Sunday of my Life

Well, it being Thanksgiving in the US, and it being that most of the blogosphere that I surf regularly is located there, there is much ado about Thanksgiving Cookery lately. Of such things is food heaven made.

Me? I don’t celebrate this thanksgiving thingy, but I did celebrate my fan-damn-tastic mark yesterday by taking most of today off. I got some work done this morning, then vegitated with a book the rest of the day. Rounded it off tonight with a good home-cooked meal. Chicken breast fillet marinated for 4 or 5 hours in a honey, soy, brown sugar, sweet chilli and garlic marinade (sealed in a little plastic bag in a bowl in the fridge, and skewer pierced to let it penetrate). Mashed ‘taters. Mushy peas. Steamed carrots. And, after the chicken was cooked, a splash of red wine into the pan, a glazing and a reducing to make a beautifully sweet, smoky sauce.

Beautiful.

I am writing code. The code I write, I comment, especially when I’m writing it late at night, since I have a terrible memory lately. But you can tell the comments I write late at night compared to, say, the comments I write during the day, when I’m half-way lucid. It is a matter of:

function auth_quit()//an authorised, normal quit.

compared to:

break;//thus spaketh $_DIETY: "When thou dost find a break, then break the case thou shalt".

I think you’ll agree, my late-night comments can be infinitely more interesting.

Quite close to being done with the meat of my Project Development report.

I’m such a trend sheep. This report is about 60% pretty logos and pictures and other assorted frivolities, and 40% actual content.

Just follow the flock, that’s me. All in the name of getting it passed with the minimum of having to rewrite it. Where’s the infernal contract, where do I sign? I have sold my soul to the trend for the purposes of expediency.

First we had Cthulhu…

Then we had Plush Cthulhu…

Now, prepare to go mad with gibbering horror at the terrible visage of…

SQUISHY DEEP-WATER CTHULHU!!

Actually this whole site is filled with facinating pictures, all of deep-water creatures from intercontinental abysses and such-like. I highly recommend having a look-see

The day dawns dull and grey. A chill in the air meets my face as I await my bus at the usual place, only to watch it drive on past me, not having seen my dark-clad figure in the dim light, I suppose. The darker colours representing a sombre mood, and I give a small sigh and pull my book out of my bag and begin the long trudge to the station.

A rude awakening at 3 am; a nightmare sears the mind, and sleep departs to return no more that night. A resolve to get up, then, and ‘do something constructive’. A futile hope, it seems. The work sits in front of me, but the knowledge will not flow. The little inner demon berates me, whipping me with my failure to remember these things that I know I know. What do you expect? It’s 3 am, and I’m being haunted by nightmares again. Give me a break.

Slowly do I amble to the station, the cold wind whipping through my hair, still damp from my shower. My eyes are fixed on my book, a distraction from the time it takes me to walk there. A distraction from the pain that quickly develops in my feet as I walk. I’ve put on weight again, lately, after losing an appreciable portion of it. I’m well aware of it; I can feel it in the effort it takes to walk, or stand up. Time to get my bike fixed, I think. Time to get myself some free-weights and start training. Again. Time to make all sorts of promises to myself, and watch as I break them one after another.

My thought fly away from the text on the page as I walk, and I find myself reading the one line, over and over again, not taking a word of it in. I dreamt of her again, earlier in the night. The girl I lost before I even had her, so very long ago, when I was a young and naive 15-year-old. I dreamt of what could have been and never was. I dreamt of happy times, of her meeting my family, seeing my sisters and my mother and even my father making a place in their hearts for her. And then the spiteful voices of hateful people, the cutting blades of rumour and gossip tore it to shreds, as it did in real life.

I randomly wandered — days, weeks, months ago — through the streets of Melbourne. And I saw her, I passed her in the street, although I don’t remember which street I walked down. She didn’t recognise me; I’ve changed since high-school. But she hasn’t. She still looks the same, as beautiful as ever. She walked with friends, and they chattered as we passed. Our eyes met… and she didn’t recognise me. But I recognised her. I’ve never forgotten her. So I walked on further. I didn’t look back. I wouldn’t let myself. I just walked, for hours on end, ignoring the pain in my feet, refusing to give into the depression which threatened to swallow me again.

And so I walked again today, on my way to school. The long, lonely march to the station, my book packed away when the first spattering squal of rain announced itself in an icy trickle down the back of my neck. Nothing to distract me, so I thought of her again, and finally, I let her go. I walked into the station, and came to school. This place of learning that I adore, full of new friends; people to whom I relate better than I have with many people in my entire life. People who share my passion. I take a look at my life, and I see what holds me back. I let her go, and I move on.

But I know that, sometime again, I’ll find myself walking around the rainy city. It’s my escape, to simply walk, and see what there is to be seen. My quiet time for relfection; a luxury Iseldom afford myself these days, but one I think I will need to do more often, lest my life swallow me and change me in ways I don’t want to be changed. So I’ll do it again, go walking around the rainy city.

What a pity there’s things to do at home.

You sometimes here the strangest things, if you keep your ears open. Things that people say in public can be… unusual, to say the least.

On the train the other day, repeated every thirty seconds on the dot for the entire trip home (about an hour and fourteen minutes):
“Queensland…”

On the train tonight, after a guy obviously high on something (life, so he claims) gets between carriages and climbs up to see what it looked like:
“I’m not crazy, really. I’m just an idiot!”

Said in the bar I visited today for Agent FareEvader’s birthday meet-n-greet:
“And then he said he wanted to tie me up and spank me with a wooden spoon. How am I supposed to respond to that?”

Heard as I walked along Flinders Street after said birthday event:
“So I’m taking my mother home to meet my girlfriend, now.”

The Grand List Of Console Role Playing Game Clichés

This list is long, but good. So many of these hold true in so many different games, almost makes you feel like they’re all connected in some quasi-mystical way, like there’s this one clichéd world out there that is placed under threat of imminent take-over/destruction time after time after time. Almost makes you feel sorry for the little buggers. Memorable list items include:

20. Just Nod Your Head And Smile
And no matter how big that big-ass sword is, you won’t stand out in a crowd. Nobody ever crosses the street to avoid you or seems to be especially shocked or alarmed when a heavily armed gang bursts into their house during dinner, rummages through their posessions, and demands to know if they’ve seen a black-caped man. People can get used to anything, apparently.

13. The Higher The Hair, The Closer To God (Cloud Rule)
The more outrageous his hairstyle, the more important a male character is to the story.

86. Wait! That Was A Load-Bearing Boss!
Defeating a dungeon’s boss creature will frequently cause the dungeon to collapse, which is nonsensical but does make for thrilling escape scenes.

and

90. Guy in the Street Rule
No matter how fast you travel, rumors of world events always travel faster. When you get to anywhere, the people on the street are already talking about where you’ve been. The stories of your past experiences will spread even if no witnesses were around to see them.
91. Wherever You Go, There They Are
Wherever the characters go, the villains can always find them. Chances are they’re asking the guy in the street (see above). But don’t worry — despite being able to find the characters with ease anytime they want to, the bad guys never get rid of them by simply blowing up the tent or hotel they’re spending the night in. (Just think of it: the screen dims, the peaceful going-to-sleep-now music plays, then BOOM! Game Over!)

Enjoy!

Microsoft now have their global search engine up and running, and you can plug int otwo city names nad get directions on how to go between them. Sounds simple, no?

No

Follow these directions

1. Go to http://mappoint.msn.com/DirectionsFind.aspx
2. Select the country ‘Norway’
3. Enter as your starting city ‘Haugesund’
4. Enter as your destination city ‘Trondheim’
5. Click the ‘get directions’ button

Now… if you’ve followed these instructions precisely you should have directions between two cities that are situated a small distance apart on the island country of Norway. The statistics for this journey (copied straight from the search engine itself)?

Total Distance: 1685.9 Miles
Estimated Total Time: 47 hours, 31 minutes

47 hours and 31 minutes to travel what is probably 100 kilometers. Way to blow, Microsoft! Y’all’ve done it again, managed to make yourselves the laughing stock of the Internet!

(Oh, BTW: For the terminally lazy here is a screenshot of the map they provide)

Shamelessly stolen from BBSpot we how have the top 11 list for RPG Office Supplies:

1. Striped Tie of Resist Management
2. Mouse of Negate Firewall
3. Large Potion of Replenish Toner
4. Blinking Hub of Brilliance
5. Rusty Wand of Postpone Deadline
6. Potion of Manager Detection
7. Amulet of Blame Reflection
8. Ring of Pager Control
9. Scroll of Create Intern
10. Coffee Cup of Holding
11. Wand of Project Cancellation

There… if finding this funny doesn’t prove once and for all that I am a complete geek, I don’t know what will…

Aside fomr quoting lines from Star Trek/Wars at y’all.

And here we have the thrice-memedom that I shamelessly stole from Dorothea’s livejournal stream

THREE NAMES YOU GO BY
1. Adrian
2. Skaarjj
3. Hey, you!

THREE SCREEN NAMES YOU HAVE HAD
1. Skaarjj
2. ShadowFox
3. TranceyRien

THREE THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF
1. Quick to learn
2. Never forget a number
3. Mistakes are not generally repeated

THREE THINGS YOU DON’T LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF
1. Quick to anger
2. Real problem with my weight
3. Slow to trust people

THREE PARTS OF YOUR HERITAGE
1. English
2. Scottish
3. A family of thieves from way, way back

THREE THINGS THAT SCARE YOU
1. The dark
2. Losing control of myself
3. Losing control of myself in the dark.

THREE OF YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS
1. Books.
2. The Internet
3. My computer (with its e-books and connection to said Internet)

THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING RIGHT NOW
1. Olive-drab 3/4 lengths
2. Steel-rimmed glasses
3. A sheen of sweat, becuase damn it’s hot in here right now

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE BANDS OR MUSICAL ARTISTS
1. Tim Freedman
2. The Whitlams
3. Evermore

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE SONGS
1. “Up Against The Wall” The Whitlams
2. “Make The World Safe” The Whitlams
3. “400 Miles From Darwin” The Whitlams

THREE NEW THINGS YOU WANT TO TRY IN THE NEXT 12 MONTHS
1. Passing my Cisco CCNA Final, that sounds fun.
2. Finally completing all the designs for this blog
3. Driving

THREE THINGS YOU WANT IN A RELATIONSHIP
1. A relationship
2. Fun
3. The ability to co-exist peaceably with mutual interests, respect and an understanding of the need for personal space.

TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE (in no particular order)
1. I am always bright, chipper and happy
2. I am working harder on being bright, chipper and happy
3. The medication does help, more than it hurts

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS ABOUT THE OPPOSITE SEX (or same) THAT APPEAL TO YOU
1. Eyes.
2. Understanding
3. A nature that lends itself to mindless adoration a desire to help and solve problems.

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE HOBBIES
1. Programming
2. Roleplaying
3. Scale Modelling

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW
1. Eat Lunch
2. Go and get some dental work done, beucase lucky ol’ me lost a filling, which seems to be developing into an abcess to judge by the pain behind my ear.
3. Have money… and icecream…. or icecream filled with 2-dollar coins… that’s be good. Or possibly chocolate money.

THREE CAREERS YOU’RE CONSIDERING
1. Network Administrator
2. E-Security consultant
3. Network Data Cabling Technician

THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO ON VACATION
1. Madison, Wisconsin, US of A
2. Mount Eccles, just past Leongatha, Victoria, Australia
3. Portsmouth, England

THREE KID’S NAMES:
1. Kayleigh
2. Michael
3. Amelia

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE
1. Watch the fall of Microsoft
2. Have enough money in an account that I can live off the interest it generates.
3. Learn to actually program well and with some semblance of speed, instead of little pieces here and there.

THREE WAYS I AM STEREOTYPICALLY A BOY
1. *Fart* he he he… (only occasionally though)
2. I’m bored… what can I build?
3. Nerd… totally and utterly. Glasses, Hair, Attitude, Knowing the names of more than 20 Star Trek-Episodes and able to recite Star Wards word-for-word.

THREE WAYS I AM STEREOTYPICALLY A CHICK
1. Is there anything I can do to help?
2. Dont. Touch. That. OK… you touched it…
3. Fussing over my sisters’ appearance before she goes out and/or assisting in the selection of proper jewelery and styling of hair.

THREE CELEB CRUSHES
1. Denise Richards, just cuz.
2. Angelina Jolie, the original Miss BYO-collagen
3. Drew Barrymore, a divine beauty

THREE PEOPLE WHO HAVE TO TAKE THIS QUIZ NOW
1. Tim Freedman
2. John Howard
3. Ziggy Zwakowski (former CEO of Hell$tra Telstra)