jeremy.id.au

Had to go to Bunnings for a few things this week and picked up a $30 el-cheapo drill while we were there. After all, it’s a pain not having a drill handy and when you can get a cordless drill this cheap, why not get one? And so gone are the days when you had to drape a great long extension cord to the place you were drilling.

Though having a new toy means you have to find something to do with it. Well one of those things was to cut hole through piece of MDF behind a desk/bunch for a power and network cable. For years the cables have come out from under the desk then back behind a filing cabinet in a little recess and back out to the power point. Now they can go straight behind the filing cabinet from under the desk. However, before the job could begin I had to remove the filing cabinet, including all four drawers. While I was at it, I was able to remove an old shelf which housed the old PC, just below the desk (no longer needed since the iMac G3 that replaced it is self contained). Finally, I was able to able to fix the network patch plate to the wall, after it had been hanging out of the wall for five years. So a few things that were waiting to have the filing cabinet temporarily removed!

None the less, with an old “hole saw” I was able to find in the garage it came out quite well (you don’t normally see it anyway because it’s under the desk).

In other news, this site is back online now having been down for a few days last week. Emails from my spam registrar were being caught up in my spam filter and the domain name expired! (Though it didn’t go back into the pool of available domains).

For years and years we’ve had these things flying over far above the tree tops. But they would never actually come down. As I kid I tried to devise and engineer various means to get them down, namely, bird feeders and the like. Though they could never actually see from far above the tree tops that the feed was here. However, more recently they have found their own food on our property in the form of a flowering gum tree that was planted in more recent years. No doubt, it is far more healthy for them as well than becoming dependent on human provided feed.

They also like to feed on our silver birch trees at this time of the year and they have been seen in our silver birch trees before. Though this year we’ve the frequent visits have lasted for a far more prolonged period.

Now just for fun, who wants to guess the species? Sorry, no prizes for the first person to guess it right though.

Edit: Since nobody wanted to guess (even though the answer is pretty obvious), they are Rainbow Lorikeets.

On Thursday morning I got up at the earliest time as I have in a long time. The only time I can remember getting on a train any earlier was when I left for Sydney earlier this year. Only that time it was daylight, where as this time it was pitch black when I got up at 6:40am. As I walked out the door twenty minutes later, it was still quite dark though there was a glimmer of daylight.

It was a cold chilly walk to the station and the air has a crisp feel to it. The street lights were still on and a few cars went past with their headlights beaming. It wasn’t until I got on the tram at Elizabeth Street in the city that the sun made its first appearance as just a glimmer of light on the city buildings. Yet as I rode the tram up Royal Parade a possum could be seen still lurking in one of the elm trees. Finally as I was approaching Brunswick, sunlight was making its appearance in the tree tops.

It’s a strange and almost eerie feeling to be out so early, yet almost an amazing feeling at the same time to see the world awaken. Though possibly only because I don’t do it that often.

The reason was that I had to go into TAFE to finish off some work that I should have done last year. Yeah I’ve been slack, well at least in this instance I have an excuse since I was sick when the module was on originally. The only classes being run were for some Prepress apprentices from 8am to 4:30pm. These apprentices must be brave and fearless people to be getting there so early and in fact they do it for two weeks at a time.

On Friday I didn’t quite get up as early and it was already magnitudes quieter when I left, however, on both days it was still quite dark when I left and dark when I got home too. Well now I’m glad it’s the weekend and glad that I don’t have classes next week.