Thursday, January 29, 2004
Procrastination
I should be editing audio for the play, but I'm websurfing instead. I finally got around to trying the 'What Social Software Are You' quiz that Tama mentioned on his blog aaaages back.
And just like Tama, it's funny because it's true:
"You show your professionally designed hand coded Moveable Type blog to your collegues and family, but secretly you're writing about internal angst on a Livejournal."
Well, apart from the writing on LiveJournal bit. I angst where everyone can see.
I note that Tama also found John Howard's blog before me. Bastard.
I should be editing audio for the play, but I'm websurfing instead. I finally got around to trying the 'What Social Software Are You' quiz that Tama mentioned on his blog aaaages back.
And just like Tama, it's funny because it's true:
Well, apart from the writing on LiveJournal bit. I angst where everyone can see.
I note that Tama also found John Howard's blog before me. Bastard.
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
On A Lighter Note
Laaaaaadies and Gentlemen. I present, for your viewing pleasure, the blog of The Right Honourable John Howard, PM.
Laaaaaadies and Gentlemen. I present, for your viewing pleasure, the blog of The Right Honourable John Howard, PM.
Crap Day
You know how this goes: You're cruising along, minding your own business. Your dance card is pretty full, but you know you can deal with it all. And then - *pow* - you get blindsided by a completely random event and it all goes to poo.
This is pretty much what happened to me yesterday afternoon. There I was coding away, minding my own business, looking forward to seeing people at the AVSCitW:YORT rehearsal, when the power went out. You may have heard about it. Substation went off line in Riverton, as did my plans for the evening. Power came back on over two hours later at 6:30pm and it was another two hours before we managed to get all the systems back on-line.
An hour and half after getting home, one of my colleagues SMS's me to be tell me about the how the Uni's mail gateways are melting down. I go online to help him monitor the situation until after midnight before calling it quits. Then can't sleep. Finally fall unconscious at 3am. Woken again at 7:30am by over anxious colleague with too much phone credit on his hands, asking me to do some stuff. So, not enough sleep AND woken up by rude beeping noises. Not the best start. But hey, how bad can it be? We spent all that time last night getting all the systems back up, and the mail gateway problem is slowly working its way out like a constipated sausage dog.
Turns out there's nothing quite like a power failure to show up all the holes in your systems. Our Uninterruptable Power Supply turned out be quite readily distractable when the power drop initially hit, so systems didn't get shutdown gracefully. So, I'm tired, grumpy and really just wanting to be working on the project that I'm urgently trying to get done and nothing is going right. One of those days where everything you touch turns to poo, everything you DON'T touch turns to poo, AND you have to clean it all up with your own toothbrush.
It's days like today when I understand binge chocolate consumption (mmm, serotonin) and getting very, very drunk. Sadly, unable to do either. So, in conclusion:
Sodding. Awful. Day.
You know how this goes: You're cruising along, minding your own business. Your dance card is pretty full, but you know you can deal with it all. And then - *pow* - you get blindsided by a completely random event and it all goes to poo.
This is pretty much what happened to me yesterday afternoon. There I was coding away, minding my own business, looking forward to seeing people at the AVSCitW:YORT rehearsal, when the power went out. You may have heard about it. Substation went off line in Riverton, as did my plans for the evening. Power came back on over two hours later at 6:30pm and it was another two hours before we managed to get all the systems back on-line.
An hour and half after getting home, one of my colleagues SMS's me to be tell me about the how the Uni's mail gateways are melting down. I go online to help him monitor the situation until after midnight before calling it quits. Then can't sleep. Finally fall unconscious at 3am. Woken again at 7:30am by over anxious colleague with too much phone credit on his hands, asking me to do some stuff. So, not enough sleep AND woken up by rude beeping noises. Not the best start. But hey, how bad can it be? We spent all that time last night getting all the systems back up, and the mail gateway problem is slowly working its way out like a constipated sausage dog.
Turns out there's nothing quite like a power failure to show up all the holes in your systems. Our Uninterruptable Power Supply turned out be quite readily distractable when the power drop initially hit, so systems didn't get shutdown gracefully. So, I'm tired, grumpy and really just wanting to be working on the project that I'm urgently trying to get done and nothing is going right. One of those days where everything you touch turns to poo, everything you DON'T touch turns to poo, AND you have to clean it all up with your own toothbrush.
It's days like today when I understand binge chocolate consumption (mmm, serotonin) and getting very, very drunk. Sadly, unable to do either. So, in conclusion:
Sodding. Awful. Day.
Wednesday, January 21, 2004
Blasphemy
I'm going to say something a bit controversal.
So far, after two episodes, I'd have to say, I'm rather enjoying 'The Gunfighters'. It's perhaps the most maligned story in the history of Doctor Who , mostly because of 'The Ballard of the Last Chance Salon' that is cut through the story. Whilst it is dammed grating, it's easy to ignore and appreciate the direction and comedic writing.
And now I've said that, I'll be waiting here for the Inquistion to come and strip me of my fannish status.
(Of course, it may turn out that the last two episodes are complete pants.)
I'm going to say something a bit controversal.
So far, after two episodes, I'd have to say, I'm rather enjoying 'The Gunfighters'. It's perhaps the most maligned story in the history of Doctor Who , mostly because of 'The Ballard of the Last Chance Salon' that is cut through the story. Whilst it is dammed grating, it's easy to ignore and appreciate the direction and comedic writing.
And now I've said that, I'll be waiting here for the Inquistion to come and strip me of my fannish status.
(Of course, it may turn out that the last two episodes are complete pants.)
Saturday, January 17, 2004
More Television
There were so many things I could have done this evening. I could have gone to JAFWA. I could have gone to the party at the house with the Simono cutout. Hell, I could have even written camera scripts for the video sequences for AVSCitW II. But nooooo. I sat at home at watched free-to-air television. Here's a short review:
King Ralph is better than you think it is. Doc Hollywood is as bad as you think it is. The Birdcage. I think Nathan Lane is great in this, and reminds me strongly of a friend of a former house mate, down to walk and shrieking. I'm told La Cage Aux Folles, in which The Birdcage is based, is better, but I've not seen it.
And, as it turns out, I'm not that popular after all. See the forum for specifics. Which make my blog feel all snug and personal again.
There were so many things I could have done this evening. I could have gone to JAFWA. I could have gone to the party at the house with the Simono cutout. Hell, I could have even written camera scripts for the video sequences for AVSCitW II. But nooooo. I sat at home at watched free-to-air television. Here's a short review:
King Ralph is better than you think it is. Doc Hollywood is as bad as you think it is. The Birdcage. I think Nathan Lane is great in this, and reminds me strongly of a friend of a former house mate, down to walk and shrieking. I'm told La Cage Aux Folles, in which The Birdcage is based, is better, but I've not seen it.
And, as it turns out, I'm not that popular after all. See the forum for specifics. Which make my blog feel all snug and personal again.
Wednesday, January 14, 2004
Disclaimer
Just in case anyone gets the wrong idea, I'm not having a go at anyone with that last entry. Well, at no-one other than me for finding it interesting enough to blog about how great it is that people read what I write.
Just in case anyone gets the wrong idea, I'm not having a go at anyone with that last entry. Well, at no-one other than me for finding it interesting enough to blog about how great it is that people read what I write.
More popular than I thought
Wow. Was just over at Tama's blog and caught the referer's list in the side column. Apprently, 91 views of Ponderance were refered from my blog in the past 24 hours. Which means that that my link to Ponderance was clicked on 91 times. And one of those clicks was me, which leaves another 90 views of my blog unacconted for. Maybe I could spend my afternoon writing a counter script, rather than a student email user management system.
Or maybe I could write something else to egotisically sing the praises of me! I am so cool! I am so great! Me, me-me, me-me!
Eh.
I guess it is nice to know that people do seem to read this stuff.
Wow. Was just over at Tama's blog and caught the referer's list in the side column. Apprently, 91 views of Ponderance were refered from my blog in the past 24 hours. Which means that that my link to Ponderance was clicked on 91 times. And one of those clicks was me, which leaves another 90 views of my blog unacconted for. Maybe I could spend my afternoon writing a counter script, rather than a student email user management system.
Or maybe I could write something else to egotisically sing the praises of me! I am so cool! I am so great! Me, me-me, me-me!
Eh.
I guess it is nice to know that people do seem to read this stuff.
Monday, January 12, 2004
I've Been Watching TV
Well, I've been watching DVD's and I've made a few observations:
* I've started watching episodes of The Prisoner that I haven't seen before, which is somewhar embaressing given how long I've owned the DVD box set. It's now all the more weird now I've been Portmeirion and know EXACTLY where he is and where the various scenes are. It's like I'm right there with him. The episode called 'The General' feels pretty much like it was ripped off from an issue of Grant Morrision's The Invisibles, until it turns out that the entity behind everything is a computer and not an extradimensional mirrored-blob ufo/alien.
* I'm hoping I didn't pay too much for my DVD of Hudson Hawk. Whilst the movie is relatively enjoyable and I love Andie MacDowall talking to the dolphins and David Caruso's Kit Kat, I feel compelled to point out that large chunks of the movie make no sense whatsoever. Don't believe me? Watch the auction room scene again and tell me why the Mayflowers are even there. And the 'surround sound' audio mix on the DVD is shite.
* CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. I feel that this series is let down from the fact it has to conform to the tropes of drama. The mystery serial killer episode at the end of season one is a good example. The killer could be anyone is the entire city of Los Vegas (although, most likely male), but you can spot who it will turn out to be, as only one character in the entire piece isn't actually directly related to the investigation. (OK, there was another guy, but he lasted 3 minutes before turning out to be a red herring). But if it suddenly turned out to be a character you'd never seen before, than that would be as equally bad.
Well, I've been watching DVD's and I've made a few observations:
* I've started watching episodes of The Prisoner that I haven't seen before, which is somewhar embaressing given how long I've owned the DVD box set. It's now all the more weird now I've been Portmeirion and know EXACTLY where he is and where the various scenes are. It's like I'm right there with him. The episode called 'The General' feels pretty much like it was ripped off from an issue of Grant Morrision's The Invisibles, until it turns out that the entity behind everything is a computer and not an extradimensional mirrored-blob ufo/alien.
* I'm hoping I didn't pay too much for my DVD of Hudson Hawk. Whilst the movie is relatively enjoyable and I love Andie MacDowall talking to the dolphins and David Caruso's Kit Kat, I feel compelled to point out that large chunks of the movie make no sense whatsoever. Don't believe me? Watch the auction room scene again and tell me why the Mayflowers are even there. And the 'surround sound' audio mix on the DVD is shite.
* CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. I feel that this series is let down from the fact it has to conform to the tropes of drama. The mystery serial killer episode at the end of season one is a good example. The killer could be anyone is the entire city of Los Vegas (although, most likely male), but you can spot who it will turn out to be, as only one character in the entire piece isn't actually directly related to the investigation. (OK, there was another guy, but he lasted 3 minutes before turning out to be a red herring). But if it suddenly turned out to be a character you'd never seen before, than that would be as equally bad.
Friday, January 09, 2004
Squirrel of Death
Someone else has probably already posted this on their blog, but I don't care. I must share with you this tale:
Attack Squirrel of Death
Someone else has probably already posted this on their blog, but I don't care. I must share with you this tale:
Attack Squirrel of Death
Monday, January 05, 2004
Good News, Bad News
The good news is that today I returned to the park where I lost my car key and managed to find it.
The bad news is that the council lawnmower beat me to it. You can see the remains here.
*sigh*
The good news is that today I returned to the park where I lost my car key and managed to find it.
The bad news is that the council lawnmower beat me to it. You can see the remains here.
*sigh*
Sunday, January 04, 2004
Crappy Day
Ahh, what a great day it's been.
More struggles with the dvdauthoring software. Then discovering that the nice new networking switch that I bought yesterday to replace my ageing hub has in fact slowed down file transfer between two of my machines by roughly the same factor I'd hoped it would have sped up by. Then I got stood up by my best friend (but he had a really good excuse).
So, rather than be at home all evening, I decided to go out and meet some people in Subiaco to listen to music in the park. Where I seem to have lost my car key.
Not exactly one of my better days. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. Not counting on it, as I'll be back at work.
Bleh.
Ahh, what a great day it's been.
More struggles with the dvdauthoring software. Then discovering that the nice new networking switch that I bought yesterday to replace my ageing hub has in fact slowed down file transfer between two of my machines by roughly the same factor I'd hoped it would have sped up by. Then I got stood up by my best friend (but he had a really good excuse).
So, rather than be at home all evening, I decided to go out and meet some people in Subiaco to listen to music in the park. Where I seem to have lost my car key.
Not exactly one of my better days. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. Not counting on it, as I'll be back at work.
Bleh.
Email
When I'm on holiday, I get bored after a few days and will start obsessively checking my email. Particularly when I'm on the computer doing something else. Today for example, I've been trying to author a dvd with these neat open-source tools I've found that have no documentation with them, so trying to make them work is like wandering about a dark room trying to fidn the furniture.
Anyway, my point was, that in situations like that I tend to monitor my email... closely, and I've come to a conclusion. I get a shitload of email. Or more accurately, I personally get hardly any email. Maybe a message or two a day. What I do get is a phenominal amount of spam (and my mail runs through a spam filter, so I don't see about as much email again) and system messages from the machine I maintain - and some that someone thought I should know about.
So, whilst the volume is huge, the signal-to-noise ratio isn't much to comment on.
Why am I telling you? No idea. It's not like I want people to mail me stuff or anything. Goodness knows I've trained a number of people out of forwarding me 'joke' messages. It's more an observation.
When I'm on holiday, I get bored after a few days and will start obsessively checking my email. Particularly when I'm on the computer doing something else. Today for example, I've been trying to author a dvd with these neat open-source tools I've found that have no documentation with them, so trying to make them work is like wandering about a dark room trying to fidn the furniture.
Anyway, my point was, that in situations like that I tend to monitor my email... closely, and I've come to a conclusion. I get a shitload of email. Or more accurately, I personally get hardly any email. Maybe a message or two a day. What I do get is a phenominal amount of spam (and my mail runs through a spam filter, so I don't see about as much email again) and system messages from the machine I maintain - and some that someone thought I should know about.
So, whilst the volume is huge, the signal-to-noise ratio isn't much to comment on.
Why am I telling you? No idea. It's not like I want people to mail me stuff or anything. Goodness knows I've trained a number of people out of forwarding me 'joke' messages. It's more an observation.
Friday, January 02, 2004
Heh. Funny.
Whilst reading my normal webcomics this evening, I got a bit distracted by this banner ad at Mac Hall, which sorta reminded me of my various slash-reading friends.
Turns out that the strip Queen of Wands isn't about slash girls/grrlz (but if anyone's looking for a hook for a web comic, I'm sure it's a rich, untapped vein of niche humour), but I did find this strip very amusing.
Whilst reading my normal webcomics this evening, I got a bit distracted by this banner ad at Mac Hall, which sorta reminded me of my various slash-reading friends.
Turns out that the strip Queen of Wands isn't about slash girls/grrlz (but if anyone's looking for a hook for a web comic, I'm sure it's a rich, untapped vein of niche humour), but I did find this strip very amusing.
Thursday, January 01, 2004
Happy New Year!
Welcome one and all to 2004. It's a new year. Time to start afresh, with a clean slate and tap the unlimited potential beyond.
One could argue that it's all crock, that day follows day and that the defination of a year of arbitary, but you'd be neglecting the cultural importance of it all. It's a time of closure simply because we say it is.
I went to two fabulous parties this evening and caught up with many friends. Thanks to Grant and Russell for plying me with alcohol, which is probably why I'm still awake at 4:40am.
My New Years Resolutions are few - to be happy and to concentrate more the magazine I'm managing editor of. The thing I'm hoping most for this year is to be allowed run off and make television with my friends. We'll see.
Welcome one and all to 2004. It's a new year. Time to start afresh, with a clean slate and tap the unlimited potential beyond.
One could argue that it's all crock, that day follows day and that the defination of a year of arbitary, but you'd be neglecting the cultural importance of it all. It's a time of closure simply because we say it is.
I went to two fabulous parties this evening and caught up with many friends. Thanks to Grant and Russell for plying me with alcohol, which is probably why I'm still awake at 4:40am.
My New Years Resolutions are few - to be happy and to concentrate more the magazine I'm managing editor of. The thing I'm hoping most for this year is to be allowed run off and make television with my friends. We'll see.
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