Still As Life

Today, along with plotting to take over the world with Rhi, I rearranged me desk setup, and for that matter, most of that side of the room.

I've chucked one of my bookcases up on the back of one of my desks. I've run out of room on the ground level, so logically, start building up. Tetris style.

It turned out that the bottom shelf of the bookcase is the perfect size to fit my pair of 19" widescreens with about 3mm to spare above them and about 2cm in total to spare horizontally. Sweet.

I've migrated the main work stream applications over to Quadzilla. As a result of this, I've noticed about a 50% performance decrease in the performance of Adobe Photoshop CS3 when working with large files compared to the old XP box that is around a quarter of the power of Quadzilla. That doesn't make any sense to me and I sure hope it's just a temporary problem.

I have left the old box up and running next to the new one. I need it for access to the RAID 0 array in it. At the moment, I have it plugged in to the second input in my secondary monitor, however I am accessing it predominately via the Windows Remote Desktop Connection software as this saves the trouble of switching the inputs and the keyboard and mouse.

Since moving the bookcase, I all of a sudden seem to have so much extra space. I need it since I'm planning on getting a filing cabinet soon, all the same though, it's remarkable the amounf ot space it seems to have made. I'm also thinking about getting a fourth desk from somewhere to get myself some more desk space since I seem to keep running out.

Labels: other, software

Thanks to Tim and his wife Judith of Spy Journal and Jethro Consultants for inviting Rhi and I over for dinner last night. We had a great time and the food was awesome.

Tim and Jude keep Stimsons Pythons, bearded dragons, lizards, heaps of fish, and even more pets. I got to hold a snake and a dragon for the first time! Probably something I should get used to since Rhi is hoping to get her spotted python on Thursday (she didn't get her license in time to get it this weekend).

It still amazes me how placid they were, and how content they were to be held.

Tim also has a very, very awesome computer setup. 4 screens in a curve following the curve of the desk, 80" of screen, nice.

They also showed us some interesting games I have never heard of before, Tim, you are going to have to show me the computer version of Carcassone (is that how it's spelt?) sometime.

Thanks again Tim and Jude.

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I received this in an email, I don't know who originally made it, if you do, let me know so I can credit them.

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Gecko's!!

We have so many gecko's around this place. There have always been lots of average to big ones like in the photos on the left.

The last week or so, there have been a few tiny little baby ones!

There was also one the other night, that was gigantic!

I'm pretty sure it's a different breed to the ones that we get all over the place in the house because it is twice the size, both length and breadth, as the bigger one in the sliding door frame here.

I wanted to get a photo of it, but by the time I got back with the camera it had vanished.

Excuse the blurriness of the photo's, but I wasn't using the flash because I didn't want to risk damaging their eyes.

Oh, and just in case you didn't guess, the hand with the baby gecko on it is Rhi's, not mine. Mine are slightly less girl-like and somewhat bigger.

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Rhi has decided that she is going to get a pet snake. At the moment she is hoping to get a Spotted Python by next weekend. However she has to wait for her reptile license before they will let her get one.

We went and had a look at snakes at Pet City, the people that we talked to there about snakes really knew what they were talking about. There was one reptile sales person there who keeps and breeds his own snakes as well.

We worked out it will be about $700 all up for a neonatal Spotted Python as well as a reasonable size terrarium, heat mat, thermostat and all of the other accessories she needs.

It's all very interesting for me as I don't know anyone who has had a pet snake before, so I get to learn lots of new things.

So, assuming Rhi gets a reptile license by next weekend, expect to see photo's then. If not, then soon after.

Labels: other

This is officially important news.

I have gone down a belt hole. My belt is now one hole tighter. That's about 2cm shorter than the previous hole.

As of when I put my belt on before going to work this afternoon, my belt is now 2cm shorter than it was yesterday.

Amazing?

It's funny, I've been walking every day or 2 for the past couple of weeks before breakfast, which sometimes means breakfast isn't until 12 or later, but all the same, I have been walking before breakfast. I have been going for an average of 45 mins to an hour and 15 mins each time, aiming for an hour of course.

It looks like it's started to pay off. No big surprise though, but despite my belt size going down, I weigh more. My legs don't look any musclier than they did before though.

In addition to the walking, the past few days I have been doing a shorter walk, 15-20 minutes or so, as a warm up and then jogging. Yep, me, jogging. I bet you didn't see that coming.

Not a long jog mind you, only 200m or so, then my lovely weak ankles decide that they aren't going to jog any further and if I decide to keep going, they will stay behind. Thus I walk again for another 15-20 mins to warm down and yeah.

It's funny though, I find an hour walk doesn't tire me out anymore, my ankles start to ache, but that's about it. That's why I decided to start doing a bit of jogging. Even the jogging I feel like I could go further if it wasn't for my ankles giving out.

Ah well.

Have a good one, only an hour and a half until I get to go home and play with my new computer parts.

Labels: other

For some reason, this really doesn't surprise me. A very good idea though for those of us who can only dream, ladies and gentlemen, the Macbook Paper.

Labels: design, other

As promised earlier, here are some photos and a run down of my Australia Day.

My family had come up the coast for the long weekend, so I went down to visit them there and we went up to O'Reillys in Lamington National Park for the day.

It's been quite a while since I was last up there and it has changed a lot, but it's still a very nice place. In the photo on the left, there's my sister and brother with a king parrot and crimson rosella, with myself in the background.

I really enjoyed the day, as you can see the view was absolutely amazing and there are quite a few houses hiding away up there. To be honest, I would love to live up in an area like that, aside from the lack of a decent internet connection.

I expect, aside from getting a satellite connection, the fastest available would be dialup speeds.

There is phone reception in some places, so mobile internet is a possibility, but I expect speeds would still be limited to GSM which is no better than dialup anyway.

On the way back down, we stopped at this place, a tunnel that had been carved through solid sandstone back in 1901 by the Lahey brothers for a private tramway to haul logs instead of bullock trains. Due to the steep inclines the trams often had to climb, specially geared trams had to be imported for use on it. Apparently $60,000 was spent on it at the time which would be quite a lot really. The line ran from Canungra, a really nice little town that sprung up around the Laheys sawmill. Have a look at the Canungra website for some more info on it.

And this, the last photo, is an Australian mouse. We came across it while we were out in the rainforest, it wasn't worried about people at all and we were able to get to within about a metre of it.

Okay, so it's not really a mouse, I don't remember what the actual name for them is though and it looks like a big mouse, so there you go.

I hope everyone else had a great Australia Day long weekend!

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I was reading some interesting little facts in an email that I received today. Yay for completely useless but interesting forwards. Anyways, one of the things it said was, "what number do you have to count to before you reach the letter A?".

That's a good question and something I've never thought about before, and if I hadn't read this, I probably never would.

Anyways, when I started to think about it, I got up to about fifty seven and then realised, hey, I could be here a while, I still haven't gotten an A, so I started skipping up in ten's, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety, one hundred. I gave up then realising that everything from then on is just repeating something that's already been spelled out.

So off I went and read the answer. Lo and behold, one thousand is the first number with an A in it if you spell it out. I then also felt quite stupid for not realising this when I reached one hundred.

And now I have written four paragraph's on something that could be said in one sentence, as well as state the obvious. But hey, you learn something new everyday.

Labels: other

Rhi formally moved in this afternoon which is pretty cool.

While we were waiting for our landlord to turn up with her key, she gave me what is meant to be the last part of my Christmas present.

Two boxes of Nerds, Nerds Gumballs, and even Nerds Rope!

Apparently I was meant to get it with the t-shirt that implies I shouldn't be allowed to touch anything still under warranty, and caffeinated soap that I thought was the entirety of my Christmas present from her, but she hadn't had a chance to pick them up yet.

I can't help but think she is hinting at something...

Then of course there is the t-shirt I got from my parents for Christmas. I Google myself regularly, do you?

Thank's heaps mum, dad, Jess, Nick and Rhi!

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According to an article on eMarketer, gift card sales this past year have reached near $100 billion.

"Gift card sales totaled $97 billion in 2007, up from $83 billion in 2006, according to data from The Tower Group cited in The New York Times."

Thats not all. The amount of gift cards that aren't used, or have money left over on them is near $8 billion!

"Tower put that amount at $7.8 billion in 2007."

That's a huge amount of money that is basically free!

So what does this mean? From where I'm sitting, it indicates pretty clearly that gift vouchers are a great idea and are very worthwhile!

Retailers can't lose anything on them since they are paid for when they are purchased. Then if they don't get used before they expire, that's money for nothing!

What a great idea. If anyone wants to give me money for nothing, I wouldn't mind at all.

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Lismore is one of the last places you expect to see a dozen helicopters, especially all in one area. Specifically, all on one sports field.

Normally there are 2 helicopters in Lismore that are seen on a regular basis, both of these are operated by the Westpac Rescue Helicopter service. Aside from that, there is rarely any other helicopter presence in Lismore. I believe there are 1 or 2 smaller one's at the airport on a regular basis, but I am not certain on that.

However, with all of the flooding and people being stranded and cut off from any supplies in Coraki, Woodburn and surrounding towns, it seems our house is right in the flight path of the helicopters running regular supply and surveillance flights, including the state premier's personal tour of the natural disaster zone. I decided to go and find out where the helicopters were all coming and going from as I couldn't see where they were all coming and going from. The airport has been partially flooded and thus really unusable until possibly this afternoon, and aside from that there are only a few other open level places in Lismore that could be used, the down town sports fields, the various school sport fields, and the sport's field at the Goonellabah RSL Club. I hadn't seen any helicopter activity in downtown Lismore whilst I had been down there so the first place I checked was the Goonellabah RSL, and yep, it has effectively become the base for 12+ helicopters.

There were 8 helicopters on the ground while I was there having a look and taking photo's, a 9th landed just before I left, and there had been another 3 in the air. Whether there are more or not, I don't know.

None of these helicopters were the Westpac Rescue Helicopters, and the majority of them were bigger choppers than any you would expect to see in somewhere as small as Lismore.

The past few days there have been 8+ flights directly over our house each day, some days more. Given that our place is only a couple minutes drive from the RSL, these helicopters have all been quite low already when they have been flying over our place, so they have seemed quite a bit louder than usual.

It really was quite a surprise to see so many out there. It is kinda cool though.

It seems my flood predictions weren't so bad, just not for the right area. Lismore didn't flood much due to the flood levy, but downstream further, Coraki and Woodburn have got it pretty bad. Evidently, the flood waters aren't expected to recede for the rest of this week. Lismore ended up getting within about a metre of the top of the levy to my knowledge.

Kyogle also got some major flooding up river from Lismore earlier that is still gradually receding.

As far as I know there haven't been any casualties or major injuries as of yet, so hopefully things will stay that way.

Labels: other

I have come to the conclusion that it is in fact going to flood in Lismore and I am not going to be able to get back to Brisbane at least before mid next week. Just as well I wasn't planning on leaving until then anyway.

It has been raining and miserable for the past week and a half, and this week in particular it has come in quite heavy. For anyone that doesn't know, I was down at Corindi Beach near Woolgoolga on Wednesday and came back to Lismore on Thursday.

On the way down on Wednesday it was raining just enough to be a pain but not enough to really need windscreen wipers as frequently as the slowest setting.

The weather had actually fined up when I got down there and it was clear through to about 10:30pm when it started bucketing down and kept it up all night. It eased off a bit in the morning, but on the way back up to Lismore it was pretty obvious it had been raining pretty heavy up here.

I took the Casino route to Grafton, through the Summerland Way, rather than taking the Pacific Highway down because the Highway was near continuous traffic, whereas the Summerland Way was practically nothing, I could count the cars I saw on the way down and back on my hands.

Coming back up though, there was a 10km strip, about 5km's either side of revheads where the road was probably only 10cm above the water, in some sections it was just about to go over.

Going through Casino, the Richmond River was obviously quite swollen and higher than normal, but it didn't look like there was much chance of it causing any major flooding there without a lot more heavy rain. Once I got to Lismore and crossed the Richmond River there though, it was another story. The water was already up over the banks. It wasn't yet high enough to be affecting anything, it was just over the banks.

I've been watching the flood warnings for Lismore though and they have been suitably vague and the complete opposite of useful. Around lunch time today though, we went for a little drive over the Richmond and Wilson rivers where the converge in Lismore, and the Wilson was already starting to flood North Lismore. After they converge, the Richmond has gotten a reasonable way up the banks of the CBD and I suspect the flood gates will have been closed by now.

According to the latest flood warning from 10:41pm:

River Height Predictions

Lismore  - exceed 8.0 metres AHD around 6.00 am tomorrow morning
          [5/1/2008] with moderate flooding.
        - with forecast rainfall reach 8.5 metres AHD around
          12.00pm tomorrow [5/1/2008].
        - further rises are possible with more heavy rain.
Wiangaree - exceed 13.5 metres around 3.00 am tomorrow morning
          [5/1/2008] with minor flooding. 
Kyogle    - exceed major flood level [16.0 metres] around 10am
           tomorrow [5/1/2008] morning.
Casino   - exceed minor flood level [9.2 metres] tomorrow
           [5/1/2008] night.
Coraki   - Exceed moderate flood level [5.0 metres] Sunday [6/1/2008]
Bungawalbyn Junction
        - Exceed moderate flood level [4.5 metres] Sunday [6/1/2008]
         

River heights on Fri 04/01/2008 were:

RICHMOND R AT WIANGAREE             10.75m steady         at  851pm Fri 04/01/08
RICHMOND R AT KYOGLE                14.36m steady         at  848pm Fri 04/01/08
RICHMOND R AT CASINO [DNR]           9.31m rising         at  845pm Fri 04/01/08
EDEN CK AT DOUBTFUL                  9.81m rising         at  845pm Fri 04/01/08
SHANNON BROOK AT YORKLEA             5.72m rising         at  845pm Fri 04/01/08
LEYCESTER CK AT ROCK VALLEY          7.53m rising         at 1001pm Fri 04/01/08
GOOLMANGAR CK AT NIMBIN              5.31m steady         at 1004pm Fri 04/01/08
BACK CK AT BENTLEY                   9.54m rising         at 1003pm Fri 04/01/08
TERANIA CK AT THE CHANNON            5.46m steady         at 1004pm Fri 04/01/08
COOPERS CK AT REPENTANCE             2.34m falling        at 1003pm Fri 04/01/08
WILSONS R AT NASHUA                  1.58m steady         at  954pm Fri 04/01/08
COOPERS CK AT CORNDALE               8.10m steady         at 1003pm Fri 04/01/08
WILSONS R AT ELTHAM                  9.24m steady         at 1003pm Fri 04/01/08
WILSONS  R AT WOODLAWN [m AHD]       8.12m steady         at  955pm Fri 04/01/08
LEYCESTER CK AT TUNCESTER [m AHD]    8.84m falling        at 1001pm Fri 04/01/08
WILSONS R AT LISMORE [m AHD]         7.49m rising         at  956pm Fri 04/01/08
RICHMOND R AT CORAKI                 3.58m rising         at  845pm Fri 04/01/08
MYRTLE CK AT RAPPVILLE               1.77m rising         at  845pm Fri 04/01/08
RICHMOND R AT BUNGAWALBYN            3.14m rising         at  845pm Fri 04/01/08
RICHMOND RIVER AT WOODBURN           2.26m rising         at  845pm Fri 04/01/08
 

So this given that Kyogle is upstream from Lismore and it is at major flood level, and all of that water has to pass through Lismore along with all the other water. The flood levy is 9m high, the river is meant to be up at 8m by tomorrow morning at 6am. From where I'm sitting though it sounds like its raining heavy enough to jump up more than the 50cm by 6am given all of the water flowing down the river as well. I'm no expert, but I've been in Lismore for more floods than I remember and it always comes up quicker than expected. After all, on the flood warning prior to this one it was only expected to reach minor flooding in Lismore by the time this one was released. According to this one it's reached moderate flooding.

As much of a pain as it will be for people in the CBD if it does go over the levy, I kind of have to admit, I would like to see it happen. It got so close last flood season, it was within a foot of the top of the wall from memory. Parts of the CBD will flood anyway because the flood drains will back up like they always do, its just not as bad since the river can't run straight into the city anymore.

Ah wells, shall see how the prospects are going in the morning.

Have a good one,

Matt

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Beloved pet,
Great companion,
Foul breath,
We all loved you Sophie.

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It's very unusual that I import the photo's from my digital camera (Olympus FE-210) and get a surprise.

As one would expect, as it is my camera, I generally know what photo's will be on it, seeing as how I took them.

Last night though, I was importing the photo's from throughout Christmas day, and find myself surprised with a photo of my contorted sister.

I soon found out she had taken it with a friend of hers, so she isn't really contorted. Nonetheless, it was quite a surprise.

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas!

Catch ya.

Labels: art, other

What a cool Christmas eve! Not only is it not sweltering hot like the past few years have been, but there is a full moon and everything.

To make things even better, it's very bright and I'm down in Lismore visiting the family, and I have a perfectly clear view of the moon out over a dark hill.

Wishing you all a merry Christmas, I hope you all enjoy whatever you are doing and have a great one!

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