Blog o randomness

Racing!

2006-08-14T08:51:00.000+10:00

Hi all. This is more a motivational post for me, to help me knuckle down and get training for the races i've got coming up

Races:
Name: Date: Type:
nZo 12 Hr 9 Sept Mountain Bike - 6hrs riding
Mont 24 Hr 7 Oct Mountain Bike - 6hrs riding
Noosa Tri 29 Oct Road Bike - ~1hr riding

Training:

Week starting 13th August 2006:
Sunday 13 - 32k ride - yarramundi nat park (Mountain bike on dirt) @~15k/hr
Monday 14 - ~4.5k run - 23min
Tuesday 15 - 6.4k run - 32 min
Wed 16 - 12k ride - Lane Cove Nat Park (Mountain bike on road) 30 min
Saturday 18k ride - Bike Path to Kedron (with family) (Mountain bike on road) 1 hr (slow brothers :P)

Week starting 20th August 2006:
Sunday 15k - Gap Creek Reserve (mountain bike on dirt) 1hr
Wednesday 36k Homebush (road bike) 1hr16m @28.45km/h

Week starting 27th August 2006:
Sunday 30k Homebush (road bike) 1hr 10 @ 27.3km/hr
Monday 5.5k Run (LCNP and up towards gordon), 33min

Week starting 3rd Sept 2006:
Wednesday 12k Mountain bike

RACE 9th Sept 2006 - nZo
9 Laps - 68.5km @ ~14k/hr - Got to do better

Week starting 10th Sept 2006:
Thursday - Ride to Work (Mountain bike - 14km)

Week starting 17th Sept 2006:
Sunday - Ride from Kuringai to Pittwater - Mountain bike on road, hilly, 56km
Tues - Homebush Road bike, 36k 1hr 18 28km/hr average
Wednesday - Homebush Road Bike 30k 1hr 16 26km/hr average (with CraigN)
Week starting 24th Sept 2006:

Week starting 4th Oct 2006:
RACE 7th Oct 2006 - Mont

Week starting 8th Oct 2006:

Week starting 15th Oct 2006:

Week starting 22nd Oct 2006:

Week staring 29th Oct 2006:
RACE 29th Oct 2006 - Noosa Tri

I'm going to update this as I go.

2006-06-16T17:59:00.000+10:00

Working till 11:30pm on Wednesday = sux0r
Getting to work at 9:30 on Friday, taking an hour lunch, and leaving at 3pm to go mountain biking = Win!!!!!!

Hawkesbury Trip

2006-05-14T15:06:00.000+10:00

2006-05-07T18:07:00.000+10:00

2006-05-07T18:06:00.000+10:00

2006-05-07T18:04:00.000+10:00

2005-10-04T15:32:00.000+10:00

You scored as Hoban 'Wash' Washburne. The Pilot. You are a leaf on the wind, see how you soar. You have a good job, and a stunning wife who loves you (and can kill people). Life is good, which is why you can't help smiling. Now if you can just get people to actually listen to your opinion things would be perfect.

Kaylee Frye

69%

Hoban 'Wash' Washburne

69%

River Tam

69%

Simon Tam

56%

The Operative

56%

Zoe Alleyne Washburne

50%

Capt. Mal Reynolds

50%

Inara Serra

50%

Shepherd Derrial Book

50%

Jayne Cobb

44%

Which Serenity character are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

2005-10-03T11:58:00.000+10:00

Been a while hey...

I'm sitting here, not able to sleep, and having a ponder at the end of a long weekend.

I had a good time; had 2/4 Nye boys here from friday night till sunday. Was good to see them and to catch up.
Sunday arvo, I went to the beach with jess; just to harbord (35-40 min away), but it was quite nice. Water was very cold.

Today (monday) was good also, it was the inaugural "Meat Day", which involved having some of teh grads around and cooking up copious amounts of meat (from kanga bangas to prawns), and drinking beer and daquiries. Also went for a tootle down and up bobbin head, which was fun.

End result of all of this, is me sitting here working out what I want to do with my spare time, for the next couple of months.

The tri-athlon is soon, so I should get out on the bike more - will have to work out some nice training rides - bobbin head is good, but I'd like somehting a little shorter that I can easily do before or after work.

I also have some car parts arriving soon, which should mean that I'll be able to spend some time under the bonnet of the car. Will be therapeutic I think.

Still, so many things that I'd like to do, but I just lack the motivation - mum says its an typical wilson thing - our house is filled with half built devices and projects from Ken Senior and Co.

I'd planned to write a computer game during the night, but found that I didnt really want to code for myself, after coding all day at work. Maybe this manual labour with the car and the bikes, and random other things will work out better.

I'd also like to finish making these bike lights, as its becoming warm enough for night riding, which would be quite fun I expect.

Anyway, best try to get to sleep, as I want to get into work on the bike tomorrow morning.

A long time between posts

2005-06-05T14:13:00.000+10:00

Chumps.

Well, almost a month has passed; its still weird, but getting on with it none the less.

Went for an awesome ride today:

Got up at 6:20 ish, had some left over chinese (brekkie of champions), and put on my new winter riding jersey
Its an awesome jersey - so worth the money.

So any, put jersey and knicks on, then put my bike on the cars roof, and motored down to Craigs place. We popped his bike on the roof too, and headed out to rustic glenbrook, in the lower blue mountains. Nice drive along the M4 with no tolls (havent paid a toll in sydney yet - take that carr) and 45 minutes later, we were in the carpark of glenbrook station. In about 5 minutes time, mike turned up, and we unloaded the bikes then headed to the station. After a 30 minute wait, our train arrived, and we jumped on for a 30 min journey to woodford, which is a couple of stations higher up in the mountains.

We disembarked, then mounted up, riding 5 minutes to the trailhead of the Oaks trail, a 28k ride from Woodford to Glenbrook.

The ride started off with a rocky firetrail that smoothed out into beautifully hardpacked dirt; we were rolling along at 35k/hr with no effort at all. After a fair bit of flat/downhill (hit 55 ;) ), the track turned abruptly turned rocky again, just after a rather quick corner. That was a bit hairy, but we all got through it. We then had some climbs and downhills, up until the 15 k mark. Thats when the real fun began; we got to the singletrack.

To me, the best kind of single track is one thats straightish, with lots of bumps and ruts, and one that you can shift into big ring, and really get moving.

This was one of them. Craig headed off first, and I hung behind mike. After a minute or so, mike gestured me passed, so I decided to catch up to Craig.

The sensation of speed along this track was unbelievable, the brush and bushes just became a blur, and all i was concerned with was watching the track for bumps. This single track went on like this for another 5 or 6 k's, I caught Craig, and we stopped at a wider section to wait for mike. We were both so stoked with that run; everything just flowed so well. So, we waited for mike... and waited...and waited. Then another rider came along, so we asked him if he'd seen him. "Yeah dude, he's changing a flat". Hah!. So we headed back, and met up with him. Mike had been jinxing himself for the last 5 k's about a pinch flat, so we gave him a serve, and continued on. We then arrived at Little Moab. tres technical! Its a very rocky descent down a small water course, and across some rocks. Craig and I had ridden this before, in the rain, so it was nowhere near as slippery this time, but still pretty hairy. We'd almost got to the end, when i heard a "pssht...sssht....sssht" coming from my back tyre. A pinch flat!. We pulled over, and Craig continued to give mike and I shit about pinchflatting. I put the new tube in, and put the wheel back on, and we turned the bikes around to head off. Craig hopped on his bike, and went over the first rock. We heard a clunking noise, and

....

His back tyre was flat. So, mike and i stood around and laughed while Craig change his tube. We then decided that popping a tyre now would really suck, as we had no more spares. We got onto the national park road, and then cruised down to the wier. We crossed the weir, then headed up the hill out of the national park. Its a real prick of a climb, and we were stuffed at the top. Craig had beaten us up there, and headed off, while mike and i headed back to the carpark at a more subdued pace. We then went to the bakery and had some chow, then headed home. All in all, an excellent ride - I'm very lucky to have found some fellow mtb'ers down here.

So as of now, the plan for the rest of the day is to eat left over chinese, watch bad santa, and maybe play some CS.

tough stuff.

2005-05-08T13:17:00.000+10:00

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,15217154-2,00.html

My good friend tim was one of the pilots.

RIP.

*sob*

2005-05-01T00:46:00.000+10:00

So..
tonite i had my first fosters..
twas an ok beer.

Charles had his house/ or unit warming tonite, which was good.

It involved making lots of noise, ensuring that his neighbours hated him. I think that its a good stage to get the hatred started.

In other news, went out for a work dinner last night, which was great. Great food, lots of drinks, and all paid for by work.

even the cabcharge home

schweet.

Beachination

2005-04-10T21:07:00.000+10:00

Well
Today i went to teh beach (tm)

To set the scene...

This morning, I was bumbling around the house, bored out of my mind. Id started planning a camping trip (soon i hope), when Jess said "Hows about going to the beach"

I said "Thats a good idea"
and asked the rhia and the luc if they wanted to come.

Rhia had some mulching to do, and some WoW to play, and Luc had some WoW to play, so no go there.

I then asked Charlie on MSN. He sounded excited, so we booked a 2pm cornucopian time departure.

Jess and Rhia then reminded me that i had to go to the garden centre for mulch, so there was a frustrating 40 min trip (should have been 15-20). Some road workers, in their infinite wisdom, had decided to rip up most of the important junctions in waterloo road, which complete pwned traffic near the garden centre.

Ah well, shit happens.

Got home at 1:50, changed into togs, grabbed the handy Sydney Refidex, and we headed over to Casa Arbitraire, to pick up charlie.

Our objective was Freshwater Beach, roughly 40 minutes away.
We drove and drove and drove, and ended up at Curl Curl beach, just up the coast a bit from Freshwater.. meh, a beach is a beach, and there were plenty of free parks, so we parked and jumped in the water.

It was fairly rough, and there was a bit of chop, but the water was beautiful, and much fun was had by all.

After about 30 min, we got out and went walking, first to one of those seaside swimming pools that was just up at the end of the beach, and then we climbed up the headland. Beautiful view, and gave much openings for pirate talk... "Yarr it be pirate cove!!!"

After that, we headed back to the car to get some cash, and headed out in search of the mythical "fish and chip" shop.

After about 10 min of walking, we asked a local, who said that there wasnt much around here, but if we went to dee-why (5 minutes by car up the coast), we'd be spoilt for choice.

So back to the trusty ken mobile we went, and drove to Dee Why.

We found a chip shop, and had much fish and chips by the sea.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

2005-04-09T11:24:00.000+10:00

Gasp.. Shock..

Rhia went to the gym this morning!

and she liked it!

That is all.

Ken

2005-04-07T22:34:00.000+10:00

Yay, Rhias back from Canberra :)

In other news, had the big kick-off meeting at work today, which entailed a bit of an organisational re-shuffle.
I now have a new manager; he's a nice guy though, so it should all be good - same project etc though.

Went the gym this afternoon to have a game of squash with Jess, and am watching Harsh Realm with Luc. Really enjoying it.

Tomorrow will be soccer, and maybe a few drinks at the pub after work
who knows :)

Ken

2005-04-06T22:44:00.000+10:00

Yo.

Well, eventful last week and a bit -
went up to brisbane on sat at lunch time, with the requisite box of Krispy Kremes.
Had my grandma's 80th that evening, which was a good night, then headed over to craigalooza at enoggera.

Sunday, kimbo came round, which was nice, and then went to the watering hole for a bbq and a chat.

So yeah, great trip - I miss you all, and I hope i can get back up soon.

In other news
Rhia is in Canberra till thursday, which makes things a bit lonely here, but I had a great dinner in Leichart with some of the grads from work. Good pizza, and good company.

Tomorrow is the big work "kick-off" meeting, at some crazy arse castle/function centre near home. Should be ok, something different at least.

Anyway, Im off to bed, so you all take care, and Ill see you all soon.

Ken

2005-04-01T14:51:00.000+10:00

**** THE PROOF THAT Ken Wilson IS EVIL ****

   K   E   N   W   I   L   S   O   N
 11   5  14  23   9  12  19  15  14     - as numbers
  2   5   5   5   9   3   1   6   5     - digits added
 \_____/ \_____/ \_____/ \_____/ \_/
  7       1       3       7       5     - digits added

Thus, "Ken Wilson" is 71375.

Add 1609, the year Gallileo, inspired by the Satan himself, came up with his ridiculous theory - the result is 72984.

Subtract 8771 from the number - this is the year Oliver Pollock invented '$', the symbol of exploitation, suffering and injustice, written backwards. It gives 64213.

Turn the number backwards, and add 1995 - the year O J Simpson was acquitted for double murder. The number is now 33241.

Subtract 1865, the year Lincoln was shot. The result will be 31376.

Turn the number backwards, and add 17 - the symbol of domination. The number is now 67330.

This, when read backwards, gives 03376. This is 1790 in octal, the year US patent system was established (eevil)...

Evil, QED.

Sweet :P

http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/evilfinder/

2005-03-07T18:01:00.000+10:00

Arr, it be time for a blog post.

Well, lots been happening here lately;
Luc has just had his birthday, so his mum and stepdad were down for the weekend. This involved Yum Cha in the city (very tasty), and a late lunch at his family friend Linda's place in Chatswood (which was also very tasty).

Last week also included a Machine Gun Fellatio concert at the Eastwood Hotel (5-7 minuted walk from home).

The general gist of the concert was indicated by the fetish porn playing on the big screen before they came on stage, but man, they certainly know how to put on a good show. Really good concert, including the female singer and dancers removing their kit, and the base player giving us a pole dance (not so good - fat bald men != good pole dancers)

Hrm, what else?

Works going well, really enjoying it - the co-workers are good, and i've been playing volley ball, tennis and soccer at lunchtimes.

Rhia is all job-enabled, so thats good,
and, thats about it.

Later champz

Ken

2005-02-24T22:16:00.000+10:00

GOT PORK???????

I ams teh slack

2005-02-20T20:08:00.000+10:00

Hey all,

Well, I know I've been slack, so I figured it was time to bring everyone up-to-date with the goings on in Sydney.

Tomorrow will be the start of my third week at work. Its all going pretty well so far; the people are great, the work is interesting, and there is a nice laid-back corporate culture about the place.

Home-life is going pretty well too - everyone seems to be able to coexist quite peacefully, and everyone is doing there share of the work :)

I got some more furniture this weekend - a nice big tallboy for the bedroom. Up until now, some of my clothes were still sitting in my suitcase, so its good to be able to finish unpacking all of my clothes (still have boxes of other stuff though).

I've been riding to work quite a bit - I've got a good route which is mostly quiet roads and biketracks, so its a pretty relaxing ride in.

This morning, I went mountain biking with a mate from work, and others, at the Blue Mountains, out near Woodford. We didnt get the whole ride we had planned done - there was a causeway that we thought may be flooded, but we got a good amount done, and found some really really sweet singletrack that went on for a good 20 minutes :D

This afternoon wasnt so much fun though. Poor old Rhia was sick, and I had to find a doctor that was open on sunday arvo's. Luckily, the Macquarie Centre (big shopping centre 15 min away) has a medical centre thats open till 6pm on Sundays, so we got her all sorted out.

Anyway, take care peoples, and hopefully I'll see some of you soon. Im coming back up for the weekend of the 2nd of April - am busy on the sat night, but will be free during the morning and day of saturday, and sunday morning/lunch time.

Later
Ken

2nd Day at work

2005-02-08T10:52:00.000+10:00

Brain... turning to sludge..

Well, I wanted a challenging, interesting job, and i've sure got one.

So far, works going fairly well. Yesterday, I had my induction, complete
with complimentary Japanese lunch, and then spent the rest of the
afternoon meeting my team manager, and other people around the company.

Today, I've checked some stuff out of CVS, and am reading the
specification document to try and get my head around the project. Its big...

Still, I think that its going to be all good.

Jess and Charlie seem to be going well too, and Vicki is happy at her
new job, which is great, and Luc and Rhia seem to be going well also.

Anyway, the computer is prompting me to take a "micropause"

2005-02-06T21:06:00.000+10:00

New TV stand!

2005-02-04T14:16:00.000+10:00

Ken Win! - (note Jess = Charlie, and Rhia = Chris - after a cornucopia vs the world game, we decided to have boys vs girls)

2005-01-30T16:43:00.000+10:00

The haul from the Aussiefrogs Sydney meet. I got 2nd in the Citroen Quiz, so i got a nice Citroen Sport scarf, and a set of 8 Citroen Expresso cups and saucers :) Dad.jealousy++;

2005-01-28T17:04:00.000+10:00

Rhias area

2005-01-28T17:03:00.002+10:00

more front of the house

2005-01-28T17:03:00.001+10:00

Front of the house

2005-01-28T17:03:00.000+10:00

Garage - Jess and my cars _just_ fit in there together

2005-01-28T17:02:00.002+10:00

Outside the house, from front porch

2005-01-28T17:02:00.001+10:00

My desk, and new TV

2005-01-28T17:02:00.000+10:00

Couch and chair in the loft - the couch turns into a bed too :)

2005-01-28T17:01:00.001+10:00

The Loft - Ken and Rhia lair

2005-01-28T17:01:00.000+10:00

House name plate :)

Sydney!

2005-01-22T23:11:00.000+10:00

Hey Chumps,

Well, to give a quick precis - I'm in Sydney, and its all pretty sweet.

The moving van arrived at Jess's place on Tuesday, and Rhia and I set off at 5:30am on Wednesday morning. We arrived at Jess's place, stocked up on V, Red Bull, and Iced Tea, then we hit the road.

First stop was Warwick, where I tried the new Iced Coffee thick shake - 1/10 (didnt even taste like iced coffee :( )

Jess then took Rhia in her car for a while, and we drove to Tenterfield. Tenterfield was the lunch stop, which involved tasty sandwiches and left over sea food.

We then drove to Glen Innes, then Armidale (for fuel), then straight through Tamworth (thank god, too many Country Bumpkins posing in front of the Golden Guitar), and stopped at Scone (horse capital of Australia - apparently).

From there, we got to Maitland, where we had dinner, and after that, drove the last stretch to the house.

It was about 11pm (10pm for you Brisbanites) by then, so we basically unpacked the stuff from the cars, and went to bed.

The next morning, Rhia and I got up around 6 ish and went for an explore - First cool thing - we've got a mall 5 minutes walk away :D We found that we had a few nice bakery's about, so we got some croissants, and headed back.

That day was spent lazing around, and doing more exploring - as the truck was not coming till 8 am friday morning.

That evening, Jess and I ventured to the Chinese Supermarket, where we found copious amounts of Pocky (a chocolate snack that zelda loves).

On Friday morning, all our stuff arrived - lots of carrying and lifting and dismantling of doors (both house and fridge) - finally, everything is inside. The rest of the day is spent unpacking and setting up, and discovering the lack of ADSL modem :( - still dialup for the weekend isnt so bad.

I got my lair all set up - server reconstructed and running, sound system set up, and makeshift desk constructed. I then put Rhias desk back together, and started running network cable.

This morning, I had a sleep in (note: real beds > airbeds), and a lazy morning infront of Jess's TV. Luc and I then went for an explore - looking for a TV for me, and getting a better feel of the place. Luc and I spent a fair while in the local games shop, which Luc thinks sounds quite promising :).

I ended up with a DSE 51cm Flat screen TV. Very nice picture - component in for when I get a HD pack for the XBOX - all in all, a very nice TV.

Got that all setup, and Rhia promptly steals it for Fable playing purposes - ah well.

Thats basically the house progress so far - all is going well, and apart from the missing ADSL modem, and the lack of cutlery, it couldnt be better.

Ken

Arrr!

2005-01-14T22:34:00.000+10:00

Darr it be steamy
Ye humidity is high
Bad for pirates yarrr

(This topical pirate haiku is brought to you tonight by Bundaberg Mids)

2005-01-09T20:16:00.000+10:00

kitchen

2005-01-09T20:15:00.001+10:00

main room in the new house

2005-01-09T20:15:00.000+10:00

Loft in the new house

Update and News and ...stuff

2005-01-09T20:07:00.000+10:00

Hello chumps.

Well, we have a house in Sydney (in Eastwood, which is near Epping). Its a 4 bedroom colonial, with a loft, nice polished floors in the main room, big kitchen, 5 minutes walk from Eastwood station and woolies, and 5-10 min drive from work. Very cool.

Also, had a wonderful day out on the boat with Nye and the crew. Heaps of fun, and getting air on the tube was fairly insane.

Also, for you nerds

BEAT THAT! HAH!

Anyway
Later

Sydney Update :)

2005-01-07T11:07:00.000+10:00

This message is coming to you from a dodgy netcafe in epping :)

We've been having a good time down here, everyone is a bit tired, but we've found a few good houses, and we should hear back from one place at around 3:30 (2:30 brisso time).

The areas looking really nice, and its good to finally get to know the area we'll be living for a few years.

Anyway, take care all.
Ken

Sydney Recon is a go.

2005-01-04T05:20:00.000+10:00

In 2 hrs and 30 minutes, Rhia, I, Snowdium, and Luc will be on a 747-300 heading for the big smoke.

Rhia and I are staying at the Travelodge North Ryde, while Snowdium and Luc have an apartment in Chatswood.

We all fly home at 8 pm on Saturday night.

It's going to be an interesting 5 days, as we don't know if we'll be able to get the house we want, all of us will need to agree on a house, and transport down there won't be optimal; still, shit happens ;)

If we find somewhere, pics will be forthcoming

Later.
Ken

2005-01-03T14:52:00.000+10:00

Gaming from 1 pm till 4 am.. ahh

I had a great time, was good to play some games with the crew from school. I wont be seeing alot of them again for a while, so it was time well spent.

Dawn of War is also heaps of fun: its one of the best RTS games I've played. The units are balanced, the resource system is good, and there are some _cool_ units.

As before, photos will come when shorty gets off his butt and sends em to me.

2005-01-02T17:23:00.000+10:00

Today is LAN day at chateau pishngambo.

So far its been Half Life 2 deathmatch, and CS Source :) - been fun so far, and dawn of war will be happening soon.

Images to follow.

Good to see all of the guys before i ping off to mexico

Happy new years

2005-01-01T03:12:00.000+10:00

Happy New Years to all.

Last year was good, and was bad.
I finished uni, and got a job, and stuff like that,
but roughly 125,000 people have died thanks to one nasty wave - kinda puts things in perspective doesnt it.

Today is the start of a new year, and it will only be what we make of it.

2004-12-30T23:18:00.000+10:00

Evening.

It has come to my attention, that I've been rather slack in posting.

This is true.
I could make excuses, but you've all heard them before, so I'll won't bother.

So, hopefully this post shall signal a change in posting frequency.

As for news in the life of Ken, i'll go backwards from today.

Today - Got back from Noosa this afternoon, found new oxygen sensor on my desk (thanks dad), and sat in a heap for a while.
Booked motel rooms for Rhia and I for the exploratory Sydney trip. We shall be staying at the Travel Lodge North Ryde, which is in the grounds of Macquarie University - should be good.
This evening, I've installed m0n0wall, as a replacement for my IPCOP box (intarweb router). Its quite impressive - 5.2mb, based on FreeBSD, and has _all_ of the functionality I wanted.

Traffic shaping is much improved: instead of just offering some port prioritisation options (ala IPCOP), there is a comprehensive section for configuring individual rules, pipes, and queues, and it also offers a wizard for simplifying the process.

It's also all based on PHP, which I like (being the zealot I am).

Yesterday - I was up at Noosa, spending some time in the house before I head down to Mexico. Its such a calming place. You can hear the sea on the shore, and time just doesnt seem to matter. Got a fair bit of reading done (Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrell being the current book), and advanced a bit in my Halo II campaign (Now onto the Covenant missions as the arbiter :) )
We got down to the beach in the late afternoon - its a bit smelly at the waterline(with all the seaweed problems), but if you sit on the sand and read, you're far enough away that you can't smell it.

That evening, Rhia and I had Taco's for dinner, which has become a bit of a Noosa tradition.

Tuesday, got some packing done during the day (the worst part about packing is having to unpack again to get something you didnt think you'd need before moving time), and headed up to Noosa in the evening. Had chinese for dinner :)

Monday - Went riding with Tim, Craig, Grant, and Jo at Mt Cootha - had a brilliant time. It wasnt too hot, and the trails were a bit damp, which meant traction wasnt an issue. We were in the forest for 1hr 45 and covered around 20k. All had a great time, and looking forward to doing it again before Sydney.

After that, snowdium came over, and we proceeded to try and mod luc's xbox. Initially there was not much luck, due to my dodgy soldering skills, but after the help of Dad, it all came good.

In other news, I got an xbox (which rocks) which i've modded, and put an 80 gig hard disk in. Mucho coolness.

Also, If you guys have Skype, add ken-wilson if you haven't already got me on your list.

2004-12-30T23:16:00.000+10:00

PH34R TEH CATZ0R

2004-11-23T13:51:00.000+10:00

Hah,
well,
I havent updated for a while, so i figured i'd put a note up with the latest news:

Uni is finished - yay for me
Rhia is almost finished Tafe - yay for her
Half Life 2 is cool
Its kinda wierd not having to study

The planning for sydney continues, with flights booked for the 4th till the 8th of January for a recon trip, and the move planned for around the 17th ish

:)

2004-10-05T21:20:00.000+10:00

/me plays the last post.

Weekend shenanigans

2004-08-29T19:03:00.000+10:00

Well intrepid readers, it has been a good weekend for ken

On friday night, I went and saw the Bourne Supremacy with Paul, which I enjoyed; It wasnt great, but yeah, fairly good.

Saturday was heaps of uni work, and then over to the crazy house o'jess to help Dan with networks, and for rhia to play D&D and munchkins. We got pizza for dinner, and had some rum and UDL's to ease the pain of uni.

Got a fair bit of my paper written that night, and the gamers watched AVP on dans purloined projector. Today, i got up about 10 ish and did some more uni work, and washed the car. Also played some Chronicles of Riddick on the XBOX - its pretty good for a console FPS.

This evening there will be uni work (who coulda guessed) and i might watch AVP or the village. According to Luc, the Village sucks crank, so AVP is looking more likely.

life, the universe and everything

2004-08-27T23:59:00.000+10:00

hrm.
gym on thursday and bike ride today = sore; but i guess its all worth it.

Last few days have been fairly boring - Saw the bourne supremacy last night - it was ok, but nothing to write home - I've got AVP to watch tomorrow morning, so that should be cool, and I'll have heaps of spoilers to annoy the nye with.

In other news, meakin is a closet ricer.

that is all

Ohh flashback

2004-08-24T22:24:00.000+10:00

Talk about blast from the past - found out tonight that my old website is still active ( last updated at the end of 2k1)

http://kendo.iwarp.com

Checkout the pictures section - brings back memories
*ken wipes away tears*

2004-08-24T21:23:00.000+10:00

Hello kids

Well, i've been a slack bastard, and have blogged for a while (make that a long time). But due to popular demand (ie NYE WHINGING LIKE A BITCH), this will be a compendium of what i've been up to for the last little while.

Well, the big event was most certainly my trip to NZ; I went for 6 days with Jess, Sarah and Paul. We jetted off to Christchurch at 5:45 on Friday afternoon, and we arrived at 11 o'clock or so in Christchurch. It was a bit of a temperature shock, as we left at 20 degrees and arrived at 2 degrees :P. Luckily we were all rugged up, but it was still a bit nippy.

We all bundled into a taxi, (a Nissan Cefiro - DOOORIFTO), and headed off to our Hostel - the base back packers. Now, we had been told that we would probably get a dorm to our selves, since there was 4 of us, but when we got up to our room and turned on the light, there was alread someone asleep. We quickly turned out the light, and I got into bed in my clothes - i couldnt be stuffed trying to change in the dark. Our flight the next morning was at 8:30 am, so we woke up at 6:30, (still dark), and fumbled around getting changed and packing bags up. It might just be me, but its a little disconcerting staying a night in a hotel room that you havent really seen. Anyway - we got outside and jumped into another taxi (always good to prebook), and got to christchurch airport, where we went through a really really lax security check, and hopped on a plane to Queenstown.

The flight was absolutely spectacular; we flew over the ski fields that we'd be later skiing on, and the plane had to go fairly low due to the approach - so we got a wonderful view. We landed, and made our way to the Kiwi Discovery bus (the group we'd organised this trip with), and headed off to our hotel. We were sitting in the bus driving through the town, and we started to wonder where abouts our hotel was. We left queenstown and started going up a fairly steep hill; not a good sign. We kept going for a little while, and finally got to our hotel - the aspen on queen town. We went to reception, but since we were still fairly early (about 10:30 ish by this time), our room wasnt ready, so we put our bags in the ski locker, and headed down to Queenstown for a looksee and to get some grocerys.

Queenstown is a funny place, It has a Coronation Drive (better traffic than ours), and all sorts of streets that had very familiar names; Its also very touristy (as you'd expect), and therefore, fairly expensive. We grabbed some lunch, and then went to the Kiwi Discovery (KD) shop to get our clothes and ski's and stuff, and to book our next days ski bus to Coronet. We took the clothes with us, and the ski's and boots were delivered to our hotel later that night. It was grocery shopping time then, and we headed off to the alpine supermarket to get some chow. High on the list was orange juice (to go with the bottle of smirnoff blue (50%) we grabbed on the way over, and some stuff to take for lunches to the ski fields.

After this, we grabbed a taxi back to the hotel (NZ$9 which isnt much split between 4), and went down to our room. The room was awesome; we had a fairly big lounge area, and a kitchen with microwave , stove, dishwasher (yay) and a biggish fridge. The girls had the double bed, and paul and I got a room with two singles - it had its own fridge and heater. The bathrooms were a bit wierd though, they had a big wall length mirror, which meant showering was a bit of a confronting exercise.

That night, we stayed at the hotel, played some cards, and had some drinks, and made our lunches for the next day.

On Sunday morning, we woke up at 6:00, and got ready for a days skiing - the bus met us at 7:30 at reception, and we had a ~1 hr trip to Coronet Peak. While waiting for the bus, we met another girl called Sunny, who was on a snowboarding trip with her parents. She was from brissie also, and is studying at Griffith. The bus then arrived, so we loaded our gear, and off we went. As the bus wound its way up the hill, we started to see little bits of snow, then more and more; it was very exciting. Once we got up to the resort, we grabbed our ski passes, and put on our ski's. Jess Paul and Sarah headed off to start skiing (they had done it before), and I hung around and waited for my lesson to start. The first lesson was good, we learned how to stop and turn, which were very handy skills to have. After that lesson, we met up for lunch, and then I had my second lesson - more stopping and turning, but also different ways to turn, and going down some steeper hills. After this, we had night skiing. I wasnt very confident, and since it tends to get icy, i stuck to the learner slope and just practiced turning and slowing down (very important stuff), while the others did the main slope again. They did this for about an hour, and then they came to meet me. Paul and Sarah went off to do the big slope again, and Jess and I had a hot chocolate and some chips. We ran into Sunny, so we had a chat, and invited her round for drinks later on in the week.

Paul and Sarah came and joined us after a while, and we sat and waited for the bus. It came, and we went back to the hotel. That night, we went up to the main building of the hotel, and had a few drinks, and played more cards.

The next morning, we were up at the same time, and off to the Remarkables. It was a bit of a longer drive, but was certainly worth it - It was our favourite ski field. In the morning, I had another lesson, and that included going down one of the green slopes; This meant that I was able to keep up with the other guys that after noon, which was really good, as i'd been feeling a bit left out up till then. We skiied around some more, and then packed up when the bus arrived. That night was more drinking and cards, but this time with some Gilmore Girls for Paul and Sarah. strange strange people.

The third day, we went up to Cardrona, which was a bigger ski field about 2 hrs out from Queenstown. We got up there, and it was a whiteout. That was fairly scary, as it got to the stage that I couldnt work out what was the ground and what was a fairly sheer drop. Jess managed to run into the wall, due to the white out, and we managed to get down a fairly steep hill without being able to discern distance; very scary, so Jess and I stopped halfway down at the Pizza Cafe, while Paul and Sarah (darn their working eyes) continued the whole way down. Jess and I had some pizza, and waited for it to clear. This took about 30 min, and from then on, it was beautiful weather. I got some fairly cool air during one of the runs (woo) and only took a few small stacks, basically me falling over sideways trying to stop. We managed to do all of the green runs a few times, and then it was time to head back. That night, well you guessed it, more drinking and cards, but CSI was on, so Jess and I watched that, while Paul and Sarah went to bed.

The fourth (and our last) day of Skiing was at the remarkables again, because we liked it so much the first time. The bus trip took a fair bit longer that time, cause we got snowed on - very cool, but it got a bit boring after a while. The skiing was very good, but it was really windy, and we had sleet - think small hail smacking you in the face - ah well, it was worth it. It was this day that Jess managed to cop a Japanese snowboarder to the head (heh) too, she was ok, but it was a fairly impressive crash. That night we went to Pizza Hut for dinner in Queenstown (oh yeah.. works meal :P:P) and went drinking at one of the pubs. We played the game of "whoever bought the round, chose the round) and ended up drinking cocktails, and a completely evil mix of sake and vodka (mummy it burns). We went to one of the corner stores to pick up some bread and softdrink, and I managed to find a bottle of red bull concentrate (it was called double bull, but it was the same stuff) We then headed back up to the hotel, and went and found Sunny. The rest of the night involved getting drunk on vodka and red bull, and playing cards.

In the morning, we packed our bags, and caught the bus to the airport; we were there at the perfect time - meaning that we had to run to get on our plane :P - fun fun, but at least there was no waiting round at Queenstown. We had a while to kill at Christchurch though, which involved some air hockey (Victory to Ken!) and buying a new wallet, and some bling for Rhia.

It was then time for the trip back to Brisvegas, and the flight was fairly un-eventful. We got through the security check, grabbed our duty free alcohol (you know i wouldnt forget something like that), and that was that.

I had a great time, and would recommend it to anyone - I reckon there will be a bit of skiing next year (hopefully)

Hrm.. now what other stuff is new - not that much really - Just been doing uni and work - fairly mind numbing, but you get that i guess. There is another addition to the sydney party, with ascian getting a job with Honeywell (congrats :D), which is always good - the more friends down there the better.

Well, this was a monster post, and congrats if you got to the end.
Kenz0r signing off

Got a Job for Next Year

2004-07-12T14:38:00.000+10:00

/me does the happy dance

Got a call today from Canon research and development in Sydney..
I have a job, starting at the beginning of February

:D:D:D:D

Super happy Ken

Finished exams :D and telemarketing scum

2004-06-21T19:37:00.000+10:00

Yay finished exams- and only 2 left till i have a degree :D

also
Fucking telemarketers - got a call tonight, and told him i wasnt interested, and he got quite rude about it - i wonder if we could apply the anti-spam laws against these guys, as realistically - it is unsolicted spam..

Interesting thought

Ken

Well, i went to the dark side

2004-06-10T20:47:00.000+10:00

I have an iBook :D:D:D

very cool :)

Should i go to the dark side

2004-06-02T20:51:00.000+10:00

Righto, as some of you know, i've been on the lookout for a laptop for a while. I've looked at Dell's, Toshiba's, IBM's etc, but they've either been too big (i want a purty little one), or too expensive, or a combination of both.

The other stickling point is that I want a 3 year warranty, because if it fails, I want it fixed.

So recently , I've been looking at the Apple iBook G4's and the PowerBook G4's

and I like what im seeing. :S

The 12.1" iBook looks _really_ good, and would suit my purposes admirably - coupled with the fact that I get quite a nice educational discount, and that all educational discount apples come with a 3 year warranty as standard, I'm mighty tempted.

Decisions decisions.

2004-05-29T23:55:00.000+10:00

OK.
Why do drunk guys get their dicks out in public.

Was walking to the verve last nite, and this drunk bloke had his dick out on the sidewalk.
The thing that worrys me, is that i personally wouldnt do something drunk, that i wouldnt do sober, so maybe i should rephrase this question
Why do some guys get their dicks out in public
(i added some, because i dont tend to do it)

Its not like it was an impressive dick anyway

meh

Fwap

2004-05-29T23:36:00.000+10:00

Had a good talk with my best friend this arvo, about certain evil plans to take over the known world as we know it, or, put succinctly, what the fuck we are going to do for a crust when we finish uni (yeah i know this is a long sentence, and i havent capitalised or punctuated, but im not a fricking art student (thats for you figjam))

Basically, the gist of our discussion was that if we were ever going to "make it", we would, at some stage, have to go out on our own.

so.
Step 1. find product
Step 3. profit

sounds like a fun game to me.

I've got the third and final interview at Accenture coming up, and i guess im not really looking forward to it, as if i pass this one, they're going to offer me a job, and ill have to decide whether or not to take it.

part of me says "take it you fool, its money"
and the other says "its not what you wanted to do, you can do better"

Stupid voices... i'll say right now, i dont know if i'd enjoy it, but its a job.

decisions suck teh cawk

More stupidity

2004-05-26T15:41:00.000+10:00

"How many megabits per second is my 512 kilobits per second ADSL connection"....

sigh

2004-05-25T22:55:00.000+10:00

:Tofusensei: linksys routers can suck a cock, btw
:Justin: wow, they really should advertize that feature more. It would increase sales.

That is all

hmm.. could this catch on?

2004-05-25T22:46:00.000+10:00

IronChef Foicite: well, there's a lot of reasons
IronChef Foicite: i mean, roses only last like a couple weeks
IronChef Foicite: and that's if you leave them in water
IronChef Foicite: and they really only exist to be pretty
IronChef Foicite: so that's like saying
IronChef Foicite: "my love for you is transitory and based solely on your appearance"
IronChef Foicite: but a potato!
IronChef Foicite: potatos last for fucking ever, man
IronChef Foicite: in fact, not only will they not rot, they actually grow shit even if you just leave them in the sack
IronChef Foicite: that part alone makes it a good symbol
IronChef Foicite: but there's more!
IronChef Foicite: there are so many ways to enjoy a potato! you can even make a battery with it!
IronChef Foicite: and that's like saying "i have many ways in which I show my love for you"
IronChef Foicite: and potatos may be ugly, but they're still awesome
IronChef Foicite: so that's like saying "it doesn't matter at all what you look like, I'll still love you"

ah bash.org
how i love thee

All right fuckers

2004-05-25T22:34:00.000+10:00

So.. Blogs hey.

Well i've got a lame-arse plog for my thesis, but I've decided that i need one for my daily rantings as well.

Rants are good, rants are healthy, and blogs are perfect for rants.

Figjam seems to like the topic of stupid people, so i might go with that.

Stupid people - well.. I work on a helpdesk, so i listen to alot of them.
Like the girl today
SFI (stupid fucking idot) "Wa Wa Wa....I can't dialup, it says that there is no dial tone"
Me "Alright, is your phone line plugged into the computer"
SFI "I dont have to, my computer has Centrino, so it can go on the internet anyway"
Me "Ahuh.. no, thats not how it works"....

And i get one of these fuckers every day.. without fail