Pearl trees was supposed to be my substitue for delicious, but I havent used either in ages, I much prefer, readitlater and evernote for saving things I need later. Maybe I need a bookmark backup/sync service like xmarks.

Pick a Platform

I have realised I need to focus one platform and not try and duplicate my efforts across different outlets. Its both tiring and confusing for me. Sure if there is a way to automate then great, but I need to work out what works best for me and optimise for that. I would like to move to wordpress, but whats the point... tumblr is nice for catching up with what the hipsters are looking at, but nothing for me to really post there, its just not that type of crowd.

Be Happy

Wallet

For about 7 years I used a orange wallet made of elephant leather. That probably sounds mean and wrong, but its also awesome. And you know it. It was awesome until it started to fall apart. Probably had another 2 years as it fell apart, most-likely make it to 10 years, but my paranoia and OCD to protect and horde my belongings caused me to retire that wallet and pick up a wallet from the box of wallets I have collected over the years. These being those I have purchased or gained from birthday/christmas/diwali presents. The elephant leather wallet was a thin single fold wallet it was an extension of my left thigh. It just fit nicely into any trousers I was wearing. I changed to a double fold (triple flap) wallet. More slots for my cards, divider for big and small notes, dual ID holders, everything you could ever want from a wallet. But its just too fat.

If we delve deeper I also had a coin purse. It was good as during that time I never had enough money to actually hold notes, it had a flap for notes.... but mainly I only had coins during my senior high school years. Prior to that (yr 8 to 10) I had various Velcro wallets or just nothing at all.

Whilst at work I noticed how thin my ipod nano 2g was next to the bulk of my wallet and realised I needed something thinner. My wallet always annoyed me in terms of its girth, but its a wallet, holds money and cards, what do I care?

  1. Comfort
  2. Bulge
  3. Weight
  4. Durability
  5. Looks
The non descriptive nature of this wallet just sort of got to me along with its fatness (sounds hypocritical, but its dead cow and cheap nylon so STFU). I knew about the duct tape wallet so I entered the internet to find out a bout this new phenomenon (4 years late?_P) and stumbled upon paper wallets. Immediately I knew this was for me, my love of stationary combined with my love of money......dots.........

The problem with paper wallets is its hydrophobia and durability is limited to the quality/thickness of paper. Do I care. Fuck no! The fact that its unique and awesome like the elephant wallet. But made of a different type of finite resource. I am surrounded by boxes of paper that we just throw away, what if I use this resource for the first step in the recycle triangle and reuse in a productive way?
I require a bookshelf as evidenced by the piles of bound paper on my floor. I was going to get something from ikea but my love of floor to ceiling bookshelves is strong. I still may go to Ikea, but I am also going to price up a home made version.

The design of the billy bookcase is not that hard to imagine, Whilst doing the design I also thought about how I would actually put it together. They normally use dowel bits and some screws. Again pretty easy. However, I have discovered it might be difficult to drill the holes in the shelves whilst also keeping it straight. I could use angle thingys but that would be crap. Going to check out bunnings tomorrow for actual wood prices.

No Money for a week

After a debate with my work colleagues about how I spend too much money on lunch, I decided to create a little experiment/challenge for myself. I will not spend any money from my bank account for one week. Basically I cannot access my bank account for one week.

I lasted to Thursday, when I needed to buy more beer, being lazy I just bought a carton, instead of maximizing what cash I had left and just buy a 6 pack or similar. I failed.

But I think given another go I could actually do it. It has also come to my attention I have a lot of automatic transfer from my account, mostly to other high interest savings accounts. I am going to try and not be lazy with my money and try and save more frequently. The change experiment should have highlighted that, but I never really went through with it at the completion of the experiment.

Speech recognition


Hello world.
This is rather cool, but also it sounds dorky to do this.
I wonder how fast I can talk, before he gets frustrated.  Well it is actually quite good.
I could get used to this.
I am thinking of buying new shoes.nt


Is this the end of the page.  Yes!
Is it wasn’t I think I do not know.  I do not have the force at work.  But this could be interesting if you can work that are clearly should not stop the reaction stop talking ledger report yes.  One that does not make any sense.  Originality there must leave them on.
I am going to bed.  Good night.

Soup for one

  by beancounting
, a photo by beancounting on Flickr.

I have the flu, so I drink soup, only packet soup is crap. So i made my own.

Its a simple recipe I made up using common sense.

Ingredients
1 carrot
2 small potato
1 chilli
half celery stick
sweet corn (left overs)
shallots (left overs)
half onion
garlic
Stock pot - the new ones :-p

Directions
1. Dice
2. Saute onion, garlic and chilli
3. Water (1 kettle (1.5L))
4. Ingredients
5. Stock pot
6. ???????
7. Profit

Things I would do differently
No chilli, the chilli floats to the top and is dangerous, use paprika instead
More potato, the potato goes MIA but that could be the type of potato
More celery just use the whole stick
Don't get the stock pot, just get oxo cubes or similar like I was supposed to.
Some fresh herbs would not go astray.

It tastes nice, clean, clear and simple no unnecessary sugars, should keep until I recover.

Cost
All ingrediants except the celery ($1.50) and stock pots ($3.50) were already in the fridge so basically free.

Computer upgrades

So I'm sitting here doing a bit of window shopping as is my normal routine when sick. First I started out by looking at a complete overhaul, i5 to i7 and a a new GPU etc. Thankfully I realised that is a stupid idea and I could spend some money else where, eg SSD or UPS which are two things I really want (apart from an iPad). The problem with the SSD is the small capacity and the fact it gives me a headache thinking about how to install all the programs and games etc on two separate hdd, which is the suck.

So now I am onto UPS, which is making more sense as I read into it. Basically everyone needs one.

Calculate how much power you need

PC 750
Monitor 100
Modem 10
Router 10
External HDD 20
Total 890
+20% = 1068

These figures are quite rough as I guessed. So for my computer I am going to need something quite powerful. For the HTPC I have worked out it is drawing about 230w, but I'm pretty sure I put a 650w PSU in it. In any case I just need it to last maybe 5 mins while I switch the power back on in the box.

i have teh flu

I'm sick and bored. This is my third day off work which should be cause for a spontaneous celebration. Currently drinking weak ribena with warm water.

Boredom is not always good, as it can lead to various forms of fire or stop start lego annimations.

Describe a recent A'ah! moment

This morning I discovered that it may in fact be beneficial to wake up earlier in the day. This is not a new idea/thought. Just something that has required a significant amount of convincing, a few/most of the people I work with get up early. But not normal early, but when its still dark early. For me, its the opposite, if I get to bed before the sunrises, I consider that an early night.