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Year View| Summary| Highlights| March 2006 (Month View)

Nov ‘05 | Dec ‘05 | Jan ‘06 | Feb ‘06 | Mar ‘06 Apr ‘06 | May ‘06 | Jun ‘06 | Jul ‘06 |

01.03.2006 – Wednesday 1 March – Centrelink & Munich

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

Afternoon

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

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

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

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

  One would have to agree.

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

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

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

Morning

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

Afternoon

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

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

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

04.03.2006 – Saturday 4 March – Overdrawn & Firewalled

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

Night

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

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

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

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

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

05.03.2006 – Sunday 5 March – Walking

Day

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

Night

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

06.03.2006 – Monday 6 March – Internet & Bike Chains

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

2pm

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

07.03.2006 – Tuesday 7 March – Telstra Technicians & Cables

Morning

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

1:52pm

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

Night

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

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

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

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

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

08.03.2006 – Wednesday 8 March – Mount Barney

7am

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

09.03.2006 – Thursday 9 March – Rental Inspection

10:20am

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

Afternoon

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

Night

• Bronwen got home late.

10.03.2006 – Friday 10 March – Mexican

Morning

• I worked on the Jianshe site redesign.

Afternoon

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

Night

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

11.03.2006 – Saturday 11 March – Pittsworth Show

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

12.03.2006 – Sunday 12 March – Pizza & Capote

Morning

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

Afternoon

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

9:25pm

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

13.03.2006 – Monday 13 March – Centrelink & Hungry Jacks

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

Afternoon

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

Night

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

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

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

14.03.2006 – Tuesday 14 March – People not

Morning

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

Evening

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

7pm

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

Night

• I had a note from Bronwen saying she’d gone out and hadn’t taken her phone. It turns out she’d left it at work, having had a meeting at QUT and having left from there to come home, but I thought she had intentionally gone out without her phone to spite me.

15.03.2006 – Wednesday 15 March – Job Interview

Morning

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

3pm

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

• I had an interview with Ann Carson from M&T Resources.

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

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

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

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

16.03.2006 – Thursday 16 March – Jalyn

Morning

• Worked on the Jianshe site.

Afternoon

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

Night

• Had an argument with Bronwen about dinner.

9pm

• Jalyn came, and we gave her the room.

Night

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

17.03.2006 – Friday 17 March – BITS BBQ

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

Early Morning

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

18.03.2006 – Saturday 18 March – Stradbroke

6:30am

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

Night

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

Late Night

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

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

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

19.03.2006 – Sunday 19 March – Sleeping, Stradbroke & Sunburn

6am

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

Afternoon

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

Night

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

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

Morning

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

Afternoon

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

Introducing the Ultra Mega Light Bulb

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

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

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

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

Morning

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

Afternoon

• I continued working on the Jianshe parts system.

Night

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

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

Morning

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

Afternoon

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

Night

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

Dinner

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

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

9am

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

Day

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

Afternoon

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

24.03.2006 – Friday 24 March – Æon Flux

• Billed Jianshe for their parts and login system.

Morning

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

Night

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

25.03.2006 – Saturday 25 March – Shopping

Night

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

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

Morning

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

Day

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

Night

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

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

10am

• I had my job interview. It seemed to go well, although they did not like it that I did not have a car. I followed up by going to see Ann at M&T to request higher pay, as the work is only four days a week, not the expected five.

Morning

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

Afternoon

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

Night

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

28.03.2006 – Tuesday 28 March – Backpack Shopping & Unenrolling

Morning

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

Afternoon

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

Night

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

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

Morning

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

Afternoon

• I phoned M&T Resources and found that I had not got the job I applied for, mainly as I did not have a car and they felt that this would make it complicated for me to get to job sites.

Afternoon

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

Night

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

30.03.2006 – Thursday 30 March – Blue Seeding & High Fidelity

Morning

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

Night

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

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

Morning

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

Day

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

Afternoon

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

Night

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

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Year View| Summary| Highlights| March 2006 (Month View)