31st
May
2007
Robert Plant – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robert Anthony Plant (born August 20, 1948, West Bromwich, West Midlands, England) is an English rock singer and songwriter, most famous for his membership in the rock band Led Zeppelin, but also for his successful solo career. He is known for his powerful style, often mystical lyrics, and wide vocal range. As the lead singer of Led Zeppelin he is often defined as the quintessential rock front man, combining rare musical adeptness and knowledge with a large measure of stage bravado and braggadocio. As a solo artist following Led Zeppelin’s demise, he is often credited for his wide range of musical taste and his ability to perform an eclectic range of songs in a refined and critically acclaimed manner. [.. read more .. ]
Categories : Wikipedia, music |
30th
May
2007
Perth cements spot as Australia’s priciest city : thewest.com.au
I was interested to read in this morning’s newspaper that Perth has crept into first place as Australia’s most expensive place to buy a home. It’s not a huge surprise given the way house prices have gone up over the last couple of years, but it’s still pretty amazing when you compare it to a few years ago. Certainly less than 5 years ago I can remember looking at prices in Sydney and wondering how on earth regular people could afford to live there, and being thankful that our prices in Perth were half the amount. Not so anymore – the median house price in Perth is now $508,900, just passing Syndey’s $507,400. The median monthly mortgage payment is now $3009, compared to $3000 in Sydney. Now that amount seems quite a lot to me, and I’m on a reasonably high income – I don’t know how people on average wages could manage that.
Looking on a broader scale, let’s review the List of most expensive cities from 2006. Back then Sydney was 19th [20th in 2005], and Perth was 93rd [93rd in 2005]. Assuming that housing is one of the biggest expenses to be taken into account, and assuming relative stability of the rest of the list (and these are big assumptions I know!) then this news might catapult Perth into the top 20 most expensive cities in the world! How crazy is that? Especially considering we are the most isolated capital city in the world, but then again maybe that’s part of the charm for some people (that and maybe the little fact of the large supply of well paying mining jobs in this part of the world..)
This is interesting to compare to house prices elsewhere in the world. Jenni showed me the other day some pictures/prices that she had been sent of homes in Nashville. Compare the house on the left in Baldivis (not far from us, 44km from Perth) for A$499,000; with this house on the right from Nashville for A$455,000. I know which one looks better to me! Now I know there’s a whole lot of other factors to take into account when performing such a comparison aside from price and looks, but as a simple visual illustration of how crazy the house prices here in Perth have gone I think it’s quite telling. I’ll be very interested to see where Perth actually ranks on the next list of most expensive cities (FYI – Nashville is not even in the top 144) and if we do make it up to the top 20 or not. Though I guess it’s not a climb we want to be celebrating too much. Anyway I suppose I’d better get back to work so I can afford those mortgage payments… 
Categories : Australia, Local, News |
30th
May
2007
Arkhangelsk – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Arkhangelsk (Russian: ????????????), formerly called Archangel in English, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Northern Dvina River near its exit into the White Sea in the far north of European Russia. Arkhangelsk was the chief sea port of medieval Russia. It is served by Talagi Airport and the smaller Vaskovo Airport, but also is home to Lakhta military air base. Population: 356,051 (2002 Census); down from 415,921 recorded in the 1989 Census. [...read more... ]
Categories : Travel, Wikipedia |
29th
May
2007
Wikipedia is an amazing resource, especially when you consider it’s put together by volunteers. It boggles the mind that some people have the time and inclination to write articles about all kinds of odd subjects. And it is in this sense that I want to start a new blog series – the “Wiki of the Day” (or WOTD to use one of Ben’s style acronyms) Wikipedia already send out an email each day with their article of the day (you can sign up here) but I thought I’d start my own daily Wiki, picking a subject of my fancy each day, especially ones that amaze me that people can be bothered to write about. I won’t write much about it myself, just post a picture and a link to the article if you want to read more. Anyway no more delay, on to today’s article :
Herbie – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Herbie is a fictional character, a Volkswagen Beetle, which “stars” in several Disney motion pictures from 1969 onwards. The car has a mind of his own and is capable of driving himself. His driving abilities far exceed those of other cars, making him a serious contender in auto racing competition. He is distinguished by red, white and blue racing stripes from front to back bumper and a racing-style number “53″ on his front hood, doors, and engine lid. [... read more ...]
Categories : Wikipedia |
28th
May
2007
I had meant to make this a little series about my dealings with Microsoft to get my Xbox 360 repaired, but the last two weeks have been so busy I haven’t had time to blog about it. Anyway, here’s the gist of what has happened so far :
Firstly, see Part 1 for details of what went wrong with my Xbox in the first place…
After I realised it was still under warranty I phoned up Microsoft service Australia that Monday 14th May. The service guy, who had an American (? Fillipino) accent was very helpful and promptly emailed me out some shipping instructions with a reply paid address to send the Xbox back to. Later that day I also received another email from Microsoft with the cryptic comment :
????? Xbox ????????????????????????????????????????????
????????????????
Now that was a bit strange but otherwise my Microsoft dealings to this point were pretty smooth. No long waiting on-hold, and a very helpful guy on the other end of the phone. The next challenge was to find a box to fit my Xbox 360 console into. Reading on some web forums it seems that Microsoft’s US service department actually send customers a box out in which to send their Xbox back in. Unfortunately their Aussie counterparts don’t do the same thing. They were very explicit that I was not to send it back using the original box, so I had to go hunting for an appropriate sized box. As I was so busy this took me several days. I couldn’t find any at home or work – none of my large collection of Amazon boxes were the right size. Eventually I found a “gift box” at the post office that was a near perfect fit, for about $5, complete with nice coloured lines. I did take a picture of it for this blog post but it’s on my PC at home and a photo of a coloured box is not the most exciting thing in the world so you’ll just have to imagine it.
Anyway, I finally posted in on Friday 18th of May. Didn’t hear a thing until the 25th, when I got an email saying they have recieved it (complete with cryptic message like the one above) and then today I got another email (and another weird message) saying they had shipped it back and I should receive it in 2-5 days. They also provided me with a shipping tracking number but no link for tracking it. I did, however, like this line from the email “Thank you for your patience and get ready to get back into the action!”
So in general, Microsoft have done reasonably well so far. I will let you know when I get the console back and most importantly, how well it works…
Categories : Games, Personal, Technology |
27th
May
2007
Furthermore, when Jesus calls us to take up our crosses and follow him, he is calling believers to a form of brokenness. The old self needs to die. The self-centered orientation needs to be shattered. And the healing that comes beyond this brokenness does not involve simply picking up the pieces and gluing them back together so that we can go on being our old selfish selves. Rather, they are reconfigured into a new whole, a new self. Just as the risen Christ still bore the stigmata, we too will bear the marks of our former brokenness as new persons in Christ. The old is both transfigured and transformed, but it is not entirely transcended in this lifetime, if by that one means it is totally left in the past. We are called to remember where we have come from, what kind of persons we once were, to own up to our past and claim that God’s power is made perfect in our weaknesses. A cross-shaped life does not ever reach the place in this lifetime where it no longer needs to bear the cross or to stand in it’s shadow.
~ Ben Witherington, Paul’s Letter to the Romans pp 152-153
Categories : Christianity, Quotes, books |
24th
May
2007
The piano that we bought on the weekend was delivered today, to the excitement of the whole family. The boys were very keen to have a play, as you can see below, and both myself and Jennifer had a try as well. My first job was to work out how to play that song that all piano players seem to know – the one from the Tom Hanks movie Big (and also in Superman Returns) – I’ve worked out the right hand melody, and also the lower bass part, but can’t for the life of me play them at the same time. Can serious pianists play these two parts together or is this song invariably a duet?? Anyway I’ll keep working at it. It’s great to have a piano and I look forward to working out how to play it properly 
Categories : Family, Personal, music |
24th
May
2007
Tuesday night Jenni and I went and saw Keith Urban in concert in Perth. For those who are not in the know Keith is an Australian country music artist who moved to Nashville in the 90s, was hugely successful over there, and ultimately married Nicole Kidman. I’d never listened to any of his music until a few months ago when we first started thinking about going and visiting friends in Nashville – since then I’ve bought 4 of his CDs and I really quite like them. And from there I’ve gone on to explore a bit more of the country genre.
Keith is nowhere near as popular here in Australia as in the USA – he probably gets more publicity here because of his marriage and rehab problems than he does for his music. So I was interested to see what sort of demographic the crowd would be – would it be just middle aged women, hard core country music fans, or teenage girls? In the end it was a mix – not too many cowboy hats in sight, but there were plenty of 30-50 year olds and a sizeable minority of younger people. Women certainly far outnumbered men.
The warm-up act were West Australian band The Waifs who played a tight and enjoyable set, however most of the crowd were impatient for the main concert. Keith did not disappoint. Visually the show was great – he had a great lighting setup and they made good use of the video screen including live video and synchronized video clips. But most importantly the music. Keith is a very talented musician. He sang a good mix of mostly up-beat songs from his last few albums. He’s got a good voice and is a surprisingly good guitarist. He played the majority of the lead guitar and solos for most songs although was backed up by a very able band playing a range of instruments including electric and acoustic guitars, mandolins, and banjo. Keith himself brought out an impressive armory of guitars including Gibson Les Paul and SG, Fender Stratocaster, Telecaster, and Jaguar and a couple of acoustics. He probably favoured the Gibson SG and Fender Tele most of all though. Keith seemed friendly and relaxed although he didn’t talk a whole lot between songs. I was surprised at how strong his Australian accent was when speaking – I expected it to have more of an American twang to it after so many years in the USA, so that was nice. Overall it was a very enjoyable show. As Jen remarked, he’s definitely one artist who comes across even better live than on his albums. I would certainly go and see him again if I had the opportunity.
Since the concert was at Burswood we stayed at the main Burswood hotel overnight (where the service was not as good as one would have expected from “Perth’s Best Hotel”), lost a bit of money at the casino and then went into Perth the next day to do some shopping. Was nice to get a bit of a midweek getaway from work and the kids.
Categories : Australia, Guitar, Personal, music |
18th
May
2007
Rockinghamgateway Photo Gallery
Here’s a collection of photos from our local area at the Rockingham Gateway website, which I discovered whilst browsing some blog comments. Plenty of good shots of our great beaches and more.
Categories : Australia, photos |
18th
May
2007
It’s seems that every other day is an “International Day of …” something. The last couple of weekends have seen the passing of the annual international midwives day, and international nurses day, both of which were commemorated at our hospital with posters and balloons. 
I’m still waiting for them to celebrate “International Doctors’ Day” – I don’t even know if there is one at all. Maybe us doctors are just too busy or simply just don’t crave that kind of attention or recognition…
Anyway, at least some of these International Days are worth paying attention to. I didn’t know it, but May 18th is International HIV Vaccine Awareness Day (note this is different to World AIDS day on December 1.) The development of a HIV vaccine is possibly one of the most important scientific challenges in the world today, and one you rarely hear about in the media. The following is a good article from Uganda’s Daily Monitor newspaper looking at the current state of affairs…
Monitor Online | Health | Uganda: 10 years of HIV vaccine tests
Categories : Africa, Medical News, Medicine, Uganda |
18th
May
2007
Ben Witherington: Mr. Falwell Moves On Up
I didn’t know a whole lot about him, but I’d always had a very negative impression about Jerry Falwell, the American fundamentalist leader who died a couple of days ago. The above article by Ben Witherington doesn’t completely change that (and indeed some quotes in the comments on the post actually reinforce it) but it does present a more balanced, more positive view of the man – unlike other televangelists he was an honest and authentic man who sincerely believed in what he said, and was not afraid to apologise when at times he got it wrong. For all the harmful things he said and believed, the man did a lot of good as well, and you have to give him credit for that.
For another, similar article see this post by left-wing Christian Jim Wallis of Sojourners. If even he can find some positive things to say about Falwell then he can’t be all bad.
EDIT (24/5) : and here’s some more thoughtful comments on Falwell , this time by N T Wright.
Categories : Christianity, News |
17th
May
2007
I love Wikipedia and I love guitars, so this is the perfect site for me : Wikipedia Guitar Portal.
Links to all the Wikipedia articles about the guitar, a guitar related article of the day (today’s is George Harrison), pictures, trivia, annniversaries and much more. Totally excellent!
Categories : Guitar, Links |
17th
May
2007
So how do you like the new look? Yesterday I upgraded the blog software to the latest version of Wordpress v2.2. It was pretty smooth but for some reason my old blog theme was no longer displaying all my sidebar content. So I hunted around for a new theme and discovered the Blue Wonder theme you can see now. Just took a little bit of tweaking but I think it looks quite nice
I’m still liking Twitter, although my one gripe with them is that the site seems to be down an awful lot. But I do think it adds a good dimension to the blog having the daily “What I’m doing” digest posts, which the twitter plugin for wordpress creates automatically. Allows me to Micro Blog on topics that don’t warrant a full post, as well as updates about what I’m getting up to. So the Twitter experiment will continue.
More regular programming coming soon, including “Taking on Microsoft Part 2″ (just need to find the time to take the next step in the process before I can blog about it…)
Categories : Housekeeping, Twitter |
16th
May
2007
There’s another new version of wordpress (2.2), and since last week’s upgrade went reasonably well, I’m gonna jump in and install it. So apologies in advance for any blog wackiness over the next few hours…
Categories : Housekeeping |
15th
May
2007
There’s some big corporations that people just love to hate. For example in Australia the number 1 culprit is probably Telstra, and maybe the big banks (although I must say my bank NAB are always fantastic! Hope they take note of this free publicity when I hit them for another big loan in a couple of weeks…)
But on a worldwide scale there is no company that people love to loathe more than computer giant Microsoft. Bill Gates, his company and it’s products are the object of more scorn and criticism than most other companies put together. Now let me just say that I’m not an obsessive Microsoft hater – I like Bill Gates, especially in view of his philanthrophy, and I generally like Microsoft products. So it is with an open mind that I commence this series of blog posts.
The story begins a month or longer ago when Owen began to notice that the XBox 360 games console (made by Microsoft, in case you didn’t know or weren’t at our church quiz nite on Saturday) was occaisionally freezing up whilst playing his favourite game Lego Star Wars II. I also noticed that the performance of the Xbox media center was getting worse and worse, freezing more and more often. Usually these problems could be fixed by restarting the Xbox, which was a hassle but I wasn’t too bothered.
Until one day the Xbox 360 stopped working entirely – nothing came up on the screen and 3 red lights surrounded the power button on the console. I googled this problem and found that it is ominously referred to as the Red Ring of Death. After further hunting I was able to press various buttons to get an exact error code from the sequence of lights – 0102. Sadly this is a code which means there is an unknown error and the console does not know what is wrong. I found various bizarre solutions on the web including blasting compressed air through the system and adding strategic bits of foam inside but was not brave enough to try them.
Fortunately, after being too busy to do anything about it for a week or two I checked on Sunday to discover that it is still under Warranty and even better, I was able to find the receipt. So yesterday I commenced dealings with Microsoft to try and get this baby fixed or replaced … it will be very interesting to see how this company peforms… more about that in Part 2….
Categories : Games, Technology |
14th
May
2007
Hello Internet: Moofies – Hijacked Penguin – Ben is getting annoyed at yet another penguin inspired movie coming out hot on the heels of Happy Feet, continuing a disturbing trend in animated movies… See if you can think of any other examples.
Categories : Blogs, Movies |
14th
May
2007
I’ve had some questions about our upcoming trip so here’s the rough itinerary as it currently stands :
- 7 July – leave Perth
- 8 – 14 July – Kampala, Uganda
- 14 – 17 July – London, UK
- 17 – 20 July – Manchester, UK
- 20 – 27 July – Nashville, USA
- 27 July – 4 Aug – Los Angeles, USA (? and San Diego)
- 4 – 8 Aug – Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
- 9 – 10 Aug – Sydney, Australia
We’ve pretty much settled on our flights so I doubt that will change very much, however the details of what we’ll be doing, where we’ll be staying etc are still to be worked out.
Categories : Africa, Family, Travel |
14th
May
2007
JK Rowling lifts reward to $9m | NEWS.com.au
Now I’m sympathetic towards the family of this little girl who has disappeared in Portugal (although to go off and have dinner whilst leaving your kids alone in a hotel room is not the brightest thing to do), but I must admit when I hear of a nine million dollar reward for the return of one child it just doesn’t quite feel right. I can’t help thinking of what else could be done with the millions – how many children’s lives could be saved in the third world for that amount? But I guess a gift to starving children in Africa doesn’t make as exciting headlines as a lost little girl in Europe.
Categories : News |
11th
May
2007
Just been playing around with one of the most handy websites I’ve found in recent months, especially useful for travellers or for those wanting to communicate with people overseas – TimeandDate.com.
This site gives you accurate and detailed information about the time and weather for just about any point on the globe. You can customise it to reflect your own preferred cities and formats (eg I changed the temperatures from farenheit to Celsius so I can understand them) and you can make a custom World clock page that you can share with others. The one I made is here – it has the current time for all the stops we’ll be making on our big trip in July. Clicking on the name of each of the cities brings up a whole wealth of current information about the conditions there.
A very simple looking site, but incredibly useful. I love these clock applications for some reason. In addition to this site I have 3 cities in the toolbar on my Vista computers (one of the cool new features of Vista allowing multiple clocks) and at least 2 world time programs on my Palm Treo with little maps and multiple times listed. Very handy indeed.
Categories : Internet, Links, Travel |
11th
May
2007
Was just talking to a drug rep and she asked whether I saw more diabetes or depression (since she had drugs to treat both!) – and I had to answer that I see way more depression. I just assumed that was true for most doctors but according to her, she gets an even mix of GPs who say they see a lot of depression and those who see hardly any. Now part of me wishes I fell into that second group as I really don’t much like mental health (when I was a surgical trainee I was ashamed to admit to the fact that I won the Psychiatry medal in med school). But unfortunately (for me anyway) patients with these problems seem to keep coming to see me, which I guess must mean I am at least doing something right? I could never be a psychiatrist though, it must be depressing listening to all these terrible life stories all day long. I’d stick to mums-to-be, surgery, and babies any day if I had the choice… but the thing about General Practice is that I don’t get to choose the patients, they choose me. Which is important to keep in mind.
Categories : General Practice |
Today’s Car CD = Derek and the Dominos “Layla…” again #
