Horoscope time

At a meeting at work today one person was talking about horoscopes, and as a result mine was read aloud.

Libra
The prevailing influence brings a strong masculine energy into the day and may increase your sexual appetite. Now that's not a bad thing, so plan a bit of fun tonight. But through the day you shouldn't flirt or that may be taken the wrong way! Keep your energy firmly focussed on achieving your goals.

Now, when they got to the part in bold of course everyone was in hysterics. I started to turn a nice shade of bright pink and everyone wanted to know what starsign Lotte was. Naturally the next thing that was read out was hers:

Virgo
Happy Birthday Virgo: This should be the perfect day to attain a goal, make a dream come true or fulfil an ambition. All things can be realised when you take a stand, be courageous and work for your own benefit. This is not a hostile thing; you just want to know you've done it alone! Plan a hot and sultry romantic night if that's possible!

Of course they had to add that last line just to embarass me in front of my colleages, didn't they?

New MLX Chapter

Well, I haven't been able to post about it until now but it's finally public. We're not going to be coordinating MLX this year. It was a tough decision to make, but we're both relieved too. I think it's going to be really different for both of us to be there as attendees and just enjoy the vibe, and the new team is going to be great. I'm not quite sure if they know what they've gotten themselves into, but that's probably a good thing. Here's our announcement, made yesterday night.

How BSG Killed TV

Further to my previous post, see this article from Mindjack if you need any more convincing or if you just want to know some more details. Download the presentation this article is based on with Bittorrent here. The end of the broadcast age is nigh, I tell ya.

BSG Season 2

So now I will turn my attention to something far more interesting, and certainly more enjoyable. The new Battlestar Galactica. Season 2 is now upon us. At least, if you are in the US or have access to recordings from the US. There is no indication that any of the Australian free to air networks have picked up Season 2, despite (or perhaps due to) Network Ten's botched airing of the first series down under. So local BSG fans have no idea if or when it will arrive here.

Enter peer 2 peer networks like Bittorrent. Newspapers are reporting that Australian TV viewers are increasingly turning to downloading episodes of series like BSG out of frustration. Speaking hypothetically of course, if I was to engage in any bittorrenting, I know I would still be keen to watch a series like BSG on free to air TV. I'm a big enough fan to even go to the expense of purchasing the entire series on DVD. I'm already planning to get the first series on DVD and I've watched that through a couple of times now. Just about all the other BSG fans I know are similarly committed to owning the series on DVD. It might just be a BSG thing, I don't know.

What it says to me is that networks will be increasingly under pressure to air series that enjoy international success more quickly. It just can't be sustainable for Australian networks to withold episodes for 12 months or more when your average 10 year old can download them from the US the day after their release. Sure it's a hassle to download, and it's bandwidth that you pay for, but if the alternative is waiting indefinitely, people will do it.

Anyway, all that being said, I am really enjoying Season 2 of BSG. Not only is the plot in this series more involved than the last one, the characters are being revealed in more detail, which is the most engaging thing of all for me. I heartily recommend it to anyone, even if you have no interest at all in Sci Fi. Suffice to say that the issues explored are very relevant to today's headlines, and also include the sort of timeless themes of a real masterpiece. I just cannot speak highly enough of the writing, the direction and the acting in this show. If you don't know what I'm talking about, track down the New Battlestar Galactica mini series in your local video shop -- it's easy to find and it watches just like a movie. You'll be hooked.

Blogsick

Today I have been thinking about why I haven't been blogging much lately. It's simple really. I'm sick of hearing myself whine about being sick. It seems to be the main topic of conversation everywhere and with everyone, and it seems to affect just about every aspect of life. So I can't be bothered writing about it here any more. I want to be over it. I want to just put it behind me like it was last week's news. So I think I will.

Secret to Bush's success

I've finally found out what Bush's secret is. "When people hear the President speak, frankly they think he's really stupid. But what people don't realize is that there is a genius behind the stupidity". See for yourself.

The 3 Worst Things About Day Surgery

You might think that going into hospital at 6.45am for a 'day procedure' requiring general anaesthetic and swallowing a camera so someone can snip some bits of your stomach and oesophagous out for tests would be bad enough. Indeed you might be right. However I've discovered that the three worst things about day surgery aren't really directly to do with surgery at all.

1. Trying to sleep the night before. For someone who has never been under a general in his life I think I was pretty cool calm and collected about the whole thing. But it was just like going on a big trip -- you just don't want to miss that plane. So even though I got to sleep by about 10.30pm I kept waking up... 4am, 4.30am, 5.00am, 5.15am, 5.35am... etc. etc. The most annoying thing? We got to the hospital ahead of time and were directed by a security guy up to the doctor's suite where we waited for 30 mins. When nobody arrived we finally found out we had been told the wrong thing and had to go to Admissions, one level down. Thanks, security guy.

2. Getting your car towed. Yes, I was sleepy and distracted, and it was dark when we arrived. However, it was still pretty stupid to misread the sign on Victoria Parade. I think I only read the part where it said we could park for 2 hours from 9.30am. Not the part that said TOW AWAY ZONE 7am-9.30am. Our brand new car is now sitting in a pound somewhere in the city.

3. Daytime TV sucks. Man, I always forget just how much. When Oprah Winfrey and Judge Judy are the highlights of the day's viewing, "you got problems". Talk to the hand because the face ain't listening.

Anyway the doc says everything looks normal in my gullet, so that's a positive.

New Video

Check out this amazing new instructional video: How to dance like a white guy.

Back home

Well, we arrived home to a cold and rainy Melbourne yesterday evening and it's been a lazy Sunday doing very little but recovering from the journey home. I'll keep posting pictures from the rest of the trip in the next few days.

Unfortunately I have a lot to do. Last week the server hosting all my sites and my email was hacked badly. Slydog is moving everything over to a new host and hopefully we will have things back up and running soon, but in the meantime SwingTalk is down along with the MLX site and all the others. My email is only accessible through a web client right now and I'm not actually sure if all my mail will be there when it's back up. Slightly scary.

Still, it's good to be home. I didn't actually miss much in Australia while I was away because I was having too much fun, but I did miss my cat, Mr Squiggle. He didn't miss me at all, I'm sure. As long as he's fed, he's happy.

Friesland

We left Zeeland on Saturday morning and took the train to meet up with our friends Daan and Thomas at the house in Utrecht. That afternoon we drove 2 hours north to the province of Friesland, where Friesian cows, and the English language originate from. We stayed overnight at Thomas' sister's place in Leeuwarden. It was funny to think that we'd travelled the entire length of the country in less than a day. One thing I noticed about Leeuwarden was that the architecture was different. The churches did not have much decoration and things were in general very sombre and old fashioned.

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We headed back towards Utrecht on Sunday the 3rd of July along the Afsluitdijk, which is an amazing 30km long construction that keeps the north of Holland from being flooded and battered by the ocean. Below you can see a ship coming through one of the lochs in the dyke, and a couple of workers pushing a small rock into place to build the dyke up.

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Zeeland

Skip forward a few days now to Wednesday the 29th of July -- the day we arrived in Zeeland, Holland. For those who don't know, Zeeland is where New Zealand gets its name (spelt Nieuw Zeeland in Dutch). It's the southernmost province of Holland and is famous for its beaches. We stayed with Lotte's mum and grandma in a very small house (het strandhuisje) right on the sand at Vlissingen. Sort of like a bathing box with mod-cons. I really like this photo of the sunset over the beach. I snapped it from the front of the strandhuisje looking up along the beach just before 10pm. The days are very long right now, with twilight lasting until after 11pm.

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Here's a shot of me right in front of the strandhuisje looking about as relaxed as I can be. I must say it probably looks a tiny bit warmer than it actually was there, but while the wind is bracing, when the sun shines it's very pleasant. I can't say it does much for the temperature of the water though. I went for one swim and it felt about as warm as freshly melted snow.

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One of the really fun things about this beach is that it's actually right at the end of the river that leads to the port at Antwerpe, so about every 2 minutes you see a huge ship only about 1km off the beach. So spotting ships through the binoculars is one of the main passtimes.

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Our other main passtime was playing Yahtzee. Also in the picture are Lotte's mum, dad and grandma (or in Dutch, Oma).

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Hameau du Lac

Here we have a few shots of us nearby the house in Hameau du Lac. On Saturday we decided to head down to the stream behind the house to see if we could have a swim. It was a bit too green for me to swim but Lotte and Dory had fun on the crocodile.

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Sunday was a funny day that sort of started with a minor disaster but finished in style. Just as Bil was taking our rental car around a tight corner he snagged some sharp bricks beside the road and popped a tyre. We had a brief pitstop before heading on to the beach.

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That night we had, I think, one of the best meals of the whole trip at a restaurant just near Sigean that was recommended to us by Lotte's aunt Anna called the Hotel St. Anne. They did a special 3 course menu for us that included the beautiful fish dish below, all for 17 Euros each. We were the only customers in the place that night and I have no idea why because it was truly gourmet stuff. I believe it starts to get a lot busier in July and August though.

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Eus

After Castelnou we headed out for a drive to a lake. The plan was to have a swim, but about 5 minutes into our journey we were in the middle of a deluge that turned into a hailstorm. It was very dramatic. We waited by the side of the road until it cleared and then headed on our way. By the time we got to where we were going it was dry and we swam anyway (well, I didn't, but I wasn't feeling like it). Oh yeah, and we ate icecreams.

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On our way back, we found a tiny tiny village on a hilltop called Eus. You pronounce that "UH". We laughed about that for hours. What would you say if someone asks where you live? "Uh... UH". Anyway it was beautiful.

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Castelnou

These shots are of a beautiful village & chateau called Castelnou, which is about an hour's drive from Sigean. I highly recommend going there. There's a cafe and winery, of course, but the highlights are the views and the buildings dating back to 989AD. The town is now inhabited mostly by artisans who sell to the many visitors. We spent a couple of hours there just taking everything in.

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Just when we started thinking that we were the only non-French tourists there, we ran into this Dutch couple with their dog. Lotte introduced herself and started talking to them before she realised they were Dutch. We all introduced ourselves as "Geoff from Canada, Matt from Australia", etc. until Lotte said "and me and my sister and her boyfriend are from Holland". The Dutch guy smiled and said "We are also from Holland but we are from the REAL Holland!" Then Lotte started to speak to him in Dutch and he realised that she was actually from the real Holland too, so we all laughed.

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And here are some more from Castelnou. The sign was outside a small art/craft marketplace that was deserted. Looks like it belongs in an episode of 'Allo 'Allo.

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The House & Bill at Port La Nouvelle

Here are a couple of shots taken of Doris at the house at Hameau du Lac. The town's name means "hamlet on the lake" and that's exactly what it is. The house was actually quite a bit bigger than I had imagined from the photos, with three floors and an outside balcony and a living area at the back with a very high ceiling. Dory slept in a loft in the living area. The first photo shows Dory and Lotte in the kitchen getting ready for dinner on Thursday night. The second is Dory posing with a beautiful portrait that Justin painted of her using Nutella on a crepe on Friday morning. Crepes are sold in packages everywhere there.

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This last one is very special because it comes with a story. Later on Thursday night we went to Port la Nouvelle, which is the local resort village on the beach. We were standing on the square watching a musical comedy duo play fishing songs and polkas when Bilby grabbed Lotte for a dance and impressed the locals. Immediately after completing one dance a man in his 60s looked over at Bill and suggested gleefully that he take his wife for a spin. Bill manfully accepted the task and the lady looked like her face was about to explode with excitement as they danced around in circles. The moment captured below is when she was completely overcome and decided she should jump onto Bill and wrap her legs around him. The look on Bilby's face says it all.

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Narbonne

Later on Thursday we went to check out Narbonne, a much larger city than Sigean with a beautiful square, a market, canals, and a small loch. In the middle of the city is a cathedral. Of course, I have photos of all those things but there's too much to upload so you'll have to make do with this cheesy selection of us walking around the city. Narbonne was definitely my favourite of the bigger cities close to where we were staying. The couple with us in the pics are Justin and Sara (Lotte's sister). We just found out that Sara will be coming to visit us in Australia soon after we get back!

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We have the luxury of a reliable broadband connection while we're in Utrecht for the next couple of weeks, so it's time to start putting a few photos online. We have about 2,500 to choose from because we pooled all the photos from 7 digital cameras amongst our friends on the France leg of the trip! Needless to say, I've been through and picked only a few from the library.

Starting from the beginning, here are a few shots from Sigean, which is the closest town to Hameau Du Lac where we were staying in France. These were taken on Thursday the 23rd of July -- the day after we arrived in the south of France from Toulouse. Sigean is tiny, with one doglegged main street with tiny alleys leading off it to explore.

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Back in Holland

It was about a 16 hour drive from Sigean, France to Zeeland, The Netherlands. We're so tired! But it's good to be back in Holland. We dropped in to Ko's place for a cuppa before heading to Ans' to drop off our stuff. Next is a short bike ride down to the beach box where we'll spend the next two nights. I'm looking forward to doing absolutely nothing for a while. Justin gave me a DVD with all the photos everyone took in the South of France leg, so I'll get to uploading some of those while I'm in Holland. Not all of them, though -- there are something like 2000.

Bonjour from Narbonne

For those who don't know, I'm currently on holiday in Europe. Today is our last day in France before we head up to Holland by car. So far things have been really great (apart from my health, which remains poor). We spent the first two nights in Paris before meeting Bill, Dory and Geoff and taking the train down to Toulouse. One great night in Toulouse (with lots of dancing and not much sleep) left us tired for the car trip down to Hameau du Lac (near Sigean) but it was worth it. We've spent the last week just relaxing and seeing sights in the Sigean, Narbonne and Perpignan region. Lots of castles and beaches and small villages to explore. We have stacks of photos but I don't have time to upload anything right now apart from this one of Lotte being the Eiffel tower.

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Intel inside

So it's true. Apple is putting Intel chips into Macs from next year. The five stages of Intel Macs has an amusing take on the way it panned out. For the full story, you need to see the Steve Jobs' WWDC Keynote.

I've been mulling it over for a week now and I guess I'm starting to see the sense in it. They're not talking about ditching Apple hardware, just about making it faster and cheaper. They're also not talking about another painful OS9 -> OSX type jump. Anything that runs on PPC will still run courtesy of Rosetta, with a 30-40% speed hit that will be at least partly compensated for by the horsepower of the new boxes. And developers are for the most part very positive, meaning that we shouldn't see a return to the days of Copland when developers started leaving in droves. The proof of the pudding will be how smooth the transition is, of course, and how well Apple is able to ride out the inevitable blip in its sales as people wait for the new boxes to arrive in a year's time.