Ben Boyle lives here!

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I walked past David Jones tonight and they had Christmas trees in their front window. Channel 10 played a Simpson's episode that involved Christmas. It's even on the blogs!

Now I won't feel so silly at work for keeping a Christmas tree on my monitor. It's only been there 3½yrs now. It's not because I'm too lazy to put it away, I just wish it could be Christmas all year long :)

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Daniel and the Goblet of Pain

My high school awarded me a trophy in 1993 for um, I don't remember exactly, but something like oustanding achievement in the field of excellence. Which was nice at the time. I got a certificate and a silvery goblet.

Tonight, I kinda wish they hadn't bothered.

The much tarnished trophy is now sitting in this room, allowing me to cast dark glances at it and mutter. It was located on a kind of mantle above a sliding door outside our bathroom. Daniel was shutting the door—he enjoys opening and shutting things—not even slamming it really. And that's when the aforementioned goblet fell and clocked him a good one.

I was on the other side of the door. In the bathroom. I think this qualifies as one of those situations where you don't want to be caught naked—but are. Well, that pales into insignificance really…

One horrible accident. Two hours at the GP. Three stitches. Four stressed family members—it must be quite an ordeal for a two year old. It's not too easy on a big brother, nor a mother or father.

I'm just glad we're all OK. Good onya Daniel, what a little trooper you were! And thanks to the doctor, what a nightmare it must be to stitch up a kid's scalp. Now to find a suitably dark closet to put that darn goblet in.

• MuzeKez said:

  Hehe, that's a good title!
  
  How goes the little guy now? Has the goblet incident been forgotten amongst hours of Buzz and Wiggley fun? Hope he hasn't been smearing more weird stuff into his stitched-up scalp. ;-)

• Ben said:

  He is doing great. The maple syrup must have helped :)

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searching for a clue

Every now and then I get to do something with the search at work. Sometimes it's planning, sometimes reorganising the data, sometimes it's interface design. And once it was help.

If you look at that page and scroll down, you'll find some tips on how that search works. My favourite tip is that you can turn on "Sounds Like" matching and search for "eddycation week". But just who is Eddy Cation, and why does he get a whole week?

Hehe ;)

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shiny, happy people

Are we all agreed Lush Bath Ballistics is da bomb? Well, I'm not so sure about Fairy Jasmine. Perhaps because we grow our own jasmine——which has only just finished its ebulliently floral announcement of Spring—we failed to detect any aroma of jasmine in this bath. More to the point, for the second time in my life I have had glitter on my person. Hmmm.

Somehow I knew when I went shopping in that place I was a bit out of my depth. Perhaps I should have looked harder for some Mr Sparkle, lucky best wash, 100%!

• MuzeKez said:

  This post made me laugh, and laugh, and laugh, and then I showed it to Mum, and I laughed even more.
  
  When was the first time you had glitter on your person? *scratches head*

• Ben said:

  a clubbing incident of 1997. we shall speak of it no more.

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a win for parenting

• “Tea’s ready! Come sit at the table Daniel. C’mon Daniel, come have tea.”
• Cajoling just has no effect when a two year old is engrossed in Toy Story 2.
• Pick him up and carry him to the table.
• He hops down and runs back to the lounge.
• TV goes off.
• Screaming starts.
• Time out.
• He comes back out.
• “Sit down and have tea and watch Buzz?”
• “O’kay!”
• Tea, and Toy Story for everyone.
• Yay! :D

• Inspiral said:

  At least its a good movie! We are lucky he doesn't like watching the Barbie movies over and over.

• Ben said:

  how could that ever compare to “Buzz… Buzz… Buzz Lightyear to the rescue!” and “Don’t you see the hat!? I am Mrs Nesbitt!!” :D

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500 words a day

That's the advice I was given in order to write a novel in one year. Yes, I'll admit I'm making the attempt and with 36,000 words down feel I have made a little progress. Towards a very rough early draft mind—I've no time to waste editing at this stage and the consensus is complete the work first as there's a real risk of being sucked into the vortex of forever editing, never finishing.

Why am I posting this? Oh yes. Today I wrote my 500 words! It's good advice, even a noob like me can see the benefit. I actually managed my quota every day in June and it was great. Then I slacked off. Fool! Then I lost the plot. Fool! I've only just managed to salvage it back to coherent prose (with stacks of notes waiting to be slipped back in place once the time is right) which means I fell prey, for a time, to the editing-when-you-should-be-writing bug. Fool, thrice the fool!

So hopefully now I'm back on track. Coz it's good advice, that 500 words a day. I was worried it would be too regimental, but if one is to really make a go of it a bit of self discipline is surely called for. It reminds me of my days studying animation—another industry requiring some very real dedication to the cause. Funny how I ended up in web development, a place very much driven by quick returns, dirty hacks and achieving a lot with a little. Perfect for a lazy minimalist like me.

But I'm going to get this novel written. Even if ultimately it's never published anywhere except on a website, just to prove I can do it. 500 words a day. It's not difficult. I write more than that a dozen times over and more just in email each day, posting comments on blogs, occasionally blogging here—there's close to 500 words in this post alone. And never let one ever forget the reams and reams of code and configuration at work, as if one ever would. Surely I can channel a measly 500 words in the right direction.

500 words a day is the key—an achievable goal to ensure progress is sustainable, and the constant immersion means it gets easier as you go. It's very good advice—thanks to Fiona, a mighty impressive lady who can produce a complete trilogy within a year. This time I need to stick to it.

• MuzeKez said:

  ..which reminds me, I haven't read the latest chapter yet. Gah! Bad Kez! I think I might have to go back and reread earlier stuff though as it's been so long coming. :-P Now, if you had kept up your 500 words per day..

• Ben said:

  You only have to read 500 words a day ya know, keep up :)

• Ben said:

  36,500—woot!

• Pickwick said:

  Oooh, I'm intrigued! I don't think I'd ever have the confidence to write a novel. I'm not great at narrative, I don't think, and am intimidated by better writing I encounter every day.
  
  So, will you let anyone read???? Huh? Will ya? [If an award winning author gives me his stuff to read in progress, surely you could too? I'm very gentle... :-)]

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spread the fire

No, I am not promoting arson. Arson is wrong. I am however, promoting Firefox: a web browser based on Mozilla. An alternative to Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer hasn't changed much in the last few years so if you've been wondering what's changed in the world of web browsing, have a go of firefox. You'll like it, or I'll refund your comments—that's my guarantee to you.

• Pickwick said:

  I'd like to 'have a go', but I don't see the 'download now' button they're touting.
  
  No woman needs to be teased at 3.13 AM. Get that refund ready, my friend...

• Ben said:

  I just looked at my stats and too many visitors are using Internet Explorer. Get Firefox! (it's the right link this time, too)

• Casyn said:

  I am now receiving transmission via Firefox. I like. Tis good.
  
  Although, I have found some websites look funky or don't work at all. I'll still have to do me banking with IE, and because of my oddly high screen resolution, this blog's layout is wonky! I just have to shrink this window down :-)

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Are you ruled by fear?

This website may help you (but probably not).

• Pickwick said:

  First response: Why is fear a woman?
  Second response: I'm afraid of donuts;-)
  Third response: I really suffer from hippomonstrosequippedaliophobia, which is, ironically, a fear of long words... :-)

• Ben said:

  Whom, whoever thought up that name wasn't very kind! But seriously, there is no way you could have that fear Pickwick! :)

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movie candy is expensive

but I just might buy some tomorrow because I could win! That link will probably break one day sooner or later so I better say the prize up for grabs is an Apple iPod.

It's hard not to want an iPod. It's the kind of thing I would usually convince myself I must have, but I have mixed feelings. They look great. They sound great (I'm talking about the advertising, not the audio quality—I haven't had the pleasure to be able to judge). But… they only play songs. Oh I know you can store files and it has a calendar and contacts. But I keep contacts on my phone and PC where I can use them! And my phone can play mp3s already—when the headset works!—and it has a camera, and email, and web, and handwriting recognition. I have a cool phone. Well, it's a bit dated. The P900 and soon to be released P910 (c'mon, look at that cute keyboard) look a bit spunkier.

Ok, it's not so much a phone as a PDA. And it's the kind of PDA I want—not spreadsheets and financial software—cool multimedia stuff. I only wish it had a radio, TV and video camera. And more memory. Memory sticks are too expensive too buy.

So I guess an iPod might be nice after all. After all, I really like iTunes. (It's like media player, only better. Much better. Go get it now!) Even though it doesn't have a camera, phone, TV or radio either. I guess if I buy all those things individually I would have a utility belt. Be the man. Batman.

All I need to do now is decide what candy to buy. Oh, and what movie to see…

• MuzeKez said:

  Yeah, I've been debating what kind of movie candy to buy next time I go to the cinema too. That's a pretty sweet prize, and candy is sweet too. Mmm, candy.

• Ben said:

  Cool Mints and Dodgeball. Nice candy, funny movie. No luck winning an iPod though.

• jenny said:

  You should've bought the sno-caps and dumped them in the popcorn. Yum!

• Rafael said:

  I recently got an iPod for my Birthday. (I'm too cheap to spring one for myself. And All I can say is it rocks! I put my whole music Library on it and the sounds quality is fantastic. Plus it organizes everythign by itself.

• Ben said:

  them and their trendy ads too. why can't Apple put all the other features I want on their iPod so I can just give in a buy one *sigh*

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the Simpsons

Today I came to the startling revelation that the Simpsons has been on TV for half my life. That's in years, not actual airtime. I mean, fourteen years (yes, I'm 28, which anybody could find out from my blogger profile). That's a lot of simpsons.

What's more, it's now on channel 10 seven nights a week at 6pm plus again Mon–Fri at 7pm. That is a whole lotta simpsons. Oh, and new episodes on Wednesday night. I'm not sure of tha time. Is that the 7pm ones? Or is that even more lots of simspsons?

Actually I quite like the show. Many of the episodes anyway. They still make me laugh. And have given many unforgettable quotes. And for those occassions when you need a good simpsons quote, you should go to SNPP.com. They also have insanely detailed reviews of each and every episode. It will scare you.

Half a lifetime though. Whoah.

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wheeeeee

Lost your pants? Or a kids tent (you know, like a fabric cubby house)? Coz if so they just went flying past our place and zoomed up into the sky!

We must have had like a tiny tornado or something. It was real windy for all of 10seconds or so, and whoosh, there go the tent and pants. Tents are more aerodynamic, it stayed up in the air for about 5minutes and then floated beyond our sight. For all I know it's up there still…

• MuzeKez said:

  But the question remains.. what kind of pants went sailing off into the breeze?
  
  And just who was running around pantsless?

• Ben said:

  I like to think the person was whisked skywards also, and only then lost their pants. But I suspect a far more mundane explanation—like they came off a washing line.

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Photos from the Hogwarts party

In an earlier post I mentioned a Hogwarts Party. Well, I finally have the photos back from that scanned and online for people to enjoy. So you better enjoy them *shakes fist* :)

One of my favourites.

• Pickwick said:

  Wow! I wasn't expecting to make it to a party today, but I feel like I've just been to one and it was fantastic!
  
  Thanks for sharing!

• MuzeKez said:

  Now that's an eye-bloppener.html"eye-bloppener if ever there was one - popping over to your bro's blog to find your own goofy self grinning back at you! Hahaha! Don't I make a fine witch? :-) Pat looks fabulous in that pic, that was a great Dumbledore facial-hair-piece.

• MuzeKez said:

  Ahh bluck! Stuffed that up. :-)

• Ben said:

  gosh tarn it, now you've gone a put a broken link in my page! :P

• MuzeKez said:

  Can't you delete it? I don't see any bins, so I can't delete it..

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it's September 11

• eleven months till my birthday (start buying presents!)
• one week since the anniversary of the day I met my wife (in person) and six days to the anniversary of the day we were married—I had better make plans :)
• Saturday—no work today, woohoo!!

• MuzeKez said:

  Happy, uh.. midpoint anniversary day thing..! Yeah! :-)

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um, this way

Driving home from the train station tonight—that's quality family time each and every day—Daniel is going "um … this way!" pause "um … this way!" (which is from the Wiggles Cold Spaghetti Western, for the curious). "um …" he goes ... we're waiting for the inevitable … "chicken!" Well we all roared with laughter. If you ever wondered what the key to humour is, it is surprise. And if you want surprises in your life, kids are an endless source. Classic!

• MuzeKez said:

  Awww, he's a funny little guy! :-)
  
  Gotta love those Wiggles - yesterday Dad wore a bright yellow shirt and the three of us spent a good couple of minutes trying to remember who the yellow Wiggle is - Greg right?

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cast off the shackles of time

I have not worn a watch all year and I like it. No compulsion to hold to a schedule. No furtive glancing, fidgeting or worrying. Best of all, no watch tan!

I removed timestamps from this blog too. Just the date of the post. No time. Nothing at all for comments. And I like it.

On the other hand—no watch there either—it's good to write the date when doing sketches, writing and stuff. So when you look back years later you can know when you did something. Which reminds me I should drag out that stuff and post it.

Meanwhile, even without a watch I can tell when l'm up too late. Or been too long at lunch.

:)

• MuzeKez said:

  I see timestamps on your blog. :-P
  
  Meanwhile, this reminds me of my lack of need for an alarm clock. I can just tell the body before going to sleep what time I want to wake up (for example: 2:50am to watch Grant Hackett swim, please!) and voila! I'll wake. Of course, I have been known to sleep through real alarm clocks set to wake me up in time for boring university lectures... *heeheehee*
  
  (There's something up with part of your post - the "no watch their either" bit, I think it's missing dashes - or is Firefox just being dumb?)

• darkness_queen said:

  your blog looks cool!

• Ben said:

  Fixed ... musta pasted those dashes in wrong %)

• MuzeKez said:

  I just realised there's also something wrong with my choice of "their" when I should have used "there" - how embarrassing! Don't tell Mum. ;-)

• Casyn said:

  I think I had a watch tan once. Back when I went outside longer than the walk from house to car. When I feel ill and people say 'you look pale', I always laugh and ask how that is possible.

• Ben said:

  yeah I went through a pale phase. now I make sure I get a bit of sunshine every day if I can.

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matrix revolutions on dvd

… is playing in our lounge right now. I'm going to go watch it.

• MuzeKez said:

  This wasn't a very eye-bloppening post.
  
  Did you watch it in honour of Keanu turning the big 4-0? I can't believe he's 40! Bogus. :-(

• Ben said:

  Nope, I just watched it because it is the conclusion to the trilogy. Personally I enjoy the first film the most, it is very intriguing. The second has great action sequences but both it and the third kinda left me wanting more.
  
  Perhaps it was high expectations ... I just think they could have done so much more with it storywise. Ah well. Still very cool :)

• Pickwick said:

  I'd even go so far as to say that the third one sucked. Whilst less-than-perfect, the second was good in many ways, but the third was a waste of celluloid... Do they still use celluloid?

• Amanda said:

  This blog does not allow anonymous comments.Good thing I signed up then, huh? LOL
  
  Anyway, I thought I'd pop in to say hello in your blog. And to say I've never been a fan any of the Matrix movies. Ha! That's probably due to my lack of understanding them though. I'm sure they're great ;) My brothers a big fan of them (especially the first one).

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