13 December, 2007
In other news...
The web team made me a vegan chocolate cake for my US birthday today.
It was quite good.
...and very nice.
It was quite good.
...and very nice.
More MacIntosh Than Wright...meethinks
For Kyle:
...this is tucked away under an awning. CityScapes. Art.
I found it walking back from grocery shopping. There will be many more pictures soon. Especially since Liz will be here in hours... and we will be doing a lot of sight seeing.
(but I will not post enough pictures satiate people's desire to come visit)
...this is tucked away under an awning. CityScapes. Art.
I found it walking back from grocery shopping. There will be many more pictures soon. Especially since Liz will be here in hours... and we will be doing a lot of sight seeing.
(but I will not post enough pictures satiate people's desire to come visit)
Berth Day
So. Starting to write this just as it transitions from 12 to 13 December in enzed. Which means it is 12 December in the US. Which means I've had a full birthday today, but that my birthday is really today in the US.I'm watching an episode of Big Love... which I already watched yesterday. Which means it seems a bit like Groundhog Day. Which means it seems a bit like Groundhog Day.
Midway through the week of spending half of my working hours with our web developers. I must say I enjoy it. Getting better in C#, not that that means a lot... but now I'm all cuddly with nesting repeaters. I do really enjoy working on websites... and I like cutting down on calls and finding a good flow, both for the technology and the user. I haven't let the term "compromise" enter into my brain just yet... as we're still looking for the best solution... with the looming deadline in the fore. But the SYownS is speeding up... just trimming the fat... and optimising the functionality. As Yoda would say, wearing two hats, I feel.
That being said... splitting my time between two jobs (ultimately) is a bit taxing. Really it just means that 2 sets of 5 people are pulling me in different directions... while I'm trying to do what I need to do... never boring. There is something about breaking things up... web coding to report writing to SQL to business meetings to catch all IT stuff (server configs, etc).
enzed birthday was good. Made some good web progress. Got some client-side stuff done. Playing the appropriate cat-and-mouse game to let the team here discover functionality for themselves. Teaching troubleshooting...
I came in to the office this morning and my desk was decorated in birthday regalia. American flag toothpicks stuck all over my keyboard, a guitar-shaped container of magic bubble blowing solution... and several noise makers (and a bottle of nice scotch). It was nice. No birthday lunch, because I had to go to the web team's HQ... left there at 7. talked to the wife for an hour... then just relaxed... ate left-left-overs. Trying to sort out some Hawke's Bay accommodation.
Midway through the week of spending half of my working hours with our web developers. I must say I enjoy it. Getting better in C#, not that that means a lot... but now I'm all cuddly with nesting repeaters. I do really enjoy working on websites... and I like cutting down on calls and finding a good flow, both for the technology and the user. I haven't let the term "compromise" enter into my brain just yet... as we're still looking for the best solution... with the looming deadline in the fore. But the SYownS is speeding up... just trimming the fat... and optimising the functionality. As Yoda would say, wearing two hats, I feel.
That being said... splitting my time between two jobs (ultimately) is a bit taxing. Really it just means that 2 sets of 5 people are pulling me in different directions... while I'm trying to do what I need to do... never boring. There is something about breaking things up... web coding to report writing to SQL to business meetings to catch all IT stuff (server configs, etc).
enzed birthday was good. Made some good web progress. Got some client-side stuff done. Playing the appropriate cat-and-mouse game to let the team here discover functionality for themselves. Teaching troubleshooting...
I came in to the office this morning and my desk was decorated in birthday regalia. American flag toothpicks stuck all over my keyboard, a guitar-shaped container of magic bubble blowing solution... and several noise makers (and a bottle of nice scotch). It was nice. No birthday lunch, because I had to go to the web team's HQ... left there at 7. talked to the wife for an hour... then just relaxed... ate left-left-overs. Trying to sort out some Hawke's Bay accommodation.
07 December, 2007
today...
Somehow, the Universe must read this blog... because the day after I write that I shouldn't be doing all of the web stuff... I get farmed out to the web development team. Which is exciting... from web development perspective... but I have plenty of non-web issues to monitor.... whatever, it's probably only for a week... stupid cocky post Karma.
I think Boston is a fine city. Had a talk today about the mapparium. Also, I love "The Departed" ...
So, I just did another presentation for the "potential" arts partners... it should have been titled... "why you should be a sub-licensee"... like I've said before... I can be a great salesman... if and only if I truly believe the product is a perfect fit... I think there is quite a bit of excitement... and several questions/concerns were answered... Maybe my love of the software comes through quite clearly... what ever the case... I'm happy. I'm issuing an apology to the following XXXs.com, XXXmaster, XXXtek, etc. You may be old news in A-town.
-We're ahead of our timeline before xmas... which means we can all actually take some time... and come back in full.
-I just made soup... excuse me...
---
-ok, back. mmm. I love soup in summer.
-Speaking of, how's your weather?
-Data privacy laws are a beauty and a curse.
-CEO=CEO=CEO
-CFO=CFO=CFO
-The entire organisation is concerned with my holiday plans...
-Did I mention... I just heard about the presentation yesterday?
-lots to do... lots to do...
-not going in to work this weekend... because we were going to shift offices... then... after we packed all of our stuff up... we heard the network in the new building was wonky. So, maybe we'll shift sometime monday... I'll be with our web team all day, so it won't matter much anyway. We're doing some joint programming.
-bullet points... yeah.
-I feel like I've given more presentations since I've been here than in the rest of my life.
-speaking of which... I'm saddened to miss out on the conference planning committee this year.
-In the grand scheme, this is more important.
-anyone going to the feb conference in Melbourne?
-my Australasia pals, and I , are in talks to plan a regional conference... just because only the select few get to travel to the states... and by conference... I mean fancy user's group meeting.
-we started printing subs tickets.
-having trouble with a superscript registered mark... nothing a little Font 1, 1, 1 "R" inside a Font 1, 2, 3 "O" can't fix... in the interim.
I think Boston is a fine city. Had a talk today about the mapparium. Also, I love "The Departed" ...
So, I just did another presentation for the "potential" arts partners... it should have been titled... "why you should be a sub-licensee"... like I've said before... I can be a great salesman... if and only if I truly believe the product is a perfect fit... I think there is quite a bit of excitement... and several questions/concerns were answered... Maybe my love of the software comes through quite clearly... what ever the case... I'm happy. I'm issuing an apology to the following XXXs.com, XXXmaster, XXXtek, etc. You may be old news in A-town.
-We're ahead of our timeline before xmas... which means we can all actually take some time... and come back in full.
-I just made soup... excuse me...
---
-ok, back. mmm. I love soup in summer.
-Speaking of, how's your weather?
-Data privacy laws are a beauty and a curse.
-CEO=CEO=CEO
-CFO=CFO=CFO
-The entire organisation is concerned with my holiday plans...
-Did I mention... I just heard about the presentation yesterday?
-lots to do... lots to do...
-not going in to work this weekend... because we were going to shift offices... then... after we packed all of our stuff up... we heard the network in the new building was wonky. So, maybe we'll shift sometime monday... I'll be with our web team all day, so it won't matter much anyway. We're doing some joint programming.
-bullet points... yeah.
-I feel like I've given more presentations since I've been here than in the rest of my life.
-speaking of which... I'm saddened to miss out on the conference planning committee this year.
-In the grand scheme, this is more important.
-anyone going to the feb conference in Melbourne?
-my Australasia pals, and I , are in talks to plan a regional conference... just because only the select few get to travel to the states... and by conference... I mean fancy user's group meeting.
-we started printing subs tickets.
-having trouble with a superscript registered mark... nothing a little Font 1, 1, 1 "R" inside a Font 1, 2, 3 "O" can't fix... in the interim.
05 December, 2007
that.post INNER JOIN this.post
ON a.marcation = d.marcation
The beauty of being involved in a flurry of activity:
Just when you get waist deep in SQL local procedures... it is time to go off and discuss high level business decisions. This, of course, is absolutely necessary and quite enjoyable, if a bit inconvenient.
It is almost wickedly amusing to answer someone's, seemingly, Boolean query with, "yes." (as in... does it do this OR that? Yes!)
There is a Denny's commercial here that is awesome to watch... as it looks like a midwest, mom-and-pop diner commercial (meaning it looks very, very cheap). The best part, there are authentic enzed kids with their excitement and adorable accents. I'm still not sure why people eat there during typical business hours... one of life's great mysteries.
In actual reference to the title of this post. We had some new (very, key) people start this week. Our web developers are moving into a testing phase for the CMS and integration. Basically, I'm almost to the point of being able to focus a bit more on my actual tasks, as there will start to be some (very rough and blurred) demarcations in duties. (Yes. I did go to that much work to make a demarcation pun).
Not that I mind having my hands in all parts of the project... I do like to be over-involved. Its just that I'm not the one who is supposed to be configuring the API calls... but it just makes up for the time that could have been. That being said, there really is not much difference between, "the application can do this, or that..." AND (the extra step) "this is how/why it does that and you'll need to use this call to accomplish that... then... if that is more expensive (bandwidth) than we would like... what about only making this call, and we'll store those keywords over here... because of business rule A and/or business rule B..."
/****************
This tree makes me want to play Lord of the Rings... and hide from the Nazgûl.
The wind patterns (H/L pressure zones) here look like möbius transformations. I like it.
We've officially hit the less than a week and a half mark.
*/
Just when you get waist deep in SQL local procedures... it is time to go off and discuss high level business decisions. This, of course, is absolutely necessary and quite enjoyable, if a bit inconvenient.
It is almost wickedly amusing to answer someone's, seemingly, Boolean query with, "yes." (as in... does it do this OR that? Yes!)
There is a Denny's commercial here that is awesome to watch... as it looks like a midwest, mom-and-pop diner commercial (meaning it looks very, very cheap). The best part, there are authentic enzed kids with their excitement and adorable accents. I'm still not sure why people eat there during typical business hours... one of life's great mysteries.
In actual reference to the title of this post. We had some new (very, key) people start this week. Our web developers are moving into a testing phase for the CMS and integration. Basically, I'm almost to the point of being able to focus a bit more on my actual tasks, as there will start to be some (very rough and blurred) demarcations in duties. (Yes. I did go to that much work to make a demarcation pun).
Not that I mind having my hands in all parts of the project... I do like to be over-involved. Its just that I'm not the one who is supposed to be configuring the API calls... but it just makes up for the time that could have been. That being said, there really is not much difference between, "the application can do this, or that..." AND (the extra step) "this is how/why it does that and you'll need to use this call to accomplish that... then... if that is more expensive (bandwidth) than we would like... what about only making this call, and we'll store those keywords over here... because of business rule A and/or business rule B..."
/****************
This tree makes me want to play Lord of the Rings... and hide from the Nazgûl.
The wind patterns (H/L pressure zones) here look like möbius transformations. I like it.
We've officially hit the less than a week and a half mark.
*/
03 December, 2007
So... nothing to do with enzed
This has nothing, at all, to do with my time here... it is, however, my favourite video of all time.
fyi-
This is in a real library
Ernesto "Mr Perfect" Hoost is a world champion lickboxer
See...
fyi-
This is in a real library
Ernesto "Mr Perfect" Hoost is a world champion lickboxer
See...
30 November, 2007
Observations from the Antipodes
For you North Americans...
No meeting Fridays. This is a great idea. Casual friday + no meetings friday is a great way to end the workweek. Also, staff drinks is a great way to put a full stop on the week. Also, no meetings fridays... is a great day to have meetings... and staff drinks is a great way to get departments talking to each other... I'm just sayin'
When there are 8 people in a makeshift war room... sometimes it is best to go on and work Saturdays. Especially if you are writing a bunch of SQL... because sometimes you do not like to be interrupted. Also, sometimes it is best to make sure you prepare for the negative reactions people might have (see: aversion to change). This way before the walls go up, there is a plan in place.
It is best to never lose sight of the big picture.
I see things as layers and overlays... that also makes for a grand visual aide
Do not stop using the single green barrel in your power point presentations, even if no one gets it... yet.
Sometimes you can have 5 meetings with 1 decision.
Sometimes you can have 1 meeting with 5 decisions.
The more people at the meeting... the less likely it is to have a decision.
If the proper people are not at a meeting... it is unlikely to produce a decision... and if it does, maybe it shouldn't have...
I secretly like it when people are screaming at each other in meetings.
I like it even better when people laugh because I'm so calm when other people are screaming.
Swearing in the office should be mandatory.
Most importantly, the wife will be on a plane in two weeks time.
No meeting Fridays. This is a great idea. Casual friday + no meetings friday is a great way to end the workweek. Also, staff drinks is a great way to put a full stop on the week. Also, no meetings fridays... is a great day to have meetings... and staff drinks is a great way to get departments talking to each other... I'm just sayin'
When there are 8 people in a makeshift war room... sometimes it is best to go on and work Saturdays. Especially if you are writing a bunch of SQL... because sometimes you do not like to be interrupted. Also, sometimes it is best to make sure you prepare for the negative reactions people might have (see: aversion to change). This way before the walls go up, there is a plan in place.
It is best to never lose sight of the big picture.
I see things as layers and overlays... that also makes for a grand visual aide
Do not stop using the single green barrel in your power point presentations, even if no one gets it... yet.
Sometimes you can have 5 meetings with 1 decision.
Sometimes you can have 1 meeting with 5 decisions.
The more people at the meeting... the less likely it is to have a decision.
If the proper people are not at a meeting... it is unlikely to produce a decision... and if it does, maybe it shouldn't have...
I secretly like it when people are screaming at each other in meetings.
I like it even better when people laugh because I'm so calm when other people are screaming.
Swearing in the office should be mandatory.
Most importantly, the wife will be on a plane in two weeks time.
28 November, 2007
R.I.P. Sean Taylor
Video removed...
So, I'm going to update with why I loved watching Sean Taylor. The dude could hit. It seems in this day, players don't like to hit hard. He was one of my favourite players... the kind of guy that makes you feel like a kid, and want to get out and play. You will be missed.
So, I'm going to update with why I loved watching Sean Taylor. The dude could hit. It seems in this day, players don't like to hit hard. He was one of my favourite players... the kind of guy that makes you feel like a kid, and want to get out and play. You will be missed.
27 November, 2007
22 November, 2007
16 November, 2007
Hopped the Tas
I'm in Sydney.
This is just a quick update as I am going to have meetings all day today... I'll be here for the weekend as well, so expect more pictures at some point.
Till then...
...can't recall what this is.
This is my friend Fergus
The view from my room in Darling Harbour
This is just a quick update as I am going to have meetings all day today... I'll be here for the weekend as well, so expect more pictures at some point.
Till then...
...can't recall what this is.
This is my friend Fergus
The view from my room in Darling Harbour
13 November, 2007
enzed
So. Now I've been working for a week and a half... I've been here for some time...
I really like Auckland. I really like working where I do and with who I do. There are a million things happening at once, but I really think we are going to be quite successful. The exciting part is we are actually processing some tickets for real, which seems to make things official the software is up and going. In short, I'm happy with work and I think it is really only the beginning.
Things I have found recently... a couple vegetarian restaurants. I music (instrument) store, where I think I made a friend and I put an acoustic bass on lay by... until I get paid. It's made by (wait for it...) J&D... yeah. I've never seen the brand before... and I really like to see what's new to me wherever I am. Its a lower end model, but it'll do and it's what I want. Found a cool "local" NZ shop. I spent an hour or so talking to the co-owner. She's nice. I found an Irish bar called "The Dog's Bollix" ... complete with irishmen talking about the IRA. I like watching Netball. I like watching Rugby...even Cricket. I found a vegan store which stocks everything to keep me alive and in shoes for some time. There is a drink here L&P which is super addictive... fyi, so is "Sweet as..." [aside- "Sweet as" is an expression...]. I dig the harbour. New Zealand wines really are the best in the world... and I like white wine here... weird. (It's still not scotch). Speaking of, send me Laphroig.
I'm off to Sydney tomorrow. Going to meet with some organisations over there... which also means I get to see several of my good friends. I'm staying the weekend and we're having a barbie on saturday.
Since I know this is the highlight...
...more Harbour, ferry landing.
x= Hobson, y=Pitt. I walk South on Hobson, turn left on to Pitt when I'm walking to K'Rd. This is where I turn.
...this was the view right before I left for work this morning. I know. Nothing fake looking about the sky... maybe all of those fake paintings and coffee mugs that had skies like this were right.
I really like Auckland. I really like working where I do and with who I do. There are a million things happening at once, but I really think we are going to be quite successful. The exciting part is we are actually processing some tickets for real, which seems to make things official the software is up and going. In short, I'm happy with work and I think it is really only the beginning.
Things I have found recently... a couple vegetarian restaurants. I music (instrument) store, where I think I made a friend and I put an acoustic bass on lay by... until I get paid. It's made by (wait for it...) J&D... yeah. I've never seen the brand before... and I really like to see what's new to me wherever I am. Its a lower end model, but it'll do and it's what I want. Found a cool "local" NZ shop. I spent an hour or so talking to the co-owner. She's nice. I found an Irish bar called "The Dog's Bollix" ... complete with irishmen talking about the IRA. I like watching Netball. I like watching Rugby...even Cricket. I found a vegan store which stocks everything to keep me alive and in shoes for some time. There is a drink here L&P which is super addictive... fyi, so is "Sweet as..." [aside- "Sweet as" is an expression...]. I dig the harbour. New Zealand wines really are the best in the world... and I like white wine here... weird. (It's still not scotch). Speaking of, send me Laphroig.
I'm off to Sydney tomorrow. Going to meet with some organisations over there... which also means I get to see several of my good friends. I'm staying the weekend and we're having a barbie on saturday.
Since I know this is the highlight...
More Photos:
...more Harbour, ferry landing.
x= Hobson, y=Pitt. I walk South on Hobson, turn left on to Pitt when I'm walking to K'Rd. This is where I turn.
...this was the view right before I left for work this morning. I know. Nothing fake looking about the sky... maybe all of those fake paintings and coffee mugs that had skies like this were right.
04 November, 2007
The First 24
First, the flight was splendid. Air New Zealand is tops in my book. Watched Once... then slept, etc.
More to the point...
My Bedroom
The Guest Bedroom
My Lounge
The view North (looking Right) from my balcony
The sky here
Princes Warf (the end of my street) looking East
...looking West
...looking West with sunset
...North, now.
...South to CBD
...North East
From One Tree Hill ... look for the sheepies
(It was quite windy and mist hung heavy... which is great)
...with view to Rangitoto Island
...view to Downtown.
More to the point...
My Bedroom
The Guest Bedroom
My Lounge
The view North (looking Right) from my balcony
The sky here
Princes Warf (the end of my street) looking East
...looking West
...looking West with sunset
...North, now.
...South to CBD
...North East
From One Tree Hill ... look for the sheepies
(It was quite windy and mist hung heavy... which is great)
...with view to Rangitoto Island
...view to Downtown.
30 October, 2007
10 October, 2007
And now for something completely different...
Click the "Play" button to start the video
More evidence that the All Blacks are the greatest sports team in the world.
Less than a month...
So. The above is a picture of Karekare Beach. It may look familiar to anyone who has seen The Piano... or anyone who has seen the poster from the movie. This specific beach is about 35KM outside of Auckland. (also of note: Ewelme Cottage)
14 September, 2007
Getting Things Sorted
Here we go...
Since I am going to be in Auckland for quite some time, I thought it best to keep an online record of happenings and such. Hopefully this will be a way for those interested parties out there to see what is happening, without trying to do the Time Zone math (Auckland is +12 GMT).
Not sure how often I'll update until I actually get to Auckland, but once there I'll try to make things pretty frequent.
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