This has been doing the rounds on some of the football websites. Apparently this is the payslip of one of the Liverpool players but no one's quite sure which one. By the salary amount, I reckon it must be Gerrard - there's only a handful of players in the country who are on over 100k per week.
Click on the image below to enlarge.
The project I'm working on is running out of money so they've asked me if I'd mind only doing 4 days a week for the remaining two weeks. Too right I don't mind!
So I'm already half-way through the working week. Well kind of, I'll be working on my business on Fridays but I don't count that as work because I'm doing that for me not someone else. Plus, no doubt some of the Friday work will be spent sat out on my balcony with a beer, or maybe in the swimming pool. I wonder if you can get waterproof laptops?...
It was one of those days today...
First I made a small change to a server at work which completely broke it. I was being rushed to make the change so didn't give enough thought to what I was doing. If I'd have sat back and thought about it for a second I would have realised that what had been requested would cause problems. Anyway, I tried to back-out the change but I couldn't connect to the server at all remotely - all communications with it had gone down. So I figured I'd have to go over to the data centre and log on to it locally at the console, but...
As I was about to leave, the entry system on the doors to our floors went tits-up and locked us in. Now that's a poorly designed entry system. I know most security systems are supposed to fail-safe into a secure state but surely a basic risk assessment would determine that allowing people to quickly get out of the building in an emergency should be an higher priority than stopping intruders getting in? We ended up being locked in for 90 minutes.
Luckily for me, the server in question isn't in production yet, it's still in UAT (User Acceptance Testing). Nonetheless I still needed to get it quickly up and running again as there are strict deadlines on delivering the milestones of the project.
Besides that when I finally made it out for a late lunch I went to the Queensland Transport Office to pick up my Recreational Marine Drivers Licence, only to discover, after waiting for 30 minutes, that I didn't have enough ID on me.
On my way back to the office I popped in to McDonalds to buy a relatively healthy sub-roll, and it was only when I was halfway through eating it that it dawned on me that I was in fact eating a cheeseburger. They'd given me the wrong order (honest, Guv)!
Back at the office I then discovered that the problem I had earlier with the server had caused another problem. I called out for help to Ken, the Check Point guru, and he quickly realised that we'd have to roll-back the entire server config and do a restore from the last backup. But of course, when Ken went to do the restore it completely failed - the backups hadn't worked properly. In the end we had to go back to a full system snapshot that we had taken on the 8th October, meaning that all the changes that I've made between the 8th Oct and now have been lost - I'd have to do it all again. Luckily I have a record of all the changes and it should be no more than a couple of hours work but even so it's a pain. It just goes to show the importance of testing your backups!
I hate stupid computers! And security systems! And McDonalds. And Queensland Transport regulations!
We're entering storm season now here in Brisbane. The weather has been pretty good during the day but most evenings we've had thunder and lightning. Last night we had a fantastic lightning storm. One really loud crack of thunder made us jump out of our seats. I ran upstairs to check Lauren was alright as I was sure it must have scared her to death, and unbelievably she was still asleep. How she had slept through that I'll never know.
It's getting really hot out here now, we were all wilting over the weekend. I've been trying to hold-off on using the air-con unless absolutely necessary, for a number of reasons:
1) It costs money;
2) It's bad for the environment;
3) It dries out your skin; and
4) It won't help us acclimatise.
We gave in Friday night though and switched it on for a bit. I don't mind the heat during the day but being hot and sticky at night is not very pleasurable. It's not so bad downstairs in our house but upstairs is a different matter - it's like a sauna even with all the windows open. We've got air-con and a overhead fan in our bedroom but there's nothing in Lauren's room or the spare bedroom. We've put a standing fan in Lauren's room but all that's doing at the moment is moving warm air. It looks like we'll have to buy air-con units for both rooms. My computer equipment is in the spare bedroom as it doubles up as my office so it's getting dangerous to turn them on without air-con.
We at least have one reprieve - it's so nice to be able to go and jump in a swimming pool whenever we want to to cool down!
On Saturday, myself and Rach completed an official Boatsafe course and passed the exam which now allows us to hold a Recreational Marine Drivers Licence. This means we'll be able to take out 'hire and drive' motor boats which are 6 metres or less in length. In the future we may even buy a boat of our own.
It was a long day on Saturday. The course started at 7am - not a time I usually see on a Saturday morning! It involved a lot of theory - navigation, lights, safety, chart reading, etc; as well as a practical component which basically meant we each got to take a boat for a spin up and down the Brisbane river.
The exam at the end was ridiculously easy - due to the fact that it was an open-book test, meaning we could actually look the answers up in our course material. If you can read English you can pass the exam!
So I hope any visitors we get bring their sea legs with them as we'll probably be going out for a spot of sea fishing!
If you're considering taking a flight in the foreseeable future, you might want to check out farecast.com. The good thing about Farecast is that not only does it help you find the cheapest flight, it also predicts when the price of the flights will rise or fall. It's a US website so the prices are in dollars but don't let that stop you. We live in a globalised world - you no longer have to use UK travel brokers to purchase flights from the UK.
Apparently there are over 50 million blogs in the blogosphere now, ranging from occasional bloggers like me, to full-time professional bloggers, some of whom get more readers and subscribers than many national newspapers.
If you've ever wondered how people make money from blogging, take a look at the links below.
A lot of the top bloggers who blog about Internet marketing are now posting their income reports online. The reason they do this is because it establishes their credibility, which is particularly important if you want people to 'buy in' to your status as an expert on a particular subject. By posting their income report on a blog about making money by blogging, they are showing that they 'eat their own dog food' so to speak and know what they are talking about.
Two of the blogs that I subscribe to that are seen as authorities on blogging and Internet marketing are www.johnchow.com, and www.entrepreneurs-journey.com by Yaro Starak (a fellow Brisbanite).
In September, John Chow made $20,512.17 and Yaro made $10,899.83. Not bad eh. Most top tabloid journalists don't make that much.
You can read John Chow's income breakdown here , and Yaro's income breakdown here.
This is what is truly exciting about the Internet. You can literally start a business from scratch - you don't need money to make money. It doesn't cost a penny to start a blog.
I personally have decided against adding advertising on this blog. This was never meant to be a commercial enterprise - simply a means of communicating to friends and family now that I'm on the other side of the world. I have considered launching a couple of commercial blogs. I've even registered some domain names. At the moment though I don't want to commit to something when I know my website projects will be ready within weeks. If I try to do too much at once none of the projects will get the attention they deserve.
Just a brief update for the last week:
We had a pretty quiet weekend with the exception of Saturday night which somehow turned into a beer fest. Our alcoholic kiwi neighbours - Julie and George - came round for a beer late Saturday afternoon and I somehow managed to stay up drinking with George until 2:30am Sunday morning! Needless to say I was feeling rough on Sunday so we never made it to the planned BBC meetup (British Brisbane Club) in the city. I blame George. He discovered our Wii Sports game and being an ex New Zealand Air Force PTI he doesn't like to lose at sport, even if it is virtual sport. The thing is, I'm quite competitive as well and don't like to lose (I even struggle to bring myself to let Lauren win a game!), so I kept playing him again and again determined not to give up my 100% record. At one point I thought we'd end up playing and drinking through until the Rugby World Cup final started at 5am Sunday. Luckily for both of us we agreed to call it a day at 2:30am. My right arm is still aching today - I'm not sure if it's from the Tennis or Boxing.
On the job front my start date for the permie position has been put back a week to the 12th November to give me more time to complete the operational handover of the project I'm working on. I'm really looking forward to those 3-day weekends. I know I'll be spending my free Friday working on the business but at least I'll be at home.
The only crap thing about the new position is the holiday situation. Australians don't tend to get as much annual leave as we're used to in Britain - typically 20 days per annum as opposed to 25. So pro-rata for me that will work out as 16 days (four weeks). As I mentioned previously, my employers shut down for two weeks over xmas and we have to use our leave allocation whether we want to or not, which will work out as 5 days for me. This only leaves me with 11 days for the rest of the year. I was planning on taking my leave to coincide with when we have visitors over. We haven't got any visitors over xmas! Mum, Dad, if you're reading this, I don't suppose you mind me and Rach going on holiday to Bali for a couple of weeks while you're over here do you? Just kidding.
Work is still continuing in India on the two websites I'm having developed. The first of which should be ready within the next month. The mock-ups of both sites that I have been presented with by the developers look really good - I'm very excited about both prospects! I wish they'd hurry up though, I'm really keen to get stuck in and try out my ideas.
This Saturday coming myself and Rach are booked into a full-day Boat Licence course. If we pass we'll be licenced to wreak havoc on the waterways! I might even take up sea fishing.
This morning I was jogging round our local park before work and I came across a family of deer grazing by the lake. It was an amazing sight. I probably wouldn't have spotted them if it wasn't for a group of people who pointed them out to me, as I've usually got one eye looking up into the tress for those bastard magpies and the other eye looking down at the ground watching out for snakes!
Well I've completed my first week and I think I'll be happy working there. The club Manager is really nice. On my first day I went in with the intention of asking if there was any way I could alter the 9am -3pm shift which was advertised to 8.30am - 2.30pm so I can pick Lauren up from school, I didn't need to ask she offered. I get 1/2 hour break for lunch which I take in the bistro upstairs. I sit and watch the boats, it's so relaxing. I'm waiting for the Dolphins to come back. They were there one day but I was in the middle of banking and couldn't go and look.
The club has 20+ pokies (slot machines) and are looking at expanding this very soon. They couldn't get over the fact that the UK pubs only have a couple of machines in and asked how do they make money? The amount made from the pokies is unreal. Every Monday morning we have to empty the machines it's all very very precise and the gaming commission can come in at any time to inspect. You have to have a licence to touch the inside of the machines - it really is big business. (I'll be going for my licence soon)
There are quite a few expats members of the club and as soon as they hear me talk they are even more friendly. One woman is from Leeds, she's been here 45 years and has still got a very strong Leeds accent. My boss Jan is actually from Cumbria but has been here since she was 6 so is very Aussie - it made me realise that me and Daryl will probably keep our accents but after a few years no-one would ever know Lauren was a pommie! She has started to say words differently but we don't say anything as we want her to fit in at school and that's all part of it. Our neighbours love to listen to her Yorkshire accent but by the sound of it not for much longer!
On Saturday I wrote about how the news that Radiohead's decision to bypass the record labels and distribute their album themselves, at a price chosen by the customer, may signal the demise of the industry. Well guess what, this week Nine Inch Nails, Jamiroquai, Oasis, and, wait for it, Madonna, have all announced that they're dumping their record labels.
This is going to be interesting to watch. My bet is that in 10 years time the only artists on EMI's books will be X-Factor runners-up!
Every now and again we like to treat ourselves and try out a really nice restaurant. With Rach starting a new job on Monday and with me securing a new job, and with Cath volunteering to babysit for Lauren, we decided to try out one of Brisbane's award winning restaurants last night.
We chose Il Centro in the CBD.
This is what I had:
POLPI E SEPPI SALTATI IN BURRO D’ OLIO E PREZZEMOLO CON CROSTINO
SAUTEED OCTOPUS AND SQUID IN GARLIC AND PARSLEY BUTTER WITH SLOW BRAISED VINE RIPENED TOMATO, EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL AND CRUSHED OLIVE CROSTINO
SCALOPPINE DI VITELLO CON FETTUCCINE CARBONARA
PARMESAN CRUMBED VEAL SCALOPPINE WITH FETTUCCINE CARBONARA AND WILTED SPINACH
FRITTE TIEPIDO CON GELATO E SALSA DI CIOCCOLATO CALDO
WARM PROFITEROLES WITH CARAMEL GELATO AND HOT CHOCOLATE SAUCE
CAPE SANTE IN PADELLA CON RISOTTO GLI ASPARAGI E PROSCIUTTO
SAUTEED SCALLOPS WITH LIME CARNAROLI RISOTTO,ASPARAGUS AND PROSCIUTTO AND TARRAGON JUS
ANATRA CROCCANTE ARROSTO, PATATE CON SPINACI E RUCOLA
SLOW ROASTED CRISP DUCK BREAST WITH AMARENA CHERRIES AND BLACK PEPPER SALSA,DUCK FAT BINTJE POTATO, CREAMED SPINACH AND ROCKET
TORTINO AL CIOCCOLATO TIEPIDO CON GELATO E SALSA DI CARAMELLO
WARM CHOCOLATE TART WITH PASSIONFRUIT AND WHITE CHOCOLATE GELATO AND CARAMEL SAUCE
I've just been Clay Pigeon Shooting for the first time ever. There's a shooting complex only 5 minutes drive from where we live so I went along with George, my neighbour. He held a gun licence in New Zealand and grew up as a hunter so he'd done it all before but for me, the last time I'd held a gun other than at a fairground was the annual shooting test in the Navy, where I got to fire the SA-80 Combat Rifle.
To say it was my first time shooting moving targets I did alright, I hit roughly 70% of the targets.
It cost £30 (£13) and that included gun hire, cartridges, instruction and 25 targets. Good value for money I reckon. We'll probably make a regular thing of it.
On the 10th October, Radiohead will release their new album 'In Rainbows'. More interestingly however, the album will be made available as a download from their own website and we, the customer, can decide how much we want to pay for it. If we don't like it, we don't have to pay a penny! What's more, they haven't signed a deal with any of the major record labels or the major distributors, including iTunes, and there will be no promo's for the album. They'll be releasing it and distributing it themselves, and it will be made available to everyone at the same time.
Radiohead are regarded by many as the best band in the world, which is what makes this announcement even more important. According to an A&R Executive at a major label, as quoted in this Time artice - "If the best band in the world doesn't want a part of us, I'm not sure what's left for this business ... if you can pay whatever you want for music by the best band in the world, why would you pay $13 dollars or $.99 cents for music by somebody less talented? Once you open that door and start giving music away legally, I'm not sure there's any going back".
This comes at a time when the record labels and the RIAA (Record Industry Association of America) in particular are facing increasing criticism over their approach to music copyright protection. It wasn't long ago that it was discovered that SonyBMG was surreptitiously including Rootkit installers in CD's to enforce copyright protection - when the CD was placed in your computer CDROM drive an hidden installer would install the copyright protection on your PC without you knowing. Once this became public SonyBMG had to quickly backtrack after what become a PR disaster for them.
And just this week, in yet another RIAA lawsuit in America, SonyBMG's head of litigation, Jennifer Pariser, while testifying before a jury, stated that making a copy of purchased music was tantamount to stealing, even if you'd bought the CD and was simply making a backup. So in the eyes of the record labels, if we download music or buy it on CD and then copy it to our MP3 player, which most people do these days, we are in fact thieves. With an attitude like that it's no wonder that many people don't think twice about downloading music illegally.
The truth is , in every area of business, the Internet is introducing new business models that give more power to us, the consumer, and increasingly allows small business' to take on the big guys. It's truly democratising the world, well at least those parts of the world that have access to the Internet! If the big corporations don't recognise this and adapt to it, they'll quickly lose market share.
I've been offered a new job and I've accepted. What's more, I've got them to agree to a 4-day week!
The project I'm working on for my day job is due to hand over to Operations in November, meaning my involvement would end at that point. Last week my employer called me in for a chat to discuss the future. Their Security Compliance arm of the business is really taking off and they need to strengthen the team to cope with the growing volume of work. They asked me if I'd consider joining their Compliance consultancy on a permanent basis.
I'm contracting at the moment and since becoming an IT Contractor I vowed I would never go back to being a 'permie'. However, circumstances have changed. Here's my thinking:
For you Harry Potter fans you'll like this - one of many Hey There Delilah parodies on YouTube:
Another great weekend. On Saturday we went to the beach again. We've been trying different beaches each time for a little variety. The beaches here go on for miles and miles and there's never any problem finding a quiet one. The only problem being though that the quiet beaches often aren't patrolled by Surf LifeSavers so they don't advise you to go swimming. This weekend we fancied a swim so we went to one of the patrolled beaches. We chose Couloundra, the first resort from us on the Sunshine Coast about 1hr and 20 minutes drive. King's Beach at Couloundra turned out to be really family-friendly. For a change, the waves were only small so it was easily swimmable. Even Rach went in!
On Sunday we went for a community BBQ at the park near where we live. Everywhere you go in Australia you'll find public BBQ's provided by the council free of charge - every park, by the river and by the beach. Most are electric but you still find some wood-burning BBQ's knocking about. It was a wood-burning BBQ that we used on Sunday. Luckily there were already some pre-cut logs waiting for us as none of us had thought to bring an axe.
Besides us, there was a family from Scotland, a family from India and a family from France. We all chipped in and shared each other's food and booze, and me and Craig (Scotland) tended to the barbie.
It's so nice to be able to make plans for the weekend without having to worry about the weather forecast. It's 30 degrees every day here at the moment. It's got to the point where we've started to put the fan on at night. We've managed to resist the temptation to put the A/C on yet though - not good for our electric bill or the environment!
