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Year View| Summary| Highlights| December 2002 (Month View)
Aug ‘02 | Sep ‘02 | Oct ‘02 | Nov ‘02 | Dec ‘02 Jan ‘03 | Feb ‘03 | Mar ‘03 | Apr ‘03 |
01.12.2002 – Sunday 1 December
- • Today was another extremely humid and hot day. I woke up sweating. At least the storm had passed, and the power appeared stable. I spent the entire day hot, trying not to move too much. I even lay down and tried sleeping for a while. The power failed for a second in the evening, shutting down my PC.
02.12.2002 – Monday 2 December – I receive my STAT results
- • This is an excerpt from an email to Silas:
I tried to work out how to make my PC cooler today, I had it up on my desk during the hot part of the day, with the case off, using 100% Central Processing Unit (CPU) time, and it overheated. Screen went red and blotchy, and then shut off. Helen at Computer Stuff has one more fan like mine, so I phoned her and got her to hold it for me, so I will buy that when I’m in town and put that in the front, then I will have two in the front, and one in the back, plus the power supply fan. Hopefully that will be enough to keep it cool, otherwise I will put one more in the back, and if that doesn’t work, I’ll have to start doing drastic stuff, getting new CPU coolers and chopping the vents out to let better airflow, or higher Revolutions per minute (RPM) fans... or something... - STAT
- • I got my Special Tertiary Admission Test (STAT) test result today. Overall result: 174. This is a percentile based ranking, and means I did better than 99% of people who sat the test, in other words in the top 1%. I don’t know if this will help me gain UNI entry, but it’s about the best anyone could do in the exam.
- • I also got my application for a credit card turned down, no reason given. I wonder how to get one now? I can’t even pay for my web hosting, or Internet Service Provider (ISP), or domain names... or practically anything, now. I applied through the Commonwealth bank, which is who my bank account is with.
- Evening
- • We’ve been having storms and rain in the evenings, bad for power and Personal Computer (PC), but good for plants and dust.
- • After phoning Centrelink today, I have a phone appointment on Thursday morning, to apply for Newstart or whatever they call it now.
03.12.2002 – Tuesday 3 December
- • A quiet day. Mum went to town, and got back tomorrow.
04.12.2002 – Wednesday 4 December
- • Another quiet day. As predicted yesterday, Mum got back today.
05.12.2002 – Thursday 5 December – I nearly have a car accident
- • I had my phone interview with Centrelink at 8:30 AM. I drove to town around midday and dropped my wrecked monitor of at Ken’s. I bought another PC case fan, picked up and paid for Shan’s RAM (which cost me around $30 COD), went to the Centrelink office and filled out some forms, did some shopping, dropped my travel application at the hospital, and drove home. On the way home, as I came over a hump in the dirt road, doing an estimated 80 km/h, I was faced by a large white four-wheel-drive, on my side of the road. There was about a half-car’s width of road on my side, and a large bank to my left. I was faced with a split-second decision, hit the bank (which was about a metre high) or hit the four-wheel-drive. The decision was obvious, so I drove into the bank. I managed to slip past the other moronic car without hitting it, although it must have been close. I then found myself heading straight towards a rather solid wall of earth, with rather solid trees growing in it. I had a feeling it wasn’t a good idea to hit that either, and that I probably had less than a quarter of a second until I did. I was faced with yet another split-second decision: to hit the large bank with trees in it, or try to hit the bank on the other side of the road, which was much smaller. Once again, an obvious decision. I hit the bank – I must have been doing somewhere between 60 and 80 km/h by this time. I must also have launched a reasonable distance, as there were a few large rocks which I didn’t hit but managed to arrive on the other side of. Once in the grassy road verge, I could slow down and drive back onto the road. I stopped and took a few photos of the wheel tracks, checked the car for any obvious damage, and was very thankful that I’d managed to avoid both a head-on accident and hitting anything substantial on the side of the road.
I then finished driving home and had a relaxing evening.
06.12.2002 – Friday 6 December
- • Today was, without doubt, the day before tomorrow.
07.12.2002 – Saturday 7 December
- • Jade, Shan and Ella came around after going up to the shop, and I got a lift back to their place, where I spent the evening.
- • A huge peel of thunder rolled around the hills, crashing into the valley and rolling away into the distance. It was the first indication of a coming storm. It is unusual to get a storm at 11 PM, and it is unusual to not hear the thunder approaching. Fearing the worst and expecting little green men at the door at any moment, I stayed up until after 4 AM.
08.12.2002 – Sunday 8 December – I am depressed
- • I didn’t wake until after midday. I spent a quiet and uneventful day, doing nothing. In chat news: I managed to get myself banned and deleted from my favourite channel.
- • I am so depressed. I am so sad. My whole life has gone wrong. I am facing unbearable stress. I can’t see any way out. I have no money. My Mum is sick. My Dad is sick. My health is bad. I am in pain. Everything is falling apart. I don’t know what to do about it. It is more than I can bear. I need help.
- • I just don’t know how to handle this anymore. I can’t do my life alone. It is too much for me.
09.12.2002 – Monday 9 December
- • Today was yet another day. Mum drove Jean into town, and posted my Christmas cards. I tried to figure out a redesign of my webpage, but gave up. I went for a walk in the evening, down to the shop where I bought an ice cream, then onto the Home Rule Bridge, then back here, then up to Honeyflow drive and back again. It was quite hot, even though the time was approaching five.
10.12.2002 – Tuesday 10 December
- • I slept in. I drove over to Joneses in the evening, and Shan sent off an order for a new PC he is building for a friend of his. I stayed until just after dark, and then drove home again.
In other words, it was an uneventful day.
11.12.2002 – Wednesday 11 December
- • Today was another hot day, which I spent quietly, avoiding the heat.
12.12.2002 – Thursday 12 December – Dentist
- • I was up before the cows, and driving to town to meet the Dentist. Unfortunately, he was there, and I got to see him straight away. White knuckles gripping the seat, who said torture went out with the middle ages? A painful needle (which did, however, do its job), some drilling and grinding, some sucking and voila, back out on the street I was – swollen mouth and all. I posted my Hard Disk Drive (HDD) down to the DiscShop for warranty repair, sent some more Christmas cards, did a bit of shopping, and drove home again.
And all without any accidents.
The numbness of my mouth stayed for several hours, and then went in five seconds.
As I said in an email:
This is the first filling I have ever needed. The dentist gave me a needle, and did some drilling. He then said that it was a large hole, and near the nerve, and possible that I may have difficulties with it which would necessitate root canal treatment or removal of the tooth. This was a bit of a shock, having gone from no fillings, to the possible removal of a tooth.
The anaesthetic lasted some hours, and then wore off within five seconds. I thought that was strange, able to last so long, and yet disappear literally within five seconds as I sat here at my computer.
Not much fun. - Evening
- • I went for a walk around the school loop after the heat of the day had died down.
13.12.2002 – Friday 13 December
- • Shan came up for a while in the evening so that we could take some pictures of the bracelet he’s giving his girlfriend for Christmas. Apart from that, a quiet day was had by all.
14.12.2002 – Saturday 14 December
- • Yet another quiet and uneventful day. I finally worked out the design of my new site, http://amused.the-i.org/. It now validates, and has the menu I want.
15.12.2002 – Sunday 15 December
- • I had a bit of a sleep in, followed by a quiet and uneventful day.
16.12.2002 – Monday 16 December
- • I had another quiet and uneventful day, with a walk in the evening. Mum got back from town where she had stayed the weekend.
17.12.2002 – Tuesday 17 December
- • It sprinkled slightly, on and off during the day. I ordered 50 blank CD’s and 10 rewriteable CD’s from The Disc Shop. I went for a walk in the evening, up around the school loop, and did some more sorting of my music in preparation to burn it to CD.
18.12.2002 – Wednesday 18 December
- • We were going to go to town today, but Mum was sick and it rained and was gloomy and dark, so I dozed and lazed all day.
19.12.2002 – Thursday 19 December
- • I drove out to Joneses to pick up Kylie-Anne’s present. Mum and I then drove to town, where I posted it registered mail. I also bought some ice cream, and checked out my new http://amused.the-i.org/ site at the library using their Internet Explorer 5. It seemed to work ok. We then came home. I began a survey of anyone I could think to ask, asking them: “What do you think about my hair/hairstyle and what (if anything) should I do to improve it?” So far results are evenly split between doing something and doing nothing...
20.12.2002 – Friday 20 December
- Morning
- • I woke up late. I seem to have developed a late-sleeping habit, which I have to get out of. I go to bed early, yet still wake up late. Because I wake late, it means I’m not sleepy until late, which makes it pointless trying to go to bed early, so it’s a vicious cycle. I guess the solution is obvious – force myself to wake up earlier, which will in turn make me sleepier, and I will go to bed earlier... another vicious cycle, but the right one this time.
- Evening
- • I went for a walk in the evening. I’m glad I am able to walk again. Just a fast walk, maybe three kilometres. No jogging and not too fast.
- Late
- • I guess I should try to go to bed now...
21.12.2002 – Saturday 21 December
- • I drove over to Joneses in the evening. Shan and Ella were using the Jet Ski in the dam, so I went and watched them until they finished, and then we all talked a while and pulled Shan’s Personal Computer (PC) half apart trying to fix its hibernation problem (which ended up being NERO Burning Rom – CD writing software (NERO), an update fixed it). I then came home and ended staying up all night.
22.12.2002 – Sunday 22 December – Silas arrives with Amy
- • I slept in late, which is hardly surprising considering I stayed up until 6 AM. Silas arrived with Amy, his cousin, in the evening. He stayed a while, changing a flat tyre and checking his email, and then headed on to his parent’s place in Bloomfield. I went for a short walk.
23.12.2002 – Monday 23 December
- • Shan rode over in the morning, and Mum, Shan and I drove into town. Shan renewed his driver’s licence and I did a bit of shopping, buying some snack food for the holidays. DVD’s are now classed the same as video’s in the new video rental shop, so all the non-new-release DVD’s are now available for weekly hire. I got Mad Max II and End of Days. Shan and I watched End of Days when we got home, and he then rode back to his place.
24.12.2002 – Tuesday 24 December
- • I went for a walk up to Dad’s place, but he wasn’t home.
- Evening
- • Mum and I watched “Mad Max II” in the evening. It was quite a disappointment, after having heard about it, to find it is such junk. I had a late night.
25.12.2002 – Wednesday 25 December – Christmas Day
- • I woke up late, and took some photos of our Christmas decorations and such. It is a still, hot, summer’s day – the typical Australian Christmas day. I am now 22 years old. I feel a little bit wiser than yesterday.
26.12.2002 – Thursday 26 December
- • I had a quiet and rather uneventful day.
27.12.2002 – Friday 27 December
- • I had a quiet and rather uneventful day.
28.12.2002 – Saturday 28 December
- • I slept in very late, and woke late too... I drove over to Joneses in the evening to pick up a DVD of ours which they had, and to see why they’d not been online all day. Shan’s satellite internet is faulty – Telstra says the entire service is faulty.
29.12.2002 – Sunday 29 December
- • I had a quiet day. I networked my two PC’s, or attempted to. The link light wouldn’t light up. I tried rebooting. I tried wiggling the cable, twisting the cable, I tried everything. It wouldn’t work. It seemed either the cable, the plugs, or the network cards, had died. I went to bed.
30.12.2002 – Monday 30 December
- • Mum and I drove to town. I got a cheque from Ergon Energy for $439.95 as a “Claim Payment” for my PC which blew up, and a cheque from Queensland Health for patient transfer for my doctor’s check-up in Cairns, for $134. I put these into my account, and they will become available within ten working days I guess. I did a little bit of shopping, bought a CD-ROM drive cleaning disc, and got Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life out on DVD from the video store, and then drove home again. I drove over to Shan’s and took my network cable to test it. It worked on his PC’s. I brought Ella’s laptop back here to test it at my place. My new PC worked connected to her laptop. My old PC worked connected to her laptop. Weird. I connected my two PC’s together. They worked. I’m buggered if I know why.
31.12.2002 – Tuesday 31 December – New Year’s Eve
- • New Year’s Eve.
- • I had a pretty quiet and uneventful day. I stayed up until midnight – of course. I spent midnight on chat. We could hear the fire of Joneses bamboo burning from here. I started using an XML format for my journal.
Aug ‘02 | Sep ‘02 | Oct ‘02 | Nov ‘02 | Dec ‘02 Jan ‘03 | Feb ‘03 | Mar ‘03 | Apr ‘03 |