Sasquatch Spotted

Wandering around the forests near Banff, Canada. He's very stylishly dressed, may I say.

Summer in Vancouver

This was the view on Grouse Mountain above Vancouver yesterday. It later got even cooler when a freezing mist hit me, not to mention some snowballs.

Bye

Bye suckeroos ! I'm heading to the North American summer. No more chilly winter days and constant rain. Oh wait a minute, the forecast for Vancouver is 17 degrees and showers. And San Francisco is even colder at 16 degrees. What's going on? Surely some mistake.

Guest Blogging

With my long service leaving starting next week, I'll be unable to update my blog regularly. So in my place, I've arranged a series of guest bloggers, starting with the one and only Lady Gaga whose topic will be the Claremont Football Club. She is followed by Germaine Greer who has been asked to contribute some movie reviews (starting with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows), and then we'll be hearing from Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop who will be covering all the local events at Floreat Forum. She'll also have some tips and tricks for doing data analysis using SAS.

I'll be back in the saddle in early September.

Note This !

And here was my next wallpaper from 1994. You can imagine how motivating it was slogging away at important work all day with a $50 note in front of my eyes.

Let's Head Back to 1994

This was the wallpaper on my work computer back in 1994. Would you believe that I created it myself, in Microsoft Paint? I was working on a 386 running Windows for Workgroups 3.1 with a 15" CRT monitor. Speaking of monitors, I'm so thankful only 17 years later, I've recently graduated to a 17" monster. I honestly don't see any use in going bigger.

Chilled Pants

Given Perth's current record cold snap,  naturally the denizens of my frigid office resorted to turning on their personal radiators to maximum. But no, this feeble attempt to stay warm was apparently illegal - we got a call from our facilities office to say that the thermostat on the wall was reading 28 degrees, and so we weren't allowed further warming. The only good point about this ridiculously stupid ruling was that we did end up warming ourselves due to our vigorous laughing. The actual temperature of our office at this time was around 12 degrees with a wind chill factor of 8 degrees.

Half a century since Perth has stayed this cold

Brett Dutschke, Monday July 11, 2011 - 18:22 EST

Perth has just had its coldest day in two years, and is having its longest run of days below 17 degrees in 51 years, according to weatherzone.com.au.

Cloud and rain today kept the city from warming past 13 degrees, five below the July average maximum, making it the coldest day since June 2009.

Perth has now failed to warm to 17 degrees in each of the last 10 days, the longest run this cold since the winter of 1960, when there were also 10 days. It was slightly colder during the 1960 run, with maximums averaging 15.1 degrees, compared to 15.5 this time around.

1938 was the last time there was a longer run as cold as the current one, 12 days. The record is 16 days, way back in 1908.

http://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/half-a-century-since-perth-has-stayed-this-cold/18023

Colours of the Evening

A Convoluted Journey

When I ordered my new watch, I specifically wanted to buy something that wouldn't have to be shipped from overseas, because I needed it urgently. And so I went to an Australian website that promised delivery within two to four days. So imagine my bemusement when I submitted my order and an automatically generated email told me that I'd be waiting from six to ten days. More digging around showed that the so-called Aussie website was located in Singapore. Here is the FedEx record showing the exotic journey of my little watch before it finally arrived eight days after ordering.

I've learnt my lesson and I won't be buying any more watches online. Next time I'll make my own from scratch.

Snuggies for Muggles

In further developments in fashion, I've now learnt of Snuggies and how they can help you survive the bleak winter nights, enveloped in warmth. Basically a blanket with arm holes worn backwards, you won't see me on the streets on one for fear of being regarded as mentally deficient, but they could be handy around the house. Or if your kids or colleagues get too restless, use one as a straight-jacket perhaps.

A Minute of Silence Please

Hearing that Book Depository had been bought by Amazon brought several tears to at least one of my eyes. Now that they're swallowed up, will I still be able to buy brand new paperbacks for $6 including postage from the other side of the world? It's a very sad day.

Yet Another New Watch

My enormous new watch arrived yesterday, wrapped in no less than six packages and two layers of bubble-wrap. It's meant to be tough and nigh on indestructible, so why is this necessary? It's water-resistant to 200m, and can be dropped off the top of buildings. It could survive a plane crash.

In any case, here it is. This photo is life-size, so I'm having to wear it around my leg to cope with its gigantic size.

With this device, I'll never be lost again. The built in compass will always tell in which direction the north pole is, and surely that's useful information in some way? Err.

Jeggings and Pyjama Jeans

Until this week, I was totally unaware of two fashion crazes sweeping the world. And now I know, my life is enriched. Firstly, jeggings are leggings that resemble jeans. Their ability to hug the figure yet feel comfy are making them increasingly popular. Keep an eye out and you'll see them everywhere. I spotted a pair on the way to work today.

And even more recently, pyjama jeans have been sighted on the streets. Being warmer than jeggings, they're more of a winter item. However the world is not ready for men to wear these. But once I see David Beckham taking the plunge, I'll know it's time.

Many thanks to the office fashion maven who pointed out these new developments. I'm so out of the loop, I was still not sure whether cut-off jeans were acceptable, or whether to buy flares or skinny jeans.

Living in the Past

As is typical, a slow midwinter rainy day dragged on after lunchtime. Stuck in an office with two sleeping colleagues trying to reach home-time, I tried to wake them up with provocative questions. This is what I asked them:

1. Which decade would you choose to live in, from 1900 to the present and into the future? My answer was the present was as good as any. Being spoilt by today's technology, I'd struggle to adapt to earlier times. The 70s and 80s would be superficially attractive with a more intact environment, less congestion and a simpler life, but being without a smartphone, no internet, and limited tv options would be too much of a sacrifice.

One colleague preferred to be transported to the rock'n'roll era in the US, to be part of the Happy Days gang, dancing in a diner with Fonzie. And another chose the 1960s in Perth.

When would you choose?

Another question follows shortly...

And the next question is:

2. If you had to work with a team consisting entirely of men, or entirely of women, which would you choose? Opinions on this are split. Some blokey blokes prefer to be buddies with men because they think they can have more fun without offending anyone, while some other men prefer to work with women because they often communicate more effectively. What do you think?

Planning a Road Trip

Given that my family requires each member to undertake at least one road trip per year, I've been working on my next one. And my logical (but old-fashioned) approach would be to buy a large map of the US, stick pins in it and mark a route. But being partially geeky, I decided to pretended I was Bill Gates and imagined his approach. He would tell me to use Bing Maps, with some superficially attractive solution that was actually copied from a competitor, but mangled and Microsofted, so that's how I came up with my final solution - Google Maps. If you sign in, you have an option called My Places that lets you stick electronic pins in a map, and tie electronic string from one pin to another. Have a play; it's quite impressive. And the bonus is that you can share it with your friends and family and your stalkers !

Car or Fighter-Jet?

Next time I want to buy a car with more buttons.

Roads Turned to Rivers

In the excitement last night of the biggest June downpour in 18 years, I was driving around with my camera. But my windscreen wipers got in the way of any good shots when the rain was heavy so I had to wait till it abated before any of my shots worked.

Mirror Lake

This one is from my New Zealand trip in 2004 - Lake Matheson. It's a very low res photo because the high res version was stored on my pc when the hard disk died a few years ago. I do have the print still and I'll have to scan it in one day. This particular lake is renowned for reflecting Mount Cook on its waters on clear days.

New Technologies

Lewk's Photos has recently discovered JavaScript. Apparently it's managed to exist for the last 15 years without making itself known to me. But now that it's here, I'm embracing it with all my brain. Don't fear though, I will not harness it for dark purposes...

Par Carking

It's amusing watching car park behaviour. In the one I often use, the most desirable spot is at the bottom left, closest to the building. So naturally you'd drive around to look for a spot near there. But in the morning when the car park is filling up rapidly, does it make sense to drive past the last few vacant spots near the entrance at the top right in order to find a great spot? Err no. It takes about 20 seconds to drive through the car park, and it takes about 35 seconds to walk it. So you're saving 15 seconds of your day, but you're risking the car park filling and having to walk from much further away.

The second irrationality on display here is that people use a heuristic to judge the walking distance they are trying to minimise - they generally try to park in the left row first, and then the middle row and then the right row. But the diagram clearly shows that the bottom of the right row is closer than the top of the left row. This faulty thinking is forcing people to walk upwards of 10 metres further than they should.

Blood Groups

What's yours? O / A / B / AB ?

Mine was recently tested, and it suprisingly came back as C+, which stands for cocoa. Instead of a regular blood transfusion, please feed me Cadburys bars.

Hakea Balls

Here's a closeup of the pincushion hakea that's proven so popular with the birds. It looks like something from outer space. Surely it doesn't grow on a tree !?

Drinking Nectar

Seen in my backyard on the weekend, a New England honeyeater. The photo is a bit fuzzy - I couldn't get too close because he's so shy. And so I had to max out the zoom, and didn't use a tripod.

New Improved Hampton Court

Thanks to Sir Bod, the world renowned colour and photo expert, my original photo of Hampton Court is now much richer and warmer and crisper.

Watery Drops

Yet another downpour drenched Perth today. Here is the proof.