Chickens
We rotated some of our chickens this weekend. Two of the older chooks have gone to 'a nice farm' and we have four younger chooks to take their place. They're in the exciting colours of brown and white.

Pain
If you want a painful experience, then try requesting an Australian Business Number, Tax File Number, and other associated registrations using the on-line forms at the Australian Business Registry. The number of crashes, inconsistant validation, and other glitches meant that I had to make no less than three attempts to complete the forms. In no case did my 'saved' forms actually save. Urgh.

Stress
I can't wait until we hit the easter holidays and most of my current projects will be finished, and I'll be able to catch up with an incredible backlog of paperwork and things-to-do.

Running a business and bein that business' main product leaves one with very little time for anything else.

I'm going to try and move towards a more academic role in future. More reearch, more writing, more speaking, and less commercial-client work. This will probably mean a lower income, but more available time, and a higher quality of life. I'm willing to accept that.

Work
Busy busy busy. Off to Brisbane and back again, lots of time at Monash, and very little time in the office. That means lots of stress. I'm looking forward to when things quieten, but that probably won't be for another six weeks.

Fruit
Had my first taste of Durian today. It was, well, very pungent, as Durian are apt to be. Jacinta coped with hers better than I, and our rabbit Shadow didn't want any at all. The whole place stinks now, no wonder you're not allowed to take them into hotels.

Orkut
Received an invitation to orkut the other day from Ian. I was skeptical at first, and as many people have pointed out orkut have quite an EULA. As such, I'm making sure I don't say, post or do anything on orkut that I want to retain any rights to.

Despite my skepticism, I've found orkut to be an enjoyable place, and I've even tracked down a few old friends from it.

The forums code really needs a re-write, though. I haven't been able to find any way to 'watch' a thread. Actually, threads would be nice, currently everything is just a linear topic.

The ability to post to everyone in a community is also rife for abuse. I'm certain it won't be too long before we have spammers creating accounts, joining the big communties, and then sending out messages on their latest 'products'.

Slack Alert
I'm currently doing some routine maintenance on some clients machines. Nothing unusual there. What is particualrly nice is that it's a beautiful day, I'm comfortably reclining on the bed, I have streaming techno up far too loud, I have a big cup of tea next to me, and no wires connected to the laptop. di.fm is even playing a remix of one of the Art of Noise songs. Sweeeeeeet...

It's not really slack. A happy worker is a good worker.