Jim Hodge's picture trail.

Pretty.

2012-01-30T17:49:00.001+10:00

I was curious what this was next door this morning, I expect they'll all be racing in the sandpit soon, with the truck getting an extra workout.

A full sized crop taken at max zoom with the new S9100, focus probably on the rail but good enough to see what it was.

Testing.....

2012-01-30T17:35:00.001+10:00

First up be warned I didn't reduce the size of this picture, though I did reduce the file size a bit, it's still near a Meg though and may be a slow download, or a painful one for those users who suffer punitive download limits, eg. many Aussies.

Anyway a new photo photo box arrived today and I just had to test it, and with Valentine's day approaching I tried a cute approach. I think Valentine's day was named after the late actor/magician Carl Ballantine.

The NX100 works well here and its lack of anti-shake or flash is more a bonus than a drawback, the little kit pancake lens used here is a ripper but has to be stopped down a bit to get depth of field.

A new toy.

2012-01-30T14:01:00.002+10:00

I've been using this Nikon S9100 for a few shots lately, I've a weakness for shiny things and saw it at the right price a little while back. It's nice to use and Jimmy has bonded a bit with it, easily pocketable but not if you don't expect to use it.

Having a colour other than black or grey upped Jimmy's interest.

A surprise.

2012-01-30T12:28:00.001+10:00

Grace had a birthday yesterday and a few minutes ago a car pulled up and a lovely lass delivered these flowers.

Thanks Bec, and thanks for calling yesterday on Skype, it always cheers both of us up.

Jooble

2012-01-22T14:32:00.001+10:00

I just received a lovely email from Serge who works for a company called Jooble, it appears to be a job search company which I think is a great idea, the internet can and should have many uses.

Since I always post a pic with anything I plonk on here, here's a fairly useless one of me at Wallaman falls in this morning's gloom.

Not a total wasted trip.

2012-01-22T10:24:00.000+10:00

This ripper of a snake was doing a good job of blocking the road to the falls, I'd reckon it about 2.5 metres long, out of respect I carefully drove past in the roadside crud.

Misc Wallaman.

2012-01-22T10:18:00.000+10:00

There's a tree growing in front of one of the good viewing points. I suppose they'll have to have a committee meeting to consider what to do, then fight reams of paperwork before giving up and allowing the tree to block the view altogether.

Nobody there but the lookout is well groomed.

They even have lavatories

Rules.

2012-01-22T10:10:00.000+10:00

I can't help but get the feeling we're heading to a future that makes the old soviet regime appear a free pleasant place.
We can't allow people to work out for themselves what may be dangerous.
Latest tales I hear is customs are now confiscating leatherman type tools and even emergency seat belt cutters due to the possible dangers to people. Guns are now a distant memory except usually for the criminals.

Nearly a waste.

2012-01-22T09:57:00.002+10:00

There was a hint of sun this morning and I've been meaning to treat Artie to a little trip and a drive up a hill for the first time in the six months I've had him, so we took off up to see Wallaman falls. Naturally Jimmy's luck ran out close to the falls when there was a splash of rain and fog abounding, so photos were a horror.

I wonder if anyone will notice?

2012-01-12T17:40:00.002+10:00

With Australia day coming up on the 26th Kraft have relabelled their iconic national food.

I must also confess to being a huge fan of Kraft as they now seem to be the only cheesemaker who are capable of making a block cheese that isn't tasty. All the other makers stick different labels on the same (un)tasty cheese, someone should remind them that Queenslanders like MILD, leave the tasty for those southerners who have no palate. I think the American's call tasty sharp, maybe if we also did then we'd be able to see decent mild back on the shelves.

Time I did some work.

2012-01-12T17:25:00.001+10:00

The weather's been nice so after I did a touch of mowing today I treated the mower to a bit of care.
The rocker cover has begun to rust so I gave it a spray of Killrust paint and while the lid was off adjusted the valves. It took a while to work out the method of adjustment but when I saw the allen screw inside the big bugger it became remarkably logical.

Oil changes on these mowers are easier than shelling peas so overall I didn't even raise a sweat.

Grumble.

2012-01-08T16:50:00.001+10:00

Our long term internet router spat the dummy last night, this morning after finally conceding the problem may be ours I hauled out the backup router, naturally after much looking I still hadn't found the power supply which of course had a different plug to all the others we have, so I soldered a new temporary socket in place, success.

Then I had a look at the old unit and noticed a slightly bulging capacitor (E206) so replaced it with the one on the left of pic.
Sadly still a fail, new router ordered and the backup shall have another rest.

Move.

2011-12-31T10:10:00.000+10:00

Yesterday I had a bit of a play putting together the model car I bought a while back. Since I never aim for perfection anyway the loser like job I do doesn't matter, however I'm stalled now until I can find some amber and red colour for the tail lights, even Jimmy isn't happy with the clear look back there.

It's the last day of the year now, we had 3060 mm of rain here this year, 50% more than average but it felt average except for a waterlogged March.
Happy new year all.

It could be worse, somehow.

2011-12-25T07:31:00.000+10:00

Someone's luck ran out early Saturday morning when powered by a few drinks he managed to carefully control his car into a collision with the police station.

At least he will have an xmas to remember, even if it's all bad.

Happy xmas all.

2011-12-25T07:21:00.000+10:00

For us it's already way better than the last one, unless it starts raining heavily we're not going to be flooded, unlike last year. Here's pics of the rising Log Creek down from our place last year, and one I took this morning that has a dry road.

A car park for whom?

2011-12-20T09:39:00.000+10:00

A noisy morning here as the Crushers parking area appears to be getting excavated for a fancy car park.
I doubt whether they use it more than 10 times a year but I suppose they managed to score a taxpayer handout. At least it looks like they plan on using the soil removed again.

Terrible light for a photo, sorry about the gloom.

Grace and I must add our sympathy to our friend John in Newfoundland whose wife Theresa died last Thursday.

A sea of grey and white.

2011-12-10T20:05:00.001+10:00

I was surprised by the Coles car park being rather full on Friday, scarily the supermarket was busy too.

The surprise caused me to take a photo (with the new camera), and sadly it demonstrates just how bland we've become with grey replacing white as the dominant shade of car.

Golly it'd be nice to see some colour again.
Because I always park very distant from the entry the extra vehicles had no real effect on parking Artie, a keen eye may see his rear.

SH100 plaything.

2011-12-06T09:34:00.001+10:00

Jimmy just wasted a bit more money on a new pocket camera to take with him about town.
I must be becoming a bit of a Samsung fan but bottom line is nearly always price and Samsung do price quite well.
The WB700 on the left fits fairly easily in a pocket but its extra zoom is not needed about town and Jimmy got to thinking something smaller and simpler may be better to carry about town, also the new SH100 on the right was available in a colour.

The WiFi had me a bit curious but in reality for me its use is too limited to be a selling point, for others it may be just the trick.
Delivery was a pain, I tracked it leaving China, then being cleared by customs here quickly, followed by a week of sitting in the Sydney freight depot, then 4 more days to travel here. However for $132 all up, hardly moaning material.
Function wise the SH100 is about what I was looking for, I didn't want fancy controls, I just wanted the auto mode to give a good cheery result, and that's something Samsung do manage very well. Most of my use is in bright sunny days so Samsung's less than stellar high ISO performance isn't much of an issue for me, I trade that off for what I perceive is Samsung having excellent lenses and their programmers favouring a bright punchy look that I prefer.

I've read reviewers criticising the SH100's touch screen's feedback but I'm finding it excellent and sensitive, perhaps the firmware upgrade addressed the moans there.

Bling.

2011-12-01T12:40:00.001+10:00

Something pretty for Artie, though Jimmy really did it so he can see where the front of Artie is.

Forrest Beach.

2011-12-01T12:33:00.001+10:00

I zipped up here last Sunday hoping to get some cyclone info from a display, at least it was a chance to get out and take some pics. That's a coconut palm, they may soon be treated as a noxious weed if the Greens have their way, personally I find coconut delicious but I have to be wary as too much gives me the spews.

Lower right is a coconut that has fallen.

So would I.

2011-12-01T12:28:00.001+10:00

I spotted this custom plate in town the other day, much nicer than the blatantly false "smart state" one.

Sadly for me golf is history as my arms just plain and simply can't swing without tear inducing pain, and if that wasn't enough my fingers hurt just thinking about gripping a golf bat.

Life moves on.

Ruined.

2011-12-01T12:20:00.001+10:00

Sorry I've been very slow of late, I had some trouble upgrading my computer's cooler which sadly ended up with Jimmy making a total mess of the motherboard's CPU socket in attempting to clean off some crud that had prevented the pins connecting. Jimmy's eyesight just isn't good enough to play with these fiddly things any more so another same type of board was ordered but seemed to ride upon the slowest courier in the world.

Anyway job done now and the new water cooler is quite quiet, or as the new super educated generation would write, quite quite.

A key, how exciting.

2011-11-09T12:55:00.001+10:00

Well not really but the lass who cut it did say there was no way it was going to work unless my lock is seriously borked. It works and Jimmy doesn't care, he just wanted a plain key, plus now has the old one as a spare.

Anyway after that feeble excuse for a post, happy birthday to brother Mega. 7*8 today.

Something happening.

2011-11-06T08:58:00.001+10:00

I went into town this morning to get money from the bank and the road was blocked, something must have happened at Lee's Hotel.
Of course Lee's Hotel or the Day Dawn as it was known back then was the place where the bush poem that the iconic song "The Pub with no Beer" was made from was written, due to WW2 beer shortages.

Of course song is the only useful outlet for poetry, bush or any other sort.

Edit: I should have looked a bit closer, It's the Royal Hotel, and the press reports it had a bit of a fire, no reported casualties.
I couldn't smell anything nor see any smoke.

A proper URL again.

2011-11-05T10:44:00.001+10:00

Since our new ISP provides fairly generous website space I've moved the webcam to it.
http://home.exetel.com.au/zzzz/

Temporarily at least.

2011-11-04T18:00:00.002+10:00

The age old webcam can be found at 58.96.42.106 (type that into your browser's address bar)
I expect to change back to a proper URL soon enough, but this should be OK till then

Parcel a coming.

2011-10-26T22:13:00.000+10:00

Caught Sandy the parcel contractor pulling up today, saved her the bother of getting out, pity the delivery was nothing special, a cable that still waits for the thing for it to plug into.
We get a much better delivery service than most Aussies, but I think a smile goes a long way.

Now after that quite useless post I must advise anyone who ever logs into our webcam that the URL shall be changing in about a week, the new address to be advised when Jimmy has a clue to what he's doing.

Different at least.

2011-10-26T22:04:00.001+10:00

Spotted yesterday, different but didn't change my pulse rate a bit.

Black helmet, I suppose daring to be different can only go so far.

Charming.

2011-10-13T19:45:00.000+10:00

I think this one gives me a friendly welcoming look, I might use it on Facebook.

Now I can ride a pushbike too.

2011-10-13T19:43:00.000+10:00

This mask was cheap too and also gives me the chin I never had, good enough chin to let me ride the Tour-de-France if my legs (heart actually) were up to any hill steeper than dead flat.

It also has the toothbrush moustache that I'd grow if I could ever be bothered.

Teeth again.

2011-10-13T19:36:00.001+10:00

Since my mouth looks like an old piano these days, some yellow, some black, and some missing, I saw this online and thought it would give me a nice toothy smile again.
It works, cheaply too!

An interesting little issue.

2011-10-11T15:32:00.000+10:00

I've changed all of Artie's lamps to LED (except for the headlamps) and an intriguing issue was when applying the brake my parking and instrument lamps lit up. Not a big issue but Jimmy got to thinking and (I think) it was due to the brake/tail light using a clever circuit that just lights all the LEDs in a dimmer fashion for the tail light part, this was feeding voltage back to the park light circuit.
Solved by placing a diode in the tail light wiring, or in this case two of them due to it being easier to access the wires at the lamp. I just used a couple of salvaged old 1 Amp diodes but they could be marginal if I placed an olde style lamp back into the circuit.

BTW the headlights are not easy to change, I've yet to find LEDs that are anywhere near as good as the halogen ones and also Artie's H/L circuit switches the earth rather than the usual 12V line, this would mean having to wire an adapter anyway. HID are frowned upon as well as being arguably illegal, so I'll just leave them for now.

I must get active again.

2011-10-11T15:13:00.001+10:00

My health has returned, possibly better than it's been for a good while too, fingers crossed.

Anyway I saw these in Coles today, would have bought a pack too except they were too expensive, can't see them ever becoming popular in the USA though.

Probably as good as it gets.

2011-09-25T23:21:00.002+10:00

Tomorrow if the stars align right then I expect to start eating at least half decently again, but it's nice to see a mid-teenage number again.

I stopped losing weight for a while after the last post despite not eating, strange? but the body must have been a bit full of toxins and my dark pee since then must have flushed them out, my mind wandering while that was happening was a bit of fun though.
Then I felt a bit better and lost a bit more weight.

Maybe my pancreas has given up the ghost, the doc can find out next visit.

Confession: I'm a drug addict.

2011-09-20T16:14:00.000+10:00

I've been fearing seeing the doctor as well as the pharmacist of late so I thought I'd see if I could survive albeit painfully without the pills prescribed.
That was a major mistake, after about a week I had the worst angina attack I've ever had, 25 hours of agony. I'm still as weak as a kitten and have learnt my lesson, if it was any worse I would have even risked my life going to hospital, but knowing they don't like me kept me from going there.

Age does weary and what I could and did do 15 years ago is no longer possible, now I have to gather the courage to see the doctor again, as well as hide in the corner of the pharmacy while all of the important people get served.

These are my main pills, I also take a couple more that are more to do with quality of life than required for it.
And no I haven't been on the booze much for a long time.

Doing all right.

2011-09-18T09:12:00.001+10:00

These red flowers sprout up about this time every year, maybe they signal spring or something. Anyway it appears a few more of them show up every year so something must be pleasing them

Overpriced but fantastic.

2011-09-18T09:08:00.002+10:00

Finally the people near us have safe pedestrian access to town, no need to share a narrow road bridge with trucks any more.

The council milked way too much money from the taxpayer to do it but at least a much needed job is done.

Usual D'OH!

2011-09-03T15:26:00.000+10:00

I had no sooner finished Artie's steering rack makeover when I merely tapped my new tool trolley parking Artie and the castor wheel collapsed. You get so used to things like this happening that it's lost all meaning, anyway I was able to while an hour away this morning fixing it, my time isn't worth anything so repair is viable, it'd be junk for anyone else.

Yuck.

2011-09-02T18:27:00.001+10:00

I ordered a replacement bearing for Artie's steering rack as soon as I bought it, I had correct info that it took a common 6202 bearing and by the feeling and look of the rack it must have been stuffed.

It took ages for the $3.50 bearing to arrive from China but the rack was a bit of a horror story upon removal, running a muddy rust mixture caused by water ingress, and yes the old bearing was stuffed.

Artie by rights should get a new rack but I think it may be right till I retire him to the graveyard now.

I learned not to take shortcuts here, I only created extra work for myself by trying, It really has to be cleaned up and sorted out properly. Now happily the crunchy steering is gone, replaced by a smooth normal action.

Gloomy Tuesday.

2011-09-02T18:18:00.000+10:00

At last another wet day and as per schedule "Ergon" the power people switched us off for nearly six hours while they replaced a few old boards carrying the H/T line past our place.
In an example of productivity it took them about four hours to do the half hour job two poles up from our place, all they replaced was the two top boards. The vehicle on the right was a lollypop car which even had one occasion to put a stop sign out, the rest of the time the pair of them were trying to see how many cigarettes they could devour in a day.
Ergon brought up plenty of staff so while they did a few poles that day had a gang for each one plus a continual stream of supervisors driving around smoking and avoiding rain.

At least the massive power bill increases help to pay for it.

Genuine "Goodride"

2011-09-02T18:06:00.001+10:00

First I should say that I have renamed Fritz to Artie, in part due to the numberplate which has "RRT" as the letters.

I got a pair of these fairly cheaply on eBay to replace the 12 year old ones on the rear of Artie, even had fun mounting and balancing them. They raise the rear a bit and may draw the ire of our nanny state which manages to have a law against everything, but finding tyres in the correct size for Artie isn't easy and I'm sure I'd only be met locally with a blank stare and a price tag designed to write him off. I think the pair cost $137 including freight.

Found.

2011-08-22T18:15:00.000+10:00

Going on the info in Fritz's owner's manual I found it parked at its old home.
Easy to understand why it is so dusty, being on a dirt road but since the photo is one of the new high res ones Google are rolling out it comes as a surprise to see it parked in the garage.

Should the old owners see this, I'd be more than happy to tell them what's happening with their old toy.

Wow!

2011-08-16T14:15:00.000+10:00

Jimmy was a bit slow to find this out but Fritz's seats unfold together to make a fairly comfortable bed.

Cool.

Jimmy's waiting for some LED lamps to arrive before he puts the dash back together, so don't worry about it looking very rough.

Relief.

2011-08-14T22:41:00.000+10:00

This is a major reason for changing cars, now I can easily lift the important bits out of floodwater and have some peace of mind.

New belt.

2011-08-14T22:37:00.000+10:00

A way easier job than I was expecting, nothing was stuck or stripped or seized or broken.

Another productive day.

2011-08-11T18:43:00.000+10:00

The boot was torn on the tie-rod end and although it's otherwise OK without being dustproof it'll be soon buggered, since I'm no longer part of any trade I think I might only embarrass myself trying to find a new boot, so I bought a complete unit, usually you'd go to a lot of trouble to keep the wheel alignment the same when fitting but the previous owner must have taken it to one of the 9 out of 10 shonk shops because the alignment was woeful. I've set it a bit closer now and will probably play a bit more later.

Why can't people leave the alignment as it left the factory, they get it right and then shops proceed to ruin it.

Playing with a Nippon-Denso alternator.

2011-08-11T18:15:00.000+10:00

Since Jimmy in his youth seemed to always have alternator trouble with whatever dunger he was using, he's made a habit of inspecting them in his mature years.
First up remove the alternator then spin the pulley if it spins smoothly then merely looking at the brushes should suffice, if not then don't worry about brushes and get an exchange unit.

This is the first ND one I've played with and I like it already. Most of them are probably very similar with the back cover plate needing to come off, use a 7mm spanner on the three green pointered screws, or if you're brave and strong a philips head screwdriver, but be warned the Japanese always do up screws far tighter than mere mortals can cope with. The Yellow nut is a 10mm hex and only has to be undone to the last thread or two and the insulator will pull out of the cover plate and allow its removal.

The new brushholder cost $21 on ebay and judging by the wear on the old one wasn't needed for a long time yet, but peace of mind is a wonderful thing when you're out in the middle of nowhere, so I put it in anyway.

The brushholder on these are simply held in by the green pointered screws, use a good screwdriver for these not granddad's old hand me down, you don't want to burr them. The lower one is longer but the short one won't fit in that hole so you'll know if you get them wrong like I did. Something thin may help to hold the brushes back while fitting them and be careful they line up properly.

Now Jimmy will have peace of mind for a while, say 100,000 km till he bothers looking again.

Fiat.

2011-08-09T07:37:00.000+10:00

Fritz should now fit in to this Italian town. Fiat have only sold a handful of cars in Australia in the last three decades so the new badge should keep people guessing.

Of course if the importers had enough sense to import the new 500 with the right engine option and at a believable price Jimmy could be interested, but not at the luxury $30k nonsense price they murder the brand with.
Of course Fiat being only four letters meant education challenged Jimmy has a better chance of spelling it.

Offensive.

2011-08-06T07:40:00.000+10:00

This arrived in the mail yesterday.

The carbon pollution they repeat mantra style to push their new tax is actually carbon dioxide, part of the cycle of life, plants need it to grow and feed us. I am so beyond listening to anything this government does that I've just switched off totally. The sooner this incompetent wasteful government is gone the better off all but the employees of the totally meaningless climate change department will be.

This is what I did with it.

Kings beach

2011-08-05T11:35:00.000+10:00

No great reason for this post but the timer done photo turned out OK.

Almost cactus.

2011-08-05T11:33:00.000+10:00

Fritz's radiator has definitely seen better days, Jimmy will soon being replacing it. Better now than have it fail on a trip and pay 3 times the price from a shark somewhere.

It coped with our winter temperature on the drive home but was showing signs of being marginal.

3 cylinders and 847 cc of muscle.

2011-08-05T11:30:00.000+10:00

At least Jimmy can use most of Fritz's throbbing 31 kW of power pretty often.

The seats don't look comfortable,

2011-08-05T11:26:00.000+10:00

But in typical Japanese style everything works well when cruising. Japanese cars always fit Jimmy nicely, they must have short legs too.

Olde timey instruments.

2011-08-05T11:21:00.000+10:00

Jimmy is actually pleased about that, but still intends blinging it with LED lights.
It would take a long road to get to the 140 on the speedo, if indeed it could, but funnily enough it blasts along happily on a very light throttle even at our highest 110 km/h speed limit, so who needs more?

Just made it.

2011-08-05T11:16:00.000+10:00

I did have to modify the handle a tad though, plus cut off a bit of the rod.

Fritz may be small but he's tall too.

Another bonus.

2011-08-05T11:13:00.000+10:00

Is Fritz easily fits into a parking bay. Pity it's a horrible colour, grey yuck!

A change.

2011-08-05T11:10:00.001+10:00

Tru is gone, inherited by Rhonda who seemed fairly pleased. Jimmy's new ride is Fritz, a major step down from Tru but with the flooding we're too used to (thanks to the greenies) Jimmy can lift Fritz out of major drama fairly easily, plus being front wheel drive (the proper way to do it) Jimmy only really has to raise the front of Fritz above the water.

Today's toy.

2011-07-21T18:22:00.000+10:00

Took a bit of effort to put this together, and it arrived a bit late to get me in the mood for the Tour de France pushbike race, since it's nearly over now, but when the riders reach Paris it'll oversee it.

I'm cheering for Voeckler, he was busy riding while the fancied riders were outdoing themselves with tactics.

If he does finally fail there's a fair chance that Aussie product Cadel Evans may score, so it isn't all bad.
Grace and I have watched all the le tour so far, it does rather ruin body clocks.

Yeah right.

2011-07-21T18:14:00.000+10:00

Three Holden's all in a row. The white one is an old light car class Barina, the grey one is a full size class newist Commodore, the red one is a new light car class Barina I spied in the Coles car park the other day.
Does anybody think like me that it's odd for a light class car (though I think this may be marketed as a small class now) to be bigger than the full sized class?

We can be a bent lot of people in Australia, I think our love affair with rear wheel drive is a millstone.
I'm not picking on Holden here either as my Ford is in the very same boat.

At last.

2011-07-21T18:02:00.000+10:00

This broke out of my mouth last night, it used to be a third molar "wisdom" (yeah right?) tooth.
It won't be causing Jimmy any more trouble but its multitude of roots will probably continue the angst.

At least the dental waiting list here is long enough now to achieve some budget savings, with teeth like this unable to see the time out, I think it's eight years for me now but it could be closer to a decade (or longer), though I must confess to bucking the system by calling upon their quick pain removal emergency quick fixem service a couple of times, but have since planned on riding out the pain to get a better service done on the few that remain.

Goodie.

2011-07-21T17:53:00.000+10:00

They're finally building the pedestrian bridge over Log Creek so residents in this end of town can have safe access to the shops.
It was put in the State budget for last financial year but I'm truly surprised to see it actually being done at all, albeit a touch late. Yippee.

I'm glad these were parked.

2011-07-08T19:43:00.000+10:00

Aeroplanes around Ingham all tend to take advantage of the total lack of noise regulations for them, I'm sure because agricultural planes are exempt from noise rules the owners go to the trouble of fitting loudeners to them.

Definitely not looking forward to the air show here in September especially with us close to the airport and there always being a plane crash. Never mind that the noise will spike my blood pressure through the roof.

The Red Baron wannabe here is cute though.

Nearly affordable.

2011-07-08T19:35:00.000+10:00

You could even call it reasonably priced.

Crowd.

2011-07-08T19:31:00.000+10:00

Nearly 10:30 and still empty, I believe the crowd arrives at 18:00 for a busy night, then tomorrow it gets empty again at about 15:00.

Rules.

2011-07-08T19:10:00.000+10:00

With so many I'm doubtful anyone will enjoy this, at least I know I don't qualify for a ride.

Nearly.

2011-07-08T19:07:00.000+10:00

I couldn't quite get back far enough to find the right angle for this.

However it's a very impressive bit of work, all seemingly winding out of a trailer.

Some things don't change.

2011-07-08T19:04:00.000+10:00

Like the carnies all smoking in a wallet thinning manner.

Mmmmm cakes.

2011-07-08T19:01:00.000+10:00

Pity some moron got his legs reflected in the shot.

Clones.

2011-07-08T18:58:00.000+10:00

Sorry Toobanna but it would have been a bit nicer if there was some variation in open hands posters, even the altered photos are all the same.

Cool.

2011-07-08T18:54:00.000+10:00

Part of the Forrest Beach school exhibit which overall I rated the best of the school displays, but not due to the excellence of writing but more for a bit of individuality, with way too much cloning on other displays.

You may get dizzy trying to track the grammar errors here but it still manages to have charm.

Bingo.

2011-07-08T18:48:00.000+10:00

I think the judges picked the right photo this year for champion. I'm used to seeing them award a gloomy swamp photo but this is vastly more cheerful.

Ingham Show.

2011-07-08T18:45:00.001+10:00

I went this morning and have to say it's struggling. Years ago the cane display was packed, now it's like a few scrawny weeds.

I used to love the clowns when I was a nipper at least they still look good but there were no Stewie Griffin's or Elmo's in my youth.

Jimmy has a robot.

2011-07-08T18:37:00.000+10:00

A proper wind-up tinplate one too.

Roadworks.

2011-06-30T11:56:00.000+10:00

Plenty of noise this morning, their doing a bit of verge work on the other side of the road.
I suppose because they'd all be smokers that's why they seem to work for an hour then all drive back to the soccer ovals for a long break, repeated till knock off time.

Must also be hungry work driving that machinery as they seem to have lunch boxes the size of school portes.

Hopefully this will help.

2011-06-30T11:47:00.001+10:00

A new doorbell came this morning (the reason for using the drill) and I've mounted it on the mailbox for the postie to ring when we have a reg that needs signing.

They just blow the horn and we can't hear it from our playroom so we've been monitoring the camera for years, this should ease our concern but I will have to tell them about it ASAP.

The rubber flap is to prevent water ingress, hopefully.

Yep.

2011-06-30T11:41:00.000+10:00

Went to use the drill press this morning and find something has eaten the off switch.
It's the end of the line for it now, it cost $70 a decade ago and the bearings have been as noisy as buggery since the flooding a couple of years ago, I'm now considering it retired, I shall try and think of a use for the motor.

Annoyingly the photo is a good example of the narrow focus "bokeh" that many seek. Sadly this is not the place for it and I should have used a smaller aperture, however the light was low...etc...etc..
Large sensor cameras Have their place but small sensor cameras avoid much of this pitfall but also lack some of the picture quality, it's all a trade off, nothing's perfect.

The jury's out on this.

2011-06-21T11:00:00.000+10:00

I've thrown together the gadget to trick Tru into thinking she's a bit rich but I'm a gunna have to take her for a fair drive to get a better idea of results. A quick test drive didn't result in any problems but whether it saves any fuel is still in the maybe stage. I certainly wouldn't recommend driving hard with this change but since I drive like old aunt Agnes I don't expect reliability problems, Ford did put better valve/valve seats in the egas version than the petrol one.

Why?

2011-06-11T17:41:00.000+10:00

Very ordinary pic but another Jimmy project is started, whether it will be of any use is very questionable.

Now why would I mount a LED over a solar sensor? Mega is probably curious already so hints are it's a car project and oxygen.

Weedwatcher.

2011-06-11T17:31:00.000+10:00

Many years after Happy the Gnome took a tumble and suffered a grade one injury he finally made it to the top of our hospital's waiting list, where his breakages were mended.

It didn't seem to help his mood though when he was put straight onto sentry duty amongst the plants. Happy looks decidedly suspicious of those weeds on the left, maybe if Jimmy cleaned them up a bit he may fiddle a tune to those nice plants.

What an artist.

2011-06-08T19:44:00.000+10:00

I bought some chicken salt the other day that was below expectations, so I mixed it with some normal salt to bring it up to scratch.
In order to see that it now contains chicken salt I painted a photo of a chicken on the container.

Mega?

2011-06-07T20:12:00.000+10:00

This wasn't you was it Mega? I know you love a bit of a play about Mt Glorious.
Ouch.

Lazy man's shelf.

2011-06-03T21:24:00.000+10:00

In the process of moving our data centre I decided a shelf would be good, plus it made some good use of Grace's mum's old table. It was probably about 60 years old but the flooding we've had rendered it to a very ordinary state and it really wasn't a great table anyway, except it had a very good top on it made of 3 planks.

I plan on using them for shelves where suitable so it shall once again be a part of the family.

I did have to move the clock, as the water marks from our little roof trouble show its old home.

Sparklers.

2011-06-03T21:14:00.000+10:00

Grace likes shiny things and rings so Jimmy bought her some more.

I can assure everyone they didn't cost much.

A lost week.

2011-06-03T21:10:00.001+10:00

My ISP changed hands but the new owner's plans went awry when the plug was pulled on the old system before they were able to get their new one plugged in, this resulted in a very depressed Grace and Jim. We had no idea for too long as to what was happening but things had better be good or we'll move again quickly, a week offline is hard to handle after having such a wonderful tool in front of us for so long.

Anyway the outage managed to kill my will to do anything but just before it I decided to put another computer together, I've been a bit out of touch lately but wanted a bit of grunt for video processing at a budget. Motherboard and CPU cost about $200 and it seems to do video work twice as fast as the old one. It must be the extra cores as the clock speed is about the same.

I chose AMD due to bangs for bucks rather than sheer grunt, the CPU is an number 840

Fail.

2011-05-18T19:14:00.000+10:00

These new specs don't do much to help me see things, it seems all they do is make me look like a nerd. The truth can be painful.

The sore on my cheek is what they call Bowen's disease, a bit annoying but nothing to lose sleep over, it must have been there for over a decade.

The toes.

2011-05-14T09:44:00.000+10:00

Still sore but much better.

Ready for rain.

2011-05-14T09:42:00.000+10:00

Today's little job is a Jimmybuilt gutter so we can avoid the water that pours off the awning over the front stairs when it rains.

A bit of PVC pipe, ripsaw a slot along it and use a bit of wire to hold it in place, now we wait for rain to see if it's effective, but we'll gladly wait as long as it takes for that, we've had quite enough rain so far this year.

Mother's day.

2011-05-08T14:30:00.000+10:00

And we have two of them here this weekend. Lovely of Rhonda to come up and see Grace, I picked a good time to kill my foot.
Grace scored her lovely new dress from Rhonda, and even got something done to her hair but that's women's stuff and Jimmy wouldn't understand anything about hair.

The foot.

2011-05-08T14:26:00.000+10:00

I think Rhonda's care has helped Jimmy's toes, they just look a bit black rather than ready to fall off, which they would have looked if Jimmy had followed his usual do nothing routine.

Painful progress.

2011-05-07T11:41:00.000+10:00

The doors are fitted but I'll finish the job when I can hobble a bit easier again.

The recalcitrant one lurks in the background, hopefully in a peaceful mood now.
The end result should make life easier for the air conditioner and already appear to have reduced noise from outside.

The gore today.

2011-05-07T11:24:00.002+10:00

Soon be better.

Real ouch.

2011-05-06T20:50:00.000+10:00

You can't see them but I was working on a door tonight and dropped it on the two end toes, owie, owie, owie. Squashed them good, blood everywhere and genuine pain, I must have cried and I think I may have wet myself too.
Luckily our Rhonda flew up today to see her mother (my Grace) over Mother's day weekend, so she bravely faced up to the challenge of disinfecting and tying it up.
Hopefully they'll be fine tomorrow.

I was screwing a roller on the top of a new door I'm putting in and it fell off the seat it was resting on, luckily my toes broke its fall, sacrificing themselves for the sake of the door, damn fools.

Ouch.

2011-05-06T20:41:00.000+10:00

These things must be aimed at the same crowd P.T. Barnum sold tickets to.

It even labels it for the hard to comprehend real cost as $9.06 per litre yet it must still sell. The lure of a glass bottle is fortunately meaningless to me.

Towbars can be very handy.

2011-05-01T20:07:00.000+10:00

I heard a fearful crunch this morning when shopping for beer, happily as usual I had my pocket camera on hand and took a shot of the Camry backing up for another attack on the 4wd but he missed the 2nd time.
The towbar appears to have marked the Camry's bumper on the LHS in a minor fashion but there's likely some underlying damage.

The driver was a bit elderly so may not have even realised it happened, so didn't bother inspecting the damage, plus as a bonus provided some entertainment for us waiting for the bottle shop to open.

Shocking photo.

2011-04-30T18:37:00.000+10:00

All reflection but I spotted this upon the entry to Coles this morning.
I can't see how our State government rules that are a clear restriction to trade could stand up to any sort of legal challenge, they allow quasi-independent supermarkets who sell the same items to operate, yet the major chain stores are expected to have their perishable food sit happily on the shelf behind closed doors due to trade restrictions.

The tourists who travel through the area must be just as astounded.

Looking, looking.

2011-04-29T19:32:00.000+10:00

No sign of our Bec among the crowd, sorry if we missed you waving Bec.
Grace is enjoying watching the wedding tonight, and I'm lapping up the scenery in High Definition. Bec only lives 5km away these days so we suppose she's out there somewhere.

New firmware.

2011-04-26T20:52:00.000+10:00

Samsung released new firmware for the NX100 camera the other day, it adds an in camera panorama mode. I gave it a test when I was on the roof.

Not bad for a quick try, be warned it's a fairly big download though, near a meg.

The roof is done.

2011-04-26T20:48:00.000+10:00

It took two blokes two full days work but it's once again solid and water resistant.
They were top blokes too and deserve a bit of praise for a job well done, maybe with the excessive charge the company sprung on the insurance they can share a bit of the spoils with them.

Pity they forgot to undo the corner of the tarp that was tied on for so long but Jimmy unscrewed it and filled the hole with (of all things) some heatsink cement he had lying around, I hope it's waterproof. Dunno why some genius screwed it into the valley of the corrugated iron, maybe because he didn't like us? It's the black thing at the bottom of the picture.

Nearly a roof again.

2011-04-19T07:51:00.000+10:00

A great little crew started work on our cyclone damaged roof yesterday, things are looking much better already.

Recycler.

2011-04-14T18:05:00.000+10:00

Since we're not big on throwing things away I used a chunk of the broken deck board to mount a camera downstairs so Grace can keep her eye on me when I play down there.