The glass is half empty
To tie in the subject line, when drinking something like a 'Splice' (thanks Nicola), the second half is going to be interesting. I have much the same outlook on the second half of 2007. Work and Family commitments will dominate the next 6 months with varying degrees.
In regards to work, my involvement in the Sakai Community means that I will most probably be involved in an Australian Conference that is being planned for September in Canberra (most likely). CSU are pushing very hard for some major involvement in Australia, and with the growing interest amongst Australian Universities, the idea for the AU Conference could very well be a good one. Mind you, what involvement I would have is most probably minor, I'm told, something along the lines of a presentation on some random Sakai-related topic to be decided later.
In addition to this, is that I hope I am next in line for the next World-wide Sakai Conference, which is being touted for Southern California in December. This would be of much more interest to me, as it's where all the technical guru's get together. The programmers who have attended the last two conferences (Michigan and Amsterdam) have learnt a great deal from these, so I hope to benefit, but it is a hope after all.
Other than that, I'm currently extremely busy with all the work I have been given to get CSU's version of Sakai up and running.
The Family commitments are obviously major, with the birth of our first child in November (could make the possibility of S.Cali interesting). We are starting to pick up all the necessary items, such as; bassinet, pram, and a cot. Sal's been busy making clothes, both for our child and our Niece, Aliana.
Lately, Sal's been telling me of how much she's felt the baby move. More so, when something is pressing on her tummy, like my arm or one of the cats. One morning recently, she was telling me that during the night when I had my arm over her stomach in bed, she was getting tickled by the baby moving and it was making her laugh. The other evening, I tried putting my ear to her stomach, attempting to listen for any sound that might be audible from the womb. All I could hear was sloshing (most likely from her stomach, but Sal thinks it's from the womb), but Sal was saying that the baby was kicking my ear while I was doing it. Unfortunately I didn't feel a thing.
A friend and I have started a fitness program (yes, I know, another one). He showed me this website, Traineo.com, where you can track your workouts, weight-loss and other aspects of losing weight. My page is here. I have also started a blog just for my weight-loss tracking. I've found that working with another person on something such as weight-loss, is much easier than doing it on your own. You have someone to work with, and it's a motivation that gets you going.