| Housewarming! |
[Jan. 28th, 2010|10:02 pm] |
I'm having a housewarming party BBQ and drinks on Saturday, 13th February from 11:30am.
It'll be a BBQ in the park near my apartment on Cunningham Tce, Daglish. I'd appreciate it if guests brought dishes and drinks along. I'd also appreciate it if vegan, vegetarian and gluten free dishes magically appeared. I'll try to organise some myself.
I've posted a facebook event for those of you who stalk others there.
Everyone is welcome to attend! I'd love to see you all. |
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| Looking over the last year or so, looking forward to this year. |
[Jan. 2nd, 2010|10:43 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  amused | ] |
This past 18 months or so has been rather .. enlightening. Difficult, but enlightening.
Attempt number 3 at this. God damnit Safari, don't interpret "backspace" as "go back a page." Gah!
So, in 2008, I:- .. Took a side trip to BSDCan to present a couple of talks, socialise in the FreeBSD environment again, and generally remember what it's like actually working on open source;
- .. Took a 3 day side trip to New York from Ottawa, fell in love with the place, and decided to return
- .. which I did, instead of doing semester 2, 2008.
- .. and because of said trip, I screwed up semester 1, 2008 quite badly.
- .. made a lot of friends in New York and Montreal.
- Made some very good, very close friends which I sorely miss. You know who you are.
In 2009, I:- .. fell into a relationship with Katie, who is wonderful.
- .. lost 40 odd kilograms in between November 2008 and Feburary 2009, whilst in New York, by a combination of lots of walking and being much more aware of what I was eating.
- .. but wasn't as aware as he should've been, and swung over to "not eating anywhere near enough.."
- .. and subsequently discovered what it was like feeling guilty about eating, being grumpy, having less energy and focus than before, and generally being quite useless. Yay.
- .. discovered that unlike what I was conditioned to believe in primary and high school, I is quite capable of both running quite fast, and jogging/running quite far. All I needed was a bit of training and self-encouragement, and to not drink allergy-inducing dairy milk twice a day. I wish I had known that as a child.
- .. came back to Perth, discovered I had a 1 year exclusion from UWA.
- .. remembered why he didn't do long distance relationships, especially when he was still trying to get his life and body back on track after losing all that weight - Katie and I broke up a few weeks before she was due here for a holiday.
- .. ended up having a great time with Katie running around Australia, regardless of how sick I was.
- .. re-enrolled in University for 2010, to (mostly - 2 units in 2011) finish my Arts degree.
- .. met Angela in the most random of circumstances, and have fallen for her quite hard.
- .. finally moved out of home (in Perth) and am now living by myself.
- .. turned 30.
During the last couple of years, I:- .. started discovering that my "friend-o-meter" was very badly tuned and that I wasn't really welcome or invited to plenty of things. I won't go into the various possible reasons for this; except to say that I should've been much more aware of my surroundings. I wish I knew that at 18, rather than learning it at 30.
- .. discovered what depression really is. I now feel a lot more empathy for those who are going through it.
- .. is trying to come to terms with what I can only describe as mild manic/depressive mood swings, where I go through cycles of being very focused and productive and then being uselessly unfocused and unmotivated. I'm still not sure what to do about that.
- .. developed a whole lot of strange eating requirements which I didn't have when I was just overeating junkfood. This is another thing I'm not yet adapted to and it really is messing with my life.
- .. have discovered that my "eat-o-meter" is now very much out of whack and I can't just eat when I'm hungry (as that would translate to "all of the time".) This is another thing which is really messing with my life.
- .. has come to the conclusion that he's a cold climate person, not a warm climate person. I feel more active and happy in snowy, stormy weather and I feel stupidly angry, tired, grumpy and lethargic in warm weather. This makes being in Australia very difficult.
- .. have been acquiring myself a lot more theory clue in a variety of areas. This has been very fun and enlightening, but it isn't helping me finish an undergraduate degree or stay employed. Sigh
In 2010, I will:
- .. focus on my studies and actually do as well in them as I am capable of, versus getting hopelessly bored and distracted as per usual.
- .. focus on my company and work, and completing things that need completing, rather than endlessly procrastinating.
- .. figure out what structures I can employ in my life to achieve the above.
- .. continue exercising, as much as I find it boring and uninspiring as hell, and see where that takes me. Hopefully not down the path of more personal injuries.
- .. spend more time planning out projects and then completing them, instead of simply drifting between tasks, learning bits and pieces along the way, but never really achieving anything.
- .. learn to cook some more Italian dishes, and branch out into desserts/baked goods. For others to eat, you see, not me.
- .. try not to be so grumpy.
- .. rant less, and do more.
- .. spend time with people who want me to be around them, versus people I thought I was friends with. Breaking that mould is going to take time; breaking the feelings of being left out is going to take even more time.
- .. wonder whether goal-directed activities may help.
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| no, I'm not rich |
[Dec. 7th, 2009|10:07 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | amused | ] |
So a friend told me this weekend that they'd heard I was "loaded", having received a $250k payout for being screwed over or something.
I'm not sure who is running my PR, or whether this is a fantastic example of chinese whispers going nuts, but for the record: no, I haven't received any payouts like that. I'm just a silly nerd trying to make money the hard way. I wish I had received payouts like that for being fucked around; it'd certainly make my life easier. :) |
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| lol xkcd |
[Dec. 7th, 2009|10:04 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | amused | ] |
I've just caught up on xkcd a bit. Here's my reaction to some of the comics:
http://www.xkcd.com/664/
I've worked at companies that give both responses. I preferred the companies that give the academic response, but those tended to be startups that blew up and took their money with them. Sigh.
http://www.xkcd.com/665/
I've been watching "too much" (where sizeof(set of episodes) is probably too small to be definable as 'too much') Stargate: Universe and .. well, this was too amusing.
http://www.xkcd.com/670/
When I was tinkering in high school with building various audio amplifiers, I built one with a volume knob that went to 20. 0->10 was "no really noticable distortion on output, when fed a sine wave of various frequencies." Above 10 was "just pipe Guns and Roses or Metallica through this, ok?" Of course, I was also learning the ropes helping out with various performances around the place and was introduced to the "fuse keeps blowing on loud music riffs => use nail as fuse" trick which I think may have mentally scarred me a bit. |
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| Re-re-enroling for 2010 |
[Dec. 3rd, 2009|04:44 pm] |
I've gone and re-enrolled in stuff for 2010. The Psychology department, dears that they are, somehow have restructured the courses -again- and now I need to be absolutely sure that my course choices are .. correct. Luckily(!) for me my first semester stuff is very clear - things only get unclear in second semester.
Apparently industrial psychology is a required part of the curriculum now.
The interesting (to me) bits:
- I'm doing the first year creative writing course - I need to do one more first year course;
- If I get 65 or above in the rest of my units then I'll get into honours - if I screw up one unit I'll have to beg someone somewhere with a bloody good reason;
- Apparently industrial psychology is a required part of the curriculum now;
- I'll complete the degree by the end of Semester 1 2011 if I don't screw up.
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| I've moved, and no I'm not yet in the US. |
[Dec. 1st, 2009|05:03 pm] |
I've postponed my US trip for health and company reasons. No, not girl reasons. That was just very surprising and sudden.
I've moved out from my family place and into a little apartment in Daglish. The move is continuing slowly. I still have a lot of furniture to acquire somehow to make this more of a livable place.
I can't cook for myself - let alone other people - if I don't even have a kitchen table set to serve said food on.
Things are quiet and lonely. I'm not sure what to do about it.
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| Life's fun-ness.. |
[Nov. 9th, 2009|02:07 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | accomplished | ] |
Today's happiness - eating spinach grown from my own garden. |
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| What am I doing wrong with Cacheboy? |
[Oct. 9th, 2009|09:48 am] |
I've had a reasonable amount of interest from people wanting to use Cacheboy as a "free CDN" but no real interest from anyone donating money, time, equipment, bandwidth or hosting services.
So the question is, what am I doing wrong, and why am I just not getting any assistance with this? |
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| AUSNOG |
[Sep. 1st, 2009|06:15 pm] |
As far as I can tell, my presentation about Cacheboy at AUSNOG went well enough. I've had some good feedback from people and a couple of offers of equipment/hosting/connectivity sponsorship which I'll follow up on shortly.
Now, figuring out how I can coax myself to sleep.. |
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| Moar hozpital |
[Aug. 29th, 2009|01:37 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Sydney | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  sore | ] |
I checked out of the hospital this morning, armed with pain killers, local anaesthetics and a prescription for more.
The hospital time itself was fine. I didn't have a private room (I didn't mind); the food was edible (again, I didn't mind) and I couldn't help shake the feeling that the nurses had better things to do than look after me. But that they did, and I'm feeling slightly less painfully stabby compared to early on in the week.
But only time will tell whether I'll -actually- heal or not. I will simply have to take it easy this weekend and see.
The interesting/scary issue was almost fainting from the second hit of morphine. I suddenly felt weird, dull and detached; everything started sounding "numb". I said this and the poor nurse tilted my head back and called over a lot of other people. It turns out it wasn't an allergic reaction or anything - my heart rate just dropped below a helpful level. They moved me into a separate area with much, much more frequent monitoring and I was hooked up to a machine that went "bing" very often. (ObNote: My heart rate was quite happy sitting at 45-50bpm and any dip would trigger their monitoring machines.)
I clearly remember seeing one of the nurses trip over whilst looking at me - and I asked whether he was OK. They thought it amusing that _I_ was asking _them_ if they were OK. But then, think about it - they're the ones looking after me and not vice versa. I had a very vested interest in their wellbeing!
In any case that passed and I've been taking a cocktail of painkillers and waste disposal system medication since.
Besides that and the yellow extremities (but no yellow eyes, thankfully!) I think I've had enough excitement for one week. |
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| I is in hozpital |
[Aug. 27th, 2009|06:01 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Sydney | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  sick | ] |
I'm in hospital now because of my haemorrhoids. I think being reduced to tears yesterday may have hinted to me that something was wrong.
It is only one external thing, but it is the size of my thumb and the shooting, stabbing pain is, quite honestly, crippling.
The doctors/surgeons here alternate between choosing surgery or not. The resultant fasting has been... interesting.
I have also started feeling funny after the second dose of morphine. This light headed, woozy feeling got me a trip to another ward where they kept close tabs on my heart rate and blood pressure. Seeing me rest heart rate below 50bpm was very, very strange.
The latest thing? Slight yellowing of my extremities. I'll keep an eye on things tonight to see if I get yellower.
This all puts a dampener on my plans here in Sydney. I have no idea whether I'll make the AUSNOG conference Tuesday. I'll almost certainly not make it to Sydney airport Saturday morning to meet Katie there. I've got a couple of days paid work I'll have to postpone.
I may not get better enough to fly to Perth next week for my 30th birthday - and Liu's 21st.
Grr. |
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| Going to Sydney; talking at AUSNOG. |
[Aug. 21st, 2009|01:38 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | calm | ] |
I'll be presenting at AUSNOG in Sydney about my little open source CDN that I built. I have a 30 minute talk slot to fill (well, to not -over-fill.)
I'll also be in Sydney for two weeks from this coming Monday until the 3rd of September. Please drop me a line if you'd like to catch up. |
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| "Contributing to Nation" == "Play Sports" ? |
[Aug. 18th, 2009|04:06 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | amused | ] |
Absolutely -not- quoting from the source:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/18/2659570.htm
To quote the quote:
---
Senator Joyce argued that sport makes a well-rounded university graduate.
"This is all about inspiring people to not just be completely centred on themselves but to enter into a format that encourages them, of their own volition, to participate in a wider community in such a way that you hope that their participation in that sport engenders them at a later time in their life to give back to our nation," he said.
---
Surely going to -university- and studying to become a more -productive member- of society, potentially even contributing creative and novel new ideas to the body ofglobal knowledge is enough to give back to the nation?
Or is kicking around a football the only constructive way of doing so?
Thanks Senator! I won't ever be voting for you! |
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| Birthday |
[Aug. 9th, 2009|06:16 pm] |
I'm not going to have a 30th birthday. I've not had birthday's over the last few years anyway and for the most part, I get upset and start crying whenever I drink enough.
So please don't ask. |
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| Today's random thought: do certain projects attract crazies? |
[Jun. 26th, 2009|11:02 pm] |
Thinking about all the things right and wrong in this whole concept of the "United States of America"[1], one thing that I keep coming back to is this notion of "bearing arms.." ".. as part of a well regulated militia."
Is there actually any example(s) of well-regulated militias in the United States of America which aren't championed by crazies? Does it attract crazies like management attracts sociopaths? Ie, is the very nature of being involved in a militia today, considering the lack of real, tangible short-term threats to the day to day lives of citizens (contrast to say, people in "militias" throwing everything they can against the influx of illegal immigrants from Mexico) only keeping people who are slightly .. uhm, crazy?
In the same way that say, open source projects attract and keep certain classes of people[2] ?
Etc, etc.
Discuss.
[1] - Just for the record, the more I read about what was attempted, the more I find myself identifying with a lot of the ideals that seem to be related to the political writings of that era. Anyway..
[2] - Eg, Adrian Chadd and all of the damned doomed open source projects I seem to be attracted to. Like Squid. |
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| Random friends' job searching project |
[Jun. 22nd, 2009|01:54 pm] |
This shameless plug is brought to you by Caffeine, nature's metabolic enhancer.
A friend of mine has been working on a search engine to run through various IT job lists and link candidates to jobs. It cutely lets you cut/paste in a text resume for it to search on.
The site is here - http://www.oztechninja.com/ - and yes, in Google-esque tradition it is in beta. He would absolutely appreciate any and all feedback from people. Especially feedback relating to how relevant the search results are. |
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| Random thought of the day.. |
[Jun. 21st, 2009|06:15 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | randomthought | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  curious | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | trance | ] |
Today's random question: what effects do the current biological and sociological environments have on the pre-natal and post-natal development of children; and in the context of this, what effects would some of these environments (eg growing levels of obesity) have on a population over time?
Hm, how would one design a study, or a meta-study, to try and disprove this?
The seed of this was wondering what kinds of local environment adaptations get passed to the pre/post-natal infant as there's been some studies showing that there -is- some of this going on - eg http://ajpregu.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/285/1/R271 . |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 27th, 2009|09:31 pm] |
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Gah, I'm falling back into bad habits and I'm not sure what to do about it. |
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