Andy's take on life

A learning experience

2009-09-06T13:18:00.001+10:00

I’m writing this on a brand new PC, running Windows Vista, a machine I assembled myself from kit parts.

It’s been a while since I’ve mucked around in hardware, the last time IDE was the standard and AGP was the best you could get for graphics, and there was no PCI-E.

These days things are a lot easier, apart from the fact that due the extender for a 20 ATX power connector fitting in the CPU power socket, I fried the first motherboard.

But it was a learning experience.

The machine itself is nothing extravagant, but then I don’t need that, it just works.

Windows 7 RC

2009-07-09T20:22:00.001+10:00

I’m writing this post in a complicated way, too complicated. Technically it is being written on Windows 7, but I’m sitting at my Mac, using remote desktop to connect to my laptop which is running Microsoft’s latest offering.

Needlessly complicated? Maybe, but given the limitations of my desk space, kinda necessary.

The Windows 7 install experience was smooth and flawless. And the OS itself has a much more snappier feel to it than Vista, it almost feels on a par with XP in terms of speed.

The UI is a little different, but that’s no bad thing, and anyone who has used Vista should have no troubles adapting.

But it’s not the UI that matters, Vista’s UI was good too, but it suffered from performance issues, and a bad reputation. Microsoft has apparently learned a lesson, and the fit and finish that appears to have gone into 7 is apparent, even in a release candidate.

Time will tell though, but first impressions count, and my first impression has been positive.

The day Victoria burned

2009-02-09T10:17:00.003+11:00

It's hard in many ways to fathom how this can have happened, the culmination of a two week long heatwave, drought conditions, and one day where the danger of bushfires was at it's worst level ever.

It doesn't take much under those conditions, and the result was the countries worst ever bushfires.

I knew the risk was there, I'd seen news reports advising that the potential for disaster was extreme, but I couldn't comprehend the possibilities that lay ahead, nobody could.

The first I knew was when I was at work Saturday night, the faint smell of smoke entering the building. I checked the building itself and went outside, and there just a few kilometers west was a towering column of smoke.

Checking the CFA website confirmed that there was a number of fires in Long Gully, and also a number of other ares in the state were impacted.

It was kind of surreal working when you knew that fires were burning and that people you knew were being evacuated, even now it seems strange to see things so normal after the scale of the disaster, over one hundred dead so far, and likely more to come, many hundreds of home destroyed, and many, many families displaced.

I know people who were evacuated from their homes, I know the Kinglake area, and I have family in Yarra Glenn. All these things have driven home to me the scale and impact of the disaster.

Ecto

2008-06-08T12:27:00.000+10:00

Simplicity, ease of use, and convenience, all things I like in my life. I like things to be simple, easy to use and convenient for me to use. With that in mind I'm trailing a new program that allows me to blog directly to my Blogger account.

Surprisingly enough, I'm moving away from freeware solutions and evaluating shareware and paid solutions, yes I'm actually buying software instead of downloading freeware, usually because the free stuff doesn't quite do what I want it to and I like to support developers out there.

Why am I doing this? Well you may have noticed something of a hiatus in my posting here recently, with the switch to my shiny new iMac, I'm still replacing all my Windows software with Mac equivalents, and on Vista I was using Windows Live Writer to post. I like posting from software, I dislike the blogger web based interface, for no particular reason that I can articulate, but rather the way my brain is wired, I need a desktop application to work within.

So I'm writing this in a trial version of Ecto a shareware application that is designed to allow me to do just what I want to

So far, so good, it will automatically upload any images to flickr, which is kinda awesome too.

So hopefully this will mean I will be back posting a bit more again.

Winter Green

2008-06-07T13:59:00.002+10:00

One month on

2008-06-06T22:39:00.003+10:00

It's been mental, but results are coming through, my team is really starting to perform, the whole department is in fact. Still don't know exactly what the future holds, but if nothing else I've got an awesome amount of experience I didn't have before.

Had some repairs done on the speedo in the car today, it was starting to get jerky and read under the actual speed, so I got it rebuilt for $175.

It's Queen's Birthday long weekend here, and that means three days off, which is awesome.

Own worst enemy

2008-05-06T23:21:00.001+10:00

I am my own worst enemy sometimes, I tend towards overly critical of myself. I was very successful in my former role, and to come in to a new role, and have to reset your own expectations is a difficult thing to achieve.

Over the past few weeks I have been guilty of believing I've been under performing, when in actual fact I'm at the same level as the other new managers.

I've got to accept that I'm learning everything all over again, and not be so harsh on myself.

One Terabyte

2008-05-03T13:13:00.001+10:00

I bought my first 1TB drive today, in engineering terms that's 1,000 gigabytes, or otherwise known as 'lots'. I remember when a gig was huge, but with hundreds of gigs being the norm these days, it's kinda crazy.

I'm replacing my old 320gig Lacie External USB drive with a Lacie 1TB Network Attached Stored drive, basically I can access the drive from any pc in the house. It was such a breeze to setup and get going.

It will take me a while to get it sorted in terms of file transfer, but it'll be worth it.

Cause for yay

2008-04-23T11:11:00.001+10:00

April's partner got her interdependency visa yesterday, which means she's now legally entitled to stay in the country. I haven't spoken to April yet, but she and Melody will be visiting this weekend, with this long, drawn out process with immigration finally over.

Awesome!

Hazy Monday morning

2008-04-21T11:54:00.001+10:00

The Department of Sustainability and Environment are conducting fuel reduction burns, can you tell?

It's all smoke outside at the moment.

Hard resetting the body clock

2008-04-20T20:22:00.001+10:00

I am tired, but I'm forcing myself not to call it a night.

Why?

Well for most of this year I have been nine to five, or there abouts, tomorrow I start work at 4pm and work through to midnight, covering the evening shift. Given that I have to drive home after midnight I need to force my body to sleep past 6am, otherwise I'm going to be very run down at the end of the day.

For much of the past two years I've work shifts, and rarely 9-5, but with the recent bout of training I have been in a settled routine for the first time in a long time, and being very much the creature of habit I am this is going to be interesting to say the least. But hey, I'm up for a challenge.

At the moment I'm learning a new role, I have the belief in myself that I can do it, but after two days I realise I need to set myself some objectives. I need something to aim for, a direction to take, otherwise I'm like a ship with no rudder, drifting aimlessly.

One of the things I have to learn is that I'm no longer a Senior Tech, that my job is no longer to deal with the technical stuff that crops up day to day. This isn't as easy as it sounds, because when you've done something for a long enough time, and been very good at what you do, it becomes difficult to take the necessary step back.

Mind you, there are some definite upshots, one of which is that I'm finding that the stress that sometimes used to build up over work is no longer an issue, I little self belief goes a long way, and I've finally learned to let work be work and home be home, and this has meant that I leave the work stuff at work.

Life, I've discovered, is a funny old thing, and at the moment things seem a little settled, which is a good thing.

Firefox 3.0 beta 5

2008-04-19T09:55:00.001+10:00

I've been experimenting with browsers again, my current weapon of choice is Firefox 3.0 beta 5. The final release of FF3 is still a little ways off, but what I'm seeing now gives me hope. FF2 annoyed me on so many levels, mainly it's resource hungry nature, that if you left it running for a while the memory usage would start spiraling out of control. I've read that the link pre fetch feature was in part responsible for this, because if you load a page with links, it was grabbing the content of those links 'in case' you actually wanted to click on them.

But it's all better now, FF was absolutely the most kick arse browser out there, then at version 1.5 it started to not do what I wanted it to. So I stopped using it, but now the wheel has turned, the work has been done and I'm in love with the little browser that could again.

I've also found two extensions that help me with what I want to do, the first is Feeds Sidebar, which allows me to have a feed reading experience similar to IE7, which is better than the default live bookmarks view.

The second I'm using right now, Scribefire, which is a blog posting tool, which was easy to setup and use.

One thing I have to say though is that FF3 seems better on Vista than it does on Mac OSX Tiger, I have issues with disppearing menus onm the Mac at the moment, which will hopefully be resolved in the next release as it has only appeared in FF3b5.

I am content.

How dry it is

2008-04-13T14:08:00.001+10:00

The green grass from several months ago has all but disappeared as the continued lack of rain continues to bite hard. This photo was taken earlier today from my new Motorola MotoRokr Z6 which I bought to replace my trusty V3.

Yoink

2008-04-09T18:25:00.002+10:00

Teh Vista seems somewhat improved, especially since SP1 and the latest Atheros Wifi drivers, in three months the drivers for my wifi adapter have updated six times. This is not normal.

Kinda maxxed out at work at the moment, also I was suffering the effects of a head cold last weekend hence why there's been even less of me than normal recently.

I'm trying out twitter, just for kicks as well...

Vista: Service Pack 1

2008-03-21T11:20:00.001+11:00

Updated teh Vista machine this morning, a process that involved updating the display drivers which weren't Vista SP1 compatible. So far so good. There is no one big thing that stands out as better yet, but time will tell.

I start my management role on April 1, and am looking forward to yet another challenge.

Eye Eeeeee Ate

2008-03-07T18:56:00.001+11:00

Trying the first beta of IE8, it's supposed to be more standards compliant out of the box, but there seem to be some rendering issues with elements being mispositioned.

Other than that, life goes on, stuff continues to happen and things also occur.

Ciao!

An update on being busy...

2008-02-24T13:40:00.003+11:00

Life has been crazy recently, mum was ill for a while, then one of our cats spent some time at the vets. Thankfully mum has come good now, and the cat is also well on the road to recovery.

It has been a trying time, that's for sure.

All this with work being crazy busy recently. And it's going to get busier, which will be fun. :)

I haven't had the time or energy to post much at the board recently, which is a shame as I'm almost at 7k and have nothing planned.

At the moment I'm just trying to chill out and relax, not thinking that tomorrow will be crazy awesome with a massive training group to start.

Take crae one and all, and I'll see you on the other side...

This Week in Me

2008-02-16T11:50:00.001+11:00

I've finally figured out why wireless on Vista was dropping out frequently, I unticked something that shouldn't have been unticked.

Me car had issues earlier this week, basically the alternator packed up, that's the thing that provides electrical power and charges the battery, luckily I'd only just left home for work when it happened, and was able to get the car back home, get "yea olde fathefull" out and arrive at work by 9am. Downside is $286 in repairs to fit a new alternator.

I've been playing round with a Mac this past week. I bought a second hand 12 inch powerbook which is a fun learning experience.

Catch you on the flipside...

January 19, 2008

2008-01-19T17:53:00.001+11:00

Taken five minutes ago, it's somewhat wet at the moment...

Teh Vista

2008-01-11T21:03:00.001+11:00

So I followed the lead of Keppet and plumbed for two one gig DDR2 sodimms for the laptop. Performance is now much improved as a result.

It's currently friday night, a full on week at work is past, and I'm ready for a weekend of doing as little as humanly possible.

Work

2008-01-07T18:54:00.001+11:00

I'm in and out of training at the moment, providing the tech content for the reps to backup what is being taught by the trainers. I love this part of the job.

What I did today

2008-01-06T21:50:00.001+11:00

1. Managed to not die of heat stroke, it hit 40C today, to the point where 30C seemed cool this evening when it started to cool down.

2. Upgraded the firmware on my Creative Zen Micro MP3 player to make it work with Windows Vista, without ending up either bricking it or going completely insane.

3. Found some more tech podcasts to subscribe to.

4. Installed Windows Live Writer which is software that I can use to create blog posts, hence number three today, hopefully more regular updates will happen from now on.

5. Stopped hating Vista quite so much, because now pretty much everything I have connected to my laptop works with Vista, after a lot of effort.

6. Tried Windows Live Mail, which is a replacement by Microsoft for Outlook Express and Windows Mail, and promptly uninstalled it. No definitive reason, but it just didn't feel right.

One week living with Vista has made me aware of it's advantages and disadvantages. Performance with Aero enabled sucks somewhat and the new machine only has a gig of ram which isn't quite enough. Everything else about the new machine is all good though, or at least good enough for me to be happy, which is what really matters.

Rain from December 21, 2007

2008-01-06T12:37:00.001+11:00

Just Before Christmas we had over a months worth of rain in one day, as you can see the yard looked vaguely like liquid mud.

Welcome to 2008

2008-01-06T12:34:00.001+11:00

A somewhat belated welcome to 2008. Lax I've been of late in updating this blog, alas life has been causing some stress and I honestly haven't had much to say.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and a happy and safe New Year.

Car: Finish line in sight

2007-10-31T11:55:00.000+11:00

The repairs on the engine are completed, however one of the front wheel bearings needs replacing, this should be completed today. So later this afternoon I'll be getting my car back.

Repair bill

2007-10-22T09:39:00.000+10:00

The repair bill for my car is now at just under $1600. I'm hoping they don't find too many more problems.

The light at the end of the tunnel...

2007-10-19T09:53:00.000+10:00

...turns out to be an oncoming train.

The mechanic has found another potential engine problem. Unfortunately it means that the cylinder head is also an issue. I'll have to see him tomorrow (Saturday) to sort out what to do, he has a couple of options form me, but I want one that sees it fixed properly.

Cars: The end in sight

2007-10-17T10:19:00.000+10:00

My mechanic has found the problem with the car that broke down. The bottom line is it will cost between $1000 and $1100 to fix, and it isn't the problem we originally thought it would be, the head gasket.

One of the timing chain guides has snapped, allowing the timing chain too much slack. This has let the chain rub on the chain cover and wear through to the cooling journals, allowing coolant into the sump and with the water level dropping has caused the engine to get too hot and trip the check engine light which caused me to pull over.

The bottom line is that the car should be fixed late next week, but it is a bigger job because the whole front of the engine has to be dismantled, parts replaced and put back together again.

At least now I know, and once fixed the car will be in great shape again.

Sorting out cars

2007-10-15T10:11:00.000+10:00

The car that broke down two weeks ago has now been dropped off at the mechanics. I should have some idea of the extent of the damage on Thursday.

I miss power steering...

Extra extra monthly update

2007-10-03T10:57:00.000+10:00

Despite it all going pear shaped yesterday, I can still smile, I can still laugh.

Despite a re-ocurrance of a back condition that affected me when I was 19 too.

Life is life, and we keep on the merry go round.

It makes it easier when you have a second car at your disposal also.

Life is a funny old businness...

Gah!

2007-10-02T20:43:00.000+10:00

My car broke down today on the way to work. Looks like a blown head gasket, which could cost up to a grand to fix. Kinda depressing.

Not a good day

September

2007-10-01T11:42:00.001+10:00

Well another month has come and gone, a bit of an up and down one really. The news about my uncle got me on a bit of a downer, you know you think everything will last forever, and when you are faced with the real evidence that it can't it's kinda a shock to the system. So I've been fairly withdrawn recently, but yeah that's just my way of dealing with things, not the best way, but my way.

My laptop got hit by some form of virus a bit over a week ago, to the point where the windows data execution prevention was going off every ten minutes. So a nuking was in order, and because I was running out of time, the virus hitting me on a Sunday, I quickly rolled out a Linux install to get me by. I'm all back and running again now, windows is re-installed.

I had an altercation with a Kangaroo last week, rounding a bend at 6am on my way to work and there it was, I hit the stop pedal hard but still hit it, luckily for me and car it was jumping when we met so it bounced off my bonnet and rolled over the roof leaving only a minor dent in the bonnet that you can hardly notice. Considering I've only had that car since April and it was the one that was hit in the car park, I've been unlucky in a lucky way twice now with it. Go figure.

There is something of a punch line too, the previous week I'd ordered a new mattress and base set, it was delivered the day I hit the roo, and after all that I get home to find my bed delivered and a warranty card on my desk, from 'Kangaroo Bedding'...

Fate it seems has a sense of humour...

So life goes on, and evidently will continue to do so...

Catch you on the flipside.

So I suck

2007-08-31T17:13:00.000+10:00

Last day of August and what have I done? Well posting wise, not much it seems. Alas for me the road to hell is indeed paved with good intentions, I promised myself blog neglect was a thing of the past, and yet here I am again, woefully not posting anything, when despite the lack of evidence, things are occurring.

Early in the month, met Kate and Ash for the first time, awesome fun, cruised the river, watched as Kate got horribly embaressed by the guide using a story she told. Met up with Em, had lunch, all was good. Except they changed the platform for my train home, and doing 160km backwards does weird things to one's stomache, well mine at least.

For most of August I was counting down the days until the 27th, which was the official start of my random one week off, which happened to coincide with both April coming home and Q being in Melbourne. So timing wise, I hit a winner, mind you April has spent much of the week in Melbourne, job hunting (successfully too) so haven't seen all that much of her.

Catching up with Q was great, despite my usual pre-meeting hobbling nerves kinda thing, I'm sure one day I'll get over it.

Of course this week I also took the time to get much needed work done on my car, front brakes (usefull for stopping so I'm told) and the automatic transmission serviced. I also ended up having to replace all four tyres, so yeah, my wallet is wee bit thinner these days.

My annual review went very well, surprisingly well infact, as part of it I evaluated my own performance, and what I got back from the management group was better than I'd rated myself. A nice confidence booster.

There is still a bit of uncertainty about the future, for now I am doing the same job I always have, but in time that will wind up and the company for whom I work will hopefully find me new work, but what that could be is up in the air.

So that's me in August.

War of the Worlds

2007-08-10T10:44:00.000+10:00

I've found a DVD of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds, performed at Wembley 2006.

Someone is a happy camper today :)

Heya

2007-07-31T19:58:00.000+10:00

Blogger can now do polls. So yeah, lame one to start off with but I'm feeling non-creative at the moment. Life continues on, the same old same old basically. I'm going to Melbourne on Saturday to meet up with Kate, which will be awesome.

100

2007-07-15T16:11:00.000+10:00

At the moment I'm on a weird, weekend divided kind of schedule. I'm working saturday with an RDO on Wednesday. It's weird not to have two full days off at the end of the week, but it is only going to last for two weeks.

I added another 512 meg of RAM to my laptop today, taking it up to 1 gig. It needed it, trying to covert divx to dvd chews it up pretty quickly.

Life is going ok in general, work is under control. I'm not as tired as I was and am having more energy.

I still haven't finished Renegades Magic, all I can say is that I got sidetracked by an unexpected and intense addiction to Battlestar Galactica. The thing is that I have to pull my finger out and get it read, Harry Potter 7 arrives this month, and I have my copy preordered, and have for a while. Too many books, not enough time.

Sadly it's one of those things I seem to not find time for these days, reading. It's kinda sad, I miss being sucked into new worlds.

Anyway, that's all for now folks, take care and I'll catch you on the flipside.

Lush and green

2007-07-08T15:25:00.001+10:00

Another year older

2007-07-06T09:16:00.000+10:00

I think I'm too quiet for my own good. I tend to lurk in the corners and not say much.

So I was floored when someone to whom I've not spoken to for a long while remembered it was my birthday. It was a nice surprise to get an email from from Foofarseer again, and pretty unexpected.

The day itself was somewhat marred by the fact I had to work, and stress relating to some work issues didn't help, but I'll take time to chill and enjoy on the weekend.

Anyway, gotta go, will have to leave for work soon.

Meh

2007-06-21T11:19:00.001+10:00

I'm currently in survival mode. Which means I'm shutdown and not talking and just trying to get through each day.

Yay for the late shift, eh?

Most of last year I spent working 3pm - 11pm, and now two weeks out of every eight I'm back on that shift, it is killing me slowly. My sleep patterns are screwed and once again I have no energy.

I'm feeling a bit negative at the moment, usually I go to work, and this will start to evapourate, I'm just so looking forward to the weekend right now!

Anyway hopefully I'll update once I've cleared the crap out of my head.

For Myo

2007-05-10T18:25:00.000+10:00

I found my feet!

View out of my window

2007-05-09T16:49:00.000+10:00

Stuff and Things

2007-05-08T11:09:00.000+10:00

You have to be one of my co-workers to get the title, it's a very me thing to repsond to the question "What happening?" to say "Stuff 'n' Things".

Anyway, title explanation aside, it's already an interesting week. Firstly, I'm on leave (Woo!) and secondly there has been an announcement today about the takeover of the call centre.

It is going ahead at the end of this month, we will officially transition from working for Australia's third largest telco, to working for another company doing work for Australia's third largest telco. It's like having your job outsourced while keeping it at the same time.

It's weird though, even though I knew it was coming, it has still caught be by surprise a little. I guess it is one thing to be intellectually aware of events, but something entirely different to be confronted with the reality of them.

It will be interesting to see how this all pans out, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervy about the whole process, but time will tell.

In other news I actually bowed to the innevitable, and bought a digital camera yesterday. Not a very expensive one, but something I'll be able to play around with. It's been on my wish list for a while now.

Anyway this afternoon I've got to take the car in for a front end alignment, it seems that since the car park inncident last week it pulls slightly to the left.

While I've been lucky in the cost of the repairs, I have made th choice not to get the bodywork straightened out, because then it would cost bit more. The damage is barely noticable, hence my reluctance to part with money for minimal gain.

Anyway I shall continue to enjoy my time off.

Green!

2007-05-05T13:56:00.000+10:00

A little while ago I posted a photo that showed how dry it was, now look at it, green again. We still need more rain to really break the drought though. I really should get myself a camera, these shot's recently have been from my phone.

Car (now)

2007-05-05T09:23:00.000+10:00

Forty dollars, and about twenty five minutes effort later, the car is roadworthy again. I was lucky a car wrecker in Bendigo had a tail light for it. Abd kudos to my dad because I asked him to create list of wreckers, which he did, but he also started ringing around, and located the part for me within an hour of me calling him.

The dents aren't really worth fixing, it is a twenty year old car, but I need to tidy up a few places where the paintwork has been damaged to prevent rust.

The thing is, unless you were looking for it, or knew the car had been hit, you probably wouldn't even notice.

Cold hard light of day

2007-05-04T09:12:00.000+10:00

I've checked the car over, and the damage is:

1. Smashed tail light (already sourced a replacement)
2. Two dents on the passenger side (once I've cleaned it up, cut and polish the wont show)
3. Bumpers are slightly askew, if you don't know you wont notice.

Anyway to add to this weeks fun, a payroll error means I have not been paid this week.

The aftermath

2007-05-03T22:16:00.000+10:00

Retards stealing cars

2007-05-03T21:35:00.000+10:00

This image was taken from my phone today, the red car is mine. See the white line? That marks the parking bay my car was parked in.

Someone has broken into a car in the carpark, started skylarking, lost control in the wet and ploughed into the car on the left, and my car.

The impact moved my car a good two meters, yet I have two dents, and a busted tail light. Unfortunately the other two cars look likely to be write offs.

It's a shame, because I know both the owners pretty well. I also know how much effort the owner of the dark blue car pictured had put into his car, in time and money.

I can't beleive my car was so unscathed, I drove it home, and there were no dramas, the steering was still straight despite the impact.

I'm gutted for the other guys though.

There's no place like...

2007-04-29T10:02:00.000+10:00

The mongoose, the tortoise and the oddly shaped mango

2007-04-28T14:02:00.000+10:00

The title has nothing to do with anything in this post, in case you were wondering.

Another month gone, well almost. It's been pretty full on recently. We have had a new group of recruits go through training and graduate into tech support representatives. I'm only peripherally involved this time, but I was still kept plenty busy.

I'm pretty proud of my own guys at the moment, there have been massive improvements, they all pretty much aced their last technical test. It's gratifying to see that they have come so far now.

In just under a month my grandmother turns one hundred. She's still pretty active too. There is a big family get together happening, so I'll be off to that in about four weeks. I haven't seen a lot of the relatives for some time, so it will be interesting to catch up.

Since I started my current job I have had two days leave and two sick days, in eleven months, so I have some leave accrued, so I've arranged to have May 7th to 11th off. A full week of not going to work. Given how rarely I get public holidays off it will be something of a novelty. Of course Spiderman 3 will have to wait until that week, but it's cool, I can wait.

Other than that I have no real plans to do anything in particular, I'll probably head down to Melbourne during the week, but beyond that there is nothing planned.

I think my work / life balance is getting back in check, sometimes it's been all work, work, work, but now I'm leaving work at work and just relaxing on weekends.

It actually rained pretty heavily last night, and the skies have looked threatening all day so far, which is good to see, because needless to say, we need rain badly.

And on that wet note, I will end this entry.

Busier than a one armed paper hanger...

2007-04-18T09:45:00.000+10:00

Busy times. New group of techs have come out of training and hit the floor, which was nothing really to do with me, but I've been drafted in to help out with supporting the new recruits. It's cool though, being bus is a nice thing, mind you I have to do my quarterly review by friday and haven't started yet so interesting times.

Something useful this way comes

2007-04-17T09:36:00.000+10:00

I found a link the other day that showed me how to do something I've wanted to try since Google calender was launched, integrate the google calendar into a desktop calendar application.

http://bfish.xaedalus.net/?p=239

This link shows you how to integrate google calendar into Thunderbird, using the lightning and provider extensions. It is seriously very cool and works flawlessly. I am working with TB2.0rc1, Lightning 0.3.1 and Provider 0.1.1.

Yet another new toy

2007-04-14T12:40:00.000+10:00

Yet another car added to the stable. The previous one that I acquired last year has given me nothing but trouble. This time I have bought something that has been very apparently maintained, is a make known for reliability, and has a warranty.

The Front Gate

2007-04-14T12:36:00.000+10:00

This is the front gate, you can see how dry it is at the moment.

Tired

2007-04-10T21:25:00.000+10:00

I am tired. Last week's six days straight has taken the wind out of my sails. I'm kinda quiet around the traps at the moment because my energy levels are low as, and I am struggling to stay awake as I write this.

Things at work continue to go well. I feel like I'm making an impact. A positive one I might add.

It's hard to be around a group of twenty somethings without a few things rubbing off. We have a fair bit of fun on the job, keeping it interesting. Part of the job is dealing with people who just don't get it, tech wise, and you can't deal with that every day unless there is some fun involved.

Anyway I'd say my bed is calling me, except that is rather a freaky thought when you think about it, so I'll just say me go beddy byes!

Night all.

It's all about me really...

2007-03-30T21:54:00.000+10:00

I hate being sick, and unfortunately that is how I've been this week with the flu or a cold or something. I soldiered on and am now more or less over it.

It's weird though, every time I get sick like this, the recovery is like some sort of massive high. I'm bouncing off walls with energy and enthusiasm. I feel really good at the moment, bubbly would be the word of choice.

You know I almost feel like I've burned some bridges with people over the past year or so, I'm not good at keeping in contact and tend to drift away from things. I'm talking for the most part about hobblings. Because of my more infrequent visiting and posting I feel like I've moved appart from the board, and that's not what I want. It's work in progress but I'm getting back into it again, and have been reminded about how much I care about that place.

In other news, some of you may be aware that the centre at which I am working was slated to close, but is now being taken over by another company. Well it looks like the deal is closer to being done. Word was passed by upper management that the new operators to be will be breifing the staff next week. This is excellent because for a period of time from late last year through to a early this year there was so much uncertainty about our future. It was possibly one of the most trying times I've ever been through. On one hand I'd been kicked in the guts, and on the other I had to remain positive and focussed to keep on doing my job. But all the pain and the stress is done with now, the future looks good.

I'm starting to focus more now on career progression. I'm thinking that I would like a tilt at a manager's job, I was acting manager for three weeks at the start of the year, and now I'm just a level below that, with responsibility. All this has given me the confidence and drive to push forward, when the opportunity arrives, because if there is one thing I have now that I lacked previously, it is the belief that I can do the job, and do it well.

Words

2007-03-30T21:53:00.000+10:00

Do you ever have a word you just love?

I'm rather fond of 'dichotomy', it is just a very cool word.

What I do

2007-03-19T22:08:00.000+11:00

Have you ever wondered what I do all day to earn a crust?

Well wonder no more!

Having spent six months as a phone monkey, working the internet helpdesk for an Australian ISP, I was promoted to a senior tech role in January. What does this entail?

Firstly my primary task is to ensure technical competency of a team of techs, to this end I provide one on one coaching going over various things that I feel will benefit the individual person.

Secondly I provide on the spot support, answering the difficult questions, or providing confirmation on a person's diagnosis.

Thirdly I keep an eye on our systems, looking for unexpected drop in the number of users or any other pattern that may indicate a larger issue.

Finally I perform quality evaluations on calls. I'm sure you've all heard that message when calling a large business "you call may be monitored for coaching purposes", well I am one of the people who do the monitoring.

There is more to it than that, but the basics are covered off there.

I'm back...

2007-03-19T22:01:00.000+11:00

If nothing else, the contreversy at the board has brought me back into the frame. I'm posting more, and my posts are longer than a single sentence on most occaisions.

Part of my problem is that I thought I had nothing to say, now I have plenty.

Irony

2007-03-17T18:19:00.000+11:00

Having someone who seems to moderate on a whim is like having a faceless god standing over your left shoulder.

And if you think I'm reffering to the myopic one then you've spent even less time than me at the board recently...

The board and me...

2007-03-17T17:46:00.000+11:00

I've drifted away, lost myself and become distant. I've forgotten what it's like to be a part of the whole, to belong to contribute, and now I feel like almost an outsider at the place I once considered my second home.

I feel that even if I have something to say that I've lost my right to say it.

I miss it, the comraderie I used to feel, a sense of belonging to something that is special.

I wish I could stop hanging around the fringes, starting birthday threads, and feeling awkward about it. In the end it's up to one person to do that, me...

I have more to say, on things related, but I don't know how to say it, I never do, eloquence is not one of my gifts, frustration at my lack of it, my curse...

The wheels on the bus...

2007-01-30T18:38:00.000+11:00

Well today I officially kicked into my new role, I've been in the job since last thursday but today was my first day not in training. It's a case of being thrown into everything a bit, I have a team of new recruits raw from training and full of questions. The are taking calls as of today and it is my role to help them develop technically. They show some promise, considering it's their first day.

It's a big challenge, this job, and forces me way outside my comfort zone. This is not such a bad thing as I'm more likely to stay inside my comfort area, and being pushed out is a good way to learn.

All in all I feel positive about the change and my ability to step up to the task.

So things are good, and the better hours are nice too, despite geting up at 5:30am...

April

2007-01-28T20:17:00.000+11:00

April will leave the country for a years stay in Canada tomorrow. I wish her all the best and will miss her visits home.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS

2007-01-16T00:27:00.000+11:00

That job I applied for?

The one I had the interview for last week?

I start next week!

Work

2007-01-09T11:08:00.000+11:00

That job I applied for, the one I mentioned in my last post, well I have an interview for the position tomorrow.

This week is my last on secondment to management as well. It's been quite an experience, learning more about the business and more importantly, myself.

We have a scout jamborree in town at the moment, 8000 scouts and 3000 support people, and they are running joy flights for them, the only issue being is that being an evening shift worker, aeroplanes flying over head at 9am is not helping my sleep patterns any.

I'm one tired black duck...

2007

2007-01-01T12:10:00.000+11:00

Another year done, another begun. And what am I doing on this fine new year's day you may ask? Applying for another job within the company. A number of senior positions have come up, and I'm putting myself forward for one of them.

Hope everyone has a happy and safe new year!

Turning the corner

2006-11-25T22:09:00.000+11:00

I may have finally turned the corner this week. Given that this month has seen both car woes and job loss stress it hasn't ben a memorable one. But I'm suddenly feeling a bit better and am enjoying my job again.

The magic had gone for me as I dealt with all the fallout of being told my job future wasn't as secure as I'd like. But it's all good now, and my confidence has returned. Things will work out somehow.

I have put 900 kilometers on the car since it was finally fixed and all is well at the moment. In the end I got my mechanic to flush the cooling system on the engine, at the grand cost of $30, which cleared out a lot of crap that was blocking the coolant flow through the radiator.

Things are looking up.

Update

2006-11-19T20:14:00.000+11:00

I'm cruising along a little now. I won't pretend I wasn't gutted by the decision to relocate the centre to Sydney, but yeah it's done now, and I'm getting over it. It seems like I will have a job for a number of months yet. So while the situation is sitting in the back of my mind, I'm not really dwelling on it at the moment.

I don't have a plan for the future yet, but I have the odd idea or two.

You may have noticed my quietness on the net for a while now. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact I spend my days sorting out other people's net problems makes the internet a less attractive place for me. That and the fact that I don't have any real unwind time at the end of the day, getting home at or after midnight will do that for you.

I never tought I'd say it but 9-5 seems damn attractive these days!

I just thought I'd say it, I'm ok, I'm being quiet because I have nothing to say, but I'm not in an entirely bad place...

Car

2006-11-08T11:31:00.000+11:00

New Wheels is ok, as grammatically incorrect as that sentence may seem. The issue with the temperature guage going to full hot has been diagnosed as a faulty sensor in the engine. The engine itself is not overheating at all.

Work

2006-11-07T12:37:00.000+11:00

After just shy of six months in one job, redundancy is not something you'd want to contemplate, but it's something we've been forced to face up to after yesterday. My job is being moved to Sydney, in fact everyone's jobs are, the centre I work at will be closing by the end of next year.

No-one saw this one coming.

Work

2006-10-28T00:19:00.000+10:00

Five months.

Three excellent customer service awards.

One nomination for most valuable team member.

I suppose you could say things are going well...

My car

2006-10-27T10:40:00.000+10:00

Taken last night in the car park near work.

Did you say fish?

2006-09-16T15:48:00.000+10:00

Long time no post I guess. For the most part there really hasn't been much to talk about. Currently I'm waiting to hear whether my contract will be rolled over into permanent full time, as opposed to my current fixed term situation. Until then I can't really move forward with getting finance for a car.

Work continues going well, with more training on the horizon to upskill us to handle broadband support as well as our current dialup. I'm looking forward to the new learning and being able to expand the scope of my work.

Life in general is going well, April is settling into her new job, and into a new abode with her partner Melody. I don't hear from her as much as I used to, with us both being busy with work.

I find I have not more to say that that right now, so take care all and I'll catch you on the flipside.

Freaky Friday

2006-08-26T16:51:00.000+10:00

Another week down. This week just gone, the position on being transferred from fixed term contractors to permanent staff was clarified. Sometime next month I should learn if my nine month contract will be rolled over into a permanent position, the signs seem good.

Despite the fatc that we are all on the fixed term contracts we've been awarded a pay rise of 3% which landed in the pay cycle this week.

My bank manager is on two weeks vacation, meaning talking about finance for another car is going have to wait until he gets back. Still it gives me a chance to look for what I want, and hope that I can find the type of car I need in the price range I'd like to pay.

In the next few weeks 8 new tech support staff begin traing, with two to come into our team, and six into the other (smaller) team. Some time beyond that the two original teams will be upskilled to deal with broadband support.

The Space Shuttle Atlantis is due to launch this weekend and will resume construction of the international space station.

Anyway, I have no ther news right now, so adios!

Board Woes

2006-08-24T11:35:00.000+10:00

It has ceased to be for me. The board has become unavailable. It seems there is some sort of problem in the path between me an ezboard servers, because when I try traceroute the board I get as far as being routed in the US and hit big timeouts, and the whole traceroute fails.

It happened both when I did traceroute from here and central ops.

That being the case the problem is likely to be rectified at some stage, hopefully soon, as I have had no access to the board for over 24 hours.

I know I'm no longer a prolific poster, but I visited every day, and it was good to know it was there, now I feel somewhat bereft.

MIA Board

2006-08-24T00:31:00.000+10:00

I haven't been able to access the board all day.

Three months

2006-08-22T12:40:00.000+10:00

Today marks three months since I started this job. It seems like longer, but it isn't. I'm less stressed, less anxious and more content than at just about any other time of my life. I'm getting good feedback from me manager and the senior tech on how I'm going, so it all seems good.

One thing though, you know those stories you hear about tech support, and the weird and funny situations people get themselves in?

They are not all that far off the mark.

On another note: Over three weeks now without caffeine, that stuff acts as a depressant with me and I'm finding I'm a much happier person for not touching the stuff. I've also cut down on sugar as well.

Soon I'll hopefully be able to look into getting another car, nothing flash, just a second hand dual fuel Ford Falcon, basically a newer model than what I'm currently driving.

Adios!

Friday on my mind...

2006-08-19T20:36:00.000+10:00

Friday's are interesting days. This one just gone however was more so. Being an inbound call centre means that the one system that is super mega hyper critical is the phone system, which is precisely the system that went down every half hour all day on friday.

So for most of the day it was quite busy, in between crashes.

The good part was finding out about a three percent pay rise.

*boogies*

It feels good to be alive...

2006-08-06T12:38:00.000+10:00

The last time I felt this good about myself was just after I'd been put on anti depressants, and had the artificial high that they induced. Now I'm feeling good for another reason, I've given away the coffee.

You wouldn't think it would make that much of a difference, but it does. I've gone a week without cafeine and my mood and energy levels have soared. It's hard to explain, but I get this deja vu feeling that puts me in mind of when I was younger. It's weird, but also good too.

It hasn't been without it's downsides, the almost constant headaches that come with kicking coffee are annoying, but given how much better I feel now, and the fact that the headaches will pass, I'm confident I'll see it through.

In other news, April and her new other half, Melody, stayed with us for four days this week. Melody is a canadian who has flown out here to be with April. So it was kinda a full house for a while there.

Also I have splashed out on a new laptop, nothing too flashy, but it will do the job for me. In the near future I will be off the probationary period at work, so it'll be about then I'll be talking to the bank about securing a small loan to get another car.

So lots of things happening at the moment, and most of it good.

THe only downside is they have not found a cause for dad's collapsing a few weeks ago, the heart monitor showed nothing unusual, so it's back to square one unfortunately.

Anyway that is all for now, ciao!

Finally!

2006-07-30T20:50:00.000+10:00

I finally sat down and read Forrest Mage. Another engrossing read I found, it's taken a while for me to be able to sit down long enough to be able to read it, but I made a point to sit down and read it all today.

Words of dubious wisdom...

2006-07-23T07:39:00.000+10:00

I used to have plenty of time to do nothing, now I find I have no time to do anything.

That is life, or more to the point, my life at the moment. After having a fall and knocking himself out cold a week ago, my father had a nother fall yesterday morning, although it was a softer landing this time. He does now have a black eye though, to go with the lump on his head.

It's actually stressing me a little at the moment, because it's upsetting to not know for sure if and when it will happen again. Especially seeing as I'm no longer here all the time anymore.

Still, on August 2 they are going to fit him with a 24 hour heart monitor, and he is seeing the doctor again tomorrow so hopefully they can get to the bottom of this quickly.

Enough of the maudlin for now, I am off to Melbourne today, a trip that was planned some time ago. So hopefully all will be well in my absence, and I shall endeavour to enjoy myself.

Oh and obviously dad being sick plus work equals haven't gotten to read Forrest Mage yet...

Ciao!

Not old, just older!

2006-07-06T09:38:00.000+10:00

Can you imagine working in the middle of a call centre, with balloons and streamers tied to your computer, and wearing a party hat?

One of the perils of working on your birthday I guess, but I arrived at work yesterday to get ready for my shift to find my desk comprehensively redecorated. I even got a dodgy rendition of happy birthday, and a cake with candles, but I'm wondering what it says about my age that they had that part outside for fear of setting off smoke alarms?

But anyway, with a sad farewell I part company from my twenties, and have now begun the journey into the great unknown of my thirties! I don't feel thirty though, in fact the day before yesterday I didn't feel 29 either.

I finally feel as though I'm getting on top of life, and not the other way around. Things are going well, I'm even hopefull that April's situation will improve soon.

Windows Free Zone

2006-06-18T14:43:00.000+10:00

My computer is now a Windows free zone. I guess I spend so much of my time now dealing with issues on windows that I'm all for not having to look at it when I get home.

So, four weeks on the job now, and I'm pretty happy with how things are going. I'm learning a lot, and my trouble shooting skills are being honed quite nicely. It seems that in the future we will be upskilled into handling DSL aswell, but for now it's nice a cruisy dialup support, not that this isn't a challenge.

As a team we are performing well, and the call stats back that up. I've improved my personal performance to the point where my number of calls taken is up, and the time per call is down.

And there's still more to come...

A good day

2006-06-14T21:32:00.000+10:00

I had a good day today. One of my calls was assessed to get an idea of call quality, and although it failed on a technicality it is valuable feedback that I can use to improve my performance.

Also today I took a personal best number of calls, with a reasonable average handle time.

And the thing that capped off my day was being complimented by a customer on my handling of their problem. I was the first point of call, I did all I could do, and they went to test their internet, it still had issues and they called back and got one of my team mates, who did further trouble shooting. It got back to a third person by which time both of our trouble shootings had left it as a simple fix.

Both my team mate and I were complimented by the customer to the third person who finalised the issue, for our manner and help.

THis job is rewarding to me because I'm in there always trying to help people, it's the best feeling to achieve a solution, and an unbeleivably rewarding experiance to know that the customer appreciated your efforts.

A good day!

Tales from the other side

2006-06-13T22:06:00.000+10:00

Users are scary. Seriously you wonder sometimes just how switched on some people are. I mean if you ring tech support, you'd assume that the person you talk to would be asking some questions about your computer, and that being in the same part of the house as the computer would be good?

Apparently this logic isn't quite so obvious as you'd suspect.

Sometimes you get a conversation like this:
User: But my phone is in this room
Tech: What do you use to connect the modem to the wall socket?
User: A phone cable.
Tech: So you could plug the phone into the end of that cable and ring from beside the computer?
User: Oh...

And you know when you've got one of these type of users within twenty seconds, and you concentrate very hard on the fact that it is your job to help this person to the extent possible.

It is an interesting experience, and one that forces you to learn a lot of things, patience among the formost of these lessons.

Life in Tech Support

2006-06-11T17:15:00.000+10:00

So tomorrow is a public holiday in most of australia, except WA because they cheated and had the Queens Birthday last weekend, and most people get a day off work. I don't though, and the strange thing is it doesn't bother me at all, I am enjoying going to work enough that working on a public holiday seems reasonable.

I love my job.

There are many things I need to work on, and much of what I'm lacking comes from experience, such as logging the faults into our system in an efficient manner. I'm already working on ways to make better use of my time and the resources available to me, such as trouble shooting information.

Already as a group we are collecting 'war stories', tales of woe and computer madness. As a team we try have a laugh and make the job a bit more fun, so as to stop insanity setting in.

So life is pretty good at the moment.

On the phones: Day 2

2006-06-07T21:26:00.000+10:00

Well two days on the phones and I'm still sane. Well as sane as I was prior to starting. I'm finding each day it's a little easier, and taking calls no longer makes me nervous. A lot of what I need to work on now is the technical stuff, and just using the systems more efficiently.

In AAPT we have the Customer Car World Cup, it's a staff thing, and our team had a penalty shoot out against another in the car park today, sadly we went down 3/2 in a first to three situation. It was a bit of fun, and it means 15 minutes off the phones.

Our official team for the World Cup is Sweden apparently, what Em and Ash make of that I have wondered.

Life's good, I'm enjoying what I'm doing, and learning all the time.

End of Training

2006-06-05T18:46:00.000+10:00

Today was my last day of official training, well formal training actually, because we get assistance on the job for the next few weeks. I actually took my first call from a customer today, and the feedback I got was that I had done a good job for my first time. So I am going into tomorrow with a bit more confidence now.

The weekend before last my father and trundled down to Melbourne to help move April, and yesterday I went down to Melbourne again to visit her and enjoy some R&R. I managed to score a copy of the V for Vendetta graphic novel from Minotaur.

So yeah, things are going well, my general mood and demeanor have improved out of sight since I started working and all in all things are looking up.

Day 3

2006-05-24T19:21:00.000+10:00

I'm starting to relax now. For the first few days it was hard to let myself be me, and I was reasonably quiet, but I'm starting to express my opinions and loosen up. Then new team has been thrown together with no-one else knowing each other, and in just three days we are coming together quite nicely. I'm also enjoying myself a bit more, some of the team building exercises are quite interesting.

I'm not coming home feeling trashed either, which I'd thought might be a problem because I've been out of work a while, but I'm all good. It helps no end that I'm enjoying what I'm doing and am with a good group of people.

Today we actually listened in on actual helpdesk calls, and it eased my mind a lot as to the nature of the work that I'll be undertaking. I at least now know what it is I'm facing, which is good.

It also makes a difference that yesterday we were issues security passes to the building, allowing us to get in without looking like we are trying to break into the building. Still no sign of photo ID though, they haven't even taken the photos yet.

It's going well.

Day One

2006-05-22T18:57:00.000+10:00

Day one today, and it went very well. The training wasn't real brain drain, being OH&S et al, but it was great to finally be there, after waiting for weeks to start. The team of people I'm with seems to be a great bunch too.

I think I'm going to like it there.

The training this week concentrates on the company and it's products, next week we get technical. After that there is a period of time where we are assigned a buddy, with whom we sit and watch and listen to calls coming in. So really the whole induction process is designed to ease us in quite nicely.

I am content.

Me-ish update

2006-05-20T20:01:00.000+10:00

Monday is my first day at the new job. I'm actually slightly nervous, the first few weeks are actually going to be ok though, paid training is always nice. It seems to have been a long time coming, in fact today it has been seventeen days since I was told I had the job. So I've had a bit of time to dwell on it all, too much time probably!

i've been trying to distract myself, dragging out old tapes of motor races that I've got lying around. Above all though I've started to relax and be myself again. After enough rejections anyone will get a bit down in the great job hunt, and to be honest although I'm nervous, I'm also feeling better about myself than I have for a while.

I'm so glad that the car runs on Auto Gas (LPG) instead of petrol, because it means I can commute from here to Bendigo with no great drama.

As good as things have been, the highway of life is seldom smooth, and my younger sister April is stressed to the max, she took a couple of days off mid week and came and spent a night here. There is a lot of frustration, because other than being supportive there is not much we can do to change the situation at the moment.

Life is a strange old business...

Dad

2006-05-05T19:17:00.000+10:00

Dad saw the doctor today after I collected the CT scan film from the hospital. There is nothing wrong with him other than stress. When I stop and think about it makes sense, his brother was operated on today for cancer, and another one of his brother's wife has been diagnosed with breast cancer. All that on top of Uncle Geoff who has battled cancer since 1989 and you get the picture.

A lot going on, although he seems more cheerful now, especially since we got the good news about the job I got.

The CT scan was a precaution, but it shook us all up at the time. I'm glad things will be ok, because for a while I feared the worst.

The story so far...

2006-05-04T16:21:00.000+10:00

Well, just over a day later and the whole job thing is still sinking in. I guess you get knocked back so many times you begin to lose hope that someone wants to employ you. It gets to you after a while and recently my feelings of self worth had taken a hammering.

Last week I came out of the interview feeling like I'd probably blown it. The first part was a group exercise, solving a mythical problem, it was about what you did but how you did it, and as luck would have it I found myself in a group of guys who worked together well as a team, and I had the confidence to speak my mind.

After that you had to sell yourself so to speak to the other group members, both these tasks were watched and evaluated by managerial types. A 17 question technical test and aa typinf speed evaluation ( 31.3 wpm 95.8% accuracy) later and it was off to an individual interview and role play. This last part was where I felt I'd blown it. I left the building feelign somewhat deflated, but as is my wont it seems I sold myself short.

We were told at the time that we'd be contacted early in the next week, so by wednesday afternoon I was both antsy and resigned to my fate.

At 2:20pm while sitting in the car waiting for dad my phone goes off, and it's the HR lady telling me I'd been successful.

Next tuesday I pick up my contract and read it over night and drop it back signed the following day. I start on the 22nd of May with just over two weeks of training. The contract is for a nine month stint as the tech support in Bendigo is something of a trial, with a group having been set up earlier in the year.

For my first 12 weeks of actual tech support I will be rostered on between 12 noon and 8pm. Not bad hours really as it gives time in the morning to get anything sorted and I'm not back too late.

Ups and downs

2006-05-03T18:33:00.000+10:00

It has been an interesting day, to say the least. My father is sick, and had a CAT scan today. While I was sitting in the car waiting for him to get out of the hospital I received a phone call from the company with whom I'd had an interview last week.

The upshot is that as of the 22nd of May I'll have a full time job, as telephone tech support for an ISP.

Now if only dad was well again, all would be peachy.

Good Friday

2006-04-14T18:21:00.000+10:00

I'm not sure whether it gets much coverage in other states but Good Friday marks the annual appeal for funds for the Royal Children's Hospital in Victoria. It is a tradition that has carried on for 75 years now I beleive, and is run in the form of a telethon. Each year the appeal raises millions of dollars for the RCH to continue on it's good work, and I know the work they do in there having been a patient there when I was thirteen for surgery to repair a neck muscle that was over tight and starting to pull my head to one side.

Also when he was a baby my father spent eleven months in the RCH with a fractured skull, so the family has a huge soft spot for the place.

I just like the fact that each year the appeal brings out the best in people, that people care. It's easy in this day and age to become burdened with cynacism, but sometimes people will do what's right, and help those in need.

Introducing Tiger...

2006-04-12T11:08:00.000+10:00

This is Tiger, age three months, not six that the RSPCA told us. We collected him yesterday after he had been desexed and microchipped. He is actually a very friendly and sedate kitten, which on the whole is a very good thing.

He was actually picked up as a stray at two months of age and had spent a month at the RSPCA. They can only keep animals so long there before they are put down, so we are happy to have spared one a death sentence.

Our dog has gotten used to him immediately, and our other cat is avoiding him as much as possible, we think she'll get used to Tiger though, because he seems a much less energetic cat than Charlie was.

So far so good...

Tiger

2006-04-10T15:41:00.000+10:00

Tomorrow afternoon we shall be collecting Tiger from the vet's. Tiger is a six month old male kitten, whom we chose at the RSPCA yesterday. The reason for the vet is that the RSPCA desexes the animals you adopt from them, and also he will be microchipped for identificatiobn purposes.

It's pretty much always been the way with us, that we get a new pet after one has died. So although some may think it's odd for us to go out and get another one so soon, it's just the way we do things, and it helps our other animals by distracting them from the missing cat in the family.

Charlie

2006-04-08T17:28:00.000+10:00

It's funny how pets become part of your family. The short span they have means that you will mourn many times over. Sometimes they are blessed with a long life and pass peacefully, but Charlie was too adventurous for his own good.

Yesterday at some stage it looks like he tried chasing something across the highway, and was hit by a car. We're all pretty upset about it right now, we've only just found out.

Oops!

2006-04-05T16:30:00.000+10:00

I managed to stuff up the settings for my blog making it so that no-one could comment. I wouldn't have even realised if not for Rian's comment on my geek blog.

Sorry folks!

Balancing act

2006-04-03T10:45:00.000+10:00

External factors, they wreak havoc on my mood and emotional wellbeing. It is a problem I have, that I get too caught up in other people's problems, and end up creating some of my own. Some times you have to accept that you can't change a situation, and it is sometimes pointless to stress about it, but it don't work that way for me.

I don't even know where to begin to fix it. I wish I could find some balance within myself, so that I am protected against the buffeting of external factors that tend to chew me up.

I also have something of guilt complex going on, because I battled with dpression last year, I feel as though not being happy means that I've let the side down, so to speak, so I don't feel like talking about things. I bottle it up and try pretent I'm not feeling as bad as I am, because to admitt that all is not well feel to me like I've failed.

So I have taken my laconic tendancies to extremes lately, shutting myself off and trying to hide from the world at large.

It isn't working, it never does, and I guess somehow it's time to try find some answers, to learn how to cope better, and to be happier in myself.

Perlious waters

2006-03-06T12:56:00.000+11:00

This post is going to be about me. No I'm not on an ego trip, at least not today.

I am often not in the mood to be eloquent, often stressed and frustrated. I tend to write things here not really thinking whether people want to be reading about that. It's me, it's the way I am, I need an outlet sometimes for what's bubbling inside me, because if I'm at the point where I'm willing to put all this stuff down, it means it's crunch time.

I wonder though if people know how to deal with some of the stuff I write about, because people feel that they don't know what to say so often. It doesn't matter what you say, or even that you say anything really, because the whole point is that I'm the one who needs to say things, and saying them makes me feel better imediately.

Therein lies the purpose of this blog, for me to say things, things I otherwise would bottle up. In the end, that's what I need more than anything.