phew — just emailed our collated assignment off to the other two guys in my group. i think this one hangs together better than our first assignment did, & we did okay on that one, so here’s hoping… (& a quick thanks to chrisT, lawrie, & dave & anne for letting me loose on their computers over the last couple of days. thanks heaps, guys! now, if i can just get some studying done over the next couple of weeks i should be okay for the exam…)

so how’s townsville? well, it’s cold. cold as sydney, if not colder, in fact… thanks to my assignment i haven’t had a chance to get out & about as much as i wanted to over the last couple of days, but i’ve caught up with some friends & i think i’ve just generally been recovering from the last couple of months at work… despite what i said yesterday, i do feel kinda relaxed, which is kinda nice… anyway, now the assignment’s heading south, the next couple of days should be even better… the main thing i’ve noticed so far is that there’s just so much space up here… the buildings are so far apart, & the roads are so wide…

boing boing! went mountain-biking yesterday afternoon on the tracks out at douglas with dave & warwick & dunky & had a heap of fun… i rode dave’s K2 beast for most of the trip… full suspension is amazing… dave’s K2 is just so cruisy… had a bit of a ride on warwick’s K2 beast as well… it’s even cruisier… dave’s is set up more for cross country than warwick’s, which is set up more for downhill… it’s just nuts… when we got back to warwick’s place in heatley i did the gutter test on waa’s K2… ride into a gutter as fast as you can & the bike just soaks it up… absolutely insane… if i tried that on my mongoose hardtail i’d be up for a new wheelset & probably some new teeth as well… my bike doesn’t know it yet, but it’s getting slicks & v-brakes fitted as soon as i get back to sydney… & forget the scooter plan… i’m now officially saving for a full suspension ride… <grin>

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
31/05/2000 @ 15:26 | comments disabled

greetings from townsville — so here i am in townsville! the trip to hamilton island for linda’s sister’s wedding was a little frantic at times (wake up pack up check out drive for hours check in unpack sleep wake up pack up check out drive etc) but for the most part went off without a hitch…

& i dunno if i’d like to drive one around sydney, but there are worse things to drive on the highway than a VT commodore… whoosh! anyway, now we’re kicking back a little bit & catching our breath before my brother’s wedding on saturday…

of course, kicking back involves me working on an assignment for My Stupid Course & linda running a soccerbots tournment at UNSW for one of Her Stupid Courses… wow, do we know how to relax or what? <grin>

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
30/05/2000 @ 13:31 | comments disabled

t minus two days… — well, i’ve been through anxiety, depression & panic & a state of zen-like (imagined zen-like) calm has now descended upon me… or maybe i’ve somehow attained this state or… ahem. zen-like calm, okay?

important thoughts for work — theophilus thistler, the thistle sifter, in sifting a sieveful of unsifted thistles stuck three thousand thistles through the thick of his thumb. (three thousand thistles!)

sonic animation — official site

also — robert rowley rolled a round a rolled round, and if robert rowley rolled a round a rolled round, where is the round roll robert rowley rolled round?

sonic animation — unofficial site…

 

scannerplusfireworksplusmagneticwordspluspizza tray

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
25/05/2000 @ 13:22 | comments disabled

t minus three days & counting — arrgh! today & tomorrow at work then packing on friday morning & flying north on friday afternoon! aargh! too much to organise before i leave! looming deadlines (with real death!) when i get back! arrgh! (well, okay, maybe not with real death…) still, arrgh!

temple ov thee lemur

pokey the penguin

yurg — just made it to the end of the last tutorial (well, there’s one next week but i ain’t commuting) for My Stupid Course… huzzah! now all i gotta do is remember to wake up for the exam in a few weeks time…

i’ve been a bit disappointed with the whole studying at night thing… part of the problem is self-inflicted i guess, insofar as i still haven’t had my eyes tested & literally can’t see what anyone’s talking about… i can’t focus on the overheads in lectures even if i’m in the front row in the theatre, & i can’t read anything on the whiteboard in the tutorials, which is kinda tiring & frustrating… sigh… okay, i promise i’m gonna get my eyes tested as soon as we get back to sydney… feel free to bug me about it… (i mean, hell, it’s not as if i’ll be able to read anything you send, right?)

[actually, the main reason i haven't booked a test yet is because of my pet theory that the ever-increasing gravity from my ever-expanding arse is actually sucking the little particles of seeingness (sightrons & sightrinos) out of the back of my eyes & down the inside of my neck, which is why my throat sometimes gets this little tickle in it. & so maybe i don't need glasses after all, maybe i just need a really dense hat that will counteract the pull of my arse-gravity & start sucking the sightrons & sightrinos right back into my eyes... what? well, it might work...]

what was i talking about? oh yeah, My Stupid Course… i also really didn’t figure on what a hassle turning up tired to class all the time was gonna be… ah well, despite all that at least the subject has been interesting… hmmm… i wonder what i’m supposed to be studying next semester? i was thinking at the start of the year that i’d do two subjects next semester & sneak off with my certificate this year, but i really don’t think i’ll be able to… sigh… ah well… ah guess ah better git these here weary bones home t’ bed…

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
24/05/2000 @ 08:04 | comments disabled

linda ran the text of i hate your aesthetic through
the Dialectizer & translated it into redneck… it goes a lil’ somethin’ like this…

on a sunday is i maximisin’ mah potential? whut kind of acshulity? whut is this hyar absence thet swallers the packages of se’f-he’p, th’ space in which their positive charges/changes is neutralised? is this hyar a plane of cornsissency, a cornstant bea-comin’ o’ a refusal o’ postibilities? fum whence this hyar desuhe?

a plane of cornsissency? y’all get the gen’ral idea, ah’m sure… <grin>

chris weighs in on the furniture theme

Bookcases, lounges, tables, chairs. You want them, we’ve got them. Why move your furniture when you can just leave it behind and buy new stuff when you get there? But their false economy is your email sale. Fridges, a bureau, a waterbed, kitchenware. You can take the pool and the backyard while you’re at it, we never use them.

modus_operandi — blue media art! (electronically elegant, hypertextually truculent)

feelin kinda… testy — 93K of pure daveness!

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
23/05/2000 @ 10:59 | comments disabled

news from jimbo in canberra!

Well, new bookcase and hutch eh? I’ll meet that bookcase and raise you an actual table and four chairs. That’s right, now we can sit at a table if we want to.

Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

No more roleplaying on the couch! No more sitting on the couch eating food. No more just lounging around on the… hey. Wait a minute. Stupid fucking table.

PS. We also got a milk crate, so that’s another great seat.

hey, i don’t think that was news at all… i think that was some sort of ambit claim! well gosh! all i can say is we’ve had a table & chairs for months. yet more proof that canberra is some kind of sparsely furnished backwater when compared to the bustling (& nicely furnished) metropolis of dulwich hill… i mean, we could have a couch if we wanted one… it’s a lifestyle choice. hey, shut up. no, really, shut up.

“funny/mad,” says linda… flash! we love you, but we’ve only got 14 hours to save the earth! (oops, wrong flash.)

also at www.dack.com — the web economy bullshit generator… use it to empower killer synergies!

stinkymeat — the web at its very, very best… also via linda…

i hate your aesthetic

laundry of iron death

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
22/05/2000 @ 11:37 | comments disabled

vegetarian pages — put down your cutlery & step away from the animal…

ambient@hyperreal.org — the revolution will not make any difference.

how stuff works — sit back & leave the thinking to us. i mean them.

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
21/05/2000 @ 16:20 | comments disabled

bookcase & hutch — caught the 426 to enmore this morning & bought ourselves a new bookcase for the lounge & a hutch to sit above my desk… storage space is always at a premium around here…

woah! a preview of the next version of mechwarrior — well, if you throw in the airconditioning & a cd-stacker… now, what sort of a trade-in can you offer me on my old giant robot?

good lord! is that a spaceship?

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
20/05/2000 @ 22:07 | comments disabled

programming tutorials — java, javascript, xml…

testing time — the exam for my stupid course is provisionally scheduled for saturday, 17 june at 9.30am… huzzah! now, i seem to remember buying a textbook at some stage… <grin>

the biggest problem with the course on a conceptual level (let’s not discuss some aspects of the organisation) is that systems modelling tends to be an inexact science. which is to say, there’s often a number of different ways to model any given system. some of those models may be just flat out wrong, and some of them may be less useful than others, but there could well be more than one acceptable solution. the crucial thing (as far as i can see) is to make sure you’re applying the rules & following the conventions of whichever modelling technique you’re trying to apply…

unfortunately, the course materials are fairly light on for detail when it comes to the techniques we’re supposed to be learning… i’m trying to remember back to my less than illustrious career as an engineering undergraduate to compare what was covered in those introductory courses with what’s being covered in this one, but without much success… i mean, that was a while ago &, truth be told, i really wasn’t paying all that much attention back then… i know that may shock some people, but there it is… <grin>

projecting again — i started playing around with a couple of tiny javascript projects last night & hope to implement them over the weekend… i think i’m gonna buy a huge javascript reference book today, maybe danny goodman’s twenty kilograms of javascript wisdom or whatever it’s called… or maybe the o’reilly rhino book, which is nowhere near as imposing but which i would at least have a fighting chance of being able to carry around…

software itch — hmmm… i’m starting to get that old i need some new software urge… pathetic, isn’t it? hey, what’s this? ooh! a new version of notetab pro… now with improved regular expressions & built-in ftp commands?

t minus one week — uh oh! only one week before we fly north to weddingsville. i mean townsville. i hope your mountain biking plans aren’t too ambitious, dave…

lunchy link-a-rama #1 — exciting news! now you can spend all your money on me via my amazon.com wishlist! you know you want to!

lunchy link-a-rama #2 — woohoo! free art! — well, okay, free entry to most of the art at the biennale of sydney…

what passes for life department — also spent a quandary-filled ten minutes in the bookshop at lunchtime, looking over the javascript reference offerings… sigh… they’re all so bloody heavy… what did i finish up with instead? a new biro & a spiral bound notebook. i’m not sure why i still sometimes can’t walk out of a shop without feeling compelled to buy something… i guess it could be worse. i mean, at least i don’t feel compelled to set fire to things… well, not always…

spam of the day — this’d be much more annoying if it wasn’t so stupid… i’ve just been informed via email that i’ve “won” a free username & password (”hoootie” &, believe it or not, “hoootie”) to (wait for it…) www.hootercam.com… sigh. the high point of this particular piece of spam? (&, coincidentally, the point where its credibility really starts to struggle…) “This is NOT an adult site and does NOT contain nudity.” right. apparently the offer expires 21 may, so you’d better get surfing if you’re of a mind to… who knows, maybe it’s some kind of on-line kazoo museum or something…

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
19/05/2000 @ 09:21 | comments disabled

el loono, he who defies death — yes folks, sydney buses are pleased to announce the return of el loono, he who defies death, for your continued commuting pleasure! sit down, shut up, & hang on with el loono, he who defies death! another extreme commuting experience brought to you by sydney buses. (sydney buses reminds audiences that starting times may vary wildly.)

mac os x — speaking of varying wildly, no mac os x until january 2001… awww, but i want it now…

lou reed guitar archive — “well i’m beginning to see the light, want to tell all you people now…”

laurie, is a virus oooh! — “well i had to write that letter to your mother, & i had to tell the judge that it was you, & i had to sell the car & go to florida because that’s just my way of saying that i love you.”

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
17/05/2000 @ 12:11 | comments disabled

warning! lunchtime introspection — uh oh! i’ve been thinking today about work & jobs & trying to figure out whether or not i’m happy doing what i do. for the most part i think i am. i enjoy the individual aspects of my job (web admin, database admin, data collection & reporting, desktop support, blah blah) although i admit there are days when everything all seems to be a bit much. the whole is sometimes much more annoying than the sum of the parts or something… not today, though!

but am i happy? well, i (still) wish i was a bit more organised i guess. but happy? yeah, i guess so. if i gotta work, & well, you know, i gotta, then i’m pretty happy working here. although if anyone sees any openings for people who get to sleep all day… hmmm. actually, now that i think about it, is there a job where you just get to sit in a spa? or maybe some kind of career as a lounge tester?

in the meantime, here’s the first results of playing with the new scanner… let’s see… okay, this is where i work:

well, okay, i don’t actually work up in the tower… my office is down on level 7, which is just below where the tower itself starts… looking at the photo below, my office is sort of just around the corner on the left hand side of the sticky-out bit near the… okay, look, why don’t i just draw an arrow on it?

right, that’s sorted out. now, this is obviously the greatest breakfast food ever invented…

they’re also good for lunch & dinner. & last but by no means least… you might recall that back in january linda took me on a special tour of the zoo for my birthday… well, here’s a picture of a much, much too happy man PATTING A BABY WOMBAT!!! OH. MY. GOD. IT’S EATING THE GRASS!!! LOOK!!! IT’S EATING THE GRASS!!!

& we now return you to slightly less wombat-intensive programming.

after that wombat just there, obviously… <grin>

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
16/05/2000 @ 14:15 | comments disabled

one officially very clever linda — linda wilson is funk queen nsw. damn straight.

one officially very clever lynda — lynda barry is funk queen usa. she is, too.

graduation day — linda (wilson, not barry) officially graduated from the university of new south wales with first class honours in computer science on friday afternoon. on thursday night we went to the school of computer science & engineering’s graduation dinner, where linda was presented with a prize for achieving the highest mark in computer science honours. (turns out the prize i announced a couple of days ago was for wide-ranging cleverness across the whole course, and not just for her honours project on evolutionary computer graphics…)

see more from the laundry of iron death…

things to do in sydney — linda’s father, david, came down to see linda graduate & stayed with us until sunday morning. he & linda went for a wander around the city on saturday & visited the bodyart exhibition at the australian museum. (i spent the day working on an assignment for what i’m affectionately calling My Stupid Course… sheesh.) we all met up later in the day at circular quay, from whence we caught a late afternoon ferry to manly.

after we disembarked we went & had a quick look at the ocean, during which time linda was momentarily bemused by both the idea & the actuality of salt spray. by now everyone needed a beer, & since we were standing opposite a pub… it was dark by the time we caught the ferry back, so we went out on the bow (notice how au fait i am with nautical terminology?) & watched the lights of the city as the ferry sailed back up the harbour.

air plus mattress equals added comfort — other irregular overnight visitors (you know who you are) may be pleased to know that we’re now the proud owners of an air mattress, which we’ve been assured is a much better proposition than sleeping on the floor…

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
15/05/2000 @ 09:13 | comments disabled

james gleick — author of, well, i can’t be bothered typing the titles of his books. why don’t you just click on the link & have a look? go on. click the link. that’s the way.

rhymes with scanner — oh no, wait, it is a scanner! hey! that scanner looks exactly like the one that’s sitting on the desk at home next to speedpig!

yes indeedy, linda handed over the readies for a shiny new FB630U last night, & it’s very cool… it’s surprisingly quick given the price, & it’s incredibly tiny, not much longer, wider or thicker than an A4 lecture pad…

& there’s no power adapter or cable — it sucks juice from the computer down the USB cable… well, okay, not juice exactly. blood. it’s a vampire scanner. in fact, i’ve decided to name it buffy the vampire scanner. & you can try telling me that doesn’t make any sense, but if i didn’t listen when you mocked my plan to build rocket-powered shoes, what makes you think i’d listen now?

so anyway, soon this part of my site will no longer be (approximately) about my boring life… it’ll be (approximately) about my boring life with pictures… nyah ha ha haaaah!

recursive film script idea — fade up into a medium shot of a room where a couple of people (let’s call them ted & linda) are sitting around. suddenly, a twitching fiend (let’s call him andrew) bursts in with a new film script he’s just finished writing. zoom out to show that we’ve been watching this scene on the television in a room where a couple of people (let’s call them ted & linda) are sitting around. suddenly, a twitching fiend (let’s call him andrew) bursts in with a new film script he’s just finished writing. zoom out to show that we’ve been watching this scene on the television in a room where a couple of people, etc, etc. repeat for about twice as long as any audience could be expected to stand it… <grin>

recursive tropfest 2001 script idea #1 — as above, but there’s a trumpet sitting on the television.

recursive tropfest 2001 script idea #2 — as above, but there’s a narwhal sitting on the television.

“no, seriously, you guys are great.” — flexo the robot

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
11/05/2000 @ 09:57 | comments disabled

negativland — wired news calls them “the celebrated multimedia artists and plunderphonic virtuosos”, but don’t let that put you off. anyone who got sued by U2 can’t be all bad…

tropfest — andrew’s been informed that the tropfest signature item for 2001 is HORN. uh oh. i’m getting a bad feeling about this…

junky, wunky, lunky, stunky…

The beach was a beach we shall not name, because his private house was there, but it was a small sandy stretch somewhere along the hundreds of miles of coastline that runs west from Los Angeles, which is described in the new edition of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” in one entry as “junky, wunky, lunky, stunky, and what’s that other word, and all kinds of bad stuff, woo,” and in another, written only hours later as “being like several thousand square miles of American Express junk mail, but without the same sense of moral depth. Plus the air is, for some reason, yellow.”

Douglas Adams, Chapter 15, So Long and Thanks for All the Fish

why are things so difficult? — i even asked jeeves, but he didn’t know… actually, for some reason things aren’t feeling too difficult at the moment… i’m not sure where this unexpected surfeit of confidence has sprung from, or how long it’s planning to hang around, but it’s kinda perplexing not to feel totally fucked up & useless for a change. oops. can i say fucked up on television? what? i’m not on television? oh, crap. sigh. oh well, back to loserville. <grin>

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
10/05/2000 @ 09:00 | comments disabled