Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay

When we were on our honeymoon, we went to up to Kuranda for a day, traveling up on the Kuranda Sky Rail, and back on the Kuranda Scenic Railway.

We decided that Kuranda itself was just chasing foreign tourist dollars, so went to watch the river go by until the Railway took us back to Cairns.

Grabbed this photograph of Michelle sitting on a small dock...

A New Blog

After quite a few years of occasional blogging here, I’m going to to move the blog to my “other” internet persona…

 

this blog will be moving to http://unrealshots.blogspot.com

 

for those of you who read my ramblings, can you please update your feed readers…

 

I promise to try and blog more often… :)

A New Home...

Michelle and I bought a house today - currently our settlement date is slated for October 22nd...

We were initially going to buy a "renovators delight", but every house we REALLY liked was already renovated, so we felt that this was a sign...

The advertising campaign photos don't do the house justice!

Social Networking

New Photography Blog

With the New Year upon us, I've decided to start a new blog, dedicated to my passion for photography.

check it out, over at http://unrealshots.blogspot.com, which I'll move to www.unrealshots.com soon.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Farewell to an IT Icon

After 18 years, Microsoft has finally stopped supporting Windows 3.x ... Oh the days of running an ISP and supporting Windows 3.x... Windows 9x was such a change in mind set, as were Windows NT, Windows 2000 and XP, and here we are now with Vista... Incredible, the change in user experience in the past 20 years...

I've used every version of Windows from 1.0, which was a runtime version that came with the first versions of Excel and Word, and most recently, I've had a play with a preview release of Windows 7, and I'm still mostly impressed with what Microsoft deliver in the end user experience in their OS.

Ski Buller

We Headed up to Mt Buller for the day yesterday - we had initially decided to go on Saturday, but the forcase was crappy, so we put it off for a day. Just as well, as it was a beautiful day, with better visibility that I've ever experienced at Buller in the past.

I managed to ski every single run on the mountain, while Michelle had a boarding lesson, and watched the Olympics in the bar.

Managed to get a very nice view back towards Stirling in the late afternoon...

Da Dum Da Da....

I asked Michelle to marry me last night... And the answer was a resounding "YES" Happy Days... :-)

Tag Clouds

Just a very cool Tag Cloud generator while doing some random surfing...

Wordle

This blog comes back with:



and my friend Andrew's Blog returns:



Very cool, and fun to play with...

Played with one, Want one

Need I say anymore?

I Incited a Road Riot, and am ALMOST ASHAMED to be a Cyclist

Riding home last night, and one of the more considerate motorists on the roads of Melbourne decided to stop right in front of me, half way up a hill, in a No-Standing zone, blocking a Bicycle Lane...

See where the problem is starting?

I had to throw out the anchors, given I was doing about 30 km/h up the hill, had a quick peek over my right shoulder - yep - all clear, and went around the offending vehicle, asking if he'd care to stop somewhere other than a bike lane next time (or words to that effect)...

Driving behind me, by this stage, was a middle aged gent and his wife, in their gold Nissan Pathfinder, complete with the King Charles Spaniel in the back seat. Clearly showing his appreciation for the Road Rules for Cyclists set out for Cyclists by Vic Roads, old mate, then proceeded to follow me up to the red light I was now stopped at, next to a tram, and yell his head off about f'ing cyclists, and how we have no right on the road. My response? "I wasn't talking about you, I was having a go at the guy parked across the bicycle lane"... End of story, or so I think...

Not so, thinks the guy on the bike NEXT to me at the lights, who had no involvement thus far, who then proceeds to rant and rave, using the F-bomb, the C-bomb, abusing the driver of the Nissan (clearly my fellow cyclist has had a bad day - hell, he TOLD the motorist this, and wants an avenue to vent).

The light goes green, the tram moves off, I tell the antagonist to settle down - he's got the wrong end of the stick, and head off up the hill.

Get to the top of the hill, and old mate has been held up by the other guy on his bike, who has ridden up the middle of the lane, blocking the Nissan in beside the tram. So, we get to the next red light, and the guy who's had a bad day now resorts to physically attacking the Nissan, who's driver has now decided that he's not as brave as he initially thought... At this stage, old mate winds his own window up, and I yell at him through his other window that I'm sorry for this other guys attitude, and that if he had not automatically assumed I was inferring he was in the wrong, he'd now NOT have 2 fist sized dents in his bonnet, a shaken wife, and an over excited Spaniel.

To the motorist, not that I have any reason to suspect you read my blog (does anyone? Please let me know if you do!!!), I apologise for my fellow cyclist - please don't make the next one in front of you a target. And to the other cyclist - stay the hell out of it next time - you've just made EVERY cyclist on the road a potential target for the guy in the Nissan next time HE is having a bad day...

Which Superhero are you?

Based on an experience from this morning at the Melbourne Airport, I'm clearly the Invisible Man - although not a Marvel super hero, H.G. Wells may be near enough!

It's about time you move on people, and accept accept that everything happens for a reason. Had that decision not been made, at least two people would be leading miserable lives...

Get over yourselves - you have a collective age of over 150 years - start acting them...

Useful Canon Software info!

If you're like me, and you like to only install certain aspects of software that come with hardware, in this instance, the Canon software that ships with most of their cameras, this may come in handy.

I have a Canon PowerShot S1IS, and one of the features I use often, is the PhotoStitch function, which allows me to take several images, then "stitch" them together using the very good software that Canon ship with the camera. The gotcha that I've found, is that Canon like you to install all their shipped software, which means you then need to remove the bits you don't want...

The following aids you in only installing what you want, using the "Upgrade" packages available from www.canon.com.au ... It's also useful if you "lose" your Canon CDs

Hope this is of use to more people than just me!

1. Visit your local Canon website, and download the software "Upgrade" you require.
2. Open the Registry Editor (regedit.exe) - I take no responsibility for your ability to use the Registry Editor btw
3. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software
4. If it does not exist, create a new key called Canon
5. Create one of the following keys, dependent on which software you are "Upgrading"
   Zoom Browser: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Canon\ZoomBrowser Ex
   Digital Photo Professional: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Canon\DPP
   EOS Capture: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Canon\EOS Capture
   EOS File Viewer: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Canon\EOSViewerUtility
   PhotoStitch: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Canon\PhotoStitch
6. Install the "Upgrade" and you're away!
   
   

New Aussie Flag

Reports that the Australian Prime Minster elect Kevin Rudd has taken the suggestion of the Factions and Unions to change the Australian Flag to the new ALP emblem.

Sunday night saw a hastily appointed meeting of the ALP power brokers to change their emblem from the 6 stars to a condom.

The reason for the new emblem was explained in a media statement said it reflected more accurately the parties and their members political stance.

A condom allows for inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of pricks, and gives you a sense of security while you are actually being well and truly f*cked.

Google Maps Mobile

This looks like a very interesting Google Maps offering; quoted from http://www.google.com/gmm/index.html

Take the power of Google Maps with you on your mobile phone.
New! Google Maps with My Location (beta)


Real-time traffic — See where the congestion is, and estimate delays in over 30 major US metropolitan areas.

Detailed directions — Whether you plan to walk or drive, your route is displayed on the map itself, together with step-by-step directions.

Integrated search results — Local business locations and contact information appear all in one place, integrated on your map.

Easily movable maps — Interactive maps let you zoom in or out, and move in all directions so you can orient yourself visually.

Satellite imagery — Get a bird's eye view of your desired location. (It's like you're there, we swear.)

What's been keeping me from blogging?

Water Ski Racing, is what!

I've gotten involved with a Ski Race Australia registered Water Ski Racking Team, through my mate Kev...

My role in the equation is to drive the support vehicle, and provide maintenance support if and when required.

I'm also taking extensive numbers of digital photographs, on which I'm hoping to be able to gain some financial return...

Here's a photo of the team race boat...

Birthday Wishes...

Happy Birthday MME...

Updates...

Been a while since I've had a chance to sit down and post up some updates on my life...

I finally took delivery of my ute, sometime back in July - man, what a blast this thing is to drive... 6 liters of manually shifted V8 goodness, wrapped up in a nice silver package...

After an artistic session on the camera, I came up with this photo, which doesn't show off the silver, but is totally un-photoshopped!



Aside from the new wheels, I've started in a new role, with a new client - in a process management role, which is a little more hands off than what I'm used to, which is taking some getting used to.

Couple of weeks ago, my mate Kev and I both signed with a water ski racing team, with who we will be competing in the 2007/8 Super Series, which is a set of ski races on various rivers in NSW and Victoria. Kev is going to be the observer for the boat, INXS, whilst I will be pit crew, driving the team bus, and towing the trailer to enable the team to race multiple classes in the same race series. The boat is capable of doing 93 mph on the water (well, this is the fastest we've had her clocked on GPS), with two skiers on 100 foot ropes. The ski racing fraternity are great fun people to be around, which is an immense bonus!

Last night, the fish tank also got a bit of an update, with some new fish, and a heap of new plants. I think it looks pretty good at the moment - very much like a big watery garden :-)



The next couple of weeks are going to be pretty busy - this coming weekend for example - going snow skiing at Mt Buller on Thursday - to take advantage of probably the last week of spring skiing, going out to dinner Friday night, going race testing at Echuca Saturday morning, returning to Melbourne Saturday afternoon, and having the ute at the V8 Supercars Sandown 500 to take part in the parade lap - one of the benefits of having an aussie built car - being able to make it look pretty, and go on international TV... :-) After all that lot, I reckon I will be going back to work on Monday for a rest!!!

Uncyclopedia

Taking the Wikipedia concept, and putting even more comedic, disturbing, and purely random content on the Internet... :-)


Uncyclopedia

for example, want to know HowTo Install Linux On A Dead Badger?

perhaps you're interested in Chuck Norris?

Then there are the sister projects:

Uncyclopedia's sista projects Uncyclopedia is hosted by the Uncyclomedia Foundation, a non-profitable organization that also hosts a range of other projects. UnNews The news source on crack Uncyclopedia The content-free encyclopedia Undictionary The ick!tionary of all things best left unsaid UnTunes Where noisy things can live and prosper Wilde Project Uncyclopedia's founder tells all UnMeta How Uncyclopedia doesn't work UnBooks Content-free books Unquotable Useless misquotes galore Uncycloversity If it makes sense, we don't want it

How do you get a research gig like this?

Potato Chip Flavoring Boosts Longevity Of Concrete

Summarized from : http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/sample.cgi/iecred/2007/46/i16/html/ie070527l.html

The ingredient that helps give “salt & vinegar” potato chips that tangy snap is the key to a new waterproof coating for protecting concrete from water damage, scheduled for the current (August 1) issue of ACS’ Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, a bi-weekly journal. Awni Al-Otoom and colleagues in Jordan point out that concrete’s unique properties have made it the world’s most widely used structural material. Concrete, however, is so porous that water soaks in, corroding steel reinforcing bars and meshes that strengthen concrete roads and buildings and causing cracks as water expands and contracts during freeze-thaw cycles. Sealants are commercially available, but they have serious shortcomings, the study notes. In the new report, researchers describe the use of sodium acetate as an inexpensive and environmentally friendly concrete sealant. One of sodium acetate’s many uses is in flavored potato chips. In laboratory studies using freshly made concrete, the researchers showed that sodium acetate seeps into pores in concrete and then hardens and crystallizes upon exposure to water. The resultant swelling blocks entry of additional moisture, they said. Under dry conditions, the crystals shrink back to their original size and allow moisture to evaporate. The net result is “a significant reduction in water permeability,” that “can be expected to increase the service life of the concrete,” the report said.