Boring stuff:
About time: "Australia's central bank will slash the hidden fees banks charge for credit card transactions by almost half, open up the system to new competitors and allow retailers to charge cardholders for the cost of accepting credit cards."

Common sense... "The problem is we are choosing managers on the wrong criteria. The central job of a manager is to make people successful and to make them successful not by being a policeman but by finding a way to energise, excite and enthuse them."

poot! "Woolworths' premium sharemarket rating is under threat after investors yesterday lopped $1 billion from its market worth amid small signs that its flagship supermarkets are ceding ground to the competition. The stock yesterday fell $1, or 8 per cent, to $11.50..."

[*grumble*] I told my Dad to tell his stockbroker to sell half of my Woolies stock back when it was at $14. He said he'd do it, but then a few weeks later said to me: "They're doing so well, the broker doesn't advise it, and I'm not going to do it right now" - HA! the pleasure of vindication is probably worth the two (and a half!) grand :-)



10:41:00 PM

 
The weekend was kind of quiet...

On Friday, The Housemate and I went and checked out some local dj's at a club where one of my fave long sleeve t-shirts was stolen, and which I've since avoided. It was quite good actually. We had quality time, and also ran into a couple of acquaintances and had some nice chats. There was some dancing going on, and a reasonably nice vibe. May go back sometime.

On Saturday I finally got around to trying to fix the brakes on my bike, but the shoes I bought aren't exactly the right kind :P My old brakes were too worn to identify any particular model of brake shoe. If I'd been organized I would've removed them and taken them to a bike shop and gotten the exact same model, then gone home and replaced them all at once. However, lack of a proper wrench, a missing allen key, and foreknowledge that I'd still put it off even if I had the shoes, meant that I went into a bike shop when I happened to pass one and had to pick the shoes by eye, borrowed a friend's wrench a week later, and still haven't found an allen key to adjust it all properly... I suppose it's an improvement over previously, however.

In the evening I had dinner with my father, my grandmother, a cousin who is visiting the country for a week, the respective cousin-in-law, and their progeny ...second cousin? cousin-once-removed? I would think something like niece-once-removed might be more logical or informative or something. Anyway, it was quite nice. The kid is very social, not afraid of strangers at all, she doesn't cry, yells very rarely, and is usually easily quietened. Twas easy to be avuncular.

I'd *thought* that a night one of my friends was organizing, and a couple of other friends were dj'ing at was beginning on Saturday, but it's actually NEXT Saturday, and I'm a little annoyed because I've told The Housemate I'll go down south with her on the weekend. I'd quite like to back out, but I don't think it would be polite. -sigh-.

And I've only just realized that there was a party on last Saturday night which I should've gone to. Somewhat annoyed at my recalcitrant internal social PDA.

3:42:00 AM

 
Have been meaning to update. Had a lovely weekend - spring had sprung (possibly momentarily, but it seems to have held for the last couple of days also).

On Saturday night, Buttercup had a Coopers Tasting for her birthday! Very original and interesting. The food was fab too! AND we got to give a pretty cool present: a Worm Farm! with flannel pyjamas (a separate present from the farm)! Which she even seemed to quite like. I believe the quote was: "Wow! You got me a something I actually wanted!". Other quotes may appear on The Mosh Pocket.

Buttercup managed to source a venerable THIRTEEN brews by Coopers (including three homebrews). I'll input the data matrix at some point, but in summary, I rated each in terms of colour, clarity, aroma, sound, taste, after-taste, feel, and after-smell with an overall comment.

Standouts were: the Dark with a warm orangey-chocolate hue, although the Ale rated an honourable mention for its fiery auburn scheme; all three Stouts stood out for their absolute pitch-black lack of clarity; the Special Old Stout's aroma was a very robust caramel-molasses, although the homebrew Stout managed to add an intriguing sea-salt bouquet. The ocean also featured in the whisperingly quiet roaring of the Dry with lively crackling overtones; while for taste, the Lager had an unusual apricot flavour, and the Ale was also quite flavoursome, but overall I preferred the more subtle Pale Ale, which also exhibited a nice after-bite. Special mentions go to the Dry, which somehow manifested a yeasty after-smell, which seemed quite unusual in light of its rather insipid actual aroma, and the Sparkling, which had the best legs.
3:14:00 AM

 
One of my friends recently noted he'd been having unusually vivid dreams for the past month, ever since meeting some amazing woman who was once a shaman in Tibet or something, and I was somewhat jealous. However, since then, I too have been remembering more dreams than usual - infectious?

Anyway, after my virgin teleportation dream a couple of nights ago, and with the similarity of the sensation to lucid dream control, I've been feeling nostalgic for the times when I used to actually lucid dream. Before I went to sleep last night, I realized how long it had been since I last had a lucid dream, and was a little sad, as well as curious about how I might induce one. I'd read that you should regularly ask yourself "is this a dream?" at random times, but decided this was possibly a little disruptive to real life. Then last night, with this weighing on my mind, I remembered to ask myself "is this a dream?" within my dream. And since I was floating along a couple of metres above the pavement, rather than walking, I concluded that it was indeed, a dream :)

9:06:00 PM

 
Last night I went to my first quiz night for ages and ages. Had a good time, we came second! and were even leading for a couple of rounds! We won a laundry basket full of stuff, and I think I scored one of the better basket-fillers, a bundle of comics :) Haven't read any comics in ages, so it's nice to have. Will have to check if team mates want them after me. Also must remember to buy team-leader a beer - not out of team-spirit, but cos I owe her for pizza last night :-)

[elsewhere] *phew* a work problem I had turned out to be something someone else is already onto - yay! can go home with clear(ish) conscience (must avoid thinking about all that other stuff i have to do).
1:52:00 AM

 
Last night I had a flying dream, and when flying wasn't fast enough I could also perform dimensional translations (ie. teleport/d-jump). It was quite cool. The sensation was actually more like holding onto the things I wanted to d-jump in my mind (myself, about 20-30 friends, and the yacht) while forcing our surroundings to change into where I wanted us to be - ie. a similar sensation to my (much too rare) lucid dreams where I hold myself in the dream and force my surroundings in the direction I want.
11:42:00 PM

 
Friday - 8:30 meeting. Seemed to go okay. Phew.
Much too detailed blog of Arachnofest.
Then went and saw a bit of indie-pop, The Lucksmiths, who a couple of my local-band-friend-enthusiasts quite like. they were *ok*, but, you-know, nothing special. Then Pub. Then kind of crashed some going away drinks as moral support for a friend. Then back to the pub :P

Yesterday? Got up way too early (6am) to send my Dad for an endoscopy (just for a general checkup, it was all fine). Did laundry, went to the gym, picked up my bike from where I left it on Friday night, visited Grandmama, had a nap, went to dinner with my Dad at an Indonesian restaurant he's most impressed with (1. because the prices are so reasonable, AND 2. because they close on Sundays as the proprieters are Catholic), took chocolate over to Lauren's and had coffee and caught up, and then met up with Sam and we went and saw Psi-Fact DJ down in Freo. He was really good too - I'm glad I finally caught him there, I've really enjoyed him at parties and things, but he's played at this gig a couple of times and I've kept missing him. We had a really good dance, and I broke in my new runners. Got a nice endorphin flow on. Nice density of people. Friendly crowd.
9:39:00 PM

 
I probably should have noted beforehand that there would be spoilers for both of these movies, as you were undoubtedly planning to watch them ASAP. Sorry about that.
12:30:00 AM

 
_Arachnid_ (in scary font) opens with a test pilot encountering weird shimmering space above an island near South America, instruments go haywire, etc., he crashlands, and eventually encounters shimmering space on island. Portal in shimmery-space opens and cutesy alien comes out. Cutesy-alien tries to communicate with pilot with wooeywoo-sounds and hand gestures, but is attacked from behind by massive spiderish alien. Pilot then attacked and killed.

[cut to mainland hospital] Via various conversations between doctors, etc. we gather that villagers from some island have come to the hospital neurotoxed up and dying. Sassy-beautiful-pilot-chick meets with concerned doctors, and military types. The medicos hypothesize a spider, and plan a trip to the island to get samples of what bit the villagers.

Ooh, there's friction between Sassy-girl and Friendly faux-hunky head military guy. Geeky arachnologist introduced. You can tell he's geeky cos he has glasses. Sassy-girl says: "I hate spiders"!

As the team's plane nears the villager's island, all the instruments go haywire, etc. but Sassy-girl manages to crashland them on the beach. Sassy-girl checks plane - there's nothing wrong with it, but it won't start. Radio apparently works, but only gets static. Medico's and geeky types and native guides blame poor Sassy-girl for their untenable situation. Friendly-mil-guy defends her. She confides that her brother the test pilot disappeared in the area. Awww!

The entire team heads into the jungle. Geek-guy finds many mutant spiders he can't explain. Medicos impugn his geekhood! Sassy-girl defends him and they bond; he gives her a copy of his new book _Spider Fun Facts_. Awww!

Brusque-extra-number-1-type-military guy gets bitten by ticks. The ticks then burrow into him and crawl around under his skin. Ew! Gross! Geeky-ologist and medico's all baffled! They manage to find the villager's village - it is mysteriously vacant! They stop there to rest and help Extra-mil-guy-1. Extra-mil-guy-1 vomits. Vomits more. Vomits everything. Vomits blood. Everyone stops to watch. Vomits a bigger tick than any which went in. Extra-mil-guy-2 shoots it. Geek-guy goes "Nooo! Don't shoot it!" Extra-mil-guy-1 vomits another tick. Then a tick bursts out his throat. One of his eyeballs bulges. The eyeball pops out, and is followed by another tick. Extra-mil-guy-2 shoots poor bastard. Then shoots all the ticks crawling around. Geek-guy lets him.

That night, they're attacked by another mutant arachnid. They blam-blam their machine guns into the dark jungle and manage to scare it off.

The next day they keep wandering aimlessly through the jungle, supposedly to try and ID what bit the villagers, and to try and get to a high point from which their radio will work. They stumble across a skeleton in a flight uniform and with a useful nametag on the chest. Sassy-pilot buries the remains and plants a cross, saying "I'll get those bastards!". She's mad *and* teary! ooh!

Geek-guy absent mindedly wanders off. Finds new specimen. Bends over to look at it, speaking the details of it into his dictaphone. A massive shadow looms above him... The rest of the team find him still concious, but wrapped in spider silk, and with eggs layed inside him, he tells them the massive spider must be an alien and is looking for the right host to reproduce true, all the mutants are failed attempts at reproduction. He says: "You should kill me". Sassy-girl goes: "Nooo! You can't kill him!". He vomits blood and looks sad. So they give him a lethal injection. Mommy comes home just then, and attacks. Bullets just bounce off her! She's invincible! They run!

Rest of them picked off, one by one, yada yada yada...

Remnants hideout in some shadowy ramshackle old tin military camp. Sassy-pilot reads _Fun Facts_ and reads random fact #213: Spider's exoskeletons are softer after they moult. But is then distracted because remaining medico is claustrophobic and fights the others to leave and get eaten. Only Sassy-girl and Friendly-guy remain. They find a cave, and inside, they find Mommy-spider in a cocoon! She's in moult! Oh thank you _Fun Facts_ fact #213! They try and cut open the cocoon to kill her, but she wakes up, leaves the cocoon and attacks them! They shoot her! It affects her, but she's too close! Friendly-guys arm gets sprayed with venom! Ouch! Sassy-girl falls over her own feet! Oh no! Mommy webs Sassy-girl! Friendly-guy gets a grip and starts shooting at Mommy again! Mommy scurries onto the ceiling and away a bit, but Sassy girl is still joined to her by a cable of webbing! Sassy-girl pulls and braces herself against some stalagmites! Friendly-guy keeps shooting! Sassy-girl keeps pulling on the web! Mommy can't get away! Weakened Mommy falls from the ceiling directly onto a stalagmite! It pierces her thorax and after some weak clicking of her mandibles, she dies... phew, Sassy-girl and Friendly-guy are safe. They stumble out of the cave into daylight, Sassy-girl supporting injured Friendly-guy, and head for the beach and their non-working plane. The camera draws back into the sky, and as it rises above the canopy, we can see in the treetops, Daddy is watching them...

[credits roll]
11:16:00 PM

 
nb. it was actually much cheesier and more unbelievable than I've described.
11:15:00 PM

 
Anyway, they were both released straight to video, were both very "B", and were good to watch with friends.

_Earth vs The Spider_ "starred" Dan Ackroyd. Synopsis: A comic fanatic security guard with crush on next door neighbour works in a research lab. The lab has mysterious experiments involving spiders. Masked intruders kill his security guard partner, so he sticks his arm under a random automated needle of spider juice. Dan Ackroyd is the police investigator for the case, asks a few questions, yada yada. Protagonist (can't remember his name) very sad - goes home, gets sick, and starts getting these comicbook flashes. Nice neighbour comes and takes care of him. He gets back at his bullies, and protects his neighbour from a serial killer by throwing him through a wall. He gets this hole in his chest which shoots webbing. Practicing around the home, he uses his much-loved cute widdle doggie as a moving target, and when he webs it, gets the urge to suck out it's juices. He gives it to his pretty neighbour instead and goes on a psycho run around the city. He ends up killing one of the bullies who beat him up earlier. Back to his apartment, he gets more psycho, and becomes all misshapen, bulges everywhere, hair, one of his hands turns into a spider leg. Extra eyes grow out his forehead and cheeks. Mandibles burst out of his mouth. Hairy arthropod legs burst out his sides. Is very cool. Dan Ackroyd however is shown hot on the trail, takes spider web samples from the killing - ooh! Remembers research lab case - ah! and apartment block where serial killer was killed! er! Detective Dan finds spider silk on doorhandle to basement of the Man-Spiders apartment block, breaks in and finds the desicated bodies of various victims (evil bullies who all deserved to die). But Man-Spider's spidery instincts start to get the better of him! He attacks and captures Neighbour-Crush! She knows it's his spider side, and that he's still really nice inside! He strings her up in a web! Detective Dan comes upon them! Man-Spider asks Detective Dan "Kill... Me..." before he can kill Neighbour-Crush! Neighbour crush yells "Nooooo!!! Don't do it! I love him!!!!" Detective Dan can't bring himself to shoot, so Man-Spider turns and leaps toward Neighbour-Crush, and Detective Dan shoots as he's in mid-air. Man-Spider lands on Neighbour-Crush, and slowly dies as teary Neighbour-Crush says: "thank you...". [credits roll].
11:10:00 PM

 
That dream was probably from all the choc-chip cookies I ate last night during the movies.

Last night, Ulysses (who works in a vid store), had a bit of a B-movie themed vid night. First up we had _Earth vs The Spider_, and second up we had _Arachnid_, which featured a scene with a tick bursting from the eyesocket of an infested soldier. Funny that.
10:19:00 PM

 
books read:
_Kingdom of the Grail_ J. Tarr;
_Point of Dreams_ M. Barnett and L. Someone... (Scott?)
_Past the Size of Dreaming_ Nina Kiriki Hoffman (good).

And speaking of dreaming, last night I dreamt I had a rather large (eyeball size) tick growing behind my left eyeball. If I pulled my eyelid back a little, I could see it's little clawed feet wrapping over the top of my eyeball from behind. It's legs were kind of pus-yellow and internal-organ-pink. It was a bit gross, but kind of interesting, and not scary.
10:13:00 PM

 
bike stuff to do:
1. fix brakes (adjust and new pads too i think)
2. clean chain (sticking a bit, wet weather -> gritty)
3. really need new tyres (present ones totally disintegrating)
4. fix headlight
10:07:00 PM

 
But I managed to put this (letter-stress) out of my mind for the weekend.

I went to the gym on Saturday morning, and noticed that I'd actually worn a hole in my runners such that you could see my socks through it. I've been meaning to get new runners for maybe a year now as the tread and support is mostly gone and I was getting shin splints whenever I ran. Instead I mostly stopped running. But now that you could see my *socks* (the horror!) I've gone and gotten a new pair. I don't *think* the splurge was related to letter-stress. (Additional rationalizations: they were on sale, I was in town anyway and shopping for the first time in ages, um...there must be more - I like having multiple purposes for everything).

Saturday night, I went to a Mexican birthday party. Somehow, *no-one* else wore a sombrero. Got the birthday boy a Swiss Army Card type deal. We cooked up a heap of chicken and beef tortillas (well, I didn't actually cook, I just chopped up a kilo of tomatoes and a couple of cucumbers), and I caught up with a heap of people I hadn't seen for a while. All mature and working. One has just dropped his PhD (yes, after several years - maybe 4?) and has a real job. One couple has bought their second house. Another couple brought their baby (11months?). We also made margueritas. I ate too much, and suddenly it was 10pm, and I had to leave (before the cake!) for a housemate's friend's birthday party, in the Red Room at Lux (a somewhat trendite bar). I quite liked it, but the housemate thought it was a bit too dark, and the music was a bit too loud. Ran into my officemate there and had a chat. Met a couple of new people. But soon moved on - we'd been invited to a second Mexican night, very synchronous. I wonder if there was some pop culture Mexican themed subconcious trigger of which the apparently unrelated social groups both partook. It was kind of a housecooling. There was one other sombrero. They had tequila, but hadn't managed to make it to the marguerita stage. They had dirty Jenga! Each of the blocks had some instruction on it which you had to perform if that was the block you removed from the Jenga Tower (eg. Lick someone in the room). After a shot of tequila and a squizz at their new iMac (the floating flat screen one) and new wide screen TV (playing Barbarella), we went to the Marble Bar (which seems to be a newish spot for Events) to support RTR FM and Full Frequency at a fundraising party. It was crowded and posy. The music was average. There was no room to dance. There was a queue to go between the different rooms. The friends we were supposed to meet weren't there. I said hi to the three people I knew, boogied for 10 mins, decided we'd had enough, and went home. BUT it was a good stop to make, in addition to supporting RTR and FF which I appreciate muchly, one of the friends I ran into was Lira who currently has a contemporary dance piece she choreographed playing for just a few nights as part of a show called DownSize. She'd invited me previously, but the shows were actually sold out! Serendipitously, when we bumped into her she mentioned discreetly that they were actually having an unadvertised matinee show on Sunday, Free! for an open day which was also going on.

So on Sunday, me'n'the'housemate were all kulcharul and went and checked out some arty stuff! And it was really really good! A whole lot of different pieces, each maybe 5-10 mins long, all in all going for about an hour. And the pieces which Lira were in were very good, I honestly think they were a cut above the rest. One piece had six dancers, each with wheeled office chairs: spinning, contorting, stepping, sliding. Another seemed to be a satire on the Cirque du Soleil, starting with a couple of funny walking clown types in reminiscent costumes, then four primary-coloured ballerina types, dancing with VB cans! Then more clowns, then clowns with ballerina's, plus a unicyclist. This was the last piece and very funny and very good. Am very glad I made the effort.
9:34:00 PM

 
OK, good news: had great weekend.
Bad news: On Friday, I received a letter from a Coordinating Department, informing me that as my supervisor was now overseas, I now have a new local supervisor. Yes. It is. The Dreaded One.

Bit o' background: I specifically chose NOT to have The Dreaded One as one of my supervisors when I started, despite an enticing project involving a lake in Greece. Without any discussion with me, The Dreaded One became my supervisor temporarily, near the beginning of my project, when my main supervisor went on leave. He made me do a heap of stuff, all of which I have subsequently ignored. Recently, maybe 4 or 5 months ago, one of the departmental staff told me there was some discrepancy in my records, and it wasn't certain whether or not The Dreaded One was my official co-supervisor. I told her in no uncertain terms that "No, he's definitely NOT my co-supervisor. I'd never even considered such a thing, and no-one has ever discussed the possibility with me". She said: "OK, I'll fix our records".

-sigh-
8:41:00 PM

 
So yes, enjoyed the Dorothy Sayers immensely, will look for more. My local dealer^H, I mean, *library*, doesn't seem to have any others.
8:26:00 PM

 
nb. Smilodon was the focus, and pretty boring I thought - they made them much too similar to Panthera leo. the phorusrhacos was sooo much cooler, and the megatherium too. From teaser for next week, they have megaceros, mammoth, and wooly rhino's, plus neanderthals.

nb. am enjoying _Lord Peter views the body_ (D.L. Sayers)
10:49:00 PM

 
but, stayed up late again last night. read _Transcension_ by Damien Broderick. pretty ok.

should probably start reading earlier in evening, and give the tv a miss, so i get to bed earlier.

but smilodon and macrauchenia are on tonight and a megatherium too, and one of the birds - phoruswhatsit?, so might catch them... (annoyed i missed baluchitherium/indricotherium last week - hm. or was it week before? sheesh... I used to know so many of the megafauna, should brush up again...)
2:36:00 AM

 
bah. made stupid stupid stupid mistake in run setup. had to restart. and then when restarting, did it so ridiculously inefficiently, i bring shame to engineers everywhere.
2:26:00 AM