McBlog

Yesterday wound up being quite a busy day. I spent some time in the morning racing Nykolai in Burnout with smash competitions and trying to clock best time in a champ car. From there it was a walk down to Carlisle St to get food to make for dinner then lug it all home.

Once home I headed over to Reservoir so I could drop off AG’s extremely cool “oil can guitar” that he’d picked up in South Africa. An amazing piece of work where the body is literally an old oil can with wood neck, hand made pickups and controls. From there we drove over to Brunswick East to pick up AG’s car that had been sitting under a tree for months while he was overseas. Clearing off the collection of possum poo, cobwebs and leaves was the least of the problems. Battery was dead (jump started from my car) and brake fluid was very low, but we got it running and ready to go.

Not long after getting home I got a call from Carlo to see if I wanted to come down to his Flight Experience store and spend some time in their 737-800 simulator. How could I refuse that? So, after dinner it was off to the city and 3 hours in the cockpit flying into and out of airports around the world.

Another busy, happy Saturday but not much time for rest today either: I’m about to head off to Queen Victoria Markets to do the week’s shopping then we have lunch with Kitt’s brother. Maybe some down time will be possible this arvo? Maybe?

It seems that while they may connect with political causes, young people have lost faith in political parties. They perceive the issues to be bigger than any political party can handle as they’re global issues.

Well, there’s a shock. I can’t imagine how young people could be losing respect for those in power in this (and other countries). I mean, it’s not as if politicians are lying, cheating, conniving bums who are out for whatever they can get, only interested in the voter when it’s election time, change their stance to suit the moment, favour quick soundbites over real meaning and can barely think ahead to the next election let alone do any real long term planning. I mean, really, that’s not like them at all, right?

Oh, was that me being cynical and sarcastic? Ooops – ‘scuse me…

It’s that time of the year once again and last night was Nykolai’s school performance. Usually these are rather cringe-worthy events that remind me all too much of the Addams Family movie so last night’s show was a very pleasant change. Directed by the school’s music teacher, the show was well put together and brought out the best in the kids, really stretching them with memorised lines, choreography and singing. It’s great to see someone bringing out the best in kids, respecting their abilities and not playing down to them. From the wild reactions of the kids when she was thanked for her efforts, it’s clear that they really love her for it.

The only downside to the night was the venue was in a hall, with flat seating and a relatively low stage. We wound up seated at the back and didn’t see a lot of the action, which was a shame.

Since early October 2007, I’ve been working for EDS on a project at Sensis. At first I was sent in to turn around the Transition to Production (T2P) operation as part of the online directories support team (White Pages and Yellow Pages).

At the end of June this year, Sensis IT went through a bit of a shake up and our engagement with them moved as well, with the T2P process now being performed by dev rather than support, etc. As part of the change, I was asked to be Production Support Lead as a temporary role from July 1st until a permanent replacement could be arranged. As of this week, my replacement started and over the next couple of weeks I’ll be handing over to him and backing out.

The Sensis gig has been one heck of a project and quite demanding. It’s taught me a few things and I’ve met a lot of fun people but after almost a year in there it’s time to move on. I’ll miss the people and the fun but I probably won’t miss the health hassles (I’ve been sick so often since last year – I’m sure that place has a problem with aircon or something). Not sure what my next project will be but I expect I’ll know more in another week.

Still been having problems with the car over the past couple of weeks – seems the lead to the positive terminal on the battery was getting loose. I’d go to start the car, it wouldn’t fire over (just like the previous hassles) so I’d pop the hood, jump out, push the lead back in and try to reseat it in the socket and then fire it up. Most times it worked first go – some times it needed a couple of tries.

This morning I finally got the time to take the positive lead off and disassemble it all (fortunately it’s *really* simple). Cleaned it, repositioned the cables and put it all back together again. So far so good and all seems to be right again. If only getting the breaks, suspension and aircon sorted out were so easy…

About a month ago, I was having a run in with a domain registrar that just didn’t get it. Back then, despite their best efforts, I managed to move my domain to another registrar although they did keep contacting me afterwards about confirming the transfer (ummm, it’s already been done) and then an email re: expiring domain (erm, no, it’s been renewed during the transfer).

Surprisingly, they called me today and left a message saying that my domain was expiring. An amazing demonstration of disconnection between marketing/renewals and actual content. I called back but it was after 5pm on a Friday, so they’d already left. Guess we’ll see how they handle the “Umm, no, it’s already gone” message on Monday.

As some of you may know, I’m also involved in a record label called Secession Records with Andrew Garton. We’ve got releases from Steve Law, Ollie Olsen and, of course, Andrew’s works. In addition to samples from the albums we’ve released, we also have a podcast of various gigs, inspirations and neat ideas. Check it out :)

For the past three days or so I’ve been fighting off a cold or flu – congested chest, occasional runny nose, aches off & on, temperature fluctuations and a muzzy head. So far it’s not as bad as the last nasty one I had earlier this year but, like that one, I’m pretty sure I got it from my office. Seems the place I work has a high incidence of illness and when one person comes in with something, it’s not long until all of us have had a go with it. Perhaps it’s one of the joys of an “open plan” office (along with noises, interruptions and distractions).

Worst bit about all this is that I’m in no state to do my usual morning exercise routines. As a result my burn rate is lower so I’m trying to cut back on the amount of food I’m having. Hopefully I don’t bloat up before I can get back onto the bike.

Meanwhile, it’s rest, warmth and lots of water. Looks like it’s going to be a quiet weekend.

So, remember my previous post about having car problems?. Well, it seems it wasn’t entirely the car’s fault that it wouldn’t start.

After leaving work early on Monday arvo and getting to the car, I called the RACV to arrange the tow down to Greg’s shed. The truck arrived about 40 minutes after I called and did a great job of getting the car on the back and down to the shed in record time. I’d tried to leave early enough so we beat the worst of the traffic and it was a surprisingly good run down the expressway and on from there. Awesome.

The first 20k are free so I only had to pay for the last 10k which meant the whole tow cost me less than $40 – handy. Greg arrived back at the shed with a starter motor to suit my car – $125 – ouch – lucky me to have such a unique vehicle.

We cracked the hood and I demonstrated the lights, camera, no action problem. “Wait a minute” says Greg “Do that again?” – lather, rinse, repeat and Greg goes “Ahhhh – hang on.” He heads into the shed and comes back with a small hammer which he then proceeds to whack the battery terminals with, knocking off a bit of corrosion in the process. He adjusts the leads onto the battery and tells me to try again.

Vroom – Houston, we have ignition!

Bloody hell…

Seems that the battery had power, the lights could work, the windows go up & down and so on, but the connection wasn’t solid enough to supply the current required by the starter motor (the Cranking Amps). So, when the RACV guy had a look at the battery, it appeared fine, but it just couldn’t enough power down to the starter.

So, if I had known to double check the battery connections I would have saved myself a stack of hassles. However, seeing all the lights come on and so on, I figured the battery was fine.

Looks like it fooled the RACV guy too. Greg reckons he should have done the same thing anyhow, even though the battery gave good readings on the meter.

Frak!

So, the car is working fine, Greg’s able to return the expensive little starter motor and get his money back and I’ve learned yet another lesson about electro-mechanical systems. Hell of a way to learn, no?

What a “fun” day – my car broke down at the Queen Victoria Markets this morning. I got back with my load of shopping, jumped in and went to fire it up. Lights, camera but no action. No cranking at all.

Called RACV and had to wait over 2 hours before their roadside assistance guy could arrive (busy day). He worked at it for a bit but couldn’t get it to fire up and confirmed that the starter was shot. While they have starter motors for a number of Mazdas, the RX-7 is not exactly common so there wasn’t much they could do for me.

Fortunately RACV membership includes a taxi ride up to $50 to get you home if your car breaks down, so I used that to get myself and the shopping back. Of course, that didn’t go smoothly as it took 2 taxis to get one who could find where I was. DOH!

So, the car is sitting in the parking lot overnight but security knows about it and will keep an eye on it where possible. I’ll arrange for RACV to tow it to my mate’s shed where we’ll see about trying to fix it. At least I get a discount on the towing – all part of the service.