2025-02-02
Well, I’ve dropped the ball already.
It was my birthday during the week I missed. It was nice. Had family over, and
went to a nice lunch with D. and the kids. Saw Bogan Shakespeare at Fringe, and
had a nice dinner with the Hos at Monsterella. And Australia Day to boot!
Second week my BIL and his family visited from HK. We holidayed down in Mandurah
and went crabbing each evening, bagging a baker’s dozen. I read most of “The
Master and Margarita”.
Still riding regularly, even though it’s been a heatwave. And getting ready for
Jack’s return to school, which will see us shifting back to a regular routine,
which will hopefully mean that I will spend more time on hobby projects.
2025-01-19
Last week of the before times (the new president is to be sworn in tomorrow).
Weird tik-tok flip-flop. I was feeling a bit off all week, but still managed 3
bike rides to hit 80km, and I made a start on the “Rhyme or Reason” project, but
was more prone to distraction than I would have liked. It’s challenging because
it’s still the holiday period so I’m not quite back into a normal routine yet.
New outdoor setting delivered from Bay Furniture in Dunsborough, and very happy
with the results. Got the backyard set up. And new washer and dryer after our
ones carked it; they were making horrible grinding noises and something had
leaked into the washing machine that stained the clothes. Easy to pop into
Winning Appliances to view and order a new set, they were on sale so saved $1400
and were delivered promptly and set up much better than the previous set were.
Out to see Adam Hall on Saturday night. Started at Edward and Ida’s for great
cocktails and food, then sauntered down to the State Theatre for the show in the
outdoor courtyard area, where we met up with some friends, and then ended the
night at Shadow Wine Bar. I had probably one drink too many so didn’t feel the
best the next morning.
Ended the weekend with the family over to try out the new outdoor setting. It
was a pretty warm night so I didn’t think we’d sit outside but everyone seemed
happy to do so. Dzung made a nice chacuterie board and I gradually brought out
other food (barbequeued scallops, sausages, potatoes dauphinoise, beef and
chicken kebabs, salads) as everyone chatted. Ended with a lemon and raspberry
birthday cake in the cool indoors. Simple and cruisy, just the way I like it.
2025-01-12
Spent the week down in Dunsborough with my parents; we rented an AirBNB right
opposite the beach at Dunn Bay. Really relaxing and cruisy; my morning routine
was to wake up at 7:30, go for a long bike ride (either towards Busselton, when
I’d turn back after 16km or so, or up to the top of the MTB Park, where I’d
follow the various green runs back down again). After that I’d change into my
bathers and head to the beach for a dip in the water to cool off before
returning to the house to make a strong coffee and read in the sunshine while
watching the blue fairy wrens hop around the garden.
Finished a couple of books (“Snapshot” and “Tales from the Cafe”) while down
there, and made a start on “Bliss”, which serendipity found for me when I
entered the small bookstore in town; it was made into a movie in 1985 so I know
I’ll be watching it some time this year.
The place was pet friendly, so Bailey got to go on his first family holiday,
which he loved. Much of the beach was dog friendly, and he even paddled out a
little bit. Jack and I had fun skimming stones.
Nice meal at “Blue Manna” in town, and lunch at “Amelia Park”. Played games and
listened to music. Cooked a couple of nice steak dinners, making a delicious
Diane sauce. Was surprised at the extend of mum’s memory loss; she had a few
senior moments such as losing her toothbrush and using mine instead.
Bruce and Mel joined us for our final day, as my folks needed to leave early.
Happy hour at a bar in town was nice, as was brunch the following morning before
the drive back after making sure the Ioniq 5s were fully charged.
Dzung and I bought some new outdoor furniture while down there. Free shipping
and we’ll have it on Wednesday. We’re also considering a new lounge, just need
to confirm the measurements of the rug that it will sit on.
Straight to Rob’s birthday pizza party after arriving back home on Saturday. Met
lots of Agworld folk that only knew me from my git commits (I left the company
almost ten years ago, resigning on Monday the 16th of February 2015, and have
been working remotely ever since).
Had a long chat with Andrew, whom I hadn’t seen since leaving Agworld. Jack,
Krystal, Andrew and I entered Nanowrimo in 2015, and I wrote “Insoluble” then.
You can
read it on Medium
if you’re so inclined,
get it on Kindle
or even order the paperback! Anyway, I digress. We had a long chat, Andrew
talking about his older son who is now training as a fighter pilot in Germany,
and his younger son who is going into year 11. I spoke about my interests during
which it dawned on me that I really like exploring how technology can help with
three things that are often not given the attention they deserve: discovery
(i.e. how to find unknown unknowns), creativity (i.e. how to have an idea and
build something new) and community (i.e. how to foster trusted relationships
amongst a group of strangers). More on those things later this year perhaps, for
now I don’t want to set the weeknotes bar too high so I’ll end things there.
2025-01-06
My first weeknotes!
Have just finished recording and publishing the first episode of “The Movies of
1985”. It was NYE this week so work was interrupted; still during the shutdown
period so I knocked off some lower-priority tasks that wouldn’t get done
otherwise. Usual New Year’s with Hoff, Elaine and family. We did a French theme;
Dzung made onion soup, I did potatoes daphenoise, Eliza made hors douvres and
Hoff made a beef bourgonoin with wagyu chuck, and please forgive my spelling. We
slept over after staying up past 1:30am drinking whisky. Hoff shared a 1998
Grange at dinner which was amazing. We brought a white wine to go with the soup
and a bottle of bolly (i.e Bollinger). We all went to Viet Hoa for lunch the
next day where I had the worst indigestion ever. An inauspicious start to the
year but hopefully that set the low water mark and it’ll be all uphill from
there. Fireworks on the Shelley foreshore with the family that night, then back
to work for a few days. Drinks, a swim and games (hues and clues) at Elaine’s on
Friday and recorded the last “The Movies of 1999” podcast with Craig on Saturday
morning. Had a great catch-up with the Uni crowd at Neera and Richard’s on
Saturday night where more games were played (codenames). Rode over 80km in three
separate bike rides this week; my goal is a modest 2500km this year, along with
reading 36 books, as well as less drinking and more exercise in general. Usual
family brunch on Sunday. Looking forward to a week’s break down in Dunsborough
starting tomorrow!
I will really try to write in paragraphs, or use bullet points next time. And I
want this to be about personal projects, so I’ll make a start on that once
holiday mode is over.
2025-01-03
This is a test post. It has been quite a while since I last posted here, but in
2025 I plan to post once a week, so I want to make sure everything is
tickety-boo. I’ve also (finally) switched over to a paginated view.
2024-05-08
Clayton Utz
Image Source: https://www.claytonutz.com/cfimages/Home%20Page%20Image_Final.webp/public
Well, it’s been a while! Back in March Timothy Webb of Clayton Nutz, a law firm,
sent me an email (actually, Prashant Bhardwaj sent it, but it was signed by Tim)
regarding the PicRights / Reuters copywrite phishing attempt on my old
FaqOverflow
hobbyist website.
Timothy Webb
Image Source: https://www.claytonutz.com/cfimages/WebbTim_Square.webp/ProfilePhoto
They threatened taking the case to court, asking for a settlement of $2,425.00,
while denying that this is a classic case of copyright trolling. To me the whole
thing has a debt collector vibe to it. Some business models are just… well,
let’s just say that I wish more people followed their creative urges rather than
following the dollar.
Image Source: https://www.claytonutz.com/cfimages/Art%20Partnership_707x501px_1.webp/HeroLevel2
What’s even more interesting is that
www.claytonutz.com contains lots of licensed
images (a simple reverse-image search is enough to prove that), which of course
they will have paid for, but their
copyright notice
clearly states that all material on their website, including images, can be
reproduced for personal and non-commercial purposes.
Image Source: https://www.claytonutz.com/cfimages/707x501__0003_Governance%20G.webp/HeroLevel2
I would be very surprised if their licenses from Adobe Stock and Getty Images
allow them to transfer the rights like that, but who am I to argue? I did email
their webmaster 40 days ago about this, but they’ve yet to reply. Things move
slowly in some industries I suppose.
Image Source: https://www.claytonutz.com/cfimages/Perth_treated_707x501px%20copy.webp/HeroLevel2
Anywy, these might serve as a honeypot for other copyright trolls, and I’ll then
be able to use my “deez nuts” defense, forwarding any copyright claims I get on
to good ol’ Timbo to handle.
Image Source: https://www.claytonutz.com/cfimages/Banks%20&%20Fin_approved.webp/HeroLevel1
2024-01-12
Well, I still haven’t been sued by PicRights. They did reduce their requests for
damages by 1/3 but it’s ridiculous that they expect me to pay anything. So it’s
just a case of wait-and-see for me. What a horrible way for a business to make
money; going for the small-fry who are easier pushovers.
Anyway, new year and things are going well. Eliza is off on a month-long holiday
around the world before she starts Uni. We’ll miss her, but I’m sure it will be
a memorable experience for her.
I’ve also started a podcast with Talbs, called
The Movies of 1999. It’s a side-project of my goal
in 2024 of hosting a movie night every Sunday to watch a movie from 1999. It’s
off to a good start, and I hope we can keep the motivation and release all 52
episodes. Only time will tell!
I will leave the final word to MegaHAL…
2024-01-12T09:11:35+00:00|Fred|You are not as good as GPT-4.
2024-01-12T09:11:35+00:00|MegaHAL|It is true that I elected to establish my administration here, in the me. Muse is not false.
2024-01-12T09:11:51+00:00|Fred|That is quite deep.
2024-01-12T09:11:51+00:00|MegaHAL|It's okay to be ok, but deep inside you feel the depression creeping up like a statement and a future for white children
2024-01-12T09:12:07+00:00|Fred|I think I stand corrected.
2024-01-12T09:12:07+00:00|MegaHAL|what does AA stand for?
2024-01-12T09:12:22+00:00|Fred|Awesome Artificialness
2024-01-12T09:12:22+00:00|MegaHAL|life is awesome!