If you don't laugh, you'll cry

The past week has been up around 40 degrees and its been hot. It'll still be hot for the next week, but dipping just below 30 on a few days. (The weather people are actually saying it'll be mostly below 30, but over the years I've been here, I've learned to add a couple of degrees to the forecast during summer).

Anyway, my wife and I are heading south for a couple of days down to the coast. Its only a couple of hours south, and I figured it'd just be a few degrees cooler. It isn't just going to be cooler, it'll be below 20 and raining most of the time.

This is not what I had envisioned, as I was looking forward to some swimming and hanging out by the beach. Instead it looks like we'll be stuck with being indoors and reading. Bummer.

Lovable rogue

This is something that confuses me a little bit, and I'm wondering if anyone quite knows why. On the surface, I would say that I would frown on criminal activities, particularly those which would seem to be quite black and white such as robbing a bank or any other brick & mortar institution. Yet there are films, that I admit I enjoy, where the protagonist(s) are career criminals yet myself and the viewers are intended to be drawn to them and to actually cheer for them as they engage in their escapades. Now I know that movies are all fiction, and we're not supposed to take it seriously, but remember that society always draws a line, and people generally don't tolerate certain things in movies, even with the argument of it being fiction. There are some things that we don't tolerate being portrayed in film, I know there are directors who have tried but I'm not even going to touch those extremes as that is something that people need to discuss face to face, rather than on a broad medium like blogs.

But moving away from the fringe cases, and back to mainstream; I find it weird that I enjoy some films where the premise is actually not a good thing. The films that come to mind are ones such as Inside Man (www.imdb.com/title/tt0454848), the Oceans series - I haven't watched the original - of Oceans 11 (www.imdb.com/title/tt0240772) Oceans 12 (www.imdb.com/title/tt0349903) and Oceans 13 (www.imdb.com/title/tt0496806), The Italian Job - again I haven't seen the original - (www.imdb.com/title/tt0317740), and I'm sure there's countless more examples. When I consider the context of the films, the primary characters may have their own set of "lines they won't cross" but they are still engaged in taking stuff that isn't theirs for the purpose of funding a free-wheeling, fun loving lifestyle that can come apart in an instant.

Now, because the dialog is witty, their banter is clever, the weather sunny, and the individuals attractive, we're then drawn to admiring and subliminally wanting what the characters have. Bizarre isn't it?

Maybe this is a guy thing, as perhaps women have a better perspective on how ridiculous these films are, but then does the propensity of romance films just work on a different set of triggers for the fairer gender?

Well I find myself thinking occasionally about The Fast & The Furious series for which I was amongst the mad few to buy the director edition DVDs for the first few movies, at least until reason caught me up. I love tinkering with cars, but the experience also taught me just how prohibitively expensive and time consuming the hobby is to engage with, not to mentioned generally futile. Ask any individual involved even in social racing clubs, and you'll start to observe the presence of corporate sponsorship in order to fund hobby. Then there's the rest of the lifestyle of Dom, Brian, et al...

At the end of the day, I'm thinking that entertainment is just providing the escapism of momentarily being in a world where we can be in our fantasy, however unrealistic or unacceptable that fantasy world may be. I'm wary of that the liberties taken by entertainment may shift my sense or morals, so I need to moderate how much of that I take in.

But I do enjoy George Clooney's charm, so I won't stay away from it completely.

Burn baby, burn!!

This weekend was a scorcher, and for an hour of sunday afternoon, I became increasing sweaty and gross as I shifted some surprisingly heavily furniture. This was compounded by not being really dressed for manual labour as I don't really think much about what the day potentially holds as I get ready to leave the house.

Anyway, at one point, hunched over a bed frame and trying to hold it steady while my father in-law worked on loosening some stubborn bolts, I was pondering the river of sweat down my face, a 40 degree day, and how this links to calorie consumption. Was I earning a gallon tub of ice cream for this afternoon of effort? Well a bit of a search across various fitness sites pretty much sunk that hope as sweating is all geared to moderating body temperature, not pushing calories out through the skin. So although it is true that heavy furniture around was better than slumping on the couch, it wasn't the pinnacle of Everest that I may have liked.

And this morning, some guys brought in 4 boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts to the office. Damn...

Get off my lawn!!!

I spent a short bit of time working in the USA, and one of the larger telecom companies there is Verizon. Verizon did a series of adverts which featured a character who was supposed to be a technician, walking around various locations, and repeating into the phone "can you hear me now?".

The idea was simple, but fairly clever, that as the character illustrated going to various locations where the typical American would not expect any cellphone coverage, Verizon would still be the most likely to provide reception. Verizon's main selling point was that they offered the best coverage across the USA, and just checking on opensignal.com, it seems they still do, more than 7 years on since I saw the ads.

The downside of the adverts is that they kind of got annoying quickly because the ad script was primarily that same person saying "can you hear me now?" over and over. Just search for that phrase on YouTube and you'll see for yourself.

And that brings me to what's eating me right now, and its the open plan office that I work in. Open plan is a concept that works with the idea that it fosters collaboration and a sense of equality across all staff. There is also the hope that people would goof off less as they are exposed to a larger number of colleagues who can see what they're doing. That of course doesn't guarantee anything as was seen by a worker at Macquarie Bank: http://www.smh.com.au/national/interest-in-assets-macquarie-worker-caught-ogling-pictures-of-miranda-kerr-live-on-tv-20100203-nbsi.html

In my workplace, I seem to have been more affected by people who either:

1. choose to shout at each other across a few desks rather than walk across
2. decide to talk loudly about the weekend, or recently about Taylor Swift, for 15min
3. have daily loud personal phone calls with family
4. have sinus trouble that results in constant regular sniffing, but never touch the box of tissues that are on their desk

Am I turning into one of those short-tempered grizzly old men who just don't tolerate anyone or anything?

*sigh* I need a nap.

Boom boom

Taylor Swift has a concert on tonight, just 500m from where I work. They're currently doing the preliminary soundchecks, but even though I'm on the far side of the office behind walls and double glazed glass, it sounds as if they are performing on the floor upstairs. I feel sorry for the people who live around the stadium, as they will not be enjoying their tv shows or going to bed early tonight.

Meow meow

Last friday, when talking to some of the guys at work about the weekend and stuff, I mentioned that I'd been teaching myself to juggle.

One of the other guys had taught himself a similar thing a number of years ago when he was still in uni. Apparently he used to moonlight as a bartender for a few years to supplement the costs of tertiary education. Anyway he was explaining the details of "flair bartending", and how he got into juggling with the intent of adding a bit more style and excitement to his work. The idea being that a better show for clients leads to a slight increase in tips, although he did say in the end that being gifted with looking cute trumped any skills a person could learn, hence some of the female bartenders always earned more tips without throwing bottles and glasses around.

In the process of explaining how he taught himself from a book on juggling, he mentioned about learning to juggle with different and odd shaped objects. I had been using a set of hackysacks, but it got me thinking that as I get better, I need to look progressing to beyond the training set of juggling balls.

On the weekend, I tried 3 kittens, and only dropped them a few times. Fortunately the little guys always land on their feet.

Cookie slime

Yesterday, my wife made some really tasty gluten free choc-chip cookies. But the way she shaped them instantly conjured images from a video game I used to play years ago; Dragon Quest.

Cookie

Slime

Maybe you needed to have spent over a hundred hours playing the game before you see it...

Understanding business helps with understanding car yards

When people find out that I worked as car salesperson, howbeit quite briefly, a good proportion will then pepper me with questions arising from their perceived miserable experience(s) in buying a car from a retailer.

Basically, its business. And if you think about it for a moment in a rational and reasoned way, all business is like that, but we get hung up on cars because they cost significantly more than any sofa or television, and depreciate much quicker as well. Any business that sells a product needs to have a portion added on to the wholesale price to provide a profit. And that profit doesn't just go into the salesperson's pocket, or the boss' pocket. There are a huge amount of costs that have to be covered.

This includes administrative staff, utility fees, advertising costs, GST, rental, insurance, government registration costs, franchise costs, stock overhead costs, interest on inventory outlay, costs relating to lost or damaged items, costs relating to theft or vandalism, insurance claim premiums, and finally a certain amount of the profit has to be set aside to be used for future growth and infrastructure investment. Additionally with vehicles, there is stamp duties, registration fees and mechanical servicing that is factored in as well. So this means that the car you are buying is not actually worth the $30,000 sticker price, because that price has all those elements factored into it. The immediate depreciation your vehicle experiences as soon as it leaves the yard, is primarily due to that, and hence that is why you can't bring the car back the next day and ask to sell it back for $30,000.

Now if you want to sell a vehicle to a caryard, you face getting significantly less than what the market appears to be paying for you car. People always struggle with this. "This same car is going for $15,000 in your yard. Why won't you give me $15,000 to buy mine?"

Well the reasons are, as with any product, the business valuing your car is also allowing for all the costs and overheads mentioned above. They are also factoring other elements as well, such as the possibility that the car might sit there for 6 months and it'll be depreciating the entire time. Also when a person walks into a used car lot, they rarely will pay the sticker price on the car, they will always seek to haggle. And that is factored into the price as well.

Now you'll always get more if you sell your vehicle direct to consumers, as you then remove alot of the costs that are eating into the price you can get. Selling it direct means that there is no middle man profit, no other overheads that a person has to allow for, but it is a hassle as it now means that YOU have to find and deal with customers, and that can be a real pain.

So people still take their cars to the yard, because they know that if they agree on price, the sale will be done right then and there, without an advert dragging on for weeks or months without a buyer.

I want to know if there is a more concise way to teach people how basic commercial transactions work, so that they can be prepared and not be offended when it comes to buying or selling a vehicle from a dealership. Once they understand it, then it becomes simple. It is just business.

Job perks

I mentioned before that I worked as a car salesman. Only lasted 6 months as I just don't have the qualities that make a person successful in that, but I did love quite a few aspects of the job. I loved being around cars all day, and as it was a used vehicle yard, then there was a fairly diverse array makes and models. You start off thinking that you're never going to remember the inventory and features, but it quickly becomes second nature, like knowing what's in the fridge (well, depending on whether you do your own shopping...).

I won't talk about what ruins the sales job, as that is material for a different post, but I did enjoy meeting people. A good percentage of people, I'd guess maybe a third, just hate you on sight because of the job you have and the reputations of car sales people. But the remainder will open up and talk to you about stuff while you're stuck with them during the course of the sales process.

One of the times that a junior sales person gets stuck with the customer is during trade-in evaluations. The vehicle valuation is done by either the yard manager, a specialised value (if the yard is big enough to have one), or else just by a senior sales person. You'd expect that, because you need a person who knows what to look for, and has an idea intuitively of what the vehicle is actually worth.

Now customers aren't wanted to be present during their vehicle evaluation for the main reason that most customers will either get upset or defensive while their car is being inspected. The customer is re-engaged when it comes to negotiations of vehicle worth during the purchase period, so while the evaluation is happening, the sales person usually has to sit with the customer to talk to them and keep them from getting bored or frustrated.

This is where my post comes in; one day a lady came in to look to see what the trade-in of her Suzuki Sierra would be. She wasn't looking to buy anything, as she already was sourcing a vehicle from somewhere else, or was just looking to offload a vehicle that she wasn't using anymore. That meant that while the evaluation was being done, there was nothing I could distract her with. She wasn't wanting to look at cars in the yard, and it was hot out anyway, so I was left to keep her occupied until the manager came back.

But here she told me a fascinating story that led to her being there. Originally, back in 1999, she lived with her partner up in a small town on the western coast of Australia, and they made a living doing odd jobs and occasional tour guide work. An American pro-basketball player named Brian Williams, who'd just retired from the Pistons, stopped at the town while sailing around the world, and in the course of meeting each other at the local yacht club, Brian Williams invited this lady and her partner to join him on his boat as staff. So for something like 2 years they sailed the world with Brian Williams.

There weren't many people on the boat besides them, the skipper, Brian and his girlfriend. Occasionally other members of Brian's family would join them, particularly Brian's older brother, but over the months that Brian's brother was on board, this lady told me they could see various tensions between the two, so finally early in 2002, she and her partner decided to part ways and thank Brian for adventure when they docked in Hawaii. After that, they flew back to Australia, but a couple of months later they were contacted by the FBI who were investigating Brian's disappearance. Apparently the brother had sailed the boat back in Tahiti alone and there was no sign of Brian, his girlfriend or the skipper. The FBI reported that the suspected murder occurred only a couple of weeks after they had parted company with Brian, and if they had still been onboard, they would have been victims as well.

Talk about a good call in knowing when to take your leave.

In terms of offer that we made on her car, it wasn't a great offer (which is what you'd expect when selling anything to a reseller, as opposed direct to a customer). So she took her leave of that as well.

I'd say this lady had a pretty good sense of intuition, as she's dodged a couple of bad situations there.

"It's all when, and not if"

In countries where scooters and motorbikes aren't the only affordable option for people to get motorised transport, then this disapproving sentiment is something which every motorcycle rider would have heard several times. And it isn't so much a case of that people in cars drive better, but they are just better protected, and there are certain stability benefits that come from having 4 wheels instead of 2.

Take for example the whole burnout thing; if you do that in a rear-wheel drive car, then you'll annoy everyone in earshot and look like a monkey. If you're foolish or inexperienced, then generally your risk is the possibility of hopping a curb and collecting a power pole. But do that on a motorcycle, then your risks multiply due to the mechanical dynamics and your vulnerability. YouTube is awash with videos of motorcyclists engaged in stunts gone bad, but the injury they risk is more than just their pride.

The one above at least has the good news that she healed up pretty well, but there was alot of pain and tears in the process.

One of the debates that springs up here is about the lane splitting that motorcycles can do in heavy traffic. The vitriol from car drivers is driven primarily from envy, but the law looks down on it as it is dangerous due to drivers not expecting to watch for a bike when changing lanes in congested traffic. When I rode a bike, I pretty much avoided lane splitting due to that risk, and ironically my only accident was due to me sitting behind a SUV, when every other rider was splitting lanes. The SUV pulled an emergency stop and I hadn't allowed enough room for a sluggish morning reaction time. Face meet fender.

I haven't been back to motorcycles since, mainly as other people in my life require me to be more conservative with my transport, but I'd go back in a heartbeat if that wasn't the case.

There's something addictive about riding a motorcycle, and maybe it's being that close to the edge during the trip.

First impressions really matter

You know, if you're going to screw up a first impression, it is probably best to make a mess of it with people who you'll never see again.

A long time ago I decided to try my hand as a car salesperson. Now that in itself is material for many other posts, including the things that led up to the hare-brained decision of trying that career.

Anyway, any city will find itself with a large array of caryards and combined with a reasonably high churn in staff, means that there are plenty of openings for someone new to enter into the industry. In my case, I had quite a few applications out there, and eager to get to my first interview, I was up early and all set to go. Caryards open at 8am, though not because of the eagerness of customers, but due to the various activities that go with getting ready for the day. It also tends to mean that yard managers like to get interviews done early in the morning before sales opportunities begin to take precedence.

I worked my way through traffic to get to the yard in time for the interview. Checked my documents, proof of sales license, tie and business shirt, then strolled in to the showroom to find the manager who I'd be meeting.

The bright administration girl greeted me, then was a little stumped when I told her about my pending interview.

I repeated the name of the manager I was supposed to be meeting, and just as she asked me to wait so she could run around to ask if a manager of that name was there, that was when I realised I'd made an embarrassing mistake.

I was at the wrong caryard.

In my process of getting ready for the interview and making sure I was on time, I hadn't double checked the specific yard that I was heading out to.

Of course, by this time, there was beginning to be a small gathering of sales people, admin staff and their existing managers as they all tried to work out what was going on and who I was. Red faced and apologetic, I excused myself to make a phone call to the correct yard and explain to the interviewing manager why I wasn't there. He had a good sense of humour, had a laugh, and gave me another shot at the interview the next day.

In terms of the people at the first car yard? Well they did have my application on file for a job opening that they had as well, but seeing as I'd made a monkey of myself there, it was no surprise that they never called me in for a real interview. I think my unexpected audition had told them everything they needed.

Capital Punishment

I'm slowly learning to force myself to proofread posts prior to posting them. My first draft on this topic was less informed than this one, as I hadn't actually read much on the internet in terms of what arguments are commonly presented against Capital Punishment. Hopefully this time around I come across as more thoughtful.

First up, I should set the tone; I am for Capital Punishment, but I wanted to know more about why people oppose it as I'm open to hearing more and I'm not against being educated. Now I thought a good reasoned website would be Amnesty International. They're a huge human rights campaigner and they've been around for quite some time. So I had high expectations from them, you can read their posts http://www.amnesty.org.au/adp.

Reading through through some of the arguments in Amnesty International and other sites such as www.antideathpenalty.org, I think that quite a number of the arguments are flawed. Here are a couple of reasons why:

1. In most cases, victim impact is hardly touched. I can kind of understand why, as it is such a complex and difficult topic to handle. But there is no denying that violent crime, and this is not just limited to homicide, has huge immeasurable impacts that last a lifetime to the victim and the victim's family.
2. Often people compare USA against other western countries that don't have the death penalty and use that as their sole comparison of homicide statistics and death penalty. Now that is just gross simplification. These sorts of comparisons are way too complex to present in such a simple fashion, and in particular to handle so glibly by using a single country (USA) as a reference point. By Amnesty International's own webpages (http://www.amnesty.org/en/death-penalty/abolitionist-and-retentionist-countries) about 20% of the countries in the world actively support and practice the death penalty. About another 20% support it by law, but aren't actively practising it. So shouldn't there be more detailed comparisons against are broader range of countried? And shouldn't those comparisons account for education levels, economic conditions, availability of guns, and other indicators that could be considered to have bearing on violent crime?
3. Kind of related to the point above, but a lot of sites use the Canada crime statistics to support abolishing the death penalty. Their argument is that since 1975, homicide has dropped 40%, and the death penalty was abolished in 1976. The problems with this argument are again that they are ignoring all other factors, but secondly, the USA has also seen a drop in homicide rates over the same period. Not as great, but a drop nonetheless. An interesting book that touches on this issue is Freakonomics written by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, where one of the things he looks at is the recorded drop in homicide and general crime over this period, and his reasons why. Part of the difference is that he provides numbers and facts to support his theories, which I find more persuasive than organisations which just present a correlation without justifying why they have linked a cause and analysis.
4. A number of webpages use the argument that "several countries have already abolished it" as a supporting argument against capital punishment, but that is like saying "majority of people are trending to obesity" so that makes it suitable to shift the ideal weight in health guidelines. It is illogical to purely use majority or trend as a justification to the morality or effectiveness of an activity.
5. The argument of false convictions pertaining to those sentenced with Capital Punishment is not so much an argument against the punishment itself, but highlighting a need to change workings of the justice system itself, including the qualifications of government appointed defence attorneys.

I'm not saying that I think capital punishment is a magic pill to resolve violent crime, and it isn't because people can't be rehabilitated. But I also think that punishment does need to suit the crime committed. It might be easy to react against my opinion and say I'm a crazy right-wing extremist, but this is a serious real-life issue and have you ever logically considered about how explain your own viewpoint?

Social Sciences n00b

I miss my sunglasses too much.

Maybe I was on some sort of weird emotional bender, or maybe my brief spurt of optimism has run dry without any psychological stamina to handle the magnitude of the task I set for myself (see An impossible ideal). The whole thing about trying to somehow connect with people on the train and the bus just seems ridiculous now in hindsight. People don't want to be vulnerable to strangers during the fleeting encounters while in transit so whatever ideal I was thinking of was just going against the current of a river that is too big.

So the sunglasses are back, and my local library just got in a new novel from Terry Pratchett, "Long Earth". My head will be buried in that during my commute for the next few days.

Some people...

You can choose your friends, but you can't choose your relatives. Tragically you don't get much choice in your work colleagues either. Sure, if there's something particularly bad then you can quit or transfer internally if the company is large enough. But if your industry is in a rough economic patch, or maybe too lazy to switch jobs, then you could be in for some interesting times.

The company I work for does software, and they employ a person as the build/release manager. If you're not sure what that means, essentially think of them as the person who provides a quality control factory environment for the software. He ensures that it is labelled clearly, so that if there are any problems it can be traced to a date and easily audited. Its an important role in any software company that wants to be commercially viable.

I used to do that role, but then yearned to hop the fence, so they went through a couple of people in trying to fill the role and currently have a young man who is here on a working visa from Italy.

Where this guy gets interesting is in his style of communication, and as a person who used to do that role, I've had a lot to do with his orientation and ramp up with our tools. In addition, my current role also means that I also interact with him on an ongoing basis with further work and refinements.

He seems to know his stuff, but the problems I have are:

• He doesn't listen. The number of times I find myself repeating myself to this guy, or referencing emails I sent to him earlier that day is crazy. But maybe it is a learning style, and reading isn't his thing.
• He doesn't seem to care about the company.

Now, if people are honest, if I'm honest, I wouldn't say I care for the company that I work for in the same way I (for example) care for my wife or even my cat. If the company folded, I wouldn't be grieving for the company as much as I am for the now absent paychecks.

But I believe in a certain amount of professionalism and that people should do their job to the best of their ability with a sense of pride that they are achieving a service or goal with all their colleagues. Maybe I'm naive.

Anyway, in the two years that I've worked with this guy, the two ways he has managed to lose all my respect is:

1. In a discussion about a change in process, he loudly sided continuously with another team member who was against the changes, but could provide no reasons or justifications why he felt that way, other than my original proposal would mean more work for him. When we proposed an alternative where we would take care of that work on his behalf, he still objected to the changes. I have nothing against him objecting, and his role meant that he should have valid, well formed input to this item, but objecting without a logical reason? That isn't cool. At least the other team member had his technical reasons for why he was against it.
2. He recently encountered an issue where his working visa almost lapsed. He wouldn't have to leave the country, as he would be able to switch to a tourist visa while he addressed the working visa issue, but it would mean that we would have to suspend his employment legally, until it was sorted. We had a mass of confusion because he didn't explain this to the rest of the team properly, most of us thought he was intentionally leaving the company. When asked if he was leaving, his response was "if something better comes up". We had to go to HR to get the full story.

Dude, what? I thought maybe he was just messing with me, but he was giving the same coy answer to any of the other staff who asked him, even the ones who were friendlier with him.

In preparation of the possibility of him leaving, we asked whether he would document his work in case we have to transition, or have someone cover him temporarily, and his reply to that was that he didn't have much to write down, and people would pretty much work it out.

So now I find myself kinda torn. Finding people to fill this sort of role in the corner of Australia is a little hard, and can take months before you get a suitable applicant. If we get someone new who has to decipher what this guy has left behind, then that could be a month or two of headaches in itself. Yet on the flipside, I am done with this guy and really don't see it being in the company's long term interests for him to stay on.

Il tempo per voi di lasciare, amico.

North Korea

I have nothing personal to add about that country as I have not even been to an adjacent country, let alone North Korea itself. I've also never personally met any North Koreans. Closest is a South Korean who attends my church, and she herself has no real knowledge of what goes on in that country. Not sure if anyone does.

But a couple of years ago I came across an interesting blog from a couple of europeans who took a train trip from western Europe through to North Korea. They wrote about the train trip, and they are really into their trains, and have a stack of photos from the entire experience as well. Its a fascinating journey to read, but make sure you keep a few hours set aside for the experience.

Vienna to Pyongyang

I find it interesting that the Wikipedia article on the first Kim (Kim Il-sung) to begin communist North Korea, mentions that he reported he was the son of a Protestant minister. He must have held some deep seated resentment for Christians as they're now automatically considered traitors to the state.

Egg on face

Man, what a rollercoaster the past few days at the office have been. One of the exciting aspects of my job is dealing with people's fault reports. I work as a software developer providing tools and support for a software test automation team at the company I work for.

So alot of my job is creating tools, and making ammendments, in order to have software automatically testing software. Kinda sounds like the build up in plot for some sci-fi horror story.

Anyway, things occassionally don't work as planned. Sometimes I make a change to a tool and it breaks something else, sometimes I don't understand what they originally needed and I need to make changes to the behaviour. All up it means that I need to understand them, but I almost never understand them on the first try of any issue. This is actually normal for people talking about complex topics in relation to unexpected technical situations.

Where this whole arrangement baffles me sometimes is that it is the test teams' job, their specialty, a core part of what they do each day, is communicate about unexpected things to other people. For example, when they determine a way which causes a system to fail, they then need to clearly and concisely report to the original software developrs about what they did, what happened, and how to accurately reproduce the issue.

I've spent large chunks of the past four days locked in a tense standoff with one of the testers who I couldn't understand the details of her problem. She's a bright lady and hard working, but perhaps tiredness and frustration at the issue meant that on this occassion she was not inclined to go into much detail. So I was left guessing and trying to pick up pieces from other sources. That did not go well.

I ended up with a situation of providing a resolution for her that was part right and wrong. The problem was she didn't want the solution, because it only partly worked, but also she wanted something now that would fix the issue without her having to make any changes. Of course this aggravated me as there was no logical way to achieve what she wanted.

Managers got involved, answers and solutions were demanded to be provided in short time frames, and in my rushing around to make things happen, I made some mistakes and assumptions because I didn't do proper checks before presenting results.

End of the day, I achieved a good solution, but managed to also confuse and mislead a few people on the way. Weeks like that have me looking forward to friday night drinks. I need something to wash this egg off.

Yee haa

Fooling around with Blogger has been interesting. I've heard about all the things you can do to track popularity and viewing stats so that authors can keep track of their popularity and also try to gauge who are their main audiences.

I just noticed I can see what countries some of my hits are coming from, and I'm getting a bunch from USA. I don't know how that works as I'm pretty sure I unselected the option to make this page visible to Google, so I'm guessing a couple of my friends are using something to hide their IP.

But just in case; greetings uncle Sam.

Should I go public?

I guess its that desire for a little bit of fame. Perhaps jealousy of other blogs sites that have become quite popular and the curiosity about whether I could achieve the same heady heights of fame. But every now and then, I wonder whether I should set my blog to be visible to blog searches on this website, and even to appearing for corresponding Google searches.

But then there is one thing that holds me back, and that is the knowledge of what a portion of the vocal users of the internet are like. You hear of the nonsense that comes out of flame wars on twitter, the abusive comments that get made in people's blogs, and even on mainstream commercial news sites things can get unpleasant. And it doesn't even have to be the expression of a difference of opinion, there are individuals out there who will say things because they seem to enjoy seeing the reaction.

I know that in terms of the vast majority of people in the world, and even in terms of that smaller set of people who do actively engage in leaving comments on pages, it is a tiny minority who are offensive for the sake of it. Yet the whole adage of:

  "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me"

Seems to be rather shallow, especially if you weren't expecting a personal attack.

A couple of webcomics I really enjoy reading, have made comments on a few occassions how they have struggled with some of the content that people have posted as comments. In many cases it wasn't that the commenter was intended to be outright malicious, but perhaps they forgot that the author was providing their artwork and storytelling free of charge, with nothing asked of in return. And some of these artists are really very good, investing a lot of time to create remarkable illustrated stories for the free enjoyment of readers.

Anyway, all this leads up to me realising that no. No, I'm keeping this private as its just to develop my communication and also stay in touch with the people that I know. And its ok if you guys say something mean as I know where you live, heh heh heh.

An impossible ideal

You've probably been around people who have lamented the fact that there seems a little less community now compared to the past. That on the bus and train, everyone has their head buried in the phone or tablet, or have their ears stuffed with headphones pumping out music, isolated themselves from each other.

I've wondered about this from time to time, whether it really can change. Alot of the people who wish for change may be perhaps forgetting that there wasn't just the absence of the current portable technology, but the city used to be a lot smaller and attitudes were different a couple of generations ago. Now, it is rare that I bump into someone I know, even though there are about 20 people who I know from work, my church, or just family friends who share much of my regular commute. The buses are larger, the trains are longer, there are more people, and the trip is over fairly quickly. You also don't know if the person next to you is going to flip out or just ignore you. In the end, most people just want to get home.

What am I going to talk to the stranger next to me about? And what do I know of what they are going through? My skateboard has been an item that has opened up a few instances of conversations with strangers but the conversation is stifled in many ways because the stop to get off for one of us arrives, or perhaps my mind was off somewhere else with the long list of things to prepare for other commitments and I really wasn't engaged for conversation.

Part of me likes the idea of a fantasy world where, instead of people with bad posture, sore necks and lousy hearing, there instead are people who greet each other with a "Whassup?" and chin wag about the weather and other pleasantries.

But the other part of me is honestly not sure I could face that all the time. How much meaningless conversation with strangers do I want to have, that will just get thrown away due the low chance of crossing paths again? Do I want to get into more deep and personal issues with a stranger to have a more meaningful conversation when time is quite limited with the fairly rapid links in transport?

Maybe it all seems daunting because we are thinking about how far it is to go to achieve this ideal. I remember one morning on the train I saw a friend's wife site down across from me. I smiled and waved to get her attention but her first reaction was to wonder who is this thug trying to get her attention. Once she worked out it was me, she told me that with the headphones, sunglasses, baseball cap and jacket, I was not a friendly image at all. Not only did I not look like a person she'd want to talk to, but she was initially freaked out when this person approached her.

So I'm leaving the baseball caps at home, and trying to stop wearing the sunglasses when I'm in the train. I'll look to have a ready smile and be polite, and hopefully I can inch my way to not being part of the reason that strangers don't make eye contact anymore.

No post today

Well, no real post.

I thought I had a topic on stumbling into conversations part way, and how taken out of context some things can really give the wrong impression. In my case, on my way to get a cup of tea at the office, a group of guys were talking about a recent video game, GTA V, but I only learned it was in regards to the game later on. The part I overheard sounded as though they were casually talking about a guy they all knew, and having unintentionally met up with him while he was in a compromising activity.

But I'm stuck on how to write this up.

It's an interesting experience, and most people probably have been in that situation of coming into a conversation part way, and thought it was about something else. Its even funnier if you join the conversation and proceed along the lines of your misconception, with everyone else not understanding what you're on about.

In my case this was more about my prudish side kicking in, with my ideas of what really is, and isn't, appropriate for conversation out loud in a workplace. Being in software engineering firm, video games come up alot, and as they're entertainment orientated, many video games are constantly seeking to appeal to our basest desires.

So I have nothing to write really about this, other than it possibly makes me seem prudish to others. But I think its not a bad thing. I'm not closed minded to new ideas or discussions about points of view, but I just have a sense that behaviour and conversations should have certain sensibilities.

Don't you?

TL;DR

H-uh... I just found out what that means: too long; didn't read.

If my posts ever feel like that, please let me know.

Man down, man down!!

Many years ago, I'd been in Chicago with a group of other work colleagues, and we happened to be there in the middle of their winter. So on the weekend we decided to try our hand at skiing. The area we were staying at, was way out on the northern fringes of greater Chicago, and there had to be some small hills in the suburbs that doubled as mini-ski slopes. The one we went to was not much more than a bunny slope and then a slightly large hill which had a 2min gentle chair lift to the top. It really was tiny. In the summer, the larger hill would have only taken a 5min stroll to get to the top.

Anyway quite a few us hadn't skied before, and as we weren't interested in paying for an instructor, we had myself and one other guy looking to teach the basics of snowplough and turning to the four others. We must have spent about an hour going up and down the bunny slope, building confidence and ability. Finally we got to the stage where everyone was keen to move on and try the larger slope.

The slope wasn't complex, basically the larger hill and the bunny slope were side by side pointing down in the same direction. So we were just going to head down to the bottom of the bunny slope, and then steer a little left towards where the ski lift started that would take us up. So we went down in two groups, myself with two learners and the other guy with the other two.

We all arrived and were joining the lift queue when someone asked: "where's Caryn?"

No one knew where she'd gotten to, but the second group was sure she'd been right with them, and that's when we saw a group of people gathering around near a cluster of trees just at the base of the bunny slope. That's also when you get that sinking feeling and "oh no".

Apparently she'd built speed, panicked and froze up, resulting in her not being able to turn and avoid the little cluster of pines right in front of her. To make things worse, there is a small dip where snow hadn't built up around the base of the cluster of trees, so she'd slid down that and gotten trapped in the dip against a tree, unable to get herself up without a few other people getting in there to lift her out.

Caryn did not ski any more that day, and went off for a hot chocolate. Good thing I'm not trying to make a living as a ski instructor.

Ohhhh..... nasty

Pretty much if you've ever caught a public transport train, whether in your home town doing the commute, or when on holidays and touring sites, you would have had to encounter the myriad of stairs and escalators that all go with the stations that accompany any public transport system.

During my commute to work, I don't take the stairs nearly enough but I'll kind keep walking on the escalators to speed up my ascent/descent to where ever I'm going. The etiquette here is similar to most places when it comes to escalators which can fit two people across; people who relax and enjoy the escalator ride all stand on one side, and the free side is left available for those who like to walk up the escalator steps in the pretence that we're kinda exercising.

This morning, as I'm stepping up the escalator, and kinda breathing deep as I try to hustle my way to the next train, the guy in front of me farts in mid step and I get my lungs full.

He just keeps going pretending to be innocent while I collapse gasping for air and making a monkey of myself on the floor.

Now, several mouth rinses with water, 2 cups of tea, a banana and some other fruit later, the taste still haunts me. I don't know what I'd do if I ever see that guy again, but the problem is I'll only recognise his butt and that will have me in the position for him to do it all over again.

Royal flush

Not the poker kind, at least not this time, instead I mean the toilet type.

A large number of toilets, seemingly anything over 10 years old, uses the float on a lever arm to control the inlet valve. I couldn't really find a decent picture, or at least one that wasn't too gritty, to show how these work, but essentially a rubber stopper is pushed down as the float rises on the water level, at the other end of a lever arm. The rubber stopper is intended to push down on the inlet hole, and cut off the supply once the water level has risen to the right point.

Anyway these things are cheap and nasty, and if you don't get decent rubber washers from the hardware store, then it is highly unlikely it'll seal properly. What you'll end up with is water still seeping through from the tap pressure and causing a hissing sound to be constantly heard. It can drive you crazy if you can hear it all the time.

Even if you can't, then what it also means is that the water level is still gradually rising and once it reaches the overflow point, that water is being wasted.

Anyway, digging through YouTube videos in desperation on how to fix this thing properly, I came across a reference to using Caroma's QuietFlow setup. It's also meant to be maintenance free so I shouldn't even have to worry about replacing ballcock washers anymore.

I had my doubts, but just finished installing it last night and it really does work well. An easy install, and works just like video and other reviews had indicated: fills fast until the set cutoff level where it cuts off straightaway and no hissing. For $24 (including delivery) from ABL Tile Centre its worth it.

Now all I've got to do is replace the jet engine of an exhaust fan with something more discreet, and going to the toilet will finally be a serene experience.

I'm awake now

So yesterday was interesting. A bunch of changes in perspective, and then on the train ride home I get a call that water is gushing out of the hot water unit.

Awesome.

The tank is only 14 years old, but it seems the early owners weren't into maintaining the anode, so even though we replaced it just after moving in, that apparently was too late.

So a cold shower this morning which was rather exhilarating, and I can also look forward to an exciting water bill, and probably a good electricity one as well. While I was attending to it last night and assessing the extent of corrosion, I could hear the element still frantically trying to heat the little bit of water that was left in the bottom.

Anyway, hoping to get a replacement unit put in today. Bye bye money, I'll miss you, even though you never seemed to care much for me.

A different perspective

I just wrote about perspective when it comes to hearing about events secondhand, but today I was given a different perspective entirely. A close friend recently experienced an unexpected loss in his family. One day everything was normal, and the next was filled with shock and agony.

The event has understandably shaken them to the core and although he is thankful for what was spared, there is little that gives him much cheer right now.

We spend our lives sometimes chasing ridiculous things, and I think of all the hours I've sunk into computer games and other stuff that doesn't matter, but not into the people who I care about. Events like this help to reset my view on reality.

Bro, my thoughts are with you.

Do you see a duck or a lady?

You know those visual illusion puzzles, where when you first look at it, one image appears, but then as you concentrate and look for a secondary image, you then see something else begin to become visible? There are a few classics getting around that you most likely would have seen, such as this:

and this:

The same thing happens in media when different people report on the same event. Based upon the bias of a person, the things that they have seen or heard, and how they interpret it, they'll then put their own spin on what has happened in that event. A charismatic writer can be quite influential in swaying people towards their own view.

You're probably aware of this and have your own experiences where you've seen this happen. I was reminded of it again just this morning when reading about a particular event that occurred in the USA within the ranks of NFL. The summery of the event is that a player for the NFL team; Miami Dolphins, took leave from playing and revealed that it was due to bullying from another player in hos own team. I won't go into the details, if you want you can read about it then you can Google the two players involved Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin.

However I'm not writing about this to give an opinion on who is at fault, but simply to say I was surprised about how my view got confused when I read about the article from two different writers who I both have a good amount of respect for.

The first writer was Brian Philips from Grantland (ESPN) who wrote an interesting and extensive piece that talked about the entrenched attitudes of bullying and machismo that led to a shocking degree of depression and suicide within the ranks of that sport. The article is here though I must warn that the language is a little course.

On the flipside is another writer who is even more coarse in his language, but approaches the situation from the reverse angle. I've found his perspective and experience interesting for a large number of reasons, but his site is even less suitable for those wanting to avoid crude language. To respect his opinion, you would have needed to have read alot of his past blog to get a feel for how reasonable or intelligent he may be. He did conclude his own entry with saying that we'd need to see all the facts come out, but he did make clear what his opinion was, and it was quite the opposite of Brian Philips. If you're not offended easily, you can read his post here.

I was reminded once again that when it comes to hearing about an interesting event secondhand, particularly when it will affect and shape my interaction with that person, I need to do my own research as the teller of the story will have applied their own bias.

Writing role models

I've been trying to think a little bit about some of the things that led me to consider blogging. Sometimes these things can be hard to really identify if you weren't concentrating or taking notes when it was all happening, especially if you have a memory like mine, but I was thinking back on it today, and I think I was inspired by the writing of other people.

I've only got one favourite fiction author, and that is Terry Pratchett. The guy knows how to tell a story and weave some wit through the entire thing. I don't agree with all of his world views, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying his books as I have to say they're worth considering if you've never read any of his stuff.

Then I recently came across an American writer called Chuck Klosterman. I came across one of his books 'A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas' by chance at the local library and found his style quite enthralling. The way he took regular events and meetings, and then related them in a funny and engaging way, was enthralling to me.

You're bound to meet at least one person like that in your life, whether they be the class clown, the life of the party, or whatever, they are the kind of person who can have you laughing about their story of getting the saturday paper from the shop.

Well looking for more of his stuff, I found that he was an occassional writer for an ESPN website: Grantland.com. They've got quite a large number of good writers who feature on that site regularly. Their articles feature not just North American sport, but also pop-culture observations. Over the past couple of years, those articles have linked to other writings and even blogs.

Some of those blogs have turned out to be quite good, and then linked to other blogs which have also been quite engaging. Danny Choo's blog is remarkably engaging, but his entries are primarily composed of photos he has taken during an occassion, so in a way, his blog entries are quite visual. (He is an excellent photographer and I've been reading alot about his camera choices as he's clearly achieved good results from a combination of the right equipment and great ability.)

I like how these individuals are all able to communicate and connect with people. They're frequently intelligent in their thoughts and opinions, and able to recognise what is interesting to the people they're relating it to. I hope that I can develop in a similar way, because if anything, I don't want to be boring to listen to.

Lindsey Stirling

Depending on whether you watch those tv talent game shows or not, you probably won't recognise that name. She's an American violinist, only 27 years old but remarkably talented and has stood out from many others by adding hip-hop and electronic styles to her perfomances. I've not really been much of a fan of instrumentals primarily featuring violins, but her music has been quite remarkable and very worthwhile listening to. You can check some of her stuff out on SoundCloud if you're ever curious. She's featured on America's Got Talent back in 2005, and it is interesting in seeing how she's managed to make a name for herself despite the number of people who said her fusion of violin with contemporary electronic and dubstep styles would never work.

It has me thinking that I've let alot of things slide, mainly due to finding it easier to sink hours into video games. For example I've got about $2,000 worth of wind and brass instruments idling away in a closet. I've got to pull that stuff out and get back into playing music.

My to-do list is starting to look kinda long...

Fearing for the future

I'm going to bring up the sniffing and snorting thing again because for some reason it seems that there are a cloud of people, who are doing this constantly, hovering around me for the past month. It is driving me nuts!

I related this to my wife, and perhaps she felt that I was including her in this, but I'm not. She suffers from quite bad hayfever, and the current Spring is being rather severe now that the sun is out. However, where my wife stands out from most, is that she's aware of what hayfever involves and she keeps tissues at hand all the time. So when there's stuff in her nose, she blows.

Why most of the Australian population has forgotten this principle is beyond me. I still remember quite clearly the times that my mother reprimanded me for snorting and not using tissues or a handkerchief. Such that I was quite aware that not only was sniffling a gross act, but that it clearly irritated her, and by extension it would definitely annoy everyone else. Now I'll make a note here, despite all my upbringing, I almost never carry tissues, even when I'm chronically sick. However, what I will do, is go out of my way to clear the sinuses before going out, and also look to avail myself of a tissue when those sinuses start to run again. Often this is accommodated by visiting a restroom facility to grab a couple of squares of toilet paper. I live in a developed nation, and public washrooms are everywhere. If I find myself in a place where there are no restrooms of any sort, then I'm also in a place where there aren't any people and snorting to my heart's content, or wiping my nose on a koala, isn't an issue.

Anyway, getting back to the point in hand; my mum. In fact, for my generation I believe it would be accurate to say that the vast majority of mothers would have instilled an understanding of the appropriate and best way of getting rid of mucus. Afterall, your body is using it to try to get rid of something, why would you then want to ingest it?

So the past week, I've been looking at some of the people in the cloud of sniffers, and I've been a little surprised. On two occassions, the sniffer was part of a romantically linked pair of individuals, and it has been the male on both occassions. What surprised me was that for the duration that I was in their presence (in one case 10minutes during a train journey) the woman did not seem perturbed by her partner's behaviour.

These have both been young couples, and either still informally attached or very early in a more long-term arrangement, yet the female half of the pairing did not provide any etiquette guidance for her disadvantaged other. The guy would have been doing this for the time they had been together before I crossed their path that day, and most likely continued afterwards as well. I'm not saying her best solution would have been to look for a better partner, but I'm surprised that she wasn't correcting that behaviour.

Where I'm going with this is; if the women who are the future mothers of tomorrow are not disturbed by constant loud snorting right next to them, then will that mean that they won't be correcting their children? And what will that mean for the hygiene and etiquette for the next generation?

The possibilities make me cringe.

Torture bars

Thought I should get a picture up of my handiwork. It's held up well for the past week, though of course I am not managing many reps just yet. I've only managed 3.

Goal for the moment is to be able to do 20. The other thing as well is that I'm getting into these cold, so it isn't like it is part of an exercise routine. If I was, I'd probably still only be managing 1.

Anyway, baby steps. One of the guys at my work recommended looking up BarStarzz on Youtube, which kind of originated out of guys using the bars at local parks and around the streets for their exercise routines. Something I'm hoping to get some inspiration from.

Main thing I'm happy about right now is that it hasn't pulled out of the wall.

H-uh... I can almost juggle.

I've always wanted to learn how to juggle and so I've occassionally messed around with some hacky sack things around the house, but the problem is that I only have two. So I would kinda improvise a third and try for a while, then completely forget about it. End result, I have no ability. Recently though I decided to get a few sets of three juggling training balls (they're for prizes for something else, a post for another time), but I kept one for myself to practice with. So now I can do a really basic routine, though not very reliably. But I'm making progress and it's only taken me a few days.

This is kinda cool, to me anyways. And also I can honestly say that committing oneself to practicing something regularly actually works. There might be a life lesson here... not sure.

I'm gonna keep at this until I can juggle on demand.

Write off.

Wow, last week was a killer. I have a few favourite blogs were the writers are remarkably entertaining and I love hearing about all their adventures and experiences, but they'd have big gaps in their posts occassionally, and I would wonder to myself how can things get so on top of a person that they drop off the radar for a couple of weeks, or even a couple of months?

Well, I had that happen to me last week. Between some insane days at the office, combined with some other preparation work for extra curricular activities, it meant that both my days and nights were hosed, and I had no desire to sit in front of a computer to compose any postings. Sorry about that.

Anyway the weekend was fun. My legs were killing me after having a few nights where I had to skate alot further and a bit more frantically to make trains. The services here really die out after 6:30pm, and the station near my workplace is not one I want to sit around after dark, so I end up pushing uphill for the short distance into the central station. It all means I'm just out of shape.

So with the fatigue in my legs making me reticent to do any work, I had to really push to get some stuff done around the house that has been needing attention. Saturday morning was spent lying on the roof for an hour in the sun rewiring LED transformers for the dining room. One of the older units had cracked the solder joints for the wiring block, and that meant the slightly intermittent power supply was blowing the globes, and LED units are still expensive here. I've also upped the LED lights to a slightly higher power for more light. The end result is that we can now see what we're eating, and that's nice.

I also finally fixed the damn dynabolts holding up my chin up bar. You can see the picture below of the cheap ones that originally came with it. These bolts are so cheap that I couldn't even find a decent photo of them.

These bolts fail because the flared end is actually visibly wider than the sheath, and that's bad because you then need to make a wider hole than necessary to make the bolt go in, and you run the risk that it then won't flare enough. I bought some nicer ones with a more accurately machined tip, but had to be longer so they would go through to a deeper drilled section of the wall, reusing the same holes. It isn't perfect, but it holds my weight.

I can now do two reps. Sweet.

I had a guy give me some advice on different training techniques to build strength in this area, so hopefully I'll be occassionally posting about my progress in this regard.

Oh, I also spent 4 hours this weekend trying to fix our toilet. The toilet had issues leaking from the outlet valve, as well as also the inlet valve not shutting off properly. It was bad enough that we could now see it measurably impacting our daily water usage. Four hours. Four hours trying to fix what should take 15min to do. The outlet valve is fixed , however the inlet valve still leaks. It is better now, but it is still leaking.

I hate you Caroma. I want my money and my four hours back.

I can has cheeseburger?

The internet is full of various cat themed memes and lolcats. I'm not going to add any here or bore you with any. But I am a cat person, and so I often find myself lured into watching cat videos on YouTube, or looking up ridiculous recycled lolcat pictures. I've also been a cat owner for quite a few years of my life. It isn't that I don't like dogs, but I just don't like them enough to want to own them. I'll pat friendly dogs, and when I visit friends who own them, I'll rub behind the dog's ears and scratch their belly. Even take them for walks. So it isn't like I loathe the animals.

Now, some people have dogs for a whole variety of reasons, and one of those reasons is security. Its a reason that I understand and its also a reason that has occassionally had me contemplating whether I needed to become a dog owner myself. Dogs are generally territorial, and will usually make alot of noise, if not being outright aggressive, if they feel a stranger is intruding on their property.

I used to live next to a lady who had two medium sized dogs, and they would go nuts if someone even walked past the property on the street, let alone go near the gate. I remember a few of the parents telling me they would not only cross to the opposite side of the street, but they would be walking across the lawns of the opposing houses to be as far from the dogs as possible, due to how aggressive and loud they were against the gate, when they passed by. The children all feared the dogs, and it didn't surprise me at all.

The lady who owned the dogs lived there with her brother, then one day she came over to ask me to look after the dogs for two weeks, while she went back to Italy to attend a relative's wedding. I wasn't keen, considering how the dogs behaved, but apparently her brother had moved out a few months prior and he wasn't keen on looking after them. The task was feed the dogs and get the mail for two weeks. She'd provide the food necessary. There was no real introduction to the dogs, or explanation on how said feeding should occur, and I was a chump at the time and agreed to help her out, even though I should have grilled her more on how this was all supposed to happen.

My solution? Well the side gate was a large wrought iron gate with vertical bars, but also a small gap at the bottom, so I decided that I'd go with placing the opened food on a piece of board, twice a day, with a rope attached. I'd slide the board under the gate so the dogs could eat, and once done, I'd pull the rope to get the board back for next time.

Anyway, after the first day of this, the dogs got accustomed to me coming around and were a little more settled. Their behaviour had changed pretty quickly, and I was starting to wonder if they really were feral, or if it was something else. So deciding it'd be good for a laugh, I ventured my left hand through the bars to pat them on the head, and it turned out the dogs were simply starved for affection.

After that, I made it a habit to go through the gate each day to check on their welfare. The lady who owned these dogs really didn't care for them very well. Bedding was a mess and reeked of urine, and their water bucket was only half full and filled with algae. Each day was spent doing some basic clean up, and making sure they had full clean water to drink. I was able to even show a few of the local kids that the dogs really were quite friendly after all.

This all came around to bite me though, in a manner of speaking. The dogs had started getting used to my routine of arriving, entering through the gate and providing food, and on the last day, right before the neighbour was due back from her holiday, the dogs bolted for freedom as I was stepping through the gate. Damn mutts! I had no chance. They were off at full pelt and were gone.

A storm was rolling in that afternoon, and there wasn't much I could do. I drove around the neighbourhood a little, but couldn't spot them anywhere. A couple of hours later, I tried again, walking around the block, and spotted the two of them trotting together down the street. These dogs hadn't ever been trained to respond to commands so my best shot was to crouch down like when I had been giving them food, and as they came over I grabbed each dog's collar and dragged them both back into the yard.

I was just glad that when the neighbour got back, the two dogs were back in the yard and everything was normal. Still not happy about the way those dogs were kept, but it wasn't quite at a level for the RSPCA to do anything about it.

The neighbour got back and the dogs returned to barking crazy at anyone who walked past, including me.

Damn mutts.

The power of illusion

I have a couple of favourite shows at the moment, and both are Japanese game shows. I used to only have one; called "G-Wars" which was hugely amusing to watch because of the characters who played the show's hosts and also most of the contestants had careers as entertainers or comedians, so they were quite amusing in their banter. Each week, the show would get a group of competitors together to face a number of odd physical challenges to see who would come out on top. In a show where teams were pitched against each other, or even competing as individuals, it was actually alot of fun that the competitors were all quite light-hearted and relaxed about the outcome.

Sadly, that show only lasted a season and then ended. The two shows I'm currently enjoying are "Banzuke" and "Ninja Warrior". Ninja Warrior is built around a 4 stage physical challenge course set up on a mountain not far from Tokyo. Each round, takes in 100 contestants who seek to pass through each of the four stages. Failure to complete a stage results in them getting sent home, and these stages are hard.

Really hard.

I look at the individuals who are regular contestants, and those who regularly make it through just the first stage are visibly very fit, and for all the times I've watched it, only one individual has made it through all four stages to the end. The course is really difficult, even leaving olympic gymnasts exhausted and defeated.

The thing is though, after watching the show frequently enough and long enough, a little voice in the back of my head starts telling me "I think I could almost do that". The problem is I know I'm not very fit right now. Not even average fitness, as is testified by my attempts on the monkey bars.

So shut up, little voice. Shut up while I get another cookie and watch the next episode.

Handshakes

I think awkward handshakes are probably pretty well covered across the internet, there was one that I came across indirectly from The Sneeze and I've been in his position before with the whole weird handshake where someone closes their hand too early. I've been on the other side of the fence though too, where I've been guilty of being the source of a bad handshake. I used to be one of the main greeters of a small suburban church I used to attend during my university years, and this involved welcoming people as the arrived, shaking their hand, and if they were new; then introducing them to other people around the church.

Anyway, on one particular occassion where I welcomed a rather elderly lady who had arrived, my firm handshake was way too firm and I felt the bones in her hand shift. I have no idea whether it caused her any pain, as I was quick to release as soon as I felt that. She didn't express any pain or discomfort, but I also noticed that I never got around to shaking her hand ever again. I'm much more conscious now of those older than me, but sometimes that has come back to bite me.

A recent case was when I met the parents of some friends who were in town for a couple of weeks. I met the father first and he greeted me with a warm handshake, but didn't let go. I'm used to a handshake between guys being a firm grip, and a two second count during which it might just be a slight squeeze or a bit of a shake, then let go. But this time he held for almost 10 seconds! What are you supposed to do in those cases? You can't pull away as it gets weirder than it already is, so I end up being distracted by that and missing some of his opening conversation. Not to mention probably coming across as odd, as I had released pressure, and then had to reapply it to keep up with the prolonged handshake.

For the guys reading this, its probably an amusing way to mess with other people's minds when shaking hands, but I really don't recommend it, as you don't want to become that guy.

DIY failure

So I posted recently about wanting to improve my ability for chin ups after a rather pathetic attempt on the monkey bars. So I've been watching the various classifieds for the local area as what I want to get is a chin up tower, but these things aren't cheap, even the basic ones are a couple of hundred and considering my track record in losing interest, I didn't want to spend that kind of money on something that takes up a fairly considerable amount of space. The footprint on these things is quite large due to the spread of the feet for stability. The second hand units that do pop up in the classifieds have been getting snapped up faster than I can get to them, so no joy there either.

Crawling through eBay, there was an alternative posted which is one of these wall mounted chin up bars. These things are alot cheaper, especially sourced through eBay. Seeing as I'm writing about it here, you can probably already guess where this is going.

Anyway, the bar and brackets themselves are fairly solid, they'll have no problems holding my weight, but its the mounting on the wall that is interesting. Four dynabolts hold each bracket in, and the ones supplied with this kit are actually quite cheap and nasty. I should have just bitten the bullet and picked up decent ones from the hardware store, but I made holes that would take these ones and only got 6 of 8 securely mounted. So my first attempt at lifting myself, and I've got one bracket now pulling out from the wall slightly. Not impressed! I'll wait until its fairly pronounced, which should be when I try and do another set tonight, then I'll go past the hardware store and get new bolts to replace the two which haven't held.

Oh, and in case you're wondering: a "set" for me is two chin ups, and I can manage one set a day. *sigh* I can already feel my motivation slipping...

Lingering aspirations

Part of me still ponders aspirations I've had for many years to become a police officer. Its something that I've thought about on and off for almost 19 years now. Apparently I can keep thinking about it as there is no maximum age limit for applicants to the Australian Police Force. Of course there are entrance exams that must be passed, including physical fitness tests.

The whole interest actually sparked one day when I was in a police station during my university days. I had been given a defect notice about a broken headlight, and the officer just directed me to drop into the local police station to have it visibly inspected by an officer once I had it repaired. While waiting at the station for an officer to become available, I passed the time reading the various paraphernalia that was plastered around the walls, and then came across the plaque that bore the creed. I can't remember the wording of it now, and a bit of internet searching didn't turn anything up. But the sense of inspiration that I got from that time is what is burned in my memory.

About 8 years ago, I went past a recruiting booth for the police force and sat down with one of the officers to talk about what was involved and the renumeration plans. Its probably going to sound shallow, but the problem was I had a mortgage that I was managing ok on my salary as a programmer, but it turned out the salary while at the academy, and initially after graduation, would have been quite a severe hit. I ended up letting that opportunity slide.

I've recently been checking on the recruitment pages for the Australian police force, and it is good to see that the renumeration has been increased substantially from when I enquired all those years back. It has me considering it again, but now this time around I am married and so there are different things to consider.

This post was all brought to the surface after recently reading a blog that had been kept by an officer in Arizona [Office Gary]. Its worth reading if you're interested, although sadly he stopped updating back in 2009.

Fighting entropy

"weak!"

"what?!"

"weak."

"let's see how many you can do then."

I just get a laugh in response and she already knows she doesn't have to prove anything. My wife continues to roam around on the sand and laugh at my efforts.

My wife and I like to walk around our neighbourhood. It's nice, most people will smile and say hello as you pass, the place is pretty safe to wander around even at night, and there's lots of public spaces. There are playgrounds everywhere, about 15min stroll apart, so you can fit in a nice walk and punctuate it with stops at parks to sit and soak up the scenery.

We don't see people using the parks very often, so using the swings and play equipment is an opportunity I like to avail myself with. This time around though, I'd decided to mess around on the monkey bars, and even try my hand at a few chin-ups.

I needed a break after 1, hence the mocking verbal exchange.

I used to be able to do more, but maybe gravity has gone up since my younger days. I think this may end up being a recurring theme on this blog, but from today, I'm going to try to shake the lead out and get into some light exercises. My goal, for now is get to 2.

Baby steps.

Self perpetuating systems

I've had this argument with a number of people from a variety of backgrounds, and I think I can see both sides of the argument, which might also be why I don't quite have the conviction to press home the side of the argument I feel is right. Talk about weak. Meh...

One of the things I enjoy reading is Manga, that whole Japanese comic. When it comes to graphic novels, the Japanese have a great sense of art and story telling. Combined with the sheer massive volumes that are generated each year and breadth of variety, and you have pretty much something for everybody in there.

But there comes two problems for people who are into this stuff:

1. This stuff becomes expensive pretty quick. Its expensive enough if you're in Japan buying it untranslated.
2. When you're not in Japan, you don't always get everything. Manga and anime are becoming more popular in western countries, but it is still a risky and expensive business for publishers to buy the rights, spend time translating, printing and distributing, with the hope of making enough sales for it to be worthwhile.

Now Australia is starting to become known as having the highest proportion of pirates, compared to any other nation, when it comes to entertainment. Figures released from studios tracking the number of viewers of a TV show who view it via a legitimate channel (cable tv or free-to-air) as opposed to the number of people getting it via torrents. The ratio is the least favourable in Oz.

Most likely, if you know about torrents, and what it means to pirate movies, shows, anime, manga, etc, then you'll also know all the defense that people put up for it. But on the flipside, I've recently started to slow my reading of manga and comics to just try and appreciate the work in every panel. I'm no artist, and any time I spend in doodling away in notebooks involves 30min on just a random image with ordinary results. But comics and manga have hours invested by an artist in each page, and it can be consumed all within a few seconds before we flip to the next.

To then think that I'm entitled to get that for free just because it is too hard or too expensive to get legitimately, that shows that there is something wrong with my thinking. I used to buy alot of my manga, but that stuff adds up, so I now scan the public library and read the various series that they do have in stock, although most are not complete.

To add insult to it, Madman Inc, the corporation that exclusively licenses most manga and anime titles that get exported to Oceania regions, isn't moving with technology, but instead persisting with printed media for manga only and not considering digital distribution, unlike Viz in the USA. People argue that stubborn attitudes like Madman's only perpetuate piracy.

I was strongly tempted to break my convictions recently as I wanted to finish Full Metal Alchemist, and my local library only had about a third of the volumes, with the highest being volume 13, of a 27 volume series. To finish reading it, according to Madman, would cost me $225. I would get free shipping if I got them all at once, but that is just an insane outlay of cash.

I want to finish reading it, but considering the hours of sweat and effort spent by artists who create original content, I have no right to just take it without paying my dues. If I don't have the money to spare, then I should give it a pass. After all, its just entertainment. Its not food.

Going postal

I strongly suspect that one of the things that I'm going to rant about alot in this blog, is going to be public transport. I've got nothing against trains and buses themselves. In fact its a great time for me to read and daydream while going between home and work. It's the people though that get me.

One of the worst times is the 6months of winter and spring. It shouldn't be as bad as it is, yet I dread being trapped in those confined spaces with the unwashed masses. The main thing that really winds me up is the snorts and sniffles.

I don't know why so many people are like this. When I was a kid, I'd barely made it into primary school before it was engrained into me by the firm hand of my mother that sniffling a runny nose was both rude and unnecessary. The presence of tissues and handkerchiefs were the solution to those social offenses. In a pinch, I'd generally use the back of my hand until I could get hold of some tissues.

The joys of learning alternatives as you grow up, is mastering the hawk and spit, which would save on tissues if I was outside and not around others. Now here is the important question; if you know what it is that your snorting, and you're in a bus or train, then why would you constantly go around without a tissue in your pocket and repeatedly snort that stuff up without a way to get rid of it?

How can so many people not realize both how gross and annoying it is when they're snorting on what seems to be every second breath?

Help spread the word, tell people about tissues.

Innocence lost

When I was a kid, my neighborhood did seem to be like "the good ol' days". We'd go across to play with the kids next door without having to call ahead or book "play dates". The school across the street wasn't surrounded by a fence, so on weekends we could run around the playgrounds, or use the four square markings in the quad. Going up the street at night to the shops to pick up fish'n'chips for dinner wasn't a worry either.

Times have changed now, and I won't fill this post with bemoaning about all the things that seem wrong with the community today. But as an adult, it now seems weird when you catch a glimpse of that kind community here in Australia. A few years ago, I lived in a different suburb which was a bit rougher. One of the bikie gangs had a club house around the corner, and almost every monday the suburb was in the paper for some crime. However it seemed that the street I lived on was in its own little universe.

The local kids were over most weekends using my U-shaped driveway as a race track for their bicycles and scooters, and on the hotter summer days they hung around my rear verandah drinking cola and trying to raid my kitchen for biscuits.

Considering I was a single guy living alone at the time, I figured that I should talk to all the parents, but they were all pretty relaxed about it. Despite being a suburb that I wouldn't walk around at night, and even during the day I kinda kept a watch over my shoulder, this little street had a community feel where we could drop in and chat as we felt like it.

However the being in the news each week still worried me, so I'm happy to be in the new area I'm in now. I sleep a bit better, and I can go jogging at night.

To my ex-neighbours; sorry.

More adverts

I know a guy who works for Hyundai in Australia. As a manager involved in Hyundai's new car regional distributions, there are some pretty sweet perks he gets to enjoy. A shiny new Hyundai (not the Getz, mind you) and the opportunity to attend various sporting and high profile events that Hyundai sponsors around the country. I like to hear about his perks, and sometimes I also like to dream about me being him. For his privacy, I'm going to refer to him as Han (see Tokyo Drift).

Now multinational companies like Hyundai, where Han works, don't have everything run through their head office. They run regional offices with managers who are tasked to specialise in culture, trends and laws of various regions. So marketing that we see in Australia isn't actually a reflection of Korean principles when it comes to Kia and Hyundai adverts. They are crafted by Australian media companies and approved by Hyundai's (or Kia's) regional offices.

Now I just had a bit of a poke at a Kia advert, but that was more a case of state governments not really thinking about the subliminal message that people might be getting from anti-public transport adverts being shown on public transport sites. Near the beginning of the year, Hyundai in Europe approved and released an advert for a new fuel cell car they were releasing. If you don't know much about fuel cells, its basically an electric car that gets power by using a tank of compressed liquid Hydrogen, and combining that with Oxygen from the air to generate electricity from the resulting fusion to drive electric motors. The description is simplified, but thats the idea. The result produced is heat and water. No harmful gases.

The end result is that the advertising company struck upon the idea of showing how suicide via CarbonMonoxide poisoning would now not be possible in this car. Probably sounds like a good idea if you say it once really quickly, but the public reaction, amplified by the media, resulted in Hyundai pulling the advert and issuing apologies in every country that they sell cars, not just Europe. You just hope that the people involved in that creative process are learning lessons.

This has nothing to do with Han though. I just still like his job.

Management choices

I work as a code monkey. A disparaging term referring to those who are of the software programming profession, but tend to feel as though their job just involves mindlessly banging away on computer keyboards. There are a number of things that have been born out of the frustrations of a code monkey, including Dilbert, Office Space (the movie, of course!), and ThinkGeek. There's heaps more, but this entry isn't about documenting odd pop culture driven by the software industry. Its more about managers.

I'm pretty sure it isn't just in software companies, but in any area where managers are involved, there is a risk that they get landed with decisions that they are unable, or just don't bother, to think through. Take the poster below:

The picture is pretty self explanatory, but to make the context more relevant to their target audience, Kia sought to have these displayed at busy public transport sites across Australia. Why public transport management would think this was suitable, I am not sure.

Now public transport sites don't manage the advertising directly, rather they sell the advertising locations to companies that specialise in consumer marketing. Those marketing companies are then responsible for the supply of advertising equipment, sourcing of advertising, and maintaining those adverts. They just then pay rent to whoever owns the land, which in most cases is the state government. However, there are still veto rights that the government transport body maintains in terms of the specific adverts that are displayed. Things such as adult shops or horror films might get vetoed, even though they're valid content of themselves, but because of the demographic of people who move through public transport, including children, then the state government would ban those from these locations.

So why is this poster odd to me? Well a prevalent issue in most countries is traffic and parking congestion. Considering the capital investment in infrastructure and the need for a certain volume of passengers and fares to keep it viable, why would they condone advertising of cars which utilise images with a subtext that public transport is to be avoided? Its not so much that they should block any and all car adverts, but this one has just too much going against it.

The advert is definitely "tongue in cheek", and it is witty to a certain degree, but honestly. When you stop and think about what the goals of governments are trying to achieve in terms of reducing pollution from vehicles and traffic congestion, then isn't this kind of counter productive?

Just saying.