That’s cool – facebook is a kind of ‘one stop shop’, so why would you go anywhere else? Luckily the developers realised this – there’s a neat subscription mechanism in facebook’s ‘notes’ application which lets facebook pull content from here.

The only problem is, I also want to pull an RSS feed from my gallery, so that people get wind of new photos that arrive there. This is particularly important since the arrival of Joe!

However, I can only subscribe to one feed at a time via facebook notes, which means at present, I’ll have to write a blog post every time I add photos. Hmm. I’m lazy, and I like computers to do such menial tasks for me.

I wonder.. can I get gallery to push content to wordpress? or can I use wordpress to pull in a gallery RSS feed? or does facebook have a separate RSS subscriber. That would be cool.

Anyway, just so you know, some new photos have arrived! One of Joe, one from my 2008 Antarctic trip, and a brilliant panorama from the summit of Frenchman’s cap, on the infamous Dick Smith trip of 2008. Find your way from here: http://adstereo.net/gallery/.

Oh – I nearly forgot. For all the photo updates you can subscribe to the Gallery RSS feed yourself, here: http://adstereo.net/gallery/main.php?g2_view=rss.Render&g2_name=images+on+adstereo.net

Enjoy!

He’s starting to learn about hands, and getting strong. He’ll lie on his stomach and keep his head up for ages, so keen to see what’s happening. Curious, and just soaking up whatever we give him. He really does teach us the meaning of peaceful at times.

…but like all babies, the calm comes between the storms. Understandably, he lives from moment to moment. No concept of ‘dinner will be here soon’, or ‘if you’re tired, you need to sleep’. Just whatever experience passes through at the time. Its incredible to watch, as all parents will know.

I’ll post more photos of the little man soon. He’s a changin’…

Ooops.

Now, 18 months and two freehub bodies later, I’m down a rear hub. The all powerful ‘force transfer system’, which is really just two tiny ratchet pawls mounted on stainless steel rods in an alloy hub body, failed catastrophically. One of the pawls was forced through the hub body!

I found this a bit surprising, since I’m not the strongest rider the universe has seen. Surely not in the same league as pro road racers who endorse these things [or maybe get given them for free and only use them for a month or so].

Anyway, I’m sobered. And looking for a Better Freehub. Its going to come down to Shimano vs Industry 9 vs Hope vs Fulcrum vs Chris King. Whoever can offer a steel cassette carrier, bearings that don’t need tweaking every ride [old shimano days - maybe things have changed..], and more than two puny engagement points to transfer mavic-crushing power [haha!] to the rear wheel…

I’d better start saving, and find something before Bel wants her rear wheel back…

I should post a photo, but I’ll do that when its all finished. Just a mattress to go – needing some advice from the sewing guru, my mum.

It was a good antidote to being spanked again by the old organ pipes on Saturday – attempting to read the crux moves of third bird resulted in some education about boldness, trust and footwork, via sliding out of a hand jam and reducing my skin cover somewhat. Yeeow! Bring on a face climbing mission next…

Its been an intense weekend, dominated by word of a devastating bushfire for our close neighbours to the north – and potential actual physical neighbours in the near future. This stuff always makes me think about how we would react, what we would do faced with a similar situation. The armchair emergency responder comes out, as it does all over the world, no doubt. Most likely, we’d end up in the same basket.

Next, we await the great blame game – just like we did after the Canberra fires in 2002. Not much justice for the folks who watched their world burn down – the money that the lawyers will suck up would be better spent on staving off some mortgage repayments, or helping replace homes, or something. Anyway, thats my same old rant. Its Australia, there will be bushfires.

And finally, the world of fun and rock and biking. Sounds like it was wise to skip the tahune marathon this year – tales of woe and fused brakes abound! And rock.. glorious rock. The pipes have been good this past month, with a couple of fine ascents and a notable grovel up the classic Arthurs Circus – body chimney insanity! but sooo much fun…

Its a book I should have read years ago, and would definitely recommend to anyone. We could sit back and say ‘its nothing to do with us’, but thats not really true. Our alliance with the United States and our complicity in their foreign policy puts Australia at least a little in the hot seat.

I’ll hope that Australian soldiers are there for the ‘right’ reasons -that is, ‘right’ according to Afghanis, not some crazy US policy.

It all seems very Orwellian to me. The worst part is that people who just want to get on with their life, and preserve a rich and ancient culture, are suffering for it.

So the big event? Making it back in time for my own wedding! We had a an extraordinarily busy two weeks finalising preparations, and putting Bel’s planning into action. But the end result was a really amazing day!

We had planned to be married on the beach, but right on cue as Bel arrived the skies opened, and we hustled it back to our lounge room. Very cute, a lounge room wedding. Since the reception was out the back, it all sort of just rolled on into an afternoon and evening of great food, great company and general celebration. What more could one ask?

We owe a big thanks to our families and nieghbours who pitched in and helped, and for all those who attended and made the day a wonderful occasion!

Ahhh…

Luckily, I’m OK and Rosie the bike seems only minorly damaged. She’s going for a post-trauma checkup as soon as the bike mechanics have time. It was a great reminder that the legal minimum of bike lighting is probably not enough… I was riding with a single LED flasher on the front, since my usual six watts of LED brightness lights are in need of repair.

So, I’ll be making sure I’m better lit from here, thats for sure.

The woman who pulled out was also quite shaken – I hit the car pretty hard, and went for a short flight. Onlookers were happy to see me get up and walk away…

The moral of this story?

Bike riders: legal minimum lights are not enough, you need to light up bigtime!

Car drivers: look, look again and make sure that little flash you see isn’t your imagination. Remember that bikes sometimes travel at 30+ km/hr – we’re not all nannas on the road.

All of us: share, and share alike. One road for all!

So back in Hobart, it’s time to knuckle down around here. Bel is on the road to becoming a herbalist, and I’m a bees whisker away from setting off on a new round of studenthood. Lots of reading going on, and this old keyboard will be losing its ‘e’ key faster than ever.

…and we may have some even bigger news soon! Stay tuned.

In the meantime, some pics from local adventures with Bel have shown up in the gallery. Enjoy!

[yes, I'm having a lazy week, driving...]

Today is the big night scenario – I sure need the practice, since I messed up my patient yesterday. Or, at least, failed to pin down what was going on. He might have survived…

Never mind. Failure is our great teacher.

So, by the end of Friday I predict I will be exhausted, and trying quite hard to retain all this information stuffed into our heads. At this point, it looks like I’m off climbing for a week on Saturday – so I’ll have plenty of time to lie in the tent and catch up.

Ahh, arapiles. Land of rock, tent time, and guitars by the fire.