Dwell On It » Personal

A mysterious cracking

Tateru Nino — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 16:50:28 +0000

The whole family, pets included, were in the living room earlier this-evening, when there was a very strange sound.

You all rock. Seriously.

Tateru Nino — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 11:05:37 +0000

In the end-of-month round-up, I mentioned that I was a few hundred dollars short of a new PC that I was saving for.

Well, not anymore.

Captain Flummox and the Perplexity Ray

Tateru Nino — Mon, 23 May 2011 09:38:47 +0000

So, I got a letter from the Australian Tax Office that my 2008/2009 tax-return needed to be resubmitted. The problem that I’m having is figuring out exactly where on the form to put an income figure.

No, not Second Life profits – that part’s easy. The problem is writing.


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The right choice

Tateru Nino — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 13:49:02 +0000

The story of Casey Heynes is doing the rounds. Heynes is a high-school student somewhere in Western Sydney, Australia, bullied for a very long time, and then finally reciprocated. Here’s some stuff about his story.

Now I’m going to tell you a story of my own.


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Drinks

Tateru Nino — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 10:42:06 +0000

New year’s Eve drinking. Here’s a sample.

Dear Amazon

Tateru Nino — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 05:46:29 +0000

Dear Amazon,

Yes, I thought I’d divert some of the blog profits and get myself a Kindle for Christmas. Yes, I placed the order a few weeks ago, now.

Yes, I understand that the expected delivery time for this Kindle will be sometime in mid-January. Apparently about an 8 week wait – and like other things that I have ordered from you in the past, probably coming by surface-mail from France, on a ship, and packaged in a sack (no, not kidding – every one of my Amazon orders over the years has turned up in a sack tied up at the neck, and unaccountably shipped from France).


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GPU temperatures

Tateru Nino — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 09:53:20 +0000

I’m a bit suspicious about the current state of my nvidia 8600GT video card. About a year ago, I was a bit concerned that it might have been overheating, leading to graphics corruption and crashes. I picked up a couple of tools to monitor the GPU temperature, and found that when it was under heavy loads, the temperature would get quite high – or at least what I felt was quite high – climbing into the low 80s.

That’s 80 degrees Celsius, just 20 degrees short of the temperature where water boils. I got a tweaking tool and ramped the fan profile up a bit, which kept the temperature peaking in the mid 70s, and all seemed to be well.

Yesterday, though, I discovered something odd.

An ending

Tateru Nino — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 18:03:13 +0000

Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Endings, even for the things we enjoy and treasure the most, are inevitable. They’re regrettable, but they happen.

Red light, green light

Tateru Nino — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:20:50 +0000

The local louts seem to be at it again, but they appear to have significantly upgraded their kit from the last time.


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Standards

Tateru Nino — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:16:54 +0000

I have an interesting observation. If the Australian Classification Board or the Australian Communications and Media Authority tell me that something might offend me… well, they’ve got a 100% miss-rate so far.

On the other hand, if I want to be offended, I just have to watch a commercial-break on television or (in a pinch) go out and look at a few billboards. You know, those things that they’ve generally okayed as being acceptable.


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An unusual find

Tateru Nino — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:16:02 +0000

You know how the old story goes. One of your in-laws visits, and the next thing you know, you’re down the road in old parkland with a metal-detector and digging holes.

Blessed silence

Tateru Nino — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 03:12:30 +0000

A while back, you might remember, I decided to get listed on Australia’s Do Not Call Register.

Having telemarketers calling in the middle of meetings, meals, television programs, while we were sleeping, and as late as 3AM … well, that was a pest.

I was fairly uncertain as to how well it would actually work. Would I get more calls, or fewer? After all, the DNC register would seem to be a handy resource for unscrupulous marketers.


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A moment of clarity

Tateru Nino — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 11:43:17 +0000

It’s going back a few years, but the company I was working for back then sent me to a Windows NT 4.0 launch event. A bunch of us went, though it didn’t really have a lot to do with us, but there were invitations, plus free food and swag at the venue.

A curious gift

Tateru Nino — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 05:20:25 +0000

I was given a curious gift this year, among the usual passel of fascinating stones.

A new career for Tateru Nino

Tateru Nino — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 03:07:06 +0000

That’s not a new career for me. That’s a new career for the other Tateru Nino.

Timeless messages

Tateru Nino — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 02:42:04 +0000

Waking up today has been a bizarre pastiche of instant messages from Second Life. At least two of them are identifiably from the beginning of November. The rest? Well, that’s a good question.

Reports are quite widespread about the old IMs suddenly arriving for lots of people, but I’ve ended up with a novel problem.


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Reprise and reprisal

Tateru Nino — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:59:08 +0000

It’s that day of the year again, and what I wrote about it in 2006 still holds true today.

Yes, it’s true

Tateru Nino — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 06:37:01 +0000

You might have heard that I retired from NCI (New Citizens Incorporated) earlier in the week. Yes, it’s true. I had intended to keep that relatively quiet to avoid influencing anyone else’s choices, but word has this way of getting around.

It’s been a good long Read more ...

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Waking up to the hungry sea

Tateru Nino — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:19:28 +0000

The first part of my life was like someone else’s life, and all I really got to do was watch it unfold. My life passed by as if it was a movie, and I felt little connection to it, the people in it, or the happenings.

The turning point came, one day, when I woke up. Or that’s how it felt. Like emerging from a dream.

There’s always a darn catch, isn’t there?

Tateru Nino — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:44:00 +0000

So, let me get this straight. The health-centre says that to get an assessment for case-management, one has to have a referral from one’s specialist. So, they encourage us to do obtain that. We do that thing (with a bit of scheduling awkwardness) and later, while grocery-shopping, they call with a time and a date for an assessment.


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