Well at least I hope it's brief.
In the effort to get myself fit for this trip I have once again managed to throw an injury into the mix just weeks away from the beggining.
Ij'm putting the injury down to the fact that I haven't practiced Yoga in about 4 weeks, so I suppose I've only got myself to blame.
I suffer from a re-occuring lower back injury which can put me out anywhere between a few days and a few months.
The absolute worse time I went down in the hallway from pain and lay there, unable to move, for about an hour before someone found me. That started a 2 week period going from flat on my back, to flat on my stomach, to the shower, often crawling there and back to the lounge room floor. After that I started back at work at first with 1/2 days standing up at the desk.
After 5 weeks the back pain had subsided, however the sciatica set in for the next two months and I lost the feeling between my toes, down the left hand side of my left calf, the bottom of my left foot, and I had a permanent pain in my left arse cheek (it's funny now, but at the time it was hell).
Last year it happened about 5 days away from my trip to bali, and because of my responsibilities at work I decided to brave it and go in. That decision probably caused the injury to last for about 2 weeks longer then it needed to, and kept me in quite a bit of pain for most of my holiday.
This time, I felt a niggle earlier in the week and felt it begin to go yesterday morning around 7am. By 11am I was at the physio to begin what seems to be an annual or biannual event (I'm sure I'm putting on of Tim's kids through uni).
What's also different about this time is I have no allegence to work and took yesterday afternoon and today off to make sure the problems starts to get better before it starts to get worse.
So fingers crossed after 4 days on my back everything will correct itself in tme for me to take my camera, couple of surfboards, guitar and bag on the tour down the eastern/southern coast of Australia.
Friday, November 24, 2006
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Takamine goes in for repair
The Takamine was the first guitar I ever bought and was the result of long hours working at the cricket and my first ever tax return.
Unfortunately it succumb to humidity of Darwin and the bridge began to lift.
Off it went to the repair shop........ twice.
Unfortunately on the secome visit the repair man decided to glue it with boat glue, a big no no for musical instruments.
As you can see from the photo's below it didn't work and started taking the wood around the bridge with it.
It's now in Melbourne and is on the way to jim matheas from Matheas Guitars to have a look, and fingers crossed, fix it for good.
Friday, November 17, 2006
Ever Had One Of Those Weeks?
Have you ever had one of those weeks where everything just goes from ok, to good, to better, to bestest (I am aware that's not really a word, but you get what I mean).
Like you'll find $1 on the ground, put it in a pokie machine and win $20. So you buy a softdrink and under the cap is another free softdrink prize. So you reclaim that at the newsagency, which just happened to have the latest edition of your favourite magazine which you buy, and realise it's a special edition with a free book and all the articles are awesome. But, before you leave you spend the rest of the $20 on scratchies, and you find that you win $250.00. Not a big win, but you're faaaaar better off then you were before you bent down to pick up that $1 coin 5 hours ago.
In fact, you're now two drinks, $250, and 2 hours of good reading time richer then you were.
Then you go out for a drink and you end up catching up with everyone you've wanted to catch up with recently, and bump into that special someone you've seen around but never talked to. To hell with it, things have been going well, why not say hello. And things progress well, however gorgeous they were prior to this meeting (causing you to forget your name when they were in the room) its now like you've known each other for years, and even though you didn't think it's possible they appear even more attractive to you now. And so it continues, good thing, after good thing and so on.......
Well this week was the exact opposite.
What a shitty shitty week.
One bad thing after another.
Last year I managed a relatively large project at work which changed the way that we looked after our hard copy and electronic records (word doc's, spreadsheets, maps etc).
We moved from using a regular file share system into and Electronic Document Management System, EDMS.
This changed the way that our Corporation delt with documents and affected over 700 staff. Anyway, the project finished in December of last year, completed, successfully rolled out.
Now, literally in the last 3 weeks, when you open a document, make changes, then save and close it, it doesn't necessarily put the changes back into the EDMS.
Now this would be fine if it happened every time (not fine, but understandable), or if it happened when you followed a specific series of events..... but no. Why make it easy to diagnose. Why not just let it happen randomly.
And it is seriously random, except for one similarity.
Over the past month we've also been rolling out Active Directory. This has been as smooth as silk.
The best packaged rollout that anyone has seen. In fact, the rest of the departments had attempted this with some varied results (ie, nothing worked).
Of course, this silky smooth rollout now has a flaw, as it is the similarity between the issues I'm having with the EDMS. However random the "no save" issue is, it happens only at AD sites.
So now a silky smooth, perfectly engineered system rollout needs to be put on hold because of issues with a system which I managed the implementation of 12 months ago.
To make it simple to understand, can you imagine writing this blog, getting to this point, then saving as a draft, the writing the rest of what is below, saving as a draft again, coming back and finding that you were back to this part? Would you be annoyed? I certainly would be.
Unfortunately it's not just work that's going wrong.
This morning it was raining so I decided to drive to work. The car is having clutch problems so I had to put clutch fluid in it before I left. So I opened the passenger side door and got the fluid out and put it on the roof. The I went around to the other side of the car and realised that I was parked up against a bunch of bushes, which were obviously wet.
So back to the passenger side to lean across to pop the bonnet. I did that, then decided that I'd push the car back while there so when I was ready to go I wouldn't get wet with the bushes.
So as I was pushing the car back the car suddenly stopped. The clutch fluid had fallen off the top and was now jammed under the tire (thank god it didn't pop). So I pushed it forward a little, took out the fluid, and raised the bonnet.
Have you ever tried to raise the bonnet of a car while holding an umbrella and a bottle of clutch fluid? That's pretty tough.
Have you ever tried to raise the bonnet of a car while holding an umbrella and a bottle of clutch fluid while the car is still in neutral and the hand brake is off?
That's a lot harder.
So I went back to the car and put on the handbrake, then went back and popped the bonnet, then poured in the clutch fluid and closed it all back up again.
Now I was ready to go, and I'm dry still.
Ever tried to get an umbrella into a small car?
Now the umbrella's in the car, and I'm ready to go, albeit I now find that I'm wet.
Luckily the drive in was uneventful, however there were people going straight when they should turn and visa versa.
When I arrived I parked and grabbed the $3 needed for an all day park. First coin got stuck, but I was able to push it through with the second, which suprise suprise, got stuck. In goes the 3rd dollar to push in the second, but now there's nothing left to push this through. So the ticket machine gives me a ticket for $2 up until 1pm, instead of $3 for all day. AND the other dollar is still stuck in the machine!
That's fine, I'm okay, I'm just going to get some breaky at the cafe and then head to work. But hang on, I've only got $10, that won't be enough. So I stopped off at the ATM to get some cash out for the rest of the day.
"Please remove card" *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep*
The card didn't eject all the way out...... So I pushed it back in with another card.
"Please remove card" *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep*
Again the card didn't eject out enough to get a grip (if only I carried tweezers someone would later point out to me today)
"Card Confiscated, cancelling transaction"
And that was that. I was left with my $10, and no bank card for 5 working days on friday morning.
And this was all before I got into work to hit the EDMS issues (have a look at how much work you could lose when it doesn't recognise you saves)
I'm sure someone came along to find that extra $1 in parking machine, and they proabably put that into a pokie..........
Next time you're on that winning streak, spare a thought for the person that's doing it rough to keep the balance in the Universe.
Like you'll find $1 on the ground, put it in a pokie machine and win $20. So you buy a softdrink and under the cap is another free softdrink prize. So you reclaim that at the newsagency, which just happened to have the latest edition of your favourite magazine which you buy, and realise it's a special edition with a free book and all the articles are awesome. But, before you leave you spend the rest of the $20 on scratchies, and you find that you win $250.00. Not a big win, but you're faaaaar better off then you were before you bent down to pick up that $1 coin 5 hours ago.
In fact, you're now two drinks, $250, and 2 hours of good reading time richer then you were.
Then you go out for a drink and you end up catching up with everyone you've wanted to catch up with recently, and bump into that special someone you've seen around but never talked to. To hell with it, things have been going well, why not say hello. And things progress well, however gorgeous they were prior to this meeting (causing you to forget your name when they were in the room) its now like you've known each other for years, and even though you didn't think it's possible they appear even more attractive to you now. And so it continues, good thing, after good thing and so on.......
Well this week was the exact opposite.
What a shitty shitty week.
One bad thing after another.
Last year I managed a relatively large project at work which changed the way that we looked after our hard copy and electronic records (word doc's, spreadsheets, maps etc).
We moved from using a regular file share system into and Electronic Document Management System, EDMS.
This changed the way that our Corporation delt with documents and affected over 700 staff. Anyway, the project finished in December of last year, completed, successfully rolled out.
Now, literally in the last 3 weeks, when you open a document, make changes, then save and close it, it doesn't necessarily put the changes back into the EDMS.
Now this would be fine if it happened every time (not fine, but understandable), or if it happened when you followed a specific series of events..... but no. Why make it easy to diagnose. Why not just let it happen randomly.
And it is seriously random, except for one similarity.
Over the past month we've also been rolling out Active Directory. This has been as smooth as silk.
The best packaged rollout that anyone has seen. In fact, the rest of the departments had attempted this with some varied results (ie, nothing worked).
Of course, this silky smooth rollout now has a flaw, as it is the similarity between the issues I'm having with the EDMS. However random the "no save" issue is, it happens only at AD sites.
So now a silky smooth, perfectly engineered system rollout needs to be put on hold because of issues with a system which I managed the implementation of 12 months ago.
To make it simple to understand, can you imagine writing this blog, getting to this point, then saving as a draft, the writing the rest of what is below, saving as a draft again, coming back and finding that you were back to this part? Would you be annoyed? I certainly would be.
Unfortunately it's not just work that's going wrong.
This morning it was raining so I decided to drive to work. The car is having clutch problems so I had to put clutch fluid in it before I left. So I opened the passenger side door and got the fluid out and put it on the roof. The I went around to the other side of the car and realised that I was parked up against a bunch of bushes, which were obviously wet.
So back to the passenger side to lean across to pop the bonnet. I did that, then decided that I'd push the car back while there so when I was ready to go I wouldn't get wet with the bushes.
So as I was pushing the car back the car suddenly stopped. The clutch fluid had fallen off the top and was now jammed under the tire (thank god it didn't pop). So I pushed it forward a little, took out the fluid, and raised the bonnet.
Have you ever tried to raise the bonnet of a car while holding an umbrella and a bottle of clutch fluid? That's pretty tough.
Have you ever tried to raise the bonnet of a car while holding an umbrella and a bottle of clutch fluid while the car is still in neutral and the hand brake is off?
That's a lot harder.
So I went back to the car and put on the handbrake, then went back and popped the bonnet, then poured in the clutch fluid and closed it all back up again.
Now I was ready to go, and I'm dry still.
Ever tried to get an umbrella into a small car?
Now the umbrella's in the car, and I'm ready to go, albeit I now find that I'm wet.
Luckily the drive in was uneventful, however there were people going straight when they should turn and visa versa.
When I arrived I parked and grabbed the $3 needed for an all day park. First coin got stuck, but I was able to push it through with the second, which suprise suprise, got stuck. In goes the 3rd dollar to push in the second, but now there's nothing left to push this through. So the ticket machine gives me a ticket for $2 up until 1pm, instead of $3 for all day. AND the other dollar is still stuck in the machine!
That's fine, I'm okay, I'm just going to get some breaky at the cafe and then head to work. But hang on, I've only got $10, that won't be enough. So I stopped off at the ATM to get some cash out for the rest of the day.
"Please remove card" *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep*
The card didn't eject all the way out...... So I pushed it back in with another card.
"Please remove card" *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep*
Again the card didn't eject out enough to get a grip (if only I carried tweezers someone would later point out to me today)
"Card Confiscated, cancelling transaction"
And that was that. I was left with my $10, and no bank card for 5 working days on friday morning.
And this was all before I got into work to hit the EDMS issues (have a look at how much work you could lose when it doesn't recognise you saves)
I'm sure someone came along to find that extra $1 in parking machine, and they proabably put that into a pokie..........
Next time you're on that winning streak, spare a thought for the person that's doing it rough to keep the balance in the Universe.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
and the winner is..........
I won a competition trying to work out the source of a quote.
Thanks to Skye for putting it together, can't wait till the next one.
Thanks to Skye for putting it together, can't wait till the next one.
Monday, November 13, 2006
Lemonade - G Love
Alright, for those of you that don't know there's a really cool band called G Love and the Special Sauce. G Love himself has done a few albums of his own, and Lemonade is his latest.
Once again G Love has not let me down. His musical style is quite unique, and he's possibly the coolest white dude alive. Have a listen to "Lemonade" now......
I had to attend a meeting yesterday and quickly ripped off a copy of this album to listen on the car ride there. I was only listening for a couple of songs, but I spent the rest of the meeting tapping my fingers and thumbs to the tunes.
G Love has the amazing ability to change my music stylings and I find myself trying to write and play around his style.
Shirts and cars, aircon spa's guitars
Trippin' down the coast with Gilly, ily, Jilly
and the stories of old in the school yard silly
Thorner moung the roses, check'n once check'n twice
check'n three times in the car coastin fine this is nice.
Once again G Love has not let me down. His musical style is quite unique, and he's possibly the coolest white dude alive. Have a listen to "Lemonade" now......
I had to attend a meeting yesterday and quickly ripped off a copy of this album to listen on the car ride there. I was only listening for a couple of songs, but I spent the rest of the meeting tapping my fingers and thumbs to the tunes.
G Love has the amazing ability to change my music stylings and I find myself trying to write and play around his style.
Shirts and cars, aircon spa's guitars
Trippin' down the coast with Gilly, ily, Jilly
and the stories of old in the school yard silly
Thorner moung the roses, check'n once check'n twice
check'n three times in the car coastin fine this is nice.
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