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Summary| Highlights| 2006 (Year View)

2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | This Year (2006) 2007 |

01.01.2006 – Sunday 1 January – The Year of Work

Dawn

• I woke up to the new year when some Tibetans began chanting, finding myself lying with hundreds of other people on a hilltop, and the dawn just beginning to break. After watching the sunrise over the horizon, I went back to sleep, waking again when it got too hot, and carrying my camping mat back to the tent, waiting in a queue for ages, finally having a quick shower, and rushing down to the shop to prepare for the first eight thirty shirt.

8:30am

• Surprisingly, the shop was busier today than any other day. I guess all the people who hadn’t yet bought anything now were.

Noon

• Bronwen and I finished work around the same time, and spent the rest of the day watching random acts, culminating in the closing ceremony. The closing fire ceremony was quite spectacular. Thousands of people camped out at the natural amphitheatre, with nothing happening for quite some time. Eventually, an aboriginal made fire with sticks, lighting a torch, which then lit an explosive fuse that ran instantaneously up a wooded hill, setting off fireworks. Then, in the resulting gloom, an unrealistically large, spectacularly close moon was seen slowly progressing across the sky, eventually revealing itself as an earth, coming to rest to our left as thousands of lit paper-lamps walked across our field of vision, not doing a great deal. A plethora of strange oversized lit paper constructions, and numerous fire things, along with music from the stage, filled in the gap until a large trebuchet fired a flare at a large sun and moon construction, which turned out to be full of various fireworks, burning dramatically until all that was left was a pile of sparks.

02.01.2006 – Monday 2 January – Brisbane

• Bronwen and I got a lift back to Brisbane with a man camped in the camp just across from ours, and spent a relaxing day recovering from the sensual excesses of Woodford.

03.01.2006 – Tuesday 3 January – Sick

• I’ve developed a twenty-four hour flu—unsurprisingly given the amount of dust I ingested at Woodford, and am very sick and unable to do much at all. Despite my weakened state, I eventually managed to make my way up to the real estate and set up our rental payments, and do a bit of shopping in town.

04.01.2006 – Wednesday 4 January – Relaxing

• I woke up feeling much better, but still weak. I had a look around at the plethora of ADSL plans on offer, selecting and signing up for an Exetel ADSL plan. It got very hot, and I felt rather weak after this, so spent the rest of the day relaxing, finishing off with dinner at a curry place at Rosalie.

05.01.2006 – Thursday 5 January – Cleaning Joe’s

• I headed out to Joe’s to do a final cleanup, finding a note from Tonya’s that her door had been forced, presumably while she wasn’t there, and asking if I had any clue why or how. I stopped by the shops on the way, buying some clothes, and buying groceries in the city on the way back.

06.01.2006 – Friday 6 January – Centrelink & Uni

• A train was caught to Centrelink in Toowong, who were suitably told that I have moved. A bus then found me catching it to uni, where mail was picked up, a direct debit authorisation form posted to Exetel, the helpdesk visited, and a chat with Dr Soon had. A bus then allowed me to catch it back from uni to the city, where shops sold me things, and another bus drove me home.

07.01.2006 – Saturday 7 January – Narnia

• Moved furniture about. Walked to town and did shopping. Went and saw “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe” at South Bank, which was enjoyable but overly simplistic—reflecting its children’s book heritage I suppose.

08.01.2006 – Sunday 8 January – Good Night & Good Luck

• I had a quiet day, watching “Good Night and Good Luck” at the Palace Centro with Bronwen at night.

09.01.2006 – Monday 9 January – Faster Online

• ADSL was connected today, providing me with a faster, and always-on, connection. Other than that, a reasonably relaxing and uneventful day ensued.

10.01.2006 – Tuesday 10 January – Nothing Much

• I messed around with Clint, being unproductive but enjoying it.

11.01.2006 – Wednesday 11 January – Wireless

• I bought a wireless router and setup wireless here, finally removing the cable that was running halfway across the house. Somewhat worryingly, that’s all I can remember of today.

12.01.2006 – Thursday 12 January – The Legend of Zorro

Day

• After a relaxing morning making a few phone calls, Clint and I drove out to Mount Gravatt and after a short bushwalk, found some rather large, and relatively unknown, caves. This made us hot, so we stopped at a supermarket where Clint bought coke and twenty-four sausage rolls, and I banana milk, soft drink and ten ice creams.

9:55pm

• After eating a lovely curry Bronwen made, Clint and I went and saw “The Legend of Zorro” at South Bank. We were expecting it to be extremely bad, after it got one out of ten in a review, but it was extremely entertaining and quite amusing, in its own crappy way. We finished off the night with a drive around Mount Coot-Tha.

13.01.2006 – Friday 13 January – Contact Bond

• Clint and I drove to Toowong, so I could pick up some mail, and then to Kenmore, via Cold Rock in Indooroopilly, to buy contact bond. I then contact bonded floor to floor, in a very touching way, and with several bricks.

Comment by Maz – Sunday 15 January 2006, 12:01 PM

  What did you do with bricks? Did Clint have purple hair at this point?
  Plenty of cold rocks here when they're left out in the snow.

Comment by Ned – Sunday 15 January 2006, 12:19 PM

  It’s actually not very interesting—the bricks sat on a piece of wood, which sat on a piece of linoleum, which sat on a layer of contact bond, which sat on a wooden backing plate, which sat on the floor. Clint’s hair had not yet changed colour.

Comment by Mum – Monday 16 January 2006, 8:54 PM

  Clint's hair not yet changed colour? Why not? Is Friday the 13th after all. The best time for one's hair to change colour. All by it self.
   Bat's toenails, witch's brew, eye of newt..
   Witches brew up here was a monster mud bog en route from my little job to home, which I did not even think about traversing, going to friend's place for the night instead. Don't think I shall ever become accustomed to "driving" down the road sideways. Two trucks had gone off the road on the same mud bog, on Friday the 13th, one of them perilously aslant, so I was not going to even contemplate it on a Friday 13th, not that I believe all that jazz, um, but then again......

14.01.2006 – Saturday 14 January – Clint’s Birthday Bash

Day

• Bronwen and I went shopping, returning the ridiculous cheese slicer that doesn’t slice cheese, and getting keys recut. The first cut, they didn’t even fit in the locks, let alone turn them. This time, one actually fits, and will turn the lock with difficulty. The other key still doesn’t fit in the lock, so I’m not overly impressed with these key cutters.

Night

• Bronwen and I made our way to the Good Knight Bar, to witness Clint’s twenty-first birthday spectacle, and eat some pancakes. A good night was had, ending up at the Casino, and I think everyone managed to survive.

Comment by Maz – Sunday 15 January 2006, 12:25 PM

  Maybe your cheese cutter that doesn't cut cheese would do a better job cutting keys?

Comment by Ned – Sunday 15 January 2006, 12:30 PM

  It couldn’t do much worse, although I don’t know whether the key cutter could cut cheese. How much cheese could a key cutter cut if a key cutter could cut cheese?

Comment by Mum – Monday 16 January 2006, 8:58 PM

  Happy 21st birthday Clint.

Comment by Clint – Tuesday 17 January 2006, 2:04 AM

  Thank you Mrs Martin.
  
  The story of the hair purpling is a bit of an epic - a lot like the Iliad really, except without all that dodgy homosexuality and with women's tennis and Tooheys Pils in there somewhere as well. Dunno about the whole Greece part either, although I think the tennis players were from Belgium which is sort of near there.
  
  Clint

Comment by Ned – Tuesday 17 January 2006, 1:58 PM

  Clint has managed to survive, so far, but it is not known if the hair dye has managed to reach his brain, and if it can ever be removed if it has.

Comment by Mum – Tuesday 17 January 2006, 7:28 PM

  Purple haze!! (For all you youngsters, this is the title of a Jimi Hendrix song)

Comment by Clint – Wednesday 18 January 2006, 12:08 PM

  I prefer 'Purple Rain', that wonderful movie starring (and perhaps scripted by) Prince.
  
  How come I can't type out his symbol on my keyboard?

Comment by Mum – Saturday 28 January 2006, 7:28 PM

  Wills or Harry?

15.01.2006 – Sunday 15 January – Pizza

• Bronwen goes to her parent’s place for the morning. I glue things, flash the router with DD-WRT firmware, and try, unsuccessfully, to work out how to monitor individual ports’ traffic without running a server.

Night

• Three pizzas are taken to Mt Coot-Tha, and in the dark, eaten—Clint, Bronwen and Ned slink away with Pepsi.

16.01.2006 – Monday 16 January – Keys & Rental Applicants

Day

• I spend the morning not finding the statistical analysis of teaching evaluations that I need to find, and then head off to put up rental notices at the Wesley, and from there, uni. I meet Clint at uni, and we go searching for noticeboards that will never be exposed to IT or engineering types, and place rental notices upon them in such a way that intelligent and feminine eyes will find them. We then make our way, very slowly, to the city, where I get keys cut.

Night

• Alex, our first rental applicant, is met at the train station and shown around the house. After this, Clint and we go Microwave hunting, finally running one down in a shopping trolley, as it was trying to hide under a table.

17.01.2006 – Tuesday 17 January – Uni & Aboriginal Art

• I clean the microwave and modify a website, before going to uni with Clint, via the St Lucia bakery. At uni, I get a new student card, climb through a hedge and knock on a window to get let into the teaching and education development institute—somewhat ironically, given UQ’s recent awards for excellence in teaching—and then go on a search for the hidden teaching evaluations department; they end up being through a small door behind an external stairwell, where no one would ever think to look. Once found, they print out my required teaching evaluation, which I drop off at ITEE, and Clint and I go walking around an aboriginal loop, coming across ludicrous “aboriginal artefacts” such as a ring of painted white rocks, carved stones complete with snapped drills still embedded in them, and “Wattyl Ochre” cave paintings.

Night

• I was about to head over to Kieran’s, but someone called, wanting to see the rooms we’re trying to rent. Nearly three quarters of an hour later, Nitin and a friend arrived, and we showed them around the house. Clint arrived shortly after they left, and we drove over to Kieran’s, where we argued philosophically until the wee hours of the morning.

18.01.2006 – Wednesday 18 January – Fingers

• Bronwen—who was home after nearly breaking a finger—and I had a lazy morning, going shopping in the afternoon, and showing Kalina around the place at night.

19.01.2006 – Thursday 19 January – Job Hunting

• I had a quiet day at home, eating breakfast, looking through online job ads, eating lunch, showing two girls around the place, eating dinner, and going to bed.

20.01.2006 – Friday 20 January – Underworld

• I spent a quiet morning, meeting Kieran after lunch and going grog and microwave bulb buying with him. I showed a bloke around the house in the afternoon, unfortunately before Bronwen arrived home, and went shopping after.

9:45pm

• Clint and I saw “Underworld” at South Bank, and continued our late-night driving escapades, turning the wrong way up a one-way road in front of a police car, then proceeding to drive the wrong way down said road, turning into a no through road that turned onto another no through road, and so on.

Comment by Mum – Sunday 22 January 2006, 8:33 PM

  Am interested in your promise to "view all the highlights for 2006". Wow. Aint even happened yet!

21.01.2006 – Saturday 21 January – Exploring

• Bronwen and I went exploring, finding the shortest routes to bus stops and the city, with the help of Google Earth, which unhelpfully crashes randomly on this machine. On the way home, we discovered a supermarket not much further than a (very large) block from here that is open until midnight every day.

Night

• I messed around with remote assistance, connecting to Mum’s computer via her 28k dialup connection, and managing to get her email working again. It’s amazing that a full graphical interface works so well over such a slow connection—the command line is so very obsolete. After this geeky interlude, Clint came around and we went for a walk through the darkened suburbs, up a random hill with a nice view over the city.

22.01.2006 – Sunday 22 January – Phone Cabling

• I got lost on the way to Jaycar, made my way to Dick Smith’s, bought twenty metres of phone cable, moved the phone and all the geeky computer gear in the lounge room to the bedroom, where it can coexist happily with all my geeky gear already there. I then had to run the phone line back out to the lounge room again for the VoIP phone. To finish off a geeky day, Clint and Sméagol dropped off my very heavy 28 inch monitor and a bar fridge.

23.01.2006 – Monday 23 January – Blank

• I remember nothing of today.

24.01.2006 – Tuesday 24 January – Microwave Bulbs

• I went looking for microwave bulbs to suit our microwave, finding out that they’re horribly rare and being unable to find any. I then had dinner at the Indus, who do a two-for-one deal on Tuesdays. Traffic work on the road near here has seen a lot of traffic diverted past our place, making for a noisy night.

25.01.2006 – Wednesday 25 January – Jarhead

Day

• Two girls and one bloke phoned to look at our rooms today. One girl subsequently found another room, less than two hours after phoning, and the other two came around in the afternoon to check out the rooms.

Night

• Bronwen and I saw “Jarhead” at the Regent. It is a graphic, powerful movie, and was very, very loud. We then walked to, and had dinner at, Toowong memorial park—enjoying the luscious and healthy mosquitoes—before walking through Toowong and back home along the river.

26.01.2006 – Thursday 26 January – Australia Day

• Bronwen and I walked to South Bank, where we went on a free paddle ship cruise on the innovatively named “River Queen”, got sunburnt, watched the Australia Day parade, and lost hearing from a ridiculously loud fireworks extravaganza. We finished off the day by watching “Lethal Weapon 3”.

27.01.2006 – Friday 27 January – Hot

• It got very hot, and I didn’t feel like sitting around at home, so I went to town and window shopped, hoping to meet Bronwen on her way home, but missing her.

28.01.2006 – Saturday 28 January – A flatmate appears

Morning

• Another girl came around to look at our rooms, who we liked, and subsequently phoned back to tell that she could have a room if she wanted. We then walked into town to buy pots so I can grow some parsley, instead of buying it for the ridiculous amount it now costs. I also went hunting for the fabled home brand two-minute noodles, but as usual, no one had any. I cunningly avoided meeting the woman who served us when we were taking back my dysfunctional cheese slicer. Some time later, we got a phone call accepting our offer of a room.

Night

• Bronwen and I went food hunting, bumping into the famous Lachlan on his nightly prowl. Surviving the encounter, we continued to Windmill’s, eating the second best pizza in the world—not much could beat a Lion’s Den pizza.

29.01.2006 – Sunday 29 January – Arguing, Flat-mating & Rocking

Morning

• Our new flatmate moved in, we filled out lots of paperwork, she headed back to the city, and we went to the shops to get exciting things, like rocks, cans of tomatoes, parsley seeds, and toothbrush holders. Later on, we had an argument, resolved our argument, had lunch, digested our lunch, and relaxed around the house.

Night

• I planted my parsley.

30.01.2006 – Monday 30 January – Fridge Man

• I phoned the real estate to let them know their fridge didn’t work when we turned it on yesterday. I then went to the hardware to investigate bed slats, finding them too expensive, and sat around all day waiting for the fridge man to call back, something he never did. It was very hot, and not very exciting.

31.01.2006 – Tuesday 31 January – Queen’s Batons, Cheerleaders & American Pie

Morning

• I again phoned the real estate about the fridge. Apparently yesterday was a hectic day, she’s faxed them something with “urgent” all over it, and they should call today. I then went into town to buy a dish drying rack, but there are no dish dying racks in Brisbane, apparently due to some action at the ports.

Afternoon

• The fridge man is going to come tomorrow morning, so I went to Toowong, no longer having to wait around all day for the fabled fridge man. I got four DVD’s, “Nicotina”, “The Hunt for Red October”, “Jacki Chan’s First Strike”, and “Blade Trinity”. I met two American girls on the bus heading back into the city, who were doing a travel-writing course from UQ, were on a sort of informational treasure hunt, and needed to meet someone like me to complete it. This gave me a fantastic idea to reinvigorate the sad state of BITS, and turn it into UQ’s premier club—the one everyone wants to be in but can’t because their lunch hour is shorter than the queues at the ticket office. I then watched the Queen’s Baton Relay, which was mildly interesting, seeing some famous Olympians, watching the traffic get very messed up, and two human-sized geckos climb down from the clock tower. Unfortunately they had Australia’s only cheerleading display, so the American girls, who I suspect were cheerleaders back home, got a very sadly biased view of Australia’s similarity with their own cheerleading culture.

01.02.2006 – Wednesday 1 February – Bribie Island, Mosquitoes & Mines

Morning

• I caught a nastily early train up to Clint’s parent’s place, packed kayaks onto his parent’s car, and drove to Pumicestone Passage. From there we kayaked over to Bribie Island, against a strong wind, lathered ourselves in mosquito repellent, and pushed our way as fast as we could through scratchy mangrove scrub, infested with enough mosquitoes to stop any Japanese invasion. (Meanwhile, back home, the fridge man arrived, and condemned our fridge.) Once through the scrub, we walked along a deserted beach, thankfully mosquito free, and had a look at several abandoned military things—quite run down, and dangerously collapsing, but still quite impressive in their bombproof steel reinforced concrete selves sitting alone amongst the scrub. Fortunately, due to America’s amazing missile targeting technology, we managed to find the kayaks hidden amongst the mud, mangroves and mosquitoes, and paddled back to the mainland. Unfortunately, due to America’s amazing missile targeting technology, we paddled back to the wrong boat ramp; one Clint had set as a waypoint on a previous trip, meaning we had to paddle upstream against the tide, with no wind to help us.

Afternoon

• Clint gave me a grand tour of the area, seeing famed sites such as the “worm man”, “local school”, and “dead end road”. I then caught a train back to Brisbane, and went to sleep feeling suitably exercised, having kayaked around six kilometres and travelled a total of fifteen kilometres through water, mud, scrub and sand—perhaps not quite commando style, but fairly close.

02.02.2006 – Thursday 2 February – Beds, Beer & Joe

• I had a very filling lunch at Govinda’s, and headed, bloated, down to Joe’s for a chat and an afternoon beer. Clint dropped by around midnight, and we went for a walk, finding a queen sized bed, and carrying it several blocks back here. For those of you who haven’t carried queen sized beds several blocks, it is actually extremely difficult, and does not do nice things to your fingers. We carried the bed with the mattress on top most of the way, going ridiculously small distances before having to give our fingers a break, and finally figured out at the end that it was far easier to carry the mattress on our heads, and the bed by itself. I didn’t get to sleep until after two o’clock, which is sorrowfully late for me, now that I’m no longer the exciting nighttime uni student that I used to be.

Comment by Clint – Friday 3 February 2006, 12:07 PM

  All hail Clint, finder and carrier of things useful.

Comment by Ned – Friday 3 February 2006, 6:56 PM

  …and owner of a GPS with old waypoints…

Comment by io – Saturday 4 February 2006, 1:25 PM

  You two are nerds.

Comment by Mum – Saturday 4 February 2006, 8:41 PM

  Good heavens! What was a queen sized bed doing all by itself out on the streets? What a score!

03.02.2006 – Friday 3 February – Fridge, Trains & Striking Scum

Morning

• I got up early, expecting the fridge man around seven, although he didn’t turn up until somewhat later. He brought with him a new, large, second-hand fridge, which seems to get cold and everything that a fridge should. So now Bronwen and I have all our stuff crammed into a small fridge, while our flatmate has her few items in a huge, empty fridge.

Afternoon

• There is a 24-hour flash rail strike, so I decided today was a good day to go everywhere in Brisbane by public transport. I started by going to uni (where I dropped off the BITS subsidy form), then the city, then Indooroopilly, then Mount Ommaney, then back to the city, and then back here. Seeing as there are only a few trains being run randomly and manually by people who tell you they “cannot comment” on anything related to anything at all, and the rest of the transport system is in chaos trying to keep up with the demand left over by the lack of trains, getting anywhere was very slow and uncomfortable. This was helped by today being very hot. I think everyone who travels on trains should, for the next week, say “striking scum” every time they encounter a rail staff member, and Queensland Rail should sack the lot of them, refusing to reinstate them until they sign a waiver that they won’t strike without prior notice, and only when all other avenues of discussion have failed, in future. Additionally, everyone should email statesecretary@afule.org.au something short and sharp, to the tune of “I have no sympathy after your illegal strike”, and perhaps the scum will think twice before intentionally inconveniencing their customers as much as possible, next time.

Night

• It’s no wonder English is confusing. Is an undoer someone who doesn’t do, or someone who undoes? Is undoable something impossible, or something that can be undone? Such questions had me reading the Oxford dictionary for a while before bed, as well as walking around the block after midnight, pondering and enjoying the night.

Comment by Clint – Friday 3 February 2006, 8:00 PM

  Hilariously, Peter Beattie is spending a quarter of a million dollars of Queensland taxpayers' money fighting a piece of federal legislation that would have made this illegal strike nigh on impossible.
  
  Watch this space, kids.

Comment by Clint – Friday 3 February 2006, 8:04 PM

  I may as well make the obliguatory Joh and SEQEB parallel here, although I doubt Beattie has the balls to sack a single shop steward.

Comment by Ned – Friday 3 February 2006, 9:47 PM

  But you still won’t be able to find any banana or strawberry flavoured milk.

Comment by io – Saturday 4 February 2006, 1:19 PM

  When are you buying your next milkshake?

Comment by Ned – Saturday 4 February 2006, 6:18 PM

  Soon.

Comment by Mum – Saturday 4 February 2006, 8:46 PM

  On the subject of ridiculousness, people were talking today about a Courier Mail item re making paralysis ticks untouchable, i.e. putting them on the endangered species list, and potentially therefore, not allowed to be killed.

04.02.2006 – Saturday 4 February – Hot, Wet & Not Quite Criminal

Morning

• Bronwen was away, so I had a rather non-eventful morning, sleeping in and overheating, as it was ridiculously hot.

Afternoon

• I went to town and bought the world’s cheapest ironing board and iron.

Night

• Bronwen and I walked to the South Bank peeing pool for a swim. It was surprisingly full, considering the time was coming on midnight. On the way back, we walked past the local charity bin to see if there were any good gleanings. Unfortunately, the police turned up and were rather curious to know whom we be, and what be we doing. We had a quarter-hour long chat with them, over the legalities of taking things abandoned at, but not within, a charity bin. It seems it’s not actually illegal, but it could be contrary to all parties’ intentions, or in other words, there’s nothing the police are going to do if we take things, but they’re not going to condone it either.

05.02.2006 – Sunday 5 February – Sheets, Pizza & Lethal Weapon 4

Morning

• A quiet, relaxing, and rather typical Sunday morning occurred.

Afternoon

• We walked to Toowong, bought three queen bed sheet sets for an amazing $4 each, and one large can of mixed fruit for a less amazing 99¢. We then swapped over to the new queen-sized bed, bought $20 worth of pizza, and watched “Lethal Weapon 4”.

06.02.2006 – Monday 6 February – Noosa & King of the Mountain

• I caught a train up north, meeting Clint, and walking up Mount Cooroora, home of the insane “King of the Mountain” pub run. After this, we went to Noosa and wandered along the beaches, before missing the last train back to Brisbane, unsuccessfully chasing it in Clint’s car, and catching a rail-bus instead, getting home quite late. It was interesting to again see a few of the places I used to see when I lived in the area.

Comment by Mum – Friday 10 February 2006, 8:32 PM

  Pomona. Where Tony lived. We used to go there for Sunday night or evening drives. Remember? A crazy mountain to run up.

07.02.2006 – Tuesday 7 February – Mt Beerwah & Clint’s Car Theft

Day

• I found hundreds of slater looking bugs under my parsley pot, so I put it up on bricks. I then did some washing, hung it out, waited until it began to suddenly and heavily rain, ran back out, got wet, and rehung it in the garage. I then made my way into town and bought fourteen types of blue flower seeds, and planted them out the front.

Midnight

• Clint arrived. We walked up to the charity bin to discuss life, then half an hour later or so, drove up to Mt Beerwah. We left for our walk around 3 o’clock. There was supposed to be a moon, but due to thick cloud cover, it was pitch black. Clint climbed ahead, with a headlamp that randomly turned itself off, without any guarantee it would ever come back on—although with suitable banging, it always did. I followed behind, with my mobile phone in my mouth—not the brightest light, and probably not very good for my mouth or the phone, but it worked. We stopped frequently to discuss exciting and relevant topics, not wanting to get to the top hours before the sun came up. Once at the top we sat, slowly freezing, until the sun began to rise, and then climbed back down.

7am

• We found the rear quarter glass on one of Clint’s car doors cleanly removed, and his sunglasses and my bag missing. The car itself was nicely locked and didn’t seem unusual, apart from the missing quarter glass. Despite having intentionally removed all the valuables from my bag before leaving the car, it still had my keys, some clothes, and toiletries in it. Even more annoyingly, and somewhat stupidly, upon reflection I couldn’t guarantee that it didn’t also contain my address, as I had an envelope with a few jotted down notes I had written in my bag, and while the envelope itself wasn’t addressed to me, it may have been redirected via my parent’s, in which case they would have scribbled my address on it.

Comment by Jojo – Friday 10 February 2006, 10:25 AM

  oh. thats unlucky, i hope they are not university trained and thus unable to connect the keys and address and dump it after thier next fix.
  
  Damn thieves, they should cut off their hands like they use to....

Comment by Ned – Friday 10 February 2006, 6:55 PM

  It’s highly unlikely that my address was anywhere within my bag, but as I can’t guarantee it wasn’t, and as it’s not just me on the line—I live with other people—it seems better to be safe than sorry, which is unfortunate as changing the locks was more expensive than anything I lost.

Comment by Mum – Friday 10 February 2006, 8:41 PM

  Yes. Change the locks. Then rest easy. Jojo, a mob who lived in an Arab country had this poverty stricken fellow who house worked for them and one day stole something like a teaspoon, and this mob, thinking they were doing the right thing, dobbed this poor bugger in to the cops of the region. They cut his right hand off. For a teaspoon. This is a true story. The family were so distraught, but it was too late. This poor bugger got his right hand totally cut off, and that was that. Ever stolen a biscuit?

08.02.2006 – Wednesday 8 February – Beerwah Police, Chips & Shopping

Morning

• Clint and I drove to Beerwah police station, reported the break and enter, found perhaps the cheapest restaurant in Australia, in Nambour, ate half of the huge bowl of chips they gave us, missed the train back to Brisbane again, unsuccessfully chased it again, and again caught a rail bus, connecting to a train at Caboolture. The train ride wasn’t that pleasant, having had my spare clothes and toiletries stolen, I was covered in dust, dirt, chalk, blood, sweat and mud.

2:55pm

• I phoned Mum, who gave me the brand of the pack that was stolen, which I forwarded on to the police. While highly unlikely, if anyone does find my pack, I may now get it back.

Night

• I bought new essential toiletries.

Comment by DM – Thursday 9 February 2006, 11:21 PM

  Sounds to me that whoever "found" your pack won't be handing it in.

Comment by Ned – Friday 10 February 2006, 8:00 AM

  I assume you’re right, but he may have dumped it as soon as possible, and someone might find it and alert the police… but it’s pretty unlikely. Still, it doesn’t hurt to try.

Comment by Jojo – Friday 10 February 2006, 10:27 AM

  Why were you covered in blood? i can understand sweet sweat and mud, dust, dirt and chalk - but where is the blood coming from?

Comment by Ned – Friday 10 February 2006, 6:53 PM

  I wasn’t covered in blood. I was covered in a mixture of the aforementioned substances, some of which was blood. For what it’s worth, very little blood was present on the outside of me, and what little was there was because of some rather prickly bushes, which appeared to be life saving trees in the dark.

09.02.2006 – Thursday 9 February – Changing locks

• I changed the locks, on the off chance that my address was in my stolen pack, along with my keys, and the criminal would switch from motor vehicle break and enter to the far more serious house break and enter.

Comment by Mum – Friday 10 February 2006, 8:45 PM

  Good

10.02.2006 – Friday 10 February – Joe & Jackie Chan

• I trained out to Joe’s to pick up some mail, buying a watering can (that leaks) and toothbrush holder on the way back. Bronwen went and saw a movie with a friend, which I, being homophobic, refused to go see, instead watching “Jackie Chan’s First Strike” here on DVD. Filmed in Australia, a lot in Brisbane, and dubbed from Chinese, it is really rather odd. It had scenes such as channel seven reporting Jackie Chan as a wanted criminal in Brisbane’s Chinatown, closely followed by a man eaten to death by what appeared to be sea urchins, shortly before the Russians turned up in submarines and helicopters. Keep in mind that this is after Jackie switches from working for the CIA to the KGB, after escaping on a snowboard in Czechoslovakia and waking up in Russia, and then catching a submarine to Australia, where he had his very own real live koala…

Comment by Mum – Monday 13 February 2006, 6:23 PM

  Go Jackie!

11.02.2006 – Saturday 11 February – Google Earth

• A walk to Toowong to return a DVD and do some shopping precluded Bronwen’s disappearance to a friend’s party, and my aimless wandering in search of iced coffee, and the meaning for it all. Shortly after midnight, we went for a walk to the South Bank peeing pool, decided we didn’t need to pee (or swim) when we got there, and instead bought a slurpy for greater health and lesser prosperity. Getting back from the peeing pool around twenty past two meant it was already a late night, but I then stayed up until twenty to four playing with Google Earth, making for a proper late night.

12.02.2006 – Sunday 12 February – Blade Trinity

• After a pleasant sleep-in to recover from last night’s lack of sleeping, we went for a walk around the city, bought a doormat, wandered past some of the restaurants around here, getting their takeaway menus, and finally watching “Blade Trinity”, before sleeping peacefully.

13.02.2006 – Monday 13 February – Plumbing & Takeaway Menus

Morning

• Plumber calls while I’m still in bed, and comes shortly after. Breaks one tap, digs hole in my garden, makes kitchen taps worse but recommends they be replaced, and fixes bathroom washbasin taps but makes them more difficult to turn off.

Afternoon

• I decide to build a photo-viewing web page for use on this computer. Bronwen comes home a bit early; we walk around some of the restaurants here getting takeaway menus. I get Cold Rock and feel sick but happy.

14.02.2006 – Tuesday 14 February – Nothing Exciting

• Worked on my local website. Went to town. Bought a grater.

Comment by Mum – Friday 24 February 2006, 7:03 PM

  Grate

15.02.2006 – Wednesday 15 February – Clint, Uni & Geekiness

• Clint arrived back in Brisbane and came around just before midday. We drove in to uni, where I put up some room ads and got a blank smartcard swipe-card. I did a bit more work on my local site, feeling geekily enthused with the puzzle solving it provided, making it bad people proof, using one-time photo URL’s and a per-click based authentication system.

16.02.2006 – Thursday 16 February – Syriana

• There was some rain last night. I finished off my local site. I headed into town in the afternoon, meeting Bronwen but not doing anything much. Clint came over later and we watched the late night screening of “Syriana” at South Bank, without driving the wrong way up any one-way roads.

17.02.2006 – Friday 17 February – More Nothing Exciting

• I slept in, heading into town to buy cow manure when I awoke, and avoiding the heat for the rest of the day. Two blokes had a look at our room in the afternoon, one Frenchman and one Chinese, along with a girlfriend. It turns out that cow manure, which should, in theory, be almost odourless, actually smells worryingly like blood and bone.

18.02.2006 – Saturday 18 February – April, Lissa, Chris, Someone, Kieran, Marcus, Brian, Tim, Clint & Rainworth

Morning

• Some people came around to look at the room. April, a female UQ psych student; Lissa, a UQ research assistant recently up from Melbourne; Chris, a male QUT science student; and another bloke—whose name I neglected to remember—who turned up with a mate a bit later, who wasn’t in any hurry to find a place as he was currently living with his parents.

Afternoon

• Kieran and Marcus came over while the people were looking around, and we went to Indooroopilly for lunch, meeting Brian and Tim there. They’ve shut down my green goo shop, which is the second time my favourite Indooroopilly eating shop has been closed. We went back to Kieran’s place and Clint came over.

Night

• Bronwen and I went for a walk to Rainworth to check out a fish and chip shop, followed by a walk to the charity bin, and bed.

19.02.2006 – Sunday 19 February – Grass Clippings, Room-Looking Women & Gaps

Morning

• The bloke next door kindly dropped off his lawn clippings, and I spent a hot half hour digging them into the garden, managing to hurt my back on the underneath of the stairs, blister my hand, and develop a fashionably dour outlook. Two girls came around to look at our room, one, a white Indian, who arrived nearly an hour early, catching me while I was semi-nude, having just de-sweated and removed the grass clippings from myself, and the other up from Lismore with her parents, and having to find a room by tonight.

11:30am

• Clint arrived, we drove to Maz’s, and the three of us then drove out to some gaps in the middle of nowhere, where there’s mountains, cows, horses and very little else, with the aid of an inverter, a laptop, a GPS, and some rather cool mapping and tracking software. This filled up the afternoon nicely, and I feel as though I’ve done something a little out of the ordinary.

20.02.2006 – Monday 20 February – More Potential Room Renting People

Morning

• I showed a British female masters student, a first year female health sciences student from Canberra, and a third year male economics student from Brisbane, our room, before heading into uni with Clint. I discussed options regarding fee payment and deferral with ITEE, EPSA and the honours coordinator, before heading to Toowong and then the city with Clint, where I bought some shirts and a bike helmet.

Afternoon

• I showed a girl from channel nine, a bloke doing an education diploma at UQ, and a Brazilian man, our room. I also called back some weirdo who, when they first called, had wanted to see the room but hadn’t wanted the address, and who now claimed it must be a wrong number and that they had no idea what I was talking about.

Night

• Clint came over to use the Internet, and we went for a walk via the charity bin to a shop that still sells ice cream after midnight.

21.02.2006 – Tuesday 21 February – BITS BBQ & Shopping

Morning

• I went to uni with Clint, attended an ITEE inauguration and orientation session, which was apparently a compulsory thing I was supposed to have attended when I first went to uni, and watched Clint give a short talk about BITS, before standing around the BITS BBQ for an hour or so. There was a huge line-up of people queuing for student ID cards, shuffling past the BBQ, but due to a sad lack of advertising, no one really knew what the BBQ was for, and so mostly only the usual geeks bought burgers.

Afternoon

• Clint, Scruff and I went shopping for the BITS Market Day BBQ tomorrow. We bought tons of bread, meat, lettuce, onion and soft drink, having to go to several supermarkets to find enough stock. It is mildly amusing buying two shopping trolleys full of bread and having the checkout chick ask if you’re buying it for any particular reason. They’re not known for their insightfulness.

Night

• Three girls came and looked at our room, all turning up at once. They were so similar that I had to tell them apart by the colours of their shirts, which was somewhat funny. Clint turned up a little later, covered in onions and having lost most of his wits, staying until half past midnight, at which point he and I collapsed into our respective beds.

22.02.2006 – Wednesday 22 February – UQ Market Day

Morning

• Clint came around fairly early, and I headed off with him to join in the panic. We rushed to Flash’s place, picked up disgusting amounts of chopped onions, tomatoes and lettuce, and dumped them at the BITS stall in the Great Court at uni. I then went for a wander around the various market day stalls, coming back to find that the BITS stall was a haven of quiet amongst the busy throngs. As nice as this solitude was, it wasn’t what BITS were aiming for, so Maz and I did our best to turn a horribly geeky normal-person-avoidance area into a normal-person-attracting stall, painting a few more signs, chatting to real live women and actually making eye contact with people. This seemed to work, and the stall became very busy as lunchtime drew nearer, with quite a few people joining BITS because of Maz’s evangelism, and his un-BITS-like lack of fear of the female of the species.

Afternoon

• Clint and I went for a walk after the exhausting BITS Market Day saga, ending up at Maz’s later in the night, and having a look at many of his American photos.

23.02.2006 – Thursday 23 February – Disposal Store Shopping

• Clint and I went disposal store shopping. We didn’t actually want to buy a disposal store, looking more for a backpack and ponchos for our upcoming walk through rainy mountains. Clint ended up with an American army poncho, while I ended up with a five-dollar glorified garbage bag poncho from BigW, along with a twenty-dollar Kmart backpack. A pox upon thieves who steal packs from secluded national parks. Two packets of two-minute noodles, some muesli bars, and lollies later, and we felt suitably prepared.

24.02.2006 – Friday 24 February – Mount Steamer

• Clint and I drove as near as we could get to Mount Steamer, and proceeded to walk the rest of the way. It was quite wet, our ponchos proving to be remarkably useful. Clint looks surprisingly like a ghoul in his. The weather’s annoying habit of clearing up only after we put our ponchos on was a bit of a pain, but having them sure beat walking wet. We spent a few hours walking along old, and at times unmarked, tracks, before heading up a steep incline and spending the evening weaving our way around the base of a cliff, with a reasonably deadly drop to our left. We managed to make it to the top just on nightfall, and set up camp surrounded by small dead trees, with 150-metre sheer cliffs on either side.

25.02.2006 – Saturday 25 February – Mount Steamer

• Clint and I woke around nine, heading off shortly later. We climbed up to the summit proper of Mount Steamer, and then headed down a ridge, which really wasn’t much more than a glorified mountainside to start with. We experienced such delights as an hour and a half of eight-foot high bracken, cleverly interlaced with raspberry bushes, hidden fallen logs and collapsed tree stumps. Fortunately for me, Clint went ahead so I could hear his curses when he fell over hidden logs, and managed to avoid most of them myself, although the raspberry was a little harder to avoid. An interesting trivia fact learnt: it is possible to see nearly one foot through bracken fern in normal daylight, but it is not possible to see raspberry bushes until they have entangled one in their nasty sharp barbs. Other highlights included pushing our way down a very steep hill through prickly seed laden scrub, having the rain bucket down as soon as we emerged from the forest, walking through ankle deep water, running out of drinking water and fantasising about lemonade, and getting a lift back to Clint’s car with a friendly local and finding the car still intact. All in all, it was a successful expedition, and the chips and milkshake we had on our way home were well worth the effort.

Night

• We drove home via a small windy road, getting back not long before midnight, and I quite enjoyed my shower and sleep, despite my stinging legs.

26.02.2006 – Sunday 26 February – Computer Markets & Sony Tropfest

Morning

• Clint, Kieran, Maz, Lisa and I went to the Computer Markets, which were rather geeky and not overly exciting, other than nearly dying in traffic on the way there and again on the way back.

2pm

• We showed a Hawaiian girl our room, before heading off to Sony Tropfest with Clint and Maz. It turned out that the short films were ridiculously bad, the seating in Suncorp Piazza horribly uncomfortable, and rain killed the satellite feed from Sydney, cutting short the ceremony, but it was still interesting. Clint, Maz and I then walked to Maz’s place, via 7-11 for a slurpee, and from there, I got a lift home.

27.02.2006 – Monday 27 February – Amanda’s

Day

• Two men, one a little younger than me, and the other in his forties, and one woman probably also a little younger than me, came to look at our room.

Night

• Amanda visited, and I had dinner and spent the night out at her place. It rained heavily.

28.02.2006 – Tuesday 28 February – Miracles & Centrelink

Day

• I showed two men and one woman our room, before heading off to Centrelink, only to find I had to call Queanbeyan, which I subsequently did, only to find out that it is a miracle and the impossible has occurred. After lunch at Indooroopilly with Kieran and Maz, another trip to Centrelink with Maz confirmed this miraculous occurrence. Maz and I then picked up Clint from uni, and headed to my place, where I awed Bronwen with my tales of miracles.

Night

• Bronwen and I showed an Indian girl our room. Clint and Maz walked to the city to take photos. Clint, Maz and I drove to Clint’s via KFC, Clint and I drove to a random servo somewhere for ice cream, having found both the Indooroopilly and Rosalie Cold Rock’s closed, and then onto my place where I went to sleep.

01.03.2006 – Wednesday 1 March – Centrelink & Munich

• One wouldn’t think sub-leasing was all that complex a matter. In fact, it isn’t. You go to the residential tenancies authority, pick up the appropriate forms, complete and sign them, have your tenant complete and sign them, have your signatures witnessed by a third party, and that’s that—an entirely legal tenancy agreement, assuming the lessors have authority to lease the property in the first place. However, once Centrelink enters the equation, everything goes horribly pear shaped, as per usual.
  Initially, someone somewhere, probably a computer, flags the situation as unusual, and various forms are posted. Then, when one contacts Centrelink, they’re informed that the total individual rents for the premise exceed the total rent for the premise, and that this situation cannot occur. They’re not told that Centrelink deems such a situation illegal, or that Centrelink will not accept such a condition, they’re told it physically cannot occur. When informed that such a situation has indeed occurred, and therefore obviously can, the girl on the phone decides to go get her supervisor. Two trips to Centrelink in Toowong and a mobile call later, one is informed that such a situation still cannot occur, and informing Centrelink that such a situation has indeed occurred will do no good, and that one should pick up the appropriate forms for a complaint to the commonwealth ombudsman and attempt to explain to him that the impossible has occurred.
  At this point one decides that Centrelink is ridiculous, and refuses to accept that they have a right to request any further information, as such information is a request for third party information which one does not have the right to request, and as such cannot provide to Centrelink, or be expected to provide. This does not make the woman at Centrelink happy, although she does accept that one can’t be expected to provide third party information, even though one has in one’s hand a request for said information from Centrelink, and one’s payment will be cancelled if such information isn’t provided. This impasse, coupled with an apparently impossibility having occurred, results in a situation ridiculously similar to a juvenile “yes it is, no it isn’t” argument, with one claiming an event has occurred, and Centrelink claiming such an event cannot occur. Such argument is clearly futile, so one goes to bed.
  In the morning, one contacts the residential tenancies authority and confirms that the tenancy arrangements are legal, and are quite normal, that a sublease is not related to any other lease a lessor may hold, and that the amounts paid by a tenant to a lessor under a sublease are agreeable between those parties and bear no relation to any lease the lessor may hold. One then contacts the Australian taxation office, who also confirms that the existing arrangements are legal, normal, and should be counted as personal taxable income. Having now officially confirmed what one was telling Centrelink all yesterday, one again contacts Centrelink, informs them that their impossibility is not only possible, but is now legally backed up by the residential tenancies authority and the Australian taxation office. This finally causes Centrelink to stop saying the already occurred can’t occur, and actually sort out their mess, resulting in one getting someone’s personal number at Centrelink, and the remote possibility that things may actually go according to how they should. Several wasted hours later, one decides to wait and see what happens next, before complaining vehemently about ineptitude and attempting to get everyone at Centrelink’s Queanbeyan rental review offices fired.

Afternoon

• Clint and I went shopping at Toowong, followed by a visit to his place, then some more shopping at Indooroopilly, then a trip to my place, then the movie “Munich” at Indooroopilly.

Comment by DM – Wednesday 1 March 2006, 4:34 PM

  I may be going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing that "one" throughout this passage is actually you. (Shock, horror.)

Comment by Ned – Thursday 2 March 2006, 1:16 AM

  One would have to agree.

Comment by Mum – Thursday 2 March 2006, 7:17 PM

  Yes, well. One wonders if thou hast actually succeeded in finding another person for your place? As far as Centrelink goes, why is anyone surprised? Only those who have not delved the awesome depths of the bloody place, could be surprised.

02.03.2006 – Thursday 2 March – Tanks, Rain, Mud, Spiders & ADSL Problems

Morning

• The ADSL connection here seems to drop out, or drop all packets, for short periods of time, semi-randomly. It seems to be more likely to do it when placed under any load, even if that’s as small as refreshing a web page. This annoyed me, so I pumped up my bike tyres and rode into town. It turns out the bike is as bad as I feared it might be, and the chain is so stretched that it jumps teeth under even slight pressure, making it roughly the opposite to an uphill bike.

Afternoon

• Clint and Maz came and we drove up to Clint’s parent’s place, where we, along with Clint’s Dad, rolled two five thousand gallon poly water tanks down their driveway and into position behind their studio. This was far more difficult than it sounded, and it was raining torrentially all the time. It took around two and a half hours just to get the first tank down the drive and into position. We rolled them pressing up against a trailer, as the drive was very steep. Had a tank jumped the trailer or otherwise got away, it would have done a lot of damage to anything in its path, as we had no hope of being able to stop, and getting in its way ourselves would have resulted in loss of limb, broken bone, and possibly even personal injury. One of them rolled across the road when we first tipped it onto its side, but fortunately, no traffic impaled itself into the tank. I also managed to be bitten by something nasty in the sludge and mud, which has left a little boil on my leg, so I’m guessing she was a spider. Having managed to get both the tanks into position, breaking two shovel handles, getting crusher dust in Clint’s eye, becoming entirely soaked and covered in mud, but without ruining the house, car, or ourselves, we had dinner, and drove through the fog and rain back to Brisbane, arriving back just before midnight.

03.03.2006 – Friday 3 March – ADSL, Phone Extensions, & More to Come

• I awoke to find that it was still raining, and quite cool. This made bed quite snuggly and the outer world far less appealing. The ADSL connection was still being crappy and randomly dropping out, so I removed the under-house phone extension, running another along the floor, and tested that. Initially, it had the same problems, but after some time, and seemingly for no reason, it began to work fine, so I replaced the under-house phone extension and, so far, it seems to be working as it should. There was a little verdigris on one of Telstra’s connections, which I thoughtfully, and probably illegally, removed for them, so perhaps that was the problem. I did some digging in the garden, planting a few thousand flower seeds under the stairs, and sprinkling some more along the front garden, before mulching it a little. Hopefully with all this rain, something other than weeds will grow. Clint came round to borrow some internet, and we popped down to his real estate where I bought four litres of milk from Woolworths, two of which were chocolate, and very satisfying.

04.03.2006 – Saturday 4 March – Overdrawn & Firewalled

• Bronwen went to work for a short while. I put up a new undercover clothesline, cleverly masquerading as a head-height nuisance. Once Bronwen was back, we moved the old TV downstairs and moved the new one into place. After this, we walked into town and did some shopping. After getting home, I noticed that I, or more specifically, Exetel, had overdrawn my general transaction account, incurring a thirty-dollar overdrawing approval fee. That will teach me for paying off my credit card without checking my account balance first, or allowing merchants to direct debit from a non-credit account. I then spent some time doing some work on the upcoming redesign of the Jianshe site, before getting sick of it all. It seems the ADSL dropout problem is alive and well, so I guess I’ll be switching back to the floor-based extension lead cum tripwire tomorrow, verifying that the problem still exists using that, and phoning Exetel on Monday, who will presumably get Telstra to investigate. I’m still suspecting that the recent rain, of which we’re still getting a little, has something to do with it.

Night

• I went and saw “Firewall” with Clint at Indooroopilly. It wasn’t very good.

Comment by Jojo – Tuesday 14 March 2006, 12:04 AM

  Being an IT professional, did you silently (or vocally) mock all the computer screens and typing and code that you saw during the movie?? or was it true to life and 'what was on the screen is what you get' (ha ha) ??
  
  I haven't seen it, and was just wondering....

Comment by Ned – Tuesday 14 March 2006, 10:15 AM

  It is pretty bad all round—the technical parts aren’t particularly realistic, but there’s fewer than you’d think there would be so it isn’t really a problem, although the rest of the movie, unfortunately, is a problem.

05.03.2006 – Sunday 5 March – Walking

Day

• Clint, Bronwen and I drove out west and walked up a mountain, following a rather slippery and narrow gully most of the way to the top, then a track the rest of the way, and a ridge back down.

Night

• Clint, Bronwen and I walked to the supermarket for drinks, and then up to Windmill Pizza where I bought a pizza for dinner.

06.03.2006 – Monday 6 March – Internet & Bike Chains

• I phoned Exetel and told them that the ADSL connection here has been continually dropping out for the past few days. They said they’d get Telstra to run a remote check, and get back to me with the results, and possibly arrange a time for a Telstra technician to come and look at the line, by mid-week or definitely before the weekend.

2pm

• I walked to Toowong where I met Maz, went to Kmart, bought a bike chain, walked to Maz’s place, fixed his car, drove to Clint’s, went to Chez Tessa, ate food, drove back to Clint’s, drove to Maz’s, spent some time at both, and then drove back to my place.

07.03.2006 – Tuesday 7 March – Telstra Technicians & Cables

Morning

• A loud knock-knock woke me, and, answering the door in a towel, I found a Telstra technician, come to have a look at the phone line and needing access to the distribution box, located under the next unit. I performed the world’s fastest perhaps-not-entirely-legal-extension-cable removal and returned Telstra’s wall socket to its normal state, no mean feat while still asleep. The Telstra man followed the fault back through a few waterlogged pits, eventually finding one leg broken where it exited the cable, and switching to a new pair of copper. He then connected the new pair at the exchange, made another trip back here to verify that, and found that the new pair he’d used had high resistance at the exchange end, so ended up using the original pair up to its break, the new pair up to its break, and then the original pair again. Hopefully all the problems are now gone. I’d been told Telstra would take forever, but in my experience up north, they’re really quite impressive, and I can’t complain about the turnaround time with this callout either—I only reported the fault this time yesterday morning. I also managed to get a free modular fly lead and inline phone and modem filter.

1:52pm

• Someone from Exetel rang me to tell me Telstra’s initial checks appeared to indicate a minor fault with the line, and that someone would attend between eight o’clock and midday tomorrow.

Night

• I put in the new cat5 cable, ran video over one pair—which, to my surprise, sort of worked—and the phone to the modem and back again from the VoIP box over another two pairs. Maz dropped around with his expensive crimpers, making the job of putting plugs on a lot easier. Clint came around a little later and he and I drove to Maz’s. Just before midnight, I walked to the supermarket, bought some bread, and had baked beans on toast for dinner.

Comment by Mum – Thursday 16 March 2006, 7:32 PM

  Yes, Telstra are good mob. If one could see the jungle in which we live up here, and the amount of problems we all of us have with phones in the wet season, and much haranguing re Telstra, and the swiftness with which they come out. .... Well, and um, I really mean SWIFTNESS, as in they would have to be the fastest and scariest drivers on this goat track (and this after 10 inches of rain yesterday), but they earn every penny they get and hopefully cups of tea and what have you.) Whenever I have had a problem, they have been swift to help, and I mean, I am out here in the jungle. Also, Ergon. Which I refuse to call Powergon as some folks call them, who are missing their soapie fix for the night. YOU try climbing a power pole in the middle of a cyclone with a torch, from a helicopt

Comment by Mum – Thursday 16 March 2006, 7:38 PM

  Helicopter. (thought you had got rid of me, ha ha). I mean these mob have to access the powerlines via helicopter. And the Telstra mob access via mud blog and rushing/gushing creeks and puny bridges, etc. I mean, this is a large part of Queensland, and not many people in it so not much re rates, so not much money for local council to do stuff. So we all just put up with it. We wouldnt live here if we didnt like it. Okay, shall away lest son divorces me. Ma.

08.03.2006 – Wednesday 8 March – Mount Barney

7am

• I was just getting ready to have breakfast when Clint arrived. We drove to Mount Barney, via Maz’s place and a service station for breakfast for me and the car. We spent the rest of the day walking up Mount Barney, via South (Peasant’s) Ridge. It was quite a hot walk, but fortunately only one part was exposed enough to be scary. We arrived back at the car just after dark, and drove back to Brisbane, stopping for food at Beaudesert KFC.

09.03.2006 – Thursday 9 March – Rental Inspection

10:20am

• Jenny from the real estate came around and performed a rental inspection.

Afternoon

• Marcus came and drove me to Kieran’s, and from there to Pizza Hut for pizza and Dick Smith’s for audio plugs, then back to Kieran’s to eat our pizza, and then back home where I fitted the audio plugs.

Night

• Bronwen got home late.

10.03.2006 – Friday 10 March – Mexican

Morning

• I worked on the Jianshe site redesign.

Afternoon

• I went to Indooroopilly with Clint and Maz, and then into the city with Clint.

Night

• I had dinner with Bronwen at Pepe’s Mexican place. I wasn’t overly impressed, although it was enjoyable.

11.03.2006 – Saturday 11 March – Pittsworth Show

• Bronwen, Clint, Lisa and I drove out to the Pittsworth show with Maz. They had bobcat races, and the fireworks were surprisingly spectacular. Clint and I made the mistake of eating the world’s worst doughnuts on the way home.

12.03.2006 – Sunday 12 March – Pizza & Capote

Morning

• I walked to Toowong and met Clint, going back to his place via Brisbane’s hidden monorail.

Afternoon

• I had cheap pizzas with Clint, Maz and Bronwen, up at Green Hills Reservoir.

9:25pm

• Saw Capote with Bronwen, having missed the earlier session due to a lack of train staff. This meant we had to walk back from Indooroopilly afterwards, which was shorter than I thought it’d be and turned out being quite a pleasant walk.

13.03.2006 – Monday 13 March – Centrelink & Hungry Jacks

• I worked on the Jianshe site until Clint contacted me. I then drove to Centrelink with Clint, and hopefully didn’t confuse them too much by giving them our, and our sub-tenant’s, leases. After this, we went to Indooroopilly for lunch, bumping into Maz and his sister, and skimming through a few books in the library, including one on the history of Auchenflower.

Afternoon

• I had a bloke come round look at the room.

Night

• I had an argument with Bronwen about cooking. I then walked to Toowong and from there to the city and Hungry Jack’s with Clint and Maz, getting back just before half past two.

Comment by Mum – Monday 20 March 2006, 7:35 PM

  Argument about cooking? Doesnt she like 2 min noodles? No? GO GIRL.

14.03.2006 – Tuesday 14 March – People not

Morning

• The mower people came and mowed the lawn. The bloke who was supposed to come and look at our room this morning didn’t.

Evening

• Clint and I drove to Indooroopilly so I could buy a boring blue shirt.

7pm

• The girl who was supposed to come and look at our room didn’t, apparently her boyfriend asked her to move in with him.

15.03.2006 – Wednesday 15 March – Job Interview

Morning

• I headed into uni and printed my CV and so forth.

3pm

• I had my first job interview since graduating. It seemed to go well, but it’s for a job that doesn’t start for some time, so I won’t know how it went for a while. The building was cool though, the top floor of an eighteen floor building, one side of which was glass.

Comment by martin – Tuesday 21 March 2006, 11:32 PM

  What kind of job are you looking for Ned? Web development?

Comment by Ned – Thursday 23 March 2006, 9:19 PM

  I don’t mind web development as a hobby, but I don’t see it as a feasible career path. I’m interested in avoiding stereotypical IT support/programming jobs, instead aiming for a contract-based position in a field services/support/installation/technician role specialising in the hard to classify area somewhere between the IT & T and electronics industries.

16.03.2006 – Thursday 16 March – Not much

Morning

• Worked on the Jianshe site.

Afternoon

• Went shopping with Clint and Maz for the BITS BBQ.

Night

• Had an argument with Bronwen about dinner.

9pm

• A girl came, we gave her the room.

Night

• Went for a walk around St Lucia with Clint and Maz.

17.03.2006 – Friday 17 March – BITS BBQ

• I attended the BITS BBQ, which was as unorganised as ever, but eventually managed to start. Our new flatmate moved in. I skipped Sophie’s party, which turned out to be a good decision as half of Brisbane’s up-and-coming drop-outs attended, eventually trying to trash the place and getting chased away by the police.

Early Morning

• I figure I had better start packing for Stradbroke. Somehow, nothing fits in my pack, even though I’m taking almost nothing. I am far better at everything very late at night, or so it seems at the time.

18.03.2006 – Saturday 18 March – Stradbroke

6:30am

• Deciding to try “camping” at Stradbroke with $30 and no camping gear or permit seemed like a great idea. Getting up at six thirty didn’t seem so good. However, even heroes must get up sometime, so I awake, eat a cup of yoghurt, and dump my pack in Maz’s car, which arrives complete with Maz and Clint, just on seven. We drive and park near the ferry, and manage to get student return tickets to Stradbroke for $12 each. A short catamaran ride later and we’re there, where we immediately waste a good portion of our remaining money on drinks. I somehow manage to end up with a $10 note and some small change, which doesn’t add up to my original $30 no matter how one looks at it, but such is life. We then manage to get student return tickets to Point Lookout for $5 each.
  Once at Point Lookout, we walk around the rocks, where Maz takes some photos, and then head to Deadman’s beach where we swim extremely hard for several hundred miles, just to remain inline with the blue umbrella on the shore. The waves are fun—I haven’t been to the ocean in a while now—but not fantastic, and the current is very strong. Just as we near exhaustion, the blue umbrella packs up and leaves, removing our vital landmark, so we clamber back to shore and collapse around our packs. It is here that the first of my budget decisions pays off badly. With ten dollars cash on me, and less than nothing in the bank, my pack splits apart. Fortunately, I invested a whole four and a half dollars buying some cord, which I can wrap around my pack several times and tie, and which will hopefully hold it together long enough for me to live to regret going camping with no food, no money, and no camping equipment.
  We depart Deadman’s beach and walk for an awfully long time down Flinder’s beach, looking for the mythical camping-site-number-three sign. Apparently Maz’s parents are camped somewhere in the campsite, and not bringing food, as clever as it seemed at the time, means we’re rather hungry and Maz is keen to find something to eat. After walking from campsite three right through to campsite five, we conclude that they’re probably at the Casino back in Brisbane, having a good chuckle about it all. We find a nice secluded spot behind a revegetation sign instructing no one to go there, where I pull out some of the pointy revegetation that was unthoughtfully revegetating right where I wanted to lie. It is here that Maz discovers that his feet and legs are rather sunburnt. I consider offering to chop them off, which would solve his sunburn problem and allow us to cook and eat them, but and have a sleep for an hour or so instead.
  Clint and I wake up to find that Maz has gone, presumably stolen to be sold as a slave. Unfortunately, he has also taken his legs, leaving us along and hungry. I arrange for Bronwen, who is also on the island, to come down and meet us—perhaps we can eat her, if all else fails—and Clint and I go and do manly things in the sand, like jumping and digging little holes. Proving that Allah cares for those who are thirsty, Maz arrives a short while later with his mother and a cold can of Pasito. She offers to cook us dinner, should we survive until dinnertime, which is greatly appreciated, as I had already eaten my single plain bread bun—left over from the BITS BBQ—for lunch, and I did not want to eat Bronwen, as I would miss her. We are also not sure if we will be able to light a fire without giving away our location, so cooking her could have been difficult.
  Bronwen arrives shortly after we have drunk our drinks and have begun illegally modifying the cans to turn them into racing cans, and then bombing them with skilled mortar-sand-fire. She is very impressed by our male bravado in can-bombing, but is unable to show it and mocks us instead. We consider killing her for this insult to our manhood, but realise we don’t have the money to attend the funeral, so opt for the far cheaper option of ignoring her and putting it down to her feminine misunderstanding of all things male, useful, or mechanical. This works, and she leaves none the wiser—somewhat like most of the university graduates I know.

Night

• Maz, Clint and I enjoy a lovely dinner with Maz’s parents, eat most of a packet of minties, watch some fireworks, and take photos of the moon. We then head back to our campsite, where I lay down my three-dollar piece of tarp, blow up my nine-dollar inflatable mattress, and go to sleep. Maz lies on his towel and complains about his feet—now red and swollen, and Clint sets up a military style bivouac at the appropriate angle for surveying the surrounding territories for enemies, although he has neither ammunition nor guns.

Late Night

• My inflatable mattress deflates, reinforcing the idea that cheap equipment behaves badly given half a chance.

Comment by Maz – Monday 20 March 2006, 12:13 PM

  As funny as that all sounds, It's basically the truth. Although I don't remember ever being asked if they could chop off my legs because if they had I might have taken them up on the offer.
  And I don't remember being made fun of by Bronwyn but as I was very interested in why my legs and feet were very red I might just not have been paying attention.

19.03.2006 – Sunday 19 March – Sleeping, Stradbroke & Sunburn

6am

• I wake early, having had a good but fitful sleep on my auto-deflating inflatable mattress and three-dollar tarp. Fortunately it hadn’t rained, as Clint was the only one with anything that may have protected him from the water. Clint claimed to have had a good sleep, but Maz hadn’t got any, being unable to put anything on his feet, and then being plagued by mosquitoes all night. Maz’s feet were bright pink and swollen, and he could barely walk, so we decided to call it an adventure and head home. Maz’s parents drove us to the bus stop, where we caught the bus to the cat, and the cat to Brisbane, and drove home from there.

Afternoon

• I walked to Toowong and met Clint, going shopping at Woolworths. I then walked to Maz’s, where I met Andrew. I saw a washing machine on the way, and Maz doesn’t have one, so arranged for Andrew to pick it up on his way back here, which he subsequently did, along with an evaporative cooler.

Night

• I talked to our new flatmate, and then went for a walk with Clint and Bronwen.

20.03.2006 – Monday 20 March – Cyclones, Light Bulbs & Rucksacks

Morning

• I watched cyclone stuff on TV, thankful that it missed the Cooktown area. Bronwen has taken the day off from work. We filled out the paperwork for our new flatmate’s lease. Bronwen then headed into town to do business. I pulled the washing machine we got last night, and the VCR, apart, and put up a new clothesline.

Afternoon

• Ned walked to town, where he bought a six-pack of fuses. Why would they only sell fuses in a six-pack? Perhaps one would want six common fuses, but these are relatively rare slow-blow fuses, used by Fisher and Paykel washing machines, and various other switch-mode things. It’s like the kebab place only selling kebabs in packs of three. Stupid. It did taste good though. Ned then went looking for packs at K2, but couldn’t find any he liked, so he walked home.

Introducing the Ultra Mega Light Bulb

• The light bulb is blown in the bedroom. So much for Crazy Clarke’s crap—lasts as long as ten bulbs, they say. Went to Woolworth’s for grocery shopping, and bought an ultra-mega bulb. Bronwen wasn’t happy. Normal bulbs cost ten dollars for two, but the ultra-mega bulb was eight dollars. Its “warm white”, rather than the previous one’s daylight colour temperature, and that, coupled with its ultra-mega-ness, makes me feel like I’m sitting in a bowl of radioactive custard. Looking on the bright side, with a few well-placed mirrors, we can get rid of the rest of the lights in the house and save on power. And all this at only twenty-three watts—the amazing power of fluorescence.

Comment by Mum – Tuesday 21 March 2006, 11:28 PM

  oooohhh. Wonder if is the same radioactive custard bulb that unfortunately sits in my soon to be left kitchen, which reminds me of every lousy roadhouse diner I ever had the misfortune to have to linger in, or alternatively..those awful cheapo Asian market places wherein one can get horrible greasy noodles for a price much more than they are worth. And radiation (from custard light, for free) Remember that light Ned? I loathe it. I will be so glad to leave it. It is a whole conglomeration of all that I intensely dislike about flourescence and neon and cheap asian diners, and loneliness and other unmentionable things.

21.03.2006 – Tuesday 21 March – Parts, Barcodes & Washing Machines

Morning

• I began work on the Jianshe parts system, and swapped fuses in the washing machine, blowing the new one. While it’s a very cool washing machine, as far as washing machines go (running on the same principles as high-speed maglev trains, and with a water-cooled central control unit, it’s arguably cooler than fireworks shoes or dual-Xeon BSOD generators), it’s probably not worth fixing.

Afternoon

• I continued working on the Jianshe parts system.

Night

• I learnt to read barcodes and noticed that our new ultra-mega-light has a start-up period, similar to streetlights, which seems odd in a fluorescent light, but is blindingly cool.

22.03.2006 – Wednesday 22 March – Excellent Tutoring, Careers Fairs & Internet Problems

Morning

• I did some more work on the Jianshe site. Yesterday I got a letter informing me that I’ve again been awarded Excellence in Tutoring for my efforts last semester. I’m very proud of this, as very few tutors receive such an award, with the majority, in my experience at least, being very mediocre, if not downright bad. I’m not sure why, because it doesn’t seem that hard to tutor in a friendly, effective way, and I quite enjoyed it. I’m also proud that a group of my students saw it fit to take me out to lunch after their final assignment. Unfortunately, “tutor” isn’t a career option.

Afternoon

• I attended the UQ Careers Fair, bumping into a few people I hadn’t seen in a while. There was quite a heavy police and security presence, including, so I was told, plain-clothes police. Apparently someone had attacked a defence force stand at a prior career fair somewhere else. I left just before four o’clock, when the fair closed. This turned out to be a bad idea, as the bus station was totally packed—the busiest I have seen it. Despite having buses overlapping each other two deep out onto the road, it would have taken forever to get on a city bus, so I caught the mystical 414 to Indooroopilly. This bus manages to spend as much time driving away from Indooroopilly as it does towards it, yet still somehow arrives—a modern miracle.

Night

• I came home to find my internet connection not quite working. It sort of works, in that I can connect to some IRC servers, and use Windows Messenger (although not MSN), but I can’t get any HTTP, or in fact, anything much at all. It seems that anything over a certain size is unable to make it through. It’s quite annoying. Hopefully it’s not my problem, and someone else fixes it very soon.

Dinner

• I managed to ruin my dinner as only a bachelor could—I spilt garam masala in it. Now I have baked beans on toast that smell like peppermint tea. McDonalds, here I come (along with Clint and Maz, whose foot is still quite swollen and going orange).

23.03.2006 – Thursday 23 March – Fire Ants, Bikes & Deceased Cats

9am

• Maz dropped over while Lisa was attending a job interview, and we reset the modem, which then worked, fixing my internet connectivity problems. Just as he was leaving, a team of fire-ant finders turned up and checked the premise for fire ants.

Day

• I implemented a user account system for the Jianshe site. It rained a little.

Afternoon

• I walked to a “non profit” bike place in West End, looking for a cheap pushbike. On the way, I met Clint, who was on his way to bury his cat, so got a lift to South Bank with him.

24.03.2006 – Friday 24 March – Æon Flux

Morning

• Clint and I drove to Enoggera disposal store, and then Indooroopilly.

Night

• Bronwen and I saw “Æon Flux” at South Bank.

25.03.2006 – Saturday 25 March – Shopping

Night

• Bronwen and I went grocery shopping, and then dropped in on Bronwen’s parents for a while. After a potato salad dinner, we watched “The Hunt for Red October”.

26.03.2006 – Sunday 26 March – Computer Markets, High Fibre Food & Wire Radios

Morning

• I went to the Computer Markets with Kieran and Maz, stopping at Office Works on the way back.

Day

• I managed to make an AM radio out of twenty metres of UTP, while attempting to get a cleaner video signal across it. I decided that it was no use trying to fight the near miraculous, and I’ll buy a normal, shielded, 75Ω lead and make a normal s-video and stereo lead.

Night

• Bronwen and I rushed into town. I had planned to check out where my job interview tomorrow would be, as it wasn’t showing on Whereis, and then see a movie. Unfortunately, due to Bronwen making a last minute phone call, and it taking longer to walk to my interview location than expected, we had to skip the movie, instead having a very filling dinner and ice cream at Id Café.

27.03.2006 – Monday 27 March – Job Interview, Cabling & Uni

Morning

• I went to Dick Smith’s, where I bought eighteen metres of four-core shielded cable, bought some more seeds from Crazy Clarks, and met Holly.

Afternoon

• I made my eighteen metre s-video and stereo lead, which works lovely, does not turn into a radio, and does not have random interference.

Night

• I walked to Maz’s, intending to drive from there into uni, but his car had helpfully died. Maz and I walked into uni to see Clint, then back to Clint’s, from where we drove to McDonald’s.

28.03.2006 – Tuesday 28 March – Backpack Shopping & Unenrolling

Morning

• I enrolled in courses for second semester, and unenrolled in first semester courses.

Afternoon

• Clint and I caught a bus into the valley and went shopping for a backpack. I bought a football for a toiletries bag. We then went to uni, via Woolworths in Toowong.

Night

• Maz and Clint came around, and Bronwen and I went and got pizza with them.

29.03.2006 – Wednesday 29 March – Digging, Match Point & Inside Man

Morning

• I put some grass clippings in the poisoned garden and dug them in, managing to garner myself a blister.

Afternoon

• I went and saw “Match Point” at Palace Centro. I think it caught me in the right mood, as I don’t think it was a particularly good film—but I found it gave me a lot to think about, and was quite moving, perhaps even disturbing.

Night

• I went and saw a special advance screening of “Inside Man” at the Regent with Bronwen. While not a movie with any meaningful message or purpose, it is particularly good, with a clever plot and enough action to keep one engrossed the whole way through—one of the best movies I’ve seen this year. We then had Bronwen’s parents over for dinner, and found that Georgie is staying here.

30.03.2006 – Thursday 30 March – Blue Seeding & High Fidelity

Morning

• I planted some “blue” seeds in the recently poisoned garden.

Night

• Bronwen and I watched the DVD “High Fidelity”, quite a witty title given the context, and quite a good movie.

31.03.2006 – Friday 31 March – Raining, Walling & CD’s

Morning

• It rained quite heavily, prompting me to get quite wet while making a brick levee for my garden.

Day

• I burnt an awful lot of CD’s to post up to Mum.

Afternoon

• I did some more work on the Jianshe site redesign, and hid from lightning.

Night

• Bronwen and I walked into town and did some shopping.

01.04.2006 – Saturday 1 April – Moving Things Early

6am

• I got up, showered, and headed into the city to pick up two tables. It was interesting driving under one of the large shopping complexes in Queen Street Mall.

Morning

• Bronwen and I had breakfast at her parent’s place.

Night

• Bronwen and I had dinner at her parent’s place.

02.04.2006 – Sunday 2 April – Kangaroo Point & Indian Food

Morning

• I checked out April fool’s jokes online.

Afternoon

• I went shopping at Woolworths.

Afternoon

• I walked to Kangaroo Point, and then West End, having dinner at an Indian place and briefly meeting Tim. I had planned to see V for Vendetta, but Bronwen was too sleepy.

Comment by DM – Friday 7 April 2006, 5:17 PM

  Belated apologies for not stopping by and actually exchanging words. Brian had been away all weekend and was itching to get back home.

Comment by Ned – Saturday 8 April 2006, 11:21 AM

  Not a problem!

03.04.2006 – Monday 3 April – Searching for Bikes

Afternoon

• I walked to the cheap bike place, then to the non-profit bike place (which is closed on Mondays, it turns out). I had again planned to see V for Vendetta, but tomorrow is cheaper so we’re putting it off until then.

Evening

• Maz’s car broke down so he is leaving it here until he can fix it.

04.04.2006 – Tuesday 4 April – Centrelink & Watermarks

Morning

• I had a quiet morning.

Afternoon

• Maz and his father came around and got his car going. I went to Centrelink. It rained.

3:30am

• I stayed up late and wrote some code that adds watermarks dynamically to the images on the-i.org.

05.04.2006 – Wednesday 5 April – Sarina Russo

Morning

• Went to my appointment with Sarina Russo. It rained again.

Afternoon

• Finished making CD’s for Mum and posted them.

Afternoon

• Amanda dropped around for a visit.

Night

• I went for a walk, initially to the seven eleven at Toowong where I met Maz, and then from there into the city and back again via the Goodwill Bridge, Maz taking photos along the way. It ended up being a four-hour walk, so I got to bed rather late.

06.04.2006 – Thursday 6 April – Backpack Refund

• Kieran dropped by on his way back from a job interview, and we drove to Indooroopilly via Maz’s, where I returned my broken backpack for a refund and had lunch. Maz and I then spent the rest of the afternoon moseying around Maz’s place, going to Coles, and fighting stupid IP blocking databases.

07.04.2006 – Friday 7 April – Copying Data & Lots of Men

Afternoon

• I copied a few hundred gigabytes of data around, preparing to break up my RAID array.

Night

• Bronwen and I went shopping.

08.04.2006 – Saturday 8 April – Files, Volumes & Reparse Points

• I played around with hard drives, breaking up my RAID array, reducing the number of volumes and partitions in the system considerably, and mounting drives in a more logical way. Sysinternal’s “junction” is a brilliant tool—for reasons known only to Microsoft, Window’s “fsutil” file system utility will not allow hard linking across volumes, nor, I think, to directories—junction allows both, and in conjunction with “mountvol”, Window’s volume mounting tool, a logical file system that’s not tied to the physical drive layout can be built up. I’ve been meaning to sort out my confusing and messy file system for ages, and I think I now have—I have similar data stored on the same physical drives, and everything accessible via the one unchanging, drive-irrelevant mount point. I should now be able to add new drives when needed, vastly increasing my storage space, without any filepaths changing, and spin-down some drives while others stay spun-up. It’s all rather geeky, but it needed to be done, and I’ve managed to come out of it with a lot more spare storage space than I previously had, and the space to connect another two hard drives.

09.04.2006 – Sunday 9 April – Relaxing & Stressful

Day

• I had a quiet, relaxing, day chatting online and messing about inside.

10.04.2006 – Monday 10 April – Tutoring Excellence Awards

Morning

• I attended an awards presentation for my tutoring excellence at uni, and ate far too much finger food. I showed Kipps where the Wesley Hospital was on the way back home.

Afternoon

• I went shopping at Woolworths in the city, bumping into Holly, and made a sort of meatless shepherd pie with lentils for dinner.

Comment by DM – Wednesday 12 April 2006, 4:49 PM

&nb