My personal life is about to change, and part of the purpose behind this blog is to record my life as it was, so here goes a brief summary.
Personal:
I'm waiting for my daughter to arrive - home birth and a baby girl, both new experiences - having a midwife run the show instead of a doctor has been a wonderful change for the better. I'm running on the beach almost every morning before work and thoroughly enjoying it - usually early enough to leave the first footprints. I'd forgotten how awesome running alone is, and running part of the way on the beach adds a whole new dimension. Good to be fit again too - you forget what a difference it makes both mentally and physically. The boys are wonderful - Caleb is 4, Daniel is 2, and when not fighting they are capable of the most amazing games and fantastic worlds of shared imagination. They are both healthy, well spoken and very intelligent boys busy exploring and pushing boundaries - filled with love and happiness and excited energy (and they have their wonderful mother to thank for that). I've been recording some of their conversations using a borrowed voice recorder (thanks Emrys!) - the best conversations happen when they wake up in the morning, before they get out of bed, just the two of them chatting.I love my family. I am happy.
Work:
Things continue to go extremely well in my new position - the team is fantastic, I am learning constantly and feel like I'm finally adding enough value to be a worthy team member. My poker playing skills still suck. Several things have happened recently to remind me just how great (and unique) a company Derivco is. Getting in early has made a world of difference (I have shifted my working hours forward to spend more evening time with my family - part of that work-life balance thing) - those hours before most others arrive are amazingly productive.
Technology:
I'm experimenting with Google Chrome - my new favourite browser / web interface. Whole post on that coming up i'm sure :-) Google keeps giving me new toys - Chrome is a fundamental shift in the way I view and interact with the web, but the updated Picasa 3 (incl. web albums) is fantastic too. I'm writing this entry in Chrome on my eeePC. IE8 beta 2 is also a great browser. I continue to be addicted to improving my geography with Google Earth. I'm using twitter occasionally - it can be fun, but I still really don't see the point or have the time. That may change if I actually do twitter my daughter's birth. MovableType 4.21-en (+ community and professional packs) is a brilliant upgrade to my blog software - I *love* tinkering with Perl/PHP in a LAMP environment. Photosynth is awesome - I just need a faster internet connection. I am not ashamed to admit I use - and love - Vista (post SP1 obviously). So does my mom. Digsby is my multi-protocol IM client of choice, it simply rocks. Facebook continues to become less important. I read Slashdot daily, and I just can't seem to zero my inbox.
Music:
My favourites of the moment are Alanis Morissette's "Flavours of Entanglement" (love the whole album), Asa and John Mayer's "Where the Light Is" (haven't yet been able to find anyone who doesn't like at least three tracks - the sign of a master musician).
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