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The Family Bandwagon

Our family is spread out across the country and across the world, and what better way to keep in touch than a collaborative digital journal?

Monday 31 October 2005

Cutting Video

Hi all,

I got a copy of the video from cutting. You can see it on my website here.

The first four links are really low quality versions of my cuts (that blurry guy is me, i promise). The last one is the full 10 minute or so video. It's streaming, so you can watch it on broadband.. but if you're on dial up, i'd go with the first four.

I'll get a DVD quality copy of the video to bring home at Christmas.

Saturday 29 October 2005

Let's write a novel!

dscf4412-scaled-rotated.jpgSpent today walking around Edinburgh. Check out the photos!

I want to say, "It's finally the weekend again," but of course there isn't much difference between weekdays and weekends for me at the moment, so I'll say instead, "It's finally one day closer to payday again". As mercenary as that might sound, it is really what I'm waiting for -- payday means we're back on track, closer to the world-wise travelling lifestyle I yearn for (well, once the debts are paid off!!). Get there eventually, I guess.

In the meantime, I'm writing! I've signed up for NaNoWriMo -- the National Novel Writing Month -- which means I'll be writing (or attempting to write) a 50,000 word novel throughout November. I still don't know what I'll be writing about, not even the type or genre of the book, but it's something that I really want to do.

It's been running for a couple of years now, as I understand it. There's no real prize, just the satisfaction, and it's completely focused on quantity rather than quality -- I can just write 50,000 words of complete bollocks and I'll still get the little GIF or PNG "I completed NaNoWriMo '05" badge. But people from all over the world do it, and some even get published down the track so I live in eternal hope. (There is a matched NaNoEdMo -- editing your novel -- early next year.)

Anyway, I've got until just after midnight on the morning of the 1st to come up with a plot. And characters. And a title, I guess. Oh, I'm in way over my head!!

Thursday 27 October 2005

my garden..

irises make me sad - because they're flowers that timmy used to give me.. but these ones are different.. they're almost black when they're buds, and they're dark maroon when in flower..

spring is supposed to be a happy time.. look at the flowers in my garden.. they're all smiling - but i'm not.. *shrug*

hope next spring is better.. much better..

Tuesday 25 October 2005

to let you know..

you've probably all heard from Mum and Dad already, but i may as well put it here too..

timmy and i are breaking up.

he doesn't love me anymore, and sees no future for us (correct me if i'm wrong, timmy). i still love him, but understand that he cannot be a part of our relationship anymore, and without him - there is no relationship. i can hope that one day he'll have himself sorted out and realise how good we can be together, but i can't wait for that - so i'll be moving on. it's going to take me a while to sort it out, and i might even need a trip to the UK to help it all out, so G&D i'll be there next week. *smile* no, just kidding, i need to save the ticket money first..

apologies if i'm distant in the next few months.. i don't imagine this will be the easiest thing i've ever had to do.

hope everyone else is happy and well.

*hugz*

Correct Login This Time! :)

Heya Guys,
Well its monday, and I am still waiting to hear about my latest interview, hmmm more waiting, I dont think anyone could ever label Glenn and I as being impatient! Insane perhaps but not impatient. *maddened cackle*
I am very much doubting a positive outcome from the interview, but I am still hopefully for the job I applied and interviewed for nearly 2 months ago, the recruiter suggessted it could take up to 3 months, at the time I thought that it would be unrealistic for me to wait that long for a position. I really want this role, it would really be my dream job and if I felt that getting down on my knees and begging would get me the job I would do it.
oh and I have decided that I really do need to get a job for the money to buy some funky Gumboots!! They are a fashion statement here and I must have a pair. LOL Glenn thinks I'm crazy but think of the hours of entertainment I could have, and an excellent exercise program, I could try to jump in every puddle Edinburgh has to offer! hmmmm puddles!
oklies I am going to blog this now, Big hugz to everyone.

Saturday 22 October 2005

Baldy update

dscf4378-rotated-scaled.jpgQuick update on where I am now. Not much has changed -- I'm still waiting to hear whether I can start early at the Royal Bank of Scotland, but not expecting to. Today I received an email from Swinburne about my course, complete with application for graduation which I printed out from the local internet café. I just send it in and voilá! I graduate with a Bachelor of Multimedia!

Danielle shaved my head for me on Wednesday, which was nice. I was starting to look like a shaggy dog (in parts -- the other parts look like a considerably less shaggy skull-like dog, some kind of greyhound I guess). My head is a bit spotty, irritated by the event, but I did it again this morning and I've been looking after it, so I'm hoping my skin will clear up in time. (You can't really see it so much in this photo, but there's plenty of spotty spots for everyone!)

Otherwise all is well. I had my first "full" gong fu class yesterday, and I'm tired and sore today because of it. It is definitely fun, however, and something I'm going to continue with -- I should be a black belt in, oh, three weeks or so (look out, Chow Yun Fat!) Of course, they don't use belts at gong fu, so it will just be to hold my pants up, but I can still say I have a black belt in, er, Marks and Spencer? Yeah, that's hardcore!!

I've downloaded the photos from koffeekat.com, and will send if anyone wants them. I'm avoiding uploading them all to Flickr, since Lis said she didn't want them available to the general public, but I can send around as needed (even if you want the scaled versions -- I've written a Nautilus script (for Linux) so I can just right-click, then select "Scale" ... or "Rotate 90°", or whatever I want to do -- ahh, I love Linux!). Anyway, lemme know.

The weather is slowly getting colder here. It rained for some of today, but it's nothing extraordinary in my opinion -- just like a Victorian winter's day. Maybe if it snows (I still hope!!) it will seem a bit different, but for now I'm just happy to have some cooler nights.

Sunday 16 October 2005

Thanks everybody!

Thanks everyone for my birthday well wishes!! I had a really good birthday, actually, getting out of the house (for Danielle's interview) and then looking around a factory outlet warehouse place for most of the day -- window shopping only, of course, but still -- and finishing the night with a DVD, a bottle of wine and my beloved. (Hmm, might've been two bottles -- as Damien said, I was very tired the next day!)

It would be cool to see Damien doing his swordy swordy thing wouldn't it!? The closeup of the bamboo shows how sharp the sword is, indeed -- very, very cool. I know who to send now, should I get into any trouble with the Yakuza: Damiensan, the "Lone Wolf"!!

So you maybe all know we're still waiting and waiting for work. Danielle had an interview on Friday, as I say, but we've given up trying to guess a) how it went, and b) how long before we hear anything. My work is slowly coming to fruition -- I have an employee number now (I'm a number, not a person) and the application for a bank account (I'm going to get a Gold account! Lucky yuppy me!), but still no word on a start date earlier than the 8th of November. A shame, because I just want to get in there already!

If Danielle gets the job she had an interview for then I will be doing a lot more of the cooking, too -- I'll be 10 minutes walk from home, and she'll be an hour on the bus. I'd love the opportunity to get some practise!! Might have to get Jamie Oliver's cook book or something however. And some sharp knives, of course. Boys love knives. (Exhibit A: Damien and sword.)

I can't remember if I sent this link to everyone or just Mum and Dad -- here are some photos from their South Australia trip. Oh, and speaking of photos, where are your now Lisa? They disappeared for a while, and whilst they might be back I don't remember the URI, so post it here!

Thanks to Dayna for the members-only comments posting, a very good idea. Oh, and I've made the comments into "peek-a-boo comments" with a little Javascript, so you can click to read without going to another page. Click! Click!

What else? Naught to do but wait.

Tameshigiri

Today in class we were able to do actual cutting of bamboo with a live (sharp) blade. The practice, called "tameshigiri", was for testing the quality of swords back in the day, but it is a good way to check your own cutting nowadays (given that we don't actually fight people). If you cut badly, the bamboo will splinter or even not cut all the way through. If you cut smoothly, without force, you'll slide through the bamboo no worries.
I thought I was going to go really badly (splintering the bamboo, bouncing off it Tales of the Samurai style) but it was actually ok. I kept a couple of the pieces of bamboo as souvenirs.


This first picture shows my first and second (ever) cuts.. the first is on the right. It was just two standard cuts from right to left, angled down.


This second piece of bamboo was a bit fancier. My first cut was right to left angled down like previously, but then I flipped the blade and cut left to right angled up. It's more difficult to do, which is why I'm really pleased with how it turned out.. you can see the two angles are pretty close to each other. The bamboo was nice and green, which made it easier. It was also a bit thinner than the first one, although I think it's more about the angle and quality of the cut than the thickness of the bamboo.


This third photo just shows the detail of the end from my second cut. Looking at this and seeing the angle, whether it's splintered at all or if there's cracks is how you can see how your cutting has been.

I was really lucky too, I got placed in a group with the senior students. Technically it was only supposed to be Sempai and above (the rank above me) but Sensei Matthew put me in that group. We only had 7 in our group, and the juniors had about twice that, so we got more cuts each :) It also meant we could try fancy stuff like that double cut that I did.

Saturday 15 October 2005

Changed blog settings

..now only members of this blog will be able to comment..

hope no-one disagrees with this.. we can add whoever we want, but know who'll be leaving us comments. :)

hope everyone is happy and healthy.

Friday 14 October 2005

Happy Birthday Glenn

just thought i'd give the greeting its own heading.. *grin* i know Lisa and Damien have both already sent their good wishes.. so from all of us..

have a fantastic day, little brother. hope all is well on the Scottish front.

who'd be a manager?

Hi all,

Sorry I've been quiet for a while.. let me briefly explain it (i need to get to work soon)..

In the last 2 - 3 weeks, I've had to deal with a presenter going AWOL (there was a messy break-up within the team, and one of them decided to go home to Hobart without telling anyone.. it nearly got to the point where we got PS&D (Personnel) to contact next of kin!), same presenter now has a doctor's certificate of some kind that says they can't tour (and that's what they signed a contract to say they would do!), so we had to find someone else to take their place. Tour leaves at the end of next week, so we shuffled around the pairs (to the disappointment of some team members, and fair enough - they'd planned, written and rehearsed a show already), were looking for mish-mash solutions, and somehow managed to find a Q employee who is willing and able (and keen) to work for us for a month. *phew* So that was quite a while of not knowing what was going on..

We start interviews today - we're recruiting for the Presenter positions and all current employees have to reapply for their jobs. Some I'd like to keep, but some I DO NOT want back. i just hope the public service system allows us to not re-hire them (they wrote good applications.. so i'm a bit nervous about how they'll do today.. don't do well, don't do well..).

On top of all of this, we were having issues with IT Services.. they wanted to have all of the responsibility for our touring laptops, which left us with a non-acceptable level of risk (ie, if something went wrong on the road, we would have had to cancel shows and bring people home). we've now got an acceptable solution (if temporary).. but as long as this tour goes well, we can deal with the long term when we don't have people on the road!

so, in a nutshell - that's been my last couple of weeks. now i really need to get my skates on and get to work - interviews start at 9am sharp, and i'd like to have a little bit of time to prepare beforehand.

*hugz*

Thursday 13 October 2005

not fit, but immunised

well, it's true. we have not been making an effort to take regular walks...sorry damien. i just thought i would update what we have been doing, since i don't know about everyone else but i keep checking this for new info. trinity had her first round of needles and sabin today, poor darling. 3 needles! i had to feed her to help her feel better - lol. carolynn is away on school camp in roses gap, she comes home tomorrow. jared has been going to school with fiona (laura's mum, laura is carolynn's best friend, for those who don't know) i was going to take amy home (laura's sister) but their brother matthew has conjunctivits and amy doesn't want trinity to get it so she asked her mum to get her today.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GLENN
for tomorrow!

Saturday 8 October 2005

Happy Birthday Dad

We didn't forget you.. promise!!

Hope you had a fantastic day!! and yes, I'm backdating this entry.. bwahahaaaaaaa (evil laugh)..

Friday 7 October 2005

Half way to fitness

Hi all,

Yet another 6 week challenge update. We're about half way through. Last week I didn't actually get all the walks in (I think I missed two) but I'm making up for it this week by walking more than required. I'm at the 50 minute walk stage, which is two big loops after work for me (previously I'd just do one). Cheryl's doing 30 minute walks.

How is everybody else doing? Are you sticking to it? Noticed any differences in your level of fitness? One thing I've noticed is that the walk home from Iaido, which previously took 45 - 50 minutes, now takes about 35. Which is kind of annoying really, because that means when i get home I still have another 15 minutes walking to do.

Sunday 2 October 2005

Hey Damien, where are the photos of your birthday?