The photo for the article was taken in the studio where we do the videos by the newspaper photographer. It was his idea to put all the Opto parts around me. Came out really well.
The video section also came up really well, again, just a testament not to me, but to the skills of the journalist and the video editor.

The print part made it into the business section of the paper on the weekend.

Nice to see quality work.

http://www.pe.com/business/business-headlines/20120511-industry-temecula-firm-gets-role-in-james-cameron-project.ece

Smart Car Road Trip

I wanted to go for two reasons;
1. While I was on the expedition, I would have ‘flashes’ of this very trip and just long for it. It was so noisy on the ship that the quiet of the desert was just a beautiful dream for me at the time.
2. Freddy and I love getting out and about and seeing stuff. In this case, it was the cactus flowers. Each year we have managed to be busy at this time of year and thus totally miss them.

I was all for taking the Rangie, but at the last minute, I thought lets take the Smart Car (still unnamed by Amy at this stage)… Honestly, I wanted to take it out on a long road trip and have it, well, for the want of a better word… fail… not fail as in have to be towed home, but fail as in have it just be uncomfortable and really not work out as a touring car.
Ever since we bought I have been thinking the thing is a bit of a joke. I have driven it a few times around town, and while it ‘works’, its just, well, meh.

Anyway, load up the camera case, some nibbles and off we go.
Our destination as you can see from the map is our old favorite, Borrego Springs. (The fudge and ice cream are worth the trip alone).

The trip out went pretty smooth, stopped at the usual look out for the usual photo;

We got into Borrego and was a little hungry…. Freddy spotted a Mexican joint that looked Ok.
Soon as we walked in we knew the food would be good, most of the people in there were Mexican… always a good sign when the locals are eating there…..
They were right. It was fantastic! (The fact that I could not order due to not being able to understand the waitress is a mute point).
Under duress, we did not eat all of it, wrapping the leftovers we headed up the street to get the usual three slabs of fudge (peanut butter, moca and chocolate) and a single scoop each of ice cream.
We headed out and once again stopped at the usual look out for a few photos;

(Note, there are a few more photos in the Ben Album).

On the way home we overtook a Lexas and VW something that were just not trying.
Got home and on Amys instance, we filled the car (she did not have to insist that much, I wanted to fill it up and check what the economy was like)….. right about here, things really changed…..
We did 162.5 miles and it took 3.761 gallons…. I will save you reaching for the calculator… it works out to be 43.2MPG.
Uh.
That’s 18.3km per liter.
The whole trip cost $16.54.
In the Rangie it would have cost around $75.
And thats not the worst. (well, it almost is)……

The ‘worst’ thing is we both had a total blast.
The thing handles way better than the Rangie. The seats are fantastic, neither Freddy or I were sore in any way after some 6 hours of driving. There is heaps of room inside the thing. The stereo is great. Its super quiet. On and on the positives go.
I set out with the frame of mind to not like it and just totally ridicule the thing and who knew… Turns out Mercedes know a thing or three about designing and building cars.

Go figure.

So, what to buy…. Well, here the usual thing happen, when you don’t know what to look for, you look for everything. Hours and hours and hours and hours was spent on Craigslist looking for cars.
We had been toying with the idea of getting a camper van that I could drive to work and back every day, giving the Rangie to Freddy to drive as needed and Amy the Passat, but the price you have to pay to get something half nice is just astounding, and way out of our budget, so we moved on from the whole mini RV thing.
Wagons were pretty much out since we already had the Rangie, Freddy talked about getting a ute since we have needed one a few times since we have arrived…. Anyway, you get the idea, round and round it went.

Finally I got frustrated and started to look for a car for me…. what would I like to drive…. since we already had the Rangie, it was pretty simple. A sports car. Convertible. Thanks.

So, thats what I started to look for.
Amazing how it all came together as soon as one of us started to look with purpose!
Before long I made my mind up on an Audi TT.
Craigslist turned up a few, one was well in my budget, it was at a car yard, so it was all set then, go and take it for a test drive and it was a done deal……

We get to the dealers and Freddy likes it, sort of. Its a manual. She makes her mind up, before we even sit in it, that she is not driving a manual…. Ok, well, it just so happens that parked next to it is a Nissan 350Z.
So, we do the logical thing, we put the top down and take it for a spin. Yeah! Loving this!
Right, so we go home to get the kids and run it past them (and give us some more time to think about it).
They want to see it…. So, back to the car yard we all go……
What did they think of it… well, take a look at this photo and see if you can tell…….

Two convertibles and that other thing

You can clearly see the sexy grey TT, and the super nice black 350Z… so what is the rest of the family gathered around…. yeah, a SmartCar.
Blah.
So they made their mind up, Smart Car it was.
Back to Craigslist and we find one as a private sale with only 13,000 miles (~20,000 kms), i.e., Pretty much brand new, it still had that new car smell to it, and at a price we could afford, so we put a deposit on and picked it up the next day. Tuesday, 2 days after I got back at work.

Here it is;

Not yet named Smart Car.

Amy seems thus far to like it the most (she can park it)… We are not rushing her, she can take a few months to chose between it and the Passat, either way, she owes us half of what it cost.
For now, everyone is happy. I still have the Rangie and Freddy and Amy pick and chose which car they drive (no offense, they are woman who don’t care what they drive, so hence the convertible thing).
Everyone gets to work and back and can run around doing what they need to do.

Terry? I still still drop him at school on the way to work, and Freddy picks him up, so for now, he’s all good.
When he gets to working, or if Freddy gets a job, we will look at the whole car thing all over again.

Yeehar.
Or not.

Its hard to fully describe exactly what has transpired over the past few months, so here is a link or two that will give those that don’t know what we have been up to, a bit of clue……

The quick version, care of Opto 22.

The long version, care of National Geographic.

Im looking forward to seeing the 3D IMAX movie latter this year.
There is also going to be a longer (2D) movie made for NatGeoTV that will air latter this year as well.
(We don’t have cable on, so I hope that someone will invite me over or record it for me).

Yes, I did take some photos, but not with my Canon, they did not allow us to do that, so I have some personal photos and videos that I took with my Android mobile (cell) phone…. So no, you will never see them unless you come over. We were all told that the photos we took were never to see the light of the Internet or email, so they are just personal memories.

Long story short, we, as you know, went to Sydney, to help out on the sub control system for 2-4 weeks, and ended up going to sea for the last 3 months. Pretty crazy stuff. Turns out I get really really really really really sea sick. Who knew.
We ended up helping out with the life support system, sonar computer, video recorder hard drives, audio and two way radio systems a bit as well…. as well as the Opto 22 gear.
Thankfully the Opto 22 programmer, Luis, was amazing, I have only seen a small half handful of people code our stuff like he did, it was a pleasure to work with him.
And yes, we did work with James Cameron on a daily basis. He was already in Sydney when I arrived, in fact he was the second person I met when I walked into the warehouse that the sub was getting built in…..

Not to sure how interested in what went down you all are, so I will leave it here for now, feel free to ask any questions, depending on what you ask will depend on if I answer it here or ask for your email address and answer you privately……

Its good to be back.

Im a bit like one of those bits of electronics. This web site is like a fiber optic cable.
I send information out to you all via this blog.
Yeah, its hit and miss, but I dont think I have gone much longer than about a few weeks before I light up and spit out something, useless or otherwise…..

The project that I have been working on here in Sydney is gathering pace and they have asked me to be involved in the next phase of its life.
That phase will require me to go dark for about 6-8 weeks.
Frustratingly for some of you, I still, even after all this + that time, cant tell you about the project. I have to wait for the NDA to be lifted middle to late this year.
You will just have to wait. I will come up for air at the end of this next phase and let you all know that I am ok (I hope) and blogging will just carry on as if nothing had happen.
From that point, you will just have to keep checking back now and then waiting for the gag order to be lifted. At that stage, I will have to find out just how much I can tell you about this project. Im sure I will be able to give you a lot of information, its just a question of if I can share any of the photos I have been taking (I doubt it, but I will see).

So, enough to say, nothing has changed for me up to this point. Busy working long hours, 6 days a week.
In a few days I check out of my little room and my internet connection gets really hit and miss (hence the going dark).
Mentally and physically, the next few weeks are going to be really challenging for me, its a coin toss as to whether I am more excited or concerned. Time will tell. (As it has a way of doing).

Blog at yas in a month or more.

But, as you have read in the past few blog entries, one of the things I am pleased about is that the room I am in is pretty quiet. Sure, there have been some noisy parties in some near by hall, but for the most part, its a quiet room…..
That said, I have come to relies that its not just the room…… I am not having my usual nap in the back of the Rangie at lunch time, the job is pretty stressful, there a ton of people going flat out around me all day, and they are long days……

Speaks the truth

I think I am getting home and crashing into bed around 8:30 each night. Some times earlier.
Sometimes I am up before my usual 4:30am alarm, sometimes not.

Anyway, what was it that lead me to consider that perhaps I am sleeping soundly rather than just having a quiet room?
This little event here……
Now, just in case the link goes down, here is the summery of the event…..
“Streets around a major Sydney hospital were locked down for five hours after an alleged armed robber fired shots at police and scaled the fence of the Chinese consulate.

The drama at Camperdown, in the city’s inner west, began when two men, aged 27 and 32, tried unsuccessfully to rob the Alfred Hotel on Missenden Road shortly before 1.30am (AEDT) on Friday.”

Um, this is over the road from where I am staying…. No really, its just over the road! If I look out my window, I can see the hotel!
I never knew a thing until I tried to go to work…..
Who knew, but apparently when the police search a building and they are happy the bad guy is not in there, they zip tie the doors shut from the inside… such was the greeting I got when I tried to get out and go to work.
Ended up having to do some parkour and jump off a balcony to get out!
Once out, it was like I was in a movie, there were police everywhere! Whole streets blocked off, there were scores of them!

Never heard a thing.

Oh, and I slept through the new years fireworks too.

Introverts. Deal with people all day. Sleep all night.
We are not broken. Do not try and fix us.

The only change was that I managed to slip away for a few days around Xmas and get up to Matts family’s beach house (on his mums side) at Avoca Beach.
Best few days I have had in 10′s of years. I cant recall the last time I took time off to do nothing.
Dont get me wrong, taking the time to help Dan build his place, Dad frame up inside his house, me to rebuild the bike, clad the house at Yendon and so on were breaks, and I am glad that I did them, its just that I cant remember the last time I did nothing for 4 days.
Matt has been at me for years to go fishing with him. The fact that he lives in Australia and me in California never once dampened his drive to make it happen, who could have planed me at no notice heading to Sydney to work on this job, that it went 3 weeks longer than we thought and thus I could find myself standing on Avoca beach, next to my mate Matt with a surf rod in my hand;

Got one!

A shoved nosed shark, took the hook out and let him go. We also caught a baby sting ray, same deal, remove hook and set free.
The biggest kick was catching dinner. I caught a whiting and Matt caught a flathead.
We stuck them on the barbi and ate them up yum!

Xmas day got off to a great start, left the house around 5ish and walked the length of the beach. Not my usual power walking, but a rare treat walk, a dawdle. Watched the surf crash into the rocks at the other end of the beach (about a couplula kays at a guess), and dawdled back. Hung out with the Matt family for an hour or so, then they took off to Sydney for the family dinner.
I had the whole place to myself. Slept, talked with Freddy on the phone, did my washing, watched the Australian Rally Championships stage wrap up (its been 4 years since I last saw it, had forgotten how much I love the idea of driving rally cars through the Australian bush), slept some more and went for another walk, then to cap off a fantastic day, headed down to the beach with my camera and ended up taking one of Matts favorite photos of mine. Day 52 of my 365, check it out on Facebook.
It was just a really nice day. Its been a long long time since I have been so alone, so peaceful and so relaxed.
The last day there, I headed down to the beach at 4am to try and catch a gimps of comet Lovejoy in the pre-dawn light. No such luck. It was cloudy, but the hour of just sitting on the beach (I was the only one there) watching the sun rise was worth every cloud.
Sad that it came to an end, really could have used some more time like that…. Hope its not 20ish+ years before we get a chance like that again.