Watch this space

I'm thinking I'll start posting thoughts, news and/or progress from my teacher training here. So, who knows, it may almost be worth reading again... nah.

Write out 100 times...

"I must not forget to keep my blog current"

Joking aside, like has been incredibly busy. In between my work (which continues to consume more of my time than I'd rather), Nikki's studies (and the housework that I do in order to give her enough time to study) and Ted (who I listed thirdly only because he's the youngest) free time has rapidly vanished. I do miss being able to play on the PS2 or the odd PC game that I play (like Half-Life... I'm so looking forward to Half-Life 2... soon... soon...) but I simply do not have the time - I get the odd 10 minutes here or there, if I'm lucky, but nothing solid that would let me get back into a game properly (or at least not reliably). Shucks.

On the other hand, life is really good. Evenings aren't too bad (we're currently doing battle with the tantrum monster that is our 14 month old son) and weekends are an absolute delight (as I play with the lovely little toddler that is our son, by day). Musn't grumble!

How time flies!

Our son (now 10 months old) has started crawling :) Nowhere in the house is safe (either from him, or for him it seems). Child locks lurk behind every cupboard door or drawer, gates impeded progress up and down the stairs... The upside is that he is soooo much more fun to play with!

Dungeons and what-now? Still?

Just spent another weekend role-playing with some old university buddies (basically being playing with this group since we all graduated - at least 10 years ago, now).

We're still playing Dungeons and Dragons (now edition 3.5, as owned by Wizards of the Coast) but the technology has moved on with us - the party now all store their characters in PCGen an open-source character tool (with burgeoning aspirations for DMs, too).

On top of that, various members of the party have set up a wiki so as to be able to properly store the various facts/thoughts/theories as to what exactly the DM is up to.

Life can be good! :)

What a fabulous weekend

Where we are the weather was good (mostly) and we had friends staying.

On Saturday after a morning of clearing up the front garden (chatting with the friend staying with us about his computer company (RealFlair.com - worth a look) we went to a mutual friends party and were rather delighted/surprised to find, unexpectedly, that our son's Godfather (well one of them) was there up from London for the day!

Then, on the Sunday, the couple staying with us (rather than come with us to church) offered to cook Sunday lunch! :) In the afternoon the weather was so good that Ted had his first dip in a paddling pool!

So much to say, so little time...

Um, that's it, really. Sorry.

FolderShare

Been introduced to a rather fab utility called "FolderShare". It's free, it's a file sharing/collaboration tool and it's available here.

...and a Happy New Year!

Thanks to an update on the Blogger plug-in for GAIM (conveniently named gaim-blogger) I can once more burble into the aether with minimum effort. Ah, the luxury!

So - hope all and sundry had a fabulous festive season. Will burble more, anon.

Just idly thinking...

I consider myself as part of the infamous "Generation X" - slacker ethic, the works... So will Ted be "Generation X+1"? If so, then what sort of messages will he pick up from his parents about work ethics? I am rather terminally unmotivated by work ambitions, but his Mum is a real committed worker (something I'm almost jealous of at times) - wonder which way he'll go? Hopefully not just the "path of least resistance".

A lovely weekend for all, I hope

For our part, we went visiting Nikki's brother Pete. Had a fabulously relaxing time, in spite of Ted having a cold (we think) or at least some lurgi-or-other for most of the weekend. He rallied by the Sunday, when for breakfast he demolished an all-time record 10oz of milk! Normality resumed, smiles all around.

Sheesh, but I'm tired!

Ted is still on his "3am snack" habit, and both his parents are starting to crack a little under the pressure - gradually, RL is taking a back seat until such time as he settles back into a more normal sleep pattern.

Hmm.. a total blank today

I honestly can't think of much to say at all, really. I blame Ted - he hasn't been sleeping as well since his most recent injections and is also now apparently hungry at 3am every day. This is in spite of a healthy 8oz bottle at each of his other 5 feeds!

Nikki thinks that he is getting close to being ready for weaning, as he is quite a large baby for his age. Only thing is he is too young at present (14 weeks today) and so we're going to persevere until he is considered old enough to safely process solids (only another couple of weeks, in reality, thankfully).

All things aside, though, I am still amazed by the strength of feeling that is engendered just by Ted looking up at me and smiling. I'm such a baby's Dad.

Oh yes indeed

Wow! That was hilarious! Sadly, as is so often the case with Eddie Izzard, I can't actually regale you with specific examples of his jokes... it doesn't work like that.

Suffice it to say, that I was crying with laughter at points and occasionally had to be reminded to breathe. Only kidding - I did remember for myself... but only when my vision started to blur and fade at the edges. ;)

Time to laugh

Off to see Eddie Izzard tonight with an old friend (who organised the tickets - thanks, Chris). Can't wait! *8^D

Sad old gits playing sad old games

Just discovered that DOSBox has been updated and now has "basic 386 protected mode support" and also "a virtual modem to dial to TCP sockets" - this is a really brilliant project on SourceForge that provides a "proper" DOS emulation (for those of us not running MS-DOS... which is probably all of us) and thus a way for us sad old gits to play sad old games that we remember from our childhood/youth.

The concept of built-in virtual modem drivers to allow network play on these old games is fantastic! Just think - Wacky Wheels as it was meant to be played... with friends! Across the internet! :)

What a fab weekend!

We had a full house on both Saturday evening and Sunday lunch time - it's what weekends (and friends) are for!

It was also a great opportunity to be proud parents, and Ted didn't let us down. He was as good as gold and slept remarkably well considering he was still suffering with his first cold. Ah!

Of films and babies

Was supposed to go and see Calendar Girls last night (for the second time of trying) but due to Ted's cold, we didn't want to leave him with a babysitter (also, we didn't think it fair on the babysitter just in case he "kicked-off"). So that's "strike two" for the film so far... maybe we'll be seeing on rental instead!

The first time we tried, having dropped our son off with friends (our first evening out together without baby since the birth) we were standing in the queue when an announcement came over the tannoy that the showing [we were queueing for] had sold out. Bother! So, instead, we saw Finding Nemo - which was brilliant but in different ways, I imagine.

Given that we failed to make it to the cinema this time, and not wanting to break with tradition, we instead watched Enigma on the Sky movie channel last night. Again, very entertaining... again, in very different ways. I wasn't as gripped as I had been by the book (by Robert Harris - he's written some cracking books) but it was rather good, nonetheless.

Another week gone, huh?

Where does it all go? I did actually try and blog something the other day but it coincided with a server down-time... and I lost the entry :( Can't even remember wot it was about now, tho, so doubt it was important!

Out son has his first cold! Aah! Poor chappie is all snuffly and snotty - thankfully he is taking it pretty much in his stride and he only woke up unahppy once last night (thanks, Ted).

Interesting how attitudes persist... my wife, her folks and my folks when we told immediately said "Aaah! Poor fellow... wouldn't u swap places if u could and take on his cold?" Which is lovely, to be sure, but not something that ever occurred to me to wish for... besides, given that he's living with us, chances are we've already had or will get the cold for ourselves soon enough ;)

Re-read yesterday morning's posting

*Sheesh!* That sounds trite now. Ah well - put it down to a lack of sleep (been catching up while my wife is away with our son) and rest assured that such earnest topics will probably be the exception rather than the norm.

All work and no play...

...makes Jack a management consultant - I can't remember who said that, but bearing it in mind (and with my wife away with our son staying with her folks) I felt a need... I need for... a dire film (more on the DFC another time). A quick trip to the local Showcase supplied the necessary fodder: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Ah... nectar of the gods of dire films!

Critically speaking, this film spent far too much time on the action and not enough on the storyline. Being a minor-league comic book fan I have encountered Alan Moore's work, albeit not this particular one. Surely he must have put more plot in the graphic novel than could be found in the film? Ah well. Still enjoyed it immensely, mind :)