Old Musings - April through October 2005

C-. That's all this blog deserves. But only if the teacher looks favourably on the nice shiny red apple I put on the desk. I was all geared up to do an epic tale of an update, but then I got distracted. I had this really cool introductory paragraph set up...

"It was a dark and stormy night. Well, perhaps not 'stormy'. More like fine and clear. And given that it wasn't even 8 o'clock in the morning yet, the description of 'night' is also a little misleading. A better way to start this paragraph would have been 'It was a nice morning' - but this is the start of an epic tale. Epic tales do not start with 'It was a nice morning'."

But after that, I guess I just ran out of steam. But you don't really care about any of that, do you? You just want to see some photos. I went to the Cook Islands (Rarotonga and Aitutaki) last month, so there are photos-a-plenty for you to gawk at.

When I'm not lazing about on tropical islands, I also turn up to work every now and then. So, the last time I graced them with my presence, I was delighted to find out that our product had been announced to the public. So I guess that I don't have to be all hush-hush about it now. So take a peek at this: http://www.trimble.com/geoxh.shtml.

It just keeps on getting worse doesn't it? You can almost measure the periods between updates by counting rings in a tree stump. Time to try and do something about that. I think I should see what blogging software is available to make updating this site easier. That might help.

Anyway as far as news is concerned - nothing much to report. Work's been keeping me very busy. I asked what the chances were to take some of my accrued leave, but my manager just laughed. So right now I'm busy planning a tropical island getaway the day after the current scheduled release date. At least that way there is no basis for him to reject my leave request!

There has been some news on the family front though - it turns out that I will be a best man, brother in law and uncle, all before Christmas (well, everything except the uncle part. I've been told that I might have to wait a bit longer for that). So a big congrats goes out to Steffan and Kiri! Just for a laugh I plugged their names into an on-line anagram builder. One result that caught my eye was 'Freak fits in'. I'm pretty sure that refers to my brother and not Kiri, but in any case this school-yard compatibility test indicates that they will do well together! As for me, I guess I'm still single because nobody likes 'Teargas Vendors' :)

 In the last couple of months I have been taking part on the DPChallenge website, an online digital photo competition. There aren't any prizes, just virtual ribbons, but I've found it to be a great place to pick up some good hints and tips. I'm sure it's just a coincidence that my first entry has done best so far (11th out of 400-odd entries), and that the gradual decline in my scores is purely in my head. Anyway, I'll try to keep this site updated with each of the challenges as they finish the voting stage. If you're interested in checking out my profile in real-time though, keep an eye out for some idiot called colourBlind.

The locals around here have brought it to my attention that I may have been a little harsh when I called Wollongong a 'technological back-water'. After all, it is only Thursday and the internet access which I so dearly craved has already been restored.

To this end, I would like to express a formal apology to the Netizens of Wollongong. You are right and I was wrong. The outages are definitely shorter than a week when it isn't raining.

I'm starting to think that I have bitten off more relaxation than I can chew. Despite having the update below all ready to be uploaded to the net, I can't do anything with it. It turns out that Wollongong is a technological back-water where week-long internet outages are the norm - and I'm caught in the middle of one.

I'm starting to climb the walls as the withdrawal symptoms set in. I can only pray that the bandwidth drought breaks soon.

:-P

Oh, the irony of it all - I finally get the time to update the website and I just happen to be back in Australia!

Work has been pretty hectic ever since I started. As always, there's a big push to get the product out on time so I'm making the most of a rare week off and unwinding a bit. I also had a bunch of airpoints that were about to expire so it seemed like the perfect time to head back and look up some old friends.

Some people out there may be wondering what I have been up to since the last update (lets not mention how long ago that was, shall we?)

• Purchased house - somewhat obvious of course. I did a secret update on this one. Let me know if you missed it and I'll send you the details. So I have a nice little place to call home now. It is nestled by the banks of the Heathcote river - where my section is expected to encounter a spot of flooding every ten years or so (or so the LIM report said). Luckily this only applies to the bottom meter of the driveway. So while this may not cause me too much grief I can still use this excuse every now and then to get out of work. I just need to make sure I keep track of the years I use this excuse.
   
• Enjoyed festive seasons - Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Easter to all. I hope you got lots of presents, stayed up late and gorged yourselves on lots of chocolate bunnies.
   
•  Called 911 - actually it's '111' in this part of the woods. I had an unexpected visitor knocking on the door at 2 o'clock in the morning. He was claiming that he people were out to get him after knocking on the wrong door - but he changed his story when the police turned up and they asked him about the totaled car down the road. Apparently he crashed it during a joyride.
   
• Purchased furniture. Just like a real grown-up, I now have a dining table, chairs, a couch - and a blossoming mortgage!