Flight Booked

Booked my flight through STA Travel today. I'll be flying on the 23rd March with China Airlines (which gets good reviews) and allowed a whopping 64kg of luggage. The flight plan (in local times):

Depart Sydney 12:55pm, arrive in Taipei 7:10pm.
Stay overnight in Taipei, paid for by China Airlines.
Depart Taipei 2:10pm, arrive in Vancouver 8.30am.

Each flight is roughly 10 hours long. The stop in Taipei should be a nice break, though it's actually going the wrong way to help with jetlag. It also cost me $250 more than I expected, but I'm chasing that up at the moment.

Canadian Coinage

Australian coins are all very different sizes and the numbers really dominate the coins. And we call them "5 cents" and "10 cents" not "nickel" and "dime". So the last two times that I was in Canada I struggled with the coins. One time I just emptied all the coins from my wallet, held them out to the sales assistant and said "take whatever it is". Anyway, to stop that happening in future, a nice girl has given me set of flashcards to help me memorise them.

Low Rainfall

Title is a bit misleading. What I mean is that the rain is falling from clouds that are quite low. You can see it clearly in this radar map, where the centre (where the radar is located) is presumably on top of a mountain. I just thought the image was interesting.

Divorce, Online!

Subject kinda says it all hey? We filed it online together at www.divorce.gov.au. The only problem we had was the broken JavaScript used to process the form.

In the end we were racing to see who could complete the form quickest using any of 4 different browsers and multiple navigation paths to avoid the breakage. You have to keep these things fun. And it's nice to be good friends and be moving onwards. :)

PS. No, I didn't marry the invisible woman. I just suppress names here. :)

Hope? For a PhD?

It's brilliant!

Dating a Developer

A very nice girl just sent me a link to Dating an Apple Developer. It's an insightful blog entry on being the partner of a developer, though this guy seems a bit more extreme than me. Maybe. Funny and useful read though. I might have some lessons to learn from this.

The Hat That Endured

When I was young, I seemed to have a 'thing' for hats. I would pick one and wear it all the time, normally pulled too low on my forehead so I couldn't quite see properly. I even have a picture of me wearing hats to sleep. But there was one favourite as I got older, and that was a blue Hang Ten cap. I can remember keeping bits of change in the side pocket. I received it back as a gift last year, along with an old book of mine. The cap is a bit worse for wear now, but it's nice to have it back.

Blu-tak Art

Still cleaning and sorting and packing, and I came across these little old creations. They are: a head, a stapler, an abstract object, an echidna, a fruit bowl, a toaster, a die, a cup, a Rubiks cube, and my crowning achievement, the phone.

At one point in my life I had far too much time.

Chinese Censorship

An interesting article has managed to restore some of my faith in the Chinese government. I've always felt that it would be a slow process for the political situation in China to improve, but had confidence that it would slowly (but firmly) move forwards. From the article:

"History demonstrates that only a totalitarian system needs news censorship, out of the delusion that it can keep the public locked in ignorance", the group said in the letter, according to Reuters news agency.
...
Those signing the letter include Chairman Mao's former secretary, Li Rui; the former editor of the Communist party's own mouthpiece, People's Daily, Hu Jiwei; and ex-propaganda boss, Zhu Houze.

Ironically, the letter was signed on February 2nd but only publicly released on February 14th...

Spitting Distance

In January I went to Tasmania for my sister's wedding. On arrival I stuffed my back again (muscular problem, thankfully) and was kept busy trying to finish my thesis. The end result was that I didn't do a few things that I wanted to, including visiting one of my best friends living down there. Thinking it would be too much trouble on top of everything else, I left it.

Speaking to him recently, we found out just how physically close we were. In roughly his words, "I could have spit on where you were staying from my house if there was a good southerly".

I'm happy he didn't, but regretting I didn't look him up. He has wireless broadband.

Flavoured Roast

Had to load a ute recently and it was a hot day so I took off my shirt. I didn't expect it to take so long, and I'm paying for it at the moment.

I'm trying out various creams to help sooth it:

Flatmate: Wow! I can smell chocolate!
Me: Uhh, yeah. That'd be me.
Flatmate: *sniff*
Me: Yeah, I just put this Cocoa Butter on my sunburn. I didn't think it was that strong.

Joint Mobility

The wife's boyfriend (great guy) was talking about some odd bits of martial arts training he'd had. I mentioned that I'd done only a little, but that my instructors had failed to make me respond with the various "holds" (grabbing hand and twisting to make you submissive).

In good style, he tried out his holds on me and my flatmate. Flatmate responded immediately as most people would. I was more "can start to feel some tension, and I can feel the joints separating a bit, but otherwise nothing".

A mild case of hypermobility does have its advantages sometimes. I also had a massage therapist go "Wow, cool!" when they held my hand. And I'm not even that flexible.

Hot Orange

Since when was hot water orange? Yet another chronic problem for this place.

At least this new water feature doesn't damage the carpet or make the house smell. And it's meant to be safe to drink... Though we'll just run the water until it goes away I think.

Ashley the Enlightened

When you're packing to move countries you need to inspect everything you're taking, and I mean everything. Because you need to judge whether it'll fit in your weight limit, or survive a trip as excess baggage, or whether it's meant to stay here with your (ex-)flatmate, or with your (ex-)wife, or ...

Of course you will then come across long-lost gems, like this photo of the family cat Ashley. I had this on my door at University if anyone recalls. :) And yes, he's still alive, even though this photo was taken in 1998 and he was clearly a full-grown cat already.

Alien of Extraordinary Ability

If you've ever applied for a US visa, you must have come across visa type O1 - Alien of Extraordinary Ability. I love it. It sounds almost as ridiculous as "you must pay $130 for a visa because your plane will refuel for 2 hours in Honolulu, and because you will be staying in Canada, which is a country that is too close for our liking". :P

Prayer of the Frog

In a little aside, I want to give a big thanks to the girl that gave me the book "Prayer of the Frog" as a gift. It's a fantastic book that I'd recommend to anyone who is interested in looking deeper into theology/philosophy without subscribing to a religion.

To a visitor who asked to become his disciple the Master said, "You may live with me, but don't become my follower."
"Whom, then, shall I follow?"
"No one. The day you follow someone you cease to follow Truth."

It's one of those special gifts that I'll hang on to wherever I go. So thankyou.

Transportation Ideas

I'm starting to realise that a scooter would not be a good idea in Vancouver. With weather like 'freezing rain', 'snow with rain' and '20 consecutive days of rain' an open-air vehicle is not a good idea.

Not to mention that in the past 24 hours on my bicycle I've swallowed two bugs, splashed myself with a discarded McDonalds lemonade by running over it (making my brakes ineffective and sound like a malfunctioning klaxon), and misjudged the path of a police car on a round-a-bout (I swear his right indicator was not on). Perhaps I'll take up roller-blading in Canada. Something fun on those odd sunny days.

You know they say that Vancouver has some of the nicest weather in all of Canada?

It All Begins

I've received a formal job offer from a company in Vancouver Canada, with a starting date of April 1st.

I've known this was coming, and I started this blog to keep people updated on how I go. I won't mention the name of the Company or the people I work with, so this blog tied can't be tied to them.

For now it's head-down-bum-up to get some existing work out of the way, and get as much of my PhD done as I can before I reach Vancouver. Then I finish my PhD while I work, and start a whole new life.

Kinda scary.

What Size Fish?

Someone just asked me what size fish I would like to be: large fish in a small pond? or a small fish in a large pond? I think I know my answer now:

A moderate fish in a large school in a big pond.

I don't want to be the guy that everyone talks about. And I don't want to be the guy that noone talks about. I want to be the guy that contributes to something that everyone talks about, and I want to be well-known to the people I work with. I think it's sometimes that mindset that takes people to open source development, and why I'm enjoying it so much.