wow, 6 weeks without a blog post. everythign i do now is posted through twitter for updates or flickr photos/vids.

I seem now to reserve blog posts soley for my technical posts which i know annoys some of you. I'm looking to move onto WordPress in the new year, or when my designer gets his arse into gear.

We just got back from a great trip in Northland.

Oh, and we just got a new car, a gorgeous, sexy Toyata Corolla 2009 Wagon. That's right a Station Wagon, COOL OR WHAT!?

A very merry Christmas and New Year to one an all.

1 month old!

We’ll never get our of here alive!

I’m going to eat you

Chuffed

TRAIN SETS!

I love the Meadowbank Toy Library

1. mmm, if i got 300,000 signatures for "should john key stop hitting his children?" should that be allowed because we live in a 'democracy'?4 minutes agofrom TweetDeck
2. this referendum is not democracy in action, it's stupidity in action.6 minutes agofrom TweetDeck
3. unlike last week, i did not eat any friday pizza at work today, hooray! 2.1 kg down, 10.9 to go!about 3 hours agofrom TweetDeck
4. this means, Sherlock, that the fm transmitter must be interfering with the iPhone in some way, no wonder it was on special on 1 day!about 3 hours agofrom TweetDeck
5. how odd, the iPhone cradle works with gps and 3g when car is switched off only. even if iPhone is not attached!about 3 hours agofrom TweetDeck
6. please let my daughter sleep tonight for bursts of longer than 20 minutes, my life depends upon it....1:45 AM Aug 20thfrom TweetDeck
7. http://bit.ly/KqWlR drug extends mice life by equivalent of 13 human years1:43 AM Aug 20thfrom TweetDeck
8. watched hunger at the weekend, movie about ira hunger striker bobby sands. despite turning him into jesus it was pretty mesmerising stuff1:08 AM Aug 20thfrom TweetDeck
9. love the new asb 'track my spending' feature, now i can see exactly how much money we waste on coffee and children's toys12:43 AM Aug 20thfrom TweetDeck
10. RT @nzben: Oh excellent. Kiwi Party leader wants the law to allow hitting kids with weapons http://tr.im/wHYL Cock.9:20 PM Aug 19thfrom TweetDeck
11. i wonder why the reserve bank doesn't just alter banks allowable reserves for lending as well as interest rates to control the market11:30 PM Aug 18thfrom TweetDeck
12. First Google Chrome 4 reveals the beginnings of cloud synchronization: By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews Downloa.. http://bit.ly/3LuYam4:47 PM Aug 18thfrom twitterfeed
13. Microsoft sets out new model for its 'Oslo' modeling language: By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews Since September.. http://bit.ly/PkkUD4:47 PM Aug 18thfrom twitterfeed
14. realised iphone holder http://is.gd/2lULG appears to nullify the gps, works fine with it in my lap even, so not tomtom's fault after all2:23 AM Aug 18thfrom TweetDeck
15. nice jquery pluging to truncate text sensibly with ellipsis, multiline support too! http://bit.ly/17pp226:56 PM Aug 17thfrom TweetDeck
16. http://bit.ly/XNzho mmm, where to get the iphone tomtom receiver in NZ!? Anyone else struggling with early adopter pain on this!?3:49 PM Aug 17thfrom TweetDeck
17. got the tomtom iphone app it feels great and the poi collection is strong, but 'poor gps reception' so big fail! need the receiver;(3:41 PM Aug 17thfrom TweetDeck
18. dennys has hologram kid's menus, genius! http://twitpic.com/e3di910:42 PM Aug 15thfrom TweetDeck
19. off to dennys for dinner because we can't be arsed cooking, awesome9:47 PM Aug 15thfrom TweetDeck
20. http://bit.ly/d6HWM remote control of mysky units, about time!8:22 PM Aug 15thfrom TweetDeck
21. RT @RealBillBailey: http://twitpic.com/e2mam - touring views #3 let's party. -- Ah, Ginsters Cornish Pasties, the memories!8:05 PM Aug 15thfrom TweetDeck
22. http://bit.ly/GeJ4K flickrsync allows you to sync local folders with flickr, even managing sets and tags, free too, nice!4:28 PM Aug 15thfrom TweetDeck
23. back into the running but boy it's harder with an extra 13kg and hills, only 3K but it's a start....2:09 AM Aug 15thfrom TweetDeck
24. loving orb live on iphone, streaming all media from windows home server remotely, nice! http://bit.ly/nNOyi12:36 AM Aug 15thfrom TweetDeck
25. scrabble on iphone is crap, cpu is too easy and you can't play people online except on local wifi, $6 too, avoid!8:07 PM Aug 14thfrom web
26. Bing vs. Google rematch: Who's getting better, quicker?: By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews Two months ago, Micro.. http://bit.ly/11XSbw6:47 PM Aug 14thfrom twitterfeed
27. Qik: Yet another brilliant service crippled on iPhone: By Tim Conneally, Betanews Mobile video streaming site Qi.. http://bit.ly/9oAgi6:47 PM Aug 14thfrom twitterfeed
28. http://bit.ly/DoFu5 monotouch iphone hello world, cool stuff. anyone in the beta program yet? #cantbearsedtolearnobjectivec2:25 AM Aug 14thfrom TweetDeck
29. http://bit.ly/fehLG team at work enthralled by initial win7 boot sequence1:10 AM Aug 14thfrom TweetDeck
30. google maps with compass rocks!11:23 PM Aug 13thfrom TweetDeck
31. i will be crowning off the week by picking up a curry from www.satya.co.nz this evening, YUM9:57 PM Aug 13thfrom TweetDeck
32. Microsoft's Mac unit replacing Entourage with Outlook for Mac: Microsoft's Mac Business Unit this morning said i.. http://bit.ly/g5eJu1:43 PM Aug 13thfrom twitterfeed
33. grappling with wrigley's electro chewing gum, why do i feel like i'm eating condoms, that packaging is wierd7:32 PM Aug 11thfrom TweetDeck
34. very much enjoying dual screen RDP from win 7 to win 7!7:00 PM Aug 11thfrom TweetDeck
35. Twittered off: Time to grow up: By Carmi Levy, Betanews Last week's monumentally scaled denial-of-service attack.. http://bit.ly/fzLtz12:42 AM Aug 11thfrom twitterfeed
36. sysprepping win 7 developer vm, went pretty well in the end3:18 AM Aug 10thfrom TweetDeck
37. finally got my head around the video apis for www.justin.tv3:12 AM Aug 10thfrom TweetDeck
38. love that kid made $100 4 telethon by playing playstation 4 15 hours! and then win a mobile from sponsors..1:25 PM Aug 9thfrom TweetDeck
39. warriors getting stuffed,not up 4 it, 10 lil orbits donuts numbing the pain8:00 PM Aug 8thfrom TweetDeck
40. off to the warriors today, hopefully kevin locke at full back will cheer me up3:23 PM Aug 8thfrom TweetDeck
41. awesome, i need to slipstream the sql 2008 sp1 myself!3:22 PM Aug 8thfrom TweetDeck
42. ah, win 7 only accepts sql 2008 with SP1 only accepted, you can't install them separately, pain3:11 PM Aug 8thfrom TweetDeck
43. ran the sql 2008 standard installer, says "known compatibility issues" on win7, then a set up failure. not having a good time now.3:08 PM Aug 8thfrom TweetDeck
44. bummer, you can't run xp mode in a win 7 vm, not so great for developers then, thanks MS ;( http://bit.ly/17OWZV3:01 PM Aug 8thfrom TweetDeck
45. can't run xp mode in a win 7 vm? "there is no hardware assisted virtualisation support in this system". bios on host is configured fine, mmm4:24 AM Aug 8thfrom TweetDeck
46. putting finishing touches to our new win 7 powered work vm complete with the win xp mode for quick IE6 testing;)4:07 AM Aug 8thfrom TweetDeck
47. Support I'm running Windows 7, add a #twibbon to your avatar now! - http://bit.ly/CAcgK4:05 AM Aug 8thfrom Twibbon
48. ms partner program site, trying to get VLK for win 7 "an unforseen error has occurred", great3:06 PM Aug 7thfrom TweetDeck
49. satya on great north road, best curry in ages last night @guidetoauckland #53:02 PM Aug 7thfrom TweetDeck
50. installing win 7....3:01 PM Aug 7thfrom TweetDeck
51. Pressure-sensitive keyboard, new Microsoft Hardware prototype: Microsoft's hardware group this morning unveiled .. http://bit.ly/BtgXY1:34 PM Aug 7thfrom twitterfeed
52. win7 akamai download not working? http://bit.ly/qJSxX an error has occurred reference id: 49E58B729:10 PM Aug 6thfrom TweetDeck
53. Future of open Web video may change with Google acquisition of On2: By Tim Conneally, Betanews Google announced .. http://bit.ly/1ImcMX1:50 AM Aug 6thfrom twitterfeed
54. super mum http://twitpic.com/cyiz41:10 AM Aug 6thfrom TweetDeck
55. "look out honey cuz i'm using technology" - iggy pop10:39 PM Aug 5thfrom TweetDeck
56. http://bit.ly/vv4Wc great visualisation of music sales since 1978 via @darren via NYT10:15 PM Aug 5thfrom TweetDeck
57. http://www.ie6nomore.com/ for a ready to go callout for users to upgrade their browser10:09 PM Aug 5thfrom TweetDeck
58. what you get for voting nats.. RT @mandamonium: ..help this campaign for night class funding! http://www.stopnightclasscu...6:45 PM Aug 5thfrom TweetDeck
59. office for iPhone? http://bit.ly/LNSfk3:16 AM Aug 5thfrom TweetDeck
60. http://bit.ly/ga4WV monotouch for iPhone coming next month, all u c# devs wanting to deploy apps 4 iPhone get ready:)2:53 AM Aug 5thfrom TweetDeck
61. Digeo introduces new components, software for Moxi HD DVRs: By Tim Conneally, Betanews Digeo today unveiled a ne.. http://bit.ly/Ytzlp2:46 AM Aug 5thfrom twitterfeed
62. estimation spreadsheets rock2:21 AM Aug 5thfrom TweetDeck
63. some of the designers at work are getting really excited today http://bit.ly/4Cu1Nl10:10 PM Aug 4thfrom TweetDeck
64. rediscovering eno's oblique strategies http://bit.ly/sB5wy9:53 PM Aug 4thfrom TweetDeck
65. thai plum, ham and edam sandwiches are great9:46 PM Aug 4thfrom TweetDeck
66. zz top? awesome! taste is a bourgoise conceipt @darren8:29 PM Aug 4thfrom TweetDeck
67. boston's more than a feeling is better than any weezer song, any problems with that?8:27 PM Aug 4thfrom TweetDeck
68. RT @gnat: Can't get into beating up on Bill English for housing allowances. Unemployment, GDP, Cullen Fund, ... fair cop. Expenses? FFS, NZ.6:42 PM Aug 4thfrom TweetDeck
69. beautiful sunny Auckland day demands burger fuel lunch7:07 PM Aug 3rdfrom TweetDeck
70. curried steak pie from at helier bakery with rum ball for afters, yum8:06 PM Aug 1stfrom TweetDeck
71. nice to have some friends round today to see Lia, cheesecake and benidorm time3:45 AM Aug 1stfrom TweetDeck
72. RT @nzben: Serious question for #voteno-ers: what would you do if a random adult hit your kid for being 'naughty'? What makes it different?7:31 AM Jul 31stfrom TweetDeck
73. windows home server back online after primary hard disk failure and replacement, brilliant!7:29 AM Jul 31stfrom TweetDeck
74. i emailed green party mps, they put me on their mailing list without asking and have sent me more after i unsubscribed, boo4:22 AM Jul 31stfrom TweetDeck
75. found my windhows home server discs, now about to test re-install on new primary hard drive, if this works i'll be very happy4:19 AM Jul 31stfrom TweetDeck
76. RT @darren: "I'd rather eat my own shit than duet with James Blunt" - Paul Weller1:12 AM Jul 31stfrom TweetDeck
77. awesome, windows home server primary hard drive failure and lost the original disk! can i get a replacement, not sure?4:33 AM Jul 30thfrom TweetDeck
78. RT @swadeshine: Scientists Claim New State of Matter Created • http://bit.ly/DHi7V1:30 PM Jul 29thfrom TweetDeck
79. http://bit.ly/Ms0kJ 'experimental' .net 4 beta 1 release, why does this feel kinda odd. Why not just call it beta 2?2:18 AM Jul 29thfrom TweetDeck
80. anyone know how to get remember the milk synced with outlook tasks reliably?10:09 PM Jul 28thfrom TweetDeck
81. back home safe and sound http://twitpic.com/bzkuj waiting for Tommy to wake up so he can meet his little sister for first time!9:02 PM Jul 28thfrom TweetDeck
82. RT @shanselman: Bing! to replace Yahoo Search - RT @TallyDigitalBiz: CNN http://bit.ly/n7qhv8:56 PM Jul 28thfrom TweetDeck
83. 2 months off obstetrics cover on health plan, should have delayed the shagging!7:23 PM Jul 28thfrom TweetDeck
84. picking wife and daughter up from hospital, home time!7:20 PM Jul 28thfrom TweetDeck
85. Blog Share: Welcome Lia Rose http://bit.ly/PrPeI4:20 AM Jul 28thfrom twitterfeed
86. released my last tweet didn't make any sense whatsoever, ho hum, time for an early night3:56 AM Jul 28thfrom TweetDeck
87. wondering if the google chrome os should be forced to have a ballot screen for the operating system?3:51 AM Jul 28thfrom TweetDeck
88. http://bit.ly/oHmLh FFS, so now MS can't even include IE logo because someone might choose that over Opera and that would be unfair??3:49 AM Jul 28thfrom TweetDeck
89. xero i love you, but could you find all my receipts and file them nicely away in a folder as well?2:10 AM Jul 28thfrom TweetDeck
90. RT @themorgan: is it just me or is Paula Bennet a complete and utter bloody idiot? shouldn't we have, you know, SMART people in parliament?12:57 AM Jul 28thfrom TweetDeck
91. http://twitpic.com/bwfb4 little Lia rose sleeping9:52 PM Jul 27thfrom TweetDeck

It used to be that i would announce things via a blog post. Haven’t now traversed into the world of twitter i found that tweeting everything with twitpic links was a much more instant way of getting the good news across. If you find this blog in any way interesting i suggest you follow me on twitter at www.twitter.com/kpatton

Anyway, welcome Lia Rose you are truly a beautiful precious thing to us. Lia was born at 10.22am by c-section on July 22nd weighing 3090g (6lb 10oz). Mother and baby are doing very well.

Not content with being 8 months pregnant and busily putting together loads of albums for clients and looking after tommy, Annabel has succeeded in putting together a brilliant exhibition of her work at the Coco Espresso cafe/restaurant in Thames.

Some quick pics of the setup and cafe are presented below:

what a fantastic sunny day it was today.. Winter? bollocks to that!

Litter everywhere daddy! Tidy Kiwi Tommy sorts the ‘naughty people’ out.

The Thinker…

Apparenlty they are pink because of what they eat (shrimps etc.). When i asked Annabel why we don’t go green from eating cabbage, she said “because we aren’t flamingos”. Fair enough really.

Tommy after his first chocolate paddle pop

Here’s a collection of pics from my phone i forgot to upload before.

Payback time! Tommy can now bring the bins in, one less job for me on Friday afternoon;)

Tommy got an easel for his birthday, he loves drawing on this, wiping it clean and saying “good as new”

The famouse Earthrace 100% biodiesel thingy that went around the world was in Paunaui last month

Tommy and Freya on their Wiggles date

Tommy at Rainbow’s end…

Tommy at Hugh’s birthday party

Just a quick post, 1.31am and the rain is battering down outside. I’m up late squishing bugs for another site launch tomorrow and am enjoying the benefits of our new air con system that was put in last week. Went to a parents evening at the day care centre today. Was really tired and wasn’t really feeling like it but it was really great to hear other people and the teachers talk about Tommy. When i got back i told him how proud I was of him and he looked really chuffed with himself and told me loads of stories about what he does at nursery. Normally he says “nothing” when i ask him what he’s been doing (i know, and he’s only 2).

We just had our 20 week scan and found out that we are definitely having a little girl! Due August 4th, very excited. Tommy didn't quite get it and said "I'm going to be a big sister!".

"I be brave Daddy!"

A great video of wee tom having so much fun under the sprinkler with Ellis at Luke and Anniina's house.

Here is our new car, a 2003 Nissan March (Micra in UK). Got it online at www.turners.co.nz, quite exciting buying a car online to be honest. I haven't got a clue about cars and have never driven an automatic before but it seems to work ok. All the manuals are in japanese so that's useful. I am so COOL!

One for Carin here. grammar gone to the dog's! NO APOSTROPHE FOR PLURALISING ACRONYMS, PLEASE!

annabel's lovely new haircut!

tommy dancing with ellis under the sprinkler at luke and anniina's house

at jazz in the park in the domain on a lazy sunday

Well, it's not often i have to resort to the obligatory 'sorry it's so long i've posted a blog entry', but you know blogging is so naughties, we should all be twittering now right? Or is it the saddest thing ever?

When i pointed out to my wife that there are over 6 million users of twitter she responded that there's easily enough total geeks in the world to account for that number, fair enough.

Anyway, after a fun and challenging year at www.practiv.com putting together an enterprise service layer (that does sound posh now doesn't it?) underneath www.telecombusinesshub.co.nz i have decided to go back to my roots and join a very exciting and cool web agency over in Ponsonby called Marker (www.markerstudio.com, new website coming soon i'm told!).

I'll be the development manager there overseeing the output of the techie people there, interfacing with clients, designers and other assorted webbie types. Very excited and lots of interesting meaty and high profile projects to kickstart the year.

I'll be starting my new venture on March 2nd and would like to bud a fond farewell to all and sundry who might have bumped into me during the last year and who i will probably not be seeing for a while.

just a few more Tommy pics from over Christmas. oh, and one of him eating a chocolate hot cake watching peppa pig on the new bedroom TV, worst idea ever, I go sleep in his bed every morning to get some kip now!

David Healy eat your heart out!

eco wreath from rosemary in our garden!

new fancy shade in action

Christmas tree is up!

Tommy taking Monkey for a walk to the bakery

Computer says No

(windows update randomly set my power settings, took me 2 days to realise what was going on)

well, despite minimal (i.e. none) training me and 'er indoors successfully made it through the 10.55km quarter marathon distance without too much pain. Despite a pre race argument in the car park (told you Carin!) the trust GPS watch allowed us to stick to a steady feeble pace and chomp on home in 1hr 18m, woo hoo, but with NO STOPPING!

A major achievement for me in particular having larded on 7kg this year and done nothing except type loads of stuff on a keyboard for most of the year.

Summer is a comin' and i think we'll be dodging the tamaki drive rollerbladers a bit more over the next few months....

After the recent announcement by Scott Guthrie that JQuery would receive official support from Microsoft (http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/09/28/jquery-and-microsoft.aspx), many people see that as the heralding of a new dawn.

We missed out on NUnit (MsTest), NDoc (Sandcastle) and NHibernate (Linq to SQL/Entity Framework) for sure, but what do you think should be embraced next?

Post your answer here:

I believe the problems experienced around the world with the global credit crisis arise from a fundamental problem in our definition of money and the way most modern industrialized nations have structured control over management of the money supply.

Neither Barack Obama or John McCain have any intention of enacting any sort of monetary reform as far as i can tell. Unfortunately, the only person who i think agrees with all this in the US is Ron Paul http://www.campaignforliberty.com/, and i don’t agree with much else of his!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Monetary_Institute

“If money is a commodity to be traded, then all that matters is that the money is 100% backed by some commodity, like gold or silver for example. If money is credit, then it makes sense that bankers control it, as they do in the United States today. But if money is an artifact of law, whose value is derived from law (payment of taxes and legal tender laws) then the Institute argues it would only be proper for the government to issue, and control the money supply.”

http://www.monetary.org/need_for_monetary_reform.html

Monetary reform is achieved in 3 parts which must be enacted together for it to work. Any one or any two of them alone won’t do it, but could actually further harm the monetary situation.

1. First, incorporate the Federal Reserve System into the U.S. Treasury where all new money is created by government as money, not interest-bearing debt, and spent into circulation to promote the general welfare; monitored to be neither inflationary nor deflationary.

2. Second, halt the banks privilege to create money by ending the fractional reserve system in a gentle and elegant way. All the past monetized private credit is converted into U.S. government money. Banks then act as intermediaries accepting savings deposits and loaning them out to borrowers; what people think they do now.

3. Third, spend new money into circulation on infrastructure, including education and healthcare needed for a growing society, starting with the $1.6 trillion that the American Society of Civil Engineers estimate is needed for infrastructure repair; creating good jobs across our nation, re-invigorating local economies and re-funding government at all levels.

REVOLUTION!

All i can say is roll on spring....Probably my favouritest part of auckland is the tamaki drive stretch out east. And sometimes you get blindingly beautiful sunsets back across the city view.

Tommy is officially a big boy now he has his own bed. He even wants to go to bed early at the moment, not sure how long that will last though!

Sorry lucy, no pictures of tommy as yet, here's some snaps of our weekend down at christchurch/hamner springs. Will some trees do instead??

Lucy just reminded me that i must post mroe family pics soon. She however requesed pics of tommy explicitly even though i'm undoubtedly more handsome, strange...

Here's one of us in London to keep you going lucy.

Here you go Lucy! house pictures and fun from the easter show.

Yep, he's into his cars.

Had a great time over easter, the weather was amazing and we did lots of family stuff. Tommy had fun too, he kept running round in circles on the beach!

Finally managed to update all my dvds again, and the software i'm using (DVD Profiler) gives you a website as well which is nice of them.

http://www.invelos.com/dvdcollection.aspx/kpatton

Tommy's getting very fond of shopping now and also likes to sit on his special seat more and more. All i can say is thank the heavens for wooden floors...

Well, lots of boxes still, but we made it and here's some pics of the new house, including tommy's new swing which is proving very popular.

Oh Calcutta curry on the first night, it's a tradition!

Well, technically not still on hols, but we just had a lovely weekend in Pauanui after my first week at the new job (you can see the view from the office below, going up in the world!).

Tommy in his "Big Bucket"

My swanky new office view, Level 37 Metropolis Hotel

Tommy at the Pepper Tree, Coromandel Town, those ribs!!

Tommy with Taylor and Ella at Pru and Nigel's place in Paunaui

Tommy at Te Puru beach on the Coromandel, before the tent blew away

Tommy and Annabel in Tairua Estuary

Annabel looking lovely on New Years Eve in her new dress

Tommy took great pleasure during his traditional mad half hour in running around the clothes line with a towel attached to it. Unfortunately this lead to a you've been framed quality moment when he banged his head, looks worse than it is don't worry!

We just got b ack from seeing Eagle and Shark at the open air cinema (www.openaircinema.co.nz) in Pauanui which was very funny and well written. The lovely non Tommy baby below is Freya Newbould or Freyington Freybucket III.

Some pics from Friday's trip to beach and assorted pics from rest of day..