TeamWalrus

17mins between trains, in peak period, is ridiculous. I should have driven to work instead.

I decided that we should go somewhere different for dinner last night. So Julia and I caught a taxi to Darlinghurst and went to the Victoria Room for dinner. The venue has been set up with a old style décor, dimly lit adding to the atmosphere. The food was delicious. And the 16 year old Elijah Craig bourbon went down very well.

Friday night Fiona and I drove into the city for some Friday night salsa dancing. Normally this involves driving around the block a couple of times to find a car park. But this night we found a spot on the first pass, not too far to walk to the venue. It was just after 9pm and a ticket for parking was required up to 10pm. So I walked to the parking meter machine and put in $3 to cover the period up to 10pm. I went to retrieve the printed ticket and there was two $1 coins in the machine. And then the machine proceeded to give $2 in change. So put in $3, and got $4 back. And still had a valid ticket for parking. Now that’s a good parking spot.

Well my Jury Duty session finished today. I’m not going to talk about the actual case. But let me just say that I hope that I never ever have to go to trial as a defendant, because the people that make up the jury, are just ordinary people. Ordinary stupid dumb people. Sheeesh. I think we need to come up with a new system.

One thing that is often mentioned about jury duty is how little you get paid to do it. I’ve heard figures of $20 a day thrown around. Well in NSW I was paid $100 per day, plus a travel allowance. The travel allowance is based on where you live in relation to the court. I got $16 a day which covered my $9.20 train fare. And if our court case went longer than 10 days, then from the 11th day onwards I would have been paid $225 per day. Of course I’m actually lucky enough that my employer continues to pay my full wage while I’m on jury duty so the money I’ve received (except for the travel allowance) will go to them.

Our Jury duty was interrupted by a fire drill yesterday. They scheduled it for the middle of our lunch. So we had ten minutes to scoff down some food before the alarms started and we had to leave the building. We waited outside on the footpath until the drill was over and then we were lead back inside. At least it a nice change to get some fresh air during the day.

I have trouble remembering how many sets of exercise I’ve done at the gym. To keep track I tuck the end of my shoe lace under one of the loops.

The first loop when I’ve done one set. Second loop when I’ve done two sets, and so on. Really helpful when I have trouble counting to five. Yes five.

Last Thursday evening our work had an annual dinner. Partners were invited and it was at the Wolfies Grill in Circular Quay. We had our own private room at the restaurant. There was a three course meal served but being a small eater I skipped entree and dessert. But for the main I had a very nice steak. It was actually the first partner dinner that I’ve been too since I started working for this company; 2.5 years ago. Was a fairly tame night with most leaving about 10.30pm.

Last Wednesday I started my Jury Duty process. I’d never been summoned for Jury Duty so wasn’t sure what the process was. But I was keen to do my civic duty.

On Tuesday afternoon I telephoned the Jury Duty number and listened to a recording to see if I actually had to attend the next day. The recording advised that my panel number was required to attend. So Wednesday morning I caught the train into the city and walked to the law courts. Made my way through security (just like at the airport) and got my name crossed off at the jury gathering room. When they mark you off for attendance you are given a number. From that point on that’s all you are referred to as. They don’t call your name or even refer to you by name. There were probably a hundred people in the waiting room. The people in our panel group was lead to a court room so we could see what it looked like and they took attendance again to make sure everyone was there. They also took the paperwork for people who were applying to be excused from jury duty. Then we all returned to the waiting room.

They played a brief video explaining how the process worked. Then they randomly picked groups of people, about 27, to go to a court room to be possibly picked for a jury. I was called up for a group and we were lead to a court room. The judge explains that the barrister for the Crown would read the charges and list all the people who would be involved in the case, including any witnesses. If any jury member knows any of those people then they should ask to be excused from this case. The Crown (referred to as Mr Crown) read out the case and the witnesses. Then an officer of the court randomly selected 12 people from our group and those people moved to the jury box. Then each person in the jury box stood up for a few seconds. While they were standing both barristers had the opportunity to say ‘challenge’. If they did then that people was excused from the jury box and returned back with the others. A couple of people were challenged. Then they randomly selected a few extra people to replace those that were challenged. They were not challenged, so those 12 people made up the official jury. They had to swear an oath to be started as the jury for that trial. The people who weren’t selected in the jury, which included me, were lead back to the jury selection waiting room.

I went through that process 3 times. And on the third time I was selected to be on jury panel. And I wasn’t challenged so I was one of the 12 people sworn in the make up the panel for a trial. They gave an estimate for how long the trial would last; about 7 days for the one I am on. The actual trial starts at 10am each day and finishes about 4pm. There is an hour for lunch and a morning tea break too.

The jury panel have to arrive at the court at 9.30am. We are immediately lead to our own jury room. When we aren’t in court, we have to remain in that room. They do allow people who want to go out at lunch to go. But they only allow you to leave and return as a single group. So all those who want to leave have to do so at the beginning of the lunch break, and return together at the end. I just stay in the jury room. They provide sandwiches for lunch and tea/coffee/hot chocolate and biscuits. The process has definitely been interesting. I’m glad the trial I’m on is only a short one through. They had one trial that was going to last 14 weeks. That’s one heck of a long trial.

Last night I went to the Opera House to listen to a Q&A session with Kevin Smith. It was interesting and funny. He talked about making ‘Clerks’, ‘Zack and Miri make a Porno’ and ‘Cop Out’. Talked about working with big name stars. He seemed like an honestly nice guy who appreciated his fans. But a little out of touch with the ‘common man’; talking about his $70,000 103inch television (that Panasonic gave him). Or how his biggest disappointment was that one of his movies didn’t break the $100M gross at the cinemas (Zack & Miri only made ~$32M).

The worse part of the night was the questions from the audience. Some were well spoken, well thought out. But others, oh god. I guess when you make ‘quirky’ films or work with comics (like Batman) that you attract people who are socially inept. But some of the speakers were just embarrassing to listen to.

Kevin talked from 7.10pm to 11.20pm. So a looooong session. But I did enjoy it and am glad I decided to go.

Last night I was walking to the top of a flight of stairs to a train platform. A train had arrived and was about to leave. I raced the few metres and jumped on board. Doors close. Oh yeah! No waiting.

And then I realised the train was going in completely the wrong direction. Doh! Two extra train stops to get back on track.

One of the exercise machines I use is called a lat pull down. You sit down and pull down a weighted bar from above.

The only problem with the machine at the gym is the cord that the handle is attached is too short. So when I’m seated, I can’t reach the handle bar.  I have to stand to grab the bar, then pull it down until I can sit, and wedge my knees under the braces. That’s been fine.  But now the machine weight is 82kg, but I only weigh about 70kg. So my body weight is not enough to pull down the handle. I can jerk it down at the moment but if the weight get any heavier it will be interesting.

Last night I drove into the city for a dance class. I haven’t driven into the city at that early time of the evening before. What a mistake. Getting in was fine. Trying to find a car park was not. Drove around the streets for half an hour before finally seeing a car pulling out of a spot so I indicated to move in. Parked the car and bought a parking ticket from the nearby ticket machine. Was just locking the car and noticed that the one spot I was in was marked as No Standing. Damn it. Too bad I wasn’t going to move it again as I probably wouldn’t be able to make the class on time. And as expected when I returned I found a love note from the ticket inspector on my windscreen. $86 thank you. I’ll stick to the train in future.

I like my condiments in an easy squeeze bottle. Yep. Grab the tomato sauce, squeeze and perfect amount, perfect placement.

I also hate squeeze bottles. The nozzle blocks up. Give the tomato sauce a squeeze and sauce is more likely to spurt over your pants, or on the wall, than on your meal.

There must be a better way…

My stomach was upset again last night so didn’t sleep very well. Its still a bit upset today. I’m blaming a buttered chicken for lunch. I do like it but my stomach definitely does not.

Also got a haircut yesterday so had to get out the dye to hide the grey.

I make use of several different software tools to assist me in my day to day tasks.

• FastStone Capture – FastStone produce some excellent software tools. I’m a huge fan of their Photo Resizer program at home for batch converting images. At work I often need to take screen captures and wanted a small and quick program for that task. FastStone Capture costs $20US and its a great tool. I can take quick screen images and do quick highlighting (circle an item, or highlight text) and then email it, or save it in just a few clicks. It also had a couple of neat tricks. It can capture a scrolling window to a single image, great if you need to capture a browser window that scrolls off the screen. It can also do basics video screen capture.
• Launchy – Basically a short program for getting quick access to other programs or files. Rather than have to navigate through the windows start menu I use Launchy to quickly open programs by pressing ALT+Space and one of two keystrokes of the programs name.
• Stickies V7 – Basically think of those yellow sticky notes. But instead of on paper they are virtual notes that you can stick on your screen. Simple but very handy at times.
• Ditto – I’ve only been using this program for a little while but so far it seems to do what I needed; clipboard management. Basically I needed a history of my copy/paste commands and be able to access then. This does that very easily. Great when copying different sections of text over and over.
• Notepad++ – Simple, and yet powerful text editor. Had a nice scripting recording tool that I use a lot to repeat the same commands when working with files.
• Xobni – Unfortunately I’m forced to use Outlook for my work emails and I hate it. The searching is rubbish. I even tried using Google Desktop search to improve it but that didn’t work well either. Xobni (inbox spelt backwards) is a great tool for providing indexed searching of your emails. Definitely makes my life easier when searching for those missing emails.
• ToDo List – I don’t use this software all the time. But if I’m working on a project with lots of different tasks and I keep getting distracted then this is a great tool for making a list and keeping track of what you’ve done. Its definitely not ‘project manager’ software but I wanted something simple and quick and this does what I wanted.

That’s just my short list. This post as much for me so if I ever need to rebuild my PC I know where to find the same software.

When I moved into the unit I currently live it it had horrible old curtains in the bedroom. Horrible because they were old. The rubber backing was perishing they had mould stains on them. I tried washing them but that didn’t help. I finally got annoyed enough to go and buy some new curtains. On Saturday I went to a nearby Spotlight store and made my way to the curtain section. I’d measured the window size and took notice that the existing curtains were on a ‘rod’. But all the pre-made curtains seemed to be made for a different kind of curtain rail. Not being able to work it out I had to ask one of the ladies at the material cutting station. All I needed was some split rings, and I was in business. I picked some basics dark brown curtains, making sure they had a sun blocking rubber backings so I can enjoy weekend sleep ins without being woken up by sunlight.

Must be time for things to change in my unit because on Saturday the clothes dryer also stopped working. The heating element kept going, but the drum stopped rotating. In winter weather the dryer is a must as heavier clothes just don’t dry properly on a line. So I used my real estate agents online maintenance form to request it to be fixed. Will see how long it takes to get that actioned.

I’ve had a black spot in the vision of my left eye since January. Well, I’ve noticed it since January. Maybe its been there before that and I just don’t remember. I’ve seen an eye doc who said to bad so sad, shit happens. Normally I don’t even notice it. Although sometimes when looking at an all white surface I do see it. But the worst time is when I very first wake up. Because I’m looking up at the ceiling, which is a white-ish colour. Now in a half asleep state I do see some dark thing on the ceiling. Now as you probably have all done this when you’ve had a spot in your vision (like from a camera flash), when you try to look at the spot it moves. So I see this spot on the ceiling, try to look at it, and it moves. I remind you I am half asleep at this point. When I see a dark shape moving across the ceiling. And my first thought it usually BIG FREAKEN SPIDER running across the ceiling towards me. Now as far as wake up calls go, this is extremely effective at waking you up. And of course once I’m awake I realise its just the spot in my vision. After many months I’ve finally managed to train myself not to jump of bed. Instead I try looking in another direction, and see if the spider moves in that direction. Which is does. So I make the spider run back and forward across the ceiling for my amusement. If I ever am unable to control the ‘spider’ though it probably means there is a real spider on the roof and its time to get up.

Technology should be making my life easier by now. Sure the flying cars and silver jumpsuits seen sci-fi movies when they talked about the future aren’t here yet, but there are simpler things that can be done. Like when I’m cooking sausages in a fry pan why do I still have to stand at the stove turning the sausages? There should have been an invention that does that for me by now. I should be able to turn on the hotplate, put the sausages in the auto-fry-pan and go for a shower. And when I get out, nicely cooked sausages. Come on technology, you’re letting me down.

I had a ticket to see the comedian Bill Bailey at the State Theatre in the city tonight. Caught a train into the city and walked to the nearby State Theatre. The show went from 8pm to 10.15pm with a short intermission in the middle. I found Bailey to be a fair comedian. He had a big range of musical instruments on stage that he used throughout his show. Definitely a talented musician. After the show I walked around the corner to the O2 nightclub where it was salsa night. Had a couple of dances and then caught the train home.

There was a time when I used to put pretty much everything that happened in my day to day life into this blog. So much so that often readers of the blog knew more about what was happening in my life, compared to people that I talked to regularly.

But recently I’ve been filtering out a lot more. There are just some things going on in my life that I’m not comfortable publishing at the moment.

One of the things is that I’ve met someone new in my life. A very nice lady that I met at a social dance. Tonight was our official 2nd date. The evening started with the new release movie, Knight and Day. I really enjoyed the movie, great fun. After the movie we went to a bar that has terrific views of the Sydney skyline. To finish off the night we went to a place called Cremorne Point which has great night views of the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge. While we were standing admiring the view a possum came right up to us and started sniffing our shoes. It took a fair bit of ‘shoo’ing before it went away. I’m not a fan of things with sharp claws climbing up my legs.

View Sydney Sights in a larger map

I’m looking forward to the next date already.