Christmas Shopping

Yesterday I tried to get my Christmas shopping out of the way. Apparently some shops are not open for business, this is extremely annoying and a waste of my time to go and buy 3 packs of red bull for $24.00.

This leave me with quite a predicament in getting everything on the last day, there is also tomorrow. But need to get as much stuff today as possible. The shops are open till midnight so should be interesting.

There is also the issue of work presents, not sure what is happening with that. Normally we pool our money together to get the bosses something, this year nothing organised. I will have to find out what is happening with that. Don’t want to have to buy individual presents. As that would add to the enormity of shopping required this evening.

Its often difficult to work out what to buy, I am going to make up a backup list. A list of generic products that people like no matter what.

1. DVD

Another thing that is shitting me off is the crunchy nut bars. I thought because it would be a bar of crunchy nut. But in fact the only crunch comes from the copious amounts of peanuts. Where are my corn flakes covered in honey? Just like the cereal it is branded after… Anyway, they are still quite tasty, but probably not very healthy.

Well I have decided to get my mum a new phone as hers is broken. My sister will get some DVD along with everyone else.

I have had to organise work related gift giving as the other senior personal responsible for fun in the office have since left. Maybe I should have been more proactive on other occasions as well, but I feel too shy to do so. Even organising this made me quite nervous, not quite sure why.

Guest Blog Post on Honesty Hurts

The Australian government has recently set up a blog. Which has created a small amount of hype. The first comments to be posted related to the proposed ISP filter, regardless of the fact that that post was about how 'cool' the government was in starting a blog. Everyday children in some non-descript country setup blogs with more interesting and thoughtful posts.

Honesty Hurts

Public Service Announcement

One of the bad things about summer is the prevalence of chafe. Excessive movement or just standing around can bring on this annoying condition. The risk factors are high and unimportant. Which is why I would like to warn the World of this potentially life threatening condition. Do not move, do not stand around. You may think its great weather to go for a bike ride and do some exercise.

DON’T!

However, despite my repeated warnings you decide to just stand around and do nothing, and get chafe. Do not give up hope, fight the good fight, make your last moments hell for the commies. Pull a pin and wait for them to come closer…. In other news, its not my birthday, if we are friends on facebook, and have received notification of my birthday please send me lots of gifts and/or money.

On this day
1931 – The British Parliament enacted the Statute of Westminster, giving the option of complete legislative independence to the Irish Free State, Newfoundland, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.

You have been warned.

Double Sided

Most people feel that printing double sided will save paper, and most times it does. Sometimes the printer gets jammed and your 300 pages are lost in a sea of non papers, which you are too lazy to put back together in order so you just re print it single sided. No jams. Just plain old simple printing.

The only real benefit to come out of double sided printing is the smaller storage area required for all this paperwork. And the number of different versions of the same thing that I work with it is counterproductive to have double sided as you don’t want to be flicking through so much paperwork.

Empty Desktop

I have got rid of most icons from the desktop. Current icons are:

• My Computer
• Recycle Bin
• My Documents
• My Network Places

Two of which I could get rid of (Recycle bin, Network Places. I used to have every icon imaginable, all stacked up in different categories. But I am seeing benefits in having a clean desktop. I got the idea from having a clean desk. After I finish an audit I clear my desk of everything and start the next thing. This serves many purposes, but mainly that I start fresh with no shit left over from the last job. It just makes sense. Anything you are working on currently goes on the desktop, then you file it away later. When you start something new, you can't start until the desk/top is clean. Give it a try, its like having a shower, only less water. Also get rid of all those postit notes on the screen. Its just plain annoying, its just a reminder of shit you are and how you are unable to complete tasks. You don't need that. Put them on a piece of paper and in a to-do box. Process this box daily. Simplify. Less is more.

T-Shirt Win

Darwin was right about everything.

Vote for it, then you can buy it. Made by Karl.

It rained. Hard.

Why doesn't it rain already.

Not Dead Yet

The object stuck in my throat has not killed me yet. Which is a good because I don't like death. Especialy when playing supreme commander. In this one mission you have to capture these nodes. The catch is you can't attack the main base, stupidly I placed a long range artilley in my sub-base just out side their base and it took out their base. Its nice to know the weapon works. But not after 3 hours of gaming... Even my left elbow hurts.

My project to fill up my camera with pictures looks set to fail, because I am unable to take pictures all the time. I have about 100 pictures so far and apparently 2500 pictures to go...

Death by Katsudon

I think I have something stuck in my throat. Possibly something that could kill me. At least thats what it feels like. I blame my self for going to some dodgy place in the valley for lunch. After eating, I could feel something was stuck. I don't know what it is. Could be chicken bone, plastic, foil, glass, metal.... So many bad things. Scary bad. Although the pain is gone, the object seems to still be in there. I have tried cargling, eating food with different textures. Since its not going down, I might just try throwing up to see if it will come out. Although I will go to the doctor before having to do anything as horrid as that. Not sure if an x-ray would pick up something small.

Recently I got shaped, but with 2 weeks remaining till I get back to full speed.... its a strugle...

So I figured I would do something unpreductive since most media rich site are out of the question. FaceSpace. I'm sure there are more HB's that want me but I can't be bothered replying... Actually I just want the spam to go away... Alas, I was unable to start FaceSpace because of my shape. Which is disapointing as I am feeling creative. Basicly if you have dial-up you are unable to use facespace. The 'freedom' you thought you had no longer exists.

Which is why Australia needs a bill of rights. To stop internet shaping to the extent basic social websites such as face space work. I'm not talking about streaming HD webcams of womens taking their clothes off. Just good old fashioned stalking healthy human interaction. Freedom to express.

Bill of Rights +1

Two New Thoughts

Persistance Hunting

Persistence hunting is a type of hunting where the predator uses a combination of running and tracking to pursue the prey to exhaustion. Nowadays it is very rare among humans hunting animals, but it is seen in a few Kalahari bushmen and the Tarahumara or Raramuri people of Northern Mexico. It has been thought to be one of the earliest forms of human hunting.
Persistence hunting requires endurance running - running many miles for extended periods of time. Among primates endurance running is only seen in humans and is thought to have evolved 2 million years ago.

Systems Thinking

Systems thinking is a unique approach to problem solving in that it views certain "problems" as parts of an overall system, rather than focusing on individual outcomes and contributing to further development of the undesired element or problem. ^[1] Systems thinking is a framework that is based on the belief that the component parts of a system can best be understood in the context of relationships with each other and with other systems, rather than in isolation. The only way to fully understand why a problem or element occurs and persists is to understand the part in relation to the whole.^[2] Standing in contrast to Descartes's scientific reductionism and philosophical analysis, it proposes to view systems in a holistic manner. Consistent with systems philosophy, systems thinking concerns an understanding of a system by examining the linkages and interactions between the elements that compose the entirety of the system.
Systems thinking attempts to illustrate that events are separated by distance and time and that small catalytic events can cause large changes in complex systems. Acknowledging that an improvement in one area of a system can adversely affect another area of the system, it promotes organizational communication at all levels in order to avoid the silo effect. Systems thinking techniques may be used to study any kind of system — natural, scientific, engineered, human, or conceptual.

I want my 4 cents back

The deal is you shop at Woolworths, get a 4 cent per litre off petrol voucher. This should save you money. How much money? Is it even worth it in the end? After spending 30 mins waiting to fill up my car, I saved 75 cents. Lets say I do this for the whole year. Thats a total 'saving' of $39 Even if I round up the saving to $1 (25 liters) Its still only $50.

Time, like petrol and money is also a precious and finite resource. Which is why I will bring it into the equation. By going to the exclusive petrol stations where you can redeem these vouchers you are going to waste time in queing, becuase everyone goes there, especial on Tuesday. Which also happens to be the cheapest day of the week to buy petrol. So you sit in a queue for 30 mins a week for year or 26 hours a year. This is probably an over estimation of time, so if we cut wait time to 75% we get 22.5 hours. To equate that into earning potential, $2.22/hour.

USA+IFRS=Win

Washington, D.C., Aug. 27, 2008 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today voted to publish for public comment a proposed Roadmap that could lead to the use of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) by U.S. issuers beginning in 2014. Currently, U.S. issuers use U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (U.S. GAAP). The Commission would make a decision in 2011 on whether adoption of IFRS is in the public interest and would benefit investors. The proposed multi-year plan sets out several milestones that, if achieved, could lead to the use of IFRS by U.S. issuers in their filings with the Commission.

Photo Quest

A few months ago I purchased a 4 gig card for my camera. But so far have not been able to fill it up, it would also be fun to see how many pictures it can hold. It does tell you roughly how many shots you have left, 1408. But it seems to be perpetualy on that number regardless of the number of pictures I take. So for the month of September I will take pictures untill the card fills up. Why? Because I can. I also hope to improve my photo taking ability, because recently they have been pretty poor.

Planning: Taking over 1000 pictures will be hard. 1500 pictures over 30 days is 50 pictures a day, 4 pictures an hour (based on 12 hour day), 1 picture every 15 minuites. It will probably turn out to be a slow time lapse of my desk... which would be boring.

The Perfect Girlfriend?

No Job? Never Call? Hate cats and/or dogs? YOU could be next! - 27 (23462)

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Reply to: pers-804339783@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-08-19, 10:11PM EDT

Well, since I seem to have a very specific type, I'll just lay it out there.

I'm apparently really into the shiftless layabouts. If you are unemployed, unmotivated and possibly still live with your parents... you could be next in my long line of failed relationships! Just think of it... an educated woman to show you how things work (hey, I'm even handy around the house - you won't have to raise a finger!). A woman with drive, ambition and goals to contrast your utter lack of motivation. A girl with a thick skin who can roll with the punches and both dish out AND take jokes... I'll be happy to be the one who doesn't sugar-coat things so that you can blame ME for all of your hurt feelings and failures. It's probably even ALREADY my fault and you haven't even emailed me!

I am completely co-depedant, so you don't have to worry about me booting you to the curb over petty things (like finances, commitment or general civility). In fact, you could probably take my cash, sleep with another girl and then come over and break some things in my house and I'd just clean it up and continue along our path of destruction.

So if you're looking for a lady to use and abuse, I'm your girl! I have a house, a car, a life, friends, pets and my shit together. Please, I need some sort of zeitgeist in my life to screw all of this up! It's been way too long since I've been reminded of how awesome it is to be undervalued.

I'm over on minutes this month, otherwise I'd put my phone number up for you to call right away (either from your parents' landline or collect, from jail). So just email me and maybe we can work something out. Pick you up? Well, yeah, if you need me to! Williamsburg? No problem. It's only about an hour's drive. I don't mind one bit, I've got nothing but time!

• Location: 23462
• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

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.

It said 2 cups

Today I attempted to make pasta bake. Mostly it turned out ok. Its edible, which is the main thing. The timing was a little wrong so I have giant overcooked pasta that eventually dried out and tough mince meat. It was also overcooked.

Thankfully the cheese did not burn. Mainly because of the large quantity of cheese. Most things taste better with cheese. Even cheese is improved by the quantity and number cheeses used. However, I believe I have found the limit of what cheese can do and that there can be too much a good thing. For example when you stick you fork into the 'food' you expect some meat, cheese pasta and all you get is cheese.

Not only do I feel sick, but I may have destroyed my love of cheese. This is a sad day. I will attempt to eat a sandwich tomorrow without cheese. Hopefully I will not perish in the great cheese fast of 2008.

Two Monitors

I have gotten to the point where I think I need 2 monitors. Tabbing has its limits. I know I can use some kind of multi desktop widget. But thats just the same as tabbing. You want to be able to see 2 different things. Atleast work on 2 different things. Say you are playing a game, but also want to burn some CD's or get some actual work done. You can do both without tabbing. Just to have email, IM and various other reference type material on one screen whilst you do your main work on the other. Even a small screen with some info on it would be advantageous.

The remaining question is of monitor size. Its ideal to have 2 exactly the same. But to save funds could have 2 different sized monitors. I have an idea to turn my current monitor on its side to get more 'lines' as I don't need the width for reading. Text is ideally not too wide, so having it verticaly mounted would be awesome. It would look weird. But awesome.

Maybe I just need a bigger monitor, then just resize windows accordingly.

Random Annoying Shit

Some fuckwit has decided to take my $4000 tipi painting from my office and replace it with a "Jewel of the Sea" Whale poster in a frame. I also belive this same fuckwit has taken my parking spot. Which means I have to walk an extra 15 meters to get to work. This is extreamly annoying. The parking spot I can deal with, but not the tipi painting. It atleast made the office interesting. Whale posters are shit. Who would think this is an improvement is an idiot. WHALE POSTERS ARE TACKY. Maybe they are just jelous of my space.

After my trip to the art galley to see Picaso, I feel I need actual paintings/art rather than posters full of subliminal messages.

Maybe they are after a reaction, so I will reciprocate by changing their office around when they are not in.

Day 3

So its been 3 days of having to look after myself. No wonder I still live at home. Its not difficult, but doing things like using the washing machine for the first time can be a challenge. Also organising the best time to put clothes on the line is a pain. I put stuff out on Saturday and they are still wet. Also I have not killed my sister yet and she has not killed me yet. Not sure how long that can go on. All I can say is I enjoy being alive.

Is it a truck, is it a helicopter, is it a spaceshuttle?

The Cat Made Me Do It

The cat has just made me tidy up my bedroom. So the cat is sitting there but looks at the unmade bad. Assuming it wants to sit on the bed, I straighten it out. The cat then moves over to its spot near the window, but there is a pile of used clothes. The go in the wash basket. It then moves to the middle of the room and looks around. I continue my morning clean up by closing the draws and cupboards. Mission accomplished. The cat rolls onto its back and starts licking its butt. I open the curtains to let in the day. The cat walks out to the landing and plops it self in the sunlight coming through the other window.

Chicken Zombie Movie

4 day weekend

4 days of mayhem, mishap, masochism, margaritas, mornings, melted ice cream and maps. Live blogging for the next 4 days because I have nothing better to do then blog. So what better way to start the holidays by getting those creative juices flowing with pornography.

I watched sex and the city once, it was scary. It was so scary I could not sleep. I do not recommend this show to anyone. It's probably because I am a man and don't understand womens 'feelings' which just means "how can I be a man but still hold the moral high ground and look pretty". Another reason not to watch the show is because of the above photos. Initially you may think, "she's ok for an old chick. I'd hit it." [while watching the show] But after viewing the above photos you find out she has a biverwack instead of a beaver and that ruins everything.

To bring the sexy back you can use this fucking cool FUCKING AWESOME Firefox plug in. Its takes the pictures displayed on the browser and turns them into a 3D interactive wall of awesome. Team this with porn and enjoy. I have been using it with a flickr RSS and its a lot of fun. It would be nice to have the tilt scroll on my mouse work with it as well. The other cool thing is that this plug in is also available for IE and safari, so there is no excuse not to be using it.

Sickly Feeling

Being sick is not a nice feeling. Specifically coughing, blocked nose, runny nose, tired, headache etc. Its like your body handing over the task of running your immune system to your self. If you are an immunologist than I guess thats great career move. For accountants you have 2 options suffer in your office for 2 weeks whilst someone plays with the air conditioner, or you can take the 4 days off that you need to recover.

I did half of each. I thought I was on the mend so went to work. Mistake. The result was not a lot of work done, and I was worse for it the next day. So until I am fully well. I am not going back to work.

One of the problems of not working is that clients get upset. They want it done and they want it done now. Often inconsiderate to the fact that I am unable to do anything apart from not chocking on my own bodily fluids.

Being sick is boring. You are limited in what you can do physically and its not exactly a holiday. I have also found that even though you think you want to do something. Like untangle a power cord, which you never did before, you are certainly not going to do it while you are sick. But the mind still wants you to do some thing. Probably because you are having to spend the whole day looking at this tangled power cord and its annoying.

I have been eating soup for basically every meal. Even breakfast. I do not want to eat soup, but then what else would be good to eat. Nothing. Soup is the best. Maybe I need to make my own soup rather than the soup in a can. They all tend to taste the same, despite the label clearly stating its a different flavour. Even if they are a different colour they all taste the same. Tomorrow I will be making soup out of things I find in the fridge. Probably lettuce, tomato, carrot, cucumber, cheese, bacon and hopefully other tasty things like oranges and grapes.

I Broke Gmail

I think I may have broken Gmail as it now shows I have 6gigs of space... Maybe it has changed but I have not been able to find any information on this. And its not 'shoped' as I have clearly used paintbrush. The counter is probably just broken, or maybe they have doubled the amount of space advertised. Like anyone has that many emails.

Johnny Lee is a Genius

Basicly turns a TV into a 3D window with a wiimote. Also of awesomeness is the wiimote touchscreen. Someone give this guy loads of money so he can make cool shit like this. PLEASE!

For the Love of Super

CPA has decided to get with the times and make a video about super that will apeal to young folk (now that I am over it I have the right to say 'young folk').

My long term financial stratagy is essentialy just investing in super. I probably don't contribute enough extra but I do what I can afford. I would also like to have some kind of medium term strategy, but since I can't find the time to do the research or stop buying things, its taking a lot longer than expected.

I have also noticed that my own risk adversity tends to go up in a volatile market. After hearing a lot of people complain about their own investments it seems that people have not thought through what their real risk adversity is. There also seems to be no plan, unless you call panic a plan. Assessing your risk/what you would do in a volatile market or a bear market would help in your overall stratergy. Risk adversity can change. In a bear market you would want to loose the least. While in a bull market you may be more optemistic and invest in something more risky because even though it may fail, you feel it more likely to recover those losses. In a volatile market when something fails, it might be catastropic failure. Also losses will be much harder to recover over the short term.

Count Your Chickens

I am now awake to a brave new world. There are a lot of things that could have contributed to this but, its really just because I have increased my dosage intake of coke zero. For a while there I wouldn't even need to drink any. I just wouldn't have any for days... But since getting back on the bandwagon life is good again.

My challange is going ok, maybe not as quick as I would like, but its progressing. Being prepared seems to be the most effective thing I can do. Its like preparing for an exam, where you get to drink beer, feel like crap and not actually write anything. So, its nothing like an exam apart from the fact you forget everything you were supposed to remember... Portals have been opened to deal with this problem.

Edit: I also pay my bills before they come in the mail. My mum is confused.

My 80 Cents

Recently I bought a laser printer, it was cheap, and now I can print cheaply. Or am I being ripped off in the long run? The Printer cost $88. We have these printers at work and since a whole bunch blew up, we bought new ones. I wondered how much the tonner costs. Because of how cheap the unit was to initialy purchase they are easily disposed of if u get a problem. For example a new drum is $150. And tonner, well its actually $75. So for an extra $13 you could get a whole new printer. Why even bother having a flap to replace the tonner cartidge? Just get a whole new printer. The only difference is its more convenient to interms of having to dispose of rubbish. The tonner box is smaller. The other thing about this printer, is its lack of extras. Other printers I have purchased have come with paper, special photo paper, 20% cartridge vouchers, free online photo printing and a usb cable. There was no USB cable in the box. Which is very weak. I doubt it costs much to manufacture a USB cable. But it still costs $15 odd to get one. Why? They should be giving this away, its a piece of wire with conectors on each end. If they can make an entire laser printer for less than $88 surely the cable can't be more than 80 cents.

Public Warning

My computer is fixed. Wasn't that hard changing the power supply. So all is good. It has reiterated the fact that I need to get a new computer before anything else breaks on this.

My week has been very up and down. A few people died. My computer died. I found a dead moth on my desk. Lots of death. I am also making slow progress in the challenge, which has been both good and bad. Good when I do it successfully and bad when I bail. So far I have had 10 days of progress which I should not complain about. But I can't help but feel a little tired. It just seems to be taking a little out of me every time. I also hate going to the shops, I never liked it and still don't but for the challenge its essential. Although I am completing the missions, I need to be trying a little more in terms of my time commitment to the challenge. Theoretically I study the material, but for field trips I am a bit weak as I am trying to do the challenges during my lunch break. Today I did we had to approach 4 women and compliment them on their appearance. I got 3:

1. My mum started going to the gym today and I told her she looks slimmer already (convenient and easy)
2. women with boots in street. "Wow, nice boots" (yes, she also had nice boobs). This was probably the most difficult one. But I did it quickly without thinking about how I would do it and just remembered about my posture and to speak clearly and the rest took care of it self. Afterwards you could see me speed walk to my car, not sure what it was. Post approach anxiety or adrenaline. "um, thanks"
   
3. Women at counter with tight hair. (retail is getting easier)

Its good that I just do the exercise and just push through it, because at this stage I am looking not for anything, just testing out what I can do and seeing what responses I get. But I also feel that I should be trying to put together the previous days learnings.

Logically though its just situational. Today I had to make my own dinner and install a power supply into the computer, and its now 7:30. So realistically I don't have much time to go to the shops anyway. Getting to the shops is a 30 min exercise and you don't want to be there near closing time as everyone including the workers are in a rush. So even though I had planned to actually do some of the challange today its just not practical. I also don't feel like it, and from the first 6 days its evident that my mental state is more important.

Achivements of 2007

• Survive my first year in full time employment
• Pass my CPA exam (DISTINCTION!)
• Put on 6kg
• Start playing Badminton
• Bought my first car
• Took up a coke zero habit
  
• Paint the study room
• Did not have any new fillings
• Saw Daft Punk live
• Took up the stylelife challenge
• Shaved my mo