Black Spur

School starts on Monday... Yay for me! (Heavily lined with sarcasm).

We did something different for Australia Day (26th of January) this year and head up to visit some friends in Buxton (Past Healesville) which meant driving though the Black Spur... and I was driving. The Black Spur is a narrow road, on the side of the mountain, which has incredibly tight turns and is uphill the whole way (depending on your direction, of course). Those yellow signs warning you of a bend in the road and post an advisory speed limit, which on most roads you can exceed with ease; but not on the Black Spur... When is says 25km/h it means 25km/h, and not a single kilometer over it.

I was heading up the road at a safe speed and taking the corners at the posted limit... even then you could feel the G forces pushing you to the side of the car... hard! At the irregular straight stretches I would speed up to get that extra power for going uphill (in my 1996 Ford Laser). But this wasn't fast enough for some.

A red car was right on my tail the whole time, and I didn't want to speed up for him because the road was just too dangerous... Tough shit, he can wait behind me (because the whole road is just too bloody dangerous to overtake anything, have I told you that yet?). Red car makes the move to pass, accelerates but a silver car in the other lane comes from around the corner ahead.

At the rate of speed that we were both travelling there was no way he could have make it ahead of me... James brakes, red car makes it though... by a mere meter. If I hadn't braked there would have easily been a head-on collision at 120km/h (60km/h + 60 km/h = 120km/h) with the two cars, the driver and passengers of both the red and silver cars would be dead, the people in the car immediately tail-gating the silver one would be a serious condition, as well as the people in the car tail-gating that one (you should have seen them slam their brakes on), the collision would have extended onto our lane and I would be either in the hospital or the morgue today and my the rest of family would be in hospital too... and we would inconvenienced hundred's of people heading out for Australia day, as both lanes would have been blocked for hours.

But that didn't happen... Yay for me! (Without the sarcasm this time).

It reminds us all to be a little more careful when driving on the roads and be aware of the conditions...

Or not... the Porsche Boxster behind originally behind the red car passed me seconds after the above incident. Some people don't learn from other's mistakes and have to make them themselves...

Lazy, Busy or a combination of the two

The title really explains it for you why there hasn't been anything here recently. I've been into the city, driving and I went go-carting today... just to name a few...

I promise something interesting before I go back to school on the 29th (only put the date in cos some people keep asking me, now its here for you to remember). Perhaps it'll be a screenshot of BackTrack 2 Beta, which I've been thoroughly enjoying in my spare time or something as dull as the description of my latest belly button lint (Hey, could be worse, could've come from somewhere a little further South) or perhaps, it will be something that I actually said I'd do - UltraVNC (I have an opening sentence typed, I promise).

In the meantime here's something that might amuse some, or not...

Oh, and by the way, I updated my links to other people. Not much annoys me more than contact info that changes - an email address, mobile phone number or website should remain the same. Admittedly, sometimes it ain't possible; but me having to deal with 2 new websites, 3 changed mobile phone numbers and 3 different email in two weeks is a bit ridiculous.

Neon Sign Transformer

I've been searching eBay for quite a few months now looking for a Neon Sign Transformer for use with a tesla coil. Most of the NST's have been located in the United States and the total cost of purchase and shipment would be about AU$200; which is out of my price range.

There was an auction this week based in Montrose for four NST's and the minimum bid was $150. Fortunately the guy was able to sell me one for $50, and he delivered to my door (because he was going to St. Kilda anyway). Yes, I am aware that it says 'FART' on the front of it and I believe it was created by Mr Berry.

So now I'm looking for Capacitors and Copper piping...

And anyone who buys an iPhone is an iWanker!

My Holidays/Christmas

Had a nice relaxing time over in South Australia, apart from their television ad's. Almost every day was over 30 degrees so I spent a lot of time at the beach. I went fishing three times and caught three large squid which is a pretty good haul this time of year. Also went spearfishing but the water was unusually quiet and only managed to spear a small skate (like a stingray, but no barb with poison).

For Christmas I got my new phone (which I've had for several months anyway), a skim board (and it's evil, I have cuts all over me) and many other things you expect to get for Christmas (underwear for example). New Years Eve was a quiet one, but we had heaps of fun covering ourselves with the stuff inside glowsticks and making our hands glow.

Also my sister came and visited from America. It had been about five years since I had seen her last so it was good to catch up again. We had heaps of fun at the beach.

When we got back, our cable modem had finally died. It was about five or six years old so it was time for a new one anyway. Optus told us that it was dropping 20-30% of packets which would be seriously affecting internet performance (yup, we didn't have any internet at all). So we had a Motorola Surfboard 5101 installed by Optus. The guy that came over also tuned our connection for maximum performance and the overall results are very noticable; I now feel like we have Cable Internet again.

My to-do list is building up again but I'll do my best to get it all done, I am on holidays after all. I think the next review will be on UltraVNC - a program thats used to view a screen or use a computer across a network (or internet if you can be bothered setting it up).

Back From Holidays

Alastair did one of these and it looked like fun, so I will too...

***Your Five Factor Personality Profile***

Extroversion:
You have medium extroversion. You're not the life of the party, but you do show up for the party. Sometimes you are full of energy and open to new social experiences. But you also need to hibernate and enjoy your "down time."

Conscientiousness:
You have high conscientiousness. Intelligent and reliable, you tend to succeed in life. Most things in your life are organized and planned well. But you borderline on being a total perfectionist.

Agreeableness:
You have medium agreeableness. You're generally a friendly and trusting person. But you also have a healthy dose of cynicism. You get along well with others, as long as they play fair.

Neuroticism:
You have low neuroticism. You are very emotionally stable and mentally together. Only the greatest setbacks upset you, and you bounce back quickly. Overall, you are typically calm and relaxed - making others feel secure.

Openness to experience:
Your openness to new experiences is medium. You are generally broad minded when it come to new things. But if something crosses a moral line, there's no way you'll approve of it. You are suspicious of anything too wacky, though you do still consider creativity a virtue.

Also, while on holidays I figured out what MacIntosh stands for:
Most
Applications
Crash
If
Not
The
Operating
System
Hangs

I look forward to complaints about that. I'll post about my holiday/christmas later in the week and I plan to have something done by the 14th.