Life changes....

It's amazing how quickly things can change. It feels like yesterday we were living in Royal Oak, MI. But that was now almost eighteen months ago.

For those of you who might not be aware, I left the corporate world behind back in November. Have my own business now (with a partner) doing Linux kernel driver consulting and OSX software (both userland and kernel drivers). All video related. It's nice to be your own boss, as well as doing a job where you actually love the work.

More about the business and what we're doing can be found at http://www.kernellabs.com...

The baby will be here any minute now. We've been patiently waiting, having a few false alarms, etc. We bought all the supplies we needed. We built a room for the baby. Moved the bed downstairs from the loft and set up the bassinet. Taken the requisite classes in infant CPR and childbirth. Now we just need the baby to actually be born. :-)

Still trying to figure out the whole work/life balance thing. A new business and a new baby in the same year is a pretty daunting challenge. People keep telling me "your life will change overnight". I don't doubt them.

Happy Halloween!

Free books

I did some cleaning over the weekend. Does anybody want any of these books?



Unrelated: the hurricane is coming. Everybody be safe!

End of an era

So to make room for the baby, I've finally decided to part with my PacMan machine. If anybody in the NYC area has any interest, I'll happily give you a discount.

Here's the Craigslist posting, which my spouse was kind enough of to add some humour to:

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/vgm/3352745759.html

Maui Babymoon

Victoria and I returned today from our "babymoon" in Maui. For those of you perhaps not familiar, this is essentially the last vacation we get to spend alone before we spend the next eighteen years on "family vacations". :-)

She's at 20 weeks now, so just crossed the "halfway point" for the pregnancy. That's late enough to call it a babymoon, but early enough that she's still able to do stuff like snorkel and take hikes around the island without being miserable.

I had never been to Maui before, and it is quite beautiful. It's amazing how peaceful and quiet the island is. We did see quite a bit though. Here are the highlights:

• Toured around Lahaina
• Saw the Iao Needle
• Drove about 1/3 of the Road to Hana (saw the Twin Falls)
• Took a submarine tour of a local reef
• Snorkeling around Black Rock (we stayed at the Sheraton where Black Rock was located, so it was easy to just wake up and drag the snorkeling gear that we own down to the beach)
• Attended a luau
• Went to the top of the Haleakalā Volcano
• Lots of relaxation

There was even a hammock on the lawn right outside our room, so it was very easy to lounge about and read, etc.

The photos can be found here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4092626392883.2152216.1199470342&type=1&l=feb6107e1d

In short, a great vacation. We got a free room upgrade, so we had a full view of the ocean.

As is the case whenever I travel, I'm all jet-lagged, which is why I'm writing this at 2:30am instead of sleeping soundly.

Getting organized and nostalgia

In preparation for the baby, I've been working on going through and cleaning out lots of stuff. It's amazing how stuff accumulates to fill the space you live in. When I moved into the apartment, it was sparse to the point that it felt like a museum. Now the closets are overflowing and I've got a large stack of rubbermaid containers in the bedroom.

Anyway, here's a bunch of random stuff I ran across as a result of going through boxes, etc.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3923057873776.2148523.1199470342&type=1&l=c19bbec561

Next up, the Pac Man machine is going to be sold to make some more room. If anybody is interested in buying it, let me know. Otherwise I'll be listing it on Craigslist soon enough...

Some small things...

So the secret's been out for a while among various circles, but Victoria and I are having a baby.



Yes, the many years of sitting in front of a CRT and/or years of laptop use did not impair my ability to procreate.

Yay!

Despite having been in the workforce for a number of years, being married, owning an apartment, I guess for the first time I'm starting to feel like a grown-up. Real responsibility. It's hard not to reflect on the fact that my father was 28 when I was born, and I'm 35 - and hence I should in theory have my shit more "together".

I went to DefCon in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago with Dan Christiansen, and it's hard not to notice that I spent much more time soliciting advice on fatherhood than we did talking about technology. I was 24 the first year I went to DefCon, and I'm still trying to decide whether it's the conference that has changed or whether it's me. Probably a bit of both.

More later...