I think I need to change the tagline of this weblog to “Nadine. Spamming the internet with uber cute pictures of furry animals.”

 
Meet Lady. She’s my parents beautiful 4 year old Belgian Sheppard.

I’m convinced she’s a little confused about her age. She still galumphs around like a (giant) puppy and shows off her huge collection of squeaky toys to just about everyone who visits my parent’s house.

I’m visting my parentals for a few days over the Christmas holidays. Aside from the perks of being fed (my mum’s spaghetti bolognaise is kind of awesome) and getting to catch up with family & friends, there’s really not that much to do here.

I’ve only been here since yesterday morning and the ‘small country town’ boredom is already settling in…

I just wanted to take a few minutes to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. Stay safe over the holiday break and enjoy the time you get to spend with your family & friends. :)
 

I’ve been putting off updating my operating system for as long as I can remember. When I bought my current laptop almost two years ago I ended up paying Dell extra to install Windows XP instead of Vista.  I’d heard nothing but negative stuff about Vista and therefore I wasn’t in the least interested in upgrading at the time.

Last Friday after reading an entry about Windows 7 that my friend Kris wrote over at Equima, I finally bit the bullet & updated my laptop from Windows XP (32bit) straight to Windows 7 (64bit). Because I’m currently a full time student an upgrade copy of Windows 7 Professional only cost me AU$49.95 from It’s Not Cheating. Despite a few hiccups with getting my graphic card recognised & the card drivers to install (I had to download a modded Nvidia INF file from laptopvideo2go.com) I’ve been nothing but happy with how the transition has gone!

The things I really like about Windows 7:

• It took nowhere near as long as XP took to install.
• My computer now boots up and shuts down much faster.
• It’s pretty. The Aero transparency effects are hot!
• I like being able to search directly from the start menu.
• I love the new task bar and how you can select what icons show and what icons only show when the program is trying to notify you of something.
• I haven’t actually had any problems getting any of my programs to run despite the upgrade from a 32bit to a 64bit operating system.

I’m not what you’d call a Microsoft fan girl… but damn, Windows 7 is growing on me. I’m actually happy with this incarnation of Windows and it was very much worth the fifty bucks it cost me to upgrade. If you’re thinking about upgrading to Windows 7 from XP or Vista, I think you should! :)

Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown Tour (Rod Laver Arena 16/12/2009)

As a teenager I always purchased reserved seating for concerts. I’ve recently discovered the awesomeness that is general admission. You get a much better view of the band and the atmosphere is more electric.

If you’ve never bought floor tickets to a concert before, I’d suggest it’s something you seriously consider if one of your favourite bands is playing a concert anytime soon. You don’t even have to “mosh.” I certainly don’t. Standing towards the back or the side still gets you a better view than even the best reserved seating in some venues.

One thing I’ve learnt when buying concert tickets is to check out the venue layout before you purchase tickets. Most venues and/or ticket outlets have these online. You’ll quickly be able to see what seating is available and what sort of ticket is going to get you the best view.

If you do decide to get floor tickets, I’ve got a few tips for you to make sure you have an awesome floor/mosh pit experience: