Riky Road

01/07/1985 Seattle

2011-09-17T12:33:00.000+10:00

Hotel: Seattle

Weather: Warm

Pulled into Seattle around 12:30pm, all except Andrews luggage, it arrived some 4 hours later, it had bit of a layover in Portland Oregon.

I'm writing my travel-journal in the light of street lamp outside a telephone booth around midnight trying to contact the girl back home. There's rain on the pavement but the air is warm, all in all things are pretty good.

30/06/1985 San Francisco-Portland

2011-09-17T12:19:00.000+10:00

Hotel: Grey Hound
Weather: Fine to Crappy

Today the three Amigos embark on the trip to Seattle, through Oregon. So after a morning of the big Gay Parade we head off on our 16 hour journey. First stop Portland Oregon through Redding California.

I don't remember a whole lot of this road trip, most of it I spent stretched out along the back seat asleep.

I do remember the pretty girl who got off in Redding but talking to her was like talking to Sean Pen in 'Fast times at Ridgmont High'. And I also noted that the further north we went the crappier the weather got.

29/06/1985 San Francisco

2011-08-16T19:25:00.000+10:00

Hotel: Grand Central Hotel
Weather: Fine

The Bruce brothers walked the Golden Gate Bridge today. It was kinda fun, I actually hadn't anticipated that to walk across it was an option, we'd walked toward it for a better photo position but as we got closer we realised you could actually walk to the other side of the bay.

We finally caught up with Brent this evening after his conference had wound up.

We all headed out to a club called Silhouettes. We got completely shit faced on Long Island Iced Teas. I'd never had one of these before but when I witnessed the bar man tip what seemed like a measure of every popular spirit into a glass, topped it with a dash a coke and seeing it was $4 Long Island Iced Tea night, I was right up for it.

No barmen has ever matched those Long Island Iced Teas since, either. Or is it that there's just nothing like your first.

Medical Tip: Enough Long Island Iced Teas will cure Jet Lag. (Little known fact.)

Oh, and if finding all these love notes in my suit case wasn't bad enough, Brent brought over a letter from her. This has stop.

28/06/1985 San Francisco

2011-08-08T21:31:00.002+10:00

Hotel: Grand Central
Weather: Fine

We went down to the hotel Brent was staying at, the super swanky Palace Hotel on Montgmery St. It was right in the middle of town so kinda convenient. We couldn't find Brent so we did a bit of sightseeing.

We jumped the cable car and headed down to Fisherman's Wharf spent a few hours just wandering around. Checked out the the tall rigger at Hyde St Pier with Alcatraz in the back ground and checked out the shopping at Pier 39. Got asked if we were gay.

We didn't know it at the time but this weekend was the big gay march and over here, a couple guys kicking back together, both with ear rings is pretty uncommon except.. in San Francisco around this time of year.
That does explain the odd questions regarding the seperate beds when we checked into the room last night.

Oh, and this far from home it's good to know you can still grab a Melbourne Tram.

Funny, there's never one in Elizabeth St when you need it.

27/06/1985 Las Vegas - San Francisco

2011-08-07T16:10:00.004+10:00

Hotel: Victory Motel

Weather: Hot

Slept till 3:30pm. Got up, showered found yet another note. Would probably get over this homesickness if I wasn't constantly reminded of home. I'm really missing the girl more than I think I should be.

Had a great meal of steak and potatoes for $2. More free drinks, and some cheap drinks. Promotional chicks stand outside of each establishment handing out food and drink coupons. The concept being that for a $1 pizza you have to walk to the back of the gambling floor, threading your way through the stands of slot machines. If your not tempted to gamble, it's a very cheap existence. $1 mixed drinks, 99c shrimp cocktails, $1 hot dogs, $1 beers. Shrimp cocktails are still 99c today.

I could happily stay here for a while but we've got to get to San Francisco, I've arranged to meet Brent in SanFran, Bruce doesn't know.

It'll be 25 years before I return to Fremont street, downtown Las Vegas and it won't be till then that I discover that Fremont and the little row of casinos is not the famous Las Vegas strip. But I loved it anyway and thoroughly enjoyed these past couple of days.

Boarded the Greyhound at 4:00am bound for San Francisco. The bus ride's going to take all day and it's not all that comfortable but it can be interesting. You get to see the passing landscape and you can meet some interesting people if not witness some interesting people.
I remember trying to explain the game of cricket to a yank, "the first team goes in while a second team is out, and the team that's out tries to get the team that's in, out". This went on for hours, to this day I think he's sure Aussies are big on baseball and battle the Brits over the ashes of a burnt hey bail every couple of years. But it helped the miles go by.

Pulled into San Francisco around 7:00pm found a hotel room nearby and settled in for the night.

I left the room later, kinda unannounced and perhaps a bit suspiciously, I was trying to contact Brent but couldn't get hold of him. Finally told Bruce that we'd be meting Brent here in San Francisco.

26/06/1985 Las Vgas

2011-08-07T16:01:00.001+10:00

Hotel: Victory Motel

Weather: Hot

We spotted a motel from the bus depot which was under the Plaza Hotel, so we walked across the road and booked in. We dumped our luggage in the room got changed and went our on the town. I immediately fell in love with the place. I thought it was fantastic.

Stayed out all night found staying here could be very cheap. A meal of steak and chips for $4.00. we sat at a bar for some time buying bourbon mixers for a buck a pop and every second shout the barman would give us, on the house.

We staggered home to our $19 a night room, just as dawn was breaking, there are no clocks here but figure it was around 5:30am.

Found another note last night.

25/06/1985 Santa Monica

2011-08-07T13:10:00.001+10:00

Weather: 85F warn & sunny

Spent a couple of hours in the morning trying to recover yesterdays lost travellers cheque. Thomas Cook is a big British brand but not so well known in the US. Finally got that sorted, booked Greyhound to Las Vegas, booked out of hotel and now had a few hours to kill before boarding a bus to LA.

We grabbed a couple of beers, a bit o'lunch and hoofed it around the Santa Monica promenade and the pier.

Got to LA and Andrew found he'd lost his Greyhound pass. We'd purchased a 7 day Greyhound pass back home which was great idea. It allowed to jump buses when ever we felt like it with in a seven day period. All we had to do was arrive at the terminal and provided there were seats we just got on. But you had to have the original pass to collect that sectors ticket.
So far we're proving to be pretty crap travellers. Fortunately we'd had the smarts enough to make copies of all our travel documents and we were both carrying a copy of each others documents as well as our own. This proved to be our saviour on this day.

Finally we were under-way and arrived in Las Vegas in the dead of night at 12:50am.
Did I say the dead of night.

24/06/1985 Santa Monica

2011-08-07T13:06:00.000+10:00

Weather: 85F warn & sunny

Got very little sleep, the bio-clock is completely out of whack and my thoughts are constantly on the girl back home.

Today we'll go to Disneyland. That should get us into the groove.

Found some instructions in the hotel lobby on how to get to dizzy land via public transport. We're on a pretty strict budget, the longer we can stretch out the money the longer we can stay away.

Somehow we completely messed up the instructions. Bus didn't come that we were waiting for or maybe we were even waiting on the wrong side of the road. We went back to hotel to re investigate those instructions and start over.

We finally got onto a bus, made our way into LA, changed buses and headed out to Anaheim.

Then, as we're preparing to alight the bus and pay our entrance into the theme park I found I'd lost my wallet. Don't know if I'd been pick-pocketed or it just fell out. But it was a complete downer. We went in anyway but just could not enjoy it so we left after an hour. 1 hour in Dizzyland 3 hours bus travel, $100 USD (AU$142) down . Bit of crap day.

23/06/1985 Los Angeles – Santa Monica

2011-08-07T12:38:00.000+10:00

Hotel: Carmel, Santa Monica
Weather: 80F fine & sunny

Arrived LA. Customs questioned us a couple of times regarding money and travel plans, pretty sure we're suspected of wanting to work illegally. Started to get a bit travel anxious and felt like turning around to go home.

Tried hopelessly to change money. The Swiss Frank may well be a stable currency and in that way it's easy to keep a handle on your budget over a long stretch of time while other currencies our bouncing all over the place. But the average yank looks at you as if your talking with an accent.

The plan was to get a regular bus out to Santa Monica but exact change was required. Finally boarded a shuttle bus, $20.

1:41pm, we're exhausted, Andrews asleep and I've just found a love note from the girl back home stashed amongst my cloths in my suit case bringing on a severe bout of travel-anxiety.

Postcards from Jamaica

2011-04-20T08:21:00.000+10:00

This Was Leica’s First Digital Camera – 20 Years Ago

2010-12-10T12:13:00.000+11:00

This Was Leica’s First Digital Camera – 20 Years Ago

CameraAction.com

2010-07-26T08:13:00.001+10:00

Looks Like CameraAction.com.au is getting a face lift.
Any body else seen this?
CameraAction.com

Going Solar

2010-05-18T13:42:00.004+10:00

This past Thursday (May 13, 2010) I had my State Solar Services Solar System installed. The installers arrived late afternoon and didn't leave till the job was done. Great team. Unfortunately, it was night by the time the job was done so we didn't get to see the system working.
The next day I left for work in the dark and I got home in the dark. So again I didn't get to see it work.
Saturday I was home all day so first thing in the morning I rushed outside to see if my inverter installed in the garage was aglow with bright green LED's indicating I was producing power. Nothing.
It was early, it was overcast, and I had no real idea of what I was meant to be looking for anyway. I thought perhaps the system needed a lot more sun beating down on it to actually fire-up.
Then, mid morning, the sun came out. I bolted out to the garage, surely the system has to be working in this light. But, nothing.
So I rang the installer, in kindly left his number in case I had any questions. I had just one. What the?
Essentially there should be something on the inverters display panel but there was nothing.
So he came out the next day checked the system, in less the 3 minutes he called out from the roof to check the panel and sure enough I had a green LED and a power read out indicating I was producing almost 1kw of electricity. We ran round to the meter box to see the meter wheel spinning backwards.

Sony NEX

2010-05-13T08:47:00.002+10:00

Here's another great new Travel camera, the new NEX series from Sony. It's the same concept as my Olympus PEN but this camera sports a full APS-C size sensor, so it's not a 4/3rds camera but it is a mirror-less SLR camera. Strictly speaking the R (for reflex) should not exist. But that's whole other subject.
The Sony NEX is great size and a couple of things it has over my PEN is, the grip and full 1080i HD video. Essentially, if ever I have camera in my hand, I'm a still photographer, so I'm not turned on by all the hoopla of having video in my camera no matter how many horizontal lines of video your going to give me, I just don't care. But the NEX does sit in the hand very well and this is due to the well designed battery chamber, come palm grip.
Of coarse, not being 4/3rds, it's whole new lens mount, and requires a mount adapter to take even Sony's own Alpha lens series.
It's a good looking camera, it's completely functional with some great features like an up-ward pivoting 3inch LCD screen and sweep '3D' panorama,
It just lacks the style of my Olympus PEN.

My Review of 75cm HDMI v1.3c Cable High Def HDTV PS3 Bluray 1080p SHD075

2009-06-23T09:34:00.001+10:00

Selby Acoustics

For the ultimate high end performance!
Introducing the new Selby range of HDMI to HDMI cables. these HDMI cables are fully compliant with the latest HDMI version 1.3c specification making them suitable for use in all HDMI applications including Blu-Ray, PS3 and HD-DVD.

Nothing beats a Selby Cable

Rik Melbourne, Vic 6/22/2009

Pros: Good Length, Rugged, Consistent Performance, Awesome

Describe Yourself: Enthusiast

Primary use: Personal

I've replaced all my HDMI cables with Selby's own HDMI cables. The stand out feature for me is how robust they are. I needed to pull my cables through walls- and I was rough on them. I wouldn't recommend treating an HDMI cable like I have done but I wouldn't have risked it with anything less. AND there not expensive.

()

jave I been ConFickered

2009-05-30T11:45:00.003+10:00

On the 29yh May 2009 I came home from the office and turned on the Home Machine.
It wouldn't start. After some messing around I came to the conclusion that my config file had been deleted. like it had been flicked away. Is this what conficker has done. Did I have the conficker virus with out knowing it and now my config file has been flicked?

Japan

2008-10-28T10:04:00.002+11:00

I'm heading off to Japan next week and there'll be no toting of PC's, Mini or otherwise.
Really, who needs 'em. There'll be no iPod, no digital album or portable storage device and thereby a much reduced quantity of chargers and AC adapters.
I'll be carrying only my camera and my Nokia E71. The price of memory has dropped so far that I'll be carrying 2 8Gb cards and 2 2Gb cards. Giving me my 20Gb of storage that my Digital Album was giving me.
With the purchase of an international SIM card, my E71 will give mobile phone communication, SMS, GPS, and Web browsing along with City Guides, and navigation. My E71 will also give me, with the inclusion of my 8Gb MicroSD card, all the MP3 entrainment I'll need for the trip.
And all charged via my international plug-adapter with USB power output.

Camera Action Camera House: Panasonic G1 in Melbourne

2008-10-28T10:04:00.000+11:00

Camera Action Camera House: Panasonic G1 in Melbourne

2008-10-17T14:08:00.001+11:00

Test2

2008-10-17T14:01:00.001+11:00

2nd attempt at a test of mobile logging from E71

Sony a900 night.

2008-10-16T08:56:00.003+11:00

Sony a900 night on video, edition 1. Thanks Mr Adam.

Camera Action Camera House: History in the Making

2008-10-09T12:30:00.000+11:00

Camera Action Camera House: History in the Making

Camera Action Camera House: Photokina 2008

2008-09-09T18:47:00.000+10:00

Camera Action Camera House: Photokina 2008

Yeah... So I gave up.

2008-09-05T14:20:00.002+10:00

Yep... I gave up on the ASUS R2H and I've moved on to the HP Mini-Note (or HP 2133). I just wasn't getting the value out of the R2H that I thought I should be.
What turned on to the 2133 was the keyboard and the 9 inch screen.

Canon Digital Cameras

2008-08-26T15:41:00.005+10:00

In addition to the news of the Canon EOS 50D release today (Tueday August 26 (after 2:00pm)), Canon Australia will be launching one more Digital SLR before the end of the year. We cannot provide more details at this point in time, but please keep a look out for a big announcement.