Month: April 2009

  • Knitting Retreat

    Knitting retreat! Here I am in Wollongong, waking up to the sound of birds chirping and scouts stirring. (We’re at a scout camp.) A whole day of knitting awaits!

  • Shared today on Twitter

    Jumper collected. Heading home! No dramas.


    @gemma747 You get the ribbon! They pin it to your jumper. FYI: I lost my collection sheet, but I showed the certificate and that was okay.


    @Justacogitating Not very often, and pretty much always with the Snook navigating. It’s not the traffic so much as the confusing streets.


    @Steffi_83 I’m home in plenty of time! Will see you there. Hope you’re ready for a workout!


    @randomknits You click the button next to the account, then look for the link to Today’s transactions. They show on Today but not general.


    Met @Steffi_83 for her first Spudds workout. She did great! Much better than my first one. We are ass-kickin’ ladies!


    Sitting on my front steps waiting for the Knitting Retreat convoy to arrive. Why, yes, that is a box of Banrock! I’m classy like that. #fb


    Paging @randomknits! What time is dinner? We’re all hungry but we’re about an hour away..


    We made it! There’s a Hawaiian theme happening. Fiona, of course, had to go the demure route. http://twitpic.com/3vt3n


    @witty_knitter She says give her a few more hours. Something about “norks for knitting”. 🙂


    *yawn* I think I’m too sensitive to noise to share a cabin with 6 others. I need a total sensory deprivation tank to sleep.


    @AusVintageGrrl No, I brought em! But they’re just cheapo foam ones.


    Knitting in nature. Trees, hills, sunshine, ocean, clouds… http://twitpic.com/3xdgt


  • Shared today on Twitter

    @witty_knitter Weird thing is I’m not sure she tripped. She was coming from the gym and she seemed dazed. Perhaps a little dehydrated?


    @randomknits I’ll take one! Can never have too many leis. 🙂


    Ooh, have I finally been economically stimulated? ANZ is showing extra cash in the joint account! But oddly for only one of us so far…


    @AusVintageGrrl Planning on it! Got a PM that knightlyknitter (aka Kate from TAS) is in town and will be coming too. I’ll be there 6ish.


    I… was… not aware that patterns exist for knitted tampons. You learn something new every day!


    @witty_knitter @randomknits This is what happens when I browse the Big 6 Rav Boards on my lunch break. BLEECCCCCCHH.


    @randomknits Grass skirts… Are they suitable for those of us who may be a bit, uh, “ample” around the mid-section? If so, count me in.


    @randomknits It’s cool. Snook says I can take his Hawaiian print sarong. 🙂


    @twelveeyes Someone was suggesting HEMP as a possible material. I really hope she was joking.


    Figured out how to see pending transactions on ANZ… and yep! I am officially stimulated! Thanks, KRudd! (Now where is Snook’s?)


    Heading off to knitting… and then a 3-day weekend!


    @knitness WHOA! Okay, first step is, YOU DON’T TWEET IT. Second step is, you need to give us all the juicy details.


    Little nervous. Heading out on my biggest solo drive ever in Sydney to St. Leonards and Homebush!


    @codepo8 Crap. No time! It was great to catch up though. Say hi to London for us! (If you ever get back… 🙂


    Leg 1 complete. Chippo to St. Leonards is a doddle. iPhone was great for checking position. Next hurdle: Lane Cove Tunnel in rush hour!


    Somehow I missed the fact that Show collection doesn’t start til 10. Crap. So now I’m killing an hour at IKEA.


    @Timmay83 I am a very conscientious driver! No tweeting once the car is in motion. 🙂


    @AusVintageGrrl They weren’t open at all yesterday. Just today and tomorrow for collection. It’s cool. I’m hangin’.


  • RunningBlog: An Accident

    No, it wasn’t me. I headed out this morning for a short jog around the neighborhood, and I headed up Wilson Street towards Newtown as I usually do. I felt pretty good. The sun was shining and it was cool but not cold. My hamstrings were a little sore from my workout at Spudds yesterday. (He made us do hill sprints.) I felt like I was moving at a faster pace than normal though. I came to the one big hill on Wilson and started powering up it. As I neared the top (and the next cross-street), I looked up to make sure no one was coming around the corner… just in time to see a girl at the corner fall to the ground hard. I tore off my headphones and sprinted up to her. A guy coming down the hill on a bike got there first. “Are you okay?” we asked her. She’d rolled herself against the wall of the house on the corner and was clutching an obviously bloody knee. She was in workout clothes, and she seemed pretty shocked and out of it. The guy said something about running to get a first aid kit, and I said I’d stay with her. He took off. So I stood there with her, dripping with sweat and feeling pretty useless. Other people stopped by to ask if they could do anything. “I think it’s cut really deep,” she said. “I swear I saw white. It could be bone.” I tried to be comforting and point out there’s no way she cut herself down to her kneecap on the sidewalk. From what I could gather, she wasn’t out for a run like I was; instead she’d been on her way home from the gym. I wondered to myself whether she might have been a bit dehydrated, or even have low blood sugar if she hadn’t eaten before her workout. The guy came back with the kit and set about cleaning her up with iodine. As expected, it was just a skinned knee. “I hate to leave you,” I eventually said, “but I’m going to be late for work if I don’t move!” She thanked me for staying with her, and with a wave I headed off. I finished the run and made it home.

    I’ve read horror stories on running blogs about runners having accidents or getting hit by cars. I’m such a clumsy person in general, I figure it’s only a matter of time before it happens to me. Hopefully I got some good karma from the incident today, and if I’m ever in her situation, somebody will stop and help me too.

  • Shared today on Twitter

    Anybody else on Hunch? Got my invite today. So far I asked which Wii game to get, it said Super Paper Mario. Sounds about right…


    Wow. Google Calendar says it’s Earth Day. I had no idea. I haven’t seen it promoted in Sydney at all.


    Cricket on Mount Everest. Neat! http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/04/22/2549625.htm


    Heading to Yahoo to drink with the nerds.


    It’s a free developer talk w/ a guy we knew from London. Drinking beer before it starts… http://twitpic.com/3rczx


    Yahoo get a point for better beer and not making us sign NDA. But Google had free wifi.


    Christiann says official hash tag is #y7os. Stay tuned. First beer has been drunk!


    Talk is going to be about Yahoo UI and things to make, find and share. #y7os


    “If you use a [code] library, you might be able to have a holiday. Maybe someday even a girlfriend!” #y7os


    User testing is not as important for businesses that are openly antagonistic towards their users by design. Like premium mobile. #y7os


    Did he just burn Zeldman? Sweeeeet. #y7os


    Shit. He’s making me think I should use YUI when I redesign web-goddess.org. #y7os


    @henrytapia Heresy in this building!


    Finished with my cynical question: How does any of this make Yahoo money? Answer: it doesn’t. Not directly. Now, food. #y7os


    Grabbed a free Yahoo t-shirt. EVERY ONE IS SIZE XXL. Curse of geek events! #y7os


    @wookie_man He did. He basically said to pick one library and stick with it. He also gave much love to google products, surprisingly.


    Said bye to Christian. Fun to catch up with someone we haven’t seen in 7.5 years! He’s such a good UI evangelist. http://twitpic.com/3rgnv


    @CerealBoy Hey, I recognize that facial hair! Agree with your assessment of the talk. Very good!


    @lachlanhardy So I’m not the only one that took photos in the bathroom. Good to know!


    @DDsD I wouldn’t capitalise it, but the New York Times probably would. Less about spelling and more about style guide. 🙂


    @amandaemillar Great, great event! Well done. Looking forward to coming to more Yahoo Open Sessions!


    @lotsofco So. Cute. 🙂


    Just completed a 4.15 km run with @runkeeper, check it out http://bit.ly/boYNg #runkeeper


    Halfway through run, looked up to see woman falling to pavement. Cut her knee pretty bad. Stayed w/ her while guy got first aid.


    Which I offer as explanation for why I’m running late today. Still haven’t had breakfast…


    @BigCatRescue I was surprised so many others offered to help. Newtown folks are nicer than I thought. 🙂


    @Timmay83 Nah, it was too slow motion to be funny. Plus she was like in shock. She’s all: I saw bone! I’m like: ITS JUST SKIN, SERIOUSLY.


  • Christian Heilmann at Yahoo!

    Well, that was fun! A few weeks ago I finally signed up for LinkedIn, after realizing that EVERYBODY else in the industry was on there. I found a few former co-workers, including Christian from Netdecisions in London. (I voluntarily took a layoff package in 2001 to save Christian’s job, which also allowed me to emigrate to Australia. The rest, as they say, is history.) Anyway, I added him, he added me, and then I visited his blog. To my surprise, I saw that he was now a fancypants “Developer Evangelist” for Yahoo! and that he was coming to Sydney this week! The Snook and I quickly signed up to attend.

    Me and Christian

    The Sydney Yahoo! offices are stunning. They also won immediate points with me by not requiring me to sign an NDA just to walk in the door (like Google did). They had good beer too. There were maybe 40 or so of us there, and Christian’s talk was entertaining and enlightening. He succeeded in getting me to think seriously about using some Yahoo tools and libraries for my next site redesign. Afterwards there was food and everybody mingled, and we got to catch up a bit. Man, was it really that long ago? When Snookums and I lived on Rannoch Road with Alex and Condie, and we spent the cold nights in pubs arguing over the finer points of HTML? Good times, good times.

  • Kris the Romulan

    Kris the RomulanNeat! Kevin pointed me to this fun Star Trek app that turns a photo of you into a 3D character from the Trek universe. I was going to be the sexy Uhura chick, but she ended up looking a little pig-nosed. Romulan Kris turned out much funnier. At least now I have a vague idea what I’d look like bald!

  • FatBet

    FatBet: For those of you participating in the contest, I extended it today by another three months. Venks (the current leader) is fine with it, and it puts most of us back under the dreaded blue line. Feel free to adjust your goal weights up or down as necessary. Let’s all get re-energized and committed!

  • Shared today on Twitter

    Snook just pointed out that ATO says bonuses are being distributed by random postcode. http://bit.ly/NIUFD


    @imdominating Why not both? You’ll probably find enough loose change in the process of cleaning house anyway. 🙂


    RT @DDsD: RT @paullyoung: Now I’ve seen it all. Brian Lara showing Obama how to swing a cricket bat: http://bit.ly/nCcAU via @sbones


    http://tinyurl.com/c79xp8 <- My feeling is no. It’s snake oil. SEO is all about content and common sense.


    Sydney knitters! Miss Fee is at Kmart RIGHT NOW and they have loads of blocking foam blocks. Who wants? Reply in the next 5 minutes…


    @AusVintageGrrl Awww, sorry you missed out! I called her too, going “TIA WANTS SOME, WAIT!” 🙂


    @glittertrash Most disturbing tea cosy I have made: http://tinyurl.com/cxfpw9. Also, vaguely nationalistic.


    @glittertrash I believe you are talking about leggings. And leggings are a crime against nature.


    @glittertrash Hm. Cycling? I’ll allow it. As long as your goal is not to look like Mischa effing Barton, I’ll refrain from judging. 🙂


    @_Leva_ I blame Lindsay Lohan. http://bit.ly/KvE4H There. Now you have to go rinse out your eyes.


    Discovery: The reason the M&S server keeps crashing is the boss’s brother’s Ruby on Rails site. I KNEW IT! Grrrrr.


    Just completed a 2.45 km run with @runkeeper, check it out http://bit.ly/19ezo #runkeeper


    @wookie_man Sorry I sent you on a wild goose chase – again! Stupid Kmart didn’t actually get any stock beyond 1 pack for me. 🙁


    A slow jog home through the cold rain. Hot shower. Warming green curry with rice. Glass of red. New episode of 30 Rock. Blisssssss….


    Watching “Around the World in 80 Gardens.” Me: “Aww, Auckland looks pretty!” Snook: “It’s a wretched hive of scum and villainy.”


    @Justacogitating There is no situation for which he cannot find an appropriate Star Wars quote. It’s pretty much why I married him.


    I have become one of those people that goes crazy when I see the phrase “begs the question” misused. WHICH IS EVERY TIME, EVER. #fb


    It’s complicated, but if you mean “raises the question,” you’re using it wrong: http://begthequestion.info. Ergo, 99.9% of use is wrong.


    Yes, I’m a prescriptivist. Spelling Bee Champions like language rules to be OBSERVED!


    What’s really shocking is dumb ol’ Miss California didn’t realize that 90% of pageant fans are gay. Don’t insult your core audience, bigot!


    @Justacogitating Unfortunately you are now doomed to the same growing irritation every time you see it used wrong. Welcome to hell.


    trekyourself.com. I made Kris the Romulan! Now I know what I’d look like as a bald alien dude. http://bit.ly/fjpHv


    @witty_knitter Apparently. I had no idea he had strong feelings about Auckland til it came out. You’ll have to ask him about it sometime. 🙂


    RT @rhagern: Shirless Obama to be cover boy: CNN – http://is.gd/5HE. <- This constituent is very, very much in favour!