The Shaved Soapbox » Personal

I can recommend a brilliant photographer

Baldy — Thu, 20 May 2010 15:24:30 +0000

We do quite a few photo shoots as a family, and we've worked with a number of photographers in the past. And almost every time we walked away with the thought "Won't use that one again". This was never because of the quality of the photography, but more a clash of personalities and work ethics.

When doing these shoots we expect the photographer to give some guidance, but also be adaptable. We've worked with a few who gave no guidance whatsoever, and some who were completely inflexible. Both a no-no in my book.

On Sunday we did a shoot with Jeanette Verster, and I can honestly say we've found a photgrapher that fits in perfectly with what we've been looking for. Someone that provides some guidance, but remains flexible and improvises to use the changing environment to her advantage.

The shots came out awesome, here are some of them.

Wordless Wednesday – Fun in the pool

Baldy — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 10:28:15 +0000

2010 – My goals

Baldy — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 08:00:20 +0000

My idea for 2009 was to have no new year's resolutions, just a keyword for the year, #create. That didn't work out too well, I can think of countless excuses, one being the birth of my daughter in Jan, which played havoc with the amount of free time I thought I may have. But the reality is that without clear goals, you'll never accomplish much. So for 2010 I 've decided to set clear goals, and make them public, so that I don't have any excuses to back down on any of them.

Personal

Family

Although I think I'm pretty good in this department, supporting my wife when she needs it (most of the time), and spending quality time with the kids, I think I can improve. There are times when we say we'll do things with the kids but then circumstances do not always allow it. For the next year, I will try my best to do everything I say I will do with/for my family, or at least think before replying in the affirmative, making sure that circumstances will allow for what we want to do.

When anyone asks you to do something, the easy way is to just say yes at the time, because you're busy with something, and you don't want to break your attention span. But if you spent 2 seconds thinking about it, you would have known that you're making an empty promise.

Sport

I've been lazy this year with my training (cycling), but am upping it a notch in 2010. I want to get onto a podium at a race at least once this year, I'm not fussy which one, but last time I was on a podium was in 2006 (provincial time-trial). I also want to complete the 2011 Iron-Man (3.8km swim, 180km cycle, 42.2km run)

To accomplish this, my training program needs to adjust, and I need to shed some extra weight I've been carrying around since I quit smoking (7 years have flown by). My goal here is to lose 10kg by the end of March, a healthy 1kg per week.

How do I approach this? Easy, I have to be a diet nazi. Lots of people think that with the amount of training I do, there should be no problem in losing weight, but the fact is that your body adapts to your environment. Even spending 8+ hours on the bike per week does not automatically guarantee me to lose weight. The only way is to consume less calories than what you burn, consistently. I've signed up for a pro account on dailyburn.com, and am religously tracking everything going into my body, as well as the amount of calories I burn. One thing I have learnt about dieting is that you should not deprive yourself of your favourite tastes, that just sets you up for failure. So I'm allowing myself a cheat every few days, with some rules attached.

if I skip the meal before the cheat, the cheat is not allowed,
portions have to fit in with my overall calorie intake each day.

I've started this already and have lost about 3 kilos in the last 3 weeks, so fo the next 3 months I'll try to get used to that permament hungry feeling while my body burns up the extra weight.

Another thing I have to do is be more scientific about my training program, for 2009 I did a lot of aimless riding, but not much targeted training. This will change for 2010, I'm busy developing a training program that will probably run in 5/6 week segments. As soon as am done with that I will post it here as well.

Hobbies

Writing

In the last year my twitter usage has increased dramatically, and my blogging has decreased. One reason for this was the amount of time available, but also the fact that I've started getting quite good at saying things in 140 characters or less. If you know me personally, you'll know that I'm not really one for a lot of small-talk, and normally say things in as few words as possible, sometimes totally confusing my audience, and other times properly offending them because of a misunderstanding.

So for the year ahead I need to change that, and start talking in paragraphs not just sentences. I want to increase my readership on all my blogs (yes I have more than 1), this site being my first project, target for the first 6 months being 500 regular readers, for the others I'll be happy with 250 regular readers each by end of June. Exactly how I'm going to accomplish that is not entirely clear, but I'll start by posting more often, and making sure that what I write is what people want to read. The only way for me to confirm that is for people to start commenting on my posts, even if you need to be nasty about my views. I enjoy a good debate.

Instead of doing what I've been doing all along, blogging in spurts and then letting it sit idle for weeks/months at a time, I'm now going to start scheduling posts to go out on a regular interval, with an absolute minimum of 2 posts per blog per month. That's a total of 6 posts per month, which should be easily accomplished.

Photography

This is something I've enjoyed for a long time, but I got frustrated by my old point-and-shoot, and bought myself a Canon 40D DSLR not so long ago. I've mastered the basics, but am not pushing myself beyond my comfort zone. So for the next year I'll be dedicating one Sunday morning a month to photography, going out to locations and shooting. I'll need to juggle that with my racing schedule, but am sure somehow I'll be able to make a plan. I'm not going for quantity of shots on these outings, I'll rather go for quality, hoping to take a few photos, but playing with light and subjects.

To force me to do these, I've already started the Wordless Wednesdays posts, and will be doing one every week, using my own photos only. I also want to participate in one or two photography communities whether online or offline, and will be joining in on photowalks as often as I can. If you like any of the photos I post, I'll gladly send you a print quality copy, as long as it is for personal use only.

Cooking

I've always enjoyed experimenting in the kitchen, and according to multiple sources, I'm not half bad at it. But in the past year I haven't had the time to do much cooking, work and a baby kept me a bit busy, and with my wife now working from home full-time, she does the cooking during the week.

This past year we've also spent way too little time with our friends, all of them having fairly young kids makes things a bit tricky to arrange parties that everybody can attend. But for the year ahead I want to seriously start experimenting with my cooking skills again, and that would provide the perfect opportunity to invite people to enjoy the good food with us. So if you're a close friend or family member, expect some invites. Will be doing something at least once a month.

Professional

Skills

I've come to realise that although I'm good at what I do (Development Manager) I don't necessarily like all the aspects of my work, and would like to delve a bit deeper on the technical work again. To get back to the coalface, I may need to move on from where I'm employed currently, as it doesn't seem that I'll ever get the chance to work on the kind of problems I like solving here, for various reasons which I won't bore you with now.

To get to the point where I'm happy with my technical level again, I'll be doing three things.

Write more code

Ultimately, you cannot learn to write by reading alone, so I would need to do some development work. My plan is to launch two applications, one before the end of March, and one before the end of June. I'm toying with a few ideas for this, and both would be part of a bigger strategy to grow my sideline business.

Contribute to Open Source

From July onwards, once I've launched one or two apps as part of the growing my business goal, I will also then join an Open Source project, I'll select one at that time, and start contributing as much as I can, based on the requirements of the project and community around that.

Stock Trading

No, I'm not a professional, but I do trade for real money. I've been dipping my toes in the market, and in the last year had a few losses, but also had 2 investments with more than 40% growth in under 12 months. My aim for the coming year is to do at least 2 trades per month. Not based on arbitrary tips, but based on good solid research. I'll be identifying my targets and then doing the necessary research on each before deciding on a buy/sell. Originally I had my goal pegged at growing my current trading funds by a percentage, but after some thinking, decided that it wasn't a realistic goal. I changed it to a number of trades per month, so that I can hone the research skills, and still have the freedom to lose some money, in the name of learning from my mistakes.

That wraps up a fairly long post by my standards, and I think I've set a number of achievable goals, stretching me, while not going so far that my family never sees me. I'll be doing a review on myself once a month to see whether I'm making these or not.

Another daughter

Baldy — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:37:34 +0000

I have no excuse for publishing this post so late, other than the fact that I've started new employment in November, and have a 10 month old daughter, that demands some attention every now and then. We've been busy, and when I've had the time to post, I've been lazy, but here it is now.

On the 11th of December at 08:40 my second daughter, Logan Lorraine, was born. From the time the nurse broke the water, it took exactly 2 hours for her to make her appearance. I wasn't nearly as shell-shocked as with Abby's birth, so I noticed a lot more this time around, and was a bit more involved in the experience (at least according to my wife).

Logan, dressed like an eskimo, in December

Thing is, that feeling of total helplessness was still there, because you see the amount of pain your wife is enduring, but you can do nothing to ease it. I'm extremely proud of my wife, with the pain still fresh in her memory, to opt for another natural birth, and not even begging for more drugs this time

First bath, Logan and Abby look identical in their first bath photos

It is an absolutely amazing feeling watching the birth of your child (an experience that I still can't quite put into words, but will try to at some point) and I cannot imagine it happening any other way, c-sections are for sissies (and emergencies).

Perfect feet

Perfect hands

Proud parents

Even prouder siblings

Not quite liking the outside world just yet

Loving brother

My wife’s blogging

Baldy — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 08:35:49 +0000

I've managed to get my wife blogging, you can see her writing here. She makes me look like an angel crossed with a god, so don't believe every word she says

Now, how do I convince her to use Twitter?

Certain things you should not consult your wife on

Misunderstood keyword

Baldy — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:08:00 +0000

At the beginning of the year, instead of deciding on a stack of new-year’s resolutions, I decided on one keyword for the year. #create. Whether it be more blog posts, some awesome photos, usable applications in the public domain, website that people would actually want to visit/use. That was my motto for the year, to create more and consume less.

But I have to admit, it looks like I misinterpreted my keyword. I went for #procreate instead. My daughter was born on the 28th of January, and I don’t think my blog has been quieter than this before. I’ve done a few posts, but not nearly as many as I wanted to, and not nearly the standard of content that I wanted to produce. And adding to the #procreate meme, my second (biological) child is on the way, ETA 24 December. So far the doctor has his money on another girl. I say as long as baby is healthy and of sound mind, the gender does not bother me too much.

But it is time to get my butt into gear and live up to the keyword for the year, and probably for the next few years. #CREATE. I’ll be trying to post more regularly on the blog, not just twitter. And I have a few projects in mind to sharpen the saw of my development skills again.

The whole idea behind the #create keyword was to move from being a consumer of knowledge to a creator of knowledge. But in the process I think I’ve become even a bigger consumer. I have been a bit more focused on the subjects I’ve chosen, adding hundreds of links to Delicious for later consumption. As I get to the new topics, and new things I want to learn I will post about it.

So watch this space.

The internet’s impact on gaining knowledge

Baldy — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 11:40:00 +0000

I have realised in the last few months that the way that I gain knowledge has changed a lot since I started my career.

When I started my programming career you had to go buy books at a physical retailer on a topic that interested you. Internet connections weren't widely available, and hellishly expensive at the time, so that was the easiest choice. This made the experience in gaining knowledge on a subject a lot slower, but a lot more focused. Because you would take a book, and drill down into the chapters, experimenting all the way, and basically making sure that you've absorbed the knowledge in the book before moving on to the next topic, or to a more advanced book on the same topic. And so the cycle continued.

Currently, with internet connectivity being very cheap, and everyone having an index to the internet as your homepage, it has become very easy to quickly gather a lot of information on any subject. But! The problem now is that there is so much more information available on such a wide variety of topics, that it makes it a lot more difficult to focus on one topic and to make sure that you actually gain knowledge on that topic.

Especially with the ADD type of personality I have realised I have, where I could be researching a topic, and two hours later I've added 20 links on 10 other topics to my delicious feed, for later consumption. Focus is getting more difficult for me, and I've turned into a hunter-gatherer of information, instead of being a consumer of knowledge. Slowly but surely the decay has come about, and at least now I've realised it.

In the coming months I'm going to try and train myself to focus on a few select topics again, and to try and stay away from getting side-tracked by the sheer volume of new topics, never mind the information about them. This weekend I will make my selection of 5 things, which I'll publish here next week, and from there I will focus on those 5 for at least 2 months before moving to the rest. That means that I'll need to trim my subscriptions in Google Reader as well to make sure that I don't get overloaded.

At the end of May I will then also publish my results here, to try and gauge whether 5 topics are too few/many for a 2 month period. I will however make sure that my 5 topics span all facets of life, and not only my career or personal interests.

What are your thoughts on the matter?

Who’s your daddy

Baldy — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:34:00 +0000

Today I experienced the second defining experience of my life. My daughter was born at 12:51 Wednesday 28 January 2009.
Words cannot describe the emotions & feelings, trust me I've been trying to find the words all afternoon, and I now officially stop trying, and just enjoy the feeling.

She must be daddy's girl, because she took her time do decide it was time to come out, but once she decided, there was no stopping her, she was out in a very short space of time. All natural, with only a shot of pethadine to take the bite off the pain. Very impressive.

3.3kg and 50cm at birth, she wasn't a small baby either.

The camera was busy throughout the experience and I've included a few of the photos here.

Belated photos of Abby

Baldy — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 12:38:00 +0000

Since deciding to move my content from FB to here, I have not had chance to do a lot. At 22 weeks into the pregnancy we went for the 4D scan (most people try to correct me into saying it is a 3D scan, but you keep on forgetting the time dimension. The snapshots are 3D, but you get video with Time-lapse, that is why it is called 4D)

Anyway, here are the first photos of our daughter's face, belatedly here, but up on FB for some time.

[usercontrol: /user controls/gallery.ascx ImageUrl=/Files/Photos/Abigail4DScan/;RepeatColumns=3;Width=150]

Hanselman

Baldy — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 10:28:00 +0000

I had the privilege of meeting Scott Hanselman the other day while he was here in SA. I have to say he's an absolutely awesome guy, and it is nice to meet someone in the flesh after following their blog and podcast for some time now.

He's written about his experiences in our country on his blog, and I must say that this incident makes me embarrassed to be South African.

Unfortunately the racism in our country seems to be getting worse, not better. And it is definitely not limited to white-on-black, which is the only type hitting the news unfortunately. The "Xenophobia" crisis from earlier this year showed exactly how strong racism is here, and that was Xhosa & Zulu vs the rest of the smaller black tribes, not only people from other countries, but locals as well. Shocking, but true...

Scott, I'm glad you could experience the South-African hospitality, I must say that is one thing I've missed when going to other countries, people just aren't as friendly as here (most of the time). I've had experiences in our country, where I've been in a strange place on my own for work, and total strangers would invite me to celebrate a family member or friend's birthday with them, the moment they find out you're there on your own, and before they've even asked your name. Where else does this happen?