Valentine, this October, is going to be upgraded from "Only Child" to "Big Sister".
( Read more... )

Before becoming a parent;
Me: Hey, you did something with your hair, it looks nice.
Her: Thanks! I had it done today.

After becoming a parent;
Me: Hey, you did something with your hair, it looks nice.
Her: I had to wash _shit_ out of it today. Shut. Up.

Yesterday (Thursday) For breakfast I snagged a nectarine out of the fridge. Nommed on it as I was heading to work and *CRUNCH* part of the pit had broken off and... wait thats not pit thats... tooth. Oh. Tongue says "Hey, that's part of the molar"

Was near my dentist, so I swung in, since it was hurting like mad. Oh, the cavities on this tooth made it weak, There isn't much there, we're sending you to a specialist (in two weeks) to have it removed so we can put a crown in properly.

Soaked up on asprin and coffee, made it through the day. This morning, got into work and... Holy balls was it hurting. And not just slightly. Like "This is the root password to my server, please stop with the owies." hurting. Went to the nearby dentist. Grumblemongoed through the new patient paperwork. "I'm boring, no allergies, no medical past." And they get me in a chair, do X-rays and... "Yes, this is really bad, we can either pull it, or root canal." Well, its getting pulled in a week anyway, so I have them do it.

My dentist at the time was this rather small and "comedy helps when you are dealing with a hurt huge guy" guy. "This is novacaine, it's going to sting... please don't hurt me." (I must have been 3x his mass.) After a bit, my face fell off.

Well, he gets the power tools out, starts to get the whatever dental prep work one does, and gets a good 'ole grip on my tooth. He pulls, he leans... *KA-RUNCH-squish!!* and a very frantic, very high speed flurry of What I think Was Korean erupted from him to his assistants. Somehow, fifteen pairs of arms, and seventy four pounds of machinery are inserted into my mouth, and eventually all the tooth shrapnel and so on are removed.

Eight stitches and five pounds of gauze in my three-pounds-of-gauze-capacity-mouth later, A prescription for happy go giggle drugs, and I'm back at work.

So yeah, go get your teeth checked.

Candy is pregnant again. Valentine is going to be a big sister in 2012.

There, that is out of the way.

Its still sinking in. I'll admit, that even now, 19 months after being handed the "daddy" hat for the first time, I'm still amazed there's this little bundle of cute who runs up to me and goes "Daddy!" when I get home from work. I keep looking at her and go "Oh... I know your dad. He stares at me in my mirror."

This rocks. Its going to take me a good while before I realize that I'm no longer just "Valentine's Dad" I'm going to have /another/ one going "Oh hey pop. I'm going to yank on your hair too."

My wife is awesome. And well... Life was meant to be awesome.

First off, initial repaint and rebuild of the River Song pistol;


Removed the spring and black back piece. This won't fire anymore. But the slide still works, and the barrel bit is orange out the back, so definite "Toy Gun" Repainted the clip to white as well, might use it to hold the batteries for the LED, once I decide if I'm doing it or not. Couldn't find a place to stick a switch that would put it near enough to use the orange trigger. I need to detail it and so on. /WAY/ big compared to the one that is in the series.



Finished the "steampunk" gun. Don't know if I'm going to add more to it. But its basically finished until I can think of something else to do with it.

Working on a few "using my hands, no code, no computers" projects. First one is nearing completion;



Wholly original "Steampunk" gun. In progress. This is my first one, and you can see, I left the "N-Strike" logo on the front part, and the "Maverick" name beneath. However, I did sand off the obvious "NERF" logo. two coats of primer to cover the day-glow orange and yellow, two coats of paint, taped off and in sections. The front piece, is the primary lens of a dead projector. The top bit in the back is a "long range site" from a different gun, with the light spreading lens from the same projector. Removed the firing action (the trigger is actually glued in place) So this is valid for con-cosplay rules. (Man, conventions have a /LOAD/ of rules about fake weapons.)

Second one, is a definite WIP;


Here you can see one with an original. (The sights from this one are on the other gun above) I've sanded off the n-strike logo on the grip, removed the "NERF" swoosh, and the gun model off the sliding part. This is eventually going to be a similar mockup to River Song's "Alpha-Meson" gun from Doctor Who.

However, this will be much bigger than the "real" prop. I just like the look of this gun. I'm going to remove the black piece in the back (And the spriings/trigger mechanism, so it won't fire.) and perhaps wire up some nerdistry inside. I have an LED from the underbarrel-extension targeting sight (Supposed to be a "laser" but its a red LED with a cheap plastic lens. Perhaps I'll keep the "clip" mechanism whole, so I can store batteries/circuits in it.

Candy finished Valentine's great costuming project last night. The final pieces of Doctor #6 were finished.

( And lj-cut, because its a huge image )

Hey internet friends, Anyone been to the Maker Faire? (particularly the Bay Area one, which I realize limits the number of people this applies to.)

Is it something that can be done in one day, or do you really need both days to grok in fullness?

So... last night on the way home, the alternator in the truck died. And then one by one, electrical systems started going "Oh.." and dials on the dash started plummeting to zero. I Kept going, since the engine was running and at the time I Wasn't certain if it was Battery or Alternator, and wanted to limp as close to home as I could. Got just south of San Jose and the car wouldn't accelerate very well. Okay, no big deal, no real traffic, I'll just maintain speed, I'm doing 75.. Made it just shy of Morgan Hill, and I can't even maintain that very well. Just as I was getting to the south edge of morgan hill, I can barely keep the speed from dropping, and I have no instruments at all. For all I know, power brakes and steering are next. (note; as long as the engine is running, you have both. Something I did not know for certain at the time. However, with a failing power system, I had no guarantee of having the /engine/ for long either. ) And being behind the helm of a 3600 pound skateboard doing 65+, is not where I /really/ wanted to be. I don't doubt my ability to most likely bring the truck to a safe stop without power... I just don't want to ever need to know, from experience. So, last exit of Morgan Hill, I pulled off and looked for a lot. Lets park while we can still keep the truck under control.

Good thing. At the stop sign of the off ramp, I couldn't get it out of the intersection. Give it /ANY/ gas, and the engine sputtered. Okay, so some ginger tapping of the clutch, gas, and luck, and I got it rolling. Hit the hazard blinkers and... not a wibble. Hopped out, put my shoulder to the door frame and kept it rolling into the near parking lot.

Left a note on the dash. "Not abandoned, dead battery. (my phone number)" and hiked into town where Candy picked me up.

8th Doctor.... like a boss.

"So they said to me... Can you play a Timelord?"

( The rest of the tale under here... )

So, a weekend previous, Candy and I went down south again, not for a Doctor Who convention, but more enjoyably, a sight-seeing/thrifting extravaganza.

The trip down was interesting. An hour south, and we stopped for gas. In the station as Candy was picking out some road-drinks, two college kids pimped off their "South?" sign. Turns out they were trying to get to San Diego during their spring break. From Chicago.

Their eyes said they were honest, and they seemed quite cool with us not taking them. So we said "If you can stuff into our little car, we'll take you. That's how we met Becca and Alessandro.

Fuck yeah. We picked up hitchhikers.

Four hours of driving passed in minutes, stories were swapped, in-n-out burger was had, and generally we dropped them off further south than they even expected to get.

We crashed for the night in Oxsnard, at a Vagabond Inn. Huge suite for not-so-huge $$. Oh sure, wasn't a Nine-Star hotel, but its The Vagabond Inn... A+++ Would fall asleep listening to all the noises in every other room again.

Next day, started the explosion-of-thrifting at OxSnort, and went WHEEEE down the rst of the 101 to hollywood.. Ooops. rain. Wtf?

Spent the day driving in the rain from shop to trendy shop to goodwills and thither and yon. Saw the "HOLLYWOOD" sign. Several big studio frontages. Walked along Hollywood and Vine, saw stars on the sidewalk, placed my hands in several handprints infront of Grumman's Chinese Theater... (either I'm a giant, or those handprints aren't actual size.)

Also, we worked out why CA Drivers are "OMG HORRIBLE DRIVERS." Down in LA, people were friendly... just so long as they weren't in their car. Put someone in a car, and it was like they got a happy-meal full of douchebaggery.

Thrift stores are a bit interesting. Candy tells me there was this Jimmy Chu Shoe guy on the shelves. But I don't know who he is, I'm very dumb when it comes to shoes. A lot of the DVD's were "FOR YOUR (award) CONSIDERATION" (Emmy or so, I don't know)

Generally, it was a blast. Trip back was a lot seemingly longer, no hitchhikers to help speed time with.

Candy had a brilliant idea for a blanket;



(Our first try with iron-on anything, so I sort of singed the blanket in one place. But hey! Prototype!)

Plus, Val loves sleepin...

Captionable Rogue picture;

"SOON!"

While out thrift shopping and so on, I found, and acquired a 5.8 METER sail. (Meant for a surfboard.) I... couldn't resist... it was $6. (Note; 5.8 on them does not mean "5.8 feet tall" it means "5.8 METERS tall" Holy Bernoulli...


A /windsurfing/ sail. I'm also looking for anyone who can help me track down force equations as to how much pull per square whatever per whatever in wind... I'm curious as to how much force its ready to throw at me.

Fast forward (if you are impatient) to 4:16




(or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_X6vYnCCTk&t=4m16s )

That's Val, with my big mongo mountain self behind. Also, a lot of the "lobby" scenes, we are just off camera left.

So... We invaded LA. With a whole bunch of other Who fans. In 48 hours, we drove 12 (covering 628 miles, round trip) And stuffed a week worth of Convention Awesome into 16 hours of HOLY SHIT THAT WAS FUN. (its a 3 day con, but we managed to somehow make it feel like a week.. wtf)


YOU NO CAN DRIVE MY TARDIS ANYMORE MOMMY! I LIKE THE *WHOOO WHOOO WHOOO* SOUND.

( Rest of the story here... )

Going to Gallifrey One this weekend.


Valentine is ready to meet Peter Davison. (We were checking the fit of her costumes last night. She's going as both Doctor #5 and Doctor #11)

Picked up a Nook Color last night. A few minutes of jiggery pokery, and its now an Android tablet. Need to get used to the OS and so on, but whoooooo what a bucket of awesome. (Thank you hon!)

One thing I've loaded onto it, is a Calorie Counter and exercise tracker. Since leaving Y! I've been lax in working out, and my weight and fatness has crept upwards again. Start tracking how much I can have, calorie wise, and just go from there.

I'm watching files copy from array to array over here, and going "Gah... twenty MINUTES to copy?" Then my old man brain goes *KER-WHACK* and I realize its moving at 155MB/sec.

twenty years ago, that would be like copying my ENTIRE hard drive... 35 times a second. My first HD was a STAGGERING five meg in size.

Every trigger fire of my D70 writes a file that big... it'll do that four times a second. And only that slow because the /physical/ shutter recycle time. and this is a six year old camera.

I have in my backpack 1.8TB of drive space.

I remember when "Wait, how big is a TB?" was a reasonable question because of how rare it was to even CONSIDER a gigabyte, let alone 1000 times that.

My first computer had a staggeringly massive 16kb ram, and had 4kb of space for user programs. I often write emails larger than 4k.

I can go to the store and get a 160GB iPod that will own every song I have ever listened to. And will take four months of playing it 24/7 for me to hear every single one.

I have a device in my truck that lets me know to within /SIX FEET/ my precise location on the planet. I have a device in my pocket that can let me talk to anyone, as long as I have their number... from almost /anywhere/ to almost anywhere.

I remember when Intel bragged that their CPU did one instruction for every man, woman, and child in the USA in 3 seconds. Not so long ago.

Any of the eight CPU cores in my desktop can emulate /multiple/ simultaneous instances of that CPU at 100% perfect speed, without breaking a sweat. I sincerely have NO IDEA how many instructions per second are ripping through the computer just two feet from my keyboard...

The future is /awesome/.

Happy Monday y'all.

Was a fun weekend, did some outlet mall shopping with the Mrs, and some wonderfully theraputic Hanging Out with pmfr and quiche. (OMG DJANGO EYES GO BOGGLE WTF?) Out Hanging has been rare these past few weeks, and we tried to get some in. Sunday, the groovy Mr and Mrs Astolpho came by for hanging out, art, and dinner. That was quite the blast as always.

DroidTablet continuance....

Okay, I've been checking around online, been nerding about these things for quite a while, and to be honest, I think I'm going to get a "Nook Color" from Barnes & Noble. Apparently all it takes is a Geek Sneeze at it, and its one of the most powerful android tablets on the market. (CPU of the Droid2/DroidX, clockable clear up to 1.1ghz) with the display of the Samsung Galaxy S/Tab tablets. Only things it is missing to be "the perfect device" for my needs is a camera (eeh, I have a cellphone with a camera, and really? How often am I going to use it?) and a microphone for skype. (There /IS/ a bluetooth chip on the board apparently, just no drivers for it. So possibly microphone via bluetooth some day?) Multitouch capacitive screen works great, anything that runs on the Samsung Galaxy runs on it.

I'm such a nerd.

Gallifrey-One is coming up this weekend. OMG WHO NERDING!! I am going to be four buckets of fanboy in a three-buckets capacity shirt. Taking the offspring in her Doctor #5 costume to meet... Peter Davidson.

There will be so very much awesome.

Watched "Paranormal Activity 2" tonight. Was a good movie and a fair "prequel" to the first one. I /do/ like the fact of the deep rumble cue.

( Spoiler, for any parent like me who found themselves going 'er.... um...' at the movie trailer )

All in all, definitely a good series. And I'm not normally a fan of the Ooga Booga shock horror surprise surprise shakeycam.

So, I was putting Valentine down for bed, walking her around the kitchen, Candy was in the living room reading, when one of the toys in the Noisy Box went off. (The Noisy Box is where all of Val's electronic toys go when its bedtime, so that nothing gets accidentally Interesting.)

She leaped up and reached down into the box to grab the offending toy.

And set off /every/ single toy in the Noisy Box.

She crumpled to the floor in a giggling heap, and there I was, holding a dozing toddler, trying /very/ hard not to bust up laughing and wake her up.

I think we unlocked another parenting achievement.

Thanks for the feedback yesterday guys. While its available for $150, I'm not one to splurge on it if it doesn't suit my needs, and handwave/rationalize away the parts that aren't what I want.

As it sits, the droid X /does/ fit all my needs in a device. However without getting it on the phone plan, its /way/ out of my budget to get. Not in a position to get one on the phone plan right now, so don't go there.

The Samsung Galaxy tablet? Yeah, gorgeous as hell, I'd love to have one, but F'ing HELL NO on the price.

I've seen a few droidx's on ebay with bad ESN's. (basically, the phone is banned from the carrier due to either the phone owner never paid the bill, or the phone was stolen) But given "Bad ESN" is like saying "Yeah, this xbox is banned from xbox live." really crimps things. Plus hell, if I had one, I'd want to use it as a /phone/ too.

But I digress.

I'll keep my eyes open...

http://www.frys.com/product/6488512?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

Does anyone out there have one of these? The Coby Android tablet. I am /very/ interested in getting one. Nearly got a droid phone, Eric was over after FC, and got to dook around with his, making me /really/ interested in the android platform.

Cons: No Camera, No GPS, No Bluetooth.
- I have a camera, GPS and don't use bluetooth.
Pros: Trivial to root, easy to add more storage for, standard connectors, and is a smaller form factor than the iPad.

It would be great to have for reference books here at work, as well as other internet-tablet features. Plus I could haul a load of photos on it for other things. (Like Candy's costume construction ideas, and other things. Hey, I'm a proud poppa, I would put my girl on it in a heartbeat.)

SO...

Anyone out there have one, or have hands-on experience with one?

For those who don't know. That's my "on the laptop" pose. She's flicking the buttons in this sort of "I'm typing too!" way.

( and it was her birthday yesterday.. (the 26th) )

There is a box of chocolates on the counter in the break room, with a "$1 each" sign for someone's kid's school. Open, nobody around it... and the envelope is full of money. Nobody guarding it, nobody counting to make sure you buy and take only what is right.

So we took the backdrops out tonight and took a few pictures of Val;

So I present here,

The Littlest Kraken


( And more under here... )

Momma in her Matching Pirate PJs says;

"HATERS GONNA HATE!"

( Val says 'hayters gonna hayte!' )

Valentine has found a new sound that she loves. Candy has dubed it her "Val-lociraptor" sound. Perhaps its part laughter, part... adorable cuteness.



And then Candy had the brilliant idea to see the little one smile. A test lap around the kitchen and she was a bucket of smiles who wanted to do more.



It was fun, we laughed, I found out that the stove does not move when backed into at speed. I shuffled, she laughed, it was adorable.

I'm going to solidify the forum tonight.. by tonight I mean "I'll start on it later tonight, but I may not actually launch it live for another day or two."

1: The "Jack" forum will contain threads for the current arc, side arc, and a "Generic Jack Discussion" New threads will be created as they are deemed necessary.
2: Posts per page and threads per page have been dropped to 30. (from 100 and 50 respectively)
3: A general "Creative" forum will be put up, with subforums for writing, roleplay, and art. These can contain "Jack" content, but are not required to.
4: A sticky somewhere with a "Post here" to identify spammers/bots versus real people... For those who aren't much for posting, a simple "I am not a bot." should be sufficient.
5: Moderator applications will be available once Candy finishes them, the interim between launch and new moderators, the current moderators will continue. (Rafe, for purposes of this, you will have moderator status.) I believe there is a "are you currently a moderator" question on there too...
6: I want to do something special for folk who donate, either through a regular subscription, or one-off donation. The forum will not be a "pay to enter" of any kind, nor will donations get you access to any "donators only" content. However I am up for a "What would you see as a fair "token reward" for donating?" discussion.
6B: Dave and Candy are working on a special in-canon Jack project that will be available for people who donate. No idea when it will be out yet, it is still In Production.
7: OTHER webcomics, wether I host it or not, I might start allowing a subforum for that comic. I have not decided on how yet.
8: I will clean out the old stickies.
9: The ban on Politics, and other hot topics will be lifted. Assuming that the discussions remain civil.
10: We have a 9mo old, we apolgize if it is not up right away. We're all just getting over colds, and things will be back, when we get them back up right.

Valentine was starting to stand on her own, she'll be walking soon at this rate...



Yes, my hair, I'm used to the Toddler Makeover.

Had a blast with her a couple of other places this weekend, I'll post about them in another entry.

As a few of you know, the Jack forum is offline. I took it down last week at Dave's request.

There has been quite the influx of commentary, and rather than just leaving the forum offline, I'm going to put something back up. The community that has built itself around the forum is special to many people and we want to accomodate that while keeping Dave's wishes intact. I've discussed with Dave a few times, and have come up with a few things.

( omg a cut, just because it might get to be a wall of text )

We were adventuring this weekend, went to Salinas, and found in the "Goodwill" a Snugli Backpack Carrier. Frame and all.




Giving it a try.

( More under here. )

And just when you thought the Rainbow Elephant was bad...

( WE REGRET NOTHING! )

"What's that? Why am I dressed up like this? I don't get it..."

( Ah...I'm going to the Faire... )

My amazing Mrs D got a whole collection of cookbooks from her grandmother. She asked me today to pick a random one, and she picked a random recipe from it to cook.

( Food Porn, Day 1: Chinese Spring Rolls )

WE GIVE FOOD TO BABYFACES!



And yes, she does say "Momma" in there. And yes, I've tried the foodthings, they taste just like you'd expect. Perfectly Normal.

"How to tell you are a dad when.."

Last night, Candy mentioned that "Sometime early next year, I want to take (Valentine) to go see Barney Live."

My first response was "Oh cool," After all, Val loves watching Barney on Netflix Streaming.

Then I realized, I just said "Oh Cool" at the prospect of going to go see "Barney Live."

So... tonight is her seven month old day. We let her stay up past her bedtime.



Actually, we didn't, we were watching Futurama, and she fell asleep in my arms. I wondered "What happens if you set her down, sitting up." Well... You'll see.

So, the offspring has learned locomotion...



Y'see, I thought, stupid paranoid dad I am, that she was going to lag behind by three weeks, because she was a preemie by three weeks, and a few things in her early days had her a little behind.

Durp. Turns out not paying attention to parenting blogs or journals or "Your baby should be..." is a version of blissful ignorance that sort of turns out that I really should have checked in on now and then. Turns out, she may be a bit -ahead- .

I have no idea what this really means, and don't think I'm sticking my chest out and boasting. Just kind of going "Wait... she's not supposed to be crawling for a good bit longer? Um... oh dear."

http://www.nerdist.com/2010/08/lil-doctors-cyberkids-da-da-daleks/

Check out the tweet list; http://tweetmeme.com/story/1927648326/l-il-doctors-cyberkids-and-da-da-daleks

One of them is... BBC America.

Its going to be an interesting childhood for her. 3 months old, and she's already approaching meme status. Well, six months old now, but the pictures everyone reposts are from when she was 3mos...

---

Little thing is starting to crawl now. She's been sitting up and rolling over okay, even done a few roll-around-to-get-places moves. But just today, she's started actually working on her crawl. And she's on "Solid Food" (well, as solid as babyfood is.) She's seen mom and dad nom, so she knows to open her mouth, and well... she knows the rest from there. So far.

----

Sent a comment off to BBC America, seeing if they go "Oh hey, y'all are cool" or something, since they tweeted about the pic. Who knows what'll come of it...

"Ed and Ein; the early years"

Richek came by for a visit, brought Valentine a stuffed Corgi. Adorableness ensued!

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/collectibles/d7d8/action/21456ac/

Yes, thats the picture I took of Candy's costume for little Valentine three months ago.

Nerd Hell will be -awesome-.

Valentine(@1 week old) and Candy

And just a few moments ago;

Valentine (@5 months) and Candy

My wife has gone full throttle into being a Doctor Who fan...

Call me a nerd boy, but that is just a wonderful little extra thing full of happy.