Author Archive
Just back from four fantastic days of Autumn leaf viewing. We took friday and monday off to try and beat the crowds and overall did really well. I’m process the 500+ photo’s I took! Just about used up the entire 2gig card. Now the work begins of cleaning them up and removing the duds!!
Just over two years ago we came across a great place to stay in Kyoto. Di found it by accident as the name of the place does not ring Japanese.
Its a small guest house in North Kyoto called Casa de Natu. It was originally the owners parents house and she has been lovingly restoring it over the years. It a very traditional old house, and has two main bedrooms downstairs. There are two rooms upstairs, but she tends not to let them out as they don’t have direct access to the bathroom (except via the other two bedrooms).
The price is very reasonable 4500yen per person per night and includes a simple breakfast. The location is north of the city centre, but is located well to subway and bus. The neighbourhood is very nice and quiet with a good select of restuarants and coffee shops. If you are looking for a place thats away from the crowds of Kyoto (and lets face it when is Kyoto not filled with tourists) this is an ideal location. We have found on the occasions we have stayed there thats its very easy to get to the locations you want to and with some careful use of the subways and buses you can avoid alot of the crowds (or surf ahead of the crowds as we call it).
The owner is wonderful and speaks English well. She has a basic website (link above) and will accept bookings via email. The directions are a little tricky the first time getting there, but she will send you a map. Its a really great way to stay in Kyoto in a traditional old house. The accomodation is simple and comfortable and even now its getting cold there you have a snug nights sleep!
An odd title I agree, but there is a reason. One I like to find titles that grab, but also have meaning to what I want to write. Why this title. Well drop below the fold and I will explain.
There is alot going around the media at the moment that the banks who received the bailout money are using it to pay bonuses. Well that really hit home to me today listening to it.
I cant’ abviously say which where I work, but yes it is one the top banks that was called into and basically told to take the money to loosen up credit.
What the media is not saying is that well before the bailout funds were available we were advised that the bonuses had be accrued over the last year and were stable dependant on the final quarter results.
So yes hopefully we will get good bonues in early next year, but we also know it not likely to be the same after that.
But hey wait, before you say rich bankers, hold on. None of us have hugh salaries. Nothing like the players of the market.
We are made up of everday people who go into work and come home, feed the family, pay mortages etc. Nearly everyone thinks you work in a bank then you are loaded. Well no we are not. 95% of us are just everyday ‘joe the bank worker’.
Sure there are some who a making a killing out of this crisis. To them I just say, karma.
At lunch yesterday someone told us about this radio program on This American Life. Its called the Giant Pool of Money and is by far one of the best explanations for the housing crisis we had ever heard.
Its is an hour in length, but trust me you will be so hooked on the story telling it will just pass by. Its explained in the most everyday terms, and involves sound bites from real people through out the chain.
Anyway, go have a listen yourself. I really do recommend it.
A few entries ago I wrote about how to do dynamic report names in MS Access, and really thought I had the solution. Well I sorta did. It appears I was halfway to the solution. I ran into problems and at the time I was working at home on 2003 and it all seemed to work.
When I tried the same technique in 2007 at work it all stopped working and I was stumped. I did work it out and the code I used is below in the fold.
The trick seems to be open the report in design mode. Make the updates to the fields you want, including the query. The close the report with the save option. When you then next invoke the report the new parameters take affect and you are off.
I am not entirely sure if this is the ‘best’ way to do this but it certainly seems to work. What I’m so surprised about is that the entry I wrote before is referred to as its seems a burnign question. I hope the code below helps people.
(oh after thinking more on this code, I know some will say it won’t work well in a heavy user environment. My answer, in a heavy user environment why are you using Ms-access?
Out of the chaos and tragedy of the Gallipoli campaign emerged the
legend of the Anzacs: a story of steadfast courage under impossible
odds and the forging of the spirit of mateship that somehow saw triumph
in disastrous defeat.
In 1934, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who led the fighting Turks at
Gallipoli and became founder of the Turkish Republic in 1923, paid
tribute to the Anzacs:
Today, the "great defeat" at Gallipoli is commemorated in Australia
and New Zealand on Anzac Day, April 25 each year, anniversary of the
landing on that Turkish shore, as the Anzacs are remembered.
As the poet Laurence Binyon says:
The world now is so different now. A few months ago we all thought we were safe. The markets were good and we invested into all those wonderful high return funds. Well I know for myself they have all gone crap. I haven’t yet had the check on all the money I invested as I’m way to scared to check. My 22% returnds at the beginning of the year are now probably showing I’ve lost money.
About a year ago I was investing in a number of funds in NZ and then decided that I had put enough into them so just started putting the money into the Bank of New Zealand on the best fixed term rates available (about 8%). I had no idea that this was going to turn out to be the best place to put the money. Two years later I’m actually getting a better return on my money from the funds. After all the admin and investment feeds they are no worth less than I put in. I’m not pullling out as the market will turn around and will (hopefully) make me money somewhere along the line.
I did pick top notch funds with good companies and so far so good, (well down now, but its a long term thing, so it should go up). Whom I feel for now is those who need to start pulling out there money based on investments they have made. We are looking at the baby boomer generation who have lost huge amounts of capital.
One thing I have found of interest in the US electorial campagne is the Redneck vs urbain culture. To me its a total non starter. Why, well where was I raised part of our food came directly from raising animals that would either be destined for your plastic wrapped supermarket food, or in our own freezers.
This means that the beef, lamb and occasionally chicken or turkey was raised on our own land and was turned into Sunday night (and every other nights) dinner. The process of turning a cow into steak is not actually a pleasant process. Your pork tenderloin doesn’t just turn up in a sterile plastic wrapped package we all know from the supermarket
It was actually a pig or a cow that used to live on a farm. I know as I lived, and sorta still do live on one. I’ll put the rest below the fold so you can surf away happy with your supermarket package meat.
(oh the point of this blog is at the end)
Wow, I just realised how long it has been since I wrote something on the blog. The last few entries have been about the american elections which I must admit are huge entertainment value (all be it a little scary). Actually most of the last few weeks have been about following whats going on. I’m rather addicted to the ‘Daily Show’ and the ‘Colbert Report’. If you have a good internet connection you can watch directly from the site.
I do find it interesting that most of the fun is poked at the republican party and there are no shows which can poke fun at the Democrates. I guess its because McRage and Caribou Barbie are giving so much material for entertainment!