Decidedly Very Dear

DVDs, that is :p

local video store was having a sale of "pre-viewed" movies etc, so i went to have a browse of the DVDs. realised before i arrived at the shop that i had forgotten my wallet, and didn't really want to come back for a second trip, but thought what the heck i'll have a look anyways. spotted the two-disc special editions of daredevil and the hulk, both being movies i had been intending to watch but never got around to...

$19.90 each... hmm... that's a pretty good price for a DVD (plus a fistful of special features - just the kind of stuff i look for in a DVD release) right? too bad i can't pay for them... oh well, maybe i'll have to come back a second time after all.

meanwhile, back on the net, i decide to try to find out how much these babies go for retail-wise. lo and behold, with a bit of investigating (mostly thanks to my good friend google), i discover that i can get the daredevil dvd for $21.95, and the hulk for $21.42. that's brand spanking new, and inclusive of postage.

yes, i think i'll pay an extra $3.57 for the "upgrade"! and after a bit more digging for some reviews to satisfy myself that the special features are worth watching, i'm plonking down the old credit card!

google - your favourite shopping companion and guide... good thing i didn't have my wallet with me :)

more timing tales and other miscellanea

was looking into virgin credit cards online (searching around for an alternative, cos my current freebie will stop being a freebie by year's end) sunday night, and i receive a personalised application from you guess who in monday's mail! something about them having a birthday and putting 8 $15,000.00 adventures up for grabs. so i applied :)

won an autographed maroons origin jersey from aami a few weeks back. missed out on the grand prize of 20 tickets to game 2, but catching the second half on tv with friends while wearing my prize was good enough. then i went and sold it, being the big league fan that i'm not.

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the letter from the ATO about superannuation co-contributions has been sitting on my desk for a while, until i finally got around to doing something about it. little did i realise all the to-ing and fro-ing that would need to take place, in order for me to make a contribution to my own super fund. sheesh... but i suppose it's worth it when you get a "free" $1000.00!

- - - - -

currently sucking down a strawberry and banana shake from teaz.com - no idea where the actual shop is cos the drink was given to me... tastes kinda strange but i'm sure it's doing my body some good... ??

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got to play with a friend's new ixus 500 the other night - niiiice... i like! smaller and lighter than my 330, and with slightly better features/specs. haven't been to shops to see street prices, but $500+ from ebay (direct import from japan) vs. $899 RRP local pricing. tough choice... heh

timing is everything

like...

when you go spend some hard-earned cash at koorong adding more "must read" books to your collection (and a katinas CD that's quite growing on me), and two days later receive notification that they're having a one week storewide 15% off sale...

or when you open your eyes in the morning, thinking "hmmm that was a refreshing sleep, and i've even woken up before my alarm went off", and then reaching to look at the time, wondering how much longer you can relax in bed, and realising that the figure is a significant negative...

or feeling like the "just when you thought it was safe to go back in the ocean" and *cue jaws theme music*

or sometimes wishing you had access to something like a time turner!

going polar

actually that title is quite misleading and inaccurate. but it's what first popped into my head and i like it enough to keep it - with some clarifications :p

1. polar implies cold. the first few days of winter have actually been warmer than the last few days/weeks of autumn. apparently something about a cold snap ending on the first day of winter. how ironic!

2. the reason i thought about polar was bears hibernating in winter. but then i realised that polar bears don't hibernate! oh well. i feel a bit like i've been hibernating cos i've been sleeping the last 12 hours or so (mostly bcos i'm so tired from hardly sleeping the night before!). i've been up for about an hour, and decided to get out of bed because it wasn't looking like i was going to get back to sleep anytime soon.

now my feet are cold... and i think i'll catch up on some video viewing before a nice warm shower and starting my fullish looking day.

*yawns*

that took a bit too long...

finally, after more than two months, my sara groves CD has arrived! not very good service i must say... the 2 attempts i made at contacting the supplier during this extended wait resulted in one black hole and one autoresponder. i guess i should be happy that at least the goods did arrive... forgot to check whether it's actually autographed, cos the item i ordered is supposed to be. hmm... but it's in the car, and i can't be bothered going to check... and it feels like it's been sooooo long since i last blogged from home!

you know your imagination is running too wild when...

you've just finished watching the day after tomorrow (which, on one level, is all about extreme weather conditions), step outside into the carpark, notice the somewhat unusually cool and windy evening, and your mind goes "uh-oh..." !!

i very much want to get some photoblogging happening, but don't have time to look into it yet :(

well, two months on, i've ended up with a second hand nomad jukebox 3 for recording purposes - no more (until the Hi-MD stuff finally gets released) realtime transfers from an MD to the PC! and with firewire to boot :) well, that's the aim of the whole exercise anyway... yet to really field test.

surprise

i had no idea where we were going - she wouldn't say. even when she started looking in the refidex to make sure she knows where to turn etc. i gleaned that it was somewhere down the coast. that narrows it down a lot... not!

i was required to dress 'up' (my usual workwear of tee/polo, jeans and sneakers weren't going to cut it! :p), and even when we were less than 5 minutes away i was still clueless as to our destination. actually, even when we did arrive, i still wasn't sure what lay ahead... we were late, which made for a little bit of tension, but got there without too much drama. she brought me to dracula's for a night of food and entertainment. it was also an opportunity to see the sort of thing that some of the students of the creative industries might produce/be involved in, ie a glimpse into / taste of her (academic) world...

quite an interesting night... certainly an atypical experience for me. surprise indeed :)

of heroes and wise men

maybe i'm too bloodthirsty(?!), but there wasn't enough fighting sequences in troy. still, nice enough celluloid eye candy i suppose.

speaking of greek mythology and the like, came across this site, winged sandals, described as "a very stylish Flash-based introduction to Greek mythology, courtesy of the University of Melbourne Centre for Classics and Archaeology and ABC online." looks quite well done, and i'm sure to be back when i need an amusing diversion :)

funnily enough it was on the associates section of the CASE site where i made the discovery. lots of reading goodness at CASE... the stuff to make the old mental cogs click and turn with effort.

so much for that idea!

1. re: previous post.
might be an idea if i ever got on the blog once in a while these days! but i feel quite AWOL-ish.

2. playing with the cap on my highlighter, snapping in on and off while on the phone to a customer.
2 minutes later i look down on my desk and notice this damp looking pink thing. for a moment there i thought it was a bit of chalk that had been soaked or something, and was wondering how the heck did something like that get there?! then it dawned on me that i'd snapped the tip off my highlighter...

and someone's taken off with my small pad of post-it notes! how rude...

test

blogger has changed! ehh... and there are comments, but i can't get it to work :( not that anyone ever really comments, but it's the principle of the thing ;) oh well... guess i'll stick to enetation for now, and play with this later... might go the whole hog and change layout too!

alright, anime!

'miyazaki showcase' plus 'takahata and other classics', coming soon to a capital city near you :) click here for details.

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saw kill bill vol. 2 a few nights ago - not enough fighting! :p will be waiting for the DVDs to be released :)

speaking of DVDs, my copy of the collectors edition of the hire arrived in the post this week too. haven't had a chance to watch it though... have seen them all in WMP format but would be nice to see and hear through the DVD/stereo :)

ooh look at that, it's time to go home... time to make like a tree and leave!

If you love something, set it free...

if it comes back, it's yours... if it doesn't, it never was.

stoic?

there's a lump in my throat as i consider my response when my supervisor asks me if i'm alright. do i wear my heart on my sleeve? is it that obvious? i can shrug it off, put on a smile and say yeah i'm fine. but i'm not. why does thinking about it make me want to cry again? twice in one day? surely this has never happened before??

i'm really not a person who cries easily. not that i never shed tears, but sometimes i think i am lacking something emotionally - i have at times wanted to cry or felt like crying, yet found no tears forthcoming.

so, does the fact that i *did* cry about/over something, imply that the something is rather significant? there's probably irony too, in that it happened in front of a relative stranger... (relative because you could say we've only known each other for about a week, yet in other ways our friendship feels deeper than others that are years older.)

i don't know. i think that's all i can say with any certainty.
i don't know. too many questions remain. questions which may never be answered.
i don't know. maybe they don't need to be answered.

i don't know.

Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone.

from a humour email forward... filed under "great truths about growing old". it's meant to be funny/a joke, but i wonder whether the last few days in my life has seen my age being somewhat lonesome.

- - - - -

i'm quite tired, having slept a combined total of around 15-16 hours in the past 3 nights. i have probably spent about the same number of hours, within that same timespan, talking to and being with one person.

here i must resort to the cliched sounds of "it's (probably) not what you think". and if i were you, i doubt i could guess it in a million years (ooh... hyperbole *and* more cliches! hallmarks of the literary output of the half brain-dead? :p)

oh i'm hesitant to say more, other than that the past few days have been quite out of the ordinary. anyways, to paraphrase the gumpster: nebulous is as nebulous does :p

when one door closes another window opens

who would have thought that this saying could be applied in both the figurative and a literal sense to msn messenger IM windows :p

pity there had to be a closed door at all... oh well!

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one of the girls in my bible study group is playing in the orchestra for her ex high school's amateur (but apparently semi-professional!) production of west side story. being the cultural ignoramus that i am, i thought it would be nice to go check it out. also thought it would be a smart idea to go with at least one other person, so that if i have to look ignorant i won't be alone in that endeavour :p other option is to go with someone who isn't nearly as ignorant, and feel safe/secure in their company... hehe.

for insurance (and self education), did a bit of reading into west side story... plot synopsis and lyrics. now i feel a little bit less ignorant :)

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signed up to test drive google's new gmail service - sounds like an interesting (not to mention useful?) premise! also noted that a fair few of the keyboard shortcuts are strangely familiar (traces of pine and vi navigational similarities in there). wonder whether that was deliberate homage...

kudos to microsoft

giving away free Windows Security Update CDs?? while not a cure/solution, it's at least a better and more useful band-aid...

so this is what the pros get up to...

insightful article on sports illustrated's digital workflow - a glimpse into the world of pro digital photography and what happens after they take their gigabytes-full of shots!

back in the saddle again

i guess the past week (of work) wasn't too bad - it wasn't overly busy so nothing too stressful, and in the end not as daunting as i thought it might have been. the regular person returned today, so i did a bit of handover this morning and now i'm back in my regular seat.

question is: do i want to be back? hmm...

came across a part time job opportunity on the weekend. threw in my application, and part of the process asked the question "why do you want to work part-time"? maybe it's something i haven't given sufficient thought to, but at the moment it feels like a very ambivalent[1] issue.

[1] for the longest time, i had always thought the word 'ambivalent' meant something similar to neutral, in a nonchalant sort of sense. but it actually means something fairly different.

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and now for the silver lining story of the day:

never did locate the CD containing the creative recorder program for my creative soundcard... which put a sizeable dent in my plans to dedicate the spare PC to recording tasks. but, the apparent setback (had already been unsuccessful in an earlier search for an alternative wav recorder that was both decent and free) had a good result, cos it forced me to take another look at audacity, which i recently came across via APCmag. and i'm actually finding it to be a rather useful little program!

still, it's a time consuming process of recording and editing. an uploading recorder ranks fairly high on the wish list :p

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realising that the last few times i've gone to KGCC, that i'm usually too braindead to listen effectively, and don't have much energy left to want to socialise afterwards (not that i'm typically inclined this way under "normal" circumstances anyway). i don't think it's something i'm going to end up "buying into"... don't think it ever was. should i continue going anyway?

tried to have an early night after getting home. i thought i'd hit the sack ASAP and have a shower in the morning instead. i thought 10:30pm was a decent effort, but doing the maths for a 7am wake up, i realised that would still only be about 8 hours of sleep in total... which is only going to tease the interest and make zero dent on the capital of my sleep debt... and which probably explains why i'm still yawning my head off!

*sigh*

japanese truman

found this via urldj - story of one nasubi-san which brings to mind the darker overtones of the truman show, and then some! sad things is... i'd probably watch it...

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one more day of filling in at work. running remote desktop over the LAN saves me running back and forth between desks. too cool :)

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i have ~10 hours worth of talks and music on MD (from camp) to convert to audio CDs... time to fire up the spare PC and do get some multitasking happening! oh for a few more hours in the day...

shed a tear

See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

it was here... the last afternoon of CCCB's family camp... we were singing the third verse of "when i survey" on easter sunday afternoon, and i suddenly felt that i should feel *something*... these words which i had sung so many times before - i should not be numb to that which they speak. and then, i cried. ever so briefly. as a tear or two ran down my face, and my voice faltered on the last few lines, i felt grateful, and knew i am loved.

thank you jesus, for the blood that you shed.

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so the camp itself was fairly good. from after work on thursday till sunday evening i was busy with camp related stuff for CCCB church camp which was held at the Alexandra Park Conference Centre at alexandra headlands. felt busy and tired (not enough sleep) throughout the camp, which was a slight detraction from the overall experience... nevertheless it was a nice enough time away, with some good laughs, good conversations, and hard work digging into the book of esther.

managed a bit of a sleep-in monday morning, but was busy the rest of the day. upon finishing brunch, i realised i was about to be late for a chauffeuring assignment! got changed and rushed out of home, and off to drive a good friend to her wedding. was also asked to take (digital) photos, and borrowed my brother's unit (a canon G2) for the ceremony cos my camera was never going to have enough battery or memory to make it through the whole day. in the end i was a bit disappointed with some of the shots taken with his camera - i wasn't really familiar enough with its functions and so took everything on auto while trying to minimise the use of flash... oh well, good thing i wasn't the principal photographer :p

after the ceremony came afternoon tea at orleigh park, and more photos and milling around. got home just before 7, and promptly remembered i have a meeting to attend at 7! it was at my place, so i ate while the meeting got underway... ended up having people hanging out in my room afterwards (yes, the room that doesn't have much room!) and so again failed to have an early night...

woke up early this morning to take a shower, and got to work a few minutes earlier than usual. started my four days of standing in for a colleage on holidays... so far no disasters... ! looking forward to going home and resting up - a holiday to recover from one's holiday, so they say.

new eXPeriences

hooray! i now have winXP pro at work :) the IT infrastructure recently sustained some irreversible changes, meaning all win98 users lost access and thus got/had to migrate to XP. the upshot of the downtime was new(er) machines, and my supervisor scored a nice P4 box. i missed out on it all as i was on win2k, and could access everything i was supposed to.

but... it turns out some of the functionality i require for work is not achievable without XP, as i discovered after a few 'complaints' to the IT folk. so when i was offered an OS upgrade yesterday, i welcomed it. 10 seconds into the negotiations (i was going to do the upgrade myself) i realised i'd be using my existing box - yes, the same one that only came with 64MB of RAM! there aren't any more new machines, i was told... but here's 256MB of RAM to sweeten the deal.

so, a few hours and 4 BSODs later (i think i had a suspect RAM bank), i'm running XP. finished setting up everything this morning, and i'm happily humming along with a nicer operating system and a welcome boost of RAM :)

now can i have a scroll mouse?!

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i must be liking my work better and better:

1. woke up monday morning and the first thought that entered my head was "damn, it's monday already/again"...

2. woke up tuesday morning... at 8:25am. yes, technically 5 minutes is around about how much time i need to drive to work on a clear run. let's just skip all the actual getting up / grooming / eating and what have you that usually happens before one gets in the car...

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stumbled across dyske.com and some of its sister sites (alllooksame and pain in the english). looks like a rich source of interesting reading :) case in point: the article on conformity - especially the last paragraph!

moments into the 2nd quarter

gee. it's april already.

spent most of my free time last week restoring a laptop where the existing windows installation dug itself into a hole it didn't seem to know how to get out of. it was a custom vendor install, and in chinese... plus my first real attempt at playing with laptop hardware. i'm sure that nobody really wants to read about the nitty gritty details, but after fending off a few technical challenges and one week after taking delivery, it's good to go! (or so i say...)

a few things learnt/noted:

• borrowing toys err i mean tools from the IT guys at work is handy, and firewire is nice! i'm glad my mobo came with it, even though it wasn't on my list of "wanted features" when i was shopping for one
  
• it's funny how one can be quite apprehensive about doing something they've never attempted, and yet so quickly become blase with even the tiniest smidge of "experience"! not always the best thing i suppose, but yeah... opening up a laptop isn't as scary as i first thought :p
  
• firewire is nice :)
  
• the backup utility in xp seems to be handy and might be worth checking out a bit more
  
• running the express install of the winxp service pack one via windowsupdate doesn't work very well... i've now wasted a few hundred megabytes of download (not to mention the time it took) on at least 4 failed attempts on two different computers
  
• downloading files via IE is slooooow... use a download accelerator like DAP (it's free but adware). unless of course you're using dial-up, in which case it probably won't make much difference! :p
  
• unicode filenames (eg containing chinese characters) make backing up data on CDs a non-trivial matter...
  
• file renaming utilities won't work on unicode filenames either... d'oh!
  
• unless you run it from a chinese operating system... ahhhh....
  
• having a home LAN comes in veeery handy :)

i do enjoy solving problems :) especially the sense of achievement at the end when the problem is solved/fixed! hehe. still don't know/understand what went wrong in the first place, but that's one for the "too hard" basket :p

- - - - -

have to cover for someone at work again, while they're away on annual leave. this means learning a new job. don't have too much of a choice about it, and it's not something i'm really looking forward to... but at least i'm relieved to find that it's not next week (was going to go into panic mode today!) but the week after. ok so i'll panic slowly over the next week...!

also been involved in helping out with staging (where new equipment for whole registers are checked and set up before shipping to customer sites). still quite basic work - unpack, assemble on bench, record serial numbers... but at least it feels a step closer to IT/technology, and i think that's where i like to be :)

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words of wisdom #78
what not to do if you have files on your computer you don't want people to see:

1. create a folder called "Top secret" or similar
   
2. under there, create another folder called "TOP TOP SECRET" or similar
   
3. now that you've put neon lights pointing to this location, place your files in the second folder

it's a tactic that's sure to work! kinda like the free netMD sling-type backpack my dad got - it has a hard shelled compartment for your MD player... on the *outside* of the bag, nicely labelled "NetMD" and in a contrasting colour so it stands out.

what about this doesn't scream "steal me!" when you're walking around with the bag on your back...?

new taste like deja vu

the new taste is for toothpaste...

the toothpaste i've been using for what seems like forever, has run out. and it's no longer available in the shops. sometimes change should be embraced, but in this instance, i don't want for my mouth to feel strange every time i brush my teeth with the "new" taste and texture of a different toothpaste. i suppose that after some time, when i've grown accustomed to whatever it is i switch to, the memories of brushing with my current toothpaste will have faded away. and by then, all of this will seem so trivial! (more so than it already is?? :p)

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the deja vu is for the blurry rushing...

another morning of waking up, checking the time, and realising i'm supposed to be at work in under 10 minutes... so i turn up, again at about the usual time, only to find that the main piece of software that eveyone here uses, is down. oh well, all the more time to finish my breakfast :) hmm just checked again and it's back, so i guess no more loitering around here for me!

What I Thought I Wanted

Tuxedo in the closet, gold band in a box
Two days from the altar she went and called the whole thing off
What he thought he wanted, what he got instead
Leaves him broken and grateful

I passed understanding a long, long time ago
And the simple home of systems and answers we all know
What I thought I wanted, what I got instead
Leaves me broken and somehow peaceful

I keep wanting you to be fair
But that�s not what you said
I want certain answers to these prayers
But that�s not what you said

When I get to heaven I�m gonna go find Job
I want to ask a few hard questions, I want to know what he knows
About what it is he wanted and what he got instead
How to be broken and faithful

What I thought I wanted
What I thought I wanted
What I thought I wanted
What I thought I wanted

Staring in the water like Esops foolish dog
I can�t help but reflect on what it was I almost lost
What it was I wanted, what I got instead
Leaves me broken and grateful

I�m broken and grateful
I want to be broken and grateful
I want to be broken, peaceful, faithful, grateful, grateful
I want to be broken, peaceful, faithful, grateful, grateful

timely lyrics from sara groves' latest album, the other side of something. simple words, speaks volumes. not unlike many of her other songs, which is why i think this artist is tops :) the album has just been released, and after hopping online to check out the lyrics and listen to some samples, i decided to order this deal from grassroots.com - pretty good value i thought. an autographed copy of the cd, plus a bonus sampler, for under AUD $25 (including shipping). a normal copy from the local koorong (not that they have any stock yet) would cost $29.95.

Why The Passion Of Christ is Rated R

just when you thought it was safe to go back... comes this email forward... :p

i think it's american in origin, cos the movie isn't rated R here... nevertheless it's worth considering, so i'm posting it.

- - - - -

Rated R

The "R" of course is because of the violence, the gore. In movie terms "R" stands for RESTRICTED, but in this movie "R" stands for RELEVANT, for REALISTIC, for it REALLY happened for a REASON because we were REBELLIOUS we needed a REDEEMER, we needed to be RECONCILED, we needed to be RECOVERED, we needed to be REGENERATED. Jesus needed to be REJECTED so that we could have a RELATIONSHIP not just a RELIGION.

The "R" is to REMIND us to REMEMBER what Jesus did to REMOVE our sin to RENDER Satan powerless, to RESCUE us from eternity in hell. The "R" rating is to show that Jesus was RESPONSIBLE for giving you REST. As a RESULT of His death Jesus RETIRED your debt. The "R" rating means that some will be REPULSED, some will REFUSE to believe, some will be RELUCTANT, some will think you are RIDICULOUS in believing that a death was REQUIRED.

The "R" rating means that the RESULT of sin has been REVERSED and now through faith in Christ your REWARD is eternity and you are now RIGHTEOUS before God because you have RECEIVED him as the RULER of your soul. What a REVOLUTIONARY and RADICAL solution to REDEEM mankind.

- - - - -

amen! to that.

i need...

cannot articulate how i feel/what i'm feeling. just some shade of weird/slightly off.

i think i need...

... actually i don't quite know that either.

perhaps a nice warm hug :)

then again, a slap in the face might also work :o

maybe a bit of both... hmm... whatever the case, gotta keep walking.

- - - - -

so ahmet's was alright. was going to catch a bus in, but saved myself the fare when i remembered that my sister goes near where i needed to go for her weekly bsf meetings. and the timing was just right, so i arrived at the restaurant after a short walk.

The trouble with being punctual is that nobody's there to appreciate it.
-- Franklin P. Jones

but i didn't have to wait too long :) when everybody arrived, some of the others wanted to move tables. we were given a 'conventional' table and chair setting, but they were eyeing off these benches covered with cushions and rugs which exuded a greater sense of atmosphere. so we moved. the benches were really just wooden benches, topped with a ~1inch layer of cheap foam, and covered with a rug thing. i thought my original seat was more comfortable :p

we ordered the prince feast, to experience a variety of dishes from their menu. for $27/head (after an entertainment book gold card discount), i thought it was somewhat over-priced. the food was ok without being spectacular. probably the nicest dish was the chicken and lamb skewers, which i'll remember to order if i ever return. bit my lip while chomping on my turkish delight... really hate it when i do that!

dinner conversation ranged from serious questions and thoughts, to verbal jousting between some of the feistier diners. we covered good ground though, and it was a pleasant evening. at the end of it i had a ~3hour long conversation with nza outside my house. totally unexpected and unplanned, but it was just great to have that time of catching up, finding out about each other's lives, and sharing about some of our struggles/worries, bgr issues, and plans for the future. we were both surprised at what our watches said, by the time we decided to call it a night after wrapping up in prayer.

so i'm still in sleep debt (more so than usual!), but glad for the impromptu chat. sometimes good things happen when you least expect, and when you're not looking for it / trying to make it happen. makes me re-think whether i might be staking/focused too much on my own effort, wrt a few other things in my life...

flat...

my day...

(9am)
no motivation.

no desire.

no enthusiasm.

can i hit [win], [u], [h] and set the timer for 8 hours?

- - - - -

(10am)
just got reminded of a weird dream i had last night - two people i knew got married, and the groom turned up wearing what could only be described as a dress. i think it was purple...

talk about one out of left field!

- - - - -

(10:40am)
hello, my name is .... and i am a netaholic...

well, i don't really think i am, but i'm sitting here bored out of my brain, and the external net connection has been down since before 8am. i've grown too accustomed to having the net at my fingertips when i'm at work (and at home), so i'm itching to see some packet flow happening! am even contemplating grabbing an analog modem and going the dial-up route.

now that would just make me feel so much more like an addict!

- - - - -

(10:55am)
pc beeps to indicate new mail!

*pops head up to take a look*

but it's only internal stuff... external access still down.

*puts head back down*

- - - - -

(11:15am)
i think / i feel like i'm suffering withdrawal symptoms :o

- - - - -

(~11:50am)
mobile rings. private number. interest momentarily peaked. pick up. wrong number...

- - - - -

(12:05pm)
internal network also stops working. can't even make updates to this (this being MS Outlook notes - which i'm using to draft this entry, for posting once the internet access is restored) because i can't reach the exchange server...

decide to go home for lunch.

- - - - -

(1:05pm)
back at work... still no external network, but temporarily satiated after getting my 'net "fix" at home.

hahahah...

(is it just me, or is this getting sadder by the hour?)

- - - - -

(1:27pm)
oooh.... they're baaaack.... not that there's a heck of a lot of activity, but at least i'm 'connected' once more.

though, on further thought... if that's my 'definition' of being connected, that too is rather sad... hmm...

- - - - -

(5:00pm)
home time! made it through the day, and heading off for dinner at ahmet's :)

can it get more frustrating?

oh yes it can...

still can't find the CD, can't for the life of me remember what i might have done with it... maybe i lent it to someone?

hmm... :|

nearly finished downloading the 30MB+ worth of service pack, then got some message about server not responding. ok... i'll try again...

nearly finished downloading the 30MB+ worth of service pack, then got some message about server not responding. ok... this has been a waste of time!

so now i'm onto sucking down the network install version. all 125MB of it.

this better work...

oh and i got a challenge from a FOM to play minesweeper flags, which would have been a nice enough way to while away the time while the SP downloads... but that's not starting either!

it's a conspiracy i tell ya!

what are the odds?

i have, and can account for, every since APC magazine cover CD from the last few years. except for one. and that very exception happens to be the same one i am wanting to use! curse your confounding laws mr murphy!

so now i'm having to download the windows XP SP1 instead of running it off the CD. hmm... oh well. good thing i have broadband (or to the purists, not-quite-broadband!) and a bit of time[1] on my hands today. ever since the good folk at iinet decided to improve my plan, i've been all quota'ed up with nowhere to burn. so today, i decided to continue working on my spare pc with some serious patching activity.

i also happened to 'discover' (well, it's new to me) winamp's net radio, so have been listening to some chinese tunes courtesy of koish.com - it's only 48kbps and mono, but at the moment the novelty is good :) besides which, my connection isn't quite up to handling the streams from the higher bit rate servers. needless to say i can pretty much forget about any streaming video. oh well.

another find was this page which also links to english translations of the lyrics from emil chow's album day lilies! just the sort of stuff a person like me needs :p

[1] have been feeling a bit restless and wanting to go out and do stuff since yesterday afternoon. so far, i've ended up staying at home the whole time (except to go out this morning cos i already had stuff i needed to do). so much for spontaneity and life on the edge ;)

as maxwell smart would say...

missed it, by that much!

well i don't quite know how much "that much" really was. but for now, notch up another rejection. would be lying if i said i wasn't disappointed - it was probably the first job i've come across in this past year of looking that i felt a good vibe about, in terms of the job and me being good fits for each other. obviously the people who matter didn't quite share the same thoughts.

bummer... hmm...

*looks wistfully out the window*

i feel...

neither overwhelmingly positive nor overwhelmingly negative about the interview. i'm confident, but don't want to be overly so. oh well. it's over and done with. now it's out of my hands. maybe soon i won't be getting caught mid-yawn every too often!

- - - - -

that previous motivation (see jan 5) never did translate to an actual visit, so when my isp recently offered its customers a $10 discount on purchases from qbd, i settled on a copy of a thousand pieces of gold. maybe i'm just a sucker for the marketing power of a (perceived) bargain/saving - once you factor in the cost of shipping, and the minimum purchase amount, you're not really saving that much... oh well, it's a book i don't mind reading and owning :) it is shaping up to be a rather interesting read!

two steps forward

got a call not too long after yesterday's post, and it was good news! i'll be taking the next step in the application process by attending an interview shortly :)

got some aspirin thing from my supervisor yesterday afternoon, and that helped with the headache a bit. went home after work and slept for while, got up, quick mail check, semi-continued an msn conversation from a few weeks ago, but had to do a spill-and-run, and left to go out for dinner. asked my sister to tape survivor and alias for me, but she forgot about alias!

grrr....

would have rather missed survivor than alias - alias has too many twists and turns and action bits to "make up" if you miss an ep :(

but, thanks to the netizens of the world (or maybe just a select few) i found an episode guide and transcript online, and resorted to my imagination to visualise the scenes as i read :)

mish mash

i have a headache. neck is also slightly sore. i'm still yawning.

had to spend most of this morning sitting with a colleague to learn her job, and document it. the stack of scrap paper i brought to take notes on remain blank. got a better understanding of what she does, but also fixed up her PC - installed the corporate virus scanner, got rid of some gator corp crap, installed google toolbar for the ad/popup-blocking feature, found it couldn't be activated cos the version of IE was too low, so had a long detour to windows update for patches and updates. and now it's lunch time :)

will i still be here next month? haven't heard anything yet.

first star wars goes ascii, and now the matrix. it's a different style of animation, and harder to make out... i only went as far as the few excerpts. takes me back to the days of telnet and finger and ascii art in people's .project files... (hmm... i think i'm showing my age a little here!)

started looking into "uploading recorders", in anticipation of my MD recorder's eventual demise (started experiencing minor problems with it last year) and the possible need/opportunity to do a fair bit more recording (and turning them into audio CDs and MP3 tracks). then i read about the upcoming Hi-MD units, which look to fit my requirements fairly well... should be interesting.

also been on the search for more blogs... a few of the ones i used to read have been abandoned, so i'm back at RBJ to see what's new in town. ahh... lunchtime reading :)

music::(samples from) innermost being - deb fung

The number of people watching you is directly proportional to the stupidity of your action.

(some light philosophy from a forwarded email...)

so i was sitting in the back seat of a friend's car yesterday... the radio was on, and a cd was sitting in the ejected position from the single in-dash cd player of the car. front seat passenger picks up the cd, takes a look, notices a song and asks to listen to it.

i was curious, so asked the driver "why do you have a cd half hanging there anyway?"

"cos i wanted to listen to the radio" says she. (ie when the cd is ejected, the unit switches back to radio).

"why don't you just change it to radio?" asked i.

"how? can you do that?"

"yes... see that little 'AM/FM' button? yes... just press that" by now the cd was already playing, so the pressing of the button had its desired effect.

"wow! i never knew you could do that!"

"ok how do i change it back to cd?" asked the front seat passenger, who wanted to listen to the cd in the first place, as she pressed that same button repeatedly without success.

"umm... you press the *other* button next to it that says 'CD'..."


ps. more of a funny moment tangentially related to the headline, than a real comment on anyone's intelligence ;)

- - - - -

am supposed to hear back early this week about whether this door is open or closed... (well, for the next stage of the process anyway).

what comes after medium?

i'm talking about pens... as in the size of their tips. i'm definitely a fine point man, and have never liked writing with medium points. i can't imagine writing with something even bigger than medium... there's probably no such thing, at least none that i have seen.

this nice pen i have ran out of ink on the weekend. i think it was a freebie, though i can't remember where i got it. it was a fine point, blue, nice ink flow, dark. a pleasure to write with. earlier this year the rubbery grip thing started to harden and turned from white to yellow. the clip also broke off when i was playing with it. and now, it's totally dead.

the death of my pen took place in the middle of my taking notes for a talk by michael raiter at international outlook on saturday night. part of his talk (preaching from luke 9:51 - 10:1) was about the examples of people who said they would follow Jesus, but had other concerns that seemed of higher priority. while not inherently bad in and of themselves, these things (having a home, looking after parents, caring for family etc) were a distraction to something that was even more important - serving God. and here i was, distracted by a pen that ran out of ink, and thinking about where i was going to find another one that wrote as nicely... whether i had any spares at home i could replace it with, or if i had to go shopping for one... come to think of it, i don't think i've bought any pens since my university days!

it was a sobering talk - what i needed i think. i was pretty tired and didn't really "get" much out of the missions displays and electives (having been to IO the last few years and feeling like i'd seen pretty much everything i wanted to see, though the TESOL elective was at least refreshing). and by mid/late afternoon i was beginning to wonder whether there's really much point for me to keep coming back each year. but... i'm glad i stayed for the evening talk. that's the core i think, the getting back to the bible and what it says. anyways, i was only there for two of the sessions, so decided to order a video of all 5 talks to watch later. will hopefully "recruit" some more audience members for it!

cursed yawn

i keep yawning when i'm sitting down at my desk... my manager has seen/caught me a few times mid-yawn, and keeps joking/threatening to give me more work (requiring me to be off my butt) to do...

i think i need more sleep. but even if i try sleeping earlier (as i did last night), i often wake up before my alarm is due to sound. don't know what's up with that. of course, waking up before my alarm sounds is no guarantee that i won't go back to sleep, and keep snoozing when my alarm *does* sound!

T minus 3.5 hours ;)

- - - - -

more readings about 'the passion', this time from the biblical studies foundation. i think i've reached saturation point on this topic, need to do some distilling/digesting.

music::city on a hill #3 - the gathering

it's all a bit of a blur

i can hardly recall what i did last week. starting to feel busier with YF and BSL starting up again for another semester. struggling to get in 8 hours of sleep, feeling sleepy and yawning my head off during the day as a result...

yesterday. counting down the last hour of work before i go home. suddenly there's a rush on to help pack up some equipment for shipping... worked up a bit of a sweat, but also felt good to be productive and contributing - almost a "longing just to bring something that's of worth" kind of feeling.

another rush this morning as i awoke to the realisation that i had silenced my alarm some 40 minutes ago, and it was now 10 minutes before i'm supposed to be at work. briefly considered calling in sick, or at least phoning to say i'd be late... but in the end i made it in at about the usual time (which is about 10 minutes late!) and brought breakfast to eat at my desk.

packed weekend last week. another packed one coming up: day-tripping to International Outlook 2004 on saturday, and planning to return to KGCC sunday night - don't know how long i can/should keep that up as it makes for rather full sundays... but for the time being i would like to.

- - - - -

click here for more thought-provoking readings about 'the passion' from the folks at matthias media. highly recommended.

The Passion of the Christ

  Who has believed our message
   and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
   and like a root out of dry ground.
 He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
   nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

 He was despised and rejected by men,
   a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
 Like one from whom men hide their faces
   he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

 Surely he took up our infirmities
   and carried our sorrows,
 yet we considered him stricken by God,
   smitten by him, and afflicted.

 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
   he was crushed for our iniquities;
 the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
   and by his wounds we are healed.

 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
   each of us has turned to his own way;
 and the LORD has laid on him
   the iniquity of us all.

 He was oppressed and afflicted,
   yet he did not open his mouth;
 he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
   and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
   so he did not open his mouth.

 By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
   And who can speak of his descendants?
 For he was cut off from the land of the living;
   for the transgression of my people he was stricken.

 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
   and with the rich in his death,
 though he had done no violence,
   nor was any deceit in his mouth.

 Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
   and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering,
 he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
   and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.

 After the suffering of his soul,
   he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
 by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
   and he will bear their iniquities.

 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
   and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
 because he poured out his life unto death,
   and was numbered with the transgressors.
 For he bore the sin of many,
   and made intercession for the transgressors.

 -- Isaiah chapter 53

- - - - -

don't know that there's much i can say about this movie...

watch it.
be confronted.
and whether or not you like the movie (come to think of it, i'm not sure even i like it - in the normal sense whereby one "likes" movies because they're entertaining, funny, feel-good etc), take it in and question why. talk about it. go check out more at the australian passion network.

Jeremiah 17:9

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can understand it?"

work weary

i have a stomach ache. my dad always tells me it's not actually my stomach, it's my intestines that are usually the ones being upset. either way, i don't want to be here at the moment.

last night i found out one of my sisters wants to quit her job.

the other one is going to hand in her resignation today.

i'm ready to go... soon as i find something to go to!

- - - - -

went and painted the town (well... maybe not quite!) tuesday night - nice evening of dining and conversation with friends.

watoto!

watoto means "the children", and that's who i went to see tonight - the watoto children's choir, ambassadors of the watoto childcare ministries based in kampala, uganda. "Watoto Childcare Ministry provides for the spiritual, physical, emotional and educational needs of parentless children throughout Uganda, East Africa." looks to be a thoroughly excellent ministry.

the choir is currently winding up its tour in brisbane, and performed at the garden city christian church, where i went to see them. the kids are quite adorable, and their singing and dancing dynamic. couldn't take many pictures (too far away for a decent shot) so made do with video clips. really wish my camera could shoot longer than 30 seconds at a time... oh well.

- - - - -

thanks to the crimson room, i found myself mentioned/referenced/paid out at the ferris wheel project, which was a bit of a ha ha moment!

heatwave

it's been a while since i've felt the perspiration literally running down my body... all just from being in this heat (ie not from physical exertion, being out in the sun, sitting in a sauna, etc). it got pretty close to 41 degrees today. just the sort of weather to spend hunched over a computer case, swapping out motherboards :) nice little bonus from work that i saved from the bin a few weeks ago. it's got a faster cpu than my previous motherboard in my old pc, which died mid jan. so now i can resurrect my spare system and think about putting it to good use.

oh to have air conditioninng! ah i shouldn't complain... i do get to spend most of the weekdays in relative comfort.

- - - - -

fished a small packet out of my bag just now, and discovered an unopened christmas gift! no idea who it was from / how i came to be in possession of it... i must be getting forgetful in my old age!

well, time for a nice cold shower... if only i could stop sweating as soon as the water stops running!

friday flash fun

play the penguin games at http://yeti.e-medien.com/playonline.html, and then go view artwork inspired by the first game - some of these are worth a few chuckles :)

when you're ready for something a bit more challenging, escape the crimson room.

be warned: potentially addictive, and time consuming... play at your own discretion :p

shattered dreams

well, maybe that's a bit too melodramatic a title :p

it was always going to be too good to be true. first came the monitors, and there's a fair few of them. are they all working? i ask. yes, came the reply. goodie, maybe i can get a bigger monitor... or so i think to myself. alas, they are all the same size as what i'm currently using. oh well.

next came the pc bits. there was no chance any of the prized systems were going anywhere. even the older units were having bits such as hard drives taken out before they appeared on the "heap". so i managed to salvage some 72-pin ram (i've got myself a tidy collection of these now, but have no idea what i'm going to do with them yet!) and a pci network card. at least i don't feel totally empty-handed!

speaking of things to (not) put one's hope in, and wanting something for nothing... read this interesting article [chasing fantasies] today - worth a read and ponder, i say.

we speak in hushed tones and whispers

major moves happening at work - everyone is now located on the one level. hasn't affected my area much, except giving up space for storage of excess furniture from upstairs (only temporary, so they say).

the internal IT support folk have moved to a room on the other side of the wall, and there's a little annexe which joins our two areas. the doors (controlled from their side) to this annexe are currently open, and reveals a shelf full of computers that are apparently going to be discarded. in the time i've been here, there have been two prior sales/give-aways, whereby the items are placed in a heap, and staff are invited to take (or buy) their pick before the remainder gets scrapped. i've missed out in the past, not knowing where to go / get there in time.

this time will be different.

this time, the inside word on the heap is that it's about 5m from where i sit! on my side of the door to the annexe...

some lowered voice discussions have been had with my supervisor and another colleague, trying to identify the prized bargain units. so far, there are three standouts. if these appear on the heap, i'm swooping!

*rubbing hands in glee and anticipation*

;)

time for a cool change

according to the weather forecast, we should be getting a storm later today, ahead of some cooler days. welcome relief from the rather warm and humid conditions currently doing the rounds!

spent the weekend away in caloundra... no air conditioning... 12 people, one pedestal fan... lots of mossies (apparently... though i only ever saw one and came away without a single bite). came back home... still hot... and find that the fan in my room has gone walkabouts during my absence! turns out that my sister had taken it... fair enough i suppose, i *did* take it from her room while she was overseas earlier this summer! :p

so i grab the (less) portable evaporative cooler from downstairs and try to find room for it in my (not) room, and try to make up for some lost sleep.


quite apart from the weather, i've concluded (less begrudgingly now, than earlier) that other issues require cooling change. will just have to trust that it is/will be for the best.


nibbling::musk stick, courtesy of a colleague. haven't had one of these since... primary school?!

share and share alike

saw this on "Ruth - in simplicity" ...

Write a short statement about what's going on in your life relating to the following topics:

1) music
2) movies
3) tv
4) books
5) in the kitchen
6) writing
7) gratitude
8) life


1) music
haven't bought any for ages. occasionally listen to my existing collection, or borrow from other people's collections. listening to a lot of radio (96.5) at work these days. looked through some elementary music books, and had a short piano/music lesson from yung in mid-jan, but that's about as far as the learning and theory went! would still like to be able to understand/read a bit more, and to be able to play something...

2) movies
last cinema outing was for underworld, and before that LOTR3? out of current offerings, wouldn't mind catching the last samurai... been to drive-in a few times last half year or so, and they've recently upgraded to two fields so looking forward to going back (when there's two movies i would quite like to see on). haven't rented for a while either... feeling rather poor/frugal, so only really tend to spend money in this area on other people's initiative rather than my own. other than that, it's picking over whatver free-to-air tv dishes up.

3) tv
bring back the ratings season! survivor (all-stars!) is back, as is er (but the companion site i usually visit seems to have been somewhat neglected...). still tracking that 70's show, the iron chef, and our generation (when they decide to screen it!). the movie show is coming back next week, and i'm hanging out for the new season of 24, and alias...

4) books
recently finished reading chinese cinderella (though i didn't get around to my local library), and the five love languages. in the middle of reading too many other books... most of which i've picked up, read a little of, put down, and henceforth neglected :/ need to pick one or two to focus on working through.

5) in the kitchen
not much happening here... ! psychologically i think i'm less afraid to try, and not have ultra detailed instructions to work from (though instructions are still good!). not that i cook much/often. usually happier to play kitchen hand / assistant cook :) or get the washing up duties...

6) writing
not much happening here either. most of my personal writing is done here, and on another more recent blog. still sporadically email. that's about it... haven't been inspired to write any articles, poems, or otherwise creative piece. note taking and selection criteria don't count, do they? :p

7) gratitude
not enough... recognition of things i should be thankful for... much less actually saying so! grateful for hard lessons... the sort you don't appreciate when you're in the middle of it... but might get the chance to understand afterwards - that's when you realise your need to learn it. so, grateful for the chance to learn (and make mistakes along the way!)

8) life
boy it sure is easier to write about the first few things on this list than the last! where do you start? life is... hmm... ask me later!

you see coincidence, i see providence

(i think that's actually a misquote of morpheus, but i was sure that's what i heard.)

so, i get home, and i'm catching up on my inbox reading... and come across the latest carm newsletter from last week. guess what the devotional in it is based on? yup, psalm 139:23-24... !

---

Search me, O God

Psalm 139:23-24 says, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; 24 And see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way."

These are perhaps some of the most poignant words in
the entire Bible. In these two verses there is so much. We see the
Psalmist asking God to search him, to look to the deepest part of
what he is, his own heart. Why would the Psalmist ask this? And, why
would any of us ask it? The reason is simple. We can not know our
own hearts as well as God can. He indwells us, knows every thought,
is aware of every feeling, and He understands us better than we do.
If we ever needed anyone to reach down in the depths of our hearts
to find out what is unholy so that it can be removed, it is God.

David is the psalmist. David is asking God to prove, to
test his loyalty because he is not like the wicked men spoken of
earlier in the Psalm. David desired God and God's holiness.

When God asked Solomon what he wanted, Solomon asked
for wisdom, and because he did not ask for money, and power, ir
fame, God blessed him with all of them. Wisdom was a great thing to
have. Nevertheless, Solomon fell into idolatry in his letter years
and his wisdom did not help him in the end.

By contrast, David said, "One thing I have asked
from the Lord, that I shall seek: that I may dwell in the house of
the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord,
and to meditate in His temple," (Psalm 27:4). Even though David
committed adultery, murdered Bathsheba's husband, and used deception
to cover his great sins, God, who knew this would happen, said of
him through Samuel, "The Lord has sought out for Himself a man
after His own heart, and the Lord has appointed him as ruler over
His people..." (1 Sam. 13:14). There was a quality in David that
pleased God. What was that quality? It was David's
heartfelt desire for the Lord.

You need to know this because it will help you to
understand the intimacy that David sought with God which ultimately
led him to ask God, "know my heart." David seeks God in the
most intimate place and asks Him to examine him there. David asks
God to see if there is any hurtful way in him -- in the deepest part
of his being. David was being vulnerable.

Is there any hurtful way in your heart? Would you
be able to ask God to search your heart down to the deepest levels
and reveal to you the secrets that not even you know is there? Would
you trust God enough to ask Him to expose and root out of you that
which is displeasing to Him? Do you have the courage to bow your
knees, to lower your head, to lay prostrate before God, and to
become as vulnerable as you can to Him as you ask him to look into
your heart, to see if there's anything bad in there, and to deal
with it accordingly? Such a request grows out of humility as well as
increases humility. It is the ultimate trust in God. It can be
scary. But it is definitely good.

David did not simply ask God to see if there's
any hurtful way in him and leave it at that. He asked to be led by
God in the everlasting way. This means to be corrected and
sanctified by God's loving hands.

David did not know the Messiah since Jesus was
far distant in the future. But David knew the Messiah would
come. You, on the other hand, know the everlasting way -- if
you know Christ as your savior. Jesus, who is God in flesh,
who died in the cross and rose from the dead bodily, is the
everlasting way. Therefore, for you to be led by God in the
everlasting way is to be led to Christ.

May the desire of your heart be that you would seek Jesus,
that you would dwell in His house forever, and that you would behold
His beauty. God desires that you desires this because He loves you.

---

sleepless nights, wakeful mornings

what's a man to do?

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
-- Psalm 139: 23-24 (NKJV)

application points from sunday's bible study might apply?

• repent of sin
  
• listen to Godly wisdom
  
• have Jesus occupy my house

let the rubber meet the road...

ooh, the power!

arrived home to see that my powerball has arrived in the mail. saw this gadget a few weeks ago courtesy of a colleague at work, and thought: cool! and useful to boot. so i ordered my own :)

only tried it for a few minutes, then had a need to write something down, and discovered i can't write straight cos my arms are still feeling it! hehe... looks like someone's arms could do with a bit of strengthening :p

sleep!

writing selection criteria is a major pain.
i can't believe it took me so long - but that's probably because i've never done it properly before.
i really hope all this effort pays off... !!

*yawn*

late night. rainy morning. gloomy skies. groaning my way out of bed.

at work. sitting still. drooping eyelids. darting eyes not looking at anything at particular. slow turning of the mental cogs flitting in and out of thoughts. big yawn. and again.

what am i doing here??

*yawn*

*sigh*

left foot in front of right foot,
right foot in front of left foot,
left foot...

words of wisdom #104

what not to do after having a rather full meal:
watch 3 contestants on fear factor each gag their way through downing 3 pounds of raw ostrich egg...

time viewing

"you have to know where you are going to understand what to do now"
-- from 'Time� and what to do with it' by Dave Andrew

oh the suspense of it all...

man, this is not good... i've just discovered the mountain lion, a fanblog for 24, already into its third series in the states, but yet to be screened here... damn the spoilers, or withstand the curiosity? hmm... decisions, decisions, decisions! hehe...

also the premise of the next survivor series looks interesting... all stars parade, best of the best... hmm... bring on the ratings season! :p

land of the long weekend

the first half of the (calendar) year always has plenty of long weekends to break up the grind of work... one in january, 2 in april, one in may, and another in june. i guess they're good when you don't really want to be at work, but then again, the longer you're away, perhaps the harder it is to come back :p certainly felt like that this morning. took a bit longer to get out of bed and get moving...

went away for qyc on the weekend, and came away greatly challenged by the teaching... more reflecting to be done, and i want to listen to the talks again (bought copies of the CDs). also bought a copy of nicky chiswell's new cd, the secret of the world. didn't get a chance to listen to it while i was there, and i think if i did i probably wouldn't have spent the money. was also considering it as a gift, but that was before realising the nature/purpose of the album, which wasn't what i thought it would be. still, i like the concept of the album, but somehow just don't find it all that engaging musically... not that i speak from an authoritative stance re: things musical, but the sound of the songs just don't really appeal to me, which is a bit of a disappointment, cos one of the reasons i was interested in the album was due to previous works i've heard from nicky. i've got it playing repeatedly, seeing if/hoping it will grow on me...

haha...

got a chuckle out of this CNY themed shockwave movie clip:
http://218.1.64.131/2004monkey.swf

enjoy!

just noticed google's tribute to the day too!

"spring festival"

apparently that's what the chinese in china call chinese new year... in chinese of course :p it's chinese new year's eve, but i'm not feeling particularly festive. never really do in australia, especially these last few years when the occasion has almost always just been another working day. it's been a while since i spent CNY in an asian country/culture - kinda miss it, but then again i think i'd feel a bit out of place/like a stranger if i was there.

had dinner together with the family at home; dad says that traditionally the CNY eve dinner ("nian2 ye4 fan4") is the most important meal of the year... *shrugs* what do i know about chinese culture? too little and not enough to call myself chinese, that's what. afterwards we went to my uncle's place to meet up with the rest of our extended family and had a time of singing hymns (in chinese! so i struggled...) and sharing/reminiscing (by people from my parents' generation) about their childhood days and memories etc. some interesting stories there, and quite surprising how much difference there can be in the life experienced by one generation and the next. ok granted they take place in relatively dissimilar countries and cultural settings, but still... they say theirs may have been harder in a physical sense, but ours has much more stress.

then we ate... and just as we were starting to tuck into the food, my dad and uncle were outside cutting open a durian - that sight made me feel like i was back in malaysia... for a moment :)

happy (chinese) new year :]

bringing down the (ware)house

so i was struggling to stay awake at work yesterday... the post-lunch lull... head in hands, elbows propped on desk, eyes closed, mind thinking: bed. pillow. sleep. want. very much.

then the phone rings, and the receptionist tells me that a guy is here to pick up some items. what? who? why? how does this have anything to do with me? (as it turns out, nothing really... but what's new? we seem to regularly receive stuff that other people should really be dealing with). so, there being no one else around, and me having been silly enough to answer the phone and thus now loaded with sorting out this customer, trod off to investigate.

i find out where he's from, and what he wants to pick up. go out to the production warehouse (since he's picking up new items - not my area!), and try to track down his order with the production warehouse clerk.

nothing.

back out to reception. confirm where he's from. no record of any such orders.

he goes to make a phone call, and now we have some reference numbers... oh and a store code - not the same place where he's from, but a totally different store! of course the order is there, but only a mind reader could make the connection based on the information i was working with.

so now we have to get the stock, and lo and behold, it's up on the very top shelf in the warehouse. only way to get it down is to use the electric forklift, which i'd not previously touched, let alone tried to operate. nobody else around who knows how to use it... customer waiting... doesn't look that hard, i mean, you turn this to steer, and these other buttons make the forklift go up and down, and here's how to move forward and backward. quick test, and away we go... turn... realise it's going a little fast for my comfort, and formulate hindsight lesson #397: learn how to stop before actually beginning to move! such knowledge might prevent results like crashing into some metal bins on the bottom shelf and attracting attention with the noise!

but then one of the guys who came out to see what was going on has significantly greater proficiency than i in operating the forklift, and got the goods down. so the customer was all sorted in the end, and i wasn't feeling sleepy anymore after that incident... :p

how pure is your vision?

these are the newer breed of contact lenses that i've been using for the past year and... can't remember how long. thanks to the silicone hydrogel material, i am mostly spectacle free :) they have a special trial offer at the moment and also a chance to win a trip to paris... so if you've been looking to try, now's a good chance!

Bausch & Lomb - Purevision - See the latest fashions in Paris with PureVision

suburban soundscapes

i got back to the housesitting place. it was late at night on a cool summer evening - slight breeze, but generally otherwise fairly still. i went to collect the rubbish bin from the kerbside, and was about to wheel it back to its resting place when i hear... from diagonally across the road... emanating from a dark and unlit house... the distinct sounds of a woman reaching the heights of erotic pleasure!

it occurred to me that this is probably the first time i've heard such sounds "live". tv and movies etc, sure. but never in real life, i think. i stood, bemused at the "opening of my ears", then started wheeling away. now in the house and a few minutes later, i realised that i had left my phone in the car, so went out the front door to retrieve it. as i was coming back into the house, she sounded to have "returned"...

- - - - -

so i didn't end up doing any goods out stuff at work... tried packing an item that i was supposed to send out, but then realised i had no idea how to operate any of the courier related stuff... so in the end i decided to stop stressing about it and tell my boss that i can't do it. too bad, so sad, really not my fault or my problem. or my job for that matter, though it may well be part of it soon...

i think i should be investing in some options.

urgh

first day of "something akin to back to normal" work, and my supervisor is away (not her fault - health scare). but it means i'll have to look after our area (still haven't fully caught up on all the comings and goings that took place while i was away), as well as do all the goods out stuff (packing, couriers etc) that she was temporarily in charge of, seeing as our regular storeman was "let go" last year.

just last friday my manager was making noises about getting me familiar with goods out, cos my supervisor is taking leave this friday. but of course i haven't been shown anything yet, and now i need to know today...

time to go swimming!

more quizzes...

saw these on chiayo's blog, and clicked away :p

What Classic Movie Are You?

What Famous Leader Are You?

well i guess only those who know me in real life can comment on the accuracy of the results :o might go do some of the more serious ones later... when i'm feeling more serious!

unemployed again

technically i'm unemployed this weekend, given that my previous employer is no longer my employer as of 5pm friday, and my new employer does not become my new employer until monday. new contracts to sign. new job title! thought not a very fitting one, given that it doesn't really reflect what i do... and while it sounds like a step up, there's no corresponding change in salary :p

last night some friends came over and watched maid in manhattan - probably wouldn't have been my first choice of rentals but it wasn't too bad. afterwards yung told me about stuff she'd been learning at forte training (training to be a music teacher), and we practised this basic orff body percussion rhythm, which wasn't as easy as it sounded but was quite fun to muck around with. i think if i ever have children, i'd like for them to learn music from a young age and give them an opportunity to develop a love for it... go the vicarious living ;)

docile mouse

i'm playing housesitter for ~3 weeks. it's been a while since i last house sat for anyone... one of the plusses this time round is having access to an air-condiitoned bedroom - something that would come in quite handy if the hot weather returns! for now, it seems to be quite happy to rain. and rain. and rain...

what with running between my regular home, work, the housesitting place, and juggling everything else that i want to / should be doing when i'm not working, i don't think i'll have much time to twiddle my thumbs. hope to have friends over though - make use of my "own" home while i have the chance :)

- - - - -

is it just me or do other people find it annoying when their nails reach that "needs to be cut" length? i keep playing with mine, and am itching for some time to sit down and cut them. one FOM trims her on a weekly basis!

ooh... home time.

there was movement at the station...

it's been confirmed - new owners taking over (pending final payment)... administrators end COB friday, handover to new owners to start monday.

not sure how i feel about that. definitely good to be out of the "up in the air" mode, but... was really unmotivated when i got to work today. maybe it was just the coming back after holidays thing... or the fact that i was still quite sleepy (i later decided to go home and take a nap during my lunch break - one of the luxuries of working close to home :p). oh well, one day at a time...

- - - - -

fluff n quiz time - this result could could cause big-headedness ;) but i think there is some truth among the fluff... hehe


You came from heaven. Your goal in life is to help
others and to make the world a better place.
Some call you weak, but in reality your soul is
very strong. If only more people were like
you...


Where did you come from?
brought to you by Quizilla

r.i.p.

10 jan 2004.
goodbye mrs c.
hang tough kayakok and porky.
heaven's where the reunion party's at, so hold on to your invites :)

back at work already??

got called back to work a day early... apparently signs are looking good for a buyout, but i'll wait till i see official confirmation before deciding how to react. except for the lack of enthusiasm to repeat the job hunting process (given that my previous attempt didn't go as well as i'd expected) and state of unemployment, i don't really care too much whether i stay or go.

managed to keep relatively busy for most of the day, but it's winding down to a close... took a wander at some blogs i visited and finally decided on a bit of a whim to follow a link and do a little quiz:



cuddle and a kiss on the forehead - you like to be
close to your special someone and feel warm,
comfortable, and needed


What Sign of Affection Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

doublespeak

"the financial gap and expense levels were incapable of being adjusted within the funding constraints that existed"

that's the reason given for the financial difficulties being experienced by my company. sounds about as clear (and informative) as mud to me!

today was the new deadline for offers to buy the company. tomorrow another meeting of creditors will be held to decide the outcome/future of the company.

what fun.

- - - - -

not sure whether my colds are just slowly mutating, or if i'm just rather more sickly than i thought... i've picked up my second cold of the summer (that's twice in the space of one month!) and am still yet to shake an annoyingly persistent and unproductive cough from the first round.

happy holidays indeed. bleh.

chinese cinderella

just finished reading chinese cinderella: the secret story of an unwanted daughter by adeline yen mah. picked it up from the coffee table while at a friend's place last night, and recalled seeing an earlier book by the same author which i had meant to get a hold of and read but never got around to doing. so i'm kind of starting out of order, but that doesn't really matter (and in any case this is in some sense the prequel to her first book falling leaves). there is a sense of accomplishment from finishing off a book - too often i start and don't finish. i was almost half way through by the time i left thier house, so i asked to borrow it and resolved to finish it today (strike while the iron's hot, so they say :p).

and wow... it is a touching and sad, but also inspiring and triumphant tale. read it for yourself - it really doesn't take that long. the friend who bought the book read it in one hour; i took a tad longer :p check out the website which also tells you more about the author and some of her other works.

takes me back a fair few years to a period in my life when i read a number of books of similar genre and heritage (amy tan's the joy luck club, the kitchen god's wife, and the hundred secret senses; jung chang's wild swans, and i'm certain there was at least one other whose title and author elude me). there's something about these stories - the characters, the culture, the history in which they are steeped - that somehow resonates with whatever little china there is in me. my ancestry is chinese, but i wasn't born in china nor have i ever been to see any part of china. still, there's *some* chinese in my blood and being... i think! ;)

now i'm motivated to track down some other adeline yen mah titles from my local library :)

3 2 4

The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two substances:
If there is any reaction, both are transformed.

-- Carl Jung

g-code (as published in last sunday's tv scene) has been playing up, and i set the wrong time for our generation... so i missed an episode, and got the start of a movie instead which featured the above quote.... and it kinda struck me so yeah...

anyways...

watched LOTR 3 on monday night... so now that both the matrix and LOTR series have ended, where's the next great blockbuster going to come from?

went to the beach and visited the Oh's restaurant on tuesday [photolog] got to use my sunshelter (courtesy of fly buys rewards) for the first time, and i think it's a pretty darn good invention :)

went to the beach again wednesday night/thursday morning to see the first sunrise for 2004 [photolog] surprisingly didn't feel too tired or sleepy... finally came home for a shower and some sleep ~8am.

well... happy new year. what's 2004 got in store for this nebulous netizen?

is it hot in here?

my bedroom: smallest in the house, smallest window of all rooms. upstairs, so gets the warm air. and in the best side of the house to feel the full brunt of the afternoon sun. not the best place to leave a computer running all day...

while i had escaped to the rumpus to hide out for most of the day (only room with air conditioning), my pc was slowly heating up. when i got back, it was in the middle of a scheduled virus scan and popping errors saying the hard drive was overheating!

remove cover, shift portable fan in position to blow, blow, blow. now it's sitting at a cool 42 degrees... that's down 20 from a peak of 62 :|

- - - - -

week 1 of my holidays is nearly over... what have i done? some potted highlights from the last few days:

monday: dinner at friend's place, carolling afterwards, and then standing around at mt cootha singing away with an impromptu a capella performance of the carols we'd learnt and also a few other christian songs. wonder what those around us thought of us! hehe...

tuesday: hung out for most of the day in the city and south bank watching free event after free event. [click for photo log]

wednesday: tagged along with my parents to a christmas eve concert at logos church in mackenzie. first time i've visited their new building - rather grand looking it is... being temporarily excited with the "discovery" of messenger plus - rather useful, i say.

thursday: christmas day service at church, driving around looking for a place that's open for lunch, hanging out at the tans', and extended family dinner back on the southside.


i think i'd rather be working - at least that way you get to spend the hottest parts of the day in air conditioned comfort ;)

oh winter, where art thou?

engineering a reunion

caught up with some of my engineering coursemates thursday night. with both adrian and jasper (gone to the US and canada respectively) back in town for christmas, a few of us took the chance to meet and catch up.

dinner was at the cafe colosseum near home - interesting sounding pasta items (mine was the "rabbit ravioli", and fairly well presented plus ok value for money (further savings to be had courtesy of the entertainment book).

afterwards we retired to ted's apartment... this was the first time i had seen it, and boy it's nice! fifth and top floor of a single block, 4x balcony's on all corners, really nice river views, and complete with modern kitchen and large screen tv. photos here, and samples of the views here:

yeah i like nightscapes :)

oh but it does feel awful...

... knowing that those who *are* going to go will be called to a meeting, and then seeing people you know being rounded up at the appointed time. even though i wasn't all that close to them, three guys i work with/near are among the list.

i was told to go home early. just as the meeting got underway. so not even a goodbye - though what do you say?

and so i came home... :|

not for me, it seems

i've been informed that there are people who will be going, but i will not be one of them.

and that those staff who are continuing will keep getting paid weekly in arrears during the break.

yay... ?

gloom today, doom tomorrow?

i've just glanced at my water bottle and realised that i haven't had even a sip of water all day!

rumours (if you afford them any weight) are that tomorrow might be d-day for a "closing" announcement. might be "fitting", given that the bulk of the company will be on 3 weeks of unpaid leave after tomorrow. *sigh*.

having problems with the doro playing nicely with adsl on the same line at home. low volume plus the odd crackling. and why would you make the the hands-free speakerphone half duplex? even the speakerphone on our old analog cordless (which got along well with adsl) was full duplex. some design decisions i just don't understand...

oh well. there's nothing like a spot of retail therapy to give you that boost of buying power. bought my monitor (a 17" flatscreen samsung syncmaster 785MB) yesterday, much nicer on the eyes though there are a few niggly things with the picture that make it not an 100% satisfactory purchase. also it's the first time that union shopper has really failed me by not being able to source a cheaper price - this time round the best they had was $65 more expensive!

they also couldn't beat $395 for a sony mzn710 md recorder that my dad was after. his previous unit has started playing up after almost two years, and isn't recording properly anymore. hence the requirement for a replacement. it came in a promotional bonus pack, from which i scored the backpack, cos all he wanted was the recorder :) gotta say the bonus headphones look pretty stylish - pity i don't go portable audio-ing often enough ;)

so another season of survivor is over - i'm reasonably happy with the outcome (not so much who won, but who didn't win). no matter how much you try to separate the game from real life, i believe you're still accountable for your actions, regardless of the situation/circumstance in which you find yourself. now that my monday nights are emptying fast (with the departure of alias and survivor), i've latched onto the new show on friday nights "our generation" (called American Dreams in the States). i like the premise (the tie-ins with 'american bandstand' are quite clever), and find it to be pleasant and enjoyable viewing. plus i like the period music :)

entropy is...

(in the non-thermodynamics sense of the word)

• getting a cold in summer... less than two months after my last cold... *shakes head in disgust*
  
• closing the sliding door on my wardrobe, knowing that i needed to move my hand out of the way (or else it would get squashed!) and the neural pathways not acting fast enough to effect the required physical movement to get my pinkie clear :(
  
• leaving the house having turned off my computer that was in fine working order, and coming back a few hours later to turn it back on and finding that my monitor has turned blue. it's 5 months out of a 3 year warranty, will cost me $55 to get a repair quote, and probably $110 minimum labour charge plus parts for a repair. by which time a brand spanking new true flat model for ~$200 (with an equally new 3 year warranty) is looking the decidedly more attractive option. lucky for me there's a spare monitor at home, but it makes strange noises in power saving mode, can't run the same resolution as my blue monitor, and even then is a bit fuzzy... i'm not sacrificing eye strain over money, so i think i'll get me a samsung 785MB.
  
• my shoes (the pair i wear most often, and about the only pair whose purchase i remained happy with after getting a new pair back home and wearing it a few times) falling apart. and squeaking. i hate squeaking shoes. shoe shopping is not my forte.
  
• my g-shock watch shedding its shock-absorbent urethane outer layer. so now it looks rather thinner and is not as well protected... it's lasted nearly 7 years and had its first battery change earlier this year. the internals are still good, so even though i've been eyeing off some of the offerings in the "tough solar" range, i should really save my money for more necessary purchases...
  
• the administrator at work telling us that, even though the previously arranged 3-week long shutdown over christmas/new year is still going ahead with everybody going on annual leave, we won't be getting paid for it.
  
• another MSIE vulnerability that could prove rather nasty. doesn't seem to be any fix/workaround available to joe blow at home... caveat emptor!

what's voluntary about this?

says a colleague to me as i was walking past mid/late morning: it just keeps getting better for you doesn't it?

me: what do you mean?

him: first they make you take leave you haven't got, and now this...


rewind a few hours... i walk into work to find people putting up christmas decorations. i even got a piece of tinsel to use for my work area (i tied it in a bow and draped it across my pc - very artistic i thought :p) the mood is relaxed and jovial...

within an hour an abrupt and compulsory meeting for all staff was called, whereupon we find out that the company has gone into voluntary administration. that's the "this" referred to above. yup, feel the mood dive...


just as we were all leaving that meeting i got a call from a job prospect - work that is not too dissimilar to what i'm doing now, but even less pay (if only ever so slightly). do i jump now? or wait and see? don't really want to be going back to centrelink after we ended our previous 6-month long love-hate relationship! hrm...


oh well, got to play with new toys at home... courtesy of my parents' first reward after a few years of collecting AMEX points - doro 5045+1 cordless digital telephones. we've got the silver version... nice and sleek :) would be even better if the LCD and keypad were backlit, plus throwing in a bit more memory for the answering machine wouldn't have hurt.

alas, one son's novelty is another mother's technology learning curve ;)

handle handel?

so i went to a performance of handel's messiah on saturday night - never really been to anything like that before - and i think most of it was lost on me, as one who fails to appreciate the finer points of music. still, good horizon-broadening experience, and a nice enough (though expensive!) activity to share with a friend. it was performed by 4 soloists with the backing of the brisbane chorale and queensland orchestra. apparently it was a very rare performance, given that they were using handel's original manuscript.

i pretty much knew nothing about "messiah" heading into it, other than having heard the term mentioned in conjuntion with the composer (and i don't know much about him either!)... once again google was my friend in pointing me to a bit of background skimming :) and i even remembered something i had read about why the audience stands during the hallelujah chorus (the only part of the whole performance i vaguely recognised) at the end of part the second! see, i do have a culture bone in my body ;)

anyways, took a snapshot before i went into the venue (main auditorium, brisbane city hall) - gives me an excuse to show a pic in my blog :p this is the christmas tree at king george square, with the city hall and clock tower in the background.

haven't yet found an easy/convenient/free way to upload photos to which i can directly link, so this will have to be an irregular special. so back to handling handel's messiah... it's all about / inspired by (bible verses concerning) the birth, death and resurrection of the God-man jesus christ. and as per most of the advertising/publicity associated with performances of handel's messiah, this is a "must-see". make sure you don't miss out on the CHRIST of christmas.

feliz navidad :)

sick equation

a. saturday - out in the cold wind and rain
b. sunday - around person with throat infection (and another starting to get a sore throat?)

a + b = ...

c. today - wake up with slightly dry, slighty sore throat. going through about twice the amount of water i usually drink at work...

hrm :/

ps. some pictures from the outings with international students (dinner tuesday, city saturday)