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Year View| Summary| Highlights| April 2006 (Month View)
Dec ‘05 | Jan ‘06 | Feb ‘06 | Mar ‘06 | Apr ‘06 May ‘06 | Jun ‘06 | Jul ‘06 | Aug ‘06 |
01.04.2006 – Saturday 1 April – Moving Things Early
- 6am
- • I got up, showered, and headed into the city to pick up two tables. It was interesting driving under one of the large shopping complexes in Queen Street Mall.
- Morning
- • Bronwen and I had breakfast at her parent’s place.
- Night
- • Bronwen and I had dinner at her parent’s place.
02.04.2006 – Sunday 2 April – Kangaroo Point & Indian Food
- Morning
- • I checked out April fool’s jokes online.
- Afternoon
- • I went shopping at Woolworths.
- Afternoon
- • I walked to Kangaroo Point, and then West End, having dinner at an Indian place and briefly meeting Tim. I had planned to see V for Vendetta, but Bronwen was too sleepy.
- Comment by DM – Friday 7 April 2006, 5:17 PM
- Belated apologies for not stopping by and actually exchanging words. Brian had been away all weekend and was itching to get back home.
- Comment by Ned – Saturday 8 April 2006, 11:21 AM
- Not a problem!
03.04.2006 – Monday 3 April – Searching for Bikes
- Afternoon
- • I walked to the cheap bike place, then to the non-profit bike place (which is closed on Mondays, it turns out). I had again planned to see V for Vendetta, but tomorrow is cheaper so we’re putting it off until then.
- Evening
- • Maz’s car broke down so he is leaving it here until he can fix it.
04.04.2006 – Tuesday 4 April – Centrelink & Watermarks
- Morning
- • I had a quiet morning.
- Afternoon
- • Maz and his father came around and got his car going. I went to Centrelink. It rained.
- 3:30am
- • I stayed up late and wrote some code that adds watermarks dynamically to the images on the-i.org.
05.04.2006 – Wednesday 5 April – Sarina Russo
- Morning
- • Went to my appointment with Sarina Russo. It rained again.
- Afternoon
- • Finished making CD’s for Mum and posted them.
- Afternoon
- • Amanda dropped around for a visit.
- Night
- • I went for a walk, initially to the seven eleven at Toowong where I met Maz, and then from there into the city and back again via the Goodwill Bridge, Maz taking photos along the way. It ended up being a four-hour walk, so I got to bed rather late.
06.04.2006 – Thursday 6 April – Backpack Refund
- • Kieran dropped by on his way back from a job interview, and we drove to Indooroopilly via Maz’s, where I returned my broken backpack for a refund and had lunch. Maz and I then spent the rest of the afternoon moseying around Maz’s place, going to Coles, and fighting stupid IP blocking databases.
07.04.2006 – Friday 7 April – Copying Data & Lots of Men
- Afternoon
- • I copied a few hundred gigabytes of data around, preparing to break up my RAID array.
- Night
- • Bronwen and I went shopping.
08.04.2006 – Saturday 8 April – Files, Volumes & Reparse Points
- • I played around with hard drives, breaking up my RAID array, reducing the number of volumes and partitions in the system considerably, and mounting drives in a more logical way. Sysinternal’s “junction” is a brilliant tool—for reasons known only to Microsoft, Window’s “fsutil” file system utility will not allow hard linking across volumes, nor, I think, to directories—junction allows both, and in conjunction with “mountvol”, Window’s volume mounting tool, a logical file system that’s not tied to the physical drive layout can be built up. I’ve been meaning to sort out my confusing and messy file system for ages, and I think I now have—I have similar data stored on the same physical drives, and everything accessible via the one unchanging, drive-irrelevant mount point. I should now be able to add new drives when needed, vastly increasing my storage space, without any filepaths changing, and spin-down some drives while others stay spun-up. It’s all rather geeky, but it needed to be done, and I’ve managed to come out of it with a lot more spare storage space than I previously had, and the space to connect another two hard drives.
09.04.2006 – Sunday 9 April – Relaxing & Stressful
- Morning
- • Bronwen went to her parent’s place.
- Day
- • I had a quiet, relaxing, day chatting online and messing about inside.
10.04.2006 – Monday 10 April – Tutoring Excellence Awards
- Morning
- • I attended an awards presentation for my tutoring excellence at uni, and ate far too much finger food. I showed Kipps where the Wesley Hospital was on the way back home.
- Afternoon
- • I went shopping at Woolworths in the city, bumping into Holly, and made a sort of meatless shepherd pie with lentils for dinner.
- Comment by DM – Wednesday 12 April 2006, 4:49 PM
- Congrats on the award!
- Comment by Ned – Wednesday 12 April 2006, 4:57 PM
- Thanks ;-)
11.04.2006 – Tuesday 11 April – A Working Bike & Cheap Focaccia
- Morning
- • I went and had a look at a house with Bronwen.
- Day
- • I went to the not-for-profit bike place in West End on my way back from looking at the house this morning, then home, then back to West End with my bike, where I had the rear gears changed. I can now ride uphill, as well as downhill. They offer their workshop for the public to use in fixing their bikes, which is very handy for me as I’ve fixed bikes numerous times before, but all my tools are scattered across north Queensland.
- Night
- • Bronwen and I went shopping, finding numerous cakes, focaccias and sweetbreads on special for fifty cents each.
12.04.2006 – Wednesday 12 April – Joe’s & Pudding
- Morning
- • I sorted out some of my music, now that it’s all stored in one location and I have the free space to play around with it.
- Day
- • I trained to Joe’s, where I finally picked up my mail. I was given a free pudding at Central Station on the way back. I made the mistake of eating some of this pudding when I got home—I lived, but only because of the extraordinary digestive processes I’ve developed through years of hard training at uni.
- Night
- • I walked down to Kangaroo Point looking for Bronwen, but as luck would have it, she’d come home early and I missed her.
13.04.2006 – Thursday 13 April – Copyright Infringement & Backpacks
- Morning
- • I received an email from NBC regarding supposed copyright infringement originating from my IP.
- Day
- • I went and bought another twenty-dollar backpack, precisely the same as the one I returned a few days ago. I figure if it also dies, I’ll return it and buy another one.
- Night
- • Bronwen stayed at her parent’s place as her Aunt and Uncle are up from Sydney.
- Night
- • I stayed up very late, doing very little.
14.04.2006 – Friday 14 April – Stradbroke Island
- Morning
- • Bronwen arrived back from her parent’s, and we packed for Stradbroke. Bronwen’s Mum arrived around eleven, and we drove, via her place, to the car ferry at Cleveland, and from there to Stradbroke Island.
- Afternoon
- • Bronwen and I erected our tent, and spent a relaxing afternoon wandering.
15.04.2006 – Saturday 15 April – Stradbroke Island
- • A relaxing day was had, wherein our hero enjoyed his tranquil island lifestyle.
16.04.2006 – Sunday 16 April – Easter & Stradbroke Island
- Morning
- • We had a large breakfast at Frank and Shirley’s, as per tradition. It would appear that our tent has become an ant nest, with ants climbing all over—and in—it.
- Afternoon
- • I relaxed, interspersed with a long walk down a few beaches and around the headland, and some pouring rain.
- Night
- • It would appear that the rain has come under our tent, wetting our sheet and the top corners of our bed. This could have been a disaster, but a lovely warm woman makes quite a good sheet alternative.
17.04.2006 – Monday 17 April – Stradbroke, Chips & Brisbane
- Morning
- • I had a pleasant morning, doing an enjoyable very little—Stradbroke style.
- Afternoon
- • Bronwen and I caught a bus across Stradbroke Island, meeting Bronwen’s parents and co at the ferry. From there we caught the ferry back to the mainland where we again split up, Bronwen and I catching a bus and train, while her parents and co drove. We were picked up from the train station by Cam, and driven to his place, via a fish and chip shop, where we had dinner. Bronwen and I then caught the train back to Brisbane.
18.04.2006 – Tuesday 18 April – Bikes & Dinner
- Morning
- • I adjusted the brakes and seat on my bike, so in theory I can now ride and stop in comfort.
- Afternoon
- • I rode into the city and did some shopping.
- Night
- • I cooked dinner, Bronwen arriving sneakily just before it was ready and helping me finish it off.
19.04.2006 – Wednesday 19 April – Centrelink
- Morning
- • There is clearly no Wednesday morning on the nineteenth. Anyone who says otherwise is without doubt deluded.
- Afternoon
- • Mail wasn’t delivered until fairly late today, although, given the lack of morning, perhaps it wasn’t late. Normally this wouldn’t matter, but as it turns out, I had mail from Centrelink, which required that I drop in to their office and fill out a few forms. This seemed simple enough to do, and would have only taken a minute or two, plus the half hour I stood in a queue, but the trainee who saw me wasn’t able—or wasn’t willing—to help me with the few questions I had, instead booking me an appointment. I was told to take a seat, and I’d be called. I arrived at Centrelink sometime around four, and stood in a queue for half an hour. Centrelink closes at a quarter to five, and I was called for my “interview” a few minutes past five, after they’d locked all the doors and all the other clients had left. As expected, no one cared what I wrote on the forms, and my interview was over within about a minute.
- • After my exciting trip to Centerlink, I walked to Maz’s, via Woolworths, who were selling a heavily discounted iced lemon cake—something I couldn’t pass up. I ate half my lemon cake at Maz’s, and drove back to my place, via McDonald’s and a “shake”.
20.04.2006 – Thursday 20 April – Govinda’s & Packs
- Morning
- • Bronwen and I slept in—she has taken the day off work. Once awake, we had a relaxing morning doing some washing and not a great deal else.
- Afternoon
- • Bronwen and I walked to the city, where we had lunch at Govinda’s, dropped in on Bronwen’s Mum at work, and looked at packs at K2. It seems no one sells a pack quite like I want.
- Night
- • Bronwen is staying at her parent’s place as her father is over at Stradbroke.
- Comment by Chris – Saturday 29 April 2006, 6:09 PM
- Chez Tessa is awesome!
21.04.2006 – Friday 21 April – Nothing Much
- Night
- • Went to Woolworths at Paddington.
22.04.2006 – Saturday 22 April – Backpack
- • Walked to town. Bought a 65+20 litre Lowe Alpine Cerro Torre backpack for 124-something dollars, listed at $349, thanks to a family-of-staff discount.
23.04.2006 – Sunday 23 April – Computer Markets
- 10:30am
- • Went to the computer markets with Maz, where Bronwen bought an external hard drive.
- Afternoon
- • Rode looking at houses with Bronwen.
24.04.2006 – Monday 24 April – Jobs & Backpacks
- • Georgie came over and copied some music to her new music player using Marjorie’s computer. I got Jalyn to help me adjust my backpack.
- • I applied for a change analyst job on the SI-Net team at UQ.
- Night
- • Walked up to Bronwen’s parent’s place and took their bins out, then went shopping.
25.04.2006 – Tuesday 25 April – ANZAC Day
- • Bronwen and I went and watched the ANZAC Day parade.
- Evening
- • Rode and looked at a house in Herston.
26.04.2006 – Wednesday 26 April – Centrelink & Laptops
- Morning
- • I did nothing.
- Afternoon
- • Went to Centrelink, then on to Maz’s.
- Night
- • Fixed Georgie’s laptop by upgrading the BIOS. Clint dropped by.
27.04.2006 – Thursday 27 April – Soundcards & Hard Drives
- Morning
- • Georgie picked up her laptop. I installed a new version of sound card drivers and played around with them for hours.
- • I got an email from UQ, phoned them up, and have an interview on Thursday for the Change Analyst with SI-Net position.
- Afternoon
- • I went to Indooroopilly with Maz, who printed some fantastic photos.
- Night
- • I went to Umart with Bronwen to pick up her hard drive for her external hard drive box, which had us thinking it was broken, until we set it to single-drive mode.
28.04.2006 – Friday 28 April – Nasturtiums
- • I rode into the city and bought ant poison, bamboo skewers, and a packet of nasturtium seeds, which I planted once the heat of the sun had subsided somewhat.
29.04.2006 – Saturday 29 April – Computer Death
- Morning
- • Bronwen went to work, leaving me with the ideal opportunity to go for a walk around the city with Maz, taking photos. Just before leaving my place, I showed Maz my new soundcard setup. Just after showing him, Explorer quit, and then the computer turned off. We had an enjoyable walk around the city taking photos, arriving back late afternoon.
- Evening
- • I tried starting my computer, but it wouldn’t. I pulled it apart, rode up to Clint’s and borrowed a power supply, swapping that for the one in the computer, but still nothing. The RAM power LED lights up and the fans give a short kick when the power button is pressed for the first time, but nothing else happens. I pulled everything apart but was unable to fix it, coming to the conclusion that the motherboard has mysteriously died.
- Night
- • Clint came around, and we chatted on the front steps for a while before going for a short walk down to the shops and buying a pack of four Golden Gaytimes.
30.04.2006 – Sunday 30 April – Ants & Staples
- • Bronwen has gone up to her parents, and is planning on having a BBQ with them. I laid down ant poison wherever I could find ants, and banged a staple into the front door to hold some loose glass in.
Dec ‘05 | Jan ‘06 | Feb ‘06 | Mar ‘06 | Apr ‘06 May ‘06 | Jun ‘06 | Jul ‘06 | Aug ‘06 |