ok, to quickly summarize, we have now made it to Chiang Mai and partially unpacked. We were booked in a sleeper carraige on the train, but with the latest civil unrest the trains were all cancelled so we had to catch a bus which was far less … pleasant.

Anyway, we’re here.

Today, I’m 29.5 and Glenn 28.5, so by our powers combined, we are 58 together this year. Big 6-0 next year. Sunrise, sunset.

Someone pointed out, I think Blacky, that my blog posts have become more and more random. And fair enough call too. They have.

Operation “Move to Chiang Mai” is underway. We have now bought our train tickets for 30-Aug, departing on the 22:00 train to CM. Mint didn’t have a very good experience on the train last time, but hopefully this time will go better, having prebooked and organized a sleeper carriage this time.

Sunday we have to break up with our Bangkok OB-GYN. I’m sure he’ll understand.

In Skyrates, I happened to be at Uurwerk when Unobtaiunium was in plentiful supply. As a gas, I sold my Bolo and bought a Leviathan, with a capacity of 675 crates, and filled it with said Unobtaiunium at an average of $48.50 per crate. The disadvantage to the massive craft thoguh is its speed, and I’ve gone from over 1,000kph in the Bolo to 125kph in the Leviathan. So the 2:30 hour trip to Uurwerk from Tinkspoit will take 17 hours to make on the way back. Hopefully I’ll get rich out of this experiment though, at least in what Blacky calls “the stupid plane game”.

I’m sure there’s no shame to treating yourself a little bit when you’re down in the dumps. For me, retail therapy is not an expensive exercise, as food is my vice of choice.

Today I wandered down to the Petronas Towers shopping centre and ate a Nando’s burger, fries and coleslaw, then walked around the shopping centre and park, and had a piece of pie and icecream.

I was so determined to be ‘good’ while away, but with the lack of booze at the conference, there’s little to cheer up an unhappy attendee. I’m taking Mint’s advice, and enjoying the “holiday” I’m forced into.

look, it could probably be a lot of things. It could be the fact that my plane was delayed, so I didn’t finally arrive at my hotel in KL until around 1am. It could be the early start to get some work done before the conference. It could be the tired driver who I had to converse with for over an hour so he didn’t fall asleep on the highway and kill both of us. It could be my sore feet. It could be that my second session was over-full, so they turned away half the people in line including me. It could be that I screwed around with my wireless settings in the much hyped “Wireless Lounge” for a good 20 minutes before I asked a staff member only to be told, “oh sorry the wireless doesn’t work”. It could be that the other wireless internet - courtesy of the convention centre itself - is AU$40/day.  It could be that the “internet cafe” in the exhibitor hall can only work with the preconfigured laptops, which don’t have such neccisities as Flash Player or Acrobat Reader, and you have to stand up to use it. It could be that the Keynote was boring and long.

All I know for sure is that I have declared Microsoft Tech.Ed to be crap.

When I’ve attended Novell’s Brainshare in several countries around the world, I’ve always been a bit disappointed. Perhaps it goes with the territory. But Microsoft could learn a few things from the Brainshare model.

1. Internet MUST be wireless and available everywhere. It also must be free. Add it to the attendees cost, or better yet, get a sponsor for it.
2. People must be able to sit places besides the floor when not dining or in-session.
3. In the lunch room, “finished” place settings must be removed and replaced with clean ones. Otherwise if you’re late, the whole room has empty tables of dirty cutlery and you can’t find anywhere with a clean napkin, cutlery and/or glass of water to save your life.
4. Letting attendees pre-register for sessions means that you know for sure what session you’re going to, even if it’s full, rather than being turned away from one only to then be turned away at the next as well.

Ungh. Anyway, since there was only one more session today that I was interested in, and considering it was almost definitely going to be overfull, I decided to come back to the hotel and sit down, use the free internet, and have an early night. Hopefully tomorrow will go better.

Dudes, I must be honest with you: today’s blog entry is pretty much about avoiding work, so you should probably not expect the usual high-quality standard of writing you usually get when I deign to post.

“So, Dean, you fine specimen of a man, what’s new?” I hear you ask.

I have plans to attend Microsoft’s Tech.Ed event in Kuala Lumpur, leaving Thailand on the 10th. That’s pretty soon. I have made my accomodation bookings, I have made my flight bookings, I have registered for the conference. I think that’s all that’s required to get the going and staying underway, so I should be covered.

Her Mintiness is still in Chiang Mai, and I miss having company, but it’s also nice to “let my hair down” and leave dishes in the sink for a day or two before washing them. Unfortunately, with the arrival of our new bub getting closely imminent, I have taken a turn for the economical: I remember fondly last year when Mint went to Chiang Mai, I ate out every night, sometimes also at lunch, but now I just see the money disappearing and thinking “maybe I’ll just have some toast and an apple”.

I did succumb to temptation over the weekend and head to the Eurogourmet Bistro. This is a front for a larger catering company who supplies european-style sausage and what not to larger hotels. They vacuum-seal the food in their big industrial kitchen, and in the bistro’s kitchen they reheat the vacuum bags in boiling water, and it’s much the same as it ever was. And cheap. The hungarian goulash with gnocchi was fantastic, and only 150baht. Also there’s a really good looking lasagne and of course and exhaustive sausage menu. I didn’t much care for the desert - apple pie - which was served in the more English style with whiskey sauce, than the American style, with ice cream. With icecream on my pie, I would’ve been stoked. (They don’t even have icecream, I checked.) Sunrise Tacos - not far from my place actually -  has excellent apple pie and icecream … hmm, I haven’t been there for a while. Perhaps tonight, if my mutually benificial cheapness and laziness can’t hold out.

Say you’ve got a table like this:

and you want a daily summary of the transactions, where the number of rows per day is not fixed. Tricky.

Using this forumula in cell C2:

=IF(A2=A3,”",SUMIF(A:A,A2,B:B))

 and copying it down the page will work. To break it down:

1. If A2=A3, then this is not the last entry for this date, so output an empty cell. (”")
2. If A2!=A3, then this IS the last entry for this date, so search column A (A:A) for rows where the value is equal to A2 (ie, 1-Jan) and sum the values in column B (B:B) to output the answer:

Not the food markets, I’m talking about the stock market. My “IRL” portfolio is within half a point of it’s break-even point, from 20% down a few weeks ago. I’ve also gone into the black on the Share Market Game, although still a long way behind Blacky. Looking at Blacky’s stocks QGC might be a good buy. I credit my success to the Qantas shares sucking less. TOL is now wins my worst performer prize with -24.62% and STO a close second at -22.92%. FLT win the best performer award, with a +22.64%, second place honours going to CBA with +14.95%.

This afternoon I’m taking a walk to pickup Rob Wilson’s new suit, courtesy of Majestic Tailors, Sukhumvit. Almost the weekend people, hang in there!

I recently “mooched” Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six from Bookmooch, and last night, I finished it. It was pretty good, but long - 850 some pages, and the boring stuff sometimes got in the way. You know how you’re reading one subplot and it’s completely fascinating, and then the author moves to another, more boring, subplot and you’re tempted to skip ahead to the next chapter? That, a couple of times.

Yesterday I went for a walk to the Post Office and did the usual 20 minute wait. Man, it’s amazing how busy our local post office is … presumably it’s a time-of-day thing, since I never go before 2pm.

Dr Horrible’s singalong blog has now vanished, but if anyone’s interested, I can search around for it and see what I can find. You know, internet-ninja style.

“Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” will be streamed, FREE on Drhorrible.com, in mid-July. Specifically:

ACT I went up Tuesday July 15th.
ACT II went up Thursday July 17th.
ACT III (presumably here) will go up Saturday July 19th. (around 5pm QLD time)

All acts will stay up until midnight Sunday July 20th (approximately 5pm Monday, 21 July QLD time). Then they will vanish into the night, like a phantom.

Be sure not to miss it.

Three things.

1. Skyrates
Last night and early this morning, I finished a long-time Skyrates goal: I traded my cargo-kitted and performance-kitted Nomad for a cargo-kitted and performance-kitted Lancaster.  That means this to that. Most of Skyrates is trade-based, so the most important statistic is CKPH - Cargo Kilograms per hour, a function of your maximum speed times your cargo space. Leyton’s Dauntless has a higher CKPH than I do, but his plane is now tricked out and can’t go any higher without selling stuff first. We’re using different methods, and it’s interesting to compare. My current Lancaster is the motoring equivalent of a station wagon, with a seperate V12 for each wheel and massive roof racks. Yes, I am an online bevan.

2. Rainy Season
Rainy season in Bangkok isn’t that bad, but there’s occasional inconvenience. A couple of times, we’ve had to wait out storms before we could walk home (sometimes even thinking of a taxi is madness, with traffic … you’re better off sitting in McDonalds taking a really long time to finish your coffee than getting frustrated sitting in a taxi and paying for that priviledge). Of course, sometimes (well once, since I’ve been here) get floods which aren’t pleasant, and in hindsight I’m *ashamed* that I let M&D take off their shoes to wade through it because they only had one pair. They should’ve bought new shoes, considering the risk of  leptospirosis, which is commonly acquired this way.  As I’ve since learnt, all it takes is a small nick, cut, or even a blister on the feet to allow the bacteria to enter the body.  It can be a potentially fatal disease if not treated properly as septic shock can set in and then you are pretty much buggered. M&D, you’re still alive right? Oh, also, after the rain has stopped you can occasionally be walking along, minding your own business when your foot gets sprayed with unpleasant warm water. It took a *long* time to work out this is because the water settles under the paving until you step on it, which forces it up and onto your shoe. The first few times I thought someone had sprayed me, I kid you not.

3. Ailments
I’ve been reasonably well, but have been suffering repeat mouth ulcers on my gums. Perhaps I need a softer toothbrush, either that, or it’s a case of the scurvy.