"Radiation checks at US mosques" - what better way to show how tolerant to other beliefs and races the US is. What next? Random arrests, without warranty or reasons? Oh, wait, they already do that.
"Scientists find 'mass dodo grave'" - yes, they have (or rather had) cults as well. What's the fascination with the dodo anyway? Just one of millions of extinct species. It's like a random media pick to underline their concern, and simultaneously touch the cute note of their usual viewers, without any need for justification. Well that's typical, but why the dodo?
"Chad in 'state of war' with Sudan" - yep, it's another african war. I wasn't aware Chad and Sudan not being in war with each other in the first place. After all, there are grounds to believe that every african country is in war with every other one. There is only so many permutations 20 countries or so can generate.
"Judge blocks law on violent games" - stopping a law that stops the selling of violence and sex games ... no comment
Sunday, December 25, 2005
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Queensland
mmmm, nice.
But before we get there - the journey. It was my first time in Graham's new airoplane. It's identical to his old one, same model and same internals and externals, except it's built in a later year. For all I could tell, it was the same thing with a new paint job ... Anyway, we packed everything in, which was a big effort, having in mind there were presents and of course my computer. The early hour didn't help either. It's not easy for anyone to operate before 9ish ... we were at the airport at 6am. Enough said on that - I don't want to remember it.
Then, there was the flight. We had a stop in the middle for a refill. The flight in total takes about 6 hours. We were lucky for the first part as we had very strong tail wind and were travelling about a quarter faster than usual so the first leg of the trip took 2:20 instead of 3 hours. There was something to be desired for the second part though. I slept for about 5 of the six hours of the flight, but the last half hour was particularly bad. There were lots of air bubbles, cross winds and all kinds of other nasties to keep you on your toes, including one sudden drop of about 20m freefall through an air bubble, which send us flying, held only by the seatbelts and the luggage landed straight on the roof of the plane. Quite an experience actually - best rollercoaster I've ever been in. Although this experience is far from turning me off from flying, it will remain as a tale of caution of what could go wrong. I'm really glad the flight didn't go on for 5 more minutes, because I cannot begin to imagine what my awakened internal decorator would have done with the place, adding unique colours and smells to the place. You get the idea. The good thing is that I did survive, without loosing my dignity and I was as good as new 5 minutes after we hit solid ground.
If you haven't been to Queensland, one thing that hits you (besides the hot wave of humid air) is how alive it is. There are millions of expressions of life. For the time it took to unload and get the car (20 mins or so), there were different creatures on 4 of the bags. Quite an effort if you ask me. Don't even get me started on how I'm typing this with a monitor, that's covered with little flying thingies of all sorts.
The drive from the airport was somewhat of a nightmare as well. Nothing special as far as nightmares go - just very, very hot. Swimming is usually not a bad thing, unless it's in your own bodily fluids. I guess I had one of the less offencive ones .. just ordinary sweat, but still.
Fortunately, things just got better from there. Lounging around generally wasting time and place and swimming were the majority of the occupational hazards. Nice hotel, beautiful view, apparently the biggest public swimming pool in the southern hemisphere, nice weather ... what else could I ask for?
me tired. Christmass tomorrow. Merry christmass everyone. me goes to bed before it turns into a pumpkin for being on this post on christmass
But before we get there - the journey. It was my first time in Graham's new airoplane. It's identical to his old one, same model and same internals and externals, except it's built in a later year. For all I could tell, it was the same thing with a new paint job ... Anyway, we packed everything in, which was a big effort, having in mind there were presents and of course my computer. The early hour didn't help either. It's not easy for anyone to operate before 9ish ... we were at the airport at 6am. Enough said on that - I don't want to remember it.
Then, there was the flight. We had a stop in the middle for a refill. The flight in total takes about 6 hours. We were lucky for the first part as we had very strong tail wind and were travelling about a quarter faster than usual so the first leg of the trip took 2:20 instead of 3 hours. There was something to be desired for the second part though. I slept for about 5 of the six hours of the flight, but the last half hour was particularly bad. There were lots of air bubbles, cross winds and all kinds of other nasties to keep you on your toes, including one sudden drop of about 20m freefall through an air bubble, which send us flying, held only by the seatbelts and the luggage landed straight on the roof of the plane. Quite an experience actually - best rollercoaster I've ever been in. Although this experience is far from turning me off from flying, it will remain as a tale of caution of what could go wrong. I'm really glad the flight didn't go on for 5 more minutes, because I cannot begin to imagine what my awakened internal decorator would have done with the place, adding unique colours and smells to the place. You get the idea. The good thing is that I did survive, without loosing my dignity and I was as good as new 5 minutes after we hit solid ground.
If you haven't been to Queensland, one thing that hits you (besides the hot wave of humid air) is how alive it is. There are millions of expressions of life. For the time it took to unload and get the car (20 mins or so), there were different creatures on 4 of the bags. Quite an effort if you ask me. Don't even get me started on how I'm typing this with a monitor, that's covered with little flying thingies of all sorts.
The drive from the airport was somewhat of a nightmare as well. Nothing special as far as nightmares go - just very, very hot. Swimming is usually not a bad thing, unless it's in your own bodily fluids. I guess I had one of the less offencive ones .. just ordinary sweat, but still.
Fortunately, things just got better from there. Lounging around generally wasting time and place and swimming were the majority of the occupational hazards. Nice hotel, beautiful view, apparently the biggest public swimming pool in the southern hemisphere, nice weather ... what else could I ask for?
me tired. Christmass tomorrow. Merry christmass everyone. me goes to bed before it turns into a pumpkin for being on this post on christmass
Friday, December 23, 2005
daily news review
"Maradona arrested at Rio airport" - now that's news ... something new and exciting ... something that has never happened before and I really wanted to hear for the first time ... or not
"Bird flu kills two in Indonesia" - only two chicken? what kind of horrible illness is this? I'm sure more have died trying to plunge an egg out or other stress related problems.
"Hunger leads to deaths in Kenya" - I'm pretty sure it leads to death anywhere in the world ... sort of a biological consequence of our nature.
"Japan population starts to shrink" - That's not so much news as such ... it was expected and awaited. It's already happening to a few countries in the world (notably Bulgaria). The strange thing is that the health minister is screaming his head off, making it a horrible and tragic thing. So much for the UN's praise that Bulgaria by decreasing it's population is helping the world's overpopulation problem. In China, you go to jail if you have more than one kid and in Japan as it looks like they'll give you a house and a 20year contract for your unbourne child to work in the toy robot factory.
"Bird flu kills two in Indonesia" - only two chicken? what kind of horrible illness is this? I'm sure more have died trying to plunge an egg out or other stress related problems.
"Hunger leads to deaths in Kenya" - I'm pretty sure it leads to death anywhere in the world ... sort of a biological consequence of our nature.
"Japan population starts to shrink" - That's not so much news as such ... it was expected and awaited. It's already happening to a few countries in the world (notably Bulgaria). The strange thing is that the health minister is screaming his head off, making it a horrible and tragic thing. So much for the UN's praise that Bulgaria by decreasing it's population is helping the world's overpopulation problem. In China, you go to jail if you have more than one kid and in Japan as it looks like they'll give you a house and a 20year contract for your unbourne child to work in the toy robot factory.
Monday, December 12, 2005
Water fun
Now that's a birthday party to remember. Tim and Ruth's birthday party happened to be on the first hot day of this summer.
Before the actual party, I went to Adciv's christmass party in the park. It's an annual event, involving nice food (very tender stakes along with lots of other meats and salads) and good fun. There are presents for the kids and alcohol for everyone else. Anyway, I couldn't stay long so I don't have much to tell about how it went on, but I remember crindging at the rumor that there are water baloons. I made a mental note to disappear before they were brought to light and so I did.
That is how by about 1pm I found myself at the main event of the evening - the forementioned birthday party. I was late, but wasn't the only one, so about average. They had started setting up the shade and tables and the like and I did my best to get into the role of organizer and accordingly do as little work as possible. By the time everything was setup, water guns magically appeared around the table. Imagine my surprise, especially after my efforts to run away from the other party with planned water related festivities. To my surprise however, cold water being sprinkled at each other turned out to be a very pleasurable thing. Usually it's a major annoyance at best, but on that particular day, for whatever reason (if I had to guess, it would be the hot weather), it felt natural and really fun. I made sure I secured one of the weapons of doom and kept refilling until everyone within the line of fire was mildly wet at best.
It would have been great if stayed at that, but it's in human nature to keep pushing and pushing. This time it went way overboard. The water pistols became deadly when instead of filling them with tap water, their damage was being enhanced with icy cold water, which in combination with the 38 degree day resulted in quite a painful experience. Since ice was proven to do a satisfactory (in a sadistic kind of way) damage, ice was liberaly used in all kinds of other shapes and quantities - ice cubes were flying around and bowls of ice water were being splashed all over innocent and not so innocent bystanders. Then there were water balloons, which have just about enough water to drench a single person from head to toe, hurting a little as an added bonus. After the first round of those was used, there was the ultimate water weapon - the garden hose. Yes, yes, we got to the hose. For some unknown reason, I was the first one to fall under its unforgiving sprays of fire. I haven't been so drenched in my life. From then on it was easy. I had nothing to lose. Of course I got back everyone involved in my downfall, mainly Ruth and Elena and made them share the same experience I had. Soon enough the sprinklers were turned on to complete the arena feel, although by then they really made no difference - nobody could get any wetter than they already were. At some point, I lost my shirt as it really served no purpose anymore - left it to dry instead. Same with shoes and socks. After the aim of the day was accomplished - complete and utter anihilation of the enemy (everyone else) with weapons of mass ... watering, things started to wind down. We spend the rest of the evening in our usual intelectual conversations and the like.
The end. (or close enough)
p.s. Of course it's never the end, but it feels like I get tired of this after a while. I'll trademark a new writing fatigue or something :) I think I cover the most important part ... the rest is more or less usual gripes and struggles of the earthbound human :)
Before the actual party, I went to Adciv's christmass party in the park. It's an annual event, involving nice food (very tender stakes along with lots of other meats and salads) and good fun. There are presents for the kids and alcohol for everyone else. Anyway, I couldn't stay long so I don't have much to tell about how it went on, but I remember crindging at the rumor that there are water baloons. I made a mental note to disappear before they were brought to light and so I did.
That is how by about 1pm I found myself at the main event of the evening - the forementioned birthday party. I was late, but wasn't the only one, so about average. They had started setting up the shade and tables and the like and I did my best to get into the role of organizer and accordingly do as little work as possible. By the time everything was setup, water guns magically appeared around the table. Imagine my surprise, especially after my efforts to run away from the other party with planned water related festivities. To my surprise however, cold water being sprinkled at each other turned out to be a very pleasurable thing. Usually it's a major annoyance at best, but on that particular day, for whatever reason (if I had to guess, it would be the hot weather), it felt natural and really fun. I made sure I secured one of the weapons of doom and kept refilling until everyone within the line of fire was mildly wet at best.
It would have been great if stayed at that, but it's in human nature to keep pushing and pushing. This time it went way overboard. The water pistols became deadly when instead of filling them with tap water, their damage was being enhanced with icy cold water, which in combination with the 38 degree day resulted in quite a painful experience. Since ice was proven to do a satisfactory (in a sadistic kind of way) damage, ice was liberaly used in all kinds of other shapes and quantities - ice cubes were flying around and bowls of ice water were being splashed all over innocent and not so innocent bystanders. Then there were water balloons, which have just about enough water to drench a single person from head to toe, hurting a little as an added bonus. After the first round of those was used, there was the ultimate water weapon - the garden hose. Yes, yes, we got to the hose. For some unknown reason, I was the first one to fall under its unforgiving sprays of fire. I haven't been so drenched in my life. From then on it was easy. I had nothing to lose. Of course I got back everyone involved in my downfall, mainly Ruth and Elena and made them share the same experience I had. Soon enough the sprinklers were turned on to complete the arena feel, although by then they really made no difference - nobody could get any wetter than they already were. At some point, I lost my shirt as it really served no purpose anymore - left it to dry instead. Same with shoes and socks. After the aim of the day was accomplished - complete and utter anihilation of the enemy (everyone else) with weapons of mass ... watering, things started to wind down. We spend the rest of the evening in our usual intelectual conversations and the like.
The end. (or close enough)
p.s. Of course it's never the end, but it feels like I get tired of this after a while. I'll trademark a new writing fatigue or something :) I think I cover the most important part ... the rest is more or less usual gripes and struggles of the earthbound human :)
Saturday, December 03, 2005
"new" work
Time to brag about my new working environment. As I mentioned in a previous post, my labour was sold to a third party like a Chinese worker. I get paid a cent and my tyrannical dictator gets a fortune. But that's all good once I get over the money issue because my new working environment is pretty cool :)
I'll be there from last Monday till the end of the year (finishing on Friday, 23rd December). It is three weeks of JSP and PHP (about 50/50 each). I get an awesome place with a fantastic view from the corner of 12th floor of the building on the corner of Rundle Mall and King William, which allows me to see all of Rundle Mall all day long as well as about half of the CBD. As far as cityscape goes, I haven't been in a place with a better view. Also as fate would have it, the room I'm in is supposed to have three people but at the moment is empty so I get an office for myself again (talking about being lucky with working environments). The people there are really nice too. They are really friendly and easy going. No stress and no pressure on performance or anything. They were really considerate while talking me through what they do and what needs to be done.
I also get to learn stuff. It's my first real experience with JSP. One of the two systems I'm working on (Merlin) is driven by OpenRoad (4th generation language) on the backend and JSP on the front end. So I get the joys of handling all the user interactions in Java and communicating them with the backend through COM objects. It's pretty interesting and took a day or so to get to feel comfortable as to what is going on and how things work, but now it all just works and is pretty easy to make extra stuff.
I haven't seen what the PHP stuff will be yet, but I have a feeling it will be easier so I'll get to cruise through the second half of that contract :)
All in all, I got lucky with this one and I like the opportunity to try different things and learn new languages. When you add to that being in the middle of everything and going shopping every day during lunch or on the way home, I feel pretty good at my new working place.
I'm planning on making some pictures from there and hopefully there will be a new entry on this. I just have to remember to bring my camera ...
I'll be there from last Monday till the end of the year (finishing on Friday, 23rd December). It is three weeks of JSP and PHP (about 50/50 each). I get an awesome place with a fantastic view from the corner of 12th floor of the building on the corner of Rundle Mall and King William, which allows me to see all of Rundle Mall all day long as well as about half of the CBD. As far as cityscape goes, I haven't been in a place with a better view. Also as fate would have it, the room I'm in is supposed to have three people but at the moment is empty so I get an office for myself again (talking about being lucky with working environments). The people there are really nice too. They are really friendly and easy going. No stress and no pressure on performance or anything. They were really considerate while talking me through what they do and what needs to be done.
I also get to learn stuff. It's my first real experience with JSP. One of the two systems I'm working on (Merlin) is driven by OpenRoad (4th generation language) on the backend and JSP on the front end. So I get the joys of handling all the user interactions in Java and communicating them with the backend through COM objects. It's pretty interesting and took a day or so to get to feel comfortable as to what is going on and how things work, but now it all just works and is pretty easy to make extra stuff.
I haven't seen what the PHP stuff will be yet, but I have a feeling it will be easier so I'll get to cruise through the second half of that contract :)
All in all, I got lucky with this one and I like the opportunity to try different things and learn new languages. When you add to that being in the middle of everything and going shopping every day during lunch or on the way home, I feel pretty good at my new working place.
I'm planning on making some pictures from there and hopefully there will be a new entry on this. I just have to remember to bring my camera ...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)