Friday week ago we had the company end of year party, with the theme of "The Oscars". We were strongly encouraged to go in costume...

( Click the link for photos, savvy? )

Current Mood: Feeling slightly ill...

Alternate title: Old (but not as old as your mother).

On this day, 18 August 2007 (15:05 for anyone who wants to be that specific) I turn 30 years of age.

Happy Birthday to meeeeeeeeeee!

*grin!*

Current Mood: silly

Hello there, Interblogs.

Yes, I know it's been a while since I've posted much of anything to this here LJ, so I though I'd give a quick update of the last few months or so...

Items of interest:

• I have recently purchased myself a brand new very fine automobile. A Mazda 3 automatic sedan in "Aurora Blue". I like it very much, seeing as my first car was older than I was (a 1976 Holden Gemini, for those interested); and my second car (which I traded in) was a 1994 Hyundai Excel hatch (nick-named "The Silver Bullet" due to it's size, shape, and colour rather than it's speed or ability to kill lycanthropes).



• Work has been extremely busy, which seems to be the default mode of operations over the last few months. We have recently moved out of our old building (where we were leasing floorspace) into a building all of our own. It's not too bad, though there were a lot of initial complaints from people before we moved into the new digs. Those complaints seem to have pretty much vanished after a couple of weeks. But despite the thrill and excitement of moving locations, work goes on and on and on and... you get the picture.



• I got my Maritza Campos art auction art! I loves it very much... see the previous post for details.



• Speaking of love, without a doubt the biggest "item of interest" over the last few months is the new love of my life, Michelle.
  (She'll probably kill me, or at least injure me severely for putting her picture up :D ). I think this is a great picture, but she doesn't like it. What do you all think? (P.S. I love you, Chelle!)



• I managed to score the first two weeks of July as holidays, so Michelle and I went down south together for a few days, travelling around, seeing the sights, and visiting a few (dozen) wineries. The countryside was beautiful - rolling green hills, Karri and Jarrah forests, so peaceful... We spent the first part of the holiday at place called Blackwood River Cottages, just outside of Nannup. From there we visited Balingup, Bridgetown, Pemberton, Manjimup, and Nannup. After Nannup we went to Busselton via Augusta, which is quite a detour, but well worth it. From Busselton we hit the Margaret River wine region. We came home with the car-boot literally full of wine, port, cheese, fudge, olive oil, and other tasties - we had to put the suitcases on the back seat to fit everything else in the car! All in all, a great time was had - I really needed to get away, seeing as I was starting to feel burnt-out from work. We're thinking of doing the south coast next year for our holidays - Augusta, Walpole, Albany, and the Porongerups/Mt Barker.



• Last Tuesday I took Michelle to see Architecture In Helsinki, one of my most fave bands ever. This was their last gig in Australia before heading off overseas to tour the new album "Places Like This". I had a great time, though Chelle didn't enjoy herself as much, because something she drank made her feel unwell halfway through the gig. Anyway, if you're into bizarre, quirky pop/rock, then AIH is the band for you. "Boom dada dada dah, boom dah dah dah dah - Heart It Races!" :D
  

Current Mood: content

In May this year I won a College Roomies from Hell!!! art auction - myself (or my Board avatar) with the Roomie of my choice.

Behold the fruits of Maritza's labour: Dexam and April.



It's perfect. I love it to bits.

Current Mood: Thrilled!

To quote a great Wizzard: "AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!"


(If you have no idea what this is about, look here.)

Current Mood: bouncy

My sister nearly died yesterday.

Several hours after giving birth to Ethan (around midnight on the 26th), she started haemorrhaging badly due to a blood clot. She was put into Intensive Care. She used up the hospital's entire supply of her blood type, and most of the supply from another hospital (about 9-10 units, or 4 litres). She was stablised after four injections of a new type of anti-haemorrhage drug - Lesley was the first person that hospital has ever used the drug on ($7000 per injection, for those interested). That drug probably saved her life, and certainly saved her ability to have more children in the future, because if it hadn't worked the only other option would have been an emergency hysterectomy.

Baby Ethan is perfectly fine and healthy. I'm going to go see them today when visiting hours start.


I got this news around 9pm last night, after getting home from an after-work function. Even though I knew Lesley was okay, it still freaked me out a bit. I had a carpe diem moment and went to spend some quality time with Michelle (aka DevilAngel).

Life is strange.

Current Mood: Thinking a lot...

My sister Lesley and her partner Rob have spawned!

A boy: Ethan Carlton; born 26 April at 7:45pm; weighs in at 3.6 kb (8 lbs); length of 53 cm (20 in).

Congrats to them!
I'm an uncle!
My parents are now grandparents!


Although I'm going to have to glare at Rob when I see him for the choice of the second name...

Current Mood: OMG! It's a baby!

I'm in it.

What more needs to be said?

Current Mood: See subject line

Melbourne was great and Nullus Anxietas was total blast. I am so glad I went.

( Here begins the narrative... )

Current Mood: happy

In just a few short hours I'm jetting off to Melbourne for Nullus Anxietas, the Australian Discworld Convention. I will be spending three days hanging out and having fun with fellow Discworld nerds, and possibly with Terry Pratchett himself - 10 lucky Con-goers will win an "Afternoon Tea with Terry".

Plus I've put aside some time to have a quick look around Melbourne, seeing as I've never been there before.

When I get back I'll be sure to post a summary of what I got up to, and probably some pictures.

See you when I get back!

Current Mood: excited

After three consecutive days of +40°C heat, a thunderstorm went through. And it rained, if all too briefly.

Being born and raised in the northern parts of this country, where there are regular tropical cyclones, there's a lot of things about a thunderstorm that bring back memories.

Not specific memories, more... the shape of memories.

The oppressive heat, that saps the strength and dulls the mind. The sight of thick, grey clouds rolling in from over the ocean, turned to smokey browns and oranges by the setting sun. The flash of lightning in the distance that just catches the edge of sight, making you wonder if you saw it all. The faint rumble of thunder, gradually growing louder and closer.

The sky goes dark, both from the sun disappearing over the horizon and the clouds blocking the moon and stars. The lightning flashes grow more brilliant and more frequent, splitting the night sky and illuminating the strange shapes dancing in the clouds. The thunder shakes the air, rattling the windows and threatening to deafen those who listen too closely. And the smell! That amazing scent; the rich, heady, dark aroma of air laden with moisture and the earth feeling that moisture for the first time in what seems like forever - spiced with just a teasing, spiky hint of ozone.

Then the rain falls... large drops that hit the roof and ground with a most satisfying SPLAT! I stand in the rain, letting those beautiful, icy droplets from the sky strike my bare face, shoulders and chest, feeling the cooling trails as they slide down my naked skin. The ground starts steaming as the rain evaporates, cooling the earth. The air becomes thick, taking on character and texture so tangible, so tactile that it's not just air anymore - it's atmosphere. The sights, the sounds, the scents, the feelings... you could almost get drunk from it.

All too quickly, the rain stopped falling and the clouds retreated, advancing futher inland. The growls of thunder and flickers of lightning receed into the distance. There is a distinct sensation of coming down, of a flush of after-glow from a truly sensual experience. And soon that fades as well...

Except... except... off the distance - a final flash of lightning and roll of thunder, just at the edge of sight and hearing. Like a lover waving fairwell, with the promise that they will visit again... but when?

Current Mood: strange (in a good way)

( This is probably the strangest thing I've done in a while, but here goes... )

Current Mood: curious

Stolen Reposted (as promised) from tmcmillan.

1. Can you cook?
2. What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator?
3. What talent do you wish you had?
4. Favorite place?
5. Favorite vegetable?
6. What was the last book you read?
7. Are you Dirty or Clean?
8. Any Tattoos and/or Piercings?
9. Worst Habit?

HERE COMES THE FUN ...
1. How did we meet?
2. What's your philosophy on life?
3. Negative or Optimistic?
4. What was your dream growing up?
5. Worst thing to ever happen to you?
6. What was your first impression of me?
7. Tell me one weird fact about you:
8. Whats your favorite memory of us?
9. Do you think I'm sane or insane?
10. Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?
11. How do you fall asleep?
12. Ever gotten angry with me?
13. Would you go on a blind date if I set you up?
14. If you had one day to live, what would you do?
15. A million bucks.. what would you do with it?
16. What is your worst fear?
17. Favorite thing to do in your spare time?
18. Can you sing or dance?
19. In one word, how would you describe me? Be honest....
20. Do you like your dreams?
21. Are you the sort of person who listens to music all the time?
22. WHAT... is your favorite color?!
23. WHAT... is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?
24. Will you repost this so I can fill it out ?

Current Mood: happy

Well, it is 2007. And for me, that means that the Triple J "2006 Hottest 100" doth approach. For those of you who don't know (which is probably most of you), the Hottest 100 is one of the largest music polls in the world, ran each year by the greatest radio station on the planet - Triple J.

For the Hottest 100, listeners get to vote for their top 10 favourite songs released in 2006. The top 100 songs are then counted down on January 26 - the Australia Day public holiday.

Getting to the point... here are my thoughts on a sample of the songs, albums, artists, and bands that have caught my attention over the last twelve months.

( Come with me on my musical journey through 2006... )

So, you’ve heard what floats my musical boat and blows my audio hair back - and hopefully learned something about me in the process. I’m interested to hear your comments.

Likewise, kiddies, I’m interested in what has spun your dials and been giving you eargasms over the last twelve months. It doesn’t have to be music released in the last year, it just has to have been new to you.

Music is food for the soul, so lets have a look at your menu. Variety is the spice of life, so BAM! me with your favourite seasonings.

Comment, damnit, and know that I love you all! :)

Current Mood: Musical

Well, it's over for another year, and went about as well as I expected.

Which is to say, somewhat poorly at times.

( Prepare for a long-ish semi-rant, but there are photos at the end, so it's worth it )

Current Mood: chipper

What the hell is wrong with me?

Seriously.

The last few weeks I've been... well, not quite emotionally unstable. Perhaps "emotionally variable" is a better term. I seem to go from the heights of thinking I'm the most awesome being to walk the planet, down to the point where I start eyeing the sharper kitchen implements - and I can swing from one to the other several times a day. Okay, maybe I'm over-exaggerating a bit, but that's what it can feel like at times. It's not quite manic/depressive (I think), but sometimes it feels close. Unfortunately, as tends to happen, the "depressive" is outlasting the "manic". Or maybe I just can't tell the difference between "depressive" and "default emotional state" at the moment.

Another thing that is bothering is that my creativity seems to have... well, died. Gone. Dried up. I feel like I haven't done anything creative in ages. Everything I attempt seems to me to be made of suck, or completely lacking in originality. I've tried to do a few mental drafts of short stories, but for some reason they seem to be full of anger, violence, or gloom. I have no idea why. So I scrap them before I start writing.

So... what the heck is causing this?

- I'm eating well, so it's not dietary or a mineral deficiency or anything like that.
- I probably don't get quite as much exercise as I should, but I'm in reasonably good condition (to my surprise I recently discovered that I'm about 7 kilograms lighter than I was 2 years ago).
- I've been drinking a bit more alcohol than usual lately (mostly due to various work parties), but not to excess, so I'm fairly sure it's not that. Maybe.
- My coffee intake is up a little bit (but once again, not excessively), so that could be contributing a factor.
- Work stress has been... variable. Sometimes non-existant, sometimes coming out of the walls. But there's been no direct correlation between my mood and work pressure, so I don't think it's this..
- I know I haven't been getting as much sleep as I need. Could *this* be the cause of my problems? Believe me - I'm trying my best to remedy this, with limited success.
- The weather... I know that at times I can be extremely weather-sensitive. I'm fairly certain I get Seasonal Affective Disorder in the winter months. Could the change of seasons into summer be affecting me now as well?
- I know it's not my allergies. Apart from a couple of bad days, I seem to have had them pretty much under control this year, thank goodness.
- Is it hormone poisoning, and the fact I'm living alone again after four years? Naturally, I've been as antsy as anything lately. "Self-servicing" only goes so far, and only provides for the physical relief... the emotional relief is rather lacking. I'll admit that this is driving me slightly... weird(er) lately. Damn it, I hate being such a slave to my body chemistry sometimes!

To end on a slightly positive note, today, for the first time in what feels like weeks, I felt... stable. No soaring highs, no crushing lows. Just minor mood changes, as appropriate to each change in circumstances. If I might be so bold to use the word, I felt "normal".

And I have no idea why.

Current Mood: calm

I'm not really a happy camper right now. I am stressed, and in pain.

The stress is coming from work (where else?). I was working on a particular project earlier this year - an enhancement to an existing system. It reached a point where I'd finished coding, unit testing, and system testing, and it had been put into the Test environment for User Acceptance Testing (UAT). A little bit of UAT is done on the algorithm (with me doing most of the work and the "testers" analysing the results). And then it sits for two and half months. Nothing happens.

Mid last week, there's a request for a minor change to the core algorithm. No big deal - about an hour's work - most of that recompiling and unit testing. Then, just before lunch on Monday, in the space of a matter of hours:
- the Powers-That-Be responsible for this project come to me (indirectly) with a change of requirements that means two windows need to be redesigned and several chunks of code need to be changed;
- one lot of users wants me to provide them with all the initial test case data again, recalculated due to the minor change to the algorithm;
- another user has actually done some testing (ZOMG!) and discovered a minor error, and "can you add a different set of test data parameters to the database, plzthnks!".

And all of this is to be done, as decided by the Powers-That-Be, by close of business on Wednesday. This includes all of the UAT. Wednesday! Less than two and half days to do something that should have taken place over the course of at least a week! Grrr!

So, working my little tail off, I managed to get most of the necessary stuff done on Monday afternoon. Then this morning (Tuesday), one of the chief Powers-That-Be behind this project rings me up for a status report on how I'm progressing. I tell him the latest changes are in place for User Testing. He sounds surprised. Surprised! When you give testing deadline out of nowhere of COB Wednesday, of course I'm going to get it done ASAP, especially as people need to test it before it can be put into Production (which I later learn he wants to be by the end of the week). I point out to him that the testing deadline might go beyond Wednesday, especially if the testers come back with errors. His response: "unless they're show-stoppers, we'll put it into Production anyway, and you can work on them later."

... *eye-twitch*

It sits there for two and half months, and now you want to rush it in by the end of the week?!?

* morphs into Dexzilla and goes on a rampage, crushing cars and knocking over buildings in the Perth central business district *


It might be coincidence, but around the same time as the phone call, the treated leg vein starts hurting. Not too bad, but steadily building. Now, as it write this, it's Really Hurting. I've taken some paracetemol and strapped the leg, but it is really fucking sore.

I'm going to try and get some sleep now. Hopefully it will feel better in the morning (assuming I get any sleep). When I'm in a better mood, I'll try and update with some other stuff that's been happening recently.

Current Mood: stressed and in pain

More specifically, I have a sclerotherapised varicose vein.

( Read a tale of woe and medical procedures )

Current Mood: sore

Ever get a song stuck in your head? And I mean really stuck in there. Not a song that is annoying, but a song that you have just fallen in love with, and nothing can dislodge it? It's the last thing going through your mind at night, and the first thing that creeps into your brain when you wake?

I've got one of those songs in there right now. I'm listen to it repeatedly, and I'm still not getting tired of it.

I think I might be addicted to it.

Cancel that... I KNOW I'm addicted to it.

The song is a cover by Ben Folds of "Such Great Heights", originally by Postal Service.

Ben did the cover for "Like A Version", which is a segment on the Mel in the Morning program on Triple J (quite possibly the greatest radio station on the planet). In the "Like Version" segment, bands and artists are invited into the studio to a live cover version of a song of their choice. The recording of the song was also filmed for jTV, and you can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KI78874qbU

The sound quality is somewhat poor, but I managed to find a much better quality MP3 recording.
And I've been playing it non-stop ever since.

For comparison, here is the original Postal Service version(freely available from their website).

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an audio addiction that I have to feed...

Current Mood: bouncy

I wrote a little College Roomies From Hell!!! fanfic for Halloween called "Monsters". I'm reasonably pleased with it, and it was fun to write it. Which is the whole point of fanfics, as I see it.

In terms of 'story' for my College Roomies fanfics, it'll be hard for me to ever top "Trouble in Paradise", but I think the writing was at least on par, or maybe even improving slightly. It's hard for me to judge.

Now, what to write next? Maybe I should try that Boardie participation fanfic idea I have? The question is: do I have the time to do it justice?

I'm open to any ideas and suggestions.

Current Mood: I really should write more...