home again home again...

May. 23rd, 2025 07:10 pm
tielan: (SGA - teyla)
[personal profile] tielan
Going home today!

Seriously, I like travel, but not when work comes on top of it. Although being away from Sydney for the last two weeks has been good - the rain that is flooding northern NSW is also raining down in Sydney, albeit not as hard.

May need to check up in the roof cavity tomorrow to get an idea of how it's going up there. Might need to do a bunnings trip first for some decent lighting.

(ps. It's been raining pretty hard in Sydney the last couple of weeks. We're due for a few days' break shortly, just as I get back, hopefully enough to get the garden sorted out)

--

Last day on client site in Melbourne. Next week we're being included on the meetings (theoretically) and told about the issues that arise. And so begins the battle for (office) supremacy…

(ugh. I ate too much breakfast too fast and now I am having regret. Or indigestion. *burp*)

One of the issues in any translation from development to support is starting to recognise the issues that are arising and which ones are going to be perennial problem. There's also the manner in which we take on those issues.

I am a "we'll take it as it comes" kind of person.

My colleague (who is the team lead in this instance) is a "prepare for everything" kind of person.

So we are doing a lot of work to map everything out, determine what is going on, identify where things are happening, and look at possible solutions for issues that are not yet happening, but which might.

I personally tend to think that's a waste of time, but I am perhaps a little bit like the guy whose roof never leaks when it doesn't rain. Also, a lot of guys on the tech monitoring side tend to want pages and pages of directions. (Pages and pages of directions sends me to sleep.)

I'd rather dig out the issue myself than be fed what someone else thinks it is. Of course, that isn't how most support guys tend to think of it. And the up-tops really hate the "trust the techs, they know how to fix it" - which, granted, they often would find that maybe the techs in question don't know how to fix it as knowledge is lost between one support group to the next.

Next week, the processing of handing over the reins is supposed to begin. Whether it does, how much of it actually is given to us, and how we handle it? That's another question. I kind of miss the days of my last client, where if there was a problem, I would mostly fix it on my own cognisance. Then again, the system of the last client was set up to expect issues like this and things which might fall through. This client is a lot more insistent that every little issue be logged. I'm bad at that...

Oh well, colleague is on top of that at least. I guess I'm going to have to get up to speed on what's required to do this, that, and the other…

it will be nice to be home again

May. 22nd, 2025 09:20 pm
tielan: (you broke it!)
[personal profile] tielan
I'm mostly just tired. And the bed is doing my back in. Soft beds do this a lot with me. They need to be just soft enough that I can lie on them, but firm and flat - no dips in the mattress.

I want my cats. And my house. And my bed. And my space. I want to work from my office desk instead of commuting. (Okay, the commuting might be required going forward.)

I have met some excellent people while on this work trip, but also I am tired and I want to be in spaces which are mine.

tuesday

May. 20th, 2025 10:55 pm
tielan: kate freelander looking troubled (Sanctuary - Kate)
[personal profile] tielan
Went out to visit a friend at Malvern this evening - a FB friend who I've been chatting with about the last six or seven years. Faith and gardening, mostly, but his family was instrumental in some early missions to a section of Indonesia, and there were a bunch of people from those churches who had come to Melbourne for a visit, and so there was gathering and food and company and sharing of stories and theology.

It was great. I was a little apprehensive - I've never met this friend before in person, he's about 70, I think, maybe 75. Still pretty hale, and unfortunately still working. His daughters are my age and a little bit older (the older one was at the dinner tonight and we got talking about perimenopause), so he must be at least 75. But he's lovely, his wife is lovely, it was delightful to talk to a bunch of people and to watch the exchange of stories and histories.

At the daughter's suggestion, I caught two trams back, and I'm glad she made the suggestions she did. A lot better lighting and not so much walking past areas that are a little bit of a problem...

But now I'm back, it's nearly 11pm and I haven't had a shower yet. Need to get to that and get to bed.

No more social dinners. (I did one last night, too, with a writing friend from, oh, 20 years ago. We talked a little bit about stories and people and politics and so forth, and there was duck laksa and so much of it I ended up having half of it for lunch today!

Oof. Anyway, last two nights will be 'quiet' (ie. not social, that's the plan, let's see if it pans out hahah) and then it's HOMEWARD HO.

I'm like this after two weeks. Imagine me after seven weeks...

life

May. 18th, 2025 09:27 pm
tielan: (IM - pepper)
[personal profile] tielan
So, it's been good to meet some of the colleauges I'm working with. Others…well, they're typical 'guys in tech' and, moreover 'South Asian/West Asian guys in tech', which is to say they're very insular socially, and very closed when it comes to including an East Asian female in their outings.

people gonna peop )

--

Spent a great weekend with friends I haven't seen since their kids were much smaller. I've known B for over 20 years - since before she met her husband C (internet dating back some twenty years) - and although we've moved through very different stages of life, we're still good friends.

I gave her a draft (very drafty draft) of the novel, which I've started to fix/adjust/rewrite. Still trying to work out some of the details about the various characters, the various moving parts of the story, and where everything lands up.

We went out on both Saturday and Sunday, which is a lot for her - she has CFS and struggles with her energy levels. We went for a walk around the area on Saturday morning, and then out for dinner that night. Sunday was markets and then taking me to the station, and by the end of it, I think she was pretty exhausted and sore. At least she gets today off - she doesn't work, is on disability (FWIW). Her husband works, currently the service rep at a local mechanic's place and he's got the knowledge for it, but not the body. They've had a lot going on the last 18 months and are hoping for a stretch of quiet.

--

So the hotel is not as nice as last week's hotel in terms of the room and appointments (tile flooring all the way, no carpets, no rugs, and the layout of the room is kind of peculiar), but the location is considerably better for going out and eating and stuff.

Eh. I'll take it.

--

Tonight, I'm catching up with a friend for dinner, and hopefully another friend on Tuesday night. Wednesday and Thursday will be scrounge days, although someone has recommended a place in the city

--

Back home, we have a chicken possible graphicity )

--

Electorate next door has fallen in favour of the Independent. By 40 votes.

WHEW.

That's "automatic recount" territory, of course, but it's been very carefully scrutinised, and so the counts are unlikely to change.
tielan: (SG1 - SJ1)
[personal profile] tielan
3 degrees around here. The heater that I have is barely keeping the cold at bay. I think the space needs a few more curtains to cut down the area that needs warming...

Anyway, I'm just here for another night.

Good to catch up with my friend B, who used to be on LJ and has a DW account but probably hasn't used it in over a decade! I haven't seen her or her husband, C, since 2023 when her FIL died, and haven't seen her sons since...even longer. They were shorter than me when last I saw them, they have since shot up and tower over me at a 6-foot minimum. Haven't visited her family down here since before the pandemic, and she's had a lot going on in so many dimensions.

Got down here last night, ate pizza and had a long chat to catch up on all the things that don't get put on FB. Went for a walk today around town and did more talking about directions and futures and stuff, then back home for lunch, and out for dinner. Tomorrow is markets.

I gave her the rough (exceedingly rough) draft of my novel, and promptly found a bajillion spelling and name mistakes. I'm in the process of cleaning it up, but it's slow. Rewriting the next novel will be even slower, trying to fit everything in. There's a lot of stuff to get through!

For the cold tonight, I've piled a few extra things on the bed to help keep me warm - pillows, clothing, etc. It'll be fine, just a wee smidge colder than I'm used to (and I like things warm and toasty, but can't be helped). Like I said, it's only for one night.

Good to catch up with B though.

moar sleep achieved

May. 15th, 2025 08:19 pm
tielan: sam, daniel, teal'c in a lab when the lights go out: oops! (oops)
[personal profile] tielan
But not restfulness.

Off to catch up with a friend tomorrow and the weekend, back on Sunday to a hotel in the city.

Interestingly, I and one other guy are at the hotel where most of the others were last week...the others have been moved to a high-end hotel!

Anyway. I'm just glad to not be out here after tonight. Although how I'm going to manage to pack my bag again, I really don't know.

I'm going to bed now

May. 14th, 2025 09:22 pm
tielan: city of atlantis (SGA)
[personal profile] tielan
inexplicably tired. I even got 8 hours pretty solidly last night. (I think. I don't remember waking up anyway.)

Will try for more sleep. MOAR SLEEP.

Wish me luck.
tielan: aussie flag background with 'aussie aussie aussie' overlay (aussie aussie aussie)
[personal profile] tielan
The new members (the known ones at any rate) were sworn in today, and the Prime Minister (Anthony Albanese of the Australian Labor Party or ALP) presented his cabinet.

Yes, we do politics just that fast around here. Elected one week, sitting the next.

There are still a handful of counts taking place, some of them are going down to the wire. And I do mean the wire. The final date for ballots to come in (from remote and distant places where Australians have cast their votes) is this Thursday, I believe.

--

The conservative party in Australia, having lost their leader after he lost his seat, have been doing the whole 're-elect a new one'. Now, in Australia, party members choose who the new leader will be, not the voters. So there's a lot of in-party factionalism and back-and-forth.
 
Our options were: far right faction white guy with history of corruption who refused to resign from his ministerial position, moderate white woman with history of corruption who did resign from her ministerial position after being found out. There were assorted minor possibilities but they were all an outside chance, compared with these two.
 
Incidentally, white corruption guy came with an indigneous deputy minister in tow - an indigenous deputy minister who is far-right wing, opposed the Indigneous Voice To Parliament, and has just jumped ship from the "country" conservative party to the "urban" conservative party, leaving the "country" conservatives without a leader...
 
This is a party that has 'a woman problem'. They don't do quotas (unlike Labor) and it shows. They stuff female candidates into marginal seats, or anywhere where they think that a woman might beat another woman.
 
(Incidentally, one of those electorates where they put a woman they thought might beat another woman? They're up by a mere 56 votes in an electorate where over 100,000 voted! HOLY WOW. It's being recounted. Poor AEC workers, what a job!

I did say some of them were going down to the wire!)
 
Anyway, they voted on who was going to lead the Aussie conservatives in the coming months (at least until someone stabs her in the back) and it's the white female moderate. Who, if you want an idea of what 'moderate' entails, once gave a speech about how Australia would amount to nothing if not for colonisation.

Yeah.
 
We can't let the Americans have all the white supremacists, I guess...

There are, of course, those who will herald the election of the first conservative party leader as a master stroke. Every conservative female politician in the country (there aren't many of them) was photographed with a big grin and a positive note about how the conservatives have changed and how they listened to Australia and, and, and...

...think I'm gonna wait and see about how the conservatives have changed. Not that I'll ever vote for them again.

Actually, speaking of 'wait and see'-ing when it comes to leaderships...someone on Threads posted a picture of a whole lettuce...
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