Avatar

Saw it in 3D today
Very, very cool flying things ..and that is all I will say until you've all seen it.

Merry Christmas one and all (for tomorrow)

Because there's no way I'll get on the computer tomorrow to say it - what with the turkey and the ham and the cake and the prawns... and the buche de Noel.

In the last two days I mowed the lawn, window tinted the western facing windows in the back room, bought office 7 for a laptop that didn't have office on it, did the very last of my Christmas shopping and had a pedicure (the nail polish was a little disappointing - I was careful with it for 2 hours afterward and assumed it would then be dry - and now I have material patterns in it from the blanket on my bed when I had an afternoon nap.

I also had my first MRI today - loud long and slightly uncomfortable, but at least only the bottom 1/2 of my body went in so there was no claustrophobia induced panic attack involving wild thrashing about and uncontrolled sobbing.

Still to do today
Photograph the bird Susie is getting for Christmas, take a bird over to Dot and wrap those last pesky presents.
I think I'll wait till after Christmas to do anything more on my list.

and so it goes dedunk dedunk dedunk

They couldn't find an error with the computer and suggested it was a USB connection. I pulled everything and replaced my mouse and spent 3 days monitoring, at first I thought it was heat since I still got the error sometimes but then when if was going nuts, I took away the side wall that was just resting against the computer and turned the fan on it. No dice. Then I turned the computer around a bit and it stopped- and stayed stopped. I've had the fan off, the side back on and had it running hotter and still no error. I think there's a connection in the back which is not quite right and moving the computer has got it sitting right ( or a cable that has a dodgy bit maybe). I'm now afraid to touch the computer even though its sitting rather awkwardly.

On other news - the back room is cleaned up, I've been pricing software, I've marked a literature review for work - EVEN THOUGH I'M ON HOLIDAYS!, gone to the graduation (4 hours out of my day) - EVEN THOUGH I'M ON HOLIDAYS!
Tomorrow I'm getting my car serviced and going in to uni to listen to an honours confirmation seminar - EVEN THOUGH I'M ON HOLIDAYS!
I've also had calls and requests to go in to work every day last week. You really need to leave town and lose your mobile to get away from this job. My dad laughed because when I was small he was doing exactly the same (they even called him after he'd resigned and moved on).

I just washed my academic robes today. I figured out since I wear them no more than twice a year, I have to wear them for 70 years to get my $5 a wear rule value out of them. I work on the basis that I can buy any jewelry, shoes or clothing so long as I wear them once for each $5 that they cost - eg $30 pair of shoes must be worn 6 times. It stops me from thinking clothes are too good to wear and leaving them in the cupboard. The better they are, the more I have to wear them.

I've also cleaned all bar one of my bird cages, booked a facial etc for me and Mum and put away the miscellaneous star trek paraphernalia I'd picked up over the last year as well as playing an RPG with C & A, lots of LOTRO and a bit of an online game in beta - but the repeated big downloads, character wipes and limited access time sort of cramps my style.

new comic

Having read this, I feel a bit bad about taking down goblins in LOTRO.

To do done so far

2 days officially off and I've already had to write a long email to a student and have a 10 minute phone call today. As per usual, expensive pieces of equipment break on Friday at 2pm, when the rest of the day is meetings and then off on holidays. Hopefully it will all be dealt with by someone else, though that was what the phone call was about.

So far I have;
* taken my computer in to have a glitch looked at (I'm using my parents to write this)
* taken my DVD recorder in ditto (don't expect it back before christmas - so much for watching DVD's on Holidays) - maybe I will be buying that tivo sooner rather than later
* made Buche de Noel with Dot
* shifted the lounge room furniture around
* made a start on cleaning up my rooms
*taken some 1/2 hour afternoon naps
*Posted Andreas Christmas present and Birthday present- only to have Australia Post go on Strike. You may get it, someday....I also just bought the first bit of the next round of presents.

About to go out and;
*play RPG with A & C

Still to do
*repair tumbler (only been trying to get to this since July)
*get ebay account and sell some stuff (only been trying to get to this since 2 years ago)
* finish clean up my back bedroom so that visitors can actually sleep there
*sew up curtain hems
*look for cool Birthday presents for Dad, Doug,
*play lots and lots of online RPG's - I have done a little bit ;)
*finish scrapbooking my tazzy trip, do skiing trip
*rest - as instructed by Andrea
*convert tapes to DVD - if I ever get the DVD recorder back
*go to the movies - I just bought 6 tickets to use up at Warrina
put the christmas tree up - only 2 weeks behind so far
*hmm I think there's more on my list somewhere - but I'm off now to put the birds to bed and put the Birthday presents for A & C in the car.

I feel strangely sleepy given I'm on Holidays ;D

been galivanting

I've been up in Innisfail collecting soil samples to look for phage. Now I have to process them....still sleepy from filed trip fresh air. I have to finish the coffee sitting beside me and go sort my samples this morning, maybe start processing them too.
Innisfail was nice, I ate out at the RSL and the Imperial tavern & stayed at the Big 4 caravan park with was clean, quiet and well set out. I got to see lots of different banana breeds as well as ornamental gingers, lilipilli and limes. We stopped and bought cheap fruit all the way home...mmm lychees.
Last night I had a meat skewer at outback Jacks. It was a foot long with 3cm cubed chunks of meat on it...double yum

...and now, to work!

Subject to change without notice

This is my list of things to do during my holidays. I will be editing as I remember things, decide not to do things etc

To do
*repair tumbler (only been trying to get to this since July)
*get ebay account and sell some stuff (only been trying to get to this since 2 years ago)
*make Buche de Noel with Dot - this is the "oh we've eaten too much so we'll just have a little slice to be polite....is there any more? perhaps thirds?" cake I have made in previous years
*clean up my back bedroom so that visitors can actually sleep there
*play RPG with A & C
*Post Andreas Christmas present
*look for cool Birthday presents for Dad, Doug, Andrea
*play lots and lots of online RPG's
*finish scrapbooking my tazzy trip, do skiing trip

edit 18/11/09
*rest - as instructed by Andrea

edit 26/11/09
*sew up curtain hems




Wouldn't it be nice to do
catch a flight to brisbane and go shopping for a couple of days

crippled - timing could be worse

I blew out my knee on Tuesday. I spent the evening icing it and the next morning it looked baseball sized and almost as firm - I couldn't bend it far or straighten up completely. Went to work to pick up some reading and then went home and spent the day in bed alternatively icing and compressing. I got a new ice pack whcih is really cool...in more ways than one. It looks like one of those old headache bags with the screw cap that you put ice in - but also comes with a large neoprene thing with straps that fits over it so you can velcro the whole thing to your knee, ankle , elbow etc...and it doesn't slide off!
On Thursday I spent much of the day seeing the Doctor, getting x-rays and making bookings to see the orthopedic surgeon.
Its a lot better today, but the problem I have is that I'm getting injured regularly when walking on flat surfaces in straight lines.
When people say "what did you do?" my response is "nothing". So I want to find out whats really wrong inside the old knee & make sure its not something that 10 years from now they'll say "oh we know whats wrong, you should have got it fixed a decade ago, its too late now."
And the timing could be worse - at least I don't have to run for classes and stand up in front of them at the moment. It might mess up the planned field trip though.

and the phone doesn't work again

We had a ml of rain last night. Enough to make it muggy and make the phone line change from static and working to snow and not. The ADSL is still working though.

a blow by blow account....

Actually, probably not - since we were online doing hall of mirrors instance in LOTRO for 3 hours and still didn't get to the end. We gave up when we all died at 10:30pm and had to run a very long way back through to get to the "just before the big boss" area.

I did discover that 3x lvl 60 characters can, with the appropriate mix and tactics, kill 2 nasty rehealing wargs and then a boss with over 100 000 hit points. When we eventually got close to the big boss, the morrovail kept repopping and since they had an instideath thing after 45 sec, it was hard to take them out quickly enough to not die as well as have time to figure out the next step. I've got to the point where if the creature has less than 11000hp, its considered easy. At least in a group with a loremaster.

I think we'll have to start from scratch next time...perhaps when we have a longer free time to go through it.

problems briefly fixed

P1
The guy came round, looked at the phone - discovered I'd plugged the network port into the phone line which had caused the complete silence (woops - since taped over that connection). Couldn't find any static, said it might be one of my plugs being old and a little dodgy connection wise.....they'll probably send me a bill since they found the plug in the wrong port)
Static came back the next day - replaced all of my line filters and splitters, static still there. Will call my brother before calling Telstra again I think.

P2
Opened up the computer, swapped the ram around, prodded the connections - issue went away. Until I'd had the computer on all Sunday afternoon, where I got a BSOD and then a brief freeze with audio loop. I also had a new issue which was actual lag I think - though possibly it was the freeze screen. It killed Bindy.
I'll have another open up and prod. I may have to run the computer with the side off, or move it to somewhere I can blast a fan on it full time. I could tape net curtain over the side - or fly screen - and let a fan blow in...I could buy and install airconditioning I guess too.

problem fixed..errm

I checked all my cables - even when all switched off and filter/no filter on single lines I still had static. I rang telstra, they were having an upgrade, could I ring tomorrow. I rang tomorrow, They organised to send out a tech - in 2-4 days and diverted incoming calls to my mums mobile...outgoing should still work but be staticy still.

Then the phones stopped working entirely no static, no dial tone - the incoming divert worked but we have no outgoing - oh, and no internet. Now telstra have got us booked in for a tech in 2 days.

Soo - no good way to work on my second computer based problem yet. Also, no game playing.

problem solving

I actually enjoy problem solving - if I have some free time. Even if not, I can waste hours trying to figure out solutions to things for other people. I know I shouldn't because my work doesn't get done, but it is so much fun.

I do have some of my own trouble shoots to do at the moment.

1. Static on phone. Is it because;
a) I churned to a new provider
b) there's a fault turned up on the line
c) the dvd player I in put in the parents room is interfering with the phone base

2. Dedunk dedunk noise on my computer, matched with brief thinking by the computer which slows things down on the desktop and freezes the screen in lotro if I'm playing (also causing audio looping) for about 10 sec - mouse still works. I need to;
a) remove everything that plugs in via usb and turn on computer - see if it happens again
b) open computer and check all my connections are tight
c) try to track down some of the alert thingies on my event viewer
d) do more online reading
e) look for viruses, spyware etc
f) look at my router settings -I did some fiddling when I churned - but I think I already had the issue then

I've already done a checkdisk - its not that. Used canned air on all my USB ports - still happens.

Some of the comments on the event viewer are about non-existant registry or DLL files, but there don't seem to be enough events to match to the frequency of the dedunks

ok - must go and do real work (ie marking) now

pics at last

Here are my new Champions online characters
- Dark Lightning



Precious Horde (who I team up with A&C's Dragons to fight for justice for the soft skins.


Hawk Blade - physically my strongest character - she lifts trucks over her head and throws them



and Tiffany, my gadgeteer. I wanted a completely human looking character. Apparently a good fighting match for Normal Man...who looks suspiciously like Chris dressed up.

storage woes

My Lotro characters have bulging pockets that are terribly unorganised...pretty much like my own storage at home. I spent all evening fiddling with it last night (the Lotro stuff that is) logging in and out between watching TV. I don't think its improved any...perhaps I'll have another shot on Thursday - or i could just sell it all. I would be selling my own stuff if I got organised enough too.

chipmonk eyes

I am suspicious that the decaf coffee I was given at 8:30 last night was not actually decaf - I was still eyes wide open at 1am. Then I had to get up before 7am. The previous night I had stayed up waaay too late killing dragons in Carn Dum. At least I have the gratifyingly sunken and darkly circled eyes of the sleep deprived. I hate it when I feel awful but look fine - there's just no sympathy.

And in recognition of the 19th...Arrgh

My pirate name is:

Captain Jenny Bonney

Even though there's no legal rank on a pirate ship, everyone recognizes you're the one in charge. You can be a little bit unpredictable, but a pirate's life is far from full of certainties, so that fits in pretty well. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

behind

Still haven't put photos I intended to on here.

I also have a cold - for which I'm blaming Lexifabs plague ridden blog.
I have a bunch of jobs at home that aren't done - which I'm not blaming LOTRO or champions online for (though I probably should).
I also have a bunch of jobs at work that aren't done for which I'm blaming focusing entirely on writing lectures. I now have two weeks to catch up (and write more lectures). Today I will be doing only catch up stuff. Tomorrow I'll start writing again I think.

not a great start to the day

At work at 7:30am for an 8am lecture. Open up my brand new fresh coffee beans and the top comes off the packet so the packet drops - coffee beans on the floor. Set up my dripolator and start reading the lecture - look back and theres coffee all over my coffee table (aka filing cabinet). The top seal on the coffee (which is there to keep the heat in and should pop down automatically when you put the coffee pot in the dripolator) hadn't popped down - so the coffee had run out over the now sealled lid of the coffee pot. Cleaned up and on a second run through the same beans now - not as good as it could have been.

I'm definitely not doing any lab work today.

Champions online - death by rubberbanding

Two days after mentioning I might try this new superhero game, a late birthday present arrives...so now I'm very tired.

The character make up is awesome...I spend at least an hour on each one. 30 seconds to pick a power, then 59 minutes and 30 seconds to get the cheekbones, toenails, insect wings and colour scheme juuust right.

It was ok on day one once I got past the intro screen freezing my computer because zone alarm blocked the game. The game itself in the first section looks very comic booky - which is realistic I guess. My Gold Dragon character sort of makes my eyes bleed to look at her in the sunlighty bits.

I even got my head round the movement controls - sort of. Day two I gave up due to terminal rubberbanding. No-one else seemed to have problems but my character ended up dead due to not being able to run away or fight back. I may check it again tonight and see how it is.

Characters so far:
Hawk blade (female martial artist in pink and white with hawk wings, tail and a head crest)
Dark lightning (male darkness skill, all in shiny metallic black with blue lightning motifs and
a cape and scarf over his face)
Precious Horde: Golden humanoidish type dragon with green trim - she lopes along on all fours rather than running
Tiffany (blonde gadgeteer with pigtails and wearing a green plaid skirt and jacket over a purple shirt, with purple shoes and spectacles)

Edit: tried it - rubberbanding up the wazoo. Tried again this morning and its fine - hope that means they've fixed it and not "won't be able to play in the evenings 'cause it just doesn't work then"

tax return spent

on Frivolous Wii game and now Wii mat.
Of course, I'd just done my knee so I can't use the mat properly till I can put weight on the right leg

tired, sore and a cough

The cough is really bugging me. The tired is a combination of not enough sleep and disgustingly early mornings caused by lectures. The sore is all my own fault. I bought a Wii on the weekend - with sports games. On day one I had a Wii age of 78. On day 2 it was 38. I blame ignorance of the rules for day 1 results....but the soreness seems to match

relaxing in front of the fire in the Inn league headquarters

Bindy, having finally got to level 60, has also got enough cred with the Inn league to get into their secret Lair in Michel Delving. And very nice it is too. I shall attach pics at some time. I managed to buy a new dance move in there and only need some more festival tokens and and a trophy skin to get an animal trophy either smoking a pipe or wearing a silly hat. It would be a great place to meet up...oh wait, no-one I know has managed to get the cred yet.
On other related issues - Bindy is lvl 60 now and its an odd sensation to know if you do quests, you'll get no XP, yet I still have a bunch of deeds and those legendary weapons still get XP, so it will probably keep me working on him.

Anyhoo, back to my huge, real workload

The house

Has a new roof...just waiting on the gutters.

They turned up and put up scaffolding. 2 days later some guys arrived before dawn. At 7 am on the 24th July they came in and had the roof off before morning tea and a new on by lunch time. They left and arrived a week later and did the final trimming. The scaffolder arrived yesterday and took the scaffolding down. Now we wait for the guttering guy to turn up and our house will have a completely new roof. Then, of course, the very, very, very big bill will arrive.

pottering

I have some very big jobs to start, but a lot of not quite finished things that have been put aside during the first two nightmare weeks of lecturing. I'm dithering a bit finishing these off and trying to decide which ones should still be left till after I've done the big jobs. This is because I did a 60+ hour week last week and I'm not really up to jumping in both feet into the big jobs yet. It doesn't help that there's so many smaller, half finished jobs that I keep finding new ones...and some of them have more important deadlines than others. So right now I'm dithering, scrounging through my desk, sorting the order of the things to do, looking over lists, trying to get all of them in my head and in some sort of priority. Add to that trying not to take my eye too far off the ball regarding the big jobs with deadlines that are coming up.

Its an odd sensation, alternately relaxing with paper shuffling and having mild anxiety spurts regarding deadlines.

waiting for the hit

I have exceeded my 40 hour week and am now head down, making sure stuff I need on Monday morning 8am is done. I've also had to repeat those samples in the 44oC incubator, because when I finally went home thinking it was stable, it wasn't. 3 degrees higher meant everything died. This morning I had a low carb Monster in the hopes this would trick my body into feeling refreshed.
Guarana, Vitamin B, Taurine, Ginseng. It tastes ok if you like vitamin B - mmm berocca. So we'll see if the lights turn on.

I want to go home

But here I sit, tidying up work - and blogging - because someone decided to change the incubator from 44oC to 25oC. This is the one with a big label that says 44oC and is used multiple times each week at this temperature. I may get screamed at tomorrow but its actually my lab incubator and I'm the only one authorised to change the temperature.
So, it took me till 6pm to finish setting up samples (2.5 hours of work) & then I discovered the incubators been altered. Now I have to hang round till it gets back up to temp and make sure I haven't set it a degree too high - or the samples all die - its rather fiddly. I'm annoyed that I didn't think to look at it when I started. It would have been fixed by the time the samples were ready.

I took the container that was in there out. It can sit at room temperature. That's roughly what they'd changed the incubator to anyway.

I also have a cold. Did I mention I want to go home?

guilty pleasure for birthday

Ok, get your minds out of the gutters.

My nephews gave me a USB drinks fridge for my birthday. I have always wanted one, but thought it a frivolous use of energy to keep one can cold next to the computer. Now of course, I have to use it, because it was a gift. :D

frivolous purchases...because it was my birthday

As well as some less so because I needed them.

At the markets I bought;
a 15 minute massage that left me very relaxed - though I need another one now (stiffening muscles)
1/2 a cheese and oregano pizza and a big plate of honey puff balls (for dinner)
a pair of stirling silver twisty dangly earrings (which I must wear 5 times to justify my $5 rule for apparel and accessories)
two funny logo t-shirts (geek by day, superhero by night and Don't make me send my flying monkeys after you). I didn't buy the you can get to know a lot about people if you just take the time to inject them with sodium pentothol shirt.
magnetic haematite ring (I usually break them after a week of wear, but they only cost $5)
a cabochon ring with a stone who's name I can't recall right now (brown glass with flecks of copper in it - first made by people trying to create a fake gold look).
jar of pickled garlic....mmmm

I think that was it..except for the decaf cappuccino I got from Juliettes for supper.

V8 thing meant that Stockland was ok to park at today. Now having spent 2 hours at work, I'm off to do a little more shopping followed by lunch and a post-prandial nap. I may even clean the house afterwards....or play LOTRO. One of the two.

PS free play on LOTRO for lapsed players for this week I think...Dave.

Its my Birthday

Dad sent me a text this morning to wish me happy birthday...at 6:40am...after being awake at 4:30am due to a screaming argument at the house across the road. Somewhat sleepy now and drinking coffee.
I was thinking about going out for a nice dinner tonight but we have a V8 race thing on here today, so the centre of town will be nightmarish and booked out. I may still go out to the markets (at 5 so there's some slight chance of a park) and then maybe get takeaway and sit on the strand...with a million other people. Even on Wednesday night this week it was chockas.
I may leave work early. There's a research meeting at 3pm that i have to be at, but after that I'm free to skive off.

Something I learned this weekend

If you put the spa bath mat in the bath and add bath milk instead of bath salts, you get 4 foot high bubbles.

I guess I can tick -"lie in a bath tub covered by 3 foot of bubbles" off my list of things to do before I die. Done and exceeded.

things

I have learned about lotro by reading up on them.
Its 5% cheaper to by stuff at the kin house neighbourhood supplier than the individual house supplier (which I knew was 10% cheaper than generally).
You can buy racial buffs from rep dealers when you get in good with them...I'd wondered how I was going to get the hobbit virtue trait.

now of course I won't read anymore for a while

Sound is overrated anyway

Both my video camera and my computer are in the shop (different shops) for quotes for repairs to the recording component of the audio. In both cases I can play something and hear it, but when I want to use the microphone - nada, zip.

I need to video next weekish to record some work related stuff and I'd like the computer back by tomorrow night to play LOTRO (or I'll be bowing out). My laptop has lotro on it, but plays buggy at the lowest resolution and hasn't been updated for a year. I really need to find a CD version of LOTRO+Moria so that I have a version that won't take 3 solid days of downloading and blowing my limit to do a reset.

Anyone know if they are purchasable in Australia?

On other sound related topics, I've moved 1/2 my birds to the front of the house in anticipation of selling them - and hopefully to stop the neighbour complaining that they are too loud. The remaining birds sound just as loud to me, but the ones out the front sound quieter than they did out the back and I know at least one of them was the noisiest bird out there.

I looked up the old out of date council regs. They defined caged budgies as "quiet birds", cockatiels as "medium" and cockatoos and "loud". The budgies are apparently more annoying than the cockatiels.

using this for the purpose for which it was set up

avoiding starting work.
I have an eyestrain headache that had worked its way back into the top of my shoulder. I'm having some strong coffee to fix the problem before I get into assessing an application. I've actually been pretty good with the eyestrain - I got new glasses and wore them constantly for a week and it went away. Then I was able to wear them intermittently while doing computer stuff. Unfortunately I got cocky and didn't wear them watching TV or playing LOTRO last night and the headache is back.

To do today:
read and comment on an application
finiosh writing the biosafety application for a project I'm about to do
organise transport of biologicals from brisbane to me
monitor the new technician doing the food testing
get prices on a new dispenser
have a meeting at 3pm then unplug the lab gear prior to the power outage this weekend
clean the house before my brother & his family turn up for his Birthday dinner

Andrea comes up trumps

I spent a fair bit of time on the weekend near and on the Bitter Stair in LOTRO. It was, as Andrea said, a good place to earn moola. Of course all of this is gone now due to crafting expences for my alts - greedy little things, but at least they are moving up the ranks and earning crafting rep. On another nice note - I got about 6 recipes that my alts didn't have off the bitter stair people. Roll on Burgundy coloured clothes :D

In addition I realised I have still got animal deeds to do in the area, so I've been alternating the stair and killing snowbeasts etc. Only about 300 of each bear, worm and snowbeast to go to get my deeds completely done :) Then I have to go back to goblin town and finish off the 'find this place' quests there - Bilbo left some buttons behind apparently.

One thing about keeping budgies..you see more birds of prey

Here is my second successful hawk shot. It was on the top of the cage this morning. Dad missed taking a photo of yesterdays hawk - possibly the same one. It slammed into the side of the cockatiel cage and left a dint in it

Bindy is broke!

I have somehow managed to spend all of Bindy's money. This tends to happen when I focus on crafting. Bindy is broker than he was as a lvl2 character. He has 20 copper pieces left. Of course, the reverse happens when I focus on completing deeds where its "kill 500 wargs/goblins" style. Perhaps it would be a good idea to deed crunch for a while.

Melaleuca linariifolia

The council have replanted trees on our footpath after cutting the old ones down when they fixed the gutters. We hadn't had a tree on the footpath before. The original one died of malicious neglect many years ago I think. The old trees weren't suited to the position, they grew too tall and into the powerlines. As a result they were weirdly and probably not effectively pruned. The new one looks like it will be gorgeous and grow to 10m.....what? why plant trees under powerlines that are recorded as growing 8-10M tall? Maybe its the 'shrubby' version that only grows to 2.5meters. The neighbour was told they'd grow to 4m. Stay tuned and ask again in 5 years or so.

my new toy

After doing some research I bought myself a video/DVD recorder combo with an SD digital tuner in it on the weekend. I'd priced it everywhere at $500 & went somewhere with a sale on. I got them to knock $20 off the sale price & saved myself $40. Woot! Now I can use the money to buy some good quality DVDs for converting all my irreplaceable videos & some DVD ram disks for general recording. As a plus, the non-existent reception for WIN is now perfect. My mother thinks I'm rubbing it in.

In other news, instead of playing with my new toy last night, I got all my characters in LOTRO up a crafting level after Chris kindly bodyguarded them through their respective purple crafting quests. Bruse ended up emptying 1/2 of his bank to read all the stored master armoursmith recipes. BTW if any of my kin are armoursmiths with master level, let me know, I have 1/2 a dozen double recipes to pass on now.

huh, what? free time?

Well, not actually free, just free of short term deadlines that I have to work to. At least today.

This means I can cast my eye around my office and do that 8 hours of marking that is sitting there. Also I can organise my accomodation for the conference in July in Cairns. Then there's that gel tank I was going to try to bodgy up the platinum wire electrodes. Hmmm maybe I could take an hour off and go price VCR/DVD recorder combos. Since I've been working long hours and weekends.
While I'm out I could post Caillan's present. For those of you who are supposed to send him something - his Birthday is later this month!! This is your friendly automatic reminder service. I would have forgotten only I put my calendar back on my door after it was painted and there was the reminder on it.
BTW I now have mid colour blue doors in the house rather than brown. Much cheerier.

This free association written blog was brought to you by the number googleplex and the letters R for relaxed and D for delusional.

oh...I forgot to mention

I went to the 50th Anniversay of Pimlico open day. They had colour coded name tags for decades. Lots of the 1st year people turned up (1959) and masses of the 60's. After that the numbers steadily dropped by decade. A sign of the employment demographic I think. We all moved away and only a few of us are still around. Of the 1983 cohort, I saw Sean Mullins, Sandor and Tiffany....and thats it.
After I went home it occured to me I'd taken no photos of any of them, or any photos at all for that matter in spite of taking my camera - I guess you miss out on my happy snaps.
Theres a bunch of new buildings & where we sat for lunch is now reserved for grade 11 and 12 students. The library still looks identical. The Home Ec teacher did recognise my name - because she taught my brother Doug. I was rather invisible in Home Ec, Doug became a chef.

>(

For two weeks I've been getting a practical up and running for next Monday. First one of the reagents was off and it made the results look good when they weren't. I found it, fixed it, tried again and got good results. So I made up more of the samples to run and checked them - not working. Went back and used original samples again -now they're not working....argh.
I'm going to try once more under really careful conditions with every control I can think of. If it still doesn't work, I may be scrounging round for Monday.

There goes my weekend.

Shades of Tolkien!

While watching Midsommer Murders on Friday night, I suddenly realised that the protagonist was played by a young Orlando Bloom..."Hey!" I said to everyone in the room "thats the elf from Lord of the Rings!". "Surely not" they said. But the credits proved me right. (he was skewered by a pitchfork btw.)
The really weird bit was where the killer turned out to be a resident of a property called Lothlorien. The coppers even commented on knowing your lord of the rings content.

So - zero degrees of separation there I think.

typing with trepidation

mainly because I don't want to jinx things.

I did step one of the fix - opening the box, frowning at it and prodding the video card. I also sprayed air on it to remove any dust.

My computer hasn't frozen since. The front audio ports no longer work, but I'm not desperate enough to open the unit again and risk the much more vital video card right now...give it a month or so.

and the fear continues

Well, that didn't fix it. I was starting up in safe mode to uninstall and reinstall my video driver when my cousin called. I mentioned I'd noticed on the worst occasions that I had extra beeps when the computer turned on. She told me to do a search on the beeps. They mean something - mainly hardware wise. Fancy that.

Ok, one search later when the computer chose to turn on and one long beep followed by three short beeps means I either have a problem with my video ram or I don't have a video card.

So, Is my Nvidia 8800GT card frying after 15months? Its working intermittantly. Does this mean its a connection problem? You'd think a hardware problem would happen the same every time. Though every problem I've ever had with computers has been intermittant. Except when my battery leaked all over my motherboard that time. That was pretty terminal.

I also found the forums for my motherboard - ASUS has a forum just for P5K-SE motherboards, Well, well, I learn so much when my computer plays up. Their first suggestion is always to clear the CMOS. They suggest this EVERY time you install ANY hardware. Including those people who had exactly the same video card as me. So, I looked this up. I need to open the case for this and move some pins (or take the battery out for 1/2 an hour). The computer apparently then resets all the hardware so your BIOS and CMOS match - I think. One site had a bunch of "manually reset all your hardware settings after this" instructions - but the others seemed to just say reset, turn back on.

Oh, they also said that ASUS motherboards don't always have the best relationship with NVidia cards, and an ATI card might be better if you want to change.

So, here's my plan.
1. Open up the box, look at it dubiously for a while, prod the video card, looking for physical - jarred out of place issues
2. Turn on the computer and try to get it to freeze (basically by internetting and LOTROing at the same time - high demand as possible)
If I can get it to do it, continue by;
3. Read my motherboard book re resetting CMOS & try this
.....assuming this doesn't cause more issues
4. Go to 2
If 2 still shows issues,

Research good non Nvidia cards & do a forum search on LOTRO with my preferred cards (so I don't buy something that causes LOTRO to crash)

5. Buy and install new card
6. Goto 2.
If 2 still happens,
7. talk to my friendly computer guy and spend more money

Anyone see anything that makes them want to scream "NOOO! Don't do that!" while running forward in slow motion to prevent the disaster?

As an aside, my computer is running at 39 degrees C. If it were human, it would be running a considerable fever. I love my probe software.

Approach the computer with fear and trembling

Lately my computer has been freezing up...requiring a hard boot. I defragged, cleaned my drive, ran a virus check on the whole system. Nada. It started in LOTRO and then moved to when I was trying to do more than one thing even when not playing. Then I got the dreaded BSOD, with a video driver error.
I updated my video driver and its seemed to go away - or not. Crap.
I did some reading and the errors seemed to be identical to some that happened when the video card was new out (way back in 2007). Updating the driver worked then. It also seemed identical to an issue someone else on LOTRO was having earlier this month - so it could have been LOTRO related, but the issue for both of us also happened outside of LOTRO. The suggestion was a corrupted file in LOTRO, requiring an uninstall and complete reinstall of LOTRO (Think 24 hours and a blown out download limit given I don't have the DVDs). The last suggestion was a BIOS issue - out of date for driver or corrupt file. Solution - update the BIOS of the motherboard.
I didn't want to reinstall LOTRO for a guess, so I started reading up on BIOS updating. They tell you how to do it with many dire "unless you know what you are doing don't do this or you'll turn your computer into a brick" warnings. I still preferred this to reinstalling LOTRO.
So this morning I pulled out my files to identify exactly what my motherboard was - go to your manufacturer and get the updated bios for exactly your board, do not try to get it anywhere else or computer death will ensue etc etc.
My motherboard book pointed out I have software on my CD to A - update the bios and B - monitor voltage and core temperature (which I've always wanted to do). Utilities now downloaded I got the update software to save a copy of the current BIOS to a CD and then got it to find the company site, select the available BIOS's and then I picked the most recent one and told the software to flash install - so no effort on my part. Apparently theres also instructions for laborious, careful DOS installing if it doesn't work.
Then the software told me to reboot...ok....why isn't anything turning up on the screen. Crap.
Hard reboot. Now something pops up Checksum error press 1 to fix - takes me to bios altering zone. Crap some more.
Decided to make no changes and just reboot again. Turned on fine. The cold sweat of fear starts to dry. So far no freezes, but I haven't done anything intensive yet. I have a vague suspicion that when I made no changes, the BIOS may have reverted to the previous default state and my computer will continue to crash and burn when Bindy fights a boss.
BTW Sorry about the other week guys - the guardian abandoning everyone just at the start of the "OK, I'll hold off the big boss with 26 000 HP" fight.

some pics

On the way up to the tablelands we stopped at Paronella Park and took pictures of crumbling ruins and turtles...the Ulysses butterflies were too fast for me though.


Skipping everything else for now, here is the blurry, grainy shot of the elusive platypus...as well as probably the best shot of a Ulysses butterfly from the trip. I think the professional shots have probably been doen with dead butterflies. It'd be the only way to get them to stop moving.

had a week off

I've had a week off and have been putting off writing anything till I brought in the pictures of my first live platypus sighting. But then I saw this comic and it reminded me of every time I've taken Berry into a fellowship. And I do believe we were discussing this very idea at one point. Did one of you read it then?

Aprils Blog

Life is still hectic. Summary as follows

I have 130 pracs to mark before Easter.
2 more lectures before Easter plus one practical
exam quesiotn need to be written and submitted - not all lectures written yet, less given.
Biosafety applications need looking at

Should know soon about job. Waiting on interview of last (and absolutely fantastic) applicant. Doom, doom de doom.

Week off at lake Eacham after Easter followed by writing a weeks lectures for a subject I've never done before, plus 11 2nd year (done last time in 2006) and 4 3rd year lectures to update

Research in there somewhere, I hope. I have a good idea but no money or students to do it.

Misc lab things to repair/supervise, Food lab to get up to scratch.

Long term - lecturing a whole subject next semester that I haven't done before.

Bindy now has a Facebook page. There are even pictures.

Hmm, thats enough bloggin in point form...work now.

talking part 1 is done

I've given my seminar - I'm told it went well. The HOS said he understood it which is a good sign. I felt I blathered at certain points, but I kept it mainly to time...phew.
Now I have to wait for an interview at 5pm.

Biggest 2 weeks ever

I'm about 2/3 of the way through a monstrously busy 2 weeks. Masses of lectures and practicals which means I've had to work around them. A grant application went in and I'm preparing for a presentation and interview for a job on this Friday. Samples are coming into the testing lab for something we've never done, so I had to design a protocol for them and make up new and interesting media. I've also been going to a series of presentations by other people for various jobs they are applying for (one a day all week). Then the PC3 lab air flow started to play up...so its been shut down and we are setting up to sterilise it on Monday-Tuesday prior to technicians doing repairs. Oh, I also did a lot of phone calling regarding a complicated order for pipettes. I'm now taking a breath and a coffee before pouring agar plates and tightening up my presentation...must also find out the type of questions that get asked at interviews before Friday morning. This afternoon I will be running a food quality practical and then going to aquarobics.

there's this new toy I'd like

..but I can't justify it.

The smart pen. I don't take enough notes to need one. You buy this fat notebook and pen (replacement notebooks abt $20) and you write your notes with the pen. When you go back over your notes and wonder what they all actually meant, you can tap on a line of notes and the pen plays back audio of what the lecturer was saying when you were writing the illegible scribble that is in the book. As a novelty, you can also draw a keyboard in the book and play notes by tapping it with the pen. My cousin bought one for when she's marking verbal work for her prep/grade 1 students.


Here's an instructional video

On another note, its pouring here again.

cough cough cough

My cold continues on schedule. I have a standard order of
1. sore throat (if I have betadeine I can nip it in the bud here - I didn't have any on Sunday night :( )
2. slight cough and slight runny nose, plus fever & fatigue
3. Heavier runny nose and sneezing, fever is fading
4. heavy runny nose, blocked sinuses, coughing again but chesty this time
5. sinuses clear, runny nose mainly dries up, cough turns dry and hacking
6. recovery

I'm usually feeling at my worst at 2 and 3.
I'm now at 4...should be right for getting online tonight - but I'll sound awful

Shooting myself in the foot

I've said for some time now, that there's no point in me doing longer days and working weekends. All that happens is my brain switches off and I make mistakes or I get sick. If I try to do the longer hours, I pay for it in just as many hours lost later to inefficiency, mistakes and illness. So, I have these really short deadlines for papers/grants/lecture writing & end up spending all weekend working on the paper. Sunday night I get a sore throat and I've lost 2 days of work with brain capacity falling to about 5% of normal, a desperate desire to sleep and feeling generally like crap. I actually feel a bit better today and the woman in the office across from me says I look terrible and wan. My eyes are very bleary. I really should learn and stop paying attention to people who say I should work the weekend/after hours if something has to be done.

spam spam spam spam

I was thinking monty python while I wrote that. I just got my first spam comment. All about power levelling in RPGs. I must remember to write more boring things that don't attract them.

Gah again

So there I was, using my creative time (till 1pm) sorting through data in papers for the purposes of writing a streamlined introduction that supports me doing the work I've already done and am writing the paper for. Suddenly, an email pops up telling em I have until 4:30 to mark the supplementary exams and and have them at examinations. These are the papers I was given 2 days ago, for a subject I didn't teach last year but am going to take over next semester, without a deadline given to me. So of course I put them aside because I knew they'd require much thought to figure out what was actually taught & what should be included in a complete answer. I have now used up the last of my creative energy for today for exam marking. So much for getting my paper written. I need a nap.

GAH!!!!!

Hate writing papers, hate writing papers, hate, hate, hate writing papers.

I feel the more I have to work at them, the more they churn unto mud....and the less the point I was tryign to make gets put across.

Cold up here

The fan is off, I'm considering jumpers for the office (several have already given in). I haven't seen the sun in...hmm when did I last see the sun? Still enjoying the rain though, for two reasons. Firstly, if the sun was out it would be stinky and humid and probably as hot as it is down south, you poor shmucks. Secondly, when it stops raining I have to start thinking about mowing the calf length grass again.

hmm, timing is everything

I'm currently figuring out if I can add anthrax to a vet lecture, as well as public health food poisoning issues without blowing the top off my hour to discuss tetanus and botulism. 18 slides so far without having either in there. Both of these are requests from other lecturers who think my lecture would be a good place to put this in so that its covered.

back to the grind

I did a total of two things today at work...and I finished neither of them. I do not expect to improve tomorrow.

On an up note, I did level Bindy to 50 before my holiday was up :)

On a weird note,
I took my car in to be rustproofed this morning & they rang me before lunch time to say it was ready. I went in & picked it up at lunch because the guy said I was his last customer of the day. When I got there, he was asleep with his feet up. The music was on louder than I could speak and I couldn't find the volume dial. I even poked him and he didn't wake up. His feet were twitching, so I assume he was dreaming. Since my keys were beside him and I'd already paid, I left a note telling him I couldn't wake him, I'd taken my car & to ring me if he needed to tell me anything or I needed to do anything more. He hasn't rung. Everyone at work asked whether I'd checked if he was still breathing.

Blech

I started work yesterday at 8:30am and finished at 8:30pm - all food lab sample processing. Now I'm back at work at 8:30am again. Todays stuff shouldn't take as long in the lab, so for the rest of the day I'm doing all the admin crap I haven't got to. My office is a pigsty and I have a bunch of ordering and number crunching that needs to be done. Biosafety forms updated, new students forms examined, course redesigned to run next month, filing, rubbish to throw...I'm not even going to look at the papers and lectures I need to write :( 14 lectures in 2 weeks at the start of semester, ick!
Edit : also set up old computer and try to rescue data before chucking....I'm stopping now to have a percolated coffee (Red Back Mareeba Arabica coffee)

I love writing lectures

I get carried away, I spend far too much time on it. I wrote my first lecture for this year yesterday. It took 8 hours of work....Given I have 7 lectures and 14 hours of pracs in week one, I might have to pick up my pace a little

woops missed a few

well, so much for holiday resolutions. after the 1st of January, I forgot to comment.

Hmm, what did I do for these three days...grind welds, paint welds, a little bit of LOTRO (none at all yesterday, though Andrea has tempted me with Moria superior crafting benches), read novels (one Pern novel and two Tamora Pierce novels. I'd given her novels a rest when they seemed to get a bit samey, but obviously I've been away from them for long enough that I could enjoy them again). Thats about it really, oh and I bought some cleaning stuff for my new car - now I have to find some time to use it. I go back to work tomorrow :( I think I work too hard doing too many non-satisfying things, since I don't look forward to going back. Even though I have a lot of fun things I could be doing, I don't get round to most of them because of other peoples priorities. Now, off to play some LOTRO before going over to Dot's for afternoon tea.

more grinding

Spent some of the morning and some of the afternoon grinding. Had nephews over in the middle of the day, watched stardust on DVD. Played LOTRO this evening and got Bindy 1/2 way through lvl46. One level a day wont get me to 50 before I go back to work...thats assuming i could get a level a day...oh, and they got my hopes up with a superior workbench in suri-kyla, but it only works if I get to ally status...I only managed that with the mathom society because bindy is a cook & they have cook quests etc.