ITs scary out there

Yes, I finally did IT... well ok, perhaps I'm not being transparent but I applied for a job last night. Way out of my leage of course but still enthralling to do so. It's a people manager role which is where I'm a bit soft but it's strong on technical skills so that part I should be ok. Just need to brush up on my Cisco voice stuff.

Wish me luck, applications close 5th of Feb so I imagine I won't know anything until after then.

Nicks Swimming

Nick is learning to swim! He has just started swimming lessons just days before his 3rd birthday.

Kays and Kays

If you have been reading you will no doubt recall that I was going to go for a drive on Friday to get my lease kilometres back into shape.

Well it was a successful day by all accounts. The drive down was nice, the Macquarie valley was extremely verdant and a interesting road to drive on. It is a tight twisty narrow road yet has semi-trailers travelling on it. The bends are so tight that you have to stop before each turn if there is a truck coming the other way. I almost got taken out by one.

The corners get worse when you get the the single lane section. Even normal cars have to cross over to the other side to get around the inside of the hairpins! It amazes me that semi trailers are allowed to use this road but I guess it is a great link between the Hume highway and Wollongong.

Once we were up in the highlands the mist and fog rolled in. I only wish I had fog lights on the car so I could legitemately use them! The pies at the famous Robertson Pie shop were ok I guess. The chicken curry could have had more bite to it. Oh well, I guess when you cater for the masses you don't want to offend anyone. Bit like Oporto's warning you about the chillie in their chillie burger or McDonalds warning you that coffee is hot.

Anyway, the trip was good. On the return leg I travelled up the M7 and on approaching the M4 realized that it was only 2:30pm and I still had time to kill. I could either go home and laze on the couch for a couple of hours or I could keep on driving. Considering the whole point of the day was to rack up kays, I chose the latter option.


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So on I went, down the M4, up to Glenbrook in the Blue Moutains, the turning off at Springwood to take the long route back via Hawksbury Heights and Richmond to Windsor. This is the way that my family always used to take from the Northern Beaches to the Blue Mountains before the M2 existed. It's a lovely scenic drive but took 2hrs rather than the 1hr 15mins that the freeway takes.

All up a very good day with a total of 425kms added. So now I'm not very far behind at all and saw some lovely country side in the process.

Crazy Card Canasta

Ok, that was a little forced alliteration.

I am in the process of trying to get rid of my credit cards in favour of Visa Debit cards instead. Doing this has highlighted how many different places you hand out this information to and how much fun it is to change it.

So far I have, eToll, iTunes, eBay and the phone company to start with. Each with a different process I'm sure. Then there are more things like my domain company and the online shopping website.

When you think about it, all these sites all have your credit card details (though I'm not sure about the shopping website). I used to only deal with sites that didn't store your card details but these days that is much more difficult. It would be nice if sites had to give you the option of not storing your card but alas there is no such law in place.

Oh well, for now we just have to trust them. I guess an encrypted website is better than nothing but it's still easy for users to get complacent and ignore warnings about a websites security (e.g. their invalid certificate) because our security software trains us to just blindly click on stuff.

So my TODO for tomorrow is to try and change my credit card details with all these people and do it without loosing my temper or signing up for any new value adds.

Wish me luck.

Making Plans

In an effort to blog more often as per my new years resolution, here is todays entry.

As you may know I was looking at Macquarie Pass as somewhere to drive to. Well I have made the arrangements and am taking next Friday (15th) off to do the drive. Google maps says it will take roughly 2hrs each way but the pass is pretty steep narrow and popular so who knows if I will get stuck behind someone going real slow or not.

In other news I've finally mailed off my application for trade access to TLE. This is part of my dream to freelance as someone who does network wiring for peoples houses. I've done three so far. Just need to get people to pay me for doing it (i.e. more than just parts). The TLE part of the dream is for access to discounts when buying parts.

It's all part of ze plan!

A Difficult Choice

I have made a new years resolution to blog more...

I am coming up on ten years in my current job. Logic says its time for a change but after ten years, change is a difficult thing to contemplate. I have the problem of having reasonable job satisfaction coupled with the nagging sensation that I could do better. Add to that the fact that I can't easily define my current position and it makes the thought of changing jobs daunting.

I have considered network engineer, generic manager, project manager and can't think of what else.

Any ideas? I had been waiting for my boss to move up the food chain but I fear he's in the same boat as me, likes what he does, reluctant to move and just in a cushy place.

I have recently acquired my CCNA Security specialization but I just can't see work rating that worth of a pay increase considering I'm not a network engineer.

Oh the pain of it all.

The joys of a lease

So I have a leased car. Yes, I'm behind on my kays and looking for somewhere to go to chew up the miles.

The other weekend we were in Mittagong doing the very same things. After getting back I was checking the maps (as I do) a noticed a lovely squiggly line not far from there.

Turns out this squiggly line is a popular road for people on bikes and I've found several videos on YouTube showing how great a road it is.

So my next mission, take the freeway down to Wollongong and then up the road to Macquarie Pass and on to Robertson for a famous pie!

Sounds like a plan?


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On a Whim

On a random suggestion whilst having guests over the other night for a low key new years I have registered the domain lazyparents.net with a tagline of "For Parents who couldn't be arsed".

My theory is there are lots of things parents find difficult to discuss with their kids that they know they should. This is much more than just education about sex. Things like where is heaven and why does Granny smell funny.

So, I play to find or create some content and see where it leads me.

Any suggestions?