A Blog Darkly
Thursday, September 30, 2004
"Because he really is that good"
Laurie: so why's there so much hype over an 18-year-old?
Me: Because he really is that good.
Hat-trick on debut. What more could we want? Other than Fergie going back to playing 4-4-2, and a team that passes the ball on the ground rather than firing long balls into Ruud in the box.
We're back. This is good. This is very good indeed.
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Laurie: so why's there so much hype over an 18-year-old?
Me: Because he really is that good.
Hat-trick on debut. What more could we want? Other than Fergie going back to playing 4-4-2, and a team that passes the ball on the ground rather than firing long balls into Ruud in the box.
We're back. This is good. This is very good indeed.
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Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Personal stuff...and stuff
I finally get around to updating this with something that isn't about football or members of the Ramones dying...
So, um life is sweet. Rhonda and I are still seeing each other and still getting on very well (we've got a date to see this in about 20 minutes). She's met most of my friends and I've met some of hers, and we all seem to get on well. And for a civilian, she's full of good advice and support for my issues with depression - basically offering the odd helpful suggestion about how to look at the world, and reminding me that anxiety and stuff can be, you know, normal.
The big news is, though, that I got the job! I only applied as a way of seeing what was out there, and how well my skills stacked up against other people. I was glad just to get an interview, then a second interview, then a third...and then they offered me the job. The good news - it's basically a 10% salary increase, plus superannuation contributions, plus a salary review in 6 months. I'm happy.
I'll be working in a more strategic role, more to do with project management of information projects from records management through to knowledge management. No more reference requests from school kids. It's at a central government agency that I won't name here (best to keep all that very well seperate from what I write about here).
I start in late October. Woot for me!
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I finally get around to updating this with something that isn't about football or members of the Ramones dying...
So, um life is sweet. Rhonda and I are still seeing each other and still getting on very well (we've got a date to see this in about 20 minutes). She's met most of my friends and I've met some of hers, and we all seem to get on well. And for a civilian, she's full of good advice and support for my issues with depression - basically offering the odd helpful suggestion about how to look at the world, and reminding me that anxiety and stuff can be, you know, normal.
The big news is, though, that I got the job! I only applied as a way of seeing what was out there, and how well my skills stacked up against other people. I was glad just to get an interview, then a second interview, then a third...and then they offered me the job. The good news - it's basically a 10% salary increase, plus superannuation contributions, plus a salary review in 6 months. I'm happy.
I'll be working in a more strategic role, more to do with project management of information projects from records management through to knowledge management. No more reference requests from school kids. It's at a central government agency that I won't name here (best to keep all that very well seperate from what I write about here).
I start in late October. Woot for me!
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Friday, September 24, 2004
Brian Clough, RIP
The former Nottingham Forest great died of cancer a few days ago, aged 69. Fox Sports has a selection of his best quotes.
My favourite is the honesty in this one:
"I'm dealing with my drinking problem and I have a reputation for getting things done."
But his comments on Keano, Fergie and Sven are pretty damn funny, too.
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The former Nottingham Forest great died of cancer a few days ago, aged 69. Fox Sports has a selection of his best quotes.
My favourite is the honesty in this one:
"I'm dealing with my drinking problem and I have a reputation for getting things done."
But his comments on Keano, Fergie and Sven are pretty damn funny, too.
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Thursday, September 23, 2004
Hubbard sues NBR for $1.5m
After the oh-so-predicitable attack on Auckland mayoral candidate Dick Hubbard in the National Business Review, comes news that Hubbard is suing them for $1.5 million (The New Zealand Herald).
NBR is one of the few papers in New Zealand to follow the American model of journalism - they really, truly, seem to hate their political opponents, and to want to bring them down personally. It's funny to see how they attack Hubbard ("he pays low wages", "he doesn't report against a triple-bottom-line") when they'd defend any other businessman who used the same methods.
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After the oh-so-predicitable attack on Auckland mayoral candidate Dick Hubbard in the National Business Review, comes news that Hubbard is suing them for $1.5 million (The New Zealand Herald).
NBR is one of the few papers in New Zealand to follow the American model of journalism - they really, truly, seem to hate their political opponents, and to want to bring them down personally. It's funny to see how they attack Hubbard ("he pays low wages", "he doesn't report against a triple-bottom-line") when they'd defend any other businessman who used the same methods.
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Russ Meyer is dead
Guardian Unlimited reports Russ Meyer, skin-flick auteur, has died aged 82. This guy was one of the heroes of the early 'Incredibly Strange' Film Festivals back in the mid-1990s. I well remember sitting in the Paramount, watching Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, and laughing louder than anyone in the place (with the obvious exception of my trash-film loving psychology lecturer, who was sitting in front of me).
A sad day. RIP Russ.
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Guardian Unlimited reports Russ Meyer, skin-flick auteur, has died aged 82. This guy was one of the heroes of the early 'Incredibly Strange' Film Festivals back in the mid-1990s. I well remember sitting in the Paramount, watching Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, and laughing louder than anyone in the place (with the obvious exception of my trash-film loving psychology lecturer, who was sitting in front of me).
A sad day. RIP Russ.
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Friday, September 17, 2004
Monday, September 13, 2004
Maddox explains how web-filtering works
If you work for Websense, you aren't reading this.
Quite, quite beautiful. Especially helpful is the flow-chart which neatly circumvents the First Amendment.
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If you work for Websense, you aren't reading this.
Quite, quite beautiful. Especially helpful is the flow-chart which neatly circumvents the First Amendment.
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Should I Rip This?
The London News Review provides a flow-chart to help you determine when it is morally acceptable to import music. (Obviously, it's almost never legally acceptable, blah blah blah).
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The London News Review provides a flow-chart to help you determine when it is morally acceptable to import music. (Obviously, it's almost never legally acceptable, blah blah blah).
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Thursday, September 09, 2004
Conference goodness
I've spent the last week in Auckland, attending the LIANZA annual conference.
A brilliant time overall (I won't go into the details here, save that for my professional blog. But the social aspects were good, too. I spent Friday and Saturday with Mandy, an ex-classmate of mine. Friday we'd hoped to catch SJD playing live but they'd sold out, so we wandered the streets of Kingsland for a while, tossing up between classy cocktail joints and dirty rock and roll. The dirty rock and roll won - we checked out the Have and SlaveTrader, both young loud bands. Nothing fantastic, but nothing wrong with them either - the sort of sounds that have become fashionable with the success of the Datsuns and the D4. Not a huge crowd, sadly, and at least two dodgy mullets spotted.
Saturday we chilled as Mandy has her son that day, and he was sick. Watched a documentary on feminist film makers and Antiques Roadshow, and ate pizza.
Sunday was the welcome cocktail party, which (for reasons I still haven't worked out) took place on the platform of the Auckland train station. It was a pleasant evening though (no cocktails, dammit! just wine). I hooked up with Matt Powell, an old schoolmate of mine who works at Wellington City Libraries, and a bunch of his workmates. We got very drunk, very quickly, I realised that one of the workmates knows Rhonda and had been instructed (by another friend of hers) to track me down at conference and check me out. I made it easier for her by finding her myself.
The next bit is hazy, but I remember being in a bar on the Viaduct Basin, singing Smiths and Billy Bragg songs, and eating. At which point it seemed like a good idea to go home.
Conference passed uneventfully - I did run into a bunch of my former classmates, plus a few lecturers and a few other librarians I know. A good feeling, generally, that I'm starting to meet people within the profession. I passed on the conference dinner, which was apparently either very good, or rubbish - depending on who I asked. But the last night was the best, when I'd been expecting that I'd have to go home and watch the Simpsons alone (Vanita had gone home, Mandy was sick, Matt had gone home that evening). On my way home I ran into a vendor I'd been talking to, and a bunch of other vendors. They dragged me out with them, and we had a great time of it - lots of drinks and banter. We also found a very cool (literally) bar called Minus Five - it's made entirely of ice, and you have to wear big arctic jackets to go inside. Even the glasses are made of ice, and there are some cool sculptures as well.
Unfortunately I had to be up by 6am, so left early-ish. But not before discovering that two of the vendors knew people I knew - one of them knew Rhonda (does everyone know this woman?) and another once worked at the Australian Institute of Sport with people I know.
Home today, tired but revitalised. The big news is that I have a second interview for the job, tomorrow. I spent Sunday afternoon completing a web-based personality test. I'm quite excited, I must be down to the last two or three candidates. Which is a much better result than I ever expected. Cross fingers for me :-)
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I've spent the last week in Auckland, attending the LIANZA annual conference.
A brilliant time overall (I won't go into the details here, save that for my professional blog. But the social aspects were good, too. I spent Friday and Saturday with Mandy, an ex-classmate of mine. Friday we'd hoped to catch SJD playing live but they'd sold out, so we wandered the streets of Kingsland for a while, tossing up between classy cocktail joints and dirty rock and roll. The dirty rock and roll won - we checked out the Have and SlaveTrader, both young loud bands. Nothing fantastic, but nothing wrong with them either - the sort of sounds that have become fashionable with the success of the Datsuns and the D4. Not a huge crowd, sadly, and at least two dodgy mullets spotted.
Saturday we chilled as Mandy has her son that day, and he was sick. Watched a documentary on feminist film makers and Antiques Roadshow, and ate pizza.
Sunday was the welcome cocktail party, which (for reasons I still haven't worked out) took place on the platform of the Auckland train station. It was a pleasant evening though (no cocktails, dammit! just wine). I hooked up with Matt Powell, an old schoolmate of mine who works at Wellington City Libraries, and a bunch of his workmates. We got very drunk, very quickly, I realised that one of the workmates knows Rhonda and had been instructed (by another friend of hers) to track me down at conference and check me out. I made it easier for her by finding her myself.
The next bit is hazy, but I remember being in a bar on the Viaduct Basin, singing Smiths and Billy Bragg songs, and eating. At which point it seemed like a good idea to go home.
Conference passed uneventfully - I did run into a bunch of my former classmates, plus a few lecturers and a few other librarians I know. A good feeling, generally, that I'm starting to meet people within the profession. I passed on the conference dinner, which was apparently either very good, or rubbish - depending on who I asked. But the last night was the best, when I'd been expecting that I'd have to go home and watch the Simpsons alone (Vanita had gone home, Mandy was sick, Matt had gone home that evening). On my way home I ran into a vendor I'd been talking to, and a bunch of other vendors. They dragged me out with them, and we had a great time of it - lots of drinks and banter. We also found a very cool (literally) bar called Minus Five - it's made entirely of ice, and you have to wear big arctic jackets to go inside. Even the glasses are made of ice, and there are some cool sculptures as well.
Unfortunately I had to be up by 6am, so left early-ish. But not before discovering that two of the vendors knew people I knew - one of them knew Rhonda (does everyone know this woman?) and another once worked at the Australian Institute of Sport with people I know.
Home today, tired but revitalised. The big news is that I have a second interview for the job, tomorrow. I spent Sunday afternoon completing a web-based personality test. I'm quite excited, I must be down to the last two or three candidates. Which is a much better result than I ever expected. Cross fingers for me :-)
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Thursday, September 02, 2004
stats.blogger.com is dead
Long live Re-Invigorate, a very impressive and easy way of tracking site traffic, with lots of extras such as browser, screen resolution, OS, whether user has cookies set, and referring URL, as well as a rather nifty looking graphic representation of where your traffic comes from, by time zone. Only caveat, the text size is a little small and the colour scheme isn't the greatest to my eyes, but overall a good (and free, and open-source) product.
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Long live Re-Invigorate, a very impressive and easy way of tracking site traffic, with lots of extras such as browser, screen resolution, OS, whether user has cookies set, and referring URL, as well as a rather nifty looking graphic representation of where your traffic comes from, by time zone. Only caveat, the text size is a little small and the colour scheme isn't the greatest to my eyes, but overall a good (and free, and open-source) product.
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Wednesday, September 01, 2004
