Here's a little game I like to call, "Down Here from Up There".
Since someone linked to a few Adelaide maps recently, I've been viewing Google Maps for hours, finding all the familiar places & looking at a few places from above where you normally just can't get to.
The first "Down Here from Up There" is the humble abode. Dead centre in the pic is my house (with the orange roof) & tennis court across the road. The tennis court belongs to the large house with the greyish roof, the occupants of which used to own every bit of land in this photo & a whole lot outside it.
Next is my current place of employment. The dark grey building, just below the road & just left of centre, is the hotel.
The little peak pointing downward at the top of the river is the position where I took the following panorama from a few weeks back.
Now, of course there is no way to prove the next one, but I may have well have found my car... from space!! The images on Google Maps are over well over a year old, since Magic Mountain (the big building at the bottom) was knocked down & a few other anomalies are present (such as no Harbour Town). Due to the lack of cars parked in the photo, I'm deducing this shot must have been taken during the working week. The spot in question was my allocated park while I worked at the Pier Hotel & the other spots match where other staff at the time parked. If it's correct, That's pretty cool!
There are dozens of "Down Here from Up There" contenders which I've found, but it's late & I'm tired, so they're just going to have to wait.
Over the weekend I help a friend setup their brand new Compaq/Hewlett Packard computer. This friend has virtually no experience with the world of bits, bytes & all that jazz, so when I show them anything, their eyes are scrutinising every mouse click & their hands taking down notes for some of the more complex activities.
Once you get around the basics, I don't consider working with windows & the various programs to be difficult. Most stuff these days is drag & drop or a program's guidelines will walk you through the steps needed to achieve an objective.
What frustrates me with brand new computers, is the amount of crap which is preinstalled which can seriously take-over the machine's operations. (Some would say Windows is one of these applications!) On this new computer were four different setup utilities for various ISPs, a couple of online games server applications (which I can't work out how to uninstall) & a few other programs which pop up with registration & upgrade reminders. Most of them are also setup to download information automatically without informing the user.
In my attempts to demonstrate how to do the simplest of things, I had to stop every few minutes & try to wrangle past an application which was wanting to do something I didn't want it to. Of course the person I was trying to help ended up frustrated while I clicked all over the screen & tried to alter options boxes & delete others. Eventually, I pretty much had to send them away as I worked through the add/delete programs listing to simplify future use.
It's no wonder so many people fall foul of frauds on the internet & unwillingly sign up for things which their computer tells them they must have. I'm increasing blaming the computer manufacturers & the releasing of their products with all these added programs. Maybe they should have a sticker on the front saying "Serious quantities of crap Inside" instead of the usual "Intel" one.
I remember having to do much the same when I purchased my Dell early this year, but you shouldn't have to spend the first day with a flashy new piece of equipment removing unwanted garbage. I know I'm highly coerced to not deal with the companies which have anything pre-installed. They're normally the most overpriced & unhelpful applications on the market anyway.
Just for the record, some of the applications preloaded for my non-amusement were: RealOne Player (which wants to attach itself to every file attribute), Game Nation (I think that's the name, which wants continual internet access & I can't remove), IPrimus, Big Pond, OptusNet, AOL (All ISP set-up files, who must be paying a fortune to be pre-loaded), Norton Internet Security & McAfee (Both useful in their own right, but why have both fighting for supremacy??) & some obscure wireless networking application which virtually pleaded to be installed on each restart (again, probably quite handy unless you're located 20kms & 10 years away from anything that technological!).
While I'm suffering the lingering effects of a cold, I have been doing some not too-scientific studies.
It seems the accuracy of scoring the rubbish bin with a tissue from across the room, is directly proportional to the snot content. The more snot, the heavier the tissue, the better the distance & straightness of the trajectory.
I could analyse it further & continue the grossness, but let's just say we did & move on...
Trading ended today for the 12,000+ individuals playing in the Australian Stock Exchange’s annual Sharemarket Game. I’ve been doing it since I’ve had this blog & each time my result has been respectable. I’m still yet to come even close to winning it, but last time out was a top ten finish in the state ranking!
Like every year, there is no way of finding out the final result until they announce the official results late in the month. It’s very “Survivorish”, with Jeff holding the final votes & then jetting off to announce them a few months later. Very anti-climactical (that’s not a real word, is it?!) & by the time the results are announced, I’ll forget & never find out where I placed.
At the start of the game I bought some shares which plummeted, so I lost interest quickly. When I checked after a couple of weeks, one of those shares had performed well & boosted my total. That was the highlight & after three months of trading, turned a fictitious $50,000 in $52,955.17 or roughly 23% profit if annualised (spot the accountant!).
I know the leader was nudging $60k, so I’m not in the running for any prizes. I was in the top 200 for the state a few days ago, which is disappointing. However, if I had a real $50,000 to spend, a $2,955.17 return isn’t a kick in the head!!
Friday night was both a novelty & a bit scary driving home from work. Rain, it's something we haven't seen for a while & when it hit, no expense was spared with lightening, thunder, flash flooding, the works!
The picture's crap, but it's exactly what the conditions were like trying to get home from work.
The plan was to go into town a bit later for yep.... another work farewell party. This is getting insane. I didn't have a great deal to do with the girl who was leaving, so I would have felt a bit awkward, but the road conditions was a contributing factor.
Instead, I was around at my sister's place getting into the unpacking process. (No one managed to invent the requested machine in time!) Here's a comparison of the lounge room as it was decorated by the previous owners & how it looks at this very moment.
The whole of Saturday was spent painting & unpacking & today involved moving furniture & more unpacking. It's coming along rather smoothly, but it gets a bit tedious. It'll look good once everything's in though!
To get a breather from the moving process, I went upon invitation to see "iBob" at the Festival Theatre. This was my first stand up comedy gig & while "Bob Downe" wouldn't normally be someone I'd go out of my way to see, it was pretty funny. The concept, based on the iPod is clever & the lighting for the show is very effective. I think he should follow the paths of Billy Connelly & Ross Noble who do an entire show without a structure, for every now & then Bob would ad lib & come up with gags which ultimately, were funnier than the pre-planned jokes.
It's still a complete "no-no" to take photos in the Theatre, so here's the best you're going to get.
Between those two big heads is the new stage curtain which cost a full $1,000,000!!!
After the show, the Casino was visited & the new additions opened last week are impressive to say the least. Incredibly gaudy, bright & noisy, but aren't all Casinos?? The new areas make the rest of the place look tired & dated & the massive chandeliers which were removed years ago have returned & capture more than their fair share of light.
A quick drink back at the hotel & then home to bed. I've been struggling with a cold all week & now I'm into the incessant coughing stage. I'm not doing myself any favours by staying out late & working hard. Thankfully, it's a long weekend so I might try & rest tomorrow!
I've bombarded this site with pictures (some of dubious quality) recently, so I pity the poor souls like myself on dial-up who stumble in & have to wait forever for the page to load. But, hey, it gives the site a bit of colour!!
I'm not actually going anywhere, but my sister has just received the keys to her house after taking the buying plunge a few weeks ago. After renting a place nearby for the last few years, the owner has decided to sell it out from under & she was therefore forced to start looking.
Over those last few weeks, I've lost count of all the boxes packed with items large & small. Being a music teacher, the quantities of sheet music are literally mind blowing. They are not only difficult to stack in boxes, but their weight is quite substantial. As you can see, we've raided a local bottle shop for all their boxes. Most are around the same size, which makes them easy to stack in a trailer, but in these photos, around a fifth of what we've moved is visible. Our shed is full & we are yet to tackle any furniture.
This weekend, I get to do the reverse & help unpack them!! I'm hoping that at some point tomorrow, some scientist will discover how to build a Star Trek "Beam me up, Scotty" type machine & make it available so I can pick one up after work! Being able to move stuff using beams of light would be sure be useful!
Of course, at this point I haven't even thought about painting, cleaning, gardening, etc. which I'm sure to get dragged into as well!
