Hey all,

Experimenting with a new theme for the blog.. please bear with me for the next days, weeks, months??

Daddee.

Spotted this blog post / photo and agreed whole-heartedly with the comment….

“That of all the heaps of congratulations our new president will get today, as a father, nothing will probably mean more to him than this.”

AP photo by Susan Walsh from www.chicagotribune.com

‘Tis the silly season again. Frantic people cracking their heads over what to buy who which… Local shopping malls would be jam packed with shoppers; it also helps, of course, that in Malaysia we are already having sales on, making shopping for gifts a lot easier on the wallet…

Caitlin and I felt the full implications when we were in Adelaide a fortnight ago. The malls were packed with people, the shops were packed with people, the retailers were packed with people.

Well, I felt the full impact when we arrived at the toys section of Myers. It was packed with kids! You may call it a mistake, but I did want to see what was on offer, if anything. But the full impact? It wasn’t that there was anything significant on sale. There were dinosaur toys, baby toys, some books (not enough of, actually) and the quintessential electronics for kids.

She just wouldn’t leave.

Granted it was meant to be a relaxing play-by-ear no-agenda holiday; this Daddee was just willing to show her the sights and sounds, and whatever she wanted to see… But still.

Retailers are clever. They put out the hands-on hot toys for Christmas for the kids to try, and for Daddy’s like me to be stuck with waiting for them to finish- yeah, I agree: As if they would!

I think I spent over an hour standing on the same spot that whole time, watching my little girl push Thomas and his friends along the tracks, round and round the table.

It was fun at first, very cute of the kids (yes plural, and at least they were sharing) to be playing like this. Then, I got bored and was wearing out both knees after shifting my weight left and right.

Parents: My lesson here is, in this age of internet and online shopping, shop online!

So I searched and came across this toy guide site.

Because it is set out like a blog site, it is clean and easy on the eyes. No gawdy bright colours to greet you and send you clicking away.

Listed by types of toys, brands, and age group, the whole online shopping experience is made a lot easier- you are in control of where you wanna go and be and not get lost.

But because it is also a blog, there are posts and articles describing select toys, accompanied by clean photos, making the whole experience on the site more informative and enjoyable. Readers can and do submit their comments on these posts / items too, adding credibility to the descriptions on the items on sale.

All from the comforts of whatever you are sitting on now, in whatever you are wearing now, on the blogosphere that you are already down with (that)!

So what would Daddee like for Christmas?

He’s already got it- an iPhone 3G.

He was researching toys and found this toys blogsite. How else would he have stood in the same spot for over an hour?

I was tagged with this one, by Hissychick.

Here are the rules …
1. Link to the person who “tagged” you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know your entry is up.

1. My Chinese name actually means “healthy” and “wisdom”, in the respective 2 calligraphy characters following my surname. My mum gave us all our names, including her grand kids (my kids included). Mum’s Chinese, great command of she has.

2. I have Osgood Schlatters disease on my left knee. Had it around puberty, I reckon, when I fell on that knee. It was a great and legit excuse to get out of playing rugby in Australian high school. Yeah? Who you calling a wimp?? Had it fixed since though, mine was a little abnormal in that there was a floatie bit of bone left behind. Cut, took it out, stitched when I was about 17. My older sister also had it when she was doing high jump in high school. Her’s healed by itself (which is usually the case). We now have a small bump at the front of our tibia bones.

3. At this point in time / in my home-related life, I leech off someone else’s unsecured wifi within the condo building. I shouldn’t complain, but bloody hell the connection is slow.

4. Whenever I get the chance (when Hot Mummee isn’t hogging the tv with her anime and when the kids are asleep) I surf these channels, roughly in this order: Discovery channel, Nat Geo, that other Discovery channel (“DSCI”), Animal Planet, Criminal Investigation, HBO, Cinemax, Star Movies, AXN, Star World, CNN. I put down the remote when I find (but not exhaustively): CSI, CSI NY, good movies, movies with babes, those blooper shows of sports disasters, etc. I would definitely skip CSI Miami- there aren’t that many shows where majority of the main characters annoy me this much.

5. At this point in my life, I have been to Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Gold Coast, Brunei, Bangkok, Paris, Nice, Monaco, London, Mumbai, Istanbul. In that order.

6. I attract mosquitoes. Between Hot Mummee and I, the mozzies would head straight for me. ‘Cos I smell better, that animal magnetism in me. ‘Cos I taste better, that chicken soup essence of me that runs through my veins. What can I say?

Now over to these fellow bloggers:

Derek
Lia
Ninuk
BusyDad
Lynn
Midnite Lily

.
This was, and still is a misconception of the Mac OS platform.

I used to be a Student Representative for the Apple University Consortium during uni days. Yup, my first paid employment was all of 10 hours a week on casual rates. It was pretty good then ‘cos I was getting something like AUD13 an hour, back in the late 90’s.

Anyway, along with conducting courses on how to use the Macs in the computer labs, we were also wearing the sales hat to students wishing to buy them. Yup, we got to play with the latest models and the latest software packages. You can imagine that even though we were only supposed to work 2 hours a (week)day, on occasions when there were new models out we’d be hanging around more than that!

Then when reality hit and I had to start working for a real living, the luxury brand became further and further out of my budget… Till I had a windfall and bought the Apple Macbook Pro recently. I wasn’t too worried about not finding any Mac games to entertain myself with. It wasn’t really a problem back then and not now either; especially now that OSX is based on the popular unix operating system.

Already I have found some free mac games available online, one of which is very timely for Caitlin’s use. It’s called Alphababy, and basically it announces the letter that is typed on the keyboard, as well as the different shapes that come up when the spacebar is hit. This site also offers weekly news on the Mac software and hardware scene, great for user / fans like me to stay up to date.

As Caitlin starts interacting with my computer more (under my watchful eye of course!) I reckon I will be checking out more of such kiddie edutainment type games. After checking around what’s available, this Chuzzle for Mac also looks quite interesting and slightly more mature than Alphababy, considering how much she likes puzzles…..

What computer games do you let your kids play?

.
Just wanna share the joy of a friend whom have just had a new baby.

Congratulations Kathy and Tung, on their baby boy Ivan!

Since Kathy is soon coming to the end of her confinement; and as she has also already declared, she will want to be going out soon! I had only just left her a message about how when we (even only recently) need to go out, we had to pack the pram, bottles, diapers, milk, wipes, fresh clothes in case they puke, blankets, and a guaranteed source of clean hot water.

Then there will be the complaints of sleepless nights of being (more like forced) awake to feed the little human, the stench of their poop (at least it was for me!), the being grounded simply because we are now parents, (but) the joy of being with them and interacting with them.

But, soon when they are a little older they will be easier to handle. Like with Caleb, his grandparents will bring along the pushchair when they do their grocery rounds, bring them to the park with Caitlin after her school hours, or to the local kopitiam whilst waiting for school to finish.

Enjoy the journey guys!

.
It was when she was three years old that Caitlin was exposed to the whole commercial side of Christmas.

Before we left for Sydney late last year, I had already taken her shopping, just to see the decorations around the shopping centres. I had wanted to get her something small, just because it’s Christmas; so I settled for this. Then while we were finally in Sydney about a week before Christmas itself, I couldn’t help myself but to also be caught in the spirit of shopping (!) and took her downtown to the city centre, and got her something else bigger!

Still, coming from an Asian country and not practising the whole Christmas thingy, Caitlin doesn’t know who or what a Santa Claus is, and all the excitement surrounding this jolly figure; other than a scary old man with white beard in a red suit. Also, I was after all the one playing Santa both times!

So I turned to the internet for some suggestions for introducing this character, and came across these interesting sites. Interesting in that these websites actually offer services to pander to children’s whims and fancies surrounding St Nick!

You see, it’s one thing to write Santa a letter, it’s another to actually receive pesonalised letters from Santa himself! This site actually provides the service of using His Jolliness’ stationary to send your child a message, presumably from Santa himself!

The whole idea is to “make it on Santa’s Nice List”, and that, by receiving a response from Santa himself, they’d know that being good has paid off! What more, this service also includes a certificate for your child to prove and show off with!

For these “Santa’s workshop stationary”, there are templates you can use for your letter from Santa. I guess, depending on how well your child has behaved, and your budget (!) there are 3 types of packages to choose from; From just an elaborate personalised letter, to one that even includes “a whole box of custom Christmas goodies!”

Finally, they also offer other ways to keep believing in St Nick. Outside of these Santa letters, they also offer tips such as leaving Santa Claus tracks in your house on Christmas Eve, or on Christmas Eve, have your child sprinkle reindeer food on the lawn!

All these, of course, is to bring more joy to your children, by elaborating on their belief in Santa Claus, while they still do!

So, have your kids been good lately?

How about rewarding them with a Santa’s Workshop I-have-been-good certificate!

.
Recently I had a writer’s block.

My kind readers shared some ideas to overcome this. This post is one of the suggested topics- Thanks Hissychick for this (whom had also done one)!

Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.

Using only the first page, pick an image.

Copy and paste your chosen URLs into the Mosaic Maker and make a lovely mosaic to put on your blog or flickr.

The questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

So here’s mine

Here are the links to the respective pics above.

1. John W Low, 2. 3 Types of Pasta, 3. Elevated road, 4. midnight blue, 5. Jessica Alba, 6. ?? Latte Art, 7. at the beach, 8. tiramisu, 9. Toronto Plastic Surgery, 10. Passion, 11. Adam is Mediocre, 12. JLow-is-the-way-to-go

So now you know a little bit more about me!

By the way, FYI for Mac users, I have found a handy jpeg editing tool for use on my blog. Thumbscrew is a drag-drop app that will automatically create a thumbnail of the original pic, resize your original jpegs into desired dimensions, as well as add a border of any size, and give it a tilt, like above.

… And, you gotta love freebies!

This is a little-bit-techie post…

You know I like taking photos of the kids. I also like taking videos of them in action: Those first steps, the changing look(s), them in action in the walker / tricycle / simply playing, their vocab, changing the voice.

I sometimes find myself in a dilemma when various occasions present themselves for such opportunity that I am unable to decide which camera to bring along- the digital cam, which takes far more superior still shots than the built-in stills feature on the videocam; or the videocam, which can take better and longer video footage (is there a plural for dilemma?)

I had started out by purchasing a videocam when Caitlin was born. It was a good “business case justification” to Hot Mummee to spend the money. Once a lifetime event; it’s not for me or all about me; it’s our kids; I can make copies for your parents (oops that reminds me!), etc.

I took lots of Caitlin’s first hours (eg, family visiting the hospital) and subsequent months and years. Then I bought a better Canon S5is still camera, replacing the late-90’s Canon ixus model. It was faster, better quality, better storage, and more versatile. I had come to use and rely on it a lot, taking more pics with it at the same time improving my skills with it (well, I hope).

So much so that I haven’t video-taken Caleb’s birth! I had only used the video feature available on the still camera, which are only in *minutes-long snippets. I did take lots of stills of him though, comparatively a lot more than Caitlin.

* Well that’s not actually entirely true. With enough memory, one could use this camera to take video snippets of up to an hour. Just means having to invest in bigger or multiple SD memory cards. One of the main reasons why I chose to spend the prize money on an Apple Macbook Pro was this: To video edit the footage that I have accumulated through the years, and the snippets taken from the still digital camera is able capable of TV-sized dimensions (ie, 640×480). Having said that though, I admit I am still new to this whole video-editing on a laptop thing. Apple’s iWork suite does go a long way to make all this easy, though.

With the video footage that I have taken with the videocam, I have been transferring them onto DVDs all these years, by using or leeching on whomever has a DVD burner player. It’s been a simple plug-play-burn, so it’s not all that laborious. In fact, recently my dad had bought a Panasonic DVD HDD burner too, and with my Panasonic branded videocam (it was another coincidence of same brand), the player could actually drive the camera- all I had to do was tell the player that, yes, I want to burn the videocam’s tape onto the blank DVD I had just inserted, and come back some 70 minutes later to find it all done.

So what’s all this gotta do with backing them up?

My mistake is that I have been “investing” in medium-level branded blank DVDs. I didn’t realise this was a mistake till I tried playing Disc 3 of my collection (to date I have 17 discs already), one that’s of Caitlin when she was under 1 year old. It just wouldn’t play on my player, nor on my IBM laptop; and today, not even on my super-duper Apple Macbook Pro either! Since I recycle my DV tapes after the footage has been burned on these DVDs, those were my only copies of them! You can imagine my panic when I realised I may have lost those videos forever! This was at a time when I didn’t know much about video technology (that’s not to say that I know lots now, but enough)

Back then I didn’t have anything with computing power for me to toy with video on the PC. What I did was searched and found another PC DVD reader that was able to read Disc 3, and quickly copied over the DVD files onto my external drive- yup, the whole DVD volume as is. Saved them on my external HD ready for future manipulations.

So now that I have the MacBook Pro that has enough grunt power, I have started researching into this area. It’s quite a wide area of codes, mp4, codex, compressions, H2.64, standards, resolutions, frame rates, etc…

To start with, I have found an open source DVD ripping software for the Mac OSX, which I think does a good enough job: Handbrake.

So after digging around for more info, I looked into ripping Disc 3 saved on the external hard drive, and may-as-well do the same for my whole collection.

Here’s a screenshot of the process:

The whole process of ripping DVDs can take up to 2 hours for 1 DVD, because Handbrake also compresses the video as it rips- meaning it will save the video into a new format of smaller file size.

At the very least, this allows me to save the DVDs and its respective footages of 750MB-ish files, which I can quite easily back them up onto PC DVDs; until I research further into video authoring and creating customised home movies, and not just home videos.

I think Gadget Daddy would be more knowledgable in this area since he’s been dabbling in video for a while, and I have a suspicion that Derek too would also be; both of which are Mac users I don’t wanna contact GD yet- he’s swamped with work at the moment. Will research more myself and learn in the process.

Screen grab of Caitlin at the recent Kids Zone visit.

At least now, I have my precious memories backed up in electronic format, and will look for branded blanks for backing them on to!

Phew!

.
Just posting a quick follow up on Father’s Day celebrations!

Had dim sum lunch with my parents and my two brothers and their families, Hot Mummee shouted!

And dinner with my inlaws here:

Afterwards I asked if Hot Mummee wanted to split the lunch’s bill with me- I was surprised she shouted that. She then tells me it’s coming out of our joint savings, and not her own personal wallet!

.
Got a call from my sister in law about the dinner arrangements for Friday, the usual day of the week where we have dinner with my parents in my eldest brother’s house.

We are having a Father’s Day dinner celebration!

And just like all other similar celebrations with the extended family, my contribution to the potluck was a simple purchase of roti canai from the nearby mamak restaurant.

Sister in law is always the busy host. Other than yummy food resulting in loosened belt buckles, she would usually still go around asking “Anyone for ice cream? I have coffee, vanilla, chocolate…” Of course, I very seldom disappoint her by trying to help her finish her ice cream stock, which is always replenished.

Okay it’s the weekend; father’s day no less! My 1-week-old exercise regime can take a break, already!

And there was a surprise cake from my niece!

Aaahhhh…. nice end to a Friday 13th, with nice food, nice desert, great company, and a “gift” from Caitlin from her day at school!

I wonder what the real day will bring? Eh, Hot Mummee?

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY, FATHER-READERS!

.
I was tagged by Moomykin with this interesting one….

1. Be kind to Mother Earth.
One of the taglines on National Geography is so true, “So, please: Use only what you need- it’s not like we can go shopping anywhere else” or something very similar in verbatim (I believe voiced over by Patrick Stewart aka Professor X and Jean Luc Picard).

I try to instil into Caitlin the mentality of not wasting stuff:
- Water the pot plants with the drinking water that isn’t finished (from her cup or bottle for during-the-night use)
- “Quickly, wash / rub your hands” (as opposed to holding her hands still under running water)
- Recycle good paper for her doodling. We have lots of 1-sided printouts.
- Switch off the lights / tv / air-cond when not in use.

2. Be healthy
I have been putting off getting back into an exercise regime. I blame this on my daily schedule; compounded by Hot Mummee’s usually late hours, compelling me to volunteer as the parent for the mandatory time-with-kids. When Hot Mummee was working closer to her parents and was able to shuttle the kid(s) there, I was free in the mornings for the gym before work. With her current job now I am the one geographically closer and thus more convenient. Also with Caleb’s odd-hour milk feeds, sleep has a higher priority now.

Only this week I did start getting back into the regime, sometimes leaving work 30min earlier just so to squeeze this in. Not sure how long I can keep this (mal)practise up though!

I read somewhere that if toddlers are encouraged to climb stairs themselves as opposed to being carried up all the time, they are likely to grow up as active individuals. Caitlin quite happily fetches stuff when she is asked, even if it’s upstairs

Can’t wait for her to be old enough so that we can go skating together!

3. Be frugal
- Don’t accelerate too much / often. This actually burns more petrol. What’s the hurry anyway? There was a tv report on A Current Affair ages ago where they got Peter Brock and the reporter to drive the same route within Sydney; with Peter driving as recklessly as possible, and the reporter obeying rules and courtesies. Brock arrived only 55 secs earlier. The point was that in urban driving, driving in a hurry makes very little difference, what with other traffic and lights. I bet the petrol consumption differed a lot though.
- When at the smorgasbord, get only what I know I can finish! Eyes have been bigger than my stomach for too many months now!
- Finish what’s on your plate. My grandpa (he passed away when I was 5 or 6) used to say “Finish all the rice on your plate, otherwise you’d end up with a wife whose face would be just as polka-dotted!” Think I will use this on my kids soon!
- “I can’t buy you that toy- Daddee does not have enough money. After Daddee buys all the food and clothes for Caitlin and Caleb, Daddee doesn’t have very much left…” Okay trying to teach the idea of trade-offs and savings!

So how would you change your lifestyle?
Derek
ToddlerDaddy
Hissychick
Lynn
MidniteLily
Amy
A Dad Thing

.

Aren’t toddler / preschool birthday parties fun? Especially when it is held in an “adult” place, served with “adult” food, attended by more adults than kids??

Haha! Not trying to be mean to the parents of Princess T who organised it Princess T and Caitlin have been friends almost all their lives; the Mummee’s were party animals during “those” days!

The dinner party was held at a Korean BBQ restaurant, much to our delight (I don’t mind the food, up there with sushi and almost with all-you-can-eat buffets!) Everyone brought presents for the little princess, including Caitlin; who incidentally, did not know what we had bought for Princess T!

You see, Hot Mummee and I only had the chance to go shopping that same weekend afternoon, right after Caitlin started her nap- yes it was intentional! It wasn’t so much we didn’t want her to come along, but we didn’t want her to miss her nap. She gets cranky when night comes without her afternoon nap, starts being anti-social and rude to others, and also wouldn’t enjoy the party as much.

By the time she woke up and got ready for the dinner, she had completely forgotten about this requirement for shopping! We left the pressie in the car…

And so, she did enjoy the dinner party. Running around playing with the birthday girl, worrying Daddee somewhat since there were red-hot charcoal “stoves” being carried in installing them into the table-bbq-recess, hot soup being distributed, “bottomless” kimchi and other Korean side dishes battling to satisfy the battalion of hungry dads and equally large single men.

Time came for the Happy-birthday song!

Yes, this is the same friend who got Caitlin’s birthday cake on Caitlin’s own 3 year birthday bash, from the same shop! In fact, it is the same Princess T helping Caitlin blow the candles there, and Caitlin returned the favour here!

Time for present-opening, and Caitlin rushed to bring her box to Princess T, eager for her to open her’s. I think upon the first wrapping-tearing that Caitlin realised she didn’t know what was inside, and urged even more urgently for Princess T to open quickly!

We got Princess T a bead-threader, you know, to make beaded bracelets and necklaces. And as usual, *Caitlin was declaring “I want that!” to us as well! I can’t blame her for feeling that way; she didn’t know what else we were browsing, and would probably rightly so have liked this toy too. The only pacifying I could offer was “wait for your own birthday when you too will be getting presents… Remember your own party and presents?”

I think she finally understood, but the effects of I-want-that-too didn’t go away as quickly!

* No, these are not hints to Princess T’s parents nor anyone reading this post! We are trying to drill into her head that she cannot demand things from people; anything she wants she has to ask and get from her own parents.

.

Moomykin‘s recent post of a very sweet poem about her own marriage got me thinking about my past relationship.

Some of you guys know that this is my second marriage. While I have never intended to hide this from the people I met (which included Hot Mummee who eventually became, well, Hot Mummee to my kids!) I had not wanted to delve very deep into how things unfolded; or folded, metaphorically.

What I can share is that there was nothing major like infidelity or my being beaten into a pulp at home. It was simply just a lack of effective communication. We were in a sense being too polite to each other, and then we weren’t.

When things were starting to fall apart, we did opt to see a local marriage counsellor. Being new to this whole experience and not knowing what “tools” were available for such situations, I had thought that it would be joint counsellings. Turned out that she wanted to first see and talk to the counsellor alone. I did also go see the counsellor too but we never did have a any joint sessions to talk things through.

In the end, I had to feel and figure my way out of the situation, which at that age and maturity level in hindsight, I did do my best. But of course with age, we as human now know where we went wrong in our own past and would today handle the same situations very differently.. thus all the “If only I had”, “I should have” statements we sometimes tell people or even to ourselves. We do get wiser with age, but it does also mean lost opportunities.

This was in the mid-90’s, where the internet was still in its infancy insofar as online help was concerned. There was no Google to search for marriage counselor to at least equip myself to handle the situation.

Doing a quick search on “How to Save Your Marriage” yielded this result: Marriage Family Counseling. Sites like this would have easily offered me some form of tools to handle the situation, instead of falling into the typical human stance of defensiveness and denial; giving me the maturity to look at big pictures and working things through. It’s such a pity because in particular, this site also offers free assessments and advice over email subscription, which given our problem then of only not knowing how to communicate effectively, may very likely have gone some way to help our situation.

But let’s move on….

On a positive note, at least now I, for one, know there is such an online service, and might even sign up for their email just to get some points / skills to keep this current flame burning even brighter!

A relative was recently in town from Penang. He has 3 boys ranging from 10 years old (primary 4) to 2 years old; but on this trip the eldest one did not come along.

We had dinner, and I asked how long he was in town. “Not long; we are here mainly as punishment for the 10 yr old- that he wasn’t allowed to come along…”

Apparently, the punishment was for his appalling school exam results, where he only got something like 40% score.

I asked if the punishment is working- whether he has called (from his grandparents) crying or pining for them. He can’t comment yet whether it is working. “Their understanding of the punishment is one thing. The challenge of them remembering the punishment is another…”

Do you think this “punishment” fits the “crime”?
Would you agree with the understanding vs. remembering comment?
How would you tackle this poor-school-performance issue with your child?