What's All This Battlemouth Malarkey Then?

As some may have noticed, it's been a bit quiet on my site recently. Between holidays, reading the Wheel of Time series, and gaming, I haven't really been up to updating the site with anything. I also seem to have hit a spot somewhere between "can't be arsed" and "a dry spell" with doing anything graphical, so that hasn't helped here either.

One thing I have been doing though is thinking over ideas for stories and articles on various things, and the best way I could present them. I could have put them on here, but I wasn't really sure how they fit with my general site theme (if, in fact, I actually have one).

A week or so ago, Mike from Battlemouth put a call out for new contributors for his site. As I had been interacting (read: trash talking) with a few of the Battlemouth guys for a while on Twitter, and had contributed a guest game review in the past, I indicated my interest and promptly sent off an article on the social inadequacy of Sony's PS3 console. Skip forward to now, and I have several articles up on Battlemouth and have been welcomed into the team.

I'm quite enthusiatic about this opportunity, and look forward to contributing to Battlemouth. It's not that I have any pretensions about my writing ability, but more about being a member of a like-minded community developing a quality magazine-style site. I certainly feel that Battlemouth is the best place for the articles I'm thinking of, and I hope the rest of the team feel the same way.

I will be posting links (with some text) to my Battlemouth articles on this site for the foreseeable future, but this may change if I think it doesn't feel right. I also hope to get back into the fold of posting my more regular stuff (photos, drawings, etc.) so this site stays alive.

Going forward, please feel free to offer any suggestions or ideas for changes in this site, or articles for Battlemouth.

Battlemouth articles to date:

• 30% of Brutal Legend... A Guest Review!
• Dragon Age: Origins - An Epic Review for an Epic Game (contribution)
• PS3's Social Inadequacy

Stargate Universe: Thoughts Thus Far

Stargate Universe (SGU) is the latest series in the long-running Stargate franchise from MGM.  The series follows a group of humans who have been stranded in a distant corner of the universe, aboard an Ancient spaceship named “Destiny”.  At this stage, there have been eight episodes screened, with 20 planned for the season.

The series begins with the arrival of roughly 80 military personnel and civilians aboard the ship Destiny after their evacuation from the somewhat ironically-named Icarus base, where they have been attempting to dial a nine-chevron address with the Stargate.  This evacuation is forced upon them by an attack upon the base’s planet by what is thought to be the Lucian Alliance, and leads the humans to successfully dial the address, which brings them to Destiny.  Here, they soon discover that they are billions of light-years from Earth and the ship is in poor condition.  Their goal quickly becomes finding a way to survive, then finding a way to get home.

There are seven core characters, as well as recurring characters and guest appearances.  Within the core cast are four military characters (including the military command structure), the machiavellian Dr. Rush, a slacker genius civilian, and the civilian daughter of a US Senator.  To date, most of the characters haven’t been explored that well, so they still appear quite two-dimensional.  The only characters who have provided much promise are the genius (who provides the comic relief) and Dr. Rush (excellently portrayed by Robert Carlyle).  I’m sure all the characters will be developed upon over time, but I would have hoped for a bit more after eight episodes.

Destiny is a massive vessel, which is travelling on autopilot at faster-than-light (FTL) speed away from the Milky Way galaxy.  It is millions of years old and, accordingly, has a great deal of wear and tear.  Destiny, although unable to be controlled, has intelligent sensors that can determine if something is urgently needed by its passengers.  It then determines the nearest resources, drops out of FTL, and dials the Stargate address for the best planet to supply said resource.  In the pilot episodes, Destiny dropped out of FTL in a solar system so the humans could get lime for the life support system before they all died from carbon dioxide poisoning.  Every time this occurs, Destiny counts down a set time before jumping back into FTL.

This raises an interesting point for the series.  The humans have no control over the ship, they can only take advantage of when it drops out of FTL to get any supplies they think they may need e.g. food.  Technically, Destiny should be able to determine when they’re nearly out of supplies and stop (as happened in the “Water” episode”); however, the humans may not always know why the ship has stopped.  In the episode “Time”, they thought the ship had stopped so they could get food from a planet; it turned out the planet had the cure for a disease that they were unaware they all had.  This method and timeliness of resupplying means that the crew will go from crisis to crisis until they can find a way to gain more control over the ship.

Within the crew’s possessions that they brought with them, is the Ancient communication device referred to as the communication stones.  These stones enable the crew to communicate with Homeworld Command instantaneously by swapping the consciousness with a person using Earth’s equivalent device.  This method enables the Destiny crew to brief their superiors, discuss matters with peers, and visit their loved ones.  While I think the communication stones are a weak point in the premise, it has created some interesting scenarios.  For example, during a switch in the “Earth” episode, those transferred aboard Destiny attempted to carry out a very dangerous experiment, while the crew members on Earth were prevented from returning.  The body-swapping aspect of the communication also raises some questions of ethics; what would you do in someone else’s body, and what are the implications for that body once you’ve switched back i.e. what if a “returnee” was having sex with someone the body owner didn’t like?

To date, the episode storylines in the series have revolved around the crew acquiring critical resources, or using the communication stones with Earth.  Going forward, the former will obviously be a fairly regular story premise, and the latter will hopefully be a fallback story.  It will be a challenge for the writers to find a way to introduce new elements and obstacles for the crew, otherwise the series will become quite stagnant.  As it is, the show has relied heavily on the acting and suspenseful build-up to pad out some pretty thin plotlines.  Saying that, I do like the series and I will keep watching it.  Whether someone who’s not a Stargate fan will like it (as the creators hope), I’m really not sure it’ll have enough to keep their attention.

(also posted on Murmur under Stargate Universe: Thoughts Thus Far)

10 Life Tips for My Children

I thought I'd pen some pithy words of wisdom for my children to take note of as they embark on their journey through life (in no particular order).

• Be good to the environment. Global warming leads to Waterworld and that was bad enough the first time.
• Treat others as you would like to be treated yourself. You never know when the next revolution will be.
• Never wear Crocs or Ugg Boots. They're fashion disabilities, not accessories.
• Drive carefully and respectfully.  There's only room for one Michael Schumaker in the family.
• Practice safe sex until you're ready. If it helps, look at the before- and after-children photos of your mother and I.
• Respect your elders. One of them may just have a big fat inheritance for you.
• Be yourself. No-one else will do it for you.
• Be happy in all your endeavours. Antidepressants and therapy are expensive.
• Do research before joining a religion. At least know the extent of your hypocrisy before spouting it to others.
• Love and respect your family. You'll need someone to hide you when you're on the run from the police.
  

Points of Language

There are some examples of language used nowadays that really irk the shit out of me.

• Naming a scandal by putting "-gate" at the end of a word.  Let's face it... Watergate was the name of the hotel, Whitewatergate was a clever play on words, anything afterwards is just being an unimaginative dick. E.g. Corngate?  Give me a break!
• Calling a cycle race "Tour de [insert name]" when it's in a non-French speaking country.  "Tour de Vines" is dickish, "Martinborough Cycle Race" is not.
• Hyphenating the word "email".  Come on people, it's the 2000s now, drop the hyphen.
• Pretentiously telling people they can't use the Oxford Comma.  It is a perfectly legitimate grammatical device, and we can't help it if our sentences look better than yours.
• Using "like" more than a couple of times in a sentence.  Die, valley girl, die.
• People who don't know how to swear properly.  Good for you for having a go, but you come across about as cool as a dad hanging around a teenagers' party.

What points of language set you off?

5 Minute Review: The Resistance

Reviewing: The Resistance by Muse
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm a fairly big Muse fan and I've eagerly awaited the release of this album ever since I heard it was in development. When I finally got my hands on it, I was pleased to discover that the band have continued to experiment with their music without any detriment to the quality of their songs.

This, their fifth studio album, is somewhat of a concept album. Inspired by the love story between Winston and Julia in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, this album echoes the themes of love against the odds. The lyrics are surrounded by the strains of the familiar Muse "space rock" sound (notably reminiscent of Queen and Electric Light Orchestra), combined with the evidence of the band's continued evolution and experimentation with new sounds. Other reviewers have referred to this album as "predictable" and accuse the band of not stretching themselves. I disagree - this album combines the familiar and the new, and is a clear attempt at consolidating the lessons this band has learnt over the years.

For me, it is a thoroughly enjoyable album, although I do admit it's not their best. However, this band does release high quality music through all of their albums, and this album is no exception. I recommend this album to existing Muse fans, and as an entry album to new listeners.

See what else I'm listening to >>

O*M*F*G

The other night, the little hardware "Silent" switch fell off the side of my year-old iPhone 3G when I was taking it off mute. As this seemed to result from a defect, and not damage, I decided to see if I could get it fixed under warranty.

I first rang MagnumMac to see if they could tell me if it was covered under warranty, as they are Wellington's only Apple specialist store.

MM: I can't really say for sure. You could try MobilefoneRepair to see if they know, as they're the official repair providers.

Fair enough, I thought, so I gave them a ring.

MFR: Sir, you'll need to bring it in so we can assess to see if there's liquid or impact damage as these will affect the warranty.

Me: But it's only a little switch on the side.

MFR: Sir, we'll still need to check it. Our address is...

Me: Isn't that Auckland? I'm in Wellington.

[...]

That conversation didn't go anywhere near where I needed it to go, so I went into the flagship Vodafone store near work to see if they could help.

VF: It sounds like it should be covered under warranty. Ring this Apple hotline number and they'll give you a case number. Bring that in and we'll get the ball rolling.

I dutifully rang Apple and a very helpful chap told me that the damage would be covered under warranty, and gave me a case number for Vodafone to use. The next day, I took my phone and case number back to the store.

VF: I'm sorry mate, we can't do anything without proof of purchase.

Of course, I wished that they had told me this the day before (rassle frassle). That night, I trawled through boxes and eventually found the original paperwork I was supplied. Next day, back to the store I went.

VF: I'm sorry, this is your contract; we can't do anything without the actual proof of purchase.

Me: But Apple have all the details in their computer.

VF: Sorry, policy says we need the receipt. If you go to the store where you bought it, they'll be able to print your off a copy.

Wearily, I trudged up to Digital Mobile in Manners Mall, where I explained the situation to them.

DM: Oh, we've changed hands since you bought the phone and our records archived. We'll need to send a request to head office in Auckland for a copy, then we'll give you a call and you can come and pick it up.

Me: o_O

Luckily, he thought to ask if I had email (sure... a guy wearing a suit and holding two smartphones doesn'thave email). This means that once he receives the copy, he can forward it onto me, and I can go back to the Vodafone store.

This has been one long drawn-out process, which makes me want to drink. The light at the end of the tunnel is that I'll be given a brand-new iPhone 3G, as they don't do repairs on them. Until then, it's a game of waiting to see what the next blocker will be.

5 Minute Review: The City & The City

Reviewing: The City and the City by China Miéville
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Quite a good crime/thriller set within what must be one of the most unique settings I've encountered in a book.

China Miéville has an ability to visualise a setting right down to the minute details. This is evident in the way he's crafted this story into delicate twists and turns, which can really mess with your head.

Although some aspects of the finish are somewhat inevitable and predictable, China Miéville preserves the whodunnit part right up to the reveal. This may be, in some part, due to the way he distracts you from trying to decipher the mystery by encouraging you to focus on the setting.

A thoroughly good read. I recommend to all.

View all my reviews >>

Lost Phone Saga

With my daughter recently having had a scalding accident, she and I have spent a couple of nights at Hutt Hospital (excellent service there!).  After we got home from the hospital, we discovered my wife had left her cellphone there.

At my urging, my wife rang Vodafone to request a bar be put on her phone so that it couldn't be used.  Unfortunately, it seemed that Vodafone were having system issues so we were redirected to the backup call centre in Egypt.  She explained the situation to the CSR, who was unable to put the bar on due to the issues.  My wife then asked for an assurance that we wouldn't be charged for calls made during the time that a bar was not on the phone.  The CSR stated that we would still be liable for any incurred charges.  My wife said that this shouldn't be the case, but the CSR started off on some sales script.  My wife interrupted to try to make her case and the CSR hung up on her!

(For me, this is the height of rudeness and is unforgivable.  I have actually raised this separately with people at Vodafone from my Twitter stream, and Vodafone in no way condones this behaviour.)

During this time, I had been trying to ring my wife's cellphone as we knew where it had been left.  About 15 minutes later, a woman rang our landline and said that her son had "found the phone".  As they weren't at the hospital any more, we have our suspicions as to whether the boy had pocketed it.  The woman wasn't at home, but did give us her landline and cell numbers.  She then promised to contact my wife when she did get home so we could arrange to go and pick it up.

By late evening, we hadn't heard anything so we rang Vodafone again to see if the systems were back up and we could get the bar put on.  We were able to get this done this time, so we asked if they could tell us if there'd been any activity on the phone.  The CSR told us that the last activity had been mid-afternoon, but couldn't tell us any more due to "privacy issues".  This surprised us as my wife had PIN-verified plus she confirmed three sets of personal details - why couldn't she know what's happened on her own phone?

(I have since tried registering my wife for My Vodafone so she could see if there was any activity listed in thee, but of course you need to enter a validation code that's sent via SMS to the phone.)

Its now the next afternoon, and we haven't heard from the woman with our phone.  Unfortunately, we've misplaced the piece of paper with her phone numbers on (as you do when you have kids), so we have no way of contacting her outside of ringing the phone, which isn't being answered.

The way I see it... if we haven't heard from her by Monday, we claim it as lost/stolen with the police so we can do an insurance claim, and get the phone disabled remotely.  Really can't think of any other solution.

Chasing the 3G Guy

This will probably sound like a case of sour grapes (and it probably is a bit), but I think there's probably some opportunities for lessons to be learnt here.

As those in New Zealand know, our Vodafone is running a competition in which three Dell Inspiron Mini 9 Netbooks can be won daily for five days. In order to win a netbook, the basic premise of the competition is to find the 3G Guy based on clues he gives out online. Today, the 3G Guy was in Wellington so I thought I'd have go.

Around 9am, the first clue went up...

Clue #1: I am not going to see the son or the holy ghost . . . #find3gguy

After a few minutes pondering, I worked out that this was Te Papa (Museum of New Zealand) and promptly headed down there. I got down there just after 9.15 and had a good look around for him. As I couldn't find him there, I checked (about 9.30) to see if there was another clue. I was a bit surprised when I saw this...

We have a winner! Nik collared me en route to the te papa museum...nice one!

It turns out that the winner had grabbed the 3G Guy up around Manners Street. This immediately pissed me right off as I'd been at the location for about 15 minutes and the 3G Guy had posted the clue to his "location" from over three blocks away.  In addition, he had been grabbed nowhere near the location where he was meant to be.

I eventually calmed down and waited for the next location search.  A few hours later, the next clue was up...

12pm clue #1 - This guy is a made man

This wasn't obvious and I did a little running around, but was unable to locate him. To cut a long story short, the winner found the 3G Guy by a restaurant on a "man-made beach". What this beach had to do with the clue doesn't appear to be that obvious, but I accepted this as a fair loss.

The final competition of the day was to locate the 3G Guy using a Google Map on the Vodafone website based on clues as before. Here are the clues and my associated thoughts...

6pm online draw: clue#1 Probably gonna smoke a cigar here

Matterhorn Bar - a noted cigar bar in Wellington

Clue #2: NZ's notorious for having a lot of these

New Zealand has a bit of fame for its bars.

Clue#3 A farmer could probably use one of those

Umm, perhaps there's a farmer's tool called a matterhorn?

Clue #4: There's lots of these a farmer could use here . . . or a window cleaner

Uh, is he meaning the bucket fountain? Although that's within spitting distance of the Matterhorn, it's clearly a different location for the first clue.

Final Clue: Elijah wood URINATED into that?! Mr Baggins!

He does mean the bucket fountain! WTF? He's hinted at two different locations!  It turns out the location was the bucket fountain in the end.  I wouldn't mind this, but the first clues say one location (to me) and the remaining clues say another.

I don't know what's happened in the other cities in the competition, but this seems to me to have been run pretty poorly in Wellington.  The second location was a fair win and I can accept the third, but the first was just poor form.  It's not just that I was directly affected - I would be just as indignant if it happened to someone else.  If you set up a competition with a specific method to win, you can't just play fancy-free with your own rules.

Poor form Vodafone.

Depression

This is a story of a longtime sufferer of a depressive mood disorder: myself.  I've seen lots of commentary in both social media and the mainstream media about this mental illness.  Some of this commentary is correct and a good deal appears to be supposition or stereotyping.  In the end, as with any illness, there are a number of symptoms and this tends to make the experience of each sufferer of depression a little different to another sufferer.  I'd like to talk about the illness as it applies to me; not to fulfil any agenda or solicit sympathy, but to just have the facts out there.

My illness first manifested in my adolescence, I think when I was about 14.  This is partly a genetic inheritance from my family (as most of us suffer some form of depression) and was likely brought on by the chemical changes in my body at the time.  This illness most likely would have as remained some low-level mood issue; however, I was subjected to a lot of emotional (and sometimes physical) bullying through three of the five schools I attended from early childhood to my late teens.  This bullying built layer upon layer of issues on my illness until I had developed a full major depressive disorder.  I still suffer episodes of this disorder now into my mid-30s.

So what is major depressive disorder?  Wikipedia has it defined as "a mental disorder characterised by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities".  This is generally true, but I'd like to go deeper into what this illness is for me...

• First and foremost, this illness is episodic, which means I get the clusters of symptoms in irregular cycles.  I used to suffer this quite badly when I was younger, but (thankfully) I only suffer "attacks" every now and then.
• As a teenager (and stretching into my early 20s), I had very little self-esteem or self-worth... sometimes none.  This in turn meant that I had very little confidence in myself.  Going forward, I have slowly developed confidence in myself but still have lingering self-doubts (that little voice in your head that says, "you're not meant to be here!").  These self-doubts have led to an underlying paranoia in my dealings with people, as I often worry about being judged or found to be a phony.
• Probably the worst part of depression is the self-hatred.  This symptom and the low self-esteem seem to feed off of each other in some cyclical way, emotionally putting a sufferer through the wringer.  At some of the worst times, I felt exiting would be a good way to free loved ones of the burden I was putting on them.  At other times, there was some cutting - I still have scars down my forearms and on my ribs.  Nowadays, I seem to have gotten past this symptom for which  I am so thankful.
• During some episodes, I ended up taking medication; the rest of time, I skirted the edge of alcohol abuse.  The unfortunate thing about alcohol is that it in itself is a depressive, so you drink to make yourself either feel better in some way or to not feel at all, but you end up making the problem worse.  I ended up losing control in my mid-20s, and eventually had some sort of emotional breakdown.  That breakdown was like the snapping of a stretched rubber band, and I was able to bounce back quite quickly and self-impose some behaviour changes.  Go forward a decade and I can enjoy myself with a few drinks, and no fear of hitting that downward spiral again.
• I used to be a bit of a drifter.  I had a lot of mediocre jobs and failed attempts at university, because I had a lack of drive to succeed.  I also had relationship troubles where I'd only have either drunken one-nighters or short-term things.  I had very little motivation and that, combined with the drinking, did not make me particularly attractive to potential partners.  After the breakdown, I hit an upward curve of good things happening to me.  I had a couple of good relationships, and eventually ended up with my wife - we've now been together nine years and have two beautiful children.  I got a job with my current employer and quickly found my niche there, rapidly moving up the ladder to my current role.  I also successfully completed an extramural degree.

I was luckier than some in that I had a life-changing moment and subsequent good fortune, after which I was able to find some personal clarity and was able to move forward through my illness.  However, I also had really supportive family and friends who stood by me during the worst times.  This support, more than medical treatment, is critical for any sufferer of this and any other mental illness.  Without support and understanding, we are as alone as our illness makes us feel.

Steel Requiem

He sits alone in the darkness, grieving for those who are lost.
The tears once flowing, now spent and replaced by burning, dry eyes.
His friends and colleagues are gone, his life's love torn away.

His garb was a symbol of hope to all, he now finds it worthless.
His suit scarred by the storms, his cape taken to shroud his beloved.
With all his strength, he could not defeat his enemy.
With all his speed, he could not outrace the inevitable.
All of his power could not help him prevail.

Broken by an unconquerable foe, his faith eroded.
Overpowered at the end by human nature.
He sits alone in the darkness, this grieving man of steel.

Social Media Activism

A very interesting thing has been happening on the Internet this week. Avatars on social networking sites and blogs have been going black. The reason for this is an online protest led by the Creative Freedom Foundation in New Zealand against the upcoming implementation of a controversial legislation amendment for copyright protection.

What has made this protest interesting is the way and the speed that the message spread. Within hours of the campaign kicking off, the message had spread around the world and even people in other countries were taking part to show their support for their New Zealand peers. This was helped greatly by the endorsement and participation of Stephen Fry who, with over 200,000 followers on Twitter, likely has the largest reach in social networking. Promptly after Mr Fry publicly showed his support, a good percentage of his followers followed suit – several of these with thousands of supporters themselves.

Some people outside of New Zealand likely joined the campaign as some perceived Internet meme; however, many did their own reading into the reasons behind the campaign and joined it – either in support of New Zealand, or recognising that the same thing could happen to their own country. As more joined the cause, their social networking contacts also questioned what the story is, and the “spider’s web” grew.

I’m not sure if this is a first in social media, but this appears to have been the most effective. The end-results have yet to be determined as the campaign has not finished; however, this online success has lead to mainstream media from around the world covering the campaign and back-story, and the New Zealand politicians taking more serious notice of the issue. It has also led to “real world” actions such as protests and a petition being presented to the New Zealand government.

The way this campaign has proceeded would be like a “holy grail” for marketing and advertising firms. If they could leverage off this, they’d stand to get their message across to a very large market segment. For example, if Stephen Fry agreed to endorse Coke Zero, that endorsement would reach an international audience of over 200,000 potential customers and at a fraction of the cost that it would take to reach the same market through conventional methods. The same could also be done for political elections or activist causes like Greenpeace, but I doubt it would have the same effectiveness as a grassroots cause like this. In addition, I doubt that another campaign like this would have quite as much uptake for the same reasons that Internet memes die out.

I’m interested to see how this campaign closes out and how quickly the social networking sites return to normal. One thing is for sure, even if this is attempted again in the future for other causes, this campaign has been a trailblazer and New Zealanders appear to have led in innovation again.

The True Cost in Gaza?

Warning: the image in the linked story is quite provoking and may disturb!

This is literally one of the saddest things I have ever seen: Dead Palestinian Girl in the Rubble. Really makes the Israeli methods seem worth it (note: I'm not disputing the provocation, just their methods).

The newspaper that this comes from was so outraged and repulsed by the photo that they broke their own publishing standards to ensure the world gets to see it. The article is in Norwegian and here's the translation (from Reddit)...

This picture of the dead child in the ruins of her home which until Tuesday was her home is repulsive, and will provoke a lot of readers. It is a conscious provocation - and we have two reasons for it: Israel keep all western journalists away from the war in Gaza. The country's government claim 'the wellbeing of the journalists' as the reason, but this is an obvious lie. In modern wars, the 'strong side' does everything in its power to stop the press from documenting abuse of the civilian population, because this can weaken the support of the war.

BUT THERE ARE cameras in the war zone, and there are local photographers who are willing to go past everything that might stop them to get photos of a war in a tightly populated city out to the outside world. Pictures like this one.

There is no such thing as a 'surgical strike' in one of the most heavily populated areas in the world. This little girl died along with at least 11 other members of the Daya family when their 4-story house was bombed by Israeli planes yesterday morning. This - not the camo-painted israeli soldier, or the covered Hamas warrior, is the true face of the war.

Today we show the picture 'The Others' see, so as to better understand how they feel, Sven Egil Omdal (multimedia and cultural editor) writes.

THE MOST IMPORTANT reason for us to show this face, is that the Arab world sees pictures like these from Gaza every day. Not a single still, but hours and hours of TV-images of hospital floors full of small, dead bodies

Four year olds, two year olds, seven year olds, newly borns - THese pictures represent the war in Gaza for millions of muslims - and we wonder why the hatred against Israel and the west grows?

[digg=http://digg.com/world_news/The_True_Cost_in_Gaza]

My Year in Review (2008)

It’s been a interesting year to say the least for both myself and my family…

Children

At the start of the year, we discovered that my wife was pregnant with our second child, but she unfortunately lost the pregnancy making this our second early-term miscarriage. Oddly enough, it didn’t affect us as badly this time and we were able to bounce back quite quickly. We put this down to the pregnancy being so unexpected and the fact we hadn’t had time to get used to the idea yet. As we did the last time, we bought a plant and a pot, and buried what there was – this way we have a living reminder.

A few months later, we got pregnant again (albeit a bit more planned). This time, we successfully passed the first trimester and relevant tests, and we’re now expecting a healthy baby boy around the end of March.

In other child news, 2008 was year number two for our little girl Isla and she took to it with a vengeance. She’s running around with nearly a full set of teeth and a good vocabulary (including some unfortunate additions overheard from parents). In a couple of weeks, she enters the “terrible twos”… we’re already getting advance previews and are expecting drama, action, and hopefully some comedy. It’ll certainly be interesting to see her reaction to a little brother.

House

With the increase in family, we needed to get a bigger house as we were already bursting at the seams in our 90 sq.m three-bedroom. The plan was to get our house on the market, get a sale with a reasonable settlement period, and then look for a new house. This way, we would know our exact budget.

However, dreams don’t always match reality. We sold relatively quickly and had a four-week settlement period, but were unable to find a place that fit our requirements. This meant we moved out of our house and shifted in with my in-laws. As they lived about 50km in another town, I ended up referring to this as my “homeless exile” – this ended up being seven weeks.

We did end up finding a new house, after some extensive searching, and we are very happy. We have 150sq.m to play with plus a large double garage and a basement workshop.

Family

It seems that, out of my family, my brother had the most full-on year (although that may just be by comparison).

He spent about seven months as part of the NZ Army reconstruction deployment in Afghanistan, fortunately in a relatively safe region. He sent us regular newsletter updates and painted a picture of a very different culture and a country which had suffered a lot under the Taliban. It was interesting to see how the reconstruction efforts were progressing and how lives were gradually improving over there (e.g. can you imagine the impact of the training of midwives on a village?). In the end, it was a mostly uneventful tour and we were glad to see his safe return.

Not long after his return, we were surprised and somewhat shocked to find that he had severely constricted arteries and required a quadruple bypass (bearing in mind that this is a 46 year old here). Thankfully, he was able to be processed quickly and he is now home recovering slowly. As a bonus, his return to fitness plan seems to somehow involve my participation (oh joy!).

Personally…

I had a bit of a technology boom during the year (which is likely not to be repeated until Haley’s Comet returns), which resulted in my becoming the oh-so-happy owner of a PS3, PSP, iPhone, and LCD HD iDTV. Of these, the iPhone has become a fairly permanent fixture and it is rare to see me without it in my hand.

2008 is also the year in which I discovered social networking, which I embraced wholeheartedly. I’ve participated in site betas, tested others to see if they met my requirements, and generally had a good play. As the year drew to a close, I think I established a solid toolset but will always keep an eye out to discover others. As a side, I’ve found Twitter to be highly addictive (you evil buggers!).

Over the last couple of years, I went from buying books to borrowing from the library (due to costs). In 2008, I felt that I’d exhausted my interests in the written fiction sections and started borrowing the comic trade paperbacks. I hadn’t read comics for a number of years, and my interest was quickly renewed. I have caught up on some old favourites and discovered some great new works. To this end, graphic fiction has now become my primary reading material and I eagerly await each release day to see how my stories will unfold.

With my iPhone purchase and the lengthy commutes I endured, my interest in music was also reawakened. I have not only dug through my iTunes archives to rediscover old classics, but have been introduced to new genres which have rapidly become solid favourites (post-rock for the win!). This has been helped by last.fm and the excellent ways to discover new music through it.


In closing, my family and I have certainly had some significant highs and lows, some of which do make your pause to take stock of one’s life. We look forward to this year and can only hope that the good continues to outweigh the bad.

Things That Bemuse

There are many things in life that provide me with great bemusement. Here's a quick few...

1. People (unfortunately, mostly American) who equate Starbucks with great coffee. Sorry to burst your bubble, it's not.
2. Young folk who struggle to achieve personal individuality and express it by dressing like all their peers.
3. People who think their iPods/iPhones produce such wonderful sounds, yet are still using the bassless stock Apple earphones.
4. Young folk who think they're really cool smoking, but don't know they're just making jackasses of themselves cause they're not even smoking properly (inhale people!).
5. People who will stand for a pregnant woman on public transport, but not for the same woman later on when she’s struggling with baby and bags.
6. George Dubya ('nuff said!).
   

Can you think of any more?