IMPORTANT: The following journal is intended for the use and viewing of approved persons only and may contain information that is confidential, privileged or unsuitable for overly sensitive persons with low self-esteem, no sense of humour or irrational religious beliefs. Any dissemination, distribution or copying of this work is not authorised (either explicitly or implicitly) and constitutes an irritating social faux pas. Unless the word ‘absquatulation’ has been used in its correct context somewhere other than in this warning, it does not have any legal or grammatical use and may be ignored. No animals were harmed in the creation of this journal and a minimum of Microsoft software was used. Those of you with an overwhelming fear of the unknown will be gratified to learn that there is no hidden message revealed by reading this warning backwards.

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

Jan ‘06 | Feb ‘06 | Mar ‘06 | Apr ‘06 | May ‘06 Jun ‘06 | Jul ‘06 | Aug ‘06 | Sep ‘06 |

01.05.2006 – Monday 1 May – The Cougals

• Bronwen, Clint, Maz, Lisa and I drove to the NSW border in Clint’s car, and went for a six-hour walk up, and subsequently back down, Mount Cougal, along the border fence. It was quite an easy walk, made slower than usual as it was Lisa’s first walk. Clint managed to leave the window of his car down while we were walking, possibly preventing anyone from breaking in, and also managed to bleed all over the place on the way home, having captured a powerful leech. We stopped for dinner on the way back, with myself eating a nice felafel kebab.

• Test day

02.05.2006 – Tuesday 2 May – Suits

• Bronwen took the day off work. We rode to look at a house, but because I stopped to look at a map, we were separated at Roma St Parklands, meaning I subsequently got lost and was unable to find the house until just after the inspection ended. This made me angry.

• Bronwen and I then went looking for suits in preparation for my job interview on Thursday, and then to another house inspection, and then back to look for suits again. I settled on a black, lightly pinstriped, 3-button suit from Rodger Davids, and a green striped silk tie.

Night

• Bronwen and I went grocery shopping, dropping in on her parents.

03.05.2006 – Wednesday 3 May – Uni, Shirts & Hidden

• In preparation for my job interview tomorrow, I went to uni where I had a chat with Soon, and ran through a SI-Net demonstration with Debbie, before getting out a few books on project management and testing from the uni library.

Afternoon

• I went to Toowong looking for a nice cotton shirt and some simple leather shoes, and was unable to find either, having to head to Indooroopilly—where I bumped into Lachlan—and eventually settling for a normal synthetic shirt.

Night

• I caught a bus into the city and saw “Hidden” with Bronwen and her parents at the Dendy. I can’t say I really liked the movie, as it seemed to be filled with hidden menace, and I was never sure at any time what was about to happen. After the movie, we had dinner at Bronwen’s parent’s place.

04.05.2006 – Thursday 4 May – Job Interview

• I got up early, tried on my suit, shirt and shoes to make sure it all fit, and asked Bronwen a pile of job interview questions before she headed off to work. I then completed a list of sample job interview questions, had a quick scan over some project life-cycle and testing planning books, and headed into uni for my interview.

2pm

• My interview went well, as far as I can tell. My planning wasn’t necessary, as in the end almost no “standard” interview questions were asked. I don’t think my look at SI-Net yesterday helped at all either, although it did give me confidence. Now I’ll just have to wait and see what happens—it was impossible to tell if they were impressed or not.

05.05.2006 – Friday 5 May – Indooroopilly

• Clint and I drove to Indooroopilly, where we did some shopping.

06.05.2006 – Saturday 6 May – Buddha’s Birthday Festival

Morning

• Bronwen and I made our way up to her parent’s place, from where we all drove to have another look at a house we looked at on Tuesday.

Night

• Clint, Bronwen and I walked down to the Buddha’s Birthday festivities at South Bank, where Clint ate fake meat and threw his phone off a large drop, before watching the fireworks—which were quite spectacular, and very, very loud—and finding out that the 9:25 PM session of “Mission: Impossible 3” was sold out—a disappointment only a Slurpee on the way home could cure.

07.05.2006 – Sunday 7 May – Mission: Impossible 3

Afternoon

• Bronwen and I walked down and had a look at Buddha’s Birthday Festival, watching the fireworks again. They were perhaps the most spectacular fireworks I have seen—the finale was amazing.

Night

• Bronwen and I rushed back from the fireworks, grabbed warm clothes, and rushed back to South Bank again, watching “Mission: Impossible 3”. It was quite a suspenseful movie, powerful in a pointless Hollywood way.

08.05.2006 – Monday 8 May – Depression

Morning

• I started washing up last night’s dishes, and suddenly felt sick, having to sit down and eventually going back to bed.

Afternoon

• I was on my way walking to Centrelink when I got a call from Anita at UQ, informing me that, while they were impressed with me, I had not got the job as they’d needed someone with more change management and testing experience, and they did not usually take graduates. She suggested I look for consultancy positions. Then, once I got to Centrelink, I found that I had to fill in two fortnightly forms, both overdue, and both requiring that I list four employers I contacted during their respective fortnights—something I can’t do as I not only did not contact that many employers during that time, but I also cannot access my computer. This led to depression, as it all seemed somewhat hopeless—everything was ganging up on me.

Evening

• I walked into the city and walked home with Bronwen, who managed to cheer me up somewhat.

09.05.2006 – Tuesday 9 May – Motherboards & Curry

Afternoon

• Maz came over and I bought a new motherboard from Umart, swapped over everything, and now have my computer back up and running.

Night

• Bronwen and I made, and subsequently ate, a nice curry.

10.05.2006 – Wednesday 10 May – Centrelink

Morning

• I applied for eight jobs to satisfy Centrelink’s illogical assertion that I apply for eight jobs in the past.

Afternoon

• I went to Centrelink, returned two fortnightly forms, and signed my looking for work agreement. This took a long time and I had to wait for an appointment, due to staff ineptitude.

11.05.2006 – Thursday 11 May – Painting

Morning

• I updated the Jianshe website.

Afternoon

• The painter bloke painted the bedroom window, fumigating me in the process.

12.05.2006 – Friday 12 May – Riding

• I applied for two jobs at ITS.

Evening

• I rode to Toowong and met Clint, and walked back to his place where we chatted for a while. I then rode halfway home, getting a flat tyre.

13.05.2006 – Saturday 13 May – Cleaning, Broken Sites & Milkshakes

Morning

• Bronwen and I cleaned the fridge, and then went shopping.

Afternoon

• I went to check for new comments on my site, only to find that dom_xml and xslt support are both missing.

Night

• I bought a milkshake from Cold Rock.

Later Night

• I watched “Maverick” on TV, and sat around doing very little.

14.05.2006 – Sunday 14 May – Music & Computer Markets

Morning

• I nearly missed the train to Lawnton, from where I walked to the Computer Markets, only to find that two of my three external hard drive boxes had been sold already—I should have called last night and asked that they be held.

Afternoon

• I now have my Music drive working in the one external box I managed to buy. My junction to it seems to work just fine too, even though it’s now an external hard drive and the junction was made back when the hard drive was on my old motherboard, which I find impressive.

Evening

• I planted some more flowers in the front of the garden.

Night

• Bronwen and I decided to buy chips, but the chip place had just shut, which was not according to plan.

15.05.2006 – Monday 15 May – External Hard Drive Boxes

Morning

• I applied for two jobs.

Afternoon

• I went to Centrelink and dropped in my form. Our second flatmate informed me that she is planning to move out, in order to see more of the world.

Evening

• I caught a bus down to Garden City, where I met Bronwen, and then walked to Lorrimore Computers, from where I collected another two external hard drive boxes.

16.05.2006 – Tuesday 16 May – Riding, Real Estates & Blocked Drains

• I put a new tube in my bike tyre and rode to the real estate to report blocked drains and leaking taps, then to the RTA to get some forms. I put another hard drive into the remaining spare hard drive box. The LED on one of the other hard drive boxes failed.

17.05.2006 – Wednesday 17 May – Kokoda

• My sites are still not working.

Night

• Clint came around and he and I went for to Indooroopilly for dinner, he having KFC, while I had Indian curry, and then watching “Kokoda” at Indooroopilly.

18.05.2006 – Thursday 18 May – Birthday Buying

• I rode into town and bought my sister some incense cones, and an exfoliating body butter pack from the “Body Shop”, and posted my account-opening request to Citibank. I had a look at the Brisbane Tunnel showcase, which has a few cool three dimensional transparent cut-away scale models showing above and below ground aspects of the tunnel.

19.05.2006 – Friday 19 May - Plumbing

7:44am

• Two plumbers came and did whatever it is plumbers do, and left within half an hour. They said the same as the last plumber—they can’t fix the kitchen taps, and will request that new ones be put in. They said they’d got the sinks to flow again, but that they would need to come back when they were fixing the kitchen taps and put some acid down the kitchen sink as the pipe had rust in it which was constricting it, and in the meantime if it began to get blocked again we should run hot water down it and plunge a lot.
  We don’t have a plunger, and I don’t think this is a satisfactory solution. I will give them time to get onto the real estate, but I shall phone the real estate and ensure that they are going to do something about the kitchen taps ASAP, as their current state is unacceptable.

20.05.2006 – Saturday 20 May – I go Viral

• I have flu, or a cold, or something equally nasty and unpleasant, with a sore throat, eyes, kidneys, and various other assorted innards.

Afternoon

• Bronwen and I walked into the city to have a look at the north-south bypass tunnel displays, but they were closed. Instead, we bought felafels and sat watching humanity morass past Queen Street Mall.

Night

• Bronwen and I bought chips for dinner, which was just what I felt like.

21.05.2006 – Sunday 21 May – Picnicking

Morning

• I lazed about doing very little.

Afternoon

• I lazed about doing very little.

22.05.2006 – Monday 22 May – Cold, Uni, Indooroopilly, Clint & Cakes

Morning

• It has been getting increasingly cold, something to do with the earth’s disregard for symmetry, so I’m told.

Afternoon

• Clint and I drove to uni, and then Indooroopilly, where I payed off a Centrelink debt and cashed my Engin cash-back offer cheque.

Evening

• I applied for an “Information Technology Support Officer” position with the education department at UQ.

7:30pm

• Two blokes were supposed to come and look at Jalyn’s room, but only one turned up—Locky, a second year law student at QUT who reminded me a lot of Kipps, and came along with his girlfriend who reminded me of the love-interest out of Spiderman. He was quite forward, too much so for my liking. He seemed likeable enough, but I don’t think he’d really fit in.

Night

• Clint blew up his mind, and came around for some mind-refreshing brain washing and a general break. He and I went shopping at Woolworths with Bronwen, where we managed to buy four cakes between us, and a focaccia, all drastically reduced. We then sat around talking until the wee hours of the morning.

23.05.2006 – Tuesday 23 May – Torches

Day

• I had a quiet morning, lazing around and sleeping in. I spent the afternoon researching LED torches, having decided to get something I can use for nightwalking. I had actually found a torch for sale here, only to find that it would be cheaper to have it shipped from America. I then made the mistake of looking for cheaper places to buy it in the US, becoming engrossed in the large range of other cool torches available and coming across some people who had negative experiences with the torch I had planned to buy. Needing to feel that my choice was somehow justified in order to spend the money on it, and only being able to justify it by feeling that I’d done enough research to make an informed decision, I had little choice but to continue researching. Or, put more simply, if I can find enough people who say the torch I like is great, then it must be great, the people who don’t like it aren’t great, I’m great for liking it, buying it is a great thing to do, it would be a great purchase, and I should have to purchase it, for greater greatness. Of course, doing all the other day-to-day things I should have been doing instead of reading reviews and forums about torches would have been a more productive use of my day, but there’s always tomorrow for that.

24.05.2006 – Wednesday 24 May – Nothing

• I don’t remember anything that happened today, though I suspect something did, even if for no reason other than it being statistically very likely.

25.05.2006 – Thursday 25 May – Nothing

• Nothing again! Not a thing! Not even anything! Well, to be honest, probably something—but I didn’t write it down, so I can’t remember.

26.05.2006 – Friday 26 May – Mount Maroon

• Clint and I went for a bushwalk, climbing Mount Maroon. Apparently, it’s a 967-metre volcanic plug near Rathdowney, and is roughly as popular as Peasant’s Ridge on Mount Barney, based on Clint’s excellent judgement of track erosion.
  We left the city around nine o’clock, stopping at Boonah to buy salad (or in Clint’s case, ham and salad) rolls to carry up for lunch. We passed quite a few signs condemning some plan to dam (and subsequently damn) the area, arriving in a prickle patch at the bottom of Mount Marron. Clint and I then proceeded to push many of the prickles firmly into our feet, before pushing them into our fingers while removing them from out feet and putting our shoes on. The walk itself was pleasant, relatively easy, not exposed enough to cause death-defying fear, and we made good time to the summit where we ate our salad rolls and discussed religion and similar deep and meaningful matters.

Evening

• Clint and I arrived back in the city just on dark, having enjoyed our escape and feeling more alive because of it.

27.05.2006 – Saturday 27 May – House Hunting

9am

• Bronwen and I rode out to the southern suburbs to find a real estate that was going to take us around looking at some houses. Unfortunately, due to a mix-up in the details, we went to the wrong real estate. We looked at a few houses they had open for inspection, before the correct real estate called. We then drove around with the agent, looking at several more houses, before riding back home via the city.

28.05.2006 – Sunday 28 May – X-Men III

Morning

• I discovered that most of my website isn’t working, due to some permission problems, but didn’t have time to do anything, as I had to head off to the Computer Markets with Kieran and Sméagol, to replace my LED-less external hard drive box.

Night

• Clint and Clus came over and we drove to Southbank, where we saw the late screening of “X-Men 3”. I wasn’t very impressed and wouldn’t recommend it, but as with most action movies, it was a fun watch.

29.05.2006 – Monday 29 May – Torches & Battery Chargers

• It seems my website permission problems have been fixed, but dom_xml is still not working.

Morning

• I ordered a Fenix L1T LED torch from Torchworld, and a torch bike mount, express post, so hopefully that gets here nice and fast.

Afternoon

• I dropped my form into Centrelink, and caught the train from there to town, where I went looking for a cheap battery charger at Dick Smith’s and Jaycar. It turns out it’s not possible to buy cheap battery chargers that will charge batteries in anything other than multiples of two, and as the torch I’ve just ordered only uses a single AA battery, having to charge two at a time wouldn’t be particularly optimal. So, I ended up buying a fifty dollar charger from Jaycar—far more than I had wanted to pay, but it seems relatively fancy, with an LCD display and all. It also has corroded terminals, which seems a little odd, and I suspect I’ll have to go exchange it.

30.05.2006 – Tuesday 30 May – New Torch

Morning

• I forgot to put the rubbish bins out—again. Bronwen had to run down the road and put the recycling bin in the next street, as it was too cold for me to get up. In fact, I didn’t get up until I heard the postman on his bike. I thought he might have delivered the torch I ordered yesterday, seeing as I paid extra for express postage, but alas, only a phone bill. It would seem I’ve wasted the money getting express postage.

Midday

• My sites are still not working, and apparently are not going to be fixed as dom_xml is causing problems with the current server configuration, and as it is incompatible with the DOM support in PHP 5, and the servers are in the process of upgrading to PHP 5, I’m changing my sites to work under PHP 5.

Afternoon

• I went to put out the rubbish and found that my torch had come after all. Express post must have a different delivery from normal mail. Now I can’t find my Maglite head-torch conversion attachment, which should be lying around here somewhere. I am incredibly impressed with the size and brightness of my new torch.

Night

• Bronwen and I bought pizzas for dinner and watched “10 Things I Hate About You”. I then went for a walk with Clint, showing him my new torch and getting very, very cold. I think I’m going to have to buy gloves if I’m going to be doing any night things.

Comment by Maz – Monday 5 June 2006, 11:44 AM

  Were you trying to see how many times you could use the word "torch" in one entry or do you just like your torch? Torch.

Comment by Ned – Monday 5 June 2006, 12:07 PM

  I like my torch very much!

Comment by Mum – Tuesday 6 June 2006, 2:51 PM

  Torch song. Ever heard of it? Might be showing my age here. Gasp.

31.05.2006 – Wednesday 31 May – Cold in the City

Morning

• It is very cold.

Afternoon

• I bussed into town, exchanging my corroded battery charger for a new, shiny one, and forgetting to take in the bond refund form, although I did remember to pick up a CD for Bronwen.

Night

• Bronwen and I had a somewhat heated discussion about the relative worth of the house she’s currently interested in. I think it is a terrible prospect—she is very interested. I fitted the sticky padding I bought from the hardware into my bike torch holder, making a nice snug fit for my new torch, and went for a walk around the park for want of anything better to do with my torch.

Comment by Mum – Tuesday 6 June 2006, 2:54 PM

  Torch song. Something which does not necessitate long walks around the park. But rather short walks around the bedroom.

Jan ‘06 | Feb ‘06 | Mar ‘06 | Apr ‘06 | May ‘06 Jun ‘06 | Jul ‘06 | Aug ‘06 | Sep ‘06 |

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