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The thoughts, opinions, happenings, and just plain ramblings of a seemingly boring person.

Life

Grammar By Instinct vs. Rules

Categories Life, Work

Continuing with the MOOC that I am taking on English Grammar and Style, last week we covered adjectives. I can't believe I'm learning so much from this course that I didn't previously know! Below is my writing submission for the week.

I was fascinated by this week's adjective material, as it really highlighted how much of grammar I know solely by instinct rather than by rules.

The perfect example of this was the demonstration of the 'Royal Order of Adjectives'. I did not even realise that adjectives had to be placed in a certain sequence in order for them

… Read more →

Online Course: UQx: Write101x English Grammar and Style

Categories Life, Work

Free online courses seem to be all the rage at the moment. Heck, even my Dad has taken a few courses from some American universities. I've decided to take the plunge and am enrolled in a course offered by UQ:  Write101x: English Grammar and Style.

This choice of course may surprise some. "Aren't you a technical writer, Lucas?!". Yes, but whilst I think I can write fairly decently, for the most part I don't really know why. Trying to understand that 'why' is mostly why I'm taking this course.

This first week involved submitting a 300 word blog … Read more →

Lego New and Old

Categories Geekery, Lego, Life

My completed old LegoI posted last year about my rekindled love of Lego, and since then it has gone slightly nuts. My desk at work is now covered in minifigures and small Star Wars sets, and I recently completed The Simpsons series of minifigures. After seeing The Lego Movie (which is my favourite movie of the year so far), I couldn't help myself but get Benny's Spaceship from Amazon (super excite), and am now waiting for the Super Secret Police Dropship to be released here in Australia.

A few weeks ago I retrieved most of my childhood Lego from my … Read more →

Getting My Beard On

Categories Life

I've always despised shaving. Getting up earlier in the morning than I otherwise would, and trying to get my eyes to focus on my face whilst putting whirring blades up against my cheeks and neck is definitely not my favourite part of the day.

I've had a goatee/Van Dyke since 2003, but I've finally decided to change things up a bit. Beards seem to be all the rage now, and I'm lucky to work at a company where my worth isn't valued by how I look, so there's no better time to grow it out and try the "full hobo" … Read more →

Workrave: Keeping On Top of the Pain

Categories Life, Technology

WorkraveLast year I was diagnosed with fybromyalgia, which added another condition to my growing list of statistically improbable health issues. Of course one of the worst things you can do when you have any muscular problem is sit at a computer all day, as well as for most of the evening. Lucky I don't do a lot of that then! (ha)

Part of the problem is that moving around helps me to not get too sore, but if I'm concentrating on something (either at work or at home), I only remember to move around after I am sore, and … Read more →

The End of ‘How I Met Your Mother’

Categories Life, Rants

How I Met Your MotherHow I Met Your Mother finally concluded this week after nine seasons. Despina and I have been watching the show since the first season, and it was actually one of the first TV series we started watching as a married couple all the way back in 2006.

The past three or four seasons had seen it drop in quality, and it wouldn't be a stretch to say that we were watching it more out of an obligation to see it through, rather than genuine anticipation and enjoyment.

So the finale aired yesterday, and whilst it was good to see … Read more →

1 Year as a Technical Writer

Categories Life, Work

It's now been one year since I've been working as a technical writer. To say I've thoroughly enjoyed the work would be an understatement. I've always loved technology (as evidenced by this blog and an IT degree), and I've always loved writing (as evidenced by this blog and an Arts degree 😉 ), so I have to pinch myself that I have a job at a great company where I get paid to combine the two.

In this past year I have learned a lot more about both writing and technology. I've been exposed to some great experience in using … Read more →

10 Years of Blogging!

Categories Geekery, Internet, Life, Rants

10 Years BloggingWow. Today marks 10 years since I started this blog. I must have missed the 10 year mark of the website itself (which was on 13 July 2013), but it was with the launch of this blog 10 years ago that things really started to get interesting (at least for me 😛 ).

If I was honest, 10 years ago I don't think I would have bet that this would still be going a decade later. At the five year mark I was seriously considering giving it up, but over the years I've come to the realisation that this … Read more →

2013: Year In Review

Categories Life

It's been a big year with a few big changes, and 2014 looks to be another big one. Arsenal are top of the league at New Year's so I guess I can be really happy at that. 😀

Here's the highlights of this year's blog posts:

January

… Read more →

Tweets for 2013

Categories Geekery, Internet, Life

Tweets for 2013These are my tweets for 2013 (minus replies and retweets). All the URLs are still Twitter's 't.co' ones, as the API doesn't spit out the original URL text.

  • Time machine back to year 10, 1998! http://t.co/FDjrAzCA #DrWorm was my favourite Jan 02, 2013
  • Gold! 'Old Cops Discover The Internet': http://t.co/47ITSJrW Jan 05, 2013
  • Darn. Oh well, it was worth a shot http://t.co/BuoySrn4 #DeathStar Jan 12, 2013
  • lots of profanity, but loads of hilarity "Darth Vader Voiced By Schwarzenegger": http://t.co/2SY7sm7z Jan 14, 2013
  • What a joke that Brave won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Film! Does Pixar get the awards
… Read more →