Here are some statistical maps of Europe, mostly from years 2005 and 2006. Nonetheless, it is interesting to seem the distributions of population, GDP, and different other stats.
http://www.eupedia.com/europe/maps_of_europe.shtml
Some more info on European demographics, with maps - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Europe.
VREME i B92 predstavljaju dokumentarni serijal
JEDINICA
neispričana priča o CRVENIM BERETKAMA
This year there is surprisingly lot of rain. Apparently it is El Nino year and in Australia it manifests itself by having huge amounts of rain. Which is quite contrary to what I expected, having been used to El Nino meaning dry years. So it seems at the Northern Hemisphere, at least.
Anyway... Having lots of rain finally makes this place resemble home. And, at the same time, it brings those memories of the reasons I left, after all. :) Getting wet on the way to work. Not being able to go out for a walk whenever one feels like (without getting wet). Swamps, streams, and water deposits everywhere. Awesome. The dams will probably fill to 120% this year...
The temperature indicator on the Internet shows 2 degrees on a Celsius scale. Fortunately, the temperature indoors is more like 12. Expected high today is 15. This is like middle of the Summer elsewhere. :)
Just had two interesting conversations. One with a friend living in a beautiful country in the North of Europe and one with a recruiting consultant from a large global company. Both discussions involved software development positions in Europe and both seem interesting and challenging. At least my worries about moving continents again seem to disperse now.
I have just received the approval for my citizenship application from Australian Government in Canberra. Now the arrangements are undergoing to place me in the queue for the citizenship pledge at a local council.
I’ve just had an appointment with DIMIA regarding my citizenship application. Part of which was the citizenship test. Now all the administrative tasks I had to do are finally done. I hope the processing will be straightforward and I should receive a letter of approval in the following weeks. After that the local council should notify me of the ceremony date.
Today is the day. I’m off to the citizenship appointment and test. Its been a bit over two months since I submitted the application. Wonder what happens after this is done.
Hope to have a small celebration today after the test. :)
Alen Siljak, based on the results of your Free Personality Questionnaire, your personality type is... INTJ (Introvert, Intuitive, Thinker, Judger)
People of this type tend to be: autonomous, aloof, and intellectual; imaginative, innovative, and unique; critical, analytical, and logical; intellectually curious, driven to learn and increase their competence and knowledge; socially cautious and reserved; organized and definitive. The most important thing to INTJs is their independence and being able to live according to their own standards.
Just came back from an optometrist. Had an appointment for an eye check here in Altona. She found that the eyes are healthy. There is a slight distortion in vision with 0.25 on the left eye and 0.50 on the right. Considering it is Saturday morning after a busy week with lots of reading and staring at the monitor, concentrating on the designs, and a lack of sleep last night, I’d say the results are pretty good. The vision improves significantly with the lenses but the main reason could be tiredness.
Today I was reminded by my phone that the day has come to submit my citizenship application. I went through the process online and it was pretty simple and straightforward. The fee was charged online to the credit card. What remains is to gather all the hard copies of the documents required, sign the character reference form and photographs, and wait for the notification in the mail.
The next step, I guess, is the citizenship appointment where the documents will be reviewed and the citizenship test performed. After that the appointment with the local council will be made (automatically) for the citizenship ceremony. My new council is the Hobsons Bay City Council and they have citizenship ceremonies every two months. One was just the other day, actually.
I’m getting very used to freedom of choosing food for meals. Sometimes I mix variety of small bits of different food and that makes a dinner. Other times I cook. Usually I make sandwiches for lunch, as well. I’m mostly enjoying just mixing tastes and experimenting with food. I find there’s more of that going on rather than preparing actual dinner. Although I do get to eat what I prepare, there are usually leftovers for tomorrow. So now I’m quite confident that cooking is not a big deal at all. Especially with microwave cooking it gets very convenient in terms of number of different bowls required for food preparation. I just bought a ceramic bowl today and it is perfect for microwave cooking. Got a plastic cover with holes in it, made for microwave cooking to keep most of the moisture within the bowl and the food being cooked. I’m quite happy with how the food turns out. The difference with gas or electric cooking is that the bowl rotates in the microwave automatically and there is no steering needed. The food gets cooked equally. This gives me time to work on other bits of the meal or making those sandwiches for tomorrow. I quite like how things can be simple and easy sometimes.
Yesterday I went jogging around Cherry Lake in Altona, catching the last rays of the Sun for the day. I was impressed by the surrounding of the lake. And, the more away I was from Altona, the more amazed I was. At times it felt as if I was in the nature far away from urban life. The grass was cut, there was lake and different plant species. It was wonderful. I saw a bunny (rabbit) next to the track. This is definitely one of the most beautiful jogging tracks I’ve seen around here. The scene of the Sun setting was magnificent, with blue and red colors mixing in the clouds.
Later, on the way home, I did stretching on the grass football field. All this is only minutes from home. Feels like a place from my imagination…
It has been a couple of days of successful microwave cooking. Every day after I get back from work, I check out a new microwave recipe and do the cooking. Seems that most foods can be cooked in a microwave. There are different timings and intensity of power. The good thing is that it takes me only one bowl to prepare a meal.
Today I cooked some rice. It went on for five minutes on High power. Then four minutes on Medium power. After that I added the calamari and sauce and cooked for further three minutes. The only downside so far is that it takes forever for the food to cool down. :)
The Altona move has been completed over the weekend. Everything has fallen into place in those two days. I got Toyota Corolla at the rent-a-car and moved the majority of the things in two rides. It was a funny thing playing Sokoban in my mind while packing the things into the car.
On Sunday I finally found the hanger stand, which I missed in Ikea on Saturday. The Internet access has been arranged with the owner so by Sunday night all was all set. Now even my SIP clients for VoIP work without any problems.
Monday was also good. First real trip to work on a train after two years. I have to say I got exactly what I was looking for. When I walk through the town towards the pier I can smell the salt in the air. On the way to work, in the morning Sun, I can see the blue vastness of the ocean. Now I’m going to enjoy this feeling for a while. Until the times comes for a new adventure.
Moomba Festival is going on in Melbourne at this time of year. There is river skiing and –boarding on Yarra. Today the day started really well. It was sunny and warm. All until about 2pm when it looked like a shower coming but is going to pass soon so that we could continue looking around the park. But…
Have a look at some photos below
What a wonderful day. First a friend and I searched for tennis courts around Melbourne on Gogle Earth and found some nice ones in Royal Park. There is 14 courts as a part of a club there and there are some more not far from that place. While the friend was checking for a price, the woman on the phone told him it was too hot today and that he should go to the beach instead.
Then I went to Altona to confirm the new place and talk to the owner. The owner was so cool, he gave me two weeks half rent since I will not be moving in immediately but only after our four weeks notice expire. The Internet has also been arranged.
In Altona everything is close by, at two minutes walk. RSL, shops, cafes, supermarket… Saw a lot of retirees from ex Yugoslavia playing bocce in the park. There is a library nearby. That means I could spend more time in the near future reading books or watching movies. I can read on the train. Went to the beach and walked in the water. If I did not have cold I’d have a swim. I might start to getting used to living on the shore and go for regular swims. There is a bus line to Coburg and eastern parts of the city. I topped up myki card and used it on a train for the first time.
On the other side of the street where the new place is there are several grass ovals. Perfect for jogging and exercising. Right next to that is a big lake with a bike/jogging path around. It looked as such a perfect environment for running around. I also found an indoor pool and some tennis courts.
I have such a wonderful feeling about Altona. Loved it so much that I even spent some time daydreaming and looking at houses for rest and sale. There is everything I'd want in that place.
Thinking of my time arrangements during the day, I plan to cook more to practice my culinary skills. There will be more time to prepare food and even have the lunch at work. Also enough time and shops close by to get milk and cereals for breakfast every day.
Being in Altona feels like being on a holiday. Now that I came back home the city now looks so busy and crowded.
Had an Apple cider on the Yarra shore after I came back, then had a look at some cool festival on alternative lifestyle - healthy food and alternative sources of energy - solar and even bike (pedal) powered. There was a solar panel supplying enough power for a water turbine.
Yeah, today was such a great day. I’m also feeling better and my coughing is almost gone.
Edit:
Forgot to mention, Altona is the home of Australian aviation. Back to the roots. :)
I can’t believe it was only a week when the temperature gauge was crossing 40 degrees mark regularly and now I wake up in the morning because of cold weather! It was only 10 degrees this morning. Just like in the winter!
With my last day at Sportsbet, I feel like I finally sorted out my relation to betting. Now I quite enjoy watching sports on TVs that hang around the office and I think I’m going to miss that from now on. I also don’t mind betting and see it as a fun activity. Nothing productive and/or special but at least it does not have negative connotations anymore.
Farewell, this is the end of an era. Also a beginning of a new and interesting one!
After the 43 degrees the other day, there’s been a cool change and the temperature is pretty low and it feel a bit cold. It is such a contrast to Monday. The house still feels hot but outside is very nice and cool. It felt even cold this morning when I was off to work, with temperature even below 20 degrees Celsius.
Today, at the pool, I had an opportunity to weight myself, which I haven’t done in a while. So I used the opportunity to find out what my current weight is. And it is 82kg. I think it is well within some standard boundaries for the height of 185cm. Anyway, this is just a historical record so I can show to my parents that I *do* eat normally although I’m far away from home. :)
Today is forecasted to be quite a hot day with 43 degrees Celsius. Well, currently it is almost 40 and I feel like going out to see how it feels. :)
It has just hit 43 degrees and is quite hot in the room. The air is not that humid so the heat is bearable and quite pleasant. My washing will dry in a few minutes, I think. :)
For years I’ve been using the free Canopus Astrology Software to analyze the people I know. I found it to be pretty accurate in interpretations of the positions of the planets. Sometimes too accurate, for it’s own good.
Well, the software is retired for a long time now. But there is some good news. Clairvision has a new, online, version of the software available at http://astro.clairvision.org/
It is so much easier to use and can produce all the charts and interpretations as images and PDFs. The Clairvision Virtual Astrologer is located at http://astrology.clairvision.org/astro/switchboard. From this link you can load and save your chart files with individual’s details and go from there. All the options are easily available from the menu.
The experience of watching a 3D movie in Imax theater was simply amazing! The Imax screen is 7 stories high and the seats are positioned so that the screen covers your whole viewing area. All you see is just the screen in front of you. It covers your peripheral vision so the viewing experience is complete.
This was my first 3D movie and the initial effect was stunning. I felt as if I could touch the actors in the first few scenes. Everything seemed so real.
I won’t go into details about the story but computer “effects” (if we can still call them that) are getting so realistic it is hard to distinguish what was animated and what was real. The nature, live beings and their movement, look so real. The colors in the imaginary world where Avatars live are so beautiful and so well animated that it gets very easy to imagine something like that is possible. Some parts of the movie felt like a dream, in fact.
The whole watching experience was so good that I noticed only in the end that the movie went on for more than two and a half hours. It ended past midnight and now it’s time to catch some sleep as I have to work Saturday. Fortunately, for the last time at my current job.
