ha noi

So, we're now on Cat Ba Island, relaxing after a busy couple of days.
Here's a quick run down:
Arrived in Hanoi around lunchtime.
Caught a minibus from the airport to the city (only $2 or so).
After being dropped of at the hotel we asked for, decided to say no thanks to the scammer and walked round to the other side of the lake to the actual hotel.
Walked around that evening trying to find the train station to buy tickets for the morning train to Hai Phong. Couldn't find it (apparantly a lot of people have had trouble with the Lonely Planet map of Hanoi), so we went to a restaurant for dinner and asked one of the guys at the hotel to pick up tickets for us instead. I proposed to Debbie at the restaurant, which caught us both by surprise. This photo was taken a minute or so later :)

Getting up at up at 5am the next morning, we found that they hadn't managed to get tickets for the decent seats, so didn't buy them. We thought we'd just go to the station and get normal tickets ourselves. Shame the hotel dude sent us to the wrong station, which we discovered after taking a taxi there, but luckily a guy with a three wheeled motorbike heard us mention Hai Phong in amongst our jibberish and drove like a madman for a couple of km to get us to the right station.

Missed it by that much.

Ok, this place is too hot, need to get a beer. Will finish the story later.

singapore

Man, I forgot how big this place was! They have free foot massage machines, free internet terminals and free wireless!! The humidity is also free, but they can just keep that if they like.

Damn, there was a photo for this, but we wandered out of the wireless coverage area and couldn't be arsed walking back again.

I'm also really in need of a shower so with at least three more hours of flying to do, I'm gonna be nice and ripe by lunchtime.

plane

This is going to be my view for the next 8 hours.

OK, now I'm done.

airport

I have a feeling I'm not going to keep up this rate of posting, but I'll do my best.
Started well: missed our train by about a minute, so had to get a cab. I'm pretty sure the first thing cabbies learn when they get of the plane is that the ONLY way to get anywhere is to take the CityLink. Seriously, if you ask them to take another route they revert to their childhood and forget their grasp of English.

Off to customs now.

Peace out.

off to vietnam

I'm just filling a few minutes before we head off to the airport. I think we've learned all we can (by that I mean Deb has done loads of reading and has told me off for not preparing as much) and it's going to be fantastic!
I'm mainly looking forward to the food... but also the cheap beer.... and I guess the bargain tailor made clothes in Hoi An are pretty inviting... don't forget hanging out in Hanoi's old quarter, eating grilled pork from street vendors... and shooting AK47s in De Nang is going to be neat as well.

Man, that three weeks is going to go by in a heartbeat!

Ok, gotta dash, see you all on the flip side.*


* flip side? What the fuck does that really mean? My life isn't a bloody record, and why would you guys be on the b-side?

national ride to work day

Scored a free breakfast this morning as part of the "National Ride To Work Day". It was good to see so many people riding in to work today, but it also made me wonder where the hell they are every other day of the week!
We usually pass only a handful of cyclists on the way to work in the morning and seeing hundreds more today showed that loads of people are capable of doing it, yet would rather sit on a train or drive to work.

It lead me to assume that most people only rode in today to be part of something instead of trying to stave off an early death due to FATNESS.

Sorry, I'm not a fan of people who do things like catch the lift to avoid a single flight of stairs or fat people who drink 2 litres of diet coke to make them feel better about the choloate they had for breakfast.

Hmm, that didn't end as planned. Here's a picture:

still lovin' it

So, I've had my phone for a few months now and I'm still enjoying it. Having no keys took some getting used to, and it's definitely harder to knock out a text after a couple of beers, but I wrote and sent this on the train after leaving the pub. That has to count for something... Right?

iphone

chasers

This is classic. The chasers boys got through two APEC checkpoints in a fake motorcade then one jumped out as Bin Laden.
Live News.com

a stool for men

square eggs

The photo didn't come out too clear (damn camera phone) but I thought this was funny:

"Unique square design".

laundry day

Haha, this is cool.
We let the washing build up cos it's a hassle to dry towels and sheets without a clothesline. That means that we take a trip to the laundromat now and then which totally beats having towels hanging over every chair, table and cupboard handle in the flat. Also, now that I finally have a new mobile, I can surf the net or update this thing. I guess I could always read a book, but this is a lot more fun :)

It kind of reminds me of MC Hammer's Blog, which he regularly updates from his mobile. The last time I checked in he was using a sidekick, but after queueing up with the rest of plebs, he's now using an iPhone. Good to see he can slum it like everyone else.

mobile test post

Just seeing how this thing works.

transformers

After seeing these, I don't think that anyone can really be happy with the shoes that they're wearing.
(Haha, Megatron is wearing Nikes)

strip generator

Ash posted a comic from this website a few months ago. I kept saying I'd do something once I had something funny to say.
I never got there, so this is my first attempt.

avatar machine

Sick of living life in the first person?

casting a net

For a long time I thought that social networking sites were a laugh, or a passing novelty at best. I mean most Myspace pages look like technicolour vomit, so were usually easy to stay away from.
That changed a little when I rediscovered Facebook. It's really neat being able to easily catch up with people you haven't seen for years, especially with the amount of effort that I've put in recently. I think I've only send half a dozen emails in the last 3 years that have actually left Australia.
Without signing up, I wouldn't know that one mate is moving to Melbourne in a fortnight, another is contemplating a transfer to Melbourne, another is four months pregnant, yet another is making a movie. It really makes the globe shrink when you realise the range of people that are sitting at your fingertips.
Maybe it's the booze (actually, it's most likely the booze) but I haven't felt this nostalgic for ages. I think it's time to break out the old photos, play some Drum and Bass and spark up a fat hooter.
Verdict: sweet

john howard

its been a slow few months

To stop this thing going stale, I thought I'd stick a few updates in here. Now to figure out what's happened since the 11th of April...

Well, mum's birthday was on the 20th, so happy birthday mum!
We got a new TV to replace the old 21" crt. The transformer in it was shot and you had to punch it to stop it from squealing.
Now I can play games on a nice big telly. We've also hooked up Deb's Mac Mini as a wireless media box, so we can stream video and music from computers in the other room (you can see it at the bottom right corner of the tv).

Dad is currently in the Solomons for a stint and last month he was on leave in Brisbane. After spending a few weeks there with mum, he came down and stayed with us for a week. It was really good having him here (and not just because we came home from work every night to a cooked meal). He now knows how to attach pictures to an email, so we should be getting some interesting pics soon.

We also caught up with my cousin Damian who lives in Clayton. We never seem to see each other unless another family member is over, but it's always a laugh.


My mate Travis finished up at work last month, which left a bit of a hole in the place. It was nice working with someone who was on the same wavelength as me. Now I spend a lot of my time explaining myself. So, my sense of humour takes a little getting used to. That's hardly my problem now is it?
We ended up at karaoke, which I really think is the scourge of the pub scene. What ever happened to self respect?


Of course, I say that, but Trav managed to get me up on stage for a rousing rendition of Tenacious D's "Tribute". Thankfully there's no evidence of that, so you'll just have to believe me.


Hmm, what else? Oh yeah, for our awards night at work we were encouraged to submit a team photo. There were prizes and stuff, so we decided we'd go with a superhero theme. I've never been any good at dressing up, so I volunteered to do a bit of Photoshop work instead.
It must have been ok, because we won the first prize of $500.


Looking at it on a different monitor now, there's a lot of stuff that could've been done a lot better, but it was good enough at the time.


So that's it for me. This weekend I'm going to try and send out a few emails to folks that I haven't managed to stay in touch with over the past 3-5 years. It not that I don't care, it's just that I'm exceptionally lazy.

Don't hold your breath though...

red hot

We went and saw the Chili Peppers play at the Sidney Myer Music bowl last night. After hearing today that Anthony Kiedis was feeling crook, it does explain why he didn't look as energetic as usual, but that didn't stop the music from being fantastic. John Frusciante just keeps getting better.

Here's the set-list if anyone's interested:
01. Intro Jam
02. Cant' Stop
03. Dani California
04. Otherside
05. Charlie
06. Fortune Faded
07. 21st Century
08. Throw away your Television
09. Jam
10. She's Only 18
11. John Solo
12. Snow (hey oh)
13. Me and my Friends
14. This Velvet Glove
15. Sunny (flea's little bass song)
16. Don't forget me
17. Warlocks
18. Stadium Arcadium
19. By the Way

Encore:
20. Jam with Flea on trumpet
21. I could have lied
22. Give it Away
23. Final Jam

Also, Chad Smith (the drummer) was due to perform in Federation Square at 6.30 this evening. What I didn't know until they came on stage was that Flea and John were joining him! It was a 30 minute jam session which was bloody brilliant. Especially because we were much closer than the night before.


verdict: friggin sweet

wilson's prom

For chocolate weekend (refered to as Easter by most of the population) Deb and I took off to a little spot just north of Wilsons Promontory.
I'm not feeling very wordy this evening, but I thought I'd throw a few pics up just to stop this thing from getting too stale.

Rocks on a Beach:


View from on top of the same rocks a bit later on:


From the top of Mount Oberon:


The Great Sout... ah, read it yourself:


Our first snake seen in the wild:


So, it was a great weekend, fantastic weather, plenty of booze and a car for four days! It's going to be hard getting back on the bike again after that.

office 2007 is neat

Still officially being a Uni student, Deb managed to get a full copy of Office 2007 for $75. According to the articles I've read, that's a 93% discount off the retail price (although who really uses Publisher and Onenote anyway?)

So, we got home from dinner last night and installed everything, and I've got to say, it's pretty damn cool. There's loads of little details that make the whole experience nicer. When you select a block of text and then go to change the font, the text changes to the different fonts as you roll over them. It doesn't sound like a big thing, but trust me, it is.



The colour palette has had an upgrade as well. Instead of just the standard crappy (and weird) colour selection, you can also select a theme, which will give you better and more consistent looking colours. Sweet!


Excel is probably where I'll spend most of my time though, it now has over a million rows and 16,000 columns to work with. It give you a full selection of functions when you begin typing, as well as an explanation of what each one does.



Obviously, unless you actually use Excel on a regular basis, you won't see why this is neat. Also, if you're as old as a high percentage of people in my department, it won't be neat, it will be scary and unsettling. Maybe that means it's time to cash in your super!

verdict: very cool. Shame I won't see it at work until at least next year

pride of the south

Found out last weekend that our local bottle shop sells 24s of Speights.

It's a bit weird though, as the labels and bottles are different for export. They aren't screw cap (which I assume is to make it classier) and the label doesn't say "Pride of the South" on the front.

Anyway, at $42 for 2 dozen, it's reasonably priced compared to other imported beers, so I think I'll be buying a lot more in the future. That said, when I was home in Feb I noticed that you could get a dozen Speights for $9.99 if you shopped at the right place...



verdict: beer is good

time for a wii

Dumb name for a console, but it's pretty damn fun.
I saved up points in a reward scheme we have at work and bought a Nintendo Wii.


I've had it for a week now and still feel like a dork swinging my arms around to play baseball, but it really is good fun (even more fun is watching Deb at the bowling alley. It's only a matter of time before she leans too far and goes through the TV. I guess that would mean it's time to upgrade to an LCD... with a plexiglass screen to protect it :)


verdict: the control system will be perfect for the Super Monkey Ball, which I picked up on eBay today

climate change?

For those who are doubting there's a water shortage here, these photos were taken at the reservoir just outside of Heathcote.

mpaassholes

nz air

So I'm back in NZ for a wedding.
I've got no more to add, so here are some photos I took during the flight:

The Southern Alps


A braided river


Cromwell


Clyde Dam

dad's off to the solomans

My old man is off for a six month stint in the Soloman Islands. I didn't realise it made the papers!

lilydale to warburton

On Sunday me and Deb went for a bike ride with folks from my work.

We started at Lilydale around 8.20am and got back to the car sometime around 3pm I think. We covered 76km over that time, the second half being mainly uphill. It was a shallow climb, but was still pretty hard work near the end.

Map


Wandin


Somewhere on the track


Kind of like snakes on a plane, except with cows

and no plane

sketchup

Sketchup is a really easy to use 3D modelling tool that I came across the other day (and it's free!)

What's the first thing you do when you play with something like this? You recreate where you live of course!


If I'm still bored tomorrow, I might have a crack at furnishing the place, including having the right pictures on the walls.
I really did it so I could show my folks what our place looks like without them having to fly over here to see it.

cabinet part xxiii

It's been a while since the last cabinet post, so I thought I'd post a short update:

...

and that's about all that's happened since last October.
I've just bought a pot so I can move the volume control off the amp on the floor to a spot beside the speakers. I'll then be able to put the amp inside so it's not making the place look untidy. At the same time, I bought a switch box so I can move the output from the speakers to the TV without having to unplug cables and stuff. I might pull the box to bits and incorporate it into the cabinet itself; another step towards tidiness.

I also priced the cost of printing a marquee at Ted's. Because the width I need is wider than the roll of paper they use, I'll have to print it longways, which means It'll cost around $100 with 60% white space left over. I'm going to have to fill it up with other pictures to get my money's worth, but it's a good step towards completing this damn thing. I really wish I'd left the control panel until everything else was done, because now that everything works there's not as much motivation to make it look pretty.

happy new year!

It must be time for another bulk catch up.

Since you last tuned in:

• I went home for Christmas and actually enjoyed my time there. I think I could almost move back to live if there were jobs that paid well enough for the scattered skillset that I have.
  
• I bought a new compact camera after giving my old one to my folks. They had it for a week before it got a major error and I had to pull it to bits to remove the permanent battery. Hopefully it's all fixed now :) The new one does fancy tricks like letting you pick one colour to remain while the rest goes black and white. Cool.
  
• While I was at home, I built a new PC for the parents. When Dad bought home a printer/scanner/copier/refrigerator/bottle opener I started scanning in and cleaning up some of their old photos It was really nice to see pictures that had been faded to orange for as long as I can remember become vibrant and full of colour again.
• Deb and I went to the botanical gardens for a Moonlight Cinema showing of Clerks II. The inflatable screen was a little unstable due to the wind, and we warned at the start that if it blew away the screening would be cancelled. It turned out to be a bit of a chilly evening, but we had a couple of beers, a bottle of wine, loads of food and also rented some beanbags, so it worked out fine (the screen folded in half a few times, but didn't blow away)
• Bushfires knocked out an electrical supply line between NSW and VIC, causing blackouts across the city, which was already struggling due to a 40° day. Trains were delayed (in some cases stuck on the line for 1 1/2 hours), thousands of traffic lights went down and thousands of people were trapped in their office and apartment blocks because security doors weren't working properly (now that's some piss poor planning). I rode to work that day, so wasn't affected in the slightest except I may have lost a kilo or two of sweat on the ride home.
• Bought some t-shirts from Mr Vintage. There's loads of cool stuff, but I got these three:
  

It makes me want to have a crack at designing my own (or even better: taking elements from things others have designed and making them my own)

• The cabinet is still at 85% and I don't really know how to finish it. Ideally I'd rebuild the control panel now that I've used it for a while and put in a 4 way joystick (Pacman, Dig-Dug etc) and a spinner (Tempest, Arkanoid). Would probably move the trackball back a little as well, I've almost broken my fingers on the monitor a few times being a little too enthusiastic playing Golden Tee.
• Troakie (my old boss/booze buddy from Channel 4) has moved to Bermuda. I'm led to believe it's a paradise for records managers, where filing and rum go hand in hand.
  
• Went and saw Tenacious D play at Festival Hall last Friday. The concert was great, but it must have been close to 35° with 95% humidity inside and the acoustics were terrible. We had seats and still came out totally drenched with sweat. I felt sorry for those crammed down on the floor in the general admission area.
  
• Deb and I are off to Apollo Bay on Friday for a couple of nights. This is the first time we've left the city together with just the two of us, so I'm really looking forward to it.
• Deb is off back to NZ in a week or so for her cousin's wedding. A week after she gets back, it's my turn to go home for my mate Geoff's wedding. Shame the weddings weren't closer together, but I'm sure we'll both be happy for a break from each other :P

So, that's about it for now. If anything exciting happens, I'll post it up here.

Actually, I'll probably mention the boring stuff as well.