Anyway a few small updates to roll into one.

I quit my job

Yep, somehow I managed to last only 1 and a half years at this current place. It wasn’t so much that I didn’t like the job and the people were OK it just got a little too overwhelming especially when you have to deal with the same bullshit everyday.

So I’m picking up contract work again while looking for work. It’s great not having to work a 9-5er.

I’m finishing my degree

Protip for those who think that finishing a degree part time is a good idea. Take the 3 years, do it full time, work hard at it and get it out of the way. I’ve taken on “summer” units to complete this life goal and should have it done by December. I’ll be graduating in June 2009, 4 years after I started the degree.

Become a photo junkie

Now that I have a heap of free time on my hands, I’ve decided to learn more about how to use my camera and take good photos. I’m a bit short on storage on my hosting account so will most likely reactivate my flickr account and upload them there.

Learning how to write iPhone applications

I was given an opportunity to take on some work and build an iPhone-compatible site for a project. Good thing is the system is web based so I don’t have to learn any new programming skills but on the side I’m learning how to build iPhone applications.

I’ve decided to put some time aside to making some improvements to this site. The main one is the installation of Mint, a commercial site statistics tool which completes ASIO’s takeover of the site.

Keep a lookout for some more tangible improvements over the next week or two.

Before heading into work i normally check the Connex web site to see if there are any disruptions just in case I need to change my travel plans.

If you look at the table above, you’ll notice that the 8:27am Cragieburn train is listed as “will now run” and then listed again “has been cancelled“.

At first I thought that this meant that the was cancelled then would run (ie: updates ordered by time) but that didn’t make sense judging by the rest of the updates. That would have meant my train would be running. After a bit more guesswork, I deduced that they had ordered the status updates by Line and then Service’ which would have meant my train was cancelled.

By that point I realised all this thinking about it too much and gave up.

It makes you wonder about the type of meeting they had to discuss the overall functionality of this page. I’m sure the question “how can we make this page as unusable as possible?” was raised a few times.

If I was working for the company that developed the site, Platform Interactive, I’d be embarrased to put my name on this poorly thoughout piece of functionality.

Star City (Again)

I took advantage of a free few hours to learn how to play Baccarat. Add it to the list of things to do when I get back to Melbourne.

Sydney Airport

Got to Sydney Airport with about an hour and a half to spare. The whole time I spent walking around and eating.

Late Return To Melbourne

The plane was delayed by about an hour due to bad weather. Then because it was windy in Sydney and raining Melbourne we had to wait another hour on the plane before we could take off.

Taronga Zoo

The elephants had the biggest enclosure. For a brief moment it seemed like we wouldn’t see them but the keepers brought them out for a quick bite to eat.

The local vegetation and forests prove exactly why Mosman is a very desirable place to live. You can forget that just beyond the trees is a very busy city.

The Meerkats are awesome little troopers. Even with 30 petulant primary school children the Meerkats still hung out to see what all the fuss is all about.

Taronga had plenty of goats which had their own little mountain to climb. Ironically, the keepers put the goat enclosure between the Tiger and Lion enclosures.

On the way back, the ferry passed a group of ships sailing towards the city. Considering how choppy the water was I couldn’t help but feel a little seasick.

Phantom of The Opera & Star City Casino

The main purpose of the trip was to kick back for a couple of days. The other purpose was to meet up with a few friends to catch up and have some fun. So it was decided at short notice to watch Phantom of The Opera. Not my first choice since I have already seen it two times. That said, as always Anthony Warlow gave a fantastic performance.

Not much can be said about the casino itself, I don’t think the floor is a big as Crown Casinos. I mainly stayed on the Blackjack tables and occasionally strayed over to the Baccarat. All in all I managed to just do a little better than break even.

Circular Quay

For all intents and purposes, Circular Quay could be described as what the Docklands should have been: a mixture of old and new buildings, apartments, entertainment and transportation facilities. From here you have a perfect view of the Sydney Harbor Bridge, access to the Opera House and ferries.

I took this picture with a 70-300mm lens from the other side of the quay. I am surprised that it even turned out at all considering how shaky my wrist was.

Sydney Opera House

Here it is in all its majestic glory. The Sydney Opera House is currently undergoing a major renovations to make it more accessible to visitors. For those who have never been inside the best way I could describe the interior is like a multi-story car park; lots of concrete, steps and ramps. The theaters themselves are enclosed inside their own structure so essentially the exterior is nothing more than for artistic styling.

If you do decide to visit the Opera House, I highly recommend the tour. It runs for about an hour and the guides show you areas of the Opera House you don’t normally get to see.

Shopping on George St

After lunch I checked out George St. Still having no real plans I found myself walking past the new Apple Centre. While the building may be a great architectural feat, don’t ask the people inside for help because they’re fairly useless.

The village like atmosphere is fantastic around George St and surrounding parts. Unlike Melbourne which has lots of laneways, Sydney has more closed shopping strips

The Town Hall Station Experience

Getting ready to head back to the Hotel I decided to take the train from Town Hall to Central. Deciphering City Rail’s incomprehensible maps and directional signage. Didn’t matter all that much, while standing on the platform I thought might take me back to where I wanted to go, there was a fire alarm and the station had to be evacuated.

More Soon…

Since being blessed with the honor of being the Geek and Village Idiot of the family, I occasionally put the skills i have obtained to use with varying degrees of success. This afternoon it was decided that the Linux server was to receive an upgrade, format and rebuild. To that extent the new Linux server is something like this:

• Intel Pentium 4 2.8ghz
• 1.5 GB DDR Ram
• 40GB Hard Drive (For Operating System)
• 2 x 500GB Hard Drive (Mirrored RAID for Shares and Backup)
• DVD Writer

Ad hominem - attacking the arguer and not the argument.
Argument from “authority”.
Appeal to ignorance (absence of evidence is not evidence of absence).

See! I was right all along!

http://willbarton.com/baloney/