davejenbarnes

Okay, I’ve been hugely busy as of late, and I’ve been using most of my free time to play Halo 2. So, I haven’t taken the time to write a post on my impressions of Tiger, Apple’s latest OS (version 10.4). But yesterday, I discovered something so cool, that I had to post something about it.

Sure, there are lots of “cool” things about Tiger: Dashboard, Automator, Spotlight, Safari RSS. But there are also a lot of new features that more hidden, and not as publicized. One that Steve Jobs featured during a recent Keynote speech was a screensaver that took all of the album art from your iTunes library, and created an ever-changing mosaic of album covers. I wanted to check this out, so I went to the screen saver preferences. This is where I found the “cool” thing which this post is about.

There is a new screen saver (apart from the album art one) that takes any RSS feed that is in Safari RSS and displays the information in a swirling mass of words similar to what one can produce using Apple’s Motion software. It’s a screen saver, but it can also be informative and is very fun to look at. Oh, did I mention that it is functional as well. At the bottom of each RSS entry that flies by the screen is a line that says, “press 1 to read more” then the next one would obviously say “press 2 to read more,” and so on. This allows the user watching the screensaver to go straight to the website from which the RSS orginated. The only addition I would make to this sweet screen saver is to make the RSS choice Randomizable, so you never know what’s going to pop up.

I’ll post some more coolness about Tiger as I find out more…

I have logged in to blogger several times with the intentions of posting about my cloth diaper ordering today but I hesitate since I know I may receive a lot of criticism in this area. With that said, there is nothing anyone can do to convince me of going totally disposable. I see using cloth diapers as an investment. David and I plan on having more than one child so what we buy today will not be useless in the future unless we are only blessed with the one baby…. kind of like dishes. We don’t eat exclusively off of paper plates because that would be a waste of a lot of resources. Occasionally, paper plates are fine… but for everyday use, a set of dishes that you wash and re-use is the way to go.

So… here is my starter stash:

1 premie size CPF, 2×4x2
1 infant size CPF, 4×6x4
1 infant size CPF, 4×8x4
36 infant size UBCPF’s, 4×8x4
3 prowrap classic Velcro, newborn sized covers
1 prowrap classic Velcro, small sized cover
3 bummis SIWW, newborn sized covers
1 bummis SIWW, small sized cover
1 kissaluvs size 0 diaper
1 kissaluvs contour diaper
1 prowrap cover
1 bummis Velcro cover
1 bummis snap all-in-one
1 newborn sized waterproof cotton Nikky cover
3 snappis
6 Gerber Premium Heavyweight Gauze Cloth Diapers (19 x 14 inches)
12 Gerber Premium Gauze Cloth Diapers (18.5 x 14.5 inches)

CPF=chinese prefold
UBCPF=unbleached chinese prefold
SIWW=Industrial Super Whisper Wrap (don’t know why the S comes first in the abbreviated form - also called SWW)

So that’s our starter stash. I am sure that once I experiment with all the different covers and options that this starter set will let me experiment with, I will be able to narrow down what I like. I can’t wait to get all these diapers in the mail!

I cannot seem to download the drivers for my canon digital rebel from Canon’s website - I use the link provided and end up with an empty new browser window - so I am relying on iPhoto 5.0.2 to get all the pictures off the camera. I started the process of removing 118 CRW files from the camera at 7:24 am. Let’s hope this doesn’t lock up on me like when I tried to download 86 CRW files.

Will be back when the process is finished… I’m predicting it will take close to 2 hours for the pictures to transfer.

UPDATE: Finished at 9:18 am

Over to the right (well, it’s supposed to be the right in the current layout though if I change layouts it could be the left, you just never know) you should find the word Photos. That is a link to a page in Wordpress. Modeled after an acquaintence’s website list of photos, I have created a sort of gallery-site-map, if you will. I think it works well, though I need to tweak the layout of the unordered list. In fact, I need to fix the whole layout for Windows peoples. Anyhow, I’m using my Gallery as an archive… I still want to keep Gallery around despite the coolness of Flickr. Theres just something about having your pictures on your website. Flickr is cool for being a part of a community… Gallery is cool for more private pictures.

Anyhow, we are becoming more okay with the tree being stolen. At least we’re all still alive and kicking. Some kicking more than others, but all alive.

David and I arrived home from our evening with the Millers only to discover that someone has stolen our over-6-foot-tall ficus tree. It was parked outside our garage with three other plants since the garage side of our building gets the sunlight and our patio did not offer enough sunlight to support it. David is upset from the principal of the whole thing. I am upset because I have had that tree for ten years and raised it from less than a foot high. We will be reporting it stolen to the office and we will be looking for it throughout the complex for as long as we live here. We have already walked most of the complex tonight… I have a feeling that whoever stole it was moving out though.

This just pisses us both off.

Yes, it was out there with the risk of being stolen, and yes, it’s just a tree… but still…

I have had three Braxton Hicks contractions today… very far apart from each other, but unmistakeable. David got to feel my belly on the last one and he said it felt like my whole belly was a basketball. Everything was hard, but there was no pain. I was, in the words of Strongbad, “Wierded out!”

I just got home from my 31 week appointment… the shortest doctors appointment yet.

I’m up 7.5 pounds from pre-pregnancy, so I gained 5 pounds in the last 3 weeks. The baby’s heart was beating at 141 bpm, and Dr. Irvin, after asking lots of baby-movement questions, squished around my belly to try to feel where the baby was positioned and determined that, at this point, the little Barnes is breech, facing my right side. His or her little hiney is just to the left of my belly button and his or her little head is right under my rib cage on the right. The little one is folded in half and sometimes kicks my bladder/cervix and sometimes kicks straight under my rib cage on the right, depending on whether or not those little legs are bent. With nine weeks left, Dr. Irvin was not alarmed at the baby’s presentation, though with each dr’s visit her concern will grow.

More stats… my blood pressure was/is 120/80 (I think I got that right… I can never remember if the big number goes first or second) and my fundal height is 31 centimeters.

The toughest thing this appointment was peeing in the little cup. I didn’t realize that it would be so difficult to tell where to put the cup until I had successfully drenched my hand. Thank goodness there is a sink, hand soap, lots of paper towels, and alcohol wipes readily available in the Dr’s office bathroom to clean up my mess and wipe off the outside of the miniature plastic cup. I’ll have to be more careful in two weeks.