Growing up in the UK, I used to be very proud of being British and of the various freedoms that entailed. Unfortunately, that pride is waning rapidly. In recent years, it seems like the British Government has gone mad with all sorts of stupid and ridiculous policies. However this one has to take the biscuit.
In brief, parents in Watford are being banned from playing with their children (they will only be allowed to watch from outside the fenced area) in council playgrounds unless they undertake a criminal records check. To quote the mayor of Watford, "you can't have adults walking around unchecked in a children's playground..."
In other words, take a hike unless you can prove you're not a paedophile.
This is absolutely disgraceful. The people who approved this policy deserve, at a minimum, to be fired from their jobs.
What is particularly worrying is the mayors stance that they are only enforcing government policy. If this is indeed the case, and its not a rogue mayor of Watford taking the piss, then I'm just glad that my children aren't being raised in the nanny state that the UK seems to have become. I admit, Hong Kong has its problems, but I've never seen or heard anything as patently ridiculous as this.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Thursday, October 22, 2009
What is a browser?
What is a browser?
This is one of those funny questions which, for a nerd like me at least, is something which is just assumed. I assume everyone knows what it is as, in this day and age, everyone uses it. Unfortunately, this assumption may very well be unwarranted.
I could easily believe that a lot of people hadn't heard of Chrome. Or even that some people may not know what a browser is. But for less than 8% of people to know what a browser is? Wow.
Granted, this isn't a scientific study but still - that is sad...
This is one of those funny questions which, for a nerd like me at least, is something which is just assumed. I assume everyone knows what it is as, in this day and age, everyone uses it. Unfortunately, this assumption may very well be unwarranted.
I could easily believe that a lot of people hadn't heard of Chrome. Or even that some people may not know what a browser is. But for less than 8% of people to know what a browser is? Wow.
Granted, this isn't a scientific study but still - that is sad...
Monday, October 19, 2009
Ultraman Gerry
As a rule, we are very careful in monitoring what Gerry watches on TV. We don't let him watch just any old TV and focus him on watching educational TV shows which we purchased on DVD (or VCD). However, when all is said and done, there is a limit to how much you can control this.
Recently, while Gerry was in the estate clubhouse, one of his friends lent him a VCD of Ultraman Dyna. Ultraman is a long running series of TV shows from Japan generally entailing a being of great power (and size) embodied in a human who fights and defeats numerous monsters who are wreaking havoc on Earth (or in space). If you've watched any Japanese TV shows before involving heroes and monsters, you probably have a pretty good idea of what to expect.
Naturally, the immediate impact is that Gerry now runs around shooting monsters (ie other people) and blasting them with his spacium ray:
If you don't know what the spacium ray is, check out 1:17 on this video.
And to wrap up, some random pictures of Gordon.
Look how happy he is to be stuck in his little jail of a crib!
Recently, while Gerry was in the estate clubhouse, one of his friends lent him a VCD of Ultraman Dyna. Ultraman is a long running series of TV shows from Japan generally entailing a being of great power (and size) embodied in a human who fights and defeats numerous monsters who are wreaking havoc on Earth (or in space). If you've watched any Japanese TV shows before involving heroes and monsters, you probably have a pretty good idea of what to expect.
Naturally, the immediate impact is that Gerry now runs around shooting monsters (ie other people) and blasting them with his spacium ray:
If you don't know what the spacium ray is, check out 1:17 on this video.
And to wrap up, some random pictures of Gordon.
Look how happy he is to be stuck in his little jail of a crib!
Gordon is now just over 9 months old and can crawl around on his own pretty well. Here you can see him, not just crawling around, but justifying the title of "big eyed baby" as bestowed to him by the nurses who delivered him.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Gerry and the school story
The school that Gerry goes to at the moment has quite a fun program where they invite parents to go to the school and read a story to the entire class. The parent can either bring his own storybook or borrow one of the books in the class to read.
Here you can see me sitting in front of a clearly riveted class as they enjoy my masterful story telling skills (honed from years of telling tall tales as a kid!). Bonus points if you can spot Gerry!
addendum - obviously, being a good boy, I didn't tell any tall tales to either my dad or brother. :)
For the story, I decided to take along one of our own storybooks. The book you see here is a pop-up book telling the story of Goldilocks and the three bears. In the picture below, you can see Goldilocks sitting on Baby Bears chair.
The great thing about the pop-up story book is that it actually moves which makes it much more interesting for the kids to watch. In the next picture, you can see that Goldilocks has broken poor Baby Bears chair.
Here is a picture of the missus holding Gordon - just to prove that I do sometimes take pictures of them together. Sometimes.
Here you can see me sitting in front of a clearly riveted class as they enjoy my masterful story telling skills (honed from years of telling tall tales as a kid!). Bonus points if you can spot Gerry!
addendum - obviously, being a good boy, I didn't tell any tall tales to either my dad or brother. :)
For the story, I decided to take along one of our own storybooks. The book you see here is a pop-up book telling the story of Goldilocks and the three bears. In the picture below, you can see Goldilocks sitting on Baby Bears chair.
The great thing about the pop-up story book is that it actually moves which makes it much more interesting for the kids to watch. In the next picture, you can see that Goldilocks has broken poor Baby Bears chair.
And last of all, just so that Gordon doesn't feel left out, here are some recent pics of Gordon. Look at how happy he looks when daddy kisses him!
Here is a picture of the missus holding Gordon - just to prove that I do sometimes take pictures of them together. Sometimes.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Gerry goes to Gold Coast
Wow - just realised that its been ages since I uploaded any photos of Gerry and Gordon. Guess I've got some catching up to do!
Anyway, back in August, we took Gerry and Gordon out to Gold Coast. There is a nice childrens play area there where kids can run around so we took his trike and a ball with us.
This is a good action shot of Gerry just as he gets ready to shoot.
He is actually quite good at kicking the ball these days and can get a decent amount of strength behind his kick if he gets the timing right. Look -the ball is blurry and everything!!
And here he is on his trike. As you can tell from the position of his legs, its gonna be time to upgrade him to a bigger bike soon.
We also took a quick video of him on his bike using the camera:
And this is what he looks like after he's been riding for a while and is tired:
Anyway, back in August, we took Gerry and Gordon out to Gold Coast. There is a nice childrens play area there where kids can run around so we took his trike and a ball with us.
This is a good action shot of Gerry just as he gets ready to shoot.
He is actually quite good at kicking the ball these days and can get a decent amount of strength behind his kick if he gets the timing right. Look -the ball is blurry and everything!!
And here he is on his trike. As you can tell from the position of his legs, its gonna be time to upgrade him to a bigger bike soon.
We also took a quick video of him on his bike using the camera:
And this is what he looks like after he's been riding for a while and is tired:
Thursday, October 8, 2009
The holodeck
As you know, I'm a huge Star Trek fan. I love the stories and the technology and the ... well, I could go on but that would derail the point of this post.
One of the coolest pieces of tech on Star Trek is the Holodeck. For those who aren't Star Trek fans, the Holodeck is basically a room which creates 3D holograms which have substance. Using the holodeck, you can create stunning parks for you to walk through or recreate a cafe in Paris where you and your friends can sit down for a coffee.
Can you imagine how much fun you could have with a holodeck? With just one room, you could have any entertainment you wanted. Want to play snooker? No problem. Badminton? Done deal - the holodeck could even create your opponent. Mountain climbing or skiing? The mountain will come to you. All in all, an awesome piece of technology.
Of course, in real life, the Holodeck has always been a pipe dream. Except that with recent technology, that pipe dream is one step closer to reality.
The above video shows a demo of a fully 3D virtual environment that you can interact with. However, on its own, that isn't much of a holodeck. To be a true holodeck, you need to have the physical sensation of touching something within the 3D environment.
Which brings us to the next video. Touchable holography.
Wow.
One of the coolest pieces of tech on Star Trek is the Holodeck. For those who aren't Star Trek fans, the Holodeck is basically a room which creates 3D holograms which have substance. Using the holodeck, you can create stunning parks for you to walk through or recreate a cafe in Paris where you and your friends can sit down for a coffee.
Can you imagine how much fun you could have with a holodeck? With just one room, you could have any entertainment you wanted. Want to play snooker? No problem. Badminton? Done deal - the holodeck could even create your opponent. Mountain climbing or skiing? The mountain will come to you. All in all, an awesome piece of technology.
Of course, in real life, the Holodeck has always been a pipe dream. Except that with recent technology, that pipe dream is one step closer to reality.
The above video shows a demo of a fully 3D virtual environment that you can interact with. However, on its own, that isn't much of a holodeck. To be a true holodeck, you need to have the physical sensation of touching something within the 3D environment.
Which brings us to the next video. Touchable holography.
Wow.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Gerry likes butter
Gerry really likes plain food with little embellishment. For example, he likes eating plain boiled rice, plain noodles (he will even pick out the green onions if he sees them) and plain bread or toast. However, we recently found out that he likes butter on his toast.
We were out at the local Cafe de Coral for breakfast when Gerry asked for butter on his toast! We immediately said no at which point he told us that his grandmother normally spreads butter on his toast before he eats it. The horror! It turns out that his grandmother has been secretly spreading butter on his toast without my knowledge!
To be honest, I'm not really averse to him putting butter on his toast so we agreed that it was okay for him to have some butter. Being such a small kid, he doesn't quite understand the concept or consequences of having too much butter. As a result, we had to tell him to only put a little bit of butter on his bread (try saying that quickly after a couple of pints!). Naturally, he asks why at which point we explain that having too much butter is bad for him and will make him fat. A couple more "why's?" later, we ended up explaining that being fat will mean that he can't run around as much (one of his favourite activities) before he accepted that too much butter wasn't a good thing.
Anyway, one day, while he was at home and playing with his toy kitchen, he decides to cook me a pancake. However, we don't have any toy pancakes so as a surrogate, he uses his toy steak instead. After he finishes cooking the steak, he picks up his toy knife and says "I put butter on it for you".
"Just a little bit Gerry," I say automatically. By now, this comes out without even thinking although I immediately realise how cute it is that he wants to help me put butter on my "toast".
"Why?" he asks.
Here we go again, I thought. "Because if you eat too much butter, it isn't good for you."
"Why?" he asks again.
"Because if you eat too much butter, then you will become fat and cannot run around."
He ponders this for a moment before coming up with the perfect answer. In a very matter of fact tone, he says "Oh, but you fat already."
Ouch.
We were out at the local Cafe de Coral for breakfast when Gerry asked for butter on his toast! We immediately said no at which point he told us that his grandmother normally spreads butter on his toast before he eats it. The horror! It turns out that his grandmother has been secretly spreading butter on his toast without my knowledge!
To be honest, I'm not really averse to him putting butter on his toast so we agreed that it was okay for him to have some butter. Being such a small kid, he doesn't quite understand the concept or consequences of having too much butter. As a result, we had to tell him to only put a little bit of butter on his bread (try saying that quickly after a couple of pints!). Naturally, he asks why at which point we explain that having too much butter is bad for him and will make him fat. A couple more "why's?" later, we ended up explaining that being fat will mean that he can't run around as much (one of his favourite activities) before he accepted that too much butter wasn't a good thing.
Anyway, one day, while he was at home and playing with his toy kitchen, he decides to cook me a pancake. However, we don't have any toy pancakes so as a surrogate, he uses his toy steak instead. After he finishes cooking the steak, he picks up his toy knife and says "I put butter on it for you".
"Just a little bit Gerry," I say automatically. By now, this comes out without even thinking although I immediately realise how cute it is that he wants to help me put butter on my "toast".
"Why?" he asks.
Here we go again, I thought. "Because if you eat too much butter, it isn't good for you."
"Why?" he asks again.
"Because if you eat too much butter, then you will become fat and cannot run around."
He ponders this for a moment before coming up with the perfect answer. In a very matter of fact tone, he says "Oh, but you fat already."
Ouch.
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