February 2004 Archives

Interesting post at Terra Nova about how most in-game economies are "broken". There are quite a few comments to go with the post, and makes for some interesting reading.

So far the 2 makers that we are most interested in are Chariot and Wike. Both are Canadian, and Wike is located in Guelph, so its very local. The Chariot model of most interest to us is the Corsair (previously known as the Chauffeur). For Wike, it would be the Moonlite Double. So both are double occupancy trailers.

Hauke asked me "what do you do now that you are home all day"? Well my friends, here is an example time line of how a "typical" day might go:

Midnight - Conor is crying. Wake Ciara up to go feed him or be woken up by Ciara going to feed him.

2 AM - Conor is crying. Get up to try to settle him.

2:30 AM - Get back to bed after settling Conor

4 AM - Conor is crying. Wake Ciara up to go feed him or be woken up by Ciara going to feed him.

5 AM - Conor is crying. Get Conor and bring him into bed with us.

7 AM - Time to get up! Play with Conor while Ciara has shower and gets ready for work. When Ciara is done shower, trade Conor off and take quick shower. Ciara feeds Conor some breakfast.

8 AM - Ciara leaves for work. Conor and I play, read, etc..

9 AM - Start thinking about getting Conor to have a nap.

10 AM - Pray that Conor has gone down for a nap by now.

11 AM - Conor is up from nap (if he even had one), and has a snack. Play.

Noon - Lunch for Conor. Play

1 PM - Play, maybe go for walk around the 'hood.

2 PM - Nap time again, tho if we have gone for a walk, he has probably slept in the stroller. Snack.

3 PM - Go to trinity-bellwoods drop-in center. Play. Snack.

4 PM - Still at drop-in center. Getting ready to come home.

5 PM - Waiting for Ciara to get home, last stretch. Put on Baby Einstein DVD and watch with Conor while waiting for Ciara to come home.

6 PM - Feed Conor dinner. Get ready for bath, bed-time.

7 PM - Conor is in the crib. Starting to sleep.

8 PM - Diner for parents!

9 PM - Vegging out, watching TV or futzing on Computer.

10 PM - Late! Bed time!

11 PM - Conor crying. Get up to settle him.

Midnight - return to start...

There you go!

Picked up the latest Dead Meadow album "shivering king and others". Here is what allmusic.com has to say about this album:

"Dead Meadow seems to have found their own voice and pared their music down until it reflects nothing but their essence. The stunning opener, "I Love You Too," proves this immediately: based on a riff that's equally heavy and haunting, it unfolds over seven minutes, ebbing and flowing with squalling solos and Jason Simon's moody, reverb-cloaked vocals."

I've also recently discovered a great online radio show - Acts of Volition Radio. The guy is in PEI, and puts together an hour long MP3 with him talking about the different bands and songs he plays. Quite good for finding new stuff that you've probably never heard before. Worth checking out.

I finally cashed in a bunch of coins i've had for over 6 years. Most recently, they had been rusting out in the garage, in several different containers including a plant pot. I used one of those automatic coin counters you see in some supermarkets - very handy, and i didn't mind paying the 10% premium, seeing as how i'd never end up cashing the coins in if i had to roll them up myself. Anyway, it came to just under $160. Here is the break-down:

10 cents x 1041
5 cents x 940
1 cent x 2493

Not bad, eh? Thats a lot of coins...

As for the events, one in the near term is the "2nd Annual Icycle Race at Dufferin Grove Park", happening this Saturday. You can get more info over at the Community Bicycle Network website. A bit farther off is the March 20th "Global Day of Protest on the One-Year Anniversary of the Iraq War". Its happening at Nathan Phillips Square at 1pm. More info at nowar.ca.

Lastly, i was at "the mall" today, both the Eaton Center and the Bay. While shopping in the Bay i found a great hat. I've been trying to find a good hat for some time, so i was very excited to find one that A) fit, and B) didn't look too dorky. Unfortunately the only people there to tell me if it was dorky or not was myself and Conor. Neither of which could give me really good advice. Now i have to get Ciara to come with me to scope out the look of this hat. Its going to be spring soon and i need a hat to keep the sun off my face and neck, especially since i've had my hair cut and there is nothing protecting the back of my neck anymore!

Over on ClickableCulture, Tony has a post where he talks about the current glut of "Social Software" and how none of them are interoperable. There is a bit of a discussion going on about FOAF and other ways of making a non-sucking bit of Social Software.

I've given up on the photoblog for now. I'm going to use a slightly less interesting method to get the photos up here - i'm not going to do thumbnails, just links with descriptions from here.

Big cheeks!
Under the chair
Conor on Dad's shoulders
Making a mess eating

Conor on the go. [Quicktime 10Mb]

I've been trying to figure out what to do with all our laundry lint. I don't want to just throw it away, it seems like there should be something that can be done with it. Finally having a spare minute, i looked up "lint crafts" on google and discovered that you can make lint paper, clay and paper mache. So i figure by the time Conor is ready for these crafts, we should have several 10s of kilos of it saved up! Excellent! The one other interesting link is using lint to create fire starters, which appeals to the piro in me (and im not talking about Megatokyo).

Its been, what, two weeks? Let me assure you, they have been very full weeks! Conor has been coming to grips with the change over, from having Mom full-time to having Dad full-time. Its been hard for him, and this manifests itself in his eating and sleeping habits. Or it could just be his normal self, its sometimes hard to tell. Even with the difficult nights, during the day, he is a superstar. So happy, with smiles, and walking, really walking, its amazing to be part of. Demanding tho, and there is little time for posting to the blog, and at the end of the day, i'm generally to pooped to be even thinking about making some kind of coherent post, although i don't know why i let that stop me, as before this it was never a worry...

So, today has been a bit less smooth then yesterday. He didn't have any breakfast to start with, so his nap was short because he wokeup hungry. After having a large mid-morning snack, we went off to buy some cat food, as the cats were starting to look at Conor in a most preditory way. This walk took us over to Kensington, before heading back to the Vet to buy the cat food. Of course, Con was asleep by this point, so i dropped the food off at the house and continued on with him, asleep, in the stroller. Got home at 12:30ish, he slept on till almost 1. Played a bit, now am feeding him. Or rather, trying to feed him. Being very picky. Good thing to keep in mind is that a baby will not starve itself, so, if he keeps not eating, at some point, he will be too hungry to stop himself. Ok, ok, its not that bad, but it still isn't good.

Mini-rant - i currently have nothing but scorn for people that do not clear their sidewalks. You should try to get around with a stroller, in toronto, when folks don't clear their snow and ice. Or, only do a tiny foot-trail path - almost as bad.

Conor is awake at 6:30am this morning. Which means that i'm awake at 6:30. On the positive side, it does mean that he will be really ready for his 9 am nap! It could mean that i'll be really ready for my 9 am nap!

Just got back in now. We walked up to the Annex and around there for a bit. On the way home Conor was a bit cranky, but it was because the sun was right in his eyes - i was cranky about it too! Anyway, as usual, he fell asleep just as we were getting close to home, so i continued over to Trinity Bellwoods Community Center. We hung out there for over an hour, playing in the gym, going down the slide, having a bite to eat - lots of fun! I think it must be getting close to his afternoon nap time, i'm thinking 2:30 maybe or closer to 3... Not sure how sleepy he is now, after his weird noon nap.

Conor slept about an hour, and is now having a quick snack of crackers and cream-cheese (yik). Then we shall set out for a walk!

So, today is my first real full day with Conor. Ciara is back to work full-time today. Smooth sailing so far, but its later in the day that i'm going to be getting worried, as Conor starts to get hungry for the one food that i can't give him. I'm sure both he and I will, somehow, survive.

He has been going into his crib for naps for about a week now, and is getting quite good at falling asleep in it. And staying asleep for about an hour, which is why i got all the laundry folder and am making a blog entry right now! Right on!

Comments should again be working. During the upgrade to MT 2.66 i forgot to reset the permissions on several of the cgi files. Anyway, all should be good again!

So, the thing i forgot was that if make a bunch of cookies, and don't take them in to work, or have a bunch of people over, you end up eating them yourself. This is not good. Although its not stopping me from my quest to be baking something new every couple of days or so - i've just got to find some other folks to eat it all!