The Trav

Leprosy and referrals

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:24:14 GMT

Ok, so I finally got around to calling Rosemary Nixon, the dermatologist that Ms Mupper recommended, I now have an appointment in march, but the lady who took my booking said I need a referral to actually see her...

I'm a little confused as to how it works and the office lady wasn't exactly volunteering information at all. In fact once she heard I didn't have a referral and that I'd just found RN's contact details off the internet after hearing she was a good dermatologist she became pretty keen to get me off the phone... I've still got the booking though.

So from the few snippets I got from her I figure I need to make an appointment with a GP and then basically walk in and give the details of the referral I want. Seems a bit odd to me.

10/GUI

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:04:07 GMT

http://glyphobet.net/blog/blurb/1132

I can see a whole lot of issues with this, but it's also extremely awesome, promising tech and has a BBC science style sound track which is like an awesome multiplier

Volley ball & Diet

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:13:44 GMT

So our team made the finals, yay
but then we lost all our girls and now we can't play em. BOO

I'm hoping we can pull together a team for the mens league, that's a lot more competitive though, probably two nights a week (one training) and the only trainers we've found are in altona or dandenong, so I dunno. If it all falls apart maybe I'll move into more nights dancing, or ultimate frisbee, or just join a random established team.

In other news I'm cutting out Dairy, Chocolate, Coffee and Alcohol until Christmas (about three months) to see if it has any effect on my eczema. I'm really hoping dairy and Acohol isn't a major factor, but I am hoping that it makes a difference as itching all the time sucks, as does looking like a leper.

for trying when I get home

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 23:40:42 GMT

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/IndependentGaming/~3/O0I58elP6ok/browser_game_pick_hell_is_othe.html

sleeping bag for starwars fans

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 02:11:02 GMT

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/plush/bb2e/

Cool plastic dragon

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:01:07 GMT

ASH, THIS IS YOUR NEMESIS!

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 22:39:44 GMT

ah kim, we love you so

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:24:33 GMT

leprosy

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 01:47:13 GMT

Need to find and visit a dermatologist. Have had a pretty sizeable rash/exma like thing on my leg for many months now, 0.5 cortisone isn't really having much effect on it any more and it's itchy as fuck.

Now I have to get over my instinctive mistrust of doctors and find someone who'll explain shit to me :(

Yay

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 05:14:16 GMT

Wholy crap you bastards post a lot

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 01:23:33 GMT

So I looked at my friends page on Tuesday, and looked again now, and the new reading list is overflowed.

Well news from Eden is:

1 - We have a working dishwasher (yay)
2 - The leak in the flu for the heater down the back is fixed and only cost me $120, SCORE!
3 - Replacing the heater with another relatively shit one will cost me approx $1500. Central will heat the whole house and be VASTLY more efficient in terms of gas burnt to heat in house and cost approx $4000. Guess what I'll be having installed this summer
4 - Second quote for the guttering is at $3300... damn, on the plus side they reckon the job's not looking too desperate, so I can probably put it off for 3-6 months.

The house continues to be a joy to live in but a drain on the wallet. Amanda and I currently have approximately negative $350 thousand... :( I've started to look at expenses and instantly translate them to additional days/months on the loan, it's effective at helping me save.

for amanda

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 05:52:50 GMT

MY COMPUTER IS ON FIRE!?!?!?!

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 23:49:26 GMT

So last night before heading out to movie night I was trying to retrieve some old files from my ancient desktop, I turned it on and went to swap some network plugs around when I smelt a horrible "electronics burning" smell.

I quickly turned everything off and unplugged everything.
Opened up both my new and old computers, couldn't see any visible damage, couldn't really tell where the problem was.

So I moved my expensive new computer away and plugged my old one back in, turned it on, and immediately heard some fizzling, looked behind it and saw a few small flames coming out of my power cable. EEP! I turned it off and unplugged it as quick as I could, the power cable had a small hole in it with a bit of ash where the wires used to run.
I've thrown it out now. Hopefully this was just the extremely old power supply unit in the older computer playing up or a defective cable or something and hopefully my files are still intact. I'm not so fussed about my own stuff, but Amanda's hdd was in there too and it had a lot of old photo's she won't want to lose.

Lol

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 04:45:42 GMT

Gamers, public service announcement starcraft.pro

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 22:35:35 GMT

http://bytesandbadges.wordpress.com/2009/05/30/starcraft-2-tower-defense-scam-or-spam/

I got the email mentioned in that article this morning. I assume most people who play games are savvy enough to realize that starcraft.pro is very much different from starcraft.com and is in no way affiliated with blizzard.

I recommend against opening any email about starcraft2.pro tower defense, and doubly against giving them any of your personal information

www.servicecentral.com.au it's like menulog, but for tradeys... kinda...

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 23:06:49 GMT

Ok, so I've got some work that needs doing on my house (gas, plumbing, gutters etc) and so far the biggest PITA has been finding someone who works on the specific brand of heater that I'm trying to get fixed/removed.

I just stumbled on www.servicecentral.com.au and it seems like it could make it all a whole lot easier.

You just put in the details of the job you need done, and then tradeys who are signed up to the sight see it, if they're interested in the job they contact you and you can select the best offer.

Much better than paging through the phone book.

Demigod

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 04:48:11 GMT

In case people aren't already aware, the game Demigod, now has a free demo, which, as I understand it, allows for unlimited time, using one of 4 demigods on one map and it is compatible with the full version.

The demigods include regulus and erebus, and cataract, those are both awesome demigods and a great map, so if you haven't bought it, but still like it and want to play, then get yourself an impulse account and pester Luke, Rory, Geoff or myself when you see us online.

look beforey you leap

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 03:05:38 GMT

Volley Ball

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 05:56:28 GMT

I think I already posted this, but in case I didn't or in case you missed it, I'm starting up another volley ball team, got 3 players so far, need a minimum of 4 and a preferred max of 6.

Games are at action sports in doncaster (blackburn road not far north of the eastern freeway) and are sunday-thursday from 7pm to 8:40pm. They can work around our preferences fairly well if people can't do certain nights or if we need early/late games.

If you want to play or know anyone who wants to play, it's $60 per game divided evenly, (so $10 to $15 depending on how many players we get) and $10 for registration, which you can pay after you've had a few games if you just want to try it out.

We're not super skilled, but we're keen to have a more competitive/focussed team this time rather than just social play. That basically boils down to not missing games and trying to get at least 1 training session in per month. So far we've located trainers in Altona and Dandenong (yeah inconvenient isn't it, sigh)

I FOUND STUFF!

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 05:48:20 GMT

Jonie and Ben, I found the second brush for the drum kit (it was in a box in the spare room)

Someone at the LAN (adrian?) asked if I had any web-cam's and it turns out I did have one left.

SUCCESS LAN WAS SUCCESSFUL!

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 01:37:19 GMT

Thanks for coming y'all I had a blast, hope you did too.

For Sale, XPS 15" laptop $1k

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 03:36:42 GMT

Time for me to replace my laptop. It's either just over or just under a year old.
Still covered under Dell's super spastic premium ultra mega warranty care package for another 2 years and I believe the cover is transferrable with the laptop.

The model is XPS M1530
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5Ghz T9300
3GB ram
Hdd: Seagate Momentus ST9200420ASG 200GB 7200RPM SATA
screen is 15" native res of 1680x1050
Video card is NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT

The laptop is still more than sufficient for everything I want to do, it's been really good to use, vastly better than the ASUS G1 in all aspects except for the screen sharpness, which is still quite good, it's just that the ASUS G1 was INCREDIBLE. Seriously, I've never seen anything as good.

I'm dubious about upgrading as the deals on Dell aren't super great at the moment, and the tax back is only about 33% for me, but as has been pointed out to me, holding off on laptop upgrades tends to lose as much in depreciation as it gains in price drops.

So yeah, tell your friends, tell them to tell their friends, if anyone wants a good laptop, this one is it.

Oh yeah, it came with vista on it (home I think), but I've since wiped it off. If you get it off me I'll put a fresh install of XP on it, or ubuntu if you're really keen, if you want vista you can call dell and get them to re-image it for you (they'll come out to your house and do it because of the super care package).

Oven Research

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 09:37:30 GMT

So Amanda and I went to a white goods store on Whitehorse road in Blackburn today and looked at some ovens and spoke to a sales rep.

Out of 200 different oven models they had none of them were gas. The rep claimed that the brands that they recommended only had like maybe 1 or 2 models.

He didn't have a lot to say so far as I could tell (it was the end of his working day though, so maybe he was tired. But apparently the biggest thing with oven's is weight, which is supposedly an indication of insulation properties and the oven's ability to contain heat (less loss means it won't mess with nearby cupboards and you spend less power keeping the oven hot, although he didn't state that, which he should have)

He showed us a few cheaper, lighter ovens for comparison, another thing he mentioned was the quality of enamel (the stuff that coats the inside of the ovens). He again said it's important and said that there's an acid resistance value that indicates this, he failed to mention WHY it's important, I assume because better enamel is easier to clean and lasts longer before it becomes spastically hard to clean (like teflon sauce pans)

He said the main price difference was related to the number of functions, more functions equals more cost. He said build quality doesn't seem to change much when you get cheaper models within a brand, just number of features.

He showed us some combination oven/microwave units, explained a few interesting things about them.
No need to rotate the food because the microwaves are beamed from the top instead of the side (possibly by a different beamer device thingy...)
If we go with a combination unit then it creates constraints on how we position it. There's safety regulations about how high up it can be built in so people don't injure themselves getting food out and then sue the tradesman who puts it in. This means that the bigger, pure oven section has to go below it, which is a fair bit lower than the usual oven, but higher than most free standing ovens.
It is possible to get a 3 door unit, with microwave and 2 ovens, however the lowest oven is pretty much on the floor in that case.

He showed us a few different doors and told us that the ones with hinges that didn't operate smoothly (you know the ones that sort of click a bit and have spots that they prefer to be in) tend to wear out quicker and malfunction, causing the door to not sit right and therefore heat loss.

He had a raging hard on for German brands, as they make heavy, well insulated ovens, with good door hinges. He was very clear about the superiority of German ovens.

The most annoying thing was probably his advice that the marketing material available is effectively useless for comparing anything that matters about two competing prices.
He said our best bet was to leaf through the catalogue, pick some things we liked, set ourselves a price range, and then come walk around and try some doors, get a tactile feel for what we liked.

He also said they're open on Saturdays (I don't think he's too keen on 5:00pm clientelle when the close at 5:30pm)

It's given me a lot to think of and a good base from which to research and ask questions. I really want to ask Zane a bit about ovens (you free to come over for a drink or two some time man?) and ask a few more different people and salesmen (note they are not the same thing)

someone rocks?

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 03:57:48 GMT

So someone? pulled our beds apart when we were moving, and got a zip lock bag and taped all the small losable bolts and widgets to the large un-losable metal cross bar.

YOU ROCK! Thanks for being so thoughtful and competent :)

I didn't actually see who it was, at first I thought James because Amanda and Luke both said he did it, but maybe it was someone else... either way, big thanks

Amanda is aweseome

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:48:28 GMT

I got home and there was beer and pizza and ice cream.

She has done tons of washing and the dishwasher will be working within three weeks.

She's making our room look beautiful and she made the gas heating out the front work.

MY GIRLFRIEND KICKS ASS!

This is not a hijacked post