calebbrown.id.au

While trying to get my phone and net transferred I've spent a lot of time on hold to iiNet. To keep you from nodding off, iiNet provides a loop of helpful tips and self advertising while you're on hold.

One of the messages says this in an advertisement for their 'web accelerator'¹:

Dial-up web accelerator is almost 5 times faster than normal dial-up. It really is the next best thing to broadband.

Maybe I'm paying too much for my ADSL2+ service.

¹ - a web accelerator is primarily a cache, storing a local copy of the data you need to download so you don't have to download it again. The smarter ones can also do things like filtering adverts and prefetching content. It can make it feel faster, but in reality everything comes down at the same old 56K. I reckon they're a waste of money - if you want broadband speeds, get broadband.

As our 60 day period comes to a close now begins the process of moving to our the new place.

So with this post I'd like to say farewell to our old place. You we're a great first home away from the parents. With your off white walls and carpet. With the small bedroom that I somehow managed to fit in. You had a huge open living/dining space and a balcony which we tended to neglect, except when we needed to hang out the washing, or cook a barbecue.

But you made having friends over great, and you never got in the way when we needed to play the Wii. Your position amongst your peers meant that we had to climb a long stair case, but it meant we could leave our windows and balcony door open in summer, and if we needed to the shops were only a short walk away. And you did all this without asking for much in return.

I am slightly jealous of your new occupants. Our new place is nice, but I feel like old friends with you. It will be sad to leave.

Hmm. It will also be sad having smaller wardrobes and no internet or telephone at home for a week. But I'm sure we'll settle in soon.

Hasta la vista

New South Wales, Australia is on the cusp of one its defining moments for the next 4 years. That's right, its election time. A chance to express my democratic freedom and elect a representative from amongst my peers to represent my interests a make decisions on my behalf.

But every time the writ is issued and the rolls are closed I start to ponder who should I vote for. Oh, and not just who, but in what order (ah, the beauty of the preferential system). Should I give my first preference to the Australian Labour Party, the Liberals (who are really quite conservative), or the Christian Democratic Party? After I've figured that out, who then gets the number 2 spot?

The last 14 days have been quite tumultuous¹.

Here is a snapshot of some highlights:

• Saturday Night: I decided to be more disciplined, and as apart of that I've been waking between 6:30 and 7:00am on weekdays to get stuff done
• Tuesday: I attended a funeral for a friend from the Uniting Church who passed away
• Wednesday: My sister had her daughter - which means I became an uncle
• Wednesday Evening: Had one of the most heated and challenging bible studies of the whole year
• Thursday: Left work early to inspect an okay property we had complete certainty we would get - and didn't take it
• Saturday: Spent 3 hours in a travel agent and booked my flights to South America
• Sunday: Went to a lunch to support some of our church's missionaries. Got to sure up the plans to visit them in Chile later this year and was the only person under the age of 30 at the lunch who wasn't there because their parents brought them
• Monday: Had a fiasco getting funds to pay for the tickets²
• Tuesday: Had our application accepted for a really nice place we saw on Satuday

As a result I'm getting tired. But its not a lazy "I've achieved nothing" tired, but a satisfied type of tired that you feel after accomplishing something. I think the difference is being lazy means you fall asleep anxious about all the things you haven't done, whereas after working at something you fall asleep knowing time hasn't been wasted, and the uncompleted things aren't uncompleted due to laziness, but other priorities.

I wonder how long it will continue this way. While I'm totally wrecked at the end of the day, I feel much more energised. The world is presently more colourful and textured than it's been for a long time. So I don't mind if it continues. Even indefinitely.

¹ - tumultuous is now my official word of the year

² - never buy tickets on a Saturday that have a short TTL without (a) having the cash in the bank or (b) having a credit account.

I was driving to work today and I was again impressed with the quality of work being done by the RTA.

One of the programmable overhead signs read as follows:

ACCIDENT AHEAD, LANE CLOSED
PREPARE TO MERGE
>>>>>>>>LEFT>>>>>>>>

Obviously they were thinking of the other left.