Author: Grant

I’m currently working down at the Avalon Airshow as a Ground Operations aircraft marshal. Yup, that’s right, I’ve got the bats and I’m out there telling bloody great jets where to go. The section I’m in gets a lot of traffic and includes the combat jets, warbirds and a lot of the heavy jets transit through on their way to the keyhole.

Keep an eye on my flying section as I hope to have that up and running soon with a log of what’s been happening out there. Photos will be loaded in the Aircraft Photo section as and when I have a chance.

Between Avalon, my work for the AWU (network switch failure today – DOH!) and my family, there’s not much time for updating web sites…

Some friends went to see The Goodies live show in Melbourne last night. Apparently it was a great show and some of them hung around to say “thanks” to the lads, get autographs, etc. I’m a tad bummed that I missed out on going as I grew up on their shows. Nykolai’s already seen some of their shows and really enjoyed them so hopefully he’ll keep their craziness going into a new generation :)

You can check out JC’s report on the show for more details and some pix as well. Stephen’s holding back on a full report until after his partner’s had a chance to see the show in Brisbane on Friday.

We’re just setting up a new client, Wendish Heritage. They’ve seen the work we did on the Rowville-Lysterfield History Project and want us to help with something similar for them. I just got the domain set up and running so now JC’s working on the site itself.

I picked up the new hose for Binky’s radiator system ($44 plus $20 for a black RX-7 cap – yes, I’m a sucker for punishment :) then went down to Greg’s workshop to work on the car. We installed the hose, refilled the radiator and tried to fix the power-windows. Yes, they shut down on the Friday afternoon – the driver’s side stuck in the up position (not a bad thing) and the passenger’s side stuck down (oops). Kitt and I put some clear plastic on it on Saturday morning before the rains hit and that let me get out to Greg’s place.

Fortunately we were able to a) figure out that it was only the switches that were stuffed and b) get the passenger’s side window up. Now I just have to get down to Allmaz Wreckers and they’ll repair the switches for me. I have a funny feeling that I’ll be visiting these guys quite a bit in the future :)

I figure it’s like when you first get on a horse to ride it – it spends a bit of time mucking about and trying to see where it can be “the boss” so you have to be firm and bend it to how you want to ride. Eventually, the horse and rider meet somewhere between at a point where they’re both willing to work. Sounds a lot like what’s happening with Binky at the moment :)

Still progressing through things – the new campaign is kicking in although the gang probably haven’t really realised it yet. They’re trying to get over to another major city where they’ve been asked to help find out what’s happened to one of the resistance members. Still trying to get over there as they’ve been sidetracked a bit by a cult with delusions of granduer :)

Been too busy with flying and working to get any DJ’ing in. There was a weekend where a bunch of us went to Mount Hotham for a fun time away – I wound up spinning for most of it, doing my best to keep everyone happy. Much fun.

Am working on a few new mix CDs, but that’s about it. It’s really hard to juggle DJ’ing with early morning starts to go fly balloons :)

A few months have passed since I started coming to the office all day everyday. I’ve loaded new systems and stabilised a lot of what goes on around here. Of course, just when things look good and “normal,” along comes a few proverbial spanners to foul things up.

Our email provider, Hotspace have been having all sorts of problems with their systems. This, in turn, has been causing us no end of grief. Email delays, servers not responding and problems delivering email to AOL ‘cos they’ve put a Reverse DNS block in place (still can’t believe Hotspace don’t have a reverse entry for their mail server – like, DUH!). Add to this some problems getting our antispam/virus trial with Message Labs up and running (Hotspace’s problems delaying the changes to the mail server & MX records plus initial emails from Message Labs being blocked by Hotspace for some reason) and there goes my stable world.

There are other issues that are stuffing things up, but hey, that’s life around here, no? :)

Matt and I are working on the transition from our current server to a nifty new rack-mounted VA Linux Systems (named “soju”). We’re setting up a whole new environment and structure to control the configuration and management of the domains we’re hosting. At present, this is being set up on the existing server so we can verify it all works and port all our client domains across to the new world. Once it’s ready to go, we will get Soju up and running, load it into the racks at the RUCC (our hosting provider) and transfer everything to the new machine.

We’ve got the new directory structure set up and are working on the users, groups, etc. Matt’s just started working on the first script to manage the structure.

To make things “interesting,” two transformers have blown out within a few blocks of this place (could hear the explosions as the lights went out). This scrammed soju and took out the phone line. Fortunately the power restored itself quickly, soju rebooted cleanly (although RAID 5 re-sync’ing took a while) and the phone lines came back on line eventually (guess the power spike took out the exchange for a while too).

Hopefully we can get the new system going quickly as I’d really be happy if we could get soju out of my home office and into the racks. It’s a great machine but even with the front two cooling fans disabled it’s still noisy has hell :)

So, where have I been for the past few weeks? Well, mostly here in my home town but, as usual, I’ve been busy. Between crewing for Balloon Sunrise some mornings (all the dosh will be posted soon in the Fly Me Friendly section of this website :) plus working full time at the AWU, squeezing in tech work for APC.au and playing dad for my son Nykolai, there’s not much time for anything else.

Well, I guess there is ‘cos Nykolai and I are now doing a couple of Tae Kwon Do classes per week at Prahran Tae Kwon Do. It’s good to get back into it after 24 years or so (I used to do it as a kid with my parents and sister back in New Zealand). Lots of fun and good for the fitness although I think I need to get into some of the later classes if I’m really going to stretch myself…

The other big news down here is that my partner Kitt has finally moved down to Melbourne and into the apartment with Nykolai and I. We’re hunting for a new place to live ‘cos we need more space for her studio as well as my geek space, Nykolai’s room, our room, etc. All squeezed into a first floor or higher apartment in the St Kilda East area.

Final news is that Binky (the RX-7) blew a radiator hose the other day – fortunately about half a block from the office, so hopefully I didn’t cook the core as I coasted into my car park. Called out the RACV and bodgied the hose (cut the end, re ran it over the block, all OK for a temporary fix :) and I’m picking up a replacement hose to install over the weekend.

Yup, another quiet couple of weeks in my world :)

Between the St Kilda Festival, a glorious hot day and a few other things going on, all the lures were set and the Sunday Drivers were out in force today. I mean, what is it with this lot? Doing 30 – 40 in a 60 zone while looking at the scenery? Yeah, OK, so maybe looking for a parking spot, but come on – pull the frak over and let that convoy past already!

Or the buttheads gridlocking all through the city. At about five intersections in the CBD there were people stopped in the middle of the intersection when the lights changed. Oh for a big old Valiant – RAMMING SPEED!!!!!! Gee, was that a Hyundai or a Honda? Who cares, it’s scrap metal now! Bwwwaaaa ha ha haaaaa!!!

Then there’s the Driving While Clueless bunch – they’re in the left hand lane but suddenly want to go right. Others would take the left, do a few blocks and come back again but no, not this bunch. Before you know it, they’re swinging across multiple lanes of traffic or stopping and waiting for a gap so they can cut over. Shame about all the other traffic banked up behind them.

It’s no wonder the yanks have such problems with Road Rage – here we just yell, scream, make rude gestures and get on with it, all the while dreaming of heavy weapons. Maybe if things get real nasty, someone tries to pick a fight. In the USA though, they don’t just dream of weapons – they go and buy them, installing a launcher in the trunk. “Open season on the Santa Monica Expressway indeed!”

At least here most drivers still use their indicators and not everyone speeds up to stop you getting in if you use yours. Not sure if it’s a cultural thing or if they just haven’t caught up with the rest of the world yet…