Coming back

Time really flies. It's been over 2 years since I last posted. So much has happened. So many memories. I really feel older. Heck I even started calling the service desk team 'kids'!

A New Chapter

Today I had my last ACS branch meeting for 2008. Seeing that I will be overseas for the Dec meeting and I'm not standing for next year I'll have to say that's it for this year folks.

The past 3.5 years had been a real eye-opener working with leaders of the industry and seeing how they think. On top of that, these are genuinely good people who want to do something for the society, contributing their otherwise $500/hr time. It's been an all-round fantastic experience and I'm ready for a break giving myself some time to soak it all in.

Where am I going again?

I have a real dilema with my career atm. On the one hand, I've been tapped on the shoulder to be part of the technical architecture team, which sounds like an awesome opportunity to anyone with less than 3 years of IT experience. Problem is the team is so new and the new manager has so no clue that I'm not doing anything interesting, nor is there any guidance from senior architects which I was promised to before my move. Formal architecture is really an unexplored territory where I am and I need a starting point. Say what are our short term and long term IT goals to start off with. I still haven't got my answer. I've been given a task of creating a pattern for a specific function. Thing is the solution down to the technical level has already been pre-determined. I'm retro-fitting the pattern to the solution. Not only that, I do not come from a software development background so this stuff is somewhat alien to me. I will try my best though but I can't see myself doing this more than one time because it seems all that I am doing is documentation and not architecture. It's not where I want to go.

The other hand of my dilema is that I am always welcomed to return to my old team. With me leaving there is really no one left who knows enough about the applications and systems we support without spending some decent time poking around, which the team can't really afford with all the fire fighting going on, which is why I left the team in the first place. I'm sick of fire fighting. I don't get to learn anything new. The only knowledge I get more of is in-depth understanding of the systems we have. That does not help me with my career and I'm not interested in working here forever. It's not where I want to be.

I've talked about picking option 3 before which is leaving the place and my boss was cool about it a month ago. She somehow heard from ppl around the woods that I'm looking for a new job and came over to me yesterday asking me if I would change my mind if I'm offered a 2-level pay rise. What is she thinking? Did she think I was kidding when I told her I choose to leave?

I need to keep looking but finding a right job isn't easy, especially with the list of criteria I have. I thought about getting a BA gig to get a change of scenary and I'm prepared for a pay cut for that but having attended a SQL Server user group tonight, my hands are itching to get busy with SQL again.

Sana got engaged!

I went to Sana's engagement last night. It was a big night with 60+ ppl. Sana was really happy. The food was beautiful too. Here're some pics ...

Watch out here comes the straightening iron. Sana had these massive earrings that took about 5 minutes to put on.

The lovely couple and the in-laws. Pictured here are the brother and the sister in-laws, Sana's dad and someone's flashing white arms. It was paparazzi mania.

Sana, Zia and Ruba (I can't spell Sana sister's name. Mind enlightening me anyone?)

Blow monkey blow!

This has to be the cutest monkey I've ever seen! Pity I don't paint my nails, but even if I do I am sure I won't think it's as cute once I have it so I'll just visit the link once in a while...

The twitch

My right eye lid won't stop twitching! It started yesterday and hasn't stopped. I asked my dad and he said it's bad luck coming my way, so I thought I'll stay at home all day today and not go mow the lawn for him (great excuse).

Then I came upon this great eye twitching post and found that it's a condition called myokymia. Not too sure what the cause of my twitch is but I'll try taking a multi-vitamin and get some sleep because I have been a little deprived of both lately. Anyway someone also said that a right eyelid twitch is good luck - I hope they've got it right and not my dad.

Nando's

A new Nando's opened at Festival Towers which means I don't have to go all the way to Myer Center anymore! I went there on Friday and as one of the first customers I got a cool show bag. Hmmmm give me Nando's any day (or KFC) :P

Evanescence

Went to the Evanescence concert on Thursday. They're alright and I'm impressed by Amy - she can play the piano and sing live. Yes a real musician not like other rubbish out there now who can't sing let alone understand anything about music. They had Shihad as their support act. They were good but not my type of music. I felt sorry for them that the crowd wasn't very into them - in fact half of them didn't turn up until Evanescence started.

Moved

Yes I've moved to the new place and has settled in well. Almost got all the furniture now with only a few things missing. The transport is so good - I can leave at 8:10am and get to work before 8:45am.

My sister has her shoe collection spread out next to the entrance as she refuses to put them in her wardrobe. I mean the wardrobe is where they belong right? She got one shoe rack the other day so her barricade of shoes is now smaller. She'll need another one to leave her pile more acceptable.

I'm now connected with an ADSL connection. I'm a little peeved off that only 2 weeks after I got connected ADSL2+ got rolled out in my area urrrrrgh.

Moving

Found a place over the weekend. Got to get my application approved on Monday as soon as the agent opens - everyone at the inspection wanted an application form!

Moreton Island

Went to Moreton Island yesterday. It's been raining the last few days but was fine the whole way we were there. The sand was still damp so the ride was much smoother than usual. I'm glad I went on a tour - my poor car wouldn't be going anywhere and I can't imagine myself going around in a 4WD. Stacks of people arriving for new year's eve as we were leaving.


sand boarding down "The Desert"


up at the headland where the lighthouse is

s701 dinner

Cyber City wasn't open so we ended up going to Super Bowl. Dessert at Freestyles was good. Here's a pic... (no they weren't all mine. I got the white chocolate cheesecake mmmm)

The Holiday

Well I'm not normally a sucker for romantic movies, but I have to give it to The Holiday. With good humour and a sprinkle of mushiness I'm giving it 5 stars. It was just what I wanted to see on my annual break.

Didn't want to go boxing day shopping today. Might go to DFO tomorrow to have a look - I still haven't been there yet.

Airport Security

This is good. I got to give it to the air hostess for not laughing out loud.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyg2x9tEiXU

New look

I've signed up to Blogger beta and it's pretty cool. I like the idea of drag and drop on a web page. I've also give the blog a new look. The green is getting a little boring. I just need to put a RSS feed on an I'm done.

Speaking of new look - I need a new hairstyle.

All tooled up

I've been doing courses in Project Management and ITIL, and I really enjoyed them. I meant really. Ok it's wasn't just the food/ice-cream. It's the content - I almost found the ITIL course (don't laugh) inspiring. It showed me how things (processes in ITIL world) can work together to achieve a bigger goal.

Thinking back I tried to avoid anything non-technical at uni - I even manged to talk myself out of a core business subject I had to do. I saw myself heading towards a career in IT where I don't have to be bothered with the business fluff. How glorious!

My perception has definitely changed. Nowadays I'm more interested in seeing how the pieces fit together to make things work. And I don't just mean technology - it's with people as well. Yeah people is the tricky bit and I have a lot more to learn. I am not looking forward to the politics though - I don't want to get eaten alive.

Saturday

Had a pretty full on day yesterday. Went to dance, then shopping with Peta and Chandni, then met up with Gab and Anthony for fireworks. I love fireworks (I said this last year already). I thought we would escape the crowd this year and go the the Story Bridge but the game was on at the Gabba (trust me to know when major sports events are on) so there was no where to park. We ended up at Milton and watched the barge near the Regetta. Yes there was no crowd but that's because there's not much to see from where we were. We only got glimpses of the show at South Bank and there was no music. But hey I got to watch some fireworks and that's all I cared.

And I can't get this out of my head since Saturday


Bounce wit it, drop wit it
Lean wit it, rock wit it
Snap wit it
All my ladies pop yo backs wit it
Do it do it do it do it
U know tha world be rockin' to it to it
So do it do it do it to it

My MeeGo

I got my TechEd MeeGo. Does she look like me?? Cute monkey huh?

Microsoft protection

For the last week I went on with no up-to-date "Microsoft protection". MS Antispyware expired end of last month. Now although I can still do scans with it by changing my system clock to some time last month, I should really be updating to Windows Defender.

So off I went to the MS site, downloaded GenuineCheck.exe because I don't want to install another ActiveX and downloaded the msi. The msi won't install saying I'm missing an update. There was no message except for a link to the requirements page. I checked the systems requirement and sure enough I have what it claims on the page. I did a search in google (as usual when I get any problems) and found hacks all over the place on how to bypass genuine advantage. I must make clear that I do have a legitimate version of XP so I don't need those. Someone suggested that I go to Windows Update and bingo it made me install

• Update for Windows XP (KB898461)
• Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Tool (KB892130)

According to the KB article, the XP update should only be required for downloads from Windows update or if I use automatic update. I do neither. I apply my patches manually because I like to know what get installed on my computer and only choose the ones I need - the more that gets installed, the greater the chances that something else goes wrong. GenuineCheck should have taken care of WGA and the fact that I can download the msi proves that. Having ran out of options I sheepishly clicked the next button and followed the bouncing ball. Voila Windows Defender was installed in flash.

This proves to me that once again, anything other than the "default" way of doing things would not work smoothly. Ok I can accept more overhead on my part because I choose to have more control over my system. But with no error messages or indications of what is really wrong, I am forced to conform to the default, even though the extra steps required aren't documented requirements.

So much catching up, so little time...

Yeah I've neglected this blog a little lately... been almost 4 months since I last posted. I promise I'll try and be more attentive - at least one post per month.

So let's see what 's been happening in my life lately.

Up till July it's been the conference and nothing else. It turned out great and I'm happy about the result. We didn't quite get our ambitious target of 120, but we got 100 so I can't complain too much. Still slaving away on the post event report.

Got into the nitty gritty of Oracle Text and lodged my first tar ball! I was a little disappointed with their support though. Yes they did give me quick responses, but they weren't the answers I was after. I had to repeat myself 3 times to get a straight yes/no which was all I was after.

I'm off the TechEd in Sydney from 22-25 August. You can catch me there if you're going. This is my first time attending the full conference. There'll be a lot to take in and I will be wasted afterwards, but it will be fun :)

I find myself tuning to ABC classic when I have my radio on... scary thought huh? I know zilch about classical music but I find it more soothing than some of the crap they keep repeating on B105. They are repeating so much that even the good chart toppers make me feel agitated.

I did plan for a nice tax refund... damn HECS I only got around $600 back.

I NEED to catch up with my friends. I have been so out of touch it's not funny. Yes I've been to drinks and lunches with some of them but I want to see everyone. I might round up the troop for something in the next month.

And last but not least, I discovered Maggie Massaman Curry mix. Tops!!