Quest success!

It didn't take too long but did involve a bit of driving around. But the slow combustion wood heater has been fixed and Tania's house is warm again.

We ended up driving to Northam since it is closer to Wundowie than Perth or even Midland. We found a glazier who was able to cut and supply the heatproof glass, and a different chimney shop that was able to supply the other parts like the ceramic rope.

Overall, a good day's work.

There is always more to do. I want to go back to her place again today and help her out with a few more things but one of our cars here needs to go in to the mechanic. So I need to be near the house this afternoon when it is ready for collection.

And ... gainfully employed

Had a successful interview today. I start the new job on Monday (yay!) at 8am (boo!). There's the usual 3 month probation period, which will hopefully go well.

The main thing to consider is to focus on doing the job right to the best of my ability. Later on down the track I will be able to worry about other things like what to spend money on (fuel, food, bills...) but only after I actually start getting it.

No more day dreaming.

Computer Swappin'

Gah! Busy day.

Upgrading my video editing computer and in the process upgraded other computers as well. My old video editing computer became my new internet computer, so Ubuntu is running slick and fast now. "New" video editing computer however isn't doing so well. There are no new components, it's all second hand gear but it is much better than my old system (if I can get it to work).

Now I have a mess of components spare. Hmm, what else can I do with a computer...

First week of "unemployment"

So should I be scared, excited or relieved?

Where I am right now: Three weeks ago I quit my old job. Technically, I quit five weeks ago when I formally handed in my written resignation, but my last shift as a full time employee of the company was three weeks ago.

Why did I quit? I could give lots of answers, but the core is that I want more money.

I was working retail and I've now got gold fever - I want to go work in the mines. The problem is that this is a rather vague sort of goal! Everyone says that they want to go "work in the mines" but there are so many different jobs one could be doing! I picked the most obvious - driving haul trucks.

Of course, there are hundreds of people applying for these jobs so I decided to make sure I was properly trained and went and signed up for the RMS course. I had to really take a leap on that one because it costs $3,000. Handing over that kind of money makes you want to be really sure of what you are doing.

I did the main course two weeks ago. That was both scary and a lot of fun. I got to drive these big 100-ton trucks around the course they have (which is really tight) and spent time on their simulator (which is really cool) where they kept throwing emergency situations at us to see how we'd react.

Two weeks ago I did the follow up training and got my Senior First Aid and General Safety Induction to work on mine sites. I also applied for my National Police Clearance certificate which I received. That means I've ticked all the boxes and I'm now ready for the hard part - applying!

This week is my first week of true unemployment. I was still listed at my old job as a casual and did some work on the Saturdays during training but I have no shifts scheduled. Fortunately I have a very thrifty lifestyle so having no income for a few weeks ought not be a huge handicap - though I don't want to let it go too long!

I spent today getting my CV up to date, which I've nearly finished and I'll be set to start sending off applications tomorrow.

Total spent thus far: $3,500 - and climbing...

Dead Tree books are dead

Well, I took the plunge and bought a Kobo Wireless.

And I am loving it so far!

It's quite a cute little device, smaller than I originally thought it was going to be. It refreshes the screen very quickly. If I hit "next page" before I finish reading the last line, I'll have time to finish reading the line before the screen goes black and the new text comes up around the same time that my eyes reach the top of the screen.

The e-ink screen is awesome, I'm loving the ability to read for hours on end without eye strain. I downloaded a few free ebooks a while back and tried reading them on my computer, but my eyes became sore and fatigued very quickly. I had to stop after about two hours. Using the internet, browsing and watching videos isn't as big a deal but reading large blocks of text for sustained periods of time is a real hassle.

There are a lot of cheap Chinese pretend readers floating around and I find it amusing that they advertise "yes, in colour - watch video and see photo" as a big selling point - which totally misses the point of an e-reader! TFT or LCD screens won't give you the "read for hours" ability that e-ink will.

Next on the list, get a case for it. The screen is (I assume) fragile and I want to protect it. It may have cost "only" $180, but it's still $180 I'd rather not lose due to something pressing against the screen...

Gallery - Redux

Well, it took longer than expected (like everything) but my new gallery is up and running.

Actually, it's probably not very well done as the main gallery index does not show any actual photos! It is a list of links to the pages that have the photos. Not the best way to do it since there are no "hooks" to grab people and get them into the photos themselves. My bad.

You can check it out here and see what all the fuss is about.

In other photography related news - my new camera has arrived! *squee* You can't see me, but I'm totally doing a happy dance right now. It's a Canon Kiss X4 and it's just dandy. I've only just started playing with it, I'm hoping to get some photos to share this weekend (or sooner!).

Mildly interesting

I have had enough with the spam comments so I have turned anonymous posting off. Sorry to those few who wanted to make a quick comment without registering / logging in / creating a shell account. However, you few were in the minority, and the vast amount of garbage that was collecting was getting annoying.

The mildly interesting part is that most of my visitors come from three places. Australia, which will be mostly me and a few of my friends who read this, America (US) where occasional people pop up and read and sometimes leave a comment and ... Russia.

I wonder which accounts for most of my spam?

Be interesting to review visitor numbers in a few weeks now that the anonymous posting has been switched off. And a captcha has been added as well.

Sorry. But gotta fight the spam...