StarBarMonkey

First Father’s Day

Matthew — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 14:59:24 +0000

My first Father’s Day was good. It is different to be thought of not just as myself, an individual, but now “Zoe’s dad”. She is so cute and her personality comes out everyday! When I pick her up from the sitter, she gives me the biggest smile and it is very rewarding. Here are some of my favorite recent pictures.

BrickWorld Indy 2010!

Matthew — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 01:20:33 +0000

Today we went to BrickWorld 2010 in Indianapolis. It was the first time we have been to a Lego themed display show. And it was totally awesome! There were a lot of great displays with some amazing skills being shown by the creators. I bought custom parts from BrickForge, BrickArms, and Bricks w/o Mortar. The show was hosted by IndyLUG and they did a great job setting everything up! Anna and I got to chat with the organizer, Bryan, for a little bit about the challenges of organizing the event. The larger BrickWorld event is scheduled for June in Chicago this year. After having such a great time today, we are thinking about going!

Say hello to Zoe!

Matthew — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 04:21:23 +0000

Zoe Marie Hancock was born at 3:13pm on Friday, 2/12/2010. She weighed in at 8lbs 4.2oz and measured 20″ long. She is a very eager eater and has passed all tests so far. She has a full head of hair and a lot of hair every where else. Her cry is more like a squeak, but when she really means it, she actually sounds like a sheep! It’s really pretty funny!

We went to the hospital on Thursday afternoon for a scheduled induction. The induction worked, somewhat, and brought labor along from 1cm to 4cm, but could not progress further because Zoe’s head was not engaging Anna’s pelvis, so a C-section was necessary. We didn’t have time to get any pictures of Matthew in the scrubs for the operating room, but that would have been funny! We did get to experience labor for several hours and our doula was very supportive in helping to get Anna to 4cm.

Anna is making progress with recovery. We’re going to try walking the halls tomorrow since she is able to walk to the bathroom now. The good thing is that little Zoe is perfect and a pretty good baby, too!

Testing Poster for WebOS.

Matthew — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:18:30 +0000

Picture from Superbowl Party.

Nikon 35mm f/1.8 Lens

Matthew — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 04:14:11 +0000

Palm sent all developers a $100 gift card to Amazon for a Christmas present, so I took the opportunity to purchase the Nikon lens I have been thinking of buying. It is a Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX lens and it is absolutely spectacular! The f/1.8 means it is a fast lens and can operate well at low light. Here are some random shots from this weekend where I was playing with the new lens.

CIMG0247

Matthew — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 05:42:20 +0000

WD 1.5 TB hard drive

CIMG0245

Synology DS209 internal view

CIMG0246

Synology DS209 external view

Speedy Johnson’s Airboat Ride

Matthew — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:24:45 +0000

Marge & Gary gave all of us an early combined birthday present: a group ride on Speedy Johnson’s Airboat tour! This is something I have always wanted to do and felt bad that we didn’t do it when we lived in Florida. Speedy Johnson’s is located in Everglades City, FL, so we had a 2 hour drive to get there.

The tour itself was great! The drivers were knowledgeable about the wildlife and they were not afraid to open up on the throttle! To get to the tour area, we had to travel through a very thick mangrove swamp. The path was clearly maintained to allow airboats through, but it was narrow enough to add excitement! My favorite part was when our driver floored the throttle through a tunnel and we broke out into large open water!

Our driver took us straight to a gator, which meant we had a few minutes alone with the gator before 2 other boats showed up. I got plenty of great photos of the gator since a friend let me borrow her 70-300mm lens. Check out the pictures and video!

Mobile version of video: Speedy Johnson’s Airboat (Mobile)

Meet the Zoe

Matthew — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:08:20 +0000

Since we are on family vacation in Florida, we decided to do a 3d ultrasound so Anna’s family could witness Zoe first hand. I’ll let the pictures and video speak for them selves, but we learned today that she looks like her dad (me!), she is stubborn, and likes to hold her hands by her face. She is 28 weeks along at this point and is due February 12, 2010.

23 minute video: Zoe Marie

Mobile Test

Matthew — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:32:13 +0000

Test from Palm Pre

Untitled

2009 Cincy Reef Frag Swap

Matthew — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:09:08 +0000

As the Program Director for Cincy Reef, I am mostly responsible for organizing the annual frag swap. We worked really hard to make this our best swap yet and we think it was! We estimated around 500 people over the course of the day. The raffles and silent auction went smoothly and there was plenty of hobbyist action on the floor! We had 11 vendors, plus the Newport Aquarium‘s mobile shark touch tank! We are already planning for next year, so keep an eye out for the details!

Finally, here are some pictures of my latest coral acquisitions. Some of these are from the swap, some are from prior to the swap since I knew I would be busy.