My first daughter has officially decided to join us in the world now! Â She was born on July 19th at 11:44pm at 7 pounds, 1 ounce and 19.5 inches long. Â It took about 30 hours of labor and a last minute c-section, but everybody is happy and healthy now. Â She came out absolutely perfect!!
More photos can be found here: Â https://photos.smugmug.com/Family/Baby/
So, Connie and I just got back from a really great, 8 day trip to Maui. Â I think that was just about the right amount of time for a trip like this. Â It was long enough to get a nice relaxing break, but short enough that I didn’t feel like I was itching to get back home.
Part of the sunset view from Upcountry Bed and Breakfast
So, I just got back from PAX Prime 2010 and my company’s unveiling of Firefall. We spent a lot of time getting everything polished and doing all of the planning for this announcement, but the time spent was all worth it.
Most of us from the company were flying out to Seattle the day before the opening of PAX. Even just sitting in the airport we had people talking to us and trying to get information! Unfortunately, all we could really do is sit there and smile when asked about what we were announcing!
PAX was a lot larger than I expected it to be. I’ve been to several other conventions before, but this was the first PAX. There were gamers everywhere you turned! It was great to see that PAX isn’t just a press event and really seems to be focused on the gamers and fans. And it’s not just gamers of one type, it’s catered to gamers of all types. Everything from PC and console gamers to D&D, trading card games and everything in between.
Large chunk of the Firefall team
Well, today was fairly exciting for me. Â I finally went out and bought my first Macro lens. Â I probably splurged a bit more than I really needed to, but I can’t help it! Â New toy! Â I got the Nikon 200mm f/4.0D ED-IF AF Micro-Nikkor. continue reading…
I recently found myself in the position of needing to refresh my skills in a programming language that I haven’t used in nearly a decade. Â That language is C++. Â I’ve been happily living in the world of managed languages for the last 10+ years. Â Going back and learning a systems language like that after all this time has really made me appreciate managed languages like Java and C#. Â There are so many things in the development cycle that you take for granted in managed languages. Â It’s been really refreshing diving into something so low level.
So I just borrowed an Apple Mac Mini to try out before making the leap of purchasing one. Â The machine itself is quite a bit slower than what I’m used to for dev work (2GHz, 2GB of RAM), but I like the Magic Mouse. Â It took quite a while to get everything setup and installed (Snow Leapord, XCode for OSX and iPhone/iPad, Photoshop, Lightroom, VIM, calibrating screen, setting up Wacom tablet, etc). Â Most of the day, actually. Â But now that everything is up and running I’ve had a bit of a chance to poke around a bit. Â For the most part, I’m enjoying what I’m seeing. Â Compared to the Linux installation I was using earlier today, this is much more polished. Â It will take a while to get used to having the menu bar at the top of the screen and I’m not sure that I’ll ever like that particular “feature”, but it’s entertaining enough. continue reading…
There has been a lot going on this year, a lot of change and intrigue on every front. Some very large things going on in my personal life and a lot of excitement around my professional life. Today being Thanksgiving, I figured it’s time to step back for a minute, pause, and be grateful for everything that life has given me.
Today was the inaugural 2009 Irvine Lake Mud Run. My friends Lutz, Svetkins and Anthony along with my girlfriend, Connie, were in the race. Me and Ekaterina, Svetkins’ wife, and Chamarra (sp?), Anthony’s wife, were there for moral support and picture taking. Other than having to wake up at 7:15 in the morning on a Sunday, the day was a lot of fun. It was neat seeing the general excitement level of everybody and some of the outfits that people were wearing! There were a few Hooter’s men there, some Superman clones, a guy in a full business suit and everything in between.
I’ve been a PC guy for the last 21 years. I’ve been exposed to computers pretty much my entire life. I got my own computer when I was about 8 with an old Wang computer that had a daughterboard in it that allowed it to emulate IBM PC’s. After that I migrated through a ton of new models until we get to today. I’ve played with just about every operating system I could get my hands on and I’ve developed software professionally for a million different variations of Windows, Linux, UNIX, AIX, etc. I’ve used Macs periodically during that time with my most in-depth experience being when I was in high school in a computer lab of old Macs running OS9 that I helped maintain. I must say that time didn’t instill in me a sense of fondness for Apple.
This is basically a test. I’m still getting all of the blogger software setup and DNS propagated. I’m not entirely sure what I’ll be doing with this space, honestly. I’ve been contemplating setting up a blog for some time. It’s mostly a matter of content. I’ll be posting the occasional rant or general thoughts and ideas about photography, software development and life in general. It’s intended to be a place for me to help get my thoughts organized. If somebody else finds it interesting or useful, well, all the better!
Be sure to check out my photographs as well!
