Moving-Onward on Kelvin Nicholson

Into the New House

Tue, 27 May 2008 10:30:00 +0000

I had a mere 12 minutes until my laptop, running Ubuntu 7.10, finished upgrading to the newest release, so it seemed like the perfect time to share a few updates from my life.

The last few weeks have been chaotic, to say the least. I found my own place at last! I am now in Pendle Hills. The commute to work isn’t much different, and taking the bus may even be a little faster. Living in a house again, rather than an apartment, is nice. I am quickly warming to the idea and generally enjoying the house.

Arrived in Sydney

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 10:30:00 +0000

I had arrived in Sydney! The flight wasn’t too bad, but shortly after landing I realised I hadn’t fully organised my transport or accommodation. I bought a phone card at the airport, where it cost $10 instead of $2 downtown, and jumped on a bus into the city. When I arrived, I stepped off the bus into steady rain and a cold breeze. After travelling through tropical countries for the previous two months, I was thoroughly unprepared for the Sydney winter, however mild it might be.

To China We Go

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 10:30:00 +0000

We woke at the ripe hour of 5:00am and were at the airport by 5:30. By 10:00 we were in Hong Kong, and by noon we were at the visa office on the Hong Kong-Shenzhen border. I had travelled this route before, so I knew getting a visa should not be a problem. However, to our dismay, the visa office closed for “lunch” from noon until 2:30pm every day.

Luckily, the staff member returned around 1:00pm and processed my visa. We crossed the border by 2:30pm and went in search of funds. A Bank of China ATM, hidden in an apartment building a few blocks away, provided what we needed. Two thousand RMB later, we were at the train station buying tickets to Guangzhou, and by 4:30pm we were on the train. We arrived in Guangzhou by 6:00pm. We had intended to purchase a train ticket to Tibet that night; however, there was a five-day wait. Quite unfortunate. We reached our hotel by 7:00pm and checked in, then immediately left to eat at our favourite rice-ball shop, checked our email, and headed back to the hotel. Day one, over and out.

Australia, Here We Come!

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 10:30:00 +0000

Alas, it is finally time for me to say goodbye to Taiwan. Yesterday I spent a few hours cutting and pasting my “Unlonely Planet guide,” a collection of freely available information in English and Chinese. I even designed a little cover logo; I find parodies quite humorous.

Last night, after sending some rather important emails, I packed my laptop. I didn’t go to bed until 3:00 a.m., even though I had basically finished packing last week. I woke up at 7:30 a.m. and started taking the boxes to the local post office, which isn’t particularly close. I borrowed a dolly from the breakfast place, but I still had to carry four 20 kg boxes down five flights of stairs, in the Taipei heat no less. Eventually, my boxes were shipped to Sydney.

Starting Closure

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 10:30:00 +0000

For the last 16 months I had been living in Taiwan (if it wasn’t obvious). Within the next month, that chapter will come to an end. Over the next few weeks I will continue studying for the GMAT and hopefully finishing my MCSE; any words of encouragement will be warmly welcomed. Meanwhile, I will try to avoid distractions, which seem to be coming in the form of Python. Django has been one of the most fun things I’ve ever played with. Recently I wrote and contributed some code to access both Alexa Web Search and Alexa Site Thumbnails via Python.

After: Security+

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 10:30:00 +0000

Nailed it: 869, with about 740 needed to pass. It wasn’t too difficult, although some questions seemed technically questionable. For example: to stop an attacker from sniffing a network, what is the correct action? The intended answer was “implement a switch.” That ranked just ahead of another questionable answer: “implement WEP to secure your wireless router.”

Before: Security+

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 10:30:00 +0000

I’m about to take my Security+ exam, and I don’t quite know how I feel. I think I am prepared; I don’t know what else I would study. Almost everything seems like common sense, and I am beginning to recognise the idiosyncrasies in how the questions are phrased. I hope.