Wiiiiii!!

I have a Nintendo Wii, and so far I have been a little frustrated by the variety of games available, but perhaps the tide is starting to turn.

I intend to acquire Super mario galaxy and Simsons game, to compliment Hit and run from the gamecube.

Recently I also saw that a game called Destroy all Humans that had previously been available only for playstation has come out in it’s latest iteration for the Wii as well, and I’m keen to try it out.

And today I also ready that the new Wii specific version of Mario Kart has been released, and there is a Wii version of Mario golf in the works as well.

Happy happy joy joy.

It has a light side, it has a dark side…

 I ran into a rather cool little story that I had not previously been aware of, about how on the Apollo 17 mission one of the fenders had fallen off the moon buggy and they had to repair it using Duct Tape.

It reminded me of a quote I found a few years back that went:
Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, it has a dark side, and it hold the universe together.

Log of amusements

On thursday and friday I was at a conference, and it was attended by quite a number of Queensland Health Big Wigs.

Now following afternoon tea they got a couple of people in to lead us through some Tai Chi.

Needless to say a hundred and something mainly middle age white folk (because there were quite a high proportion of women as well as men) stumbling their way through a directed group relaxation session is a highly amusing sight to behold, and it’s also amusing how many people will do something because everyone else is doing it..

Food critic

Well Charlotte is 10 days old and finally seems to be getting the hang of the breast feeding thing, and is (by and large) sleeping well also. Initially she didn’t seem to get it, and would get on, suck a few times, and then just sit there not doing anything more. Thankfully however she seems to have decided that she likes the menu at the all you can eat Mummy’s restaurant and has been latching and suckling for 30 or 40 minutes at a go.

Currently she is lying curled up against my chest listening to massive attack with me and overseeing my blogging, and she hasn’t objected to anything I’ve written so far. It’s already a pretty foregone conclusion that she’s going to grow up immersed in my computer activities, and as well as overseeing my blogging she got her first introduction to gaming the other day, helping daddy play Sam ‘n’ Max for an hour or so.

She has been on a few trips into the outside world with mummy and grandma and grandad, including a trip to the hospital to meet mummy and daddy’s work friends and colleagues (everyone wanted to give her a cuddle, and there were extensive “Oh, isn’t she cute”‘s from just about every nurse we saw), to the mall for a bit of shopping (Charlotte wanted a new outfit or four, and was working pretty hard at trying to convince mum that she also needed a matching handbag…), and out to Palm Cove to sip coffee at the beach.

Meanwhile daddy has been slaving away at work. Poor daddy :-(.

Anyway we remain quite pleased with her. As one of my coworkers commented yesterday, she seem to be a generally superior product.

With luck I will get some more photos of her up sometime over the weekend.

Enlightening

I’ve always been a little curious how the money from the price of a CD gets divvied up, and I recently found something that gave some indication. Apparently on a US$15.99 CD it breaks down as follows,

$0.17 Musicians’ unions
$0.80 Packaging/manufacturing
$0.82 Publishing royalties
$0.80 Retail profit
$0.90 Distribution
$1.60 Artists’ royalties
$1.70 Label profit
$2.40 Marketing/promotion
$2.91 Label overhead
$3.89 Retail overhead

Interesting.

Insomnia

Well we’re into day 3, and Charlotte is starting to settle into a rhythm.  Unfortunately the rhythm appears to be: sleep all afternoon, party (read: whinge loudly) all night.

Welcome to insomniaville, population: Us.

This has meant that I have spent 2-3 hours of each of the last few nights wandering up and down the maternity ward corridors in the wee small hours trying to rock Charlotte back to sleep. She cries when you put her down, stops when you pick her up, settles and closes her eyes when you walk her for a little while, and then cries again as soon as you put her down again. I think it’s attention seeking, but either way it results in me needing panadol for breakfast, and a big afternoon nap…

But otherwise everything is going well, this morning we left the hospital and bought Charlotte home. We gave her the tour of her new home, introduced her to Jack, and watched her promptly fall back to sleep on the couch.

The other thing we have found since getting her home is that her cot is quite absurdly large for her, but I suppose she’ll grow into it (in a decade or two). Probably more photos will go up in a day or two.

Ten fingers, ten toes, no worries

At 8:48 last night Charlotte Isabelle Ramsay made a rather undignified but otherwise uneventul entry into this world.

I was reading Carl Sagan’s book “Contact” recently and a short section towards the start describes things quite well I felt:

When they pulled her out,  she was not crying at all. Her tiny brow was wrinkled, and then her eyes grew wide. She looked at the bright lights, the white and green clad figures, the woman lying on the table below her. On her face was an odd expression for a newborn – puzzlement perhaps.

She is rather cute, and both her and Simone are doing fine.

The all important vital statistics are: 2.34kg (5lb 2oz), 46cm length, 32cm head circumference.

Below, for your edification, are the first of what promises to be many many photos of her.

I was thinking before that she might need her own website, so I can to some extent separate my fatherly blubberings from my opinionated rantings, but that will be another task for another day. anyway, without further ado:

(Click on the thumbnails to see the larger versions of the photos)

Initially displeased at the reception:

charlotte01.JPG

But happier once we got her in some clothes: 

 charlotte02.JPG

 Settling in well in grandad’s arms:

 charlotte03.JPG

 Happy with mum:

charlotte04.JPG

 But showing contempt for her father (pull that tongue in missy)

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 That’s better:

 charlotte06.JPG

 Feeling contemplative (my favorite photo of her so far):

 charlotte09.JPG

Feeling sleepy:

charlotte08.JPG 

Waving hello:

 charlotte10.JPG

 And finally another shot with mum:

 charlotte11.JPG

Unfolding events

As some of you may have already heard Simone has ended up with her blood pressure up over the weekend, and as a result she was admitted to hospital yesterday, and was induced last night.

She’s feeling fine and doing well, and we should have an outside kid in the next day or two.

More news (and photos) as they become available.