/devices/pseudo/bitbucket@0:bitbucket        

Now *this* is some serious storminess!

While lurking over on freenode, I saw this url. Amazing photos of some insane storm activity related to the recent eruption in Chile.

Check it out!

Posted at 07:32PM, 07 May 2008 by James C. McPherson in /General  | 

Another nephew

Got the call from T at about 10am - E had a C-Section around 0900 this morning, and one healthy 2.73kg (6lb in oldspeak) boy was born. Looks a bit more like his maternal granddad than his older brother does, but I reckon he'll still have a reddish beard one day

Mum and bub both well. Very happy.

Posted at 11:11PM, 01 May 2008 by James C. McPherson in /Status  | 

These shoes were made for riding

Over the last few weeks when J and I have been cycling along the bikepath I've gotten to thinking that it would be really nice to make use of the Shimano SPD cleats that are on the other side of my SPD-M324 pedals.

During the week I rocked up to the LBSG (that's "local bike shop guy" thankyou Spoonboy) in the shop at 80 Albert St under the Sun office and got me a pair of these:

Aka Shimano SH-M122P. Not too fussed about the pearly-whiteness, but it'll do. Made sure I got them adjusted for my gait etc, and spent a few minutes on Tuesday evening figuring out how to clip in and out, so on Wednesday I was all set ready to go.

Managed to get myself out for a quick (12-14min) 4.5-5km circuit around the local area every morning this week, which I'm really happy about. Might not get going tomorrow until much later, but I'll definitely do it. The muscles just above my knees are telling me lots of things now, and I just hope that persistence in keeping on with the training rides will eventually pay off.

Come to think of it, J and I still haven't been to Brisbane Forest Park, but perhaps we might make it there this weekend. Really gotta get ourselves off the pavement and onto something less regular.

Technorati tags: MTBA, Mountain Bike, Shimano, Cleats, Shimano SPD, SH-M122P, PD-M324, exercise

Posted at 10:18PM, 21 Feb 2008 by James C. McPherson in /Sport/Cycling  | 

Chip has started roasting his own

Last week, iirc, Chipdancer took delivery of a coffee roasting unit. Shipped from Taiwan and he got a good price.... but of course, being a coffee nut, that's just encouraged him to order more beans. (He ordered mundo kgs today).

I went round for a triple shot on Tuesday morning, and experienced some of his first batch at 36 hours post-roast. It was quite bitter, but not sour, and most definitely not rubbery. I know that's a strange term to use for coffee, but it did seem the most appropriate term to describe the commerically roasted and somewhat older beans we tried for a followup doubleshot.

I'm really keen to see him keep track of his bean origins, what program settings he's using on the roaster, and tasting notes. I reckon it'll be a good thing to do, especially since coffee really seems to be what makes him tick these days.

(I'm really keen to get some of J's mother's Central Qld coffee done in Chip's roaster and then properly ground and espressed. That would be a very good thing!)

Oi! Chip! Hurry up and get some notes on your blog ya slacker!

Technorati tags: coffee beans, coffee roasting, espresso, grinding, coffeesnobs, methodical

Posted at 10:07PM, 21 Feb 2008 by James C. McPherson in /Coffee  | 

A topical piece of photoshoppery

I got this picture from my sister. I have no idea who invented the image, nor who owns the copyright.

These are apparently all the rage in the monsoonal areas of Queensland like Mackay, Emerald, Longreach.....

Apparently

Posted at 09:05AM, 18 Feb 2008 by James C. McPherson in /Status  | 

I got a recording of Kennedy's cadenza

After my engagement in town ended this morning, A and I went off to JB Hifi on Adelaide St to kill some time. Found our way to the classical section, and there was a copy of Kennedy's recording of the Beethoven and Mozart violin concerti. With the cadenza I so wanted.

Well.... not quite exactly as I remembered it, but still really really good. I wish we'd hung around at the end of the concert - I might have been able to get it autographed. *shrug* I'll live.

For the technical details, have a wander over to http://www.kennedybeethoven.com - and be aware that EMI assume that you really do want to have a popup to present the info. Sod that boring old concept of "here's a window let's use the space within it"....grrrrrrr....... Idiots.

The music is good. Go get it.

Technorati tags: Nigel Kennedy, Dene Olding, Polish Chamber Orchestra, Mozart, Beethoven, Violin Concerto, K218, Opus 61, EMI Music, IDIOT GRAPHIC DESIGNERS WHO DON'T KNOW HOW TO USE THE WEB

Posted at 03:03PM, 04 Feb 2008 by James C. McPherson in /Music  | 

There must be some rule about this

Today I pumped water from the tank into the pool (with our Onga RivaFlow ittybitty pump) ... and while J and I were off experiencing Sweeney Todd in Gold Class @ Indro, it seems to have been bucketing down all through.

That makes 4 from 4 - whenever I put water back into the pool, it rains heavily. Note that because I don't wash our car there's no correlation to be had on that front.

Weird. Must be some science-y reason for I'm sure.

Posted at 06:45PM, 03 Feb 2008 by James C. McPherson in /General  | 

Interesting stuff, general...

While perusing David Dale's SMH blog, I followed on the comment links to Encyclopedia Dramatica's entry on Australia.

Quite funny, but very very biting. I particularly enjoyed the photo captions of Koalas, and the pics of Kevin Rudd.

Separately, I hit CNN to catch up with the news in Jesusland and realised that CNN is running a political futures market, with a separate sub-market for Super Tuesday. It's very interesting for me to be able to watch how this all plays out, not least because I reckon the whole Electoral College concept is a massively anti-democratic concept.

Posted at 10:51AM, 03 Feb 2008 by James C. McPherson in /General  | 

Nigel Kennedy and the SSO @ QPAC

Last night J and I hopped on the bus to have a good night out - dinner on Little Stanley St at Obsession, followed by Nigel Kennedy and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra playing Mozart's Violin Concerto No.4 in D, K218 and Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D major Op, 61.

He's a strange bloke, is Nigel. Cockney sorta accent, very interesting stage manner (including gangsta style handshakes with the concertmaster) and he "warmed up" with the Praeludium from Bach's Solo Partita number 3 (in E Major). I've been listening to Richard Tognetti's version of the Solo Partitas and Sonatas for about a year now and it was very interesting to hear the difference in tone. Even allowing for the fact that we were sitting up the back of the QPAC Concert Hall, Kennedy's version seemed quite a bit softer in tone, though every bit as vibrant.

The Mozart... well, I reckon Mozart has written better works so I found it quite disappointing. Except for Kennedy's cadenza, that is - first time I've experienced a "whole of orchestra" cadenza. It was really, really good. I hope he records it at some point because it's definitely worth hearing.

To round out the first half, Kennedy and the SSO Concertmaster, Dene Olding (who he went to Juilliard with) played some short Bartok pieces. Never been a fan of Bartok, really, so this left me cold.

The second half was Beethoven, and a much better piece. Where I found the Mozart to be sort of thin and ill-defined, Beethoven's work was well fleshed out, had serious depth and had much greater exploration of its themes. Of course, I know, he had a greater range of instruments to work with and he wrote it aged 36 whereas Mozart was 19 when he wrote K218. And it shows.

To finish off the concert they then played Csardas and an arrangement of Hendrix's Purple Haze. Reminded both J and I of Fourplay String Quartet in style, just a bit. Interesting to experience a similar crossover for classically-trained musicians when they try their hand at Jazz or Rock. Very interesting indeed.

So we had a very nice evening, caught the bus home and turned into pumpkins.

Technorati tags: Nigel Kennedy, Dene Olding, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Mozart, Beethoven, Violin Concerto, K218, Opus 61, QPAC, Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Obsession Chinese Restaurant

Posted at 10:36AM, 03 Feb 2008 by James C. McPherson in /Music  |  Comments[4]

How to explain the "stay-at-home server" to your kids

Alan showed me this link: "Mommy, Why is There a Server in the House? (Helping Your Child Understand the Stay-At-Home Server)"

It's hilarious, and I particularly love this slide.

And it's a real book, too - check out amazon.com's page for it,

The whole premise had me rotflmao. Nice one, Microsoft

Posted at 11:08AM, 14 Jan 2008 by James C. McPherson in /General  | 

Quote of the day, for yesterday

In #opensolaris yesterday (2nd Jan):

Jan 02 16:14:20 nayyares        Tempt, e^ipi whats the resolution for 2008?

Jan 02 16:14:32 Tempt           1920x1200

Much rotflmao ensued.

Posted at 09:38AM, 03 Jan 2008 by James C. McPherson in /General  | 

Christmas 2007 - nice and quiet, just like I wanted

Now that we've got a bit of distance between Christmas Day and now, I figure I've unlaxed enough to be able to blog.

It's been interesting having all of J's family staying with us - I haven't had to cook for more than 6 people in many years. Last night's Chicken in Soy was a case in point, and the lesson I learnt was "always cook more vegies!"

We've had a very quiet few days and apart from codercat deciding that I really should be getting up with the birds too (0400!!) it's been quite relaxing. We enjoyed mango daiquiris yesterday, courtesy of J's sister who used to work in a bar; young T has been doing laps of the loungeroom, living room and just outside, and we made sure to jump in the pool on Tueday.

Yesterday morning J, Spoonboy, S and I wandered in to GoMA at South Bank to see what the Andy Warhol exhibition had on offer. Parking was easy (well, it was Boxing Day) and cheap, entry was AUD20pp and we saw a massive amount of Warhol's work covering (as far as I could see) his entire professional life.

As somebody with an interest in photography, I was particularly interested in his use and extension of photography in his work. I'm not quite sure how I might describe it just yet (still have to read the exhibition catalogue book), but I found it very powerful while at the same time subtly disconcerting.

Today after taking S+C off to Lennon's for an overnight stay (a present from myself and J), J, C and I took young T for a walk to the park up the street, then for a roundabout meander along our street. Managed to get some semi-decent photos of our nephew on a swing, then when we got home I snapped him some more around home. The killer photos though are the ones from dinner (I made spag bol), where he was so keen to be at one with his dinner that he decided to wear the spaghetti (nose) and bits of broccoli (eyelid)! Just you wait for your 21st, kiddo, then all will be revealed S+C and C+A will be heading home with a cd each of photos, should be a nice memento of our first Christmas here.

It's been a good time over the last few days. I just wish I could get a bit more sleep.

Posted at 09:55PM, 27 Dec 2007 by James C. McPherson in /Status  | 

Who is Stephen, and why should I trust him?

Overnight I received this email:

Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2007 14:35:01 -0800

Message-Id: [200712152235.lBFMZ1tV020872-AT-crawler002.qts.spock-DOT-com]

From: Spock Team [donotreply-AT-spock-DOT-com]

To: [me]

Subject: Stephen has requested your trust on Spock



Hi James C. McPherson,

Stephen has added you as a trusted contact on Spock.com.  By accepting

trust, you will be able to search each others' network, share contact

information, and get news.

Get started here:  [url]


-

Unsubscribe:  http://www.spock-DOT-com/do/public/request_unsubscribe

I've got a few questions here. Firstly - why Stephen? I know perhaps 6 or 7. Secondly, wtf is spock.com? Thirdly, why is it that if I go to www.spock.com, I get see this image?

I know nothing about this so-called "trusted" social networking site, and I'm most definitely *NOT* going to sign up for something where the top level website is so opaque that you can't even find out what they are.

If you work for spock.com, or you're the Stephen who added me as a trusted contact, I'd appreciate you leaving a comment on this entry to help me figure out whether you're a bunch of spamming 419ers, or real people who have something real to offer.

Technorati tags: social networking, trust, spock.com

Update, 21:30 I got a comment from Stevel 'fessing up to triggering the email, and another comment from Jay -AT- spock.com reassuring me that they don't send un-authorised emails. So having a reply-to address of donotreply@spock.com is fine, in his book.

Which is great, fine and dandy, except that I still cannot actually find out wtf spock.com actually is or does. Or who runs it. Or what its goals are. Or why I should provide yet another social or professional networking site with my personal details.

If you want my trust, you need to show me who you are and what you do, and you need to be transparent about it. No info, no joinee.

Oh, and Stevel? Are you sure your Nigerian Uncle only has USD15,000,000? Wasn't he the poor one in the family?

Posted at 02:29PM, 16 Dec 2007 by James C. McPherson in /General  |  Comments[2]

Roller door now rolling down as well as up

Today I got a servicedude out from Steel-line doors to service our garage roller door and remote operation stuff. He managed to tell me that the unit I had the primary door connected to had a faulty logic board, so he swapped the two units around.

He didn't remember to swap the radio receiver with it though. This meant that my remote control didn't actually work with the powered-on door opener/closer unit. Damn!

When Chip came over for coffee this arvo, we spent 5 minutes looking at both units, and very quickly realised that the radio receiver needed to move in order to enable the opening and closing remote control functions. One very quick swap later, and joy had returned, along with a working carkey-sized transmitter unit which actually did tell the open/close unit what to do.

J will be pleased

Posted at 09:23PM, 14 Dec 2007 by James C. McPherson in /Status/House  | 

Best photo caption I've seen in a while

The caption comes from this El Reg article:

Forget test-tubes and blackboards, this is proper science.

That's for damned sure!

Technorati tags: The Register, Physics, El Reg, www.theregister.co.uk

I assume that the photo is Copyright 2007 The Register

Posted at 08:54AM, 12 Dec 2007 by James C. McPherson in /General  |  Comments[1]