stormcrow

it's been a while.

did you miss me?

stormcrow says: needs a border and maybe a gradient
stormcrow says: i'll fix it up later
stormcrow says: i'm still learning to make the gimp do my bidding
vixen says: o_0
stormcrow says: what are you pulling faces for?
vixen says: that last line...

QF762 0905 PER 1440 MEL
JQ446 1705 MEL 1905 GLC

Sounds simple enough. Nice sensible time to arrive, get to hotel, check in, and go exploring.

Sometime between booking months ago and today, they change the connecting flight. So I'm not surprised by the timings, but disappointed:

QF762 0905 PER 1440 MEL
JQ448 1855 MEL 2055 GLC

OK, so four hours in Melbourne airport is gonna suck. But, y'know, it could be worse. Qantas can't check my luggage through to GLC 'cause Jetstar don't roll like that. That's also OK. Grab bags, queue, recheck. Easy.

You can't check in earlier than two hours before boarding. Damn. And I can't clear security with luggage I need to check. So I go exploring for a bit, and find that I've only really explored the bit of the airport inside the security zone. This kills half an hour. And explains why they call it luggage. Note to self, more time on the gym when I get home.

I spend the next hour and a half working, and then my laptop battery goes flat. At least now I can check the bags in.

Clear security, grab some HJ's. The second two hours goes a lot quicker, especially once I find a cleverly concealed power point in the gate lounge and steal some juice for the aircraft carrier laptop. Power point is out of range from the hotspot in the Qantas lounge, and the tool I needed to keep working needs to be connected. Damn.

Bored. So I hassle Reppy via SMS 'cause noone else is available.

Five minutes before scheduled boarding: "Passengers for Jetstar flight 448. Due to operational requirements [gav: wtf?], the scheduled aircraft is not available. The replacement aircraft is scheduled to depart at 2045."

Damn.

In the end I get to Coolangatta, get a cab to Jupiters (shared with three locals - so I got to see the suburbs. Taxi multihire is a tremendously good rort for the driver).

Hotel is nice. Internet is also a rort. I thought I could outsmart them ($25/day? Sweet. I'll wait 'til after midnight, it's only half an hour, and save $25. NO. They thought of that. 1 day is midday to midday. Pricing analysts are evil geniuses.)

Cabbie says I am walking distance from everything there is in Broadbeach. There's no actual convention content tomorrow unless you paid extra, so I'll spend it exploring.

Bored of typing now, need to sleep.

Dear Santa... Dear Santa, This year I've been busy! Last Tuesday I stole drewiquin's purse (-30 points). In June I punched jiyuuma in the arm (-10 points). In March I helped freyja_baal hide a body (-173 points). Last Monday I set drayke_'s puppy on fire (-66 points). In July I pulled over and changed brainspack's flat tire (15 points). Overall, I've been naughty (-264 points). For Christmas I deserve a lump of coal! Sincerely, stormcrow

Write your letter to Santa! Enter your LJ username:

I'm not sure what the deal with the hot dog scraps is.

Real post soon. Promise.

What type of person do you attract? Your Result: You attract artsy people! Those free spirited artists with great imaginations find you interesting. They are usually interesting themselves, so its not a bad thing, but they CAN be a bit wifty and choose odd goals. If you like life to always be a bit 'different' from the norm, but not too extreme in any one direction, these are the people for you. If you seek logical decision making skills and good money management, you may want to change something in the way you appear. Artsy people are fun for adventure and exploring, so, have fun! (smoking weed helps too)
You attract unstable people!
You attract geeks!
You attract Yuppies!
You attract models!
You attract rednecks!
What type of person do you attract? Quizzes for MySpace

sailorjedi and freyja_baal both did this one ...


My Personality

Neuroticism	43
Extraversion	14
Openness To Experience	65
Agreeableness	33
Conscientiousness	61

Test Yourself Compare Yourself View Full Report Bebo, Ugg Boots and MySpace Layouts by Pulseware Survey Software

I'm at Tech.Ed!

OK, so I'm a big gigantic nerd. Tonight is the 'Welcome Party' where they basically let the geeks roam around the exhibition hall. The real event starts runs from tomorrow to Friday, 0830 starts 'til about 1830 daily. They're putting on a couple of night-time events at local clubs too. Run into the guy who used to head the local .NET user group, a couple of the Microsoft presenters who do Perth gigs and the guys from ContentKeeper who have a booth here. I think that's it for my quota of familiar faces, though. I'd guess there's about 5% female attendees (not counting the exhibition and Microsoft staff), and a couple of them are even hot :) I haven't actually seen any really scary nerds yet ...

Scored a freebie laptop bag. Hooray for extra luggage.

Have developed flu symptoms overnight and feeling pretty crap. Hopefully I'll be able to blast 'em with drugs and not be all groggy-headed tomorrow.

Weekend in Hobart with Brock, Alisha and the gang was a nice break, even if Tim took the opportunity to get me very hammered on Friday night (but like they said, it wouldn't be a trip to Hobart without getting badly drunk). Thanks again for having me, guys.

They're just about to start an open competition playing FIFA 2006 against the 'Australian Champion'. Not sure that I want to know how he scored that title.

So I've been busy lately. Here's the highlights:

June 7: Went to Hobart for a pre-Nationals Zone competition. Got to meet the two Hobart teams and two Box Hill teams. All great people, and insisted that I come along to the Nationals.

July 4: Resigned my position at WebSpy after 10.5 years, to take a job at Kestral. Starting the new job on September 4, leaving plenty of time to tie up the loose ends at WebSpy.

July 27: Campbelltown NSW for Zone 3 Nationals. Yes, there's a Zone 3 Nationals. No, I'm not really an elite athlete :) Had a fantastic time, but didn't get enough time to socialise properly.

Going to continue to be busy. I'm attending Microsoft Tech.Ed this year, and going to scoot back over to Hobart for the weekend to catch up with the Zone gang.

Life is good. I don't know how much longer I can sustain this travel thing, but I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

So, sailorjedi sends me an email asking me to dig out the details of the Major Arcana of the Tarot for her, 'cause the ATO in their wisdom do not provide internet access for their staff. And, always glad of a distraction, I was happy to oblige. So she also ends up being the muse for my first post in a while.

Courtesy of Wikipedia, then, I pose a question: which Arcane are you? Here's the list:

The Fool; The Magician; The High Priestess; The Empress; The Emperor; The Hierophant; The Lovers; The Chariot; Strength; The Hermit; Wheel of Fortune; Justice; The Hanged Man; Death; Temperance; The Devil; The Tower; The Star; The Moon; The Sun; Judgement and The World.

I guess you should tell me which you think I am, too. Don't all jump for The Fool, now.

( Here's what they signify. Hidden for the benefit of those who already know, or don't care. )

Wow, I really suck with the regular journal updates. Hopefully I'll get time to put something meaningful down between now and sometime in the near future, unlike the drivel from last post.

In the meantime, results from another dodgy online quiz linked from ozzyols

Your brain: 120% interpersonal, 80% visual, 20% verbal, and 180% mathematical!

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
You scored higher than 99% on interpersonal
You scored higher than 99% on visual
You scored higher than 99% on verbal
You scored higher than 99% on mathematical

The 4-Variable IQ Test is here. I note the author suggests not dating anyone with a 'mathematical' score over 200%. Hrrm ...

So I used to be regarded by some of my friends as quite mopey. There were even a few times when I reckon I deserved it. It's been quite a while since anyone's hassled me about it. But I'm back there, and it's like I never left. The Zone crew have been using the term 'emo' quite a bit lately. I sorta get it, and sorta not - I think the age gap is showing. At the very least, I don't think I fully appreciate the subtleties of it.

I'm feeling, I dunno ... unchallenged? Barring a few people who shall remain nameless, I've got nothing to stretch me, and that never ends well. I'm tempted to rant about work, but I just can't find the words. That's not something I get very often. Most of the things I used to do for fun just aren't anymore.

I know it's time to get off my butt and shake things up a bit - but where to start? There's so damn much that needs fixing ... I need to make some changes to get motivated, but I lack even the energy for that. Guess I should start small - gardening might be a good idea, but since the front yard is more weed than lawn, that might not qualify. Anyone got any creative ideas?

On a bit of a tangent, I hate CRT displays. I have a nice dark purple background on my super-bright home monitor, that's nearly black on the work PC. Maybe I should sponsor upgrades for people who actually read this.

So, I finally got myself a LiveJournal with a sensible name, and it took me all week to actually put something here.

And it's just for the purposes of picking a decent-looking template.

Don't worry - I'm sure this'll set the theme for all my posts.