A simple tribute.

I was woken up this morning at 4:15, by the portable house phone that was sitting next to my bed.
I had taken the phone from its usual resting spot in my parents room because they had gone out to dinner and I was looking after my little brother, and now, I sat bolt upright in bed and extended my arm to silence it before it woke the whole house. It was my mum on the other end, asking for my dad.
As I ran down the hall to my parents room and handed the phone over, I knew something had happened to my grandfather. He had been in hospital for two days, and before that, a week, following a series of abrupt ailments, each brought on by the one before.
At 93 years of age, it would have seemed foolish to think that everything could run smoothly forever.
Moments later, my dad came out of his room in a hurry, and picked up the car keys, saying my grandad had passed away, before leaving to pick up my mum from the hospital where she'd been with him for the past three hours.
I went back into my room and waited until they came back. When they did, mum could hardly speak, and when she could, she briefly went through the last things she had said to him.

My grandad was born in 1912, and his full name was Charles Edwin Ross.
His father was a man who had changed his family name to Ross from Hull after leaving his English home and settling in Canada in the late 1800's.
To be brief, Charles was truly the most fascinating man I've ever known.
During his life, he encountered situations that nobody today could possibly experience. He was one of those people that walked 10 miles in the snow to get to school, who also fought and endured the second world war. He was an incredibly gifted, kind and genuine businessman, started one of the first globally networked shipping companies, worked in the British Secret Service for a number of years, and moved to Australia to start a family.
He traveled the globe, even to the most remote locations for business, and later leisure, and learned a number of foreign languages. He was also an amazingly modest and polite man, always thinking before acting, and always acting respectfully to everyone.

There is no way I can describe him that will do him justice properly. Like anyone that knew him, I feel now that the world has lost an incredible and remarkable person who gave so much to so many people. There is something to be learnt from everyone you ever meet, and Ted Ross had the most amazing things to teach.

We will all miss you.

James

Xafricialism.

For all those of you out there that enjoy the word Xafricialism, please comment below and explain why..

Well I've had a marvellous week I have to say. Even though it's been a while since my last entry (and I have a valid excuse for that.. Wow, that's scary.. Look at the time for this entry and the last one..).
Anyway, the explanation is as follows: I had work, more work, more work, plus a little extra work on the side, followed by more work. I guess that's enough of an explanation for ye. Then after that gargantuan overload of labor, I had a weekend away with some mates of mine at Portsea, which consisted mostly of singing, dancing, smoke machines and plenty of drinking games..

After all that, I'm only now realising that I can have more of a rest at home watching the entire first series of Battlestar Galactica.. Man that's a cool series.. But not necessarily as fun.

Jimzip :D

Curiosity (almost) killed the cat..

We recently bought a small white kitten, I'm talking less than a month ago, and already, it's life in the Wilson household has been frought with peril and danger.
New rules such as keeping the toilet seat down, watching behind you when you close a door, and not hanging clothing on the furniture have become common place and routine for the residents here. But no matter how much effort is made to protect the small fluff-ball from impending doom, it seems to still find itself constantly battling on a day-to-day basis with the threat of losing one of it's nine lives in some garish manner..

Some situations I've found it in include things like hearing it meow from inside the dish-washer just before closing the door, seeing paws under the fridge door as I return the mayonnaise to the top shelf, and seeing a tiny distorted outline in the back of the couch, followed by two sets of claws poking through the fabric.
But undoubtedly, the most interesting brush with fate happened yesterday.
I was in a nearby suburb buying some green fabric to make a green-screen in my back yard for a compositing assignment, and my sister (still at home) had decided to take kitty out into the garden for a frolic. I returned 20 minutes later to find my sister by the letterbox, staring into space and talking in a panick-stricken tone to herself..

Now before my better judgement took hold I was about to gently apply a cloth doused in chloroform to her airways and make sure she stayed in the garden bed while I called the psychiatric ward, but I soon realised that she was in fact staring at the top of a very spindly, leafless tree, at the top of which sat Cino, the cat..
An hour later, the fire brigade left. We took the cat back inside, scolding it, but gently, and with milk, and made sure all the doors to the outside world were shut. Needless to say I took the liberty of booking the cat into the vet to have it's claws clipped..
I've never been a cat person. Not much has changed..

Jimzip :D

What nobody saw coming.

It will be all over the newspaper headlines tomorrow, (or perhaps just the covers of the techie section). Mark my words.
Only once before has something this strange been done by Apple, and that occurrence was the porting of iTunes to Windows.
Now, it seems that what people have been both wondering about and fearing for the past decade has come true.

Apple and Intel have partnered.

Some saw it as inevitable since the swap to IBM's processor line and the short-lived G5, others (me included) never even gave it a thought, but as announced today on the WWDC 2005 webcast from Apple's website, Apple will be making a transition from the PowerPC line, to the Intel processor line over the next two years.

Now, after watching Steve Jobs present his usual keynote address, the benefits instantly become obvious (and it has absolutely nothing to do with the supposed 'reality distortion field' people are yammering about these days. ;) ). Apple has had trouble with IBM since the start, and unfortunately, promises like a dual 3.0GHz G5 and the elusive G5 Powerbook never showed up. But, as demonstrated by Jobs on stage, live in front of over 1,000 people, the 'About This Computer' window on his demo machine did indeed say that Mac OS X was running on a 3.6GHz Pentium 4.

Bizzarre huh? I thought so.. I'm waiting to see what all my friends think after they find out..

Jimzip :D