Quade's World

A work in progress...

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:39:18 GMT

Now here's something I was pondering today during one of my slack moments.
It is no secret to people who know me that I am quite fond of a few less than stellar movies.....some are downright dodgy, but nonetheless there is something about them that has tickled my fancy.

I have come up with a catchy rule that I think matches what can make a good movie for me, and I summarise it as the "4 Ps of movies"..

Plot
Production
Performance
Pizazz

If a movie can pull off any two of these Ps well, then it is generally a movie that I can enjoy. There are people who cannot look past a movie that falls down horribly in one of these departments, but in my view, if that dismal failure of a single P can be balanced against two others, then it can be forgiven.

Now...the Ps are as follows and there is a degree of overlap between them (mostly because I am still nailing down this concept ;)).

Plot
This pretty much covers the basic story and script of a movie, and takes into account such factors as clever dialogue, and twisty mind fuckery things that happen to the characters in the movie.

Production
This is all of your costuming, music, special effects, casting and even down to the choice of technology used to film the movie.

Performance
Clearly this is primarily the acting, but also the direction and camerawork.

Pizazz
This is the overall charisma and charm of the actors and director. It is also a measure of how closely the movie comes to matching the tone it set out to achieve. It is the most nebulous of the Ps and the one I would say I most often get criticised for tipping my opinion in favour of a movie ;). It is also a factor that can tend to weight slightly heavier than the others for me occasionally :).

For example:-
Almost any action film with Arnold Schwarzenegger (or Jason Statham to be slightly more up to date). Plot and Performance are clearly not contenders here, but in terms of Production and Pizazz, these movies have it all. They are generally over the top explosions and CG affairs with two actors who have a ton of screen presence. Team Arnie up with a passionate director like James Cameron, and sold :).

Now don't get me wrong....a truly spectacular film will include 3 or 4 Ps, but 2 is enough to enjoy.

People will rave about movies with the most wonderful script and characterisation, but if it is as boring as batshit where nothing happens, then that wonderful Plot is wasted and the film loses its entertainment value. Art is great....but to me....a film must entertain, otherwise it is just wankery.

Many indie films have woeful Production values, but are so well crafted that the other Ps can make it shine.

Now of course there is the outlying case of a movie that hits NONE of the Ps which can be an absolute HOOT. But mostly you are laughing AT the movie rather than with it in this case, and I am sure everyone is familiar with that scenario already.

If I had more time and energy, I would list a few movies and list some Ps, but that sounds like too much effort at the moment. You can all go and have a good laugh by visiting my LJ profile's website link and browsing my DVD collection instead.

Late!

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:07:37 GMT

See......one day back at work and I am already forgetting to post updates!
Saying that, work has been very slack so far. Almost noone in the office, and I actually managed to get most of my jobs finished before the end of last year, so I have been dabbing at documents and doing random web research for most of the day.

One thing I didn't expect comming back to work was to find my desk cleaned out!!!!

I rocked up to my team's "pod" only to find two strangers sitting at the desks, and all my stuff gone. After a good few gobsmacked seconds, I found a secretary who kindly pointed me upstairs to our new office space. I am now situated on the 9th floor of the Wesley Quarter Building with a river view :) (well sort of....some amount of gymnastics are required if I am to see the river from my seat). I had the amusing task of watching two more team members come in this morning with bewildered looks on their faces.
Apparently, the guys who were left on deck before Christmas were told to pack and leave with zero notice so that the 2nd floor could be shuffled around a bit. Apparently we will all move back in a couple of months time, but for now the change of view is novel :).

Let's see. Holidays were good to me...lots of spa time....plenty of movies bought and watched...had a massage on Sunday followed by a free feed.....can't really complain! :)

Now, the New Years weight update........and I have once again managed to lose weight.....only 0.5kg this week, but I am well chuffed with that. Now to knuckle down again and get to serious business again :).

HA!

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 08:50:33 GMT

Got out today and bought myself the Western Digital Scorpio Blue 5400rpm 2.5" SATA harddisk!

That was a little bit of a chore in itself. Went to my "local" shop and there was a line out the door and that line wasn't moving fast. I finally got to the front, only to find that they were out of that model.
Off I shoot to faithful Austin's who had the same model listed, but $9 more. Poked my head in the door and the place looks like it'd been robbed. All their stock was on the floor and half the shelves were torn out and on the floor. I bumped the door into some poor bugger's back who was re-wiring the LAN in the place. "Ooo, not open I take it?"...nah, go on in *blink**blink*.

Anyway....it turned out smoother than shopping there on a regular day. The checkout dude just pootled out back and grabbed my stuff so there was no waiting at the shipping bay with my receipt. :).
I bought a 2.5" to 3.5" adaptor bay for the drive too since it was replacing a 3.5" in my set top box.

On getting it all home, my folly was realised. The SATA connector on a 2.5" drive is very much more central than the SATA connector on a 3.5" drive. Therefore, if I was to bolt in the new drive, the SATA to IDE adaptor I bought last week was projecting into the wall of the set top box. hmm.

DRILL TIME!

I feel all handy and manly now. Even though all I ended up doing was putting a new hole in the side of the existing 3.5" caddy to accommodate an additional screw for the 2.5" drive. Sine the new drive was suspended by one side, I packed the other side with a strip of bubblewrap and TAADAA! The SATA adaptor snuggled neatly into place as well, and as a bonus, the whole drive was somewhat recessed in the old caddy, so the adaptor projected into the internal space about the same amount a normal drive does.

I have been testing the new setup today and all looks hunky dory. Dual simultaneous recordings on HD, while chaseplaying one, and doing a network copy all at once.

The silence of the new drive brings a tear to my eye. I was originally annoyed by the CLUNK CLUNK whenever the old harddrive had to move its heads around.....what I had gotten used to was the 7200rpm whine to the point that it didn't register any more. It's absence is quite conspicuous with the upgrade though :).

I was feeling so handy, I decided to set up azhure 's new laser printer. I was a tad concerned at how long it was taking to calibrate when I first switched it on, but now everything looks sweet. Colour prints are spectacular, scanning/copies seem to work, it saw the network first go....the only thing I haven't gotten round to testing is the FAX (as if I'd need that).

Who's your daddy?

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 02:18:19 GMT

Well, me apparently.... And this has nothing to do with Liam today. I am excited that this week's weight loss did NOT go backwards despite me making a hog of myself over Christmas and Boxing day! :) 0.2kg lost for a total weight of 87.7kg. I forgot about last week's weigh-in, so at first I was stoked to have lost over a kilo......a wee bit TOO good methinks ;). Anyway...THE GRAPH!

A couple of bumps on that slope, but still ever-downward :).

Christmas has been rather good this year. We used the two most hectic days of the year to trial taking the little monkey on the road, and he's done pretty well. We ended up just taking his bassinet top out and plopping him in that which seemed to work nicely. The good thing is that he has now met the majority of his family, and scored BIG in presents ;).

As for myself, I have books coming out of my ears at the moment, and will have to make a concerted effort to get through them all. I have just finished book 2 of Neil Stephenson's Baroque trilogy, and am going to put it down for now. I am finding the character's motivations just a bit too selfish and greedy to really empathise with them.......all except Half-Cocked Jack who's segments are a great adventure yarn of fortunes found and lost :). I am moving on to Pratchett's Going Postal, which is every bit as good as the other Discworld books I have read. I am under the expert guidance of sorscha and squasher in which order I am to read the books, and so far, I don't think that I have encountered any out-of-sequence, or un-introduced elements :). A very tricky thing with so many books in the series.

Next books to read after that will have to be the next in the never-ending Wheel of Time saga which was another present. And then I can get stuck into the books from azhure which are the Uplift series (6 of the buggers!!) by....ummm....that guy. I read a synopsis of the series a while back and was intrigued.....and someone was paying attention ;). I think by then I can finish off the Stephenson books, and then get onto another couple I got for my birthday (and I can NOT remember the title, but considering how much I have to read first, I have plenty of time to update here).

I am plotting a harddisk upgrade on my BeyonWiz PVR today too. It came from the shop with a 200Gb 3.5" IDE Harddisk which is as noisy as buggery when it reads or writes more than one data stream. Yesterday, I tested the installation of my PS3's old harddisk, a 40Gb 2.5" SATA model. It needed a little adaptor, but bugger me if it didn't work a treat with all of the tests I could throw at it. If I can get to the shop today, I will buy myself a 500Gb drive, and get a noise reduction and capacity increase all in one :).

Meanwhile, I keep feeling myself becoming one of these unreasonably proud parents. Little Liam is now almost 4 weeks old and has had little trouble holding his head upright when he's up on your shoulder......must mean he's advanced. Also, he will lock his gaze with you pretty much from day one, and from across the room sometimes......must be advanced. His umbilical stump fell out within a week....he must be.....oo wait...yea, unreasonably proud parent alert.

Liam has been giving us a little bit less grief this week thankfully too. He can feed properly without technological intervention, and is starting to sleep for 3 hours or so at night and goes right back to bed after feeding and changing. This is probably partly due to some reflux medecine that we have been forcing on him in the evenings (he even whinges less when taking that), and the magical dummy. We were thinking of not having him on the dummy, but geez, they really do just soothe the little buggers so well. I think as long as we actually pay attention to why he's crying and don't neglect his nappys, feeding, social time and other medical complaints, the dummy is actually good to just keep him calm.

And another thing!

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 03:27:06 GMT

Ahh, almost forgot to post pics of the new Christmas Tree! This is for those who may not follow azhure on her blogs.

Isn't it just majestic with the Great Elder God Cthulu sitting astride its polymerised leafy magnificence! Photo was taken with my phone, so no surprises with the crappy lighting there.

I have lights and some token ornaments hung, but it is not yet complete. I figure I have a few years to fill it with junk now that I have it.

The tree itself wasn't quite the model I was after, but beggars can't be choosers this late in the season ;). Beggars can however be massive skinflints and get 40% off all trees and ornaments this late in the season tho!! <G>

(Let me add that wrapping that big box for azhure was a bitch)

OOps!

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 02:40:58 GMT

Looks like I forgot to update last week. Wait, scratch that.......I kept MEANING to, but have been too wrecked and distracted of an evening to even get online let alone update my meagre blog.

Let's see. When we last saw our hero, he was valiantly trying to save his sleep versus the evil machinations of Babevich von Babenstein. Hmm not much has changed....

I have managed to take some holidays though. Today marks my first day and I am looking forward to sharing some more of the load off Steph so she can feel a bit more human again. I intend on doing lots and lots of sitting.

Mind you, sitting has been doing me a mischief lately according to my masseuse. I have been getting sharp twinges in my lower back and thigh when I bend over for the last week or so, so I had her concentrate her efforts away from my shoulders which are usually pretty bad. I have a massive bruise on my hip now where she pummelled me quite mercilessly. See now why can't I have a job where I can take out my frustrations on clients in such a direct fashion!!

Being the end of the year, the work Christmas functions have been rapidly firing off. I managed to get to the Serck Christmas party (my old employer) which was really nice. Managed to catch up with almost everyone and did a bit of table hopping to catch up on all the gossip and show off baby photos (am I getting that soppy already?). I even managed to catch one Serck workmate up the next day. He wasn't at the party but was wandering around town with a friend from overseas....convenient coincidence!

The next day was my current team's party which we decided to hold as a long lunch on the Friday. Suggestions had gone out as to WHERE to have it earlier in the week, and after a lack of motivation I threw Little Creatures out there (predictable me). In the end it went down a treat, despite a couple of poor non-beer drinkers being on the team (I got them into the Cider instead).

I skipped my contract company and employment agency work functions this year though due to lack of time and adequate motivation ;).

We have just had our hot water system replaced so I am super happy that we aren't pissing water out into the ground all day now. I am also becomming more and more impressed with the system that we chose as well. My reasoning went.....well I 'd like solar to keep the bills down and be a bit of a tree-licker at the same time, but I know solar sucks in winter and it needs boosting, but electric boosting sucks balls and is wasteful. I asked if there was such a thing as gas-boosted solar heating since I hadn't done any ACTUAL RESEARCH or anything sensible like that. We were recommended an evacuated tube solar water storage system with an instantaneous gas booster. I have to say now that I am chuffed as can be about this. While the unit cost a bit, it is by far the most technically fancy solution (I like that the tubes are better than panels because they work off light instead of heat), and is super energy efficient. We have been running solely off the gas booster this week, and the solar tubes are installed tomorrow morning.

Ok, now for the weigh-in. Seeing as I missed last weeks I will begin with that figure and it was a whopper! 1.6kg lost last week following my birthday party week setbacks. This week is a slightly more modest 0.9kg which I am very pleased with considering a couple of heavy Christmas party meals and some not so careful eating during the rest of the week (I am still trying to finish that mudcake!! :)). My weight as of this morning is 87.9kg. 8kg to go to my target. I am a bit behind schedule, but am not displeased with the progress. I have started receiving complements from people who are noticing the loss, and I am also FEELING thinner too which is great.

Analogies!

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 15:35:20 GMT

This bloody baby raising malarky is like one of those bad flash games where you have to run a diner. You know the ones where you have to take orders, serve guests, clear tables, more guests come, different orders, people get cranky etcetcetcetc
Except I am playing the baby version on a shitty monochrome screen, so I can't see the orders properly and am guessing what the fuck to do...and the customer is getting more and more pissed off!

Quick.....ok...mum is getting tired. So wash and change baby before he feeds, that will make him sleepy so mum can rest....ok...SHIT his pissed himself....ok, clean up....damn, he's awake again.....SHIT he threw up....feed again...wake mum.....ok done.....change his clothes, calm him down....put him in the bassinet....SHIT he crapped himself....change the nappy.....time to feed again....mum to bed and sleep........and sleep......sleep...please dear god sleep.

When do I win this fucking game?

I seriously need to spend some time grinding nappy duty so I can level up quicker.

When we get together with other parents, are we on a raid??

On that theme, I quested for a Christmas tree today. Left it till the last minute, but surprisingly, the shops were not stupid busy. They didn't have a lot of trees left though! The one I wanted wasn't available in a 7 footer anywhere (I wanted proper looking pine needles). I ended up spending a voucher at Myer and fortunately found a half-decent 7 foot tree at 40% off.....3 day sale...bargain! Also bought some LED lights at 30% off on the same limited day sale. So it sorta paid off to wait a bit :).
Anyway...my house has a Christmas tree for the first time in something like 7 years. I have a Cthulu tree topper coming in the mail from Thinkgeek next week for it :).

Wade n' Stephmummy - building better people

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 07:38:58 GMT

Another week, and what a week!

Since I was late in posting last time, I have blown the big news already! ;)
But the next best bit of news is that Mum and parasite are now at home and adjusting to their new surrounds. The cat is still trying to figure out what has happened and trying to decide if it is for the better.

I've found that the whole fatherhood trauma has only hit me lightly so far. I have been sleeping at home while everyone was in hospital, and I have found myself spending a bit of time in quiet reflection. I kept finding myself keen to get back to the hospital to spend more time with the family, and feeling generally calm about the whole affair.

This is what happens when Wade gets sleep ;). Stay posted for next week's mental breakdown!

Both of them have passed out in the bedroom while I was out shopping. I have been attempting to find myself a Herman Miller chair for a while now, and visited the local showroom today since i have the day off work. Bastards are out of stock until after the new year. So much for that! I also went hunting for a Christmas Tree, but only found a few scraggly looking specimens at KMart down the road. I may have a more enthusiastic bash at it on the weekend.

The weekend has seen my 34th lap around the Sun go by. I had planned a party that smacked right in the middle of the bub's arrival week, so I bravely forged on and celebrated it anyway! ;).
This year I think I actually managed to get the Crays properly cooked through, as they were LOVELY. The second batch to come off the hotplate were almost falling apart they were that tender. I overcatered a little on the seafood, but that is only to my benefit!! I will be supping on King Prawns this week I think.

Thank's again to everyone who came. I had a great day. The best present I can think of is to spend time with a group of mates.

The diet was thrown to the wind over the weekend, and somewhat during the week. I ate big and drank big, and oddly was not peeing big to match (sorry TMI). This week I managed a grand total of 0kg lost. I suppose it could have been worse ;).

Mixed bag!

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:31:38 GMT

Late again posting an update this week, but I have excuses...honest!!

First things first though...

I am now the father of my very first son!
Liam Jack Coxon, born 11am, December 2nd, 2009. 3.6kg, 51.5cm long (lanky bugger......ruckman, or so my dad claims!), and a pretty good crop of very dark blonde(ish) hair. He has all the regular bits and no complications so far.
I shall spare you all the gory details other than to say he was delivered naturally abeit under cover of the good drugs ;) and leave azhure to fill you in on the birth story when she is home. She is doing well and is moving about under her own steam as of this evening.
I am being a wuss and escaping the hospital in the evenings so that I can sleep ;).
Today also happens to be my father's birthday, so he was naturally chuffed (and was arranging for his Dockers team membership as soon as he knew the name). With my birthday on the weekend, we will have a very busy time for ourselves in coming years come early December.

I have taken the day off work and will be taking tomorrow morning off as well. I feel like I am copping out a bit by heading straight back, but I am in a situation now where I don't get paid leave, and also feel the need to put a good effort in for early impressions sake (and for my own getting-up-to-speed sake).

Ok. On to weight loss.
This week....once again.....0.7kg. This is turning into a habit. Last weekend, I indulged a little on BBQd german sausage and beer at a LAN. I will also blame fluid retention from catching myself a cold on Friday night. Thankfully the cold ha gone the way of most of my illnesses and gave me a sniffle and sore throat for two days and buggered off.

Oh, before i get to the graph I should elaborate on the Saturday.
I caught up with my old workmates for a day of Golf at Burswood. I was surprised to find that I can actually still hit a ball accurately, if not very far. Though come to think of it, if I was using decent clubs of the correct length and better balls, I would have probably done a little better. It was an Ambrose rules round which we finished off with a score of 89. By my reckoning, that is not too bad, and since a good number of the shots we played were from my lie, I am pleased. The day though was a bit of a challenge for being out in the 30 degree sun with a cold though ;).
That night, I packed up my PC and lugged it off to a Left For Dead LAN. Had a ball with the blokes there who had been playing for most of the afternoon already. I had to pike on the matches a bit early because I was KNACKERED, and the pace of L4D2 is just too frantic.

Ok....graph.

Now.....my prediction for next week's chart is a bit dire. I have already eaten a little too much today, but I put that down to the stress of fatherhood (geez Wade, 10 hours already...suck it up man!). Also, my birthday party is this Saturday. I plan to have a heap of good shellfish there which is reasonably good, but also a stack of beer....which is....well..calorie bad....I can't say bad ;). I am hoping that mum and bub can make it, but we won't be rushing away from hospital before we are ready :).

Oops

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:03:34 GMT

I missed Monday's update by a couple of days...oops!
I'm sure I have forgotten most of what happened last week by now, so this is probably going to be short!
Let's see. Weekend, that wasn't so long ago....Ahh, a housewarming party at which we caught up with all our mates, and got to admire a swanky new abode, and my Grandma's 90th birthday lunch on Sunday at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. At both events I was a bit naughty and ate too much (for my diet). Damn tho both were well catered! :)

Actually, the two days before that, I was not too well behaved for lunch either come to think of it....both work functions of one type or another. Ahh well it happens....I have to give my metabolism a shot in the arm every now and again I guess. Now the problem is, how will I behave myself over my birthday weekend coming up (not this weekend). I am thinking that it will have to be exclusively seafood for me...how will I cope ;) (not sure how the beer factors in).

Let's see, coming up. Tomorrow Sony finally bring out their PlayTV addon for the PS3...very excited...I will be scooting out to EB to acquire one of those at lunchtime! The weekend will be a Saturday containing a (old work) work golf day in the morning, and a LAN in the evening.....hopefully Sunday will be spent in not too much pain.

PS3 topic reminds me that I also recently bought Little Big Planet for the PSP last week. Love the game...so cute and frustrating. The PSP version is VERY similar, and only obviously lacks the multiplayer component. Been mostly playing Mass Effect for the PC whenever I can find time. I am enjoying the story, tho still pissed off with the slow bloody lifts, and inability to backtrack to areas that I skipped (not knowing beforehand that I wouldn't be able to go back at my leisure). Too many other games I want to buy and play, but I just dont have time....and with a bub on the way....that's not going to improve!! :)

Ok, to the weigh-in....did I give myself enough excuses earlier? 0.7kg again. 91.1kg current weight which just puts me over 10kg lost in the 10 weeks. Still on target, and I am feeling good about next Monday as I am having a perceived skinny week this week ;).

THE GRAPH!

Getting closer

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:09:27 GMT

The title refers not to the goal weight loss, but to the impending family member. Not long now, most likely less than two weeks. It is not very likely little Leeroy will be sharing my birthday any more, but that's fine......the crayfish is MINE!

The car seat was fitted yesterday. After a little bit of pondering over the instructions I have sorted it out, and in the process have discovered that I actually DO have a child harness restraining bolt in the rear window of the car....fancy that! A thing I didn't even know I had!

Work is remaining challenging and interesting. I can't wait to get involved in the detailed network design for this new port.....there's a hellava lot to do, and it's looking like it will be a ripper.

I got a second credit card in the mail today. I feel sort of dirty in a way. The bank was doing a promo on American Express cards which link into your existing credit line. The plus side is that it is no cost to me....I get double to points for using it, it all links into the one account even though I get two cards, and now I can finally link a CC to my online shopping accounts and not be locked out because azhure is already registered with the same card number :).

Weekend movie purchases were the Matrix Trilogy boxset on Bluray, and Quantum of Solace, also on Bluray. I have been hesitant to buy either, the Matrix, because I already own two copies of the damn movies on DVD, and Quantum, because it was not as spectacularly great as Casino Royale. Having watched the first two Matrix movies on Bluray though, I am thoroughly glad I have them in High Def now...the subwoofer at the end of Reloaded was almost shaking the house to pieces. Quantum I am happy with as well.....I have watched a downloaded copy enough times that I realise that I DO like the movie a lot. I think it is great what they have done with the Bond franchise now.

I am VERY tempted to now buy the Star Trek original series on Bluray, even though AGAIN, I own the DVDs. The difference being that the Blurays have seamless branching containing the updated special effects, and a remixed lossless HD soundtrack. The best part about them is that if you want to watch them unmolested by the modernisation, you can still watch it in all its budget effects mono glory. I am a big fan of the Star Trek updated special effects after watching what they did with the "Motion Picture". It was done with a lot of care and attention to making it look like it was part of the movie all along and MIGHT have been doable back in the day.

I managed to finish off "Uncharted: Drake's Fortune" on the PS3 on Sunday in Normal mode. I am a lot more impressed with the game than I was with the demo, and I think I will be buying the sequel soon. The trip to the DVD store reminded me how many bloody games I want to buy for the damn PS3 too......I swore I wouldnt when I bought the thing! ahh well. In the meantime, I still have Batman to finish :).

And on to the weight-on. This week was a slightly dissapointing 0.7kg. This week I will have to borrow a phrase from Moff Jerjerrod... "We shall double our efforts!". I blame it all on the bacon on Saturday morning, but DAMN it was worth it!

Graph as follows..

This is getting predictable.

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:34:46 GMT

Well. What to update this week?

Family news. I am a first-time uncle as of Friday last week. azhure and I paid a visit to her brother and his family at hospital. Of course we copped a few "this will be you in a few weeks" comments, but that was to be expected (and tolerated). ;). My new niece is very cute btw!

Let's see. I picked up a Bluray copy of Transformers 2 last week and managed to watch it on the weekend. This is now officially the loudest disk I own.....my new(ish) subwoofer really had its work cut out for it! In fact my newly pastered ceiling had its bloody work cut out for it from the vibration!!

I couldn't resist this weekend's Steam special. Bioware's "Mass Effect" game for $10, bargain! It's one I have put off buying for years because I couldn't really face the time investment of another RPG, and for all of its wonderfulness, I know the game had its flaws. Anyway, $10 is pretty much an automatic purchase these days, so I did! :).

I'm still hankering to buy myself a new SSD harddisk for my PC. The problem is, that I want one that is bigger than 200Gb. Problem being that for a decent one, that means a thousand dollar outlay. I just can't bring myself to justify that much money on what is admittedly a HUGE performance boost, but is really something I don't NEED. A THOUSAND! Grrr. The other thing with that is that I would like to upgrade to Windows 7 when I switch, and I want Windows 7 sooner rather than later, so I am torn over this bloody thing. I could go for a smaller SSD, but I just know I will run out of room too quickly, and the last thing I want to do is split my apps onto a spinning platter (that should be for bulk data only). I think I'll sit on it a while longer and see what happens to prices (stop going up!!!).

Ok, getting to the topic and excuse for my posts is this week's weight update. No surprises here again, 1.1kg farted into the atmosphere in total last week (azhure would have you believe that this is where it has all been going).

The graph is boring but looks like this!!

Holding steady

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:22:34 GMT

What can I say today? Not a hellava lot really. Week three of the job is starting off smoothly with no particular dramas yet. We are still going to be busy for the next month, so we will see what happens after that. Lots of talk about BHP and Rio Tino join ventures and how it will affect our project in the future, but we can only continue on as planned until we find out otherwise.

I had a mildly productive weekend with a shop on Saturday and a nice free lunch on Sunday.

On Saturday I managed to
Fix the retic with a new main solenoid (stripped the thread on the old one in previous repair attempts)
Bought all of the Startrek Next Generation movies on Bluray
Bought a used copy of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune for the PS3 (in preparation for importing the sequel).
Inadvertently found two copies of Neverwinter Nights 2 for $4 each (couldn't resist).
Bought a shiny new laptop for azhure . Even if it was a Mac (patooey!)

And I think we ended up watching a boatload of downloaded and recorded material from the week.

Oh, good news on the PS3 front......the long awaited PlayTV addon is officially out on November 26. This was after being promised for the Olympics last year mind you!! I am very glad to have gone for the PS3....the extra stuff that Sony keep releasing for it make it a pretty kickarsed little box. (I especially like the idea of streaming TV over the network to my PSP).

And finally, the week's weigh-in. I was once again a bit nervous of this one since my weekend was not as well behaved as I would have liked. However, I think my good behaviour and the sheer amount of times I visited the small room during the week (due to increased water intake) compensated for that. I have managed an even 1kg this week, which couldn't be any more average :).

Nother week, nother kilo

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:49:05 GMT

A good weekend has been had! After a loooong week at work, it was very welcome to get a bit of time off, even if that meant attending a very long anti-natal class. I didn't mind it per-se...it was just a long time to be sitting down and listening to people talk.

Come to think of it, last week was a tad weird. The work days felt short, but the work week felt like it took forever! Maybe the universe popped in a lot of really short days last week rather than 7 long ones?

Saturday night was the week's saving event with Squasher's 40th birthday shindig at the Sail and Anchor pub. It was a perfect night to be out on the balcony catching up with old friends and watching Fremantle hum from above :).

I was a bit worried about this morning's weigh in. I had deliberately saved calories for the weekend so I could have a reasonable amount of beer. I had an extra large dinner on Sunday too since I was feeling exhausted and realised I was probably just running out of food in my system ;).

Anyway, I shouldn't have been worried, as it was a bonus 1.1kg week this week. Makes up for last week's 0.9, so I am bang on 1kg/week target again!

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:47:54 GMT

First day of the new job!!

What can I say at the moment really? It's not like I did any actual work at all. I got myself settled in and all of the inductions out of the way, and then a good chunk of the afternoon was spent in a meeting.

I just love the fact that it is in town and so bloody convenient to public transport. 25 minutes door to door during peak hour. How can you go wrong? I need to get my smartrider all sorted out though......why does the dept of transport make it such a pain in the arse to get one of these things??

Let's see. I suppose I should talk about my LAST day of work at Serck too.

Sucked!

Felt very sad and emotional all day, but held it together till the end of the day. Kept the goodbye speech short. I felt much loved and appreciated though, which is always nice to hear. It was also a good sign that the GM decided that we'd all just take off the last hour of the day to celebrate too.

Saturday was spent fixing retic (which promptly broke again), and taps, and spot of shopping! Shopping involving a nice PC upgrade. I am now quad core enabled!! Not that I game a heap these days, but buggerit, I had a bigarsed long service payout and I wanted a present!

Sunday I managed to dodge azhure 's baby shower (for the most part), and went out to buy beer, engine oil and help dad fix a fence....I felt like I had to assert my manliness or something. The evening was spent celebrating the new job at Little Creatures :).

Finally, this morning's weigh in..... somewhat spoilt by last night's LC splurge, but still a good result! 0.9kg is beginning to look like a habit!

Shh, quiet. He posted!

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:39:47 GMT

I have been a quiet little lurker for a long time here, but I have some news to share so I shall!

For those who do not read azhure 's LJ, I am soon to be a father! This is old news to most, but I am sure someone out there hadn't heard yet. Little bugger is due on my birthday, so there goes any hope of me getting any attention from now on! ;) Well I am still having Crayfish dammit! This is clearly the biggest news and news that I am not quite absorbing myself I suspect. It will all get very real soon tho :). I just spent the day constructing the cot and other furniture, and taking delivery of prams and car seats.

Actually, on the weekend I finally got round to cleaning out the "junk room" which is now the nursery with some much needed badgering and assistance from Steph. This room has been full of junk since we moved in 2 and a half years ago, thinking "I will get round to organising that"...hmmf. Ended up turfing a lot of old computer gear and rubbish that I was too sentimental to get rid of during the two house moves since I left home. Part of that was my old Uni notes. Wow...there were some old memories there.

Second piece of news is that I have resigned from my job of 12 years to face the big wide world as a contracting Engineer. Pay is good, market is still unstable, but I am keen to give it a go! This week marks my final week with Serck, and it is going to be interesting! I have a lot to get done before Friday! Good news is that I will be working with old friends in the City which will be a real change of scenery for me. Also I will be working in quite a different capacity in the new job in a completely different aspect of process control than I am used to.

And lastly for now I am back on my weightloss regime again! I am once again posting progress so you bugger can keep me honest. I started up in secret so I could see if I could do it for starters. It has now been a few weeks and I have been averaging a smidge better than 1kg/week which is fine by me. The difference this time is that I am not on the Jenny Craig food. I am simply limiting my Calorie intake to 1200-1500 per day. My weight gain reason is simple, I love to eat a lot! By simply cutting down and sticking to reasonably healthy fare I hope to get down to 80kg by the end of January 2010...let's see.

I will once again post the chart for progress.

Well that was some big news all chucked in at once. I will try to keep things posted as they develop from here! :)

Congrats!!!

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 09:06:49 GMT

Sending out a huge well done to the US of A for making the right decision today!

On behalf of the rest of the world, I thank you :)

I will send a fruit basket!

Olympics for REAL men!

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 03:23:13 GMT

A rare post for me, but I had to share given the current Olympic climate.

http://www.realmansolympics.com/

This is pure gold! (pun only partially intended) The Olympic medal tally, but weighted for each event's manliness!
Unfortunately Australia just doesn't rate due to our swimmer's fruity costumes ;).

One cool thing is that you can put in your own weights for events, so you can make your own medal tally based on your own arbitrary criteria!

I just watched the ABC global warming doco...

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 14:45:36 GMT

And I only have one thing to say, and that is...

Who let the eugenics nutters into the audience??

I mean really.....Did they just manage to accidently find them all in the audience? Were they just the only ones wanting to ask questions? Did they sneak in en-masse?

If nothing else the audience "question time" made for some laughs tonight!!

This was too good not to post!

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 01:09:37 GMT

Your stats are:
STR:16
INT:15
WIS:13
DEX:13
CON:13
CHR:15

The real life AD&D Stats Generator.

Sun, 07 Jan 2007 14:52:17 GMT

Well, that is Linux updated to a new core for another year.
I am fairly impressed with how smoothly these updates to Fedora go. This is the second time I have simply dumped the DVD into the PC and said update, and so far, both have been pretty successful.
Try doing that to Windows and see how many problems you get!!
For the record, this update was from Fedora Core 4 to Fedora Core 6. I am getting into the habit of updating every 2 cores when the previous version looses its update support.
The only problems I had were several unresolved dependencies...usually the result of an obsolete utility package that could just be removed entirely, and a few services that weren't quite fully installed.
All hardware, drivers and settings seemed to be retained. Even the problematic Java stuff seems pretty solid.

Only one problem now is that the auto updater seems to have changed its behaviour (doesn't download updates nightly like before), and none of the documentation I can find has listed this change. BAH!

This prompted another spate of software updates on my own PC....things that I usually don't check as a week by week thing....firmwares, UPS, hardware monitoring.

Also been playing Lego Starwars 1. The sequel is by FAR the better game......the original has several sectoins where you can trap yourself, or the AI will screw something up. Also the vehicle sections are abominable. The general design and quality of puzzles is also lacking.

Ooo it's official

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 08:55:04 GMT

Theyre making the next Indiana Jones movie!!

Ok, I'm impressed

Sat, 30 Dec 2006 12:19:20 GMT

Yep, I should have looked at the google homepages first before asking questions ;).

Thanks to those who suggested I check it out. My god these clever little boffins are good aren't they? The shit that google manage to put together in web pages is amazing.

I guess that's is what comes from a development environment where the geeks are allowed to bend their wills to whatever the hell they feel like. Getting payed to PLAY is the way to get results in technology I think. Hell, I think I get more work done when I am "unmanaged" at work myself. I am lucky that my boss is pretty hands off most of the time.

What is your homepage?

Fri, 29 Dec 2006 09:20:32 GMT

After a long hiatis I post once again.

I have been on holiday over the Agnostica/New Years break, and aside form a couple of nasty (read 10) callouts in the last 2 days, it has been spent watching telly and playing Lego Starwars 2 on the laptop.

I have somewhat questionably decided to swap ISP's over this period too, which has led to about a weeks worth of downtime. Luckily, being on call has allowed me to leech off the work's wireless connection in the meantime, so I haven't been completely offline (I would have enabled dial up but I forgot that my NEW shiny linux motherboard only had a single serial port which was being used by the UPS...doh).

Anyway....I am not on IINet's shiny ADSL2'ness and have a question.

What do you use as your homepage?

I have traditionally used my ISP's homepage/member page as my home, but after moving from Westnet's great members page to IINet's somewhat bland home page, I am looking to break tradition.
I am tempted to simply point my browser to Google and be done with it....fast, small, and useful.
But I want options.....I like opening the browser to see a local TV guide, news headlines, and weather info.

Yes, I could just keep using Westnet's members page, I hear you saying, but that feels a bit...wrong, I dunno. Times are a changin and I feel like a change too :).

I downloaded a free VOIP client to test out the VOIP I am paying for, for no good reason, and that seems to work nicely. I am still trying to figure a use for it mind you, as I don't know anyone internationally, or interstate for that matter. I am also resisting the urge to spend over $300 on a wireless VOIP phone that would save me approximately fuckall on calls since I generally don't make any.....but damn.....an IP enabled 802.11 phone....that is just cool.

Actually it is phone envy all round after having a gander at hbb's shiny newness. I think I might give up on my slim hope that Nokia will decide to release an 850MHz HSDPA version of their N95 marvel, and go for the IMate-Jasjam. Being Windows Mobile, it will have more or less the same software support as the Symbian platform I am familiar with, and all I really miss out on is the GPS and media features, which, well, are there for flash and not going to be big features for me after all.

New Years will be a quiet one this year...between on-call and lack of inclination, a night in will be relaxing before heading back to work :). Weather permitting, I will have an excuse to get the telescope out :)

Asteroid's Revenge

Sat, 02 Dec 2006 02:03:49 GMT

http://www.flashninjaclan.com/games.php?ID=27

Asteroids from the rock's POV?