wafblog v3.0

It’s been a while since I last updated. But I’ve been pretty busy so haven’t really had the time. Met up with Shree last Saturday week (hrm, not sure if that’s the right way to say it) to go shopping for Vinci’s 21st present. It was heaps good to meet up with her, cos I haven’t really seen her since last December and we don’t really get a chance to talk much considering uni and all that sort of thing. It’s interesting because I think sometimes you end up just always speaking to the same people all the time. Like, you see them fairly often and they know what you’re up to on a daily basis so it’s much easier to arrange to meet up and do things. And even if you’re good friends with someone you might not see them very often cos you’re off doing different things and time just sort of runs away from you. Anyway, we found a cool present and now I just need to wrap that up, find a mask for the masquerade and find a top to match my skirt. Simple really.

On the Sunday, I went to see the charity screening of ‘Hoodwinked’, which I enjoyed immensely. The movie is hilariously funny (especially Twitchy the squirrel – “I don’t drink coffee”) and quite well animated I reckon. I love the style it used with telling the four different stories to give you the full picture of how the scene happened and the jokes were funny without being crude. Ben Folds did a great song for the soundtrack as well, which Manda and I found thoroughly amusing. This was probably one of the best movies I’ve seen all year, considering the number of flops/disappointments this year I guess I’m not too surprised. There’s nothing coming out soon that I really want to see. Although I’ll likely end up seeing ‘Snakes On A Plane’ just for the hell of it.

Had another session with my personal trainer… and he’s started me on these squatting exercises (“The King Of All Exercises”) which left my legs totally killing afterwards. I spent most of the Wednesday hobbling around the office because I couldn’t walk properly without my thighs hurting LOL. Hopefully tomorrow’s session won’t be as bad. I guess it’s good to know that I’m getting some exercise though and that I should be getting fitter. I have noticed that my breathing seems more regular when I run, and I’m not feeling as short of breath now either which is definitely an improvement. I should try to go swimming some time but I don’t like the chlorine or having to shower afterwards and there’s no pool near me either.

The weekend just past was pretty good too. Went bushwalking (bushbashing) in the Royal National Park with Alan on Saturday. It had been raining a couple of days beforehand so everywhere was rather muddy and it did sprinkle a bit while we were out in the bush. The river was flowing nicely though so I think it was good to go after the rain. I haven’t been bushwalking in YONKS and I thoroughly enjoyed being out in nature lol. Sure, the gym is great for training but you can’t really beat seeing real trees and hearing birds and things like that. I did however complain about the mud every 5 minutes or so, and Alan said I should’ve just been happy that I conquered the mountain which was really a hill… :P I’ve got some photos which I’ll have to post up later when I’ve resized them down from the 3MB files that they are now. We were going to go tenpin bowling afterwards because that’s what I wanted to do but the bowling centre was totally packed when we went (damn kiddy parties) so ended up just going home.

I ended up going to a show with my dad on Saturday night because my mum was sick and dad didn’t want to waste the ticket. I’m really glad I went. I don’t know what the show was called, but it featured accordian players who did versions of well known classical and pop songs. It was really awesome, some of the songs they played. It was quite interesting for me cos I can play some of the songs and hearing them on a different instrument is quite amazing. Some of the songs they had a singer as well and she sang really well! All in all, I kinda left wishing I could play the accordian even though it looks really heavy and I don’t think it has the same finesse as a violin. It does however, look like lots of fun and would certainly allow you to play a wide range of songs. I wonder how much one of them costs?

Didn’t really get up to anything yesterday. I got up late and had to cook breakfast because mum was sick. It turned out better than I expected although the bacon was a little dry and I forgot to put the olive oil on the tomatoes. Guess I’ll know for next time. I was supposed to clean up my room, but I kind of got distracted listening to music LOL. Pulled out all these classical CDs that I have and was listening to some songs I haven’t heard in ages. Also had The Clash’s ‘London Calling’ on a few times which is a totally awesome classic album. Might have to get their other album as well and have a listen to that, I did like “Rock the Casbah” which I’d heard but didn’t actually click that it was a Clash song LOL.

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.

Most of my friends graduated today! I was a little jealous :P They’re all out in the workforce, earning money, having a blast and I’m still at uni \: It was really good to see everyone though, there’s a few people that I haven’t seen since last
year I don’t think. We’ve all been busy and I’m guessing that it’s only going to get harder to keep in touch.

So yeah, met up with them and a few other people to take photos and things. For the last photo my friends decided to throw their mortarboards into the air and I was taking a photo of them doing this, except someone can’t throw and the mortarboard came crashing down on my head. Actually, it hit the top of my nose, and must have come down with quite some force because it grazed my nose and it was bleeding. Plus my glasses were knocked off my head and were totally bent out of shape ): I didn’t even really realise what had happened, cos I basically just fell to the ground with pain and was really disoriented for a bit. I’ve still got a headache \: So yes, I’ve decided that those things are lethal weapons and when it’s my turn to graduate I’ll be sure to throw it properly. But yeah, congratulations to all my friends who graduated today!!

Some of us went to yum cha afterwards, which was lots of fun. And then we went to Maloney’s to play pool. Haven’t done that in ages, and it was fairly obvious cos we weren’t playing very well :P I went back to uni after that cos I had to see my thesis supervisor. My meeting didn’t go for long, so I headed back out into the city to meet up with my friends again. They’d gone to CityHunter to LAN. I don’t really find LANing as fun as I used to. I think it’s cos I don’t really play computer games anymore (not that I have the time) and a lot of the games don’t interest me that much. I prefer hosting a LAN at my place because then we can control what games we play and it’s much easier to set things up and everyone knows their own computer. Danny and I ended up playing “Star Wars: Empire At War” because the others were playing Dawn of War and then DOTA which we weren’t interested in. Took us a good 20-30 minutes to really get the hang of the game I think. It plays like Dawn of War – you have to capture these ‘checkpoints’ that essentially determine how much of the map you’re controlling. But, you can only have 8 groups of troops on the ground, but they’re groups that are determined by the game. So you’ll be like “I want speeders” and you’ll get 3 in a group. This kind of adds another dimension to the game, because you have to work out what a good combination of units will be. Danny and I played this for about an hour before I headed home and he headed to the Graduation Dinner. Cherryl’s performing two songs at the dinner, I think, so I hope it all went well.

In other news, thesis is somewhat progressing now. I’ve learnt some PL/pgSQL and (lots) more SQL, as well some theory about indexing and other stuff. I’ve written about 2,000 words and my supervisor reckons my thesis should be about 10,000 to 12,000 words… so I’ve got some ways to go. I’ve been functioning on about 3-4 hours sleep each day for the last week and a half I think. It’s beginning to take its toll as I’m becoming forgetful and rather irritable. At times like this, I always remember reading an article about how lack of sleep contributes to weight gain because people who slept less were more likely to eat unhealthy foods. And by god, they’re RIGHT! In the last week alone I have eaten:

• 2 meat pies (one normal, one king-sized)
• 2 sausage rolls
• 1 small big mac meal
• 1 sausage & egg mcmuffin
• 1 cheese & bacon roll
• 1 bacon & egg roll
• 2 bottles of red bull
• 1 can of v
• 1 bottle of lemon ice tea
• 1 fried chicken breast

And that’s just the stuff I can remember :P Even for me, that’s pretty gross. I mean, I’m all for junky foods, but at some point you have to say “this is disgusting” and I think I’ve hit that point. Needless to say, I’ll probably do it all again next week.

Lastly, here’s something Kurt showed me from a forum he was reading:

1)Iron oxide is rust. 2)Your blood uses iron to transport oxygen. Therefore, your blood is red because it is full of rust.