Nothing to see here

Ah yeah, the trouble with these darn blogs is that unless you have a real focus, they rely on outrage.

The trouble is, most of my outrage is directed at work - with workmates and students and all that. Stuff I can't really talk about, although I would love to. Insane students - check. Crazy staff - check.

Oh well, you'll have to settle for second-best. My non-work life, which unfortunately is a lot happier. And a bit more boring.

I have a fantastic wife that makes me happy. Extremely happy.
She's younger than me - by quite a bit. One of my students interrupted in the middle of a class and said "There's a rumour that you have a girlfriend half your age". I said "she's my wife". He said "Awesome!". See?
And a cat. And kids who are, so far, relatively normal. An ex-wife. Oh better not go there - too many things could go wrong if she read this as she's only just talking to me again. It all went a bit odd after I got married to my new wife in Las Vegas by Elvis.

I have a 900cc motorbike to get around on, I write songs to vent my frustrations and any remaining angst. I play tambourine on Thursday nights (and sometimes Friday and Saturday nights too), so that gets any remaining anger out of my system.

This is not to say my life is without it's share of problems. There's drama every week.
But to be honest, there's so much good stuff that it makes it hard to get a decent "whine" on.
Still - I promise I'll make a better effort next week ;o)

Sick again!

I've noticed that I get a nasty cold this time every year - I think it's probably down to two things;

The first month of school term - very stressful and tiring getting everything and everyone up to speed. Early starts and late finishes and not a lot of sleep over this month - and everything is urgent. Gargh!

Close contact with hundreds of students - fresh germs everywhere! I guess we'll all eventually get used to each other.

I has a new Pack-Rack

I finally went out and bought a pack-rack and bag for my bike - thank goodness no more hauling 10kgs of laptop and various other junk to work on my back. I have to admit it wasn't cheap for the the rack and the bag - NZ$380 for both - but I've been wanting them for a couple of years now.

The quality of the Ventura rack itself looks quite good - although the little foam pads to fill the gaps around the mounting bolts were pretty cheap and nasty (and not sticky on one side like the manual claimed). A bit of silicon seal did the job of stopping water getting under the rear panel - at the expense of not looking quite so tidy.

The Sanremo rack bag is huge - it has more zippers than I've ever seen on any bag ever.
Some of the zips go round and round in spirals! That's so you can expand the bag out to an enormous size. I can fit my entire existing backpack with laptop inside the new rack bag!


It has some other cool features - zip-off day bag (kinda like a huge bum-bag - eeeew won't be using that) and a permanently-connected rain cover that pulls out of a special pocket and goes over the whole thing. The bag is shower-proof anyway, but I guess for torrential downpours this would be a good option.

Looking forward to trying it out for real on Monday!

Ah whiskies, my good friends

I must admit to a penchant for fine Scottish single malts. At the moment I prefer the Laphroaig when I'm in a peat-y mood, and the Double Wood is rich and sweet, nice for those midnight snacks - er nightcaps.

Insomnia - I fight you with the power of the mighty double wood!

LAN Game Face

Every fortnight or so, I get together with my buddies for a LAN-game session. We're all on Macs, so the choice is a little more limited than PCs, but after trying various different games over the last few years, we've settled on UT2004 with some tasty mods - it's fast and there's lots of choices over the evening for various gameplay types.

It seems like gaming is a bit like the modern equivalent of the ol' poker game for our generation of geeks - the gaming is just a set-up for various "burns" and set-up jokes, and after most sessions our ribs are just as sore from laughing as the trigger fingers on our mousing hands. It's also about just catching up and spinning yarns, comparing audio recording software, listening to the latest tracks, and griping about our respective jobs.

So it's chips and dip rather than cigars. There's beer and wine and then eventually a nice cup of tea and a choccy bikky to finish up with, before everyone heads off home sometime after midnight. It's a good night in.

TV ads suck

I understand that TV broadcasters have to make money from ads to survive - I totally get it!

But, as a viewer, I've reached my breaking point - I can't bear to watch TV because the ad breaks are so disruptive. Movies are the worst.



Don't get me going on how much gets edited out of a typical TV program to make space for ads - which you don't always notice until you see the series on DVD and there's a bit that was obviously missing - sometimes even affecting the plot!

And while I'm at it - turn down volume on the flippin' ads! People shouldn't HAVE to ride the volume on the remote during ad breaks.

I'd rather watch DVDs or browse the interweb now anyway, so it's your loss, TV companies.

Man-Friend

It's odd being a man-friend.

I went and helped my friend pick up a set of drawers today that she'd bought online - she wasn't sure they'd fit in her car. I don't mind doing that sort of thing - it forces me away from the computer for a change.

I packed tools just in case we had to take the legs off or something.
Apparently that's a typical guy thing.

It's funny how guys have their own special role with female friends.

We're not usually the one that's there to be the shoulder to cry on when things go wrong.
It tends to be the more supportive and practical roles - like helping move furniture, fixing things when they break, and being the moral support person when purchasing items or going anywhere remotely scary.

Although I have to say that I draw the line at holding handbags when they go to the toilet, though.