Compare and contrast

4 Months old - Nathan

One Month old - what a difference three months make!

   

Nathan at Harrogate Spring Flower Show

Nathan at the Flower Show

This is one of the new pictures that I'm really happy with. The rest are on Flickr (click through the image to find them) or you can look at the thumbnails on the relevant photo-album page. It's fair to say that we've had an excellent weekend this Bank Holiday. The Christening went really well yesterday and we caught up with a large number of old and new friends. The service was lovely and Nathan was deploying all his charms. If he develops any of the abilities of his godfather Phill then he'll be a real heart-breaker in the future. Afterwards, The Bingley Arms did us proud with the meal and everyone seemed to have a great time.

 However, I've got to confess that I'm looking forward to tomorrow and work for a chance to relax a little, assuming that work remains calmed down. Sleep has been at somewhat of a premium as Nathan's new schedule has been disrupted by everything that has gone on. Hopefully everything will return to what was normality at the end of last week. I've only just got the photos from the Flower Show last weekend uploaded, and will add some from the Christening later on.

Currently feeling: Tired and happy. :-)
Currently listening to: Nothing - enjoying the silence.
Currently reading: 'Collected Ghost Stories' by M R James

Looking forward to the weekend

Well, the Bank Holiday weekend is finally upon us, and I really haven't looked forward to one for so much for a while. The last two weeks in work have been hell, and pretty stressful, and sleep has been at a premium. It's really been the worst time I've had in work, but I guess I'm now hoping that it is behind me and life can return to normal.

The good thing is that we've had 4 nights now in the 16 weeks since Nathan was born where he has slept through, and 3 of them have been in the last 5 days. Jill picked up copies of 'The Baby Whisperer' and has made some small changes to Nathan's schedule, which has been giving us some much needed sleep! Hopefully this will carry on and then I'll finally be able to get back onto the course I'm doing with work and the writing of Power Projection: Reinforcements.

Sunday brings Nathan's Christening, which has grown somewhat in proportion since we originally planned it. However, it should be a great do (after the church we're going to an excellent local pub, The Bingley Arms) and I'm really looking forward to catching up with some friends that I've not seen for a while. And we've the Monday to recover! I just hope that the weather holds off.

I've got some really nice photos of Nathan and Jill from the Harrogate Flower show last week. I'll try and get them uploaded over the weekend if I get a moment. I'm absolutely loving the FZ-50. It's a great camera and has re-enthused me about photography. I guess that having a cute son to take pictures of helps as well ;-)

Currently feeling: Ready for a good relaxing weekend.
Currently listening to: 'Face in the Sun' from Simple Minds' album 'Cry'
Currently reading: 'Collected Ghost Stories' by M R James

Pure Bliss [UPDATED]

I've bought a set of MP3s called 'Baby Sleep Sounds'.

The best £3.50 ($5.99) I've spent in a while.

[UPDATE] I've now burned a CD with his favourites (which just happen to be the hairdryer, clothes dryer, vacuum cleaner and womb sounds) and it is working an absolute treat.

Rest in Peace: StormQuest

Some of you may know that I spent a fair bit of time in the first half of 2006 writing StormQuest, which was a conversion of Chaosium's excellent Stormbringer RPG into the HeroQuest system. I'd worked through this with the help of Lawrence Whitaker and several of the other top folk at the Tavern Bulletin Board and was really pleased with the result. We playtested at Continuum 2006 in an excellent game run by Graham Spearing and the plan was to publish the conversion (which had grown to over 17,000 words) in the con-book. We also briefly suggested getting a bit more ambitious and publishing it as a Chaosium monograph, or as a supplement for HeroQuest's forthcoming generic 'Questworlds' book.

However, the rumours started after Continuum that Mongoose Publishing had bought the rights to Stormbringer off Chaosium. I'm not privy to the full details of the business deal, but this is the case.

Anyway, we've done some investigation, and now there is no way that StormQuest can be published in the con book, in a proper book, or even as a free PDF to download. I'm pretty down about this as it was the biggest bit of writing I did in 2006.

To quote the end of the original novel by Michael Moorcock, Stormbringer: 

"Farewell, friend. I was a thousand times more evil than thou!"

Photo-fest

I finally managed to upload the latest pictures of Nathan to my Flickr account, and some of them are gorgeous, even if I took them myself!

There are also some nice shots from a recent Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) schools event held at the Light in Leeds, which coincided with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) Presidential visit to the Yorkshire Region. This kind of schools stuff is critical to getting kids interested in science and engineering. The pyramid in the picture is made of elastic bands and bamboo dowels, and was built by two schools over a morning.

I'm also pretty pleased with some of the shots I got recently of my mum and dad. My dad had emailed me a shot he'd had taken of him at a recent formal event, which he quite morbidly said would look great on an order of service for a funeral. I disagreed, as I don't think that it captures the essence of him. It was technically good, but wasn't 'my dad'. I'm pleased with the portraits I took as I think they really catch the essence of him.

What's going on, Cupcake?

We have a government that pushes the need to control carbon emissions and goes all preachy on it! They also commit to renewing our nuclear weapons capability. But they don't have the guts to commit to the one big carbon reduction they could make on power generation, committing to new build nuclear power stations.

Renewables are laudable, and should be embraced as heavily as we can, but nuclear is the only low carbon route which can provide the baseload generation.

How come we can have the bomb, but not clean power? Is it me, or is that just crazy?

Updates on the lad...

I'll add some more updates in the near future. I've been a little sucked into 'real life' and cuddles for the lad. I've taken a load more photos and need to get them all sorted out soon.

Revamp

I got really fed up of using my work laptop with an ethernet cable in the back on Thursday, as it means that I have to sit on the sofa with the laptop on my lap. I don't really find this very conducive to working at home (but then again, having a 9 week old in the house is probably far more of a challenge). Anyhow, I'd previously had the home network set up so that I could see the internet with the work Dell, but I couldn't connect to the servers at work via VPN.

I believe (according to a more techy friend) that this is a side effect of the way that I had the network configured so it had a double NAT set up. Now, this was really an accident, so I spent a little time with the network admin utility to fix the problem. Now I can sit at my desk upstairs if I need to do any work from home. OK..... when I need to do some work from home. Beats the sofa any day. Just need to find the desk surface!

I guess it ended up being a lot easier than I expected once I'd worked out exactly how I'd configured the network (and also once I'd saved the configuration file).

Nat-Cam is live and bouncing!

Nathan has two new live and and bouncy exciting toys; a video monitor so he can be seen in glorious black and white when he's in his crib (which he's managing most nights), plus a new exciting bouncer. The bouncer does sounds, lights, and vibrations and he loves it! He loves his gadgets too!

Mummy and Daddy love the video monitor too. Daddy wasn't too fond of it at first, as it wiped out the wireless network, but that was soon solved with a change of channel. It's cool watching Nathan on TV!

He's getting a busy social life too - yesterday he went out with his chums to La Locanda in Collingham. Sadly, he had to drag Mum along too. The day before, he'd been for a weigh-in, and had successfully added another 4 oz on top of the 8 oz the week before.

Nathan does Cute!

At sixes and sevens...

Struggling with reading at the moment due to a number of things - misplaced books, and time being the main ones. I'm juggling between a CJ Cherryh collection...

...which I managed to lose for a fortnight by leaving it in a bag... Secrets of San Francisco...

...an RPG supplement for Call of Cthulhu.... and two others – The Collected Ghost Stories of MR James, and Eragon....

...which is a book I've had for far too long. The James is excellent, and I'm really looking forward to reading it, especially as I ordered it at Christmas. I'm more nervous about Eragon, because it's been so hyped, and I'm hoping that it isn't going to be as disappointing as Harry Potter was. The Cherryh novel is actually two of her earlier books, and both of them focus on people lost from their own culture. Reading the first one has reminded me just how well she does that style of novel, and the way her stories are always so character driven (unlike a lot of SF).

(No picture here for the MR James as there's none on Amazon).

A Busy Week.

It's been an interesting and busy week, which explains the time since the last post here. I've been travelling with work a fair bit to do some customer audits related to a company we are thinking of taking on in a service role, and Jill has had the usual clinic sessions combined with a check up to see how she is (rather than the baby).

Monday saw an early start across the Pennines to Macclesfield to a pharma company. It was very interesting to see, especially the difference of focus that massive margins mean. My company makes FMCGs and is far more conscious of the cost of waste and efficiencies than the pharma company we visited. It was a totally different culture, but it was also nice to see a British based business that is still doing well.

Wednesday I was on a big trip down South, so I worked from home in the morning. It gave me a far better appreciation of the pressures on Jill during the day, as writing a report played second fiddle to changing nappies, feeding and generally stopping tears. The value of the new baby bouncer was shown, as it was a sure way to thirty minutes quiet (and an excited Nathan!). Typing one handed, I managed to complete the report before I left. For reference, the bouncer is a Fisher Price one with lights, sounds, music and good vibrations! It was certainly giving Nathan good vibrations!

The hire car for the trip was a VW Passat, which was great once I worked out (a) how to start it and (b) where the handbrake was. The wonders of electronic gizmos making every car different. It was a completely different kettle of fish to the Renault Megane I'd had on Monday, and a pleasure to drive, certainly on a par with our Toyota Avensis.

The trip to Oxford was pretty clear, and I arrived at the 'hotel' that I was staying at earlier than I planned, 3 miles from the customer we were to visit. I use the term hotel loosely, as it was a 'Day's Inn' at a service station - clean, basic but with decent wireless internet access. I met up with the rest of the audit team (from another site) in the 'restaurant' and we enjoyed the best fare that Welcome Break could provide. It was all going swimmingly until I went to bed and phoned Jill, when I found out that work was after me.

I called the security office and they told me that a fire alarm incident had happened, and the long and the short of it was that I ended up turning the car around and coming back to support the follow up. I checked out with the bemused receptionist at ten to midnight, then headed back up the M40/A43/M1/M18/A1M... to work. I finally got home to my bed at 7AM the next morning, tired and shattered. I was pretty relieved too, as I think Jill was about to murder me when I came into the house at 6.30AM. She hadn't expected me and I think that I was going to face a fencing foil or something!

Jill has had a hard week – Nathan is in the middle of a growth spurt and as a result very demanding. It's wearing her down, and it's very difficult for me to do a lot practically beyond do the best I can to help look after him in the evening. The GREAT news is the fact that he has put on 8 oz (old money!) over the last week and is finally above his birth weight. This has been a great relief to both of us, and also explains his constant demands for food the last few days. Put in a context like that, it's fantastic. Friday night helped; I ended up as Nathan's chair for the evening while Jill pottered around. It's a good thing that Five US had three episodes of CSI back to back!

This morning saw me in work (playing catch up), but we spent most of the afternoon out in town, pushing the pram down and finding out just how much stuff you can get in a pram with a baby! I start to understand my mum's tales of carrying the collapsed family pet dog in the pram as well as me and the shopping. The Mothercare plastic bag clips are wonderful things! As I type this, Nathan is fast asleep recovering from his exertions (being pushed around town). We've got some good new pictures, but it'll be tomorrow before I post them to Flickr. It's nice having a quiet weekend. I'm glad I didn't have to go to South Africa with work this weekend as was originally planned!

Bombs (Radio Edit)

I think that this speaks for itself...

We think we're heroes, we think we're kings
We plan all kinds of fabulous things
Oh look how great we have become

Key in the door, the moment I've been longing for
Before my bag hit the floor
My adorable children rush up screaming for a kiss
And a story they're a gift to this world
My only claim to glory
I surely never knew sweeter days
Blows my mind like munitions
I'm amazed

So much heaven, so much hell
So much love, so much pain
So much more than I thought this world could ever contain
So much war, so much soul
One man's loss, another man's gold
So much more than I thought this world can ever hold

We're just children, we're just dust
We are small and we are lost
And we're nothing, nothing at all

One bomb, the whole block gone
Can't find my children and dust covers the sun
Everywhere is noise, panic and confusion
But to some another fun day in Babylon
I'm gonna bury my wife and dig up my gun
My life is done so now I got to kill someone

So much heaven, so much hell
So much love, so much pain
So much more than I thought this world could ever contain
So much war, so much soul
Moments lost, moments go
So much more than I thought this world could ever hold

So much more than I thought this world could ever hold
So much more than I thought this world could ever hold

So much heaven, so much hell
So much love, so much pain
So much more than I thought this world could ever contain
So much war, so much soul
Moments lost, moments go
So much more than I thought this world could ever hold
__

'Bombs' by Faithless from their recent album 'To All New Arrivals'.

If you want to see the video, it's here on YouTube
If you want to buy the album, it's here on Amazon

'Winning the Peace is harder than Winning the War'

Nathan and Minder...

I've uploaded some new pictures of Nathan and others (including some friends like Tom) to Flickr. Click on the picture above to go straight to Flickr.

It's been an up and down weekend. Some friends from work came around with a takeaway on Friday night, and we cleared the lounge in preparation for Allied Carpets failing to turn up to lay the replacement carpet on Saturday morning. It was a great evening, as it gave Jill some company other than Nathan or me.

Saturday had the carpet failing to arrive (it's being replaced after the iron fell on it in December) and my parents arriving to help put the room back to straights and see Nathan. It was a great day, as Jill & I got a few hours to ourselves, grabbed a meal and nipped out to Harrogate and Wetherby while the doting grandparents looked after Nathan. It was nice to have a little space, and to see my parents. The only downside of their visit was the return on my eBay pile, which means I need to do something with it!

The other big news is that Nathan managed to sleep the night through in his crib last night. Fingers crossed this continues!

Currently feeling: Tired.
Currently listening to: Bombs' playing in my head having written the last entry.
Currently reading: 'At the Edge of Space' by CJ Cherryh. If I could find the book as it's been tidied up!

Where in the World?

I was following up some links and ended up on Neil Gaiman's website (famous author if you're into SF and Fantasy) where I came across a cool website that serves no real purpose except to let you realise how big the world is. Basically, the site lets you enter the places you've visited and colours them in on the map.

So that's the world view for me. Makes me realise how little I've seen.

The second map is a bit more parochial, as it shows the locations in Europe I've visited. I'm going to have to ask Jill to try this too and see if she's more travelled than me.

Where in the world have you been?

A Month Later!

Nathan is a month old now, and getting more and more alert! He's been smiling for a while, recognises voices and is generally great fun. We got some great pictures of him last night (which are on the Flickr page!). He's still not reached his birth weight again, but is starting to pick up a bit now. The effects of the cold seem to have gone and he feeds like a trooper.

He had two expeditions this week; firstly he went out with the ladies who lunch, and then to be registered. The first adventure involved coffee at a friend's house, then a trip to Ask (a local restaurant), and finally a chance to tell scare stories to the next group of ladies who lunch. He took it all in his stride but was a little tired the next day.

It's been a week where we haven't got a lot done as such, but have been really busy. The evenings have disappeared in a blur of cooking, nursing Nathan, changing nappies and other domestic stuff. The one real leisure thing we've been doing has been watching the second series of Carnivale, which is really excellent. We're four episodes from the end now, and I'm hoping that it will be as good as the building tension suggests that it should be.

Currently feeling: Content!
Currently listening to: 'Marbles' by Marillion
Currently reading: 'At the Edge of Space' by CJ Cherryh.

Traveller - A New Book! Cold Dark Grave.

 

I'm pretty pleased because the latest RPG book I wrote was released at Conception 2007 last week. The picture above shows the initial print run which was for sale at the convention. I'm waiting here excitedly for my copy to arrive in the post. Nick Bradbeer did an excellent cover for the new book.

PIPEX Pains

When I went for DSL and dropped my 56k connection, I was pretty careful about who I selected. I wanted reliability and decent customer service, something that my previous ISP had provided for most of the eight or more years that I used them. Pipex have a lot of the backbone in the UK, and a good reputation. I've only really had two issues with them since I signed up, but both are pretty annoying.

Firstly, they changed the FTP servers they used from UNIX boxes to some kind of Windows box (it says NT on the connection) that demanded active FTP rather than passive FTP. No big thing, as the apps I generally FTP (to upload the website) – Cyberduck, Rapidweaver's Publisher module and Fetch – can all handle this if necessary. However, the first pain of this is that I have to compromise the security of my system or reorganise my network to upload. I've gone for the simpler security compromise route, based on the fact I'm running OS X with anti-virus software. However, the need to do this annoys me a lot. The second pain from this change is the fact that they have yet to update their technical documentation to reflect this over a year later. The third pain was the fact their tech support couldn't explain what the changes were, and didn't bother noting the entry on their customer database or the info in email that I sent (describing the problem) that confirmed I was using OS X and sent me an XP solution.

Frustrating. 

On an ongoing basis, I've worked around this, but the FTP side is getting increasingly flaky. I'm regularly loosing the connection to the server, which I know isn't an issue at this end because the two commercial servers which I use don't suffer the same problem. At some point I'm going to get a separate server package, or change ISP, or both.

The second big issue is the fact that every now and again I loose the service completely. It's just happened tonight, which has scuppered some work that I was planning to do tonight. I've checked the connection via the router, and it's the login to Pipex which is failing.

Doubly frustrating.

Overall, I like Pipex, but their customer service is starting to slide. It's getting tempting to jump ship.

As an aside, I'm enjoying typing this on the PowerBook now that it has 1.25 Gb RAM. It certainly makes are real speed difference. Hurrah!

 

The old RAM will go on eBay in a week or two when the rest of my 'for eBay' pile comes home from storage at my parents.

As you may have guessed from the fact this is posted, normal service has been restored!

The Kane Files

I've uploaded a new set of photos onto Flickr, most of which came from my sister Alix's visit with her family when they got back in the UK last week. There's a sample below with a scary face! 

 

I've also added some shots of Wetherby I took this morning when I walked in, and some more pics of Nathan looking cute. Of course, looking cute is something he wasn't doing tonight. He was very grizzly, but seems to have finally got to sleep!

The shot here is of him asleep, escaped from his 'Space Baby' sleep-suit.

Today's been a bit of a quiet day, with the main things being my walk into Wetherby this morning, and our expedition to 'The Baby Room' to look at some more furniture for the Nursery. While we were there I couldn't but help notice (yet again) how obsessive people are about 'designer' goods, even if they are more poorly manufactured and less practicable. Anyway, we managed to find what we wanted, and a new wardrobe has now been ordered.

I got quite angry today when I was in Wetherby. I was walking along the High Street when I noticed that a young mum – looking very harassed with three kids in the car squabbling – carrying out a perfect parallel parking maneuver on the roadside. The thing she hadn't noticed was that the 'space' was in fact on double yellow no parking lines as it was an access way.However, the lines were near invisible from wear, and they wouldn't have been obvious because she was in a big car (a Freelander) and the space was tight.

What made me mad was the Traffic Warden. he was on the opposite side of the road and instantly clocked that she was parking in the wrong place. He took her number down and was preparing the ticket before she'd stopped the engine. There was a time when the traffic warden would have just come and asked her to move on, but this guy was just planning to ticket her. So I told her what he was doing and she drove off, leaving a really annoyed looking traffic warden. I hate behaviour like this, especially when the department doing it has been clocked breaking the rules on parking itself!

4th Feb 2007

The Real World Always Wins

I bought a gigabyte of RAM off Crucial for the PowerBook, mainly driven by the slowdown in RapidWeaver now that I've been throwing the bigger photo files into the blog. You don't see these when the site is uploaded, as RW scales them to something far more reasonable, but the master files are held in the binding file which means that RW is handling them. As the recent photos I've been taking with the Lumix FZ-50 are around 4-5 Mb, that rapidly adds up.

Anyway, the real world has won, as I'm still stuck with 512 Mb rather than 1.25 Gb until tomorrow, because I've been defeated by the memory bay door as the screws are a size 00 Philips fitting that I don't have. It's a trip to the hardware store tomorrow to get a driver to solve this slight mechanical problem. Defeated by the real world! It'll be interesting to compare the speed of the laptop with the desktop (iMac). It'll have 256Mb more RAM and 250 MHz more speed on the processor, so how will the architectures play out.

As an aside, I actually got 6 hours sleep last night, as Nathan is seeming to be recovered from his cold. Amazing how much better I feel for it. Jill only got four hours sleep (but got several blocks of this!), as he woke, but he seems to be getting more regular in his sleep patterns so perhaps there is hope! 

 

"Come and have a go...

... if you think you're hard enough!"

Well, that's pretty much what Bill Gates said when launching Windows Vista! The BBC reports: 'Windows Vista is "dramatically more secure than any other operating system released", Microsoft founder Bill Gates has told BBC News.'

Frankly, I think that's tantamount to laying a challenge down to any hacker or virus writer who feels like taking a shot at Vista. Fortunately for me, I intend to stay with Mac OS X, and within that I run anti-virus software anyway.

–

I'm typing this downstairs on the laptop, while Jill and Nathan are asleep upstairs, shattered after their day out. They went to the pub at lunchtime to meet up with the group of new mothers whom Jill describes as 'the ladies who lunch'. It's great because it's go her out of the house and it's allowed her to share worries. At the moment, her worst worry is the fact that Nathan has only put on 1 oz in the last week. The thing is, he had a cold for a big chunk of the week, and she's feeding him on demand and regularly, so I think that it's probably a mountain made out of a molehill by the health visitor when she weighed him. If he hadn't put on more weight in a few days, then that's the time to worry. He's clear of the cold and feeding well now.

The last few nights have been hell as Nathan has been very grizzly. Three hours sleep has been fantastically long when we can get it. To paraphrase Shakespeare in the Scottish Play:

Methought I heard a voice cry "Sleep no more!
Nathan does murder sleep," the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care,
The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast. (2.2.32-37)

But then he smiles and it makes it all alright and fantastic. He's opening his eyes up a lot now, and being very alert. Looks gorgeous as a result!

–

Tonight has been the first night when I've had time to actually do some writing for BITS, but I'm feeling too tired. I had hoped to start trying out Scrivener to see just how good it is. Instead I'll probably mooch for a bit and read Squadron UK, a British Superhero RPG (effectively a rewrite of the game 'Golden Heroes' published in the early 1980s). There's a really nice toucjh in this, as it is dedicated to Matthew Bond, a fellow gamer and friend who died very prematurely last year. Apparently he loved Golden Heroes as much as he loved Traveller.

Over the last few days I've been giving some support to Ad Astra Games for their new Traveller miniatures range which will support Power Projection. They look absolutely gorgeous, and I can't wait to get my hands on them. There are some pictures on the Power Projection site which show how fantastic they are.

I've also been reading the initial draft of one of the new BITS projects; it's an adventure by Dave Elrick set in the Spinward Marches just after the Fifth Frontier War. Dave is a master of writing for Traveller, and really captured the feel of the 'classic' era. I shared some feedback, and can't wait to read the next instalment.

–

I don't do work here on the blog, but I can report that I've actually got a date for the interview to replace the first of two missing people in my team. I can't wait for this to happen as I feel a little like butter spread too thinly on toast, especially as a third team member is off after an operation. It should make life a little less fraught.

Currently feeling: Tired but strangely happy.
Currently listening to: 'Brave' by Marillion.
Currently reading: 'At the Edge of Space' by CJ Cherryh but also 'Squadron UK'.

The pictures are up!

 

Well, it took a while bit there are a load of new photos up on Flickr.

Last night was a bit trying. Nathan didn't want to sleep, so I got three hours in total, which I caught up on earlier tonight when I got it. It's looking like he's being a bit better tonight, and as soon as I have uploaded this I'm off to join Jill and him in slumberland!

On a happy note, we've just heard that one of our friends from work, Mike Fildes, has become a daddy for the second and third time tonight with his two little ones being born safely. His wife Lisa is doing well too. Congratulations! 

Starships

I've taken a load of photos this weekend, and once I've gone through them then I'll post them. 99% of them are of the usual suspect (Nathan!) and some of them are already up on Flickr if you want a sneak preview. Anyway, instead of the normal blog, I thought I'd add some pictures of a little project that has been kind of on hold for 12 months or so, as a recent email exchange with Nick Bradbeer reminded me of it. 

I started painting miniatures some time ago, once I was on the route that would lead to the publication of Power Projection. I always wondered what fleet I'd do, and was hankering after something different. I do have a great selection of GZG's Full Thrust miniatures, but I wanted something different. One of my friends suggested that I take a look at some of the Games Workshop models, but most of those were to chaos-death-spikey to consider for use in a reasonably hard SF game. And then, Forgeworld was mentioned to me.

Forgeworld is Games Workshop's specialist minatures shop, using resin casts rather than metal. I found the Tau starships and fell in love with them. With some minor modifications, they'll do nicely for the Solomani Fleet in my Traveller universe!

The first ship is a modified Emissary Class (inappropriate features removed).

The second ships are a Warden Class Gunship and a Manta Class. Sadly, due to the fact that I have just seen the Forgeworld site again, I've spotted some more ships that will look really good and help flesh out the fleet a bit more.

Anyway, that's pretty much all for tonight. Hopefully Nathan will be ready to sleep now. And I must price some more RAM for this laptop sometime soon. Playing with large image files is really slowing Rapidweaver down on the Powerbook with 512Mb in a way that the 1Gb equipped iMac doesn't, and the Powerbook has the faster processor!

I N S O M N I A...

It's been a hard few days. Nathan's sleeping hasn't got much better (although he did manage several hours in a row last night) even though the cold is clearing. Now it's nearly gone, he has got very hungry (he wasn't eating a lot at the weekend) and last night we had the joy of him discovering that he could get full and that it wasn't a pleasant situation. It's been especially wearing on Jill, even though my mum and I have tried to help as much as we can.

My mum arrived at the weekend after Jill's mum had gone home. Looking at the picture here, I've just realised that we didn't get many pictures last week and none with Nathan's maternal gran (or Nan) so I need to rectify that. I have uploaded what we did take.

Anyway, it is (touch wood) looking like we are heading out of the woods at the moment and sleep may return to living memory. Today, Jill and my Mum went out with Nathan, his first non-medical trip. They went to The Kestrel, a local pub that does pleasant meals and apparently had a lot of ice cream. Well, that's my mum and Jill, as Nathan isn't quite that developed. Apparently he slept through the whole thing and was much admired by the people in the pub. He's going to break hearts when he's older! It's great that Jill got out of the house, as I think she may slowly go stir crazy otherwise. I spotted this when she got excited during our recent trip to Morrisons!

Oh, and I was right. The day after we visited the doctor's Jill was told off by the Midwife for feeding Nathan the water exactly as the doctor had told her! Go figure! I guess we're bad parents because we carried on that day as it was obviously helping and in the case of treating a cold I think we'll take the route of common sense and medical opinion.

Currently feeling: Tired.
Currently listening to: Nothing, but the last albums I listend to were the Chemical Brothers' Surrender and Simple Minds' perennially good New Gold Dream.
Currently reading: 'At the Edge of Space' by CJ Cherryh. In theory.

Fiddling while Nathan Cries...

Look above if you want the latest baby update - this entry addresses my inner geek! In spite of the recent spate of sleepless nights (the joy of Nathan's cold!) I've been playing with some computery related things. The first is the complete rebuild of the Power Projection website. In reality, it was done before Christmas, but the domain name registrar took far too long to redirect to the new server.

I'm pretty pleased with the site. Ever since I created the Power Projection site way back, it's never been quite what I wanted. I was surfing BlueBall Design's website and saw their MaxLight theme for Rapidweaver. The moment I saw it, I knew I wanted it for PowerProjection.net, because it was so, well, Star Trek like. Something just made me think of space. Anyway, I bought it, and started to build the site while we were waiting for Nathan's arrival. It needed a little bit of hacking to get exactly what I wanted (some tweaks to the theme) but I got there. I should also mention Charlie Lockhart from BlueBall, who was incredibly helpful when there were some code issues. Anyway, I'm pleased with the site, and happy that it is finally off the Pipex webspace which this blog is on, because it is a real pain to update.

The other big IT related find is Scrivener. Writing Power Projection on the Mac taught me the limitations of Word for creative writing projects, in much the same way that writing Delta 3 is Down taught me the limitations of Windows (NT 4 in this case) as a stable OS you can rely on. The problem is, Word really stops you seeing the wood for the trees, and you end up spending a lot of time thinking about the programme rather than the words.

I tried a number of solutions to address this issue with the workflow before layout, but none of them have been entirely satisfactory. My first attempt was a program called Copywrite, which promised a lot but seemed to be unstable as hell on my G3 iBook and G4 iMac. (It may be better now, but I have no burning desire to check it out again!) I eventually gave up on it and went back to Word. My most recent solution was to use Circus Ponies' Notebook to capture notes on projects, and then drive the projects themselves through the excellent OmniOutliner using an outline with embedded documents and files. This worked reasonably well, but didn't quite click. Then I happened upon a reference and review of Scrivener on 43folders.com, which instantly peaked my interest.

Scrivener takes what I was using Word and OmniOutliner for and merges them with some really intuitive tools. The full screen editing and structuring tools are excellent and it is very 'Mac'. It hangs together beautifully and after a few days playing convinced me it was a must have. I've registered a copy, and will be using it for my next two writing projects; Power Projection: Reinforcements, and a Traveller scenario called This Fear of Gods. I recommend you take it for a test drive and have a look. You can use it for 30 days before it locks down.

(Edit 2025: dead links pruned)

Neurotic, eh?

I'm typing this with Nathan fast asleep in my arms, and the laptop perched on my lap (duh!) on the sofa in the lounge. We've been to the Doctor's today (sent by the midwife) to have him checked out because his hands and feet were a little swollen, and he was suffering with a really blocked up throat. Turns out that he has a cold, and maybe we aren't as neurotic as we thought. We've fed him with expressed milk and a syringe, and he's had more in a sitting than he's had for the last few days. We were treated with a big happy sigh, and now he's fast asleep in my arms. Jill has been told to give him some water if he is excessively demanding. I'm sure that will get her labeled as a 'bad mother' by some of the more militant midwives we met, but he seems happy enough.

Currently feeling: Justified and Annoyed! :-/
Currently listening to: Radio 4 in the background
Currently reading: 'At the Edge of Space' by CJ Cherryh

Official: we're Neurotic!

And that's a good thing! We've had ups and downs the last few days, enough to make it feel like we're on a roller coaster ride! Where to start...

Tuesday - an old friend, Phil, came around to meet Nathan. They hit it off well, but that was to be expected as Phil is a charmer! We patted him down before he left to make sure that Nathan hadn't decided to run off with him!

Thursday, I had to go to another site with work, over on the Wirral, for a meeting. I had to pick someone up on the edge of Manchester on the way, so was planning an early start. Things started to go a little wonky when I met Jill's Dad on the landing, and he told me that Gillian (his wife, not Jill his daughter) had developed a bad cold during the night, so they were planning on going home that day, rather than wait to the weekend. They wanted to minimise the bugs that Nathan was exposed to, and I can't fault that at all. Anyway, the meeting should have finished by 3pm, so they would wait until around 6pm when I would be back before they left.

I left the Wirral to return home at 2.15pm and finally got in our front door at approximately 10.30 pm. It was the trip from hell, and the weather warnings were – for once – very justified. I won't bore you with the details, but each of the following was shut just before we reached it; the M56, the M6 Thelwall viaduct, the M60 Barton Bridge. On top of that, Manchester Gridlocked and took perhaps three hours to cross rather than go around. It wasn't a fun day, but I guess at least I got home, unlike 11 or some unlucky souls. I was absolutely knackered.

Friday had the greatest ups and downs. Nathan started to sleep a lot longer (three and four hours) than ever before, and was showing very little interest in his food. On top of this, he was very nasal and sounded like he was struggling to breathe. Needless to say, this was quite worrying, so we phoned the midwife out of hour number after we couldn't find any descriptions of what he was doing in the baby manuals, and the next door neighbours with more experience than us were out. They told us to go to the Out-of-Hours doctor service at Harrogate Hospital, so Nathan had his first trip out, to the very place he had come from six days before!! Anyway, the doctor checked him out and he was okay. It's probably just a change in his sleeping pattern combined with the fact that he is taking his milk a lot faster. We were officially labeled as neurotic, and then told that the doctor felt that this was a good thing for new parents, and that we should do what we did if anything else changes again. Phew!

There was one disturbing thing. While we waited in the reception, we couldn't help but sit there and listen to twenty minute argument between the reception staff on what to do about an asthmatic who was choking. The Doctor had said to send a car out immediately, but the staff coordinating and the staff in the cars were being somewhat chaotic in trying to agree who would go. They couldn't even decide whether to call an ambulance. If it was a serious asthma attack, the patient could have been in a very bad way by the time they resolved it. I hope they weren't.

Another positive point is that we seem to have got the car seat fastening technique all resolved now! We go it in pretty fast last night, and the initially complex looking threading of the seat-belt becomes second nature very quickly.

Currently feeling: Neurotic (and that's a good thing!)
Currently listening to: Radio 4 in the background
Currently reading: Pulp Egypt (an RPG book)

Night Shift Again...

I'm writing this as Jill is feeding Nathan, the last feed of the evening with the two of us. The last few days have been an interesting experience; returning to work was great, but I was instantly hit with a wall of work with a surprise audit that needs to be prepared for by the beginning of next week. I've managed to get out on time every day since we got back, which I think has surprised us both.

Beyond the late nights, the big change to our schedule is an early evening sleep (maybe for as much as two whole hours!) while Nathan snoozes off his meal. Jill's mum and dad are here at the moment, which is absolutely fantastic. I think we both really appreciate the support. Next week, my mum is coming over as well (kind of a shift change)!

The cat remains bemused by the whole situation!

Currently feeling: Tired, as I have an early start in the morning
Currently listening to: Nothing, as we are watching 'The Riddle of the Sands' on DVD.
Currently reading: Pulp Egypt (an RPG book)

Two days into the Sleep Deprivation Programme!

It's been an interesting few days, mainly comprising feed, sleep, nappy change, feed, sleep, nappy change.... Jill is struggling with lack of sleep, and it's not been too much fun from that point of view. Of course, it's everything that people say it is, but when Nathan smiles or chirps, it kind of makes up for it all.

I'm due back at work tomorrow, so Jill's parents have come over to give her some support when I'm not around. She's doing pretty well overall, but the breast feedings is hard work, especially on her left side.

I've uploaded the final few pictures from the hospital to Flickr, as usual. You can get to them via the photo album.

Welcome Home!

Jill and Nathan came home today! Hurrah! Now I can join in the 'no sleep' fun... 

The journey home sent Nathan to sleep quite quickly, once we'd sussed out the car seat. I suspect that he is actually used to the car noise, plus we put on the appropriately named 'To All Arrivals' by Faithless, which used to send him to sleep when he was still in the womb.

It was a very hard night for Jill last night, as Nathan was very hungry, feeding every two hours or so for 30 to 60 minutes. She was absolutely shattered when I got in to see her this morning (early, as she called me in). Hopefully, she can get some sleep now while I sit here with him and finally get the chance to put the Christmas decorations into the boxes.

As an aside, the look on the cat's face was a picture when he started to cry... and I'll upload the picture later on. After a quick look he went and hid upstairs under his duvet-bed!

I've added some photos of Nathan taken yesterday to the usual place.

Nathan discovers his tummy!

Yesterday was good, but it's hard going for Jill. Her wound is hurting, and Nathan has discovered his stomach so is starting to be very demanding on feeding. He's got it all sorted on the right hand side, but is still not quite not sure of the left hand side. He has this cute, but annoying, habit of feeding for a few minutes then nodding off with a happy sigh. Which is frustrating when mummy would really like to sleep.

I finally got some really nice photos of Jill and Nathan doing something other than feeding, which I've added to the photo album to share them.

The big change yesterday was a move from the room that Jill & Nathan have been in since they moved to Pannal Ward out into the ward itself. Apparently, they had a lot of babies born again on Thursday, so the rooms were needed for more C-Section patients. The move itself was simple enough, but I think that they'll need some adjustment to the new area as it's a lot noisier. It was nearly ten o'clock at night by the time that they were settled, and then Nathan decided that daddy hadn't seen a really dirty nappy yet, so did one to give me changing practice before I went home. It was quite an experience, and I now understand the comments some other friends and parents have made about 'how can someone so small make such a big mess?'. Once this was done, the midwife dropped hints so I went home!

Beyond the trip to the hospital, I finally managed to get a haircut, which was great. Funny how the little things make a difference! The Traveller CD ROM also arrived in the post (all the original books and games digitised), which will be useful if I am doing any writing for BITS.

Currently feeling: Ready for another day!
Currently listening to: Nick Clarke's Audio Diary on Radio 4
Currently reading: Pulp Egypt (an RPG book)

Some More Photos...

I added some more photos this morning. They're up on Flickr.

My Mum & Dad (Grandma & Grandpoppy!) visited last night from over in Cheshire. Nathan had been sleeping like a dream for the last two hours following a feed, and then decided to wet his nappy the moment Grandma held him, starting to cry.

He got a bit fractious then, and the midwives think that it is because he's got ahead of Jill with his need for milk – she's still supplying colostrum but should get the milk today (hopefully!). Aside from this, he's feeding well! Jill was looking a lot better too, except when she sneezed which really hurt.