is_apposite

Just another day at the office

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 05:47:44 GMT

We've just moved offices and I have to say everything is not totally perfect. But it is pretty hard to complain when you view is like this:

That is the Sun Princess pulling out of its berth- which is 200m over the water from where we sit.

Thunks

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 06:13:01 GMT

For one reason and another I've started up another blog. I'm focusing it mostly on very dull geeky things and my latest post is no different- a proposition to build out privately owned, publically subsidized last mile fibre to the node as financial stimulus.

Its a boy

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 11:48:22 GMT

Kris is 17 weeks pregnant and we just found out it is a boy! Welcome to the family my son.

University of Chicago: What were you thinking?

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:42:47 GMT

It is with huge amusement that I listen to the end credits of the NPR: Planet Money podcasts when the credit comes through from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business:

Asking the question: What were you thinking?

(And as a bonus this comes at the end of podcasts about the financial crisis.)

American Airlines: Not a good airline

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:07:04 GMT

After arriving in good time for my 9:30am flight I have moved from irritated to frustrated to furious over American Airline's handling of delays. 12:05pm now. Be nice to board sometime. Sadly this isn't my only AA flight today. (My original arrival time in Atlanta of 16:40 is a distant and fond memory now.)

Grrr. There are many things AA could have done to make this more bearable and they've done none of them. Particularly galling since I have a 'first class' seat. Apparently that doesn't mean anything.

Man was not meant to fly.

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 07:53:26 GMT

I'm on my way home again after a month in New York. I'd already be home except for a missing manhole cover.

On the way to JFK airport two expressways converge from about 10 lanes into 3 and pass under an overpass, under which a manhole went missing. The New York authorities leapt into action and parked a van and some witches hats around the hole. This meant of course that traffic flow was cut since there were fewer lanes but what really killed it was everyone SLOWING DOWN TO LOOK. ITS A MISSING MANHOLE COVER. THERE'S LITERALLY NOTHING TO SEE. So my 45 minute taxi ride took 2 hours and I missed the plane by 10 minutes (since it was running on time).

Today, rather than be stung again I left ridiculously early, got there in plenty of time and the plane was running late. In fact, so late that my flight, due to arrive at 7:15am in Sydney will now arrive at 9:25am.

So the whole flying thing has been a bit of a bust this time round.

Luckily Google have iPass so at least I can vent on the Intrawub while waiting.

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:59:06 GMT

I'm scheduling my last couple of weeks in New York for this trip and I was most amused that in Google calendar the example event text was exactly the thing I was scheduling: "Breakfast at Tiffany's". In homage to Audrey, no doubt like thousands of tourists every year, I thought I'd do a Coffee and Danish while window shopping at Tiffany's. Google knows all.

Finding your way in a big city

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 05:33:25 GMT

So here is a long, possibly boring, discussion about the New York roadmap. More than most of my blog posts, this was written for me, not you. But you are welcome to read it. I won't mind if you get bored and stop reading.

New York is an easy city to find your way in- for a big chunk of Manhattan Island the Streets are numbered from 1st through to 242nd St and orthogonal to that the Avenues are numbered first through ninth. Fifth avenue is the 'middle' and if you are on a Street (as opposed to an Avenue) West of fifth you say something like "160 West 24th St", or if you are East you might say 65 East 113th St. I happen to be staying at 160 W 24th St which is on the corner of 7th Ave. Catching the subway "downtown" means going to streets with smaller numbers (say from 77th st to 23rd street) whereas going "uptown" means going to streets with bigger numbers (say from 13th St to 112th st). After two weeks here the St/Ave grid is second nature- I can confidently place things "over on 4th Ave between 13th and 14th" or "up on 42nd St on 7th Ave".

Of course its a real City which means the nice grid falls apart at some point- Broadway cuts diagonally across the city (I believe it was the old stage coach line) and even by 13th St the grid is falling apart at the edges as the point of the island closes in. By the time you get to Wall St all semblance of order has fallen apart and the roads are more organically shaped and no longer numbered.

The subway system, at least for Manhattan Island portion of the city, is very easy to navigate since they largely follow the nice grid. And with the little prepaid transport card ($2 a ride) its very easy to get on and off.

Its lucky it is all so easy because I keep being asked for directions.

Apparently I have the right combination of looking approachable and knowledgeable because I've now been asked five times for directions- a Slavic gentleman ("Subway? Back down that road near City Hall."), a couple of slightly drunk girls late on a Friday night ("No, we are past fifth- definitely on the West side- you want head back that way over to the East side"), a Japanese girl ("the boat house is back up over the hill- follow that path and it will take you there") and so on. I've been able to answer all the questions (on one occasion a local answered before I could but I did know the way!). This happened to me on my European tour too where I got asked for directions in pretty much every city I visited. (Memorably even in Brussels and I was only there for a couple of hours in total. A lady pulled over in her car, on a round about, and asked for directions to a museum- by chance I'd walked past it). My hit rate there was probably around 90%.

Possibly I know where a lot of places are because I like walking so much, and maybe I get asked so many questions because I walk around a lot. And New York really is a very walkable city.

Yesterday I had a fabulous time revisiting portions of the city in daylight- that is where most of the building porn has come from. The city is, I guess unsurprisingly, different during the day. There was market on Broadway which was really quite large (between 14th and 10th St I think), Union Square had a lot of artists hawking their wares (in addition to the normal crowd of people just hanging out) and I saw the Staten Island Ferry packed to the gills from Battery Park- equally packed.

I have been guided in my walks by my reliable, pockets sized and ultra-convenient New York 'popoutmap' which folds out something like this:

The pocket sized map unfolds to a map of the subway system both sides of which then pop out (using a very nifty origami-like "flower unfurling" system) to a much larger and more detailed map of streets and tourist highlights. It is incredibly useful.

Riley gave it to me for my birthday. Kris was looking for birthday presents looked at this map and showed Riley and then went to put it way because I would have access to Google maps and wouldn't need such a thing- but Riley insisted on having it because it was Just So Cool. And he was absolutely right.

I (heart) New York

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 05:31:08 GMT

New York is a walking city and walking around New York everywhere you go you'll see street vendors selling 'I (heart) New York' caps, shirts, pyjamas and anything else a tourist could possibly want. As time goes by I'm increasingly inclined to agree with the motto.

The nice thing about New York is not that it is a dynamic slick and polished metropolis but that it isn't. New York is a very human place full of very human people. Its well lived in, the streets are irregular and everywhere you go something is being knocked down, rebuilt or repaired. For every building that is a monument to clean lines and a modern aesthetic there are a dozen that a tired, boring, classic, hokey, decrepit, funky or simply monolithic.

Actually I love the buildings of New York- so much so I've given them their own album in my Picasa gallery. Since some of you may not be in to building porn I'll just include a few thumbnails here:

I also have a gallery that is less building oriented for those so inclined:

There are stories in these pictures, but I probably won't tell them tonight. I will say, however, that Strand Books (18 Miles of New, Used, Rare and Out of Print Books) is a seriously great bookshop.

A Walk in a Big City

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:10:42 GMT

On Wednesday night I left work turned right rather than my normal left and went for a walk. I walked to the shoreline closest to work, along the shore to Hudson park then inland for a while and back up Broadway to home. In all 4 hours of walking. It was a fascinating walk because of the name recognition factor- the Monopoly moments. (Named after the moments when you walk around London going 'Look Kings Cross!', 'Angel of Islington', 'Park Lane!'- funny how they named all those streets after places in Monopoly.)

And what a beautiful walk. The weather here has been just fabulous- a balmy 28 Celsius (about 482 Fahrenheit I think- I'm never quite clear on the conversion) and- literally- every man and his dog was out walking. New Yorkers are big on their dogs and they are big on their walking. On evenings like this they are also big on their skating, riding, jogging and picnicing. It was all very pleasant and the sunset was absolutely spectacular- turning blood red over the New Jersey skyline before the light faded out.

There is monument- the Irish Hunger Memorial- where I tacked inland from the water that is quite fabulous. From ground it is alternating black marble with backlit white stripes covered in quotes and writing related to the Irish Potato Famine. In the middle of the walk is similarly lined doorway and ramp which lead to a rather quaint cobble stone enclosed courtyard (apparently an 'authentic roofless stone cottage') which in turn leads through to a path that emerges onto the 'roof' of the monument and then slopes upward back over the entry way. The path is surrounded by country (Irish) greenery which looks truly rural- not at all manicured. Its a rather startling juxtaposition to both the base of the monument and the surrounding New York landscape.

Walking inland from there I found this construction site. Peering through the fencing around the building site I could see a big hole. It was a REALLY BIG HOLE with lots- and I mean a very great deal- of consuction going on. After skirting around the site for a while I found the entry to a subway system. The entry was, likewise, enormos- 2 escalators wide?- and topped by a sign which said 'Welcome to the World Trade Center'. Oooooh. Right. That's why the big construction.

A little further on from that there was this lovely old mansion in the middle of a park- fenced off. I wandered past one of the gates as a gentleman left and I asked him what the building was- 'That's Citee Hawl.' Oooooh. Right, yeah, heard of that one too. I walked past the entry to the Brooklyn Bridge, through Little Italy (with a very large Chinese population), up Broadway (I know that one too), through Union Square- packed at 11pm with people just hanging out- then back down 24th St and home (with only a couple of pauses in bookstores along the way).

New York is a lovely city and this time of year is just fantastic. There is some similarity to Sydney except NY has a huge resident population who are out and about at all times of the day. The difference is stark and utterly charming.

Last night I wandered down to Greenwich Village with one of the other new Googlers and we ate at a Mexican near where he lives. The food was just excellent but I was grossly overcharged for the drinks which took the shine off things- but only the next day when I went back and looked at the receipt. It was a great evening though- he's a nice bloke, just out of University and we've been having very enjoyable conversations.

Tomorrow, more walking.

NYC

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 02:56:20 GMT

I'm in New York at 160 W. 25h St (between 6th and 6th Ave). The flight was OK, the queues were terrible, the company was good.

The bad: I got my flight times wrong so the whole family got up at 4:30am to get to the car at 5:00am to get to the airport at 5:30am to check in in time for my 7am ish flight. No traffic, the queues were fine except... my flight was actually at 10:20am, just as I'd entered it (correctly) in my PDA. But my brain decided it was an early flight and... sigh. And of course the night before Riley had thrown up and I'd been up late doing last minute things and... so I didn't actually get to sleep till 2am and I woke at 4am. Anyway I taxied back to the airport, queued for about 2 hours in the Qantas check in ("Oooh, your flight boards at 9:50am, you'd better hurry!", "Yes, thanks, I've been queuing for 2 hours.")

The good: A lovely American couple were siting next to me. He's a writer and she's a film maker. They were lovely company and Justin commentated the approach to NYC in a very underplayed but interesting manner. Not bad given they'd started in Adelaide that 'morning'.

I also met a very nice chap in the queues at LAX who wrote RFC 5139.

I've also, in no particular order, skyped back to Kris and Riley with great success, had a Chicago Burger at New York Burger, broken the toilet, had a shower and had a walk around the local bit of New York (its very pleasant- a warm 28C and lots of people out and about- especially in Madison Square Park (not to be mistaken with Madison Square Garden).

Interestingly, it was my birthday on Saturday. I left on Sunday morning but it was my Birthday again during the flight (at least, when it was when I flicked the clocks on my phone and computer forward to LA time). So I had a quite protracted and altogether eventful birthday.

Now I'm almost sick with exhaustion so it's time to sleep.

My First Week at Google

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 12:03:02 GMT

I loved it.

Great people, a great feel and there were lots of things that were just 'right'.

I have a bit of a rant about starting at a new company which goes: Ideally when you start at a company they should put their best foot forward and make you feel a bit welcome. So on your first day someone would be there at reception to greet you, shake your hand and say 'hi!' then they'd do an introduction to the company, introduce you to your mentor, walk you to your desk and pass you the piece of paper with your username and password so you could log into your desktop. Then you'd be directed to the internal 'new starters page' and given the chance to go through the necessary checklists and introductions. In other words, they'd make you feel like they didn't want to waste your time.

I've never, previously, had that experience- my normal (as in previous to Google, every single time) experience is that there is no desk, you get a desktop about a week after you arrive, your account takes about that long or longer to set up and no one is assigned to take care of you- actually everyone is really busy and desperately needs you to be up and running yesterday. There is an internal new starter check list, but you won't find it till you've been at the company for a couple of years and the checklist will be wrong anyway.

Well Google got it right. Not only was my mentor in reception waiting for me when I walked through the door but my manager too, the HR induction was actually good and had videos, my desk and desktop were waiting for me. My username and password were ready although I broke the process by asking for my username to be changed which meant I didn't actually log in till the next day- but the username and password were ready. The internal 'new starter's page' is an active 'CGI' page which allows you to tick stuff off as you go through it and, sensibly, it links to all the things it should link to. The IT guys who gave me my laptop were really friendly and competent, acknowledged I knew what I was talking about so they didn't waste my time with basics, kitted me out with a spare power supply ("one for home") backpack and, at my request, headphones and mouse- no problem.

Later in the day I was given a "Welcome" helium balloon anchored to a pack of jelly beans. While wandering around the floor with this in my hand I struck up a conversation with a gentleman who, by chance, happened to be processing my change of username. Since I was there he updated me on where it was at, why it would take a little while and later it turns out he kept a watchful eye on the change and fixed several problems that cropped up.

That sort of coincidental good fortune happened all week- I'd randomly chat with someone who would be incredibly helpful and (for instance) give me a t-shirt or tell me some useful piece of advice that I just happened to know enough to understand and appreciate. I had a string of discussions with people where the first person would explain a piece of infrastructure, then the next person I spoke to would without any previous collusion, lead on from that discussion ("So do you know about infrastructure A?", "Why yes, yes I do.", "Great, so, using that we...") which was very satisfying and a great way to learn.

And, on top of that, in the first three days I heard about four really cool projects that I can't tell you anything about but are really cool, in a 'Wow, I can't believe we are doing that!' kind of way.

So, for the first time in a long time, I'm looking forward to going to work tomorrow.

Oh, and next week I'm off to New York for a month for training. That'll be cool too.

Google

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 12:18:10 GMT

Since it is a bit of an important change in my life it is probably worth mentioning that I finished up my contract with Optus a week ago and I've been on holiday for the last week. More importantly I'll be starting at Google tomorrow as an SRE.

Amongst other things this means that it will be a 22 minute walk from my front door to the Google Sydney office in Darling Harbour. Google Sydney will be changing offices at the end of the year to a new building on the other side of Darling Harbour which means it will probably be more like a 21 minute walk.

It also means that I'll be spending about 3 months overseas on training- in New York for 2 months and Mountain View for 1 month. (I might even manage to scam a trip to Zurich at the end of the Mountain View visit.) That means I'll be away from Kris and Riley, which is going to be very sad, but the training isn't optional and the opportunity is too good to pass up. My overseas travels should be broken up into three 1 month stints: New York, New York and then Mountain View. First visit to New York is roughly from the 18th of August to the 18th of September.

I am, it has to be said, quite excited.

Evil Nose!

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 12:10:35 GMT

Riley is now quite vocal and has a good and expanding vocabulary. As a good learner he likes to practice so every now and then he spontaneously bursts into a monologue- which is generally more of an assemblage of words or phrases than a coherent narrative. He speaks fairly well so his monologues are generally comprehensible- with the occasional notable exception.

One oft repeated fragment went something like "Crash bang clatter. Evil nose! Crash bang clatter. Evil nose!" The "evil nose" wasn't totally clear and bugged both Kris and I for ages until he muttered about Toffee and I finally put it together: there is a book called Toffee's night noises which tells the story of a cat out in the night listening to the different sounds. When the neighbour's dog knocks a rubbish bin lid off the book reads:

Then there is an even louder noise. Crash! Bang! Clatter!

His version is abbreviated but he's got the important bits. With bonus evil noses.

He's also be trained to be polite with lots of 'pleases' and 'hellos' and 'goodbyes'. Being a smart young lad he has also attempted some shortcuts on these inconvenient conventions. So rather than go through the whole 'Please may I?', 'Yes you may.' palava he tends to shorcut this to (what sounds like) 'Yes a may!'- usually as he beats a path to the computer.

It is far weirder when as a parent you don't even know where he has learned the word. A little while ago Riley pointed at a motorbike and clearly said 'Ducati'- which it was. Of course if he'd said 'Ducati Monster' we'd have been more impressed.

(edited to fix spelling of 'Ducati')

Go Bags for Canberra

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:44:02 GMT

I'm posting this as Google fodder- I was asked to post this so that search engines might index the document. Basically this is a link to a thoughtful discussion of how to be prepared for an emergency which might require evacuation. The discussion is focused on Canberra (where the people who developed this document live) where there have been enough recent runs in with nature that evacuation is a real consideration.

To quote from the document:

"We considered what we could do about our concerns, and decided that we should start with ourselves. What emergencies might we have to face? Were we prepared for these emergencies? How might we prepare ourselves?
Although the work evolved somewhat haphazardly during 2007, eventually we reached a position where each of us was comfortable with our preparations for the risks we felt we faced.

Each of us placed different priorities in our preparations, with some focusing to a greater extent on water storage and recycling while others emphasised long-term survival at home and yet others anticipated a more short-term emergency and the necessity of evacuation.

The end of our process was to prepare ourselves for the risks we perceived. However, we thought others may be interested in some of the main ideas that guided us. This document presents those main ideas. It does not pretend to be comprehensive.

Our purpose in publishing this on the web is simply to allow our efforts to be of assistance to others. If you do not find them helpful, so be it and we wish you well. If you do find them useful, please pass on the useful bits to others."

The last few weeks

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 01:57:08 GMT

We have, of course, been sick.

Suspected Glandular Fever (Kris) but actually tonsillitis, gastro for Riley and myself, a brief round of colds for all. With the prospect of glandular fever we called in help and Rohan (Kris' Dad) came up to help out which has made a huge difference. Sadly he also got gastro but that just extended his stay which was very nice for us.

I also made it Tonga and back complete with data projector and XBox. It was good and great to do something a little different and rather spontaneous. And excellent to catch up with good friends- only sad it was so short.

Tonga, Tonga, Halo, Tonga

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 06:13:18 GMT

On Thursday I join the cabal in Tonga. Alison and I will fly out at about 2:40pm to arrive in Tonga for the critical anniversary (even if everyone else will be elsewhere in Tonga- at the Royal Sunset Island Resort which is inaccessible after 5pm without your own water transport). I, however, will be traveling with some extra equipment: an XBox 360 and a data projector.

Way, way back when I was heavily involved with the Macintosh side of life a little company called Bungie made great games like Marathon which I faithfully bought and played. Eventually they announced their next big project and I waited eagerly for its arrival. But before it arrived they were bought out by Microsoft, their big project was channeled into the XBox and Halo never arrived on the Macintosh. And it all took a lot longer than I had originally expected.

Fast forward to the Halo release date when I'm sharing a house with syncretin who I drag into my enthusiasm. We buy the system and the game at midnight and proceed to finish it over the next 12 hours or so. And again on legendary. Precedent established we repeat for Halo 2.

Halo 3 was released a few weeks back on the 25th of September and the perfect storm of Halo, my campaign partner and time of work fails to eventuate because syncretin has been lured to San Fransisco by Google.

Separately we commiserate to our partners who then sensibly, suggest the obvious: if I just went to Tonga we could finish the game- nay the story arc!- together.

Which is what is going to happen.

I'm cutting out the humming and hawing by syncretin and myself as we hedge around the obvious and total abandonment of our partners to a game. I'm cutting out the back and forth over purchase in the states vs hire vs purchase in Australia, the questions about sound and video compatibility, availability of televisions or BYO data projectors, the indulgent expenditure on a short trip, what power standard is used in Tonga and, wait, did I mention the guilt of abandoning our families to go and play a game?

Luckily we have very cool other halves- they had no doubt that this was the right thing to do. Hopefully Riley will forgive me because right now I don't he'll understand the explanation.

Just between you and me, I'm looking forward to it. It is silly, it costs money, it is very indulgent. But I'm going to catch up with some people I value, finish a task- even if it is a game and have another crazy story to tell.

Thanks Kris! One more reason I love you. Not just for encouraging me to go- but also for knowing that I should.

Life goes by (bye!)

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 05:00:21 GMT

I have this horrible memory. Or more specifically: I remember things very well, I just can't recall them.My recall is worst when I'm put on the spot without context. This manifests at its most extreme at quiz nights when random questions are thrown at me and- horror- I really should know the answer. So there I am, computer geek, at a quiz night and it is left to some random non-geek to answer that 'isn't it called something like ping?' to the only clear computer question of the night.

My own life is a little bit of a mystery to me. I know I've done all this stuff and with the right prompting, like a photograph, I can even recall it. But creating some kind of continuity out of it all, some greater story arc, is well beyond me. So I have this minor hording instinct around paperwork. My day to day bank balance- I don't care. I can throw out ATM receipts easily. But that receipt for the hotel in the Blue Mountains that Kris and I stayed in when we went to the Blue Mountains? Well... one day I might go back and reassemble my timeline. Work out what I've been doing all these years. So that receipt gets filed for later.

Which brings me to the topic at hand, which is, of course, Riley. What I know, although remember less well than I should, is what I've been doing for the last twelve months. And it is almost precisely 12 months because Riley's 1st birthday is coming up on the 20th of October. And I believe in that time I've blogged about 3 times. Which is a shame because blogs are exactly the right means of prompting recall for me- which is why I decided I'd start a blog. Not for your benefit, but mine.

Which is a long way of saying the next bit of what I have to say is mostly for my benefit. I'm mightily proud of the little man but I'm quite aware that there is no reason why you should be.

Riley was sitting at about 4 months, crawled at about 7 months, took five steps in a row at 9 months and 1 day and started walking more seriously (I counted about 30 steps in a row) at 10 months. By 11 months he was a solid walker and as he approaches 12 months I'm beginning to see a fluidity in his movement (still toddler but...) that wasn't there before. He is physically precocious.

Verbally he is pretty normal- but it is very exciting for us all as he gradually acquires communication (if not very recognizable words). He certainly has some very recognizable language- 'Mumma' and 'Dadda'. He has some other commonly used words (for 'dog' and 'cat' and 'what is that?') that is very much less recognizable. There is a lot of other communication that occurs which is more... plastic. Much of the time though I think it is fair to say that there is a good deal of frustration on both sides. He wants to convey more than we pick up and we'd desperately like to understand it.

I don't know if it is common, but we have all been sick a lot. Cold and flu, gastro- it all goes round and round. One of us- and often enough all of us- has been sick more or less continuously for the last 2-3 months. And lots before that. The drain of being sick is exhausting. Every now and then we get well enough to realize how sick we've been before... falling into sickness again. None of it is dire, others put up with far worse, it is all going to pass, but it would be nice to have a few weeks off.

Riley is a very active child which is a joy to us, but hard work. Mostly hard work for Kris I'm afraid since I'm simply not there most of the time (between work and sleep). The other children in Kris' Mothers group aren't at his physical level of activity which leads to some mismatched expectations. The other mums have the luxury of going to a coffee shop- a coffee shop is a new and exciting urban assault course for Riley. We eventually found a succinct statement of this dilemma in 'The Emotional Life of the Toddler' which, if it didn't solve the problem it at least made clear the problem. It is easy to mistake an active and interested child for a badly behaved child. They insist on investigating, pocking, prodding, walking, rolling, jumping, licking, banging, lifting, pushing... being active all the time. They have no idea that you might want them to sit still and stare into the distance. And certainly no idea how you could possibly do that. Which is in conflict with an adult agenda of sitting and having a quiet cuppa. And the Mother can become the social pariah in the middle of these expectations.

Still, we wouldn't have it any other way. Yesterday I was sitting with him on the balcony when he got off my lap, picked up the watering can and proceeded to 'water' the plants. He progressed from plant to plant, tipping the watering can at a surprisingly accurate angle, returning to the bucket to refill and back to the plants. (About 12 times in a row.) Now if there was just some water in the watering can or the bucket we'd have well watered plants... I was blown away by the whole thing. All of a sudden you realise he understands more than you thought.

(Kris told me a similar story from another mum she'd been talking to. Kris had asked: "When did you really get the impression your baby understood what you were saying?" And the other mum said: "Well I was really tired and I'd sat on the floor to put his shoes on when I realized I'd forgotten his shoes. So I said to him: Could you go and get your shoes and bring them back here? And he looked at me then wandered off. I sat there in a fuzz of exhaustion until a few minutes later he walked back, dropped his shoes on the floor, sat down and looked at me expectantly.")

Riley loves noise. Take two maracas, shake vigorously while banging the bottom of a big metal salad bowl. Right on.

Riley has rhythm. Kris put her electronic keyboard (which has lots of lights and a zillion functions including a set of accompaniments of varying funkyness. Set a decent rhythm going and watch as he bends over hands on keyboard and twitches his little nappied-jumpsuited bum back and forth to the beat. Very cute and very, very funny.

I don't know how much of this I'll remember ten years from now. I'm sure a lot more will happen in the intervening years. But right now I'm having no problems with recall.

Loki Down

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 00:31:39 GMT

Sadly loki is currently down and while I am trying to get it back up again ASAP it could be a little while.

In the meantime you can contact me by email at gmail username appositeit

My normal apposite email address isn't currently working.

Dunq- I've spoken to Yeap and he is getting someone else to try a restart before we get hands on.

Alison- yes! It would be lovely to see you! Email me!

Mikolaj, Comrade, Dunq, Rob- could you email me an alternate email adress at some point.

The Little Man finding his... feet.

Sun, 20 May 2007 13:25:10 GMT

Riley started crawling on Friday- 2 days shy of 7 months old. His crawling got derailed by his discovery that he could sit up and we were concerned that he might end up transitioning straight into walking. (I am lead to believe that in some children this is problematic and can lead to later learning difficulties- apparently related to cross connections between the hemispheres not being developed- but I can't substantiate this claim. And I can find other sources indicate it isn't a problem. Suffice it to say Kris and I were concerned in that nebulous way that parent's get to be concerned about everything!)

On Friday I got home and Kris said 'Look at this...' in a very odd tone and sure enough he crawled over to me when I jangled my keys. I then entertained myself for about a quarter of an hour luring Riley to crawl around the apartment. Apparently Kris' tone was uncertain because he had only pulled everything together minutes before I had arrived home. He mastered cross crawling in the first minute or so after I got home. Very proud Mum and Dad!

Of course being a bit of an overachiever at times (like his Mum) he more or less shrugged it off and focused on standing- which he is getting better at. He still isn't strong enough to be able to simply lift himself into a standing position but he can on the odd occasion get upright on his own.

Between crawling and his fierce focus on standing it was clear what we had to do: we spent the weekend working out how to baby proof the house.

Anyway: well done Riley!

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 13:57:18 GMT

We've had a busy few weeks with each of the different grandparents visiting or being visited, culminating in our visit to Perth. Perth was great, Kris and I had a really good time. Sam's wedding was rather fabulous and both bride and groom were stunning. Sam had some absolutely super model moments some of which I've captured in photos (now uploading to the website so no links yet).

It was very convenient of Sam to organise for so many people I wanted to catch up with to be in the one spot at the same time- I'm only sad we weren't there longer. On Sunday we caught up with aquaplanage and were hoping to catch up with others but, in the end, were overcome by tiredness and headed home instead. Our apologies. Next time.

(As an aside, we had some photos printed at the Harvey Norman photo kiosk and I was super impressed. At 29c a photo (4x6) it is cheaper than you can print at home, it took 20 minutes for 40 photos and the quality was better than I can get at home too. Nice.)

Riley is a super sitter-upper. He's been sitting for about a month and it is now old hat. He is attempting to move on to moving on. He quite regularly takes a dive onto is belly from sitting and goes into crawling-training mode, struggling valiantly with push-ups and arm/knee coordination. He has a way to go but seems determined.

Both Riley and I and have been suffering from a cold. This last long, long Easter weekend (Friday and Monday public holidays) I was sick with a cold. Laid up in bed for two days and exhausted for two more. Riley hasn't been hit quite so hard but his nose has been clogged making feeding and life a bit harder than usual. He has been a trooper about it, maintaining important baby duties such as drooling on all clean clothing, opportunistic vomits and untimely poo- all part of being a professional baby.

Kris was the stalwart of the family dismissing the illness and taking care of us. I hate to think of having to take care of Riley when I was that sick. Not fun for anybody.

A couple of weeks ago we took Riley to a paediatric dermatologist who was excellent- endorsed most of what we did and added some refinements that have helped. But what made most of the difference was a skin prick allergy test: Riley is allergic to eggs. Kris has changed her diet and his skin is much better for it. We had a california roll on the weekend and didn't realize there was egg in it until the next day when we (working backwards) realized *that* was why Riley didn't want to feed, was tired, grumpy and generally pissed off. Clever young man.

I noticed recently he has acquired this weird habit of 'rolling' his wrists- not shaking like you might shake a milkshake but rolling his hands like you might rev a motorbike. I mentioned this to Kris and she explained why: one of his toys is a set of plastic rings that sit on a spindle. The top ring has little balls in it that roll around the ring- and they roll best and make noise best if you roll your wrist, not shake it. So Riley has practised the movement and is now methodically testing *all* his toys to see what best makes noise: share or roll.

This ties in with Riley's general approach to toy investigation:

Step 1: Grasp toy and shove in mouth
Step 2: Shake toy- does it make noise?
Step 3: If not, thwack toy on ground. Does it make noise?
Step 4: If not, drop toy on ground and thwack toy. Does it make noise?
Step 5: If not, try thwacking it with another toy. Does it make noise?
Step 6: If not, toy is broken. Discard. Find new toy.

Unfortunately he applies this algorithm to all the new toys he finds. That includes other babies. Steps 1, 2&3 are generally ineffectual, Step 4: everything ends in tears. Or, in at least one instance: "That's not a toy! That's Alex!"

Riley isn't a big speaker- he seems to be more of a man of action at this stage, eclipsing the other babies in his mothers group with his feats of sitting and grasping but lagging some of the girls who can vocalise 'ababababa's, 'gagagagaga's and even 'dadadadada's and 'mamamama's- but he is a big listener. Riley has recently added a 'Word of the Day' to his humour list. The trick is to find the word. But find it ('Bounce!') and you will be rewarded ('Bib!') with chuckles, giggles ('Phone!') and escalating guffaws ('Spoon!'). Riley has an infectious laugh and a very independent sense of humour. He can be swayed by a well timed 'Boo!' but independently finds some of the weird noises Dad makes while snorting his way through a cold *very* amusing. And once he laughs, it is hard to disagree.

syncretin went to SF and I miss him already. I thought I'd write this post to tell you the news. Kris sends her best and Riley too (in a wet kind of slobbery way).

All About Riley

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 01:40:04 GMT

After lauredhel's comment on my last posting ('Annnnnd..... Radio silence!') I've been feeling a little guilty about not saying anything. Which hasn't stopped the radio silence but has made me think. That's a bad thing unfortunately because then I get a logjam.

Posting about your children is kind of weird because you really want to, it is an extraordinary experience, it is absolutely common and there are some really weird social mores around children that make it easy for people to be upset by any opinion one might venture (see co-sleeping for example). And as a parent an awful lot of things you find funnny (poo! wee! fart!) probably aren't quite as funny to everyone else...

But Riley is four months old today and the experience deserves comment. It has been a good four months. It feels like more like a year or two has passed- there is a steep learning curve- but we are fortunate: Riley is a great little kid. He is like every other baby: he cries, he has periods of irregular sleep, he needs attention (although increasingly he wants to spend some time playing on his own) and he has way more in the way of bodily fluids than you'd expect from such a little guy. But he seems to be pretty bright: very alert, ahead on the rough development curves (not that that means much) and ahead of most of his peer group (again, doesn't mean much) - and very inquisitive.

I've been incredibly impressed by Kris as a Mum. She's enjoying being a Mum- although I wouldn't want to imply it is necessarily easy- and has taken a very professional attitude to it which works well for us. She has made it her business to be informed and found some great organisations in the process (props to the Australian Breastfeeding Association). The result of this is that Riley is a happy little chap: smiles at strangers, laughs and chuckles at jokes and loves waking up in the morning.

His sense of humour is very interesting. He has had to be taught humour: Kris has carefully queued him with smiles and grins when she plays games. And gradually he has caught on to the 'rules' of humour. And now it seems he has gradually developed his own sense of humour: he laughs spontaneously at some things even when we don't queue the laughter. He has transferred some jokes to other contexts (we blow raspberries on his bellies and look in astonishment at him and say "What was THAT?!" and he giggles... sure enough I let rip one afternoon and his eyebrows go up and he looks at me in astonishment and giggles like crazy). The jokes are much funnier when he is laughing at them too.

Now he is pushing himself up on his arms and has lifted his bum off the ground with some proto-crawling activities. I reckon he is going to be very excited when he gets the crawling thing together- I'm looking forward to it.

There is lots more I can say- I could rave for ages about Riley- but the brief summary is that it is a good to have him in our lives. Its not necessarily easy. It changes how you do things. But most worthwhile things aren't easy and it is enormously rewarding.

Hopefully I'll say more in the future now that the logjam is, perhaps, broken but in the meantime there will always be photos. If a picture is worth a thousand words we are up to about 3 million words. See the gallery (2006, 2007) for more.

Perth Visit

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 00:58:24 GMT

Kris and Riley and I will be visiting Perth in March for Sam's big day. Bit of a fly in fly out- arriving late Friday 30th of March, departing Monday morning 2nd of April. Looking forward to catching up with people- if ever so briefly- while I'm over there.

Riley Clark Nelson born Friday 20th October 2006

Sat, 21 Oct 2006 09:55:31 GMT

Riley was born yesterday (Friday 20th October 2006) at 16:47 (4:47pm). Riley weighs 4.150kg or 9lb 2ozs, 35cm head circumference and 53cm long. He's very well behaved, has slept well- so we've managed to get some sleep too- and Kris and Riley seem to have worked out breastfeeding together.

There is a gallery of photos available, but I've included some of the best below:

Kris is still back at the hospital- where I am sleeping as well. But for now, it is off to get some Sushi for dinner: a special treat for Mum!

Boo Due

Tue, 17 Oct 2006 08:26:47 GMT

Well little Riley Clark Nelson (aka Boo) was due on Friday the 13th of October and (perhaps sensibly given the date) he failed to show. And he still hasn't on Tuesday the 17th. So I had to go to work. Kris is doing OK but it a bit over pregnancy- at this point she is looking forward to the not-being-pregnant bit of a having a child.

So nothing to report on the Boo front. I'm expecting him on Friday the 20th for no particularly good reason.

But Comrade is in Australia so I'm expecting to catch up with him on Thursday/Friday, my parents are in town (flew in from Perth via Melbourne and Tasmania on Sunday) and we are probably going to catch up with some other friends on Thursday evening. So life is hardly boring.

And on top of that I got a new phone (a Treo 650 which I am quite impressed with so far) and the Projects group I am part of moved offices from Chatswood to North Sydney.

Sadly the move was the final nail in the coffin of the Optus Internet Engineering (OIE) group which was an excellent focused effective technical group. It is now gone and I'm very sad about it. It was one of the best working experiences in my life and I really don't think I'll find anything as good any time soon.

OIE RIP.