Text into mp3 files

Got this from Wil Wheaton's blog -- http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/2008/01/audio-greetings.html

I haven't tried it myself, but apparently there's a website -- vozMe -- where you can type in (or copy & paste) text into the window, and it generates an audio file (in mp3 format) for you. (The link sends you to the English language version; but there's also a Spanish and an Italian version. Worth playing around to see what English text, ''spoken'' with Spanish or Italian pronunciation, sounds like.)

Ah... modern technology... :)


--GG

Here comes the sun

At this time of year in Brisbane, it starts getting light at 4:45am.

Since I don't hunt, fish, or deliver the milk to good citizens, I am **not** supposed to know that.


[Yawn...]


--GG

Noyze boyz

Today, I was reminded that ''symphony'' rhymes with ''cacophony". Both boys were in the double-wide stroller, crying and crying away.

B1's wailing was more mid-dy, whereas B2's is more trebley. Made me wish I had my recording gear set up, so I could get a good stereo recording of their crying -- I might have a use for it someday. (What - everyone doesn't thing like that?)


--GG

Does my daddy heart good

Today, while running errands, my 3yo daughter said to me: "Daddy, can I have a serviette [Aussie for "paper napkin"] please? I spilled slushie on myself."

This warms my daddy-heart to no end, for a number of reasons:

1) I still can't get over being addressed as "Daddy". For you non-parental-types: It's like being non-relationshipped for the longest time, then getting addressed as "Honey"or "Sweetie" or whatever.

2) Daughter, like Daddy, digs the slushie.

3) We've trained her well enough that she knows to say "please".

4) She knows to try to clean herself up when she spills, rather than just staying messy and sticky.


Good stuff, all of it. :)


--GG

Paying up-front (no free lunch)

Over the past few months, I've been telling folks how handy it is to have twins: my wife only has to take maternity leave once (i.e. only one career interruption) to get two additional kids. How handy!

But -- over the last week (sleep-deprived week), I've realized that indeed, there **is** no ''free lunch'': we're paying up-front. To have it otherwise would violate the first law of parentamics (like the laws of thermodynamics, but with more grey hair).

The tricky part of having twins -- one of them, anyhow -- is that despite what various "experts" say, "twin feeding" (i.e. both at once) just really isn't feasible -- especially if they have wildly different feeding style. So, you do them in sequence. Except that (1) this doubles the amount of time you're awake in the middle of the night, compared to having just one kid, and (2) the second kid -- the one waiting in line for his turn to be fed -- tends to complain (loudly) during his wait in the queue. So, instead of daddy having a bit of down-time to nap, he's trying to soothe Mr. Crankypants.

Ayep.


--GG

I'm not babysitting

As a dad, here's one of my pet peeves:

I have one of the kids with me, and I'm running errands. And one of the (well-meaning; usually a middle-aged female) sales clerks says, "O-ho! Babysitting today, eh?"

Actually, not. By definition, if it's **my** kid, then I'm not ''babysitting''. Babysitting is when you take care of someone else's kid for the day (or the evening). A man who takes care of his own kid is just ''being a dad''.


Again: I know they're well-intentioned. But they would never think to call a mom out with her kids "babysitting".


--GG

Zoolander look

Both baby boys are getting to the stage where they actually spend a little time away -- rather than just eat, sleep, eat, sleep.

B2 (i.e. the second-born baby) has taken to striking a certain facial expression as he looks about. Today, I finally figured out where I'd seen it before...


--GG

My wife and my parents-in-law bought me some guitar effects pedals for Christmas. (Note: Photo is just something I grabbed off the web [http://www.kevinchilcott-luthier.co.uk/ images/ fx03-3xdod-rdcp30-01.jpg], not of the Christmas f/x pedals. Although I **do** own them...)

However, general busy-ness -- plus having two boys born a few days after Christmas, and spending all day at the hospital visiting my wife over the next week -- meant that I didn't get to actually try them out until now. And I only got to use them for about fifteen minutes, before it was time to move on to other things.

Because I haven't played electric guitar in a looong time, I had to track down guitar cables amongs my piles o' ''stuff''. When I found some, my gear wouldn't work. After some diagnostic work, I figured out the reason: the tips of the cables were tarnished, due to dis-use.

That's a metaphor for my life, right now.


--GG

Naptime!

I actually managed to wrangle a two-hour nap this afternoon!!! (The boys feed every 3-4 hours -- around the clock... -- and the process takes about an hour... The Lady feeds, while I burp and change them during the hand-over.)

The nap reeeeally helped!


I type this with a very small, very young little boy sleeping on my lap. :)


--GG