Month: October 2007

Categories
...And Little E Makes 3 Critters Gadgetology Home Base

The Baby Monitor and other tales

After much complaining about our complete and utter lack of one, my wife finally got a baby monitor Sunday, and I immediately set about plugging it in and putting all the pieces in place. This has been incredibly handy to have around because, as I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned a time or two, having the Avid gear up and running is like having an airplane idling right next to you. If Evan’s down for a nap between feedings, and starts getting fidgety, I’m not going to hear it until he’s at a full-bore wail. Which probably means he’s woken his mom and I’m in really deep trouble. So a baby monitor isn’t an “oh, that would be nice” for me; it’s an “I need this.”

Abou the only drawback is that I get to listen to Evan FM all night – the aforementioned mix CD of baby music that I made for him. Good thing I like most of that stuff. But so far, it’s worked great. There’s just one little drawback. 1 night = 1 9-volt battery. Ugh.

Evan in the hood
Fig. 1 – Evan in the hood. … Read more

Categories
Gaming Toiling In The Pixel Mines

Windows to the past…and Binky Blast!

I think I may be the only person, at this point, who looks over to the left side of the screen (assuming you’re looking at the actual Scribblings page instead of crossposts on Livejournal or Myspace, or the RSS feed box I’m trying out in a couple of places, etc.) to see what I wrote on this date X years ago. Over the past month, I’ve become almost obsessed with clicking on that for myself, just to see who I was, where I was, and what I was doing this time a year ago, before I assumed my new superhero identity* of Evan’s Dad. Today’s entry from a year ago is especially interesting to me in that regard, in that it illustrates a frustration that is simply no longer a part of my life. Man, how I don’t miss that place. As distressing as I’m sure it is for anyone still working there, it heartens me to some degree that everyone else working for the person in question followed me out the door within the past year. That validates it to some extent – it wasn’t just me.

But enough about that place. For some reason – possibly the combination of lack of sleep and being in the house too much – my creative juices haven’t been so much in overdrive as they’ve just been pouring out of every orifice in a viscous ooze. This is behind the sudden burst of stuff like the Doctor Who DVD covers and, now, presented to you here for the first time…my idea for an Odyssey2 homebrew game. … Read more

Categories
...And Little E Makes 3 Should We Talk About The Weather?

Goin’ to the grandparents

A veritable multimedia feast for you here tonight, as we get Evan ready for a trip to his grandparents’ house a few minutes away.

Evan's going over the river and through the woods
All decked out. On an average day, Evan is much better dressed than his daddy is.

Evan's going over the river and through the woods
This outfit is Mr. Flibble-approved.

Evan's going over the river and through the woods
Dear Evan: please file this “doggy hat” photo under “things Dad never would have dressed you in”. Love, Dad.

And a little audio clip, taken by sticking my camera in the windowsill in Evan’s bedroom. Keep in mind, we’ve got a nice thick blanket tacked up over the window, and it’s kept the room nice and toasty, but the wind is blowing so hard here (still!) that this is just what you hear while sitting there:
[audio:https://www.thelogbook.com/earl/podcast/windy.mp3]

Good thing that Daddy’s bed is next to that window, while Evan’s crib is all the way on the opposite wall. Still, we both have snotty noses today.… Read more

Categories
...And Little E Makes 3 Critters

Ain’t it funny how the night (and the kitty) moves

Apparently cats take things in shifts and I didn’t realize it. Evan woke up a little while ago and announced that he required feeding…

Evan

And while I wasn’t at all surprised to find a kitty occupying his crib with him, I had to engage in a bit of a Tennant-ism after rubbing my eyes and turning on the lights:

Evan and Olivia

What? What!?

Evan and Olivia

What??!?? 😯

Oberon was unavailable for comment. Apparently somebody’s realized that Evan’s side of the room is warmer than daddy’s side… 😛 … Read more

Categories
Funny Stuff Should We Talk About The Weather? Toiling In The Pixel Mines

Wind and/or wuthering

Man, the wind blew last night. Right out of the north too, which means “right into the window of Evan’s room, which leaks air like it’s barely there.” I tacked up a blanket across the window, so the cold air didn’t reach him (his crib is by the door, and more importantly, by the central heat/air vent over the door, which was keeping him nice and toasty), but the bed I’ve been sleeping in there during my “overnight baby shift” is right under the window, so…yeah, I got a bit cold. Even my cats didn’t stick around. Draft dodgers!

After reading Flack’s tale of attrition by pizza, I was instantly reminded of my first TV job, and the fact that I had only part of one night’s training. Bearing in mind that I had been working in radio for about 4 years at that point, I think it was probably a big help that I had basic theory of timing out commercial breaks, etc., down…but still, it came as a surprise to me when, about four hours into my shift, she announced that it looked like I had it all figured out, and that she was going to leave and go hang out with her boyfriend. She also made it clear that she wasn’t going to come back to check on my work, or for that matter come back at all. She was quitting on the spot.

I finished out that shift to the best of my ability, without any major issues. Needless to say, the next Saturday night, I was working that shift instead of her.

The funny thing is, several years later at another local gig, I ran into someone who shall remain nameless who was apparently the person with whom she went to hang out after leaving me to my fate. We had a little laugh about that and said that the last time he saw her, she’d said the same thing – which came as a bit of a surprise, since he thought he was her boyfriend. My only reply to that was “Well, I guess she’d finished training you.”

It’s strange how well that joke didn’t go over at the time, but I still think it was funny.… Read more

Categories
...And Little E Makes 3 Music Television & Movies

Time Crash. Awesomeness.

David Tennant + Peter Davison? Sign me the heck up. Already got a DVD cover on hot standby:

Time Crash DVD cover

Grab your own copy of the cover here if you’re so inclined (or just want to gawk at my insomnia-and-E.S.-Posthumus-fueled Paint Shop Pro dabblings). I literally used the only still photo the BBC has provided so far (and then that one from the Sun too), so design greatness it ain’t, but it’s just a tad more epic than the original “two guys standing there” publicity shot. 😆 I’m really looking forward to this. If they’d managed to shoehorn Sylvester McCoy into the same little special, I’d be happy beyond belief. But this’ll do nicely. Davison and McCoy were my favorites among the original Doctors, and I don’t care if he has put on a bit of weight, Davison looks great. (I wish that when people looked at me and said “you’ve put on a bit of weight,” I was looking like that guy instead of the fella in the mirror.)

It’s official: despite the glut of CDs I’ve played for him, from Scott Joplin to Vangelis to Moody Blues, Evan’s officially approved darn-near-guaranteed-to-work sleepytime CD is a “baby mix” I assembled for him, whose playlist goes thusly:

  1. “Lullaby” – Raymond Scott
  2. “Radio Sheffield” – BBC Radiophonic Workshop
  3. “Popcorn” – Hot Butter
  4. “Sleepy Time” – Raymond Scott
  5. “Sea Sports” – BBC Radiophonic Workshop
  6. “Apache” – Hot Butter
  7. “The Music Box” – Raymond Scott
  8. “Milky Way” – BBC Radiophonic Workshop
  9. “Telstar” – Hot Butter
  10. “Nursery Rhyme” – Raymond Scott
  11. “P.I.G.S.” – BBC Radiophonic Workshop
  12. “Syncopated Clock” – Hot Butter
  13. “Tic Toc” – Raymond Scott
  14. “Wheels” – Hot Butter
  15. “Summer Intro” – Neil Finn

(The Raymond Scott tracks are basically the entirety of Soothing Sounds For Baby Volume 1, the Hot Butter tracks are all from Popcorn, and the Radiophonic Workshop stuff is all from BBC Radiophonic Music. The Neil Finn track is from the Rain soundtrack.)

So…in other words…Evan’s got a thing for kinda trippy experimental electronic music from the 1960s and ’70s. But man, does that mix knock him out like a tranquilizer dart. Now, I know that he’s not gonna remember any of this stuff, and that these early “preferences” of his will wind up in my memory only, but that music is now inextricably linked with my son in my mind. I also donated the little light apparatus to his room that once powered my glowin’ Dalek; it simply projects its patterns straight onto the ceiling above his crib now. And he seems to dig it – until the colors shifting and the music lull him to sleep.

If he was older than, say, a month, I’d say it’s time to break out some Floyd.… Read more

Categories
Funny Stuff Television & Movies

Surely I’m not the only one…

Well, a little preamble here. My wife has been home now, either madly pregnant or madly mom, for almost three months. In that time, she’s begun to watch an inordinate amount of E!, which – from my own observations in passing through the room – has got to be one of the most inane, disposable, worthless channels on the cable lineup. I can see taking in one episode of True Hollywood Story now and again, maybe once a month if there’s a good one on, but sitting there watching it non-stop? Jesus. Discovery evidently isn’t putting seasons of Deadliest Catch on DVD fast enough for us.

Keeping Up With The CardassiansAnyway, I’ve gotten to see a number of promos lately for something called “Keeping Up With The Kardashians”, and surely I’m not the only one who hears that title and immediately makes the mental leap to these people instead. Now that’d be an interesting reality show – talking about the good old days of the Bajoran occupation, comparing notes on torture techniques, and sanding down those pesky neck ridges. That’d almost make more sense. Who the heck are the Kardashians? Maybe this is just the sound of me being older than dirt, but isn’t a prerequisite of celebrity that people recognize you on sight or on mention? Who are these people? Sorry, E!, but you’re cheating. You don’t get to invent celebrities just so you can build reality shows around them. How Truman Show is that?… Read more