After a long running battle with my friend exidy to see who could go the longest without posting a blog update I’ve finally cracked and, since you are reading this, posted to my much neglected blog.

This blog post will be about why I don’t update regularly.

Time: It takes me a long time to write something for here(doesn’t show does it?). Once I lay it down, spell check it, re-write it, spell check it, delete it and then start again. It takes a long time. Not that I have a real shortage of time that is.

Return: There isn’t much return for that time. One could say the same about playing video games or watching TV but those activities require little effort and don’t feel like a chore. There is of course the whole building skill points in writing, but really; I write well enough and although I could write gooder; I don’t really see a valuable return.

I guess to really keep a blog you have to get enjoyment out of writing. I don’t.

So why have a blog at all? Originally I wanted to keep a journal of my overseas trip but since returning I haven’t really had the motivation to put anything here.

I started a habit when I was writing everyday during my trip. It’s still with me for some reason. That’s thinking about it. I often phrase blogs in my head and consider writing them.

So why don’t I? Because it’s hard to transition thoughts in coherent topics. I’m sure it would become easier with practice but to what end? So what if I write all those great in my head posts out, take the time to spell check and edit them. Take the time to add links and mess about with formatting. What could I really achieve? Blogger Personality? Google Ads revenue? Scorn from mindless internet fools? Massive amounts of comment Spam? All are possible but none of them really give me money or a even a sense of satisfaction. Maybe if I had some kind of lofty Internet Personality goal I could go at it and churn out post after post that no one would read until one day Boing Boing picked it up and made me a star for a day. Then what? It’s just not me, I just don’t care enough.

The other option, I suppose, is that people actually care about what I’m up to. I doubt these people actually exist and for whatever reason don’t have me in some form of social networking medium. Not that the social network medium really highlights what I’m up to but it does better then this blog. So if you want to know what I’m up to, don’t have the book of Faces, I don’t know, call me or email me or something. Tell me how inspirational my writing is and how it really has value to you.

With LCA now behind me I move on to the Holiday part of my journey. Me and Girlfriend spent a week in Queenstown, New Zealand.

On our previous trip to NZ we spent a couple of days here are voted it most likely to be a return destination should we make it back. With LCA being in NZ this year it seemed fitting we spend some time here.

Having a whole week as opposed to just a couple of days we could plan some things in advance and fit in a few of the activities we would of liked to do last time and to also redo some of the highlights from the last trip.

Queesntown for those who are unfamiliar is the tourist capital of thrill seeking tourist activities. Although the natives long abandoned it, Queenstown lives on as /the/ place in NZ to jump off of shit. Of course it’s not just limited to jumping. You can also do almost anything you can think of that involves high speed, high adrenaline and just plain being high. Of course it’s not just adventure seeking, there are some quieter things that people can do that are still fun and a little out there.

We also made the trip up to Fox Glacier, some 5 hours north of Queenstown to have a walk on the ice. We also got an old Twin Screw Steamer over the huge lake to go horse riding, went down hill mountain biking in the remote Skippers Canyon and managed to consume some of New Zealand’s finest cheese and wine.

Overall it’s been a great week and to be honest I think I could come back to Queenstown over and over again and never run out of things to do. Some of the more interesting things involve Helicopters. It seems that once you get to a certain point with an activity you just have add a Helicopter to make it even more extreme. One such activity we came across was hunting. You can go hunting here for both deer and pig. Although I’m not such a fan of shooting things for fun the idea of getting in a Helicopter, flying sideways at high speed while trying to take down a buck with a high powered hunting rifle appeals to me. How could it not?

Another thing I might like to do would be Heli-biking. Essentially you strap a down hill mountain bike to a helicopter and get a flight some 2000m up a mountain and proceed to ride down. Nothing says awesome like a 1800M 4 hour decent over some of the best terrain New Zealand has to offer. And you don’t even have to ride up first. Not that you could have course because these down hill bikes are certainly not designed for pedaling. In fact, on the flat they feel massively awkward and cumbersome. As soon as you get them point downwards though the geometry all starts to make sense. The massive suspension travel, the huge fat tyres the heavy square frame, the way the saddle is nowhere near your but and the way the cranks act more like a platform for standing on than for rotation. I think in essence these bikes remind me more of the motocross bikes of my youth than todays road going bicycles. Like the sloping front forks and riding position that forces your weight over the rear wheel. One thing that I have to say is that this sport requires complete faith in your bike. That faith is just deserved as well as they will generally roll over pretty much any and everything. The bike takes care of everything, just point it where you want to go and hold on. Rocks, creeks, rutts and cliffs it just doesn’t matter. The bike just pwns. In fact I think I might be in danger of leaving the lyrca clad, “drink this poweraide and ride for 7 hours up a hill” endurance cycling side and moving the much more awesome, tattoo clad, “You’re not a real man until you’ve broke your collarbone” downhill crew.

So for the second time I attended LCA. This year it was in Wellington, New Zealand. Strange because it’s called Linux Conference “Australia” but I guess New Zealand is close enough to qualify despite needing my passport to attend.

I’ll spare my audience from the nerdly technical details of the talks at the conference but suffice to say that it’s extensively geeky and in all manners all kinds of awesome.

The average day looks something like this:

Get up, note the large amount of beer consumed the night prior.
Seek coffee and acquire a muffin for later decimation.
Attend the Keynote(9AM) before attending Morning Tea which generally consists of sugary treats and conversation about all things geeky but consisting mostly of what should be attended in the next talk block. After the morning talk block of two talks it’s time for Lunch with both new and old friends and is once again spent discussing all things Linux, Free and Tech. From here two more talks are attended before an Afternoon Tea which is reminiscent of Morning Tea before attending the last talks of the day. From here there is either Dinner and Drinks with friends recently acquired like minded individuals or attending one of the organised events. Both official and unofficial events occur and it’s rare not to have a choice of events. Sometimes it’s as simple as playing Risk in the Pub or as technical as wielding a soldering iron and constructing Arduino based hardware in the common area. Suffice to say there is always something to do, someone to talk to, beer to drink and things to be discussed. Everyone is friendly and sociable. It’s strange because Geeks are generally considered anti-social and hard to approach. I guess Geeks rarely have problems with other Geeks.

What I did notice, however is that LCA2010 was more a reminder that I need to continue learning things. My normal day to day life removes me from being exposed to technologies that exists outside my work life. If you only ever work with the LAMP stack then you never really get exposed to much else, unless you make the effort. I think it’s important to renew that vow of being interested in technology, in general. Not just what you have to work with. This year, this is what LCA was to me. The renewal of my vow to continued and everlasting learning of cool stuff.

The other great thing I noticed about LCA was that it’s a reminder that there is actually a strong real life community surrounding Linux. There are actually other people out there that are idealistic, motivated and dedicated to Free Open Source Software. Even some more so than myself. It’s a nice reminder because at times I get the feeling I’m the only one that cares about more than the selfish aspect of what products, technologies or softwares can do for me and me alone. Sometimes it’s good to be reminded that there are other people out there that care about more then just how things affect them on a individual level.

With my zealot like position reinforced, I leave with a swag of new like minded friends. I leave refreshed in that I’m not alone and that I need to continue to learn and be interested in New, Free and Open things. And that it is important and we can make a difference by choice. Choose Free. Choose Open. Choose it because it’s better, better for everyone.

Man, I seem to write that a lot.

Updates:

So i finished up my short term gig at VICnet the week before last and started a new role at BEToptions. They are a software development company that make back-end wagering software for Internet betting. I’ve been there a whole week now. So far I’m not so sure what to make of it. It’s a bit of a return to my roots as it’s a small company and I’m expected to be a bit of a Jack of All Trades in that I deal with everything from clients infrastructure to internal infrastructure(or lack thereof) to fixing peoples Outlook.

I guess it’s all layers of support wrapped up in one position. I am the Systems Administrator(bow before me…etc). As most of my roles in recent years have been more of a Linux Specialist it’s a bit of a change. How good it is yet to be decided but so far I like to potential of controlling everything. I’m entrusted(and get the opportunity to) set things up correctly(my way) and really /own/ it. That’s nice, much like the attraction I have towards Civilization.

Their office is located in Fitzroy which is a bit of pain to get to by Public Transport as I have to train into the city then tram back out. What is nice however, is that i can ride my bike there with minimal risk of death. This is still only a theory and far from practice.

I’ve started riding my bike more and more lately. I guess it’s a nice fall back for physical exercise. It’s easy enough that it doesn’t take much of a toll but it still fulfills the exercise requirement. I’m enjoying it. That said, I’m doing “Around the Bay” next month. Well half of it anyway. Which is essentially a 100km bike journey from Sorrento to Melbourne. I’m doing it with Girlfriend and some other friends so it should fun(if not completely physically devastating).

In training for ATB I’ve been doing some non cycling training(running mostly) at the gym across the road from where i live. I think it would be better to do actual cycling as training but it’s hard to find the time to go for 4-5 hour bike rides. 40 minutes of running does about the same in terms of cardio exercise and I think being an Athlete(used loosely) first and a Cyclist second is probably a better approach to overall fitness. In fact i think if it wasn’t for the crazy 45 kph winds we’ve been having I would probably ride more.

Next week I’m going to attempt to ride to work 3 days out of 5. We’ll see how that goes.

Well this is the last blog which I might add is a bit late but better late than never.

An early morning start saw the day in with bacon and eggs for brekkie with Sandra’s old school friend from Casterton who now lives in Koonoomoo, on the border of NSW and VIC.

A beautiful part of the world and we saw some of it via 4WD along the banks of the Murray River in the morning.

The river is looking very sad although our hosts assure me that the summer is much better than the winter here for the Murray so with this bit of local info, it is reassuring to know that it will look better at some stage in the future. Although I remember many years ago as a younger set, that when visiting the mighty Murray anytime during the year was a great site. Bit like the mighty Glenelg River – once was and hopefully will be again one day – we can only live in hope.

With the sightseeing out of the way we headed for Ballarat to visit Sandra’s daughter and then headed for home arriving Monday night.

This has been one of the best trips I have had in a very long time and with a great travelling companion and some wonderful places to see in Oz, the next trip is already being planned for next year.

Looks like “The Ghan” might be a possibility?