There has been a lot that’s changed just recently; had a break in to my house, lost some possessions as a result, the pool broke down (again!), the fence in the back garden practically fell down (it was old and rotten) and this week I got a flat on the car!

But its not all bad!.

I’ve passed some major milestones too;

• 31 May 2008 marked 2 years in Australia and I feel more comfortable than ever, things are going great and I’m really beginning to enjoy being here, trust me when I say there were times when I thought I wouldn’t make it this far.
• 22 June 2008 is the 2 year anniversary working for The Fitness Generation, although working for every company has its ups and downs, its for the most part been a very positive experience and my career continues to go from strength to strength.
• Oh and 21st June is my birthday!

I’ve also managed to secure a new place to live, the house I’m in now has served me well but after two years its time for a change. The new place will be (a lot) newer, cleaner and have better facilities. I’ll send you all photos once I get moved in early next month.

Keep you posted (no really I will this time!)

Be it lose weight, save money, drink less. Well, I have a new one for you and best of all you don’t have to do much to achieve it. What if I told you that by using your usual Instant Messenger chat program you could raise money for good causes.

How does it work?

To quote from the website;

The i’m™ Initiative from Windows Live™ Messenger makes helping your favorite cause as easy as sending an instant message. Every time you start a conversation using i’m, we share a portion of our advertising revenue with some of the world’s most effective social cause organizations. Each of our partners will get a minimum of $100,000. As for the maximum? There is none. The sky’s the limit.

Simple, but what do I have to do?

1. If you don’t already have it, download and install Windows Live Messenger from here
2. Place the text code of your chosen cause in your Display name
3. Continue to have conversations with people as normal
4. You’re done! No further action is required.

Remember, all the time the code is in your Display name, Microsoft will continue to share advertising revenue with your chosen cause.

For a comprehensive run down of how the initiative works and how to get up and running, visit the I’M site.

If anyone should need help with this, drop me a line on the usual channels or leave a comment here.

Today I thought it might be a good idea to get a cool drink from the fridge. I removed the bottle from the fridge and found my eyes focusing on a brown and black object just to the rear of the fridge by the compressor. Now at this point, I should point out, that already I’ve had 1 rat, 1 mouse, 2 possums, 1 huntsman spider, 100s of cockroaches, literally millions of ants and numerous (as yet unidentified) other spiders.

So todays surprise, lurking in the dark was a snake.

Yeah, I know. First thought, what the hell do I do now! So I did what I did last time - research. The Queensland Government has quite a comprehensive section on their website about snakes (and from reading quite rightly so). So anyway, I’d decided it would probably be best to call a commercial snake catcher seeing as I had no idea if this baby was venomous. Also as the snake was in a confined space, thought he might get a little grumpy if I tried to pull the fridge out! That’s a hard lesson to learn I’m sure if suddenly you find out that he is venomous.

I managed to sit at my laptop in the kitchen googling commercial snake catchers whilst keeping one eye on the general fridge vicinity. I heard movement and saw the blighters large body dissappear through a hole in the wall behind my cabinets - so that’s how he got in!

I guess in the end he did us both a favour, I’ve now temporarily blocked the hole up and I’m waiting for the landlord to attend to do this permanently. Phew!

In case you’re interested I think it was a spotted python (non-venomous), you can check out his vital stats here (scroll down the page to find Spotted Python). The Queensland Government page also makes for some very interesting reading about some the spotted pythons not so friendly cousins.

…blah, blah, blah…. excuses, excuses

Anyways thought it was about time for a giggle (twice a day is recommended).

OOPS! Video is broken (until I can fix it you’re out of luck)

You will require Flash Player to view this video

Not your usual post opener, I know, but I mean really, have you?

I’m sure most of us have gotten annoyed with somebody and promised them, in a moment of pure idiocy, that you’ll be reaching for the kitchen knives any moment now.

This is different though.

A 16 year old boy from Maryland was caught plotting to murder his parents. It gets better. He was caught “in the act” by an undercover police officer masquerading as a hit-man. The boy was reportedly taken to the meet by one of his friends parents, apparently that person wasn’t too keen on the parents either!

There will undoubtedly be the usual crap associated with these cases, you know what I mean don’t you. People scrambling to place blame squarely on video games, movies or TV. Maybe, just maybe he’s a screwed up kid, an article on the Times online gives the full story so I’ll let you make up your own mind. It does state however that this kid had been in trouble with the law before, surprise, surprise.

“Mr X has written on your funwall, to send a response, click here”

Immediately I’m reaching for the delete button. You see it’s not that I don’t like to get e-mails from people, I love to get e-mails from people, its just, well - Facebook.

There I’ve said it, am I the only Facebook loather in the world? (haven’t reached the hate stage in my relationship yet). The problem is simple - I don’t understand Facebook’s place in the world. In face I’m irritated by it, am I turning into a grumpy old man?

Maybe I’m annoyed at myself, I am after all a member myself (more out of constant nagging than anything else). Note to self, have more will power to say “no!”

I spend a lot of time on the internet I read a lot, research a lot and use the tools available to me to communicate with other people. I find Facebook frustrating however because I don’t feel it gives me anything in return for my efforts, to me its an unbalanced equation. On the one side you have annoying little web apps (built using Facebook APIs) which do nothing but waste time, whilst on the other you have a huge corporation (yes it is a corporation) which WILL make heaps of cash from the crop of information it “harvests” from its users. No, I’m not anti-capitilist or anti-corporate, but its all about give and take. Facebook is all take.

Legal Andrew has summed this up perfectly. Have you read the Facebook Terms of Service (ToS)? I know not many people do but you should, check his blog for the juicy highlights, it makes interesting reading believe me.

I do consume other services of a similar nature, but I get something out of them;

• MySpace - awesome, great community builder, very useful for checking out new bands or looking info on existing ones
• Messenger (and other IM’s) great, good for communicating with the other side of the world, fast and efficient
• There are more but I think you get the point

Bottom line, I don’t mind having info recorded about me, my activities etc if I feel I’m getting something out of the relationship.

Understand?

You don’t do you.

Alright, now to reply to that funwall message.

UPDATE: Today I heard that Facebook costs businesses an estimated $5billion a year from lost work hours! Aside from the cost there is a potential security risk to businesses from all this activity, not to mention the risk to your own job security! Check the article from the Sydney Morning Herald here.

That moment occurred a couple of weeks back when I visited Mount Tamborine National Park, this place is nothing short of beautiful and as such can’t be accurately portrayed with words.

So I’ll let the photos do the talking, enjoy.

http://photos.myhappymedium.net/mttamborine

Yet again it came down the chimney and yet again it went on the rampage looking for food. Fortunately not too much damage inflicted this time and the cleanup was small compared to the last visit. Also somehow it got back out because I can’t find it in the house anywhere.

Curious, I know possums are good climbers (they’re tree dwellers after all) but I didn’t think they’d be able to climb back up the chimney. Everyday’s a school day

I was neatly installed down the front about 8 metres from the stage which made for some good views (and not just on the stage either). However the night wasn’t without its hiccups…

1. I thought I had charged my camera but apparently hadn’t (hence the reason for only a very low number of pictures). Oops
2. One of the guitarists (Paul) broke his ankle mid set. Plenty of comments about that on their website. The guy did well but looked seriously ill by the end of their set.

In support were The Hot Lies and Kisschasy. The latter being the much better band in my opinion.

I must confess I need to do more of this sort of thing, better save some pennies first!