benb :))

Potty Humor

2011-11-17T20:34:00.001+11:00

We have been so busy I did not post at Timothy's 1 month so this month as a bonus you get 2 albums instead of 1!

The full photo albums are available via the following links: Timothy Birth to 1 Month and Oct to Nov 2011

On 15 September our son Timothy Maxwell Estrella Blake was born by c-section. Ruby had wanted to try for a natural birth this time, but Timothy had been transverse since about 36 weeks so our OB had booked in a c-section. The birth itself was over rather quickly, we turned up at hospital just after 7, chatted to the OB and the anaesthetist at 8 and Timothy was born at 8.42am. At first glance he was a big boy, but it was only when he was being weighed and a crowd of nurses gathered round that I knew something was up. Timothy's birth weight was 5.2kg, length of 57cm and head circumference of 39cm (for comparison Jeremy was 3.7kg, 52cm and head 35.5cm). The mid-wife even had me ring up the operating theatre and tell everyone there how much he weighed.

Timothy was definitely not coming out naturally! A 39cm head is about as big as they get, and no wonder he could not move from being transverse. This time around Ruby's recovery was much quicker and she was up an walking around 36 hours after the surgery instead of the day we left hospital. Ruby's room was also in the new maternity wing at Westmead (instead of being well away like last time) which meant her calls were answered. As she was doing so well we were able to stay at the Rydges near Rosehill racecourse for the last 2 nights.

See also Jeremy at 1 month...

This time around I took 5 weeks leave in anticipation of Ruby needing a similar amount of help to Jeremy's birth. However, Ruby's recovery was a lot faster this time (I think I could have gone back to work after 3 weeks).

Whilst home we did try to get Jeremy potty trained. Some initial progress was made but he does not tell us he wants to use the toilet until after he has already filled up his nappy! However, last week I suggested to him that he have a shower instead of a bath - he could not wait to get in and play with the falling water. Hmmm no more baths for Jeremy?

I did make good use of the 5 weeks, the new garage project was started, but more on that in the new year when construction starts...

Timothy is doing well. His feeds were much quicker than Jeremy's and at first we were worried, but when he kept putting on weight we decided he was just more efficient than Jeremy. Clothes turned out to be a bit fun too. Partly due to the colder spring and due to his size he did not have much in the way of warmer clothes...that fit! We haven't measured him for a couple of weeks however, he was about 6 weeks in front of Jeremy (who had a massive growth spurt between 2 and 3 months).

Lots of other stuff has been going on, but I will let the photos tell the story. Now onto Christmas...

The birthday party virus

2011-09-13T23:17:00.001+10:00

We had planned a Sesame Street themed birthday for Jeremy's 2nd birthday, we had even borrowed some great backyard toys from the toy library. Unfortunately things did not go to plan!

The full photo album is available via the following link: June to mid September 2011

On Friday afternoon (both of us had the day off work) Ruby and I were busy getting ready for Jeremy's birthday party the following day. Ruby had already baked cupcakes and the birthday cake. My parents brought Jeremy home from daycare and told us that daycare thought he had hand, foot and mouth disease (no not the animal one!). We quickly found out it was very contagious to little kids and had to quickly ring all the other parents to cancel the party the following day.

Jeremy still had a great birthday. He did have to visit the doctor confirm he was sick, besides he likes the doctor as he knows she has a supply of jelly beans/babies. He had lots of spots on his legs, but apart from that he was ok (he had lost his appetite a few days earlier - but that was certainly back). He had great fun opening presents and we did have a small family party that night.

Looking back the last couple of months have been busy, well at least is seems that way! We finally cleaned up our guest room to serve as Noodle's nursery (until Noodle can move into Jeremy's room - hopefully). We also bought a new cupboard for the kids as Jeremy's old one was mine from uni days and was not suitable and really falling to bits.

We also had a dryer installed as I figure there will be a lot more washing with Noodle's arrival.

Now we are just waiting for Noodle to arrive...Tomorrow!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

USA Trip 2011 - Overview

2011-06-30T22:18:00.001+10:00

In late May 2011 Ruby, Jeremy and I travelled to the USA to both see Ruby's parents and for Ruby to attend a conference in Denver in early June. We decided instead of flying from Seattle to Denver we would spend a week driving there and also visit Yellowstone national park, Devil's Tower and Mt Rushmore. For the full list of photos from the trip see the following photo album:

The full photo album is available via the following link: USA Trip 2011

The road trip days and Denver are detailed in the following blog posts:
Day 1: Where's the Roadkill?
Day 2: Roadworks and Rainbows
Day 3: Lens Envy
Day 4: Lots of Old Geysers
Day 5: Blowing in the Wind
Day 6: Smaller than Expected
Mammoths and Denver Days
USA Trip: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The first 5 days of the road trip were blogged on the road when we had access to wifi (most days which was great). While the last couple of days did have wifi we did not have much time to post (let alone write a post).
I was originally planning to finish up organising the photos and the last bit of writing while we were in Denver. However, my time was mainly taken up taking care of Jeremy (see Mammoths and Denver Days) and the past couple of weeks in Sydney have simply flown by.

Note also the first 5 days have been edited to include a number of new bits (map links, more pictures, corrected distances).

Flights with Jeremy
Jeremy is definitely at an age where flying is difficult and he certainly let us know he was unhappy! Last time we travelled to the USA he slept most of the way and he is a bit young to be distracted by the entertainment system (though I suspect he is not far off being interested).

The flight to Los Angeles (on a Qantas A380 which was great!) was the hardest as Jeremy did not want to go to sleep sitting up. We were in a bulkhead row and could not move the armrests. Also the flight left just after lunch and he did not want to go to sleep mid afternoon. He slept better on the flight from Dallas to Brisbane (a new route for Qantas in 2011) as we left in the evening and he could lay out flat. Also both flights were long (at 12.5 and 15 hours) which did not help!

Blogging on the road
Blogging on the road was a good idea (yeah look how long it took me to blog once we got home!). However, I think it took too long to get a post done and these are some of the reasons:

I had not setup the plugin for iPhoto which uploads photos with all the metadata to Picasa (see this blog post from 2008 on why I use the plugin). This meant I had to use the crappy web interface and hand enter the data.
I should have worked out how the blog posts would look before leaving and set up a template. That way I could spend more time just writing and not fiddling about with how the post looks (which is one of the reasons why the first 5 days have been edited).
Sort out geotagging once and for all. Unfortunately the gps logger I bought on the last trip did not work properly on this one. I thought I was prepared as I did test it before leaving home and it worked ok, but it has not since. Last trip it really made geo-tagging the photos easy!
Some nights Jeremy went to sleep a bit late and it was hard to pull out the laptop and start writing / organising photos.

Mammoths and Denver Days

2011-06-30T22:17:00.001+10:00

Hot Springs, South Dakota to Boulder and then to Denver, Colorado

Distance: 559 kms
Tantrums: lost count - but Jeremy is really sick of us driving!

This is part of a series of posts from our 2011 road trip. See the overview post for links to the other posts.

There was only 1 place to visit today and the rest was a lot of driving so we wanted to start early (and for a change did!). In Hot Springs there is a (still active) dig site for Mammoth bones (see www.mammothsite.com). Back in the 1970s the bones were discovered when the site was being excavated for a housing development. Ruby and I were fascinated with the site. Jeremy liked running around but he really did not want to listen to the tour guide…

The rest of the day was spent driving to Boulder. The driving was relatively easy as most of it was on I-25, but for Jeremy it was getting boring. He had truly had enough of the long drives and really needed entertaining and we had to make 2 unscheduled stops so he could get out of the car. Luckily at the end of the drive we were staying at a friends place and Jeremy immediately took a liking to their backyard!

The next day we had a short trip into Denver. Here Ruby was going to spend 4 1/2 days at a conference on mass spectrometry. Most days Ruby would leave at 8am and we would generally meet her again at 5.30 or 6. For me this time was a small taste of being a stay at home dad (ok in a hotel…where I did not have to cook or clean…well I said it was only a small taste!!).

Generally Jeremy and I would follow Ruby down to breakfast, but we would take a lot longer to eat than Ruby (Jeremy liked to go back for a 2nd or 3rd tub of yogurt). Then we would wander back to our room counting all the floors in the lift (Jeremy was fascinated by the lift and the floor numbers). Jeremy invented a new game to play in hotel, "Exit Signs", which involved pointing at the nearest exit sign and then running to the next one. As the hotel was square we ended up going around 4 or 5 times before getting to our room.

After a short break we would head off for the indoor pool and swim for 30-40 mins (Jeremy had lots of fun in the pool even though I thought it was a bit cold). Following our swim I would give Jeremy a bath and got him dressed for the day. By the time I had a shower it was about lunchtime so we would head off to have lunch. In the afternoon Jeremy usually spent several hours sleeping after which we would walk over to the convention centre and meeting up with Ruby.

USA 2011 Trip: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

2011-06-26T15:08:00.003+10:00

Here are a couple of random thoughts from our recent trip to the USA. Nothing political, more just stuff we noticed or thought was cool / not cool. This is part of a series of posts from our 2011 road trip. See the overview post for links to the other posts.

The Good

Free wifi in most hotels - why is it in Australia the hotels charge a fortune for wifi, even for the same chain of hotels??
Free wifi at Wyoming rest stops - top marks for Wyoming!!
Mile markers on the freeway - much better than a letter or two for the next important town (and the guessing game for it)
Exit numbers based on the mile markers - you know how far it is to the exit - great!
120 km/h on the interstate freeways yay! (ok 70 mph for those who have not joined the 21st century)
Free bus in downtown Denver
Moose Drool beer :D
Cross Walk countdowns - much better than just the flashing red symbol!
Auto paper towel dispensers in the toilets - just wave your hand past and you get more towel (as opposed to using Jedi mind powers!)

The Bad

Not including tax in the quote prices for items - How hard can it be? We do it in Australia and a couple of the places we went to did this (Mammoth site in Hot Springs for example)
No wifi 32GB iPad 2s in Montana - Boo!
Colder on the first part of the trip than Sydney - and it is supposed to be summer here!
Lack of any decent coffee in Yellowstone National Park - considering how good the coffee is in the US the bile provided in Yellowstone was just awful
Non dairy creamer - yuk, particularly the flavoured ones which were too sickly sweet
Scratchy towels at Ramada Inn, Bozeman
Americans complaining about petrol (ok gas) prices. The prices we saw were under $4 / gallon which translates under $1 in Australia. We are currently paying $1.30 or more here (which is about $5 / gallon).

The Ugly

Fox News - I feel the braincells dying just watching it (why do most hotels show this on their lobby screens??)

Update: added a link to the overview post

Day 6: Smaller than expected

2011-06-13T21:54:00.003+10:00

Devils Tower to Hot Springs
Distance: 305 kms
Star Wars T-Shirts worn: 2

This is part of a series of posts from our 2011 road trip. See the overview post for links to the other posts.

As we were a bit late getting into Lytle Creek last night we left a bit late. Also the breakfast provided by the B&B was fantastic so we took our time eating that! The Lytle Creek B&B is definitely the place to stay if you are visiting Devils Tower! The room is great and the king size bed was very comfy.

Originally we had intended to visit Devils Tower late on Day 5 (hey plans change!), but we had decide to have a bit of a morning off on Day 5 so the visit was moved to today. However, it was already late in the morning by the time we headed off and Jeremy had fallen asleep before we drove out the gate!

Devils Tower was really amazing. The great part of the drive to the visitors centre is it is on the opposite site of Devils Tower so you get to see most of the tower on the drive in. They have even included a couple of places where you can pull over and take photos (which we took advantage of!). Luckily Jeremy woke up after we had been at the visitor centre for a few minutes so he was able to be in the photos!

After Devils Tower we drove to Sundance (no not that Sundance) for lunch where we rejoined I-90. At Rapid City we left I-90 for the last time (I-90 continues east towards Boston) and headed south for Mt Rushmore. We arrived in good time to see Mt Rushmore in the afternoon sun. It was still quite windy so I had to be careful when setting up the tripod to take a few family pics. Jeremy's stroller even walked itself due to the wind! Ruby commented as we were leaving that the sculptures were smaller than she expected (the faces are about 18m high).

By the time we had finished at Mt Rushmore it was getting late in the day. Originally we were going to visit the (currently unfinished) Crazy Horse monument. However, we decided to keep going for Hot Springs and have dinner. This was lucky as the hotel owner advised us when we got to Hot Springs that most places closed at 9pm. We chose a local pub for dinner. I had a bison burger (ok - but just tastes like beef) and an excellent dark ale called Moose Drool - great name!

Note: I had originally intended to blog all of these days on the road. However, nearing the end of our trip I ran out of time so I am doing these now we are back in Australia.

Update: added a link to the overview post

Day 5: Blowing in the Wind

2011-06-04T01:59:00.006+10:00

Billings to Devils Tower, Wyoming
Distance: 481 kms
Tantrums: 1 (for about 30 kms)

This is part of a series of posts from our 2011 road trip. See the overview post for links to the other posts.

Today we slept in a bit and (as we had a late checkout of midday) we made use of the pool in the hotel. The pool was indoors and well catered to for kids. Jeremy had a great time splashing about and going on the slide. We then spent a short time in the shops to give Jeremy a bit more time to run around and also for me to (fruitlessly) look for an iPad 2 (no sales tax in Montana and with the current exchange rate it makes it over $100 cheaper than in Australia!).

After lunch we headed off to the Devil's Tower in Wyoming. We really noticed the change in countryside from Billings, with the snow capped mountains to the flatter land in Wyoming. Today, also, there was lots of wind for most of the trip. I could see the grass rippling (not too many trees near the interstate) in the wind and we both could feel gusts on the car as we drove along.

Jeremy was obviously getting a bit tired with travelling so we stopped in Gillette for dinner at a great Italian place called Adriano's Italian Restaurant. It had yummy pizza, spaghetti (which Jeremy did not want to eat - so we had it too!) and Tiramasu.

After about an hour drive we arrived at our stay for the night, Lytle Creek B&B. So far we are impressed!

Update: added a link to the overview post.

Day 4: Lots of old geysers

2011-06-02T16:36:00.035+10:00

Old Faithful Inn, Yellowstone National Park to Billings
Distance: 362 kms
Roadkill: 5
Geysers: 167 (or thereabouts)

This is part of a series of posts from our 2011 road trip. See the overview post for links to the other posts.

Today was another sunny and clear morning and after breakfast set off to look at all the geysers around Old Faithful. We were lucky to be walking past when the castle geyser was erupting, this was very impressive. We walked around the geysers for about 1.5 hours and really enjoyed it, but by the end were getting a bit tired of seeing steam coming out of the ground.

We took Jeremy in the stroller around the geyser walk. He was great almost all of the walk and only near the end was he getting a bit tired. At that point he was getting a bit annoyed when we stopped to take photos. Unfortunately Jeremy has reached the stage where he does not like having his photo taken so a number of the photos he is looking away!

The next stop was the Midway Geyser Basin which includes the Grand Prismatic Spring (which all the promo photos are from the air). By this stage Jeremy was already asleep so we had to take turns to go and walk around the boardwalk. The colours in these geysers this were fantastic however there was a lot of steam to get through!

By this stage it was mid afternoon and we needed to get to our hotel for the night (3 hours away), so we headed to Mammoth Springs for a late lunch and then the drove to Billings for our stay at Best Western Kelly Inn.

Top Tip for Google Directions: Watch out for the exits Google Maps suggests. They are always the exit before the destination (for the end of the journey). In some cases (as for us with the Best Western Kelly Inn) the best / closest exit was the one after the hotel and not the one immediately before.

Update: added the Top Tip, hotel info and Google Maps directions.
Update 2: added more photos and a link to the overview post.

Day 3: Lens Envy

2011-06-02T16:36:00.026+10:00

Bozeman to Old Faithful Inn, Yellowstone National Park
Distance: 295 kms
Wrong turns: 2

This is part of a series of posts from our 2011 road trip. See the overview post for links to the other posts.

We woke to a sunny and crisp day where no snow had fallen on Yellowstone (as predicted). It was still cold though! Jeremy had also slept through the night which was great.

The drive to Yellowstone (west gate) was relatively quick. Unfortunately on the way I discovered my 17-85mm lens was playing up. Sometimes when I took a photo the camera would give an error message and the photo would be lost. Luckily I brought along my 50mm lens (which takes great photos) but is inconvenient in some circumstances when I cannot move to zoom (as I found out today).

We drove from the west gate through to Canyon Village, with a quick stop for bison photos (along with everyone else), to have lunch. After lunch we drove along the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and took photos along a series of lookouts. There were some fantastic locations, but it was really testing Jeremy's patience along this part, stop/start and getting in and out of the car. Also I could not help but notice all the other people with their working zoom lenses...

We continued through Yellowstone down past the very stinky Sulphur Caldron and Mud Volcano. As we drove on it was getting colder and the snow drifts were getting higher. We didn't bother stopping at Yellowstone Lake as most of it was frozen over. The last part of the drive across the Craig Pass was a bit hairy as the snow had melted across the road and it was a little slippery.

We arrived at the Old Faithful Inn and checked into our room which was in the oldest part of the lodge (built in the early 1900s). The room looked great as all the walls / roof were made of logs (Jeremy was fascinated with the walls and kept on touching them). Before dinner we were able to catch Old Faithful erupting, though Jeremy really did not want to sit still waiting for it to erupt.

Update: corrected distance; added Google Maps directions, a new photo and a link to the overview post.

Day 2: Roadworks and Rainbows

2011-05-31T23:52:00.017+10:00

Couer d'Alene to Bozeman
Distance: 597 kms
Roadkill: 2
Poosplosions: 2

This is part of a series of posts from our 2011 road trip. See the overview post for links to the other posts.

The day did not start so well (again), Jeremy woke at 3am (a pattern perhaps?) after falling out of his bed, but fortunately got to sleep relatively quickly once he snuggled up with us (he did kick me a few times though!). Then to top things off he did a massive poo and made a mess on his bed just before breakfast.

However, the breakfast at Abbotswood House B&B (Eggs Benedict and home-made muesli yum!) was wonderful so we soon forgot about the night. We can highly recommend staying at this B&B!

We set off from Coeur d'Alene for Billings on what was our longest distance day. As the whole trip was on I-90 we planned to cruise along at 100-120 km/h. What we didn't plan on was lots of roadworks which slowed us down a bit and rain on the other side of Missoula. We stopped in Missoula for lunch and for Jeremy to have a quick run around the shops.

The rain had a side benefit though as we got to see a double rainbow about an hour out from Billings (our stay for night 2). I have never seen both ends of a rainbow before let alone 2! We are also goign into colder weather and the reports are that tonight Yellowstone will receive more snow. Hopefully this will not cause us any problems tomorrow.

Update: corrected distance; added Google Maps directions, note on the B&B, a new photo and a link to the overview post.

Day 1: Where's the roadkill?

2011-05-31T23:48:00.027+10:00

Seattle to Couer d'Alene
Distance: 562 kms
Roadkill: 0

This is part of a series of posts from our 2011 road trip. See the overview post for links to the other posts.

Today we set out from Seattle on our road trip to Denver. We had planned to start at 9am, but Jeremy woke up at 3am (he was thirsty) and did not get back to sleep until after 4am so our start was delayed until 11.40. Ruby drove the first part along I-90 and for the most part the trip was made up of very green forest, mountains and over Snoqualmie Pass we were near the snow line. In the western USA they are having a very cold spring and we have not noticed much of a change from the cold weather in Sydney (if anything it is colder here!).

We stopped for lunch and a driver change at the Ryegrass rest area which overlooks the Wild Horse wind farm (at 229 MW larger than any currently operating in Australia). There we snacked on leftover pizza and cheesecake from our dinner at Cheesecake Factory the previous night in Seattle (Jeremy had yogurt and bananas - for a change he was not interested in pizza).

From there I drove to Grand Coulee Dam. The countryside here was different to the first leg and it is was cleared land and canyons. We arrived at Grand Coulee before 4pm, but had missed the power station tour which was just starting on the other side of the dam (and I think might have tested Jeremy's patience at 50 mins). We had a look around the visitor centre and started off for Couer d'Alene. On the way from Ruby commented that we had not seen any roadkill (unlike in Australia!).

We arrived at Abbotswood House B&B late in the evening. One of the features of this house is all the rooms look onto an indoor pool which, of course, Jeremy was fascinated with. I took him for a swim before bed (the B&B owner did have floaties for him) which he readily enjoyed! Even when out of the pool he kept trying to reach in and have a splash...

Update: corrected distance; added Google Maps directions and a link to the overview post.

He understands cake!

2011-05-24T07:15:00.000+10:00

Wow! 3 months has zipped by. OK so for the big announcement (in case you don't follow me on Twitter) is that Ruby is pregnant with our 2nd child who is due in mid/late September. Like Jeremy we have a nickname / codename: Noodle (we decided not to continue the nut theme!).

The full photo album is available via the following link: Feb - April 2011

Since we knew Jeremy would have a sibling by September we decided it was time for Jeremy to move up to a single bed. The move to his new bed was done in 2 stages, first with the mattress on the floor and then with the mattress on the base 2 weeks later. We needn't have worried as he took to the new bed with few problems and has not fallen out. The bed does have a safety rail and Jeremy makes sure that we put it up every night (he can get quite upset if we forget!). He can climb out, but has only got up a couple of times. He really likes playing with some of his toys or reading his books. Next task potty training!!

In the past couple of months Jeremy has really started to understand what we are saying. I have even had to create a new playlist on my iPod which only includes songs with clean lyrics! He is also getting better at saying new words, we do try to say what things are but he is picking up many other words too. During easter he had received a cake and we had decided to let him have a slice after his dinner. After dinner he was very upset so I said to him "would you like some cake". Immediately he stopped crying, walked over to his table and sat down at his table and waited calmly for us to get the cake. Ruby and I looked at each other and said "He understands cake!".

Jeremy really enjoyed Easter and very quickly worked out how to unwrap Easter eggs and eat the whole one (there is a great one of him in the photo album eating a rather large egg). He is very protective of the egg and will not share the chocolate with anyone. We get pushed away when asking for a piece or he just gives us the wrapping.

Around the house a few more of the jobs are being completed (bloody list is not diminishing though). Over the Easter break the large lemon-scented gum tree (which have a tendency to drop branches) was trimmed to remove branches overhanging the house, a large branch over the driveway as well as a number of suckers. A dead tree to the side of our house was also removed which will need to be replaced with another plant. I started work on a new garden at the front of the house where was is an odd gap between the garden around the gum tree and the neighbours fence. The garden is basically done (border, mulch and drippers) done I just need to add some plants to it...

We originally thought there was not going to be much painting in the new place apart from the colour changes we made to the bedrooms as it had been freshly painted. Over time we have discovered the paint job was not too great and the paint used is not good for wiping off stains (not great for a young family!). So over Easter I also repainted our hallway (and a slight change of colour to what Taubmans calls "Coffee Time") and I have plans to repaint our dining room. The outside of the house was not recently painted (the facia boards and wooden windows) so I have started repairs on those and am hoping to have that all done by summer. However, if it keeps on raining each weekend it will be a case of which summer!

And lastly I also did a redesign of the blog. The tools and options are much improved since I last tried this. The old one was mostly hand coded and the new one was all done in the blogger GUI. Still some things to fix, but it is a matter of getting time!

Jeremy: Part Leprecharn

2011-02-09T22:05:00.000+11:00

Jeremy really enjoyed his 2nd christmas! Have a look at the photos below:

The full photo album is available via the following link: Dec 2010-Jan2011

and our 2010 comic is available from this link: 2010 Comic.

December was a fun month, but it was still busy! Fortunately most of my travel was over (though work did send me to NZ for a couple of days) but lots of other stuff was happening each weekend. First up Ruby's mother's group had a combined xmas party and then Ruby's brother Elvin visited from the Seattle. Luckily Elvin was here as he was able to baby sit Jeremy while Ruby and I went to the U2 360 concert. January was quiet, but hot...record breaking hot...

For Ruby's birthday we had breakfast at Pancakes on the Rocks (where Jeremy ate half my pancake and all my fried bananas!). Then we took Jeremy on the ferry into the city where we had a look at the christmas decorations (David Jones ones were not as good as last 2009) and Ruby was able to have a taste of macaroons at the Lindt cafe.

We had a quiet christmas in our new home with my parents and brother. By this time Jeremy had worked out how to unwrap presents without too much help. For the most part he had more fun opening the presents than initially playing with them and we did manage to stretch the opening the presents over 4 days. However, a couple of the presents were a hit - bath toys from grandma and a hammer and block set. Interestingly he also was keen on my brother's geological hammer!

Ruby was also able to make great use of Skype and her mom and dad watched Jeremy open their present for him. In fact he and they had great fun watching each other on Skype for nearly an hour...

Jeremy has become very mischievous of late. When he knows he is going somewhere he should not he always looks back to see if we are watching him. Usually followed by a cheeky grin. He also really likes playing with my keys and not only does he try to get them out of my pocket, but he has moved on and has now grabs my wallet!

He has "discovered" his belly button and we have a fun game where I try to touch it with my finger (usually with lots of giggles on his part). However, this game has been extended. Jeremy now tries to pull up my t-shirt at the shops and poke me in the belly button (which of course he thinks is hilarious). At a friend's house warming one of the kids had their shirt off and was talking to one of the adults, Jeremy just walks up and calmly pokes the kid in the belly button. The adults laughed more than Jeremy!

Around the house we have been getting a few jobs done. We organised for electricians to come in and install ceiling fans (just in time too for the hot weather in late Jan / early Feb), our dining room light from Robert St and a couple of power points (now the dishwasher does not have to run via an extension cord. I have also installed automatic timers and droppers in the front and back gardens which means I can now start a veggie garden.

This past weekend we decided to take Jeremy to the beach on the south coast at Jervis Bay. Turns out this was a very good idea as Saturday night was the hottest overnight temp on record in Sydney. While it was still 40C late on Saturday at Jervis Bay, a cool change came through which made sleeping much easier. Jeremy had a great time at Vincentia beach on Saturday afternoon (along with dozens of other people trying to cool off) once he got over the water being a bit cold. He didn't want to get out, even though he was shivering. A cooler change and rain arrived on Sunday around lunchtime which meant we didn't get to go back to the beach.

Jeremy is only part leprechaun? Well for starters he has that mischievous grin. However, there is part energiser bunny in there too with all the running around he now does (daycare agrees on this one!). And he hasn't told us where his pot of gold is, but neither do leprechauns...

Jeremy and the four teeth

2010-12-10T21:34:00.000+11:00

Where did all the weeks go? Once again it is 2 months from the last blog post and time has zipped by again. I seem to have been travelling for work every second week (Tasmania, Melbourne twice, Brisbane and I just got back from Wellington in NZ).

The full photo album is available via the following link: Oct-Nov 2010.

Jeremy's first tentative steps quickly turned into walking in early October. Initially he was happy to take my hand and take a few steps. However, he was soon picking himself up and taking a few steps and then falling down to crawl again to follow me or Ruby. It did not take him too long to work out walking from one end of the house to the other without falling over (though his walking style for a while was very zombie like). Now he is almost as quick as us getting around the house.

In October I finally installed 4 magnetic cupboard locks (these need to be unlocked using a magnetic key) which have stopped Jeremy getting into parts of the kitchen. I have purchased another 4, but have not installed them as yet. In fact Jeremy has "discovered" the packet in one of the non-locked drawers and likes to run off with it. For the moment the existing locks and the couple of drawers with his stuff in them have stopped the fascination with the remainder of the kitchen.

Jeremy's first 4 teeth came in one at a time. Although he was a bit grumpy and had a small amount of drool getting each of these it was not too much hassle (compared to what we have heard from other parents). However, the next 4 teeth came all at once! It did not seem to bother him too much (his sleep was not too disturbed). However, he was drooling so much that, according to daycare, he was leaving wet patches on the floor. Daycare was even needing to change his clothes on most days as they were getting so wet!

We were surprised when daycare invited us to a 6 month parent-teacher interview in early November. It was kinda interesting as I really had no idea of what they were doing at daycare (all they tell us at the end of the day is that he has eaten well…again). We found out they keep a scrapbook of what he has been up to (it includes lots of photos). Jeremy has started to bring home artwork which I am, of course, proudly displaying (out his reach) on the fridge. Daycare also told us they are practising for the end of year concert in December. We are wondering what Jeremy will do, but we have noticed that he has started clapping. Sometimes he claps following us clapping or to music, he clapped and danced to the title music when we watched Star Wars last weekend.

In early November, on a weekend trip to Mudgee, we took Jeremy to the Zig Zag railway. I had been on the restored steam train a number of times since I was very little and I thought Jeremy might enjoy it too, especially as he has recently been fascinated with the weekly garbage truck and the demolishing of the house across the road. As it was near lunchtime he was a bit grumpy but also with the train taking over an hour it was a bit much for him. Maybe we will try again when he is a bit older.

Towards the end of November we took Jeremy back to Sanctuary Point. We partly wanted a break, but also wanted to take him to the beach. On Saturday afternoon we took him for a swim in the warm shallow waters of St George's Basin. He absolutely loved it as you can see from the following 2 videos:

Sand tasting at Sanctury Point from Ben Blake on Vimeo.

Splashing is fun! from Ben Blake on Vimeo.

Unfortunately we did not get to take him to Vincentia beach as on the Sunday morning it started to rain (was the beginning of the really wet week in NSW where Mudgee saw 120mm of rain in one morning). Perhaps later in the summer…

A few projects around the house were, finally, finished in November. The curtains which we ordered in August (before we had moved in) were finally installed on Melbourne cup day. We did discover (with the brief burst of hot weather in mid November) that curtains did a good job of blocking out heat, but also the bedrooms needed fans to help cool them. Jeremy's room does not get much breeze event with the windows wide open. Hopefully the fans will be installed (apart from the last couple of days it has been rainy even since we bought them) sometime after christmas.

The other job that was finally done last week (after a bit of disorganisation/procrastination on my part) was the installation of a dishwasher which required a builder to come in and modify our kitchen cupboards. At the same time he also fixed part of the western fascia board which which was rotting. That is only the first part of the job, the next bit is to scrape back the remainder of the fascia board, spray on some wood hardener, patch, sand an paint. Easy!

Steps in the right direction

2010-10-11T21:45:00.000+11:00

The past 2 months have been a whirlwind of packing, painting, moving, unpacking, birthday-ing and voting. There have been few weekends where there has not been something on or either of our parents staying in the guest room.

The full photo album is available via the following link: Aug-Sep 2010.

Most of August was spent getting ready to move into our new house. We organised to move early on Saturday 21st August which left us 4 days to do any work on the house after getting the keys late on the 16th. Our plan was to get both our room and Jeremy's room painted as well as doing some baby proofing in the kitchen. Unfortunately it took us a lot longer to paint the rooms (3 coats were needed due to us not putting the first coat on very well) so the baby proofing was not done (still hasn't actually!).

By comparison the move on the 21st was amazingly quick. The movers came in at 7am, loaded up their truck by 8 and everything was out by 9.15. We managed to get most of our stuff unpacked in the 2 weeks before Jeremy's 1st birthday party. However, its those pesky 5% of remaining boxes that are the hardest!

Jeremy's birthday went well, despite the rainy weather and he had a great time (including getting first hands on the cake). I am still a bit overwhelmed with the number of presents he received! And no he did not start walking before his birthday. He is very keen to pull himself up on things and is trying to take a step or two from a table to a chair. Jeremy can stand by himself, most of the time he just does it without thinking, but as soon as he notices he sits back down. With a bit of encouragement he has taken a few shuffles (on the 30th September at 7.15pm) and this weekend he does take my hand and walk with me for a couple of steps.

Just before Jeremy's birthday Ruby received good news. She was accepted into a research position at Macquarie Uni and would start on the 13th September. This meant we needed to get Jeremy into day care and more importantly getting him used to going! Fortunately we had approached the local day care (only 2 blocks away) earlier in the year and they still had a spot for us. We started him out slowly (1 day a week, then 2 days etc).

At first it was hard leaving him there as he always cried when I left (it is my job to drop him off). However, the day care always told us he was fine after we left and he was a hungry boy and always ate all his lunch (then again eating has never really been a problem for Jeremy!). Now when I drop him off he races off to play with a toy or one of the other kids and I think he is settling in well.

The downside of daycare (or The Centre for Children's Biological Warfare) is that is all of us have been sick for the past couple of weeks with some variant of runny noses or coughing. We had to take Jeremy to the doctor last Friday as we were a bit concerned about his cough and he was either pulling at his neck or ear. Turned out he had an ear infection so he is on his first dose of anti-biotics. In a couple of months our immunity "should" build up...

Jeremy has also taken to pushing his walker around the house which I captured in the following video.

Jeremy pushing the walker from Ben Blake on Vimeo.

The calm before the storm

2010-08-04T22:41:00.000+10:00

This has been a busy month, but it will be even busier next month...

Check out the full photo album at July 2010

Most of the past month has been spent getting ready for the move to our new house and preparing our current place for rental. We found out early last week that the current owners want to settle 2 weeks earlier so we have had to quickly get lots of documents signed and start organising removalists.

We did get a break from house stuff in mid July with a weekend away in Canberra to go to a baptism. As with all our trips to Canberra we try to go and see something new. This time we took Jeremy to see the Deep Space Communications complex at Tidbinbilla on a freezing but clear Sunday morning and took some great photos.

Jeremy's 2nd tooth looks to be on the way and he is needing less and less support to stand up. Not sure if he will be walking by his birthday next month, but if not it will be very soon after. He has also started climbing up the stairs, but has a bit of trouble getting down again. Our new house is only on a single level and apart from painting the bedrooms we will be baby-proofing (well trying to) as much as we can. Anything in our current place has been temporary (like moving items higher which only buys a short amount of time).

Jeremy and the stinky nuggets

2010-07-07T19:22:00.003+10:00

Two months has really zipped by and a lot has happened! So much for being back on track...

Check out the full photo album at May - June 2010 and the 3 videos: Proper crawling, At the Kitchen Gate and Sitting up at the stairs.

I turned 35 in May and I was looking forward to my birthday. Unfortunately it was overshadowed by Ruby having a severe gall bladder attack that same week and 2 weeks later having surgery for its removal. Ruby required about a week to recover so I took a week off work to take care of both her and Jeremy. It was very similar to after Jeremy was born with Ruby being unable to carry Jeremy along with the added bonus of Ruby only being able to eat soft foods! Fortunately she has fully recovered (fully cleared at her 3 week checkup) and is starting to eat normal foods again.

When we came back from the USA we decided to hunt for a new house so we could have a bit more space and a backyard for Jeremy to run around in. So most of the Saturdays in the past couple of months were taken up looking at houses in the local area. By the time of Ruby's surgery we were really getting tired of house hunting and the options had really been drying up (we had missed one place in mid May as we did not have our finances sorted out). Both of us being home in early June meant we talked more about what we wanted in a new house and we realised that one place we had looked at around my birthday could actually have been what we were looking for. We took another look the following Saturday and in the next week we had finance sorted, made an offer and signed the contract.

Our new house (we handed over the deposit last Thursday) is only a couple of blocks from where we currently live in Telopea. It is on a corner block, all freshly painted and carpeted, new kitchen, with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (one being an ensuite), carport, garage and a nice sunroom. There's a huge gum tree out front to provide shade from the western sun and plenty of north facing roof to be able to put in some solar panels (if the gum tree doesn't shade the roof too much). We settle in mid August, which is just in time for us to move in, fix a few things and prepare for Jeremy's first birthday and our housewarming party.

Jeremy had a number of firsts recently and we were able to catch them since we were both home (as well as video them). He now has his first tooth on the lower left front (you can just see it in this photo). Also, there is no more slithering across the living room as he has finally starting to crawl properly. It is amazing to see how fast he can get across the living room and get into the furniture, photo albums and even the home entertainment components (good fun really with lots of wires and lights!). He is also pulling himself up to standing on clothes racks and even his highchair and we think it will not be long before he is walking. We have already had to quickly adjust his cot so he does not climb out. Nothing is safe anymore and we started moving breakables and non-baby friendly items away from his reach.

On the food front Jeremy has moved quickly away from purees. We can now hand him large slices of banana or strawberries or slices of toast and he will happily pick those up off his tray and munch away. We are slowly weaning him and he is down to 2 breastfeeds per day and is even eating some of the same foods as us such as shepherd's pie and risotto. After many weeks of trying he is now drinking some of the water we give him.

Oh and why the "Stinky Nuggets" title? With the move to mainly solid food, his poo has become solid and very stinky which I call his stinky nuggets (as a breastfed baby there was not much poo smell in the first 6 months).

Commando crawling

2010-05-04T23:06:00.001+10:00

This month we are (nearly) back on schedule with the blog update.

Check out the full photo album at April 2010.

At the end of March we took Jeremy on his first trip to Sanctuary Point south of Sydney and while there took him to the beach for the first time. At both Austinmer and Vincentia (where I probably first had a dip in the ocean as a kid) we took him down to the water's edge to get his feet wet. Even though it was not too cold, he really didn't like going in the water! Funnily enough he was very interested in the waves going in and out, just as long as he was not in the water. Maybe next year...

The variety of Jeremy's food and amount has increased quickly during April. It did not take him long to get up to 3 solid meals per day and he is basically eating at the same time as us for breakfast, lunch and dinner. So far he hasn't really refused anything we have given him unless he is full. For his food we have been making our own vegetable or fruit mash or purées, though just recently we started him on yoghurt.
On the other hand, he has not really taken to drinking water. We are sure he drinks some of it, but he seems to enjoying spitting the rest back at us...

He is putting all that solid food to good use! Midway through April Jeremy turned his roll / stretch into a drag crawl (more like a commando crawl). He can do a kind of push up as well get up off his tummy as if he is going to crawl but just he sways from side to side and then goes back onto his tummy. Not that dragging along the floor is slowing him down, he now tries to chase after us. A number of things in our lounge and family rooms have had to be moved as he has found these much more interesting than his toys!

Jeremy commando crawling from Ben Blake on Vimeo.

Planes, Poo-splosions and Solid Food

2010-03-25T22:50:00.003+11:00

Our monthly blog post with photos is a quite late this month as we were away in Seattle for several weeks and were a bit busy when we got back.

Check out the full photo album at Feb + USA trip 2010.

We started off the month with a quick visit to Mudgee, but our main focus in February was the trip to Seattle. This was Jeremy's first aeroplane ride and a long trip anyway (14 hours from Sydney to LA is long enough for adults!). Our flights to LA and back (on V Australia) left in the evening and we had a seat with a bassinet for Jeremy. Both times Jeremy slept really well (basically like his normal nighttime sleep) even when there was turbulence (when you have to take the baby out of the basinet). However, Jeremy really did not like the connecting flight from LA to Seattle (on Alaskan Airlines). He did not have his own seat or bassinet and the plane just felt crowded. We had finally entered that elite group: Parents With the Screaming Child (PWSC).

In Seattle as well as visiting family and friends we also visited places like Mt Rainier (where Jeremy saw his first snow) and Snoqualmie Falls (where Ruby took this really great photo of Jeremy). However, I think the best thing is that Jeremy forged a bond between himself and his Lola and Lolo (Filipino for Grandma and Granddad). We also set up a webcam so that (via Skype) he can see more of Lola and Lolo in the future.

One of the great things about going to Seattle is indulging in their coffee. There is much more choice over there and the price is much cheaper than here! We enjoyed delicious coffees such as Intense dark chocolate mocha from Tully's, dark chocolate cherry mocha from Starbucks and caramel mocha from Dilettante cafe at the airport. If we had another couple of weeks, we'd probably would have sampled the lot of mochas from all the major Seattle coffee chains.

In Australia many of the shopping centres have dedicated parents rooms which makes life for us very easy as there is a place to change Jeremy and for Ruby to breast feed him. In general this was not the case in Seattle, at best they have a room with a toilet and a change table. Except at Westfield Southcenter where the parents room was excellent.

Jeremy's poo got a lot worse in that he more often than not would also dirty up his all clothes (we call these either number 3s or Poo-Splosions). All in all not very nice to change it the back of a car or in a toilet. The nappies (ok diapers in the USA) we bought in the US were so much thinner than the ones we get here (Pampers Baby Dry) and whilst they were great for soaking up wee, they might also have been the reason Poo-Splosions were so bad.

As Jeremy was just over 6 months old when we arrived back in Sydney we took him for his next immunisation (he was very good with not much crying) and started him on solids. First we tried rice cereal (which he really likes as you can see in the video below) and have since moved onto apple, banana, pumpkin and avocado. He is not too sure about these and has made some funny faces when given a spoonful or pushed the spoon away. The best way we have found get him to eat these is to mix them with the rice cereal. We are also reasonably sure he is getting the solids through as the Poo-Splosions seem to have been tamed...

Normally I include the videos in the same location as the photos (Google's Picasa). However, I was not very happy with the overall quality of the videos (Google converts them so they look very pixellated) so I am giving Vimeo a try as its quality looks very similar to the original movie.

Jeremy and Solids from Ben Blake on Vimeo.

The weekend after we came back from Seattle we took Jeremy to the wedding of our friends Michael and Emily (the first wedding Jeremy has been to). He behaved himself very well and despite there being a few mosquitos about he managed to not get bitten (I suspect they went after Ruby instead).

Jeremy is now using his rolling and stretching skills to explore our lounge and dining rooms. We are really not used to how quickly he can move and we really need to keep a closer eye on him as he is very keen to put everything in his mouth! I do not think it will be long before he starts crawling...

Rolling over and laughing!

2010-02-03T21:54:00.000+11:00

This month Jeremy learnt to roll over and laugh with us, well not at the same time!

Check out the full photo album from January 2010

Actually he has only learnt how to roll from his back to his front and not back again. A couple of mornings I have found Jeremy on his tummy, sometimes situated 90-270 degrees from the original position when we tucked him in for bed. Its a bit scary too as we never know how long he's been that way, sometimes he gets so tired from tummy time that he just face-plants himself into the bed. So, from now on we check him more often just after we put him to bed. He can also self-settle into sleeping now too which is great!

As for laughing, check out this video. After mother's group last wednesday, we visited my Auntie Vergie who was playing with Jeremy causing him to laugh. The next day, I tried the same trick and got him to laugh some more. He doesn't do it all the time, but it was neat to have caught it on camera.

Jeremy received both his passports in January: Australian and American, which made it possible to book our tickets to the US. We are looking forward to visiting my family in Seattle, but more importantly some Jeremy-free time as Lola offered to do a lot of babysitting. I don't think she will leave him out of her sight!

Jeremy's First Christmas

2010-01-04T22:45:00.000+11:00

Another month has zipped by and now we are in a new year and decade. During December Jeremy had his first visit to Santa, first visit to the beach, first train ride and he did a great job opening his xmas presents.

Check out the photos from December 2009 as well as our 2009 Comic.

We started December by taking Jeremy to see Santa and he sat on his knee very calm and collected (no smiles though!). A new baby for our friend Themy gave us a great excuse to take Jeremy to the beach for the first time.

Jeremy's first trip on a train was into the city so we could sort out his US Passport. He loved going on the train and did not want to just sit in his pram, but look out the window over my shoulder and take in all of Sydney zipping by. Whilst it was a rather miserable day in the city we had a look at both the David Jones windows and Myer's Santaland. Jeremy was not too interested, but we will probably go back and look again this year (but a bit earlier in December, rather than the week before xmas!).

We celebrated xmas in Sydney with our family. Jeremy was actually quite good at opening presents once I had given him part of the paper to hold onto. However, he was not too interested in the presents themselves, instead he just wanted to munch on the paper.

In December we tried getting Jeremy to self settle as we realised he was going too heavy soon to settle by comforting him on the shoulder. This has largely turned out to be successful We know that if he is not asleep at 8-9 mins after putting him down he won't go to sleep without another cuddle (or 10!).

We ended 2009 on the central coast where Jeremy was able to see his first fireworks. The Wangi fireworks were excellent and we were far enough away they were not too loud.

You had me at hello!

2009-12-04T11:29:00.002+11:00

November was a busy month for us and Jeremy has once again surprised us with how much he has grown (last week he was over 7kg and 65cm long) and now fits into size 00 clothes. Click on the following link to go to our November photos and video.

November 2009 Photos

Compare how Jeremy has grown over the past couple of months!

Jeremy had his first trip to visit his grandparents in Mudgee (and we worked out how much to pack in the car). The following weekend Jeremy had his first Thanksgiving in Canberra with his godparents Phil and Allelie. It also turned out to be a good weekend to be away from Sydney with temperatures only 30 C compared to Sydney's 42! His godparents also gave him a toy caterpillar which always brings out smiles and chuckles.

Jeremy also said his first word (see this video, or go to the photo album link above). We are also pretty sure he has said a few "yeah's" as well in the past couple of weeks. Jeremy is also doing very well on the sleep front and is now regularly sleeping though the night (well ok, he does wake up at 5-530am!).

This month Ruby finally joined a mother's group (Parramatta council finally organised something) and that is going well as they have met every week since. Jeremy has made a lot of new friends amongst the other babies in the group.

We also discovered this month how useful the parents room at the big shopping centres are. Not only can we change Jeremy, they also have a private are where mums can breastfeed. This makes shopping trips so much easier. Whilst it is on the wrong floor for most of the shops we normally visit, the Parramatta parent's room is by far the best.

On the nappy front Jeremy has tried out the Toys'R'Us nappies which were very good (and a reasonable price). Our experience with the Aldi nappies were not so good as Ruby found she kept on getting blowouts. Ruby also discovered Sorbies which are quite good and come with both daytime and nighttime nappies. We also stocked up on the next size of Huggies for the upcoming months, we can't believe that Jeremy can now fit into Crawler (6-11kg) size nappies!

Jeremy: Month 2!

2009-11-03T21:49:00.001+11:00

The first month with Jeremy was quite busy with all the family visiting. By comparison our 2nd month was much quieter, with the only big change was I went back to work. Jeremy has really grown bigger (at his 7 week checkup he weighed in at 5.3kg and 70cm long) and is now interacting with us more each day.

Jeremy: Month 2!

Jeremy started smiling back at us just after the 1 month mark. On one occasion several weeks back when I was changing him he pee'd all over himself (and his I Love Dad onesie) and then gave me a big grin! Now in the time after his feed he is now much more playful and loves bouncing away on his bouncinette. We have both been playing music to him during this time which he enjoys. Ruby is playing him lots of U2 although I am trying out a much larger selection...

Now that he has had his first batch of immunisations we have started taking him to the shops with us which for the most part he enjoys (unless he is hungry, filled his nappy or is asleep!). In the last week or so he has tried to communicate with us with lots of ah's and cooing, I was lucky enough to catch him in a really talkative mood as a movie last Sunday (which I included in the album).

Up until a few weeks ago we had been fine with nappies for Jeremy as Ruby had received a large number of newborn sized Huggies at her baby shower. We did not have any larger sizes so when he was about 6 weeks old we decided to try out a couple of different brands. Most other parents had advised to go with Huggies overnight and Aldi nappies during the day. Ruby had noticed a US brand, Pampers Swaddlers, had recently become available here so we gave that a try first (hey it was on salee). They are very good and at least equal to Huggies (even more so if they are cheaper). We also tried out the Woolworths Select nappies which were ok, but do leak if you do not change them often. We did buy the Toys'R'Us and Aldi nappies, but they were way too big for him, but at the rate he is growing we will be using hem very soon!

Jeremy at 1 month

2009-10-04T14:04:00.000+11:00

1 month ago yesterday, Ruby and I welcomed a new addition to our family. Jeremy Cameron Estrella Blake was born at 1528hrs on Thursday 3rd September 2009 (on the due date just like his dad), weighing in at 3.73 kg and 52 cm in length.

Jeremy - Womb to 1 month

On the 1st September when Ruby started having mild and inconsistent contractions. I still went to work (Ruby thought these were pre labour contractions) but decided to start my 4 weeks leave on the 2nd thinking that things were moving along. Around 6pm Ruby's contractions started to get stronger and continued to do so for the rest of the night (she did not get much sleep!). The next morning I rang the hospital and they advised whilst the contractions had been going for 12 hours they needed to be 3-5 mins apart. We spent most of the 2nd at home, going for the occasional walk and distracting Ruby by watching TV/Movies. Her contractions were getting stronger and a bit more consistent, but not down to the 3-5 mins.

Overnight Ruby again did not get much sleep and her contractions were getting more painful. I rang the hospital again at 1am and they advised us similarly to the first call. By 7am it was getting too much for Ruby so I rang the hospital and this time they said to come in. The nurse checked Ruby out and she was 4cm dilated (6cm to go!) though her blood pressure had gone up. A few hours later Ruby was at 6cm and to speed things up our obstetrician ruptured her membranes. He said to us that we should be all done by lunchtime, however, he was also concerned about the baby so Ruby was put on a fetal heart monitor and therefore bedridden. From there things slowed down.

Originally we had planned for an all natural birth with no painkillers (and certainly not an epidural). However, by midday our obstetrician suggested administering syntocin to try and speed things up. It was at this point that Ruby decided to go with an epidural, knowing that the contractions were only going to get stronger with syntocin. Unfortunately, even though Ruby was having regular contractions, not much progress was being made. At 3pm our obstetrician did another check and Ruby was only 7cm dilated. He told us "Its caesar time!" and that we would get to meet our baby within 30 minutes. It was at that point then things happened really quickly (it was like in the movies where someone shouts "action stations") all these people appeared and we were shuffled off to an operating theatre. True to his word, the obstetrician had Jeremy out within 30 mins.

I was then shuffled off with Jeremy back to the birthing suite while Ruby went to recovery and I did not see her for over an hour (which was a bit scary as I really did not know what was going on). However, I did get some valuable bonding time with Jeremy. By the time Ruby was ready, Jeremy was very keen for a feed and latched on straight away.

Things have gone by quickly since then, though looking back we have done a lot. Ruby spent the next 5 days in hospital and the following week at home was fun with all the late night feeds. Luckily my mum and then Ruby's parents stayed with us and were able to provide us with a bit of help. Even after they left we have not really felt sleep deprived. My body decided to get better quality sleep instead (best sleep I have had in a long time in fact!). Jeremy now has a good sleep routine overnight with normally only 1 (occasionally 2) feed. Also, he really has grown in the past month and we may be able to use some of his 00 clothes in the next week or two!

I am intending to keep up regular blog postings now we have Jeremy so either check back often or subscribe to my blog using RSS. If you only want postings with Jeremy or our trip photos (instead of my other rantings) using the following link:
http://benblaughs.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/-/Photos

Codename: Cashew

2009-02-25T21:35:00.003+11:00

Big news! I am going to be a Dad!!

That's right, Ruby is pregnant with our first child and now that we are past the 12 week mark I can tell everyone. Why 12 weeks? This is mainly due to the risk of a miscarriage is greatly reduced after that time (though we did let immediate family and a few close friends know easrlier). Also, we had an ultrasound on Monday so now I have some pictures to show off!

Ruby already reckons that it looks like me!

The reason for the ultrasound was a Nuchal scan which is normally done at 12 weeks to check for the risk of Downs syndrome. The good news is we have a reduced risk (now 1 in 2000 as opposed to 1 in 400 before the scan).

Oh and "cashew" is what we started calling the baby back when we first found out Ruby was pregnant and the name has kinda stuck (though I have suggested others...).

I was wrapped with the ultrasound. Just seeing our little cashew waving and bouncing about was nothing short of amazing (and yes we do have a video of this).

Revised Applescript for downloading EPG for use with EyeTV

2009-02-21T16:57:00.003+11:00

Last year I wrote an Applescript to download an xmltv file and load into EyeTV (see this post). This relied on downloading a single xmltv file from Free*EPG. Unfortunately in Septembver 2008 they discontinued providing this file for direct download and instead required their software which only worked on a Windows PC.

The handy part with the Free*EPG file was they handled all the location set-up and provided a single file for download (EyeTV only accepts a single xmltv file). The other choice for downloading xmltv files was OzTiVo , but this required updating the Applescript to do all the file handling and aggregating. This turned out to be a bit of work and some of the bugs I had to fix took a week to appear which slowed things down a bit.

Version 2.0 of my xmltv Applescript can be downloaded here (168 K). I also included instructions on its set-up. Apart from choosing which channels (e.g. ABC-NSW) to download on first run, it is basically the same as for version 1.0.

UPDATE 12 Oct 2009: All the Australian free to air networks now publish up to date EPG data for about 7 days over DVB (thanks to the Anonymous comment on my original post). I highly recommend using this data instead of my Applescript (which will now no longer be updated). To change to DVB go to each channel and change EPG to DVB, then right click on the Program Guide item and select "Clear EPG Database", then right click again on Programs and select "Update DVB Program Guide".

11th Doctor Announced

2009-01-04T19:02:00.003+11:00

David Tennant announced in October 2008 he was leaving Doctor Who in 2010 which was a bummer as he was one of the best Doctors. Today the BBC have announced his replacement: Matt Smith. Who? Never heard of him! But go to this link to find out more.

North West rail link cancelled/delayed

2008-11-04T08:35:00.002+11:00

Bugger! I just read about this today (even though it came out on Friday). The NSW government has cancelled the North West rail link. Pathetic and completely unacceptable.

SMH - North West Metro cancelled despite demand

Large Hadron Collider

2008-09-09T20:38:00.000+10:00

Exciting week for particle physics with the Large Hadron Collider being turned on the 10th September. Pity though that some seem to think that it will destroy the Earth when it is switched on. Have a look at these links as to why this is not correct:

No, the LHC won’t destroy the Earth | Bad Astronomy

Brian Cox calls ‘em like he sees ‘em

New iPods next week

2008-09-03T22:16:00.004+10:00

ArsTechnica - Apple confirms September 9 Special Event: "Let's Rock"

Yep 2 posts in one day! There has been some speculation on this on the interwebs but today Apple released invitations for the annual September iPod update. Easy guess is that the iPod Nano and Touch will be updated. The rumors are suggesting another big change to the Nano (much like the change from the 2G to 3G last year).

I think we will also see a price restructure of the Touch to align with the iPhone changes in July. There will also be an update to iTunes to v8 with appropriate features to justify going from v7 to v8 (MacRumors link). As for Mac updates, these will come later in September.

However, it is also worth noting that Apple hinted at a product transition in September. Perhaps a Mac Tablet or a Nano that runs the iPhone OS? Or is this just the price restructure of the iPod line or something else Mac related?

Google's browser released

2008-09-03T22:15:00.000+10:00

Google released their web browser today, called Google Chrome. Currently it has only been released for Windows with Mac and Linux versions on the way. Overall they have taken a very minimalist view of a web browser, there is no menu bar and the tabs are on the top. For a good overview of the interface see John Siracusa's blog post.

I tried it out at work today and I am very impressed and I will probably use it instead of Firefox and Safari. However, at home I will most likely continue using Safari, but I will give Chrome a go when it comes out for the Mac. Interestingly the rendering engine they used is WebKit which is the same as used by Apple's Safari. Also, a very cool feature is the saving web pages as applications (Safari will get this in version 4 apparently). Now I can just have a shortcut on the desktop to Gmail or Google Docs!

Sydney Harbour Bridge blocked yesterday

2008-09-02T12:46:00.002+10:00

ABC News - CBD back to normal after bridge smash

There was an accident on the Sydney Harbour Bridge yesterday which caused serious problems for Sydney traffic yesterday. I heard on the ABC news last night that "transport experts" were calling for another harbour crossing. Maybe instead of this we should be examining why there are so many people driving into the city! I normally drive against the traffic and I am amazed that people would sit in traffic that barely moves for several hours a day.

Red Dwarf to return?

2008-08-28T12:44:00.006+10:00

One of my favourite TV shows may be returning! This week on Seattle public TV station Robert Llewellyn (who plays Kryten) announced that the BBC would be filming a 1 hour Red Dwarf special in October. Hints of this were also posted on the official Red Dwarf website earlier this month. Also see this link: Red Dwarf Rumored to return

However, there has been no official statement from the BBC and the official Red Dwarf website has not been updated.

Lets hope this really does get made. Unfortunately the series has been in limbo as they were trying to get funding for a movie version. I had also read earlier this year that the BBC had passed on doing a Series 9. Hopefully if there is enough interest in this special a new series could be commissioned!

Our Ireland, New York and Seattle holiday

2008-08-10T21:34:00.000+10:00

On Monday 7th July, Ruby and I left on our 3 week Ireland, New York and Seattle holiday which we were both looking forward to. I was also keen to try out my new Canon Eos 450D. Now this is a long post, so for those of you who just want to see the photos (all 112) here the links to the albums: Ireland, New York, Seattle.

Ireland

It took us 35 hours door-to-door to fly to Dublin (via Singapore and London Heathrow) and for the most part this was on the new Airbus A380 (which we were very impressed with). For the first leg, our seats were more towards the front of the bottom deck of the A380 and we felt very little turbulence. The same cannot be said for the flight from Singapore as we were the 3rd last row and felt every bit! In fact while waiting for the toilets (which are right at the back) I lost my balance, ripped the back of my jeans and had to quickly get back to my seat. Not the worst turbulence I have been in, but then again I have never been standing up in turbulence before!

We arrived in Dublin around lunchtime and despite being tired we decided to make the best of it and wander around Dublin until dinner. Since we were staying close to Trinity College we had a quick look there and at the Book of Kells (which Ruby really wanted to see). Next we headed to look at the shopping area to get me some new jeans where we spotted Ronnie Wood eating at a cafe (nah no signature, might have if it was Keith or Mick). We finished off the day by grabbing a bite to eat at Gallagher's Boxty House in the Temple Bar area (the boxty is yum!). Now we did plan to stay up to get in sync with the Ireland time, however, we were very tired after dinner and slept very early.

The next day we woke up (early) to rain, but since it wasn't like Sydney rain so we decided to walk along the Liffey and then go to the Guinness Storehouse. This was a very impressive tour with a look at how Guinness is made. Ruby and I spent the entire moring there! After that we walked over to Kilmainham jail. I had not heard of this place before, but Ruby was keen to see it (she kept mentioning the video for the U2 song A Celebration and Bono's red jeans!). It turned out to be very interesting (read the Wikipedia and YouTube links for more info).

The following day we picked up our hire car and started our circumnavigation of Ireland. First stop was Slane Castle (U2 recorded an album there). We then moved on to Belfast where we ended up getting a city tour which included Shankhill and The Falls Roads where there was lots of conflict there during The Troubles. Now, however, Belfast seems to be a vibrant city with lots of development going on. That night we stayed in Larne, ready for the next day where we had lots to see and lots of driving to do.

From Larne we headed for Donegal along the northern coast of Ireland (which was a fun drive for Ruby!) and first stopped at Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. It was blowing a gale when we got there (so much that the rope hand rail was bowing inwards) but we were definitely going across (though on the way back Ruby did cross rather quickly!!). Then it was on to the highlights of our trip: The Giants Causeway. This was simply fantastic and we were lucky the sun came out so we could get some great photos! We had filled in a lot of our day already, but pressed on to have a quick look at Derry, the location of the Bloody Sunday incident in 1972 and some memorable murals depicting events during The Troubles. At the end of the day, with some lucky navigation (our road map was sort of useless for this part), we finally found our B&B in Donegal.

Our goal for the next day was to head to Galway where we would be spending the next 2 nights. However, instead of the direct route on the main road we instead took more of a zig-zag through increasingly smaller Irish roads. First stop was Knock, then west to Ashford Castle and then further west along the shores of Lough Corrib to Kylemore Castle and then a late evening dash to Galway.

The following day was meant to be a rest day and for the morning it was. However, since Ruby was going to spend the next day talking to her PhD supervisor, Niclas, we decided to head for the Cliffs of Moher (even though it meant backtracking!). This was via the coast road which was very narrow! The drive was difficult but the scenery along The Burren and at the cliffs was fantastic. Driving back to Galway, on the other hand, was awful...

Ruby and I spent a large part of the next day at the uni with the last part just driving to get to our B&B at Killarney. The following day we were back to being tourists and did tours of Ross Castle (more a tower than a castle!) and Muckross House before driving to the B&B at Waterford. To be honest I was really disappointed in Waterford as it was just dull and run down (though Ruby does have her own club there: the Ruby Lounge!). The only good thing there was the tour of the Waterford Crystal. Our last day in Ireland was spent driving back to Dublin with a quick stopover at Kilkenny for lunch.

New York
We spent all the next day flying to New York (via Frankfurt). At the airport when trying to get to our hotel in Manhattan we nearly got conned into spending $100 for the trip, in the end we only spent $30 (though we had to walk a couple of blocks). Since we only had 3 days in New York we decided to fit in as much as we possibly could. Despite it being hot (35 C) we walked over 14kms and visited the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Wall St, World Trade Center, Brooklyn Bridge, Times Square and the library from the start of Ghostbusters. I even managed to buy a new pair of Doc Martens on the way (only $AU90!!).

On the 2nd day we went straight to "Top of the Rock" at Rockefeller Center which gave a great view of New York. From there we meandered back past Times Square to meet the bus for our "Sopranos" tour. While this was a good break from wandering about New York and we did visit interesting spots in New Jersey, the tour seemed geared more towards hard core fans of the show. On our last day we spent the morning at the Metropolitan Muesum of Art then wandered through Central Park on the way to the 5th Avenue Apple store and Dylan's candy bar.

Seattle

Our flight was due to leave New York at 9am and we thought we would be in Seattle by mid afternoon. Unfortunately our Chicago - Seattle flight was cancelled by United. Instead we had to fly via Denver, on to Portland and then via a very small plane (it had propellors!) to Seattle. We ended up arriving at 10pm. In Seattle we were tired from being tourists so we didn't do much (well Ruby did do a bit of shopping!) except visit the Seattle Aquarium and the Boeing Everett factory (on our last day). The Boeing factory was cool and I enjoyed seeing how the planes were made. However, I really felt the tour guide went way too far with how wonderful Boeing is and how magnificent the 787 is.

This time our flight back from Seattle was a little different. Normally we fly back going via San Francisco. However, we found out that Air Canada now flies non stop from Vancouver. This does take 15 hours, but overall should have taken less time than via San Francisco. We hardly noticed the 15 hours as we slept most of the way...

Overall we really enjoyed our 3 weeks, but looking back we should have included a couple of rest days. The food was good too and the highlights were the Irish Champ mash along with the Pizza and cheesecake in New York. On the beer front, after trying a number of Irish beers, I still prefer Guinness. Also, there were many foods with Guinness as an additive (from fudge to stews). They were are not really any better due to the Guinness, better to have the two separately!

Oh and the camera went well too, though I am thinking about a new lens...

Blog update & Picasa Web Albums

2008-07-05T14:45:00.001+10:00

Well, it has been a while since my last post! I have been meaning to write on various things but I have been very busy helping to deliver a project at work and supporting Ruby writing up her PhD. However, I have also been playing about with Blogger and Picasa.

So the first thing you will notice is the new URL for my blog, which you were (most likely) redirected to. When I setup this blog I used Blogger to publish files via FTP to our site at benandruby.com. Originally I thought this was good as it was on my own URL. However, there are a couple of disadvantages in doing this. Firstly it took a while to publish to the ftp site and secondly there are a lot of cool features that I could not access (blog roll, dynamic layout features, scheduled posting). In fact, I think the set of features supported for blogs on the Blogger servers and versus those via FTP is only going to increase. So I decided to move over to the Blogger servers.

Moving over was not a simple matter as I had made many customisations to the Blogger template (the rounded corners and the changeable backgrounds for example). But after lots of fiddling and testing I was able to get this working much like the old blog. Using the "new" layout editor is great and it was easy to add things like the Blog Roll and RSS link. Overall, I am happy with the change however, there is still a bit of work to do on the redirects at the old site (not all pages done).

The other thing I have been playing with is Picasa Web Albums. I had previously been using Galerie to create web albums from our iPhoto library and posted these to our website. However, I was not completely happy with the results compared to the effort I had to put in to create them. This is partly the reason why our Cairns photos had up until now never been to our photo pages. After seeing what Alellie and Phil have done with Picasa web albums I decided to give that a look (especially since we have a holiday to Ireland and the USA coming up!).

After a quick look I realised that Picasa was the way to go. It had plenty of storage (1 Gig), a good layout and Google Map integration for geotagging. Google even provided an export plugin for iPhoto and a dedicated app for uploading! Unfortunately, the Google apps and the web upload have a bug which means that either GPS data or the captions are uploaded. Not both!

In the end I purchased an iPhoto plugin from Ubermind which uploads photos and correctly adds the captions and GPS. It also includes more photo resizing options. Below are links to the Picasa web albums for our last 3 trips: USA 2006, New Zealand 2007 and Cairns 2007.

As for how I geotag the photos? That is for another blog post...

New iPhone release closer?

2008-05-13T22:06:00.003+10:00

A number of recent news reports and press releases are pointing to a new iPhone (and most likely a 3G one) release in the very near future. Additionally these confirm the post on MacTalk just over a month ago. Another post was added today summarising this.
- both Vodaphone and Optus have announced they will be selling the iPhone in Australia (as well as several other countries). Interestingly Telstra has not said anything...
- 3G on/off settings have been found in the latest iPhone SDK. This is apparently to help with battery life
- iPhones (as of Saturday) are unavailable on the US or UK Apple stores. See this AppleInsider report.

I think this points to an iPhone release sooner rather than later (possibly even this week). Whether this means you will be able to get the new iPhone straight away is another matter as Apple sometimes announces products that will ship "in a couple of weeks". However, in the case of us here in Australia I think we will definitely be waiting until Sydney Apple Store is opened in mid June (mainly as this is a great marketing opportunity).

U2 3D

2008-05-03T15:16:00.002+10:00

Back on Sunday 13th April we went to Sydney's IMAX to see U2 3D. Being a big U2 fan (so yes this article will be biased!) I was excited to see this film, especially as this was billed as you getting the best seat in the house. I also wanted to see how this compared to the actual Vertigo concert that we went to in Sydney in late 2006. I was worried that it would be like all the concert films/DVDs I have seen which I find to be a bit lacking and nothing like going to the real concert. I much prefer to listen to them than watch. Well in this case I was not disappointed. You certainly get the best seat in the house as well as get to be up on stage with the band all within the one song. The 3D effects are not cheesy or overused (certainly not like ones I have seen where you get the red and blue cardboard glasses). In fact, you get used to the 3D really quickly and almost forget its there.

So was it like going to a real U2 concert? Well yes and no. On one hand the sound was great and you do feel like you were there. Additionally for us since this was on opening weekend so we had to line up for 30 mins so we could get good seats, so that made it feed a bit like a real concert. However, it was actually easier to go to than a concert as we did not have to line up for as long! For Zoo TV and Vertigo we lined up for 6 hours or so just to get good spots! Also, I was not deaf at the end with ringing in my ears for several days afterwoods. Not that there was any problem with the sound being too quiet!

There was a problem with some idiots in front of us who kept getting up to get drinks or food (why I don't know as the film only went for 85 mins!) But the really funny reason why it felt most unlike a concert was it was a bit cold. Normally you get really hot at a concert, but here since we were in an air conditioned theatre it actually felt cold at the end of the concert! Lastly (and this is more from a fan perspective) I found the concert to be too short and I would have like to have seen the full setlist. I really liked the Zoo Station / The Fly combination at both the Zoo TV and Vertigo tours and was really disappointed that Zoo Station was omitted.

So, even with a few faults I would highly recommend going to see U2 3D, even if you are not a U2 fan. This is an excellent showcase of the 3D technology and I hope more bands and filmakers use this in the future. We will be going again :)

Lastly if you are interested in more details of this, Wikipedia has an excellent write up of how they did the concert and the history behind it.

iPhone in Australia in June?

2008-04-09T19:03:00.003+10:00

According to this post on the MacTalk Australia forums the iPhone will be released in Australia in late June (yes 2008!). Normally I would be somewhat skeptical of this, however, this has come from the Aussie Apple resellers.

Important points:
- late June release
- multiple carriers
- no contract lock in
- current resellers to sell iPhone

Interestingly the last 3 points are a change for Apple as these are not done anywhere else. I wonder if this will be extended to other regions or what other regions will be released at the same time.

The multiple carriers hints at a 3G iPhone as the current 2.5G iPhone needs EDGE which is only used by 1 carrier in Australia: Telstra. Also, this is around the time the 3G iPhone is rumored to be released. Additionally there is this AppleInsider report today on the 3G iPhone. Coincidence?

Using xmltv feeds with EyeTV

2008-03-29T15:48:00.002+11:00

UPDATE: the Free*EPG service no longer provides an xmltv download. I have released a new version of the Applescript which downloads the EPG from OzTiVo.

In October last year I bought a Mac Mini to use as a media center. The software I am using is Elgato's EyeTV which does a great job of managing and recording TV shows. Initially I had setup schedules for each of the TV programs I was interested in, but this only works when shows are on at the same time every week (which the commercial networks are notorious at sticking to).

With the release of v3.0 in January one of the new features I was most interested in was "Smart Guides". This allows you to set your recordings based on search criteria (e.g find Top Gear or Doctor Who). This works well when you have a complete EPG. Now while 7, 9 and 10 transmit a 7 day guide, ABC1 & 2 only have one for the next 2 days and there nothing for SBS.

With the latest release of EyeTV (version 3.0.1) it allows xmltv files to be used as an EPG. First drag the downloaded xmltv file onto the EyeTV application. Now Go the the Channels in EyeTV and for each of the channels you want to use the xmltv file for the EPG set its EPG to xmltv.

In some cases if EyeTV cannot find the channel in the xmltv file it will ask you to select from a list of channels it has found in the file (this always seems to happen for SBS).

This works well, however, EyeTV needs to be restarted or the xmltv file dragged onto it for the EPG to be refreshed for a newly downloaded xmltv file.

I get my xmltv EPG from Free*EPG and to make my life simpler I have written the following Applescript which downloads the zipped file, unzips it and opens the xmltv file in EyeTV. The only user settings required is to enter your ClientID and Postcode into the two variables (they currently contain ????) and save the script.

To activate the script you can either set it to run via iCal or cron. For example I set iCal to run the script daily at 6:50.

The same script can be used to grab files from other services. I included a separate variable for the download link so this can be changed easily for other xmltv providers.

Edited 5th July 2008: updated locations of images

Edited 21st February 2009: included link to blog posting for the updated Applescript

RIP Arthur C. Clarke

2008-03-24T09:13:00.000+11:00

It was a sad day for me on March 19th as my favourite author, Arthur C. Clarke, passed away aged 90. I had just finished reading one of his best books 'Rendezvous with Rama' the night before.

RIP Arthur, thanks for the inspiration and all the good reading :)

Website update

2008-03-02T18:10:00.002+11:00

Haha 2 posts in one day!

As well as some of the REALbasic stuff I have been working on I have also been working on updates to the website. I discovered that Firefox and Safari now support rounded corners (one of the new items in CSS 3). So I replaced the javascript I was using (Ruzee Borders). If you are using IE or Opera the borders will be square.

Lastly I found a cool way to show pictures. It is a javascript called Lightbox. Currently I am only using this on the My Money Minder page to show screenshots, but I may move to using this on our pictures page...

My Money Minder 1.9.8 released

2008-03-02T18:03:00.003+11:00

I have released another bugfix to My Money Minder. I had thought 1.9.7 was going to be the last release before 2.0, but a few bugs were found that needed fixing. For the full details of the changes and download links go to the My Money Minder pages

Kyoto Ratified!!

2007-12-03T22:25:00.000+11:00

Really happy to read that the first thing newly sworn in Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has done is ratify the Kyoto Protocol. This is fantastic as Australia can now start to regain international credibility in environmental issues.

Mr Howard, you're Fired!

2007-11-10T08:00:00.000+11:00

(or why I am voting to remove the Liberal / National coalition in the 2007 Federal Election)

All governments have a use-by date. I think that the current Federal government has definitely past its use-by (probably before the 2004 election in fact) and I feel more strongly than ever that it is time for a change in government. Normally I think about this closer to an election, but this time I was convinced of this in about January or February this year and nothing since then has made me waver. Why? In this blog post I will examine a number of issues and how I think the current government have failed the Australian people and simply do not deserve to be returned. Please note that this is not going to a critique of the Kevin Rudd led Labor party or why they are better.

• Doing nothing on climate change for 10 years. John Howard has never believed this is an issue, even despite what he is telling us in this election campaign. We should have ratified Kyoto (yes it is flawed, but it is the best thing out there), had a carbon trading scheme now (not in several years) and started energy efficiency programs.
• Involved us in Iraq invasion with the US. This is an unjust war and our involvement helped to legitimise the US invasion. We have had a continuing stream of lies for the reason for the invasion and Australia should never have been involved as it has actually made us less safe. This war has brought attention to us from terrorist elements and for an unjust war that it not worth it. Lastly, Howard has no exit strategy from Iraq.
• I can't believe its not Work Choices. Worst piece of legislation in the last 30 years and exceedingly unfair to younger people. We don't really know if this has created more jobs (the economy was doing well before this!!). Besides the Workplace Authority have not released any stats on this so we just have to believe the government saying we are better off???? This legislation has moved the rights too much towards business and needs to be brought back into more middle ground. The guy in charge of this (the snide Kevin Andrews) is now showing his “talents” in the immigration area recently with his comments on African immigrants.

These are my top 3 (equal placing) reasons. I think each is a reason in itself to not vote for the Liberal / Nationals. However, beyond that there are more reasons...

▪ David Hicks. How could our own government let an Australian citizen (no matter what he did) rot WITHOUT trial for years? Our government failed bigtime in doing nothing. Truly pathetic and completely unacceptable on the part of our government. Pathetic too that they had to gag him until after the election.
▪ Not saying sorry to the stolen generation. John Howard has failed miserably on Aboriginal affairs, he is opposed to land rights and saying sorry. We need to heal the wounds here, not create division...
▪ Wasting a very large amount of money on advertising (especially for Work Choices). $1 million a day, how many hospital beds can that buy? Did you know the Federal government is one of the top advertisers in the country? This is a WASTE of taxpayers money and has really been pseudo election advertising all year.
▪ The so called Pacific Solution for refugees. This is a truly awful way to treat displaced people and a complete waste of money (hundreds of millions!!). These people including children are locked up for years while waiting for processing. Surely there is a better way of doing this.

Now I also want to make it clear that this does not mean I am wholeheartedly voting Labor, but looking at the 2 major parties they are the least worst. However, to make things interesting I will be voting much more selectively in the upper house (most likely Green as the Democrats seem ineffectual these days) and helping to return it to a house of review.

So Mr Howard, for dreadful and cynical performance over the past several years....You are FIRED!!! Mr Costello for not having the guts or gumption to challenge for the leadership you are fired too.

Matthew Reilly, Leopard and our new Mac Mini

2007-10-29T13:51:00.000+11:00

Last Friday we were at Macquarie Centre for 2 reasons. One was to get our new Mac Mini (10% off at JB HiFi!) which will become our new media centre (more on that in a later post). The 2nd reason was to go to Borders to meet Matthew Reilly and get a signed copy of his new book Six Sacred Stones :)

Also last Friday at 6pm Apple released Mac OS X 10.5, though it is probably better known by its code name, Leopard, which Apple is also using in its marketing. I didn't get a copy on Friday (despite NextByte and JB HiFi being open after 6pm) as I qualify for a $13 upgrade with the Mac Mini purchase.

It has been interesting reading the reports on Leopard (mainly since I am seeing what people's overall experiences are). I generally try to ignore the more sensationalist stuff and instead read sites whose authors know their stuff and give praise or criticism when its due (such as John Gruberor the always excellent Mac OS X reports by John Siracusa's reports).

However, I am really disappointed in the Sydney Morning Herald's incredibly poor and badly researched report "Spotty Leopard makes Mac users catty". The report implies that Apple's latest operating system is flawed and Apple have been deluged with support requests. This is simply not the case and the fault of this error lies equally with a 3rd party hack by Unsanity and Logitech. Unsanity provide "extra" functionality to the Mac by installing stuff in into the parts of the OS that Apple say not to. Generally users who install this stuff keep the hacks up to date, but what is worse, Logitech have installed this as a part of a mouse "driver".

The lesson here is when installing a new OS (whether Mac, Windows or Linux) it is best to start from scratch. Leopard (and Tiger before it) provide an option to "Archive and Install". This copies your old system files (including all the 3rd party stuff into a separate folder) and installs a fresh copy of Leopard, it also can (set by default) copies across all your user and network settings.

Back to the SMH. I have noticed of late there has been an anti-Apple bias in the reporting there (or at the very least they just copy their news from blogs). With a small amount of research (like I did above) the article could have been balanced and less sensationalist and instead provide a bit of guidance to users. At the very least once new information became available the article could have been updated to indicate it was a problem with the Unsanity hack and that users were at risk if they had installed Logitech stuff. Newspapers have a responsibility to report critically and fairly, many people read this stuff and just believe it (I had a few discussions on this at work today trying to dispel the fallacies in this article. So Asher Dunn you are now on notice.

And, yes, I will be doing an Archive and Install on our iMac

UPDATE: Apple have sold over 2 million copies of Leopard. It took Tiger (10.4) a month to sell that many!

Leopard release date announced and price drop for iTunes DRM free tracks

2007-10-17T12:52:00.000+10:00

Apple has announced that MacOS X 10.5 (or Leopard) will be available on October 26th and is now available for presale ($158 or $145 for Education). If you bought a new Mac this month then you can get it for $12.95. They have also added a webpage with a categorized list of new 316 new features. However, if you don't want to go through the whole list then Appleinsider has a good summary.

Also Apple (most likely in response to Amazon's MP3 store) have reduced prices of their iTunes Store DRM free tracks to $1.69. However, there is no indication currently if there is a price change for upgrading existing tracks to DRM free. Also, they have also added a number of independent labels. Good stuff :)

Get This cancelled - TripleM you buggers!!!

2007-10-16T20:56:00.000+10:00

Just heard today that one of my favourite radio shows (which I grab via podcast) is being cancelled. Triple M have cancelled Get This (see SMH link). Despite several time slot moves they were rating well, not sure I understand the logic of this one!!

Sign this petition to try and reverse this.

Amazon launches MP3 store

2007-09-29T22:53:00.000+10:00

This week Amazon have launched the Amazon MP3 Store. What makes this interesting is that the nearly 2 million tracks available do not contain DRM. This is another nail in the coffin for DRM after EMIs announcement in April (see my previous post on DRM removal).

This is the first store to seriously challenge Apple's iTunes Store and the tracks are cheaper than the regular iTunes tracks (let alone the DRM free iTunes Plus ones which cost 30% more). However, only 2 of the 4 major labels are available (EMI and Universal). Also "officially" the store is only available for US residents, however, they don't check the country for your credit card's billing address just your home address. Though I reckon this won't last long...

My Money Minder 1.9.7 released

2007-08-30T19:01:00.000+10:00

I have released another bugfix version of My Money Minder (which I hope again will be last bugfix before v2!!). This release also includes a revised help system which is modelled on the current style in Apple's apps and is also searchable. For the full details and download links go to the My Money Minder pages .

Canon 40D, Holden Utes and Google Maps

2007-08-23T21:30:00.000+10:00

Well it has been a couple of months since I started this blog and the regularity of posts has faltered somewhat! However whilst there have been things I have wanted to blog about I have had writers block. Oh and the fact that about a month ago I discovered Facebook...

I do have a few ideas for blog posts (damn writers block, well that's my excuse and I am sticking with it!). We will see :)

Anyway this week I don't have writers block and there are things I want to write about! Firstly I have been thinking for some time of updating my Canon SLR to digital. Until this week it was an easy answer as I would get the 400D which I have found for under $1000 at Photo Buff. This week Canon announced the next model up, to 40D which is tempting but probably outside my price range.

I am bummed that this week's Top Gear was the last one on SBS until summer. But to keep the inner car buff happy Holden has obliged and released details on the VE based ute (which we have waited nearly 12 months for). Tempting as it looks great!! But practically I will still keep my new Golf turbo diesel. It was only this time last year I sold my VR Commodore for it even though was very very very tempted by the new VE SV6. Hmmm, if they had a diesel version...

This week Google has announced two new items. Google Sky is an addition to the Google Earth app where you can reverse things and look at the night sky. In fact many of the southern sky images were taken at the UK Schmidt telescope in Sidings Springs near Coonabarabran in NSW. Also you can now embed your Google Maps into your own websites, which reminds me that I need to sort out our Cairns photos! Here is the map from our NZ trip.

View Larger Map

Transformers

2007-07-02T15:04:00.000+10:00

I was excited about going to watch the new live action Transformers movie as I remember watching the tv show as a kid (and the cartoon movie) as well as having the toys (Bumblebee and Jazz are the two I remember). However, I was a bit worried as I found out the director was Michael Bay who had directed the woeful Pearl Harbour, but only a bit as he had also done the fun Armageddon, The Rock and Bad Boys.

Well overall this movie was not only fun, but was everything a blockbuster should be and was exciting too! Now I am disappointed that Bumblebee was not a VW Beetle as he was in the toys and tv show. However, this was not too bad as instead he was a very cool 5th gen Camaro.

In fact this was probably the best movie we have seen recently so just go an see it :)

Oh and not to detract from the movie, but there is some dumb Hollywood science in it. Have a look at (spoiler warning) the Bad Astronomy review.

Ben: 4 stars, Ruby 5 stars

Ocean's 13

2007-07-02T07:08:00.000+10:00

Another one in the many sequels released this year (still have Harry Potter and Die Hard 4.0 to go). Now in this case the previous installment, Ocean's 12, was just plain dull and really should have been a reason not to make a further one. However, in this case I am glad they did. 13, whilst nowhere near as good as Ocean's 11, is an enjoyable sequel. There are some bits where it falls flat, but overall it was fun.

Ben: 3 stars, Ruby 3 stars

Pirates of the Caribbean 3

2007-06-04T20:09:00.000+10:00

Pirates 3 was missing all that was fun in the first movie. You would be better to skip this film and buy the DVD of the first film and watch that. It was too long (167 mins), the plot too convoluted and it was neither fun or exciting (as a blockbuster should be). This is a great example of why you should not make films back to back and have films with cliff-hangers. What they should have done is cut this and Pirates 2 into the one (shorter!!) film.

Lets hope the other sequels coming out in the next few weeks are better than this one.

Ben: 1 star, Ruby: zzzzzz.

Spider-Man 3

2007-05-28T07:10:00.000+10:00

2 weeks ago we saw Spider-Man 3 and overall, despite it being a long film at 138 mins, we enjoyed it. However, despite it being fun to watch it is not as good as its predecessors. There are too many things going on in this film because of having too many villains and this leads to it being a long film with many plot holes. They needed to have either Sandman or Venom not both. Ultimately, despite these flaws, Spider-Man 3 was still fun to watch.

Ben: 3 stars, Ruby: 3 stars.

Stuff from this week #8

2007-05-12T10:42:00.000+10:00

I think Ross Gittins article on the Work Choices legislation is spot on. Howard's recent minor changes to it does not change a think. This is bad legislation and must go.

Bono's 47th birthday this week (10th May). Happy birthday mate, keep up the good work :)

Were you one of those people who thought Marty McFlys shoes were cool in Back to the Future? Someone has set up a petition to get Nike to put these up for sale. Hmm I would much rather the flying DeLorean...

Looks like New Order have officially broken up (unlike going on hiatus like in the mid 90s). I wonder where the album worth of songs that were recorded during the Waiting For The Sirens Call sessions will get to...

YouTube video of a car owner revenge on a traffic light window washer :)

The Federal Budget was released this week in Australia and you can't half tell they are buying votes in this election year (as they have done in the past couple of election year budgets). Also they have plenty of cash left over for some election spending and wasting it on advertising for Work Choices or Superannuation. I would have preferred that instead of a tax cut and all those payouts that they invested in more infrastructure (like water tank rebates, better public transport, improvement to hospitals).

UPDATE: The New Order break-up seems to be only the bassist Peter Hook. A source close to the band says they are still together.

My Money Minder 1.9.6 released

2007-05-09T22:47:00.000+10:00

Just a quick post to announce the new version of My Money Minder. In fact today is 5 years since I released v1.0.

Originally I was planning to have v2 out this May, however, I realised a while back that this was not going to happen. Along with that several users reported some bugs. So, instead, I combined some of the work I was doing on v2 which fixed issues in csv/tsv file importing, fixed some of the other bugs and added 2 partial localisations. I am hoping that this is the last 1.x versions of MMM...

Anyway head on over to the My Money Minder pages to see what the changes are and grab a copy.

Stuff from this week #7

2007-05-05T09:23:00.000+10:00

Oh no! You can now buy baby clothes to match up with your iPod!

Telstra starting on the broadband propaganda wagon. I getting really sick of Telstra's propaganda on this broadband issue, I have been getting stuff in the mail from them too!

Cool pics of Jupiter from the New Horizons probe on its way to Pluto and Kuiper Belt.

Stephen Hawking takes a zero-g flight. Looks like he had fun too!

Finally Australia has implemented a Do Not Call register for telemarketers. I signed up yesterday, pity it takes 30 days to activate and only lasts 3 years...

Funny stuff from YouTube: Darth Vader calls the Emperor after the Death Star is blown up and Darth Vader vs Japanese police.

Website update

2007-05-02T21:52:00.000+10:00

I have now updated each of the three sections of our website (done over several days). I approached this update much like I do with home renovations, I make a list of things that are broken and things I want to improve.

While my blog is relatively new and the standard Blogger template I was using was ok, if I ever wanted to change any of the colors for the nice rounded boxes I would need to change all the images. This would be a pain! I had used some CSS trickery on the Ben's Software pages to do this but that was also a pain to maintain. I also wanted to have random backgrounds on the blog. The Ben's Software pages were the oldest part of the site (having been transferred from Geocities with little modification) so it was time to do a general cleanup to make them look at bit more professional. With the addition of the blog I now had three separate sections to the website and I wanted each of these linked and improve their navigation. Lastly I wanted to add in better website tracking.

To find the rounded corners I just did a couple of Google searches and reasonably quickly found what I wanted. In the end I chose two different javascripts that generate the corners on-the-fly. In the end I found 2 different javascript solutions. To give me nice anti-aliased boxes that will work with any of the random backgrounds on the blog I chose Curvy Corners. However, since I wanted a drop shadow for Ben's Software, I chose Ruzee Borders (which does not work well with the random background). Another Google search found a random background javascript, currently there are 6 possible background images.

For improving the navigation I had a look at a couple of other websites (such as Apple.com) and they used links at the end of each page called breadcrumbs. These have been added to Ben's Software and the Photos pages.

Lastly I added Google's Analytics to monitor traffic on each section of the website.

I have tried to make sure that these changes work in well in most browsers (let me know if things don't work or look right). However, I have done most of my testing on Safari and Firefox. This should work in Internet Exploiter but I highly recommend you get Firefox as it is quite simply much better :)

Stuff from this week #6

2007-04-28T08:39:00.000+10:00

Kylie to star in Dr Who! Apparently she will be a cyberwoman (perhaps with an Aussie accent “G'day, you will be deleted, maaate!”)

Hmmm, I am also wondering when the ABC will show the new season of Dr Who here. My guess is Sunday night at 7.30 after Robin Hood finishes (mid July I think) as the Saturday night slot is now taken by The Sideshow (not sure how long that will go for).

Plasma Pong. Whoa! An interesting take on this old game :)

Amazon is hoping to sell non-DRM songs in its digital music store (and not just ones from EMI). Apple has also let all its iTunes partners know they can sell higher quality and DRM free songs from May.

Hubble had its 17th birthday on the 24th April. Despite its troubled beginnings it has turned out to be a big success. 500,000 images in 17 years!

Another Exoplanet planet has been discovered by the European Southern Observatory, interestingly this is the first one that is in the habitable zone...

Stuff from this week #5

2007-04-22T11:10:00.000+10:00

15-year old pretends to be the ABC and gets the Chaser's content removed from YouTube. Funny bit is the ABC does not mind it being there! The kid has since apologised.

Australia is in big trouble with the Murray-Darling water system having very little water. Hopefully this will force a rethink on some crops grown which use too much water such as rice and cotton. Also mining out in the west of NSW uses a lot of water too. Perhaps there is opportunity to move to recycling more water for the townships.

Customers are not happy with Microsoft Vista. Dell has changed their policy and is now allowing users to specify Windows XP instead of Vista.

Consortium wants to build a tunnel under the Bering Strait linking Alaska and Russia.

DRM, AAC and iTunes Store lock-in

2007-04-21T10:24:00.000+10:00

Onto my first opinion post. Originally when the EMI/DRM news came out I was going to do a post (albeit shorter than this one) all about that. Well in the end I never finished and it ended up as only a couple of lines in my weekly stuff. Since then I have heard and read quite a few media reports on this and most seem to be treating Apple as though they are the Microsoft of music. I think that is completely wrong, so I wrote this new article :)

Now before going into the article it is worth noting that I have owned 4 Macs (2 still in use), Ruby and I each have an iPod and I have purchased tracks from the iTunes Store. So, yeah, I do like my Apple stuff. Hopefully this will come across as a balanced article and not too much of an Apple fanatic...

Digital Rights Management

I think the announcement by EMI and Apple that all their tracks will be available in May DRM free is really big news. To me this is the beginning of the end of DRM. I really don't like DRM as it restricts what you can do with your music and treats you as if you are a thief. This does not really encourage me to buy new music!! I can buy a CD, play it in my car at home or rip it and put it on my iPod, Phone or mp3 player. With Apple's DRM (called Fairplay) I am restricted to playing only in iTunes or on an iPod. However, it is worth noting there are a couple of simple ways to get around this (not that I have bothered).

Now some of the media reports on this announcement have been interesting as well as a bit misleading. They have focussed on the fact that price of individual songs has increase by 30% (this is for the US store, the Australian price has not yet been announced). Some have mentioned that the quality of the songs has doubled. However, very few have noticed that the prices of complete albums has NOT increased.

AAC files and iTunes Store lock-in

Another thing many of the media reports have been focussing on is that Apple's iTunes store locks you into using an iPod and the change in DRM makes no difference to this. Apple does not use the MP3 format for the iTunes Store (though the iPod can happily play MP3s), instead it uses AAC. Now many in the media seem to think this is an Apple only format (Apple Audio perhaps!). It is not an Apple format, AAC is an international standard just like MP3 and can even be thought of as a successor to MP3 (have a look at John Gruber's excellent post on AAC for a good explanation). Other devices apart from the iPod can also play AAC like the Sony PSP and PS3, Sony Ericsson phones , some Nokia phones and the Xbox 360.

Unlike Microsoft, Apple do not want to control music. What a lot of people forget is Apple makes most of their money of hardware sales (Mac or iPod) as these have a generous margin. Apple instead uses innovative software solutions (such as the iTunes Store, Mac OS X, iMovie or Final Cut Pro) to help drive software sales. It is also worth noting that the iTunes Store makes very little profit.

It is also worth reading Steve Job's Thoughts on Music essay. Also, this announcement from EMI is not just restricted to Apple's iTunes Store (see this Q&A transcript). EMI has made the DRM free tracks are available to any of the other digital music stores.

So its really great that we can now buy some digital music with DRM removed! However, this is only the first step, its time for the other large music companies to follow suit. Oh and hopefully EMI will soon make the Beatles catalog available too :)

Stuff from this week #4

2007-04-14T21:26:00.000+10:00

5th paying space tourist arrives at ISS.

Apple has now sold its 100 millionth iPod. Only took them 5 1/2 years! Worth noting that Sony sold 350 million Walkmans over 15 years and that the sales of iPods have been accelerating...

Next update to Mac OS X has been delayed until October.

RTA gives up on priority traffic light system for busses on the North-West T-Way. This system would have been a good idea, allowing busses to get green lights all the way, now the RTA wants to wait until a Sydney-wide system is implemented in 2009. Knowing how things work the Sydney-wide system will be delayed a year or 18 months. You would be better to bring this system online and gradually work on other parts.

Daylight savings to be increased!! Nooooo! This is a bad idea. If anything it should be reduced back to the first weekend in March, the extra week will mean getting up in darkness and having very little extra light in the evening.

John Howard says Work Choices has increased jobs. What a bunch of crap, there is no way this can be reliably measured. This could be due to the minerals boom or the lack of sunspots. Anyway, even if Work Choices has increased jobs it has decreased the bargaining power of employees and reduced their opportunities. Whilst I am not advocating increasing union power, we need to have a good balance between the rights of workers and the rights of the business. We have swung too far towards business with this bad policy and it is time to redress this. I doubt the current Federal Government will change this so it is time to vote them out.

Chaser stunt makes news in the USA. Good also to see the Chaser's ratings are still high (5th spot with 1.3 million for Wednesday just behind Spicks and Specks). It is bad to see even more people watch the diarrhoea that is Today Tonight. Channel 10 has been running repeats of House since the Chaser started 3 weeks ago, with a new episode next week it will be interesting to see if any of the defectors return to House.

San Francisco to London? Google Maps say I need to swim across the Atlantic!! Only takes 31 days. Oh, and I tried to go to Sydney but it would not cross the Pacific!

Soccer Video on YouTube (set to Monty Python's Always Look on the Bright Side of Life)

Playing with Google's My Maps

2007-04-10T22:24:00.000+10:00

I had a bit of a play with Google's new My Maps over the Easter long weekend and I created a couple of my own maps. In essence My Maps allows you to create a web mashup of photos and placemarkers on a map (which can also be exported to Google Earth). Previously you had to do know a bit about javascript to add these to your website. Here are the links to our NZ 2007 and USA 2006 trips. Eventually I will put links to these on our photos pages, I am still working on an update to the website and I will do this as a part of that (hopefully later on this week).

Whilst this stuff is cool, I would still like to see a one very useful addition. I would like to be able to copy directions to become lines on the map (these are tedious to create, hence why there are only 2 for NZ). This can be done in Google Earth, however, you cannot import this back into the Maps (another feature perhaps!).

Stuff from this week #3

2007-04-05T13:36:00.000+10:00

Stuff from this week is coming early this week due to Easter :)

Big news. In fact if this had come out on April 1st instead of 2nd, no one would have believed it! EMI and Apple have announced that EMIs catalog will be available DRM free from the iTunes Store in May. Individual songs will cost more, however they will also be double the quality of the old ones (256K AAC instead of 128K). See this transcript of a Q&A with Steve and EMI boss Eric Nicoli and also a bit more info from Gizmodo.

Make a webpage look like MS Word!

List of April Fools Day 2007 pranks/jokes on Wikipedia. However the snake that escaped in Google's New York offices was not a joke!

The TGV train has set a speed record of 574 km/h. However, I don't think you will see this as a regular occurrence just yet. This was with an experimental TGV with twin superchargers and on a part of the new track between Paris and Strasbourg which has been specially reinforced.

Apple released the 8-core MacPro which is an extra $AUD2500 above the standard 4-core machine.

Wondering what Brett Lee is up to since he is not part of the World Cup? He is training up for his post cricket career in Bollywood.

Update #1: You can now create your own maps in Google Maps and share them! Cool!

Stuff from this week #2

2007-03-29T13:45:00.000+10:00

The Chaser rated well in its new spot on Wednesday nights, in fact they doubled their average from last year. Must be those billboards in Iraq...

Arise Sir Bono!

Cool astronomy stuff: Hexagonal feature on Saturn.

Episode 7 of Chad Vader is out. This one is funnier than the last couple :)

Space junk (apparently) nearly hit a LAN Chile aeroplane. The Russians had warned that parts of a Progress cargo carrier would re-enter the atmosphere east of New Zealand, but according to SMH this was to be 12 hours later than the aeroplane's sighting.

The SMH and WWF are encouraging Sydneysiders to turn off their lights for an hour starting at 7.30pm on Saturday 31st March (they are calling this Earth Hour) to help do something about climate change. It will be interesting to see how many people do turn off their lights (we will be!). Good to see someone taking a lead on this, especially since John Howard has only made baby steps on climate change (cough..election year...cough)

Funny answers to exam questions

New Zealand 2007 Photos

2007-03-28T09:01:00.000+10:00

Nearly 2 months after our New Zealand trip finished I have finally organised our photos and put them up on our new photos site!
As well as the NZ photos I also included the ones we had previously put up from our USA 2006 trip. Each photo album now includes a slideshow feature (activated by the link on the top right of the individual photo page) and a couple of the photos have a link back to Google Maps for their location.

This is all part of a plan to organise all our digital photos in iPhoto. Once trips/events are done I plan to upload up another album.

Stuff from this week #1

2007-03-24T13:03:00.000+11:00

Looks like the Chaser guys are back for another year of pranks. Still we have to wait until March 28th (on Wednesdays instead of Fridays like last year) until the new series starts. Oh and checkout their billboards.

Qantas has landed an A380 at LAX, the pic shows it dwarfs the 747.

Will It Blend? Well according to these guys, yep! They try iPods, Coke cans, glow sticks and light globes.

Further proof that you can sell anything on eBay, a time machine is up for grabs! Quite obviously it is fake. It has neither a flux capacitor or is powered by a black hole!

Hot Fuzz

2007-03-21T22:46:00.000+11:00

Last weekend we saw Hot Fuzz which we both can recommend. Basically it's a piss take on the buddy cop films from the guys that made Shaun of the Dead (what next, a western, sci-fi, period drama??). Whilst Ruby didn't like Shaun, she sure laughed at lot during Hot Fuzz.
Ben: 4 stars, Ruby: 4 stars.

Bonus points for working out what's up with Bill Bailey's character and lots of extra points for those who spot both Peter Jackson and Cate Blanchett (we didn't!).

Muhahahahaha!

Starting a blog...

2007-03-21T19:16:00.001+11:00

My first ever blog posting! Wow :P

Now seriously, why did I choose to start a blog now?? Well, the simple answer is I want to better exercise my writing skills (creative or otherwise!) whether for my opinion on current events or just something I feel compelled to write about. I am finding that my writing (or getting to writing) has become a bit rusty of late (even for things like emails) and I have gotten rather good a procrastinating about starting writing. Hmmm, I think my procrastination is inversely proportional to my typing speed :)

OK so thats great, what am I actually going to write about? At this stage anything that comes to mind like my thoughts on current events politics (federal and NSW state elections in Australia this year), things Ruby and I are up to, funny stuff I find on the interweb to our photos (yeah the photos part of the website is going to be up soon) and movie reviews.

Oh and no guarantees on updates, that will depend on my schedule. Best to make use of the RSS feed to see when there are updates. Lets see how this experiment goes :)

Muhahahahaha!