On Top of the World

I’ve finished fixing stuff that wasn’t working (the stuff I could see, at least). If you find anything else that’s broken, let me know and I’ll pretend to care. Actually, I’ll probably try to fix it as soon as possible because I’m a bit anal like that.

When M and I got home today from our travels into the world outside the safe coccoon of our house, he noticed that there was smoke on the plains. Later on the news, he learned that the smoke was a fire at the Wingfield dump (yes, that teensy puff of smoke in the centre of the picture represents a fire - the sun was in a really bad spot). I’m feeling quite fortunate that I don’t live around there - living next to a dump would be bad enough, but a burning dump would be just too much.

I’ve done the upgrade, but as you can probably tell, it’s not quite all working yet. So, in true programmer fashion, I’ll comment out the stuff that isn’t working Hopefully I’ll have everything fixed soon, without breaking it.

I’m going to upgrade to WordPress 1.5 later on today (when I’ve got plenty of time to fix the inevitable stuffups I make), so if my blog’s not working for a while, then that’s why. Hopefully it won’t take me too long.

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?

Things weren’t as bad as I thought they were going to be when I went to work on Monday. Things always seem so much worse when you can’t do anything about the situation except worry, instead of something productive to try to resolve it. But when I put my head down on Monday and tried to sort everything out, things weren’t so bad. It’s not entirely resolved, but I do think I made some progress. I’m just a born worrier - I remember the night before I started Grade 2, I was bawling my eyes out because I was worried that I wouldn’t get a pencil when I started class. Naturally that worry was unfounded, but it doesn’t stop me from pulling the Pencil Routine every now and then. Even though I know in my brain that things will be resolved, I still find it hard to believe that it will actually happen.

I think I need to buy an mp3 player. Well ok, I don’t need one, but I’m getting pretty bored with my walking every day, and I think it would help to have something to motivate me. I just want something small that I can hang around my neck, so I don’t have to carry it, and since my walks are generally fairly short (as in around 25 minutes or so), I don’t need to be able to fit that many tracks on it (although the more the merrier as they say). I thought about buying an iPod Shuffle, but they’re pretty pricey for what they are. I had a look on eBay, hoping to find a cheap 512 Mb (I guess I could live with 256 Mb) player, but I think my definition of ‘cheap’ and normal people’s definition is different. It’s not too much to ask to want a kick ass player with around 10 hours or so battery life (and rechargeable battery - none of this AAA crap) for around 10 bucks is it? I didn’t think so.

I also want a new mobile phone. I had my heart set on the Samsung D500 (Rich beat me to it!), but now another has caught my eye. The problem is that it’s not available here (and I doubt it will be), so if I got it, I’d have to order it from overseas without having seen one in person first, which is pretty risky. The specs sound good, and the reviews I’ve read are good, so I think it would be ok. If only the Sharp GX30i didn’t have bloody Vodafone logos all over it, I’d get one of those. The screen is brilliant. The one I’m pining after has a screen of the same resolution, so I’m hoping it would be pretty good too. Mmmm gadget shopping.

Hi ho. Life’s pretty blech at the moment, because I’m worried about work. Sometimes I just feel so inadequate and I wonder what the hell I’m doing there. Other days I feel as though I’m not really that bad, and maybe I’m not as useless as I feel the other days. I know it will be all right in the end (unless I get sacked of course), but until then I can’t help worrying. It’s really put a crimp on my weekend - ordinarily I would be enjoying the beautiful weather we’re having at the moment, but I can’t because I can’t stop thinking about work, and worrying about going in tomorrow, and all the things I have to do, and how I’m going to go about doing them. Once my deadline has been met I’ll feel better but until then…

I just finished watching The Biggest Loser and I am so sick of seeing Lisa crying - every week, more water works. Geez - get over it!

It’s somewhat overrated and commercialised, but Happy Valentine’s Day anyway. If you celebrate it, I hope you had/are having/will have a great day, and if you don’t, I still hope you had (etc) a great day

Yesterday I drove out to one of the dodgiest suburbs in Adelaide to pick up some stuff I bought on eBay. Ordinarily I would just ask them to post it, which I did for another seller who also lives out there, but I was too much of a stinge to pay $8 for postage when I could just pick it up, and I wanted to take my car for a drive to check that it’s ok after my last towing incident. Now that I think about it, though, it probably wasn’t such a good idea, because it would not have been pleasant if I’d broken down there. But I didn’t, so it’s ok. So I set off on the drive, trying not to ram the people in front of me who were doing 80 in a 100 zone. HELLO! Use some gas for goodness’ sake, people. Or better yet, drive in the left lane, which is what you’re supposed to do unless you’re overtaking. Idiots. There were slow arses in the left lane, and more of them in the right lane. Sigh. Other than that frustration, I made it in one piece, and to be honest I was happy to get my stuff and leave as soon as I could. I know I’m making it sound like the worst place on earth, which it’s not (I assume), but it really is a bleak and depressing suburb. I think next time I’ll just pay the 8 bucks. On the upside, I got some cool stuff for not much money! Gotta be happy with that.

I had my first day back at tafe today. It was good, but sort of weird. We’ve got a quite a small class, which I like because there’s something about a smaller class that’s a bit friendlier. Even so, there were only 7 of us, which might be just a bit too small! Our teacher said that there will be a couple more on Thursdays, because some people alternate between a morning and night class. It’d be good to be able to get paid time off to do the course, but I don’t think it’s exactly relevant to my line of work.

Anyway, class went ok, but I think it will take a few lessons to get back into the swing of it. We have a different teacher this year, who I knew before, but it’s like when you started a new grade at primary school and had to get used to a new teacher. She’s really nice, and I think it will be a good year.

On another note, I’m stopping with the eBay for a while. There was something I really wanted, but the auction finished while I was at tafe, so I didn’t know whether I’d bought it until I got home. Before I left for class, I put a bid on it, hoping that I wouldn’t be outbid. As it turns out, I ‘won’ the item, which I’m really pleased about - it had better be as good as it looks in the pictures, else I’ll be slightly pissed. The downside is that I don’t have much in my bank account any more. So I am taking a forced break, which is probably a good thing!