user McDarren   <hr> It's occurred to me recently that in my forty-odd years on this planet I've been to a few places and done a few things that some people might find vaguely interesting. So I figured that I may as well inflict a few of those on any poor unsuspecting souls that stumble across this page. I may add to this list from time to time as I recall things. <ul><li>I've signed the visitors book in the [wp://Old_Homestead_Cave|Old Homestead Cave] on the [wp://Nullarbor_Plain|Nullarbor Plain]. <li>I've been to [http://www.savah.com.au/press.html|Utopia] <li>I lived for six months (twice) on a tiny remote [wp://Willis_Island_(Coral_Sea)|Tropical Island], with only 3 other people ([http://mcdarren.perlmonk.org/willis.jpg|overhead pic]) <li>I've ridden a motorcycle (Honda XL600) across the [wp://Tanami_Desert|Tanami Desert], 1100km from [wp://Halls_Creek,_Western_Australia|Halls Creek] to [wp://Alice_Springs|Alice Springs] (and back). <li>I've seen [http://mcdarren.perlmonk.org/Mt_Fuji_from_Park_Hyatt_47th_floor.jpg|Mt Fuji] from the 47th floor of the Park Hyatt Hotel in Tokyo. <li>I've also ridden a motorcycle through the [wp://Bungle_Bungle_Range|Bungle Bungle's] (same bike). <li>I've done my weekly grocery shopping on the [wp://Tea_&_Sugar_Train|Tea & Sugar Train] at [http://www.abc.net.au/rural/reporter/stories/s1470949.htm|Forrest] (no trees). <li>I've been to a [http://www.henleyontodd.com.au/|Boat Race] that was cancelled, because there was water in the river. <li>I've been from [http://www.lighthouse.net.au/Lights/NSW/Cape%20Byron/Cape%20Byron.htm|one side] of Australia to the [http://www.steeppoint.com.au/|other]. I've been in [http://www.ga.gov.au/education/facts/dimensions/centre.htm|the middle] (all [http://www.ga.gov.au/education/facts/dimensions/centre.htm#fivecentres|five of them]),and I've been on [wp://Cape_York_Peninsula|the top]. But I've never made it to the [wp://South_East_Cape|bottom]. </ul> <hr> [id://558846] is something that a few people have found amusing. It has a homepage [http://mcdarren.perlmonk.org/googlemonks/|here]. I'm Australian, but I've lived in Singapore for the past ~<strike>5</strike><strike>6</strike>7 years. I work for a company that does, er.. stuff. I used to manage their NOC, but now I do other stuff. It's kinda fun. I'm not a professional programmer by any stretch of the imagination. I'm more what you would term a Perl enthusiast. Which of course means that I know just enough to be dangerous :) Apart from being addicted to Perlmonks, I also devour Perl books. These are the ones I currently own: <ul><li>[http://isbn.nu/0596000278|Programming Perl] - 3rd Edition ([TimToady|Wall], Christiansen & Orwant). If you only ever buy one Perl book, then it should be this one. (And that's been [id://551265|scientifically proven] :p) <li>[http://isbn.nu/0596001738|Perl Best Practices] - ([theDamian|Conway]). After The Camel, this is my 2nd favourite. Being mostly self-taught, and not really coming from a programming or development background - this book was a godsend for me. It taught me how to write code that others could read and maintain - even myself! <li>[http://isbn.nu/1565922433|Perl Cookbook] - (Christiansen & Torkington). Another of my favourites. Plenty of useful stuff inside. <li>[http://isbn.nu/1600330207|Learning Perl] - 4th Edition ([merlyn|Schwartz]). Like many others, this is the one I started with. <li>[http://isbn.nu/1565924959|Perl 5 Pocket Reference] - 3rd Edition (Vromans). Very handy for when you just need to look something up quickly. <li>[http://isbn.nu/0596004567|Advanced Perl Programming] - 2nd Edition (Cozens). This one was not quite what I expected it to be. Rather than teaching advanced techniques, it focuses more on how to use modules to get various jobs done. Perhaps there's a message there :) <li>[http://isbn.nu/0596102062|Intermediate Perl] - ([merlyn|Schwartz], [brian d foy|foy] & Phoenix). I only recently acquired this one, and I really wish I had bought it a year or so ago. All that time I spent tearing my hair out trying to grok references :/ <li>[http://isbn.nu/0596526741|Perl Hacks] - ([chromatic], [TheDamian|Conway] & [Ovid|Poe]). Great book! <li>[http://isbn.nu/1565926994|Programming the Perl DBI] - (Descartes & Bunce). Okay, I'll admit that this is probably the only one I bought just because it had "Perl" in the title. And because it's published by O'Reilly. And because [http://search.cpan.org/~timb/|Tim Bunce] is the co-author. What more needs to be said? It's gotta be a great book and I'm sure I'll find a use for it one day :) <li>[http://isbn.nu/1565924193|CGI Programming with Perl] - (Guelich, Gundavaram & Birznieks). I do my fair share of CGI scripting, so this one was a must have. <li>[http://isbn.nu/1590593235|Randal Schwartz's Perls of Wisdom] - ([merlyn|Schwartz]). A collection of magazine articles from the [merlyn|wizard] himself. I bought this one quite some time ago, before I was aware that all of his articles are [http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/columns.html|available] online. But I'm still glad I have it :) <li>[http://isbn.nu/1558607013|Higher Order Perl] - ([Dominus]). I have to admit that a lot of the material in this book is way out of my league. I've been working my way through it for several months now. It's tough going. <li>[http://isbn.nu/1930110065|Web Development with Apache and Perl] - (Petersen). <li>[http://isbn.nu/1932111921|Perl Core Language - Little Black Book] - 2nd Edition (Holzner). This one I'm not so sure about. It's got plenty of good stuff, but some of the techniques seem a little dodgy. I don't know if I would recommend it - certainly not to somebody new to Perl. <li>[http://isbn.nu/0596002890|Mastering Regular Expressions] - (Friedl). Not strictly a Perl book, but an absolute must have for any serious Perl programmer. </ul> (I've bought <strike>4 or 5</strike> about a dozen more since I compiled this list, and I'll add them in when I get sufficiently motivated). One day I'd like to become a CPAN author. I'm not yet, because: <ul><li> a) I don't consider myself proficient enough, and <li> b) I haven't yet found anything I'd like to write a module for :) </ul> 2013-05-13 07:49:17 16091 483588 494927 %a %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S SGT 791 Singapore Asia/Shanghai 150