On Top of the World

Today M and I made a trip into the city to look for laptops.

As it’s winter here, M had a jacket on and underneath he was wearing a t-shirt which had written on it:

which would ordinarily be fine, but his jacket covered some of the words, so that the only writing visible was

Since this changed the meaning of the t-shirt somewhat, I suggested that he might like to put a different t-shirt on.

The title of this post is from a different occasion where M wore this t-shirt to a casual work thing, and an annoying child of a coworker read it and said, “Does that mean you’re an idiot?” M said no, and suggested that the child read it again. “Ohhhhh…” Hehe. Stupid kid.

So anyway, we looked for laptops, and are thinking of possibly getting a Mac Mini. I’m thinking that I would also like a Mac mini, particularly as you can use Boot Camp to have a dual boot for Windows and the Mac OS, so I’d still be able to use my Windows-only applications. It would take up a lot less space on my desk too. Hmmm.

I’m sort of thinking of maybe changing jobs. Possibly. Did that contain enough disclaimers? Not just changing jobs, to something else in my current field, but totally changing jobs. I don’t know though. I’m generally of the opinion that if you’re not sure, then it’s probably better just to stick with what you’re doing until you are sure. But on the other hand, it might be nice to have a change, particularly as I seem to be a bit up and down regarding my happiness in my current work. At the moment I’m happy, but who knows what’s going to happen in future. Then again, what’s to say that a new job is going to work out better than this one? The people I’m working with now are good, and the conditions are good, so I’d have to be confident of my decision if I were to give up what I have now. On the other hand, it’s possible that I could go back to my current job if things didn’t work out, but that’s only if my boss thought that I’m good enough to rehire, and I don’t know whether he feels that way.

I think some more research and thinking is in order.

I was looking for free applications for my PDA the other day, when I came across this:

It’s called Nuts, and it’s a program to keep track of your sexual partners. Not only can you record the date and time of your trysts, but you can specify where it occurred, give the experience an overall rating and record whether or not you had safe sex. It’s also possible to have records for multiple partners.

Am I the only one who thinks that this just seems a bit wrong somehow? I’ve never heard of anyone recording all the details of every sexual experience they’ve had, and I’m a bit lost as to why exactly you would want to. Maybe I’m just missing something really obvious to everyone else - I have been known to be a bit naïve about these sorts of things. And how many partners does the developer think that users of this program are going to have? Unless you want to use it for ‘business purposes’, in which case it may make a bit more sense.

But, really, nothing says ‘clinical’ and ‘nerdy’ at the same time quite like rolling over to your bedside table and pulling out your PDA to record all the details after you’ve had sex. And you wouldn’t want them to catch you selecting their name from the drop-down list of partners, either.

In the last few days I have seen a dramatic increase (from the former number of zero) in the instances of sneakers being hung from powerlines in my area. On our way to work today, we saw 4 pairs of shoes hung up in various spots, and when I went to the supermarket yesterday, there was another pair hung up nearby.

I remember reading ages ago on the Urban Legends page that sneakers hung on a power line supposedly had something to do with gangs marking their territory, but I couldn’t remember whether it said that that was true, so I had another look. It doesn’t say whether it’s true, but did give a few more possible reasons for putting the shoes up there (taken from the above-mentioned page):

* It’s the work of gangs marking the boundaries of their territory.
* Bullies take them off defenceless kids, then sling them up out of reach as the ultimate taunt.
* Gang members create an informal memorial at the spot where a friend lost his life.
* Crack dealers festoon wires to advertise their presence in the neighborhood.
* The shoes increase wire visibility for low-flying aircraft.
* Overly puffed-up boys who have just lost their virginity or otherwise passed a sexual milestone look to signal the event to others.
* Graduating seniors mark this transition in their lives by leaving something of themselves behind; namely, their shoes.
* Kids do it just because it’s fun. And besides, what else are you going to do with a worn-out pair of sneakers other than tie the laces together and toss them high?

So, it looks like I live in a neighbourhood of gangs or bullies or blind pilots who fly way too low or crack dealers or pubescent boys who just got laid.

On my walk to tafe from the car park today, I passed this sign:

I wonder, if the sky ever does fall in, if Chicken Little is going to paint another sign saying, “I told you so”?

Why is it that so many ‘artists’ these days say wi’ju instead of ‘with you’ in their lyrics? Is that the latest cool way of talking? Or is that the way they think it’s said?

My car had to go to be fixed (again) yesterday, and I got a loan car for the day - a Ford Focus. What a crappy, gutless piece of rubbish. I was looking forward to getting my baby back. I was sitting up so high, it felt like I was perched on the seat, and the clutch was about a foot off the floor. And if you want a car with acceleration, don’t get this one. I was crossing an intersection, and the lights were amber, and the person in front of me was dawdling along, so I had to get out of there quickly. I pulled into the lane next to me and floored it, but I don’t think I increased my speed. That was the frustration I had with my Pulsar - you floor it and nothing happens. When I got my car back at the end of the day, I went to change into first, and the clutch just felt so hard to push in, I was wondering whether it was always like that. It didn’t take me long to get used to the pedals in the crappy Focus. But I’m used to my pedals again, and I still love my car even though the dodgy mechanics couldn’t fix the problem. Idiots.

People at work have been popping out kids left, right and centre this year. One guy’s fiancée had their first child in January, another guy’s wife had one last Saturday, yet another guy’s wife is due in March, and another in June. Never mind what the Chinese calendar says, I reckon this year is the Year of the Baby. What the hell is in the water?

My computer is stuffed. While I was surfing, the CD drive decided to do something, and then the HDD made some weird noises. So I figured a reboot would fix the problem, and so ended the life of my hard drive. M’s trying to fix it, but so far with no success. I think it’s just truly rooted. So bye bye all my stuff. Ah well, there wasn’t anything particularly critical on there, it’s just a pain in the arse more than anything else.

Yeah, so I should have backed up… yada yada whatever Shit happens.

As I posted a couple of days ago, my car died and I had to organise a tow truck to take it back to the dealer. So I called the dealer this morning, and let them know that it would be coming back, and later on in the day I organised the tow. So the guy turned up (eventually), and he asked if I could drive it out of the driveway… ummm, no, that’s why I need to have it towed!

So I get in the car to steer, while the tow guy and M stand at the front, ready to push. M said maybe I should just check to see that it doesn’t start, so I turned the key and - hey presto! The bloody thing started! Gee thanks - don’t do it for mummy when she asks nicely, but as soon as the nice stranger is watching, everything is sweetness and light. So that was pretty embarrassing. But the plus side was that it didn’t have to be pushed down the driveway- I wasn’t looking forward to it, because our driveway is steep and bendy. So I guess it was a good thing that I was able to drive it out. I thought the tow guy might as well take it to the dealer, because they can have a look at it and hopefully prevent it from happening again when I get it back.

Now the dealer will probably try to start it, it will start, and he’ll say there’s nothing wrong with it, and tell me to pick it up. Hopefully he’ll do something with it - clean it out a bit or something!

I think I hope for too much - I need to learn to lower my expectations. The person who doesn’t care always wins.

I am such a tool. No, really, no need for you to deny it. Oh. You didn’t.

Here I am testing my program, and I was wondering why it was taking so damn long for a particular bit of it to finish, so I had a look a variable value, took note, then let it run for a bit longer. I then looked at the same variable and thought, ‘Hang on, it was that value last time… what the…’ I then realised that I was iterating happily through my map, but I forgot to increment the iterator, so it was just processing the same value over and over again. Damn infinite loops! *slaps forehead*