wafblog v3.0

What I hate about planning is that after doing lots of planning sometimes, you just have nothing to show for it. Like this Europe trip. I’ve been planning it for like a month or something now. It feels like anyways. And everytime I seem to be getting somewhere with it, something happens so I have to replan. Or refix or something. It’s becoming increasingly frustrating and I’m beginning to just give up. I should just take a month off, rock up to the airport and say, “mystery flight please”. Hah.

I get it, I really do. I’m lucky that all I need to think about for planning the trip is when I want to go. I can get time off work, or just quit my job if need be and I have saved the money so I could leave now if I wanted. And I get that that’s not the case for everyone. And it’s difficult to get parents to agree and it’s difficult to budget and it’s difficult to work it into your general life plan. That’s fine. But when you’re trying to plan, it’s a bloody headache.

So what does that mean? Well, I was going to travel alone. But mum said that going to Europe in late Oct/early Nov is not a good idea because it’s gets pretty cold. And I don’t like the cold. Plus it gets dark early so won’t have as much time to see stuff. That’s a valid argument really. Which means I should travel in September, before going to Hong Kong for my aunt’s thing. FINE. That’s fine. Except Animania is on the 30th Sept/1st Oct. o_O

Well, I pretty much got that choice taken away from me anyways. My parents were keen on going to Central Europe (Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, etc.) but they can only travel in September. So I can either, go in Oct, by myself for 24 days in freezing cold and darkness. Or I can go in Sept in ‘relative’ warmth and have some companions for at least half the trip. Cos they’re not interested in France, Germany or Italy. What kind of loser travels by themself? Me. That’s who. So it looks like I’ll be going on a 12 day tour of Western Europe by myself and then a 13 day tour of Central Europe with my parents before flying to HK for about 5 days. This is all fine and dandy except it means I miss Animania.

This was going to be my last Animania, as I’ll be working full-time next year and I really doubt I’ll have the time or the energy to do it again. Even more so, band is meant to be playing and I don’t really want to miss that opportunity. And this is why not doing what’s best for yourself gets you into trouble. If I was to go in Oct by myself I probably wouldn’t enjoy it so much. Fuck. I don’t know. Sometimes it’s better to have no choice. What’s really shitting me is that all this time spent planning and re-planning is really upsetting me and it’s distracting me from studying. Maybe I’ll just fail Comp Eng and not go anywhere at all.

It’s been a while since I last blogged although I haven’t been up to much. In fact, I didn’t really do much last week at all. I went to uni a couple of times to study, but it was fairly unproductive. Also got my lab report back and got 70 for it… which was fairly shocking considering the lack of work that went into it and the comments on our timing diagrams that said “what is this meant to show?”. What indeed. So my lab partner and I were pretty stoked about that. As long as we pass the final, we’ll pass the course.

Oh yeah, also was the last time I went to Dtecht. I met up with my supervisor to return some of his texts and he took me out to coffee. It was pretty nice, and it was good to speak about things not related to the project. He asked a lot about choosing courses and stuff, apparently IT is not popular this year, and there’s only like 30 students or something. Not sure if that’s strictly IT or BCST, but compared to when I was doing COMP1001, that’s a big change. It’s not too surprising though, I was doing those courses when IT was at its peak. I guess it’s a cycle and in a couple of years IT will re-invent itself and become necessary again.

Kind of went on a movie spree too. On Friday, I saw The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift because I had four hours to kill before Su’s goodbye dinner. Honestly, I never walk into a movie like that with any sort of expectations. I know it’s going to be shit. I don’t expect a plot, good acting or anything. I do however, know that the cars are going to be awesome and the racing scenes will be impressive. So I guess that’s why I can walk out of a movie like that and say it was good. Maybe this is why I can say quite a few movies are good LOL.

Su’s goodbye dinner was alright. Bit pricey cos we went to tapas restaurant. But I got to have meatballs and sausages and fried potatoes so you know, as if I’m going to complain. Went to French Riviera ice-cream place afterwards and got this mountain of ice-cream to share. I really should have taken a picture as I’ll never be getting that by myself. It was kind of sad, cos I know Su’s gone for at least three months, and by the time she’s coming back I’ll probably be going overseas myself. That’s if she comes back. But you know, everyone has to move on with their lives and go out and do what they want or need to. I never pegged her as being one of those people to go overseas to work. Oh wells, there’s always the phone and internet so it’s not like we’ll lose touch I guess.

On Saturday I ended up going to see Da Vinci code by myself. I’d heard mainly bad things about it, and for once they were warranted. I’ll admit right now that I have not read the book and I’m kind of glad I haven’t. I’ve read two other books by Dan Brown (Angels & Demons and Deception Point), and I found them both enjoyable but I think there’s only so much Dan Brown you can take at one time. So yeah, Tom Hanks’ Robert Langdon is not the Langdon I imagined from Angels & Demons, and I doubt the character changed that much in Da Vinci Code. Mostly I was just disappointed that the whole Sophie story arc was blatantly obvious about one-third of the way through the movie. It was a surprisingly L-O-N-G movie. Paul Bettany was pretty amazing as Silas, and Ian McKellen was brilliant as ever, but it just wasn’t enough to carry the movie. So yes, it was fairly bad.

Also saw ‘The Break Up’ right after that. Definitely not what I was expecting. I was sort of expecting some romantic-comedy or something, but definitely not. I’m not entirely sure what the point of the movie was. It didn’t leave me feeling anything, and I half believe the moral is “some relationships just don’t work out”. Well… that’s great. The acting wasn’t bad, and some of the stuff was rather funny but yeah.. I think the ending was just flat.

I finally found ‘The Boondock Saints’, took me a little while to find it as it’s a fairly old movie. But damn it was awesome. It’s gritty, it’s kind of funny and it’s rather gory. It’s a bit like Lock Stock, although not as fun. Billy Connolly at the end was magnificent, and the prayers that the boys say are thought-provoking. The entire movie was thought-provoking even though it’s based around a bunch of vigilantes.

After my exam I’m going to find the time to re-watch 12 Monkeys (my favourite time-travel movie) and Primal Fear, both of which I bought on DVD last weekend. I love 12 Monkeys because it’s probably the only movie where time-travel actually makes sense and doesn’t screw the story line. It also shows Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt in some of their best roles I reckon. I also love Primal Fear. The movie’s a bit of a mindfuck, because you never really know who the bad guy is or what’s going on… Ed Norton was awesome in this movie and the ending is so chilling. Definitely have to re-watch this.

Other than that, I’ve been spending all my time finishing One Tree Hill season 3, Gilmore Girls season 2 and then I started Grey’s Anatomy and I’ve finished season 1 and half of season 2. So much for study huh.

So yes, no more watching stuff until I’ve done some proper study. I’m working two days next week as well, so I really should do as much study as I can now.

I don’t know where
Confused about how as well
Just know that these things will never change for us at all

God, work was so boring today. My boss is away for the week, but I’m only working the one day this week because of the long weekend. Kind of annoying, as I need the money, but I need to study and I would like some ‘down time’ to relax. Well, not really relax as such, but more just get myself focused on studying rather than work and all that. Nevertheless, I’m working two days a week for the next two weeks. I really do think three days of study + the weekends should be enough to pass this course. Even if the assignment was a piece of crap and I’ll need to do real well in the exam to pass.

So yes, work was boring. I was doing the monthly graphs, so I guess that’s why. They usually take a day to complete. I have to wait for all the information to be entered into the system from month-end accounting (usually finalised by the 5th day of the next month) and then I run some reports and enter the figures into Excel and generate spanky looking graphs. It’s not particularly hard (although there’s niggly bits that I need to remember), but it’s more just making sure that each graph looks perfect and all the figures are correct and look nice to accountants. Usually I’ll have finished all the graph generation by about 2:00-2:30pm. And then it takes about an hour to print the graphs. In colour. Double-sided. With 24 copies. That does sound pretty crazy, and even though the colour printer is better than any I’ve ever seen, it still takes a while. And there’s always someone who manages to slip in some 60 page Business Policy in-between my print jobs (which get sent as separate jobs) so I have to factor that in. Nevertheless I’m usually done by 3:30… 4:00pm if I’m really unlucky. And that kinda leaves an hour with nothing to do. I did the rest of my usual tasks whilst in-between data entry for graphs today… so I was finished by 3:30pm and couldn’t really start anything else cos I won’t be back till next week to chase it up anyways. Hopefully next week will be better. I really shouldn’t complain that my job is easy, and it’s not like it’s not stressful… just sometimes it’s boring.

The long weekend was pretty good though. I went out on Saturday and accomplished lots of things. Had band practice in the morning, which wasn’t productive for me, but was for others. We’ve got a few new songs we’re trying out and they do sounds pretty good. I sort of know what my parts are too, which is a bonus and means I don’t really have to make up stuff (which can be challenging). So I’m looking forward to being to spend more time on that once I finish my exam.

After that, headed out to city with Manda, albeit to different events. I went to Mel’s 21st. I haven’t seen Mel for over a year (last time was her last birthday party). She had it at the Strawberry Hills Hotel. I’m guessing she’s a big jazz fan, cos her last party was at Soup Plus which is a jazz club type thing as well. Anyway, I saw lots of people from high school that I hadn’t seen in ages, which was good. Surprisingly I saw someone from my grade! (Err, should note that Mel wasn’t in my grade.. she graduated two years after me.) I was rather surprised, because said person used to be a good friend of mine at school. It’s kind of weird seeing people that used to be good friends with you and you haven’t talked to them in years. It makes you realise how easy it is lose touch with people. Or even, how much you’ve changed and maybe the only thing keeping you friends was the fact that you saw each other every day at school. I don’t really want to think that, because I’d like to think it was more than that to me, and them. But you can’t really help feeling like that sometimes. I also saw Dan there, which was a real surprise. I kicked and slapped him when I saw him, I think he was offended. But I did get to catch up with him, so that was good. Also talked to one of my friends who used to sit next to me in orchestra. She was really jealous that I’ve got an electric violin and playing in a band. Apparently she’s looking into getting one so I told her to give me a call if she does so we can meet up and play some duets or something. Possibly something Bond, which would be AWESOME. Not really expecting anything until semester finishes, but really do hope that it eventuates.

After the 21st, went to dinner at Tasman’s to celebrate Travis’ birthday (Happy B’day!) and Manda’s graduation (congrats!). Lots of fun, of course. They have some really interesting food on the menu due to the focus on Tasmanian ingredients. So there was lots of oysters and lamb and beef and things like that. I chose the wallaby pie. That’s right, wallaby! Cute, fluffy little kangaroo type things. I didn’t even know they had such a thing. But there it was on the menu and I couldn’t resist trying it. Admittedly the steak was also really expensive, but that’s besides the point! The pie was surprisingly good, and very filling! Shame I didn’t have my camera, or I would have taken a picture \: Should see about acquiring some photos actually. The night was lots of fun, and it was good to see people. I was sooooo stuffed afterwards, so it was worth the pricey-ness. Not sure if I’d go back, but glad I can say I ate wallaby :P

The rather eventful Saturday was followed by a completely laid-back Sunday. And Monday. I didn’t do anything besides watch One Tree Hill. I’ve now finished watching Season 3. I’m totally like *omg!!* but I have no one to discuss it with because I don’t know anyone else who watches it! (Let me know if you do… I have questions!) At the moment, it seems uncertain if the show will be picked up for another season, but I really hope that it does, because it’s a good show (better than The O.C.) and I do believe it’s fairly popular. Plus it showcases some good music. In fact, quite a few of the bands I’ve been listening to I realised were featured on the show. It was kind of cool to see the bands play ‘live’. I haven’t decided which show I’ll watch next. I don’t want to get into Smallville or Gilmore Girls as I’m only 1 or 2 seasons into those shows and they’re like in season 5 or 6 so it’s a bit much to tackle at the moment. I’ll probably finish season 3 of The O.C., even though I know what happens. Then I might get back into Desperate Housewives, but we’ll see.

But Always Love… Hate will get you every time
Always Love…even when you want to fight

Besides all that, I’ve been feeling a bit down the last few days. I think I know why. I’ve been very busy for the last two months so I really haven’t had much time to think about things. Like, I have been thinking about stuff, just that uni and job applications were important so everything else got swept aside. Now that things have slowed down somewhat, I’ve got more time to think. I guess I’m not as good as I thought I was. Yes, I’m over it, and I’m kind of content where I am but that doesn’t get rid of the loneliness. And it doesn’t get rid of the niggling thought in the back of my head that I failed. Sure, not all relationships are meant to work out, but I thought this particular one *would*. Yes, I can honestly say I tried hard to make it work and I did what I could to make it work, but that wasn’t enough was it? Really, I just wasn’t good enough. That’s not a good thought to be having. On top of that is the loneliness. I’d kind of forgotten what it’s like to be single. There’s a sense of security in having a relationship. In knowing that there’s someone who’s always there for you. I’m grateful for the friends that I have now and I love them for being there for me, but there is a difference when it’s your partner. I guess I miss that. I’m used to being ‘by myself’ though, so I’m not sure if it’s just that realisation that you can’t depend on someone else even if you wanted to or I really am lonely. In any case, this is where I want to be, so I really can’t complain.

I always said that I would make mistakes,
I’m only human, and that’s my saving grace.

I’ve realised I need to re-code the entire wafblog v1.0. I forgot that this server doesn’t support ASP pages and my entire old blog is written in ASP. So you can’t see anything at the moment. I suppose it won’t take that long to fix it, it’s just slightly annoying. But there’s no real fancy ASP that can’t be implemented in HTML so I guess that’s a relief, as I don’t have to learn the PHP equivalent or anything. I really should get onto that.

I never promised you a ray of light,
I never promised there’d be sunshine everyday,
I give you everything I have, the good, the bad.
Why do you put me on a pedestal,
I’m so up high that I can’t see the ground below,
So help me down you’ve got it wrong, I don’t belong there.

One thing is clear,
I wear a halo,
I wear a halo when you look at me,
But standing from here, you wouldn’t say so
You wouldn’t say so, if you were me
And I, I just wanna love you,
Oh oh I, I just wanna love you

I always said that I would make mistakes,
I’m only human, and that’s my saving grace,
I fall as hard as I try
So don’t be blinded
See me as I really am, I have flaws and sometimes I even sin,
so pull me from that pedestal,
I don’t belong there.

One thing is clear,
I wear a halo,
I wear a halo when you look at me,
But standing from here, you wouldn’t say so
You wouldn’t say so, if you were me
And I, I just wanna love you,
Oh oh I, I just wanna love you

Why you think that you know me
But in your eyes
I am something above you
It’s only in your mind
Only in your mind
I wear a
I wear a
I wear a Halo

One thing is clear,
I wear a halo,
I wear a halo when you look at me,
But standing from here, you wouldn’t say so
You wouldn’t say so, if you were me
And I, I just wanna love you,
Oh oh I, I just wanna love you

Ha-ha-halo
Haley James Scott – Halo

So, after implementing the new catchpa, the spam comments seem to have increased in number! Am seriously thinking of doing what Muki suggested and changing the name of the comments files to something else. But no time for that ):

So, I’ve disallowed comments on all previous posts except hte last 4 or so. And I’ll be using the bBlog feature that lets me set how long until comments are disabled. For now, I’ll probably make allow comments for 2 weeks and then it’ll auto-disable. Hopefully that’ll keep the number down for now.

I’ll blog properly later I think, right now, I want to keep watching One Tree Hill :D :D

Ok, so I’ve installed a new ‘catchpa’ system for comments on here. Hopefully, it’ll keep away all those frigging SPAM comments. Yeay.

Thanks to the code found here:
Added simple comment spam protection

If bBlog ever gets updated, hopefully they’ll add this to their features.