Biking with baby

As Tanya Snyder recently wrote, it’s pretty easy to be discouraged from biking after having a baby. She made a good point that there is not a lot of information out there for parents (especially moms) about how to bike with their baby:

No one at the hospital made sure I had a child bike seat properly installed before I went home. None of the parenting websites and blogs I read list “old enough for a bike trailer” as a milestone. There are other cyclists in my mom’s group, but somehow no one talks about getting back in the saddle the way we talk about the challenges of going back to work or getting babies on a sleep schedule.

Well, that inspired me to share. I biked up until about 2 weeks before I gave birth, started biking again at about 3 months after my daughter was born, and have been biking with my daughter since she was 8 months old.

Ruby scripts for RPG Maker XP now on Github

Back in 2005 and 2006, while finishing up my CS degree, I taught myself Ruby and started writing extensions to RPG Maker XP with the aim of creating my own RPG. As it turns out, there’s still quite a community using RMXP (despite there being a newer version) and the original forum I published them on is long gone, so I’ve re-released them on Github.

Urban gardening in 2011

Last summer, was our second attempt at urban gardening (our first attempt). We adhered to David’s mom’s advice for starting seeds in dry soil this time around. We sowed pole beans (again), carrots, radish, dill, and (re-tried) spinach in the front.

Meatless Mondays

Since the beginning of 2011, David and I have been endeavoring to eat meat one less day a week. We heard about the Meatless Monday movement and were challenged to participate. Now we are not always successful at going meatless on Mondays, but we have been faithful to at least one day a week. I think this has been helped by the fact that we have several vegetarian friends and some with dietary restrictions and that we entertain in our home on an almost weekly basis.

12 movies in 2012

We tend to watch a lot of movies. In 2011, for example, we watched over 60 from a combination of Netflix, iTunes, Blockbuster and the theatre. I couldn’t find any reliable statistics about “the norm”, but that feels pretty high. If you do the math, 60 movies works out to 5 full days, or, assuming a 40 hour work week, 6 person-weeks.

I don’t know about you, but I have a few projects on the go (like an RPG built using Impact) that could benefit from a few person-weeks of love.

So in 2012, we’re each limiting ourselves to 12 movies: I’m watching 12, and Lacey’s watching 12. If we both want to watch the same movie, that counts against both our limits. In theatre, on DVD… doesn’t matter.

Cloth vs. disposable diaper costs using real data

A lot of people claim you’ll save thousands by going for cloth diapers, but they’re usually quite biased. When our daughter Zoe was born, we decided to try cloth diapers and while we haven’t regretted that decision, there have been a couple of bumps along the road so far.

As promised earlier, let’s start by taking a look at cost. After six months in the trenches, so to speak, we have enough real data to tackle the question: are cloth diapers actually less expensive than disposables? In short, the answer is yes. Even taking laundry into account. For a more quantitative analysis, read on.

First attempt at urban gardening

Last summer, my husband and I planted our first garden at our (then) new home. We were clueless as to what might grow in our shady front area (raised bed) and mostly hopeful for the sunny back area. In April, we decided it was time to plant. We made a trip to get soil, fertilizer, plants, and seeds.

Rest in peace, IE6… now what?

Like many web shops of late, my workplace has officially discontinued support for Internet Explorer 6. My initial reaction was: Yay! No more PNG transparency issues! And I can finally use all those poorly supported CSS selectors and properties without resorting to hacks…

But wait, most people are likely to upgrade to Internet Explorer 7. In our case, for example, approximately 11% of page views are from IE7. And while IE7 is a big improvement over its much maligned predecessor, it’s still far from standards compliant. If you, like me, are wondering what’s now free game, read on.

A noob’s guide to newbs (newborns, that is)

Prior to Zoe arriving on the scene, I had virtually no experience with newborns, or babies of any age for that matter. But now I’m an expert!

Ok, hardly an expert, but I have learned a few things about newborns:

• they come with excellent communication skills (both verbal and non-verbal)
• they’re likely to have more wrinkles than the average septuagenarian
• they’re amusingly indifferent toward ridiculous outfits (for a little while, at least)

Can a vehicle commercial be good?

Recently, I have been paying more attention t0 commercials. This may be due in part to having cowritten and starred in a short information video; in part to having friends in the communication field; and in part to learning more about the role of social marketing.

Now, I promise that my blog posts will not be rants. However, I do have a complaint about a certain motor vehicle commercial that I have wanted to voice for awhile, but I thought I had better find at least one example of a good motor vehicle commercial before doing so. Thus, here is the complaint, followed by a couple more positive comments.