Warning: The following post may contain Zachary

While I'm still in the excited new parent phase (as opposed to the terrified new parent stage) I though I should start warning those people only looking for tech stuff.

Tonight (aka this morning), I'm suffering from a mild case of "Zachawakitis" which isn't all bad, as well as the formentioned "exited new parent" plus side, I've also started whittling away at my overpopulated Google Reader list. But, before we get into that a few small Zach updates. We attempted a trip to the shops today, we were running a little low on food and though that Coles was probably a fairly inocuous destination for our first house -> car -> pram -> destination. The whole trip went really well, despite the checkout attendants surprise that we took an 8 day old to the shops. Zachary to his credit went through the whole thing barely stirring once. Obviously the payback is now where I'm still awake at 2am. I was a little surpised at how many people shot a second glance at the Stokke though.

In house news, our Air Con has broken down just in time for summer. It looks like it's going to be an expensive venture though. The words "well we're going to need a crane to start with..." and "body corp approval" don't inspire thoughs of cheap.

Oh and this morning I flicked on FoxSports HD to catch the end of an thrilling goal fest in the EPL. By the end I was cheering for 'Spurs to steal the point!

Now onto google reader....

This ad made me laugh....

It may be lack of sleep though.

Fable II is out and looks like a must play title. I've still got oblivion to get through so not just yet for me.

And OMG say it's not so!!!! Tennant calls time on Dr Who

BanjoKazooie is making it's way to the 360 and Portal Still Alive Available Now for Download instead of waiting for the Orange box to drop in price!

The new Monitor Setup

The 24" Unboxing

I've now got my new development setup for work up and running, it's basically an upgrade from a 19" to a 24" Dell 1920x1080 monitor. The monitor itself looks fantastic (even when it's off) with nice rounded corners and flat button finish. I was doing a bit of work on it today and it's a pretty good workstation, the 24" is far enough away that I don't have to look like I'm watching a tennis match to use it and I can have 2 full VM sessions at reasonable resolution on the same screen. Ness discovered though that it's just that much bigger than the iMac and so I lost it for her afternoon net surfing.

(Oh and that's not Zach's permanent home, he was just easier to watch there today while Vanessa was asleep)

Yes Ben, He does cry...

It's not quite 4am but there seems to be a trend in these early morning posts....

Zach has been a great baby today, but between his last 2 feeds has been upset. We think he had an upset tummy - perhaps being confirmed as his nappy gets changed now. He did manage to throw up on my side of the bed tonight while being comforted by Ness ... I think it was a conspiracy.

In other news, the new Dell monitor arrived today. It looks very schmick, and if you wanted a single monitor/tv option it would definitely be on the list. It's Full HD and comes with a HDMI port (and at the time of purchase an HDMI Cable). Of course, I will hold back from making that recommendation until I'm sure it doesn't go the way of the laptop ... At the moment all it's managed to do is make a very very pretty digital photo frame. I'll put up some unboxing photos tomorrow.

In other news, Zach is part of a news.com.au "baby boom". Are we the next baby boomers?

(sorry for all the baby post but the 3 hour feed cycles limit the amount of non baby stuff.... and he's a bit adorable, I should probably order one of these though )

Zach makes it home,

(Looks like Zach really likes the 4am feed judging by the time of my last post)

Zach had another day of firsts yesterday (but I guess being a 5 day old that's not such a surprising thing). He had his first trip home in the car and his first ride in the pram (and in fact the only reason for this post is so I can put up these cute photos)



He does look a little ridiculous considering his size and the size of those arm straps.

What a difference a day makes

It may be 330am in the morning and Zach is awake but this time round he's been an angel and we've had so much sleep! I almost remember what it feels like when you had a full nights sleep. Really was that only 5 nights ago? Surely it was more like 50.
In things outside baby my laptop is officially broken. After a few more of the pretty rainbow lined screened I'm now getting bsd with hardware parity errors. Fingers crossed that it's a panel problem, and I can use it with my external displays at home. That would also be nice because my new monitor is due to turn up and being able to work on the 24" would make up for the fact the laptop is having a spat.
We had a fantastic turnout of visitors today! Thanks so much to everyone who's come to visit it's been fabulous to see everyone and big thank you for all the emergency food drops. We're due to head home tomorrow (which is actually today now I think about it) and fingers crossed we'll be able to introduce our gorgeous litte boy to our home. One thing I will miss about the hospital stay is the bottomless linen cupboard and the magical linen fairies who clean the dirty ones each day! Apparently they don't get vm come home with me.

ZOMG the dad gift has been passed on.

(Whilst watching the Indy 300, Lap 20, Will Power Leading)
Cameron: Gee, Will Power is doing pretty well.
*BAM! Will power hits the wall...*
Cameron: OMG I just did a Ken jinx!

And for something not Zach related

This is probably not the best look for a recently replaced laptop monitor. Although I think it's video card and heat related as the laptop shuts down after it displays that screen and won't boot. But after 30 mins it's fine.
In Zach related news he's just as cute as ever although a complete devil between 11am and 4am. At least I now know how i'm going to get the sub neighbours back.

OMG am I going to be one of THOSE parents

Ok I'm really going to try not to, but (and you knew there was a 'but' coming) I managed to get the photos off my camera (rather than just the ones on my phone)

So here are a few more photos,

Zachary Day 2

Both Mum and Zach are still doing well!

Welcome to our cute new arrival

Cameron and Vanessa would like to introduce our son Zachary Elliot, born on 22/10/2008 10:45am, 7lbs 11 (3.4kg) & 51cm long. 

Zachary arrived a little unexpectedly by an emergency c-section because he insisted on having his hands over the top of his (37.5cm) head making it impossible to arrive any other (even after 4 hours of labour). So far Zachary has been a delightful baby even with mum and dad learning how to look after him. I'm proud to say we can now successfully change nappies. Despite his reluctance to arrive he has started feeding like a champion and has even managed to give himself a hickey on the hand.

Thank you to everyone for the wonderful well wishes (my phone is now flat from all the 200+ text messages) and gifts of flowers we feel very spoilt!

Zachary Day 1

Thanks again from two very proud parents!

TEN news fail

Looks like we could get that big storm.

Nothing like coffee by the moon light

It's official, nothing is going to make this baby come out. Our second fire alarm in as many weeks and still no movement from the little Paris.

We took our freshly brewed coffee to pass the time (and yes they are my bare feet, I wasn't the one who forgot shoes though!!!)

What's wrong with surronding surround speakers?

Anyone coming over for the next Roar match?

A blog for a sunday

Yesterday we had a very lazy day at home. After a sleep in and a late breakfast of pancakes I settled into some gaming time while Ness got very creative with a christmas theme. I put some time back into Devil May Cry 4, probably just enough time to establish it's not really a game for me. It just seems to frustrate me more than anything. Ironically not the difficulty (most of the missions so far are pretty easy) but more the really slow stylized run the guy uses all the time. Honestly, you'd thing surrounded by thousands of demons he'd get a spring in his step. That pretty much every combo is driven from one button. I was really hoping for more of a God of War like experience but sadly not. I downloaded a new game from XBLA yesterday, Castle Crashers. It's a fantastic little side scrolling action game. Think old school Golden Axe with a bit of RPG thrown in. (i'm starting to think that RPG is the new black) this is truly a button masher but it's not expecting to be much else.

Mmm breakfast

Jaw Cramps are Very Painful

I'm on the ferry home tonight and for no apparent reason my jaw has cramped up and refused to uncramp for about 5 mins.. I is quite inexplicably painful....

Anyway, it's been a pretty quiet week. We're still waiting for the little addition to arrive so everything is pretty low key. It's strange knowing that in a matter of days there is going to be a small screaming pooping thing in my house that I'm going to have to look after, exciting, amazing and terrifying all at the same time.

I'm sure I've got more to blog about but the wind on the ferry ride home is too cold and I can't think...

Fring is Evil!

I'm going to blame Mikey for this because I only discovered Fring after seeing it on his status. Fring is a chat app that integrates to google talk and twitter and runs on a host of mobile devices. It also allows you to make skype and google talk voice calls from your mobile. It's the most evil thing I have ever found for my phone. I have enough trouble getting away from chat windows when I'm on my PC let alone when I can carry it in my pocket. On the plus side I'm not sure how heavy the data load is but I would imagine it's cheaper than texting if you're planning on sending a few messages. Also overseas calls using skype would be cheaper than mobile rates but data would be pretty heavy.
Fring.. Download it at your own peril!

"Is my bogan showing?"

This weekend is Bathurst my favourite event of the racing calendar (of any type). It was always the big race I watched when I was a kid. Part of me still looks forward to it every year. 

I got a little bit in the mood yesterday with a lift into work in a Maserati GranTurismo, THE most beautiful car I've ever been in.

I think I'll probably be watching a few laps of the race here and there over the weekend.

Other stuff for this week:-

• CoD4 has shot to the top of my most played list (especially with a big session last night) and those stupidly addictive RPG elements... "Just one more level, I only need another 3 XP"
  
• No Work to do this weekend OMG
• Movie night tonight, still not sure what we're going to watch though
• I resisted buying Iron Man on blu ray all week
• Recovered from being sick on Monday Tuesday (must have been sick didn't fit in any CoD4)
• Great to see some rain around (even if it means no riding this weekend)
• Have sore calf muscles after walking down 32 floors after the power failure in our building

I'm sure there is more but I'm out.... (probably the slow ease into the weekend we're having this morning)

A post because I haven't

I meant to post a few times over the last few days, but as my title suggests I haven't. There isn't any real reason. We had a pretty good weekend, we started a little earlier that we liked when the fire alarm when off after someone burnt their toast. It did mean we actually got out and about and pick up our new lounge chair.

From The New Chair

Even though it's orange it still works into the room really well, that and it's really comfy. It's so comfortable I've labled it the new DVD chair (or maybe it should be the Blu-ray chair). 

I also had a bit of a glut of TV on the weekend. I finished off the Forth Season of Dr Who (which was great, but I'm not sure that Catherine Tate was the best companion) and the Third of Battlestar Galactica. The fourth season is on TenHD at the moment but after watching one episode I think I'm going to wait until it comes out on DVD, the constant stream of ads and the poor timing of the show makes it pretty hard to watch (even on the PVR).

Gaming was also slotted in there somewhere with some dedicated time to CoD4 multiplayer and Smash Bros. (not quite as dedicated as some though.... :P)

Yesterday I was pretty sick so asside from work I didn't get up to much. 

That's pretty much the wrap up for the week so far (apart from our neighbours discovering their subwoofer, which is so loud at the moment that it rattles the paintings on the walls... I haven't called the 15" jamo into battle yet but I don't think it will be long now)

Some other DSi Stuff... because let's face it, I'll be on this for a bit

There are some comparisons start to appear on the old vs new DS.

I do like the fact that the whole unit isn't much bigger even with the screen increase. I must admit that the biggest draw card for me though is the built in browser combined with the SD card over anything else. I've wanted a small factor laptop like the Asus EEE PC but really have no reason to get one. I've considered the browser for the Panda DS a few times but it's a little expensive at $70.

I think I might be ording one of Play Asia when the release date rolls around.

On other gaming news, the DS has been falling behind in the most popular console at moment simply because I'm not doing any travel and I've been walking to work or cycling so there is no bus love for the DS either. I've been clocking a few hours up on the 360 though mostly with CoD4. I've been playing a little online and can see how it became the most online title on the 360. I've moved the 360 to a dedicated setup now with a set of gaming headphones so I can play without disturbing the rest of the house. It's not quite the size of the projector or the samsung but it's quite playable on the 19" monitor and reminds me a lot of gaming many moons ago on my PC.

Chair Problem..... SOLVED.

Ness solved our chair dilema today, She stumbled across this chair at Absolutely Fabulous today.The photo doesn't really do it justice (it's a quite a bit brighter than that in real life). It's been recently restored and in great condition. My favourite bit... it swivels! On top of that we also picked up the other half of Ness's b'day present.

A pair of Kartell Louis Ghost Chairs! They go really well in the new bedroom and they are amazingly comfortable.

I'm still keen to get an Astro chair but I think that will have to wait for lounge room 3.0 (or is that 6.0?)

Can Haz new DS?

Can I pre order yet? Surely someone has it....

http://gizmodo.com/5057873/nintendo-dsi-adds-camera-larger-screen

The Panda is dead to me...