Clear away the clutter. Make one last trip through the main part of the house just before your wife arrives. Push some of the crap into a corner and hope she doesn't notice.
• Over the cooler months of the year you should prepare and light a fire for her to unwind by. Your wife will feel she has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you a lift too. After all, catering for her comfort will provide you with immense personal satisfaction.
• Minimize all noise. At the time of her arrival, eliminate all noise of the washer, dryer or vacuum. Encourage the children to be quiet.
• Be happy to see her.
• Greet her with a warm smile and show sincerity in your desire to please her.
• Listen to her. You may have a dozen important things to tell her, but the moment of her arrival is not the time. Let her talk first - remember, her topics of conversation are more important than yours.
• Make the evening hers. Never complain if she comes home late or goes out to dinner or other places of entertainment without you. Instead, try to understand her world of strain and pressure and her very real need to be at home and relax.
• Your goal: To try and make sure your home is a place of peace, order, and tranquility where your wife can renew herself in body and spirit.
• Don’t greet her with complaints and problems.
• Make her comfortable. Have her lean back in a comfortable chair or have her lie down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for her.
• Arrange her pillow and offer to take off her shoes. Speak in a low, soothing and pleasant voice.
• Don’t ask her questions about her actions or question her judgment or integrity. Remember, she is the master of the house and as such will always exercise her will with fairness and truthfulness. You have no right to question her.
• A good husband always knows his place.

Such great advice. I just can't tell if it's fake or not. I originally was going to title this "How to please you woman". Ah, good times. 

Same same, but different

There is something about doing something the first time that's scary. It's special, but there is the fear and hub-bub about doing it for the first time. If you do it a second time, it is no less special, just different. If you do it a third, fourth, fifth, etc time, I'm sure that they become both a mix of the familiar and frightening.

Today I ate deep fried pie for the first time. I fear the pie no longer. Here's to eating DFP the nth time.

Scary diaper changing music - poopocalypse

Some diaper changes are normal. Some are "ewww... gross".

And there are some that require their own soundtrack. For those I like O Fortuna from Carmina Burana by Carl Orff. It's just the right amount of drama and fear horror. Bonus points if you can come up with the exact moment that I associate with the opening of the diaper.

What's better: long or fast?

I'm always somewhat shopping for things that interest me. One of them is camera lenses. I can't help it, I just like pretty pictures.

Nikon recently announced a 18-140mm F3.5-5.6. This would be almost our the range of our 2 kit lenses of 18-55 and 55-200. So, it's more of a "every day" lens without any bump in speed (max aperture). Tonight I'd discovered that there's a Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4 lens. It covers the range of our "wide" zoom and then some, plus it's much, much faster.

So, hypothetically, if I was to get an upgrade lens, what would I go for: longer or faster? Both have advantages. What I really want is an inexpensive, light weight, small, 15-300 F2.2 lens. You know, something that probably defies the laws of physics as we know it.

Perhaps I just have to finally suck it up and start shooting in raw and spend some of my time doing some post processing. *sigh*

In the meantime, here is a picture of a flower.

I believe that this was just watered by a great dane.

Sometimes you just need a walk

I was going a bit buggy at work today so I went for a walk to clear my head. I work like a block away from some old buildings so I went to check them out. I feel a bit bad that I don't go more often for a nice walk and just see what's up. I think that I'll do that a bit more often - grab a hot beverage and stroll. I think that it will help restore my focus and allow me to actually get some more work done.

A bit of a fixer-upper, but they have a nice lawn

I want everyone to enjoy it

We just got back from the family cottage. It was not an easy experience between the lack of toddler sleep, which leads to lack of adult sleep, cool weather, long drive there and back, slowly leaking air mattress, and did I say sleep deprived everybody?

*sigh*

I did have fun though. I am glad that we went. Alice had her first canoe ride and actually said "weee!" several times, the stars were beautiful, seeing family is great, and Alice used a "big girl" swing pretty well. I really want Laura and Alice to love the cottage as much as I do. It's just hard when you're tired. This is not something that I know how to fix, or even if it's possible. Will it get easier next year? That's what I thought last year.

I love my girls. I just want to share something with them that was such a big part of me growing up (and actually have it be something fun).

Who needs a boat when you've got a pool noodle and a mommy?

I spy with my little eye something that is blue...

Fork me

Sometimes I wish that I could fork myself - spawn a copy and assign him some work. Spawn one to do the dishes and other unfun things. Another can play with Alice all day and another can go to work. Of course I'd spawn a me for some "me time" - reading, playing video games, etc. And there would be a me to hang out with Laura to go to fancy restaurants and long bike rides.

At the end of the day, all the me's would merge together so we'd have the the combined memories and no me would feel left out or like he was getting the short end of the stick.

Would this ability cause the collapse of society as we know it if it was widely possible? Most likely. Would it help me get all my stuff done? Most likely.

*sigh*

Tea Time

I feel a bit guilty for not planning a big "let's leave town on an adventure" vacation. But I must say that I really enjoy the times where we find ourselves sitting reading in the garden, surrounded by flowers, eating baked goods with jam whilst sipping hot tea. It's not the kind of vacation that we will show the photos to family, but the kind I enjoy with all the others. ;-)

Na na na na na BATHTIME!

It's funny how much routine has been picked up by Alice. Tonight she sang our "bathtime song" as soon as dinner was done. Yes, our bathtime song may resemble the 1960's Batman music. How did she know? Maybe we were talking about it earlier. Maybe it's because she's smeared enough food into her hair today to make it into a somewhat helmet like structure. Maybe she's just picked up on a lot more than I realize. Either way, it's amusing and interesting.

Field Report # 87

The opposing force seems to have a new weapon of late. Constant barrage that keeps us on edge and has prevented from us getting our rest. The colonel believes that it's because the OF's canine division is advancing over the Gum Hills. Our current tactics seems ineffective against the OF's technique of "Wet Noodle". We are doing our best, but I'm not sure how long I can hold out. This campaign requires constant patience, however I feel mine slipping too often. I often enact a "Time Out", perhaps more than I should. Overuse could lead to the degradation of the effectiveness over time.

My only hope is that the OF will regroup and fall back to their previous behaviour. We have plans for those. We have the tools. We have the personnel.

FSM willing, I'll be around to submit Field Report # 88.

Jim,
Jim First Class

The gritty truth about biking in the rain

I like biking. I'll even bike when I've got a good chance of getting caught in the rain. The rain isn't so bad, just wet. There are a couple of things that I don't like about biking in the rain.

1. The rain seems to drain stinging salts into my eyes. The other day coming home I had to keep an eye closed it stung so much. Maybe I have to do a much better job at getting the shampoo out of my hair?
2. The grit. I hate it. My shoes or sandals get gritty. My gear gets gritty. My bike seems like it has a sandpaper finish and it seems to take off any lube from the chain. It's gross.

Is it weird that I'd be okay with being soaked if I wasn't gritty? Maybe. But then at least I wouldn't be reminded quite so much how dirty I am. Ah well. Showers at the end of the day washes it all away.

Put the shine on

I was looking at my wedding ring the other day. Originally it had a "satin finish" around the band (which they warned us would wear off). Over time it's slowly become shinier and shinier, so much so that I can now see my reflection in it.

Without realizing it until the other day, I think that it has reflected how our relationship has gone. Bit by bit it's gotten a little more polished, a little more comfortable, but still very special. With other things when you take the shine off something and it becomes less than what it was, we have been putting the shine on. Better than new.

How about that? Not many things improve with age. Just wine, cheese, and us. :-D

Rings of Power

A Good Day

The weather today was horrible, but I left work a little early to get home between the rolling waves of storm. Played with Alice. Had pizza and beer. All in all a wonderful day. 

The commute has been challenging lately though and that will only increase. I think that it's time to look for another vehicle.

;-)

Too much entertainment

I love sci fi. I think that I read a lot of it. But there seems to be too much of it. I would love to spend a large part of my day reading fiction, but I can't (job and what not). The price of entertainment seems to be dropping all the time, while the choices go up. That's probably bad for the artists - at least the lesser known ones. It doesn't seem to be a quality issue either. A great book by an unknown author will languish until it comes out that the author also created the best-selling book series in history. I think that an artist is more likely to die without being widely known rather than not being able to create great art.

Too much entertainment is a pretty damn good problem to have. I guess it falls under a first world problems. :-/

Fantasies

I figure that I'm a normal everyday man. I have fantasies and I figure that's just natural. Today what I can't get out of my head is chimichurri steak sauce. The first time I remember having it was on a cruse ship with our friend Jen. I plan to buy some ready-made to have around the house, but I have a feeling that it won't be able compete with the memory of the fresh made one. Ah well.

Leet

Ah, post 1337. Ten years blogging away (not counting the lost posts of my youth). What do I have to show for it? A whole lotta posts.

And now a picture of my favourite people.

You seek greatness? It's just over there by the swing.

Getting there as fast, safely

I love biking. I love getting from place to place on my bike. I love being able to get to work, daycare, home, etc all by bike. I encourage others to bike.

I just don't encourage them to get into my way.

"In my way" is defined as anyone going slower than I want to go that day, and in a wandering "la la la... Oh! Something shinny!" kind of way. If you're biking slowly, that's cool. Just be safe about it and allow others to pass.

Since they put in the bike lane on one short section of street downtown, there seem to be a lot more people biking downtown. Most are fine, but you have some clueless people. To be fair I'm pretty sure that the people would be clueless in their cars too, but that's a different story. They've closed a tiny part of the bike lane for some construction work and today I saw 4 bikers that were ahead of me deal with it. All poorly. They didn't anticipate that they'd have to bike around the closure nor did they enter into traffic well. If a car has to jam on it's breaks as you try to "enter" the road at 90 degrees and instantly turn 90 degrees (again), going about 1 km/h, that's a problem. You're a problem and you're likely to get people hurt.

I like going fast on my bike, but I'm constantly playing through my head all the ways that I can get hurt. Not in a "I need to see a doctor and get some pills" kind of way (hopefully). More like a game of "Spot the Danger"™ where the winning prize is that you don't get hurt. Or dead. Finding myself dead would definitely be a downer on my day. I don't want that.

So, to review

1. Keep out of the way of people moving faster than you
2. Don't do stuff that will get anyone hurt
3. More people should bring me cookies

The greatest of these is # 3 cookies.

Datemas

It's important to go on dates. It's been easier to go on them during the day when we can both arrange to be off, yet have Alice in daycare. It's easier to get into movies as well. Is it weird to go out for a meal and a movie in the middle of the day? Perhaps. We probably would have spent a good part of the day biking if it wasn't for that meddlesome rain and the clouds too! It was nice to be able to see Star Trek in 3D - something that I thought that we had missed out on.

What's the point of this post? That I had a wonderful day and I wanted to remember it. Why can't I write an exciting and interesting post? I'm blaming the weather for giving me a headache.

Weaaatthhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrr!

Prometheus Shared Fire From The Gods

I just love this idea. I usually think "stealing" as taking something and now the original person can't use it. Fire and information aren't like that.

10 Reasons why toddlers are like tourists

I had an epiphany the other day: toddlers are just like (rude) tourists.

1. They babble along in a language that you don't understand.
2. If they are using words that they think you should understand but don't, they say them louder. And louder. And louder.
3. You can partially communicate with them, but only a few words. And their accent is horrible.
4. They don't understand the local eating customs - don't put your spaghetti on your head, food on the floor, and get this gleam in their eye when they look like they are about to break something, etc.
5. Your bathroom toilet is unknown to them. They are more likely to poop on the floor or their pants rather than use a toilet.
6. They seem to operate in a different timezone. They need a nap in the middle of the day and they're likely to be awake in the middle of the night.
7. You can't trust them not to get to the store or go to the museum by themselves. It's almost like they don't read the language or follow simple signs.
8. They expect you to cater to their every whim. If you do not, or not in the time frame they were expecting, they totally freak out. But it's usually fake and can be turned off when you bend to their will.
9. They try to get over the communication issues by smiling and tilting their head.
10. They seem to spend money like mad. Unfortunately unlike real tourists, it's your money, not theirs.

Can you direct me to the local discotheque?

Just a few words

I know that I'm going to forget this time. My brain replaces my memories of the Alice Past with the Alice Current. I can't think what she was able to do at 13 months compared to now. She currently speaks in toddler speak, but I can't reproduce it unless it's something she says 80 times a day. My brain transcribes the toddler speak and trashes the original. I need to take more videos.

She's talking a lot more. She's stringing words together all the time. "Daddy sit too" as she pats the ground beside her. Or while sitting in traffic "Big tuk (truck). Vrrrr!!". She knows that sometimes making the sounds helps us figure out what she's talking about. So kind of her. Today while reading a book about a cruse ship for the fourth time in a row I tried to look at my phone. "Ppt dwn" and she motioned me putting the phone on the cushion. She needs my full and undivided attention for all four readings of the second seating.

I know she won't always want to read a story with me. There will be a time where she won't curl up in my lap and refuse to get off (no matter how much I have to go to the bathroom). I have to remind myself to be present and capture these moments. It's just hard sometimes when you're on the 7th reading of a book in an hour and you've literally been reading it backwards and forwards. But harder I will try.

What would you take

Assuming your family and pets were all safe: if you were able to take one thing before your home was destroyed, what would you take?

That question was discussed in a tv show we watch. My mind has wondered back to it with the ongoing floods in Alberta. Now, I'd be really sad if we lost everything. The memories, and stuff that you build up throughout your life. But what would I take if I had the chance?

One of the most precious things that we have are our pictures and videos. If I had some time to pack a car with as much as I could, I'd load up the laptops and external hard drives (among other things) because for size / weight to personal value ratio is really high. But for the most part, those are all backed up off site. I could get it back if I really had to. I hope.

What else would I take? The Christmas tree decorations? Those are precious but I don't think that I'd be loading up the car with those.

I love the things we have, but I've been thinking about this for a while and looking around the house and there's not really anything that I'd be truly heartbroken if we lost (other than the photos and videos). It's just stuff.

This feels like a breakthrough for me. In the past I've always tied a lot of emotional value to things. The memories I associated with them gave them value. Giving away stuff we're not using has helped with this. Living in a smaller place where you only have so many options has helped too. But what I think has helped me the most are Laura and Alice. The love I feel for them makes it difficult to care for physical things. It's like trying to see a candle when you're on the surface of the sun: you don't need a candle anymore, you've got more important things to think about. Namely, "oh my god I'm on fire by being so close to the sun! Why didn't I come at night?!?!?"

Stuff is stuff. People are what's important and in the end, what matters.

Fantasizing about Cappuccino

About a week ago one of Laura's co-workers had a bunch of people over for dinner. Everything was fantastic. So good. The thing that I can't get off my mind is the home made cappuccino they had. It was so freaking good. A couple of days after that we went to the mall and I bought a couple of cappuccinos from a chain store that (in theory) should have great coffee. It wasn't. Not by a long stretch.

Have I thought about showing up at Laura's co-workers place with a coffee cup? I've be lying if I said no.

Should I revisit my decision to buy a fancy coffee machine? Perhaps. However I think that it takes a lot more than just a nice machine to do a good cup of coffee. It also requires a good grinder, good beans (which I think that I get) and good technique. I wonder if there is a place that offers a day course in making coffee...

This is how coffee breaks should go

iPadding my desires

New tech toys are always great. I'd love to have them all. I just don't want to pay for them. I thought that I'd really like a ipad. Now I'm not sure sure. Not for the 10 inch size at least. What changed my mind? Having a 10 inch ipad in the house.

Laura has one through work and it was fun to set up. It's screen is very pretty. Hypothetically it is nice to play angry birds on (but I wouldn't install a game on someone else's work device...). It's just too heavy and awkward for me. Maybe it's what I'm used to, but I find it a lot more comfortable to surf for a while on a laptop. Sometimes reading sites that are set up for swipe transitions are nice, but it doesn't seem to make up for holding a heavy device.

I really enjoy my kindle. It's a nice size. I'll probably enjoy the next version that I'll get (in about 10 years) that will have a lit up screen. These things are all nice for consuming. Not very good for creating and typing. Like blogging. Or making long winded silly posts to social networking. Or tagging pictures or videos.

Sort story: my next device will probably be a very nice laptop. Probably not a tablet.

The yin and the yang of having a toddler around

Today had the usual Wednesday routine: I picked up Alice, brought her home, played with her a bit, and started to make dinner. While I was making dinner Alice was off in her room. I'd check on her every 5 or 10 minutes. I'd sneak over to her door and peek in. She'd be sitting in the adult rocking chair, quietly reading a book to herself. She was reading Mommy's Best Kisses at one point and pointing to her body parts as she was reading it. Each time I checked on her, she was quietly reading another book.

That's the wonderful part of having a toddler. The part that you want to share. Not all parts are like that.

For instance, shortly before she was quietly playing by herself she was screaming at me, saying she was hungry, so hungry. Then I let her into the kitchen and she decided she was no longer hungry, but would like to take all the wax paper out of the box. Followed by all the utensils out of the drawer and to make sure she bangs them on the floor. And you can't forget pulling out the sharp knives and saying "sharp sharp sharp". *sigh* I'm pretty sure that I'm a bad father for letting her explore like that.

There are two parts of having a toddler around. One that you go "awww..." and want to somehow freeze time. And there are the other parts where you wish it was happening to not-you, anyone else really. The second really makes you appreciate the former.

Delusions of Grandeur

Sometimes I fantasize that everything is easy for me. I could try something and just be brilliant at it. Languages, art, science, etc. I'd have groundbreaking insights in a field after just doing some cursory reading on it.

Reality isn't like that. I can't even spell "cursory". Most things are not easy for me. They take time. Work. Effort. For some subjects (like spelling), regardless of the effort, I seem to not make any headway.

Is it weird that I fantasize about being a genius rather than winning the lottery?

Plan for spontaneity

I love our daughter. I love playing with her, hugging her, and going for walks with her. However sometimes it's just really awesome to go for a walk alone with Laura. It's been a while since that's been a regular thing. Probably a bit over 18 months if I had to guess.

It used to be that we could be spontaneous. Make up meal plans on the spot. Go for a bike ride and be out for 4 hours that you never thought that you had to spare. Stuff like that. Doing that now seems almost impossible. So we did the next best thing: dropped Alice off with her grandparents and then were spontaneous in a roughly set window of time. It was great.  I miss those. I need to add "spontaneous" events to our calendar - well in advance so we can plan for them of course.

No longer a sign of the times

It was extremely helpful at the start to teach Alice baby sign language. It lessened the frustration felt by everyone. As time has gone on and as she's learned more words and they've become clearer, she's almost completely stopped signing. It still happens, but usually when she's saying the word clearly and she really wants it. Like "cheese". Man, that kid loves cheese.

As one skill grows stronger, the other fads. Ah well. So from about 8.5 months to 18 months, it was useful.

More Cheerios Giants!

Pebble thoughts

I finally got my pebble watch on April 13th after ordering it May 1st. So far I've been enjoying it. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it's still pretty awesome.

One super simple but highly useful feature is that I can shake my wrist to trigger the light. I can check the time if I have my other hand full. Not fumbling around to press that button. Simple but hugely useful.

It also allows me to get a notification and be able to quickly triage if I need to do anything about it. I can glance at my watch and see that it's an email from my mom vs email from amazon. Or I can see if it's a call I need to take. Pretty nice. I see this as being the big advantage of wearable computing - it augments your other devices. It allows me to be biking home in the rain having stowed my phone in a water proof case (ziplock bag) in my pannier and still get text messages. If it's important, I can always pull off and use my phone.

Do I always need to be connected like this? No. But it's a lot easier to be asked to pick up something on your way home if you get the request before you actually get home.

How would I improve it?

1. I'd make it so the alarm could connect to the watch and be dismissed. If my alarm that says "leave work" goes off while I'm driving away from work, I'd love to be able to dismiss that from my wrist.
2. I'd have it use induction charging rather than me needing to plug in YAUSBC. But I want that for my phone, which hasn't come out yet.

I think that those are the big ones. Like I said, overall pretty happy.

Shifting focus

Early on this blog was my random thoughts, mixed with helpful (to me) technology hints and tricks. My post about html labels and a struts multibox was always one of my more popular posts. I don't post things like that any more. Not because that info isn't useful, but because the purpose has been replaced by sites like stackoverflow.

Then I would post things in order to keep in touch with my friends. That has been replaced with social networking like facebook. I only know one person that blogs anymore. It's getting quieter in the blog-oh-sphere. Louder in social media.

So what's left? Me talking about home life stuff and of course some of the longer winded random crap that pours out of my head. Without conscience effort, this blog is turning into a web-log, or "online journal" if you're from 1997. Yes, it's becoming something for me to look back at and say "Hey, remember when I used struts or those times where you have to type one keyboards? Ha ha ha... *wipes laughter tears away* Good times..."

So... ya. *looks around empty room* I'm sure that I'll enjoy this post in 15 years. Until then, here's a picture of two cute kids.

Hey mommy. Where does the cheese come out from?

It's the law

I love Clarke's three laws. This post is about the first one:

When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

Simple right?

This can actually (sort of) be applied to our marriage.

When Laura tells me that I need something (like a sweater), she is almost certainly right. When I state that I don't need something, I am very probably wrong.

Such is life. We are both starting to come to the same conclusion about it too. She doesn't give in when I refuse, and I give in a lot easier when she insists. We're learning. It just takes a decade.

Only two things

There's only two things to know about toddlers.

#1 They work hard

Hurry hard! Sweeeeeeeep!

#2 They snack hard

What a fine blend of H's and O's. Do I also detect a hint of citrus?

That is all.

According to the docs...

I'm pretty glad that I've got remote access to work. It doesn't give me full access, but it's enough to get things done that are better done in off hours. Off hours can be when Alice is asleep, before I go into work, or something else.

The other day she was sick so I stayed home with her and worked remotely. During a bathroom break for myself I heard the clacky clack of the keys being punched. I came out and she was so happy to be using the computer - mostly because she's not allowed to. She had such a big smile on her face. A smile that big on a toddler can only mean one thing: trouble.

Perhaps she was trying to understand just how I can look at a screen that doesn't have a picture or video of her on it. How is that entertaining?

With a simple command I can activate my weather control machine. Now just let me read the docs first...

Ten Years

Ten whole years. A decade. A tenth of a century. Wonderful years. Today is 10 years since our first date. I find it funny that I blogged about our first date, yet didn't mention that it was a date, or Laura at all. It's been fun. I've enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to many more of these posts looking back on our life together.

10 years. Lots of fun. Here's to many more.

Note: I post dated this so I didn't have to write it while getting ready for work.

Summary of today

Things that happened today that are conventionally seen as positive:

• It was a beautiful sunny day
• I got to spend all day with my daughter
• I had a delicious beer
• I was productive work-wise
• I had positive times with my daughter and did some tickling - I love the giggles
• Putting my daughter to bed was a breeze
• standard stuff: everyone healthy, roof over our heads, food on the table, etc

Things that happened today that are conventionally seen as less than positive:

• It was beautiful sunny day, but I stayed inside to work on my laptop for long stretches
• I was home with my daughter 'cause she's a bit sick and producing snot in indescribable amounts
• Said daughter was less than co-operative including doing things like throwing handfuls of food at me, getting timeouts and then going back to doing exactly what she was got the timeout for, etc.
• Tickling ended when my daughter bashed me in the face so hard my glasses because so bent out of shape I have not been able to correct them. My head still hurts
• Two hours after putting my daughter to bed she's still awake

I will actively work on forgetting the second list like it didn't happen. It doesn't add anything positive to the discussion, to the memories, to how I want to think of my life. As my uncle always says: "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." At one point I may look back at my life and while parts won't be fiction, they might not be the whole truth. And I'm okay with that.

Dreams of the Space Above

When I was very little I wanted to be an astronaut. I read about space, or at least looked at pictures of it. I became engrossed with artists concepts of it. I knew that's what I wanted to do. At some point probably when I was 5 or 6 I started to realize how much work it took to be an astronaut. How much of "best of the best" that they were and, surprising myself looking back at it, knowing how much that wasn't me. I am not the top 1% of the top 1%. The dream of being an astronaut died for me then.

Don't be sad. It's good to know your limits.

Now, the dream of going into space has not died at all. Each passing year the likelihood of being a civilian tourist goes up. It wouldn't be cheap, but it's nice to think that it's possible if I really, really wanted it. Or we could have a house. It's really a toss up at this point.

Annnnyways. Sometimes people inspire you. Sometimes it's by making an awesome music video about an astronaut in space by an astronaut actually in space. Sometimes it's the photos. Sometimes there is just enough of a story in a photo and you can continue the rest in your head. Below is the start of a great story.

Do Astronauts Dream of Electric Sheep?

Paste using Citrix to access PuTTY

This made me angry because it took more than 30 seconds to figure out. I was logged into work via citrix and had launched a PuTTY session. I couldn't figure out how to paste using my mac. Keep in mind I don't use PuTTY that often - I usually use cygwin.

It was so, so simple (provided you know how to do it).

To paste in putty you right click. To do that I hold alt aka "option" and click the mouse.

Conceptually Soon

One of the things that I used to love as a kid, and still do, was concept art of people in space or in far off lands. Things like a Stanford torus or an O'Neill cylinder like in the Rama series. I lose myself in those images.

Last Friday we went to the Star Wars Identities and saw some of the concept art. I love the early stuff so much. The stuff from when they were trying to sell the idea of the story rather than a rough sketch of what the camera crew was supposed to shoot. One of my favourite shots from was Ralph McQuarrie of "Luke" (pictured as a girl) overlooking ‎ Mos Eisley. Is it really that different than something that you could take a picture of today? No, except when you notice that the car is floating and there are two suns.

These are the things that dreams are made of. Dreams today, destinations tomorrow.

I can almost feel the crunch of stone and sand under my shoes

Thinking of fun

I love taking pictures. Yes, that should be clear already. One of my favourite lens to use for portraiture is our "long" lens: 55-200 mm. It's great to get in close and not be too distracting to the moment, but it's harder to get the right angle when you're far away. I don't really have much of a point for this post other than I like the picture below. That is all.

Thinking of wonders

Unexpected talents

When you have a baby come along you figure out that you're about to get a crash course in all things parenting. This is true. And to someone without kids you compose a mental list of things you're going to get experience in: changing diapers, comforting a baby / child, grocery shopping on little sleep, etc. However there are things that I didn't expect to get a lot of experience in, let alone become comfortably good at (if I do say so myself).

One example is microwaving tiny amounts of food to warm it up, but not too much. Yes, I'll admit that sometimes I goof, but I feel a lot of time I get it right. It takes a bunch of practice to see some food and based on estimated water content, initial temperature, density, plate type and temp, etc determine if you should microwave it for 10 second or 15. Right now I have a lot of experience with microwaving things for fractions of a minute.

It makes sense, but if you asked me two years ago it wouldn't have been something that I expected to be doing a lot.

Why not?

Why this picture again? Because good things come in threes.

One to beam up...

Putting things in scale

Ah, a year can go by in a blink of an eye. One minute you're playing with someone so small and unable to sit up by themselves and then BAM! it's a year later and they are climbing up on the couch themselves taking down all the things that you cleverly have "put out of reach".

If we didn't have the pictures I'm not sure how I'd remember it.

I'm as surprised as you are, but someone just pooped my pants!

You thought that the controller was safe? Hahahaha! Now let me use it to call my robot...

Surprising abilities

I guess things move in leaps and bounds sometimes. Today after I brought Alice home via bike trailer (a first), we hung outside for a bit. She climbed up on a patio chair which isn't a low chair. I thought "wow" and took a picture. Then we went inside and I let her loose while I rested on the floor. She then climbed up on the couch which she's never been able to do before. I thought "wow" and took a picture. Then after having dinner I let her walk around. She headed to the basement stairs and went down a step on her bum. I thought "wow" but I didn't take a picture. You know, it was only 1 stair after all. Then she came up and walked around for a bit more. Then she went down the 3 stairs to the landing and started to head down the others. That time I came over to make sure she didn't take a tumble. She proceeded to go down the rest of the stairs by alternating planking and sliding down a single step. By half way down she was laughing with each step. Perhaps not the best technique, but who am I to argue?

The thing that gets me is that she's not being super proud about these things. It's like she's always been able to do them. I guess I just never got the memo.

A controller makes an excellent telephone

Biketastic

Today is what I'll call our first successful bike plus trailer ride. We put a towel behind Alice's back to the helmet wasn't forced over her eyes and went for a ride to Dows Lake to look at the tulips. It was a good time, but pulling a lot of weight isn't the easiest thing. I'm looking at it as strength training. Hopefully soon we'll be able to explore almost everywhere we used to go by bike before.

Next weekend I think we should get further and take a nice picnic. That's the best way to spend a weekend. ;-)

Children make you fat

Children make you fat. That's based on my scientific study of one. They make you more tired, but by doing less. It's very confusing, so let me explain. Before I would laze about and head out on my bike to where ever I had to go. If it took 15 minutes longer, that's just how long it took. I had less constraints on my schedule. Now I have to get from A to B as quick as I can because any "wasted" time means less time to be and play with Alice. I can't decide to just walk home because it's a nice day - I've got to hop on the bus to get to daycare and back because I have to be there before 5, which means I'm leaving work at 4. Pre-child I don't think that I ever left at 4 unless I was sick. It's strange.

I used to also go biking when it was dark. A couple of times I'd go meet up with Laura at her work at 3 am and we'd bike home together. Aside: the canal is wonderful to bike along at 3 am - very peaceful. Now someone's got to be around the house from 6:30 pm onwards. Two years ago I don't think that we were even regularly home at 6:30, let alone "in for the night".

So, more rush rush, but less go go. It's... odd.

I'm hoping now that things are warmer we'll be able to pack up Alice and go on adventures on a regular basis. We can go on a quest. I'll call it... The Search For My Sanity.

On the ever vigilant search for adventure. And cookies.

Daydreaming

It's funny. I've got an always-connected phone. The stupidity of the internet, the libraries of the world, all at my fingertips. What do I do on the bus? I stare out the window and daydream. Perhaps it's me not wanting to get motion sick, but it's nice to do it sometimes. I can let all the voices in my head have a quiet conversation. Or think about space ships. Or giant robots. Or giant robot space ships.

Apparently downtime is a good idea to do and let your brain recharge. That's one of the things that I loved about biking into work - I'd be about 10 minutes into my ride and then (just like running) my brain would hit a groove and things would feel so smooth and fluid. Thoughts would be like a smooth flowing creek rather than a dog playing in a puddle. Perhaps a poor visualization. Think smooth and everything in it's place but moving with speed vs flow from all direction and chaotic.

So if you see me walking along and watching the clouds or the wind in the grass, just know that I'm recharging my brain and coming up with brilliant ideas. Or thinking about Star Wars. Actually it's probably best to just assume I'm thinking about Star Wars.

Headaches suck

Stupid stupid stupid.

I get headaches. I treat them with coffee a lot of the time. I've been upping the coffee as time goes by, especially lately. Apparently there is such a thing as rebound headaches where if you keep on upping the treatment, it provides short term relief followed by a worse headache. So I've been told to cut down on the coffee. The glorious, glorious coffee. I was told that cutting it down "is going to hurt. A lot." Well, that's one prediction that was true. Not only does it hurt, but it means that I have shit for concentration and focus. Oh, don't forget irritability. I've got that in spades.

Where will this lead? Hopefully to a happier, healthier and less caffeinated Jim. Where are we now? In a dark place with something something lack of focus oh look a puppy.

*sigh*

About an hour

For picking up Alice from daycare, we've been trying different ways depending on car need and now, weather. The listings below are from my work to home.

• If I walk to Laura's work, take the car and crawl through stop and go traffic? It takes about an hour.
• If I walk to the bus, take the bus to a transit hub, get onto a local bus, pickup Alice, get on another bus to take us back to our stop (which I passed after taking the local bus), then then walk home? Provided I catch the connections in a reasonable amount of time? A bit over an hour. Maybe an 1.25 hours.
• If I change into my bike clothes, bike home, change back into my street clothes (no one wants to talk to someone wearing bike shorts), get into the car, drive over to pick up Alice and then drive home? About an hour.

I assume at this point if I somehow had access to the floo network it would still take me about an hour.

Fleeting - like a bubble

It's funny. Just a short time ago in September we were sitting in the backyard blowing bubbles. Alice couldn't walk - just crawl away. She wouldn't get very far unless we were really not paying attention. Now it's spring and we're again playing with bubbles. Only this time Alice is different - she's walking (and sometimes almost running) and has a lot more hair. (Aside: I think that she's growing it out for the playoffs.)

I see the pictures like below and say "Of course she was like that.", but in my mind I have a harder time resolving that reality. She's changing quickly, but I have a hard time thinking of her differently as she currently is. It's weird. I don't know if it's a failing of my brain or brains in general. Weirdness.

Another thought that's occurring to me: I should be using the dslr whenever I can. First picture is taken with the "good" camera, the second with my phone. I don't think that I'll ever be happy with the camera phone shots. I'm happy that I'm able to get pictures because I've always got the phone in my pocket - I'm sad that the quality is less than I desire. Ah well.

I likes bubbles

You call this a spoon?