smh.com.au - The Sydney Morning Herald

smh.com.au - The Sydney Morning Herald

Every day my when I launch my browser, Safari, it loads and I am faced with the Sydney Newspaper homepage. Today I am faced with 35 Egyptians dead in a resort blast and the countries treasurer is being asked to table an apology by the opposition party.I really have to find a much better home page me thinks.

Maybe it should be Jib Jab!

My country is one day away from the federal election which could see the horrible little lying man once more elected into the top seat and the only opposition we can muster is a bloke from Sydneys western suburbs who looks like he only started wearing long trousers last week. To paraphrase Doctor Smith...."Oh the pain, the pain.."

I think it is time we stopped thinking about what the parties can do for us, personally and start to think with a little more longevity. What can the parties do for the earth. As we see ice shelves disappearing in the antartic we need to think about the glaciers melting and the eventual rise of the sea. (My suggestion is not to buy water front property!) The little man is more worried about a couple of hundred jobs that saving the old growth forrests of Tasmania. The entire Murray basin is stuffed through land mismanagement as farmers take as much as they can from the earth and they are now wondering why it's dying on them.

We are a country that lives on our agricultural products yet we are unable to treat the source of these products with the care and respect that it needs.

We can't even ratify the Kyoto accord. The shame, the shame!

Anyway, going against the grain I will not be voting for either of the major parties. I will be differing to the Greens in the hope that we may be able to shift the balance of power their way in the senate.

I hope all out there do the same and that we think about the planet for a change and not about our selves.

Come on people it's for our kids!

Peace.

Back to the grindstone

Some time has past since I had the time or inclination to sprout on about things that happen in my little corner of the universe. Work has been pretty heavy. What we thought would be a nice slow run down towards Christmas has turned into a frantic race as companies throw last minute jobs at us. It’s not that I’m complaining about the work, I get to do a lot of the things I love, it would just be a lot easier if we had the info further out so as to negate this panic like frenzy to design projects which really deserve more time and thought.

Not all are rushed, I was briefed on a job in Macau next June. So that one has more than enough time for research and the odd moment of ponder.

On top of this we are moving our office to where we have our factory so we don’t keep losing people in the black hole that is the streets between the two. I am not overly happy, as I like them separate but I also do believe the move has to happen. But with all such moves there is a plethora of items that must be done. We have taken the opportunity to freshen up our corporate look and when I finish this little ramble I will back up to my ears in website.

Have a look at the old site and look. I will post again when the new site goes live and those who read this can sit as judge,

www.proj-x.com.au

Well I should either do so work or take the boys up the park for a run. This is fun but time is scarce. Take care all you ether readers and stay tuned for more exciting mumbles.

Live long and prosper.

Back from the edge

Sunshine Coast Hotels: Hyatt Regency Coolum, Sunshine Coast, Australia
It's not a bad place to slum it for a week or so.

We were up there doing a gig for MS. Their ANZ Partner Conference.

We built an exhibition and branded the entire place. We also got to ride around in stretch golf carts, ride bycyles through the dark and drink a little more than we needed or as sense should have told us. But it had to be done and we stepped up to the plate.

We were put up in an unassuming little place that we liked to refer to as the 'rock n roll suite' We gave the room(sic) it's name after finding out that Mick Jagger stayed there, if your more than a little curious it's number is 711.

Now the term 'room' is used very losely and only in a hotle sence. For you see it was actually it's own free standing villa placed at the other end of the 18th fairway from the club house of this internationally reknown golf course. Swaddled in the exclusive little area called the Ambassadors Club, it was actually a 2 storey, three bedroom, 3 bathroom, 5 toilet palace. The entrance hall was complete with chandelier and curved staircase. Which I now know one needs for the all important entrance.

The roof boasted it's own kitchenette, and of course the obligatory spa! we filled it one night/morning. But I think I put a few drops too many of bubble bath and we were waste deep in bubbles. They detached themselves from the main body when the win blew and launch high into the sky creating multiple avaiation hazards.

But enough of the accommodation though, as I will put you to sleep. We've all stayed in places with their own tennis courts and pools. Suffice to say it was comfortable.

Tomorrow 12 of my family arrive and we will make a pilgrimage on Sunday up to the snow. These guys have never seen it before. My other Brother Damien and I have seen a fair bit in our lives so it should be pretty funny seeing them slip and slide for the first few days.

My main man Max (my eldest son) will be coming along. The little guy Oscar is not quite three so he is staying in Sydney with his mother this time. Next year mate.

So I am thinking the plan of attack is thus. Day one, going mad, perhaps even Day two. I will book him into the explorers club for that day /thise days and then when my legs go I will slow down and the two of us can have some time to bond. Should be great.

So don't expect any updates this week but do wait for the tall tales of adventure I come back with. Hope to upload some fotos and give your eyes a rest from the dribble here.

Mum is also coming over from Perth with the tribe. She won't come to the snow either, opting to stay with yet another brother (I come from a big family) and his wife and kids. He has 5 of them!!

Ok, time for bed, could be a big one tommorrow night.

Now where did I leave my beany and goggles!

OH, that little chestnut

A mate of mine, lets call him Bob, is opening a bar in Japan. The last few days we have been chatting about names for the bar and I thought I would throw it up here in the vain attempt that someone will happen past and give me that Gem of the idea, that name that evades us. I have already supplied a smorgasborg of names. A veritable plethora of groovy names yet I don't seem to have moved my friend, his girlfriend Yuki yes, but Bob is unfased, see his latest mail to me.

Thanks for the names mate. Yuki really liked them.

We expect that many of our customers will be English speakers, and their
Japanese English students...Japs who are interested in learning English, or
who want to bonk a foreigner to see what that Gaijin sausage is really like.
We hope to sell a little Australian wine there.

We have a couple of hukahs, an oxygen bar, a couple of internet hookups
etc...

If you think of any other names let me know. Short is good. Imagine people
saying "I'm going to the .......," or "I'll meet you at the ......."

See what I mean! Bastard!

What names I hear you ask, well I should include my original mail to him so you can follow this thread in true style.

>What’s in a name eh?
>
>Alright, I agree, Babel is a bit to esoteric, even for English speakers, to
>elaborate I think you would be dating yourself. Old farts like us do not go
>out. We have kids and stuff. It’s the youth market that you want to
>attract,
>the ones with the disposable income. Add to the fact that it is a non
>English speaking country then I think you should go for words they might
>know. Here is my short list of names which could be used.
>
>* Home
>* Frame
>* Couch
>* Elements
>* Disc
>* Studio
>* Etc
>* Spinifex
>* Think out side the square
>* Hole, Box & Dice
>* Roo Bar
>* Billabong
>* Tsunami
>* Kasbah
>* The Orient
>* Taxi or Taxxi
>* Oxygen
>* Tonic
>* Baja
>
>Now you may think I’m on drugs but hey, I’m still at work so there isn’t
>any
>chance of that, maybe later.
>
>Let me know what you think or maybe these spur the ol’ grey mater into
>activity and you come up with the one you like.
>
>A good thing to do is give people the names and ask them which one they
>like, the cream should rise to the top.

Gems! Pearls! Everyone of them.

Some times I think that my friends lack any foresight.

Anyway, I am calling upon you, the maddening crowd to deposit at my doorstep the name that will stun my friend, Bob.

Take me to the highs I use to go to before i had kids.

Peace.

Made me wanna laugh

The funniest Take I've seen on the games so far!

What the animation lacks in caricature style is made up ten fold in wit. I had several hearty chuckles while viewing this and am bound to go back again for second helping.

After a day full of trials and tribulations, from working on 2D graphics through to building 3D models,not to forget the ever necessary chatting to clients and staff it's great to be introduced (thanks Mike) to an oasis on the web, a corner of unassuming humour. Boy this is great.

I feel I am ready for another 10 hours.

Thanks Marco. You made my evening.

Thorpe and Hackett go gold, silver in brilliant first day

Thorpe and Hackett go gold, silver in brilliant first day - Swimming -
So they did it. Managed to pull off the old one two in the pool.

It always surprises me how well the Aussies do in these games. The medal tally at the moment has Australia in second place behind China, America is 4th. Not that I am overly competitive but I will stand and bask in the glow of the reflected glory of these modern day olympians.

I met my wife in the Greek Isles. It was one of those typical tales of romace. An Aussie boy and his back pack. A young German Fraulein and her...well her blonde hair. Short version is I chased her and she ran away.

Now according to her, she even hid. The audacity of it!

Then I got bored with this fruitless chase, bit like the dog who has sucked out all the marobone jelly out of his bone, you turn you attention to tastier morsels and wander off.

She felt the hole it had left. She had survived on running and hiding. Just like those old American nuclear bomb adverts, Duck and Cover, it had kept her going. Without her knowing I had become important to her. Geez there mustn't have been a lot to do on the islands back then and she soon changed her coarse and persued me.

Needless to say she got me. Now 15 years later we are seeing travelogues, interdispersed with snippets of sport, from the once centre of the then known universe and it does bring back more than a small pang of nostalgia.

To be young and fit again and running around in Greece. What a life!

Yasou!

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub....

Now wouldn't that be nice. A house in the country. Who would like to make the run from the city to a place, not to far from civilisation. Somewhere where you still get broadband and cable. A couple of miles away they have cafe lattes and news from the big city with coloured liftout.

Yes if you are going to move you have to take some of it with you. But fret not, baristas, telecom technicians, hair stylists and even people like me, designers are weighing up the cost of commute. Paring down their exposure in the city with a quick flight home to huddle for a week before making the pilgrimage again.

Why not when you see houses with whole suburbs of lush tropical forest attached for the same price as a semi in the inner suburbs.

My latest yearning.

Our Property Pages :: RURAL: "Designated high conservation value, this 10 acre rainforest property boasts absolute peace, only 7 mins from Mullumbimby. The 4 separate s/c dwellings are a duplex-style family home - 2 adjacent pavilion-style dwellings, each with 2 bedrooms & 1 bathroom; plus 2 completely separate income-generating cabins. Private swimming hole in Wilsons River.

Changed: 07/14/04.
Contains: 8 items.
Viewed: 166 times"

When you see something like that you wonder what draws us to and traps us within the deadly jaws of the city.

Time to bust down the gates.

Enjoy!

ano

ano,
originally uploaded by anomac.

Ok, here is a photo firstly of me. This should make it's way onto my Blog. I have far too much time invested in this now. After that I am going to pen the help section of Flickr. While they have the information, I need a couple more depths to make things clear. Actually I should be thanking them for hosting my photos, bnot bagging them out.

Peace

oNe day I will connect the dots

Still trying to get photos shown on my blog. I really should forget about it. The real reason I start this whole thing was to write, not create a slide show, besides I do enough of that type of thing at work. I will not be beat though. Mark my words.

Well the opening of yet another Olympics has come and gone. I would have loved to have seen the actual ceremony, but as it was at 3AM in the morning and the only repeat of it was at 11AM this morning, and I was at work, there seems little or no chance to do this. I cant keep thinking how pathetic it is. Anyway, I will just wait until it comes out on DVD.

Life is frantic at the moment. We have shows for MS, HP, Lexmark, Aristocrat and a couple of others all happening in the next week or so. August is always like this. I see my family in photos and would be better off if I checked into a hotel so as to avoid the embarrassing moments when a two and a half year old has you in a full nelson as you drag his little body towards the door in a vain effort to just slip out the back quietly on a Saturday or Sunday morning without them noticing.

Well off to find out how to attach the now uploaded photo onto the site.

Ano

Too Hard

I have now spent the best part of a hour trying to get a free hosting for some images I wanted to add to theis blog. Do you think I could?

Well it's time to go to bed. Tomorrow holds a pandoras box of meetings. From dire ones in the morning to creative ones in the afternoon (around Wine-O-Clock) good thing the weekend is here, bring it on!

First Post

I had resisted the urge to publish a blog for a long time. The funny thing is my first website, hard coded, was your version ol’ 1.0 blog. It was a snapshot taken at the time of creation. It was 7 years ago that I built that site. I know it well, my son Max, was then a baby and now an 8 year old who wrestles me both physically and metaphysically. Might try to auction him here later.

The old site is still out there, check it out. www.ozemail.com.au/~ano

Anyway's the idea of an online journal is one both daunting, I cant think that I will be able to keep the maintenance and the entertainment up and exciting, as it gives me a forum to vent my spleen. Not to mention big noting myself and belittling others, just kidding.

If you like what you read, tell me. It might be the catalyst I need to continue doing it. Same can be said for the negative. If you judge my musings to be verbal diarrhoea, don’t hold back. (but I reserve the right for redress)

Anyway, that's all your going to get this first night. Wouldn’t want to spoil things.

Cheers,

Ano
Erskineville, Sydney