Gerry's 2nd birthday

I'm very happy - Gerry liked the brownie. You have no idea how gratifying that is - the warm and fuzzy feeling you get. I'm starting to understand a little better why some people like cooking so much. You get a much better feeling of satisfaction relative to just buying a cake from a store.

Or maybe thats just because I don't cook very often...
:)


Anyway, here is Gerry wondering what all the fuss is about as we sing Happy Birthday.


And this is Gerry tucking in with his spoon.


His first bite - and he is still smiling!!


Nothing but crumbs, although he was a very good boy and gave some to daddy and mommy.

My Xmas Brownie

Wow - what a Christmas. Looking back, I can't believe how much food I ate over the last week. So much for my diet! :)

Today is boxing day. More importantly, tomorrow is Gerry's 2nd birthday (so look forward to a slew of pictures of Gerry soon!). In preparation for his birthday tomorrow, I decided to bake a brownie. Naturally, seeing as Gerry can't eat too much birthday brownie, the missus and I will have to help him out!


This is a picture of the finished brownie. It may not look like much in the picture but that monster is approx 10" by 8".


This is 1 serving of said brownie. What can I say, I believe in big portions! :D


Of course, simply having a brownie for dessert isn't good enough. This is the finished article. A large slice of chocolate and cherry brownie with Rocky Road ice cream and freshly brewed tea. Delish!!


The missus tucking in. Just in case there was any doubt, she enjoyed the brownie immensely. In fact, she liked it so much, she had another serving!


Proof that she liked it - an empty plate!
:)

Don't worry - we left some for Gerry. It is after all, his birthday brownie!

Happy Holidays!

Wishing all of my loyal blog readers a joyous holiday season. At times, its hard to believe that I managed to keep this going all the way to Xmas!

Have fun, drinks lots of wine and remember - you can diet in the new year!!


We wish you a Merry Christmas,
We wish you a Merry Christmas,
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Good tidings we bring to you and your kin,
Good tiding for Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Oh, bring us a figgy pudding,
Oh, bring us a figgy pudding,
Oh, bring us a figgy pudding and a cup of good cheer.

Good tidings we bring to you and your kin,
Good tiding for Christmas and a Happy New Year.

We won't go until we get some,
We won't go until we get some,
We won't go until we get some, so bring some out here.

Good tidings we bring to you and your kin,
Good tiding for Christmas and a Happy New Year.

We wish you a Merry Christmas!
We wish you a Merry Christmas!
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Bad consumers

Long time readers of this blog know that I occasionally post articles talking about how consumers are being ripped off by corporates (most of these coming from the consumerist).

For a change, here's a link to a blog by a guy in tech support for a broadband company. Its a general blog but every once in a while (actually, quite regularly!), he will post a transcript of one of his tech support calls. Good for a laugh if nothing else.

Now obviously, I have no idea if these are accurate transcripts. However, considering the absolute idiocy of people in general, the issues which come up seem genuine enough. :)

The power of positive reinforcement

When it comes to raising children, pretty much everyone agrees that positive reinforcement is a good thing. If you have children in the modern age, you probably already know what positive reinforcement is - but if you don't then you may be sitting there wondering what I'm talking about.

Positive reinforcement is basically encouraging the child whenever he does something right. So for example, whenever Gerry points at a cup and says the word "cup", then the missus and I will both say "Yes, thats right - well done Gerry!". This praise lets him know that he did something right. He feels good for getting praise and therefore, he remembers. Furthermore, he is encouraged to continue doing things right. Hence the term - positive reinforcement.

Positive reinforcement obviously applies to actions as well as objects. For example, we will ask Gerry to put away his toys after playing with them. If he does this, then again, we give him praise and say "Well done". Again, this encourages the correct behaviour in your child.

So, as I said above, everyone pretty much agrees that positive reinforcement is a good thing when it comes to raising kids. Unfortunately, noone ever warned me about the dangers of positive reinforcement. Dangers? "What could possibly go wrong" I hear you cry!

Well, remember how I mentioned that everytime Gerry names something correctly, we say "Yes, thats right - well done Gerry!". Well, it appears that Gerry really likes positive reinforcement. In fact, he likes it so much that he now does it himself instead of waiting for us to do it!

How do you positively reinforce yourself? Simple. Nowadays, Gerry will point at a cup and say "Cup, yeah!"...

Sony Rootkit Disaster

For those of you who used to purchase Sony BMG CDs, you probably know all about the Rootkit disaster. This was the incident where Sony BMG decided it was a good idea to illegally install spyware and rootkit software on your PC via their music CDs. And yes, I am justified in calling it a disaster in view of the subsequent legal tussle which Sony BMG got involved in.

Anyway, if you are interested in this case, you might want to check out this PDF link which goes into a bit more detail about the whole incident. Its a very long article and I'm still reading it myself. However, its quite good in that its not written in legalese.


For the avoidance of doubt, I think Sony BMG are frigging idiots to pull something like this and I hope that the people responsible burn badly for it. The music industry is already suffering badly from dropping CD sales. Stunts like this simply discourage people from buying CDs which makes the problem even worse.

Quite frankly, considering all the various shit that the music industry in the US is doing (I'm looking at you - RIAA), I hope that the entire industry in the US crashes and burns. Hopefully, at that stage, we can get something decent to replace it...

Neil Gaiman is cool

This is just too sweet.

In brief, a guy in the Philippines wants to propose to his girlfriend. He finds out that Neil Gaiman (the famous author) is going to be in Philippines for a book signing and, knowing that his girlfriend is a Neil Gaiman fan, asks Neil (via the authors blog) if he can help him to propose. And Neil agrees!

Working together with the book signing venue etc, they set things up so that when the guy's girlfriend goes to get a book signed, Neil writes the marriage proposal on the inside cover of the book. How cool is that!

Really not much more I can add to this except to say - "Neil Gaiman, you rock!!"


PS You can find some more photos and a video of the event on the girlfriends blog here.