Surprised? I nearly bought one!

Strangely the title of this post has nothing to do with anything. I've just had a weird day. The company that I'm currently contracting for (shall remain nameless to protect the guilty) had an IT team meeting today, where we were told by the CIO that he's handed in his notice. Now for me that's not really much of a big deal, I'm there for just over 4 weeks more. However it does beg the question "Should I ask him if he needs an incident / problem manager in his new place?". My gut says that I probably should bother, I've worked there for 2 weeks and I've spoken to him once.

However it was noted today that my manner when talking to users is superb, and that I'm cheerful. Anyone that has known me in my previous employment would probably disagree wholeheartedly. However, I find this job to be mentally quite tricky as it's a lot to take on however the general niceness of folks here in this part of the world seems to be rubbing off on me. Lets hope that it continues! :)

A second shopping trip in a week that has been successful for ME is leaving me a bit worried that I've downgraded my expectations of clothes. 2 pairs of trousers, 1 pair of jeans, a shirt and now a new pair of dress shoes, she who must be obeyed is almost in shock!

Next up - I have shonky access to the new beta version of WOW Wrath of the Lich King, question is... should I try it?

I wonder if this post makes up for the ones that I've missed? I really need to get a new job sorted, with only 4 weeks left it would be good to have one to walk into!

Been a wee while

I'm sorry, I've been off galavanting this past few days. I've had a wee holiday on one of the local islands. It rained lots, but thankfully during the breaks in the rain we managed to catch a migrating whale pod making it's way past.

Photographs have been posted on my Flickr account (bet that makes Google happy!) - though I'm not going to link to it here, because I've told nobody about this blog apart from people who see my flickr link all the time anyway!

During my time away I did not get a call, nor an email or any other contact for that matter, so it seems that I'm still in the land of the unemployed! Hopefully things will change in the next week.

The waiting game

I've never really played this before. Still waiting to hear how my interview went, but at the same time hoping that something else comes up. Something that is more like what I'm used to.

Still - this weekend is looking like it's going to be damp on Rottnest. I guess that I should be getting ready for it now really, I just don't quite know what I'm meant to have ready.

Hair today... gone tomorrow...

It's been a fruitful day so far. Hair has been well and truly chopped (See picture) and I've been put forward for a couple of jobs. Will be interesting to see if I get an interview with either of them.

Let's hope that I do, even though the wages are not exactly setting the heather on fire, I guess we will find out tomorrow.

Jobs, Jobs & not the Steve version!

The great job hunt has pretty much started in earnest today, though I emailed my CV to two fairly large agencies over the weekend.

Alas the contact that we have in one of them is off work ill at the moment, (Get well soon Garry), however his cohort in the agency has told me that with the new financial year just started all the government departments are now flush with cash and are trying to work out what they need people for! He assures me that the agency have a raft of work coming their way.

Even better was when he heard about the experience that I had. Let's just hope that there are not too many delays between then and now.

I think that I'll wait until 1pm and then if I've had no contact from the other agency I may go and get my hair cut, it's like a grass tree at the moment!

Drat - missed a day!

Not that I did all that much anyway - just managed to get the bedroom turned from a bomb site circa 1942 up to a more modern time.

Today has been good though, been out for a meal to a really fantastic Chinese place in celebration of Frances' sisters having possible life changing things, and my visa arriving.

On top of that - my email to Steve Jobs seems to have fallen on deaf ears, yet I've now got, thanks to the iphone dev team, a hacked V2 iPhone. So I've been playing with the free applications. The phonesaber is possibly one of the best ever!

Anyhoo - it's time to eat or be eaten by my own stomach!

Busy, busy!

Well I've now started looking for a job, along with that I've been getting suited and booted to make sure that when I get the interviews I look as neat and tidy as my iMac.

And now that I am staying and working for sure, we got our first bit of furniture here in Australia. Shame it's from Sweden though eh? A nice bed. I think that if I'd have had to get up for work after sleeping for a night on the old bed I'd have been dead in 2 days. This new one is rock solid and feels like it's going to last forever.

I'm so happy I could crush a grape!

Earlier today I got a phone call out of the blue from Helen, my fantastically wonderful Client Manager at DIAC. She called to tell me that for some really strange reason, my application for temporary spouse visa had been accepted. This means that I can now work here in Australia.

This is such good news. I'm totally tickled pink by it!

Psystar legal action and Apple

Today it's been announced that Apple are going to take on Psystar for their cloned computers. The case that Apple are bringing against them is pretty broad spectrum, it covers the EULA (that was entirely ignored by Psystar), the trademarks the license and, finally, the copyright.

Other bloggers are of the view that this pretty much spells the them and I'm inclined to agree, Apple have taken a lot of time to get to this point so I'd guess that they have been getting as much data as possible before going ahead with this.

I hope that Apple take some of the ideas that Psystar had and use them for their own hardware. Most Mac fans these days want a home network set up that holds all their media in a distributed way, and a fair few want more powerful gaming orientated machines.

Only time will tell.

Hancock... a review

Starts really well, works very quickly and there are lots of laughs. Things slow down as the usual character development kicks in and then they speed up a little more, then things start to go a little pear shaped and the whole film takes a very big side step that does not get anywhere near enough justification.

The end comes in a huge frenzied rush that just leaves you going "errm ok"

I'll give it 6.2 / 10

Will Smith does a good job, and actually makes the film watchable, though he has probably said more in one episode in the Fresh Prince of Bel Air than he did in the whole film.

Still alive & kicking

Well I guess I deserve what I got today. I've been eating so much fruit that I was sent out to go and buy more today. And it's been persisting down, to put it mildly!

So, once again, nothing done beyond shopping for tonight's dinner, though Frances and I are going to the movies later. We wanted to see "don't mess with the Zohan" however with dinner being at 6.30 it's unlikely we'll be ready in time, so we are probably going to see Hancock instead.

I'll try and post a review once we're back.

The fruit company that can't be named

Well, actually, it can. However the really weird thing is that I've just eaten 3 bits of fruit. A world record for me, and I thought that I should type it up while I can still breathe. My throat is slowly tightening, not sure if eating fruit this late at night (it's 9.30(ish) here) is *that* good an idea.

Still, mandarin, pear and an apple. Feeling quite proud of myself!

I wonder if it makes up for not doing any sodding exercise earlier?

Things to do when you are broke and out of work

Task 1. Do laundry

Task 2. Hang laundry out to dry

Task 3. Rinse and repeat? ;)

I've been accused of getting out of the wrong side of bed, because I tore into someone on the Mactalk forums for being a negative prick. I know that I did not get out on the wrong side, the cat wouldn't let me!

It's supposed to be sunny and warm(ish) today - I really should get out on the bike and get some exercise done, who knows, I might get some shots for the Mactalk photo competition on Infrastructure.

I will have to check and see what crap is on TV tonight. There has to be something to take the monotony out of my life!

Sunday Shining

Well it's been a busy day so far, and it's only 5.30!

I've managed to get in at least one hobby so far today: House hunting, Frances and I have been to one of the local land estates looking at their house designs. Surprisingly the ones we viewed are close enough to be within our budget when I actually manage to start working! Scott Park Homes seem to have similar thoughts on how life should be to us.

Now, however I'm back at home, in the study rating songs via iTunes and starting a blog. Hoping that I'll be able to catch up with some old friends in Europe via Skype at some point. Tonight is heading towards boredom factor 12, so unless something exciting happens I am going to be stuck at my iMac trying to come up with something less boring instead! It's that or I'll be rating and keywording photographs I've taken recently.

I actually got so bored I thought that I'd write an email to my favourite technology guru - Steve Jobs:

G'day Mr. Jobs,

I know you are a busy man, so very quickly I'd just like to express my pleasure at owning my iPhone.

However I was an impatient person, and living in Australia, meant that I could not get one through an approved source. However I, and many, many more people now have iPhone Classic that is hacked in just the way that Woz and yourselves would have approved of one time in your life!

Now Australia, and so many more places in the world have iPhone legitimately many of us would like to make our naughty iPhones legitimate. I would love to be able to buy Apps through the App Store and sign up to a local providers iPhone plan. I checked with Vodafone AU and Optus AU (I even iPhoned the new Sydney store to ask if they knew if it would work) The answer was no.

Is there any chance that you will let us bring our iPhones into the Apple fold again, I'd even pay Apple a small fee to do so!

Best wishes,

Bisho

Bisho's blog - In the beginning

Why have I decided to make this blog? Well, I guess if I knew the answer to that I'd probably not be doing it. Especially after hearing FSJ's advice on blogging from a BBC article:

"Don't do it, it's like a monkey on your back."

Still, I've got nothing else to do for at least the next 16 days. Lets see if I can keep an online diary that covers just how exciting (sarcasm maybe?) things can get!

I should start really by telling you a little about me. I'm 35 years old, 18 at heart, 80 in cynicism. I live in Western Australia with my partner, Frances, she's from here and that's how I've managed to end up here. I'm from Scotland and to say that I'm proud of that is an understatement.

These days I am unemployed and unemployable. At least until the Australian government grant me permission to stay and work here. Hopefully that will be within the aforementioned 16 days. When I'm not unemployed and unemployable I work in IT as an incident and problem manager.

Hobbies, pleasures and other significant things

Apple Inc. products, house hunting, music, movies, advert free TV, cycling, swimming in the ocean and cooking.