Super Mario Kart

I've been playing Super Mario Kart on ZSNES a bit lately. So far I've beaten the Mushroom Cup, Flower Cup and Star Cup. I have not yet beaten the Special cup because...


I keep falling off the track in the final race, and end up falling behind the rest of the field so far that I get lapped.

Once again, I came last...

Clouds

Clouds looking south from near Myrniong Vic 3 June 2007

These are the clouds that brought snow to the beach yesterday.

Powerlines

They reckon the planes put people off, or the powerlines, not dad he reckons powerlines are a reminder of man’s ability to generate electricity

-Dale Kerrigan, The Castle

Photo taken on a walk not far from my home about 2 years ago with a very primitive digital camera, one that I've had for nearly 6 years (it was primitive when I bought it). One day while pretending to do some work in the library at uni I stumbled across a site (and this one) with photos taken on a gameboy camera, this got me thinking about digging out this old camera and taking some photos with it. A month or two later I finally got around to it, and this photo is one of the results. The photo is full resolution, all I have done to it is make it black and white. This camera chews through batteries like there's no tommorow. It takes four AAs and is a heavy bugger.

iPod

Not last weekend but the weekend before I did the unthinkable and bought an iPod. I still have mixed feelings about it. $350 for a 30gb hard drive? Sounds crazy to me. I've slowly been converting cds into mp3 format(not AAC! and using creative software no less). I had converted some already for my old 1gb creative (basically any CD I bought after that point). So far I'm about half way through. I think I've got the whole iTunes thing sorted as well, the key is to manually sync everything, rather than letting iTunes do it. I'm still getting used to some of the idiosyncrasies of the iPod.

Font test

Font appears to be normal.

Test passed.

Funicular

I found a site a year or so ago (or did I, I can't recall how I came across it), a webzine devoted to funicular railways, called Funimag. A funicular is a railway where the carriages get hauled up and down hills by cables driven by steam, electric or internal combustion engines, and I suppose the odd beast of burden. A good example is the Scenic Railway at Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, which was originally used to haul coal out of the Jamison Valley, but today survives as a tourist attraction.

Just off the top of my head I believe that I have been on two funiculars. The first being the scenic railway, which remains as one of my earliest childhood memories from when my dad took me on it when I was 2 years old. It's funny to look back on it now, but this was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. Earlier in the year when I went to Sydney I conquered my demons and once again rode the scenic. I am quite certain that I was justified for being scared as a two year old, because that thing is steep, and travels quite fast too. It was more fun this time though.

Scenic Railway, Katoomba, NSW February 2007.

My other funicular experience is the funicular that climbs Montmatre in Paris. This is a much more sedate ride, in equipment of more modern appearance. The ticket to ride it was a standard Paris Metro ticket, which I still have.

Montmatre Funicular ticket from October 1994

EDIT - Apologies for the smaller writing, I did something to the font in this post and I can't get it to go back to normal.

Pirates!

Arr, 'tis true I seen ye pirates Aye!

Yep that's right, tonight, I went to see Opera Australia's production of The Pirates of Penzance. Anthony Warlow did a great rendition of the Pirate King, taking his cue from Johny Depp in that"other" Pirates. It was almost as if Anthony Warlow was playing Johnny Depp, playing Captain Jack Sparrow, Playing The Pirate King. In fact, he did the same in HMS Pinafore last year and The Mikado the year before, but I guess that just goes to show how formulaic Gilbert and Sullivan are. David Hobson did a good job as Frederick, and the rest of the cast was great too. Special mention goes to Reg Livermore as Majpr General Stanley, Suzanne Johnstone as Ruth, Taryn Fiebig as Mabel and Shane Lowrencecev as The Sergeant of police.

Scenery was sparse, but the props were well used. Captions were also used which helped with understanding some of the faster songs. I'm still not sure where exactly all those syllables fit in. In fact in one part the caption just read "Too much information, just look at the stage".

I enjoyed it.


Hopefully I'll get to see that"other" pirates soon.

Primary School

I know it's really easy these days for parents to blame schools for their "dumb" children, but I believe I could have received more help in a few areas . The teachers seemed more interested on cramming in as much of the curriculum as possible, rather than helping me understand it. These a few things I can pin point:

• I never learnt to hold a pen or pencil properly.
• I write my 5s funny.
• I never learnt to do long division properly.

I know the first two sound trivial, but my handwriting really is terrible, although if I concentrate on it I can write neat-ish sometimes.

Supposedly my primary school was a "good" school, but now that that I think about it, perhaps it wasn't such a good school. Probably the best thing it had going for it was it's size, which was pretty small, although this too was a bad thing as it resulted in lots of composite classes.

Cars v Pedestrians

This started as a comment in Andrew's blog (does this title look familiar?), but thought I may as well continue on here:

Last week I was crossing a busy road not far from my house with the traffic lights, and nearly got ran over by a woman doing a right hand turn. This particular intersection consists of a major 6 lane road with median strip, a local side street, and the entrance to a railway station carpark. I was crossing from the station to the side street on the right hand side of the road facing on coming traffic. I set out across the road when the green man appeared (not an alien!), as I crossed the median I checked over my shoulder for cars turning right. As I stepped out into the roadway I realised that the car was not slowing down and so took a step back onto the median. At this point she braked, but because I'd stepped back shed continue on. Maybe I should have held my ground, but I didn't want to get ran over (obviously). What really annoyed me though was the fact that she mouthed a thank you as she drove past. All I could do was stand there with my arms open in a questioning gesture as it happened too quick for me to form words in my mouth.

This intersection has always been dangerous to cross at due to drivers in a hurry to get out of the station car park, and it's pretty much the only legal way to get to the station from that side of the road. For as long as I can remember this intersection has had flashing "watch for pedestrians" signs for cars doing right hand turns into the major road.

Last year an old woman was killed by a vehicle doing a right hand turn in exactly the same location. (I believe the vehicle was a bus, but don't quote me.) Afterwards there was a campaign by residents and the local ward councilor to improve the pedestrian crossing. This was somewhat successful, and resulted in some tweaking of the traffic light sequence by extending the walk time and larger brighter LED "watch for pedestrians" signs. The extended walk sequence allows you to get about half way across the intersection before the lights go green for cars traveling in the same direction and turning right (left hand turns from these directions have always been controlled by arrows). This is the point at which I nearly got hit last week, and was certainly not the first time, I've had many a close call at this location in the same circumstances. There is no room for either an underpass or overpass due to powerlines being located in the exact spot you'd put them (more on the effectiveness of these in slightly different circumstances at Peter Parker's blog), and short of having a "pedestrians only-only" time in the intersection I don't know what can be done.

My Horrorscope Today

So I turn the page of the paper to read the following, I swear these are written by the same people who write the messages in greeting cards:

Ruling Mars comes home to roost and lights a fire underneath you. A sense of urgency replaces lethargy, prompting you to take charge and act instinctively. There is also more physical energy at your disposal.

I like the sound of that as lethargic is a pretty good description of how I've been feeling recently, a bit of energy would be good.

P.S. I remembered what it was that I thought I'd blog about tonight...

Bright ideas

I actually do have a few ideas for blog entries, but they are still formulating. On the train this morning I did have an idea that I intended to have a go at tonight, but I've totally forgotten it for now. I do some of my deepest thinking on the train and in bed at night, but it usually escapes me when the day gets into full swing and my brain is full of the day to day things. Oh well...

Perhaps I should write these things down?

Touching Base

God I hate that term. I over hear it used at work sometimes. Thankfully no one says it to me, if they did I'd punch them in the nose. I assume the term is of American origin, talking about touching bases in a baseball game. Perhaps not?

Anyway just "touching base" with another general update...

On Friday night I went to a play put on by one of the local amateur theater companies. It was called Silvia and was about a man finding a stray dog called Silvia in the park and taking her home. Basically he fell in love with the dog making his wife jealous. Silvia (the dog remember) was played by a person, and was almost too convincing in the role. As was said in they play, she really did have a cute butt, especially when she came back from the dog groomers in the frilly French knickers (ooh la la!).

One of the actors ( a man) played three roles, another male dog owner in the park, a female friend of the wife, and a gender bending psychiatrist. As he/she put it in the play, "am I a man pretending to be a woman or a woman pretending to be a man". By far the best of this trio was the female friend, who had trouble walking in high heels, an alcohol problem and who seemed to attract much attention from the dog. This resulted in more than a glimpse of suspenders and stockings from under her dress, and the audience in stitches. One observation I made of some of the older men in the audience at this point was that they didn't seem too keen on the idea of a man in drag, in fact they looked a bit uncomfortable if not threatened, the women however loved it.

Saturday, I went to the football. In the end Collingwood beat Carlton, I was very happy, we are now third on the ladder. Afterwards we went to the (new for this year) usual pub, the Imperial on the corner of Bourke Street and Spring Street. That place is bride central on Saturday afternoon, I reckon I saw at least 5 or 6 on the walk there. The other thing we saw on the walk from the 'G' was a pair of international students (they were Asian, and I assume that all young Asian people I see in the city are international students) throwing a tennis ball to each other in the Fitzroy Gardens. Not so strange, except that they were putting very little effort into their throws and showing almost no facial expression.

After a pint at the pub (happy hour!), we made our way down Little Bourke street looking for a feed. We ended up in a little place in Heffernan Lane called Kum Den (no I kid you not, almost as good as hung long video). For the price, the food was exceptional. Although, I was a bit concerned about the upside down Barramundi swimming around in the fish tank (there were at leas two of them), I made mental note not to order any fish dishes...

Sunday was of course mothers day. We took mum out for lunch to a nursery/cafe in Yarrambat. The food was pretty good, especially the mud cake I had for dessert. Later in the afternoon we went around to my brothers house for a barbecue which was also good. For mothers day this year I gave mum a DVD of Sweet Charity and Thoroughly Modern Milly (she likes old musicals) and some Belgian Sea Shel Chocolates, she seemed quite pleased.

From my eldest brother in Northern NSW mum didn't get a present, but instead the news that he is in the process of leaving his wife, which is not really the worst news in the world because we all (Mum, my brother in Melbourne, his wife and myself) think she is a bitch have seen it coming for years. Even my eldest niece (she's 10), daughter of eldest brother thinks it's a good thing that they get separated. The marriage was quite literally at the behest of a farmer with a shotgun not quite 11 years ago (you do the calculations). So far, it seems like an amicable separation...

The truth about Americans...

If we ever needed proof that Americans (by Americans I mean the U.S. government and agents there of ...mostly. I do realise that there are many switched on individuals in the USA just like everywhere else) are a bit dim about happenings (just) outside their borders, then read this.

I wish we had coins like this.

The good and the bad days

Yesterday was a good day, today was a bad day. Most days lately fall into the bad category. I've been late to work (while I have no set starting time, by late I mean that I arrive after my preferred arrival time), I've been tired, and feeling generally crap. Yesterday I worked out what it is. It's a lack of sleep, and a lack of preparation for the next day the night before. It feeds on itself, making me later and feeling crappier as each day passes, and it affects this blog, because I don't feel like using the computer at home when I'm in this state.

The difference with yesterday was that on Sunday night I made my lunch, arranged what I was going to wear, and went to bed early.

I also blame Connex, as if I leave too late and miss the 15 minute window of easy connections at Flinders Street I'm half an hour "late" for work. It happened this morning, I missed all four of my optimal conections, add in the uncertainty of which platform the next train leaves from, a bit of essence of late running, and you've got a recipe for me being pissed off. I mean my train left from platform 13 for gods sake, and then it was about 7 minutes late.

The ironing is taken care of, so right now I'm off to make some sandwiches...

ANZAC Biscuits

Almost forgot to mention that the night before ANZAC day I decided to make ANZAC biscuits. This was my first time cooking biscuits, and that despite not realising exactly how much bigger a table spoon is compared to a desert spoon (where some evasive action saved the mixture from being too dry), they turned out very well. I got my recipe from an ANZAC Day website, which also includes a little background info on how they came to be.

ANZAC Day

Here is the belated ANZAC Day post I intended to post on the night of the 25th, but didn't.

Mum and I went into the city after the parade had finished and visited the Shrine. Arriving after 1pm we managed to catch the very end of the service. As the crowds dispersed we went over to the eternal flame, where for some odd reason people were throwing coins into it as if it were a wishing well. I don't understand why they would do this, and I certainly do not approve, what a waste of money.



On the way back towards the city we were diverted around the St Kilda Road end of the shrine forecourt/ANZAC Avenue (we were diverted on the way in as well but didn't know why). It turned out that someone had left a bag behind and the bomb squad had been called to check it out. We got to watch the bomb squad robot empty the contents of the bag on to the ground before a police officer in a "bomb proof" suit came out to inspect it. luckily it was a false alarm.


By now we were hungry, and went to the Southgate for lunch, I ended up having a Nando's supremem chicken burger (or something like that). It was nice, especially the roll, but I still think I prefer Oporto. While the Nando's peri-peri is nice and hot which I like, I think I prefer the flavour of the Oporto chili.

After lunch it was onwards along the Yarra, past the Casino and the Exhibition centre and across the river to Docklands. It turns out that the Melbourne Maratime Museum, more commonly known as "The Polly Woodside" is closed, and the whole trail along South Wharf is due to be closed in the next month due to the nearby construction of the new convention centre and Hilton Hotel. Also to be constructed is a new footbridge linking the Exhibition Centre and the world Trade Centre.

After climbing the docklands hill to admire the view it was only a short walk to Southern Cross station and the train home. At Jolimont many Essendon supporters joined the train, the good news was that they had left game early as Collingwood was winning. That pretty much topped the day off for me.

Washing Machine Mystery #42

Why is it that my shorts always manage to turn themselves inside out? Although technically they turn themselves outside in, because I wash my clothes inside out, but I think you understand what I mean...

In case you didn't guess, I did some washing this morning, I hope it fines up a bit more so it get's a chance to get half dry. According to the radar the showers have all but gone from this neck of the woods.

Speaking of rain, the neighbours were washing their car in the rain this morning, ingenious.

Hey Buddy

I hate being called buddy. It's always people I don't know who call me buddy. I don't know you, and I'm not your buddy. I probably shouldn't take offense, but to me it is something of a put down. Don't do it OK people don't like it.

Easter

Better late than never, eh...

Easter this year was pretty good.

Friday:

Went to the movies with a friend to see Mr Bean's Holiday.

Definitely better than the last Mr Bean Film, and different enough from the TV series to make it worthwhile. While it did include some of the same old jokes, most of the film was new material. It was good to see Mr Bean make some friends for a change. Don't be put off by the bad reviews, they don't know what they are talking about.

I'll give it **** (four stars)

Saturday:

Shopping.

Sunday:

Visited my brother, his wife and kids at Anglesea with mum. The had a camping site in the foreshore caravan park from Good Friday until last Sunday. The weather was great, I actually went swimming. Most people were going in with wet suits on (wimps!), but I braved it, due to the fact that I don't actually own a wet suit. After the usual initial shock of cold water it was fine, the problem was getting out. Later on my cousin and her husband who happened to be down that way dropped in for an unexpected visit. I ended up drinking a beer which meant that I couldn't drive home, so Mum had to drive home. We stopped at Hungry Jacks in Geelong for dinner on the way home.

Monday:

Went and had a look at the Hobsons Bay Model Railway Exhibition. This is always by far the best model railway show around. Until last year it was always held in the stadium at Albert Park Secondary College, but due to that school closing it was moved to Collingwood College. I found it a bit so so this year, perhaps like the air show I feel I've seen it all before. One of the best things about these types of events is the sausage sizzle, unfortunately this year a new system was implemented whereby you had to go and buy a ticket from the canteen before going out to the BBQ and collect your sausage. Unfortunately the last ticket was sold to the person in line in front of me. Not happy.

Hungry, and for some reason or other we decided to make our way to Beacon Cove for fish and chips at D'Lish. Not as expensive as Doyle's in Sydney, but still pretty good. The final leg of the day was a drive down along the bay to Mordialloc, and back to Elwood before cutting cross country via Hotham Street, Alexandra Parade,Grange Road, Madden Grove, Swan Street, Power Street, Denmark Street, Princess Street, Willsmere Road Kilby Road and Burke Road, back to the right side of the Yarra.

That's about it really.

Are Apples Lemons?(And Computers in General...)

All these people with iPods that they need to send back for repair have got me wondering as to whether, Apple really do make quality products. Mind you, I've never really heard about any apple computers having serious problems. Perhaps it's more to do with the number of people who use these products, with iPods making up a large proportion of mp3 players out there, problems are more likely to get noticed, while the relatively small proportion of Mac computers go largely unnoticed. I don't know anyone (in person anyway) that uses a Mac (OK I have a crappy old Powerbook, but I never use it, it was a fad with me at the time), and yet they seem to get a much higher coverage in the media, than their actual installed user base (marketing 101).

The above is what I originally intended to post, what follows is the diarrhea that flows out of my brain after midnight.



On a number of occasions in the last 6 months or so I've been temped to just go out and buy a mac mini to see what the fuss is about, If I like it I'll keep it, otherwise it will go on eBay. That is until I realise I can get a much better spec'ed PC for about half the price, one that allows me to keep doing the things I do now, the same way, plus other stuff my current PC is too gutless to do.

Then there's the whole thing about these great little slimline HP PC's I keep seeing in Dick Smith and Officeworks, but nah I'm cautious of those too. In then end I again convince myself that I could get/build a PC that's just as good if not better for half the price.

Then there's the whole laptop debate. Very interesting is that one, but can't bring myself to fork out twice the price for outdated hardware and substandard drive capacities, lack of dvd burning and lack of memory, and the fact that now it's very rare to find a new laptop not running some version of Windows Vista.


Honestly this is what goes my head, while I sit here with this dinosaur (seemingly unbreakable it is too) that gets older by the week. It's at least 7 years old (Not sure exactly I got it second hand), and all I've done to it is put in a larger hard drive, a CD burner and more ram. All the peripherals are fairly recent as well, a sexy LCD screen, a good mouse and keyboard and a brand spanking new set of speakers. Would it kill me to fork out the 5 or 6 hundred dollars to get something new, something that I could muck about with Google earth on and play some games made in the last five years on?

That time of the year again.

The footy season has begun. Now before I go too far I'd better state my alegences. I'm one of the most hated of all football supporters. Yes, that's right, I barrack for Collingwood, and damn proud of it. I was born into it, and grew up in an area where most, well every second person at least, barracks for Collingwood. Although I say I barrack for them, but I'm just not that into footy, I've never played (never will), and I definitely don't know all the ins and outs of the game as well as some of my friends do, and I'm a bit hopeless at players names and numbers. Never the less I enjoy watching my team play.

This brings us to yesterday. Earlier in the week we arranged to go to the footy, after meeting under the clocks we made out way to Transport for a quick drink and one of their semi famous $10 over the bar steak sandwiches, yum. Having satisfied our hunger we made our way to the 'G' via Barak Bridge to watch the Magpies take on the Kangaroos.

What an utterly boring game that was, the only redeeming feature being that Collingwood had a bit of a resurgence in the fourth quarter to win by 3 points. The game was a comedy of errors, both teams making stupid mistakes, overall the Kangaroos were the better team, but their cause wasn't helped by hitting the post from 15 meters out, straight in front of the goals. I daydreamed through the whole 3rd quarter. zZZ...

We started the game in the new "Ponsford" stand but it too cold so we moved over the Great Southern Stand at half time, whereI got sunburnt. It was interesting to note how cramped the southern stand feels in comparison to the new stand. I prefer the new one even if it doesn't get the sun.

After the game we retired to the Imperial Tavern on the corner of Bourke and Spring for a few drinks. It was interesting watching all the bridal parties come and go on the steps of Parliament over the road. We came to the conclusion that bridesmaids dresses really are designed to make the bride look good, even if she does look like a marang. We had a few beers and before we knew it, it was 7pm and time to go our separate ways.

It was a good day all up, and one thing I learned was never to knock back a win, no matter how bad your team plays.

Picasa web albums

It appears that Google is hoarding all the photos that people post to their blogs in Picasa web albums. At the moment it's only photos that were posted after December last year, but they claim to be working on migrating all photos people have ever posted. That's great. I might consider dumping my flickr album which I never use anyway.

In general, I seem to be languishing in the photo taking at the moment, I just can't be bothered. The photos I took at the air show are evidence of this.

Airshow

Catalina, Hornet and Tiger Moth

Yep, once again I ventured to the airshow. And you know what? It was boring. I've lost count of the airshows I've been too, I think I've been to all of them except for the the first 2 (92 and 95), and I may have missed either 2001 or 2003. It was probably most disappointing because there was nothing new or different there, I'd seen it all before, in fact I reckon there were things missing that had been there in previous years.

It wasn't all bad though, once again V/Line did a wonderful job of getting the crowds to and from the event. I walked straight off a suburban train and straight on to an airshow (Lara) train at Southern Cross, and then straight on to a bus at Lara. Bloody briliant. After the airshow I hung around on the flight line watching the departing aircraft while the hordes went home, I only left when security came around rounding up the stragglers. Again it was straight on to the bus to Lara station and a 5 - 10 minute wait before the 6 car VLocity train turned up, smooth and fast. I pity the fools who drive to the airshow, of course the only way to get there is in style and fly in.

At the end of the day I was $110 down, in possession of a new hat ($25), a program ($10), and a mild case of sunburn. (it cost $45 to get in, the train ticket was $16 and I spent about $12 on food and drink, I'm not too sure where the rest of it went)

Where'd all the water go?

Sugarloaf Reservoir - September 30 2006



Sugarloaf Reservoir - March 18 2007



The first photo was taken on grand final day, when I went fishing at Sugarloaf Reservoir, I was surprised to find this much water in the reservoir. Then on Sunday, nearly 6 months later we visited the reservoir and found the reservoir nearly empty. Sugarloaf Reservoir is fed from the Maroondah Reservoir near Healsville via the Maroondah Aqueduct, and the Yarra River. The first photo was taken from around about the greyish coloured rocks on the shoreline to the left of the second photo. The hill in the background of both photos is called Mt Graham.

Oh and if anyone is wondering I only caught one fish, a small Redfin, on grand final day. I threw it back. There are also Trout (Brown and Rainbow), Golden Perch and Carp. There are eels too, but no body talks about those...

Sydney has trams too.

A lot of people may not realise that Sydney has a short light rail line. It is much like the St Kilda and Port Melbourne lines in Melbourne in that much of the line is a former heavy rail line. The line originally opened in 1997, and ran from Central Station to Darling Harbour, and around the other side of Pyrmont to terminate at Wentworth Park. In 2000 the line was extended to its current terminus at Lilyfield. Major attractions served by the line include Darling Harbour, Star City Casino and the Sydney Fish Markets. The line is operated by Metro Transport who also operate the Sydney Monorail. A definitive history of the line can be found at Matthew Geier's Sydney Light Rail web page. There is a technical fact sheet on the system available here.







Sorry about the last photo, I was having a bit of an Alfred Hitchcock moment...;-p

QEII and QMII

Well there they are, the file names do all the explaining.

General Updates

I don't know where the last two weeks have gone but here I am.

(Is it just me or do I say things like the above far too often on this blog?)

On the long weekend just passed I really did nothing in particular, it was nice and long though. I enjoyed it so much that I had trouble hauling myself out of bed this morning. I was an hour late for work...(it's OK though, my hours are very flexible)

Friday Evening: Uncle Ben's child minding emporium (no pies or dog food to be seen, you'd be surprised how often I'm asked about Uncle Ben's pies) was open for business. We played AFX slot cars before fighting world war 3 at bed time. I won (or perhaps it was tierdness?), in the end...

Saturday: Shopping and lunch at local shopping centre.

Sunday: Went to see The Illusionist. It was a great film, very mysterious and was well cast. It was set in Vienna but filmed in Prague, so was visually fantastic.

Monday: Took a "Sunday" drive to Kyneton and Malmsbury. Had a pie from the Malmsbury bakery.Very highly recommended. Walked around the botanic gardens before driving home again. The Malmsbury Botanic Gardens feature a lake, which unlike lake Wendouree in Ballarat still has some water in it, although it's not much more than a mud puddle. The ducks didn't seem to mind though.

That's it really.

P.S. I finally got around to going through my Sydney photos, so I might post a few over the next few weeks. And I might even install the final installment into my Sydney tale soon too.

Sydney ferries again

Lady Herron at Circular Quay. It's weird because only yesterday while driving over the Westgate bridge did I notice the same type of ferry moored in the Yarra River at Spotswood. It was Lady something, but the writing was too small to read. I believe Sydney Ferries only operate two of this class of ferry these days.

I love Sydney Ferries

If you've read my rather lengthy posts on my trip to Sydney, you may realise that I spent a lot of time riding on the ferries. Over my various visits to Sydney I've come to love them. To me they have a personality, and think that they say Sydney as much as a green and cream (or red and cream) W class tram says Melbourne.

Much to my delight I discovered a book at the ARHS NSW book shop at Central Station, The Sydney Ferry Book, by Dale Budd and Randall Willson. These are the same authors who wrote the fantastic Melbourne Tram Book. I did intend to go back and buy the book but totally forgot on my last morning in Sydney. I must visit the Railfan Shop in Melbourne to see if they stock it or can order it in for me. Or I could just order it through the Railway Digest book listing, or the ARHS NSW online bookshop, which I just discovered while gathering links for this post.

Such Great Heights

The end of the world: Back in Melbourne

I can't believe I've been back in Melbourne for 6 days. My time away in Sydney felt like about two weeks, but in reality it was only 5 days. I've decided that I need more holidays. Perhaps next time I'll go somewhere I haven't been before.

I'll finish blogging about the rest of my trip (as boring as it may be) over the weekend, with some backdated posts. I've been jotting down dot points of things I did so I don't forget. And I'll probably try and get some photos up as well.

I always find it interesting to draw comparisons between Sydney and Melbourne. The thing that struck me the most this time is how green and lush the vegetation is up there, there's lush green lawns everywhere. And fountains, they have water running in their fountains. I thought Sydney was meant to be in the middle of the same drought we are, obviously not. From what I've seen on the TV weather it's been raining pretty much the whole time since I left on Saturday under very threatening looking skies.

The other comparison is how laid back and Melbourne is, Sydney is so busy (traffic jams at 9pm on Tuesday evenings don't help). The humidity is another thing that I don't like about Sydney, although apparently we had that in Melbourne last week as well. Actually, it feels pretty humid now. Another difference is the public transport, I can see the good and bad of both cities. I think I'll save that for another post though.

I' don't mean to sound negative towards Sydney, I like it a lot, it's just different to Melbourne.

Ben's Adventures in Sydney: The Motion Picture

Having ran out of Star Wars film titles I've had to resort to Star Trek.

I heard something somewhere, I'm not sure where actually, that dick Cheeny is in town and that traffic would bad , and no trains would be running. Which is why I am sitting here now at an airport internet kiosk. My flight starts boarding in about 40 minutes. The bus ride to the airporst wasn't too bad actually, thank god they only charged $2.40 instead of the usual $15 to use the airport train service.

A bit of a sour note is that I lost two T-Shirts I bought in the hostel somewhere (either that or they were stolen!). I didn't realise until I packed up my stuff and left the room. I lodged a report with reception, I'm positive I didn't leave anything behind in the locker in the room. I've even checked my bag twice. I'm a bit pissed off actually.

The other thing is that after getting back from the Blue Mountains last night I just felt sick in the stomache and had a headache. It was an exhausting (but good and totaly worth it) day. I just curled up on my bed and well just lay there. Eventually I decided I needed something to eat, and rememered that KFC is a good medicine for sick stomaches. I know it sounds strange, but it worked for me once. This time it worked with middling success. I did feel better, but still not real well. I felt the pain move through my intestines through the night, it started high but by early in the morning it was low, and was gone by the time I woke up. I can feel it coming back now, I hope I don't get airsick.

I suppose the good news is that I have a window seat for the flight back to Melbourne. I'm really looking forward to sleeping in my own bed again. I put fresh sheets on it the day I left. I will not miss the hostel, in fact I don't think I will stay there again. They claim to clean the rooms thoroughly, but I doubt it, and the bathrooms are small and grotty. But yes, Mum's cooking and my own bed beckon...

Ben's Adventures in Sydney: Train and Shopping Day

After toying with the idea of going to the Blue Mountains, I realised that I had missed the most appropriate train to get there (it takes 2 hours so you have leave early-ish to get the most out of the day). So I went with plan B which was to begin with watching freight trains pass Canterbury Station. From what I have read on the internet, there is a steady stream of freight trains passing here throughout the day. I was not disappointed. In a little over an hour and a half I saw 8 trains on the goods lines. I took quite a few photos, and even photographed a few sparks in the downtime. It was good.

Getting a bit bored, I decided to move on. The other train related thing I wanted to do was ride on the Carlingford Line. This blue line on the Sydney rail map has always intrigued me. To get there I needed to get first to Lidcombe, which necessitated traveling thorough notorious suburbs such as Lakemba and Bankstown. Much to my surprise (when considering how this area is portrayed in the Media) there was hardly a Muslim extremist to be seen. Instead there were many people from any number of faiths and ethnicities. Once at Lidcombe I needed to find a train heading west that stopped at the junction station of Clyde, only two stops further on. Eventually one turned up after nearly half an hour and I was on my way.

Branching off the main western line at Clyde it off up into the hills terminating nowhere in particular (as I found out it starts nowhere in particular as well), when most lines in Sydney seem to go somewhere, or at least loop back on themselves. I wasn't disappointed however, as it passes through an area of Sydney I was totally unfamiliar with, the most notable highlight being Rosehill Racecourse. The frequency is appalling and I risked getting stranded for an hour getting out at Carlingford to take a photo of the train, luckily there was about a 5 minute turn around. I would compare it with the Alamein Line in Melbourne except that it's longer, has a worse service and appears to traverse less well-to-do suburbs.

Back at Clyde I decided to go to Paramatta, don't know why but it seemed the logical place to go when searching for food in that part of Sydney. I ended up in the Westfield Shopping Centre, but nothing in the basement level food court took my fancy at the time so I went seeking the other food court. This place is huge, it's got at least 5 levels (although they are all narrow and head in the same direction). I ended up wasting a few hours here. Upon re-emerging into daylight to get the train back to Sydney (an express to Gosford stopping at only Lidcombe and Strathfield) I discovered that the clouds had rolled in and it was raining. No complaints from me, it was refreshing.

Once back in town, I took some time to re-group in the hostel before heading over to Market City in Hay Market where I ended up buying some T-Shirts which subsequently got lost/stolen. Gunzel time again struck when I took some time to photo some Sydney trams/light rail. Becoming lazy I opted for a light dinner at Darling Harbour, before just vegging out on a step overlooking the water for an hour or so. Again I took the light rail back to the hostel, but decided to forgo the beer because I decided that tommorow was my last chance to go to the Blue Mountains before returning home.

Ben's Adventures in Sydney: Train and Ferry Day.

Wednesday, ah yes, I slept in 'till 10 I think. I decided to take it easy and start off with a train ride. I ended up at Berowra via the North Shore. On the way back to the city I stopped off at Waverton and Wolstoncraft for a bit of gunzel photography (I'm a sucker for a curved platform), although I wasn't really into it and the results weren't too good.

By the time I got back to the city it was about 2:00pm. After a quick bite of lunch I decided to hit the ferries for the afternoon. Focusing on routes I haven't been on before, I chose Woolwich and Mosman. Having missed the Mosman ferry, Woolwich was the go.

I always enjoy the ferry to Darling Harbour as it goes under the bridge and through the less well known parts of the harbour. The Woolich ferry was no exception, passing all kinds of boat yards, and more "mundane" harbour side suburbs. I just love the "industrialness" of this area. We called at warves such as Birchgrove and Grenwich before arriving at Woolwich. At Woolwich we appeared to suffer some sort of engine trouble and the captain came down to inspect the engine. It can't have been too serious as we were soon on our way back to Circular Quay, via a few extra wharves in Balmain and the like.

Once at Circular Quay we appeared to play chicken with a number of larger boats before berthing. These included cruise boats such as Captain Cook and Matilda, as well as the larger Manly Ferries. I wasn't complaining, I was enjoying my cruise. Once on the wharf I needn't have exited the barriers as the Mosman Ferry departed from the opposite side.

The Mossman ferry was an experience and a half, it's like Toorak with water up that narrow inlet. Certainly a very nice part of the world to live, but limited to the privileged few. I'll add that to places in Sydney I would live if given the chance (yeah right!).

From there I decided to go and check out Kings Cross and Potts Point. Taking the train, I went the long way via Museum meaning I had to change at Central instead of Town hall. My main reason for going there was to have a look at some accommodation I considered staying at, both places seemed reasonable, and I might stay at either next time.

What struck me the most was the Contrast between Kings Cross and Potts Point. You walk out of the Kings Cross train station and turn left, passing all the sex shops, backpacker oriented shops and homeless people as you go. Then you turn the corner in to Macleay Street (it's the same street, but there's a bend) Potts Point. Everything is neat and very up market, the people are well dressed and there's luxury cars driving down the leafy street. It's almost like there's a line drawn across the road and the footpath, odd indeed. Back into King's Cross and heading south down Victoria Street I did consider eating at one of the two Thai noodle restaurants nearby, but decide I was not hungry enough.

Next stop was Bondi Junction for a bit of a look around, but by the time I got there, all the shops were shut. So after a brief walk around the Mall it was back on the train to Town Hall. When I got there I decided to take the Monorail to Darling harbour. It's clearly targeted at the dumb tourist and priced to match, but for me it's one of the things to do in Sydney. I could have used my daytripper on the bus instead, oh well.

So after wandering around the Harbourside "Tourist Trap" shopping complex I had Oporto for dinner. After wandering around a bit more I ended up at Star City Casino. By now I was buggered, so decided to tram it back to the hostel. On the way I got a little side tracked, and ended up having a few beers at a bar in Haymarket before going to an internet cafe I was familiar with in George Street for a while.

Ben's Adventures in Sydney Episode 2: Attack of the Queens

No, as I said in a previous post, not the queens normally associated with Sydney around this time of year.


So my day was pretty much taking in the sights of the harbour. I went for a couple of ferry rides. The first was to Kirribilly (Hi John) and Neutral Bay. This ride gave a pretty good view of the Queen Mary II which was docked at the Garden Island naval base 9it's not actually an island, I checked). GArden Island was used because it waas to bid to fit in to the passenger terminal at Circular Quay. one time when I was in Sydney there was a US aircraft carrier berthed at Garden Island, which would make a good comparison with QMII. I would probably describe her a 3 or 4 appartment buildings and then some.

The other ferry ride ws to Watsons Bay. Here I went for a walk along the top of the ocean cliffs to the lighthouse. Having missed the last ferry back to the city, I decided to hang around and watch the QE2 enter Sydney Harbour, something I don't regret. I had a very good vantage point, the photos which I should post soon tell the story for themselves. I even got to have doyles fish and chips for dinner. For $10 you get some of the freshest fish (from a fish and chip shop) that you'll ever have and a mountain of chips.

Getting back to the city wa another story. Eventually the 8:15 bus to the city arrived to the applause of some of the 30 or so passengers waiting at the Watsons Bay Bus stop. The ride in was ok, but busy until we hit traffic gridlock at Kings Cross. It took us ages to turn into William street and then another 30 or so minutes to reach circular Quay. It might have been quicker to walk, but I was content to just sit there. In all it was just surreal to see a traffic jam of this size at 9:15 pm on a Tuesday evening. Apparently all of Sydney wanted to see the Queen Mary.

I was lucky enough to watch QMII leave sydney from the walkway on Sydney harbour Bridge. Getting back to the hostel was not easy as I missed the last train for the night from Circulay Quay. I ended up riding a bus down George St and got off just around the corner from the hostel. You gotta love the Daytripper (except for the price! (by Melbourne standards anyway)).

Ben's Adventures in Sydney Episode 1: The Virgin Menace

They frigging well canceled my flight. So I spent a few more hours than intended at the airport. When they announced the delay, I had vision of various UK TV shows such as "Airline" and "Airport". No such luck, they were very good with how they handled it and after spending half an hour in the checking qeue ( the real one, not the blue check one) I was on flight that departed Melbourne 2 hours after I should have arrived in Sydney. I even got a $6 voucher for food while I waited (the pasta I had for dinner was dry anyway).

The flight itself was uneventful. I saw the baggage crew load my bag on to the plane, good thing I didn't pack the good china. The people sitting next to me sounded surprised when I told them I was from Melbourne, after they asked me how long my stay in Melbourne was. One of the flight attendents had a massive VPL (I would have thought there would be a regualtion against that sort of thing on Virgin Blue). I just listend to my MP3 player for an hour, like any other bus ride.

From Sydney airport I made my getaway on the train and was checked in to my room within half 45 minutes of stepping off the plane. As I'm cheam I'm only staying at a backpackers (a more reputable one I might add. So far there's no sign of lice or bed bugs, and no sign of tinea from the shower.


This post has been backdated.

Mixed news

The good news is that the change has hit.

The bad news is that so far there is no railn

No wait, it's raining now, hope it lasts.

It's all good.

A few thoughts

I can't believe I haven't blogged at all this month, oh well.

One day not so long ago I came to realisation that I have a man-bag. Well it's a backpack, but I just carry around so much crap in it, mostly stuff I don't need on a day to day basis. The main things I have in it are a water bottle and my camera and assorted public transport timetables. I feel naked if I don't have it with me.

I learned this week that one of my friends quit his job and is moving to Townsville with his girlfriend and taking up a new job there. It's a 9 month contract so he doesn't have to stay up there if he doesn't want to. He had a bit of a farewell shindig on Friday night at his parents home (parents weren't home). He says he's either going to start up an email list or a blog while there, which should be interesting...

Some sad news is that my cousin's wife died from cancer early last week. They were married not quite 2 years ago in a very nice (despite the rain) wedding at Healsville Sanctuary , which was very fitting as she was a vet. Keeping with the bush theme all the guests at a wedding recieved a small native shrub as a gift. I believe there was a small private funeral, which we weren't invited to (not many of the extended and even close family were). Next week there will be a memorial service, which some/most of the family won't be attending (not because of any family disagreements either), myself included. In a way I'm glad our part of the family wasn't invited, I don't do too well at funerals, but who does really.

Finally, Ben's Adventures is off to Sydney to see the queens (no not the queens usually associated with Sydney at this time of year) this week. I may or may not post while I'm there, depends on if I can be bothered paying for the privilege.

Right now I'm sweating like a pig waiting for the wind change to arrive, it may be cloudy and there may be a bit of thunder, but it's still bloody hot.

That's about it really

E.T. where are you?

As I went through Auburn on the train this afternoon I thought I saw a UFO somewhere over Abbotsford or Carlton. This got me thinking about what would happen if Extra Terrestrials (aka Aliens, Martians etc) visited Earth tomorrow and how people would react. This naturally led on to religion and how the various different ones would react. Naturally for the single (or few) god religions it would cause all kinds of questions to be asked. For philosophical religions such as Buddhism or Sikhism it would cause no great alarm. Then for multi god religions such as Hinduism such an occurrence would probably raise a few questions also, but in the end cause no rift in the faith.

Thoughts naturally led to Scientology, where things could get interesting. Naturally at first they would be claiming they were right after all (not bad for a 30-40 year old movement). Really it all depends on whether the new arrivals accept Scientologists as disciples and servants or eat them for breakfast. All in all I think *Scientology has the most to loose if we are visited...

* I know there's lots of stuff about "thetans" and souls getting spewed out by Hawaiian volcanoes etc as well, but I can't be bothered researching properly now.

The Scottish Comet

Comet McNaught- 24/01/2007

Last Tuesday and Wednesday evenings I took a number of photos of the Scottish comet (aka McNaught). The only problem is that most of the photos were longish exposures of between 6 and 15 seconds and as far as I can tell the longer ones at 15 seconds show the beginnings of star of a star trail effect. Who'd have thought the earth rotates that far in 15 seconds? I'm about 80% sure it's not camera shake, because I used the 10 second timer to trigger the shutter on the camera which was mounted on a tripod on a solid surface, and kept well away while the shutter was open. Basically I think I need an SLR with a pretty fast lens for this sort of thing (a good "pro-sumer" camera would probably produce much better results as well).

Oh right, the comet? It was pretty good...

Ben's Big Day Out

Kasabian

Finally after all these years I made it to a Big Day Out and had a fantastic day. I went with a couple of mates from uni, one of whom lives in Carton so it was a short walk to the venue at Princes Park (right next to the Melbourne General Cemetery, RIP my arse...) from his house.

In no particular order the bands we saw were:

• Muse
• The Killers
• You Am I
• Kasabian
• The Herd
• The Vines
• Little Birdy
• The Sleepy Jackson
• Evermore
• The Violent Femmes
• Tool

I can't really think of any more that we saw. The full lineup is on the Big Day Out website.

The highlight was without a doubt Muse, who performed a killer set. The Killers were pretty good as well. Notable mention goes to Kasabian (I thought I didn't know any of their songs, but recognised quite a few from the radio). The headline act was Tool but none of us are into tthem so we didn't stick around for long after they started. Apparently they had a pretty cool laser show after we left though. Oh well.

The two big mistakes I made were forgetting my small rollon sunscreen and camera. Even though I put some on before I left home I ended up forking out $4 for a small tube of sunscreen. That was $4 well spent, and have very little sunburn, well maybe a few small bits on my arm I missed. I certainly was not lobster red like many people I saw on the train on the way home. Years of airshow experience and very fair skin (did anyone mention freckles?) have taught me that lesson. As for the camera, the reason I didn't take it was because I thought i would loose or break it, but lots of people had them. I did take some dodgy shots with my pohne but got nothing worth displaying in public (one included to illustrate this post, atmospherics etc...). I really regret not taking my camera.

A smaller mistake was not taking a bottle of water. Supposedly they were confiscating water bottles at the gate, but a mate managed to smuggle one in, I saw some “dudes” with a goon bag, so they can't have been looking that hard. I bought a bottle for $3 and stupidly threw it out when I'd finished it. I didn't realise that they had taps where you could refill, needless to say I bought another latter for $3.50, and refilled it several times.

At the outset i said that I was going to buy a T-Shirt. And so I did, a black one with giant blood shot eyeball. Tre chic! It was either that or a Muse T-Shirt. I should have bought one of the counterfeit Muse T-shirts being sold on the footpath outside as well (or “half price” as the man selling them said when he overheard me say counterfeit). I think I'll head in to the Queen Victoria Market and see if I can pick one up there instead.

Australia Day

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).

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.)

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.

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.

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.

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.

Going... going... (going...) gone.

Heidelberg, September 23 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.

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...

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

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...

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!)...

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.