Lost In Translation Issue #1 : Getting my sh*t together

With my trip fast approaching I have kicked my efforts to get ready into overdrive. Yesterday I took a trip to Hay Street to wander into Kathmandu, Main Peak and Paddy Pallins to ask about Backpacks.

I really hate buying things I have no idea about. I am used to having at least some knowledge of what I want and (perhaps more importantly) WHY I want it. In my efforts to acquire a pack I really am stumped.

While all the sales people were very helpful but I was presented with a bewildering array of backpacks, ruck sacks, travel bags, hybrid packs and every single tool of carrying around a bunch of shit you could imagine.

"Was I going to be walking with the pack" asked the sales man.
"I guess so, who wouldn't be" says I.
"Well you'd want this pack, but if you're going to be WALKING with the pack you'd want THIS pack." responds sales man.

Really helpful. The whole time I was looking I was conflicted. Would I buy a pack just to travel with, or should I buy one I could keep on my back for days at a time? Do I want a pack with a zip off day pack or a clip on? What is the difference? Why is this pack made out of hardcore material while this other is parachute silk? Do I need a million pockets or just one? Would my choice in colors offend some tribe in some random village in remote Africa? It's all just so confusing.

Today I will be heading back into town to check out the few packs I think I have whittled the selection down to and I will post on which I choose.

This is the first in a series of articles on my holiday. From now on keep an eye out for "Lost In Translation" articles to get a recap on major events. Look for the "Lost In Translation" tag to filter the site by these articles. I will still be writing other random articles in between these more focused entries.

couch-review.com is back baby!

After quite the extended hiatus I am pleased to announce the return of couch-review. Sporting a new design and running off blogger the new couch is going to be a dedicated trove of info on what has been going on lately with me.

I managed to get my flickr account hooked in with this puppy too, so blogging of some of the better photos of my holiday should be easy.

I was quite surprised how flexible the Blogger API is, and over time I will create some of the cool ideas I had planned writing in my own blogging tool using this API.

Anyways enjoy and keep coming back for updates on my trip to Japan.

My last day!

Well, today is the last day of my job at changecorporation. Over 3 years I have worked there and in that time I have seen almost every face come and go. After the owner there is only three other people that have been with that company longer, with the next longest serving after me joining a few months later than I.

This is the first time I have ever "left" a job. The last place I worked was closed down and everyone made redundant, and before that I just kinda stopped getting hours assigned to me at Kmart because I got more and more expensive the older I got.

It feels good to finish. Sorta like closing the book on a chapter of my life.

Change hasn't been a bad place to work. I have enjoyed most of my time there. As always its the people you work with, rather than the actual work that make a job. Shout outs to all the peeps that I have had to the pleasure of knowing in my time a change, there are just too many to name, but they know who they are :)

After today I have a month off, during which I shall be travelling to Japan! 2 weeks of craziness in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka.

Keep watching couch-review.com for updates on my trip and photos from my adventures.

Xbox Live is down. Nerds around raise their heads and stare blinking into the sun...

Xbox Live went down today, an event that doesn't concern me all that much but really does illustrate something I really don't understand about this generation of gamers. Major Nelson posted on his blog news that the service was down and the team were working on the fix. Was this enough to placate the gaming masses? No. I don't know why I keep being suprised but people are just getting ruder and ruder. The service was down for a couple hours but straight away people start complaining and fretting about not being able to play. Its a couple of hours! Take a break, do something else. Is your life so boring that your entire existance is playing on your gaming system? Surely there is something you can do while waiting a couple of hours for a service to come back online other than complain on forums that the service is offline. Sheesh.

My Mazda Mx5

A great photo of my car as it appears on flickr

Test blog to see if I am really not crazy

I am having trouble hooking flickr into my blogger account. The flickr guys are being very helpful, but I am pretty confused. Annoyingly I had to great a Yahoo!ID which means creating a Yahoo Account. I am not a big fan of Yahoo, but flickr is such a great service I did it anyways. So now I have accounts and usernames and passwords all over the shop. I hope they can help me fix up my problem

Blogger out of beta? What beta?

Apparently blogger is out of beta. Interestingly enough the "beta" I participated in is extremely different to that which was released in the last few days? I am not sure if Google particularly understand the whole "beta" term. Before anyone starts up, yes, beta software ALWAYS differs from final software, that's the point, but when it differs COMPLETELY from the final product then what was the point of beta testing. Lets see some of the major functionality that changed this the move from beta to release.

• Completely different registration system. Users must now have a google account to join blogger. Did I get to test this in the beta? Nope.
• New tagging system. A great new feature, but it just appeared out of no where. Did any people participating in the blogger beta get a go of this before release.
• Completely new publishing system. A very crucial part of blogger, changed for release. Surely this should have been tested in beta first.

There are other changes around the shop, but the point is: Don't call your site "beta" if it ain't really in proper release cycle. People love jumping on the beta naming bandwagon, but please just stop with the buzz words.

First Post!

Not suprisingly, this is the first post. Mainly for testing and layout purposes.