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And (according to my diary) Happy Anniversery to you both!
Posted on 03 March 2005 at 05:35 AM by Rob Masters
afog 202
Sat Noon 05/03
One week down 7 (or so) to go. 8-)
Thanks Rob. M and I went out to a local restaurant Villa Picasso for our anniversary meal. Rob's Newton thinks we were married 7 years ago. We aren't sure. I guess that's why you have witnesses.
Posted on 04 March 2005 at 11:13 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 203
Mon PM 07/03
Poor tired Stevegses. I rode down to McIver station intending to catch the train to Cannington and ride out to the Swancon meeting. When the train arrived it was full. What on earth was happening in Perth? So I ended up riding out to Cannington. And back as well. That was somewhere around 18 Km each way rather than the planned 15 Km total.
Posted on 07 March 2005 at 07:38 AM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 204
10 Anime for Madman
Every year Madman enquires around the Australian anime clubs for suggestions from the members about what good anime is out there. Here is our list:
* Planetes [series].
* Mermaid's Forest [series?].
* Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Second Gig [series].
* Ghost in the Shell: Innocence [movie].
* Appleseed [movie].
* Scrapped Princess [series][I think you already have this one but I haven't seen a release date].
* Howl's Moving Castle [movie][I assume you are getting this anyway 8-)].
* Five Star Stories [movie][fairly old but really nice visuals and just getting a US release].
* Anime Runner Kurumi (?spelling) [movie & sequel][another oldish one with a recent US release - would be nice partnered with the sequel which doesn't seem to have a US release yet].
* Legend of the Condor Hero [series Tai Seng?][not a Japanese release - the graphic novels for this were published in Singapore, feels very like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon].
* Shadow Star (Narutaru?) [series].
Posted on 13 March 2005 at 04:46 AM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 205
Blear
I had five hours sleep last night, I've been entering the final rush of pre-Swancon receipts since 5am and the convention starts in 10 hours or so. I'm dead alread ... it is going to be "go back to work and rest".
Posted on 23 March 2005 at 06:18 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 206
Swancon 2005 part one 07:30 Fri
Well I survived the first day and got just over 6 hours of sleep which is better than I did last night. I'm connected through the hotel by broadband and it is all good.
Spent most of yesterday afternoon on the desk. I went in for the opening ceremony and the last 4 songs of the Charles and MaryAnn concert. Good stuff ... folk club style material a professional standards. It cost an arm and a leg for the sound gear and the sound techs but it would have been worth it for those people who got to hear the whole thing.
If there are random letters missing it is because I am not using my usuall keyboard. This is a keyboard from a 1990s vintage portable (luggable) and it is compact and has a very nice feel. Maybe I should take it into work to substitute for the really crappy one they gave me to use.
Download rates are about 10 times what I get through dialup at home so I'm sucking down the latest Gentoo updates for my system. There is an Xorg/X11 release and a who;e lot of Gnome stuff in there. Woot! It is all done inside an hour.
Oh yeah. The Swancon site is down again. I think I'll go hit a WASFF committee member when I go downstairs.
The broadband ended just as I finished typing this so the posting time isn't going to match.
Posted on 25 March 2005 at 04:51 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 207
Swancon 2005 part two 06:00 Sat
Did nothing but sit on the registration desk yesterday. My hip was a bit stiff from the sitting and I was tired as all get-out. Rob and Leece came down near the end of the day and sat with me for an hour or so playing Chrononauts. Kutos to Sue Isle for the large mug of tea and Rob for filling my thermos with coffee. To be honest I was mostly too tired to be bothered getting up and finding out what was going on. Because all the food stores are closed on Good Friday we organised Pizza in the Park. This worked well even if lots of people grabbed more than they paid for. Oh well. After dinner I went up the Rob & Leece's room for gaming. Gary turned up with the "Tin Duck" awards that he had been making . Very nice they looked. The artist (Brian Choo) was impressed. We then played Carcasonne until 22:00 and then I crawled off to bed.
Posted on 25 March 2005 at 05:20 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 208
Swancon 2005 part three 08:30 Sun
I can't positively say what I spent yesterday doing. Some time on the desk, some time typing up awards certificates, some time doing zombie impressions. More braaaaaaiiiiiinnnnnnssss.
Maureen came by yesterday afternoon so we we out to the New Shima Japanese restaurant. We returned to see a fire engine parked outside the hotel. The smoke machine for the masquerade had set off the fire alarms. Coreynn (spelling?) seemed very pleased with herself - she had managed to try on a lot of fire helmets.
I managed more sleep again last night. Yay!
Posted on 26 March 2005 at 07:32 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 209
Swancon 2005 part four 07:30 Mon
Do I say an extra day in the hotel room or do I not? Ahh descisions.
Yesterday was mostly spent prepping for the awards ceremony. I currently have a laser printer attached to my machine and very simple it was to get running. I managed to use up every last sheet of parchment we bought with only three sheets spoilage *whew*.
Charles de Lint, MaryAnn Harris, and Ann Poore were making music in the foyer for a good part of the afternoon. I got to stop by for around a quarter hour.
I got to attend two more complete panels. The Swancon 31 launch and the awards ceremony. Wow, that is now 3 whole program items now.
I hope this will be a quiet day. No memberships and few duties.
Thanks to Elaine for donating her last two fingers of cheap scotch to Steveg support.
Posted on 27 March 2005 at 06:36 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 210
Post Swancon de-compression
I'm still in the hotel. Maureen came down last night to pick up bulky stuff and have dinner so all I have to move is my computer and some clothes.
I managed to get in two more panels yesterday. One was the the closing ceremony and the other was interesting and unusual. I had poked my nose into the ex-art show room and stopped to chat with Emma Hawkes. A little later a discussion on gender pronouns arrived and started operating. It was all really interesting and sounded like they were moving to the Japanese model by using genderless pronouns where they existed and names where the grammer demanded a he/she or her/him type pronoun. There was some discussion of alternatitive genderless pronouns used in fiction and also in live usage in various languages. Okay, I admit I find this stuff interesting but that is just my wiring. I found out later from Elaine that this was a extention of the Slashcon convention within a convention and had only been advertised in the women's toilets. Ah well.
Posted on 28 March 2005 at 05:31 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 211
Business as usual
I caught a taxi home yesterday morning, did the quick change thing, and thence off to work where I spent the day yawning just like all the people who didn't go to Swancon.
When I came home and re-assembled my computer it started shutting down the power supply if it was even bumped slightly. Hmmm, more work. I was going to put up some more Swancon awards information but the swancon.com machine is down and I don't think many people will see the mirrors.
Posted on 29 March 2005 at 05:42 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 212
Thursday 31/03 AM
The power supply is still shutting down when I bump the top of the case. Minimum treatment looks like a dismantle and clean. Luckily the reiser filesystem is robust and stable.
Work is ... work. I'm entering PC and laptop assets. All day yesterday and probably all today as well. The old Configuration Manager has moved to a new posting and one of the staff has been made CM for a three month trial. I had the lady in question pegged as the most conservative member of the team but she is doing well looking for a better way to do things. This I am happy to assist with. The next level manager has been hinting that they may have an on-going position for me but there isn't any real sign what it is yet.
Posted on 30 March 2005 at 07:00 PM by Stephen Gunnell
afog 213
Friday 01/04 AM
Before Easter = Hot, mostly humid, and occasional thundery showers.
After Easter = Cool, damp, and drizzle.
Just like flicking a switch.
First pay since September in my bank account. Wheeee!
I've been off looking at replacement computer cases and bits. The dead Win98 box needs to be ratted for parts and disposed of. The Dell PowerEdge 4100/200 really needs to go. It is physically too large, too noisy, and produces too much heat. Except that I really want to find some way to retain that hardware RAID stack *sigh*. My current box should move to a smaller case and become (semi) portable. I can get a two point mumble gig AMD processer for just over a hundred dollars and a motherboard for about the same. I need to cost half a gig of DDR memory as well. Hmmmmm. It is still far cheaper than buying a store system.
New Scientist is currently offering a chance at a Sony Vaio if I buy a subscription. Hmmm, we have been intending to do that anyway.
Posted on 31 March 2005 at 06:26 PM by Stephen Gunnell