pantone801

Genius

// October 24th, 2008 // No Comments » // music, Work

I am not a musical person, don’t get me wrong- I love music, but it is something I have never really understood. I know what I like, and my taste is very eclectic, and changes all the time.

What I want to listen to also depends on my mood. At the moment I am working on a very tedious project and have spent the past 3 days inspecting every inch of the Brisbane river and coastline from Wellington Point in the south to Donnybrook in the north looking for Sea Walls, Jetties, Boat Ramps, and Wharves. Looking at aerial photography like this calls for some good music on my iPod. Now I would usually find an album I like, or just shuffle all my tracks, and when an track that I am not in the mood for comes up I would skip it. Genius on my iPhone avoids me listening to tracks that do not fit in with my mood or the previous track. For example, I selected the track Hapuku Rain from the Album Heal Me by Salmonella Dub [iTunes Link].

Genius thought this would go well with:

• I Thought About You by the Beautiful Girls [iTunes Link]
• Straight Lines by Silverchair [iTunes Link]
• Nude by Radiohead [iTunes Link]
• Green Eyes by Coldplay [iTunes Link]
• Taylor by Jack Johnson [iTunes Link]
• Girl by Beck [iTunes Link]
• New Day Come by Shapeshifter [iTunes Link]
• Love Sunshine and Happiness by Salmonella Dub [iTunes Link]
• Just a Boy by Angus and Julia Stone [iTunes Link]
• On Call by Kings of Leon [iTunes Link]
• Paris is Burning by Ladyhawke [iTunes Link]
• Come and Check your Head by Blue King Brown [iTunes Link]
• Don’t Panic by Coldplay [iTunes Link]
• 19-20-20 by The Grates [iTunes Link]
• Gabrielle by Ween [iTunes Link]
• Nothing is Free by Salmonella Dub [iTunes Link]
• Chelsea Dagger by the Fratellis [iTunes Link]
• Lines on Palms by Josh Pike [iTunes Link]
• Happiness by Goldfrapp [iTunes Link]
• Back in your head by Tegan and Sara [iTunes Link]

What a great playlist! Perfect for listening to while looking the stunning coastal photography of Brisbane, dreaming of fishing off the jetties or Kayaking in the warm waters like the pic below, taken under the old cruise terminal on the Brisbane River.

Old Cruise Terminal by Henmac

Intuitive Error Message

// May 12th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Map Stuff, Work

What is that supposed to mean? I love the emotive “having difficulties”, like old Illustrator is saying “I can’t be bothered working this hard”, or “your file is to firggin big”, or “you cheapskate buy some more memory”.

Videos from my recent High Country Trip

// November 26th, 2007 // No Comments » // Map Stuff, Work

High Country Field Checking Trip

// November 15th, 2007 // No Comments » // Map Stuff, Travel, Work

After the Melbourne 4×4 Show, Paul and I headed for to Alpine Victoria for a field-checking trip in the Hema Map Patrol.

Chromite Mine Track Bush Camping

Our trip started at the Heyfield Bakery to check out their pies (after trying many pies along our travels we became expert pie tasters, and the best pie we ate is listed at the bottom of this entry). We then headed off to Licola, a small remote town on the edge of the Alpine National Park. Licola is a tiny town served by a general store, which also serves as a petrol station, bank, campsite, and even offers toboggan hire in winter. Natural disasters such as fires, mud slips, equine flu and floods have caused a big downturn in tourism, and the owner of the general store is considering shutting up shop, which will be a big loss to this tiny community.

Scenery in the Tamboritha Road area

We entered the Alpine National Park via the Stockman’s Track, and our first night was spent at a bush camp near the Chromite Mine. The devastation of the fires was evident everywhere, and the charcoal black trees were striking against the blue sky and the fresh green undergrowth of the forest.

Billy Goat Bluff Track

The Billy Goat Bluff Track was a real highlight of the trip, the track carefully follows a ridgeline, towering over valleys on either side, offering amazing views of the alpine ranges below and we luckily had clear skies (which did not last for the rest of the trip). The grade of the track was great due to the dry weather, we climbed 1200 vertical metres in just 7 kilometres, and the view of The Pinnacles was fantastic.

Black Snake Creek Campsite

That night camped at Black Snake Creek, a remote campsite overlooking the Wonnangatta River with good facilities, including toilets, fireplaces, and flat sandy campsites with great views of the river.

Old Dargo high plains Road

The next day we discovered some good country hospitality from Dargo, the walnut capital of Australia. The well-stocked general store had great friendly who were happy to help, and recommended the comfortable Dargo River Inn. The day was spent checking the roads in the area and checking out the local campsites, with the Melbourne cup weekend coming up the campsites were all starting to fill out. We ended the day by field checking the Old Dargo High Plains Road, which was a real highlight of the whole trip. At times the visibility due to cloud cover was les than 5 metres, and the eerie clouds and that stark black charred Snow Gums created a spooky but beautiful atmosphere. The track was not well maintained, and we had a clear several trees blocking our path with an axe, which left us wishing was had packed a chainsaw.

Suggan Buggan
After Dargo we headed to The Great Alpine Highway (B500) and Omeo through the Alpine National Park along the very well maintained Dargo High Plains Road. Omeo is an adorable alpine village with quaint shops, cafe’s and the main street is lined with flower boxes, even the High Country Laundry was decorated tastefully to match the rest of the village. After trying several fully booked caravan parks we managed to find a room at a historic cottage called ‘Sung as a Bug‘ where we experienced more alpine hospitality. The next day was spent field checking roads in the region, and around Suggan Buggan and Hanging Rock.

Camping on the Snowy River

After checking out the pretty Basin Creek Falls, and with dusk looming we were battling to find a campground. After trying the Bally Hooley Campground, which was not suitable for the Map Patrol, we headed towards Jacksons Creek Campsite. We headed down the valley towards the Snowy River, and due to the amount of rain the track was in very poor condition, and the lower we got the more muddier it got. We eventually Reach Jacksons Crossing on the Snowy river, but decided to not attempt the crossing until morning. That was a sleepless night worrying about how we would get out of the valley- either back up the muddy track that would take all day, or across the swollen snowy river. Daybreak brought some welcomed sunshine, and as it was Paul’s birthday we had a camp breakfast of bacon and eggs on the edge of the Snowy River with its banks lined with wild flowers. By daylight the crossing of the river was not nearly as daunting as we expected, and was another highlight of the trip. Jacksons Crossing involves grossing the river in 2 parts, the first is a short crossing over some gentle rapids onto an island which you drive along and then cross the second part of the river over another set of rapids.

Scenery on the banks of the Snowy River Jacksons Crossing

Me, at the Six Mile Creek Rest Area

The top highlights of our trip were:

• Best Pie – Braidwood Bakery
• Best Burger – Cann River Hotel
• Best Bush Campsite – Jacksons Crossing
• Best Serviced Campsite – Six Mile Creek Rest Area, outside Bega
• Best Accommodation – Dargo River Inn
• Best Track – Old Dargo High Plains Road
• Second Best Track – Slipping around in the mud on the Jacksons Crossing Track
• Best Village - Omeo
• Best General Store – Dargo General Store
• Best Laundromat – High Country laundry, Omeo

Gavin’s car got Punk’d (or Fangipani’d)

// October 5th, 2007 // No Comments » // Work

Gavin had been talking about starting a “Ban the Fran” website because he hates cars with these sickly yellow flowers that are so trendy at the moment. While he popped into DJ’s at lunch I covered his back windscreen in these cute yellow flowers. They did not last long… and I am about to head to my car and have a feeling it will now be covered in them.

Welcome to Paradise

// September 12th, 2007 // No Comments » // Work

Featuring Hema’s Pacific Centered Political World map in the opening sequence – Welcome to Paradise.

Produced by the award-winning Gibson Group, WELCOME TO PARADISE is PRIME’s hot new sitcom about six 20-somethings who work at the Paradise Backpackers’ Hostel.

The series centres around Paradise’s charming receptionist Zac (Ryan O’Kane) and his most recent romantic conquest, Irish tourist Lucy (Holly Shanahan). She’s the latest pin on Zac’s world map, which means he can tick off “Republic of Ireland” from his list of women of the world. But to Zac’s horror, Lucy gets a job at the hostel’s bar. What do you do when a one-night stand becomes a workmate?

Watching this romantic train-wreck are their workmates: John (Josh Thomson) the moody night shift guy, Sasha (Sally Martin) the extreme activities expert, Alex (Vaughan Slinn) the boss who can’t make a decision and Barry (David Hoskins) the Ashburton farm boy working in his first city job. They’re a motley crew with little in common who become team-mates, friends, family.

Alongside the “will they get together?” storyline of Zac and Lucy, the workmates have to deal with each other, the decrepit, idiosyncratic building they work in, and a bizarre array of international guests within the global village that is Paradise Backpackers. From hobbit hole tours to bungy jumps, sheep shearing ‘encounters’ to mud pool hopping, no Kiwi tourism icon is left untouched in WELCOME TO PARADISE.

The show is based on real-life stories told by a serial backpacker employee to his mates about the goings-on in the hostels and backpackers he was working at. Grant Drummond is a Kiwi who has worked in backpackers’ hostels around the world. He grew up in Papakura, gained a BA in English then headed off on his OE because he wasn’t yet ready to join “the real world”. After tripping around Europe, Grant ran out of money and ended up working the night shift at a London backpackers’ hostel. “I lasted about eight months there, then did another couple of months at another place. That was a real shithole,” Grant laughs. He also did time as a tour guide around Europe. “Yeah, then that company went bankrupt. They had problems from the get-go. But aside from the money hassles it was great. You’d do 17 cities in 21 days with two days off, then you’d go back around.”

Back home, he worked for two years at a now-defunct backpackers’ hostel in central Auckland, and was the night manager of a Queenstown backpackers’ hostel (so that he could snowboard by day). “On any given night at the Auckland hostel, there’d be 400 guests comprising 20-30 nationalities. Thursday night drinks were an institution in the 7th floor bar of the hostel. I always had an amusing tale to report. There’d be 15 people drunk every night, you’d never get any sleep. Fortunately I wasn’t living there. I was living in an apartment two blocks away, but they were two very important blocks!”
WELCOME TO PARADISE, begins Monday 17th September at 9.30pm on Prime in New Zealand.

Bad Ass Bikie

// September 6th, 2007 // 1 Comment » // scooter, Work

Paul captured this as from the security camera as I was leaving work. There is a perfect scooter parking spot just outside the front door of the building, just to the left of this shot.

Wooden Spoon

// September 5th, 2007 // 1 Comment » // Work

It’s official. I came last in our work Footy Tipping comp. I was so bad at picking the winners others would wait to see what I picked and then pick the opposite. I got bored with following the comps, so i started picking the teams based on there team names (I like Cowboys). Then this got boring so I tried a mathematiccal approach and selected teams on the left site of the tipping sheet, or odd then even teams etc. Anyway I am still a winner. I scored the lovely used wooden spoon, and a couple Keno scratchies. I won $20 on the scratchies, and then spent that on a lotto ticket. Who knows I may come off better off that the other winners.

My messy desk

// September 2nd, 2007 // 1 Comment » // Work

Waiting

// August 22nd, 2007 // 2 Comments » // Map Stuff, Work

It is 9.30 pm, and I am at work which kinda sux, but I am at the very end stretch of a couple of cool books that are going to the printers very soon. So I sit here chewing on PEZ waiting for progress bars and pouring over maps looking for mistakes, and wasting time blogging.

I have found a few intereting places that I would love to know more about:

Mt Misery is about 20km south of springfield, but I wonder if it was named because of it’s height of 666m? I doubt it, in the day it was named it would have been 2185ft (FYI- New Zealand started metrication in 1969 with the establishment of the Metric Advisory Board (MAB) and completed metrication on 14 December 1976)

And then there is Mt Gay, just outside of Fairlie