Baggas’ Blog

It’s a week now since I got my iPhone 3GS so a good time to post some of my thoughts about it. I’ll post more on some of the apps I’m using in the coming days/weeks.

Firstly let me say that the iPhone is a revolution. I’m been a long time PDA/Smart phone user (moving form Palm PDAs to the brilliant Treo which my wife still loves through to a couple of fairly good Windows Mobile HTC phones) but I’m a fairly late adopter to the iPhone. Part of the reason for this was being locked into my old contract and the other part was feeling that the iPhone was far from being mature, lacking in basic phone functionality like MMS, Video, Cut and Paste etc. The recent release of the iPhone 3 software and the new 3GS hardware dealt with most of those reservations.

I’ll discuss various aspects of the iPhone separately but at the outset let me say that two of the biggest reasons why this is such a joy to use are speed and integration. By speed I mean the speed at which programs load and run - there is virtually no lag or delay - almost everything loads in less than a second. Obviously there can be delays relating to the speed of your internet connection but that’s an network issue, not a problem with the iPhone itself. I’ve gone with Vodafone here in Australia and have found that 90% of the time internet connection/speed is more than adequate.

Integration is the other awesome thing about the iPhone - just how well the mail, messaging, calendar, contacts and related apps talk to each other, and how smooth and simply it all works. This is no real surprise though, coming from Apple. Having a Mac computer and a MobileMe account makes this whole experience even easier and smoother. Through push notifications all my contacts/calendar/bookmarks/email etc are instantaneously kept in Sync between my iPhone, my iMac and my MacBook. Push email through MobileMe works very well - there is virtually no spam and the email client is very easy to use. Using this hint I’ve been able to easily set it up so it sends as my main baggas.com email address instead of @me.com, which is nice.

As a phone it seems fine.  Call quality is good. As I said previously integration with the address book is fast and smooth. Visual voicemail is a cool feature where you can see all your voicemail messages on the screen and choose which one you want to listen to or just delete, without having to listen through them all in order or follow a bunch of menus (ie “press 3 to delete”) - it’s all there on the phone, just like SMS/MMS. Very cool. I don’t think all phone networks offer this functionality though.

The Camera is still probably the iPhone’s Achilles Heel. Apparently the 3 megapixel camera has been improved compared to the old iPhone 3G but it’s still not great. I like the autofocus or touch to focus feature. Photos of still subjects in good light actually look pretty nice, but in lower light or subjects that aren’t perfectly still (like 1 year old girls) the photos are blurry/grainy. Even compared to my old HTC phone there is a massive lack of settings here - no ability to adjust the camera in any way, and no ability that I can find to edit the photos at all. I’m really surprised at how little attention Apple seems to have given to this, given their excellent desktop photo software. It may be that there are third party photo editing Apps available for the iPhone but it’s one area I haven’t looked into… yet.

Taking Video recordings is a little better than photos. The videos aren’t bad quality for a phone, and you can do some basic editing like trimming your video clip which is implemented nicely. And sending your videos onward via email, MMS or uploading to MobileMe or YouTube is handled very easily and elegantly. Here’s the one and only video I’ve done so far, as a test mainly of the uploading process. The light in this room was a bit dim but it gives you a rough idea. It took me only a couple of minutes to take this video, trim it, and upload to YouTube. Very simple and smooth process - ideal for if you are out and about and want to share a video right away… I’ll try and take another video out in the sun in the next day or so to get a better idea.

Media playback is through the iPod section. What can I say about this? It’s an iPod! Music playback is flawless. The genius feature works well to create instant playlists of related music, you can flip through album covers using CoverFlow (never been a huge user of this on the Mac but on the iPhone it’s very nice). Searching for music works well and is very fast through the global Spotlight search (which you can also use to search the enture contents of the iPhone for just about anything). You can shake to shuffle which is kinda cool, and you can use voice controls (more about that later). Glad I went for the 32 Gig version so I can fit plenty of stuff on there. It won’t completely replace my 160Gig iPod classic, but it’s a nice option for when I only want to carry one device (which is most of the time actually). Media controls and a mic are built into the new headphones, which are fairly good.  Video playback is very nice on the widescreen - very usuable for watching TV shows or movies while commuting/travelling.

Voice control is another new feature on the iPhone which other phones have had for years. I’ve never been a huge fan of voice recognition stuff but the iPhone adaptation works fairly well. It gets it right for phone control about 80% of the time (eg “Call Jennifer mobile”) but probably only about 2/3 of the time for iPod control - maybe because the iPod database is many hundreds of time bigger than the phone database? I still haven’t quite learnt all the commands it recognizes yet. There’s also a nifty Google search App you can download which enables voice searches and is location aware, so if you say “Movie show times” or “Chinese restaurant,” it will fairly reliable bring up local results.

GPS seems to work well. Satellite fix outdoors takes only a few seconds. You can now buy turn-by-turn navigation software for the iPhone (I haven’t yet). The new iPhone also features a compass which you can see in the stand-alone compass App, or use in Google maps to orient your map. There are a  number of GPS apps you can download but this seems to me to be a relatively under-explored area of functionality.

Web browsing on the iPhone is a dream. This will not be news to previous iPhone users but compared to Windows Mobile the difference is immense. It’s great to be able to see the whole page rendered and then smoothly zoom in to view the sections you want. The text magnifies and renders beautifully and scrolling vertically and horizontally is easy and smooth. I love the way the iPhone responds to touch. It’s so easy to learn and use. The new iPhone 3.0 software also supports tethering where you can use the iPhone as a modem for your laptop via USB or bluetooth. Old news for other phones but I found this so much easier than it ever was on my old WM phone. Within 30 seconds I had my MacBook Air accessing the internet through my iPhone over blueooth. Simple. With a decent sized data plan road warriors may consider making this their preferred method of accessing the internet. Vodafone currently seems the best for this in Australia - I’m on a plan which includes 1Gig of data but you can add on more data if necessary. Optus have decided to charge people extra for tethering, and Telstra I’m not sure about, but the amount of data in their plans is paltry (a shame since they have the best network - offer a decent value data plan and customers would flock to them). Another beauty of the iPhone is it’s implementation of WiFi - if a network is available it will always either automatically connect or give you the option to, thus potentially saving a lot on your 3G usage.

Anyway that’s enough for now. If you couldn’t tell, I love this phone. It’s not perfect, but still amazing. The other awesome feature I haven’t mentioned yet is the App store, where you can download a myriad of free or cheap Applications for a multitude of uses, from games to networking to productivity… over the coming weeks I’ll start blogging here about some of the Apps I think are cool.

Heading off for a mini-getaway today. Firstly an excursion to the Zoo with Luke and then a couple of nights in the city. Sure it’s only 50km away but we don’t get there much nowadays and it’s a good option when time or money doesn’t permit a proper holiday. Anyway it’s a good excuse for a little Billy Idol… beware though, it’s a very strange video…

I don’t know if I would want to nominate my “favourite Beatle” - they are all awesome, although I’d probably if pushed lean towards the more serious ones (or the dead ones) John and George. Similarly I wouldn’t want to have to choose my favourite Beatles song, but certainly “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” would be right up there - not only is it an awesome song written by George, but Eric Clapton played guitar on the original. Few would probably immediately nominate the artist known once again as Prince in the same category of guitar heroes as Clapton, but check out his amazing, theatrical solo in this tribute to George… this man can wield a Telecaster with style!

And while we’re on the topic, here’s another great but different version of this song, from a Ukelele maestro Jake Shimabukuro. I picked up this guy’s CD while we were in Hawaii a couple of years ago - it’s amazing. I often get tired of people mistaking my mandolin for a Ukelele (it’s got twice as many strings and looks and sounds completely different people!) but if I could play half as good as this guy I wouldn’t mind so much…

Greetings from sunny tropical Queensland, where aside from missing my wife and kids I am suffering from serious guitar withdrawals. I can’t find any station on my TV where I am staying except ‘Max’ and have had the radio in my hire car alternating between my iPod, some new CDs I got, and the local country FM station (Kix - the Best Country in the World!) - why doesn’t Perth have a country music station?? seriously one of the worst things about Perth… anyway I digress… so yeh, I’m listening to lots of interesting music but have no guitar to play - very frustrating!

I seriously think that the airlines should allow guitarists to take one guitar in addition to their usual baggage allowance.. would make for a much happier, more melodic travel experience. How bout it, QANTAS?

When I got my first Fender from Nashville I flew with it half way back around the world to Perth, but at that point I was able to just count it as one of the kid’s pieces of baggage. Sadly I have no kid with me this time so no baggage allowance to co-opt. I shall have to think of some cunning plan to bring a guitar for my next 2 week trip here…

I did visit one of the local ACC churches here on Sunday : here’s my ‘mystery worshipper’ review. Smallish church but the music was good. Lots of energy courtesy of the excellent young guy who was worship leading and the youth who were moshing in the first couple of rows. The band was simple - they didn’t play any super complicated licks (except the bass solo in Salvation is here), but they were really tight and it was a nice mix (my only complaint would have been I couldn’t hear the girl plying lead guitar). Overall I took out of it that you can have a really quality sound without doing anything too complicated if you have a tight band who knows the songs, a good mix, and a dynamic worship leader who can really take the music in the right direction. I liked that they also (in a couple of songs) left space for people to worship freely, although even that was fairly brief and the worship leader had his finger on the pulse and the band followed him diligently. So nice to have a great worship experience away from home. I think it is valuable for us as worship leaders and musicians to visit other churches from time to time and get a feel for what others are doing.

Anyway I should turn out the lights… getting late here in Qld and I have another day of biostatistics awaiting me tomorrow (actually make it today now… zero hours). Just one last plug if you want to listen to some classic music - I just watched the movie ‘The Boat that Rocked’ - not bad for a laugh.. think Austin Powers meets Titanic and you’ll be on the right track. I can’t say I can recommend it as a good wholesome Christian movie (don’t say I didn’t warn you) but if you want a fun movie with some awesome old 60’s music… check it out.

And on that note I’m signing off. Keep on rockin’

I’ve been thinking and reading a lot about India lately, and reading Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance has been the culmination of that process. In fact this book is so vivid and real and gut wrenching that after reading I feel like I need a rest from my Indian phase (though not from the food, of course).

The book follows the stories of four central characters who find themselves living together in a large Indian city in the 1970s, an incredibly corrupt and dark time for India. We are taken deep into their psyche, their past and present, and their dreams for the future, and we are drawn into their pain when those dreams are shattered over and over again. An amazing achievement of this book is that not only do we have these four well fleshed out characters but there is a cast of numerous interesting supporting characters who we also get to know very well. Mistry is a master of characterisation, and even those who at first glance would be entirely despicable earn some measure of sympathy and even liking. The picture Mistry paints (or the quilt he sews..) is not at all black and white - it is a range of colours and emotions, good and evil all washed together, although ultimately it is the darker shades the are most dominant.

A Fine Balance is a brilliantly crafted book that will take you captive on a roller coaster ride of emotions. At the end I was left with a feeling of admiration/satisfaction with the novel, but mixed with a melancholic mood. Big tip : don’t read the end of this book if you’re already feeling a bit down and lonely to begin with… Or maybe I shouldn’t say that… it only makes it more poignant. Don’t let me disuade you at all though, this is and incredibly rewarding and powerful book to read.

My first good electric guitar was my Epiphone Les Paul Black Beauty. Prior to this I had an Ibanez TR series strat copy for many years but when I started getting more serious and playing on stage regularly this no longer cut it. So, since I couldn’t afford my dream guitar, a real Gibson Les Paul (one day it will happen), I went for the next best thing, an Epiphone. And the 3 pickup gold hardware Black Beauty custom model just looked so hot I just couldn’t resist.

It’s a guitar that looks awesome, and sounds great too, with a nice thick full tone and heaps of sustain. It was my main axe for a long time but in the last couple of years has languished while I’ve primarily used my two Fenders - my VG Stratocaster that I bought in Nashville and my beautiful Custom Telecaster. Both of these are fantastic sounding versatile guitars that are a delight to play and are perfectly suited to worship music… but a Les Paul is still the ultimate guitar as far as I’m concerned.

Recently I’ve been inspired to get my Black Beauty out again and start playing it, although it needed new strings and had a couple of little crackles in the input jack and toggle… so I decided to give it a complete overhaul to make it better than ever.

The Problem

My main criticism of the Black Beauty has always been that you can’t take full advantage of the 3 pickups in the factory configuration, in which your three way toggle switch selects between the following 3 combinations of pickups :

• neck
• middle & bridge
• bridge

I never liked it that you can’t have a typical Les Paul middle position neck & bridge combination, and also that you can’t isolate the middle pickup on it’s own or with the neck pickup. Ideally they should have put in a 5 way switch to give a strat style combination of pickup options. Years ago when I first googled this I discovered some methods of adding a new switch and rewiring the guitar, but they seemed overly complicated and I was never brave enough to do it since it was my main guitar at the time.

The Solution

This time I discovered a simple more elegant way of rewiring the Black Beauty that didn’t require any new parts. Basically the aim is to create a guitar with a volume control for each of the three pickups, and a master tone control (who really needs two tone controls anyway?). The toggle switch would switch between pickups in the normal Les Paul style, ie :

• neck
• neck & bridge
• bridge

However the middle pickup would always be “on” independently of that switch so using it’s volume control I would have the option of dialing it in to any of the above combinations, or dialing out the other pickups if I want the middle one on it’s own.

I found some wiring diagrams online which portrayed this setup. Here are the two most useful ones I found (click on the pictures to see larger versions) :

Now I’m pretty much an electronics newbie, but on first glance these didn’t look too complicated to me. Unfortunately, once I’d removed the plates on the back of my guitar and looked into the control and switch cavities, I found myself totally bamboozled by what I saw. Anyone who’s not such a tech-newbie like me would hopefully find it somewhat less confusing. But anyway, I managed to disconnect all the existing wires, and re-route the wire from the middle pickup which was going to the switch, and instead point it down towards the control cavity. At this point I “phoned a friend” and called in my talented brother Kyle who knows much more about this kind of thing. He took the guitar away and got it all wired up just the way I wanted it.

Results

So now it’s like I have a new guitar all over again - and all polished up and shiny and with a new set of Elixir strings. Nice to be able to isolate the sounds of the ‘normal’ Les Paul pickups in the neck and the bridge and to be able to add in that middle pickup when I want to. Also never having been able to use that pickup on it’s own I didn’t realise what I was missing - the middle pickup has a nice treble sound to it but with a little less bite than the bridge pickup… nice for playing clean arpeggiated rhythms or U2 type stuff (have always loved listening to their stuff but only now getting game enough to try playing it… spent half the evening at our home group the other night jamming out some U2 stuff on Gav’s new guitar… also helps that I have an awesome new delay pedal, which I may or may not get around to blogging about.. a TC Nova delay).

Anyway it makes the 3 pickup Les Paul the versatile instrument it always should have been… sounds great and I will definitely not be neglecting it as I have done over the last couple of years. It’s actually good to give me another tonal option in addition to my Strat and Tele - both of these are still a good fit for a lot of the worship music we do at church - the challenge will be picking the songs where the Les Paul will be a good option. My favourite song we used to do which sounded great on the Les Paul was ‘Take Me In’ which we did in a lot heavier style than the Kutless version. It was in F#m which is an awesome key for Slash sounding lead work and also allowed me to play in drop-D for heavier sounding power chords… but it’s been a while since we’ve done that one… I still haven’t got a song list for this Friday’s service, but I will definitely find a way to include the Black Beauty in there somewhere (especially since it’s my last service for a few weeks as I’m off to Queensland for Uni next week..)

I continue to not be too active here in this blog due to study/family/ministry/work/facebook etc, although have been a little more involved in our worship team’s blog here : http://wccworship.wordpress.com/

In the process I’ve recently discovered a few brilliant worship guitar blogs that have really got me inspired. Here’s a few of them :

• Guitar for Worship
• Guitar Praise
• Worship Guitar Guy
• Les Paul Player Doctor

They are all now fixtures in my newsreader and all are excellent, but I’d recommend the first one especially. This dude has a mountain of good material, loves U2, and is pretty damn funny too. So if you’re into that sort of thing, check it out. In the meantime I’ll be off hiding out in facebook as usual.

Another great book from Scot McKnight, The Blue Parakeet challenges us to examine the way in which we read the Bible. Taking the obvious examples of the Mosaic law code, Scot forces the reader to acknowledge that no-one follows the Bible in a 100% literal fashion and we ALL pick and choose which parts we follow and which parts we ignore or sideline (these are the “Blue Parakeets” of the Bible that we cage up - if you read the book you’ll get the analogy). In particular Scot looks at some misguided methods of approaching the bible, like as a law book or manual for life, or as a puzzle to work out - these misguided methods too often result in fixed interpretations that become hardened traditions.

McKnight’s preferred method of reading the Bible is to read scripture as story and then discerning how to apply what we read to our lives in our days. In this we are ultimately guided by the Holy Spirit and also by history and tradition, although we should not be enslaved by these.

To demonstrate in a more practical way how the “reading the Bible as Story” approach works, McKnight tackles the issue of women in ministry where he effectively argues that the overall trajectory of the Biblical narrative, and the roles of women in the story, would strongly support female leadership and teaching roles. To this overall thrust we should then subordinate those few passages which seem contradictory and in favour of keeping women silent. While not ignoring these passages McKnight places them within the context of the Story and the cultural situations of the churches to which Paul was writing.

The Blue Parakeet challenges the way we read the Bible, forcing us to acknowledge that this reading is a matter of choosing and prioritising. The reading as Story approach and considering how each wiki fits into the overall narrative, is a good, although not necessarily simple, method of discerning how we are to apply the word.

The Savage Detectives is an original and challenging read. Roberto Bolano is supposedly one of the greatest writers to emerge from Latin America and if Latin America has a characteristic feel then I imagine this book captures it more than adequately - wild, chaotic, revolutionary… stands in stark contrast to the ordered philosophising of the Russian novel I read before it.

The novel loosely follows the story of the lives of two young poets, beginning in Mexico in the mid 70s and roaming far and wide. One of these poets is strongly based on the author himself so you find yourself wondering as you read just how much truth there might be mixed in with this fiction. It’s a challenging novel because  it doesn’t really give a clear idea of where it’s going and what plot there is is presented by a large number of different narrators with different perspectives and who between them manage to leave considerable gaps in the story. Although the 2 principal characters can be seen as representing the “savage detectives” in the end I felt that the term detective could be even more fittingly applied to us as the reader trying to piece together this story, or to the silent, questioning author who compiles all the disparate voices and views represented here.

Because I felt like I was hanging on for dear life trying to keep a grasp on the plot remembering who’s who, the more pervasive themes of the story weren’t  always clearly front and centre. Unlike the blatant philosophy of a Russian novel (although there is a little of that, although always from the characters’ perspective rather than any omniscient author) the deeper themes here are ones that are easier to view from the end of the story, taking a step back from the constant intimacy of the writing. And in this respect that’s a lot like real life too. But deeper themes are there, and The Savage Detectives touches upon friendship, the idealism and rebellion of youth and how they are tempered by age; love, relationships, art and literature. This is a book that I imagine would yield a lot from a second reading, when one is not so concerned with  wondering where on earth it is going to go next. But my time will not permit a re-read any time soon.

It’s quite a raw book - plenty of violence, coarse language, drugs, sex and gratuitous poetry - so not for kiddies or people who are sensitive to such things. But if you can get past all that and you’re willing to go on a literary adventure then this might be worth reading for you. I say might, and present my recommendation with a disclaimer, because I can easily imagine many people not enjoying or actually hating this book, so don’t say I didn’t warn you. It’s not for everyone. For me though, it was a thoroughly worthwhile read, and I look forward to tackling Bolano’s magnum opus 2666 which is sitting on my shelf, later in the year, perhaps in my next Uni break.

Haven’t been here much lately so let’s say this blog is officially in hiatus. Between Uni and family and church and what-not blogging has just been crowded out. I’m still fairly active on facebook, so you can find me on there most days. Also Owen has his own blog now which get’s updated every week or two - www.owenrocks.com. I’m sure this blog will become busy again in the future, but for now it’s just not a season for blogging.

In the meantime, for those who are on facebook… I think you’ll enjoy this clip that I found on Mark’s blog… 25 things I hate about facebook.

Over the last week or so I’ve been reading something a little different - some christian fiction. Now there’s two words I usually don’t like to see put together “Christian” + “fiction” - too often that means some pretty trashy, low quality, often dodgy theology content that fills the shelves of our Christian bookshops. But “The Lazarus Effect” is different.

The Lazarus Effect is written by acclaimed New Testament scholar Ben Witherington III and his wife Ann. Ben is one of my three favourite NT scholars, the other two being N T Wright and Scot McKnight. All three write a combination of serious scholarly books and Christian books aimed at the rest of us. And like McKnight, Ben Witherington has his own blog, which is one of my top reads.

Briefly, the story is set in modern Israel, where an American archaeologist Dr Art West discovers the tombstone of the biblical character Lazarus, as well as manuscripts linking him to the authorship of the gospel of John (an interesting proposition that Witherington has discussed in other places as well). A range of characters of multiple religious and ethnic backgrounds get involved as a fast-paced thriller/detective/court-room drama ensues. Despite it’s Christian authorship, the novel is very generous and respectful to those of other faiths. Short chapters and a simple style make this a quick and enjoyable read. I found this novel good to read in short sharp burst of a couple of chapters at a time when I was busy, but also good to sit down with for longer periods as well.

So for a novel written by a couple of Professors in non-literary fields, The Lazarus Effect is pretty good. It does have a feel of a first time effort and realistically is not going to win any serious literature awards, but I found it very enjoyable and a little bit thought provoking. I’d been exposed to Witherington’s ideas about Lazarus before so that didn’t strike me as being too surprising but for someone who hadn’t heard these ideas previously this could be a little controversial and very stimulating. Certainly the authorship of John and the identity of the “beloved disciple” is one of those biblical mysteries that it would be fascinating to discover an answer to. In this novel Witherington provides his answer, and in a most entertaining fashion. Well worth reading.

If The World Could Vote

I really feel like the result of next week’s US election will have a profound effect not only on the USA but on the entire world. After watching Obama’s inspirational “infomercial” today on You Tube I am even more convinced of just how important this election is. Wish I had a chance to vote myself, but I’m afraid the closest I might get is the website above, which gives people from around the world a chance to vote, and then tallies the votes by country… and the results are overwhelming as to who the world’s choice is. Check it out, and cast your vote!

My only question is - what’s up with Macedonia? Perhaps next Wednesday John McCain may be considering retiring there…

Yuu may have noticed a lack of activity here of late, partly because I’ve been so busy and partly because my online presence (like that of many other people) has sharply veered into the realm of facebook. I hate to say it (because I really hated it at first) but I think the “new” facebook has ultimately turned out to be an improvement, greatly enhancing the social interactivity of the site whilst reducing a lot of the spam and the preponderance of silly applications that were dragging down the old facebook. They are all still there, but much more nicely compartmentalised. In fact the new facebook has also in my mind effectively replaced Twitter - it gives the same functionality of microblogging with status updates, but allows for a much more elegant way of replying and communicating based on these updates, and with a much larger “audience.” I’ll still cross post to twitter using ping.fm (in fact as of today I now have the Australian leader of the Opposition “following” me on twitter) but facebook is where it’s at. Amazing how it continues to grow, and penetrate into more and different demographics. Wonder if the creators of facebook ever imagined how far this would go - from a niche site for uni students to arguably one of the two most crucial sites on the web (along with Google).

The other thing area that facebook has tentatively moved into is chat, with the little web-based chat in the lower right corner. I’ve used this a couple of times now and it’s not bad, although a little unreliable. The potential utility of this is that if facebook is becoming your communications hub, then instantly all of your FB contacts are on your chat list. It keeps it all centralised. At present though, facebook chat is under-cooked and very low powered. If they want this to compete with MSN, AIM, Yahoo etc then they will need to beef up it’s features and create stand-alone desktop software so it will run when your browser is closed, allow more customisable contact lists, availability status, invisibility, file transfers, and ultimately video and audio chat. Not sure if this is their goal but the potential is there. For Mac users, you can go part way to achieving this using Adium, a neat and powerful program that combines all your different chat accounts into the one client - and facebook chat is one of those. So you can chat with facebook friends even without your browser open. Probably there is similar software for Windows, but I haven’t been bothered to look for it.

I’m not planning on abandoning this blog any time soon, but the chances are you’ll be seeing me a lot more on facebook…

• studying again after a week off - the enthralling subject of Travel Insurance… #
• For Mac users who chat - try Adium : http://www.adiumx.com/ - lets you combine MSN, ICQ, and many others including Facebook chat. Very nice #
• The sounds of Jimi Hendrix and a glass of red certainly makes studying a lot more pleasant #

• Throwing out a bunch of old junk today - can’t believe I hoard this kind of crap. #

• Hospital kiosk is no longer allowed to sell Coke (only Diet Coke) - Stupid paternalistic health beaurocrats have banned it. Very annoying #
• In lieu of Coke I am now drinking Glaceau vitamin water : triple-x. Very tasty and mildly humorous labelling. #
• http://ping.fm/p/1ZM4V - Just got startled by this bobtail hissing at me. Crikey! #

• Trying to watch the presidential debate online whilst at work is not a very wise move. #
• Will definitely be paying more attention to the seat-belt signs on planes from now on. #
• Another baby on the way tonight. No telling what time it will be born so I might head to bed early I think. #

• Looks like most of my babies were born while I was away. Will make things a little less busy for me for the next little while. #
• Have come down with a bad cold and not in the mood for work but fortunately it’s been easy stuff so far - lots of kids for vaccinations. #
• RBA has cut rates by 1% - big move. Wonder how that will impact the housing market here? #
• Getting tired of the internet always going down here at work. Only a couple more patients to see and then I’m outta here. #
• Looking forward to playing my guitar tonight for the first time in a while although I have a numb left 5th finger which might make it tricky #
• Playing with an app to copy flickr photos into facebook albums : http://ping.fm/fWwrH #
• The flickr app worked well and is fast, but still takes time, but I might do this for some of my favourite pics from my flickr sets. #
• That’s enough photos transferred for now. Time to go outside and play some cricket. #

• In Brisbane airport, waiting for my flight back home to Perth in a couple of hours. Expect a little flurry of updates… #
• Got some noise cancelling headphones - amazing how even a fairly inexpensive set can make such a difference. #
• Reading novel “The Shack” - very moving… half the flight in tears. Among many things it really hit home to me that I have a daughter… #
• … don’t think I’ve really grasped yet how amazing, special and life changing it is to be a father of a daughter… need to let it sink in #
• .. ok enough gushy stuff before I lose it again. Back to the Travel Medicine course - was a very worthwhile 3 days… #
• … re-emphasised what a simultaneously awesome and screwed up place this world is, fired the flames of my travel addiction, learnt heaps… #
• …oh, and remember, Rabies is VERY BAD! Anyway that’s enough posts for now. I’m off to find a bite to eat #
• On my plane about to head home. There seems to be an unusual number of Russians flying to Perth today. #
• Finally home in Perth, and I am exhausted… really wish I didn’t have to work tomorrow. #

• Had a full but good day at my Uni course in Townsville. Now just heading out to find a bite to eat. #

• After an overnight flight I arrived in Townsville this morning - furthest North in Australia I have ever been. Will post on my blog. #
• For some reason I can’t get my photos to upload to flickr. Dodgy internet connection #

Tonight I find myself in Townsville, in the north of Queensland. Never been here before, in fact this is the furthest North I have been in Australia thus far (I’ll break my south record next month when we go to Tasmania). I’m here for a three day course in Travel Medicine, starting tomorrow, as part of my Masters degree.

My midnight flight from Perth to Brisbane was delayed by an hour last night but thankfully I slept pretty much the whole flight, even though I didn’t get the window seat I requested as I volunteered to move so a couple could sit together. In spite of this I think I was asleep before we took off and woke just before descent. Then it was a short flight from Brisbane up here to Townsville.

I had a short nap after checking in to my hotel and then took a drive around. Certainly is a scenic place - I took a walk along a beautiful beach called the Strand with views across to the mountainous Magnetic Island. Then I took a drive up Castle Hill - a steep rocky mountain which dominates the landscape, towering above the city. I drove past many people walking up and felt a bit lazy but I was tired from flying and have a bit of a cold so I don’t think I would have handled the climb very well. Driving or walking, it’s well worth the effort - the 360 degree views are spectacular! I’ve got a few photos but for some reason flickr is not letting me upload any (something to do with the hotel’s net connection) but here’s a Mobile Me Gallery of today’s photos. Driving down the hill I mostly coasted in neutral and let gravity do the work - not sure if that’s a bad way to drive or not?

Anyway, after a steak dinner and a brief dip in the spa here it’s time for an early night to catch up on some more sleep. First day of Uni classes for me tomorrow since 1999 so it will be interesting to see how it goes.

• Time crawling at work today. No dramas though - mostly routine antenatal checks. Tonight I’m off to North Queensland for 5 days for Uni. #
• QANTAS online check-in seems to be a waste of time. There’s never many free seats to choose from, even if done 24 hours before flying. #
• The more I read about Sarah Palin the more scared I become : http://ping.fm/4QJ8X Is it just me or is she 100x more Bush than Dubya? #
• One more hour and then I’m off work for 5 days… can’t say I’ll be sad to see the back of the place. #

X-ray images of knife stuck in boy’s head: teen survives

I always love these sort of Xray pictures. This one is of a boy from London who was stabbed in the head :

We had a similar case back when I was doing ICU and neurosurgery. A mentally disturbed guy put a butter knife through the inside of his eye socket. Xrays showed it had penetrated a similar depth into his skull to these ones. Fortunately it had managed to avoid all the major structures nearby, including his eye and major nerves. But when he was taken to surgery to have it removed, the tip of the knife was only a millimetre away from his internal carotid artery (the main blood supply to the brain). Very lucky indeed.

• Just found my first Uni exam results online - 21.5/25. Average score was 18 so I’m still a little ahead of the curve. Happy with that #

• Taking my boys to the Perth Royal Show. Just in Perth waiting for the next train. #
• On the train now - although it’s Perth almost no-one is speaking English #
• Three tired boys on their way home from the Show after an enjoyable day out. #

• Luke’s 5th birthday today - Happy Birthday Luke! #

• NYT : Obama meets President Bartlet (by Aaron Sorkin) http://ping.fm/8Z7TT - brilliant! #
• Lunch at my usual watering hole. Enjoying a beautiful pepper steak and a glass of red… my last for the weekend as I am on-call. #
• I’m so used to eBay that when I get good service from another online store, I immediately feel the need to give “positive feedback” #

• Computer system has died here at work today so it’s back to the dark ages; and I have not been paid this week either. Not good. #
• So McCain has "suspended his campaign" - worst political stunt I’ve ever seen. Surely people can see through this game he’s playing. #
• After a slightly chaotic day finished a little ahead of time. Will be nice to get out of here. #
• "New York Mets ’suspending’ pennant race" - classic! http://ping.fm/1BJl3 #

• Had a nice dinner out with the family, but have come home with a nasty headache. Time for coffee, drugs, and a little rest I think. #

CNET : Is microSD the music medium of the future? This story is something I don’t really see the point of.  Sandisk are partnering with the major music labels to release albums pre-loaded onto Micro-SD cards - the idea being to “bridge the gap between the physical and the digital”

Doesn’t make sense to me. I either want my music in one of two formats - either a digital file for my iPod or a physical medium such as a CD with artwork and liner notes that I can file on my shelf. The other advantage of CDs being the quality of the sound is generally better than most compressed digital files such as mp3, aac, wma etc. The disadvantages of the Micro-SD concept are many. If I want digital files I will download them from somewhere like the iTunes store or just rip them from CDs I have bought (my method of choice since that way I have the best of both worlds) - I’m not going to go and physically buy cards with songs on. This would mean either having to continually swap cards every time I want to listen to a different album or to use a computer to transfer them onto a larger card or hard drive based MP3 player (like my iPod). One of the big advtanges for me of an iPod or similar MP3 player is the ability to carry around a library of music so you can select what you want to listen to based on your mood, or just randomise it. So why would I want to carry around a bunch of little fingernail sized cards that can easily get lost? Crazy. Plus it will also necessitate people going out and buying new MP3 players and phones which support Micro-SD. In an age dominated by iPod and iPhone, I can’t see this happening to the extent required for this to be successful.

The future of music is continued growth of online downloads and ongoing improvement of MP3 devices to play those downloaded files. Wireless purchasing like on the iPod touch and iPhone will gradually become more widespread for those who want to get new music while they are out and about and listen to it immediately. Hopefully at some point a worthy successor to the humble CD will catch on and gain wide acceptance (like Blu-Ray is succeeding DVD, albeit very slowly). This will be some sort of high definition audio contained on a standard sized disc, with all the usual booklet/notes/lyrics etc. I know there have been a few candidates in recent years but none has really caught on. This is where the industry needs to get together to build consensus but in times dominated by digital music downloads and the recent video format wars I guess it’s not a priority issue. Whatever the future of audio is, Micro-SD is a dead end alleyway.

ob1 has posted a great checklist of symptoms of that serious malady - Bookaholism. If you fear you might be a fellow sufferer, make sure you compare yourself to the list.

There’s no doubt I have a pretty bad case of it (as you can see from my library) but I’m afraid there’s no obvious cure. Anyone know of any B.A. meetings around town for me to attend? …only on the condition that I can bring a book, of course  

Over the past couple of years I’ve been regularly entertained by LaHaye and Jenkin’s “Christian” fiction novel Left Behind. Well actually not by the novel itself, but by the excellent commentary provided by Fred on his slacktivist blog. Over the last few days Fred finally reached the end of the book - a momentous occasion. His post on the final pages gives his usual humorous analysis of the events (or non-events) contained therein, but more importantly he goes back and looks at some of the larger issues surrounding the book and gives his reasoning why this should be considered as the “Worst Book of All Time.”

Somehow it seems a little sad. Although slacktivist is still high on my list of must-read blogs due to his great political, religious and journalistic commentary, it just won’t be the same without “Left Behind Fridays” Hope Fred doesn’t take too much of a break before he delves into the next book Tribulation Force - could this book be any worse than the “Worst Book of All Time”? I guess we’ll have to wait and see…

• Safely back home in Perth again. Had a good trip. Mia was a little angel - slept most of the flight again on the way back #

P1050622

Originally uploaded by baggas

Back from Adelaide now, after a good but all too short weekend away. I’ve uploaded some photos from the trip, as well as some other recent ones of the kids onto flickr.

• Taking a drive up to the Barossa Valley. #

This weekend we wanted to get away for a couple of days for our tenth anniversary. Since neither of us had been here before, we decided to visit Adelaide. 

I doubt Adelaide would be a place I’d plan on visiting regularly, but it’s been nice seeing somewhere new.

A few observations :

• Adelaide airport is nice - better roomier, cleaner, easier, and better resourced than Perth
• Adelaide city, although smaller, has more going on after dark than Perth - plenty of places open, people everywhere, music pumping
• Rundle mall - good place to shop. Just seems to go on forever.
• Seem to be a lot more street people and mentally ill people here - maybe they are just more visible
• hard to understand the pedestrian crossing rules here - cars trying to turn while people are crossing the road - a little scary
• does this city have freeways? I’m yet to see one.
• the city of churches label does seem apt - only other place I’ve been to with a similar concentration of churches was Nashville (great city, lovely feel, nice people, awesome music!) Uniting church seems big around here.

Today we took a drive around the Barossa Valley and enjoyed a scenic trip back via the Torrens river valley and Adelaide Hills. Plenty of nice vineyards (didn’t stop at many though, although had a beautiful lunch at one), more Lutheran churches than I have ever seen in my life. In terms of natural beauty and general tourist appeal though, the Barossa isn’t a patch on Margaret River.

Mia has been wonderful this trip. Slept well in plane, car, hotel and when out & about. No major problems. Six months old and already a great little traveller.

• Arrived in Adelaide. Mia was great - slept most of the flight. Car hire upgraded to Ford XR6 but had trouble finding our hotel. #

• Final day of work today before Jen, Mia and I head off to Adelaide for the weekend - any suggestions of what to do there and where to go?? #
• 4 patients in a row haven’t turned up. I’m working limited hours at the moment so it’s very frustrating to not be effectively using the time #
• All checked in for our flight tomorrow, though there wasn’t much choice… and Mia has her first ever boarding pass #

• Been playing catch-up all day today but am now ahead of myself - waiting for one more patient then off for a long overdue hair cut. #