Hamish. Discuss.

Issues

2011-05-24T07:28:00.001-04:00

I've seen a lot of people with issues lately, particularly on twitter. I'm not sure whether thats actually true - to some extent I probably project my own experience and feelings onto other people, but none the less I notice a lot of people crying out for attention and care.

It raises a some questions for me.

How do you express your care for people via social media?

Its quite hard to express how you feel about something in a short message such as a tweet. Even in longer message formats, its harder to encode emotion/feeling/context/emphasis/etc in instant messages.

It's also hard to pick those things up from those electronic messages on the receiving end. It leaves a lot up to interpretation and, if one is not clever about it, can leave out the feedback loops - ie the loops for confirming and clarifying intention.

What/Where are the boundaries for strangers?

One of my own challenges is seeing people who have issues (projection or otherwise) and feeling the need to give them advice. Where are the boundaries for that? Should you never but into someone elses life? Is the fact they're on twitter an indication that they are looking for people, even strangers, to give them help.

That makes me think of a video interview I saw of one of the creators of twitter talking about how Twitter enables you to feel a part of someone elses life. The thing is that it can also make you feel close to complete strangers - you're seeing what they're up to and perhaps some of their inner thoughts and feelings, after all.

In this new world of connectedness and openness do we embrace the intimacy that is scrolling in front of us, or do we stick to the constructs of personal privacy and protocol that we observe in other human interaction?

I think I shall contemplate these things.

Android

2011-05-24T07:04:00.000-04:00

I bought an Android phone a few weeks back. A Motorola Defy, to be precise. Its got Android 2.2 on it. Hopefully moto upgrade to 2.3 or later at some point soon.

I quite like it. Its fast, it works (big upgrade from my prior Nokia e75), has a good range of apps, and a good social network integration engine.

There are only 3 things missing:

Front facing camera. Makes it hard to do video calling.
Push notifications (or Cloud to Device Messaging as Google calls it). Only the built in apps have it, as google have not fully released the API. Hopefully this happens soon so apps can start using push instead of battery sucking polling/pulling.
Decent music apps. I used an iPod up until now, and basically none of the Android music apps come close to the interface an features of iPod. Some have a few nice features, but are missing basic nice things like shuffle by albums or shake to shuffle.

Am glad to be on a touch phone, and have had a lot of fun with various apps.

My favourites so far:

Epicurious - good app for finding recipes
Whatsapp - good app for text/multimedia messaging via mobile data
Opera Mobile - much smoother than the built in browser, and does on-the-fly data compression (can add a bit of page load time tho as pages are retrieved via Opera's servers)
Audiomanager - good app for having finer grained control over sounds - eg being able to disable notifications sounds but not the ring tone

Good fun!

Some things

2011-05-20T06:51:00.000-04:00

So I haven't done this for quite a while. I have a few things that might be worthwhile sharing...

Existentialism

No, I'm not a philosopher. I mean the existence of one's self.

So I've been seeing a psychologist weekly, bar the odd holiday, since July 2010 - almost 10 months now. I'm quite astounded by the length of time it took to get past a series of defenses and coping strategies cleverly, if unintentionally, placed around what I can only best describe as the small child that sits at the core of my existence. There are other words for that "child," but I will resist the temptation to be a Google certified psychology expert here.

It is quite amazing what the mind can do to survive. I haven't really figured out why exactly yet, but from an early age I lacked the innate feeling of inclusion or worth. In response, I developed strategies to acquire at least some sense of those things. Helpfulness is the most obvious one. Helping others to get a sense of importance and achievement - but typically at my expense and someone else's benefit. Projection is another - projecting my lack of worth and such onto others when certain things about them spark empathy in me. A way to express how I feel by seeing myself in someone else. Not very effective, however. Anxiety and planning is another common theme.

With that spinning broken record beginning to come to a halt now that I am quite aware - 'quite' as in I notice myself doing it on a day to day basis - I find myself coming back to a couple of core conundrums. 1. The value of existence.
2. How on earth do I value meaningful connections when I'm most comfortable when I'm hidden bar the passive methods I've developed above.

1.

Now dont misinterpret this. I'm not referring to a will to not exist, quite the opposite. Some philosophy might actually help here, but I'm not exactly Aristotle. The point I keep coming around to is that while one can fill life with many great things, relationships, experiences, - what is the overall value of the culmination of life when it is finite. In other words, everybody dies. It'd be good if I could resolve this - without regressing to the distractions above - as it can be quite a de-motivator to contemplate one's role in the complete unit of humanity. By that, I mean life - or time if you like - as a whole, and the role even the greatest of people play in it. The grand scheme.

2.

This is not something anyone can really solve for me with an explanation. I think its basically going to be about getting used to the concept of not needing a justification or reason to be of worth/value/meaning, and also a bit about recognizing when that is actually happening. A foreign concept.

Computer stuff

So on and off, as motivation allows, I've been doing some work on a wee web application called Web Albums Uploader. You can head over to www.webalbumsuploader.com and take a look-see if you like. Its nice to build something that is useful to me.

Sexuality

I am gay. Some people probably still dont know this. Mainly because I'm not the best at communicating it, and I still have some amount of fear and anxiety about being outwardly open. Its all over my Facebook and Twitter accounts and anyone that is close to me on a regular basis will know, but I'm a bit passive beyond that. I have a boyfriend, his name is Patrick. He's in New Plymouth at the moment so we're doing long distance. That leaves a bit to be desired but I'm comfortable with it. Not a lot else to say about my sexuality beyond that.

Fitness

I've been going to the gym for quite a while now, but only self paced and not overly vigorous until recently. That is, when I changed gyms and started a personal training program. Wholy fucking shit. I assure you I am in agony at the moment, but it is also very rewarding and I am getting good results and progressing fast. I hope to keep doing this indefinitely.

Things to do

There are some things I'm quite keen to do some time soon.

Finishing my pilots licences is a good one. It got left in the lurch when I went to uni. Once I stop seeing my shrink I think I will put the money into flying instead. I've picked up some project management at work - would like to progress this.

I'm also interested in being involved in more community things, maybe you can suggest something. I'm good with geeky stuff.

This is all that comes to mind about me at the moment. Make some comments if you like, or dont. The choices are endless.

Hamish

Bon Voyage

2008-07-14T01:48:00.002-04:00

Bonjour bonjour,

Well I am about to leave Canada! Head outta here on Tuesday and off to England.
Am done with my work and uni studies now. Assuming I pass my project (!) I have finished my degree :)

Been lotsa fun here, met heaps of new people. Kinda thinking it would be nice to stay a bit longer now it's summer, but alas travels await.

Looking forward to seeing everyone back in NZ, and cant wait to get some hands on some decent fresh food :D

See everyone soon,
Hamish

PS: I hearby call in all favours, debts, and missed birthday & christmas presents, in cash form for my world travel fund which is somewhat lacking! ;)

New Number

2008-05-15T00:55:00.002-04:00

Hello,

Just a quick post. I am in my new place, going very well. The people are very friendly and sociable. Having lots of bbqs. Am loving it. Heading down to New York this weekend, should be great :)

Have got a new wellington number. Signed up for the www.2talk.co.nz internet phone service which is very very good, far better than Skype which I had been using for Computer to Phoneline calls.

Ask me for my new number - would prefer to send it via email rather than in a blog post.

Hamish

Bonsoir

2008-04-25T18:40:00.002-04:00

Bonsoir mes amis,

How is everyone? please do feel free to send me an email or add a comment or something.

Montreal is becoming nice. The snow is almost all gone, its getting up to the mid twenties above zero now. People are outside on the streets and in the parks, its great. I am moving apartment soon, over to Le Plateau which is a bit more expensive but it is very close to a lot of activity and a lot of nightlife. Should be good. Am going to be living with 4 others in a nice apartment on the corner of Duluth and St Hubert (Pronounced Dooloot and Sane oobare).

Otherwise things are fairly similar - work is work. Am making progress on my project.

I have booked a seat on a bus tour down to New York City on the 17th - 19th May. Am looking forward to it. Am going to be staying just off Times Square. Will be able to see the Empire State building and Ground Zero and the Statue of Liberty and a bunch of things. Am also going to see the musical Rent on broadway.

Anyway, not much else to say. Am looking forward to getting out more. My workmate took me on a walking tour around part of the city that I hadn't seen already. Was a brilliant nice day, I sat in Parc Lafontaine for a while on the way back.

Catch you all later,
Hamish

Hello

2008-03-29T18:47:00.005-04:00

Hello,

Just a quick post. Haven't been up to much lately. Went skiing again a couple of weeks ago, then spent the rest of the week and easter weekend sick! Not very exciting being in a distant city stuck inside!! Oh well, Am feeling better now and the weather is starting to get a bit warmer now so things are looking brighter.

Got a haircut last night seeing as I was looking more like a talking mop than a human being . Seems that a mixture of english speaking client and french speaking hairstylist = mohawk hah!.

Anyhow, not much else to report. Work is much the same. Hoping I might be able to squeeze in another bit of skiing before the season ends, not sure yet.

Hope all is well,

Hamish

Not Dead, No Broken Bones

2008-03-16T21:51:00.002-04:00

Bonjour et Bienvenue,

How is everyone going?

Figure I had best make a post before people start making inquiries with the embassy!

Have still been trucking along with work and whatnot lately. Work is not too bad. Had a good week a couple of weeks ago working with a couple of others on some policy things. Was nice having human interaction for a change!

Montreal is starting to get slighly warmer. There getting to be more and more days where its above freezin. Still a bunch of snow around and more is expected. I went skiing last weekend with my flatmate Jessica and her friends Sreela and Nick. Was good fun. I'm not very good at it - spent most of the time on the beginner slope, but we are hoping to go bak during the week and I might try and get over there next weekend to improve myself before the winter is over! Got a nice ski jacket at Sport Expert - was marked down from $250 to $70, and got some ski pants and goggles and Montreal Canadienes (local Hockey team) tshirt :D

My boss Benoit took me to the Montreal Symphony Orchestra on Thursday evening, was very nice - they are pretty damn good. They played Tchaikovsky which is nice and lively.

Went out to my flatmate Charles' best friend Louis' brother Axcel's (not sure how to spell, pronounced kinda like axe-ell) girlfriend's birthday dinner. Had some nice Vietnamese/Thai food then they had a private area booked at a popular nightclub which was quite cool.

Today I went snow tubing with friend and his kid - was good fun but am now entirely exhausted. This week will be pretty standard I think. Hopefully will get over to the mountain again one afternoon and evening, otherwise will just be working.

Hope all is well,

Hamish

Hami$hSoft Update Rollup 1

2008-02-19T11:35:00.004-05:00

If you understand the title, you should really get out more. ;)

It has been graciously pointed out to me that I havent posted in a while.

Have just had a great weekend in Quebec City. It is about 2.5 hours drive north east of Montreal. The drive up there was pretty boring. There is a 4 lane highway the whole way and its just totally flat with trees and more trees, and a random diner in the town of Madrid with dinosaurs all around the carpark and a monster truck.

It was dddaaammmmmnnnnnnn cold up there on Saturday. We got there about mid day and it was a bright sunny day and was a little windy which means extra super cold. Felt something like about -30 in the wind and about -15 in the sun where it was sheltered.

The central city (take a look at http://picasaweb.google.com/goodhamish/quebeccity) is kept in a european village style. Even McDonalds has a toned down sign. Its very nice to wonder around, and makes you oblivous to the fact there is a City the size of Auckland around you. Quebec is where the french first landed, and is the scene of conflict between French and British. Legend has it that the women are the best looking in the province because the french sent a whole bunch of protitutes to balance the high ratio of men to women, and the men in Quebec city got first pick, and the other cities got the leftovers.

There is a RIDICULOUS amount of snow up there. The snow is literally up to roof level in the suburbs. Jessica, Charles and I stayed at Charles' mother's house where you look out the windows straight into snow. We also went to Charles' uncles farm which was covered in snow, but conveniently they have a snow mobile which Charles and I made good... ...use of. ;)

Otherwise not much has been happening. Went out on Friday night to an Irish bar with Jessica and some friends which was cool - they had a live band and good fish 'n' chips. Work is about the same. My boss has imposed a couple of deadlines on me for friday so I am going to be a busy beaver this week. I had a look around the old city a couple of weeks ago, photos are in my album. Hopefully I will get to go skiing the weekend after next - Jessica and the friends we went out with on Friday also want to go and after being in the snow in Quebec we are very motivated so will hopefully be able to organise a trip. There are ski fields that are lit up at night here!

Anyway, hope NZ is good. I read the news almost every day so I keep up with various controversies.

Have a good week,
Hamish

Weekend

2008-01-27T22:20:00.000-05:00

Hello again,

Thought I would make a post before I go to bed. Is 10.20pm on Sunday here.

Had quite a good weekend. My flatmates Charles has his mother, aunty and cousin around who are veryfriendly. The ladies, including Charles' partner Jessica went and did their obligatory shopping at the markets, and us boys went round and saw Pierre's penthouse apartment high up on in a very lavish multiplex on the river-front. Very very picturesque - complete with grand piano, TV screens in the bathroom behind the mirrors, and electric curtains.

We then went and saw the movie Cloverfield which I quite liked. The other two felt a bit nauseas from the camera movements though. It is shot from the perspective of a joe bloggs citizen with a handycam. Very effective style.

We then came back and the ladies had cooked a very nice stir fry meal for us all and we ate and drank some nice French and Italian wine. Was a nice evening. Today I slept in, again, and have just mainly been lazyish. Cooked spaghetti bolognese for an early dinner with plenty left over for lunch and probably dinner tomorrow night.

Thats about all I have to report at the moment. Just have another week at work to look forward to. Hopefully will be able shown around town a bit with some people I have met, which will be cool. Am also hoping to go up to Quebec city - Charles' mother has invited me to stay there and there is a winter carnival on soon - as well as organise my first trip away. Am contemplating between getting a train down to New York city for a few days, or going to a ski resort for a few days. Will come down to money probably!

Catch you later,
Hamish

Bonjour

2008-01-23T20:03:00.000-05:00

Hello hello,

Once again not much to say. Have just been doing reading at work. Went up Mont Royal on Sunday. Was very very cold! Silly thing to do on such a day, but we live and learn haha. Settling in ok. My flatmates Charles and Jessica are very nice and very accomodating. Hopefully I will be able to meet up with a couple of people I have met online this week some time haha.

Should have more to say after the weekend. Please let me know how all of you are doing.

Cya, Hamish

Not much happening

2008-01-19T02:35:00.000-05:00

G'day,

Not a lot to say really at the moment. I'm just a little bored sitting at my hotel.
My supervisor for my B.IT project arrived during the week and I met with her yesterday (Friday) and talked to my boss and they have both given me some things to do which is good. Just literature searching/reading/reviewing at this stage but its better than doing nothing!

I had hoped to meet up with a friend that I have met last night but he had to go out of town at short notice so I didn't get up to much for a Friday night haha. Just wondered around some of the shops again and got some food then went for a walk towards the waterfront but it started to get too cold so I headed back. Today it wasn't such a nice day - was snowing quite heavily when I woke up so I just had a shower etc and it had eased by the time I was ready so I just went into town again and walked around the malls some more haha. Had hoped to go up Mont Royal - a mountain smack in the middle of the otherwise flat Montreal - but the weather wasnt so good for walking. Maybe tomorrow might be better. Also want to hunt out a Ski shop called La Poubelle du Ski which sells new jackets etc from previous seasons for quite cheap. Hoping to find a ski jacket that can pass as a casual jacket too so that I can get some use out of it here and also have something that I can take skiing back in NZ assuming I become a reasonable skiier here haha!

I move into my new place tomorrow afternoon, so tomorrow I will just repack some of my things, and hopefully get some time to go up Mont Royal, and then catch a taxi over to my place in Verdun.

Nothing else to say really. Need to get myself back into some routine of working and socialising and cooking etc and sleeping properly. Very easy to forget about all those things when you're staying in a hotel and have no one around you with their own lives going on!

Catch you all later,
Hamish

Photos and Wellington Ph Number

2008-01-16T23:50:00.000-05:00

Heya,

I've finally had a chance to upload some photos onto my webalbum at http://picasaweb.google.com/goodhamish :D

Have also bought a Wellington number for my skype account. Means anyone in Welly can call me for free, or anyone in NZ can call for the same price as before, and it goes through to my skype number which I have forwarded to my Canada cellphone! I know that totally geeky and I dunno, perhaps the idea of being in a new country is to experience being out of touch etc, but mreh its kinda convenient. The number is 04 889 0883. Just the same as any other Wellington number. Just remember the time difference! 7.30am - 11pm here is 1.30am - 5pm NZ DST :)

Otherwise I found a place to live today. Its a little bit further than I was going to go but its reasonably cheap (CA$425 a month incl heat/power/internet/phone) so thats ok. Its right next to a Metro (subway) station so thats all good. Apparently the part of town isnt all that nice but these people seem quite nice and they have a NZ friend to introduce me to and public transport is extremely good here. Subways get you to most places and there is an extensive bus network on top of that.

Val, my Victoria Uni project supervisor, arrives tomorrow so I will probably have some work to get into haha. Havent done any work so far - just been sorting stuff out. My office is on the 25th floor (penthouse) of the 2020 University St building. Kinda plain with offices around the outside and cubicles around the inside. Nice view though when the weather is nice. Will take some photos next time I take my camera in.

Thats all for now. I need to go and rescue some washing then get to bed! Cya later.

Got Snow?

2008-01-16T03:42:00.000-05:00

Just a short post. My sleeping pattern is a bit munted so its 3.40am and I'm wide awake :S

Still haven't really seen much of Montreal. It snowed all day Monday so the streets and yards are still very white. Got to be careful in some sheltered walkways because the snow will melt a little and then freeze into pack ice which is very slippery! Almost assed up walking down a street today haha. Its very cold and I haven't quite worked out the Metro (Subway and bus) system yet so haven't been outside the CBD. Will start to explore a little once I have found a flat. Am looking at a couple later today. There is one with a guy and a girl who seem pretty cool and are into having dinner gatherings and things so hopefully that might work out well knowing my track record for guilting you lazy boys into coming over for dinner haha.

I have started at CIRANO but haven't done any work yet lol. My boss (Prof. Benoit Aubert) was in a car accident before I came over and is in hospital for a little while so I am waiting for my project supervisor to arrive on Thursday before I will have any direction on what to do.

I have a Canadian cellphone number now. I think I texted most people but let me know if I missed you and I can tell you. Its on my MSN nickname if you have me on there. The cellphone networks are a bit weird here. You have to pay for incoming calls unless you're on a plan that includes them. And if you are outside your home area you pay the local charge plus the long distance charge for incoming calls! On the upside they seem to have given me $60 credit when I only paid for $30 so thats good. Texting is slightly more expensive here - 20c canadian per message to NZ whichi s about 30c NZ but thats all good. Its cheaper than the 80c i get charged for using my Telecon roaming phone lol.

Benoit organised a laptop for me today which is great! Its not at all grunty but its good enough to run MSN and emails etc. I haven't uploaded any photos yet because picasa doesn't seem to want to play ball but I should be able to figure that out later. I'm planning on getting a headset or something and use my NZ iTalk VoIP account so that I can make cheap calls to NZ and people can call me. At the mo it has a local Auckland number but I might see if I can get a Wellington number instead which would be great because I'd be able to make and receive calls in Wellington for a flat fee of NZ$10 a month!

Umm yeah so please let me know if you dont have my cell number. Its great to text people and find out what they're up to, especially at the moment when I've been focusing on getting myself and haven't found the places to find friends etc.

Dont think theres much more for me to say at the mo. Please do keep posting comments, even if they're random (Baden! :P) and I'll probably be on MSN a bit more now that I have a laptop that I can use at home. If you dont already know, the time here is 6 hours ahead minus 24 hours (so actually 18 hours behind). So if its 1pm Wednesday there, its 7pm Tuesday here. So if try to text me dont' be surprised if I don't answer if its not between 1.30AM and 5PM NZ time (7.30am and 11pm Montreal time). I will always reply if I hear it and its urgent or important though so don't hesitate to text or call if somethings up.

Righto, I should try get a few more hours sleep. Catch you all later.

In Montreal!

2008-01-13T00:55:00.000-05:00

Hello again,

I arrived in Montreal today :). Spent my last day in SF going over to Fishermans Wharf again then walking along to the Marina District, through Fort Mason and over to the Exploratorium and went in and played with a few hand on science exhibits haha. Then had lunch at a classic 60's diner - complete with the classic uniforms, vanilla coke and cherry shakes. Caught a bus back into the city and just wondered around some more. Went into chinatown again and bought a couple of souvenier Tshirts. Had pizza for dinner at the Sony Metreon iMax complex then wondered around a little more and had dessert and Denny's then went and saw AVP Requeim which was pretty good. There was a 100% Pure NZ advert in the trailers haha. Kinda weird seeing your own country being advertised. Went home and packed and checked I had all my things and watched some TV then went to sleep.

Flight left SFO at 11.50. Departing international flights are much more lax than in NZ - it was basically just like AKL domestic airport where you check in, go through security and you're at the gates - you dont have to fill in any departure forms or anything. SFO Airport is incredible busy. There were 4 jets in line for the runway we were using - and they were using 3 other runways too.

A nice lady from Montreal with a 18 month baby boy was sitting next to me with a spare seat in between. Being 18 months the kid was extremely active haha so I ended up entertaining him a large chunk of the 5 hour flight while mother hoped that he would finally get tired and fall asleep - didn`t happen untill about 45 minutes out of Montreal! Was crazy - I used to be totally freaked out by kids and didn`t know how to interact with them but lately I just seem to at least be able to talk to them and entertain them haha.

Its very cold here! The entire country side between the Rockies and here was pretty much covered with snow. Not too much snow around here - its just kinda piled up around the buildings but none on the roads. It was about -1C when I got here at 8pm, is probably a bit colder now (1.10am). Went for a walk to get some bottled water and to find my office building and I felt like my ears were starting to freeze - and this is a warm winter day :S!

Not really much else to say. Will hopefully get myself a computer at some point. Need to find a flat first though! I think I should be able to use PCs at work though in the mean time, will upload photos ASAP.

PS: I have my NZ cellphone with me so please do send me texts. I bought a phone card today so i can make cheap calls to NZ from my hotel, and I`ll try and get a local SIM card asap so I can send texts as well.

Bye for now, miss NZ lots,
Hamish

Friends and Money Please!

2008-01-10T23:12:00.000-05:00

Well it's been a while since I've used this. Was going to use facebook but you can't make your profile public so this is good. Will put photos on my webalbum when I can at http://picasaweb.google.com/goodhamish :)

So.... I'm in San Francisco at the moment! :O It's been a crazy last couple of months but I'm here and I'm loving it so far. I was in a course (INFO405) at Vic last year which is lectured by Benoit Aubert who is the CEO of www.cirano.qc.ca - a university backed commercial research organisation - and professer at HEC business school in Montreal Canada. He gives one student from 405 each year a CAD$5000 grant to go and experience real life research at CIRANO and experience travelling in and around Canada. I got 98% in the exam and an A+ for the (honours) course so he gave it to me :)

So I arrived here in SF yesterday (Wednesday 9th) and am here till Saturday (12th) when I fly on to Montreal. Didn't do much yesterday - just got a shuttle into the city and checked into my hotel and had a rest then had a shower and went for a walk around the area. I'm staying in The Mosser hotel which is nice and clean and well priced. Probably a bit swanky for a student but CIRANO is paying! They didn't give me a room with a view though - am looking directly at the building next door lol. It is on 4th Street which is very central for shopping and entertainment. The Apple Store is just along the street (I WANT AN iPHONE!!!!!), as well as a Westfield Mall which is about the size of Sylvia park except all indoors and in the centre of the city! Lots of restaurants and cool shops around.

Caught up with Emmanuel today who was in my year of my Bch of IT. His family have moved here so he's over here visiting. We walked around the CBD a bit and through Chinatown and then over to Fisherman's Wharf which is near the Golden Gate Bridge. The whole place reminds me of Wellington except 15 times bigger! Has cable cars, hills, trolley buses, nice open waterfront areas, lots of entertainment and vibrancy. Weather is similar - foggy and rainy and about 10 degrees celcius at mid day.

Eman and I went into Hooters for a Bud(weiser)! Definately reccommend it for women-crazy guys! haha. Beer + hot chicks ahahah! Will upload photos later when I can ;)

We came back to near my hotel on a tram type thing, and wondered around a bit more. Went into Virgin Music & DVDs - 3 stories of just CDs and DVDs :S! Most things are relatively cheap here, especially with the exchange rate at the moment. Might get some $10 DVDs later - lots of titles like 300 or Superman are only US$10 which is about NZ$14 at the moment.

Umm dont think there's much more for me to say at the moment. I think I'll wonder back up to Chinatown and get some souveneirs and stuff lol. I miss NZ a lot, especially the people which I have been around so much over the past few years. Still got a huge adventure ahead of me though. Just have to try and not spend all my money too early!!! Hahaha. Donations accepted! :P But yeah please do leave comments of what is happening in all your lives at the moment. It's very difficult to always be able to find out whats happening with everyone, but I am definately interested so please just tell me - no need to worry about whether I want to know or not. If I haven't chatted or texted or called, it's just because I haven't been able to, so please just send me an email to goodhamish@gmail.com or leave a comment on here or Facebook or Bebo of everything that's happening - exciting or not - and please be patient cos sometimes it might take me a few days to reply. Travelling is all very exciting, but that doesn't make me arrogant to everyone else! If you feel jealous - just remember that your time to travel will come. I have been very fortunate to be given this opportunity - but you are all capable of doing similar things with your own unique twist so instead of feeling left out, just say "screw him, I'm going to show that I can travel the world as well and I'm going to have ten times as much fun!" and do it!

Oh and remember, I am young so often I can get so involved with what I'm doing that I forget to ask "how are you?" so just tell me anyway! I mean to ask, just sometimes my mind is busy! I will keep this updated and upload photos as much as I can. Hopefully I might be able to get a PC or laptop when I've settled into Montreal.

Time to go, cya later :)

Hamish

Hello Hello

2006-10-19T21:23:00.000-04:00

Okay so I haven't done this in quite a while. I guess it was fun for a while, but then got kinda mundane. However, here's what I've been up to lately.

Its been mainly work - uni - sleep really. I left my job at DSE on August the 6th, and started the next day at the Metservice, in the IS Operations department. I'm a "computer support technician" which basically means I set up new comptuers when they come through, sort out PC faults and upgrades, and take care of low level support issues. It's quite cool working there. Much less stress than at DSE, and a much better pay rate which is always good. At this stage it looks like I'll be able to work full time there over the summer. We've got a couple of big IT projects coming up so hopefully they should give me some good expierience.

Uni is going ok. As usual, I left a couple of big assignments to the last minute so we'll see how well I do. My first exam is on Tuesday, then have more Friday - Saturday, then another one on the 6th, the i'm done. Uni's been fairly boring this year really again. The IS Management paper I did just never seemed to end. Project management and Data Communications were fairly interesting I suppose, but Electronic Commerce was a waste of time and money. Oh well, all part of the plan to get to where I want to be I suppose.

I've also been trying to spend more time with friends lately as well. You soon learn not to take people for granted when they start dieing around you. We've plundered a lot of time on late night games, watched lots of movies, done random trips to places like Mangatainoka (!) and had a lot of good fun along the way. It's been good seeing people a lot and getting to know some new good friends.

Otherwise, there hasn't really been much happening. My car got broken into AGAIN the other day. Sigh. Oh well, at least there wasn't anything in there worth stealing this time.

Something I've been starting to give some thought to is my 21st next year. I know its aggggggesssss away (19th June) but I've just been wondering where to have it. I guess I pretty much call Wellington home now, and a lot of my friends are down here. But by the same token, there is a lot of family up in Tauranga, as well as a lot of people that would be able to make it to Tauranga and not to Wellington. Hmmmm I don't know. I guess the options are to either have two lots of smaller parties or something, or have one and arrange transport and accomodation etc etc etc. I was thinking maybe I could hire a bus and take a bunch of people up to Tauranga and let them fend for themselves for accomodation. Would be pretty dam expensive though. What should I do? I would quite like it to be a 21st for me as well as a chance for a bunch of people - old music/big band guys, TBC guys, wellington guys/girls, to catch up. There are so many people I would love to catch up with that I haven't seen since the end of 7th form, which is 3 years ago now. Leave me some comments or something :)

I've been trying to use my camera a little more lately. It tends to sit on my desk looking lonely. I've uploaded a bunch of photos onto Picasa Web albums at http://picasaweb.google.com/goodhamish which are mainly randoms. Hopefully now that summer is coming, there might be some good days to go and wonder around camera in hand.

Anyway, I've run out of things to say. Leave me some comments! =D

See you

Hamish

2 More Days

2006-07-05T05:20:00.000-04:00

Hmmm Two more sleeps untill I head back to a very wet and windy Wellington which is apparently living up to it's reputation at the moment. I'm quite looking forward to going back though. I've got to that point where I've done the family and friend thing and just have a couple of things left to do tomorrow (optometrist, hair cut) after which I'll be about ready to leave.

As much as I've supposed to have been on holiday, I've managed to text or talk to people at work almost everyday, get myself into some minor trouble with a workmate, my flatmates have bugged me because the internet stopped working, I've had car troubles (dam wastes of money and time!!) and have fixed my dads, my sister's and some friends' computers!

Some holiday! If anyone is willing to shout me a trip to central Tibet where there's no internet and no cellphone coverage (although there is one monster of a train track), I'd be more than willing to accept :) Dunno how I feel about the economy 'non-padded' seating between Beijing and Lhasa though :S

Bored bored bored

2006-07-03T05:30:00.000-04:00

Hmmm. So I haven't done this in a while, I guess mainly because I've been working as much as possible, although perhaps more because i'm generally slack :)

So anyway I'm in Tauranga for a few days. Kinda bored already, not a heck of a lot to do really. Its nice to catch up with friends/family I guess but I've gotten so used to a high paced Wellington life that I don't really know what to do with myself up here :)

Teens no more

2006-06-19T00:21:00.000-04:00

Yay its my birthday. I'm officially no longer a teenager. Well, technically at least. Happy birthday to me :)

Identify Music

2006-06-10T10:20:00.000-04:00

I came across an awesome peice of software today that will listen to a snip of music that you don't know the name of, and find the artist and name for you. I've been looking for the name of a song that plays in a movie trailer that has been going on the TVs at work, and finally after playing a 20 second snip of it into Tunatic, I found it!

Here's a link if anyone's interested:
http://www.wildbits.com/tunatic/

2006-06-08T17:45:00.000-04:00

Grrr. Argh. Some prick decided they would leave me a gift in the form of a nice dent in my car the night before last. Thanks a lot. $#%$^&%

Anyway, all my assignments are finally over. Got 100% for the presentation of my database project :) We'll see how well I go when they analyse my code thought :S

So now just exams on Monday and Wednesday (BITT302 and INFO341) and I'm done for the trimester. I''m going to Tauranga on around the 27th-ish for about a week if anyone is going to be up there.

Gotta go for now, the telstraclear guy is about to arrive to install our new high speed cable internet woohoo! :)

See you later

2006-06-01T03:49:00.000-04:00

Hi all. Sorry for delay in updating. Last week of trimester so lots of assignment work, and then exam study to do. Add to that we've got stock take at work in a week = extra stress for the extra-responsibility-but-no-extra-pay guy like me! :)

grr. Had no internet last night. Silly ihug/telecom. Bring on unbundling I say (although I'm getting telstraclear cable next week so it won't really effect me too much in the near future). Lol, me and my flatmates were at a loss as to what to do with ourselves :P

Hmmm nothing else interesting has really happened lately. Just work-study-sleep-eat-repeat really. Hopefully I'll get a chance to have a break and go up to Tauranga at some stage after my exams (they're on the 12 and 14th). Oh, and my Birthday is in 18 days! (19th June) :)

If anyone out there happens to be a database developer, could you please tell me how to requery a chart in a MS Access 2003 form automatically after the linked table it is based on gets updated in MS SQL Server 2k :) because my lecturer and tutors sure can't tell me!

Yeah. So I guess I better get back to my project.

See you later,

Hamish

2006-05-25T04:27:00.000-04:00

Woo! Against pessimism and retort from my flatmates, I bought 2 nice new LCD screens today.

Yes, I know, Hamish and his toys. Cameras, computer junk etc etc, but my old screen was about to die, and made an annoying hissing sound.

Anyway, they have already proved their usefulness this afternoon when I was working on a programming assignment, so I am satisfied in my investment.

Wood & Bolts

2006-05-23T04:53:00.000-04:00

Isn't amazing how something as simple as a chair can mean so much?

I was in Palmerston North on Saturday for a dedication service for a couple of nice wooden seats for a friend of mine (Brandon) and another aviation student that crashed mid-air back in February. They put in a nice pair of seats adjacent to the flight school that look over the apron where Massey's planes are parked and out over the airport.

They're a nice way to remember them - somewhere where people can relax in the environment in which the guys spent most of their time.

Call me weird, but being there at the flight school and looking around their planes again actually makes me want to get back into a bit of flying, even though it brought about the demise of people close to me. Will have to see how the pocket is feeling in the holidays!