I'm a Mac

I've been an Apple fan for a long time. I think my first recollection of an Apple computer was in middle school. I can't remember when exactly, 6th or 7th grade maybe. It was the all-in-one kind (what other kind was there back then?) with the green on screen text and the colourful, stripey apple simple with a bite taken out of it.

Then somewhere along the line other models took over: Texas Instruments (a big favourite with my some of my friends); Commodore; and my own computer - the Atari 400 (which I basically used to play video games on).

Strangely I don't seem to remember much about computers during high school. I guess I was too busy playing guitar. But when I got to Architecture school I really started to use computers for stuff other than playing games - and we used apple macs. Thinking back to first year, 1992, the computers were incredibly basic - we used it for basic type setting, and some graphics. We were introduced to the world of 'scanning' in 2nd year. The computers were still all-in-one, and the screen were black and white - no colour.

Next door to the 'mac' suite we had the super-duper Sun Lab - unix based systems used for AutoCAD drawing - in full colour. It was in this room that I sent my first ever email to my friend Wayne, via a friend's account (I didn't even have one at that time).

Meanwhile, the macs were starting to catch up. They brought out 'Power PC's' which had full colour screens. They were kept in the new 'multi-media' suite. In fourth year I joined a graphic design class. We were given our own special room which had a big Power PC Mac with Quark Xpress, a professional desk top publishing application which I still use today.

I've used Macs in my professional life too. The first office I worked in in my year out in Dublin used Macs. Then an office in Edinburgh, where I started to draw on computer professionally on an iMac; then another in 2000 where I graduated to a slick G4. A year later I was having to spend a lot of time working on my professional exam and decided it was about time I invested in my own computer - my first since the Atari 400 in the 80's. I walked to my local Apple store, about 10 mins down the street, and financed my very own iMac, in indigo. An exciting moment.

I still have my trusty iMac. I've upgraded it many times over, used it to write hundreds / thousands of emails, produced 7 years worth of SEDA Magazines, even met my partner Laura on it! So I guess it has sentimental value. But it's a little old - and it has its limitations.

When I started working for my current employer they gave me a mac - a G5, and my very own mac laptop - a 14" iBook G4. With the laptop I was introduced to the world of remote working - and I don't think I ever looked back. When we moved into our new place we got a wireless router so we could both sit on the couch and be on line. It was great for a while. But disaster struck a few months ago when my iBook died on me. I was - laptopless.

Luckily I still had my trusty iMac next door. But, with the arrival of our daughter, the days of the spare bedroom being an office / store room were numbered. Last month she moved into her own room. I knew it was about time to bite the bullet and buy a new laptop. I knew I was due a one off back-payment from work and when that came through last month I went for it.

I now own my very own 13.3" 2.4 GHz Macbook. Nice! It's great. It's new and fast - and has lots of cool applications - like iLife. I've been trying to persuade Laura to get one too, and chuck her old noisy PC. Incredibly, her brother bought her one this past weekend as a present! So we now both have one. Sweet.

Deil's Caldron

I've started to download and edit some of the footage we took with our new camcorder while on holiday recently. Here's the first little 'movie' to come out of it. This is nothing special really, just a little waterfall we found one afternoon not too far from where we were staying. It has a creepy name though - Deil's Caldron (Devil's Kettle). In Gaelic it's Slocha'n Donish and legend has it that it was the favourite haunt of a brownie or water elf called Uris-chidh who enticed victims down into the huge natural pothole to their deaths.

Nice!


Deil's Caldron from Steve Malone on Vimeo.

Water Babies - Updated

We've been taking Seren to a swimming class called 'Water Babies' for about three or four weeks now. Well, I say we, but unfortunately the classes are on a Tuesday at 11am, not great for me, so I missed the first couple. But this week I managed to get a couple hours off work and was able to go along to take her into the pool.

She did really well, she even kicked her legs and arms a bit! She's a natural! (I suppose all babies are, given that they spent so long in the womb). Anyway, Laura took a couple of clips with her digital camera. I've spliced them together into a little movie using iMovie on my new laptop...but more on that in another blog.

Besides having a bit of fun and getting used to swimming in the water, you can get underwater pictures done when the baby is swimming well enough, just like on the cover of Nirvana's album Nevermind! Can't wait. Check out the website for examples of some other babies who have been photographed here. The quality is great!

Anyway, look out for that pic in a future blog. In the meantime, here's the movie clip. It's a little basic, but not bad considering I'm just learning how to edit.



Seren, Water Baby from Steve Malone on Vimeo.

Okay, I've adjusted the audio as Wayne suggested, which I think works much better. Thanks for the advice bud. I also took it into Vimeo, following Dom and Burt's lead. Not sure what the advantages are - I guess better quality and it gives you the option to increase the viewing size?

Portishead - Silence

New song off Portishead's new album, 'Third'. Just bought it yesterday, very cool.

A log cabin in Strathyre

We've got a week's vacation coming up in May. We booked a log cabin in Strathyre. Can't wait. It's a 2 bedroom so we've got some friends and family coming to stay for part of the week. Here's a bit of blurb about it...

Set amongst the scenic lochs and mountains of the Trossachs National Park, Strathyre lies at the foot of Ben Ledi waiting to welcome you to Scotland’s dramatic forest landscape. Experience the peace and stillness of an early morning by the loch shore or take up the challenge of this rugged and beautiful landscape.

Tree-clad slopes sweep down to the edge of Loch Lubnaig are truly breathtaking. The varied terrain of "Rob Roy country" is ideal for hill walking for all ages and abilities. A vigorous hike will bring you to the summit of Ben Ledi, nearly 3000 ft above your cabin.

There's more to do further afield too - visit the other lochs in the area such as Loch Katrine where you can take a trip on a steamship or nearby Loch Earn for sailing, windsurfing and water-skiing.

We'll be there during my birthday so we're heading over to a really nice hotel called Monachyle Mhor for lunch on the 10th. Hopefully the weather will hold up. Keep a look out for pics on flickr when we get back.

Innnnverness, Florida

My brother and his family flew to Florida for a week this past Easter. They stayed at Disney and spent most of their time there, but they did take a day trip up to our old home town of Inverness, where we grew up. (Not to be confused with Invernesssss, Scotland - where the emphasis is at the end of the word, not the start.)

While he was there he drove past our old house on Inverness Blvd. I was kind of half expecting it to have been bulldozed and replaced by a new house by now, but it's still there. He said it was pretty sad, the front porch was full of junk and it looked awful. Here's a picture he took from the woods across the road (I think he was afraid they might come out with a shotgun if they saw him taking photographs).

It was never the nicest house to be honest, but I grew up there and I have a lot of fond memories of the place. I can still imagine the old gold Chevy Malibu parked out front on the grass, and the basketball hoop and horseshoe pit in the back yard.

He also drove past the old Crown Hotel, where he and I and my Dad used to work, and where Dom, Wayne and I stayed in 2000 for our 10 year reunion. It still looks pretty good, although it's no longer the 'Crown Hotel'. It's now a retirement home called 'Crown Court'. Well, at least they kept part of the name, guess it made sense. I wonder if they still have the replica crown jewels in there. Hmm.

Tasty fingers

Seren's discovered her hands recently and her favorite pastime seems to be ramming them in her mouth. I guess she was hungry or something...hmm.

Saving daylight...

The clocks went forward today marking the official start of Spring. This means two things, it's going to be lighter later and it's going to be warmer. Hurrah!

Look who's talking...

Seren's started to become quite chatty recently. It's difficult to catch her on camera sometimes because she can get a little camera shy but here are a couple of pretty funny clips we managed to get...



This is when she first started to 'answer' us, or even maybe try to 'mimic' a little. Very cute, killed me. This was a couple of weeks ago.



She's been chatting away to herself a lot more, especially in the morning when we sit her on her play mat. I took this the other morning whilst getting ready for work. Cracks me up.

New furniture

We got some new furniture for the lounge. We ordered a set of book shelves and a tv unit (from separate sources) off the internet a good 6 weeks ago, so it's been a long time coming. They both arrived within a week of each other. It's amazing how much they tidy up the room. Here are a couple of 'before' pictures.



















And now the after pictures.....

Mini me (Part 2)

I only really have one baby picture of myself in the house, which is the same one featured in the 'senior class baby picture' section of my senior year yearbook. But I thought I'd have a look to see how Seren and I compared around the same age. What do you think?

Left - Steven Malone (circa 1973) Right - Seren Malone (Feb. 2008)

Mini me

It's weird how genes get passed on from one generation to the next. From as long as I can remember people have always said I looked like my dad, and I have to admit it's true. You can see the resemblance between us at similar ages in photographs, and as I've grown older I think I've grown to look more like him. But it's not just my dad I have things in common with. I have a similar profile to my grandad on my mum's side. When he was in the war someone drew and cut his profile out of black card which we have framed at home. I used to tell people it was me and they believed me. The resemblance was that uncanny. I also apparently have his feet.

Dad and Seren

So, we were curious to see who Seren might look like. The first time I saw her I thought she looked a little like my dad, or my brother's kid Max, but also a little like Laura's brother Nathan. But it wasn't a striking resemblance by any means. Neither Laura or I saw any strong likenesses to ourselves though, and I'm not sure we do yet. But recently a few people seem to think that she looks like me, or my dad, or Max, which is actually more or less the same thing as we all look a little alike.

Me an my nephew Max

I guess she's still too young to tell yet, and she'll change a lot. One thing's for sure though, she's got her mother's feet.

The Mice Strike Back

The mice are back. Just when we'd thought we'd maybe seen the last of them for the winter they've reappeared, and they seem to be braver than ever. We first starting noticing their droppings in the usual spots. Then some unusual spots. Then we could hear them, first rustling, then squeaking. Then we caught sight of them a couple of times, in the kitchen, and even in the living room. Tonight I saw two on separate occasions, first the parent and later a little baby mouse. We've laid some poison so we're hoping that the parent might be dead and the baby's been driven out from hunger. It's sad, but the other traps don't seem to be working. They even set one off tonight without getting trapped. Noooo, that's not true...that's impossible!

Aesop's Fables

I bought a book on Aesop's Fables a while ago to read to Seren while she was still in the womb. I'd read somewhere that, from a certain stage, babies can hear your voice from inside, and that, if you read to them, it could help familiarise them with the sound of your voice.

When I was in 5th grade we had to base a project on an Aesop Fable. I was assigned one which had something to do with a dancing frog. That's all I remember; that, and cutting my finger on a pairing knife when constructing my card board 'cineramic story-teller'. (I ran my finger down the blade to show my brother how blunt it was. Little did I realise that my mum had just sharpened it.) Strange how certain things stay with you.

Everyone probably knows a few Aesop fables. They're over 2000 years old, so it's inevitable (The Hare and the Tortoise anyone?) I was surprised by how many stories sounded familiar. There's one in particular that I remember quite vividly from my childhood which, in the spirit of storytelling, I though I'd share with you. You too may well recognise this, but I'm going to share it anyway!

The Wind and the Sun

The wind and the sun once had an argument as to which was the stronger of the two, and they agreed to settle the issue by holding a contest: whoever could make a traveler take off his coat first would be recognized as the most powerful. The wind began and blew with all his might until he stirred up a blast, cold and fierce as an Alaskan storm. The stronger he blew, however, the tighter the traveler wrapped his coat around him and clasped it with his hands. Then the sun broke out, and with his welcome beams he dispersed the clouds and the cold. The traveler felt the sudden warmth, and as the sun shone brighter and brighter, he sat down, overcome by the heat, and threw his coat on the ground.
Thus the sun was declared the winner, and ever since then, persuasion has been held in higher esteem than force. Indeed, sunshine of a kind and gentle manner will sooner open a poor man's heart than all the threats and force of blustering authority.

I love the stories because they all have some wise moral at the end - which can sometimes even be a little sinister and shocking.

I still haven't found the story about the dancing frog. Plenty of stories about frogs, but none of them seem to dance. I'll let you know when I find it.

Colic

We've had a pretty easy time of things so far with Seren, relatively speaking. She's a good baby, and sleeps a fair bit throughout the day. When it got to the evening she developed a 'waking period' pattern, where she would be pretty vocal and fuss a bit between around 10pm and 2am, but eventually she would fall asleep again and wake every few hours for a feed. Manageable.

She's a month old today, and we've noticed some changes over the past few weeks. She's becoming more alert during the day, and actually sleeping for longer uninterrupted spells during the night. We even had to wake her a couple of times because she's been so long without a feed. (I guess there are different views about whether we should do this or not, but the advice we're following says that at this age they shouldn't go for longer than 5 hours without feeding. We've discovered that there's a lot of conflicting advice out there though!)

Well, last night that all changed. In fact the signs were there the night before, but not quite as severe. We were out for most of the afternoon and she did well, sleeping for most of the time. We got home and she woke for a bit. A little later around dinner time she started to get a little ratty, which developed very quickly into a full-on wailing marathon. She was uncontrollable from about 5:30 until midnight, when she eventually gave in...and slept until 7am! We'd been reading up on colic and had hoped that this might have passed her by, but we suspect that's what's happened. We're resigning ourselves to the fact that we might be in for a long phase of difficult evenings. Some of the advice we've read suggest swaddling the baby to make them feel more secure and control their flailing arms and legs. I also tried one of the colic holding positions (which came fairly naturally, but I noticed it in a book Cristina had sent Laura on breastfeeding) and it seems to comfort her, so that's my secret weapon. It's the only thing that seems to calm her. We'll see how it goes tonight, strange that it only seems to affect them in the evenings, and we'll probably give the health visitor a call on Monday to see what she thinks.

A New Project

I'm starting on a new project for you guys. It's not a DVD, probably be a while before I have enough material for, or get around to doing, one of those I expect. It is something of a multi-media nature though. I actually started working on it some time ago, and I've been piecing together bits and pieces in order to finish it off and I've got most of it done already. That said, the last bit will probably take the longest amount of time, so I'm not sure when it'll be finished. Don't want to give anything else away. Watch this space for future updates.

Spaced - Series 2

We just got done watching series two of Spaced last night. It's fantastic. They stepped it up a gear for the second series. Here's the first part of the first episode. If you want to watch the rest just go here and take it from there (the next parts are in 'related videos' on the r.h.s.). Actually, the whole of the second series is there.

Seren dancing

I'd read in one of the baby books that there are some things you can try to test the baby's reflexes 'for fun'. There's the Startle, or Moro reflex (she passed this one in the hospital before she came home); the plantar reflex (when the sole of the baby's foot is gently stroked from the heel to toe, the baby's toes flare upwards and the foot turns in); the rooting and sucking reflexes (she's got those down pat); the Palmer grasping reflex (a piece of trivia - a newborn's grasp may be powerful enough to support their full body weight! - not that we've tried that I hasten to add).

I thought I'd try the walking, or stepping reflex today. Basically this involves holding the baby upright on a flat surface under the arms - she's supposed to lift one leg and then the other taking what seem to be 'steps'. Not sure how well it worked but she made a really funny face when I tried it, as if she's just discovered something new - which I guess she had. Anyway, Laura videoed it with her camera (so the quality is a little better). It looks like she's dancing too, rather than walking, but I reckon that's a pass. :)

Seren's first videos

Here are the first couple of videos of Seren. We took them tonight with our phones, so the quality isn't great, but you get the idea. There seems to be a lag between the video and audio. Oh well. We need to invest in a good digital video camera.




Seren hiccuping



Seren crying / screaming

Return of the Mouse

Sigh....Just after I posted my last blog about my mouse killing adventures I went through to the kitchen and caught a glimpse of another mouse scurrying along the floor. Looked like a big one too. Man, I really could do without this right now! I just hate the idea of the dirty little vermin crawling around the apartment when we've got a new baby. Might be time for step three...poison.