how has fatherhood been?

people ask me this all the time. it’s been 7.5 months since kyden has been born and the transition from being a carefree married man to a father has been quite the journey so far.

i have always had an idea of what fatherhood would be like, but you just never know until you live it.

things i did not expect:
the first few weeks were the hardest. the lack of sleep, the newness of it all was something that was just a little bit overwhelming. was kyden eating enough? why is he not burping? is his poo supposed to look like that? (sorry, that might have been TMI :P)

things i did expect:
it would be great. i had this fuzzy notion that it was going to be tough, but i have always thought that fatherhood would be great, rewarding, fun, and exciting. my energy level sometimes may not necessarily reflect how much i enjoy watching kyden grow up, but it really has been a joy.

sure, waking up at 7AM (compared to 10AM) is tough. chasing after kyden now that he has learned how to crawl can be exhausting. but still, it’s been a blast.

so, fatherhood? it’s fantastic. exhausting. rewarding.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-05-16

  • Christi just left for Texas for two days. How are Kyden and I going to manage? Oh yeah, Koda too. http://twitpic.com/1mxqat #
  • Crap. Christi went away on a business trip and she took the car seat with her! #
  • haven't had a diet coke all day. what is going on? time to make things right in the world. #
  • just got manager approval for a laptop lock so i can leave it at work when i want to bike to work in honor of #BikeToWork day. #
  • need to sync google calendar to your iphone without Exchange ActiveSync? http://blogs.sun.com/chienr/entry/configuring_caldav_on_iphone_3 #
  • the more i get to know python, the more i dislike it. it must be that i just don't get it. #
  • I think Christi is intentionally taking the car seat with her to strand us at home. Kyden has cabin fever! #
  • Kyden really wanted donuts so we broke out of car seatless jail. Car seats? Who needs car seats? http://twitpic.com/1o2l4n #
  • Uh oh. I'm the cat that climbed the donut tree, but can't get down by himself. How are we going to get home? #WishIHadACar #

media center #2

the original modded xbox is starting to show signs of its age. one of the greatest things about the original xbox was that it was a hackable device that you could do all sorts of great things with. it was my very first media center and it was great. i’m happy to say that it still works great. where it is starting to show its age, though, is that it is starting to have problems decoding video. i’m not sure if today’s codecs are more CPU-intensive or if videos are being encoded at higher bit rates, but there’s stuttering of video with the xbox. i’m pretty sure it’s not network-related.

so it was time to replace the xbox for the upstairs tv. i don’t watch tv often upstairs, but it’s nice when i want it. i had a spare laptop and though it is overkill for this purpose, it is a spare, so i decided to repurpose it and make it an HTPC.

there are several options when it comes to HTPC software. on windows, the popular choice is just using windows media center. i tried windows media center in the past and it’s not bad, but the interface still didn’t feel right to me.

boxee1 has a very interesting product (free!) as well. the software has come a long way since the alpha release, but my biggest pet peeve with it is that you have to click a video twice to view it. once to select it, once to tell it to play. that’s annoying enough for me to not use it.

and the classic, XBMC for windows. it works great, the confluence skin is beautiful, and it’s familiar. it’s what i’m currently using. the biggest downfall to XBMC is the lack of tv tuner support, but my tv is connected to cable, so if i want to watch tv, i just watch it straight from the cable.

the upstairs tv is a super old, rock solid sony trinitron CRT tv. these things are ultra heavy, sturdy, and just won’t break. it’s old and doesn’t have HDMI or VGA inputs. so converting the VGA out from the laptop into something usable by the TV was a big challenge.

it turns out that there’s this great little product that does just that. it is a device that will convert VGA to S-Video/Composite. it’s $20 and i can attest that it works as advertised. it supports up to 1024×7682. it accepts a VGA input and will output to S-Video, Composite, and has a pass-through VGA out as well. you can also move the image on your TV and adjust the horizontal and vertical size to best fit your display. pretty handy and works great for a cheap little device.

the next piece of the puzzle was the remote. i wanted a remote that would work in windows media center, but also XBMC. i wanted something that would work in windows vista or windows 7, and i wanted something that would not be hard to install. Wake from USB functionality was critical, i wanted to be able to turn the HTPC on and off via the remote. after reading positive reviews about this remote, i decided to get it and it is very easy to use, indeed. i just had to plug it in and it was immediately picked up by the laptop and worked out of the box. now, the usability of the remote is a different issue. it’s a little awkward in the hand and does not light up, but i think that i will most likely be using a universal remote anyhow. we’ll see.

all in all it was about $50 to get a fully working media center by reusing an old laptop. the laptop had to be configured to not power down when the lid was closed and to wake on USB. now it just sits closed and seems to work great.

in case i ever need to get into the laptop, i also installed tightvnc for remote desktop access and i have also installed a remote keyboard/mouse iphone app so that i can control the HTPC via the iphone in a pinch. this *should* mean that i should never need to open the clamshell to the laptop ever again. actually, i think if we have a power outage i may have to open it.

after talking to people about their various media server solutions, i still don’t know if i like anything better than the PS3. XBMC, boxee, and even windows media center come close, but it just doesn’t quite hit the mark yet. there’s no perfect solution. it almost seems like there’s a good market for someone to figure it out and do it right.

with all of the set top boxes that are coming out, support for DLNA streaming directly from your TV, and the like it seems like media streaming is starting to get mainstream. all we need is an easy way to access content (i’m still not convinced that DLNA is the way, but it’s close)3, a great UI to navigate our content, and easy setup.

for now, though, i’m pretty happy with what i’ve got. now i just need to figure out what to do about the home office’s tv…i don’t have another spare laptop and i’ve been thinking about the dell zino hd, but i’m not completely sure which configuration i need. if i could get away with the $199 model, i’d do it in a heartbeat.

  1. i hear that boxee has a set top device as well. that might be a cost-effective solution when it comes out. i think it’s going to retail for around $200 []
  2. just because something supports a resolution doesn’t mean that it will look good on your TV. on my CRT, 1024×768 is pretty fuzzy, the captions for icons are hard to read []
  3. ps3mediaserver is by far the best DLNA server available. if you need a DLNA server, check it out. []

blog neglect and other things…

the blog has been neglected for quite some time now…far too long, but i just haven’t had the energy to blog lately. much has happened and i feel like i should at least try to recap what’s been going since last i wrote.

the last real post was at the end of march. in february i quit my job. it was tough to leave the team at the company, but the company was at a crossroads and it seemed like the right time to go.

after giving notice, i started to look for a new job. the job search this time around was a lot more difficult than previous times. the interview process was a lot more intense and there were more companies who gave me homework and coding tests. i was not happy about that.

i took a week off before the start of the job hunt and then after about three weeks i had some good leads. i think by week four, i had accepted the job offer at my current company and had two weeks before my start date.

all this time, i became full time daddy day care taking care of kyden full time because christi’s maternity leave ended. let me tell you, the transition to taking care of kyden from only a few hours a day to full time was really rough at first. but i got into my rhythm and it was pretty fun.

i started work full time and i’m just getting into the swing of things there. it’s been a big change for me to work at a big company, but it’s been pretty good so far. i originally had thought that the transition would be harder for me, but it turns out that it was pretty easy.

and now life seems to have stabilized. job’s good. kid’s good. still have the old camera. i keep getting the itch, but so far the 5DII isn’t enough for me to make the upgrade. maybe the next rev will do it, though.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-05-10

  • go sharks! #
  • OMG! ANOTHER nail in my tire. christi asked me if i was having an affair with a construction worker. #
  • i am disturbed that a friend (you know who you are mimi!) is my dad's facebook friend, but he hasn't requested me to be his friend yet. #
  • Are you ready for Game 4 today? Go Sharks! http://twitpic.com/1lkij9 #
  • at some point, you gotta ask yourself, "can i fit another ad on this page?" and STOP. http://twitpic.com/1lw3pa #
  • Just watched Avatar on the home theatre and it was breathtaking. Still live the projector. #
  • Ugh Christi took the car seat with her to the dog park. Kyden and I are stranded at home. #
  • Just watched Stanford beat Penn state in three. Some of the serving at this level was surprisingly weak. http://twitpic.com/1m8t2q #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-05-02

  • I think I made too many cream puffs. http://twitpic.com/1irhgn #
  • windows, ps3mediaserver, VM, & orb live server updates. it's been a long night of updates. it's the less glamorous side of sysadmin. #
  • oops, i forgot to bring the cream puffs into work today. i guess i'm just going to have to eat them all by myself when i get home. bummer. #
  • i keep using "." to concatenate strings in javascript and i keep forgetting that it's wrong and spend time debugging my forgetfulness *sigh* #
  • breaking my no diet coke before noon rule this morning. i've been awake far too long on far too little sleep. i may have to nap at lunch. #
  • Is it just me or has this season's interaction between simon and ryan become really uncomfortable on idol? #
  • Let's go sharks! http://twitpic.com/1kghus #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-04-25

  • should've brought an umbrella to work today. got wet instead. now, i'm making a cup of hot chocolate to warm myself up. #
  • Walking to lunch today for #earthday it's too bad I have a craving for something that's really far away! #
  • first diet coke of the day at 2:08PM. i'm like 2 cans behind. is this my #earthday contribution to reduce waste? #
  • Let's go sharks! http://twitpic.com/1hooga #
  • OMG i just figured out how 2 commit code into source control. i've never been happier…but that's kind of pathetic, so now i'm a little sad #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-04-25

  • should've brought an umbrella to work today. got wet instead. now, i'm making a cup of hot chocolate to warm myself up. #
  • Walking to lunch today for #earthday it's too bad I have a craving for something that's really far away! #
  • first diet coke of the day at 2:08PM. i'm like 2 cans behind. is this my #earthday contribution to reduce waste? #
  • Let's go sharks! http://twitpic.com/1hooga #
  • OMG i just figured out how 2 commit code into source control. i've never been happier…but that's kind of pathetic, so now i'm a little sad #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-04-18

  • Sooooo tired. Kyden woke up at 5am, it was pitch black out and he would not go back to sleep. Not sure how I am going to survive the day. #
  • strategy for staying awake has been to stay on a sugar high while at work. i'm starting to feel sleepy, must be time for another cookie. #
  • e-filed last night. getting a refund. good boy, kyden, way to be a tax credit. #
  • Baby bok choy for my baby boy. http://twitpic.com/1gpmvw #

But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks?