Lecture

Lecture I went to last night:


Pretty good, but the parts I wasn't already familiar with seemed kind of speculative. I guess there's no alternative to glossing over when delivering a one-hour talk to the lay public.

Flinders

Flinders Street Station, where I take the train to every morning:


(One of the better shots I've taken with the iPhone camera, I must say.)

Trivia

Marjorie came along to trivia last night, and despite our inability to name supermodels, we took first place!

Fundraiser

Me today at Another Bloody Fundraiser at The Fox, down the road:

Station

Southern Cross Station:


It went millions over budget and years behind schedule. And I think it's ugly. Actually I think that about most of the modern buildings in Melbourne, though I like a lot of the older architecture...

Contests

Some newspaper clippings from my programming contest days:











Good times.

Lavalamps

These are the lights we use at work that come on automatically to tell us that someone has "broken the build" (i.e. added defective software to the group repository):


All three on is not good, but it is the last day of a sprint when everyone's trying to get their changes added.

I used to think of lava lamps as relaxing, before I started here...

Brekkie

Breakfast of champions:


This is my breakfast, more days than not: grilled salami and cheese sandwich with two or three glasses of OJ. I suppose there are healthier ways to go, but at least I have the four food groups covered!

Cockatoo

A great sighting while out on walkies today:


It's a yellow-tailed black-cockatoo, a species we had only previously seen from a distance. There were five of them. Once again, the iPhone camera fails to capture the majesty of Australia's largest cockatoo/parrot.

Cicada

Spotted this discarded cicada husk on a broomstick in our backyard:


Just above was its gorgeous former occupant:


They call them "green grocers" here. His software never booted up, though, apparently: he was dead.

Grocery

This is our little local grocery:


You can see two of the three aisles. Despite the small size they have a lot of interesting gourmet choices. I love having them just around the corner!

Trivia

Trivia night at the Cornish Arms:


The host there is a former star on Australia's biggest ever soap, Neighbors.

Paddington

Strange sighting out the window while waiting to take off from Adelaide:


Yes, my phone should've been put away at that point...

Moonrise

Moonrise over the boats off Kingscote:

Beach

A secret beach on the north coast of KI, accessible only through a rock cave tunnel:


Though someone had clearly been here before:

Sea lion

This little guy wanted to join our tour group:


Marjorie got some great shots of him too.

Echidna!

That thar's an echidna!


He was being shy but poked his head out after we backed off. Cuteness overload!

Adelaide

Flight to Adelaide:


Adelaide airport:

Flagstaff

Waiting for the train to take me home...

Code

This is the sort of thing I look at on the screen all day:


And yes, it all makes sense to me :-)

Desk

My desk at work:


I've never been a clean-desk kind of guy, but I don't let it get too out of hand.

Pub

The truly local pub (The Royal Rose) that's just around the corner:


We don't go much, as the food isn't all that. They do have a microscopic bottle shop attached with a good selection though. They have trivia once a month that we've been trying to attend as well.

Pong

This is the ping pong table at work, where all the magic happens.


My coworker Yoram and I have gotten really good. We've pretty much outgrown the tight space, but we still have good matches almost daily.

Dexter's

This is our local chill-out bar, Dexter's. Out back:


Out front:

Tram

Morning tram self-portrait, thanks to a well-placed mirror!

Japanese

Dinner tonight at Yu'u with our friends Steve and Trisha.























Missing three other courses too, including their amazing sashimi. I am full to the GILLS.

This is the Thai food place where I get about half my lunches these days.





Good, cheap, fast, and always packed if you don't get there early enough.

Cafe

A little cafe in our neighborhood that went unnoticed down a side street for over a year until I stumbled across it yesterday.








We ate there this morning. Melbourne is full of hidden gems like this!

Possums

I was going to caption this picture with something about how possums are never really out in the light of day - it's just the idea of them that gets Laika excited:


But then two trees down we spotted a momma and her babies:

Austrian

Dinner at Mutti's Austrian just now. Me: goulash mit spatzle. Marjorie: pork belly.





Marjorie's comment: "It's a good thing Laika doesn't taste this good."

Bay view

The view out a different office window. In the background is the bay that we used to live four blocks from.






Weird -- the sky looks all blue for some reason!

Dreary

My street. We're sick of this weather! It's been a particularly grey spring.






I call the trees "broccoli trees" for obvious reasons.

Lunch

The daily post-lunch gaming session, with Guitar Hero and MAME box.




Featuring Tom, Simon, Dan, Owen, John, Mark P, and Sean.

Elvis

Saw Elvis Costello perform solo tonight. Great show. He had to work hard to win over a crowd of sober forty- and fifty-somethings and he succeeded.




This was the playbill out front:

Clifton Hill Station

Waiting for the train, Clifton Hill, like every morning...




It's ten minutes to the city if I catch the express; otherwise, fifteen. Then ten minutes of walking or tramming. Sometimes I think the ride isn't long enough!

Merri Creek Video

A bonus today: here's a quick video from our walk the other day.

Webmasters

The other night I met the guy who took over the Elvis Costello web page from me lo those many years ago.




John is a really nice guy, and it's nice to put a face on the name. We're going to see him again on Tuesday night for Elvis's second show in town.

Fairfield Boathouse

Took a walk down to the Fairfield Boathouse on the Yarra today.



They rent canoes and kayaks here, and it's a short paddle down to see the bats. We were actually looking out for the black cockatoos we'd seen a few times here but no sightings today.

Merri Creek

We miss the beach we had at our old place, but the new place has the river which is quite idyllic.



Lots of birds! I'm going to go do some volunteer work for the Friends of Merri Creek in a few weeks (pulling weeds most likely).

Office View

Trying something a little different. I've found an iPhone app that lets me blog from anywhere, and include pictures, so maybe I can breathe a little life back into the blog by making it more of a photo blog of our life down here.


As a start, here's the view out my office window, down William St in the heart of Melbourne. This is where I stand and look when my brain gets full.

A few months back I entered some of my family tree information, as tracked down by my Uncle Bill, into the website Geni. So just the other day I was contacted by someone who apparently has some Schnitzius blood in him, and we've been chatting a bit. He was able to supply me with a few details my uncle missed, including some whole matriarchal lines - one that takes me back as far as 1585 (my father's father's father's father's mother's mother's father's father's parents, Nicolas and Catherine Roemer, both born 1585 in Germany). He's pointed me at some other online resources that can be used to trace family trees, so I might have a go at trying to follow up my mother's line of Tomaszewicz's and Gasiors and such, especially considering we might do a trip to Poland before long. Here's a limit view of my tree - you'll have to sign up with their site to see more. Click on it and drag to scroll around, or use the slider to zoom in and out:

View more of Mark's tree |
Get your own family tree at Geni.com