Simple can be best...

This site just made me smile the whole way through (it doesn't take long).

Found via Signal vs. Noise [permalink]

Brush with fame (well, almost)

I was flying back home after a quick day trip down to Melbourne for work. Who did I see clowning around in economy class (well, not really clowning so much as sitting quietly and minding their own business)?



Gomez

I love these guys and have been big fans since their first album Bring it on was released. I had the perfect opportunity to say "Hi", maybe say how much I liked their work and wish them good luck for their Canberra show tonight (and maybe get a happy snap with my camera phone).

Instead, I chose to leave the guys alone. I'm sure they would have been cool with a fan coming up and having a few quiet words before moving along, but I elected to give them their space. Odds were they were going straight from the plane to soundcheck and are probably flying back out again tomorrow. It's only fair they be given a chance to chill out before the show that I couldn't manage to make it to (nearly 1 year old boy, lack of money - the excuses are long).

Hope the boys have a good show.

In the end, I walked away a little wistful, doing a little bit of "maybe, could have, what if..." but ultimately, no regrets.

(photo pinched from Wikipedia. I know, I'm a bad boy but Gomez don't have any press photos on their site)

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The me that you know is now made up of wires...

The holter monitor in all its glory. I have to wear it for 24 hours.

It started itching like crazy after one.

No news is good news?

The blood tests showed that everything seems to be normal, which is good news I guess, although it doesn't bring me much closer to finding out what's the deal with my heart, or weight loss, or lethargy either.

Onwards to the Holter monitor.

The heart of the matter

My wife's been complaining that I have an irregular heart beat and I've been getting palpitations of increasing frequency over the last week and a bit (some palpitations so violent that you can actually see my whole chest moving in time to my heart beat).

A visit to my doctor on Thursday had him concerned enough that I've had blood tests and an ECG (apparently my resting heart rate is a little slow) to get an idea of what my base heart beat and rate is like. It is not so much the heart itself that is the concern but the the associated symptoms that, until recently, I thought were completely unlinked:

• massive weight loss without any real change in diet - in the last year I've lost 10kgs and only put 2kgs back on - at 68kgs it's obvious I didn't have that spare weight to lose!
  
• extreme tiredness - I often battle to stay awake mid-morning and mid afternoon. Case in point - this morning I got up at 7:30 and was back in bed for an hour long nap at 9:45 (it's a public holiday). I got 8 hours sleep the night before.
  

While the Doc won't speculate ("it could be so many things, so these blood tests are just a fishing expedition"), my suspicion is over active thyroid which is easily treatable with medication. Absolute worst case (according to Google :> ) is my slow heart rate needs to be corrected with a pacemaker to make sure it fires regularly and at the right speed (my doctor didn't tell me this one, probably because it would be from a very rare condition and highly unlikely, but Diagnosis-by-Google is so much fun!).

Right now I'm not worried. If the blood tests come back without any answers, then I might start to think about it a bit more...


"iron-heart-stone-bench" originally uploaded to Flickr by A.M Griffin. Used under a Creative Commons license.

Addicted to glove..

One of my favourite pastimes is interchanging the words "love" and "glove", particularly in relation to pop songs. It's fun. You know you want to try it...

This headline really made my day on Saturday.

It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information

- Oscar Wilde

I guess some times the more things change, well, the more things change.

A better mousetrap?

For the last few days, we've been plagued by a rodent of some description. My wife saw some movement beside the oven early last week, although when I went to check with a torch, whatever had been there was gone.

On Thursday, I got a phone call at work that explained to me in no uncertain tones that there was indeed a mouse (too small to be a rat) in the house and was currently taking residence under the refrigerator. A large number of nocturnal bumping and knocking noises could be heard in the region of the fridge for the next two nights.

Yesterday, while grocery shopping, I picked up one of the little bad boys like in the out-of-focus camera phone picture above. Apparently the mouse trap was designed for those who want to kill a mouse but have no desire to see the end result. While my main concern was in fact prying little fingers, it was a point of view I had some sympathy with.

The trap has a little self-adhesive label on the underside which can be peeled back to allow you to place your bait (in this instance, I whacked some peanut butter in). Once you have done that, you twist the whole thing clockwise which opens up an entrance into which the rodent crawls in. When the trap is triggered, the whole thing apparently turns at speed, trapping the creature inside.

After I set the trap, we heard a few sounds like banging plastic, so we had a fair idea that the mouse was interested. As I prepared for bed (and tried to re-settle Bugalugs), my wife went in to the kitchen to get a drink of water. She arrived in time to see the mouse creep out from behind the fridge and slowly sneak in to the trap. It stayed mostly in for a while with just its tail poking out. It must have decided that the peanut butter was worth over riding natural caution because the tail disappeared. That last step was just enough to trigger the trap which snapped around into position.

I heard a few signs of life within the trap over the next half hour before all movement ceased. When I re-read the packaging, I noticed that they had gone to great lengths to not mention just what happens to the mouse or rat once it is inside the trap. I guess anyone who is too squeamish to look at a dead rat probably doesn't want to know about the nasty death that most rat poisons cause. I think in future I might just use a basic trap. I think a quickly snapped neck might be a better passing.

Of course, tonight I heard some more knocking noises from the fridge region. Mouse traps are already on the shopping list.

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society.

- Mark Twain

Ouch. It hurts.

Yesterday I managed to jam a sharp piece of plastic deep under my left thumb nail. This morning it hurt so much I had to battle to do the buttons on my shirt up using only one (some how, and I'm not sure how, I seem to use my left thumb quite heavily in the button-doing-up process, which doesn't make much sense when I think about but there you are).

I have now developed a deeper appreciation for using slivers of bamboo under the fingernails for "information gathering". It really hurts and leaves behind very little splatter to clean off the walls.

Starry Starry Bamboo Mandala Originally uploaded by brainsik. Used under a Creative Commons license.

So it is true after all

Germinating apple seed_1
Originally uploaded by smperris.

Ever since I was told as a little kid that if I ate an apple core, an apple tree would grow inside of me, I've eaten the cores of green apples (the cores of red apples are black on the inside - taste fine but look ick).

Yesterday, while I was munching away on a tasty granny smith apple, I happened to see this little seed.

I didn't eat it. Perhaps I should have. A tree in me would have been pretty cool.

OMG KITTIES WTFLOL!!!1

I know, I know, it's not very mature or constructive or even a good way to pass the time. However, I'm still wiping tears from eyes 15 minutes later.

http://www.icanhascheezburger.com/

I'm not responsible for any time you may choose to waste there (and depending on web filters, it's possible it's NSFW).

Still handy

The trilogy is complete.

I've finally installed the third of my guitar hooks, keeping all my musical goodness out of reach of a marauding Bugalugs. For now.

Happy Birthday Gorgeous

You know who you are :)


Birthday-cake in Hamburg used under a Creative Commons licence. Originally uploaded to Flickr by robinoo.

If you say so.

The brand? Holeproof.

Just. Do. It.

I have had a collection of three wall-mounted guitar hooks for almost as long as we have lived in this house (we moved in August 05 - you do the maths, I'm too lazy). I've put off installing them for quite a while because, as previously mentioned, I'm somewhat lazy. It didn't help that when I was finally motivated to put them up, I discovered that my stud finder[1] worked less effectively when used slowly and carefully (it screws up its sensitively and it falsely reports when it has found the edge of the stud) and therefore I was drilling screws into plain old plaster, which wouldn't even support the weight of the hooks, yet alone the weight of a guitar as well.

When I changed jobs late last year, I finally started to get my act together and began adopting a Getting Things Done attitude, somewhat inspired by the 43 Folders/Lifehacker aesthetic. Part of the GTD method is break your big picture things down into "next actions" - that is, "what do I have to do next?" - the theory being, it's easier to go ahead and do something if the task is small and easily achievable, rather than some monolithic project hanging above your head like some sort of Sword of Damocles.[2]

Part of my @Home list (which doesn't get whittled down very quickly, but I am working on it) involved getting these guitar hooks up. A couple of weekends ago I went out and bought some nylon plaster plugs which allow me to hang up to 10kgs without needing any support behind the plaster. Over the last couple of weekends I have installed two of the hooks with one more to go (which will actually have a djembe and a ukulele hanging off it rather than a guitar or bass, but it still gets junk off the floor of the study/computer/music room).

I may not be much of a handyman, but every now and then I manage to do something vaguely DIY. Enjoy the before and after shots.

The wall before (well, technically, it's the opposite wall because I didn't think to take a photo until it was too late. However, it looked exactly the same. Trust me.)
















And here is the after shot (which is of the actual wall. Trust me.)













[1] a phrase that still makes my wife giggle uncontrollably - for extra fun, I like to tell her I bought my stud finder in Bangkok. You'd never guess that I'm the immature one in this marriage

[2] Of course, GTD is more than that. One of my favourite parts of GTD is the idea that most people are stressed because they carry around everything they need to do in their head, instead of recorded somewhere. Because it's all stored in their head, it's much easier to forget things and you tend to spend a lot of your time stressed because either (a) you just know you've forgotten something important but can't think what it is or (b) you're frantically doing damage control around some disaster, caused by you forgetting soemthing important. One of the strengths of GTD is that if you can develop a system of recording your next actions that you can trust completely, the mere act of recording stuff you need to do reduces your stress almost exponentially becuause you don't need to carry it around in your head anymore. I didn't really believe it until I tried. GTD and my trusty DIY Hipster PDA has meant that I forget nowhere near as many things as I used to, and I no longer find myself lying awake at night, my mind racing (or remembering stuff just before I go to sleep and forgetting it when I wake up and not remember it again until too late). In turn, I feel much more organised and relaxed although my wife has said she hasn't noticed any difference. I feel it though, and that makes a difference to me.

In search of a comet

It will come as no surprise to people that know me that I'm a little bit on the geeky side. So, when I found out that the brightest comet in over 40 years was clearly visible to the naked eye, I thought "this is something I've got to see...". The comet in question is the McNaught Comet.

I live very near Tuggeranong Hill, which I had heard afforded fantastic views of the surrounding area. While called a hill, it is technically a mountain so I figured I was pretty safe. If I could scale the fire trail that leads to the top of the Hill, I reckoned I could get a pretty good view of this streaming ball of cosmic ice.

The journey would be difficult for two reasons:

1. the comet was best seen at dusk, which is also not long after we normally put Elijah to sleep; and
2. being up the top of the hill at dusk would mean walking back down a fire trail in the dark, because, in hindsight, I have no brain and it never occurred to me to take a torch.

Elijah went to sleep quite easily in the end and I left for the hill, imaginary leave pass from my wife imaginarily clutched in my sweaty little hand. Now, I'm not unfit, but I'm definitely not fit either and the 20 minute walk up the hill was hard work. It was made harder by the fact that the fire trail is not the most stable of surfaces and was showing signs of erosion after the hard core storms that swept through the area over Christmas/New Year. Still, there was plenty of light although the sun was setting and I reached the top without incident.

I have always wanted to climb up to the top of Tuggeranong Hill and the view from the east did not disappoint.


I quite liked the view to the south as well.


The view to the west (where, apparently, the comet would reveal itself) was none too shabby either.


Since I had some time, I also checked out the TV broadcast signal repeater (appropriately adorned with a cheesy slogan - considering it's a hell of a walk, some people really are dedicated to their vandalism)...


... and then there was some sort of doodad dealy up there too (I have nfc what this is at all, but you can see the broadcast repeater tower in the background).


The sad thing about all this is, I waited for over an hour in the rising breeze, getting colder and colder as I regretted climbing a small mountain in t-shirt and shorts and shoes without socks. I got cold, it got increasingly dark and in the end, I had to head home disappointed, lest I break my neck on the descent.

Sometimes geekiness has a price that must be paid, a toll that must be extracted.

No comet for me.

Go here for a photo on Wikipedia of what the comet would have looked like in Canberra if I had been able to actually spot in the dusky sky.

Edit 1/2/07 21:57 to remove an orphan link. Oops.

Trim the sails, the wind has gone...

Ever had an idea, kicked it around with a friend for a while, decided it was worth chasing and discover someone else has already had it?

It can be, well, somewhat deflating.

That's cool. Life is full of good ideas. Maybe the next one...

(No, I'm not sharing the idea, but rest assured it was a cool one. There may still be hope in another form. One day.)

Edit: btw, post 1oo! Wow, has that taken a long time.

Just can't leave well enough alone

My skin, for some reason, has been playing up a little lately (too much information? Probably. Deal.)

Yesterday afternoon, I found a pimple that only I could see (and that was because only I can feel it) and it started driving me mad. When I got home, I just had to get at it. I just had to. I don't know why. I just did.

It was stubborn. It was deep. It was not its time. I didn't care. After much effort, I finally got it (well, some of it). Of course, for my efforts I now have what can only be described as a plasmay, leaky mess near the corner of my mouth. Luckily I can hide some of it in my facial hair but I can still see it. I know it's there, mocking me, whispering "You never learn, do you. Punk."

One day I will learn. On the upside, I did derive great satisfaction from the process. After all, it's the journey that is important, not the destination.

Oops. No site stats for you!

Unintended consequence of switching to New Blogger #1

I didn't think to check that the javascript from Sitemeter followed the template over to the new layout. Turns out it didn't. Here I am, thinking that no visitors just meant no one cared. It seems that not only do people not care but machines are actively working against me, too.

My last recorded visitor was on 18 December 2006. By my calculations, that means that I should have received at least 4 more hits since then.

I'm so popular.

Tip? I’ll give you a tip…

I don’t think anyone would argue that airports operate within a financial system that is a universe unto itself. It is probably only a matter of time before they start charging people for the air that they breathe inside the terminal (and I shudder to think what sort of margin they would be adding on top of that as well).

At the end of our recent holiday, we found ourselves in the departure lounge with a little bit of time to kill. The Boy needed to be breastfed and my wife was really thirsty (breastfeeding will do that to you). Since I had forgotten to fill up a water bottle and pack it in our carry-on luggage, it fell upon my shoulders to find a suitable replacement.

It was not long until our scheduled boarding time so I needed to find somewhere close with quick service. Casting my eye about, I chose a nearby store. Now, I use the word “store” in a not so much loose as liquid sense. The facility was a large bank of open-fronted refrigeration units where you perused and selected your chosen product, and one small check-out manned by a bored looking assistant.

After choosing a 750ml bottle of water, I was stunned to discover that the going rate in this dislocated economy was $4, more than twice what I would pay for this product in most supermarkets. However, as it was my fault we had to buy anything in the airport anyway, I gritted my teeth, took my karmic lumps with internal good humour and fished out the coins to pay. It was while I was paying for the bottle that I encountered something that really made me question just what it is that gets put into the water supply.

Prominently placed on the counter was a bowl with some coins, adorned with a sign communicating one simple word that is still burned into my occipital lobe – TIPS (and yes, it was in all caps, too). The rage seethed and bubbled deep within as part of my brain transmitted with full power over the entire telepathic spectrum with quiet fury: Not only did I select the bottle and physically transport it myself to the front counter and then pay well over twice what it is worth, but YOU WANT A FREAKING TIP? FOR WHAT? THE “SERVICE”?

Of course, making a scene is not my thing (deep down inside I’m just a spineless coward, like all the other sheeple) so I just quietly sighed (well, maybe not that quietly) when I found out that water now costs $4 and walked away.

You know what baffles me more than anything else? There were coins in the bowl. Either the proprietors of the kiosk have such a low opinion of people that they think that by chucking a few coins in a bowl, peer pressure will out and people will tip if they think the person in front of them in line did, OR, people actually have felt obliged to tip the staff in thanks for being gouged in an extraordinarily lazy manner (points for style, I guess).

I’m not sure which one is worse…

Offline for Christmas

Back mid-January.

Stay safe and have fun.

Christmas break

Well, the end of the year and Christmas is upon us all once more. As is often the case, it's time to rest, take stock and plan for the year ahead.

After an extended period of quiet from me, there's going to be another one. I need to reconsider much of what I do in my life (time online is just one of these things).

It'll be interesting to see what the new year will bring.

Peace and goodwill to you and yours...

Back again

Sorry, life's been hectic.

Apart from Elijah not wanting to sleep, I also started a new job on 16 November. It's been hard to find time to do anything but exist at the moment. Hopefully things will ease up again soon.

In the meantime, gratuitous footage of Elijah being cute at bathtime (for anyone who hasn't seen it on Little Elijah...)



I know, life's got so desperate I'm pinching content from my own blogs...

Shake shake shake

Shake shake shake

Shake your booty, oh yeah, shake your booty!

Since I've declared I'm never going to put video of my victory dance online, this narrative representation is just going to have to do.

I got my marks back on my final assignment, and they were good enough to tip me over the edge for the clean sweep - 4 from 4 High Distinctions!

Awwwww. Yeah.

Oh, shake shake shake...

Meh. Still sick.

Still whingeing too.

I've been poked, prodded, given erythromycin (a broad spectrum antibiotic) and blood tested. Hopefully I'll soon know why I'm coughing all the time and have a sore throat. The latest guess is bacterial bronchitis with a remote possibility of whooping cough, which the blood test is meant to rule out (and is mainly just a precaution as whooping cough and babies don't play nice together).

After taking today off work, I do feel much better albeit still a little tired and still with a sore throat. Now that it's night time, the cough is starting to return and the tiredness is creeping back.

Off to work again tomorrow. I have exactly one week left in this job before I start my new one. The next 6 work days are going to be a blur of tidying up loose ends and writing up some handover. Woo.

And then there was none...

It is done.

The final assignment has been submitted electronically.

I've had headaches, a continually sore throat, constantly dripping sinuses, hacked up my lungs on a number of occasions and slept on the lounge the entire week so I don't keep my wife awake with my coughing, but I did it.  I don't think the marks will be good enough to make it a clean sweep of High Distinctions for my Grad Certificate (there were some intricacies of Open Office Base that I couldn't quite work out and to be honest, I'm not sure if it's me or the software), but quite frankly right now I could not physically care any less.  It is done and it will just have to do.  I only need 12 or 13 out of 25 to claim a Distinction and I'm almost certain to get at least that many marks.

So, it's off to the doctor again tomorrow because apparently I should be much better by now, and then after some more sleep, life will return to a semblance of normality.

yay.

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Boo-yah!

I'm still sick (turns out I had laryngitis) and struggling through my days, but one small piece of news caused me to do the most joyful victory dance I have done in a long time.

I got the marks back tonight for the final assignment of one of my subjects (Introduction to Data Networks), and the mark (14.1/15) was high enough to push me over into the High Distinction category with 87.7%.

Awwwwwwww yeaaaaa-uh.

Of course, this is pending final weighting of marks but I'm feeling pretty confident that I'm going to just scrape in there. This makes 3 from 3 HDs for my first year of part-time study/full-time work/full-time dad/slightly neglectful full-time husband. I had convinced myself that I wouldn't get the marks required to push me over 85% into HD territory, and this made the victory dance that little bit sweeter.

Just one assignment to go. I really don't think I'm getting the required marks to make it 4 from 4, but it is within the realm of possibility. It's just not all that likely.

*victory dance including obligatory butt wiggle*

(no, I will not tape it and put it up on YouTube)

I hate being sick...

It's weird. I get sick maybe once a year (twice at most). I generally complain about this because it means I don't get time off work. Problem is, when I do get sick, I complain about endlessly. In fact, I'm so pathetic and needy and whiny when I get sick that my wife usually can't take more than a day of it (two at most) before telling me I must be feeling better and shouldn't I be going back to work now?

Right now, I'm sick. Sore throat, dripping sinuses, aching back and neck and pretty cranky (actually, that last one is true on just about any given day). I've got an assignment due in just over a week, but that can wait until tomorrow.

I hate being sick. Bleh.

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Taking better pics

There's some great tips here for how to take a better photograph. Some of my favourites:

• tilt the camera
• get up close, don't use the zoom
• stop looking through the viewfinder (you'll have more fun this way)
• turn off the flash (the difference can be amazing).

I know that for the photos of our trip to Tasmania, the ones I liked the best were ones where I went for different perspectives or just snapped off a quick shot without thinking too much.

I'll post my favourite Tassie photos later, but they're all in our Tasmania Gallery.

New Shoes

Last Friday I bought new shoes.

This may not seem like a monumental and earth shattering activity for normal people but as a quick perusal of this blog would demonstrate, normality is not my "thing". My recently departed shoes (actually they're sitting in the kitchen waiting for me to remember to remove the shoe laces and then dump them in the industrial bin) had a small hole over the left big toe (I have no idea how it got there but the leather just got thin I guess) and the sole of the right shoe had begun separating from the upper, leaving a gaping chasm where, if it ever rained here, water could seep in when splashing in puddles. My shoes have been in this condition for about 3 months, which is a conservative estimate.

I last bought new dress shoes for wearing to work in the months leading up to my wedding (which was in July '03). I had had those shoes since 1999. They replaced shoes that I had for seven years. I had got those shoes at the beginning of Grade 11 and only replaced them after I slipped over in the kitchen of the restaurant where I managed the bar and fractured my elbow. They had already been re-soled once and I didn't see the value in doing it again as the soles wouldn't be non-slip (nor were the new shoes for that matter - curse you lying sales assistant at Colorado, Myer Centre!)

I don't replace shoes very often, although football boots is another matter (if they last two seasons, I've done well).

I don't have much of a point here except to say I like my new shoes. Comfy. Shiny. Leathery.

I wonder if I can break double figures with these ones...

US bans vegemite

Edit 29/10: As has been pointed out, this is in fact not true: http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/vegemite.asp

Heresy!

The US government has banned vegemite! Apparently it's because vegemite has folate added, and in the US you can only add folate to bread and cereals. Bah! Weak excuse if I ever heard one.

This should be considered a declaration of war, in my opinion. Vegemite on toast is one of the finest delicacies known to man (to this man anyway) and now thousands of expat Aussies will be denied this simple pleasure unless they can smuggle it in from Canada or Mexico.

Is this any way to treat an ally, Uncle Sam?

A new job

Most people who read this would be aware that I'm merely a small administrative cog in a large, federal, administrative wheel.  On 16 November, I'll officially enter the lowest rungs of management as I become the least powerful executive level administrative functionary.

It's actually pretty cool to me and is the culmination of my 5 year plan when I moved to Canberra back at the start of 2002 (which means it just scrapes in to my 5 year plan, but it still made it).  One of the positive personal benefits is that it provides just enough security of income that my wife can continue to be a stay at home mother for the forseeable future.  This, more than anything else, is what I love about this promotion.

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4 down, 2 to go

I did the exam tonight and got 37 out of 40 (I did it online through WebCT which means it got marked straight away), which translates into 14 out of 15 (there's some beneficial rounding going on there, I'll concede but that's the way the system does it). That leaves me sitting on nearly 84% for this subject, but there's still 45% of the marks to go (one assignment submitted but not yet graded and one due 27 October).

I now have just 2 assignments to go and then I'm free for the year and Helen can have her husband back and Elijah can have his Daddy back (although I always try and make room for Elijah, but I have been woefully neglectful to my wife - I am well aware that some things must change).

Yay. The end of the year is in sight! Woo!

3 down, 3 to go

Assignments and exams still suck, but at least there is a whole let less of them now...

Creative void

How do people manage to be creative and still live the 9 to 5 life?

When I get home after work, I can barely find the energy to feed myself, yet alone spend precious mental energy doing anything creative, whether it be writing, composing, playing my guitar or even free form day dreaming.

Admittedly, I'm probably burning my mental and physical reserves pretty low right now, between work and study and a lad who has decided that, at nearly 6 months of age, sleeping through the night is for little babies and since he's a big baby now, he'll wake up and scream when he wants to, but still...

Two things of interest:

1. Creating Minds.org - tools, techniques, methods on all matters creative. It fits well with my renewed interest in lifehacks and when I've got some time to breathe again, I'll see if I can combine this with some of the things I'm learning off 43folders.
2. You too can be creative; it just takes hard work - great, more hard work. Woo.
   

Maybe I'm just stretched too thin to create right now. I can feel the creative burn, but the flame is so faint and struggling for oxygen that sometimes I'm scared it won't come back. Ever.

Perhaps what I really need to do is to just go to bed.

Good night.

Fat, scrawny, infertile and impotent

Judging by the email I'm getting lately, this must be what I am. Why else would I be getting all these emails selling "v1@gr@" and cialis (what? no levitra? are they too good for me or something?), weightloss pills, steroids and medications to increase the number of "swimmers" I can produce (but clearly only after I've taken the viagra), which is apparently what really impresses the ladies. Oh, and I'm not as big as I could be either, apparently. Yeah, and steroids will help that problem...

The weird thing is pharma-spam is the only spam I get. Do I have a file somewhere marked "erectile dysfunction only. Has no money so no emails from Nigeria. Try Euro lottery in 6 months if viagra works"? I remember the good old days when spam tried to help me work from home, send on mail, help me to update my bank account details and inform me that Paypal needed me to log in straight away.

Spam just isn't what it used to be when I was a lad.

Assignments suck

'nuff said.

Between doing assignments and the boy's currently unsettled sleeping patterns, I haven't had more than about 6 hours sleep (and often much less) in almost three weeks.

Thank god for caffeine.

Crunched

Four assignments and 1 exam due between now and 6 November.

Temporary promotion leading to longer work hours on top of my standard full-time working week (and then there is the hour each-way commute on the bus).

A sad, weed infested lawn and garden with not enough hours of daylight (yet) after work to do much with it, which just leaves me with spare hours here and there on the weekend (I sowed some lawn seed yesterday, covered it with some granulated wetting agent and watered it in - a small patch of lawn still took two hours to do!).

A nearly six month-old son who insists (quite rightly) that he is the most important thing in the whole wide world (and the cutest, too) and that everything else should come second to him.

Somewhere in there is cooking, cleaning, ironing, sleeping and (gasp) spending some quality time with my wife.

*sigh*

If you don't hear much from me over the next six weeks, I'm bound up in all of that. Somewhere.

Getting things done

I'm an incredibly disorganised person. You can usually tell where I have been in residence as there is always stuff everywhere, generally accompanied by teetering piles of paper which in turn are occasionally balanced or weighed down with a collection of stuff that is separate from, but related to, the other stuff that is, as I have already mentioned, generally everywhere. This habitual habitation ritual can be witnessed at work, in my car, my desk at home, my coffee table at home, my dining room table at home, my side of the bedroom floor and in large piles of bank statements, paid bills and other receipts in the study, which are often weighed down by obsolete pieces of computer hardware that no longer fit on my desk.

I'm a big procrastinator, which goes a long way towards explaining the preceding paragraph. I am also very easily distracted and I am sure that this is strongly linked to my procrastination. It is amazing what mundane item of trivia will catch your attention and leave you engrossed for hours when you are supposed to be sorting through old telephone bills from 2002 which for some reason you have kept but you cannot for the life of you work out why.

Being like this actually offends my geek sensibilities and my almost obsessive desire to categorise and order just about everything in existence.

(this last point will confuse my wife no end who would probably argue quite convincingly that she has never seen me exercise a desire to organise and categorise in the 8 years she has known me. In my defence, I'm easily distracted and just because you don't act on the desire, doesn't mean it isn't strong, obsessive and tears you apart inside when you never quite get around to doing it)

The thing is, I should know better. Late last year and early this year, work paid for me and five other people to undergo a Personal Efficiency Program, or PEP. PEP is full of incredibly useful, but also painfully obvious ways of improving your own productivity and helping you keep on top of things. Possibly the biggest driving force behind the PEP philosophy is "Do it now" which translates to "If it can be done in under ten minutes, do it straight away and then it's out of your way. Don't let it sit there, nagging at you, festering, sneering at your ability to keep control of your own life and circumstances, mocking and deriding your organisational skills". Something like that anyway. PEP was useful, but it is all too easy to stray once more.

"Do it now" seems to have a lot in common with the "Getting things done" movement, based on the book by David Allen titled, strangely enough, "Getting Things Done". I haven't read the book myself, but I have found something that seems just as inspired (and indeed has been inspired by David Allen) - 43 folders.

43folders falls under the category of "lifehacks". Little things you can do to try and be a little bit more productive. There's more than the website - there's a 43folders wiki, a 43folders Google Group and it's a blog and community as well. So much stuff to look at. So little time to look at it all (largely because I'm not as productive as I could be).

This time, I'll try harder. With Web 2.0 on my side, how can I fail?


As something of a post script, Merlin Mann, founder of 43folders is an interesting guy. He's a regular on MacBreak Weekly (an Apple based weekly podcast on the TWiT Netcast Network) and will also be featuring in an upcoming Inside the Net podcast (also on TNN).

White & Nerdy

Edit 6/11/06: For some reason, the video shows up as currently not available on Google Video. Maybe Weird Al thought there'd been enough viral marketing and took it back down again. Link left for posterity.

Yes. Yes I am. It's probably not a surprise to anyone who knows me that I understand everything in this song (even identify with some of it). I've always had a soft spot for Weird Al and it's comforting to know that as I get older, some things will never change. It's also comforting to know that once again I'm a little late to a bandwagon. Some other things don't change either...

Marmaduke Explained

When I was a kid, we had this giant book of Marmaduke cartoons. I used to love reading them while eating my breakfast in the mornings. However, a large book of Marmaduke cartoons quickly brings the reader to two conclusions:

1. they don't really make a lot of sense
2. they're not actually all that funny.

These two conclusions held true for many years, but now all that is about to change.

Joe Mathlete Explains Today's Marmaduke.

Gold. Pure gold.

Found via Boing Boing (permalink)

A few more days away

I'll be off-line until Monday evening as we're having the boy christened this weekend. Yay.

The coolest bookshelves I have ever seen...

Tangram.

I could have a lot of fun with these. There's a bunch of other cool products around on their site as well. I'm fairly sure I could never afford any of them...

Two steps forward, one step back

This time of year has traditionally been a good time of year for us - Tax Return Season. I don't think there has been a single year when the ATO hasn't given us both back at least a little something. For a change, both us have got a decent return so we've been able to retire some of the credit card debt that has been mounting since we reverted to one income.

Today, we've changed debt situation. Again. We have been in need of a new refrigerator for quite a while and we have known that as soon as Bugs moves onto solids we were going to have to replace it with something bigger. Harvey Norman and Domayne have been offering a large amount of goods on 40 months interest free. This is an offer that is very hard to resist, and it proved impossible in the end. We now own a new refrigerator (to be delivered), digital camcorder and a printer. The printer was dirt cheap (and in the end I paid for it with my credit card anyway because we had reached my limit with my GE Creditline - which is not as bad as it sounds as it's purposely a lower limit) and the camcorder was reduced, but still...

Yay. Debt. Woo. We've made a calculated decision to enter into interest free debt, and we have the means to pay out the amount well in advance of the due period. That doesn't mean I have to like it though.

Preserving the ozone layer

The ozone layer is one of things we probably can't do without. It blocks large amounts of ultraviolet radiation, which is responsible for sunburn and, if exposure is high enough, skin cancers. We've all heard for many years that the ozone layer has big "holes" in it at the poles (which is more like an extreme reduction in the concentration, but the idea's the same) as well as a general depletion of levels in the atmosphere.

Recent press reports would indicate that while the ozone layer is recovering, it may not be doing so as fast as we originally thought it might. Indeed, some skeptics question whether there was ever a problem in the first place. Arguments aside, living in Australia I'm a prime ozone depletion sufferer, so I'm inclined to side with the green and unwashed on this one, which is why in support of the United Nations International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer (September 16) I bring you this:



In 2006, Al Gore spoke at the annual Technology, Entertainment and Design conference. It's worth watching, and at about 17 minutes it won't take much of your time.

Thank you.


Edit: If you don't want to (or can't) stream the video, it's also available in mp4 format at http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/.

Trying something new...

pixelated dreams

Let me know what you think...

Stalk much?

Got your next victim lined up but no subterranean stronghold to contain them? Then you need to check out this place.

Creepy.

I'm guessing the fortress was built by "end of the world" survivalist nuts, and I must admit that I would do almost anything in the world to have a fortress of my very own (mainly because then I could pretend the rest of the world didn't exist and both myself and the rest of the world would probably be much happier as a result), but still... Just think of the weirdos lining up to buy this place.

I guess it must be some consolation that most creeps or freaks wouldn't have the cash to shell out on this baby.

Boonie's back!

For a brief few days, Boonie was back, asking for a VB like the little champion and loyal servant he has always been.

Yesterday he started speaking constantly for about half an hour (although I use the phrase "speaking" rather loosely as it was more an unitelligble mutter) before the unthinkable happened: his battery ran out, and Boonie was silenced, I think this time for good.

Given his battery was supposed to run out back around March, and he's already arisen from the dead once alread, it's been a bloodly marvellous effort from the little Aussie battler.

I can't wait for this season's VB Series of One Day cricket, where a new Boonie will be unleashed on us all (yay!), and rumour has it that this time he'll have a little friend as well.

Off their trolley

If finally had to happen. The trolley is gone.

On the weekend all the tertiary institutions in Canberra had an open day, where prospective students would be shown around the campus and the institutions would have an opportunity to offload all the pamphletts that they had lying about the place because someone accidentally added a zero the Quantity column on the printer's order form. This time last weekI figured that if ever there was a time when CIT would want to not look like the dudes from Animal House had just visited after yet another giant kegger, this would be the time.

Monday morning, bright and early, I mentally waved to the trolley still sitting in the tree as I sped past on the bus. I guess CIT was about more than looking good. "We're not shallow" the campus seemed to say. "We are all about the learning here, we are. Frankly, we're a little disappointed that you could think so little of us. For shame."

Tuesday morning I drove to work as I had a lecture in the afternoon, so I did not pass the trolley. In a way, I'm sad, because on Wednesday when I passed CIT on the bus, the trolley was gone.

I never even got to say goodbye...

Writely

I'm just testing out Writely, Google's latest in a line of Ajax dealys on their way to conquering the world.

I don't think I've quite got the hang of using a web-based word processor, and I don't think I could ever use it for serious work, but it looks like it could be handy. You can blog from it as well, which makes it yet another in a long series of geek toys I play with for no reason other than I can ;)

Edit: Well, there's still some issues, including not publishing titles in Blogger, but since publishing to blogs is still a beta feature, and isn't the main point of the service anyway, I'll forgive them...

Impressions of the Tasmania Trip #2

You can change a nappy anywhere you want, as long as you do it with confidence.

On our trip, we changed Elijah's nappy in a variety of public places including, but not limited to:

• on a picnic table of a busy rest stop near Bookham on the drive down to Melbourne;
  
• on a packed City Circle tram in Melbourne;
• on the bonnet of the car in a back street in Perth, Tasmania;
• on a picnic table on the way to Tahune, Tasmania;
• on a picnic table at the water front at St Helens;
  
• in a restaurant during the reception for the lovely wedding of Andrew and Jacinta;
• on a picnic table outside of Tasmazia (you should be detecting a pattern here); and
  
• on the bonnet of the car outside of a Shell road house about half an hour north of Melbourne (yet another pattern)

Edit 20 August: Ooh, and I forgot, on the bonnet of the car in the car park at a Maccas in Devonport

At a couple of places, some people looked a little surprised, but no one objected (not even on the tram and it was packed) and no one even really looked shocked or outraged.

The same goes for breastfeeding, but these days breastfeeding in public is no big deal (which is the way it should be).

Non-photo #1: Redux

The shopping trolley I wrote about earlier is still there, many weeks later. Maybe it's too hard to get out of the tree.

Before my computer went tits up a while back, I managed to squeeze off a few shots that then sat on my camera until the computer was fixed and I could download them. The story didn't make much sense written down, and I'm not convinced the photos help, but I just had to give credit where it was due.

The bus stops are probably about 8 feet high. It's going to take a little bit of effort to climb up on top of one. It's going to take a lot more effort to haul a shopping trolley up on to the roof.






This photo should give you an idea of both the height of the trolley from the ground as well as the distance between the tree and the top of the bus stop. That must have taken a hell of a lot of work to wedge that trolley in properly. I wouldn't be surprised if it took two or three attempts.





And finally, so you can see just how firmly wedged that trolley is...


I wonder just how long this trolley is going to stay up there. Installation art at its finest!

Just leave the car alone. Please.

Stop breaking into our fucking car. Seriously.

4 times in 3 years is too much, and we're really not that impressed about having to replace the driver's side door lock (again) and the lock on the boot so that they can once again be key operated.

Serious consideration is being given to becoming a one car household as too many people seem to see a Hyundai Excel as easy pickings (I know the link is for the Accent but it turns out that in Australia, between 95 and 2000, what was an Excel was an Accent in most other places. Stuff you learn) .

Nothing was stolen, but it still gives me the shits. The damage caused will be inconvenient enough, and as usual, will be less than the excess on our insurance policy so there's no point making a claim.

*sigh*

Everytime I start to feel good about humanity, some arseclown goes and ruins it for me.

Impressions of Tasmania #1

One thing that really stands out in my memory of our recent trip to Tasmania (apart from the gorgeous scenery and the nightmare drive between Scottsdale and Launceston at dusk) is that everyone drives so slowly.

In my daily existence, most people tend to drive at least 10km/h over the posted speed limit. I often find myself doing 10km/h over the speed limit in the right hand lane (that's the fast lane for those who drive on the wrong side of the road) and still have someone tail gaiting me because I’m just not driving fast enough for them. In Tasmania, the rule seemed to be that driving 10km/h below the speed limit was an acceptable and much more civilised way of getting around. This was most obvious in the central business district of Hobart (Tasmania's capital) but was also a popular philosophy on major highways between towns.

Driving speeds are a useful indicator of how laid back and relaxed citizens really are. Canberrans like to think we are laid back and relaxed. We promote our home as the "Bush Capital", boast of the many parks and recreational areas and steadfastly believe we are living the dream of a stress-free lifestyle. This has been one of the major selling points of a campaign to attract more people to live in Canberra (warning: site is Flash heavy).

How many Canberrans are relaxed? At social events conversations quickly turn to work (if they didn’t already start out that way). I find that public servants are the worst serial offenders (or maybe I just hang around with too many public servants) as it takes only the smallest prompting before we all "talk shop". (Happily, I do this less and less. Without even the slightest prompting I now enter New Father Mode, regaling people with stories of vomit and poo and watch the eyes of the childless glaze over at record speeds. I’m a real riot at dinner parties.)

As Canberra is a town with a highly transient population, it can be hard to meet people. If it's difficult to get out and about socially, work can become the focus. I find that people lose perspective and seem to develop this bizarre tendency to believe that what they do is vitally important and requires every spare shred of their energy, including evenings and weekends. Too much focus on work leaves too little focus on other things like exercise, balanced diets with home cooking, sleep(!) and downtime where unwinding is necessary (and that doesn't include downing a bottle of red at a dinner party while complaining about how little work your Manager does while you take home a ream of print outs to read at the dinner table every night). People rush around to meetings, to supermarkets late after work trying to find something that will take 10 minutes to cook and 5 minutes to eat, to the gym because they feel guilty that they haven't gone in a week because they were working too hard, and back to work again. If you're not relaxed and you're rushing, you're more likely to be right up my arse on the highway because you can't wait two seconds for me to finish overtaking the semi-trailer struggling up the hill and move over into the left lane so you can hurry up and stress yourself to an early grave.

This is supposed to be an impression of Tasmania isn't it...

Tassie seemed so very relaxed. People were friendly. No one was rushed. There always seemed to be enough time in the day to do stuff (I'll concede that being on holiday helps immeasurably here). Everything seemed cleaner, brighter, less uptight and less self-important and self-involved.

Impression of Tasmania #1? If it didn't mean that Helen would be even further away from her family, and if I didn't have concerns about finding a fulfilling job, I think we could quite easily make the decision to stay there on a more permanent basis. As the guy at the Tourist Information shopfront at Sheffield said, most people visit Tasmania more than once, but be warned - on your fifth visit you'll be bringing your furniture with you. I'm beginning to understand why.

Oops

Forgot to mention that we would be in Tasmania for 10 days. My bad. We only just got back under an hour ago (in time for Helen to watch Home and Away).

Normal service to resume very shortly (complete with cranky rants and purdy pictures).

-s

And we're back

If you can forgive just one more geek out.

My computer problems appear to have been an aging CPU, which was an AMD AthlonXP 1800+ (Palomino core). Very much old technology, although it was top of the range for about 2 weeks when I bought it in late 2001.

Tonight I installed a new AMD Sempron 2500+ (Socket A, not Socket 754). This is also very much old technology, but it's absolutely smoking my old CPU, not to mention that it's running at least 10° cooler, notwithstanding the Vantec cooler I bought last week as well.

Aw.

Yeah.

The real test will be how well this boots up tomorrow, but I've got a good feeling about this bad boy. A really good feeling.

Also, much love goes out to Stonebridge Computing, where I purchased this new little lovely. The Express Post parcel, which guarantees overnight delivery did not arrive yesterday as it should have. I let Stonebridge know (mainly so that they could claim their money back from Australia Post because they broke their guarantee), but they were also suitably concerned that the parcel arrive to me. They also began making arrangements to hold my parcel to one side if it ended up being returned to sender.

Thank you Stonebridge. Your concern (and the fact that you actually had some Socket A chips in stock!) means that you guys will become one of the first places I check online when looking to order stuff.

Geeking out for just a second

Actively maintained, currently in beta browser - iCab. Can't use Blogger.

Out of date, legacy version of a browser built upon the strong and robust Gecko engine - Netscape. Can't use Blogger (and pretty sluggish in normal use too).

Bug laden, crash happy, long since abandoned browser - Internet Explorer for Mac v5.0 (.0, people - that means no patches or updates). Can use Blogger - after a fashion. Less of the pretty pictures come up but at least I can actually type in the text box when creating a new post.

Browser incompatibility must be a very frustrating thing. I'm most definitely glad I am not a web designer.

Edit: 25 July to fix a link. 1 time in total.

The Perils of Geekdom

My geek pride has taken blows and boosts of equal measure this week.

Firstly, the blows. My PC just plain does not want to work. Over the last couple of months I have replaced the hard drives, PSU, motherboard and now CPU cooling unit. After replacing the HDDs, PSU and mobo, I thought I had the problem all sorted out. The computer was working fine (more or less - it was still a little flaky but I put that down to usually Windows instability). In the last two weeks it started randomly rebooting and not POSTing. I reapplied some thermal paste with the old stock cooler I had and it seemed to work - for a while. I then replaced the stock cooler with a shiny new Vantec one, but that only worked intermittently and now, not at all.

The beep code errors when it does POST have told me at various times that it's a heat issue, a bad RAM issue and a video card issue. I've got a new CPU on order (a Sempron 2500+, which is way better than my old Athlon XP 1800+) and I'm preparing myself for the possibility that I might need a new video card as well (I've got my eye on a model that retails for about $200 - we'll see). If I had known that all of these problems were going ot happen at once, I would have just sucked it in and bought a new bare bones system rather than do this piecemeal trying to minimise expenditure (because we didn't, and still don't, really have the money for this). Instead, I'll probably spend just as much and end up with a significantly inferior system.

On the upside, I've managed to get ADSL working on my wife's old Mac G4, without having any real idea of how to do it. I even managed to apply some of the telecommunications/networking stuff I learnt last semester at uni to set up a new ethernet connection. I've also discovered a new web browser in iCab, which is possibly the only OS9 browser still being actively maintained. It's not perfect, but it does have tabbed browsing. It doesn't work with our bank's online banking (which bank doesn't really give a rats about Mac users? Exactly), but I've downloaded an older version of Netscape Communicator that is apparently supported.

Geek pride at equilibrium. If the new CPU (which hopefully will arrive this week) doesn't work, it'll be sliding down pretty quickly.

When the cat’s away….

… the mice will play. Apparently.

The boss has been away today so this particular little phrase has been tossed around the office with restrained abandon (if you think that’s a tautology, you’ve clearly never been a public servant).

The phrase might be fine, in and of itself, except I’ve never actually seen a mouse do anything that would suggest to me that it was in a particularly playful state of mind (excluding, of course, these two. However, I have been (un)reliably informed that they are, in fact, not real mice. Sure. Next they’ll be saying a weird little chick in a tu-tu didn’t buy all the teeth (at greatly reduced rates, mind) I put under my pillow when I was a kid). Every mouse I’ve ever seen was desperately emaciated and scrounging for rancid scraps; skittish and fleeing in terror at the slightest movement; mindlessly running around and around in some sort of wheel-like device, never going forward, never going back, just spinning and spinning, trapped in a lab; or cruelly crushed in a spring loaded death-trap.

If that's play, I think I'll pass.

EDIT: And then the boss returned, discovered there were a couple of things that needed to be updated yesterday (literally, not figure of speech) and we've all been hammered with work in the last 45 minutes. Woo. And now I go home...

Driving me crazy

(it seems that posting via emails is an inexact science at best. I'm posting manually now, and hopefully this won't show up as a dupe)

People do stupid things that I plain don't understand. The stupidhuman activity currently bugging me is commuting somewhere (usually towork), getting out of the driver's seat and farewelling your partnerwho then proceeds to hop into the driver's seat and drives away.

Why would you do this?

Obviously, you are both going somewhere, and one person gets droppedoff and the other person continues on their journey. It doesn'tmatter where that journey is – workplace, doughnut shop, back home –the important thing is that the journey is clearly ongoing for oneperson.

Here's what I don't get – why is the person being dropped off the onedriving? Huh? Surely it would make more sense to have just the onedriver. It has to be more efficient for a start. Changing driversmeans changing seat positions, rear view mirrors, steering columns (ifyou have a la-di-da car that allows that level of customisation) andradio stations (maybe that one is just me). Even more confusing isthat more often than not the kiss goodbye means that these people, ifnot living together, are at least intimately acquainted on some level. What kind of message does this send?

"Honey, I love you and trust you with my deepest emotions but there'sno way I'm going to be a passenger when you're driving."

I don't get people. Really, I don't. You're all weird.

Not OK, Computer

Stupid computer is refusing to POST again. I've ordered a new CPU
cooler, but in the meantime I'm just going to have to deal I guess.

At least with access at work I won't have complete withdrawal...

Non-photo #1

A common Canberra bus shelter is a cylinder for concrete with a large opening (about one third of the cylinder) as an entrance and a hole in one side as a window (so you can see oncoming buses). The roof is flat, solid and generally grimy and slimy with algae (I’m sure following a nuclear armageddon the only survivors would be algae and the cockroaches that eat it). The roof bus shelter has to be at lest 3 metres (9-10 feet) off the ground.

This particular bus shelter is on a well-trafficked road (Constitution Ave in Reid if anyone is local). It sits underneath a collection of dead-looking trees as it’s winter and all the leaves dropped months ago. It also sits outside a tech college.

One tree stands directly above the shelter, its lifeless branches forming a substantial fork about 2 metres or so (6-7 feet) above the roof of the shelter. Firmly nestled in the cold embrace of the barren fork rests a shopping trolley, empty and alone.

The sheer effort and ingenuity to haul a shopping trolley 3 metres off the ground, and then wedge it into fork of a tree that is at least another 2 metres off the ground, all the while standing on a filthy and dangerously slippery and slimy surface, simply astounds me. I hope it was worth it.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have a camera on me when I saw this slice of human endeavour while staring out the window during my morning bus commute. Some things just need to be acknowledged or recognised whichever way you can.

Forgotten Updates...

Two quick things....

1. I have a nano again! Using some loyalty points from my credit card and some top-up cash, I picked up a black 2 gig nano. Once again I am happy with my piece of wanton gadgetry.
   
2. We finally won another football match. It's been weeks since we last won a match and it means we've only won three this season and still sit second bottom on the table. It's been a bit of a humbling experience for a team that played the grand final last year and only lost in a penalty shoot out. We are pretty much only playing for pride at this stage of the season.

Happy birthday to me...

...happy birthday to me,
I've been looking after Elijah,
And now I smell like wee.

Flexed the day of the work which meant I got to spend my little day at home doing not very much. I had planned to reinstall a whole heap of music software that I hadn't done since The Upgrade but instead I battled a computer that once again wouldn't even POST.

In desperation I dug out my old tube of thermal paste, cleaned up the CPU and heatsink and reapplied the paste. Seems like the computer is working fine now, but we'll see if it boots up tomorrow before I get too cocky about it. The plan to reinstall the software will perhaps eventuate tonight, or maybe later in the week. It may sit off my hard drive for even longer as uni starts back next week, although they are doing their best to keep my away it would seem (a SNAFU with my fee payments means that at this stage I am technically behind $3,732 in tuition fees when that should already have been taken care of).

I'm not going to list the pressie I got, but suffice to say I'm happy with all of them (including the funky little cuff links my brother sent over from London - OK, so I'll list one pressie).

Back to reality tomorrow...

Why keep studying?

I stumbled across a story on Slashdot that discussed whether or not going to graduate school was a Good Idea™? . The Slashdot Effect is still in full swing so I haven't read the linked article yet (or, since my geek is already showing, I have yet to RTFA, but that's never been counted against anyone on Slashdot anyway) so I'm not entirely sure what the original article was about. Since I don't live in the States, I'm not overly familiar with grad school but I'm assuming the following:

• people in the States do a three (or four) year bachelor level degree
• if they want to, they then go out and get a job
• if they want to specialise, they will go to a different university (or should that be college? I don't know) and study for 2 years for a Masters level qualification in something or longer for a doctorate

I'm not going to prattle on about the Australian education system (if you want to know more, let me know and I'll post about it) but it's enough to say that most people will only do their three year degree (four years if they do an Honours year like I did, or 5 years if they do a double degree eg B Laws/B Arts or something). If they want to research a specific topic, the student might do a Masters research degree or even jump straight to a PhD. If they just want to do further study (or looking for a career change) they'll do a Masters coursework, which involves post-grad level subjects but doesn't have any research or a need to write a thesis. I'm not sure where the US system of grad school falls here - maybe a combination of the two? I'm off track here anyway...

The thought of "grad school" got me thinking, given that at the start of the year I re-entered the world of study to (eventually) obtain a coursework Masters in Science (IT - probably Systems Administration but I've still got some time before I sort that one out). More specifically, it got me thinking as to why I'm doing it all.

When I finished school I originally wanted to do an IT degree but changed my mind at the last minute after being put off by my abysmal maths efforts (I could have passed maths but I had no motivation to do so - boring teacher and the rest of it - at least I wasn't disruptive in class I guess) as well as a horror last semester struggling with the joys of SQL in Oracle (gah!). I changed my mind and decided to do Psychology and then changed my mind at the last minute to do Journalism instead (big mistake - maybe I'll blog about that some other time). After a year of Journalism, I switched majors and studied Sociology before doing Honours (First Class - yay! I worked damn hard for that, too) with a thesis topic that examined the impact of globalisation on rural and regional areas. (as a side note, it's strange how globalisation just isn't sexy anymore. In the late 90s it was all the rage, and now it's just, well, accepted I guess. Makes all my hard work seem a little redundant when I look back on it).

There is a point here. Trust me.

I've spent the last 5 1/2 years working as a public servant (or civil servant or government worker - however your culture defines it) doing "knowledge worker" type roles using all my research, analysis and critical thinking training (on a good day anyway). Deep down inside I was still a geek at heart who just wanted to fool around with computers. I didn't know if I had any particular talent in any particular area of IT, or even if I would be any good at any of it at all, or if it was all just a flight of fancy and one day I would look back and laugh at my follies.

After playing around with the thought of going back to study, at the start of this year I made the plunge. Studying part time, working full time, paying a mortgage and raising a baby boy has made this a considerable challenge. So, why am I doing it?

Because I need to know. I have a burning desire to discover if the flood of bits in my blood is a temporary affliction or if I really have missed my calling. It's got little to do with money. In fact, when I graduate and start looking for work in my chosen field, I will likely have to take a pay cut of $10,000s in the short term, which is not something to be entered into lightly. In recent years, the pull of tech has got stronger, not weaker.

Because I need to keep learning. If I stop learning, I stop moving. I stagnate. Sit still. Tread water. Run on the spot. Sure, life is one big lesson. I get that. Experiential learning without structure doesn't sink in with me. I need lessons. I need directions. I need goals. Without these, my life starts to drift and my brain starts to atrophy.

Do I need to be paying what will be close to $20,000 once it is all over? To learn with lessons, goals and directions and receive recognition of my learning outcomes - yes. To see if this is a lifechoice (it's probably not a real word but as a trained Sociologist I'm good at making up new words) I want to make - maybe not. I think only time will tell on that one.

I promised a point somewhere in there, didn't I. Sorry. I'm not sure I ever really had one. I think I was hoping one would materialise as I went along. My bad.

How's this one?

That's why I continue to study.

And if you got to the end of this, no, you can't have those 10 minutes back. You probably were only going to waste them on something else anyway.

Hmmm....fruity *drool*

Mosquitos don’t dig fruit smells, apparently.

Some scienticians in the UK have been conducting research into why mosquitos will attack some people and not others. It would seem that everybody produces a cocktail of odorous chemicals when they perspire (in other words “you sweat you stink”). Some of this cocktail smells pretty good to mozzies (eg lactic acid). However, some people produce these other chemicals which mask the smell of the first chemicals which in a concentrated form “have a fruity smell”.

It is likely that these chemicals are in everybody’s sweat, just some produce more than others. Who says we are all created equal? (it was probably Oscar Wilde).

The researchers constructed a Y-shaped chamber and wafted the scent of the subjects (probably grad students) towards the swarm and then studied which people the mosquitos avoided. They then collected the sweat of the unattractively odoured ones by, and here’s the fun bit, “sealing their bodies in a foil sack, tied under the chin, and collecting and distilling the seat that poured off them”. How’d you like that job?

This startling new research follows hot on the heels of some stuff in the 1990s that revealed that mosquitos are just bang up for the waft of a bacteria that grows on human feet and limburger cheese. I couldn’t find any full text of the article, but a Google Scholar search will show this study has been cited out the wazoo, and this United States Department of Agriculture article can give you the low down as well.

The moral of the story? If you don’t want to be bitten, you need to wear a little less of this and a little more of this.

Screening into the night...

I had a minor (major?) rant on Little Elijah about the impact of electronic screens on the development of infants. It got me thinking about how many electronic screens we face in our daily existence.

There are TVs in shop windows. There are the TVs in our homes. For many of us, we work on computers every day, in some form or another. For less of us (but probably anyone reading this), not only do we spend all day working on a computer but large chunks of our leisure time on the computer as well. There are closed circuit TVs that we can see at the shop counter when we duck into the servo for a chocolate fix. Airports and bus terminals provide scheduling information on electronic screens in various forms.

Our digital cameras have LCD view finders. Our digital watches have LCD screens. Sporting grounds have large screens for the "instant replay". In fact, I once found myself at a rugby union ground watching the game televised on the big screen at the ground almost as much as I watched it happening right in front of me!

There are kids toys with screens! In fact, there's a growing market for "new media" toys for little 'uns (this NY Times gives you a run down of that).

I'm pretty sure that, in the end, the revolution will be televised. We'll all watch it, too. It'd be damn near impossible to escape it.

Do I have a point? Not really, apart from take a look around you tomorrow. Take a good look. See how many screens there are? Smile. You're probably on most of them...

The Return of the Beardies

I have finally got around to downloading the photos off of the camera. I don't remember my photography being this sucky though. Stupid camera goblins. Why do they always play with the quality settings after I've taken the photo?


















And then, about 15 minutes later, this facial disaster occurred (although I must admit that I was quite fond of it at the time but Helen wouldn't let me keep it...)




Oh well..

I'm now back to the normal goatee again. 'Twas fun while it lasted and I now understand why there is a subset of people (mostly men) who grow winter beards for warmth.

I really do love my ISP...

Over 60 internet radio streams, from a big ass range of genres (not that I care, I basically only stream the DI stations when I'm not streaming from Magnatune - after all, they're not evil), all unmetered.

God Bless you, Internode. If you were a hot Irish red head with green eyes, I'd so totally daydream about doing you while being too intimidated to ever actually talk to you...

www.internode.on.net/radio

I'm back! W00t! (Minor Mega Update)

After much computer misery, I have returned. Hard drive corruption, severe booting issues (eg not powering up except for the fans), major stability problems and overall system flakiness appear to have been fixed now that I have replaced the motherboard and PSU on my system. The PSU had three leaky/burst capacitors, which probably explains why the old mobo was reporting the 12V rail as only providing 10.4V :0 The motherboard itself was a bit of a deadend as well (AGP4x, only supported up to 2100+XP chips, and I think the onboard RAID sockets were dying) so it's been good to replace it as well.

While I didn't end up needing to buy the future-proof(ish) components that I thought I might (and was starting to think might be nice to have) such as a Socket939 mobo, PCI-E gfx card and a beefy PSU, I did end up finding a SocketA motherboard at the local computer fair that will at least allow me to update to a Sempron chip in the future as well as an AGP8x gfx card if I find for some unknown reason that I have too much money. Oh, and now I have SATA headers as well! Tasty.

What doth this meaneth to the peopleth? Beardy pics will be forthcoming. Once my last assignment and two exams are complete (a networking assignment, networking exam and Java/programming exam), I'll have the time to pull them off the camera and upload them.

Having a brand new hard drive also means that I was able to take the opportunity to remove the last piece of "dodgy" software off my system. Instead of using a dubiously obtained copy of Microsoft Office 2000, I'm doing a test drive of OpenOffice.org 2.0. I'm hoping to discover that OOo has everything I need. If it turns out either Helen or myself need something that only MS can provide well I'll break down and get an Academic version. They're not upgradeable but I wouldn't want to. Besides, my next system is going to be a Mac anyway (when I can afford it).

One final point - I take back all the nice things I said about A.i.tech and their webfront pc.net.au. When trying to source parts for my dying computer, I found that they were one of the few places that still stocked Socket A motherboards. I placed an order on a Friday morning before the long weekend. I wasn't able to determine with them until 4:30 that afternoon that despite the fact that they had quite a number of different models listed on the website, they didn't actually have any Socket A motherboards in stock. To make matters worse, these guys charge your credit card first and then check to see if they have the stock at hand. While they offered to cancel my order and refund my credit card, it left me in a difficult place financially in the weekend before payday with several hundred dollars floating around in the ether while I waited for my card to be credited.

Thankfully, the good ol' ACT Computer Fair came through. They had a nice ASUS A7V-600-X motherboard for around $90 (I have no idea if that's cheap - the important thing was that it was available on a long weekend and I had assignments to do). I also managed to pick up an Antec SmartPower 2.0 PSU for a good price. Of course, changing motherboards meant that I then had to go out and find somewhere that stocked thermal paste on a Sunday of a long weekend. I eventually found a small shop open in Civic and I got to geek out, hardware style, and apply my first ever lashings of thermal paste to a CPU stock heatsink. Next upgrade is some decent cooling I think :)

-s