Thursday, April 28, 2005

Waterfall at the buried village

We went to the buried village near Rotorua yesterday. There was an eruption a long time ago that buried a village and destroyed the pink and white terraces, known as the eighth wonder of the world. Here is a picture of a waterfall in the grounds of the museum.
More pictures to be posted later when we are home and back on adsl connection.


Posted by: Jethro | 12:52 PM |

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Wireless at the airport

We are off on our holiday!
Yippee!
This is the first holiday I have had since 2000 when we went to New Zealand for a few days, though I worked through a fair bit of that holiday. Apart from a couple of 2 or 3 days away trips, this is the first real holiday I have had since I was 12. I have worked through every holiday I have had from the age 0f 13. I do have a little bit of work to do on this holiday, but fortunately I can do that remotely using the laptop.
Talking of which, HP generously gave me a new laptop. This was to replace the old one that had broken down so many times it wasn't funny. I had numerous warranty calls and the thing was unreliable. Now I have a brand new shiny beast. It even has wireless built in so I am typing this sitting in the international airport lounge at Brisbane waiting for our plane to depart.
More news and photos soon.
Here is a photo of our new house as well.


Posted by: Jethro | 10:21 AM |

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Moving stage 2 complete

We have moved out!

The old house is empty and so clean you could eat your dinner off the floors, walls and carpets, though then you would need to clean it again!

The only problem now are the landlords who are holding our bond up on some stupid little things, a missing lightbulb, a broken slat on a ventian blind etc. The real estate is being very helpful. They feel the owners are being way over the top on stupid things and that we will get our money back soon.

We leave for New Zealand for a holiday tomorrow so they better hurry up!


Posted by: Jethro | 2:57 PM |

Saturday, April 16, 2005

Center for Parent / Youth Understanding

The Center for Parent / Youth Understanding is a great resource for families with adolescent children. It explores many issues surrounding this awkward time and offers advice and resources to assist.
Included are 3D reviews of media attractive to these children and young adults including music, film and TV shows.


Posted by: Jethro | 9:06 AM |

Friday, April 15, 2005

We have moved!

Stage 1 complete.
We are in the new house with all our stuff - and theres a lot. Now on to stage 2. Clean the old house and make it look like new again.
Today I cleaned out the bird aviary and changed some light bulbs. The I went to work to pay for the security installation, the carpet cleaner and the gardener and all the take out food we have eaten this week.
Jude thinks she is Sadie the cleaning lady.
The kids are all still working out the new house and grounds. We will post photos once we find the camera.
More news later.


Posted by: Jethro | 7:37 PM |

Monday, April 11, 2005

Nearly ready to move house finally

There is a lot of technology in our house. So moving isn't simple unfortunately.
Fortunately we have a very good techie - who manages our servers, sets up the Linux servers we manage all our clients websites and email on and helps with the tech stuff.
There will be a scarcity of posts from me in this next week as we move house and get the servers all set up in the new house. There will be no downtime of this web site as the spyjournal sites get too much traffic to be managed on our server. They are located elsewhere anyway. However there may be minor interruptions on the other sites.
Here is a list of all the sites I either own myself or have set up or manage in some way.

Spyournal Home
Spy Journal Archives
Personal Blog
Excel Tips Blog
Blog Tips Blog
Tech Tips Blog
Urban Space Novel
Photo Archive
Parklife Soccer Club Website
Parklife Results
KROSTech LAN Parties
Jethro Management
Jethro Consultants
Oz Bush Poet
Miller Family Web Site
Rasita
JAM Creativity
Cindy Maulkner
Extended Millers
Jono Miller
Lite-house
Dan and Pris Gollan
maree-jeandesigns
Rivers Baptist Church


Posted by: Jethro | 12:45 AM |

Sunday, April 10, 2005

My soccer results and the Lions get beaten after the final siren

Wow what an awesome game. We won 7-1. Last week they were beaten 7-0 so that wasn't so surprising. What was great was how well this team is gelling.
I even had 3 goal opportunitues. I headeed a ball that the keeper punched off my head to save it, IO had a 1 on 1 with the keeper that he saved and I mistruck a volley that would have been a goal if I had hit it right. Still these opportunities will turn to goals in time.

Brisbane Lions vs Sydney Swans
What was disappointing was watching our home team the Lions play the Swans last night. I think the stats were that the Lions led for 115 minutes of the game, the game was then drawn for 5 minutes and just before the final siren sounded the swans full forward Barry Hall was given a free kick when he missed a mark as an arm came over his shoulder. It made no difference to him not getting the ball but he was given a free kick 30 metres out in front. He took his sweet time walking back and adjusting his socks and after the siren had gone he ran in and scored a goal taking the swans to the lead for the first time in the game. Most disappointing for the lions.


Posted by: Jethro | 8:02 AM |

Friday, April 08, 2005

Getting underway on the move

Just like a tugboat slowly nosing a large freighter out of the harbour toward the open sea, so my wife is slowly chivving (yes this is a real word) me into action. I have actually started packing up my office (including throwing out things!) Me the hoarder extraordinaire (well not quite as good as the juggler) is throwing things away that might have been useful one day; but haven't been useful yet in the last (insert number here) years.
This weekend and monday I have a fair bit of work to complete for clients.
Tuesday we get the keys and I plan to move my entire office / workshop to the new house.
Wednesday we will move the rest of the stuff we are taking ourselves (boxes and small furniture). Thanks in advance to Tristan, Jamie and Cathy for helping.
Thursday the movers come and take all the big heavy stuff like the TV, big fishtank (tank and stand weighs between 400 and 500kgs empty), whitegoods, bedroom and lounge furniture and the like.
Friday and Saturday and Sunday we clean and tidy and sort new house.
Monday we hand in the keys.
Tuesday we have a rest.
Wednesday we go to New Zealand for 11 days holiday.
Hooray!


Posted by: Jethro | 11:16 PM |

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

The injuries continue

I like these injuries. As long as I am getting these minor injuries I am not getting major ones!
Last week at training I was kneed in the head when keeping (giving a slight concussion which wore off by the next day).
Tonight I headed a ball (while wearing my glasses - cos I forgot my contacts) and the side piece cut my forehead causing some claret to flow. Nothing really.
As long as I don't break any bones or rip any tendons this season i can get cut and bashed all day. I can take that!
My first full game for the season will be this weekend as I was at a LAN last weekend. I will miss the next 4 also, 1 while moving house, 2 while in NZ on holiday and then the next one after we get back I have a LAN again. The team one the first game last weekend 3-0.
I am enjoying playing with this team. It is great playing with young fellas, about half of the team is oldies and the other half is 15 yr olds. The young fellas are so cocky and it is great to surprise them with skill, a turn they haven't seen you use before, or pull off a tackle when they thought they were in control of the ball. It is good for them to learn so that they are not too cocky when playing. The danger with that is that when they get taken down a peg on the field, they can lose their confidence and their game can go to pieces. At least while training we have the chance to encourage and build up that is much harder to do during a game.


Posted by: Jethro | 8:47 PM |

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

I Hate Phone Companies

And hate is not too strong a word!
Just trying to get a phone connected at the new house. THese people are the hardest people to deal with. They can't say the same message twice, they take normal phrases and twist them to mean other than normal and they refuse to be held accountable for what they said they would do.
Grrr...


Posted by: Jethro | 12:24 PM |

Friday, April 01, 2005

House plan

I went up to the new house today with a tape measure and meausured inside and out. With a few small errors this is a scale drawing of the house floorplan.
Click the picture for a larger version.
I will do photos later.


Posted by: Jethro | 10:25 PM |