The Mad Peeps

Back by popular demand. Well with only 20 days before we leave London it seemed necessary to complete to blog. Leaving it unfinished after all this time would seem pointless after all of the varying effort that has gone into it over the last few years.

The end of November 2008

For Vic’s birthday the three of us got her a ‘Big Cat Experience’ this was at a conservation park in Kent giving an educational experience for us and a chance for Vic to stroke (through the fence) and feed (also through the fence) a variety of different cats such as Snow Leopards and Tigers and Hybrids and such. I was thankful for the fence – they are a lot bigger than they look.

The big cat experience was on a Friday and so we thought as we were already out that we would make a weekend of it. So from Kent we went to the coast where we sat for 3-4 hours waiting for the eurotunnel. The service was still recovering after the earlier fires and the delays meant that it was 10 when we got to France and even before we had the long dark drive to Luxembourg. Granted I don’t remember all that much from the trip because rumour has it I may have been asleep, but the bit I do remember (when I was driving and not asleep was of a blustery road with sleet and rain all the way to the hostel. I suppose it was not a great surprise that we were the only ones in the hostel as it was Luxembourg on the verge of winter.

In the Morning we ventured to the capital. We became a little mis-directed (Duncan was driving – need I say more ;) and fortuitously ended up at the bottom of a gorge, one of the many levels that make up the city of Luxembourg. This area was quieter than the hustle at the top of the gorge and with a small river idling through it picturesque in its perceived isolation and solitude.

When we did make it up to the top level of what is purported to be one of the wealthiest cities in the world we found ourselves immersed in the chaos of a Christmas Market. So we did what all good people do in Christmas Markets, we ate, we drank and we were merry J

Following that we headed out to the Luxembourg part of the Moselle Valley, and I think that we all know what the Moselle valley is known for… Wi-ine!!! Visiting the Moselle was a little like visiting Margaret River for me, the wine was sensational and unlike a lot of the wineries that we encountered in France, tastings were readily available. We had a crazy wine tour and tasting experience at one of the local wineries before buying a couple of bottles and heading back to our hostel. We ate in a very quaint local bistro and were very impressed by the beautiful food and wine.

We spent most of Sunday taking our time to drive through the Belgian countryside. We tried to stay off the motorways to make the best of the scenery, although this plan was foiled by the constant attempts at snowing We did a little offroading ;) hit the supermarkets for some Belgian Beer, had some pomme frittes and made it back to the tunnel in time to get to our train. Some might say – Success!

December

The trip to Luxembourg seemed to mark the beginning of winter, this December semed much darker and colder than the others that we had experienced. Was this because it was or were we just tiring of London winters.

We did not have long to ponder this as the following weekend we were off on another road trip. This time to Germany. With our friends from netball, Alex and Lisa, we drove from London to Rothenburg ob de Tauber. This is an extremely well preserved medieval town famous for its Christmas traditions, and so romantic. We stayed just beyond the town wall down by the river in the old mill. Each day we walked across the river and up a steep path to enter through the impressive gateways. We drank mulled wine ate sausages and schneeballen and generally soaked up the festive atmosphere. The wall that surrounds the town is almost completely intact and has a covered walkway around it which was a good way to explore the town. We did also climb a bell tower which I think violated every health and safety regulation in the world, however the view at the top although a little grey was spectacular

The first night we were in Rothenburg we had the most amazing dinner from a german chef who trained in Sydney, and was serving kangaroo. It was a little bizarre but absolutely delicious.

As Christmas drew closer we had what turned out to be one of our last Restaurant clubs – Jimmy the Greeks, it also marked the farewell party of Rob and Anthony who had been regulars throughout the year but had now decided to return to Perth. I guess in some ways their leaving was sort of the beginning of the end, with Vic and Grant, Belinda and Gav and Duncan and I all planning our farewells to London to one extent or other.

Following that night I had a ridiculously hilarious Christmas Party, after work we all got dolled up before hitting the town for some dancing. My chivalrous husband was only too happy to pick us up at some awful hour of night and to run my boss Kara home (in the opposite direction) an act that she has very little recollection of ;)

And finally it was Christmas!!!! After months of organising a group of ten of us headed to La Plagne in France. Dunc and I were celebrating the occasion with some new snowboards. I think the only person who wasn’t really happy was Craig, and that was because his partner Janine had not been able to get her passport back from Border Control (where it was getting a new visa) and therefore couldn’t go. A friend of theirs went instead, but poor old Janine had to stay in London.

Overall, once we got there it was a very successful boarding trip. To say that there was a hitch with the transfers would have been an understatement… an absolute debacle. But when we did get there, Dunc and I put in some good runs and managed to avoid serious injuries. Unlike those (sorry Brookie) who became extremely bruised and battered in an attempt to maintain correct orientation with respects to gravity. And then of course there was poor old Chris who broke his elbow L. But all in all I snowboarded, I butt-shovelled and I even tried skiing (yes even 15 minutes counts), I threw snowballs and made snow angels so I had a fab time. Our host was sweet and cooked some lovely meals and for Christmas we had a secret santa amongst the group to keep up the cheer. Especially for those who were missing their fams!

New Years was back in London. We were meeting with Belinda and Gav and some of their mates at their place before heading over the road to the pub to see in the new year. It was a curious evening… firstly it was so full in the pub that it took 20 minutes to get a round of drinks and that is not an exaggeration. And then there was no countdown…!!!! Who does that, the DJ would not stop talking all night and then somehow manages to miss the countdown… disappointing!

It is amazing how quickly another year ends... the speed at which time moves is alarming, yet it remains oblivious to our preferences. And so begins our last year in London

January

The thing about January is you gotta keep busy, Christmas is over but it is still so dark and cold and the warmth of springs seems as far off as it ever was. But this need to do things and keep busy is antagonised by the post festive season wallet blues. Nevertheless we have had a pretty good. As Vic and I were not ready to stop spending, when they arrived back from Canada, we went shopping online for kitchen ware to ship home when the time arrives.

Vic and I had been researching a new tourist attraction that had been opened in London – the London Bridge experience which was supposed to be an historical interactive attraction outlining the sometimes gruesome history of the bridge. In a word – crap! Well maybe that was a bit harsh, there was a history lesson, albeit a mediocre one, and then instead of being able to examine the excavations under the bridge that contained all sorts of human remains from the life of the bridge, they had turned it into a derisory haunted-house style amusement, with ‘monsters’ jumping out of corners to scream at you or make hideous noises down your neck. Don’t get me wrong it was quite startling in the pure sense of the word, and Grant was extremely brave to go first…. But a bit of a let down.

For Duncan’s birthday we went to Baltic restaurant for dinner, which was really lovely. I got Dunc a 4WD holiday for later on in the year and Vic and Grant got Dunc tickets to go and see a Milwall football game (our local club)… sort of.

A highlight for me in January was going to the theatre to see Oliver. The production was HUGE!! Not just sets but the cast as well. And the children were brilliant. But furthermore the character of Fagin was played by Rowan Atkinson and the performance was just sooo good. A little like Mr Bean in some ways but just fabulous.

The week after Oliver we spent the weekend in Berlin, we loved Berlin. It is a fantastic city, probably one of the most invigorating and inspiring cities in Europe.

We got in to Berlin on Saturday afternoon and spent the afternoon exploring on foot. We walked down to the East Side Gallery to view the remarkable works of art the were commissioned of international artists to celebrate what freedom and unity meant when the wall came down. The pictures now are covered in messages from Berliners and people all around the world – is this graffiti or is this the evolution of art?? This was a question that repeated itself throughout the weekend.

We had dinner on Saturday night in a restaurant that doubled as a beer stock market. Filled with beers from all over Germany and Europe the prices of the beers changed every 7 minutes according to the popularity of the beers. And of course as the prices of other beers dropped they became more popular and their prices rose in response and so on. As I understand it several times during the night they will have a stock market crash where all the beers are incredibly cheap, however we weren’t there to witness that. We had our schnitzel, strudel and beer and made our way back to the hostel.

On Sunday we went on a free walking tour of Alternative Berlin. We both found this tour very interesting, it explored the more bohemian aspects of Berlin, from artist communes, to famous street art (like Bansky) as well as other areas of Berlin which may have had a more infamous role in Berlins history but have now become ruined or abandoned and adopted for another purpose. We finished the night at one of Berlins famous Markets.

Before we had to catch our plane on Monday, we were able to sneak in another free walking tour – this one a more conventional history tour of Berlin; from the age of the Prussians through its role and dissection through the wars and its resurgence to the dynamic energetic city that it is today. This year is the 20^th anniversary of the wall coming down and there is certainly to be one wicked party there.

The last weekend in January we went camping. After being inspired by watching so many Bear Grylls tv shows we decided that a couple of nights in the Peaks District in the middle of winter was the perfect challenge. So a group of us (Me, Dunc, Vic, Grant, Belinda, Gav, Mark, Godo and Katie) drove up on Friday night after work. We had booked a camping barn which had a slightly ineffective gas heater, they were all going to stay in the shelter of the camping barn, while Duncan and I tested our roof tent.

It was a chilly evening for those in the camp barn, and ironically, Duncan and I who were sheltered by a mere sheet of canvas were quite warm. It wasn’t so much the subzero temperatures than the gale force winds whipping across the moors and threatening to remove the tent from the top of the cruiser.

On Saturday Grant had planned a pub tour. This was a walking pub tour we had to follow an ambiguous map through the peaks district which allowed us to take in the scenery and the beer (well for the boys anyway). I fear we may have spent too much time taking the beer because I don’t even think we made it half way before we started to think we were going to run out of light and turned around. Sure enough we did run out of light but the grant followed his nose and we made it back to the pub we started at in no time.

We had dinner in the camping barn – Chilli, mmmm yummy and it appeared that the accompanying wine and beer and music that accompanied the dinner remedied the cold, because everyone reported sleeping much better that night. Not so much us though. Again, not because it was cold we were quite warm in our tent, but merely because of the wind. It blows relentlessly there… I seriously thought that take-off was a certainty a matter of when not if!

As we packed our tent up in the morning there was the very occasional snow drop. By the time that we were doing our scenic drive back to London the snow showers were occurring at fairly regular intervals.

February

We arrived back in London right on time about 5pm. We were so lucky at about 6pm the heavens opened and it snowed for about 24 hours straight. An unlikely occurrence in London, we expected the pristine white to have been replaced with slushy grey by the time that we woke up in the morning but no, Snow Day!!!!! This meant no work. No work because no tubes and no buses woohoo. Well no work for Dunc and I anyway. Grant decided to walk the four hours into work – and Dunc and I went and frolicked in the snow at the Park. One of the most entertaining aspects of the snow day was the traffic. For those of you who don’t know we are on an intersection which has lights. The teeny little one wheel drive, 1L engine cars would come sliding up to the lights. The approach to the lights is probably on a 2 degree incline so once these small little cars paused they could not get going again. But I ask you what sensible person thinks that their small one wheel drive, 1L engine car with no chains or snow tyres is going to be able to do that!?!?!?!

I had an appointment with the physiotherapist during the month who advised me that I needed an MRI on my ankle and I should give up all fun activities like netball and snowboarding in the meantime. This posed quite a problem as Dunc and I had planned to go boarding at the end of the month. I felt it was worth the risk so we booked tickets to Morzine region in France

The hotel we stayed at Le Viking was on top of the slope, you actually needed a lift pass to get there. This was perfect for getting a good start on the slopes. It was sunny on arrival and then we had a quite a bit of snow which made the conditions just perfect. But the best bit of the whole week was coming round the corner on one particular run and finding a pig! Yup a big pink pig just wondering up and down the slope. Hilarious.

The service wasn’t fantastic at the hotel, it was staffed by 18-20 year olds doing their ski season, but as we had got a last minute deal we couldn’t really complain too much J

So that gets us up to March... more to come :)

As any programmer will tell you, when you hit “the zone” it can be hard to track exactly what it is that you’re achieving. It’s not uncommon to sit down for a six hour session and at the end of it have a poor memory of what you were doing at the beginning.

This is a real problem if you make a living off charging for your time, as the natural result (for honest people) is to under charge by under accounting for your time.

Using source control can be a good initial reminder, so long as your commits are meaningful and descriptive. I use the following command to give me a basic idea about what I’ve done today (since midnight):

It results in output similar to this:

e6de125 Added progress controller and basic views
bce08e1 Added stylesheets including 960 grid layout
b034acc Implemented initial 960 grid layout
2576762 Added AASM gem dependency

I've tried to relate this to a few people in verbal form, probably unsuccessfully, so thought I should actually post it. For the record, I can't wait to see 'Up', and didn't bother with 'Monsters vs Aliens'.

Girls’ Generation/SNSD - Tell Me Your Wish (Genie)

My Dad has a 1948 Ford Prefect as a hobby car. I spent today at his place working on it. We took the engine out and removed the clutch to replace a small seal that sits behind the thrust bearing, then put it all back together before I went home.

Getting my hands dirty was great fun.

We use a DrayTek Vigor 2008 wireless ADSL 2 router at both The Frontier Group office and Berwick Manor. I was surprised and disappointed to see that at home my wireless network was performing especially poorly, with up to 40% packet loss and significant drop outs.

I investigated a few avenues, but because the MacBook Pro is so damn new there’s nothing I could find online to help me out. Coupled with the fact that things work fine at the office and you had one confused little gangster.

The first stop was to check out my old MacBook Pro, which is now Magdalena’s new MacBook Pro. Her wireless worked just fine and dandy, but at least that meant I could point the finger to my unibody badboy with confidence.

I upgraded the DrayTek’s firmware because the version I was using was from mid-2006. There have been numerous patches since then which claim to help with wireless connectivity. Magdalena’s laptop is almost 3 years old, so it was about the same age as the firmware - it made sense that it might play nicer, whilst mine was expecting something else.

The new firmware flashed fine but it did nothing to help my Mac. I fiddled around with the various wireless security options but even having no security didn’t change anything, and I was still dropping more packets than I could afford.

I did have success by locking the DrayTek to 802.11B only, instead of the B/G combo. I know, I know… the standard allows for a much slower throughput, but that’s not super important to me. I want nice, fast pings on my wireless network at home. When I transfer large files I jack into the wired network anyway, so it’s not going to be a limitation I can’t live with.

I went from this:

<snip>
64 bytes from 192.168.10.254: icmp_seq=17 ttl=255 time=42.394 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.10.254: icmp_seq=18 ttl=255 time=44.301 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.10.254: icmp_seq=19 ttl=255 time=9.830 ms
^C
--- 192.168.10.254 ping statistics ---
20 packets transmitted, 14 packets received, 30% packet loss

… to this:

<snip>
64 bytes from 192.168.10.254: icmp_seq=454 ttl=255 time=4.426 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.10.254: icmp_seq=455 ttl=255 time=4.422 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.10.254: icmp_seq=456 ttl=255 time=3.667 ms
^C
--- 192.168.10.254 ping statistics ---
457 packets transmitted, 457 packets received, 0% packet loss

Boston Legal is a fantastic television show.

“Denny Crane.”

I've not be to a funeral before today. I drive past Fremantle cemetery almost every day in my comings and goings, often with a small reflection for those in the car park there for the remembrance of a loved one. More often than not they are all older people, no doubt there to celebrate the life of someone who had all the years the could have possibly wanted.

Leah was only 29, and the darkness was too much for her, so she chose to leave us. We were never close friends, but I always think of her fondly, and remember her as one of those people who was all smiles, and lites up a room. She only went to my school for 2 years, yet she was loved by all, such was her big heart and her infectious smiles.

So we came together, old Ionians a plenty. Sister Mary, always remembering everyone no matter how many years have passed. Grief was too much for some, and for others, they seemed numb, still disbelieving. We listened to stories of her life, the joy she brought her friends, and how very much she'll be missed.

Time came to say our final goodbye. Family and closest friends went up to her coffin first, to write words of love and goodbyes on the casket, and to place a flower, or a kiss. I watch her best friend, who I know quite well just fall apart. She walked back shaking, heaving and broken, saying her final goodbye to someone she loved so dearly; it was like she didn't want to say goodbye, because then she would really be gone. She sat in front of me comforted by her Mother, and as her Mother tried to console her, my heart broken a little bit too. I can't begin to imagine the depth of her grief.

It was my turn to say goodbye, I made my way up slowly to her casket. I stood and looked at it finding it so hard to believe that in there lay a dead girl, one who had been so alive. I touched the casket, and to my surprise it was very warm. I wished her peace, but could not help but wish I believed in heaven. Some faith would have been a comfort today, instead it leaves my mind reeling with thoughts, of is this all there is?

Now I'm home, the birds still chirp, the sky is still blue, children still play and life continues. Not even a second of time stands still for anyone, no matter how much they have been loved. So we must continue on, taking our sorrow with us, time ever passing, hurts mellowing, but never forgetting.


R.I.P Leah, I'll always remember you.

The 20 week ultrasound was yesterday morning, and it was coooooooool. We're definitely having a girl :) I took the Intelligender wee test a few weeks ago, which came up as a girl, but we were reluctant to tell anyone in case it was wrong. Looks like it was right!

The all-day sickness has now subsided into evening sickness, and tired-or-hungry sickness only, which is a huge relief. I'm hoping in another couple of weeks I'll be feeling completely tops, just fat :)





I think she has Mark's nose going on there, but that's more than likely a construct of my imagination :)

Today I chopped and stacked a tonne of wood for our fire. It was delivered this afternoon from a guy mum and dad have used in the hills for a while. $250 delivered with a smile and a wicked chopping block.

The pretty red-head at Bunnings is getting to know me now - she asks about the previous things I bought. She bent the rules and let me take cash out over two separate transactions so I didn’t have to hit an ATM.

It was good to get outside and get a bit of different exercise, even if I am still picking splinters out of my hands.

I’ll leave you with this one thought: if a man uses firelighters to start a fire, he’s not actually a man,

I’ve been doing jiu-jitsu for about 4 years now, though over the last 9 months I’ve probably been to training a half-dozen times. In all that time I’ve never had an interest in trying out any of the stand-up arts, like boxing, kick-boxing or Muay Thai. Considering that The Academy has classes covering these arts, and my membership facilitates unmetered access to them, I thought it might be good to expand my horizons and check them out.

I decided to check out the shoot class, which is a mixture of striking and grappling - it’s more commonly known as mixed martial arts, or MMA. I figured that my BJJ would count for something and that it’d be a nicer transition.

Aaron and I went to the club on Monday night and got to train with a bunch of new people (and a bunch of familiar faces). The class is more cardio-intensive than a straight-up grappling class. The mixture of striking, takedowns and grappling was a welcome change. It’s a different head-space to punch or knee someone, even if you’re only going light. I picked the guys to spar with a bit more carefully that Aaron did, and he wound up with an accidental knee to the groin. Ouch!

I think that I’ll hit the beginner class once a month for a bit of variety, but BJJ is still my preferred art. I will probably throw in a few shoot classes when I have my week of intensive training… stay tuned for more information on that experiment.

I wanted to integrate some branding functionality into an application we’re developing and so I needed test file upload functionality. We’re using Webrat for integration tests, though this will likely change as we increase the amount of Javascript in the app. I added Paperclip to handle the file attachments for logos, and everything was working.

When I added validation to the model, making sure that the file being attached was an image, this broke the tests. It didn’t seem to matter what type the file was, it would fail no matter what on the file type validation.

I used ruby-debug to debug my test and it seems by default Webrat sends file uploads as plain text. It does have the option to specify the file type when attaching the file, so the easiest way around this is just to specify the MIME type for the file. Now my Cucumber step looks something like this :

When /^I attach "([^\"]*)" image to the "([^\"]*)" file field$/ do |filename, field|
  type = filename.split(".")[1]

  if type == "jpg"
    type = "image/jpeg"
  end

  attach_file field, File.join(RAILS_ROOT, test_asset_path, filename), type
end

Obviously this will need some work as I progress, but it works. At this stage I have an assets folder in my features folder to store any files that I need for my tests.

On the confirmation end of the test I just have a simple tag test to check that the image tag is displaying, and it contains the correct src attribute :

Then /^I should see tag "(.+)"$/ do |selector|
  (Hpricot(response.body)/selector).should_not be_empty
end

So in my feature test I have :

Then I should see tag "img[@src*='']"

This just confirms that there is an image tag that contains the file name of the file that I uploaded in the test.

I've toured around the world, from London to the Bay
It's "Hammer, go Hammer, MC Hammer, yo Hammer"
And the rest can go and play

Can't touch this

YouTube link

Things have been pretty good lately. That is all.

Really though I was sitting in bed last night reading a Roald Dahl book that Yale lent me, I saw my nails and that they are starting to be in reasonable condition. This led me down a trail of thought about where I’m at.

For the last month, maybe more, life has been on the up and up. Eating has been in check, no more throwing up, exercise has been in check and I actually went for a run the other morning. I haven’t been biting my nails, I’ve been going out on the weekend either with people or alone. Work has been going well and I’m comfortable and performing well. Friendships have been no problem and I’m not sure that there is any part of my life that hasn’t been working for me.

This all started with a look at my nails. I don’t give myself enough credit (hello Mr Arrogant :P), but I bit my nails *badly* for as long as I can remember. I remember being in year one and already having my parents complaining about my nail biting. Personally I can remember quite vividly going across the road to school assembly with bleeding fingers searching for some place I could chew. I was a fucked up kid and I’m not sure my parents had any idea how to help me.

I moved out and things definitely got better but I was never not a nail biter. I’d say as the bullimia took off so did the nail biting, they’re both coping mechanisms really. That sort of thing always amazes me.

The harder I tried to stop biting my nails, or fighting some other urge, the more it fought me back. When I relaxed and just took care of the important things all the other stuff just seemed to take care of itself. I don’t remember wanting to sort my nails out, it just sort of happened along with everything else lately.

So, now I guess I need to look into how to take care of nails. I now own a nail file, a new addition to my possessions. Clipping nails, filing nails, can you imagine not having ever done that in your life? That’s me; not anymore.

There is a scheduled network outage planned for this Sunday which will affect all customers:

Outage Details
Sunday 24th May 2009

Outage Window
7:00am – 11:00am

Actual Outage
7:30am – 8:00am

I was thinking long and hard this morning about all the fears I have surrounding the current situation with Facebook Girl. I don’t think I’m actually all that worried about getting an answer, I’ve been turned down quite a few times now and it does get easier each time. At first it was hard to work up to telling someone, now I have no problem doing that. It was hard at first to get turned down, but now that also isn’t all that bad. It seems slowly, but surely, I am learning the ability to distance myself from my emotions. Maybe this is just a process that comes with growing up.

Currently I think the train of thought that is most common for me at the moment is what happens if I’m wrong about this one too. It’s not like I’ve just randomly gone around asking women out, and this one to be honest seems to be about the most promising of them all. If this Facebook Girl just wants to be friends too then, I mean seriously, what the fuck.

That then begs the question; where is the common factor?

That then begs the question; what is wrong with me?

To be honest, I guess I have a few observations, but for the most part I feel like I’ve done a lot of hard yards in a very short time.

I went about losing a stack of weight and joining the mainstream there. I’m currently on a good path back to my best of about a year ago and my eating and exercise is well and truly back on track. When I found out that I had severe psychological issues, I didn’t really dodge that either and I feel like I put in a lot of work there. I absolutely still have some issues, but I look around me and I have to wonder.

And so, quite possibly none of this actually matters, but I think more than anything I need an answer. I spent last night in all honesty looking for a reason to not like her, evaluating her in a number of ways I hadn’t bothered to before and I couldn’t find fault, in fact I think it just made me like her more. Maybe it’s a two way street, and so this negative train of thought is just a waste of time.

It’s been tough to get a chance to sort this shit out as I’ve been busy over the last couple of weeks, but I’ll ring her this week and at least we’ll know one way or the other. I hate this maybe, maybe-not zone.

It’s there though, and I think what’s most scary is what I need to do if I’ve read all of this wrongly and it’s just another girl looking for another friend. I just don’t think I’m ready to start sleeping with men…

This load of hilarity kept me entertained today:
My life is average
Tweeting too hard
Awkward Boners
Not always right
Lolwigger
Passive Aggressive Notes
and for Magdalena, Emma and Kirstie
Apostrophe abuse
and the most nauseating thing about this one is I think I've been guilty of this kind of behaviour myself

Ward Cunningham has been a contributor to a number of ideas that are used every day by developers and users alike. Besides developing the first ever Wiki, he is also a proponent of Extreme Programming and has contributed to the use and understanding of patterns in OOP.

I ran across a YouTube video he did, explaining the costs and benefits of proper software development practices, using debt as a metaphor. He said he developed this when he was trying to explain the business value of certain practices of good development to someone in the finance realm.

I’m summarizing some of what he said, and I’d recommend you watch the video.

Borrowing Money
Borrowing money allows you to do something right now, but you’ll be paying interest on this in the future. If you continue to borrow then eventually you’ll end up using all of your revenue to pay interest.

Revenue is essentially your development time, it’s a somewhat fixed resource. Debt is what is built up between an optimal implementation against a sub-optimal implementation. Payments are the time you take to refactor the code afterward. Interest is the time difference it takes between the easiest way to add a feature and the way you have to go about adding a feature.

You can continue to borrow to cover interest but at some point then you either increase developer time (more people) or you spend all your time bug fixing and patching rather than adding features. It’s fine to push out parts of the project that are sub-optimal, as long as you go back and improve these later. If you don’t then you end up making your system harder and harder to add features to and so you are paying all of your revenue into paying off your debt.

The idea is that you can put out software that is the best solution you have at the time, as long as you go back and repay the difference between the best solution and the solution you have implemented at a later date. If you continue to add these ‘best at the time’ solutions without using the knowledge you gain along the way to fix the old solutions you implemented, then the system as a whole becomes poorer and poorer in quality. I guess to use an old saying, “A stitch in time saves nine”.

He further explains that he doesn’t think you should build debt through poor code or design. What he means by borrowing is to implement with your best understanding at the time, and then to go back and revisit your design once you have a better understanding of the system. You should always be implementing in a way that documents what it was that you were trying to achieve, it could simply be that what you needed to achieve is different or changes over time.

I’m not sure what I was expecting from IMAX other than a bit better sound and a bigger screen, but from the first second the screen lit up you could tell it was going to be something special. It costs $6 extra and it’s worth every cent. Flawless image and sound, as well as not having to wait for any previews. Star Trek as far as movies go was pretty good, actually it was very good. I went in with high expectations and they were exceeded.

I spent a bunch of Saturday trying to help Steve with his computing project. I wasn’t of much help, I got some file reading code working but not much more than that. I don’t envy Steve.

Jackie’s 21st was on Friday and it was good fun. I made a corn chip crown and wore my childrens towel from Ikea. There were some great costumes. We ended up going into Leederville afterward and I was ready to go out, but after a while in Double Lucky it killed any motivation I had, so I left the guys and went home. I was glad I did though as I needed some time to myself.

I keep forgetting that I’m flying to Queensland this week, I have to keep it in mind because I agreed to go to a few things this weekend then had to get back and say I couldn’t make it.

The booking of tickets to Bali this week was pretty spare of the moment and I’m not sure that I’m looking forward to it yet. I think when it’s all sorted then I’ll begin to look forward to it.

I have a couple hundred pages of Shantaram left and I wanted to get them done this weekend, but it’s been way to full with stuff. It’s about time I got to bed and finished off some pages.

Shooto tomorrow apparently.

I was reading the online instructions for a new test that was released in Australia today that can predict the gender of a foetus using a urine sample. This really could have been worded less ambiguously...

It's been over a week since leaving my job, and I am amazed at how freeing this whole thing has been. I feel like I was given my soul back when I walked out the door and left Zenith; and now I feel as if I have control over my own destiny again. I'm living my life, not having others map out how it will be played for me.

So today I went along to the creche that Liz works at to meet the ladies there, and they have offered me some work, so yay! It doesn't pay heaps, but it's some income for the time being. Also it will allow me time to work on the Emma Page thing. As an added bonus I get to us the gym there too, which will be great. It will be lovely to be able to do that with Liz straight after work.

I'm excited about Emma Page as I've always wanted to essentially work for myself, but I've never known how I should go about it. Worst case scenario, if it doesn't pan out all I have lost is some time. Best case scenario I make a partial income out of it, and I get to work the hours I want to.

I'm really keen on not having to work full time. The idea of going back to a full time job just makes me feel incredibly panicked and anxious, so if I can avoid that I will. I'm sure I'll go back to a full time job at some point in my life, but I think for now my sanity couldn't take doing what I was doing.

What was Tony's old study is half cleared out ready to make room for a student. Renee has offered us a loan of the single bed they had in Holland Street when they had students with them. The thing I like about it is you can elect to have students that only need a month, or a couple of months, and have a break between people. We'll start with a short stint, see how that effects our lifestyle and go from there.

Today I said “talking won’t make me feel any better”. I am, as they say, learning impaired (ie. retarded). Talking in fact did help because my brain is, as they say, a fucking piece of shit that I sometimes hate quite severely (ie. fucked). In any case today was quite a bit easier than the day before and right now, I have none of the nausea and stuff from yesterday.

I really can’t be too hard on myself, I am essentially untrained in these matters.

I turned down a TV today. It’s not a bad one, it’s far bigger than I’ve ever had here. When given the option it just filled me with disgust a little I think. When I thought about it further I have a bunch of things tied up with TV and the general symptoms of inactivity. I will quite likely have to move past these sooner or later.

Today a bunch of us booked a short weekend trip to Bali. I think at this stage there must be about a dozen people going to Bali for a weekend in July. It should be a lot of fun I reckon. I’m definitely looking forward to it anyway.

Tonight I went back to BJJ for the first time in a long time. It was a blast and really got me excited to start going back. I’m also pretty keen to give Shooto a go now. I bought a boxing bag and watched a few videos on how to punch and so on, but I’d like to get some formal training on how to combine my Jiu Jitsu with a bit of stand up. It’s supposed to be a great workout too

It’s always disappointing and enlightening when you see the things you complain about in yourself. At dinner the other night I said a few things that when I reflected on them later I didn’t like. Actually when I thought about it, I do quite the same thing in some ways.

The best part is the number of times I’ve said “The stuff people complain about in others, is usually the stuff they dislike about themselves” is probably innumerable by now. Perhaps eight times, maybe more.

So this sort of realisation requires some sort of solution. I think gossiping and giving my opinions on people has to go by the wayside. It’s easy to do in this friend group of mine, but I have to resist. Like anything this will take some work, and some training, but I will get there in the end.

I’ve always appreciated people that don’t seem to gossip, but can still give an opinion where appropriate. Maybe I should actually aspire to be more like these people more.

Right now, I feel completely drained of virtually any energy. I’ve also not been hungry at all, and I’m pretty sure I zoned out quite a bit at coffee. I sat down most of the day like I usually do and the only extra exercise I did was a ride to and from work.

There was a pretty decent sized gathering at coffee tonight. Rich and Jackie announced that they are engaged It was a complete shock to me, but a good one none the less. I liked Steve’s touch with the mini champagnes.

This position sucks right now. I’ve felt semi nauseous and on another planet all day. I hate that my thoughts are so pre-occupied and that I’m having to try so hard to control it all. Usually if I can maintain present and concentrate on the task at hand that works, but even though I’ve done that and wasn’t pre-occupied when in work mode, my body is telling a different story. We shall see what happens I guess.

Saturday morning I felt pretty shitty after what I’d drunk the night before. On reflection I didn’t really drink that much, probably half a dozen or so pints over the course of the night, but that’s a lot for me now. In the afternoon I got to hear that Dione was really happy with how the STAT test went and then I got to watch Damien and Dione’s Dad lay new lawn.

I had dinner with Matt, Magdalena, Mark and Em and it was damn good. You can’t go past a good potato, but maybe that’s the Irish in me.

I felt like a real grumpy old man on Saturday night. First of all I drank mid strength beers. Then I went out to see Grafton Primary with Matt and complained about all the young people not letting me enjoy the music. I ended up chatting with a girl for a while that afterwards I worked out was probably about 21 at the most. Then I had to drive into Northbridge, I described it as a Zoo afterwards. Then on the car ride home I talked with Matt and Mark about how the young people are destroying the scene.

Hilarious really

Grafton Primary were awesome though and I enjoyed it a lot. Upstairs was cool and I watched as I was chatting with this chick, Ash. The VIP area had about half a dozen people in it which was quite funny.

My sister rang me at about 12ish, hysterical and crying because she had no idea where she was. When she said she wanted to get to The Shed, and that was right near Valentinos right? I thought it was a good idea to go and pick her up. In the end it was drunk people blowing things all out of proportion.

Shape was alright though the music was fairly boring for me. I can see it would be good background music though.

The night was a really clean one, I didn’t drink anything and felt great for it. I can’t believe how much of a rift has been developed in the last twelve months between what I consider enjoyable and what the environment is.

Smashing Magazine recently published a great article on choosing a domain name for your site, product or company. It’s a problem that many of our customers face, so if you’re in the market for a new domain, or are interested in how your domain stacks up against their recommendations, be sure to check it out.

Friday was a pretty easy going day. Skype meeting in the morning, knocked out a few features during the day. Finished early because I’d been working extra hours that week. This week seemed really short, probably because I only worked three days.

I spent most of the day hounding Hale for wanting to play poker rather than coming out with me. I was all set to go by myself anyway but at the last minute Steve and Hale came too.

It turns out the Darwin Dude thing is no longer a thing. I found the to and fro between people there sometimes comical, but for the most part it was still very interesting. One of the girls liked Hale. I thought the girls going to toilets to talk about guys thing was funny and so cliched

I spent a bit of time with everyone there and they all seemed really easy to get along with. When the Queens shut we went down the road to Lux and spent an hour or so there. I was way too drunk though and didn’t like the vibe there so I left.

Things to note. She was wearing my favourite perfume, I know one other person that wears it and it’s the best that I’ve smelt in all of my years. It was good to have someone on your arm entering a place. We get along without any problems, she’s incredibly honest and open like me about things you wouldn’t expect. She’s seems to have her own Dione of sorts, but he and I hit it off straight away. When I left I said that I would call her during the week and she said she wanted me to.

All in all it was an awesome night. Not even for any of the above paragraph, but just to put myself in a completely foreign space and swim quite easily. I had fun, I met a bunch of new people and I don’t think you can ask for much more than that.

I’m not a Lord of the Rings fan at all, but I’m looking forward to seeing The Hunt For Gollum. Considering the 40-minute film only has a £3,000 budget, the results are awesome. It looks like it was great fun to make too.

Today was all about getting back into work after a four day weekend. I didn’t find it all that hard and got quite a bit done. I’m finding it’s good to get in early and do a bit before anyone gets there. I finished the day doing some design with Tony on our latest project. It felt like putting together bits of stuff I’ve done before with some improvements here and there. It was fun.

My microwave finally gave up the ghost. No more Fonzing it back to life this time. I should look at getting something bigger anyway. When I bought it I never used a microwave to cook, now I use it quite often and I didn’t like the interface on this one.

I’ve got most of my weekend pre-organised already. I’m going for drinks with Facebook Girl and some friends on Friday night, spending Saturday arvo with Dione after her STAT test and probably doing some general stuff on Sunday.

Not much more to report than that. Only two more days of work this week.

Last night Mark and I went to see Tim Minchin at the Concert Hall. I had such a great time, it was like it was a show written specifically for me :) Political and religious views that mirror my own, very funny, moving at times, and amazing piano playing. Plus poo and wee jokes. Funny :) One of the highlights was the performance of this poem...



YouTube link here

I spent today at the Zoo. I spent today at the Zoo with my best friend. I spent today at the Zoo with my best friend, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable, peaceful and calming experience. It’s hard to describe but I always feel more grounded and full these days after spending time with Dione and her family.

I think I can honestly say that no other day than my birthdays with Dione have been more about me. From the full dinner with cup cakes shaped like ice cream, to last years day of lunch and pedicures, to this years day at the Zoo the entire day is devoted to me and our friendship and really showing how grateful she is for me. It’s a special, special thing. On a day where your family don’t call to wish you a happy birthday you realise it’s a special thing.

The day started at about 11am with an SMS telling me she was just leaving her house. She was supposed to pick me up at 11am. These days I laugh, I’m never annoyed. Nor am I ever ready on time for her.

The Zoo trip was 16 cards with a clue to what animal we were going to see. On the back was a message about why that animal relates to me, or our friendship, or my group of friends. From the Orangutan for it’s red fur, like my damn beard to the Sun Bear to symbolise what my hugs mean to her. The best animal on the cards was the Tortoise I thought. The best animal not on the cards was this exhibitionist Gibbon.

We waited 40 minutes to see a Crocodile poke up out of the water to breath. We saw a baby Orangutan crawl around with his blanket. We saw the Painted Dogs with jaws that looked like they could tear your arm off. We saw little Possums roaming free, picking up food scraps. We didn’t see the Slow Loris, the only one we missed.

We must’ve walked a few kilometres today and I had an awesome packed lunch and then a jam doughnut birthday cake.

After the Zoo we met up with Damien and saw the place he owns. Dione showed me around Menora; it’s an amazing suburb. I would love to buy a house there some day. His tenant had the tongue of a politician.

We had dinner at Cantina, it was amazing. It’s BYO on Monday and Tuesday so we took advantage. The meals themselves were quite special and we had a side of potato chunks fried in duck fat and then baked. Desert was Quince crumble and a chocolate pudding. The whole thing was beautiful. The service was excellent.

Dione dropped me off, and I couldn’t thank her enough.

This tickled my immature side. A video montage of someone's 'Free Hugs Guy' avatar on Second Life.

I just got home from my birthday drinks at The Queens. I had bought a ticket to go to The Villa afterwards but I’m not going to go. I was talking to Dione about the stuff I’d organised with this girl I met a few weeks ago to go to a few things. I was saying that even though I liked her and that’s unlikely to pan out, I need to start building other circles of friends and meet new people. I think tonight definitely highlighted that. If I’m going to meet new girls and get in any sort of relationship I need to start putting myself in new and different social situations.

I got to the pub at about 3pm and Mark was there as he thought it started at 2 I had Emma’s present but she was a bit sick. I feel sorry for her, but it’s funny; I have to reign in my excitement and feeling about her being pregnant as I’m sure some of it is not appropriate for a guy to feel. For some reason I get protective of pregnant women and just feel like I want to be closer to them. I’ve noticed this with the girls that got pregnant at Adultshop. I’m not sure why, but it just stirs all sorts of gooey feelings in me.

Chanel arrived not long after I got there, then Carrie had cup cakes with jam in them like I asked for. They were delicious and I think most people got one in the end though Chanel and Mark had two! There was a bit of a turf war for seats but in the end we had a nice little corner to ourselves. Matt and Magdalena got there around 6ish and I think Dione and Damien got there not long after. I realised I hadn’t seen Dione dressed up for a long time, it was nice.

It was good to have all of my friends there laughing and joking around. Everyone gets on of course and I think it was actually kind of good to get home early and just chill by myself. Most people left at around 8ish I think. Damien seemed really eager to leave for some reason and so they left, then I left with Carrie, M&M after that.

I watched Last Chance Harvey and even though the new relationship was between two people in their 50’s I felt like I connected to it and there was a lot of inane chatter that brought back fond memories. I think I left the movie thinking that no matter the success in other parts of my life there will always be a massive part of me that is unfulfilled. I guess it comes down to how much you can block that part of you talking.

So all in all a good day I guess. I’m looking forward to my actual birthday now!

I wanted to get this down while I remembered.

A thought just popped into my head. This summer I didn’t sweat in bed anywhere near as much as I did during last winter. I mean, last winter I would wake up virtually every night dripping in sweat no matter what I did. This summer there was the usual heat issues but none of the sweating and I have put on weight!

I think it’s my brain. I think the anxiety I was experiencing last year was just getting me all worked up while I was sleeping to the point of sweating as if I had a fever.

It’s always surprising to me, the power of the mind. Just putting sheets and pillows on the bed made me remember the massive issues I was having with night sweats and I’m very glad to be in a better mental state and have them gone!

I was mucking around with some settings for java the other day, forcing the particular version I wanted to use by changing the "current" link under the path.

/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/

I did this as I found some blog post that not only told you how to do this but provided a handy script to do it with. This is no longer the case as I discovered. Instead the handy "Java Preferences" pane is what you're looking for.

I found this out because Netbeans which had happily been running for over 3 months now suddenly refused to open correctly. I had the bouncing icon, the header bar changing to netbeans, but then no main window.

Attempting to start netbeans via command line gave:

Apple AWT Startup Exception : *** -[NSCFArray insertObject:atIndex:]: attempt to insert nil
Apple AWT Restarting Native Event Thread

I had a feeling it was JVM related and once I'd reset the link back to pointing to the "A" entry rather than directly to a JVM version, things started working again. Took me half a day of on and off looking to find this so it's now documented for other google answer seekers.

I can't remember the last time I was this miserable and down about my life. I have had the worst day at work in recorded history today.

I have just applied for 2 new jobs.

I am truly dying in my current position, and can't wait to shrugg off this black cloud that has been over me for the last year.

Anything has to be better than this. I'd even sooner scrub toilets.

This morning was a meeting that was just a tad over three hours in length. It’s for a really interesting project, interesting and long, very long. After all the documents we signed at the beginning of the week I don’t think I can say too much more, in fact maybe I’ve already said too much.

Just now I finished some pairing with Hale. It was actually really good. He came up with a bunch of ideas that I might not of thought of and I was able to chuck in some of the Javascript type stuff I was invisioning. It was also good getting a second set of eyes on this problem which allowed me to start from first steps essentially. We got some nice pseudocode out and also I think some decent use cases for how to application may actually be utilised. I have a much better idea of how things will work and what I need from the customer based on about an hour of talking and sketching. I think it was more than worth two to three hours of my own time alone.

I’m determined to do some pair programming on this application. I’m also going to be doing it in Rails!

I got an unexpected Facebook message today. Everyone was high fives, but I’m (of course) not thinking anything like that.

I’m looking forward to this weekend. I have dinner with the family tomorrow, ANZAC day on Saturday, Melinda’s birthday drinks Saturday afternoon, my birthday drinks Sunday afternoon, a public holiday on Monday and then my birthday day with Dione on Tuesday. Four day weekend, full blast!

I rode home from the office last night, leaving with just enough daylight to get home. Just over the Narrows I rode past a mate I hadn’t seen for a few months so I stopped to catch up with him, and during the conversation the sun went down.

I rode the rest of the way home in the dark and was pleasantly surprised by how cool it was without the sun attacking me. I’d never ridden in the dark before, and didn’t have a light on the front of my bike but fortunately I was under streetlights the entire way home.

I think it’s time I bought a decent bike light, and starting doing some night rides.

It was time to clean up.

mlambie@stormshadow:~/Desktop$ mkdir Clutter
mlambie@stormshadow:~/Desktop$ mv * Clutter/
mv: rename Clutter to Clutter/Clutter: Invalid argument
mlambie@stormshadow:~/Desktop$ ls -l
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  44 mlambie  staff  1496 21 Apr 14:51 Clutter
mlambie@stormshadow:~/Desktop$ ruby -e '5.times { puts "yay!" }'
yay!
yay!
yay!
yay!
yay!
mlambie@stormshadow:~/Desktop$

I have received replies from both the seller and recent buyer of my old Supra. The new owner is a female who lives near Kalamunda, so it’s a nice thought that the Supra is back in its old “stomping ground.”

The new owner is keen to meet up so it looks like I’ll get one last ride in the ol’ girl. Stay tuned for more updates!

Thursday night I went to see a movie with Dione and Damien after visiting the local Rails group. I had to skip out early to get to the movie. It was about this woman and her story from about 1905 to just before WW2 I think. Anyway she was a completely downtrodden mother of a growing brood and husband to a complete piece of shit. This other guy loved her that was awesome, but she stuck with the husband because of religion, though this insinuation was tenuous at best. I didn’t think it was all that great of a movie, it fluffed its way through a lot of heavy subjects without really taking hold of any of them.

The wedding on Friday was good, though I think you’d find it difficult to not have fun at a wedding of your friends. It was great to meet Emily beforehand over a few drinks, as well as Carrie’s mum who gave Carrie and I a lift in. The love of a family is a different kind of love.

The rest of the weekend was pretty lazy after Friday. Saturday was a write off and although I found it difficult to sleep in, I didn’t actually leave the house until mid afternoon.

Sunday I had a really long conversation on the weekend with someone about relationships. I’m not sure how pragmatic people can be inside of a relationship in so far as realising they only get to push things so far before they break. To me love seems to be like a rubber band; it has a breaking point and it can hurt when you find it. It consistently amazes me how far people are willing to push someone and yet still maintain that they love them.

It makes me wonder whether I’ll just find myself in all the same situations.

I was feeling nostalgic so I logged into Toymods (a Toyota forum) to see how many MA61 Supras are for sale in Perth at the moment and happened to stumble upon my old car.

The engine’s been swapped out for a 7M-GTE, which is a 3.0L turbo compared to the 2.8L straight-six it came with.

I messaged the old and new owners and gave them a run down of the car’s history for the 3 or 4 years that I had it. I also have a proposition for the new owner - I’ll trade them the original owner’s manual for a lap around the block. I found the manual when I moved house and I think it belongs with the car.

I’m so happy to see it’s still going and someone’s taken care of it, even if they did swap out the awesome mag wheels and paint the spoiler red :)

Today was a bit of madness at work. There is a lot to workout before Fitzy leaves and we probably haven’t spent enough time in handover. We have an early meeting tomorrow so hopefully we’ll sort a lot out then. Today was all about bug fixes and so it felt like I got nothing done, but that wasn’t really the case.

I’ve been smashing a book I got from Dione and Damien called Shantaram. I can’t put it down. I have covered about 200 pages in four days and the font is tiny. It’s a seriously decent sized read.

I’ll be going to see a movie in Freo tomorrow night after work. I’m not sure what it will be, but it will be at the outdoor cinemas. It’s a bit of pot luck and mainly about seeing some friends than watching a movie.

I had to add some plastic to the list today as I forgot to bring my shopping bags, and I stupidly bought celery in a bag. Half way through the month and I have two bags and a celery bag to my name.

I’m looking forward to Friday and have made plans with a few people to go for some drinks before the wedding. It should be a good, fun day with friends.

Programming isn’t a science, it’s more of a craft to me. A craft implies a combination of some creativity and some practicality. You can make a wardrobe that does the job, or you can get a craftsman to do the job and you’ll end up with something that is not only functional, but great to look at. Craftsmen build the furniture you buy from antique stores.

Software can certainly be the same. Software can work, or it can work well. It can be inspiring and fun to work on, or it can be terrible and boring. It generally comes down to the skill and work ethic of the person that is writing it in the first place. I want to build an antique, not an $11 chair from Ikea.

Corey Haines has been doing a series of videos about all matters software related, but he seems to be mainly passionate about Pair Programming. I like how he sometimes delves into the psychology of people in an industry that is populated by so many with unusual profiles.

He operates a blog called On Being a Journeyman Software Craftsman and it contains a bunch of videos and short blurbs about things he’s learned while on his trip. I’d check it out and you might learn a bit about some of the cooler ideas out there in the software world.

Damn, the crickets are loud!

I have been busy since I got home from work, read while I did the washing. Hung out the washing with my head being a loud and unhelpful mofo, then I took control and was all about hanging the washing. It’s hard to remember a time where I didn’t have that ability.

After doing the washing I loaded two big bags of clothes into the car and took them down to the Good Sammy bin. I figured while I was close to Mt Lawley I’d check out Planet Books and see what was interesting. I’m already reading two books at the moment so there’s no point in buying any more at the moment.

My head was elsewhere most of today, but I’m not sure what I was actually thinking about. It was okay when I was in front of the computer screen and I found it pretty easy to concentrate, but away from the screen I did a lot of blank staring.

I couldn’t be bothered eating or cooking today. I just had something to eat that took about a minute to prepare, now I’m going to read and then likely sleep.

I spent the weekend with friends and other peoples’ familys. It was awesome.

Friday I watched a bunch of movies and generally did not much. I slept a lot and it seemed like I definitely needed it. I went into the weekend with a gradually worsening cold and came out of the weekend having killed it.

Saturday I went and did a little shopping for easter and then had a BBQ with Matt and Magdalena. It was good fun, I won one game of darts, Matt won one. I came from behind. Heh. Hale came later from his date. We asked a bunch of questions, Magdalena assumed we were talking differently because a girl was present. I’m not sure what women think guys talk about. Sometimes it’s surprising the girls in our group haven’t realised we don’t fulfill the stereotypes.

There was a lot of talk in recent times about the vacuum we tend to live in. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing. Is it good to live a protected life and not be hurt, or to experience a full life and be hurt a few times, or a lot. Maybe the grass is just greener …

Sunday I spent with the Evans clan in Fremantle. Dione, Damien, the girls, Dione’s mum and her boyfriend, Dione’s dad. It was good fun to say the least and nice to hang around and talk and watch old movies and stuff. When I got there they were lamenting that they hadn’t ordered any hot cross buns from Ahbis (sp?) Bakery. I figured you don’t get if you don’t ask so I went and got some without telling anyone. It was a good start to the day.

Damien had an old friend come round at night for dinner. His friend brought another old friend and we stayed up chatting for a while until they left. Then we three stayed up chatting until 12ish. Dione and I finished off around 1ish I think. I should find out the name of the perfume, it’s from Spain I think, it was very nice.

Monday was all about sleeping and eating and sleeping and reading. I’m reading Shantaram. I’m loving reading Shantaram. I think the sleeping and eating got rid of my cold.

All up a relaxing weekend. Relaxing and fun.

So good.. found via Ajaxian

I put the bins in and out at the place I’m living in sometimes. There must’ve been another dude that did it as well (I’m assuming no women would be helping here) because sometimes they were done by someone else. I figured that was unfair so when I remembered I’d do it. Last week I did it when I got home from BJJ, it fucking stank because people are animals and some woman came down while I was doing it, I said hello expecting she’d come to help. Instead she put her bag of rubbish into one of the freshly emptied bins and walked off.

This morning I went to put my rubbish into a bin and they’re all overfilled and smelling ripe. I think the best way to solve this is to keep a bin on my front area and take it in and out myself. Fuck these strangers. Also there is a hose in my front area so I can clean the bin as needed (and they need it) and it’s just generally easier for me. The more I move through life the more I see this is the attitude everyone else takes too.

I watched He’s Just Not That Into You; it’s a lame movie. I think it was supposed to be somewhat of a romantic comedy but I don’t remember laughing, maybe I laughed once. The cast is very strong on the female side, but far less so with the men. I thought it was just completely down the line stereotypical and soppish.

I started reading a book in the afternoon and fell asleep. I woke up about 12 hours later with a couple of messages on my phone, which was laying right next to my face. I must’ve been completely out of it. I missed meeting Steve’s girlfriend but I’m sure I’ll see her around soon enough.