Rubénerd!

Here's an article from the Australian ABC. Tell me if you can spot the problem.

A fully-marked New South Wales police highway patrol car has been stolen. Police say highway patrol officers stopped a car on the M7 near the Richmond Road off-ramp in western Sydney at around midday. Officers say there was an altercation and the driver of the car struggled with police before breaking free and stealing their fully-marked highway patrol car. The driver, identified as Arthur Partsch, was last seen travelling north in the light blue Holden Commodore sedan. Officers have warned anyone who sees the car not to approach it, but to contact Triple-0.

Did you catch it?

We're being warned to call the police if we see a patrol car. I wonder how many calls they must have got from people spotting all the hundreds of cars on active duty?

I avoid Australian terrestrial television like the plague, but fortunately I was tweeted that Channel 9 informed us of the licence plate of the specific patrol car in question. Georgina even went one step further and (shock!) told me what it was!

So a lesson for reporters appealing for information from the public: give us the specifics as well. I wouldn't want to sick the SOS-Dan force on you.

Fortunately, I was able to ride out most of the intense heat at the UTS library with Clara today. Plenty of people weren't as lucky.

Little did I know when I posted that link back in August that I'd be seeing PSY perform Gangnam Style LIVE in Sydney with @hanezawakirika and @JamieJakov!

From the Sunrise breakfast show website:

Venue: Martin Place Plaza Amphitheatre, Sydney

Time: 6am-9am

Korean pop sensation Psy is coming to Sunrise! The man behind global hit "Gangnam Style" will be LIVE outside our studio on Wednesday 17th October and we want you to come and join in the fun!

Psy will perform "Gangnam Style" in what is destined to go down in Sunrise history.

Have you learned the dance yet? You'd better brush up - we want you all to join in!

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey, sexy lady~!

I'm very, VERY picky when it comes to choosing my favourite songs of all time. My Rubens Top 40 List contains only 12 songs, to leave room for more. Most of them are jazz (and most of those are Michael Franks), but then there are timeless, TIMELESS songs like Surfin' Bird. Everybody's heard. From me. THOUSANDS of times!

A few months ago, our former Anime@UTS club president Dom introduced us to Gangnam Style. I'd explain it, but I could not hope to do it justice. It screams brilliant epicness. It's Korean. The dance moves are as addictive as they are wonderfully fun and accessible for a nerd like me. PSY has more style than a cobra. To a Westerner, the music video is wonderfully Monty Python-esque, but also utterly unique and friggen brilliant.

Most of all, I just feel so energetic and happy listening to it, and I still crack the biggest smile watching the music video. PSY has really created something special here, and I'm thoroughly unashamed to admit it. I've never danced as much before in my life. YOU KNOW WHAT I'M SAYIN'?

Ttwiineun nom keu wiie naneun nom

I'd worked almost all night on a data mining assignment, and I had to force myself out of bed at the crack of dawn to pull it off, but this morning I met with two of my dearest friends to see PSY perform for the Sunrise Breakfast show. And it was EPIC!

Much of Martin Place was fenced off with large... what are they called again? FENCES! Inside, a makeshift stage had been set up, and outside were packed an even mix of Koreans, other Asians and Westerners all jumping around waiting to see PSY. It was open air, and utterly free!

PSY came out wearing an utterly fabulous sparkly black vest with "PSY" in gold on the back, a bevy of dancers and bright lights that cut through the early morning sky like a thrusting pelvis appearing behind a lift door. He sang to the song with the pre-recorded synthed instruments, but otherwise jumped around did all the dance moves we know and love. Or at least, I think he did, given the crowd was so thick and I couldn't see much most of the time. The atmosphere was AMAZING!

Aussie Aussie Aussie... PSY PSY PSY!

After the performance which was broadcast love across Australia, the morning show hosts performed their regular small talk. He took off his trademark glasses, and was handed a plushie koala and kangaroo. He was utterly gracious. I'm saying utterly a lot, it's utterly too much!

To return to where this post started HEEEEEEY SEXY LADY I'm just so overwhelmed that I saw a performer on my top song list. He's the first one.

Years from now, I'll remember this, and smile. What a defining moment ^_^

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For those of you with existing student cards wishing to embark on a grand quest to update your transport concession sticker:

1. Enrol into at least one semester of subjects.
2. Go to this form site and enter your student details.
3. Log into My Student Admin and click the ID Card tab.
4. Click "Email my enrolment details for ID card".
5. Wait five minutes or so, then check your student email.
6. Print the PDF attachment, tick the boxes and sign your name.
7. Hand the form into Student Services on campus and get your sticker.

Clear as mud!

So I was walking down our two lane street, when a large family car travelling in the opposite direction to me suddenly started careening towards the footpath. Next thing I heard was a loud crash as it hit the high curb a metre or two behind me, and the back of the car swung 90 degrees to hit a masonry fence, breaking off huge pieces. A chunk of plastic from the car and some small pieces of rock hit my leg, making a small tear in my pants.

The few of us on the footpath watched dumbfounded as the driver climbed out of the car without a scratch. We started talking about how if we'd been a few seconds slower, we would have been in a car fence sandwich. Would it have killed us?

It's cliche to say, but the next half an hour were a genuine blur. I don't even remember making my way to my regular coffee shop until I was almost there, and sat down to calm my nerves. The barista who served me asked if I'd seen a ghost! I guess... I almost did.

I really started to have doubts whether I was just dreaming when I noticed the man at the table next to mine was none other than the Mayor of Canterbury, our area of Sydney. Another weird occurance, the TV they have installed at the coffee shop was playing a hit music station (Channel V, or Max Brenner, or whatever), and I swear I watched the same music video play for more than half an hour.

But I digress. This all occured in the morning, by the mid afternoon crane operators were already at the scene repairing the electrical poles and clearing away rubble (photo above). The car was nowhere to be seen, though there was still plenty of debris littered across the footpath and down the road.

Coming back later this evening, I noticed the hubcap from the ill fated car was still next to the footpath. Creepy.

Needless to say, for much of the day I almost felt like a living ghost. I shouldn't be alive. Had I taken a shorter period of time to tie my shoelaces before bolting out the door, there's a good chance I (and the people walking in front of me) would have been splattered across the fence. I just... it felt so unreal walking away from an incident like that with only a torn pants leg to show for it. It could have been so much worse.

Not be overly melodramatic, but I suppose we all have our brushes with death at some point. Rather than feeling terrified that I came that close to being crushed, I should be feeling overjoyed and happy that nothing happened, and that I'm here to write this.

I don't care how cliché it sounds, this whole incident really made me stop and appreciate my life again. To quote Sting, how fragile we are.

Trackwork across almost all lines and a derailment! Our tax dollars at work.

Makes me think there's more to this than trackwork. Perhaps there's a more serious issue, like a malfunctioning control system. One would think the CityRail folks wouldn't be short sighted enough to have effectively scheduled trackwork across the entire network at the same time.

I was going to save this for tomorrow, but a series of tweets from the illustrious @talkingduck (private account) led me to finish this off and post it today. If you thought I was unfairly ragging on Victoria today, take a gander at this!

The political compass said I was a Liberal Libertarian

In what other field of work do you get benefits and perks even after you leave the organisation?

The news spreading around The Twitters this morning was that former New South Wales state premier Kristina Keneally had her post-leadership travel entitlements revoked by current premier Barry O'Farrell. These include the use of state cars (heaven forfend they take public transport like the rest of us!) and access to the series of catapults on the border that keeps those pesky Victorians from fining us. Presumably.

On the surface, I didn't have a problem with this. My "liberal" side (in the American sense) understands some government spending is necessary to compensate for market failures (economic terminology meaning services the private sector can't or won't provide), but my "libertarian" side loathes government spending that doesn't provide anything useful. Like... state government in a country with less people than many cities! Like this one:

Yes, I was able to work in another press image for the upcoming Guilty Crown anime I blogged about earlier today, in an post that has nothing to do with it whatsoever. Not only that, I did it while enduring an (albeit gradually improving) headache. Is that skill, or what!? Don't answer that.

But I digress

Shortly after posting my frustrations on Twitter, @joshgnosis pointed out to me part of the reason people are up in arms is that O'Farrell only penalised Keneally, not anyone else. While I agree this is dodgy, my point is why should anyone voted out of office still be entitled to our funds to use as they see fit?

What I found particularly egregious is the justification that state cars are used to ferry former politicians to charity events. While this may true, imagine if theses politicians donated the funds to maintain this fleet of state cars, and drove there themselves or took a taxi? The rest of us don't take what are essentially taxpayer funded limousines to such events, why should they?

I should contact the companies I worked for back in home and ask them when I can be expecting my return tickets to Singapore! I mean, I don't work for them anymore, but I'm entitled to them, right?

(Random photo of Sydney taken by... me! View on Flickr)

I'm waiting for confirmation before believing it given The Herald Sun and The Australian are reporting it, but apparently insulting the Victorian Gaming Minister Michael O'Brien will now land you a fine of roughly $12,000. I'm safe given I'm in New South Wales, right?

Interestingly enough, if you do a Google search for $12000 fine O'Brien, you get to this Wikipedia article that states that: "during his imprisonment at Crow Hill, O'Brien's mother died and left him $12,000." I'm not sure if this is related.

Upon asking our house guest and my sister what I should discuss for my PostADay2011 challenge, they elected I regale you with our adventures with CityRail on the weekend. As requested, the requested post!

Disclaimer

First of all, an admission if you will. The above image, while being factually relevant to the current issue we find ourselves discussing this evening, was in fact taken by your narrator in this tale of public transport adventure back on the 2nd of July 2011, for a blog post about the closure of Borders. It still hasn't sunk in that Borders is gone. But I digress, and rather verbosely I may add.

Well that was a redundant sentence

Like all but the most sophisticated self-healing systems, public transport networks require a certain degree of maintenance in order to perform reliably, safely, and within acceptable guidelines.

Most public transport rail operators around the world perform preventative maintenance on their networks during the wee hours of the morning, in some places every night. This has several advantages to performing said work during light hours:

• The maintenance work doesn't interfere with the day-to-day operation of the trains, as closures are not required

• Vampire labour is cheaper per hour as they are not bound by the same laws and regulations that govern minimum wage, acceptable working conditions and benefits that must be bestowed upon daywalkers.

Sydney's CityRail network however prefers to perform their network maintenance, track alignment work and inspections in broad daylight, and over the course of several days. This not only ensures the maximum amount of disruption per tax dollar, but causes as much inconvenience as possible.

Secondly, with many of the roads closed due to the Sydney Half Marathon over the weekend, this trackwork along the city circle ensured that some folks couldn't get to work or other important establishments by either train or car. I suspect this was a conspiracy orchestrated by those who don't like their brethren working on Sundays.

Because this marathon was done over The Bridge, here's a stock photo of it which I took myself.

But back to the people at hand...

Over the weekend, one of our friends from Canberra visited us in our fair, public transport crippled city. Of course we drew the short straw with CityRail, with the Airport and East Hills Line chosen as one of the two to receive scheduled trackwork.

Fortunately, CityRail compensated for their missing eight car, double decker trains with single buses that looked as though they were built in the 1960s. Aside from the waiting at stations and on the side of the road for our sardine trips, the buses themselves had an old timely quaint charm to them, and were reasonably clean. I was just fortunate our friend enjoyed retro design!

As of today the trains are operating again, and to their credit Bardwell Park has received a fresh coat of paint. We still have the only station on the entire line that doesn't have extended under-cover roofs, or isn't in the process of having them installed. Here's hoping this changes soon.

Power outages do crazy things to people.

Electrical #fail

So there I was in our local coffee shop in Earlwood late this afternoon typing away on a laptop device. It helps typing on a laptop, typing on a table with no electronic interpretation going on only garners you curious stares and a trip to a squishy place in a strait-jacket. But I digress.

Getting an SMS from my sister (or "text" as Australians seem to call them), I was informed our abode was suddenly far less habitable owing to a lack of electrical power. Looking around the shop and down the road I saw plenty of other places of residence and business had ample power with their glowing lights and whatnot, so I chalked the problem up to a fuse. That's what TrueCrypt uses.

As I paid the bill and proceeded home under a rapidly approaching night sky, it suddenly struck me just how dark it really was. Having walked a block from the coffee shop, the street lamps that should have been lighting up the top of my head and the footpath in front of me were mysteriously dark. The houses along the street were no brighter. In fact, the only source of light other than the occasional motorised vehicle headlight and our natural orbiting satellite was a traffic light which bathed the whole area in a green glow. It was eerier than this:

Ruben != funny

When I finally arrived home, I was greeted by absolute darkness. Those strands of battery powered IKEA LEDs were surprisingly adept at lighting entire rooms, but I was more concerned that our broadband modem/router, refrigerator and water heater couldn't be run off them... in order of importance of course.

Deciding we'd rather not spend our time sitting in absolute darkness, my sister and I packed up provisions which consisted of overcoats, scarves, laptops, laptop power supplies, laptop power supply extension cables and CityRail tickets. It didn't occur to us that the electric trains may not have been running either, though we were assured by a friendly chap on The Twitters that they operate on separate grids. A relief, no doubt.

Having sat here in UTS for a while now using their surprisingly zippy internet connection and charging our phones, it's probably time for us now to head off into the night to take the train home, and to see whether our street has had power restored. If it hasn't, the students in my early class tomorrow morning will be resting their eyes on a cranky, handsome individual. I'll also be there, and I won't be too pleased either.

The last documented power failure to affect the proprietor of Rubenerd.com was in Singapore in 2008.