Well I’ve been offline nearly a month now while changing over to the NBN. I won’t say it has been the smoothest of processes by a long shot. It’s been punctuated by me chasing my provider for updates of an install that has been both ignored by NBN for two weeks before even filing an order, then several cancelled (i.e. unaccepted) install dates that in turn my provider has omitted to advise me on after providing me with install dates that in turn clearly never got accepted. As is usual in utilities and services provided (and I use that term loosely) in this country, communication is extremely poor and customer satisfaction lacking a great deal of the time. As this service was from the outset defined as a business install, and having been for the most part crippled for a month by this change, I do wonder what other small businesses experiences have been. My install is “due” to take place today sometime this morning. I wait to see if such actually manifests.
Archive for the ‘Tech’ Category
How Good is it to be Australian…
This last six weeks has been extremely challenging, from an emotional, psychological and financial perspectives. All in all I’m fairly exhausted and feel like I’ve run out of steam and yet keep rolling along being pulled by a tow rope that’s taking me nowhere I want to go. Unemployment has finally taken it’s forgone conclusion as far as a financial toll goes, placing me at the edge of being homeless soon, drowning in debt with no way to pay any of them and a fairly crap outlook about the foreseeable short to medium term future.
There’s no doubt that the middle-class in this country is under financial siege, both from government and business. State & Federal Governments in this country seem more concerned about staying elected next election than attempting to address almost ANY serious issue confront the citizens in this country. They continue to ride the waves of terrorism, anti-multiculturalism and maintain their technological stupidity with stoic shortsightedness. Politicians are presented with housing costs outstripping a significant proportion of this nation’s citizens, overburdening of our major cities infrastructure, a rapidly dropping AAA credit rating, the collapse of this country’s capacity to trade on a global scale, a continually rising cost of power in the country.
And once again all they can do is argue like the most misbehaved of school children left out in the schoolyard too long, calling each other names, and throwing rocks at each other. Not only that, but in their complete ignorance of the deterioration of the majority of this country’s citizens lifestyle seem to continue pushing ideas that fly in the face of long-term solutions. I can only hope that as election time looms, the electorate demonstrates that it’s had enough of self-serving parasites that have no other solutions than to take more & more from those that already have little and hand it off to those that have the most.
I’m not proud to be and Australian at this stage if the only way we can treat Australians (of all cultural backgrounds) is with contempt and disdain.
Yes this sounds depressing, that’s because it IS depressing for me. It’s depressing for many people just struggling to maintain some semblance of what they believed this country stood for and offered it’s citizens. We do need to accept some responsibility for where we are, we let them sell us down the river by not standing up more each time they give up one of our freedoms in exchange for nothing of use to the country’s populace. But now it’s time to make them accountable for their greed, lack of empathy and integrity. We need to send them a message.
I for one will lobby our local members, put them to task to state their allegiances, force them to make public statements about their ethical positions and hold them accountable for the decisions made my the party they belong to, and a “leader” who doesn’t stand by his or her own beliefs. What’s the point of a party having a leader when clearly the leaders do not lead; the parties dictate to the leader, not support them. What’s the point of parties that can’t agree on something obviously needed by the people of this country purely because they feel that they must “win” points against the opposing party. This country isn’t governed by it’s citizens for it’s citizens, it’s hijacked by a minority that has not a clue, nor cares, what’s being played out on the streets of this nation and can only take from it’s citizens without a thought to serving the country. It’s hijacked by businesses that care not for this country as most of them are no longer owned by citizens of this country. They care only for the “mighty dollar”, the majority of which seem to continually flow out of this country.
There’s a need for a complete flush of the sewers of our political system, new blood with ideas and vision, and a desire to take this country into the future for all it’s people, not just a privileged few.
Monochrome No More…
I’ve at least got the glimmerings of hope that the New Year may not be as hard as this outgoing year has been. There’s not necessarily anything earth shattering that’s happened over the last week to make me feel this way that I can pinpoint. Christmas was uneventful, but not unpleasant, and that’s about the best I hope for Christmas. Not being a Christian, it’s a day that only has meaning by the fact it’s the one day of the year I’m guaranteed to spend time with my family at my home.
There’s no immediate signs of any work of a regular sort at the moment, it’s certainly the worst time of year to hope for that sort of change. However surprisingly there are a few jobs that I can and should realistically apply for and shall. There’s not much point in saying anymore on either of those at this stage since the last 12 months has really been a bit of a “non event” as far as such expectations go. If something more than a “thanks but no thanks” eventuates, I’ll be willing to say more on that aspect of my life. What’s more of interest immediately to me is the new found enthusiasm I seem to have found for life and facing the days.
I’ve always stated that “I’m not a Coder’s Arsehole” which is really my way of saying that I’ve not considered myself interested in Programming. The reality was that while I didn’t start a B. Comp. to learn to code, initially I did find it interesting and at least for the first few units managed HD’s. But as life’s pressures mounted and I found myself working a full time week and balancing full-time university my interest in Programming drastically evaporated. I was really far more interested in other aspects of I.T. and didn’t really anticipate working in that area of Computing. Programming had not really been in my skill set prior to University, and it seemed to me that those that were great at code already knew how to code before they hit University. That said, Fifteen years later, I find myself with a renewed interest in Programming not sullied by the Lack Lustre opinion of what a Degree (or two) is worth in the real world now.
A couple of seemingly unrelated and small conversations and some unexpected circumstances have caused me to re-evaluate my attitude and my “willingness” to apply myself to programming. It’s just possible that I might be able to generate some income by raising my skill set back up in this area. I have the time, oodles of time at the moment.
There’s pressure for work, but NOT really any pressure to do programming just to get an assignment done. I’m exploring it in the way I’ve explored anything that’s interested my in the past, and usually that means with great gusto! It’s probably more a surprise to myself than anyone else that I am actually enjoying re-teaching myself to code. Admittedly, technically at the moment I wouldn’t call it true programming as I’m starting with HTML 5 & CSS(3). However I’ve drafted out a rough plan of seeing how I got with this for a month and if the interest is maintained and my skill level grows in the manner I’m used to seeing when I apply myself to something with my natural enthusiasm for new knowledge, I shall try my hand at Programming for Apple OS & iOS and also revisit “C” Programming and Programming in C+(+). I have no great desire to throw myself into C# again, but it’s not impossible.
It seems to me a good counterbalance to the Photography and may pull me in a bit of money creating Websites or maintaining them.So through no great effort on my part it seems that 2017 may be brighter and more colourful than I was imagining a week ago.
Back Through the Archives…
Morning of sorting through Archives & Backups to determine what can be trashed. Watch a french movie called “Livide”, which was a pleasant change from the fairly slash happy, saw ‘em up type of Horror film we get these days almost all the time.
Hoarder…
Spent the day reorganising some cupboard space to clear a bit more off the floor. Since reorganising 6 months ago I’ve accumulated boxes on the floor and boardgames in piles everywhere.
I’m looking forward to game night with Andrew (friend in Daylesford). We have a regular Thursday night gig, as much for helping him wind down for the week and a time to catch up and just chat.
Certification…
I’ve had to renew all my web server certificates for at least two of my domains and install them. It’s been and all morning effort. Seems to be problem free. I wouldn’t say it was cash free unfortunately!
Also had some preliminary discussions with my Accountant about a possible option to stretch out how long I can last if it takes until after December to find some work.
Kicking up the Dust…
It’s turned out to be still a bit too windy today for more Macro shooting, so I’ve been working on a Spring Clean. It’s amazing how much I still have in boxes that I could get rid of and not notice. Apparently I’m a bit of a hoarder.
Unfortunately I can’t see any of it being of value to anyone else either. So going to the effort of trying to sell it would be a waste of time & resources. I suppose it’s good e-waste, but that’s not returning as much as it should. Either way it’s space back I can use.
Nary a Breeze…
I must have been more tired than I realised, as I slept in until after 07:00 this morning, so getting to the Grampians at a reasonable time didn’t really happen. Shot a text to Tony apologising, thinking that if the Weather isn’t as bad as they are predicting, I should get there on Sunday instead.
Given that the weather was fantastic today for Macro Shooting, that is barely a breeze, I spent the afternoon out shooting various subjects around home. I pulled out the Stackshot and had some further practise with it and the iPad software. The lack of breeze did allow me to get some wonderfully stacked Macro shots. Those of you on the mailing list will have seen a few of them. I was pretty happy with the results and look forward to some more work with the gear later in the week.
All in a Day’s…
Well so far I’ve managed to move forward with some short-term goals and score some points. I’ve upgraded all my blogs, uploaded some fresh stock to both my Etsy Store & Shards of Arcadia. There’s also been a bit of background maintenance too for my blogs, fixing a couple of problems highlighted by the last upgrades. I’ve also adopted a new theme for this one & Idyllic Moments. Time for a change there, the previous themes had been “gathering a bit of dust” so to speak. Additionally I’d not been using the Photocrati / Imagely themes and plugins that I’ve been subscribed to for over a year with regard to these blogs. The galleries are now much improved.
Hopefully the sleep issues are resolved, as the last few weeks have been very hard trying too pull that sleep cycle back. Unsure if it’s due to transitioning off the Anti-Depressants or just the fact I’m between routines. Either way I’ve been working decisively on that this week just past. I’m going to do a day trip shoot either today or tomorrow, probably just down the coast, weather may determine the directions a bit. It’s patchy rain at present, but couple of chores to get out of the road first, before “hitting” the road.
My Furbags seem to be either in territorial disputes or accident prone, I’m not exactly sure which, all I know is that at a time when I really can’t afford Veterinary bills they’re generating them! Tiggakat had injured her tail but thankfully that’s now come good with no permanent damage it seems. Just a bald patch that’s slowly regaining fur. Chemoux has a similar patch on her back after a slight bite that she aggravated by over-grooming. Both seem to be fine after a anti-biotic shot and an anti-irritant shot by the local Vet. I’m nursing a wounded wallet! But *sigh* what would I do without them! May the Furry Gods continue to look over the feisty furbags.
The search for work is on again, as the part-time work has ended for the time being. I’m remaining open and thinking outside the box on that, and there are some possibilities with irons in the fire. Nothing fully cooked yet.
Breaking New Ground…
Well I’ve been very quiet online lately, but don’t take that for sitting in a bottomless pit of Depression. Take it more as a sign I’m busy.
I’ve been working hard on consolidation regular work back into my lifestyle, as it’s easy to fall out of the habit when you’ve been off work for a length of time. It doesn’t matter whether that’s due to holidays, long service leave, long illness or unemployment. Being away from that routine for those of us who fundamentally find it an imposition on what we’d rather be doing with our lives, is dangerous. It’s easy to become focussed on different “realities” and practise our days in ways that don’t easily fit that 9 to five routine.
There’s been a couple of “flat times” but been working out strategies for those days when they happen. I’ve also decided to really push the positivity train from now on, so it’s likely you will receive emails on occasion from me just because I think something is Cheering, Enlightening or just plain wonderful and can lend some positivity to the day of others as well. If you find these emails not to your taste just let me know and I’ll make sure you don’t keep getting them.
I’ve set up a dedicated Studio at home on a trial basis, moving my bedroom to the spare room. Visitors unfortunately will be relegated to the couch at this point in time (unless you are partial to sharing). The hope is that this will prompt more technical work with the camera and associated gear than sitting in front of the computer using software. It’s time to focus on some technique again, as well as becoming fluent with the equipment I don’t use on every occassion, but will be used more so from this point on. If I find that it’s not achieving positive results after six months, I’m most likely changing back.
The car is getting a service and I’ve put “hybrid” tyres on it to facilitate more confidence when going into the bush further now than I used to do. There were several times last year when I made the choice to not proceed some places believing the tyres I had unsuitable. Now that shouldn’t be an issue unless I fancy driving in swamps up Cape York with the Crocodiles!