Busy Busy
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Well it’s been a busy weekend – I’m recovering pretty well now that the antibiotics are kicking in, but I’ve been working most of the weekend. Money in the bank I suppose – although all I want to do at the moment is sleep 
Yes yes I know I have been slack with the blog – this week has been pretty boring generally. I’ve moped about at home, slept on the couch, slept on my bed, drunk lots of tea, and lemsip… um… not eaten much, tried desperately to read through some hardcore books on qaballah and alchemy – a lot of which just isn’t penetrating the phlegm Apart from that I don’t think I’ve done much at all – every time I go out of the house I end up exhausted, and just the trip to the doctors is enough to make me feel like I’ve had a very full day, so it’s mostly just been lounging around. Oh we did get season one of stargate though, and I managed to convince R to sit about and watch most of it with me. She now agrees that stargate isn’t quite as rubbish as she thought, now that she’s had a better introduction to it 
Now all I have to do is convince her to let me buy the rest….
Lurgie
Blehh. I am as sick as a wossname – the standard thing, except this time it seems to be a bit worse than usual. I don’t think it was helped by the air travel, but in general I’m feeling very run down and sorry for myself. Bad throat, dizziness, fever, phlegm galore, sinusitis, coughing etc etc etc. The worst thing is this week I’m missing the workshops they’re doing to scope the Horizon project at work, after I’d convinced them to let me in as the tech representative! So instead of helping out I’m stuck at home making disgusting noises. Ah well, at least I’m getting a bit of rest – hopefully I’ll be back at work tomorrow although we’ll see what the doc says.
MXDU Wrapup
I was originally going to type a missive on each lecture I attended, but the flu or whatever it is I have quickly disabused me of that notion, so I’m just rounding it up now I’ve been ill all week so I’m late in getting to it.
The conference was a blast – everyone had fun and we learned a lot. Blackstone actually impressed us all – they always say the latest release is the most amazing but this time the new stuff is pretty awesome. We had a good time while up there, I got some time in the xbox chamber of death too. I mostly got my butt kicked in halo two until I found a sniper rifle and a nice little hole between two rocks Although all I really cared about was getting some more time in those wonderful ‘love sacs’ bean baggy thingies. They were very very comfortable. The food at the conference was exceptional, and the staff at the casino were very nice. All in all I thought it was excellently taken care of – the banquet especially was a highnote, making for an entertaining and very pleasant evening.
I managed not to lose my suitcase on the way back, although we nearly lost Tony Eventually back in Melbourne and ready to go catch up with some sleep – I’ll definitely be attending next year, and hopefully then I won’t have the flu!
MXDU keynote
The keynote this morning was a great introduction to the conference. Lots of animations and enjoyable presentations, and finally a great presentation from Tim Buntel on CF7 – a slideshow and code / app demo without saying a word, while he showed us all the new features. CF7 is genuinely looking awesome – the ability to generate lightweight and complete flash form controls, flashpaper and pdf generation and so much more – just with the use of some quite simple tags. And the event gatewaying is very very shiny. I’m looking forward to building some of this into Poetic License – especially the IM and the flash capabilities for things like the magnetic poetry. The future is looking very shiny.
MXDU
Well! Here we are – we made it intact, all six of us to Sydney. Someone nicked my suitcase from the carousel (didn’t bother looking at the labels and grabbed the first samsonite case he saw – moron) but the helpful staff at virgin blue managed to get ahold of him and get him to come back with the bag. We finally got to the hotel at 1500, then went out to get some food. Early registration was the go to get free stuff before they ran out The free stuff this year is actually quite impressive – we got very nice mxdu courier style bags with all sorts of mod cons, cybertool style swiss army knives, keyrings, bumbags, sweets, loads of proaganda etc etc etc. So we’re all happy with a swag full of new shiny things, and off we go to the pub. I stayed for a little while, but eventually headed back to my room to get some sleep.
Oh did I mention I’m as sick as a dog? Yup, in traditional Toby style I’ve picked up a nasty little cold and I’m all dizzy, feverish, half deaf and have a very sore nose 
Ah well, at least I’m here. This morning the sinus stuff isn’t as bad but I’m very feverish and have a quivering jaw and shaking hands, so just sitting quietly in the back row
It’s good to be here, and everyone is enjoyhing themsleves so far. I had to make a couple of wake up calls and hammer on doors this morning to get everyone out, hungover, ready for the start of the conference hehe. Breakfast was quite nice, plenty of good food although the coffee in the hotel sucks. MXDU coffee is a bit better fortunately…
Castle
I’ve been deliberating a lot recently about building a cubby house for B. I’m thinking I’ll make him a little castle, with a tower, and a trapdoor through the roof – maybe one of those cargo nets on the side so he and his friends can scale the walls, and of course a drawbridge.
I’m working on getting it designed properly – and R’s friend Tracy run’s a timber yard, so she’s offered to help me out with it. Apparently she can look over and correct my plans, tell me what bolts and timber I need and help me get it cheaper – which is awesome because I haven’t the faintest idea
I want to make it about 3000mm x 2500mm, and about 2800mm high at the top rampart of the tower. I’ve also decided that I’ll build it in sections that I can bolt together, with some of those bolts that have reciprocal nuts for doing exactly this kind of thing. That way when we move I can pull it apart and flat ship it in pieces.
The biggest challenge so far (seeing as how I haven’t gotten to any of the actual building or refining the designs) has been to come up with a mechanism for the trapdoor. I want the trap door to be solid enough that B can stand on it while he’s on the roof, and to seal so the rain doesn’t come through – but I also want to make sure he can’t drop it on his head or his fingers as he’s climbing the ladder.
While chatting with Big Michael and Sian on saturday morning over breakfast (which was lovely) I came up with the idea of using something along the lines of a couple of big cogs on the outside of the castle. The idea being that inside, there would be a rotating handle on the ground floor, and one on the upper wall – both of which turn together. There would be teeth on the handle so that when you stop winding it it automatically locks at that position, and the lock could be lifted from either side of the roof.
The idea is that B could crank the handle and get the trapdoor open, then climb the ladder and use the handle at the top to crank it back down. This way he doesn’t have the opportunity to drop it on himself – am I clever or what.
Now I just have to get the designs right and actually build the damn thing.
Catharsis
I wrote a rather cathartic email yesterday. I had been putting off replying to my mother’s email for a little while, as I wanted to take some time over it – so I did the whole thing yesterday. Basically I laid out a number of things about my own religious beliefs or lack of, and explained how I felt about hers – something that she’s never clearly understood (in part because I never explicitly mentioned it before).
I’m sure the email will not meet with the best reception, and I know some of it will sound a little harsh but I’m glad I wrote it – I feel so much better for having gotten it off my chest, and now I’m beginning to feel a little freer in exploring the stuff I’ve been getting into lately.
It’s odd – I’m 25 and this is the first time I’ve felt free to explore these things and make up my own mind – and it feels great So no doubt I’ll be getting stuck in with a vengeance in the near future…
First day of school
Well I’m late in writing it, partly because I’ve been busy and partly because I’m still thinking about it.
We took B up to his school for his first day in prep – I took the morning off so I could be there too. They were supposed to go in at 0915 but it seems they went in a little early, as we got there a minute or two after nine and they were lining up to go inside. B saw his little friend Jasper, and dashed over to say hello – which prompted Jasper to immediately drop his schoolbag and dig out the birthday party invitation he had for him. That important business concluded, all seemed well and B just went straight inside! Talk about your anti-climax. I mean, I’m pleased and proud that he wasn’t at all upset but I still felt a little odd just watching him dash straight in. We weren’t the only ones – a number of the parents just stodd about for a moment, looking nonplussed, then some of us followed them in for more photographs and just to take a peek
B looks incredibly cute in his school uniform. It seems to be a much bigger thing to us than it is to him – I guess it’s really just an extension of creche for him, especially as his creche was so good and the school is so similar. So far he’s really enjoying school – and the teachers are giving great reports about him. R has done the PMP class once so far – it’s the prep movement class, kinda like a little kids phys. ed – and she enjoyed that. My little moschops is growing up – at least it will be a good while before he’s a teenager