The Geekorium

Some updates:

Spurred on by the outpouring of comments and (!) blog posts after asking for feedback, I got stuck into a few posts here and on my other site. Thank you everyone who responded and wrote replies - it gave me some much needed confidence and meant the world to me. I was buoyed for days afterwards (and loved the commentfest that followed here and elsewhere).

I officially quit Twitter (with my joshnunn account at least). I was leaving it open ended so I could come back without looking like a fool, but now I’ll have to hang my head in shame if I DO return.

First Waves is going great-guns. tjb654 tweeted “Wave on Slow Cook” and was retweeted by Pamela Fox (one of the Wave API evangelists). So I got a bunch of new readers and some more Facebook Fans!

I began re-working my portfolio site. I couldn’t be bothered installing a test environment on my laptop, so I put it up and started editing it live. It took me a little longer than I expected to make it usable though, as the documentation for MODx¹ went down just as I started, so I couldn’t figure out how to build menus. Eventually I got something I’m happy with up just before…

Lifehacker (!!) linked to my site What the F is that about?! I suspect I’ve stepped into a mirror world where the Joshua Nunn of this world produces things that interest people and that they want to read. I kinda feel sorry for the poor schmuck who got sucked into my universe, but then I remember he probably goes around with a goatee, so it serves him right.

Tonight I published a massive post on First Waves. I suspect that because I’m massively proud of it, it won’t be read by anyone and I’ll realise that my mirror-self managed to reverse the polarity of the neutron flow and switch us back… bastard. Or I could be pleasantly surprised that I get some people reading it. I’ve paid for a Clicky account, so now I’ll know when YOU are reading this… unless you’re using a feed reader… or I’m not on my computer when you do… What was i saying? This point has descended into a Rubenerd-esq sort of ramble. My apologies.

As I hit publish on my last silly post, I realised I could use the same template for a number of things. Namely:

My wife is . She . When I and it dawned on me **, I wanted to marry her all over again.

Thus:

My wife is amazing. She carried and gave birth to my daughter Amelynne. When I first saw my little girl and it dawned on me that I now have my own clone, I wanted to marry her all over again.

See how that works?

My wife is magical. She made me home-toasted muesli yesterday. When I ate breakfast this morning and it dawned on me that I have maple syrup in my breakfast cereal, I wanted to marry her all over again.

I have been pretty tired lately. My bubby girl has not been sleeping well overnight for weeks, and as a result I’m not getting as much sleep as I’d like myself. In addition, I get headaches whenever I try and concentrate, which I had been putting down to tiredness, but might actually be the fault of my new glasses prescription, so I’m seeing my optometrist on Friday to sort something out, and hopefully that will clear my headaches up a little.

Despite this, I’ve created a site called First Waves to post the latest news about Google Wave and the Wave Protocol. I was updating pretty frequently until this week when the headaches got too much for me, and I couldn’t think straight to pull it all together.

I’ll get into updating it again ASAP, but I’d be encouraged if anyone reading this wanted to check it out and leave a comment or whatnot. I’ll be migrating it to Wordpress in the near future too, and enhancing it with some more information about me, and some links to essential Wave resources.

That’s my update. Thank you for listening.

That is a pure Twitter-bait title. I have no clue how to make my baby girl sleep except through time and patience. But I needed a hook to get you here, cause I just wanted to tell you about my baby girl.

I don’t normally use this blog for very personal stuff any more, unless it’s tech related or stuff I find on the ’net. But I have in the past and I choose to today. Pray indulge me a little.

Amelynne Grace was born 13 months ago today. My first child. A gorgeously round chubby little thing with light brown hair and her mothers eyes. We get comments all the time about how lovely she is, how much she looks like me. I’m not sure if people are being polite (and really, who would want to look like me), but I see the most beautiful thing in the world when I look at her.

Just-born babies are supposed to be at the peak of cuteness [^evolution], but this one just keeps getting cuter by the day. Maybe parents see it best in their own children because a relaxed and happy playing child is one of the most joyful things you will ever see, and they’re most relaxed around their own parents. If you’ve looked at my Flickr stream, there’s no shortage of pics of her. But they’re a tiny percentage of the actual photos I’ve taken and will not share with all and sundry[^thank]. I keep taking them because each day her smile gets cheekier, her eyes get sparklier, and her wonder at the world more and more obvious.

She walks now. Not a full walk mind you, but a shuffling along the wall or a couch. She’s figured out that dropping to her butt and crawling will get her anywhere she can’t hold on to something. She’s unstoppable.

On the other hand she’s calm and patient and gentle. We were worried going into pregnancy that Mil’s illness would make a super-active baby a nightmare to look after. It was a risk that paid off well for us. Whilst somewhat clingy at times, she plays happily by herself a lot and asserts an independence that has made Mil’s job somewhat easier.

That’s not to say she’s not difficult sometimes though. Despite my title, we’re still struggling to put her to sleep reliably and easily. But even in that she astounds us regularly when she does put herself to sleep easily. You can just tell she wants to do it herself and it’s very gratifying.

She still only has one tooth. The others are almost there, but refuse to come out. But even that has just managed to make her look cuter.

And every day I ask myself how can she get cuter?

And every day she does.

Do you see? Do you see what I mean?

So I just wanted to share that. Wanted to share that I have a baby girl who brings me more joy than I ever thought possible. It’s clichéd, but the honest truth. And to those of you who understand that, I hope for all the best for you and your children. To everyone else, I thank you for sitting through my little gush and promise it won’t be like this around here all the time.

Thank you for reading. Share about your own families in the comments below.

[^evolution]:it’s an evolutionary thing, look it up [^thank]:You can thank me later

I’ve been putting off writing this, telling myself that I just don’t have time now I’m a new dad, but truth is, I wanted to say something special and couldn’t think of the words. I still can’t, but I need to say hello so bad, that I can’t put it off any more.

Hello!

Hi Amelynne Grace.

My little bubby-girl born 31^st^ July 2008

Really, I have no words. She’s everything I dreamed she’d be. So small and fragile, but strong and brave (she rarely cries unless something is really wrong). She’s made my little family complete.

She doesn’t do much besides sleep and eat, but she has started watching her world. Her little eyes scanning over our faces, or caught by the dancing curtains from her change mat. She makes me so proud.

It’s hard to believe that I could love someone so much, and only have known them for two weeks. I don’t know her favourite colour, or what she likes most for breakfast, or who she thinks would win in a fight between Superman and a jedi. But it’s not hard to believe at all, when to look at her is to love her. Even when her face is all screwed up when she’s pooping.

She’s more than I could have hoped for, and she’s my daughter.

How frickin’ sweet.

P.S. Mil is a trooper. She is my hero.

Sorry ‘bout the title. It’s Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia Awareness Day again. I haven’t done anything this year to raise awareness, except I’ve tried to sum up Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia in 140 characters on Twitter.

Natalie left a comment on my post from two years ago, and told me about the videos she’s been making on Youtube. I particularly thought this one appropriate:

{{< youtube EyAZ3SsyLGo >}}

P.S. Also - Happy Birthday mum.

Here’s your next dose of Peanut - in case you had been hanging out for it.
We had.

That’s my baby’s face! How cute! Isn’t it gorgeous?

And here’s Peanut from the front. Fortunately we didn’t have to censor the “area” - and don’t ask… It’s a surprise!

Peanut looks completely healthy, and everything is the right size for 20 weeks. We’re so happy - it is a tremendous experience seeing your baby’s face before it’s born. And its brain. That’s weird. And the little heart had four chambers pumping blood back and forth.

The sonographer you get really makes a difference to how much you enjoy the experience. The last one we had was a complete dud, but today’s was brilliant - she really helped us get the most out of our time there, while at the same time being completely professional. Thank you!

Today is the day. Most of you already know, but today I get to write about it.

I’m gonna be a daddy. My wife of five years is pregnant and we couldn’t be happier. Our little Peanut (as we’re calling him¹) is 12 weeks old already and due late July.

Here’s his latest piccy

Little Peanut

I don’t know what it’s gonna be like being a dad, or if I’ll be any good. But when I imagine holding my little child for the first time, I don’t care - I just want it to come right now. I’m so excited².

Merry Christmas everyone.

During my last holidays, Mil and I went to Canberra to see some family we haven’t seen in ages. It was very relaxing.

Before we left, Anna and Andrew gave us strict instructions to take a photo in front of something big (Australia is renowned for our big things). So on the way back we stopped in Berri at the Big Orange. We took a couple of photos, but this was the coolest.

Photo taken at the Big Orange, Berri

This is where it is

So there you have it. Proof that we can’t not do exactly what our friends tell us to.

Today is the day.

Months ago I started wishing I had a bigger monitor for my Mac. I use dual monitors at work and I cannot deny how much easier it makes my life. I thought ideally I’d love a 24 inch monitor (such as a DELL - Apple’s monitors are expensive) so I started checking out prices. Of course, I cannot justify such an expense.

I begged Mil anyway, but she wouldn’t have a bar of it.

Well we just made a deal. I’ve needed some incentive to lose some weight, so Mil agreed that I could buy my fancy 24“ monitor if I lost some weight (I spend way to much time on my arse).

So today is not the day I buy my monitor. Oh no. Today is the day I begin. Losing weight. Changing my lifestyle, cutting down on bad foods, and exercising regularly (rather than never).

To prepare for the challenge, I started researching my ideal weight and checking online resources for an idea of what to aim for. I’ve never been happy with my weight, so I’ve tried to find a size and weight that I might be satisfied with. In doing the research I discovered something pretty scary that I probably could have guessed but hadn’t wanted to know. I’m obese. Maybe people who know me could have said that, but I always thought I was just overweight, not obese. So that was a shock. Anyway the challenge details:

My height: 177.5cm (5’10“)

My Current weight: 106.8kg (235.45lbs)
making my BMI: 33.9 - Obese
According to most sites I found, my ideal BMI is 25. That would make my weight 70kg. I don’t know how doable that is, but I’m aiming a smidgen higher.

So, the goal is 80kg (I need to lose 26.8 kg) by 31st July 2008 - one year from my 27th birthday. That’s only 2.23kg loss per month (5lb) which I understand is very doable. It’ll make my BMI 25.4, which is just fine by me. Mil’s gonna back me all the way.

I’m including some nasty photos of me as of today to incentivise me to keep trying, ‘cause it sure as hell won’t be my love of exercise. If you are reading this, whether you know me or not, please leave a note of encouragement for me.

This is me as of today.

This is a close up.

Wish me luck!

Our little puppy Herwin has quickly made himself at home here. We’ve had him now for about 2 months and he’s growing very quickly.

I’m re-posting the original photo album I linked to as a Flash slideshow, thanks to a new Picasaweb feature. Enjoy.

I’ve updated my website’s theme in honour of the biggest news I’ve had since I told my family and friends I was getting married. And unlike then, it’s actually taken people by surprise!

It’s mine… MINE…

Our house! OUR house! I own a house, and it’s mine… Crazy.

It’s everything we were looking for in a home. It’s so good it’s almost making me believe that God cares again.

There are four different fruit trees, an outside ‘rumpus’ room and plenty of room for a new puppy we’ll be getting any day now.

When the contract was signed I thought I should update the site to reflect the changes that are about to happen in our lives. The four themes available are the new (default theme) a black-on-white theme for my dad, a chunky theme that’s easier to read, and my original theme.

Also of note is the only image of Camilla Nunn that you will find online (unless you search hard). I think she was so happy she couldn’t deny my wish to put us up.

Check this out! I have blue hair:

There’s no easy way to say this - it’s a real tongue twister… here goes:

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia Syndrome.
ME and CFS are roughly the same thing, while FMS has different systems - you’d never know if someone had it unless they told you. You might guess something was wrong with them, but you may not notice anything is up with them at all.

Well my wife has CFS and FMS. Chronic fatigue leaves her tired, un-energetic and sick, while Fibro now leaves her in constant pain. She’s described it to me (using Gini’s - notcrazy forum friend - description) like this:

Feels to me like I am just coming out of anaesthetic and while under somebody dropped me, forgot it was me down there on the floor and tried to use me for a mop.

There is heaps of information about these syndromes online because tons of people have them, but out in the big world there’s a stunning amount of misunderstanding about them as well. See, the problem is that for years it was easy to dismiss these people as lazy or ‘putting it on’, because they have to lie around a lot, and often can’t continue working like they were. People think that it’d be awesome to not have to go to work, but people with CFS and Fibro do a lot of boring nothing, because they’re often to sore or tired to even talk on the phone, let alone go out or have company. Mil and I often spend nights watching crappy TV instead of hanging out with friends - this is not a desirable illness to have. The May 12th Awareness Day is a chance to tell people that it is a terrible problem and that lots of people with CFS, FMS or any other ‘invisible illness’ need support, care and understanding.

Which brings me to my blue hair. This is my ‘Myspace-style’ photo:

Blue is the designated color for the CFS awareness day, and I wanted Mil to know that she’s not living with this alone. And I hope people at my schools will ask why I did it, and I can tell them.

You can find out more information about these illnesses all around the web (and some misinformation too). A great place to start (not for misinformation you twit) is notdoneliving.net. Ricki’s Open Letter to those without CFS/Fibro is a great place to start if you know someone with either illness or want to understand what it is like to have an invisible illness. (Lifehacker recently gave Ricky an honorable mention in their workspace bonanza for her in-bed computer setup. I mentioned that someone with CFS was on Lifehacker and Mil says ‘yeah, that’d be Ricky’.)

Finally, Mil’s second family are the people at notcrazy.net, a website and forum based around the book I’m Not Crazy, I’m Just A Little Unwell by Leigh Hatcher, an Australian journalist with CFS. It has plenty of info about CFS, but Mil visits for the forum. She’s made a lot of great friends who are all helping each other through what can be for some a life-long problem. If you have CFS of Fibro or anything like them, notcrazy and places like it can be life-savers.

So that’s why my hair is blue. I’ll leave you with a photo of Mil’s sister Miranda and her sons who got into the spirit of May 12th too.