Adam's ramblings

Blogger Droid app

2011-05-29T12:40:00.001+12:00

Google realeased an App for blogger so I'm giving it a go. Nice !

Ducks

2008-01-03T09:59:00.003+13:00

Yesterday we went for a BBQ and saw these ducks

Email post testing

2008-01-02T16:49:00.001+13:00

Well it looks like email posting is working.

Now I can use my Pocket PC. Yay !

Iron Man !!!

2007-12-31T11:43:00.000+13:00

Well We've been back from the Honeymoon for awhile now. Life is good and I'll have to write an entry about that soon too. Yesterday I saw that they are making an Iron Man movie.

I managed to see the trailer. I was so excited because Ironman was my favourite Superhero as a child. The movie looks like it'll be awesome !

Here's the trailer:

And here's the official blog Iron man blog

I was really impresed to see that they use the song 'Iron man' by Black Sabbath too. One of the guys from work broke his wrist from Snowboarding and had a metal thing in his arm so we used to do that song when he entered the room.

Last day In Seoul

2007-12-14T11:35:00.000+13:00

Last Day in Seoul
Today we met with Yeni's childhood friend from Korea at the Coex building. She was very nice and bought us lunch and Coffee. I was feeling pretty seedy from drinking the night before so I didn't eat much which was a shame. Yeni got some skin products and the lady in the shop gave her heaps of free stuff.

After that we met up with Juwan and his parents for our last dinner in Korea. We went to a Korean BBQ place which served smoked duck and smoked pork. It was awesome ! It had the best flavor and it was in this olden style building which was really cool. After we left and said goodbye to Juwan's parents, he drove us out to Incheon to our hotel.

I tried to take as many pictures of Korea at night as I could because it was really pretty with all the lights. Also all of the stores seemed to stay open all night. So I had quite a few pictures but most of them were too blury. The hotel itself was nice and it had a shuttle to the airport the next day. We had a good sleep because we had to wake up at 6 the next morning.

Sean's Birthday

2007-12-13T11:34:00.000+13:00

I went shopping again with Yeni and Lisa, that was fun (not). They dragged me around the underground mall again. I'm not too sure how long we were there but it seemed to take forever. After that we went back to Yeni's auntie's house with a cake for Sean's birthday.

It turns out that the caught the guy who ran over the soldiers and stole thier weapons. He was an ex ROK soldier who has mental problems. Sounds like he turned himself in and the police didn't have much hope of finding him otherwise.

We had a lot of food and quite a lot of Soju. The Soju wasn't too bad but the drinking after caused a bit of a problem. After dinner we met some of Yeni's mum's friend's children. That was good fun. One of the friend's boyfriends spoke really good English so that was good for me. They were all very nice and I managed to ask where the Men's toilet was and be understood.

Juwan came to meet us when we got back about 12. He had the Friday off to hang out with us and Lisa. He stayed with us at the motel but was a little worried about putting us out. We said it was fine. The room we had this time was a traditional room which meant there was no bed, just matresses on the floor.

Final day in Jeju

2007-12-12T11:33:00.000+13:00

Today we left Jeju to go back to Seoul. We were quite lucky to get a flight back a bit earlier than our scheduled flight. It was really hot in the airport so we were all pretty tired waiting for the plane. When we got back we went to Yeni's auntie's place where Yeni and Lisa were eating "Sundae" which is like black pudding as far as I can tell. I didn't like it but at least I've tried it now.

We didn't do anything else too exciting. I stayed with Yeni in a motel which was a little expensive considering you only have the room from 12 hours. The lady at the front desk thought Yeni's dad was a pimp. It was the kind of motel where you can rent rooms by the hour. It was quite a nice room, it had a massive TV and a heat pump which was good. The problem was that the underfloor heating was too hot and we didn't know how to turn it off.

Final full day in Jeju

2007-12-11T00:06:00.000+13:00

Final full day in Jeju
Today we set off to the main mountain on the island. It has a great view all over the town. After a breakfast of Ramyeon(spicy noodles) we left on the complimentary shuttle. It turned out that it only went to the botanic gardens. We went to the gardens instead of the mountain and took some cool pictures there. After a spot of lunch we went back to the apartment we were staying at for a little rest from walking and then we were back out to see a waterfall. We started along the waterfall trail which was quite long and while there were a bunch of lookout points, trees obscured most of the view.

We got one picture and headed back for dinner before it got dark. I managed to flick an email off to Dad while I had WiFi access which I leeched from a surrounding building. We went to the same place we were at for Bulgogi cooked on a gas plate at our table. Man I missed beef ! It was great with some Soju too. After that we were all pretty full and beat so we went back to the hotel. Back to Seoul tommorrow ! We headed off to the arcade to see if we could play some games but there was too many school kids. We went for a night time stroll. It's quite pretty here at night as there are alot of lights.

On the way up back up the elevator there was a school girl who was tring to get in. We were annoyed with the school kids so we closed the doors and left without her. When we got to the 5th floor I pushed all the buttons so she would have a nice wait. How mean eh ?

Second day in Jeju

2007-12-10T00:05:00.000+13:00

Today we went to town on the way to Udo island which is a small island about 20mins by ferry from Jeju. It is quiet a small island with a population of about 11,000 and is very much a small farming and fishing island. It takes less than 1 hour to drive around the whole island and there is no hospital. It is very dependant on Jeju island. It had two main beaches which we visited. The first was a black sandy beach. The sand was made from volcanic rock so that is why it was black. The second beach had golden sand which was created when a typhoon destroyed a coral reef.

On the ferry ride back a man asked if I was American, I understood that much and told him I was from New Zealand.
He then told me where to go on the boat in English, I must have stumbled into an area I was not supposed to be in.

After that we stopped by town to a very cheap and nice restuarant. Our waitress was also very good to us. The food was great and there was heaps of it. Finally we went back to the place we were staying and I had some Soju with Yeni's parents before we went to bed.
http://cyber.jeju.go.kr

First day in Jeju

2007-12-09T00:02:00.000+13:00

Today was our first day in Jeju island. It's a short 40 min plane ride from Seoul. We arrived just before lunch so we stopped off to get some food after trying to get into out hotel. There was a complication with the place we reserved so we had to find another place.

After we had out lunch Yeni;s parents got in touch with a friend of their friend who lived in Jeju to help us out. His wife picked us up, found us an apartment for 70,000 Won a night for all four of us and then showed us the city. It was really cool to have her show us around. There's about 400,000 people that live here and the pace of lifestyle is very relaxed. I guess it's a lot like Christchurch but way more laid back.

We cruised around the island and looked at a few places like Lotte Hotel, World cup stadium and a cool coffee place that gave us free roasted Kumara. She told us that there is no crime here so people leave their cars and doors unlocked. It is a very beautiful place.

When we got back to the apartment complex I had a look to see if I could load some software on the pocket pc. They have internet access but no USB so I couldn't load my software on. Instead I played 'Time Crisis' but all of the guns were mis calibrated and the Korean version of 'Street Fighter'. Next I went to get Yeni an icecream and met some school girls on the stairs. They thought it was a great idea to practise their English on me. They said the usual hello and nice to meet you, then they said 'You are a very handsome boy' and ran away. I had a bit of a laugh and then had to try and buy an icecream for Yeni. The girl who served me was quite happy that she didn't have to try and speak English.

Yeni's mum's Father's memorial service

2007-12-08T23:57:00.000+13:00

Today we went to the 63 building which I guess is the tallest building in Korea at 63 stories. It was pretty cool because they had an aquarium with a few shows which were interesting. The one with the seals was the best but apart from that the rest was just standard aquarium stuff. Next we headed off to the iMax theatre which was pretty cool. I was given a radio forthe English soundtrack. Lunch was next and I had the best Yukgaejung ever ! It was like roast beef but a soup and spicy. It was so tasty, a shame they don't make it in NZ like that.

Finally we visited the Skydeck on the 60th floor. We took some photos but there was too much light so they didn't turn out that well. The view was great but you could really see the pollution. We just had time for a coffee and then we had to go back to Yeni's Auntie's place for Yeni's mum's father's memorial service. Naturally I had never been to one but it consisted of prayers, a bible reading and some songs. It lasted about 20 mins and then there was a big feast. Naturally there was Soju too. It was really good too see most of the family again.

After that we headed off to the Norebang to do some singing. It was good fun too. Especially Yeni's cousin's rendition of 'Tell me'. The performance included dancing and also her cousin is a guy, nuff said. Then there was Yeni's cousin and his brother singing the Jeju island song for us. That was pretty cool. One of the cousin's was doing and English translation in real time too.

SuWon Trip

2007-12-07T21:38:00.000+13:00

Today we went to Suwon which is a traditional village. It is out of Seoul (Only about an hour) which meant that we had to get up at 7. There was a bit of snow around Seoul but even more in SuWon. When we first got there we just missed the morning Drum show but we managed to see the Traditional See saw show. Originally the women of the village were not allowed out so they used the See saws to look over the walls.

After that we had a look around at the City hall. It was quite cool, most of the rooms were for cooking or preparation for fighting in case they had to defend the village. Next we saw the Nobelmans house which was quite cool too. It had two main wings, the first was for the servants and guests while the second was for the Nobleman and his family.

It was interesting to note that the man and his wife had separate rooms because sex was taboo back then. There was a secret corridor which joined the two rooms in case the man wanted to spend the night with his wife. After that we had a look through the jail. There were all sorts of torture instruments there. We then stopped off for some lunch. We had Ginseng Chicken soup although we were unable to find the Ginseng in it.

After that we went to the peasents house which was vey different from the Nobleman's house. Next we visited a school and went back to watch some shows. The horse show was pretty cool but the Acrobatic one was better. The guy actually stopped in the middle of the rope and sat down and crossed his legs.

We left shortly after that and I bought a souviner sword for 5000 Won (About $8.00). We headed back to Yeni's aunties house to change pants because the bottom of my pants were muddy from walking throught the melting snow. After that we headed off to meet Yeni's friends.

We met up with them and went to a very popular Dokboki place, you could tell it was very popular by the line out front. It was quite interesting because they brought out all of the dokbiki stuff on a plate and you cooked it, a little like the Charcoal BBQ places. After that we went out for coffee which was nice. We took some pictures and one of Yeni's friends had a Polaroid camera, they seem to be making a bit of a comeback here. After that we just headed back to the apartment to goto bed.

Lunch with Yeni's Father's family

2007-12-06T22:39:00.000+13:00

Today we had lunch with Yeni's father's family. Yeni helped me write a short speech last night for me to say to Yeni's father's family. It turned out I didn't need to do one so I was quite relieved because my accent is terrible. In case you were wondering, here it is. It pretty much says that I am happy to be married to Yeni and am trying to learn Korean.

안녕하세요.
저는 아담입니다.
만나서 반갑습니다.
예니하고 결혼해서 기븜니다.
그리고 이렇게 인사드려서 반갑습니다.
아직은 한국말을 잘 못하지만 열심히 배우고 있습니다.
잘 부탁합니다.
감사합니다.

We went out to a Japanese buffet resturant. The food was very nice and we ate quite a lot. Yeni's uncle and Yeni's dad's friend spoke very good English so I spoke to them mostly. The others spoke a little but not much. Yeni's Grandfather looked so young. He is about 77 and had a full head of black hair. I later questioned Yeni about him coloring it but it was natural. Her Grandmother was very nice too.

After the lunch Yeni wasn't feeling too well so we went home which gave me a chance to check up on some cellphone deals and update the blog and photos. I'm quite impressed with the SoftBank 709SC so far, here's a pic:

We're going out for dinner shortly and we will probably have an early night tonight seeing as the next few days will be quite full on.

Bus tour of Seoul

2007-12-05T23:11:00.000+13:00

Today we went on the downtown tour of Seoul which was very cool. Seoul has a very unique mix of old and new. It is especially prevalent in areas you least expect it. For example, there was a part of the old city wall from the Chosun dynasty which stretches as far back as the 14th century

Here are some photos of ITaeWon which is the foreigner's haven here. Here all the shop keepers speak English and they stock larger clothes for Westerners.

When we got bored of the bus trip, we jumped off at Insadong and looked at some art and some of the shops. There were some very cool items like Swords and Helmets but I didn't fancy my chances of getting them through customs. Lisa gave me what literally translated to 'Dragons Hair' which was a candy wrapped in 16384 (Spot the binary number) strands of sugar. It was very nice but not as sweet as I thought it would be

Here's us posing by some scultptures in ItaeWon

After that we went out for beer and chicken, which is a nice cheap meal. Yeni's father had a cold so he went back home but the rest of us headed out to the local Norebang (Karaoke room). It was good fun, I learnt that those Korean songs I thought I knew I didn't really and also that my voice is very limited in terms of pitch. Once I figured that out and picked some songs that fit m voice I was good though.

Lisa sang an Old Korean song called 'Run to you' by 'DJ Doc' which was the song I heard in the market but didn't know what it was. One of the shop owners was dancing to it. Here it is in all it's glory.

Lotte world !

2007-12-04T03:20:00.000+13:00

Well today we went to Lotteworld which is a korean theme park. First thing we did was go on the balloon ride which was kinda like a cablecar. It was a great way to see the whole themepark and was quite fun too. Here's a picture of the Balloon

From Seoul

An here's some views of Lotte world itself

While we were there we enjoyed some great rides, there was the French Revolution which was a cool rollercoaster. The ride only lasted about 2 mins after a 1 hour queue but it was awesome. We also went on the Drunken basket which from what I can tell is just a seedy version of the Disneyland magice tea cup ride. It was good fun though

Shopping

2007-12-03T03:17:00.000+13:00

Today we went to Kangnam station to go shopping. Yeni's dad was smart and stayed at Yeni's aunties house so he didn't get dragged around with the girls all day. I wasn't so lucky. First we went to NamDaeMun Market which was quite a large market in the street. There was quite a lot happening and the salespeople are quite agressive. They tried to pull Lisa into their shop but she ran away. Being a foreigner you seem to dodge most of that.

At NanDaeMun market we got some gifts for my family. There was a lot of stuff and most of it was well priced.

After that we walked around Express Bus station which is a huge underground mall. In hindsight I should have taken some photos of it because I estimated it's length to be about 500meters and it had two sides and a middle, so that's about 1500meters of shops !

After returning to Yeni's auntie's house she made us dinner which was great ! There was also a song on TV which seems to be really popular here called 'Tell me' by the 'Wonder girls'. As far as I can tell they are a slightly less permiscuous version of the 'Pussycat dolls'. Every song has a different dance and a quick Youtube search for 'Tell me' reveals many imposters. Here is the original.

Second day in Korea

2007-12-02T12:29:00.000+13:00

Very original title huh ? Well it was our second day in Korea and a very busy one. We met Yeni's mum's family for lunch which was really exciting. Quite a few of her uncles could speak English very well, although they thought that they could not. It was really great to meet them all and they treated me very well.

There was heaps of food and just when I would finish one dish, a new one was already out on the table. There was also a lot of toasting with Soju which was great. Everybody was worried about whether I could handle the Soju.

After the lunch we went out with Yeni's cousins and their wives. Two of Yeni's cousins had a Starcraft battle at the local PC bang while one of the cousin's wives took Yeni and myself out shopping, out for coffee and took us to buy some couple tops. It was really good fun and her English was really good too but I think she was a little shy so she didn't speak in English to begin with.

We then joined the rest of the cousins and went out for dinner. We went to a Korean BBQ place, one of those places with the hot coals in the middle of the table for cooking on. The food was really nice and again we ate heaps and drank more Soju. After that we went to another place and all ahd some beer. We were then pretty tired and met Yeni's parents and went back home to sleep. Tommorow we will go to Lotte World.

First day in Korea

2007-12-01T03:37:00.000+13:00

Today we arrived at Incheon and bussed to Seoul. It is an amazing place. I had some expectations but like they say, being there is everything. When we first arrived we went to Yeni's Auntie's place. She spoke a little English so it was quite funny the way we communicated. Fortunately Korean and English share some very similar important words such as Coffee and Television.

We met JuWan and his Parents for lunch which was great. We had some very spicy seafood which is usually a deadly conbination for me but I somehow survived it. JuWan's parents spoke a little English but for me interpreting most of what they were saying came from a few keywords and a lot of body language.

We went for coffee after the lunch and I felt a bit disappointed that I was unable to join in on what seemed like a very interesting religious conversation. We went back from Dong-Incheon to Seoul and checked out a market. It was all that I had been told about the markets but it was quite cool to see it for real. Most of the sale items didn't at all interest me but the atmosphere was great. I also managed to get my ass grabbed by some girl which was kinda flattering a creepy sort of way.

JuWan took us back to Yeni's auntie's place and I got an idea of how good he was at driving. He was navigating his way through single lane/1.5 lane side streets on hills ! I don't think words could possiblty describe how hard this looked but it was insane. There are heaps of windy little side streets and people walking about so there are heaps of hazards.

Even though JuWan and myself can only exchange a small fragment of intelligable conversation, I can already tell that he is a nice guy and treats Lisa really well. Maybe we can organize some Skype Korean/English lessons or informal talks.

After getting a few 'bargins' we headed back to Yeni's auntie's house to get a weeks worth of clothes and stopped off to have some spicy chicken and beer. While there I had an improptue Korean lesson and experienced a real Korean toilet. When I was speaking to Yeni I wasn't too sure which was the worst toilet out of the one at MegaCyberIsland or the one I visited tonight.

The last part of the night involved driving back from Seoul to Incheon (Thanks JuWan) where we are going to stay at Yeni's Dad's friends house for about a week. Hopefully he has net access so I can upload these blogs or a neighbour has unsecured wireless/ICS setup on their PC.

Last Day in Singapore

2007-11-30T03:36:00.000+13:00

Today is our last day in Singapore. We enjoyed our last buffet breakfast and checked out about 12. Our rough plan was to go shopping and then hit up Happy hour at the Brass rail lounge. We got the hotel to hold our luggage and headed off to Orchard RD to do some shopping. We had a look at the shops and then went to the HardRock Cafe. I had a margarita and BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger and Yeni had a Strawberry Daquari and some Pasta. The meals were good but expensive. We also got to take some photos of guitars and stuff.

After that we decided to go and see a movie. We went to see Hitman which we both enjoyed. I played the Hitman game a little but not enough to know the story so I enjoyed that. After that we went to the Brass Rail Lounge and had a couple of beers as well as play some pool. I bet Yeni in 2 out of 3 games, it would have been 3 out of 3 if 8 hadn't sunk the white on the black because of an annoyingly placed pylon.

Next we headed off to the airport where we wasted a few hours waiting for the plane. There was a free foot massage which was pretty good. We will arrive in Incheon about 7am after leaving about 11.45pm Singapore time. If we don't sleep we'll be pretty tired and we are meeting JuWan (Lisa's boyfriend) and his parents. Should be good fun though.

Sentosa at last

2007-11-29T03:35:00.000+13:00

Today we went to Funan IT mall. Most of the suff was the same sort of stuff we had back home and about the same price too so we weren't that impressed. We went to an internet cafe and did the Singapore air checkin.

After having some lunch and taking money out we headed off to Sentosa island. We went for Cineblast - a ride took about 5mins. It was fun but bit costly. We headed to Image of Singapore - was like a small museum and there was 5min intro show. It was well made and were lots of information about the country and the culture. After that we went on Skyride down to Siloso Beach. Yeni got really scared of height to start off but got better by the time we got off. We had a dinner at a place called Taste of Singapore - Steak and Spaghetti were very tasty. To finish off the Sentosa mission, we watched a water show called Songs of the sea which was a really cool light projected on water and lasers projected on water show. At the end they had some pyrotechnics and fireworks.

After that was finished we went back to the mainland on the cable car which was really cool, we also saw a massive cruise ship. We decided to taxi back after that and probably got ripped off paying $30.00 for a 'hotel shuttle' which was probably an unlicensed taxi. We were just proud to be home though.

Not quite at Sentosa island

2007-11-28T03:34:00.000+13:00

We had a bit of trouble sleeping last night so we slept in a bit today. We were having breakfast today and John and Lynee met us again. We started a bit earlier so we left before them. They were talking about LuckyPlaza because they went shopping there yesterday. We decided to go and check out Lucky Plaza on the way to Sentosa Island. I got a USB mains charger for my pocket pc for $20 instead of $48 so I was pretty pleased with that. Still looking at cellphones and the choice seems to be between the Nokia E65 and the Samsung i600. So far nobody has been very compeditive on price. Yeni got a new pair of shoes.

We missed the bus to Sentosa which was annoying but we decided to go back to the hotel for a swim. After getting back we decded to get lunch instead. When we went to get our bus the worst rainstorm we had seen hit. That cancelled our plans and got us stuck at the mall for a couple of hours trying to wait out the storm. Eventually we caved and got a cab back to the hotel.

At the hotel we enjoyed some two for one drinks which was great because Tiger beer is $9.00 per glass. The singers from the other night were on stage singing Christmas carols. We forgot the camera to take their picture.

After that we hit the Chineese buffet on the 3rd floor. It was different from other buffet places - you decide what to take from the menu first. We had jellyfish salad, bbq pork, chicken, prawn and crab which was a mission to eat! It was about $54 but was good food and good experience. When we got to our room, we pretty much hit the bed straight away. We'll goto Sentosa tommorrow.

A more eventful day in Singapore

2007-11-27T03:32:00.000+13:00

Today we were still struggling to sleep in. In the elevator we met the people from Perth who asked about swimming. We found out their names were John and Lynne. We had breakfast with them wich was very cool because they knew quiet a bit about transport and were very friendly.

After breakfast John gave us the SIA shuttle timetable and we decided to have a look to see what we could find. The shuttle is only $3.00 for a days travel as long as you have the Singapore airlines ticket stub. Turns out there is a whole bunch of cool discounts at http://singaporeair.com/boardingpass. So we jumped on the shuttle and decided to stop off at the botanical gardens.

After going to the gardens we stopped off at a mall called Plaza Singapora and got some food. It was only $5.00 for a bowl of Teriaki Chicken at Yoshinoya. Very nice and filling. We had a look around the shops and got some batteries for the camera.

Then we decided to head home and go for a swim. After doing that we decided we should go do some wedding photos again and we went to see if we could use the net closer to the hotel. There was a WiFi access point at McDonalds but it was $y per 1/2hr. We decided to head back to MegaCyberworld. We spent awhile there and managed to miss happy hour again. We decided to order room service as you can get a main for about $12.00.

Finally we planned our trip to Sentosa Island the next day and went to bed.

Second day in Singapore

2007-11-26T03:30:00.000+13:00

After waking up heaps we decided it was time to get out of bed. We checked out the internet center in the hotel but it was $10.00 per 1/2hr. I couldn't use the free WiFi becaue it complained about Javascript not being enabled on my PDA which is not true. I tried Opera too but no luck. We enjoyed a continental breakfast and went for a look around. We walked along the Quays looking for the Singapore river boat tour. It was so hot and humid so we decided to find a drink and we got some band-aids for Yeni's blistered feet. When we decided to leave the super market it was torrentially raining. It was insane. It was really warm but still raining. We caught a cab back to the hotel which was only $5.00.

Then we decided to check out the pool. We met a couple from Perth, they asked us where we were from after we said how the heat was killing us.

Then we decided to find an internet cafe which was harder than we thought it would be. We ended up going all through Chinatown and just when we were about to give up Yeni spotted MegaCyberWorld. We went there and used Skype to call our parents at about 11:45PM NZ time but they were quite happy to hear from us.

Then we headed back and decided to get food. There was a wedding reception in the resturant on the 3rd floor so we couldn't go there. Instead we had a snack at the Coctail bar (named the brass rail bar). It was quite entertaining because there was three singers but the music was so loud we had to shout to talk while sitting next to each other.

We went back up to bed. I decided to try and telnet the WiFi page to see what was going on but both Putty and the Filecommander telnet did not seem to send CrLfs so I couldn't see anything.

First day in Singapore

2007-11-25T03:29:00.000+13:00

After the Wedding we got up about 7:30am. I managed to get about 20 pictures of the wedding preparation up on Picasa. We got to the airport in time to check in at 9:00. Yeni's parents dropped us off and my parents came to say goodbye which was nice. We just watched music videos and talked waiting for the plane which left about 1:30. The plane flight wasn't too special. We had heaps of food on the flight (Singapore Airlines) and we watched the Korean movie Marrying the Mafia 3 which was really funny.

The view of the port and Sentosa Island was awesome ! There was so many container ships. After arrival we were really tired so we got to the hotel and went straight to Bed at about 9. The time difference was 5 hours so we were pretty tired.

Modding my Guitar

2007-09-10T10:21:00.000+12:00

A few days ago I got sick of the buzzing from my Guitar. I suspected that it was the fault of some dodgy wiring and old parts. I ordered some new electronics from http://www.guitarparts.co.nz and got some black hardware for the pickguard too. I thought the black would be better than the traditional white because it wouldn't look so dirty after awhile.

Here's a close up of the pickguard, sorry about the blurryness, it was from my cellphone cam.

And here's a full size shot of the guitar, it's still a little battered but I think it's looking much better now.

So how does it sound ? Amazing. Not a hint of buzz, I kid you not. This thing wouldn't stop buzzing before but it's absolutely silent now.

Babelfish fun

2007-07-24T11:10:00.000+12:00

My Fiancee sent an email to the company that is getting her a wedding dress. They are Korean too so naturally the response was in Korean. I popped it into Babelfish to get an idea of what it said. I thought it was so funny I showed it to my office mate Hannah, here it is anyways:

How are you,! The preparation replows well? Probably appear Deyo to be speaking the limousine. From here CHCH the Crown limousine petty the easy nine bedspreads which are the boat song which probably is. Also Deyo which is the some company. I now in order to give the mail from the house tomorrow after confirming again from the Shop the mail to the drill the bedspread. And Dress Shiping date nine bedspreads 20th day than. When probably the thing Gat nine bedspread which will arrive the inside several days (it is quick, tomorrow the or day after tomorrow). Arrival immediately to the transformation drill the bedspread. Mail thanks estuary bedspread. Again to the liaison drill the bedspread. Thank you.

Announcement !

2007-02-12T23:17:00.000+13:00

Gidday again, not sure if anybody actually reads this or not but I figured I should start posting so people might actaully read it. I got engaged to my girlfriend (now fiancee) Ye-ni Hong (soon to be Ye-ni Freeman) . It's been great, a lot to organise but it'll be wicked cool when it's all sorted.

We'll be off to Singapore and also Seoul, South Korea so I can meet my new in-laws. It's exciting but a little daunting in ways too because it means I've got a lot of Korean to learn.

Wanna see my Deck ?

2006-10-16T13:16:00.000+13:00

Well I took a few days off last week to work on building a deck with my dad. That was pretty fun, plus my brother was helping too so it was good to get outdoors and build something. Plus I got to play with a nail gun ... two words ... very cool. So now I'm settling back in to office work but I think my mind is still off (somewhere else with better weather than here) trying to build a deck. We did not get the deck finished by the end of the weekend but that's ok because we'd reather take a bit of time and build it right.

I might see if I can mock it up in google sketchup later on.

Here is the first lot of photos, these are the first part of the deck i.e. the foundations.

As you can see, two of the three bearers are in place and my dad is digging a hole for some more posts. Here is the same thing from the side:

In the following shot you can see how the bearers are actually contructed.

We spent pretty much the whole of the first day finishing off the posts and bearers. On the second day we put the top bearers on, which looked a little like this:

Here is the side view:

Pretty much all of the second day was used up by putting on this second layer of bearers and painting both them and ther decking timber. A lot of the third day was spent preparing the decking timber too. I was not there on the fourth day but my brother was. On the fourth day my brother and my dad started to place and fasten the decking timber down. The next set of photos are on the fifth day when we had placed the decking timber.

We are currently up to half way on the deck and will continue next weekend. Here's how the deck looked at the end of yesterday.

All in all we're pretty happy with the way it is going so far but we will be much happier once it is done.

Yay, it works

2006-09-15T14:26:00.001+12:00

Cool !

Looks like my java blog thiny works. Look at this image

Testing!

2006-09-15T12:16:00.001+12:00

Hello World !

Sup ?

First entry ...

2006-01-03T17:36:00.000+13:00

Ok, so this is my first entry. Yaya huh ? not too exciting I know but (in the words of Arnie) I'll be back.