tuxcomputers's blog

While we traveling in Europe the people we met knew Australia was big but I don't think they really knew how big. I did up this graphic overlaying Australia with Europe.

What you also have to remember is that Australia only has a population of just over 21 million. I have coloured some of the countries and here are their populations:

Blue = Germany, 82 million
Green = France, 62 million
Orange = UK, 61 million
Purple = Netherlands, 16 million
Yellow = Belgium, 10 million

Total of JUST the coloured countries, 231 million.

Comparing Australia to Europe

As a comparison here is the USA and their 300 million population with Australia overlaid:

USA comparison

We adopted a puppy from the RSPCA today, she is a beautiful tiny little white Chihuahua cross Minature Fox Terrier.

We have been promising the kids that we will adopt a dog from the RSPCA since before we went overseas. We have been looking at the Adopt a Pet web site for weeks, so we knew what sort of dogs came up for adoption and how long they were usually there.

Small dogs went fast, small pupppies went faster. We wanted a small dog and the day we were leaving Paris we saw Gemma come up for adoption. Singapore has free internet stations, while we waited 1/2 hour for the plane to be refueled I checked to see if Gemma was still there, she was.

Yesterday was our first day in Australia and we were so busy unpacking etc that we could not get to the RSPCA. Last night I checked and Gemma was still there. This morning I woke at 5ish, first thing I did was check Gemma was still there. I was looking at other dogs and puppies as well but Gemma was my first choice.

First I went and got permission from our landlord to own a pet then the kids and I jumped in the car and drove 2 1/2 hours to the shelter. We fell in love with her as soon as they brought her out.

She was surrendered to the RSCPA by a woman that bought her but did not really want her. The lady paid $600 to get Gemma out of a puppy mill and then turned around and gave her up. Gemma was in foster care for 3 weeks, she came back to the RSCPA last week and was desexed.

We got her for $550, she had been wormed, vaccinated, microchipped, health checked and behavioural tested.

She is such a tiny little thing, she only weighs 1.7kgs, the people next door have a puppy too. I thought that was small but she weighs twice as much as Gemma. Gemma is white with a few small light brown patches. I plan on taking her photo and posting what she looks like tomorrow.

Here is a photo of her I took this morning:

Our new little girl, Gemma

I am seperating the photos I upload here. This account is going to be for my "arty" type photos, I have started anouther account that my wife is going to use to upload "family" type photos.

Sometimes a photo will fit into both and I will upload it to both.

We visited lots of relatives on our holidays with e-mail, Ipernity and Skype it will be much easier to keep in contact with them, that's what the second "family" album is going to be for.

We have arrived in Paris for our final 3 days.

Today we went into the city and walked through the Louve. 5 hours is in no way enough to do the place justice. That's all we had before we all had sore feet and just wanted to go back to the hotel for a rest.

Of course we saw the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. It was a saturday and the place was packed, maybe we should have left the Louve for a weekday... ah well.

Tomorrow is another day and we have no idea what we are goinng to see. I would like to see Notre Dame, the Arc De Triomphe and the Effiel Tower before we leave, Chris wants to go to the Champs Elysees as well.

We are now in Belgium visiting relatives. The weather is not as nice as it was when we were in France but we are further north and it is further into Autumn.

We go to Paris on Saturday, we are having 3 nights in Paris before we fly out. We plan on taking the kids to all the usual tourist places in Paris, the Effiel Tower, the Louve etc.

If we have enough money left over I want to go to a show at Moulin Rouge.

.... but not how I need.

I could not get a internet connection until I found my Ubuntu CD in my laptop bag and installed Linux on the laptop.

Most of the programs I need for this trip and Windows programs so I have downloaded a virus scanner that runs under linux and kills Windows viruses.

Hopefully I can clean the Windows section of the laptop and run what I need to.

We are in France right now staying with family. It is a fantastic area with lots and lots of old buildings and Castles. It is so easy to take great photos it feels like cheating.

I don't have an internet connection like I wanted so I can't do everything that I wanted.

Ah well....... it will have to wait until I get back home to Australia.

For my trip OS I am buying a GPS tracker.

I will be able to download the waypoints from the unit, export the track stream as a GPX file then use Geosetter to add Geo tag information to my photos.

I just hope that Ipernity recognises the geotags and automatically adds it.

I have not done any photography for months, I just seemed to hit a brick wall and it just wasn't fun or interesting any more.

I picked up my camera last weekend to take camping when we went to a 4WD park. The fathers and sons went 4WDing at Landcruiser Mountain Park while the wives and daughters went to a resort on the coast.

We all had a fantastic time, I loved getting out and taking photos and it reminded me how much taking photos is. The problem was that we were all so eager to take on the next challenge (including me) it was a problem getting into a good spot to take photos.

We will be going again in October because the family and I will be spending September overseas. We will be in France, Spain and Belgium visitingfriends and relatives.

We got a really good deal on hiring a car, it only cost us just over AU$2,000 for 24 days. A work mate of mine is paying just under $1000 for 5 days.

I will be joining a 4WD club and doing more weekends, anyway check out the photos in my album here.

She ran screaming from the back yard, we are waiting for the ambulance right now.

Updates at 11.

Update 26 Feb 2009:

Went to hospital, morphine, x-ray, the growth end of her humerus was broken off and not even overlapping with the end of the bone. At first they said that the operation would be in the morning. The head ortherpedic surgeon over ruled that and she went into surgery at 11pm. They said it normally takes about 1/2 hour but they might have to cut open the arm to put the bone back in place properly.

Wife and I fell asleep in lazy boy chairs in the childrens ward, at 3am I was getting concerned. The nurse rang theatre and they were just bringing her up. I left at 4am had a bit of a nap at home until 7, I returned with our son.

The doctor told us it was the worst she had seen. Some of Stephanies nerves were not where they were supposed to be and in the way. They had to cut her in several places to get to the bones and put the pins and wires in. The doc even admitted she got a little nervous towards the end because she did not want to damage any of the nerves.

Steph had a choice of more morphine and staying another night. She is in her own bed right now fast asleep. She will not be going to school for another 2 weeks, probably 4. Her pins and wires come out in 4 weeks with another surgery.

The family and I are flying to France in August. We leave Brisbane on the 29th August and leave again on the 29th of September. We have been looking and comparing the prices of airlines for about a month now. Today we paid a deposit to fly Emirates via Singapore and Dubai to Paris.

We will be staying 3 nights in Paris, taking the kids to the usual tourist traps, Eiffel Tower, Arc De Triumph, Louve etc. We will then take the TGV down to Bordeux where we will be staying with relatives for the 4 weeks we are in France.

During our stay will will be visiting friends that live in Spain. We have not decided how we are getting down there yet. We will probably hire a car, drive down, stay a couple of days and drive back.

I am trying to convince the wife to let me get a new lens for the Pentax that has a greater focal length. I only have a 50mm prime and the 18-55mm kit lens. Undecided to get the lens in Oz before I go so I can try it out and claim the Tax on it before I leave or buy something in Singapore that does not have an Australian warranty.

At some point in the trip we will also be going up to Belgium to visit other relatives for a week or so, it's only a days drive.

What do you think they have in common?

If no-one sees them they didn't happen. The USA govt has banned people taking photos of coffins of soldiers that were killed in the Iraq war. It is against the Canadian Seal "Protection" law to even approach within half a nautical mile of a seal being beaten to death.

This is disgusting behavior by both governments. The photographer in me knows the power that images can have on people. Governments are rightly afraid of that power and how the internet has changed the balance of power in their bullshit PR campains that have holes poked in them faster than ever.

I was not aware until today that the seal slaughter was resurrectedin 1994. I was 14 and remember when the cruel killing of baby seals was all over the place and the pressure on the Canadians shut it down.

The death dealers and the Government have grown smarter, they create a "Seal protection act" that fines and jails anyone witnessing the killing without their permission. Exactly who is protected by this act? It is certainly not the seals.

... my body is protesting about getting into shape. I have done 2 sessions of weight training as part of my fitness program and it HURTS!!!! My arms feel like they are going to drop off, it feels good though.

I am lucky, very lucky, where I work, they provide a fully equiped gym and one of the guys is a personal trainer during his 2 weeks off.

He has taken me through both sessions, watching and giving me advice on how the exercise should be done to give the most benefit while providing the most protection from injury.

I am surprised that there is so much to remember, elbows in, when to breath out, keep the weight under control and don't throw it and let momenteum carry the weight.

It will take me 10-12 weeks before I get used to it and can start to increase the amount of weight I use and start to build upwards.

... are loony idiots. Their arguments are stupid and full of holes.

Two people observe something interesting that they have never seen before and have no explaination for:

Non-creationist: WOW, did you see that? What was it? Where did it come from? Is it coming back? Can we make it happen again? What does it mean? Who can we ask? Will anyone believe us?
Creationist: God did it! Coming to get a beer?

During the Christmas holidays the family and I went camping. We had a great time, it was hot so I wasn't eating that much and I was drinking ALOT of water. On my belt I have two holes I use, the tight one and one I use when I am a little bigger. It depends if I have eaten a large meal and the time of day etc which hole I use.

When I got home I put on shorts that requires a belt.The belt felt a little loose so I tried to put it in the tighter hole. It took me a little while to figure out that the "loose" hole was the smaller one and there was no holes further up the belt.

Once I returned to work I decided that I did not want to go back to using the other hole. I started using the treadmill, I started with walking 5km on the hill program. At the end of the 5k I had sore feet and legs but it felt good. I kept going, each day I would increase my output.

After 2 weeks I had lost 3kg and was running 6km on the same hill program. Before I went home for my 2 week break I used Google to map out a 2.5km route from my house to an intersection. I walked that route everyday (well almost), sometimes my kids came with me, sometimes the whole family and sometimes I went by myself.

I used our Wii Fit to measure my weight when I first got home and just before I left for work again, I had lost another 3kg. I am back on the treadmill doing the hill program, I jogged 6.5km last night.

Doing exercise has changed my attitude towards food. If it tasted good and I was not full I would eat it. Now when I look at the icecream or bicuit I just think of how long I would need to be on the threadmill to make up for it.

I have also reduced how much I eat at meal times and what I eat. I used to walk away from meals at work with a bloated stomach. At work I have dinner at 6, get changed and be on the treadmill around 6.30. If I was full as an egg then would make working out harder. I still have what I call "high density" food, like chips, but nowhere near as much as I used to.

We have a guy at work here that is also a personal trainer, last rotation he was on holidays. I want to increase my strength as well as my fitness so when he flies in I will be getting him to show me some exercises to do in the gym.

It's not like weight loss is a big secret, more output than input equals weight going down. OMG did I just debunk all those stupid fadish "avacado" diets? I want to spit on and tear to pieces every brain dead "womans" magazine that has a headline like "Oprah reveals her weight loss secrets"... YOU STUPID IDIOT, the secret is that there is no secret, all those people are preying on your hopes, prayers and stupidity... put down the Krispy Kream, wipe your face and walk to school to pick your kids.

My goal is to lose another 12kg within 3 months.

The good news

My wife and I looked at a house to rent on Tuesday (17th June) afternoon and loved it.

The lounge room by itself is as big as the current lounge/dining room. The dining room is open space right off the kitchen and it is big enough to fit our 8 seat table that is currently in the garage.

There is a little nook that the computers will fit in quite nicely. The fourth bedroom will have the spare TV and the Nintendo Wii setup so that we can watch movies and the kids play games.

There is a decent back yard with a shed that we can put our mower in and lock. The garage has a remote and doesn't have a door to the house, so when I leave it open, like I do, people can't get into the house. It opens to the covered area out the back so even if it is raining we don't get wet.

We decided to put an application in on the Wednesday morning, we heard back from the real estate that we were approved just after lunch. We get the keys Monday (23rd) and move in the Friday (27th).

The bad news

A dear friend of ours, Casey, has cancer, he found out just before Christmas last year. He has been undergoing Chemo treatment but yesterday he went into hospital, his organs are shutting down and he is only expected to last 1-2 days.

His kids have come to say good bye from as far away as Perth. Every time the phone rings we are thinking, is this it? We got a call from friend that knows him this afternoon, my wife saw who was calling on her mobile, got tears in her eyes and couldn't answer it.

It looks like we will be attending a funeral while we are either packing or unpacking. I am just glad that I am home on holidays because Casey is a great bloke and a good friend, my wife has known him since the start of high school, he is the father of a school friend of hers. His daughter moved away but we kept in contact and are good friends.

There are heap of us that all gather every year on boxing day, one year it was very hot and Casey was stirring Chris, like normal, so she got a bucket of ice and tipped it over his head. He just sat there took another sip of his beer and said 'Ah that's better, I'm cooler now'.

She is going to be devastated and we will all miss his VERY loud laughter. The first thing anyone that knows him would say is that he laughs very loud and often... he will be sorely missed.

When I write a blog entry and it goes longer than the edit window can display that window keeps expanding and contracting.

I know that the Ipernity team are very clever and have written code make it so that the box only takes up so much room and then gets bigger when and if you need it but I am using Firefox 2.0.0.13 on the latest release of Ubuntu Linux and it is really distracting.

People are used to a static sized window and have developed techniques to deal with that. The window jumping all over the place makes me a little sick after a while. I have to write up my entry in a text editor first and then paste it into Ipernity.

Is anybody having the same problem? What OS are you using? Windows Linux? Which browser? IE or Firefox or something else?

EDIT Thursday 19th June 2008

It's back doing the same thing, please make it stop.

... from buying 3 cameras with lenses, keeping one, selling the other 2 as well as a lens I bought previously and the three camera bodies. I bought the three as a package for $100.

So the sums go like this:

1. Bought from ebay: 1 Pentax-A f2.0 lens = $62
2. Bought from camera fair: 3 x lenses + 3 x camera bodies $100

(2 x Pentax-A f1.7, Pentax-M f2.0, 2 x Pentax Super-A bodies, Pentax Program-A body)

Total: $162

Sold on ebay

1. Pentax-M f2.0 = $25
2. Pentax-A f2.0, (the one I just bought off ebay) = $51
3. Pentax-A f1.7 = $72
4. Program-A body = $10
5. Super-A body = $23.50
6. Super-A body = $23.50

Sub-Total: $205
Minus the ebay fees: $17.38
Total: $187.62

Profit: $25.62

It was not just the small change I made from this exercise that is exciting, it's the fact that I got to keep one of the fantastic Pentax-A f1.7 lenses and 25 bucks.

I am excited that I did so well.