Almost a month later and I'm still sick. Turns out I had sinusitis, and it didn't clear up after the first course of antibiotics. So then I got a secondary infection (which was actually quite painful) and am back on antibiotics. Oh well.

Last weekend where gradings for Iaido and Jodo. I'm happy to say I passed both gradings :) I am now 4th Kyu in Iaido, and I double graded to 1st Kyu in Jodo. Go Me!

Things are taking an interesting turn at the Dojo. While Rebecca is leading the Kenbu side of things, I'm left to teach it about half the time as Rebecca and Marcus help out at the Mt Lawley Dojo on Mondays. Sure we've only got one regular student, but it's odd being put in a position where you have to instruct someone, especially since Kenbu is fairly new to me as well. I'm not sure how to go about that, and I'm a little worried that I'm doing it all wrong. We're also helping out at the Curtin Dojo on Saturdays until they can organise something perhaps a little more appropriate (if at all). Again, we're put in a position where we have to instruct, where we're probably not really best equiped to do so.

Through all this I'm wonderring: where are the senior students during all this? Why are we, junior students, doing this? I don't mind though, it's fun and hopefully I'll get something out of it if I don't bollocks things up too much.

Work is actually fun at the moment. Recently I mentioned I went to that Apple training course. While a lot of it was boring basic level stuff, I did manage to pick up a lot of useful information. So I returned from the training course and got stuck into setting up and deploying all the new shiny 20" iMacs for various staff members. From scratch. This included installing, securing, integrating into our network environment, reimaging, licensing, and documentation. I'm quite happy with the work that I've done with it so far. I've got two deployed to staff so far (as test cases), and after a few teething issues it seems that everything is ready for the rest of the staff. The last thing I'working on is a document titled "So, you bought an iMac". It's been a busy two weeks doing all that, but I'd say I've learned and achieved a lot.

It's been a month since the last update. It seems that there's a general lull in all blogs overall. Is it a sign of things to come? Or is it just that time of year?

My dad and his wife came to Perth for what was to be a whirlwind weeklong visit, but ended out turning into a gale force two week stay. He's flown in from Bali, where he's been working for the past two(?) years, and is stopping by various placing on his way to his new home in Florida. He's worked in Florida before, but this time he's going to work for a company that he owns. He figures that if he's going to be stuck working for bastards for the rest of his career, that bastard might as well be himself :P

So that was nice - got to catch up with him and Yola and shoot-the-shit, so to speak. I'm glad we got the extra week to catch up with him before he had to fly out again. The US immigration department should fuck up like that more often. Heh. It was also really nice to catch up with him on his birthday for a change.

In between being extraordinarily busy, Michele and I have had the opportunities to do various things - including celebrating our three year anniversary. We did this by dining at the Seizan. A nice place - you should give it a try sometime if you can. We had Teppan Yaki, which is Japanese for "The Chef sets your food on fire right in front of you and then expects you to eat it." Very economical, the Japanese language... The food was awesome and I can't wait to organise a group dinner there. Should be most fun.

Right next to it is a tiny little place called "The Ramen", which is a little Ramen house (duh). They're very cheap but the meals are pretty damn good. We've done some group dinners there on a few Friday nights. We should do it more often.

Another great Japanese restaurant is Tsunami, which I had the pleasure of dining at tonight to celebrate Michele's mum's birthday. The food there is simply wonderful, even if it is a little pricey. But hey, what can you expect from Mosman Park? If you get a chance, try it. It's worth it. Hell, make a point of getting the chance :P

Other random things include the flash work of Vinnie Veritas, whom I found on Deviant Art. I just love the way he puts his animations together to tell a story. If you've got an half hour to spare, I recommend you check it out. I love clicking though on Deviant Art - you can always find some amazing stuff. You can waste heaps of time there if you're not carefull.

Speaking of wasting time, I've found a bunch of new webcomics. The best of them is Orneryboy, which is about a guy with an irritable disposition, a very messy girl, and a pet zombie. I've also rediscovered Neko The Kitty, which I had lost through the Great Bookmark Debacle. Only a few more to find again.

Exams are finished, so that means that I have to gear up and redo the labs for next semester. Thankfully there's only a small amount that needs to be updated, but it's still time consuming. During the mid year break we get a chance to do training too. I've had training authorised for the following courses, which I think will benefit me when it comes to looking after the Macs:

• MacOS 101 Mac OS X Support Essentials v10.4
• MacOS 310 Mac OS X Deployment v.10.4
• MacOS 330 Directory Svcs Integration & Admin v.10.4 (Client)

I figure that if they're trying to force us to do training in something, I should at least try and make it useful. Plus I get to play with teh shinies...

In other news, my IdleRPG character seems to be steadily climbing up the ranks, sitting somewhere around 6th for now. My bash.org quote is still stuck in the Top 100 (around position 84, not that I'm counting), still showing that people will click on any old shit. All in all, not too bad.

Training has ramped up recently due to the upcoming grading. I'm trying to double grade to 1st Kyu in Jodo. This should be okay, seeing as I missed the last grading. I'm going for 4th Kyu in Iaido, and I'm not too worried about that either (unless I really stuff up on the day). Again, I missed a grading, but I haven't really had the opportunity to learn the Kata's enough to attempt a double grading. I'd have to be really impressive to actually be able to score a double grading there. Better safe than sorry.

I'm also looking forward to the arrival of my new sword bag (Weapons Case E) (Cordura Charcoal), which should get here in six to eight weeks. It's to replace my two sword bags, which are a) not big enough to hold what the hold, and b) a pain in the ass to carry around. They're a gift from my dad, who didn't know what else to get me for my birthday :P

That about it for The Life Of A Grumpy Bastard on this Sunday night. I can't think of any suitably unique way of signing this off tonight, so I'll just stop here. Bai bai.

My legs are officially jelly.

I spent this weekend training for Kenbu - Japanese Sword and Fan Dancing (I suppose it should be really called Kenshibudo, but whatever). Two sensei from Japan - Nagayama Sensei and Shoji Sensei - are down in Perth this week to help Ramon Sensei teach Kenjutsu and Kenbu.

Nagayama Sensei was instructing Jodo and Kenjitsu, but because I wasn't at least an ikkyu in Jodo I wasn't able to join that class. Shoji Sensei was taking Kenbu, which I had wanted to experience anyway, so I did that. Shoji Sensei is the Kenbu Sokei - a Japanese National Treasure. It was a fantastic opportunity to learn a new art from someone so qualified to teach it. It was a real honour.

I hadn't had the opportunity to meet the sensei when they were down last, but they're really nice. Shoji Sensei only knows a few words of English, but really got on well with everyone. Nagayama Sensei speaks enough English to get himself in trouble, but still really gets on well with everyone. I didn't get a chance to spend much time with Nagayama Sensei, except for Iaido training this morning (really good!), but he appears to have a really subtle sense of humour.

Last night we had a welcome dinner for the Sensei, which also doubled as a birthday celebration for Norma, Ramon Sensei's wife. She was dressed up in her beautiful Kimono, and was her usual cheerful self. Shoji Sensei had the three of us that were left from Kenbu (the others having other dinner commitments) perform a dance for Norma and the rest. Although I'd only "learnt" the two dances I did that day, I didn't stuff up too badly. Hans and Rebecca did more dancing than I, but it was Shoji Sensei that really stole the show - as you would expect. The sheer grace and perfection of her performance was really awe inspiring.

Although the seminar was this weekend, there may be more Kenbu training tomorrow evening that I can attend, before they head back to Japan on Tuesday. Shoji Sensei makes it look easy, but it's very exhausting. My legs and knees ache, and I was sweating profusely, but it was really great fun and I look forward to doing it again.

I bought my own naginata at training tonight. I don't strictly speaking need one, but it's much better to use and maintain your own equipment than to use the club equipment. And it was a good excuse to whip out the camera and play with Photoshop again.

And I also did another banner image for the new template. I also updated the old banner image to make it more "wide browser friendly" (plus using a bit of css). Overall, I'm happy with the template. It actually gives me motivation to actually finish the site design / re-implementation.

I think I need to invest in a tripod. And yes, perhaps I am going somewhat overboard with the de-coloured images...

Last week was O-Week at work. That's when the new years students come and make a mess of the campus before the campus is fully set up again to handle that mess. For me anyway. I found out early on that various people had booked the labs (some of which we should have expected anyway, but ho-hum).

So that was fun. Running around preparing the labs, making sure they all work and redeploying all the images... I finally finished on Friday, and am satisfied with the results.

The Curtin Budokan club was asked to do a demonstration on Wednesday to try and entice new students to join. Although I'm not part of the Curtin Budokan club, I was asked along with a few others to come along and help make the numbers for the demonstration. There were 5 of us on this tiny stage doing Iaido and Jodo demo's. It was pretty good fun, but we definitely got some odd looks from people as we were wandering around before and afterwards :P

But as all things do, O-Week came to a close, and semester starts tomorrow. Things should be fairly busy for the next week or two as everyone settles into the new semester.