I don't know what it is about this day, but I'm a bit perplexed about the whole thing. When I was younger it was just a public holiday, a few people I'd never heard of got some awards, and was an excuse for "grown ups" to get drunk and very sunburned. Now there's this nationalistic pride that arises on the day. Where the hell did that come from? Admitedly this year it was helped by the (un)banning of the Australian flag at the Sydney Big Day Out.
What did I do? I did what I've been doing the last few years and just gone to the festivities around the Federation Square area. A good excuse for a day out, but I don't get carried away with flag waving (or wearing for that matter). As happened last year we found ourselves at the Ian Potter Centre, although last year it was more to do with avoiding the heat, but it seems set to becoming a tradition. So anyway, there I was minding my own business looking at this (and this), when who should walk up next to me but, this man (but wearing far less makeup than he did in his earlier career) and his son. If it wasn't him then I made a fool of myself, because I freaked out and quite literally ran about two galleries on. I don't handle celebrity encounters very well. Last Australia Day at the same location I saw this man and lady friend in the cafe, only recognising him through his blog and a few brief media appearances.
Other than that time was spent walking around, sitting down on an island eating ice cream and looking at some purple haired woman's house and comparing it to that of not too distant relatives. Didn't bother sticking around for the fireworks though, managed hear them just fine at home accompanied by distant flashes in the sky (said relatives would have had a better view from their home).
Friday, January 26, 2007
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Hung Long Video
Now for a long promised contribution from my "blogphotos" folder:
I get the feeling the proprietors didn't quite have appreciation for English language euphamisms when naming their business in down town Box Hill. I'm assume it's the owners surnames? I wonder what "Harvey Norman" means in Vietnamese?
Taken with my eBay bought camera phone. (That gives me an idea for another post, but I'd better not over do myself tonight.)
I get the feeling the proprietors didn't quite have appreciation for English language euphamisms when naming their business in down town Box Hill. I'm assume it's the owners surnames? I wonder what "Harvey Norman" means in Vietnamese?Taken with my eBay bought camera phone. (That gives me an idea for another post, but I'd better not over do myself tonight.)
Hot Hot Hot *
*This title could equally read lazy lazy lazy, or even busy busy busy, more probably just can't be stuffed.
Yes, I'm a bad blogger I know, my reasons for saying this are that (apart from all the other obvious reasons) I don't past much, or very often. So much for the adventures part. My excuse is that I seem to spend all day at work in front of a computer, and just don't feel like doing the same at home (although I am now). I could blog at work, but that would be unprofessional.
This blog seems to be more about procrastination than anything...
Back to the regular blog content...
i.e. nothing.
Good evening.
Yes, I'm a bad blogger I know, my reasons for saying this are that (apart from all the other obvious reasons) I don't past much, or very often. So much for the adventures part. My excuse is that I seem to spend all day at work in front of a computer, and just don't feel like doing the same at home (although I am now). I could blog at work, but that would be unprofessional.
This blog seems to be more about procrastination than anything...
Back to the regular blog content...
i.e. nothing.
Good evening.
Saturday, January 06, 2007
I know what I did this summer.
I think I've seen as many movies (films even) at the cinema in the last week and a half, than I've seen in the last two years...It started last Thursday when my mother and myself took my niece and nephew into Imax at the Melbourne Museum to see Open Season in 3D. The next day I went to see Borat. On New Years Day I saw Casino Royale. On Tuesday I went back to work, but took Thursday off to take the niece and nephew (and Nana again) to Flushed Away, followed by lunch at the Pancake Parlour.
Monday, January 01, 2007
2006 + 1 Hoo-bloody-rah...
Where the fuck did last year go? I hate new years eve, my feelings on the matter are pretty much summed up by Steph (via highriser) . I've never really had a good time on new years eve, but maybe that's more to do with the company I keep.
I remember new years eve 1999, dawn of the new Millenium etc etc (little did we realise that the true occasion was the following year). I bluntly refused to do anything I was so ticked off at the whole thing, I spent the better part of the afternoon and early evening playing bust-a-move on the computer while listening to triple j. At some point I was coerced by my mother to accompany her to her sister's, who always holds some sort of shindig for the occasion. I could have gone to a party at a cousins place to a party they were having, and by all accounts it was a good one, especially going by the phone conversation I had with my cousin shortly after midnight (a very difficult conversation I might add with all the slurred syllables coming out of the phone). On second thoughts I should have gone there instead and just got smashed, but I made my bed so to speak.
Last night was much the same, I went to my aunties at about 9pm and ended up playing pool with a cousin for a couple of hours or so while watching movies. One of these films was Independence Day, which my cousin insisted on reciting word for word as we watched, I kid you not (I don't think I've ever used that phrase before). How annoying! Other than that, as usual we watched the fireworks out of the upstairs window at midnight, except this year there was a fair bit of smoke haze, but we could see them clear enough. We got home by 1:30, and I ended up watching rage and video hits for half an hour or so before going to bed.
I remember new years eve 1999, dawn of the new Millenium etc etc (little did we realise that the true occasion was the following year). I bluntly refused to do anything I was so ticked off at the whole thing, I spent the better part of the afternoon and early evening playing bust-a-move on the computer while listening to triple j. At some point I was coerced by my mother to accompany her to her sister's, who always holds some sort of shindig for the occasion. I could have gone to a party at a cousins place to a party they were having, and by all accounts it was a good one, especially going by the phone conversation I had with my cousin shortly after midnight (a very difficult conversation I might add with all the slurred syllables coming out of the phone). On second thoughts I should have gone there instead and just got smashed, but I made my bed so to speak.
Last night was much the same, I went to my aunties at about 9pm and ended up playing pool with a cousin for a couple of hours or so while watching movies. One of these films was Independence Day, which my cousin insisted on reciting word for word as we watched, I kid you not (I don't think I've ever used that phrase before). How annoying! Other than that, as usual we watched the fireworks out of the upstairs window at midnight, except this year there was a fair bit of smoke haze, but we could see them clear enough. We got home by 1:30, and I ended up watching rage and video hits for half an hour or so before going to bed.
Brave new world...
No this has nothing to do with new years eve at all (more on that in another post), I just changed this blog over to Google. I have to say I like it. In the first 5 minutes I have changed and added some links, something I've been meaning to do for ages but haven't been arsed, and made this post. Not bad. Hopefully it's gone smoothly.
In other news I'm in the process of posting all previously un-posted but usable images from a folder called "blogphotos" on my hard drive. The post before this is an example of such and there are one or two more still to come.
In other news I'm in the process of posting all previously un-posted but usable images from a folder called "blogphotos" on my hard drive. The post before this is an example of such and there are one or two more still to come.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Christmas
It wasn't too bad actually. We went to my brothers place this year and had a seafood themed dinner. The main dishes of Snapper and Salmon were cooked on the barbecue by my brother out in the rain. The Snapper was also accompanied by a delicious chili sauce. Also had with our meal were baked potato's wrapped in prosciutto, a salad with shredded roast chicken, mango and iceberg lettuce, a tomato salad with red onion and balsamic vinegar dressing, and a cold "cut" platter (sounds too American to me, but that's what it was called).
After lunch we settled down for a while before opening our presents. The kids, who seem to already have everything, seem to have acquired even more stuff now. The adults didn't fare (or is it fair?) too badly either, some surprises were had.
After playing with our presents for a while it was about 4pm already and time for dessert. Once again it was my mum's pudding. Delicious as usual. Somehow while making the pudding last year she ended up with enough mixture for two puddings so we ate last years extra which had spent a year in the fridge. It probably could have done with a few shots of brandy throughout the year, but it was still yum in it's bath of brandy custard. Dessert was accompanied by a fruit and cheese platter with watermelon and chocolate coated cherries amongst other treats.
The rest of the afternoon and evening involved more playing with presents. No one even thought about eating. At about 8pm it was decided we would all watch the movie Cars, which Santa had left in one of the kids stockings. If you haven't seen cars I recommend you do, as there are a lot of funny little references that the kids don't necessarily pick up. I'd like to see it again.
Finally left after 10 pm, and were home in time to watch Boston Legal before going to bed.
After lunch we settled down for a while before opening our presents. The kids, who seem to already have everything, seem to have acquired even more stuff now. The adults didn't fare (or is it fair?) too badly either, some surprises were had.
After playing with our presents for a while it was about 4pm already and time for dessert. Once again it was my mum's pudding. Delicious as usual. Somehow while making the pudding last year she ended up with enough mixture for two puddings so we ate last years extra which had spent a year in the fridge. It probably could have done with a few shots of brandy throughout the year, but it was still yum in it's bath of brandy custard. Dessert was accompanied by a fruit and cheese platter with watermelon and chocolate coated cherries amongst other treats.
The rest of the afternoon and evening involved more playing with presents. No one even thought about eating. At about 8pm it was decided we would all watch the movie Cars, which Santa had left in one of the kids stockings. If you haven't seen cars I recommend you do, as there are a lot of funny little references that the kids don't necessarily pick up. I'd like to see it again.
Finally left after 10 pm, and were home in time to watch Boston Legal before going to bed.
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Cool Change
This is the change passing overhead last night, the cloud formation in the front was pretty spectacular so I decided to take a photo. I can't believe I climbed onto the roof to take this, I could have been struck by lightning!"whatever you do, don't get hit by lightning" - Marty McFly
BTW the buildings you can see on the ridgeline in the background are at Doncaster, the one on the right is an apartment building, while the one on the left is the office tower at Westfield Shopping town. Both buildings have spectacular views of the city, and my house apparently.
It was a relief to get some decent rainfall after a hot smokey (the Firefox spell checker wants smoky, I think smokey looks better) week. In all we got 8.6 mm at our nearest weather station, not as much as I would have hoped for. No doubt the cooler conditions which are expected to persist for the next few days will help the fire in the east of the state.
Earlier in the day the tree across the road lost a very large branch during a strong sind gust. It landed in the fork of a branch lower down the tree and was hanging over the powerlines. At about 9 PM a cherry picker pulled up and the crew set about landing the branch safely. First they secured it to the fork it was caught in, then cut a bit off the bottom and then a bit off the top to stop it becoming a top heavy. I assume this went on until it was all on the ground, but because it was too cold I went inside and missed the rest.
I did happen to see a branch fall out of the same tree a year or so ago. I was sitting in the lounge room and heard a large cracking and creaking sound out side. By the time I rushed to the window the branch was bouncing off the powerlines, I watched it come down to the ground taking out one of the neighbour's phone and Foxtel cables in the process. Luckily there weren't any cars parked in the driveway it half landed in.
Present Day
Due to Monday being annual present day*, I spent the better part of the afternoon finishing off my shopping. I was a lean green present buying machine, everything just clicked into place and I managed to procure all intended gifts. One item did prove to be tricky, the recipient of this item (was on their wish list) had said they couldn't find it anywhere, but I managed to find it at a specialist music retailer in Hardware Lane in Melbourne (Actually in Hardware Street one block up from Hardware Lane, opposite Pug Mahoney's Irish Pub). As you can tell I'm really quite pleased with myself. Now all I have to do is wrap it all, the part I hate.
* I think it's originally some sort of religious holiday, either something to do with the winter solstice or some chick having an affair and telling quite a big lie to quell her husbands suspicions. I think a donkey may be involved somewhere as well...
* I think it's originally some sort of religious holiday, either something to do with the winter solstice or some chick having an affair and telling quite a big lie to quell her husbands suspicions. I think a donkey may be involved somewhere as well...
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Open Office
It's just like Word (and the rest of MS Office), only free*. It runs well now, since I put in more ram. Now that it doesn't take a week to load up or stutter while I type, I might consider using it instead of Word. Not that I really do much typing. Oh and I like the T9-esque guessing game it has going as I type...
*Most people never actually buy MS Word. I did once, thinking back I can't recall why, I already had the disks. Floppy disks that is, about 6 of them. Then again Office these days comes on CDs or DVDs, I'd hate to think how many CDs are needed.
This post was composed in Open Office
*Most people never actually buy MS Word. I did once, thinking back I can't recall why, I already had the disks. Floppy disks that is, about 6 of them. Then again Office these days comes on CDs or DVDs, I'd hate to think how many CDs are needed.
This post was composed in Open Office
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Enter the world of tommorow...
Oh yeah!
I've been thinking about getting a digital STB(set top box) for a while now. Even though I know there really aren't any incentives in this country to do so yet, I thought what the heck. So on Friday after work I made my way to the nearest Dick Smith Powerhouse and bought one of these. Of course I also got talked into extra cables and a switch box thing to save fiddling with cables behind our "old" TV (it only has one set of component inputs on the rear) whenever we want to watch a DVD or video.
All I can say is wow! The reception is crystal clear, the sound is fantastic and there is no interference or ghosting. It's more or less like watching a DVD. I was worried that our rabbit ears antenna would seriously hamper the digital signal, I was wrong. All the channels have 90% + signal strength except for SBS which is around 80%. I'm impressed.
The only problem however is the crappy approach to digital TV that this country has taken. Why do I want 5 identical versions each of channels 7 and 10? I want different programming on each channel. SBS and the ABC do each have a second channel with different programing SBS 2 and ABC 2, however each would seem to have little that interests me. The former being foreign language news programs and latter seemingly endless repeats of Stateline and cricket games from 40 years ago. What would really sell digital TV in Australis is a system similar to the UK's Freeview (check out the list of channels) or even the similarly named New Zealand version FreeView. Only then will digital TV be worthwhile. Either that or do what Alex Encel suggests and give away STBs...
I've been thinking about getting a digital STB(set top box) for a while now. Even though I know there really aren't any incentives in this country to do so yet, I thought what the heck. So on Friday after work I made my way to the nearest Dick Smith Powerhouse and bought one of these. Of course I also got talked into extra cables and a switch box thing to save fiddling with cables behind our "old" TV (it only has one set of component inputs on the rear) whenever we want to watch a DVD or video.
All I can say is wow! The reception is crystal clear, the sound is fantastic and there is no interference or ghosting. It's more or less like watching a DVD. I was worried that our rabbit ears antenna would seriously hamper the digital signal, I was wrong. All the channels have 90% + signal strength except for SBS which is around 80%. I'm impressed.
The only problem however is the crappy approach to digital TV that this country has taken. Why do I want 5 identical versions each of channels 7 and 10? I want different programming on each channel. SBS and the ABC do each have a second channel with different programing SBS 2 and ABC 2, however each would seem to have little that interests me. The former being foreign language news programs and latter seemingly endless repeats of Stateline and cricket games from 40 years ago. What would really sell digital TV in Australis is a system similar to the UK's Freeview (check out the list of channels) or even the similarly named New Zealand version FreeView. Only then will digital TV be worthwhile. Either that or do what Alex Encel suggests and give away STBs...
Friday, November 24, 2006
Tech Stuff
I blame eBay for it all. I haven't bought much there, only bits and pieces for my computer, a couple of computers and a mobile phone. My most recent purchase is a new CPU for my elderly computer. Well I only won the auction today, still haven't sent any money.
I know I should by a new computer as this one is really old, c. 1999 - 2000), but it just keeps battling on, and recently I've been adding new bits to it. First of all it was the monitor, a nice crisp LCD. A few weeks ago I bought some ram tripling the total from 128 to 384 megabytes. And now I'm going to almost double the processor speed (now this is where it gets really embarrassing) from 500 MHz to 900 MHz. Almost cracking one gig! Due to the clock speeds and multipliers available on my motherboard a select few Celeron and Pentium III CPUs can be used. Even though they lack the extra L2 Cache of the Pentium III I decided to go for a 900MHz Celeron.
I was also going to get a new video card but I soon found out that another shortcoming is that my motherboard doesn't even have an AGP card slot, and that what I thought was an AGP slot is in fact something called an Audio Modem Riser or AMR for short. So much for that, like I was going to be able to play any recent (say last 3 years) games on it anyway. What I have been able to do is buy myself some time before I buy a new PC.
Next on the list is probably a DVD drive. Although I'm not entirely convinced it has enough grunt to burn DVDs let alone play DVD movies (damn video card!)...
I know I should by a new computer as this one is really old, c. 1999 - 2000), but it just keeps battling on, and recently I've been adding new bits to it. First of all it was the monitor, a nice crisp LCD. A few weeks ago I bought some ram tripling the total from 128 to 384 megabytes. And now I'm going to almost double the processor speed (now this is where it gets really embarrassing) from 500 MHz to 900 MHz. Almost cracking one gig! Due to the clock speeds and multipliers available on my motherboard a select few Celeron and Pentium III CPUs can be used. Even though they lack the extra L2 Cache of the Pentium III I decided to go for a 900MHz Celeron.
I was also going to get a new video card but I soon found out that another shortcoming is that my motherboard doesn't even have an AGP card slot, and that what I thought was an AGP slot is in fact something called an Audio Modem Riser or AMR for short. So much for that, like I was going to be able to play any recent (say last 3 years) games on it anyway. What I have been able to do is buy myself some time before I buy a new PC.
Next on the list is probably a DVD drive. Although I'm not entirely convinced it has enough grunt to burn DVDs let alone play DVD movies (damn video card!)...
Thursday, November 23, 2006
November
Well it's been a month since my last entry. I just havn't been bothered with the computer at much. That's all really. I'm slowly catching up with the other blogs I read. It takes a while... One blog even came back from the dead without me knowing about it, I was rapped (or is that wrapped?) when I found out.
I've got a few ideas to post, so yeah they may or may not appear on these pages 9they could get backdated). That's it really.
I've got a few ideas to post, so yeah they may or may not appear on these pages 9they could get backdated). That's it really.
Monday, October 23, 2006
An endangered species...
I found this seemingly newborn phone box the other day. Incidentally it is located at one of Melbourne's most notorious road intersections and railway level crossings.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Tall Timber
This is the lemon scented gum in our front yard. It's a big tree but it is dwarfed by the gum tree across the road. Late this afternoon there were quite a few Rainbow Lorikeets (you'd think there were more by the noise they make!) feeding on the flowers, but because they are so high up, and surprisingly well camouflaged they are not perceptible in the photo. Last year we had a number Flying Foxes feeding in the tree, I'll have to check latter on tonoght to see if they are back. We are only about 2 km from the Yarra River so it's not unusual to see the dark silhouette of Flying Foxes overhead at night. The only problem with these trees is that they occasionally decide to drop limbs for no apparent reason. For some reason they always land on our neighbours telephone wire, luckilly last time the wire was there to save our neighbours shiny new car.
Something I discovered while writing this is that the lemon scented gum is in fact not a Eucalyptus but a member of the closely related Corymbia family.
Monday, October 16, 2006
Oooh pretty flowers...
While walking home tonight I noticed that this Bottle Brush (otherwise known as a Callistamon) was bursting into vivid red flowers, which stood out in the briliant late afternoon sun. I think I'm looking forward to daylight saving.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Tramit 2006
Last Sunday I attended the Tram It 2006 Family Fun day in Harbour Esplanade Docklands. It was a great opportunity to see a large number of past and present Melbourne trams in the one place at the same time.
The tram you see in this post is Hawthorn Tramway Trust tram number 32 built in 1938. It remained in service in Melbourne for many years before being used in Bendigo right up until that system closed in the early 1970's. 32 has recently been restored in Bendigo and now once again roams (as much as trams can roam) the streets of Bendigo in it's original HTT livery on the Bendigo tourist tram service. Bendigo tramways have a website which you may or may not find interesting.
Anyway You may also notice that this photo is hosted by flickr. I sighned up to flickr a few months ago and decided to finally put some photos up, including a few taken at Tramit 2006. My flickr address is http://www.flickr.com/photos/ben7k/.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
This blog is coming to you from the not too distant past* (10:48pm AEST on Thursday October 12 2006 to be exact) owing to the fact that blogger appears to not be working. Notepad is probably the most versatile program that comes with Windows, I love it. This probably explains the abundance of txt documents on my desktop...
Any way I know I've been a bad blogger lately. Despite having the odd moment of inspiration (no more than usual), I basically haven't been bothered with using the computer at home much as I spend all day using a computer (and surfing the net while waiting for work computer to do it's thing). So my life has been pretty much, get up->Go to work->work->come home from work->watch TV/cook dinner(depends who's home)->more TV->maybe check emails->go to bed, rinse and repeat...
The reason I can now sit here and blog is mostly due to the fact that I now have an LCD monitor to replace my fading with age CRT that gave me bad eye strain. I have a bad history with PC monitors, for some reason they keep blowing up on me. The CRT was a 15" "temporary" solution that I've been using since my fantastic 17" CRT just decided to make loud hissing noises and flashing noises one night about 2 years ago. I love my new LCD, I've found space on my desk that I never dreamed existed.
As for adventures... Well I did go fishing on the AFL grand final day at Sugarloaf reservoir (yes the same Sugarloaf Reservoir that is supposedly full of human faeces pumped out of the Yarra River), so I'll probably post a few photos and a bit of a write up soon. Other adventures included Tramit 2006 last weekend, which was a display of many current and former classes of Melbourne trams, I'll probably post about that too...
Anything else I think of I'll get back to you with that too.
**Well more from the past, brought forward to the future and then back dated to the past again. Hopefully it won't result in a tangent in the space time continuum causing all kinds of anomalies that could include, waking up back on the old 27th foor of my asshole stepdad's Hotel/Casino, after getting knocked on the head by Billy Zane (the easy way), with my artificially endowed alcoholic mother comforting me...
Any way I know I've been a bad blogger lately. Despite having the odd moment of inspiration (no more than usual), I basically haven't been bothered with using the computer at home much as I spend all day using a computer (and surfing the net while waiting for work computer to do it's thing). So my life has been pretty much, get up->Go to work->work->come home from work->watch TV/cook dinner(depends who's home)->more TV->maybe check emails->go to bed, rinse and repeat...
The reason I can now sit here and blog is mostly due to the fact that I now have an LCD monitor to replace my fading with age CRT that gave me bad eye strain. I have a bad history with PC monitors, for some reason they keep blowing up on me. The CRT was a 15" "temporary" solution that I've been using since my fantastic 17" CRT just decided to make loud hissing noises and flashing noises one night about 2 years ago. I love my new LCD, I've found space on my desk that I never dreamed existed.
As for adventures... Well I did go fishing on the AFL grand final day at Sugarloaf reservoir (yes the same Sugarloaf Reservoir that is supposedly full of human faeces pumped out of the Yarra River), so I'll probably post a few photos and a bit of a write up soon. Other adventures included Tramit 2006 last weekend, which was a display of many current and former classes of Melbourne trams, I'll probably post about that too...
Anything else I think of I'll get back to you with that too.
**Well more from the past, brought forward to the future and then back dated to the past again. Hopefully it won't result in a tangent in the space time continuum causing all kinds of anomalies that could include, waking up back on the old 27th foor of my asshole stepdad's Hotel/Casino, after getting knocked on the head by Billy Zane (the easy way), with my artificially endowed alcoholic mother comforting me...
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Observations on the Bus
Three out of five days a week I get the bus home from work. For some reason it's quicker or just as quick to get two trains to work as it is to get the train and a bus. And that's going all the way into the Flinders Street (or Southern Cross or Parliament) and out to work. Going home it's a different story, I can save up to half an hour by getting the bus and train. It depends what I'm doing, which way I go.
Anyway the point of this post was to list some observations I've made while travelling on this particular bus route.
- Mum pushing fully laiden pram across road in front of bus. Pram fully laiden with shopping. Toddler walking along holding mum's hand.
- Blind woman with guide dog always (although not recently) seems to get the same bus as me.
-Most people get off at major shopping centre along route, some people get on. People get off gradually until only three or four people (including myself) are left at final stop. On more than one occasion I was the only person left, which is puzzling given destination is a majorish railway station.
-Blonde glasses girl and friend always get on at first stop, they always get off at previously mentioned shopping centre and wait for another bus to somewhere else.
-Sometimes girls with very attractive necks sit in the seat in front of me. Perhaps I'm a bit of a repressed vampire? Ears sometimes attractive, when combined with nice neck and hair. Girl today had a nice neck and ear. Girl today also had the softest most beautiful hair, colour light brown with blondi highlights (very subdued) in a shortish cut, some of which was pulled back into a slight pig tail. I thought it was cute. Oh how I wanted to touch hair...
(OK well that last one was creepy, but that is what I was thinking at the time)
-Next stop buzzer on bus annoying.
-Radio station on bus annoying.
-MP3 player, custom music good.
-Old buses, noisy and slow. Best seat the facing seats in the rear section, either side of bus. Stretch out legs.
-New buses sometimes noisy, but never slow. Best seat, first up the rear step on the left.
-Stopped at major shopping centre for shopping related purposes today, got first bus there (3 routes to choose from). On continuation of journey I walked onto bus and straight into favourite seat. Was a new-new bus, blue instead of yellow, seat very hard, engine vibrate.
-Bus only traffic light shorten journey. What used to take two or three traffic light cycles now only takes one.
-Me Tarzan...
Anyway the point of this post was to list some observations I've made while travelling on this particular bus route.
- Mum pushing fully laiden pram across road in front of bus. Pram fully laiden with shopping. Toddler walking along holding mum's hand.
- Blind woman with guide dog always (although not recently) seems to get the same bus as me.
-Most people get off at major shopping centre along route, some people get on. People get off gradually until only three or four people (including myself) are left at final stop. On more than one occasion I was the only person left, which is puzzling given destination is a majorish railway station.
-Blonde glasses girl and friend always get on at first stop, they always get off at previously mentioned shopping centre and wait for another bus to somewhere else.
-Sometimes girls with very attractive necks sit in the seat in front of me. Perhaps I'm a bit of a repressed vampire? Ears sometimes attractive, when combined with nice neck and hair. Girl today had a nice neck and ear. Girl today also had the softest most beautiful hair, colour light brown with blondi highlights (very subdued) in a shortish cut, some of which was pulled back into a slight pig tail. I thought it was cute. Oh how I wanted to touch hair...
(OK well that last one was creepy, but that is what I was thinking at the time)
-Next stop buzzer on bus annoying.
-Radio station on bus annoying.
-MP3 player, custom music good.
-Old buses, noisy and slow. Best seat the facing seats in the rear section, either side of bus. Stretch out legs.
-New buses sometimes noisy, but never slow. Best seat, first up the rear step on the left.
-Stopped at major shopping centre for shopping related purposes today, got first bus there (3 routes to choose from). On continuation of journey I walked onto bus and straight into favourite seat. Was a new-new bus, blue instead of yellow, seat very hard, engine vibrate.
-Bus only traffic light shorten journey. What used to take two or three traffic light cycles now only takes one.
-Me Tarzan...
None the wiser...
Now I know how a teething baby feels. Today I've been having some minor discomfort in my lower left gum due to a wisdom tooth breaking through. It doesn't really hurt, it's just irritating. This is my fourth wisdom tooth actually, they've been surfacing for years. I got my first two a couple of years apart, these are upper left and lower right, both are fully grown. The third, I've probably had for a year is not quite fully grown, and is still covered by a bit of gum.
For many people wisdom teeth are a big problem. Personally they haven't been a problem at all due to having quite a bit space left over after having a few teeth out when I had braces as a teenager. The only side effect is a slight change to my bite, and the odd cheek biting moment (which is nothing compared to what improperly trimmed sharp bits of wire do to the inside of your cheek, ouch!). The dentist certainly wasn't concerned on my last checkup.
For many people wisdom teeth are a big problem. Personally they haven't been a problem at all due to having quite a bit space left over after having a few teeth out when I had braces as a teenager. The only side effect is a slight change to my bite, and the odd cheek biting moment (which is nothing compared to what improperly trimmed sharp bits of wire do to the inside of your cheek, ouch!). The dentist certainly wasn't concerned on my last checkup.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
This is why I nearly burnt the rice last night.
This is, and yet isn't me, well as close as you can get in a Southpark style. Most of the featurs are correct and the clothes are the same colours that I was wearing at the time. Although my T-Shirt was plain minus the Rammstien logo, but a Rammstien T-Shirt would be cool. It could be me on the way to work, listening to my MP3 player... Who knows really?
Try it yourself at Southpark Studio.
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Lazy Saturday
I've had a great day today.
I got up at about 9 am, made myself some cheese and vegemite toasted sandwhiches and sat down to watch an episode of Dr Who I taped two weeks ago. Then I had a shower, got dressed and put my clothes in the washing machine. While that was happening I watched Back to the Future. I bought the trilogy box set a few weeks ago. After that I made some hotdogs for lunch and watched a Back to the Future making of feature that's on the DVD. Sometime in the not to distant future I intend to watch Back to the Future parts II and III. Back to the Future II is one of my all time favourite films.
Somewhere in the above paragraph I paused the film and put my clothes on the washing line.
Then I watched the end of King Solomons Mines on channel 9, starring Stuart Granger and Deborah Kerr, and made in 1950. It was interesting to compare it to a more recent version which was on TV a few weeks ago. It always amazes me in these African Safari type movies how they manage to take everything but the kitchen sink along with them, and yet their native "guides" never seem to carry anywhere near that much stuff. I mean the tents were friging huge and they even had tables and chairs and luxuries like that. The whole thing was very cliched including the customary stampede scene, snake in tent scene, and natives refusing to go any further scene.
After that film I think I moved onto the computer and surfed the net until around 6:30 when I started to cook some rice and papadams for our take away indian curry. I forgot all about the rice and nearly burnt it (because I was busy doing this, which I found on Semaphore Junction). Luckilly it only burnt a bit on the sides and I was able to empty and wash the saucepan and start cooking the rice again. Strangely enough the rice was fine, not too dry and not too wet as ofen happens when for some reason you need to add more water. It didn't even have a burnt taste. As usual the curry was great, we had Beef Madras and Malai Kofta (vegetarian), which I enjoyed while watching tonights episode of Doctor Who.
Speaking of Doctor Who, I reckon this season has been great. I like the new new Doctor (David Tennant) too. And the episodes that had Rose Tyler (Billy Piper) running around in a maids uniform were something to behold, she could come around here dressed like that any day. One thing that does get me though is her eyebrows, they just look wrong, obviously she is a bottle blonde, and they are always a funny shape. Anyway the new Doctor Who is good.
This evening we sat down to watch a movie called "Gone Fishin'" staring Danny Glover and Joe Pesci. It was funny, and yet it lacked something, but it was not a bad way to spend a few hours. This film was enjoyed in the company of a mini Magnum ice cream...
So that's my day. Believe it or not I can barely keep my eyes open, which means it is time for me to go to bed....
Good Night.
P.S. I hope I didn't start too many sentences with "Then...".
I got up at about 9 am, made myself some cheese and vegemite toasted sandwhiches and sat down to watch an episode of Dr Who I taped two weeks ago. Then I had a shower, got dressed and put my clothes in the washing machine. While that was happening I watched Back to the Future. I bought the trilogy box set a few weeks ago. After that I made some hotdogs for lunch and watched a Back to the Future making of feature that's on the DVD. Sometime in the not to distant future I intend to watch Back to the Future parts II and III. Back to the Future II is one of my all time favourite films.
Somewhere in the above paragraph I paused the film and put my clothes on the washing line.
Then I watched the end of King Solomons Mines on channel 9, starring Stuart Granger and Deborah Kerr, and made in 1950. It was interesting to compare it to a more recent version which was on TV a few weeks ago. It always amazes me in these African Safari type movies how they manage to take everything but the kitchen sink along with them, and yet their native "guides" never seem to carry anywhere near that much stuff. I mean the tents were friging huge and they even had tables and chairs and luxuries like that. The whole thing was very cliched including the customary stampede scene, snake in tent scene, and natives refusing to go any further scene.
After that film I think I moved onto the computer and surfed the net until around 6:30 when I started to cook some rice and papadams for our take away indian curry. I forgot all about the rice and nearly burnt it (because I was busy doing this, which I found on Semaphore Junction). Luckilly it only burnt a bit on the sides and I was able to empty and wash the saucepan and start cooking the rice again. Strangely enough the rice was fine, not too dry and not too wet as ofen happens when for some reason you need to add more water. It didn't even have a burnt taste. As usual the curry was great, we had Beef Madras and Malai Kofta (vegetarian), which I enjoyed while watching tonights episode of Doctor Who.
Speaking of Doctor Who, I reckon this season has been great. I like the new new Doctor (David Tennant) too. And the episodes that had Rose Tyler (Billy Piper) running around in a maids uniform were something to behold, she could come around here dressed like that any day. One thing that does get me though is her eyebrows, they just look wrong, obviously she is a bottle blonde, and they are always a funny shape. Anyway the new Doctor Who is good.
This evening we sat down to watch a movie called "Gone Fishin'" staring Danny Glover and Joe Pesci. It was funny, and yet it lacked something, but it was not a bad way to spend a few hours. This film was enjoyed in the company of a mini Magnum ice cream...
So that's my day. Believe it or not I can barely keep my eyes open, which means it is time for me to go to bed....
Good Night.
P.S. I hope I didn't start too many sentences with "Then...".
STOP PRESS
I was just looking at the Nintendo Australia website. According to the news page it seems that the jet black version of the Nintendo DS Lite will go on sale on September 21. So I've got three weeks to go. I think I might buy a game or two (er probably New Super Mario Brothers and Big Brain Academy) next week so I'll have something to play come September 21. In hindsight I'm glad I didn't cave in yesterday afternoon and buy a white one (as nice as they are).
Friday, September 01, 2006
Ka-ching!
Well not really but, having an income is great. At the moment inflow is greater than outflow, which is good.
Having said that, a number of times I've come close to blowing some of it on a Nintendo DS Lite(or here if like me you never seem to have the correct version of shockwave installed). At the moment the DS only comes in white, but I'm holding off for a while (that's what I'm going to tell you now at least) until they hopefully release some of the colours available in Japan. I bags the jet black, oh yes. I can hear New Super Mario Brothers calling me...
If I do get a DS my five year old nephew will be jealous. Over the past few weeks he has become seriously addicted to the original Super Mario Brothers on the NES and Super Mario World on the SNES. His older sister plays a bit too, but this kid is dedicated, and he's getting good at it too. Although for some reason if I'm around he wants me to finish the game for him.
I suspect his parents blame me for his Mario addiction. It started whenever the kids would come to my place and play Super Mario Brothers on my old NES, which over the last year or so has had a new lease on life after being locked away in the cupboard. The first thing the kids ask when they come over is of course "can we play mario?". About Christmas last year I got the bright idea of setting up a SNES emulator on their computer with some game roms for them to play.
Mind you it took him six or seven months to really get into it. But now he has got into it he apparently spends every waking moment playing the thing (parents have been known to exagerate such things). It's not like he'll turn into a couch potato though as he's got a lot of energy to burn and then some.
But yes a Nintendo DS is very much on the cards for me at the moment.
Having said that, a number of times I've come close to blowing some of it on a Nintendo DS Lite(or here if like me you never seem to have the correct version of shockwave installed). At the moment the DS only comes in white, but I'm holding off for a while (that's what I'm going to tell you now at least) until they hopefully release some of the colours available in Japan. I bags the jet black, oh yes. I can hear New Super Mario Brothers calling me...
If I do get a DS my five year old nephew will be jealous. Over the past few weeks he has become seriously addicted to the original Super Mario Brothers on the NES and Super Mario World on the SNES. His older sister plays a bit too, but this kid is dedicated, and he's getting good at it too. Although for some reason if I'm around he wants me to finish the game for him.
I suspect his parents blame me for his Mario addiction. It started whenever the kids would come to my place and play Super Mario Brothers on my old NES, which over the last year or so has had a new lease on life after being locked away in the cupboard. The first thing the kids ask when they come over is of course "can we play mario?". About Christmas last year I got the bright idea of setting up a SNES emulator on their computer with some game roms for them to play.
Mind you it took him six or seven months to really get into it. But now he has got into it he apparently spends every waking moment playing the thing (parents have been known to exagerate such things). It's not like he'll turn into a couch potato though as he's got a lot of energy to burn and then some.
But yes a Nintendo DS is very much on the cards for me at the moment.
Monday, August 28, 2006
Round the Bend
This is for Highriser.
If you want to have a look around Yarra Bend I would recomend the following:
Catch an Epping (and somerimes Hurstbridge train) to Victoria Park station and walk past Victoria Park football ground (taking note of the grafitti on the wall, "I want to have Chris Tarrant's baby" etc) to Dights Falls, the upper tidal limit of the Yarra River and former site of a mill (which still partially stands). The falls are best seen a day or so after rain in upper catchments of the river.
From there you can walk along the river to Yarra Bend (where you ended up after crossing kanes Bridge), which was the site a Lunatic Asylum, and is currently home to the Yarra Bend Golf Course. Following Yarra Bend Road North you cross the Eastern Freeway. On the left (west) hand side just over the Freeway you can find the remains of the former gates to the Lunatic Asylum. Opposite this is the site of the Fairlea Women's Prison, a remnant of which is now a Parks Victoria Office. Then you could make your way past the Thomas Emling Hospital and fly casting pools (as in fly fishing). From memory you can get get down to the river from wehre you can follow the path to the Fairfield Boathouse for refreshments.
To get back to the City you could take the route 546 bus to Melbourne Uni. This bus only runs every half hour on weekdays only from Heidelberg Road just near the Fairfield Boathouse. Otherwise it's a further (farther?) walk to Dennis Station on the Hurstbridge line.
I spent a lot of time in Yarra Bend a few years ago with TAFE and uni. Not particularly scenic, but I find it interesting none the less. It has it's fair share of wierdos hanging around too, so watch out...
If you want to have a look around Yarra Bend I would recomend the following:
Catch an Epping (and somerimes Hurstbridge train) to Victoria Park station and walk past Victoria Park football ground (taking note of the grafitti on the wall, "I want to have Chris Tarrant's baby" etc) to Dights Falls, the upper tidal limit of the Yarra River and former site of a mill (which still partially stands). The falls are best seen a day or so after rain in upper catchments of the river.
From there you can walk along the river to Yarra Bend (where you ended up after crossing kanes Bridge), which was the site a Lunatic Asylum, and is currently home to the Yarra Bend Golf Course. Following Yarra Bend Road North you cross the Eastern Freeway. On the left (west) hand side just over the Freeway you can find the remains of the former gates to the Lunatic Asylum. Opposite this is the site of the Fairlea Women's Prison, a remnant of which is now a Parks Victoria Office. Then you could make your way past the Thomas Emling Hospital and fly casting pools (as in fly fishing). From memory you can get get down to the river from wehre you can follow the path to the Fairfield Boathouse for refreshments.
To get back to the City you could take the route 546 bus to Melbourne Uni. This bus only runs every half hour on weekdays only from Heidelberg Road just near the Fairfield Boathouse. Otherwise it's a further (farther?) walk to Dennis Station on the Hurstbridge line.
I spent a lot of time in Yarra Bend a few years ago with TAFE and uni. Not particularly scenic, but I find it interesting none the less. It has it's fair share of wierdos hanging around too, so watch out...
Monday, August 14, 2006
Poor Form
Two winners! I can't believe I only tipped two winners! I would have been better off not tipping at all. I did better the week I decided to tip the losers, I got 6 or 7 that week (out of a possible 8!). Shows what I know about footy.
Seriously though, I can't beleive Collingwood went down to cellar dwelling Essendon, thats two losses in two weeks now for the mighty (bah!) Magpies. Collingwood is now 7th on the AFL ladder.
It cold be worse, I could barrack for Carlton(but that would never ever happen)...
Seriously though, I can't beleive Collingwood went down to cellar dwelling Essendon, thats two losses in two weeks now for the mighty (bah!) Magpies. Collingwood is now 7th on the AFL ladder.
It cold be worse, I could barrack for Carlton(but that would never ever happen)...
Friday, August 11, 2006
New Toys
Two weeks ago I finally got around to getting a new camera. After much research I settled on a Canon Powershot A700 (reviews by dpreview and Steve). Short of getting a digital SLR, the A700 has everything (well most things) I want in a camera. In time I will get a DSLR, but for now I wanted a do everything compact that I can slip in my pocket (I have big pockets ;-) ).
It's 6 megapixel for decent sized prints, has a good reasonably fast lens, and shooting modes ranging full auto to full manual (as well a whole heap of scene modes I know I will hardly ever if not never use). It has a 6x optical zoom, which is only let down by the lack of image stabilisation. Camera shake at long focal lengths is assured, however this is overcome by the use of my mini tripod in such situations (I plan to get a Gorillapod for the go anywhere sort of photography I like).
So far it's proving to be a good all rounder (oh yes it takes pretty decent video as well), with excelent results. I've had fun experimenting with time exposures without the expense associated with my film SLR. Hopefully I'll be able to get out and shoot some photos this weekend and have something to show for my efforts here. So watch this space...
My other new toy is an MP3 player, after more research (hey that's half the fun of buying a new toy) I settled on a Creative ZEN Nano Plus 1GB. I very nearly purchased an iPod shuffle 1 GB, but luckily the stores I went to were out of stock. For the same price as the iPod I got the same memory capacity, an LCD screen, voice recorder, FM radio and line-in MP3 encoder. Most importantly however I avoided the use of iTunes in favour of a simple windows explorer drag and drop file transfer. It may be irrational, but I just don't like iTunes. With regard to the battery the downside of the ZEN Nano is that it does not have a built in recharble like the Shuffle, but the plus is that it takes just one AAA cell, alkaline or recharble. A pair of AAA rechargables is on the shopping list.
Soundwise the quality is good, the LCD screen's menu is easy to navigate and it's a small unit. Oh and it also can shuffle songs!
Now to show off both of my new toys, here's a photo of my mp3 player taken using the superb macro mode on my new camera.
It's 6 megapixel for decent sized prints, has a good reasonably fast lens, and shooting modes ranging full auto to full manual (as well a whole heap of scene modes I know I will hardly ever if not never use). It has a 6x optical zoom, which is only let down by the lack of image stabilisation. Camera shake at long focal lengths is assured, however this is overcome by the use of my mini tripod in such situations (I plan to get a Gorillapod for the go anywhere sort of photography I like).
So far it's proving to be a good all rounder (oh yes it takes pretty decent video as well), with excelent results. I've had fun experimenting with time exposures without the expense associated with my film SLR. Hopefully I'll be able to get out and shoot some photos this weekend and have something to show for my efforts here. So watch this space...
My other new toy is an MP3 player, after more research (hey that's half the fun of buying a new toy) I settled on a Creative ZEN Nano Plus 1GB. I very nearly purchased an iPod shuffle 1 GB, but luckily the stores I went to were out of stock. For the same price as the iPod I got the same memory capacity, an LCD screen, voice recorder, FM radio and line-in MP3 encoder. Most importantly however I avoided the use of iTunes in favour of a simple windows explorer drag and drop file transfer. It may be irrational, but I just don't like iTunes. With regard to the battery the downside of the ZEN Nano is that it does not have a built in recharble like the Shuffle, but the plus is that it takes just one AAA cell, alkaline or recharble. A pair of AAA rechargables is on the shopping list.
Soundwise the quality is good, the LCD screen's menu is easy to navigate and it's a small unit. Oh and it also can shuffle songs!
Now to show off both of my new toys, here's a photo of my mp3 player taken using the superb macro mode on my new camera.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Coathanger City
That's the Sydney Harbour Bridge on the right. One afternoon in early February 2005 I sat in the park on Observatory Hill for almost an hour just watching the world go by. There was even a wedding while I was there. Beforehand however, I had a look through the Sydney Observatory. An interesting way to spend an hour or so. Best of all, it was free.
Friday, July 21, 2006
Solo driving...
Last Sunday I took a spin by myself in the car. It was a strange and lonley, yet liberating experience. Next time hopefully I'll go further than around the block...
Saturday, July 15, 2006
No more BYO
That's right, because I'm now fully licenced. A few posts ago I mentioned about getting my drivers licence, well Thursday was the big day.
In all it went pretty smoothly actually, having passed my Hazard Perception Test a week earlier (what a silly test that was), I forgot all about the driving test until the night before. On the day everything just clicked into place and despite the silly actions of other road users passed with flying colours. The tester (a nice girl, probably about my age if not a bit older) said that it went perfectly, and that I didn't loose any points at all (the assessment sheet only goes up to 95 + and you need at least 85 to pass).
For those interested, my low speed maneuver was a point to point, which is starting 1 metre from the curb and reversing for about 20 metres to finish within 30 centimetres of the curb.
Now you'd think I'd be excited, but I'm not really. I'm happy I've finally done it, but things are just the same as they were before. I haven't even driven since. Things might be different if I was 18 years old.
In all it went pretty smoothly actually, having passed my Hazard Perception Test a week earlier (what a silly test that was), I forgot all about the driving test until the night before. On the day everything just clicked into place and despite the silly actions of other road users passed with flying colours. The tester (a nice girl, probably about my age if not a bit older) said that it went perfectly, and that I didn't loose any points at all (the assessment sheet only goes up to 95 + and you need at least 85 to pass).
For those interested, my low speed maneuver was a point to point, which is starting 1 metre from the curb and reversing for about 20 metres to finish within 30 centimetres of the curb.
Now you'd think I'd be excited, but I'm not really. I'm happy I've finally done it, but things are just the same as they were before. I haven't even driven since. Things might be different if I was 18 years old.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Moving right along.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
I can't write!
I've been trying to write a post about what I did on Saturday since that night, but I just can't seem to get it right. I just can't write. Seriously, I can't remember how I managed to pass English in year 12, let alone write assignments at uni that made sense. I know what I want to say, but I can't express it, everything just get's so long winded and complicated (this post is a prime example). I need to find a way to untangle my writting. Part of the problem is that I'm just so tired by the time I think about writting a post. Working life eh...
Oh and yes part two of the powerbook chronicles is coming....
No really, it is.
Oh and yes part two of the powerbook chronicles is coming....
No really, it is.
Thursday, June 29, 2006
June General Updates
I don't know where June went, but it's just flown past. It's probably because I got a job and am now employed at an hourly rate. If I hadn't got the job I probably would have posted part 2 of the powerbook chronicles by now...
And as for the driving thing, all going well I should have my license this time in two weeks.
And as for the driving thing, all going well I should have my license this time in two weeks.
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Powerbook Chronicles - Part 1
About a year ago while in the grip of eBay fever and web surfing based procrastination (I should have been studying for an exam I think) I purchased an elderly Macintosh Powerbook computer. My reasoning for wanting a Macintosh powerbook was thus:
1: For one of my subjects at uni I had to use a Mac in the library for photoshop as these were regularly the only PC's that were vacant (Whoever designed those stupid "no button" mice has a lot to answer for). This got me intrigued in the whole Macintosh idea.
2: I was looking at an older windows laptop just because I thought it would be cool.
Surely it would be sensible to get a Macintosh laptop? Plus that way I would save money! So I won a Powerbook 1400 on eBay for about $30. After the seller eventually sent it to me I realised that I didn't particularly need it. I read a couple of articles on LEM about using this particular machine fore wireless internet, which sounded a pretty cool thing to do with such old technology. So it was back to eBay looking for a suitable 16 bit 802.11b PCMCIA card. From memory that cost me about $10 including postage. Bargain!
Next I realised that because the computer didn't come with a CD ROM (still working on that) I needed some way of getting the driver files for the wireless card which are bigger than a floppy disk (thankfully it has one of those) onto the computer. The answer came in a flash, literally, so I bought a PCMCIA Compact Flash adaptor for about $5 (I think that also included postage too) on eBay.
And that is where the project stalled for the next year...
Next installment coming soon.
1: For one of my subjects at uni I had to use a Mac in the library for photoshop as these were regularly the only PC's that were vacant (Whoever designed those stupid "no button" mice has a lot to answer for). This got me intrigued in the whole Macintosh idea.
2: I was looking at an older windows laptop just because I thought it would be cool.
Surely it would be sensible to get a Macintosh laptop? Plus that way I would save money! So I won a Powerbook 1400 on eBay for about $30. After the seller eventually sent it to me I realised that I didn't particularly need it. I read a couple of articles on LEM about using this particular machine fore wireless internet, which sounded a pretty cool thing to do with such old technology. So it was back to eBay looking for a suitable 16 bit 802.11b PCMCIA card. From memory that cost me about $10 including postage. Bargain!
Next I realised that because the computer didn't come with a CD ROM (still working on that) I needed some way of getting the driver files for the wireless card which are bigger than a floppy disk (thankfully it has one of those) onto the computer. The answer came in a flash, literally, so I bought a PCMCIA Compact Flash adaptor for about $5 (I think that also included postage too) on eBay.
And that is where the project stalled for the next year...
Next installment coming soon.
Sunday, May 28, 2006
General Updates
I'll try to elaborate more on one or two of these a bit latter but for now:
I am now on Centrelink's Newstart Allowance (AKA "the dole") and looking for a full time job. I hate the whole thing, the sooner I get a job, I don't care what, the better. This may have a detrimental effect on my degree by putting completion out another year.
I am taking driving lessons, all going well I should have my license in 5 or 6 weeks. Why 5 or 6 weeks? That's because after one and a half lessons my instructor decided I am capable of passing the test. So this week we are booking the test during my lesson (that alone costs in the order of $50!), but Vicroads has a waiting list of about 5 weeks, hence the wait.
S302 has been bought by El Zorro and will probably be seen in action working infrastructure trains around suburban Melbourne.
Macintosh has switched it's full lineup of iBook and Powerbook computers over to Intel Core Duo processors and are now known as Macbook and Macbook pro respectively. Also they have dropped the 12" iBook(Macbook) model, so it looks like my plans for one of those are down the toilet, they are now 14" only.
I could always get a second hand one at some stage though. But then again those black Macbooks are sexy...
I am now on Centrelink's Newstart Allowance (AKA "the dole") and looking for a full time job. I hate the whole thing, the sooner I get a job, I don't care what, the better. This may have a detrimental effect on my degree by putting completion out another year.
I am taking driving lessons, all going well I should have my license in 5 or 6 weeks. Why 5 or 6 weeks? That's because after one and a half lessons my instructor decided I am capable of passing the test. So this week we are booking the test during my lesson (that alone costs in the order of $50!), but Vicroads has a waiting list of about 5 weeks, hence the wait.
S302 has been bought by El Zorro and will probably be seen in action working infrastructure trains around suburban Melbourne.
Macintosh has switched it's full lineup of iBook and Powerbook computers over to Intel Core Duo processors and are now known as Macbook and Macbook pro respectively. Also they have dropped the 12" iBook(Macbook) model, so it looks like my plans for one of those are down the toilet, they are now 14" only.
I could always get a second hand one at some stage though. But then again those black Macbooks are sexy...
Monday, May 08, 2006
Spam
For the first time today I got some spam that is actually purportedly from a bank I am a customer of, the contents are as follows...
Now for starters I'm behind the times and don't actually use NetBank, but that's not all. Oh no, if you were reading carefully or even just skimming you should have picked up a few glaring errors that give this piece of correspondence an air of rank amateurishness, they are:
1.
Since when does a bank have members?
2.
I mean I agree that banks are full of management stuff, but this is just unprofessional even for a spamer.
Another dead give away, as with all these sorts scams is the presence of a URL with lots of .'s in it. And no I'm not including it for obvious reasons.
I should mention my method for dealing with spam, which is that my ISP flags messages as spam and I have a filter set up in Thunderbird to sort it all into a spam folder. The reason I send it to a spam folder is partly out of habit, partly out of the fact that the occasional legitimate email gets flagged by mistake and partly because I don't completely trust my ISPs spam filter for the afore mentioned reason. When it's in my spam folder I scan the sender and subject before doing a "CTRL-A, Delete" maneuver. And I must be doing something right because I'd be lucky get more than 10 or so spam emails a day. If it was worse I'd probably use a spam filter like mailwasher (that's the only one I can think of off-hand).
Dear Commonwealth Bank of Australia member,
Due to recent hardware failure and partial loss of our database we decided to review
our customers account information to prevent security problems . If you
could take 3-5 minutes out of your online experience to verify your
account status , you will not run into any further problems .
Update your NetBank Account : Click Here
Thank You ,
Commonwealth Bank of Australia Management Stuff
Please do not reply to this confirmation email, as this message was sent to all Commonwealth Bank members.
Now for starters I'm behind the times and don't actually use NetBank, but that's not all. Oh no, if you were reading carefully or even just skimming you should have picked up a few glaring errors that give this piece of correspondence an air of rank amateurishness, they are:
1.
Dear Commonwealth Bank of Australia member
Since when does a bank have members?
2.
Thank You ,
Commonwealth Bank of Australia Management Stuff
I mean I agree that banks are full of management stuff, but this is just unprofessional even for a spamer.
Another dead give away, as with all these sorts scams is the presence of a URL with lots of .'s in it. And no I'm not including it for obvious reasons.
I should mention my method for dealing with spam, which is that my ISP flags messages as spam and I have a filter set up in Thunderbird to sort it all into a spam folder. The reason I send it to a spam folder is partly out of habit, partly out of the fact that the occasional legitimate email gets flagged by mistake and partly because I don't completely trust my ISPs spam filter for the afore mentioned reason. When it's in my spam folder I scan the sender and subject before doing a "CTRL-A, Delete" maneuver. And I must be doing something right because I'd be lucky get more than 10 or so spam emails a day. If it was worse I'd probably use a spam filter like mailwasher (that's the only one I can think of off-hand).
Friday, April 21, 2006
Bravo
Have you ever noticed how sometimes you keep seeing the same type car where ever you go. Not that you see them more than you normally would, you just for what ever reason notice a particular model of vehicle more than the rest. Yesterday it happened to me, the Mazda Bravo to be exact. I observed one parking outside the bank, the lady driving it came back 5 minutes latter and drove away. That was enough to get me going for the rest of the afternoon. Normally it's more to do with a friend or relative buying a new car. Over the course of the next 2 or 3 hours I kept seeing Mazda Bravo's. Then I started picking up Toyota Hilux's which at long range resemble Mazda Bravo's. The Toyota Hilux out numbers the Mazda Bravo by about 3 to 1. During the afternoon I even saw a few Holden Rodeos. One anomaly though was the over loaded, small Kia tray truck in Bell Street Heidelberg dragging it's rear mud guards along the road.
Now listening to:
I'm a Cuckoo, Belle & Sebastian
Now listening to:
I'm a Cuckoo, Belle & Sebastian
Saturday, April 08, 2006
Keyboard Antics Again...
Finally got around to replacing my keyboard. I opted for a Logitech Standard Keyboard, which I found on sale at Dick Smith Electronics for only AU$ 9.95. It's just a no frils keyboard with a PS/2 connector. The only thing that comes close to a frill is the detatchable hand rest. It's not even listed on the logitech website, but does closely resemble the Access Keyboard without any of the one touch configurable buttons across the top. Like anything it takes a bit of getting used to.
Currently listening to:
Death Defying, Hoodoo Gurus
Currently listening to:
Death Defying, Hoodoo Gurus
Monday, February 20, 2006
Keyboard antics
I spilt a glass of water on my keyboard again on Friday night...
Last time I did that I went to the trouble of unplugging the keyboard and drying it out over the heater. For some reason the following day I ended up prying off all the keys and giving it a really good clean. Beleive me, you don't want to EVER do that, there are all kinds of disgusting things lurking inside your keboard, unrecognisable at that. In the process however, I did learn that my keyboard had what seemed to be a water proof skin over all the electronic components inside.
...Back to the present. I went away over the weekend only to find out on Sunday night that my keyboard would do strange things when I pressed certain keys, strangely enough this mostly happened while using firefox. For instance, if I pressed the right hand arrow the "Find" toolbar would appear at the bottom of the screen, another one was that if I pressed the space bar while typing in the search box it would cycle to the next search engine in the list. The funny thing is that as far as I can tell none of these keys pressed have anything to do with any shortcuts to these functions. I have now decided that my keyboard does not have a waterproof skin. Finally I got fed up and am now typing on an old keyboard I had lying around. I think I'll have to let my normal keyboard dry out a bit more before attempting to use it again.
Although, I could go and get a better keyboard...
Last time I did that I went to the trouble of unplugging the keyboard and drying it out over the heater. For some reason the following day I ended up prying off all the keys and giving it a really good clean. Beleive me, you don't want to EVER do that, there are all kinds of disgusting things lurking inside your keboard, unrecognisable at that. In the process however, I did learn that my keyboard had what seemed to be a water proof skin over all the electronic components inside.
...Back to the present. I went away over the weekend only to find out on Sunday night that my keyboard would do strange things when I pressed certain keys, strangely enough this mostly happened while using firefox. For instance, if I pressed the right hand arrow the "Find" toolbar would appear at the bottom of the screen, another one was that if I pressed the space bar while typing in the search box it would cycle to the next search engine in the list. The funny thing is that as far as I can tell none of these keys pressed have anything to do with any shortcuts to these functions. I have now decided that my keyboard does not have a waterproof skin. Finally I got fed up and am now typing on an old keyboard I had lying around. I think I'll have to let my normal keyboard dry out a bit more before attempting to use it again.
Although, I could go and get a better keyboard...
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
The old girl retires
S302 leads the 1240 Melbourne to Warnambool train through Footscray in Melbourne's inner west on 6 October 2005.On January 9 2006 S302 made possibly her last journey as a front line locomotive in the V/Line fleet. In late 2004 the locomotive was brought out of storage and received much love and attention from EDI at Newport for a new lease on life. Returned to traffic in early 2005, she spent the best part of a year plying the rails on the daily 535 km round journey between Melbourne to Warnambool. Her return to service was not without trouble, having a reputation for unreliability and being speed restricted to 100 kmh as opposed to the usual 115 kmh for passenger trains on this route. Her future is uncertain.
Built in 1957 at Clyde Engineering in Sydney, she spent 37 years in service with the Victorian Railways (later known as Vicrail for a short period in the early 80's then V/Line) before being sold of in 1994. She was bought by the fledgling West Coast Railway along with other aging B, S and T class locomotives and other items of aging rolling stock. West Coast Railway was the private company that won the contract to provide the now privatised rail service between Melbourne and Warnambool.
This venture was somewhat of a success and acheived growth in passenger numbers. In the mid 2000s however things started to go wrong, first with the death of the company founder and CEO, followed by structural problems with the company's fleet of veteran diesel locomotives. This lead to the suspension of the rail service mid way through 2004. In late 2004 the company was wound up and rail services were again provided by the state owned V/Line, who purchased a number of items of rollingstock as well as locomotive S302 in order to be able to run the service.
Relevant links:
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
I'm Ba-ack...
Yes, 'tis I!
Had a busy lead up to Christmas which is why the blogging stopped. Post Christmas it was the combination of couldn't be bothered with a side serve of being too busy.
Christmas itself was good, I didn't get many presents, but that's not what it's about. New years eve was OK too (not the greatest either).
Hopefully I'll be ably to think of more stuff to blog when I'm not quite so tired.
P.S there's no Chocolate crackles left either.
Had a busy lead up to Christmas which is why the blogging stopped. Post Christmas it was the combination of couldn't be bothered with a side serve of being too busy.
Christmas itself was good, I didn't get many presents, but that's not what it's about. New years eve was OK too (not the greatest either).
Hopefully I'll be ably to think of more stuff to blog when I'm not quite so tired.
P.S there's no Chocolate crackles left either.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Steam at Greensborough
Steamrail's K153 leads a train of BW cars through the 'S' curves at Greensborough on a shuttle trip to Macleod on Sunday 4th December 2005. Unseen in the photo is K190 on the rear of the train which will lead the return trip to Greensborough from Macleod. The occasion was for the Manna Gum Festival (it's an Arts Festival) at Greensborugh.
Monday, December 12, 2005
USB applications
For years I used floppy disks to transfer my work between school, then TAFE, then Uni and home. During that time the files just kept getting bigger and bigger. Eventually I got to the stage where I had to burn and waste CD's or FTP my work around instead. FTP was better than floppy disks, the latter having a tendency to fail at the most inapropriate moment, but having dial up at home made ftp a slow process for larger files.
It wasn't until last year after a bad experience with a rather large Powerpoint presentation that I bit the bullet and got myself a USB flash drive. After a bit of shopping around the various computer stores near uni I got myself a 128 mb Shintaro branded flash drive for about $45, which at the time was a good deal. Since then I have never looked back except for the fact I fill it up with so much crap that 128mb never seems like enough. I don't how I could do without it.
Lately I've been loading applications onto it. So far I've got:
The best type of applications to use on usb drives are those that are self contained in their own directory, which do not rely on recources stored in other locations such as the Documents and Settings folder, and/or those that install their own registry keys. A wide variety of applications suitable for USB flash drives is available, including simple text editors, image editors (Irfanview), email (npop and quickmailer), office suites (open office), browsers (Opera USB) and even various linux distrubutions that can boot straight off the usb drive or an acompanying CD.
Some sites that I have found with informaiton on USB flashdrives and compatible applictions include:
It wasn't until last year after a bad experience with a rather large Powerpoint presentation that I bit the bullet and got myself a USB flash drive. After a bit of shopping around the various computer stores near uni I got myself a 128 mb Shintaro branded flash drive for about $45, which at the time was a good deal. Since then I have never looked back except for the fact I fill it up with so much crap that 128mb never seems like enough. I don't how I could do without it.
Lately I've been loading applications onto it. So far I've got:
- Irfanview
- OperaUSB
- Quickmailer
- npop
- Frontpage express
- Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzles
The best type of applications to use on usb drives are those that are self contained in their own directory, which do not rely on recources stored in other locations such as the Documents and Settings folder, and/or those that install their own registry keys. A wide variety of applications suitable for USB flash drives is available, including simple text editors, image editors (Irfanview), email (npop and quickmailer), office suites (open office), browsers (Opera USB) and even various linux distrubutions that can boot straight off the usb drive or an acompanying CD.
Some sites that I have found with informaiton on USB flashdrives and compatible applictions include:
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Corporate Symbolism...
Recently I have become aware that Vision Australia has a new symbol. I can't remember what their old symbol looked like but the new one is wierd, just a couple of coloured dots. Last week after seeing it on TV it occuded to me that it might be braile for something. Then yesterday a lightning bolt hit me as I was walking past the Vision Australia office in Mount Street Heidelberg. The symbol is actually a "V" and an "A" in braile. Don't know why I didn't realise earlier...
So I checked it out on their website and sure enough there is a page that explains the new logo and how it conveys the image that they want to project to the public, as well as being clearly visible to people with poor eyesight. In addition to that, Vison Australia have created an audio logo. Being an organisation that are involved with people who are vison impaired an audio logo is a great idea. Basically it's a recording of someone saying their name and tagline with a short chime at the begining.
I just found it intriguing.
So I checked it out on their website and sure enough there is a page that explains the new logo and how it conveys the image that they want to project to the public, as well as being clearly visible to people with poor eyesight. In addition to that, Vison Australia have created an audio logo. Being an organisation that are involved with people who are vison impaired an audio logo is a great idea. Basically it's a recording of someone saying their name and tagline with a short chime at the begining.
I just found it intriguing.
Steam at Hurstbridge
Steam locomotive J515 is approaching the home signal at Hurstbridge. The occasion was the inaugural Wattle Festival on Sunday the 4th of September 2004, the train was chartered from the Seymour Rail Heritage Centre. J515 is on this end while diesel loco T357 was on the rear. This arrangement was used to avoid the need for the steam loco to run around the train at Hurstbridge, which is impossible given that it is a dead end terminus. The train ran a number of trips between Hurstbridge and Diamond Creek throughout the day.The Wattle Festival was held again in 2005, but this time the train was chartered from Steamrail instead.
To the end of the earth and back again!
Well not quite but it may as well have been...
What really happened was that I wanted to go to Photo Colour in Heidelberg to drop a film off to get developed and put on CD. So I decided to get the train to Heidelberg. On the way back I decided that I would get the most out my 2 hour (actually was more like 2 and a half hours) zone 2 Metcard by taking a ride to the end of the line as I still had over an hour left. My metcard expired at 6pm. From Heidelberg I got on the next train to arrive, which just happened to be a Macleod train. This was no problem though as I only had to wait a few minutes at Macleod for the following Hurstbridge train.
The trip to Hurstbridge was fairly eneventful except for a problem with a couple of level crossings just on the down side of Eltham. To me it seemed like a problem with the track circuits that trigger the bells and gates, most likely related to the rain we'd been having for most of the day. So I arrived a Hurstbridge with half an hour left on my ticket. As I didn't consult a timetable I had no idea when the next train back was, but as long as it left before 6pm I'd still be able to use it for the return journey. I was hoping that the train I came on would go back to the city but as I suspected the Comeng continued on and joined a lonely X'Trapolis in the sidings beyond the platform.
A quick look at the timetable revealed that the next train departed at 5:56, cutting it fine, but all was OK. So I walked up and down the platform a couple of times, checked out the sidings adjacent the platform, checked to see what the lever on the platform did and various other gunzel type things. The train was scheduled to arrive at 5:51 but it didn't get in until at least the departure time. As a result it departed a couple of minutes late. For the record it was a Comeng and the leading car (where I was seated) was real groaner.
On the way back one surprise was a staff exchange at Diamond Creek, which occured even though we weren't scheduled to cross another train there. Checking the timetable that I picked up at Hurstbridge an explanation of Diamond Creek being open as a staff station was found in that, the train I'd gone to Hurstbridge on would form the next up train departing at 6:10pm, and that it would cross the next down at Diamond Creek. We would cross that same down train at Eltham. Even though the train departed Hurstbridge late we still arrived at Eltham on time and so had to wait the full five minutes for our cross there. From there on it was smooth sailing back towards my home station.
Boring I know but it's all I can think of to blog at the moment...
What really happened was that I wanted to go to Photo Colour in Heidelberg to drop a film off to get developed and put on CD. So I decided to get the train to Heidelberg. On the way back I decided that I would get the most out my 2 hour (actually was more like 2 and a half hours) zone 2 Metcard by taking a ride to the end of the line as I still had over an hour left. My metcard expired at 6pm. From Heidelberg I got on the next train to arrive, which just happened to be a Macleod train. This was no problem though as I only had to wait a few minutes at Macleod for the following Hurstbridge train.
The trip to Hurstbridge was fairly eneventful except for a problem with a couple of level crossings just on the down side of Eltham. To me it seemed like a problem with the track circuits that trigger the bells and gates, most likely related to the rain we'd been having for most of the day. So I arrived a Hurstbridge with half an hour left on my ticket. As I didn't consult a timetable I had no idea when the next train back was, but as long as it left before 6pm I'd still be able to use it for the return journey. I was hoping that the train I came on would go back to the city but as I suspected the Comeng continued on and joined a lonely X'Trapolis in the sidings beyond the platform.
A quick look at the timetable revealed that the next train departed at 5:56, cutting it fine, but all was OK. So I walked up and down the platform a couple of times, checked out the sidings adjacent the platform, checked to see what the lever on the platform did and various other gunzel type things. The train was scheduled to arrive at 5:51 but it didn't get in until at least the departure time. As a result it departed a couple of minutes late. For the record it was a Comeng and the leading car (where I was seated) was real groaner.
On the way back one surprise was a staff exchange at Diamond Creek, which occured even though we weren't scheduled to cross another train there. Checking the timetable that I picked up at Hurstbridge an explanation of Diamond Creek being open as a staff station was found in that, the train I'd gone to Hurstbridge on would form the next up train departing at 6:10pm, and that it would cross the next down at Diamond Creek. We would cross that same down train at Eltham. Even though the train departed Hurstbridge late we still arrived at Eltham on time and so had to wait the full five minutes for our cross there. From there on it was smooth sailing back towards my home station.
Boring I know but it's all I can think of to blog at the moment...
Saturday, December 03, 2005
What is the world coming to?
I caught four trains on Friday. One from Greensborough to the City, one from the City to Box Hill, then tat return trip, and finally one back to Greensborough. What ties all of these together? All four trains I caught on Friday were X'Trapolis or "crappers" as some people call them. On all my journeys I saw plenty of other trains, all were a mixture of Comengs and X'Trapolis, with the only Hitachi in sight looking all forlorn in the yard at Camberwell by itself. What is the world coming to?
Thursday, December 01, 2005
In other news
Ever since playing with a 12" iBook in Myer a few weeks ago I've wanted one. One drawback of the 12" versus the 14" is the lack of a DVD burner, but it would be easy enough to use either the wireless networking or external hard drive for backups/transfers of large ammounts of data.
Although I reckon I could get along just nicely with one of the original colourful retro iBooks. Second hand of course, which is the more likely scenario for me.
The fact is that I would just like a laptop, and the iBooks just look so damn cool.
Although I reckon I could get along just nicely with one of the original colourful retro iBooks. Second hand of course, which is the more likely scenario for me.
The fact is that I would just like a laptop, and the iBooks just look so damn cool.
It has come to pass that...
| You Are an Emo Rocker! |
 Expressive and deep, lyrics are really your thing. That doesn't mean you don't rock out... You just rock out with meaning. For you, rock is more about connecting than grandstanding. |
While not altogether bad, it's not what I expected. Although a lot of the time I think I feel "emo". Man I wish I was 10 years younger, I'd be all like the uber emo. Maybe I should just grow up...
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Back to school
Every Tuesday my mum picks my niece up from school. So today with nothing to do I thought I'd tag along. It's really wierd going back to a primary school after so many years (at least 12), everything is so small. The chairs are small, the tables are small, the students are small... These things weren't that small when I went to school were they?
What really shocked me was how low the drinking taps were to the ground. I was thirsty so while waiting for the bell I decided to take a drink from one of these oh so low taps. So there I was stooping over the tap when I depressed the lever, only to get squirted in the face with a jet of cold water. I'd forgotten how tempremental these taps are. Whether they are tempremental through through student or divine tamperings I don't know. After the bell rang I noticed a couple of kids come and take a drink and none of the used the middle tap (the one I used). It's almost as if they have a sixth "tap" sense. Wierd...
What really shocked me was how low the drinking taps were to the ground. I was thirsty so while waiting for the bell I decided to take a drink from one of these oh so low taps. So there I was stooping over the tap when I depressed the lever, only to get squirted in the face with a jet of cold water. I'd forgotten how tempremental these taps are. Whether they are tempremental through through student or divine tamperings I don't know. After the bell rang I noticed a couple of kids come and take a drink and none of the used the middle tap (the one I used). It's almost as if they have a sixth "tap" sense. Wierd...
Monday, November 28, 2005
Static
Once again this blog has been neglected for a reasonable ammount of time. The reasons for this absence include:
So there you have it.
- Having nothing worth bloging.
- The loss of my digital camera.
- Thinking up blog entires and then forgetting them again.
So there you have it.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Silence
It's been a bit quiet around here lately hasn't it? This is mostly because I just havn't had anything worth saying. I think I'm better now...
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
By George, is that the time?
Hard to beleive I know, but today marks the first aniversary of Ben's Adventures: The Blog. Yep, one year already. In that year this blog has mostly been laying idle so my new years resolution is to post more often than I have in the last year. It may not make sense but by George (gotta stop using that) I'm going to post stuff. I like the idea of posting a photo or a series of photos so expect some more of that sort of thing.
Friday, October 14, 2005
The scenery channel...
broadcasting beautiful views 24 hours a day.This is my desktop wallpaper. I took this photo in October 2004 looking west along the Yarra River from Birrarung Mar. Sometimes when I sit down at the computer I feel the need to put on sunglasses.
Monday, October 10, 2005
Tunnelvision Redux
This is a tunnel on the Sydney Light Rail looking towards The original Tunnelvision was taken here in Melbourne at the end of platform 1 at Parliament Station looking towards Jolimont/Flinders Street.
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Alone in the dark.
Yes that's right, tonight I went to see a movie by myself. People seem to have an irrational fear of going to see a film solo. Don't get me wrong, sharing the experience with others is great, but it's actually not all that much different when you go by yourself. I mean you come into the theatre, sit down, watch some trailers and ads, eat whatever you brought with you (as if you'd pay that much for food, unless it's a really good choctop)watch the movie and then leave. The downside is that you don't immediately get to praise or put down the film, but you can do that latter. The upside is that you get to go and see whatever you damn well want.
In case you were wondering I went to see Wallace and Grommit: Curse of the Were Rabbit at the brand new Melbourne Central Hoyts cinemas. The film itself was > a laugh a minute (in case you didn't get it the ">" is a greater than sign), I recommend that everyone who hasn't already seen it to do so. Just great harmless fun.
The cinema itself was fantastic, the seats were comfy and had extra wide arm rests. As I overheard someone else say, you can still smell that new cinema smell.
I suppose I should give the film a star rating, so I'll give it ****(four stars).
In case you were wondering I went to see Wallace and Grommit: Curse of the Were Rabbit at the brand new Melbourne Central Hoyts cinemas. The film itself was > a laugh a minute (in case you didn't get it the ">" is a greater than sign), I recommend that everyone who hasn't already seen it to do so. Just great harmless fun.
The cinema itself was fantastic, the seats were comfy and had extra wide arm rests. As I overheard someone else say, you can still smell that new cinema smell.
I suppose I should give the film a star rating, so I'll give it ****(four stars).
Monday, October 03, 2005
shit weekend
Well here it is 12:30 on Sunday night (actually Monday morning) and I haven't been any further than the letter box since coming home on Friday night. Don't ask me what I did all weekend because it was all rather boring.
Friday was OK though as I went to the Dutch Masters exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria. This is a collection of dutch paintings from the 15th and 16th century most of which were on loan from the Rieksmuseum (not too sure how it's spelt actually) in Amsterdam. Most notably the exhibition featured a number of paintings by Rembrandt. One thing that I got from the exhibition was how progressive the Dutch were during this time (arguably they still are in certain ways). Unfortunately it finished today, so now you'll have to fly to Amstredam to see most of the paintings.
We had lunch/afternoon tea in the cafe there and we were sitting at the table next to one of the actors off Blue Healers, not John Wood (I've seen him at the football), but one of the younger constables on the show. He has a really irritating voice, which is what made me look.
After leaving the gallery we had dinner in the food court at Southgate. I had BBQ chicken thighs from Nando's, which were nice, but had to have the mild peri peri as the hot had ran out. I just can't help but think that $11 is just a bit much for 4 skimpy bits of chicken, about $2 worth of chips and and small bottle of coke.
Friday was OK though as I went to the Dutch Masters exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria. This is a collection of dutch paintings from the 15th and 16th century most of which were on loan from the Rieksmuseum (not too sure how it's spelt actually) in Amsterdam. Most notably the exhibition featured a number of paintings by Rembrandt. One thing that I got from the exhibition was how progressive the Dutch were during this time (arguably they still are in certain ways). Unfortunately it finished today, so now you'll have to fly to Amstredam to see most of the paintings.
We had lunch/afternoon tea in the cafe there and we were sitting at the table next to one of the actors off Blue Healers, not John Wood (I've seen him at the football), but one of the younger constables on the show. He has a really irritating voice, which is what made me look.
After leaving the gallery we had dinner in the food court at Southgate. I had BBQ chicken thighs from Nando's, which were nice, but had to have the mild peri peri as the hot had ran out. I just can't help but think that $11 is just a bit much for 4 skimpy bits of chicken, about $2 worth of chips and and small bottle of coke.
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Roulette Photos
Here are a couple of photos of the Roulettes from Sunday. Having learnt from all the airshows I've been to I've realised that it isn't worthwhile taking photos of small aircraft in flight. If you do, the result is a photo of a dot or number of dots against the backdrop of the sky. So these shots on the ground will have to do.
These PC9's are one seriously cool piece of kit.
These PC9's are one seriously cool piece of kit.
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Today I went to the beach.
The T-shirt is right, life's a beach. Today after doing a few errands in the city I decided to go for a train ride somewhere. Being a nice day the beach sounded like a good idea. So I made my way to Flinders Street and got the first train to Brighton Beach.
This is the train I went on. Brighton Beach was originally the end of the line, but it was later extended to Sandringham another two stations on (I don't think there are any more stations after that though :-p ).
After getting off the train I crossed the road with the aid of an insane number of traffic lights (lets just say there's an intersection and they make you go the long way to get across) and arrived at the beach. Off with the shoes and down to the water, it's like a scene from Baywatch, except for the lack of the Hoff and Pamela Anderson. The tall things that look like buildings on the other side of the bay aren't buildings at all, they are actually the oil refineries at Altona.
Don't let the sunshine fool you, the water is freezing. The sand on this beach is really coarse with lots of little bits of shell. It's sort of like brown sugar, which would make the sand at somewhere like Bondi Beach in Sydney white sugar.
Time to dry the feet, brush off all the sand and put the shoes back on. This view is looking towards Sandringham. All the white things just bellow the horizon are the yachts at the Sandringham Yacht club.
This is the tunnel that used to link the beach to the railway station, it would have made it much easier for me to cross the very busy Beach Rd. There is an information sign next to it the tells of it's significance and that in days gone by it used to have a tramway to haul coal from the jetty that once protruded into the bay at this point to the station to fuel the trains. Apparently it is the only relic of the privately owned Hobsons Bay Railway Company.
This is a photo of an old photo on the sign next to the tunnel, it shows the general layout of the area some time in the middle of the 20th century. You will also notice the tram in the photo. Brighton Beach was once the terminus of the Victorian Railways operated street railway (aka tramway) that ran from St Kilda station to this point. The train at the platform is either a sliding door tait train or a swingdoor train, both more commonly known as red rattlers, it's a bit hard to tell.
The main station building of Brighton Beach is wedged between the original platform and the platforms built for the extension to Sandringham, forming a sort of "Y" shapped platform. (To get a better idea of the layout take a look here )
This is the train I went on. Brighton Beach was originally the end of the line, but it was later extended to Sandringham another two stations on (I don't think there are any more stations after that though :-p ).
After getting off the train I crossed the road with the aid of an insane number of traffic lights (lets just say there's an intersection and they make you go the long way to get across) and arrived at the beach. Off with the shoes and down to the water, it's like a scene from Baywatch, except for the lack of the Hoff and Pamela Anderson. The tall things that look like buildings on the other side of the bay aren't buildings at all, they are actually the oil refineries at Altona.
Don't let the sunshine fool you, the water is freezing. The sand on this beach is really coarse with lots of little bits of shell. It's sort of like brown sugar, which would make the sand at somewhere like Bondi Beach in Sydney white sugar.
Time to dry the feet, brush off all the sand and put the shoes back on. This view is looking towards Sandringham. All the white things just bellow the horizon are the yachts at the Sandringham Yacht club.
This is the tunnel that used to link the beach to the railway station, it would have made it much easier for me to cross the very busy Beach Rd. There is an information sign next to it the tells of it's significance and that in days gone by it used to have a tramway to haul coal from the jetty that once protruded into the bay at this point to the station to fuel the trains. Apparently it is the only relic of the privately owned Hobsons Bay Railway Company.
This is a photo of an old photo on the sign next to the tunnel, it shows the general layout of the area some time in the middle of the 20th century. You will also notice the tram in the photo. Brighton Beach was once the terminus of the Victorian Railways operated street railway (aka tramway) that ran from St Kilda station to this point. The train at the platform is either a sliding door tait train or a swingdoor train, both more commonly known as red rattlers, it's a bit hard to tell.
The main station building of Brighton Beach is wedged between the original platform and the platforms built for the extension to Sandringham, forming a sort of "Y" shapped platform. (To get a better idea of the layout take a look here )
Monday, September 26, 2005
Sunday Drive
On Sunday I got to go for a drive. We went down to the force museum at the Point Cook RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force) base for an aerobatic display put on by the Roulettes. The Roulettes are the RAAF's aerobatic display team who were in Melbourne for the previous days AFL grand final.
After attempting to drive through the security checkpoint without stopping (well it looked like the guard let the car in front through without stopping!) we managed to get security clearance and drive on to the base. The museum obviously does not normally expect this many visitors at the one time, so we had to park quite a way up a side street opposite the sergeants mess.
By the time we got to the viewing area the display had already begun, with one of the team members not flying in the display taking the small crowd through the pre-flight preparation. The most exciting part of this was the engine start up of the six Pilatus PC-9 aircraft. One by one the engines began to whine as the turboprop engines spooled up. The real noise began as each of the props reached operating speed a few seconds later. Then one by one the aircraft began to taxi to the adjacent runway and take off.
While the aircraft flew away and got into formation our commentator was taking questions from the crowd, most of which seemed to be related to ejector seats. After a few minutes the six aircraft burst from behind the crowd and the show was on. Our commentator took us through each of the manouveres and we even got to hear the radio comms between team members which were being fed into the PA system. As impresive as it was it seemed much the same, having seen them perform earlier this year at the Airshow at Avalon.
When the display was over the team made one final pass over the airfield before heading back to their home base at East Sale. Soon after this the commentator said his farewell and jumped into his own aircraft and flew off behind the rest of the team.
After his departure normal operations of the airfield resumed and we got to see a microlight and an ultralight aircraft land. Some ammusing banter heard on the radio which was still being piped into the PA system was thus:
microlight: "Sorry about the delay, we had a stronger than expected headwind"
unidentified party: "Don't those things have a built in headwind?"
microlight: "please repeat, we're having radio trouble?"
unidentified party "disregard"
Well I thought it was funny...
We then spent some time looking through the museum before leaving. It's been a number of years since I last visited the museum and it was good to see some new exhibits, but it seems this is at the expense of the Mirage fighter aircraft which used to be on display.
On the way home we took a look at the nearby Point Cook costal park which is quite nice with better facilities than I expected. The beach is not very wide, but you expect that on the western side of Port Phillip. As it is a marine national park there are many signs advising not to take any fish or shelfish, it must have some good diving.
Instead of taking the Western Ring Road home I went via the West Gate Bridge and the city for the nice view. All in all it was a good day out. I might even post a couple of photos in the next few days.
After attempting to drive through the security checkpoint without stopping (well it looked like the guard let the car in front through without stopping!) we managed to get security clearance and drive on to the base. The museum obviously does not normally expect this many visitors at the one time, so we had to park quite a way up a side street opposite the sergeants mess.
By the time we got to the viewing area the display had already begun, with one of the team members not flying in the display taking the small crowd through the pre-flight preparation. The most exciting part of this was the engine start up of the six Pilatus PC-9 aircraft. One by one the engines began to whine as the turboprop engines spooled up. The real noise began as each of the props reached operating speed a few seconds later. Then one by one the aircraft began to taxi to the adjacent runway and take off.
While the aircraft flew away and got into formation our commentator was taking questions from the crowd, most of which seemed to be related to ejector seats. After a few minutes the six aircraft burst from behind the crowd and the show was on. Our commentator took us through each of the manouveres and we even got to hear the radio comms between team members which were being fed into the PA system. As impresive as it was it seemed much the same, having seen them perform earlier this year at the Airshow at Avalon.
When the display was over the team made one final pass over the airfield before heading back to their home base at East Sale. Soon after this the commentator said his farewell and jumped into his own aircraft and flew off behind the rest of the team.
After his departure normal operations of the airfield resumed and we got to see a microlight and an ultralight aircraft land. Some ammusing banter heard on the radio which was still being piped into the PA system was thus:
microlight: "Sorry about the delay, we had a stronger than expected headwind"
unidentified party: "Don't those things have a built in headwind?"
microlight: "please repeat, we're having radio trouble?"
unidentified party "disregard"
Well I thought it was funny...
We then spent some time looking through the museum before leaving. It's been a number of years since I last visited the museum and it was good to see some new exhibits, but it seems this is at the expense of the Mirage fighter aircraft which used to be on display.
On the way home we took a look at the nearby Point Cook costal park which is quite nice with better facilities than I expected. The beach is not very wide, but you expect that on the western side of Port Phillip. As it is a marine national park there are many signs advising not to take any fish or shelfish, it must have some good diving.
Instead of taking the Western Ring Road home I went via the West Gate Bridge and the city for the nice view. All in all it was a good day out. I might even post a couple of photos in the next few days.
Saturday Gunzelling
On Saturday there was a meet of some of the members of railpage at Middle Footscray that I decided I would go to. It started at about 11:00am but I didn't arrive until after 12:00pm and didn't leave until about 6:00pm. Don't know where the afternoon went really, it wasn't that exciting or action packed. It was a small group of people all except two of whom I've never met before. The location was a vacant area of land adjacent to the rail line about 100 metres on the down side (thats towards Spencer Street) of Middle Footscray. We saw a number of Frieght trains in between the fairly constant stream of sparks (thats electric commuter trains) and V/line trains on the adjacent pass (passenger train) lines. I only took a few photos and I'm not one for writting down numbers of trains so I won't go into too much detail.
On the way home I bought some doughnuts from the doughnut van at Footscray station. These are highly recomended after an afternooon standing out in the cold watching trains.
On the way home I bought some doughnuts from the doughnut van at Footscray station. These are highly recomended after an afternooon standing out in the cold watching trains.
Friday, September 23, 2005
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Metlink - enjoy the ride.
Currently all the train station, tram and bus signs in Melbourne are being upgraded to these new fangled colour coded signs, Blue for trains, Green for trams and Orange for busses. They look good (for now at least!)and I guess the colour coding helps people. The Tram and bus signs also go so far as to list near by tram, bus and train connections, train stations have signs of near by connecting services as well. Just yesterday I noticed the first Metlink style sign of any underground station (that I know of anyway) at Parliament station.
Saturday, September 17, 2005
Beetlemania!
The other night I was woken from a deep sleep by an intermittent buzzing sound acompanied by a tapping sound. At frist I thought it was some sort of electrical problem. I turned the light on only to find a beetle doing circuits of the room trying to get out. I lost sight of it so I went to the toilet. When I came back to my room I found the beetle had landed on my bedside table, so I grabbed the container I use to eject Huntsman spiders and captured it for release in the morning. Somehow after this I managed to knock over a nearly full glass of water and so spent the next five minutes cleaning up the mess.
By now I was wide awake so spent the next 3 hours listening to the radio before falling asleep at about 7:30. I didn't wake up until 11:30. As payback I didn't release the beetle until latter that night.
By now I was wide awake so spent the next 3 hours listening to the radio before falling asleep at about 7:30. I didn't wake up until 11:30. As payback I didn't release the beetle until latter that night.
Saturday, September 10, 2005
4000 Digital Photos!
It came as a surprise when reviewing some photos that I'd taken yesterday that I had just topped 4000 photos. So without further-a-do here is photo no. 4000:
Actually it is the 4000th image stored on this particular memory card. What happened was that when I bought the camera I didn't buy a memory card and so battled with the 16mb of built in memory for a few months. Therefore in reality I've actually taken more photos with the camera, but hey a milestone's a milestone. Get this though, at the time I paid $90 for a 128 mb Multimedia Card, I could have got an SD card of the same capacity for only $10 more, but I was tight arse (still am...). These days you'd be hard pressed to find the same cards for more than half that, if at all.
My camera is a dodgy little Kodak "EasyShare" CX4230. It's 2 Megapixel, with a crappy plastic 3x optical zoom lens. It goes a bit fuzzy towards the longer focal lengths but produces good images at wide angle (not always desirable). It also tends to freak out in less than perfect lighting conditions. I do however like to push it a bit, I've even taken a number of night photos using an improvised tripod (ie rolled up jumper or my backpack), an incresed EV of no more than a stop and the self timer to prevent any shake from pressing the shutter. Another thing I like to do is take glint shots looking generally towards the sun around sunset. This may be a point and shoot camera but I've been happy with some (definitely not all) of the results using the above techniques.
I picked it up in mid 2003 at $250, cheaper than normal as at the time the model was being phased out. For the same price I could have got a 3 Megapixel model without the optical zoom, I'm glad I didn't though. It's a though little bugger too, I've dropped it quite a few times and even kicked it like a football once, but it's still going strong. It does however have a few dead pixels, there are a couple of prominent red ones that show up when you take photos in very dark situations, nothing to really worry about though. All I can say is that it has served me well for the last two and a bit years.
Actually it is the 4000th image stored on this particular memory card. What happened was that when I bought the camera I didn't buy a memory card and so battled with the 16mb of built in memory for a few months. Therefore in reality I've actually taken more photos with the camera, but hey a milestone's a milestone. Get this though, at the time I paid $90 for a 128 mb Multimedia Card, I could have got an SD card of the same capacity for only $10 more, but I was tight arse (still am...). These days you'd be hard pressed to find the same cards for more than half that, if at all.
My camera is a dodgy little Kodak "EasyShare" CX4230. It's 2 Megapixel, with a crappy plastic 3x optical zoom lens. It goes a bit fuzzy towards the longer focal lengths but produces good images at wide angle (not always desirable). It also tends to freak out in less than perfect lighting conditions. I do however like to push it a bit, I've even taken a number of night photos using an improvised tripod (ie rolled up jumper or my backpack), an incresed EV of no more than a stop and the self timer to prevent any shake from pressing the shutter. Another thing I like to do is take glint shots looking generally towards the sun around sunset. This may be a point and shoot camera but I've been happy with some (definitely not all) of the results using the above techniques.
I picked it up in mid 2003 at $250, cheaper than normal as at the time the model was being phased out. For the same price I could have got a 3 Megapixel model without the optical zoom, I'm glad I didn't though. It's a though little bugger too, I've dropped it quite a few times and even kicked it like a football once, but it's still going strong. It does however have a few dead pixels, there are a couple of prominent red ones that show up when you take photos in very dark situations, nothing to really worry about though. All I can say is that it has served me well for the last two and a bit years.
The Art of Modern Dentistry
Yes that's right I went to the dentist on Thursday. While confident there was nothing wrong with my teeth, the fact that this was my first visit in two years had me worried. After a bit of a prod and a scrape with that little hook thing, the Dr proclaimed "finding decay in there is like finding a needle in a hay stack". I was glad because I really do try to look after my teeth, particularly because I had braces for two years as teenager at great expense to the Australian tax payer. So it was just a quick polish up with that tooth polisher thing that sounds like a drill but is actually a tooth polisher. All the fun of the drill but without the pain (drugs are for wusses!). And to top it off I got a free tooth brush, at least I don't think it was on my bill.
I think my dentist is really cool. On ya Dr. X*. He's jewish, just as a real dentist should be.
* - Not his real name, I don't think I should give his real name.
I think my dentist is really cool. On ya Dr. X*. He's jewish, just as a real dentist should be.
* - Not his real name, I don't think I should give his real name.
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Not much...
That pretty much sums up what I've been doing lately. I should be working on my major project, but I've being really having a good go at putting it off. I don't think I'm going to finish on time, if I finish it at all. The report is due at the end of October and I am supposed to make an oral presentation to other students, members of the faculty and industry at the begining of that month. I should get in contact with my supervisor, but I really have nothing to show him. Basically I'm screwed.
The problem is that I just lack organisational skills and any motivation. Also I've never really had to work on anyhting like this completely by myself, I just feel overwhelemed. My topic is shit, I have no idea how I ever thought I'd get a sizeable report (say 40,000 words) out of it. All I can say is that it seemed like a good idea at the time. I just need to get off my arse and do it.
I wish I had have taken some time off either last year or this year. I think I needed the break as I've been doing this course (Batchelor of applied science in Geomatics) for 4 years now. Before that I did 2 years at TAFE, an Advanced Diploma of Spatial Information. From there I articulated into the third year of the degree (it's a 4 year degree), so I should have graduated at the end of 2003, but due to various circumstances it's now 2005 and I still haven't finished.
All I need to do is finish the major project and uni for me is over...
Should I also mention that I need a job?
The problem is that I just lack organisational skills and any motivation. Also I've never really had to work on anyhting like this completely by myself, I just feel overwhelemed. My topic is shit, I have no idea how I ever thought I'd get a sizeable report (say 40,000 words) out of it. All I can say is that it seemed like a good idea at the time. I just need to get off my arse and do it.
I wish I had have taken some time off either last year or this year. I think I needed the break as I've been doing this course (Batchelor of applied science in Geomatics) for 4 years now. Before that I did 2 years at TAFE, an Advanced Diploma of Spatial Information. From there I articulated into the third year of the degree (it's a 4 year degree), so I should have graduated at the end of 2003, but due to various circumstances it's now 2005 and I still haven't finished.
All I need to do is finish the major project and uni for me is over...
Should I also mention that I need a job?
Saturday, August 27, 2005
Korean Food
This interesting restaurant is in Bourke Street.
Why would anyone want to eat barbecued grandmas? I'm sure Koreans add that something extra to make them taste good, but really...
Why would anyone want to eat barbecued grandmas? I'm sure Koreans add that something extra to make them taste good, but really...
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
to blog...
All the time I see or hear someithing that I think might make an interesting blog. There is just one problem thoug, I never actually get around to bloging it. Of course I can't actually remember anything right now... I'm sure I'll remember someting or think of something else. I hope. My new philosophy on this blog is short but frequent. Plus I want to post photos so I'm going to work out some sort of image hosting thing as well.
Friday, July 01, 2005
Spirit of Progress
Today I travelled on "The Spirit of Progress" to Seymour. This was a special steam train ran by Steamrail Victoria for the June/July school (and uni) holidays. Over these holidays a number trips are being run to places such as Traralgon, Bacchus Marsh and Seymour. The consist for the train was R761-PCP292-BZ269-BS206-BRS9-BS2-BK700. Photos online at my fotopic site.
I asked my friend Daniel to come along and he arrived bleary eyed at my house at the ungodly hour of 8.30 am. From there we managed to bum a ride to the station in time to catch the 8.38 train to the city. in order to get to Footscray where the special was departing from we needed to change trains in the city, I decided Parliament would be the best place to do this. We boarded the first train to arrive on platform 3, which was supposedly only going to Flinders Street. On arrival at Flinders Street we discovered it had become a Sydenham train so we got back on and were soon on our way to Footscray.
We arrived at Footscray with nearly 20 minutes before the scheduled departure time of 9.57am. The first thing I noticed was the lack of a crowd waiting. More people did arrive towards departure time, but there were not as many as I thought there would be. Pretty soon the train steamed around the bend and had pulled into the platform. Once on board we bought tickets at the kiosk and found ourselves in a comfy compartment of ex Westcoast Railway car BS206.
Pretty soon we were pulling into the platform at Sunshine to pick up more passengers. After the short stop we were again on our way towards Albion where the train would take the goods line towards Broadmeadows. Soon after entering the goods line we came to a halt for about 15 minutes for what we were latter told was a point failure further down the line.
After an extremely short stop at Broadmeadows at around 15 minutes behind schedule, we left the wires and were making progress north towards Seymour. Along the line between Broadmeadows and Cragieburn prepatory works were under way for electrification. Soon after Cragieburn we passed through Donnybrook, then Wallan, followed in quick succession by Heathcote Junction, Wandong and Kilmore East. A few minutes after that we passed through Broadford followed some time latter by Tallarook. It wasn't long before we slowed down for the Goulburn River bridge and arrival in Seymour only about 15 minutes behind Schedule at about 12.30pm.
Not long after arrival the train cleared the platform and made it's way to Seymour loco where R761 could be turned, serviced and re-attached to the other end of the train. Unfortunately it was raining when we arrived so it was a bit wet to be standing around taking photos, so we made our way across the road to the bakery where we had lunch. Unsatisfied we then found a fish and chip shop to get some chips. By the time we left the fish and chips it had stopped raining. For the next half an hour or so we hung around the station and saw the midday (ex melb) down Albury train arrive and depart. Just after 1.30 our train had docked in the platform and everyone went nuts taking photos of the loco. After a few minutes of this we decided to find our compartment and settle in for the return journey.
Departing Seymour at 2.02pm (2 minutes down) the return journey was uneventfull, the exception being a short unscheduled stop at Heathcote Junction. We arrived at Footscray near enough on time at around 3:43pm. After everyone had de-trained the train made it's way back to North Melbourne. From Footscray we caught an up Werribee spark to Spencer Street and changed there (via new concourse) to the 4:13pm down Eltham.
I asked my friend Daniel to come along and he arrived bleary eyed at my house at the ungodly hour of 8.30 am. From there we managed to bum a ride to the station in time to catch the 8.38 train to the city. in order to get to Footscray where the special was departing from we needed to change trains in the city, I decided Parliament would be the best place to do this. We boarded the first train to arrive on platform 3, which was supposedly only going to Flinders Street. On arrival at Flinders Street we discovered it had become a Sydenham train so we got back on and were soon on our way to Footscray.
We arrived at Footscray with nearly 20 minutes before the scheduled departure time of 9.57am. The first thing I noticed was the lack of a crowd waiting. More people did arrive towards departure time, but there were not as many as I thought there would be. Pretty soon the train steamed around the bend and had pulled into the platform. Once on board we bought tickets at the kiosk and found ourselves in a comfy compartment of ex Westcoast Railway car BS206.
Pretty soon we were pulling into the platform at Sunshine to pick up more passengers. After the short stop we were again on our way towards Albion where the train would take the goods line towards Broadmeadows. Soon after entering the goods line we came to a halt for about 15 minutes for what we were latter told was a point failure further down the line.
After an extremely short stop at Broadmeadows at around 15 minutes behind schedule, we left the wires and were making progress north towards Seymour. Along the line between Broadmeadows and Cragieburn prepatory works were under way for electrification. Soon after Cragieburn we passed through Donnybrook, then Wallan, followed in quick succession by Heathcote Junction, Wandong and Kilmore East. A few minutes after that we passed through Broadford followed some time latter by Tallarook. It wasn't long before we slowed down for the Goulburn River bridge and arrival in Seymour only about 15 minutes behind Schedule at about 12.30pm.
Not long after arrival the train cleared the platform and made it's way to Seymour loco where R761 could be turned, serviced and re-attached to the other end of the train. Unfortunately it was raining when we arrived so it was a bit wet to be standing around taking photos, so we made our way across the road to the bakery where we had lunch. Unsatisfied we then found a fish and chip shop to get some chips. By the time we left the fish and chips it had stopped raining. For the next half an hour or so we hung around the station and saw the midday (ex melb) down Albury train arrive and depart. Just after 1.30 our train had docked in the platform and everyone went nuts taking photos of the loco. After a few minutes of this we decided to find our compartment and settle in for the return journey.
Departing Seymour at 2.02pm (2 minutes down) the return journey was uneventfull, the exception being a short unscheduled stop at Heathcote Junction. We arrived at Footscray near enough on time at around 3:43pm. After everyone had de-trained the train made it's way back to North Melbourne. From Footscray we caught an up Werribee spark to Spencer Street and changed there (via new concourse) to the 4:13pm down Eltham.
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