**February 2012 Reading Challenge – Valentine’s Day **

The Aussie Readers group on Goodreads has the February Challenge – Valentine’s Day;

Romance is in the air with February 14th – so pick out:
2 books with a love interest (not necessarily a romance book)
OR
2 books with flowers/hearts/plush toys on the cover
OR
2 books that are from your favorite genre (one you love)
OR
mix and match .

[Trailwalker] Tales from the trail – training tales for the Oxfam Trailwalker

G’day folklings,

♫ On the road trail again … ♫.
Training has started in earnest now as the walk is less than 12 weeks away.

The four of us have finally trained together, instead of 2 by 2, a pastime that we intend to continue for the next 11 weeks.
So, this week we decided to try out the first 2 sections of the actual trail, from Jells Park to Lysterfield Lake, which adds up to 22 km, to see what it would be like and how it compared to our preparatory training.

This section of the trail is mostly undulating. In fact I think our trail notes calls it ‘gently undulating’. Then, once it has lulled you into a false sense of security, it throws a steep hill at the unsuspecting and innocent walker. You go up it veerry slowly, you lean on the sign at the top and pretend you’re looking at the fabulous view (see attached photo), then you go down it, and return to the gently undulating terrain feeling slightly shell-shocked and finally end up crossing the dam wall at Lysterfield Lake and heading through the BBQ area to the checkpoint.

Saturday's team training from the Start to CP2, top of the hill

Let’s see … compared to our preparatory training walks;

• Similar in length, so we were doing well there.
• Steeper, Gwen and Frances discovered that their previous training walks hadn’t included any real uppy and downy bits so we need to put a little more work into practicing those. (Guess what we’re doing next weekend, ladies…, Eltham has lots of uppy and downy bits to practice on).
• Hotter, somebody forgot to dial the temperature down and we sweltered a bit. Who’s big idea was it to walk on a 34 degree day?!? Ooh, that’d be me, shhh, don’t tell anyone.
  Well, being hot, we went through all our water and all our sugar-laden cordial and when we reached Lysterfield Lake we found a shop that sold icy-poles. That was, just possibly, everyone’s favourite part of the day. We really felt that we had earned those icy-poles.

I suggested to Gwen (from memory it was on the up bit of the hill) that the purpose of walking hard on the training sessions was so that she was too tired at the end to hit me, but she has threatened that if necessary she’ll take a contract out so it won’t matter if she doesn’t have the energy. Frances, on the other hand, plans on going straight to a higher authority and is teeing up a lightning bolt for just in case.

Runkeeper Activity Log (click image to visit)

Darren is already thinking logistically, on things such as how much water we need to carry, what we need to eat and when, and whether hiking poles will be a good idea for the hills. He’s the one finding the walking easiest, so we’ll leave all that stuff to him.

So, next week is off the trail and closer to home (well, my home anyway) and concentrating on some hill practice.

Cheers Tracy

Oxfam Trailwalker Melbourne – 100 km – teams of 4 – 48 hours
To read more about my team go to Team 672 : We’re doing what?

The Wrath Of Fate – Audio Book (Abney Park)

The Wrath Of Fate – Abney Park’s Origin
This story in the origin of Abney Park, it takes the narrative found in each Abney Park song and joins them into a narrative of the band. You can buy the novel at http://www.abneypark.com/market.

Abney Park Radio Serial?
Well, sorta. I’m currently recording the audio book to The Wrath Of Fate, and releasing each chapter on YouTube weekly. You can listen to the first two chapters now, starting here:
Although I’m not going to give the whole audio book away, I’m planning on releasing at least the fist half of the novel, this way. My goal is, of course, to get everybody hooked so they’ll buy the book!
However, the weekly serial is so much fun, it stands on its own merits. Go try it out!
– “Captain Robert” (2012-Jan-31)

Game of Thrones – Season 2 – The Cold Winds are Rising

Game of Thrones Season 2 (A Clash of Kings)

A new HBO teaser for Season 2

“My brother left no true-born heirs. By right and birth and blood, I do this day lay claim to the iron throne of Westeros. Let all true men declare their loyalty. The iron throne is mine by right. They will bend the knee, or I will destroy them. The cold winds are rising.”
– Stannis Baratheon

Notice the three horn blasts at the end of the clip?

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
The sound went on and on and on, until it seemed it would never die. The ravens were flapping and screaming, flying about their cages and banging off the bars, and all about the camp the brothers of the Night’s Watch were rising, donning their armor, buckling on swordbelts, reaching for battleaxes and bows. Samwell Tarly stood shaking, his face the same color as the snow that swirled down all around them. “Three,” he squeaked to Chett, “that was three, I heard three. They never blow three. Not for hundreds and thousands of years. Three means—” “—Others.”
- – (A Storm of Swords)

Welcome back Game of Thrones!

Music Monday #089 – Soundgarden

Soundgarden is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington in 1984 by singer Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil, and bassist Hiro Yamamoto. Matt Cameron became the band’s full time drummer in 1986 while bassist Ben Shepherd became a permanent replacement for Yamamoto in 1990.
Soundgarden was one of the seminal bands in the creation of grunge, a style of alternative rock that developed in Seattle, and was one of a number of grunge bands signed to the record label Sub Pop. Soundgarden was the first grunge band to sign to a major label (A&M Records, in 1988), though the band did not achieve commercial success until they popularized “grunge” in the early 1990s with Seattle contemporaries Nirvana, Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam.
– wikipedia

Time to shake away those Christmas Holiday cobwebs and get back to work. A bit of Soundgarden should manage this pretty well.

And now for some music …

APSDaemon.exe give me back my CPU!

Symptom: After installing iTunes 10.5.x upgrade, APSDaemon and Apple Mobile Services take 100% CPU

APSDaemon.exe (otherwise known as Apple Push) is the service that wirelessly syncs your device (part of the iCloud package). Searching through the forums it appears that the most referred to solution is;

netsh winsock reset

This does have a proviso that any software with a LSP will then break;

“Warning Programs that access or monitor the Internet such as antivirus, firewall, or proxy clients may be negatively affected when you run the netsh winsock reset command. If you have a program that no longer functions correctly after you use this resolution, reinstall the program to restore functionality.” [5]

This weeks links (2012-01-30)

In brief:

* Victorian Bushfire Recovery 3 year report (2012-Feb) [Regional Development Victoria]
The Victorian Bushfire Recovery Three Year Report focuses on the progress and achievements made over the last 12 months including the delivery of programs, funding and support to communities and individuals affected by the 2009 bushfires.

* Optus snaffles free footy (2012-Feb-02) [The Age]
… Justice Steven Rares in the Federal Court in Sydney yesterday found that TV Now did not breach copyright because individuals were responsible for requesting each recording and that Optus kept separate recordings for each customer.
Justice Rares found ”that such a recording or film was made by the user to watch it at a time he or she considered to be more convenient than when the live broadcast occurred, even if only by minutes”.
The Copyright Act allows individuals to ”time shift” their viewing, and Optus had argued its service sat within this exemption. …

* iPad, therefore I am, and keeping a wired open mind (2012-Feb-02) [The Age]

* It’s a national park, not a farm: alpine grazing rejected (2012-Jan-31) [The Age]
The Victorian government has lost its fight to let high country graziers back into the Alpine National Park, with federal Environment Minister Tony Burke announcing today that the application had been rejected.

* Infographic: Why the movie industry is so wrong about SOPA (2012-Jan-17) [Matador]
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) claims that SOPA and PIPA are aimed at stopping online piracy. But as this infographic demonstrates, it’s really about fighting innovation.

Some reading/listening:

*

The Sword and Laser – 2012 Book list (Part I)

The Sword and Laser (S&L) is a science fiction and fantasy-themed book club and podcast, started by Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt. The main goal of the club is to build a strong online community of sci-fi / fantasy buffs, and to discuss and enjoy books of both genres. — About S&L [www.swordandlaser.com]

The following is the list of books read by The Sword and Laser book club during the first half 2012 (also see the list from the second half of 2012). This page is designed as is a quick reference page so that I can quickly jump between the forum pages and good read listings. Geek & Sundry host the YouTube Sword and Laser videos.

This weeks links (2012-01-23)

In brief:

* I’m Not Lovin’ It: McDonald’s Twitter campaign backfires (2012-Jan-25) [The Age]
A social media campaign to share stories about McDonald’s failed spectacularly yesterday when Twitter users hijacked the hashtag #McDstories to talk about eggshells in their McMuffins and fingernails in their burgers.

* I Spy Your Company’s Boardroom (2012-Jan-23) [Wired: Threat Level]
HD Moore and Mike Tuchen of Rapid7 discovered that they could remotely infiltrate conference rooms in some of the top venture capital and law firms across the country, as well as pharmaceutical and oil companies and even the boardroom of Goldman Sachs — all by simply calling in to unsecured videoconferencing systems that they found by doing a scan of the internet.

* How Apple is sabotaging an open standard for digital books (2012-Jan-22) [ZDNet]
Apple has built its iBooks platform on the back of an open standard. With last week’s introduction of iBooks 2.0 and the free iBooks Author software for Mac OS X, Apple is deliberately locking out that popular open standard.

2012 Subaru Cycling Australia Track National Championships
* 2012 Subaru Cycling Australia Track National Championships
Thursday 26 to Sunday 29 January 2012 : Super-Drome, Adelaide, SA
* #tracknats
* Live Stream [SBS Cycling Central]
SBS and Cycling Central continues its dedicated coverage of cycling this week with a live broadcast and live streaming of Subaru Cycling Australia Track National Championships from the Super-drome in Adelaide.
* Highlights [SBS Cycling Central]

Subaru Cycling Show
* Subaru Cycling Show – January 22 (Part 1) (2012-Jan-22) [SEN 1116]
* Subaru Cycling Show – January 22 (Part 2)
Phil Wrochna is joined by Scott McGrory on the Subaru Cycling Show talking everything in the world of cycling.

Some reading/listening:

* H.G. Wells – The Time Machine [Project Gutenberg]
The Time Machine is a science fiction novella by H. G. Wells, published in 1895. It indirectly inspired many more works of fiction in many media. This 32,000 word story is generally credited with the popularisation of the concept of time travel using a vehicle that allows an operator to travel purposefully and selectively. The term “time machine”, coined by Wells, is now universally used to refer to such a vehicle. This work is an early example of the Dying Earth subgenre.

新年快乐 恭喜发财! 今年的龙！

新年好！恭喜发财！(Happy New Year! May you be happy and prosperous!)
Chinese New Year falls on Monday January 23 in 2012, this year is the year of the Dragon.

[1] Chinese New Year Festival 2012 (in Melbourne) [Only Melbourne]
[2] Melbourne Chinese New Year Celebrations [That's Melbourne]
[3] Melbourne Chinese New Year 2012