Santa

I’ve painted a Santa on my other window. I left my camera at work so I’ll post some pics on Monday. He looks great. J

Off to do some shopping. Hope the shops are not TOO crazy.  

 

Merry Xmas

 

I got my Uni results yesterday! Yay!

Operating Systems (not so fun unit...) 76% (D)
Visual Programming (fun unit!) 80% (HD)

So that brings my running average (down) to 80.125% which still scrapes in as a High Distinction. hehe...

Am now enrolled in a Security unit, and a Graphics Programming unit. The graphics unit is a prerequisite to a 3D programming games unit. Not sure if i will do that but it sounds fun.

Rudolf

Rudolf
Originally uploaded by Lyynx.

Well after I read a post by a fellow cartoonist (Grant Brown) I was inspired enough to give my own front window a go. I think it needs another coat, still a little patchy in spots.

Didnt take long and I've actually impressed myself. They say copying is the highest form of flattery. Not bad for a first try, i'm sure i'll get better with practice! :-)

cheat

cheat,
originally uploaded by Lyynx.

Here's a new cartoon that i'm doing a test post to my blog for. Perhaps this would be a neat way to show people my new cartoons, as well as what i'm up to. I probably draw new cartoons more often than entries to my blog.

bugs

bugs-w
Originally uploaded by Lyynx.

Ever had any bugs in your web site? Not always a bad thing. hehehe

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Apologies for the delay in updates lately... In case you were wondering, I got the job!

I've been here three weeks now. I handed in my resignation, two weeks notice. I've been doing .net development on a monitoring service, and working on automating the build process. Its amazing coming to work every day and programming. I'm loving it!!

On another note, my submission to the cartoon competition run by the Cricket museum in Bowral, NSW didnt win, but it DID make it up on the wall. Its there right now (until end of Jan 2005) and was also printed in the catalog. I'm stoked! There were only 33 printed/displayed out of 110 submissions!!!

I'll post it up on my web site sometime soon for all to see. :)

Live life - Love life.
Take care all,
Stephen

This post should be a little more positive than the last... I went for a job last week. It was for a junior developer role and i got positive feedback from the first interview. They wanted me back for another interview, this time to meet the client. That went well too.

Today I got a call, they have offered me the same as what i am on now! I should get the letter of offer tomorrow (it didnt get to me today...) and then four weeks notice and then I'm a real developer!! Oh its mostly VB.NET and i'll be on the Department of Justice contract. I'm SOO excited, you have NO idea!

I could just squeel. :-)

Yaaaay!! I'm all alone!

Michelle, Jessica and Katie have all gone to Rottnest Island for the week. I'm at home left to look after the cat. I've got all my leave booked for Christmas and the honeymoon, so thats why i'm home alone. (Hmm.. conjures up images of that kid alone with the crooks trying to break in...)

I'm cool with that. Its so quiet... Its been aaaaaaages since i've been by myself. I've got two assignments due in the next week and the investment property to get ready to rent. The fence is going up today and the carport should go in sometime in the next few weeks. We'll advertise it for this weekend. Still the garden and reticulation to do, but after that it should be low maintenance.

Anyway back to my assignment and then off to Uni tonight after a two week break... hey... I just heard a sound... I think someones trying to break in!! Quick! I better set up some booby traps to catch the bad guys!

Time for another update on the saga of me.

Spent the weekend painting. We got the keys on Friday, and so Saturday the painting began... we got a fair bit done too, with the help of Lucas, Michelle's brother, Michelle and myself painting like kids at a kindergarden fingerpainting.

The unfun part was the fact that i somehow pinched a nerve in my back and could hardly move. I think i need a medal, i was in pain (still am) the whole weekend, up and down that step-ladder. Aahhhhhhhhhh... now i know how my poor Dad feels. (Damn genetics, i think i inherited a bad back...)

Its almost better now, I can move around now almost pain free. I'm wondering if I did it on the Friday... I was home looking after Katie (she had her tonsils out earlier in the week) and fell. I was stepping over a plastic crate and my foot caught it and i fell full force onto the crate with my knee... landing on my hands. Broke the crate too, but i felt fine once i recovered from the trip. I'm wondering if i jarred my spine or something? Who knows... I should live.

On other news... I got my Everquest 2 character creation kit the other day. EQ1 had me hooked for three years. I can see EQ2 being so much better... for one, they are promising the game will also cater for the casual gamer which is good for me, as I have so much other stuff to do that a game wouldnt get very much play compared to the old EQ1 days. I'll be upgrading my graphics card just before i get the EQ2 which should be in November. Going to get me the latest Nvidia 6800 Ultra, but wont get the 256Mb version.. for $300 less I can get the 128Mb version (hardly a difference in performance) and with the extra $300 I can upgrade my CPU (If it needs it... )

Should be fun...

Other news... I've been playing with DotNetNuke. Used it to create my web site www.littlevoices.com and also my brothers site www.blackcatpcs.com.au
Its pretty cool, and I will get some example code and write a few modules for the DotNetNuke... Its the lazy man's web site... very powerful. www.dotnetnuke.com

Pluck: Search, Retrieve, Organize & Share the Web
I've just discovered a new easier way to read blogs, and news. RSS. It stands for Real Simple Subscription. You seen those little XML orange boxes? Thats a link to subscribe to stuff in your RSS reader. I've had a bit of a look around and am trying two readers at the moment.

First one I tried is called Pluck, and despite the amusing name, is really good. It turns your browser into an outlook look alike. You can share your links if you like, with others. Also you can set up persistent searches on google, etc.

The other one i'm trying out is IntraVnews. Its free for single user, but you are to pay if you use it at work. I installed another called NewsGator, but as soon as i saw it was trial, I uninstalled it. It puzzles me that people charge when other people put theirs out for free. Free is so hard to beat, especially when the free ones are so good.

I'm rambling. Hope you are well...

House is coming along... only about a week or two and we should have the key. Then we have some painting to do, put down some carpets and get the carport (freestanding) put up.

It will be nice (for the bank balance) to get a tenant into the house so we dont have to pay for the thing ourself! Lucky our other investment property is positive cashflow, it at least helps cover some of the interest repayments.

On the programming front, i've been working on my uni assignment, a web site for booking flights on some imaginary airline company. Part A (the design) is due Monday. I have a couple of things to add to the draft and that bit is finished. The programming part i've started but its not due for a while yet.

Cartoon front is quiet... i've had one funny idea lately and drew a couple of pencil sketches of it. I'd like to do some more work on my spider cartoon strip but just havent had the time nor motivation. might do some doodling tonight.

I got an email from Miyuki in Japan, she will be back in a few weeks and will live with some friends. She might come and stay with us again as we are close to the city. Another Japanese student arrives tomorrow morning, Natsuko. Shes 22 and will be here a month.

I cooked a lasagna this week... from scratch. Pasta included. I can't believe pasta is just flour and egg. What a scam. Those italians have a lot to answer for making all this yummy food out of common every day food. ;-)

Cold and rainy night tonight. Michelle is sick. Miyuki is flying out to Japan tonight. She will be back in two weeks, but will be staying with some friends for two months. We have a new Japanese student moving in next week... her name is Natsuko, age 22.

I've got two assignments coming up for Uni. Ever notice how unexciting assignments are, even when you love the subject? hehe. Ah well, at least I have started them.

I went to a .NET meeting on Thursday and it was pretty good. They went over some compact framework stuff for Smartphones, which is perfect as I've just began doing some coding for my smartphone2. Cool phone. I had some problems with the SD reader on it, and ended up having to send it away (when the SD card got stuck in it!) and its been working great since I got it back. i-mate� Smartphone2

Tonight Michelle and I went to the CSC sundowner, and I enjoyed it. It was cool meeting more people who work for CSC who I haven't met. Its kind of strange being in a room full of strangers who all work for the same company as you. Most of the people I work with wussed out so wern't there.

I'm stressing out a little bit about Uni at the moment. I've got a technical paper to write on File Systems for Operating Systems and I didnt do as good as I would have liked in my last essay (it was also my first!). On the other side of the coin i've found some pretty damned cool stuff that I did not know. One part of the paper is to outline future directions in file systems and I've found some stuff outlining the file systems they are planning for the next version of XP/Windows. Basically its a database instead of a bunch of files. It will have a service that allows you to view the contents of the database in the old familiar hierarchical views of todays file systems, but the bonuses will come with the stuff that databases do best. Searching! You will be able to do searches on the database which will be fast compared with today. There will also be some XML features hooked into it so that just makes it more flexible.

The wedding plans are coming along. We have a Celebrate and we have some stuff to read over and choose what will be said during the ceremony. Its not going to be a big fan fare event. The girls have chosen their dresses (Jess, Katie AND Emily) and Michelle (and my mum) will be making them. Emily is pretty excited about it. She really growing fast. Shes six now and has such a personality. Shes as bright as a button, and doesnt miss a thing. She also gets on great with Jess and Katie like they are sisters, which is great.

The wedding will be in a park in Subiaco, called Subiaco Commons, its a little park hidden away between a heap of those flash homes they cram next to each other... Its a nice park though, and I walk through it on the way to and from work each day. You wouldnt even know it was there, its tucked away. The reception will be at the parents house of a friend of Michelle's. Then on the 7th of Jan Michelle and I fly off to Brisbane for two weeks. Its the first time we will be alone for so long ever! We will backpack it, and also visit my Dad who lives up that way now. I think we'll also stay on Fraser Island.

Fraser Island

Anyway, the cards are not happening at the moment. After the cards went to a 4 day show in the UK, the distributor decided that the other range (from another producer/artist) was more popular and they werent going to distribute mine. Bummer. Looks like I wont be the over night success after all. Never mind, Dave is looking at other markets and other distributors. Also tossing up some other design ideas, such as arty cards, or maybe occasion cards. Will see where that goes. I think we have the goods, we just have to find the market!

Stay tuned.

Cheers
Stephen

Not so good news from my Agent (for my Greeting card designs). He got an email from the distributors saying they dont think they will be popular. Still to hear what the problem is with them. Perhaps just one person didnt get them.

I heard that three of the agents thought they would do well, so this is a bit of a backward turnaround. Just about everyone laugh at them so dunno... maybe they are just too nice? Someone said that about them... they are not crass or low-brow.

Started back at Uni tonight. Almost missed my lecture because i didnt realise Uni started this week. LOL. I just wasnt thinking about it... anyway its Visual Programming and Operating Systems as my two units this semester. Should do pretty well which is good, I want to get my average up a bit. Its currently 80.89 just scraping in as a High Distinction. :-)

Not giving up on the cards yet. Dave still has some work to do, and theres always other distributors. One door closes and another opens. I'm still pretty damned stoked that he likes my designs so much hes prepared to put money into them. He believes they will do well, and I think they will too. Time will tell. Might try some other designs too, maybe arty abstract ones

Uni Results

Latest news on my uni results. I passed!!

YAY!

Here's my units so far... the ones I just finished are the first two below.

Systems and Database Design HD (82) 
Unix and C HD (89) 
Communicating in an IT Environment CR (66) 
Systems Analysis HD (80) 
Programming Principles HD (91) 
Computer Fundamentals D (77) 

Thats an average of 80.89 which scrapes in as a High Distinction! :-)

 

 

Latest news on the Greeting card front... The promo cards (48 cards, 12 of two chosen designs) have been printed and are with the distributors. They are printing the flyers that have the 12 card images on them. 6 Images on each side of a nice pretty full colour A4 flyer.

I should soon get a copy of the flyer and the promo cards so i will be able to actually SHOW people my finished work. In the next few weeks i should find out how many shops are ordering the cards for the first print run. Excitement eh?!?!

If it all takes off I should be able to quit my day job. I'm not sure if I will thought, I do like my job. Maybe I'll do some contracting and make more money.

On other fronts it looks like I'll be doing someone's web site for them. Should be good for the experience.

Little Voices is my creation, in case anyone didn't know.

Well... its happened. I've been discovered!!

Someone found my web site and we are now making greeting cards. Awesome! My cartoons are in colour now. Stay tuned for more!!!

Epiphany

Reading someone elses weblog is cool. It inspires you, and gets you motivated to keep your own updated as well. Yes, it helps you keep the bigger picture in view.

I've been doing C programming lately... trying to get my head around C pointers (again? haven't i done this language before?). It would seem that C has been around for years and its still used so much, especially in the Linux world. I enjoy it, (programming) especially when i get something working the way I want.

I've been cooking lately. I discovered how to make dough with the food processor. Check out some of the pics of my creations on http://lyynx.dyndns.org under the photo album link.

My brother is coming along with his business. He just got a heap of new parts for his prototype PC. Lives in Mildura, and is building a business making PC's for gamers and musicians. Black Cat computers, I think he's called it. Hope it all pans out for him.

Update: I've been slack.

Too long between entering Blogs, but you get that. I've got myself a mouse mat with one of my cartoons on it. Check it out... you can order them too if you like. www.littlevoices.com

Anyway, more to come. We have a Japanese student staying with us for a few months. Her name is Miyuki and she is teaching us things about her home. I recommend hosting overseas students, you learn lots!