Varrqnuht.net

I’m going to be singing with the TSO again! I haven’t sung since the Tchaikovsky/Beethoven concert in Port Arthur last year, because life’s been very busy and it’s pretty demanding on my time.

This concert will be great fun, and pretty accessible as there are so many short pieces being performed - you should all go and buy tickets! It’s a big program:

.. although all of that only adds up to 43 minutes of music. However, with that many pieces (spread across Italian, Latin, German, Russian and even one in English for good measure) I’ve got 20 hours or more of rehearsals scheduled between now and the concert. That’s not enough time to learn the music properly, so I’m expected to put in some additional rehearsal time on my own.

Even just rehearsing reminds me how much I miss being able to sing this kind of music with such a talented group, and of course performing it is even better. But it’s hard work, and Lou’s not much of a fan. If it were only the Tuesday night rehearsals it wouldn’t be so bad. There are occasional Sunday rehearsals as well, which cut into any available “family time” on weekends, but the real killer is the 2-4 consecutive nights of rehearsals immediately preceeding a concert. This effectively means leaving Lou alone with the kids, which is a bit rough. When you combine it with me being away for work 4-6 times a year (on average over the past couple, anyway), then you can see why she’s not a fan.

Finding that life/work/family balance is difficult - but then I guess nobody ever said it would be easy.

I’m in Melbourne at the moment for work - something in between a meeting and a conference, I guess. Came over this morning, and heading back tomorrow evening (in time for dinner, I hope!). Dinner tonight in Lygon Street though - definitely a bonus

I went into town to catch up with some friends for lunch today, and while there decided to drop in to see my dealer for a fix.  He had just what I needed (Pattern Recognition and The Coast of Coral), and while closing the deal we had the following conversation:

me: It won’t be long before I start getting in trouble if I come home without any books for my little boy.  I was worried that he wasn’t all that interested, but lately he won’t go to bed without a couple of books in there with him.

him: Oh, you should take home some Harlon Ellison for him!

me: Well, he turns two in just over a week - it’s probably not appropriate.

him:  No, I see.  You’d be better off with some Sara Douglas instead.

Ouch!  Still, I laughed. :)  Although I must admit I’ve read the Axis trilogy and enjoyed it.  Don’t remember it very well, to be honest.

I’ve given in to the use of the term “Web 2.0″ (much quicker than I gave in to the term “Blog”!).  It’s a buzzword, sure - but it’s useful in trying to describe the different kinds of applications that we’re seeing online now.  It’s not that this stuff is new, or that it wasn’t previously possible; it’s just that we seem to have reached some sort of critical mass where the data is all there for the taking, and “Web 2.0″ type applications are springing up everywhere.

Perhaps I’m full of shit.

Still, either way, this is a nice lay-persons summary of what all the fuss is about:

It also makes me want to get off my arse and get back into web app development. 

We went to Tolosa Dam last weekend for Kris’s farewell BBQ before he takes off to Perth.  Ollie was in a horrid mood all day, and Sebastian didn’t want to do anything except go down the slide the whole time we were there.

 

There are a couple more photos from the day over on Flickr.

With all the fuss about climate change lately, naturally the most important question is “How’s it going to affect me?”.  Well, perhaps it’s not the most important question, but it’s up there.

The Sharples Report on Tasmanian Coastal Vulnerability is an interesting read. The predicted changes in storm surge flood levels are available as an overlay on TheLIST. (Note that the blue area is the existing flood level.) Plus, for more fun there’s a Google maps mashup showing higher sea levels as an overlay - Here’s Lauderdale with a 5m rise. A 5m rise is much higher than the worst current estimates for sea level rise out to the year 2100 - I think they’re currently predicting less than 1m as a maximum.

So, the end result of my research into the matter is:  sea level rises induced by climate change aren’t likely to have much of an effect on our house in the near or even medium term.  That doesn’t mean there won’t be other effects due to climate change, or that we won’t discover that changes are accelerating faster than currently predicted.

Technorati Tags: climate change

Let’s see, what’s been going on?

I had my holiday - it still wasn’t long enough.  I managed to have several family outings, got a bit of reading done (Bill Bryson’s Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid and made a start on The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery), got 5 levels in WoW - not much walking or camera activity though.  The Adult Education autumn course guide comes out tonight, so hopefully this time I’ll be able to get a place in the photography course I’m after.

We saw Tom Gleeson and Fiona O’Loughlin at the Hobart Comedy Festival.  We’d planned a lovely night out together - just the two of us - to celebrate our wedding anniversary.  The plan was to head into Salamanca, have dinner together, grab a quiet pint at Irish Murphy’s and then head to see the show at The Venue.  The Nans turned up to babysit and we were sitting in the car about to leave when Lou asked me if I had the tickets.  Naturally I didn’t, so I told her I was just going back inside to get them.  After about 5 minutes of frantically searching I had to go out and admit to her that I had no idea where they were.  She came inside to help me look, but 45 minutes later they were still nowhere to be found.  After failing to get hold of the ticket agent or the venue on the phone, I tried a contact of mine I’ve been doing work for, who’s “well connected” in the live music scene.  Sure enough, within minutes he’d rung me back to tell me my name was on the door!

The show was fantastic.  Tom Gleeson was very funny, but Fiona O’Loughlin was just hilarious.  And thanks to having our names at the door we ended up seated up a table just to the side of the small stage, saving us from sitting mashed amongst the crowd in that unventilated fire-trap (as Tom referred to it).  Just goes to show, it’s all about who you know!
 
I’ve been doing some work on the side.  A fair bit of work, actually.  This is for the afore-mentioned entertainment industry contact, on a site I’ve done work for on and off for years now.  I’ve been adding e-commerce functionality to his site and integrating it with a credit card payment gateway.  As usual complications arise and things take longer than expected, but I learnt my lesson last time and have been billing by the hour.  We’re finally finishing it off, and it’ll go live next week to start selling tickets.  The first event is a decent sized one and we’re expecting a fair bit of traffic - I’m really hoping that it’ll all go smoothly!

The kids are gorgeous.  No news there!  Both growing and changing daily, both pretty cheerful.  It’s all good!

I’m off to see Bill Bryson tonight!  Actually, I’d better leave now if I want to get a park!

powered by performancing firefox