September, 2005

Samurai (侍 or sometimes 士) is a common term for a warrior in pre-industrial Japan.

Most samurai were bound by a strict code of honor (武士道 bushidō) and were expected to set an example for those below them. A disgraced samurai could regain honor and respect by committing suicide by a gruesome and painful means: stabbing himself in the stomach with his own sword, an act called seppuku (切腹). When time was available, samurai would have a friend or student, called a kaishaku (介錯, executioner), decapitate them after the initial cut across the abdomen. Even in death, samurai were beholden to honor.

WikiPedia Article

So ive been in Hobart the last few days. Each day we get a local newspaper delivered to our door so of course ive been reading it to catch up on some local news.

Was an interesting article on the front page of todays paper titled “Sex Trips: Public servants escort disabled to brothels”.

From the article:

“Intellectually disabled men are being taken on organised trips to Hobart brothels by heath workers. Under official guidelines, Department of Health and Human Services workers have official permission to arrange visits to sex workers for their clients”

Not sure how i feel about this issue. Struck me as kinda funny being pasted on the front page of the local Hobart newspaper, but i guess it all comes down to equal opportunity for the disabled. *shrugs*

Through the wonder of the internet, the article is actually online

So go here and read for yourself, and post your comments below so my blog looks cool with lots of comments

The student talk thing went well. It was announced that we all received internships, so i guess no its official and i can start a new category on my blog for it

Wade, Ashely and I all had to stand up and talk a bit about our experiences so far with the Student Developer scholorships. I aimed my talk more at telling people about myself and how i come about the scholorship and stuff like that. Didnt demo any code, which was ok cause Ashley and Wade did.

Everyone seemed to like our talks, had a few people come up to us seperatly after the talk and the following days asking about stuff, was kinda cool.

Rest of the conference was spent chatting to people, listening to people presenting and eating free food. Has been really good.

So yeah, most of the people seem to have flights back this arvo, but me and a few others dont leave till tomorrow morning. So tonight i think illhave tea down stairs. Seems a reasonable price. Ashely is still around as well so might go find him to eat with.

Flying back tomorrow morning, via a 5 hour stop over in brisbane, should be ok though, ill find stuff to occupy me in brisbane.

All in all, the AUC conference was really good. Stay tuned for the addition of a ‘Apple Intern’ category and details

Well im in hobart for the AUC conference. Since i got a student developer conference i had to make an appearance here. All 3 of us who got the scholorships have to talk for about 10-15mins tomorrow arvo about what we have been doing and our experiences with the scholorship. Should be ok, im not sure exactly what to say yet – i mean, i dont know if they want me to give an overall talk about the scholorship or just concentrate on the project.

Ive aimed mine at the whole experience, so will try to cover the stuff we got, wwdc, and internships etc etc.

Arriving in Hobart was funny. The Airport terminal makes the Rocky terminal look awesome. Im not joking – the Hobart terminal is basically a big shed. Theres no carousel for baggage or anything, they just simply open the roller door (yep it is an actualy roller door), and drive the tractor up into the shed with all the bags on the back on trollies. They then open the gate (yep is is an actual gate / fence / wire), and its a mad rush to scamper through the bags on the trollies to find yours.

Was damn funny. I couldnt believe it.

Got to register for the conference around 4pm this arvo, then there are drinks with everyone else who is attending at 5:30. After that we have to find our own tea, which should be ok. Ill hook up with some of the other people and go find a cheapish place for food.

Had lunch at the hotel/conference place today, cost me $23, but it was a good feed. Still, i dont wanna be spending that much again

So yeah, thats about it.

Had a full on weekend. Melanies aunty came to visit us which was really cool

Saturday morning we picked her up from the airport and stopped by shopping fair on the way back for lunch. Saturday afternoon Melanie and I went to Thomas and Hayleys wedding. The wedding ceremony was at 3pm, was pretty short but good. The main reception was at 6pm so we had a bit of time after the ceremony finished to wander around the resort place.

The reception was good. At our table was Carey, Nick, Sarah, Tanya, Melanie and me, Luke was supposed to be there as well but had to leave early to work. The food was good and the night was really cool. We left around 10:30 ish so we didnt get home too late.

Sunday morning, Melanie took her aunty to the markets. After they came back we headed off to yeppoon for fish and chips for lunch. Carey, Nick and Sarah joined us as well. We went to the same fish and chip place we always go to – they have the best food

We ended lunch pretty quick, so we could make it to the Cooberry Park place for the Koala / Snake holding bit. It was at 1pm and we made it just in time. Everyone had a go at holding the koala / snake and it was neat. After that we wandered around the park looking at and feeding the animals. The wombat was a hit as usual. Its so strange to see a wombat that actually runs around and is out during the day. The wombat that used to be at the Rocky zoo would spend all its time in the hole and you would never see it.

After the zoo we left and came back to Rockhampton then the 3 of us went out for tea. Went to a restaurant which was pretty good, although was a bit hard to find. Got home and pretty much crashed – everyone was pretty tired.

This morning we dropped Mels Aunty Tammy off at the airport and came home to start another week.

So yeah, weekend was busy, but nice.

The last episode of Taken was on tv the other night. I wathced the first few episodes then missed a few and picked it up a few weeks ago. Ive got a grip on what the story was so it wasnt like i didnt understand or anything.

Anyway, i really enjoyed it. The story was pretty in depth, covering like 3 generations of familes and is based around the Roswell ufo crash. Had some really cool effects and a good sci-fi storyline.

Im tempted to buy the box set of this when it goes on sale as well. Id like to watch it again knowing how it all turned out. I think its one of those shows where you would pick up a lot more wathcing it more then once.

I bought the box set of Band of Brothers from Big W then past week. I watched part of the series when it was on TV a while back but missed some episodes so when Big W had the entire thing for sale for $30 i thought id grab it.

Been watching it here and there since then, and finally finished the alst episode yesterday. Its as good as i remembered and was good to see the parts i missed when it was on tv.

The box set comes with an extra dvd of special features and interviews with some of the actual guys that were depicted in the series. I havnt watch the extras yet but i think it should be really good. Throughout the series they had small interviews with some of the guys at the start of the episodes where they talked about the events.

I like stuff like that, really drives the point home that they are/were actual people. Its still hard to grasp some of of the stuff depicted in the show though and try to comprehend it actually happening.

Im glad i bought it, its something i could easily watch again.