… or as I more formally know it, writing how-to articles for the heck of it. After recently purchasing a brand new MacBook pro and having a couple of weeks of evil issues I managed to find a dirty little work around to an issue (I won’t go into that here but if you are interested you can take a look here).

No sooner had I posted it that I re-read on the Apple forums and realised that a patch for the issue had been released not a couple of hours before. I first thought “bah what a waste of my time” but then I reflected and actually came up with a different view.

In fact I had not wasted my time, I had exercised my mind by coming up with a creative solution to combat a problem I had been having then documented that to hopefully assist others. So rather than looking at this as a FAIL I decided to look at it as a WIN!

So I just wanted to share, sometimes we do things and they seem like they were pointless but often it is not the result but the journey that gets us there that counts the most.

Stu

If you are looking to buy your first place I have some VALUABLE advice for you today… Well, as I mentioned recently I have been house hunting and looking for my first apartment that I can call my own. I had the contract signed and was ready to roll however found out that the bank didn’t agree with the value of the place I had selected to call my home.

So sadly I am back to square one again, back out and hunting for a new place. However I can safely say that I learned a valuable lesson through this experience. No matter how sure you are that a bank will give you finance until you have that unconditional piece of paper saying they will do not let a cooling period elapse on a contract, if you need to get it extended. We were 110% sure I would get the loan however in the end the bank valuation was the kicker… 30K below the bid to be precise.

So… lesson learned here (thankfully with no penalty to me, or very little) if you need to extend your cooling off period you can, all you have to do is ask. I was just lucky I had many good advisers around me.

Stuart

As we enter the silly season this year it is a time that we all must remember to have a fun, safe and happy holidays. Volunteering with St John Ambulance I recently came across a casualty that was severely and I mean SEVERLY inebriated which therefore prompted me to write this.

I would like to say to everyone, please remember Christmas, Hannukah, New Year, Chinese New Year and any others that I may have forgotten are a time to have fun, remember the things that are most important in our lives and spend time with friends and family.

Just remember to always drink responsibly, don’t drink and drive and most of all HAVE FUN.

I would like to also take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hunnukah, Happy New Year and an early Gong Hei fat Choy.

Stuart

After having been notably absent from posting for the last week on my blogs I thought it might be a good opportunity to write up when I actually blog and therefore hopefully cover the reasons that I do not blog as well.

From my original year of blogging I remember times when I was extremely busy I would try to throw a post together to at least have some new content on my blogs and they often turned out to be erm…well less than spectacular. So I made the conscious decision back then that if I was very busy I would not try to throw together meaningless posts for the sake of having a higher post count LOL.

The other reason I sometimes may not be posting is that every few weeks I get to a point where my brain needs a hiatus from posting. Sometimes it is as simple as I can not think of any good topics, other times I am simply not in the mood. Once again this comes down to not writing a post for the sake of writing a post.

Some people have suggested that I just write up a backlog of posts and then release them as I see fit, while this sounds good in theory I have yet to find the time to develop that backlog. However at least for the moment I do have quite a backlog of ideas so that is one less issue to contend with.

Anyhoo I just thought it was a good opportunity to bring that one up. The reason for the hiatus this week is (as I mentioned) a lack of time.

Stuart

Thankfully I can now say that my exams are over for another semester. After spending the last six years of my life studying this degree I have to admit that I am very much looking to getting my degree over and done with. However alas I have two years to go before that is the case and therefore have to revel in the joy of getting a little time off in between semesters.

So I thought it is a good chance to say, I know this blog is new, I know there is not a whole lot here at the moment but pull your socks up and get ready to have them knocked off over the coming weeks as there is no uni to get in the way of my insane ramblings.

*grins*

Stuart