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The Big Day

Saturday, May 3rd, 2008

It’s the night before my wedding, no, scrap that. Let me re-phrase, it’s nine hours and twenty minutes before my wedding.  I’ve only just had a chance to sit down and actually think about the whole thing, I’m not nervous, or scared, or overwhelmed.  I’m just… happy!  I can’t really explain it, thoughts are running through my head at 1,000 miles an hour, many at the same time, but I do have an outstanding feeling of contentment.  The rest of the clan are over at the moment, and its great to be able to see them after a year, though it feels like yesterday that I saw them last anyway.

Note: Not anything like the suit I’ll be wearing tomorrow

In my pensive state, I figured out something though, I’m sure its blatantly obvious to everyone else, but I feel like a genius anyway, and I’m not talking the same kind of genius I was when I invented the Bloody Genius.

Do you know the real reason why you’re not supposed to see the bride the night before the wedding?

The answer to this became very obvious when I walked into the bedroom at 11:00pm, and Cath wasn’t there.  I wasn’t expecting her to be, as she’s spending the night over at a friends to keep with tradition.  But it’s blatantly obvious to me that something’s missing, and not just that, but I’m lonely as well, why else would I be writing this post?

I think if you can make the decision not to see your partner for the point of not seeing them, and then instantly wish it didn’t have to be that way and feel as lonely as I do right now, then that’s a compelling reason to make sure it never happens again.  And if the opposite was to occur, and on your last night of ‘freedom’‘ as they say you feel nothing whilst apart, then maybe that’s a good reason not to get married.

See, genius!

Wedding Cake

But, (and I don’t want to sound corny here), I didn’t need to have this experience to know that want to spend the rest of my life with just one certain person, I knew that already.  I knew that soon after we met almost 8 years ago, though I can’t remember the point it occured to me.

Now I’ve just got to remember all the things I’ve got to do for the big day tomorrow, which thankfully isn’t much.  I’ve got the rings safely in plain view so they’re not forgotten, and the certificate, and my suit & shirt are pressed.  Hell, even my shoes are buffed and polished, that’s some forward thinking right there.


Rings

Despite the integral people who’ll be missing tomorrow (you know who you are), I’m looking forward to it, despite its low-keyness.  There won’t be a big ceremony, nor confetti (at least I don’t think), a bouquet, a priest, a first dance or an enourmous feast.  But there most certainly will be the couple, speeches, toasts, good friends, some immediate family, food and drink, all at a nice little pub with a fair bit of history in what must be the best city in the world.  And for that, I’m looking forward to it.

And then Sunday, we’re off to Majorca in Spain, which sounds fantastic, like a little holiday island, and another place I’d never heard of before about a week ago.  Cath and I, my parents and my brother in a villa on a sunny island in Spain for four days!  Once again, a little unorthodox with regards to the normal wedding/honeymoon situation, but I haven’t seen them all in such a long while, it’ll be great.

I’m in London Still*….. I’m getting married, and, I’m loving it!

* Weirdly enough the Waif’s song London Still just came on while I wrote the last line, and it really just seemed to slot into place.

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Jack Reacher

Wednesday, April 30th, 2008

You can ask anyone, I’m not usually one to pick up a book, and it’s even more unlikely that I’d be caught reading one.  In fact over the last year, apart from daily reads of websites (which often contain relatively large stories/articles), and various tech (read: geek) books, the only books I’ve read are:

  • Tucker Max – I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell…
  • Maddox – The Alphabet of Manliness

In the last ten days I’ve doubled this, and now I’m onto my third book.  This is amazing because, as we’ve already estabilished, I don’t read, so it takes something unusual to break the literary drought.  And I’ve definitely that something I think.  Lee Child’s alter ego Jack Reacher is just about the most interesting character I’ve ever read about, which tells me a) Child write’s f*&king good books, or b) I’m uncultured and haven’t read anywhere near enough books.  I’ll go with option a, because I know how cultured and cool I am.

So far, I’ve read too of Child’s books, One Shot, and Bad Luck and Trouble, which kept me glued from start to finish.  The former is about a seemingly random mass murder in Indiana by a trained sniper where the crime is completely faked and made to look like it was a retired army Marine who did the shooting, and the victim’s weren’t all completely random (shock horror).  The latter involves half of Reacher’s old Army group getting killed for uncovering a plot to ship new U.S missile technology to terrorists and Reacher meets up with the remaining four members of the group to bring justice to those taken down.  As usual, weapons, money and a whole lot of violence is involved.

One thing I really liked about the first book (that I didn’t notice as much in the second) is that the whole book plays out almost exactly like a Law and Order episode.  I’m a Law and Order nut, if its on I’ll watch it, and even episodes I’ve seen before rate pretty high on the re-watchability scale (as long as they’re not watched in close succession).  Apart from the abomination that was Trial By Jury, or Justice By Jury (something like that), I’ve liked pretty much every episode that I’ve watched in the past 18 series the original show has been running.  And I appreciated that about One Shot.  It plays out like any cop/military drama, and it keeps interest the whole time.

I’d had Lee Child recommended to me recently, and by coincidence, the newspaper The Evening Standard happened to have a free copy if you bought a copy of the paper.  So I guess advertising works, as I’ll now probably continue and buy the rest of his books, starting from the first of the series of course.

Anybody want to recommend me some good reading?

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April Fool’s Day

Tuesday, April 1st, 2008

I’m afraid, I think I’ve been duped by April Fool’s Day again, and its not the first time.

One of my favourite sites back home is Whirlpool, for well over a decade now it’s provided a relatively unbiased view of the broadband situation in Australian, form the humble and mediocre beginnings of one way satellite, ISDN and others as a form of broadband medium right through to current technologies such as ADSL2+, WiMAX and Fibre technologies.  It’s owner, Simon Wright, has always stood heavily on neutral ground, and has a strong policy against defamation and vendor verdicts, despite the fact I’m sure there could be a lot of money in subtley pointing what is now “8.6 million people visit ninemsn each month, representing 73 per cent of active Australian Internet users” toward one of Australia’s bigger telco’s.

So when I logged on half an hour ago and read the front page, entitled “ninemsn acquires leading online discussion site” , I was appalled at the thought that Simon may have finally sold out.  So appalled that I wrote a reply to the discussion on the topic believing while I was writing it I was the first to reply as the the reply counter had been artificially set to 0.  That is, of course until I pressed post, and I’d realised I’d joined the masses, one of several hundred who’d logged on almost simulataneously to express their deep regret over this sad occasion.

A Dead Giveaway?

The Dead Giveaway

Who’s the patsy now though?  I am…… again.

I can remember being fooled by April Fools Jokes on Websites on at least five occasions now, two of which I knew clearly it was April Fools Day and I was still so convinced by the writeup I’d instantly believed it.  One year comes to mind when the writer of a similarly sized Australian forum informed everyone that as of the start of May, all forum subscriptions would attract a monthly fee and a fee per message sent.  As you can imagine (like a cell full of stupids) this provoked uproar, aggression and upset an awful lot of people, especially once they’d realised they’d fallen one of the most obvious tricks.  Many were shamed due to their responses.

April Fools Day does seem to be a big event on the net though, with sites from all over the globe, large and small, making obsurd claims that people fall for year after year.  Some notable examples are:

  • The Google Search Tool that can see into the future
  • Googles TISP, providing mega broadband to the masses, via peoples Toilet and plumbing
  • Google’s Paper – providing a free priting service to print all your incoming email onto hardcopy paper.. cheap.
  • (see a trend happening here)?

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The many faces of Ubuntu

Thursday, February 28th, 2008

Ever since learning the meaning the word Ubuntu on the National Geographic channel (or was it the new Tv show Life Is Wild, i admit it, i’ve been watching it), it’s been popping up all over the place. I’ve seen it on TV, in the newspaper, and even heard it the other day on the Tube. It almost seems like the perfect example of the Baader Meinhof phenomenom (this is where a person hears, see’s or really notices/understands something, then by sheer coincidence the person hears/sees/notices the word/object/saying over and over again). Of course, as the Damn Interesting article suggests, in all likelihood, the word Ubuntu is probably used/seen every day, which of course it is, given the huge popularity of the Ubuntu Operating System. But as the theory suggests, I think about the word differently now that I’ve put thought into it, it’s no longer a label, a thing but a story, all in one.

Yesterday, whilst perusing the highly dissapointing Covent Garden Lolly shop, Cybercandy, I discovered Ubuntu Cola, a fairtrade soft drink made with fair trade African sugar. Given I drink hardly any soft drink anymore, and my days of coke bingeing are all but over, I thought I’d give it a go. To say it was terrible would be an understatement, I’m just too much of a Coke snob I think. But I like what it stands for, and it has a cool name. Here’s hoping the bin enjoyed the other half of the can as much as I did!

Ubuntu Cola

 

Update 28/02: By some freak of Beider Meinhoff coincidence I saw an article on the morning paper about the word Ubuntu and this particular cola.

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JD Weatherspoons – Absurdly low prices and competitive advertising

Sunday, February 24th, 2008

London Pride

I was at our local weatherspoons, the William Webb Ellis, the other night, and they had an interesting sign on the counter comparing their prices to local pubs. This was all very interesting as some of the prices weren’t just less than others, they were a half for even a third.

Now I don’t drink redbull and vodka, but a double smirnoff and redbull for £3 is awesome, especially the rice elsewhere was £7 or more, and i can remember paying at least $10AUD at clubs for a single back in Perth.

When does this type of advertising become slander though? In this age of law suits and rules about vendor verdicts, why can a store hang a sign stating how much better their prices are than competitors? But i guess it happens more than i first thought.

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Visa Issues & the changing rules of the HSMP.

Sunday, February 17th, 2008

I know, before I say anything, its been a long time between posts, and before my last it was a fair while between those. I’m in a definite state of limbo recently, in regards to pretty much everything and I’ve just let a few things slip. Like my bear for instance:

The Caveman

… Only Kiddin, it doesn’t look near this bad.

Anyway, I just worked out, within the last week that the British Home Office was in the process of tightening up their immigration laws, and as of March 1st 2008, its not going to be so easy to get the Highly Skilled Migrant Visa (HSMP) anymore. This sucks for me, as after July 1st this year, I’ll have used up my allowed employment time (12 months out of the 24 month holiday Visa).

I have earned enough, however to apply for the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme, which allows me to work pretty much anywhere, and 5 years in the UK without restriction, and best of all the time counts toward residency. The rules change slightly after Leap Year Day Day (29th Feb, 2008) though, the main causes for concern being that the cost now rises by £400 pounds (from the already expensive £750), and you need to go back to your home country to apply for it. There are many other changes to, like the fact having an MBA doesn’t automatically qualify you for the Visa now, and some of the points for various skills have been reduced somewhat.

But then the story gets worse….

Not only will I have to go back to Australia (if I chose this path after the cut off date), I’ll have to wait 4 months killing time back home until my visa request is processed so I can come back again! So, on current flight costs I’ve worked out the total cost of getting a new visa at:

Cost Of Visa: £1150
Cost of return Flight: £900
Lost income in work time: ~£16,000 (minus £ lost to tax)
Time spent saving up now so I’ve paid my share of the rent and food, and general bills/expenses: at least 2 months

That hurts, it really does. So I’m in a mad rush now, to try and organise all the paper work and cash required for the visa application (I’m willing to pay the £200 person to person interview fee for obvious reasons) by the 28th of February. It just depends how quickly my university can send me over the Proof of Completion of Studies form. I have my degree, and my transcript, I even have my high school transcript. But to the British Commission, that’s just not good enough. You need a letter from the chancellor of your university stating that at the majority of your course work was taught in English.

British Entry

The fact I went to an Australian university (and have a degree to show for it) doesn’t cut it. They need proof, and solid proof at that.

I will do whatever I can to avoid making the trip back home though, not that i woudn’t mind seeing friends and family, on the contrary. I’d love to, just it is a huge drain on time and money.

Visa time it is….

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The Hyperchondriac’s Timewaster

Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

Insanity - Madness

Yes, so I was bored the other day at work, and what do we do when we’re bored, unproductive and not doing something creative like inventing weekly drinking days? We waste time on the internetz, and the flavour of the day was taking pointless online medical tests, because in this age of hypochondriacal madness who better to diagnose my mental state than a two-bit test on the internet? The first of the two was the ADHD Test at PhsycCentral.com, and the second was the quirky and manic inducing OCD Test on the ADAA’s website.

PsychCentral.com’s ADHD Test

In this day and age where every kid has some form of this elusive condition, and care-free doctor’s are giving away far too many prescription pills to worry-ridden over-bearing mother’s (or at least to crafty teenage entrepeneurs) it seemed like a good idea to take this test, to guage where one might stand, you know, in the scheme of things. I’m of the opinion that my rapidly declining memory and cognitive ability, which I was once quite proud of, is due to the effect of age, decreased mental stimulation and alcohol abuse. But I’m open to interpretation, and there I thought there might be a slight chance that the reason my attention span, and general attention to detail is so poor may have something to do with with this magical phenomenon.

Upon taking the test, I was greeted by the usual standard questions, “I say things without thinking, and later regret having said them.”, “In conversations, I start to answer questions before the questions have been fully asked.”, “Even when sitting quietly, I am usually moving my hands or feet.”, “I am distressed by the disorganized way my brain works.” Check, Yes, Very much so.  Cool, I thought, I’m a total and utter head case.  Nope, I rated in the Low to Mild ADHD category, falling far short of the target Moderate Level ADHD, or indeed the coveted trophy prize Adult ADHD.

First test a failure (or success, depending on which way you look at it), seemingly I’d wasted 5 minutes.  This got me thinking though, I’m only 24, which would is considered young by most standards.  Is it out of the ordinary that I’m noticing myself getting old (never thought I’d say that), or am I artificially accelerating this to a point that I’m noticing it early?? Bah!

ADAA.org’s OCD Test

For my next short term time waster I chose the OCD test, for those not in the know that’s Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and really I think there’s a little in everyone of us.  From the simple need to alphabetically sort a DVD or Book collection, clean the house, or line the pegs up on the clothes line in Colour/Size order (yes, I’ve been guilty of all three, though not compulsively) through to obsessive cleaning of ones hands, OCD is a very real beast that affects… people.  Errr.

I’m not completely sure if the writers of this test were having a laugh (is he ‘avin a laff??) when they wrote this page, or if they’re just down right mean, but a certain element that is missing would send even the most sane of people into a manic episode.  They left out the Submit button.  Ha!

ocdtest.JPG

Just imagine it, x number of OCD suspects want a semi-professional opinion so before sectioning themselves for good, they consult the doctor in a box, and proceed to type in parts of their innermost thoughts and secrets.  When crunch time occurs, and they’ve completed the entry section they look forward to recieveing the answer and solving the problem once and for all, so they search for the Submit/Upload/OK button.  No button!  So what do they do?? Do exactly what I did, I suspect, assume its part of the test and click like a mad mescaline munching donkey until the answer could be found.

Only it couldn’t, because it wasn’t there, and there was no form, only inputs, radio’s and some random links that went nowhere!  That’ll fuck em, least that’s what I bet the ADAA were thinking.

So anyway, Shannon 1, work day 0.

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Monopoly Pub Crawl = failure

Thursday, January 24th, 2008

With great regret, I announce the Monopoly Pub Crawl, was not an astounding success.

As many would know, its not often I fail at anything, and certainly not when the job at hand involves alcohol. But alas, 26 pubs in a row, is just a little bit too much. After 12+ hours, 17 pubs and what must have been close to 6 or 7 miles of walking, we gave up, and the Monopoly Pub Crawl for January 2008 came to an unfortunate end. Yes that’s right, navigating for 30mins+ for a quick sit down (15 minutes) and a half pint continuously throughout the day is just not worth it.

We will try again though, in May or June, and it shall be finished. Note to self, wear looser, more comfortable jeans (my good ones were wet), and rely more on public transport as opposed to walking some of the longer stretches. All in all it was a fantastic day though, and the people, beer and fun made the whole thing worth it.

 

Euston-rs!!!

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Monopoly Pub Crawl

Saturday, January 19th, 2008

Hi all,

On this eve of maximus greatness, I’m going for a bit of a change from the pro-Nokia Technobabble (resulting in a continuous burst of traffic ever since) of my posts from the last couple of day. Yes tomorrow is a special day, Monopoly Pub Crawl Day, its somethign I’m surprised we haven’t done before, considering my previous obsession with London placenames and the original UK Monopoly Board.

monopoly-trail.JPG

The Game Board

The Monopoly Pub Crawl involves getting a group of people together and visiting each “property” or pub, (on that street, in that area, railway station or utility if you will) and have a drink at each, with the goal of the day to complete the board in a reasonable period. This will, unfortunately, be done in no particuloar order at all, purely to save on travel time in the already tight time span required to complete the journey.

The Crawl however, isn’t a new idea, as a little bit of research into the craze returned a lot of people who’ve done it before, along with people who’ve done it in other cities around the world. What really caught my eye was the guys over at www.monopolypubcrawl.co.uk came up with the idea of issueing chance/treasure chest cards for a select number of players at each pub, allowing for things such as:

  • Pass on drinks for this turn (I don’t agree with this though)
  • Swap drinks with the person on your left (imagine the possibiblities, swapping a double Havana Gold Rum for a some iccy Malibu mix)
  • Collect on… Get free drink from the group
  • Taxes, involving the purchase of a persons drink, or whole round
  • Go directly to jail (sit in the corner for five minutes!)
  • and so on

Imagine what the pub crawl could grow into if it became an annual event? One Saturday a year everyone could don their battleship, car, iron, thimble or dog costume and do the crawl, though I can’t imagine how to implement the ownership of properties, houses or hotels, but I’m sure there’s a good way to increase the gameplay required but not reducing fun, or drinking time in the slightest.

Anyway, time will tell to see how it goes, but expect to see photos, news and a pub/travel/drink/crawl log soon

And yes, I’ve no doubt they don’t serve beer at the water works or the power station, but I’ll be sure to try and get a photo of me with tinny outside at least one of the utilities

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Nokia N95 8GB afterthoughts; a must have list of the best software to utilise it

Wednesday, January 16th, 2008

Recently, I posted on my new toy, the Nokia N95 8GB edition. One might think, given that I’ve had it for 3 days now, that I’d have worked out everything about the phone there is to no, and would have subesequently become bored and moved onto desiring a new toy, like a new Apple Macbook Pro… or a rabbit shaped vibrator. But this is not the case, as I’d have to say every single time I’ve picked up the phone, it’s surprised me with some new (as yet, not found) feature or a faster/better way of doing something.

But you might say it’s just a phone, its not a PDA, and it doesn’t look quite as funky as the iPhone, but it really, just, works! No, its not just a phone, its:

  • connected, through constant high speed access to the internet via wireless/3G network;
  • for web browsing, email, RSS, social networking; and
  • constant voip/skype connectivity for next to free international phone calls
  • got an inbuilt GPS with Google/Garmin/Tomtom maps support
  • a fantastic camera/video camera for day to day use, which stands up against most of the cheaper consumer modelled digital cameras
  • a worthy media player for playing both 3gp/mpeg4′s and divx/mp3 and pretty much anythign else you can throw at it.
  • also, all those other things you’d expect from a similar unit. A phone, calendar, address book.

As you can see, for the time being, I like this machine a little bit too much, and I hope things stay that way. Last night I was sitting on the Reading express train, frantic as I’d forgotten to pick up a paper or two at Waterloo station I was worried about how I would fill the next 20 minutes of my life. By the time I’d reached home, I’d updated my Facebook profile, uploaded a few photos taken earlier in the day, read most of the news articles I’d missed in the free tabloids, and watched the better part of the new American Dad episode.

I thought I’d end this by writing a quick list of the best applications I’ve found to date to make the N95 experience even better. Behold, in no particular order:

  • Truphone
  • truphone – A VOIP/telephone app
  • This app literally blew me away. As long as I’ve got internet connectivity (either through a Wireless LAN, or my phone providers 3G network), I can make and recieve phone calls to pretty much any where in the world (yes, Australian mobiles too) for free. I’ve long been used to calling friends and family via Vonage or Skype at home due to the sometimes prohibitive cost of calling an Australian mobile via land line, this is all that, and more from a device you carry on you at all times.
  • Mobile Gmaps & Google Maps Mobile
  • Just like Google Maps, or Google Earth, with the added benefit of GPS tracking through the phoones GPS. MGMaps is (I believe) a joint project between Microsoft, Yahoo and Google to provide extensive maps/satellite images to the mobile platform, so its definitely the better of the two.
  • Opera Mobile
  • Opera Mobile Browser
  • Yes, the same web browser, which I used for a quite a while before the eventual migration to Firefox permanance (word?!), it definitely seems to out perform the standard web browser speed wise, though its not quite as streamlined, look and feel wise.
  • Google Mail Mobile
  • Gmail Mobile
  • In all fairness I should probably group google maps altogether, as they’re always fantastic. But this a functioning, fast client for the Gmail mail service

And really, the list could go on forever. But a few more things to check out are:

  • TaskSpy – A task/process list with memory/CPU information and the ability to kill processes
  • YBrowser – A file browser, text viewer, unzipper to access all areas of the phones storage
  • Accelerometer plugin – Plugin to access the phones inbuilt accelerometer (read: Wiimote ninja style)
  • rotateMe - An app for auto changing between landscape and portrait depending on the angle the phone is held at (requires Accelerometer)
  • FlipSilent - Flip the phone to silence an incoming call, flip it back again to turn volume on again (requires Accelerometer)
  • ActivityMonitor - A Pedometer to record steps and exercise activity for the health buff (requires Accelerometer)
  • SportsTracker - Same as above with GPS support for distance/mapping calculations
  • RSSWorld – An RSS Feed Grabber
  • putty – The same SSH Client
  • Windows Live Messenger - Enough said

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