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Quote of the Day

The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.

Ralph W. Sockman

My Geek Resume'

I'm the official office computer wizard, a "Computer Focal." How that came to be is a long story which I'll spare you. It's not my real job. I've been doing it so long that I inadvertently acquired "God Mode" admin privileges. I only use my powers for good, but don't think I won't use them! About fifty people come to me first when something doesn't work with their computer. As a result, I see lots of problems. Most of them I can fix, especially if I've watched the real helpdesk fix that problem before.

I was shocked to realize that I have six computers in my home, four WinXP and two Mac OSX machines. That doesn't count a Palm T2 and an iPaq PocketPC. They all work, and they all talk to each other on my secured home network.

Not bad for an autodidact computer geek.

Parallel Universe

Trying to figure out just which one of these I'm in!

I'm Hiding

He he he, you can't see me, cuz I'm the same color as the leaves.

Vashon Island

On Saturday, we took the Grandkids, Bug(12) and Dodie(7), to Vashon Island for some exploring and high-impact beach-combing. We caught the ferry from Point Defiance to Tahlequah, then drove north to "Sound Foods," an old hippy hangout, now a high end, and pricey, lunch place.

We sat outside in a lush, English-style garden.
The temperature and sun were perfect, the food was good, although we all agreed they need to work on the clam chowder recipe a little more. And don't be in a hurry when eating here, it's not that kind of place. The tea shop is no longer there. It moved to the location of the old "Stewart Brother's Coffee" warehouse. (It's now known as "Seattle's Best Coffee," but this is where they started.)

After lunch, we drove (wandered) to Point Robinson Park, where there is a turn-of-the-century (the other century) lighthouse. We walked south along the beach, collecting shells and rocks and taking pictures of the driftwood. I'm glad we only had one bag to collect shells in. Bug took my camera and slowly approached a blue heron, taking pictures as he walked and got a pretty good picture as it took off.

We backtracked to the lighthouse and got a tour of the inside and the light itself. Like so many historic locations, there is always a need for restoration funds, so Dodie put some money in the donation jar and signed the register. Signing the register is important because that's proof that many people enjoy visiting this site. It helps secure government funding. Why is it that lighthouses are so picturesque? I've never seen a lighthouse that wasn't photogenic, and I've seen many.

We were lucky to get the tour. It's normally open only on Sundays (4 Bells of the forenoon to 4 Bells of the afternoon, look it up!)
The Great Lighthouse Hunt in Washington is underway so it's open additional days.

The lighthouse is on the point, so continuing our walk means a turn to the west. More shells and driftwood. And more pictures.

After more than three hours of exploration and enjoying the views, we needed some hot tea, so we found the Tea Shop. Bug likes the "Pirate Tea", my favorite is "Russian Caravan."
We wanted to find the "Leprechaun" Bed and Breakfast that we'd stayed at years ago, but got lost, and found ourselves near the Ferry Dock. So we joined the line and waited for the "Rhododendron"

My Son's Trip Home

the final post from my Melbourne trip:

Benefits of arriving at the airport early:

I packed my garment bag Friday night, and placed boxer shorts and dirty socks in the extra pockets in the garment bag (to make room in other bags for purchased items). I set out my other bags and items, and packed them on Saturday morning. I planned to be in a taxi at 8am and arrive at the airport by 9am.

Plan - the best way to sleep on a plane trip is to be tired when you get on it. I went to bed at 2am and woke up at 6am. It also helps to have a light breakfast sans coffee. Minimal food now equals hunger later, and hunger increases tiredness.

I woke up at 6am, ate a light breakfast, packed my bags, and stepped out of my hotel room at 8am (on schedule). The taxi arrived at the airport at 8:35am (ahead of schedule). The Muslim taxi driver from eastern Africa asked me why no Jews were killed in the September 11 attacks in NYC at the WTC. Shocked

Note From the editor: Check out this Book.

I find QANTAS airlines and stand in line. I ask the lady in front of me if this is for QANTAS and for the flight to LA. She says 'yes.' She was on flight QF 93 to LAX, and it was leaving at 10:25am.

That was cool. I thought I was on flight QF 25 which left at 10:50am, so I must have mixed up the flight number. My flight was now leaving 25 minutes early, and I was ahead of schedule. Everything was cool. Flight QF 25 was leaving 3:50pm, or something like that. I didn't pay attention, because it wasn't my flight.

I get to the ticketing counter and give the lady my passport. She told me that I was scheduled for flight QF 25, which had a stopover in Auckland, NZ. (A stop in Auckland was never on my original itinerary.) Did I want to take my original flight (which is delayed) with a stop in Auckland, or did I want to fly on the earlier flight? I wanted the earlier flight.

She found room in a middle seat, and I asked about the Tourist Refund Service (TRS = tax refund). TRS was after Customs, and TRS would need to see my purchases. Eek! My purchases were in the checked bags. The lady told me that there was another Customes office at the bottom of the Movelator (moving sidewalk that goes up/down between floors). She said she'd look for an aisle seat while I went downstairs to Customs. I ran, got the receipts stamped, and ran back. The lady checked my bags and I continued to Customs.

I found a queue for Customs, went to TRS and got my refund (sent to my credit card), and continued. The gate had called for everyone to board, so I brought up the tail of the line on the boarding platform.

I had nice neighbors (young married couple going to the U.S. for the first time - Disneyland). I watched Hoodwinked, Over the Hedge and most of V for Vendetta. I took an Ambien and slept.


LAX
I arrived early, and found some extra flights going to DFW. I put my name on the standby list for a flight at 9:19am (it was already 20 long). I went to the restroom, washed my face and under my arms, applied fresh deodorant, and put on a fresh shirt that I placed in my backpack just for this reason. FRESH!!! I went to Starbucks for a half-caff iced latte. This was a long/slow line. I got my drink and returned to the gate. I looked at the standby list, and it showed 1 PLU/E. Oops. I went to the counter and asked about my standby status. The lady said she'd been calling my name forever. I said I was sorry, and that I couldn't hear her when I was in Starbucks. She made me wait while she checked for an available seat. I was the last person on the plane.

I arrived in Dallas at 2:30pm, seven hours ahead of my bags. My ticket from LAX-DFW was AA 2454, when it should have been AA 2450. My bags arrived on AA 2450 (baggage claim at A-28), as they were supposed to. I went to baggage claim C-15, because that's where AA 2454 was supposed to go. Deborah at C-15 had a line of people looking for their bags that didn't show up, so she passed out the 800 number. I called and asked where my bags were supposed to arrive. My bags were waiting at A-28. YAY!!!


Lesson
It helps to arrive extra early at the airport.

More From Melbourne

(All times are based on Dallas time.)

« on: July 21, 2006, 20:57:54 »

Melbourne, Ozzyland

I just checked into the hotel room. Today is tomorrow. The time in Dallas is 8:50pm on Friday, 21 July 2006. The time in Melbourne is 11:50am on Saturday, 22 July 2006. So I guess Melbourne is 15 hours ahead of Dallas.

Being as I left Flower Mound around 3pm on Thursday (Dallas Time) to go to the airport, and it is now almost 9pm on Friday (Dallas Time), it has been over 30 hours since my last shower. This log is postponed until further cleanliness.





« Reply #1 on: July 22, 2006, 18:12:06 »

Airline Review:
I love flying with QANTAS.

In-flight entertainment (all free, all on-demand):
10 Games
10 Radio Stations
60 Movies
100 TV Shows (ranging from 15 travel guides to 50+ minute shows like CSI)
250 CDs

The control is in the arm rest of the seats. Telephone and text messager (credit card is required), game controller (like Nintendo), channel selector for entertainment. One can pause, rewind and fastforward through movies and TV shows. The screen is maybe 6" x 8" and can mainly be viewed straight on; it's difficult to view the the screen from the side. I watched The Castle (Australian movie, comedy) and some travel guide shows.

Dinner was nice; I had the Cadbury's Hot Chocolate instead of coffee or tea.





« Reply #2 on: July 22, 2006, 18:48:53 »

City Review: (part 1)
Melbourne is awesome.

I picked up a lot of tourism brochures and sorted through them by available dates. Then I'll pick out which events I go to. The first is a Singapore Expo at the NGV International (National Gallery Victoria), which is this (Sunday) afternoon.

I bought a weekly Metcard, which is for the local public transportation.



« Reply #3 on: July 23, 2006, 17:11:38 »

Melbourne is beautiful. It's winter here, and it's nice. The climate is cool, not cold. The city is beautiful enough to forgive the Aussies for driving on the wrong side of the road. I've learned some lessons, and still learning others.

Examples:
Lesson learned - I'll cross streets at the intersections, preferably with a crowd. I tried crossing in the middle once after checking that the street was clear. I looked in the wrong direction.

Lesson not learned - I tried returning to the hotel, which is south of downtown. I caught a tram and went into downtown. Wrong direction. This turned out to be really good. Maybe you've heard about the choreographed water fountain displays, like in Las Vegas. I saw something better - a choreographed fire fountain display. It was awesome! There are about half-a-dozen columns in the display. I think they are 30 feet high, and you can touch them at the base. The fire is at the top, and I felt the heat. I walked 60 feet away, and I still felt the heat.


BTW, I visited the NGV yesterday. I left Indonesia Day early and toured other parts of the gallery. Most of it is free; the Picasso display had a charge. I paid and saw it. Way cool! It was Picasso: Love and War, 1935 - 1945. It was about Picasso and his lover/muse Dora Maar. She was a photographer (1907-1997) and a hoarder. They were only together for ten years, and she kept everything. Her photographs of Picasso's Guernica as he created it influenced his choices during the process. He made choices to support it's presentation in gray-scale, instead of just color. Guernica is roughly 12' x 24'. The audio tour mentioned it was almost 8 meters long.





« Reply #5 on: July 25, 2006, 02:32:06 »

The flight was definitely sweet. It makes me look forward to the return flight. I was even luckier that I had a window seat with nobody next to me. I got the whole armrest. You may not realize just how valuable it is until you are on a 14 hour flight. Grin

The International terminal at LAX was good. I had a 5-hour wait, so I got to people-watch. I especially liked the flight attendants for the other airlines. I don't know which airline this was (Asian), but the female flight attendant uniform was purple, and the skirt had a slit up the side of the thigh. I don't care which airline it is, or the destination; I just want fly it once and find as many reasons as possible for pressing the call button.


City Review:
I walked south to St Kilda (Saint Kilda). It's a suburb of Melb, and my hotel is on St Kilda Road. My destination of Barkly Street and Acland Street is about 2700 meters from the hotel. It's a pretty cool scene. Acland Street reminds me of Greenville, Lower Greenville, or Deep Ellum, only it's short. I left the hotel at 6:15pm and returned at 8pm. I had dinner at McDonald's. It was an "El Maco." It tasted like a Big Mac, and it had sour cream and "taco sauce" instead of Thousand Island.

Melb and my location south of it:
It's like a big town with a small town feel; a mix of England (old-world feel and accents) and California (coastal feel and modern architecture). I was informed that the public transportation in Melbourne (great) is kind of unique to Melb; Sidney and other large cities in Australia don't have anything as good.

Right is Wrong:
I'm never driving in Australia. I look both ways (three times) before crossing a street at an intersection, and keep looking both ways while I cross. I keep thinking of how I would plan a trip with the public transportation, and I have to start over because I imagine catching the Tram on the wrong side of the street.


Traveller Skillz:
Number 1 - being able to walk through a crowded downtown sidewalk, obviously looking like an outsider and easy mark, and keep looking/walking forward without acknowledging the guy calling "hey" twice to get my attention.

Number 2 - reading a map, but it's not as important as Skill #1.





« Reply #6 on: July 25, 2006, 05:37:39 »

I was informed today that Rugby is not the same thing as Australian Rules Football. Soccer is Soccer, and Football ("Footy") is Australia Rules. The TV stations have a minimum of four channels for Footy, and only one for Rugby. I watched a game of Footy last night. It's interesting. A guy runs with the ball until he is tackled and brought to the ground. He passes the ball to a player on his team by rolling it backwards on the ground under his foot. This guy continues forward. The ball can only be passed to another player who is behind the ball carrier. The only way to pass the ball forward is to kick it. This is risky, because the other team could intercept. The game I watched last night had a lot of running, tackling, and passing to the rear. A summary that I watched this morning was almost all kicking forward. Maybe this was rugby. Footy is played on an oval field, and so is cricket. I don't know about rugby.





« Reply #7 on: July 25, 2006, 14:33:06 »

Damn. I had a dream about ARF last night. Not that I was watching it, but that after my return to the states I was asked to demonstrate the game for all of us in Larry's back yard. With a real rugby ball and real tackling. Ouch. No more TV for me; I'm staying with movies and sightseeing.

The main play is between three guys: one guy running with the ball and two guys tackling him. Everybody else is standing back to give them room. The opposing team doesn't try to intercept unless the ball is kicked, or if an opponent happens to be inbetween two players when the ball is thrown backwards.





« Reply #9 on: July 26, 2006, 03:06:05 »

What I learned today:
Rugby = running and tackling.
Footy = emphasis on kicking.





« Reply #10 on: July 26, 2006, 17:32:17 »

It's difficult for me to stay out late. 8pm is the limit. I went to sleep one night at 10pm, and the following day I was tired at 6:30pm. And I still wake up several times between midnight and 6am.

I'm planning a day trip on a bus tour to a place northeast of Melbourne. It's called Healseville Sanctuary. I'll probably see some platypi, koalas, and kangaroos. I'll get to ride a train do some other stuff. Leave at 8:40am, return at 5:30pm. The cost is $151, and I have a coupon for 10% off. I'll probably do this on Saturday, then go to movies on Sunday.




« Reply #12 on: July 27, 2006, 07:18:06 »

what I learned today
Australia has a population of about 20.6 million. Sidney has about 4.5 million, and Melbourne has about 3.5 million. Melbourne has the tallest residential building in the southern hemisphere. I saw it as I walked toward downtown for dinner; it's impressive and pretty. Australia is debt-free, and the fire display is hourly; we saw it at 6pm, 7pm, 8pm, and 9pm. Some displays are shorter than others.


Australia
Area: 7.7 million sq km (2.9 million sq miles)

USA
Area: 9.8 million sq km (3.8 million sq miles)

A flight from Melbourne to Alice Springs (closest large airport to Ayer's Rock) takes three hours. That's like Dallas to Chicago. Australia is 78.6% the size of USA when it comes to area.





« Reply #13 on: July 28, 2006, 07:45:34 »

Melbourne is clean. At least the major public areas are clean. It's enjoyable to walk from downtown to the hotel.

I did something bad this evening. I have a list of things to avoid so I can pay off my debts. Starbucks, bookstores, La Madeleine (I dig their omelettes). I didn't think to include clothing stores. I walked past a shop window near Chinatown in Melbourne and saw a sign that said "$29." It was on a shirt. I looked at store signage and it said "Formal Hire," which means rental clothing. I stepped in to ask about the price, whether it was a daily rental rate or the sale price. It was the sale price. I asked what time the store closed - 7:30pm. It was 7pm, so I had half-an-hour to try on shirts. I left at 8:30pm with nine shirts. ... and some other stuff. My main consolation is that $29 AUS is less than $22 USD. My other consolation is that I'm on vacation with travel, hotel, and meals paid for. And my other other consolation is that I'm about to be reimbursed for previous travel expenses, so I've got money to spend.





« Reply #14 on: July 29, 2006, 02:35:12 »

I did some more shopping in a new part of town - South Yarra / Prahran / Chapel Street. Now I'm back in the hotel, debating whether to do laundry now or later. Decisions.

Tipping is rare. What we would usually add on for gratuity is already included in the price. Restaurants, haircuts, room cleaning, taxis - no tipping.

I decided to do laundry, then maybe I'll go out later.

Rugby is played on a rectangular field. Australian Rules Football (ARF) is played on an oval field, as is Cricket.

ARF allows the ball to be thrown forward to another player. ARF has four goal posts, equally spaced in a straight line. The ball is kicked through to score points. Between the middle posts gains 6 points, between the outside posts gains 1 point, and bouncing off the two middle posts is equivalent to kicking the ball through the outside posts.

I haven't seen any Scrums in ARF. A Scrum is when the ball is unclaimed, and the referee sets it on the field. The teams huddle into one big circle, with each team taking half of this circle. As far as I can tell, they push and somehow try to claim the ball that is on the ground. It's like a spider with a 15' diameter and 40 legs that cannot decide which direction it wants to go. I've only seen this in Rugby.

In ARF, the referee bounces the ball on the field so it goes really high. Then each team tries to secure the ball for their side.

In Rugby, when a player throws the ball in from the side, he will throw it really high. The players will lift one of their own high into the air to catch the ball. It's amazing to watch.

Both sports appear rough. I think it's amazing to watch either one. I watched a game of ARF this morning, and it's a high-scoring game. I think it was 160 to 123. The 123 was the highest losing score of the season.





« Reply #15 on: July 30, 2006, 05:11:50 »

I walked 7 to 8 miles, ate some authentic Mexican food, bought another shirt, and went through the Melbourne Aquarium.

Walking - I bought bandages on the way back to the hotel. My feet hurt, especially my right heel.

Mexican food - It still stands that I eat better/tastier Mexican-inspired food when I'm travelling than when I'm at home. Montreal and Melbourne. Who would have thought, besides the people that started the restaurants where I enjoyed good food?

The newest shirt - $29 AUS includes the tax. Conversion is $0.754 USD for $1 AUS, and Texas sales tax is 8.25%. The effective price of the shirt before tax is $20.20. It's a great set of shirts at a great price, though still not the best sale I found. (Six shirts for $9 each at Bachrach.)

The Aquarium - Neat! I closed it. It has four levels, and your path is directed. My favorite is the Main Oceanarium and Deep Water Trench. (They are connected.) They have three Grey Nurse Sharks and five Seven Gill Sharks. The Seven Gill Sharks are the most prehistoric of all sharks. Other sharks have five gills, though shark fossils show that they used to have seven. The Seven Gill Sharks don't have the dorsal fin, though they still have the fin on their back which is closer to the tail.

The Aquarium also has rays in the same tank. You don't know how amazing these things are until you watch a seven-foot diameter black disk with a white belly and a tail swim over your head.

The octopus was the last display. Yes it was a tiny tank compared to the Main Oceanarium, but the octopus was active. Have you ever watched an octopus go from being as smooth as an apple to being as rough as a prickly pear in a few seconds? Or go from dark rust red to white in one second? It's freaking amazing! I saw both of those and more. I've seen (on television) an octopus look like and swim like a coral snake (long and skinny with black and white stripes), turn sideways and look and swim like a lion fish (red and white with poisonous spines and fins), and go flat and sand-colored like a flounder.

And then there is the frozen giant squid. It's encased in a block of ice. (I looked above the block and saw frost, so I know it's not acrylic that was made to look like ice.) From the tip of the bell to where the tentacles start is about four to five feet long. The tentacles are folded over so it doesn't take up as much space. The pupil of the eye was about 2-1/2" in diameter, and the white area made about at a 7" diameter. These things swim between 500 to 1500 meters deep; I'm not going past my ankles when I go to the beach. I don't want to meet one of these things alive.


Further proof that I'm never driving in Australia - I had a dream last night that I was driving in Melbourne. I couldn't figure out why other cars were driving toward me in the same lane and honking at me. Then I realized that I was in the wrong lane.


Further clarification regarding ARF - the players must kick the ball through the goals; they cannot carry it through.





« Reply #20 on: August 4, 2006, at 06:29:22 »

I found out today that I shopped enough for a tax refund from Australia.


So I shopped some more.


But this time it wasn't for me. ;)


I went to a new part of town called Lygon Street. It's north of the Central Business District (CBD), which is the official name for downtown Melb. Lygon Street has a lot of nice restaurants. The restaurants have sidewalk seating, usually with awnings and plastic windows to block the wind. And heat lamps to keep everyone warm (too warm for me). The sidewalk seating is next to the street, and restaurants have their menu on a free-standing blackboard or something similar for people to look at. The menu is by the entrance to the main part of the restaurant, and you have five to six feet of sidewalk between the building and the tables. So you're trying to walk past a crowd of people who have gathered to read the menu so they can decide whether or not to dine at this restaurant (either inside or outside), and you can't walk around them because you have tables in the way, and once you wiggle your way through this standing crowd of a half-dozen people, you still have to deal with traffic coming head-on that doesn't understand the meaning of "single file." It was fun.

It's 9:29pm on Friday, and my flight is tomorrow morning at 11am. Do I pack my bags tonight or tomorrow morning?


P.S. - I'm still not driving in Australia. I was in the CBD waiting for a Tram back to the hotel. I'm standing on the sidewalk watching cars drive past. The cars closest to me are going from my right to my left. No problem. I see one car on the far side come from the left and go to my right and I freak out. He's going the wrong direction! Wait. No, he's not. He's driving where he's supposed to be. I took two taxi rides today, one on Tuesday night, and one last night. Someone else was driving, so I stayed calm. But there was still some part (like being in the left lane) that looked totally weird.


I don't know what I just did, but it was cool. I'm using Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.6, and I just selected some text and right-clicked so I could copy it. The menu appeared, and so did something else. I had a square magnifying glass under my cursor. It made everything (text and images) 25% larger. Sweet!

Hah! Double right-click brings the magnifying glass.