I turned 25 years old on the 16th, lots of changes in the past year the most important of course is that 12 months ago I wasn't a parent! My life is better now than it was last year but still not a millionaire yet. Maybe next year!

I seem to have spent the last fortnight doing nothing else but patching computers against this Win32.Blaster.Worm virus. Every time I think I have them all another one pops up. Gah!! Other than that, work is pretty quite whilst we are in between projects... calm before the storm by all accounts, however. I'm taking the downtime as an excuse to upgrade our nasty old Win NT 4.0 workstations to nasty not-so-old Windows 2000.

Thomas is now cruising, that is he's pulling himself up onto a standing position and then walking whilst holding onto furniture (or people, or the dog, whatever he can grab ahold of!). He keeps trying to let go and walk and has gotten very good at scaring the hell out of us every time he tumbles!! I don't think it'll be long before he's running around the house :-)

My other son, the furry one, ate a diaper last week and spent 2 days in the vets office whilst that was sorted out. I guess he's finally discovered something he can't digest.

This journal entry is for Jason Brougham... see, I do update it sometimes!

Actually, it has been a while since I updated it and my excuse is my life's been very busy lately. Here's the latest news.

Spent most of the last few weeks gearing up for a new project at work (which they have decided to codename Project V, so that's what I'll call it here). Lot's of rearranging of machines and building new software images. Still lots more to get done on that as well.

July 4th came and went, so I had to go through the annual jibes about America beating England :-) Was only asked 3 times this year whether or not England celebrates Independence Day (why would they?) which is an improvement on previous years. We did the predictable thing and had a cook-out at home. In the evening we watched all of the fireworks, our neighbours have an impressive display every year which is far better than fighting the crowds in Sanford. Thomas was enthralled by the whole thing, I was expecting him to be frightened but he loved it!

Kelly went for surgery on Monday, she is back home now and recovering. Very sore, but otherwise fine. Thank you for all the support everyone!

Thomas turns 8 months old today. He's growing and becoming ever more independent! The boy who never wanted to be put down suddenly wants to play all by himself. I can start reading again! He is crawling now, a very unusual method of pushing with both legs until he's almost bent in half and then straightening out but it, hey it works for him. He learned how to clap over the weekend as well. For some reason has decided his Nanny is now called "blah blah". Not sure why, but its very cute.

Father's day was a blast! Thomas got me a T-Shirt with "Best Dad, Hands down" written on it (he exaggerates!) and he had put his hand and foot prints on it also. Very cute :) We went over to my brother-in-law's for dinner later on. Great time had by all. Had a 3 day weekend thanks to Kelly having a doctors appointment on Monday, I'll not go into that on an open forum but needless to say it is nothing serious.

Linux 2.4.21 is out so I've been running around upgrading my various servers. So far, no problems encountered. Fingers crossed! I've set up POP3 and IMAP+SSL, tried once years ago but both protocols where still in their infancy and sucked. Now they work very well, which is nice. Does anyone know of a cheap signing authority? :-)

Thomas is 7 months old today!

He went for his 6 month checkup last week. He is still advanced for his age, about 1 months ahead of where a regular baby should be but since he was 3 weeks early he's almost 2 months ahead of where he should be. I'm so proud! He can now say "Ma-ma", "Da-da" and "Pop-Pop". Most of the time he gets the right name to the right person as well. I still think he's going to walk before crawling, if I hold him up he'll try to walk by himself now. The next 2 months will tell. We're childproofing the house right now, he's already grabbing for everything he can get his hands on! Didn't think I'd be teaching him the word "No" this early :-)

I built the OpenMosix cluster I was planning at the end of May, just a 4 node affair (4 PII-350s). Worked pretty good but realistically the only thing I could have used it for was RC5 crunching. Nice thing to add to my Resume, however. Haven't tried Gentoo yet but it's on my todo list. I don't think I'll be ditching it for Slackware at any point in the near future anyway.

Another month goes by, and summer has arrived in earnest. Temperatures are soaring into the 90's and this poor Englishman is melting! It has been a quiet month all round which the reason/excuse I've not been updating my journal!

Thomas is now 20lb... I'm very disturbed about this, he was 5lb 5oz only 6 short months ago. Who told him he could get so big? He's sprouting teeth right now so he's been very fussy of late, he has 4 and all the old mothers tell me that after the first few it get easier. I hope so!

He's not crawling yet, but I still think he'll walk first, however - he can stand up whilst holding onto something for short periods now. He's into everything right now and has figured out that bashing things together makes wonderful amounts of noise!

Kelly enjoyed her first (well, really second but he was in the womb at the time) Mother's day. Thomas signed her card all by himself :-)

Lots of overtime lately, like everyone else I dislike having to work overtime but it does mean I'll be getting a big paycheck :-) My manager is on vacation so I'm covering the work of 2 people.

It was memorial day in the USA this week so in honour of that I learned how to fold the flag properly. Our flag flew from September 11th, 2001 until a couple of months ago when it developed a huge rip so we had to take it down. We plan on putting it in a display case and saving it as a keepsake rather than taking it to be destroyed.

Geeky stuff!

I ditched Red Hat, I tried it because everyone raves about it and I've come to the conclusion I hate it. Sorry to all the loyal Red Hat fans for saying this! I've fallen out with SuSE Linux since version 8.0 as they seem to be trying to become Red Hat eg BLOATED. I like my Linux distro simple and sleek. So, after a 3 year break I've happily returned to using Slackware. I'm told Gentoo is worth trying out, so I will do so in the near future.

Right now, I've decided to put the huge pile of Dell's (well some of it, anyway) we have sitting in storage to some good use and I'm building a Cluster. I've never attempted it before so it should be an interesting experience.

Thomas went for his 6 month cardiologist appointment today. Once again he is doing absolutely fine! His cardiologist did an EKG test and says that his heart function is still "excellent". He sees no reason to put him back on his medication and, therefore, he'll be back in 3 months for another checkup. He weighed in at 16lb so he's put almost 10lb's onto his birth weight. Yipe!

Thomas's newest party tricks are: reaching out to be held and grabbing at everything in sight. He has not yet worked out that Daddy's drink is not something he should attempt to rip out of Daddy's hands! Cute, but potentially dangerous - I'm no longer drinking anything hot whilst holding him! Luckily, no spilled drinks so far. He said "Ga Ga" to me this morning, almost at "Da Da" after lots of patient coaching :-)

They arrested Laci Peterson's husband. I Wonder if he did it? If he did - he deserves the worst punishment they can think up. Who would kill their wife whilst she is pregnant?? Not being in possession of all of the facts I don't know he he's guilty or not, but it certainly seems that way.

I did have a fiddle with SOCKS5, it didn't fix ICQ but I'm not blaming the software. It's either ICQ's fault or it's mine for missing something. Anyway, I can report that SOCKS5 is one of the easiest firewalls I've ever come across. Right now, I'm playing with Samba. Nice software, I have a Windows NT domain controller without having to fiddle with icky Windows NT.

Expedition 7 docked with the Space Station today. Good luck to the new crew and a safe trip home to the old! I'm very relieved they decided to keep the space station going after the Columbia tragedy, it's a fitting memorial to the Columbia crew.

Another Easter goes by. It's so great that my best friend upstairs went through all those hours of torture and then hung on a cross for hours on end before finally being stabbed in the side so that we can all pig out on Chocolate isn't it? Yes I'm being sarcastic, the true meaning of Easter and most other religious holidays has been lost in a sea of commercialism. Anyway, let me get off my religious soap box.

I was the Easter bunny again this year, the second time I have done so. The costume this year was not as good as the one we originally rented the first time around, unfortunately the place I rented it from went bankrupt a few months ago. The new one we actually own, it looks really cute but the headpiece is VERY restricting. Maybe next year I can find a better head. The kids loved it, that's the main thing! I spent a good 45 minutes chasing them around the garden on an easter egg hunt and doing photographs.

Thomas certainly enjoyed his first Easter, of course he had lots of attention which is his favourite thing. He is getting more and more frustrated that he can't run with the other children though, this is actually a good thing because it means he'll funnel that frustration into learning how to walk sooner. Hopefully. Today he found out how to scream, not scream-cry but actually scream. He's been having fun doing it all morning. :-)

I'm getting back into Ham Radio at last, I've really neglected my ticket since getting it - the reason being my wife became pregnant around the same time and I lost interest. I've been playing with Echolink, (and learning a little bit more about iptables whilst tearing my hair out this weekend trying to get the thing to let Echolink traffic inbound). Yes, it is cheating but it is a very nice piece of software for those of us who can't afford big antenna's and the radios to back them up. One day I'll have a nice HF radio, a huge tower in my garden and be hated by my neighbours. Until then, for long distance QSO's I have little choice :-) I'm also looking at the various Linux Ham radio software. I sense some very cool projects on the horizon...

My daily journal seems to be turning into a monthly journal! Ah, well my life is boring most of the time so it takes a while to generate news.

First off, my condolences to the family of Bernard Everard. Bernard was a great friend of mine who went to my parent's church back in England. He died last week and will be missed by all.

Thomas turned 5 months old on Thursday 10th April. I am in denial about this, there is no way he could have gotten 5 months old that quickly! He is now over 15lb and 2 feet tall and the pediatrician describes him as "perfect". We already knew he was :-) He laughed all the way through his 4 immunisation shots as well. He is learning to eat solids now, lots of very messy stuff like cereal and mashed potatoes!!

Easter is coming up and so is Summertime, suddenly the temperatures here are climbing back into the 80's and 90's! It's been one of the coldest winters in a long time. Yeah, I know I live in Florida so I should not complain! But, 30's is cold to us! We installed a TV in the Florida room which promptly broke down the very next day, this is what happens when you buy a TV for $15 from a yard sale. I think it is something easily repairable with the help of a handy soldering iron, though.

My Easter Bunny costume arrived last week so I'll be doing the Easter Bunny for the kids again this year. Always a lot of fun!

Geeky stuff. Been playing with Squid and learning IPTABLES, two things I've been meaning to learn for some considerable time. Well worth the effort, my home is now networked, proxied and firewalled. The next thing in my crosshairs is learning SOCKS, for no reason whatsoever other than it looks interesting and it'll make ICQ file transfers work (I use them once in a blue moon but I'd like the option).

War in Iraq. I sat and watched the pictures of the statue being pulled down, was great to see! Those people looked really happy to be free of Saddam Hussein (wherever he is). I'm looking forward to seeing what happens in 6 months time, how well the country has adjusted to governing itself. I'm actually surprised how calm it is in Iraq right now, yes there is looting but I was expecting civil wars and other such nastiness to occur after the regime fell. Of course, the fact that the coalition forces are still there is helping to keep the peace. Hopefully, it'll all work out. No more Baghdad Bob, such a shame I used to look forward to his daily stand-up routine. If they ever find him, they should give him a TV Series!

Sitting proudly on my fridge is my son's first picture. He typed it all by himself (whilst bouncing up and down and giggling with joy) on the computer. The first of many, I think!

He slept for 6 hours straight last night, 2am - 8am. I believe this is a new record. Woke up, had bottle and slept until 11:30. Amazing!

My thoughts and prayers go out to the families of all the soliders killed and captured over the last couple of days. I hope that those captured are returned safely.

Friday! Long, hard week as ever.

We are finally getting ready to rid the storeroom of 400 ancient Dell machines, they're going to clutter up our external storage facility instead of cluttering up what is officially my office. In actuality, I've not been able to get into my office for almost a year now and in the intervening time it has become a dumping ground for the entire company. Just to make our lives even more difficult, our other storeroom is being converted to onother office - 10 people will be crammed into a space that 2 people would find confining. Where the junk from that storeroom is going to end up is a mystery, probably in my office or external storage. Both of which are currently at breaking point already. My company refuses to sell the wretched computers, something about taxes and asset value. I'm seriously considering making a Beowulf cluster out of them.

Two hours sleep last night thanks to our very fussy Son but, oh well that's Parenthood! He was fast asleep until the exact moment Kelly opened the door to our bedroom (which he shares with us) then his eyes snap open and a few seconds later he wants his bottle... :-)

I've actually paid for a subscription to Slashdot, been reading the site for almost as long as it's been around so it's about time I contributed. There's my good deed for the week.

In other news... we are at war with Iraq. I'm still not sure how I feel about this.

Random Thoughts:

* I am glad that the Iraqi people are finally being liberated. Hussein is an evil man and needs to be dealt with.
* I'm unhappy that so many people are going to have to die in the process.
* Why couldn't a peaceful resolution be found?
* Why are so many countries who call themselves allies siding against each other?
* The anti-war protests in both of my home countries frightens me, but that's the price we pay for freedom of speech.

I pray every day for peace and forgiveness when it is all over.

For once, I'm enabling comments in my journal - I'd be interested in other people's thoughts on this. Good or bad.

Wow has it been over a month since I wrote in here?

What's been happening? Well, we're still not at war with Iraq - I'm at the stage where I really don't care any more, I'm just sick of hearing about it!! Will the world please make a decision on this? The other big world news, that Elizabeth Smart girl was found - truly a miracle and it sounds like her kidnappers are really strange so I'm glad she got back to her family. Columbia investigation proceeding smoothly, many theories abound - I'm waiting for the official verdict and not drawing any conclusions. The word on the street is that the shuttle may be back flying in Autumn, that would be great but I'm not going to get my hopes up just yet.

Thomas is suddenly no longer a helpless little newborn laying in a fish bowl needing machines to keep him alive. He has started wanting to be independent - at 4 months old! He's into everything right now, and tries to eat almost everything so we're having to keep a close eye on what he grabs! He is getting really good at hand coordination now, astonishing me a couple of days ago by picking up his binky and putting it back in his mouth (after a couple of attempts). He has started to laugh, I thought smiles where cute but smiles coupled with giggles are even cuter!

My brother-in-law, Billy and his fiancee Christel finally tied the knot last weekend - good for them! A very nice wedding barely dampened by the driving rain all throughout the outdoor ceromony (there's a story for the grandkids I think!).

Thomas seemed uninterested in the proceedings, I was holding him and he chose the exact moment the ceromony started to start crying for his bottle so we both had to make a swift exit. Ah well, I got to see it from the side and it worked out pretty well in the end as the rain started soon after he started wailing, so we where under cover.

Was great to see some family from up north, we don't get to see them very often. All the menfolk took Billy out for his Stag Night (that's Bachelor Party for my USA audience) and we all had a great time. Lots of alcohol, more than I've drank since my own Stag Night...

I seem to have spent the last two weeks being reuninted with old friends, thanks in large part to reinstalling ICQ and a site I discovered called Friends Reunited. Many good, old memories are flooding back. Hopefully, we won't loose touch again.

I've been remiss in updating my journal, for which I apologise. I made a resolution to update this every day. Supposedly.

Thomas is back on his heart medicines after having a reaction to being taken off. The Cardiologist thinks it was because he had a winter cold and it was just too much for his body to have to deal with both. He is doing much better since being put back on and we are going to take him off once the flu season is over. In Florida, this means March or April at the very latest. He had his second set of immunisations today. He was not very pleased about the five needles! Developmentally he is doing all the things a 3 month old should be doing, I was treated to my first smile in January which made me fall in love with him all over again. He's smiling all the time and giggling and cooing as well. He has pretty much mastered controlling his head so is looking around at anything and everything. Ceiling fans are his favourite, he tries to follow the blades but gets dizzy after a few seconds: CUTE!! He has figured out that he can use his hands to reach for things and giggles with pleasure every time he manages to grab something.

Most of the news around the world is centered around the Columbia accident and the US going to war with Iraq. I'm devastated that we have lost another crew and my thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the astronauts. They reached for the heavens and the heavens took them away. Let's hope they are in a better place now.

It looks like it is inevitable now that we are going to go to war with Iraq. I agree that something needs to be done about Saddam Hussein but it frightens me that so many countries are against us on this. I'm torn between whether I would rather wait until we have the full backing of the UN or whether we should just act now before he does something really stupid. I'm just glad it's not my decision.

Tax season here again, my tax return was very disappointing - way less than I expected. I'm placing the blame on the governments so called tax reforms on that went into place this year. The rich get richer and us poor people just get poorer.

On the Geeky side of life - I found out about a very nice project going on called Visual Pinball (see also PinMAME). They do conversions of pinball tables so they can be played on a home computer. I'm a pinball addict so this is like a dream come true for me. Well worth checking out.

An eventful few weeks, to be sure.

My parents visited between January 1st and January 15th. Was very nice to see them again (the last time being Feb 2002). We took them on a tour of the local area, the highlight being the day spent at Mount Dora. Yes, we took my English parents to the English tea room there - not exactly showing them American culture but they serve good food and even better tea. On the flip side, they got to see Logans which is definitely American, and Kobe which serves excellent Japanese food (which means NOT sushi, I *hate* sushi).

Thomas continuing to grow, and grow! Now up too 11lb 7oz. He went for his pediatric and cardiologist vists today - he's doing very well and was taken off all of his heart medication today! He is now smiling and can lift himself up when laying on his stomach. He is trying to stand and walk already - skpping crawling I suppose. He is currently recovering from a winter cold so is very snuffly, and therefore a little fussy but nothing serious.

I am gradually getting back into my routine at work, with Thomas being sick and then my parents visiting I honestly can't remember the last time I put in a 40 hour week. My wallet is not happy. Lots of projects which should keep me busy for the next few weeks though.

It's Martin Luther King day today, we have made some progress since he was killed but still have a long long way to go. Maybe when my grandchildren are here we will see an end to racism, but I doubt it.

Definitely a better Christmas than last year. Christmas Eve last year was when we lost our first baby to a miscarriage, 3 days after we found out Kelly was pregnant. This year we have a beautiful baby boy.

We had a quiet Christmas at home with Kelly's family (my family is coming over at the beginning of 2003), Thomas is a little too young to understand what Christmas is all about but certainly enjoyed all of the attention. For some crazy reason Americans don't recognise December 26th as a holiday so back to the grindstone on that day, ah well!

Thomas had his cardiologist appointment on Christmas Eve - his heart is now functioning completely normal! We are going to be slowly weening him off the heart medications he has been taking during the next couple of months.

He is already up to 9lb and continuing to gain weight at about double the rate of an average baby, eating 6oz every 3-4 hours. He is getting much more interested in the world around him and can lift his head for short periods. He is also slowly learning to crawl.

On a related note before I begin, Happy Birthday Kelly! *kisses*

Thomas went for his first pediatric appointment yesterday. His pediatrician is Dr Regeuro, who happens to be the wife of Dr Bayouth.

Thomas had a wail of a time on the examining table, he discovered that every time he moved the covers made a rustling noise. So, he was squirming and cooing to himself for a good 10 minutes before his examination began :-) Ahh.. the simple pleasures in life!

After initial worries in the NICU that he was not gaining enough weight he has actually gained twice as much weight as the average newborn does (1oz per day, he is gaining a little under 2oz per day at the moment). This is not surprising as he is managing to keep down 4oz of formula every 3 hours right now and will almost definitely be up to 5oz in a about 1 week.

He is developing perfectly normal in all other departments as well and was passed with a clean bill of health. He has to go again tomorrow for some immunizations and then his next appointment is in January. His first visit with the cardiologist was posponed until January as well.

Thomas is slowly working out the basics of crawling, he is very good at pushing himself backwards but hasn't quite got the hang of moving forward yet. He can lift his head now for short periods. This can very irritating when we are trying to burp him, and he knows it too!