S and I had our first meaningful conversation the other day:

S: fart

Me: Nice toot.

S: Bum bum.

Me: giggle, giggle

I'm looking forward to future insightful conversations with our darling toddler.

We are in the deep throes of toddlerhood. I think S showed a toddler attitude far before he could actually toddle—signs of independence, testing his boundaries, extreme curiosity. Now that he’s in full toddler mode, life is non-stop…for him and for me!

Despite always having to be “on”, I must say that I am enjoying this stage of S’s childhood much more than those early infancy days. I enjoy observing his actions, reactions and interactions with people and things around him. And I enjoy trying to figure out what’s going on in his little mind. And I love the challenge of finding new things to do to expose him to new experiences. I love being able to interact with him and be part of his exploration and discovery experience.

I’m grateful that I can stay home with him to watch him grow at this really great stage of his life!

It’s almost embarrassing to acknowledge that I haven’t blogged here in almost a year! I don’t know how time could’ve flown by so quickly. I guess with raising a child and moving and traveling and starting a business, etc. it just does. And when I think back over the past 11 months there are numerous topics I would’ve liked to have touched on: sleep deprivation and sleep training, traveling with a baby, crawling, walking and new found mobility, feeding baby...just to name a few. So I’m back in the blogging saddle, feeling more inspired and less overwhelmed. And dare I say it, with more spare time!

After watching So you think you can dance tonight I am sorry but Jive is the one ballroom dance that should not exist. Jive is the ultimate "blandification" of swing dancing which started in the street. If you want real swing dancing, try Lindy Hop, Balboa, Charleston, etc. Half the people in this show are hip hop dancers, which is totally compatible with real swing dancing. IMHO the show should use Lindy Hop and Lindy choreographers like the fabulous and original Lindy Hopper Frankie Manning instead of Jive. If you look at Charleston, Tap, Lindy Hop etc., you can see the real connection and real roots of hip hop. Disclaimer: I am a trained and enthusiastic Lindy Hopper!

:-) Go Richard go! Go Jay "Makeout City" McCarthy !

From All You Need Are Kisses At Broadway Station.:

QUOTE

It's tempting to moan about the "mainstream media" broadcasting something that seems like it was supposed to be a surprise, but the idea and the slogan "bringing back first base" and the phrase "makeout artist" are pretty great. I still haven't seen anybody drop a reference to the phrase "all you need are kisses to start a makeout party", but maybe they'll use that for the next prank.

UNQUOTE

Toronto is a great place to visit. Most of my family lives in the Toronto area so we go about once a year and we went this year for a Canada day reunion. The things that I noticed about Toronto:

• It's big, almost too big. Lots of money. Lots of neighbourhoods like Kerrisdale.
• I miss the mountains
• It's much more multicultural than Vancouver. There are lots of Canadians of Chinese and South Asian heritage in Toronto but they don't visually dominate the scene like they do in Vancouver. Toronto is much more diverse: lots of Canadians of Italian, German, various regions in Africa, etc. heritage as well as those of Chinese and South Asian heritage. Not better or worse, just different. Don't get me wrong. I love Vancouver and its mix; it's just more mixed in Toronto.

[CROSS POSTED from Dogma Radio] Barb and I don't go out dancing nearly as much as we did before the baby's birth, so this event (Edie Hats Grand Re-opening/Parisian Hat Party) was an unexpected delight!

From Edie Hats Re-opening Gala - Parisian Hat Party - Flamenco Flavour - 6th DR podcast.:

QUOTE

Check it out 2.5 MB MP3 (5 minutes 35 seconds)

Links:

• Kris Krug, Eventblogging
• Kris's fantastic digital SLR photos of the Edie Hats Re-opening Gala/Parisian Hat Party
• My photos: cool hats and cool people, food, stars, cool Edie Hats illuminated revolving light sign, music and lindy hop and balboa swing dancing
• Edie Hats
• Edie Hats blog (RSS)
• Uberswing (Toby and Tanya - Lindy Hop and Balboa swing dance instructors)
• Peake of Catering

UNQUOTE

From 137 Rock Street, Smithville, Ontario, Canada on Flickr - Photo Sharing!.:

QUOTE

This is (or is it 135 Rock Street) where we lived for 12 years. I wish there were higher resolution photos.

UNQUOTE

When I lived in south west Germany, lots of the northern Germans living there had a similar complaint. And sometimes, I feel that way here too in BC, but really the regional differences between Vancouver and other Canadian cities are not as pronounced as the ones in Europe; the real differences here are between urban (which is most of the Canadian population) and non-urban (which is where a lot of the distinctive Canadian culture comes from).

From Stephan Grell's Weblog : Weblog. via Tim Bray:

QUOTE

Every once in a while, one gets the impression, that we are a little town in the enemy's domain, similar to Asterix and Obelix.... ;-). I am a north German working and living in south Germany. It might be unbelievable, but I still do not understand the German spooking in Baveria and it is not making it simpler, that every town speaks its own dialect...

UNQUOTE

I love how Tania and Julie share the challenges of parenthood. This is the reality of raising a child without your extended family around and it's definitely the reality that we face with our child.

From Julie Leung: Seedlings & Sprouts: How to maintain a marriage through toddlerhood.:

QUOTE

I was impressed that toddlerhood is considered more of a challenge to a marriage than internship and residency! I also appreciated the idea that it takes four years or more for the at-home-spouse to have more energy. Right now my children are 2.5, 4.5 and 6.75. I don't think I'm being unfair to say that our youngest requires more work than her older two sisters, simply because she is a two year old. She needs help with her hygiene, clothes and food while her siblings are self-sufficient. At one point, I had 3 children under 5 years. That was a stressful time for us, with many changes in our lives, some of them unrelated to our children. Looking back I wish I knew then what I know now. On rough days I reassure myself that in a couple more years taking care of the kids will be easier, at least physically. Funny thing is, I'm not sure I realized how much effort it was, until the kids became independent; now taking care of one toddler seems like more work than it was to take care of three wee ones!

UNQUOTE

Raising the kid (who now has some upper teeth!) and working has taken up all of my time.

Wow! I really don't know how I would deal with this ethical and moral tightrope but I think Kevin did a great job here. War s*ks and to be a reporter and to watch it and not being able to do anything about it except to publish and to get backlash from all sides s*cks too!

From Open Letter to Devil Dogs of the 3.1 - Kevin Sites Blog.:

QUOTE

In war, as in life, there are plenty of opportunities to see the full spectrum of good and evil that people are capable of. As journalists, it is our job is to report both -- though neither may be fully representative of those people on whom we're reporting. For example, acts of selfless heroism are likely to be as unique to a group as the darker deeds. But our coverage of these unique events, combined with the larger perspective - will allow the truth of that situation, in all of its complexities, to begin to emerge. That doesn't make the decision to report events like this one any easier. It has, for me, led to an agonizing struggle -- the proverbial long, dark night of the soul.

I knew NBC would be responsible with the footage. But there were complications. We were part of a video "pool" in Falluja, and that obligated us to share all of our footage with other networks. I had no idea how our other "pool" partners might use the footage. I considered not feeding the tape to the pool -- or even, for a moment, destroying it. But that thought created the same pit in my stomach that witnessing the shooting had. It felt wrong. Hiding this wouldn't make it go away. There were other people in that room. What happened in that mosque would eventually come out. I would be faced with the fact that I had betrayed truth as well as a life supposedly spent in pursuit of it.

When NBC aired the story 48-hours later, we did so in a way that attempted to highlight every possible mitigating issue for that Marine's actions. We wanted viewers to have a very clear understanding of the circumstances surrounding the fighting on that frontline. Many of our colleagues were just as responsible. Other foreign networks made different decisions, and because of that, I have become the conflicted conduit who has brought this to the world.

The Marines have built their proud reputation on fighting for freedoms like the one that allows me to do my job, a job that in some cases may appear to discredit them. But both the leaders and the grunts in the field like you understand that if you lower your standards, if you accept less, than less is what you'll become.

There are people in our own country that would weaken your institution and our nation --by telling you it's okay to betray our guiding principles by not making the tough decisions, by letting difficult circumstances turns us into victims or worse-villains.

I interviewed your Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Willy Buhl, before the battle for Falluja began. He said something very powerful at the time-something that now seems prophetic. It was this:

"We're the good guys. We are Americans. We are fighting a gentleman's war here -- because we don't behead people, we don't come down to the same level of the people we're combating. That's a very difficult thing for a young 18-year-old Marine who's been trained to locate, close with and destroy the enemy with fire and close combat. That's a very difficult thing for a 42-year-old lieutenant colonel with 23 years experience in the service who was trained to do the same thing once upon a time, and who now has a thousand-plus men to lead, guide, coach, mentor -- and ensure we remain the good guys and keep the moral high ground."

I listened carefully when he said those words. I believed them.

So here, ultimately, is how it all plays out: when the Iraqi man in the mosque posed a threat, he was your enemy; when he was subdued he was your responsibility; when he was killed in front of my eyes and my camera -- the story of his death became my responsibility.

The burdens of war, as you so well know, are unforgiving for all of us.

I pray for your soon and safe return.

-

UNQUOTE

• Tod Maffin's miraculous blog conversion, is there hope for the rest of the Vancouver media ? - Dogma Radio - Friday 19 November 2004
  • all pretension, all the time
  • no production values
  • 3 minutes, 800K, mp3
    
• Back in October
  • astounded to find out that Tod Maffin has had a miraculous blog conversion
• Because Back in May
  • Tod dissed blogging and podcasting is basically audio blogging! See my post about this back in May and Arjun's
• Whatever
  • Belated welcome Tod to the podosphere and the blogosphere. Your audio and radio expertise and the stuff you share is awesome!
  • Could whoever converted Tod, apply their reality distortion field and magic fairy dust to the rest of the Vancouver media (both old and new) community?
  • Vancouver is sorely lacking in blog savvy media!
• For Example
  • Vancouver Sun
    • blogs for readers and journalists with local advertising to make up for their somewhat lacking current web presence
  • Vancouver Province
    • same deal
  • Zed.cbc.ca
    • Ultra cool site but impossible to follow unless you love spending 8 million hours a week surfing their site
    • Add a blog as a complement to their excellent site. Wouldn't it be great if there was an RSS feed with enclosures of the latest, audio and video from Zed? Or if there was an RSS feed and blog for each registered user? This is easy to do with Bryght, Drupal, Blogware and other modern content management and blogging systems.
  • Georgia Straight
    • Give Angela Murrills and the rest of the journalists a blog, Give the readers blogs (again with localized ads)
  • Vancouver Courier
    • Give Tim Pawsey and the rest of the journalists a blog, Give the readers blogs

From Darren and Djun, I learned that the Deutscher Sprachrat ran a contest to determine the most beautiful German word and that Habseligkeiten won.

Habseligkeiten is not the most beautiful German word!  How about gemuetlich or how about Mohnkuchen or how about Weissbeer or Schweinhaxen? In my opinion these are all more beautiful.  Listen to my short podcast for why.

If you are interested in what's happening our lives, check out Flickr LIVE! This is an ever expanding set of photos that I take with my Nokia 7610 cameraphone that is posted immediately to Flickr with a 6-10 minute delay. For power users, there is also a Flickr LIVE! RSS feed.

The photos are low res (640x480), crude and pixelated but there's something about the real time nature of it that I like. I like the ability to give people an almost real-time glimpse into my life of the things *I* choose to expose them to.

Eventually, Simon (the developer of the software) will release the code for free! All you will need to have your own Flickr Live photo stream is a free Flickr account and a Series 60 Nokia mobile phone (e.g. 6600, 7610, etc.). and mobile Internet access (e.g. in Canada: GPRS from Fido or Rogers or 1xRTT from Bell).

If you need more technical details, check out my post about this on rolandtanglao.com.

For whatever reason whether it's environmental or something else, I really believe cancer is the 'western plague' especially on our women in Western Europe, Canada and the United States. I have no direct experience with cancer in my family but I have known three women who have died of cancer in the last five years. All were full time mothers with two jobs: parenting and a full time job outside the home. All were great people universally respected by their colleagues and loved by their families. All of them didn't smoke and led healthy lifestyles and were fit. All left behind children.

I don't cry much but when the last two died, I really couldn't help it, I cried at their funerals. Cancer sucks.

So when I heard Adam's moving announcement on the Daily Source Code, I felt like somebody had knocked the wind out of me. I know it won't help too much, but I am beaming positive thoughts towards Julie (whom I've never met but will hopefully at BloggerCon) and Adam today .

From Julie Leung: Seedlings & Sprouts: Connecting...and crying...:

QUOTE

Adam described how his mom has been diagnosed with lung cancer. My brother was diagnosed with cancer almost exactly five years ago today. I had forgotten the date, but as I listened to Adam, the memories returned immediately to mind. I still remember the phone call from my mom, telling me the news. I screamed loud, a scream of pain, a scream of denial, anger and sorrow. NO!

I'm so sorry for Adam's mother and his family. As I listened to the rest of the podcast, I tried to do my duties at my desk and balance my checkbook but it was hard to pay attention to the numbers and push away the tears.

UNQUOTE

Today is Thanksgiving in Canada, a time for thanks.

The things that I am thankful for in my life are my family (Barb and our six month old son, Simon) and my work (Bryght).

It's funny how things turn out. There seem to be three interconnected threads in my life:

First, I wouldn't be in Vancouver unless: a) I hadn't learned to snowboard in Austria at Lech when I lived in Germany b) I hadn't wanted to go to a place with mountains to snowboard c) Audi hadn't hired me (thanks) to work at the Nortel lab in Richmond, a suburb of Vancouver

Second, I wouldn't have met Barb without: a) about 1995, Simon, my friend in London, introducing me to Duke Ellington and Lindy Hop through Christian Batchelor's book which lead to me b) becoming a huge jazz and swing fan which which led me to c) wanting to learn Lindy Hop in 2000 so bad that I actively searched for people so that our fledgling Lindy Hop class in Vancouver would actually run which is d) where I met Barb

Third, there's this thing called the Internet :-) which a) led me to scripting.com b) which led me to using Frontier 4.2.3 for my first website which c) led me to my first Manila site, dreadnet, in 1999 which d) led me to start VanEats in 2000 e) which was noticed by the Vancouver based funders of Bryght and through a long chain of circumstances led to the launch of StreamLine and Bryght

I am not religious but there definitely is something to be said for: a) you make your own luck in life and b) everything happens for a reason

And for that I am thankful!

Judging from my limited experience with both :-), both are equally difficult!

From Jerry Yang, Closing Session at Web 2.0 (Jeremy Zawodny's blog):

QUOTE

Jerry had a baby recently. Having a baby is harder than running a startup.

UNQUOTE

If you are looking to buy or sell a home in Vancouver, we highly recommend Gene Johnson (604-263-1144, genejohnson@dexterrealty.com) of Dexter. He helped us to sell our condo in Kits and buy our new townhouse in East Van. Gene went above and beyond the call of duty for us many times and earned his full service commission several times over. This is the second time Gene has been my agent. In 1999, he helped me buy the condo in Kits. Needless to say, we will call upon him for any future property/real estate needs! Thanks again, Gene!

Simon ate "solid food" for the first time today! 

At first he didn't quite know what to do with the spoon, so he pushed the runny cereal out with his tongue.  I then remembered reading in the Baby Book to try giving some cereal from one of your fingers.  I did, and was able to deposit enough cereal on Simon's tongue so he didn't expel all of it.

He seemed to like the flavour of the breastmilk fortified cereal but just wasn't sure of the texture.  After a few fingerfuls, I tried using his baby spoon again and he gradually got the hang of it.  He would also suck on his lower lip to clean up some of the cereal that dribbled onto his chin.

Incredibly, most of his first feed ended up in his mouth!  I hope this is the beginning of the makings of a foodie!

Roland and I are very sad that Tammie and her twins, Benjamin and Michaela, are moving back to Ontario. 

Tammie and I have had special times commiserating through our pregnancies and births, and sharing the joys of our babies.   I will miss seeing our kids grow up together and I'll miss growing as a parent with Tammie.

So good bye for now.  We love you all.

Since I've been working more closely with parenting programs and babies, I've been very sensitive about using the word "good" to describe babies. When I hear people ask if a baby is "good", my skin crawls because it infers that a baby can also be "bad".  Babies can never be bad.

I understand that by using "good" people mean that a baby is quiet, passive, undemanding, etc.  But surely people can think of other ways of asking or talking about a baby's personality, habits, temperament or behaviour.

Perhaps I am even more sensitive about the issue because Simon does not fit into the quiet, passive baby mold. He is very vocal, active and animated. He seems to be able to clearly display his emotions when he is happy, excited and content, and as well as when his needs are not being met.

And that is not "bad" at all.

Joey (the happiest geek on earth) is asking for fav Canadian 80s tunes that weren't a hit in the States for a CD he is making for Wendy (very cool Bostonian and Joey's partner).

Almost all of the ones mentioned in the 85 comments so  far are favourites of mine, here are a few that haven't been mentioned so far:
Breeding Ground - Reunion
Teenage Head - Let's Shake, Teenage Beer Drinking Party
L'Etranger - geez, I can't remember any of their songs now, but I loved their stuff back in the day
Andrew Cash - Trail of Tears

A couple of weeks ago, Simon figured out that jumping is lots of fun. So he insists on having a few jumping sessions a day: we hold him under his armpits and let him jump on a padded surface like the carpet or his lambskin.

I'm amazed at how strong he is and how he intuitively figured out how to bend his knees, drop his weight, and push off. And he does it over and over and over again. We usually tire of this new game before he does.

The other day he had the opportunity to try out Ben and Michaela's (the twins) jolly jumper....hot dog! He had a heyday! I guess a jumping device of some sort is on our shopping list.

A couple of weeks ago, Simon and I attended a week long Parent-Infant Mother Goose camp and had an absolute riot!

The premise of Mother Goose is for parents to bond with their babies through songs and rhymes. Young children develop preliteracy skills while parents have a chance to meet other new parents.

So we've learned a number of new songs, stories and lap games to keep Simon entertained. It's amazing how he recognizes certain songs and reacts to them in certain ways. I can't wait until the fall when we can enroll in a 10 week session.

This week Simon has figured out how to roll.  At first it took quite a bit of effort to roll then prop himself on his elbows to look around.  There was a lot of determined grunting. But now he is rolling from his back to his belly and back over, usually with a good long pause propped on his elbows to survey his surroundings.

In fact, he's had so much practise that he now quickly flips from his back to his belly.  And he props himself up and looks around for several minutes before he tries to scoot forward. 
We are entertained by watching him look around and enjoy his surroundings and by discovering how determined he is.

It looks like we are moving to East Van. Real estate is ridiculously priced in the city of Vancouver and we don't have the over $500, 000 needed in our beloved Kitsilano for a townhouse.

Fortunately, there are lots of great neighbourhoods in East Van and it looks like we'll be living in a decent one close to Trout Lake (perfect for the East Van Farmers' Market) and close to Commercial drive (perfect for La Grotta del Formaggio and Santa Barbara Market).

More if/when the deal closes.

Words to live by!

Don't waste time striving for perfection in things that don't matter; for these things accept the advice of experts you trust and/or take what's good enough.

From Commencement 2004 - Barry Schwartz:

QUOTE

I don't believe that society, or individuals, automatically self-correct. I think acts of will are required. And I have tried to suggest several things that you should will for yourself and for others, and work to achieve. I wish each of you a life in which good enough is good enough - a life governed by reasonable expectations, and filled with love and with work that is a calling. A life as part of a community that listens to you just as you listen to it.

UNQUOTE

Amen!

From stevenberlinjohnson.com: The Body Count:

QUOTE

To make a decision as a country to unilaterally invade and overthrow another country without confronting these images, and weighing them in the moral balance, is pure escapism of the worst kind. The fact that the US media has not had a daily tally of estimated Iraqi civilians killed is shameful; how are we to gauge whether our humanitarian ends justify the violent means if we're sheltered from the violence at every turn? It is not propaganda to be subjected to these images; it is moral accountability. Sitting in that theater, trying not to avert my eyes, I thought of all the times Jeff has invoked his first-person experience of 9/11 in debating the war on terror: seeing the violence and the suffering up close clearly colors everything he has written about our response to the attacks since then -- as well it should. But the media and the government have studiously kept us from comparable images of the violence that we've initiated in Iraq. Has the Bush administration ever released an estimate of total civilian deaths in Iraq? Is this not a relevant number? Shouldn't there be a national debate over how many innocent deaths we're willing to tolerate for the hope of planting democracy's seeds in the country? Is it appropriate, for starters, to kill more innocents than Bin Laden did on 9/11? We don't know, because even raising questions like these might undermine morale. To that I say: if we're not grownup enough as a nation to confront these questions and still support our troops, then we're not grownup enough to be starting elective wars in the first place.

UNQUOTE

The Dutch and the Germans love eating herring. And so does Barb. But I don't. It's definitely a matter of taste or Geschmacksache as the Germans say.

Here's two videos of Dutch eating the "new herring" in a Dutch stylee (raw, dipped in onions and eating in a rather graceful :-) style, oodles of fun for 1.50 Euros) and one of the Dutch vendors preparing the herring.

• Barb eats herring (16 Megabytes AVI)
• Dutch vendor prepares herring (8.9MB, AVI)

Holland has Euro2004 fever now that they made it into the semi finals.

I was lucky enough to be at a Rotterdam bar on the night (Saturday night? jet lag is making my memory hazy!) Holland beat Sweden to make it into the semi finals.

Here are some videos (warning, big files and dark videos, turn up your brightness!) :

• euro2004.holland.beats.sweden
• euro2004.holland.beats.sweden.singalong
• euro2004.holland.beats.sweden.honking
• euro2004.holland.beats.sweden.honking.american.dream

Bonus video:

In a Mellow Tone at the Rotterdam Jazz Festival.

Also check out My Euro 2004 Holland Beats Sweden photos over at Flickr.

Check out our Rotterdam photos starting with YVR, Air Transat to Rotterdam photos on Flickr.