Today is a good day for us. After 8 months or so, we’ve finally paid off our wedding. It was hard work - I worked a little harder and longer than I otherwise would have, and we had to manage our money extremely carefully, not to mention going without a lot of nice little extras, but in the end, we’re now in a pretty good economic position. Sure, we still have debts (including a mortgage and a nice new TV), but we’re in a position where we can afford to pay those debts, as well as start saving a little. Continue reading →

… I past the 1000 post mark on Gizmodo Australia. It was such a momentus occasion that I didn’t realise until 2 days after it happened. Continue reading →

Time management is not my strong point. Organisation is not my strong point. Keeping my inbox under control is definitely not my strong point… I guess you could say that I’m a bit chaotic when it comes to managing my workload.

But that’s not where I want to be. I want to be organised. I want to manage my time effectively. That’s why I jumped at the opportunity to partake in a time management seminar last week put on by the guys from BlackBerry for freelance journalists and technology bloggers like myself. It was run by a gentleman named Dermott Crowley from Adapt Training Solutions, and all I can say is that I walked away a changed man. A changed, organised man.

The seminar lasted for a couple of hours - but in those two hours I learnt enough to completely restructure my work systems so that now I can manage my time much more effectively and improve my productivity tenfold. Here’s how I did it:

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I’ve been brewing my own beer for almost two years now (my original kit was given to me for Christmas ‘06), and sadly I have to admit that the sight you see here isn’t that uncommon for me. Out of the dozen or so batches I’ve brewed, more than half have spewed forth beer-flavoured froth as the yeast goes crazy trying to convert sugar to alchohol. The weird thing is that when I was using brewing kits from the Homebrew shop in Camden (rest its soul), this wasn’t a problem at all. Continue reading →

I finally managed to get my thoughts together long enough to write a post on the Rudd Government’s planned internet filter. It’s up on Giz AU now – check it out, link to it, Digg it… spread the word. Because no matter what Conroy tells us, filtering the internet will do absolutely nothing to stop illegal material – it will just slow down the Internet and make regular business owners suffer. Continue reading →

So slow! It seems I exceeded my peak-time download limit this month, and now I’m paying the price. I’ve been capped at 64kbps, and considering that I work from home and that I work pretty much exclusively online, this isn’t an enviable position I find myself in. On the upside, I got a review copy of Iron Man on Blu-ray today, which should distract me from the online frustration for quite a few hours. Continue reading →

I have just hopped on a train at Central after waiting for 32 minutes on the platform. At least, that’s what the board said when I arrived. The train is an old, smelly thing with only 6 carriages. I got a seat - but only just. If there was some kind of malfunction to cause this wait, I might be a little more sympathetic. But no, this is just how long you need to wait for a train to get to Campbelltown during the day. Continue reading →

Last week, we had our brand new, 50-inch Panasonic plasma delivered and installed. When I say installed, I mean “stuck up on the wall”. Coupled with the new entertainment unit, the loungeroom is starting to come together. Now all we need is a surround sound system… I wrote up a feature for Giz on the wall-mounting process that I’d thoroughly recommend reading and, if you are so inclined, Digging. The end result of wall mounting is a gorgeous look, but getting it done by a professional is thoroughly recommended. Continue reading →

[youtube=www.youtube.com/watch I just finished playing The Force Unleashed on Xbox 360. When I say finished, I mean I completed the story mode for the first time. My verdict: awesome. I’ve hardly enjoyed any game, let alone a Star Wars game like this for a long time. The game takes place in that 20 year period between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. You play as Darth Vader’s Sith apprentice, an assassin sent to kill Darth Vader’s enemies. Continue reading →

We had our TV cabinet delivered last weekend. It looks great. Even better is that we went out and bought a new TV. Panasonics latest 50 incher. It’s being delivered on Tuesday. Now all we need is some surround sound and we’ll be cheering! (The photo above is the exact same TV, but a review unit from Panasonic. I was so impressed that we went out and bought the same model. Continue reading →

The past couple of weeks have been tough – From Hong Kong to Sarah’s Birthday to the Influence Conference in the Hunter Valley to a week of events, I’ve been running myself ragged. So much so that yesterday morning I woke up coughing up all colours of the rainbow (a pleasant enough image for you all, I’m sure).

However, today I feel pretty good. And do you know why? It’s because of a little drink called the Hot Totty.

When I was in Ireland back when I was 18, I got pretty sick. I prescribed myself to a diet of Hot Tottys, and my cure could almost be considered miraculous. Since then, it seems I’d forgotten their medical power to battle the cold, until last week when I made one for Lauren when she was a bit crook.

Anyway, to get back to the subject, I have perfected the Hot Totty. I’ve just finished my course for the evening, and fully expect to wake up feeling well tomorrow.

If you want to know how to make the perfect Hot Totty yourself, check below:

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On my way home from Hong Kong this week (I was there for an HP conference), Lauren asked me to pick up some duty free makeup. No worries - I do it every time I go on a business trip. Except that this time, at Hong kong airport, as I went to purchase a series of make-up removers and lotions, I was told no. And while it took me a while to understand exactly what the woman was telling me, it turned out that because three out of the four bottles I was purchasing were over 100ml, I couldn’t take them on board the plane as hand luggage. Continue reading →

Last night, Lauren and I made the long trip down to Wollongong to see Birds of Tokyo. Aside from leaving me half deaf, it was amazing – the singer Ian Kenny’s voice is sensational. See for yourself below:

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Today has been a struggle. Hell, every Monday is a struggle, but this weekend was harder than most. Namely because our dog Simba spent most of Friday night and half of Saturday vomiting. It started about 2am Friday night. At 4:30am, Lauren and I decided that we’d put him outside (we gave him a comfortable bed) so we could get a few hours sleep. A couple of hours later, he woke us barking so we brought him in. Continue reading →

www.youtube.com/watch There seems to be a real split in opinions over this ad. I like it – probably because it doesn’t actually try to sell me anything. It tries to entertain, and while it’s not hilariously funny, I actually had a smile through most of it. I think the lack of any mention of Windows or Vista was a good move, incidentally. As soon as they say anything about Vista, the Internet minions will cry out against it just for that fact. Continue reading →

Last night at about 7:30pm, there was a knock on the door. Naturally the dog sprang up and I forced my way out of recline to see who it was. Flicking on the front light switch I opened the door to be greeted by a young door-to-door salesman. “Good evening,” he said as I squinted through the screen door. “I’m here to offer you a great deal on your Internet and…” Continue reading →

Funny thing happened to me yesterday: Lauren and I had decided to try a new recipe for dinner (Lion’s head meatballs, for the curious) which required dried chinese mushrooms - not something we keep a lot of lying around the pantry. So anyway, I went to get my haircut yesterday morning in Camden, and when I couldn’t get in for a coupl of hours, I decided I’d pop into Coles to pick up the dried mushrooms. Continue reading →

Those who know me well are aware that I’m one of a few thousand Australians who are huge Dave Matthews Band fans. So I’m obviously devastated by the untimely death of the band’s saxaphonist, Leroi Moore.

Leroi past away on August 19 due to complications that arose following an ATV accident. Then, just hours later, the rest of the band had to take to the stage in LA to perform – from everything I’ve read, it was an emotion-packed night.

I met Leroi (albeit briefly) after the band’s first Sydney concert. He was a fairly quiet guy, but had plenty of time to hang around with fans and chat about the concert and Australia. He seemed like an absolute champion, and will be sorely missed by millions.

R.I.P. Leroi. And thankyou for the music.

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So, hello from The Broughall Shuffle. I’ve just finished importing my previous “it’s pronounced bruffle” blog, so bear with me while I set everything up properly. The reason for moving was twofold – number one was I wanted my own domain name, and “it’s pronounced bruffle” just seemed too wordy. The second was that I can blog from the iPhone via Wordpress, which is a very appealing proposition for me… Continue reading →

For the past two weekends, I’ve been painting the loungeroom. I would have been done after the first weekend, but for the fact that the previous owners did such a dodgy job that you could see their patching on the cornices. So ok the weekend, along with bottling beer, I painted the cornices on the loungeroom. But to add insult to injury, when I went to peel the painters tape off the ceiling, it came with the added bonus of pulling off the paint as well. Continue reading →