Archive for November, 2007



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Australia – A New Leaf

Wednesday, November 28th, 2007


rudd_king.jpg

The king of the woooorld

I realised I forgot to post an update the other day after the fiasco of fighting the London Transport system to get to Australia House to vote only to work out we’d forgotten our Australian Passports. I mentioned that at that the time it was almost a landslide victory to the Australian Labor Party and Kevin Rudd, its leader, well soon after this was official, and if you haven’t heard already (I wouldn’t be surprised, its not exactly world news, though I did see it in small print in the free morning paper), Kevin Rudd is the new Prime Minister of Australia, at least for the next few years anyway.

As I’ve said before, I’m not a very political person, and I shouldn’t push my point of view (as I don’t really have one), but since coming into power Mr Rudd has made some very interesting statements that will no doubt have a huge impact on Australia in the years to come. Once again, I’m not getting this information from reputable source, or even the Australian news, but tids and bits from family, friends, and London papers. Since coming into power, he’s:

  • committed to signing the Kyoto Protocol , and get Australia on track for reduced Carbon Emissions
  • said “Sorry” to the Australian Aborigines for past atrocities such as the 1960′s White Australia Policy
  • committed to pull an increasing amount of troops out of Iraq
  • talked about the scrapping of the Work Choices legislation (apparently the most unpopular government legislation passed in the history of Australia)

Now, I was thinking, what a way to come in, make sweeping changes, and completely reverse pretty much every unpopular policy from the previous opposition. I don’t think there’s a better way to rock the boat, and get all the fans and neutral voters alike, on side. It’s like the rich kid at a high school throwing around beer or $50 notes or something. Interesting stuff.

And now back to my apathetic pedestal in the clouds.

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Armin fans unite and vote for your favourite tracks of 2007

Wednesday, November 28th, 2007

Armin

Yes, its that time of year again, not Thanksgiving, or Christmas, but then time when Armin Van Buuren fans from accross the globe make their vote heard, for the final show down. ArminVanBuuren.net is once again hosting the voting poll for the best tracks of 2007, in the lead up to the XXL end of year mix that is sure to once again bring joy to the new year.

All you have to do is jump on the website and pick the five tracks that you liked the most from this years A State of Trance radio mixes and then Armin plays a mega mix of the favourites.I won’t spill my vote (apart form the obvious – Das Berlin - Til’ the Sky Falls Down), but its always good to get a good mix of the best songs, and not the annoying favourites that are stuck in everyones head as of the last two months or so, so jump on and vote.

Voting closes sometime mid December so be (relatively) quick. And I might see someone, anyone?! at Turnmills in London on December 21st when the man himself plays.

Update (28/11): I was thinking today I should provide some suggestions to the undecided, so here they are:

  • Ronski Speed (feat Julie Scott) – Love all the Pain Away
  • Solar Stone – Seven Cities
  • John O’Callaghan featuring Audrey Gallagher – Big Sky (Agnelli & Nelson Remix)
  • Jose Amnesia feat. Jennifer Rene – Wouldn’t change a thing (Original mix)
  • Cerf, Mitiska and Jaren – Saved Again (3rd Moon remix)
  • Armin van Buuren pres. Perpetuous Dreamer – The Sound of Goodbye (Simon & Shaker remix)
  • 4 Strings – Catch a Fall
  • Agnelli & Nelson – Sleeping at Airports
  • Forerunners – Lifecycle

…. To name a few!

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Dieing laptop, but Cleartype relief

Wednesday, November 28th, 2007

My laptop has been shitting me to tears recently which is a little annoying as for the most part its (a Dell Latitude D820) been my pride and joy.  It’s not even very old yet, just over 15 months now, but slowly bits appear to be degrading or dieing completely over time.   Obviously when its used day in, day out like this one things are bound to go wrong, but I would have liked a little more life out of it.  Since buying it:

  • the original hard drive started clicking and was running slowly, so I replaced it (£50);
  • at 13 months of age (just over the 12 month warranty for consumables), the battery went from full power (4-5hr life) to less than 30 mins (+£80 for replacement); and
  • the TruLife™ just doesn’t have that same true to life brightness and vibrance it once did. (+£x00?!?)

Dell XPSMacbookPro

So, I’ll be on the hunt for a new one in the next few months, and am considering a trip to the U.S in March to take advantage of this U.S Dollar slump, which is currently trading at less than 50p.  At the moment the Dell XPS M1730 (fr $2500USD), or a new Apple Macbook Pro (fr $1999USD).  I’m sure everyone will agree with me that the Macbook would have to be cooler (and more practical, as you can actually fit it in a backpack), but the XPS is just full of such power goodness, and should be a good resolution to my lack of computer since moving to the ‘K.

On a more embarrassing note, along with my frustration at the ailing laptop, I was trying to work out why I was straining my eyes so much, as the screen was difficult to read.  Much to my embarrassment, for the last couple of months I’ve been surviving struggling with an LCD monitor without cleartype mode on (how to turn it on), which is a font smoothing  mode for LCD screens and an absolutely positively must have for laptop and LCD owners alike.  Thanks Jeff Atwood from Coding Horror for re-aquanting me with the obvious whilst reading through an older one of this posts.

Eye Strain

It seems, at least for the moment eye strain has improved slightly.

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A fork in the road, an HD911 expansion?

Wednesday, November 28th, 2007

A fork in the road

Just a quick one tonight, but I’ve been considering expanding on my blogging at HD911 by starting a new blog with just work, career and tech stuff to go along with my recent push toward doing more personal work to try and build a name for myself. Obviously, I can’t let anything happen to Curious Perversions in the UK, what with the rave reviews from the BBC’s Mashed, Independant reader reviews at wordpress.com and the recent surge in activity and traffic from Digg, so I’ll endeavour to keep this level of brain fart up and possibly improve on both the quality and frequency of future posts.

Obviously, the idea with this is to seperate the serious content from the joke/satire/bulls**t, we’ll see how it turns out eventually anyway..

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Australia Shop

Tuesday, November 27th, 2007

With the intent to go to Australia House and vote in the Australian election we braved the below 5 degree weather and headed into central London. The minute I got on the bus, it occured to me that we’d forgotten our passports, and wouldn’t be able to vote anyway (hope we don’t get a fine this time). No matter, we had another agenda for the day. And that was to venture to the Australia Shop by Charing Cross Station.

We’ve been talking about the things we miss from back home (99% of which is junk food), and it wasn’t until recently that I realised there was an Australia shop in London, and we’ve been looking for an opportunity to go ever since. And it was a great thing too, like three kids in a candy store we tore the store apart and walked out with show bags full of Twisties, Burger Rings, Vegemite, Warheads, a Cherry Ripe, Mint Slices and Pizza Shapes. Apart from the sheer cost of buying imported, bottled beer, I’d have bought a carton of Coopers Vintage, Stout, Sparkling and Pale ales too.  Ah well, maybe Australia Day.

Michaelangelo’s David, with Shapes, more clothes and no penis

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Political message from the Political Apathist

Wednesday, November 21st, 2007

The Australian Federal election is coming up on November 24th 2007, with what looks like a landslide victory for the opposition, and this may be a good thing.

Kevin Rudd, the Incumbent

Kevin Rudd: The Incumbent

I thought I’d preface this post by saying I don’t really give a hoot(aus: horrendous expletive) about Australian politics, even less so since re-materialising aross the other side of the world all but half a year ago. I’m a person who, like most Australians my age (from what I’ve seen) has no real political agenda, and as such am perfectly happy to follow in my parents footsteps, because thats what mindless drones do. I should also make note of the fact that because I don’t have my own political views (thus my new title, the Political Aphathist), the one sided view and pros and cons for that view expressed in this post will either make no sense, be next to intelligible, or be down right bigoted and/or selfish. So if your a communist, or easily upset by fanatical ramblings, stop reading this post, relax and prepare yourself for Guiness Thursday.

You see, though it breaks my heart to see them win *sniff*, it must be the ALP’s turn for a quarter of a dozen years (being 3) in the spot light. And I can see a couple of reasons for this, and here comes the selfish part. Again, excuse my complete lack of understanding here, but in the period after the float of the Australian Dollar in 1983, it experienced a slump by more than 30 %. This trend continued throughout Bob Hawk and Paul Keatings rule (proof needed), and apparently things increased steadily after the Liberal party came to power in 1996/7.

This incredibly fool-proof and obvious trend leads me to believe that while the dollar is being once again driven into the ground over the next few years, I’ll be slowly building a stock pile of British pounds (I’ll be conservative and say £2936.33), and then I’ll return home, and purchase Dalkeith. And while I’m there I’ll make use of this lovely new Broadband infrastructure, FTTN (Fibre to the Node), we’ve been promised.

Bob Hawke: The True Aussie

 Bob Hawke: The one true Aussie

I can only hope we have a new Australian legend as a prime minister like Bob Hawke in the 1980′s:“His academic achievements were possibly outweighed by the notoriety he achieved as the holder of a world record for the fastest consumption of beer: a yard glass (approximately 3 imperial pints or 1.7 litres) in eleven seconds” [1]

See, nothing fanatical to read here.

P.S: Incumbent had nothing at all do with what I thought it did.  This has proved to be a learning experience for all

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The Trials and Tribulations of Moving

Tuesday, November 20th, 2007

We’re now in the final stages of saving for the rent/bond/deposit, preparing the current house for inspection and cancelling/moving services, utilities, banking and store memberships.  I’ve got to say though, there is an awful lot to do.  I’m complaining, and I dont have a mortgage, car, other loans, kids or health insurance.  I’d hate to think what its like attempting to move a whole family and related bills and services.

Now I’ve just got to try and make sure the house is presentable so we can get as much of the deposit back as possible.  There’s a couple of patches on the walls that are looking a little bit off which may cause us problems though (shoddy paint, I’m sure of it),  but I’ll do best with a can of touch up paint.

But its all for a good cause, and that’s the new house!  Bring it on!

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Guiness Thursday

Friday, November 16th, 2007

guinessthursday.jpg

Not often does such genius strike a person on the midst of a Wednesday afternoon, I might even say it may have been my Eureka moment. I invented Guiness Thursday, a day that exceeds all other named days, including Good Friday, Easter Monday and others such as Ash Wednesday, which until today I believed was named because of the bushfires that spread accross Victoria, Australia on Wednesday, Feb 16th 1983. What irony.

I must jump back in time for a bit, to Wednesday night, as I excitedly rushed home after my moment of revelation, to make sure said idea was indeed as original and ingenious as I thought it was. A quick google search, left me slightly shattered, as it returned four results, but I was happy to discover that whilst the term had been phrased before, it definitely didn’t appear to be in common usage. And everyone knows the first and foremost rule of just about anything, and thats if you like an idea, copy it and make it ten times better. So I did, and on we go.

Guiness Thursday is a momentous occasion, as it doesn’t attempt to rival any of these religious holidays for importance, but attempts to enrich them, forming a union in which pleasure time can be enhanced by grouping said days together, whereever possible. Every Thursday, I will endevour to enforce a strict Guiness policy for myself and my collegues and anyone else who’ll join.

This shall bring enjoyment for all who believe in the new way. And certain times of the year we will benefit greatly from its creation. Take Easter Week for instance, usually we have Good Friday thru Easter Monday off work. With Guiness Thursday, we’ll have an even better Easter Weekend, with a classy lead up to the festive period with a Thursday afternoon of several pints of Ireland’s finest. In fact, and I don’t mean to offend anyone here, in a few hundred years the meaning of the Easter weekend may well just change, in that Good Friday is good for the fact we enjoyed Guiness Thursday so much.

You see, Guiness Thursday is not just a childish notion, nor is it a passing phase. It’s an ideal, and aims to make everyones Post-humpday just that much better, for the improvement of man-kind.

Please, join me, and post stories of your Guiness Thursday exploits. I’m interested in feedback of all kinds.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeYMoz0zdag[/youtube]

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Full Steam Ahead

Friday, November 16th, 2007

Motivation

Or should I say, Full Steam Ahead at Home, Two Mighty Steps Back, at Work….

On one hand I’m happy as hell, I’m making huge progress on one of my home projects which is great for a few reasons.  Firstly, I’m actually getting some personal work done, which is good as I’m creating a hobby, as opposed to the endless nights spent downloading new TV shows to watch while drowning myself in wine (and cognac).  Secondly, I can just feel already, this last week or so of doing approximately two hours work a night has already started in the process, improving my self motivation to do these things that I really want to do, but never get around to it.

Building on from my previous post where I spoke about doing extra work at home (both personal, and freelance), I’m hoping to eventually establish myself, and in doing so, get my name out, make some more money and hopefully generate some passive income on the side.  That’s the plan anyway, now I just need to put these thoughts into fruition and get it out to a point where I can provide a service for others.

Unfortunately, the workload at the office has dried up slightly for a week or so, so I’ve taken (what I consider) a step back and am working on a PHP application.  This is marginally annoying, as I haven’t done any PHP work for what must be approximately five years now, and also because I didn’t particularly like it in the first place.  But like all things, I’ll use it as a bit of good experience, and may even enjoy myself too.  A chance to branch out slightly, perhaps, and should definitely kill the inevitable boredom of doing the same work day in, day out.

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Dropping Temperatures… Blimey!

Thursday, November 15th, 2007

It’s finally happening, the temperatures around these parts are dropping, and dropping fast. This has interested me so much that I’ve been regularly checking the weather reports and we’re in for minimums of less than 3ºC and for at least the next few days. It’s already colder than anything I’ve felt before when I step out of the house to go to work every morning, and I’m finally getting to the point where I can don the scarf, beanie and gloves.

Yes, that’s right Australians, English people wear scarves, not as a fashion statement (well, that’s not the main reason), but as a means to keep warm.

Update: 16/11 12:30AM, its just hit -1ºC outside!!

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