May 31st, 2009
First the great news. Fiona and I had our first baby last week – 20th May, 2009. She is called Eliza Scarlett Quinn. More on why later.
She arrived 2 months premature. 30 weeks and 5 days. But she has been an amazingly strong little thing so far – was only on direct assisted breathing for 48 hours or so, and was breathing just air by herself after a few days. She will be in her incubator for a few more weeks and wont be home until around her original due date of July 23. But we go to the hospital several times a day to see / feed / care for her.
She is awesome.
She does have her own domain already at elizaquinn.com.au – but nothing is there yet. Soon.
I have started to post a few pictures of her on my FlickR site – flickr.com/photos/michaelquinn/ Not a lot so far but I am going through lots of them and doing a bit of a crash course on iPhoto 09. More soon.
Fiona is doing great – no problems at all. Dad is getting over the shock of it happening way before he was ready – but expects it won’t be the last time that happens.
Anyway. Will write more on it soon….
As always – big plans to blog more blah blah blah. Please follow me at twitter.com/michaelq Most of my ramblings come out there for now.
Shine on.
Categories: blogging, eliza, personal
June 4th, 2008
Well after setting up with Twitter a couple of weeks ago (184 posts and counting), I somehow ended up finally opening a Facebook account.
Had a lot of fun with it so far – definitely the big time sucking vortex it has the reputation for. But after a couple of days finding friends and playing around with some widgets, its not so addictive.
Add me as a friend.
Categories: blogging, personal
May 26th, 2008
Last week I decided to check out Twitter. Twitter lets you post small messages (140 chr max – SMS length) and then anyone who is “following” you, automatically – and often instantly – gets these messages. Whenever someone you are following posts and update – you get the message in your “follow feed”.
You can find / follow me here on Twitter – twitter.com/michaelq
I’ve heard about Twitter for around a year or more. It sounds a bit silly but once I tried it I really liked it. I find it a lot easier to throw up a quick Twitter on “what I am doing now” than compose a blog entry for some reason.
4 years of Blog – 17 entries give or take.
1 week of Twitter – 70+ entries and counting.
I’ve also found a lot of people using it in the same way. By following people who I normally read their blog or follow their website, I’m seeing a lot more small and interesting messages flowing through during the day. It’s like the little details to the big post at the end of the week.
I’ve posted my personal Twitter feed here on the site – the last 5 entries are listed at the top of the column on the right. At the bottom of the column I’ve got my feed which includes all the people I am following and comments etc – last 20 entries for that one.
Quick plug. Normally you can just go to your Twitter page to read / post Tweets. A great desktop application I’ve found is Twitterific which pops up when you have new tweets to read and also lets you make a post from it too. It’s normally free – an ad pops up now and then which you can pay $14.95 to get rid of. I’m trying to work out how to pay $15 for it and keep the ads as some have been useful and certainly not a pain.
Categories: blogging, personal
April 21st, 2008
It’s been almost 3 years since I did any real blogging on this website. I’m hoping that’s about to change.
Last couple of years I’ve been so busy with one thing or another – work, life, whatever else came along.
So I thought it was time to get back into writing more for myself – both here and on my other blogs like Down Under Geek and 360Mac. I’d like to be doing a bit more writing in one form or another. Jerry Pournelle says you need to write a Million Words before you can be a writer. He seems a smart man – no idea how to count them though.
Recently I’ve been going through all my old photos on my FlickR account. Nearly all of them had bad titles – usually the default image name off the camera like DC32453.jpg. Plus the tags were all a bit wrong, the descriptions weren’t very descriptive, needed to set up collections and sets. 3 years down the track I didn’t need all of the wedding photos on there anymore. So I went through and deleted most of them. Still lots on there from the wedding – but a better sample now.
Today I also added some new pics – hope to be doing that on a regular basis. We have lots of great photos on the iMac, need to share them. Put up a few today from the Wentworth Show, and a nice one of Fiona and Kellie we took last year.
Gotta (re)start somewhere. This seems a good place.
Michael
Categories: blogging, personal
March 24th, 2008
Reloaded all my software onto my mac – checking to see if the new Mars Edit program is working with the Wordpress blog.
EDIT – all seems well enough..
Categories: blogging
August 25th, 2005
Been back from Sydney / Bathurst a little over a week now. Been flat out unpacking the rest of the house, setting up broadband, catching up with work and other things. I’ve been a bit slack on this blog but I’ve been updating some of the others – Batboys, MacSwitch and Down Under Geek.
www.batboys.com.au
www.macswitch.com.au
www.downundergeek.com
Batboys was a great weekend. I’ve talked about it a lot on the Batboys website so I’ll direct you there is you want to read more. We had about 15 guys show up, had a great couple of days, and I can’t wait for the next one.
The other great thing I got to do in Bathurst was catch up with an old friend from high school – Judith Segedin – now Judith Wilde. I had caught the XPT from Sydney to Bathurst on Friday morning – still a great trip: the scenery in the Blue Mountains was beautiful but after 3 1/2 hours I was ready to get off. Judith picked me up at the train station with her little girl. We spent the day together at her place and went out for lunch at Zigglers. In the afternoon we picked up her boy from school and then later in the day, Heather Fillery came round and we spent some time with her.
It was great to catch up with Judith and spend some great quality time together. She was kind enough to let me spend a few hours with her again on Sunday while I waited for the XPT to take me back to Sydney. I got to catch up with her husband Lindsay who is a great guy. Thanks for the great weekend Judith.
There are a couple of pics of Judith on my moblog.
http://michaelq.textamerica.com/?r=3059584
Got back to Sydney Sunday night at went to the Hard Rock Cafe with Gus. Good to spend a bit of time with him although as he was in jury duty all day it was a bit frustrating to have him away all day.
After a week away it was great to get home again on Monday night. Missed Fiona and Jhett very much. Probably the first time Fiona and I have really been apart in two years and it wasn’t much fun. But the break was great and I really enjoyed my time away.
Categories: holidays, personal
August 12th, 2005
Some days you just can’t complain about the life you have.
Yesterday I went into the main Sydney CBD and saw Star Wars Episode III for the second time. I saw it the opening weekend a few months ago but I wanted to see it one more time on the “big screen” before it comes to DVD.
Although it was a bit long and drags on a bit the second time, it was definitely worth it. Having the whole story a bit clearer in your head lets you enjoy it a bit more. I noticed a lot of things I hadn’t before – even the evolution of the ships into what will obviously become TIE Fighters and X-Wings in the original trilogy. The Alderaan based ship that Leia will be caught on in the first movie with its stark white halls.
You watch and realise how easy it can be for an Empire to evolve out of a Republic with some clever manipulation and planning by someone who is patient enough to wait for the change. At the end the downfall is “greeting with applause” as the Emperor declares himself ruler in the best interests of everyone. Its a great movie and segue into the original Trilogy sensationally.
I look forward to one day watching all six together. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to “forget” you know what going to happen and just start with Ep 1 and start over – what a ride that would be !
First Mac
After Star Wars I went into town and the David Jones store. I ordered my first Apple Macintosh – a 14” iBook. I have tired of all the security hassles with XP and just want a bit of a change. A lot of things I am wanting to do in the future – podcasting, digital photos and videos, blogging etc – can all be done the same if not better on a Mac. I’ll be setting up a new blog to discuss my switch to a Mac – MacSwitch.com.au
So I ordered the Mac and picked up a Shuffle and some software. The iBook wont be delivered for about a week or so as there is a bit of a delay with the new models.
Would you like to play a game of Chess ?
Coming back through Hyde Park I saw some guys playing Chess on one of those big boards that you walk into and move the pieces. I stopped and took a few photos with my mobile and posted them on my Text America site. I probably should work out how to do that with my Flickr site instead so they are all on the one site.
http://www.michaelq.textamerica.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelquinn
But it was great to stand there and watch them for half an hour, just take some time out and enjoy the sunshine.
Pizza time
Rounded off a great day by heading over to the Italian Pizza shop across the road from the apartment. Not the best Pizza I have had but pretty damn good.
All in all – a pretty good day.
Categories: apple, holidays, mac, personal
August 11th, 2005
At the moment I am spending a few days away on a bit of holiday.
This weekend is the Batboys weekend in Bathurst which I am really looking forward to. It is also the CSU Rugby Old Boys weekend so it should be a good time to catch up with a lot of people.
But I am in Sydney this week enjoying some time away and catching up on a few things. I am staying with Gus at his apartment which is pretty close to the city. Unfortunately he is on jury duty at the moment and so I away during the day. Bit frustrating but we can still see each other at night.
First night we were here we saw Fantastic Four. Not a movie I was planning on seeing but it was actually pretty good. Very funny in some parts. Like most of these franchise movies I find they spend waaaay to long at the start of the movie setting up the story. How the super heros were created etc. Just Get On With It.
Categories: holidays, personal
July 29th, 2005
Just wanted to write a quick note to let you know why I have gone quiet again on this blog. Fiona and I have bought our first house together and so we have been busy packing (well ok – Fiona has done most of that).
I have been getting work done and ready for the move. We won’t have broadband for about 4-6 weeks (hopefully no more) and so will be more or less restricted to Dial Up and a bit of wiresless broadband at Dad’s place.
But to get ready I have been developing monthly updates for all my regular sites, as well as seeding another 20 NEW sites which I can work on now they are more or less online.
So we will be moving tomorrow – I’m packing my stuff at the last moment as usual. Hope to be back online soon. Hope your well.
Categories: personal
July 21st, 2005
Last night I finally got to launch my new Tech Website – www.DownUnderGeek.com
This site will be focused on tech news, my views and opinions in that area and whatever else fits.
Yes this is something that 1000+ other guys do but I really don’t care. I want to have my little slice of that too. It will let me keep this website a more personal one – any techy stuff I can indulge myself there. I know your supposed to have one blog you focus on – once again – don’t care. I’m going to be doing both.
I’m actually really excited to be getting Down Under Geek up and running. For the last 4 months I have been working my butt off to get all of my “old” projects – all of the things that I have saving that “round tuit” for. I promised myself I would get the old ones done first. Well they are all done and now it’s time to get into all the new projects I have been coming up with.
What’s next on the list? Well first I have to fill out DUG – a few stories I have been saving up. But after that – we shall see…
Categories: blogging, down under geek, internet, personal, tech
