Day of Rest

Well today started in the usual confused state of affairs. Firstly, when asked what they wanted for breakfast my children replied "soccer balls". "Don't be silly" I responded. After a brief argument over what is and isn't edible, my son dragged me into the kitchen, trying to convince me that Soccer balls were indeed on today's menu. To my horror, the cupboard door swung open to reveal 'Nestles FIFA.' "What the.... My god and so, footballs for breakfast it was. I say footballs, because apparently that's what we are supposed to call them now, not soccer balls. I just hope that there is more nutritional value in the cereal than the leathery type of football. Perhaps the name change is somehow intended to make the game more appealing to a wider audience. Don't know really.

Well, I must admit, dish washing presents far more of a tactical challenge than some other tasks that I have to perform on a daily basis.

Here's a picture of my nice, tidy workspace. I must admit, it is a pigstye, but fear not, in today's hive of activity, I was somehow able to clean it up. Stay tuned for the transformation pictures in tomorrows episode of 'I.T makeovers.'

Yeah I know!!!

Thats it tonight from me. Not a particularly interesting day, but hey that early night sky was good to see.



Oh and to all of my foriegn visitors....
"Where the bloody hell are you"

I love the beach, umm sort of.

Well, as I left for work on this magnificent morning, I made one last pass over my inventory.
Flippers…check, snorkel…check, funky beach towel…check, camera…check, boogie board…check, bucket and spade (for sandcastle construction)…check. Oh and sunscreen…check. I was set for the day. On the Agenda was two jobs. One just in the next town, the other….at the beach!


So after I checked in at work, collected my parts and got myself sorted, I headed off to my first job. Not much I could do for this particular printer. Sad state it was in. But the staff at this particular workplace had found a new way to make one of those Chinese style concertina fans. Very impressive: But no good for the printer. Next, I was off to my long awaited coastal destination. South Gippsland is very beautiful when you take the time to soak in the surroundings. Even for a brief moment, it is good to stop and just take a deep breath as you look around yourself at nature’s beauty.

Rolling hills and lots of our bovine friends passed me by, before I finally arrived at that rare place of visitation: The beach!!! Wow, but wait: As I approached the turnoff something appeared all wrong. Maybe it was the way it was phrased, or the colour of the text in which the words NO BEACH ACCESS appeared. ‘what the f$@%k???????’ Access denied!!!!! What could this mean? Surely they haven’t dragged me all the way down here just to work? What about my flippers and boogie board? Denied??? Unfortunately Barry Beach appears to be a secure port for ESSO Australia. Not a grain of sand to be seen anywhere. ‘Bastards!!’ I thought… Oh well, no sandcastles for this little black duck! And so admitting defeat, I arrived at the ESSO marine terminal a little perplexed, but as usual, ready for action.

The job itself was straightforward enough, but the crap you have to go through just to place a foot inside the place seems a little overkill. 20 minutes of induction later, I donned my sexy high visibility vest, wraparound safety glasses and hard hat.

Fifteen steps later, with the complete visual attributes of a total Gordon, I stepped into the administration building, removed all of the crap that I had spent the last 20 minutes earning the right to wear and got started on completing my critical mission. Now I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that sometimes I feel like Tom Cruise in ‘mission impossible’, but this time it actually worked to plan. The technogurus had correctly identified the fault (this doesn’t happen as often as you might think) and sent the correct part (again, not as often as you might think) to remedy the situation. Mission complete!

On the way home, with a bitter taste of disappointment, I couldn’t help but wonder what the beach might have been like beyond the security fences and surveillance cameras. I wondered if I had indeed made the right decision to stop short of making a run for the water with my bucket and spade in hand…

And so as I ventured on down that seldom travelled road (Barry road), I came to a most powerful and undeniable conclusion…. Barry Beach sucks.

And as I headed toward the majestic wind turbines of Toora, I couldn't help but think that perhaps it wasn't such a great day for the beach afterall.

This picture was generously edited by my workmate Gayle. Thanks Gayle, You're Ace! ;)

Well, hello there. Another busy day passes by and out of all the seriousness, comes another silly observation.

Check this sign out. I passed this on the way to Bairnsdale and couldn't resist the urge to capture it for written analysis on my blog. Although this discussion has come up before, I thought I may as well bring it to your attention once more.
Imagine you are a tourist from a foriegn country. You have just managed to get your head around the myriad of strange flora and fauna: The fact that there are venemous egg laying, sexually dimorphic monotremes on the loose (someone once told you they're called Platapus), when out of the blue, you see this sign on the way through the Australian outback. 'Holly mother of Mary!' you say to yourself. I've seen kangaroos already but these wombats are enormous! You are struck with terror - 'Jurassic Park style.' You strain to look for signs of giant wombats, perhaps droppings or carcasses. Whoa, theres a Kangaroo. You pull over to the side of the road, stricken with fear...You pour a glass of water and sit it on the dash board, eagerly awaiting a sign of that which you fear the most. But the water doesn't ripple and shake like the glass in Jurassic Park... Jesus you think, if there are wombats on these roads, they could crush my hire car like a tin can! Nope. Duped again. Bloody Aussies. Suddenly, it dawns on you that these stupid signs are not actually to scale...

On another note, shortly after picking up a layout for my darling wife Amber, I was driving down a certain road, pushed for time and to my way of thinking; definately running late. As usual, my mind was wandering. Wandering all the way to the point at which I noticed the Police car's headlights spark to life. I quickly did a speed check... Damn!!!!
Double Damn!!! Double tripple damn!!!!!!!! Jesus now I'm done! Looks like 70 in a 50 zone. Ouch.

I thought to myself 'it's ok, they probably didn't notice'. 'Yeah thats right, they weren't paying attention'. Even as the blue and red lights started flickering all over my cars interior, I was actually thinking that I had gotten away with it.

"License please...."

Derrr. Um, "actually no officer, I had no idea how fast I was going" (the naked truth). What happened next was remarkable... "Well, sir, do you realise that we detected your speed at 67kmph in a residential street that was clearly a 50kmph zone?" By this time I had resigned to a certain inevitability: $165 fine (or more), plus the obligatory points loss. There was a long wait as both officers returned to the squad car. The officer returned to my driver's side window "George it looks like it's your lucky day. There will be no infringement notice given on this occasion." He added: "Don't let me ever see you speeding in my town again"
He said it in a Clint Eastwood kinda way, the 'my town' bit was kind of scary, in a 'I own this road' sort of way, like Mad Max. I think that he might have even been chewing on straw when he said it. Honestly, as he returned to his car, I squinted in the side vision mirror, looking for the glint of his .45 Magnum as he spat tobacco on passing cockroaches. "Strike me pink" I said to myself. That was lucky! I flipped the indicator up and proceded to merge with the upcoming traffic. Still stunned by what had just happened, I failed to realise that I had just engaged the left indicator as I merged to the right. They followed me for about 20km or so. I nervously drove on to my destination.
Strange day it was today.

On Cows and Pancakes...

So here I go, sr flour, milk, a little salt, a couple of eggs and a little butter… MMMM pancake mixture.

You know life is a bit like pancake mix. You see apart from the variable density of pancake mix, it also has that all important ingredient… Yep Milk, now you probably might think ‘Here he goes again’ but I must point out one very important fact… Cows have influence. You see when we gaze adoringly at the night sky, we are in fact observing the milky way. That’s right, the milky way… Now it could just as easily have been called the juicy way or the rocky way or even the eggy way. But nooooo, cows have influence. One could argue that cows in fact, are an up and coming superpower and given the right season, lots of green grass and you know a collapse of the McDonalds corporation…. Ok perhaps that’s just a little far fetched.

But think about this: Ask a child what cows drink, and they will probably say milk….
Is this bovine hypnotism or some kind of cow conditioning method? Mind control? Or just one of those freaky coincidences. You be the judge.

Anyway, pancakes await me (well they need to be cooked first) and as you know, kids will drive me crazy if I don’t get into that kitchen and start flipping.

When stuff just works a little bit- but not really.

Well, they say that things go down in threes. First it was the fridge, then the LCD monitor at Amber’s shop and I have a funny feeling that there may indeed be a third thing to come. I don’t want to tempt fate however by saying that everything else is fine…OMG, there I go. My boss is always saying that I mozz myself by saying that it’ll be a piece of cake. I must admit, it seldom is when I say this.

Well hands up who remembers this game?
This used to be at the Barwick Place Shops when I was in early years at Moe High School. Fantastic fun this one. From memory, it had two joysticks for controllers instead of buttons. Another game we spent mums hard earned cash on was this one… Double Dragon. A classic beat em up that had everyone spending up big time. It was at the Elizabeth St. Fish ‘n’ Chip Shop where again, mums hard earned cash gave us important life skills such as avoidance of cargo boxes thrown by Mr T. look-alikes, or the evasion skills required to beat up top heavy, whip-toting crack whores and their knife throwing pimps. Ahhh, those were the days, when good old fashioned values were hard-coded into arcade machines for the benefit of a brighter future.


Alas, I detect a touch of cynacism in you my young padawan. -Ok then, maybe arcade games are not as educational as I would like to think, but at least arcade games have a strong social element:-) BS I hear you say. well you see, we would virtually line up waiting for a turn on these games, but we'd be 'shooting the breeze' while we did it. You know talking about stuff or giving advice on how to get through the next level. Good fun it was. Better than hanging around on the streets I suppose.

I especially liked the games like 'Bad Dudes Versus Dragon-Ninja" A timeless classic if there ever was one. There were a couple of games around that had laserdisk technology like 'Dragon's Lair' but they were very expensive to play. Now they say we are going through a console revolution where the next craze of video entertainment is in XBox 360's or Playstation 3. For my retrospective taste, I only hope that game developers are able to preserve some of the elements that made up the old style gaming revolution. Yeah the graphics were crap, but they had style.They had um...dare I say... playability. And not only that, you could say that their replay value was high as well. But thats enough on video games for now.


Well I had a crack at repairing the Scrap To The Max LCD monitor today. I removed the screws from the bezel and proceded to do the only thing that I could. Stare blankly at the PC Board and its connectors... Crikey Moses, now what??? I sat in contemplative mood. Should I check this or that, or should I pull this thing off and... You know what I mean. There's not much that you can do with a printed circuit board and even less with a Liquid Crystal Display. After rigorous unplugging and replugging of anything that would come off, out or be physically jiggled in any direction, I happily began the task of putting it back together. There is always an overwhelming sense of achievement that goes along with pulling shit apart. And occasionally, there is the added satisfaction of knowing that you made that all important difference....

Violla, It looked like its former self. It was still beige, still stood upright, and as I plugged it in, it still made that unmistakable electrical crackle that you sometimes get with these things. Now let me check........yep no screws left over, no parts left behind and unfortunately... absolutely no difference to the state of things either. Damn! 30 minutes wasted on this stupid f@@@#ng thing. Ahh well. It was worth a try. Perhaps I might give it another look tomorrow. Well thats enough ranting and raving from me today, see you again tomorrow. (unless I see you again tonight) Bye!

Late Night Ramblings

See the rainbow
See ahead
Look right
Look left
See the rainbow
Look beyond...

Once upon a time certain people believed that the Earth was held up in space on the shell of a giant tortise. Bizarre, but no more than the current concept of galaxies interwoven by black matter that exists everywhere. Does space go on forever? Is it an enormous four dimensional universe that envelopes itself? -If so, could we travel in time forever, or would we eventually get back to where we started???? Wow and here's one of my favorite questions that I got from a Stephen Hawkings lecture..."Why is it that we remember the past, but not the future" We exist only in the present, but cannot exist without a past or a future. The human brain cannot function without the ability to 'see' a little bit into it's immediate future. Fascinating don't you think?

Mad Cows Disease

Hi everyone! Wow what a day. It has rained, it has poured, it has been warm(ish) and the sun has shone in the way that only the sun can; in all of it's magnificence. I found myself driving in the country today (as you do) and was totally captivated by the scenery. Perhaps it was because I had intended to capture a few shots of my surroundings for you, but It occured to me just how beautiful our part of this world is. For those of you who don't know, I'm talking about Gippsland in Victoria. Now perhaps it's just the way we live, with the hustle and bustle of everyday living - you know how our jobs, kids and lives in general take up almost all of our focus... Well I think we can easily loose sight of the natural beauty in things. Yeah, you might say that I'm a bit of a romantic (or a space cadet) but really, it's true. When was the last time you stopped to look at a rose? I mean really look at one, soak in it's beauty and experience what it means to really appreciate natures miracles.

I was driving along today right; and I saw this cow... Now normally when you see cows, you just think to yourself 'that's a cow' right??? Well today I saw this cow and I thought, 'thats fantastic!' A cow!!!! There was no influence of drugs or alcohol or anything other than my mood that caught the importance of this observation.... Just a magical realisation that brought me closer to what I think stuff is all about!

So cows are sacred in India right... I can totally get that. You see cows eat grass, they give milk and they totally rock! Every morning I have milk in some form, whether it be in my coffee, or over my cereal and I never even gave a single thought to the humble cow that made it all possible. Moo!!! Cows are great. Sure they are not the prettiest, or even the smartest animals on the earth: And we might be forgiven if we thought that they were actually extraterestrials from the planet because they have three stomachs like some kind of alien; but hey, cows rock!

Imagine cereal without milk? Imagine tika masala with water or gulp...fanta instead of cream... YUCK! There is no substitute for milk! Ever tried to milk a chook???? Well hell, there are other advantages to having cows on the earth too... Imagine a Big Mac without Beef. We would have products in the supermarket replaced with Big Lambers (instead of Big Beefers), Turkey Jerky and not only that, but we could no longer say that we have a beef with someone... Having a fish with someone just doesn't have the same ring! So thumbs up to our Bovine friends, may the beef be with you... Moooo.


BTW... The photos were of locations that I happened to pass by on route to a job today. I am so lucky to be able to see this sort of thing. By the way, you might be led to think that I will say something really deep and meaningful about the fire truck... But I won't. It was probably not a good idea to be taking a photo whilst driving anyway. Nice truck though! Cheers and have a great weekend!

Fast Mouse.

Well, what a day. Full of everything including a few challenging problems. Amongst the days events though, I managed to snap a pic of a side project I had a little time to fit in: Here's an unassuming candidate; my sons novelty car mouse.

I think it's supposed to look like a BMW...Not sure, but it was suffering from engine abuse (being thrashed). I guess you could say that it was in need of a major service. But fear not : ) with my trusty soldering iron and a few spare minutes, I was able to get it back on the road -Well back on the mouse pad anyway and even more remarkably, it actually still works! They were a bit rough with it and given it's design, was in need of a slight modification.

A discussion at work prompted me to think about the way things are made these days. Leave me a comment about how you see it, but It seems to be that in general, people aggree that things are not made as well as they once were i.e, in the 80's. Dunno about that but it is a subject worth discussion. Obviously, there are things that are made now that were not possible 20 or 30 years ago. Maybe its just a way that technophobes can justify their existence at home in their retro houses watching black and white TV on their Beta video machines. Anyway, I might go and watch a DVD with my darling wife before it gets too late. Cheers folks!

When Stuff Just Works

Well its been a long morning and somewhat of an excercise in frustration. After installing a nice shiny new server, the gritty stuff had to be done. I won't bore you with the details, suffice to say that 6 hours later I had completed the job and all concerned were happy:-). There is nothing better than happy punters. Here's a photo of the sexy new IBM X-Series 236 Server for those of you who are interested. Although the photo doesn't do her justice, she's quite deep (and very heavy) for a desktop computer. Yeah i know it might seem boring to most of you, but hey, welcome to my world.

The world where stuff is always broken and in need of a fixer-upperer dude. Enter moi, who tries to achieve this to the best of his abilities. Not always succesful, although normally capable, given the right tools (and sometimes a helping hand from the techno-gods in the city).

Which brings me to another point. The tech support dudes at the other end of the phone are normally very helpful and good spirited individuals. Not deserving of their stereotypical labels. Power to the uber geeks I say. Without them, we'd all be lost. So, another working day is nearly over and yet again; mission accomplished. The citizens of Gotham can sleep tonight, with the hearty murmers of the xeon based server: The gentle flicker of soft green leds emanating from beneath her attractive grille. And if you look closely, she seems to flicker in unison with your heart... Awwwww isn't it pretty? It's nice when stuff just works....

The dawn of a new day

The sunset fades into oblivion
The day continues its morph into night
Although the day is over,
Its legacy hangs over me
Ever present and bold
Sunrise is near and the new day beckons.

It's all smoke and mirrors...

Two men stand atop a magnificent gorge, before them lies a majestic forest of strong and healthy trees, bursting with life and all of natures beauty. One man says to the other "Isn't it just gorgeous?" The other man replies by exclaiming "yeah, all of those trees are fantastic; must be worth a fortune in wood chips"
There are always at least two points of view that are equally valid in any argument.
I believe that we must be mindfull of two things... Consequence of our actions and the effects that those actions can have on others. I believe that we can all learn something from the Chinese 'Tao' or indeed, from Japanese Zen. The eastern philosophies promote harmony of spirit and the respect and cohabitation of all living (and non-living) things. After all, we are no more a significant part of this world as butterflies or ants are. -We just make more noise.
It is my belief that we must always be mindful of the feelings of others and strive to improve our social skills afterall, we are social creatures: Our survival relies on the dependance we have on others. What can I say....

OK, I am a bit of a space cadet afterall.

PC’s, kids and sleep time sentiment.

Ok, here’s the thing… You know you’re bored when you are sitting at your desk clicking on icons, skipping from icon to icon, like you’re not really sure what you want to open. Or when you double click a folder, then go back, then forwards and forever open yet more folders only to find nothing of interest. Well I’ve done a bit of that today, waiting for software to install on the PC at work. Computers they say, save us time. They don’t save me any time, because I spend more time fixing them than they spend entertaining or educating me. But I love computers. They are a kind of comfort to me, not merely a tool for productivity. I enjoy the warm luminescent glow of my pc, the gentle humming of its numerous fans. Personal Computers… Sort of like personal slaves in a digital kinda way.

Well we all know how important our PC’s are... Well sure, they can’t feed us, clothe us or bath the kids, feed the cat, or put the bins out, or….come to think of it, do anything much that is all that practical (at least in their desktop form), but we love em just the same. We pour our hard earned cash into constant upgrades, software and additional gadgetry. They are like our children, (except that they don’t argue with us and they go to sleep when we ask them to) and imagine the possibilities… If only we could get children to hibernate like Windows XP: We might actually get some kip;-)

The day as it begins...

The wipers groan to a halt.
The sun peers out from behind dark clouds.
It is a beautiful day and I feel good.
I kissed my wife goodbye this morning
I hugged my children
And I feel great.
The radio drones on
But I’m not really listening.
Today is a beautiful day.
Here I sit in this space
My little silver car
I wonder what other people are thinking
As they drive along in their cars
Are they happy?
Are they sad?
Who are they anyway?
They pass me by
Almost every day
Do they notice me?
Do they notice the trees
Or the warmth of the morning sun
As it washes over us as we drive along?
Today is beautiful.

Mondayitis

I spent a couple of hours setting up VOIP (Voice Over IP) for us to trial in the Shop at work. It is very clear and sound quality is probably better than our conventional telephone line. Don't know if it (VOIP) will be as big as people say it will be though.

On another note, I would urge anyone ever considering a Kyocera Laser printer purchase, to reconsider. The parts are outrageously expensive. Over 500 bucks for a Processing Unit. Ouch!

Work today was kind of dull. A few jobs were a challenge, but overall, not all that interesting. On the lighter side, I was looking forward to knock-off.

Something happened today that made me think….It amazes me how people take a ‘thing’ with a specific function (that is absolutely required to perform a certain task) and then disable or throw away that task completely whilst expecting a process to take place that is solely and implicitly dependent on that very task that they have taken away. I think that it really demonstrated a complete lack of understanding about the actual workings of the very thing they are trying to achieve. In short… Incompetence. - We all deal with it on a day to day basis. You especially encounter it in the repair service sector, but whilst trying to remain humble and non judgemental, we are all challenged by having to deal with the ridiculously incompetent as well as the regular punters and those that are quite smart in their given field of expertise. But as I say, there is no amount of training that will teach you plain old common sense. I think you either have it or you don’t. Sure we have a lapse from time to time and do something completely ridiculous, but generally, the majority of us have our wits about us. Unfortunately, it seems that not all of us are blessed with an abundance of grey matter.

Somehow, I fear, technology is dumbing us all down too. There are all sorts of things that we no longer have to do for ourselves; that is making us lazier as a general rule. Hands up everyone who goes nuts when they cant find the TV remote, spending hours turning the house upside down to find it? We know that in fact, it only takes a few seconds to walk to the TV and press the channel select button.
Here’s a thought, for some people, high speed internet is a must… Communications are imperative. For all the great things internet give us, by far the most important to many businesses (and individuals) is electronic mail. For most, the greatest thing about high speed internet is the speed at which you get your electronic mail. For others, it’s the fastest known way on Earth to get junk mail delivered to your home or office. Of course, with wireless internet now available, it means that you can get junk mail anywhere. The Spam Revolution is here! Now you can get your Penis Enlargements and breast enhancements at the airport, or keep in touch with that Nigerian dude with all the cash while you eat brekky at the local McDonalds. The best thing you can have is a good spam filter I reckon- They’re the online equivalent of mans best friend. Anyhow, enough for today.

Welcome to my World.

Hi there. Welcome to my wacky world. Where i tell it how it is....
At least how it is at the moment.

Stay tuned for all of my weird and sometimes intelligent and perhaps intuative comments on a broad range of stuff. Hope i don't bore you though.