Magnets

It seems that someone from AIC Magnetics in Hong Kong has seen my fridge magnet collection web page. I think they misunderstood, and sent me an e-mail asking me if I want to buy some flexible magnetic sheet.

TV-B-Gone

After reading about TV-B-Gone (a small keychain device that claims to be able to turn off virtually any TV) I decided I needed something like that. There are many situations where I find there is a TV blaring at me that noone can do anything about. Unfortunately TV-B-Gone is not yet available in Australia. It was only the other day that it ocurred to me that my HP iPAQ 2210 has a remote control application (Nevo) in it. I got to wondering if I could use it in this type of situation. Anyway, the annoying (and loud) TV in the baby change room at my local Westfield is Samsung #26 in Nevo, and it works nicely.

Dishwasher

Yesterday I was permitted to use the dishwasher in our kitchen for the 3rd time in the last 3 1/2 years. I thought that rated a post.

Farewell Naomi - for now

Yesterday we travelled to Canberra to attend the funeral of Naomi Atkins. Naomi and Felicity were born prematurely to good friends of ours Graham and Karen in December last year. It is always difficult to go to a funeral of a small baby, but we found the funeral very helpful. It is good to keep in mind that as Christians God knew us while we were still being formed in the womb. We look forward to getting to know Naomi when we see her again in heaven.

I just finished reading Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (web site about Margaret Atwood). It is fiction, but very well researched fiction, and kind of along the lines of The Handmaid's Tale. It deals a lot with genetic engineering, but is quite a thought provoking look at where our society is going, particularly with regard to the influence of big business and governments on our society. I highly recommend it.

Nasa's Earth Observatory has a great satellite photo of Zurich today.

Sad news today: My iPAQ met with misadventure yesterday. Serious misadventure. Terminal serious misadventure. Screen smashed, case bent etc etc. It has been really strange, because I keep going to look up stuff in it, but then I remember that it's dead.

I found a great site about bushwalking today: The Australian Bushwalking & Camping
Reference Site. There are lots of great walks on the site all over Australia.

Another interesting view on what happened to Beagle: "Americans have found SOMETHING (aliens???) on Mars and wont let anybody to see it. It is classified. So Oddyssey reprogrammed Beagle to remain silent."

It seems that after NASA thought they had lost their first Rover they have now found it again. They seem to be scratching their heads as to what went wrong, but I think the cause is obvious: My first option was right on the mark, and somehow ... Beagle 2 is back, and it's NOT HAPPY.

Look, the Brits may as well give up now. It is quite clear that Beagle 2 is dead. I think the more important question is: Why won't the 2 American Rovers help look for Beagle? So far I have 2 possible answers:

1 - The reason Beagle 2 is missing is because the Americans shot it down. They didn't want to be upstaged, so they took the appropriate action. In space noone can hear you scream (etc). They are hardly going to help look when they don't want it to be found now are they?

2 - The American probe never went to Mars, nor has any American probe. All the pictures are generated from a small special effects company outside Hollywood. How do we know they really went to Mars? Because the pictures look similar to the ones from their last successful Mars probe? And I suppose you think that that one really went to Mars also?

On Saturday I finally got a chance to walk some of the coast track in the Royal National Park. We walked from Wattamolla to Garie. The scenery is amazing. As with the Spit Bridge to Manly walk, I will upload a GPS track log file when I get around to it.

Names, names and more names. What makes a good name? In particular, what makes a good name for a cat or a dog? A difficult topic, but after much discussion, good dog names include Max, Sid, Norman, Boof and Tracey. Good cat names include Sharon, Henrietta, Sabrina and Charles. Apologies to humans with these names who disagree.

Monday morning after a geocaching-less weekend, and someone has found M5 madness. After having searched for this one unsuccessfully for ages, I feel encouraged to have another crack at it.

Today is the first day back to work after Easter. It is also the day of my friend's funeral, which I am not going to be able to make it to.

How was your Easter? Mine involved a lot of travelling to see various family & friends, some of which I dragged along do do a bit of geocaching.

Hecta and Stinker came with me to find Avards Close Encounter, which had a great view out over the flood plains near Gunnedah. (We didn't see any koalas.) Hecta was also with me when we found Beyond the ... near
Coolah. I never realised that there was an actual black stump. Well there you go.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...

Death is back again this week. I found out last night that a friend committed suicide on the weekend. This is never the kind of news you are expecting, and it is never easy to take.

As a Christian, coming face to face with death really increases my longing for the day when there is no more death. My friend was also a Christian, so I look forward to seeing her again on this day.

Another friend was on TV last night talking about how he is managing to look after his child since his wife died in child birth last year. It is a year since she passed away, and it was strange to see pictures of her on TV. It is great to see how God has blessed them since then. I know a number of people who are looking forward to seeing her again in Heaven.