Brain dump mid flight

It's a strange thing my blogging habits, the more and more I have on (like at the moment) the less and less time I have to blog. I'm actually using the time on my flight to Townsville this morning to blog.

There is one nice aspect of the flying at the moment, I do it so infrequently that it's turned in to a nice time for me to catch up on my huge backlog of iTunes downloads and frivolous stuff like blogging. It's now a bit of a guilty pleasure not only for the catch up time but also because I'm also leaving the littleone and Vanessa to fend for themselves.

First of all on iTunes, I'm loving the whole Genius concept. A while ago a setup a few favourites Smart Playlists so I could easily managed all my music using ratings and genres on the iPod/iPhone/AppleTV. The downside is that I've not got over 500 songs in my "top favourites" and this means that if I'm in the mood something it's always followed by something I'm really not interested in. I threw on a genius playlist the other day and it was pretty much spot on although I've discovered that it seems to "like" some songs more than others. But on the whole it's become the way I listen to the songs on the iPhone. I love the fact that you can save them and even refresh them.

The last few weeks have been pretty crazy, stressful and exciting. I'm sorry if I've been not much of a conversationalist while I've been musing about things and life in general. There were some pretty big decisions to come to in the end which was pretty tough, especially over the weekend. In the end I've taken a bit of a risk but I'm pretty confident that it's the right move and will pay off in the end. I think I might make a few people unhappy in the process but I'm hoping that they understand that's not my intention. Well that's probably enough soul searching for one post.

I've been slowly but surely doing a few upgrades to my arcade table. Nothing major but the CRT that was in it was starting to go in the corners and I was also looking for a way to solve the side by side game problem with the cocktail style cabinet. In the end it was a disaster of viewing angles that generated the solution. I had a couple of 19" LCDs around that I wasn't using any longer (with my nice new shiny 24" in the house) and I put one in to replace the 19" CRT. The issue was it was unusable at the flat angle of the table top. To solve the problem I managed to slot the monitor in the table at the right viewing angle for player 1 but it completely obscured from player 2. Then it dawned on me I could dual mount the monitors one for each player. Result : Instant dual screen cabinet that still looks like and is every bit a cocktail cabinet but Aliens Vs Predator multiplayer is a reality. It's almost complete I've just got to source the VGA splitter to run the dual monitors and it's done. The Littleone already loves the cabinet and this way I'll be able to train him up as a wing man for double dragon.

and here's the descent... Well that's the end of this blog.... until the flight home.

Play-Asia how to take advantage of the high Aussie dollar

The Australian dollar is at the highest level against the US dollar in
a long time (92c as I'm writing this). As usual this had little if no
impact of goods that are typically controlled by the US market.
Obviously the key item I'm talking about is console games (key staple
for all individuals :).

When the dollar dropped against the USD the price of games was quick
to hit the $110+ mark. However, with the rise of the Australian
currrency those prices haven't returned to their original levels.

This post however isn't about complaining it's about a solution. Last
week I had a brief look at playasia.com and discovered that they offer
premium titles at US$49. The result it much more reasonable market for
gaming. I ordered Tekken 6 and Dragon age for a little over $115
including shipping. Certainly much more reasonable than the EB
alternative. Oh and I ordered Friday and they delivered yesterday.

That's it for my gaming community service announcement.

Sent from my iPhone

Just because ben refuses to read twitter

A photo of the bike

A new bike and a new riding partner

Yesterday I cashed in the profits from the sale of the Jamos and bought myself another bike. There isn't really anything wrong with my current bike but I've been looking for a way to ride around with Zachary. My road bike doesn't have any mounts that suit a child seat and the clip in shoes don't make it very practical for trips to the park.

I started looking for a cruiser style bike and settled on the Electra range for the bike. After a fair bit of shopping around and a few recommendations from the bike store I picked up an Townie 3 Speed model. The trip is pretty flat into the park or the botanic gardens in the city or even Southbank (apart from the bridge)

We took it for it's first ride yesterday and while I had loved the ride Zachary is not so sure yet. He doesn't hate it but he's not sure he loves it either. A few people we passed could coax smiles out of him so it's probably not all bad. The bike was really strange to ride especially when compared to the seating position on the road bike but once I settled into the easy riding style it was a fantastic way to get around. The low speed didn't even worry me, at one point there was a jogger keeping pace with us, it was just a relaxing way to travel along the river taking in the last of the afternoon light.

I think the biggest problem for Zachary is the helmet, knowing how much he loves hats the helmet is probably one step too far.

We'll probably a few more short rides to the park before we attempt a city or southbank run. But I'm looking forward to it either way

This I would have tweeted IF I'd had internet:

6:20 Apparently I can't bring my coffee on board with me. I'm so glad that I hadn't drunk any of it.
6:31 Didn't realise I had a premium economy upgrade have to be happy about that!
6:55 The VB staff seem to be as grumpy as bus drivers with giving change
7:07 I forgot it was 3 hours to SA I should have uploaded more video content to my #iPhone I think I'll be downloading some in the lounge
7:55 Turns out the blue screen earler corrupted my system for the workshop today. I'm hoping the 42% battery I have left is enough to rebuild
8:06 The #XPS strikes again.... yet another BSD... *sigh* in case you're wondering @tcns,  wish I'd put my emo today
8:34 #GMEE vs the #XPS 17% and 25mins battery left and the final import is on table 13/197 I don't think the import is going to make it
8:40 looks like the battery is dead, time for some wolfenstien on the #iPhone

Back on the plane....

It's been over a year since I've flown for work which has been a nice change. Today, however, is the beginning of the flights (with a few more ahead I'm sure). I'm off to SA for the day which is a big round trip. My Flight out is at 6:30 and my flight home returns at 11:30. I think I'll be trying to catch a few winks on the plane for sure!

One big surprise is that my lounge membership hasn't expired yet... I really must have done a lot of flights last year.

My own little vinyl revival

It's not much of a secret that I buy music on vinyl. However, Over the last year I've probably bought more new albums than the rest of my collection combined. The biggest driver by far is the addition of the digital media bundled with the 12" discs. For me it's a no brainer to pay a few extra coins to get the same album I can get from iTunes along with the tangible items.

This week though has been a bit of a glut. I had a disappointing shop for vinyl on Fathers day but after a killer of a week I stopped by Rocking Horse for a bit of retail therapy and picked up

The pinicale though was my pre order of the new Muse album Resistance that turned up today.... makes for one happy vinyl listener...

The Mission FS2-AV one week in (part 2)

After blabbing on about how nice it was to install, now... the important bit how it sounds.

In a word amazing... not that they are the most amazing speakers you'll ever here but considering their size (and what they replaced) and price they are an amazing buy.

The integration with the sub is seamless (once you've tweeked the sub level and "closeness to the wall" setting) and is weighty enough to remind you why you need a sub. One of my original concerns was that the single sub would be too light after the 15" Jamo (i even had another matching sub in my watch list just in case). While it will never be able to move the walls (or floor) to the same extent as the Jamo the Mission sub has enough presence to handle even the largest explosion scenes of "Iron Man" and even rattle a window or two.

The biggest difference I noticed was the level of clarity that the speakers have even at low volumes. While never having trouble producing the dynamic range the voices always seem to break through crisply.

The Missions have turned out to be the ideal set of apartment speakers with a perfect blend of sonic weight, clarity and discrete installation. I've probably watched as many movies on the projector since I've picked up the new speakers than I have for the rest of the year.

Of course I could still be in the new purchase honeymoon period so the real test will be when a few more sets of ears come around to critique.

The Mission FS2-AV one week in (part 1)

A couple of weeks ago I made the call that the Jamos were just too big and too powerful for the space I can use them. So I started the hunt for a smaller lifestyle set of speakers and picked up a bargain set of the missions (a system I'd auditioned years ago and only rejected on price).

Firstly the install, to start with the speakers are small not bose cube small more an elongated DVD case (and just as thin) so mounting them was a breeze. I had mounts from the jamos for the left and right fronts which I just reused but for the rest 3M tape did the trick. The Added bonus with that is I could reposition them any number of times without fear of wall destruction. The sub is specifically designed to sit in the corner of a room which made placement super easy and the curved facade means it easily fades into obscurity. Last but not least was the wiring which comes supplied and is flat allowing you to run the cables flat against the wall. Admittedly the first attempt at this I didn't do such a good job of running the cables flat....

Fortunately without too much effort the cables were easily attached to the wall and fairly neat.

Of course the most important thing is the sound... but that will have to wait for another post....

Sent from my iPhone

And the weekend's over and apparently it's summer

The weather over the weekend was just fantastic. The sun was out and
it was nice and warm. Zachary and I tried to take full advantage with
plenty of trips to the park.

However with Monday coming around the weather seems to be getting a
bit crazy, the forecast is for temps of 29. It might just be me but it
seems way to high for august.

The weekend overall was just fantastic managed to fit in heaps of
gaming most of the day out in the sunlight a movie and Ness baked
delicious levels of pastries including the yummiest caramel tart.

On the gadget front I picked up some replacement speakers for the home
theatre setup. Ironically there is nothing wrong with the current
setup other than the fact they are too good. The current matched THX
setup is just too loud and the 15" sub is just too strong for where we
can use it. That combined with placement issues with the littleone
I've taken the plunge and swapped out for a smaller mission system
that will allow me to use all of the 7.1 (rather than the 2.0 as it's
currently configured). The setup should turn up this week so I fear
there will be an unboxing post in the near future.

Sent from my iPhone

A series of new gadgets

First off it's probably no too much of a surprise to discover that
i've finally given in and bought an iPhone. The big driver was a
change to my work's phone policy which was going to be unpleasant if I
didn't get a personal phone. The were only really two phones in the
running an android phone or the iPhone. After the disaster that was
the sony Xperia X1 I was keen to get something that was good as a
phone. In the end the iPhone was the only choice with so much of my
house already connected to mac gear and iTunes. I've only had it 5
days and it's already made it's way to key gadget. There is nothing
that I don't like about it, one thing I love is thus keyboard and the
auto correct feature. It's not right 100% of the time but it certainly
gets the 80-20 rule in the right order. At this rate I'll be catching
the bus more just so I get more of a chance to use it. Oh and the
appletv remote function is great, gives fantastic searching which we
really the only thing the AppleTV struggled with.

Well that is more than enough on the iPhone, there have been a few
other editions as well the major one is the study/gaming setup. With
the shift of Zachary's room and the study the xbox360 found a new home
in the study the only thing that was really missing for that was a
speaker setup. I had quite a few options in mind from a decent
seperates hifi kit or 5.1 setup to some PC speakers. In the end I
decided it was overkill getting anything too high end and settled for
a logitech Z-4 setup. Whilst it will never be audiophiles territory
for a 2.1 gaming system it's pretty good value at a little over $100.
Now all I have to do is find a game that has music someone doesn't
object to.

Sent from my iPhone

A weekend on the couch

It was a pretty unusual weekend for us, we spent pretty much the
entire weekend house bound and consequently on the couch in front of
the TV. Zachary was sick (first big illness since he was born) and
just wanted to be cuddled by someone all day, which really limits what
you can get up to. It really hit him Friday night with high temps and
being nervous first time parents one of us stayed with him all night
to keep an eye on his temp. So the night turned into part nurse duty
part 'Torchwood' marathon for me. Zachary slept on the couch next to
me so I could check his temp and to keep myself up until my change
over at 430 I decided to start clearing the Foxtel iQ2 of Series 2.

It worked pretty well with the ad breaks being the perfect interval
for checking on the littleone.

In the end we had to cancel all our social engagements and as a result
we spent a lot of time in front of the TV and managed to finish of a
few shows:
How I met your mother season 4
Up to date with Dollhouse
Chuck
And half a season of Torchwood

So now to find a few more shows to watch, I think the first cab off
the rank will be Mad Men.

The one thing I did learn over the weekend is that it is entirely too
ezy to buy things on the appletv, so easy in fact a 9 month old can do
it. I gave Zachary the harmony to play with at one point and despite
changing the device it was controlling he managed to switch back to
the appletv and random his way to a movie purchase. A $25 lesson well
learnt :)

Sent from my iPhone

My Top 5 Brisbane CBD Gluten Free Lunches

As I wandered off for lunch yesterday that it's often hard to find good places for lunch if you're looking for something with a little less gluten. I've been working in the Brisbane CBD for a few weeks now and I've stumbled across a few so I thought I'd make a list of my favourite place to grab a bite in the city during the week.

Cool Beans & Baguettes - Brisbane Square

This is my first choice for a lunch out in the city, they have a great selection of premade gluten free sandwiches (that you can get toasted) for $6.50. They come in a pair and have a range of different fillings each day. They also have a great selection of GF cakes and slices and will make Coffee's with Lactose free milk

Fav Lunch: Chicken Caeser Sandwich - $6.50

Fav Snack: Peanut Caramel Slice - $4.50

Alen's Espresso

These guys are really close and make fabulous coffee. They usually have a couple of Gluten free options on for the day and have a great selection of cakes and nibbles. Be prepared for a little wait though, their coffee is so good there is usually a line out the door to get one.

Fav Lunch: Breakfast Quiche

Fav Snack: Caramel Cheesecake

Extract Espresso Bar

It's a bit hard to find tucked away on Adelaide st but these guys have a great selection of the Gluten Free Topless Tarts and will often have bread to make up sandwiches with.

Fav Lunch: Spinach Risotto

Fav Snack: Lemon Polenta Cake

Spoon Deli (Festival Towers)

I haven't been down this end of town for ages but this used to be a good staple for my weekday lunches, they have lots of the sol breads in stock and lots of biscuit selections

Fav Lunch: chickpea fritter W coriander and yoghurt $8.50

Fav Snack: Gingerbread man

And my fast food option Nandos

This one is for when I'm feeling like a 'bad' lunch, a trip to nandos is on order, their menu has a list of all the items with Gluten in them (the opposite to everyone else).

Fav Lunch: Chicken Steak

Fav Snack: Spicy Rice

A Bachelor weekend of Gaming and Home Makeovers

This weekend Ness and Zach headed off to Tassie to visit the grandparents so I was left to my own devices.

Saturday was an old school gaming day with the usual crowd of gaming friends giving the 360, Wii and Projector a full work out. Sunday though saw the start of a full house makeover while the rest of the family was away. The biggest change was swapping the rooms that were the study and Zach's room including a full repaint. I picked some new colours for Zach's room and away we went. There were a few other things that were thrown into the mix including finishing off the plastering work from the Airconditioner and tidying up from other reno projects. I think I bit off more than I could chew for the few days that we had to complete. I was planning to catch up on some sleep but I filled most of that time on top of a ladder brush in hand...

There aren't any pictures as yet because the new layouts and colours are all a surprise for the others return, but I will post some as soon as we've had the reveal!

In a way being so busy with the work has made the time go very quickly and I haven't had much of a chance to miss them... but now it's all done I can't wait for them to come home!

Stay tuned for the pics :)

New Toy Monday

This is something that is usually for Zachary, every month or so on a Monday he gets a new toy and we retire an old one. Today though (as well as Zachary getting one) my new Rotel RTC-850 Pre-Amp arrived. I spent a little bit of time wiring it into the system (to drive my Cygnett Unison iX-5 Speakers) but about 10 times that getting the Harmony Remote to play nice. It was a bit of a random purchase (somehow no one outbid me on ebay) but it does solve the problem of having to run the speakers for the headphone socket of the TV. The sound is noticably different (I wasn't the only one it the house to notice either). It's a great little edition (even if it is some vintage gear) to the setup and I've now pretty much exhausted every upgrade for the setup. Well until I swap out those Cygnett's for some Beolab 5s.

A post while everyone else is sleeping!

I don't get a lot of time for posting at the moment so I thought I'd take this small window while everyone else was sleeping to do a bit of a blog update.

First off to stereo things, after all the vinyl revival I picked up a small addition to my Tivoli setup and added the Tivoli Model Sub to the mix to add a little bit more to the bottom end.

From Stereo makeover

With the little one being much more mobile the whole system has moved up to the top of buffet away from harms reach. Considering it's really only two 3" drivers and one 5" driver the sound is amazingly impressive. I also picked up a Rotel Preamp to update the TV system and bypass the funky processing the TV does to the sound on the way to the speakers, it hasn't arrived yet so no pics for that yet.

Zachary is growing so fast it's a little hard to keep up. He's moved on from crawling to standing up in a matter of days. He's done it so quickly that his cot needs to be lowered.

We had a couple of big outtings on the weekend so I'll post some more photos for both events tonight.

I'm still trying to finish this post I started 2 days ago....

Everyone stayed up to watch the Socceroos match last night the Fire alarm saw to it that a certain someone didn't stay asleep for very long. At least he was enjoying the match.

And at least the boring segments of the match gave me enough time to put the cot base down.

There has been a sad slump in the amout of console gaming I've been doing lately. The new DSi hasn't even had much of an outing.

I know I had a lot of other things to put up here but they are all forgotten now....

A return to vinyl

Some very kind people gave me some new vinyl for my birthday back in April and it's really spured me on to listen to my records a bit more and expand my vinyl collection. The BacktoBlack records also have had a lot to do with it. Being able to buy an album on vinyl and have it on my ipod as well with a few clicks is just brilliant... JB had a bit of a sale this week so the collection has been growing....

I fear this is just the beginning.

A post on the move.

It's been a long time since i've written a post on my way to work. Some of that is due to the fact I walking there more often than getting the bus and some of it is because I've been using the Xperia (it annoyed me so much that i've upgraded back to the Nokia 6110 Nav I had).
The last week and a half has been a bit crazy. Last weekend we seemed to go from one social engagement to another finally ending with my Dad's 60th birthday party and a flight to Singapore. The party was great but went a bit longer than I thought which left me on a tight schedule to pack and get to the flight.
It was my first trip on singapore air and I was very impressed. Even after sleeping through most of the flight. The inflight entertainment is great even in economy with widescreen monitors and hours of on demand content.
I don't have much to say about Singapore itself it was a pretty whirlwind trip. Leaving sunday night at 11pm arriving at the hotel about 7am Monday conference for 2 days back at Singapore airport by 7pm and good Wednesday at 640am. The only sightseeing I managed was a trip to the Long Bar at Raffles for a Singapore Sling and a trip to an electronics tower for some bargaining. The real downside from the trip was the perforated eardrum and infected sinus which knocked me out for the rest of the week (although i seemed to be doing a lot of work, i think it just stopped of from seeing customers). Anyway that's enough for this trip, off to work I go

Sometimes Flying and I don't mix

I had a whirlwind trip to Singapore this week which was all going well until I had to fly home. I had a bit of a blocked sinus which came back to bite me and now I have an infected sinus and a perforated eardrum which is not much fun.

More Vinyl results in new toys

Since I moved my turntable from my normal stereo to the Tivoli I'd been borrowing a phono stage from Tom. Today while I was filling in time waiting for some Claritine to kick in (long story but let's just say the persian cat and I didn't get on) I popped into Video Pro. To my absolute suprised they'd actually started stocking some really nice gear including Cambridge Audio, B&W, Mission and even Rega. The thing that really amazed me was they had a Cambridge Audio Azur 540P Phono stage and even a DACMagic.

After a bit of haggling for the display unit I was the proud owner of my own phono stage. It hasn't had any setup time appart from seeing that it was the exact same dimensions as the Tivoli.

From What's in a Name?

I guess the Tivoli is next on the rewire list after I finally finished hooking the Jamo THX speakers back up.

An afternoon of Jazz

I was a bit inspired by Valavien's trip to the audio club I pulled out some of my old Jazz albums and fired up the Tivoli this afternoon.

For a while I started collecting the Jazz in Paris series, so I dusted a few of my favourites off. My number 1 disc in the set (so far) is 060 Henri Crolla - Notre Ami Django and the Model Two just sings.

It also got my inspiration up to rewire the AV kit with the new Earth Smart Power boards. It took a bit of messing around but I can now cut the power to everything based putting the projector or TV in standby. One of the biggest things that I've noticed is the reduction in heat with the Wii and AppleTV nolonger in there standby modes.

A new chair series

Yesterday I picked up some new chairs for our dining room. We found a steal of a buy for some Kartell Victoria Ghost Chairs. They are a swap out for the BluDot Real Good Chairs that have turned out to be disappointing. We've only had the Blu Dot chairs for 11 months but most of the legs have started bending. We'll scavenge parts from the remaining chairs to get study/desk chairs.

The New

The Old

Good by MinX!

We finally sold our beloved MX-5 the minx.... It's nice to have it sold and not have to be shelling out for the car park but we will miss you!

Biking and Zachary...

At the moment I'm not doing much (read any) cycling since Zachary came along. It's not as much of a complain as it sounds. The time I'd normally be riding I actually get to walk along the river watching the sunrise pushing the pram.

I have been toying with the idea of combining the two though. While pushing the pram is nice it has limited distance capabilities. I did find the ideal option the Taga bike pram

Unfortunately I haven't found anywhere in Australia that you can buy them. However, on the weekend I stumbled across what seemed to be the perfect alternative, the Gazelle Cabby.

    

It looks like a great design and has all the bases covered, admittedly it's not the coolest looking bike around but not many of the kid+riding options have "cool" written on them. The biggest problem is the cost with this one... $3500 is a lot for a bike (considering my current bike set me back less than $200). It almost comes in as a car replacement, being able to make trips to the shops and city with groceries in tow (lets face it, that carry spot in the front is as big as the boot in the MX-5) but I still haven't talked myself into the justification yet.

There are other alternatives such as the trailer and seat. The seat is out at the moment as Zachary is still too little. The trailer I have some (probably unfounded) reservations about with concerns of traffic. There are some trailer options on ebay for a much more reasonable cost that also turn into jogging prams (which means you've still got baby transport options when you arrive at your destination).

The trailer is the obvious fiscal choice but for the moment, I'm going to be sitting on the fence trying to talk myself into the $3500 car/bike/shopping trolley  hybrid.

A picnic, a fabulous weekend and organising the appleTV

For my b'day festivus last weekend we planned on going for a picnic, with the weather we had to cancel (not bad thing still had a fantastic party at home) but today we had the picnic over again.

It was brilliant, a beautiful day (although a little too much sun judging by my arms) and super relaxing. We went for brunch and stayed until about 10:30...

Picnic in the Park (April 09)

There was only a small (but hilarious FAIL) with the butter the whole day. It really was the perfect way to finish a fabulous weekend. The source of it's fabulousness was that I managed to achieve exactly nothing. Saturday I pottered around, caught up with some friends and progressed a little further through GTA:CTW (if you own a DS you should really pick up this game if you're after a more adult experience than the 4000th revision of Pokemon). Today was a wander along the river, then one to New Farm Park for a picnic and then home. I had started a whole list of jobs to get done this weekend and unsurprisingly that list is still standing... just the way the weekend should be.

The only thing that can partially be labelled acheivement is some organisation of my itunes  and iphoto library. Having the AppleTV has meant that I'm seeing a lot more photos while I've got music playing so I've been sorting through albums both old and new trying to get a good selection of photos. I've also discovered that I lot of CDs I own haven't made it to the itunes library so I've been moving the CDs over to the iMac while I've been sorting through the photos. As a result I've also got some more photos to upload so in no specific order here are few more albums

Holiday on the Beach (April 09)

Zachary and his cousins

Zach's first ferry trip

Misc Zachary Shots

What is it with us and loud neighbours

I'll warn you now this blog post is going to be a whiny one... read on
at your own peril.

It seams that we seem to have a run of noisy neighbours. For quite
some time we had the techno junkies living on one side of us. Their
music wasn't too loud so m:uch as just their sub. I couldn't hear the
rest if the track but the sub was so loud and close to our wall that
all I heard was the sub track. It was so loud that we had to take the
pictures off the wall they vibrated enough to knock one off the wall.

Those neighbours have left and we have new ones on the other side of
us. I think they are worse (better the devil you know I guess). These
guys play their music so loud that I can't hear my tv (ok so I could
turn it up louder I'm sure the THX speakers and 500w sub would be
happy to oblidge but this at my normal listening level). It feels like
they only have about 6 songs on their play list: TLC, Whitney Huston,
Seal, Destiny's Child, Sophie B. Hawkins and the Summer Days song by
Pez. They top it off with yelling along with the music or just
yelling. I don't know if it's because it's uni holidays but they are
just playing the music all day. thankfully the yappy little dog that
came with them is gone. I'm currently working on a retaliation
playlist consisting of every wall shaking bass track i can think of.

--
Sent from my mobile device

Birthday Festivities

Yesterday we had a fantastic party for my birthday even if the weather
chimed in and forced the picnic to plan B indoor venue at our place.

A huge thankyou to everyone who came along to make it a great day and
for all the great gifts.

A special thankyou to everyone who kicked on to blowfly and ensured I
had entirely too many moscow mules. The hangover and cab trip to
church at 4 (because I was still drunk) was totally worth it.e

--
Sent from my mobile device

is this the death of twitter?

My twitterverse is broken, no updates for the last 20hrs and my
updates disappear... is twitter dead?

without thw twitterverse how will i know what is going on? i feel so alone..

btw i'm at the farmer's market at the powerhouse and there are so many people...

phew a status update. i feel better already

--
Sent from my mobile device

Birthday List.... (better late than never)

Ok, so it's my birthday coming up and a few people have asked about Birthday lists. So here goes (easy ones first)

Microsoft Points for the Xbox 360

WiiPoints

iTunes Gift Cards (Can you tell I just got an appleTV?)

New DSi Console

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars DS

Chrono Trigger DS

Fire Emblem DS

MadWorld Wii

House of the Dead: Overkill Wii

Street Fighter IV 360

Fable 2 360

T-Shirts (Gaming/Geek related)

Some Sleep...

Mario Kart Slot Car Set

That's about all I can think about at the moment...

Street Fighter Arcade Stick (360)

AppleTV - A Story of Bandwidth...

This month I picked my latest (and possibly last... but more on that later) piece of gear for my home theatre setup, an AppleTV. Since having Foxtel I've cut down on the number of DVDs/Blurays I've been buying as most of the new releases I've been catching on the Foxtel Box Office. Although the sound quality on the Foxtel Service is not as high as some (but not actually that many) of the  Blu Rays (Dolby Digital vs TrueHD) realistically it's rare that I could have it at a volume level that it would make a difference.  This is where the AppleTV comes in.

Having never been big on *ahem* downloading movies I've never gone down the path of having a media server for my system. iTunes, however now offers a pretty wide variety of new release and older movies for download/streaming which makes the AppleTV pretty attractive. The cost of new releases is about the same as Foxtel (both SD and HD) but the big advantage of iTunes is they don't disappear off the watchable list after a period of time, they just get cheaper. You can also choose to download the movie on a more perminent basis for about the same price as a DVD.

The interface is great and you can start the movie as soon as you've queued enough of the show, which is surprising quick even with HD content (which is lucky as waiting for the full movie in HD to download could take a while... see D). I think it would even pass the Parental test for interface.

The big key though is that it's not just iTunes content available it also has all the podcasts and youtube videos so if you don't feel like shelling out for itunes content.

The only downside would be it's bandwidth sucking capabilities... 

My monthly usage

A - BSG Finale Episodes

B - Mad Men Series one and Eagle Eye

C - Dr Horrible's Sing along Blog

D - Prince Caspian in HD

Total - approx 19GB

On the plus side though I'm with iiNet which gives you all downloads from iTunes for free.

Overall I'm really happy with the unit, the interface is great and the range of TV, Movies, Podcasts and Youtube gives you endless viewing potential... oh and i almost forgot... the trailers.... so many trailers.

The reason it's probably the last gadget for my setup is because I've really run out of things I could possibly want.... JB Hifi is dead to me

Caption This

From Caption This

I know I haven't blogged for a while but this was worth it for a mini caption contest.

A weekend of rearranging...

This weekend we did a bit of rearranging in the house... We'd accumulated a bit too much furniture and now with Zach taking up a room all of his own we just didn't have space for it. We also wanted to change some of the layout in the lounge room and create a wall of cupboards. This time, however, instead of trying to cram everything into our C4 we hired a 1 ton hiace van on Saturday and started moving. The van was so much easier than a ute because we didn't have to tie anything down.

We managed a trip to the RSPCA op shop to drop off the furniture, a trip to ikea, back to Amanda and Tom's with their ikea loot and to pick up our rocking chairs to be recovered, back to Studio 54 and then off to drop off the chairs. Considering the ~$100 it was to hire the van all up it was well and truly worth it, much easier than the stress of a car burdened with Ikea boxes.

Yesterday we spent most of the time rearranging and building Ikea bits and pieces. It was a bit slow going as I've been sick with a stomach bug since Wednesday (but unfortunately have too many deadlines to take time off work) and someone had to watch Zachary but we managed to get most of it done.

The best change of the weekend though was the modem/router box from ikea... hides all the gear away beautifully.

A phone inspired post

It seems like an eternity since I posted. I've felt very time poor, at least where recreational interwebs is concerned, lately and a a result blogging suffers. I haven't even been posting on twitter that much.
This post, however, comes thanks to my new Sony Xperia phone. It certainly wasn't my first choice in phones but as work was paying I can't complain. Given choice of platform and carrier restrictions it wasn't the worst choice. I'm very happy with the qwerty option but the interface isn't instantly intuitive. On the plus side it sure makes this blog posting easier

So I might have bought some more camera gear....

I must admit the credit has to go to Tom for these ideas for my camera. 

I picked up a couple of new bits and pieces for my Pentax K200D. The first thing (which was actually a pair of things) was a light scoop. It's a cool little device (pretty simple really) that attaches to your flash mount and uses a mirror to bounce the light from  your pop up flash, rather than directly flashing. There were some pretty good reviews of it on flickr (over other options) so I decided to get a pair shipped over. On the whole it's worked pretty well and definately improves over the shots that you get (inside) with your normal flash. I have found it varies with where you are in the room (especially in our place with really high ceilings) but it's was worth the investment.

The other was an old school manual lense, a 50mm 1.4 Pentax. Tom's post about old lenses inspired me to have a look on Ebay for some that suited my Pentax (one of the advantages of the camera when I bought it was that any lens from any Pentax camera could be fitted). I eventually stumbled on this manual 1.4 and picked it up for ~$50. It (will) takes really great photos (when the user gets a bit better). It's from a film camera so the 50mm translates to something that is more portrait like on the Digital (I'm sure there is an equation out there but I haven't found it yet).

I tired taking some shots of Zach for a bit but my manual focusing skills are a little off. I did like the fact that the Auto Focus sensor still worked even with the manual lens and would beep when I had the image in focus (this was of course only good if the subject didn't move at that same instant). I've put some example photos anyway.

A weekend of jobs (and arcade table upgrade)

This weekend we 'tried' to have an at home weekend and get a few jobs done around the house. It was mostly successful although I didn't get all the jobs I was allocated done, and I also created a few more for myself.

Things left to do : 

• Rehang the big mirror
  

(Some of the) New things:

• Rehang Zach's pictures
  
• Fit some rubber stoppers to the new chair to give it the same angle as the black one (someone cunningly added two rubber gromets to the back chair's swivel mount to give it a greater reclining angle... much more comfortable as a result)
  
• Ebay Sellathon
  

I did manage to change Zach's cot to the bigger size because he's been hitting his head when he kicks his legs. We also started to seriously dedust after the plastering work and we've decided we've got way too much stuff in the house and have started a massive declutter. The lounge room was the first to get a makeover and now has a lot less stuff in it. I've got to work on the Ebay Sellathon and get some of our unused clutter out.

This morning though Zach woke up early (4:30 early!) and I couldn't get back to sleep afterwards so I started on one of the jobs I'd been meaning to get done; The Arcade table upgrade. Here's the list of upgrades for today: 

• RAM upgrade to 768MB from 256 (was supposed to be 1.2 but one stick was dodgy)
• Upgrade the MAME version to 0.129b
• Update some faulty Roms
• Install external USB access
• Swap out CRT to LCD Monitor

Unfortunately I dropped the last item from the list as the exposed CRT monitor was just a bit risky as it'd been powered on this morning.

The Upgrade was very successful and a whole heap of games that I loved when I was at Uni have now made it to my high rotation list.

• Killer Instinct
• Alien vs Predator
• Dungeons and Dragons
• Street Fighter Zero 2 (my favourite SF of all time)
• Marvel Super Heroes (so much time to be wasted here)
• X-Men vs Street Fighter.

There are quite a few more that have benefited from the upgrade but there is plenty of time to be wasted on that little lot. The best upgrade was actually adding the external USB access which (after I discovered that the iMac USB keyboard gave me bios support, ie F1 Boot keys etc) means I can easily change configs and update software without having to take it to bits

I've got a few more upgrades I'd like to do to the console:

• Monitor swap out (obviously)
• Upgrade to >1Gb RAM
• Add Support for 3D Games (aka Tekken my greatest arcade weakness)
• Add network support (wireless preferably)
• Add Hinged Top (for easy access and some storage)
• Add 2 Player controls to the front panel (for Street fighter et al. battles)

Anyway, enough blogging it's time to go and enjoy the fruits of my labour.

ZOMG. Mario slot cars set in brisbane.

Surely the little one is old enough to play? I can justify it that way can't I?

Tasmania: By Photos

Now I'm back to some real internet it's time for the photos. A trip away was the perfect time to tryout the new camera so there are quite a few shots.

Hobart Trip - Jan 09

Targa Tasmania

Hasting Caves

Macro

daddy, you'll have to work the pedals

Tasmania: Gluten Free goodness, Spelunking and the Targa

The trip to Tasmania has come with some good surprises. Last night we stumbled across a floating fish and chip store in Huonville that was a haven of gluten free goodness. They did almost everything gluten free, there was so much choice I ended up having 2 dinners. Ness ordered me a hamburger and crumbed fish AND crumbed calimari all gluten free. There was even a selection of gluten free desserts. The food was fantastic, some of best Fish and Chips ever. 

Today we set out for some spelunking at the Hastings caves. There wasn't much warning with regards to how cold it was on the brochure. To start with it was actually a cold day (as compared to to the hottest day on record we had yesterday), the 9 degrees in the cave though was a bit of a different story. I think something more than shorts and a tshirt would have been a good start. Fortunately Zach had plenty of clothes so he was rugged up (beenie and all) ready for spelunking. The caves were great and the Gorillapod came through with some great cave shots, not to mention the Pentax's performance (unfortunately I'm still on GPRS so the photos will have to wait until I come back).

On the way home, we managed to join a (non competition) stage of the Targa and weaved our way home between some 911s and WRXs. The stage went past our B&B so I took the Pentax out for some more shots. Fortunately there were still quite a few cars behind us so I got a couple of nice photos.

Tonight we were down to the last of the recommended restuarants in town, the local pub. I was pretty suprised at the meal (to start with it was HUGE) and it was a really good steak as well. They had some pretty impressive desserts as well, but I'm still holding out for another slice of GF Cheesecake from the Huon House Boat Fish and chips store.

It's been a really good weekend away and the Watson's B&B in Huonville has been outstanding, I would recommend it to anyone wanting to stay just outside Hobart.

I think I'm going to end the night with some Port and Cheesecake, while the others are playing cards.

A quick stop over in Hobart

I'm in Hobart today (actually more specifically just south in Huonville but for the purposes of the story Hobart is fine) and it's hot. Not hot by Brisbane standards but definitely hot. The other (slightly annoying) thing is the lack of internet coverage here, neither my 3 or Optus wireless cards get 3G reception so I'm relegated to GPRS, not the best standard for trying to traverse the internet let alone catch up on work things.

 

It’s Zach’s first plane trip and he did an fantastic job, only had a little complain mid flight and slept for the whole descent. So far (touch wood) he’s been very easy to travel with, aside from all the extra gear that has to come with us.

 

Still it's nice down here and will give me a change to try out the new camera a bit more on the weekend. I bought a GorillaPod tripod with me (to save lugging another big thing around with us, trust me the stokke bag is well and truly big enough), the gorillapod should be interesting to try out. There isn't a lot of light polution here so I might try for some star shots.

Poor Cygnett's taken so young

In hind sight speakers without grills wasn't the best idea. I did think though it would take a under a week for them to suffer. Turns out I was wrong.

A great long weekend

Just a short post before heading to bed (as the little one is asleep)

• Friday Night - Dinner out at Aqua Linea, very very tasty
• Saturday - A VERY hot trip to the markets, and then a great long lunch with Tom and Suse in the Air Con
• Sunday - A very wet ride to UQ and back, Game on at Southbank - FANTASTIC RETRO GAMING (best gaming thing I've every been to) !!! BBQ with my Family for dinner
• Monday - A day at home with the Hottest 100 and iTunes, rearranging Zach's room and the Study getting rid of some clutter. Great walk by the river followed by a dinner of takeaway under the sunset.

Pity that work is tomorrow :(

The Hottest 100 CD (the whole list)

Australia Day is over again for another and here is my list of songs for my CD compilation for this year.

(#101) - Jackson Jackson - All Alone

#99 - Muph & Plutonic - Don't Worry About Nothin'

#96 - Dizzee Rascal - Flex (Dave Spoon Reflex)

#91 - Lisa Mitchell - Nepolitan Dreams

#90 - Lily Allen - Guess Who Batman? (Aka F**ck You)
#89 - Kanye West - Love Lockdown

#86 - Muph & Plutonic - Beautiful Ugly

#78 - The Ting Tings - Shut Up and Let Me Go

#76 - Yves Klein Blue - Polka

#73 - The Killers - Spaceman

#68 - Empire of the Sun - We are the People

#67 - Flight of the Conchords - Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros

#60 - Flight of the Conchords - The Most Beautiful Girl in the Room

#54 - Pnau - Baby

#52 - The Killers - Human

#49 - Mystery Jets - Young Love (feat. Laura Marling)

#46 - Lily Allen - The Fear

#42 - Emiliana Torrini - Jungle Drum

#39 - Ida Maria - I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked

#30 - Vampire Weekend - Oxford Comma

#29 - Josh Pyke - Make You Happy

#28 - Architecture In Helsinki - That Beep

#27 - Josh Pyke - Josh Pyke

#26 - Ladyhawke - Paris Is Burning

#23 - The Living End - White Noise

#19 - Flight Of The Conchords - Business Time

#17 - Dizzee Rascal - Dance Wiv Me (feat. Calvin Harris and Chrome)

#16 - Ben Folds - You Don't Know Me (feat. Regina Spektor)

#11 - Ladyhawke - My Delirium

#10 - Drapht - Jimmy Recard

#9 - The Ting Tings - That's Not My Name

#8 - The Presets - This Boy's In Love

#7 - Pez - The Festival Song(feat. 360 and Hailey Cramer)

#6 - The Presets - Talk Like That

#5 - MGMT - Kids

#4 - Empire of the Sun - Walking On A Dream

#3 - Kings of Leon - Use Somebody

#2 - MGMT - Electric Feel

#1 - Kings of Leon - Sex on Fire

I think this year was the first that I really liked every song in the top 10 (to the point that I've already bought every song but one, quick to itunes)