Stoz's Hourglass

New Desk

2009-01-05T23:10:00.003+11:00

Just a quick note to say that after some shuffling around at work I now have a new desk. It's located about a meter or so from my old desk, but is now sectioned off from the other desks in the office, after we ripped the big long workbench that ran the entire length of the office off the wall. I'm pretty happy with it, and thought I'd share a photo with you as this is probably the cleanest it will ever be.

Wow!

2008-06-03T20:41:00.006+10:00

Last term some friends and I were doing a study on the book of 'Ephesians' from the Bible, which focused on all our different senses. There were video clips that went along with the study each week, as well as activities that got everyone up and moving. Even more interesting than all that though was the food that we started each session with.

We took turns, with different people preparing different dishes outlined in the study guide, and for the very first week I was tasked with preparing some 'wow food', something to really surprise and excite everyone. As we were discussing it the week before, we of course made the Toyota joke, 'Where the wow factor is high'. So I took that thought and created a cake and decorated it like a car.

I made the chocolate cake myself from a recipe I found on the Wikibooks Cookbook, the Atomic Fudge Cake. I then decorated it myself using some pre-bought icing that you roll out and lay over the top, which gave it an extra smooth texture. I made the icing blue by kneading some blue food dye into it, and then piped some icing on to decorate it, and finished it off by 'gluing' mint slice wheels on with icing. Overall reports were that everyone really enjoyed it, and that it tasted great.

Just when I thought I'd said all I could say, I thought I'd better draw your attention to the new heading and colours I've picked out, it's like my older one, again a parody of the logo of a video game, this time The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.

Birthday Wishes

2007-08-14T09:06:00.000+10:00

Hey everyone listen up your attention if you please. First I wanna say thanks for everyone who wished me well and sent me messages on my Birthday. I got stacks of messages and cards, and it was great to know so many of you care about me and are excited that I'm now 21.

The real fun hasn't even started yet though, as my last post, August 25th 2007, is a reference to my upcoming Birthday party. Why is Mario posing as Uncle Sam? It's a costume party, that's why! Not many of my friends have had costume parties before, and I wanted to try something a little different. It was a little risky, as I thought everyone might think it was lame, but so far the response has been really positive, so I think it's gonna go off really well.

I'd really like to post some photos afterwards for you all to see. I've just gotta make sure I finish my costume in time.
For those following along at home, the answer to my Balderdash puzzle was:

Korea became an independent country

Today is actually August 15th, the day I was speculating about, and if you head over to Wikipedia down the bottom right side you'll find 'On this day...' and see that today is Independence Day in North Korea & South Korea (1945).

Lastly, in tradition from the very begining of my blog, here's a list of everyone that wished me a Happy Birthday. You'll notice my house mates are both absent from the list. It seems they forgot and I wasn't going to remind them.

Name	Method	Time
Alex & Maureen	Phone	7:48am
Pam	Missed Call	8:09am
Tim	Person	8:51am
Ubuntu Forums	E-mail	9:01am
Joel Derrick	Person	9:04am
Steff	SMS	9:57am
Emma	E-mail	11:26am
Trav	SMS	11:44am
Cara	SMS	1:04pm
MeadiaWiki Forums	E-mail	2:01pm
Kate	SMS	4:22pm
Eva	In Person	6:23pm
Steff's Grandpa	In Person	6:23pm
Karen	SMS	7:03pm
Pam	Phone	7:15pm
Lauren	SMS	7:28:03pm
Roxy	SMS	7:28:47pm
Maureen (Again!)	SMS	8:01pm

Thanks once again to everyone who sent me messages!

August 25th 2007

2007-08-01T23:53:00.001+10:00

Time Warp

2007-07-04T23:03:00.000+10:00

Let's get it started, in here.

Right now it looks like my blog is suffering from some weird time warp, as what I'm about to post about happened exactly a week ago.

And it was exactly a week ago when I got to help celebrate the Birthday of my good (but blogless) friend Karen. A group of us gathered at her place and played what I'd describe as half a game of Balderdash. I'd read an article that mentioned Balderdash in passing only a couple of days before, so to be sitting there playing it was quite exciting. Here's a quick summary.

Each round has a player in charge, who picks a category (such as a acronyms, dates, strange words or 'famous' people) from a card which has 6 different words and definitions on it. The leader of the round writes down the 'real' definition of the word (or event, acronym, person etc.) and the other players have to each write down what they think the definition is. All the definitions are then shuffled together and read out to all the players, who have to guess which is the truthful one. Points are awarded for guessing the truthful one, or having another player guess your 'fake' definition.

While it was a game I thoroughly enjoyed, to say I didn't do very well would be a supreme understatement. You have to move 26 spaces (you moved when you score points) to win the game and we stopped it when one of the players was well over 15 spaces in. At that stage I'd moved only a single square. Perhaps now some of my definitions seem quite fake, such as that S.Y.B.F stood for Southern Youth Baptist Fellowship, or that on some date in 1956 some people finished building the biggest jukebox ever made, holding 5000 songs, but at the time they seemed quite plausible.

I'd really recommend to any group looking for a change from the usual Scrabble, Taboo and Trivial Pursuit.

Let me pose my own balderdash for you here though, comment with what you think the correct answer is (no cheating on google or wiki!)

Besides the fact that August the 15th is the day after my Birthday, what happened on August 15th 1945?

The first microscope was invented
Korea became an independent country
Agrippina Vaganova published a book Vaganova method ballet technique
Two of Saturn's moons, Janus and Epimetheus were first observed
The first book in what would become the Schrödinger's Cat trilogy is released

Now remember what I said, no cheating!

Elite Blog Agents

2007-06-07T13:02:00.000+10:00

Hello readers!

First I wanted to sent a shot out to all my friends who run blogs, particularly those that that have been around longer than I have, and to acknowledge that yes, it is difficult to maintain a blog. I already knew that from trying to update a couple of websites (Odyssey anyone?) but thought it would all somehow be easier when you didn't have to type all the fancy HTML.

Enough about the past, let's talk about the future. That is, Future Sight is the most recent expansion for a card game that I recently started playing again after taking a couple of years break. This also marks my first foray into eBay, as I've been playing enough to warrant buying a few lots of cards from auctions on eBay. So far it's been a fantastic success, and I've been able to grab some stuff that locally I would have hard a hard time finding (and if I did, and even harder time paying for). I'll post on that in more depth later, but for this post I'll move onto another game that I've been intrigued with as of late (and one form which this post shamelessly borrows it's title.

Elite Beat Agents is a fantastic game for the Nintendo DS. You take charge of a group of people style as government agents, who's mission it is to travel the globe solving people's problems through dance. You use the stylus (pen) to tap circles on the touch screen as the agents dance in the background. The game contains a total of 19 songs, and is the first rhythm game I know of created for a hand held platform. I've had it for a week now and while it starts off easy, the songs get really challenging on the higher difficulty levels.

While some people would say this game isn't for everyone, in my opinion, it isn't worth owning a DS if you don't have (or at least borrow) Elite Beat Agents.

What ya'll think of that?

Friends are Forever

2007-04-03T12:51:00.000+10:00

Friends are forever, not just a night of pictionary
- Pictionary Rulebook

Above is a quote that my long time friend Steve (now at Melbourne Uni) used to say quite often, and he actually stumbled across it while bored and reading the rulebook. Before I continue on, let me just take a quick aside about the month of March.

I'm not really sure what the deal is, but as far as I can tell there just simply wasn't any March, it must have been left off all the calenders this year. That's pretty much the only explanation I can think of as to why this blog post is in April and my last was in February.

Continuing on, a few weeks back (yes, in March) I got together with some friends and we played a nice long game of pictionary. For those that know, the game works on the principal of working in pairs, then one person has to try to convey a word, object, person or action to the other member of their pair by only using a pencil and paper. Obviously no writing of words is allowed.

Those of you old enough to remember my last blog post might be wondering how this ties into examining what makes a good partner. One thought I had as I was driving home after that game of pictionary was that at times it might be frustrating to be married to someone unskilled in communicating ideas using non-standard methods. This doesn't just apply to pictionary, but also to games like taboo and charades, which I can imagine that once you're married you would be usually attending and playing these as a pair.

If you just read that and thought I said 'marry someone that draws well' then you've missed the point entirely. In pictionary simple drawings of stick people are often the best method of communication. The point I'm attempting to bring out is that it could be frustrating to be paired to someone for life that couldn't communicate in other ways.

Sorry if this wasn't the lesson in love and life that you might have all been hoping for, but hopefully it have got you to think about something you perhaps wouldn't have otherwise considered.

The funniest thing I remember being drawn that night was a monkey drawn by none other than the host of the night. The monkeys she draws have what most people would describe as wings for arms, can't take em seriously at all!

Links Revealed

2007-02-19T14:25:00.000+11:00

As both Susan and Trav have alluded to, the link between my last 5 blog posts was in fact the mention of a member of the Barnes family in each of the posts. The first two were originally done accidentally.

I first mentioned Susan in my post about books simply because I knew that was quite keen on books and that she read my blog.

Now that I've got your attention Susan ;-)
From the post 'Books!'

Trav was mentioned out of sheer luck, as I had accidentally clicked on his blog and read a post about the same book I was reading. Not only did I mention him in the post, but he was actually the star of the title as well.

It looks like I wasn't able to complete Captivating in the few days that Trav did.
From the post 'Travis, I Have Failed You'

After mentioning two members of the Barnes family by accident, I decided to see if I could fit in the other 3 as well, and more importantly if anyone would notice. Craig's appearance was a little more forced, as I slipped this line into my post about late night laser tag.

At about 10:30 we took the laser tag gear down to our local lake although Craig didn't want to come along.
From the post 'Fire, exclamation mark. Fire, exclamation mark.'

Next up was a short post about Odyssey, and wherever Odyssey is involved you're sure to find Karen just around the corner.

My friend and youth leader Karen came around to my house last night, and she wrote out the details for the Odyssey program
From the post 'Odyssey Returns'

I was in a little bit of a worry as to how I was going to fit the last member in. Then along came Craig's engagement party, I don't know what I'd do without it. That made it a piece of (engagement) cake to mention Ross.

I spent some time talking to Craig's dad Ross, about how his new Church is going for him and how the youth are there.
From the post 'Engagement Party (Belated Post)'

And there we have it, a small experiment in continuing sub-themes in blog posts. Stay tuned for my next post as we examine what makes a good partner (you might be surprised).

Past Links

2007-02-13T21:08:00.000+11:00

I have a lot of friends that have blog, but quite often you'll find that they're quite stationary. I wanted to do something to help make my blog stand out and keep moving, and as such I've actually hidden an interconnecting element in my last 5 blog posts before this one.

If you think you can spot it, why not reply to this post and let me know.

Engagement Party (Belated Post)

2007-02-12T22:22:00.000+11:00

A little over a week ago my friends Craig and Erica had an engagement party which I was fortunate enough to attend. Apart from wishing them all the best for their marriage, I always wanted to note that I really enjoyed the opportunity to walk around and talk to some people that I wouldn't really spend much time talking to otherwise. I spent some time talking to Craig's dad Ross, about how his new Church is going for him and how the youth are there. I also talked to a few other people including Sharon who is a teacher at a Christian school.

I always find it interesting talking to teachers at other schools, because I have somewhat of an insight into teaching as I work at a school, but still find it interesting to listen to other teachers and hear what their school is like. I know enough about teaching to not be totally lost and uninterested in a conversation, but because I'm not a teacher myself I don't get totally overwhelmed with teaching and not want to talk about it.

I really did enjoy the opportunity to move around and talk to people, and I've been thinking a little that perhaps I should take more of an opportunity to do that after Church on a Sunday morning.

Odyssey Returns

2007-01-30T14:03:00.000+11:00

My friend and youth leader Karen came around to my house last night, and she wrote out the details for the Odyssey program in the layout which I had been working on in the couple of days before. It is soon to be printed out and mailed to people, but as an extra special bonus for you, I'll give you a preview of the first night of the program. Please ignore any copyright infringement.

As you can see, it's already looking like it'll be a great year for Odyssey, and I know I'm excited about it.

Fire, exclamation mark. Fire, exclamation mark.

2007-01-29T22:03:00.000+11:00

Dear Sir / Madam.

On Friday night, after Ashley's great Birthday party at the ice skating rink that left my feet rather sore, some friends and I decided to make best use of the laser tag (lock on) set that had been loaned to Kids4Life and was destined for return that very next Saturday.

At about 10:30 we took the laser tag gear down to our local lake although Craig didn't want to come along. We played a few games around the boat shed, which was good but a bit too big and open. As it approached midnight, we shifted out game down to the now abandoned children's playground, as this was a closer setting with much more cover. During the very first round I was crouched behind cover on a platform with a fireman's pole out to the side, and heard two people of the opposing team crawling around underneath me. I then had to brilliant idea to slide down the pole with one arm while using the other to shoot both members of the opposing team commando style, then running for cover before they had a chance to react.

I still need to practise my one handed power slide down a pole however because my execution of this hasty plan was poor at best. I jumped at the pole and before sliding even a few inches, I had lost my grip and landed horizontal on the ground, with my left knee being the first point of impact, followed by my left forearm scraping painfully across the sand. The next thing, I've been shot twice by the opposing team members I was meant to surprise, and I'm hopping away in agony yelling 'don't shoot, don't shoot, I'm injured!' Within a few minutes my knee recovered, but it took a couple of days for my arm to stop stinging.

I'm three paragraphs into my blog post and you're probably wondering where the fire is. Patience my young padawan. So a few rounds into dm_playground, and I'm sitting on the bench waiting for everyone else on my team to run out of lives so I can play again. Then someone calls out 'is that a fire over there?' I stand up and look and sure enough, there is a reasonably large fire well under way on the other side of the lake. Straight away Steve Y. calls 000 and informs the authorities of it. We pack up the laser tag and within a few moments the fire brigade has arrived. They put it out within a few minutes, and we went over there to talk to them but they didn't seem very interested in talking to us. It turns out the fire was fuelled by a stack of hay bales left over from the Australia Day celebrations that day, and upon asking one of the fire fighters they said it did look suspicious.

In closing,

Looking forward to hearing from you.

All the best, Maurice Moss

(Gotta love the I.T. Crowd)

Travis, I Have Failed You

2007-01-22T21:17:00.000+11:00

It looks like I wasn't able to complete Captivating in the few days that Trav did. It's been a tad over a week and I'm up to chapter 8 out of twelve, which I suppose is two thirds of the way through, so it's not all that bad. I've found it to be really good so far, perhaps not quite as much of a revelation as Trav described it, but still really insightful none the less.

Anyway I took the ultra-cheap solution to my music on the way to work problems, and taped one of my CDs onto an old cassette tape I found stashed away. I had actually used it several years ago to tape some ApologetiX songs onto. Anyway, I'm planning on picking up a few more tapes the next time I'm shopping, because with an album on each side, they're not too bad to take around in my car.

I do find it ironic though that such a high tech guy like me has come to such a low tech solution.

Anyway, the whole gang is back from mission now which means Craig is back and also that the Internet is back full of people writing blogs again. I also got a small box of chocolates from Kids4Life for the help I gave them putting together their drama DVD and a couple of other little things. It makes me think why bother being on team when you can help out and get chocolate? On the other hand, buying chocolate for each and every team member would soon prove to be a waste of money and probably bad stewardship too.

Also, John my other house mate is also back from England. The whole gang is back together!

Books!

2007-01-13T23:09:00.000+11:00

Now that I've got your attention Susan ;-)

I actually have several different books on loan from a few different people, and after just recently finishing reading 'Every Young Man's Battle', I've been deliberating which book I would read next, and I was leaning towards either the one Ian lent me or the one Karen lent me, but after stumbling across a 6 month old blog post of Trav's (for the technically minded, Trav's Blog's RSS feed is all jumbled up on my computer) I've decided that I'll read Captivating which I have on loan from Steff. I won't start it till tomorrow, but even then I doubt I'll be able to contend with Trav's 2 day record. If you're wondering, I have already read 'Wild At Heart', which is sort of a pair with Captivating.

I'm glad for the two people that commented on my last post, as I was beginning to feel like I was the only one left on the Internet. Tim mentioned the new game Twilight Princess in his comment, and that reminded me that was actually a contender for the title of this blog. That is, Twilight Prince, however it sounded somewhat less... manly... then I would like associated with my writings.

What is manly though is that I was able to take my Christmas tree down, and without losing or breaking a single decoration. What's more to my amazement is that I managed to get the entire tree back in the box it came in, which anyone who's ever had to pack up a tree would know is quite an achievement, as I was discussing with Sharon earlier today.

My loneliness that I wrote about earlier in the week seems to have been short lived however, because the day after I posted Craig came back to spend two nights at home, which has been nice and refreshing having someone extra around. I'm still keen for John to return from England though.

Lastly I'd like to share with you moving song by Thousand Foot Krutch. It's a little old (2003?) but I still enjoy listening to the song, particularly when I can just sit and concentrate on the song and not be doing anything else.

Song of the Day: Thousand Foot Krutch - This Is A Call | Direct Demo | Lyrics 1 | Lyrics 2

Download

2007-01-11T22:40:00.000+11:00

I'm sitting here now thinking that this blog post that I've been wanting to write for a couple of hours isn't going to come out nearly as good as I hoped.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

These lasts few days I've been left pretty much on my own. If you're reading this soon after I post it, then you must be one of the half dozen people left on the Internet these days. Most people seem to have jumped ship for two weeks, either for Kids4Life or Champion City, two holiday programs running in Bendigo and Warnamabool respectively. This includes most of the blogs I read, not limited to Steff, Sammy, Cara, Craig, Trav and Rachel. Yes I know you're still out there somewhere Switch.

I wouldn't be surprised if you're still sitting there mystified by the title of this post, which I chose because I want to download (or more accurately, upload) a whole bunch of thoughts from the last few days into my blog.

...lucky you ;-)

Firstly I've been thinking more about music in my life. On the way to work, I heard a really good song on the radio this morning and it got me in a really good frame of mine for work and I was ready to run in there and give it the best effort I could (interestingly I can't even remember the song right now!) however this doesn't happen every day because not every song on the radio is really that good. I'd really like a way to listen to my own music in the car of a morning, weather that means buying a new iPod after my one broke last year or getting a CD player, I don't really know, but I think it is something I should really be thinking about sooner, rather than later.

Continuing on the topic of thinking about things, with Craig away at Kids4Life as I mentioned earlier and my other housemate John still in England, I'm left here with a full house all to myself. Appart from finding the first night a little spooky I have found it interesting and discovered a few things. I learnt that by myself, dishes actually take a lot longer to grow, it's a lot quieter, and if it hadn't been so hot I would probably sleep better too. I am a bit lonely though without anyone here, and I know that I would never like to live on my own for any extended period of time. I don't know how Karen managed to do it for so many years, which reminds me that she tells me that in this regard I am quite like her brother Trav, in that he too would probably go quite crazy living by himself. Not that I would go crazy... just lonely. Oh and I also learnt that I can park in the driveway rather than the front of the house, although this one actually took me 3 days to learn.

I've started taking my Christmas decorations down, I promise. One sets of balls is off the tree and the rest will be coming down shortly.

At net ball tonight we were winning at the start of it and I was going to blog about it. We ended up losing though so I am much less inclined to blog about it now.

On the way to net ball however I was thinking through that this year I really want to give whatever I'm involved in my absolute best effort, and that if I'm not going to give a particular activity a full effort, then I don't really think it's worth doing at all. Things I resolved to give my best effort to were Work, Odyssey, Explorers and the sound at Church. I'm sure there are others that I will add to that list.

It does bring me to another dilemma though, which is that I have been feeling for a little while that my week nights tend to be a little full. With going to my Mum's on Monday, Young Adults on Wednesday, net ball on Thursday, Odyssey on Friday and Grads on Sunday, I only really have Tuesdays and Saturdays left. With the introduction of 40 days of purpose this term, as well as mid-week drama practise some weeks for Explorers, I can only see it getting worse. There aren't really many of those I can justify cutting out, but I think it's just too much for me.

Tough decisions

And on the way back from net ball I had to wait at the crossing for a big freight train. 18 Carriages. I really like trains.

One cool thing I like about having no one else here is that I can sit here on the couch in the lounge room with my wireless laptop and write out this very blog post. Wireless is so great, and for all the tech heads out there, the 802.11n standard is on the cards, bringing a theoretical maximum data transfer rate of over 500 megabits per second and a typical rate of 200 megabits per second. Even at the typical rate that's still twice as fast as a standard wired LAN connection.

One more thing, I've been reading the Psalms as of late, and a lot of them have notes at the top saying that they were also songs. Some of them are indeed quite sad, with people writing (or singing) about all the trials and troubles that they have been facing, and how all the bad people have been treating them wrong etc. It got me thinking as to why there aren't many modern Christian songs that are written about sadder things, or of trails and troubles. I guess people would rather sing 'happy' songs in Church, but then the secular world seems to have no problems singing songs about other people problems. Then again maybe I should just listen to more Skillet. But then again bands like that seem to get shunned by a lot of Christians. Who knows.

I guess that almost wraps it up, although I do feel like I still have a lot more thoughts running through my head. Here's one, it's really fun to type out all this stuff while looking at the ceiling. That is, if you've been typing long enough to do it without having to look at the keyboard.

All I can say is that 2007 looks like a massive and exciting year, and I know I'll be running head-on into the fray.

Off To Melbourne

2007-01-02T23:57:00.000+11:00

Off to Melbourne tomorrow (Wednesday).

Will be back Friday!

Take care of the Internet while I'm gone!

First Post 07

2007-01-01T03:37:00.000+11:00

It's 3:40am and I've just finished cleaning up my house from the New Years Eve Party that I threw. It was a really great party though, although only 7 people showed up at the start time (5:30), including myself and Craig, to have dinner, the rest all showed up after dinner. Perhaps they don't like my cooking?

To be perfectly honest, I was really just keen to jump in and get one of the first blog posts among my friends for 2007. I'm sure it's going to be a great year for blogging and a great year for myself in general.

I also wanted to say thanks to Trav for the award I receive for my Christmas parody as I was awaiting the arrival of my Wii. Oh and as you're probably thinking, yes I am enjoying my Wii, although I sure would like more time to play it (and for the last time, no, I'm not talking about the toilet or bathroom).

Well, here's to a great 2007. Hopefully the mistakes we make will be different from those in 2006.

Internet Holiday

2006-12-22T11:25:00.000+11:00

Over the last few weeks I've been on a semi Internet holiday. It's not that I have anything against the Internet, it's just that I've been out a lot of nights in the last few weeks with breakups for various things, and my Wii has also kept me quite busy.

So here I return to a withering blog, 450+ e-mails, forum posts to read, a website to update and a whole bunch of podcasts to listen to. You wouldn't expect such an absence from someone like me, a hardened Internet veteran, but I can say it was nice to know that I was able to live without the Internet for two weeks.

I'm now officially on Holidays from work, and don't go back until the 8th of January. This isn't really that long a break, and unfortunately because of it I've been unable to do Kids4Life this year. Regardless, I'm sure I will still enjoy my holidays. Within a few hours I'll be driving myself off to Melbourne, and there's also a new years eve party in the works.

Here is a picture of my Christmas tree in the lounge room that Steff and I decorated.

DarkZone Vs. ChristianLifeZone

2006-12-07T21:08:00.000+11:00

On Monday night I got the chance to go to play DarkZone laser tag for the Birthday party of a friend of mine, Luke. I really did have a great time there, and had the laser tag experience on my mind for the next couple of days after it.

It got me thinking as to some of the similarities between DarkZone and the Christian Life. If we take some basic elements, like that there are different 'teams' and we do have 'weapons'. Beyond that, some deeper things I noticed were that if we just sat back at our base, we weren't likely to have as big an impact for the team, which means that we have to get out there, outside the Church, and not just stay bolted up inside.

Continuing on, I think that both in DarkZone and the Christian Life, it is important that if something bad does happen to us, and we do come under attack, that we don't sit out the rest of the battle. Rather we get back up (respawn) and try again.

On the other hand, one thing I noticed that was false about this metaphor was that, as of my theological knowledge, we don't go to the enemy's base as such and make any kind of raid or attack ourselves.

I'd be interested to hear any comments that you guys have about this.

Chwiistmas Explained

2006-11-28T22:25:00.000+11:00

I thought there is a good chance some people would not fully understand my last lyrical blog post, so I want to take the opportunity to explain a lot of the terms I used in written that little parody. Here for your informational pleasure, I will dissect that my rendition of that classic Christmas carol line by line.

Starting from the first day:
A Wii bundled with a game for free
The Wii is the name of Nintendo's new games console (pronounced "We", as in a group of people playing together) and is sold in a pack also containing a game called 'Wii Sports'. Wii Sports is 'free' in the bundle, not the console itself.

Two two classic controllers
Three nunchuks
Four Wii Remotes
I've grouped these three together because they all concern the controller, one of the most interesting parts of the Wii console. The main controller shaped like a remote, and contains motion sensors (accelerometers) and also a pointing device and sensor bar to enable it to sense hand movements as well as pointing at the screen. The remote also contains an expansion port down the bottom, to which a 'Nunchuk' connects, which is basically a curved control held in the left hand which contains an control stick, two buttons, and it's own accelerometers.

Lastly, the classic controller is another device which plugs into the Wii Remote, but this is used for playing older games, including original Nintendo and Super Nintendo games, but more on that later.

Five different sports
Wii sports, the free game, contains 5 different sports. Baseball, Tennis, Ten Pin Bowling, Gold and Ten Pin Bowling.

Six days is half there
When I wrote this there were 12 days until the release here in Australia, and 6 is half of that.

Seven^th of December
The Australian release date is the 7th of December.

Eight Wii channels
The Wii connects to the Internet, and there are 8 different channels (services) available including the forecast channel which contains a google earth type globe which can be spun and zoomed to check the weather in any location. There is also the news channel, the Mii channel for designing little caricatures of yourself, the Internet channel, the on line Wii store, and a couple of others.

Nine buttoned remote
The Wii remote has 9 different buttons.

Ten old mega drive games
Through the Wii store, it is possible to purchase for a small fee ($7-$15) 'classic' games from systems such as the Sega Megadrive, the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Super NES and the Nintendo 64. There are ten Sega Megadrive games available at launch, including sonic the hedgehog.

Eleven megabit wireless
The Wii features built in wireless for connecting to the Internet and many of the Wii channels, which is quite handy because I have a wireless connection available in my house. Technically the Wii supports speeds of both 11 and 54 megabit wireless, but only one of them would fit in the song ;-).

Twelve retro NES games
Along the same lines as number 10, there will be twelve classic Nintendo Entertainment System games available at launch, including the original Legend of Zelda game.

The twelve days of Chwiistmas

2006-11-25T15:01:00.000+11:00

That's right, with only 12 days left until the launch of Nintendo's next generation console, I will share with you a song that I made up over the last couple of days and which I haven't been able to get out of my head.

On the first day before launch my EB gave to me
A Wii bundled with a game for free

On the second day before launch my EB gave to me
Two two classic controllers
And a Wii bundled with a game for free

On the third day before launch my EB gave to me
Three nunchuks
Two two classic controllers
And a Wii bundled with a game for free

On the fourth day before launch my EB gave to me
Four Wii Remotes
Three nunchuks
Two two classic controllers
And a Wii bundled with a game for free

On the fifth day before launch my EB gave to me
Five different sports
Four Wii Remotes
Three nunchuks
Two two classic controllers
And a Wii bundled with a game for free

On the sixth day before launch my EB gave to me
Six days is half there
Five different sports
Four Wii Remotes
Three nunchuks
Two two classic controllers
And a Wii bundled with a game for free

On the seventh day before launch my EB gave to me
Seven^th of December
Six days is half there
Five different sports
Four Wii Remotes
Three nunchuks
Two two classic controllers
And a Wii bundled with a game for free

On the eighth day before launch my EB gave to me
Eight Wii channels
Seven^th of December
Six days is half there
Five different sports
Four Wii Remotes
Three nunchuks
Two two classic controllers
And a Wii bundled with a game for free

On the ninth day before launch my EB gave to me
Nine buttoned remote
Eight Wii channels
Seven^th of December
Six days is half there
Five different sports
Four Wii Remotes
Three nunchuks
Two two classic controllers
And a Wii bundled with a game for free

On the tenth day before launch my EB gave to me
Ten old mega drive games
Nine buttoned remote
Eight Wii channels
Seven^th of December
Six days is half there
Five different sports
Four Wii Remotes
Three nunchuks
Two two classic controllers
And a Wii bundled with a game for free

On the eleventh day before launch my EB gave to me
Eleven megabit wireless
Ten old mega drive games
Nine buttoned remote
Eight Wii channels
Seven^th of December
Six days is half there
Five different sports
Four Wii Remotes
Three nunchuks
Two two classic controllers
And a Wii bundled with a game for free

On the twelfth day before launch my EB gave to me
Twelve retro NES games
Eleven megabit wireless
Ten old mega drive games
Nine buttoned remote
Eight Wii channels
Seven^th of December
Six days is half there
Five different sports
Four Wii Remotes
Three nunchuks
Two two classic controllers
And a Wii bundled with a game for free

For more info visit Wii.com.

The Sheriff Re-Run

2006-10-31T22:13:00.000+11:00

Last weekend I again went down to my parents house to re-install windows on their desktop computer (last time it was their laptop). For the more technical minded, when I setup their laptop, I set it up with an admin account and a regular user account, and instructed them to use the regular user for day to day use and the admin account for installing and removing programs. Well, this system has been running great so far, keeping the viruses and spyware out because if you're running without admin privileges, then nothing is able to be installed, including viruses. It has been running so great that I decided to do the same when I re-did their desktop.

For the non-technical minded, I also had a really great time while I was at my parents house. I took my gamecube along, and played Super Smash Brothers Melee against my sister and her boyfriend, which I thankfully won. My sister also got really stuck into Harvest Moon, a farming game on the gamecube.

The last eventful thing that happened, was that I drove all the way back from Melbourne by myself, which is really good because usually I have my parents accompany me to the outskirts. Now I feel like an accomplished driver and I hope next time I can drive all the way into Melbourne by myself as well.

Oh and 2 weeks ago my iPod broke.

This song of the day to me is such a fun and light song. I found it something really happy and uplifting to listen to while I was driving until, like I said above, my iPod broke.

Song of the Day: chthonic - Super Mario 64 - Fleeting Ecstasy | Direct Download

4

2006-10-15T22:11:00.000+10:00

Wednesday brought about a very important anniversary for Steff and myself. As you may have already inferred from the title, it marked four years of being together, and let me tell you that they are four years that I wouldn't want to spend with anyone else.

I had been planning a bit of a surprise for that fateful day, but in the two days leading up to the momentous occasion I fell ill, and continued to be ill right through our special 4 year mark, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Two weeks ago, on one Monday morning, Steff and I happened to run into each other on my way to work and her way to uni. She was turning right at an intersection and I was turning left into the same street as her, so after turning into that street we both pulled over and got to say a nice good morning to each other. That inspired me to create a big romantic banner which I would wield in that same spot and surprise her on the way to work for our special four years day.

On Saturday I spent 45 minutes walking back and fourth throughout spotlight trying to decide what the best type of paint to use was, and then what colours to get. Finally I walked out of there with a bag full of material, paint and paint brushes and slid back into church where I was repairing the computer used for overheads. That computer took seven hours to fix on that Saturday, but as they say at the end of Thomas the Tank Engine, that's another story.

I spent the next couple of nights painting the banner, which I did largely through the use of stencils of letters I had printed out and then cut out. All in all this was a bit of a struggle though, because in Monday and Tuesday nights I was starting to get sick. I kept at it, and managed to get it finished on Tuesday night, ready for the big event the next day, however that night I found out from Sammy that the Uni class had been canceled, and that Steff now wouldn't be going in at all! I started to panic, because it seemed like my plan was ruined, but then I was reminded that Steff also had RE on Wednesdays, and after a quick phone call to Rachel, I learnt the times it operated and how Steff and Rachel got too and from the Primary School.

So I drove out at lunch time and parked my car on the side of the road five minutes before Steff was scheduled to finish RE. I stood at the back of my car, holding the banner folded up, waiting for the car to approach. It seemed like I was waiting for quite a long time, not least because of the constant churning of my sick stomach, but at last I saw Rachel's car and indeed almost missed it. Thankfully I pulled up the banner just in time and the rest, as they say, is history. I will say though that it took Steff quite by surprise.

Hopefully my friend Rachel, who was driving the car with Steff in it will write a bit about her impressions on her blog.

Song of the Day: Day of Fire - Reborn | Lyrics

Sleep, Or Lack Thereof

2006-09-28T23:09:00.000+10:00

Wow it's been a hectic ~~week.~~ fortnight. In fact most of it has seemed to be a blur since Hamish came down and stayed at my house, which was the first Saturday of the holidays. I guess because a lot of other people are on holidays right now, it's easier to get sucked into staying up late, although I have been in full time work for the entire holidays (which is by no means unusual).

Once I've regained a bit more consciousness and worked off a bit of my sleep debt, I hope to be able give you all a bit of an update. Perhaps I'll give you all some info on the (boring) Voice over IP (ie. computer phone) server we've been setting up at work, or even my run-in with two friendly American missionaries from Utah. Bonus points if you've already guessed they were from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

My song is just a short one (like his post) from OC ReMix, chosen because I has 'busy' in the title. Still, I do remember laughing when I first heard it.

Song of the Day: Hazama - Zelda 3 - Town Music (Busy Life) | Direct Download | Lyrics

Can't Imagine Being Here Without It

2006-09-13T23:17:00.000+10:00

Music that is. To quote Thousand Foot Krutch:

I love music can't imagine being here without it
Turn it up so your neighbors all hear about it

I had that playing in my car on the way home from Young Adults tonight, and it reminded me of how much of a difference music makes in my life. It's something that can really get me going and quite quickly change my mood for the better if I'm not feeling fantastic. For a long time I've always started off my day with music, I can remember listening to my MP3 CD player on the bus in the mornings in year 11. Later on in year twelve I would walk to school listening to my Chinese made flash-based mp3 player, and then latter on my iPod shuffle. I still listen to the iPod shuffle on the way to work, but now it's in my car.

My point is that I often use music to help get me started in the morning and to energize me. I don't know what I'd do without it, but I can be sure my life would be a lot less interesting. The song of the day here isn't just a gimmick, many songs really do mean something to me, and I hope I'm able to share just a small part of that with you, my friends.

On a non-music note (pun intended) I went into the canteen at work on Tuesday where there are 2 permanent staff usually accompanied by one or two volunteer mums each day. One of the mum's on Tuesday still learning about the school, and when I walked in said to one of the full time staff 'This guy is in plain clothes, is he a student doing passions' and I had to let her know that I am actually a full time staff member at the school. It's understandable, because some of the people working in the canteen have children older than me, but I'm not going to complain if I'm mistaken for a year nine student.

Just a quick note about my last post, while Karen did provide us with the questions and verses at d-teams, the answers weren't given to us through a speech or notes or anything, and answers in my image are the answers I came up with in my own quiet reflection.

My song for the day is the one I quoted at the start of this post, Rhime Animal by Thousand Foot Krutch. It is from their oldest album, and is nowhere near representative of their current style, but it really does have a grove that is just nice to drive along to. Just in case you've picked it up, it is actually spelt 'Rhime' on their album cover and website even though that isn't the correct spelling.

Song of the Day: Thousand Foot Krutch - Rhyme Animal | Direct Demo | Lyrics Part 1 Lyrics Part 2

Rain

2006-09-09T00:04:00.000+10:00

Tonight at D-Teams Karen summed up what we had been looking at throughout the entire term, that God is with us through the best of times and the worst of times. Some of the musicians had been performing items throughout the term, and a lot of them focused on rain. Karen went on to explain that rain is something that we often don't want to live with but can't live without it. She drew some parallels between rain and the troubles that we have in our lives, and then played a few of the items from throughout the term on CD and had us do some quiet reflection with some questions and bible verses up on the projector.

I was a little artistically inspired, which is unusual for me, and I sketched out a layout for the questions, answers, and verses, which I latter fleshed out in paint shop pro. These kind of creative outbursts are usually few and far between, so I hope you find it enlightening. Click on the thumbnail below for the full size image.

My song for today continues on with the rain theme and is called 'Rain Song'. While not one of the songs used as an item this term, this is a song that often has me closing my eyes when I sing it. The band now has a new album and their website has no mention of their previous album, so I've linked you the album, as well as a 1 minute demo from WORD Bookstore's online store.

Song of the Day: Day Of Fire - Rain Song | Direct Demo | Lyrics

The Edmund In Us All

2006-09-04T22:10:00.000+10:00

These are my notes on part 2 from Andrew's series on Narnia.

The Edmund In Uz Us All
Narnia Part 2
Andrew C.

Parallels can be drawn between each of the 4 children in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and the disciples of Jesus. Peter, the oldest, represents the disciple of the same name while Lucy who is the youngest represents John. Susan represents Thomas and lastly, Edmund represents Judas.

James 1:13-15

10 Truths About Sin

Most appealing when we're weak
Sin clouds how evil sin really is
Sin appears as what you want
Sin clouds your judgment
Sin's pleasures don't last long
Sin will eventually kill you
Sin promises better days ahead
Sin lies about your importance
Sin leads to the betrayal of others
Sin spoils good things

3 Points

Don't be discouraged when you're tempted.
Don't be drawn away when you're tempted.
Don't be deceived when you're tempted.

Applications

Pray. Matthew 6:13
Devour the scriptures. 2 Timothy 3:16
Avoid compromising situations. Proverbs 4:14-15
Get enough rest. Proverbs 24:33
- It's easier to do silly things when you're tired
Seek accountability from others. 1 Corinthians 10:13

My song of the day has nothing to do with Narnia or The Edmund In All Of Us. It's from Overlooked Remix, a website of songs not quite good enough for OverClocked Remix. I think this is quite funny. It's from Final Fantasy Mystic Quest on the SNES, which isn't much like other FF games but I really liked it back when I was younger and have finished it 2-3 times. Please, for the sake of the cat in the song, I implore you to even just click the 'Direct Download' link and just listen to it in your browser, it's less then 2 minutes long.

Song of the Day: Christian Pacaud - Final Fantasy Mystic Quest - Meow Meow | Direct Download | Lyrics

Disarm A Sheriff With An Atomic Bomb

2006-09-03T22:36:00.000+10:00

On Friday I went to Melbourne to visit my parents, with the intention of removing the Spy Sheriff and his many 'spyware' friends from their laptop. After I made a backup of the data their laptop, I went straight for the atomic bomb of computer repair, the reformat.

I have to say that it was actually one of my most successful reformats to date. I don't seem to have forgotten to backup any of the data (I even got the e-mails and address book, which is a common thing to forget) and because I used the HP install CD's, I had all the drivers as well. I even managed to write them a backup batch file which backs up their documents, favorites and desktop to their other computer.

On the Friday night, my parents and I picked up my sister from work, and somehow she ended up riding in my car instead of theirs (which I guess shows they have strong confidence in my driving ability) and she noted that she quite liked one of the OC Remixes (arrangements of video game music) that I was playing in the car. It was Falling Back , a vocal remix of the Gerudo Valley theme from The Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time. It's kind of stuck with me too, and so 'Falling Back' is my song of the day, what I hope to be a regular feature of my blog posts.

Song of the Day: Darangen - Zelda 64 Falling Back OC ReMix | Direct Download | Lyrics

Sheriff's Run Out Of Town

2006-08-28T21:52:00.000+10:00

I spent a good hour today on the phone running the sheriff out of town. That is, the spy sheriff, a nasty little piece of spyware that had taken up residence on my Dad's laptop. It had a few tricks, including stopping the user from being able to open the task manager (so they couldn't force quit any processes).

Handy hint, if this happens to you put this command in your run box and press 'Ok' to re-enable the task manager.

REG add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v DisableTaskMgr /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

Do so at your own risk! You have been legally disclaimed!

Anyway, the corrupted Spy Sheriff has been run out of town, but I'll be heading on down to my parents in that thar Melbourne on the weekend to try an flush out any other nasty critters that might be hanging around, and also making sure that the sheriff never comes back.

Oh and hi to everyone from Trav's blog.

The Missing Video

2006-08-22T12:28:00.000+10:00

No, the video isn't missing, but I will be making a video using footage from the camp 'The Missing' that we just had at Odyssey. This is just a quick update to let you know that I won't be blogging until the video is finished, which should be Friday this week.

I should also let you know that although I didn't mention it in my Birthday post, I did get a couple of cards in the mail including a really nice one from my good friends Alice and Erin. Thanks guys!

The Missing

2006-08-20T21:57:00.000+10:00

Odyssey, the Youth Group that I help run / attend, had it's yearly camp this last weekend, and of course I was there. It was held out in Mansfield, which is a good 3 hours drive from Bendigo, but it really was a great place to go.

Karen and Steve both did a really good job speaking, and I really enjoyed the opportunity to spend more time with some people I already knew but haven't spent a lot of time with. I spent a bit of time with Tim trying to crack The Missing Code which I really enjoyed, and also a fair bit of time with Zoe working on the sound stuff. I gained a fair bit of respect for her over the camp and hope she's able to join my sound crew at Short Street.

The Missing Code was given to us on the first night, and it was a series of numbers, each number representing a letter. Through doing challenges and activities, the teams were able to earn themselves letters, which would help them to decipher the code. For example, for completing an activity you might learn that F=16 and U=11. The last part of the code was a series of dashes and spaces, which marked out the spacing for the different words. Tim, who I mentioned earlier, as part of his studies at University is studding cryptography, and even with a small mistake in part of the dash sheet, he was able to crack The Code before midnight on the Friday night.

If you read that code (mouse over 'The Code' above) you'll notice that it mentions a double agent. That double agent turned out to be Luke, and while his team had 5 people out of the 10 at the end guess it was him, I was the only person not from his team that guessed him, which netted me a small box of favorites (which I shared with my team).

Some other things I really liked about the camp were the wide open spaces, running to try and pop another team's balloon in a tree before they got there, trying to photograph sheep that ran away from me, and of course using the speakers that were hooked up to each and every room at the campsite, including the dining room, each cabin and even the toilets.

Overall I don't have many regrets about camp, only slept in a cabin with Zeph, Matt, Flyn, Rob and Charles (:-P) and that I didn't take the opportunity to pull any kind of prank, such as announcing something over the sound system at 6am.

Birthday

2006-08-14T09:10:00.000+10:00

Today is my Birthday. It's been pretty good so far. I got some clothes as presents which are really nice. I really like it when I get clothes because it takes me a long time to pick clothes and I always feel I get the wrong thing, so by getting me clothes, people give me the gift of the clothes themself and also the gift of me not having to make a hard decision in a shop about what to buy.

All in all, I'm happy with my birthday. I'm now 20, and no longer a teenager so um, look out!

Here is a record of who's wished me a happy birthday, how they did it, and at what times today.

Name	Method	Time
Sammy	SMS	12:11am
Ubuntu Forums	E-mail	9:01am
Tim O'Brien	E-mail	9:04am
Steff	SMS	9:35:08am
Alex	SMS	9:35:20am
Lauren	SMS	10:25am
Mum	Phone	10:41am
Kate	SMS	10:58am
Cara	SMS	10:03am
Dani & Sally	Whiteboard	1:30pm
Dad & Maureen	SMS	2:27pm
Karen	SMS	4:20pm
Steve	SMS	4:35pm
Jenny	Person	5:04pm
Steff's Grandfather	Person	5:28pm
Eva	Person	5:29pm
Barry	Person	5:56pm
Erica	Person	8:28pm
Brooke	MSN	9:12pm
John	Person	10:30pm

Discover The Wonder

2006-08-13T22:10:00.000+10:00

Andrew, the pastor at my Church has been doing a series about The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. He's been doing it in the evening for the last few weeks now. Here are my notes from the first week, about discovering the wonder about narnia / Christianity.

Discover The Wonder
Narnia Part 1
Andrew C.

3 Essentials:

Awaken

Christianity is a supernatural faith. There is a lot going on unseen. Ecclesiastes 3:11.

Walk into the truth

Jesus is the doorway to our real home. John 10:9.

Embrace

If you study the Bible and it doesn't lead to awe and wonder, then you haven't studied the bible. Psalm 33:8

1400

2006-08-13T16:37:00.000+10:00

On Friday (11th August) it was Steff and I's 3 years and 10 months anaversery. Usually you'd think that something like 3 years and 10 months isn't a terribly exciting number, but I was doing some maths and found out that we'd been together exactly 1400 days, or exactly 200 weeks.

I'm really thankful for the big part Steff has played in my life over these past 200 weeks. She's been such an inspiration and great help to me. There are so many things I couldn't have done without her, and I just thank her so much.

Chap Stick, Chapped Lips, and Things Like Dentistry

2006-08-10T19:00:00.000+10:00

I went to the dentist today, the second last stage of my root cannel.

Originally she said that this stage of the work wasn't very painful, and that an anesthetic wouldn't be needed, but half way through it was hurting quite considerably at some spots and so she decided to give me an anesthetic.

Other parts of the procedure didn't go as smoothly as they could have either, and so something that she said would take about an hour ended up taking two.

The time doesn't bother me too much though, it's really the cost of it that concerns me. Today's visit was a bit more expensive than some of the previous ones, at $355. I'm just happy that I get paid tomorrow morning.

My next appointment is the 24th of August, which will be my last appointment for the root canal or fillings. However looming on the horizon is the prospect of getting my wisdom teeth removed, something I haven't even begun to contemplate yet.

Hello World!

2006-08-08T22:05:00.000+10:00

Greetings!

Apparantly in a lot of books that teach programming one of the first things they teach you is to make a program that displays 'Hello world' on the screen. Look it up if you don't believe me.

So this is my blog. I don't know what you should expect, as this blog is about the past, not the future, and the future hasn't happened yet, so I don't know what will happen and therefore I don't know what to expect.

End communication.