planeterry.
Tuesday, December 31, 2002
*blargh*
"Error 103:java sql SQLException: Could not allocate space for object 'BlogSettings' in database because the 'PRIMARY' filegroup is full" yada yada yada...
Only just got here, and am leaving in 5
Sunday, December 29, 2002
Anticipa-...
Bits and pieces not yet blogged (or possibly just lost in recent blogger shenanigans):
"crap i spend a crapload on a load of crap!"
{puzzled} "i don't remember buying a book on the fall of the roman empire"
{glowy-nostalgia} "i remember buying that 'pervert' shirt - it was my fave, may whoever stole it from the ambar get bunions";
bbq
had a lovely bbq last night. despite best intentions, ate yet MORE flesh. was really really good hanging out with G and N and R and D&M and B&R and C. -sigh- D&M go back to Brisvegas soon :( and I've hardly seen B&R since they've moved back here, and *I'll* be off soon.
Saturday, December 28, 2002
beer
um. another clare currently visiting from the east. we go beer at Queens. they try tell me am not allowed to be wearing singlet! (always thought Queens progressive sensible place! with minimal trendyite wannabeness) but am with two girls also in singlets. me ignore them until we go for dinner. have good dinner at city gardens. eat much. then more beer at Glasshouse (also not supposed to wear singlet, but the dj was wearing one too - ha!). maybe i get beergarden action this arvo. although is getting late. better go do errands.
Friday, December 27, 2002
nb2. regarding the Nestle-Ethopia affair. N has just sent out an email to all the people who emailed via fairtrade.com, saying they'd decided to put the money they get from any settlement toward helping in the famine - their words were something like: "alleviating short-term hunger, and ensuring long-term food supply", the latter part of which sounds suspiciously like "ensuring the starving people end up buying more food from us, whether they want/need-it/could-put-it-to-better-use or not".
dammit. why not fixed yet?
well, things to expand on later include:
Sunday, December 22, 2002
Okay - blogger has totally messed up on me. Won't fix. Will have to check back later and see if it's feeling better.
Got way too trashed Friday night - yeah, that's like two nights in a row! Usually give myself leave to fully recover before going on another bender. Went to the Q first to meet up with The Housemate and L (kind of back from travelling) and Sabinne (over from the City Under the Mountains, TM), and Bex and Bowie and Housemate's friend Quentin, who's also over from The East. I also convinced my friend Bree (down from Metropolis) to come pick me up since she had to drive anyway. So we had a couple of drinks there, then headed over to Scoobicat's place for further drinks.
Was lovely and relaxed, sitting out back, balmy, not too hot. A couple of prize comfy papasum's to sit in if you were lucky. girlie and boy (and his new friendly drooly boxer) were there, and finally got to meet the mysterious aD (hm - looked for somewhere to link to on Scoobs blog, but didn't find), who seemed nice. Had some good conversation, which ended kind of intensely about politics and environment and live-trading of animals. We left die-hard arguers and had a breakaway sect, breaking in Scoob's virgin scrabble board with some Durrrttty Scrabble! But was much too trashed and was sadly uncreative on my part.
The Housemate and Sabinne left about midnightish, then me and B rather later, and Bex and Bowie started their leavetaking at the same time. BUT! I heard the next day they'd stayed till like 4:30? *ergh* hope they didn't outstay their welcome - they don't even know Scoobs and HM, and poor aD had to get up really early... The Housemate has been annoyed at them before for doing that (at our place, although it didn't really bother me).
nb. regarding the Nestle-Ethiopia Affair, you can email the Nestle head office to urge them to drop their $6m compensation claim on Ethiopia for a company they didn't even own at the time (27 years ago!). Go to www.maketradefair.com.
D'OH! just realized I called another friend's new S.O. by aD's name on Sat night instead of by his real-actual-true name! (Matt). Crap! *embarrassment*.
Yeah, Sat night, had a quick dinner with Sis2 (down from the Northern Desert) and The Grandmother and The Father, and then went and had another dinner with friends. N put on a huge Christmassy spread, did a roast turkey, with roast veggies, plus three or four different salads, etc. and another friend had made this Italian style ice-cream cake for dessert (with a lush choc sauce). Was rather tired, but was great seeing them, and ended up staying a couple of hours longer than planned.
nb. regarding the Nestle-Ethiopia Affair, you can email the Nestle head office to urge them to drop their $6m compensation claim on Ethiopia for a company they didn't even own at the time (27 years ago!). Go to 9:26:00 PM
Thursday, December 19, 2002
Own worst enemy
Am trying not to spruik the fact that I have a job in case it brings me to attention of certain parties who might take advantage - but it just comes out in conversation. Blargh. Should go back to thinking before speaking.
God Nestle sux (no! no accent for you! bad Nestle!): "The multi-national food and coffee group, Nestle, is demanding $US6 million ($A10.6 million) from the government of the world's poorest nation, Ethiopia, as it struggles to combat its worst famine for almost 20 years... Nestle... stood by its demand, insisting it was a matter of principle."
note: drunkenness, oversize rubber gloves, lubricating surfactants, massive chopping boards, and fragile martini glasses do not go together.
:P Really shouldn't drink on a work night.
Had friends over for a dinner party last night. L is staying with us for a couple of nights, and she and The Housemate did all the work! They told me to just turn up :) I got home (thank Carrier for air-conditioning!) and they'd set up our living-room/dining-room/multipurpose-room beautifully. Lighting, candles, plants, flowers. L is a graphic designer and has a very highly refined aesthetic taste, it's pretty cool to see the arrangements she comes up with.
D and M are over from Brisvegas, and arrived with a salad and an african bean curry dish which had some exotic name I can't recall. G and N made it reasonably on time (for G) with turkish bread and dips and an amazing rosewater sorbet - with delicate little rosepetals in it. L and the Housemate also made a delish roast peach and prosciutto with grilled asparagus entree. Along with the salad and curry, R arrived also, and we had deluxe tender Tassie salmon steaks with a lime and dill sauce, and grilled beans, cherry tomatoes and onion. We had a good pause before dessert and talked and drank too much (gin and tonic, chardonnay, beer, and champagne).
Wednesday, December 18, 2002
Must remember:
Other news: bought very own pair of swim goggles at gym store sale (20% off), so no more granny-goggles for me! Is my first me-thing purchase for (seems like) ages.
Tuesday, December 17, 2002
Dinner was pretty healthy for eating out. Had lots of veggies, steamed silver perch - which was really good - and a bit of duck. Also had sea cucumber. Thought i'd had it before, but wasn't sure.
My godparents took my mum and I out to dinner last night. It was lovely. They're lovely. Can I keep them even though I don't believe in God?
Monday, December 16, 2002
no way! just found out one of my f(r)iends won lotto on the weekend! was only ~$k, but still pretty nice.
-sigh- kind of hungry, but almost everyone is here in office now, and i don't want to disrupt them with aroma de lunch. guess i *could* eat outside somewhere.
News
Go Matt Smith. The journalist for the SF Weekly did some personal data profiling of the head of the US government's Total Information Awareness project, John Poindexter, publishing his home phone number, details and photos of his house and other personal information to protest the TIA program. Nice! As reported in wired.
bah. Have been waking up at 6am recently, and thinking, "I should get up and start my day, it's all bright and cheery", but then I get abducted by aliens and have my memory erased so that it's suddenly 7:30am. Damn those greys!
Sunday, December 15, 2002
radical (dude)
HOW did I miss hearing about this?! "On Aug. 6, the Indian mathematician Manindra Agrawal distributed a nine-page paper that rocked the scientific world. He had hit upon an ingenious algorithm to prove whether a number is prime, no matter how enormous."
rev-head
am so not one, but i want one of these. Go Volkswagon! It goes 100km on 1L of fuel! Compare to < 7 km L-1 for an SUV :P And it has a top speed of about 120 km hr-1 - enough for me (usually)...
reading
Last week reread _Pride and Prej_ (Austen), which I liked more than _Sandy_, _Manny_, or _Northy_. _Persuasion_ to go.
On Sat, read _The subtle knife_ (Phillip Pullman), enjoyed muchly, must check local for final volume; and yesterday and this morning over brekky, _Vitals_, by Greg Bear, which was unsatisfying and may signal he is being hunted by The Braineater.
Saturday, December 14, 2002
post-analysis
My room looked pretty damn good with all the mirror balls hanging from the ceiling, but I don't think I'd bother with the clearing everything out again - much too much work. Still have to go return all the beanbags I borrowed. We didn't quite manage to fill our recycling bin with bottles and cans (I'd say we're 5/6ths there), but I scored about half a carton of stray leftover drinks from the bath, plus the end of bottles of vodka and whisky.
By The Housemate's count we had about 55 people, which I guess is ok as a bit more than half the invited. Slackers who missed will be vilified and ridiculed. I think the Housemate was particularly disappointed at the showing from her uni friends, with only about 5 out of her pretty close class of ~15? turning up. I think there were only about 10 or 12 people who I was really disappointed didn't make it, including the contingent who had been to see Alex Lloyd (who was playing quite near us) and had promised to come after.
The Housemate scored some pretty good loot from some of her friends, a really good looking local native fringed violet, a chill-out CD with some interesting remixes, which was very nice in the morning, scary candle-holders, wine, Tanqueray, white musk, a book on the philosophy of travel (by Alain de Botton, yeah _The consolations of philosophy_ guy!), fancy stationery, sweets and a dental mirror, Jenga, and probably a couple of other things I can't recall. She slept almost all Saturday, and I managed to get most of the cleaning done (except for the chill room out back which is right outside her window, and the web). The carpet's probably going to need a vax though.
le party
Fortunately, Dru and Bex came over to help us prepare. Bex set up the dex very nicely. Dru arranged lanterns and tealights and the pentagram out back. The hire place had miss-taken our order and only had one UV light for us, which had to go for the main room, but my mini strobe sufficed to light up the laundry eerily, and fluoresced the stars and ghosts and bats and spiders quite satisfactorily. Even with the help, The Housemate and I were still spinning the living-room ceiling web at 8:00, when a couple of people who hadn't read the invite arrived (we said 8:30!). The company was welcome though. As was the help blowing up balloons. I had to run for a carton and ice and loo paper and a quick drop in on the Grandmama.
The dj's all arrived pretty early (by 9ish), which was nice, and G soon had some funky tunes going (apart from on the sound system in the chill-out room out back). People started arriving and I had to get dressed and unload the car and fill the bath with beer and ice and inflate the giant redback spider and try to encourage her to cling to her fluorescent yellow web. And then it's all a blur. I drank quite a lot of my carton. Most people made a good effort, but we still ran out of things to make people wear if they hadn't dressed up (we had a couple of pairs of fangs, several devil horns, fluoro and multicoloured wigs, masks, etc. - should've asked Veronica to bring some of her 80's prom dresses). Somehow I managed to take votes for best costume - congrats to the Swamp Monster. Unfortunately we didn't have prizes for the very close runners-up, Death (who gets a particular commendation for his creepy sneaking around behind people), and The Wicked Witch of the West. Also had some nice S&M'ers, a fair bit of drag, the Snow Queen (Narnia), bogans, warlocks, vampires, mad scientists, Alex from _A Clockwork Orange_, a murder victim, and a cult.
Didn't seem to really get to sit and talk with anyone. Too busy running around being drunk. But had a good time, and The Housemate did too. There was a bit of dancing, interesting half-overheard conversations, and generally pretty good distribution of people around the spider's lair, constellation-beanbag-den, kitchen (um - unthemed, but it had a mummy on the wall), chill room, and out in the backyard.
The police came about 1:30ish, but were very nice about it, so we turned the tunes down a little and made sure the doors and windows were closed and turned the air conditioning on instead. I feel kind of sorry for our 4th (and last) dj, who didn't get to play till like 2ish. With most people leaving by 3, I think he was kind of disappointed too (and he had to work that morning!). The dregs hung out a bit, and me and Bex had some very welcome leftover Chinese food. After everyone else had left, I had to drag my mattress and the sound system from the furniture and junk filled Housemate's room back to mine, and me and Bex and The Housemate all crashed in there about 4:30ish, with some low chilled tunes and lots of water.
Friday, December 13, 2002
So not enough work done today. But should probably go help The Housemate get stuff ready. See (most of you) in a few hours!
Thursday, December 12, 2002
"...subsidies from rich nations cost poor countries [US]$1 billion (£635 million) a day in lost trade - six times more than incoming aid. "
darn.
Saddam's sins
The US claims to 'know' that Saddam has 'weapons of mass destruction', but has declined to offer proof. If it is telling the truth, their information probably comes from being the ones who sold Iraq the weapons in the first place:
Glasgow Sunday Herald _How did Iraq get its weapons?_
"Reports by the US Senate's committee on banking, housing and urban affairs -- which oversees American exports policy -- reveal that the US, under the successive administrations of Ronald Reagan and George Bush Snr, sold materials including anthrax, VX nerve gas, West Nile fever germs and botulism to Iraq right up until March 1992, as well as germs similar to tuberculosis and pneumonia. Other bacteria sold included brucella melitensis, which damages major organs, and clostridium perfringens, which causes gas gangrene."
*shudder*
"The Senate report also makes clear that: 'The United States provided the government of Iraq with 'dual use' licensed materials which assisted in the development of Iraqi chemical, biological and missile-system programmes.'
This assistance, according to the report, included 'chemical warfare-agent precursors, chemical warfare-agent production facility plans and technical drawings, chemical warfare filling equipment, biological warfare-related materials, missile fabrication equipment and missile system guidance equipment'."
Wednesday, December 11, 2002
Shebang shenanigans
As with every year, The Gang has been having an excessive email exchange re: Christmas and New Years plans. Some people are working Xmas eve, others have family do's or cricket on the 22nd or Boxing Day, wretches are working NY day so can't go far from city. Do we want random or specific kris kringleness? Whose place is available for a shebang? Who wants to get out into the fresh country air? Who wants to take advantage of The Housemate's parent's place with a spa? Who can afford to send aforementioned parents off to a hotel for the night? It's a very complex multifactorial process of diplomacy and organization. Fortunately, we have a couple of Super-Organizers who get everyone into gear, or nothing would ever happen.
Snacks and stuff
Have really really been meaning to come in and work in the evenings (did manage on Tuesday night), but this week has mostly been taken up with getting the house ready for Friday the 13th. We've cleared a lot of unneccesary junk out of the living room, and my bedroom is going to be open too, so I've had to clear stuff out of there to the shed. There's still a fair bit to do tonight, and tomorrow.
Q: Will people be expecting nibbles? The Housemate wasn't going to bother, and it starts lateish, but I thought we should have some chips and dips on hand, just in case - whaddya think?
Slacking serotonin
For some reason, was a bit grumpy yesterday. Got rather annoyed at the body pump instructor (let's call her Leanne) - she was doing all these really really old tracks no one had done before without saying she was going to, and then she didn't bother explaining what was involved until we were in the middle of doing them. She doesn't enunciate properly, and she yells about so much extraneous stuff that when she does yell something about change of timing or movement it's lost in the static. She's totally out of time with the music or even any beat, and she wanders around the class heaps so if you've decided not to even bother trying to work out what she's saying, you can't look at her to see what you should be doing. She also didn't even bother checking the airconditioning was on till nearly the end of the class.
And then I got annoyed at some of the drivers on the road - I *must* be getting old, dumb drivers never used to bother me.
Monday, December 09, 2002
Liberating guilt
Am kind of supposed to be at our departmental Xmas Do right now. But really can't be bothered. Despite stlkrgrl's tempting homebrew. Feel a little liberated by not going. Might go in a bit. But I doubt it, gym is more tempting.
The Um-possible
No Way. It just doesn't seem possible. I think they've finally fixed the climate control in here. It's no longer arctic. I can actually sit here in a t-shirt. We've had the maintenance guys come around and check the thermostat almost every time someone new moved into this room (say 6-7 times in my time here) and complained of their breath misting in mid-summer. On previous occasions there has never been any sign of change in our atmospheric conditions. But now! Joy! Oh glorious temperateness! How we worship thee!
Sunday, December 08, 2002
I went to Delia's Christmas Party on Friday night - it was at a French Restaurant. I had cream of vegetable soup (without cream) for starters (it was too salty), then for entree [vegetarians, look away now] I had the cervelles d'agneau Normande (lambs brains with a cream sauce, also much too salty). For mains, I had the guinea fowl in a peach sauce (pintade aux peche?, quite nice, although boringly similar to chicken), and a creme brulee for dessert. Also had a lot of wine. Met some of Delia's friends and workmates who she talks about all the time.
Saturday, I really really meant to come in here and get some work done, but instead ran errands all morning, had lunch with the Grandmere, and then in the arvo went on a massive shopping trip with The Housemate for party supplies and Secret Santa presents. In the evening we went to a dress up birthday party with jesters and drag, wizards and cavewomen, bellydancers and monks, pimps and prostitutes.
I also meant to do work on Sunday, but instead I induced a major histamine reaction and cleaned up the sunroom out back, which we never use (particularly over winter). It was rather cobwebby, which may have been in keeping with the theme (Friday the 13th), but I didn't think of that until after I'd removed most of them. There were also hip-deep drifts of leaves and debris. I also went to the Housemate's graduation ceremony, as she had a single extra ticket and her more appropriate rellies (brothers, grandparents) come in inconvenient twin-packs. It was somewhat interminable, including not just her class, but several other schools (education, nursing, and business).
Thursday, December 05, 2002
Am also feeling guilty. Didn't manage to bump into the person who I told last week: "am definitely going to the cocktail party, will be great". The cocktail party is on tonight, and so my terrible terrible lie goes uncorrected. If she goes because I was so positive about it, will feel extra extra guilty. Am sure to bump into her next week now.
So bored. So procrastinating. No one's updated their blog today! Feel need to make comments, may have to find random blogs to go comment on.
Note to Buttercup: warning, don't read, boredom ahead
Dream this morning: Machiato was in it, and I think girlie also. The setting was somewhat Buffyversian. Mac had been vamped and seemed to be enjoying herself with some ass-kicking. I had been supervamped, and was some kind of albino-uber-vamp (don't think I got to do anything interesting, just tried to figure out why I'd lost all pigment). Can't remember plot, but was visually quite fun.
Thanks to Calla for reminding me about the wonderful Landover Baptist Church. Do their quiz: "Whose God is More Vicious?" - ::proud:: I got 7/10! There are a couple of tricky ones in there!
-ah- Summer is back again!
One of The Housemate's friends had drinks last night in celebration of the class finding out they were actually "approved to graduate" (for the actual gradtuation on Sunday). Not only did she (let's call her Nelly) provide slushies (mango dacquiris and mudslides), red and white wine, and full strength and light beer, but she also had full catering - finger sandwiches, mini quiches, sausage rolls, spinach and ricotta balls, assorted dips, mars bar slice, fudge squares, m&m's - with three caterers on hand, PLUS they stoked up the bbq and had marinated chicken wings, sausages and shishkebabs. The Housemate and I didn't manage to get dinner beforehand, and had been hoping there might be a little food. Have mentally noted, "always go to Nelly's parties".
Wednesday, December 04, 2002
-sigh-
best of intentions, but distracted by other stuff - did manage to get some final final page proofs out of the way though.
Oops - there went my afternoon. After lunch I went to the airport to pick up a friend who was home from Metropolis on a surprise visit to her parents. I knew customs would be taking longer than usual, so even though I planned my arrival for somewhat after her touchdown time, I also took a book (_The complete short stories of J.G. Ballard_ by J.G. Ballard - "hooray!" for short stories, "boo-hiss!" for my apparently shortening attention span). I probably should have called and actually asked how long they were taking these days. The luggage-check-customs-queueing rigamarole took twice as long as expected, so I managed to read 3 quite cool short stories (premises included removing the need for sleep by brain surgery; a massive city in a literal matrix in 3d space, and the search for open unallocated space; and - darn, what was the first one? "boo-hiss!" also for my memory senescence). Then there was a huge queue at the parking ticket machine, and some very uncoordinated and inefficient people. Then there was the beginning of rush hour traffic through The City and on The Freeway, plus a rather long drive to her parents' house in the northern suburbs. But we managed to surprise her mother without initiating cardiac arrest, and then had a nice sit-down, drink, and chat.
Sunday, December 01, 2002
Email broken today. Is annoying.
Harry was okay - sappier than I recall the first one being. Was reassuring to hear other people laughing in the wrong places too. Think I might stick with the books from now on.
About:
I do: Sciencey-research, but don't discuss that here.
I like: People, dancing, cooking, and stuff.
I am: Procrastinating.
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