I feel dirty

because I tried out the self service checkout at Woolworths. It feels weird having to do the work your self, like the scanning thing. Its just wrong. Is it quicker? Yes and No. Its not quicker doing the scanning, weighing and packing your self. I am slow at that. Just knowing the system etc will take time and the receipt takes an eternity to print. I thought I did it wrong. But it was just slow. The quick part is that on one uses it, so you can just hop straight on. Its very similar to checking books out at the uni library using the self check out checkouts. I think if you had just one item and paying with cash it would be extremely quick. Kinda like a giant vending machine that you have to enter the machine to retrieve the goods your self.

Would I use it again, only if there was a large line at the express checkout and I had only a few items. I do not think its worth doing it if you had a trolley load of goods as using the scanner is tricky for people who have never worked retail.

Supreme Commander

Sleep is definatly something that you need. I have been cutting back on sleep try and get through some extra work. This does not work. As you are tired all the time and end up sleeping with your eyes open. Even zombies have more drive than I do, they want to eat brains. Not that I have been using my brain that heavily, probably just the amount of work/information that requires processing is getting to me, then you start making lists to keep track of other lists... very annoying. On the plus side my copy of Supreme Commander has finnaly arrived. It is teh awezome. You can zoom out to view the whole map and zoom right into the heat of the battle. Strategicly it is better than TA as there is more emphasis on unit combinations. But you can still do a AoE style campaign where you spend 3 hours building up a massive army then send it in and hope for the best. Then if that doesn't work, do it again. The missions are quite long, so this patient technique isnt all bad. Especialy if you miss calculate how much resources you need. That can really put the brakes on the speed at which you can finish off the mission. So trying to get too far ahead will cause problems.

Tax 2008

Another year and another tax return. Atleast for most people...

E-Tax 2008

The new etax is quite awesome and will eventualy put me out of a job. If you can hold off till about August you will be able to use the pre-filling report generated by the ATO. What is pre-filling report? Its the cheat most Tax agents have been using for the past few years to tell if you have been lying about how much interest you earnt. Basicly all information that has your TFN on, eg Interest, dividends, managed funds, private health insurance, government payments and even PAYG payment summaries can now be downloaded and automaticly put into your tax return.

I also recomend you don't download it today or even this week as its been extreamly slow and has been timing out...

Or you could just go see your friendly accountant and they can download the information for you (for a small fee).

Disclaimer: Fee may not be small and may involve sexual favours to repay debt.