Mana 2.0

I'm home with the worst cold ever today so I accepted Michelle's invitation and joined Facebook. It is fun so far but I need to make more friends.

Hair the Musical

Got new braids on Saturday...

Bon Voyage

Annabel is off to Paris. Dave is moving to Sydney to work. They had a party to farewell Canberra. For me it was more of a celebration of the great escape. There were fireworks, half 44 gallon drums burning house building off-cuts, toxic green cocktails and comatose cheerleaders.

Good fun was had by all.

Annabel & Dave

Fire pits

Me all rugged up

The A-Team

One of these plates is not like the others

A Miracle at Christmas... or in June

I recently had a run in with VS.NET 2005 when I attempted to install it on a work machine. It did get to the state that I could work in it but the Help functionality would not... help at all.

After putting an extra 1GB of RAM in to the box and replacing the funky switch it was plugged in to, which sometimes would only allowing 0.5MB/minute (yes, minute) down, Help is now working!

The thing is that I wanted to use locally installed MSDN and not online Help but hitting F1 or choosing anything in the Help menu would crash the IDE. When I say crash - it would stall and do nothing forever (I left it one night and it was still dead when I returned the next day).

Why is VS.NET 2005 insisting on going out to the 'blag if I've already specified my preference for a local MSDN?

RTA = Return There Again

Update on the whole car registration situation.

We gathered up the dozens of millions of documents and all real bonafide absolute actual owners of the car and went to the RTA today. After waiting for 30 minutes for our ticket to be called (310 came after 011, 012, 01x where x is infinity, 307, 308, 110, etc...) the very helpful by-the-book woman behind the nice safe counter told us that she could not process two license changes and a registration because that added up to two transactions and ticket 310 wouldn't allow it. After looking in a pleading way at ticket 310, it stayed silent and lucky-she-was-behind-a-screen lady convinced me to get a new number and wait the turn to get my number called for a license transferral. I won't go through the way they count again.

Long story short - we try again tomorrow with the "exact address" on a bank statement or energy bill and a form signed by a GP telling them I am fit to drive a car (long story and not related to suspected mental illness that I know you are thinking about).

Wish us luck!

PS I am not Gollum. Us is Giles and I.

The Love Boat

Big boats sail by my window at work quite often. They always look like they are not going to fit under the bridge but they always do. Here is a P&O or some other boat on the way out of our lovely harbour.

It's was a dark and stormy night

The weather Sydney and eastern Australia is receiving at the moment is terrible. It is wet and cold (Sydney got down to 14 degrees) and there is zero protection. Even walking through the city under the shelter of buildings, it was ridiculously wet and miserable.

On the windy walk home, there were dozens of dead umbrellas. The small streets were small wind tunnels that blew you out in to the street as you ran past them. The bigger streets... well, they were big wind tunnels.

The news is reporting washed out roads, traffic accidents and 250 calls per hour to the SES.

Apparently it is only going to get worse over the next 24 hours.

The best plan is to stay inside, order pizza and watch TV.

Mad Hatter's Tea Party

My current manager is a very logical and pragmatic kinda guy. As we discussed the need to start building our new framework and I commented that we should stop talking and just start working it out, he paraphrased Lewis Carroll and said..

"I start at the beginning, go on to the end, and then stop"

I for one think it will be enjoyable to work with a manager with a certain mad hatter's tea party style :o)

The original goes something like this...

Mad Hatter: Something seems to be troubling you. Won't you tell us all about it?
March Hare: Start at the beginning!
Mad Hatter: Yes, yes...and when you come to the end, STOP!

lolcat

To make up for the recently removed website about a cat camera that I linked to, here is my favourite lolcat at the moment...

CatCam

A guy built a catcam and discovered the secret life of cats.

Check out one of the four sets of photos his kitty took at the bottom of the page.

As your wedding planner, I recommend...

As your wedding planner, I recommend you watch the third Pirates of the Carribean movie and base your ceremony on the one that happens in the movie.





Watch this movie anyway. It's awesome!

Register this!

This is what you are required to bring to the RTA office in NSW, if you want to register a vehicle registered in another state. It is even more complicated if you accidentally, lazily let your rego lapse for about 3 weeks.

1. A blue slip - which certifies that the state of NSW has forced you this year and every year, to be extorted by a registered mechanic in to verifying that your 4 year old car still road worthy. Dammit! It's German;
2. A green slip - third party insurance obtained from one of the multitude of insurers who will cover you for compulsory third party. If you hit someone, you must be insured in order to pay for their health care. This is NOT the same thing as comprehensive car insurance;
3. ACT drivers license - which must be changed to a NSW license - you need proof of your address;
4. Proof of identity - your NSW drivers license and a credit card;
5. Proof of address - your NSW drivers license or a lease will do;
6. ACT license plates from the car - new ones will cost $34;
7. Ownership papers - THE receipt that proves you bought the car;
8. ACT registration renewal form - preferably one you have already paid (a past one); and
9. All current owners of the car at the same time!

Yeah. Now you see why I'm being slack.

Best Cover of 2007

Guess what this song is...

Register before you...

Why do websites insist that you register before you use basic functionality, like commenting on someone's blog? You are just posting a comment, not asking for another persons hand in marriage or buying a house. Just a damn comment. It's ridiculous.

Latest thing I've been forced to join is multiply in order to comment of Georgina's blog (which I love reading).

The 'blag is going to... well you know. I want to embrace technology but it has to be because I want to use it, not just so they can collect my details and push their user numbers up for VCs.

Users!

Web developers should be using the web!

If you want to build something that people want to use.
If you want to build something with the coolest technology.
If you want to keep up.

You have to use the coolest sites out there that web users are using.

Right now, you should be out there on the Interblag tweeting, blogging, vlogging, 'networking, flickring and spacing out.

How could you possibly be building the best web apps if you aren't out there using them?!

Adam Hills @ the Enmore

Adam Hills performed at the Enmore tonight. He does a lot of improv and audience participation and this time it resulted in him pulling up every single person who came after the show started (about 25 of them). He used them to form a choir, led by Katie Noonan (from George). They sang a great version of The Muppets' Manamana (a song The Muppets wrote for me actually).

If you get a chance, go see Adam Hills. He is worth it.

Any one who finishes a show by dancing on the roof of a car to Footloose, totally rocks!

Please don't take my sunshine away

After a few requests for the view from my work in Milson's Point, without the fog and rain, I have decided to take some shots on a beautiful sunny day. I even waited for the pollution to go away first.

Looking over Luna Park's Big Top to Walsh Bay

The Blues Point Tower

Lavender Bay

Search Engine Smackdown!

How well do you know the web?

Play it!

My current favourite ditty

Meetup for me

Google would never hire me so I will remain in the ranks of non-Googler losers until it's unique and rare to not work for them.

Google v Meetup

CodeCon 2007

Stick insect guy from my work and a few other Linux dudes have a geek coding camp every year.

Check it out... CodeCon.

My New Tat

Do I look tough?

The G's and Sydney Buildings

On Sunday, there was a 3.5 hour walk that took in a lot of Sydney buildings. Here are the photos...

Centrepoint above the trees

An old church between some big shiny new buildings

The G's near the Sydney Opera House

Looking up at the buildings

Trim the cat

Matthew Flinders was an 18th century explorer who circumnavigated Australia and drew a map of it. That is not why I like him. I like him because I recently discovered that his best friend was a kitty named Trim.

Trim was born on a trip to Sydney. As a kitten he jumped ship, reconsidered and swam back and reboarded by climbing a trailing rope. Flinders adopted him and they traveled the world and were exiled to Mauritius together, where some hungry slaves kidnapped and ate him.

There is a statue of Flinders with a complementary Trim statue on the window of the building behind him. Below are the pics...

Matthew Flinders statue

Paw prints at the base of Flinders' statue

A plaque about Trim

Trim's statue

In Orbit Bar & The Summit

Mei, Irene, Jen, Joyce and I spent 5 hours at the top of Australia Square drinking cocktails in the Orbit Bar. They serve Grey Goose so I was pretty happy.

The bar and restaurant revolve around the core of the building offering the best views of Sydney. The photo is a view of Wally (the bridge that is in every Sydney photo). It takes approx. 1 hour and 45 mins to rotate the full 360 degrees.

The cocktails are good. The wine list is not bad and the food is delish!

Blame it on the rain

The view from my window at work, looking south towards Sydney city. This was taken during a big rain storm that passed by and obscured our view of everything for almost an hour. That is Luna Park directly in front of my work.

Quest to discover a fellow lion

“If I could tell you what it meant, there would be no point in dancing it”

I am constantly looking for the reason why we bother. Why we exist. What the purpose is for me having to get up each day and commute two whole train stops across a large body of water to work, in order to afford to drink in the Orbit Bar with my gfs.

It is not an original quest or even a noble one anymore. In all honesty, the amount you are allowed to be introspective is inversely proportional to how old you are. Aren't 30 years olds supposed to be selfless, concerned about making house payments, putting food on the table and saving for retirement? I promise Mum, I will get around to it.

Until then, I'm looking for some kind of explanation with all the introspection I can gather. Now, those who know me well will know that my work ethic is pretty ok but when it comes to soul searching... I take the road most traveled (the one with potholes and cliff notes). Thus (oh yes, I slapped myself for using that word)... thus, I have decided to look for meaning in the stars. Do not worry, this is not one of my NASA faked the moon landing rants. Instead it's astrology!

I am a Leo. Apparently we are magnanimous, generous, hospitable, caring, warm, authoritative, active and open. Also hard-working, ambitious and enthusiastic, however we are prone to laziness and can often take "the easy way out". Sometimes known to be exuberant, extroverted, generous with a natural dramatic flair and very creative. They are typically very self-assured, and love taking center-stage in whatever arena they are in. Blah blah blah...

If you are a Leo too and do not identify with the bossy, lazy, bathes with own saliva and other kitty characteristics then please let me know. I need a good number of exceptions to the rule in order to render it defunct. I simply can not be 1/12 types of people. That's just so ENTJ!

Maybe the search just involves cutting down the options until there is but one truth.

“The universe, they said, depended for its operation on the balance of four forces which they identified as charm, persuasion, uncertainty and bloody-mindedness.” - Terry Pratchett

Stick with it

A guy I work with brought in a shoe box today. He took out a eucalyptus branch with fresh juicy leaves and the accompanying eaters - a couple of cool stick insects (Eurycnema goliath).

The female was twice the size of the male.

They don't move much.

He can fly. She can't. She has cool wings that let her glide to the ground if she falls from a tree.

She climbed on my hand with her little hooky claw things. The hand pictured here belongs to her owner.

Where do we go, sweet child?

There was a time a few weeks back when everyone who blogged was doing so. Lately, it has been Colin and I holding up the side. Thr33 ch33rs for Micr0$0ft! To be honest, this is a good thing in that obviously everyone is actually living their lives and have no time to sit in front of a 'puter and vomit up their life on to the Interblag. It is also bad in that I have no idea what you are all up to.

In the words of the Floyd...

"Hello, Is there anybody out there?"

VS.NET 2005 is driving me to quote The Big Lebowski!

I paraphrase... "Microsoft! F*** me. I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos."

Today I spent an entire 8 hour work day installing, reinstalling, swearing and installing again VS.NET. Currently the machine has VS2002 (yes, .NET1.0 so kill me now) which I'm guessing is causing me the pain. Maybe the 1.0 to 2.0, with 1.1 step is kicking me. Ideas???

The problem is that the VS.NET 2.0 installation is stalling at the last step on the second disk and just stalling. Doing nothing, just stalling. If I kill it off, then I can run the damn app but I can't service pack it since "the last installer is still not finished". I've restarted, uninstalled, used a different set of disks, copied the installer to the HD incase it was the CD drive, run regiis with every argument known to woman, repaired and even reasoned but still nothing.

Tomorrow I'm going to throw the machine out the window at the delicious view of the harbour.

Paddington

We spent Saturday morning on a lovely walk to the Paddington Markets. They are worth it even though it was a lot smaller than I expected and lacked large quantities of food. This is not due to me being misinformed but more to the fact that I grew up in Darwin where there are crafty markets, farmers markets and sunset markets and at each and every one there are copious amounts of hot, delicious food!

There were some really cute artists with great framed prints - not the pics of Sydney for the tourists or the three-set of roller painted canvases for trendy Paddy terraces but really kewl individual, original stuff. A lot of clothes too - from cheap and nasty to funky and pretty.

After the markets, we walked down off Oxford St and in to the suburb of Paddington. This must be the nursery of terraces... where they spawn from. Even one block away from the main street was quiet and relaxed. Locals with green canvas bags walked by beautiful terraces with their doors open, showing off polished wooden floors and neatly trimmed minature poodles (in black of course). It's a pretty part of town and if I can find myself a terrace with parking (yeah right) then that's where I'm aiming to buy in the next 18 months.

Giles outside a Paddington house with a white picket fence

A packet of cigarettes growing on a vine we passed

Make up your own mind

Do not just believe everything you are told.

Think about who gains from a situation.

NIN Cancelled

Tonight was going to be a night that allowed me to cross off another 90's band that I always wanted to see while stranded in Darwin. I have seen Pearl Jam, Kylie and the Violent Femmes. There are many others on the list and right up there at the top are Nine Inch Nails. I was going to marry Trent when I was about 16. I got a much better offer though.

According to Ticketek, they'll be back one day in September... a Sunday I believe. It's a refund for me. I am so not dealing well with disappointment today.

"But I knew that I was out of luck, the day the music died"

I did too many drugs

My favourite song to resurface...

American Music by the Violent Femmes

Stoned

After 48 full hours of playing with mice full of catnip, this is how wiped out you would be.

A tail of two kitties

A Realisation

Regret is for the weak and indecisive.

Dream Job

This is the best way to look at a desk job. From outside the building with a bucket of water.


Window cleaners at FD

Lint Art

The dryer is expressing itself through lint art. You will see that good use of colour and the gradient that expresses the way a sunset makes you feel.

There is also the greyness you feel when you are hanging in a cupboard and are only asked to make wet clothes dry again. If you look closely, the untidy grey over the neat transition of corals and khaki says a lot about the rage that a mundane drying career can induce.

"Open your mind too much and your brain will fall out"

Tonight we saw Tim Minchin at the Studio at SOH. He is a musical pythonesque comedian who thinks he is a rock star. Don't we all? The thing is, he's got the musical talent and the intent. He is brilliant. We left with his CD and a... well watch the video and guess...



Prior to that we ate Chinese nearby in Circular Quay. Unfortunately, it was not as good as Chinatown but we did get fortune cookies... not quite unfortunate then. According to my cookie Confucius said "Make faithfuleness and truth your master; have no friends unlike yourself, be not ashamed to mend your faults." Do you think he knew?

Fortunes

You are entering a world of pain!

As a good ENTJ, I can separate the emotions from the situation.

Choose the most logical choice.
Pick the rational route to the right path.

Today I resigned from my current job. While contracting, you just have to wait until the contract ends and not renew. Just for the record, I renewed all of my contracts at least once except for one (hint: think "a car crashed in to the fence but no trees were injured").

Telling my boss, who I like and respect, that I did not want to work for him anymore was pretty much the hardest thing I have had to do in a very long time.

Ask me to find an impossible-to-find memory leak.
Ask me to write the optimal algorithm.
Ask me to teach a junior developer the best habits when updating thousands of records in production.

Most things would have been easier than this.

There is another job. It is a good one. It is an awesome job with a fracin' cool technology. I have spent a month and a half being bored out of my brains and trying to make fun out of not so fun job. Looking on the bright side and all that. The team I work with is one of the best groups I have ever worked with. It will suck to not be working with them more but...


... we all have to make the best career decisions though, right?

Where's the money Big Brother?! Where's the money?!

Big Brother has involved a lot of acts executed by the lowest form of bogan lifeforms in this country (and others). I watch it every season. It's one of those shows that always stops me changing the station. My main viewing would be Uplate. It's not quality but it is entertaining.

Tigger, the psychic goat was the most entertaining last year. The goat was given the photos of the nominated housemates and would go over and chew on one. That would be the housemate that the goat predicted would be evicted. There was also a psychic on the show who would use her alleged sixth sense and choose who would go next. The goat was usually right. The tally for last season saw the goat equal or winning against the psychic.

This season, there was the white room. A room that involved sensory deprivation and a big red button. The white roomer who stayed the longest and didn't press the red button went in to the BB house. It was an interesting idea but a total failure in psychology on the BB staff's part. No one cracked. They had to bribe them with money and play games to see who would win. The person who finally went was voted in by the housemates who were already in the house.

I think it was cruel and unusual punishment. It will prob make me stop watching BB. Sad, I know.

Just give me another look, I think it's down there somewhere.

Tick Tocking @ the Clock

The Clock is a pub on Crown St in Surry Hills. Go south, past Billy Kwongs (Kylie's restaurant) and bills, hold your breath as you journey by Indian Chilli (if you don't like damp dog smell) and cross the road to the big building with a clock on it.

Inside you will find a wall with clocks set to the time of different cities above booths that are inhabited by those small cochroaches that never seem to get too big. I have always wondered if it's a species of dwarf cockroach or if the bigger ones eat them before they get big, like crocodiles do to other crocs young. I am sure we all wonder that. What are baby crocodiles called? Crocettes or crocobabies are my suggestions, if some crazed taxonomic-categorising-freak hasn't already come up with it. If you are feeling like you can not sleep but want to, ask me why I dislike taxa trees.

Whatever! The Clock has good food and a relaxing atmosphere. The wine was ok too and at a good price. Of course there is the obligatory LCD TV playing sport and the remake of Planet of the Apes. "What is the difference?" I hear you ask. Not the point though. There is a cocktail bar upstairs and a restaurant serving decent pub food.

The picture is of the bar and it's giant Absolute Vodka bottle.

Should you try it? Yes, but don't sit in a booth. The bar stools at tables are the best bet for avoiding roaches. At least it smelt better than the wet dog place. Will I go back? Probably for a quick drink at the bar on the way to Pizza e Birra, which I am dying to try soon.

Eternal Interview Questions

Having spent most of my life as an IT contractor, I have been through a lot of technical interviews. There are several questions that I am asked in pretty much every single interview I have been to that I am sure will be asked again.

The interviewers must be noticing how perfect interviewees answers are getting to these repeated queries. My hint is to stop asking them. They are boring and beyond simple. I like interviews that make me think of the best way to solve a problem. You can not list the perfect interview questions because they are not ones that you can learn and recite. Good interview questions make you use your brain, your experience and your skill to demonstrate you can. Asking questions that a first year would know is pretty insulting.

As for the interviewee, don't be verbose and try to impress them with your answers. Just answer the question and wait for the next. Always remember that if they ask you stupid questions, it could be because they do not know the answers to the hard ones.

.NET Questions

What is the difference between an abstract class and an interface?
I'd rather answer why a raven is like a writing desk at the Mad Hatter's tea party. It is the eternal question, across languages, dimensions and time. There are a couple of things they could want you to say at this point - an abstract class can be partially implemented but not instantiated; an interface has no implementation and outlines the public methods and constants that a class is contracted to implement when inheriting from it. I have found that they sometimes want you to say that you can inherit from multiple interfaces and one base class. Whatever! Really, this question has to go!

What are the different types of uses for the keyword 'using'?
They want you to know that there is a using directive and a using statement. They want you to know about the using statement so that you properly handle objects whose classes inherit from IDisposable, to ensure their Dispose method is called. The example I give every time is the way to handle an ADOConnection within a using block. It gets smiles and claps and happiness throughout the room. Unfortunately, I feel empty for having to answer that same question for the thousandth time.

What is the difference between a Server.Transfer and a Response.Redirect?
This is meant to show that you understand the difference between the browser sending you to a page and the server sending you to a page. Client-Server and the difference between where decisions are made. They love it when you tell them the back button doesn't know where to go if you Server.Transfer. That gets the mexican wave going.

Does .NET have multiple inheritance?
They want the perfect succinct answer at this point - .NET allows multiple inheritance of interfaces but only one base class.

SQL Questions

What is the difference between a primary key and an index?
Again, a question that is asked over and over again and is just not that hard to guess even if you only know Access. One is the physical order and the other is a logical order of the data.

Dumb First Year Uni Questions

I flat out refuse to answer these but here they are...

What is polymorphism?
What is inheritance?

Things you can look up if you care to

We live in a time of storage devices - iPods for my music so I don't sing out loud on the bus; TB drives to store all the photos my friends, family and I have take over the years so that I can print them at any time; and Google for all those difeekult words to spell. If something can be looked up or derived from first principles then there is no reason to remember it. OK, that is going a little far but it is in the right direction. Why would you ask the following questions, especially when it is something a developer would go look up in a book or on the 'blag when they need it?

HTTP error codes?
All the methods on a StringBuilder?
Syntax error meanings?
The difference between a datetime and smalldatetime?


DISCLAIMER: I am very glad that I am so happy with my current job, so that I will not be out there having to answer these questions for a while.

Got a Billion

D-Link was a disaster. It wouldn't connect at ADSL2+ and TPG were not able to help at all.

We now have a Billion modem which works just perfectly! Yay!

Photographer Kaz

Karen, one of my most talented photographer friends, got a great review from an author whose book she did a photo-essay on...

the authors blog

Worst Episode Ever!

Death visited our Dynalink ADSL2 modem router. That modem was terminal from the day we were wrongly given it by TPG, when we said we wanted some sort of Netcomm. They actually said "we'll sell you a Netcomm" but unfortunately, they never said they'd send it to us. Instead we were gifted with a waif of a comm-device Dynalink that died within 3 months - on Monday night.

Being without Internet access was a little daunting. Half a book was read and I had no idea what was going to be on TV. There were actually emails waiting in my inbox when I gmailed - shock of shocks! It was like sensory deprivation - BB white room type stuff.

Today in Chinatown, we bought a brand spanking new DLink modem router. Yay! There was little chance of us waiting over a week to get a replacement once we sent in the device to TPG and they checked it and then sent a new one out - jerks. Forget that! TPG is also history. Am looking at Optus or Internode now.

Thankfully, I am back online.

A friend asked me what on earth would happen if I had a thought and couldn't blog it, luckily we will never have to find out :o)

The new ADSL modem

The new modem on the router/firewall/wireless access point thingemy

As for this part of my life, it truly was the worst episode ever.

Update on polar dilemma

Update on the cold situation at work. It's slightly warmer. It was a team effort but we have managed to restrict the flow of freezing air from the crazy vent in our office. Jose has still moved to another seat. We lived up to our division motto...

EAD - Simple solutions to complex problems

A3 paper and stick tape

Look at the air flow making the paper balloon

When it rains, it pours

It is raining in Sydney so everyone I know who lives here is blogging.

I'm noticing lots of embedded content - v. good, guys.

Hedonism is understated.

My ADSL modem died. I miss the Internet.

PS Chewy ANZAC biscuits and not crunchy.

Proof of the xkcd theory of cat proximity

ok, this proves that xkcd was right about the way being close to cats makes ya a little looney...

Midlife Crisis

Just like all the hip and happenin' kids are doing, I am like totally up on the things to do on the interblag. I've got a totally sic blog, a youtube channel and "my myspace sux". It is Jen-I'm not an emo-'s fault since she made her myspace private so future employers can't see all the photos of her breaking her phone. I had to join to be her friend to see the photos.

Even though I am a web monkey, it would be a full time job to get one of those myspaces to look half decent and even then the ads would still be blinking. Why is it that we killed the HTML ability to blink and the disease spread to the animated gif world? Who ever thought animated gifs would be a good idea ever?! I blame NASA. They are always putting out animated gifs of Mars landings and dust clouds around lobster nebula.

So what is my point? Oh, I remember. No matter how hard I try, I am still getting older and that's NASA's fault.

Brrrrrr it's cold in here!

My work is located in a brand new funky building on the water, in Sydney. The current staff in the building only consume the space on the second floor. The rest of the building is empty but the aircon system is working at full strength. This means that on a perfect Sydney 25 degree celcius day, it can be less than 20 C in our office.

I have to wear a jacket every day and Jose the Java coding, Google friendly, skateboarding tennis playing office mate is currently fighting off an ear infection which he is sure is due to the arctic conditions.

After leaving the coldest capital city in this country, I am working in the south pole of offices.

Jose under his protective denim shield points at the offending aircon vent

Cuteness Is A Bear

Everyone is talking about Knut but I have something important to say.

Who is a cute bearsy wearsy? Go on, you're cute. Yes you are!

The City of Roundabouts & Leaves

Saturdays are for sleeping in and late breakfasts.

Last Saturday was spent driving to Canberra to visit the fam.

I had time to take a solitary walk through the tree lined suburban streets of the national capital. There were not many people around. An irresponsible biker jumped the curb and nearly ran me down. His daddy stopped him before his tricycle could de-foot me. Damn 3 year olds! I also witnessed a drug deal "going down". That expression is also used by elevators [queue voice="elevator woman"] Going down [/queue]. There really were not many people around apart from bikers and drug dealers.

These pics best sum up my adventures...

Tree lined streets (note: no people)

Water tank from 1788 settlers (note: no people but drug deal was going down across the road)

Rare Canberra roundabout (note: no people in cars)

The Alexander Boyz (note: people standing like boy band)

Pweety Flower (note: gave up looking for alleged people)

Do you need a cuddle?

OK, someone has to explain the whole permanent employee deal to me. I have been contracting, beaten, crucified and spat on for so long that I just do not get the need for a cuddle from my manager.

Managers to me are like boxing refs. They stand between those of us who care and the others. They blow the whistle and reprimand you when you head butt the other dude and they tell you when to go back to your corner - "Damana, he's bleeding so just let it go now". Boxing refs DO NOT take you in to a side room and tell you that your employer loves you and that you are a worthwhile human being. Of course you are or they fire you.

I know when I am going ok at work because my pass still works.

It is a geeks world at the moment but in all honesty, the state of the market doesn't matter if you are an anti-social, weird nutter. Just do your job, speak up when you know you should, don't take the whole thing personally and remember that you do the work to afford the play.

As for cuddles, I'll take a direct deposit... and darling, I do not get out of bed for less than 4 peanuts a day.

Intel Stole My Favourite Song

This is currently my fave song...

"Ice Cream" by New Young Pony Club

Damn Intel! It's like Maccas setting up a fake bedroom in my lounge room after walking down my street and liking my house. Wait! That happened to someone I know.

Happy Easter 2007!

Easter means many things to different people. As a kid it meant easter eggs and stuffed toy bunnies that my sister and I would spend a good week prior searching for. It is probably time I told my Mum about the time that Trina and I found the eggs and toy bunnies in the boot of her car on Easter Saturday. Good hiding place. That was the first time we looked there and last time I remember searching - maybe finding them ruined the surprise of Easter for me.

This year, Giles and I tried to get in to the spirit of things. In our JIT-shopping style, we went to the David Jones store in Pitt Street on Easter Saturday and crawled the raided shelves for one of the last few egg sets left. After picking up an attractive hat box packed tastefully with gold eggs (obviously from the golden goose), I almost let it go again. There were two desperate housewives hovering by waiting for me to relinquish my ownership but I was too quick and noticed. The box was back down on the counter but with my hand resting on it while I decided what my next move would be. A quick scan of the shop made the decision easy. There was nothing left. The hordes had been, bought and pillaged and gone. These were my eggs. They would have to settle for the reusable baby blue foam handbag with the ugly striped kiddie eggs.

The hat box with the golden eggs

How the catholics do it

Our Easter walk passed the train bridge near the Domain

This temporary cross is lit up at night in Hyde Park to freak out drunk people, I'm guessing

Career Advice

Be appreciated or be paid well and whatever happens, do not sacrifice both.