Our lovely baby boy just turned one year old.

Here he is trying out one of his birthday presents. The shot's a little underexposed, but it's such a perfect Ruairi face I couldn't resist it.

This perfectly captures a very Ruairi look - he's just the smiliest, happiest kid. It's a pity the picture can't capture the constant stream of little chuckles and chatter he keeps up throughout most of his waking hours.



Happy birthday, Ruairi, we love you.

BTW: yes, I cheated - I changed the time stamp on this post to the exact date and time of Ruairi's birth, one year ago. But what the heck - I was far too busy celebrating to actually blog about this yesterday :-)

Entertaining to look back to some of the Blogsprogs posts from around this time last year, and remind myself of this extraordinary tale... (Um...permalinks seem to have gone wonky - it's the last post on the page, from January 08, 2003)

...and congratulations to Gary and Fiona.

She's absolutely beautiful and clearly a happy girl. Wonder if she knows her Dad's a genius?

Best take on the weekend's big news story I've seen so far is this piece on the B3TA site.

(Explanation for anyone who wasn't watching UK kids TV in the 80s).

This afternoon I finally got the tree up and dressed, with lots of help from Charlie & Lily.

Thought I'd better snap a couple of shots before Ruairi starts pulling stuff off it.



I've shown you mine, now show me yours...

Just found these excellent emergency Christmas presents (assuming you have a colour printer handy)- a selection of great print-and-make colour robot models free to download.

Since I became uninstalled my emotional state seems to work on a toggle switch that can flip back and forth between opposite poles several times a minute.

There is no in-between. It's all black, or all white.

There's a piece in this morning's Globe & Mail Careers section about the work of poet David Whyte, author of The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America.

Whyte quotes from two poems that perfectly illustrate the diametric ends of my mood spectrum:

- Black -

"In the middle of the road of my life,
I awoke in a dark wood,
Where the true way was wholly lost."

- the opening lines of Dante's Divine Comedy

- White -

"How should I not be glad to contemplate
The clouds clearing beyond the dormer window
And a high tide reflected on the ceiling.
There will be dying, there will be dying, But there is no need to go into that.
The poems flow from the hand unbidden
And the hidden source is the watchful heart.
The sun rises in spite of everything
And the far cities are beautiful and bright
I lie here in a riot of sunlight
Watching the day break and the clouds flying
Everything is going to be all right."

- by Derek Mahon

Last couple of days, I think I'm leaning more towards Mahon...

Conference calls are like purgatory.

Before your next 3 hour strategy briefing, make sure you line up all the life support supplies you'll need:

- mondo grande triple americano with 2 biscotti on the side
- wine gums
- nail clippers
- doodle pad
- this site

(link courtesy Bernie DeKoven's Blog o' Fun)

Something to say, at last - or to point to anyway...

Courtesy of Martin Röll, here at last is something promising surfacing from out the stinking, stupid mess that is the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva.

From the coverage I've seen, there seems to have been a remarkable tide of dumb prolixity coming out of this event - lots of posturing over completely valueless arguments such as "who should rule the internet" and suchlike malarkey. I'll let clearer minds deal with all that tosh.

Today, however, something of a minor clue breakthrough. Iran's reformist President, Mohammad Khatami, interviewed about the state of the Net in his country, had some interesting stuff to say on the topic of censorship while also, not incidentally, mentioning weblogs a number of times in his comments.

"There are a lot of internet connections in Iran. All countries have certain reservations about the internet, but they are not about freedom of expression. They are only porn and immoral websites. Even political websites that are openly opposed to the Iranian government, and all other educational and scientific sites, are available to the Iranian people. But the expansion of digital expression should not harm the culture or identity of nations. We need new conventions, while allowing fair use of the internet."

That's more like it. And we'll have less of this rot about the UN's need to "run" or "administer" the Net, thanks very much.

[AHEM: I wrote and thought I'd posted this last week. Only now realising that I'd left it marked as 'draft' all this time. Doh is me.]

Or do I just have naff all to say?

Except, perhaps:

Thank you, Gary - you're a mate.

And thanks Tom, too - how about if you get next year? :-)

And an extra special big heap o' thanks to David Weinberger. Wow.

You all know why.

Lord knows where these ideas spring from, but Gary seems to have a bottomless supply of them.

He's either one of the unheralded marketing geniuses of the 21st century, or a honking loon - or probably both.

Gary's latest invention, the Nap-Strat could well be the catalyst that singlehandedly reboots the global IPO market.

In the master's own words:

"...the stylish new paper napkins that double as regular diner serviettes but which also come pre-printed with various business planning tools like the Boston Square, The Product Life-Cycle Classic Bell Curve and The All-Time-Classic Triangle, complete with financial breakdown section and all printed on special toughened tissue-paper designed to protect against tearing when used with fountain or ball-point pens."



Now all we need to do is set up special Nap-Strat drop-off depots in all major cities around the world, so the used Nap-Strats can be collected, shredded, and fed into modified Bistromathics generators - and we'll have all the cheap, clean, renewable power the world could ever want.

Keep an eye on those New Year's Honours in 2004. If this one doesn't get him knighted, I don't know what will.