April 2003 Archives
So, just trying to catch up on my digital culture fix, reading through a weeks worth of slashdot postings. And much email (too much spam! Thank goodness for SpamBayes). The Invisiblog thing is pretty interesting, i wonder how something like this could be used in a war scenario? Recently, there were several reporters that were forced (asked) to stop blogging, with something like this they would not have to, although it would be harder to be credible, what with the whole point being that people don't know who you are...
Found somebody new who's blog i'll have to read regulary, Siva Vaidhyanathan.
Edward Felten has a bunch of good things to say over at Freedom to Tinker.
Thats it for now, off to bed, perchance to dream...
I've just found something i know Conor needs - Micro RC Helicopter. I know that all the other kids are going to have one, and i don't want him to feel left out or teased, so i'm just going to have to get one. These are the sacrifices we have to make for our children...
Well, after a night or two of some sleeplessness, it seems that Conor has settled down a bit. This is good as his poor mom was going to start looking like someone from Night of the Living Dead....
Anyway, we all trouped off to the baby doctor to get the once over. I'm very happy to report that Conor has gained quite a bit of weight already, and got a perfect bill of health. Ya!
No more pictures right now, hopefully by tomorrow will have had more sleep and update with more photos.
I was wondering if anybody out there could post in the comments section interesting "stuff" about April 23rd? Like, who was born, died, events, etc? Anything would be great, thanks!
Tony says that Conor looks a bit like me, what do you think?
Hey everyone, thanks for all the phone calls and messages! After 57 hours at the hospital, with maybe 3 of them sleeping, we are home. And damn happy!
So, during the whole labour process i only got faint once. It was when Ciara was geting the epidural, and i made the mistake of looking around behind her and saw the 4 foot long needle that they use. I was able to stay standing up till it was all done, but had to sit down ofter, as i was a bit woozy. The anesthesiologist was nice and tried to save me some face by saying that the sometimes wearing the surgical mask can make some people light-headed. I kindly thanked him, but was pretty frank about what it was! Needles! No thank you!
We are just trying to grab some sleep and food in between feedings right now, and are pretty much done in. Will try to keep posting semi-regularly, when i can get a sec between helping out Ciara and Conor.
I've added some more photos and have also put up 2 videos (Quicktime) - At home (4.2 meg) and Hiccups (2.7 meg).
Again, great to hear from you all!
peace
jos
ps. yes, it is true, the long locks of the baby are a transference from my head to his. I figure that after 19 years i could give it up for the kid...
I'd like to welcome you all to
Conor Alexander Quigley Yule
Conor joined us yesterday, the 23rd, at 14:02. Weighing in at 9 pounds and 3 ounces, he is a whopping 21 inches long. Both Conor and Ciara are fine, tho Ciara and I are pretty tired! Conor has already gotten rid of most, if not all, the merconium poo, and has also voided his bladder. Got started on the breast milk right away, and has a very strong suck. The family should be coming home on Friday, and will try to get folks sorted out that want to come and visit. Please don't get angry if it takes a while! We are going to need some time to adjust! Thanks to all for the well wishes and love, looking forward to personally introducing you to the new member of the family.
Love ya all,
jos.
Well, it looks like we are on the way - we are heading into the hospital in a couple of min, so if you don't hear anything for a day or two, its probably cuz we aren't here. Wish us luck!!
peace all.
Yep, there is a baby. Ha. Anyway, all is well, so we are scheduled for an induction on Thursday, if the kid doesn't come before that. On the good side, there is some dialation happening now, so we are still holding out hope for it to get going before the induction.
The only bummer was that they kind of screwed up the appointment for us, the ultrasound people didn't have Ciara or me down on "the list". What this means is that, while they did fit Ciara in, it meant that i wasn't allowed into the hospital. Bummer. They turned me away again. Damn that SARS.
Well, the baby has just decided that it really wants to stay in. So, today we are going to get some pictures of the baby while it is still inside! Ya for ultrasound!
So, guess what? Still no baby. But again, a nice day out and about, hung out with Tony, went out for lunch, an other walk on the beach, got some groceries, all kinds of good stuff.
But no baby.
No, this is not about the baby, which is still not out. A couple of posts back i mentioned something that i was not going to talk about yet on the blog - well, i'm still not going to talk about it, but just to stop one rumor, its not about Ciara and i getting married. So you can just calm down on that one. Nice to know that folks think we would make a good married couple tho ;).
Still not out.
Still no baby. Lots of rain, but no baby. Not that we are, you know, waiting or anxious about it or anything. We did get out to High Park today tho, for a nice walk, while it was sunny and warm. You are likely to be subjected to more photos, prepare yourself.
Happy Easter, Happy Chocolate day! Looks like its going to be a nice day here in Toronto, so we are going to be heading out to do some walking! From this you should be able to figure out that the kid is still reluctant to join us. Well, at least we know that our, well my, sense of stubborness has been passed on.
What else is new? Well, something, but i don't want to give it away online just yet... You will find out.
A little pic of my sweetie.
But still no baby...
Play by play update, still nothing happening. I'm thinking its going to be next week at this rate...
Well, another day, and still no baby. Will keep you all posted.
Hey ya'll, i have a question for you. Now, i've been setting up, seemingly forever, how i process and store my digital photos. The one major component i'm missing is, what should be, a very simple tool. I just need something that will show me a thumbnail view of a bunch of images (jpgs) in a folder, and have the ability to rotate them. That's it. I don't need any other abilities, photo editing, etc etc. I've got all that other stuff covered. I just need a quick and easy way to see all the photos, and to be able to rotate and resave them.
Anyway, if you know of any software that would do this, pay, free, whatever, please let me know. Thanks.
Ok, so how many of you out there in internet land knew that a pram is really a perambulator? Perambulator? Like, who the hell came up with that name? No wonder it got cut down to Pram. Anyway, just one more little gem of useless baby-related knowledge that i'm sure to be gathering more and more of. And subjecting the rest of you to. Ha.
Still no baby action, but for your amusement here are some more photos! Njoy.
Well, as you can see, the kid is still inside. 
Its got to come out soon! There can't be much more room in there...
Interesting Q and A with Prof E. W. Felten at Slashdot. Prof Felton has an excellent blog too, where he talks about technology and law. Both are worth reading, and i check his site every day to keep up to date with the legal going-ons in the tech industry.
So, with the kids arrival imminent, we've been going to lots of films. Over the past week we've seen - "Bend it like Beckham", "Phone Booth" and "Laurel Canyon". All were good and worth seeing. Frances McDormand in Laurel Canyon is amazing, worth it just to see her acting. Also, on a nerdly level, the character that plays the lead singer in the band drives the same motorcycle that i do. Does that make me cool? Anyway, Phone Booth was also great, really gripping, just long enough. There is one little thing at the end that kind of brought me out of the film, but other then that nit, it was great. And finally Bend it, which is an interesting mix of culture clash, sports, gender, romance and humor. A really fun film. So, i don't know how many more we will get out too before the bambino comes, but i'll keep you all updated! Oh, and if any of you have suggestions on how we could get out to see the new Matrix film next month, let me know, cuz otherwise i'm not going to be seeing it till it hits the reps or one of those "for parents" matinees...
For those of you on Baby Watch - still no dice. Tho ciara did have a bit of a rough night, the kid is still not ready to come out. Sigh. Well, its has to happen some time soon, right? Right?
wow, i had no idea that there was a real gumball rally! I do remember the film, and i think it was just on TV again recently actually. I'd kind of like to see it, tho i'm sure it would ruin the some what good memories i have of it... Wired has a story about the real rally here.
Still no baby. But in other news, I picked up the 3 new Miyazaki DVDs - Kiki's Delivery Service, Castles in the Sky and Spirited Away. Watched Castles in the Sky last night, and wow, what a difference from the who-knows-how-many-generations-old VHS fan-sub tape i used to watch! The colours were vibrant and rich. The audio was great. Interestingly, the subtitles were subs of the english audio track. This made listening to the Japanese Audio with english subtitles a bit weird, as there were points when the characters would say something and there would be no subs, and other times were the characters were not saying anything, and there was all this dialogue. It also seemed like when they did the translation, they just couldn't have any moments of non-dialogue. Like, there are lots of shots with just music and visuals, in the original. In the english version, they are always sticking in some extra dialogue, making things explicit rather then implicit. Basically treating the audience like a bunch of boneheads that have to have every last detail explained to them. Anyway, this is really a minor nitpick, the DVD is amazing. Looking forward to watching the other 2 sometime soon!
Ok, well, the kid is now officially late. Yes, its sad to say, but already the kid is not making it to appointments on time. I'm not sure what we are going to do about this, but action will be taken. Stay tuned...
Sorry for the non-updates - we are on baby watch so i'm a bit distracted. Will post when more info comes in, or i feel up to it ;)
I'm on A.Word.A.Day's email list and every day i get a new word. Today it was "Concrete Poetry". I've never heard of concrete poetry, but you can look at all kinds of examples here. Basically its poetry that relies on how the text is presented to add meaning to the poem. One other quick note, the list of online poetry has a very mid 90's thing going on in the title - "...on the WWW-InterNet" - who says the WWW-InterNet? Its either the WWW or the internet. Anyway, i thought that was a bit quaint.
A rather unbelievably long and detailed description of the Turing Test, from the Stanfort Encyclopedia of Philosophy. So, if you've ever wondered "What is this Turing Test thing all the kids are talking about?", now you can find out!
I'm just posting this cuz it sounds like an interesting book and i don't want to forget about it. "Cyberselfish" by Paulina Borsook. And a review.
There is a nice long interview with Lawrence Lessig at The Library of Economics and Liberty that is worth reading.
An interesting array of articles about blogs today. We, at work, have been doing a fair amount of research both into the technical and social aspects of blogging for a project we have. This has been excellent for me, as i already spend far too much time on them! Anyway, Dan Gillmor is writing a book about "Making the News" - "reflecting a central point of this project, namely that todays (and tomorrows) communications tools are turning traditional notions of news and journalism in new directions". Sounds like it is going to be interesting. He is also following in the footsteps of David Weinberger and his work on "Small Pieces Loosely Joined", which was written online, as Gillmor's is going to be. Jon Udell has a post where he talks about the overlapping scopes of blogs, and how information propagates through these different scopes. Some interesting ideas. And last by not least, a post about public education ( inflammatory or satire?) from Philip Greenspun, who also does some impressive photography and software.
Wow, some pretty cool flash via xml work being done at http://www.future-flash.com.
Gods, i was just watching Johnny Cash's video for his cover of NIN's song Hurt. It is amazingly good. Found from this other video which uses the song as a backdrop to Halo footage. Which has a strange tie in to current war footage. All via AJ.
So, with the kid due in the next couple of weeks, officially the 15th, i've started to think about edu-macation for her/him. A quick start includes Montessori, Waldorf and Homeschooling. I should mention that i was in a montessori class when i was young. Unfortunately i don't really remember anything about it, but i seem to have come out ok, so it couldn't have been too bad. Now that i've thought about it a bit, i'm pretty sure that's where i learned to tie my shoe laces. I also have some memories of getting to class in the back of a station wagon, and eating coloured construction paper. I don't think eating the paper was part of the class.
This interest in alternatives to the public education system are fueled by my fears that our current system will not be able to meet the needs of our kid. To give them the room and ability to grow and test their limits, to learn and discover, to "expand their horizons". This is no knock on the teachers or the system itself, more a comment on how poorly our political system (the legacy of M. Harris and the "common sense revolution") has supported public education in Ontario. I'm also not interested in most traditional private schools either, mostly for reasons, or fears, of how to deal with issues surrounding money and "class", not that these issues won't have to be discussed regardless of where and how the kid is schooled (please note, i had to edit this post several times to remove digression into Dialectical Materialism and Class) (and perhaps more honestly, my own feelings around private schools, which i will not go into here either, mostly for fear of never ending this post, but more because i don't really want to examine and bare my own assumptions!).
One thing that we can do is look into what can be done before the kid reaches pre-school age. What can be done if we have a stay at home parent, and how can you foster and provide a rich environment, where the kid can discover and play and learn. Its amazing how important the first years of life are, and what a difference they can make to the rest of the kids life. Unfortunately, it just seems like everything i learn makes me more fearful of totally screwing the kid up in the first couple of years! What if we don't provide the proper enriching environment? What if we don't have the right toys? Etc, etc. At the end of the day, the thing that keeps me sane, is Ciara telling me that the most important thing is to provide love. A loving home. Loving parents. And you know, i'm sure we can do that. If nothing else, that one is covered.
Anyway, that got a bit deeper then i had expected, so on a lighter note, a lot of this is not stuff that we have to make decisions on right now, as the kid isn't even here yet!
So, we have reached the point that i need to be able to be contacted by Ciara at any time, to let me know that the kid is coming. So, this weekend, i finally gave in and got a cell phone. And no, i'm not giving you the number.
Its a cute little Motorola 120c. Can do text messaging, email, WAP, etc. It also has some really interesting accessories. One that sparked my inner geek is the MP3 player. Anything to reduce the number of digital gadgets i have to carry around is a good thing. However, the cost of this (just click through), from bell, is $300! $300! WTF? I can get a standalone MP3 player for $129 or an MP3 CD player for $89. What the hell are they thinking charging that much? Damn, cuz its a pretty cool little thing too. Ah well. I'd be interested to know how many they have managed to sell at that price.
For those of you into strange space technologies and science fiction, here is a very interesting manuscript from a company that wants to build a space elevator. I remember reading sci-fi stories which had technologies like this in them - i always thought that it sounded like a great idea. Well, now, some folks are trying to make it into reality. Pretty cool.
Super cool photo project - Seamless City. You should check out the images that are online. This is brilliant, tho the artist thinks that its going to take between 1 and 2 years to complete the project. You can see from the map of his route that its quite a huge area to have to photograph. And then to composite all those photos! I'd love to buy one of the 100 foot long copies, but i don't have any place to put it, and i'm sure it would cost a fortune!
Mark sent a video (avi 3.8 meg) of his son Liam getting ready to walk. Pretty cool. I was talking to Elliott S. at work about kids and video cameras, and the time to have them is really when they first start to walk and talk. The cameras are getting quite cheap. I might have better luck with Ciara about a video camera rather then the GBA SP.
Hey, i've been off stocking up on masks to ward off the SARS, so i've not been posting, sorry ;)
