RPGs and Wikis
Looks like using a wiki is becoming more and more popular for roleplaying games. I've just had a friend ask me for help in setting up GalanWiki for his game.

Fish
I've been sorting through my diving photos, and should hopefully get a number of decent ones up from our trip earlier this year. In the meantime, here's a friendly fish that we found (click photograph to enlarge).

Training in New Zealand
Finished a week presenting Perl training courses in New Zealand. At the end of the last day I handed back my access card, wished goodbye to the students, and promptly locked myself into a back room of the training facility. After a few phone-calls and only 40 minutes of solitude I was released.

Aside from that, training went quite well.

Daniel and Tomoko are having a child.
Daniel and Tomoko have just announced that they'll be having their first child, due in the middle of 2005. Dan visited briefly yesterday to tell us the good news.

We had a short discussion on the difficulties of naming children, particularly finding names that sound good across multiple languages. It was felt that while my suggestion of Spike certainly had character, it was not considered a suitable name, not least because it doesn't sound any good in Japanese.

I'm certain that Tomoko and Dan will make excellent parents. In order to allow their existing computer room to become new the baby's room, Dan is even purchasing a high-performance gaming laptop with a 1900x1240 display. Now that's dedication.

General thoughts while diving off Bundaberg
The diving here is great. The water is warm, we've got a huge variation in sites, and visibility is good. We've seen white-tipped reef sharks, huge wrass, an octopus, a ray that's wider than my desk, and more sea turtles than I can count. Even the dull dives have been exceptional.

However, looking at all this beauty also makes me aware of the damage that divers are causing to the reef itself. Most divers are quite environmentally aware, and have a 'look but don't touch' attitude. However, I've also seen plenty of divers that have poor buoyancy control and awareness. They go crashing into the bottom, they knock things when turn, and if they're distracted they'll drift into coral and other obstacles. I've been determined to avoid doing the same, making a concerted effort to stay aware of my buoyancy and situation at all times, but in in strong currents or crowded situations I find that mistakes still happen, so I'm certainly not blameless.

However, none of this damage compares to that done by the boat itself. While the skipper tries very hard to drop anchor on sand or rock, it's not always easy to tell by the sonar, and the anchor will naturally drag along the floor until it sticks. Sometimes it's quite clear that the anchor has caused significant damage, or will cause damage when it is lifted.

In the Whitsunday Islands (further north, and more protected) this problem has been solved by the deployment of permanent anchoring buoys. Ships are not permitted to drop anchor, instead they must attach to a buoy instead. If no buoy is available, then the ship is required to wait until one is, or move on. I'd love to see a similar policy in place for the rest of the Great Barrier Reef region.

Note: These entries will appear out-of-order with regards to the rest of my journal.

Day 0, Melbourne, 2004-12-27 13:01 (GMT+11) -- Be nice to everyone

I'm going SCUBA diving interstate, and I'm bringing my own equipment. Even without tanks and weights, it still weighs a lot. The bag I carry it in is also reinforced, to protect it from damage, and so it weighs a lot as well. I'm only allowed 20kg worth of baggage in checked luggage on the flight, so I'm expecting to pay an extra tariff for the excess.

I arrive at the airport and things are pretty quickly, so I quickly get to the check-in counter. I smile, show my ID, mention that I have some heavy bags, and ask about how the attendant's day has been. First bag goes onto the scale -- 23kg. Yikes, I've still got another one to go.

The attendant asks about my weekend, we talk about the holiday season and what she has planned. Second bag goes on, 8kg, putting me over 30kg, so I'm looking at a $20 tariff. I ask politely if I may be able to remove a kilogram from one of the bags and put it into my hand luggage, so I can squeeze under the 30kg limit.

The attendant says that she has a better idea. Transfer some of the things from the lighter bag (8kg) into the heavy bag, and then I can take both my laptop and lighter bag as hand luggage. When I enquire she explains that yes, usually my hand-luggage quota would be filled by my laptop bag, but as the flight isn't full there'll be plenty of space to carry on a second bag. It doesn't matter that the bag is bigger than the allowed size, nobody ever checks that anyway, and she's giving me special permission.

I thank her graciously, and transfer some books from the light bag into the heavy bag, bringing it up to 25kg, and she checks it in for flight. My lighter bag now weighs 6kg, and I'm asked if she can weigh my laptop. Uh oh, I know that bag is heavy, I tend to carry things like spare batteries, chargers, wireless mouse, headphones, books, USB keys, cables, pens, pads, and all manner of bits and pieces as well as the laptop. The bag weighs in at 8kg, which is more than the hand-luggage weight limit. The attendant smiles, says that will be fine, and wishes me a good holiday.

Now, my checked luggage is still more than the 20kg allowed limit, so I ask how I'll settle the $10 tariff that I'm still expecting to pay. The attendant lets me know that for only 25kg it isn't worth charging me a tariff, even though I'm overweight with my checked luggage, as well as carrying on board twice as many pieces of hand luggage as I'm allowed on the ticket. One item of hand luggage one is oversized, and the other one is overweight.

I'm obviously thrilled not to be paying the tariff, and wish the attendant a very very happy holiday period and new year.

The moral of the story is that if you're nice to other people, they will be nice to you in turn.