(Apologies to any Dutch-speakers if the above is not quite right - I got it from here)

Well, it's been quite some time since I've written one of these things (11 months in fact) and ironically it's because I've been busy that I haven't been writing about all I've been doing. So here goes...

Work

I'm afraid I can't say much about it yet, but it's definitely very interesting, and I'm extremely happy that I took the job...

Other coding

My efforts on WhaTBI? have been a little diluted of late, but in a good way. I'm working on a small app for my Dad to manage the membership details for a small club, and am using WhaTBI? to do it. So even though I'm not adding to much code to the framework at the moment, I am validating the general concept (always handy!) and may even get some reusable WinForms code out of it.

The second "welcome" distraction has been getting bitten by the Ruby bug. As a bit of an experiment, and probably somewhat inspired by something Martin Fowler said a while back, I rewrote the WhaTBI? build script in Ruby, and was pretty impressed by the power and expressiveness of the language. So much so that I ported a couple of the simpler data sources as well (see ports/WhatAGem in the source). Be warned I have other tacky names lined up for other ports as well (WhaTBean? and WhaTBUnk?).

Though not strictly coding I've also been keeping my WikisGalore and FreeDevelopmentTools lists as up-to-date as I can...

Reading

Increasingly I've been getting my technical info ''fix'' online via 'blogs and articles, so most of my reading has been fiction. I read all the Dan Brown books pretty much back-to-back after reading some good reviews, and enjoyed them all (though possibly Digital Fortress slightly less so - is it just me or do all techies have problems trying not to pick holes in "the facts behind the fiction" so to speak?). Recently I saw an offer too good to miss and picked up Penguin's 20 volume "Great Ideas" collection (a set of ''books that changed the world") for only 75p/book! I've not really started them yet, as the first looks a little heavy-going (Seneca "On the shortness of life''). Today, though, I've started reading Bob Reselman's "Coding Slave" on my Palm as he's made it available as a free download.

Gadgets

It's bonus month, so I've had a bit of a splurge over the past week: a Leapster for my daughter; a PS2 primarily for me, though as it had an EyeToy bundled she's taken quite a shine to it as well; and a portable DVD player for the whole family. So if anyone can recommend any particularly good PS2 games then I'd be interested...

Previously I'd updated our printer (for a Canon i965) and scanner (for a Canon LIDE 50) and also bought a Samsung USB2 DVD rewriter.

Travel

As well as the now customary family holiday to Turkey (Hotel Marti, Icmeler) I've also managed 2 short trips to Paris - one business, one family visit to Disneyland, which we all thoroughly enjoyed - and a week on business in Victoria on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, which was believe it or not my first visit to North America.

Family

My 3-year-old daughter, Sophie, has started getting into computers, and rather strangely prefers Notepad, Paint and even Calc to games. I've therefore dusted off an old 486-based Toshiba laptop for her to use.

Though I am obviously pleased she can type her name unaided, and just about anything if spelt to her, my proudest moment was seeing her, completely of her own accord, hit "ALT, SPACE, x" to maximize Notepad. I guess she was watching me closer than I thought! I know it's still a bit early for coding, but that didn't stop me from downloading UCB Logo just to be prepared...

My wife's been getting quite into the whole digital photography bit (the one above was taken by her, obviously) like the following two excellent portraits of Sophie:

Somehow amongst all of this I've also found time to attend "Sharing our faith" meetings at our local parish church, and in a lovely ceremony on Easter Saturday I was received into the Catholic Church and also made my Confirmation and First Holy Communion.

However, by far and away the biggest family matter is that this Thursday (21 April) Sophie is being admitted into Guy's Hospital, London, and will be having her final (of three) heart operations on the following day. So don't expect much from me in the way of 'blogging for the next couple of weeks...