Last time I showed you some of my elder daughter's artwork, so I thought it might be time to share some more. For the record, she is still 16, but closing in on 17 and finishing he last year of secondary school (year 12) this year. Last time: Proud dad showing off his daughter's artwork. Opinions?
Feel free to let me know what you think. You were all very kind last time ^-^
She does plan to do an arts degree at University and it is what she enjoys, so I am happy for her to do it. Hopefully it will lead to some kind of paid employment though. ^-^
EDIT: This is a post Ripley made in reply in response to you guys on page 3 (she used my account), so thanks:
Hi people, damnn , you're all really nice. xD It's the person who drew everything here, on Dads account. woot.
Actually he nicked all my half finished drawings, I'm in an art class this year and they're all just support works, practice , and plans for larger drawings. None of them are actually finished, funny enough. xD They look a lot better when finished.
After the wretched year we had losing all our pets last year, with both our much beloved British Shorthaired cats (G'Kar & Chakotay) having to be put down, we have started the new year with our new family of pets.
Kittens truly are love - look, they are telling you it. In all honesty, this photo was not staged. They were sleeping like this and we thought - "look, a love heart" and had to get a shot (the bald patch is from de-sexing operation).
This is Selkie.
This is Morpheus. They are pure bred Ragdoll cats and really have the sweetest disposition. They really do just flop when you pick them up and will just lay placidly in your hands. They are also extremely energetic and capable of some very large jumps. Considering they are supposedly the largest breed of domestic cats, we are expecting Morpheus, the male, to be BIG. They are really good company at night, as as soon as I sit down at the computer, up they jump and settle down to sleep on the desk in front of me, unless they are in the mood for fun, in which case, I get attacked through the keyboard shelf and my mouse keeps disappearing. I really love these cats.
Here is a little video of them. Notice that I am too lazy to get of the couch and play with them properly ^-^
As part of my employment I undertook a HBDI analysis. If you are not familiar with it, here is some reading - Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - I would be interested to discuss what others who have done this test think about it and in particular, what they think about their own rating.
It is always interesting doing these types of tests as it can give you some insight into the type of person you are, in this case, from a perspective of your thinking style. I will just show a couple of images and tell you what I think about them.
That is me. The blue quadrant is the mathematical one, the yellow is artistic, the red emotional and the green organisational. The solid line is my result and the the dotted line is where you think when under stress.
As you can see, I am very strong in my artistic thinking style with a heavy emphasis on maths. That is no surprise for me at all. My scores in the other 2 quadrants are still quite high, which apparently shows that I can comfortably think in any area. I suppose that makes me fairly balanced. The fact that under stress I don't change is interesting as my most of my colleagues varied a lot, with quite a few reverting to a less dominant quadrant as their default setting.
This is the general descriptor for my results:
Seems fair enough, but it certainly isn't what I do for a living, although my creative mind does come into it given the scope I have to do my job role with a great deal of autonomy. The "forecasting financial trends" aspect is interesting as I do have an unhealthy obsession with figures and what they potentially mean.
The really interesting part is how I fit in with my peers. The image below is a plot of where we all sit. You can see that the kind of follows in a line and although the gap between the yellow and the green extremes in that line is quite wide, there are still people not too far apart from each other. Then there is the guy way out on his own at the top. That guy is me. Story of my life really ^-^ I recall at a presentation of my 10 year service, a manager gave a little story of me to the large room of staff. He said that everyone in the room pretty much goes in a straight line to the destination, being the result we are after, then there was me, who took a rather unusual destination unlike anyone else, but still arrived at the destination. I didn't take that as an insult as it is fairly accurate. I have come to realise that my brain processes information a little different to the norm. So there you go, my thinking profile.
How this relates to life isn't very profound though and the value of these tests are questionable. It is supposed to help you understand how others think and how you would adapt or alter your thinking to the listener so they will relate better. I think most of us do this as a matter of course and perhaps subconsciously. Now it is back to you - anyone done one of these tests or have a view on them?
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It is the 2nd of January already and let me be the first to say, where has the year gone ^-^
My hair is getting a little long and more grey and I go back t work on Monday, so my loving partner says, "get in the chair, I am cutting and dyeing your hair. Now, after 32 years together, I have learned not to argue with her and in honesty, I am so laid back about these things, I thought, "what's the worst that could happen?"
So, here I am sitting, waiting for the dye to do its work. Let me tell you, the nearest thing I can describe for what I look like is Vivian from The Young Ones. Being wet, it is spiked up and a real red. I look like I am in a punk band from the 1980s who has reformed to tour ^-^
I have still 20 minutes till I wash it and see the final result. 20 minutes to see if I truly have committed the first act of stupidity for 2010.
It might be a good time to ask you guys for some excuses I will give when I go back to work as to why I look like Vivian from The Young Ones.
Yes, the New Year has rolled on and I am now 30 minutes into it. The whole 00's has been a massive annoyance to me. Two Thousand and nine? No, it was Twenty o nine. I have maintained the entire ten years never saying two thousand and ..... It wasn't easy.
Now that 2010 has arrived, can we all agree and just stop say two thousand and ten. They didn't say one thousand nine hundred and ten, 100 years ago. You do here quite a mixture, but two thousand and ten still gets used far more. It has to stop. It is time to move on people.
I just got a call from our vet. Our last cat, G'Kar has had kidney failure. It started the day before Christmas and she has been on a drip at the vet for most of that time. It really hurts so bad to see your pets given a lethal injection, and this is the second time in the last 6 months. This Christmas really sucked for us and it is about to get worse. Like any of us, we love our pets like family and after 11 years, she was. I will miss her badly as I still do our other cat Chakotay. I would give up any of the things we got for Christmas for this not to happen, but it has.
UPDATE: I have just returned home and buried her, next to the clothes line where she would always sit and keep you company whilst you hung the clothe out. Thank you for the kind thoughts and I don't mean to be a downer. It is true that all of us will have to endure this at some point and at some level in our lives and this one isn't any different or special, just special to us. I am a deeply philosophical person. I believe that to experience life you must experience death as there is no life without death. Also, why deny yourself many good years of pleasure for the few days of pain. If you did you would just live in a cave and never do anything. I am not afraid to admit that I cried uncontrollably. My partner and I stayed as I really don't like the idea of my pets dying without us,its family by its side, talking to her. It is hard, but I don't myself not doing it.
We are getting 2 new cats in 3 weeks time. They were already planned as we wanted G'Kar to have some company. Sadly, she couldn't wait. This will take away some of the pain. However, you take time as it is part of your life. I will go to pat her where she sleeps every time I walk past. I will think she is in our bedroom every time the curtains move (as she sits behind them to watch the sunrise). Little things like that just take a while to be broken.
This will be our new family in mid-January, they are pure bred Ragdolls:
Gift giving in our home always includes some games and this Christmas was no different. This is what Santa left:
I will get back with some impressions on the games, but this is what I expect (we will see how they match up):
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - I fully expect to love this game. I love the series and I really enjoy TBS, so as a SRPG, this can't fail to impress me,
Wii Fit Plus - It is really an expansion pack of Wii Fit and I assume it will have some nice new features, to just value add what I already have.
Muramasa: Demon Blade - This looks superb and should be a good fix for my JRPG addiction. I love the art style and have enjoyed Vanillaware's work a lot prior to this.
Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility: I am a big fan of Harvest Moon and pretty much have everything. My expectations are not high with this one, as I know it has some camera issues. The fact that it is more Magic Melody like than A Wonderful Life doesn't bother me, but I liked AWL more.
Opoona - Quirky JRPG. I have other games like this and it is an acquired taste, but I expect to have this one grow on me.
Star Ocean: Last Hope - I have never played a Star Ocean, but I have very high expectations. 3 discs, so I hop t is a deep game game. The screen shots look impressive and maybe this will top Eternal Sonata as my favourite 360 JRPG.
Dragon Quest Swords - no unrealistic expectations. I think this will be enjoyable and fun, but far from the best that Dragon Quest normally offers.
Shaun White Snowboarding - something to try out the Wii Fit board on and will probably be fun in multiplayer, but otherwise, this is really for my kids.
Blue Dragon Plus - yet more RPG for my DS. I like the series and the 360 game, so I expect to like this game, but I expect it won't compare highly to some of the other JRPG the DS has given me.
So, that is my gaming Christmas for 2009. Hope Santa was good to you as well ^-^
This is a short blog, but I thought you might find it slightly amusing to figure out which kid is me, in this 1974 school photograph. Form 2 is perhaps year 8 and that makes me about 13 -14 years old. As you can see, school uniforms were in use and they still are, so we are denied the funny that would have been clothing fashion of the day.
Feel free to make fun of the That 70's Show hairstyles. We would all be right at home in a Beastie Boys film clip ^_^
I was particularly dorky - well, not much has changed ^-^ The kid on the bottom second left (clearly not me) could grow a full beard at 13. Man he was hairy. He could buy the guys alcohol. I saw him at 25 and he was fully bald. The kid on the bottom far left has an early emo style - trendsetter ^-^
This is me at 30 to help you:
If you have any old school photos - by the way, I just got the joke, unintentional, about old school photo, I'm oldschool - especially those of you in your 30s and beyond, amuse us and put them up. with a current shot, to see if we can guess which is you.
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For those who are my friends here, you will be aware that my posting has been greatly reduced lately and there has been a good reason for it. It involves surgery. The surgery, whilst unpleasant, should have been relatively simple, but it wasn't. Let me explain. Bare with me, it is complicated.
My partner of 31 years has arthritis in her fingers, a lovely genetic gift from her mother. She also has Carpal tunnel syndrome, a condition that has been an issue since the pregnancy of our first child 16 years ago. Both of these conditions now require some surgical intervention. Let me explain the CTS first.
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is often brought on by pregnancy. What happens is the feeling tends to go away in your hand, leaving it numb and with pins and needles sensation. This was really difficult when our first child was born, as Mrs Oldschool couldn't actually feel the baby properly, so it was difficult for her to know if she was holding the baby too hard or soft. Over time, that numbness has gone right up to the shoulder.
The only way to fix it properly is to make a cut from the palm of the hand down into the wrist (about 5 cm long) and open up the veins to release the pressure. It is as unpleasant as it sounds. This is what was done 6 weeks ago, on her left hand - she is left handed.
As for the arthritis, her fingers are being slowly forced into a curling over, or claw like position. Her middle 2 fingers on her left hand are the worst. To fix this, they have to make them permanently straight above the middle knuckle. This means opening up the fingers and inserting a screw through the bone. It is literally a screw, and it just goes in the centre of the bone and through the first joint. Even though the fingers can not bend at the top knuckle, it is better than the alternative.
Now you know what needed to be done, well, it was done, all 3 surgeries, 6 weeks ago.
Enough about Mrs Oldschool for a minute and more about me ^-^ I want to take this opportunity to tell you that you must appreciate your mother more (or wife/girlfriend). I played Mr Mum during her recovery and I swear, it was the hardest gig I have ever had. Mrs Oldschool is a stay at home mum and the house is her domain. I haven't been a real doer of housework since 1994 (I used to do most of the housework and all of the cooking before we had kids). It just never ended and the worse thing was I never had time to play a console game :-(
The surgery meant that I has to help her do everything - dress, shower et cetera - so I tip my hat to any carers out there. I now know how irritating it is deciding what to cook for dinner every night as well - will someone just decide! With trips to the hospital as well, I was glad to go back to work for a rest. I am not complaining though, as so many people do it a lot tougher and there isn't anything I wouldn't do for the woman I love.
Enough about me, now back to what went wrong.
5 weeks after the surgery, I get a call telling me that the surgeon who performed the operations lost his job at the hospital. He failed some test and lost his residency. We weren't too worried at this stage as nothing out of the ordinary seemed to be happening. We were wrong. 9 weeks after surgery, she goes back for a check up. They take some x-rays and this is what they look like:
You can see the screws clearly and now you know what I am talking about. Everything looks fine at this angle, but angles can be deceiving.
This shows how it has gone wrong.
The finger to the right shows that the screw has gone off course at the knuckle. Instead of being in the bone, it is in the flesh of the finger. Kind of explains why hand is still hurting so much. The tips of her fingers have a "x" on them, which looks exactly like the top of a screw. The fingers look pretty gross with all the cuts.
What the x-ray doesn't show properly is the fact that the screw also chipped the bone and there is a floating piece of bone that has worked itself to near the skin level. These x-rays should have been taken MUCH earlier and if they had have been taken straight after the surgery, they would have realised the mistake. Another in the line of errors. The doctor who did the check-up made it clear that this should be removed and replaced urgently. To say that we were both a bit flattened and saddened by this is an understatement. No anger though. I was just sad that she would have to have more surgery, and unnecessary at that.
A visiting surgeon saw her this week and as was indicated before, we were expecting another surgery very quickly. No. This doctor wanted her to have physiotherapy and he would see her again in the middle of February!!!!!! That is another 10 weeks with the screw in her flesh. A little frightening was the fact that he also indicated that she may lose the top of her finger. She also noticed that they missed a stitch, that was still in her finger after all this time and that is being removed next week - incompetence all the way.
By this stage, our goodwill was gone. She contacted the Health Ombudsman to see if she could get it corrected. It is now being handled by senior bureaucrats and a second opinion should be forthcoming. We just don't accept that the screw should stay in the wrong place for 3 months. The damn finger is healing over and around it - that can't be good.
One thing that has surprised us, but perhaps shouldn't, is how so many people have asked or suggested we sue them. That American attitude to litigation is so strong around the world now. We feel it is expending way too much negative energy on something that solves nothing. We just want it fixed. That would be enough.
So, my limited time on the internet and playing games will continue as she still has limited use of her hand. It is 1 am now, and I probably should be in bed. Hopefully things will be better soon, but being philosophical, there are many out there suffering much greater pain and hardship and this has given me some more appreciation of hat they go through.
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Those who are familiar with me around these parts know that I don't have a PS3 and think that whilst it is excellent hardware, it is too expensive ($499 in my parts and that is $460 if you are in the USA, quite a bit more than $299) and it doesn't have a worthwhile quantity of exclusive titles to draw me in. In fact, below is the complete lest of games on the PS3 I care about and I care about the middle 3 a lot and the top and bottom ones are of reasonable interest to me:
Yes, there will be some glaring omissions for you who are fans of the PS3 library, but Unchartered and Metal Gear Solid hold NO interest to me. It is just personal taste. I am sure that the list will grow eventually and I am also sure, when I get the PS3, it will become the choice for 360/PS3 games, relegating my little used 360 even further into obscurity.
With a sort of preamble out of the way, the point of this blog - today I bought a game for a console I don't own and am unlikely to own until the end of 2010 at the earliest.
That's right, I started my PS3 collection with nothing to play it on. I do have some underlying logic to this, so it isn't just madness setting in. Sometimes, good games don't sell overly well and go out of production, making them hard to find later on. Actually forecasting correctly which games they may be is difficult. LittleBigPlanet is notone of those games. It will be around and only get cheaper. The JRPG on the other hand are generally not in for the long haul, Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts excluded. When I saw a game I wanted at some point, cheap now, I made the leap, believing that a PS3 will eventually land in my hands.
This is the game that has started my march towards a PS3:
Front cover of Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice (EU) for PlayStation 3
I love this series and I will be very disappointed if I couldn't get this game later, so now it will sit, unused, like an ugly girl at a prom, until I finally buy that PS3.
So, am I crazy? Has anyone else made a habit of doing this, or would you ever consider doing this?
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