Christmas has come and gone since the last update (how quickly time passes near the end of each year... like... sands through the hourglass...). Things have been very busy but I'm taking a little break over the holiday period. I figured: everyone else is, so I should, too. Christmas was interesting as always and the usual trip out of town was on the cards - again it was a very hot day, though not as bad as last year. The importance is in being able to spend time with family and friends, and it was good to catch up with some of my relatives that live a long way away now.

The last two days have been spent doing a lot of house work and striking things off the To Do list. Today consisted, among other things, of moving the old pinball machines to their new location, freeing up a massive amount of space from the garage. They're now in the old office room where they can be played and worked on. The two are Gottlieb's 1973 machine High Hand and Stern Pinball's 1977 machine aptly named Pinball - the electro-mechanical version; a solid-state version (electronic) was also released - what I shame I got stuck with the EM release! The idea of selling one or both of them had been entertained, but a few minutes of playing them squashed that idea ;)

I've done a little more work on The Getaway recently, fixing some problems and doing more general cleaning (the amount of grime throughout the interior is astounding). It still needs a lot of work but each time I open it something gets fixed, fine tuned or cleaned. Slowly it's becoming faster and more reliable. Despite the myriad of cuts, scratches and other tetanus-instigating injuries that result from working on it, I find it very enjoyable.

I went on a "pay for play" pinball installation hunt recently but only discovered a badly maintained Twilight Zone in Virtuosity (appalling; it made me cringe to witness such a level of neglect).

On the topic of pinballs (you'd think I was addicted or something), I spotted a nice (and cheap) ST:TNG on eBay but was discouraged from buying it due to space concerns (not that it's a problem now, after cleaning out the garage!). I'm kicking myself; it went for only $3000 and it's worth far more!

But moving right along...

This has been a strange year for me. People have stumbled on good fortune and dropped out of it. There have been deaths and near-deaths, suicides and births. I've been both enlightened to and obscured from the reality of many things, including myself. Overall I've accepted that there are some things that cannot be rationalised and for which no logical explanation exists. People change, evolve occasionally, but none of us can escape moving forward.

(it's the remnants of caffeine talking - time for bed)

Did I mention how I hate the P3P system and IE6's default 'privacy' settings?

Oh, I did.

It's again been quite some time since an update due to, well, life!

Mostly I've been working, sleeping, working, and so on. On the weekend, though, I headed to Fraser Island and spent the day there with some family and friends as a kind of Christmas get together, though it was so hot that we all spent most of the time at the Kingerfisher Bay Sand Bar and under cover (and for me, most of that involved becoming addicted to a Bally 1995 pinball machine Attack From Mars - it rocks, and I want one!).

Speaking of pinball machines, I've had a few spare minutes to do little fixes here and there on The Getaway, which you can take a look at over here.

Work has been busy; the professional learning community portal (which USHS will be using) is nearly complete and is looking very nicely. They're impressed with how it looks and feels, and so am I. Similarly, work for BLS has almost been completed and only the hosting is holding it up at this point. It's difficult to put a website online when you can't contact the people who are hosting the site to get them to set up the database!

And the major news, for me at least, is that TheHandle.com is online, finally! Amazing, but true! I'm happy to be able to get it online by the end of the year as so many things have been prioritised ahead of it. Splash helped me iron out the bugs in the shopping cart code and ensure things weren't going to break - there were several bugs I'd missed. The Urban Explorer tees have come out just the way I'd hoped.

Oh, my business cards have finally be printed and look fantastic - another little thing that was long overdue.

More updates soon!