Wow... over a whole year since I did an update.

Well, a few things have happened this past 12 months, some good, some bad.

1) Last year at around June I decided that I didn't want to work where I was working any more. I had been with the company since 1988 and though I had moved up in the ranks from technician to engineer/software/system admin/IT/network guru type person (and a few other hats) I wasn't enjoying the work any more. So I gave a couple of months' notice with the plan to have a break until Christmas and then do something else.

2) About a month before leaving work, around August, I ruptured a disc in my lower back. I ended up taking the last month of my notice off from work as sick leave. I spent 3 weeks being immobile and pretty much everything got better...

3) I started doing some odd jobs for Sibi at her work and the end result being tat we are going to see if her work can support the both of us. We are trying out a few different things such as offering lunch menu deliveries and business catering. I'm really hoping it works out, I really like the work...

4) My dad has just recently had a triple bypass. My sister is helping to look after him and my brothers are helping to look after my mum, who decided to have a fall due to low blood sugar. They both ended up in the same hospital. I may be going to help look after mum in the next few weeks if circumstances require it.

5) Today I was casually stacking the display at work with sushi (as I do every day and it's pretty easy stuff to set up) when I squatted to put the tray in and my back did a twinge! It's been niggly sore all day now so I'm off to the docs tomorrow to see if anything has been done. It's not overly bad so I'm hoping it'll settle down overnight. The plan is to rest up for the rest of today.

That's all of the important stuff so far, I might do an update later this week with other stuff if I remember... Not like anyone reads this anyway ;)

About 3-6 months ago one of Sibi's friends asked her to go over to her place. Her husband works for Sony here in Australia and was taking video for the new Sony Singstar Motown commercial and along with two of Sibi's cousins they took some video of them singing to The Jackson Five's "ABC".

Sony then played the advert during the 2009 series of Australian Idol and we recorded the final advert and I have finally gotten around to getting it off the HDD recorder and into a format that can be played on a computer. It's been saved in Windows Media Video format (WMV) but these days everyone can play it so here is a local link to it as I didn't want to stick it on YouTube.

Sibi is the middle one of the three ladies :)

Video PS3 Advert

It was a momentous day as we congregated at DM Rod's house for the first part of our first 4E adventure. It started out as a party of 5, Kslithkor - Dragonborn Warlord, Clamps - Halfling Rogue, Corvus - Dragonborn Invoker, Godan - Dwarf Paladin and Zhan - Deva Avenger. We then met up with Alsh Furington - Longtooth Shifter Ranger (because Sibi had to work and didn't get to the adventure until lunch time).

We are playing through H1 - Keep on the Shadowfell and have purged the local village of its Kobold problem, rescued a local farmer from a Gnome relic hunter and his posse, and are currently venturing into the keep itself.

We finished up around midnight all pumped up ready for the next episode. We still have to work on our adventuring speed as we were taking a bit too long for each encounter scenario. We did however manage to level up and everyone is gleefully updating their characters :D

Here is a panorama I took on my iPhone.

Well it's been a funny few weeks. Went away for Christmas to my folks place whilst they were away themselves (which was good, no parental hassles *grin*) and had a few friends and Sabel's brother come up for a few days. It rained a lot but we got one good beach day (where I managed to get a bit sunburnt).

My friends had their iPhones and as much as I tried to resist wanting to get one I really saw the merit (and fun) of having one so I've jumped in and grabbed a 16GB 3GS iPhone and it's already full of cool astronomy apps :D

We've also started up plans to run a new DnD 4ED adventure using the H1 premade adventure. I'm going to try and RP a Dragonborn Warlord and with any luck we'll keep this group going for a decent time.

Finally managed to go and see Avatar today. Got to experience it in 3D glory. I'm not going to give an spoilers so all i will say is that it is an EPIC movie.

Well a lot has happened since the last update.

1: Combined 40th/Halloween birthday party for myself and my friend TJ was a great success. We both got plastered on Long Island Iced Teas and from that moment onwards we had a great time (and everyone else seemed to as well *grin*).

2: Telescope is going great guns. Got some new eyepieces for my birthday, some nice 2" Ba'ader EP's and a cheapie but exeptionally nice Andrews Wide Angle. Also I have managed to snag an NPB 2.0" filter.

3: Homebake 2009 was great fun. Spent the weekend in the city with a bunch of friends were we watched Zombieland, spent a great day at Homebake and then had a yummo brekky Sunday morning :)

4: Hannah's birthday is tomorrow and we've gotten her a DSi. She will be super excited. Christmas is also almost upon us so if you thought my updates were slow before they'll be zero over the holidays.

5: Some friends have been reading a bit of the new DnD 4ed rules and suddenly we've got a date set for a pre-made game. Having a DnD book fetish I went to buy the PHB and ended up with the DM/PHB/MM core box set and the PHB2... well it will come in handy as the rules for 4ed are much simpler than 3.5ed and overall the game sounds more fun.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all who actually read this rubbish blog ;)

 
With the upgrading of my scope I've decided to make an astronomical subdomain for kustard dot org. Simply follow the Astronomy link from the menu.



astronomy dot kustard dot org

OMFG!

In December I am turning a rather significant number (apparently) in years on this planet. As part of my celebrations, Sibi has said I can upgrade my old Celestron C8 SCT telescope to a bigger C925 SCT.

The great thing about this deal is that I am able to trade in my old scope and get a pretty good portion off the cost of the C925. The place I am getting the scope form is Andrews Communications and the guys there are very friendly and the prices are extremely attractive.

The new scope is the CPC 925 GPS XLT which is a C925 optical tube with XLT coatings attached to a wedge go-to mount. The great thing about the mount is it's fully computerised, press a button and off it goes. Yes, it's a lazy man's scope. The C8 I had was mounted on an old style fork and for learning the sky and star hopping the mount was great, but now I feel the need to spend more time observing and less time trying to find stuff.

The other good thing about this deal is I am going to pick the scope up today, I just have to hang at home until some guy comes to do some measurements for a new awning we are getting.... I WISH HE"D HURRY UP!!! ;)

CPC 925 GPS (XLT)
Andrews Communications

I buckled on the weekend and bought myself a PSP. I managed to get a console + 2 games (Transformers & ATV vs MX) + accessories pack + memory stick (4GB) for about $350. I also grabbed God of War and D&D Tactics.


ATV vs MX : is pretty woeful so I'll trade it in at EBGames.
Transformers : I have yet to play it yet.
God of War : is great fun and people are saying it's really easy but I'm not finding it easy, must be getting old.
D&D Tactics : is good so far but I've only played it for a short time so not really able to comment.

I also have ordered Castlevania and Crisis Core FF7.

The PSP itself is great though I'm still getting used to the handheld console.

Haven't been doing much on the old computer lately, instead I've been in a bit of a tv and reading mood. Yesterday I went to the local Sci-Fi book shop in Parramatta and bought the latest Robin Hobb book in trade paperback and the first of the Deathstalker series by Simon R. Green (which I had been wanting to start reading for ages). Well I read all the Deathstalker book in one sitting and was very impressed so I'll have to go grab the next in the series soon. I'm about to start on The Dragon Keeper tonight but I doubt I'll read it as fast as Deathstalker as I like to take my time with Robin Hobb :)

Infinitas Bookshop
Robin Hobb
Simon R. Green Tribute Site

Morning!

*Wipes sleep from eyes*

It's been almost 6 weeks since my last post. I'm not upset that I haven't posted as I've been busy. Here's a short recap:

1 Sibi's new job is going well. After a bit of a slow start she now is starting to get regular customers into her cafe. Initially she was working 12hr days during the week and another 6hrs or so on Saturday. Now she is able to employ a part time staff member for two nights a week so family life is starting to resume back to normality.

2 Hannah is back at school after two weeks off. She also does swimming lessons at the sports centre where Sibi works on Saturdays which leaves me free here to do my own thing.

3 I finally got my WoW toon priest to level 80. After four days of intensive levelling after work and most of yesterday she is now 80 and ready for end game.

4 After a month or so of red tape and other nonsense, our courtyard has been rebuilt. It' is really nice now and level! The fence isn't complete as the fencers made a boo-boo and have to remake one of the panels and put the gate up, but over all it'll be a really good space now.

5 Last week we were invited to a 30th birthday party for our friend Katie. She and her husband Beau hosted a nice little soiree in Darlinghurst where there was much drinking of cocktails and smoking of cigars. A certain person (not me) got a bit drunk and had a bit of an episode on the car drive home but it only added to the fun of the evening :D

Well that's it for now I think. Will post more when more becomes interesting.

Not much going on though Sibi has quit her job and is going into partnership at a new café which is pretty exciting.

I decided to dump my hunter and continue to level up my priest so that the guild has another healer in the group instead of another dps'r.

Other than that it's pretty much blah blah blah ;)