Chromecide.com

Wow.  Bloody glad that is over.

While I knew July/August was going to be a high-stress time, I was simply not prepared for everything that came along.

At first things were flowing nicely.  I was getting plenty of time to work on my projects.  Preparing for the arrival of the new baby.  Making sure we had everything.  Life was good.  And then it started, the bloody car blew it’s heater core. Nice.  Over a thousand bucks later and we are starting to get short of dollars the month that the baby is arriving. Nice.

Thinking about it now, it could actually be my own fault, because at about the time I found out how MUCH the car was going to cost to get fixed, I (stupidly) asked “What else is going to go wrong.  Isn’t this sorta stuff supposed to happen in threes?”.

As it turns out, that simple question had the same karmic effect as being in a horror movie and saying “Just going for a drink, Be Right Back”, walking UP the stairs, on the phone, looking in on the kids I’m babysitting, while wearing a skimpy outfit, hearing a noise and running to one room in the house that has only one exit.  Hang on…skimpy what?

Next, just because financial issues aren’t already on the agenda, my wife’s father passes away.  Needless to say that is a stress she did not need, when she was so close to having the baby.  Before he passed there were countless trips to the hospital, which she had to make herself, as I was working.  The raw emotion. Not so nice.  Then afterwards, the added stress of wondering if we were going to be able to make it to the funeral, both from a financial and medical standpoint.

Then we had a break from the uninvited chaos.  The birth of our beautiful boy, Connor.  THIS stress we were prepared for.  Well as prepared as you can be.  We had everything we needed.  Nappies and Clothes. Formula, wipes and all the other paraphernalia you need for cleaning babies.(If you aren’t a parent, you wouldn’t BELIEVE how much you need just to keep a baby clean!).  Everything was great.  They let us go from hospital and we brought him home.

*The_Universe  slaps you in the face with a large fish*

Number 3.  Connor has an infection.  He got it before we even left hospital, but somehow they missed it in his final exam.  So back to hospital we go.  Another few days of hospital trips before he is well enough to come home again.  More stress. No sleep. Noice! Obviously, this also prevents us from making it to the funeral.  We did try, but our little man was just not well enough to be able to make the 4 hour trip.

But it’s OK.  Things are starting to calm down again.  Now that Connor is over the infection, he is coming along just fine.  We’ll get up to the grave in the next few weeks, and we’ll be sure to have “one for the homies”.

This is the part where I should think of something witty to say to the universe.  You know the part in the movies where the underdog defiantly looks into the face of his adversary, spits and says:

*censored*

Sorry, I’m not tempting fate, not this month…

With the imminent birth of my 3rd child, my mind has been turning to the future and how to ensure I give my children the best possible chance to succeed in the future.  I’m sure most parents do the same thing.

I was at the supermarket the other day with my 2 year old daughter.  We only had to get a couple of things, so I took her through the self-serve checkouts.  While I was holding her, letting her swipe the items through the machine, a few questions sprung to mind:

How many manned checkouts will there be in 20 years when my daughter is shopping for herself?  Will they all be self-serve?  Will there even BE supermarkets?

It’s a bit of a scary thought.  How can you ensure your child is prepared for a future that in reality, is unseeable?

Shopping for groceries online, at least in my experience in Australia, is still a bit touch and go.  You end up buying “packages” that contain items you never use.  The only payoff is the convenience, especially these days with how much time everyone has to spend working just to make ends meet.  But apart from that, and the few self serve sections that some supermarkets are installing, the face of shopping really hasn’t changed much for as long as I can remember.

The other major changes I have seen have been in the media landscape.  You’d have to completely disconnected to not be able to see it.  Not even 20 years ago, the sort of movie that an independent film maker could produce would not even be able to come close to the quality and distribution of the major film studios.  Yet here we are today with original, high quality high definition independent films being released all the time, and being viewed by millions of people worldwide.

Services have started springing up to help make the process easier, joining script writer with producers and directors, building communities of fans around a film before it has even been made and services to help gather finds from those fans to make the idea a reality.

I’m not even a film maker, but I have 2 production on WreckAMovie, which provides services for a collaborative approach to film making.  One is an idea for an open source feature length film, and one is for “One Man’s Life Work”.  It has just become so easy to start turning some of our dreams into reality.

Can you imagine what things are going to be like for my daughter in 20 years?

Dear Diary,

So another day another dollar.  Some of the tasks today were actually quite fun, amidst the normal drudgery.  I had two blocks of script writing, one was for an old school 2d horror movie style, quite retro, dad is always going on about the “good ol’ days of 2d”.  I just couldn’t imagine it. Why would you?

I also had a couple of blocks of order packing. I HATE those with a passion, they take so damn long and pay bugger all.  The others were just the normal drudgery, administrative tasks, and some programming.

Dad was telling me again today that only 20 years ago, people did the same thing, all day, every day.  Each person had a single job description.  And they and they had to go to offices, and factories. It still amazes me.

Next week should be good, because I’m rostered on for field duties.  Hopefully I’ll get some more horse work blocks, they were great, not to mention the pay is really damn good.

My “bike maintenance” block was fulfilled today, 2 days early, so pretty stoked about that. I also helped Connor study for his office admin certification, and he’s coming along well.  Will be good for him to get some extra cash while he’s putting together his block for that new tv show.

Anyways, bed time.

With the new baby due in a little over 6 weeks, I have had to take a long hard look at the projects I have in their various states of incompleteness.  Everything from horror movie scripts to iPhone apps.  Some are easier to drop from the list than others, but with my personal time about to be slashed, it is something that needs to be done.

The iPhone apps are easy, for the simple reason that Apple have made it too hard and too expensive for me to “get into the game”.  Add to that the fact that even if the app is approved, they could pull it any time, and the decision is made.

The horror movie scripts, well script, one is little more than an idea.  Tougher.  Especially the script for “The Shed”, a script I bought last year from a guy called Alex Whitmer.  While I’d love to be able see the script turned into a Feature length film and my full vision created, it is just not going to happen in the near future, so that is going to be dropped as well.  I’m actually thinking of releasing the script under an Open license, maybe one day I’ll be able to watch someone else’s vision of the script.

One I’m really not ready to let go of, even though nothing has progressed in FAR too long, is OpenEmergency.com.  I think the idea is good, but again, time is against me at the moment, so it will have to move to the back burner for a while.

The rest are minor ideas or projects that I feel can wait indefinitely so I’m not too worried about those.

This has left me with only one item on my list. Actually two, but they each rely on the other so I’m counting them as.  These are “One Man’s Life Work” a constant and persistent fictional universe and “Flux Singularity” the software to run it.

I’ll be working to consolidate the information on both projects in the next week or so, to help give myself a firmer direction for them.

From the Ultrasound Yesterday:

Baby's First Pic

The better half just got back from her first ultrasound. The due date for the baby is my BIRTHDAY!!!

Everything seems normal so far, so that’s good news. Can’t wait to get home and see the pics!!