If you know me at all, you know I'm going to make full use of technology around my son's birth. He already has his own twitter account, for heaven's sake. I've known some people who sent out text message updates during labor,
but I don't know of anyone who twittered their way through it.
Note though, that due to the personal nature of the updates, the account is only visible to "friends," which means other twitter accounts that I've allowed to see it. If you're on the fence about signing up for twitter just to see the updates, how does this sound? You can (optionally) set it up so that whenever I post something to Nublet's twitter account, you receive it via text message. How cool is that?
There will be tons of pictures. That said, I'm undeicded on whether or not I want them (or how many) to be publicly available on the net. Flickr has privacy settings that would allow me to only show them to friends and family — but that would require you to sign up for flickr (and for me to mark you as friend/family) to see them. Is that too much hassle? (Keeping in mind that your only other option may be to come meet him in person or wait for analog photos…) Comments in that regard would be nice. :)
I've also recently acquired the ability to record as well as LIVE STREAM video from my iPhone to the internet (no signup required). Don't expect to watch the baby come out, but you can certainly expect at least one video update per day. A video blog of sorts, if you will. That may also be the place that we first publicly announce the name — but it's past Megan's bed time as I'm writing this, so that will have to be something we discuss and make sure we agree on before I make any promises in that regard.
Since you watch my wish list like a hawk (and honestly, who could blame you?) you probably noticed the things I've added to it over the last few days. Along with rearranging my (basement) office, I've decided that my next pet project will be to move gaming from the family room to the basement, where I can play later and louder into the evening without bothering Megan, and never have to worry about sharing the TV — and to do it in style.
It's a pretty significant undertaking, and it's not going to go very quickly at all. But I'm motivated!
First and foremost, I'm going to pick up a projector. I've rearranged my office so that a far wall can be used as my display, and eventually, I'll have some sort of switch where I can flip between my computer, the 360, and the Wii. I am on a budget, of course, so as nice as it would be to buy a $3,000 widescreen HD projector, it's not likely. I'm probably going to spend a tenth of that, but if I shop smartly, I should be able to get something decent enough. And with a 70-inch display in front of me, I won't notice that much difference if it's not HD.
Then there's the issue of sound. I have a fairly decent set of computer speakers with a sub woofer, and they put out a decent amount of sound, but I'm just not sure how well they'll perform with something like Rock Band, where the inclination to turn it up to 11 is ever-present. They also don't have a remote, so lurching over to hit buttons on the speakers to turn volume up and down, while really not *that* bad could get annoying quickly. This will be something that I'm going to have to wait and see how much I really need before I buy, for sure. But it's on my radar. (What's a good man-room without surround sound?)
I did say "in style," right?
Since 50% of this project is about my work space, and about 48% of it is to improve gaming immersion, (and most of that is Rock Band and Guitar Hero) I want to put in some accessories.
It's pretty difficult to find a seat that's the right height for drumming. The closest I've found yet is actually our family room coffee table, and that's a little hard on the bum. So the next big thing is a real drum throne.
They're a little more expensive than I was hoping — I've been looking at the kind that rotate to adjust height, as I'm not inclined to trust the "locking" type long term. These things very quickly get up over $100. For a stool! But it's important, and more so because I find myself on drums more often than guitar these days. So I will probably grin and bare it.
And to put it politely, the drumsticks that come with the game … are crap. And drumsticks are relatively inexpensive. So why not get some nicer ones? I've been looking at these nylon tipped anti-vibration sticks, and for under $20, they sound like just what I need. And another cheap but useful addition would be some support struts for the outer drum pads.
What about guitars? I have some spare guitar stands from when I used to collect and play real guitars, so these may be a welcome addition. But better than that? Wall mounts! How cool would that be? And I'm sure I can get some small storage hooks for cheap at a hardware store. I may also add some weight to my guitars to make them feel a little more sturdy and rock-worthy. In fact, there's lots of easy and relatively inexpensive guitar mods.
And lastly, for a true touch of style, I've got my eye on some sound activated lights. But no self respecting geek would run hot, dangerous 100-200w bulb strips. No, we use LED's! I'm still shopping around, but so far, this is the best deal I've found, and I've seen some video of them in action, and they look awesome!
Mom always said: Anything worth doing is worth doing right!
Last night I went to my first post-graduate class. I'm not currently pursuing a master's degree; this is just a class to improve my skillset and marketability for work. I won't bore you with the details of what it's about, because I'm sure you don't really care about ADO.NET or C# ("C Sharp").
It felt oddly familiar. I've been out of school for almost 4 years now! (Ok, that makes me feel a little old.) I'm sure it has to do with the subject matter being familiar to me, the teacher being friendly and engaging, and the the fact that it appears that most of my classmates are there for the same reasons as me. They're all young professionals trying to learn new skills. (Except for those two old dudes.) It really creates an atmosphere well suited to learning; and we still laugh and have a good time while we're doing it. And nobody has to get yelled at for playing games on their graphing calculators.
Times like this, I really enjoy school. Now hopefully I can convince my company to reimburse me for it.
First and foremost, I'm going to pick up a projector. I've rearranged my office so that a far wall can be used as my display, and eventually, I'll have some sort of switch where I can flip between my computer, the 360, and the Wii. I am on a budget, of course, so as nice as it would be to buy a $3,000 widescreen HD projector, it's not likely. I'm probably going to spend a tenth of that, but if I shop smartly, I should be able to get something decent enough. And with a 70-inch display in front of me, I won't notice that much difference if it's not HD.
