Topic: #personal

Yearly update! What a year of not very much!

Haha! I’m getting really good at not blogging for a whole year! In doing a summary, it does feel like, overall, not much has changed too much, which is excellent! There are lots of little things that are absolutely wonderful, but too little to write about (or we’d be here forever). Maybe I should write about them out of the normal yearly structure…

Another year with little posting! It’s been terribly busy and of course, setting goals for this year, means I might jump back on the bandwagon on blogging, but let’s start with a year in review for 2018.

2017 flew by with 0 posts! Well I turned 30, which was a small deal. I ended up hiking the Six Foot Track, just to get away from it all. It was a gorgeous 3 days.

And another year has passed. Looking back, it’s been quite a huge year in my personal life and in my professional career. Personally, I’ve enjoyed numerous gigs towards the start of the year (with less and less in the last 6 months), went viral for about a day over the Fast Food Cake, moved in with the girlfriend and so much dancing. I’ve now reached a comfortable stage in my Balboa dancing which was a goal over the last year, which I think is an amazing thing for my dancing. It’s definitely the new love. There were a couple competitions this year, which I did pretty well in, but the biggest achievement would’ve been coming second in a Lindy Hop Open Invitational at the Pan Pacific’s this year! The second biggest would be that I’m now a Swing Dance Instructor. It definitely has been helping with my dancing to take the time and analyse everything that’s going on with my movements.

The fast food cake has been on my mind for a while now. It was originally thought of as a KFC cake, which I was disappointed with what I was shown, being KFC displayed on a cup cake stand. It didn’t feel like a ‘cake’ but rather a fanciful display of chicken. I set myself the goal to create the proper fast food cake, with a few rules to keep it ‘authentic’:

I finished up at DoE in the middle of January and started the new job 2 days later! Such a change. It’s brought on a lot more work (namely development work - YAY!) and a lots more learning. I’m now developing on Android, iOS and the trusty GWT. It is nice to see how a start up works and who does what when they are actually engaged and needing to push out work quickly and efficiently. Funnily enough, I’ve just finished the SSO components (something that I never escape for some reason). It has been very engaging work, where time flies and I forget about lunch and when it’s time to go home. Luckily, I do have dancing commitments so that helps me leave the work place.

What a huge year it has been! The year started with gigs galore! I think the beginning of this year will be the same. Then there were numerous trips (day trips and longer ones). Lots and lots of dancing. Finally, refocusing on my career and will be starting a new job in a couple weeks! I think it’ll be a lot of fun (and hard work) since there’ll be iOS and Android dev work as well as the trusty GWT. I’ve also had an increase in DIY craft points with a making lamp, vase, hand bound leather journal and a massive bookcase (of which, all turned out better than I thought).

Photo Layout allows users to collate a batch of different sized photos to generate a collage of photos on a sheet of paper for printing. Its main aim is to maximise the print area on a sheet of printing paper. Photo Layout is a simple workflow desktop application for users that do all their printing in-house.

The final trip home was a good fun drive, which was slightly driven by caffeine. We ventured from Broken Hill, through Cobar, Orange, an overnight stay there at Duntryleague, dinner at LolliRedini, and then back home the following day after a short 9 hole game of golf =). The drive included a number of hit and run on animals unfortunately. They all looked pretty fresh, so I’m assuming the killer was a couple hours in front of me. There were several stops to get these guys off the road as well.

The final day of work involved digging one last line of plots in the early hours to avoid the heat. After that we needed to make sure we had enough photos to document the foraging pits. It was nice to be able to drive around with the soul purpose of photographing. Of course, not all the wildlife appeared, but enough did to keep it all exciting.

Day 4 and Day 5 were digging holes. Lots of holes. In all, there were 1440 holes dug. It took just over 2 days to dig them all. The biggest impediment was heat. There was a slight heat wave for Spring there, and it did reach 39 degrees at some point. There was definitely the need for a lot of water and breaks. Theres just one photo of the plots (not taken by me), with the diggings in them.

The third day was spent marking out pits. Basically, these were 2m x 2m square plots with a metal stake on the north corner and then tent pegs on the other 3 corners, plus one in the centre. Each stake was marked with a copper tag with its density and type. For this, I created a lightweight contraption which would mark out the 4 corners for me. It was also adjustable, in that it would also mark the corners of 1m x 1m squares if we needed to make the plots smaller. It was essentially, 2 pieces of conduit which were joined in the centre by a bolt. This would allow it to collapse and be carried around easily. These were the diagonals of the square. I then had one more conduit piece which was 1 metre long. This was at the right distance to make sure that it held the diagonals in place to form a square. Here is a photo of it in action.

On the second day, we looked at doing transects where we took counts of how many Bilby/Bettong foraging pits and Rabbit foraging pits there were at regular distances. This would provide a baseline of what the density would be for naturally occurring foraging pits. The interesting thing for me was seeing these pits for the first time. I was tasked originally with figuring out what the best way would be to recreate these pits using normal tools and it was actually quite difficult to find images and descriptions online about them. I’ll document them in another post specifically about their sizes. In driving around Scotia Sanctuary in our breaks, we did come across some wonderful wildlife.

Scotia Sanctuary is a nature reserve between the NSW and SA borders. I visited on the 30th of September as a volunteer to help conduct my partners PhD fieldwork. I say conduct, which really means, digging over a thousand holes in the soil. This was a 2 week trip which I’ll retrospectively write about. The trip down was quite exciting and a lot of planning was done to make sure that fatigue wouldn’t become an issue. There was the first 5 hour drive to Wagga Wagga which was straight forward enough. The second leg (8 hours) was all the way through to Scotia via Hay and Mildura. Numerous spots of road kill and birds of prey it seems.

#sofarsyd - The September Sofar Sounds was at Arcadia Liquors in Redfern. I was actually there on Friday and then onto Porteno for dinner. Today was just to check out the gig and try out my new 70-200 f4 lens. I’ve been meaning to get one for a while, so I’ve finally bought one in preparation for my trip to Scotia next week! I decided with the f4 version over the old f2.8 as it was lighter and the VR was pretty insane. I’ve been told its as sharp, and doesn’t have the focus breathing issue. It has worked pretty well. I’ll have photos in a few weeks so we’ll see if it was a worthwhile purchase!

The Sydney Lindy Exchange was on this weekend, which also included the Australian Swing Dance Championships. I only attended the social nights but there were classes as well as late night events. People from all over the country were there (including New Zealand!). It hasn’t been on since 2012, but its come back and was pretty spectacular. The first night was at St Peters Church - SCEGGS. Gorgeous venue. It held one of my first ever events - the Jack and Jill. Nervous as anything, didn’t get into the finals, nor did I find the fun in it at the time. I was so nervous I couldn’t even hear the beat of the music. I eventually got there after about 8 bars. The other events that night were the Balboa Open, Solo Jazz and Team events.

#sofarsyd - Another Sofar sounds. This time it was at St Peters at a warehouse sponsored by Trolly’d. This month, it featured, Molly Contogeorge:

Wowee, 3 months without a post. Its been quite a busy 3 months and here is a bit of spew: cousin had his bucks night, cousin got married, movies, Count Basie Orchestra at the Opera House, Flemington Flower Markets, house inspections, dancing, another niece appears, Melbourne Ska Orchestra with Mojo Juju at the Opera House, Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock at the Opera House, movies, dancing, Blue Mountains, Glenn Miller Orchestra at the State Theatre, and some Balboa thrown in there (I’m separating that from dancing since its the next thing I’m trying to learn).

#sofarsyd - Another month and another Sofar sounds gig. I’ve been pretty privileged to have seen so many and been able to support all the bands that have been performing. This month, it was Sarah Belkner (dark and glorious), Ed Wells (blues riffs against an indie pop sound), Suiix (electronica synth) and Hollow States (indie pop). It was at a very unique Surry Hills location which is actually a commercial space that has been converted. The stars leading up to it suggest an abandoned warehouse, but its quite a lovely spot.

I found myself heading to the Royal Sydney Easter Show on Easter Saturday in the rain. Luckily for me, I had a fantastic hiking poncho which did the job really well. I was also armed with my hiking gear to keep me warm and dry! Crowds were low, which only meant easier accessibility to free things. The main highlights were Bonnie Yard Dogs, Wood Chopping, and the petting of farm yard animals. I think it was my main goal to pat some animals. I didn’t end up staying till the final hours, but instead, opted to check out Harlem in Ashfield (Polish Club), which is partly run by Sharon (who is my swing dance instructor). It was a terrific night, with well suited music that was great to dance to.

I took the day off to visit the zoo since we were already due at the zoo in the evening for Twilight at Taronga. It seemed that you could get half price tickets after 2pm if you show your Twilight ticket so that helped! I do wish we had more time to slowly wander around, but I’m sure there’ll be another visit sometime this year.

It has been a pretty intense weekend and week of events. It did start with a lovely Picnic at Wendy’s Secret Garden in Lavender Bay. It’s a gorgeous little spot that totally removes you from all the high rises that are just around the corner. We ended up there for a good few hours as its a lovely walk along the harbour to Kirribilli and all the way through the Blues Point.

Happy Chinese New Year! This is, of course, posted late as normal. Year of the Sheep/Goat - something that still hasn’t been figured out and since it’s not my year… I’m not worried so much. For Chinese New Year on the Wednesday, I ended up planning my evening to end up at the Chinese Temple out at Bonnyrigg. The last time I was there, it all started at 12 but it seems the lunar clock (if there is such a thing) operates on a different time. I pulled up at 11:55 pm and found myself the closest parking spot to the temple I’ve ever found and thought, I’m the luckiest guy on earth, but clearly later on, I realised how unlucky I was and that people were LEAVING rather than arriving at that time.

#sofarsyd - Either I’m lucky, or I’m lucky - maybe it was because it was Chinese New Year as well! 3 out of 3 Sofar sounds so far… Oh thats lame. I hope it doesn’t stop. This time it was at the Rocks Brewing Company in Sydenham. It was a great location, except that I think alcohol seemed to have spoilt the normal ambience where its all about the music. This time around, it was more about people socialising and thus, very noisy and felt more like a normal bar and less appreciation for the artists. I hope it’ll improve! Manu Pozzi was from Argentina - brilliantly entertaining. Gazele was a soul act from Sydney, Betty & Oswald is a group I’ve wanted to see (or that I had come across their name and wanted to check them out), and they were pretty amazing. Definitely enjoyed their tempo changes. Flowertruck was an 80’s rock band? I say that like a question because it was definitely different. The lead singer was plucked out of the 80’s in style, looks and mannerisms. It was pretty great.

Seasons Greatings / Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays! I’m sure one of them isn’t as offensive as the others. Take your pick.

#sofarsyd - Sofar sounds is all about secret gigs all over the world at secret locations. You don’t even get to know the artist/s until the day of and the location, the day before. It’s also based off a random draw if you decide you’d like to go on a particular day, so there isn’t a guarantee that you’d get to selected. This time around, I was lucky enough to get the tickets. It was in Newtown and Lupa J, Andy Golledge, Leanne Tennant and With Fox were performing, each for about 30 minutes. CD’s were available to buy. BYO rugs and pillows (although there was definitely a lack of pillow bringing). Overall a good night. Found me an alter-hipster-ego - Monty. He is a barista at a super trendy cafe you would’ve never heard of in the inner west. Kaz on the other hand, works at Red Rooster since he dropped out of his uni degree. I’m sure more of their past will need to be developed - I present you Monty and Kaz and their adventure so far… (yes, that joke was done that night):

I’m full, so that must be a good thing! The Lima Gourmet Company seems to run full groups from Monday to Saturday. I had David and the driver pick me up and drop me off from my hotel (they even gave me a lift to my next hotel which was very nice of them). It started off at Tostaduria Bisetti with a quick tour of Barranco and a coffee to start off the day. They showed us the beans that are culled when selecting beans for their shop, and also a very smooth tasting drip coffee.

The flight over from Honolulu to San Francisco was quite painless. In fact, they were boarding 15 minutes earlier and arrived early into SFO. You would think this is a good thing - I even started to think that maybe I’d have time to get to the Verdi Club for at least an hour. I had booked a shuttle with SuperShuttle. Them arriving late wasn’t such an issue until you realise that the guy barely speaks english and is just generally slow. On the drive into downtown, it was pretty amazing to see so many billboards with IT companies all over them. It then dawns on me the issue we were about to have. I was thinking that the company had an intuitive application that, given 7 destinations, it would be able to route the drive to the most efficient route. Instead, I was at 2 stages, about 4 blocks from where I needed to be. Given that Google Maps already has the routing algorithm sorted, its just a matter of using their API to do the calculations.

28, humid, and full of Japanese people is how I’d describe Honolulu airport right now. It definitely makes me miss summer and it’ll be amazing to get back to Sydney just in time for it. I think it’s pretty amazing to catch a night flight out of Sydney, go to sleep and wake up in another country. Sure it feels a bit yuck as soon as you leave the plane in pants and a hoodie, but thats really just my fault. So this time around, and its been a very long time since I went overseas, I’m heading to San Francisco as a first stop for a week.

I had the chance to head out mountain biking this weekend in Canberra. Originally, it was going to be at Stromlo Forest Park which is known for its mountain biking tracks, but last minute, we realised that there was a 24-hour competition on. Instead we found the Canberra Centenary Trail. There was a particular section along the Murrumbidgee River that was recommended on Flow.

I had my cousin’s engagement party (high tea) today down in Goulburn at St. Saviour’s Cathedral Hall. Here are some photos of the delicious food from the day!

Images from Brisbane - Suncorp Stadium

Images of Melbourne

Images from Mollymook

Images from Rio De Janerio

Images from Ilha Bela

Images from Mogi Das Cruzes

Images from Paraty

Image from Rio de Janeiro

Images from Riviera

Images from Ubatuba

So I’ve just experience both sides of the falls and as with what most people say, the Argentinian side is a lot better. Whats better is the experience of the waterfalls. The understanding of how much water passes through these falls. I’ll start with yesterday. I arrived in the morning and checked into the hostel. Bus 120 took me from the hostel, which was a block from the local bus terminal, all the way to the falls and back on the brazillian side. Once inside, a bus will take you to different spots which have different activities and sites to see. The brazillian side is quite picturesque. I did quite enjoy this side as it was the simpler version, and also, less dangerous. This side can be done in a few hours, without the activities. The Argentinian side involves 3 buses. One to get you to the brazillian border - heading to Portuo Iguazu, one from the brazillian border to the bus terminal (via the argentinian border patrol) and then another to the falls. As a tourist, you must get off at the brazillian border, get your passport stamped, then get off again at the argentinian side and get it stamped again. One the way back it is the same case (except my bus didn’t stop at the brazillian side… I’ll be looking to head to the federal police in Florianopolis tomorrow to get that sorted..). Once there, there is a bit more walking it seems to get to the different points. A short walk to the trains - but it is faster to walk along a track to get you to the first point. Then there are a few walking trails - each with different vantage points. The man made floor structures are metal and when wet is extremely slippery. The jet boat ride is an experience.. to get wet. Note for anyone planning on doing this, bring thongs with you, or at least put your shoes and socks in the waterproof bag they provide… you get a complete drenching. The other spots are spectacular to see the numerous waterfalls. There food on this side seems a bit lacking compared to the brazillian end point which was a buffet. This was a mere take out place and the main meals are back at the beginning. This trek took about 4 hours or so at a quick pace. It is the transport which is a killer, but its nice just to see both sides of Iguacu.

So I’ve seen a few blog posts already(** link up when i find it) (one of which was most helpful) about the journey from Punta Del Diablo to Foz Do Iguacu and just wanted to write about mine so other travellers can make their own decisions about it.

Hostels:

Photos from Punta del Este

Images from Montevideo

Hostels:

Images from Colonia

Images from Buenos Aires

I will write soon, but just a few quick photos from Fuerza Bruta.

I was just going through a few draft emails still hanging around in my inbox… from 2008 and I came across an unsent email to Thule regarding the theft of my bike (mentioned somewhere in my blog - search for Thule and you might find it). I guess the answer was short and sweet and I’ll paste it below.

It has been a very busy 3 months since I received settlement with the intense first month of renovations and moving in and then just figuring out how to manage myself and my finances. I’ve finally a spare few moments this morning to get all of these photographs sorted. The biggest renovation part was in fact putting in the door to the “dungeon” for accessibility and to reduce the stuffiness of it all. Floorboards also went in after the removal of the tiles in the kitchen. That was a huge, and loud, job. When I get some more time, I’ll write up about the bike stand and the speaker stands which was my weekend job this week. There’ll be a few before and after photos below and others just showing the messy rooms.

So it has been nearly a couple months since I was last here and its been a really long couple months. Renovations are finished (except for a few niggly bits which I have procrastinated in doing over the last 2 months), I’ve moved in, everything is pretty much setup and I’m cooking and cleaning! Work has been keeping me busy, but not as much as adjusting to living on my own and attempting (and forgetting) to live under a budget. The bills are the worst. Photos still to come…

I’m finally free of all studies! Graduation was a couple weeks ago now, but the photos took its time to get to me, not that I’m pointing my finger at anyone in particular. I’ve now graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology with a Diploma in Information Technology Professional Practice. 2 years too long since I took on the final couple years as a part time student.

It was my long weekend (yes, I realise the long weekend was last week) project to redo my main webpage, which just required a few more photos to be processed but its now all done (except for the software page and a few small user tweaks). The main thing I wanted was a full screen webpage, showing photos, a simple navigation area and a simple backend. I used Supersized for the main background section, jQuery Tools for the menus and a few transitional bits and pieces and a simple php web service to return the images that you want to see - randomised and appropriate for the screen size. I did just need to push it out otherwise it’d hang around for way too long. I hope to link new photos that I blog up to that page dynamically in the future. Written by Milton Lai

I’m hoping this time this post will work. Coincidently I was at the beach the last time I tried. I’ve got a bit of spare time now and thought I’d write a quick update. My kast project went live earlier in the week and for once, there has not been an immediate bug fix release. A lot of testing went into this release as with a lot of refactoring; so I’l glad at how it turned out. That’s been what has been taking up most of my time.

I’ve just got a few shots from that night, but overall, there was good music (and some bad), namely Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro which is a cool japanese funk band. In terms of work, I think I’ve outdone myself these couple of weeks since I’ve finished all but one requirement 6 weeks before out first estimations. Thats not to say that I’m really efficient, but rather our estimations have been off, by quite a bit. Something to record and keep track on.

Well it seems like I didn’t end up having enough time to write over the new year break. There was a lot of driving to get to the Gold Coast and a few relaxing days up there before having to drive back down. There was a bit of rain to be had on the way up, but it cleared towards the end of the trip. Currently I’m not feeling the greatest - possibly have caught a food bug at some point. Decided fitness is one resolution I should possibly be able to achieve this year, given I have more time on my hands. Lets see about that over the next year!

Its been a long year and a lot has happened. I’ve been glad for the friends and family around me and support everyone has given me through this year. There are a few resolutions to list, but I do have a bit to get done today. I’ll be heading up the coast tomorrow and I should have enough time to relax and write all of them down hopefully, but until then, I hope everyone has a merry christmas!

The past few weeks have been a bit intense with work and personal projects, I’ve been at the keyboard quite a far bit to get my first real app out. I’ll have another post later on, closer to the date when I can actually release it. Of course, it won’t be the cleanest release, but there will be regular updates (in fact that means I need an updating mechanism which will make life easier for the people who do end up using the software). I’ve spent a bit of time refactoring my current project before I started the new tasks. I felt that there was a bit of code smell and well as performance issues. One simple example would be to create a local instance for any values which are calculated within loops.

So this is why I haven’t written a word for a good month or more. I’ve had assignments to hand in and an exam to finish, and now its all over! I’ll be writing soon - but for the moment - enjoying not having to worry about any more uni work, cycling a bit more, and just getting ready to lie on the beach for most of summer!

Today was the final day of the RB summit and a group of us ended up heading to Estes Park, since we were not locals and wanted to check out a bit of the area. The colours of the season were spectacular.

Image from Santa Cruz

Decided to bike to Golden Gate Park and onto Ocean Beach since it was supposed to be 31 degrees. Unfortunately, the fog came in and it was freezing - also the water didn’t look very clean either. Then rode up and over the bridge and hopped onto the west side of the bridge for some nice shots - since I didn’t have the fog when I was there last. The ride continued down to Sausalito for lunch before hopping on a ferry back (I wasn’t in the right state to ride up the stupid hill again).

I headed out to Candlestick Park today to check out the 49ers play against the Seahawks. My first NFL game that I’ve seen in whole. I thought I’d lap up the opportunity to do something the locals do around here - and yes - quite a few people do attend these games. One word of advice would be to leave your bag at home since there are no backpacks are allowed into stadiums. The game was a blast, however, it is a lot more expensive than League tickets - about 100 USD for the cheapest seats, although the stadium is laid out quite nicely, unlike ANZ stadium where you can’t see a thing from the bottom level, let alone the top level.

So I’m hear to get over the jetlag before I head to the RealBasic Summit. It’s nearly 9pm, so I should be right to get some sleep soon. I’m definately glad I didn’t arrive on the day of the summit, and expect myself to stay awake. Landed and had a quick walk around town - from Union Square to Haight Ashbury and back through Mission Dolores.

This has been the first chance I’ve gotten over the past month to write anything. I’m currently outside of my lecture room. eXtreme Programming. The methodology is based on the most important factors of programming, and turned up to the next level. Its not that there is “less” of anything (especially documentation), but there is more of the rest. It just means that the focus is more directed at its 12 practices: The planning game, on-site customer, small releases, simple design, pair programming, testing, refactoring, collective ownership, coding standards, continuous integration, 40 hour week and metaphor. This is an agile methodology and there are plenty of arguments for and against these kind of methodologies, but of course every business has their own particular practiced methodology. In any case, the subject is more about putting the methodology into practice than actually completing the task being given.

Well, not that it freaked anyone out, but I did get back from America, but since then, its been work, work, work, assignments, assignments, exams and exams. I just finished my last exam as of an hour ago. Project Management wasn’t too bad as an assignment and exam, but Finance is something way beyond me. I was stressed quite a bit over the last 4-5 days, but I’m glad its all over. Strange thing about Finance & IT as a subject is that, it is purely finance with small tie ins with IT. The last lecture summed most of it up, but it wasn’t in the final exam which was a bit bizarre.

Home at last and back to work. Need to get my head into gear before writing anything, but here are a few images of the last couple days:

Exhausting day having had ridden 8 miles to Sausalito from the Pier in 3 hours and then having to ride the same 8 miles back in 1 hour was a bit too much since we were rushing back to make our Alcatraz tour. Day ended up being way too strenuous. Time to relax a bit:

Spent today shopping out at Vacaville Premium Outlets. This was followed by a drive to the Bedford Gallery to check out the PostSecret exhibition. It brought to life how real the content on that blog have been and also getting to ‘feel’ how the person created the postcard in the state under which they decided to let go of this secret.

[nggallery id=7] Written by Milton Lai in Turlock, California

Just a few quick photos of the ever-so-cheeky Kai and a few of the sequoia trees - General Sherman is featured in the last photo - the largest tree on earth by mass.

I’ve had little and next to no time to write about how my travels have been going. So far it has been non stop travelling and I hope that when in San Francisco the pace will slow down just a bit. Las Vegas could’ve been better spent with friends than family and two days just isn’t nearly enough there to see everything. The next couple days will be spent in Sequoia and Yosemite National Park. Plenty of photos so far here are just another few - testing out my panoramic skills..

Finally I found myself some free wifi. I’m currently in William, Arizona. I’ve had the busiest week so far, but currently, everyone is asleep so possibly I shouldn’t type for too much longer. Here’s a dump of photos from Sunday.

Photos from Las Vegas

Since last tuesday, I’ve had quite a long week since Nick has gotten back from overseas, so its been a bit of catching up, and doing as we used to do (stuffing our faces with junk food - I haven’t had any junk food since the new year).

The Cat Empire is currently promoting their Live on Earth album, which I think is their best album - recordings of live gigs from around the world. They decided to have two free gigs in Sydney last weekend, which was great considering I didn’t end up going to their show at the Enmore.

So apart from a bigger work load - which I guess has come about since uni is about to kick in, and I’d want to make sure I’m on top of things, a good friend has gone overseas for at least the next 6 months to study architecture at Bauhaus University. There was a farewell concert with his band last Friday night, and spent most of the week sorting out things for him - mainly camera related.

In the past few weeks, I’ve turned 22, been working quite a bit, contracted a virus on my home desktop and flew to Dubbo for a day for work. I’ve spent quite a bit of time at the beach whenever I can. The weather has changed for the better since it was way too hot last week. The Victoria Bushfires have been quite a horrific disaster - my closest experience with this was when I was in Dubbo yesterday and the air was filled with smoke which has drifted all the way from Victoria. The images which have been appearing in newspapers around the place are quite strong and emotional. In a way I wish I could be there to photograph all of it unfolding.

I’ve spent most of the past couple weeks at the beach - outside of work hours anyway. I’ve found a nice little cafe at Coogee called Cafe Congo. Great food and even better coffee. The staff are just quite friendly. I’m currently sitting here writing all of this. I’ve just finished another morning spent lying on the beach and finishing off the Vancouver album design. It’s… nearly there… it’s not perfect, but I guess the longer I stare at it, the more I’ll end up changing. I’ll give it till next weekend and I’ll send it off then.

Its been quite a slow week considering how much work has piled up over the break. There’s just a backlog of issues that mainly I can address. Having arrived on tuesday - and beaching it up on that sweltering day, the jet lag only hit 2 days ago. I should be ok heading out of this weekend. I’ve been tossing up making an album of the Vancouver trip and which companies to go with - since I’m not made of money and these things aren’t cheap. I’ll possibly start editing tomorrow. Today - I had the photo shoot and then afterwards I headed to the Sydney Festival where the Cat Empire were playing =).

Last leg. Currently at Vancouver airport - taking up their offer on free wifi.Its a bit limited with no direct ftp access, but all’s well. Last night had my final dinner with my hosts’ family and packed. This morning, headed out to see the south side of Stanley Park and also the Vancouver Art Gallery which featured pieces by Jeff Wall. Quite some nice pieces.

Exhausted. I really just want a day of sleeping in and then I don’t want to leave… just yet anyway. Plane heads back home tomorrow in the evening around 6. Today was spent with my hosts’ parents who took me to Queens Park, Granville Island, and quick drive through Stanley Park and a walk through Chinatown. There will be a lot of sleeping when I get back home and I don’t think I’m anywhere near done exploring Vancouver.

So after lunch, headed to Gastown and Chinatown. I wasn’t too sure if I was really in those areas since the streets were a bit quiet and not much was happening. I ended up hitting a block which was kind of scary - people who looked homeless and drug dealers - who pretty much lined the streets. I ended up at a Starbucks to have some relaxing time of editing more photos and writing. Dinner was soon after - thai food - my treat for the hosts’ family.

NYE was a new experience - I spent it at a club - not the best scene in the world, but I had to see it at some stage. The highlight was at the end of the night when the designated driver was… way too drunk to drive, so I ended up driving… in snow, on the wrong side of the road, whilst it was raining… quite a feat for the first time.

Had a lovely sleep in this morning. Just a tad bit sore, but all is well. The day has been so nice - blue sky and all! Headed off to Metrotown this morning before heading to Stanley Park. The days are a bit short, so I’ve only had about 3 hours of walking before it started to get dark and as amazing as the park is… it’d be a bit scary at night. The trails are completely snow filled and so the trail was… difficult. The normal path which takes you around the park was quite icy so the walk ended up quite slow. I didn’t quite make it all the way around the park, but it was nice to have no one about and to just relax with my iPod. It’s new years eve tonight and I’m still not sure what is happening as yet. Currently sitting in a coffee shop going through my photos and having a break. Its pretty much dark outside now. Quick post before I go!

Couple quick shots on my way back home this evening.

So I ended up bringing my camera with me to the Whistler yesterday… Problem was that there was no blue sky! As you’ll be able to see, there was good snowfall on that day. The previous day, we were having lunch at the top of the mountain and there were gorgeous views of the valley and the peak2peak gondola. I ended up with a few pictures from the morning and a lot of condensation in the evening before I left.

I’m on the road again. This time to Vancouver to go snow boarding and photograph. I’m currently here at Auckland airport and have about a 3 hour wait until my connecting flight departs. This time around, I’m a lot more relaxed about flying. My wait at Sydney Airport was spent editing photos for the latest APA (Australian Parkour Association) newsletter - I hope I can get the photos to them in time. I’m a bit worried about how my body is going to cope over the next week or so - mainly because my boarding lessons will have me leaving the house at about 6 am or a bit earlier. Thats 11 pm Sydney time!

Day 2 - woke up at 5 am - lift to the greyhound bus depot to hop on my 2 hour bus to Whistler village. Picked up by gear and coffee and lessons started at about 9:30. Snow boarding is… SO MUCH FUN. No sore muscles or bones at the moment. I can weave all the way down a slope, but as I gather speed, its a bit freaky because I can’t quite stop smoothly enough and possibly avoid hazards apart from falling over - which is fine by me. I hope to bring my camera with me tomorrow - since when we had lunch at the top of the Whistler Gondola there was an amazing view of the whole village AND it was snowing! First time I’ve seen real snow falling! Absolutely amazing. I hope to get some images tomorrow of the village. Another 5 am wake up tomorrow.

Last Parkour session of the year for me. Heading off to Vancouver next Saturday, so a day out on the beach and parkour was a must for my last weekend in Sydney! Huge turn out which also ended up with a few epic arm jumps and cat to arm jumps. Hope the images do today justice! There are quite a few images from today… The last photo is my favourite.

Its been one of those weeks which you look forward to for a whole year but unlike most years, this one was filled with server upgrades and the release of the latest version of my application. The work Christmas Party was at Doltone House - no photos taken - I had given myself a break from photographing and also worrying about my camera and ended up having a blast. I got home at 6:30… big night. Tomorrow the newest version of my application is going out. Hope all goes well. Its all running on a newer server which won’t necessarily increase a single users speed, but the speed will increase when multiple users are hammering the server.

Long and eventful week where it ended with the new wireless system up and running. I might have a write about it during the week. It involved setting up FreeRadius and Samba to communicate for the authentication process - which was the main problem. WIth all the changes in versions regarding FreeRadius - most online help referred to versions dating back to 2005 which weren’t so helpful.

Hi everyone,

Work has been a bit nuts over the past week. I’ve experienced for the first time, working really hard on something, only to have it fall through. I guess in my case it was only a smallish component which took me about 3 days of work to get it working and to the original spec, but it seems the spec was incorrect and the stakeholder also cannot express confidently what the spec should be. We’ve decided that it won’t be in scope for the December release, but for the February/March release. I’ve been told that in many larger organisations, things like this happen all the time where projects fall through for all different reasons and the time spent on them is a lot larger than a few days work.

Yesterday afternoon / evening, after work, I headed into Circular Quay on the way to the Rocks to meet up with the parkour guys and snap up a few more shots armed with the 50mm. The Rocks Markets by Moonlight is on every Friday evening this month and last night, Paris Wells and the Potbelleez performed. After that, a nice walk along the harbour where I snapped a few shots of the guys I was with. Photos:

So today and tomorrow, EA games hosted a launch party for Mirrors Edge outside Customs House in Circular Quay. The parkour guys (all from around Australia) were hired to perform each day, and several promotional pieces over the last few weeks. More about the parkour inspired game at http://mirrorsedge.com.au

Monday night was a late night after going out to dinner for a friends birthday.

Bought the D200 off my brother on the weekend and just in time for some high shutter action. I think I was a bit too trigger happy and shot quite a few in burst, and the results are below. Week and weekend was a bit slow. Work is back to its usual self, but now with proper deadlines.

Not that I’ve got any photos to show for the trip on saturday - left home at about 5pm, so the light conditions weren’t the best - and my friend was shooting that day - showing him the in’s and out’s of photography. I did take just the one shot:

Turned up to classes today for the first time in a while to actually participate. This is just all a part of my new plan to get back into shape and focus a bit more on parkour and parkour related photography.

Currently sitting at Le Montage here in Leichhardt/Lilyfield on their free wifi. Well before I start talking about these endless weeks, I’ll run through whats happened since I got back from my trip. My first week back was… not the worst thing in the world. I ended up leaving work a bit earlier than usual because driving at about 6pm or so was kind of dangerous considering how tired I was. I’ve been placed on a few projects to get me back into gear. Of course these projects have stretched on a bit, not my fault necessarily but rather having to deal with other people and awaiting responses on testing and correct information. I’ve been developing my own IDE for our “Dynamic” forms that we have at work, which I also developed. It allows me to simply drag and drop and align widgets on a window and calculate all the necessary information and create me insert statements to stick into the database. On top of that, I’ve written a procedure which creates another procedure once run. With the dynamic nature of these tables, to run a report on the particular table, you would normally need to statically name each attribute. Here I would rerun my procedure which will recreate the procedure with all the correct attributes negating the need to change any existing stored procedures when the table structure changes. I’ve also been writing a few stored procedures to move data around because new databases needed to be set up. With all my photos, I’ve been trying to write my own slideshow application - suggested by Kenny - who just got a summer internship with Google! So I’ve been trying, but its been a bit buggy, so I’m nearly there to show you all my photos. I’ve finished the design of my album / coffee table book and its been printed and distributed… only 5 copies were printed… I’ll have the images up as soon as I get my slideshow app going. I’ll give it another 2 weeks or so, since I’ve been a bit busy. I’ve been training a lot more - in fitness and parkour. Its been going quite well. Supposed to be meeting up with Kenny every tuesday - not for the past 2 - been busy and hard a car accident… Otherwise, since daylight savings kicked in early, I can get home and still go for a run and its still a great temperature. So since I’ve gotten back… this is the 6th wedding - 5 which I’ve worked at… I don’t feel as though I’ve had much of a break as yet… At least the follow few weeks it’ll be just a single wedding for the weekend and I can end up having a day to myself. Cousins wedding yesterday, so it was one which I could actually turn up to and enjoy. Some how I ended up with a few responsibilities like working the video and taking a few photographs here and there… but overall, it was a great wedding - relaxing - not the waking up at 5:30 this morning though. Car accident - in short, a guy rear-ended me. He was a nice guy, spoke to him, he wanted to sort it out privately… most people recommend against that, but he returned my phone calls and sms’s. I got a few quotes for the damage - $1500 as a starting quote - he gave me a cheque on friday for that amount and hopefully thats as much as its going to cost. Most people don’t end up trusting others - saying people may run away and refuse to pay… but I think that there are some kind hearted people out there and so I guess my first accident wasn’t so bad. At the end of the day, he has to pay one way or another, and so I’ll run by whatever he suggests. Oh - I got glasses - I need them for seeing in the distance - like driving… at night… This week - full driving license and possibly make these projects end so I can move onto others. In a few weeks I should have a bit more spare time on my hands.

A lot has been happening in the last week - change of internet providers, voip, getting glasses, work and photos. This weekend, just got back from a wedding - had another one yesterday. So it really has been a long week, and possibly this week might be a quieter one I hope. I was working on these yesterday and just thought I’d put them up. These photos were taken in Evry and Lisses in France - the birthplace of Parkour. The traceur in it is Rhys James - a parkour practitioner here in Sydney, who I consider one of the best practictioners here in Sydney. check out http://www.sydneyparkour.com/ and http://www.parkour.asn.au/ for more information.

The last leg of my trip was in Japan. Headed into Akihabara, the technology town, and Shibuya, the youth fashion town. Japan was humid as anything when I was there. Akihabara - nice place if I lived there, too many 7 story stores of just technology. Then there were the alley ways where both sides were lined with tiny little shops which sold everything. Prices were average, nothing special, then again, I can’t say I was after anything. They sold a larger variety of gear than they do in Sydney thats for sure. I didn’t end up buying anything. Shibuya was full of kids shopping. Fashion wasn’t really my thing, but I had been told to go there. Nothing that special apart from shopping, but I don’t think Japanese fashion is really my thing. Not really liking guys with handbags and purses.. It was a really tough day, just because it felt like I had been up over a day, so anytime I sat down, I would fall asleep. Not the best thing to do when you are in a country where you don’t know where you are going.

Currently sitting at Heathrow airport awaiting for this board to tell me which gate to go to for my flight to helsinki. I’m not too sure what all the fuss is about when people say its a terrible airport. I think things ran quite smoothly. So with the past 3 or 4 days, I’ve travelled from Brusells to London.

So 2 nights have passed and I’m currently at Nick’s friends place in Sint Niklaas. Lovely place - apparently the biggest square in Belgium. When we arrived, it was the first day in the whole of summer where it was sunny and nice enough weather to have dinner outside and breakfast outside. Today and yesterday have been the same. We headed to Gent the first night to have a few drinks and check out the area - beautiful area around the canals and quite a few churches. Yesterday we walked around Brugge which was smaller and quite cosy, but kind of similar to Gent. Antwerp was considerably bigger and close to the river that flows into belgium. Massive shopping street there as well. Had many beers, most have been very nice,  one was horribly sweet. It doesn’t help if there are just a list of beers and I’m supposed to try them all. Chocolates - only had a handful, but we still have Brussels tomorrow - so there should be a lot more of them there. Waffles is on the list for tomorrow.

Rotterdam, the hostel was pretty well run - themed rooms. CutCopy were playing the night we turned up, but tickets were all sold out unfortunately. We hit up happy hour at the hostel before a couple of other places before calling it a night. The next day we went on a walking tour run by the hostel, and it was a good introduction to the biggest port in Europe. Oh and when we arrived, we found ourselves an all you can eat ribs place - which is only 11.90 Euros on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

So currently I’m on a train from Brussels to Rotterdam. Thought I’d write a quick entry before I forget. I’m not too sure where I left off last, and which holes I haven’t filled. Since arriving in Paris from Bern, its been OK - great place to finish off the France section. So the day after my last entry - I turned up to the Eiffel Tower at about… 8:30 am. The lines weren’t so bad - maybe 30 people in front of me. There were 3 lines. Of course, I ended up in the line which was walking only. 670 steps to the second floor. Quite hard in the beginning, but it gets easier once you pass 200 steps. Then an elevator all the way to the top. It was great when I got there since not too many people had reached the top yet, so I was able to walk around freely enough. The view is quite nice. There weren’t too many people walking about either since it was sprinkling. Grabbed a few shots up there before heading back down.

Sitting at the park outside the Eiffel Tower. The sun just set and the tower is lit up. Blue. The queues to get up are a bit nuts at the moment - so I might head back here tomorrow morning to check out the lines before heading up. We took the longest journey to get here. From Bern, train to Basel, then to Mullhouse Ville, before a train to Paris Est. A couple Metro trains took us the rest of the way. 7+ hours later we get here. Hostel - 3 ducks hostel - doesn’t look so great. The shower is in the middle of the room - so there is no bathroom. Oh and wifi is NOT FREE here! It is right next to a metro station which is good, but it seems metro stations are about 5 minutes walk apart. Definately time for some dinner soon.

Wow, not having written for so long makes me forget things. So I believe I was on my way to Marseille. Our hostel in Marseille was in an area right next to the station. It was amongst the run-down backstreets and so at night - it was a bit scary. The town itself is quiet and people are generally nice. The night we turned up we had Cous Cous which was well worth it. Recommended by the hostel receptionist as a cheap eat in the area. The next day, just a whole lot of walking and exploring and found our way up to Notre-Dame de la garde.

So I’m actually in Marseille at the moment. Just a quite note for travellers out there. Make sure you bring a laptop with you. Most hostels charge for using THEIR computers for the internet. WIFI is FREE. So just as long as you bring a laptop / borrow one / buy the EeePC, the internet is then free. Internet prices range from 1 Euro for 10 minutes to 1 Euro for 1 hour. At hostels, they are generally 1 Euro for 15 minutes - 30 minutes.

I can’t quite remember what I wrote last time, but I’m currently in Riomaggiore. Its my second night here. So possibly the last time I left off was in Florence. So the last night in Florence was a quite one since we had an early train out the next day (which didn’t really happen) to Pisa and then to La Spezia and then to Cinque Terre. So we headed to the Duomo and had to queue up for that. It just wasnt that great… We did however, and stupidly, climb the tower next to it. 400+ steps. It had the best view of Florence though. I’ve got a few pictures of that. In climbing this tower, we ended up trying to race back to our accommodation to grab our bags and back to the train station. When we got back to the hostel, we ended up 5 minutes out from catching the train, and we decided it just wasn’t going to happen. So instead, we went for a swim in the pool. As left after about 40 minutes (train comes every hour), we decided to grab a feed since we hadn’t had breakfast. Found ourselves an asian take out place and grabbed ourselves sweet and sour pork… it took about 10 minutes to make! And so we missed out train… for sweet and sour pork… which I guess ended up being worth it, but just not at the time since we ran with our backpacks to the station.

So we ended up catching an early train to Florence, since we were too tired to see any more. We headed to the Vatican in the morning yesterday. The lines were around the block, I couldnt actually see where the line started or ended where we were. We ended up paying 35 Euro for a tour to skip the line.

So today we headed to the Colleseum at about 9am. There are a few people outside trying to get you to join tours. We ended up starting to line up for tickets, and found that inside, there are 4 Euro tours of just the Colleseum ( and not Palentine Hill). We took that, skipping the line (although the line wasn’t too long – about 20 minutes – as we came out, the line was outside the colleseum so that might’ve been into an hour or so.

So I’m in bed at the moment – its been a long day. Since I wrote last… I believe I had just arrived in Naples. Last night we crashed out pretty early. I ended up waking up early to grab some shots of Naples. A few nice shots, I had about 30 minutes or so to get them. Its still Sunday, so this morning was quite quiet and bright, so I felt a bit safer, although, I ended up putting on the wide angle and leaving it on, since when changing lenses, I have to lay so much gear everywhere, I was scared that someone might come by and snatch it.

So I had an hour to burn, so I installed a free RAW image converter and also a photo resizer onto my EeePC. Its VERY limited since they require 1024 resolution.

Right now, I’m at my hostel in Naples. Since the last time I wrote, we arrived back in Athens just fine. The directions were a bit confusing - the hostel ended up being about 2 minutes walk from our old hostel. Had a quiet drink since we were both quite tired from not having enough rest. We did go check out the olympic stadium in Athens and walked to the top of the biggest hill I’ve ever seen. The view was amazing. Basically it overlooked the whole of Athens. I grabbed a few shots of the sunset from there.

So I was going to write this one whilst having breakfast, but we ran out of time. Currently, sitting at the port on Mykonos waitng for our ferry – which is 2 hours away. Its basically dirt everywhere – and windy.

A huge 24+ hours. So yesterday we headed on a tour of Acropolis. A whole heap of people were there – but fortunately my wideangle meant I stood in front of everyone elses photos and had a clear shot on my own =P. I’ll write down the sites I visited later. This took most the day. We then headed into Larissa Station to book seats for our Athens to Patras train. Found ourselves Souvlaki for the first time (we’ve had it many more times since then). That night – Happy Hour at our hostel, followed by a pub/club crawl. Our ferry was to leave Pireaus at 7am… so I ended up not sleeping the whole night, and Nick ended up sleeping 2 hours – the worst decision so far. I slept on the ferry, well we both did. Arrived in Santorini to about 30 different people trying to lure you to stay at their accommodation – not sure at what price though. We were picked up by John – the co-owner of our hostel. Picked up our quadbike – since we hadn’t riden a scooter before and not risking our lives… at the moment anyway. We headed to Red Beach, Kamari Beach and then to Oia.for the pictures I’ve dreamt about for this trip. So the stretch of road which takes you from the beginning of Oia to the sunset view place is… long – I’d say over a kilometre. It’s a tough walk – especially when rushing. I found my way to an awesome vantage point to grab my shots of the blue domes. I’m hoping the pictures turn out alright. The optimum positions were just… in peoples houses and so I wasn’t game enough to jump in there – just on and around. The lighting wasn’t the best since it was the afternoon and so half the island was bright and the other half were shadows.

So we ended up landing at about… 11:20pm last night. Took a bus into Syn****? Then found our way to Athens Backpackers. Its a nice little place – facing a small street – 24 hour reception. For the first hostel I’ve stayed at, it doesnt seem that bad – apart from our room not having a door… Beds and room seems quite clean. Shower and toilet are connected to the room. Had some trouble sleeping since people either checked in later OR we leaving in the early hours of the morning. We tried finding ourselves a midnight snack – souvlaki… no luck – there was a shop called 24 hours which had al sorts of food, but wasn’t cooking at the time we got there.

So my last hour here in Copenhagen. All packed - still keep thinking I’m missing things, but we’ll find out later if that is the case. Its 38 degrees in the sun right now - its so damn hot. Nicks uncle made us breakfast this morning - bacon, eggs, mushrooms and toast. Top breakfast for a long day.

Currently sitting at the airport. The plane is delayed about 3 hours. So received a food voucher for 75 Kroners. Still undecided on what to eat. Still nervous about the whole going to a country where I can’t read anything – google maps has all the streets in greek. I hope to come back here in the near future – I feel now that I’d be fine to travel here on my own. It’s not a scary place.

So its 10:18pm and the sun has just set - the sky is still blue. Last night - got home at… 6 am. I saw the sunrise as I boarded the train… Something about a Bermuda Triangle. Not too sure what it was. Today was spent walking around the city - found me a Timbuk2 supplier here and bought a couple accessories for my bag. Of course, not colour matching, but its a whole lot better than paying the $50US for shipping to Aus!

Slept at about 3am last night. Possibly because of the time difference. Woke up at about 8 am, and again at 9 am, and finally at 10 am. I’m currently in a town called Allerod. Its a 10 minute bike ride to the station, and about 20+ minutes to get into the city. Had a tour from Olivia - since Nick had to complete some application forms for internships. There was a huge loop which took about 6 hours. So places I’ll hopefully upload pictures for: Town Hall, Nytorv Square and the Court Building, Christiansborg, Stroget, Nyhavn port, Amalienborg Palace, Opera House, Marble Church, The Little Mermaid, King’s Garden, Rount Tower and declined entry to Rosenborg Castle - because it was 10 minutes to closing time. There was just so much colour in the buildings - all pastel like colours - just beautiful. It’s so much nicer than the grey and brown in Sydney. Many spots I know Vince would be jealous about for formal wedding shots.

So I’m now in the comfort of a home. I’ve showered, and wide awake. I had a brief stroll through the main town, and my first meal was… asian buffet. So after the hour long wait, we headed off for dinner on the metro - which ran really smoothly. Then we walked down Stroget where it was kilometers of shops. The buildngs look amazing, and I hope to get some good photos tomorrow of the town. It is such a relaxed town. I’ll end up heading into town tomorrow and check out a couple castles as well.

8:51 am 28/07/08 +9

4:00 pm 28/07/08 +3

6:19 pm 28/07/08 +1

This is my first trip out of Australia, and I guess I now understand why packing takes so long, and why people tell you to grab everything you “need” and through half of it away. I keep having the feeling I’ve over packed, but my bag can still fit a little bit more in it. I’m about to head off to my sisters for a BBQ, before the airport. I THINK I’ve got everything. I’ll write a run down of things I’ve packed when I’m on the plane. First time traveller - nervous as anything.

8:29pm 27/07/08 +10

Just a quick update whilst I’m at work. Just a recap of what has happened over the last week. On the Tuesday - a friend at work took me to Australia’s Next Top Model Final at Luna Park. Not much of a fan - it was an excuse to get over the whole of the previous week. The audience just consisted of women - all dressed up - in heels and makeup. I had tissues falling out of my pockets from the flu. Thursday I had lunch with a few mates at Tsukasa on Crown St. Nice little place - the food wasn’t so bad either.

Exams, exams, exams. Luckily now they are all over. Not too confident on my final exam about methodologies, but the database one was a good one. Apart from that, I’ve been working on my project. This is a short lived entry since I havn’t had much sleep in the past week. A lot has been going on, and 2 good friends of mine have left for overseas today. One to Europe and then to America for 6 months of study, and the other to Europe for a month, but then I’ll be there for a month just as she leaves there. So a tight 3 weeks ahead and a lot to sort out still. I’ll be bringing a bit of camera gear with me, with the hope to grab some awesome photos. I’ll have an itinerary of sorts up closer to date.

Since last time, I’ve handled the presentation. it wasn’t that bad once I was up there. It made it slightly easier that I actually knew what I was talking about. The week after (25/5) I had 2 assignments due that week, originally it was 3 and then one was pushed back a week. At the end of that week, Micheal Buble was on at the Entertainment Centre! Exciting stuff, since I had been looking forward to it for a while now. I managed to sneak in my camera and got quite a few good shots - NO PS!

2 weeks have passed, 3 assignments handed in, 3 more to go. Presentation on Tuesday, and then next week I’ll have the other two to hand in. On the 10th, I had a lovely wedding which was followed by uni work. I skipped the reception to get uni work done… On Monday I sorted out some of my travel detaisl - booked flight from copenhagen to athens, ferry from athens port to santorini and mykonos and back to athens, and accommodation on the islands. I’ve also sorted out my international student card and passport.

Wow, its been a pretty long time since my last entry. Assignments have been on, and so less and less time for everything else. I’m currently on a train to Olympic Park since I’ve got a shift at ANZ Stadium. First for the year. I guess I should be writing in some particular order, so I’ll start with the week of the 6th.

The week has been quite long and work is just going a bit insane. The next version of my app is due out this week, and theres a few things I still need to sort out yet. Uni has been a bit of a bore, with an assignment due this week, then mid semester break before another 2 are due. Highlights of the week would have been a work colleagues birthday on friday - I’m not the youngest in the building anymore, Maroon 5 concert and yesterdays wedding.

A couple weeks have gone by now, so just a quick summary, and yes I am still trawling through the photos I’ve taken over the past little while to upload and I’ll be in front of the computer this weekend - doing assignment work - and so, WILL be uploading them. So I’ve moved desks now at work, and all the developers (all 3 of us) are really cosy now in our really really warm room. I’ll grab a photo soon to put up here.

Thats been the biggest thing this week - buying my plane tickets to Europe - Syd to Copenhagen and London to Syd. Thats set of the last week of July and coming back the second week of September. Yes this means that I wont be attending uni next semester since I would have missed about 5 weeks of it by the time I get back.

(Written last week) First week of uni started last week and I’ve had a few problems with enrollment and which submajor I wanted to study. So on Friday night, I had Distributed Databases class which went on for way too long. Afterwards was spent at my cousins place checking out, and drooling over his ADSL2+ connection which off the ozbroadband test website, with the TPG mirror, would download at 1.67MB/s! I ran the same test at home (though through the wireless) and with optus cable, I achieved .. 246kB/s

Just a video of the best parkour practitioners in Australia (and NZ). Enjoy!

My first meet with the MacBook Air today and it is such a sexy piece of hardware. The laptop feels really solid when closed, but feels as though its about to snap when you hold it open on the corner, but i’m sure its very solid. Its just unbelievable how thin it actually is! So there is no CD drive and no supplied ethernet, but the trackpad is just amazing at what it does.

So I bought Aperture 2 (upgrade) a couple days ago. It was listed to arrive in 4 - 6 business days, but 2 days is pretty impressive. Then again, it was delivered to work. The main reason why I bought it, was the speed increase and so far, it is a whole lot faster. It loads considerably faster, the previews appear a whole lot faster and it looks just as sleek as 1.5.

In short, I just don’t like it. I have to say, I was so comfortable in the office I was in, and the whole feeling of the room was a lot less conversational as it is in here. The main reason is that us “developers” should be in the same room conversing about “code” and so we learn a lot more from each other. That reason is a very good reason to move. A few problems I have now are that the furniture in here is temporary - the real furniture will arrive next week, I keep walking into the wrong office, I got kicked out because we have hired a girl in operations and she needed a desk, I miss being in the room where all operational ‘things’ where happening.

I have to say its been another one of those times where motivation was at a low for me. After the holiday period, I just couldn’t be bothered and also, just didn’t have the time to get this done. This has been the first real chance, since I’m stuck at home with not very much to do. I could be out doing some photography work with the parkour classes that are on today, but I think it’s good that I stayed home for once. I’ll be referring back to my calendar so I do remember what had been going on in the past month or so.

As I explained in the backlog, I did get myself a new computer on a budget. So the whole system cost about $1000. The reasons for most of the parts would be price. I didn’t want to spend too much, but a machine that would run quite well and quiet. So the specs are:

Hey guys, yes October was the last entry, and I have had a few weddings since then and a few more things regarding work, which I possibly should’ve written about. So today… started off at the brides house… a house I remember very well, since after I turned up I realised the bride was my friend’s sister - from high school. So after a tea ceremony at the brides, it was then moved onto the grooms place for another tea ceremony and some lunch. Bride then got changed and we all headed off to Sydney Uni for the ceremony and reception - Holme Building. Lovely place for both the ceremony and reception - never knew Sydney Uni had a reception hall. Weather was on and off the whole day, but we managed to get quite a few good photos out of the day. Here are a few, or few more than usual:

So just last night, well a little while ago now, bought tickets to see the cat empire, and last night was their show. They aren’t just doing one show, but 8 in 7 days, in attempt to set a new venue record. They were here to also promote their new album - So Many Nights. It was a great night, quite a few songs from the new album, as well as a few classics. Started off with The Bamboos as the supporting band.

So the pressure was on today… Was dropped off at the grooms place to shoot on my own whilst Vince travelled to the girls place to get the prep. I would have to say I did alright. Rode in the stretch Ford… to the church - Garrison Church. Formals were then taken at the Rocks and the Botanical Gardens as well as a few at Wildfire - great chicken… Reception was at L’Aqua - nice food… was placed outside though.. lucky it wasnt raining. Then came the night shots.. which didnt end up taking very long at all since it was freezing! Here are a few pics:

Wedding on sunday was a lovely wedding, although, being - or should i say, becoming - sick didnt help anything. It was considerably long, with tea ceremonies at the brides and then the grooms. Some formals were taken at one of the bridesmaids place as well as at Lake Parramatta Reserve. Ceremony and reception were at Oatlands House. Good food as well… but of course… being sick was horrible. Here are a few pics:

So, been grabbing a ride to work the past couple days, and until the weekend I suppose, which has been tops. Means I get to sleep in a whole hour!

Not that it was that eventful during the day. It was more when I turned up to my car, opened the back door, threw my bag in, closed the door, open the driver side door, look in and find a huge mess in the passenger seat. On closer inspection, passenger window was smashed, everything in the glove compartment was emptied all over the seat and floor. Called the police assistance line to report the incidence. Dropped by Glebe police station, to get my car fingerprinted but was told no one was about to do it, and so a job was put down to get it done tomorrow. I was told that there have been a string of smashed today on the road I parked on. I have noticed of late that there have been more and more broken windows on the ground, but I thought nothing of it since my car is a bit of a mess most of the time.

OK… SO.. a whole month as gone by… without a single word from me. As lame as this excuse might be, I just haven’t had to time, and I have been trying to find the time. So the last time I blogged, was before Nick’s 21st dinner with the family. It was a top dinner - peking duck pancakes… mmmm… The week following lead to his 21st party, which was an unforgettable event. Having been to one his of sisters 21st, it followed suit, and being able to catch up with everyone was really good.

So, last time i was here, it was all about the bike. No pics as yet, and not sure when I’ll get the time either. So whats been happening… On the sunday, went mountaining biking for the first time in a while. The Giant Talon was tops! oh the gears are so nice, the weight was superb. This being my first ride in a while on a new bike, I thought i had it under control, but how wrong I was. Having been taken over by another cyclist, I started to speed up and ride his speed, thinking “I can do this”. Bottom of the first corner he took me on, I lost control, slid, killed my arm, leg, handle bar and pedal. Its not actually THAT bad, well the bike is fine - im over the barrier of protecting my bike from everything. My arm and leg is still recovering. My leg is the worse.

Today was a beautiful day, bit chilly though. Started off at Croydon Park at the brides place. Well actually, ended up starting at the hairdressers. Then proceeded back to the brides, for the girls to get ready. Church ceremony was at Leichhardt - a Greek Orthodox church. Then we spent the next few hours in and around the Rocks area as well as Martin Place. Reception was at Dockside. Here are a few pics:

So, I have been way too busy with work. Started off with my 10 day project. Was able to get it done after 6, and 4 days of testing. There was just too much testing. I was able to get it done, and was quite impressed with the speed at which I was able to get it done. This project was finished in the week of 18th June.

(Back Blog) So was able to get free tickets to broncos v doggies game. It was wet, cold, held at Telstra Stadium. It was quite a slow game, with a final score of 19-12 broncos way! by the way, yes i am a broncos supporter!

So, rain, rain, and more rain. Started at Sebel Pier One. Nice hotel, nice rooms. Ceremony was supposed to be at Observatory Hill, but the weather was… terrible to say the least, and it was moved to the receptionplace - WatersEdge. Formal pics followed at the Park Hyatt as well as Observatory Hill, before the reception. Here are a few pics:

Ok, so the news of the new MacBook Pro’s was announced on Tuesday. I’ve basically had my order put through about a month ago for a MacBook Pro. Apple had been out of stock and wasn’t pushing through any more MBP’s. So had been in contact with the guy at the Apple store. I was told he had a strong hint that something was to be announced come Tuesday. Waited and waited and it was announced!

Started in the afternoon at Park Hyatt. Been there once before, and its a very nice hotel. Bride was getting ready there. Ceremony was just next door on the greens facing the harbour bridge / opera house. This was followed by formal shots around the rocks area and at the Park Hyatt. Ending at WaterFront Restaurant along the strip of restaurants there. Close location to everything and the food is worth a mention. Here are a few pics (more at www.vlblog.net):

So, been wanting a new bag for a while now. Had a Crumpler “The Horseman” - It was the smallest one that would fit my Dell Inspiron 6000. Sure it was made for 17 inch Powerbooks / MacbookPros, but this Dell is fat. So its still in good condition, but its HUGE. Now that im getting a MacBookPro… supposed to come in today, but its on backorder through the bondi junction apple store, claiming that my order didnt make it on the latest shipment, so the next one is due to arrive late next week or last week of may. Bit of a disappointment, but nothing I can do. They have the 2.13Ghz in stock, but the 2.33Ghz is out of stock, which is the one im after.

So good fun wedding on the weekend. Top couple, fast paced at times. Started in the afternoon at the brides, then the grooms, then to the church - St Bedes, then to Bulli Tops, and finally reception at Appin House. Top night and here are some pics:

So here are a couple of videos from a tour a guy did in Australia. His name is Barnz and is from our neighbouring country, New Zealand.

So yesterdays wedding, finally a weekend with great weather. Great couple, great food, even better entertainment. So started at darlinghurst at the bride and grooms place. Then headed to St Benedicts Church at Broadway for the ceremony. Some formal shots at Centennial part and then reception at Le Montage. It was quick paced, something was always happening. Here are some pics:

So here comes probably the longest (I’ll try to make it as short as possible) post I should be doing. So for the past month I’ve been… really busy. Had enough time of course to put the wedding pics up but other than that, havnt had any time for a personal post - really just to catch up on everything so I remember it in the future.

This was my FIRST solo wedding!!! Was so nervous leading up to this day! So its been 4 days since their wedding! So congratulations to them! John’s a uni mate of mine. Lovely day, one of the most relaxing and fun (personal) weddings I’ve ever had. So might not remember everything that happened on the day, but here is a quick rundown.

Its been a very long week, with not enough project work done, but a lot of operations related issues dealt with. Basically, one guy left for the US for a conference last week, coming back tomorrow. Another left on Tuesday to another conference for a week, back this tuesday, then off again for a month in Europe. So that left 3 people on operations. It helps so much that one of the guys has uni on tuesday and wednesday, leaving 2 of us on operations. So spent a lot of the week in operations related issues.

Very long, but eventful week. Project wise, I was able to complete half of it. Basically the functionality I was after, I acheived on Thursday, which is fantastic news, and meant that I didn’t feel like doing too much work after that. Monday and tuesday had me modifiying my stored procedure, since there were confusions about a few of the columns and their links with our database. Many problems this week have been blamed on the Intel Mac. Basically since support for printers and particular applications have ceased and so there are no updated drivers or versions of software that will work on the new Intels. On thing to note, is Adobe Reader 8 is the only one with the plugin that works with Safari on the new Intels. I have yet to call HP to ask for updated drivers for their printers since the Intels appear to lose the connection, and need to be re-added to work.

This one might be a long read. Friday I managed to get my project complete. Long day at work, lots to do as usual. We have a computer that will continue to reboot after someone installed the lastest symantec version on it. Been trying to get it going without formatting since there are devices connected to it which we dont have drivers for. So called up lifestylestore about my speakers and amp. So now the amp has arrived and the speakers hadn’t. So frustrating, but they did offer to give me a loan pair so I have sound until next week (thursday) when i pick them up.

So, transformation part 2. After many delays… lets go through them. Ordered AVR and speakers last Thursday, was told they would be in on tuesday, speakers arrive today and amplifer due tomorrow. No follow up calls from them, nothing. Monitor… was apparently delivered to the wrong store, and so was sent back to the warehouse but arrived today and i picked it up after work.

Yesterday we started at the Column Garden in Centennial Park. Very hot. It was moved to the shade of the flora. Lovely ceremony. Moved onto The Lakes Golf Course at Eastlakes. I’ve hit a few balls around before, and it looked like a top place for golf. The reception was inside with great food.

Last few days have been… expensive. So Thursday night, I headed with my cousin to LifeStyleStore. After a lot of umming and arring, I ended up putting on order, a Cambridge Audio Azur 540R receiver and a set of Dynaudio Audience 42’s. The 42’s are very nice sounding with a big price tag. It would sound just the much sweeter with a subwoofer, but for the moment, these babies will do for easy listening. The receiver, I was told, for the price, is a lot better than some Marantz and Harmon Kardon amplifiers. Only time will tell (Thursday is the pick up day). So that was Thursday night. Friday, I spent at work, checking if people had indeed installed the symantec update. We were told that if 10 computers were detected to have the virus, we would be disconnected from the rest of the world. So this wasn’t taken lightly. I had some time to do look at soundcards since my desktop PC would act as my DVD player as well as meet all my audio playing needs. So i needed a connection between my PC and the amplifer. I came across the Sound Blaster Digital I/O Module which means I’ll be getting another soundcard since my SoundBlaster Live Value is VERY outdated - so will be getting the Sound Blaster Audigy Value which I believe is compatible. So the module is on order right now.

So on Monday, I was told that there would be more to do on my project since it’s all out on the table. Yesterday he explained them to me. Basically an extra week of work (I hope) and it’ll all be done. I’m currently tackling one task a day and I should get it done. So following this project, I’ve got a 4 week project, and then a 4-6 month project. Sounds exciting, it really does! I have been very busy the past few days. There has been a virus outbreak and from my understanding, its a symantec vunerability, where the virus gets in, disables symantec and spreads itself throughout the broadcast. On the otherside of our routers, there is catastrophe, but luckily, broadcasts are stopped at routers. So today we were able to patch everyones (hopefully) PC with the lastest version of Symantec 10.1.5.5001. Apparently version 5000 was released a couple days ago, but it got through that, or maybe it was another one. But now we should be safe, unless someone decides to walk into work with the virus and hook it up to the network, and of course have people who didn’t do the update.

So today was quite different. For once I wasn’t working… well I was still delegated the video camera, but I wasn’t the “professional photographer”. I, however, cannot keep my hands off any camera, so I brought mine along just to capture a few pics for myself. In the morning it was at both my uncles place and my cousins. There was the traditional tea ceremony for both. It was a bit of a relaxing time. Then the bridal party headed off to the rocks for some formal shots. Meanwhile, me and my other cousin headed to Len Wallis Audio to check out speakers and amplifiers. I only had the chance to listen to the speakers, and I am currently convinced that the Focal Chorus 705v are the ones I want. I will need a subwoofer if i grab these… or there are the 706v which have a bit more bass. We quickly had to head to Darling Harbour where we boarded the Morpheus, and sailed for about 3 hours. Since it was such a scorcher in the late morning, drinks were a must.

Finally, yesterday, I received the little post slip saying that the postman missed me. Received the package today, installed it, works a treat. So its the Alpine KCA-410C Versatile Link Unit. It allows you to connect two CD changers and have 2 pairs of Aux in. One thing I’ll be looking for is the iPod adapter which may use one of the cd changers. I’m not sure yet. Will also be looking for another CD stacker if the iPod adapter uses the other cable hanging out of my head unit.

So today started off with me heading to Garigal National Park. By recommendation by my sister, since it isn’t as far as the blue mountains and shorter. In fact it was very short, but a workout nonetheless. So it starts on Cascades Track and you turn off at the second TrackTrail. This connects onto Bare Creek Track and you take a left back onto Cascades Track. It is a short loop which you can go around and around. Its fast. The downhills are a lot of fun. Slippery in parts, but so much fun. This was my first time, reached 35km/h, not the fastest down a mountain, but enough to nearly get air without trying. Nice river that flows through:

I must say, the past 3 days have been a drag. It has been long, but the main reason is because I haven’t been in the working mood. Just feels like I should be taking a break. Since it has been 3 days, its a bit hard to remember everything that has happened. I have put through a request to salary sacrifice myself a MacBook Pro. I’ve also been looking at the BenQ 24 inch monitor, and just today, I had been looking at Synergy. So my little plan is to get myself the 24 inch, hook it up to my macbook pro as an extended screen, get myself a 19 inch benq, and hook that up to my desktop computer and run synergy. Also have a set top box hooked up to the 24 inch. This is of course my dreaming, but only time will tell.

Its been a great week so far. Sunday, I ended up heading with a couple mates to Cantebury Leagues for some snooker. Having not played in nearly a year, I somehow managed to win, finishing off all the coloured balls in one turn. Not being a gambler or been on the pokies in nearly 2 years, I put 5 dollars into a machine and came out with 14.85. Great win for me. Me and one of the guys headed to Dooleys for a free dinner (for members, every year, around the june/july, they put 50 dollars of credit onto your membership card, which is great for free food).

These past two days have been busy. Spent yesterday completing the new project the boss put me on. It was finished when I left on thursday, but today received a call, and i guess we understood two different things. I followed what he had scribbled down on a piece of paper, so he is at fault as much as I am. I did finish it today though, so I’ll see his verdict on monday. I did come across a problem, which I don’t know how to do it. Basically, I made a short script which ran all the create files, stored procedures and pop files. I also needed at the end of this file to update some fields in the database. I had been trying to figure out a way to do it, other than creating another file and running it. No luck as yet, but I’m sure the boss knows how.

Its been 3 days, 3 very long days, or very short depending on how you want to look at it. As mentioned, I had a meeting with someone who needs clarification on many aspects of my export. It went quite well, I spent the first half of monday generating error pages for her, where there is bad data. It of course had to be in a usable format so to make it easier for her and others to fix. During that day, and since then, we have been flooded with new users, new computers and more computer problems. Not blogging everyday of course means I dont remember them.

Friday was a quieter day at work. I spoke to one of the people who is working on my project and we will be having a meeting on monday to discuss the data. I did have one slight hiccup as someone bought themselves a MacBook Pro, and needed their things migrated from her old Macbook to the new one. This has been done many times before. But after doing the transfer, it seemed that only the applications were imported and not her personal files and settings. The slow migration started, by booting the old macbook as a firewire HD, and copying over her personal files. All her documents were transfered but i noticed that her favourites we not there. I asked a colleage and he said to copy of the libraries. Not the macHD libraries but her personal ones. So I started, and soon received an error about the file being used. The transfer stopped and another colleage mentioned that I really shouldn’t transfer the libraries over since that will copy over anything ‘wrong’ with the old system into the new. I thought it was ok, and tested her entourage, to see if it was working. I was, but now it would give me a popup saying to reopen. Big problem since I told the lady to come up in 20 minutes to pick it up, and 20 minutes had passed. To cut things short, I created another user, set their library folder permissions to allow the current user to copy them, I backed up the old one, and copied the new profiles’ library folder over. Entourage worked which was great, but a few things still needed to be copied over. This time, i didn’t select all and paste, but copied exactly what i needed. Nervous times. Went home earlier on friday, and went to a friends brothers 18th. Quiet night, with a bit of gaming to be had.

Well to me its a spending spree. I don’t normally spend so much money in such a short time, but I think I need it. So yesterday I finished my project, emailing my boss for any error reports he requires. These reports contain fields that have problems which either I can ignore or have to fix. I’ve created all the stored procedures and am quite pleased with what I have done. So I got a call from Autobahn saying my strut bar came in. Called a friend to pick it up, and I got it last night. Installed it. It took about 10-15 minutes. I started panicking when it didn’t seem to fit. With no instructions, but of course it was adjustable and sorted it out. Now my car handles HEAPS better, no more skidding when turning at a fast speed (fast speed is more just faster than usual when your body will move to the outside of the turn). So now the car grips to the road, and there is no more leaning. It feels like a different car, it feels a lot smoother. I love it.

Yesterday had me moving forward in my project. Completing another section and completing another one today. As far as I can see, all the importing/exporting should be finished tomorrow - as in my stored procedures are complete. I still have to run through a few records which have errors with the head of the project to know what to do with them. I had spent all last night trying to get Generals to work, to no avail. I beleive its to do with my router and my connection. Sometimes it connects, but drops out. Other times it just wont connect and today, it would not connect at all. I’ve been playing with my ports and still haven’t been able to connect. Maybe an re-install might solve my problem.

On saturday, I had my / friends birthday dinner. We share the same birthday. Falling on tuesday, the weekend was the way to go. We headed to Tamanas on Top in Newtown. Indian Food. Not a great fan, unless it’s lunch time. Surprisingly it was quite nice. We ordered the Tamana’s Banquet. Very nice entre. The mains… I think I will stick to butter chicken. The rest of the flavours weren’t up to my taste. That part was not so great, but still filling. Good servings of sides. Not a place I would go back to anytime soon. Following that, we headed to Karaoke in Strathfield. Not much of a singer, and was quite tired. I managed to wake up at 8 on saturday after sleeping at 3 - watching Heroes. Definately not enough sleep.

Well isn’t this one going to be a long write up. I have been quite busy lately with work, work and more work, and of course, my latest task - Heroes. So of course today is Australia Day and its a time where all aussies invite their family and friends over for a BBQ. Today just wasn’t one of those days. Instead, it was spent shopping, with my cousin. Of course it was planned that we head out for a jog, but ended up at Chatswood Westfields. This got bad to worse as I entered J.B. Hifi and purchased, what I thought was a bargain. Of course, it was a bargain. I wouldn’t buy anything unless it was. So that notion landed me with a brand new head unit for the car. The Alpine CDA-9855R was the item and it is oh so beautiful. Top of the range CD player for Alpine - it has the most… I think I could go on for days. So anyway, got home and installed it. It only took about 30 minutes, to rip out the old one and throw in this one.

So it seems I’m catching a cold. Seems like I started feeling like this on saturday. So anyway, arrived at work to an email from the boss to have a meeting at 1:30 today for 2 hours… So i had been working on the binary code sets and cursors, and started working it out. Got to a point where I KNEW it was nearly there, but something was missing.

Past few days have been very long and very sore. Sore of course from capoeira which only means I worked hard during the class. It has been a long time coming - should be fine by tomorrow. So starting on friday, had work as usual, quieter day than usual. Finally given the priviledge of having the super-user password. Scary thought, that now I CAN damage the database and anything to do with it. So using it with great caution. Spent most the day on help desk and staring at my monitor trying to figure out binary code sets and using cursors in stored procedures. Still can’t figure out the cursor bit - long story. So this week, I’ll be having a meeting with a gentleman who wants the software for which I am doing the data conversion for. Thats on wednesday. Until then, i will have more meetings with the boss, hoping that everything I have done so far, is correct or along the right lines.

So after my misadventure last week (not being able to find the place), I got myself a phone number and found it. Lead my Kim Cheng from Bantus in Perth, it was a great night. I havn’t been to capoeira classes in over a year. It was great to get back into it. Those people from Perth of course call things slightly differently than what I was used to, but got straight back into it. Started at 7 and finished two hours later. I know tomorrow I’ll be very sore and I can already feel the blisters on my feet.

So past couple days have been a bit rough. Well more busy, since on monday two people were away and so, because it was my first turn for IT help. It’s even better when everyone comes in at around 9-9:30 and you get calls at 8:20. So yesterday had a little chat with the boss about exactly what he wanted from what I was doing. Got the objectives sorted and have been working on it since. If the boss comes in tomorrow, “we” have a meeting about what has been going on with this project since the people who are interested in it want to see and discuss plans. At the present time, my boss should be looking at my code and my results. I’m sure all criticism will be constructive. We shall see tomorrow.

Yesterdays wedding was fantastic. Great to get out again. Started at 12 and finished just after 10. Here are a few photos from yesterday:

So past 2 days of work have been ok. There has been a number of problems with everyones computers. All not being related, but just receiving quite a few number of calls. Can’t remember too much about yesterday apart from finishing slightly early, hoping someone would be free to do something with. Instead, heading to J.B. Hifi in Parramatta to have a look at head units for my car. It’s been about 1 and a half years, nearly two, since I installed my JVC KD-G615 which has been operating quite well and has good sound coming from it. I do however want a head unit with crossover adjustments and possibly time alignment. I know that top of the range equipment has higher/better quality parts and has very few settings for you to change - so to listen to the original recording rather than too much treble or too much bass, to enjoy what the artist/recording company want you to hear. Nevertheless, I’ve went to look, but J.B. Hifi didn’t carry the models I wanted to look at from Alpine. I’m looking at Alpine, Kenwood and Clarion. Problem is that if i want the crossover adjustments, they only seem prevalent in the highest models in both the CD Player range and DVD Player range, which is very costly. So, can only keep looking or hope for a bargain on eBay.

So at Macworld, the MacBook Thin wasn’t announced at keynote. Disappointed, guess I’ll have to keep my eye out for another laptop for work, or maybe one of the Macs… I want the features of the MacBook Pro but smaller than 15 inches.

Yes, I have purchased my second official game - C&C Generals. It was only 15 dollars - bargain. I do realise that this game is 4 years old and that explains the 15 dollars, but its a great simple game. I’m not into RPG’s or games which require a lot of time and dedication. So yes, over the past 2 days, I have been playing games. I dont normally play games, but guess this is what you do when you are bored.

Headed out to the city today with Kenny, to a farewell BBQ for a member of the sydney parkour scene who will be serving their time in the army. It was also partly a training session for the few that came. Had a long walk to Pyrmont Park where the BBQ was and bumped into Ish and Oz (who i just met, came down from QLD for a small trip). Of course I’m not as active as I used to be in parkour and had my trusty camera with me (which wasn’t so trusty today, having taken a photo which said no image data in file and the moving the consequent photos into another folder on the card… strange). So I got snapping. Headed towards to play equipment to have some more fun, and started the cooking of the food and some NFL action. Overall, a good day of fitness.

So I spent most of today with a colleage fixing a slight problem that was started by someone else yesterday. We went about it the wrong way and so spent most the day fixing it. The lady had a local account on the computer but someone else wanted to use it, and at work, you can have users login through the domain. Since they wanted to do this, it was set up yesterday so she had the proper account being the domain server account. She came into work this morning and came straight up to IT wondering where all her files were. Since creating the new user, a new profile was created and everything was gone. So to recover this, there are two ways, one works better than the other, we of course did the more stupid method which was the first one to come to mind. The better method took some searching.

So, today aint was quite a long day, but this was due to the fact that my boss is going on holidays tomorrow for a week and so had to give me something to do. So he went through a small process of exporting filemaker database and importing it into sybase. This is all a part of a larger project which may or may not be done by us. This is more a learning experience about database modelling. Task i was working on yesterday, well the heat dropped off it since the funds and products we were after to make it happen, have made the bosses of the project rethink their plans.

Work was a bit long today it seemed. I was able to catch the earlier bus and got to work at 7:40. Finishing just past 6, making today very long. I was finishing up on a small program my boss started, as a stepping stone for himself and for me. After the outline he gave me of the project there were just a few features that he wanted to try out now to be sure that it was possible to do. So working on what my boss started, REALbasic is really basic if you dont mind me saying, although I have been told that it can get quite complex and has been used, by us, to develop numerous software applications which are used by hundreds of people around the world.

So I spent most of yesterday sleeping, catching up with sleep, although wasn’t such a great idea since sleeping patterns were ruined. Apart from that, I invested some time in reading up on REALbasic. It’s what I will be / just started using at work. Because my work is a macHouse to say the least, with also PC’s lurking around the place, REALbasic allows programs to be compiled for windowsm, macs, and linux. Getting the hang of it and can’t wait to start building proper applications that at least do something useful and not just talking to itself.

Wishing everyone a happy new year. Spent most of yesterday evening making changes to the blog, getting it up and up to scratch. Today was spent making the splash page and heading over to my brothers place to get some photos of recent weddings to throw onto my gallery. Also was able to get the time to upload a few parkour shoots I did earlier in the year. Currently I’m at a mates place having a BBQ. Not heading out like previous years to go watch the fireworks. Would’ve been great to head out early, grab a good spot and hang out with the camera, but more of a quiet one this year. Have a safe one and don’t drink too much!

Well, it seems that it has been 4 months since I installed this blog. Time to start blogging. The past month has been the most enjoyable so far - starting my new job, and just got home from my short holiday. About a month ago, I received confirmation that I had received a position for my industrial training as part of my uni degree. This placed me with my final week at my previous job of nearly 2 years. That involved packaging and dispatch. What I needed and received was an I.T. position relating to my studies. So as of the 11th of december, I started my new job as a computer systems officer.