One of these initiatives is called “Books from Afar”. Basically, the sailor (in this case, me) is recorded while reading a children’s book.  This recording is then sent to our base’s Military Family Resource Centre, where my kids will be recorded as they watch my video.  Additionally, they will have a copy of the book, so they can read along with me.  Books on the “official list” have copies on the ship as well as at the MFRC.

I, however, decided to play by slightly different rules.  Instead of using the ship-provided books, which are the same ones everyone else gets to read, I bought two books while I was in Australia.  Neither of these books is on the ship’s list, because both of them are local Australian books.  For my son, I got Little Devils, a book about two Tasmanain devil twins who may be crazy but they save the day.  For my daughter, The Tale of Kaz Kangaroo, a story from the kangaroo’s point of view when the European settlers first came to Australia.

This isn’t the same as being in the same room as my kids, being able to hold them and talk to them directly.  It’s not even the same as talking on the webcam, where we can interact even if in a limited format.  But it is something that the military has done, within the limitations of the service and the situations that we are in, to allow at least some degree of contact between deployed members and our families at home.

The new place is great.  The bedrooms are each a bit smaller to make up for the fourth room, but the overall floor area is bigger.  This means that we have a much larger kitchen and living room.  Storage is also not an issue here, with two fairly large storage rooms and a crawl space (as opposed to the single, small room and crawl space previous).  One of the storage rooms is currently full of boxes (I never realized how many books I own!!!), and many of the less-used toys are still boxed up (toy room exists – toy storage not so much), but for the most part, we are moved in and ready to carry on with living here.

The posting process is going a bit more slowly.  Since the ship is getting ready to sail, we have a leave period.  I reported to ship right in the middle, so many of the people I needed to see for my in routine were not available.  That’s not too bad, however, since I will have a captive audience in another week’s time.

Unfortunately, one of the people who was not available was the security officer.  Without that signature on my network application, I am currently without work email or internet.  More unfortunately, I am duty today, so I will be onboard today without internet access (which sucks), on a ship that I’ve spent a grand total of five hours onboard.  Although I know the general duties of a watchkeeper, I don’t know this ship’s quirks.  Hopefully there’s nothing too major.

The dryer just beeped, which means my uniform (unboxed yesterday) is now ready for me to put on.  Heading out the door very soon.

On Christmas morning, like many families, we tore apart the wrapping paper on the boxes under the tree.  The kids made out like bandits.  The wife and I spent a couple hours unpackaging and assembling toys.  Fun was had by all.

My main present was a Sony Reader PRS350.  I’d love to say that I made this decision based on extensive review of the alternatives, but honestly it was due to availability – the Canex carries it, allowing me to use the military credit plan.  Still, it has so far been worth it (I used it in Halifax before I came home).

Why do I want an E-book reader?  I’m in the navy.  I spend time away from home, with limited storage space for reading material.  Here’s a quick comparison of my methods for carrying reading material:

On the left, Tolkien’s 7-volume Lord of the Rings (including appendices).  On the right, my e-book reader containing the same text, as well as the several tech manuals, a few classics, and some newspapers.  Two weeks of battery life (easily recharged while I’m working), and approximately 25,000 average-sized books means that I don’t have to worry about how many books I can put in my locker.

How was your tree?

Melissa and I have had a few cameras since we’ve been together; however, they have always been cheap models, very prone to breakage.  Add a toddler with a greater reach than we realized, and you no longer have a camera.

After looking at a few cameras at the Canex, we finally settled on the Samsung ST5000.  So far, we have no cause to be disappointed.

The size of the camera makes for easy portability, although I am a bit worried about damage to the touch screen; I am tempted to go looking for a camera case, something I haven’t used in a while.  Of course, this could also be a reason for my previous cameras’ lack of longevity.

Nothing is perfect, however, and the ST5000 is no exception.  I have a few minor gripes, but nothing major.  Major features (also listed below) influenced our decision to get this camera.

• USB.  There’s a standard.  If everyone followed said standard, a user would be able to pick up a USB cable at the computer store and be able to use it with every USB device that they own.  Instead, Samsung has their own custom cable, for which I can’t even find replacement information.  Not cool.
• Complicated.  Maybe it will get easier as I get along.  Most of the functions are either done through touchscreen or motion detection.  No more finger training to learn where the various buttons are; instead, we have to look at the display while setting up for the perfect shot.  Which isn’t much of a setback, considering there is no viewfinder – you need to use the LCD display.
• Manual.  Open the box, and you get a quickstart guide.  The manual is on the CD, so you need to spend a bit of time in front of the computer learning how the camera works.

These are all the gripes I have now, however.  Some features I have yet to figure out, having just learned about them – I didn’t plug in the CD for the first few days of using the camera, leading me to miss out on some functions that I will test out soon.  Features I intend to try out soon include:

• Face recognition.  The ST5000 allows me to program in my family’s faces, so that in a group shot they will automatically be the centre of focus.  Additionally, the camera will automatically detect faces that I photograph often, ensuring that my frequently-photographed friends also enjoy enhanced focus.
• Smile detection.  Instead of waiting for that fleeting moment when my kids are both looking at the camera and smiling, I can set up my shot, press the button, and wait for them to respond.  As soon as the faces in the picture are detected looking at the camera and smiling, the photo shoots.
• Blink detection.  We’ve all seen it – the picture where the subject blinks just as the flash goes off.  This camera will detect that, and automatically retake the picture right away.  Combined with the previous option, we can ensure the perfect shot of a smiling, wide-eyed subject.
• Motion detection.  How often do you want to be part of the picture?  You set up the timer, set the camera, and run to your spot.  Just before you reach the frame, the picture is taken, catching you on the run.  Motion detection removes this hassle – you get into position, then wave at the camera to signal the timer to begin.  You are now in place, and have time to recover from the wave and into position.

This has just been a quick overview of the features of the camera, based on about a day of experience with it.  I will probably have more to say, both for and against, after the holidays are over.

My son has been in poor health, including 2 hospital admissions in 2 months.  I am writing this from the hospital while he’s sleeping.  Needless to say, my programming plans have become low priority.

I still plan on entering NaNo this year, but family health will always take first priority, and so I will not be at all ashamed if my NaNo fails.

On the plus side, this gives me a full extra year of planning and coding to make the first release of NaNoTools even better

Maybe that needs a bit of background.

I have an almost-two-year-old son, who has never been particularly healthy.  During the first couple months of his life, we spent more nights in the emergency ward than we did at home.

He had raspy lungs.  He had a heart murmur.  He woke up in the middle of the night screaming with pain and fever.

Then, the doctor tells us he has a low white blood cell count.  Further testing is required.  Can’t tell us what’s wrong.  Gives us a pamphlet for leukemia treatment options.

Our hearts stopped.

Three more weeks of testing, with this hanging over our heads.  Sleepless nights.  When we did sleep, we had nightmares of funerals, coffin shopping, hospitals.

Every time our son was held and a stranger approached, he screamed and pulled away, fearing another needle.

Finally, an answer.

Lactose intolerance produced several of the symptoms.  Excess mucous (caused by lactose buildup) caused the rasping lungs.  Heart murmur within standard tolerance for his age range.  Midnight pain and screaming caused by undigested lactose fermenting in his intestines.

The low white cell count and fever were the only ones not caused by lactose intolerance; these were caused by an infection with bad timing.

Relief was very much present in our household when we got that news.  We took him off milk, and results were visible within two nights.

Multiple small, unrelated symptoms led to one of the worst nightmares of my life, and an experience I hope never to repeat.

The issue I have with it isn’t with the contents of the show.  Teach the kids to exercise, teach them to share, teach them to learn from the world around them.  Not a problem.

The issue I have is that, as with most shows where English is the primary language, they don’t speak proper English.  Dora and Diego teach Spanish; I have to presume they’re doing it properly.  Likewise with Kai-Lan and Chinese.  But it seems that kids shows want to dumb down the English language, which I feel is a completely backwards way of thinking of childhood education.

I shouldn’t feel stupider after watching a show with my kids than I did before it started.

Did my parents feel this way?

• I write on the computers at work and at home.  I transfer back and forth using email.  I spent a day writing to a file that I had emailed home from work.  Unfortunately, it was in the temp folder from when I opened it from my email client.  Net result – a full weekend day’s work lost.
• My family has been sick.  Not convieniently all at once.  One person recovers just as the next gets sick.  That has left me with no time for writing.

The net result is that this year’s attempt at NaNoWriMo has been aborted.  I will continue to work on my novel, but will now work on quality rather than quantity, and be able to make a presentable work rather than a word-count-padded one.

Yup, that’s right.  If we lose the remote, there’s no way to change the channel.

On Wednesday, I will have a one-year-old son.  His current favorite game is hide-and-seek.  But he doesn’t hide himself.  He hides other things.  Toys.  Soothers.  Spoons.  Phones.  Remote controls.

The toys we can deal without.  Soothers we’re trying to get him out of anyway.  Spoons we have a-plenty.

The phones have a pager on them.  I press a button on the base, and the phone beeps loudly.  Why isn’t there such a feature on the remote?  Instead, I’m stuck searching for a remote control while Treehouse or YTV is running.

Now, it’s just time to go car shopping…