Cyclopean Columns

Hello!!!

2011-11-28T23:51:00.001+11:00

So, it's been nearly four years since I've posted to this blog. Despite this, my little clustr-maps thingy tells me that I've had a whopping 49 visitors in the past 15 months.

Wow!

I can only assume that 48 of them were accidental, or people wanting the domain name or something. The 49th would have been me.

Might post again in another olympiad.

HarrangueMan

2007-12-20T21:50:00.000+11:00

Just happened across this little image whilst desperately trying to find what Channel 10 did to "Journeyman". Apparently they've not axed the show, exactly, just moved it to their HD channel.

Bollocks.

Engulfed

2007-02-17T22:22:00.000+11:00

I've been in a couple of independent films that have been written and directed by a couple of my good mates. This is the first one to get published on YouTube. Funk on!

Makes Halleys Comet look like a dirty smudge

2007-01-22T22:14:00.000+11:00

There has been much excitement here in Oz over the past couple of weeks over a very bright comet that has been doing the rounds around sunset. I mostly missed the buzz, having just come back to work from Christmas leave and concentrating on getting ready to move to my new job (a promotion...), but on Saturday night I got a call from my friend Ant. He was in Sydney and could see the McNaught comet clearly through the smog, so he figured that us schmo's in Canberra should have a great view.

My back yard is surrounded by trees and hills, so I didn't like my chances. However, when I wandered onto my back porch, there it was, bright as Venus and visible through the trees! I rushed inside and grabbed the camera, and after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing out on an embankment at the front of my house, managed to snap this shot.

I think what blows my mind more than anything else is that this is a non-periodic comet. That means this sucker is never coming back again - if you didn't see it this time, you'll never see it. It's on its way out of the solar system as we speak, never to return. A true once-in-a-lifetime event. Have I made my point?!

I think the other important thing to note here is that the comet was discovered as part of a systematic scan of the skies looking for asteroids, comets and other solar system bodies that might intersect with the Earth's orbit. This is bloody important work, because if anything is going to kill of humanity other than humanity itself, it's likely to be an impact from a near-earth asteroid.

For more info, check out this brief article in the Australian, or have a look at Wikipedia or even check out Robert McNaught's own homepage.

More Cities

2007-01-16T14:29:00.000+11:00

I got my prize for winning the Cities map contest. Basically, it's a small stone idol which teleports you to the heart of R'lyeh when you examine it. Funky. In the game, R'lyeh is an extra-dimensional space which is accessed from an island in the middle of the southern ocean. Funny thing is, you have to sail in a circle to arrive there! Me, I just look at the idol...

For the record, I am currently waiting for the Gorgan to appear in the palace on the Isle of the Gorgan. If I can kill it, I get its head, which I can use to turn monsters to stone or I can ferment with milk to make Gorgon-zola cheese. Yummy.

Oh, and I've done a picture of my character, who wears a badge which says "Looks like Godzilla wearing an octopus hat", a loving reference to The Real Ghostbusters.

Winner! Yes!!!

2006-09-02T08:48:00.000+10:00

I am SO stoked right now. There was a competition in the online game I play, Cities, to draw a map of the known world. I won!

Now I have to choose a boon as a prize. Given the name of my character and most of my online personae (Cthu1hu) Capital_Mum suggested that an Octopus Hat might be just the thing. I was thinking I might also ask the 'King to raise an island in the Southern Ocean for me, called R'lyeh...

Seriously folks, if you're not playing Cities yet - why not?! It's brilliant!

Freaking AWESOME!

2006-07-29T22:57:00.000+10:00

Tonight I went with my wife and daughter to go see Clash in the Capital VII, a local pro-wrestling event, and the first event of Professional Wrestling Alliance (PWA) Canberra, formerly Capital Pro Wrestling (CPW). We know several of the wrestlers, one who is a good friend, and had an absolute ball.

I only became a fan of pro-wrestling recently, seduced into it by my wife's love of the sport since she was a teenager when she used to watch Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant with her brothers. I now join the multitude of fans who scoff when the uninitiated say it's "Fake" - these guys are real athletes doing really dangerous stuff, who cares if the winner was decided beforehand? You get a great combination of soap opera and pantomime, along with an outlet for all that bloodlust. After all, it's not a good pay-per-view unless there's a bit of claret spilt.

Anyhow, tonight we got to see great tag-team action, throws, death-defying leaps and some great theatre. The final match was a "Hard Core" match and featured wrestlers being smashed over the head with street signs, garbage bins, chairs, a keyboard and even a baking tray. The climax of the match included a cricket bat wrapped in barbed wire, a barbed wire table, three smashed tables, a 10' ladder and (last but not least) a generous sprinkling of thumb tacks across the ring. Mick Foley would have been proud.

In all it was spectacular, it was fun, and it certainly wasn't fake! The barbed wire left very real cuts on these guys, as did the thumbtacks. They really do throw each other from the top rope halfway across the ring and 5 feet down onto the canvas. I would never do it myself, but it is a wonderful escape and worthy of a look.

You did what???

2006-07-29T22:45:00.000+10:00

Strange and varied are the things that we humans do when bored. I found myself at a loose end on Friday night, and for reasons I have yet to fully understand, I turned to my digital camera.

"What interesting things can I take photographs of?" I wondered.

Not being drunk or on a dare, I'm not sure why this ended with me thinking;

"I know!!! I'll get my kit off and do some nude self-portraiture!"

...but it did.

I had no idea how difficult it would be to properly arrange oneself modestly and artistically within the time limit of the camera's self-timer. There were mistakes. Some of the pictures were less than flattering. Some of them revealed a part of myself that I'm just not going to share on the internet. Frankly, some of them sucked because I was off-centre in the frame or they were blurry.

But a couple of them had promise. So today I did a bit of editing, some photoshop magic, a little crop here and there... and came up with something I felt I could share with the rest of the online community. I'm not going to make it too easy for folks to see this - you'll need a dA login as it is categorised as "Mature Content" (tee hee hee!) - but if you follow this link you'll get to see at least a little more of me than many have before. And I promise, no weenie or even nipples!

Not Quite World of Warcraft or Guild Wars, but...

2006-07-01T22:34:00.000+10:00

I'm a busy person. At least, I think I am. I never seem to have time for very much, especially posting to my blog. Or doing all that massively-multiplayer stuff online that all my friends (and wife) seem to get so involved in.

It's not that I don't want to - heavens no! I have seen the gorgeous graphics that are contained within Guild Wars, and the hours and hours and hours (did I mention hours) that my friends and spouse spend and enjoy playing the game. Ditto for other friends who are mad about World of Warcraft. Interesting aside, these two games seem to polarise people the same way as being "cat people" or "dog people" does. Anyone out there know folks that play both games?

I would love to get involved. Alas, I seem to lack:

The time
A second decent computer to run it (wife gets first dibs on the laptop)
The time

However, all is not lost. I have gotten involved in a different sort of MMORPG of late. After a six-month liaison with Urban Dead, I stumbled across Cities. This is a similar sort of HTML table-based graphics game, but with a fantasy bent where Urban Dead was, well, zombies. The focus of the game is you against the environment and the monsters and quests within it, rather than a direct PVP confrontation. I've been doing bunches of quests and such, and I really enjoy it. Best thing is, it is Action Point based, so there are strict limits as to how much time I can spend playing it on any given day.

So, if you're willing to ignore the lack of gorgeous animations and immersive gameplay, and are imagination-rich and time-poor, Cities might just be for you. Tell 'em Earl Cthu1hu MD sent you!

Pay Parking at Canberra Hospitals

2006-05-11T18:19:00.000+10:00

So, I was reading the Canberra Chronicle last week, a free local community paper, and I happened across an article relating to the introduction of pay parking at our hospitals. You can read about the plan at the ACT Health Website or see some less glowing commentary at The RiotACT or even see what's being said in the local broadsheet, The Canberra Times or this Editorial in the Canberra Times.

Now, what got my goat (other than the fact that we're being forced to pay at all) was that this is to be "Pay and Display" parking - ie you take a guess at how long you're going to be there, buy a ticket for this amount and then chuck it on your dashboard. This penalises the user in two ways:

You over-estimate and therefore pay more for the parking than you need to; or
You under-estimate, and risk a parking fine.

Either way, the government gets the bucks. So, ticked off TechnoHorror decided to give the government "what for". I sent them the following email:

09 May 2006

Dear Chief Minister and staff,

I am concerned and disappointed to hear about the new arrangements being made for pay parking at Canberra's hospitals. It is difficult enough for people who are dealing with their own illness or that of a loved one without also having to worry about paying for parking and possibly incurring a fine.

What especially disgusts me is that the proposed parking is to be a 'pay and display' voucher parking system. This means that people have to estimate in advance how long they are likely to stay, a difficult thing to do when dealing with medical appointments and emergencies. If this estimate is wrong, the government wins either way - either the person pays for more parking than they use, or they risk a fine for their parking time running out. I can only imagine the additional stress of attending hospital for a test or procedure and realising halfway through that your parking has run out.

This becomes even more abhorrent when you consider friends and family attending loved ones in the emergency departments or the bedside of a dying family member or friend. What a great gift they could get - to suffer the emotional trauma of such an event and then find a parking ticket as well. I doubt that many parents will have paying for parking on their minds when they bring a sick child into casualty.

Whilst I can appreciate that the government wishes to squeeze every last cent that it can out of the Canberra community, I feel that paid parking at hospitals crosses the line. I think I would be less appalled if the parking was to be paid on departure, and perhaps had a free grace period of one or two hours, similar to that found at the Woden and Tuggeranong town centres. At least this way people would not have a fine hanging over their head for miscalculating a visit. However I can see that the infrastructure and running costs of such a parking arrangement would be more expensive than the 'pay and display' system proposed, and would eat into the government's bottom line.

I look forward to a response to my concerns.I especially look forward to hearing from Jon Stanhope on this matter, although I expect that this will not make it past a mid level lackey.

Cheers,
[TechnoHorror]

I never really expected to hear too much in return, especially after the razzing I included in the last couple of paragraphs. So, I was pleasantly surprised when I received a reply the very next morning:

Dear [TechnoHorror],

Thank you for your email to the Chief Minister. Your correspondence is currently receiving attention.

Kind regards

[Name Withheld] Personal Assistant Office of the Chief Minister

Well gosh, that was nice! What a prompt reply from a government department. Unfortunately, the warm fuzzy feeling didn't last long, coz I got this little buck passer the next day:

Dear Mr [TechnoHorror]

Thank you for your email of 9 May 2006, to Mr Jon Stanhope MLA, Chief Minister, about the arrangements for pay parking at Canberra’s hospitals.

Mr Stanhope has asked me to acknowledge receipt of your email and to advise that, while he notes your comments and concerns, the issues you raise fall within the portfolio responsibilities of Ms Katy Gallagher MLA, Minister for Health. Accordingly, your correspondence has been referred to Ms Gallagher for her attention.

Thank you for taking the time to write to the Chief Minister.

Yours sincerely

Greg Friedewald
Chief of Staff

I figured Greg was far enough up the political food chain that his name could stay in print - I'm pretty certain I've not done anything slanderous or libellous here... (any Lawyers in the audience?)

<--- Jon Stanhope ducks and weaves

Katy Gallagher mysteriously silent... --->

So now I wait, probably to get a similar sort of brush-off from Katy Gallagher. I've heard all the government arguments about this - not enough money, everyone else does it - but it just doesn't wash. SO WHAT if every other state does it? That doesn't make it right. YES the health system needs more money, but there are many ways to do it without further taxing the very people who rely on that system. How about the ACT MLAs reduce their next self-voted payrise by 1% to fund this? That might work a little better.

No Time

2006-01-30T11:18:00.000+11:00

As both of my readers may have noticed, I haven't posted for a while. Well, ok, about six weeks.

This is because there is not enough time in the day, or in the week. Seriously! Who would have thought that having a job and a kid would occupy so much time? Not me...

As a result, I no longer seem to have any time available to do any of the things I like to do, let alone spend time blogging about them. I used to run and play in a bunch of roleplaying games with my geeky mates. I used to draw and write. I used to do all sorts of complicated woodworking projects out in my shed. I used to spend endless hours playing computer games. I used to spend endless hours painting little miniatures and then playing tabletop wargames with them. I used to take bizarre photos and publish them on DeviantArt. I even used to get involved in amateur filmmaking (No, not that sort of amateur film!).

Somehow I just don't seem to find the time to do any of that anymore. I find it really frustrating.

If I could figure out a way to still get paid without having to spend the 48-50 hours a week going to work, working and then coming home, things would be much better.

Any suggestions?

Belief

2005-12-13T19:51:00.000+11:00

My daughter was baptised on the weekend. The preparations leading up to this event, and indeed the fact that it happened at all, are the result of quite a bit of soul searching and introspection for both me and the wife. Basically, my wife is Catholic and I'm... well, I'm more or less an atheist. Ultimately, I decided that baptism into the Catholic faith would be fine for bub because:

it doesn't conflict with my beliefs per se;
it is important to the missus; and
ultimately, if the bub grows up and changes her mind she can.

So everything was hunky-dory. The day was great, everyone was happy, the event went fabulously! Those of you who know can go see the bub's blog and see a bunch of cool photos. The wife and I are fully reconciled in our beliefs (or lack thereof) and all is right with the world.

But it got me thinking...

I wasn't raised into any particular religion, although Church of England always got written on application forms and such. Due to a number of factors beyond my parents' control, my brother and I were never christened into the faith. I interpreted this to mean that my folks wanted my brother and I to make up our own minds about what we wanted to believe in. As a result, when I was talking with my parents and my wife the day before the baptism, I mentioned in passing that I considered myself an atheist and my mother was a bit shocked. I guess she figured that I would kind of "default" to being christian.

Funny thing is, in a lot of ways I am. My moral code and personal ethics are strongly based on christian ideals - thou shalt not steal, do unto others and all that. I have a basic, fundamental faith in the inherent 'goodness' of people and that, unless there are external factors, people will tend to do the 'right' thing. Some people would say this is naive.

My wife and I discussed if I were atheist or agnostic - ie, did I actively disbelieve or did I not know. My answer was a bit complicated, which I think is appropriate for something as complex as deities, belief, right and wrong and the origins of everything. I'll try to summarise:

Is there a God? I believe that every person has their own conception of God (or Gods). I don't think that my own belief or lack thereof in a supreme being has an impact on other people's beliefs. My own belief is that there is not an ultimate entity that you can point to and say "That's God, right there - the guy next to the stop sign". I do believe that there is this idea called "God" that is very powerful, that there are hundreds of millions of people that have similar beliefs that in turn influence their behaviour. So, in the sense that this idea can and does have a fundamental impact on life and death, civilisation and wafare, I acknowledge that the idea "God" exists.

God created the Universe. This is easy. Not enough data. I am a strong believer in scientific method and the results thereof that have resulted in both our very comfortable technological lifestyle and our mind-boggling knowledge of the universe. In this respect, I believe that the universe came into being roughly 15 billion years ago, give or take, as a result of a spontaneous quantum fluctuation in the otherwise nothingness. If this was God's doing, that's great. If God was responsible for all the physical laws we can see and measure, and if these laws and constants resulted in our coming into being, that's fantastic. There is no way of measuring or knowing this, and I don't think there is any evidence that God has subsequently meddled in the way the universe works. So ultimately, if there was an omnipotent being that created the universe, they don't appear to have any influence at the moment.

I'm not going to go into individual religions or belief structures, especially the parts of those stories where God or Gods have reportedly directly influenced human events by sending 'signs' or prophets or their son to give us their message. In general, I think that people tend to try and explain what they see around them, to make sense of the senseless. Gods are great for explaining why the village got wiped out in a plague, or why one bunch of folks get a great crop and another bunch don't, or why Aunt Mavis died before her time, or where we go after we die. It follows from this that Gods are good motivators - "if you don't [blah] you will be punished by God". Over time, this becomes a political tool that can be used to control and manipulate a population. I don't deny the existence of Jesus or Mohammed or Buhdda, and I certainly don't deny that they sincerely believed what they preached, or that this belief has had fundamental and far reaching impacts on the world. I just don't see any objective evidence that this was anything other than enlightened and visionary people putting forward revolutionary and persuasive ideas that became very, very popular. You see internet memes doing the same thing today...

Anyhoo, like any matter of belief, faith and the fundamental questions, I could go on and on and never actually arrive at a concrete answer. That's because there isn't one. I hope that some of the above enlightens those who are interested in what I believe, and allows you to see that there is not anything as simple as an "atheist".

More ID

2005-11-18T10:33:00.000+11:00

I realise I'm probably just contributing to the already bloated servers out there that are awash with arguments, counter-arguments and misinformation about Intelligent Design versus Evolution. As you all already know, my opinion is that science should be the winner, which looks at how things happen, not necessarily the cosmic why of things. This is better left to religion, which is where ID should go too.

But then I was reading Scott Adams' blog, and he had two separate entries on ID. This led me to a bunch of other hilarious links, including one on the ever-reliable Wikipedia. I think I'm now a fundamentalist supporter of Intelligent Falling as well as being a priest of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

May you be touched by his noodly appendage.

Racist Alan Jones

2005-11-15T23:13:00.000+11:00

I'll admit it. I watch Alan Jones do his little hate diatribe nearly every morning on the 'Today Show' on channel nine. It's on while I eat my breakfast, and often gives me a laugh as I munch on my cereal.

But not yesterday morning. Oh no. Yesterday, AJ crossed a line that, whilst I'm sure he's crossed before, I don't recall ever actually seeing him cross. He's danced along the edge of racist, bigoted ejaculation before, but not quite like he did on Monday the 14th of November. On Monday, he said:

"Good morning to Karl and Tracy and to all of you where ever you are beginning a new week.
While the focus here has been on the terrorist threat, no-one can be unconcerned by the pictures we see every night of what is happening in France.
And any number of theories are being advanced.
Big cutbacks in recent years in government spending on jobs programs.
50,000 young people said to have lost places in jobs programs.
Or, the failure of the so-called republican model to integrate immigrant communities.
There is no affirmative action policy in France for immigrants such as housing and employment programs, especially for the newly arrived.
Or, in a world where the working week can be very short and the minimum wage very high: people in work are protected and nothing is done for those out of work.Labour is more expensive.
You can't fire for poor performance.
So this looks good only if you happen to have a job.
France is the country which legislated for the 35 hour week because there would be more jobs to go around.
But unemployment in some of those rioting areas is the worst in 20
years at almost 20%.
All of that offers convenient explanations.But it's a fair way off the mark.
750 neighbourhoods housing about 5 million people across France are severely disadvantaged.
But just because you are disadvantaged, you don't torch cars and petrol bomb police and sponsor hideous violence."
So, we come back to what we are not meant to say.
There is a large Muslim population in France which has not integrated into the country into which they were made welcome.
You have heard this before.
Immigrants in France are told to assimilate, not integrate.
So when second and third generation immigrants from Algeria and sub-Saharan Africa look at the ranks of the professions, they are not there.
All of this has been used to explain away the pictures of a country virtually at
civil war.
But surely there is a common thread for the problems in France, England, Denmark, Holland, Germany, Belgium and now Australia.
Islamic youth.
Not all, but Islamic youth, nonetheless.
Never mind the unemployment and the rest of the excuses.
Why is it that across the world this is the one factor in all these problems?
Yet, you will get academics and so-called intellectuals trying to shame us into believing that we are the cause of these problems.
But surely all these countries can't be the same in terms of racism, unemployment and integration.
They can't all be responsible for Muslim youths trying to destroy the host country that gave their parents a new start in life.
So the notion that the host country is somehow to blame is a nonsense.
Or, is it a very clever tactic that Islam is using to weaken the resolve of politicians: to incorporate the support of so-called left wing intellectuals and community leaders to deflect the blame away from the Islamic community and place it at the feet of the silent majority.
John Howard at the weekend said Islamic leaders must weed these people out.
Suddenly John Howard is being criticised.
If we continue to stand common sense on its head, we may be left standing on our heads ourselves.

Purple Guy

2005-11-15T22:58:00.000+11:00

For those who have no IDea...

2005-11-09T16:10:00.000+11:00

Saw this post today at Pete Bevin's site, a marvellous source for an eclectic range of goodness. This particular post is a compelling anti-ID argument that made me laugh and laugh and laugh. The post-commentary from various folks is entertaining too.

For your reading pleasure.

Oh, and while I'm linking, this site appears to have some gems in it also.

More GeoCaching

2005-10-31T17:31:00.000+11:00

Despite the forecast of rain on the weekend, the missus kindly agreed to come along with me and some mates to do some more GeoCaching on Sunday. The weather stayed fine for a BBQ lunch at Molonglo Gorge, but then turned sour as we were preparing to head off. Change of plan, the missus and the tacker headed off to do some shopping and visit grandma and grandpop, whilst us less cerebral types ventured into the gorge...

The going involved a lot of up and down, as you can see, but the views were quite nice:

Even the rain didn't dampen the spirits too much. Not finding one of the caches was a little less than thrilling, though... this is where we thought it should be:

But still, a fun time was had by all. I'll be planning another expedition soon. Note to self - remember sunscreen and insect repellent next time!

Worst. Film. Ever.

2005-10-28T11:07:00.000+10:00

WARNING - MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS

I went to see "Doom" last night. I was not expecting anything deep or meaningful, just an action romp through the cosmos. Unfortunately, even in this respect it didn't really live up to expectations. Let me tell you why:

Plot was virtually non-existent and more importantly ignored some of the central themes of the game. Acting was wooden, not helped by a pathetic script. SFX were okay but not up to a 2005 standard, IMHO. Did I mention it was a bad script? A lot of the action hinged around the fact that these marines were in it alone, no backup, quarantined etc, but they never actually explained *why* they felt quarantine was so important in this case, nor did they ever say why they couldn't bring in backup in the form of legions of troops or an airstrike or a nuke.

Even seeing The Rock's bulging shoulders with "SEMPER FI" tattoed across them didn't make it a good film.

Oh, and the section of the film that they shot as a First Person Shooter was just annoying. More like being on a sad carnival "spook show" ride, complete with the fake-looking zombie that laughs at you before it gets shot. Pathetic.

Also, the editing sucked. There were characters appearing out of nowhere because they deleted the bridging scene where they first appeared and started doing stuff like, oh, helping to carry a badly wounded marine to the medlab. Or when you get the end of a conversation about why the marines should leave an area without the initial "We are leaving now" sort of comment.

And don't even get me started on the science, or lack thereof. 24th chromosome pair indeed! In a bottle. That can be injected. And makes you either a superhuman or a monster. And can somehow "smell" or "detect" a genetic predisposition in its victims for "psychotic or murderous behaviour" - which is what decides if you're a monster, BTW.

For pete's sake - the original Doom game was about Hell breaking into our reality. Hell. This was just some lame bio experiment gone wrong. And not even in a big way. The closest they got was one of the characters saying to another "It's hell up here Sam. It's always been hell" - you see, their parents were killed in an archealogical accident on Mars ten years ago, and the brother went off to become a marine while the sister stayed to continue the parent's research. So we go from actual Hell breaking loose, Event Horizon style, to hell simply being a philosophical description of the personal despair these two went through from losing their parents.

All in all a vomitous waste of celluloid and two hours of my life that I'm never getting back.

Degree Confluence Project

2005-10-27T10:49:00.000+10:00

Another geeky GPS thing. This particular project aims to get photographs from every intersection of whole number degrees of latitude and longitude on the planet, at least where such points occur on land. Perhaps I should let the site itself explain...

The goal of the project is to visit each of the latitude and longitude integer degree intersections in the world, and to take pictures at each location. The pictures, along with a narrative describing the adventures it took to get there are then posted on this web site. This creates an organized sampling of the world.
Another goal is to document the changes at these locations over time. Although we initially want to visit as many different locations as possible, don't hesitate to revisit a confluence if you're in the area.
We've excluded confluences in the oceans and dropped some near the poles, but there are still 12,008 to be found. You're invited to help. There is a confluence within 49 miles (79 km) of you if you are on the surface of Earth.

--From the Degree Confluence Project

Not sure I have a desperate need to rush out and see all of the confluences around Canberra, but you never know...

Tagged

2005-10-26T20:36:00.000+10:00

Okay, okay - I know Mikey Capital tagged me over a week ago (here). I've been slack. Hold onto your hats while I make up for it...

1) I'm a perfectionist, and have been for ages. A lot of people might think this is a good thing (provided it doesn't go to anal extents). However, what this generally means is that I don't actually do a lot of things, because I am concerned I won't do them well enough. For instance, writing and running roleplaying games. Which brings us to...

2) I'm a gamer, but only "tabletop". There is this distinction between those folk who sit around a table and game as opposed to those people who dress up all wierd-like and act out their character's every move. My wife does the latter as well as the former. I think that one of the reasons I don't do the latter is because of point 1, above.

3) The first thing I remember is from when my family was living in Wagga Wagga. Dad was in the army, I would have been all of 3 or 4. All I can remember is being in bed sick, there being a corridor leading from the room, red brick walls and my mum talking in another room. Another memory from Wagga Wagga include falling into a settling pond near the Officers' Mess. Incidentally, my folks met in the army, when my mum (a corporal at the time) refused to make a coffee or salute this upstart lieutenant (my dad).

4) Ferris Beuller's Day Off is probably my favourite film of all time. I'm watching it (again) whilst I write this, and I think that every subtlety of the movie is permanently engraved across my cerebellum. Every. Single. Line.

5) I love movies, especially science fiction, horror and Ferris Beuller's Day Off. Despite this, I think I am the least capable quoter of movie lines amongst all my friends. I'm really good at getting the general gist of it without ever getting the line actually right.

6) I have travelled overseas to two different countries with stopovers in two more, for a total of six overseas trips. None of these have been a vacation. I have never travelled to a non-English speaking country.

7) My current job is my third (or fourth?) attempt at a career. In college (year 12 for all you non-Canberrans) I was offered a cadetship to study chemical engineering with BHP. I turned it down to go to ADFA and be an Air Force officer cadet, where I studied science for a year and was in the pilot program. A year of this was more than enough for me so I bugged out and ended up studying architecture. This didn't last beyond the first three years (Bachelor of Applied Science) and ultimately led to me becoming a public servant. That was 10 years ago and I haven't moved since. Same department for ten long years.

8) I married the first girl I went out with for more than a month. We've been an item for more than 14 years, married for more than half of that (nearly 8 years now) and have a gorgeous baby girl after 6 quite painful years of trying. The not getting pregnant was the painful bit, not the trying per-se. As they say, if sex is a pain in the arse, you're doing it wrong... Did I mention that I love my girls to bits?

9) I am an atheist. When I was growing up, I was superficially Church of England, but my folks never got me or my brother christened. They figured that was a decision that my bro and I could make when we were older. Growing up and going to cubs and scouts we used to have prayer and swear allegiance to "God and to the Queen" but I don't think I really believed any of it. Eventually I felt quite uncomfortable about saying prayers and saying "Amen" because I didn't believe. These days if I find myself in a church, I will stand with my eyes open when everyone is praying. Seems appropriate to me. Despite my heathen godlessness, I have been raised with "Christian values", which means I am a secular humanist and have a strong belief in the basic goodness of other people. Some might suggest this makes me a sucker.

10) My favourite car of all time is the Nissan 300ZX (Z32). I have never driven one or sat in one, but I just love the look of them. Love love love. Close second is the Lamborghini Diablo.

11) I sew. This does not include clothes for daily wear, but does include garb for the SCA. Oh, and I also sew canvas coverings for Yurts. I have contributed to the manufacture of no less than five yurts to date, with plans for more. They are all used for SCA camping events. I can highly recommend the yurt as an excellent camping option if you have a trailer available (they're not quite as transportable as a tent).

12) I have a pretty good natural talent to write and draw. I tend not to exercise these skills too much any more (see point 1). I will generally complain about not having any time to do any of this stuff, but I'm not sure that is the answer.

13) I've only ever had one parking ticket and I've never been done for a moving violation. No speeding, drunk driving, failing to stop etc. Whilst I do try very hard these days to drive zen and behave, I haven't always and I think that my clean slate is as much to do with good luck as good management.

14) I'm a bit of a space and technology nut. I love my gadgets (GPS, laptop, night vision scope, telescope, torches...) and I love my sci-fi, everything from hardcore 2001 and Aliens to fluffy stuff like Pitch Black. The news that NASA was going back to the moon was some of the best news I've heard in ages. A really cool part of that is that they're planning to have six manned missions every year to the moon once they get started. Just a shame it's going to be such a long time coming...

15) Despite all this, I don't have a mobile phone or a PDA. This is mainly because I work in a place where you can't take that sort of stuff into the building, and the thought of having such a cool toy for only a third of the time (8 hours work, 8 hours sleeping, only 8 hours left for gadget) seems a little silly. I did try having a mobile phone for a while, I got my wife's hand-me-down handset and an "only pay for calls" plan with her provider. I kept leaving the phone behind and I eventually managed to break it, don't ask me how. Besides which, the provider wanted to start charging $10 per month for just having the thing. Yeah, I know I could go with a prepaid, but I just don't use the thing and the credits would expire before I used them. Really the only reason I can think of for having one would be so I could be contacted in regards my daughter.

16) I mentioned torches in 14. I have a fascination with things that produce light. It doesn't matter how many torches I might already have, I always want more. My latest fad is the ultrabright LED torches - I have a single LED torch on my keyring, a 3-LED torch for general use and a (wait for it) 19-LED headlamp for serious light application. I love the little flashing light trinkets you can get, and things like chemoluminescence fascinate me. Really should try doing some of that out of household chemicals some day...

17) I have a bent for acting and performing which, like my other artistic pursuits, I tend not to pursue. In college I ended up with two acting roles and two backstage roles, thus participating in theatre for each of my four semesters of years 11 and 12. One of the roles was the lead "Billy Bigelow" in Carousel. Years later I learned that several of the girls in that production thought I was pretty hot. I had no idea. Stupid me. Since then I have had a couple of minor roles in some short films my friends have made, playing parts as diverse as a hapless father who falls foul of a sock puppet and a street smart punky geek hacker.

18) I didn't get dux of year 7. At that stage, I didn't know there was even such a thing. But in year 7, Penny Reyenga got it, and all of a sudden I knew I had a purpose in life. I had to get the Willis Award (which is what they called dux at my highschool) from then on. What a nerd! But I did it - more or less straight A's and the Willis Award for years 8, 9 and 10. I went on to get dux of my graduating class in year 12, with one of the highest Tertiary Entrance scores in the state for that year (top 0.73 percent). After all that effort I discovered that it didn't mean dick. All those duxes and awards didn't help me at uni and certainly didn't help me get a job. I'm still proud of them though coz it means I'm a smart f***er. Maybe I should join Mensa...

19) I love cats. We've got two of 'em, and for as long as I can remember as a child we've had cats around too. First there was Fluffy, then Tiger, Pebbles, Pixie... our two boys at home are Nietche and Rorschach. I have discovered over the years that a cat's personality appears to be linked to its colouration to a greater or lesser extent. I have also learned that you can train a cat to be extremely, psychotically violent. Having Tiger around as my brother and I went through our teenage years meant that he was, well, a whirling, swirling toiletbowl of death. He got some strange ideas into his head about the pecking order in the family, especially after my brother moved out of home. Some of my fondest memories of that cat involved him leaping out from behind the lounge to attach himself with very sharp claws to my brother's thigh, bite madly for ten seconds then streak off in a flash of fur. My wife was scared stiff of that cat.

20) I have never bungee-jumped, parachuted, water skiied, jet skiied, skiied or hang-glided. I have gone caving, hiking, camping and abseiling. I have never fired a pistol but I have fired an SLR rifle (7.62mm). I would never allow a firearm in my home, despite my police friends recommending a shotgun for dealing with future suitors of my daughter.

----=-=-=+=-=-=----

There you go. For anyone who gets this far, I'm going to call out my bro, Bimberi, for a tag. And just for good measure, I think I'll call Capital Mum, my lovely wife, as well.

My First GeoCaching Adventure

2005-10-23T18:48:00.001+10:00

Wow!

Had a great day today, out with friends and doing our very first GeoCaching. This was a fabulous opportunity to get out and enjoy the sunshine, solve some puzzles and see some parts of our lovely city that I otherwise may never have even known existed.

Our first cache was a multi-cache. The first location provided clues to the next, and so on, for a total of three steps to the final destination. I have to say that this is a math geek's heavenly sport, as each clue involved transposing letters into numbers and then doing some quite large addition, multiplication and subtraction to arrive at the final result, then articulating this into coordinates for the GPS unit.

Second cache was more straightforward, just coords leading to a specific location. Still a heap of fun though, and a great view from the top of Pine Island as a reward.

Plans are already afoot to develop my own caches, including a wicked multi-cache or two. I'll post all the goss when it's done.

Denoument

2005-10-19T21:34:00.000+10:00

Denoument

This one is for Mikey.

Puce

2005-10-19T21:10:00.000+10:00

This is for Cass.

Hobbies for the modern man

2005-10-16T21:23:00.000+10:00

Yeah, yeah I know - it's been freakin' ages since I've posted anything. Well, that's all going to change. Now.

I have recently been investigating the 21st century, very geeky hobby of GeoCaching. This is a hobby where you use a GPS to find caches of stuff that other people have left in various places and then posted those locations on the interweb. Sad thing is, I haven't had the opportunity to go out with my GPS yet to find any caches, but I will. [Edit 27/10/05 - Here's the Wiki]

And yes, it's kinda geeky just to have a GPS.

Related to this is the concept of the Urban Adventure. One of the caches I was looking at involved going into a storm drain and following a tunnel or two, eventually seeing some bats that have made the tunnel their home. Kinda funky. I have been reading a little more about the Urban Adventure thing too (mainly from the site link, above) and these folks have done some way cool stuff. Reminds me of some of the stupid things I've done in the past, such as:

Exploring the abandoned tunnels of St James station in Sydney
Exploring the abandoned Space Tracking Stations at Honeysuckle Creek and Ororral Valley before the buildings were torn down
Crawling along a host of storm drains in Tuggeranong and Weston Creek

All good fun and about the only chance us urban dwellers have these days to truly experience adventure.

Oh, and it looked so cool I have to include the link here - one of the folks that gets talked about on the Urban Adventure website went crawling in an abandoned nuclear missile bunker. Wow.

Yet another "What are you" Meme...

2005-09-26T13:43:00.000+10:00

Which Serenity character are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

Hoban 'Wash' Washburne

75%

Kaylee Frye

75%

The Operative

63%

Inara Serra

63%

Simon Tam

63%

River Tam

56%

Shepherd Derrial Book

56%

Capt. Mal Reynolds

50%

Zoe Alleyne Washburne

38%

Jayne Cobb

13%

Which Serenity character are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

Mint Sauce

2005-09-25T20:47:00.000+10:00

Well, I wouldn't have believed it if I had simply been told - all the baby books talk about it as being "normal", and certainly we had experienced a range of examples that all fit the bill, except for this one.

What am I talking about? Poo, and poo colour. Mostly, the bub has been producing stuff that varies from english mustard to mashed pumpkin, with occasional stylistic references to just a hint of lime. That is, until tonight.

This evening we were greeted with the crowning achievement of baby poo, spoken of in hushed tones and revered in maternal circles the world over - we got green! Most of the respected baby texts indicate that this is completely normal, and that the poo could be anything from yellow to orange to lettuce green. Well, that's what we got - something that looked like a nappy which had been filled with mint sauce.

My work as a parent is complete. Any more colours and the bub could get a job working for Pantone...

Watch the Skies!

2005-09-18T21:52:00.000+10:00

Saw this little phenomenon on the 7th of September, and managed to take some vague, blurry photos of it. What you see here is (from top to bottom) Venus, the Moon and Jupiter. To the left of the moon is Spica, the brightest star in the constellation Virgo. The second picture shows it in more detail. I just wish I had a camera good enough to do this sort of conjunction justice...

There's a summary article of this event on space.com.

Oh, and I did a bit of a digital tweak on the overview picture on my DeviantArt account.

Humility Hole

2005-09-18T21:34:00.000+10:00

This post will probably have a few people scratching their heads. All I can say is, I now have a much, much better understanding of how sleep deprivation and stress can impact on a person's psychological wellbeing.

Those that know me know that I'm at least a fair to middling handyperson. I've made shelves, a workbench, crockery boxes, a bedhead... and I've also contributed to a greater or lesser extent on no less than five gers. In short, I'm not unfamiliar with tools and whatnot, and I normally know what it is that I'm doing.

Which is why a couple of weeks ago I found myself in unfamiliar territory. My recently-arrived first child was about two weeks old, and I was procrastinating on a job application for work. At the same time, I had decided that we needed more storage in the bathroom. I bought a couple of kit shelving sets, the ones with two vertical bars screwed into the wall with shelf supports attached via slots in the bars. All I had to do was attach the bars to the walls. Easy...

Short version of the story, after two different types of attachments and a day and a half of frustration at what should have been a short, simple task, I ended up taking to my bathroom wall with a hammer. The hole in the picture, above, is the result. Why is this important? Well, I don't consider myself to be the sort of person who "loses it", and certainly not in a violent way. This was out of character for me, and it concerned me that if I could resort to a violent non-solution to a simple set of shelves, what else could I be capable of?

So I'm publishing this little picture to my blog, to remind myself that sometimes, when you're tired and stressed, it's better to simply put the tools down and walk away. I don't want to end up swinging a hammer or anything else at something that isn't so easy to fix...

Nerd Alert!

2005-09-14T14:28:00.000+10:00

Well, the Wife has been doing all these online "What sort of [Insert Thing Here] are you", as have I. The latest one we've stumbled across is the "What sort of D&D Character are you?"

Turns out that I'm a:

Chaotic Good Elf Bard Ranger

Go figure! I wasn't expecting Bard at all, although I suspect that this is because Bards tend to be jack-of-all-trades, and I don't think I really committed to a particular problem solving approach. For the record, my details were:

Alignment:
Lawful Good ----- XX (2)
Neutral Good ---- XXXXXX (6)
Chaotic Good ---- XXXXXXXX (8)
Lawful Neutral -- XX (2)
True Neutral ---- XXXXXXX (7)
Chaotic Neutral - XXXX (4)
Lawful Evil ----- (-2)
Neutral Evil ---- (-1)
Chaotic Evil ---- (-3)

Race:
Human ---- (0)
Half-Elf - XX (2)
Elf ------ XXXXXXXX (8)
Halfling - (-4)
Dwarf ---- XXXXXX (6)
Half-Orc - X (1)
Gnome ---- XXXXXXX (7)

Class:
Fighter - X (1)
Ranger -- XXXXXX (6)
Paladin - (-1)
Cleric -- (-3)
Mage ---- XX (2)
Druid --- XXX (3)
Thief --- XX (2)
Bard ---- XXXXXXX (7)
Monk ---- (-1)

More Stellar Programming

2005-09-12T02:55:00.000+10:00

...this time from the ABC. I'm sitting here at 3AM on Monday morning, having just gotten up to feed my hungry, hungry daughter. The TV is on to feed my sleep-deprived and otherwise vacuous brain whilst bub drains her bottle.

First, we watch the end of some appalling "Carry On" film. Dreadful. Then the sober announcer comes on and tells us the next film is rated M and contains "Some Violence". Hmmmm... should be good...

Turns out it's "Floods of Fear" - a story of what happens when the "Great Thaw" floods the Humboldt valley. It's great - escaped convicts, swquabbling city officials, flooded houses, panic in the streets... just like New Orleans, although I don't think there's anyone shooting at choppers.

Just thought I'd mention this to y'all given how outraged HarrangeMan was at Prime's programming efforts. I'm going to bed.

Thankyou

2005-09-09T21:49:00.000+10:00

Just thought I'd take this opportunity to say a couple of thankyous. We're now just past 3 weeks with the new bub, and there's a few folks out there that have been, well, lifesavers. I present them in no particular order.

Mum and Dad - pretty self-explanatory, really. Especial thanks to mum for being so thoroughly delighted with helping me hang out baby clothes, and to dad for having predicted a girl all along (although you did originally say triplets - glad you didn't get that one right!).

Rowena - you've been an absolute tower of strength, helping the Wife get through all the breastfeeding issues. No-one could have asked for a better sister-in-law. Good choice, Steve...

Hiraethin and Faeriefyre - what more can I say? Hiraethin has been like a brother to me for nigh on twenty years, long before this new-fangled interweb-thing, and Faeriefyre seems to be truly the universal source of love and affection. Fantastic home-cooked meals, Krispy Kreme doughnuts (mmmmm doughnuts...) and not batting an eyelid when we say we need a bit of space.

Fads and Son - best cross-the-road neighbours anyone could ask for. Fads is helping me deal with my "Humility Hole" (Post to follow) and Son is just an angel with massages and a sympathetic ear for the Wife. Love you guys to bits!

Of course, absolutely everyone whom we have crossed paths with since the bub was born has been fabulous and supportive. These folks above just stand out. You're all great...

Holy "Holy Grail"!!!

2005-09-07T18:56:00.000+10:00

Thanx again to Hiraethin - there are a million (well, 25) different possible results from this quiz, and I personally think that it is entirely, utterly accurate.

Take the quiz: "Which Holy Grail Character Are You?"

The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog
That's the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered rodent you ever set eyes on!

Premonition

2005-09-06T21:35:00.000+10:00

Well, it might not be a premonition so much as a warning, but I came across this link whilst surfing today. Seems that National Geographic had run a feature article in October 2004 that talked of the dangers and likelihood of New Orleans getting flooded by a hurricane. It predicted water as deep as 8 metres in places, and a death toll of about 50,000. Will Katrina reach this figure? We'll have to wait and see...

National Geographic Article

I am still dumbfounded at the appalling response from the US government to this disaster, especially given that they had several days warning and information like the article, above. I am also stunned at how fragile civilisation is - it took maybe a day for New Orleans to descend into the worst sort of anarchy.

Could Australia deal with a similar disaster any better? I don't know.

Leading Man

2005-09-03T22:40:00.000+10:00

Ok, so Hiraethin did this little test on being a leading man. Of course, I had to go do it too - would you believe it, turns out I'm...

Jimmy Stewart
You scored 11% Tough, 9% Roguish, 52% Friendly, and 28% Charming!

You are the fun and friendly boy next door, the classic nice guy who still manages to get the girl most of the time. You're every nice girl's dreamboat, open and kind, nutty and charming, even a little mischievous at times, but always a real stand up guy. You're dependable and forthright, and women are drawn to your reliability, even as they're dazzled by your sense of adventure and fun. You try to be tough when you need to be, and will gladly stand up for any damsel in distress, but you'd rather catch a girl with a little bit of flair. Your leading ladies include Jean Arthur and Donna Reed, those sweet girl-next-door types.

Find out what kind of classic dame you'd make by taking the Classic Dames Test.

Sleep

2005-09-03T18:49:00.000+10:00

Sleep is something that is near and dear to me. I love it.

However, since the arrival of my little "Bundle of Joy" two weeks ago, sleep has been more than a little elusive. It's not that the Wife and I haven't been getting sleep - far from it. I reckon we're still getting a solid 7-8 hours a night, which isn't too bad. Problem is, the bub wants feeding every 2-4 hours, so that sleep we get is in broken blocks. I'm sure we'll get used to it - won't we???

Anyhoo, I recall seeing an article a couple of weeks ago on sleep, and thought I'd share it. Enjoy!

Alpha Dog

2005-08-26T15:16:00.000+10:00

For all those post-apocalypse, Zombie death loving folks out there, I can highly, highly recommend Alpha Dog.

Comment Spam

2005-08-26T14:54:00.000+10:00

F***ing advertisers with their f***ing spam comments! You can thank them for me having to switch on f***ing word verification before you can leave a comment.

If you suffer from comment spam, have a read of this link. Many thanks to Kelvingreen, fellow blogger and Lovecraftian afficionado, who has been seeing a bunch of this f***ing sh*t recently as well.

Not that I'm angry...

Law and Order SVU

2005-08-24T22:14:00.000+10:00

Well, it would seem that online quizzes never lie, and this one is right on the money - I am blonde, after all :)

You're Alexandra Cabot!

Which Law & Order: SVU character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Blog Spam?

2005-08-24T21:27:00.000+10:00

Y'know, if I didn't know better, I'd say that my blog has just been spammed. Have a look at the comments on the post just below this one, thats right - the one about the book 'Blokes and Babies'. You'll see two comments from some people I've never heard of, with links to some wierd sites (something about lawn mowing and one that my ad-blocker won't let me see, which is a good thing I think...).

Anyone experienced this sort of thing before? Are they bots or real people? Are they really trying to sell some sort of penis enlarger or a video of Paris Hilton or (as it would seem) some sort of lawn maintenance service??

Well, Christine and Miskowy Blog - if you're actually real people, why don't you come forward for the nice folks and let us know what you're really about?

Blokes and Babies

2005-08-21T23:02:00.000+10:00

Further to my last post, I'd like to mention a book I've been reading the past couple of days. Published too late to cover the whole pregnancy and childbirth experience, Blokes and Babies provides a much needed male perspective on this whole breeding thing. As an "enlightened drone" (see the book's glossary) I was most entertained to find a lot of my XY observations were not unique.

If you're a guy and you're going to have kids, get it.

(Man, I should be asking for royalties here...)

A warning...

2005-08-21T01:27:00.000+10:00

The next post (that is, my last post) is extremely long. I had a lot that I had to get out of my system.

That is all.

Fatherhood

2005-08-21T00:34:00.000+10:00

Phew!

It's late at night, I'm bloody tired - what better time than now to write an entry in the ol' blog? (Interesting note, I couldn't even type "blog" correctly, I ended up with blod instead)

I have just become a father. This is a wierd and mystical experience that I would highly recommend to any other man. You see, I didn't have to spend 33 hours in labour just to have it ultimately end in a surgical procedure under a general anasthetic. My wife did. You would think this would be a good thing for the blokes, but it turns out that it ain't so flash.

The labour started simply enough. About 7am on Thursday the Wife starts getting contractions. Nothing fancy, just a mild crampy-sort of thing every 20 minutes or so. She pretty much just sat in bed and read a book until 10am, when she thought she'd better call me at work. No concern, no fuss, even able to talk through the contractions. Sweet! I figure it's going to be hours yet, so I don't rush home from work, eventually walk in the door about 2pm.

By this stage, contractions are 5 minutes apart, but still nothing to write home about intensity-wise. This has changed by 6pm, when they are really starting to take the Wife's breath away. by 10pm the contractions are about 4 minutes apart and we decide to go to hospital.

At this point, hindsight tells me that the in-car delivery would have been a preferred option to what actually happened, but at the time I was just thinking how much I hoped there would be nothing exciting on the journey, and that the trip would be about five contractions worth. I missed a turnoff and we went a somewhat creative way to the hospital.

We have an initial exam - things are looking good, about 4cm dilation (need 10 for birth). About 1am the next morning, we go the first shot of pethidine. I'm still feeling all good and supportive, helping the Wife through the contractions by reminding her to breathe and making inane comments about how well she's doing etc. Things are less rosy by 630am, when the exam shows that we've not made any progress on the dilation. On top of this, the contractions are getting weaker and further apart.

Time gets a little hazy, but for the next six or something hours the Wife continues to endure contractions at five minute intervals, give or take. She's no longer able to hold anything down, not even her own bile, and being in the support team has become a lot less than pleasant. You feel completely inadequate trying to reassure a person who is going through some sort of hell and knows there's going to be many hours more of it. Expensive drugs starting with a "Z" deal with the nausea, and we go onto another drug to help with the contractions and dilation. This is the same drug used to induce childbirth in overdue mums.

The stuff doesn't work the way they want and the contractions start to "double barrel", which is a way of saying even more painful but achieving nothing. It's about this time that the Wife is completely shattered and wants to stop. Seriously stop. What can you say? There's the lame thing where you can agree and say "OK, lets just pack up and go", but under the circumstances it just don't cut it. About this time we get told an epidural might help as this will allow the maximum drug use and least distress to the Wife. We're also told this probably won't get us where we need to go and that a cesaerian section is the likely outcome.

This scares us both to hell. We came into this expecting a normal, natural childbirth, and are now being asked to sign up for pretty major surgery. Sure, if it's the only way to get bub out, that's fine, but we just weren't mentally prepared for it. But hey, flexibility was our watch-word for this labour, so we nod and try not to worry about it. Besides, the epidural will mean no more pain for the Wife.

The Wife is fitted with a catheter for an epidural, which in itself is quite distressing for me as a helper, seeing her still coming down from a contraction and hearing the anethetist saying "I'm in - for God's sake don't move!". I picture myself with a paraplegic partner and a newborn. Everything goes OK though and pretty soon after I have a Wife who is a lot less distressed. The midwives plan to let the drugs really do their work for the next couple of hours and leave us to it for a bit.

It's about this point I have my crisis of faith. The Wife still needs me there to give her support, encouragement and a rock on which to ground herself. I've been the big, strong man and partner all the way to this point, saying the right things, emptying her vomit bowl, keeping in good humour and never for an instant letting her think I'm anything other than supremely confident in what's going on.

Unfortunately, the prospect of a cesaerian without notice has shaken me to the core. I had lost my faith, I found myself surrounded by unpleasant what-ifs, all leading to the "what-if the Wife doesn't survive this?" and "what-if the baby doesn't survive this?" I suddenly find myself unable to look at or talk to my Wife without being in real danger of breaking down completely into a pile of tears and sobs, which would be the opposite of support and being a rock. I make an excuse to go and get a coffee with my fantastic parents, and thankfully twenty minutes with a cappucino, a macadamia-nut and white chocolate cookie and my two role-models is enough for me to get my life into perspective again and be able to go back and give the Wife the support she needs.

There is a bit of a blur now, as we get taken by an orderly and a midwife to the operating theatre. Well, I get as far as the first doors before being whisked off in another direction to get dressed in those lovely surgery clothes. I get to have a red hat so that people don't mistake me for someone who knows what they're doing. As if the camera in my hand wouldn't give it away...

I get escorted to the operating theatre, there's a bunch of people there and the maching that goes "ping!". I'm shown to my seat adjacent to my wife's head and told my job is to hold her hand. Somethin I can do! They pull a sheet up as a barrier between us and the business end, and everyone takes their places. They make the first incision.

"I can feel that!"

This is not so good. Despite the epidural which was promoted to a spinal block, it turns out the Wife is not sufficiently anethatised, and she could feel her abdomen being cut open. Immediately the anethatist says "we're putting her to sleep" and I get whisked back out of the operating room again, straight past the machine that goes "ping!" After getting changed I spend the rest of the birth pacing up and down in a corridor outside of the surgical wing, picturing all of the unpleasant scenarios that could be the outcome of this situation.

I am eventually greeted by the midwife wheeling a funky trolly with the most gorgeous little baby girl on it - my daughter! It is my job now to go with them to maternity and keep company with the bub until the Wife has returned from recovery. This takes more than an hour, and during this time of course I am still thinking stupid stuff like "what-if there were complications?" and "what-if I'm going to be bringing up this little bundle of joy on my own?"

It's all unfounded of course, and in the end everyone is OK, if tired. I now get to go home every night and waste a good night's sleep writing rambling diatribes in this blog. The Wife is a little less lucky, having to try and sleep in a hospital with all of its attendant distractions, including haveing to feed bub every four hours. The whole thing was a trial, it really was. Strange thing is, I felt I desperately had to write all of this down before I forgot it. Must be a survival mechanism, that we tend to block the less pleasant parts of our experiences out - makes us more likely to go ahead and breed a second time.

It has all been worth it though, because unlike other parents who only think they have the world's cutest baby, in our case it's true.

Narrow Minded - Much?

2005-08-17T13:26:00.000+10:00

I just saw a news article that talked about protests and delays regarding establishing a .xxx domain for the internet, designed specifically for the "adult entertainment" industry. I just can't understand why people would take issue with this. After all, whether people like it or not the internet is rife with sex sites, pornography and so on. There are huge quantities of people that make use of this - I'm pretty certain that adult-themed stuff still takes up the most bandwidth online.

Given I'm about to be a dad, I completely understand the desire to limit access to this sort of stuff. I don't think it should be banned, however, as there are all sorts of self-determination and free speech issues at stake here. Surely having a .xxx domain means that all that sort of stuff can be controlled a little better, and you can make a neat little divider between it and the rest of the net? I for one would be much happier knowing that, by and large, the .com domain was for general "stuff" and any naughty business was restricted to .xxx. I could simply tell Net Nanny (or whatever I end up using for web protection for my fetus) not to allow access to any .xxx sites. Duh!

Lets have a little sense here, people! Go the .xxx and let people make more informed choices about what and how they surf!

Space

2005-08-13T15:05:00.000+10:00

Well, I read today that NASA finally managed to launch its latest space probe to Mars, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. I'm a bit of a space nerd, you see, and I was chuffed to see that we've taken another small step for mankind. I'm living for the day that we see space elevators and moon mining and all that good stuff. But not today. Today I can simply be thankful that we can get a Space Shuttle back from orbit without burning up, and launch a space probe to our nearest planetary neighbour.

Snow in Canberra

2005-08-10T22:41:00.000+10:00

Well, here you have it. Granted, it is the middle of winter, and granted, Canberra is in what passes for mountains here in Oz. It still comes as a big surprise when we see the white stuff falling from the sky though. Grizzled old Canberrans would have looked out their windows, stroked their beards and made comparisons with "the last great snowfall of 86". Yes, it's been that long since we had a decent bit of snow.

Of course, I wouldn't be expecting to see a snow plough out on the road any time soon...

That said, a mate at work mentioned he knew a guy that got snowed in the last time. This was down in Theodore, so I guess a bit higher up than the bulk of Canberra. There wasn't a lot of snow, just enough to turn the steep, narrow streets of Theodore into a black ice hell. Called into work saying "I'm snowed in!" - and he was actually right!

So there you go. These pics were taken by my lovely better half, who is all of about five days away from giving birth to our first child. If you're all really lucky I'll be posting stuff about parenthood and such some other time. You might even get baby photos...

Chiz - C.

So, this is a Blog...

2005-08-09T11:40:00.000+10:00

Well, here I am.

Not much to look at, really. I would have expected the decor to be a little more alluring. Oh well... unaccustomed to Blogging as I am, this may well be the only thing I ever post, we'll just have to see. I mainly ended up here with a blog because a friend of mine was posting stuff as well, and I wanted to be able to leave rude comments on his blog.

I have to do a couple of compulsory nerdy things now:

This is a numbered list
This is Bold
This is Underlined Italics

Yup. I'm officially excited. Better not tarry too long, this is work time after all!