The rarely updated Blog

No longer here

2007-09-06T15:07:00.000+10:00

I have finally created my new blog site - so don't go here anymore.

New site: http://www.joeldixon.com/

Enjoy!

More Family Members

2007-06-11T23:22:00.001+10:00

I would say I'm a cat person, mainly because of our childhood cat Coco (short for Coconut). It was only a matter of time before Bell and I got us some purty cats of our own. We've had them for about 6 months now (they've already lasted longer than some of our poor fish) and I've finally gotten the photo's off Bell's camera. Allow me to formally introduce them:

Crosby

Yes, we have named another pet after my favourite ice hockey player (and recently named youngest ever NHL captain) Sidney Crosby. (To be fair - the fish's name was "Crosby Scores" which is a lot different from plain old Crosby). Crosby is probably the runt of his litter (even thought he eats like some kind of pig-cat) - but while he is tiny, his snow white fur is incredibly soft and his eyes are a brilliant blue. Crosby loves human interaction, and will waltz up to Belinda and I, meow, then lie down on his back awaiting pats. Crosby is an attention seeker, and because Belinda can give him attention most days Crosby would probably be Belinda's cat.

Oscar

Belinda wanted a dignified name for our cats, but was really stuck on Oscar. I was happy with the name too, but mainly because of the Sesame Street connection (though my number one choice for a Sesame Street name was Frazzle). Oscar must be one of the biggest cats from his litter, he can always be heard plodding up the hallway. Oscar loves playing underneath things such as boxes and sheets and has a silver streak in his fur as well as a goatie (a centimeter or so long tuff of hair under his chin). Oscar isn't as openly affectionate as Crosby, but starts his loud purrs when you look at him, and will always come and lie right next to me before going bed to get some pattings. Oscar has bonded better to me and would probably be my cat.

Both cats are Ragdolls, a placid and docile breed that tend to go floppy when held upsidedown (hence the name). They're very cute, and have made me look forward to going home that little bit more. Belinda has taken heaps of photos of course:

The first photo taken - I think this is Crosby (the only way I could tell the difference at this age was Oscar's goatie which is not visible here)

Pretty sure this is Oscar - goatie is barely visible

Crosby loved this little tunnell in their scratching post (he can't fit in there anymore)

They both loved little pieces of rope or string - just like the cartoons!

Even a brief iron didn't straighten Crosby's fur

The boys wrestle a fair bit - and used to love fighting on the scratching post

Chillin'

We have small chairs with mesh bottoms that they would use to fight between

Crosby Clause

Oscar was not amused

No, this is not the reason we lost all of our fishies

They love each other

Oscar's dirty little secret

Yes?

Oscar is our very own Bonsai Kitten

They hardly ever sleep together like this anymore - so Belinda took a quick photo

It may be a bit girly, but our kittens are cool!

Travel Log - Day 19 (Fare thee well America)

2007-04-18T23:33:00.000+10:00

Well, our honeymoon was finishing up, and Belinda and I were both looking forward to getting home. A quick recap shows we got a fair bit done in our 19 days:

33,000 Kilometers of air travel

More than 18 hours of train travel

Spent at least 5 hours sitting in a taxi cab

Took 891 photos (probably 691 of them of animals)

Far, far too much money spent on memorabilia (then again, it was not really enough)

15 short hours watching ice hockey games

3 different kinds of cheese

Visited 1 very special pond

The morning of day 19 was spent in a taxi driving towards the Pittsburgh airport. We squeezed each other's hands and left a winter wonderland (*sniff*).

A friend of mine had warned me that a fair amount of time was required when transferring planes at Los Angeles Airport, so I think we allowed around 3 hours between flights. It wasn't enough. We arrived in LAX after a 5 hour trip from the East Coast, so we were a little tired and grumpy to begin with. We discovered the gate we needed to get to (and the bus we needed to catch to get there) and made our way immediately. When we eventually got through the first check-in gate as saw "the line".

There was hundreds of people in "the line", and our flight had just started being announced. Both very worried that we'd be stuck in LA for the rest of our marriage, we were lucky enough to find a very helpful airport staff that allowed us to cut "the line". A very small drama that probably happens all the time, but we were amazingly relieved when we were boarding on our plane in time!

When we eventually sat down in our Qantas plane, we immediately heard Crocodile Dundee. I guess we must have adjusted to the American's accents, as half the passengers sounded like they were putting on a killer Shannon Noll impressions. When the captain came over the PA system and went through a few of the formalities I finally started to experience how others countries' populous hear our accent. It was really funny, and took a while for Bell and I to get used to. Thankfully, we had a while on hand (during our 14 hour flight).

Even though we came back to Australia tired, hungry for real food and heavily in debt (and the situation hasn't really changed - although I'm not too hungry at the moment), we both agreed that it was definitely worth it.

We're currently planning another possible US trip, around the time of the next NHL playoffs. Until then - I have no Travel Blogs to complete (w00t).

I thought I provide an ending montage of the famous people we met on our honeymoon.

The happy couple

One of the first celebrities I had met, Blue was really nice in person too

More of a celebrity spotting with Super Grover, as he flew straight past us

He actually said to me: "Yes you deserve to die! And I hope you burn in hell!". Pretty harsh since I was just offering him a drink

A man that's really dragging the most out of a good situation, for as long as he can.

Surprisingly the foot odor wasn't that terrible

Down in front!

Four score and seven facelifts ago ...

Travel Log - Day 18 (The only game that really matters)

2007-04-10T22:09:00.000+10:00

It starts

Firstly, let me take you back. The year was 1994. I was about to start high school, and was probably thinking about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or playing Altered Beast on our Sega Mega Drive. My older brother brought home a few games for the aforementioned Mega Drive with a pooled resource of our Christmas / birthday money. One of them, I do not remember and obviously didn't have a huge impact on my life. The second was Sonic the Hedgehog II, a game that I was very excited about. I had played it a fair bit of Sonic at the local video game store, and it did take up a fair amount of my time during that year. The third game was seen as a little odd to me, as Gavin was more of a basketball fan back then, and I didn't think much of it at the time. That third game was NHL 94.

Notice how small the Electronic Arts branding is

I thought so

Oops, sorry about that

Lemieux to Jagr and he scores to tie it at one

He beat him like a rented mule, Mario Lemieux with the hat-trick.

Gretzky with three pitiful goals gets the third star

With all said and done, I think that that video game has probably had the most effect on my life, more than any other video game. Before NHL 94 I had never heard much about the sport of ice hockey, and only ice skated once when I was around 8 years old. Once I got sick of Sonic and Mr. Prowler I moved on to the NHL game. Initially I played as a few of the teams, and one of my first "favourites" were the Winnipeg Jets (I will buy their jersey one day) mostly due to Teemu Selanne, a gifted scorer. I never really settled on a team until I re-met an old primary school friend who's dad was a huge Penguins fan. The transition was simple for me, as Pittsburgh was also a team I would often play as, with both Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr lighting it up, almost at will.

From then on, my love for the Pittsburgh Penguins only increased. When my parents installed pay TV I was finally able to watch some of the games in full, and allowed my friends and I to watch Mario Lemieux's first comeback against the Toronto Maple Leafs at 3 am one December morning (it also introduced me to Mat Hoffman and the X Games, which kindled my love of rollerblading). Becoming a savvy interweb user helped a lot, as I was able to track my favourite team instantly and gain a lot of Penguin information quicker than I had previously encountered.

So that's why I like the Pittsburgh Penguins. Belinda, my lovely wife, on the other hand - chose her favourite NHL team (the Colorado Avalanche) because she likes the colour blue, and the Avs (with some blue on their jerseys) had recently won a Stanley Cup.

I provide this background information, so that you can understand why I deeply wished that the mighty Pens would crush my new wife's favourite team in their showdown match. This was the schedule for Day 18.

We might have done something during Day 18 that was non-hockey related. Perhaps we had a nice meal or saw some more of the town of Pittsburgh. I'm not 100% sure however, as I just thought about my last chance to see the Penguins win a regular season game. As always - dot point goodness:

I noticed during my research into this fateful game that the Colorado Avalanche had played a game the night before this one. I looked a little deeper and saw that the Avs had only played back-to-back three times prior in this season. The other three times resulted in a loss in the second game. Hesitant confidence was gained!

With Marc-Andre Fleury in net with his golden pads of goodness, I was feeling a little more confident about this match. That little nipper is just awesome to watch in goals.

I noticed that once the game started, the Penguins were playing with energy that I had yet to see. They were running around and banging bodies - it was looking like the momentum was all theirs. Maxime Talbot (one of my favourites) was one of the main proponent of the physical play, and it was fun to watch

Even more fun was watching the Penguins score the first goal of the game - the crowd was electric. I let myself get excited and started thinking about a win.

It only took 6 minutes for me to crash down into depression as the Avalanche tied the score at 1. To the Penguins credit, they kept the pressure up and went ahead again with only a minute to go in the 1st period.

After the Pens traded a goal a piece in the 2nd frame, I was still a little edgy being only 1 goal ahead to start the third period. My main man (after Crosby, Lemieux, Fleury etc) Max Talbot made me jump from my chair midway through the 3rd period with a well deserved insurance goal to put the Penguins up 4-2. It was great seeing Talbot's tough physical play rewarded with a goal in an important game.

Colorado scored another goal to make it 4-3, but the Penguins held on and I saw my first ever Pittsburgh victory. It was sweet!

The dance begins!

Belinda got to see a few Colorado goals ...

... but I got to see an extra Pittsburgh goal

We winned!

Now, although the Penguin's record against the Av's was 0-9-1 in the last 10 games (we won 0, lost 9 and tied 1), the new record is 1-0-0 in the last 1 game! To Bell's credit, she did take the loss much better than I would have. Though I do admit I was a little worried about the plane ride home!

Travel Log - Day 17 (A kid in a candy-filled toy store)

2007-03-21T20:46:00.000+11:00

At the start of the 17th day overseas, I was starting to feel a little over travelling. The air travel, poor meals (involving a whole lot of cheese), lack of sleep and general running around was starting to catch up with Bell and I. I was also starting to get a little bit homesick, though this feeling was lessened by the impending show-down between the Mighty Penguins and the lowly Avalanches.

Due to a previous planning issue Day 17 was also a schedule packed with "bumming around". We went into town, and stumbled upon a toy store. It seemed like a proper, old fashioned, not-too-commercial toy store, and was a welcome change from some of the other, more commercialised sights.

The toy store was 3 levels of fun which was quite a feat, as unlike space crazy New York, the toy store had three decent sized levels. The items that interested Bell and I the most was the Christmas decorations.

Being that we were coming close to Christmas at this time, it was understandable that some holiday decorations would be on display. But these weren't just decorations, these were to-scale model representations of various Christmas themes. There were heaps of different varieties, many different ways to enjoy the holiday period with collectibles (here's some examples). The most we would ever see in Australia is a modest nativity scene model, but I must admit we snapped up some pretty cool items.

My parents have something that look just like this, I used to love pulling off the moss

The M&M Christmas themed decorations we bought in Pittsburgh

Where the magic happens (I'll resist my regular pants joke)

This one is just awesome, and note the winter M&M tree in the background

Such great detail - Yellow obviously needs to be persuaded by Red

As Day 17 was another light-on day for content, I'll post some other pictures of M&M toys Bell and I bought.

Red's quite the ladies man...

... but seems equally enthused when his partner is a scared, peanut-filled yellow male. Fair enough I guess

Yellow spins Red right 'round baby (etc)

Travel Log - Day 16 (Worst NHL Game Ever)

2007-03-17T19:32:00.000+11:00

I had originally made a huge plan for our honeymoon, the planes we would catch, hotels we would stay at, hockey games we would watch, tours we would take and the various tourist locations we would gander upon. I created it in HTML and hosted it on my website so I could make changes from work in the weeks leading up to the trip. After I added all of the staples (planes, games and tours etc that we had booked), I would add a few ideas of what we could do on our days without plans. The trips to the Bronx Zoo and the Disney Store were planned in my handy Honeymoon Itinerary before actually booking tickets. For each day we had free I would research the various things available and note down a few options. Unfortunately work got really busy leading up to the honeymoon, so I had only finished planning up to Washington. This all meant that Day 16 was essentially un-planned - and we didn't do much at all really.

But at the tail end of a very busy and exciting honeymoon, both Bell and I were ready for a bit of a change in pace. We were also a little sick of carrying a camera around everywhere we went - so this post will be lacking in photos. We've agreed that we'll have to buy Belinda a new, small camera for the next trip we take.

After waking up very late in the morning (or perhaps the afternoon) we had lunch at a very nice Chinese restaurant. It's a pity it wasn't closer to our house - because I'm sure Bell and I would eat there quite frequently if it were. Other than the very nice meal, we pretty much did nothing other than watch a hockey game - the Penguins vs Minnesota Wild. Speaking of which, here's the summary:

Marc-Andre Fleury wasn't playing in net for this game, which was my first disappointment. This was very quickly followed up by another as the Wild scored the first goal just over a minute into the game. It certainly kept the crowd quiet.

Crosby was held without a point in the game, but was definitely the best player on the ice. He seemed to be the only one trying.

I was very upset by the way the Penguins were playing, they had few shots and were down 3-0 at the end of the second. But the behaviour of the other Penguins fans was unbelievably disgusting. I just cannot imagine a situation that would cause me to boo my own home team. Some of the fans were yelling out disparaging comments about our own players, and people were leaving the game from early in the third period (when Minnesota went up 4-0). I have trouble believing that any of the people booing their own team are true Pens fans. They really don't deserve to live so close!

Even though the game was going terribly for the Pens (we were down 5-0) I was amazed with the crowd's response towards the end of the game (in a good way). There had been a minor scuffle earlier on in the game - but nothing I would call a real fight. With less than 5 minutes to go in the game, Brooks Orpik and Kyle Wanvig participated in the first NHL hockey fight that I had witnessed. The audience made the most noise I had ever heard as the Penguins defender clearly won the fight. Sure, most of the negative nellys had gone by this point, but the crowd just went wild. I guess it was a small victory considering, but it did put a slightly positive note at the end of the game.

After the loss we went back to our hotel room a little dejected, but it did raise an interesting point. I had yet to see my favourite team win a game of hockey, and they only had one chance remaining. Against my (now) wife's favourite hockey team. Belinda had hoped that the Penguins would have won the Minnesota game so that I could get the victory out of the way, and lessen the blow of a loss against Colorado. Whatever happened - we would have a long time to talk about it, as our flight home was scheduled for the next day!

Here to Stay (Hooray)

2007-03-13T21:48:00.000+11:00

I've been following an NHL Ice Hockey team for quite a while now (don't know if I've mentioned it before). Lately there has been some uncertainty about the future of my Pittsburgh Penguins, I'll save you the incredible amount of ups and downs the Pens fans have gone through in the last 7 years. See this hilarious site for extra information.

Anyway - all's well that ends well - the Penguins are apparently going to stay in the great city of Pittsburgh. My plan to spend 8 months in Pittsburgh watching the Pens win the Stanley Cup in the 2008 / 2009 season continue!

The Penguins got the deal done!

The above comic came from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - link

Travel Log - Day 15 (A Day at the Musuems)

2007-03-12T20:36:00.000+11:00

Well, I didn't finish off my Travel Log before the end of 2006 - but the main advantage of having a limited (read: no) readership is that no one cares when I'm late.

Day 15 was spent doing more touristy things in Washington and was pretty jam packed. We couldn't be bothered finding out if White House tours were available, or how to organise one, so we just took some happy snaps outside the gates. Initial fears that we would look like "dodgies" while performing surveillance on the official home of the President were allayed when we were just one of many people taking similar photos (and we were one of two couples that could have been crowned "Least Terrorist Looking" of the bunch).

The White House from the South - don't know why the flag was half-mast though

"L'homme blanc gelant ses seins"

Belinda modelling the latest edition of the Lonely Planet guide to Washington

After viewing the White House we high-tailed it to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. We pretty much only visited this museum for one reason, to see a giant dinosaur skeleton, and it didn't disappoint in this respect. It did, however, disappoint by housing a rather comprehensive collection of diamonds and jewels. I won't bore you with the 26 photos (Bell took a pic of every jewel!) - but it was pretty cool to see the Hope Diamond in the stone.

If you look carefully, you can see Ben Stiller in the background preparing for a movie role

Crappy photo, but I had to add a pic of a T-Rex

When reviewing these photos I've come to the conclusion that I've turned into my father

Some of the rocks did look pretty cool

The Hope Diamond

Just down the road was the National Air and Space Museum which I was really looking forward to. We saw lots of air and space related exhibits, and had a quick ride in an aeroplane simulation (which was awesome!). I must say one of the highlights was seeing space-candy and space-Coke! We were running out of time, so had to rush through the second half of the museum, but it was a lot of fun.

Doesn't look that difficult

The Wright Brother's plane, they are from a seven child family. The most that my six siblings and I could produce was a healthy dose of repressed mental illnesses resulting from concentrated teasing. So I guess both the Wrights and the Dixons achieved something in their own small way

The money shot - space M&M's. I can't wait to travel to Las Vegas to check out even more candy goodness!

Pretty funny that they made both space Coke and space Pepsi. Some food joints only offer Pepsi - space has a wider array of soft drink

I reckon I could wing it

We had organised tickets for the Capitals-Predators game, so we decided to grab some Hooters for dinner. Unfortunately there's no more photos though - as the area of Washington we were staying in was not the nicest (felt it was safer to leave the camera at home). Hooters had nice food - but I'm pretty sure most of the patrons were not really there for the food. Our waitress was quite rude, probably because she thought a couple would not tip her as well as a table of drunk college kids (she was probably right). Wasn't the nicest meal we had whilst in the US - but I'm happy I've had a Hooters experience.

As we hadn't planned to watch a game while in Washington, and we weren't that interested in the result, we choose to purchase cheap tickets in the "nose bleeds". I was really struck with the lack of crowd - sure it was mid-week but there was almost nobody there. I got to see rookie phenom Alex Ovechkin score a pretty sweet power play goal, and a damn potent power play unit from Nashville.

After the game we went back to the hotel to pack for the next day, and got lots of sleep!

Travel Log - Day 14 (Washington Zoo-lander)

2006-10-22T20:51:00.000+10:00

Haven't blogged for two months - figured I might as well try to finish off the Travel Log

Bell was quite excited for day 14, as it was a trip to another zoo - this time the Washington Zoo. The Zoo is part of the Smithsonian Institution so entry was free - which was welcomed by Bell and I.

The Washington Zoo - and some snow spattering

I think his name is Alsan

There were a few animals of note, such as the striped zorse. The strangest exhibit by far was the "Australiana" section. It was supposed to hold Emus and Kangaroos - but when we were there it was just filled with snow (which kangaroos don't have to deal with too often).

Not surprisingly, the Kangaroos and Emus were inside on this brisk morning

We were actually at the Washington Zoo at the right time, as the Giant Pandas had a new addition (in baby form). It was very busy (and a 10 minute gawking limit was in place), but Bell managed to get a few photos of the bears (which were, admittedly, somewhat cute).

Now where'd my kid go?

Climbing mummy mountain

Hungy!

When I heard that the Panda had a child - I assumed this is what they would act like. We don't all get what we wish for

As it was cold outside, a lot of the animals were kept indoors (such as the afore mentioned kangaroos and emus). It was very strange seeing a giraffe and hippo inside - but it did mean we were up pretty close.

The background picture fooled me for a minute (I thought I was an African)

Doesn't look too big here

Hippo's about to get his food on

The elephant reminded me of Stampy, it kept on head-butting this blue barrel

We then went into the gorilla exhibit, which was a little sad. There were signs up saying that the gorilla didn't like lots of movement from the audience and had a few pointers for approaching them (very slow, don't walk up to them while facing them etc). Of course, everyone ignored these pointers and the gorillas looked a little upset by this. At least they weren't being shot to produce masks.

Not happy Jan

The Thinker

Peek-a-boo!

After the gorillas we moved on to the tigers (of course, Belinda's favourite animal) which took up a bit of our time. They were pretty cool - but I'd already stood next to Belinda for about 4 hours at Tiger Island, and it doesn't take too long to get sick of tigers. They didn't do too much that was interesting, but they were kinda cool to watch.

Good shot by Bell

I think he's about to pounce on the keg. It's alcoholism that's actually killing off the world's Tiger population

That's pretty much it for day 14 - only 3 more to go. I really hope I can finish it this year!

Travel Log - Day 13 (Mr. Dixon ... stays in Washington)

2006-08-17T02:19:00.000+10:00

Yes, it's early and I couldn't think of a proper title

After a lazy morning we dragged ourselves out of bed for some lunch. While Belinda had a boring Subway - I tried out the "World's Greatest Hamburgers" at Fuddruckers. They may not be world beating - but they were all kinds of fantastic! I ordered a triple cheese burger (I like cheese), and it came with just a bun, cheese and the meat. Somewhat perturbed I wondered if "World's Stingiest Hamburgers" had been misspelled, when I saw the condiment table. Brilliant! A whole area with every condiment under the sun to add to your hamburger. I added the exact amount of mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise, lettuce, onion and tomato that I wanted - and had probably the best hamburger consumed while in America.

The rest of day 13 was going to be spent getting a tour of the district to see the sights. It turned out that the place we needed to pick up our tickets was about 45 minutes away in a taxi - and we didn't think the travel time and taxi fare would be worth it. So we created our own tour!

First stop was the Washington Monument. It was snowing fairly heavily, so crowds were no problems, and when we got to the Monument there was noone else there.

Quite striking, isn't it

While it was quite tall, the real draw (in my opinion) was the elevator ride up the Monument. The windows in the lift showed the memorial stones that were used during construction of the Monument, I found it very interesting. Apparently when donations for the Monument ran out in 1854, some people from Alabama suggested that all states and territories donate memorial stones for the interior walls, made from a product of the state's soil. In total there are 193 stones, as professional organisations, American Indian tribes, business, foreign nations etc also donates stones.

Some of the interesting stones are the Alaskan stone - the most expensive as it's made from green jade. The stone from Japan is made from volcanic rock with a Japanese inscription. Not too surprisingly the New York stone is the biggest, and forced the Monument Society to request a maximum size for all future donations. And Peter Force, a one time Mayor of Washington, donated his own stone which was basically just his name in large letters (after which the Society refused donations from individuals).

Other random Monument facts:

At the time of construction, it was the tallest building in world

It remains the tallest building in Washington due to restrictions on the height of new constructions

The total cost to build was $1,187,710

After the Monument we decided to walk to the Lincoln Memorial. After a few snowball fights we got there and saw that the actual statue of Lincoln was under construction, but we still asked him some questions.

The view of the Lincoln Memorial from the Washington Monument

The view of the Washington Monument from the Lincoln Memorial

Geez! I knew a guy in Primary School that had the head gear with his braces, but this is ridiculous!

Our lunch was very satisfying so we decided to just try some "ordered in" food from a local Italian store for dinner. When it finally arrived it was cold and of poor quality - so we just fed ourselves from the friendly vending machine (healthy, I know). Our next day was going to be filled with Zoo adventures, so we had ourselves an early night.

Travel Log - Day 12 (Mr. Dixon goes to Washington)

2006-07-31T23:56:00.000+10:00

And so does Mrs. Dixon, of course

About a year ago Belinda and I were planning our honeymoon. At that stage, we were about 90% sure we would never be able to afford a holiday to America just a few days after our wedding. Added to the cost was the effort of organising a overseas trip at the same time as planning a wedding, buying a house and moving out of a home for the first time. All this meant the likelihood of a honeymoon was low - but it also meant we didn't cut too many corners for the plan (why skimp when it's not going to happen). One such extravagance we added was "there's 5 days between to hockey games while we're in Pittsburgh - we might as well go to Washington instead of just hanging around". So on day 12 of our trip - we flew to Washington.

We woke up early and finished packing for our flight, and went straight to the airport. At the hotel lobby, the guy noticed that we had our bags and asked if we'd like him to call us a cab for the airport. Sure, why not, we said. When the cabbie finally turned up (I'm sure we could have found one much quicker) he put our bags in his car - and I thought I saw him give the hotel guy some money.

Anyway - our guy was really nice - and his car was great. He said he was an old footballer for the Cleveland Browns, but he was a huge Steelers fan. Guess Pittsburgh just wears people down like that. He gave us his card - and said he'd be happy to be at the airport to pick us up when we returned to Pittsburgh. I assume he organised this so he wouldn't have to pay some other dude just for calling his number. But he was nice to talk to - and he didn't cost that much more than the bus we took from the airport when we arrived at Pittsburgh - so it was fine.

A google search of our limo driver's brings up this guy - so I assume the above picture is what our driver looked like in his playing days. (I admit it - I just like bobbleheads)

As we usually tried to do, we arrived at Pittsburgh airport early for our flight - so we had some lunch. While we were waiting for our flight, we noticed that almost half of the airport were hanging around the stores with televisions. Sure enough, the town favourites were playing a game that day. Apparently (I really didn't pay much attention) it was a do-or-die game for their season - which they ended up winning. We could tell the result of the game just by listening to everyone else's reaction - which we ended up having to do for a while as our plane was delayed.

Once the plane was finally ready, we boarded to our seats. This plane was very small compared to all the others we had been on - I guess there's relatively few people traveling from Pittsburgh to Washington. Nothing interesting at all on this flight, except that the wings had ice on them - which was shot off by a high pressure water gun machine (very cool).

We got a taxi back to the hotel, which turned out to be pretty uninteresting. We decided to catch a movie and try to have a typical American evening. We ended up seeing Just Friends, which was a great choice. It was a comedy (which we both love), had some romance and a bit of hockey. Perfect for our honeymoon. After the movie we had some dinner at a random food place, I can't even remember what it was called. It was funny though - the waitresses had no idea what Belinda was saying - and kept talking about how cool her accent was (they thought she was European). I had to translate for us - turns out all that American TV watching was useful.

Our hotel was two blocks from the dinner venue - so we walked. It was getting pretty late, and it got very creepy. There was a car that was following us with people pointing at us from the inside - and some dude just walked up to us murmuring something. Apparently our hotel wasn't in the nicest of neighbourhoods, but we got back ok. This was the only time on our trip that we felt scared - and it kind of soured the whole Washington segment.

Anyway - we found our way home - and Belinda had a great suggestion. She asked if I wanted to watch a hockey game while we were in Washington (that's why I married her - so thoughtful!). It really was a great suggestion - as there was another highly rated rookie that played for the Capitals - Alex Ovechkin. I called the MCI center - and found out there was a game that fit our schedule quite well - and it turned out the rink was just around the corner from our hotel room! It was a sign.

Travel Log - Day 11 (Best NHL Game Ever - Mach II)

2006-07-19T15:38:00.000+10:00

I was excited waking up on day 10, waking up on day 11 was twice as bad. I actually woke up quite early - a fair few hours before Bell - so I just read a book I had recently purchased.

When Bell finally woke up we decided to see a bit of the City of Pittsburgh. From the hotel room we could see that there was a fair bit of snow cover on the city, which was exciting. Even better - when we stepped outside our hotel room it was actually snowing. In Niagara Falls it was snowing - but really, that was the equivalent of a small spit. This was an actual fall - admittably not pissing down - but definately decent. I rather enjoyed holding my open hands up to the sky and collecting the snow. As a kid I always liked the idea of snow - the most we ever got in Melbourne was a very heavy hail storm - so this was great.

Something that I was entirely unprepared for was the amount of support the town gave to the Steelers. I had read on message boards that Pittsburgh was "Stillers Town" - but I was very surprised. Pretty much 1 out of every 3 or 4 people had some article of Steelers clothing on. Everyone from grandmothers to children was proudly displaying the Steelers name. There was also a lot of Penguin clothing (much more than I'd ever see in Australia) - but it was a little bit of a letdown.

We walked around the city - the first stop was the (now retired) Kaufmann's department store. The first thing I noticed was that half of the store staff were wearing Steelers jerseys as their uniforms (none of them were wearing Penguins jerseys though). We bought me two pairs of shoes (very cheap - and Pittsburgh has no sales tax on clothing) and two extra suitcases to store all of the crap we bought at the Penguins store. There was also a nice cafe in the middle of the store and I filled up on soda spiders. We just had a great day out.

At the end of the trip Belinda and I both agreed that Pittsburgh was one of the nicest cities we'd visited on the trip. The people were great, food was nice and (though it's probably got a lot to do with the snow) the place just looked beautiful. Whenever I list the honeymoon destinations (New York, Niagara Falls, Washington, Pittsburgh) I get a "Why Pittsburgh?". Originally the answer would just be "hawkey" - but now I could honestly say it was a great place to visit. We didn't even end up seeing much more of Pittsburgh than downtown - but it was great fun. I'm looking forward to returning (and Bell is too - which is wonderful)!

Anyway - the most important part of day 11 was the chance to watch the Penguins play at home. About a half-hour before the game's start time we walked around the corner to Mellon Arena. The atmosphere was incredible, and every second person had a Pens jersey on (with about a quarter of those having Crosby's number 87). Afterwards Bell and I both agreed that the Pittsburgh game was so much more of a show, and much more enjoyable (even though it was great in New York). Cheerleaders, free T-Shirts and a mini radio controlled blimp were some of the things that anyone could enjoy - not just fans of hockey.

Not as fancy as the Madison Square Garden display (a few extra dead pixels) but it was a great sight!

How cool are these! And note the Pen's credit card in the background

A few warmups going on behind me

The Penguin's cheerleaders shooting t-shirts from a slingshot. Iceburgh was also firing t-shits from a bazooka contraption

The Verizon blimp was dropping some kind of vouchars. One dropped right in front of me - but kids snatched it up before I got a chance (and then ran back to their seats on the other side of the stand - bastards!)

"My dad drives the zamboni"

Go you big skating penguin!

Anyway - another dot-point summary of the game:

I saw a few people wearing Steelers jerseys to the game - poor form!

I was happy to see Fleury starting in net again, and he played a great game again.

The Penguins were robbed early, and I was pissed off. Marcus Nilson's shot hit the crossbar and lay on the goal line - but didn't cross it. Many players on the ice could clearly see that the puck didn't go in - and quickly protested. The referee called the goal and they didn't even go to the video referees for clarrification. 1-0 Calgary.

Pittsburgh then tied it up with a spectacular backhander goal by Sidney Crosby. I was extremely happy that I got to witness Crosby scoring - and it was a plus that Mario Lemieux had the second assist on the goal.

Langkow scored two early third period goals to put Calgary ahead 3-1 both from great assists from Huselius.

Midway through the 3rd I saw Ryan VandenBussche's first NHL goal to bring it up to 3-2.

We pulled the goalie towards the end of the game to attempt to score a tying goal - but alas, it was not to be. Made the first non-goal so much more difficult to stomache!

Opening faceoff - people were still only just getting to their seats. What a waste!

Iceburgh stood up right in front of us. I didn't have the heart to yell "down in front" to him! (so I just pushed him)

I'm not 100% - but I think Iceburgh is trying to score here

Again, watching a Penguins game was awesome - it was just a bitch that we lost. Once we left Mellon Arena, we saw that it had been snowing all through the game, and the ground was just covered! Most of the Pens fans were huddled together, head down, running towards their cars. Bell and I were running around playing in the snow, it was quite fun. We even made snow angels!

Travel Log - Day 10 (Pittsburgh at last!)

2006-07-02T16:45:00.000+10:00

I woke up on day 10 with a real excited feeling - as this was the day we were finally going to Pittsburgh. We woke up early and left straight away to La Guardia Airport. The flight from New York to Pittsburgh was quite enjoyable, it only took an hour and a half and it was much less packed than the Red Eye we took earlier.

The first thing I did after touching down in Pittsburgh was purchase a Post-Gazette newspaper from the airport. At first it was great to actually buy the paper I had been reading online for many years - but then I realised it was a bit of a waste as I only read three articles from the sports section.

We took a Shuttle bus downtown, and checked into our hotel. Most hotels have a mint on your pillow to welcome you - the one we stayed at handed out cookies (which was muchly appreciated). Anyway, after dropping off our bags and scoping out the hotel room (much nicer compared to the one we just left) we set off to pick up the hockey tickets.

I really liked the Pittsburgh room - no neo-romantic Ostro-Goths here

Once we left the hotel and started looking for the building to pick up our tickets we saw that Mellon Arena was literally across the road from us. Being this close to The Igloo was another dream come true, and the hockey flags around the place just topped it off.

Mellon Arena - Terror goes into over-time

One of the flags around the 'Burgh

The place we picked our hockey tickets up was pretty cool in itself - as it was Mario Lemieux's actual office. The decorations around the room were very nice too - especially the next-game countdown.

A little display outside the ticket office

Time until the next Pen's home game. I would be lying if I didn't think of ripping it off the wall and running!

I'm sure this paper sold a few copies

Fleury's distinctive pads can be seen in the foreground

After picking up the tickets we went straight to the Arena to see if the memorabilia store was open, fortunately (unfortunately for my wallet) it was. I had another "WOW! This is awesome" moments when we stepped inside - looking at a sea of Black and Gold. All the Penguins stuff was cool and we bought lots of it!

The first thing I bought - a Crosby Pens home jersey

Wearing this in Melbourne - I'm sure some people are wondering when Bing played Ice Hockey

A couple of sweet hoodies, for the casual man about the town

Don't get me wrong - I'm not the kind of guy that normally wears leather jackets. But this jacket is just awesome - and will be treasured for years

The only things I got from the Pens store here is the shot glass and cool tiny replica of a goalies mask. The plastic cup was filled with sprite at one of the Pens games

My final purchase seen in action - next to my computer desk

A weekend at home - hooray!

2006-06-23T21:56:00.000+10:00

It's been exactly a month since my last post - and I've been busy as shit since then. I broke two personal records this last month - my first 70+ hour week (74) and being at work each of the last 20 days. Sure, it's not really that many hours when you consider other occupations in IT (such as video game development) - but it certainly wore me out. I've also had around 15 migraines in the last month (two in the last four days) which isn't fun - especially when I'm also taking three tablets a day which are supposed to stop said migraines from occuring (all they seem to be doing is making me very tired).

But the project I've been working on went through it's final build today - and will be migrated to production on Monday afternoon - so I see it more as an unexpected weekend at home.

If you've got nothing to do this weekend - perhaps you have time to gaze in wonder at this cool optical illusion I stumbled across recently.

1. Stare at the picture below for about 30 seconds, keeping your focus on the small cross in the middle of the picture.

2. Keep staring at the cross while placing your mouse over the picture. The picture will change. After a few seconds - look around at the rest of the picture (i.e. don't keep staring at the cross).

By the way - this won't work if you have javascript disabled in your browser.

When you mouse over the image - the wierd coloured one is replaced by a grayscale image. Because you were just staring at the negative image - the grayscale one should have appeared coloured. If it didn't look very good - you can try the original.

The original site also has a short tutorial on how to make these. Unfortunately I don't have Photoshop (only Paint.NET) - so I don't think mine turned out very good.

Pretty cool trick though.

Mad Skillz

2006-05-23T23:42:00.000+10:00

I don't have any "mad skillz", though I wish I did. I used to play basketball as a youngster - and could barely contribute to the D grade team I was in. I tried my hands (and feet) to cricket and football as well - and equally sucked (I think I only played one game of football before "retiring").

Early in high school I gave aggressive inline skating a shot (inspired by the X Games). I enjoyed skating a lot, but after learning to jump small stairs and grind easy rails I peaked and kind of gave up on it. I didn't break any bones while skating - so I guess I came out even.

The only other field that I've shown some level of achievement is ice / inline hockey. I dominate in C grade - then only contribute in B grade. It may be because I have less time to practice / work out lately - or just that my level of skill is somewhere between C and B grades.

Other than that, I've had to rely on my dashing good looks, charming wit and blatant use of sarcasm to get ahead in this world ;)

These people, however, have skills (found on YouTube):

Urban Ninja

I am a huge fan of Ninjas - top stuff

Robot Dance

Crazy, silly, fresh. Probably a bit of a nerd - but great to watch

Vasek 00 (Footbag)

While it appears that this guy knows what he's doing - I didn't see a single Doda or Dizzy Dean!

College Mario Brother

The whole of 1-1 from Mario Brothers - performed by college kids

Evolution of Dance

Keep with this one - it started meaning more to me from the 3 minute mark.

Christmas Lights Gone Wild

Amazing Christmas lights display

Canon on Guitar

Pretty incredible!

Yoyo man!

He needs gloves - pussy!

While I'm sure the following video does involve some form of skill - I am in no way jealous!

Korean Madness

Merry (belated) Fishmas

2006-05-15T23:10:00.000+10:00

I was cleaning out my camera phone (which I don't use very often at all) - and I found a few old photos.

Firstly, a bit of history. Apparently an Australian thing - my mother's been making Chocolate Ripple Cake for as long as I can remember. Very simple to do, you basically stick many chocolate biscuits together with a lot of cream, to form a long white cake (or "log"). A simple white log can get boring eventually, so my dear mum would make different letters / shapes out of the cake - to my varied amusement! For instance, she would bend the log into a giant "G" for my brother's birthday - and a huge "21" when it was his (or someone else's) 21st.

This practice must have struck a cord with me - because I remembered it all when Bell's mum asked me to help her with this year's Christmas deserts. I decided to make a tree:

Bell then suggested we decorate it - which turned out the be quite easy as her mum had every colour of sprinkles imaginable to man. Here's the final piece:

It's a pity I don't like eating Chocolate Ripple Log - as I doubt I'll get much of a chance to expand on my desert creativity!

Travel Log - Day 9 (Best NHL Game Ever!)

2006-05-14T12:59:00.000+10:00

Upon waking up on Day 9 we discovered that our New York hotel room was still shithouse - and the early morning (noisy) construction work didn't help. When we originally went to Statue of Liberty on day 3 we decided it was too busy - and I'm glad we did. We ended up encountering very few lines - and it was a much nicer day weather wise this time around.

We shared the ferry over with around 100 school kids (the coolest excusion I can remember was Parliament House - wow!), and I tried my first authentic American pretzel. I really didn't like it - but I don't know if that had something to do with the fact that I bought it from a canteen on a ferry.

I was bitterly disappointed to discover that the tour wouldn't involve going inside "Liberty Enlightening the World" - but I had already assumed that it would be the case. The museum in the pedestal turned out to be really enjoyable - but if they ever open up the inside of the statue, I'll be back there in a minute.

The original torch. "Hey lady - you got a light?"

A full-scale replica of the face - I'm sure I'm not the only one that found this a little freaky (and sexually appealing)

For some reason this picture reminds me of Sarah Ferguson. "... noone's watching"

The photo didn't come out too good - but this was a nice cross section of the statue

There was windows on the roof at the top of the pedestal - so we could see the staircase we weren't allowed to climb

Been a while since washing day me thinks

I was amazed that I was so close to an icon that I had seen all my life

After getting back into the city - we bummed around for a bit. While shopping at Virgin we noted that Paris Hilton was doing a book signing. I'm not 100% - but I'm pretty sure she did a similar thing at Eastland a few months ago.

I also marked off another "must eat in America" item when I found some Philly Cheese Steak (in pie form - thankfully it was delicious). Onion, green peppers, steak, cheese - lovely! I might have to look for recipes! Then, after a brief nap at our hotel, we walked down to The Garden.

Finally - an NHL game!

I was so pumped to be going to a hockey game I didn't mind that most of the good vibes around The Garden was directed towards the Rangers. I wore my Penguins away jersey and I bought one of the Rangers' third jerseys (I love the logo design) for Bell to wear - which just happened to be what the Rags were wearing that night. I figured that at least Bell wouldn't be beaten to death my the mad New York fans. We got there very early, but I didn't want to miss a minute of the game (or warmups etc), so I stared at an empty rink for a fair while.

Our viewing angle - not too bad, but I had hoped we might be a little closer

Then, without much fanfare, the two teams took to the ice for warm ups. My mouth was gaped open for around five minutes while I watched players that I've idolised skate around the rink. The start of warmup probably got more of a reaction from me than the start of the game, as it's was the first time I'd seen NHLers take to the rink.

Warmups - Fleury's yellow blockers make him easy to find

Warmups - Caron was backing up - and you can see Crosby skating in (on the right)

Warmups - Bell like this bit, when they were all taking many shots from in close, it did look kinda funny

I'm sure the full description of the game would be boring for most - so I'll go bullet points:

New York got out to an early lead - scoring while Dick Tarnstrom was serving a double minor for High Sticking. The first ever NHL goal that I witnessed was by Maxim Kondratiev - I hope he's proud!

Early in the second period Fleury made an incredible save, and I could sense that the Penguins took a bit of jump from this. Shortly after, Ryan Whitney scored his first NHL for the Penguins - tying the game at 1. It was good to be able to see the way a play develops, something I wouldn't have picked up on TV.

New York scored later in the 2nd period, to stay in front for the rest of the game.

Fleury was incredible to watch - some of his saves were awesome!

Unfortunately both Crosby and Lemieux were pretty much non-factors in this game. Crosby was shaking off a foot injury from a few games ago.

Just before the puck was dropped

Whitney's first NHL goal

After watching my first complete game - I would estimate that the NHL is about 1000% better in person than on television. Even if I wasn't a hockey fan, I'm sure I would have enjoy watching an NHL game in person. Bell really enjoyed it too, and got into the game a little more than I did (I was grumpy because we were losing).

Travel Log - Day 8 (New York, New York ... again)

2006-05-06T01:44:00.000+10:00

Probably the least interesting day of our honeymoon - I'd probably skip this entry if I were you

Well, after being served breakfast by an authentic Canadian (the curtains matched the drapes) we decided on a less adventurous breakfast for day 2 in Canada. The Starbucks in the hotel lobby provided us all of the Chocolate-Chip Cookies and Almond Biscotti we required for a balanced breakfast.

We were actually getting much better at packing our bags by this point - so we were waiting for our New York train for a fair while. While we were waiting, we saw the first few flakes of snow that we had ever seen. Sure - it was no blizzard - but it was exciting to us.

A licky boom boom down

More of the white stuff - the most we had seen at this point of the trip

The train ride back to New York was much more boring this time - but did offer a brief distraction. I had mentioned that the trip up to Canada involved a scary "border check". Turns out the Canadians are a lot more relaxed when it comes to these things. Our American border-check assistant was a little more thorough with questions such as "Which bags are yours?", "Why do you need so much luggage?", "Why are you going to the U.S.?". Much more nerve-racking than the simple "fill in this form" from the way up. He seemed to calm down when I said we were on our honeymoon - and had picked up many souvenirs. The chick that was sitting opposite us was not so lucky. She was asleep when border-check begun - so her answers weren't as confident at the beginning of the conversation. It went something like this:


Scary Border-Check Guy: Are you a Canadian resident?

Sleepy Canadian Chick: Yes.

SBCG: How long are you going to be in the U.S.?

SCC: 4 days.

SBCG: Can I see your passport again?

[passport is um'd and ah'd about for a while]

SBCG: Why are you traveling to the U.S.?

SCC: I have a funeral to attend.

SBCG: Who's funeral?

SCC: My grandfather's.

SBCG: What was the cause of death?

SCC: [pause followed by mumbled answer]

(I was trying not to make it obvious I was listening)

SBCG: We're going to need to interview you in the back carriage.

Please come with us.

After what seemed like about a half-hour of interrogation our Canadian friend resumed her seat. She seemed a little shaken up (definitely more awake). I, once again, said a silent thank you that our "interrogation" was tame, and didn't involve in-depth questions of my specific plans for our honeymoon (I got enough of those questions from Bell's father).

Anyway - we finally made it back to New York, and checked into the worst hotel of the trip. More expensive than our initial New York hotel, The Gershwin was an absolute dive. I didn't have a tape measure handy, but I think our whole hotel room could have fit in our bed from the Sheraton room. The big selling point was how much "art" was on display at the hotel - as well as the interesting guests (their website boasts "We attract opposites. We welcome all kinds of human flora and fauna. Snappy dressers tingle our g-spot, but we open doors to shabby neo-romantic Ostro-Goths as well."). I would have traded both of them in for a room that we didn't have trouble fitting our bags in.

The crappy room at The Gershwin did piss us off a bit, but thankfully we were only there for two days - and we didn't spend much of that time in our room. I guess we'll never be a pair of neo-romantic Ostro-Goths :(

As there are only two photos for this day - I thought I'd post a pic of some of the toys that were bought earlier in the trip

Happy Happy Feijoa Joy!

2006-04-29T00:55:00.000+10:00

I like guava! I like the taste, I like the colour, and I like the texture. My love of guava started late when I was about 10 years old - primarily because of Mildura's Apple and Guava juice (which I found out many years later, is not juice - but a "fruit drink" full of sugar). Whenever I find a nice looking guava related product I'm always happied - and still buy some of the old "fruit drink" from time to time.

Belinda's favourite fruit is pineapple - which I can't say I particularity endorse, but whatever.

Anywho, just a few days ago Belinda discovered that the house we had recently bought has a Feijoa tree. The Feijoa tree, funnily enough, produces Feijoa fruit - otherwise known as the Pineapple Guava. Belinda and I both love the fruit - and have picked about 50 of them these last two days.

It tastes a little bit like a fruit salad, with a strong passionfruit / kiwi flavour. It's also been described as having a pineapple / guava / banana / strawberry taste - but I wouldn't go that far. I took some to work today - and almost noone had tried one before (except the resident New Zealander) - and everyone liked them.

Bell's also been looking into various Feijoa-based recipes. So I can expect a Feijoa based curry, muffins and gratin soon!

I thought it was pretty cool that our first house together has a magical plant which combines our two favourite fruits. Now I've just got to find out where the rare species of Tiger-Penguin is hiding in our backyard (he's probably surviving on feijoas).

Travel Log - Day 7 (Wet Wet Wet)

2006-04-23T23:45:00.000+10:00

We decided that the Niagara Falls part of our holiday was going to be the romantic / honeymooney part, so we kicked off Day 7 with breakfast in bed - delivered by a Canadian! While I organised our delightful breakfasts - Bell asked the hotel dude for the closest hockey store to the hotel. It just so happened that there was a store just up the road that was having their huge, yearly sale. Unfortunately, their yearly sale had already been going for over two months, and there was very little left. Bell picked up a pair of skates, and I got some cool hockey gloves that are apparently quite hard to get (from a small company).

Somewhat romantic, this is the view of the waterfall we had from our bed

It was pissing down all day, and the taxis weren't as heavily populated so we ended up walking around a lot. That wouldn't have been too bad at all (I had a good jacket with a hood, beanie, scarf etc) if it wasn't for the hole in my shoe. I had been waiting until Pittsburgh to buy a new pair of shoes - turns out my gamble didn't pay off.

One thing that surprised me about Niagara Falls was how much it resembled an amusement park. On the small strip near our hotel there were about 10 huge statues of various characters (Frankenstein, Dracula, The Hulk, etc) and quite a few questionable museums (Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum, Guinness Records Museums etc). I was going to post a few photos of these stores - until I realised that all the photos we took in Niagara Falls were of a waterfall (you can visit their website however).

After lunch we decided to get up close to the waterfalls, and get a little wetter. Excuse me for the copious amount of water photos that follows this paragraph:

The American Falls and the Bridal Falls (also visible from America)

Another view of the American and Bridal Falls (the Bridal Falls is the tiny block of water on the far right - it really doesn't deserve it's own name!)

One half of the Horseshoe Falls

The other half - all the mist in the middle made it appear to be raining where we were standing

I thought this looked kinda cool - this was when we were right up close to the falls

The closest we got to the edge

I don't think anyone else understood my interest in themed Coke machines

You could go down to behind the fall - see a wall of water!

I thought this was pretty cool - if this trend continues I can only assume that the whole of America will be eroded away one day (lucky we visited when we did!)

Shot from below / beside the falls

Special!

Heeeeeeere Fishy, Fishy, Fishy, Fishy!

2006-04-20T22:41:00.000+10:00

The Dixon family now has some new additions! While most people eat lots of fish on Good Friday, we saved some from certain toilet-related death. We've had two large vases that Bell had always thought could be converted into fish tanks - and last Friday she went down to the pet store and bought six. We've finally decided on names (earlier suggestions such as Fluffy Apples, Gratch and Spot were left by the wayside), so I thought I'd formally introduce them.

They're kind of divided into two groups (as they're in two separate tanks) - my group is known as "The Carpet Munchers" as they took so long to swim to the top of the vase and eat their dinner. Allow me to introduce them formally, and fill you in on their secret skills (well, name origin):

Eric Cairns

Eric is the biggest fish we have, so I thought he'd be a good enforcer for the star in his vase. A good mate and myself had been following the career of a NHL enforcer named Eric Cairns partly because his surname can also refer to a female body part, but mainly because of his attitude to hockey (hockey fighting in particular).

Oh eck! Eric is Bananaman - a cartoon I used to watch a lot in my youth. I only just discovered now - that the whole show (male parts anyway) was voiced by The Goodies.

Eric's got no pull (see The Jerky Boys 4).

When we used to have chickens at our house - one was called Eric (named after my grandfather).

Crosby Scores

Due to the yellow, black and silver colouring - I chose to name this fish after the youngest player to score 100 points in the NHL - Sidney Crosby.

Even though he has more assists than goals in his rookie year - Bell thought "Scores" would be a good surname for Sid the Fish.

Although I put Eric in the vase with Crosby to protect him - turns out Crosby's a bit of a nutter. He keeps taking runs at his roommates - and sometimes swims straight into the glass walls.

Buster Rhymes

The final Carpet Muncher was called Buster as he was the smallest of all 6 fish. Although he's small - he's always at the top of the bowl when it's dinner time. Bell and I aren't necessarily huge fans of Busta Rhymes - but thought the surname fit.

Fins McGill

Bell thought of Fins as a good name for a fish - and decided to bestow this name on the fish with the white fins.

Tiger Fish

Bell's a big fan of Tigers, so when we decided Fluffy Apples was a stupid name, we went with Tiger Fish.

Lara Croft

Those who know Bell know of her Lara Croft obsession - so it was fair enough that one fish was named after the Tomb Raider.

Lara seems to be the smartest of the fish - as she was the first one game enough to eat the food we put in their bowls.

Lara was originally called Spot - until Belinda decided that the fish was definitely female.

Although not entirely related to our fish - I did get a boat load of Easter Eggs this year! Having a wife has benefits!

Travel Log - Day 6 (Niagara Falls, eh?)

2006-04-13T19:52:00.000+10:00

Still haven't got Blogger working through our router - so I'm blogging this one through a Citrix client

After spending 5 enjoyable and enlightening days in New York, day 6 saw our first change of location. So far we had given some thanks, gone "down the park" and hung out with the K-Man. Out plan was to then spend a few days near Niagara Falls to fulfil the relaxing and romatic quota of the honeymoon.

The stopover in Niagara Falls was not even going to be about Canada at all - we had originally planned to visit the American side of the Falls, but was advised that the Canadian side was much nicer. I'm hoping to one day do Canada properly (watch a hockey game and check out the hockey hall of fame in Toronto, ski Whistler and ride a skidoo), so we kept this first visit to Nigara Falls.

We thought it might be a little cheaper to catch a train up, instead of flying - and it was. It was also a 9 hour trip, without the crapy movies that flying provides. Still, we kept ourselves entertained by looking out the window and pointing at pretty cool landscapes. The outskirts of New York State are quite nice to look at - and we also saw our first evidence of snow (no falls though).

Travelling to the Canadian side of the Falls also meant that we got an extra stamp on our passports, which sounded pretty cool. It also meant that we had to go through another "border check", which always made me extremely nervous. It's wierd, I know I'm not carrying weapons of mass destruction (only a weapon of mass seduction ... in my PANTS - ha, ha, ha - hilarious), I'm was pretty sure my passport / travel docs were in order - but I still got shit scared. Probably similar to the feeling of worry I have every time I swipe my credit card, just waiting for it to come back with "rejected" (even though it never has).

So after "bribing" the mounties (see afore mentioned pant-weapon) we were taken to our hotel, Sheraton on the Falls (as opposed to Sheraton Fallsview Hotel). When we were checking in, the guy on the counter said that we didn't have a view of the Falls, and we could upgrade to one for "this much" - and typed a figure into his calculator before showing it to me. When I told him we were on our honeymoon he suggested that we get a corner room and again let the calculator negotiate the price with me. Even with the upgrades, each night was cheaper in Niagara Falls than either of our New York hotels so I took the upgrade. Smart move!

The room was huge! Some hotels we stayed in had trouble fitting on all of our bags (as well as fitting in my trouser munitions - ok, last joke) - but this room had girth (*cough*)! The main part of the room was pretty damn big (heaps of room around a king-sized bed) and then there was a seperate couch area with fireplace, small sink / coffee area, large bathroom with jaccuzzi and a balcony.

Our room complete with fake fireplace (I guess the fireplace was real - but the fire was illusional)

The sink and coffee machine we never used

The bathroom with double jacuzzi and television (not pictured). The shower was also pretty cool, with a normal shower head as well as two horizontal jets

I called this part of our room "The Conservatory", and hid the candle stick and lead pipe I brought with us

After checking out the internal features of the room - I checked out the balcony. It was raining, so it wasn't incredibly cozy - but the view was pretty cool. Being close to Christmas, the surrounding park areas had lots of fairy lights covering the trees. The pictures we took don't really do them justice - it was very pretty.

Pretty lights, the yellow ones in the middle are hanging off a relvolving restaurant

More pretty lights, and you can just see Wendy's in the right

Not very clear - but you can just make out the Falls at night

Again, not very clear in this photo, but they shine coloured lights on the Falls during the evening. Very tacky - but looks ok I guess

We then ordered some room service for the next morning, watched a bit of television (there was some politcal crap going on that all news stations were covering - that I had no chance of understanding) and went to bed. The noise from the Falls was definately noticable, but kinda like white noise that didn't bother us.

Great times - really romantic room.

Quite Quiet

2006-04-03T23:14:00.000+10:00

I've been trying to publish my newest day of the Travel Log goodness, but Blogger's not playing ball.

For some reason, whenever I login to Blogger to start posting, it takes frickin ages. Sometimes it eventually does load the create a post screen - but then I don't have my toolbar to upload pictures etc.

So in the mean time I've downloaded Lynx to provide my web browsing needs. It's actually quite good for a text browser, and easy to use. Extremely secure as well - with the small disadvantage of no images.

This is the real Web 2.0!

Blogging from the lounge room

2006-03-19T23:11:00.000+11:00

The 4 month anniversary of moving in to the new house was celebrated by two events: our house-warming party (which was great fun) and the installation of a wireless network. Not only am I never going to be stuck on dial-up again, but I am now blogging on my new Fujitsu Lifebook from the living room while watching "Australia's Brainiest Musician" (I guess I just assumed that Human Nature had broken up years ago).

I never really considered it before - but having Wikipedia handy while watching television is quite useful. I can also watch some gems like this during the ads.

One problem the laptop had given me was that I had wanted to start reading blogs whilst sitting around the house. I originally used Sharp Reader as my RSS aggregator (feed-reader) but I think I stopped using because it was crashing frequently. I have since used Sauce Reader (even after it was up for sale and stopped updating) and been very happy. But now I need to switch to a web-based feed-reader to synch my "read" blogs between my two computers. It was around this time that I discovered that Google had released Google Reader.

Easy to use (it allowed me to import the OPML from my current bloglist), nice keyboard shortcuts (good for laptops) and Google - suits me sir. And I've just now read an entry about C# jobs in New York - hmmm, I guess it's close to Pittsburgh!

Travel Log - Day 5 (J-Dix on the six)

2006-03-13T00:22:00.000+11:00

The travel notes I took while on our trip tell me that we slept in again on Day 5 - and I'm not about to dispute it. A few weeks before our wedding I had planned on mapping out every day of our trip in detail. I didn't want to do a whole movie dad thing and map out every single minute of a "vacation", but I thought that, while we didn't have to stick to our plan - we'd have a good starting point. Of course, I never got around to finishing it - so we ended up waiting for a bus to Bronx for an hour before giving up and catching an (expensive) train (but it took us through Grand Central Station, which was nice).

Arriving in Bronx, the first thing we noticed was the complete lack of taxi cabs. Coming from the crazy taxi cab archon-board that is New York it was odd to not see any of the hacks around - and meant we had to walk about 2 kilometers to the entrance of Bronx Zoo.

Bronx Zoo - you can barely make out the ad for the "Holiday Lights" display on the left - man, that was as lame as the sign suggests

The zoo was ok - but definitely had an off-season feel to it (I couldn't go on my first monorail - D'oh!). We saw lots of animals but of course, I was more interested in enjoying my chocolate taco (whoever thought of making a chocolate / ice cream taco is a genius!).

He looks sad, but I assume it's just because he is thirsty

He thinks he's people

Contenders ... READY!!!

Gladiators ... READY!!!

Tapirs are the animal world's equivalent of James Carville

Feeding time for the giraffe's (yes, they're licking the walls)

Here kitty, kitty

I think I had three of these, and they weren't really that good. I was probably just impressed that I was eating an ice cream taco (there was a period I started to eat my broccoli when a brother suggested they looked a little like trees)

One thing that Belinda got a pretty good shot of was a tormented lion. They had a lion in one cage, and some prey (I don't know animals, I assume they're gazelle or impala) in the adjoining area - separated by a wooden fence. The lion was just stalking the fence trying to figure out how to get into the other cell - kind of sad really.

I like how one of them appears to be trying to poke their head under the fence

After another 2k walk and hour train ride we got ourselves back to our New York hotel room. We packed our bags as the next day we were off to Niagara Falls. I think I had a cookie from Grand Central Station for dinner - nutritious!

Travel Log - Day 4 (What is the deal with "New" York anyway?)

2006-02-27T22:37:00.000+11:00

... it's almost 400 years old (yes, I butchered a Family Guy joke)

Thankfully day 4 wasn't quite as cold as the day before, but it still wasn't toasty. On our way to the Internet Cafe (single dirtiest mouse I've ever touched) we got our first taste of American star-spotting. We actually saw one of my favourite actors - Samuel L. Jackson. He was just standing out the front of Madame Tussauds - but wasn't overly animated. I guess the stars are different in real-life then they are in the movies.

Sam Jackson - didn't seem too impressed when I offered him some triple-thick milkshake though

After picking up our tickets for the Phantom of the Opera for later that night we started "Kramer's Reality Tour". For those that don't know the story, Kenny Kramer lived across the hall from Larry David, co-creator of Seinfeld. When Jerry Seinfeld was offered a pilot for NBC he and David came up with "The Seinfeld Chronicles", named Seinfeld when picked up. One of the characters was based on Larry's neighbour Kenny Kramer, and he was actually hesitant to use Kramer's real name because he figured Kenny would try to profit off it. Sure enough, Kenny oragnised a bus tour around New York pointing out the real sites that were shown in Seinfeld (which was later parodied on the show with the J. Peterman Reality Tour).

It's chocolate, it's peppermint -- it's delicious!

The tour was definitely watered down, as a lot of the sites were things like "although this is a hotel now, it used to be ..." - but it was still great. The best bit about it, in my opinion, was the 20 minute introduction that Kenny did, which was mainly describing Larry David and his "brand" of comedy. I found it all quite amusing - and I think I might give Curb Your Enthusiam another shot (saw 1 episode and didn't really like it).

Some of the highlights of the actual tour were Monk's Restaurant (or Tom's), old footage of Larry David's standup, and The Soup Kitchen. Kramer showed some footage on the bus of him informally interviewing the "Soup Guy" (he doesn't like the whole Nazi thing) which was very funny. He said that Seinfeld ruined his life, and now only idiots came to his soup store. Didn't seem to ruin it too much - as he's now starting to franchise.

No witty photo comment for you!

Bell did some nice cropping for the full Seinfeld effect

Over half of the people on the tour were Australians - quite a few from Melbourne

"His struggle is man's struggle...he's a loathsome, offensive, brute, yet I can't look away." - and I bought the T-shirt!

After the tour we had dinner in an "authentic diner" in the middle of Times Square. It was actually quite good, but I was almost getting sick of cheese (almost). The cherry soda with chocolate icecream was very nice - and I've just realised that most of this Travel Log is just around what I was eating. Anyway...

A bit of a compromise for my (our) hockey tickets was that we would see a Broadway show. While I could be interested in a few different options, Belinda wanted to see The Phantom of the Opera. I was a little surprised - but I loved it. I especially liked the way they changed the sets "on the fly" and the music wasn't that bad.

Believe me, I didn't pick out that hat for Bell!

The Majestic from when we picked up the tickets

I haven't spoken about food for a while!

Travel Log - Day 3 (I can't believe it got colder)

2006-02-15T21:33:00.000+11:00

While it had been cold for the first two days that we were in New York, it was kicked up a notch on the third day. On our way to the Statue of Liberty, we found a pothole that would usually be filled with water - completely frozen. The trash that was encased in a frozen, sludgey prison was a nice touch.

Watch out for that first step, it's a doozy! (Bing)

I was going to make a joke about the squirrel freezing it's nuts off - but thought better of it

When we got to the ferry bound for the statue we noticed that it was extremely busy (and still only about 8am). It looked like all of the volunteers from the parade were using their long weekend to "catch the statch" (I'm sure New Yorkians use that colloquialism all the time). So we got a hot chocolate instead!

After the hot chocolate warmed us up a bit - we went to the world's biggest Disney Store (3 levels of Disney goodness - though hardly any of Walt's Nazi Paraphernalia). Bell bought some Winnie the Pooh crap - and flush from my celebrity spotting, I bought some Muppets.

Never did meet Santa Goofy unfortunately

I took the Muppets from Manhattan

After the Disney store Bell and I went to Central Park, which was ok, though generally anti-climatic (turned out it was just a park). Saw lots of trees, lots of squirrels and went ice skating (that was pretty cool).

I only just realised this now, but what's that kid doing to Balto?

The memorial for John Lennon...

... and the hotel he was shot outside of

Joel Dixon - rock conqueror!

Wolfman Rink - the one we skated on

Bird's eye of the park - looked pretty cool

I really don't remember what was so interesting / odd about this wreath

After the park, we went back to the hotel and had another nice long sleep (notice any patterns emerging?).

Travel Log - Day 2 (Thanksgiving)

2006-02-09T00:49:00.000+11:00

We went to bed early(ish) on day 1 because we wanted to get up early for the Thanksgiving Day Parade. We got to New York about 4 / 5 days earlier than originally planned so that we could catch this event (we figured we'd probably never be in New York around November for a while). I'm really glad we did - because, while corny, the parade was lots of fun. Oh, and I had sausage burritos from Maccas for breakfast - very nice!

The crowd was getting bored when nothing was happening. They were even cheering a policeman walking past at one point

Macy's was determined to ensure you remembered who's parade it was

The mascot is always the first balloon. I think Scooby smelt my left over burrito - because he's coming straight for us!

I was a little surprised at how excited I was by seeing the Sesame Street float...

... but there was something really cool about seeing the actual puppets...

... passing by in all their glory (even though they were probably operated by any old hacks)

I was happy Bell was quick enough to snap up Oscar

Sponge Bob was a crowd favourite...

... but couldn't compare with the action that Chicken Little demanded

I thought this was a pretty cool blast from the past

Super Grover is the man!

Now I know this dude is after my burrito!

Mr. Potato Head looked pretty happy...

... considering he left his spare nose behind

Garfield was one of Bell's favourites

The balloon that injured two of the crowds-people

Red knows that he screwed up!

While Santa officially ended the parade, I think this guy's classy mix of facial hair and rosy cheeks finished it for me

Afterwards we had some Wendy's (not too bad - but odd slogans on their packaging) and went into an American grocery store. The store was pretty cool - beer in the fridge, but no fresh fruit.

Do what tastes right - no matter how stupid it sounds

After a short nap, we had some dinner (mostly candy if I remember correctly) and went to sleep. Seeing a freaking huge blow-up Super Grover can make one tired.

Travel Log - Day 1 (New York, New York)

2006-02-01T00:11:00.000+11:00

Waking up in New York was pretty weird - and so was using the toilets / showers. American toilets seem to be wider, lower to the ground, and the water level is higher in the actual bowl. And the plugs in the basins / showers were also odd (I think I broke one of them in our first hotel room).

After a brief breakfast (with grape and cherry jam - hawt!) we started our first day with a bit of sight seeing. We hopped into a cab right outside our hotel on our way to the tour bus. It was funny, as soon as the cabbie found out we were Australian, he talked about cricket for the whole trip (I think he was a West Indies fan). I hadn't expected that I was going to be chatting to American cab drivers about cricket (or crumpets for that matter).

We got onto our open roofed tour bus, and the first stop we made was to Macy's Department Store for winter clothing - as it was extremely cold. Apparently it was very cold for late November in New York, and we had just come from a nice Australian Summer, so we were freezing. This marked the first time in my life that I have ever worn gloves, a scarf or a hat purely for warmth.

One of the entrances to Macy's - Scooby, Dooby Doo!

While picking up the first of our hockey tickets at Madison Square Garden, we met a couple that had visited Australia previously. They liked our country, but hated the outback - apparently noone had warned them about the flies. Let this be a lesson to everyone - Australia's outback has lots of dirty, stinking flies.

Our next stop was the Empire State Building, which was tall (shock horror). One fact I didn't know is that the building actually has a mooring mast on it for zeppelins. They never use it (too windy) but it's still sitting there. It was cool to be at the top of the tallest building in New York, but the view was basically just a whole lot of buildings. The Coke vending machines were pretty cool though!

I guess the view is kinda cool

But again, the Coke machine was pretty neat

After another McDonald's meal we went back onto the tour bus and drove around New York. The tour guide seemed quite knowledgeable as we drove past things like ground zero, Chinatown, the Chrysler Building, SoHo et al. We got off the bus at Times Square and was just amazed by the size, the lights and the sheer number of people (unfortunately we didn't see any naked cowboys).

The Big 'N' Tasty - Undeniably tasty, yet not convincingly big

This Coke sign was pretty cool - currently in Pinball Machine form

Yet, now it's a Coke can - technology!

We went to the Virgin Mega Store, which was awesome (I picked up some sweet Family Guy figurines - and we bought way too many DVDs). We then had dinner at Planet Hollywood - which had a menu pretty much exactly like the Melbourne Planet Hollywood (fajitas are good). After dinner we went to the Toys 'R' Us store - which was also quite fun. Most New York stores seem to be really, really big - Virgin, Planet Hollywood and Toys 'R' Us were all three stories - but the actual area is pretty standard. There's just more stairs / escalators to worry about.

Toys 'R' Us had a big-ass ferris wheel inside the store...

... with some very cool...

... gondolas

Just bouncin' with my homie

After a visit to ESPN Zone and Ben & Jerry's, we decided to call it a night.

Caught this sign on the way home. A 404 error may not be cool, unless it's the size of a building!

Mario Lemieux Retires

2006-01-27T11:55:00.000+11:00

Mario Lemieux has been one of my favourite NHL players for as long as I've followed the Penguins. The way he could just undress any defending pair and then beat the goalie like a rented mule was wonderful to watch, and I've got a whole DVD full of such highlights. But finally, after 17 seasons (only 5 of them with more than 70 games) and pretty much every injury possible to a hockey player (except for the old ruptured testicle), Mario has decided to call it quits.

I'm now extremely grateful that I had a chance to watch Mario play in Pittsburgh. He didn't score a goal while I was watching (although he did assist on a Crosby goal), and he was definately nowhere near his prime form, but it's something that I've always wanted to see before he retired.

Now I just hope that the Pengiun's new ownership finds away of keeping the Pens in Pittsburgh. Or at the very least, moves them to Vegas (a good excuse to do the west coast of America).

Travel Log - Day 0 (Flights)

2006-01-25T00:53:00.000+11:00

(note: if you get bored reading this, or any other travel logs - a few Chuck Norris Facts might help. i.e. Chuck Norris counted to infinity - twice)

I've (finally) decided to find the time to share my honeymoon holiday experiences with this limited audience. As we managed to get through a lot in the 18 or so days, I've decided to blog each day as one entry. I was going to wait until I had a desk on which to put my computer (for comfort reasons) before starting this - but I also want to blog before I forget all of it. Here it goes:

Bell's mum drove us to Melbourne airport nice and early, so we could have lots of time to wait. Our flight set off at 12:20pm (midday), we were to fly for something like 15 hours and would arrive in America at around 7 in the morning. I figured I should try to sleep as much on the plane and I wouldn't have to worry about all those bologna stories about "jetlag".

The plane was actually nicer than I had thought I would get in economy class. TV screen on the back of each chair and a modest amount of room (I could actually stretch my legs out most of the way). While waiting for the evening meal, we watched the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory remake, which I didn't like much at all - Gene Wilder's version is safe.

After the evening meal (airline food wasn't too bad) we watched Cinderella Man - a very good movie, though I'm not the only person that questioned the choice of title.

Believe it or not, this is the view of America from the plane

When we finally landed at LA airport, we had around 2-3 hours to kill before our flight to New York. First thing we did - visit McDonalds. Even since I was a kid and my aunt brought home a McDonalds menu from Thailand, I dreamed of travelling the world sampling crazy McDonalds meals such as a Samurai Pork Burger. Although now McDonalds isn't my number 1 priority for travel - I still wanted to check out the local fare.

So from the McDonalds in LA Airport I bought a vanilla milkshake and a sausage, egg and cheese McGriddle. Firstly, in Australia we have McDonalds thickshakes. In America, they are "triple-thick milkshakes" which are actually thicker than our supposed thickshakes. But when the confused Australian accidentally orders a thickshake, the helpful McDonalds employee looks at him like he'd asked for a small serving of frozen abortion offcuts (with no ice). Secondly, the McGriddle would be very nice - if it wasn't for the wierd, pancakey / syrupy, floppy and sweaty bun - which probably best resembles Peter Griffin's man-rack.

McGriddle me this - who the fuck eats these?

When we got onto the plane destined for New York, we remembered what our travel agent said about Thanksgiving time being busy. The plane was packed, mainly with noisy families. I was seated next to a old, overweight, smelly man - which made the 5 hour flight seem like sitting through an Avril Lavigne concert. This was definately the worst flight of the trip - and by the time we arrived at JFK airport - I felt like complete shit, which was odd as I thought I had left all of that in the airport toilet (to my upmost displeasure).

So we finally arrived at JFK at around 8pm and got to our hotel room at around 10:30pm - 28 hours after leaving our house in Melbourne. Our first impressions of New York - cold!

Our "view" from our New York hotel room

Home Again, Home Again (jiggity jig)

2005-12-13T18:46:00.000+11:00

Finally back from my honeymoon - and it's good to be back in Australia. I really wish that I had a laptop with me for the trip - as each hotel we stayed at had free WiFi access (and I could have blogged down each days experiences).

I think I might go through each day of the trip and jot down some points of interest (well, that I will find interesting) when I get a chance.

Until then - it's good to be back!

Honeymooning

2005-11-24T11:40:00.000+11:00

Howdy all (however small all is),

I've got a chance to do a quick blog (internet terminal in Planet Holleywood - New York).

Wedding was great, honeymoon has been fun (except for the long flight).

Also, weather is very cold (had to buy a scarf and gloves).

Hope to type more soon.

iTunes Store in Australia - finally!

2005-11-01T02:40:00.000+11:00

Just a few days ago, Apple finally opened their iTunes store for us Australians (albiet without offerings from Sony BMG).

I must say I'm very happy with this - and the timing is excellent. I'm also extremely relieved that I never ended up buying an iPod Nano like I had wanted, due to the new iPod's video capability that I would have missed out on.

I'm only buying songs as I think of them (and I had a quick browse through the Triple J Hottest 100 list for suggestions). Here's what I've purchased so far:

Video
Luxo Jr. (Pixar's first film produced)

Music
Asshole - Denis Leary
Be Yourself - Audioslave
Believe - Lenny Kravitz
Blue Monday - Orgy
Deeper Water - Deadstar
Easy - Faith No More
Laura - Scissor Sisters
Longview - Green Day
Music Sounds Better With You - Stardust
Not The Same - Bodyjar
Plush - Stone Temple Pilots
Sour Girl - Stone Temple Pilots
Take Your Mama - Scissor Sisters
Teardrop - Massive Attack
When I Come Around - Green Day
Your Woman - White Town

I'm really hanging out for Sony BMG to get on board though - so I can finally purchase Outkast's Bombs over Baghdad.

My (not so) new domain name

2005-10-30T14:33:00.000+11:00

It's taken me about 6 or so years, but I've finally secured my name's domain - www.joeldixon.com.

My search for this domain began in my first year of university. Although I had heard of the Internet in high school - I had never actually been "online" until I started at Swinburne. We discovered the Internet and related protocols (pr0n) in the Computer Systems subject - which is when I also first learned about domain names. Even though I don't really like my name, the first domain name I searched for was joeldixon.com - but alas, I was too late.

After pointing my trusty browser to the address I was presented with some guy's (probably Joel Dixon's) odd website. I think he was trying to get volunteers for a social experiment (details are hazy, it was a while ago). Regardless, I thought it was a complete waste of the domain.

I was somewhat upset that my domain name of choice was taken, and figured I'd check it again in a few years (I didn't know how to lookup the expiry date back then - or even whois information).

The next time I checked was during my first year of employment - but I was too late again. This time Republican Joel Dixon had registered the domain name in hope of securing a place on the Clayton County's Board of Education, District 6. See here for a historical view of his site.

By this time I knew how to check domain name expiry dates, and I saw that the name would expire towards the end of 2005. I was reminded of all of this about a month ago when my brother registered his own domain name - and here I stand.

I haven't really made any good use of my site yet - I've drawn a favicon that sucks:

but the most useful thing I've done so far is create a hockey scores page so I can view the latest Penguin's loss from my mobile (very useful in meetings):

It's a Tommy Gun!

2005-10-11T19:00:00.000+10:00

Just downloaded my photos from my phone onto the PC - and have to share my first attempt at the creation of a balloon animal:

I shall call him Necky

While I was browsing my phone photos I also found these:

I walked onto the train - and it looked to me like this guy was talking into his banana-phone (his actual mobile was in his other hand)

This is what it looks like when a small Care Bear is doused with metho, lit and kicked around a backyard for a while

It's all about the pixels

2005-10-08T20:19:00.000+10:00

I've always been a big fan of pixels, and pixel art. I think the fascination with picture elements came from many, many hours of Commodore 64 game play as a youngster. Not only did we play awesome 8-bit games such as these:

(click for full-size version - level bonus to the first person to name all of the games)

but I also had my first experience with pixel-pr0n with the lovely Sam Fox:

(I just played Samantha Fox's Strip Poker for close to an hour to get that screenshot! Heaps more great C64 ROM files can be found here)

Towards the end of Primary School - the family got a Sega Master System and once again I was exposed to some great pixel gaming:

(click for full size - Chaos Emerald to whomever can guess each title)

It was around this time that I tried my own hand at computer assisted blocky creations, using Windows Paintbrush. I wasn't very good at this at all - although I did create one or two nice looking NHL logos (in my opinion). As all of these were created on the old 486 I don't have the amusing examples. All I do have is a Penguins logo that I drew with my calculator one boring train ride:

My love for pixels was rekindled a few years ago when I saw the film clip to Junior Senior's "Move Your Feet" single. Created by UK design group Shynola it's a pixel-art animation involving a squirrel. It's fun to watch - and still available to download from their website.

The reason I bring up this topic is Mini Pops. There was an excel spreadsheet being emailed around last year with tiny little pixelated pop-artits, and you had to type in the name of each one. Here's an example of some of the easier ones:

(From Left: The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Kiss, Guns 'N' Roses, Spiderman)

I don't have the excel quiz handy for download (look out for them - they're fun) - but I can point you to the source of all of the Mini Pop characters - Flip Flop Flyin' Mini Pops. He's also got a book out with 128 pages of Mini Pop goodness.

I also enjoy ASCII art - such as Star Wars Asciimation - but that's another post for another day.

I'm a multi-thousandaire

2005-09-28T20:07:00.000+10:00

I was about to go to bed at a reasonable hour last night - and I noticed that "The Up-late Game Show" was on TV. For those that don't know, The Up-late Game Show is a late night game show (fancy that) hosted by Simon "Hotdogs" Deering from Australia's Big Brother 5. On the show contestants call a 50c telephone number to solve puzzles for prize money. Puzzles such as this - how many triangles?

(Answer: 118)

Once a contestant wins the basic puzzle (which is worth around $100 to $300), they get a chance at the "Bonus Board". The bonus board is a series of eight left or right questions, if you get them all right you win a bonus amount (anything over $1,500). They keep the same pattern until someone wins the board - so if you watch a few people stuff it up - you already know most of the answer. Here's an example (starting from bottom to top):

Anywho - as I was watching the show, someone got the last question of the bonus board incorrect - thus telling the viewers the complete correct path (as shown above).

I don't mind trying to win stuff - so I called through before they showed the next game, hoping that I'd be quick enough to get chosen - even though I hadn't worked out the puzzle yet. Luckily, the puzzle was quite easy and quick enough to solve pretty much straight away. Here was my question:

(Answer: 14)

Luckily, I was the first person to be chosen in the queue and scored $200 for answering the first question. The bonus board had been going for a little while - so I scored $2,000 from that. Long story - long, I've got a cheque for $2,200 in the mail - yay!

While most of it will be going to house / wedding / honeymoon expenses (such as a fridge), my girlfriend suggested I might just have to find some money for a gift for myself.

I think I'm ready to buy an iPod

2005-09-12T21:22:00.000+10:00

iPod Nano

I was considering taking my MiniDisc player with me to America for the flight there and back - and the US interstate trips. I wasn't too happy with the idea though, as it's battery life is too short and I don't have any of my later music on the discs. You can't directly copy MP3s to my model of MiniDisc player (I bought it one version too early), so I'd need to play each of them on the PC and record on the MiniDisc. Otherwise I'd need to play them on my PS2, and copy them from the digital output (better quality, but will need to go through each CD).

The Nano's 4 GB model (black) should be fine for me, as I've only got around 3.5 GB of music - and 500 Meg of that is comedy (Jerky Boys etc). The 14 hour charge is good for the flights as well - as I'll be on the plane for about that long when going between Melbourne and LA.

I think I've never wanted to buy an iPod because I didn't want to admit that the MiniDisc was a poor purchase decision - but this Nano is sweet. And you can't say I'm rushing into buying an Apple music device!

Honeymoon Itinerary

2005-09-05T09:17:00.000+10:00

As part of our honeymoon to America, we'll be travelling to a few US cities - catching planes between each destination. I wanted to make sure that we had a hotel booked for each city - and that we weren't flying in at 6pm when there was a hockey game booked at 7pm - so I did a quick timeline.

While I was playing around with it - I used Google Maps to show the directions between hotel / airport - as well as between airports. I also put up links to pictures that show the view we'll be getting for each of our hockey games at Mellon Arena.

I'm using this to help plan out what we'll be doing each day ("Where are we staying on the 29th again?" etc) - so the map locations of each hotel are good. I'm currently reading New York's Lonely Planet Guide to get a few ideas.

Got me some web space

2005-08-11T00:18:00.000+10:00

I've delayed paying for web hosting (for my personal projects) for two reasons. The first was due to economics - why pay money to have them hosted on the Internet when I can host them on my own server at home for free. The second was because of a lack of creativity - I just can't think of a really good domain name*.

Well, my girlfriend just got free hosting for 6 months on a MySQL / PHP site, and I didn't even have to think of a domain name (it's just http://www.comcen.com.au/~joeldixon). The only thing up there at the moment is my Travel Plans - but I'm planning to add more sites as time permits. I can also use it to develop / test PHP sites from work, when I get a spare few hours.

* I want a domain name that is generic enough to suit all of my projects (inline hockey stats site, random ramblings, Ladybug testing etc), but is catchy / witty / funny. One good one I've seen is endintiers.com owned by a .NET developer that I had for ".NET Essentials". He's apparently quite interested in .NET tiers - although they can become quite messy (hence, this will "end in tears"). I know I'll never think of something that's available - and I'm happy with.

I made the papers?

2005-07-27T14:46:00.000+10:00

As indicated earlier I'm planning on taking a trip to America early next year to watch a few Penguins games. I didn't know whether I'd need to purchase the tickets through a third party, so I emailed the Pittsburgh Penguins ticket inquiries address. They told me that I would be able to purchase the tickets online from September and print off a barcode (which is good), and said they were honoured to have a fan from so far away.

So, two days later, as I was reading my source of Penguin's News, I came across the following article:

Sidney Crosby, in the, roughly, 87 hours since becoming inbound Penguins
property, already means this much to the local NHL franchise:

A guy called from Australia yesterday wanting
Penguins tickets.

A guy called from San Diego and purchased
a season-ticket package.

Now, I know I didn't actually call about the tickets - but I think that "guy from Australia" could be referring to me. Perhaps "an Australian called about Penguins tickets" was mis-communicated.

Anyway - I'll just assume it was about me :)

Travel Plans

2005-07-25T14:39:00.000+10:00

Pittsburgh's recent acquisition of the 2005 number 1 draft pick has made me seriously consider a trip to the US to watch a hockey game. I had originally planned to be in Pittsburgh earlier this year with the hope of viewing a game - it's lucky that those plans fell through (with the recent lockout).

I'd love to watch a Penguins game with both Mario Lemieux and Sidney Crosby playing, as well as my other Penguins favorites (too numerous to name). It will probably cost a few thousand dollars that I don't have - but it will be worth it, as I may never get a chance to go there again, and they may sell the team within 4 years.

There's a lot to organise (acquisition of tickets, flights, accommodation, time off work, etc) - but I'd be worth it for one more tick on the travel itinerary (I'll change Philadelphia to Pittsburgh!).

Remember Me!

2005-07-13T11:58:00.000+10:00

Well, my USB key wiped itself again (third time thus far) which is very annoying. I use it to store old work, and common code I'm always looking up. An example of this is VBA code required to unlock a protected Excel workbook (for whenever I want the answers to the latest Excel Quiz doing the rounds):

Sub PasswordBreaker()
    'Author unknown
    'Breaks worksheet password protection.
    Dim i As Integer, j As Integer, k As Integer
    Dim l As Integer, m As Integer, n As Integer
    Dim i1 As Integer, i2 As Integer, i3 As Integer
    Dim i4 As Integer, i5 As Integer, i6 As Integer
    On Error Resume Next
    For i = 65 To 66: For j = 65 To 66: For k = 65 To 66
    For l = 65 To 66: For m = 65 To 66: For i1 = 65 To 66
    For i2 = 65 To 66: For i3 = 65 To 66: For i4 = 65 To 66
    For i5 = 65 To 66: For i6 = 65 To 66: For n = 32 To 126
    ActiveSheet.Unprotect Chr(i) & Chr(j) & Chr(k) & _
        Chr(l) & Chr(m) & Chr(i1) & Chr(i2) & Chr(i3) & _
        Chr(i4) & Chr(i5) & Chr(i6) & Chr(n)
    If ActiveSheet.ProtectContents = False Then
        MsgBox "One usable password is " & Chr(i) & Chr(j) & _
            Chr(k) & Chr(l) & Chr(m) & Chr(i1) & Chr(i2) & _
            Chr(i3) & Chr(i4) & Chr(i5) & Chr(i6) & Chr(n)
         Exit Sub
    End If
    Next: Next: Next: Next: Next: Next
    Next: Next: Next: Next: Next: Next
End Sub

I've decided to start posting things like that here - and use my USB key for transport rather than storage.

Checkers

2005-07-10T23:33:00.000+10:00

Going through some of my old uni work, I found my Checkers assignment. It's not very good - but I like the look of it. I've stuffed up the Game Tree Algorith though - as the computer plays good for the first half of the game, then it tries to let me capture it's pieces.

Oh well, enjoy.

My Itinerary

2005-07-08T13:45:00.000+10:00

After posting my travel profile a while ago I noticed how lame I have been. So, I'm going to list all of the places in this travel survey for future reference. Hopefully I'll knock off another Australian location this year, and work on a few more next year.

US
Albuquerque, Aspen, Atlanta, Atlantic City, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Cape Cod, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Houston, Key West, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Martha's Vineyard, Memphis, Miami, Minneapolis, Napa Valley, New Orleans, New York City, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Reno, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Santa Fe, Scottsdale, Seattle, Sedona, Tampa, Taos, Tuscon, Washington DC.

Canada
Halifax, Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto, Vancouver.

Latin America
Acapulco, Buenos Aires, Cabo San Lucas, Caracas, Cozumel, Havana, Lima, Mazatlan, Mexico City, Montevideo, Puerto Vallarta, Rio, San Jose del Cabo, San Juan, Santiago.

Europe
Amsterdam, Antwerp, Athens, Barcelona, Belfast, Berlin, Birmingham, Bologna, Bordeaux, Brussels, Budapest, Copenhagen, Crete, Dublin, Edinburgh, Florence, Frankfurt, Glasgow, Geneva, Hamburg, Helsinki, Leeds, Lisbon, Liverpool, London, Madrid, Mallorca, Manchester, Milan, Moscow, Munich, Naples, Nice, Oslo, Paris, Prague, Reykjavik, Rome, Salzburg, Seville, Stockholm, St. Petersburg, Stuttgart, Venice, Vienna, York, Zurich.

Australia
Adelaide, ~~Brisbane~~, Canberra, Darwin, Hobart, ~~Melbourne~~, Perth, Sydney.

New Zealand
Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Nelson, Queenstown, Rotura.

Asia
Bali, Bangkok, Beijing, Chiang Mai, Delhi, Goa, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Java, Kathmandu, Kolkata, Kuala Lumpur, Kyoto, Lombok, Macau, Manila, Mumbai, Seoul, Shanghai, Sumatra, Taipei, Tokyo.

Middle East
Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Istanbul, Tehran.

Africa
Cairo, Nairobi, Capetown, Zanzibar.

Java Snob

2005-06-17T17:52:00.000+10:00

Java has been my programming language since my first year at university (1999). Before Uni I had toyed with Basic, Turbo Pascal and VBA (Visual Basic behind Access / Excel) for VCE, but my largest programming experience was Batch files on our home computer.

I really took to Java at uni, and programmed a few things in my own time (a calculator and text editor). When I started my graduate job I was put on a Java maintenance project, which I enjoyed a lot for the first few years. Since then, I have also been toying with my shape drawing program in my spare time - which I also enjoy.

I haven't coded much Java lately, as I've been doing .NET work and recently been on a BizTalk Server course which I enjoyed thoroughly. Tonight I decided to play with my shape drawing program and try to get some work done. So I started JBuilder and couldn't start - I've been spoiled by Visual Studio, and .NET development.

JBuilder's Form Designer is shite - and wiring up event processing is tiresome. The IntelliSense was also limited compared to what I've been used to. A mate from work was saying that .NET development was very enjoyable - I'm starting to understand why.

So I've closed by JBuilder - and I'm not sure if I'm going to opening it again from home. Perhaps more Java projects at work will change my mind - but for now I think I'll be happy with .NET.

Unless there's a client that wants an MS-DOS Batch File solution ;)

I've toured around the world, from London to the Bay...

2005-06-07T20:00:00.000+10:00

... or perhaps not. I saw this on another Blog and thought it was neat. Doesn't look too good for me though - I'll have to fix that one day:

Your Travel Profile:

You Are Somewhat Well Traveled in Australia (25%)

You Are Untraveled in Africa (0%)

You Are Untraveled in Asia (0%)

You Are Untraveled in Canada (0%)

You Are Untraveled in Eastern Europe (0%)

You Are Untraveled in Latin America (0%)

You Are Untraveled in New Zealand (0%)

You Are Untraveled in Scandinavia (0%)

You Are Untraveled in Southern Europe (0%)

You Are Untraveled in Western Europe (0%)

You Are Untraveled in the Middle East (0%)

You Are Untraveled in the Midwestern United States (0%)

You Are Untraveled in the Northeastern United States (0%)

You Are Untraveled in the Southern United States (0%)

You Are Untraveled in the United Kingdom (0%)

You Are Untraveled in the Western United States (0%)

How Well Traveled Are You?

ADO.NET Strongly Typed Relationships

2005-04-07T01:55:00.000+10:00

It's been over a month since my last blog - but that's OK - I'm sure no-one will mind!

I've decided to add a little technical advice about accessing data with Strongly Typed DataSets in ADO.NET. Reason being, I spent over an hour looking for this information before I finally tracked it down on someone's blog. After my post, it will double the amount of blogs with this information ;)

In my ASP.NET WebService, I like to use strongly typed DataSets to access my data with ADO.NET, it's a whole lot cleaner that way. For my example, let's say we have a Customers table, and an Orders table. Customers are identified by their CustomerID, and orders by their OrderID (yes, I'm using Northwind). The Orders table also has the CustomerID that made the order (a one to many relationship). Defining the strongly typed DataSet for this in Visual Studio.NET is quite easy:

1. Right-click your Project in the Solution Explorer and select Add > Add New Item...
2. Select "Data Set" from the Templates list, and type the name for your item (CustomersDataSet.cs).
3. In the Server Explorer, navigate to the Northwind database tables. Drag across the Customers and Orders tables.
4. Select the Customers table and select Schema > Add > New Relation... from the File Menu.
5. This is where your relationship is defined. Change the name to CustomersOrders, and change the Child element to Orders. Clicking OK will then create the relationship for you.

Now that you have the strongly typed DataSet, you can directly refer to column names. For example, instead of:

DataSet1.Tables["Customers"].Rows[0]

you can use:

DataSet1.Customers[0]

That was all good - but I wanted to look at the Orders that are assigned to a Customer (as per the relationship I added above). Most examples were telling me to do something like this:


CustomersDataSet.CustomerDataRow customer = myDataSet.Customers.FindCustomerByID(1);
if (customer != null)
{
  // Print out order numbers
  foreach (DataRow orderRow in customer.GetChildRows("CustomerOrders"))
  {
    Console.WriteLine(orderRow["OrderID"]);
  }
}

This gets the job done - but we're back to using things like orderRow["OrderID"] instead of orderRow.OrderID. The disadvantage to using GetChildRows is that it returns an array of DataRow's - not Orders. A way to achieve the above code using your strongly typed relationship is as follows:


CustomersDataSet.CustomerDataRow customer = myDataSet.Customers.FindCustomerByID(1);
if (customer != null)
{
  // Print out order numbers
  foreach (CustomersDataSet.OrderRow orderRow in customer.GetOrdersRows())
  {
    Console.WriteLine(orderRow.OrderID);
  }
}

When the relationship was created above, it added a GetOrdersRows() method on the CustomersRow object. It may not seem like much - but having the strongly typed OrderRow can help (well, it helped me).

After doing a quick search on GetOrdersRows() (to see if I had missed any examples of this) - I found a good ADO.NET tutorial. I wish I had have found that a few hours ago!

Vroom Vroom, sniff!

2005-03-02T20:19:00.000+11:00

I have never been a huge fan of motorsports. I've never gone to the Australian Grand Prix - even though it's held in Melbourne. I'll usually watch F1 when it's on the television, but I'd never set the VCR for it (most of my friends do). I generally like watching most sports, but I could never see the advantage of watching one corner of the race in person when I could watch it all from home if I was so interested.

But I think I may have to give it a shot next year. At lunch today I watched some of the F1 cars doing a few laps of the Melbourne Streets.

First thing I noticed, I couldn't see a thing. I had arrived a little after the start time, and it was completely packed. I couldn't see the track they were going down, even though I was about 20 meters away. I did, however, hear the cars!

As soon as the Minardi came up our section of the track, the sound was deafening and the smell was overpowering - but I quite enjoyed it. Even though I couldn't even see the car, I started to understand what the point of seeing the race was. When I got into a better position (I could actually see the car), I was amazed at how fast it was. They were probably only going half their max speed (as they were in the middle of the city), it'd be good to see them at full speed.

Perhaps I'll actually go to the race next year (or just buy some high-octane fuel to sniff).

Living up to my title

2005-02-23T11:58:00.000+11:00

Yes, it's been close to two weeks since my last update. I'm only really adding this post now so that I won't have to change my title from "The rarely updated Blog" to "The very rarely updated Blog".

Been busy with wedding plans, and looking into buying a house. Also, the current project I'm working on will be finishing at the end of this week - and it's a bit of a mad rush to the finish line. I'll be happy when this is over - but who knows what I'll be going onto.

Here's an amusing Blog link - Things I hate about my flatmate. The artwork on there is nicely done as well.

Dragging and dropping

2005-02-10T01:26:00.000+11:00

It took me ages, but I finally got drag-and-drop working in my shape drawing program. I had to code most of it myself (the Java dnd stuff wasn't that helpful), but it works just as I like it.

When you draw a few shapes (that intersect), you can use the object browser to drag them up and down the list (the shapes are drawn from bottom to top). So the shape at the top of the object browser will be drawn on top of all of the other shapes. (use different colours and thicknesses to really see the effect)

Small things amuse small minds - and my small mind was busy on that one for a while ;)

Busy as a Ladybug

2005-02-08T23:23:00.000+11:00

I've been quite silent lately - for two reasons.

1. Last week I was on a .NET training course, and I didn't have access to my work computer for the regular 8-10 hours a day. The course was great, and I really hope I start getting onto a few .NET projects in the near future.

2. I've been working at least 5 hours a night on a website for my girlfriend's Web Design Company. I've just finished it tonight - YAY - here's the link. You won't be able to see any of what I've done though - as I did the backend DB stuff that the client uses to update the dynamic content. My girlfriend does the easy stuff - the design and static pages (I can say that - because she rarely reads this blog!). The static content hasn't been added at the time of this post, but it should be up soon.

Oh - and I want a Mac Mini! (and no, not for free ;) )

A Good (?) Idea

2005-01-29T17:57:00.000+11:00

When trying to cut an image from paint I was squinting my eyes to see where my hairline cursor was sitting. I've used Hypersnap-DX to take screen captures for a while now - and it includes an integrated zoom window.

While doing my cut from paint, I was thinking that it'd be good to have the same kind of zoom window available with a keyboard shortcut. I know that Microsoft has their Magnifier (press Win-U), but it only provides a small window on the top of the current monitor. I'd like a way to zoom with my secondary monitor (I'm on a dual monitor setup) when I press a keyboard shortcut.

I was thinking that this might be something I have to make myself, until I remembered a product called UltraMon that provides these kinds of utilities. I had a quick look at their site and couldn't find it. Then I remembered the reason that I never bought UltraMon - my videocard came with software that provided all of UltraMon's functionality.

Sure enough - after a quick look through the nView Desktop software I found exactly what I was looking for. Now, when I press Ctrl-F12 the secondary monitor changes to a 10x Zoom window. The window also swaps monitors when my mouse does. See snapshop below (the right half is the zoomed window, and my mouse is somewhere in the top left of the first monitor. And yes, I'm currently listening to Live - I absolutely love "We Deal in Dreams").

I love finding things that I didn't know I had!

Andre Agassi is hawt

2005-01-24T22:18:00.000+11:00

Sure, he was a bit of a rebel early in his career - but I was too young then. All that I've seen of Andre Agassi is great tennis, and a very likeable personality. He'd also be a sexy man, if I was that way inclined. I can't wait for his match against Federer!

No longer vacant

2005-01-24T16:51:00.000+11:00

Man, I've been really busy lately, but it should be slowing down now. I've just had my engagement party on Saturday night! Belinda and I have been going out for just under 8 years now, and I finally popped the question to her last December.

Belinda did an excellent job organising most of the engagement party, and I did a good job at drinking the Jamesons ;)

The night was excellent, and it ran very smoothly. It was good catching up with a lot of people I hadn't seen for a while, although I didn't have enough time to see each one for as long as I'd like.

Now we've just gotta plan a wedding. Shouldn't be too difficult ...

Draw some shapes - WOW!

2005-01-20T11:52:00.000+11:00

For the last 2 years I've been on the same project, providing support for an existing system. While I have made small / medium changes to the system, most of my time is spent dealing with problems to do with business logic.

As a result, I've decided to download JBuilder and stuff around with some math based programming.

I'm going to make a program that allows you to draw shapes (furniture) so that you can move them around and design a room. I've finished the drawing of shapes part - and thought I'd put it up here (I'll also post the source code when I get back home).

Click here for Shape Drawing Applet. It's very crappy at the moment, but it works and provides some basic options. When I tested that it was uploaded properly, I had already found one small bug - see if you can find it.

Let me know if there are any features / options that would make this program better (I'm already adding colour for the next version).

Deck Dogz

2005-01-15T01:09:00.000+11:00

As it way my birthday today (the 24th of such occasions), my girlfriend took me to see Deck Dogz. The story revolves around 3 teenage "Deck Dogz" (skateboarders) trying to get to a skate tournament that will be hosted by Tony Hawk. The kids hope that by showing Tony a Nose-slide underflip to darkslide, they'll be sponsered and taken from their crummy neighbourhood. Getting to the competition is quite a trial with parents, the police and drug pushers trying to stop them.

I had never actually seen a preview for this film - but I had heard there was an Aussie skate film with Tony Hawk appearing, so I thought I'd give it a go. It turns out the film is really just a kids skating movie (al biet with drug and sexual references), and I found myself waiting for the "drama" to finish and the skating to begin. Even if I had have known it was a kids movie, I probably still would have gone (as I love watching great skateboarding - from Tony Hawk, or preferably Rodney Mullen).

The acting was quite poor, the plot a little too far fetched to go along with, and the cutaway visuals of the boy's thoughts were a little too distracting. There were a few laughs to be had though, and I'm happy they knew how to display skating footage, because it was the movie's saving grace.

All in all - I'd say 2 out of 5.

I like to watch

2005-01-09T14:33:00.000+11:00

I picked this up from another blog:

When you search for "ViewerFrame?Mode=" in the URL of a webpage - you'll get a list of webcams that are accessible from the 'net. Here's a Google Link.

I'd suggest you skip straight to page 10 of the results - because the first few pages have been giving me unconnectable errors (probably because of the amount of people trying to view the cams). Some require passwords - and some just don't respond, but there are a few gems to be found. Here's a couple that I found in the short time I was browsing:

Japanese Laundromat (2 angles)
http://miyakonojyo.aa1.netvolante.jp/ViewerFrame?Mode=Motion&Language=1
http://takao.aa1.netvolante.jp/ViewerFrame?Mode=Motion&Language=1

Intelligent Transport System's Reception Area
http://hangercam.me.calpoly.edu/ViewerFrame?Mode=Motion

Some guy's Computer
http://130.102.102.252/ViewerFrame?Mode=Motion&Language=0

A radio station
http://163.136.136.17:8181/ViewerFrame?Mode=Refresh

Microsoft AntiSpyware

2005-01-09T13:58:00.000+11:00

Microsoft has recently released their AntiSpyware software, which is basically a product of their acquisition of Giant Software.

I gave it a quick go - and it looks really good. Setup was easy, and it downloaded the latest signature files in no time. I was a little surprised when it finished though - it said I had no Spyware:

I guess I practice safe-computing? Another neat feature that I didn't know it had - you can get it to erase the history of some common programs etc:

I'm going to keep the real-time protection running - and see how it goes.

Software I use

2005-01-04T22:22:00.000+11:00

In case anyone's interested - here's a list of the Software / Utilities I use for my various home projects:

Firefox - My favourite browser.

Opera - I use this browser (along with IE) to test my websites. It would probably be my browser of choice if it wasn't for Firefox.

Total Commander - A split screen file manager for Windows. Having two directories side-by-side to easily copy / move makes a lot of sense when you start using it.

IrfanView - A very easy-to-use and powerful Image viewer / editor. Converting files is a breeze.

UltraEdit - I was using TextPad for my MDI (Multi Document Interface) needs for a while - but it got too annoying. We use UltraEdit at work, and it worked well in most instances, so I purchased it for home.

GetRight - The download manager I currently use - though I don't use it that frequently (dial-up).

Quintessential Player - I bought MusicMatch Jukebox ages ago - until they required extra money to upgrade (I hate that), so I switched to QCD. Works very well in my experience - and it's freeware!

What a waste

2005-01-03T03:24:00.000+11:00

Apparantly we had a blackout this afternoon while I was watching The Incredibles.

Damn! My linux box was up to around 110 days of uptime, something I would have never been able to achieve on my Windows PC. My highest before this point was around 20 or so days.

Current uptime: 1 hour 56 minutes.

Guess you've got to start somewhere!

The Incredibles

2005-01-03T02:32:00.000+11:00

I always spend a lot of money on movies in December, and this year was no different. I just came back from The Incredibles, the latest from Pixar Animation Studios - and their first to get a PG rating.

As the rating implied - this film was a little more mature than other Pixar movies. As it was mainly an action film, the extra violence assisted the story, and it was all very smoothly done considering it's an animated feature. While watching the gadgets and skills of the superheroes throughout the movie - the word "Cool" entered my mind on more than one occasion.

Voice acting was brilliant - Samuel L. Jackson was great as the suave Frozone, Holly Hunter's Southern accent made Mrs. Incredible's character likeable and an exceptional bad-guy performance was provided by Jason Lee.

I must say I was a little disappointed that this film wasn't as funny as the earlier Pixar stuff. I guess that would make sense as it was more of an Action film than a Family Film / Comedy. I also felt that it moved a little slowly through the first half - perhaps it took me a little time to get into it.

All in all I give it a 3.5 out of 5, a definite recommendation for kiddies.

Saw

2004-12-30T11:06:00.000+11:00

My girlfriend and I went to see Saw on the weekend - and I was quite impressed. The writers are two Melbourne boys - James Wan, also the Director and Leigh Whannell who also plays the part of Adam. Apparently they wrote the film so that James would have something to direct, and Leigh would have something to act in. I must say though - I wasn't entirely convinced by Leigh's acting abilities towards the beginning of the film.

I'm don't really enjoy scary movies just for the sake of being scary - but psychological thrillers that make me think are very enjoyable. Saw tells the story of two people trapped in a bathroom by a serial killer known as "Jigsaw". I won't give away any of the story - but the ending "twist" is one of the best, and least expected, that I've seen for a quite a while.

I found the fact that the story is being told from the potential victims perspective rather than a detective is refreshing, and makes you wonder what you would do in a similar situation. The story also tells of some of the Jigsaw's previous victims, which were all very interesting, and could have done with more emphasis.

The film ended extremely well in my opinion - which is why I'm a little worried about the sequel they've planned - Saw: Hacksaw. Apparently James and Leigh will still be involved - so I hope it does well.

Overall - I'd give it 4 stars out of 5.

Not the kind of puzzle I enjoy

2004-12-22T22:58:00.000+11:00

The system admin on my floor went on leave again, leaving me in charge (only if something goes wrong). So sure enough - the admin gets on a plane Saturday night - and the whole server room goes down Sunday evening.

Our IT Support installed a new UPS for the room but it looks like they overloaded it - and down she went. So now I've got to figure out exactly where each piece of equipment plugs in - so I can only transfer the important parts of the load across to the UPS. Shouldn't be too difficult...

Except that it's a complete mess of cords that was haphazardly added to over the last 5 or so years. We have 5 racks of equipment - and 3 of them all trace back to the one powerboard plugged into the one extension cord. Trip over that cord - and lose three racks of network / servers.

So tomorrow I'm going to trace each power cord to the outlets - and try to get some of them organised. When there's 7 white extension cords all going down the back of a wall together - it gets a little difficult!

* Whinge *

The last time the admin went on leave was about two years ago. Sure enough - the day after that flight left - the server room went down. Back then I had no idea what I was doing - I guess I don't have much more of an idea now!

You've Got Mail?

2004-12-21T18:31:00.000+11:00

Gmail have just given me 10 invites to hand out - and I've already used 20 inviting my friends.

I've actually given up my ISP mail in favour for Gmail - it's so well implemented.

Want an invite?

Free Phones for Me?

2004-12-20T23:30:00.000+11:00

There's an Australia competition running at the moment with the chance to become a Nokia phone reviewer for a year. You get 6 Nokia phones to review for a website - and you get to keep the phones after each review.

They want a "creative and original" review of your current phone in 50 words or less - to determine who should win.

I figured I might as well give it a shot - but 50 words is so small. If I were to review a phone, it'd take a lot more words than 50. So I've decided to go for more of a brief summary of my current phone - the Nokia 6320. The site that's running the competition seems more teen-based - so I've tried to make my reviews suited to that audience.

I've got four initial drafts - but I can't decide which one I want to use:

*****

The Nokia 6230 will suit your lifestyle. The MP3 player provides you with unique ringtones, downloadable Java™ Games and FM Radio provide entertainment and it has the elegant good looks, calendar & wallet of a professional business phone. The integrated camera just tops it all off - my favourite toy!

*****

The Nokia 6230
MP3 Ringtones? Check!
Video Player and Recorder? Action … I mean, Check!
Stylish Good Looks? Chic!
Bluetooth connectivity? Roger that!
Java Games? Checkmate.
Could you possibly need more? I still haven’t!

*****

My Nokia 6230 made a great fishing trip, although I don’t know if my Jaws Theme ringtone helped. The Java™ Games entertained when the fish weren’t biting, but when I finally caught one - the integrated camera proved that it was “this big”! Guess what I’ve set as my wallpaper?

*****

What’s the mark of a good phone?
It looks like a classy business phone – yet it’s got an MP3 player and integrated camera to keep me entertained.
It has more features than any phone I’ve had before – yet it’s easy enough for my mother to use.
It’s my Nokia 6230.

Comments?

The biggest Countdown Ever?

2004-12-19T20:45:00.000+11:00

The radio station I listen to over here - Triple M - are having "The essential 2005 Countdown". A little extreme don't you think?

They've been gathering votes for about a week now - and the countdown will run from Boxing Day to Australia Day (26th January). They're saying that it's "something that has never been done before" - but I slightly doubt that. I'm sure somewhere - probably India - a countdown has been a little bigger than 2000 songs.

One thing that I've noticed about Lists and Countdowns that are voted on by the public is that they tend to contain more of the newer material, and forget some of the better old stuff. For example - when MTV ran a "25 Greatest Video Stars of All Time" that was voted by the fans, Michael Jackson (arguably the best creator of music videos along with Madonna) polled poorly (9th off memory) - I think No Doubt even beat him. I guess the songs that are released lately will be on everyone's mind already.

The station has even played nothing but older songs for the last week - and have been playing interviews of people voting for their favourites - which all happen to be released in the 80s to early 90s.

So now I'm all nervous about my vote. I feel like John Cusack in High Fidelity when he had to pick his top 5 favourite albums of all time. I don't want to rush my decision - because I know I'm going to leave out some songs that should be in the list. Here's a quick draft off the top of my head (alphabetically from the CDs in front of me):

Ben Folds Five - Brick
Black Eyed Peas - Where Is The Love?
Blink 182 - I Miss You
Blur - Girls and Boys
Bomb Funk MC - Freestyler
Bon Jovi - Bad Medicine
Butthole Surfers - Pepper
Cake - The Distance
Daft Punk - One More Time
Eskimo Joe - From The Sea
Everclear - Santa Monica
Fatboy Slim - Praise You
Fatboy Slim - Weapon of Choice (mainly for the film clip!)
Foo Fighters - Learn To Fly
Foo Fighters - Monkey Wrench
Grinspoon - Chemical Heart
Guns N' Roses - Welcome to the Jungle
Guns N' Roses - Paradise City
Junior Senior - Move You Feet
Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven
Metallica - One
Metallica - Until it Sleeps
Moby - Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?
Moby - Run On
No Doubt - Just a Girl
Outkast - Ms. Jackson
Outkast - Hey Ya!
Pearl Jam - Even Flow
Pearl Jam - Alive
Radiohead - Karma Police
Rage Against the Machine - Killing in the Name
Regurgitator - Everyday Formula
The Offspring - Come out and Play
The Offspring - Gone Away
Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Breaking the Girl
Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Californication
Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Under the Bridge
U2 - Vertigo

(I know there's probably heaps I'm missing - but these are all that came to mind. Any suggestions?)

Ocean's Twelve

2004-12-18T19:48:00.000+11:00

As the title suggests - I went to see Ocean's Twelve last night - and I must say I was quite disappointed. I actually didn't see the remake of Ocean's Eleven when it came out at the cinemas, I thought it had made money based on its' star power. Turns out I should have seen the first one at the movies - and left this one to DVD.

IMO, the best part of the first movie was the carefully organised and well thought out heist. The sequel replaced this with a slow moving story with eighteen "surprise" plot twists. The script wasn't written as the Ocean's Eleven sequel and it shows - as there were too many players for the story. And when the director decides to do an oddly anged zoom in on each of the characters - it got old after about 3.

A welcomed addition is Vincent Cassel as an arrogant French master thief, and the soundtrack is really quite good. I was laughing through some of it - but I was mostly waiting for it to hurry up.

Overall - 2.5 stars out of 5.

Bad NFL!

2004-12-15T13:58:00.000+11:00

The NFL have signed a 5 Year exclusive deal with EA for the NFL's player names, teams and stadiums - Gamespot Article.

My initial reaction was to hate EA a little more (after the articles about the way they treat their development staff) - but this is really the fault of the NFL and NFLPA. Sure - they may be getting a little (lot) extra money in the short term, but it's really going to screw up the popular football game franchises.

EA must have spent a packet on this. For it to be profitable for the NFL - they must have paid more than the collective licensing agreements from each of the other companies.

I would be worried that the same thing might happen to my sport of choice (hockey) - but I've already got bigger things to worry about with that one!

Team America: World Police

2004-12-09T11:09:00.000+11:00

I saw my first movie in about 6 months last night - Team America: World Police. Created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park fame, this movie is essentially The Thunderbirds meets The Sum of All Fears, with all of the humor of a South Park episode.

I had heard a little bit about the movie beforehand, but most of it had been negative so I wasn't expecting too much. I really only went along to see some friends from High School. I must say though, I was pleasantly surprised with what I saw - I couldn't stop laughing. Anyone who feels that South Park is a little too rude probably won't like this movie - but I find that adding ridiculously over the top vulgarities can assist spoof movies such as this. An example is the film's romantic scene - probably the funniest sex scene I've ever witnessed. Apparently they kept adding to this scene until the movie reached the R rating they were hoping for.

While the main plot of the film appears to be taking a dig at George Dub-ya's War on Terror, the rest of the film's political messages appear balanced. Just as they do in South Park, Parker and Stone manage to make fun of both sides of the argument - and ensure everyone looks like a dick. The plot is similar to a lot of action movies (the world is in trouble, a team try to save it) - but the main draw is the laughs.

Another pleasant surprise from the movie was the musical numbers. As they did with South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, the movie was littered with songs - and I didn't mind listening to them. Normally I hate movies where the main characters sing (especially Bollywood films) - but when they're actually singing something that I find amusing it's fine.

While I probably won't buy this on DVD (it's value to me was better as a shock film - probably won't work as well in subsequent views) - I'd give it a 4 out of 5.

The post about nothing

2004-12-06T23:43:00.000+11:00

I received my Seinfeld Limited Edition DVD Gift Set today - which is quite satisfying for me! The DVDs for seasons 1-3 have been out over here (Australia) for about a month now - but I had to wait for my copy to be sent over from the US. I personally think it was worth the wait (the special gift set is unavailable in Australia).

Here's what was included:

The Season 1-3 DVDs - not much to say really.

A "Limited-edition original script with handwritten notes from Larry David" - kind of small, and the handwritten notes aren't very legible after the photocopy job they did.

Monk's Diner salt & pepper shakers - pretty cool, albeit smaller than I had thought they would be.

Collectible playing cards - poor quality cards, bit of eye candy really.

All in all - I'm very happy with my purchase. I would have spent the same amount if I were just buying the DVDs - so the added extras are only really an ... erm ... added extra?

Frist Post?

2004-12-06T16:11:00.000+11:00

I knew I would eventually have a Blog, I had just figured that I would have written it myself. I've signed up to Google Blog simply to comment on another Blog I find interesting - Paddy's Ramblings.