Denial is the First Stage of Rehabilitation

Well its official. My Christmas light madness has reached a new level. Yesterday while minding my own business, strolling through my local Bunnings Warehouse (damn fine Store! Highly recommended - no really.) I spied the Christmas Lights section.



Now somehow, my mind managed within a few microseconds to have already convinced itself that I needed more christmas lights. It then proceeded to force me over to the lights, and purchase said lights. Im a little scared and believe I may have some sort of obsession here. Even the good people at Bunnings seem to know me now, and even remarked "Buying more lights?".



Now as Denial is the first stage of rehabilitation, I believe I may be on to step two. Im not sure. Any phsycologists out there feel free to drop me a line and let me know how bad my phsycosis really is. In any event, I'm all ready for the big unveiling this weekend. Its going to be one long saturday hanging lights.

The Glorious Fourth

One of my old work mates has just released a single with his new Band, the "Glorious Fourth" The Glorious Fourth are a Rock/Pop 3 piece band from Newtown with
Kenneth Wallace: guitar, lead vocals, Dominic Thurbon:bass, backing vocals
Andrew Axton: drums.



Their debut Single "Six Feet Down Under" is awesome. Visit their website, listen to the samples and buy their Single! Stay tuned for the official launch of their EP!



Visit the Website!

Storms and Rain are My Bag Baby

I have to say, I absolutely love storms and rain. I'm not sure exactly what makes me like them so much. The sound of rain on the roof particularly when trying to drift off to sleep is just so relaxing. Watching storm clouds roll in, thunder and lightning is just fascinating. It's a shame that we are in a drought at the moment, it has been so long since we had the usual summer afternoon storms every single day.



I love summer. Long hot days, afternoon and evening thunderstorms. Its just fantastic! (as Long as My car is under cover of course!)

Product Placement

Marks Metaphorical Mofoisms is proudly sponsored by Pump! Bottling tap water and selling to you at inflated prices for years! 

Its Using the Trees!

Oh My God! I am... THE PREDATOR! hahaha - Comon! That was Funny! It just never gets old, does it. What a fantastic Movie! Rock On!



This was taken on one of many stupid trips in the car... Enough said!




 

"Who GIves a Shit" Week

Well those who know me may or may not remember "Who Gives a Shit" Day (I believe it was one of my birthdays) where we just drove around with no destination in particular, and basically just did stuff. Well, this is who gives a shit week. It's my last week at my current job, I discovered I'm allergic to bullshit and morons, so this place really isn't such a good fit for me. With that in mind, you can imagine my carefactor is verging on non-existant. To top it off, after an adventure in "wine" land yesterday I'm feeling about as seedy as wholegrain mustard.



Its amazing how liberating making a life changing decision can be. I mean, I could have stayed here for years/decades longer I guess, but that is not where I want my life to go. I want to wake up and want to go to work, to be challenged and stimulated (not that way you sick bastards), I want my actions to be appreciated and worthwhile. The exact opposite of my current situation.



Change is good. Change is inevitable. Go with the flow, have guts to make the change, have the guts to dare for more. Or don't. This isn't a communist paradise! You control your destiny. Fuck me, this is turning into one of those damn self help willpower seminars. On that note - Peace, I'm Outta Here!

How Long to Christmas?

Well, it has begun. One of my neighbours beat me to it! They already have xmas lights! Bastards! Even if they are fairly pitiful. I have already stuck a bunch of lights up, hopefully lulling them into a false sense of superiority. Next weekend I will be coming in with the big play, the 150+ metres of lights will be going up. Yeah baby! They won't know what hit them!



It is definately good to see someone else fostering that christmas spirit, christmas this year will definately be a magical experience! I mean, the first christmas together with my lovely wife, christmas lights and decorations, good food, family - its all there!

Singularity

Singularity is a research project focused on the construction of dependable systems through innovation in the areas of systems, languages, and tools. We are building a research operating system prototype (called Singularity), extending programming languages, and developing new techniques and tools for specifying and verifying program behavior.



Advances in languages, compilers, and tools open the possibility of significantly improving software. For example, Singularity uses type-safe languages and an abstract instruction set to enable what we call Software Isolated Processes (SIPs). SIPs provide the strong isolation guarantees of OS processes (isolated object space, separate GCs, separate runtimes) without the overhead of hardware-enforced protection domains. In the current Singularity prototype SIPs are extremely cheap; they run in ring 0 in the kernel’s address space..




Singularity uses these advances to build more reliable systems and applications. For example, because SIPs are so cheap to create and enforce, Singularity runs each program, device driver, or system extension in its own SIP. SIPs are not allowed to share memory or modify their own code. As a result, we can make strong reliability guarantees about the code running in a SIP. We can verify much broader properties about a SIP at compile or install time than can be done for code running in traditional OS processes. Boarder application of static verification is critical to predicting system behavior and providing users with strong guarantees about reliability..




Want to know more?



Singularity Website


Technical Report

All Systems Go

Well after another day "Working From Home" due to the Lane Cove "Hole" I managed to do a system test of my 2000+ christmas lights. I'm proud to say that I definately do not suffer from epilepsy as all 2000+ bulbs blinking was quite a sight. I did go into momentary convulsions, but they soon passed.



Im currently formulating a plan, to try and take over the world. Well, ok, two plans! One to take over the world, and one to figure out where to hang these babies!



Watch this space!

Melbourne Cup

Well, its that time of the year again. Now Im not a big gambling person, it could be that I don't need any help pissing my money away, or possibly that I just don't like horses (apart from their obvious glue making strengths). However, just for today, I will indulge in the celebrations (read: food and drink) whilst not putting down any bets.



Well, that was a fairly boring tirade. Surely I can do better, right? *shrugs* I don't know. I mean, I'm at work so thats a definate downer. I have 9 days of work left before I start my new job, well - thats an upper definately. So far, I'm neutral. Im sure after the first dickhead user of the day, I'll be back to my usual rantings,bitching and moaning about this and that. Stay Tuned Loyal Viewer!

Christmas Lights

I read with interest Mark and Shteeben planning on lighting the Southern Hemisphere with their Christmas Lights.

I LOVE Christmas and Christmas lights ........ beautiful!!!

However, the fun in putting them up and watching them twinkle pales into insignificance when you realise "what goes UP, must come DOWN".
Or else, leave them up all year like the old guy down the road - no-one will notice anyway because you would have cut the power to the lights and be running your entire house on the generator you now need because your electricty bill for December was the same as a small country!!!!!

Enjoy!!

Xmas Light Madness

Well, its official. IM about ready to commit myself to the nuthouse (pending an available suite of course). Over the weekend I bought yet more Xmas Lights. Im not sure what has sent me off on this wild flight of fancy this year, perhaps if the first xmas as a married man, perhaps Ive been taking too much of my "Class A" medications.



I believe I have somewhere in the vicinity of 1500+ bulbs, with an estimated 150 metres of wire. Now thats one helluva lot of lights. And through my thrify purchasing powers, quite cheap too!



Now I know this has the possibility of turning into a National Lampoons Style Xmas, and believe me - I know that would be cool! Now I just have to get up the carefactor to hang these mofos! Hmm maybe later!~

Mark V The Spiders: Episode 4 "Spider Genocide"

Ok, well I thought it was time for an update on Mark vs the Spiders. After a few more daring raids into Mark Territory, I have my own version of the Manhattan Project aka "Pest Guy" to come and spray the place for bugs, and particularly spiders.



Now far from admitting defeat, I think of this more as my independence day! For too long have these 8 legged assclowns been in control, for far too long have I had to be wary of the bastards!



With that, Im off to point and laugh at some spiders, for soon they will be history!

Rainforest

Heard the funniest line watching Seinfeld over the weekend. Just after Jerry learns that George takes off his Shirt when he goes to the bathroom he says "Knowing you is like being in a rainforest, Im scared and I don't know what I will find".



Anyway, I thought it was funny. Well, it is monday so who knows. Ah yes, Monday. I will put on my Garfield persona like a mink coat and announce "I Hate Mondays". Ah, that feels better. Venting usually does. However this monday seems strangely different to a normal Monday. I mean, its still Monday, Im wearing Pants, and Im at work - so what could be different? Maybe its just my state of mind. Im still unusually jubilent after my liberation last week, so perhaps it is still the throngs of my euphoria? In any event, Im not complaining.

Google Ads

Well, Im sorry. But ive gone to the dark side of the force. In short, Ive added some google ads to the site. I have made them as unobtrusive as possible, so please don't hate me! In short, they will fund the new mofoisms.net webzine which will go live soon, which will have no ads so bear with me!

Life Patterns

Ever thought about what you do every day, and wonder when it is you reach a point where you do something out of pure reflex or through learned behaviour. When does something you despise end up being a daily occurance, and something you "just do".



How often does other people's behaviour and actions shape our own? And how much credence do we give to such events? When do we lose touch of our true identity and become part of the huddled masses?



Who can answer these thoughtful, yet slightly obtruse questions I decided to pose this morning?

Hamburglar Hill

Well, its finally happened. I finally grew some balls and did something I was wanting to do for a long time. Quit my job. Marriage has definately helped me to get a new perspective on life. Being so happy in one portion of your life forces you to confront the areas of your life that arent so happy. Which brings me to my job.



Its a case of never really "asking" to work for this company. Unfortunately my nirvana was bought out by a bigger meaner Gorilla and subsequently shutdown. Instinct to survive kicked in, and Ive spent the last X number of years through countless restructures trying to remain employed. And for what? My heart isnt in it, Im not challenged, and im stagnating. My career is doing a homer simpsons (running around in circles on the floor going whoo whoop whoop). SO its time to make a change.



So I did it, I resigned. And I have to say, it feels good! Now time to get my career back on track!

Project Proliferation

I know steve has touched on this before, but its my turn to spin the preverbial wordsmith. Its amazing how many projects you can have on the go go, without actually achieving diddly squat with any of them, or even making any progress. Over the years I have definately started my fair share of projects. SOme really "out there" projects, some run of the mill projects. But when it comes down to the crunch. I havent finished many.



Reasons? Excuses? Damn straight. I won't strain the relationship by describing them here. Suffice to say I am lacking in several key areas - Carefactor and Persistence. In any event, I have decided to setup a project register and to formalise my endeavors on a variety of projects to better facilitate the development lifecycles. In short. Im going to focus my efforts on strategic goals and outcomes - and hopefully you will see some Mark-Brand Projects actually finished in the near future.

Cypress Lakes Golf Day

Recovery, and from golf? Damn straight. I was lucky enough to be part of a corporate golf junket day at Cypress Lakes yesterday! and boy howdy! What Fun! Our team came away with a second place in Irish FOursomes, and not only that - I came away with both longest drives (front and back 9) with a couple of monstrous tee shots. I tell you, there is nothing better than caning around agolf course on a motorised buggy, Beer in one hand, several standby beers in cup holders, pie in the other and playing golf.. Brilliant!



My Review of the Course



Brillliant, 4/5.



My first thoughts, for a championship course (and we played off the blue markers read: members tees) it was damn short. The front and back nines are much different. The front nine is very undulating, huge elevation changes and tight fairways. The back nine is more links-style with open fairways (large) with subtle elevation changes. THe entire course has heaps of bunkers, and not just bunkers. We are talking deep, contoured and sunken bunkers here. Water hazards are plenty, but dont bother you unless you truly do something stupid. The front nine has some awesome views, as does the back 9. Well worth a play if your anywhere near the Hunter Valley!

BrainBuzz

An interesting site with latest technology news and other information. Check it out! You won't be dissapointed, well, you might be, but its still cool!



Check it Out! NOW!