Free Arash and Mojtaba

Two guys who have been imprisoned by the Iranian authorities for sharing their views on their blogs.

A few good places to check out are:

• Amnesty International
  
• bloggers without borders
  
• Free Arash and Mojtaba Day
  

B

Andrea & Mark Brandwood / London Snow

Andrea & Mark
Well they're not even married yet, but they've created a lovely little blog for themselves:
Andrea & Mark Brandwood

Good friends who I hope'll keep enjoying life and having fun! :-)

Oh and yet again, congrats! (to see why: Congrats to Andrea & Mark)

London Snow
Guess what?!?! It snowed in London tonight!! It even stayed on the ground! :-) Absolutely fantastic!

Of course it brought the tube system to a halt (at least the northern line), amazing that, a train system what 40 metres underground is somehow unable to operate when a total of maybe 2mm of snow lands above it? Only in London.

Of course myself and Matt found the most logical solution to London's transport issues.. Find the nearest pub and have a few pints while the traffic cleared and the tube started running again. :-) Either way, I'm happy!

Keep having fun!
B

We're not insane...

We're not insane...

That's right it's Painter Smurf, Poet Smurf & Dreamy Smurf who tell me what to do!

Well usually, it's just that Painter Smurf isn't talking to me at the moment, something to do with a bottle of paint, a tooth brush and ... well... it's better I don't mention it.

Pictures of France (skiing)

Well a bit of a belated posting on the ski trip to france, not really much to say (recovering from part II of the Monopoly board pub crawl), so I'll just post some nice piccies:


A beautiful view of the resort we would be spending the next week in


Me and Fish with our snowboards


Me coming to the end of the green run :-)


Matt snowboarding along


Matt fell over, so I decided it'd be fun to bury him :-)

Apologies for the slow download speed on these photo's... But give it time and they'll appear (hopefully!)

Keep having fun whatever you're up to and say hello occasionally.

Yawn time for some more coffee!
B

Site tracking

RE_INVIGORATE

For a while there I was using a really cool site tracker for this blog, called Re_Invigorate, very cool I could even see where in the world people were visiting from, Hi to those who visited from Asia! Very cool to see when people who I don't even know decided to read some more of what I had written.

However now Re_Invigorate is down, and while the message says it'll be up again soon, it has said that for nearly 3 weeks now (a lifetime in computer ages). So now it is time to move on and implement something else... Pity, I really liked their reports... (I am such a geek!).. The question is what to use? Has anyone out there used anything that they'd like to recommend? Not that I expect much of a response...

Rotterdam
Oh, for those that were wondering, had a blast in Rotterdam!! :-D Very cool place! Fool of insane Dutch people! I shall put up the photo's to the usual spot soon.. ;-) (in a day or so)

Till next time, keep having fun and stay true to yourself
B

Zoo ditches gay penguin plan

A friend sent me an email about a german zoo's troubles with some penguins that seem to want to remain gay: Zoo ditches gay penguin plan - World - www.theage.com.au

From the article:
"A German zoo has abandoned a plan to break up homosexual penguin couples after protests from gay rights groups
...
Zoo keepers discovered that the homosexual couples had gathered rocks that they coveted like eggs and fooled their keepers for years into thinking they were boy-and-girl duos."

Well, I thought it was hilarious!

Happy Birthday to me!

Well, it's been a while since I've posted anything, and this post ain't going to be very full either...

Just wanted to say a big Thank You! to all who wished me happy birth day! Being having an absolute blast of a time since getting back from Brussels, which I shall spend some time and update you all on. I'm off to Rotterdam for the weekend (me & matt are catching up with Margo!), so during the travel time I'll write down what I've been up to.

• Chillin out with Matt, Fish & Lyds
  
• Eva's birtday get together (on a school night! Argh! that was painful)
  
• Contract drinks followed by, Eva's going away (fun night!)
  
• Cake concert
  
• Attempted Monopoly board pub crawl (well we got half way round!)
  
• of course my b'day as well :-)
  

not bad for just over a week (how the hell did I survive work that week?!)

But I will leave you with one tidbit:
The other night on the tube, I saw some carrying a bathroom sink.

am I the only one who finds that bizzarre but amusing? ;-)

Keep smiling!
B

Favourite comics

Two of my favourite comics (Pearls before Swine & Get Fuzzy) put out some absolutely fantastic ones today:

• Pearls has a great piece on what is the real purpose of Social Services (got wrong in typical Pig fashion)
  
• Get Fuzzy has re-introduced one of my favourite characters (Chubby Huggs!)
  

Well... They brought a smile to my face :-D

Oh, I'm still here in Belgium, about to head out to try some of the local cuisine (ie: beer). So have fun everyone!! *waves*

B

Concussion, Girl Power & Ceasar Salads

Ok, here goes again... (I've tried this post before 'cept it lost it when I went to publish it, ARGH!!!)

Salad Cesar in Brussels
I am in Brussels now (for work no less) sitting in a very plush hotel (gotta love work trips!) kicking back after a few Hoegaarden's, and I thought I'd put up a small update of what I've been up to in the last week or so.

But before I get into that I just wanted to let people know, you have not had a Ceasar Salad, until you've had one in Belgium! (at least not if the one I had tonight is anything to go by), it was absolutely delicious, it had all the traditional ceasar ingredients, plus: chicken, capsicum, roasted walnuts, orange pieces (as in the fruit), cherry tomatoes & drizzled with honey. Yum!

Well now to see if I can remember some of what I wrote before dinner...

Snow boarding in France
We got to Tignes via Geneva on Sunday (16th Jan) a bit after midday I think it was, and the sky was blue and the slopes were white.. So it was with great excitement we grabbed our lift passes and organised our ski gear. As we were mostly beginner boarders we booked ourselves a group lesson for midday Monday..

Ok slight diversion here, I might just quickly explain who "We" are, there's: Matt, Paul & Lydia, Leigh (the token skier) and Jon (the experienced-ish boarder)

So Monday morning arrived and straight after breakfast we headed out to the Nursery slope, for some practise runs before our lesson (can't waste any of that snow time!), whereupon within the very first half hour of being out on the snow with a board, I decided now would be a good time to do my Superman impression ... chin first into the ice I landed (I think it'd had been a week since it'd really snowed), all I can say is OW!

But I wasn't going to let a wee bruised chin stop me, no sirree, so we all kept trucking along through the morning, through the lesson.

Well, almost...

I lasted until 15minutes before the end of the 2 hour lesson, and it hit me... I was ready to pass out and well... empty my stomach as well.. Yep for those smart cookies who guessed it, that knock on the chin gave me Mild Concussion, putting me out of action for about 2 days.

Not exactly what you would call a great start to the week eh? But even with that and all the other trials and tribulations we suffered:

• One mild concussion
  
• 3 bouts of gastro (needing a day of sleeping)
  
• One sprained wrist
  
• One stretched medial ligament (in the knee, requiring a knee brace for 3 weeks)
  
• Uncountable bruises, aches & pains
  
• A lovely 9 hour delay for our flight back (story for another time)
  

I think we all really enjoyed ourselves! :-) I know that I did, and I do intend to go snow boarding again (though next time I might wait till there's some powder on the ground before doing a Superman impression).

Oh, and big massive kudos to the fantastic effort of Lydia, being the one and only member of our little group to actually make it out each and every day! You go girl!

Oh and aparently on the Tuesday (I wasn't exactly with it so can't confirm), was when it started snowing, (it didn't stop, not at all, it was still going when we left) on one day there was 18 inches of snow, nice and soft to land in!

Have fun!
B

Meow & Polly, Stories & Sad news

Posted!
Yay! I got up a new post for Meow and Polly! :-) Well it makes me happy.

Not to sure about it, but I've got something up, when I said I would... Next will be the challenge of getting something up next week as I'll be off skiing, there should be some kind of net access over there. But I think I'll make next weeks post a wee bit shorter or at least not as many web links that I need to check! :-P

Old Stories
The other night I was glancing through all the various files that I'd dumped on my iPod (well the non-music stuff anyways), and I realised that I'd dumped up a whole bunch of stuff that I'd written up years and years ago, hell right back when I was in year 12. And even if I do say so myself some of it was actually pretty good.

This one in particular, I still find a nice read, though I think the ending needs work... And well nice isn't actually the right acronym to use. But read it for yourself and you can make up your own mind.

Oh and you might like my recipe for Argumentative Cakes (one of the possible pieces for my year 12 cat back in 1994)

I think that I'll try and post up some of the other stuff I found as I go on...

Sad news
Unfortunately my Mum's dog Kelly (the best little german sheppard/huskie around!) passed away. :-(
Aparently she is going to be buried at a farm in Northern Victoria, where eventually Cyprus trees will be planted, and so all those favoured pets and companions will once more be in the full circle that is life.
You were a great dog Kelly. Take a big hug with you.

B

Argumentative Cake

Arguments are one of the most enjoyable aspects of being human. We
talk and discuss amongst our friends, and add that extra spice
through serious arguments with all sorts of individuals.
Quite often we are unable to create arguments, or perhaps
those arguments we voice are uninteresting. For this explicit
purpose, I have created a simple recipe, which will enable you
to bake the most impressive argumentive cake, which you can
share amongst your associates.


Argumentive Cake.



2 cups issue (containing contention, and opposition).
3 arguments.
1/4 cup grammar.
1 cup sentence structure.
1 teaspoon of relevance.
1/2 cup punctuation.




Sift Issue, separating opposition and contention. Beat
opposition well until creamed, adding logic to help the
process.
Add arguments to support contention, mixing well, while
continually adding grammar, sentence structure and
punctuation, until mixture is doughy.
Take 'dough' out of bowl, place on board sprinkled with
grammar. Using rolling pin, roll out to a flat shape. Gently
spread opposition even over contention to a depth of 1/4 mm,
lightly sprinkling relevance over cream. Fold dough several
times and roll out again. Repeat process until all of
opposition is used or a good consistency is reached.
Test mixture, it should have a powerful taste of
contention, with just a hint of opposition, add remaining
ingredients to spice to your taste.
Place in one human receptacle in oven for 1 hour (at 180
Celsius) or until solid outer layer, with a luscious interior.
While cake is cooking, prepare icing.


Persuasive Icing:

1 teaspoon persuasion.
1/2 cup logic.
2 cups conviction.



Mix conviction an logic in small saucepan, and bring to
boil. Then gently add persuasion to mixture. Allow to simmer
for 5 minutes, occasionally stirring, then turn heat off
leaving icing over stove to cool. It should still be luke
warm when the cake is ready to be iced. If not, reheat until
slightly runny, and warm enough for cake to absorb flavours,
then spread icing over cake. Your cake is ready, feel free to
add sprinkles of presentation in an attractive design.

Off to France!

Well I just got the word today! My leave for next week has been approved, so from 16th to 23rd of Jan, I probably won't be posting anything, as I shall be hitting the slopes of Tignes, staying at Chalet hotel L’Aiguille Percee.

Looking forward to it, I think I'll give boarding another try (after a day about 3-4 years ago).. See if I can not do a somersault (well at least not by accident). And if that happens there's always the nice warm fire in the Chalet, and some fine scotch. :-)

Anyways, that it from me tonight so keep having fun and I'll see you on the flip side!
B

Web link grabbed from ifyouski.com

PS: Just remembered an odd thought I'd had today:
It occurred to me, to patent something is a misnomer, given that the definition of Patently is:

obviously: unmistakably (`plain' is often used informally for `plainly'); "the answer is obviously wrong"; "she was in bed and evidently in great pain"; "he was manifestly too important to leave off the guest list"; "it is all patently nonsense"; "she has apparently been living here for some time"; "I thought he owned the property, but apparently not"; "You are plainly wrong"; "he is plain stubborn"
Taken from Googles definition (which probably grabbed it from some other page)

So those people on Slashdot were right, patenting something is just a way of getting paid for something that is obvious.
or as matt pointed out
Perhaps that's what makes it patentable, that in hindsight so many people see it as obvious...

Robin Hobb's books

I've just finished reading Fools Fate by Robin Hobb.

And I've gotta say I really liked it, there's something about her Farseer trilogy books, it's not the story/plot that is the most interesting, it's the character development.

Most books that I read (and I read a lot) there is character development, but what drives the book is a specific story the author is trying to tell, solving a religious/political/conspiracy theory in the case of Dan Brown's books or the rollocking and thrilling stories of George R. R. Martin (who actually has quite a lot of emotional development and upheaval).

With Robin Hobb it's different, the actions in the book are more about taking the characters on an emotional journey to explore the highs and lows, so much so that I felt taken on that journey as well. There were times that I wanted to hit the main character (but I found that it resonated with me), at other times I was lefting happy, alive and ready to face whatever the world brought my way...

Basically I'm trying to say, go read her books! Her writing style is amazing and for taking you on an emotional journey I've read none better. :-)

And that's all I've got to say on that, other than read my previous post because it's important to me.

B

Creativity

Well I'd like to now unveil a new project that I've been toying around with for quite a while, and have now actually started: Meow and Polly came about because a few good friends.

Robski!

Dan the Man!

who decided that if I was going to be travelling around the world I needed to have a couple of friends to bring with me, and that I was to take photos of them Every place I go...

And that's exactly what I have done (well near enough), so the next question was, how to show the friends back home? I initially was just going to post them all up to a web page with some comments on where i'd been at the time... After a while of not doing that (around about the same time I stopped posting pretty much anything up here), I started toying around with the idea of actually making it more of a story, where I could try out a bit of creativity... It's been a challenge, instead of being a stream of conscience I've had to first figure out what kind of personality I would give both Meow & Polly, and try and write in that style... Hopefully it'll get easier over time (along with the posts will actually be in their own words, rather than with me inside, if you know what I mean)...

Anyways, it's now up and the first parts are ready to be read (only just), I'll be updating them at least once a week, to begin with up to 3 times a week as I build the foundation of their characters. The aim is that there'll be a new post (story installment) on Thursday nights (London time), with some background stuff (under articles) posted up during the week. Oh and please send me feedback on how you think I'm going with their story (it's challenging but fun!).

Till next time, take care!
B

Aussies and alcohol

While I was doing a bit of research for another project that I'm working on at the moment (I'll hopefully post up the links within the day, for the first editions), I came across this little gem: A Canadian's perspective on Drinking in Australia

"A "slab" is the term used for 24 cans of beer that have been packaged together for sale in the liquor store. A slab, or fractions of slabs, can also be used for relating to distances between towns in the Outback."

Now to go hit the turps.
B

The end is nigh!

I found out just recently that in the bible it states 'Man will not know the date' (paraphrased, and in the context of the end of the world), which makes all those end of the world types really silly..

Or maybe they're actually the smartest? By predicting the end on a certain date they're actually making sure that the world doesn't end... I think that's an excellent idea, and I'm proposing we all pick a date, if we cover every date we're safe (at least from supernatural oblivion).

So I predict that the world will end on March 17th 2009.

Your turn
B

Congrats to Andrea and Mark!

Well some exciting news to report, my two housemates Andrea and Mark are now engaged! Congratulations both of you! :-)

Under the christmas tree

Showing off the engagment ring

Now I consider it my civic duty to come up with some recommendations for the stag night/weekend.. Amongst my favourite so far is:


A fantastic use of duct tape!

Till next time,
B

Slightly different direction

As many of you have no doubt realised, I have stopped posting about places that I travelled to... Even though I did not complete the list of places I've been too... My apologies for that

Why did I stop?
Initially it was that I wanted to actually put up photo's with the places that I've been too (and was having serious issues on getting them up), but after a while it reached that kind of stage where you've left something undone for so long it's got it's own special kind of pressure, and so I kept not doing it..

Motivation...
After a while of not posting anything I decided that no, I still wanted to post things, but I wanted to post things I enjoyed and that I wanted to tell people about rather than ones that I didn't... Besides writing about my travels when I didn't want to, well it won't convey the sense of joy and story of places I've been... It'd be more:


I went to a place, the sky was grey, I liked the buildings.


too cold, too abstract, especially as a lot of the places I enjoyed up in Scotland and in Netherland were because of the people/atmosphere and the experiences had while there! Fantastic!!!

Where to now?
Well now I've decided not to worry about posting where I've been exactly and instead to talk about what I'm interested in, whatever that is at the time, there are a few stories from my travels:

• Absailing down the tallest building in Rotterdam
  
• The morags of Inverness
  
• Curious sheep of Pitlochry
  
• Mad managers of Outer Hebrides hostels..
  

that I'd like to still share, but I'm not going to stress about it, I'll share them when I'm ready and not before. Of course you're still welcome to bug me about it, it might help get them up a bit quicker (at the least it'd let me know that you'd be interested in reading about them) :-)

So in the meantime take care of yourselves, enjoy reading whatever you wish, and I also recommend checking out http://www.gadgetopia.com/2004/12/31/TheLongTail.html an interesting site that will bring you random posts from all sorts of blogs around the world. Just keep pressing next until you find something you like. (found it on Gadgetopia)

Cheers,
B

Happy 2005!

Well it's now 1st January here in London, and after a fun and interesting night down at the Shepherds Bush Walkabout I'm slowly recovering (I think it's going to be time for some Bacon & Eggs soon!)

Though I've got say, I'm in a lot better shape than Little Matt who I had the joyful task of looking after at the end of the night (he was having trouble standing, walking, drinking water...) actually it was all good, especially as we got to have a few interesting chats with strangers on the tube home. Usually revolving around matt asking any female sitting near us if they'd given me their phone numbers...
Strangely enough, none of them had or did, in fact most ran away at that time...

But anyways, this is just a short post to say Happy New Years! Hope you've had a grand one wherever you are, whatever you were doing!

Lots a hugs
B

DEC - Tsunami Earthquake

One of my good friends Matt has posted an excellent summary on the bad part of knowing people from around the world, I've been 'lucky' in that I don't directly know anyone affected by the tsunami.

This post really has no substance, there's a few things I could say about the political rumblings going about the lack of warning to Sri Lanka and India, but to be honest it's not worth the breath. My condolences to those who have lost, and my desire that those still searching find those they care about alive and well.

If you're in the UK go to the DEC - Tsunami Earthquake site to donate (or direct to whichever charity works best for you).

Peace,
B

Updated some Photos/Movies

On the website: OneRoundPebble.com

I've changed some of the photo folder names so that they're now in the order that I actually visited the places (I may change them again in the near future as I look into how I've organised them), as a consequence some of the photo's that I've linked to on this blog, may not actually work..

So until I get around to fixing them, bad luck :-P (not really, but just so you know it is on my list, right after learning Portuguese)

Now some people have had difficulty viewing my photo's so I thought I'd try and put down a couple of easy steps on how to view them (the image to the left shows my expanded photo's): Go to OneRoundPebble.com (wait for list on the left to finish opening) Click on the Biscuit link (this will expand everything under Biscuit) Click on the little Next to Photos (this will expand the list of photos) Click on any of the locations you'd like to see photos of (and then wait for them to appear on the right)

And that my friends is how you view my photo's, for some spectacular scenery I recommend the Rockies for me making a fool of myself check out New Orleans or Newfoundland :-)

Oh and I've now uploaded some movies as well (though I haven't yet linked to them on OneRoundPebble.com to grab them they are:

• The Chase a 9MB file showing Matt up to some antics in Scotland.. Very amusing.
  
• Vancouver fireworks with music Footage of some of the spectacular fireworks from Vancouver, with a bit of a sound track I added (couldn't remember what the actual soundtrack was..
  

Cheers,
B

Old coding thing (from C days)

So if you're not a geek (and for those geeks reading, yes I actually know some non-geeks) I'd recommend skipping this post and going onto my Merry Xmas and some thoughts post.

Was reading a post from The Old New Thing on BOOL vs. VARIANT_BOOL vs. BOOLEAN vs. bool which is an interesting post about the origins of the different boolean standards (and if you've ever had to write code to talk to a dll written in another language you'll understand why I found this interesting). But this reminded me an old C technique which was commonly used to handle menu's (I'm talking text based/command prompt age here, none of this funky mouse stuff)

How C handled booleans
If you've read the link above you'll now know that the original BOOL was defined as an int with two possible values (0 = False, 1 = True).

Now C to see if something was False simply does (x == 0) and True does either (x != 0) or (x > 0) // I can't remember which one it is Which meant that if you wanted to be creative in your functions what you would do is return instead of a boolean you'd return an int, allowing:

if(int x=ShowMenu())
{
princ('You picked menu /n', x);
}
princ('Goodbye');

Ok that's probably not making much sense, but the point is that if you return 0 it meant fail an if check, any other number (or positive number) would be 'true' and so...

Why old menu's used to have 0 as the Exit Menu option
You now should have a good idea where I'm heading here, but to continue... Dos, BBS, Unix (generally text based applications), would usually have a menu that kinda looked like:

1. PINE
2. FTP
3. TELNET
4. MOO
-
0. EXIT

So you'd simply press the appropriate key matching the menu option you wanted (sorry for boring the crap out of coders here, but some people are not used to these old menu's they've only ever used Gui's). Anyways it was a fairly common standard that if the menu used numbers as their accepted characters 0 would be the exit code. Allowing:

while(x)
{
if(x=ShowMenu())
{
switch(x)
1: Pine(); break;
2: Ftp(); break;
3: Telnet(); break;
4: Moo(); break;
}
}

Basically you never had to explicitly code to handle the Exit case, as it was inherently handled by the if() and while().

It's still around!
This particular 'standard' has followed us today by people who call API functions (that return 0 if it fails, and maybe a href if it succeeds) like so:

if setRegValue("HKEY_USER", "Software\Microsoft\Excel", pstrFieldName, pstrValue) then
msgbox "Successfully updated value"
end if

For backwards compatibility you can still compare int's to a Boolean in most languages (even if the language no longer uses int as it's boolean underlying type)

Here endeth the lesson.

Merry Xmas and some thoughts

Well there I was reading my favourite web comic on Xmas eve (as in tonight) and this strip was the latest one: Questionable Content: Another Kind of Ninja

Why have I travelled? (the long version)
Now this particular episode (you'll need to read the strip to get this next paragraph or so methinks), it reminded me of why I went and got married, and no doubt many of you are still thinking I was insane to do so. But it all comes down to what Marten says in this episode, it's about being willing to make stupid (and sometimes serious) mistakes that take your life in different directions, I would of rathered to of moved to Lismore, gone and got married than stayed and constantly wondered "What would of happened?"

Now for quite a long while after that particularly large decision came crashing down in a heap I was unwilling to actually take any risks (I can see some of you already agreeing with me here), I was only choosing the conservative path, staying with the norm.. But at the same time I was telling myself (almost mantra like) "I don't regret trying" "I don't regret trying" "I don't regret trying" and it's true for me (just as with Marten), that was closure enough for me... Though I didn't mind hearing what some of my friends said about my ex (more because of their friendship and desire to protect me, than because of the specific things they said).

But then over time I healed I started to consider taking risks and get out there and see the world (always been a dream of mine), but still I wasn't willing to lose what I gained (a house, a job etc...) But then a combination of things occurred, I went on a 'personal development course' that a good friend recommended* and came to realise only I was holding myself back, and started to try small things, take small risks, and guess what? I survived, the world did not come crashing down!

Then at the start of this year I read a small quote "The future is that time, when you'll wish you had of done, what you aren't doing right now." and it gave me pause (not the cat kind, more thinking music time) and so I asked myself "What will I regret not doing in a years time" and the answer was easy, it was that old dream of mine, to travel the world. So within 3 months I had:

• figured out where I wanted to start
  
• bought the tickets (one of the scariest steps)
  
• quit my job (exhilirating to do when you've got no plans to get another job!)
  
• organised my sister to rent my house from me (took nearly 3 goes to get that sorted)

and by mid-June I was on my way, taking one of my biggest risks (even though plenty of people do) and just going with it.

A mere nine months later I'm in London, having just started a new job (only a 3 month contract though), and looking forward to finding out where I shall go next. Still telling myself that if I'm afraid of doing something, that's ok. But not to regret not trying it. (of course there's still plenty of times I regret not doing stuff, but I'm getting there)

Summing it up
Well that kinda went on longer than I originally intended, and probably reads as totally self absorbed. But I've been asked on a miriad of occasions "Why did you move to Lismore?" "Why did you get married at 21!?" "Why have you travelled?" and so that was another attempt to try and explain why I've gone and done those bizarre things, and why I'm here now.

Merry Christmas!
So now, because it's nearly 11pm on Christmas eve, here in England, I hope everyone has a pile of presents at the foot of their bed, under their tree or in their stockings and that you have a fantastic Christmas! :-D

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!
B

Now go out and smile, people will wonder what you've been up to.

* The personal development course was a Landmark course.

Annoying scammers (who I'd like to string up)

Some of you may of noticed a while ago that a very strange post appeared on my blog, and then disappeared (this would of been around about the 27th November), for those that don't know what appeared on my blog was:

"CHINA METALLURGICAL IMPORT AND EXPORT COMPANY Dear Sir/Madam, We are an import and export company searching for representatives in Canada, America and Europe who can help us establish a medium of getting to our custumers from Canada, America and Europe, as well as making payments through you to us.
If you are interested in transacting business with us,contact us through.
Email: cmiaeccc@netscape.net
CHINA METALLURGICAL IMPORT AND EXPORT COMPANY(CMIEC).
COMPANY ADDRESS: 338, YINGZE AVENUE, YINGZE,TAIYUAN, SHANXI, CHINA.
TEL: 0085230140977
FAX:0085230140977
Subject to your satisfaction you will be given the opportunity to negotiate your mode of which we will pay you for your services as our representative in Canada/America and Europe.
Thanks In advance
Managing Director,
Mr.Roy Xand."

Now basically as far as I could tell some a-hole briefly took control of my blog to post this scam (it's a variation of the now famous Nigerian 4-1-9 Scam) to try and basically get you to give them your bank details so that they can steal your money (and not give you anything!).

Anyways, I thought I'd let everyone know that this is what happened, as soon as I'd noticed I did 3 things:
1) changed my password (in case that was how they got in)
2) removed the post
3) reported the incident to the blogger support

oh and emailed a couple of insulting letters to the supplied email above (not happy Jan!), so there ya go. Now you know what happened there, and also (if you didn't before) watch out for those kind of scams!

Take care,
B

Been a while..

Ok, it's been a while since I've posted anything, and some of you may be wondering if I'm still alive and kicking it.. Well here's a post to let you know what I've been up to:

Work-ish
Well as some of you know I've been looking for work here in London, and been having some hassles tying it all down, but it looks like it's all finally sorted (I won't say definitely until I've got the contract in my hand!) But in the meantime I've been doing a small-ish data-migration job for Redgum, nothing really interesting to non-geeks (hell most geeks find data migration boring!) so I won't go into the details, other than to say what started off as a simple couple of days of work, turned into 2 weeks of occasional frustration.

Social Circles
Well I've been slowly getting out there and meeting different people and getting up a bit of a social circle.. Even if most of them are met during the course of imbibing alcoholic substances (Matt seems to think I'm a bad influence!) but it's good fun having a few people to catch up with over the weekends (and occasionally during the week as well).


Also included in that is that I finally caught up with the two English guys I met on the tour through the Rockies of Canada, being jamie (the one on the left) and Nick.. Not really the most flattering of photo's (I think it makes them look like a white wannabe rapper and a swedish 80s porn star)

So hopefully going to catch up with these 2 and a few others for New Years Eve.. Should be a bit of fun.. Even if it isn't one of my traditional bbq's.. :-)

Reading news and blogs
The other thing I've been really getting into, is actually reading the news and keeping track of whats happening around the world (it's actually surprising of how easy it is to lose touch as you travel around!), one of the blogs that Matt put me onto is a nice one called: Neopoleon and there was one recent post where he was reviewing a new handheld pc "HP iPaq 6315 - The honest review" and he had an interesting use of this relatively-new technology...

The other place I've used one, but where I didn't receive any questions at all, was a clothing store in Las Vegas. Aydika and I were shoe shopping, and we found a fabulous little pair of casuals that she wanted. I was down and ready to get them, but she encouraged me to go online with "that phone thing" (that's what she calls the iPaq) and check out online prices for the shoes. I was hesitant, as I'm sort of an impulse buyer, but I figured in the end that she was making sense. So, I went online and found the shoes at nearly 40% off what the clothing store was asking for them. I walked the iPaq right up to the manager, showed her the lower price, and asked if she'd match it. She did.

Well, I thought it was interesting.. Anyways, soon (I keep saying that don't I?) I shall post some more of what I've been up to, including a bit of this quite fun weekend. Hope everyone is well, happy and looking forward to a fun xmas! Go out there and be Merry!

B

Remember the Secret Policeman's Ball?

Well last night, myself and little Matt were out and about in London town, and found out that there was a special viewing of Remember the Secret Policeman's Ball - 25th Anniversary
A fundraiser for Amnesty International

Which can be viewed on the 9th December (here in the uk): BBC - BBC Four Documentaries - Remember the Secret Policeman's Ball?

Probably the main thing that grabbed my attention was that Rowan Atkinson would be appearing on stage to answer questions after the movie... Quite interesting hearing him debate the fine line between racial (and degrading) jokes, versus being free to criticize and question ideas and ideals.. Particular when this got onto the distinction between race versus religion, where Rowan has expressed concern that religion (which to him falls in the idea/ideal category), is becoming a taboo subject for comedians...

Myself I would of liked to know his (and the other panel members) thoughts on "The majority of industries in the world are governed by certain ethical, moral & legal constraints. Whereby study (and sometimes discussion) of particular areas is not to be allowed. Why is it that comedy should be free from those constraints and not other industries?"

Though I did like it when he put it as: A joke either works or it doesn't. If the audience laughs you can continue down that line, if they didn't laugh.. well there's your line. (obviously para-phrased)

But anyways, good movie, would love to see Rowan back on stage at some point... A fun night out.

Cheers,
B

Slashdot | User-centric GUI Design Explained to All

Ok, Slashdot is a very good site and recently had an article about the debate of User interface design.

Now this is something I have a few thoughts on, and while some of it will no doubt be expressed slightly incorrectly due to the amount of alcohol currently in my system (just refer to my last post for proof of said).. Ok enough with the caveats here it is.

Game designers like ID Software or Blizzard have all learnt a valuable lesson, called immersion (and these companies are by far not the only ones), whereby the user (or in this example the gamer), totally forgets the outside world and loses himself in the game.

From Kushner, David. Masters of Doom. New York: Random House, 2003.
Because [Carmack] was a craftsman engineer, 3-D was the obvious step for him. Three-dimensional graphics were the holy grail for many programmers as well...The idea was to make the player feel as if he were inside the game. Though Carmack was not aware of it, he was joining a pursuit that had begun thousands of years before. The dream of a realistic immersive, interactive experience had consumed humankind for millennia. Some believed it to be a primal desire. Dating from 15,000 BCE, cave paintings in Lascaux, in the south of France, were considered to be among the first "immersive environments," with images that would give the inhabitant the feeling of entering another world. (80)

Now there was a lesson to be learnt from ID, as if memory serves (can't seem to find a weblink about it) Doom actually was on more pc's than Microsoft Windows, now this was a lesson (and this is my own threory not supported by any other information) that Microsoft wasn't going to fail. Now aside from changing it's marketing strategies, what else has the infamous Microsoft done?

Well to me part of it is applying the usuability of Doom (and all good games) to every microsoft application. That usability is not about making it fun to use, it is quite simply (and if I remember correctly this a quote from John Cormack, if not I'll claim ownership): "Make it so the user no longer things 'how do I shoot that monster' instead the user will just shoot it".

Put another way, if you as the user has to think for too long about "Ok, I want to change this text to Bold" before being able to get it, the user interface needs to be reworked. Now obviously there will be some training required (particularly as most business applications are significantly more complex than the average game in terms of what the user wants to do at any point in time [or are they?]), but to me the user interface of any application should follow some fairly straight forward rules (and I'm probably paraphrasing a microsoft guideline here):

• intuitive interface: namely that if I am using the application for the first time (dependent on knowing the skill ie: if I'm a doctor using a medical application), I can easily come to grasp with how to make my way around and do simple things.
  
• don't restrict the expert user: Basically this means that as a user, when I use an application for a while I would like to be able to find quicker ways to do what I do frequently and maybe do some more advanced stuff (ie: in excel rather than just creating a bar graph, maybe I'd like to use data from 3 different worksheets put through a mean algorithm)
  

Now both of those points are difficult to implement, but I think the second is more so unless you have a cohesive plan... For example:
ID Games: You start with a basic setup of your character (set keys and so forth), can start shooting straight away... Eventually you find you prefer to have certain commands tied to certain keys (you use the menu to adjust), then you find you'd like other modifications (keys or otherwise), and so you can use the console (activated by '`') to gain access to a lot more features (usually undocumented).

Microsoft: There is the primary window with the toolbar allowing you to do what you need/wish to do... Eventually when you hit slight issues (formatting in Word for example) you want greater control, and so you discover the extensive menu options (with keyboard shortcuts as well!), so you find you can do complex stuff with a couple of key-clicks! (Yay for you!), and ultimate of ultimate, if there's really something specific you find yourself needing to do, you can create an add-in, using a programming language (VBScript) to customise how you use the microsoft application...

Ok, I think you get the idea there, both successful companies where they support the progression of the user from Beginner through to (and in some cases beyond) Expert.

Beginner to Expert
A lot of very worthy applications out there only support one type of user on that spectrum, either limiting the application that only simple tasks can be done (or that more complex tasks take too much interaction for an advanced user), or that you have to spend 5 days reading the help file just to find out how to save a file. Both types of users are important!

Immersive/Intuitive Interface
If the user (particularly after using the application for a while) has to frequently search for how to do something (either by looking up the help file, or by searching through menu options), there is something wrong, I'm sure that out there are some heuristic research telling us what the limit is, but you get the point, I shouldn't have to think "How do I bold this text?" I should justBold this text.

B

Hugs Are Good for Your Heart

Ok, the article itself doesn't actually give you much info:
Hugs Are Good for Your Heart

But I gotta say hugs are good, they're my favourite way of greeting friends and family, though with some it just ain't what they want/appreciate... But for me it's the best, you get to feel all warm and fuzzy inside, along with wanted and liked by those around you. And bonus by getting this feeling you give the other person the same in return, simply by returning the hug!

And it can just be a friendly hug (though the other type are good too, for a different reason), but there's something different about having a friend you feel comfortable enough to hug as opposed to just talk.. Though it's difficult to say how to cross that boundary..

So my advice today, go and hug someone close to you, they'll probably appreciate it. :-D

Here's a big virtual hug for you too.
*HUG*

One of the coolest comics of all time

Ok for those that know me from back in Aus, you'll probably recall that I read a lot of comics (well not really that much in recent years), but anyways a good friend Dan put me onto this cool comic:

Questionable Content which is absolutely hilarious!

For example one of the earlier strips featuring the underwear ninja that is one seriously funny concept, love it!

Oh and for anyone who likes comics check out:

• Dilbert (needs no explanation)
  
• Pearls Before Swine BLT's are great!
  
• Get Fuzzy (I think Rat and Bucky should join forces!)
  
• Penny Arcade (which has so much more than just a comic, frequently very topical)
  

oh and if you use rss feeds, checkout: Tapestry it has a whole heap of webcomics in rss form (as most of them don't seem to provide rss feeds) Thanks to Fish for sending that link through to me.

Keep having fun!
B

The Inslaw Affair | Gadgetopia

Ok, huge fan of this news site (use their rss feed, to read their stuff though).

Usually very geeky news items, about new technology and gadgets (hence the name I'd say), but this one reads like a proposal for a new Dan Brown or Michael Creaton book:

The Inslaw Affair | Gadgetopia

Have a read, it's cool. Bit sad for the company Inslaw (as they're still bankrupt), but interesting for the rest of us!

Cheers,
B

My photo's are up..

For those that are interested, I think all my photos are now up on the web... To look at them check out:
oneroundpebble.com

Basically on the left hand side is a tab for Biscuit, just have a look under there... at the moment the photo's don't have any info, but I plan to 'slowly' update most of them (that and re-arrange the order of the folders so that it's in the order I visited them)... That and go through them to find the best ones to post on here, while telling you about the remainder of my trip...

See? I'm getting there, slowly... :-)

Oh yeah, and looks like I've lined up a job! Yay! Money! :-) I should know for sure on Monday (the offer is there from the company, just waiting for the agent to finish negotiating how much for)

Till next time, enjoy yourselves!
B

Cryptography thoughts

Following is an incomplete piece I started to write on one of the missing elements of modern cryptography, I'll leave it up to you as to whether it is a necessary or irrelevant part of cryptography. For me it's just something I've been interested in for a while and recently while reading The Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson (highly recommend it!), it got me thinking about this topic. Comments and questions are welcome.

Information Theory in Cryptography

One of the original rules of cryptography refers to making the message indistinguishable to it's background (namely if you can't see it you can't break it), back in the first & second world wars this meant making the messages appear as white noise.

White noise refers to making encrypted information indistinguishable from its background, which is fine when the communication medium is radio signals (also known as static)

A technique used to accomplish this was for 2 albums (of random noise) playing at either end of the line, so that the signal would appear to be random noise as it was sent through the air, but at either end the records would cancel each other out, and only leave the actual communication (be that 2 people talking, or an actual data stream). This technique actually served 2 purposes, being encrypt live communication (the 2 albums were in essence the encrypt & decrypt keys), as well as to hide (or mask) that stream to sound like the background it was traveling through.

But in today's era of computers and the internet what was white noise for radio transmissions is not white noise for the PC let alone communication between PC's. In fact by keeping with the current format we're advertising that we have an encrypted file, something to be focused on to 'crack'.

There's lots of different ways to crack encrypted files (some straight forward approaches to cracking: brute force, only secure as the key, social engineering, technology improvements, etc...)
Note: A lot of the current techniques for encrypting depend upon it being unfeasible to crack, ie: that a brute force approach will take years to find the key, even using the latest technology.

What can be done?
To answer that we need to answer what is the background of files on a PC and/or in communication?

On the PC there are 2 types of backgrounds:
• standard files (part of the file system)
• Unallocated blocks of the file system (random 1's & 0's)

For communication between PC's there's really only 1, as any one who has access to all the packets of data can re-create the full 'data block' which is for our purposes the same as a file.

Given that info there seems to me to be the option of creating methods for 'masking' data (preferably already encrypted as added security) to look like a standard file, obviously easier said than done, hiding the data in unused sections of the files is easily spotted (virus checkers do this on a routine basis).

Some possible techniques:
• Alterating a master file without breaking the format rules (con that need master file to unmask)
• Creating a program file using standard rules (con of unusual to transmit, possible execute and cause crash)
• Create human viewable file, ie: picture, text, audio (con complex rules to conform to to be truly hidden)

As a general note though, these techniques because of their very nature make it hard for us (as users) to realise that the file we’re looking at is not actually a thesis on cats moulting, but is in fact a masked (and possibly encrypted) design of a revolutionary can-opener.. This of course meaning that, the ease of use which is now starting to really appear in computers, is made more difficult with this masking technique… One possible solution is to only apply it when transmitting the file…

Question for the future
An alternative method is to look at how a pattern can be identified in terms of finding a file (whether or not it has been encrypted) perhaps the answer for communication is to have a constant stream of random data, in essence replicating early radio communication. [obvious problems with bandwidth and pollution of networks though..]

Chat to Mark & Mail-to-Blogger SUCKS!

Heard from mark a very cool friend of mine who has created his own blog Ravensdarks Rants who’s favourite movie or one of at least is the cool movie Underworld (there was a picture linked, but it's been moved)

He’s doing well, which is very grand, even if he is currently coming up to exams for uni (Good luck dude!)

Actually this is mainly a test of the Mail-to-Blogger stuff that blogspot has recently implemented, to see if I can easily create the post in an email and nicely link to web pictures and so forth… Mainly as I’ve been having difficulties getting into blogspot (been really slow creating and editing posts), so would be much nicer if I could just email the posts in…

This’ll do as a test post, as well as was cool to catch up with my friend Mark! Even got an email from the ever elusive Judd!

To you all, take care of yourselves and enjoy everything that life has in stall for you!

B

Addendum: Well this was originally a test of the Mail-to-Blogger thing, which I had high hopes for, but about 2 days after I sent this email, I got an email saying

"Your message could not be posted because of the following reason(s):
syphtor.rant@blogger.com, Invalid Content Type"

Not a huge surprise on the Invalid Content Type, as I was using Outlook 2003's inbuilt html editor (which is basically the word editor set to produce html), which doesn't exactly produce nicely formatted html.. But you'd think it'd be ok? since it is all standard html anyways! Actually on that veign I change my mind, it should of just saved it as a draft to let me edit, not just sent a response back saying invalid content!! I mean it was still just text, it wasn't as if I had an imbedded binary file in there!! (the picture was not even an attachment, it was a properly linked pic that's already up on a web site!)

So that blows out that nice idea of using email to post blogs! Argh!! Oh well, I'll have to just login and update manually instead.. Actually these last 2 posts have been surprisingly fast to connect and publish, maybe they're now on top of those server issues that they've been having?

By the way, I do think the rest of blogger is cool! Just this latest service has a few issues to be dealt with (like actually putting up a post in a timely manner, and some smarts on handling slightly unusual text)

There is some hope in the world (maybe)

Just read this article on The Age that makes me wonder if maybe there is hope for us as a human race..

Americans sick of being Bushwacked

For those that can't read the article (now that the age has introduced subscription), basically as soon as it was announced that Bush had won the latest election, thousands more people checked out becoming citizens of other countries..

From the article:
Before this week, there was a daily average of 20,000 hits to the website of Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

Last Wednesday, according to the department, those online visits soared to 115,000, just from the US.

To me this means that are that many (at the least) people interested in living in a better world where war (and the people who seem to want to pursue it) do not exist, or at the least are opposed.. Hopefully there are more people who stayed in the US that actually want to do something about changing it in that country (not just moving to somewhere it ain't supported)..

Well that's my 2 cents anyways...

Oh yeah, I will get back to what I've been up to on my travels real soon

B

London

So there I was leaving the country of Maple Syrup, Ice Hockey (even if I didn't make it to a game), Bears, saying "eh?" at the end of every statement, Poutine and lot's of fun... and heading to the

Land of the brolli
And I got to experience the reason for this name on my very first day in London. Walking through St James Park and I got caught in a downpour (middle of Melbourne winter type downpour), and due to the complete lack of shelter (as I'm sure anyone who's been to St James Park is well aware of, and the trees don't count), I got nicely soaked...

Though you know? It was a good start to my Britain adventure, was fun to get rained on (and it wasn't that cold) and all part of the travelling experience (particularly in Britain).

Chill out time
As I was staying with friends (thanks Andrea & Mark!!!) I was able to chill out and relax for a week or so.. Mmmm... Was good to do so! Got to hang out with Andrea's friend (Anthony) who was crashing there for a few days, so also did the typical museum jaunt (trafalgar sq, royal museum, tower bridge, etc...)

Brighton
Now for those who know her, Kirstyn has been in England for quite a while now, and had a little flat down in Brighton (which was perfect for her and her boyfriend Mark), so I obviously had to go down and visit her.. :-)

So Kirstyn used all her vast local knowledge and showed me:

• The Pavilion: Which was some kind of royal summer home, made out to look very Asian, quite nice. Not allowed to take photo's, but I took a couple anyway (though they came out quite blurry).
  
• The Brighton Pier: Very similar to Santa Monica pier actually, given that they both have carnivals on them.. Actually was fun to just sit and catch up on lots of stuff!
  
• The local Walkabout: hmmm... My first time in an Australian themed pub in England, and I think there is a reason why we were the only Aussies there, tack-o-rama!
  

Matt & Fish
As you may of guessed, my first few weeks in England were all about catching up with people, which actually was a lot of fun. So next on the list was Little Matt, who I knew was going to be in London at some point, but about 3 days after I arrived there, I got an sms "Guess where I am?", so alcohol here we came!

Of course Fish (also known as Paul Fisher) & his lovely wife (I can't believe you're married!) Lydia (who's name I hope I spelled correctly) have been in London for nigh on a year now, so it was out to dinner to celebrate Matt's b'day (ah the little tyke).

Changing plans
Now by this stage, I had organised going to see my relatives (or at least one branch of them) who live near Liverpool, however Matt put forward an enticing invitation to go explore the Highlands of Scotland with him. While I felt bad changing the plans with the relo's I couldn't miss out on that opportunity! So after some quick checks of some ways to get there, I was on my way to Edinburgh!

Next: The joys of travelling domestically around the UK, and the insane MacBackpackers!

Out of communication

Hi Everyone! (hi doctor nick)

Well it's been quite a while since I've updated the blog, so for those that have been checking up on where I've been and what I've been up to.. My apologies. For the rest, well you're probably not going to even read this are you? ;-)

A brief overview (before I do some detailed posts), I'm here in sunny England, arrived on the 15th August, have gone up to Scotland for a few weeks and then to visit all the relos around the Manchester/Liverpool area...

I actually intended to settle down for a bit after that and actually start looking for work, instead I head off to the Netherlands for a couple of weeks :-)

Now I have started that whole searching for a job process, argh!! So mundane! But it needs to be done, fingers crossed I've had some positive feedback so hopefully I'll be earning some english pounds in no time!

Cheers,
B

Vancouver Island Part 2 (Tofino)

Tofino is a small little .. ah .. village about half way up the west coast of Vancouver Island, beautiful little place, with a population of around about 1,000. That is until summer when with the tourists bombarding the town it increases to a population of about 3,000.

Luckily I got to Tofino towards the tail end of the tourist season, and so it wasn't quite as busy as before, though the locals were well and truly over all these tourists coming in. Though it was a really nice place to chill at, kind of place where quite a few people I met had arrived for a short holiday and ended up staying all summer.

Like this guy who had rocked up to Tofino for a weekend back in March and ended up living in this shed (with no electricity or running water).

So there I was finding I liked the fact that the hostel was by the sea (as in about 10 meters) and just feeling like chilling out when I found out there was a group of 3 canadians in my room who bring it upon themselves to adopt me for our shared time in Tofino.


Which included seeing:

Half moon cove: a fantastic little cove south of Tofino where I got to see a bald eagle fly down and pluck a fish out of the water directly in front of me.


Whale watching tour: where I didn't actually see any whales, but had a blast of a time!


The whale watching boat: Lots of fun!

and finally here for everyone's entertainment is me in the life vest/thermal suit that we wore on that whale watching boat! I think I kind of look like the marshmallow man from Ghost Busters!

So that was Tofino, it was a nice relaxing time, met some interesting people got a wee bit wet while speeding through the fog banks, but enjoyed myself nonetheless. After that it was back to Vancouver in preparation for heading to 'ol blighty the land of the perpetual cloud, Britain. And I was looking forward to it, I'd enjoyed Canada, and I have to say my favourite place of all was Nefoundland. One day I might be back, problem is there are so many places out there to see!

Till next posting
B

Vancouver Island Part 1 (Victoria)

Having seen the cost of travelling to Vancouver Island using the standard Greyhound buses (I think it was around $50-) I decided to go the el' cheapo option of pt'ing it (pt for those who don't know refers to the public transport system, usually only slightly more expensive than walking)..

Turned out to be a bit of a journey (3 buses and a ferry ride) but a heck of a lot cheaper to get to Victoria, BC (In all about $15-) as well as a being a bit of an adventure all of it's own, especially when a couple of the buses wouldn't stop for me...

But once I arrived in Vancouver I got to see some fantastic scenery including for some bizarre reason (though slightly more understandable than the pandas in Washington, DC) a whole bunch of randomly painted killer whale statues on street corners... ;-)

But one thing that was very cool about arriving on Victoria aside from the beautiful weather (I actually got sunburnt!) was I had made it! I have actually been to both ends of the Trans-Canada Hwy, all 7,762 (I think that's how long, feel free to correct me though) kms of it!

Though I do feel like a bit of a cheat as I didn't actually travel the full length of the hwy, there was that short flight from Halifax to Calgary (though I had gone overland from Toronto to Halifax)..



Left: Start of Trans-Canada Hwy at St John's,
Newfoundland
Right: Other end of Trans-Canada Hwy at Victoria,
British Columbia

Acupuncture
Most of my time on Vancouver Island seemed to spent lazing around and enjoying the beach (I fell asleep while sunbathing and hence the sunburn), but while I was there I'd developed a chest infection (cough, shallow breathing and all that), so considering I had to soon fly to the UK and knowing this could effect the flight for me I sought medical attention.
I ended up going to a Chinese medical practitioner, and I received my first ever acupuncture!  Some simple info for everyone:

• It doesn't hurt


• I actually felt better after it (though that could of been more from the
  nice relaxing atmosphere and massage)


• I had 7 needles in me while I was lying on my back


• About 8 needles while I was on my front


• 2 of those needles where in my ankles

And that my friends concludes my experiences of Victoria, BC...  Coming
up next is Tofino (a very funky town!)
B

Small update

Hi everyone!!

Sorry for being so slack on putting any posts together, haven't really got one together at the moment (in terms of what I've been up too), but I thought I'd just let everyone know that I am alive and well, and still having a blast..

Been travelling around Scotland for the last week (or so..) and surprisingly the weather has been grand to me! :-D But out in the Hebrides at the moment, which means that most of the hostels don't even have net access...

Anyways, I'll put up a post very soon about my wandering around:

• Vancouver Island
  
• London
  
• Brighton
  
• ... and various places around Scotland
  

I will add that I'm tempted to just work in a hostel up here for a few months, won't save any money, but it's been nice and relaxing! :-)

Cheers,
B

A marmot that I met at the top of the hike (at maligne lake)

Maligne Lake where I hiked up 520 metres in elevation (over a 11km hike)

one of the tall ships at night, in Halifax

Calgaries strange indoor gardens!

A friendly squirell in the Rockies (on my first day)

Vancouver

The Weather
Well when I got off the train in Vancouver (after a most enjoyable ride with Jamie from the tour), I found the weather overcast, and in fact quite wet... It reminded me of home.. ;-)


So for my first day in Vancouver all I did was find a decent supermarket and get supplies for the next few days and sit back and admire the rain pouring down... But that was ok. I felt like having a chance to just sit back and relax after the hikes through the rockies..

Jericho Beach to Downtown
Now if your staying out in Jericho Beach you'll know that to get to downtown there's really only one option (a 40min bus ride), that is unless your like me... Who decided just to wander along the beach enjoying the sand, surf and sun (which was now actually out!), so much of a wander that I made my way around the bay (all 13+ kms of it) climbing over rocks and generally enjoying myself and up into China town... Was good fun actually (and I slept well that night!)

And while in downtown I got to see some wonderful things:

• Ming Garden Really nice place that I can't actually remember the name of, gorgeous though! Small but really interesting...
  
• Worlds thinest office Not really that interesting, but funny story as the guy who built it did so because the council kept on taking back the land from him, so he built an office on what was left, 1.8 metres wide 2 or 3 stories high...
  
• Stanley Park Nice place, I think it's bigger than Central Park (New York), really cool especially with the beaches all around... :-)
  
• Final of the Fireworks competition And it was impressive!! I think Sweden was the one who won! Yay for them! ;-)
  

Next I'm going to try and post up a couple of photo's that I think people will quite like... Hope you enjoy!

B

Rockies - Part 2

To continue the saga of the Rockies, well not too much of a saga thus far...

Day 3: Collaseum walk
Today we were given a choice of climbing either Baldie or Collaseum (sp?) and we all agreed on going the longer (but less steep) mountain... Both rising up around 500 metres.

It was a fairly nice walk through lots of trees, except when relatively close to the peak I slipped on some scree rolling my right ankle... And as most of you know OW!! Not a nice feeling, but luckily I was wearing my hiking boots, I didn't do any damage to the ligament, and I had my ankle strap in the backpack..

Also it meant that I seemed to provide a great excuse for a few other people to rest up with me at a spot with a great view (luckily I'd done it just around the corner from a great resting spot!) while the others continued along the ridge to the summit of Collaseum.

So as you can imagine that was a bit of a downer, but the day was salvaged at the rustic hostel we stayed at that night (I say rustic as there was no running water, including plumbing..), where right beside a glacial stream there was a proper japanese style sauna! Fantastic! I was even able to convince a couple of other people to join me (and got thanked for it afterwards), so relaxing and refreshing to soak in that heat, jump into the glacial stream and then back into the heat again... Followed by getting dry in front of a lovely warm fire! :-D

If you want to visit this hostel (aparently there's great rock climbing nearby) it is Rampart HI

Day 4: Athabasca glacier ice walk
Well today we had the option of going on either a Snowcoach* ride or a hike on the icefield itself...

Most of us went for the hike, and all I can really say is WOW!! This would have to of been my favourite part of the tour, and yeah it's an extra charge, but seriously worth it! I swear the stream flowing on the glacier (aparently at 0.8 degrees celcius) looked like awesome waterslides! :-) And feeling the chill in the air as you walk on all that ice! At the bottom of the hill all you need is shorts and t-shirts, about 20 minutes into the hike I was glad for the long pants, jumper, beanie, gloves & waterproof jacket. :-D


Just do it!

* Thanks to some guy for posting up pictures of the Athabasca Glacier that I could point to.

Day 5: Saying g'bye
Well because of my plans to head to Vancouver, I and Jamie decided to hop off the tour a day early so that we could catch the train from Jasper (the tour was heading back to Calgary the following day, and the train only runs 3 times a week).

But before we headed off I got to spend a nice relaxing day out to Maligne Lake, but instead of hiking around it we caught a boat ride out to 'Spirit Island', so named not because of the First Nations (known more commonly as the Native Indians), but because a famous photographer/painter (I'm not sure which) won a competion with a picture at this spot, and titled 'Spirit Island' when asked why? He responded "It captures the Spirit of the Rockies"... And so the island was named.

And that was goodbye for the Rockies and a cool bunch of people that I had the pleasure of meeting, and off to Vancouver and Vancouver Island to relax and enjoy before flying to the UK.

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Rockies

Well when I got to Calgary and started chatting with the guy behind the desk at the HI, he highly recommended a very affordable and enjoyable way of seeing the Rockies: True North Tours

And I gotta say, it was well worth it! If you want a fun way of seeing the Rockies and actually getting out there to do some reasonable hikes (you can choose different levels), go with these guys!

The Group
Well what to say about the group? Other than that Joel (the guide) was a very excellent dude, who straight away got chatting about the dilemma of protecting the wilderness, and having a job bringing people into the wilderness (good luck on figuring that one out!) and the rest of the people made this a truely remarkable experience, thanks Jamie, Nick, Jess, Mette & Louise in particular!

Day 1: Lake Louise
Ok, I have no idea how to really describe the beauty of this place, it was absolutely gorgeous... Words really don't describe it.. So I'm going to pinch an image off one of those tourist sites:

After a short stroll around the lake, we got to sit back and enjoy a brewski in the Chateau bar, looking out the window at that wonderful view!

That night, I found that Glenfidich in Alberta only costs: $40-, but decided to split the cost of a Jameson's with Jamie instead...

Day 2: Marine Lake
The following day wanting to try a harder hike (rather than the flat stroll at Lake Louise) myself and a few of the others went on a 11 km hike up Larch Valley trail, for an increase of elevation of 520+ metres...

Not having as much energy as Jess (who's from the Swiss alps) I wasn't up for going the extra 200 metres elevation to the crossing over to Paradise Valley (aparently that's where some Grisly bears hang out...)

But I was glad of the time to just hang out, walk on some nearby ice and take some beautiful pictures of the sorrounding mountains, even got a nice closeup of a marmot crossing my path.... :-)

That night at a hostel that I've forgotten the name of, we got to have an ol' fashioned BBQ followed by Smores, and a jump into the hot tub... :-D Now that's the kind of roughing it I like!

Ok, I'm going to leave the rest for another post, I could write so much about each day, but trying to summarise and yet pass on the feeling of wonder for each day... That's hard to do... Suffice to say, I think I took well over a hundred photo's of the mountains we climbed or drove past.... :-)

Thanks Joel!
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Rant about Broccoli

What is it about Broccoli in America?!?! This is something I've been meaning to get off my chest for quite a while so now is the chance..

The Size
Basically as far as I can tell the US has an obsession with everything BIG, with the exception of vegetables (I had to ask for more lettuce at Subway!)... Broccoli on the other hand seems to come under a rule of it's own. I actually saw several meals being served that had Broccoli on the plate, but was it a small portion nooo it was the whole bloody head, the size of the one you buy at the supermarket to last a family of 4 for several meals!!

Where no Broccoli has gone before and please let it never go again
I have seen broccoli in just about everything, but the number of pizza's (particularly in New York) was quite disturbing, seeing a lovely cheese coated salami pizza with Broccoli on it is just plain wrong!

A possible reason
I have brought this topic up with a few people in my travels with the obvious question of huh? being foremost in my mind... And this is so far the oddest (but strangely compelling) reason I have come across so far:

In a statement relatively early on his presidency George Bush (Sr) made a statement to the effect saying "I'm the president and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli" you can even purchase a GB doll that says exactly that!

So the theory goes that as a bit of a backlash against GB's dislike of the humble broccoli Americans start to add it to everything and (as only they know how to truly do well) eat it to excess... Luckily GB (jr) doesn't seem to mind these little vegetables...

If anyone has some odd/bizarre theories on the American obsession with Broccoli please post a comment...

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Calgary

What to say about Calgary? Too be honest, not a fan of the place from a tourist perspective... There's a few things to see, but it just didn't grab me... Particularly as it's just not that friendly, though that could of been more the dodgy area of town that the Hostel is located in.

What to see?

• Devonian gardens is a really surreal place as it's a garden with ponds, fish, tortoise and all the usual garden stuff 'cept it's on the 3rd floor of a massive shopping mall... Literally you've got the usual shopping mall music piping through the garden and through the glass walls you can see the shops right next to these plants... bizarre!
  
• Prince's island nice little island that takes about 30 mins to walk around and admire, bit of nature amidst the concrete.
  
• Kensington I didn't find this until very late in my stay, and if I'd rocked up here first I'd probably have a different opinion of Calgary, very funky area with lots of cool shops.
  

And that's it.

Recommedation?
Only stay there the weekend, though I have heard that it's actually a really cool place to live there as the various communities are really nice, but as a tourist you don't get to see that...

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Tall ships and friends

Well my last post was about Newfoundland, and what I got up to there, so this one should be about Halifax, eh? Excuse the ramble that shall no doubt be part of this post, am very tired and trying to stay awake (it's only 3pm), also Halifax seems sooo long ago... But here goes *shake* *shake*

The setting sun
After having a great time in Newfoundland it was time to leave St John, unfortunately the only bus from St John to Argentia (which is the ferry terminal, as in there is nothing else there) leaves at 5pm, and considering the ferry doesn't actually leave until 11:55pm that leaves an awful lot of time to watch the sun set, also a good chance to play around with all sorts of ways of taking photo's of said sun setting... ;-) I'll have to post some of them up (I think I took about 30)

Interesting characters
Aside from travelling back to Halifax with Gavin (who intends to find some work there) I got to meet a couple of interesting characters on the way down, one in particular standing out.. A certain young lass who I only chatted to for about 30mins (never found out her name), who it turns out had arrived in Nth Sydney to head to Louisburg because she is an Underwater Archaeologist a proffession I had never heard of till now... But makes perfect sense.

She did offer to give us a lift to Louisburg and was contemplating dropping us off in Halifax, 'cept I don't think she fully understood the geography of Nova Scotia:

• Nth Sydney to Louisburg: 45 mins
  
• Nth Sydney to Halifax: 5+ hrs
  

Fully appreciated the offer though!

Tall Ships
Well onto actual halifax, I was lucky enough to be in Halifax on the day the Tall ships started arriving, aparently it only happens every few years or so, and so it's quite a big event with lots of tourists rocking up, and plenty of opportunities for people to hope on these Tall ships from around the world... Was actually quite interesting, and I hope that the guy I met in Newfoundland who was heading to Halifax in order to stow away in a Tall ship made it. :-)

More people!
This re-visit of Halifax (even if the other one had been ultra brief) was highlighted by the cool people I met in the hostel, most of them through the lovely Annemarie who is planning on staying even longer in Halifax (good for you!) so a big Hi everyone! to all that I met in Halifax!

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PS: Don't worry about going to the Citadel in Halifax, the one in Quebec City is much better!

St John cont... (whales & mile 0)

Ok, to continue...

Other than the exciting time of Jen's b'day not much really happened on the Sunday as it was pouring down with rain, and most of the day was spent recovering, particularly by Dane and Marcus! ;-P

Wandering the town
Now on my last day after getting up quietly so as not to wake the still slumbering gang (who probably wouldn't of woken with a herd of elephants!) I started to wander St John on my last day, having a look at the:

• mile 0 sign being the start of the Trans Canada Hwy
  
• labrador and Newfoundland statues Didn't actually realise this is where those dogs have originated from..
  
• the harbor admiring the harbor of St John, it is actually quite spectacular, and there's lots of signs about the history of the place along the waterfront.
  

Labrador & Newfoundland dogs

Signal Hill
This was all before starting my walk up the Battery (so named because there was a military batter for protecting the harbour), with a really nice hike up to Signal Hill a thouroughly cool place... Particularly as it was really misty and quite chilly... Added to the atmosphere.

Thoroughly beautiful place though!

Whales
While wandering along the path back down from Signal Hill, I kept hearing this Thump! ... Thump! coming out from the ocean, so at the next clearing I looked out to sea where I could see this foam as though something big had landed out there... And then what did I see? Two whales jumping up out of the water!! (I think they call it breaching) absolutely spectacular!! Went on for about 15 minutes! :-D

Not great resolution, but there's one jumping!

And that was the piece-de-la-resistance of my trip to Newfoundland... (by the way it's pronounced New-fen-land), fantastic place, the most friendly people I have ever met, and I wish I could spend longer there! One day I shall go back, and see if I can just spend a month or so making my way around the island... :-D

Now I am in Calgary and about to head on a Rockie adventure tour, so I may not get net access for about a week, in which case hopefully I'll be able to find another place (like here) where I can actually load some piccies up for everyone to see... (Big kudos to Dan for setting it up so I could load those up!)

Take care of yourselves everyone, and I hope you enjoyed this latest addition!
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Newfoundland

Ok, now to post a wee bit on the the Newfoundland trip... :-) Now that was a fun time!

The Ferry
For those who have been on ferries this part you can probably skip, me however I'd never really been on ferries before and so was actually quite enjoying the journey.. It's about 14hrs to go from North Sydney to Argentia (which is literally just the ferry station), followed by a 2hr shuttle ride to St John.

I was really surprised at how roomy and how much stuff was on the ferry, you don't need to get a cabin or bunk bed as the seats in the tv area recline and are actually quite cumfy, even if others found them not comfy enough to sleep on... They've got a decent-ish bar, games room, theatre, tv rooms, cafeteria, the works... :-) Finally got to see 'School of Rock' and some other movie I can't remember the title of (something about child-hood stars)

St John
Ok, this place is hilly! And considering that the hostel is up the top, and the shuttle drops us off down at the bottom, dang that was a walk! Added to the hostel is on Young St, which is not on the lonely planet map, and most of the locals don't know where it is... So after a long and sweaty uphill slog I and this other Aussie Marcus (that I met on the shuttle) made it to the hostel, and a needed shower, ahhh... :-)

The Gang
At the hostel I got to meet some great people who I proceeded to get into mishief with for the rest of my time in St John... They are:

• Marcus A bit of a nutty Aussie I happened to run into on the shuttle.. Have you found that number yet?
  
• Jen A full on party machine from Toronto, lots of fun though, particularly as it was her birthday over the weekend!
  
• Dane A Canadian from Jasper who I'd previously met in Halifax. What were those girls name again?
  
• Gavin Another Aussie from Brisbane who enjoyed a good drink and chatting up every female in uniform (not that I blame him, they seem to love the accent!) Hope you've found some work in Halifax
  

Cape Spear
Well on the first day in Newfoundland after that refreshing shower, we (being the gang 'cept for Dane), were able to talk Bill (the Newfie manager of the hostel, and a great guy) into driving us down to Cape Spear and showing us a bit of the local area... Now Cape Spear for those who don't know is the most easterly point of Nth America, and has one of the oldest lighthouses in Nth America (may even be the oldest..), it's also a great look-out point with some spectacular views! Jen tells us she even got to see some whales off the coast, but I saw none... :-(

Drinkies
Well I'll only mention this the once, but let's say the locals and us (being the gang) did enjoy to partake in the amber liquid, and we did... frequently... and at length... ;-) And much merriness was had by all! :-)

Ok, given the length of this post, I'm going to continue Newfoundland on another post... Where one of my personal highlights (a whale sighting) occurred, I'll also see if I can get a piccy up!

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