Milestones

Sophia's first cold... there's one first we weren't really looking forward to, but just yesterday started to hit, and today we are starting to get the full taste of it... whee...

Sophia's Lullaby

My father had decided to write Sophia a song around Christmas, and sent us the rough draft... it was just recorded at their house, and didn't have a lot of what would go into the final version, but Karen (and Sophia!) liked it, and she (Karen, not Sophia :) ) stuck it in a format where her family could enjoy it too. She translated it in Portuguese, as well as including the English lyrics, timed to a short slideshow.

Originally we did this in powerpoint 2007, which is the best version, but that only works for people who have MS Office 2007 installed... we then did a version in Powerpoint 97, which more people should be able to view, but couldn't figure out how to have it auto-open as a slideshow. Finally, we did 3 versions of different qualities in a video file (WMV, we were too lazy to take the time to do it in Pinnacle, where we could have used other formats).

So here they are, in the various forms, in order of quality (highest on top):

Sophia's Lullaby (powerpoint 2007 - 11.5MB)
Sophia's Lullaby (Powerpoint 97 - 20.6MB)
Sophia's Lullaby (WMV Full size - 20.9MB)
Sophia's Lullaby (WMV Medium size - 12.3MB)
Sophia's Lullaby (WMV Small size - 2.7MB)

Sophia's Lullaby (MP3, no video - 5.7MB)
Sohpia's Lullaby (lyrics, English 2KB)

Technically, they are all "Sophie's Lullaby", but I kept typing the A (it's not a shortcut in writing, just in speech I just realized. :) )

New pictures

Just FYI to anyone who actually happens to watch this space (that I never remember to update): Just put the latest pics and movies up on flickr, here:

2008-03-08 photo dump

Christmas at home

First, plenty of new pictures and videos uploaded to Flickr (http://photos.TrueBits.net) , most in the Christmas 2008 and Sophia 2008 albums (not much time to organize ... also, mostly they overlap, most pics are in both sections).

Christmas has been good, though slightly stressful. We hardly have company at all, and we're hosting both our families plus a new baby for 4+ weeks... the help is probably a great (and bad in some ways, but mostly good) thing, but since we are largely house-bound due to needing to take care of a newborn, the place can start to feel a bit small at times. It's both a blessing and curse that my parents both only speak English and her parents both only speak Portuguese. Unfortunately for her, she's the only one who speaks both, so must get stuck as a translator a lot... I can speak and understand a little, but not enough to be particularly useful. And Sophia only speaks the language of cries and grunts so far, along with Danny and Lacey who just growl and bark, and Nia who just sort of meows and mrows.

But overall things are going better than I thought, and I'm sure we are going to miss this once everyone leaves. My parents leave Jan 2, in just under a week, her father leaves mid-January, but her mother stays until March, so we'll still have some help with the baby for a while, which will be good.

Anyway, Happy Holidays and all that, to anyone who happens to read this around them...

Sophia - quick pics

Still in the hospital, severely limited by their WIFI capability, our time schedule, and Karen's iPhone capabilities (which has full network access via the air 3G connection, but limited by the iPhones capabilities). But I've smuggled out 2 pics, hopefully!

I believe clicking will give the full 1024x768 version, and if you want the full 4000x3000 12MB version, just email or ask and I can give that... plus a lot of other pics we've of course taken.

Sophia Meyer

11-24-2008 - 10:36pm PST
20 inches, 6lb 12oz

Everyone doing well!

Twitter

Ok, the idea of a blog is great.

The reality of a blog usually turns out to be an explosion of updates at first, followed by less and less content less and less often, until it finally fizzles out completely.

I'm trying another approach, while still maintaining this as a blog... soon my existing cell contract will expire and I plan on upgrading to a phone and service that will also make keeping this updated really easy...

I'm going to start using Twitter. http://twitter.com/JMnITup

Basically, it's similiar to a blog, where the updates are more like micro-status updates vs novels. Figured I'd try that out as a means of keeping up with people who try to keep up with me, but who aren't able to because I'm too far away, busy, and/or anti-social. :)

So yeah, feel free to follow it: Ok, the idea of a blog is great.

The reality of a blog usually turns out to be an explosion of updates at first, followed by less and less content less and less often, until it finally fizzles out completely.

I'm trying another approach, while still maintaining this as a blog... soon my existing cell contract will expire and I plan on upgrading to a phone and service that will also make keeping this updated really easy...

I'm going to start using Twitter. http://twitter.com/JMnITup

31... yay!

Well, 31 and a day, I guess. Wow, that sounds so old. I don't feel any different, though, so whatever. You can say I'm over 30, but I say I'm 25!

Indian Motorcyclist

I want to make a horrible joke about a tech support call, but I won't.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-along blog

http://www.hulu.com/watch/28343/dr-horribles-sing-along-blog

Be sure to mouse over the clip once the actual non-advert part is playing and change it to 'Watch in Hi-Res (480p)', it looks and sounds a lot better.. then full-screen if possible... I'm just saying...

Just thought I'd add a post, since I haven't done that for a while... and while doing that, I'd recommend watching "Dr. Horrible's Sing-along blog".

Now, as a warning... it's kind of campy superhero stuff... it's amateur (in theory)... and... well... it's a musical. However, you should still watch it, all the way through Act 3, even if 1 doesn't catch you.

At first I almost stopped, but by the end, was pretty impressed.

Oh, did I mention it was by the guy largely behind Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and a couple other cult-favorites, Joss Whedon? At this point, just about anything he creates is going to become a cult favorite, of course, but... there's good reason for that.

If you DO actually read this, I'd be interested in hearing reactions to it... am I just a freak for liking it (quite likely), or is it really as good as I've decided it was?

Also... Doogie Howser has grown up into an evil super-villain.. how can that go wrong?! DH = Doogie Howser = Doctor Horrible ... coincidence? I think not!

And, if you are too lazy to figure out how to see it, here's a quick and easy link.. however, I liked it enough I bought it, with like.. you know... real money.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/28343/dr-horribles-sing-along-blog

First Ultrasound

We got our first sonograms from the ultrasound yesterday. Apparently Karen is carrying a little Teddy Graham in her belly! (Teddy Graham commercial for comparison - look at the little cookies, not the giant dancing bears. :p )

Oh, also, it danced and waved at us... REALLY!

Final due date estimate is December 3, 2008.

Video of a little part of the ultrasound ... the first couple seconds, you can hear the heartbeat faintly... over the sound of the camera's zoom mechanics. *sigh* Well, next time I'll be better prepared to catch it.

News

Ok, so yeah, as my parents keep noting, I don't maintain this enough to keep them in the loop. I guess there are a few things that need mentioning.

Next weekend is the 2008 White Dragon Tournament, so lots of work going into preparing for that.

We just got a new car, swapped the 2001 Hyundai Elantra for a 2007 Suzuki XL7.

Danny and Nia are still doing good.

We are making some big changes to our house, converting a big open area in the upstairs into a room by adding a wall and closet, redoing our kitchen cabinets and countertop, and moving internal furniture around.

Hmmm, what else.

Oh, right, and one other little thing. I guess it's been a while, but I came home on April 1st, and after a very brief talk about how sweaty I was after my workout, Karen showed me this:


So it was April 1st, right, and she's looking at me waiting for a reaction. Terror gripped me in an instant, trying to figure out if she was serious or it was a joke, and what the 'correct' response was. I think a long pause and a blank stare followed by "really?" is what I went with, which she followed up with "no, actually I just went out and bought a gag test"... again, I couldn't tell if that was sarcastic or true. Women can be cruel. :)

But in the end, it was true. And honestly, it wasn't really unexpected, we were planning on really trying about a month from that point, it was just surprising it was so quick and at that point... we were going to wait since we didn't want a December birthdate, since having a b-day close to the end of the year always seems to downplay it a bit. *shrug*

But looks like that's what we got, and really I'd rather have it come easily than desperately try for years with no luck. I WAS looking forward to a LITTLE more working at it, but ah, well. The one time we laxed a little on being careful was apparently enough. :p Does give us a pretty exact date of conception, though.

Our current official due date is December 4, 2008, but we're having an ultrasound this Thursday, which may change that date a little at that point.

test pic from phone

This is a picture test from my phone

Testing publishing from phone

This is just a quick useless post from my cellphone to see if it works. IF YOU CAN SEE THIS, IT DOES. NOW, WHY DID IT GO ALL CAPS? I'M NOT RETYPING ALL THAT. :P

Still alive

For the record, we are still alive, didn't burn in the fires months ago, as you (the 3 of you who might hit this page) might think from my lack of follow-up blog posts.

As I've said before, I'm going to TRY to post more often, but as I've proven before, that is probably an overly optimistic goal. Maybe I should try setting a more achievable goal... like, I must post at least once a month! :) I'll work on that.

Southern California Wildfires

We were actually on a road that everything north of which was evacuated... right near a canyon that was close to burning. Still is, if you look at the map, but they think it's safe enough here that they receded the evacuation perimeter...

This map is centered on our house... it is looking less and less scary, since that map is real-time, but it looked bad around Tuesday. Still tons of fire around, but at least it's getting a bit more controlled because the wind and humidity are cooperating a bit more.


View Larger Map

Our thoughts go out to everyone else impacted by these fires.

Moving

There are very few things about moving to a new place that aren't difficult, stressful, or frustrating. Actually, we aren't even to that point yet... let me restart...

There are very few things about THINKING about moving to a new place that aren't difficult, stressful, or frustrating.

We're thinking about moving, though we're very actively thinking about it. We have the house we are thinking about in sight, and have already started the processes of getting pre-approved for the loan, getting our house on the market, and letting the selling agent of the other house know of our interest.

We've already visited the place once, and are going again, this time with a more specific idea of it actually being the place we buy, not just looking at it in comparison to other places. To make things easy, we're listing our current house with the same person who is selling the other house... so he's both our selling agent, our buying agent, and our potential house's previous owners selling agent... obviously that alone presents so many potential conflicts of interest, but I'm watching that carefully...

But SELLING our current place... that seems easy... but the steps to actually let people see it are going to be very tiring... almost as much as moving itself will be (though, probably not quite). The fact that we still live here makes it difficult... we need to make it look 'demo-house lived in', which is VERY VERY different than 'reality lived-in'. And actually living in it while it's in that state will be difficult and a little uncomfortable. Fun stuff...

And we have to figure out where to hide all the junk we aren't supposed to let people know we use... all the stuff on the fridge, on our desks, on the kitchen counters, tables, etc, etc... People don't realize most kitchens actually have things like coffee makers, toaster ovens, toasters, etc? Yeah... well, it's all about psychology. People are too lazy to have to think about what they see when they are looking at something to buy, and we aren't going to be changing that any time soon. :/

Would be so much easier if we could move out before trying to sell it... and trying to figure out what to do with our cat and dog during this process is going to be interesting... the first random viewing person who lets either of them out is probably going to have to file a restraining order against us.

I can't wait...

Oh, and assuming everything goes past this point.. the move itself... *shudder* Then... making the new place livable (unpacking, painting, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc)... I think we should have been storing up energy for the past few years in preperation.

The place isn't even a mile from here... but it is almost twice the size, so that'll be useful.

Flickr test

You're lucky this door is between us!
Originally uploaded by JMnITup

This is a test... Yahoo! Photos is closing, and I had to move to another photo storage solution... Yahoo's been working on flickr, and so far it seems relatively interesting. So I'm testing posting an image blog from Flickr.

And if anyone else uses flickr and for some reason reads this blog, look me up, send an email, or otherwise add me or invite me. :)

Tournament update

Just an update, I already was pretty sure, but just officially found out that I did actually come out as the 4th place competitor overall. Missed the 2 slots above me by such a small margin... guess I have a goal for next year. :)

White Dragon Tournament

The annual White Dragon tournament in San Diego was this weekend, and it was probably the best one I've gone to so far. Overall, it was the best organized it has been, though there were still a couple oddities (there were combatives going on before some forms divisions were done, and several people couldn't compete in a few forms divisions because they were hurt in the combative... my wife was one of these, unfortunately, and her open weapon set would have done really well in her division).

I didn't miss a single event, and overall most people got to all their events, because not only was the event called, your name was called a few times specifically if you hadn't reported to a ring yet. Again, somehow my wife got passed over by this, though the ring judges say they called her name several times and actually went to the sparring ring asking people personally. She never heard her name (and neither did I) and never noticed anyone asking her ring if they were in open weapon division, but it probably wouldn't have mattered, since by then she could hardly stand anyway. I think she still wanted to try to do the set, even with her ankle hurt. But... next year.

But beyond the few issues I know about, it was a quicker tournament than previous years, and more organized as a whole. And the quality of people competing was better than I remember, even for the lower level divisions. All in all, it was a really fun tournament. I did well, Karen did well, and our school did really well as well. We got 2nd place as a school, missing 1st by only .2 points per competitor, a lot of that lost due to people not showing up who were registered. Not a bad achievement. Myself, I actually missed 3rd place for grand champion by 2 points, which is REALLY close. Basically the difference between getting 3rd place in a division and 2nd place in the same division... or a lot less than getting 2nd instead of 1st.

Karen came away with a Gold medal in her forms division, and I'm pretty sure she had a good chance at gold in her open weapon, and probably would have placed 1-3 in sparring if she hadn't won her match but lost her ankle at the same time. I ended up with 4 golds, 4 silver, and 2 bronze, placing in 10 of the 12 divisions I competed in. Not bad, beat last year, I only got 3 gold, 2 silver, and 2 bronze then. I could feel the improvement... I was pretty confident in my sets last year, but this year felt more fluid.

Now back to regular training for a while. Tournament always sidetracks things a little, but in a good way. Training for tournaments always leak back into the normal curriculum.