From: "Jon Roberts" Subject: Jon's Christmas Message to the nation..... Hi, Well this is off to a good start for a Christmas message ... Let me begin again.... MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL. (if you have a problem with Christmas then Hope you have a rotten few days and you shouldn't have any holidays to celebrate an event you don't believe in - Grinches..) Now that the Festive / Religious message has been dealt with I can proceeded with some news from Brisbane. // ::RECOMMENDED:: 1 COFFEE LETTER // Noske if I get a 30 pager it will just be deleted. For those who don't know I moved to Brisbane with Linda. Some time in July I moved to Brisbane - this was a bit of a shock, as the average nightly temperature was well below a comfortable winter low of 14 that I was used to in Cairns. We moved to Brisbane for several reasons - Linda's mum was sick and she felt it was a good idea to be closer to her, for me to obtain gainful employment, and for Linda to be closer to some cultural influence for her Playwriting. Linda was staying in Cairns to sell our house and to finish up her work at the Queensland Ambulance. She finished up, got a job in Brisbane at the Qld Ambulance working 5 days a fortnight - 3 one week 2 the next - an ideal job for her. We sold the house too - making a tidy profit on it. Linda's mum had emergency surgery about a month after I got here, which she was not going to survive . which she not only survived, but has since then become more active / more alert and much healthier than she had been in the last 10 years. A good out come for her (I attribute this to her having given up her 50 year - 70 per day cigarette habit 10 months before!) I got a job! I applied for several jobs and about 2 weeks later had had 3 offers for interviews (2 after I started my current job, and for worse hours and conditions). // ::WARNING:: - Tecknikal Info follows. // Sorry about the comments in my letter //::SPOILER FOLLOWS:: For those who are looking for a job, my advice is LIE. Just make sure that it is believable (has a little bit of truth in it) and that you can either back it up with some serious cramming or you are applying for a government job, which if you get you cannot be sacked from. I lied to get my job - I was supposed to have 2 years commercial Cold Fusion experience - (1 month != 14 months) // ::END SPOILER My job is GOOD (Just in case this ever gets seen there) and I ENJOY it (AND DESERVE A PAY RISE). I am a 'web developer' and am being paid a goodly amount to do this. I seem to spend more time playing with databases and system administration than web development. Php / MS SQL server - I get to redevelop the entire systems from scratch and have spent considerable time project planning and documenting for management (The company is slightly over managed and they LOVE charts and figures to death). When the IT Administrator is away - I am it - in the hot seat - looking after the systems for about 120 local and 50 wan users (in 6 different wan locations). For those who care - I am playing working with some nice HP UX servers, some windows 2003 servers with Citrix. I am helping debug some remote terminal services, and am also responsible for some embedded programming of marine toilets (don't ask..) which is fairly well beyond my job description. I work 9-5 and no weekends and no overtime. My coffee consumption has increased - I get free brewed coffee at work! So I make the most of it and it is not too bad, I am not too sure how I would rate it on Dr Phil's coffee scale, especially since they don't serve cake (or any other food for that matter). I AM IN THE 40 HR WEEK! AND I DON'T LIKE IT ONE LITTLE BIT. I am finding I need sleep. I got a Christmas bonus and am taking a holiday to NZ next Feb! Just to keep me sane, I took golf lessons, started a visual effects course and just recently started my MCSE / MCDBA and my Oracle DBA certification course. Currently I am in a nice enough house in Salisbury, and my niece, Reagan, Dr Boo (a friend of Linda's) and our 3 dogs (2 mine and Linda's one Dr B's) and our 2 cats live her - a little bit cramped, and very busy at times but fun. The dogs all wear elector shock collars to prevent their barking as the Brisbane council is a bit nazi and fines you $150 if they get complaints - the collars are amazing and I recommend them for dogs / small children or anyone else that makes a lot of noise that annoys you - Linda would not let me get the remote controlled ones which I feel would have been more satisfying , but these work really well. We don't have a TV, but internet has replaced my need for mindless entertainment, and I eventually have a somewhat reliable ADSL connection for a reasonable price, which has screwed up some of my ideas for setting up a web server - I am getting there though. // ::NERD TALK AHEAD:: I am fighting with Fedora Core 3 with the new security 'enhancements' - just a bit of a change, but it takes some getting used to and I just have to get it done. I am also looking at ditching APACHE for JETTY, and getting into some jsp / j2ee development for home use. I have got a 802.11b wireless network going, with SKYPE on my PDA - but it chews too much battery to be of much use I miss Cairns, and would like to go back, but some friends have come to visit (in no particular order): Noske came for a visit - so I took him to the valley for breakfast, tried to set him up with the slightly camp waiter, and then entertained him all day till his real friends decided that they could put up with him. Paul / Sarah & Shadow also came for a visit which was fun. Durrani also came - was going to visit but had a better offer from some people he was trying to impress ..:) Slider is here - although getting him away from his girl can be hard! I thank you for your patience and hope that you have a very merry Christmas and a good / safe / happy new year! if you are in Brisbane my contact details for now are : ... Oh if anyone is looking for a Christmas present for me : http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/FARMAC_WEEKSALE.htm would be a good start.