Liam's first birthday was on Thursday. To celebrate Soph and I took him to the National Zoo and Aquarium. He loves watching Koshka and Holly (my parents' dog) so we thought he's probably enjoy watching some big cats and other animals! We toured the entire zoo, stopped and had some lunch, and then toured the aquarium. Liam wasn't quite as excited about the animals as I thought he would be - he had been a bit off-colour all week, as had I - but he still seemed to enjoy himself. His favourite animals to watch were the monkeys (I forget which species) flinging themselves about all over their enclosure. However his favourite part of the day was the aquarium; not because of the marine life but because he got to crawl around on the carpet and climb the stairs! Liam takes great pride in his mobility. My favourite animal was the giraffe. It's always surprising exactly how big they are, even though you know they're the tallest animal in the world!
Yesterday we had a small birthday party for him with our family (plus one guest each for Soph and myself!). Liam had a wonderful time being the centre of attention, and playing with his toys, both old and new. My parents brought over a wooden block trolley that I was given for my first birthday. Being over 30 years old it first needed to be restored - a split in the handle has been fixed, and the blocks repainted -but Liam just loved it, zooming back and forth across the room and taking out the blocks to chew on them. My favourite present that Liam received was the rescue boat and helicopter - boat actually floats! - from Hamish. It's my favourite mainly because Liam had a distinct lack of bath toys and had been getting a little bored in his baths of late, but this should keep him entertained nicely! He hasn't quite got the idea of presents yet, it will probably be his next birthday where he gets excited about them! Liam also had his first ever taste of cake (a wonderful barnyard-themed cake made by Soph) and despite being a bit wary at first, he was noticeably rather enjoying it in short order.
I've certainly had a wonderful first year with my little boy. I love watching him at play, crawling and walking (with support) everywhere and experimenting with everything. I love that we can play games together now, like throwing a ball to each other, and I find it amazing that he's started to play peek-a-boo with me - hiding down behind the armchair and then looking so ecstatic when he pops up again. And with his first word and first steps to come, I imagine his second year could be even better!
Saturday, December 06, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
Crawling
Liam started crawling a few weeks ago. I had been getting excited about it a few weeks beforehand as he started to greatly improve his rolling and sitting skills, but a lot of people said that I should hope that he takes a long time to start crawling as he will be much harder to look after. And yes, Soph and I have had to rearrange our bookshelves (books we care about have to be level 3 or higher), the coffee table shelf (the tray of Liam's toys had to be removed as he kept hitting himself in the head with it, "stepping on a rake" style), and we have to be careful not to leave anything sharp or valuable on the coffee table or side tables. But it is completely worth it as it has made the three of us so happy!
For the first week or so he loved to follow us whenever we walked out of the room. After that he finally realised that he could go wherever he wanted and he was off! His favourite discoveries so far are banging on our DVD case, and pulling books out of our family room shelves. He's happier in general now, as he can entertain himself much more easily, and he can come searching for Soph or myself if he wants some attention.
Koshka isn't quite so happy with the new arrangement, as Liam as managed to sneak up on her and grab her tail a couple of times. She's not the most alert of cats! She's extremely good with him though, and so far hasn't had any reaction to the torture inflicted on her by Liam besides running away.
Anyway, I'm loving the crawling stage so much, bring on the walking!
For the first week or so he loved to follow us whenever we walked out of the room. After that he finally realised that he could go wherever he wanted and he was off! His favourite discoveries so far are banging on our DVD case, and pulling books out of our family room shelves. He's happier in general now, as he can entertain himself much more easily, and he can come searching for Soph or myself if he wants some attention.
Koshka isn't quite so happy with the new arrangement, as Liam as managed to sneak up on her and grab her tail a couple of times. She's not the most alert of cats! She's extremely good with him though, and so far hasn't had any reaction to the torture inflicted on her by Liam besides running away.
Anyway, I'm loving the crawling stage so much, bring on the walking!
Monday, August 18, 2008
My Top 5 Olympic Moments
Here are my five favourite moments from the 2008 Olympic Games - only the events that I saw live (or as "live" as Prime/SBS showed them, anyway) were considered!
5. Rowing finals
The first three rowing finals resulted in a win to Australia, a win to Australia, and second place to Australia. Certainly the best half-hour segment, in terms of results, that I watched!
4. Softball semi-final
Australia was playing Japan for the chance to play against the US for the gold medal; if they lost they would receive the bronze medal. Australia led 1-0 for a few innings but Japan scored then scored 2 runs to take the lead. The match looked to be over in the 7th and final innings with Australia having 2 players out and no players on base. However our last batter proceeded to smash a home run and the match was tied! The match then became an epic with 5 extra innings played. Despite Australia taking the lead in the 11th innings they ended up losing the match, but it was worth watching just to see that home run.
3. Pole vault
I was pretty tired but decided to stay up for the 4x100m relays and any of the pole vault that Prime deigned to show. They were showing non-live replays of bits and pieces of it until they realised that Steve Hooker had a good chance of winning a medal, and then they immediately went live and stuck with it until the end. My favourite moment was when Hooker was on his final attempt at 5.80m, and went a long way to the right on his jump but still managed to clear it. Although obviously the jump with which he won the gold medal was great to watch too!
2. Men's 100m sprint
Like with the pole vault I was rewarded for staying up late with an amazing performance by Usain Bolt. After his showboating 10-20m before the finish, to see the world record time come up on the screen was just unbelievable.
1. Men's cycling road race
The last hour or two of the race was just brilliant, with breakaway riders building up huge leads but then slowly being swallowed up be the peloton once more. Nearing the end of the race a group of five riders, including the Canberran Michael Rogers, finally seemed to have made a decisive break. A little further on three riders broke away from the leading group (unfortunately Rogers was not one of them) and that appeared to be that for the medals. However Rogers and the other rider who had been left behind started working together to catch the leaders, and the leaders themselves were starting to position themselves for a shot at gold, and the gap started to be reduced. Just as it looked as though Rogers was running out of time the Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara appeared from absolutely nowhere to catch them up, and then proceeded to tow the other two up to the leaders. The speed with which Cancellara caught up to the leaders made the other riders seem like they were out for a Sunday cruise. It came down to a sprint finish and Rogers finished 6th while Cancellara could only take bronze. Deifnitely a case of the race itself being much more memorable than the result!
5. Rowing finals
The first three rowing finals resulted in a win to Australia, a win to Australia, and second place to Australia. Certainly the best half-hour segment, in terms of results, that I watched!
4. Softball semi-final
Australia was playing Japan for the chance to play against the US for the gold medal; if they lost they would receive the bronze medal. Australia led 1-0 for a few innings but Japan scored then scored 2 runs to take the lead. The match looked to be over in the 7th and final innings with Australia having 2 players out and no players on base. However our last batter proceeded to smash a home run and the match was tied! The match then became an epic with 5 extra innings played. Despite Australia taking the lead in the 11th innings they ended up losing the match, but it was worth watching just to see that home run.
3. Pole vault
I was pretty tired but decided to stay up for the 4x100m relays and any of the pole vault that Prime deigned to show. They were showing non-live replays of bits and pieces of it until they realised that Steve Hooker had a good chance of winning a medal, and then they immediately went live and stuck with it until the end. My favourite moment was when Hooker was on his final attempt at 5.80m, and went a long way to the right on his jump but still managed to clear it. Although obviously the jump with which he won the gold medal was great to watch too!
2. Men's 100m sprint
Like with the pole vault I was rewarded for staying up late with an amazing performance by Usain Bolt. After his showboating 10-20m before the finish, to see the world record time come up on the screen was just unbelievable.
1. Men's cycling road race
The last hour or two of the race was just brilliant, with breakaway riders building up huge leads but then slowly being swallowed up be the peloton once more. Nearing the end of the race a group of five riders, including the Canberran Michael Rogers, finally seemed to have made a decisive break. A little further on three riders broke away from the leading group (unfortunately Rogers was not one of them) and that appeared to be that for the medals. However Rogers and the other rider who had been left behind started working together to catch the leaders, and the leaders themselves were starting to position themselves for a shot at gold, and the gap started to be reduced. Just as it looked as though Rogers was running out of time the Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara appeared from absolutely nowhere to catch them up, and then proceeded to tow the other two up to the leaders. The speed with which Cancellara caught up to the leaders made the other riders seem like they were out for a Sunday cruise. It came down to a sprint finish and Rogers finished 6th while Cancellara could only take bronze. Deifnitely a case of the race itself being much more memorable than the result!
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Google Maps
Matt sent me this link to Google Maps last week.
Needless to say I was rather surprised to see a photo of my house, my car, and myself leaning in to the car to get Liam out!
It's just amazing that you can now pick almost any two addresses in Australia and get detailed driving directions between them, and be able to see a 360 degree view every 20 metres along the way.
I can see why you'd be upset if you were pictured entering an adult store or passed out on the side of the road (both of which have since been removed), but I'm quite happy to be part of it!
Needless to say I was rather surprised to see a photo of my house, my car, and myself leaning in to the car to get Liam out!
It's just amazing that you can now pick almost any two addresses in Australia and get detailed driving directions between them, and be able to see a 360 degree view every 20 metres along the way.
I can see why you'd be upset if you were pictured entering an adult store or passed out on the side of the road (both of which have since been removed), but I'm quite happy to be part of it!
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Rock Band
I got Rock Band a few weeks ago. MattA was on a work trip to the US and was willing to bring it back for me. This is despite the fact that it weighed 8 kg and the box was significantly larger than a suitcase - needless to say I am extremely grateful! Rock Band still does not have a confirmed release date for Australia, and with the PS3 version not out in Europe until September it could be another 6 months before it arrives down under. Even then it is likely to cost about $300. It is possible to buy it from eBay, but the price is (at least) a prohibitive $350. I ended up paying almost exactly half that.
I love playing will all three instruments - mic, guitar and drums - but drumming is definitely my favourite. Nailing a tricky drum beat with my friends singing and playing the guitar at the same time just feels amazing! I've made it through all the songs on Medium level, and I've just started moving on to Hard. Unsurprisingly it's starting to get a little tough!
My favourite songs to play are quite unexpected as I had never heard them before I got Rock Band - Foreplay/Long Time by Boston, and Detroit Rock City by KISS. I loved Foreplay/Long Time the first time I played it (with the guitar), and Detroit Rock City is extremely fun to drum along to!
I've been spending the money I saved on extra Rock Band songs and accessories. I've downloaded about 15 songs so far (including one of my favourite songs of all time - Interstate Love Song by Stone Temple Pilots), and I've ordered a bluetooth headset so Soph and I will be able to sing, play the drums and guitar at the same time with just the two of us. I've had a bit of trouble with the guitar, the strummer stops working periodically and I've had to open up the back and fiddle around with the mechanism to get it working again. This is a known problem, apparently a lot of people have had to return their guitars for replacements but unfortunately that's not an option for me in Australia. This week I finally got sick of it and ordered a replacement part that will replace the switching mechanism with a more reliable version.
Time to go practice that tricky section in Enter Sandman again...
I love playing will all three instruments - mic, guitar and drums - but drumming is definitely my favourite. Nailing a tricky drum beat with my friends singing and playing the guitar at the same time just feels amazing! I've made it through all the songs on Medium level, and I've just started moving on to Hard. Unsurprisingly it's starting to get a little tough!
My favourite songs to play are quite unexpected as I had never heard them before I got Rock Band - Foreplay/Long Time by Boston, and Detroit Rock City by KISS. I loved Foreplay/Long Time the first time I played it (with the guitar), and Detroit Rock City is extremely fun to drum along to!
I've been spending the money I saved on extra Rock Band songs and accessories. I've downloaded about 15 songs so far (including one of my favourite songs of all time - Interstate Love Song by Stone Temple Pilots), and I've ordered a bluetooth headset so Soph and I will be able to sing, play the drums and guitar at the same time with just the two of us. I've had a bit of trouble with the guitar, the strummer stops working periodically and I've had to open up the back and fiddle around with the mechanism to get it working again. This is a known problem, apparently a lot of people have had to return their guitars for replacements but unfortunately that's not an option for me in Australia. This week I finally got sick of it and ordered a replacement part that will replace the switching mechanism with a more reliable version.
Time to go practice that tricky section in Enter Sandman again...
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Sleep
Liam has been sleeping wonderfully at night for over two weeks. We can now put him down at 7 (after his 6:30 feed) and he will generally go to sleep without any intervention from Soph or myself. He will usually cry a little at the start and sometimes a couple of hours in as well, but he's not really serious about it and goes back to sleep very quickly. We get him up for another feed at 10:30pm - ideally he is supposed to sleep through the whole thing but he usually wakes up when we burp him and change him. However he's still sleepy enough to go to sleep the moment we put him on his mattress. And for the last week or so we haven't heard a sound out of him until around 7am!
So I'm back to getting roughly the same amount of sleep as I was getting before Liam was born. Soph is still a bit sleep deprived as she used to go to bed a little earlier and wake up a little later, and Liam isn't letting her nap during the day as much as she'd like. In a week or two we're going to experiment with dropping the 10:30pm feed and seeing how Liam goes sleeping from 7pm to 7am. That way Soph will be able to go to bed as early as she likes, and start to catch up on hours and hours of lost sleep!
So I'm back to getting roughly the same amount of sleep as I was getting before Liam was born. Soph is still a bit sleep deprived as she used to go to bed a little earlier and wake up a little later, and Liam isn't letting her nap during the day as much as she'd like. In a week or two we're going to experiment with dropping the 10:30pm feed and seeing how Liam goes sleeping from 7pm to 7am. That way Soph will be able to go to bed as early as she likes, and start to catch up on hours and hours of lost sleep!
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Holiday
Sophie, Liam and myself returned from 11 days in Queensland on Sunday. The impetus for travelling there was Sophie's cousin Katie's 21st birthday party, but we decided to take a side trip to Noosa while we were there.
We stayed with Kathy and Les (Sophie's Aunt and Uncle) in their enormous house in Samford. Samford is rural(ish) community just outside of Brisbane, where there's space for big houses on bigger properties! And they certainly needed a big house with all the family coming and going - I think there was a different combination of people every night we stayed! We had a nice relaxing time for a few days, enjoying doing absolutely nothing at all.
We needed to hire a car to get to Noosa, but this turned out to be more difficult than we expected. Just before we left we received a letter from our credit card company to say that our card may have been compromised, and to ring them immediately. We didn't want our card to be cancelled while we were away so I rang up the day after we arrived. However I was told that we had to get new credit cards, and our old ones would be instantly cancelled. Our new cards were being sent out to us... to our house back in Canberra. So we were left without credit cards for the rest of our holiday. We still had EFTPOS, but you need a credit card to hire a car. Luckily Kathy was willing to use her card (and go along with me when I picked it up) so it ended up OK, but was still extremely inconvenient. On the plus side, the car we picked up (a Mitsubishi Outlander Wagon) was so new that it only had 11km on the odometer, so it's the newest car I've ever driven!
We entered our Noosa apartment into the GPS device I had borrowed from my parents, and we headed off. It absolutely poured most of the way there, which wasn't a good sign for our beach holiday, but had stopped by the time we arrived. After some shopping at a lovely shopping centre in Maroochydore we checked in to our massive apartment - for some reason the best deal for us was to take a 3 bedroom apartment. Liam had his own wing!
While in Noosa Liam had his first paddle in the ocean, and his first swim in a pool (although it was actually a spa). He didn't particularly enjoy either experience, but didn't hate it either - he mostly just seemed a little worried. We also took a ferry trip up the Noosa river which was lovely. We had our first dinner out since Liam was only a week old at a lovely restaurant directly on the beach. Liam behaved himself wonderfully - he didn't stir from the moment we left the apartment to well after we had returned.
After returning to Samford we relaxed a bit more, with lots of swimming in their pool, and a trip out to Southbank with Amy and Bella (my sister-in-law and niece), who along with Pauline and Christopher (my mother-in-law and nephew) had also travelled up from Canberra for the party.
The party on Saturday night was brilliant - Les runs a hire shop so everything was laid on - a massive marquee, a jukebox/karaoke machine, and a slushy machine which served alcoholic slushies! I met many, many members of Soph's family for the first time, and played a lot of pool on the snooker table. And drank a lot of mango slushies of course!
Liam was, in general, really wonderful for the whole holiday. We had one terrible night, our second night in Noosa, where he got us up virtually every hour from 12:30am to 7am, but that was the exception. His behaviour noticeably changed over the course of the holiday, he seemed to become happier and more interactive each day. He has started to laugh a lot more for us (especially when naked - he loves his naked time!) and he began to show signs of deliberately reaching out and holding things. On the day of Katie's party, he reached out and held the string of a helium balloon, before promptly sticking it in his mouth. By the time we came home he really seemed less baby-like and more child-like.
Unfortunately for me, I was back at work the next day after returning home. I'm lucky it's only a four day week!
We stayed with Kathy and Les (Sophie's Aunt and Uncle) in their enormous house in Samford. Samford is rural(ish) community just outside of Brisbane, where there's space for big houses on bigger properties! And they certainly needed a big house with all the family coming and going - I think there was a different combination of people every night we stayed! We had a nice relaxing time for a few days, enjoying doing absolutely nothing at all.
We needed to hire a car to get to Noosa, but this turned out to be more difficult than we expected. Just before we left we received a letter from our credit card company to say that our card may have been compromised, and to ring them immediately. We didn't want our card to be cancelled while we were away so I rang up the day after we arrived. However I was told that we had to get new credit cards, and our old ones would be instantly cancelled. Our new cards were being sent out to us... to our house back in Canberra. So we were left without credit cards for the rest of our holiday. We still had EFTPOS, but you need a credit card to hire a car. Luckily Kathy was willing to use her card (and go along with me when I picked it up) so it ended up OK, but was still extremely inconvenient. On the plus side, the car we picked up (a Mitsubishi Outlander Wagon) was so new that it only had 11km on the odometer, so it's the newest car I've ever driven!
We entered our Noosa apartment into the GPS device I had borrowed from my parents, and we headed off. It absolutely poured most of the way there, which wasn't a good sign for our beach holiday, but had stopped by the time we arrived. After some shopping at a lovely shopping centre in Maroochydore we checked in to our massive apartment - for some reason the best deal for us was to take a 3 bedroom apartment. Liam had his own wing!
While in Noosa Liam had his first paddle in the ocean, and his first swim in a pool (although it was actually a spa). He didn't particularly enjoy either experience, but didn't hate it either - he mostly just seemed a little worried. We also took a ferry trip up the Noosa river which was lovely. We had our first dinner out since Liam was only a week old at a lovely restaurant directly on the beach. Liam behaved himself wonderfully - he didn't stir from the moment we left the apartment to well after we had returned.
After returning to Samford we relaxed a bit more, with lots of swimming in their pool, and a trip out to Southbank with Amy and Bella (my sister-in-law and niece), who along with Pauline and Christopher (my mother-in-law and nephew) had also travelled up from Canberra for the party.
The party on Saturday night was brilliant - Les runs a hire shop so everything was laid on - a massive marquee, a jukebox/karaoke machine, and a slushy machine which served alcoholic slushies! I met many, many members of Soph's family for the first time, and played a lot of pool on the snooker table. And drank a lot of mango slushies of course!
Liam was, in general, really wonderful for the whole holiday. We had one terrible night, our second night in Noosa, where he got us up virtually every hour from 12:30am to 7am, but that was the exception. His behaviour noticeably changed over the course of the holiday, he seemed to become happier and more interactive each day. He has started to laugh a lot more for us (especially when naked - he loves his naked time!) and he began to show signs of deliberately reaching out and holding things. On the day of Katie's party, he reached out and held the string of a helium balloon, before promptly sticking it in his mouth. By the time we came home he really seemed less baby-like and more child-like.
Unfortunately for me, I was back at work the next day after returning home. I'm lucky it's only a four day week!
Monday, February 11, 2008
Developments
Liam has racked up a number of 'firsts' since my last post:
First roll from front to back - he was on his arms with his chest and head up, and then flopped his head down and to the side. The rest of his body followed and he found himself on his back! He's managed to do this twice more, but I still haven't seen it yet as he always seems to do it just before I get up in the morning!
First laugh - Kathy did a special dance (to Salt 'n' Pepa's "Push It") with Liam and managed to coax his first laugh out of him. Soph subsequently got him to laugh by dancing to "Mashed Potato" with him.
First bath in the big bathtub - we put him on the bath seat that Andy and Lisa gave us, and he just loved it, giving us lots of smiles as he kicked the water around.
First shower - I held him in the shower with me while Soph washed him. He didn't enjoy the shower as much as the bath, although he never got upset, he just had his "worried face" on the whole time.
Unfortunately today he had his 2 month vaccinations. He actually took them pretty well. First he the oral rotavirus vaccination, which he didn't seem to mind at all. Next he had a 6-in-1 vaccination injection and a meningococcal injection, in quick succession, which he liked considerably less. He cried out and his face went completely red, before he finally decided that he needed to take a breath. He calmed down quite quickly afterwards though, and after Soph fed him during our 15 minute make-sure-everything-is-OK waiting period he was quite happy.
However he's been quite unsettled since then, and hasn't slept for more than 20 minutes at a time. Hopefully he'll be tired enough to sleep solidly tonight, or Soph and I will be in for a rough night...
First roll from front to back - he was on his arms with his chest and head up, and then flopped his head down and to the side. The rest of his body followed and he found himself on his back! He's managed to do this twice more, but I still haven't seen it yet as he always seems to do it just before I get up in the morning!
First laugh - Kathy did a special dance (to Salt 'n' Pepa's "Push It") with Liam and managed to coax his first laugh out of him. Soph subsequently got him to laugh by dancing to "Mashed Potato" with him.
First bath in the big bathtub - we put him on the bath seat that Andy and Lisa gave us, and he just loved it, giving us lots of smiles as he kicked the water around.
First shower - I held him in the shower with me while Soph washed him. He didn't enjoy the shower as much as the bath, although he never got upset, he just had his "worried face" on the whole time.
Unfortunately today he had his 2 month vaccinations. He actually took them pretty well. First he the oral rotavirus vaccination, which he didn't seem to mind at all. Next he had a 6-in-1 vaccination injection and a meningococcal injection, in quick succession, which he liked considerably less. He cried out and his face went completely red, before he finally decided that he needed to take a breath. He calmed down quite quickly afterwards though, and after Soph fed him during our 15 minute make-sure-everything-is-OK waiting period he was quite happy.
However he's been quite unsettled since then, and hasn't slept for more than 20 minutes at a time. Hopefully he'll be tired enough to sleep solidly tonight, or Soph and I will be in for a rough night...
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Hottest 100
Here are the songs I voted for in the 2007 Triple J Hottest 100, and how they fared in the countdown:
Urthboy - We Get Around (#25)
Feist - 1234 (#34)
Cut Copy - Hearts On Fire (#39)
My Chemical Romance - Teenagers (#44)
Midnight Juggernauts - Into The Galaxy (#57)
Radiohead - Jigsaw Falling Into Place (#94)
Mickey Avalon - Jane Fonda (didn't make it in)
Josh Pyke - Fed And Watered (didn't make it in)
Regurgitator - Blood And Spunk (didn't make it in)
Ween - Learnin To Love (didn't make it in)
I was quite surprised that Josh Pyke got three songs into the 100 but none of them was my favourite, Fed And Watered. I was also surprised at Muse getting #1, I had no idea Knights of Cydonia was so popular! Gary mentioned that it is one of the Guitar Hero 3 tracks, and given that it only made #1 by 13 votes, perhaps that's what got it over the line!
Urthboy - We Get Around (#25)
Feist - 1234 (#34)
Cut Copy - Hearts On Fire (#39)
My Chemical Romance - Teenagers (#44)
Midnight Juggernauts - Into The Galaxy (#57)
Radiohead - Jigsaw Falling Into Place (#94)
Mickey Avalon - Jane Fonda (didn't make it in)
Josh Pyke - Fed And Watered (didn't make it in)
Regurgitator - Blood And Spunk (didn't make it in)
Ween - Learnin To Love (didn't make it in)
I was quite surprised that Josh Pyke got three songs into the 100 but none of them was my favourite, Fed And Watered. I was also surprised at Muse getting #1, I had no idea Knights of Cydonia was so popular! Gary mentioned that it is one of the Guitar Hero 3 tracks, and given that it only made #1 by 13 votes, perhaps that's what got it over the line!
Monday, January 28, 2008
8 Weeks
Liam is 8 weeks old tomorrow. The past few weeks he's been steadily gaining in size, weight, and ability to sleep. Saturday night was the first time he slept all the way through the night - down at 11pm, up at 7am. Last night he wasn't quite as settled as Soph and I each had to get up a couple of times between 4:30 and 6, but we managed to get away without feeding him until his normal 7am feed. So hopefully he's starting to get the idea of this whole "night" thing.
Besides the obvious benefit to Soph and I, it seems as though Liam is benefiting from the extra sleep too - all weekend he has been smiling a lot in his awake periods. He has also learned to follow me with his eyes and head, when I move to the other side of him he rolls his head around, stares at me and smiles. It's so wonderful to watch him get more interactive every day, and with the extra sleep that we're all getting we should be able to enjoy it all the more!
Besides the obvious benefit to Soph and I, it seems as though Liam is benefiting from the extra sleep too - all weekend he has been smiling a lot in his awake periods. He has also learned to follow me with his eyes and head, when I move to the other side of him he rolls his head around, stares at me and smiles. It's so wonderful to watch him get more interactive every day, and with the extra sleep that we're all getting we should be able to enjoy it all the more!
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Gaming
This year will mark the 20th anniversary since my family got its first PC. It was an Amstrad 512, with the 512 denoting 512kB of RAM (the fact that it didn't have 640kB was extremely frustrating as 640kB-only games started coming out - but that's another story). I started playing games like Chomp (a Pac-Man clone) and Nyet (a Tetris clone) on it straight away, and I've played a lot of PC games in the following 20 years. So it's with a lot of regret that I've decided to turn my back on PC gaming and move to console gaming.
My current games machine, a Dell "desktop replacement" laptop, is struggling to play the latest games. I downloaded the BioShock demo, and it was only barely playable even with all the fancy graphical features turned off. So I need a new gaming machine; my choices are:
Buy a new desktop. In general desktops are cheaper and more powerful than laptops but I'd have to play games in the study, which is stifling in summer, freezing in winter and gives me a feeling of disconnect from my family. I also can't salary sacrifice/depreciate a desktop so I'd end up paying the full amount.
Buy a new laptop. I'll probably be buying a new laptop at some stage anyway, but if I want to play games on it for the next couple of years I'd have to get one as large, heavy and expensive as the Dell when I really want something much more portable. And even then it would only be only be "mid-range" at first as far as games go, before steadily declining to "obsolete" over 2 or 3 years.
Buy a console. The XBox 360 and PS3 are cheaper and probably have about 5 years of "game life" left in them (maybe less for the XBox and maybe more for the PS3). The main downside to a console is that I'll want to play it using our large TV and awesome sound system, but I have to compete with Soph for that, whereas I'd have a desktop PC all to myself.
The main reason I've chosen the console option is I'm just sick of the PC upgrade cycle. I've been playing Half Life 2 on my laptop and it plays smoothly and looks fantastic, even with some of the graphics turned down. BioShock had a terrible framerate even though it looked awful thanks to all the graphics being turned off. Games for the 360 or PS3 will look better in 5 years' time as the game developers will be experts at producing games on exactly the same hardware, while PC games would be virtually unplayable in 5 years' time, no matter how kick-ass a system I went out and bought.
Almost all of the big games are on the consoles now. World of Warcraft with its 8 million subscribers has taken hold of a large chunk of the PC market, so most of the game developers are now concentrating on the consoles with the PC only an afterthought.
I'm sure I'll still buy the occasional PC game - I love RTS games, despite being terrible at them, and I'm not convinced of their playability on consoles - but I think my priorities will lie elsewhere.
So now I just have to decide: 360 or PS3?
My current games machine, a Dell "desktop replacement" laptop, is struggling to play the latest games. I downloaded the BioShock demo, and it was only barely playable even with all the fancy graphical features turned off. So I need a new gaming machine; my choices are:
Buy a new desktop. In general desktops are cheaper and more powerful than laptops but I'd have to play games in the study, which is stifling in summer, freezing in winter and gives me a feeling of disconnect from my family. I also can't salary sacrifice/depreciate a desktop so I'd end up paying the full amount.
Buy a new laptop. I'll probably be buying a new laptop at some stage anyway, but if I want to play games on it for the next couple of years I'd have to get one as large, heavy and expensive as the Dell when I really want something much more portable. And even then it would only be only be "mid-range" at first as far as games go, before steadily declining to "obsolete" over 2 or 3 years.
Buy a console. The XBox 360 and PS3 are cheaper and probably have about 5 years of "game life" left in them (maybe less for the XBox and maybe more for the PS3). The main downside to a console is that I'll want to play it using our large TV and awesome sound system, but I have to compete with Soph for that, whereas I'd have a desktop PC all to myself.
The main reason I've chosen the console option is I'm just sick of the PC upgrade cycle. I've been playing Half Life 2 on my laptop and it plays smoothly and looks fantastic, even with some of the graphics turned down. BioShock had a terrible framerate even though it looked awful thanks to all the graphics being turned off. Games for the 360 or PS3 will look better in 5 years' time as the game developers will be experts at producing games on exactly the same hardware, while PC games would be virtually unplayable in 5 years' time, no matter how kick-ass a system I went out and bought.
Almost all of the big games are on the consoles now. World of Warcraft with its 8 million subscribers has taken hold of a large chunk of the PC market, so most of the game developers are now concentrating on the consoles with the PC only an afterthought.
I'm sure I'll still buy the occasional PC game - I love RTS games, despite being terrible at them, and I'm not convinced of their playability on consoles - but I think my priorities will lie elsewhere.
So now I just have to decide: 360 or PS3?
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