I have a new-found respect for Sleep. I think being a new parent does that to you.
Tonight is the second consecutive night that Jessica has slept through most of the night, which is something Mel & I didn't expect to occur until much later. By "most of the night" I mean that she slept from about 11pm to 3:15am, woke briefly for a feed, then went straight back to sleep (and is still out to it now). It's wonderful to watch her sleeping peacefully after so many restless nights in the first 2-3 weeks, and it's every bit as exciting to see Mel finally getting some much needed rest as well. I think sleep is vastly underrated.
So why, pray tell, am I typing this at 5:30am? It turns out that I drank far too much caffiene yesterday (in fact I now realise that 4.75 litres of Pepsi Max and 600ml of Coke Zero is ALL I drank yesterday), so my mind has no plans to let me body go to sleep in the forseeable future. Feel a bit silly for that oversight, actually, and with a family gathering this afternoon evening at Mel's Dad's, it was inopportune timing. So I've spent some time on the MediaStudio Users Group forum (it's a non-linear, digital video editing forum for users of Ulead software), posting two very long responses to some criticism, and now I intend to learn a bit more about this blogging phenomenon before, hopefully, getting some sleep.
Ah yes, I love sleep, and if only 66% of this household can sleep through the night tonight, I sure don't mind being the one who misses out. It will certainly be the highest percentage of the last 3 weeks! Goodnight.
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Friday, January 27, 2006
Thursday, January 26, 2006
First Day Jitters...
Well, hello there.
My name's Matt, and this is my first foray into the seemingly-wonderful, evidently-unstoppable juggernaut that is weblogging. Be patient. And gentle. Please.
My modest ambitions for this blog are, well, very modest indeed. I guess they are basically three-fold:
1. On one basic level, I'd like to use the site as a way of keeping family and friends up to date (email? shmemail!) with the goings on in my life, and that of my wonderful wife Melissa, our beautiful 3 week old daughter, Jessica, and our fantastic four-legged friend, Jersey. I think that's about as generic and vanilla as these blogs can get, so if you are neither family nor friend (as yet), I apologise in advance that some of these posts will hold little obvious interest for you.
2. On another level, there are a lot things that interest me, or inspire me, or challenge me, or concern me, and I hope that blogging will allow me to share those things in a meaningful way. For instance, as late as today I found myself stumbling across the blog of Douglas Johnson - a man I'd never heard of before - which I thoroughly enjoyed and which led me onto a myriad of subsequent sites relating to creativity, creative thinking, writing, storyboarding, photography, videography, successful communication, the possibilities of Personal Content Management Software for distilling your otherwise-random thoughts, a tourists views of Dubai, the accessibility of personal podcasting, and even the growing online family who are moving away from electronic organiser gizmos and back to 'old school' paper-based organiser tools like the Hipster PDA. Some great stuff in there - most of it new to me - and I added more links to my Favourites today than I have in the last 8 years. More generally I have a great interest in Music, Movies, Videography, Photography, Technology, Social Trends & Behaviours, and even "The Big Questions" etc. So expect to see many links to things about which I'm passionate, or those sites and snippets which have made me laugh, or think, or worry, or all of the above.
3. Finally, though, I suspect that I'm embarking on the Blogging adventure for another very selfish motive; I guess I'm hopeful that the very act of writing this blog will stimulate my flabby, under-utilised brain into action, and eventually back into shape. Where my workday role demands only one side of my brain (and not much of even that!), perhaps this blog will be a much needed outlet for the other half. When I'm prompted to put into words who I am, what I think, where I'm at, and where I want to be, maybe it'll prompt some real introspection and some actual changes. Catharsis is a lofty ambition for a mere blog, I know, but i'm up to giving it a try.
In fact, when I think about the potential here, it's more and more of a surprise to me that I haven't done this sooner. I guess a big part of that delay will have been my concern that either my enthusiasm will wane, or my discretionary time will evaporate, and that this site will soon succumb to dust and cobwebs for lack of any routine postings (It's a deep-seated quirk/flaw of mine that I'll often leave things unstarted or untried, unless I can convince myself that I'll be able to see it all through to a conclusion). But I guess I'll just have to give it a try, summon up some hitherto-elusive self-discipline, and make myself accountable to publish something on a regular (albeit rarely daily) basis. The other hesitation has been that I'd initially viewed blogging as self-indulgent, and something which detracted from time spent more 'productively' elsewhere. But if the discipline of posting helps to get that brain ticking over again as it should (and as I think it did, long ago), then it's probably one of the most productive things I can do. Well soon see, I guess.
Well, for an initial post (which I'm certain nobody but I will read), it certainly has been a long one, and I fear I'll be setting an unrealistic precedent for future posts. Best to sign off now and leave something for later.
My name's Matt, and this is my first foray into the seemingly-wonderful, evidently-unstoppable juggernaut that is weblogging. Be patient. And gentle. Please.
My modest ambitions for this blog are, well, very modest indeed. I guess they are basically three-fold:
1. On one basic level, I'd like to use the site as a way of keeping family and friends up to date (email? shmemail!) with the goings on in my life, and that of my wonderful wife Melissa, our beautiful 3 week old daughter, Jessica, and our fantastic four-legged friend, Jersey. I think that's about as generic and vanilla as these blogs can get, so if you are neither family nor friend (as yet), I apologise in advance that some of these posts will hold little obvious interest for you.
2. On another level, there are a lot things that interest me, or inspire me, or challenge me, or concern me, and I hope that blogging will allow me to share those things in a meaningful way. For instance, as late as today I found myself stumbling across the blog of Douglas Johnson - a man I'd never heard of before - which I thoroughly enjoyed and which led me onto a myriad of subsequent sites relating to creativity, creative thinking, writing, storyboarding, photography, videography, successful communication, the possibilities of Personal Content Management Software for distilling your otherwise-random thoughts, a tourists views of Dubai, the accessibility of personal podcasting, and even the growing online family who are moving away from electronic organiser gizmos and back to 'old school' paper-based organiser tools like the Hipster PDA. Some great stuff in there - most of it new to me - and I added more links to my Favourites today than I have in the last 8 years. More generally I have a great interest in Music, Movies, Videography, Photography, Technology, Social Trends & Behaviours, and even "The Big Questions" etc. So expect to see many links to things about which I'm passionate, or those sites and snippets which have made me laugh, or think, or worry, or all of the above.
3. Finally, though, I suspect that I'm embarking on the Blogging adventure for another very selfish motive; I guess I'm hopeful that the very act of writing this blog will stimulate my flabby, under-utilised brain into action, and eventually back into shape. Where my workday role demands only one side of my brain (and not much of even that!), perhaps this blog will be a much needed outlet for the other half. When I'm prompted to put into words who I am, what I think, where I'm at, and where I want to be, maybe it'll prompt some real introspection and some actual changes. Catharsis is a lofty ambition for a mere blog, I know, but i'm up to giving it a try.
In fact, when I think about the potential here, it's more and more of a surprise to me that I haven't done this sooner. I guess a big part of that delay will have been my concern that either my enthusiasm will wane, or my discretionary time will evaporate, and that this site will soon succumb to dust and cobwebs for lack of any routine postings (It's a deep-seated quirk/flaw of mine that I'll often leave things unstarted or untried, unless I can convince myself that I'll be able to see it all through to a conclusion). But I guess I'll just have to give it a try, summon up some hitherto-elusive self-discipline, and make myself accountable to publish something on a regular (albeit rarely daily) basis. The other hesitation has been that I'd initially viewed blogging as self-indulgent, and something which detracted from time spent more 'productively' elsewhere. But if the discipline of posting helps to get that brain ticking over again as it should (and as I think it did, long ago), then it's probably one of the most productive things I can do. Well soon see, I guess.
Well, for an initial post (which I'm certain nobody but I will read), it certainly has been a long one, and I fear I'll be setting an unrealistic precedent for future posts. Best to sign off now and leave something for later.
Oh, and Happy Australia Day to all of you for whom that salutation applies. And Happy Belated Birthday (for yesterday) to my two brothers, Stephen & Jonathan. (I did call, but you weren't home - I promise!)
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