A wet and cold Tassie Saturday (part 2)

After the shopping expedition to the Salamanca markets where we managed to find Ness a new warm hat and a present for my parents, we headed out for a bit more shopping in the city centre. We stumbled across an article in the local paper talking up some retro tech gifts at small rhino. I managed to pick up a Nintendo (of a first gen Gameboy) pin, but the best bit was the really friendly staff who directed us to all the other funky stores that we should check out. Pocket Space was very cool with the complete range of UglyDoll, but Ness wouldn't let me bring one home :(.

Being sick I called it a day at about 2pm and had to come back to Ness's Parents place for a sleep.

A wet and cold Tassie saturday

We tripped out to the salamanca markets this morning, after a big sleep in. The sleep in probably had something to do with the cold and wet (and being sick). We also discovered that the place we ate last time Sal on the Square, (with all the coffex.com.au signs outside) was just as terrible and which we only remembered AFTER we ordered. They also have the weirdert raisin toast which is dusted with icing sugar.

A week of Travel

This week has continued along the theme of travel. Monday saw me fly to Melbourne for 2 days and then back to Brisbane for a couple of days before going to Adelaide this morning and then onto Hobart for the weekend.

I've spent more than a whole work day in the air this week. I think having to do the double flying is worse that flying somewhere for a whole week. It feels like this week has been going on forever. This probably wasn't helped much by getting sick yesterday. Ness has been really sick over the last week and if my brief visit home in the middle of the week I think I've picked up the same virus. Yesterday afternoon I wasn't sure I was going to make it to the airport today but fortunately I sweated out must of my fever and felt human again when I woke up.

There hasn't been much else in the way of news, with all the travel all I've managed is either working on the plane or some more Puzzle Quest on the DS (which will apparently be released in Australian stores on the 6th August). I tried starting Custom Robo Arena again but the lead in is so long that I keep getting bored.

There are a few new games I'm keen on checking out when I get some more time at home. Mario Party 8 and Resident Evil 4 Wii are the pick of the new Wii titles, although Ben brought the New Harry Potter game home yesterday and it looked mildly interesting (but the reviews don't looks so hot). The new Brothers in Arms title for the DS looks good along with Dementium: The Ward.. although I'm not sure I'd be playing that one late at night.

Well I'm going to get back to some web catch up.... More Tassie updates tomorrow.

As I've got a bit of time...

It's pretty quiet here in the airport (and there's not much else I can do as everything is closed), so here's an early morning post. (And in addition to the last post...

4. There is no where open to buy a coffee
5. The lounge is still closed)
6. The sun isn't up

Now back to the post....

We had another huge weekend this weekend. Although friday nigth wasn't a huge party night it was a big night of carrying "the worlds heaviest bed". The new Cabrio Desk Bed by Clei turned up on Friday Morning (while I was in Melbourne and Ben was in Bundaberg) and the delivery men kindly decided that they weren't capable of getting the bed any further than the Foyer of our unit block. In a way I can't blame them this bed weighs a good 200-300 kilos. I know this because Ben and I thought we'd try getting the bed in Lift at the other end of the Unit block only to discover it was about 5cm too long/wide and had to carry it the whole way back.
Even on Saturday when we'd taken the top off and had 4 people to help it was still heavy. It's up stairs now and in the room but I don't want to be around when we have to move it out again. As a result of all the carrying I still have a sore sholder but hopefully it will be better by the time I get back

The rest of weekend was filled with Tupperware party, Kids' Birthday Parties, Concerts, Visits to the New Parents and various eatings out.

The Projector and the Coffee maker were big hits at the Tupperware party (especially when a few sessions of Wii tennis got going). Thankfully it was early on Saturday morning so I could rope Craig and Tom into helping me get that bed upstairs.

I'm off to Melbourne again this morning. Hoepfully it's not as cold as it was last week although I've gone prepared just in case. This weekend we're off to Tassie but I was astounded at how expensive the flights were. It will take more than all of my points to get one of us there where I could get both of us to Melbourne and back...

You know you're at the airport early when....

1. The security desk isn't open yet
2. There aren't any staff at the check in desk
3. Your flight is the first one on the Departures board.
   

In "The Lounge"

Just like Ben I've also on the work travel run at the moment and this blog post is brought to you by the Wireless at the Virgin Blue lounge Adelaide. On this trip I managed to leave my power supply in Brisbane so I've been laptop-less until this afternoon. Thankfully my customer was supplied by Dell and had a spare I could borrow for the day, I managed to have the foresight to pack both batteries so I have about 7hours of battery to get me through tomorrow.

I haven't got much other news on the go except

Puzzle Quest comics make me chuckle.

How many hours can you fit in a weekend...

So this was supposed to be a quiet weekend.

Friday
5:15pm - Head to Ness's Soccer match
5:30 - 9:00 Vanessa's Soccer match (complete with the lights going out for 20 mins)
9:00 - 10:30 Coffee with Friends we haven't seen in ages
11:00 - 1:30 Movie on the Big screen at home...
Saturday
09:00 - 10:00 Breakfast muffins
10:30 - 2:00 Visiting the God Children....
2:00 - 3:00 Shopping for B'day Present
4:00 - 7:30 Art Auction....
7:30 - 10 B'day Party at "The Fox"
Sunday
3AM!!- Vanessa wakes up...
3:30-5:00 Tidy the house...
5:00 Head to ballooning...
5:30 - 9:30 Ballooning
10:30 - 12:00 Brunch with Parents
12:30 - 1:30 Pick up art and setup at home
2:00 - 5:00 Saw "Knocked up" at Garden City
6:00 fish and Chips at home...
9:30pm collapse from exhaustion...

A flight over Brisbane

This morning we went for the coolest trip over Brisbane in a hot air balloon! It was a fantastic morning... Only a short post now because we're off to brunch... This is a shot of one of the other balloons as we floated past Indooroopilly.

The projector.... 1 week in....

The projector has been up for a week now and it's been a fantastic addition. The end result has been better than I expected. The results for a gaming screen is great (as you can see above). Thats the result from the lowest powered console in the house (the PS2) and it's still fantastic. The scaling/processing engine in the Epson is great and does a great job on lower res content.
Although it's only been up since sunday it's already got 20hrs on the bulb :). The Loewe is still getting the majority of the air time though as it was intented.

OMG Puzzlequest Wii

I need a little lay down after this news....

Puzzle Quest spreads its addictiveness to the Wii

from Joystiq by John Bardinelli

Filed under: Nintendo Wii, Casual

Rumors of a Wii version of the incredibly addictive PSP/DS game Puzzle Quest have been laying still for months. Now, with an Xbox Live Arcade incarnation on its way, Amazon.com has listed Puzzle Quest Wii with a release date of September 25th. Even better: the attractive price tag of $29.99 is plastered below the box art, taunting those of us who already own a portable version of the game. Would we pick up a big-screen brother of Puzzle Quest, even if it had but a few pithy extras? Yes.

The solutions girl!

In my hast to blog about the projector I forgot to include the most important bits. Ness was the complete solutions girl when it came to the Projector mount. There was heaps of issues with the size of the mounting hardware and the projector footprint and she came up with the solution to get the project back on track (and the projector on the wall!).  The mounting plate and pins weren't big enough to secure more than two of the mounting feet on the projector. Ness came up with the outstanding idea of using Zip Ties to extend the length of the securing sections! Brilliant! She also came up with the best way to connect the whole lot together while I was struggling atop the ladder! Thanks Babe... It wouldn't have made it on the wall without the solution girl!

The projector is in the building...

It's officially the whole projector system is mounted!

Projector Install

There were a few issue with the install. First of all was the lack of instructions for the screen (or lack there of) "The Screen route of regulate elucide tion", has to take the cake for poor instructions. The screen was installed for the State of Origin last week but the mount for the screen only came today. For the past week though it's been on a bit of a make shift mount.



I went with the Vogel EPW 6565 which came with a clip in/clip out system which made the process of getting it up on the wall much easier. The whole mouting process has gone really smoothly and the end result has been great. The best aspect was the ease of alignment with taking all of 2 minutes once it was up there.

A new library for all

Last night (the evil) amyo put me onto a new library application for the mac. Delicious have released an library system that allows you to manage all of your media. The main focus is to make the system extremely easy to enter new data. In the 10 minutes I dedicated to looking at the system I managede to download, install and add 25 new titles and 10 borrowers. They even give integration to iSight (or similar) cameras for barcode scanning input. There is flat file import which will make migrating from another system a breeze.
So far it's been the best tool for managing my dvd collection, with the bonus of offering the management of games, books, cds etc. The drag and drop interface for loaning items is fantastic. All I have left to do now is get a full license and import my old library.

Darn you red button!

This is the third blog post that i've started on my phone. The other two have fallen victim to the red button which, as far as gmail is concerned, cancels the app. Oh well third time lucky.

OMG how windy is it?

It it so windy today I can't remember the last time it was that windy.
I think there will be some big trees down today

No More Fish V2.0

I have lost another Beta! He had come down with another case of Popeye but we were treating it (obviously too much spinich in his diet). He'd started to improve and get back to normal and with the light on him during the day he was keeping nice and warm. Unfortunately we hadn't anticipated the jump for freedom in his tank arrangement and he lept out of the tank onto the bench.

RIP Fish V2.0 (2007-2007)

Yay! Tunnel bus!

This morning we were both slow to start. We slept in took ages to get
ready but even after all this we managed a really fast bus trip. The
bus was full by the third stop and to top it off it's an express. So
in a little over 20 mins after leaving the house i'm at my customer
house!

The new arrival is here!!!

The Epson made it home this afternoon... As Ben reported earlier it's not yet mounted. Due to body corp rules I couldn't hammer drill into the concrete after 6 so I couldn't mount the screen. Also I don't have the mounting bracket for the Projector yet so all the test runs were done on the wall. Despite the poor surface it still really good image and I must admit even with the lights on the Dynamic setting made a very watchable picture. The colours were a little off but you can't complain with a 70" image on the wall with all the lights in the place on.

Tomorrow's job is to find a projector mount to get this thing securely on the wall. My pick so far is the Vogels EPM 6560. The best bit it comes in two sections; one you mount to the wall/celling and the other to the projector, then you simply lock them together. Much easier than trying to do it all in one go whilst balancing atop a ladder. There is a tour of the system if you're keen to see how it works.

I also realised (while I was asleep) that I can wire the whole system without the need for another switch box. Currently my Yamaha does component switching for 2 inputs. If I run both a component and HDMI lead then the PVR and Game console can switch off the Yamaha and I can run a HDMI input for the DVD straight to the Projector. It does mean running two cables but I think I've found a way to conceal most of that run. It's amazing the things you think of during you sleep. It will mean a slight re-wire of the cables to the Loewe but nothing too drastic.

IT'S HERE!!!!

Sorry, a little excited! My new Projector and Screen turned up today!

Looks like a busy weekend ahead! All I have to do now is get the the screen home.....

How sweet it is..

My new phone has continued to shine with more great features discoved
every day I've used it. The best feature since the GPS is the web
browser. Admittedly it's helped a lot by the great screen but the
rendering of normal web pages (not the mobile specific ones) combined
with it's zoom over the whole page is perfect for Web on the go. It
even has a built in function for rotating the screen allowing you to
get a larger amount of text on the screen. Infact this blog post is
being constructed on the phone.
The only area it's lacking over the sony phones was the built in
camera. However the 2mp one is quite ok.
Overall it's a fantastic phone all I need to do now is learn the Nokia
quirks again.

Congratulations!

Congrats to Andrew and Kat who gave birth to a bouncing baby boy Gus John Theo Herrmann today!

(The only stat I know is the weight 2.11kg)

Look forward to meeting your new bundle of joy soon.

Technology glut!

Today (or yesterday as it's 12:30 already but as I haven't slept yet I'm still calling it today) resulted in a HUGE glut on technology. It was the combination of the end of the financial year and some preparation for our trip overseas in September. The first gadget off the rank was a new Video iPod. Despite Tom's protests on it's purpose :P it IS actually to record my accompaniments for singing. It will get a bit of use for playing music as the nano did but I've missed it for practise since the nano went missing. It's been charging since I brought it home and it's still covered with the plastic protector sleeves. It will probably see a flurry of music headed it's way tomorrow when I've got a bit more time at home.

The next (and certainly coolest) gadget for the day was my phone upgrade. I took the plunge and went for the Nokia 6110 Navigator and so far it's been fantastic. The GPS feature (one of the main reasons it was chosen) worked brilliantly out of the box. We even tested it with a navigation to Ben's soccer match at Bayside and it proved itself with flying colours, even when we asked for a detour via a petrol station. The integration of the GPS and navigation is a great feature (gimmick) on the phone and has been done seemlessly. Searching for locations is well handled and with standard phone text input addresses aren't too difficult to add. The web browsing has also impressed me with great zoom functions and (my favourite) the back button which gives you a mini page history of all the pages you've visited so you can select which one you want to go back to.

Last (but not least... although it did get the least use today) was a replacement for the camera I lost on a trip to Sydney. I wanted an SLR for the manual focus and zoom functions, but given my history of loosing cameras we stuck with another 'bridge' camera and got a Fuji Finepix s6500. It's basically the same model as the one I lost. Given we'll be travelling with it, it's not quite as bulky as an SLR and there won't be multiple lenses to take. It didn't make it out of the box (only for the fact I didn't have any batteries with me) today but will likely get it's first outing on our ballon ride (which was cancelled this morning because of high winds.

That's all the tech for today. I did start this blog post on the Nokia but it was so cold at the soccer match my fingers were getting sore typing. Stay tuned for the remaining tech in the glut... the Epson TW700...