binomial options pricing

Awesome. I finally get to look at some real maths at work. Basically it's a way of determing the 'real' price of an option on a given date. Get to build up some nice probability trees,.. sounds like its gonna be interesting.

Might just rip off... wait.. i mean _template_ from quantlib. They have a pretty _AWESOME_ pricing engine for vanilla options. I'm actually looking forward to going back in to work on Monday ;-)

In other news, Marty has left for the UK, heading over to catch up with Mindy,. so we went out for some polish/tapas/nepalese and wine on friday night to celebrate :-D

Also picked up an awesome new blue suit on sale from Myer! oh yeah! :D

Me ceez saxon and tracy went to a food and wine show at boronia park today, (next to hunters hill) and got to try quite a bit of wine.. nice weather for it!

SICK!!! DO NOT WANT!!!

I can't believe that I've got sick. I BLAME Stannard and Robson.

Two days at home, bored mindless. I made the stupid mistake of going to work on tuesday and simply got sicker.. GAH.

But it has meant that i've got to watch a lot of crap daytime TV. And I watcher shooter last night. A lot of headshots... can't beat it!

Common Manners

Sometimes we forget that being polite is important. DONT DO THIS.

Something as simple as a phone call CAN make a difference to peoples impression of you.

LIFE

Quantative Analysis

As anyone who has talked to me or zeeshan in the last few weeks would know. we've keen to start learning the maths behind what we do.. and finally,,.. we have the book to make it happen!!!

just incase you dont know him i'm including a picture below.. taken around 10pm on good thursday just before easter at the slip inn.

Boris Yeltsin

Boris is dead. :-(

Hope is Emo

Well howdy.

I know its been a long time between posts but I have decided that seeing as Mindy has a link to my blog I should start filling it out again. :P

You might find Hope is Emo very interesting. I know I personally can't get enough of Hope. IF ONLY THEY WERE MAKING MORE EPISODES!!!

You can check her site at http://www.hopeisemo.com

Below is a personal favourite episode of mine.

Enjoy!

I'm, like, hurting so much right now.

I was walking through Chatswood westfield tonight when I stumbled across this massive emo poster. I just thought I'd share it with you, cos i'd like, never, seen anything so, beautiful.

BIKE 2: This time with feeling

Well last saturday I had a catastrophic failure on my new bike!! NNNOOO!!!

the chain managed to snap whilst going up a hill... causing the gear changer (rear) to get caught in some spokes.. tearing them out, ripping off the gear changer, buckling the wheel and putting a massive crack in one of the cranks.

Thankfully Clarence St Cyclery remidied the problem with all new components by the next day. Since i've picked the new bike up i've had ZERO probs.. lets hope this continues.

I've also installed a super sexy pannier rack on the back ;-)

PEACHES!

Went and watching Peaches last night over at Home. BEST ROCK SHOW EVER!

Peaches can definately play guitar. Will update this post with some pics later!

80 km's a week.

As you would have read earlier in the week i have bought a bicycle to commute to work on. Its about 10 km's each way to work, although the trip home is almost all uphill :D

I've decided i will embrace cycling as an alternative to driving, quite enjoyable. Now i just need to purchase some pannier racks for my bike so i can take it to do the shopping!

Bloody Mary's

http://bloodymary-does-sydney.blogspot.com/

How did I not link to this earlier. This is a Review website of one of my favourite 'refresher' cocktails, The Bloody Mary! Ceez, Brock and I will rate the ones we have, and take a photo if we havent already had too many cocktails to remember.

Add this to your RSS feed to see when we have remembered to review ;-)

Commuting

With the imminent opening of the Lane Cove tunnel and cyclepath, I've decided to buy a hybrid bicycle and ride to work.

I've just purchased a lovely Trek 7.3 FX disc bike. Should provide quite a nice way to get to work. Luckily my employer has bicycle parking under the office so i can keep it locked up.

I've also grabbed Jade's old bike for Ceez, and now just need to buy a new front QuickRelease skewer to hold the front wheel in place.

Pie Fight!

Happy 2007

Looks like another year has rolled around.

We celebrated in style.. had about 6 countdowns to midnight as the 'party people' in the house were a little trashed.

Got home around 6:30... was a nice night... but it did nothing for mark ;-)

RAZR is dead. Long live SGH-X820

My RAZR phone met its demise on thursday. It had a terrible accident at the rooftop bar on pitt st. It actually dived out of my pocket,. acussed me of being an abusive owner... and took its life on the cement flooring..

I decided I would try and revive my old friend with some superglue and sticky tape. Unfortunately the pulse faded and left.

Never being one to mope, I ventured out onto the internet and discovered my new love, the Samsung X820 - slimmest phone available worldwide at only 6.9mm. Lets hope this relationship lasts longer. The only problem is it looks like a block of Lindt chocholate, and Ceez really wants to eat it.

Cylons

I had a great dream the other night.

I was somehow transported on a cylon ressurection ship, and i faked my own death and rebirth to prove i actually was a cylon. The new Luke was very evil, but I quite liked him. Maybe this dream was a sign that I should start speaking my mind more freely and critiscising those around me to the degree that they need.

The best part of the dream was yelling at the other cylons demanding that they provide me with some rags to cover 'this' (gesturing to my new body, remarkably the same as the old)

Xmas '06

So how did Xmas turn out for you?

I've had a very relaxing few days... boxing day was good sitting in the sun watching the start of the sydney to hobart.

In other news I noticed that the cross city tunnel has 'collapsed' in debt. Westpac and Deutsche Bank have lost 560 mil in that deal. I has thinking that perhaps some of the boys from work should go do some heckling out the front of those banks.. and whilst at it, drop by ABN Amro (next door to Deutsche Bank) and give them some shizzle about losing their mast in syd->hob and having to retire.

Oh Zelda...

Well after a week and two days of ownership of the Nintendo Wii, I've accumulated a MASSIVE 4 hours of play time in Zelda: Twilight Princess,

I really got stop going out.. this is getting ridiculous!

And I still have no idea how to get the fourth monkey in the forest temple to help me cross the ravine and have my revenge on that monkey with the boomerang!

Its been a long week..

I've managed to survive the hardest week of partying I've had in while (albiet with some damage... ;-)

Broomball and Work collided and had a great night at CBD and Brooklyn Hotel's.

Wongy managed to capture some of the moments...

(click image for Dan's picture gallery)

No doubt you recognise Dan, your humble narrator, and Sammy

Sonics Win

The Sonics have won the Western Sydney Broomball Championships last night over the Ravens. Pictured right is Kerry, Ceci and Dee, holding the shield. The game was 0-0 at full time, and took 3 periods of 5 minute overtime to determine the victors.

Wii - The Safety Guide

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/top/the-japanese-super-safe-wii-safety-manual-218939.php

http://www.flickr.com/photos/iconfactory/sets/72157594406897342/

Now, The first link is the safety pictures from the Japanese Wii instruction manual. The nice folks over at IconFactory have made the second link, including more obscure, yet equally important saftey images.

Nintendo tried to warn me...

but would I listen. No.

We were able to smash some stuff with the Wii controller, well actually Martin was after complaining about all the warnings in Wii Sports to make sure you wont hit anything.

Martin came in trying to make a spare, and instead clipped the top of brocks wine class, leaving the stem and spraying red wine and glass over the house. It was actually hilarious!

Wii Power Glove

Damn it.. Brock found this already exists...

http://www.slashgear.com/wii-power-glove-092860.php

Take me back to your house

IRESS Xmas

I managed to get myself invited along to _the _ Xmas party event of the year (in finance anyway). Down in the Senate bar @ the GPO, good time had by all.

Some lovely food, and a HELL of a lot of drunk people.

No women dancing in cages like I was promised though.

Bob the angry flower

http://www.angryflower.com/

Get into it, and enjoy bob's fury.

Beard-cember

Its just like Mo-vember... only you have to grow a beard for december.

This is 'New Luke'.

Saturday night out on the town.

We spent last saturday enjoying a schnitzel over at the bavarian bier cafe and enjoying some drinks.. many drinks.. After this we headed over to bungalow 8 (via the forbes) for more drinks and more drinks.

Once bungalow 8 closed the remaining members of our party continued down to Dirty Jacko's (Jackson on George) and were denied entry. The same thing happened at the Oriental in the rocks. So we sat around at the Ship Inn in the Quay, and went for a coffee.

Your humble narrator was DENIED entry, oh my brothers!

We managed to make it home around 5:30am,... just in time for the cab to take ceez and I to the airport. It ended up being a long day and night as we left for Fraser straight from beers the night before!

BTW, lake mackenzie was as clear as an azur night.

Fraser Island

For the last week I've been without phone and internet access.. and spent my days lounging around with ceez either at the beach or at the pool at Kingfisher Resort on Fraser. We had a great week of relaxing and drinking cocktails all day long in the sun.

Although I tried to use lots of sunscreen I managed to burn my feet!??

Whilst canoeing or kayaking we saw some sting rays, turtles and MANY fish.

FX Trading.

Well its been about a month and I have made (and lost) a lot of money. I think you would need to be a professional trader to do FX trades. The market is so volatile, you stop paying attention for 30 mins or so and you've just lost a couple of thousand $$.

All up.. I'm now worse off by $8000, had it been real money. Should have checked out when i was $12k in front. haha.

Oh well. time to look at equity trading again :-(

Nike Plus

I fell for the hype and bought a Nike Plus kit for my ipod yesterday. Took it for a 30 minute work out this morning... 5.67km in 31"59' working out about 5"38' pkm

I found that all the data is stored in xml on the ipod, so when i get a chance i might build up some hack script to upload the data here weekly so you can track my fitness changes.

Put your hands up for Detroit!

ForEx Trading

ForEx dot Com

I've recently become interested in Exchange Rate trading or foreign exchange trading. I've opened a $50,000 training account, and am gonna play the game for a month. See how I go.

Im thinking i'll play with AUS, USD, EUR, YEN, and the Polish Zloty.

I'll keep you informed of how much I make (and hopefully not lose!)

My nickname is BR....

...anyone who knows what it means is dead.

I forced Ceci into watching 'Battle Royale' last thursday. What a delightfull movie. I can not wait to get 'Battle Royale 2' out from the video store and torture Ceez some more.

Cats are delicious.

Japan is Great

I'm a woman eating machine, with a suitcase full of fire and pink flamingoes.

Yay,

Electric Six is back with a new album which I picked up today from HMV.

'Switzerland' has all the feel of the first album, and kicks ass.

PS. I dedicate this post to Roger Federer

I know it like the back of my hand

Given a large number of pictures of hands, could you tell yours from someone elses?

Lifts and Evelvators.

I am not exactly sure why, but it always suprises me the order in which people file into, and then out of lifts in the office.

I always assume that people are going to get out in the same order in which they went in. IE, last in, first out.

People love to push their way out from the back first, and those who hug the walls as soon as they get in the lift (forcing others to the back), both of these actions amuse me greatly.

I think I'm gonna start whistling in the lift just to add a little more excitement to the already enjoyable act of watching people get in and out.

Leather

Pwning Tetris!

Tetris Challenge Vid 1
Tetris Challenge Vid 2

This chick Utada Hikaru will pwn you at Tetris Everytime. from the wikipedia entry on her T2TRI5 SKI77Z:

Utada Hikaru is an avid player of the video game Tetris. She has previously appeared on TV playing Tetris against a TV-host and comedian Hitoshi Matsumoto of the Japanese television program, HEY! HEY! HEY! MUSIC CHAMP.

Starting from June 23, 2006, she made several posts on her blog detailing her exploits playing Tetris DS. [18] She has reported that her current high score on Endless Mode is 99,999,999.

In the summer of 2006, Utada was involved with Nintendo of Japan promoting a contest, in which the winners would be able to challenge her to a Tetris match.[20] On August 12, 2006, Utada attended the Nintendo Japan Tetris Contest. She battled 30 finalists from all over the country. The result was 26 wins and 4 losses. She was also able to defeat one (out of two) of the Nintendo assassins (Tetris-DS experts from Nintendo).

In Soviet Russia, indistinguishable human doppelganger robotic overlords clone YOU!

http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/14/zou-renti-gets-an-evil-android-twin-too/

The use of 'an' VS 'a'

I was wondering on how to use an and a recently. I know the rule that if the following word starts with a vowel an 'an' should be used. But it what about in spoken language?

What if the word starts with a constanant yet sounds like a vowel word.

for example if I have a word X-REF (meaning cross reference, but said like 'ex-ref') should i say 'an XREF' or 'a XREF'

That mac guy is such an emo

Oh, in case your wondering, you can find a definition for 'emo' here

ITS: Live

Well it looks as though my work survived to transistion to the ASX's new Integrated Trading System well.

Time for me to start bludging.. no more of these long hours me thinks.... but I could be wrong about the long hours ;-)

The French have a lot to answer for.

This could be delicious... but I'm not sure if I could personally bring myself to eat it....

You catch the ortolan with a net spread up in the forest canopy. Take it alive. Take it home. Poke out its eyes and put it in a small cage. Force-feed it oats and millet and figs until it has swollen to four times its normal size. Drown it in brandy. Roast it whole, in an oven at high heat, for six to eight minutes. Bring it to the table. Place a cloth—a napkin will do—over your head to hide your cruelty from the sight of God. Put the whole bird into your mouth, with only the beak protruding from your lips. Bite. Put the beak on your plate and begin chewing, gently. You will taste three things: First, the sweetness of the flesh and fat. This is God. Then, the bitterness of the guts will begin to overwhelm you. This is the suffering of Jesus. Finally, as your teeth break the small, delicate bones and they begin to lacerate your gums, you will taste the salt of your own blood, mingling with the richness of the fat and the bitterness of the organs. This is the Holy Spirit, the mystery of the Trinity—three united as one. It is cruel. And beautiful. According to Claude Souvenir, chewing the ortolan takes approximately 15 minutes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ortolan_bunting

Everything seems to work fine.

But something isn't right.

COATHANGER ART: 13 Twists

13 Twists is a freestanding sculpture of a man.

Time and again

Ever had a moment where you can't remember where you are.

On my way to work this morning I found myself wandering around wynyard. Its not that I didn't know how to get to work. I just couldn't bring myself to go there. Maybe I need to discover my true purpose, that would make it easier to get closer to that goal.

Fear and trembling.

(Stupeur et tremblements)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318725/

I stumbled upon this gem of a movie last night whilst trolling the TV channels waiting for Ceez to get home from broomball. Originally I was in the kitchen just listening and thought, 'Thats strange, I can hear japanese and french on the TV at once, not the normal combination'.

And behold, a movie about a young belguim woman hired as a translator in a japanese company, the movie a description of her attempts to fit-in with eastern culture.

I seriously recommend you watch this movie.

Edge Conditions - Part 2

I'm glad I didn't take the oppourtunity 2 months ago to dump shit all over the people who caused me grief with INT vs UINT problem. Yesterday I discovered that I myself had missed and instance of this, luckily we can fix it before it becomes known to people.

And once again, not reading a Spec correctly at the start has lead to a number of hours of problems down the line. Ohh Life!

We're not worthy, we suck!

Well what do you know. Apple has updated the iPod range again.

New iPod nanos which seem to look remarkebly mini-like, an awesome new shuffle, and 80gb video ipod.

Oh, and of course, iTunes 7 is released, which now gets album art even for music you have 'acquired', gapless playback and 'yet another' new look brushed steel interface. *cough* prompted by the latest DRM crack of iTunes 6.x??? *cough*


Steve Jobs, I salute you!

Check out the new iPods at http://www.apple.com/ipod

1 + 1 = 2

I have put some facts together in my head, and am disturbed by the results. I have been following the progression of CERN's Large Hadron Collider, and also of the writings of John Titor.

http://lhc.web.cern.ch/lhc/ - CERN LHC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Titor - JOHN TITOR
http://lifeboat.com/ex/particle.accelerator.shield - Artificial Black Holes.

I have reason to believe that John Titor may have influenced certain scientists at CERN, to start building certain components of the LHC to benefit the armed forces that he works for. Specifically creating a 'time portal' back to his worldline to allow these forces to return to our time en mass. This will be a side effect of creating the micro black holes to try and detect Hawking Radiation.

It now appears to me that John's predictions or history may actually be fact, and have been setup by him through CERN.

Crocodile Tears

I was as upset as anyone upon hearing of the death of Steve Irwin, possibly more then most people as I couldn't find any footage of it on YouTUBE.

There is something beautifully tragic about watching something like that.

On a related note, I had a dream last night that I had gone drinking with some friends, and we bumped into Steve Irwin at a bar. We all stood around having our photos taken with the great man. As the photos developed we noticed that he looked sad in each photo, even though he was smiling.

That is all.

Violent Pornography.

Looks Like you can no longer have any violent porn in the UK. With up to three years in jail.

I know that when I was asking for some in Fyshwick, I was verbally abused by the guys running the PR0N shops. (IT WAS A JOKE I ASSURE YOU) ;-)

Still, people should be able to do whatever they want, and collect whatever they want.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/5297600.stm

COATHANGER ART: Rythm of LIFE

The Rythm of Life

COATHANGER ART: The Swan

I needed an artist outlet at work, so I am creating sculptures

from the coathangers from my dry cleaning.

You, Me, and Coffee

Are you in love with your Barrista?

Drop by and meet my 'love' interest at the Manhatten Cafe. YIKES!

Fight Club

I am trying to get my hands on this book at the moment. I've been told that although the movie was kick-ass.. the book makes the movie look like Star Wars Ep 1.

Defile Sri Lanka

Andrew Rogers is an australian sculptor, accomplished in both bronze work, and in creating geoglyphs. The reason I feel the need to push an entry about this is the destruction of the environment that he leaves in his path. Carting 1000's of tonnes of rocks onto mountain faces, scarring the landscape to create his works of art.

The 'Ratio' is perhaps the worst of these ( in sri lanka ), leaving a massive scar up the side of the mountain, and cutting a gouge through the jungle to transport all the boulders. But Art is Art, and who am I to criticise his vision.

Medical Science is a joke.

Seriously. If I simply guessed at everything i did, and claimed that it was correct, shit would be broken very quick.

Face recognition

Google is collecting pictures of our faces! nnnooo!!!

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2006/08/gmail-pictures-used-for-face.html

An auspicious day.

Hmm,. the 15th of August.

Brocks Birthday

Koizumi visits WWI war shrine

The Assumption of Mary

WOOHOO! 100th POST!

Sacrosanct

My morning coffee and reading the news paper was rudely interupted today. The loudest and most annoying person at my work just so happened to stroll in an seeming defiled the entire cafe.

Motorola Dreamin'

I had a strange dream in the early hours of sunday morning. I was visiting some old friends and went to look at the local pier. (Interesting it seems like I remember the pier from older dreams). There is a distinct feeling of deja vu whilst walking down to the pier. We stop at a pub on the corner but no-one has a drink, we all just stand around looking at eachother. I think we are waiting for someone else to arrive, but suddenly we are standing at the end of the pier.

One of my workmates is at the pier, and is about to step onto a small boat/raft next to the pier, and proceeds to fall backwards into the water whilst wearing his suit. Of course everyone laughs at the poor fellow, and I decide to take a photo for prosperity, flip out the motorola and try to take some photos.

Every photo that I take of him is actually a picture of my face. In each picture I look more frustrated and angry. The workmate has now climbed up onto the raft and is addressing the people gathered watching him, but I cant understand what he is saying. I keep trying to take the photos, but am just getting more images of my face.

We leave and arrive back at my friends house, and have some wine. Whilst standing in the kitchen, I remember that Ben (from adelaide) is actually just living around the corner from this friend, but I can't access the phonebook in my phone to get his number.

We all look dismayed at not being able to invite Ben around to catch up, I then excuse myself to check something outside the front door, and wake up.

minus five degrees

Dropped by -5 last night for cocktails after work dinner. FAR OUT. It is very cold in there. Was -11.6 last night. I was definately thankful for the ski gloves to stop my fingers from going black and falling off.

I can definately recommend the lenin bar underneath -5. $5 vodka mixers on thursdays.

They also have a ridiculously large selection of flavoured vodkas, all your normal absolut favourites, as well as:

*pepper
*mint
*chilli
*white chocolate
*berry
*apple

Pretty nice atmosphere as well... Lucky it was a work event as cocktails there are a little pricey.

Mac-Attack!

Sydney has just been ranked sixth in the world for resident buying power. The calculations are done based on how long you have to work to be able to buy a Big Mac.

It'll take you and I (sydney-siders) approx 14 minutes to earn the right the buy a big mac, whereas in Tokyo, it would take us only 10 minutes!

Hel-Looks

"My girlfriend Jenna Vainio has made the shoes and my friend Lamin Marong the trousers. The shirt is second hand.
Clothes need to be comfortable and preferably showy, too. It's hard to find clothes like that.
I admire my girlfriend's style. She can create astonishing combinations out of the ugliest clothes ever."

Interesting Street Fashion, photos from the streets of Helsinki Finland.

Care Cards

According to the letter that I recieved in internal mail today, I should be giving out these care cards to my team when they do their assigned tasks well. I think I'll just take them home and use them as coasters instead.

Disturbingly, there is a green card which looks like an erect penis. I think it is meant to be a stylised 'tick'. Someone wasnt thinking when they approved that design. Or maybe they were ;-)

Regime Change

My work has undergone a restructure in the last week. It is the new CEO's attempt to show that he is actually doing something rather then sitting in his tower shining. The point of the matter is that now my GM has been replaced, and I am now under the auspices of a new master.

A Master which allows and advocates the use of paper and pen's in the workplace. This is a paperless office no more. We are getting printers delivered today! Yay!

Satan has a bad rap.

Hmm,, so he's not that bad a dude afterall.

Yasmins Getting Dumped

I can't believe it took four episodes for it to happen. It more positive news, Channel 10 is replacing that piece of crap with Futurama! Woohoo!!

Spectacular Spectacular

I'm going to this. Should be cool. You can probably find me here throughout august.

It's people like you that help us achieve our vision

We have these ridiculous 'care-cards' at work which are given out when you perform an assigned task well. There is a set of 9 collect, each with different stylised pictures on the front...

...And above slogan on the back. I am gonna try and get a set. I currently have a blue one with a light bulb. It makes me happy ;-)

Update: Woohoo! I now have a yellow card with a trophy on it to add to the collection!

I AM NOT SIMON HARPER!

This morning whilst dropping off my dry-cleaning, I was embraced by this woman who proclaimed:

"Simon, I didn't know you were back in Sydney, how long have you been back?"

It was a strange position to be in. On one hand, It's always niced to be hugged, on the other, it means I have another dopplegaenger to hunt down and kill.

After I explained that I wasnt Simon we had a bit of a laugh and went our seperate ways. At least I know that he is 'probably' not in sydney, so I need to expand my search horizons.

The benefits!

Woohoo. Looks like I get to take bank holidays!

Wait a minute, not until the ITS Project is finished. I better get this coming monday as a time in lieu.

I dunno, I just like it

Hot.

Transnistria - Pridnestovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica

Transnistria - Pridnestovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica

I watched a documentary on this breakaway moldovian republic last night. I am greatly pleased to see that ex KGB and GRU officers are the leaders of this country. That is nice.

A lot of the politicians are ex-spetsnaz. It must be fun to live there.

READ!

I have made a new book mark, as I cannot borrow books off people and treat them the way that I like to treat my own.

* No Dog-ears.
* No creased spines.

I must be a terrible disapointment to my mum. Her being a Librarian and my dis-respect for books I own.

Perfectly reasonable deviations from the beaten track.

This book is a collection of letters to and from the late Prof. Richard P. Feynman.

A very interesting book and insight into this great man. The letters detailing his courtship of his first wife set against the backdrop of working on the first atomic bomb is very good.

Grrr..???

Money has no smell.

Luckily.

I have been doin some maths, and it appears that the chances of you 'making' money by investing in individual security instruments is unlikely to offer the same returns as placing your money in a diversified fund, and holding that position for a long time.

I can see a number of parallels between working in investment and working in gaming.

Luckily, people are the masters of their own destiny. I would even work for big tabacco. If the price was right ;-)

Don't be a player hater...

"I do believe you are a fucking retard and I hope you burn in hell. Fuck you. Read Josh McDowell's book for a good overview of what life is truly about you dumbass humanist. You obviously think life is just a big damn joke."

Why I do believe this is a nasty email. How rude. Is it really an insult to be a humanist?

Heilio Display

This is a you-tube video clip of an awesome display. Wouldnt mind one of these for the novelty value.

A private challenge.

"Anyway, see if your impulsive side can resist these -

http://closetgrandmaster.blogspot.com/2005/08/5-million-chess-set.html

http://www.scubasewj.com/shiny-things/ridiculous-technology/

see ya"

Wildfire

I know what your thinking. Its only 15 days till Brock has another birthday. So are we doing turkish again this year?

I'm thinking maybe dinner at wildfire.

Dont worry, I'm sure they have buckets of Ice Water on hand.

Protect me from what I want.

I dont think its actually protection from what I want that I need. But I need to make sure that I don't just act on a whim, which is my usual course of action.... naturally.

You can fight your programming all you want. But I'm not sure if you can win.

Your already dead, you just dont have the sense to lie down.

meh. this was an OK book.

What Would Lance Do?

Landis's mother said today she did not know whether her son used an illegal substance but acknowledged "temptation is strong" in the high-stakes competition.

Arlene Landis, a devout Mennonite Christian, said that in her son's world, "temptations are different than mine."

Great Zombie Jesus!?

Remeber the scene from Futurama where Professor Farnsworth explains that his spaceship is powered by a special engine that moves the universe around the spaceship, rather then the spaceship through the universe? When queried about how he came up with the idea, he mentioned that it occured to him in a dream. After building the spaceship, he had another dream in which he forgot how it worked and now the knowledge is lost.

I feel like this fairly often, as I have solutions come to me in my sleep. I have to act upon them quickly, especially if they are samples of how code should hang together. If I sleep after coming up with the idea i forget it.

This is becoming such a problem that I think i'm going to take a notepad to bed, and make notes as I wake up and what needs to be done. I will also need a lamp of some description.

I hope that this doesnt develop into a problem.

In Australia, We call it 'cutlets'

I'm working on a new mission for Brock. I'm not gonna go into the details here (feel free to quiz me over a beer), or the mission's working title. I have been working on building up a Repotire with this lady, and today had to talk myself into a position quickly of why I didn't show up for boot camp. Transcript as follows:

HER: Where were you at bootcamp today?
HIM(ME): Sorry I couldn't make it. Stuff came up and one thing led to another, resulting in me having a nice sleep in.
HER: People have been saying that your injured. Are you injured? You'd better be as we had to run up and down steps to make up for your absence.
HIM(ME): Ha ha. Don't lose your temperature. I am injured, and cannot attend. I have a bro-ken heart! (while tapping on my chest whilst walking to the lift).

I don't know why in the last line I turned into a Marco / Jarmo hybrid. But it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Hey Luke Wilson!

Looks like the dudes from Steely Dan want an apology from Owen Wilson for starring in the movie 'You, Me and Dupree'. I have to say Luke Wilson and I are similar in a lot of ways, and I think we would probably be good friends. Both of us overlooked by the mainstream media, and only really credited with one decent act for the betterment of humanity each. Then again I know my position in life, and he seems not to. Which makes me a better person.

Don't worry Luke W. I don't think any less of you, and we can still be friends.

Similarities

Wow. Notice a resemblance to anyone you know?

Deja vu

From the article:
Scientists believe they have found a way to probe the mysterious phenomenon of feeling you have witnessed something before - deja vu.
Leeds Memory Group researchers say they have gone some way to recreating the sensation in the lab using hypnosis.

Hypnosis is an extraordinary claim. Lets see some extraordinary evidence.

Jack Bauer is a nonfictional character.

Jack Bauer is a nonfictional character and the main protagonist in the American television series 24. He is portrayed by Kiefer Sutherland and is the only character in 24 to appear in every episode during each 'day'.

This explanation is why I love Wikipedia and the facts it contains. (READ THE 5th WORD).

Rebecca Was Right

After a lot more listening Lilly Allen’s music it could be said that all the tracks do sound quite similar. That’s not to say that I’m sick of it yet! Also Lady Sovereign is worth checking out if you have the time.

Bet you wished you looked this good at 60!

The Bikini is turning 60 this year, and has never been looking better. Luckily technology has kept up with advances in female swim/club wear, through Solestrom integrating a UV meter into bikini. Now you can relax in the sun and know when its time to call it day.

Adding Insult to Injury

UPDATE:
I guess i don't really remember the story with this.

Aroma!

Sunday last week saw Ceez, Brock and I head over to the Sydney Coffee Festival. I sampled a number of lovely brews, and then headed to The Loft, for an Aperitif.

Fancy a popper?

There are 2 things I have learned recently.

1) Never trust a man whose name is Hannibal
2) Never give in to 'Peer Pressure'

+1 Cottage

George Michael caught out again. When will he learn, or when will we learn to leave the poor dude alone.