Hey guys
Sorry but I've realized after all this time that I don't really like using blogger. I've moved across to tumblr.com and will be using that to post more frequent mini-blog-entries.
I'll add an RSS feed from tumblr onto this page for those of you who constantly forget to change your bookmarks.
Seeya
Ryan has had very unsettled sleep since his mommy went away for a week last week.
So this morning it was a real treat when he slept in until 8.30am.
Of course, I had been up at 3.30am soothing him back to sleep when he woke up crying. An hour later I made it back into bed.
Here's hoping that he returns to his normal schedule ASAP!!!
Ryan has been so healthy and happy lately. It's so awesome to see him in such a good mood, running around laughing and playing!
I am so incredibly blessed with a great wife and child. Praise God!
Ryan started saying some two syllable words today for the first time, I think. (keeping in mind that he already babbles 'mummum' and 'dada' very well).
His first two syllable word? 'Daddy'.
Yeah, I know, I'm the happiest dad on the earth.
His second? 'Teki'. Yep, the cat.
here's a link to one of the funniest things I've read recently
A brief quote:
"...but now, when I beheld her, I could not for my life avoid thinking of my mother"
Oh the hilarity!
Thought I put a crack in my PSP screen last night when I sat down with it in my back pocket and heard a little 'kree' noise that wasn't biological in origin.
The screen had a small distortion in the middle that looked like the LCD juices oozing around. But the colors were right...
Well, half an hour later it was invisible and I couldn't see any damage. Have I dodged a bullet or is my PSP just biding its time until I really need to play some Lumines (PSP crack)?
I'm currently listening to _yet another_ iPhone podcast. This thing is outta control!
Seriously though, it looks sweet.
Enough about the iPhone. I took photos at the church women's ministry event, called 'essence', and the topic was 'shine'. It was a fun evening, full of challenges. I borrowed a ton of gear from my friends Chris and Dave and really must thank them for that contribution!
And... now I'm home sick with a cold. I suspect it was the car ride with my co-workers (one of whom had a cold) on Friday, followed by the busy weekend. Drats.
I now realize that Darth Vader screaming 'Noooooooooo!' was the perfect artistic touch by George Lucas. You get the transition from whiney, immature Anakin into the fearsome Vader by juxtaposing an Anakin whimper into a Vaderian visage.
Or perhaps I'm over-analyzing.
Television... a tool that can be used for evil... or for good. In this case... good! He's watching his educational DVDs and learning to read.
(yes, this blog post is a shallow excuse to post a picture of Ryan... but its my blog and nobody reads it so I'll post what I want to!)
Some kid at play group decided to bite Ryan on the hand today.
Diana comforted him very well. His hand was still a bit puffy and cut when I saw it this evening.
Poor kid.
I hope the other kid didn't have rabies or anything.
Yesterday (Friday) was the 5 year anniversary of my marriage to Diana!
It really doesn't feel like 5 years, although so much has changed in our lives in that time. We've travelled the world, had a child, grown together in so many ways...
My wife is a real blessing from God. A truly generous, kind, wise woman. I'm glad that through her love and honesty I found out about Jesus and his love and truth.
PS. the picture is of a pudding that I made as dessert for the dinner we had last night. And in the background is a cute mini lampshade Diana had made earlier in the day. See, the picture is topical... both Diana and I contributed!
Sitting here listening to a podcast with one headphone in and Teki (the cat) just walked up and ate the other headphone!
... or at least the rubber plug covering the headphone.
Firstly, that can't be good for his digestive system (I just spent a minute poking my finger down his throat trying to get it out).
Secondly... where did I put the spare earphone plugs?
Yesterday was Ryan's first birthday!
It has really been an amazing year. We are so blessed with Ryan as our son. He is the cutest kid ever (in my eyes) and his constant upgrades (6 teeth now! standing! saying 'car'!) make him consistently amazing to me.
Parenting, as a whole, has been just as rewarding as I had hoped, but also harder than I had suspected. Obviously I'm not in a position to recommend it to anyone because it all depends on the couple and the child - and I've had a good time purely because I have a great wife and a great kid. *grin*
And its all so biblical! God is our Father. And the love I have for Ryan - when he has done absolutely nothing to earn or deserve it - is immeasurable... that's fatherly love for you! There's wisdom in that, I reckon.
It was my great honour to be asked to take photos at my friends' wedding on Sunday (as one of two 'official' photographers).
It really is a ton of fun shooting weddings for people I consider to be friends and family. And, being photographer is kind of a crafty way of becoming part of the bridal party! I mean, you do get to hang out with the bridal party when everyone else is trying to work out what to do in that limbo time between the ceremony and reception...
Sure, there is also responsibility and work involved - shooting outdoors in bright sunlight is a tricky thing, as are moodily lit restaurants - but ... its a fun responsibility. I'm always learning something new about lighting, composition and bossing people around... and if I wasn't learning something I wouldn't be happy.
In the end, the day is all about the bride and groom and the commitment they are making to eachother. May your marriage be blessed, joyful and protected for the rest of your lives.
Today while walking with Diana and Ryan before dinner time we spotted a little swarm of birds (pigeons?) flying laps around a tree. It was really quite mesmerizing to see so many birds flying together in circles! As they circled close to us each time you could hear the 'whoosh' of their wings as they all flew as fast as they could.
Eventually a couple of birds peeled off to land. I presume they were tired. A handful of laps later and the rest tired out, too.
Nature is awesome. Thanks God!
Well, praise God for answered prayer because we all seem to be feeling better at last!
In celebration, I encourage you to look at this flickr set of flying cats
(n) An inflammation of the stomach and intestine resulting in diarrhea, with vomiting and cramps when irritation is excessive. When caused by an infectious agent, it is often associated with fever.
Yep, that sounds about right.
Ryan has had vomiting and diarrhea... currently no more vomiting but still the other one, and he's not really keen on solid foods at the moment. Poor kid.
I've had all the symptoms, but thankfully medicine seems to have stopped them for now and I have managed to eat simple foods today. I actually had moments where I thought I was gonna pass out. That's not good.
Unfortunately, Diana is now feeling nauseous and tired. Poor wife! I am praying repeatedly that she might dodge the worst of it. If you are into prayer, please pray for her as well!
OK, this hasn't been a very nice blog post to read/post. Sorry about that but it has been a rough few days here.
Have had to take two days off sick due to a cold/flu. I really hate being sick... I end up lying around the house doing nothing useful and browsing the web. Basically I've had a sore throat, swollen glands, sneezing, gross boogers and headaches... oh, and slight fever. I really hate being sick.
Speaking of boogers though, our neighbour's kitten (whose name is Booger) has been visiting us alot lately. Apparently he's worked out how to escape their backyard and has been visiting us and even coming inside our house. Cute! Except Porscha starts attacking him and he ends up hissing at her. Teki just stares nervously at him alot and sniffs him. In the end I always have to push Porscha away from him and carry him outside so no trouble brews. Cats are such rascals!
Oh, I'm sure everyone who reads this knows, but my brother-in-law got married on Monday and I was one of the photographers. It was a long day, to be sure, but a very happy one too! Had a lot of fun, and I pray for God's blessings on their marriage.
This morning Ryan was playing on the floor, wearing diaper and shorts. He reached over and grabbed his t-shirt, held it up to me so I would take it, then sat up and looked at me as if to say "Daddy please put my shirt on".
I was pretty darn impressed! I have no idea what is normal for an 11 month old but to me everything Ryan does is amazing.
I've had the PSP for a long time and considered the RSS feature to be a bit gimmicky. However, today I found a perfect use for it!
I like to listen to podcasts while doing the dishes. Now unfortunately I hate having to sync my podcasts to my phone or ipod before I can go do the dishes. Today, on a whim, I thought I'd try the PSP RSS feature. The first podcast I tried it on was an AAC podcast and unfortunately the PSP didn't accept the file. The second podcast was TWiT MP3 podcast, and it worked!
Yay!
It is actually really cool. I'm listening to it now, watching the ADSL modem flicker away as it downloads the file. Niiiice.
Anyway, just thought I'd share that gem at 1am. Gnight!
Because I am oh-so-qualified to critique software I have used the beta and trial version of:
* click-anywhere to adjust colors/curves? sweet.
* fast!
* Error occurred attempting to switch modules?!?! Take your modules and burn them, mister.
* Stacks? What stacks? Oh _those_ stacks. How am I supposed to know that's a stack? Oh that thin grey line amongst all that other grey? I must be blind!
* Virtual copies. Ah yes, it is, isn't it (a virtual copy of Aperture, that is). Oh I don't like that virtual copy lets delete it. ARGH! Where did all my copies of that photo go?!?! *rips hair out*
* Non-locking export... nice.. but I'm just an amateur so it doesn't affect me so much
* interface? meh.
* raw decode: pretty nice.
* I can hide the top bar? Awesome. Hang on, how do I know when my export has finished? *grumble*
* Is there an option to auto-delete images off my camera after importing? I can't find it (and yes, I do like to use this option)
Conclusion: an excellent piece of software written by hard-working, well-meaning software developers who undoubtedly love photography, post-production and should be proud of what they have done. Yet I am perplexed and disappointed in my inability to love it. Perhaps I was spoilt by my brief affair with the Aperture demo. *sheds a tear*
Hm, maybe if I squint at iPhoto really hard it will start to look like Aperture.
PS. If I am thoroughly introspective... do I really need a digital workflow app like Lightroom or Aperture? No. Do I really need to have nicely keyworded photos so that in 5 years time I can show Ryan the photo of him with the yellow tractor toy? No. But might it come in handy when I take 200+ photos at a family birthday party? Ohhhhh yeah.
I propose that flickr.com cut down on the number of 'massages' that they seem to be having.
Any more massages and flickr.com will turn to jelly.
You know, I don't even really like white or milk chocolate anymore, but I'll snack on it when there's nothing else. *grin*
So this is what a sunrise looks like!
I went up to King's Park on Sunday with a friend at 6am and we snapped photos of the sun rising over Perth. I can't believe I actually managed to wake up that early.
Anyway, my shots turned out OK. Nothing spectacular, although God certainly did His part! The kit lens that came with the camera showed some of its flaws at landscape: lens distortion causing buildings to look like they were leaning in, slight blurriness even when properly focussed, etc. There was a guy with us who had some rather expensive lenses and I will bet that he experienced no such problems. However I felt it best not to try his lenses out for fear of liking them.
It really was a nice moment though to watch the sun rise. But once it was up I just wanted to get home and see my wife and son. I kinda prefer watching my son rise in the morning. Although I have trouble waking up for that one, too.
Thank you God for my family: my mom, dad, sisters, brother, family-in-law, nephews, wife and son... and all my extended family and friends. We are so blessed.
Yesterday our friends Aik & Zan delivered a couple of new additions to the Takayama lego family... the imperial officer and mouse droid!
I now realize that my lego minifig family is heavily skewed to the Dark Side (tm). But hey, nobody's perfect right?!
Otherwise, all is good. Ryan's doing well, and is threatening to crawl. He has gotten sooo much closer to crawling in the last week. It's amazing how much this kid can develop in a short time. I'm so proud of him!
Mental note: need to wash cars.
Usually I ignore spam. In fact, usually it gets filtered out for me by Mail.app
But this one was hilarious. The real message was in an image, but the text that they included to defeat my mail filtering (and succeed) was a random collection of phrases from somewhere. The way some of these sentences string together is hilarious!
It will be a classic statement. There were a huge amountof celebrities there as well. " anytime he detects any increase inspeed while riding in the car, or even the shopping cart at the grocery store. I'm glad this trilogyis over. 5 years later, I'm 32 and I'm experiencingmore happiness than I probably should with pantson.
It's been a bit odd trying to work out of a pristinely cleanenvironment. Men and women use the same facilities, without their clothes, and it's no big deal. Second, you need to succeed in posting a GNAA First Post on slashdot. I just read a CNet article reporting on a study called "The Digital Family" that was done by Nickelodeon. The hypothesis of the conference: "Skills that emerge in the course of participating in pop culture can become powerful forces when translated into tools of citizen engagement. It may sound strange, but it uses real human bodies that have been preserved using polymers. Lopez recommends The Fold, a band that writes relevant lyrics and songs with a steady drive.
It will be a classic statement.
Building any business can be fun and rewarding, but you need to be realistic about what is involved. This blog has been around for quite some time, andI've held off switching it over for a long timenow. Depending upon your talents for photography and copy writing, a picture from your digital camera and a quick blurb about the product are probably not going to be compelling to shoppers. Recently I attended traffic court inresponse to receiving the ticket. But things may be changing. All of this fixation on the Dukesof Hazzard lead to the natural conclusion of purchasing both seasons 1 and 2 ofthe series on DVD. I'm wearing "MagicalPantalones"Long hours and shortdays can certainly describe the past couple of weeks I've had.
I could always figure it out using a "calendar," of course, but I don't like figuring things out the hard way.
It's quick and easy - only 3 simple steps!
They say tragedies happen in groups of three.
Then we'd show her the name of the person to verify that she was correct, or to help her recognize who that person was if she didn't remember them.
Click the Shapes button to bring up the Shapes gallery.
If I want the window, I get the window. TriBeCa MedSpa is located at 114 Hudson Street.
All murderous astronaut all the time. I can't believe it's not butter.
aka New Misadventures in Coffee Making
(for those uninterested in coffee, skip to the last paragraph!)
Purchased some Braziliano grounds from the supermarket a couple days ago to replace the terrible old grounds I had. This was an emergency purchase as is evidenced by the fact that they were bought from a supermarket. *grin*
Anyway, end result is that the coffee tastes better (more smoky taste, no sourness or overly bitter aftertaste) but still isn't as 'rich' as I was hoping and lacks any kind of crema whatsoever.
One day I will save up enough pennies for a grinder. Then I will be able to purchase beans! Crazy.
NON-COFFEE-RELATED NEWS
For other news, Ryan continues to be cute and continues to impress/amaze/surprise us. He is really getting interactive and is starting to think in more complex ways. For example, if he is holding a piece of fruit in his hand and I open my mouth he will put the fruit in my mouth! The most important thing here is that I haven't yet taught him that his dad doesn't really like fruit! hehehe.
Hooray!
The last parts in my coffee machine conversion arrived today (parts to turn my pod-loving coffee machine into a fully fledged coffee ground brewer)! My lovely wife went and picked them up from the city (thanks hon!) and I was able to attempt to make a real coffee this evening.
Result: better but disappointing simultaneously.
Better? Well, the coffee was stronger and more intense than before, that's for sure! There is an intensity to well-brewed coffee that I haven't ever experienced from instant/drip/steamed/pressed coffee.
Disappointing? Not much crema, sour aftertaste.
Lessons learnt:
1. when a real tamper cannot be found (where did I put it?! besides, the missing tamper is the wrong size) improvizing with a nesquik lid and a spoon is a poor substitute
2. overfilling the basket with coffee makes it hard to put the basket in the machine
3. old coffee grounds that have been sitting around for months are a Bad Idea (tm)
4. don't forget to heat up the basket and the machine
5. enthusiasm does not make up for preparation and technique
hehehe
Well, now that THAT is over with... time to buy some fresh grounds and make some real coffee. Or time to make some more mistakes!
C'est la vie! Carpe coffee!
I've been sick lately (just a cold but have had to take some days off work) and have found a few things that have kept my mood up:
* Ryan and Diana (thanks to God!)
* cat shenanigans (as per picture)
* coffee.
All I can say is thank God for the first two, cause I just ran out of coffee! Eek!
I gave little 8 month old Ryan a pop quiz today, and he did brilliantly! Here is an excerpt:
Me: 'Ryan, what is the 5th letter of the alphabet?'
Ryan: 'eeeeeee!'
Me: 'Yay! So what letter comes after D?'
Ryan: 'eeeeee!'
Me: 'Correct! And what letter comes before F?'
Ryan: 'Dad! eeeee!'
Me: *beaming with pride*
(filed under 'my child has a limited vocabulary')
For some reason, little Ryan decided to wake up at 4am crying his head off.
*puzzled look*
While I couldn't muster the energy to get out of bed, Diana went to soothe him. After a while, he was still crying, so I went to comfort him as well. Eventually, around 5am we had him calm, collected, and were able to leave him to his own devices. Thank God!
Of course, last time I peeked (7am) he was sideways at the foot of the cot with one foot sticking out from between the bars. haha. Cute.
Gotta go wake everyone up now!
When your 7.5 month old son screams instead of sleeping because he wants you to supervise/assist him in getting out a poo before he goes to sleep.
