Bike Riding, Statistically Speaking.

11:23 am, March 12th, 2010 | 3 Comments »
Posted in bikes, boythings, roundups, whinging by Jarod

The summary of this post is that I’ve been riding a hell of a lot more in 2010 than I was in 2009.

The long version includes some quickfire stats…

• In the first 70 days of this year, I’ve ridden half of what I did in 365 days last year. (1230kms for 70 days of this year, 2389kms for the whole of last year)
• Last year I did 101 rides in the 365 days of the year for an average of 23kms per ride. This year I’ve done 37 rides in the 70 days already gone for an average of 34kms per ride.
• If I continue at my current pace (which I won’t, winter for one will slow me down) I’ll be heading towards 6000kms for the year. Truth is that I’ll be cutting back in a big way after Dirtworks in May.
• The Salsa is still my favourite bike by far. More than 60% of my kilometres this year have been on it. Need to start to get on Greeny more.
• As the following graph shows, I’ve made a distinct effort to ride further in the one sitting than I did in 2009. In 2010, 40-50km rides are the order of the day, whereas 20-30km rides were more common in 2009.
  

I’m still going okay with that fine balance of not riding enough (and being horribly unfit) & riding too much (and over training). As Paul Petch says, training is the easy part, it’s forcing yourself to rest that’s difficult.

70/365 – Burgerfuel, you’re delicious

8:32 pm, March 11th, 2010 | 3 Comments »
Posted in 365, local, whinging by Jarod

Neither of us felt like cooking, so Liz and I ended up having Burgerfuel for dinner. So handy having such good (and convenient) food on one’s doorstep.

This week in movies

8:39 am, March 11th, 2010 | No Comments »
Posted in boythings, mooovies, roundups, whinging by Jarod

I’ve been watching a few movies of late. Lets have two quick reviews.

The Hurt Locker
Now I’ll be honest here… I really really don’t understand the hype. To me it’s just another Hollywood war movie glorifying war. Jarod’s rating? 2 inconceivable bomb defusings out of 5. I can’t embed the trailer, but if you’d like to waste your bandwidth, head here.

Men Who Stare At Goats
This is a very very strange movie. I saw this after watching the documentary of the same name a few days earlier and I’ve come to the conclusion that to see them the other way around would be disastrous. Always get to know the truth* behind a story before watching the Hollywood movie based on it.

It would be fair to say it’s a modern day, semi true HotShots. I give Men Who Stare At Goats 3 conspiracies out of 5 (if only for Ewan McGregor constantly talking about Jedi Warriors).

* I use the term truth loosely here. Cause lets face it, we’re talking military conspiracies here.

Tron Legacy
Not so much that I’ve watched it, but more so that I’m still eagerly awaiting it’s release later this year. Another official trailer got released yesterday…. so enjoy!

Australian Citizenship (pt 2)

12:40 am, March 11th, 2010 | 6 Comments »
Posted in girlthings, whinging by Liz

Quick points (an FAQ, if you will):
- I can vote (and have before). So, somewhere in the system, I am an Australian citizen. Somewhere.
- I want proof of my citizenship here because I have no ties to New Zealand other than the two years I spent there
- I don’t have a New Zealand passport at the moment. It expired many, many years ago (and has since been lost).
- There is no issue of deportation. As a New Zealand citizen (at the least) arriving back into Australia before 2001 I have the right to live and work here without issue.

So, I called the department of immigration this morning and was told the following:
Regardless of what it says on Form 119, I would have gained Australian citizenship on my 10th birthday if I had been a resident up until that time. (Luckily, we moved to New Zealand just after my 10th birthday, so I satisfy that point).

I have been advised to ignore ‘Category 4′ on the above form (kids born after 20 August 1986 to NZ citizen parents) and apply for proof on the grounds of living here for my first 10 years (‘Category 3′). But, here’s the catch:

- I still need to prove my parent’s residency status at the time I was born (difficult to do as they do not have their passports from that time) AND
- I need to provide documentation for every year up until my 10th birthday to prove I was living here.

Both of which MUST be in some kind of governmental record somewhere, but I assume systems can’t talk to each other (or they want to make it difficult).

So, between the ages of 1 and 4, I’m not sure what I have to prove my existence in Australia. From 5 to 10 I may have school report cards. Except that because we moved so often I threw a whole bunch of them out as I didn’t see any reason to keep them. Well done me.

What I have done so far:
- Asked my parents to search for any documents that may have survived the time when I threw most of them out.

- Called one of my old primary schools (I think there are 3 different schools I attended before I was 10) and asked about records. Legally, schools are only required to keep the records for 7 years, and they had no idea how to help me.

- Called the Commonwealth Bank to see if they had a record of my school saver (dolomite?) account. Completely unexpectedly, they do. If I visit a branch they can give me the account number and the length of time it was held, but not much else. But, seeing as I had that account open for one whole year, that might count for one whole year’s worth of proof I lived in Australia.

A smart friend has suggested I try the Dept of Education to see if I can get any records from them, which I will do in the coming days.

Does anyone else have any smart ideas as to how I can prove that I lived in this country for the first 10 years of my life?

Part One

Australian Citizenship

4:01 pm, March 6th, 2010 | 13 Comments »
Posted in girlthings, whinging by Liz

I was filling in a job application the other day and it asked me if I was an Australian citizen. I ticked the ‘Yes’ box, but then realised I still wasn’t sure if that was the case.

I started to sort this out a couple of years ago but after speaking to a very helpful person at the department of immigration who said that I was ’stuck between a rock and a hard place’ and just had to submit some forms, pay lots of money and hope for the best, I put it in the too hard basket.

I was born in Australia in October, 1986 to parents who were New Zealand citizens, but living in Australia under a permanent residency visa. My parents applied for and received their Australian Citizenship when I was 16, and I was not included on the documentation (not their fault), although apparently I should have been because I was under 18. So this leaves me having to qualify for citizenship. Checking out the proof of your citizenship page on the Dept of Immigration and Citizenship site, I thought I might fall under this category…

3. Born on or after 20 August 1986.
You acquired Australian citizenship at birth in Australia if at least one of your parents was an Australian citizen or permanent resident of Australia at the time of your birth.
OR
You acquired Australian citizenship on your 10th birthday if:
neither of your parents were Australian citizens or permanent residents at the time of your birth; you have been ordinarily resident in Australia for the 10 years since your birth; and your parents were not holders of diplomatic visas at the time of your birth.

Which sounds pretty easy, except that my parents were New Zealand citizens. Which puts me in a whole new category…

4. Born to New Zealand citizen parents
Children born in Australia to New Zealand citizens between 20 August 1986 and 31 August 1994 generally did not acquire Australian citizenship by birth.

Oh. And it probably doesn’t help that was I was 9 I acquired my New Zealand Citizenship in preparation for 2 years living over there (we arrived back in 1998). And I don’t actually know what my status is. I can only assume that I’m a permanent resident. The government don’t seem to have a problem with me living or working here.

So, then why not just apply for Australian Citizenship? Well, because I don’t seem to fall under any of their required categories. And then there’s this paragraph on the application page:

As a New Zealand citizen your eligibility for Australian citizenship depends on whether you arrived in Australia before or after 26 February 2001.

On arrival in Australia, most New Zealanders are automatically granted a Special Category Visa (SCV). This visa allows the holder to remain and work in Australian indefinitely. Up to 26 February 2001 the holders of SCVs were eligible to apply for citizenship.

On 26 February 2001, the Australian Government announced that New Zealand citizens are required to apply for and be granted permanent residence in Australia if they wish to access certain social security payments, obtain Australian citizenship or sponsor their family members for permanent residence.

So I can’t actually figure out if I need to:
a) apply for proof of citizenship and hope ‘being born here’ is enough.
b) apply for permanent residency because I’m a New Zealand citizen and then…
c) apply for Australian citizenship based on my permanent residency. OR
d) ignore it and hope it doesn’t come and bite me on the ass one day?

Any ideas?

61/365 – Timeout Kitty Plays Under Your Door

9:22 am, March 2nd, 2010 | No Comments »
Posted in 365, boythings, traaiiiiin, whinging by Jarod

It doesn’t happen very often, but occasionally Train annoys Liz and I in a big way. It usually involves her gently nomming our feet while we’re walking around the house or sitting at our desk. Once, twice and thrice we can handle, but after that it’s time for a kitty time out.

Mind you, it never reaaaaaally works, cause she just tends to play under the door of whichever room we lock her in. There is no finding a quiet spot. There is no reflection on how she shouldn’t bite humans. There is only the thought that this is a game and she should bang under the door until she is released from her time out.

I accept full responsibility for constantly caving to her impolite requests to leave her captivity. The above photo was taken during the tense negotiation this morning.

50/365 – Blah

8:55 pm, February 19th, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Posted in 365, boythings, photography, whinging by Jarod

For a myriad of reasons, Liz and I are emotionally & physically burnt out of late. Forgive us if our 365’s are a bit… uhmm… crap.

49/365 – Milk and Honey… My Ass.

10:26 pm, February 18th, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Posted in 365, boythings, geekery, local, mooosic, videooooos, whinging by Jarod

Wow. This takes me back to analysing poems for English in Year 12. Firstly, read through the lyrics of this song by Augie March.

Pity the boy in front of me
He was only 16,
Lifted up my axe then down,
Split his head like a cord of wood.

Not for me the huon pine,
Not for me the ankle iron,
A’resting in the rope’ll do me fine.

So they sent me down to Bellerive,
Strung me up to my relief,
I was just a petty thief
Of no account, no import.

Send my love to my sister
In the Female Factory,
Remind her of the day when we drank wine.

May a slant of winter light
Break upon my stone before the night
Ushers in the chill,
I have no sight, I have no sight.

But did they pave the streets of Hobart town?
Lop the old wood forests down?
For the press of King and Crown,
For honey? Milk and honey?

My arse.

If you were too lazy to read all that, do mash play on this video…

So you’ve watched the video clip and/or read the lyrics. I shall now paraphrase the last verse and summarise it in one concise 365 entry.

Analysis and interpretations are welcome as comments. Embrace the poetry dissecting nerd within!

43/365 – Unemployed Hobo Fail

8:18 am, February 12th, 2010 | 8 Comments »
Posted in 365, boythings, local, whinging by Jarod

Keen Jarod-Stalkers will be aware that I’m currently unemployed after finishing up at my (old) job of 4 years on Wednesday. That’s right. I’m two days into being an unemployed bum, and I’m still waking up at 6am, to be grocery shopping by 7am, and then back at home by 8am.

I suck at being unemployed. (Mind you, I rock at getting prime parking position at Marrickville Metro!)

Welcome to Jarod and Liz dot com Version 7

2:17 pm, January 10th, 2010 | 5 Comments »
Posted in boythings, geekery, internets, whinging by Jarod

Wow. Another new version of the blog.

This one has been a few weeks in the making. It was meant to be released on the first of this month as a way to ring in the New Year, but hey, I got slack and lazy.

Still though, it’s all nice and pretty and shiny and such. I like it a lot. Liz is tolerating it. What more could a guy ask for.

Oh, oh, and it’s optimised for you slackers who haven’t upgraded to nice pretty widescreens yet. That’s right, it’ll do 1280×1024 (!). One more caveat is that I literally haven’t tested it with Chrome or IE. Firefox runs it fine so how bout all you guys use Firefox and save me the trouble of making it cross browser compatible? Yep. Sounds great!

Right. I think that’s it. Enjoy**

** and be sure to leave a comment if you find any abnormal looking bugs. It’s most likely user error on my end.

7/365 – It’s a Jarod!

7:51 pm, January 7th, 2010 | No Comments »
Posted in girlthings, photography, whinging by Liz

Hey look. It’s a Jarod!

This week has been ‘back to work’ week. Which means that we have no time to do ’stuff’. Like bake. I wanna bake! But I have to think of something to bake, then gather the ingredients and then do the mixing and then do the baking and then wait for it to cool, set, whatever AND THEN I can eat it. Perhaps I should have said: “I wanna eat sweet things now!”.

2010 is so far the year of Maybes. Maybe we’ll go to Melbourne during comedy festival. Maybe we’ll visit Brisbane to see peoples. Maybe we’ll buy an apartment. Maybe if we buy a place I can have another cat. Maybe Train will stop attacking my FACE in the middle of the night. Maybe our downstairs neighbours will learn some manners and TURN THE MUSIC DOWN. Maybe we’ll be good and keep up with this 365 stuff. Maybe I’ll use the sewing machine this year. Maybe Jarod will keep riding his bike to work. Maybe I’ll make dinner once this week. Maybe.