Just the facts, ma’am
This blog was originally intended as a way to keep distant friends and family informed of the goings-on in my life, in acknowledgement of the fact that regular email updates were unlikely to happen. Since then, it has somewhat strayed from this intent, partly because I have simply written about anything and everything that came to mind, but mostly because I have simply not written.
In an attempt to remedy this situation, here is a list of things I have done recently:
- bought a folding bicycle and started riding to work
- started using the gym at work
- bought a guitar and taught myself 4 or 5 chords, and on a good day even to play different chords consecutively
- bought a cheap display-less GPS device, and started geotagging my photos
- upgraded the iPhone to firmware 2.0 and lost all my nice applications (but got different ones in return, so I’m not entirely unhappy)
- started swing dancing again
- travelled to Spain with S (Barcelona, Costa Brava)
- put flower and herb pots on the balcony, and almost killed (some of) them by going to Spain for a week
- put a barbecue on the balcony, and used it exactly once - it’s far too big for just one person
- read a book about the interesting and complicated relationship between the Swiss and the Germans (a psychoanalyst’s wet dream)
- started classes to learn Swiss German (against the advice of the aforementioned book)
- started (but not finished) filling out a Swiss tax declaration
- started (but not finished) filling out an Australian tax return.
October 22nd, 2008 at 8:17 am
Is the folding bike any good? Worth the extra $$ compared to a `normal’ bike. I’ve decided my next bike purchase will be a tandem
started using the gym? cool - I’m on day 4 of an attempt to get fit too!
Get guitar lessons from C
I got a sony GPS datalogger. Still not overly impressed with the whole tagging/displaying process. Google earth seems a bit of a clunky way to view photos. What are your thoughts? What are you using to tag/display photos?
Two tax returns in one year - ouch.
October 22nd, 2008 at 8:46 am
Folding bike: yes, it’s fantastic. Folded, it doesn’t need a ticket to go on trams and trains, that alone is worth the extra dosh. Plus, it’s light as a feather (well, not quite, but still), which is a not-entirely-unintended side effect.
I have guitar tips from C, proper teaching is hard to do across the atlantic
Yes, Google Earth is too clunky for phototagging. Although if you turn off all the layers except your photos, it’s OK. I’m using something called GPSPhotoLinker to tag the photos, it previews the tag for you on a Google Maps map, and then I just upload them to Flickr which can display them on a Yahoo Maps map (yuck, ugly), and also export a .kml feed for you to put into Google Earth, Google Maps, etc… I’d like to use Panoramio but it just doesn’t have all the features Flickr provides.
And I’m still procrastinating the Swiss tax return. (Chances are I’ll get a tax bill, not a tax return, too.)
October 24th, 2008 at 6:26 am
hmmm bike on tram - sounds tempting. However, I’ve found that the bike and I can usually travel quicker outside the tram. There’s always the option holding on if you get tired! hehe
guitar lessons on skype perhaps? I’ll start learning the drums and we can have our own skype band.
I have gpsphotolinker. Haven’t tried flicker yet. My photos seem to sit on my hard drive or go to facebook.
Tax bills are never good news. The aussie tax man was good to me this year - the whole not working for 6 months thing paid off.