New Year's Eve 2008

Published on Jan. 1, 2009 in Australia

Last year we had a very special New Year's -- on one of the private piers next to the Harbour Bridge (arguably one of the largest displays of fireworks in the world). We had great food, good company, and jaw dropping views. Our friend, Anita, wsa not in the country this year, so we had to find an alternative.

Our first plan was to try and go into one of the parks on the North side, thinking that somehow the view would be better. I quickly realized that I wouldn't be able to get into the city until pretty late, and all the parks would likely be filled up. Yan-Shih and I pondered for a little while, and both came up with an idea: the train. Last year we noticed that the train still crossed the bridge while the fireworks were going off. We looked up the schedule, checked for delays, and at 11:03, caught the train. We were actually scheduled to arrive at 11:55, which we thought we would just hang out on the platform, but guess what: the train driver had other ideas. The train very slowly left the CBD, and at 12:00, slowly started crossing the bridge. It is hard to describe what the view is like, but it was nothing short of spectacular. While last year we had a holistic view of the fireworks, this year we were right in the midst. The residue from the mortars was landing all around the train.

At one point we peaked between the cabins (the train was moving very, very slowly). We could see the fireworks in every direction.

We jumped off the train, caught the last few minutes from near Milson's Point, and were the first to dip into one of the local watering holes. Two beers later we were standing in line for the train, but the line at Milson's Point was just too slow (they weren't letting people in). After discussing our options, we decided to huff it up to North Sydney, where we promptly got on the train. Not only were we on the train, we were the only people on the train!

I need to preface something: I like trains. I don't think it is just that I don't like driving, nor traffic, but that moving people interests me. One trait a public transportation user must have, especially in a city not know for public transport, is patience. And last night, we had to have a lot of it.

The train ride from North Sydney to Central took nearly an hour; it usually takes about 15 minutes during normal hours. We started to reach Auburn and the announcer came on the intercom and said: "there's been an assault at the next station, so we need to wait here for a while." Twenty minutes later of sitting in a train with drunk people, some covered in puke (not their own), the train started moving. Once it reached Auburn the train doors started to close, then open, then close, then open. It turns out a group of people on our train were having a fight -- who knows about what. We had to wait 30 minutes for security to take care of them, and finally we were on our way. One odd thing about the station was an abundance of glass, not the bottle type, but the shatter type, almost like somebody broke the windows in the train. I have no idea why anybody would break the windows of a train, but I guess I only had two beers, so likely a lot of things that made sense to others didn't to me.

At 4:00am I called my mom, wished her a happy New Year, and hit the sack. Welcome 2009!

Major Database Changes Coming

Published on Dec. 31, 2008 in Australia

I'm about to make some major database changes. Afterwards, you'll see a few nifty new features, and one kick-ass blog post.

Out Camping

Published on Dec. 1, 2008 in Australia

I've been a little delinquent with sharing my life stories, so hopefully this weekend will make up for the last few months.

Yan-Shih and I decided it was time to go camping again, so on Friday night we met up with Remko and Daisy and drove north to near Colo; the middle of nowhere only 45m from the outskirts of Sydney. We set up tent and started cooking dinner: curry! That's right, we were not really roughing it. Soon after curry we curled up into our new two person tent, and quickly fell asleep.

Normally I would like to ease into testing my equipment, but the first night up in the hills threw down an assortment of weather that proved our tent to be more than adequate. I think it rained the majority of the evening, and right on queue stopped when we were ready to get up. We brewed some coffee, and then made omlettes. I'm not certain if what we did was good, but we put the eggs, bacon, and seasoning in little zip-lock baggies and boiled them. The omlettes turned out great, and with the aged cheese, certainly hit the spot.

With the sun rising we jumped into Remko's car (emphasis on car), and went back up to Putty road. About 45m later we were turning off onto the Culoul Range Train, a fire service road that was supposed to be 10k. After 15k we finally reached the parking lot, covered in mud, lucky to have the suspension working. Without any direction we set off, found what appeared to be a train marker, and started hiking. The trail disappeared into prickly bushes, which we persisted through, over a group of rocks, and down a hill. At this point, there was no trail. We discussed our plight, agreed to turn around, went back up the hill, over the rocks, and then through the prickly bushes.

After finding the correct trail we hiked along, had lunch after a while, and made it to the outlook. We turned around, jumped in the car, bumpy drove back to the campsite, and started playing poker.

Luckily we weren't playing for money, as Remko had the game under control most of the time. Soon enough we had dinner (more curry!) and fell asleep.

We woke up feeling rested, drove home, and I started editing the map of the area.

Taming the Jungle

Published on Aug. 19, 2008 in Australia

Most weekends closely mimic each other: drinking a lot of wine, playing the the computers, eating lots of food. However, this past weekend was pleasantly eventful.

Saturday night we met up with some of Yan-Shih's co-workers in Windsor, a tiny suburb on the way to the blue mountains. After a stunning dinner of fish curry with numerous sides, we drove into Richmond to watch a local guild's play, A Dark Winter Night. Having been spoiled in theater since a small kid, I still really enjoy the performance. It was humble but entertaining. They even served free coffee and biscuits at intermission!

After the play we stopped by a local pub. Two beers later we were on the way back to Windsor, and shortly after saying goodbye to Markus and Marion, we fell asleep.

At 9:00 we woke up, feeling totally rested, and ate a yum breakfast. Remco and Daisy (our hosts) had some wonderful aged cheese, which when put on crumpets, was simply delightful. The previous night I had been complaining about the need to mow our lawn, and our lack of a lawnmower. Remco and Daisy immediately volunteered to not only donate their lawnmower, but to help us mow the lawn!

As you can see, our lawn had turned into a bit of a jungle. We moved to the side lawn, yet the mower started to slow down. We figured it was full of sticky grass and subsequently turned it upside down and scrapped out the basin. For those of you paying attention, you must be thinking 'you turned it upside down!'. No gas fell out, but oil spilled out everywhere. Upon next start it just chugged and spat, and wouldn't start. We cleaned the oil filter, tried again, but no luck. I borrowed a wrench from a neighbor and we dismantled the lawnmower, tried to find a problem, and tried again: no luck. Finally I decided to consult Yahoo Answers and found exactly what I was looking for. We ultimately cleaned the spark plug and the cylinder that the plug is in, and also cleaned the cylinder going to the muffler. Both were cleaned with lots of q-tips dipped in gasoline. On next start, it worked!

Remco and Daisy ended up donating basically their entire afternoon to us. We tried to repay them with cookies, wine, chocolate and lunch -- but I honestly don't think that is enough. I'll have to think of something special. But until then, thanks!

My GF and Vista

Published on June 3, 2008 in Australia

My girlfriend's laptop has 1GB of memory, and Vista. I just heard a classic quote from her today: "I think Vista plus Office equals Monster."

Followed by... "I just clicked the exsomething.exe with the somethingelse.exe and hit end task. Now my desktop went black."