Tyler is right here on my lap watching me type. So I have to be a little careful about what I say about him. He is is really good kid and I love to give him kisses and he is very nice when he is patient and works hard.
Now he is slipping and falling off my lap, so I can tell you that as a 2 year old, he's kind of a jerk.
When you learn about what kids are going through in their 'Terrible twos', their behavior makes a lot of sense. They have essentially been living in a world that, as near as they can tell, they are in complete control of. When they want things, they get them, and any perturbations from this norm are probably just forgotten. A two year old, on the other hand, is slowly learning that he is an entity, and the world around him spins with its own rules, rules he is often not going to enjoy. It would bum me out, too.
I consider it my duty to frustrate Tyler at least once a day, if not many more. I figure denying him something he wants is just part of the process of teaching him things. I figure when he gets old and reads this, he'll probably be really frustrated with me, but tough noogies, kid. If I didn't teach you these things, you'd be completely insufferable, as opposed to the regularly insufferable that I'm sure you've achieved at whatever age you find this. It's part of the learning process. Deal.
Anyway, I figure that whatever I'm doing has to be working pretty well so far, because he's turning into a pretty great kid. He's super curious about things, fussy, but certainly not insufferably so, and is quickly becoming a candidate for those great one-liners they always got from 'kids say the darnedest things.' Lets try a few:
How old is daddy?: One
How old is mommy?: Two
How old is Tyler?: Four...um, Two!
Where does our food come from?: Ummm...the Pizza man!
That last one isn't true, by the way. We cook.
My recent favorite has been from last night. I was singing him a random song I had been listening to during the day. Obedear by Purity Ring. The chorus goes like this:
Oh, but dear the sky is low.
Gather up your harm and gods
with grateful arms.
Oh, but dear the sky is low...
Well as I was singing, he sits bolt upright from laying on my chest and says to me, with wide eyes: "Sky is low! We were on the plane with the clouds! Sky is low!" He had evidently just figured out how the clouds had been so close to the plane window. I did my best to explain how the plane goes up near the clouds, and he settled back down, but that's some pretty inspired science from a kid who was about to go to sleep.
Tyler is in the 'transition' classroom now, which is theoretically a transition between the 'day care' of the younger kids and the 'almost kindergarten' of the older classes. He seems to be fitting in pretty well, being a fan of running around, playing with sand, and sitting and reading books, some of the primary activities of his class. I've gotten to join a couple of times. I got to hang out in his classroom one morning and started reading him a book. Before too long I had gathered an impromptu circle of all the kids in the class and was reading to them about things that go.
I also got to visit for 'splash day', which has started up again during the heat of the summer. The difference between splash day for toddlers and two year olds is primarily that the two year olds don't want to stay on the splash pad. There is a big playground out there, one they don't often get to visit, and they have as much desire to explore as they do to get hosed down by the teachers. Though the hosing is also a pretty big draw.
I 'got' to travel last week, which Jessie always considers a vacation for me (and she's not entirely wrong) but Tyler is old enough to start missing people and telling us about it, which means that I got a couple of videos sent to me of Tyler saying he was sad because he misses his daddy, which breaks your heart right in two, let me tell you.
We got to spend the fourth of July in Florida with the Florida family, and Tyler thought the fireworks were pretty neat, though he did manage to burn himself on a sparkler. Does that sound familiar to any parents here? First son burning fingers on hot sparkler? Maybe it's genetic. Anyway, we at a lot of food (Tyler liked the beans) and also got to go to the Miami Zoo, which was pretty horrible. Oh, the zoo was fine, but it was really, really hot, and we couldn't get Tyler to take a nap while we were there, so he got pretty grumped up. He thought the giraffes and elephants were pretty neat, but we had to head home in the early afternoon because of excessive grumpitude. He napped on the way home and was much more personable after that.
We also spent a lot of time in Aunt Shannon's pool, where Tyler mostly just tried to kill himself over and over. He was better than he has been, and was a champion at shimmying along the wall, but he was still a little too squirmy for his own good while we were holding him. He was a big fan of sitting on floaty things and getting pushed around, as well as getting surprised by Johnny and William. Also enjoyed doing big daddy-assisted slam dunks in the floating basketball hoop. But since he was still not holding his breath or being safe, Jess signed him up for some basic swim lessons. It's not super-critical for us, because we don't have a pool, but it would be nice to let him learn more about holding his breath and being safe around water. It would at least make it easier to hold him.
I've been playing more video games recently. Which is odd, because for a while I wasn't playing them at all. I was practicing painting, or piano, or drawing, or something else 'productive'. It's become frustrating, though, to spend all my time on things that are essentially just practice. I'm not yet good enough at those things to have fun just sitting down and playing piano, or drawing, or something like that. Every once in a while I want to just have some fun. Ergo, video games.
I'm trying to loose weight. Well, that's not true. Not really. I've long held that the scale is not my best metric for monitoring my health, after I stared doing more exercise and lost size but gained weight, presumably in these massive guns of mine (kiss, kiss). Regardless, I measured at 236 at the end of the 4th of July vacation, and that is too much. I've started monitoring my food intake in an attempt to see where my weaknesses are, and so far I think I'm doing pretty good, with the monitoring, if not with the weight loss, that takes time. I don't think of it as a diet, though, those end. I'm trying to create a formula for selecting the things that I eat that will keep me healthy and satisfied over the long term. That's also called a 'diet', but it's the version of the word that botanists use. I like that one better. The main problem so far has been that I'm still pretty hungry a lot. If anyone has any suggestions for food that keeps you full with a low number of calories, I'm all ears. I'm eating a lot of tuna, though.
I mostly did this because I realized my favorite thing about the blog is going back and reading my old entries. So this is an entry that will, someday, be old, and I'll read it and enjoy it. Hopefully the rest of you do as well.
-N
Showing posts with label Video Games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Video Games. Show all posts
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Getting Ready to Travel
So tomorrow I get to travel for work.
Nothing as exotic as England, but Charleston, SC isn't a bad place if
you gotta do some work. It's supposed to be pretty rainy there all
week, so I'm glad I have a raincoat to bring. Thanks, Switzerland!
Jess is going to be a dear and watch Tyler for the week, which
actually means that he will have to have is first babysitter this
week, as Jess has a couple of hockey games to go play. Fortunately,
they're after Tyler goes to sleep, so it'll be an easy job, but it's
still worth noting. First babysitting job, yowza. We got a
recommendation from someone at work (a neice) and she will be coming
over Monday evening to...well, essentially just make sure the house
doesn't catch fire. A neighbor will be coming by for the Wednesday
evening game. But in both cases, Tyler should sleep right through the
event. Well, at least that's the hope. If he doesn't...well, that's
what babysitters are for.
I, on the other hand, am doing
important work stuff. The transition from the R&D group to the
Test group has been a pretty fantastic one. I've already gotten a
spot award and am sitting in on interviews and getting commended for
doing good stuff. I even get to travel for test already. Neat, eh?
We've been testing our software re: its interface with some other
software, and are pretty confident in our ability to go out there and
demonstrate our stuff working as intended. We have, in fact, been
mostly finding bugs with their software. And also with the
hardware we're using to test everything. I'm getting pretty good at
reading debug logs and am slowly improving at Linux at the same time.
People appreciate what I'm doing, and I've got interesting stuff to
do. Exactly what I was looking for.
I got a new toy for myself a few weeks
ago. An Ipad! I thought it was way too expensive, but most high-end
tablets sell for around the same $$$, and the smooth, pretty display
really sold me. So now I finally get to play a lot of those
Ipad-only games that I've been reading about for so long. It's nice.
I'm also going to attempt to travel without a laptop for the first
time in quite a while, just bringing the new tablet with me.
Considering I'm pretty much only going to be using it for goofing-off
purposes, I think it will handle just fine.
Speaking of games, I've been spending
less and less time playing games on the TV, and more time playing
them on my laptop or on the tablet. The game that's been taking up
residence in the Xbox is actually our exercise game. Good for a
workout, but in addition to my usual Judo, I've actually been taking
out my bike for a spin in the evenings (I wear one of those glowy
vests and have lights and stuff, so I'm safe.) I definitely need to
hit up Uncle Matt for biking tips.
Did you guys catch the Olympics? We
watched the opening ceremony (until we got tired and went to bed) and
have been having it on and off as the mood strikes us. It's probably
the most TV Tyler has ever seen. I'm not sure he has any idea what
it is showing, unless he's been watching Water Polo at day care.
Additions to Tyler's Dictionary:
Bapple: Apple
Wa-Wa: Water
Moo: Answer to “What does a cow
say?”
Baa: Answer to “What does a a sheep
say?”
Bee-Bee-Bee-Bee: This is actually the
sound Daddy makes when tickling Tyler with his face.
Tuck: Stuck. For things that don't
move.
He doesn't always remember the right
word for any given situation: you often have to remind him what word
to use, but the words are all in there. Very cute.
We also went to watch mommy play ice
hockey yesterday. Tyler was very intrigued by the game, though he
kept losing track of which one Mommy was. Whenever she skated over
to give him a smile in between plays, though, he would get really
excited. The rest of the time was spent running around the outside
of the rink, watching the Zamboni and doing his other new favorite
activity: spinning around in a circle until he falls over. He nearly
had to sub in for their center: they were short a lot of players, but
they managed to scrape together enough players to form a couple of
lines and won their game. Yay!
I'll try to write updates from
Charleston if I have time.
-N
Saturday, January 7, 2012
A Catalog of Misery
Illness has been blooming like springtime in the Preecs Household—Austin Branch. The cold I brought down with me refused to give up the ghost, and I was sick with it for nearly a full week until I took a full day off work to just not do anything except recover. Of course, all of that happened AFTER the ear infection.
I don't know if it was the flight, or what have you, but I've picked up an ear infection from something and it HURTS. I can totally tell why babies cry when they get these things. It kept me up most of a night just dosing myself with handfuls of Ibuprofen and waiting for it to kick in. Not a fun time. I finally managed to get in to see a doctor who gave me some antibiotic ear drops, but my ears, despite not being painful and keeping me up at night anymore, are still really clogged. I'm waiting for them to clear, but in the meantime, my hearing is terrible. And then the day after that, my cold came back with a vengeance, at the same time Jess came down with it, so we took Tyler off to day care and both stayed home and rested, like normal sick people are supposed to do.
So for the most part we are over our illnesses, except I still can't hear anything. I can see why this would be so bad for babies to have. It's hard enough to learn English when you can hear it properly.
There are other little things to talk about, but it's mostly just been illness recovery around this house. Tyler's tooth has broken through, and he spends a lot of time clicking his teeth together and driving his parents crazy with the sounds. Fingernails and chalkboards and whatnot. We got a Kinect, and have already started burning off calories with our game. Fun times. Jess is off at hockey and I'm in charge of the little one, who is taking an early nap for a while longer. After that, I will just pinch his cute little cheeks and play with whatever happens to be around here with him. Everything is a toy!
-N
I don't know if it was the flight, or what have you, but I've picked up an ear infection from something and it HURTS. I can totally tell why babies cry when they get these things. It kept me up most of a night just dosing myself with handfuls of Ibuprofen and waiting for it to kick in. Not a fun time. I finally managed to get in to see a doctor who gave me some antibiotic ear drops, but my ears, despite not being painful and keeping me up at night anymore, are still really clogged. I'm waiting for them to clear, but in the meantime, my hearing is terrible. And then the day after that, my cold came back with a vengeance, at the same time Jess came down with it, so we took Tyler off to day care and both stayed home and rested, like normal sick people are supposed to do.
So for the most part we are over our illnesses, except I still can't hear anything. I can see why this would be so bad for babies to have. It's hard enough to learn English when you can hear it properly.
There are other little things to talk about, but it's mostly just been illness recovery around this house. Tyler's tooth has broken through, and he spends a lot of time clicking his teeth together and driving his parents crazy with the sounds. Fingernails and chalkboards and whatnot. We got a Kinect, and have already started burning off calories with our game. Fun times. Jess is off at hockey and I'm in charge of the little one, who is taking an early nap for a while longer. After that, I will just pinch his cute little cheeks and play with whatever happens to be around here with him. Everything is a toy!
-N
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Turkey, Et. Al.
'Tis the end of our Thanksgiving weekend too, and it has been a very nice one. This also marks the first time Jess and I have celebrated Thanksgiving by staying home and not traveling across the country and driving ourselves crazy. I gotta say, if you can swing it, Thanksgiving at home is a pretty good way to go. Though you do have to cook for yourselves.
Wednesday was prep day, and like any good father, I just assumed I would have no time to do anything the next day (babies are unpredictable like that) and did whatever I could. Our spread was a little more modest, but I did manage to brine the turkey and set up for both green bean and Sweet potato casserole on Wednesday. Thursday I cooked, and having a little turkey breast to cook instead of a huge honking Turkey makes all the difference, let me tell you. Ever cook a turkey in an hour? It's a little less iconic on the table, but white meat is all we really want anyway, so it worked out. Then a couple of casseroles, some Stove Top stuffing, can-shaped cranberry sauce (the best) and some brown-n-serve rolls and we were in business. Everything was delicious, and we even bought ourselves a few pies to sustain ourselves during dessert. Of course, those pies had been missing a few wedges since we had been trying them out earlier in the week to make sure they were, um, ripe.
Friday was pretty sedate, though notable because it rained, which is always nice when you can get some of that in Texas. I had the bright idea to go get some discount turkey, but there weren't any notable markdowns so we just picked up some random stuff and came home. We're still undecided about Christmas lights, whether or not we actually want to put them up, and the fact that the ground was all wet meant we didn't want to go trudging around in the yard, so we just went on a few walks and played with Tyler a lot. And a few video games, I won't lie.
Saturday I decided to knock the last thing off my long weekend to-do list and finish my latest song. I've been working on the (unofficial) Ticom Geomatics theme song for a while and had the music and lyrics all written, but I hadn't been able to record the lyrics yet because...I've been busy playing video games. So I convinced myself I wasn't allowed to play Saint's Row until the song was done, and then Jess was nice enough to watch Tyler so I could do some recording.
It's still fairly low production value, I personally think it sounds like I'm in a Karaoke Bar, but it's functional, and a worthwhile proof of concept. Maybe I can get some Ticom musicians to help me with a more professional sounding version, starting with the singer. I'm not amazing. I'll post it up in a bit, but if you get desperate, or I forget, you can e-mail me and I’ll send it to you.
Then today was Judo. Our sensei, who just got promoted to 8th degree black belt (one of only 5 in the COUNTRY) decided to have a little seminar, and so I went and Jessie came to watch. There were only about 8 of us there, but it was great fun, good education, and excellent exercise, clocking in at 3 hours of judo, which ain't bad. After that, we've been at home and just fussing around with Tyler and trying to get him to stay awake until his bedtime. I think we've managed to skype with pretty much everyone on my skype list this weekend, so you've all seen his most recent antics. Lots of crawling, getting into things he shouldn't, and eating puffs like it's going out of style.
-N
Wednesday was prep day, and like any good father, I just assumed I would have no time to do anything the next day (babies are unpredictable like that) and did whatever I could. Our spread was a little more modest, but I did manage to brine the turkey and set up for both green bean and Sweet potato casserole on Wednesday. Thursday I cooked, and having a little turkey breast to cook instead of a huge honking Turkey makes all the difference, let me tell you. Ever cook a turkey in an hour? It's a little less iconic on the table, but white meat is all we really want anyway, so it worked out. Then a couple of casseroles, some Stove Top stuffing, can-shaped cranberry sauce (the best) and some brown-n-serve rolls and we were in business. Everything was delicious, and we even bought ourselves a few pies to sustain ourselves during dessert. Of course, those pies had been missing a few wedges since we had been trying them out earlier in the week to make sure they were, um, ripe.
Friday was pretty sedate, though notable because it rained, which is always nice when you can get some of that in Texas. I had the bright idea to go get some discount turkey, but there weren't any notable markdowns so we just picked up some random stuff and came home. We're still undecided about Christmas lights, whether or not we actually want to put them up, and the fact that the ground was all wet meant we didn't want to go trudging around in the yard, so we just went on a few walks and played with Tyler a lot. And a few video games, I won't lie.
Saturday I decided to knock the last thing off my long weekend to-do list and finish my latest song. I've been working on the (unofficial) Ticom Geomatics theme song for a while and had the music and lyrics all written, but I hadn't been able to record the lyrics yet because...I've been busy playing video games. So I convinced myself I wasn't allowed to play Saint's Row until the song was done, and then Jess was nice enough to watch Tyler so I could do some recording.
It's still fairly low production value, I personally think it sounds like I'm in a Karaoke Bar, but it's functional, and a worthwhile proof of concept. Maybe I can get some Ticom musicians to help me with a more professional sounding version, starting with the singer. I'm not amazing. I'll post it up in a bit, but if you get desperate, or I forget, you can e-mail me and I’ll send it to you.
Then today was Judo. Our sensei, who just got promoted to 8th degree black belt (one of only 5 in the COUNTRY) decided to have a little seminar, and so I went and Jessie came to watch. There were only about 8 of us there, but it was great fun, good education, and excellent exercise, clocking in at 3 hours of judo, which ain't bad. After that, we've been at home and just fussing around with Tyler and trying to get him to stay awake until his bedtime. I think we've managed to skype with pretty much everyone on my skype list this weekend, so you've all seen his most recent antics. Lots of crawling, getting into things he shouldn't, and eating puffs like it's going out of style.
-N
Sunday, November 20, 2011
I've Been Busy
As much as I'd like to imply that I've been busy raising my son or doing other super-important things, if I'm being realistic, it's been the video games. We have passed through the holiday release season when everyone wants to make sure their games our out so people can buy them for Christmas, and I have more video games than I know what to do with. Literally, I have several video games that I'm sort of playing at random depending on what mood strikes me at the time. I'm sure I'll be playing them for months, considering how long some of these are, reportedly.
Well, not just video games. It's been a busy week at work, too. We did some data collections that I helped out on, and that led to some long days, and mine weren't even the longest. Nothing terribly mentally taxing, fortunately, just writing down numbers and running some lines of code, but it does take some time to get everything lined up, so there was an 11 hour day and a couple of 9.5 hour days last week, which meant that I felt entirely justified just coming home and playing video games until bedtime. And I didn't have nearly the most work, the guy that was in charge of analyzing the data did that. He stayed up till way too late several times and still managed to meet us in the morning for collections. I'd be frustrated that he is younger than me and doing more important stuff, but he does know his signals well. That's probably why we hired him.
My very first thanksgiving in my own home! I'm excited. Jess and I have been considering the menu, and also when we want to have it, being as we are in charge and can do whenever we want. I'm considering just doing it on Saturday, just to get discount turkeys, but then is it still thanksgiving, or just a turkey dinner? Anyway, there's definitely going to be turkey, and stove stop stuffing, and cranberry sauce from a can (you and me, dad!) and rolls and a few other things as well. Also I'm keen on going to Costco just to get an apple pie. We can each have a slice and then give the rest away at work. And Ice cream. Maybe I should make my own again. Yum.
We had a neighborhood get-together party last weekend that went off just great. I made hotdogs and sausages, because they freeze well when you buy too many of them. We met several more neighbors and saw a few old favorites, and everyone thought that Tyler was the cutest baby because they had good taste in babies. I still give credit to Nana for inspiring me to do this, it's been a great hit among the neighbors, especially when I do it in the fall and it's not a billion degrees outside.
So, Tyler, I'm sure that's what you really want to hear about yeah? He's just chugging along, developmentally. He's gotten much better at chewing, though managing the tongue is still a bit of a challenge and he does still choke himself on food a little bit, it's getting better. He's also started clapping, and even cruising a little bit. (That's where he pulls himself up on things and then steps along to the side while keeping balanced with his hands, I didn't realize it had a name until I got a baby of my own.) His crawling is also very impressive, he likes going around the house (with supervision) and getting chased and also looking around corners when he thinks one of his parents will be over there. He's still not a big fan of strangers, but he's manageable as long as parents are within sight.
He's also started liking walking again, and he's way faster at it. We all had a blast a few nights ago when we realized that when I grabbed his hands he'd take off running and bouncing, especially when mommy was right behind, threatening tickles the whole way. That was fun. He's definitely getting a lot more expressive, and expressive in a way that makes me think there's a tiny, emerging personality behind it, as opposed to just the random facial movements I've seen before. Maybe that's just the proud dad talking.
Jess hired a cleaning service to come by the house. When we got back we just wandered around saying 'wow' and looking at how darn clean everything was. Especially down at the floor level where certain family members seem to like to crawl. So we signed up for them to come by monthly. Not enough that we have to stop cleaning after ourselves, but all those tasks that seem to pile up and have to get done 'someday' now just get taken care of. Dusting and cleaning mirrors and the like. Very convenient. We also hired some people to come by and trim up our trees to make them look nice. So now I have people taking care of my lawn, my trees, my cleaning, and even my baby. I just have to hire a cook and someone to do my job for me and I can retire.
-N
Well, not just video games. It's been a busy week at work, too. We did some data collections that I helped out on, and that led to some long days, and mine weren't even the longest. Nothing terribly mentally taxing, fortunately, just writing down numbers and running some lines of code, but it does take some time to get everything lined up, so there was an 11 hour day and a couple of 9.5 hour days last week, which meant that I felt entirely justified just coming home and playing video games until bedtime. And I didn't have nearly the most work, the guy that was in charge of analyzing the data did that. He stayed up till way too late several times and still managed to meet us in the morning for collections. I'd be frustrated that he is younger than me and doing more important stuff, but he does know his signals well. That's probably why we hired him.
My very first thanksgiving in my own home! I'm excited. Jess and I have been considering the menu, and also when we want to have it, being as we are in charge and can do whenever we want. I'm considering just doing it on Saturday, just to get discount turkeys, but then is it still thanksgiving, or just a turkey dinner? Anyway, there's definitely going to be turkey, and stove stop stuffing, and cranberry sauce from a can (you and me, dad!) and rolls and a few other things as well. Also I'm keen on going to Costco just to get an apple pie. We can each have a slice and then give the rest away at work. And Ice cream. Maybe I should make my own again. Yum.
We had a neighborhood get-together party last weekend that went off just great. I made hotdogs and sausages, because they freeze well when you buy too many of them. We met several more neighbors and saw a few old favorites, and everyone thought that Tyler was the cutest baby because they had good taste in babies. I still give credit to Nana for inspiring me to do this, it's been a great hit among the neighbors, especially when I do it in the fall and it's not a billion degrees outside.
So, Tyler, I'm sure that's what you really want to hear about yeah? He's just chugging along, developmentally. He's gotten much better at chewing, though managing the tongue is still a bit of a challenge and he does still choke himself on food a little bit, it's getting better. He's also started clapping, and even cruising a little bit. (That's where he pulls himself up on things and then steps along to the side while keeping balanced with his hands, I didn't realize it had a name until I got a baby of my own.) His crawling is also very impressive, he likes going around the house (with supervision) and getting chased and also looking around corners when he thinks one of his parents will be over there. He's still not a big fan of strangers, but he's manageable as long as parents are within sight.
He's also started liking walking again, and he's way faster at it. We all had a blast a few nights ago when we realized that when I grabbed his hands he'd take off running and bouncing, especially when mommy was right behind, threatening tickles the whole way. That was fun. He's definitely getting a lot more expressive, and expressive in a way that makes me think there's a tiny, emerging personality behind it, as opposed to just the random facial movements I've seen before. Maybe that's just the proud dad talking.
Jess hired a cleaning service to come by the house. When we got back we just wandered around saying 'wow' and looking at how darn clean everything was. Especially down at the floor level where certain family members seem to like to crawl. So we signed up for them to come by monthly. Not enough that we have to stop cleaning after ourselves, but all those tasks that seem to pile up and have to get done 'someday' now just get taken care of. Dusting and cleaning mirrors and the like. Very convenient. We also hired some people to come by and trim up our trees to make them look nice. So now I have people taking care of my lawn, my trees, my cleaning, and even my baby. I just have to hire a cook and someone to do my job for me and I can retire.
-N
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Can I talk about my baby some more?
He is really cute. He's having a bit of a rough time at the moment, but you'd never know if you didn't know how smiley and energetic he normally is. And what his normal body temperature feels like. He's got a fever, and the sniffles, so I'm going to chalk this one up to 'he has a cold' unless further evidence presents itself. He acts like I act when I'm sick and no one is around. I make that 'groany' sound and roll around in the bed, unable to get comfortable and feeling sorry for myself. I toughen up when other people are around. Tyler has no such qualms.
It's been a mostly boring weekend for us. Yesterday Jess took some mommy time and went of to roller derby and then got a massage. I took care of the baby. He's started eating applesauce, his favorite, so far. He's also gone through green beans, peas, sweet potatoes, and carrots without incident. Sometime we're going to start him on 'multi-grain cereal' (read: it has some wheat in it) but we may hold off for a little bit. He's actually mostly gone through the 'stage 2' baby food cereals (I think stage 1 is just formula) and we should be starting him on the next level of stuff: chunky things that he has to learn to mash a bit between his cute little baby gums before swallowing. It's a step. After that, we can start giving him food to eat on his own with his increasingly-well-developed little pincher grip.
And speaking of chewing, I've started brushing Tyler's teeth at night. It's mostly just to get it worked into the routine, at this point, but we have a cute little brush and I scrape it against his teeth a few times while Jess changes his diapers. He was a little startled the first time, but quickly decided he likes it. It's not a bad way to get some smiles out of him.
As for crawling, Tyler is getting more and more distance under his belt as his confidence grows. He can definitely see a thing that he wants and go get that thing, which must be immensely freeing for him. He's thinking about pulling himself to standing, but he doesn't quite have the muscles yet, and he occasionally flips and rolls and spooks himself something fierce in the attempt. You just have to hold him and smile at him and let him know that everything is okay, and before too long he'll be convinced.
Today we went out to the mall. Not for anything in particular, just to look at things and walk around with Tyler. There's lots of colors to see and people to stare at, and mommy and daddy can get some smoothies and pretzels. I considered buying Tyler his first video game system, but the point behind that little trick is to buy an old, cheap one and a million games for it. Turns out old Nintendo consoles have dipped past 'cheap' and are back up into 'collectable', or at least that's what my local 'old video game console' stores want me to think. I'll see if Ebay can't prove them wrong sometime later. Either that or Tyler gets a free upgrade to a cheap Playstation or PS2. No rush, though. I don't think his pincer grip is good enough to work video game buttons quite yet.
I think I'm allergic to mold. I've had watery (though not red) eyes and a stuffy nose for the past few days, and the allergy forecast has been high for 'mold' the past few days. Also my throat hurts. That might be unrelated. And I've been achy and tired, but only for a few days after I got the flu shot last week. I'm just saying, there are symptoms, okay?
I'm working on the Ticom Geomatics theme song in my spare time. It's hokey and simple which makes it easy to work on, but hard to get motivated by.
I'm going to to serve up dinner. Ta.
-N
It's been a mostly boring weekend for us. Yesterday Jess took some mommy time and went of to roller derby and then got a massage. I took care of the baby. He's started eating applesauce, his favorite, so far. He's also gone through green beans, peas, sweet potatoes, and carrots without incident. Sometime we're going to start him on 'multi-grain cereal' (read: it has some wheat in it) but we may hold off for a little bit. He's actually mostly gone through the 'stage 2' baby food cereals (I think stage 1 is just formula) and we should be starting him on the next level of stuff: chunky things that he has to learn to mash a bit between his cute little baby gums before swallowing. It's a step. After that, we can start giving him food to eat on his own with his increasingly-well-developed little pincher grip.
And speaking of chewing, I've started brushing Tyler's teeth at night. It's mostly just to get it worked into the routine, at this point, but we have a cute little brush and I scrape it against his teeth a few times while Jess changes his diapers. He was a little startled the first time, but quickly decided he likes it. It's not a bad way to get some smiles out of him.
As for crawling, Tyler is getting more and more distance under his belt as his confidence grows. He can definitely see a thing that he wants and go get that thing, which must be immensely freeing for him. He's thinking about pulling himself to standing, but he doesn't quite have the muscles yet, and he occasionally flips and rolls and spooks himself something fierce in the attempt. You just have to hold him and smile at him and let him know that everything is okay, and before too long he'll be convinced.
Today we went out to the mall. Not for anything in particular, just to look at things and walk around with Tyler. There's lots of colors to see and people to stare at, and mommy and daddy can get some smoothies and pretzels. I considered buying Tyler his first video game system, but the point behind that little trick is to buy an old, cheap one and a million games for it. Turns out old Nintendo consoles have dipped past 'cheap' and are back up into 'collectable', or at least that's what my local 'old video game console' stores want me to think. I'll see if Ebay can't prove them wrong sometime later. Either that or Tyler gets a free upgrade to a cheap Playstation or PS2. No rush, though. I don't think his pincer grip is good enough to work video game buttons quite yet.
I think I'm allergic to mold. I've had watery (though not red) eyes and a stuffy nose for the past few days, and the allergy forecast has been high for 'mold' the past few days. Also my throat hurts. That might be unrelated. And I've been achy and tired, but only for a few days after I got the flu shot last week. I'm just saying, there are symptoms, okay?
I'm working on the Ticom Geomatics theme song in my spare time. It's hokey and simple which makes it easy to work on, but hard to get motivated by.
I'm going to to serve up dinner. Ta.
-N
Friday, September 23, 2011
The Case of the Amazing Baby
We've had a few wow moments with Tyler over the past few weeks. For starters, he's started doing crazy stuff when he's on his stomach. He's been able to lift his head for a while, and he's been getting up on his knees and rocking back and forth a lot, which is a pretty normal thing for babies getting ready for crawling, but he's started to get up on all fours and then get up his toes. And then sort of flail his feet around so he's sort of half almost crawling and kinda walking on his toes except his hands never move. He's clearly excited to get moving, but he hasn't yet figured out that the hands need to be involved. Regardless, he's getting a heck of an upper-body workout. More and more of that baby budge is starting to turn into baby muscle!
He's starting to work on his little 'pincer motion' too, where he uses his finger and thumb for delicate tasks. It's clearly a work in progress, but he likes looking at fiddly things and he gets really focused and quiet and goes to work. The thumb and finger still have some coordination to work out between the two but it's really fascinating to watch him work. I caught a glimpse of my future son while he was working with a cute, concentrated face. For some reason I could see a shadow of how he's going to look when he's older. I got a bit of a chill.
We went swimming today, too. Well...it's still not that much swimming, truth be told. He has more fun in the tub. The pool is so new and strange that he spends most of his time, near as I can tell, just trying to figure out where the heck he is. We got some splashy time out of him, but the water was pretty cold, and it isn't a really good idea to keep him out in the sun much, even though we do make him wear a hat and a shirt. Delicate baby skin, you know.
Oh, and I got to take him swimming because I got to stay home today. I took a day off because Aunt Sandlin and Uncle Matt are visiting this week. Tyler has gotten a lot of Aunt time, especially around his cheek area. Matt has gotten to hold him and feed him a few times, too. They're going to spoil that kid rotten, I'm sure.
Tyler has been, as reported, working on Carrots this week. He's getting better, but he's still not a huge fan. Those first few bites are still really rough. We balance it out with some rice or oats, nice and familiar, and eventually he gets into the swing of things. It's way messier, though. We've got peas and sweet potatoes to try next. I imagine it will be much the same story as the carrots. Huge mess, scrunchy face, really cute.
As for me, I've been playing some video games in my spare time, but I think I need to get back into the studio to make some more music. There's a few more songs from Actraiser I'd like to cover, and someone made the excellent suggestion of writing a theme song for our work. I'm thinking of making it a little bit like the old Mickey Mouse Club theme. Very upbeat and saccharine. That could be a fun project.
Jess and I are both slacking on exercise a bit. Jess has a better excuse in that her normal Derby stuff has been interrupted by places loosing their rink time and other valid excuses. I was sick last week, but I missed Judo this week because Sandlin and Jessie told Tyler to be cute so I could stay home. He did, and so I did too. And I ended up making Ice cream too. Came out great, especially with strawberries. Yum.
Sandlin has been spoiling us with food. She made us Carnitas yesterday with so many fixins you'd think we were at a restaurant. Jess says she likes Sandlin's cooking better now. So I'll just have to make sure I fix that quite promptly...somehow. There were Kebabs, too. I grilled them with some corn that came out very well. She's also made us some chicken stock that she also turned into Chicken and Orzo soup, and Chilli, and a few other things too. She's a machine in the kitchen. She bought us some smoked salt that seems really good, but you have to store it extra-tight or it makes the whole pantry smell like a BBQ.
Jess gets back from work soon and then we're going to get some burgers with friends of Sandlin's that live in Austin. More people to meet! Oh, that reminds me. Some neighbors around the corner are either moving in or moving out. Either way, we'll probably have some new neighbors to meet quite soon.
-N
He's starting to work on his little 'pincer motion' too, where he uses his finger and thumb for delicate tasks. It's clearly a work in progress, but he likes looking at fiddly things and he gets really focused and quiet and goes to work. The thumb and finger still have some coordination to work out between the two but it's really fascinating to watch him work. I caught a glimpse of my future son while he was working with a cute, concentrated face. For some reason I could see a shadow of how he's going to look when he's older. I got a bit of a chill.
We went swimming today, too. Well...it's still not that much swimming, truth be told. He has more fun in the tub. The pool is so new and strange that he spends most of his time, near as I can tell, just trying to figure out where the heck he is. We got some splashy time out of him, but the water was pretty cold, and it isn't a really good idea to keep him out in the sun much, even though we do make him wear a hat and a shirt. Delicate baby skin, you know.
Oh, and I got to take him swimming because I got to stay home today. I took a day off because Aunt Sandlin and Uncle Matt are visiting this week. Tyler has gotten a lot of Aunt time, especially around his cheek area. Matt has gotten to hold him and feed him a few times, too. They're going to spoil that kid rotten, I'm sure.
Tyler has been, as reported, working on Carrots this week. He's getting better, but he's still not a huge fan. Those first few bites are still really rough. We balance it out with some rice or oats, nice and familiar, and eventually he gets into the swing of things. It's way messier, though. We've got peas and sweet potatoes to try next. I imagine it will be much the same story as the carrots. Huge mess, scrunchy face, really cute.
As for me, I've been playing some video games in my spare time, but I think I need to get back into the studio to make some more music. There's a few more songs from Actraiser I'd like to cover, and someone made the excellent suggestion of writing a theme song for our work. I'm thinking of making it a little bit like the old Mickey Mouse Club theme. Very upbeat and saccharine. That could be a fun project.
Jess and I are both slacking on exercise a bit. Jess has a better excuse in that her normal Derby stuff has been interrupted by places loosing their rink time and other valid excuses. I was sick last week, but I missed Judo this week because Sandlin and Jessie told Tyler to be cute so I could stay home. He did, and so I did too. And I ended up making Ice cream too. Came out great, especially with strawberries. Yum.
Sandlin has been spoiling us with food. She made us Carnitas yesterday with so many fixins you'd think we were at a restaurant. Jess says she likes Sandlin's cooking better now. So I'll just have to make sure I fix that quite promptly...somehow. There were Kebabs, too. I grilled them with some corn that came out very well. She's also made us some chicken stock that she also turned into Chicken and Orzo soup, and Chilli, and a few other things too. She's a machine in the kitchen. She bought us some smoked salt that seems really good, but you have to store it extra-tight or it makes the whole pantry smell like a BBQ.
Jess gets back from work soon and then we're going to get some burgers with friends of Sandlin's that live in Austin. More people to meet! Oh, that reminds me. Some neighbors around the corner are either moving in or moving out. Either way, we'll probably have some new neighbors to meet quite soon.
-N
Sunday, June 12, 2011
I am a Stay at Home Dad...
If only for a little while. Jess has started her transition back into 'working' status, and we're taking our time and letting her get back into the swing of things while also letting me get some at home time with Tyler. This past week I stayed at home for two days and Jess stayed at home for three, the other of us going off to work at the time. Next week will see Jessie at work for three days and me at work for two. The week after that Grandma Swanson comes for a month and we both go back to work...*leaving Tyler with someone else.* Dun dun dun! I'm guessing Jessie will be calling for hourly updates.
As for my part, pretty good, all told. I've been in charge of Tyler before, so I do know what I'm doing, but doing it for 8 or 9 hours requires a slightly different mindset. You do have to pace yourself. Also, the first day I was in charge of Tyler I had to deal with a mountain of vomit, and not all of it from the baby. Tyler was having some stomach problems, a bummer, but then Nagano spit up the largest volume of cat vomit I have ever seen in my life. I don't even know what he was eating, but he ate a lot of it and then decided he didn't want it anymore. Cleaning up cat vomit while holding a baby is a tricky maneuver. Well, doing anything with a baby in your arms is pretty tricky, actually.
Today Jess is off at Derby ('Her day.' Mine is either Monday or Wednesday when I get to go to Judo.) and is all excited to finish getting back into shape post-baby. Everyone wish her luck! Tyler is down for the count after a long session of playing and then a good amount of time relaxing on the front hammock with daddy, so I'm taking the time to write this while I copy all of my everything from my old laptop (mac) to my new one. Once I figured out how to do it through the LAN, everything went much smoother.
Tyler is discovering new sounds, as well. He's come up with 'the squeal', 'the raspberry' and a million variations on 'sounds to make while sucking on a pinkie.' He's made us laugh several times while contentedly groaning and falling asleep only to have his voice box completely get away from him on occasion.
Nana got to visit with our down-the-street neighbors and their baby. I figure it will be good for her to have an image of Grant in her mind, because we're sure to bring him up all the time. He's like our prototype baby. We watch him to get a sense of what we should be aiming for or attempting to avoid. He's a really neat little guy, especially as he is now in full control of his hands and capable of grabbing things and flinging them off the table. We got some take-n-bake pizza for dinner (easy and delicious!) and had to be very careful not to let any get within grant's reach.
The Electronic Entertainment Expo happened this week, which is very exciting if you like video games. Nothing terribly *shocking* happened, except that Nintendo announced their next console, the Wii U (pronounced We You). Once again the video game astounds us with it's ability to come up with some of the most ridiculous names in the known universe. And I'll bet some marketing firm got a trillion dollars for coming up with that. Anyway, the Wii U is a pretty big departure from the Wii. It's got a more traditional-looking controller, with buttons and knobs, as well as a 6 inch touch screen IN THE CONTROLLER. Totally bonkers, I know, but Nintendo seems to do well when it goes out on a limb and does something ridiculous, so I'm willing to suspend disgust until further information is available. But you know those controllers are going to be so expensive. Seriously. Oh, also, it's not coming out until 2012, so no rush or anything. Just now when you hear people talking about the Wii U you'll know what they're talking about. I provide useful services.
It's official, everyone in the house but me is asleep. Two kittens, one great-grandmother and the baby. Freedom!
-N
As for my part, pretty good, all told. I've been in charge of Tyler before, so I do know what I'm doing, but doing it for 8 or 9 hours requires a slightly different mindset. You do have to pace yourself. Also, the first day I was in charge of Tyler I had to deal with a mountain of vomit, and not all of it from the baby. Tyler was having some stomach problems, a bummer, but then Nagano spit up the largest volume of cat vomit I have ever seen in my life. I don't even know what he was eating, but he ate a lot of it and then decided he didn't want it anymore. Cleaning up cat vomit while holding a baby is a tricky maneuver. Well, doing anything with a baby in your arms is pretty tricky, actually.
Today Jess is off at Derby ('Her day.' Mine is either Monday or Wednesday when I get to go to Judo.) and is all excited to finish getting back into shape post-baby. Everyone wish her luck! Tyler is down for the count after a long session of playing and then a good amount of time relaxing on the front hammock with daddy, so I'm taking the time to write this while I copy all of my everything from my old laptop (mac) to my new one. Once I figured out how to do it through the LAN, everything went much smoother.
Tyler is discovering new sounds, as well. He's come up with 'the squeal', 'the raspberry' and a million variations on 'sounds to make while sucking on a pinkie.' He's made us laugh several times while contentedly groaning and falling asleep only to have his voice box completely get away from him on occasion.
Nana got to visit with our down-the-street neighbors and their baby. I figure it will be good for her to have an image of Grant in her mind, because we're sure to bring him up all the time. He's like our prototype baby. We watch him to get a sense of what we should be aiming for or attempting to avoid. He's a really neat little guy, especially as he is now in full control of his hands and capable of grabbing things and flinging them off the table. We got some take-n-bake pizza for dinner (easy and delicious!) and had to be very careful not to let any get within grant's reach.
The Electronic Entertainment Expo happened this week, which is very exciting if you like video games. Nothing terribly *shocking* happened, except that Nintendo announced their next console, the Wii U (pronounced We You). Once again the video game astounds us with it's ability to come up with some of the most ridiculous names in the known universe. And I'll bet some marketing firm got a trillion dollars for coming up with that. Anyway, the Wii U is a pretty big departure from the Wii. It's got a more traditional-looking controller, with buttons and knobs, as well as a 6 inch touch screen IN THE CONTROLLER. Totally bonkers, I know, but Nintendo seems to do well when it goes out on a limb and does something ridiculous, so I'm willing to suspend disgust until further information is available. But you know those controllers are going to be so expensive. Seriously. Oh, also, it's not coming out until 2012, so no rush or anything. Just now when you hear people talking about the Wii U you'll know what they're talking about. I provide useful services.
It's official, everyone in the house but me is asleep. Two kittens, one great-grandmother and the baby. Freedom!
-N
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Dorky Workouts- In the Comfort of my Home!
With all this (intermittent) free time on my hands this semester, I got to thinking I should get more fit. This didn't come out of no-where, Matt has dropped some 20 lbs riding his bike, and the day he bought a heart monitor was the day I realized "recreational exercise" had been toppled by "athletic training." I ought to at LEAST be able to keep up with the recreational parts. But nothing really sticks. I can ride the trainer, but it is so loud I don't ride very hard or else I can't hear the TV. I've got some excersize videos to do at home, but that seems stagnant. The weather has been to crappy to run, and I am not a natural gazelle anyway. So I've been frustrated and bored and unfit, and Matt has been designing interval trainings...
But while I was at work one evening, he walked up to the game store and found a copy of EA Sportsactive. This is a last generation of game that uses sensors you stick on yourself (ie- this is not Kinect) while you perform a variety of activities in your home. And at first I thought it would be kinda lame, but there is a lot of variability built into the game, and then a lot of system to get hooked on. For example, it keeps track of your weekly goals, and awards you trophies for every 100 calories you burn. There isn't special equipment, it's all stuff you could in theory do without the game, but have you ever tried to hold a squat for a minute in your own living room? 20 secs in, and you are thinking- Nevermind, we've got chairs here. There is a video trainer who says encouraging things, and gives you pointers on good form. And it lets you do imaginary boxing, fake soccer drills, and even fake mountain biking (which is really squats and jumping). The sit-ups, though, those are real. Hopefully the bajillion combinations and mid-term goal setting will help me stick with it through the next high stress chapter of my life.
107 days until the defense. I have 30 days left until I need to start writing. Eek.
But while I was at work one evening, he walked up to the game store and found a copy of EA Sportsactive. This is a last generation of game that uses sensors you stick on yourself (ie- this is not Kinect) while you perform a variety of activities in your home. And at first I thought it would be kinda lame, but there is a lot of variability built into the game, and then a lot of system to get hooked on. For example, it keeps track of your weekly goals, and awards you trophies for every 100 calories you burn. There isn't special equipment, it's all stuff you could in theory do without the game, but have you ever tried to hold a squat for a minute in your own living room? 20 secs in, and you are thinking- Nevermind, we've got chairs here. There is a video trainer who says encouraging things, and gives you pointers on good form. And it lets you do imaginary boxing, fake soccer drills, and even fake mountain biking (which is really squats and jumping). The sit-ups, though, those are real. Hopefully the bajillion combinations and mid-term goal setting will help me stick with it through the next high stress chapter of my life.
107 days until the defense. I have 30 days left until I need to start writing. Eek.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Tiny stories from the weekend
Nothing *largely* exciting happened recently, so I present to you a series of small little vignettes from a very nice weekend.
Jess decided she wanted pizza this weekend, so pizza was made. By me. I make great pizza. All you readers have experienced it, I think. I made 7 personal-pizzas worth of dough, and we made a large version of our collective favorite, the Gorgonzola pizza, and two personal pizzas each. Jess kept hers traditional, with another blue cheese and a garlic and cheese pizza, her favorites. I tried some cooked sausage on one and made a taco pizza on the other with some leftover taco meat and spaghetti sauce and pizza cheese on one half, Mexican-blend cheese on the other. Both halves were delicious. It was all topped off by jalapenos I grew in the backyard. Not spicy, but definitely mine.
We got a hammock. Jess came back from derby practice to find me setting it up in the front yard. She had stopped off at a smoothie place and asked for a strawberry banana smoothie for her and ‘something tart’ for me, because she knows what I like. We set up the hammock on the front yard and tested it out by lying down, smoothies in hand, and rocking back and forth under the shade of OUR trees while Jess relaxed on my chest. “This,” I thought, “is why I went to college.”
Much of the rest of Sunday was spent *completely* idle. I spent most of Saturday evening (a bit of Sunday early morning) and most of Sunday playing a game of Civilization 4, an *incredibly* complex society-building strategy game that is heavy on the complexity and light on the explanation. Jess sat next to me running some numbers on refinancing our mortgage and playing game of her own. We topped off the evening with some Rock band, which doubles as exercise, for me.
-N
Jess decided she wanted pizza this weekend, so pizza was made. By me. I make great pizza. All you readers have experienced it, I think. I made 7 personal-pizzas worth of dough, and we made a large version of our collective favorite, the Gorgonzola pizza, and two personal pizzas each. Jess kept hers traditional, with another blue cheese and a garlic and cheese pizza, her favorites. I tried some cooked sausage on one and made a taco pizza on the other with some leftover taco meat and spaghetti sauce and pizza cheese on one half, Mexican-blend cheese on the other. Both halves were delicious. It was all topped off by jalapenos I grew in the backyard. Not spicy, but definitely mine.
We got a hammock. Jess came back from derby practice to find me setting it up in the front yard. She had stopped off at a smoothie place and asked for a strawberry banana smoothie for her and ‘something tart’ for me, because she knows what I like. We set up the hammock on the front yard and tested it out by lying down, smoothies in hand, and rocking back and forth under the shade of OUR trees while Jess relaxed on my chest. “This,” I thought, “is why I went to college.”
Much of the rest of Sunday was spent *completely* idle. I spent most of Saturday evening (a bit of Sunday early morning) and most of Sunday playing a game of Civilization 4, an *incredibly* complex society-building strategy game that is heavy on the complexity and light on the explanation. Jess sat next to me running some numbers on refinancing our mortgage and playing game of her own. We topped off the evening with some Rock band, which doubles as exercise, for me.
-N
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
You need to know about Video Games
Okay, maybe you don’t, but it is becoming a more and more common medium in our society (yes, facebook games and Papa’s computer solitaire both count) and I, dear family, am the reporter for the job.
E3 happened last week. The Electronic Entertainment Expo. It’s essentially a big media event for the games that are coming out over, theoretically, the next year. Most of the games shown there are still things that won’t trickle down past people like me, but there is some more general, interesting news that you might want to hear about.
-Microsoft is putting out a new peripheral for their video game system. It’s called Kinect. It’s essentially a body scanner, it’s supposed to be able to read the position of your entire body in real time. The games associated with this new technology are still in an early development stage, but the technology is promising. If this sort of control scheme makes sense, we may be controlling computers ‘Minority Report’ style sooner than you think. Or not. It may turn out to be a huge waste of time, too. That’s what the future is for!
-3D DS. I’m guessing everyone knows about the Nintendo DS at this point, or at least you can visualize what I’m talking about when I mention it. Well Nintendo is rolling out a new version that has a 3D screen. Presumably what this means is that it knows where your face is and can send one TV image to each eye. The feedback from the people that have actually tried it is that it’s really quite good.
This is important for another reason, too. Remember how the big thing for the past several years has been ‘HD TVs’. The big, flat-panel ones that everyone was buying? Well the new wave of TV technology is 3D TV. That’s right, people, 3D is back! Or at least, major TV manufacturers are betting that it’s the next big thing. You can get 3D TVs right now if you want, but, once again, the technology is pretty new and you have to wear dorky glasses in most cases. Also it gives some people headaches. But who knows? In a few years it’ll either be like DVDs (how did we ever manage before everything was in 3D?) or like Laser Disks (Man, that was a dumb idea.)
I got a new wedding ring. I’m still hovering around between 200 and 205 pounds (trying my best to lose more) but my wedding ring keeps almost falling off, especially when my hands get wet. So I got a new ring, a half-size down. It’s made out of tungsten and it’s pretty freakin’ huge. Looks neat, though. And it’s big and obvious, which I think Jessie likes because she’s always afraid someone is going to discover how great I am and try and move in on her milkshake. She likes that I have this lady-repellent on my hand.
I’m mostly just excited that I got a cool new ring and that I’m all skinny now. Relatively. I still look pretty huge in that trapeze video.
Oh, yeah, recovery from the trapeze class has been pretty rough. Jess has been SUPER sore for the past couple of days, while I have been less achy. At least my hands have recovered pretty well. Great exercise, but not something we could do every day. I had to skip Judo on Monday (well I didn’t *have* to, but I did) and Jess wasn’t even able to go skating yesterday. We’re both back to something like normal today, though. At least now when people come to Austin and ask ‘what is there to do?’ we have another thing we can recommend.
-N
E3 happened last week. The Electronic Entertainment Expo. It’s essentially a big media event for the games that are coming out over, theoretically, the next year. Most of the games shown there are still things that won’t trickle down past people like me, but there is some more general, interesting news that you might want to hear about.
-Microsoft is putting out a new peripheral for their video game system. It’s called Kinect. It’s essentially a body scanner, it’s supposed to be able to read the position of your entire body in real time. The games associated with this new technology are still in an early development stage, but the technology is promising. If this sort of control scheme makes sense, we may be controlling computers ‘Minority Report’ style sooner than you think. Or not. It may turn out to be a huge waste of time, too. That’s what the future is for!
-3D DS. I’m guessing everyone knows about the Nintendo DS at this point, or at least you can visualize what I’m talking about when I mention it. Well Nintendo is rolling out a new version that has a 3D screen. Presumably what this means is that it knows where your face is and can send one TV image to each eye. The feedback from the people that have actually tried it is that it’s really quite good.
This is important for another reason, too. Remember how the big thing for the past several years has been ‘HD TVs’. The big, flat-panel ones that everyone was buying? Well the new wave of TV technology is 3D TV. That’s right, people, 3D is back! Or at least, major TV manufacturers are betting that it’s the next big thing. You can get 3D TVs right now if you want, but, once again, the technology is pretty new and you have to wear dorky glasses in most cases. Also it gives some people headaches. But who knows? In a few years it’ll either be like DVDs (how did we ever manage before everything was in 3D?) or like Laser Disks (Man, that was a dumb idea.)
I got a new wedding ring. I’m still hovering around between 200 and 205 pounds (trying my best to lose more) but my wedding ring keeps almost falling off, especially when my hands get wet. So I got a new ring, a half-size down. It’s made out of tungsten and it’s pretty freakin’ huge. Looks neat, though. And it’s big and obvious, which I think Jessie likes because she’s always afraid someone is going to discover how great I am and try and move in on her milkshake. She likes that I have this lady-repellent on my hand.
I’m mostly just excited that I got a cool new ring and that I’m all skinny now. Relatively. I still look pretty huge in that trapeze video.
Oh, yeah, recovery from the trapeze class has been pretty rough. Jess has been SUPER sore for the past couple of days, while I have been less achy. At least my hands have recovered pretty well. Great exercise, but not something we could do every day. I had to skip Judo on Monday (well I didn’t *have* to, but I did) and Jess wasn’t even able to go skating yesterday. We’re both back to something like normal today, though. At least now when people come to Austin and ask ‘what is there to do?’ we have another thing we can recommend.
-N
Sunday, June 13, 2010
More modern News
A few more notes, just while Jess finishes up some more playing in rock band, about stuff that's been happening, you know, recently.
1) We took off this Friday to go tubing with people at work, a tradition three years at this point. There were slightly fewer of us, and it was a little overcast, but that just made it easier to organize and less likely for us to get sunburned as far as I am concerned. Good times.
2) Inspired by Nana, we had a local neighborhood get-together grill. We didn't get *everyone* showing up, but we did get to meet and re-meet some neighbors, and we did get to see a lot of them when we handed out our little 'announcement fliers', though we had to convince some people, first, that we weren't there to tell them about the latest issue of The Watchtower.
The grill went off pretty well, although I made *way* too many hamburgers. Turns out grilling is pretty easy, I'm getting halfway accomplished at it. Lots of fun, lots of food, really hot, and we got a lot of 'thank yous' for organizing it. Next time, we may have to try Ice-cream, or maybe just have it indoors. It was pretty toasty.
Also, Rock band three has been announced, with the following upgrades:
a) A real keyboard
b) Upgraded Drums
c) Upgraded guitar
and, most importantly:
d) A version called 'pro mode' where you are pretty much playing the real guitar, drum, and keyboard parts. I could be learning how to play the keyboard! And the drums better (they'll have cymbals on them now) and the pro guitar, which is optional, has a button for every string and every fret now, and six strings to strum. How's that for realistic? I'm excited.
3) Jess and I are seriously considering joining the new century with sexy new smart phones, but being a good nerd I'm researching the possibilities. As in previous tech revolutions, the hardware is getting outdated every couple of months, but considering we're upgrading from really, really old phones, pretty much anything is acceptable.
4) Jess is still playing...what else...
5) We're trying to plan our vacation time for the rest of the year, which is pretty limited being as we burned pretty much all of it in Europe. We get more every month, though, so we're trying to figure out when we can go see Jessie's family, which we haven't seen for a really long time.
And that's about it. We've got a few more days of Europe and then we're done. It's been a pretty big writing project, and I'm *still* way behind Sandlin on the post count. Heh.
-N
1) We took off this Friday to go tubing with people at work, a tradition three years at this point. There were slightly fewer of us, and it was a little overcast, but that just made it easier to organize and less likely for us to get sunburned as far as I am concerned. Good times.
2) Inspired by Nana, we had a local neighborhood get-together grill. We didn't get *everyone* showing up, but we did get to meet and re-meet some neighbors, and we did get to see a lot of them when we handed out our little 'announcement fliers', though we had to convince some people, first, that we weren't there to tell them about the latest issue of The Watchtower.
The grill went off pretty well, although I made *way* too many hamburgers. Turns out grilling is pretty easy, I'm getting halfway accomplished at it. Lots of fun, lots of food, really hot, and we got a lot of 'thank yous' for organizing it. Next time, we may have to try Ice-cream, or maybe just have it indoors. It was pretty toasty.
Also, Rock band three has been announced, with the following upgrades:
a) A real keyboard
b) Upgraded Drums
c) Upgraded guitar
and, most importantly:
d) A version called 'pro mode' where you are pretty much playing the real guitar, drum, and keyboard parts. I could be learning how to play the keyboard! And the drums better (they'll have cymbals on them now) and the pro guitar, which is optional, has a button for every string and every fret now, and six strings to strum. How's that for realistic? I'm excited.
3) Jess and I are seriously considering joining the new century with sexy new smart phones, but being a good nerd I'm researching the possibilities. As in previous tech revolutions, the hardware is getting outdated every couple of months, but considering we're upgrading from really, really old phones, pretty much anything is acceptable.
4) Jess is still playing...what else...
5) We're trying to plan our vacation time for the rest of the year, which is pretty limited being as we burned pretty much all of it in Europe. We get more every month, though, so we're trying to figure out when we can go see Jessie's family, which we haven't seen for a really long time.
And that's about it. We've got a few more days of Europe and then we're done. It's been a pretty big writing project, and I'm *still* way behind Sandlin on the post count. Heh.
-N
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Going to england!
Just a quick note to let everyone know that next week I'll be going to England for work! It's mostly just hanging out in someone else's building and working on software, but the travel is nice, and we usually hang out in pubs afterwards and drink really good british beer.
I may be incommunicado for the most part, but I'll try to post something from a foreign country. With the power of the internet! I've been over there for work before, but this time we'll be staying in a different place, closer to the main city, so we can walk around and see more stuff besides cute little lambs, who had just been born and were wandering around the green fields when we were there last time.
Jess has Ratchet and Clank to keep her company while I am away, which is her favorite game series in the world. I've been watching her play some, and not only does it look like a lot of fun, the graphics are *gorgeous*, both technically and from an art direction perspective.
Also, as first-time homeowners in a neighborhood with kids, we get to officially hand out Halloween candy for the first time ever this weekend. We plan to hang out in the front and hand out candy and maybe meet some neighbors. I'll let you know how it goes, but I'm traveling on Sunday morning and I don't land until Monday, so it may be a bit before I'm fit to communicate with other humans.
Loves!
-N
I may be incommunicado for the most part, but I'll try to post something from a foreign country. With the power of the internet! I've been over there for work before, but this time we'll be staying in a different place, closer to the main city, so we can walk around and see more stuff besides cute little lambs, who had just been born and were wandering around the green fields when we were there last time.
Jess has Ratchet and Clank to keep her company while I am away, which is her favorite game series in the world. I've been watching her play some, and not only does it look like a lot of fun, the graphics are *gorgeous*, both technically and from an art direction perspective.
Also, as first-time homeowners in a neighborhood with kids, we get to officially hand out Halloween candy for the first time ever this weekend. We plan to hang out in the front and hand out candy and maybe meet some neighbors. I'll let you know how it goes, but I'm traveling on Sunday morning and I don't land until Monday, so it may be a bit before I'm fit to communicate with other humans.
Loves!
-N
Thursday, October 22, 2009
VIDEO GAMES!
Tis the season! The dam has broken! All the holiday-time titles are all hitting the market within the next few months! What a great time to be a nerd. :)
Here are some of my favorites:
Brutal Legend: Weird game. Sort of a mashup between an action game and a strategy game, all set in the strange, beautiful ancient land where Heavy Metal rules the day and guitar solos can literally melt faces. Great writing courtesy of industry legend Tim Shafer, but the game is only 'ok'. I liked it, though.
Ratchet and Clank: Another in the series comes out next week, and Jess is VERY EXCITED about this one. This is her favorite game series, and is made by her favorite developer, Insomniac Games. They've made a LOT of really great ones over the years.
Borderlands: Another hybrid, this time of a First Person Shooter and an online Role-playing game, where you can find new equipment (guns, sheilds, etc) and play with friends. I'm interested mostly because it's coming out this week for PC, and I'll need something to play while Jess takes over the TV for Ratchet and Clank.
Dragon Age: A PC Role-playing game from industry giant Bioware. They've got a long history of great PC RPGs, and this looks to be shaping up like all the rest.
Facebook Civilization: This actually just got announced, but I thought my Facebook-enabled family might be interested. They're going to be making a civilization game for Facebook. Civ is actually one of the longest running strategy game series, and is well regarded for deep and involving gameplay. I've been considering starting playing some facebook games because 1) they're free and 2) I can play them upstairs on my laptop while Jess reads.
Micro News! I'm going to England in two weeks! The date has been set, the tickets have been purchased, and the beer is on tap. I leave Nov 1 and I get back Nov 8, so if anyone has anything extra-British they need, let me know.
I've finished the tutorial books I got for Cubase and Reason, and so I can start getting down to the thrilling job of writing music! I'm planning a two-pronged approach. The method I learned in my Music Theory classes actually involves starting with a poem (lyrics) writing a melody, and then assigning chords that fit. The other approach is just to play around with my synthesizers and see what comes out.
It's been raining here, and I planted a whole bunch of wildflower seeds around our flowerbeds and around the new tree in the backyard. They've already started to sprout! We'll have to see what comes up. I'll post pictures.
Peace, love, unity and respect!
-N
Here are some of my favorites:
Brutal Legend: Weird game. Sort of a mashup between an action game and a strategy game, all set in the strange, beautiful ancient land where Heavy Metal rules the day and guitar solos can literally melt faces. Great writing courtesy of industry legend Tim Shafer, but the game is only 'ok'. I liked it, though.
Ratchet and Clank: Another in the series comes out next week, and Jess is VERY EXCITED about this one. This is her favorite game series, and is made by her favorite developer, Insomniac Games. They've made a LOT of really great ones over the years.
Borderlands: Another hybrid, this time of a First Person Shooter and an online Role-playing game, where you can find new equipment (guns, sheilds, etc) and play with friends. I'm interested mostly because it's coming out this week for PC, and I'll need something to play while Jess takes over the TV for Ratchet and Clank.
Dragon Age: A PC Role-playing game from industry giant Bioware. They've got a long history of great PC RPGs, and this looks to be shaping up like all the rest.
Facebook Civilization: This actually just got announced, but I thought my Facebook-enabled family might be interested. They're going to be making a civilization game for Facebook. Civ is actually one of the longest running strategy game series, and is well regarded for deep and involving gameplay. I've been considering starting playing some facebook games because 1) they're free and 2) I can play them upstairs on my laptop while Jess reads.
Micro News! I'm going to England in two weeks! The date has been set, the tickets have been purchased, and the beer is on tap. I leave Nov 1 and I get back Nov 8, so if anyone has anything extra-British they need, let me know.
I've finished the tutorial books I got for Cubase and Reason, and so I can start getting down to the thrilling job of writing music! I'm planning a two-pronged approach. The method I learned in my Music Theory classes actually involves starting with a poem (lyrics) writing a melody, and then assigning chords that fit. The other approach is just to play around with my synthesizers and see what comes out.
It's been raining here, and I planted a whole bunch of wildflower seeds around our flowerbeds and around the new tree in the backyard. They've already started to sprout! We'll have to see what comes up. I'll post pictures.
Peace, love, unity and respect!
-N
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Relaxing, mostly.
The parents finished off their little visit with us earlier this week. We saw some of the neat shops on South Congress, which I believe pretty much all of my family has seen at this point, and then on a couple of days when Jess and I had to work, we gave the Parents a car and a GPS and told them to have a blast. Evidently they did, checking out the LBJ museum, Neiman Marcus (I think) and a few other stops before punching the 'take me home' button and coming back for DELICIOUS NOEL PIZZA. If this sounds familiar to anyone, it's because we pretty much do the same thing every time someone comes to visit. We're still checking out the city for ourselves. The Capitol building was definitely worth checking out, though. Old and beautiful.
Yesterday I went to a local Independent Game Developer meetup at a bar downtown. Jess wasn't feeling well, so I just went on my own. It was pretty nice. I recognized only some of the developers, and I wasn't interested in too many of the games, but it was still nice to see some local gaming companies come together. Plus it was free, and they had a guy doing a performance of some chiptunes (music made on old nintendo audio chips) music on stage. It always gets me right in the nostalga center of my brain.
Also playing some video games for relaxing, and getting ready to go to England. They've had us buy the tickets: Nov 1 - 8. I'll have to remember to buy a power converter this time.
-N
Yesterday I went to a local Independent Game Developer meetup at a bar downtown. Jess wasn't feeling well, so I just went on my own. It was pretty nice. I recognized only some of the developers, and I wasn't interested in too many of the games, but it was still nice to see some local gaming companies come together. Plus it was free, and they had a guy doing a performance of some chiptunes (music made on old nintendo audio chips) music on stage. It always gets me right in the nostalga center of my brain.
Also playing some video games for relaxing, and getting ready to go to England. They've had us buy the tickets: Nov 1 - 8. I'll have to remember to buy a power converter this time.
-N
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Is my birthday!
Yesterday, Jess made me cupcakes, orange cake with buttercream frosting. Really good. I had about four myself and gave away the rest to people at work. Protip: If you need help from someone, offer them a cupcake. They will never refuse. I got a surprising amount of work done yesterday, thanks to cupcakes.
And today is my birthday proper. I've already had a few packages show up, and a very nice card from some very caring grandparents. Thanks so much, Nana and Papa, you make very excellent elders. Hugs and kisses!
Today Jess has some sort of 'mystery errand' planned for me, which should be fun, but I'm mostly just happy that she likes me enough to do stuff like that for me on my birthday. She likes me a lot, I think. The kitties have also gotten in on the action, cuddling and meowing adorably this morning while we were trying to sleep.
And in the evening, I get fish and video games! I'm going to met up with some friends at McCormick and Schmick for some delicious fish fare (especially nice when I can be sure of its origins) and then we're going out to a place called Arcade UFO. Arcades have been a dying breed in America ever since home consoles and PCs became popular and it was just easier and cheaper to play your games at home. Some people still keep them going, though, and Arcade UFO was opened recently by arcade enthusiasts just a few years ago. I'll go patronize them with a couple buckets of quarters. For old times sakes.
-N
And today is my birthday proper. I've already had a few packages show up, and a very nice card from some very caring grandparents. Thanks so much, Nana and Papa, you make very excellent elders. Hugs and kisses!
Today Jess has some sort of 'mystery errand' planned for me, which should be fun, but I'm mostly just happy that she likes me enough to do stuff like that for me on my birthday. She likes me a lot, I think. The kitties have also gotten in on the action, cuddling and meowing adorably this morning while we were trying to sleep.
And in the evening, I get fish and video games! I'm going to met up with some friends at McCormick and Schmick for some delicious fish fare (especially nice when I can be sure of its origins) and then we're going out to a place called Arcade UFO. Arcades have been a dying breed in America ever since home consoles and PCs became popular and it was just easier and cheaper to play your games at home. Some people still keep them going, though, and Arcade UFO was opened recently by arcade enthusiasts just a few years ago. I'll go patronize them with a couple buckets of quarters. For old times sakes.
-N
Friday, June 19, 2009
Things that Happened
Stuff happens, I report on it.
We’ve been pretty busy here at Case de Preecs. The big upcoming event is a big roller derby tournament this weekend, with teams coming in from all over the country, from LA to Michigan. How exciting! Furthermore, Jess is an alternate on the LA team, so that means she gets to skate! She’s just a Rookie, but she enjoyed going to the tournament practices so much that eventually gave her a spot. The likelyhood is that she’ll be skating on Saturday only. She’ll be helping out for everything else, though, so big excitement! Very busy weekend.
Also, Jessie’s mom is visiting! She came out here on a road trip, bringing out various, random thingies with her. We’ve gotten some flowers, several fruits and vegetables, and even a hanging, swinging chair that she got for xmas several years ago that wouldn’t have fit in the apartment. Well we certainly have room for it now! Pictures will be forthcoming once we set it up. We’ve already taken JessieMom out to a couple of flagship Austin restaurants. Rudy’s BBQ continues to impress. She’ll come out for the tournament, too,
My experimental flowerpots are blooming different flowers now. The red-and-yellow ones are producing seeds. I figure I might as well let them. Now there’s some sort of strange, but very pretty, tiered purple flower. JessieMom also wants to head out to the red barn garden center and maybe tune up our front garden a little. I’m all in favor.
I have mostly been playing video games. Between Infamous, Prototype, and Red Faction, my free time is being well spent. And then Fight Night Round 4 in a few weeks. Mein Leisure!
-N
We’ve been pretty busy here at Case de Preecs. The big upcoming event is a big roller derby tournament this weekend, with teams coming in from all over the country, from LA to Michigan. How exciting! Furthermore, Jess is an alternate on the LA team, so that means she gets to skate! She’s just a Rookie, but she enjoyed going to the tournament practices so much that eventually gave her a spot. The likelyhood is that she’ll be skating on Saturday only. She’ll be helping out for everything else, though, so big excitement! Very busy weekend.
Also, Jessie’s mom is visiting! She came out here on a road trip, bringing out various, random thingies with her. We’ve gotten some flowers, several fruits and vegetables, and even a hanging, swinging chair that she got for xmas several years ago that wouldn’t have fit in the apartment. Well we certainly have room for it now! Pictures will be forthcoming once we set it up. We’ve already taken JessieMom out to a couple of flagship Austin restaurants. Rudy’s BBQ continues to impress. She’ll come out for the tournament, too,
My experimental flowerpots are blooming different flowers now. The red-and-yellow ones are producing seeds. I figure I might as well let them. Now there’s some sort of strange, but very pretty, tiered purple flower. JessieMom also wants to head out to the red barn garden center and maybe tune up our front garden a little. I’m all in favor.
I have mostly been playing video games. Between Infamous, Prototype, and Red Faction, my free time is being well spent. And then Fight Night Round 4 in a few weeks. Mein Leisure!
-N
Monday, May 25, 2009
There will be photos later
I have SO much to post, I'll just jump to it, and fill in the details later. First excited news- Matt bought ROCKBAND. He wanted to have something he could work on getting better at, and I think after spring break in TX, he was tired of being the unmusical one. We both fundamentally suck at this game, but that makes it fun, and we are actually getting better. Matt favors the drums, but maybe someday he'll learn to sing.
Next, our old roommate Shaoshu is visiting this weekend (ergo, short post). Obviously, we are very busy with the having fun, goofing off and killing time. And this means we had to host our first Rock Band party. This was also great- and got to incldue W and J and J's Dad who is in town for J's graduation- can you beleive this stuff? Why wait to blog?
We need to go now, and have just a little more fun before Shaoshu leaves tomorrow, so I'll have a better update then. Hope you are all having a happy Memorial Day!
Next, our old roommate Shaoshu is visiting this weekend (ergo, short post). Obviously, we are very busy with the having fun, goofing off and killing time. And this means we had to host our first Rock Band party. This was also great- and got to incldue W and J and J's Dad who is in town for J's graduation- can you beleive this stuff? Why wait to blog?
We need to go now, and have just a little more fun before Shaoshu leaves tomorrow, so I'll have a better update then. Hope you are all having a happy Memorial Day!
Sunday, May 17, 2009
A Review of Start Trek, and Other things
My review of Start Trek:
It's very good, you should go see it.
We went to a beer tasting party on friday which was a lot of fun. People were trying to guess different beers that were given anonymously to us to sample. I, of course, don't have the beer palette to distinguish between different types, but I wrote down my impressions on each of them. Things I've discovered: 1) Most beers taste pretty similar. 2) I don't like hoppy beers. 3) I should try more Hefeweizen beers.
Ever heard of Free Realms? It's a "freemium" online game. The idea is that you can play the basic game for free, and if you want, you can upgrade your experience for cost. I've been playing it for the past few days or so, and there's a lot to recommend about it. For starters, there's a few different directions you can go, either beating up monsters and collecting money and leveling up, or trying out different jobs like racing, mining, farming or cooking. I think I'm pretty much done with it for now, but it's very pretty, totally free, and not bad times, in case you're looking for something to do with your browser.
Bedtime!
-N
It's very good, you should go see it.
We went to a beer tasting party on friday which was a lot of fun. People were trying to guess different beers that were given anonymously to us to sample. I, of course, don't have the beer palette to distinguish between different types, but I wrote down my impressions on each of them. Things I've discovered: 1) Most beers taste pretty similar. 2) I don't like hoppy beers. 3) I should try more Hefeweizen beers.
Ever heard of Free Realms? It's a "freemium" online game. The idea is that you can play the basic game for free, and if you want, you can upgrade your experience for cost. I've been playing it for the past few days or so, and there's a lot to recommend about it. For starters, there's a few different directions you can go, either beating up monsters and collecting money and leveling up, or trying out different jobs like racing, mining, farming or cooking. I think I'm pretty much done with it for now, but it's very pretty, totally free, and not bad times, in case you're looking for something to do with your browser.
Bedtime!
-N
Friday, May 15, 2009
Birthday Lists!
So mothers day has come and gone, and that means one thing: "It's birthday season!" So I'm calling it out right now, unless your name is 'Noel' or perhaps even 'Kelsey', a little bit, your birthday is rapidly approaching and no one has any idea what to get you. So let's see some lists people! What gardening equipment do you need? What tools do you not have? What organic spice mixes whet your palette?
Tis' friday! (I misspelled "it's", there, and decided to go with it.) Jess and I are going to a Beer Tasting party at the house of one of the people that came to our housewarming party last week. I'll let you know if I discover anything delicious.
My plan is mostly to relax this weekend. I got pretty tired out (and maybe a little sick?) on Thursday, so I've mostly been taking it easy and trying to catch up on sleep, which has worked pretty well so far. I've been playing Dwarf Fortress, still, and another new game I've discovered called Free Realms. It's online, requires a small download, and it's completely free. You play in a world with a bunch of other players, but as far as I can tell, there's really no reason to interact with other players. There's a lot of different games to play in there too, so you may find something you enjoy, either beating up bad guys (totally optional) or cart racing or puzzle games or cooking minigames. Odd stuff, but well worth the price of admission (Once again: free.)
Sorry I haven't posted up any movies or pictures, I'm sorting through old stuff to try and clean up some hard drive space. It will appear eventually, I'm sure.
-N
Tis' friday! (I misspelled "it's", there, and decided to go with it.) Jess and I are going to a Beer Tasting party at the house of one of the people that came to our housewarming party last week. I'll let you know if I discover anything delicious.
My plan is mostly to relax this weekend. I got pretty tired out (and maybe a little sick?) on Thursday, so I've mostly been taking it easy and trying to catch up on sleep, which has worked pretty well so far. I've been playing Dwarf Fortress, still, and another new game I've discovered called Free Realms. It's online, requires a small download, and it's completely free. You play in a world with a bunch of other players, but as far as I can tell, there's really no reason to interact with other players. There's a lot of different games to play in there too, so you may find something you enjoy, either beating up bad guys (totally optional) or cart racing or puzzle games or cooking minigames. Odd stuff, but well worth the price of admission (Once again: free.)
Sorry I haven't posted up any movies or pictures, I'm sorting through old stuff to try and clean up some hard drive space. It will appear eventually, I'm sure.
-N
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