It's Good, It's Blog!

---

: Wed, 30-Mar-2005 15:03 PST

Looking back, it's been quite a busy month. I was going to post separately about the various events that have transpired, but it will be more impressive in one sitting. Spring had arrived early, and for many weeks it was the bluest skies you've ever seen. Thankfully it is back to being cold and rainy and doesn't feel so unnatural anymore. Not only rainy, but snow! There's still a chance that I'll get some more boarding time yet.

The month kicked off with an impromptu belch as Mt St Helens reminded residents in the northwest of it's presence. The first officially sanctioned event for March was a birthday dinner for Dave at Chez Black. It was a great night, the highlight being the incredibly sumptuous food. I also got my first live look at World of Warcrack, which I am not buying. Ever. Otherwise I would cease to sleep.

This modest and refined birthday dinner with friends was the calm before the storm. What transpired the following weekend can only be summed up as the party of the year, and could only be executed successfully by someone like Dave. While it's very early to be making a party-of-the-year call, it's going to be difficult to trump a formal bash attended by ~220 guests at Casa De Mac. Of course, what party of this magnitude would be complete without it's own security, bar and wait staff? There were two dance rooms and plenty of great Aussie sing along tunes on the piano. Considering we drank the house completely dry, it's easy to surmise that a good time was had by all. Hopefully official party photos will be forthcoming soon, at which point I'll post a link.

When one event per weekend is not enough, have two! The following evening was a fantastic charity event, Tunes for Tuition, held at Waldo's and organised by KB to raise funds to assist in the payment of tuition fees for a dyslexic child. Many talented musicians donated their time for this cause, and the result both raised some significant funds and provided a great evenings entertainment.

Preparations from MSTT's Spring production of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap are well under way. Of course, part of this process is building the set. I had been in to lend a hand a couple of times already, but last weekend went well towards getting everything finished. Plenty of painting and detailing. It's certainly beginning to really look the part.

To close out the month was something of a treat. Thanks to a spare ticket courtesy of Nick, I got to see my first Bobbi Kotula show! I fully understand now why Bobbi is always referred to with such excitement and reverence. She's fabulous! So much power and range in her performance, and the songs were touching and comical. I had a thoroughly enjoyable time of it all. It also marked my first Wendy's visit, and what's not to like about a 3/4lb burger?

Top of page

---

: Thu, 24-Mar-2005 18:20 PST

I noticed earlier this afternoon that _everything_ was down, not just my site but my host was unreachable. I'm not sure how long it was for, and I'm trying to find out details from my host as to why. If you sent me email today, please send it again. My apologies for any inconvenience.

Top of page

---

: Tue, 01-Mar-2005 19:56 PST

It's been a long time coming but my new site design is finally live. Check it out at the usual address.

Top of page

---

: Tue, 01-Mar-2005 19:08 PST

*Vegas photos are located at http://alexhand.com/Vegas/. This is part 1 of The Vegas Diaries.

I had been to Vegas once before, many years ago, well before I was able to fully appreciate and enjoy every aspect of the glitzy spectacle that it is. As such, I was really looking forward to a more rounded visit. Thanks to the generous US domestic carry-on allowance I was able to cram everything I would need into a carry-on bag and a daypack and fast-tracked my check-in and baggage claim times. Ironically, this ended up not working in my favour but against it. Choppy and Rach had set off that morning to drive from LA to Vegas and if they were going to make it in time would swing by the airport to pick me up. It turns out they had made good time on their drive and were in Vegas, but had factored in baggage claim time and thus I was in a taxi and on my way into The Strip when they contacted me.

McCarran International is not all that far away anyway, so the trip was short and took me along the back of The Strip before spitting me out right at Harrah's, our casino for the next few days. Harrah's turned out to be a fine choice, it's combination of reasonable rates and excellent location was just what we were after. I had only just finished checking in when Choppy and Rach arrived so we made our way up to our floor and then walked about two city blocks before we got to our room, which was clean and everything inside worked. The look-but-don't-touch mini bar was something I hadn't seen before. The instant you pick anything up a sensor detects this and charges you, regardless of whether you replace the item or not. Very Indiana Jones. After a quick pit stop for all and sundry we were off, ready to explore.

Our basic plan of attack was to start at the Stratosphere at the top of the Strip and just work our way down over the next few days until we had seen it all. The Stratosphere was to be the launching point because it would give us a nice elevated view of what was in store for us. With this in mind we came out of Harrah's and started walking, figuring this was the best way to take in everything. It turns out the Strip is a lot longer than you originally imagine. At an amble it took us around 45 minutes to wander up. The only stop we made was at the 24hr Walgreen's, Choppy being unable to resist the lure of such an astounding idea in the pharmaceutical world. We purchased tickets to the top, including a couple of rides and jumped into the 3-floors-per-second elevator. The view, is most impressive, and with good reason. At 1,149 feet, the Stratosphere Tower is the tallest freestanding observation tower in the United States and the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. After taking a few photos, it was onto the rides. We had to ride the High Roller, the world's highest rollercoaster. While fun it was nothing compared to the Big Shot, which fires you up the towers mast. Definitely worth while doing. There was a Starbucks in the Observation Deck, but something we were to learn over the next few nights is that while Vegas may never sleep, some of it's employees do. There were quite a few things we didn't get to do because we got there too late. In this case, a very high Starbucks was one of them.

By the time we were done with the Stratosphere it was well and truly time to eat. For whatever reason the freebie guide we had picked up did not list The Palms, which was supposed to be our first buffet affair in Vegas. A quick itinerary change and we were heading back to Harrah's to take our luck on their buffet. Even with a cab, our arrival placed us within waiting time for their $10 late night buffet. Not being able to say no to $10 all-you-can eat we took a cursory wander around Harrah's before returning to an admittedly reduced selection that seemed to combine a late dinner with a very early breakfast. With our appetite's more than sated we ventured back out and straight across the street to explore the Mirage and Treasure Island before calling it a night, wary of the 10+ hours of driving ahead of us.

Stay tuned for the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon in the next update, followed by more Vegas.

Top of page

---

: Mon, 28-Feb-2005 18:18 PST

With no Pixar film scheduled for 2005, it's nice to see the animated feature film will still be strongly represented. Keep in mind that the combined gross of this years 3 animated Oscar nominees grossed more than 2.5 times the combined gross of the top 5 nominated for Best Picture! Shrek 2 alone grossed more than the combined top 5. (Source)

I posted previously about Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, and something I am now awaiting with equal anticipation is Wallace & Gromit's first full length motion picture; Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit. It is due for release on October 7th 2005.

I don't feel I even need bother explaining the story (although if you really must know you can find out for yourself at the official site), when you can just go and download the trailer for yourself here.

Job well done lads!

Top of page

---

: Tue, 08-Feb-2005 11:51 PST

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

The coming year is the Year of the Rooster, and I hope it turns out to be a safe, happy and prosperous year for everyone.

Top of page

---

: Tue, 08-Feb-2005 01:13 PST

No, it's not a spin-off TV show.

Chopper has made his maiden voyage into international waters and I'll be joining up with him and his sister for some of their trip. Tomorrow I head to Vegas for a few days, followed by a few days snowboarding in Whistler and a day in Vancouver before returning to sunny Seattle for a few days here.

It's going to be a bit of a whirlwind tour but there's nothing like a little sleep deprivation to make you feel really alive. Vegas will be the usual wander The Strip and browse the casinos affair, with a road trip incorporating Red Rock Canyon, Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon thrown in to break the monotony. We got a place right in the middle of The Strip, so hopefully that will work out.

From Vegas it's a quick overnight hop back through Seattle to take in DMQ's Valentine's Day gig and then off to Whistler. Thankfully it has begun snowing, albeit slowly still, everywhere in the last couple of days. I'm hoping with the current forecast that there will be a good snow base by the time we get up there. We chose a very nice little suite in Whistler Village for our digs up there, which should work out nicely.

Seattle will consist of the usual Seattle things, including the Underground Tour that I haven't actually been on yet, so I'm looking forward to that.

All in all it should be a hectic and adventure filled ten days. Stay tuned for a post tour update and photos!

Top of page

---

: Sun, 06-Feb-2005 20:36 PST

KB, Grampy and I headed out into the pouring rain today to add something to our list of "Hey, look what I did" things. Yes, that's right, we went to a comicon. For the uninitiated, a comicon is a comic convention, a gathering of comic artists, comic vendors, comic fans and a few cat girls. Even knowing about the cat girls, curiosity had gotten the better of us and besides, Gabe and Tycho of Penny Aracde infamy and PVP's artist Scott Kurtz were going to be in attendance. That was enough for me.

It turns out that everything was pretty much how I had envisioned it would be, which in turn turns out to be ok. There was a steady stream of patrons entering and leaving for the few hours that we were there, but there were never enough people to make it uncomfortably crowded. Besides there being a, let's call it, buttload of comics, there was a big selection of geek paraphernalia including comic/tv/movie action figures and collectables, dvds and a good assortment of graphic novels and manga. Combined with a reasonable to hefty discount off RRP these last items proved to be quite the boon for KB.

I stopped by the Penny Arcade stand and after much diliberation picked up a t-shirt with an orange on the back and an autographed Cardboard Tube Samurai poster. In a stroke of nothing more than sheer luck, I managed to end up with an autographed limited edition PVP poster. I happened to catch Scott Kurtz as he was leaving and he kindly obliged me by returning to his now packed stand so I could get an autographed copy of The Dork Ages. As I was about to leave with my purchase, the final copy of the limited edition set he had brought with him to the con was discovered buried under some other stuff. As I was there, it was passed on to me.

It was sweet in that really comic-book-guy-from-The-Simpsons kinda way.

The day rated as a success, so much so that we're now giving serious thought to hitting _the_ comicon at San Diego in July.

Top of page

---

: Wed, 02-Feb-2005 12:43 PST

So it's probably not the first way any of us aspire to get into Wired, but there it is in black and white. Something about kicking a gift horse in the teeth while it's down...

The February 2005 Edition of Wired Magazine includes a two page feature on how large US companies are once again starting to 'hire more than fire', indicating a recovery from the dotcom bust is well under way. There is a brief overview provided of each company listed covering items including:

• Location
• Employees on campus
• Perks
• a sample lunch menu
• and Campus News

Some of the companies listed include Microsoft, Pixar, Google and Electronic Arts.

...and there it is, the Campus News for Microsoft:

Company theater troupe (past productions include 'Return to the Forbidden Planet' and 'The Comedy of Errors')

It was a very exciting day when it was first spotted and needless to say everyone that has been or is involved in MSTT is still mighty chuffed about it.

For the article

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.02/start.html?pg=6

For MSTT info

http://www.mstheater.org

Top of page

---

: Tue, 01-Feb-2005 21:49 PST

It seems that Groundhog Day is upon us already, and with the Winter that hasn't been I'm hoping that tonight someone is getting Punxsutawney Phil, Wiarton Willie and Shubenacadie Sam rolling drunk. That way tomorrow everything they see will consist of various shades of grey and we can live in the hope that we may yet see a decent Winter. I for one haven't gotten nearly enough snowboarding sessions under my belt for the season.

For more information:

http://www.groundhog.org/

http://www.punxsutawney.com/

Happy Candlemas Day to all.

Photo used with permission from http://www.dnr.state.oh.us

Top of page

---

: Sun, 30-Jan-2005 16:55 PST

So I've just experienced something that's got me absolutely ropeable and thought I'd share my experience in the hopes that it serves as a warning to others.

Firefox just deleted all of my bookmarks (all 200 odd of them)!!! They're gone, there's no getting them back. I've Googled, extensively, and found plenty of instances of this and the recovery rate is infinitesimal compared to the rate-of-loss. Apparently it can happen if FF is closed improperly (either crashes, or the exe is killed). The bookmarks.bak file is useless, as it was also empty (FF very kindly backed up my now empty bookmarks file!) and numerous data recovery methods proved pointless (I'm assuming becase a file of the same name had been written onto the same hdd blocks, thus overwriting anything that could have been recoverable).

I've spent the last couple of hours trawling back through my history and restoring what bookmarks I could find, but there are going to be 10's of pages that I haven't visited recently that are now just lost to me. I have also installed an automated backup extension, which can be downloaded at http://www.pikey.me.uk/mozilla/?extension=bb I recommend anyone who uses Firefox install this or regularly manually backup your bookmarks.html file! Don't go through what I just have.

What really irks me is that a bug as damaging as this can be included in a major dot release. Data loss is _the_ most critical bug a program can have. If an application hangs or crashes, sure it's inconvient and possibly time consuming, but you just restart the program and away you go again. Losing data permanently is unacceptable!

Top of page

---

: Tue, 25-Jan-2005 14:47 PST

It's that time of year again, time to break out the barbie, throw on some snags (or a lamb chop if you're not unAustralian http://www.themainmeal.com.au/images/Sam Kekovich 90 sec.wmv), crack open a coldie and listen to the Hottest 100 on Triple J. (web stream available at http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/listenpop/listen_live.htm)

Happy Australia Day!

Top of page

---

: Sat, 22-Jan-2005 20:23 PST

It was with much glee late last night that I discovered and watched the first trailer for the upcoming Tim Burton stop motion animated film, Corpse Bride. While it is not due for release until the 23rd of September this is shaping up to be a promising year. Not only will it be the second Tim Burton feature for the year (the remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is due out on the 15th of July), but it will be the second collaborative project involving both Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, with Depp starring as the lead (actor and voice respectively) in both movies.

Corpse Bride will hit cinemas just shy of 12 years since the genius that was The Nightmare Before Christmas first graced cinema screens. From what I can tell of the trailer, Corpse Bride looks to continue this magic, and more.

For those who haven't done so already, go and view the trailer at http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/corpse_bride/

Top of page

---

: Tue, 18-Jan-2005 17:00 PST

Ok, I don't get it. Last week was very wintry; near freezing, plenty of snow. Now, in the past couple of days it has rained virtually non-stop and the temperature is up about 14C (to put that into perspective, the daytime temperature is about 5 times what it was last week). As a result The Summit is closed and there's no snowboarding tomorrow! What's more, the forecast is for more of the same well into next week. Bah!

Top of page

---

: Thu, 13-Jan-2005 18:08 PST

(Ok, so I'd been trying to think of something clever for the subject and this is about as good as I could manage. It's supposed to be like one of those lousy t-shirts you can buy at any major tourist mecca. For the record, I'm a little sore in a couple of places but no actual bruises...)

Yesterday was the first snowboarding day of the season for me and the whole day came up trumps. The day started off with me nursing Umlaut (an ADDD - attentive deficit disorder dog) on the way over to put him in solitary for the afternoon. After stopping for drive thru Starbucks the rest of the trip up was swift and uneventful. It was snowing lightly when we got there, and did so for much of the afteroon. Not nice soft snow though, but little round hard snow that was quite annoying if the wind ever whipped it around.

As it was mid-week there wasn't a huge crowd which was great. I don't think I waited more than two minutes to get on a lift all afternoon. All my passes worked straight up and I had my rental gear sorted in no time. My new snowboarding attire also passed the test, it kept me warm and dry all day so I'm chuffed with those bargain purchases.

Then came the fun part. Being my second time ever, and my first and only previous time was a year ago, I'm well and truly in the n00b ranks. So it was off out to sit in the snow out of the way and learn how to stand up again. Thankfully, for the sake of my pride, I didn't note how long it took, but it was long enough. Being able to manage to get up it was now time to slide about, and fall over, and get up, and slide about, and fall over... This went on until it was time for KB to head off to her lesson. I continued with the sliding and falling for a while until I got sick of sliding for 10 seconds and having to snowter (that's scootering yourself along on a snowboard btw, and yes, I just made that up) for about a minute before repeating the process.

It was lift time. For anyone who doesn't know, and to save me explaining, check out http://www.ehow.com/how_6941_ski-lift-with.html for all sorts of basic snowboarding techniques, including getting on and off a lift. Anyway, I didn't make it completely cleanly off a lift all day. Lots of fun...

By the end of the day I had figured out turns again, and stopping and was managing to get down the greenest of green runs with only a couple of falls. Of course, my last run had to go and ruin all of that. Somehow I managed to locate a very nice soft patch of powder that I promptly disappeared into and had one heck of a time getting out of. It became obvious that conventional methods were not going to work when I could bury nearly my entire arm into the powder without meeting any resistance. I ended up having to unclip completely and crawl my way out. "How embarrassment."

There the snowboarding part of my day ended and it was back off homewards bound. Of course, there was the mandatory stop at Krispy Kreme and Starbucks on the way home. I'm not sure if it's new, seasonal or other but Krispy Kreme have chocolate glazed donuts now. Original glaze had always been my favourite, but now there is a new kid in town. Tasty stuff. As there is no such thing as too much chocolate, and because we hadn't had tried it yet, KB and I swung by the Starbucks right next to KK and picked up a couple of their new Chantico drinking chocolates. Goody Goody! I knew it was going to be good when I saw the barista pouring the chocolate into the tiny little 6oz cups. OMG is all I have to say, it was decadent. I was in a very happy chocolate coma sort of place.

Only 6 more sleeps until I get to do it all again...

Sorry about the photo quality. I forgot to take my digicam up this time round so had to snap this with my mobile.

PS. On a somber side note, apparently someone died in an nearby avalanche in the morning. They had been way out-of-bounds and got battered and buried and didn't pull through. My condolences go to their family and friends.

Top of page

---

: Tue, 11-Jan-2005 00:40 PST

With winter actually starting to do the snow thing it's time to hit the slopes. KB is taking Wednesday afternoon lessons and in a move that can only be described as "Awesome!" she's invited me to fill the passenger seat in her car. With my Saturday lessons due to start in a few weeks I should be seeing plenty of powder. Stay tuned for an after-the-fact update and possibly some photos.

Top of page

---

: Mon, 10-Jan-2005 16:00 PST

After an extended absence of I think well over a year, Ninjai, my favourite flash animated series is returning with new episodes towards the end of the month! I'm sure the wait will have been worth it though.

Check out the official site at http://ninjai.com/, and since the links seems to have disappeared from their site (perhaps in preparation for the new episodes), check out all the episodes at http://atomfilms.shockwave.com/content/ninjai/index.html

Top of page

---

: Mon, 10-Jan-2005 00:24 PST

Last night KB and Grampy took me to my first live ice hockey game, and it was everything I had hoped it would be.

It was a WHL game between the Everett Silvertips and the Kamloops Blazers (unfortunately the Blazers went on to win 4-0). The stadium is excellent and even with just under 7000 people there the queues for tickets and refreshments were fine.

I quite like the game itself and may definitely look into picking it up as a sport to follow over here. It's a nice fast paced game, with very little in the way of stoppages. There are 3 20 minute periods with 20 minute intervals. The crowd are quite vocal (what's with the cowbells though?) and there were enough people there wearing jerseys etc. that it felt well supported.

Oh, and then of course there's the biff. There were a number of fights that ranged from minor scuffles to nearly everyone on the ice being involved. The highlight of the fights was when two players decided it was on and headed for the centre, shedding gloves and helmets as they went. Everyone else, including the referees, headed for the sideline. Once they'd finished they both skated straight over to the penalty box, the crowd sat back down and the game resumed. Good stuff!

Top of page

---

: Wed, 05-Jan-2005 23:44 PST

I installed a whole bunch of extensions for Firefox the other night, one of which is Forecastfox. It's this nice little extension that gives you weather details for pretty much anywhere you want. I noticed that it is currently sitting on -2C, which I figured was pretty cold so I went and checked out the extended forecast.

I really wish I hadn't. I'd have been quite happy living in relative ignorance for as long as possible.

Apparently over the coming week, the daytime temperature is not going to get above 6 degrees and, here's the kicker, the night time minimum is going to hit -12! There's a chance of snow to boot.

At least the snowboarding should be good...

Top of page

---

: Sun, 02-Jan-2005 20:14 PST

So after some delay I've finally gotten around to uploading the wedding photos (they were on a different camera, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it). I placed them at the start of the set, which can be found at http://alexhand.com/Jamaica/

Top of page

---

: Sat, 01-Jan-2005 16:40 PST

Happy New Year everyone and all the best for 2005.

Top of page

---