Mark O’Meara: the blog

I think it is fair to say that Nicky had a pretty big operation and it was serious stuff. However I also think it is important for me to mention how incredibly well she is going in terms of her recovery. Firstly her physical recovery is impressive and rapid. Certainly she will need the four weeks at home for recovery before going back to work but she is doing really well.

Even more impressive is how well she is managing mentally and emotionally. Of course there will be holes to be fallen into but by and large she is facing each day really positively and making deliberate efforts to look forward.

I am similarly proud of Finn. He seems to be in the middle of a developmental leap forwards. He leaves his hearing aids in for much longer and I think this really helps him. The other day in the car she was saying “na, na, na” and I thought perhaps we might try yes instead.

So I sang him bits of The Beatles song She Loves You and he happily sang a passable version of the “yeah, yeah, yeah” which I was pretty pleased with. Last night when he was being difficult about his dinner I just sang the lead in and he jumped in with “yeah, yeah, yeah” which was a lovely surprise.

Aside from this he is getting to be very good at little job such as taking things to Mum or Dad or putting his bottle up on the kitchen bench when he is finished with it.

I am very lucky to have these two characters in my life.

Lesson for the day - people can be very clever.

I am not sure how long ago I worked with Sandi but it is more than five and less than ten years. Every now and then she appears and normally with big news. Last time she had just gotten married.

Today she called again. It seems last time she called she was pregnant but didn’t know it. Now she has a fifteen month old called Charlie. And it turns out she is three months pregnant.

On the bright side there is always lots to talk about.

Lesson for the day - it’s nice that people have news when they call, it stops the conversation stalling.

I do understand that it is possible to be found with a large quantity of dope and it happens that it does not belong to you. However it is also possible to be young, female and Australian and do something wrong also.

The fact is that I don’t know for sure what happened one way or the other. I have no basis for a complete belief that Schapelle Corby is either guitly or innocent. When I lived dope towns as a teenager the women were in the business every bit as much as the men so I can’t tell you that a young Australian female absolutely could not be involved.

What I find dissapointing is that some people are so sure of innocence that they would ask for their donations to Tsunami victims back unless the conviction is overturned. We pride ourselves on how generous we are, and with some reason, but then want to have special rules for our citizens overseas in return.

I know it is only a few people doing this but it certainly doesn’t help our already tarnished international reputation.

Lesson for the day - it is hard to know anything for sure unless it is about you personally and even then it is sometimes tricky.

For all my talk of there being no sign of winter with less than week to go it is well and truly wintery weather. It seems the good washing days are gone for a while.

A friend of mine said her partner used to comment on all the good washing days when they lived in her native Queensland and didn’t really understand the excitement until they moved to Victoria. In Victoria there is little as exciting as a good washing day.

Lesson for the day - winter seems to be right on time.

For those who don’t know FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and you use it to copy files from one place to another. When I install Movable Type I use this, when I load a song to my server I use this, when I need to delete stuff from the server I use this.

Many web hosts have web based FTP included which certainly works but it not so swish or quick to use as a proper application. And for ages I didn’t buy one.

But recently I bought Transmit from Panic and it’s really good. I don’t know that something so mundane as FTP software will ever be sexy and most of my five readers will never need it but this is really handy for me. It does cost $US30 but if you are serious about doing stuff on your own server it a case of either spending the money or wasting a mountain of time.

Lesson for the day - the boring stuff should be made easier.

More software I really like. This time it is NetNewsWire Lite. This is a simple and free version of the full commerical product and I think it’s great software.

It tracks for new entries on blogs and other websites that have RSS feeds. I use it to watch 36 sites including a bunch of blogs, ABC news, The Age, and my Gmail account.

It looks a lot like an email application and is a wonderful way to see what is new across a bunch of sites. Gone are the days of just skipping through a heaps of sites to see that might be updates.

Lesson for the day - I like anything that allows me to consume more.

I used to be terribly amazed by all the things software could do but now it all seems a but ho-hum. However there are still bits of software that I consider Damn Useful.

The first of these is DVDpedia which is basically library software for your DVD collection. You can view your discs by cover or name. You can view what you have, what you want, and who borrowed what. You can also put these lists on the web. You can also make up lists and smartlists. Smartlists match against criteria you set. I have them for five star films, films from a particular decade and so forth.

DVDpedia does cost $US18 but I think it’s worth every cent. There is a very swish looking competitor called Delicious Library which I also considered. However it doesn’t do the web output the same way and is $US40.

So if you happen to have a bunch of DVDs and are in the habit of lending them I highly recommend this, it works really well for me.

The same company also produces Bookpedia for those with heaps of books and some they might lend.

The best things about all of these products in that you can enter part of the title and it will populate the application with the cover other information such as the cast, director, format and so forth for films and author, publisher and so forth for books.

Lesson for the day - when you buy a lot it helps to know where stuff is.

It is certainly nice to have Nicky home but I do seem to have fallen into something of a hole. Foozley is being a bit of a handful although probably compared to the international average he is still an angel.

But either way I am tired and a bit fragile. This will pass but I just thought I’d mention it because if you can’t mindlessly complain on your blog then what’s the point of writing one?

Lesson for the day - if there is complaining to be done then I am your man is this is the blog.

Seeing Nicky’s efforts for deserving puppies made me think that perhaps I should do a little something to help. A few years ago Nicky taught me to do basic knitting for a scarf and, of course, I have completely forgotten all that I knew.

But I figured that I perhaps be a little helpful if only a little. So Nicky started a square for a blanket off for me and showed me how to do a basic stitch again. So far I have done perhaps three rows over the course of several hours but it’s a start. When I do some more tonight I am sure I will be that little bit quicker and perhaps by the time the three weeks are up I will have contributed a couple of squares towards a blanket.

Lesson for the day - even the life-long clumsy can help a little.

It is nice to have Nicky here at home. Obviously just having her company is a pleasure in itself but I would be lying if I didn’t concede that it is also nice not to go to the hospital each day. Not that it was difficult or unpleasant, a return trip took a little over two hours and the staff there were very good indeed.

But it was tiring all the same and I am very glad not to have to do it anymore.

Lesson for the day - my middle name is not lazy but it could easily be.