Saturday, October 22, 2005

Summertime Rolls

We spent an idyllic lazy day at the beach today with our friend, Herr Thomas Hoffmann. They've reshaped the sand a bit this week by having large tractors push sand from the back of the beach forward towards the break. This has made the slope of the sand much more gentle than before. Previously, the waves would hit the severe angle and crash any unsuspecting body surfer hard onto the beach, must have been done for safety reasons.

We're meeting up with our friends Greg and Ellen tonight for some Korean BBQ and possibly a round or two of Roulette at the casino. Ellen brought me three Old Navy boxer shorts from the states, increasing my total supply to about four. Clothes and textiles in general are much cheaper in the states than they are here. We're gearing up for a Halloween bash next weekend with some of our other American friends that should be quite an affair.

No cricket this weekend for Peggy, as the weather threatened but didn't deliver. Her match was called off regardless. She's enrolled in a pottery class, a Spanish class and for a Field Hockey team in the past few weeks. Certainly is a busy bee!

My cousin Mungo has been in and out, moving his ship from Darling Harbor to a different dock at the Rocks. We've enjoyed just being in the presence of such a yacht, getting to chase him down and find out what he's up to. Mungo is living the life of a 21-year old quite well, meeting a lot of similarly young Sydneysiders and stretching his days and nights to the fullest.

posted by ncawthon at 5:36 PM

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

The Holden - Ain't

More car troubles have surfaced recently, with our beloved Holden going through some rough patches in it's legacy.

After we got the air conditioning Freon refilled, we noticed an intermittent stoppage of the fan blower. So, we had juice but no way to feel it. Our mechanic had mentioned in passing that it was probably something with the relay, which immediately qualified us to diagnose and fix the problem.

We drove down to the local auto mart, bought an assortment of relays and fuses, popping them in with little problem. However, the extent of damage was not yet evident.

The next morning, Peggy stalled driving up the hill and was unable to get the Holden started again. Later that afternoon, the power window malfunctioned and essentially collapsed. That evening, the turn signals began sporatically not working as well. The next day, the left speakers went kaput.

So, back into the shop goes our Holden to get the electrical problems sorted out and to prop the driver-side window shut with a block of wood. The temperature is not a problem, as we have a fan that works now, but going through either tollbooths, ticket kiosks or drive throughs are all extremely awkward. One must either contort out the back window or attempt to open the door within a typically constrictive space.

This all adds quite a bit of character to an already colorful car. As Peggy hopes, 'the engine will go on forever while the body falls apart'. Our fingers are crossed.

posted by ncawthon at 1:42 PM

Monday, October 17, 2005

Blogorrhea

Evan Williams, one of the creators of Blogger web authoring software, points out, "the blog concept is about three things: Frequency, Brevity, and Personality". This spontaneity means that, at times, bloggers publish impulsive, ill-considered messages. Some authors generate unusually high volumes of output—typically with a noticeable decrease in the quality of content—a phenomenon known as "blogorrhea" (Viegas, 2005).

posted by ncawthon at 4:36 PM