Archive for September, 2006
Reading up a bit on the Wii, the new gaming system set to be released by Nintendo just in time for the Christmas rush. Have to admit, even though I wouldn’t consider myself a gamer, this thing sounds appealing. Its price point appeals to me (cheaper by far than the XBox or the PSP3), the fact that you can download “old” games for $5 or $10 bucks to its console appeals to me (hey, I racked up a lot of time on Frogger, Pitfall, and SeaQuest as a kid), and the new controller REALLY appeals to me. The idea of someone rethinking how to interact with a game, beyond the traditional joystick: now that’s the kind of thing that sounds exciting. Wave my hand, and the game responds: I can’t wait to see the magic wand princess game for my girls. I’ll just lead you here to Fast Company’s blog posting, and definitely here, to Nintendo’s site for the Wii.
Oooooh, browsing through Nintendo’s site, found the Mii channel: check out the video of the caricatures you can create, and the thought they put into being able to adjust your caricature/character/avatar. Looking for the announcements that lets me (1) extend the set of caricature features: more facial expressions, ability to add clothing, jewelry, accessory items…, (2) share that caricature with my game-playing friends, (3) personalize the movements of the caricature, and (4) export it in some form that lets me use it on my webpage, cellphone, etc….
September 14th, 2006
It’s Labor Day weekend, and my answer to the inevitable question tomorrow at work for what I’ve done will be “Blissfully nothing”. That’s not technically true: I did a bit of work on Saturday and pushed out a deployment, and have some plans to do some light housework today, including making my second great dinner of the weekend, but compared to the usual race, this feels like ‘blissfully nothing’. I’ve read that vacations of shorter than a week or two aren’t enough to recharge you, and maybe I don’t know what a fully battery recharge feels like, but I have to admit to feeling much more energized today than I have in a while. I’m reading Runner’s World and planning next year’s marathon; thinking up neat menus for dinner tonight; daydreaming about various craft projects; making a laundry list of fun and interesting projects to play with on maternity leave (some technology related; some not. Maybe another post will have a running list of ideas…). It’s a wake-up call to me that I’ve been running around half mentally asleep of late, just focused on work and how to solve that interesting bug or how to work off the pile of not so interesting bugs. Don’t necessarily have answer as to how not to get into that state again, but a good first step is even recognizing that I’ve been in it.
September 4th, 2006
I’m at 36 1/2 weeks into this grand adventure called pregnancy, not that I’m counting down or anything. Who wouldn’t be counting at this stage, I wonder? The things to count down to:
- clothes that fit again
- no longer having an aching back
- having more energy
- going to the gym again (eventually)
- holding our baby!
The corollary list of things to count down to (since having a baby isn’t all sweet smelling baby powder)
- not sleeping more than 3 hours at a time
- changing diapers again
- LABOR!
Someone asked me yesterday whether we were ready for our lil’ guy. My response was that yes, we’re ready, but mostly because this is kid #3. That means we’ve already got a car seat, we’ve already got a bassinet, and our expectations of what this kid will need on the day he comes home from the hospital are much lower. We’ve got some clothes washed, some diapers ready, and some new receiving blankets. Callie’s willing to share her blankies, but we figured we’d use her expertise to pick out some nice new ones for our baby boy. Toys? I think we have a new rattle for him. A decorated room? Well, we are getting the carpet redone, but that’s needed to be done, anyway. A matching crib set? He won’t be in the crib for a bit, anyway: there’s still time. Most things just don’t seem as critical anymore as they did when we were newbie parents. And if it does turn out to be critical, we’ll go out and get it then, rather than overstocking our house in advance. Given that this’ll be the first maternity leave period where we’ll have both parents at home, this is looking like a relative vacation. I’ve been mentally making a list of techie topics to explore whilst on my “vacation”. (I understand that as long as you’re drawing short-term disability pay, you’re not allowed to perform actual work for your employer.) And did I mention that I’m looking forward to going to the gym? 
September 2nd, 2006
