Last Saturday, we held an afternoon board game event at the clubhouse in our townhouse complex. For my 30th birthday, I didn't want a typical party and we decided to invite our friends and family who have played board games with us in the past and have an afternoon of fun. Here is an illustrated report of the day's events.
Everything was prepped and ready for the games to begin.
Matthew, Leanne, John, Rose, Natasha playing Ticket To Ride.
Anita, Naomi, Dianna, Martin, Mark, Andrew playing Carcassonne.
Dave, Jeremy, Nathanael, Shelley, Gina, Eugene playing Power Grid.
A game of Carcassonne in progress.
Some creative artwork with Power Grid by Dave.
The food. As you can see, gobbled up.
Some unexpected gifts! A wireless outdoor thermometer, and a new game, Alhambra (and an expansion pack).
Thanks for the gifts and especially to everyone for attending and making it a really fun event. Special thanks to Natasha for doing a lot of organizing to bring it all together. We plan to do this more often as it got a lot of positive feedback.
It's been a long time, so we have two videos and two photos, all of Charlotte. We begin with a video of Charlotte feeding herself yogurt.
Learning to use a spoon.
Charlotte has taken a greater interest in feeding herself and is at times not happy unless she's the one holding the fork or spoon, even if it's us who puts the food on the utensil.
On Saturday, November 7th, we went to a concert by the Cockman Family, a group we had both heard of and have been listening to for quite a few years. In fact, Natasha had met the family a few years back during her travels through the Eastern States with her family.
Bibleway Christian Academy brought the group in to have a fundraiser for the school, and the event was a big success. We bring you a video that Natasha made of their song, "The Promise". Enjoy!
As a further note of interest, Natasha was able to sing with Caroline (Cockman) Fischer the day after at Cloverdale Bibleway.
November 11th is the day on which major hostilities of World War I were ended in 1918. This was a brutal war in which 15 million people were killed, making it the 5th highest in the list of estimated human loss from wars and disasters.
World War II is often confused as the reason for Remembrance Day, and despite the historical inaccuracy, it is from this era that I have selected the following video. This is a clip from my favourite war movie, Band of Brothers, showing paratroopers jumping into Normandy on D-day.
Take time today to remember those who have fought and died in these wars, and the ones who continue to fight for us right up until today.
For more information on Remembrance Day, and the poppies which are distributed in Canada and some other countries, see the Wikipedia article on the subject.
The day has arrived, one I have been waiting for anxiously, especially the last few months. Somehow turning 30 years old seems like a milestone which demands attention and thought as to my overall life goals and objectives. Have I accomplished what I have wanted to? Am I going in the right direction? Am I doing the things I want to do? What steps do I need to take to get where I want to go?
Thinking back 10 years, my goals revolved around getting into my career, finding a wife and starting a family. I was a bit later than expected on those last two, but with a great wife and an ubercute one-and-a-half-year-old daughter, I couldn't be happier. Having all my kids before the age of 30 won't work for me as one is still on the way, but is certainly a potential goal for Natasha, even if we decide to have a third (gotta keep everyone guessing!).
Am I going in the right direction? I believe so. My career is at a point better than it has ever been. I'm starting to break out into new areas, writing games, and starting to do development work for the iPhone platform. We own a townhouse, hopefully someday a house. Life as we know it is busy, and trying to do a thousand things at the same time is difficult, but over time I think we'll be fine.
The future? Sorry, can't let you in on that yet. We have grand visions of where we'd like to be down the road, many of which include investments of time and money. Personal goals are being set as well, being worked on inch by inch as raising a family doesn't allow for much more. Whatever happens in the end, it will certainly be a lot of fun, and the adventure getting there is an important part of the experience.
I want to express my thanks to God for 30 years of health and providing for my family now and my family growing up. To family and friends, thanks for all you have given me and done for me in the last 30 years; I will never forget it. To Natasha and Charlotte, my closest family and friends, I look forward to the future with you. Just imagine what we might be doing and where we will be when I write my 40th birthday post!
October is ending in under two hours. Welcome to November! Time falls back an hour in the early morning as well. We've already set about half of our clocks to the new time, and are about to hit the hay to try to take advantage of the extra hour.
And with that we say good bye October, and good bye to sunlight after 4:30pm. Soon I'll be driving to work in the dark, and driving home in the dark. How soon Summer is over...
Today was a day of both victory and defeat. Defeat came in the form of a lost chess game, the last in a club championship tournament in which I won zero games. No draws either. My game tonight was a great one and my game was good enough that I am not disappointed by the simple blunder I made which cost me the game.
Victory, however, came in the form of the resolution of a long standing problem I've been dealing with. The last three months or so have been really stressful due to some changes at work, and in particular the introduction of a new member to our team who was trying to impose their ways on me, my project, the team, and just about everything else. Feeling the responsibility to make a complaint about the situation (numerous complaints, actually), I respectfully backed off when it was obvious the position was solid. Instead, I sat back, did my work, and let the person expose themselves for who they truly are... a manipulative impostor who shone brightly at first, but fizzled out as soon as the novelty wore off and once it became obvious that the initial problems weren't just temporary issues.
Needless to say, that person is gone as of today and my job is back on track to success. I'm going to take one more day to celebrate, then get on with things and leave the problems, and the person related to them, to the past.
The tools, utilities, and applications being developed around various social networking platforms is truly amazing. Twitter is a great system for sending out your random thoughts or sometimes even useful information to the world, but it's becoming a massive collection of word snippets that can be analyzed by content, time, and more impressively, location.
Trendsmap is a site you must see to get an idea of just how powerful and accessible this information is. It's a simple tool that maps out the most commonly tweeted words and overlays it on a map of the world. Find your section of the globe and see what the most popular topics are around your area.
As a side note to your iPhone users, there is an app called "TwitterTrend" which gives you stats on hot topics, but without the map.
Let's have a big welcome for our September 2009 photo album. Included are 16 photos, 15 of which feature Charlotte. We will try to add a few photos to Charlotte's Corner, but none of the September photos have made it there yet.
This iPhone hit has been around for a while and although it is no longer on the top 50 downloads, I'm guessing it's still one people are playing.
Jelly Car
In this game, which makes excellent use of the iPhone's multi-touch and accelerometer, you must drive your car, a very jiggly one, from the starting point to the goal, in hopes of beating your best time. Some of the courses are short and simple, others long and complicated. A few are even boring. Still, it's an all around great game with a ton of playability.
For the casual game player, this app is a must. For one, it's free. Second, and more importantly, you can fire it up for one minute, or one hour of play. The levels are short enough to play during a short downtime or while in line, but you can easily spend a lot longer.
In the most recent update, a video is included which reveals a very exciting secret to Jelly Car players. Jump on the app store and download this program today!
It's Thanksgiving in Canada today. Happy Thanksgiving to you all, and we wish you a pleasant time with family and friends, hopefully around a food laden table with couches nearby to collapse on afterwards.
Got a good Thanksgiving story, or just a list of the tastiest, graviest, sleep-inducing, all-you-can-swallow food you enjoyed? Post it in a comment for all to read.
The last four years have been a wonderful adventure for Andrew and I.
The first year and a half we had a small, cozy apartment in Coquitlam and enjoyed going to work together on the West Coast Express and meeting for lunch and all the things that young couples enjoy.
After that we moved to the Surrey area and Charlotte was on her way. We bought our first home and enjoyed the arrival of our first child. Charlotte has been such a joy in our lives and has enriched our home and marriage.
Now we are awaiting arrival of baby #2, equally special and important and sure to bring more fun and adventure to our home.
God has blessed us richly over the last four years and I look forward to whatever He has in store for us, our home, and our family!
I love you Andrew! May the rest of our lives be as wonderful and special as the last four have been!
Charlotte's Corner
