Life’s settled into a kind of regularity these days, which isn’t really conducive to creativity, so I’m just going to run through a little update of what’s happening… Just crossed a major milestone at work, with things finally moving in the right direction (from development to test). Within a month or so I’ll actually have some work that people in the real world are using to earn real money. Which is scary in one sense, but gives me this buzz occasionally. Of course, we’re yet to “go live” so it could still end in tears Am fiddling around the site a bit, prompted by Wordpress 2.0.3 update. Realised I’ve gone at least two months without actually having the fixed list of links for everyone to see, which is bad ’net citizenery really. I’ve put in ZenPhoto for a photos page, which doesn’t have too much at the moment (just the cooking photos) but I think I’ll start putting more on there and moving away from registration-required-to-comment Flickr. Plus I don’t have the restriction of just 3 albums and 200 photos, without paying to go “pro” (which I think is a misnomer anyway). If anyone has any suggestions for photo gallery stuff, let me know. Wanting to read more blogs, but have been unable to discover new stuff I actually want to read. If anything, I’ve been unsubscribing from blogs that are feeling like they’re in a rut - e.g., the Dilbert blog started out good, but now it’s just Scott Adams poking fun at people from his intellectual high ground. Any suggestions? Watched X-Men 3, and waited for after the credits. Groaned. It felt like it needed so much more depth, and the fact that it was billed as “The Last Stand”, but a hook was left in for later makes it feel… well, sleazy is probably the wrong word, but definitely not a classic in my mind. World Cup! The four-yearly sudden interest in soccer (“football”) has invariably risen again. It’s fun organising a tipping competition. Looking for something to do this long weekend. Also, feeling sorry for the people who’ve got to do exams. I feel for you, I really do. Best of luck, guys. ...

Rock-Paper-Scissors-And-25-Other-Things-Too: “No! I swear it’s a monkey!”

Aloo Gobi is a classic Indian recipe, and one of the easiest to pick up for total Indian cooking novices. It’s also where I was first introduced to Indian cooking, so I think it serves as a good starter here, too. I considered starting with the simple stir-fry noodles, but that seems to be aiming a little low. If you can’t do noodles, stir-fry or otherwise, please find your way around a kitchen before attempting the following. ...

In the past month or two, there’s been a steady trickle of spam comment attempts on this site, and while most of them are the usual viagra-xanax-casino deal, some spammers have been trying to get creative. There’s the flattering comments, which say “Wow, love your post” or “Great site!”, and occasionally they tack on “Can we exchange links with your site?” and so on. At first, the not-so-vigilant moderator might in a moment of weakness allow the comment, before they check out the site that the commenters name is linked to - but when you do, you easily realise and can that spam that slipped through. ...

Some days you’re up, and then some days you’re down. Thursday and Friday were good days, but I woke up on Saturday morning with my throat hurting and a distinct sense of crap running through my head; Sunday morning bore it out and it appeared that a full-fledged cold had struck. Now I’m not blaming anyone - it was my own damn fault for forgetting so readily how cold Melbourne actually is at this time of year, and not packing appropriately. But come work this morning, all that postiveness and relaxation I’d aimed for, and even partially achieved, were totally wiped out, negating completely the value of taking a few days off. All I want to do now is take some more days off. ...