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Year View| Summary| Highlights| March 2003 (Month View)

Nov ‘02 | Dec ‘02 | Jan ‘03 | Feb ‘03 | Mar ‘03 Apr ‘03 | May ‘03 | Jun ‘03 | Jul ‘03 |

01.03.2003 – Saturday 1 March – I arrive in Brisbane

Morning

• Silas and I awoke, amazingly still alive. After discovering one of the headlights was falling off and taping it back on, we continued on our way.

Evening

• We drove and drove, taking turns. We passed through Gympie, saw the turnoff to where I used to live, and continued on. The small two lane highway changed into a four lane freeway and we drove into Brisbane. We passed over the Gateway toll bridge, got lost by missing the right exit, drove around a few suburbs and found an alternative route, found the right road and once we were close enough Silas’s memory kicked in and he recognized where we were and we found Joe’s place. We said hello and headed upstairs for a much needed shower. I don’t remember exactly when we arrived, but it must have been close to six o’clock.

Night

• Silas’s uncle, Joe, had a few whiskies and Silas had a few of his home brews and we all talked then went to bed.

02.03.2003 – Sunday 2 March – My first day in Brisbane

Morning

• I awoke just before Joe had to go to a meeting. Silas woke up a while later and we talked and messed around all morning until Joe got home just after twelve.

Evening

• Silas and I walked down to the train station so I’d know where to go tomorrow morning. It is only a five minute walk from here, and about a half hour journey by train to Dutton Park Station, which is close to the university ferry. We walked on to the supermarket and bought a few supplies. When we got back Melanie (Joe’s daughter) and Tim (her fiancé) were here. We all talked for a while and then they left. Silas, Joe and I had a barbecue, although seeing as I don’t eat meat it wasn’t much of a barbecue for me, and then Silas left to go to Melanie and Tim’s place, which is where he stays. Joe and I walked the dog. It is a funny dog, very scared of any men it doesn’t know, but not at all afraid of women. It wouldn’t come with me for a walk, so Joe had to come as well. Hopefully it will get used to me quickly as I’ll probably be looking after it for a while. Joe is a bus driver, and works from about 2 PM until after midnight, so I’m going to be feeding the dog (and the cat) in the evening when I get home from university, and in two weeks Joe is going to Sydney for a week or two, so I’ll be looking after the dog and cat fulltime then.

Night

• I watched a movie (or the ending of a movie), and then headed upstairs to type this and make myself something to eat. The house has an upstairs and downstairs. Joe lives downstairs. He has everything he needs down there and apparently rarely comes upstairs. I have a room upstairs, and can use the kitchen, toilet, shower etc. up here while he has his own down there. As I will most probably be going to university most mornings and as Joe works most evenings, we won’t actually see each other all that much. This sounds good to me, as I’d like to just do my own thing as much as possible and keep quietly to myself, at least until I’ve settled in a bit. I think I’ll go cook up something for dinner now.

11:39pm

• Seeing as I have to catch the 6:27 train tomorrow morning, I might go to bed.

03.03.2003 – Monday 3 March – My first day at University

Morning

• I woke at six when my alarm went off. I got up at ten past six, when my brain woke up. I had brushed my hair, got breakfast, and looked at the clock.

6:22am

• I ran out the door and headed towards the 6:27am train. By the time I got to the stairs over the overpass I was about to collapse. Walking up the stairs wasn’t easy, and I don’t think I should run so soon after eating either. I just managed to buy a ticket when the train came. Half an hour later I was at Dutton Park Station and Silas arrived there shortly after I did. We walked past the dead centre of town, down a path through a nice park towards the river and to the ferry station.

University

• $1.20 got me across the river on a ferry, and then Silas and I walked around the university until it was time for my eight o’clock lecture. It was mainly an introductory thing. This was followed by my nine o’clock lecture, which was also an introductory thing. After this I went and sat in with Silas’s two hour lecture. After that we went down to the computer labs and messed around. I couldn’t gain access as it wouldn’t accept my login so I had to use Silas’s. ICQ works, IRC doesn’t. Fortunately my email works, even though it uses port 2082. I guess they have a strict firewall.

Evening

• Silas and I left university and walked to where Silas stays. After a cup of tea and a chat we walked down to the post office, and then the train station where I caught a train home. I fed the cat and dog, fed myself, and collapsed exhausted.

04.03.2003 – Tuesday 4 March

Joy

• I slept in.

Day

• I planned to arrive at uni around eleven, and headed down to the train station at the appropriate time. But it was not to be. The train was delayed forty five minutes. I arrived at my lecture just as it started, and I just about had to run to make it too. After my lecture I met Silas. We caught a bus to Indooroopilly shopping centre and did some shopping. I bought some lead and some pencils, ring binders, paper and lecture pads. I wanted to buy a twenty five metre telephone extension lead but couldn’t find one. Silas bought a few similar things and then we caught a train back. I continued on to my station and walked back here. I then walked to the local shopping centre. I managed to find it straight away, which I thought was good. I did some shopping, loaded my backpack up and still had two bags left to carry, and decided to be brainy and find a shorter way home. I am quite sure you can guess what happened. As the frozen things in my bag slowly froze my back, and the sharp things poked into me, I walked across a toxic waste dump, down a street, around another street, up another street, down another street, up another street, across a road and found my street. Just as my legs were failing I arrived home. I fed the dog and cat, had a shower, got my things ready for the early train tomorrow and went to sleep.

05.03.2003 – Wednesday 5 March – I bought my textbooks

Morning

• Another eight o’clock start at uni. This time I didn’t need to run to catch the train, but I did walk fast. I think I need to allow more than fifteen minutes before the train leaves. I can’t wake up, eat, brush hair, and wake up again in that time. Today was lots of math, Yuk.

Evening

• Silas and I caught a bus out to QU Books to buy textbooks. It was fortunate for me that I had Silas with me, as I’d never have found it otherwise, and the books are cheaper than at the uni book shop. I spent $222.85 and got “Calculus”, “Java Genesis” and “Discrete Mathematics”. Yuk. They were heavy too, and I was tired of carrying them by the time I got home.

06.03.2003 – Thursday 6 March

Morning

• It was raining lightly, so I got slightly wet and cold. Some of the lecture theatres at uni have very cold air conditioning, which is even colder when I’m wet. However I survived.

Night

• Joe ordered some Chinese takeaway, which was delivered shortly after, and we ate that. I then went to bed.

07.03.2003 – Friday 7 March

Morning

• I needed to be at uni by nine, so I headed down to the station fairly early, after a quick breakfast. I had a one hour math lecture, followed by two hours of Internet interface design lecture, and then an hour of programming. I then headed down to the computer labs to use a PC to sort out my timetable, as I’ve discovered I need to add another two practicals. Hopefully this will now be my final schedule for the rest of the semester. I’m reasonably happy with it; I think it is not too bad, not as bad as Silas’s anyway. I’ve managed to get most things fairly consecutive, as it is too far to travel in and out more than once a day.

Night

• I headed for the ferry and then Silas’s. He and Gus were home. Silas and I walked down to Jaycar Electronics where I bought a 30 metre telephone extension lead so that I can move my PC into a far room where there is a table and get it up off the floor. Then, hopefully, I can actually type with ease again. Silas and I made an eggplant and potato curry for dinner and ate that, after which I caught a train home, arriving back here around 9:30. I spent some time on the Internet, happy in the knowledge that I don’t have to get up early and go in to uni tomorrow.

08.03.2003 – Saturday 8 March

Morning

• I had a sleep in. Joe went to a car wrecker and got a starter motor and handbrake cable, which he put in his car. While he was doing that I moved all my stuff down to the end room. I now have a table and can sit at my PC. This makes it a lot easier to do things.

Night

• Joe and I ordered pizza, which we ate while watching TV. I also installed Kawa and a Java SDK, so I can start on some things I need to do for uni. My website is partly unavailable, as the xslt component is not currently installed because the servers underwent emergency maintenance to patch a security hole which was recently discovered.

09.03.2003 – Sunday 9 March

Morning

• Joe mowed the lawn and I did as little as possible. Silas rang and we arranged to go into the city. I caught a train in to Silas’s station and walked up to his place. We messed around with his computer for a while and installed some hardware temperature monitoring things. His computer overheats.

Evening

• Silas and I walked into Southbank and went to the museum and library and generally had a look around, and then walked back to his place again. I caught the 6:17 train back home and had a shower.

Night

• Tonya, one of Joe’s daughters, came around with her boyfriend/husband/fiancé, so I’ve got to meet all three of Joe’s daughters now.

10.03.2003 – Monday 10 March

• Today was an early start. I got up particularly early so I wouldn’t have to run and just walked very fast instead. I did the uni thing, and met Silas after. We caught a train, then a taxi (because the station we stopped at was in the middle of nowhere) to Gamedude Computers. The DiscShop happened to be right beside it, so we went there as well. We then tried to walk back to civilization, but got stuck in an industrial estate and ended up walking for a long time and a long way until we got here. Silas bought an 80 GB hard drive, so we formatted that here and copied a few DVD ISO’s which I had across, plus some music, then he headed home and I had a quiet and uneventful evening.

11.03.2003 – Tuesday 11 March

• I went to Centrelink at uni and discussed what and how to fill out the various forms so as to get paid. I had a short day at uni today, as I didn’t go to my tutorial because I haven’t done the assignment which needed to be handed in at my tutorial. Joe had left for work by the time I got home. I phoned Mum and arranged to express post some Centrelink forms which she needs to fill out, then phoned some couriers to arrange to pick up my monitor. The rip-offs tried to charge me $60, but I eventually found one who would do it for $25. They should deliver it tomorrow evening after I’m back from uni. I hope. Now, after spending ages filling out complex Centrelink forms, time for bed.

12.03.2003 – Wednesday 12 March

5:45am

• My alarm clock went off.

6:00am

• I woke up.

6:05am

• I got up.

6:06am

• I ran around in circles getting ready as fast as I could, checked my email, brushed my hair, got dressed, packed my bag, forgot the water, and headed out into the drizzle. I was quite fortunate rain wise. It drizzled on me as I walked swiftly down to the station, and then began to pour as I got on the train. By the time I got to Dutton Park and walked down to the ferry, it was back to a light drizzle. The instant I got under cover at uni it began to pour down.

Later

• I went to my lectures and did the uni thing, then went to the uni Centrelink. They were quite rude, which was totally uncalled for as I was nice and polite. They also said I had to go to Centrelink in Toowong, so I emailed Silas, who was down in one of the computer labs, and we went to Toowong. I express posted a form up to Mum for her to sign, and went to Centrelink and got, filled out and lodged another form. We both also bought small fold-up umbrellas, which turned out to be a good idea.

Even Later

• Silas and I caught a train home, he hopped off at his station, and I changed trains and continued on here. It was raining when I got to my station, so I used my new umbrella for the first time.

Even Later II

• I opened my discrete mathematics text and started reading – for the first time. That’s quite enough said about that, it is not fun. I then watched “Open Your Eyes” in Spanish. It was a strange experience. That is the movie which “Vanilla Sky” was based upon, and although I don’t remember it, I must have seen “Vanilla Sky” some time before. All throughout the movie I would see a scene and remember it, sort of like déjà vu, but different. I couldn’t quite remember what would happen, or what was coming next, just that I had seen this before. I suppose because it is actually a different movie, and also I don’t understand a word of Spanish. It did make it very interesting to watch a movie with a plot like that, and have an eerie feeling that I knew what was going to happen, but somehow couldn’t place it.

13.03.2003 – Thursday 13 March

• I didn’t need to be at uni until midday today, so I had a bit of a sleep in. Fortunately for me, Joe was heading off to the shops at the same time as I was heading off to the train station, so I got a lift. The train took the usual thirty four minutes to get to Dutton Park, where I walked briskly through the light rain to the Dutton Part ferry and caught it across the river, a rip off at $1.20. I met Silas at the ferry, but as we were both running late we rushed straight to our lectures. I did the lecture thing at my lectures, then headed down to the computer labs and did my first java assignment and met Silas. We walked up to his place and stayed there the evening. Then I walked down to Park Road train station and caught a very full train back home – and that about sums up my day. As usual I was tired, stressed and worn out. It’s nice (that might not be the right word) to see Silas isn’t fairing any better, he reckons he’s sick from stress, and he’s been at uni for years and this is only the second week! I talked to a friend who is also doing an IT degree, but in South Australia, and he’s got it so much easier. Woe to me.

14.03.2003 – Friday 14 March

Morning

• I had to be at uni by nine today, so I left on the 8:02 train. I almost fell asleep and nearly missed my station. By the time I walked to the ferry and waited for it, then walked to my lecture I was about two minutes late. This was enough though that it took me fifteen minutes to figure out what was going on. It was another wet day, although there were a few sunny periods.

Evening

• I only had morning lectures today, so I was home before three. Mum phoned to let me know she received and has sent my Centrelink forms, so I’ll hopefully get them soon. I walked down to the shops and did some shopping, spending valuable money, but I did get some Milo so I guess it isn’t all bad. What a boring journal entry, but then that’s what it’s like at the moment.

Uni

• So – I have survived two weeks at uni. I’ve got the hang of the lectures and tutorials, I’ve settled in to here where I’m staying, I’ve worked out the trains and know my way from the train station to here to the shopping centre and back again, and how to get to the uni ferry and back again. I’ve also realised that it isn’t going to be enjoyable at uni. It is hard, stressful and unpleasant. It requires a lot of time, a lot of study, and a lot of worry. People all around are joking about how stressed out they are, and how much worse they’ll be when it’s nearer to exams – but I think the joke is at best half hearted. I guess I’m handling it ok, I’m not too worried (yet). I just hope I manage to pass everything – good marks would be an added bonus. The main problem I’m having is that I get too tired. Maybe that’s how I handle stress. By the time I am on my way back from uni, it is all I can do to stay awake in the train. Once I walk back from the train station and get into my room, I really couldn’t handle studying – I literally couldn’t. I open a book and can’t keep my eyes open. It has to be at least partly psychological because I can turn on my PC and mess around doing nothing and I will eventually get over my tiredness. Silas has exactly the same problem. I really can’t keep my eyes open. They actually just close so I can’t see anymore. It’s interesting; I’ve only ever had this happen when driving back from Cairns a few times. I guess I’m just mentally exhausted by the time I get home. It is fairly demanding. A brisk (often very brisk as I’m running late and don’t want to miss the trains, which only run every half hour except during peak time) five minute walk down to the station in the morning, then thirty four minutes sitting in the air-conditioned and quite comfortable train, then another brisk five minute walk to the ferry, a few minutes wait for the ferry, then a minute or so to cross the river, then another few minutes walk to wherever my lecture is. So far most of my walking has been ultra brisk, bordering on running, because it has been either raining or I’ve been late. There’s also quite a hill on the way to the ferry. This leaves me a little exhausted physically, and then I sit in a cold lecture theatre and try to understand and not get sleepy. After fifty minutes of that, it is another brisk walk to find my next lecture. After two or more hours of this and the corresponding trip home, I am both physically and mentally exhausted. I’m not sure that I will get any more used to it either, Silas says he has been like this all last year (and the years before...). Oh what joy.

15.03.2003 – Saturday 15 March

• I slept in, and really enjoyed it too. I drove Joe to his friend’s place, from where he went to the airport on his way to Sydney to go bowling. This means I’ve got the house to myself until Friday. It is a pleasant relief to be alone again. I really don’t like living with people, I wish I could get a place on my own but I don’t have the money. This was also the first time I’ve driven in Brisbane and, with the exception of some Indian cities, the biggest city I’ve driven in. Joe guided me, turn left here, turn right there, take the second left after the s-bend, then the underpass, then the third exit on the roundabout, then onto the motorway, then keep to the left lane, then off this exit, then around a complicated roundabout, a few more twists and turns, a couple of back streets and we’re there. Then it’s easy to get home – just go back the same way. I knew that I hadn’t a chance remembering the exact way home so I didn’t even try. I just drove in the direction I thought would probably be right, taking any street which went the right way... and I got home twice as fast, without having to use the motorway, without any roundabouts or complex twisted streets... In short, a much better way home, and Joe’s a bus driver and lived here for ages – I’d have thought he’d have known the best way around. I then spent the afternoon resting and enjoying being by myself again. I fed the animals and went online for a while, then went to bed.

16.03.2003 – Sunday 16 March

• I slept in. Silas phoned to ask if I had any Linux distributions down with me, which I don’t. I spent most of the day relaxing, watching TV, surfing the web, chatting on IRC and so on. I also had to do two math assignments, one of which was due last week, the other of which is due tomorrow – yucky. I had to feed the animals, shower, cook, eat and all that too. It takes a lot of time just to live; maybe I need to get married?

17.03.2003 – Monday 17 March

• Today was an early start day at uni, so I was up before six, and down at the train station in time for the 6:27 AM train. I wonder if anyone will find this and stalk me, there’s probably enough information in here to accurately locate me at specific times... Anyway, I caught the train in to uni, went to my lecture, tried to understand what the lecturer was talking about, and went to my next lecture, which I did actually understand most of, seeing as I actually got around to reading some of the things I was supposed to read beforehand. Then I made my way down to my discrete math tutorial, meeting Silas on the way to one of his lectures. I handed in last week’s assignment, finished off this week’s assignment with a bit of help from the tutor, and handed that in, then made my way down to the computer engineering labs to check my email (such a worthy use of computing resources), after which I tried to find Silas’s lecture, but he seemed to have already left it so I went back to the labs and met him there. We walked over to his place and spent the evening planning to build a computer for Silas’s brother Amos. I caught a train home just before four, and watched a bit of TV, fed the animals, had a shower, dinner, Milo, and the various things which one must do to sustain life – like avoiding study. My forms arrived back from Mum today, so I’ll take them in to Centrelink tomorrow. I have lots of study to do tomorrow, so I guess I better head off to bed. Oh – I also reconfigured my email, seeing as I now have three email servers, and having to check them from various locations (namely uni and home) I’ve switched back to using IMAP, so I can synchronise my mail a bit better. I made a pile of rules in Outlook to shuffle mail around; so far it seems to be working. Now it is definitely bed time, nearly midnight.

18.03.2003 – Tuesday 18 March

• Well, it’s yet another day in my dismal life. Today will be no different to yesterday or tomorrow. I will wake worrying and depressed, then go to uni to get more worried and depressed, then I will come home again and worry and depress some more. Then I will go on IRC to forget it all and try to talk in a channel which is full of people who either dislike me or are indifferent. Then I will try to ignore the knot of worry in my stomach long enough to go to sleep, for a short respite from the constant grind, before I inevitably have to awaken and face yet another day, the same as the day before. Every day I think of what I didn’t do the day before, and it adds up until to even begin to tackle a simple task has become an overwhelming undertaking. I’d be worried that there was something wrong with me, but everyone else I know is already on antidepressants, and the suicide rate just keeps climbing.

Just remembered

• I gave Centrelink the forms today, but they said that they won’t be processed for at least 28 days, so I guess I’ll go broke.

19.03.2003 – Wednesday 19 March

• Today was an 8 AM start, so it was early to wake and early in to uni for me. I went to my two lectures then up to Silas’s for a short while, then back here. I did some washing, studied and completed an assignment for my programming course, then went to bed – that about sums up today.

20.03.2003 – Thursday 20 March

• This is short because I’m tired. I had a normal day, went in to uni, did uni stuff, submitted two more java lab assessment items, met Silas, stayed at Silas’s place for the evening discussing politics, came home, did things, went to bed.

21.03.2003 – Friday 21 March

• I went to uni, did the uni thing, and then came home. Joe arrived home from Sydney, happy because they won all three games (of bowls) and got to bring his trophies back. I drove Joe down to his bowls club to celebrate and then came back here and studied. The stress made me sleepy and I ended up falling asleep before 6, waking up on and off all night, but being too stressed to get up. Sleeping is sort of peaceful, more so than wakefulness anyway.

22.03.2003 – Saturday 22 March

• I woke reasonably early seeing as I went to sleep so early yesterday evening. I couldn’t bear to get up and face the world so I slept (or rather dozed) in for a while. Once I’d managed to wake up and get motivated I studied for as long as I could and then caught the train in to Silas’s, arriving around 5, planning to go catch a movie, but in typical Silas and I style we never quite got around to doing it and instead spent the evening procrastinating. We ended up watching a video. A bit of a storm came over and the last train had gone, so I stayed the night there.

23.03.2003 – Sunday 23 March

• I left Silas’s place before lunch and came home and studied. Apparently last night’s storm had been much more severe here and a few branches are down. Joe and I ordered pizza for dinner, and his daughter Tonya came over for a while, but I just studied. I took a bit of time out to watch “The One”, which a friend recommended I get when I told him I’d enjoyed “Kiss of the Dragon”. Very Jet Li action, times two – literally. I enjoyed the fight scenes, but it doesn’t compare to “Kiss of the Dragon”.

24.03.2003 – Monday 24 March – Grandpa passes on

• I woke up ten minutes before the train left, having already missed the right train by over half an hour. My alarm clock was in time-set mode and the time had changed. I guess I’d awoken when the alarm went off and changed the time while trying to turn the alarm off, and then gone back to sleep. I jumped up and ran for the train, arriving just as it did. Unfortunately I hadn’t had time to get the things I needed, but fortunately I’d packed some things in my bag last night. If I had packed a pen and my timetable it would have been even better. After my early morning and breakfast-less sprint to the train I felt quite sick, but still managed to run to the ferry and from the ferry to my lecture, arriving only a few minutes late to find it was cancelled. The lecturer is unwell.

• I got an email saying Grandpa passed on this morning, and no one has been able to contact Mum. I phoned Sarah but Mum wasn’t there so I got Shan to drive up and let Mum know.

25.03.2003 – Tuesday 25 March

• Uni wasn’t too early today, so I slept in. My day was quiet, uneventful, and normal. The only thing out of the ordinary today happened after I got home. I fell down the stairs and hurt my neck and back. I have a bad feeling it might be worse when I wake up. I hope not.

26.03.2003 – Wednesday 26 March

Uni

• Normal and uneventful, although my neck is very stiff and sore.

Evening

• I hopped off at Woodridge station and went to the video store to see what I need to do to join. Apparently photo ID and a letter with my current address will do. I’ll bring them tomorrow.

27.03.2003 – Thursday 27 March

Day

• I went to uni and attended my lectures and so forth. I went and saw a lady in student services to see why my HECS was double Silas’s. Apparently some political ploy back when Silas first enrolled ensures that I pay double what he pays. Now seen as a desirable place for foreign students who can pay over three times what an Australian citizen pays to attend the same courses at uni with the knowledge that they won’t (within limits) be failed, the introduction of semi-guaranteed degrees rather than aptitude based degrees has undermined the value of degrees and will eventually undermine the Australian universities themselves, and once the foreign students stop coming, they’ll all go broke. As it is, this year a record number of Australians were denied placing’s at Australian universities, and not due to their school results.

Evening

• I dropped in at the video store on my way home, and was told that photo ID and a letter with my current address on it is no longer sufficient to join, I need two pieces of ID, both with my current address and one of which must be photo ID. I think I’ll start asking people to put in writing and sign everything they say.

Night

• Joe ordered pizza. I am very full now, and off to bed. Oh, and puppy is back from her holiday.

28.03.2003 – Friday 28 March

Morning

• For the first time in ages I made a great effort to get ready and leave in time so I didn’t have to run for the train. I actually arrived at the train station over ten minutes early and was very proud of myself until I realised that I’d read the PM timetable instead of the AM timetable... I still got to uni safely and on time, so I guess that’s all that matters. I had three lectures, which I attended, then phoned Silas to find out where he’d disappeared to.

Evening

• Silas and I then spent the evening down in one of the computer labs frantically modifying his code to conform to a complex style-guide. Around three o’clock we’d gone to submit his assignment before the 4 PM deadline and discovered that it had to conform to a strict coding style which was specified in a 27 page style-guide. It would have been nice if they’d mentioned this fact somewhere other than in the tutorial which Silas missed – the assignment information might have been a good place? Twenty seven people out of a total of seventy failed to hand in their assignments by the deadline, effectively failing that course. By the time we’d finished editing his source code it wouldn’t compile, and with only a few minutes left, we did the only feasible thing and panicked – then once the time ran out, submitted it anyway. Silas is a bit worried as all assessable items in this course must be passed to pass the course. Now that we’re both stressed out we caught the rip-off ferry across the river and calmed down at Silas’s place.

Night

• Silas and I caught the rip-off ferry back to uni again and went to the Bachelor of Information Technology Society’s (BITS) movie and pizza night. We saw “Dogma”, which is a terrible movie. It’s a typical American comedy, entirely unamusing and preposterously absurd, but it was interesting to meet a few people. After the pizza we caught the CityCat catamaran back to Southbank and walked to Silas’s from there, from where I caught the train home.

29.03.2003 – Saturday 29 March

• I slept in for a while. Today was an uneventful day. I drove Joe down to his bowls club where he spent the evening, and I messed around here. I stayed up all night stressing.

30.03.2003 – Sunday 30 March

• I slept in late. I spent most of the day doing my math assignment. Joe did housecleaning and I cleaned the kitchen. Michelle came over in the evening, and later Tonya.

Hosting Problems

• Here’s the reply I got when I queried about why XSLT hasn’t been re-installed on my web host. What’s a guy supposed to do?

• “Why simple, I already tried it before moving everyone over. You should know the story thei. It doesn’t work with 4.3.1. Currently I don’t see any point of going back to 4.2.3 as we will need to upgrade sooner or later and 4.3.2 is on the verge of coming out. Heck, I have spent many hours troubleshooting as to why it will not compile. How about I give you root access to a spare server I have and you can try to compile it.”

• “In a perfect world things would be smoothly but they don’t at times sure I could say "screw him" but people fail to see what we do behind the scenes. You are not the only customer on the server, and while you want xslt others want the new php. And it’s hard to keep everyone happy. I can remove mcrypt which will allow xslt to compile but then our order form won’t work and vice versa.”

• “Thus why I am trying to find the proper solution. Sure it’s taken me more time than I would have liked, but being down is costing us money also. That said I stated in the other thread that I will fix our issues when everyone elses had been fixed.”

31.03.2003 – Monday 31 March

• Today was another eight o’clock start, but fortunately also an early finish. I managed to complete the remaining two questions of my assignment which I’d not been able to do, with some help from the tutor, so I was happy about that although with the huge amount of time it took me I don’t have much chance in a timed exam. I hopped off at Woodridge on the way home and walked to the Department of Transport’s office and had the address on my licence changed. I then walked to the local video rental store which allowed me to join now that I’ve enough proof. I hired “Dr No”, “You Only Live Twice”, “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”, “Live and Let Die”, “Man with the Golden Gun”, “Diamonds Are Forever” and “Thunderball”. Most of the old James Bond movies I’ve either not seen or was young when I saw them and don’t remember, so I’ll see if I can watch them all.

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