swangle

iPads in Emergency Health...

2011-06-17T13:28:00.007+08:00

So it's been an exciting (read: stressful and emotional roller coaster ride) morning, with me taking my first ride in the back of an ambulance with Ms 1 (no details, except all is well now and thanks for all who were concerned).

After confirming all was well and took some time to settle myself... I had a chat to the ambulance officer riding up back with me who was madly scribbling notes on a clipboard about their processes to put that info into some system... Do you have to double entry into your system, how much time does it take etc? (Background: I was involved on a project with the emergency response for the local state police department years ago, hence I was interested in the perspective in a similar but equally distinct industry).

To my interest he mentioned that they scanned in the sheets to archive in their system *AND* re-key into their database system the details from the sheets filled out. Also more to my interest, he mentioned that they (Ambulance) are in the process of developing a system involving iPads which will be trialed towards the end of this year...

Was interested in seeing what the user (Ambulance Officer) response to the project was, he mentioned that it was positive for most people as it will cut down the re-entry of the data into their database system, and will cut down on transcribing errors (hard to read handwriting etc.), but then there were also concerns about reliability of data entry especially in the time-critical work of ambulance officers (nothing beats the reliability of a pen and pad, or more so a bunch of pens for redundancy :P) . I also joked about the ruggedising of the iPads, and also exposure to bodily fluids which might be an occupational hazard of being lugged around in the back of the Ambulance.

Interestingly, it will be integrated into their existing dispatch system, so that it will be all tied into their systems, which might sound a bit ambitious, but they have lots of gain from this...

Anyways, I thought cool, they will save some time with double entry etc. so good luck to them, but the penny only dropped after spending some time in the Emergency Department of a children's hospital...

I swear I was going to thump the 3rd Emergency Department nurse who asked me for the history of the past 2 days and also what happened this morning, to which I told the Ambulance Officer, the first Triage nurse, the 2nd Triage Nurse, the paediatrician who attended, and this last nurse (who seemed a bit grumpy in response to my frustration of re-telling the events)...

So I hope the trial of this project by the Ambulance Department is successful, and more importantly I hope that they allow the information to be shared transparently with the hospitals, so that there is no need to re-tell the important information multiple times, (and in turn increase the chances of missing some information), and let the health professionals get on with their important jobs, rather than struggle with the process and hopefully the new technology/systems in place will be a help rather than a hinderance...

Sure this is intended more as a distraction post for me (it's been a really stressful day for me as a dad to say the least), and any useful information/opinions or statements presented is purely accidental (and I apologise in advance... :P), but this kinda stuff really excites me about the use of technology/systems more than just playing with the newfangled devices we now have access to.

I'm all for awesome games like Angry Birds and the like (timesinks), and business productivity apps which save you time and make you more money, but think there is something about using all this technology in something as worthwhile as actually saving lives, or making the quality of life of people much better gets me all excited... :D

We have come so far, just hope we carry on pushing the limits of technology to worthwhile causes...

Where's my personal jetpack? :) (Which incidentally is over-rated... cos I don't have one yet...)

Cake 2 - The Fulfilment of Purpose

2011-06-15T23:06:00.006+08:00

There's something about good photos of a cake fulfilling it's purpose in life, which is to be cut up and eaten by many a hungry child or adult with a sweet tooth...

Oh the humanity! :)

(Photo credit: My little bro-in-law David)

Noooooooooo!

Wifey gesturing that I'd have a similar fate if I decided to step out of line...

'Tis only a flesh wound...

Customer Service Done Right!

2011-06-12T12:47:00.005+08:00

Yes, I'm gobsmacked... Customer Service *with* the customer service...

Wifey got a call from a call centre and was immediately suspicious (due to my constant drumming of being cautious of unsolicited calls), but it was for me from my credit card provider.

It was from the fraud team enquiring about a suspect online transaction that was automatically blocked late last night which turns out being legitimate (I was trying to renew a Flickr Pro account), but I guess it turned on some warning bells in their system, and it was automatically blocked from going through. That was frustrating initially for me, but in hindsight probably a safe position for the bank to take since the whole Sony PSN fiasco etc. I actually retried like 5 times, a few from the iPad (hrm, maybe a iPad safari browser issue) and more from my Mac. No luck, so decided sleep was a better option... Although it turned out my thumbs decided they needed a workout and snuck in some more time to get more Portal2 achievements... ;)

Interesting points:

They first mentioned what the transaction was for which verified for me it was actually the CC provider.

They then apologised for not calling earlier when it happened, but decided it being after midnight in Australia (EST), that it would be rude to call to wake me up... *golf clap*

They were pretty spot on in how they verified my identity (as I wouldn't have given much over the phone anyways), they asked me to confirm *only* the year of my date of birth and postcode.

When I confirmed that it was actually me trying to put through the transaction, they proceeded to make adjustments to my account profile (I assume check a box which states 'Likely to put through dodgy online transactions past midnight' and 'Really doesn't like being woken up whilst in deep sleep'), so that other similar transactions (from Yahoo/Flickr or similar) would go through next time.

When I further queried what if I tried to purchase other things online which does not sidestep the newly modified rules and get blocked again (like shamefully staying up late at night whilst wifey sleeps and browsing the Apple Store and secretly buying things), they provided a direct number to the fraud team so that I can sort it out promptly... "Yes, I really do want to buy the latest iDevice... Yes, I know my wifey put a block on these purchases, but I'm the primary cardholder so just do it!!!" :)

I found it really interesting as they were looking out for my interest (well, theirs indirectly really), proactive in resolving this issue (I wasn't going to call them until maybe another 5 failed attempts or so), and provided low friction to sorting it out (like simple verification without too much concerns from me about given them too much information), and providing a simple way for me to sort this out in the future...

I'd throughly recommend them, however I won't be posting who they are as it'll just open doors for me to be a target of social engineering attacks... :P but if you know me personally and would like to know, just DM me via email or twitter, or *shock horror* phone or in real life...

So if you are in the service industry, have you changed/evolved your client facing business processes to react to more recent concerns from clients regarding privacy/security when you contact them to make it a surprisingly pleasant experience for your clients?

Food for thought...

Cake!

2011-06-11T16:03:00.008+08:00

No, it's not a reference to the Portal game, but rather an interesting mini project wifey and I embarked on last night. We decided to actually make the birthday cake for Ms Almost 6's party, instead of buying one like the past 5 years...

Wifey baked and I decorated, so effectively she did all the hard work, but I'd claim the glory for the decorations... unless of course it turned out poorly, in which case it was all her effort... :P

And just to prove it wasn't a bought one, thought I'd post progress pics... although I still could have bought it and just snapped pictures as the cake maker decorated it... ;)

And was it worth it? Guess a picture says a thousand words!!! :D

Bonus is leftover icing makes for really sweet Play Doh... :)

Poor Man's Cloud Backup

2011-05-12T20:36:00.000+08:00

So it's been bugging me a while (ahem, close to 6 years since Ms 5 was born) that I really should make the effort and do an offsite backup of all my photos, especially since most of them are of my 2 girls and memories associated with them growing up.

Granted I was quite vigilant and burnt 2 backup copies of all photos onto DVD, with the intent of giving one set of backups to my folks and the other to the inlaws so that I'm covered from an offsite backup perspective. Yes, I did say *intent* and as you might have guessed they are sitting here on my desk as I type this...

Okay, at least I have backups on physical media, then when I got my MacBook Pro a few years ago, photos were downloaded from the camera to iPhoto and I've got a large Time Machine drive sitting here happily backing up everything on my Mac so I thought I was covered.

Then I got a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device, the Netgear ReadyNas Duo which I keep a copy of all the photos (correction, most of the photos as I've been slack and haven't backed up photos taken since end of 2008) and have another copy so I'm covered right?

Then it struck me that if someone broke into my house, took my MacBook Pro, Time Machine drive, NAS and the randomly scattered DVD backups of my photos I'd be pretty upset from losing all of my photos of the girls since they were born (apart from the 1000's of Ms5 that are on Flickr and considerably less of Ms1 on Flickr, and they are not full resolution ones at that). Also a fire at home would wipe it all out, so I've been meaning to have a look at a paid online cloud storage solution like Amazon S3 etc.

Anyways, Amazon just released about a month ago Amazon Cloud Drive which gives anyone who has an Amazon account, 5Gb of free storage in the cloud. This is similar to Microsoft's SkyDrive or Apple's iDisk. Granted this is targeted towards music files where you can upload your music and play it anywhere using the Amazon Cloud Player, but I thought it's just 5Gb free storage so why not?

Had a play a month ago when it came up and didn't think much of it until today when I decided it was finally time to tackle my offsite photo backup task on my neverending to-do list, when I remembered Amazon Cloud Drive and had a sneaky thought (well, more like cheap frugal Asian thought), going through my requirements:

Mainly for archiving photos for disaster recovery

Reliable i.e. not some hack like Gmail Drive

Free! :)

So I thought since my older backups were on DVD which holds about 4.7Gb, each DVD could be uploaded to a discrete Amazon Cloud Drive. Granted this would mean that I would need to create a different account for each DVD backup that I have, but for most people who are not professional photographers, that might not be too much of a stretch or hassle to setup for the asking price... Free! Okay, so it's not entirely free, it'll cost you time and bandwidth, but once you have the workflow setup, it should be not much of a hassle to do.

Found an application which is an absolute timesaver when uploading files to Amazon Cloud Drive. It is called Gladinet Cloud Desktop and it basically allows you to map a drive to your Amazon Cloud Drive. Currently the only way to upload files to Amazon Cloud Drive is using the web interface to upload files which is quite clunky and does not allow you to upload nested folders, subfolders and files so that'll be a real pain to preserve the folder structure you currently have for your backups. There is the Amazon MP3 Uploader but that only does music files.

Bonus with using Gladinet Cloud Desktop is that you can connect to multiple Amazon Cloud Drives, and they all appear as sub folders under the mapped drive in Windows Explorer... :) This will make the initial pain of uploading all those photos a bit easier with some drag and drop action, and also make recovering those photos a whole lot less painful. I'm using the free starter edition which is limited to 1000 files in a task (a task is one copy operation), but there is no limit to how many tasks you are kick off concurrently so just split large folders into many tasks.

Gladinet Cloud Desktop also supports other cloud based services like Amazon S3 (of course), Google Docs, Google Picasa, Windows Azure Blob Storage, Windows Live SkyDrive just to name a few... And the fact that it maps these services to a drive in Windows Explorer means that there is potential for lots of solutions for simple integration of backup solutions, both programatically or as part of whatever manual workflow you use everyday.

Only down side is that my ADSL2+ speeds are quite slow for uploads and this process might take a while, although this would be the same case if I used a paid service like Amazon S3, however this is free and as reliable (I would hope) as it is stored within Amazon S3 servers...

I guess bottom line is that this can be adapted to whatever uses anyone would need for cloud storage or backup, not quite as elegant as an established solution like DropBox, but workable and a frugal solution. Also there is the Pro version of Gladinet which offers much more flexibility and functionality, which might make it a more robust solution.

Also there is no need to use Gladinet Cloud Desktop once you have it up on Amazon Cloud Drive, you can just download it file by file from the browser, so if you need a photo, bonus is that you can grab it from anywhere (granted you know which Cloud Drive it's on, and also your folder structure makes sense...). But for mass recovery purposes, I'd recommend it... :)

Okay, so it's more like Cheap Man's Cloud Backup but at least once I do the initial backups, and then remember to do the same each time I backup to DVD, my precious memories will hopefully be safe in the cloud... :)

I'm living in the 'future'...

2011-05-10T13:15:00.005+08:00

Okay, just had another accomplishment today, where I actually *finished* a book I started...

FYI, it was Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

This is quite huge as due to work and family commitments, I usually struggle to finish anything that I start as a personal (just me) endeavour for the past 6 years since Ms5 came along. Also completed Portal2 *and Portal (original) a few weeks back which might have sparked off this whole new 'Finish what I start' mantra (2 in a row counts as life changing right? :P)

Anyways, won't make this a book review or a book club thing, but just sharing the reading experience on a non-dead tree book (last non-technical book read for pleasure would have been > 6 years ago)...

I read the Kindle version on my iPad rather than borrow my wifey's new Kindle 3 (Mother's Day present), and it was surprisingly quite readable. It was only until about 1/3 of the way through when it hit me that I'm living in the 'future'...

Let me explain... the author made reference to piano lessons her daughters were doing and mentioned a piece by Dvorak which was Humoresque No. 7 and said that it would be familiar to most people (I learnt piano for almost 8 years of my childhood, and had no idea), and went to describe how the first theme was a catchy opening theme and that the second theme changed to an overly sentimental theme, and how the piano teacher was trying to explain to her daughter how to emotionally connect with the piece when playing it...

Even though the author described it well, I found myself scratching my head and trying to work out what she was going on about, until it dawned on me that I can actually look it up and hear it for myself, right from the iPad! A quick Google search found this on YouTube and just like that, I got what she was going on about...

Yup, I'm living in the 'future'...

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's the best way of reading and there is no arguing with most purist readers about the feel and refresh rate of a dead-tree book (Kindle comparisons aside), but being to look up and experience certain things I came across whilst reading an eBook, and the convenience of doing so definitely enhanced my reading experience...

Oh, and the book was pretty good, definitely recommended, but YMMV as to fully enjoy it you may need some pre-requsite life experiences (e.g. being brought up in an Asian family/ethos or have close friends that have)... :)

Bluetooth tether iPad to iPhone in iOS 4.3 without jailbreak

2011-03-10T23:21:00.013+08:00

Came across this undocumented feature of the new iOS 4.3 update for iPad and iPhones and seems that now you can use the new Personal Hotspot feature in iOS 4.3 for iPhone 4 [Update: turns out it works with iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS on iOS versions less than 4.3] to tether the iPad to the iPhone via Bluetooth for Internet connectivity.

Previously the only way to achieve this is to jailbreak the iPad and purchase an app on Cydia called iTether.

I assume that Apple enabled Bluetooth tethering on the iPad as it is in effect no different to the Wifi tethering offered by the new Personal Hotspot feature in iOS 4.3 (assuming the carrier allows it and additional charges may apply).

Here in Australia, I'm with the carrier Optus which allows tethering of my included 2Gb per month data at no additional cost which is a bonus and I don't ever come close to using up my included data. Even though I have a Wifi + 3G iPad (1st Gen), I hardly use the 3G function and only use prepaid data for when I really need it, so this new feature is a real bonus as the price is right! Free! ;)

Steps to setup iPad to iPhone bluetooth tethering are:

1) On iPhone 4: Turn on Personal Hotspot (Settings -> Personal Hotspot -> On)

2) On iPad: Go to Bluetooth Settings (Settings-> General -> Bluetooth)

3) On iPad: Select iPhone to pair with, and confirm pairing on both iPad and iPhone

4) Enjoy Bluetooth tethering! :)

Notice the new tethering icon next to the iPad label at the top left of the iPad screen...

Note: to disable just turn off Personal Hotspot on iPhone 4, and to re-enable turn on Personal Hotspot on iphone 4 and manually pair via Bluetooth on iPad (Settings -> General -> Bluetooth -> <select iPhone name>)

Why Bluetooth tethering over Wifi tethering? Better battery life and iPhone doesn't heat up so much (Apple was apt in naming it Personal *hot*spot :P). Down side is that it does not connect automagically from iPad to iPhone when you turn on Personal Hotspot as is the case if you configured Wifi tethering, but not a big trade off for longer battery life...

So if you're in the market for a new iPad 2 and already have an iPhone 4, then unless you really need the GPS, I reckon go for the Wifi only version and save some money to put towards future Apple purchases...;)

Disclaimer: seeing the iPad 2 is not yet released at the time of writing this post, I'm only assuming that this will work on the iPad 2, so don't just take my word for it. If anyone has one and can confirm that this will work, let me know... (Or if someone wants to buy me one to try, I'll report the findings in return... :P)

Update: Turns out you don't need an iPhone 4 for this to work... I tested it on my old iPhone 3G (which you can't load iOS 4.3 on), and if you turn on Internet Tethering (prior to iOS 4.3) instead of Personal Hotspot in iOS 4.3, and pair the iPad and iPhone 3G, bluetooth tethering will also work, so seems like only the iPad needs to have iOS 4.3. I'm assuming that the iPhone 3GS will also work in a similar way...

Update 2: If you get this to work can you please post in the comments below what version of iPhone and what iOS version you are running? Would be good to know so that others can verify if their current hardware/firmware works using this Bluetooth tethering method. Thanks in advance! :)

Update 3: Some people have issues pairing the iPad to the iPhone, especially iPhone 3G on 4.2.1, so if it doesn't work at first, just keep trying. I did some testing on my old iPhone 3G on 4.2.1 and iPad (1st Gen Wifi and 3G) and initially got the error that the iPad is not supported on the iPhone and the iPad keeps asking if the iPhone is on and close by. After a few attempts it finally worked. Also make sure that you enable tethering first (as per the steps above) before attempting to pair, otherwise it just won't work regardless of number of tries. Hope that helps out some people with similar issues.

Update 4: Tested it out with iOS5 on both iPhone and iPad and this still works. Different combinations of iOS between iPhone and iPad also continue to work so if it doesn't work, do continue to post your experiences in the comments and I'll try and help out with options where possible.

Church 2.0

2009-08-21T13:00:00.004+08:00

Came across this in one of my RSS feeds...

Personally I follow @jesus... :) (in real life and not on Twitter...)

[Church 2.0 via Gizmodo]

What's inside those LEGO Minifigs?

2009-08-20T22:41:00.003+08:00

Now we know... :)

[via The Brothers Brick]

Hannahsaurus Rex! ROAR!!!

2009-08-12T07:31:00.001+08:00

Kids are amusing...

My little Hannah came home from Kindy the other day and was telling us about dinosaurs as this is the current theme at Kindy for the next few weeks. She also mentioned that the teachers had given her a dinosaur name of Hannahsaurus Rex so she was busy demonstrating a Hannahsaurus Rex big loud roar at the dinner table... :)

Anyways, I jokingly brought it up again this morning at breakfast and called her by her dinosaur name, and she was rather upset and crossed, and when questioned why... she said, "But I don't want to be a dinosaur this morning!" followed by a big pout...

Find it amusing as it's both cute and depressing at the same time for me as a father how quickly she is growing up... *sigh* and it doesn't help that over the past few days I've been watching home videos of her when she was much younger as a bub and toddler...

Ah, the joys of fatherhood...

Life in the cloud...

2009-08-05T22:08:00.001+08:00

So ever since I got my iPhone 3G almost a year ago now (End of Aug 2008), I've been slowly trying to come to grips with the real potential of this device. Did I mention that this thing makes phone calls too? :P

Having a 24/7 connection to the intrawebs is a game changer for me as this opens up endless possibilities. But the ability to get my email, check my calendars, have access to my contacts and keeping the calendars and contacts always up to date have always been an issue for me until now...

Enter Google... they pretty much own me now... let me explain... My main email is a Gmail account, my calendar is through Google Calendars, my contact list is sync'ed through to Google Contacts (little known feature as part of Gmail). I'm playing happily in Google's eco-system and I'm hoping that they keep to their motto/code of conduct of 'Don't be evil', and a whole bunch of my life is now kept in the Google cloud.

Anyways, it wasn't easy getting to the point of synchronisation zen for having access to my up to date email, calendar and contacts. Actually email was easy as it worked right off the bat with the iPhone and accessing Gmail through IMAP, however calendar and contacts are trickier due to the myriad of computers, devices and operating systems that I need access to this information from.

My work life is all Microsoft centric, I'm a software developer/IT consultant for a company that does pretty much work revolving entirely Microsoft products/offerings/solutions. But at home I'm an Apple fanboy running Leopard OSX and use my iPhone for most things.

Also I need access to multiple calendars, work/personal/wife's calendar and these span both Google Calendar and Microsoft Exchange, and thankfully my requirements for my contact list is that I only keep a personal contact list.

Oh, did I mention that a requirement is that I don't have to spend a single cent? :) Even though there is a great solution using a paid offering like MobileMe (which works very well, and is well worth the money), my super tight-arse asian upbringing led me to find a free offering...

So after much research online, trail and error and testing, my solution which suits my purposes is as follows:

Google Calendar

This is used to host my personal and work calendar, as well as my wife's calendar. As Google Calendar allows multiple calendar, my main calendar is the work calendar, and I also created a personal calendar. My wife has her own Google Calendar, which is shared and linked to my Google account.

Basically, I have the luxury of having a work computer that is always on, and on my work network, so I use Google Calendar Sync to 2-way sync my Outlook exchange calendar with my main Google Calendar (this is a limitation on the tool, which can only sync with the main Google Calendar), which takes care of getting my work calendar up to the cloud.

These calendars (3 - Work, Personal and Wife's) are then synced back home to iCal my Mac through CalDAV (Enable Google Calendar in Apple's iCal).

Same process to setup my iPhone to sync to my Google Calendar (Calendar & Contacts Sync: Set Up Your iPhone or iPod Touch), noting that I set it up for when my iPhone was on OS Version 2.2.x. Version 3.0 allows you to sync with Google's pseudo-"I'm pretending to be an Exchange Server"-server as well as to a local calendar through iTunes, but since the old way still works for me, I'm leaving it status quo (if it ain't broke...).

Extra note is that you'll need to log into http://m.google.com/sync to choose which Google calendars on your account you would like to sync (Calendar & Contacts Sync: Choose Which Calendars to Sync)

Google Contacts

Since I am only interested in syncing my personal contacts, I'm only syncing my contacts stored in Address Book on my Mac to Google Contacts (iTunes: Syncing address book contacts with your Google contacts) which is done through iTunes everytime I sync my iPhone.

Technically, I can sync directly to Google Contacts from the iPhone as per the instructions for syncing the Google Calendar(s) to the iPhone and selecting the 'Contact' option of what to sync with Microsoft Exchange, but I have grown to like the photos of people I associate with contacts on the iPhone and Address Book on the Mac, and these do not get sync'd if directly synced with Google Contacts (although this is an assumption and I'm not willing to lose my pretty pics of people doing a test...). This works pretty well whenever I sync my iPhone with my Mac (every day), and most times update contact information on the iPhone which means I don't really get out of sync with the cloud.

Thing to note is that if you do not have an iPhone or iPod touch, there will not be an option to sync Address Book on the Mac with Google Contacts (as this option is only available in iTunes when syncing with either of these types of devices). I actually needed to do this on my hackintoshed netbook, as I do not sync my iPhone to this, so a workaround is described here. This will allow you to manually sync using the standard iSync functionality on the Mac.

Benefits

Key benefit is that I have access to my calendar and contact information wherever I go. I have access to them whenever I am on a computer with internet access, so if I forget my iPhone or lose it, I still have this information handy. I also have the added benefit of using iCal or Address Book on my Mac to search, view, edit these in a nice UI on a client app. Another benefit which only occurred to me recently is that I'm no longer afraid of losing any of my gear as it's all stored in the Google cloud, and I'm not going to be overly put out, and lose productivity/efficiency by not having access to this information.

Nice touch is also having my work calendar to automatically update when I get invited to meetings, without having check my work email (which I don't do outside of work hours), and not miss an appointment which was organised with short notice based on having missed checking my work emails.

Personal benefit is that I am able to put appointments into my wife's calendar to remind her of upcoming things organised like dinners, birthday parties, etc. and they get sync'ed to her iPod touch. Similarly, she can put in appointments so that I can have visibility of these and not double book nights out with the boys when it's our anniversary or something like that... :) Now if I can only get her to enter in appointments in her iPod touch, and also to turn that darned thing on at home so that it will get sync'ed of wifi, then this might actually be useful... :)

Pitfalls

Syncing with Exchange Calendar at work relies on a client desktop computer turning and running at all times, although I'm not sure if I can sync to multiple exchange servers in OS Version 3.0, which means I can do this directly over the air (although this would mean that I cannot edit/update my work calendar through Google Calendar if I don't have my iPhone or have access to Outlook Web Access).

This solution also puts a lot of trust and faith in Google in their code of conduct of "Don't be evil.", as they would have alot of personal information about me in Gmail, Calendar, Contacts, Search History etc. but I'm going to just put up with that based on the convienience/elegance of this solution. Oh, and the price is right... :)

Remember the time...

2009-08-02T23:38:00.004+08:00

No, I'm not recalling the song by Michael Jackson with the cool music video with Magic Johnson in it... Was just getting back into the swing of blogging, and decided to re-read my first post back in December 2004... Yes, I started to blog almost 5 years ago, with a long hiatus since about 3 years ago...

Anyhoo... re-read it from the start through to the time when my Hannah was born, and was amazed at what I blogged about, and what I thought at the time. Nothing much has changed in me I think, but I'm wiser and less idealistic perhaps... but glad I did blog about things as it is was somewhat of a journal for me to recount and relive some of life's great experiences, and especially with the arrival of Hannah, what we went through in her first year... which is good to recount as we have another on the way...

It was an outlet for me, as well as a journal of my life, my faith and my goals and ideals for life... and in a similar fashion, when life got a bit much, and the stresses and strains of work and personal life got the better of me, I stopped blogging, and lost my passion for it and other things I used to get excited about.

Only through the past 6 months of experiencing what I thought was the worst time of my life, then through God's grace, I picked up the pieces and got back up on my bike and decided to keep at it, I think I have re-found my passion and created new goals and ideals that I am fired up about and will work towards these in the next year or so... :D There is more to come, and I'm looking forward to journalling these regularly in this archaic fashion (yeah... blogging is so 2004 man...) so that in the future I can look back at these and relive, recount and re-assess where I got to as a person. This is not done as the new medium for public consumption per se or for self-edification, but for myself as a means for inflection, self-examination and learning more about myself and my past...

Project: Cinderella Jackson

2009-08-02T22:22:00.003+08:00

So it may come as a surprise to some that I had a secret project brewing for a while now, but now it is ready for an RTM, Gold Stamped Release! Erm, well... maybe not quite for release, but I have a tentative date for release (late January 2010), and according to my project manager... there will not be any delays... :)

Right now, it's in pre-release and does not have a name for release yet, but it's code-named Project: Cinderella Jackson. Follow the link for more details...

The Joy of LEGO

2009-07-25T15:53:00.007+08:00

I came across this on one of my RSS feeds today, and it is an ad for LEGO from the early 80's, the era in which I was growing up playing with LEGO.

This picture encompasses my early childhood joy of playing with LEGO, and even after almost 30 years I can relate to this little girl's look of pride and achievement, and this picture continues to melt my heart as I can see a similar look that my 4 year old daughter gives me when we build something non-descript together with LEGO...

So all I can say to all the kids out there now... is to ditch the instructions that came with all those cool Lego sets that mum and dad bought you and go and build and create something as beautiful and unique as yourselves!!! :D

[via Gizmodo]

Technical Evolution of swang - Computers

2009-07-18T23:33:00.008+08:00

So my first computer was an Apple IIe, I think my parents heard that a computer would be a good investment to give their only son from my uncles and aunties, and so they purchased it for me to play some games. I took to it like a duck to water and played classics like 'Olympic Decathlon', 'Karataka' and other games which I can't remember now. I had a green monochrome monitor, a chunky 5 1/4" floppy disk and had a distinctive clunking floppy drive startup sound.

What I ended dabbling with was also a touch of BASIC programming, which I think the computer came with and also a guide for writing some simple programs. I distinctly remember that my first program was a 2 line program which repeated wrote a rude comment about my eldest sister in an endless loop on the monochrome green screen. It was something like:

10 PRINT "[My Sister's Name] is stupid."
20 GOTO 10

This is so childish and juvenile, but was a source of annoyance for my sister when I showed her and made me proud with glee that I could make my computer insult my sister, and annoyed her in the process... "Hrm, this programming thing is awesome and has so much potential!" :)

My next computer was an IBM PC XT clone and we got it before migrating to Australia when I was twelve. As usual I played lots of games on it, and what was great was that in Singapore in the 80's you could get tons of pirated games on it. I remember it was a beasty machine, as it had an EGA graphics card which provided 16 colours instead of the 4 provided by the standard CGA graphics card which is the standard XT PC clone. It had a 5 1/4" disk drive, but I added a 3 1/2" floppy drive which cost me $250!!! which was steep for a 12 year old boy. I even added a 2nd 20 megabyte (yeah, megabytes!) hard drive, and I think this started off my whole building/modding PC bug going through my g33k veins... This was also the same machine that I hooked up a 14.4k dialup modem to connect to the uni mainframe system from home to chat to some cheerleaders in the US, but I'll leave the details of this for another post on my evolution of social networking...

Next was a non noteworthy Pentium 200Mhz which I got when I was in uni, and other than playing games like Quake and doing uni work, it wasn't very significant my first laptop was a Gateway 2000 Solo 2300 which I bought with my first few paychecks working at my first job, and it was awesome as it was my first laptop, and I could pay for it myself. In fact, I still have this laptop and it still works... well mostly...

Next laptop was an NEC E680 and it was the first generation Centrino classed laptop. Cost a whopping $4K, but was my main computer for about 4 years from 2004 to 2008, and I absolutely used it for everything! Programming, personal emails, downloading of photos, photo processing, and I started to blog on this laptop. I has since been retired and handed over to my 4 year old daughter as a play machine to goto sesamestreet,org and other fun websites.

I finally made the switch last year to a Mac based on the influence of my best mate which is a huge Apple fanboy, and got a late model non-unibody 15" MacBook Pro, and never looked back. Granted I do development for Microsoft centric applications, mainly surrounding .NET and other Microsoft offerings, but for personal and fun stuff I use the MacBook Pro running Leopard OSX, and it is so refreshing using the Leopard operating system as it is such a paradigm shift from the Microsoft Windows world that I have become used to over the course of my professional career. To be fair to my best mate and all the other Apple fanboys out there (myself included), I can see why people who use Macs become such evangelists for Apple. Sensible and logical user interface design, and all the pretty fruit (pardon the pun), and ease of use makes this an ideal candidate for use by anyone that doesn't need to put up with the M$ Windows ecosystem if they don't have to. I know I'd be recommending a Mac for anyone that can afford one, as they are pricier but I think you get your money's worth.

Incidentally, with the onset of the popularity of netbooks, I also managed to pick up a Lenovo S10, which I specifically got so that I can load up Leopard OSX and use it as a Hackintosh and dual boot into Windows, and primarily used as a compact machine to lug around the house to surf the web, email and watch tv shows in bed... and would be a great travel companion when I head off overseas in a couple of months.

So it has come full circle already, and it's only taken about 25 years from an 8 year old with an Apple IIe to an older 33 year old with a MacBook Pro... the amusing thing is that I was resistant on making the switch in the past thinking I had both feet planted firmly in the Microsoft Windows camp, but now happily becoming proficient and comfortable with one feet in either camp...

Technical Evolution of swang...

2009-07-18T23:25:00.002+08:00

Was listening to a podcast a few days ago, and it was the 100th episode of the TechStuff podcast from the howstuffworks.com crew... and they were reminiscing about the computers and gadgets and technologies that they were involve with from way back when... which inspired me to jot down a few notes about my own experiences from when I was a wee lad...

I'll be writing a number of posts of my technical evolution which includes but is not limited to areas like...

- Computers
- Gaming Consoles
- Music players
- PDA's/Smartphones
- Journaling/Blogging

Sure it's a bit of nostalgia and fun, but is quite interesting from the perspective of recalling these things as ultimately these all contribute of who I am today and also my opinions and passion in the area of technology/gadgetry... :)

Mobile Blogging Fail!

2009-07-18T14:35:00.003+08:00

In an attempt to resurrect my blogging endeavours, I thought I'd try out LifeCast, a free mobile blogging app for the iPhone. I set it up, entered in my blog credentials, all looks good. Then attempted to post the following...

Blogging Again... Now with Tools

Thought I'd start blogging again, and now evaluating LifeCast, a free app for the iPhone, to help kick start this attempt at restarting my blog.

Will post experiences more as I use the app more... And no, using mobile safari and the Blogger webpage is not a decent solution... :P

Now the keyword here is 'attempted'... LifeCast seems to find my blog okay during setup, but seems to lose the settings, and when I enter a post, there is no button to post the blog, almost as if it's in a demo mode. I trawled the intrawebs and seems to be an issue with the app and new iPhone 3.0 firmware...

So posting my first experiences with LifeCast... #FAIL! :)

Hopefully it will be fixed soon, and will try other free apps for blogging on Blogger... incidentally, WordPress does have a native free app for blogging on WordPress blogs, but not keen to migrate all my posts to WordPress so will try and actually blog more first... then work out the feasibility and usability issues when my post output improves... perhaps when a re-design is in order, I may just bite the bullet and shift over to WordPress...

But then again my life revolves around Google at the moment, with email, contacts, calendars etc. and everything syncs up via the cloud services that is Google... but that I'll save for another post on what I have setup with regards to this... :)

Alive and kicking...

2008-11-15T00:48:00.002+09:00

Decided I should probably resurrect my blog and start to post again... :)

Then realised that I needed to migrate my account to Google Accounts as I originally signed up with a Blogger account... yes, it's been over 2 years since I last posted so it's long overdue.

Hope to post a quick update on what has been happening over the past couple of years, and then hopefully re-vamp the blog, not that there are any followers that have waited 2 years for this moment... but we shall see how long I keep this up... *heh*

Single Dad...

2006-08-17T20:15:00.000+08:00

... well for the next couple of days anyways...

Wifey flew over to Sydney for her exams this morning, and it was a strange experience putting Hannah to bed all on my own, even though wifey was on the phone. Hannah didn't fuss too much, although she did have a slightly perplexed look on her face, but I think that might be related to her being up for a while since she woke up early from her afternoon nap.

Now that Hannah's asleep and I've finished with the cleaning up, sitting here, I'm not quite sure what I'll do now... :)

To my dearest wifey, even though we are far from you at the moment, I wish you all the best for the exams over the next couple of days and know that you'll be fine with the exams, and Hannah, Max and I are looking forward to your return! We'll all be praying for you with the exams and know that even though we are miles apart, I hope that you'll know that we're there with you helping you through it all! :)

No matter what the result it, we're really proud of your tireless efforts over the past 9 months, working, studying and looking after us. (Especially putting up with your sometimes difficult husband...)

Love you heaps,

Hannah, Max and Daddy

Lock up your daughters...

2006-08-10T22:15:00.000+08:00

USS Kitty Hawk - Aircraft Carrier by sunset
Originally uploaded by swang.

... the sailors are in town!

Had the awesome experience of watching the USS Kitty Hawk come into Fremantle Harbour this morning, and it was such a great visual experience!

It was meant to come in at about 10am this morning, but when the guys from work checked the updated schedule yesterday, it said 7:30am so I was going to miss it as I was dropping off Hannah at the inlaws. But as I drove towards work after dropping off Hannah via Cottesloe, I saw it out on the horizon and just got to work as it was turning in towards the harbour and got an excellent view from the top of the Fremantle Ports building.

One of the perks of working for the Port is that I get to see all the ships come in and out of the harbour, and most times it's just boring container ships, or even worse the stock ships which smells like *SHEEP*... :)

USS Kitty Hawk
Originally uploaded by gnawmas.

Awesome sight of the sailors lined up on the perimeter of the deck, in their naval uniforms, and to see the awesome sight of the aircraft on the deck, mostly F18 Hornets and a few command centre aircraft which I'm not sure what they are called, but they are the ones that look like they have huge flying saucers on the top of them, and I think they serve as an aerial command centre.

I took heaps of pics, but only a few were usable, and even brought my video camera in to record it just in case they rotated it in the harbour, which I heard is quite a sight as the length of the aircraft carrier takes up almost the entire width of the harbour. I think I'll be heading out to North Quay to get a good view on Monday morning when it leaves port, and get more pics/videos.

Pity they no longer hold public tours on board since 9/11, but I hear that some staff from the Port got clearance to have a private tour... now how the heck do I get on one of those tours?!?! :) The entire passenger terminal and the roads leading up to it are closed and off limits, which means that my usual morning and evening short cut to the carpark between the railway and harbour will not be available... *grumble*

Interesting trivia: I heard from one of the guys from work that the USS Kitty Hawk is the last remaining US aircraft carrier that will dock at Fremantle as only non-nuclear powered aircraft carriers are allowed to dock at Freo. A few years back there were 3 diesel powered US aircraft carriers, but one (USS Constellation) has since retired and the other hangs around the Atlantic Ocean so it won't be headed down here. So all you local West Aussies head down to Freo this weekend for a glimpse as this opportunity does not happen very often...

Update...

2006-07-08T21:23:00.000+08:00

Yup, I'm still alive and kicking, although it's been a crazy and hectic time...

Wifey's first set of exams are over and Hannah had her first birthday, and we survived the bithday party! (But I reckon when she's older, we're just going to do a Macca's party and sit back, sip our average coffee from the bottomless styrofoam cups, and watch the kiddies wreak havoc at the local Macca's. No fuss, no mess to clean up, kids go home with a sugar and grease high... everyone's happy!

Anyways, wifey had a few weeks break from self paced study, and slowly easing her way back into studying for the next set which are in Sydney, but she doesn't find out about the results until sometime this month, but I reckon she'll do fine and will be off to Sydney to impress the examiners in her next set... :)

Work's been good, albeit a bit challenging now that we're almost at the end of the development, and are getting ready for system testing which hopefully will go well seeing I've been trying hard to be as careful as possible to make sure all my modules are unit tested properly, but issues alway arises so I guess the aim is to try and minimise the issues if possible...

I've been enjoying a bit more time with wifey and Hannah, going out for walks and hitting the shops during the sale time, although I reckon we should stop seeing we always end up getting something for Hannah such that I reckon it's more for our benefit that we get all these things rather than her... but yeah, she's a real spoilt child, so we'd better stop otherwise we'll only have ourselves to blame when she's a teenager... scary... I shudder at the thought of her growing up so quickly...

I really should get back to making more regular posts, seeing I've forgotten what had happened over the last couple of months since my last significant post (which is the V8 supercar experience I think...) but I've just been so busy with my days that I don't get a chance... I mean Hannah puts me to shame with all her regular posts and pics... Man, she's such a hard-core blogger... dunno where she gets it from... ;)

TTFN...
(and for those who don't understand what TTFN stands for, shame on you... and go get out a copy of one of AA Milne's 'Winnie the Pooh' books and find out...)

Quick Change Artists on America's Got Talent

2006-07-08T21:16:00.000+08:00

This video is awesome, and it's one of the contestents on America's Got Talent, which I assume is some talent search competition type show... urm, you know what I mean...

The Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments

2006-06-04T11:00:00.000+08:00

Quoted from EepyBird.com:

What happens when you combine 200 liters of Diet Coke and over 500 Mentos mints? It's amazing and completely insane.

The first part of this video demonstrates a simple geyser, and the second part shows just how extreme it can get. Over one hundred jets of soda fly into the air in less than three minutes.

It's a hysterical and spectacular mint-powered version of the Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas, brought to you by the mad scientists at EepyBird.com.

Linkage from ntt.

My V8 Supercar Experience... Vrrrooooomm!

2006-05-20T15:20:00.000+08:00

Sam's V8 Supercar Experience - Photoset
Originally uploaded by ntt.

My wifey got me some hot laps at the AHG Driver Training Centre in a V8 Supercar for Christmas last year, and I was all rev'ed up (heheh) to get driven around the track by an expert in a V8 Supercar... woohoo!

I showed up at the AHG Driver Training Centre this morning and it turns out they didn't have my booking even though they sent me a confirmtion email months ago. Good thing I had the email and when I showed them, they slotted me in the 8am session anyways... The guy asked me how many laps, so I didn't really want to lie so I said 2 which the wifey got me... so I suited up and they had a presentation about safety... driving techniques... hrrrmmm... sounded like they were expecting me to drive... wha? Turns out they thought I was booked in for 2 laps driving so I had a bonus!

V8 Supercar Experience
Originally uploaded by gnawmas.

I took out the race ready Holden Commodore V8 for an awesome drive around the track, with the instructor screaming in my ear wanting me to push it harder, and was guiding me around the track about where to brake, where the racing lines were etc. etc... and I did alright seeing I haven't driven a manual since I sold the MX5 11 months ago... *heheh*

My sister in law's boyfriend Colly came along to watch and take pics and Nick came along too (even though I think he just wanted to take pictures using his new camera...) so if you click *here* if you want to see the entire photoset he uploaded to Flickr... (thanks for the awesome shots dude...).

V8 Supercar Experience - In Car Cam
Originally uploaded by gnawmas.

Thanks also to Colly for taking more shots on my camera, (mostly my racer-boy poser shots...) and also videos of my run around the track. I also purchased the in-car video which includes audio of the instructor telling me how to drive like a race car driver, and when the videos are uploaded, try and catch the bit where he goes... "Left... go left here... Left! LEFT! No your *other* LEFT!" ;)

Thanks so much wifey for getting me this awesome experience and the guys for coming along to share the experience watching me drive a beast of a race car around the track like a grandmother... :)

Proud Fathers...

2006-05-13T22:56:00.000+08:00

Proud Daddies!
Originally uploaded by hannahwang.

We went to visit Nick, Diana and little Ryan today, well it's my second visit as I popped over quickly after work yesterday, but it was Ming and Hannah's first visit and Hannah took to Ryan a little... :)

Well I suppose she likes other babies, and Nick and I have often joked about how weird it would be if our firstborns got together, even before Ryan was born. Wifey joked about how we would be expecting 12 cows as a suitable dowry for Hannah, and for Nick and Diana to start saving up cows... :D

Having a look at the picture of Nick and I with our firstborns, I am struck with a feeling of surrealness (is that an actual word?) as it's weird seeing both of us as dads, however it fills me with pride seeing how far we have come since high school... I mean who would have thought eh?

I mean, we were part of a bunch of nerds/geeks who met on the first day of school outside the co-ordinator of the Academic Extension Programme at Swanbourne Senior High School back in 1989. Our conversations revolved around computer games and the like, and over the years, progressed onto basketball, women, the meaning of life, religion, cars, marriage and more recently kids...

Awesome experiences dude... welcome to the new club, full of thrills, spills... sleepless nights, pooey diapers, walking around like zombies... but most of all the absolute joys of fatherhood!

Tis another season of our lives, and hope to share many more watching our kids growing up... :)

Ryan Nicolas Takayama is born!

2006-05-11T22:10:00.000+08:00

Ryan Nicolas Takayama is born!
Originally uploaded by ntt.

Awesome stuff! Ryan Nicolas Takayama was born at 5:26pm today, weighing 7lbs 5oz!

Little Ryan started his approach for entry into this world early this morning, but took his time to check out the sights along the way! :)

Awesome stuff Nick and Diana! Praise God from whom all blessings flow, and this tiny little life that God gave you guys is an awesome blessing to both of you and all around him!!! The angels are rejoicing in heaven singing Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Glory to God in the Highest!

Enjoy this wonderful time with your new son, and make the most of these precious moments!

Can't wait to meet the new addition to your family!

Waiting in anticipation...

2006-05-11T20:25:00.000+08:00

Nick, my best bud, whom I consider a brother both in Christ and in real life, is expecting his first born child any time now, actually it was due yesterday...

I know how anxious he was feeling as I was feeling the same way almost 11 months ago now, and since about 10am this morning, he was not online on MSN, which could mean one of two things... 1) Diana has gone into labour and he's done a runner to the hospital, or 2) he's stuck underneath some large immovable object, and can't get online.

I've tested my hypothesis by emailing him soon after 10am, but no reply...

SMS'ed him at about noon... no reply...

Been praying and thinking about them since about then, and now it's about 8:30pm at night, and just eagerly awaiting news... How awesome it would be, just like 11 months ago when the angels rejoiced with Ming and I when our precious little Hannah was born!!!

And it's the season for bubs, as our friends Sean and Christina had a little baby boy Caleb a couple of weeks ago, and Dave and Julia had a little baby boy Elliot last Friday. And news just in last night that our friends Mervyn and Sze in Singapore had a little baby girl Tammy also last Friday...

God speed little TicTak (project name for Nick and Diana's little bub...), the whole world is eagerly waiting to meet you! And Nick and Diana, our thoughts and constant prayers at with you at this moment...

Evolution of Dance...

2006-05-08T21:17:00.000+08:00

Java...

2006-05-07T21:23:00.000+08:00

Java...
Originally uploaded by maxthedog.

Nope, not the programming language, coffee, nor the island in Indonesia... Java is my parents' new puppy and she's a cutie!

She's a Border Collie/Cattle Dog cross, and we met her when we were over yesterday and viewing the portraits that we took a couple of weeks ago. Hannah loved her and kept saying 'Wo wo' which is the chinese way of imitating a dog barking. Whenever Hannah wants to refer to Max or hears a dog barking she says 'Wo wo', very cute! :)

Anyways, gotta bring Max over one day to meet Java as I reckon he'll love her to bits and play nicely together... and I'm sure they would make cute little puppies together if it wasn't for the minor technicality of both of them being sterilised... *grin*

Sad Loss...

2006-04-14T20:38:00.000+08:00

Found out yesterday that my dad's dog Jessie has to be put down as she was very old and had lung complications and have pretty much gotten blind over the past few months... :(

The vet said that her time was almost up so Dad decided it was best for her to be put down yesterday. Jessie has been a faithful companion to my dad, and we have had her since she was 6 months old. I've always wanted a dog since I was a little boy, however Mum was not very keen, and we even had a short stint in Singapore with a dog, but had to give it back as it didn't work out. I remember as a child, my dad and I went out for a walk in our local neighbourhood in Singapore, and we found an abandoned dog at a building site, so we took it home, but had to take it back after Mum refused to let us keep it... I remember wailing and crying my eyes out when we had to take the dog back.

Anyways, Jessie entered our lives when one of Dad's collegues at the furniture place he was working as had to move, and the new place he was renting did not allow pets so he took Jessie to work to see if anyone would be happy to take her, so my Dad took her home. Even though I was at Uni then, I was quite happy to finally have a dog, even though I was quite busy, so I told Dad that it'll pretty much be his dog.

We have fond memories of Jessie as a young dog, and as she was a Kelpie/Cattle Dog cross, she had heaps of energy, so much so she would chase down every ball, every frisbee and even hopped gates to get out of where we confined her. She'll be sorely missed, especially by my dad, and even though I'm not as close to her as my dad, I know how sad my dad feels right now as now that we have Max, I can imagine what loss we would feel when his time is up...

Dogs are such great companions, and more loyal and loving than alot of people, and are such great fun when they are puppies... "A puppy is but a dog, plus high spirits, and minus common sense." - Agnes Repplier.

Interesting Physics Problem...

2006-04-08T15:40:00.000+08:00

I normally do not post things I get from email seeing I get heaps and heaps of interesting emails from people, however this one (below) tickled my fancy, and is an interesting read as it rings true of the age old adage that "There is more than one way to skin a cat..."

In our day and age, even though we are taught to thinking freely and 'outside the box' we do tend to usually take the prescribed route when solving problems, and with the onset of the Internet, we tend to not try and solve problems, but rather research the problem, then do what someone else has done to solve the problem. This tends to reduce innovation when solving problems, and people conform to a narrow minded view of how to go about solving the problems of the modern world...

Anyways, just food for thought...

The following concerns a question in a physics degree exam at the University of Copenhagen:
"Describe how to determine the height of a skyscraper with a barometer."

One student replied: "You tie a long piece of string to the neck of the barometer, then lower the barometer from the roof of the skyscraper to the ground. The length of the string plus the length of the barometer will equal the height of the building."

This highly original answer so incensed the examiner that the student was failed immediately. The student appealed on the grounds that his answer was indisputably correct, and the university appointed an independent arbiter to decide the case.

The arbiter judged that the answer was indeed correct, but did not display any noticeable knowledge of physics. To resolve the problem it was decided to call the student in and allow him six minutes in which to provide a verbal answer that showed at least a minimal familiarity with the basic principles of physics.

For five minutes the student sat in silence, forehead creased in thought. The arbiter reminded him that time was running out, to which the student replied that he had several extremely relevant answers, but couldn't make up his mind which to use. On being advised to hurry up the student replied as follows:

"Firstly, you could take the barometer up to the roof of the skyscraper, drop it over the edge, and measure the time it takes to reach the ground. The height of the building can then be worked out from the formula H = 0.5g * t squared. But bad luck on the barometer."

"Or if the sun is shining you could measure the height of the barometer, then set it on end and measure the length of its shadow. Then you measure the length of the skyscraper's shadow, and thereafter it is a simple matter of proportional arithmetic to work out the height of the skyscraper."

"But if you wanted to be highly scientific about it, you could tie a short piece of string to the barometer and swing it like a pendulum, first at ground level and then on the roof of the skyscraper. The height is worked out by the difference in the gravitational restoring force T = 2 pi sqr root (l / g)."

"Or if the skyscraper has an outside emergency staircase, it would be easier to walk up it and mark off the height of the skyscraper in barometer lengths, then add them up."

"If you merely wanted to be boring and orthodox about it, of course, you could use the barometer to measure the air pressure on the roof of the skyscraper and on the ground, and convert the difference in millibars into feet to give the height of the building."

"But since we are constantly being exhorted to exercise independence of mind and apply scientific methods, undoubtedly the best way would be to knock on the janitor's door and say to him 'If you would like a nice new barometer, I will give you this one if you tell me the height of this skyscraper'."

The student was Niels Bohr, the only Dane to win the Nobel Prize for Physics.

"An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a very narrow field." - Niels Bohr

In-car antics...

2006-03-31T08:40:00.000+08:00

I've been toying with the idea of installing a 'carputer' (In-car computer) for in-car entertainment purposes and mainly for the g33k factor. Which turns the car into a working office if need be... quite unlikely but I need some form of justification of this exercise... :)

Anyways, this morning I saw something that got me thinking that most people use the car for purposes other than a mode of transport. Take for instance this young lady driving a nice black BMW... who decided it was appropriate to use her car as a bathroom at the lights... no... she wasn't relieving herself, but rather using her vanity mirror to check the contents of her armpit region... ick! Self-grooming at the lights... I was tempted to wind down my window and stare to make her self-conscious and embarrassed, but I thought better seeing in her position I wouldn't know where to turn if someone was looking at me in such a situation...

Just one of the many amusing things I see going to and from work... :)

Find rest in...

2006-03-26T20:36:00.000+08:00

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." - Matthew 11:28 NIV

Scwheeeeeet!

2006-03-25T20:51:00.000+08:00

Came across this from PRK's live journal blog, and thought it was good fun... Above is my attempt at creating a character that is kinda like me... by that I mean that I do wear my cap backwards at times, and my glasses look like that, and I grow stubble on the weekends... other than that... it bears no other resemblence to me... :)

Oh and the site is at Create-A-Character... enjoy!

Marketing Strategies...

2006-03-25T09:25:00.000+08:00

My cousin sent me this link to Google Video, titled 'Microsoft iPod' and it's pretty hilarious. More importantly it highlights the differences in Microsoft's and Apple's marketing strategies where Apple has taken the minimalistic approach to their marketing of slowly building up their brand in the marketplace through having a well designed product, and simple elements to their marketing, whereas Microsoft is more about hyping up the product prior to the launch and wowing the masses with information overload about their new product.

Well worth a look... :)

Two Chinese Boys...

2006-03-22T21:42:00.000+08:00

I was sent a link to a video a few months back, of these two chinese guys lip sync-ing to the Backstreet Boys songs 'I want it that way' and 'As long as you love me' captured on webcam in their dormotory, and I came across their blog where they posted their other videos and also plans of doing other songs.

They call themselves The Dormitory Boys and they are classic!

Hot Dog no more...

2006-03-21T21:48:00.000+08:00

Guess who's joining the Marines?
Originally uploaded by maxthedog.

Poor Max has been feeling really warm lately as we couldn't get him an appointment to the groomers before today, but tonight he's a cool little dog, and this time they even cut all the hair off his tail! (They usually leave a bit of fur, so it looks like a brush, but I think as his fur was very long this time and probably tangled, they had to shave it right off... heh)

Gosh he looks like a different dog, and he acts like another dog too... I guess I would be feeling a lot more energetic than before if I had a fur jacket on in the middle of summer and then suddenly took it off... :)

Tree... Be Gone!!!

2006-03-21T21:12:00.000+08:00

Gum Tree in backyard...
Originally uploaded by swang.

Notice anything different? :)
Originally uploaded by swang.

Yep, after about three and a half years of plagueing our backyard with twigs, leaves and gumnuts, the large gum tree in the backyard is gone!!! Yay!

You shall no longer plague
our backyard with gumnuts!
Originally uploaded by swang.

Blissful skyline...
Originally uploaded by swang.

After a few months of writing to the neighbours, getting quotes, getting approval from the neighbours, waiting for the tree guy to come... etc. it's finally gone! The fence is going to be repaired on the weekend, then I can finally clear out the gutters, and do a nice clean up of the backyard/courtyard so that we can spend a bit more time outdoors!

Make yourself useful or I'll shove this...
Originally uploaded by swang.

Yay! More work... :) but it'll be enjoyable once it's done, and we can reclaim a bit of unused space in our backyard... Hmmm... maybe I can come up with some sob story and get Backyard Blitz to come around and make me a new backyard, and throw in a nice plasma screen somehow... (as they always do in the show... heh)

Engaged!

2006-03-20T21:02:00.000+08:00

An Awesome Feast!
Originally uploaded by swang.

Yay! Our good friends James and Jing Man finally announced their engagement last month, and we went out last night for a wonderful dinner to celebrate! They've been going out for like forever and it's wonderful to finally take the plunge into scary marriage... Heheheh... just kidding... it's really great guys! :)

We managed to catchup with old friends who went to Med School with wifey, whom we haven't seen in ages, and some even haven't seen Hannah! It was an awesome night of celebration of the wonderful news and we stuffed ourselves silly as the hosts ordered up a banquet for the guests! (see pic... Mmmmm...)

Technology imitates life

2006-03-19T11:28:00.001+08:00

Came across this via hack a day, and it's an awesome video of a robotic swimming snake. The video is pretty neat and is in japanese which makes it all the more entertaining hearing the japanese women squeal with delight when the snake does things... (um, get your minds out of the gutter people!)

Sign of the times... :)

2006-03-17T21:09:00.000+08:00

Parking Sign
Originally uploaded by swang.

Well, not really... sign of the times that is...

This shot was one suggested by Nick a couple of nights ago so as I was walking to the car yesterday I took the shot. Turned out pretty interesting due to the sun flare effect as the sun was directly behind the parking sign so the entire perspective thing turned out to be quite funky... :) Thanks for the suggestion dude! :D

I found out that where I'm working at the moment had a weekly prayer group going so I decided to join them today at lunchtime. They meet once a week for group prayer and it was such an encouragement and awesome privilege to be able to meet up to pray with others at work.

It's the first time I have been involved in a prayer group in a work environment and I think it's great as it reminds me that we are meant to be salt and light in this world, and especially at work seeing we spend a whole chunk of our lives being at work! It also makes me more accountable at work about how I conduct myself based on my faith and beliefs which can only be a positive thing! :)

FYI...

2006-03-14T21:54:00.000+08:00

Cool Crane at the E Shed Markets
Originally uploaded by swang.

This is what I see walking from my car towards work every morning...

I've been meaning to take pics cos I thought that crane was pretty cool looking next to the E Shed markets. Finally remembered today and the sky was perfect, not a cloud in sight, except for that darned seagull in the middle of the pic... *grin*

Another reason for bringing the camera is to take all the interesting ships that come into port, as the QEII cruise ship was in a few weeks back and it was spectacular! But alas I did not have my camera with me... so I think I'll either have to check the schedule of ships that come into port, or just bring my camera everyday... :)

Hopefully this will be a start to me actually taking more pictures to learn how to take proper photos rather than just pointing-and-shooting in a lame-ass shotgun fashion... :P

Life's little suprises

2006-03-14T21:39:00.000+08:00

Nice shadow effects!
Originally uploaded by swang.

Was driving on the way from work to pick up Hannah, and was driving up Marine Parade towards Cottesloe when this most interesting sight made me slow down and do a double take. I kept driving until I realised I had my camera with me so I pulled over, did a U-turn and went back to snap a few pics!

I'm sure glad I decided to take the coastal way instead of the boring way I sometimes take! :) There is a little sign with "Alcoa Foundation - Invited Artist" on one end of the line of cubes... so it's art hey?

I'm not usually a huge appreciater of art, all I know is if I look at something whether I like it or not... I don't think much about what the artist had in mind etc. etc. but this I like... maybe because it's a kind of industrial art... like it took some great big machine to crush all those cans, and a host of other machines to get it there by the beach... and maybe it's because the cubes are equidistant from each other and all lined up, which make my logical analytical nature go "Ooooh... it's all so symmetric, geometric..."

Hmmm... just realised anyone who reads this will make me out to be some kind of geeky math nerd or something... :P

Anyways, my point being that even though my life is full of routine at the moment, life does present little suprises every now and then. We just have to look out for them, and take some time out to appreciate them when they do happen...

That's all folks...

Dinner out with good friends

2006-03-11T23:51:00.000+08:00

Baby Carrier
Originally uploaded by ntt.

Went out to dinner with some good friends of ours tonight to the local thai place, and everyone enjoyed the meal and had a good time. Our little munchkin Hannah came along as well and proved to be a bit of entertainment as she always seems to be happy no matter what she is doing.

Two of our friends present are pregnant and both due with a few days of each other in early/mid May, which is exciting for us as well! This might be the last time we catchup for a meal before their lives are changed forever when their bundle of joy arrives.

No comment required... :)
Originally uploaded by swang.

After we put Hannah to bed, we all sat around catching up, and even Max got in on the action and got attention, cuddles and even massages from people which he really enjoyed! Poor thing has been attention-starved with the busyness of our lives lately so I'm sure the attention was welcomed.

Interesting Revelation...

2006-03-05T07:59:00.000+08:00

Was channel surfing last night and came across some foreign film on SBS, which had an interesting bit of dialogue. It was some writer typing away on a laptop, and a friend who has mucking about on the writer's old typewriter and asked the writer about if using the computer was alot easier than using the typewriter.

The writer went on to say that it is easier, however when using the typewriter and putting pen to paper, one tends to put more thought into writing, be more authentic. Which got me thinking... this is rather true especially with my industry, where it is just all too easy to put together some code, try it out, if it doesn't work, change things and retest it, and repeat if neccessary. So forward thinking, pre-planning and design sometimes seem not as important.

So... has working in the computer industry, affected me such that all things that I do tend to be a bit more reckless than others? Where I can just try something, and if that doesn't work, I'll be quick to change some things, try that out for a while, and if that doesn't work, the viscious cycle repeats itself. Perhaps that is why the IT industry has such a high rate of turnover of staff, where careers are not really planned out, and people are just changing jobs like refactoring some code, trying it out, and if it doesn't work out the way they expect, then they change jobs again. I think that kinda describes a bit of my career journey thus far... :)

Go figure... it takes a chance encounter with a scene in a foreign film to understand a bit more about myself. The moral of the story is I suppose that we should be spending more of our lives watch more TV just in case it holds more gems of wisdom such as this... ;)

Woohoo! The Apprentice is back!!! Again!!!

2006-03-02T21:10:00.000+08:00

I've only just finished watching the 4th season of The Apprentice and the 1st and probably only season of Martha Stewart Apprentice late last year, and heard from Nick last night that Season 5 has started in the US! w00t!

Downloaded the first episode last night and just finished watching it, and now I have something to look forward to entertainment-wise each week! Ahhh... the simple joys... :)

Update...

2006-02-28T22:57:00.000+08:00

Haven't done some serious blogging for a while so here is an update...

Life been settling down lately, and starting the new job has contributed to that greatly. It's a nice change being in Fremantle instead of the city, and the new role has been quite a good fit so far, and I've been quite interested and challenged, and enjoy going to work each morning. I enjoy leaving work much more to pick up the little princess, and feel quite fulfilled having done a good days work.

God has been faithful to me with regards to work, and it was a struggle getting through the last few months of my old work, however he has answered my prayers and provided this new role for me... Praise God!

Wifey is doing her exams this year so she has been busy studying at night, and working full time, as well as trying to get as much time with Hannah as possible, so it's like having 3 jobs! It's sometimes a struggle getting to the end of the day, however we're coping and making a big effort to make time for Hannah and each other which makes life a bit easier when we do manage to take time out.

No doubt it'll be quite a tiring and challenging year, however I know that we'll make the most of it, and God will continue to be faithful and see us through it all.

What is your WARNING label?

2006-02-21T22:24:00.000+08:00

UCAUTION

IN THE INTEREST OF SAFETY IT IS ADVISABLE TO KEEP SWANG AWAY FROM FIRE AND FLAMES.

From Go-Quiz.com

Double Take...

2006-02-07T21:54:00.000+08:00

Pseudo-Arty MX5 Badge shot
Originally uploaded by swang.

I was leaving my building on the way home from work when I saw an MX5 pull up at the lights... Number plate was close to my old car... walked along minding my own business when I realised it *WAS* my old car... The original number plates never really stayed on the car that long such that my memory of the number plate was a mishmash of it and the number off my first car...

Anyways, I sprinted back towards the lights to check it out, crossed the street walking behind it checking out the condition of the car. Not as shiney as when I sold it to the new owner, but he had the top down wearing a cap, and a silly grin on his face so I reckon he's enjoying the car... good... :)

Now this got me thinking, I know that I've moved on by the fact that I didn't even recognise my old car, and it didn't have that appeal and wow factor when I saw it again... and I'm heaps more comfortable driving around in the new Accord, and having the joy of little Hannah sitting in the back with me might have a little something to do with it too! Heh...

新年快乐

2006-01-29T15:53:00.000+08:00

Red Packets

Happy New Year! It's the start of the Chinese New Year today and it's the Year of the Dog! The title to this post literally says Happy New Year in Chinese, or more like 'New Year Happy', but you get the picture! :)

Chinese people take the new year so seriously that they spend 15 days celebrating the Chinese New Year! 15 Days!!! that's like half a month to welcome in the new year. Lots of eating, visiting people, eating, giving and collecting Ang Pow's (red packets), eating and more eating! :)

Hope that everyone has a happy, blessed and prosperous Chinese New Year of the Dog! Woof Woof!

Retro Nerdy Geekiness!

2006-01-23T20:39:00.000+08:00

loop="true" type='application/x-shockwave-flash'
pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash'>

Pong Clock!

Okay, so I nearly fell off my chair when I first saw this last year, but didn't think too much of it as it was a design concept for some company that was going to produce this clock and sell it for heaps of dough. Fast forward about 6 months, and while I was watching the Australian Open, I saw the latest American Express ad which features Andy Roddick vs Pong. This reminded me of the Pong Clock so I googled it, found out there was a screensaver version of it, then had pong clock joy on my laptop... Now I'm seriously thinking of converting my old brick of a laptop into a cool pong clock for the study...

This is sooooo cool... although I wonder how many kids nowadays will actually know and remember the original game Pong?

Lunchtime Sillyness!

2006-01-19T21:11:00.000+08:00

Beefcake!
Originally uploaded by swang.

Caught up with Nick for lunch today and we headed into DigiLife in the city and played with the iMac's Photobooth software. DigiLife is running a competition for the best photo sent in from the PhotoBooth software, so here is my entry... :)

It's amusing seeing two grown men, one who is a father and another who is about to be one get up to such silliness! :)

Lego Church

2006-01-18T21:23:00.000+08:00

Lego Church!

I came across this a while ago whilst I was browsing the net for cool LEGO creations, but earlier this week I got sent an email with some pics. I did a search and came across the author/builder's website and learnt a bit more about the LEGO Church. It's an interesting read, especially the link to the dedication sermon for this LEGO Church.

Anyways, it was nice to see a collision of two things that I feel quite passionate about... :)

Happy New Year!

2006-01-04T22:05:00.000+08:00

Symbol of God's Promises
Originally uploaded by swang.

It's 2006 and I've been a bit silent for a while as I have been weary from life recently.

However the last day of our holidays, when the wifey and I were feeling rather sorry for ourselves that we had to go back to work after 10 wonderful days at home with Hannah, we were walking back from a quick dinner at Farrell's Cafe round the corner and the dusk sky had the most amazing surreal and awesome colour to it.

We turned around behind us and we were greeted with the most amazing sight of a huge rainbow, and a double rainbow even... :) It was a sign! Of God's wonderful promises to us, which reminded and encouraged us and most definitely lifted our spirits ready to face the coming year head on with all its challenges!

This year promises to be overwhelming and full on with the wifey studying and taking her exams this year, and also for myself as I need to make some important decisions about my career and where I want to head with it.

It is also a very exciting time for some very close friends of ours as quite a number of them are expecting bubs which all happen to be due in May. This includes my best friend Nick who has been a dear brother in Christ and a wonderful encouragement to myself, and it is awesome that he is also about to be a father.

So here is to 2006, hope that it brings all of God's richest blessings to everyone, and even though it might seem to be a challenge this year, I know that it will be an awesome year as I can face it with God on my side!

Best thing too about this year is that it is another 365 mornings that I get to wake up to seeing a bright smiling Hannah, and 365 evenings that I get to tuck my precious little daughter into bed after our nightly prayer. :)

English is a funny language...

2005-12-16T21:06:00.000+08:00

Isn't it weird that a word that stems from another word can have such different meanings?

Grievances - An actual or supposed circumstance regarded as just cause for complaint. A complaint or protestation based on such a circumstance. Indignation or resentment stemming from a feeling of having been wronged.

Grieve - To cause to be sorrowful; distress; To mourn or sorrow for.

Tis a funny language eh?

Ever lost something close to your heart and it was a cause for both grief and grievance?

Break from the norm...

2005-12-14T20:09:00.000+08:00

Busselton Jetty
Originally uploaded by swang.

We went on a trip down south to Busselton with Hannah and both wifey's and my families on the weekend, and it was definitely an experience!

It was good to get away from the daily grind of life to a holiday, although it was definitely a learning experience.

Lesson Learnt 1: Do not assume that when bub sleeps through the night at home that she will do the same on holidays.

Lesson Learnt 2: When bub cries at night, do not assume that people living under the same roof will sleep through it. Sorry guys!

Lesson Learnt 3: When staying alone with bub, lights out for sleep literally means just that. Forget about doing much when bub is asleep, no tv, no talking... not much really. Bonus thing is that you can catchup on much needed sleep after previous night's sleeplessness! :)

Lesson Learnt 4: Holidays with kids are tiring! Period. I remember holidays as a kid and tiring myself out, but didn't realise that my parents were probably twice as tired trying to keep us entertained. Thanks Mum and Dad!

Lesson Learnt 5: Um, I can't quite remember what else I learnt, but when I catch up on sleep and can think clearly I'll post up some more lessons... but I guess you get the idea... :)

Lunch @ The Goose Cafe

Rib-Eye Steak

Rib-Eye Steak after I was finished with it! :)
Originally uploaded by swang.

Highlights: Lunch at the Goose with everyone was great, and was good to catchup with everyone for a very nice meal prior to people leaving to head back to Perth cos they had to work Monday. Food was great and the rib-eye steak that I had was Deeee-licious! Also another highlight was heading out alone with wifey that afternoon to visit the Happs Winery and Pottery place which we visited on our honeymoon to check out some pottery, and also to the Goanna Gallery afterwards on recommendation from the lady at Happs.

Had the most awesome Mudcake, it was a Bourbon Mudcake with Poached Pears and Cream, and the poached pears definitely complimented the utterly evil chocolate creation that was the Mudcake! Wifey got herself a nice bag, which I got credit for apparently cos I 'approved' the purchase.

Bourbon Mudcake with Poached Pears and
Cream... Mmmmm...
Originally uploaded by swang.

It was definitely nice to get out by ourselves on holidays, but we were brutally reminded of Hannah's absence when we saw this 6 month old baby girl with her mum there.

Hannah was delightful to be around throughout the holiday, even though she had a tough time sleeping through the night, and woke up several times, but when our parents left and we moved to a smaller room, she slept through the night the little angel... Typical isn't it? :)

We headed out to lunch that day when our parents left and had a nice lunch in Busselton town, and headed back for a rest, put the little one to bed and watched Mr and Mrs Smith on my laptop whilst she slept. I had to pause the movie halfway through cos I heard weird noises and it turned out to be Hannah snoring away in dreamland! :)

We then went out for a nice swim in the heated pool to Hannah's delight, and then put her back to bed whilst I headed out to grab some pizza and pasta to have in bed. Luxury! I was so stuffed I pretty much fell asleep soon after until Hannah woke for a quick feed, where I got properly ready for bed and was out like a log and didn't remember anything until I awoke the next morning.

My first question was... "Did Hannah wake up last night?" :D "Nope... she was an angel last night..."

We decided to leave one day early from Busselton to return home for some much needed rest.

Wifey, Hannah and I
Originally uploaded by swang.

Oh, and I didn't mention the lowlights... well, not much to mention seeing that the highlights pales the lowlights to insignificance, and seeing Hannah enjoying herself, and making the cutest girlie noises in the car while driving around makes them all a distant memory...

But not distant enough for me to consider doing this anytime soon though... *grin*

Thank you God for this time together with family, and for this time of rest and reflection. Even though I'm physically and somewhat emotionally exhausted prior, I praise you for giving me this time to sort myself out. I've lost sight of the important things, and now I can get focused back on my purpose in this life you have blessed me with. Amen.

Time out...

2005-11-11T01:28:00.000+08:00

Spudtrooper!
Originally uploaded by swang.

Just when I thought I had my grumpy pants off well and truly... they were firmly back on tonight... :(

Wifey suprised me with the Star Wars Mr. Potato Head 'Spudtrooper' to cheer me up, which was a nice suprise, and I managed to get the Peanuts Box Set 1 from JB's during lunchtime so we were planning to watch it tonight... however, my grumpy pants decided otherwise so... long story short, I blew a fuse, made things worse, then decided to go for a nice long drive to clear my head.

Went driving aimlessly then ended up in Cottesloe Beach to chill and regain peace... something about listening to the crashing waves always helps when I'm feeling down, and needing to reconnect to this world...

Good to get some time out when I blow a fuse...

Now I just have to make things better after the mess I made... *sigh*

Grumpy Pants

2005-11-09T21:51:00.000+08:00

I've got my grumpy pants on this week...

That is all...

Edit: Nick sent me this link in response to my grumpy pants post and it cheered me up... :)

Australian Idol

2005-10-24T20:49:00.000+08:00

Okay, so many wouldn't know that I'm a closet Australian Idol fan, actually I'm not a closet fan, I openly profess that I watch it since the Final 13 started. So to my dismay I missed out on last night's Motown show due to the early start due to the Arias... *grumble*

I did manage to catch the live verdict show tonight, well... live for eastern staters that is... and unfortunately Anne Robertson got the least votes and had to leave. However even though it was sad to see her get out of the competition, it was uplifting seeing how she conducted herself prior to and after the verdict. She was at peace and calm prior, and gracious and humble in defeat. She was asked how she felt prior to the verdict and she said to the effect of "Leaving it to God". She was truly an amazing example of how it is to live life through all it's ups and downs, and still being able to be grateful for this opportunity, and to be so blessed. She touched the lives of people in the competition, judges and the australian public.

So I wish her all the best for her future career and no doubt she will be using her gifts in singing, her personality and life to bring glory to God! And I'll be one of the first in line to get her CD if she manages to get a recording contract out of this exposure.

Anyways, my favourite is still in the comp, so... Go Emily Williams!!!

Good Weekend...

2005-10-23T15:28:00.000+08:00

Kiddy Rides and Bouncey Castle!
Originally uploaded by swang.

It's Sunday afternoon, and the weekend is not quite over yet, but it's been a good weekend so far. Managed to spend time with the girls and managed to go out to church this morning too! Incidentally Church Together is on tonight, but since Hannah is still a wee bit too young to be staying up for extended periods of time at night, we'll be listening to it on the radio instead.

Went out around noon round the corner from our place for the Vic Park Spring Fair. Lots of kiddy rides, bouncey castle and animals great and small... meaning camels and a petting stall for kids to pet ducks, goats and other cute little animals. Max was more interesting in trying to torment them so I stayed well clear whilst wifey took Hannah to have a peek.

Gyrocopter parked in the street
Originally uploaded by swang.

There was also some cars there on display, and it was the Ford RS Cosworth club. Nice cars dating from the old skool looking ones to the mordern day ones which are quite rare around Perth. There was even a gyrocopter parked outside our local cafe Farrells, and I hope it doesn't get a parking ticket! :)

Keeping cool after Spring Fair walk!
Originally uploaded by swang.

Max came along and becos he is very furry at the moment he just flaked out when we got home trying to keep cool. He just lay in the coolest part of the house which is on the tiles downstairs, but since we were upstairs he decided to come upstairs and lie on the carpet and lean next to the cold wall to keep cool. It's rather amusing and cute... silly dog... :)

Oh, and I managed to get the taxes done yesterday which is a great big load of my mind! Every year come October time is my grumpy, also PMS-like state where I also dread doing the taxes cos it usually means I have to rumage through heaps of documents trying to finish off the taxes for another year. I was amused when one of the deductions that you can claim is the cost of managing tax affairs... Does this include the treatment for mental anguish? :P Hmmm... I know I always say it every year, but I need to start it earlier or pay someone to do it for me next year... We shall see...

It's now done and submitted electronically, yay! I can get on with my life now for another year! Phew...

Cheap Cheap Diapers!

2005-10-21T23:10:00.000+08:00

Okay... so it takes slightly different things to get me excited nowadays, but my dad told me about Toys'R'Us having a sale on diapers and also a cool baby bouncer seat for half price so I popped out mid morning to the store in the city to check it out. Boy am I glad that I did!

Diapers were about just over $8 for a pack of 30 which the cheapest I've seen in the Crawler size (which Hannah is now onto) is $35 for a box of 90, so that's like a saving of about $10 which is pretty good. Also the baby bouncer seat was cool, and even though Hannah might grow out of it in the next couple of months, it was like just $30, and had cool musical and light-up toys with it, made it worthwhile in my books. And anyways, I'm sure it'll be useful for the next kid (which is planned for quite a while away yet) or to hand off to people we know who have kids younger than Hannah.

Ended up getting 4 packs of the diapers and the seat, which meant I had to carry them back to the office in 2 very large and conspicuous white plastic bags with Toys'R'Us logos on it, and boy were they heavy as well! Can't wait until Hannah is toilet trained as I hear that when your kid is toilet trained, it's like getting a pay rise! Although I think it's just another excuse to spoil her with more things... :)

Mmmmm... Fluffy French Toast...

2005-10-09T11:38:00.000+08:00

I woke up this morning feeling like some french toast... but alas we didn't have a recipe, and my mum was at church so I couldn't ask her... so I did what any other warm blooded hungry geek would do... Google the recipe! Found a nice one called Fluffy French Toast which I ended up trying from AllRecipes.Com.

It was like the one my mum made which had flour in it, which to my suprise most french toast recipes do not include... guess it was just the way my mum made it so I thought that was the way it always was... :) And it had cinnamon in it too, and it was so yummilicious! :) I had like 5 slices and now I'm stuffed...

I'm wondering how I'm going to fair when we head out for dim sum lunch with the in-laws in about an hour... :P

Which Fantasy/SciFi Character Are You?

2005-10-07T14:12:00.000+08:00

Which Fantasy/SciFi Character Are You?

I am Yoda.
A venerated sage with vast power and knowledge, you gently guide forces around you while serving as a champion of the light.

Judge me by my size, do you? And well you should not - for my ally is the Force. And a powerful ally it is. Life greets it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us, and binds us. Luminescent beings are we, not this crude matter! You must feel the Force around you, everywhere.

Yoda is a is a character in the Star Wars universe. More Yoda information is available at the Star Wars Databank.

Woohoo! The Apprentice is back!!!

2005-10-04T23:21:00.000+08:00

Okay... It's not really like me to get overly excited about a TV show, but since the last season (3rd season) of The Apprentice, where I was so hooked on the series, that the highlight to my week was the release of the new episode on Bit Torrent so I can download and watch the latest episode just after it airs in the US...

And tonight, just switching channels I happen to come across... Yes! The first episode of the 4th season!!! Woohoo!!!

Just thought I'd share the joy...

That is all... :)

Highlights

2005-10-02T22:59:00.000+08:00

A walk in the park
Originally uploaded by swang.

I know I'm tired and should be sleeping, but had to post this pic of Hannah and me today at the park. It has been dreadful weather over the past week, and this afternoon it was sunny so we decided to take a walk.

Hannah is 16 weeks old tomorrow and she is old enough to face forwards on the Baby Bjorn so she had fun looking around today during our walk. She has the sun in her eyes so she kept squinting, but when she was in the shade at the park, she was quite happy. She met quite a few of Max's friend's owners and was quite chatty to a number of them.

She's so cute, and even though I was tired the last two morning,s I'd always rush to get up to go greet her in the mornings as she's always so happy to see us first thing in the morning... and squeals with delight!

She is such a cute little darling that even if I was dead to the world, I would drag my tired sorry bum out of bed in a zombie-like state and go and see her first thing in the morning... :) Heheh... I'm sure that is why I'm feeling so tired lately... ;)

Tiredness...

2005-10-02T22:31:00.000+08:00

Been a while since my last post... and I suppose it's because I've been tired from the last weekend which was a long weekend, and the week just seemed to drag on even though it was only a 4 day work week...

Managed to rest most of this weekend, and it's Sunday night, and I still seem to be tired... hopefully I'll snap out of this tiredness phase soon, cos it's beginning to wear me down... Gosh I hate feeling this unenergetic!

The weekend was great despite the tiredness, and got to spend time with the girls, and managed to get some sleep in between spending time with Hannah. I suppose I'm letting myself get some rest and have a bit of down time, as it's been a while since I let myself get some rest, cos it's been go! go! go! since Hannah arrived and with starting the new job, that I think it's beginning to catchup with me.

Anyways, best be off to bed for an early-ish night so that I don't start the new week being tired due to my own undisciplined lack of sleep... :) Will post some catchup posts to fill in on the last couple of weeks when I'm less tired this week... hopefully... :)

What Video Game Character Are You?

2005-09-26T20:50:00.000+08:00

What Video Game Character Are You?

I am Mario.
I like to jump around, and would lead a fairly serene and aimless existence if it weren't for my friends always getting into trouble. I love to help out, even when it puts me at risk. I seem to make friends with people who just can't stay out of trouble.

Max is a CAT!

2005-09-18T15:17:00.000+08:00

Watching the world go by
Originally uploaded by swang.

Yeah, well we've been commenting how cat-like Max is, cos he tend to use his paws to grab things and swipe things like a cat, and yesterday he proved to be more cat like than ever before by using up about 5 of his 9 cat lives...

I went out to the local Gloria Jeans coffee place to get more coffee beans as I was out, so I decided to take Max out for a walk there to get my beans. When I got there I was in the process of tying his leash to a pole when I accidentally released the catch to his collar and he sprinted off! I panicked and tried to call him and he just darted to and fro between car on the busy street and I was sooo stressed and thank God that most cars were travelling slowly and stopped for him. The worst thing is that everytime I took a shot at grabbing him that caused him to run back across the street!

I finally got him when he spotted a little girl and went up to her for a pat and sat down in front of her when I grabbed him and hugged him tight making sure he couldn't get away... I was so traumatised that I just put his collar back on and walked him and didn't get my coffee... I kept replaying the incident back in my head on the way him and realised when I got home that I was quite stressed still and had a big frown on my face and took be a further hour before I calmed down a bit...

It made me realise how much the little brown mutt meant to me and I was so annoyed with myself for being so careless, and no doubt I would not let that happen again... EVER! I fact I felt so happy that he was unhurt that he got to sleep upstairs in our bedroom last night, but in his bed on the floor, and he was so good that he stayed in his bed all night and didn't try and come up to our bed to sleep...

Bless the little mutt... :)

Day off!

2005-09-12T17:56:00.000+08:00

'Objects in mirror may be cuter than they appear'
Originally uploaded by swang.

Had my first day off since I started my new job, and since I get time off in lieu, I've clocked up enough hours to take a whole day off... Yay!

This was a planned day off as Hannah has her 3 month checkup at the child health clinic and also her second lot from her first set of shots. She's grown heaps and is nearly 6 kilos already and almost 60 cm long. Then off for a short joyride as we were early for the GP appointment then she got her shots... and boy did she wail!! And this was before she had the shots... :) Little girl cried her eyes out, but I held her tight until she calmed down and then she fell asleep the little trooper...

So she doesn't seem to have much ill effects from the shots and it was nice being home with her on my own for a change... Good times... oh, and I managed to watch Oprah as well which is a bonus... :)!

Incidentally my folks left for their trip on a Holy Land tour to Israel and Egypt which is great as they haven't been on a trip on their own other than to Singapore and Malaysia to visit family for like decades! Hope they have a great time on the trip, and pray that God will keep them safe and grant them journey's mercy on their holiday. I called up my folks before they left and Hannah was speaking when I was talking to Mum, and almost brought Mum to tears as she was missing Hannah already, and even suggested that she cancel her trip. :) Brillant thing is that my folks will return with lots of stories and experiences to share with Hannah, and great when telling her bible stories cos they would have visited those places! How cool is that? :)

Changes...

2005-09-11T11:45:00.000+08:00

Lovely day out by the South Perth foreshore
Originally uploaded by swang.

Just when we were getting into a routine, things started to change again... Not all bad mind you...

This week marked a few milestones, firstly Hannah turned 12 weeks, secondly, Ming returned to work, thirdly, I became the taxi driver, and last but certainly not least, Hannah is sleeping through the night!

Wifey and furball
Originally uploaded by swang.

After my exciting weekend, wifey was still down with the flu so she stayed home to rest on Monday, but I still took Hannah to my parents place to give wifey a bit of a break, poor wifey also managed to burn the inside of her mouth so she's feeling very uncomfortable eating and all, so it certainly doesn't help the difficult process of returning to work, but it is getting better, and she made it to the end of the week.

Dropping Hannah off at my parents place before work and picking her up again definitely challenged my time management skills this week, but I'm proud to say that I still managed to keep focused this week at work, and even think that I accomplished much more this week seeing I was so focused at getting my work done so that I can leave earlier to go pick up Hannah.

Max and I pumping iron... Beefcake!
Originally uploaded by swang.

Big news is that Hannah is sleeping through the night, and she's been sleeping til 6:30am each morning when we wake her up to put her in the car to go to my parent's place. This weekend she slept until 8am!!! She has been an absolute angel this week sleep wise, and feeds well even though she's dropped down to 4 feeds a day which might be premature, but she is gaining weight and happy so we'll just keep an eye on the feeding situation.

Honey, can I please have some money for
an ice cream?
Originally uploaded by swang.

This behaviour made us risk venturing out yesterday, and we were probably a bit too ambitious, as we ended up going for a 2 hour long walk to Coode Street in South Perth and back via the foreshore. Hannah slept for most of the way there and grumbled a bit, however it was such a beautiful day, and wifey and I both enjoyed the much needed time together as a family (and dog...)

We even managed to have ice cream from the takeaway place at the Boat Shed Cafe/Restaurant, and thought on our return home that Hannah is going to have one of her difficult days, but she managed to get back to sleep with a little bit of crying beforehand.

Dave, Julia and their new baby...
um I meant our new baby...
Originally uploaded by swang.

Our friends Dave and Julia managed to finally drop by to see Hannah (in person, cos as Dave says "The blog is a bit one dimensional" heheh). The little angel woke when they came which gave them a bit of time with her, and she managed to feed well, have lots of cuddles with Dave and Julia, and even managed to drool on our guests!

It's been an amazing week, with loads of changes, and I even came close to losing it on Friday night, but thankfully a couple of good friends who gave their ears to my whinging, a good night's sleep and a lovely weekend has made me feel a lot more refreshed ready for the week ahead. Although something makes me certain that the little prayer that Hannah and I prayed on Friday night had something to do with it... Praise God for listening to and answering our heartfelt prayers!

1st Father's Day...

2005-09-04T21:49:00.000+08:00

Happy Father...
Originally uploaded by swang.

Well, it is my first Father's Day, and even though Hannah's still too young to run into my room, jump up on the bed and make a racket to wake me up on Father's Day, she still woke me up this morning... :)

In fact she must have somehow known it was Father's Day, and was very kind to me as wifey is still down with the flu and I took over all duties today, and she was an absolute angel... well mostly anyways... :) I woke up at 6am to her grizzling, but she didn't actually wake until about 7am which is probably a record for her. She was so happy to see me when I went in the room to get her, and she drank the whole 160ml's I gave her and went back to sleep until 11am. Which gave me an opportunity to catchup on sleep the little darling! :)

Fed and bathed her and back to bed, but no sleep for her, however she just lay in bed talking to herself for about an hour, with short yells just to let us know that she's not happy... which rather than being annoying, was quite cute and girly shrieks! She slept til about 4, drank all her milk again and was so well rested that I braved a walk with her and Max, then back to bed and managed to sleep until we got back from dinner.

Incidentally we went for dinner with my folks and sis, and wifey didn't make it cos she was not well still, but since it was only round the corner from our place we rushed home to see Hannah before she slept. She was so excited to see my family, especially my mum who was talking to her, to which she tried to respond in the cutest little noises and gorgeous little facial expressions! I videotaped the entire scene and it just made wifey and I gush watching her trying to communicate with my mum, dad and sis.

She's soooooo cute! :) and my first Father's Day was an absolute joy, and can't wait to experience the next 365 days before my second!

Awesome Day!

2005-09-03T22:19:00.001+08:00

My 1st birthday! with Hannah...
Originally uploaded by swang.

It's been an absolutely awesome day today, and I feel truly blessed after being spoilt today for my birthday!

Wifey wasn't feeling well yesterday with the flu, but soldiered on this morning and woke for Hannah's 5am feed, then brought her in to the room to wake me up early to wish me a happy birthday and give me my pressie! Yay! Finally! And it's an awesome gift! It was the cool Luke Skywalker Lightsaber that I was coveting and blogged about ages ago!

I played with it for half an hour before going back to sleep and sleeping in until 9ish. Woke up the little one and spent some quality time with her as she woke up, then fed, bathed and put her back to sleep. My darling wife went out to pick up the cakes and some supplies for the arvo even though she was feeling unwell with the flu.

My mum-in-law (bless her!) came round to help out with Hannah so that wifey can get some rest, and I managed to take Max out for a nice run. The weather was so great, and I had a good time running around the park with Max!

Hannah and my new toy!
Originally uploaded by swang.

Then people starting arriving and it was great catching up with everyone over cakes and coffee, and people even brought gifts! And awesome gifts at too! Thanks everyone for coming around and making my day so special and for the awesome gifts! I'm not usually one to want to make a fuss about my birthday, but my dearest wifey, even though she wasn't feeling too well went the extra mile to make sure everything was ready for people, what a trooper! :) Love you babe, and thanks for making it such an awesome day for me! It was really special and words cannot express how touched I am by your efforts and also by everyone else that showed up to help celebrate me surviving another year! And it was extra special as it was my first as a dad.

Incidentally, it was Katrina's birthday as well, and she came along too! Happy Birthday Kat! It was great to be able to celebrate our birthday's together this year, as I've always been taking Nick(she's Nick's sis btw) away from her birthday parties to come to mine! :)

Our friends Zan and Aik got married today, and even though we couldn't make it to their special day, our thoughts and prayers are with them today on their special day, and hope that God will continue to bless them now in their new lives together. Apparently it was an awesome wedding and the weather was great for it too!

It's hard to top our anniversary a few days back and my birthday today, but with my first Father's Day just a couple of hours away, I'm sure it'll be another wonderful day spent with the girls! Woo Hoo!

Night out

2005-09-02T00:41:00.000+08:00

Cocktails
Originally uploaded by swang.

Left Hannah with my folks for the day, which is the usual Thursday routine for the past month or so, and wifey went out shopping and to do other stuff.

We headed out for a nice dinner, just the two of us as Hannah was still at my parents place, and we headed to the C Restaurant in the city which was great! It's a revolving restaurant on the 33rd floor of St Martin's Tower and you get a great panaramic view of Perth at night which was great! Decent sized portions and the novelty of rotating around the kitchen, lifts and bathrooms was amusing. We definitely have to go back during the day as I think the view would be nicer during the day.

I had the quail for entree, which I thought tasted like chicken but heaps smaller and thus more difficult to eat with a knife and fork, and a nice beef fillet for mains, and a yummo Baked Alaska dessert. It's an italian meringue, filled with Cointeau ice-cream, and some citrusy syrup. It came with some liquor, but the darn waiter tipped it all over the baked alaska and lit it up! Burning off all that sweet alcohol... *mutter*

Wifey had the gnocchi for entree, duck for mains and sorbet for dessert. She originally wanted fresh fruit for dessert, to which I hassled her about how fresh fruit is what you get free at chinese restaurants and suggested the sorbet instead. Needless to say I ate most of her dessert as well... heheheh... yum!

We ordered cocktails, well wifey had a mocktail, and I had a yummy chocolatey creamy cocktail called a Tolberone. Had Baileys, Cream de Cacao, Kaulua and other yummy stuff and it was great.

It was a great night, and we took a leisurely drive back to my folks place after to pick up the precious little girl who apparantly was an angel today. She must be turning on the charm to suck up to the grandparents eh? ;).

P.S. Wifey got me a little gift for today as I've been bugging her about my pressie, so I'm still getting it on my birthday and not a minute sooner. Oh and today's gift is the Gold Edition of SpaceBalls! WooHoo!

Anniversary...

2005-09-01T13:25:00.000+08:00

It's our 4th wedding anniversary today, *YAY!* and gosh it flew by quick! We must be having fun! :)

It's been 4 great years, and now we have a little munchkin as part of our family which makes us more of a family than just a couple... (correction... sorry Max! We were a family when you came into our lives so don't sulk okay, you cute litte brown furball!)

Love you babe! and can't believe it's only another year before we can celebrate the first of the multiple of 5 anniversaries! *yay*

Incidentally, wifey retracted the offer of giving me my all-in-one (anniversary/birthday/father's day) pressie today, so it'll have to wait til Saturday...

Vrooooooooooooom!!! Go-Kart Fun!

2005-08-30T22:41:00.000+08:00

Went Go-Karting with the guys from work tonight and it was fun! Haven't been karting for a long while so it took a while to get back into the swing of things, but after a while I was wearing a grin from ear to ear and screaming loudly going around corners and giggling like a schoolgirl when I *gently* nudge people... :)

It was a work do and so we headed out for dinner beforehand at a local Irish Pub in the city, and I had lamb shanks and a middy of Kilkenny beer... Mmmmm... yummo! And I thought of Max as wifey gets him a lamb shank just about every week... how come the dog eats better than I do? *grumble* ;)

Good to get out for a while, but felt a tad bad as the girls were home on their own and I got home close to 10pm, but wifey was very understanding... I managed a big stack and rammed into the barriers and got the kart and my right foot stuck in the barrier, but no damage to myself... yet... but we shall see in the morning... :)

Countdown to BlogDay 2005

2005-08-25T00:19:00.000+08:00

Came across this and thought I'd post it as it could potentially be interesting...

What is BlogDay 2005?
(Taken from http://blogday.wikispaces.org/...)

BlogDay was initiated with the belief that bloggers should have one day which will be dedicated to know other bloggers, from other countries or areas of interests. In that day Bloggers will recommend about them to their Blog visitors.

Seeing the end in mind, in this is day every blogger will post a recommendation of 5 new blogs. In this day all Blog web surfers will find themselves leaping and discovering new, unknown blogs.

pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="150" height="150">

So effectively people post on their blogs on BlogDay, a recommendation of 5 new Blogs such that people who visit those blogs will in turn find another BlogDay post where they can dive into a cyclic recursion of links and discover a whole new world of ideas, views, attitudes that bloggers around the world share with their online readers... Cool eh?

It's on the 31st of August 2005, and I've included a cool little flash counter counting down the days before BlogDay. Instructions are on the link provided above... Happy Blogging! :)

smiles

2005-08-23T23:53:00.000+08:00

Just finished feeding Hannah and put her back to bed... Not unlike most other nights for the last 10 weeks or so. Been rather tired lately, even though I don't think I've been letting my brain know about it, as I feel fine, but people have told me that I look tired so I'd better work on trying harder to convince my body that I'm not tired... :)

Even though I might be tired, it's been an absolute joy since Hannah came into the lives of my wife and I. I enjoy coming home from work to see the girls and look forward to the weekends. I was tired before I fed Hannah, but have been given a boost seeing how good she was feeding, she drank most of her milk, and went back to sleep. When I tucked her in, she was sleeping peacefully, then cracked this most gorgeous smile from ear to ear, which made my heart melt and the tiredness evaporated... *gush* :) I said a quick prayer with her and she smiled at the most appropriate times during the prayer. Sometimes I think that she understands more than what we give her credit for...

I'm sooooo looking forward to planning stuff to do with her as she grows, doodling with crayons, making up and singing silly songs, dancing around like fools with the radio blaring away, going to the park running around with Max, heading out to cafes drinking coffee with wifey, watching the world go by while Hannah enjoys her babycino... long car rides for holidays down south, plane rides to destinations afar... nice walks on the foreshore on beautiful Perth days, swimming lessons at the local pool, camping trips roughing it out in 5-star luxury as ordained by wifey... :) and oh all the cool geeky nerdy stuff that her dad so enjoys... ;)

Church, junk food, walks and screaming baby...

2005-08-22T01:18:00.000+08:00

Lovely day outside...
Originally uploaded by swang.

Managed to make it out to church today, and it was great. Hannah slept through most of the worship as usual, and stirred during the message. I took her to the baby room which was packed today, must be baby season... :)

Had KFC for lunch which was a nice change seeing we haven't had it since Hannah came along, and it was the wifey's suggestion too! Yum, I can still feel the oil running through my arteries... Lazy afternoon followed by a nice walk with Hannah and Max. It was the most lovely weather outside today, so we enjoyed the walk, although we paid for it later... :(

Can we go out? It looks nice outside!
Originally uploaded by swang.

Hannah slept in the Baby Bjorn for most of the walk, then refused to sleep when we got home and pretty much cried and screamed until about 8:30pm... so there stress in the household. We even had my family over for dinner as well as the bro-in-law and his girlfriend, and felt a bit bad as wifey was stressed and baby was screaming, and I was feeling a bit stressed from the combo of the two...

But it's all cool now, as it always does end up... Bub is sleeping and so is wifey... it's 1am and all's well... :)

Happy Birthday Dude!

2005-08-20T23:53:00.000+08:00

Darth Vadar Cake
Originally uploaded by swang.

It's Nick's birthday today, yay! Happy Birthday Dude! And many happy returns, I pray that God will continue to bless you richly and use you mightily in His good work, man! :)

We went round to his folks place for cake, which was very nice of them to invite us, and we packed the Cheeky Chicky (my new pet name for hannah) and the wifey in the car and headed off there. We made a few detours trying to find a cake place and both the Jean Claude Pattisaries in Subi and Wembly were shut so we went to Herdies Market to the Bakehouse there to pick up a cake to take along.

Nick's birthday cake was baked by his sister Tanya, and she bakes the most awesome cakes! He got a Darth Vadar cake (see pic) and it was the yummiest chocolate cake! Incidentally we set him (Vadar) alight for birthday rituals, but wasn't he burnt first before he had to wear the big black heavy suit and mask? :P

Nick was hassling me about my birthday pressie as wifey has already gotten it and I know it's arrive as the cleaner called me up at work when it arrived to tell me to let wifey know that it got here... Heheh... wifey not impressed with the leak of information, but I'm still none the wiser about the contents of that package. Even Nick and his wifey knows about it, so I must just put it out of my mind and not think about it for the next 2 weeks... Which is going to be hard! :)

Nick's pressie was a Sony PSP which we all chipped in for, and the consolation to my birthday pressie mystery is that he'll have to wait until the 1st of September before he can get his PSP as that is the official Australian release date. :) But at least he knows what he's getting... *grumble*

LEGO Show!

2005-08-14T01:10:00.000+08:00

If I keep really still and grin, the spider mi...
Originally uploaded by swang.

Went to the LEGO show today, and it was pretty cool. Learnt a bit about the origins of LEGO and also a bit about the manufacturing process.

Interesting Factoid 1 : LEGO is produced in Denmark. The production of LEGO elements in Denmark takes place in Billund. Approximately 4000 people are employed in Billund. Half of these are working in production.

Interesting LEGO Factoid Display
Originally uploaded by swang.

Interesting Factoid 2 : Moulding. In the moulding department on "Kornmarken" there are 725 moulding machines. The moulding machines are supplied with plastics granulate via a pipe system above the machines. In the first section of the moulding machine the granulate is heated to 235-250 degrees centigrade. When the granulate has melted, it is pressed into the moulding form and cooled down with water - then the moulding form opens and out come the moulded LEGO elements.

Interesting Factoid 3 : Granulate. Plastics granulate is delivered by suppliers from Germany, The Netherlands and Italy. More than half of the granulate is ABS in the main colours of red, blue, yellow, black and white. Delivery takes place in the tank lorries, and the granulate is filled on big silos at the factory. Plus many other types and colours are used - in total approximately 250 variants. This granulate is delivered in containers with a weight of up to 800kgs.

What the Falck? :) Retro LEGO...
Originally uploaded by swang.

And I didn't make all that up... I took a picture of the display and it had all this information so I zoomed into the photo and retyped all the interesting facts. I'm bummed cos I realised that I should've taken the other display about the guy that came up with LEGO, and he used to make toys carved out of wood, and then progressed onto making LEGO when plastics became a bit more ubiquitous in the world. Although I did take a cool pic of a box of one of the original LEGO and it was pretty retro looking...

On the home front, Hannah has been put onto a tough love policy at home to try and get her to sleep more. We realised that we've been picking her up early and she hasn't been getting the sleep that she needs so now we're going to let her cry and not pick her up. And gosh it's the most heart-wrenching experience for wifey, and it's beginning to get to me too. I can usually let her cry and not take too much notice, but I think she's beginning to work hard at getting my heart to break hearing her cry for extended periods. I must be strong! I MUST! :) Poor little girl... I hope she forgives me eventually...

I mean once she learns to get herself back to sleep, and get more sleep, and grow physically and mentally, then everyone wins! That and if she sleeps through the night, then we would have crossed another milestone where we may return to semi-normal life. So everyone's support and prayers would be appreciated during this difficult time... well, difficult for wifey and I anyways...

I'm still keeping my chin up and staying positive though! :) And still having the time of my life... oh and did I mention I've been really looking forward to coming home each night and to the weekends to spend quality time with the girls? :)

Fresh Digital Start...

2005-08-08T22:44:00.000+08:00

Blue Screen of Life?
Originally uploaded by swang.

It's been a busy but good weekend just past, and since my laptop has been flaking out a bit lately, I've decided to wipe it all and reinstall everything and get the new windows smell... Mmmmm... :)

Not without spending most of Saturday backing up all my stuff including pics, mail and other misc. stuff, then reinstalling it that night with some dramas. Firstly I had slipstreamed service pack 2 into a WinXP install disk that I had, but when I used that to reinstall, and it asked me for my product key, I flipped my laptop over and typed in the product key... hmmm... wrong key... turns out that the version that I had was for a volume licensing version which the NEC OEM product key didn't work for... Doh! Ended up digging up the product recovery disk from NEC to reinstall windows then manually installing the service pack after... *grumble*

Also when I did finally get windows installed it asked me to activate so I did it through the internet, but said I had an invalid product key... Hmmmm... I suppose it made sense, I mean the key was used to initially install windows, and now it thought that I used it on a different machine so a quick call to microsoft should sort it out... wrong! Their IVR telephony system was crap, I mean the announcements were incomprehensable... If you've watched the Peanuts cartoons on tv, it sounded like the adults talking in the cartoon... "Bwah bwah bwah bwah... bwah bwah bwah bwah... press 2..."

After the third time through the options I finally managed to get through the right channel, typed in a long stream of digits provided by the computer then talked to some indian dude who finally sorted me out. I thought I'd do everyone a favour and tell him about the faulty telephony IVR system and he said "Thank you sir, we'll fix it... Good Bye!" Yeah like he was going to something about it... :P

Max chilling out...
Originally uploaded by swang.

Anyways, laptop is back up and running, even managed to reinstall most of the important stuff like the digital camera software and even found an update on the Canon website so the new proggy is even better than before! Going to go easy on the re-installation and only put back what I'd actually use... :) This all happened yesterday and Max the little furball sat quietly behind me in the office and slept while I spend a lazy Sunday afternoon getting my laptop back to life... :)

Oh, and Hannah had her jabs today, 2 in fact and some polio drops... poor little precious girl of mine screamed a bit, but was fine after... what a trooper! She's a brave little one and I was thinking about her quite a bit today at work even though I was flat out again... I even had a chat to her before I went to work to let her know that Daddy will be praying for her and she'll be fine and be a brave little girl... I get all gushy talking about it now... :)

Weekend... Yay!

2005-08-05T22:06:00.000+08:00

The weekend is finally here, and it's been a challenging and tiring week, not in a bad way, but in a good one. Finished my first week at the new job and it's been pretty good. Been flat out all week and it's just flew by, which means that I wasn't bored and it's been pretty full on, but I'm slowly finding my feet again and definitely looking forward to the weekend.

Not too sure what is planned for the weekend, however it's just downtime and good to spend it with the girls and catching up on much needed rest.

Fulfilling but tiring week

2005-08-01T00:34:00.000+08:00

Mission Impossible: Fit that into car with pram
Originally uploaded by swang.

Mission accomplished!
Originally uploaded by swang.

Here is where I hid more stuff
Originally uploaded by swang.

Well it's been a while since my last post as I've had a really full week. Been out with the girls almost every day this week, and am paying for it now... :) Exhausted ourselves yesterday even though we had time out without Hannah, but we ended up going shopping and buying a whole heap of stuff for Hannah.

Note to self and other new dads, do not go shopping with new mum without new bub, as money will be spent on bubby and heaps of it as well... :) Target was having a toy sale and it was the last day so we decided to buy Hannah's Christmas gift and my sister decided to do the same. We had heaps of fun, although after the purchases and wheeling the trolley it began to dawn on me that it might be a challenge putting all the stuff into the car. But in a similar fashion to solving some kind of Rubik's puzzle, I managed to squeeze everything into the car as shown on the photos and even managed to put a trolley of groceries in after the other stuff was in the car as shown in the pics. :)

We even spoilt ourselves and bought the Star Wars Trivial Pursuit game which covered all 6 movies and had 2 DVD's which is cool as some of the questions are on the DVD and is interactive. We went over to Nick and Diana's place for dinner last night and managed to play a bit before packing everything up quickly and heading off as the girls were exhausted.

Managed to rest most of today and took on more feeding and caring duties for Hannah today whilst wifey rested, and went out for dinner at the local Thai place to celebrate my sister's birthday which is during the coming week.

Starting my new job tomorrow (or more like later today...) so that should be fun. Especially seeing it's back in the CBD which means that I can catchup with friends that work in the city and head into the city for a touch of retail therapy during lunchtimes.

Persistence

2005-07-24T01:05:00.000+08:00

Max watching TV
Originally uploaded by swang.

Well, that kinda describes how we've been living the last few days, Hannah has been unsettled in the evenings up until about the midnight feed so we've been trying to be persistant in trying to settle her and not letting it get to us. I mean we haven't done anything wrong or out of routine, she just has been unsettled around the evenings and awake. Maybe she's a night owl like her dad who just stays up late at night for the sake of it... :P

Went out to my inlaw's place this arvo with the girls which was nice, as it was Hannah's first visit there, and I think my mum-in-law was quite happy that she was visiting... :) She had even more fun trying to feed her this afternoon when Hannah woke up! I was more than happy to go out with the girls as even though it might be difficult getting out and settling Hannah outside the house, our persistence in this matter will only serve to make things easier in the future once Hannah gets used to being out so that we can carry on with our lives and not be confined to the house. Yay!

My family came over for dinner and even brought dinner to have with us which was nice, and Mum managed to feed Hannah again. Great that both mums are enjoying time with Hannah which means that soon we can just show up at either mum's place, drop off Hannah then head out for a movie or something... :) Shhhhh... it's a suprise babysitting, so don't tell them! :P

Max has been quite good lately, even though the poor thing has been ignored at times, but he's been a bit sulky at times, and tonight he was just sulking on the couch and watching TV so I couldn't resist the photo opportunity! :) He's so cute! Think we are so blessed to have two cute little ones in our lives, which tend to make this trying and tiring time more of a joy to experience.

"I Will Be Here"

2005-07-18T01:11:00.000+08:00

It's been a busy weekend, and spent a bit of time out of the house with the girls which was tiring, but fulfilling all at the same time. Went to church this morning and also visited my folks place with the girls in the evening and stayed for dinner. Looking forward to taking Hannah to both sets of grandparent's house to visit and to settle her there as she'll be spending quite a bit of time there when wifey heads back to work in early September.

Was playing a CD for Hannah that I made a while ago which included christian artists/songwriters and one song had words that were particularly meaningful to me at this point. It's called "I Will Be Here" by Stephen Curtis Chapman and I thought I'd share it with everyone.

I Will Be Here
By Stephen Curtis Chapman

Tomorrow morning if you wake up
and the sun does not appear
I will be here
If in the dark, we lose sight of love
Hold my hand, and have no fear
'Cause I will be here

I will be here
When you feel like being quiet
When you need to speak your mind
I will listen
And I will be here
When the laughter turns to cryin'
Through the winning, losing and trying
We'll be together
I will be here

Tomorrow morning, if you wake up
And the future is unclear
I will be here
Just as sure as seasons were made for change
Our lifetimes were made for these years
So I will be here

I will be here
And you can cry on my shoulder
When the mirror tells us we're older
I will hold you
And I will be here
To watch you grow in beauty
And tell you all the things you are to me
I will be here

I will be true to the promise I have made
To you and to the One who gave you to me

Tomorrow morning, if you wake up
And the sun does not appear
I will be here
Oh, I will be here

It is particularly meaningful as it's the sort of reassurance that a little child needs from their parents, that they will always be there for them no matter what. It also reminds me that Hannah is a gift from God, and especially my responsibility as a parent... "I will be true to the promise I have made, To you and to the One who gave you to me"

Out and about...

2005-07-17T01:00:00.000+08:00

It's 1am and all's well...

Hannah is asleep after her midnight feed, and wifey and Max are sleeping. Almost time to wake Max for him to return to his own room for sleep... :)

Busy and eventful day today (yesterday I mean, seeing it's after midnight...), packed the girls in the car to make Ming's hair appointment, and I took the opportunity to walk Hannah in the pram around the artificial lake in East Perth, whilst Ming got her hair cut. Afterwards we popped over to my sister's apartment cos wifey hasn't seen it since the painting and new carpets, and furniture and other stuff, and it was Hannah's first visit! She had her noontime feeding there and we drove through HJ's to pick up some lunch. A big day of firsts for Hannah. Yay!

After coming home and bathing Hannah, I sent the girls to sleep whilst I did a spot of shopping. Got a few essentials and a cleaning cloth to clean the interior of the new car. Finally managed to wash the car for the first time since we got it, and it was pretty late in the day so it was dark by the time I finished. Mental note, wash car earlier in the day, cos it's difficult and cold trying to dry it in the dark. We shall see in the morning how good a job I did. :)

Also I've decided that I will not get the Mugen NR wheels that I lust after as just cleaning the stock wheels with the 5 spoke design was a real pain and the Mugen NR wheels are a 10 spoke design which will be double the pain trying to keep them looking nice... :)

Tomorrow we're returning to Subi church since the arrival of Hannah which will be great, and off to my parents place in the mid afternoon with Hannah for some time with my parents and dinner with them too! Hope things wind down at work this week so that I can take the rest of the time off before I start the new job.

Sad day :(

2005-07-14T23:30:00.000+08:00

On my way to work today, Ming called me up with the sad news that her grandmother passed away early this morning. It was a difficult situation as I know that my wife's heart was deeply aching from the loss, as her grandmother moved over to Australia with her family when they migrated over here.

She spoke a dialect which I grew up with, Hokkien, which meant that I could converse with her during my the time when I was dating Ming up to the time when we got married. She had some minor surgery on her back which was troubling her a few years back, and then returned to Kuching to be with Ming's aunt. We were able to visit her last year when we went back to East Malaysia as part of our holiday, although she was not very mobile and could not speak due to a minor stroke. We are all saddened by this and she will be sorely missed, and I especially feel for my mum-in-law and her sister in Malaysia.

I will always think of her fondly as this little old lady who walks around the house wearing a sarong and likes to snack on chips in front of the telly. Po po we will all miss you, and know that you have returned to be with your Lord. It is a pity that young Hannah will not have anyone in that generation in her life, but she will be filled with stories by her grandparents about the lives of her great-grandparents and all the difficult times they went through which was part and parcel of growing up in their day, such that she will be able to know and appreciate her roots and how fortunate she is to grow up in this day and age.

Some things can wait

2005-07-14T00:59:00.000+08:00

Like my desire to be a project manager... My current role at the client site is to be a pseudo project manager for trying to get a call centre implementation finalised. I find it frustrating chasing up people to do things, and waiting for things to get done such that other things can be done following that. I feel like I'm a nag, and I now remember a comment someone made earlier in my career that stated that if you don't like your project manager, then he/she's doing a great job! *heh* I'm too nice to be a decent enough project manager... "Nah, it's okay... just do it when you get time... I know you are busy..." :P Phooey...

Glad to have made it home after a reasonably long day at work, to be greeted with a screaming baby, and frustrated wifey. Hannah was more unsettled today and seems to be going through a growth spurt and thus being more hungry and out of routine. I quickly took Hannah off mum to give mum a much needed break and tried to sort Hannah out for the rest of the evening/night. It's now 1am and all is well, bub is finally back on routine, fed and tucked in for the night. Raining outside so if she's like me she'll have a decent sleep... Hopefully... :)

Wifey's grandmother in Malaysia is not doing too well and so the in-laws are heading back to Malaysia. Everyone's a bit stressed and saddened by her condition, and I would appreciate some prayers with regards to this matter. That things will turn out for the best and in God's plan, and for comfort and peace for the family as they return to see her.

It's late and I'm not going to be coherent anymore so it's sleepy time now...

Shopping Day!

2005-07-11T23:46:00.000+08:00

Well, it wasn't planned, but I was on my lunch break so I decided to head out to the local Big W cos wifey saw a cool book to get to us to read to Hannah, it's the Peter Rabbit collection of stories, 14 in all I think and it was for sale at Big W. Went to the Riverton shops which was closest to work, and spend a great deal of time looking for the above mentioned book.

This led me to look at a whole heap of other kids books and it was really cool. Never really looked at kids books before, I mean like I really had any reason to before, sure the language was probably more at my level of reading than Shakespeare, but even then I didn't have a reason to browse before. Anyways I ended up buying another book similar to the ones Nick's family got Hannah, which was a nice velvety textured red cover, and the one I got today was a purpley one. Thought she might enjoy the texture of the book while we read to her.

Also bought a big thick book of nursery rhymes and other stories which should last us a bit, I mean the reasons are probably such that we don't get bored reading the same stuff over and over again, but I'm sure Hannah doesn't mind repetition at this stage. And I did manage to find the book I was chasing in the first place and got that as well.

Went to Woolies Supermarket and bought a whole heap of Coke which I ran out of ages ago, but never got around to getting more. And Huggies diapers were for sale! w00t! I've been told not to buy anymore newborn sized diapers cos Hannah is now about 4 kgs so she might need the next size up in a few months and we have a stockpile of newborn Huggies already. But alas the Infant sized Huggies do not come in the bulk box pack. They have newborns, crawlers, toddlers, walkers, but no infants... so no diaper purchasing happened today... *sigh* I did manage to get Hannah a pink Bonds wondersuit and she looks absolutely adorable in it!

Funny how my shopping now revolves around Hannah, and not little cool toys for myself... :) And I don't mind one little bit!

Full Moon Celebrations

2005-07-11T01:21:00.000+08:00

Proud Dad!
Originally uploaded by swang.

It was Hannah's Full Moon celebrations tonight, or more like last night seeing it's now past midnight, but the little one is fast asleep and so is mum, and the brown furball behind me.

It was 3 days shy of the full 30 days which is a lunar month which is why the celebrations is called the Full Moon celebrations... yeah the asian culture is whacky and cool all at the same time. :) This means that the little one and mum is now allowed outside the house officially and all privileges revoked after the birth is now to be reinstated... :) Now all this sneaking around can stop... :P

Everyone at the dinner seems to have fun, and I had a quick speech and said grace before the meal but I forgot to thank people specifically, so I'm using this forum to get my thanks across. To the mums, all 3 of them, my mum, mum-in-law and my wifey... thanks to both our mums for tirelessly cooking for Ming and I throughout this confinement period and delivering it to us. We are well nourished throughout this period thus far, and more than likely overnourished... :)

And to my lovely wifey who carried Hannah to term, enduring the discomfort, sleepless nights and general not-so-nice things that go along with pregnancy, as well as continuing to nurture and nourish Hannah through feeding, changing, reading to her and playing with her.

To the dads, they are the unsung, unmentioned heros who like me try and help out the mums, but try not to get in the way... heheh... :) Thanks dads!

And all the support and concern of all our other family and friends here and overseas who make us feel as though they are carrying us through this tiring and trying times when things get a bit much for both of us.

That is all I can think about in my tired state...

Long week

2005-07-08T23:12:00.000+08:00

Hannah sticking out her tongue at Uncle Nick!
Originally uploaded by swang.

Well, it's true. Can't remember who it was that was telling me when Hannah first came along that I won't be tired initially, but I'll start to hit the wall at about 4 weeks, and this week has definitely been tiring.

Apparantly the first few weeks we were running on adrenaline of excitment, and now we're just tired, or I am at least. Been going too hard trying to make sure I'm a good father, husband, son, brother and employee, and I think I'm doing a decent job of most roles... :) But the jury is still out seeing I'm not coming from an impartial standpoint. :P

Anyways, Nick and Di got home safely on Monday, and they were back at work on Wednesday. Young Nick's company got bought out (yet again) and he got a new job, well same role but new company, and they are now paying him closer to what he's worth... (No, not $2... I meant more than previously... *heh*) So things are looking up for him as well which is great news. Nice to share the joy with what's been happening to me lately.

Hannah's Ferrari Bear!
Originally uploaded by swang.

Nick and his wifey bought a special gift for Hannah, which I'm really excited about, cos it came from halfway across the globe from Rome, and to top it off it came from the offical Ferrari store!!! It's a cute little teddy bear with a red scarf, leather jacket with a Ferrari branded patch stiched on, and cool leather driving hat and goggles! How cool is that!?!? Thanks guys, I promise to teach her to appreciate and understand the significance of the prancing horse.

P.S. Glad the weekend is here, might head out with the girls for some outside time, and may drop by my sister's new place which is looking swish now that it's painted, had carpets changed, furniture and electrical goods moved in... :) Now all she has to do is finally move in!

Photo fun!

2005-07-04T23:03:00.000+08:00

'Official' flickr Badge... :)
Originally uploaded by swang.

It's official... well not really... Came across this Badge Maker which lets you 'Make your own (unofficial) flickr badge. Print it out, laminate it, wear flickr with pride! Show the world how truly photographically geeky you really are!'

Hmmmm... that pretty much describes me all over! ;)

But seriously, I've found that flickr has been an excellent way to share photos and is easy to use and makes blogging with photos a breeze, which is probably quite unfortunate for people who actually read my blog. 'Honest! I read it for the articles/entries!'... Heheh...

Old Times

2005-07-04T22:20:00.000+08:00

Baby Hands Free Kit! :)
Originally uploaded by swang.

Had some spare time at work today whilst waiting for the servers to get upgraded with latest service packs etc. so since I didn't have internet access on the client site, I decided to read my old personal emails from way back.

The prodominant emails that I was reading was between my best mate Nick and I around the time when I first got married. He was working around the corner from where we were staying at the time so he was parking his car in our driveway so we got to see him quite a bit during that time. He was still unmarried at the time, but was engaged already and our conversations covered a wide range of topics, but scattered through them were the topics of being newly married or soon to be married.

Mostly it was just amusing useless banter where I was disillusioned with work and was in the process of starting my own company, and Nick trying to get motivated at his work with learning new stuff cos the current stuff was quite boring. Loads of car-related stuff and amusing musings about my dirty pool and dramas with tracking a package which contained a much coveted cold air intake for Nick's car.

Most memorable was when I replaced all the heater hoses in the MX5 with Nick, and we went for a spirited drive around the area which included some unplanned sideways action and eventually mounting the curb sideways with all 4 wheels! :)

Funny how I remember those conversations and events clearly in my mind even though it was more than 3 years ago, and it was interesting to see how both our views of marriage and parenthood seem to be unchanged even though we've matured in our marriages. We're both optimists in our view of marriage as illustrated from the results of the pre-marriage counselling session called 'Prepare', but it's good to see how far we've come over the years.

Incidentally the email reading was prompted from the lack of convo with Nick as he and his wife is on the last leg of their 4 month long epic journey around the world, finishing in Europe and is currently on a plane back to Perth as I type this. And now that the travel bug is out of your system guys, and according to the Wang timetable of procreation, it is now time to 'Go forth and multiply!' :)

Tiredness sets in

2005-07-03T18:29:00.000+08:00

The Princess and I
Originally uploaded by swang.

It's been a long weekend, or maybe it's just because it seems longer than usual. I was glad it was the weekend as it means that I can spend more time with the girls, however I've been more tired as I think working this week meant that I had a break from the routine of feeding and settling Hannah.

Both the wifey and I were dead tired yesterday which meant that tensions were a bit high, however we just had to take a bit of time out to realise that we're both not very effective parents when tired so we decided to just chill and let things slide a bit and get more rest.

After a good nights sleep, it was much better today, and we both managed to get some rest, and some self-enforced rest for me as I find it hard to nap during the day, and I would normally find something to do. Just realised that I had to force myself to rest otherwise like all those baby books we've read, I'll get overtired and then things will go pear shaped real quick for me.

So I guess 3 hour feeds and sleep for me will do me wonders as well, such that Sammy will be a happy little bub and not a cranky grumpy old man like he's been recently... :)

2 degrees of seperation

2005-07-01T20:51:00.000+08:00

Perth's a pretty small place I realised, especially in the IT industry. Yesterday I bumped into a person at Microsoft that I met on a training course years ago, and he didn't remember me, but rather a person that attended that course that we both knew. Also bumped into 2 ex-colluegues that were working with me at Computer Associates ages ago, one here at the client site that I'm working on, and another on the train.

At the same meeting at Microsoft I bumped into someone who attends BSF(Bible Study Fellowship on Monday nights) with me and is in my same class. And just today around lunchtime I bumped into someone else working here onsite who used to be in the same BSF class with me and caught up for a bit. Small world eh? Oh, and did I mention I bumped into anothor person who is good friends with my sis-in-law who is working here too?

I've always said it was nice that Perth is like this, but just don't offend anyone, or do bad work in the industry cos it might mean that you won't be able to get a job in this city again... :)

Slept like a baby

2005-06-29T22:49:00.000+08:00

Got an email today on one of the joke lists that I'm on and it was even funnier now that I'm a parent. It was titled 'Ever Wondered?' and is basically statements about some irony which starts with 'Ever Wondered...'. The one that I particularly found amusing was 'Ever wondered why is it that people say they "slept like a baby" when babies wake up every two hours?'

Heheh... it's sooo true... I guess nowadays the wifey and I are sleeping like a baby... Hannah, we try and sleep when she sleep and wake when she's awake.

---

Ever wondered...

Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are LOW?

Why do banks charge a fee on "insufficient funds" when they know there is not enough?

Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?

Why doesn't glue stick to the bottle?

Why do they use sterilized needles for death by lethal injection?

Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard?

Why does Superman stop bullets with his chest, but then ducks when you throw a revolver at him?

Why do kamikaze pilots wear helmets?

Whose idea was it to put an "S" in the word "lisp"?

What is the speed of darkness?

Are there specially reserved parking spaces for people at the Special Olympics?

If the temperature is zero outside today and it's going to be twice as cold tomorrow, how cold will it be?

If people evolved from apes, why are there still apes?

If it's true that we are here to help others, what are the others doing here?

If someone with a split personality threatens to commit suicide, is it a hostage situation?

Do you cry under water?

How important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered?

If money doesn't grow on trees then why do banks have branches?

Why does a round pizza come in a square box?

How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?

Why is it that people say they "slept like a baby" when babies wake up every two hours?

If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing?

Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?

More changes...

2005-06-27T19:41:00.000+08:00

Showed up to work today and just stuck in the deep end of things, had to hit the ground running. Good bunch of people at the client site, although I was a bit distracted with my mind on other things. What has been burdening me over the past few weeks even through the joy of the birth of little Hannah was the prospect of a career change. I've been going to a few interviews and the first one I thought was an excellent prospect however I didn't get the job, although was encouraged by the company as they said I interviewed well, and was pipped by someone who was more suited.

Went to another interview on Friday and was a small company similar to the current one, who made bespoke software, which is a fancy way of saying they do custom software development. They mainly concentrate on VB.NET development and coming from a C#.NET background I was confident I would not have too much of a problem, and they gave me a simple test which was an exercise to load data from a spreadsheet into a listview control. I could have done it in 5 minutes if it was in C#, but seeing I was not farmiliar with VB.NET, I struggled a bit at first, but looking up the help files and internet it was pretty straightforward. Anyways to cut a long story short I got an offer today from them and I'm taking it. Praise God! As I mentioned one door closed for me before and another one opened up! Conditions are good as well, forty hour week, four weeks paid holiday per annum, flexi-time, paid overtime, six monthly appraisals, etc. and not to mention more pay, but the work will be challenging and will work well into my new role as a parent.

The only downside is that I didn't have a fun time telling my boss about it this afternoon, as he is struggling from a resourcing point of view already, and this definitely does not help. However the uncertain stream of work and also prospects of work interstate and overseas does not interest me at all with the arrival of Hannah, I think I am at peace with my decision even though right now I feel like I've had my stomach ripped out and run through a strainer. Feel like I'm doing the wrong thing by my boss, but I need to consider the needs of my family ahead of my boss who has been treating me well over the past 3 years.

Now trying to co-ordinate the smooth transition for my boss so that there is some continuity with the person who is going to replace me, and oh I need to get back to the new guys about my start date and to tell them that I want the job! :)

Hope I feel better about it tomorrow... *sigh*

Back to the daily grind

2005-06-26T23:23:00.000+08:00

Max lazing in the sun
Originally uploaded by swang.

Well, I knew it was too good to last but I'm heading back to work tomorrow. Been dreading this for the last few days as I've been settling into the routine of being a new parent, and now I have to head back to work. I mean it's part of what life is about, and also my role as a parent to make an income to help support my family, however it's still pretty heart-wrenching the prospect of being away from home for those 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. *sigh*

Been a lovely day today, the weather was great, and I even managed to bathe Max. Max takes a bit more effort to bathe than Hannah, although he was quite good and just stood there for the duration of the bath. Only time he struggled as usual is when I try and put that ear stuff in his ear, then he puts up a huge fight. Otherwise he's been quite a good dog, and has been quite placid and chilling in the sun as seen in the pic.

The last 2 weeks have been amazing experience wise and spending time at home with wifey, Hannah and Max just makes it that much harder to face the prospect of going to work tomorrow morning. It's times like this that I wished that I won Lotto, not for the cool stuff that I can buy, but rather that I can spend time at home with the girls and Max.

I'm sure once I get back into the swing of things at work, it'll become part of my daily life, and it'll make me more focused to get stuff done at work such that I can leave on time so I can rush home to see the girls. Oh well, we'll see how bad a case of Monday-itis I get tomorrow.

Feeding Hannah

2005-06-26T00:44:00.000+08:00

Hannah looking for food!
Originally uploaded by swang.

It seems like a long time since Hannah's been around, but it's only been just under 2 weeks. Just getting used to feeding her, and the usual routine of trying to wake her up fully so that she will feed well.

She's quite an inquisitive little one, and her eyes dart around the room looking at things, and it's nice when she glances up at me when I'm feeding her and hold her gaze. Who know what she is thinking, her thoughts, dreams, ideals... just hope that wifey and I give her a good environment for her to be a self confident independant little girl who is well adjusted... I mean isn't that what all parents want for their kids?

Still coming to grips with being a parent, and realised that everything changes when one becomes a parent. I mean I didn't have an expectation prior to becoming one, except that I know it was a great responsibility, and that there will be great changes, but I never expected how much things change. Perhaps it's because it's still so new that I'm embracing it and trying to enjoy each and every moment, including the not so nice bits like nappy changes, but my priorities have changed completely.

The pic is from the first week still in hospital as I didn't get many pics today. I thought it was amusing that she instinctively tried to look for food at my chest but found nothing. Cute! Although it was probably frustrating for her.

And before anyone should ask why I have a rude word on my shirt, it's FCUK for French Connection United Kindom. In hindsight I probably shouldn't have gotten the singlet, but it was cheap from a factory outlet place in Singapore, and you know how much I love a bargain! :) My mum asked me about the lettering on this singlet a number of times so perhaps I should retire it to the status of pyjamas.

New Pram! Take 2!

2005-06-24T19:55:00.000+08:00

Three wheeled monster!
Originally uploaded by swang.

Finally went back to BabyLand in Osbourne Park to return the first pram and choose a new one. The original pram we got was a Steelcraft Swivelrite Deluxe, and it was too large for the boot of the Accord, so the nice lady at BabyLand who I spoke to last week on the phone about my dilemma helped me choose another one. Her name is Wendy and she was really helpful so if anyone wants baby stuff go see her.

Anyways I ended up deciding on the Valco Runabout Deluxe, and it's schweet! I got the Deluxe model cos it was cooler, not to mention it's got cool alloy wheels as seen in the picture... Heheh... although I can't confirm or deny that was the clincher... *grin* Most importantly it's a lot easier to fold than the Swivelrite, and lighter so it'll be easier on the wifey.

Also ended up getting a Baby Bjorn baby carrier (Thanks to my sister Agnes, bro-in-law Basil and nephew Marc for the pressie!), it'll make it easier to go shopping with Hannah, rather than pushing the 3 wheeled beast through the aisles. Although I'm a bit conflicted cos the parking spots at the shops for parents with prams are very wide and I would park there, but if I'm not using the pram, can I still park there? I mean it's labelled "Parents with prams", and technically I am now a parent and I own a pram, so I suppose I can get away with it... ;)

swangle

iPads in Emergency Health...

Cake 2 - The Fulfilment of Purpose

Customer Service Done Right!

Cake!

Poor Man's Cloud Backup

I'm living in the 'future'...

Bluetooth tether iPad to iPhone in iOS 4.3 without jailbreak

Church 2.0

What's inside those LEGO Minifigs?

Hannahsaurus Rex! *ROAR*!!!

Life in the cloud...

Remember the time...

Project: Cinderella Jackson

The Joy of LEGO

Technical Evolution of swang - Computers

Technical Evolution of swang...

Mobile Blogging Fail!

Alive and kicking...

Single Dad...

Lock up your daughters...

Update...

Quick Change Artists on America's Got Talent

The Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments

My V8 Supercar Experience... Vrrrooooomm!

Proud Fathers...

Ryan Nicolas Takayama is born!

Waiting in anticipation...

Evolution of Dance...

Java...

Sad Loss...

Interesting Physics Problem...

In-car antics...

Find rest in...

Scwheeeeeet!

Marketing Strategies...

Two Chinese Boys...

Hot Dog no more...

Tree... Be Gone!!!

Engaged!

Technology imitates life

Sign of the times... :)

FYI...

Life's little suprises

Dinner out with good friends

Interesting Revelation...

Woohoo! The Apprentice is back!!! Again!!!

Update...

What is your WARNING label?

Double Take...

新年快乐

Retro Nerdy Geekiness!

Lunchtime Sillyness!

Lego Church

Happy New Year!

English is a funny language...

Break from the norm...

Time out...

Grumpy Pants

Australian Idol

Good Weekend...

Cheap Cheap Diapers!

Mmmmm... Fluffy French Toast...

Which Fantasy/SciFi Character Are You?

Woohoo! The Apprentice is back!!!

Highlights

Tiredness...

What Video Game Character Are You?

Max is a CAT!

Day off!

Changes...

1st Father's Day...

Awesome Day!

Night out

Anniversary...

Vrooooooooooooom!!! Go-Kart Fun!

Countdown to BlogDay 2005

*smiles*

Church, junk food, walks and screaming baby...

Happy Birthday Dude!

Hannahsaurus Rex! ROAR!!!

smiles