wafblog v3.0

I can’t believe it’s been so long since I last posted. Busy season hit like a tonne of bricks and now that it’s over, somehow I’m still busy? Yeah, go figure.

Hum, September was a total wash for me. My parents went on a month’s holiday to tour the Silk Road in China. This meant every week was filled with some sort of party/event/lack-of-sleep activity. I hosted Band Comp ’07, which was actually lots of fun. It’s amazing what we can achieve in just three days, and I’m sure if we (I) had more time, we could really achieve something great. To be honest though, I was pretty happy with the Animania performance. It took me a long time to wrap my head around some of parts, but I felt confident, and for possibly the first time in my life – I actually enjoyed performing. That was actually a pretty exhilarating experience.

I also hosted a LAN, which was pretty darn awesome. Not that we played as much as I would’ve liked – but it was fun to chill out, hang out and have some fun. I really don’t use my PS2 as much as I would like to (hum, recurring theme much?) and it’s kind of a waste of money if that’s the case huh?

Also had my first ‘away job’ in September. I had a client in Melbourne, so went down for the week to do our work. That was pretty fun! We stayed in these serviced apartments – I was quite surprised that they had one person living in this huuuuge apartment. I also managed to meet up with Frankie twice. I haven’t seen her since she moved there for work, and it was definitely great to catch up. It’s odd how much and how little people change over time. I rather like Melbourne, it’s quaint and ‘cultured’ and doesn’t seem to have the same rushed feeling that you sometimes get in Sydney.

Following that was what I like to call “Convention Season”. In span of a month, I went to like, three conventions? Animania, as usual, was lots of fun, ultra-tiring but ultimately rewarding. I decided to stay on one more year – it’d be nice to see how the new venue goes and next year is going to be huge, so I’m all for helping out. Also went to Supanova this year, because it’s the 30th anniversary of Star Wars. Unfortunately, there wasn’t really any Star Wars stuff – at least, no real commemorative collectables, so that was pretty disappointing. I did score a few things which made me happy, and have subsequently acquired a Force FX Lightsaber (Darth Vader’s, of course!). Still, I’m sure I shouldn’t have spent so much money :P Mike also talked me to into going to the Atomic Live convention, which is like a gaming/computer convention. It was actually rather disappointing, as they focused solely on PC games and computer hardware. And as much as gaming is huge for PCs, I think not having much on consoles really limited the show and what it could have been. Nevertheless, I scored a bunch of freebies (so awesome!) and that’s the point of these things isn’t it?

The Linkin Park concert was in October, and that was totally awesome. I’ll be posting photos up on my gallery sometime soon, although I’m thinking of making all the galleries private so I can post more personal pictures there. LP was definitely the best concert I’ve been to – they really connect with the crowd and seem to just love performing. It was quite amusing though, the Sydney crowd was really tame which was surprising given the videos I’ve seen of their shows overseas. I reckon everyone was too busy trying to video the show with their mobile phones to bother with moshing.

Other than that, I haven’t been up to much else. I can’t believe how quickly this year has gone by – it’s nearly the end of November already. I’ve been in my job for nearly a year now, though it feels like I just started yesterday. I’m looking to start CA next year, which will be a real test of discipline for me.  Currently it feels like a lot of people are re-assessing their jobs and their lives. Seems like they’re not happy with where they are and they’re looking for something different. From all the sutff I’ve read in the paper, this is indicative of our generation – we want everything but we expect a lot in return. If we’re not happy with our employer, we’ll walk. I wonder if our work force will become more and more mobile – more likely to switch in and out of jobs. Personally, I think I’d find it difficult to change jobs every 2 years – but by the same token, I don’t want to be doing the same thing for the rest of my life either. I just wonder how long is an appropriate time to stay.

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.