I slept terribly last night. How unusual. Anyway, I felt pretty awful and as a result, the following conversation ensued between Jen and I:

Jamie: "<sighs heavily> I feel like a dried out turd."
Jen: "Well I'm sorry, but we only have toast."

It made my morning seem so much more bearable. :)

posted at: 09:13 | keywords: Humour, Life | permanent link to this entry

Well, as a first post in around 4 months, I won't bother to tell you what's been happening in my life or any of that jazz. Far too much effort. Instead, I bring you the following:

Something wet and unpleasant landed upon my left shoulder from above as I walked home from work yesterday. It had been several years since something similar had happened, but one of my immediate suspicions was that the culprit might have been feathery in nature. It didn't seem to be a big enough mess for that, though, but not long after my homecoming, Jen confirmed my suspicions.

This makes three incidents in which a bird has decided that I might be a worthy object upon which to excrete. Allow me to recount the previous two:

1. Primary school: I was walking around the playground and heard a rather loud impact on my hat. It didn't hurt, so it wasn't anything solid, but an inspection revealed that it was rather sloppy. I can't rememver whether a bird was in my list of suspects, but I know someone enlightened me soon enough.
2. High school: I was sitting on some steps peacefully eating my lunch while talking to a friend when something warm and sloppy landed on my leg. Being at high school, I figured that someone might have thrown something randomly, as they tend to do at high school. Lance looked around briefly and, as he looked up, he said, "Ah. I spy the culprit..."

I can just hear the meetings they had and the laughter that follows each incident. "Hey, you know that blind loser... you know, that button pusher from that blindy duo that laughably call themselves a band and go by the name N^th Degree? We should crap on him! Hahahahahaha! Not just once, though... we need to do it every few years. Let him lapse into a sense of false security and then... plop! Hmmm. Who's going first? He he he he... chortle chortle." Ok, so N^th Degree didn't exist when I was at primary school, but that's not the point! Maybe birds can time travel. Did you think of that, huh? On the other hand, maybe this is all just my growing delusion and paranoia...

posted at: 08:48 | keywords: Life, Humour | permanent link to this entry

After months of hard work, JSonar 4.2 and 5.2 have finally been released. These will probably be the last releases of JSonar 4 and 5; i.e. the last releases of JSonar supporting versions of Cakewalk Sonar prior to 6.0. A list of what's new can be found in the readme for the version of JSonar you will be using. As usual, you can access the readme files and download the package at the JSonar Project web site. For those of you that don't know, JSonar is a free set of JAWS scripts for the Cakewalk Sonar music and audio production package.

posted at: 21:22 | keywords: JSonar, JAWS | permanent link to this entry

I received this little snippet in an email last week:

DRIVING ON THE LEFT II: A policeman in Oldbury, West Midlands, England, pulled over a weaving car. "I attempted to speak to the driver, who appeared to be fumbling around with the controls," said the constable. "At that point the passenger leaned across and stated, 'He's blind'." Sure enough the driver, OmedAziz, 31, had lost both eyes and three fingers in a bomb blast in his native Iraq, and his passenger was giving him directions so he could steer. Aziz denied charges of dangerous driving, but was convicted and given a three-month prison sentence, which was suspended, plus a three year driving ban. (London Times)
...Apparently the judge thinks that should be long enough to grow new eyes.

posted at: 20:54 | keywords: Humour, News | permanent link to this entry

Freeoun! It's been ages since I've posted in this thing, although I managed far worse with my old blog. The fact that I started my job two Mondays ago (9 Oct) has a lot to do with that. I'm quite enjoying my work, though sitting in one spot for ages in front of my computer coding and researching gets a little tedious at times, especially when I can't spin around on my chair, pace, lie on my bed randomly, sing, play keyboard (the musical variety), sloth, etc. Still, the work is challenging and interesting. I continue to research and learn, which is essential for me lest I become extremely bored. For those who don't know, my job is a little difficult to explain simply. Basically, I work as a software developer for a small company called NetBox Blue which develops an all-in-one internet access, security, monitoring and server appliance called the NetBox. It provides many services, including firewall, email virus and spam protection, content filtering and email hosting, to list only a few. Aside from the hardware and software, services include technical support via phone and email, automatic updates and replacement warranty. Anyway, my job involves developing software and solutions to improve and enhance the functionality of the NetBox. Given the wide array of services provided, my work is quite varied, which is one of the reasons I like it. :) I code primarily in Python.

By the way, Michael and I recorded the vocals for Never Be the Same on 7 Oct and they are sounding great. We are hoping to record the guitar parts this Saturday, assuming nothing goes amiss. If all goes well, I should be able to mix and master the damned thing over the next few weeks and get it out before mid November, though I refuse to make promises on such dates, given the invariable tendency for unexpected delays where N^th Degree is concerned. Actually, I really should post an update to the N^th Degree news section. :)

I always try to think of some amusing happenings while writing entries such as this one. Perhaps the funniest occurred on Thursday.

I was staying at Jen's on Wednesday night, so she gave me some frozen pasta (or not, but more on that later) to take to work for lunch on Thursday. So, lunch time came. I removed my lunch from the fridge and microwaved it. I should note at this point that I love having access to a fridge and microwave, among other things, at work. :) I took it back to my desk and began to eat, but something just wasn't quite right. I have eaten this pasta dish before at Jen's and quite enjoyed it, but this just wasn't quite hitting the spot. Perhaps something was missing? ... It also seemed to have way too much halloumi in it, which is a type of cheese for those that don't know. I thought that perhaps this particular dish just didn't taste that good after being frozen, as I know that some dishes don't, and suggested as much to Jen that evening.

The truth was nothing so uninteresting. To Jen's horror, upon opening the freezer next morning, she discovered that the container she had given me was the one in which she had placed extra sauce ... with no pasta. Yup. I had eaten pasta sauce with no pasta on Thursday ... and hadn't figured out that there was no pasta! I almost wish she hadn't told me. How ridiculously stupid! I knew something was wrong, but surely I should have been able to realise that I wasn't eating any pasta. In my defence, this pasta sauce is quite chunky with a lot of vegetables and pieces of halloumi and the pasta used was shells or the like (not spirals, spaghetti or fettuccini which are very obvious), but I'm still an utter twit. How embarrassing! To make things worse, I wonder what my colleagues at work thought? "Oh my god, this guy is so weird ... he's eating pasta sauce with no pasta!" To add to the embarrassment and amusement, the container is transparent and Jen had also completely failed to realise when giving it to me. Eeeeek! Oh well. At least we got a hell of a laugh out of it.

I've been meaning to post this link for a while, but haven't, so here it is: Amazon Unbox to customers. I am very much against DRM, but this is just utterly disgusting. This is worth a read if you care about the whole DRM thing.

posted at: 21:36 | keywords: Life, Work, NthDegree, Music, Rants, Humour | permanent link to this entry

Well, it looks like there are going to be quite a lot of significant changes in my life over the next few months. First of all, I accepted the job and will be starting some time in the next few weeks. So, I'm going from no constant work to full time work. Eeek! I'm looking forward to it in many ways, though it will be a big change and I'm a bit concerned as to how I will fit everything in. Anyway, I'm currently in the process of organising blindy stuff for that. I have o&m (orientation and mobility) training tomorrow to get from Milton train station to work (only a few minutes walk) and am 'going into work' (wo, sounds weird!) with an employment officer from the Royal Blind Foundation for a workplace modifications assessment on Friday. Then I get to go into Centrelink on Monday for a 'job capacity assessment' so that they can tell me that I am capable of working and how many hours I am able to work. (It is all actually utter nonsense, as the fact that I am quite capable of working in a full time job such as this should be obvious, but bureaucracy insists nevertheless.) Arrrg! Unfortunately, all of this is going to screw quite nastily with N^th Degree for the next while, at least until we determine the physical logistics of arranging recording sessions given my new day job.

Second, I'll be moving out with Jen by March next year. This will be fantastic for many reasons, but it will also present many difficult challenges, especially as this is my first experience of truly independent living. I have a hell of a lot to learn!

Speaking of change, Jen and I just returned from a short holiday (Sunday to today) at Bellthorpe Cottage in ... well, Bellthorpe, which is about 25 minutes from Maleny 'in the middle of nowhere'. As always, it was fantastic. Being that far from civilisation forced us to truly step back, relax and simply enjoy each other's company. It was a very peaceful place surrounded by many of the best things nature has to offer, including some waterfalls only a few minutes walk away. (Anyone who knows me well knows how much I love the water!)

While we were away, Jen bought John Edward's book 'Crossing Over', which she has been reading to me. It is basically an autobiography of how he came to be what and where he is in the present day. I have very much enjoyed it and it has rekindled my interest in spirituality, as well as giving me a positive, refreshing perspective on life in general. I highly recommend it to anyone who has an interest in this spirituality/afterlife/reincarnation stuff. I often find that reading such material (if it is good) gives me this sense of revitalisation. The books by Brian Weiss had a similar effect and are also very much worth reading.

posted at: 22:00 | keywords: Life, Work, NthDegree, Spirituality, Books | permanent link to this entry

I was offered the Python developer job this afternoon! I had the interview last Thursday after spending a few hours answering two tricky networking questions prior to the interview. The questions actually did stump me for a while, but I got them in the end with a lot of help from Google. (I have no idea why I bothered to link that, but enjoy it anyway.) The interview itself was a bit scary, given that it was my first and that it was three hours long among other reasons. They asked me a mixture of general, character, technical and tricky "why should we give you this job" style questions. Overall, I felt pretty good about it, though I didn't expect to hear from them for a few weeks. I haven't accepted it yet, but will be doing so tomorrow.

Last Friday evening consisted primarily of two concerts: the Queensland Kodály Choir 'September Song' concert, in which I had to sing, and the Ben Folds concert. The QKC concert actually went much better than expected and most of us very much enjoyed it. I recorded it and the recording came out quite well (again, better than expected). There were a decent amount of screw ups :), but some of the performance was just beautiful.

... And then there was Ben Folds alongside the Queensland Orchestra. All I can say is that it rocked! Ben Folds is truly an amazing musician, performer and entertainer. Being able to hear a live orchestra was also incredible, an experience I have not enjoyed in a very long time. Combining Ben Folds's awesomeness with that experience just took the biscuit. I've heard/seen the Ben Folds WASO DVD, but I personally feel the Queensland Orchestra did a better job. Although the more formal 'sit down' atmosphere meant that one could not be as openly energetic and 'hyped' as one could in last year's performance at the Tivaly, it was still amazing. My obsession with orchestra not withstanding, I'm of the opinion that both performances were extremely enjoyable for different reasons and it's difficult to say which I enjoyed more.

We were supposed to record the guitar parts for Never Be the Same on Saturday, but that didn't end up happening. Bleh! More delays. This is sooo frustrating! :(

posted at: 22:18 | keywords: Life, Work, Music, NthDegree | permanent link to this entry

Jen just sent me the following email and I felt it just had to be blogged:

Subject: Time for a break.

Hmmm.. do you think it's inappropriate that I amuse myself while waiting for the computer to warm up by trying to make it all the way across my classroom on my wheely chair with only one push off? Repeatedly?

Also, how would I explain it if I injured myself... or if someone walked in?

I think it's time for holidays.

Jen

Needless to say, I was quite amused and my imagination now has something to keep it occupied. :)

posted at: 10:45 | keywords: Humour | permanent link to this entry

In my usual explorations of the internet, I found LyricWiki! This looks like a great project. It is, as the name suggests, a wiki for lyrics. From the front page:LyricWiki is a free site which is a source where anyone can go to get reliable lyrics for any song from any artist without being hammered by invasive ads.

I think wikis are a marvellous concept. They appeal to my idealistic, warm and fuzzy notion of people openly contributing to help themselves and others (i.e. "by the people for the people"). This is yet another example of such an effort. Unfortunately, lyrics for much of the music I listen to are not available, mostly due to the alternative nature of said music, though it seems that all of the Dream Theater lyrics are there, which is fantastic. I guess I'll have to start contributing when I can find time!

posted at: 18:03 | keywords: InterestingSites | permanent link to this entry

Queensland won the goalball grand prix on Saturday! :) I was playing pretty well, which is a nice change. Unfortunately, I sucked again at training on Tuesday night. Bleh. Oh well.

I have a job interview nex week for the Python developer job I mentioned last week! It sounds a bit scarey, though. I have to answer some questions at home 48-24 hours before the interview and the interview itself will be around three hours. Wo! They give me dinner, which is some consolation. :) This is my first ever job interview, which makes it even scarier. I should be ok, though. I hope ...

Meanwhile, I was supposed to go to an aural studies class this evening and had arranged for someone to pick me up from Indooroopilly station just prior. Unfortunately, I am so used to going to U.Q. at 6 p.m. (choir starts at 6) that I thought the class started at 6. It was only 15 minutes before I was about to leave (to arrive at 6) that I realised it actually started at 5. Arrrg! Idiot! I've made several mistakes relating to travel times in the last few weeks and it is really starting to irritate me. The ones before today were even more stupid because I mixed up my arrival and departure times when thinking about what time I needed to leave. Ug!

posted at: 18:00 | keywords: Life, Goalball, Work, Rants | permanent link to this entry

Yesterday morning, Jen and I rose at 6 and were completely on time to arrive at her school by 7. This meant I was able to catch the 7:03 Shorncliffe train, which meant I would be able to make the bus from Sandgate Station to the shopping centre near home. (It only comes once an hour, so catching the 7:33 train results in my having to wait half an hour for the bus.) Unfortunately, QR decided to terminate my train at Northgate, after which I had to wait 10 minutes for another train to Sandgate. The bus leaves 4 minutes after the train is supposed to arrive, and thus, I missed the bus. There was no way I was going to wait over 40 minutes for the bus, so I caught a cab. Arrrg! I hate Brisbane public transport!

In other, non-ranty news, I applied for my first job today! Amazing, isn't it? Being somewhat disappointed by a lot of the jobs i have found on job networks, I decided to Google for a Python job on a whim, and found a position for a Python developer in Milton, which would be fantastic. The work looks quite diverse and I think I satisfy pretty much all of the requirements, both essential and desirable. I can't believe I've actually been positively motivated to apply for a job! :) Now I just have to a) hope that I get it and b) hope that the money is ok (they don't specify, so that remains to be seen).

posted at: 23:55 | keywords: Life, Rants, Work | permanent link to this entry

Ok. Time for a big update on the more interesting points of my life over the past few weeks, which hopefully won't get too boring.

The cold I posted about a few weeks ago turned out to be quite nasty indeed, including a light fever for a few days. I felt I was slowly recovering a bit over a week later, but just as I thought I might be almost back to normal, it started all over again. I began to lose my voice last Monday, which hasn't happened in ages! I think I'm finally on the mend now, but that still means I was sick for over three weeks! It seems to me that colds and related illnesses are hanging around much longer this year than they have in the past and several others have agreed.

I had to miss two weeks of goalball thanks to that stupid cold, as well as a choir performance. Arrrg! It also delayed work for N^th Degree. Anyway, when I've been able to make it to goalball, I've been playing pretty terribly. My defence has been ridiculous; I rarely ever play this badly! I just hope it has to do with sickness and related issues and that I'll be better for the Grand Prix next Saturday. Btw, if you're interested, come to watch some of the games. The Grand Prix will be held in the Sports Hall in A block at Southbank TAFE on Saturday, 2 September.

When I've been able, I have been working on the violin and cello parts for Never Be the Same, the new N^th Degree piece. I'm pleased to report that I finished recording those parts on Thursday night. Next on the agenda is the crazy orchestral stuff in what we call the 'Gladiator' section and the guitar parts. Meanwhile, check out N^th Degree on Triple J Unearthed! Cruel to be Kind has been submitted so far, so rate us highly and review us well! NOW! Please? :) I submitted Losing Touch as well, but it seems to have disappeared somewhere, so I need to chase that up in the coming week.

This weekend was somewhat crazy in terms of social events. On Friday night was Jen's mum's 50th, which was a lot of fun, plus there was good food and wine. Yummm! Saturday night was my uncle's partner's 50th, which was held downstairs at home (my uncle lives downstairs here). It was pretty good, although there was no wine. :) The comedy highlight of the evening for me was Ro's 10 week old mastiff puppy jumping up to steel a steak and chicken wing off my uncle's plate!

Today was my parents' anniversary. We went out to dinner at Kingsley's Crab and Steak house, a prospect which didn't greatly appeal to my taste buds and stomach given my dispassion towards crab and steak. (I don't dislike them, but just don't particularly like them. I'd definitely eat steak over crab, though, and it's certainly much cheaper. :) ) I didn't end up eating either crab or steak. It wasn't too bad, though I was a bit 'meh' about the place in general. It was good to spend some time with the family, though. Tomorrow is Daniel's birthday, although we're not doing anything major for that. So: happy birthdays to those mentioned and happy anniversary to my parents!

posted at: 23:57 | keywords: Life, Friends&Family, Humour, NthDegree, Music, Goalball | permanent link to this entry

I decided I didn't like being limited to only one category per entry. Despite the fact that categories can be organised hierarchically, that system was just far too limiting; so many of my posts fit into multiple categories. I found the keywords plugin for PyBlosxom which allows me to have multiple keywords per entry and so, after modifying the plugin to my own taste (I can never leave anything alone), I abandoned my categories in favour of keywords. This means that all of my so-called permanent links so far are now broken, but I suspect no one cares yet anyway and possibly never will. Happier browsing!

posted at: 17:19 | keywords: SiteNews, PyBlosxom | permanent link to this entry

Oh dear. I've found yet another site to fuel my infamously renowned tendency towards procrastination: Boing Boing! The articles cover an abundance of topics, though from what I have read, they appear to lean towards interesting technological developments, absurd and/or humourous happenings, individual rights and ridiculous current affairs. The fact that I have spent almost an hour reading the latest items is a bad sign. I initially found it by following a link in a forum thread about whether receiving radio without dedicated hardware was possible: GNU Radio: the universal, software-defined radio. Other articles that have caught my interest during this initial perusal include:

• RyanAir: Airport security is like a strip-search
• Flame throwing trampoline
• Blog about end times
• British air travelers kick brown "terrorists" off their planes
• Dalai Lama issues support for Tibetan WiFi summit in India

posted at: 01:41 | keywords: InterestingSites | permanent link to this entry

I bought some new 1000 mg vitamin C tablets yesterday and discovered, much to my surprise, that they taste disturbingly like fruit tingles! I find this disturbing because a) I like fruit tingles, which therefore means I like the taste of these tablets; b) I could probably quite happily eat more of them; and c) my taste buds have to be totally demented to find a similarity between vitamin C tablets and fruit tingles. Who would have thought that tablets of any kind could taste even half decent?

update: My brother informed me that they even look like fruit tingles minus the dimple in the centre. Now that I can actually taste a bit more, I can detect more of a slightly bitter aftertaste, but they still taste rather like fruit tingles.

posted at: 16:02 | keywords: Humour | permanent link to this entry

Yeah, for those of you that don't know, my sister (Ro) is engaged! The chances of them reading this are almost infinitely small, but nevertheless: congratulations to Ro and Paul! :) We had the big engagement party on Saturday night at Customs House. It was quite a nice event, with about 90 people in attendance. It was the first time I had worn a suit since my school formal (that being the first time) and the first time I have ever worn my own suit, which I bought a few weeks ago. How quaint! :) Both Jen and I enjoyed the evening, there being good wine, food and small-talk with extended family and friends in which to indulge. I haven't seen many of the people in a very long time, so it was rather interesting to see them all again. Ro and Paul were obviously very happy, although as always, such a gathering is generally extremely tiring for those it celebrates and this was no exception.

posted at: 14:05 | keywords: Life, Friends&Family | permanent link to this entry

Damn! I forgot to post this yesterday. Happy birthday for yesterday, Michael! :) I wished you a happy birthday yesterday anyway and you'll probably never read this, as you've got better things to do than read lame blogs written by people who really should be trying to get some more sleep, but just in case, here it is.

In addition, today = eight months for Jen and I! Yaaaah! Go us! Jen, I'm not sure you will aprove of this being posted publicly on the internet, but I'm bored and have nothing better I feel like doing, so I hope you don't mind too much. I know you do read this silly thing, so I won't have too long to find out. Will it help if I point out that you rock? Michael is going to give me a lot of flack for this, if he ever reads it, but it'll be funny anyway.

posted at: 05:08 | keywords: Friends&Family | permanent link to this entry

I'm rather surprised that labradors didn't come from China. The Chinese (humans) love food almost as obsessively as labradors do. Maybe it was a provision for the survival of a new species by the forces of creation, considering that the Chinese have found a way to eat pretty much everything else ...

posted at: 04:47 | keywords: Humour | permanent link to this entry

Here we go again. <waits for the global groans of dread to abate and, failing that, continues the rant anyway> That's right. I can't sleep again. What's new?

Although I am slowly recovering, I'm still sick, so my body needs the sleep more than ever. I am thus trying to oblige it by ensuring, with almost fundamentalist religious observance, that I go to bed early and allow for as much sleep as possible. On Saturday night, I slept for a total of about 13 hours, despite a one hour period between 4 and 5AM within which I could not get back to sleep. I was greatly relieved, knowing that I was definitely on the mend and that my body was using all the sleep it could get. Tonight (technically, last night), I went to bed early with high hopes of another great sleep. As usual, it was far too much to hope. I've laid in bed now for over five hours. I've possibly dozed briefly in that time, but I don't think I've properly slept yet. My brain, in its infamous, infinitely lacking wisdom, has decided (the following precipitating thick, venemous cynicism), "Ooo! I'm too good for sleep! Now, I'm going to spin around thinking about all sorts of random, unnecessary crap (such as this blog entry, although I'll do that around 3:30AM when I'm thoroughly sick of myself). Meanwhile, body, you can lie there feeling exhausted, uncomfortable and sick, but you shall not bother to override me and force Jamie into sleep. We do need sleep - it's very important right now if Jamie wants to get well - but feh, we won't bother to sleep anyway, will we? Nooo! Look at me! I'm so accursedly stupid! Everyone have a laugh!"

I am sooo amazingly, unbelievably, utterly, absolutely, incredibly, godforsakenly, sublimely (ok, you can tell I used a thesaurus for that last one; it doesn't really make sense here at all) sick of this! Arhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrg! Last time, I accused sleep of being the evil, conniving wretch that would not grace me with its services. This time, I won't do anything so creative. I officially hate my body!

Those of you who've been following this godforsaken blog will be aware that I have been prescribed some sleeping medication. Unfortunately, i haven't been to a chemist yet to pick it up. Also, i figured that deep, restful (r.e.m.) sleep would be extremely important while my body is recovering, so taking it would probably not be a good idea. I took some cold and flu 'night' tablets last night, which make some people sleepy, but ... not me! I wonder if I would sleep if someone hit me over the head with a hammer? Probably not. I'd just end up with brain damage for my trouble and still be awake, wondering what happened, always hearing a taunting, gleeful, sniggering little voice somewhere in the back of my now disfunctional mind saying, "Ha ha! You never got any sleep, even though you caused yourself brain damage trying! Nair nair ne nair nair! <sounds of bouncing up and down and incessant, insane cackling>"

posted at: 04:31 | keywords: Life, Rants | permanent link to this entry

Spendings account: Jen was paying for a cab with EFTPOS on Saturday night (Sunday morning, technically) and the driver said (paraphrased, because i can't remember what he actually said), "Savings? Or should that be spendings?" I couldn't help laughing about the truth in that statement. I never use the account to which my key card is attached (a so-called savings account) for savings. It is used primarily as a holding account for money I want to access easily (translation: money I will spend). This reminds me of the near miss/near hit controversy I am so fond of sprouting.

Michael has come up with some great vocal tips/slogans. We have proposed that he should have them printed on shirts and wear them wherever vocal teachers, trained vocalists or anyone else with an understanding of good vocal practice can be found.

• When all else fails, stick out your jaw.
• The throat is the second best support.
• Don't flip, just belt in chest voice.

posted at: 19:54 | keywords: Humour | permanent link to this entry

Saturday was a crazy day! Goalball was good, but as always, I had a combination of good and terrible games. Worst part of the morning: My comp team played Robby and Michael (three on two) and were still flogged. Eek! They played very well, but we should have done a little better than we did. :)

I had to leave early to shower and change for a fine food/wine appreciation session at a place called Fude & Drinc at 12 with Jen, Jen's mum and a friend of Jen's mum. (Should there be an 's after the last mum? Hmmm.) It was pretty good and a lot of fun. I'm always a fan of good wine and there was certainly quite a bit of that. It seems I often have difficulty determining whether a wine is a pinot noir or a shiraz and Jen commented similarly. Any thoughts, wine devotees? The food was pretty good, although for $50, we were expecting a full meal, rather than bits and pieces.

We went to a Christmas in July that evening, which was excellent. The hosts were British, which says a lot in itself. There was mulled wine (yummmmm)! We had roast pork and turkey and Christmas pudding with custard. There was also an exchange of small gifts, from which I scored some Cadbury chocolate eclair lollies. Nice! Damn, left them at Jen's though ... Unfortunately, we had to wait about an hour to get a cab home, which sucked.

I went to the doctor's yesterday. Those of you unfortunate enough to have read the previous incarnation of my blog may remember my article entitled "Sleep: The Bane of my Existence". This was one of the items of discussion. :) Sleep and I are still often loathing enemies. He did prescribe some sleeping medication for times of dire need, but he is not that keen on such medication and nor am I. This is because it suppresses R.E.M. sleep, which means the sleep isn't that restful anyway. Still, it's better than not sleeping at all. Unfortunately, I realised later that I had forgotten to take the medical form for o&m (orientation and mobility) for him to sign. Worse still, the tightness in my chest I had been feeling since that morning turned into rather nasty cold symptoms towards the evening. I find it rather ironic that I went to the doctor feeling well and felt terrible by the evening. Damn! I've managed to hold off being sick so far this year, but couldn't quite avoid it altogether. This also means I had to skip my music lesson and a birthday party today. Bleh!

posted at: 19:28 | keywords: Life | permanent link to this entry

Finally, I'm doing some job hunting! Seek really is quite incredible and extensive. One problem I am encountering in my search for jobs is that I really don't know what the hell I want to do. I'd obviously rather do something I mostly enjoy, but not knowing what I'd mostly enjoy makes searching just a little difficult. I used to think I would love network/Unix systems administration, but such work could probably get quite monotonous and boring after a while. I enjoy the challenge of programming, but the same can be said for that. A job involving a bit of both would probably do the trick and thankfully, there seem to be quite a few which fit that description. However, I lack the experience required in some fields or with certain products required by several of the jobs. I'd like to get some work in the adaptive technology/accessibility field, but such work is hard to find. I guess I'll find something eventually ...

posted at: 13:39 | keywords: Life, Work | permanent link to this entry

A blind man assaulted a child on a Brisbane bus just before 9 this morning.
James Teh, a 21 year old unemployed musician, attempted to squash the boy with his rather large backpack.
"I didn't realise the poor kid was sitting on the seat next to me," Teh told police. "I was carrying two bags and was trying to get them both into a workable position as I sat down."

This is just one of many incidents of unprovoked assault by a blind person, citing their disability to excuse this unacceptable behaviour. Even if such acts are accidental as they claim, blind people seem to believe that their lack of sight is justification for their failure to see others nearby.
"Damn blindies," a young high school music teacher commented. "You just can't trust 'em."

posted at: 10:50 | keywords: Humour, Life | permanent link to this entry

I haven't had many major clashes with Mum, but an encounter some time after 10 this evening left us both bleeding. Those disturbed by this will be pleased to know that this was a clash in the literal sense; specifically, a head to head collision. :) Mum was walking down the dark hallway while i was coming in the opposite direction. Mum couldn't see in the dark after having left the light and i didn't realise she was heading straight for me and ... wammo! Ouch! My head is used to that sort of thing, so I didn't take that much notice, but as I fingered my bruise after leaving the scene, I realised I was bleeding. We subsequently discovered that Mum was bleeding, too. I've never managed to collide head to head with someone else so hard that both of us bled. Another step in the journey of life, it seems.

posted at: 23:43 | keywords: Humour, Life | permanent link to this entry

On Friday, I heard on the radio that a thief stole a police officer's bicycle on his way out of the station after being released from custody! That just has to take the biscuit for creative ways to screw yourself over. Some people are truly unbelievable. I did a Google on it today just to check the details. One article is here.

posted at: 18:57 | keywords: Humour, News | permanent link to this entry

Ah, the joys. Many months after I completely abandoned my Neuros I (my old portable audio player) in favour of an Iriver H340 running Rockbox, gapless ogg vorbis playback support has just been implemented by a third party for the Neuros I/II firmware. I still would have moved to an Iriver running Rockbox even had this been implemented before I bought it, as lack of gapless playback was by no means the only reason I disliked the Neuros, but I find it rather amusing nevertheless. I don't quite understand why this was never implemented by Neuros Audio themselves right from the start, but having said that, I don't understand why Neuros Audio didn't do many things that might have made their products fantastic. I hope they can improve on this in the future, as their commitment to the spirit of open community (open source, support of open standards, etc.) really holds a lot of promise. Anyway, the article can be found here.

posted at: 02:10 | keywords: Neuros, PortableAudio, OggVorbis | permanent link to this entry

Yet another new web site! I've decided to completely redesign my web site from scratch again, this time as a combination of a blog and a normal web site. I've also trashed all of my old posts, as I can't be bothered moving them over and most of them were terrible anyway. Most of my new posts will probably be terrible as well and it will probably never be updated once the novelty wears off. Sound familiar? Nevertheless, there's nothing like continuing a cycle, even if it is a bad one. :)

The primary reason for this new site is that it will allow me to properly host the many miscellaneous projects and other bits and pieces that have not been available on my web site since the pre-blog incarnation. Trying to maintain such material within a blogging system was just far too difficult.

posted at: 23:15 | keywords: SiteNews | permanent link to this entry