February Archived
February’s entries are here.
February’s entries are here.
Not much goin’ on except lots of work from school. I stuffed one of my maths assessments (the 4-Unit one), so I guess I got to work harder :). I’ve come across a lot of cool links over the last week or so, and when I get the time I’ll enter them in.
Yeah it’s pretty mild, but it’s still a damn nuisance. Oh yeah, and I finally got around to playing Quake 2’s CTF (Capture the Flag) mod. It’s legendary. Go download and play it.
We bought a new car yesterday! It’s a Lexus, and it’s come at a good time. If you don’t know the story behind where I live and where school is, listen up. I live about 50km from school (which equates to a 50 minute to 1 hour 20 minute drive, one-way, depending on traffic conditions). Everyday I get driven (yeah yeah lucky bastard aren’t I? Don’t think I haven’t been told that a milllion times :). Anyway, this is the tenth and final year of Mum’s driving marathon. Our last car (the one we just traded in) was a Mazda 626, and in just under 5 years (4 years and 10 months), it has done … guess how many kms … No not 100,000. Nope, not 150,000. Not even 200,000. 250,000? Getting close. 260,000 kilometres. You’d think the car would be pretty much shot with that mileage, but it’s still in relatively excellent condition (it has started every time, except once when someone didn’t shut the door and ran the battery down overnight). We had a Honda Civic before that and it managed to make it to 300,000 kilometres (305,000 if I remember correctly) in about the same amount of time. I’ve got a photo of the Mazda’s odo just after it hit 200,000. So yes, in about 9 years, mum and I have travelled well over 1 million kilometres between us in two cars (how many times is that around the world?).
It came out a couple days ago. I can’t give you a URL but it’ll be all over the web. Try www.bluesnews.com or www.quake2.com or something similar. It’s got co-op mode etc. etc.
Remember Alec and the glass? He really must be pissed. During our performance of our scenes (which ironically was one of the best performances), he was using the glass full of paint again. When he was arranging imaginary books on an imaginary bookshelf, he kicked over the glass which he had put by his feet. Hahah, it went all over one of his shoes and over the stage. Glen came along and chucked a rag on it (which later turned out to be someone’s t-shirt) and the performance went on.
Thrilling. Never been entertained more by anything else in the Winter Olympics. One of the best events I’ve seen. Especially the final group. The organisers must’ve rigged the order for maximum tension :) Ilia Kulik led off with a great skate to the tune of Rhapsody In Blue. The next few were good, and then Phillipe Candeloro (spelling?) did what I think was the most creative and exciting routines that night (a musketeer act). And finally came Elvis Stojko skating to The Ghost and The Darkness’ Soundtrack. The King :). Unfortunately his jumps were shaky, and he missed the Quad jump :(. He came away with a Silver, Kulik with Gold, and Candeloro with Bronze which he thoroughly deserved. However, the astounding thing was that Stojko had groin injuries, and he skated with them, aggravating them. The injuries were so bad that he had to be lifted out of the stadium, and when he received his medal, he could not skate in like the others, but instead had to limp in … in sneakers (looking not at all like a champion skater). The amazing thing was, that during the routine, Stojko did nothing to indicate he was under pain. Nothing, not even a grimace. Only when he finished, he grimaced and limped off. In addition to this, he had contracted the flu earlier. What a legend.
Haha. First debating afternoon this year. Guess what the topic was for the practice debate?
“That we should support Bill Clinton”, to which was appended, “not regarding anything to do with Lewinsky“. That’s when everyone groaned. Five seconds later and it was “That we should support Bill Clinton”. Fullstop. No restrictions. Unfortunately, we got the affirmative, so we took up the Iraq issue and not the Lewinsky one. Still, Iraq is controversial enough.
Not that it means anything … to me that is :). But there’s one every year, isn’t there? I understand the history behind 13, but why is Friday unlucky? I’m guessing it’s not because of the television show.
Told you I would not be able to write every day once the workload picks up. I’ve got a 3 and 4 unit maths assessment next week. That’s bad… And the gaps in entries will get larger…
Ya know how after the final one-day CUB series final (S.Afr vs Aust) someone used a stump to attack the umpire’s door? Today I heard on the news that it was Hansie Cronje. Pretty surprising actually.
What a day. We’re doing mini-performances in English of scenes from Penetr– uh, oops, um … that’s another story … Educating Rita. We were split up into groups, each group having a number of scenes allocated to them. The task was to perform two different interpretations of the same scenes. So today we were basically working on it in our separate groups at the Latham Theatre (small theatre-type hall), trying to work out how we were going to act our scenes out. Well Alec was playing the role of Frank and he was just stuffing around. Now Frank’s meant to be drunk, so Alec goes off into one of the rooms backstage and comes back with a glass of yellow stuff. “What the hell is that?” He’d found a glass, and some paint, mixed the paint with water and filled the glass. “It’s my drink” he said. Yeah I suppose he could’ve gotten high on it by sniffing the fumes (haha then he’d really be drunk and he’d act in character much better :). Anyway he empties out the glass. No one was in the mood to do anything that day, I was talking with the rest of the group while Alec lurched about on stage (like he really was drunk, although I don’t think he was intentionally acting drunk … maybe the paint fumes got to him). One minute he’s playing with the phone on the wall, and the next he drags out a broken table from backstage (dunno why), all the time with the glass in his hand. Then craaaash. Alec dropped the glass, and somehow, although he was pretty far back stage, the glass shattered all the way to the front edge of the stage – about 5 metres.
Funnily enough, we managed to bluff our way out when the teacher came, and Alec didn’t get busted. “It’s part of our performance sir, it’ll wake the audience up”.
I got this e-mail from a guy who runs the company that has the site www.fissure.com. Unlikely to happen I reckon :) :
I admire your company name. (Notice ours?) If anybody asks me to help them with web site design, I’ll know where to send them. Likewise, if anybody inquires to you about Project Management training or the like, please send them our way. I haven’t had our identities confused yet, but who knows? In case you were curious, we’ve been in business since 1988.
Sincerely,
Terry Tilford
VP – terry_tilford@fissure.com
From an annoucement by Howard today, Australia has agreed to commit about 300 Australian troops to aid Clinton in the Gulf. Well, that’s good, but 300 troops is just a token contribution, just telling the world “look we have no army, but we good friends with the US”.
Boring. You don’t want to hear about it. Swam in two races, but for the rest of the day, nothing.
Swimming carnival at school tomorrow. We’re actually swimming in the pool that will be used for the Sydney Olympics. I dunno how the school managed to hire it… We booked the 50m pool and the diving pool, so I don’t know where the people who train will go to train. Nothing much happening todayt, except that I’m getting heaps of work from school. So I’m going to bed now.
Got sent the final Fissure Logo. Looks cool, eh? Thanks to Shish once again. The next thing to do is animate it in some way, (relatively) easily done since it’s been 3D modelled and not just a touched up 2D pic.
I just visited the site. It seems that the poster at the cinemas was american, so its release seems to be in the Australian Winter. Oh yeah, and that really cool picture of the asteroid is on there too. I ripped it off the page and stuck a resized one to the right :)
Check the bottom of this page for the link to the archive.
I saw this film last night. Highly enjoyable, highly recommended. Please please please keep in mind that this film has been written to be more than a pure action “blow-up-anything-with-more-than-two-legs” movie. I’ve heard this movie being criticised for being less “philosophical” than the book, but also for not being a brilliant action film (although the special effects are awesome). However, I think the director (Verhoven — spelling?) has managed to balance the thematic and action aspects of the film quite well. After all, a film has 2 hours to work with, and a book can have as many pages as is needed. I mean, why would they make a movie with such a light-hearted atmosphere (the movie treats the alien threat less than seriously – in other words, there was no doom & gloom “we’re gonna die” stuff like in ID4, except for one part (the crazy general for those who’ve seen the film), but that was funny) and rate it MA? There are quite a few underlying themes the film. I’ll do a full review of it in the articles section later, but in the meantime, go see it! Best movie I’ve seen this year (of course, it’s only February :).
Walking out of the cinema I saw an advert for “Deep Impact”. It was a mad poster showing an asteroid (as opposed to a meteor) crashing into the earth. It’s got me interested. I love sci-fi. To be released in Summer 98, but is it this month or December 98? Visit www.deep-impact.com.
Well I sent the Fissure Logo to David (the pov-raying freak :) to render it to 3D. Three hours later, and ten versions later, we came up with something that looked quite good, although there were rendering flaws. I’ll post the final version later, and maybe it’ll be animated too. It looks really good so far, though.
The Nagano Winter Olympics started today. I watched the ceremony which was long and quite boring at times. At least they didn’t have inflated kangaroos riding on the backs of bikes. *Cringe*.
Firstly, they I was on the way to school yesterday, and there was this traffic jam on the highway. It seems that a small green car(?) had crashed (it didn’t look like a car anymore :), and the back was totally compacted up against the front seats. People were slowing down to take a look :) which resulted in a 15-20 minute delay in reaching school.
Secondly, the prospect of “hiring” the school computer room for a landay is a little brighter, a friend, “Loki” (well that’s his Quake nick) had loaded Quake 2 on some computers (with the teacher’s consent). Very good indeed. Now I just have to borrow a copy from a friend (as well as GTA, WC:Prophecy, etc.)…
Thirdly, I decided a few days ago that I’m gonna redesign my school web site‘s drab front page. So who made the “drab” frontpage? Me. Don’t laugh. It loads under 10 seconds, which is good :) But that’ll change ;)
Well, they must have thought that $2 to $2.30 wasn’t enough. Because all food that was $2.30 is now $2.50. They sure know how to turn in a profit. Monopoly indeed.
Well since you’re reading this, it means that I’ve uploaded the journal. Um, that means in all the previous entries I’ve sorta been talking to nobody :Þ. Nevermind, if you’re bored you can just keep reading. You might be interested in how I lost my glasses in Wet ‘n’ Wild (Jan 29’s entry) etc.
I just discovered that Zip has enabled server-side includes (.shtml files). Legends!
Hahahahaha. Uncle Bill (“The Bill stops here” & “and Bill’s your uncle” – My own s :) got hit by a pie. Yes – literally – hit by a pie! Haha. Just check out the picture to the right – yes it’s real, it’s Gates and it’s unaltered (I got it from the link below). It happened in Belgium. Now I don’t have any grudges against Gates (although many do) – I always thought that while a ruthless businessman he may be, he was a sorta down-to-earth guy – y’know, how he flies economy class (before the Lear Jet he reluctantly bought was purchased), how he eats at Hungry Jacks for lunch etc. Besides, he’s not the only one making MS’s decisions. There’s a whole board room. But after seeing the movie, and his reaction, he doesn’t seem so nice anymore. Sure, I wouldn’t like to have been hit by a pie, yeah sure it would’ve been humiliating — but — it was a joke (MS isn’t laying charges, just as well), and he could’ve taken it as a joke. I mean it wasn’t really dangerous (ruined the suit, but just buy another!). However, he looked really disgruntled, and ran off (looking like some conman that current affairs programs chase with a camera). When they asked him for a comment, he just kept a grim face and kept walking. C’mon, that wouldn’t raise any popularity points. At least he could’ve smiled and joked about it or something. Made some witty comment. That movie will be on all over the world. Maybe he’s not as down-to-earth as I think. Oh well…
Read more about it on cnn’s website, including a QuickTime movie of his “strategic withdrawal” :
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9802/04/belgium.gates.ap/
A profile of Gates on cnn.com reads:
Microsoft’s work environment has been shaped by Gates. There is
no bureaucracy or conformity to a dress code, but an atmosphere
of openness, flexibility and intellectual rigor. [But…] Employee turnover is
low. Workers often take salary cuts to join the company and work
double the typical eight-hour workday. Gates himself is a
demanding taskmaster, battering his staff with technical challenges
and finding flaws in their work. [But…] Still, he elicits strong employee
loyalty.
Interesting… Also, it is thought that the pie attack may be attributed to Noel Godin – a man attributed to his famous pie attacks on famous people. While unconfirmed, an article on Godin reads :
Good humor, in fact, is all a target need demonstrate to obtain mercy, Godin says. In May 1985, Godard was entarte at the Cannes festival, a favorite stalking ground for Godin, who claims he is now banned from entering the French Riviera town. The famed director licked thoughtfully at the thick cream on his face and played down the whole thing. He was never targeted again.
I’m still laughing.
Heh. Stupid me, I was uploading in binary mode. Boy do I feel stupid =).
Nothing much today except the damn CGis aren’t working. Crap crap crap. Something wrong with Notepad’s carriage returns or something weird.
I decided I’m gonna upload this page in a few days, and I updated the zip homepage to notify people of the new site being designed. Woohoo! I just got CGI access! Now I can write my own scripts.
Zip is a legendary ISP. If you live in Sydney or any of the surrounding areas (they’ve even got hubs in Camden/Campbelltown, where I am), go for Zip! OzEmail charges $300 for CGI last time I checked, Acay didn’t support user CGI, Cybernet needed me to mail in my scripts because of “security reasons” (hmmm…). I’ve gone through 3 ISPs and then I found Zip (this is beginning to sound like an ad). I looked up the help page about CGIs, it aksed me to mail support. Two mails to support (the first one sent an auto-answer mail, telling me to resend if I wanted a human), and I had access. 3 1/2 days, pretty good.
Umm… okay the first day of the ten day Constitutional Convention was held. I’m for a republic, just in case you were wondering…
I’m a fan of most things regarding sci-fi. So what did I read in the SMH SIT (Stay in Touch) section today? Sci-fi writer Arthur C. Clarke has admitted to being a pedophile. Dirty ol’ bugger. He’s pretty casual about it too (not on the run like one Mr Bell), but does that make it better or worse? Either way, he’ll be knighted soon. Heh. Sir Elton the Gay (not that there’s anything wrong with it you say. I think there is but that’s personal and I don’t hold it against him (okay, maybe I do). But I still like his music). And now its Sir Clarke the Pederast (there is something wrong with this). What a joke. Republic I say! Dump the Monarch :). I still like ACC’s writing though – it’s legendary. Go read the Rama series (I’ll find an amazon.com link for it later).
He’s done it again. Requiem/Shish/David has updated his page again, and this time its a major update, and it has been launched at a new URL. Visit it now! http://www.zip.com.au/~dmcleish/. It features lotsa nice ray-traced pics and looks pretty darn good.
With the launch of Req’s new site, I’ve started planning my new site (Stuart’s Domain – but maybe I’ll call it something else), of which this journal is the newest addition, and only part that’s been created for it so far. It’ll be a total renovation of the interface, and layout, with changes to content (more static pages and much much less pages that have to be updated). What Network Fissure is (yeah yeah pretentious, but better pretentious and admit it, than lame or diminutive :) is just the sites me and Requiem/Shish/David have put together (and anyone else who wants in, but I doubt that’ll be anyone). A logo will displayed on pages that have been created by one or both of us. There’s one on the bottom of the page below the Legalese. Woooo just made it … only two minutes to tomorrow :)
Yes it’s February. Only 10 months to go… :). Not much today. Brainstorming designs for new site.
Visit www.dimensionmusic.com for mp3 news – the site for MP3 related material (though I do have a sentimental attachment to the Aussie-run Outer Limits, which is unfortunately still offline). I’ll do a write up on what MP3s are later. See Dimension Music anyway, though. It’s one of the sites I visit on my “daily site runs” :).
Yeah!!! Taylor scores 150+ runs in the third test vs South Africa.
Korda wins the Australian Open.
Couple interesting ones I came across.
Professional Gamer’s League – Gaming for money :)
http://www.aprilfools.com/ – Hehe, well, see for yourself … and its only two months away.
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10:47am (GMT +10.00) tomorrow