Just a quick post tonight (OK, this morning - it's 2:37am).
Couldn't let Saturday's party go by without a mention. My Dad turned 60 this month, and my brother in law turned 40, so my sister had the idea of having a combined 100 Years Celebration. It was a terrific night, with around 90 guests packing the church hall, enjoying games, wonderful food, some speeches, a few audiovisual clips, and generally having a great time together. I offered to put together a clip for both Dad & Jeff, and was given boxes of old slides from the 60's and 70's to scan and incorporate in a visual history. It was great fun seeing some of these photos for the very first time - much like discovering treasure - so while it took all week to get the slides scanned and the videos made, and while I didn't sleep between Friday morning and Saturday night, it was really enjoyable.
It's unfortunate that half of the family couldn't make it to the party: those of us who could were treated to a really special evening. Thankyou again to everyone who organised the night, and setup tables, and blew up balloons, and cooked wonderful lasagne and apple pies and everything else, and who made name badges, and gave speeches, and invited everyone and who gnerally made it all so great. And again, Happy Birthday Dad, and Happy Birthday Jeff. May there be many more.
Matt
(On an unrelated, the DVD proposal I posted last time has been seen by my Sydney colleagues, my boss and his boss, and the reaction has been really positive so far (one said "blown away" and another said "blew my mind", but they could have just been polite). Our General Manager is yet to see it - he's been too busy to watch it and even asked one of his staff to watch it and give him a precis! (which didn't happen). He's the decision maker, as he's the only one who can authorise spending the money, so the discussion is stalled until he finds time to watch. I'll give him this week before I start trying to progress it any further. Watch this space).
Monday, May 22, 2006
Monday, May 15, 2006
Mum's the word...
Yesterday was Mother's Day - (Happy Mother's Day again Mum) - and it was Mel's very first!
Yes, Jessica and I remembered (don't know why I had to remember - she's not my mother! hee hee), and Jessica sent me out with a small shopping list to thank her Mum for all she does, and all she is. The previous night Jessica was running a temperature, and wouldn't sleep, and would cry and scream intermittently (all related to new teeth we think) so by the time Mother's Day came around, an exhausted Mel finally felt that she had earned the accolade! I think you only officially qualify for Mother's Day if you've nursed a baby through a temperature with a cold wet flannel, so Mel made the grade with only hours to spare. (Only kidding of course - she's been a wonderful Mum since the first day of the pregnancy, and keeps getting better).
Here's a special Mother's Day clip that I had to share: it reminds me SO much of my own family (thanks Deb for the link). Enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhcA4Ry65FU
Matt
Yes, Jessica and I remembered (don't know why I had to remember - she's not my mother! hee hee), and Jessica sent me out with a small shopping list to thank her Mum for all she does, and all she is. The previous night Jessica was running a temperature, and wouldn't sleep, and would cry and scream intermittently (all related to new teeth we think) so by the time Mother's Day came around, an exhausted Mel finally felt that she had earned the accolade! I think you only officially qualify for Mother's Day if you've nursed a baby through a temperature with a cold wet flannel, so Mel made the grade with only hours to spare. (Only kidding of course - she's been a wonderful Mum since the first day of the pregnancy, and keeps getting better).
Here's a special Mother's Day clip that I had to share: it reminds me SO much of my own family (thanks Deb for the link). Enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhcA4Ry65FU
Matt
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Breakthrough Bonanza
Breakthroughs: there's been plenty of 'em lately.
The one on everybody's mind today, of course, is a very literal breakthough: the miraculous rescue of the two miners from a caved-in gold mine in Beaconsfield, Tasmania, after two weeks of drilling and careful-blasting. I can't begin to comprehend what it must have been like for Brant & Todd to have been trapped in a 1 metre cage, 1 kilometre underground, for 14 days. You'd like to think that, faced with a similar predicament, you'd be able to maintain your composure, humour, and strength to even half the degree that those two guys did: but I'm really not too sure about that (I get a leg cramp just sitting and watching the TV in a cold room). Phenomenal courage and composure in a terrifying situation. I sincerely hope they enjoy the bajillions they'll earn for their story in New Idea, and the tele-movies, and the Happy Meal action figures, and the VB ads ("you can get it crouching, you can get it...umm...still crouching"). And I do hope the rescuers are immortalised in Happy Meals too - an outstanding job all 'round.
The next breakthrough is also just as literal, but sadly didn't make the papers (they were a little busy I guess). On the weekend, Jessica got her first two teeth! (I guess we don't need to get her anything for Christmas now). We'd seen them coming up under the surface of the gums for a few days, and she's been dribbling a LOT in recent weeks, so we knew they weren't far away. Sure enough they arrived on Sunday - which according to the books is on the very early side of average - and it's amazing/frightening to see her hurtling toward toddlerhood. She has SO much personality, and is doing so well. Here's a couple of snaps to show off those pearly (but very sharp) whites...
And the third "breakthrough" - not nearly in the category of the other two, but important to me anyway - is that I finally finished the DVD proposal I mentioned in a previous post. I actually posted the 3 discs to my 3 bosses at 8am today. I don't know what I expected to feel (relieved, excited, scared) - but in the end I really didn't feel anything at all about it. It could be that I spent too long on it (about 200 hours) and am well and truly 'over it', or it could be that I'm preparing myself for a potential/probable "no thanks" reaction, or it might just be that I'm too tired to remember what excited me about the idea in the first place. But in any case, I know that I couldn't have done any better, so I'm happy about that. I even took a couple of photos of the finished product, so I guess I must be reasonably happy with it (here's one). I guess we'll soon see what happens, when they all open their packages, pop the discs into the nearest DVD player, and spend the next 19 minutes of their lives trying to follow what on earth I'm yabbering on about. I guess I'll post their reaction in the next few days...fingers crossed.
(Oh and by the way I managed to catch up with the Marketing and Communications Manager from Ulead last week for a bite to eat - Ulead make all of the software that I use for my video editing - and he was really interested to hear about the above project. He actually asked me to write up a bit of a user story for potential inclusion on their website, and was also generous enough to provide their brand new software package in support of my efforts! I was working up to purchasing it as soon as the proposal was completed - part as a reward, part as a more professional platform to use for the 'real' DVD if my bosses agree to it - so I was blown away by his fantastic gift. Thanks again Tobie! So, if Ulead agree to post a user story, I'll of course link to it from here. In the meantime, here's their main site: www.ulead.com
Well, that's enough for me for tonight. I need some sleep, and Mel & Jessica deserve to have their hubby/daddy back. For a while at least. Until they realise that they weren't really missing anything. Or until I get the green light and have to start on that real DVD. Whichever comes first.
Matt
The one on everybody's mind today, of course, is a very literal breakthough: the miraculous rescue of the two miners from a caved-in gold mine in Beaconsfield, Tasmania, after two weeks of drilling and careful-blasting. I can't begin to comprehend what it must have been like for Brant & Todd to have been trapped in a 1 metre cage, 1 kilometre underground, for 14 days. You'd like to think that, faced with a similar predicament, you'd be able to maintain your composure, humour, and strength to even half the degree that those two guys did: but I'm really not too sure about that (I get a leg cramp just sitting and watching the TV in a cold room). Phenomenal courage and composure in a terrifying situation. I sincerely hope they enjoy the bajillions they'll earn for their story in New Idea, and the tele-movies, and the Happy Meal action figures, and the VB ads ("you can get it crouching, you can get it...umm...still crouching"). And I do hope the rescuers are immortalised in Happy Meals too - an outstanding job all 'round.
The next breakthrough is also just as literal, but sadly didn't make the papers (they were a little busy I guess). On the weekend, Jessica got her first two teeth! (I guess we don't need to get her anything for Christmas now). We'd seen them coming up under the surface of the gums for a few days, and she's been dribbling a LOT in recent weeks, so we knew they weren't far away. Sure enough they arrived on Sunday - which according to the books is on the very early side of average - and it's amazing/frightening to see her hurtling toward toddlerhood. She has SO much personality, and is doing so well. Here's a couple of snaps to show off those pearly (but very sharp) whites...
And the third "breakthrough" - not nearly in the category of the other two, but important to me anyway - is that I finally finished the DVD proposal I mentioned in a previous post. I actually posted the 3 discs to my 3 bosses at 8am today. I don't know what I expected to feel (relieved, excited, scared) - but in the end I really didn't feel anything at all about it. It could be that I spent too long on it (about 200 hours) and am well and truly 'over it', or it could be that I'm preparing myself for a potential/probable "no thanks" reaction, or it might just be that I'm too tired to remember what excited me about the idea in the first place. But in any case, I know that I couldn't have done any better, so I'm happy about that. I even took a couple of photos of the finished product, so I guess I must be reasonably happy with it (here's one). I guess we'll soon see what happens, when they all open their packages, pop the discs into the nearest DVD player, and spend the next 19 minutes of their lives trying to follow what on earth I'm yabbering on about. I guess I'll post their reaction in the next few days...fingers crossed.
(Oh and by the way I managed to catch up with the Marketing and Communications Manager from Ulead last week for a bite to eat - Ulead make all of the software that I use for my video editing - and he was really interested to hear about the above project. He actually asked me to write up a bit of a user story for potential inclusion on their website, and was also generous enough to provide their brand new software package in support of my efforts! I was working up to purchasing it as soon as the proposal was completed - part as a reward, part as a more professional platform to use for the 'real' DVD if my bosses agree to it - so I was blown away by his fantastic gift. Thanks again Tobie! So, if Ulead agree to post a user story, I'll of course link to it from here. In the meantime, here's their main site: www.ulead.com
Well, that's enough for me for tonight. I need some sleep, and Mel & Jessica deserve to have their hubby/daddy back. For a while at least. Until they realise that they weren't really missing anything. Or until I get the green light and have to start on that real DVD. Whichever comes first.
Matt
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