Well, I finally completed the first of the new styles for Sunday of my Life. Those colour links up in the top right are for the style switcher, but I haven’t implemented the code for it yet, so don’t bother with them right now.
Bosses from Hell. We’ve all had them in one form or another, especially Dorothea. So, what the hell, I’ll tell you about mine.
Like Dorothea’s, my Boss from Hell was the boss in my first real job. Straight out of high-school, a fresh faced eighteen-year-old with a headful of knowledge and an empty basket marked ‘experience’. The boss was a guy who spoke like someone straight out of ‘Pointy-Haired Boss school’, spouting business jargon all over the place, talking about quantifying our spatial debilitativeness and making sure to touch base with some individual or another. I’m quite sure he made some of those terms up on the spot, and to this day I can’t hear such jargon without shuddering.
He really did make my first job a living hell. I was constantly reminded how lucky I was to be given this job, how they didn’t have to take me on, and I wasn’t their first choice for the position. Everything I did was endlessly revised and revised and revised, and my methods of doing things were either questioned to the nth degree or openly criticised in front of the rest of the staff. He would appear in my office at least four times a day to check up on me, and I would be called into his office for meetings twice a week. Security cameras were installed in sixteen locations around the school and the monitor in his office seemed to be permanently stuck on the two that were in my office. However, despite him having this direct view link into my office, he would call when I wasn’t there, and thne later on ask me why I wasn’t there when he called.
Needless to say, the year that I spent there under contract weren’t fun, and serve as another layer on the onion of my psychological problems.
Looking back, perhaps working at my old high-school wasn’t the best decision I ever made.
(this post is really a rambling collection of thoughts, put down into text as they came out of my head, so I apologise if the thread becomes hard to follow)
Every couple of days one of the many things I do presents me with a dillema, and I find myself asking myself the same questions.
See, I’m an administrator on a web forum and, with increasing frequency lately, we get people who are disrespectful to those around them. Now, this is really the kind of thing I don’t like. It’s not good for a community atmosphere and that’s one of the things I try to help maintain there. A group of people from diverse backgrounds and skill-sets who come together for whatever reason they may personally have to discuss random things and help people with questions. See, I like to help people. It’s always a real buzz to think that you’ve helped to spread the good knowledge just that bit further, that the clouds of confusion have parted for someone else and they now have a new piece to their puzzle.
This buzz gets a little ruined though when I see someone post in a thread words to the effect of ‘I can’t believe you’re such a moron for not knowing this, here’s the information, now fuck off and stop wasting my time‘. It really gets up my nose so it does. Normally it’s someone new to the board who does this, but occasionally it’s a regular member who does it, and very occasionally one of the other admins. When it happens that a regular member whom I don’t know that well or a new member does this kind of thing, I always make sure I comment on it and remind them about our rules of respecting those around them, and then I find myself thinking ‘am I doing this becuase it’s bad behaviour or becuase it’s bad behaviour coupled with someone new?’ Should I really be trying to remind the more regular members more often than the newer ones, really they should know better so perhaps when they do it it should be a slightly more serious thing.
There are a couple of members there, one’s a very touchy character who tends to go aflame at the slightest hint of criticism directed towards him and the other just isn’t a patient person (but both of them have huge amounts of knowledge to share) and I find myself not saying anything to them when they begin to be disrespectful to others becuase, well, I know them and I know that this is the way they are and that nothing I’m going to say will change it. But is that really why I’m doing it or am I making a flimsy rationalisation to myself?
If you hadn’t noticed I tend to question myself and my actions a lot. It’s an old habit, and sometimes it’s a good one, but normally it’s a bad one as it leads to real indecisiveness.
For now I’ll keep slogging on the way I’m going and see what comes. Maybe one day I’ll know myself well enough to answer my questions and answer them honestly. I hate the thought that maybe I’m making flimsy rationalisations to myself and don’t know it. If I can do such to me, what am I telling other people that I don’t realise I’m telling them? I always try to be totally honest, and I really do hope I’m succeeding.
I would like to apologise for the lack of posts lately, but I’ve just hit my holidays and I’ve been doing some hardcore relaxation and am putting together the new front-end (which will, incidentally, include six switchable colour schemes 
) for SOML to replace this default WordPress one. Expect to see something new in a couple of days.
OK… it’s late… I’m studying for my Cisco CCNA module exam and Java Programming exam tomorrow, and upon compilation of my latest Java program I get an error telling me that the compiler doesn’t know what I’m talking about in one part of my program.
OK, back into it, checking over the code. The indicated line reads:
keyb = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
At least, that’s what I read the fifty-or-so times I read over the line.
It must be how late it’s getting combined with a day of intensive teaching/study. I read and re-read and re-re-read that line over and over and didn’t spot the error that was right in front of my eyes.
keyb = new BuggeredReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
Umm…BuggeredReader? Heh….heheheh….heheheheeehehehehehehe..
That really got me laughing, mainly at my own stupidity. But, as Dorothea so kindly pointed out, at least it got me laughing, becuase that’s a rare enough occasion these days.
Three Random Quotes
One by me, one from a movie and one from a book. Hell, I felt like putting something up tonight, and I really can’t think of anything better.
When you think you’re in a downward spiral, you’re just looking at it back to front.
– Adrian, September 14, 2004
Education is like a sexually transmitted disease. Once you have it it rules you out for most jobs, and then you have the terrible urge to pass it on
–Terry Pratchett, “Hogfather”
The beginning is a very delicate time. Know then that it is the year 10191. The known universe is ruled by the Padishah Emperor Shadam IV, my father.
–Dune, Frank Herbert, Film Adaptation
Thankyou… that has scratched my blogging itch for today.
So another election campaign is in full swing in the US. This seems to bring out the worst sides of a politician’s inner child as they squabble over a prize that’s up for grabs. Each wants to be President or, failing that, wants to attach himself in some way to the President like a Remora on shark. They back-bite, muck-rake, mud-sling and back-stab their way through the ranks of thier opponents and friends alike, and for what? To sit in an office and make the decisions, and ultimately take the blame?
This story illustrates exactly what I’m talking about. The Republican party are well known for their muck-raking tactics, and it seems the Democracts are getting in on the fun this time round too. Of particular interest:
…”Mr. President, why did you lie to the American people?” said Terry McAuliffe. “Why did you tell us that you received no special treatment? Why did you say that you had served honourably in the Air National Guard?”…
–”Bush military documents may be forgeries” National Post, Canada, 10th September 2004
…Mr. Kerry, who was wounded and won several medals for valour in Vietnam, has been hit with largely unsubstantiated allegations that he exaggerated his courage under fire…
–”Bush military documents may be forgeries” National Post, Canada, 10th September 2004
…”There is an orchestrated effort by Democrats and the Kerry campaign to tear down the president because of the direction the polls are moving,” Scott McClellan, Mr. Bush’s press secretary, said when asked about the latest National Guard controversy.
“The President met his obligations and was honourably discharged.”
–”Bush military documents may be forgeries” National Post, Canada, 10th September 2004
I mean, look at that! It’s all a battle to make yourself look better than the other guy. In the end, the prize isn’t worth it to lower yourself to the level of the mob. It is unfortunately human to do this kind of thing, but really… politicians manage to take it alot further than the average Joe Blogger does. It’s insane. Every politician needs to take a step back and look at himself/herself, at where they’re going, and is getting there really worth the price they’re paying. Their credibility, their families, their self-respect. Frankly, nothing is worth losing those for. We are nothing without our self-respect. We are nothing without our credibility. Don’t even get me started on family. So any politicians who may happen to see this, like it’s ever going to happen, just step back and take a good look.
Maybe you’ll see what we see…
Maybe pigs will fly…
Today, throughout Australia, ADSL and dialup internet users were unexpectedly disconnected at 9AM. It didn’t matter who you were, what ISP you were with or who your carrier was. If you were online, you went oflfine. If you were offline, you stayed that way.
‘How can this be?‘ I hear you cry. ‘Surely there must be enough carriers in Australia to guarantee best-path determination? How could all those ISPs have a fault all at the same time?‘
All this happened becuase in Australia there really is only one carrier. They own all the lines. They own all the exchanges. They own all the DSLAMs.
They are Telstra Hell$tra and they reign supreme, unfortunately.
Today Telstra experienced a failure in their internet exchange servers, or something not unlike that. That alone managed to take out half of Australia’s internet capabilities. Then in the course of fixing this they managed to knock the rest of the servers offline and take out the rest of Australia. Lovely… my connection died just in time for me to miss most of today’s Dragonhunt session. Telstra yet again manage to prove why they are a good example case for the strengthening of anti-trust laws.
Yes, technically what Telstra holds is a monopoly, and therefore illegal under Australian law, but we really have to look at two facts:
Number 1 is just a fact of life, and the answer to number 2 is: no one. At least, not as far as I can see.
This post started off as a rant, but I’ve just realised I really don’t have the energy, time or inclination to rant right now, so I’m just going to let this one go and trawl news sites for something blogworthy.
And no, I’m not talking about The Whitlams song (although I do highly recommend them to those who have never heard them. Royal in the Afternoon and Charlie No. 3 are works of pure genius, and Blow Up The Pokies has a message behind it to touch the soul and make you think). I am, however, talking about Melbourne, the city in which I… well, I don’t live in it, but I live near it, and that’s as good as to me. Being in Melbourne is an experience, it really is. Melbourne is the cultural capital of Australia, and there’s always something to see. I visited Melbourne today to pick up some books for Erin and, unashamedly walking out of what is very definately a romance bookstore, I safely stowed them away in my backpack and went to see what I could see.
Taking a wander out of Australia on Collins I put my feet on autopilot and waited to see where they’d take me. When they didn’t take me anywhere I realised that I actually needed to give them instructions on muscle movement and so on (there go those damn meds again) and so I took them off autopilot and pointed myself up Collins towards Elizabeth St.
Walking along, noting the stores I walk past and the things I see, looking for something blogworthy…
Clothing, art store, software, clothing, clothing, busker, clothing, sex store, clothing…
Now, my opinions on clothes shopping having been given before, I won’t bother to tell you how uninterested I was in the clothing stores I walked past. Most of them being women’s clothes anyway, this goes without saying. I did stop to listen to the busker (becuase I always do) and I paid him generously (becuase I also always do). I was a busker myself at one point, venturing out into Melbourne’s streets on a sunday to sing various acapella and adapted works, with a bit of Musical Theatre and Opera on my repetoire sheet, I know a couple of things about buskers that most people don’t stop to consider. Buskers aren’t usually there becuase they’re desperate for the money (although some may be), and they aren’t there to show off. They’re there becuase they love music and they want to share it with the people around them.
And why not? There is not one person in this world, not one (apart from the hearing impaired, but that goes without saying, and that is truly one of the things for which I pity them), who has not at some point appreciated a piece of music, whether it be death metal (which to me sounds like badly played white noise, but to each their own) or italian opera, or caberet music, or rap, tribal drumming, choral acapella, Gregorian Chant, anything. It’s all music and someone, somewhere appreciates it for what it is. Me, I have a very eclectic taste in music. I’ll listen to almost anything, and find something to like about it. To some people this means that I have no taste in music but… eh… I like alot of styles. I’ve been out there among the buskers, I’ve lived that life, and that’s why now I always stop to listen and appreciate the gift that they are giving to the world, to respect it for what it is, and to pay them their dues in respect, appreciation and gold coins.
So onwards past my busking friend, past the next round of clothing stores, past the art shop and the sex shop (such places, in typical Austrlaian fashion, unashamedly front themselves on the everyday world. They don’t haunt alleyways and dark corners of the city, but stand out bold and proud, saying ‘here I am. If you must judge me judge me for what I am’), finally spilling out onto Elizabeth Street. Looking down towards Flinders St. Station I see the familiar purple frontage of Minotaur, reputedly the best place to go for Sci-Fi and Fantasy books and collectables. In my opinion it’s a good place to go to waste money, since they charge between 3 and 10 dollars over the going rate just for a paperback novel, and between 15 and 30 dollars over the going rate for a hardcover. The only time I’ll go and buy from there is if Fahrenheit, my favourite fantasy bookstore, doesn’t have what I’m looking for and can’t get it for me. Even then I have to be pretty desperate for the book to pay their prices for it. Which, admittedly, I usually am.
See, I’m a person who reads. I real a lot. And I mean a lot. I can read an average paperback in 2 to 6 hours. I read the latest installment of the Harry Potter series in 8 hours flat. Everywhere I go I have my backpack with me, with at least 3 books in it. If I run out of things to read I will read just about anything I come across. Street signs, financial reviews, quarterly status reports, anything really.
Emerging from Minotaur having had a look around, a browse if you will, and having put a life-size stand-up of Legolas on layby for Erin (shhh… she doesn’t know yet), I walked down to Flinder St. Station and caught a train going through the City Loop. A few minutes later I was at Melbourne Central Station, and catching a tram down towards RMIT and the State Library. Oh look, students doing bad street theatre about an incomprehensible subject. Yep, I’m in Melbourne alright…
And I’m loving it.
Wow…this makes three posts tonight… four if you count the draft I put up earlier when I finally finished it, all within a very narrow time-span of each other. I have a sudden burst of energy, not an uncommon thing when my latest dose of meds kicks in. It’ll wear of very soon and I’ll be ready to sleep…but still…
Regular readers of SOML (which there are exactly 0… I’m not kidding myself. I don’t post often enough to have what you’d call a ‘regular readership’) would be pleased to note that this is the highest concentration of posts by me ummm… ever, I believe.
And frankly, don’t ask me why this deserves a post all of it’s own…but I think I’m going to keep a promise to myself now, and I’m using this as a sign of it. I’m going to make at least 1 post every day now, and over the upcoming holiday period I’m going to make a totally new frontend for this blog, becuase this default one really doesn’t suit my tone. I’m tossing pu between colour scemes, whether to go with something dark and soothing, or bright and happy. Feel free to chime in with suggestions. I may even make a generic layout and have several user selectable colour schemes available. All depends on how generous and expansive I’m feeling.
Powered by FireStats