"YOU'RE GONNA BE A GREAT DADDY"

100_0268
Originally uploaded by Stop Looking At Me Swan.

Believe it or not, I actually heard that a lot in those last few days of pregnancy. A part of me wanted to ask them "What in the world makes you think so? Could you tell me so I can feel better about what's going to happen??"

Well, now I get to find out for myself. Lukas was born at 7:24pm on Thursday, April 19. He weighed in at 8lbs 5oz, and was 20¾ inches long. Definitely, that was bigger than we thought he was going to be.

I bawled when he came. Just cranked up the waterworks. Turns out that being up since 4am that day had made my eyes pretty tired, so crying made them burn a little, which made me cry even more! It's weird memories like that that stick in your head when these chaotic moments are over.

The doctors say he's healthy, and we say he's perfect. Mom is tired and at the same time overjoyed. Me... well, the word that probably best describes it is Awestruck.

NEW COMMMENT ON P.E.A.K. BROTHERS

Allow me to informally introduce you to The P.E.A.K. Brothers - a collaborative blog project I'm contributing to. You can find out more about it in our little welcome post.

And here's where I decided to join the conversation. No surprise - it's about kids.

Enjoy!

THE RESURRECTION EGGS-PERIENCE

So the dear wife and I were out looking for a Secret Sister gift from a local Christian Bookstore, and we noticed that they not only HAD these cute little items, but were running a special on them! They're called Resurrection Eggs, and I thought I was going to write a big blog entry referencing the Origin of the Easter Bunny, and why it was silly to use an ancient, pagan symbol of fertility (the Egg, not the plastic) to educate kids about the Lord Our Savior Jesus Christ.

But then, I decided to actually use my brain.

Kids don't care about the eggs. Kids don't think of them as a pagan symbol, and kids have no clue where the Easter Bunny comes from, nor do they care - as long as they get candy. Easter Eggs are about discovery, surprises, and rewards.

And actually, that's what the Resurrection is about, too.


Technorati Tags: eggs, easter, resurrection, christian, bunny

THE MORE MONITORS, THE BETTER!

You know those times you thought I was singing the praises of the extra monitor just because I'm a geek? Well how 'bout these apples!

Microsoft researchers haven't perfected the genie, but they've found a tool that can increase your productivity by 9 to 50 percent and make your work day easier. And you can begin using it right away.

The researchers conducted user studies that proved the effectiveness of adding a second or even third monitor to your workstation, creating a wide-screen effect. In addition, they found out how the operating system needs to change to accommodate a larger screen area.

Yep, it's ALL true.

Technorati Tags: monitors web research

ALANIS - MY HUMPS VIDEO

Ok, I'm going to post something MUCH more worthy of introspection and thought later, but for now, I thought this was DARN funny:

PICTURES OF A SHOWER

Update!:

(Man, I'm getting more and more of these!) New pictures! Now including great stuff from the VRCC shower AND the Grace Crossing shower. I've split them up with unique tags - feel free to check them out!

• VRCC Shower - http://www.flickr.com/photos/48264765@N00/tags/vrcc/


• Grace Crossing Shower - http://www.flickr.com/photos/48264765@N00/tags/gccc/

---

Baby Shower in Houston for Lukas

A BABY shower, of course! What were you thinking?

OH DEAR BLOG, I STILL LOVE YOU

Update:

In deference to my employer, I have disabled the links to any European language version of this site. Being a contractor, I was not fully aware of their launch timelines, and I don't want disrupt anyone else's hard work. I genuinely enjoy working at TI (my contracting company may be a different story, but I'm not going to get snarky here), I really do like the people I work with and I absolutely hope to be working with them for quite some time to come. Hopefully when those European language sites are unveiled, I'll be able to show them to you.

In the interest of free speech, let me also say this. As much as this is my space to say what I want, this is also my space to NOT say what I want. I'm making these changes because I want to make them, not for any other reason.

And to all the TIers that show up here - WELCOME! Feel free to poke around and take a look at what's going on here. If you'd like to ask me about anything on here, feel free.

---

Hey guys -



Sorry it's been a while. I've been utterly slammed at work, because we're launching a new product here at Texas Instruments - Educational Technology. And yes, I haven't been allowed to talk much about it before now, because it's indirectly part of my NDA.



But now, with great fervor, pomp AND circumstance, I give you...

TI-nspire!!

Not impressed? Well, see, I've been working on the translation part of this whole project. No, unfortunately, I don't speak Danish or Dutch or Norwegian, but we were given all the appropriate texts by those that do, and asked to replace the English parts with those other lovely languages.



So now you can see it in Danish...



Dutch...



or Norwegian.



So now can you see why I might have been busy? Can you understand why I've been banging my head against the wall when what was Grasp the Math is now Forstå Matematikken? Yeah, they're not big on articles out there in the land of the Danish.



Ok, so go check out my work, enjoy, and I'll have some more fun on here soon. Thanks!



-The Swan



Technorati Tags: nspire, texas instruments, calculator, graphing, math, danish, dutch