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Summary| Highlights| 2007 (Year View)

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

01.01.2007 – Monday 1 January – The year of what?

• For the past few years, I have given each year a focus—last year was the year of work, when I got my first full-time job, the year before was the year of Bronwen. I’m not, however, sure what the focus of this year should be—I’m still with Bronwen, I’m still working, nothing much has really changed. I’m planning to do a few small trips this year, and go overseas, possibly next year, but they’re not really the focus of the year. I’ll have to think about it.

Dawn

• Bronwen, Mum and I sit with several thousand other people and watch the sunrise.

Night

• I attend the closing fire ceremony, followed by volunteering.

02.01.2007 – Tuesday 2 January – Back in Brisbane

Morning

• Mum, Bronwen and I got a lift from Woodford to Brisbane with two girls from Woodford. Coincidentally, one of them had lived with Marjorie’s friend Georgie, so knew our place.

03.01.2007 – Wednesday 3 January – Sick & Back to Work

• Off to work. Dinner with Mum and Bronwen at a Thai place at Rosalie in the evening. Feeling fairly sick—throat and neck glands are quite sore. I blame sleeping in the wet, then ingesting kilos of dust, at Woodford.

04.01.2007 – Thursday 4 January – Mum flies home

Morning

• Mum and I caught a train to the city, from where I headed in to work early, and Mum headed off to the airport on her way home.

05.01.2007 – Friday 5 January – Tulani

• I still feel terrible—no better, worse if anything. If I work today, I won’t be able to work tomorrow, so I called in sick.

2:30pm

• I met Tulani in the city. We caught a City Cat to UQ, had a short walk around uni, then headed to Elena’s work.

06.01.2007 – Saturday 6 January – Sick & Working

• I’m still nastily sick—my throat seems perhaps a little less sore, but my nose is running powerfully. I caught an early City Cat to work, and am now here, drinking lemon soft drink, having tried milk and found it to not be particularly soothing to the throat.

Evening

• I slept most of the evening. While I can’t say I enjoyed it, there is something that’s almost fun about lying, semi-delirious, somewhere on the border of thinking and dreaming.

07.01.2007 – Sunday 7 January – Blood Diamond

• I have had a lazy day, lying in bed for most of it. I think my ‘flu, or whatever it is, has mostly gone—now I just have the after-effects—runny nose, cough, and a head that hurts if I move it.

9:35pm

• Clint and I went and saw “Blood Diamond” at South Bank, which turned out to be a reasonable movie, albeit predictable and the same as all the others in its genre.

08.01.2007 – Monday 8 January – Delirious

Morning

• Clint and I moved some stuff from his place to our place and Maz’s place, as he’s moving out. We then grabbed lunch from a patisserie at Rosalie, before he drove me out to work—three to eleven at EB this week.

Night

• Clint drove me home from work, and I went to bed, feeling poorly—my throat was very sore again. I then slept fitfully for a few hours, finally waking up delirious. I kept thinking in circles, which was preventing me from sleeping, but even though I’d woken up—and even went for a walk around the house—I couldn’t stop myself from thinking in circles. I must have eventually got to sleep, but it was not a fun night.

09.01.2007 – Tuesday 9 January – Working Late

• On Sunday I had thought my ‘flu had gone, but last night was the worst night I’ve had from it, so now I’m not sure. Still, I don’t feel too bad now, and despite waking up thinking in circles at all hours of the night last night, I feel normally refreshed this morning.

Afternoon

• I missed the City Cat to work, arriving a little late. Today isn’t as bad as yesterday as I don’t feel as sick as yesterday. I even walk home, which takes about an hour, arriving back shortly after midnight.

10.01.2007 – Wednesday 10 January – Shopping

Morning

• Bronwen took the day off, and she and I went to the city, where I had lunch at Govinda’s. While I couldn’t eat the whole thing myself, it does seem as though my appetite is returning. I took back some shorts I had got for my birthday, which were a size too small, watched a performance of skill and daring in the Queen Street Mall, and then headed on to work.

11.01.2007 – Thursday 11 January - ZimboyZ

• I headed to the city before work, watching the ZimboyZ perform in the Queen Street Mall again, and bumping into Amanda.

12.01.2007 – Friday 12 January – Getting Better

• Work. Walked home from work. I am finally getting over this ‘flu.

13.01.2007 – Saturday 13 January – Pan’s Labyrinth

• Bronwen and I caught a bus into the city, went to the art gallery and an interesting display of religious art at QPAC, sat at South Bank for a while, and then caught a train to Indooroopilly, where we watched “Pan’s Labyrinth” at the Eldorado.

Evening

• Bronwen and I finally discussed our Tasmania trip dates, and I got out “Kill Bill 2”. I also found that my bike has apparently been stolen. I’m not sure when—I assume it was there when Clint and I dropped his stuff off, as I imagine I’d have noticed if it wasn’t. In fact, I’d hazard a guess that’s when it was taken—when the garage door was open.

14.01.2007 – Sunday 14 January – Relaxing

• I slept in until after midday, and have had a pleasantly relaxing day, though it has been quite hot. I’ve begun going through my Woodford photos, and selecting a few to put on my website.

15.01.2007 – Monday 15 January – Working Early, Working Fast

• I’m working early shift again, back in the city. Today went really fast for some reason—I don’t like getting up early, but I really like how fast early shifts seem to go. They’re becoming my favourite. After work I dropped past the new library and got out a few books on Tasmania, which I probably won’t get around to looking at. Thus concludes the public part of yet another exciting journal entry. Stay tuned—I’ll likely be back tomorrow.

Comment by io – Monday 15 January 2007, 5:14 PM

  Mindblowing.
  
  Also, you really need that "remember me" feature that Maz has on his site.

16.01.2007 – Tuesday 16 January – Cold

• Yo ho ho, it’s back to work I go. I’m currently in the fishbowl, where it’s about eighteen degrees and humidity controlled in such a way that it feels even colder. I think I shall bring a jumper tomorrow.

17.01.2007 – Wednesday 17 January – Ode to a Milkshake

Morning

• I got up very early, got ready for work, caught the bus to work, bought my morning milkshake (chocolate), and worked. Apparently it is unhealthy having free soft drink, so we now have free fruit instead, and a complicated coffee machine. Fortunately, there’s still Milo.

Evening

• A girl and her mother dropped past to have a look at the rooms we currently have available.

18.01.2007 – Thursday 18 January – Sleepily Wrought

• I’ve taken to having a little doze when I get home from work. Apart from sounding weak, it’s actually quite enjoyable—the semi-delirium of being nearly asleep, half-dreaming, half-daydreaming, and sometimes thinking clearly, makes a pleasant change from the semi-delirium of working half asleep—which, I believe, is when I’m at my most efficient. Psychologically, or so the story goes, I’m over-wrought, and being sleepy calms me down, bringing me back to the most efficient middle ground of just-the-right-amount-of-wrought (which isn’t quite the right medical term).

19.01.2007 – Friday 19 January – Comet McNaught

Evening

• After an uneventful day at work, Maz and I drove to UQ’s new Green Bridge, where we met Raymond and watched Comet McNaught set shortly after the sun.

20.01.2007 – Saturday 20 January – No Movies

• I’ve been trying to get to see a movie all week, and it’s just not working out. I’d been told that I was going to fix Bronwen’s brother’s computer tomorrow evening, and have dinner out at his place, but found out shortly before I was due to head to the cinemas that it was actually tonight. I rushed to get the appropriate software together to give to Bronwen, as I couldn’t go seeing as I was planning to see a movie, and managed to miss the movie. I then waited a few hours and caught the bus towards the cinema to see a late screening, only to find that the ramps onto the bridge over the river were closed, preventing me from getting to the cinema. I had a short walk around the city instead, before catching the bus home again, defeated.

21.01.2007 – Sunday 21 January – Déjà Vu & Apocalypto

Afternoon

• Bronwen and I went and saw “Déjà Vu”, which, while being a typical, predictable Hollywood movie, was actually not too bad. We then caught the bus home, had a quick dinner, caught another bus back to South Bank, and watched “Apocalypto”—which was quite impressive, though powerfully violent.

22.01.2007 – Monday 22 January – Working & Bronwen

Afternoon

• It is extremely hot. I caught a bus to Toowong and had lunch with Maz, before catching the train to work. I’m working late shifts in the fishbowl this week.

23.01.2007 – Tuesday 23 January – Working

Afternoon

• I caught a bus to Toowong, where I had lunch with Maz, picked up a $25 Myer Voucher sent to me registered post that I got for using a Citibank transaction account, and caught a bus to work.

24.01.2007 – Wednesday 24 January – Hot

Morning

• It’s looking to be another very hot day.

25.01.2007 – Thursday 25 January – Hot & Cold

Morning

• It’s hot—very, very hot. Moving is not a thing that one does. When one does have to move, one can at least slide in one’s sweat, which saves having to move the legs. Such is Brisbane in the summer. Apparently it’s raining nicely up north, while using water will soon be a capital crime here. People won’t be robbing petrol stations; they’ll be mugging schoolchildren carrying water bottles. Speaking of schoolchildren, I’m hungry and should eat something so I don’t waste money buying something I didn’t really want when I get to work.

Midday

• Marjorie popped over to pick up a letter.

Night

• I decided to pop up the road to Woolworths for some corn and beans, just before a torrential downpour—complete with lightning, like the old days before the rain stopped. By a clever combination of hiding under eaves, carefully preplanning street crossings, and running, I managed to keep from getting totally soaked. Getting rather damp wouldn’t normally be too much of a problem on a hot night like tonight, but the next few hours, in the humidity controlled and very, very cold fishbowl were, well, very, very cold. I managed to survive by a combination of incessant eating (who would have thought Mexican chilli beans, corn, milk, Milo, cream, custard and muesli bars would be a lifesaving combination?) interspersed with more traditional survival methods, such as shivering, hand rubbing, and visiting the warmer areas of the building.

2am

• I should probably be sleeping, but not really feeling like going to bed. I’ll try soon. In geeky news, I added a dynamics processor to my sound card, which is currently normalizing my music as I play it—meaning I don’t have to keep adjusting the volume each time I play a new song, which was getting annoying. I’m surprised how well it works actually. I’ve now got two physical stereo channels out—one to my headphones and computer speakers, the other to the TV and speakers in the lounge room—and separate (software) outputs for music, DVD’s, and all the other random noises things make. This lets me flexibly mix what goes where—I can play a DVD to the TV while listening to something else at my computer, and I’ve got a six channel mixer, ten band equalizer, parametric equalizer, generic bass and treble booster and am separately routing DVD’s low frequency channel… all on hardware on the soundcard, without using any CPU on the computer. Geeky, but good—and now I really should get to bed.
  Oh, one other geeky thing I’ve done tonight—now that IE 7 is out, and has CSS support for “position: fixed”, I’ve fixed the top menu of most of my nedmartin.org site. I’ll test it tomorrow in IE 6, and convert the rest over if it works.

26.01.2007 – Friday 26 January – Australia Day

Morning

• I had a rather strange dream. I was in a space diner, presumably dining. That is, a diner out in space. John Travolta, Pulp Fiction style, was the waiter—as you would expect—and this small group, maybe five, of fearfully powerful, all-knowing four or five year old grown up babies arrived—without walking, as that’d be too normal. They just arrived—and while they seemed benevolent, there was a very uneasy atmosphere, as I just knew they weren’t normal—let’s face it, your average five year old doesn’t turn up at a space diner. It was a little more in-depth than that, but that’s the main gist. I’m not sure if it’s deeply meaningful, or not, but as I didn’t eat any curry last night, I figure it must be.

Night

• For dinner tonight, I ate a can of Mexican chilli beans, a can of corn, a cup of cream and custard, half a bag of corn chips and capsicum dip, two different sorts of chocolate (dark mint and green aero), iced coffee, and a cup of Milo containing a little milk and a dash of cream. That’s what happens when I turn up to work on a day when no one else works, and I’m already sleepy. My university training has stood me in good stead—why do something, when there’s still a whole night to do it? Sleep is for those who don’t have something that can’t be put off any longer due the next morning; an entire bottle of LA Ice cola costs less than a dollar, and there’s always Medicare, for those nights when you accidentally drink two litres of iced coffee as well as a litre and a quarter of cola, and come out in a strange rash. Thus, I learnt. Sometimes I even wonder what all those people who actually studied learnt—and bemoan what they missed.

27.01.2007 – Saturday 27 January – Hotter

• Today appears to be the hottest day yet, though perhaps that’s just because I haven’t been at work in the icy cold, or perhaps because I have been at work in the icy cold every other day, and now I’m patriotically doing my little bit to solve our water crisis—one sweaty drip at a time. Either way, it’s too hot to move, so I haven’t.

28.01.2007 – Sunday 28 January – The Blues Brothers

Evening

• Bronwen and I walked up to Woolworths with Maz.

Night

• I watched “The Blues Brothers” with Bronwen, as she hadn’t seen it.

29.01.2007 – Monday 29 January – Working

• Working seven to three at EB, which pretty much sums up today.

30.01.2007 – Tuesday 30 January – Still Working

• Still working. Still haven’t figured out how to get rich quick.

31.01.2007 – Wednesday 31 January – Satellites

• I stayed at work late, trying to fix a satellite streaming issue.

01.02.2007 – Thursday 1 February – More Satellites

• I stayed at work late for the second time in a row, still fixing the same satellite streaming issue.

02.02.2007 – Friday 2 February – Day Off

• I have the day off, due to working Sunday.

Afternoon

• Clint drove over, and we walked into the city. I picked up some forms from the RTA, bought a bath mat, and some wood glue. I also made the mistake of drinking a milk shake, followed by flavoured milk, then three small Hungry Jack’s post-mix Pink Fanta and Sprite drinks, and eating a Hungry Jack’s veggie burger. Not recommended—stick to hard drugs; they don’t do so much damage.

Night

• Bronwen and I had curry from the Indian place at Rosalie. My site has problems—I don’t seem to have permission to write files, and am not receiving email. The stars are shining.

03.02.2007 – Saturday 3 February – Motor Show & The Last King of Scotland

Morning

• Maz and I went to the Brisbane International Motor Show. I’m not particularly interested in cars, and am not planning to buy one at the moment, but it was still interesting to see. It was particularly interesting seeing the markets the particular manufacturers are aiming at.

Afternoon

• Maz and I went to Kieran’s, then to Umart, then I came back home. My site has problems—an inability to write to files—and my username and password aren’t working. They’ve been making some unannounced changes on the server and I’m not that happy. This has been happening since yesterday evening, and still isn’t fixed. Anger, flamethrowers, napalm.

Evening

• Fought my web server. It sucks.

Night

• Went and saw “The Last King of Scotland” with Clint, which affected me oddly. It’s not a bad movie, reasonably powerful in an emotional way. Normally I wouldn’t be affected by a movie, but something about it triggered my existing mood, and I ended up in a pensive mood all night. Similar to how some music you may have listened to a million times will suddenly take on a strong emotional significance, due to your existing mood.

Late

• I ended up having a late night.

04.02.2007 – Sunday 4 February – Working

• I’m working early shift at EB. I was supposed to get up at six o’clock, but when my alarm went off, I figured I’d die if I got out of bed, so I slept in until seven and caught a taxi.

Afternoon

• Just before leaving work, I got an SMS from Kaitlin to say she wasn’t moving in anymore—she spun some story about her car having broken down and costing her a lot to fix and so on. She had been here however, so I don’t believe her. No more trusting people—it’s a week’s rent up front to secure a room, bond and two weeks advance rent to get the keys. This is a pain as I’ve not been accepting anyone for the room as I was under the impression it had been taken.

Night

• I went for a walk with Clint and Bronwen to Cold Rock where we met Maz, then into city without Maz to put up rental posters on poles.

05.02.2007 – Monday 5 February – Working

• Lucienne dropped her laptop here for checking. I’m working midday to eight this week—which I then proceeded to do. It’s been a little overcast, making it not quite as hot as it has been.

06.02.2007 – Tuesday 6 February – Potential Flatmates

• A Singaporean girl came and looked at rooms. Doing her master’s at UQ. Has car. Asked many logical questions. Will call back as soon as she decides.

07.02.2007 – Wednesday 7 February – Not Draining

• Work. Had planned to secrete myself into one or more of Brisbane’s drains, but when it came down to it, sliding into a dark, dank hole all by myself sounded rather scary, so I didn’t.

08.02.2007 – Thursday 8 February - Work

• Work. Not much else.

09.02.2007 – Friday 9 February – Operation Blitz

Morning

• Looking at Lucienne’s laptop. Got a rental arrears notice from the real estate. Paid rent and took over paying it from Bronwen.

Midday

• Went to work. Today was Operation Blitz, cleanup office. There was no oxygen, only cleaning chemicals.

Night

• I was planning to go draining with Maz and Bronwen. Instead, Clint dropped by, he and I walked to the IGA, where we met Maz. Maz and I then stayed up late talking about geeky things. Bronwen went to sleep. Maz and I walked to the city and had Hungry Jack’s burgers for dinner, getting back nastily close to four in the morning.

10.02.2007 – Saturday 10 February – Smokin’ Aces

10am

• Two Asian girls, along with a UQ driver, came and looked at the room, followed by another Asian girl, and then a vegetarian girl—who can read and write (some) Sanskrit. I am suitably impressed.

Midday

• Bronwen and I walked into the city, where we went to K2 to look at sandals. I dropped my Tasmanian library books back to library. It nearly rained on us on the walk home.

Night

• I caught a bus to city and watched “Smokin’ Aces”. It contained lots of unnecessary violence, had an unbelievable (in the bad sense) plot, and ending that really didn’t make sense for the character to have done—logically or emotionally—but it contained lots of action and I enjoyed it.

11.02.2007 – Sunday 11 February – More Potential Flatmates

Morning

• A girl and a couple came around to look at the room, and the second of the two girls planning to move in called to ask a few questions and to confirm that she does want the room.

Afternoon

• Bronwen, Kieran, Maz and I were going to get curry, but the Indian place was shut, so we got Cold Rock instead. Maz, Kieran and I then headed to Kieran’s place, where we spent the afternoon in the air-conditioning.

Evening

• Maz, Kieran, Bronwen and I had curry at the curry place near here. I then spent a while at Maz’s before coming home and remembering I had to finish fixing Lucienne’s laptop before I go to bed.

12.02.2007 – Monday 12 February – New Flatmates

Morning

• I’m sad, because I had a sad dream.

7am

• Lucienne came and picked up her laptop.

10am

• One of my new flatmates came and signed her lease, and we had a forty-five minute philosophical religious discussion. This could be interesting.

Midday

• It rained. Actual raindrops fell from the sky, like in the stories the old folk tell. Wow, now there’s lightning. It’s almost like proper weather. I’m working three to eleven at EB, which I proceeded to do.

13.02.2007 – Tuesday 13 February – Running Late

• I woke up just before two o’clock, and had to be at work by three o’clock. I’m not sure why, I went to bed around one o’clock, which isn’t that late. I think it’s because it’s been so lovely and overcast recently. To make matters worse, as it was raining, half of Brisbane was also waiting for a taxi, and the other half was driving erratically and wondering why they can’t corner at 60 kilometres an hour like they can in the dry. So here I am at work, late, traumatised, and writing this instead of working.

14.02.2007 – Wednesday 14 February – Valentine’s Day

• The first flatmate is moving in today, and has been bringing her things over. I’m working as usual.

15.02.2007 – Thursday 15 February – Disasters

Morning

• Today’s disasters so far: It has rained a few times. While not technically a disaster, it could have been. We’re not getting any serious rain (which is a disaster) but it’s wet enough that I’ve pulled most of the weeds out of the garden (which was a disaster), and will start getting it back into shape (which is probably going to be a disaster). I’d given up for a while, as it was just too hard to water it with the silly water restrictions (which are a disaster). I managed to cover myself in sticky spider web containing millions of “little things”. It appears that there’s no known way to get them off. What a disaster! I then got very itchy from some kind of itchy plant with lots of tiny hairs, which apparently embed themselves into unprotected arms, for no reason other than pure malice. How disastrous! Then, most disastrously, I dropped my 50mm f/1.8 prime lens while taking some photos of a grasshopper, which now has a nice and large scratch across the edge of the rear element. Surprisingly, it doesn’t seem to make any difference, other than making a horrible noise when seeking focus at infinity.

Afternoon

• I caught a bus to the city and a City Cat from there to work, where I’m sure there’ll be plenty more disasters.

16.02.2007 – Friday 16 February – Working Sleepy

• I worked until eleven o’clock last night, and am supposed to be working from seven this morning. It was after midnight by the time I got home and got to bed, and I woke up around seven, making it a little difficult to get to work on time. I got ready as fast as possible, and caught a taxi. Fortunately, this turned up relatively quickly, and I got to work half an hour late. I then proceeded to have a relatively bad day, which I enjoyed, being nicely sleepy.

Evening

• Maz dropped by on his way back from work, and we walked to his place, where I stayed awhile. I walked home past Cold Rock, which was a bad mistake as I accidentally bought a small Super Shake—chocolate, natural cream and strawberry, though without my normal whipped cream on top.

17.02.2007 – Saturday 17 February – The Good Shepherd

Morning

• Went through some more Woodford photos, and got some ready to put on my site.

1pm

• Went to Indooroopilly to buy pots and cutlery, and for lunch with Maz and Bronwen. Dropped past Maz’s place on the way home, and am now very sleepy.

Night

• Went to a new café in valley for dinner, then to Indooroopilly to see “The Good Shepherd”. It’s not a bad movie. A little confusing though. Caught a train home sometime after midnight.

18.02.2007 – Sunday 18 February – Shopping

Morning

• It’s raining.

Afternoon

• Met Maz in the city and had lunch. Bought a few house things—a set of saucepans, some cutlery, and another dish drying rack.

19.02.2007 – Monday 19 February – Working

Morning

• Working seven to three in the fishbowl. No job satisfaction today. Not sure why. Seems to be an undercurrent of dissatisfaction amongst the people I’m working with at the moment. Perhaps it’s contagious.

20.02.2007 – Tuesday 20 February – Working

Morning

• No job satisfaction today either. Still unsure why. Technically, it’s been a normal day; I’m just not happy about it. David is quitting for, amongst other things, similar reasons.

Afternoon

• Bought a few house things—kettle, cordless phone and some power adaptors.

Night

• Had a nice dinner cooked by Nadini.

21.02.2007 – Wednesday 21 February – Bronwen Moves

Morning

• Working.

Evening

• Maz dropped by, followed shortly after by Bill, Benji, Bronwen, and her parents. We packed things into Bill and Bronwen’s Dad’s cars and a trailer, drove to Bronwen’s place, and had dinner at her new house. She’s now officially moved out, and a distinct chapter in my life has closed. It will be interesting to see what the future holds. I’m still living the uni-student lifestyle—living in cheap shared accommodation with no commitments, but at some point soon, this stage of my life is going to have to end, to make way for the next stage, which I’m guessing will be expensive. Bronwen has now moved to that stage. I still want to travel first, but to maintain a life without commitments is probably more difficult than committing. It’s a large commitment to remain uncommitted, ironically.

22.02.2007 – Thursday 22 February – Packing

• I have the day off, as I’m working Sunday. I spent the morning packing furniture with Bronwen, drove to her place, unpacked it, attended Garden City twice, and then got a lift home with Bronwen’s parents, who had turned up in the evening. Here is a total mess. I can barely fit in my room—and it’s a large room.

23.02.2007 – Friday 23 February – Rocky Balboa

• Work, as usual. I see “Rocky Balboa” in the evening, at Indooroopilly, with Clint. It’s as bad as expected—what little actually happens, is predictable. There’s no action, no drama, no emotion, and not much else. Still, as with most movies, it was fun to go. When I got home, dinner was served—a very nice curry, rice, dhal and fried bread. I’m very impressed—everything was made from scratch, even the bread. My flatmates are apparently good cooks, and both vegetarian.

Evening

• The charity bins at the train station are gone. It’s the end of an era.

24.02.2007 – Saturday 24 February – Glow Worms

Morning

• Today was my sleep-in day, where I recover from a week of early shifts. But instead, I walk to Tomato Brothers, where I meet Cam, and drive back here. Things are packed, and driven to Bronwen’s. Things are unpacked. Things are eaten. I get a lift home.

Evening

• Clint, Maz, and I drove to a glow-worm cave at Natural Bridge, via Bronwen’s place to pick her up. We were fortunate to arrive between organised tours, and got to have a look at an impressively glow-worm-lit cave with a waterfall flowing through it, shortly before hundreds of Asians arrived.

25.02.2007 – Sunday 25 February – Raining, Sunny, Sleepy, Work

Morning

• It’s a lovely day. A rain shower has just passed, and now the freshly cleaned sun is shining down on the newly washed earth. It’s a pleasingly brisk temperature—not too cold, but not yet too hot. It’s the perfect day not to be inside, in front of a pile of computer monitors. Unfortunately, I’m not yet independently wealthy, so can’t yet retire.
  I slept in this morning, missing any public transport options to work, so called a taxi—“Honk honk, we have your address recorded as blah, press one if you are ready for a taxi”. I pressed one. “Vroom, vroom. A taxi has been dispatched”. Fifty seconds later, there’s a business-class cab at the front door. Service like this would normally be great—had I been expecting it, and wearing clothes. As it turns out, I can get dressed in sixty five seconds, and the rest I can do in the cab. The air-conditioning even dried my feet before I had to put my socks on.

Work

• The bakery had both olive and pineapple pizza rolls. I have three types of chocolate—dark with macadamia, rum and raisin, and “Peppermint Affair—a layer of crisp peppermint crunches covered by a layer of smooth, cool peppermint crème”. Music is pumping. Screens are glowing. Not too much is breaking. Work is good, for the first time in a week.
  I didn’t get enough sleep any night last week, because I’m stupid and never go to bed early enough when I’m doing early shifts, and I didn’t get my expected sleep-in on Saturday—so I’m running on an average of around five and a half hours sleep a night, across the past week. It’s a liveable level, but means I’m probably running quite well right now—unnecessary parts of me are sleepy, but the vital parts seem to be functioning at peak efficiency. Either that, or the bits that tell me I’m going well, are actually sleeping and just left up “You’re going well” notices so I wouldn’t know they’re slacking off. I’m still a great fan of the theory that I’m naturally overwrought and need relaxing sleepiness to achieve my peak performance.

Evening

• I took my VoIP phone to Maz’s to test, as he’s been having issues with his.

26.02.2007 – Monday 26 February – Work Insanity

Morning

• I had a Chantilly Mille Feuille and milkshake for breakfast from Michel’s in the Myer Centre, which nearly killed me. I then bought a broom, and attempted to not move for the rest of the day, as it was ridiculously hot.

Afternoon

• I’m working three to eleven at EB, which was rather insane today. There’s usually only the two of us there, seeing as everything else is done remotely, but tonight for some reason many changes were being made, and many very sleepy people turned up. It felt like an all-nighter in the labs at uni, with similar levels of happy insanity.

Comment by anon – Sunday 27 May 2007, 1:17 PM

  I'm not surprised it nearly killed you. Alot of food and drink at the myer centre contains ghb!

27.02.2007 – Tuesday 27 February – Gloves

Morning

• I had a bit of a sleep in, though not enough after my late night last night. Once awake, I bought a new ADSL modem from Umart (Billion 7300 something or other), which I’ve now installed and seem to be using successfully, as per how it should be. I’ve also noticed that there are seventeen white gloves hanging on the clothesline. Not seventeen pairs, just seventeen gloves. Am I living with a disabled caterpillar? How peculiar.

Afternoon

• Two hot dogs and a few cups of juice later, and I’m feeling nearly ready to take on the world, provided it’s air-conditioned, and comes at me one at a time. Thus encouraged, I make my way to work, boldly sweating.

28.02.2007 – Wednesday 28 February – Gold Coast

• I took the day off work, heading to the Gold Coast, where I spent the night in a $220 room at Jupiter’s, visiting a friend who was up for a conference.

01.03.2007 – Thursday 1 March – Gold Coast

• I attended a meeting at work at two o’clock, before heading home and back to the Gold Coast.

02.03.2007 – Friday 2 March – Packing

Morning

• I’m very, very sleepy after not sleeping much down at the Gold Coast.

Afternoon

• I had lunch with Maz.

Night

• Maz picked me up from work with Clint. The theory was that this would be much quicker than walking home, and as I didn’t finish work until near midnight, had had very little sleep up until now, and had to pack for my flight early tomorrow morning, I could get more urgently required sleep. In practice, however, we ended up driving all over the place, stopping at South Bank for a while, and it was approaching the wee hours of the morning by the time I got home and began packing. It was well and truly into the wee hours when I got to bed.

03.03.2007 – Saturday 3 March – Cairns, Tulani, & Silas

Morning

• I caught a Virgin Blue flight to Cairns. Tulani picked me up from the airport and we had breakfast at a coffee plantation near Mareeba.

Afternoon

• I had lunch at Tulani’s place, and went and saw “The Illusionist” with her at Cairns City Cinemas, which turned out to be an unexpectedly good movie, and an expectedly uncomfortable cinema.

Night

• I had a pleasant dinner at an Indian place with Tulani, before heading to Silas’s, where I spent the night.

04.03.2007 – Sunday 4 March – Silas, Mossman Gorge & Moonlit Pizza

Morning

• I spent a pleasant morning chatting to Silas. I’m far too slack keeping in touch with my friends.

Afternoon

• Silas and his girlfriend went for a walk somewhere. Tulani and I went to Mossman Gorge for a swim, followed by a walk along the Esplanade.

Night

• Tulani and I had a pizza dinner at Trinity Beach. It was quite scenic—sitting watching the moon rise over the ocean, silhouetted by palm trees—and was quite late when we left, returning me to Silas’s, where I again spent the night.

05.03.2007 – Monday 5 March – Cooktown

• Tulani drove me to General Aviation, from where I flew to Cooktown in a small eight-seater Cessna Titan. Dad and Mum picked me up from the airport, and I spent the day in town with them.

06.03.2007 – Tuesday 6 March – The Family Thing

• I spent the day with my parents in town, meeting my sister and Vince, and generally doing the “family thing”. It’s nice to be back, but I don’t think I could live here—not at this age anyway. It’s just too small.

07.03.2007 – Wednesday 7 March – Rossville

• I drove out to Rossville, dropping Dad at the Lion’s Den Hotel on the way, and headed out to Home Rule. I stopped at Craig and Mandi’s for a chat, before walking up to the Home Rule Falls. It was nice to be in the rainforest jungle again, where everything is wet and there’s a huge amount of spider web across the track, and subsequently my nose. On the way back, I stopped and had a chat to Ric, before heading up to Dad’s, where my old caravan is stored, filled with all my old junk. Sadly, the time has come to get rid of that junk, so I went through it all, collected a few things I didn’t want to leave behind, and left the rest there, to be disposed of as my parents see fit. It’s a little sad, but I haven’t needed any of this stuff in the past few years so I’m unlikely to ever need it.

08.03.2007 – Thursday 8 March – Rain

• It’s raining here in Cooktown. I pop down to the post office to lodge a few documents, and head up to the Top Pub to chat to the publican about a website she wants me to build. I then spend a quiet evening with my family.

09.03.2007 – Friday 9 March – Cairns & Kebabs

• I was very tired when I left Brisbane, from working late shifts combined with staying at the Gold Coast, and I haven’t had much sleep since, so I’m now spastically tired. I had a nice lunch with my family, drove out to the airport picking Sarah up from work, and flew to Cairns in a 32- or 36-seater Dash 8. We all waited at the aerodrome for quite a while, wondering why the hostess hadn’t called us out to the plane, only to find when we were out there, that they’d been waiting in the plane wondering why the ground staff hadn’t sent us out to the plane. All the seats on one side of the plane seemed to have been allocated to two people, and none of the seats on the other side.

Evening

• Tulani picked me up from the airport, and we bought kebabs for dinner at the Esplanade, and watched emergency crews recover someone who had fallen off the esplanade onto some mangrove and mud covered rocks.

10.03.2007 – Saturday 10 March – Shan & High Humidity

• I spent a quiet, but very hot and humid, morning with Tulani, before being dropped at Shan’s, where I spent the night. It’s absurdly hot and humid in Cairns. Moving—even thinking about moving—results in sweat.

11.03.2007 – Sunday 11 March – Mareeba Motocross

5:30am

• Shan, Kylie and I got up quite early and drove to Mareeba, where we attended a Motocross event. I bumped into Clayton, Jake, Amos and Justin, took many photos, got sunburnt, got wet when a thunderstorm blew across, and watched the carnage. One man broke his hip when his bike landed on top of him, and a few others were carried off on a stretcher. The rest just broke their bikes.

Evening

• Tulani picked me up from Shan’s, and we had dinner at a restaurant on the wharf.

12.03.2007 – Monday 12 March – Brisbane & Virgin Hilarity

• I spent most of the day with Tulani—Shan and Silas being at work—doing some shopping at Cairns Central and trying not to move too much because of the heat. She dropped me off at the airport in the afternoon, from where I caught a flight back to Brisbane.

4:30pm

• The flight back was interesting. The plane itself was blue, and had people’s names alphabetically printed all over the inside—Virgin Blue’s special fiftieth plane, apparently. Ironically, I’d had a conversation just prior to leaving about hostesses, and how Virgin’s hostesses are more attractive than Jetstar’s, only to find that this flight had three male hosts, one of whom was in his forties, and a single female hostess—and it was her first day.
  It doesn’t sound quite as funny after the event—you really had to be there—but it was the funniest flight I’ve ever been on. It began by the older host telling us that this was a special flight and a special crew, as he was flying with his wife—the young female hostess on her first day. He then said that the second male host was her ex-husband, and that the way she’d been looking at the third host, he was likely to be her next husband. At this, all the male hosts couldn’t stop laughing, preventing them from performing the safety announcements.
  A rough transcript of the normally comprehensive and boring pre-flight safety announcements was “There is a serious side to flying [pause for laughter]. We have life jackets, doesn’t [the female hostess] like them? [Points to the female hostess and breaks into uncontrollable laughter] And they have whistles [male host performs an impromptu ditty on his life-jacket whistle, followed by most of the aircraft laughing]. You can blow in here, and [a pause for more laughter], and there’s exits, if you see me running and screaming, exit after me”. Almost everyone in the plane was laughing, and while it was probably illegally brief, it was by far the best pre-flight safety announcement I’ve ever had.

6:25pm

• I arrived back in Brisbane, to find it wasn’t anywhere near as hot and humid as Cairns, and was in fact somewhat overcast. A slow train journey later, and I was home—very sleepy, somewhat traumatised, emotional, sentimental, stressed, and generally worn out, as per most relaxing family holidays.

13.03.2007 – Tuesday 13 March – Working

• Well, here I am, back at work. I’m not very happy—too tired I think. I’m working seven to three in the fishbowl, though Wade was there today for some reason, so I worked downstairs with everyone else.

14.03.2007 – Wednesday 14 March – Chez Tessa

• I’m much less sleepier now, despite having to get up before six to get to work on time. Maz printed a few photos for me today, which I’ll have to post off to my parents.

Night

• Maz and I caught a bus to Chez Tessa, and had our traditional uni dinners, just like old times.

15.03.2007 – Thursday 15 March – Cold Rock

Work

• I had a generic day at work, other than attending some new training sessions they’re putting on at the moment. They’re all very positive—we’re the best there is, apparently, making me one of the best of the best in my field, or so they’d have me believe. I suppose the figures speak for themselves, but I don’t feel like one of the best of the best right now.

Night

• I walked to Woolworths with Maz, via Cold Rock and a cookies and cream, vanilla and chocolate super shake with whipped cream on top. I’ve decided to add photos to my journal more frequently. It seems a little silly keeping a daily journal, and carrying my camera around with me, but not putting photos in with my journal—so I shall.

Late Night

• I should really be sleeping, but I have to get this Stone site up and running.

16.03.2007 – Friday 16 March – Sleepy

• I’m really quite sleepy, but nothing cashews and Milo can’t fix. Work went by in a delirious haze of sleep-induced efficiency. Evening came and Maz and I walked into the city, as a bus through the traffic on Coronation Drive would have been slower. I bought a slice from Michel’s and a veggie baguette from Hungry Jack’s, filling myself with their refillable post-mix, and feeling suitably sick.

17.03.2007 – Saturday 17 March – Breasts, Power Failures & The Computer Crocodile of Death

Morning

• So, like, there I was—just sitting there, you know, trying to get something done? And, like, there they all were, just watching, like hungry crocodiles; not helping, not doing their job—making fun of me. So, like, I just stared back, sullenly, defiantly—but not giving in, you know. You have to be strong; they’re waiting—they’re waiting for you to give in, and once you do, they will laugh. They will all laugh, and that’s the worst thing. But, in the end, the crocodile of death, he got me—he waited, and he won. You can’t win, when the crocodile of death comes. You can’t win, when the crocodile of death is in your computer.
  It all began when I noticed I had no volume on my primary Windows output. I reset the sound card, which BSOD the machine, as usual. Crocodiles one, our valiant hero, nil. To make matters worse, I was halfway through an interesting conversation, and my computer, being the dinosaur machine it is, takes a long time to do anything, particularly when there’s crocodiles around. I figured this could be related to hard drive failure due to a lot of disk related errors in the event log. Then Bronwen came over to get a copy of the photos I took of her new house, and I discovered that ACDSee wouldn’t work, no matter what. Crocodiles 2, our extremely intelligent and rather attractive hero, nil. Needless to say, had I not urgently needed to use ACDSee, it would have worked. Much crocodile hunting later, our now thoroughly disgusted hero left for work.

Evening

• I don’t mind working on the weekend. Working on the weekend isn’t too good—but the work itself I enjoy, because I’m by myself and in charge of a lot of expensive things. Tonight was interesting, as we had a series of brownouts, switching over to generator power several times. For some reason, every time the power failed and everything switched to panic mode, the immortal phrase “I love the smell of napalm in the morning” came to mind. I’d seek psychiatric evaluation, but I’m too sleepy.

Night

• It appears to be the patron saint of alcohol’s birthday. The tract of vomit between the city and the valley is covered in legged-breasts, closely followed by drunken staggerers. I’m reminded of when the Pied Piper de-ratted Hamelin.

18.03.2007 – Sunday 18 March – Photos & Hot Fuzz

Morning

• I slept in a little, but not heaps. I picked 59 photos, took a few pictures of my flatmates, Maz came over, and we went and printed them for 15¢ each at Harvey Norman’s. There’s thousands there—they won’t be ready until Tuesday, they reckon.

Evening

• Maz and I pulled Nandini’s laptop apart to see why it didn’t work. As it turns out, it’s a miracle it is working. It’s rusty, and everything is physically broken—actually snapped, cracked or missing. I then watched “Hot Fuzz” at South Bank. It’s quite entertaining and amusing, in a British-humour sort of way. They’ve installed a new water feature at South Bank, complete with a rather odd water-tipping thing. Due to our foolish water restrictions, all the water has been imported from outside the Brisbane catchment area, apparently.

19.03.2007 – Monday 19 March – Pop Unwell

Morning

• It turns out it wasn’t crocodiles. It was lzx32.sys. It’s apparently a root-kit known as Backdoor.Rustock.B, which no doubt tries to do bad things, and results in the computer dying. I’m not sure how it’s being installed, but turns out it’s easy enough to remove. I then put some photos on my the-i.org site, ordered a new torch, and caught a bus into the city. I tried to pick up Maz and my photos from Harvey Norman, but they’re not ready yet. I then bought a Canon 75–300mm f/4–5.6 zoom telephoto lens, which must be about their second cheapest lens at a guess. It’s listed at $249, but with a $100 off deal, cost me $149. It’s not as crappy and plastic as I was expecting either.

Evening

• I’m the only one in the fishbowl tonight. Mina is sick. I got an email that Pop has been to the doctor and isn’t well, which, at his age, is not what one wants to hear.

20.03.2007 – Tuesday 20 March – New Torch

Morning

• It seems I still have lzx32.sys. I suppose I’ll have to figure out how to entirely remove it at some stage, but that sounds like a lot of effort. In other news, it’s hot and my torch, a Fenix L1D CE, has arrived. It’s a bit hard to say when it’s not dark, but it seems it’ll satisfy my peculiar torch craving for a while—it’s over twice as bright on its brightest setting as my current torch, and lasts over twice as long on its dimmest setting, which isn’t much dimmer than my current torch. In other words, it’s over twice as efficient. It’s amazing how far torches have come really—this will run on a single rechargeable AA battery for nearly twenty-four hours at a brightness that’s better than a mini-Maglite, or burn away phenomenally brightly for an hour and a half. It’s also got a strobe setting, which isn’t particularly useful but might be fun—and all in something half the size of a mini-Maglite.

Afternoon

• Bus to near Harvey Norman, up 2 escalators, collect Maz and my photos, down 3 escalators to the eatery, vanilla milkshake, punnet of potato bake and pumpkin pasta, punnet of dhal and curry, up one escalator, walk across road, catch bus to work. Work. Chocolate, milk, biscuits from Woolworths. Walk contemplatively home.

Night

• Quite humid out. Walking home results in sweat. Just cooling down now, before bed. Greatly impressed with new torch—very bright. Low setting could be a bit lower, but is better than my other Fenix. Funny how strongly attached to certain music memories—and their associated emotions—can be. Rammstein’s “Du Hast” reminds me of “Pulse FM”—a local Cooktown radio station—a few specific incidents there, and that period of my life in general. Almost all of Metallica’s earlier work reminds me of the numerous nights I spent out in the Mary Valley with Aaron, camping in a caravan in the corner of his parent’s small farm, getting up to crazy pyrotechnic things and running around the bush in the dark. I still think Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” is one of my favourite songs (along with a myriad other).

21.03.2007 – Wednesday 21 March – Uneventful

• I had a quiet morning, doing a bit of work on the Stone site, heading to Toowong for lunch with Maz, and heading to work from there. Work was uneventful, as was the walk home, and now I’m cooling down for bed.

22.03.2007 – Thursday 22 March – Generically

• The generic—get up, mess around online, go to work via the city (where they had a rally car display, for some reason) to collect some cheap food, work, walk home, mess around online, go to bed.

23.03.2007 – Friday 23 March – Bus Woe

• Slept in. Worked on Stone site. Waited for bus for work. Bus did not come. Caught another bus. Bus did not go where it said it should go. Bus was invaded by prams in the city. No wonder people don’t stop driving and use public transport; it’s a mental health liability.

24.03.2007 – Saturday 24 March – Coomera Gorge

• I got up at five o’clock, and was ready shortly after half past. Clint arrived a little after six, having already picked everyone else up, and we drove a couple of hours south. Our walk started easily enough—Clint, Maz, Eddie, Bronwen and I walking down a well-marked track, but we soon left this, bashing our way through the wait-a-while and stinging trees. Maz, Clint and I managed to get stung. As the sides of the creek we were approaching began to get steeper, it became increasingly difficult to claw our way through the prickles, so we made our way to the creek and began to walk up the gorge. Once we’d got used to the feel of walking in the water, it was actually quite refreshing—it sure beat the normally dry, hot and sweaty clamber up some death-defying rock.
  Roughly four hours of sliding up the creek on rocks later, and we arrived at the base of the falls, where we could see, far above us, the lookout easily attainable by an hours walk on a marked track. An icy swim later, and we headed back down the creek, spending another four or so hours pinching our feet between concealed rocks and trying not to fall in the water, destroying thousands of dollars of camera equipment. The hour or so walk back up the steep, but marked, track to the road was probably the hardest of all, on tired legs.
  All up, it was a very enjoyable walk—I much prefer rainforest to the drier “Australian” bush—and I managed to stay less injured than the rest, only getting two leeches, falling only a few times and not badly, and getting stung by one stinging tree. My jungle-skills from up north prevented me from becoming stuck in the wait-a-whiles that attacked everyone else, and even though very sleepy, I’m more used to navigating rocks.

Night

• Too exhausted to even consider making dinner, I had Thai from the nearest Thai place, and fell into bed.

25.03.2007 – Sunday 25 March – Relaxing

Morning

• I had a quiet morning. I’m a little achy, after my walk yesterday. Interestingly, my shoulders are bruised from my pack, which hasn’t happened to this extent before, even though I’ve carried it far further and when loaded far heavier.

Afternoon

• Feeling guilty for sitting inside all morning, despite being a bit sore, I caught a bus into the city with a view to take a few photos and get some lunch. Typically, as soon as I got to South Bank, it began to rain, though I managed to get a Hungry Jack’s Veggie Baguette and a bus home, without getting too wet.

Night

• Maz and I had curry from the Indian place near here for dinner.

26.03.2007 – Monday 26 March – Sleepy

• Up at a quarter past five in the morning, catching the city cat to work (early shifts at EB this week), working, finding that the server my site is on has been downgraded to PHP 4 by accident, yelling at my web host, working some more, catching the city cat home again, walking to Woolworths, shopping, and eating a nice dinner cooked by Krish. Just a few of the annoying things I had to do before bed.

27.03.2007 – Tuesday 27 March – Taxi

5:15am

• I woke up, having got around four and a half hours sleep, and decided it was worth paying twenty dollars for an extra forty minutes sleep. While rather expensive, it was a lovely forty minutes. It takes about a minute to get a taxi to my door at this time of day, and just under twenty dollars to get to work, as opposed to the fifteen-minute walk to the city cat, followed by the relatively slow, but quite pleasant and scenic, city cat ride.

Day

• I worked.

Afternoon

• I played around with some photos I took on Sunday, trying to figure out why it’s so much harder to make panoramas from photos from my new camera.

Evening

• I did some more work on the Stone site.

Night

• I had a late dinner, and rushed to bed, excessively late—I’ll get less than five hours sleep, again.

28.03.2007 – Wednesday 28 March – Sleepier

Morning

• I woke up shortly after the city cat would have left, again having got around four and a half hours sleep, and again, had to catch a taxi to work. This is getting to be an expensive habit. I then worked, while other people sailed.

Evening

• I walked to Woolworths with Maz, where I bought his groceries, he having forgotten his wallet.

Night

• I decided that I must get to bed early tonight, so as to avoid abject conjunctive liver and kidney failure, or whatever it is that happens to people that work more than they sleep, but things happened, and when they had finally finished happening, Clint needed to do an emergency food grab from the IGA. By the time I got to bed, it was again after midnight.

29.03.2007 – Thursday 29 March – Sleepiest

Morning

• With minutes of sleep now valued higher than chocolate biscuits, I decided that the fifteen-minute walk to the city cat is an inefficient way to get to work, so caught a bus that’s only a minute from my door. I then proceeded to get lost, walking a long way in the right direction, only to find that it was a different right direction to the actual right direction. For some reason the city planners built the city pointing in the wrong direction here.

Lunch

• Today I learnt that it takes a little over three times longer to make extra cheesy spaghetti as hot as extra cheesy baked beans, in the especially angry microwave here at work.

Evening

• Fixed an annoying problem where IE displayed white “speckles” or seemingly random pixels in the opaque resulting image from the image-fade-in loading script I’m using on my journal.

Night

• I got to sleep a little after midnight, which was not what I should have done.

Comment by Maz – Monday 2 April 2007, 3:46 PM

  Make a new label for it that says "Radiation king" or something?

Comment by Ned – Monday 2 April 2007, 6:39 PM

  Exactly why it has that label I don’t know. Nearly everything is labelled. That’s what happens when you let people work all night and leave labellers lying around.

Comment by Maz – Thursday 5 April 2007, 11:23 AM

  Yeah. We have a few Dymo labellers here and have a similar problem but people don't have such a sense of humour. Or I just don't get the insider jokes.

30.03.2007 – Friday 30 March – Work, Complaining & Cold Rock

Night

• I dropped past Cold Rock on the way to Maz’s, before heading up to Café E, for a pasta dinner.

Comment by krait – Sunday 1 April 2007, 11:51 AM

  Hmm, your rss feed said come here to read the article because of the addition of photos, but I don't see any... Additionally, the length of the entry is actually *shorter* than the message in your feed redirecting me here ;)

Comment by Ned – Sunday 1 April 2007, 10:56 PM

  That is true. No photos here explicitly, but photos in various entries now, which, mostly due to needing cookies, can’t be put into RSS. Also, I enjoy the design of my sites, and RSS defeats the purpose of that.

Comment by Maz – Monday 2 April 2007, 3:45 PM

  RSS would only defeat the purpose if by reading it, people were not encouraged to visit the site for some reason or another. Perhaps you should have something that says [image removed] or something so people come here to see the images.
  Maybe having something that says more than "Went to cold rock" too? And as Krait has shown, the rss actually gets people to visit the site, (thus not defeating the purpose of design).

Comment by Ned – Monday 2 April 2007, 6:38 PM

  That is essentially what it does now–it basically says “image removed”. If nothing else, it’s an experiment, and, not to sound provocative, the reason today’s entry is so short is that the rest is hidden as it involves work. People with a login can read it.

31.03.2007 – Saturday 31 March – Crazy Gothish & Missing People

Morning

• I finally had a little bit of a sleep-in, though probably not as much as I should have. I got up sometime after nine o’clock, walked up to the real estate to deliver a request for maintenance form, and caught a bus into the city to post photos to Mum. The crazy Gothish seem to gather in the mall now that their park has been turned into a bus-tunnel-construction-zone.

Afternoon

• I wandered slowly home via the Botanical Gardens, where the SES were hunting for a missing person, and South Bank markets, where I couldn’t resist taking a photo of a “no photos” sign.

Night

• I have had a relaxing, albeit somewhat geeky, night chatting online and fighting the JavaScript that lets me add photos to my journal. It’s a horrible mess of child nodes nested in child nodes, and wasn’t handling the case where an acronym was contained within an image link, which was itself before text where another image link was to be added. It’s crying out for some amazingly clever recursive function, but I dislike JavaScript and hope to never have to look at it again. Now I should consider getting some sleep, so as to be recovered for next week.

01.04.2007 – Sunday 1 April – Zombies

Morning

• Ned had a pleasant sleep-in.

2pm

• Ned and Maz and caught a bus to South Bank, and walked back to the Roma Street Parklands, where many zombies were gathering for their annual walk, through the city, past Queen Street Mall, and on to the botanical gardens. The police were out, ostensibly to keep traffic out of the way of the zombies, but overall it was a well-organised collection of, well… zombies. Maz had one zombie bite his ear, and I had one throw a bottle at me, but I also took 551 photos—getting to well and truly test my new 75–300mm lens—and had a great time.

Night

• Ned dropped past Maz’s, managing to get to bed with enough time to sleep for nearly six hours. Dreams of zombies not permitted.

02.04.2007 – Monday 2 April – Tsunamis, Management, and is “is” is?

Morning

• This morning began early—I’m working seven to three in the fishbowl. It also began a little worryingly—I received a call from Mum—“Hello, we’ve been advised to evacuate, a Tsunami may hit within the hour, got to go”. I phoned Tulani and Silas, finding out that non-essential staff had been sent home from Cairns Base (or at least some on the lower floors, apparently a Godzilla sized tsunami wasn’t expected), leaving the rest to drown, or save those that had, depending how strong the windows there are. As it turned out, nothing happened—the ocean rose about a foot, causing discomfort to a seagull and confusing the seaweed.

Evening

• I’ve done almost entirely nothing. After my stressful, and rather long, day at work, I’ve chilled—eating dinner cooked by Nandini, and getting in my washing. I didn’t even go to Cold Rock, though I am keeping up my exercise schedule—completing fifty sit-ups, push-ups and leg-ups, and concentrating hard on philosophical subjects—my favourite right now being one I found from a hoax discussion the BBC hosted some years back—is “is” is?

Night

• After a little pondering, and a twitch through the Oxford, I found that is is “that which exists”, so clearly, is is; however, this only works if is doesn’t, because if is does, according to the Oxford, then is, as a past indicative, was—which might mean is isn’t anymore—and once we get to the past participial, is is in fact, isn’t, or in the case of the colloquial, ain’t, wa’n’t, weren’t, and basically, never was. So there we have it: is “is” is? According to the Oxford, is isn’t, unless it is—or as they put it, is is “an irregular and defective verb”. And that’s not a question.

Comment by Mum – Wednesday 4 April 2007, 6:08 PM

  I am that I am. Which cometh from the Holy Bible, and is God describing Himself. Or if you prefer, Jesus.s description, much more blunt and to the point in regard to the is "is" is, which was a succinct and overt pointer to finding out if is "is". "GO TO NOW" So, if you want to know if is "is", you will have to go to where Jesus Christ bloody well points you. Which is to go to NOW. I mean, right NOW.

03.04.2007 – Tuesday 3 April – Pizza

Morning

• The day progressed. I worked. I had a look at the hole they’ve dug for the new Inner Northern Busway. The day continued progressing.

Evening

• I had a chat Nandini about life in general, to Roberto about upcoming Stone site changes, and an otherwise relaxing evening consuming pizza, it being cheap pizza Tuesday.

04.04.2007 – Wednesday 4 April – 300

6am

• I’m already up, and about to head to work. I am, naturally, sleepy, but I will have a reasonable day at work.

Evening

• I walk home from work, then on to Coles at Toowong via the unlit park with scary shadows and hidden tripping rocks, hunting for mythical “Pluravit” multivitamins—the best there are, according to a Choice study Clint dug up. My new Solid Internet account is finally enabled.

3am

• Going to the midnight premiere of “300” at Indooroopilly was probably not a good idea, but I had no choice. At about twelve to nine, Clint asked if I wanted to go see “Bra Boys” at ten to nine, which of course, I did. Unsurprisingly, however, once we got there it had already been running for some time; and of course, as we can never retreat, never submit, we bought tickets to a midnight premiere instead.
  It turned out to be quite busy, quite violent, and overall, quite good. There was a very disturbing start, with a good-looking girl sitting alone in the row in front of us, and clearly looking for someone. Clint and I couldn’t help wondering what fine specimen of manhood would come to claim this damsel, but the man—and I hesitate to use the word—that eventually eventuated, wasn’t, well, much at all—and to make matters worse, the instant the credits started, he left, leaving her there alone. However, this horrible injustice aside, the movie was good, I had a litre of chocolate milk and a block of peppermint dark chocolate, it started at midnight, and had slow-motion fight scenes and an oracle with nipples. What more could one want from the movies?

4am

• Time appears to have progressed. I need to be up in a little less than two hours, so shall fall into bed for a patent pending power nap.

Comment by Maz – Thursday 5 April 2007, 7:53 AM

  Yet Clint and yourself returned, single. Typical. :P

Comment by Ned – Thursday 5 April 2007, 8:25 AM

  I want an oracle with nipples. One that can predict Lotto results.

05.04.2007 – Thursday 5 April – Awake

5:20am

• Nandini and Georgia arrived home, waking me. Having had just over an hour’s sleep, headed off to work. I took chocolate, bought chocolate milk, and was given much more Easter chocolate.

Evening

• Had a sleep when I got home from work. Not sleeping is fun, but I have too many things to do, and need some semblance of normality to do them.

Night

• Popped around to Maz’s for a bit. Maz suggested writing something that’d send all the photos from my site to flickr. This wasn’t something I had planned to do, but as soon as he said it, I began thinking of ways to do it—which means I’m doomed, and have to stay up all night until I get it done.

4am

• Here’s hoping my evening nap gets me through, because this has not turned into an early night. Still, I’m suitably impressed with my flickr integration thing—it builds a queue of images, and slowly sends them through to flickr, complete with tags, titles and descriptions. It seems as though it might even work.

06.04.2007 – Friday 6 April – Rainbows & Relationships

Morning

• Woke up early but went back to bed, and managed to have a bit of a sleep in. Hurrah for a badly needed day off work.

3:30pm

• Eerily windy. Industrially framed rainbow, right over the city.

4:30pm

• Raining a little. It’s miraculous. Water is actually coming from the sky, as in times of old.

4:31pm

• That wasn’t very much rain.

Evening

• Booked flights to Perth for Dad.

Night

• Curry with Maz and Loki. Found out flickr only displays 200 most recent photos on free account, so all my effort writing my thing that sends all my photos to flickr was essentially useless.

1:30am

• Bed. Working tomorrow. Suspect I’ll be sleepy.

Comment by io – Sunday 8 April 2007, 6:11 AM

  Wow I saw that brief rainbow at that time too; although it wasn't so pretty from the UQ Tennis Courts. Unfortunately, msngirl couldn't see it through the trees and thought that I was trying to distract her when I said "Look rainbow!". Random fact: some rainbow website tells me that (horizon-horizon) rainbows aren't actually that common - makes sense cause you need sun to be low, and rain to be in front of sun, and sun to be beneath cloud.
  
  All that said, very nice pic - what settings did you use? I think the last time I tried to take a photo of a rainbow; I was about 12 and wasted a bit of film on the reel.

07.04.2007 – Saturday 7 April – Waxing & Waning

Morning

• Got a taxi to work—early shift at EB. Bought tickets to Perth, leaving early tomorrow morning, coming back Wednesday night. For some reason, flights back are at a premium—I’m flying via Adelaide. It cost a little over eight hundred dollars, and I expect work won’t be too happy about the lack of notice, but Pop’s operation isn’t going to be postponed for my convenience.

Evening

• So much to do, so little motivation. Instead, I’m putting photos of the Mareeba Motocross on my site. I’ve re-concluded, for the umpteenth time, that while I seem to operate just fine on almost no sleep, it’s actually bad for me. It’s made me emotionally unstable now, which is not particularly fun.
  Fortunately, it’s nothing a little sleep won’t fix. Unfortunately, it’s not looking like I’ll get any sleep in the foreseeable future, what with early flights, traumatic relatives, work, life, etc.

1am

• I’ve packed for Perth, and have to get up in exactly four and three quarter hours.

08.04.2007 – Sunday 8 April – Perth

Very Early

• I got up and caught a train to the airport, arriving late, bypassing the queue, and going straight to boarding. Qantas really is better. No waiting. No missing the flight.

8:20am

• A Boeing 767-300 (2-3-2) flew me to Perth, uneventfully. I was planning to sleep, but accidentally got engrossed in the movies—“The Holiday” and “The Pursuit of Happyness”—a silly romantic movie followed by a feel-good movie, which really wasn’t what I needed in my current sleep-deprived and emotionally traumatised state. The movies, as crappy as they were, passed the time well, and combined with what wasn’t a bad breakfast and the lack of hard sell, made flying Qantas much more pleasant than Jetstar or Virginblue.

11:40am

• I arrive in Perth, where I’m picked up by Lois. It’s quite nippy. For some reason, I always think Perth is roughly the same latitude as Brisbane, but of course, it’s more in line with Sydney, so much cooler. The lack of humidity is very nice too—no sweat. It seems Yellow Cabs and Black and White Taxis have lost out over here—they have Tri-Colour Cabs. It also seems that everyone here has personalised number plates, and those that don’t have random ones—there must be at least twenty different standard templates, including town- and sporting-team-specific plates. I meet Laurie and Jill at Lois’s place.

Evening

• Lois and I go to hospital to see Pop, who looks unexpectedly healthy to me, but is a bit vague. Once back at Lois’s, I meet Bryce, and we drive to the airport to pick up Dad, who only just made it due to his Cairns to Adelaide flight being delayed due to an aircraft swap.

09.04.2007 – Monday 9 April – Pop

Morning

• Lois, Dad and I go to see Pop. Jill and Laurie, and then Bryce, turn up shortly after. Shirley is already there.

Afternoon

• Lois, Dad, Jill, Laurie, and I spend the afternoon at King’s Park. The grass is much greener over this side of the country. Despite having perpetual water woes, they’ve stated that a non-green city wouldn’t be a “city for people”, so refuse to ban sprinkling, unlike the morons over here who are busily tearing up all the water fountains. I heartily support this attitude, as water and greenery is more important, if anything, when there’s a lack, though “Perth—a city for people” is perhaps one of the worst mottos ever.

Evening

• Lisa drops by Lois’s, on her way to see Pop.

10.04.2007 – Tuesday 10 April – Pop’s Surgery

6am

• Lois and Shirley go to see Pop. The hospital doesn’t want visitors at this time of day so no one else goes.

9am

• Pop has his operation.

Morning

• Laurie and I drive to Lisa’s, so I can check for email from work, and then on to Centro Galleria—the largest shopping centre in the Southern hemisphere when it was built. Lisa and one of her sons, along with Bryce, Dad, Laurie, Jill, and after a while, Lois, are now at Lois’s, nervously filling in time.

Afternoon

• I walked down to the Galleria, and caught a bus into Perth. They have the smart-card based tickets here that Brisbane has been trying to implement, and they seem to be working well. I wander around Perth, ending up at King’s Park, finding lots of steps, and an internet café, where I again check my email. I had forgotten how sandy Perth is—what they call “soil”, we’d call “sand”.

6pm

• I head back to Lois’s, where Lisa and her husband, along with their kids, are.

11.04.2007 – Wednesday 11 April – Brisbane

Morning

• Dad, Laurie and I drive to Fremantle, via Dad’s childhood house, for a bit of sightseeing, before dropping me at the airport.

1:55pm

• I fly to Adelaide on a Boeing 737-800 (3-3). It’s an uneventful flight. I have mushroom ravioli for dinner. The movie is again “The Pursuit of Happyness”, so I don’t watch that, watching instead some of the finalists from this year’s Sony Tropfest.

6:15pm

• I arrive in Adelaide, where, unlike Brisbane or Perth, they recommend not drinking water from the toilet bowl. At least they’re not pumping it back into the dams, as Brisbane is going to, I suppose.

7:15pm

• I emplane another Boeing 737-800, this time to Brisbane. Once again, it’s an uneventful flight, though this time I have a specially ordered Indian meal for dinner, complete with four pappadums.

10:05pm

• I deplane back in Brisbane, where it appears not much has changed. I catch a taxi home, and listen to the driver complain about how the school holidays are going to ruin him, along with the tolls, and the stupidity of the new cross-city tunnel they’re constructing.

3am

• I go to bed.

12.04.2007 – Thursday 12 April – Sleepy & Stupid

6am

• Yay for stupidity. I caught a taxi to work, eating some Easter bunny and iced coffee on the way to make sure I don’t fall asleep, only to find I’m not working until three o’clock. Then, once I got home, I couldn’t sleep. So, instead, I’m gazing blankly at things, wishing it wasn’t so humid here—the lack of sweat in Perth was lovely—and stitching up panoramas of Perth using “autostitch”, which appears to be brilliant, albeit very slow.

2pm

• Off to work—again. Taxi home. Stay up late. Zombie mode on.

13.04.2007 – Friday 13 April – Normal

Morning

• We sleep in. We’re now back to normal, we think. But is it because we’re thinking, that we think we’re normal, when perhaps we’re not normally normal, but how we normally think, is how we think normal is, making it all a little more confusing than normal?

Afternoon

• Work. I’m the only one at EB. Walk home. Lots of people in city. The police are hunting drink drivers, and messing up the traffic in the process.

14.04.2007 – Saturday 14 April – Relaxing

Afternoon

• Had a fairly quiet evening at home, snoozing for a bit, dropping around Maz’s shortly after midnight to pick up some panorama software, and getting to bed shortly thereafter.

15.04.2007 – Sunday 15 April – Saucepans & Milkshakes

• Went shopping at Garden City. Bought three saucepans and a milkshake.

Night

• Had curry for dinner with Maz.

16.04.2007 – Monday 16 April – Mondayitis

Morning

• Up at a quarter to six, out the door by ten past, buying a milkshake at a quarter to seven, and in the fishbowl, complaining about everything, by ten to seven. Making an entire room out of glass is not a good idea when it’s sixteen degrees. Nor do mice work on the glass tabletops. Glass rubbish bins are a bit odd too. Still, I suppose it looks good and impresses prospective clientele.

Afternoon

• I went well for half the day, then Mondayitis struck. The rest was a struggle. I tried eating beans, drinking various flavoured milk and soft drink, eating a chocolate bar, and eventually feeling terrible and vowing never to eat sugary things again.

Night

• I had an evening snooze, which made me feel somehow guilty. Reheated palak paneer (पालक पनीर, apparently) from last night made a nice and suitably un-sugary dinner.

1am

• The girls have finished watching their DVD, and I’ve finished listening to music and avoiding doing things I should be doing, and am off to bed. Last.fm and Pandora make having one’s own music collection essentially pointless. I guess it’s the modern equivalent of advertising-supported free-to-air radio.

17.04.2007 – Tuesday 17 April – Pizza & A Large Balloon

Morning

• I woke up just a little after my bus left. Fortunately, I don’t believe in time. Unfortunately, work and the public transport system do. There was a large balloon frolicking. The connection is not immediately obvious.

Evening

• I visited Cold Rock and Maz, who made me a banana and chocolate super shake and is reinstalling Windows on his new server, respectively.

Night

• It being cheap pizza night, cheap pizza was had.

18.04.2007 – Wednesday 18 April – Chocolate Milk

Morning

• I went to sleep at a reasonable hour last night, yet I’m sleepier today than I was yesterday. It seems there’s little, if any, point going to bed early. I seem to be more efficient when tired. I seem to be less tired if I don’t sleep enough. I’m sure something there doesn’t make sense.

Day

• I went to Woolworths to buy corn chips, spicy Mexican dip, Mexican chilli beans, corn, and a small carton of chocolate milk. Regrettably, three litre bottles of chocolate milk were on special, and it seemed rather silly buying a small carton of milk when it actually cost more than a large bottle… so all day I’ve been drinking chocolate milk and eating corn chips with dip. I think that covers at least two food groups.

Night

• The search for the mystical Pluravit multivitamins (and a need to escape from being inside) took me to their alleged source—Coles at Hawken Village—however, they managed to maintain their mystical status, being nowhere to be found.
  There’s a third girl staying here at the moment—a friend of Nandini’s—and I’m avoiding doing things I should be, so I watched a variety of junky television with her.

Comment by Mum – Saturday 21 April 2007, 12:22 AM

  For goodness sake. You wouldnt need the bloody multivitamins if you gave up the toxic chocolate milk and the mexican dip and the etc etc. Why dont you get yourself one of those papers which actually tell you what the toxins and additives are in all that crap you are eating. One cannot hope to maintain reasonable health whilst eating all that crap.
  As far as the sleeping hours go...It is like a coiled spring. When one is overtired (or stressed) and one finally gets an early night, the coils begins to unwind, but it takes a little while....so one oft times feels more tired after "an early night" but is only the beginning of the unwinding.
  Is always best to try to have as early a night as possible as the mind and also the spirit are more alive so to speak in the early am. It is also a time when one can have a little china blue slice of solitude in the hectic ness of city life.

19.04.2007 – Thursday 19 April – Not a lot

Morning

• I made a semi-conscious decision to sleep in a little longer, arriving at work just slightly late.

Night

• Some of my called mates went and saw the movie I wanted to see, without telling me they were going, after I’d already asked them if they wanted to see it. I’m not particularly impressed.

Comment by Maz – Thursday 19 April 2007, 9:47 PM

  You never asked me if I wanted to go see it. So if anything I should feel left out.

Comment by Ned – Thursday 19 April 2007, 9:48 PM

  Yes I did.

Comment by Mum – Saturday 21 April 2007, 12:30 AM

  Grow up. Both of you.

Comment by Maz – Wednesday 25 April 2007, 12:44 PM

  He started it!

Comment by Mum – Friday 27 April 2007, 7:30 PM

  Oh,well. Things collapsing over the planet hither and yon. One does not want to agitate over nothings. A missed appointment....oh sorrow....?? Has either of you lost a limb. I mean, get real.

20.04.2007 – Friday 20 April – Working

• I worked. It wasn’t very exciting. The Holden Blimp is back. I thought it had been banned.

21.04.2007 – Saturday 21 April – Relaxing

Evening

• I’ve had a relaxing day, and now a pleasant curry dinner.

22.04.2007 – Sunday 22 April – Relaxing

• It’s been quite hot. I’ve had another pleasant, relaxing, day.

23.04.2007 – Monday 23 April – Work

• I worked late shift at EB. That pretty much sums up my day.

24.04.2007 – Tuesday 24 April – Work, Romanians & Toc House

• Up at a normal time. Into the city to find a macadamia nut cracker. Then off to work. Chatted to the cleaning lady, who it turns out is a Romanian lawyer, who had to go on a hunger strike to get out of the country. There was a nice sunset over Brisbane.

Midnight

• I stopped past Toc House’s ANZAC day event, at the Eternal Flame, and didn’t get to bed until after half past two.

25.04.2007 – Wednesday 25 April – ANZAC Day

10am

• I attended the ANZAC Day parade, the one day in Australia when there’s a lot of Australian flags. I managed to catch up with Joe.

Afternoon

• Work.

Night

• I was approached by a gent near Roma Street, with “you can help me, or you can call the police”. Twenty dollars, and several minutes, later, I left, feeling somehow guilty for giving him money, but also guilty for not giving him more. I then witnessed two backpackers attempting to kill each other.

Comment by Mum – Saturday 5 May 2007, 7:12 PM

  What? Twenty dollars and several minutes later. If this is artistic license, designed to make your journal "interesting", well.... Your Mum reads your journal, and it gets up my nose that you write these things which worry me, as if they are just ordinary things. You ought to feel guilty for writing things that are potentially horrible in an offhand and casual manner, just to make you "cool" whatever the hell that is. I am very cross with you. I can only assume the 2 backpackers you saw attempting to kill each other werent besmattered with blood, although if they were it might have made your journal today a little less bland. And a little more interesting to the mob who log in or on or whatever it is that people log onto who have nothing more interesting or educational to do

Comment by Mum – Saturday 5 May 2007, 7:13 PM

  Get a life.

Comment by Mum – Saturday 5 May 2007, 7:16 PM

  All of you

Comment by Mum – Monday 7 May 2007, 5:26 PM

  Sorry. An extreme reaction. Just scared me a bit. I live in the most beautiful part of Australia, where no one locks their car or even their house, well, most of us. Is a bit scarey the things that can happen in the big bad cities. Anyway, Mums will always be Mums and who of you do not stiffen when Ma uses "that" voice. You should not have stolen all those biscuits and sneaked out that night, etc. Did you really think Ma did not know, having " been there, done that". This is addressed to anyone who reads this. Is okay. Is actually love and concern for all you ratbags who have Mum at home, worrying, loving. Thank goodness that He can erase any of my comments that embarrass him. This will, no doubt, be one. Peace