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| Friday, April 28th, 2006 | | 8:36 pm |
New York, New York
Going to head to New York tomorrow morning with the other guys from my training class. We will head off at about 7am for what we expect will be a 4 hour trip. We are booked in at a dodgy hotel at La Guardia airport which is in Queens (about 11 miles from Manhattan). The plan is to drop our bags, shower, and then catch the subway into New York where we will stay all afternoon, evening and morning! | | Sunday, April 23rd, 2006 | | 10:35 pm |
| | Friday, November 25th, 2005 | | 2:57 pm |
Anti-splogs
I saw something interesting today when doing a blog search. I was looking for blogs about Quallaby; a company recently aquired by MicroMuse. Now I have heard of spam blogs (or splogs) which at first glance appear to be written by a human but upon closer inspection make no sense at all. They merely contain a heap of links and keywords to increase the page rank of a particular site. What I saw today was the complete opposite. One of the links that I got was for a blog about Muse Guitar Tabs. Wanting to know about muse guitar tabs? Then the following muse related resources will be just what you need!This page has links to random websites that contain similar words but infact have absolutely nothing to do with the topic. Is this infact a mechanism to make "Muse Guitar Tabs" more difficult to find? Do you think the record company would do this? Either way, I'm quite certain that the fictional "Emma" isn't really interested in telco performance management or the plight of New Orleans... | | Saturday, September 3rd, 2005 | | 8:30 pm |
More Katrina
Google maps allows you to switch between a before and after view of New Orleans. Very interesting. And to the director of the Department of Homeland Security who said that they were unprepared due to a combination of two devastating disasters that went beyond planning, I guess he should have read this article from last year. Kinda prophetic. Who woulda thought that a hurricane would cause a breach of the levees??? | | 8:23 am |
New Orleans
Last night I was watching the Hurrican Aid concert on NBC. Kanye West was on with Mike Myers. Mike read his bit from the autocue about how New Orleans is 20 ft under water etc. Kanye started talking and I thought he must have been pretty choked up with emotion as he was really inarticulate - I have seen him on interviews before and he's normally pretty bad. I then realized he was adlibbing and talking about how white people are described by the news as looking for food whilst black people are described as looters, summed up in the image below:  Mike Myers nodded his head but looked pretty uncomfortable the whole time. Kanye then continued his tirade about how the army has shoot to kill orders, as shown here. | | Sunday, August 28th, 2005 | | 10:24 pm |
| | Saturday, August 27th, 2005 | | 3:40 pm |
Relief
After my previous whinge about food, I finally got a bit of relief today. I wanted to cook some butter chicken but tandoori paste is a bit too exotic for supermarkets to carry. I did a google search for indian markets in San Leandro and Mangle's market came up just 500m from where I live. I went to check it out and it turns out that it is a South Pacific market specializing in New Zealand, Australian and Fijian food. They had shelves full of staples, Australian classics (twisties, burger rings, arnott's biscuits, uncle toby's muesli bars and ceral) and freezers full of NZ lamb. They also had a few oddities like Fijian icecream - this seemed a bit extravagant considering how difficult it would be to transport. I managed to get some tandoori spice ($1.05) but also some *real* Cadbury chocolate ($4.00) and some Tim Tams ($2.50) so now I'm happy. | | Friday, August 26th, 2005 | | 4:50 pm |
Events
I'm a bit dissapointed that the timing of this trip doesn't line up
with any decent events. Whilst Burning Man is next week in the
Nevada desert, Tickets are US$250 and I could only really go for a
weekend which makes it too hard to justify. The result is that nothing
much will be happening in the city this weekend or next as most of the
event-going public will be away. The weekend after I leave, Love Parade
is on where literally hundreds of DJ's play on floats that move through
the city and about 100,000 people dance along beside them. Here
is the lineup:
Pre-parties
- Sep 23 - Lee Burridge @ Lovelee by Satellite SF & Spundae (Mezzanine)
- Sep 23 - Crystal Method @ Un-Official Pre-Parade Party (Ruby Skye)
- Sep 23 - Friendly, Soul of Man, Stereo 8, much more @ Love Parade 2005: Before (Mighty)
September 24 - Love Parade Float Lineup
- Carl Cox, Ferry Corsten, Bad Boy Bill, DJ Dan, Markus Schulz,
Blank & Jones, Above & Beyond, Kyau vs. Albert, Mike Koglin,
Dyloot & Tom SIlk, Gianni & Taj @ Spundae, Skills &
Beatport (Spundae & Skills)
- Paul Van Dyk, DJ Icey, Baby Anne, Max Graham, Jerry Bonham, Edgar
V, Saeed Younan, Jerry Bonham, Aaron Carter, Jen Lasher @ Dance without
Borders (PAM DJs)
- Lee Burridge, Jamie Anderson, John Tejada, Scott Carrelli, Jon Beech, Sinikus @ Anu (ElectroCelt)
- Crystal Method, Late Night Sneaky, Jackie Christie, DJ Keri,
Desert Dwellers, Ricardo Cassettari @ Funk da Float (INGrooves &
Supper Club)
- Mark Farina, JT Donaldson, The Land Shark, IZ, Miguel Migs, J
Boogie, Kaskade, DJ Fluid, Rithma, Chuck Love, Colossus and more @ Om
Records / MySpace and ESJDCJO (Om Records / Myspace / ESDJCO)
- Lee Coombs, DJ Hyper, Syd Gris, Jondi & Spesh, Hoj, Melyss, Jive @ 1 Love, Many Beats (Opel & Qool)
- Future Funk Squad, Carbon Community, J-Break, HI-8, Greg J, Aaron
Jae, M.O.D, BAM, Ripple, Influence, Jay Vigor, Jason Who, Erik_Hz, Marc
O @ Bay 2 Breakin (Bay Area Breaks Brigade)
- Aye~n, Dj M, Frankie, Genome, KINETIK, Kuze, Lexxus, Mal,
Mariposa!, Method One, Ruko, Spiscious Taste, the DOCTOR @ Bay Arean
DnB (Bay Area DnB)
- St John, Felipe Avelar, Carlos Alfonso, Doctor Ross, DJ Doza, DJ
Orionz, DJ Girlie, Bangin B, Reclipse @ BRUSA (BayRaves.com / The
Bounce FM / Wild 94.9 House Nation)
- James Laurer, Jay Prasad and JohnCurley, Chris Lobsinger, Kai,
Samer, Tim Heit @ Pure Experience (Furefuture / Proton Radio / Club
Radio / Lots More)
- Ooha, Adam Ohana, Nova Tron Vs Atomik, Dog, Athena, Friction, Zapper @ Purgatory Cruiser (Freak Kingdom / Yellow #5)
- Justin Long, Jonene, Deron, Sweet P, Mike Frugaletti, SJ Mes, Tasho @ SanFranDisco (Stompy / Good Family Recordings)
- Scott Quick, DJ Ladyhouse, Kramer, Sen Sei, Andrew Phelan, Mike
Giannini, Kepi and Kat @ Sound of Mind (Sound of Mind / SF Station)
- Randall Jones, Jorge Rico, Eduardo Topete, Jose Amezcua, Shawn
Mcelligott @ Summer Madness (Papas & Beer Ensenada Mexico/AC&S
Records, San Diego)
- Matan, Naked Tourist, Olowanpi, KJ, Liam Shy, Deeper in Zen, Chromatone, Dr. Spook @ Tantra (Tantra)
- Soulclap, Mix Master Amoeaba, Tanuki, DJ Lowtek @ Temple of Boom (Thursday Night Productions)
- Ryel K, Greg Louis, John Kobe, Derek Hena, Krystal Jones, Leedia,
Dj Seven, DJ Sol, Tracy Bleeke @ The Pink Mammoth (Pink Mammoth /
Lo-Rise / Beatport)
- 8ball, Brad Robinson, Mancub, Kapt'n Kirk, Smoove, rrrus, The Geometrist @ The Unimog (Space Cowboys)
Love Parade Afterparties
- Sep 24 - Ferry Corsten, Carl Cox, Blank & Jones, Markus
Schulz, Above & Beyond, Kyau vs. Albert, Mike Koglin, Bad Boy Bill,
tons more @ Official Love Parade Afterparty by SPUNDAE & SKILLS
(Bill Graham Civic Auditorium)
- Sep 24 - Paul van Dyk, Max Graham, Jerry Bonham, Ralph Falcon,
Westbam, DJ Icey, more tba @ PAMDJs 10 Year Anniversary Party (1015
Folsom)
- Sep 24 - Carl Cox, Evil Nine @ Southern Comfort presents the Road to Voodoo (Ruby Skye)
- Sep 24 - Lee Coombs, Hyper, Lorin, Ooah, Laird, Goldilox, Spesh,
Syd Gris, Hoj, Sunder, Tom Sawyer, and more @ Infuse: A Declaration of
Love (Terra Gallery)
- Sep 24 - Future Funk Squad, High Eight, Carbon Community,
J-Break, Space Cowboys, tons more (Underground Location/evilbreaks.com
for info)
- Sep 25 - Soul of Man, Stereo 8, Friendly, Myagi, Murphstar, tons more @ Love Parade 2005: After (Mighty)
Just to add salt to the wound, LTJ Bukem and Steve Lawler are here the week after that. | | 6:27 am |
New phone number
I got a Cingular pre-paid mobile phone card the other day so that I can make and receive cheap calls whilst in the US. When roaming elsewhere in the world, making calls is horrendously expensive (~$3/minute) but receiving calls is relatively cheap (often just a few cents). In the US where you pay for calls you recieve, Telstra charges you both a roaming fee (a reasonable 28c/minute) AND an airtime fee (an exorbitant $1.46/minute). So the result of this is that I won't have my Australian SIM card plugged in until September 17. If you want to contact me, call or SMS me on +1-510-590-7755. Calls from Telstra mobiles to US mobiles cost an extra 30c/minute. | | Wednesday, August 24th, 2005 | | 7:25 pm |
Food
Chocolate
Good - lindt balls for $4 per dozen
Bad - cadbury chocolate manufactured by Hershey's. How can they get it so wrong!!!
Spices
Good - huge bags of paprika, chili flakes and cumin for 0.99c in the Hispanic section. Corriander for 0.50c
Bad - overpriced spices for the whitey:
- Cardammon pods - $8.69
- Cloves - $6.29
- Turmeric - $4.29
wtf?
Sandwhiches
Good - pulled pork from joaquin st deli
Bad - turkey and cranberry with a 1cm thick "slice" of cranberry sauce from a tin. Seriously, who eats that???
Coffee
Bad - filter coffee
Good - chai latte available everywhere :)
| | Saturday, August 20th, 2005 | | 3:16 pm |
Changi
This morning I started my trip back to San Francisco. It has been a really frantic week at work so I was half looking forward to the flight as there is nothing to do but relax. The stress came from spending 5 days onsite at Chevron in QV1 deploying a trial of our software. I doubt I could handle working at a place like that - the amount of policy crap that goes on is such a hinderance to doing any real work. They literally have 10 minute meetings to discuss who has 5 minutes to spare. Atleast the trial had gone smoothly despite the crap and I got lots of congratulations on the job I had done. After feeling completely drained from the previous week, Emma and I headed out to dinner at Royal Viet in East Perth (it's in the Entertainment Book ;). We chose a place in East Perth specifically because I needed to head back to the office to pick up my spare laptop battery and swipe card for the US. After completely forgetting to do this and driving straight home afterwards, we begrudgingly drove back into the city. Once in the city, I used my "mill" key to get into the building. The exterior doors opened fine however the lift wouldn't let me go to our floor. After trying several other lifts, banging lots of buttons and trying to call the building management and access management firms, we gave up. There is a new administrative staff member at work who did a security audit last month - I wonder if she changed my access rights? I have previously had 24/7 access and I wasn't informed of any changes. Either way, I'm a bit pissed of because I'll have to go the next 4 weeks with only 45 minutes battery life and explain to the sysadmins why I need to get a new card issued :( Emma and I had to drag ourselves out of bed at 5:00am to head off to the airport. I had an awful nights sleep. Firstly, I almost forgot to set my alarm. Once I remembered I couldn't get settled. This was followed up by awful dreams where I had gone mental and randomly shouted at people. Everyone kept telling me to shutup and "be normal" - bitches! The flight was pretty standard though breakfast was flavourless compared to the normal Singapore fare. Fortunately I had a spare seat beside me. My next flight is to Hong Kong and leaves in an hour and a half. I then fly all night and day to SF, arriving at 7pm Saturday (10am Sunday Perth time). Right now I'm catching up on documentation from the last week. Urghh.... | | Monday, July 18th, 2005 | | 4:51 pm |
Good news, everybody!
Apparently a Futurama movie is coming straight to DVD. Billy West confirmed it at a San Diego comic convention thought it is yet to be confirmed by Matt Groening or Fox. I think a DVD movie would be fantastic as they could pursue the nerd jokes unencumbered. | | Friday, June 24th, 2005 | | 9:25 pm |
Woooo!
Heading home in just 4 hours. Yay! Had a really productive week and I achieved a lot of the goals that I had for the trip. I'm a little disappointed that I may not be able to have as much holidays as I wanted when I get back but I'm not suffering as much as others are at the moment. I've also really cleared up what is happening with work for next year. It may well be possible to stay in Perth as a contractor however I don't know how satisfying the work will be and people will replace me on all the exciting projects. The pressure to move will remain so if I don't want that then I don't really have much choice. Looking forward to getting home after the 30+ hours of travelling ahead of me. I'm wearing my anti-terror socks which I bought on my first trip to the US. I think I have worn these on all but one plane flight since then and they haven't failed me yet. Would anyone care to buy these miracle socks? | | Sunday, June 5th, 2005 | | 5:26 pm |
Appartment
I am so slack at updating this thing. Big news today is that I have moved into a new appartment in the city. I am now living at in the Mission district. The population here is predominantly Mexican. There are heaps of large Catholic churches, Mexican and Spanish restaurants and bars. The Mission has some very slummy parts with lots of homeless people and gangs loitering on the streets though that is normally contained to just a few blocks. Don and Hoshi both live within a mile so it should be easy to catch up with people. The appartment is sharing with 2 guys and a girl, all around my age. I have met them all briefly though haven't really chatted much yet. One guy is doing an MBA at Cornell and working at Ubisoft as an intern over the summer. The girl is a recently graduated architect. I gather the others guy is also an intern. The room i'm in is fairly small, about the same size as my bedroom at home. It is on the second floor with two large windows out to the road. The room is $990 US per month so the prices are fairly outrageous. The house has a large plasma tv which is pretty cool. The kitchen appears fairly old and crappy. Right now I'm off to wash some clothes. There is a washer and drier shared between two appartments so you need to pay to use it ($1.25 for the washer and $1 for the drier I'm told). Atleast its better than going to a laundromat... | | Friday, May 20th, 2005 | | 8:03 am |
Nerd news
Saw a great bit of press today describing the work that we do with Cisco. Check out this article if you're interested. | | Tuesday, May 17th, 2005 | | 3:47 pm |
Engagement Party
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) emmahead and I are having our engagement party in a little under a fortnight on Saturday 28th of May. Nothing formal so feel free to invite anyone who might be interested in celebrating with us. See you all there! | | Friday, February 4th, 2005 | | 1:55 pm |
Best Day Ever!!!!!
Was feeling really down this morning that I didn't get Big Day Out tickets. Drove past the line last night and decided against joining it when it was already several hundred people deep. Checked all the usual websites to see how the line situation was going and couldn't find anything. Was in a meeting at 12 when Glenn rushed in with really important news: "200 Tickets left on the gate" Hell yeah!!!! Ran out the meeting, quickly rang Matt, baked it out to Claremont and layed down the money for 6 tickets. Super Shweet!!!! Now I won't get all depressed listening to Chemical Brothers on my laptop Current Mood:  ecstaticCurrent Music: Chemical Brothers - Galvanize | | Thursday, December 23rd, 2004 | | 5:27 pm |
I haven't been spending much time on my laptop in the evening lately so haven't had much time to post...time to update I guess... After a weekend in Vegas, Emma and I are now in Seattle. I was really looking forward to going here since the city appeared really pretty during my brief visit 9 months ago. The city feels much more like home due to the wide streets and brick buildings (versus the narrow streets and wooden houses in San Fran). I came up here to work with some of Martin's ex-coworkers which has been interesting. The Cisco office is split across two floors and has a slide between the two. Four days of work soon turned into two (which is good and bad) since the guy I'm here to see doesn't want to work xmas eve and had to go to the doctor on wednesday. Emma and I took advantage of the Wednesday off and went shopping in the city. After paying $20 for parking (yuk!) it was fun to see the Starbuck's on every second corner and "Seattle's Best Coffee" on every other. Once caffeinated we explored the different shops and went to the famous Pike's Place Market where they throw whole salmon around for tourists to "ooh" and "ahhh" at. The weather has been much better than I was expecting - it has been mostly overcast with flashes of blue sky but no rain or wind. The daily maximums of 7 degrees is quite chilly but bearable. The unfortunate thing is that there hasn't been any snow all week. We are hoping to go skiing tomorrow so will drive out to Crystal and see what conditions are like. | | Tuesday, December 7th, 2004 | | 3:57 pm |
| | Tuesday, November 30th, 2004 | | 9:08 pm |
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