Well, You're a Time Traveller

"I'm going to take a picture of my firstborn and use age progression
sofware to figure out what he'll look like when he's 16. Then I'm
going to frame the picture and keep it as a centerpeice in our house,
something he'll grow up looking at. Then when the appropriate time
comes, and he realizes that the picture is of him, I'm going to try
and convince him that he is a time traveller."

Lifted from lamebook.

Judged

"The link you are accessing (fuzzyslogic.com) has been blocked by the
Barracuda Web Filter because it contains content belonging to the
category of: Tasteless & Offensive."

I almost blogged

... But then my internet connection died, my firefox crashed and I
lost the epic post which I'd just written about dungeons and dragons
(both the old school dice based game and the new massively multiplayer
online game) and how I'd decided that if I was going to grind anything
that it should be poker. Value betting super thin, making genius hero
calls and generally reading people's souls is way more rewarding than
any virtual magical shoes.

hey microsoft

How about we don't display windows updates prompts to terminal server users?

Yours grumpily,
Fuzzy.

work whinge of the day

Hi Symantec Software Engineer,

I believe you're responsibile for the symantec liveupdate application.
I'd like to punch you in the face for having a "your PC needs a
reboot" popup with only an OK button. Then I'd like to stamp on your
throat for having the little X in the top right of the window still
continue with the reboot.

Thankfully, since this is a server OS after all, windows alerted me to
the fact that other users were logged into the host and gave me the
option of cancelling the reboot which you'd forced on me. How very
lucky that I'd logged in direct to the console for another reason.

Regards,
Fuzzy.

hold on tight, things could get strange

I'm currently in the process of moving my online pressence from one
server to another. I'm toying with incredible things like DNS and conf
files.

Take a moment and consider those poor electrons which are zipping
around inside this globe spanning network we've constructed. I'm doing
the equivalent of organising a shit load of old fashioned traffic cops
spread all over the globe to learn that fuzzyslogic.com is now hosted
on a different node of the net.

Boeing Phantom Ray

Blerk

Thanks to everyone who took the time to inform me that I haven't posted on my blog for a long time.

Life is good and things are well. As I edge up on my 31st birthday I'm often left contemplating how back in the middle of 2009 I, so totally honestly, told people that turning 30 didn't worry or scare me in the least. I had conversations with my close friends about how hitting the big three oh had given them pause, as they realised that they were now officially "not young". Me, I still felt young.

I proved that I was young too. A young fool prone to making mistakes. By the time I reach 31 I'll have realised that being "not young" is all about learning from those mistakes. I won't even begin to list the things I've learned during my 31st trip around our wonderful sun, but they mostly revolve around me being slack, unorganised and lacking a plan for the future.

I'd heard a line in a stand up spot one time which made me laugh; until a man gets to be 30, he still always has the thought in the back of his head that he could go to a temple high in the mountains and train at the feet of masters and become a ninja. Once he gets to 30 he realises that he may have left it too late.

Luckily I never had any strong dreams of becoming a ninja. I just want to be an interesting person. I want to be someone who people are glad they're around. Someone who walks through doors and receives big, warm and loving smiles from the people he's joined.

This has been happening to me more and more lately. I like it.

I just want to be half the man my dogs think (thought?) I am.

Gaming Can Make a Better World

fear and loathing

I want you to understand that this man at the wheel is my attorney! He's not just some dingbat I found on the Strip. He's a foreigner. I think he's probably Samoan. But it doesn't matter, does it? Are you prejudiced?

- Raoul Duke (from HST's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas)

Unexpected

Since moving into the 'drette I've found that I had seriously been failing in my TV viewing for not regularly watching Media Watch and Q&A. I'd even go so far as saying that making anyone who watches TV, forcefully if required, to absorb Media Watch.

Blerk

I wrote the following into the "about me" box in my facebook profile. It probably does as a bad a job of painting a picture of me as the majority of combinations and permutations of english words.

I like to be a positive, active and happy go lucky person. I am an eternal optimist who loves nothing more than flying by the seat of his pants. Easily distracted and prone to rambling off on strange and unexpected tangents. I'm armed with a quick "out of left field" sense of humour and an open mind.

I love communicating with people who are passionate about the topic at hand.

Verbal wankery I guess.

In other news, my life has wiggled its way around and has settled back into a curiously comfortable and deja vu'y arrangement. I'll be working in an interesting IT job, living a share house with an awesome group of guys and juggling a lot. The big difference between my life now and 6 years ago is the weather. I'm loving Melbourne summer but am a little concerned how I'll deal with my first melbourne winter.

But that is an age away. I just like to run the thought around in my head to ensure I don't take the current wonderful weather for granted.

Taking things for granted is probably my biggest fault. Maybe I should edit in a mention of that on my facebook profile...

Stop. Contemplate For A Moment.

You're an organism that can control the chemical make-up of the environment which your mind is contained in. Simply by the act of thinking, you can alter your biochemistry and feel any emotion. Try happiness. Or joy, joy is damn nice.

359 days till Golf Trip

Place the club face behind the ball. Stand comfortably with feet shoulder width apart. Draw a line that extends from your right foot through your left and all the way to the pin. Set your feet into the ground. Bend your knees. Focus right at the spot on the ball where the club face is going to make contact. Turn your head to trace the trajectory the ball is about to take. Visualise the flight of the ball in reverse. From the hole, rise and swing through the sky, downswoop to its position here on the ground. Head over the ball. Slow, solid, smooth backswing. Watch the ball. Watch the ball. Describe an arc. Transfer weight from right foot to left. Drive with left hip. Watch the ball. Take a mental snap shot as the club head violently slashes across my vision, witnessing the leading edge folding over the very tips of damp grass, the satisfying sound of contact. The ball suddenly receives a large delivery of kenetic energy.

Simple game really. It had been over a decade since I'd last picked up a golf club in anger. Back then it was a fun round with the brother of a girlfriend. I recalled hitting the odd decent shot, but spending a lot of time looking for lost balls and had filed it away as something that I wasn't very good at and low on the enjoyment to hassle ratio. This time around I once again hit the odd decent shot and also spent a bit of time hunting for the mishit ones. But I thoroughly enjoyed it all. Maybe I'm mature enough for golf now?

When I stop and consider it, I keep ticking a heap of boxes and wonder why its taken me so long to get around to realising that golf is something I could/should put some effort into. It is perhaps the socially accepted pinacle of honing a useless skill. Most other sports can, even vaguely, translate into helpful real world skills; but golf is totally pointless. I thrive on teaching myself complex and useless skills!

Plus, I really enjoyed spending a few hours walking around a beautiful setting with a bunch of cool guys. I also found that I can chip like a pro. I've no idea how or why, but chipping balls ~30m up onto the green via a nice high parabolic arc came really naturally to me. The ambrose round where I consistantly delivered the best approach shots was a huge turning point in my fledgling golf addiction.

I'm definately going to require some time at a driving range working on my tee shots though. Oh boy, where they ever inconsistant.

Meredith Music Festival

By my own admission I'm well out of festival form. Prior to the weekend, the last camping festival I attended was a wet Spendour in the Grass which I didn't take much enjoyent from. Combined with the memories of a wet, cold and windy Falls Festival a few years earlier and I had kind of sworn off camping festivals.

With this in mind, along with horror stories of the conditions from the previous year, I woke up at 3:30am last Friday with some trepidation. We were heading via charter bus to the Meredith Music Festival. After exchanging some angst with the bus driver about whether or not he would be waiting in line with us for 2 hours until the gates opened, we finally made our way to Outter Mongolia and claimed an excellent camp site. The weather was looking pretty good all things considered. Patches of sun and blue sky through grey clouds, which let loose nothing but small sprinkles all weekend.

I was determined to have a large one, even knowing that I'd be backing up directly after Meredith to head off for 4 days of heavy golfing and heavier drinking. This lead to Friday afternoon quickly building towards a huge Friday night. I didn't really have any bands on the ticket which were "must sees" so I just hung around the stage and gave everything a shot. I was my usual gregarious self and made a number of new friends.

Sia was impressive, I have a theory that her set alone would have led to about 25% higher rates of curious lesbian encounters. Patrick Wolf's set was probably my musical highlight of the festival, I regret not being up and dancing for the whole 45mins he was exploding all over the stage. Tumbleweed put on an excellent rock show.

We happened to be standing next to the world's biggest Royal Crown Review fan when they took the stage. At first I was chuffed, as his obvious excitement was spilling over onto everyone around him. I surprised even myself with how quickly I grew tired of his incessant annoucing of how amazing this all was, along with the complete backstory of how someone so young was such a fan of such an odd band, combined with the group hugs between each song.

I only caught the earlier bands on Saturday, highlights being; Pharoahe Monch, Combo La Revelacion (seriously, if you like a bit of salsa music you need some Combo) and Heavy Trash.

Paul Kelly's set was good, but seemed a bit out of place with the vibe of the crowd. Animal Collective and Javis Cocker both also left me a little "meh". I think I was just in a different party mode than what they were performing on stage, but I often found myself annoyed that the bands were stopping the DJ's from continuing to spin more cool tracks.

I only heard the Yacht Club DJs set from the campground, but it really sounded like it was pumping. If only they'd been on at 10:30 instead of 1am :)

All in all, I had a total blast. The music was damn good, but really these festivals are 50% about the people you're with (I'm giving 25% to the weather and 25% to the music) and I was lucky enough to spend my 1st Meredith with a crew who've essentially become professionals and also met a bunch of excellent people.

Blerk

For those hardy few who have continued to find their way to my little corner of the internet through my sporadic posting habits, thanks. For those who hassle me to update, thanks even more.

My life in the recent 3 months hasn't exactly contained much that I've felt the need to share. The low bits are fairly obvious to those who know the details and the high bits I haven't felt the need to post about because the majority of people who I'd like to share the details with have been there by my side.

Still, I've been slack. In amongst the trials and tribulations of day to day living, I have continued to have the occassional insight into life the universe and everything. I've just been too lazy to spend time at the keyboard writting about them.

I've found myself looking at the calendar and declaring that I'll get my life back on track in the new year. I have big ideas of rejoining the rat race, meeting a new collection of cubical drones, learning the ins and outs of another business. I am excited.

Until then, my focus remains 100% on enjoying life. This, I've realised, is a simple process; find good people to be in the company of.

I certainly did a bang up job of that over the last week; 1st at the Meredith Music Festival and then at Golf Trip.

Victory!

I managed to win the recently competed round 8 of social networking Pimpwar. Yay for me and my wasted time!

Body Clock

I haven't been able to shake out of this habit of waking up at 7am. I should be thankful, I guess. Not only because I get to see hot air balloons, one of them the shape of a water bomb, firing their flames and gaining altitude over the city in the crisp morning air. But because day light savings has kicked in, we've bent the laws of time and space and artificially granted me an extra hour sleep in. I was waking up at 6am.

Though, it kind of nullifies it when I've also pushed my normal bedtime to 1am rather than midnight.

Xrays

It'd been a while since I'd ventured into the belly of the beast which is the public hospital system. Today I had some happy snaps taken of my femor, where my 10cm osteochondroma resides. That's a bone tumor in laymans terms. I call it Marla.

Long story short, from the xrays things appear to be the same as they were 4 years ago. The main difference is in the higher quality and medium on which I received copies of the xrays. No longer do I get film. I get a cd. I thought that this could foil my plan of simply holding the new xrays up against the old ones and compare by eye.

With some fiddling of the zoom factor I was able to do much the same by holding the old xray up to my monitor. There's a bit that could be larger than last time, but it could also just be that the higher quality machine has shown it up clearer.

I'm now on the wait list for the bone tumor clinic down here, which will lead me towards the MRI machine.

Still, at the end of the day; I haven't had any serious woes with it. Considering I haven't had any serious pain over a healthy number of laps around the AFL field and shuttle sprints, I'm pretty happy with young Marla. Solid, dependable, unchanging.

My rock is actually a tumor.

Quote of the however long its been since the last one

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote

- Benjamin Franklin