- 5am is a beautiful time of the day -

Hi space monkeys.....

Welcome to my Saturday night.
I have yet to learn that important lesson about having a couple of quiet drinks on a Friday night.

Don't you find that the nights you've planned as the quiet ones often turn out to be the noisiest and most messy? (Oh, that's just me? damn!)

Last night was a good example.... planned to meet up with housemate mchunraha at the Epping hotel (our local) for a couple to celebrate the start of the weekend... met up with Jez on the way (nice one mate, about time we shared a couple of beers).

When mchunraha turned up we decided to go to a birthday party in Baulkham hills, so off we trundled in my little vehicle and ended up getting home around 5am. Mchunraha had to work at 9am, and actually made it (i know because i drove him), which was a pretty amazing effort I must say... I don't think I'd be able to do the same on 3 hrs sleep.

A good night, some great conversations about music, had a swim in their pool (I don't think they minded), there are some recollections about a guy wanting to kill me for talking to his girl (I was just talking... honest!)...

... so yeh, all good. ;)

A rather quiet one today though, as you can imagine... basically just sat around watching movies (Aeon Flux - again and LXG), went for a walk and did some work on my pink demon skull design (a few options of which should appear in my previous post)

I've rejiggenated my cafepress stores, now I have:

• oddlight
• bluedemon
• pinkdemon

So why not pop along and check it out.

...more soon, till then, something something something

...By special request...

one ^

two ^

three ^

four ^

five ^

six ^

seven ^

eight ^

hmmm.... now which one?
Any preferences peoples?

Geek threat: we'll take you down

Computer technicans are threatening chaos at fast-food outlets, supermarkets, banks and airports unless they get a pay rise.

More than 100 staff from NCR - a company responsible for repairing computer breakdowns at KFC outlets, Aldi supermarkets and Sydney Airport's baggage handling systems - are planning to to walk off the job on Monday morning.

"In terms of industrial action in the IT industry this is easily the most significant one we've had in Australia," said Australian Services Union secretary Sally McManus. If the strike goes ahead, it might last up to a week, she said.

"If you are Qantas and people can't get on planes, it's an enormous amount of money. For the banks, it's really the consumers who'll be affected.

"For KFC and Aldi supermarkets, if the cash registers are broken down it's going to cause delays," she said.

However, NCR area general manager, Noel Pettitt, said the ASU was exaggerating the potential effects of the proposed industrial action.

"I think that's a gross exaggeration," said Mr Pettitt. "I don't think it's a major concern for the community.

"If [the strike] does happen, and at this stage it's not certain, we have contingencies in place that will ensure that NCR continues to meet its service obligations," he said.

"We've re-jigged our workforce and arranged things such that we'll certainly deal with priority calls in the first instance but continue to deal with the balance of calls."

Mr Pettitt said the union had exaggerated how many workers would take part in the industrial action.

The strike has been called following a breakdown in negotiations over pay, Ms McManus said.

"[The workers] are concerned that NCR is attempting to stonewall so they can use the Howard Government's new WorkChoices laws to cut away at wages and conditions. These workers do not want to inconvenience the public, but have no option to achieve pay increases."

Mr Pettitt said: "We continue to work directly with our employees to reach a conclusion to the negotiations."

The union said their industrial action could affect:

- baggage handling and ticketing technology at Sydney Airport

- regional ATMs across Australia

- ATMs operated by CBA, Westpac, ANZ and some credit unions

- IT systems for Wollongong University

- KFC outlets

- Aldi supermarkets

- public schools with Apple computers

- private companies with Dell computers

... from smh

New Design!

THE barbecue is strictly a male domain, and now we know why.

Put it down to instinct, says Dr Mark Horton, head of the department of archaeology and anthropology at the University of Bristol, in Britain.

"Our early ancestors were doing exactly the same thing hundreds of thousands of years ago," said the visiting scholar, who was at the Australian Museum, in Sydney, yesterday.

"It is not surprising that even today, some of our behaviour may be influenced by instincts that developed through our long evolutionary history.

"This may include … why men like cooking meat outside on their barbecue, but women still feel they have a role preparing vegetables."

Dr Horton said hunting for game and sharing the meat was a key evolutionary milestone, from which rituals and a complex societal structure would have developed.

He said the human race had evolved over millions of years and much of what is described as instinct is actually behaviour crucial to survival.

"Our ancient ancestors left behind a myriad of clues on how they lived, what they ate, how they evolved."

Dr Horton will give a lecture on the role of diet in human evolution at Sydney University, at 1pm tomorrow.

Tongs, skewers and other barbecueing implements must be left at the door.