Thursday, December 17, 2009

A Giggling Child...

...may well be the most wonderful thing in the world. My son doesn't laugh much. That's not to say he's not happy. He spends a great deal of each day smiling his very big smile at just about everything, its just that for him to giggle or laugh it has to be really, really funny to him.

Apparently, me jumping out from around the corner and yelling "BOO!" at him is just about the funniest thing in the world. So funny in fact that he will actually fall over laughing. Its likely that I look like a complete tool doing it but you know what? I don't care. It makes my boy laugh and laugh and that to me is the most wonderful sound in the world.

Kids make you realise that its the simple things that can make you really happy. I'm a pretty lucky guy all things considered.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Gaming Fun

Yay! Gaming! Since my son's arrival just over 12 months ago my spare time has vanished. I rarely get out of the house on my own more than once a week. So yesterday I managed to get out of the house and get to a Warmachine/Hordes tournament, one of my beloved hobbies. The tourney was the "Battle of the Cities" tourney which pits Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast and Toowoomba against each other (Logan claims its a city, but do bogans really count as part of the population? ;) ) in an annual event. It was really fun. Last year I played Cygnar but this year, for a change, I decided to play Mercenaries. My first list was a Magnus the Traitor list and the second was a Searforge Dwarf list. Mostly I played the Searforge list because I could field The Bear in it (yep, a giant bear) as well as giant, steam-powered magical robots.

A twist for this tourney was that you got tourney points for making successful Power Attacks with your Warjacks/Warbeasts and for making enemy units flee. I did pretty well. I won two and lost two. Ironically, the two I won were with the Searforge list and the two I lost were with the Magnus list. Go figure. But every game I played was fun and that's what it's all about IMO.

The main thing was, though, that I managed to get out and have a great time yesterday and managed to be me again for a while rather than just being "Dad" or "Husband". Its important and I look forward to doing giving my wife the same chance this coming weekend.

Friday, December 11, 2009

The incompetence of suppliers...

I am the Senior Lab Technician for one of the teaching labs at a Queensland University. As a result, I am in charge of purchasing new equipment, chemicals and consumables for use in my undergraduate teaching lab. This year I was so awesome at this I had a surplus in excess of AU$10,000 in my budget when all was said and done. I went to my boss to work out what to spend it on. Well the academics fluffed around a bit on what they wanted to buy and the order changed about 4 or 5 times as they tried to work out what was the best purchase. In the end they settled on a pair of homogenisers (fancy, expensive scientific blenders for those of you who don't know) as well as some new balances (scientific scales) and a sonic bath.

Now we have a deadline by which said purchases must be receipted as the Uni runs on a financial budget year of Jan to Dec and not July to June like the normal financial year. This deadline is December 17. No problem. I am told by my supplier that all the items we want (three balances, two homogenisers plus attachments and the sonic bath) are all in stock and we will have them well before the 17th. The balances - no problems; they arrived and I've receipted them. The sonic bath - coming from their Sydney supplier but should be here early next week. O.K. I can handle that. The homogenisers - one unit and two attachments arrived today. So where is the second unit? I called them.

"Oh, its on back-order and will be coming out from Germany. Its due late January."

"Excuse me? I was told they were in stock. That's why I ordered them."

"Oh. Well we must have only had the one."

"Well if the other one is arriving January I can't buy it. The funds need to be cleared before December 17 or I lose the funding. Plus I won't need the extra attachment so I'll be sending that back." (The attachment costs $1500 BTW).

"Oh." (She said that alot)

"So what are you going to do?"

"Um. I'll have to get back to you."

Now this really gets my back up. If I don't spend this money, we lose it. I'll be about $4000 poorer next year and my student numbers are increasing by about 30%. I need that extra money to make sure the classes actually run. I was relying on this item being in stock (which I was assured was the case) so I could clear the account. This is the kind of c-rap that really annoys me. I hate unreliable information.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

My First Blog

Well, here we go. I've joined the 21st century and started a blog. Those of you who know me will see this is a very big step. I'm normally not keen on doing these sorts of things but I've been thinking about a blog for a while now. Like most blogs out there it will be a random collection of my thoughts and feelings on my life, hobbies and the world in general. Geez, next thing you know I'll go and get a Facebook page...nah. I hope to be good at updating it but one of two things will happen: I'll either be good at it and update it once every couple of days or I'll quickly lose interest (like I did with My Brute).

Anyhoo, I hope to have something more substantial to say soon. Stay tuned...