Cohen’s First Stitches

  • February 22, 2012 10:45 am

Since Cohen became mobile Alisa and I have been wondering just how long our family would go without a trip to the hospital for stitches. I think we were close last year when he cracked his head on the tile floor downstairs. But we’ve been holding our breaths waiting for the day – and now it has come.

Yesterday Cohen did a little finger painting. Naturally he ended up with paint all over his body (I helped him smear it as any good dad would do). Rather than mopping the paint off him Alisa wisely decided to drop him into the bathtub and to just rinse him down. Now Cohen hasn’t really been in a “shower” before as he loves his baths. So he was quite a bit nervous at first. After a little while he seemed to accept it and actually begin to enjoy it – tapping his hands nervously on his body while standing just inside the water’s range. Since he was clean and getting more comfortable, Alisa jumped out to the living room to grab his towel. That’s when she (and I downstairs) heard the dreaded **THUMP**.

Cohen tells us that he started enjoying the shower so much he decided to twirl around in the falling water – who wouldn’t? He forgot about how slippery the tub can be when wet, and slipped, falling chin-first on the top edge of the tub. Warning – images follow that might be hard to see for those that don’t like looking at blood …

Note to Self – Subsonic Jukebox

  • January 7, 2012 11:18 pm

Right now the Subsonic Jukebox feature relies on manually specifying the java-recognized soundcard listing in the subsonic script itself.  This means that after an upgrade the jukebox will stop working.  Here’s what I need to do to get it working again:

  1. Confirm that the hardware works using aplay

java /var/tmp/subsonic/audioDevList

aplay -D plughw:0,0 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav

  1. Edit /usr/bin/subsonic and add the correct line near the end of the script

-Djava.awt.headless=true \
‘-Djavax.sound.sampled.SourceDataLine=#Intel [plughw:0,0]‘ \
-verbose:gc \
-jar subsonic-booter-jar-with-dependencies.jar > ${LOG} 2>&1 &

  1. Restart subsonic, and test using iSub or something

Happy Holidays from the Bridgers!

  • January 6, 2012 5:09 pm

We Bridgers like to do things right, which typically means we end up doing it late.

In observance of this tradition I am posting our 2011 Holiday Letter in 2012. It was written at 2011, I promise.

Family Holiday Letter 2011

Enjoy – and belated Happy Holidays!

I’ve Gone Loco – Triathlon Style

  • October 27, 2011 10:14 am

Alisa’s passion for fitness has, at times, made me think she is slightly loco (or so I’ve joked).  It seems to be catchy though – with her subtle prompting I’ve decided to train for a triathlon.

I’m thinking of working up to an Olympic distance for my first time – I have 20 weeks or so before the UBC Triathlon so that might be my first one.

I’ve been training since mid Sept and have discovered my strongest and weakest legs.  Strongest is definitely swimming, which surprised me.  I haven’t done a lot of swimming in the last decade.  My weakest is the other two.  I can’t tell which one is worse yet.  Or put another way, I can’t tell which one I can improve the most.  I suspect biking – right now I’m biking at a pace of 2 hours for the 40km, and that’s a lot of biking.

I’ve been tracking my training in a spreadsheet that I hope to publish in some way, to help with accountability (nothing like public shaming to motivate!).  Stay tuned.

2001 – 2011: The Best Decade of My Life (So Far)

  • July 27, 2011 1:53 pm

Today Alisa and I celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary.  There are no words to describe what a wonderful, full, and rewarding time this past decade has been.  We have come a long way from being those innocent kids exchanging rings in the rain at Cecil Green.

Alisa and Kirk cutting their wedding cake

Our next decade together promises to be overflowing with joy, laughter, love, and passion. I’m honoured to be your husband and partner as we continue our lives together (just as destiny has decreed, naturally).

The Next Stage of My Evolution

  • February 17, 2011 10:54 pm

So I have quit my job at UBC.  My last day is March 4th, 2011.

Strange – I thought things would work out really well there.  Well, they did work out in many ways, just not the way I thought they might.  I lost 12 pounds while working on campus – at the very least I’m more physically fit now than I have been for many years.  However I also have made touch with some fantastic people and organizations during my time with UBC.  These contacts may very well become my professional lifeblood, so how can I say things haven’t worked out?

I joined UBC in a time of transition, or so I’m told.  I can affirm that things seem to be in a large state of disarray, with very few people actually knowing what’s going to happen 1 month from the day you ask them.  That can result in a lot of internal strife and general unhappiness.  Couple it, however, with a seemingly glacial pace of change, and UBC just doesn’t seem all that … agile.

So I am moving on.  The pasture looks green enough, and the fence isn’t so high to jump over … I think it is time for me to spread my wings a little more than I have ever before.

Note To Self: Archos 5 Max Resolution

  • February 17, 2011 10:45 pm

I have been enjoying my Archos 5 for a couple of years now.  I want to record here the max resolution it can handle (gleaned from various forum posts), so when I create videos for it they’re as big and juicy as can be.

720×576

800×576 (MPEG-2 or Flash)

Happy Holidays!

  • December 24, 2010 10:42 am

We here at Goggs Avenue wish you and yours a very restful holiday season, and a wonderful 2011.

Here is our annual holiday letter for your reading pleasure, should you wish a quick update on the events of 2010.

P.S. The current rage against the term “Happy Holidays” in lieu of “Merry Christmas” will not appear here, nor be addressed here, as it is too silly.

Biggest Goose Egg I’ve Ever Seen!

  • December 21, 2010 10:06 pm

Poor Cohen – he was alone downstairs for less than 30 seconds when … something happened.  I’m still not clear what, though I suspect it involved Cohen’s head and the tile floor (probably meeting in a violent demonstration of Newton’s Third Law of Motion).

One day before family photos too.  30 minutes of ice was all I could get him to sit still for.  The fact that he sat still for 30  minutes was almost more concerning than the goose egg.

If You Use Google Products or Services, Read This

  • November 17, 2010 10:22 am

Anyone who uses Google’s products or services, such as gmail, gtalk, google searches, etc should read this article at Ars.  It discusses how you can access your dashboard to see what information Google keeps on you, and you can opt out of various parts as needed.

As someone who reluctantly uses Google (my account on gmail is called “reluctantkirk” – doesn’t get more obvious than that) and who tries to keep my privacy intact as much as possible, I was a little disconcerted to see that I could go back and see an eternal history of Google searches and that somehow several friends have ended up as Google contacts when I didn’t intend them to (I don’t want to share their info with Google if it can be avoided).

That being said, the dashboard allows you to manage these things, delete history, remove contacts, etc.  Thank you Google for trying to make money without doing evil.