I require a bookshelf as evidenced by the piles of bound paper on my floor. I was going to get something from ikea but my love of floor to ceiling bookshelves is strong. I still may go to Ikea, but I am also going to price up a home made version.

The design of the billy bookcase is not that hard to imagine, Whilst doing the design I also thought about how I would actually put it together. They normally use dowel bits and some screws. Again pretty easy. However, I have discovered it might be difficult to drill the holes in the shelves whilst also keeping it straight. I could use angle thingys but that would be crap. Going to check out bunnings tomorrow for actual wood prices.

No Money for a week

After a debate with my work colleagues about how I spend too much money on lunch, I decided to create a little experiment/challenge for myself. I will not spend any money from my bank account for one week. Basically I cannot access my bank account for one week.

I lasted to Thursday, when I needed to buy more beer, being lazy I just bought a carton, instead of maximizing what cash I had left and just buy a 6 pack or similar. I failed.

But I think given another go I could actually do it. It has also come to my attention I have a lot of automatic transfer from my account, mostly to other high interest savings accounts. I am going to try and not be lazy with my money and try and save more frequently. The change experiment should have highlighted that, but I never really went through with it at the completion of the experiment.

Speech recognition


Hello world.
This is rather cool, but also it sounds dorky to do this.
I wonder how fast I can talk, before he gets frustrated.  Well it is actually quite good.
I could get used to this.
I am thinking of buying new shoes.nt


Is this the end of the page.  Yes!
Is it wasn’t I think I do not know.  I do not have the force at work.  But this could be interesting if you can work that are clearly should not stop the reaction stop talking ledger report yes.  One that does not make any sense.  Originality there must leave them on.
I am going to bed.  Good night.

Soup for one

  by beancounting
, a photo by beancounting on Flickr.

I have the flu, so I drink soup, only packet soup is crap. So i made my own.

Its a simple recipe I made up using common sense.

Ingredients
1 carrot
2 small potato
1 chilli
half celery stick
sweet corn (left overs)
shallots (left overs)
half onion
garlic
Stock pot - the new ones :-p

Directions
1. Dice
2. Saute onion, garlic and chilli
3. Water (1 kettle (1.5L))
4. Ingredients
5. Stock pot
6. ???????
7. Profit

Things I would do differently
No chilli, the chilli floats to the top and is dangerous, use paprika instead
More potato, the potato goes MIA but that could be the type of potato
More celery just use the whole stick
Don't get the stock pot, just get oxo cubes or similar like I was supposed to.
Some fresh herbs would not go astray.

It tastes nice, clean, clear and simple no unnecessary sugars, should keep until I recover.

Cost
All ingrediants except the celery ($1.50) and stock pots ($3.50) were already in the fridge so basically free.

Computer upgrades

So I'm sitting here doing a bit of window shopping as is my normal routine when sick. First I started out by looking at a complete overhaul, i5 to i7 and a a new GPU etc. Thankfully I realised that is a stupid idea and I could spend some money else where, eg SSD or UPS which are two things I really want (apart from an iPad). The problem with the SSD is the small capacity and the fact it gives me a headache thinking about how to install all the programs and games etc on two separate hdd, which is the suck.

So now I am onto UPS, which is making more sense as I read into it. Basically everyone needs one.

Calculate how much power you need

PC 750
Monitor 100
Modem 10
Router 10
External HDD 20
Total 890
+20% = 1068

These figures are quite rough as I guessed. So for my computer I am going to need something quite powerful. For the HTPC I have worked out it is drawing about 230w, but I'm pretty sure I put a 650w PSU in it. In any case I just need it to last maybe 5 mins while I switch the power back on in the box.

i have teh flu

I'm sick and bored. This is my third day off work which should be cause for a spontaneous celebration. Currently drinking weak ribena with warm water.

Boredom is not always good, as it can lead to various forms of fire or stop start lego annimations.

Describe a recent A'ah! moment

This morning I discovered that it may in fact be beneficial to wake up earlier in the day. This is not a new idea/thought. Just something that has required a significant amount of convincing, a few/most of the people I work with get up early. But not normal early, but when its still dark early. For me, its the opposite, if I get to bed before the sunrises, I consider that an early night.

Alarm Clock Postmortem

The alarm clock has been off for a week or so. Has my world of order and timeliness crumbled. Yes. But also no.

Despite the fact I have no external alarm clock other than my sleepy self, I have managed to get to work on time. I just don't mean on time I mean early to work. Proof of this was found on Sunday morning, I stayed up till 4am watching India complete its victory, then proceeded to catch the ferry to straddie at 7:55am.

This is more the cold turkey approach, rather than going to bed early, I go to bed when I am tied. Which is around 11:00. Then I reach conciousness around 5:30 but don't actually get out of bed till 6:30 on account of my laziness.

Which brings me to a conclusion which does not fit any of the hypotheses. If you want to get up early you have to get out of bed. The body/mind is capable of getting you to the point where you should be out of bed (the same is true of an alarm clock), but you still have to actually get out of bed. For me this has/is the hardest part of the exercise. I will happily lye in my bed for a good hour, being frustrated, then get up and do something productive, potentially easing those frustrations.

LinkedIN

I recently signed up for LinkedIn, which is a type of professional facebook. One interesting thing is that it is a subscription based model. There is advertising, and there are probably people trying to sell their wares on the forums or direct to people. But the cost of the subscription is not small. $20 per month.... I can get hardcore pornography for less than that. Extra things you get if you pay are things like being able to save profiles, view extended information. Which should realistically be included if they don't want a similar site to start up and taking all their users (say even facebook itself).

I have signed up to a few CPA/accounting forums and I even scored a contact which makes me feel less of a loner.

The Final...

Thank fully India made it through to the final. I stayed up till 3am listening to the radio, so would have been a significant loss if, they, lost...

I did try to goto sleep and figure I can get the result in the morning, but that wasn't going to happen as I need to know what was going on.

(tenth post of the year)

Alarm Clock

We had a power failure about a week ago and consequently my alarm clock needed to be set to the correct time. The clock it self does have a 9v battery as a backup, but never seems to provide any sort of backup to the clock in the event of such a power failure. The power failure we are talking about is about 1-2 minutes. The time it takes me to reset the safety switch after overloading the circuit with my dodgy electrical work.

Since that time, my clock has been flashing away at the incorrect time, however I have still managed to get up on time and since I have a wrist watch, its not my primary time keeper. The proposed idea is if I can go without my alarm clock.

The Bad
  • Get up late
  • Late for work
  • not knowing what time it is in the middle of the night
  • no morning music/news
The Good
  • Personal responsibility to get up/have enough rest
  • training my self to getup at a certain time
  • freedom from the constraint of arbitrary time measurement
  • less light interference
  • less electromagnetic interference
  • less electricity expense
  • less clutter on my desk
I am going to unplug my alarm clock tonight and will hopefuly have something positive to report back on this experience.

Who Deserves More Credit

Name someone who deserves more credit than they get. And for bonus points, how to change things so they get more.

I sat for 5 minutes thinking of people I know that would need more credit. I drew a blank, then thought about my selft.... Maybe I need more credit. Alas I could not think of a single reason why even I should receive more credit despite my work with the poor and pursuits in science (sarcasm).

The Lazy Blogger Returns

I promised a post a day in 2011 and I failed withing 6 days. I had some good momentum, but that probably wasn't enough.

So, I'm going to try again and without trying to sound too over ambitious I will finish this year with 365 posts. I thought about backdating them all, but that would be cheating.

Talk or Text

Texting vs Talking

Talking is a lot quicker, instant feedback, less stuffing around, no chance to create BS.

Texting can spread a converstation over a number of days, ability to make BS.

Smile

Later today you are going to do something, something you don't know about yet.
Yet somehow, it's already happened. Somehow, it's already affected you.
Huh?
An illustration from Lewis Carroll's book Alice in Wonderland.
John Tenniel/Alice in Wonderland Did Alice know?
One of the most respected, senior and widely published professors of psychology, Daryl Bem of Cornell, has just published an article that suggests that people — ordinary people — can be altered by experiences they haven't had yet. Time, he suggests, is leaking. The Future has slipped, unannounced, into the Present. And he thinks he can prove it.
  Already critics are jumping up and down, saying this can't be, time is not porous, the experiments are flawed. But because this is the Professor Daryl Bem (he's in your high school textbook for his work on self perception) and because the journal publishing his article is top-of-the-line rigorous, all over the world psychologists are trying to duplicate what Dr. Bem has done. If serious scientists can repeat his results, this story is going to be big.

NPR

Paper

Best Accomplisment of 2010

Best accomplishment of 2010 would have to be completing 3 subjects and all of my mentoring to be able to apply for my full CPA status.

Three Countries

List three countries you’d like to visit, and why you want to go.

  1. Egypt - Pyramids and sharks
  2. New Zealand - The Scenary
  3. Kenya - Safari

Wordpress Daily/weekly Blog Challenge

The CHallenge

Post Daily for 2011

To help they will be posting up some topics to make it easier to write.

The Why

Because last year has been a lot about consumption of content, and I need to work on a few things and this will be one of the ways I am going to be able to achieve that.

The Pledge

I’ve decided I want to blog more. Rather than just thinking about doing it, I’m starting right now. I will be posting on this blog once a day for all of 2011.

I know it won’t be easy, but it might be fun, inspiring, awesome and wonderful. Therefore I’m promising to make use of The DailyPost, and the community of other bloggers with similiar goals, to help me along the way, including asking for help when I need it and encouraging others when I can.

If you already read my blog, I hope you’ll encourage me with comments and likes, and good will along the way.

Signed,

Bean Counting...

Day in Review

How did you feel when you woke up - peircing sunlight

What did you have for breakfast -Redbull

What did you have for lunch -Chicken Ceaser Sandwich

What did you have for dinner -What mum cooked

Did you workout/exercise, how was it. if not why - I did not exercise as I am a fat slob

What interesting people did you meet today? What did you talk about? -

What did you do today that was ill advised -Tried to analysie a phone bill

What was the best music you heard all day - ABC classic FM

What was the best moment of the day - Driving home from work

Word of the day -

What did you learn today -It doesnt matter if I forget something as its highly likely that I have written it down, or thought about it in the past already. Don't need to do the work again...

Corn

I have started growing some corn, because corn on the cob after being roasted on a bbq is awesome.

A.M.L.E.E.T.

A lot of my early posts refer to my unfulfilled leet status. Why do I blog now,. \ to get status in the fact that i can dribble shit for a very long period of time,. I am leet in accounting? I am leet in computers?

WTF!><&$%!@@?

First Post

First
I have been trying to restart my blog recently, but there have been a few thoughts about what I should write. But mostly its about how I write. Not my grammar, speeling etc. But who might read this, employers, coworkers, family, friends, enemies, the government, clients, extraterrestrial beings, the list goes on...

The fear that what I written could be used by someone to deprive me of an opportunity because they may not agree with what I have written. The same goes for twitter, facebook etc.

Some places you can hide because its not necessary to identify your true self. But on twitter facebook etc you have to. Its a way to connect with IRL people.

I just went back to look at my very first post for this blog (or should I say weblog... as it was that long ago). It is about developing the technology and actually using the technology. I do not delve into programing much these days unless its work related. From what I recall (the vagaries of the mind will make the following statement incorrect) most of my blog posts related to my trying to do something and other random cool shit. Not all of it PC. Which makes it potential fodder for 'special interest groups'...

the mere thought of a threat has put the blog on permanent hiatus. And as one of the things that I have enjoyed doing in the past, ignoring the threats with the old fuck off if you don't like it attitude is sure to win back my own heart.

A statement of things, what I'm going to do etc is probably the worst thing to start off with. But it atleast gets things started and a review of this blog will show there are many...

Fixing Shit

Reasonalby productive day, didn't get a chance to mow the lawn but did complete the following tasks:
  • bike is now road worthy, took it for a spin around the block. This is definatly going to help with the exercise.
  • Fixed the plug for the stab mixer. Need to find the hot glue gun to stop the wire from being so loose
  • Fixed the plugs that have fallen off the walls, more double sided tape used to keep them up... not really long term solution, but just a bit scared of drilling holes into power board then attaching them to the wall with screws. Probably an easier solution I'm not aware of just yet. Need to do some research
  • Started testing sync programs to establish some sort of backup regime. I hate proprietary file containers. Much prefer just having the files naked on a drive. Just syncing the documents folders which is where all the important data is kept.
  • Probably some other shit I can't remember. Going to have a shower then think about doing some study... kinda need to at least make a start

Small vs Large Proprietary Company

Are you a small or large proprietary company? You need to satisfy at least two of the following:

Consolidated Revenue
Small <$25 Million> Large

Consolidated Assets
Small <$12.5Million> Large

Employees
Small <50> Large

Batteries

I have for a long time tried to implement rechargeable batteries into the household. The main problem is that at times its a pain to wait for the battery to charge, then you forget about it, then you just end up buying normal batteries as its more convenient. The second problem is that rechargeable have in the past, not been consistent. After a few charge cycles the power would just not be there and the predictability of when one might need the power wont be there.

Enter the Maha MH-C9000

Its a battery charger that costs $90 (not including postage (I ended up spending close to $150 in total as I bought new rechargeable batteries to go with it))

The cost of buying batteries is a pain. I will probably keep a few regular batteries on hand for emergencies, but on the whole will be replacing everything with rechargeable. The cost of recharging is negligible so its mainly the cost of the equipment. I do like using the energizer e2 lithium in my torch/flash light as they are lighter then alkaline and rechargeable and they have a lot of power, no power drop off and last for ages (currently have a single AA in a Fenix that has been going for the last 3 years), torches are a different type of device and when in use require a constant but high load... once my stash of e2's run out I will be using rechargeables for my torches as well.

I already have a recharger that I purchased from dick smith about 7 years ago for $30. I was thinking of getting a fast charger, but the more research I did the clearer it became that quick charging is actually a bad idea and will ruin your batteries.

Devices
  • Remotes x4x2=8
  • Salt & Pepper = 8
  • Torches = 4
  • Keyboard & Mouse = 4
  • Total = 24 batteries in use
I have over the years purchased rechargeables so the batteries (appart from the ones I purchased with the charger, should not cost me anything.

On to the charger, why this charger. Basicly it is capable of bringing battery back to life through cycling through charging and discharging based on fancy electronics. It will analyse each battery individualy and program it self to best suit each battery. My old rechargables that cost $5 each (about the same cost as e2) can now be brought back to life. Also all charges from now on will be to the batteries full potential and I will not have to keep charging them because they are in a bad condition.

Drawbacks: As I said before I was looking at fast chargers, but that was wrong. The problem now is the break in/bring back to life feature takes 38 hours to complete (2 days (based on the minimum number of cycles)). So its going to take a while for me to get all my batteries in order.

I would like to implement this solution at work to reduce the cost of buying batteries every month, but I cant see how people will be able to wait 2 days to get batteries, you can obviously just have a few extra sets on charge.

Hopefully this will work out. My only other fear is my idiot family will throw away my rechargeable if they stop working and replace with regular batteries.

Links
Nice write up of why some people dont like rechargables, also check the other posts for more info
MH-C9000

Magnetic pen

Put small round magnets in bottom of pen. Will then stick to fridge.


- Posted from the field

Normal Service

Normal service will now resume, which won't be helpful, but is a necessary sacrifice against the evils of social media.

Input Devices

The case situation is not progressing as they all look crap and cost more than the cosmos, so fuck that.

The input situation is looking a bit better. Here are the contenders

Keyboard: Logitech DiNovo Edge
Mouse: Logitech Air
Remote: Logitech Harmony One

As you can see I like logitech and infact I have a fair bit of Logitech kit already. However the reason for this is they are the best in each of the catagories.

The DiNovo edge is wafer thin, looks awesome so it wont mess up the 'look' of the lounge room and has a built in track pad so no need for a mouse when surfing the internets from the couch. I could have gone with a smaller keyboard such as the DiNovo Mini, but that would make typing difficult, but for general search and small amounts of input I can see how that could work. It also has more media buttons.

The Air mouse is quite simply an engineering marvel. It does not use IR, but very accurate gyroscopes. The fact that its 2 mice in one is also very cool as you can use it like a normal mouse but also wave it around like a Wiimote to control your computer. Fucking A.


The Harmony One is IR only (no RF, you need the 900 or the 1100 for that) but it has one click functions. So say you want to watch a movie on the HTPC it turns on the and goes to the settings required (picks the input) and turns off devices not required. It also has a docking station to keep it charged up.



I haven't actually purchased these items as yet so will do a full review when I get them. But these are my current choices. The Air mouse is overkill, but its the only situation I can think of to buy one in and I really really want one (check YouTube for some awsome vids).

What not to eat at your desk

Do not attempt to eat pistacios over your desk, as it will create an aweful big mess and your kyborad will become littered with pistacios particles (PP), significantly reducing the efficiency of key strokes,

HTPC

I have decided that it is time to make a home theatre PC. Not that I have a hometheater, far from it, as can be evidenced by the SD plasma and PS2 running as the DVD player.

In any case I want to be able to watch TV on the couch. The second reason is my gigantic case is actually running out of room and I need another computer to stash some more storage space into.

I have done a lot of research and have decided on intel because its going to be cooler and therefore need less fans, better sound and they just 'feel' more reliable than AMD's.

Proposed Parts:
  • Intel i3 530 $140
  • Gigabyte H55M-S2H $100
  • Corsair Select Value DDR3 1x2gb $70
  • WD 2TB green $180
  • Wifi Card $45


All this will cost me around $500, which is a good starting budget, I know these sorts of projects tend to get quite costly over the long run so I don't want to blow my budget on the initial purchase.

I was going to put all my HDD in the one box, but then realised that running 10+HDD whilst trying to watch a movie is not going to work. So I will need to build a server, which I will build after setting up the HTPC.

To save some money I will initially use some old parts:
  • Case
  • PSU
  • DVD drive
  • HDD

At the beginning I am going to use an old wired Keyboard & Mouse, obviously I will need to purchase a wireless set and a remote. Having looked into the items that I desire this is going to cost me an additional $500 on input devices alone. So I will have to work out their importance and buy them in that order.


I think the first major upgrade will have to be the case as I suspect my Mum in particular will be dissatisfied with having a noisy beige box sitting in the lounge room. There is no budget for the case as its going to be the ‘face’ of the show and is what will sell the idea.

I realise its going cost a lot of money but once setup it will be pretty awesome and hopefully should last quite a while.

Change Experiment

$934.89

E-Tax 2009

This direct link because going through the million fucking links from the ATO is annoying

http://www.ato.gov.au/content/downloads/etax2009/etax2009_1.msi

Crazy Watch

12seconds - Crazy watch http://tiny12.tv/4WH3V



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Day in Review

How did you feel when you woke up - Like cement

What did you have for breakfast - Sausage Roll

What did you have for lunch - Turkey Sandwich

What did you have for dinner - Fish

Did you workout/exercise, how was it. if not why - No, had more pressing matters to attend to

What interesting people did you meet today? What did you talk about? - Mothra, I will destroy your kind if you come near my computer again.

What did you do today that was ill advised - Using too many moth balls

What was the best music you heard all day - ABC classic FM

What was the best moment of the day - Watch people complain about the rain

Word of the day - super

What did you learn today - Do not stock pile paper as it can lead to moth infestation.

Brain dump

Setting up new blog for your projects should be a good idea. Its separate to your personal crap and there is a real focus on a project. I have been thinking about setting up a new blog to talk about new things I have learned, but at the same time, what’s the point. Why can’t it all be in one place. As with most unread blog there is no real audience, friends, family and the random search link, nothing to really worry about. We might do but they will understand. One example is 3 mosquitoes video junk we decided to make whilst drunk. This should have just been posted on our personal blog, another example is the daily, weekly review I have been trying to do. I started on wordpress just to see how that works, but its just a pain to post in 2 different places and the fact no one will ever find it, or the fact that anyone that does wont understand wtf is going on because there is no other context to explain what is happening.

Main purpose of this blog is a record for my self. Sure I could just save it in a word document or write it down. But it’s the future, or at least will be soon.

Weekend Review

Most of the weekend I felt like I was in a haze and couldn't really focus or concentrate on anything for more than, well just could not think properly. Managed to get a few things done, but nothing that helps me, so another bunch of consecutive hours not going to work wasted. I did wash my car, but the bat shit is still stuck on real good. Going to clean it again tonight, also my car got scratched but was surprised that they waited around to tell me. Was shocked at the time, looks like its just paint so should just rub off. Just add it to the rest of the scratches. Which is the good thing about owning a crappy car, its already scratched up.

Subscribed to my podcasts through itunes now, so they auto update to my ipod and delete them as I play them is a really cool feature.

Digging a hole is fun, but also a lot of hard work and for my level of fitness/strength I am still a little sore, but that could be because it was so hot last night I could not sleep.

Reviews

At the end of last year as is normal at that time I decided to review what I had done throughout the year. The problem I faced was that I could not remember that far back or get a good enough grasp of things to make an accurate assessment of whether it was good or bad. So I devised a system to record through standardised questions that I would answer daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, half year and then at the end of the year. By reviewing daily it should be easier to review weekly, are there any patterns etc. I could just blog daily but that's not the point of this particular exercise. I think my last post was a daily review, but was some weeks back now. It does not take long to do the daily review and with 7 days worth of data it should take the same amount of time to do a weekly review, just a matter of reading back.

I have left open the possibility of changing the questions as needed, I don't believe I am that smart as to predict what information I would need in the future, having never tested this sort of thing before (this is the test).

I want to have my current perspective preserved and not tainted by the future or the things I may learn along the way. DATA!

January 2010
As was the case last year I have no Idea what happened this month as I never wrote it down.... I have a sprained ankle which is annoying due to the fact I can only walk on it. I stopped eating cereal for some unknown reason most likely because I don't get up early enough and hence would be late for work. My electric toothbrush broke forcing me to switch back to regular toothbrush, its weird because the head is a lot bigger, unsure if it cleans better, probably the same. Bought a bookcase to rid my floor of unnecessary clutter. Its doing a fine job so far but need to organise my stationary better as it seems to be all over the place. Need to buy new shoes for work as they leak when it rains, the lopsided wear on my shoes could be contributing to my ankle problems

Day in Review

How did you feel when you woke up - Shit

What did you have for breakfast - Nothing

What did you have for lunch - Crap Sandwich

What did you have for dinner - Stir Fry

Did you workout/exercise, how was it. if not why - No, feel like shit, did chores instead

What interesting people did you meet today? What did you talk about? - Work people, work stuff

What did you do today that was ill advised - loose a receipt for items that needed returning

What was the best music you heard all day - black betty

What was the best moment of the day - sitting on the ferry

Word of the day - edge

What did you learn today - the need to write everything down

Don't Buy Things While Drunk

Today I recieved two packages in the mail. I do order quite a lot of shit from the internet and now have a personal relationship with my local courier (wish it was korea...), books from amazon, from my iphone (damn those semi usefull apps), which I purchased while half asleep after drinking my self to sleep. 2 books from Michael Pollan, Food Rules & In Defence of Food. Both goods books if you go from the reviews, but theses sorts of books I wish list as a reminder to look into their contents and research the infromation them selves.

Now I am stuck with them and will read them at some point in time, maybe tomorrow. I don't know.

But never buy things when drunk its wrong, imbarasing, weird (sex dolls...) and pointless.

You don't need anything,,,

Day in Reivew

Day in review

How did you feel when you woke up - hungover

What did you have for breakfast - Croissant

What did you have for lunch - Croissant

What did you have for dinner - Tandori Chicken

Did you workout/exercise, how was it. if not why - No, tired

What interesting people did you meet today? What did you talk about? - I called someone on the internet a retard.

What did you do today that was ill advised - shave

What was the best music you heard all day - James Brown

What was the best moment of the day - Falling asleep

Word of the day - Asstounding

What did you learn today - How to setup ADSL

Billy

The new bookshelf is up and in a semi permanant position. I am still unsure if I can live with the height of the shelf, but I consider it a compramise between visual asthetics and practical storage of books away from piles on the ground. I have manage to fit in the corner unit and the big shelf, leaving me with one small shelf which I am hoping will live in the study room. Many times I have considered building things my self so that it will fit exactly how I want it to. Maybe I just need to get better at measuring things.

Lunch Experiment 2009

Today was the last day for Lunch Experiment, all I can say is thank you to all the pigs, turkeys and fish that sacrificed them selves for the greater good. The final asking price for a sandwich was $4.85 with a remainder of food, total spent on food $63.05.

Food Remaining
1/2 Margarine
Lettuce
2/3 Cucumber
1.75 Cheese
3/4 Tomato
Mustard
50g Salami
50g Turkey

Wastage
1/2 Lettuce
100g Ham

The good stuff
Coles has the cheapest rolls ($0.45)
Coles has the best meat
Fresh sandwiches are awesome

The Bad Stuff
Coles rolls are too sweet, need to buy from the bakery @ $0.70
Buying things on special has ruined the experiment (see cheese)
Lack of knowledge on storing vegetables has lead to excessive wastage
Doing the same thing everyday is boring

Conclusion
Making sandwich at work is 117.73% and 99.31% cheaper than subway or driving home respectivly. In next years experiment my hope is to get it below $4.00 and incorporate some other types of food stuffs.

Sleep

Sleep. I like it a lot. I normally sleep 9 to 10 hours a day for me to feel rested which is a bit higher than the usual 8 but most probably because it takes me 2 plus hours to fall asleep in the first place… The past week I have not been getting enough hours of sleep, due to a number of factors

1. its too hot
2. its too bright

I also like to spend time doing things and you cant do things if you are asleep. Conversely you don’t feel like doing anything the next day when you feel like the living dead., this cycle continues until I end up in the state I am in today. I am awake, but doing any work is very laborious and I feel very irritable.

Getting up early in the morning sounds like a great idea, get some exercise done, never late for work and not have to sleep when its too hot/bright. Going to try it out tonight/tomorrow. Hopefully can stick to the plan for then next 2 weeks and revaluate if it is worth getting up that early (when the sun comes up), or at least before it gets too bright/hot.


Lunch Update: $4.98 | One more day to go.

Real Taste, Zero Sugar

I have some holidays coinciding with Christmas and my main fear is getting bored. So planning things to do is a way to ensure I don’t end up back at work next year with no cool stories to tell. The other reason is that over the past three months I have been very productive in generating ideas, but sadly nothing to show for it. By not doing anything I have nothing to show for my idea (good, bad or mediocre), inspiration is not always going to be there, but while it is, I need to use it and create the things I’m so happy to think about and hopefully anything I do create will inspire me to create something else, thus illuminating the need for outside stimuli. I will be a self combusting ball of awesome reversing the effects of man made climate change (thank me later).

The one thing I don’t want to do is evaluate the year gone by. I have a feeling it would be just plain depressing, so instead I’m going to set myself some goals for the holidays and will be considered a test run for my New Year resolution(s).

I was going to write a list of profound/inspirational goals that could be found in the great big book of inspiring goals, but what I would most like to do is catch up on things I have been putting off during the year that really needed doing, and if I had done them sooner I would not be wallowing in my own self-pity. I have 17 days and at the end of each of those days I want to be able to take a picture of something I have made.

  1. I hate being disorganised; I also hate spending copious amounts of time organising. Obviously parts of the system are not working other wise I would not be disorganised. This will be fixed and will not only improve my state of mind; I should get some professional benefit out of it.
  2. I need a bookshelf. I have some wood, I will turn this wood into a bookshelf (or drive to Ikea and pretend I made it myself)
  3. Coal fired BBQ. Fuck global warming. I want my meat cooked on fuel that requires more than a turning a button to ignite.
  4. Read a book, I have numerous books that I have bought or borrowed but never got around to reading them, same goes for those magazine articles I tagged (not playboy).
  5. There are number of new developments in the world of accounting, generally there is only a change in the wording, but you still got to read it to make sure there is nothing fundamental (and pickup the new words to put in your documentation), should probably blog about it. But there is always the fear your are wrong on the Internet and someday, someone, somewhere will use it against you.
  6. Trebunchent – The wood that could be used to make a bookshelf could also be turned into a siege weapon
  7. Make/get a frame for my flaming lips lithograph
  8. HTPC/Server – Watching a movie on the TV is significantly better than watching at my desk
  9. VM’s for everything. Also need to delete the old ones taking up a crap load of space
  10. Complete the organisation of my tax notes, cheat sheets, flow charts & guides
  11. Make a sunjar, these look much cooler than the crappy plastic light sticks you put in the ground
  12. Learn to play the keyboard – I have a keyboard that is collecting dust, time to turn that dust into magical space dust. Find out what that strange instrument in the garage is and make it do musics.
  13. Build a new website – less magic, more collate. Hopefully blogger can still help, if not going to switch to wordpress because it has pages
  14. New food stuffs, pizza, pie, quiche, potato bake, jelly,
  15. Have fun, regain some confidence, fuck shit up (lolz couldn’t resist).

Samwich

Well I got my roll from the bakery, much better, not as sweet and tastes like bread... but it did cost $0.80. I also went on a bit of a shopping spree so ended up buying cheese, turkey, tomato and salami... Average cost is still $5.21 which is not bad. I now have cheese to last me to the end of January (will most likely take it home). Will restart the spreadsheet come the new year. My lettuce has also died, but I won't get another as tomorrow is Friday, still got tomato and cucumber.

$4.66

Well I did try and get a roll from a bakery, but it has actually closed down. So I went to Woolworth which is in the same complex and get a roll from there and its 60 cents! Coles sell the same type of loose rolls for 45 cents and they come in little individual bags. Anyway got another bakery lined up for tomorrow, is likely to cost more than Coles, but I'm sure it will be worth it.

$6.75

The average cost of sandwiches this week is $6.75, I did buy some extra ham today, along with the vegies, will be coming home with me over the weekend and used in sandwich making. I have not decided if I want to continue the lunch experiment over weekends as I use other ingredients that are already at home and it would contaminate. But I guess the stuff I take home could be classed as wastage. I'm not going to waste the food for the sake of the experiment. It could survive over the weekend, I just like fresh food as it tends to taste better... So best to use it up.

I think the cost of the margarine at $8.90 kinds ruined any cost savings, but you don't all have to buy proactive, sometimes its on special. So get it then, in anycase it will last a long time.

I have been buying the big hamburger rolls daily from coles which are nice, but I am thinking of going to a bakery for something different. Might cost a bit more, but should be worth it. I also need to get some plastic containers to put my tomato and cheese in to stop them from drying out.

Summary of things learned
  • Food costs money
  • Fresh tastes good
  • Healthy
  • Save time not having to pack lunch
Summary of things to implement next week

  • Containers for tomato and cheese
  • Learn how to save lettuce
  • Try different breads

Tuesday Sandwich

Today I had to buy margarine and a roll totaling $8.95, Butter is ok, just takes too long to spread if its been in the fridge. I have been, or so I thought, uploading pics of my receipts and sandwiches to picassa from my phone, but for whatever reason its not working.Not that it realy matters. The average is not $14.72, tomorrow should bring it down. The Cost of ham might be a problem come Thursday, could just crack open a tin of tuna (I won't cheat and if I do I will just add the cost into the spreadsheet as if I had purchased it).

Need to get containers for my tomato and cheese so they don't dry out.

Lunch Experiment

I have discussed in the past my love afair with lunch. Today in the spirit of the change experiment we embark on a bold new wave of absurd spreadsheets to minutely anaylise the best way to have lunch. Some questions that I would like answered (If you have any questions send them in).

  • Will I save money if I pack my Lunch
  • What are the time savings of eating out
  • Will I feel like a dork if I make my lunch at work
  • Nutritional/value for money
  • Health benefits
  • Best way to pack lunch
  • Am I able to eat something other than sandwiches for lunch
For the past two weeks I have been lazy and ended up going to subway, which can get quite expensive when you add on the ice tea which retails for $3.50+. Unless you get the cheapy $7 subs probably not worth it as the ingredients arent all they are crackup to be. Before I go on a rant about subway I will explain the rest of the experiment.

I have in the past pack my lunch either in the morning or the night before and taken it to work. This has resulted in soggy bread which is unacceptable to a sandwich conosiuer such as my self. You can seperate the tomato and wrap the bread loosely, but none of these solutions come close to a freshly made sandwich.

Occasionaly I go home for lunch, but since this takes up 30 mins out of my lunch break in driving its becoming increasingly obvious that its too expensive in time and money (petrol) to continue.

So I am now going to bring the ingredients into work and make it at the time of eating. I hypothosise it will cost more initialy because of the cheese and margarine.

Today I got some ingredients at a cost of $20.48, which is a bit on the high side for a sandwich, however the only thing I will need tomorrow is a roll ($0.45) and margarine ($5+). I will average it out over the next few weeks, it also included cake.

The Spreadsheet

Sleep

Sleep. I like it a lot. I normally sleep 9 to 10 hours a day for me to feel rested which is a bit higher than the usual 8 but most probably because it takes me 2 plus hours to fall asleep in the first place… The past week I have not been getting enough hours of sleep, due to a number of factors

1. its too hot
2. its too bright

I also like to spend time doing things and you cant do things if you are asleep. Conversely you don’t feel like doing anything the next day when you feel like the living dead., this cycle continues until I end up in the state I am in today. I am awake, but doing any work is very laborious and I feel very irritable.

Getting up early in the morning sounds like a great idea, get some exercise done, never late for work and not have to sleep when its too hot/bright. Going to try it out tonight/tomorrow. Hopefully can stick to the plan for then next 2 weeks and revaluate if it is worth getting up that early (when the sun comes up), or atleast before it gets too bright/hot.

My sad wallet

My paper wallet u made a few months ago is now a decrepid stink hole of sticky tape, stickers and sweat. The good thing about the paper wallet is that it's super cheap and easily replaced.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

the fucking word of the day

the fucking word of the day is an new and interesting website dedicated to etymology with a twist. Below is the word innocuous use in an example sentence:

"The cocaine they had purchased turned out to be innocuous. They got ripped off."

Good Job Son

"Barry says the value of Mr Packer's assets dropped by $4 billion at the depth of the global financial crisis, prompting him to withdraw from public view, take up smoking, put on weight, and become depressed."

DIY Extended Warranty

Extended warranties are often stupid purchases as you never actually get the item fixed or it does need fixing but the cost of the warranty meant you could of purchased a new device anyway. This happened with my camera. Camera $300 + Warranty $160. Admittedly I did claim on the warranty but now I have a barely working camera that 5 years old, I can very easily purchase a new camera with similar specs now for the $160 and I am in fact thinking of upgrading anyway. So why not just transfer the money that you would have spent on the warranty to a savings account? Eventually this will accumulate and you make get some good interest going. If anything does break or needs repair you can dip into the warranty fund. This is not a foolproof plan and may not apply to everything eg iPhone warranty is worth its weight in gold.

Stupid warranty Purchases - Cost of Warranty
Camera - $160
TomTom - $80
VCR/DVD - $220
Dishwasher - $300

Total $760

It probably wont apply to big ticket items (even then the device is most likely to break after the extended warranty period as our dishwasher has recently done and was therefore worthless).

from fivecentnickle

Thus, while extended warranties were once reserved for high dollar purchases, many retailers have started pushing them for relatively minor items, as well. And why wouldn’t they? They’re practically printing money.

In most cases, however, you’re only paying for marginal coverage when you buy an extended warranty. Consider the case of a gadget with a one year manufacturer’s warranty. You can easily extend that to two years by using the right credit card.

Thus, the three year warranty that you’re being offered is essentially a bet that your purchase will break between 24-36 months after you purchase it. And guess what? Even if it happens, you can probably get something far better (and cheaper) by then.

Instead of buying warranty after warranty, why not create an “extended warranty fund.” In other words, whenever a retailer offers you an extended warranty, simply transfer that amount of money into a dedicated savings account.

This is essentially 'self insurance' which I have been toying with, but with no solid theory as yet, before doing anything like this you do have to convince your self of what it is you are trying to achieve by taking on the risk your self and if you have the will power not to use the money for other things.

P.S. Change Experiment Mini Update: I have not been buying too much stuff with cash lately (trying to save real money) so my change jar has not been filling up as quickly. Will do a change dump at the beginning of next month to see whats what.
It's too late for the government to train me to be a weapon. For someone to approach me on the street, and to tell me I match a certain profile. I probably won't even learn another language well enough to speak it fluently. Giant crazed attack dogs won't ever suddenly act like scared puppies when they see me. I won't ever be a grandmaster of chess, either. I don't think at this stage I can even reasonably expect to make Expert. There are some things I regret as I get older, I guess. There are a ton of traditional ways to be bad-ass, and I missed the boat. But that's okay. It just means I have to be more creative. And then later that creativity will make people think I was an evil genius, instead of just so desperate for a world with monsters that I didn't mind becoming one myself. What I'm saying is - I stole an ice cream cone yesterday from the 7-11 and I have no regrets at all. untoward

"Until a man is twenty-five he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfucker in the world. If I moved to a martial-arts monastry in China and studied real hard for ten years. If my family was wiped out by Columbian drug dealers and I swore myself to revenge. If I got a fatal disease, had one year to live, devoted it to wiping out street crime. If I just dropped out and devoted my life to being bad. Hiro used to feel that way, too, but then he ran into Raven. In a way, this is liberating. He no longer has to worry about being the baddest motherfucker in the world. The position is taken." -- NealStephenson, "Snow Crash" 

[Start here]
Apparently my new iphone has decided it will start posting for me. In order to keep this blog human only. The part that gives it credability I will now post about my shit day called Monday. Mondays are normaly not good as they require you to go to work, but I had a good weekend and most of the day was going quite well untill I got back to the office, which turned into instant depression. Not sure why, but it did, I am now on my 9th beer and still feel very sober and not so much of a happy thought. I am still optimistic that tomorrow will be awesome, even if it kills me. I plan to make tomorrow the most awesome day ever... I have chocolate and funny jokes to tell people and if that fails I can a-maize them with my iphone (see pun dictionary). Then if that fails then I can always fuck shit up, by, well... fucking it.

What I don't get about the optometrist is they have these massive show rooms with only a few pairs of glasses, surely they could fit a few more pairs in.

Tomorrow I am going to buy a hipflask and a sandwich which will make the unhappydays go faster, but they will still be unhappy.

p.s. On a upbeat note, I now have a tub and engine from a cheap dryer, going to have to work out the best way to make it explode.

I used Shazam to discover Walk On The Wild Side by Lou Reed


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iPhone

Got my iPhone on Friday but did not want to start using it unroll I got a case. It arrived a lot sooner than I had expected which is nice but I already ordered a body guard skin. Nice to have something a bit more rugged. Still going to buy the incase colour because of it's hole covers. Camera is realy nice, but made butter by the screen. The screen is good but would be nice to have a higher resolution for vids normal use is excelent and the auto brightness copes well with natural, fake and darkness.