Thank goodness for that! Otherwise my 14 year old son would never listen to me again!

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

[listening to: Shine - Ben Lee ]
4:03:44 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Family

12 months ago, I found myself in hospital, it was during my holiday break with the family. It was the start of my battle with diverticulitis which ended with major surgery in April this year.

Over the past 2 weeks, we got down to Jervis Bay and Canberra. I saw a bunch of movies with my kids (Sky High, The Adventures of Sharkboy & Lavagirl and Serenity). We watched some TV shows on DVD (scrubs & House), and I played with my kids. We went house hunting, I had my Moira's parents visit, as well as my dad. And I grew my beard .

'Twas a busy 2 weeks.

I'm happy to say that *this* holiday break has ended well, and I'm heading back to work on 10/10.

[listening to: Burning Down the House - Talking Heads ]
9:58:15 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Family

One of the challenges of having 4 kids is getting them to agree on which movie to all go see.

One of the advantages is getting to take them to two different movies on the same day, which I got to do this week.

Two movies in one day - life's tough!!

In the morning, I  took the little ones to see The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lavagirl in 3-D.

Now anything in 3-D is an instant atttraction to my and my kids. Add the skills of Robert Rodriguez and we';re there!

The kids loved the movie. It had a cute story and cool effects. There's a good local review here

Someone mentioned that all the CGI was done on Windows PCs - that's cool.

In the afternoon the big boys and I got to see Serenity. We are Firefly fans - not that we ever saw it on the telly here, apparently Channel 7 showed it a few years back. I bought the series on DVD recently. And it has it's own wiki.

Anyways, back to the movie. Serenity would have to be the best movie I've seen all year - much much better than Star Wars III, or any of the others we've gone to this year. If you havent seen it, here's the first 9 minutes of the movie.

I hope this is the start of a series of movies. It's the Star Trek of the new Millenium

There is a lot of buzz in the blogosphere about this movie, but my favorite post is from Phil Richardson, where he compares Serenity to Queer As Folks. Phil - you are one funny dude!

[listening to: Burning Down the House - Talking Heads ]
5:25:59 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Family • My Interests

Our TV DVD watching continued this week. Last week Scrubs, this week we watched the entire Series 1 of House M.D.

House is a wonderful show, a new "take on the mystery genre, where the villain is a medical malady and the hero is an irreverent, controversial doctor who trusts no one, least of all his patients. Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) is devoid of bedside manner and wouldn't even talk to his patients if he could get away with it".

We all really love the program. Dr House reminds me of Sherlock Holmes, all the way down to his pain killer addiction. Anyone else notice that?

We had been following this in the local FTA network, but once I spotted it on Amazon, I just had to get it. God it's good to watch drama shows without the ads. Even better to have watched it all now. Bring on Series 2....

Oh, and what is it with all these hospital shows??

[listening to: Once in a Lifetime - Talking Heads ]
9:26:50 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Family • TV

So, we're driving along the Hume Highway, on our way to Canberra.

We have taken both our cars (Moira's CX90 and my A4 ), as we had some extra passengers on the trip.

My mobile rings, and Billy answers. It's his brother Antony, who is in the other car.

He tells Billy to turn on his Nintendo DS, so they can play against each other wirelessly from each car as we are travelling at 110km per hour.  All the kids have a Nintendo DS, as well as a copy of Nintendogs, which has provided great holiday entertainment to the kids.

It also made a geek dad really proud.

Oh, by the way, the wireless worked really well. The DS supports 802.11 which means it has a a wireless range of 30 to 100 feet, or so they say. It works on the highway too. Maybe Nintendo should update their fact sheet, to include this.

[listening to: (Nothing But) Flowers - Talking Heads ]
9:09:27 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Family • Geek

After I bagged Canberra last week, I received my punishment and went down to Canberra for a few days. We headed down the Hume in convoy and made a quick dash down to Canberra.

The place we usually stay at has broadband. so I took my tablet along. When we finally arrived and made it to the room, I couldn't find any dataports. "Hmmm, maybe they now have a wifi network", I thought. I couldn't detect any network. I rang down to the front desk and found out we were in the only room that DIDN'T have broadband in the room, and the hotel was booked out - it was a long weekend afterall, and Floriade is on - so I was out of luck.

We visited our usual haunts - The Pancake Parlour in Civic (which includes Free Wi-Fi), Jigsaw (which used to be Goodberry's) for some frozen custard and Kingsley's Chicken for some Awesome Chips!  We even got out to the Floriade. I took some photos, but Mikal has some better ones.

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to attack Canberra. It's beautiful. This photo sums it all up

[listening to: Psycho Killer - Talking Heads ]
11:26:45 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Family

I took the gang to the movies today.

Bricey wanted to see Sky High, so that's what we went to see.

It was a movie, like those old fashioned Disney live action ones from my youth, which also starred Kurt Russell.

I liked it. The critics at THE SMH, on the other hand, didn't.

The main character, Will Stronghold, reminded me of my big boy Billy - starting High School, basically a good kid, a bit awkward, trying to live up to the weight of expetactions, son of super hero parents, his super powers not quite there...

Watching the film, it sure felt like a pilot for a tv series, so I wont be surprised if we see it on the Disney Channel soon. Time will tell.

Anyways, this is the first of the next batch of movies we will be seeing over the holidays -- bring it on!!!

[listening to: And She Was - Talking Heads ]
5:42:21 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Family • My Interests

We took a DVD of [Scrubs] Series 2 on holiday with us. It was a great decision.

The whole family loves the show. It's funny, smart and fresh.

It's another one of those programs (See my earlier rant about Curb Your Enthusiam) that has been destroyed by the commercial FTA networks (thanks for nothing, Channel 7), but we continue to ignore the networks and watch the shows we want, when we want. I know that I an early early adopter, but my kids represent the next generation.

Anyways, this is what TV.COM has to say about the show

This half-hour comedy focuses on the bizarre experiences of fresh-faced medical intern John "J.D." Dorian (Zach Braff) as he embarks on his healing career in a surreal hospital crammed full of unpredictable staffers and patients – where humor and tragedy can merge paths at any time.

[listening to: Computer Games - My sex ]
3:25:15 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Family • TV

We spent the past week at Jervis Bay. It was lovely.

We rented a house that was right on the beach at Hyams Beach. The kids would wander out the back and be onto the sand in 45 steps. Awesome!!! The photo is the view from the deck of the house. They house even had a name - Baywatch. Alas, there was no Hoff.

I took the kids out on a Dolphin Watch cruise and we got to see dolphins and a whale

Jervis Bay is a very beautiful place, and makes me wonder how different things would have been if it had been chosen as the location for the nation's capital, rather the barren wasteland that is Canberra (apoligies to all my friends who live in Canberra).

It would have been an awsesome nation's capital and would have rivaled Sydney for a beautiful bay. As the sign at the local pub said - "It's Another Great Day at the Husky Pub". 

I've posted a bunch of photos onto my flickr, and I have more on my other camera, which I will post when I get around to it.

[listening to: 5/4 - Gorillaz ]
10:16:04 AM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Family