Learning to fly
Over the weekend I was in JB-HIFI and noticed some really cute footage of some birds learning to fly. I found a snippet of it on youtube 
Art Vandelay, Imports / Exports
Today I finally got around to going to Customs to lodge the paperwork for my incoming shipment of personal effects from the USA. It has been bugging me for a while and I probably should have done it sooner.
I walked to town and on the way noticed that there was a LOT of police cars about. Not just police cars, saw a couple of pretty nice police 4×4′s and a police boat!
Upon arriving at Customs I picked up the phone on the counter and dialled 1222 for service. A nice lady came out and went through my forms and took my ID (Passport, 2x driver licenses). After coping some relevant info and signing my life away, I was directed to go and visit quarantine a few blocks away so they could assess whether or not they would want to inspect my items or not. Another nice lady helped me and went through my stuff. After making a joke that I might have swine flu (ha ha!), she said they will release my shipment in the system today saving me time and money! woohoo!
Since I was in town I popped into the Harris Scarfe department store. I saw a nice 7.5L cast iron pot on the front page of their catalogue for $99 (down from $399 but I bet no one ever pays that much) which I was interested in. Surprisingly enough they had some in stock! On my way up the stairs to homewares I noticed a sign that said if you spend over $150 on homewares, we will deliver your order FREE to your home next day. Beauty I thought as I was not sure if I was going to buy one or not if I had to lug it 2-3 km up the hill. So I bought two of the buggers, one for me and one for Dad.
Once I arrived home I paid my Melbourne port fees and rang the Cargo company. They gave me an update that my stuff left Melbourne yesterday and is due to Hobart on a truck on the 10th. If all goes well I should have my stuff on the 11th or 12th! 
S60 Apps
I have had my Nokia E51 for over a year now and I have not destroyed it which is almost a record for me. The E51 runs S60 feature pack 1 which allows me to load up applications I find on the net to expand the phones capabilities. Over the last year I have found a handful of apps which are quite handy. Below is a list:
Google Maps (Free)
Every S60 page on the net will at some point point you to the download of Google maps. With the recent addition of street view I have to admit it is pretty awesome.
ColbySMS (Free)
I am on a prepaid account which means my text messages cost 25c each. I have recently installed ColbySMS and now I have a simple text messaging program that can utilise MyNetFone, Clickatel, Pennytel of Exetel SMS. I have accounts with all bar Exetel which allows me to send messages from 5c.
Slick (Free)
I have tried quite a few IM clients on my E51. I have found this one the best for me.
Shazam ID (Free)
I first found out about this app from watch iPhone ad’s on TV. I was happy to find I could get it on my Nokia. Not sure if this one is 100% legit but I was able to install it once I changed the date in my phone back to 2008 due to a certificate error… If you don’t know, this app can name songs by listening to a 10 second snippet.
Opera Mini (Free)
I run this web browser along side the factory one. I flip back and forwards between the two. It is free and worth the download.
Gravity (Trial, Paid)
Twibble used to be my S60 app of choice but now I have Gravity. It is VERY fast to load and it is pretty. Good way to keep up to date with everyone on twitter.
YouTube (Free)
Google finally updated the app to version 2. Version 1 crashed my phone all the time but I am happy to say V2 is excellent. It streams the videos nice and quickly and is very stable. Visit youtube.com in the phone browser and you will be redirected to download it.
ShoZu (Free)
ShoZu allows you to interact with Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and other web sites. I use it to upload pictures taken from my phone to Facebook while I am out with friends.
Random
10,000+
I just filled out a competition to win a playstation 3 pack from Dick Smith. That is fine but something struck me as unusual. The form asked me to put my date of birth into the system. That is fine but what came next was a little unusual.
The form went on to tell me that I was born on a Friday and I am 10078 days old. Why?
I know also feel ripped off as I didn’t do anything to celebrate my 10,000 day milestone!
(and yes, obviously you can work out my DOB even though it is obscured)
Forklift Safety
I got an email this morning from United Airlines with the subject heading “United Airlines Schedule Change Notice”. I opened it thinking what the fuck!
They provided me with this new schedule:
I review it and still see I am flying on the same day. I then pull up the old schedule:
I logged into united.com and my seats were exactly the same… so the question still remains unanswered.. what changed?
Four weeks
February is now one week down which means I have four work weeks left of working out of the Hershey office in PA. It is now less than 5 weeks until I land in Tassie.
The time is flying by. It is going to creep up on me and all of a sudden I will have a week to sort out my stuff and get on a plane.
I was driving through Hershey last weekend with Suz while we were taking a break from working on Saturday to get some lunch. We drove past the Hershey Theatre which had a banner out advertising Avenue Q! I had heard of Avenue Q due to one of their songs doing the rounds on youtube.
I thought about it for a few days and I decided to go. I have no idea why it took we so long to decide. The show was great and the energy of the performers was excellent. The show is done with puppets and is centered around Princeton who moves to Avenue Q in NYC to start a new job and find his purpose. Of course this did not go to plan.
The same day I went to Avenue Q, a box full of 6 surprises was waiting on my doorstep when I returned. These surprises were from Ally who had ordered me 6 cupcakes in a jar from the Bangerang Bake Shop. I am happy to say that they are very tasty and I now have only 2 left! oops
The last few days have been hell for many Victorians. The state has been ravaged by bush fires, some of which were deliberately lit. Anyone associated with lighting fires which have now claimed over 100 lives should be lined up and shot. They have destroyed so many lives and affected 1000′s more.
The Gopher!
Work work… where’s the play?
Since Christmas it has been mostly work and no play. We currently have multiple projects running and not enough people to do the work. It is putting a lot of strain on the core UXO people as we keep getting stretched thinner and thinner and something has to give.
I have the luxury of working from PA while I continue to process data from Cuba. I say it is a luxury but it has its down falls. One of those is that I am the only core UXO person in Hershey since both Ian and Brian are on site. This means I get peppered with questions from the boss which does not allow me to get on with what I am meant to be doing.
But a change is coming…. I have had my sit down meetings with my boss and his boss to discuss my future. I went in to the meetings with the attitude that I want to move back to Australia and if that costs me my job, so be it. I ended up putting the cards on the table and after trying to convince me to stay, they got the drift that I am off.
Then came the next meeting about how I could continue to be involved with the group. I feel a bit guilty about the arrangement but I have been given a 6 month period where I will be allowed to work from Australia on an as needed basis. If it gets to a point where work is light I have agreed to tap into the time which is owed to me.
I think my boss thinks I will move back after the 6 months… I really don’t see that happening.
I hope that the company tries to hire more people. We have a good name in UXO and we have some good contracts but we simply never have plentiful resources to do everything. Every time we get a decent sized project there is a handful of people that end up doing a lot of hours to try and get the job done. If nothing is done the group is going to dissolve as key people either take up new jobs or move out of the industry.
So that’s about for now…. I promise the next post will be a bit more fun and light hearted
