Dan Makovec’s blog

Skype and Spring

I tried out Skype yesterday and was most impressed. I’ll use it to phone Dad on his birthday and see how it runs Shame it doesn’t work on the Mac yet.

It’s almost July, meaning that there’s only just over 2 months left in our flat. Brian’s returning to Oz at the beginning of September when his visa runs out, and I’m staying till the end of September when my current contract expires. I have no wish to experience another northern hemisphere Winter’s this year, and instead intend to have a year long Summer! This will be my getting even period for when I left Australia originally, where I went from Winter over there to Winter here.

We’re still not sure of the details of our plans, but it’s starting to shape up thusly:
- We move out of our flat on September 6th when the contract’s up
- Brian flies to Brisbane on September 7th
- I get temporary accomodation for 3 weeks until September 30. Maybe with friends, or maybe I’ll just do a short-term bedsit rental. I’ll use the 3 weeks alone to do some cram study after work in order to improve my work prospects upon my return to Oz.
- October 1 I fly to Adelaide and catch up with family and friends.
- With a bit of luck, Brian flies in to Adelaide and we spend a week or so there together
- Around the second week of October, we fly to Melbourne and attempt to set ourselves up another new life

I’m looking into the possibility of working remotely for Yahoo while I’m in Oz, which logistically shouldn’t be too difficult; it’s just a matter of whether the company will approve. If not, I’ll have more study time while I look for new work.

We’ll give Melbourne a go for about a year and reassess our options then. If it really grabs us we’ll stay, otherwise we might try somewhere completely different, or even return here.

Still here!

Work life at the moment is alternating between moments of extreme boredom and extreme frustration. I’m playing DBA for all of Europe at the mo since my former cohort and only official DBA is on leave for the next fortnight.

Products in various departments are flaking out mainly due to crap table and index design (please people, go back to the places where you got your supposed crap degrees and learn about normalization), and queries that would make your head spin.

Still life outside of work is going well. On Saturday we just hung out at Southbank where they had a bit of a Latin-cum-Indian free music shindig going on. Brian, Guy and I chilled out to that while Guy tried to figure out his new Sony camera. Eventually as the weather turned a bit nasty and we felt drunk enough, we staggered across the Thames to Covent Garden for a cheap and cheerful Mediterranean buffet.

We had a bbq on Sunday, where I successfully managed to melt the table I put the barbie on. Not to worry, a bit of hard scrubbing with sandpaper should get it back into shape Ingrid, my former flatmate, came up and shared her tales of woe about life with us before we all happily collapsed onto the beanbags/sofa and watched Underworld. This movie seriously blew chunks but we didn’t mind. We spent the whole movie pointing out plot holes and remarking at how nice Kate Beckinsale looked in black leather.

Last night I hit the gym for my biggest workout since before I was so cruelly cut down in my prime by the ear infection. My fitness is almost back, and I ran 30 minutes straight at 11km/h before hitting the weights. The important thing for me is that the weights get easier. I never did weights last year so this is a bit different for me. At the moment they’re still a bit of a strain, although I am slowly starting to see some results.

Done at last!

As noted on a few sites (including this one and this one), we’ve released our efforts onto the unsuspecting public. I got to work some long hours on getting the premium (2GB) mailbox provisioning ready to roll.

I don’t know how much longer I’ll be with this company, but this marks a bit of a shift in the way they approach business. This is the first time they’ve launched a single product all around the world simultaneously - so they’re now playing like a big business. Naturally there have been a few hiccups, but they’re being ironed out at the moment. I hope they learn lessons from this project and use them for next time.

I actually think it’s quite good value for money too (although what we’ve got in store next month will be even better, tho less hard work for me thankfully).

Still, all things must end - not that I’m complaining: 12 hour shifts don’t really do it for me like they used to. Now I can get back to my regular routine, hit the gym and actually spend quality time with my boyfriend

Note to self

For Christ’s sake - stop mixing wine and beer! It only ever leads to one possible outcome. Don’t you ever learn?

Work’s a bitch

Just in case you’re wondering why I haven’t posted much lately - work is *insanely* intense at the moment. We’re under-resourced and with an incredibly short turn-around time. I’m putting in some major flexi-time. If everything goes well, it will be worth it, putting a nice end-note on my time here.

I can’t say anything about the project other than in the particular industry sector I’m working in, this will be the biggest news this year. Watch the press next week.

Airport Express

Yay! Finally a gadget I can look forward to getting! Apple have announced the Airport Express. I couldn’t help it - I ordered one this morning. It should be in next month