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7 months already... It seems like just yesterday. 7 months ago, she said hello to the world, and every day since then, there has anways been something new to discover. As parents, we try to satisfy her curiosity, and even more so. We are constantly looking for new things to show her, teach her, and to let her experience life to the fullest. The price to pay? he hardly sleeps during the day, but she tries to take (and eat) everything, and has already figured out how to move herself to get a new object. She isn't crawling on all fours just yet, but I don't think that she will take too long to figure that out. She likes music, she likes colors (so she hasn't got what I have, although she may be a carrier) and she really, really wants to talk.

3 and a half teeth. And her nickname is pranha, because she nibbles everything, and watch out where you put your fingers, she can bite hard.

She is already well on her way to becoming a geek; she loves bashing on the keyboard (which doesn't really help when I'm in the middle of coding).

Happy monthday Elena! Take your time to grow up, because when you are ready, we have the whole world to show you! And even more so...

Happy 2012! Here we go again, the beginning of a whole new year! We leave behind us 2011, and we now face something "new", the end of the world. Again. The Mayans said that the end of the world would come at the end of the year. Either that or they ran out of room at the end of their calendar... Anyway, I've survived 2000, Mir falling onto Paris, and others that I can't even remember. Bring it on, 2012!

Each new year also comes with a tradition; new years resolutions. The kind of thing that you keep for, what, 2 weeks? Then forget. I've got a few, but I won't say what. I probably won't keep them anyway. One that I will, become more of a family each and every day.

So, what has happened in 2011? 2011 will stay in my memories for a long, long time. After years of being a geek, I am now finally a geek and a father to a beautiful baby daughter. She is doing well, and she is already impatient to talk and walk. Take your time, I have a lot to show you, but that will come, don't worry. I can't wait to take her out to zoos and other activities! Being a father is a major change for me, and it does change a lot if things in life. I no longer look at work the same way that I used to, but I still have time to be a geek, so that's OK. Some things don't change.

Work wise, things are almost the same, but I need to change few details. After about 10 years in embedded systems, I finally sat down to have some fun with the Android SDK, and even worse, I actually like it. I'm considering going into it more seriously, just to add yet another line to my CV, but I've always had a problem with Java, I just couldn't get into it. I never knew why, but I think I do now. I've been doing C (and assembly) all my life, but I needed to go through Python to be able to fully appreciate Java, and now I really do. Yet another task for 2012...

Like most people, I've been playing games on PC since... well... forever. Ok, I've been playing games on my computers for ever, since I started way before anything like a PC was easily available. The "good old days" of the Amiga are far behind me, but there is something that I really miss about those days.

Todays machines are blazing fast compared to what we had back then. My trusty Amiga 500 had 512k of RAM, and my current "work" PC has 8 gigabytes. As for the CPU, well... It isn't even a high-end CPU (trusty i5 quad-core), but it is still waaaaay faster. But what surprises me the most are the advances made to graphics cards. I can still remember my first "3D" card; a Matrox Mystique, playing MechWarrior 2. Everything changes.

Games have changed, too. My favorites were Rainbox Islands, Damocles, Populous, Powermonger... Come to think about it, just about anything from Bullfrog. Then came the PC era. Games were more and more realistic, more advanced. Wow, we even had videos here and there! First playing in 320x200, then 640... But things really change when you start playing in 1024x768! I still haven't changed my screens yet, so they aren't full HD; "only" 1680x1050 each, but still. However, I really feel like we have lost something. The games are more realistic, but less fun? Is it only me, or have things really changed? Triple A games are graphically stunning, but the story just seems a little plain right now. Granted, Rainbox Islands wasn't exactly a text-book example of a great story, but still, the characters were fun, and everything about it was just, well, fun. Today, I've given in on quite a few games, and the ones I still play are almost considered Golden Oldies. Out with World of Warcraft, out with Eve Online, Unreal Tournament I just gave in on, and a few others. However, I still play Neverwinter Nights, a few Gothic titles too, and I've even tried the Baldur's Gate series again. A few of the "modern" games that I still like are the Fallout 3 series (still trying to finish Fallout New Vegas) and Sins of a Solar Empire.

This all brings me to this - Indie games. I've just bought the Humble Indie Bundle 2, and I really, really regret not buying the first one. A great bundle of Indie games, and they are all fun! What really started me up, though, was Minecraft. It isn't a triple A, far from it, but it was fun, and was designed around being fun. It isn't perfect (especially graphically, people still mahe fun of me for that), but I don't care. It really is fun, and you can really get into the game. Yes, I'll admit, I've jumped in my seat when a creeper just suddenly appeared whilst mining. I'll have to look at the stats to see exactly how long I've been playing, but I'm sure it would make me pale. So, todays games are Minecraft, Osmos, Frozen Synapse, Warzone 2100, OpenTTD and a few others. Most of them even run on my netbook. These are games made on a very low budget by people who love creating them, and I would love to become one. Very seriously thinking about that...

New resolution, finish all the games I've never finished. Baldur's Gate, because that really annoyed me. Gothic 3, because I loved the story and I really got into that more than I thought I would. A few others here and there. What games do you love? Which ones would you like to play again to finish?