walkersmith.net weblog

Leap Day – 29-Feb-04

I am afraid if anybody would like to ask my father and I for our hand in marriage you will have to go through our respective wives first. Sorry ladies we are both happily taken!

S 24.63939° N070.38578°

If anybody would like to transport (as in Star Trek transporter) some things I miss from the UK then please transport to the following coordinates: S 24.63939° N070.38578°, it’s outside the office, please miss the red Toyota pickup that’s parked out when transporting, we wouldn’t like any accidents.

Items that could be transported,

• Baked beans
• Walkers or Smiths crisps
• Bacon
• Dr. Pepper
• Some rain, even snow would be welcome
• Pies – Savory as well as desert
• Dairy Lea cheese spread
• Cole Slaw
• A couple of Pints of Bitter, Boddingtons wouldn’t be a problem
• Fish and Chips
• A copy of New Scientist and any other lads’ magazine
• Tomorrows Observer, and the Sunday Sport (for variety)

That'll do for now. So anybody with a transporter technology - that they have been hiding away – I'll owe you one.

Indiana's vocal chord warm-up

If you would like to see Indiana's vocal chord warm-up go to the v1deo page.

ephemeral

In the eye

In the middle of the mayhem of being a parent there is the calm, if you are lucky like me, when you are in the eye of the storm. When all around you other parents in other houses are ripping out large pieces of their hair wondering why their baby cries non stop without rhyme or reason, or what is that spot on his face, and is that noise is it really the normal noise of a baby (ours whinnies like a horse, go figure); sometimes you though are in the eye. Indiana, is asleep, it’s 2240hrs and mums sleeping not 56cm away from this computer as I type. We, well I - I’m the only one awake to experience it - am in the eye.

We have not been in the eye of the storm all day of course. The day started with a cry and a good one at that – a cry for milk. Followed by a non-stop morning for Andrea of eating and crying and very little sleep or rest for both. I on the other hand missed this part. I was out getting our “Permision de circulacion”, which is Chilean road tax. Note to all people living in Chile: Do not wait till March to pay, pay in February, there is no, zero, zilch queuing to be done. I was in and out, like a well oiled piston (I could think of something else to say here, but seen as it’s been a while I shall not (however in a roundabout way I just did, doh)), and then for the rest of the morning making our little Jeep look like a drug barons car with blacked out windows – Indiana does not like the sun. On arrival back at base camp I came into the storm, there was a quiet period for lunch. Indiana does seem to give us that part of the day to ourselves, as long as his belly is full of course, and his nappies are not full, and clothing labels are not digging into his skin and is not annoyed by any other little detail. Usually though we get lunch to ourselves. I bet tomorrow will be a different story; I spoke to soon.

This afternoon was spent going out. Something that as childless parents, in our pre-Indy days was easy. But as parents know it’s no little undertaking - it’s like going into battle. Tie on the webbing, attach bayonets, and don’t forget the baby wipes, over the top we go. Two doctors visits. One for Indy and one for Andrea. Fathers might as well forget about being ill, there is no time. Indy did try and suck people into his hurricane storm like existence whilst at the Doctors with a little low level crying, just the hover jet mixed with helicopter blade sounds. Where do they manage to get such power from, oh I know the constant feeding of course.

Then home for bath time. I thought he would take to water like his father. Perhaps in a way he does. I seem to remember my dad dunking me in the sea and I getting very upset about it and the possibility of jellyfish and seaweed, to which today I still don’t like (I am actually still scared of the two organisms). Indiana does not enjoy his bath time. He hates it even more when his father makes the water too cold. First try and he rejected the water. The storm grew wilder, until that was I put some more hot water into the bath, whence he screamed at normal jet engine level, not the supersonic level he can achieve when quite annoyed at his father for not quite getting the water just right. Andrea is Chilean, I British; we have such different ideas about temperature. I am just worried Indiana will turn out to be a Chilean wuss when it comes to low temperatures. Not that his father would go anywhere near cold water neither can he stand the heat.

I know this eye in the storm, the calmness, cannot last. In fact if it went on too long like a good parent I would wonder what is going on, why is he not feeding and need to call several Doctors at once, and warm up the medivac teams just waiting outside our door. I shall put back on my all weather gear, a fix bayonets and go yonder into the storm with my wife, together. She is the one really doing all the work of course.

Oh and I do have ironing and washing and the soup I am cooking awaiting some stirring.

The Teeth of the Tiger, Tom Clancy

This book (ISBN: 039915079X) only gets a mention here because it was so bad. If you want to read it, don’t buy it, rather try and borrow a copy from someone else, it’s not worth your hard earned Dollar, Peso or Pound. It has some characters you know from the Ryan series, but rather the new breed, the next generation, this time not working from within the government but outside it - but somehow completely tapped into NSA and CIA(?) - and then go on killing spree against terrorists because they are at war, and I suppose they, or rather Clancy thinks the rules are different. Some excitement to be had, a few good bits but overall I would rather have reread “Without Remorse” which I still like – Clarke/Kelly being my favorite Clancy character.

Three and Oh

Today is Andrea’s thirtieth birthday. The only present she would like is a perfect nights sleep, something I cannot give her. Happy birthday my love.

England beats Scotland

England wins this cup yesterday as part of the Six Nations competition,

The Calcutta Cup of course, go here for history.

Is it just a matter of the Grand Slam and Triple Crown now?

Human – Machine Interface – a little step closer?

In my morning jog (real exercise comes later) through the Internet I come across this little article with the title,

Now you do not need to be a SF bod to see the implications behind this little snippet of news. Neurons can grow and be stimulated on silicon. Neurons make up your Central Nervous System (CNS), they give you consciousness, and they move your body. Silicon when doped can be used as a semiconductor, this is used in computer chips. So this research can help people with artificial limbs, restoring sight, or assisting people with paralysis, which is great. By bridging the gap between you, the biological you, and computer chips.

Another upshot is the Gibson cyberspace aspect, and one that will change the world. We will be able to interface with computers, no more typing, you imagine the word, and it gets written. Bored of downtown Antofagasta (fill in whatever city or town or village or hamlet you live in), go to cyberspace and meet up with friends for a chat. Where this could go who knows, but this could just change the future far beyond what we can imagine, or what Gibson has I should say.

bete noire

Boom boom!

Today Basil Brush or a great look alike or worse an imposter was spotted today in Paranal - just outside our office. He was keeping stum by not giving us his big “Boom boom” laugh, or rather a shame not telling a joke or two.

All about me

This past couple of days have been big for me. First off I lost my umbilical cord, it just fell off, I hope this is the only thing to just fall off. I think Mum and Dad have kept it for me. It actually fell into my nappy – how embarrassing.

Secondly my Mum and Dad gave me my first bath, they were waiting for my cord to drop off first. Can you imagine it – water! A big bath full of water! I tried to be brave, I had a little cry to start with, I still don’t like being naked, but once I was floating around in the water, kicking my legs and flailing my arms around - it did not seem to bad. Mum looked after my head all the time. Afterwards I fell into a right old deep sleep for a while, until I got hungry of course, all that energy I expended swimming, like Dad does.

Thirdly Mum also gave me some different food this week, it had something called aniseed and water in it, I don’t know what that is yet – I did not like it, it’s not like Mummies yummy milk.

Boy my head still feels heavy, luckily Mum and Dad keep hold of it all the time when they hold me or else I am sure it would just fall off it’s so heavy. I keep exercising my neck; maybe I will be able to float it like Mum and Dad can with theirs.

Oh and today I saw the nice lady Doctor, I was 3.66kg and 51.5cm, whatever all that means.

-posted by Daddy on behalf of Indiana

The Last Samurai

If Mel Gibson had made this film then it would have completed his trilogy of those style of films that includes The Patriot and Braveheart, this film fits exactly into this genre. It was Tom’s though, he trained three hours a day with the sword etc. (don’t all actors train for their parts, it’s always pointed out in those E Entertainment interviews)… and for me he did not really make the film, rather it was the character of the last samurai played by Ken Watanabe, who was far more interesting than Tom’s Nathan Algren.

This film kept me gripped to my seat for the whole running time, I enjoyed the story, the action and the scenery. I loved the story of honour and doing the right thing. Not being a student of history I do not know how close to history this film was - but it looked good. I was also suitably impressed with the sword work in this film, being a student of Kaze Arashi Ryu I watched on with enthusiasm, wondering how my training in Kenjutsu could apply at that speed.

An enjoyable film, the sort that I would like to own the DVD so I could re-watch it time and time again.
4.5/5

Time's Eye, Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter

It’s been a while since my last Clarke book; it was Trigger, which really did not catch my imagination, well not like Time's Eye (ISBN:0345452488) did. If you are a SF fan this book is a must read. It’s part of a greater trilogy called A Time Odyssey, however the book could stand alone, it does not leave you with much incline to the next installment, nor leaving to many cliff hangers, I think it’s going to be a great trilogy.

Times Eyes set in the when - well you are not really sure, all you know is that the world as we know it gets cut up like a pie from all the different eras, and then put together all rearranged, slices mixed up in time. This leads to characters being thrown together across time, Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, Kipling and then a handful of ordinary humans just caught up in the badly made pie. The book covers a war between Khan and Alexander over Babylon - the largest remaining accessible city to our characters - whilst touching on why all this time slicing happened, but like all good science fiction leaving it up you to extrapolate on the ideas. The only evidence of there being an outside force are spherical objects appearing over this new world. The spheres have a pi value of exactly 3 –they are not from this world! The one of the nice cliffhangers left for the next book is why there were not more modern humans than those of about 2037, and the other is why this has happened.

I am giving this book a:
5/5

Casa Cuna

Un momento de tranquilidad en la casa de Walker-Smith (Chile). Indiana es el tipo en el centro.