tales from an ordinary world

1999-04-04

It's been a fairly robotic weekend - I spent part of Thursday evening, all of Good Friday and Easter Saturday, and some of today, upgrading one of our main mail servers at work - I had to do it this weekend because it was going to take so long, and for most of that time people wouldn't be able to read mail (and you know how much everyone's going to like that...). I don't know why this time was any different to other out-of-hours upgrades I've done, but I'm feeling really shagged out now. But it's all done now, and I can rest. It was pretty cool how a few people actually noticed that I was going to be spending my weekend doing all this, and sent me good wishes and stuff. It always makes a difference...Of course, there's always the other side of the coin - while I was on my way in on Saturday morning, someone called me, asking "is there a problem with mail ?".

1999-04-05

I'm tired, but restless. There's something not right about just sitting at home. I can't seem to keep myself occupied. I slept all morning, and went down to St Kilda for brunch. I don't remember public holidays seeming so busy, but I guess nobody else had anywhere to go either...

There's been this Jayhawks CD, Tomorrow the Green Grass, that I've seen in just about every 2nd hand CD shop I've been to lately. I gave in and bought it - I haven't bought many CDs in the past month or so, and it's been harder than usual to just pick something up at random and say "yeah, that'll do." I also grabbed Sonic Youth's a thousand leaves - I figured I could cope with those long tracks, as background music to my usual mindless farting about on the PC.

1999-04-10

Went to a Japanese restaurant in Chapel St for dinner with my circle of old high school friends - between the vegetarians-who-eat-fish and the non-vegetarians-who-don't-eat prawns, we managed to thoroughly confuse the poor chef, who only had a stubby of Light Ice to console him while he cooked for us. Scott, who was going to turn up after his nightly Tripod gig for the Comedy Festival, managed to turn up on the wrong night. Chi managed to have a minor (I think) car accident on the way. But apart from that, it was quite fun...

1999-04-12

3MU has too many cool records...

1999-04-16

I actually went and saw The Matrix. It always seems to take some sort of extra effort for me to actually go and see a film, no matter how much I say "yeah, I wouldn't mind seeing that, I guess..." I even quite enjoyed the film...a bit more than I expected. So there you go.

I got an invite for Chi's housewarming next weekend. Chi always does nifty invites - he's got actual artistic talent, which kinda helps. They generally come as colour plastic cards, telling us the theme for the night, and what we're meant to wear - of course, most of us are too lame to come up with particularly good costumes - For his election night party, I managed to win "best of the night" by strapping empty Yogo containers to my arms in order to be a Yogic flyer for the Natural Law Party (the theme being "come as your favourite politician", or something). Another time, he had a 'covers' party, where you had to bring along your favourite cover version of a song...

1999-04-17

I chanced upon the new Luna single (I didn't even know it was out...) - one of the b-sides is a cover of an old Kraftwerk tune. Way cool. It reminds me of how I'd mentioned to Fiona the other day, that when I take off all this time in lieu I'm owed after my upgrade work over easter (and subsequent firefighting), I was going to empty my 200 CD-changer and refill it. She suggested I try and do the "six degrees" sort of thing, where each CD would have to have some sort of link with the one before it in the sequence. I figured I could make it some sort of social occasion, 'cause I'll need the help of a few friends in order to get to 200 CDs, I reckon.

Thought for the day. If everything's wrong, where do you start ?

1999-04-18

Went to Skud's and had my hair done again (a Skud-cut ?) - sides shaved off, and the remainder bleached and dyed bright red. woo.

We also made ooblick (see the Jargon File entry), which was fun, if a little messy. Cornflour mixed with water. It can't decide whether to be liquid or solid - it'll start solidifying in the bowl, then you dig up a section and watch it melt in your hand. Then you throw it on the road outside and watch it shatter, then liquefy. Way cool.

1999-04-19

Monday monday monday monday. Dredge dredge dredge. Caffeine caffeine. Yawn.

I need to make use of my lunch break more effectively. I can never quite manage to amuse myself for an hour and avoid getting involved with work. If I was a true child of the public service I'd be leaping off to my morning and afternoon tea breaks, and disappear for the full 60 minutes of my lunch hour (between the regulated start and stop times, of course). And I guess i'd be turning up at 8:45am and leaving on the dot at 5:15, or whatever it is. I suppose I may as well wear a suit, while I'm at it. Oh, and don't forget the lobotomy...

DId I mention I wouldn't mind a new job ? The problem is, though, that I really really don't know what I want to do next. I've been spending the last few years enjoying the view, without really looking forward to anything. There is no 5 year plan. I won't be retiring at the age of 50 after having climbed/slept/bought my way to the top. I've explained this before. Sorry :P

1999-04-24

I finally passed the 800-CD mark. It's taken me way too long...I must try harder next time. Honest.

After much deliberation, I rolled up to the Linux Installfest for a little while, and managed to avoid being pressed into helping someone install - I really wasn't up to coping with that at the moment. Still, it's going well - Mike, Nate and the others are doing a fine job - I wish I had the stamina...

1999-04-25

A quieter brunch at Skud's (compared to last week), although I ended up descending into another round of computer angst (it'd been looming for the past few days) when I realised that I really don't want to spend new year's eve being on call "just in case something happens". Maybe I should do what an ex-co-worker of mine did last year, and save up enough money to quit my job for summer, and just bum around until I run out of cash...

1999-04-27

I did the best thing I could have done today, and stayed home. I've got some horridly sore throat thing, and going to work and having to talk all day wasn't going to help (I learnt that lesson yesterday). So I slept. I read. I slept. I got up and sat at the PC and made sure things were going ok without me. Later on, I found out that I have to show up at personnel tomorrow at 9am to sign something or other "as early as possible in order to get paid". Woohoo. What a fucking week. I'm sick, my job sucks and I hate my life. Hooray !

Idle minds are, of course, the devil's playground. I lie in bed (I'm really bad at lying in bed, I'm far too restless) and think about how I really don't want to go back to work. I want to just leave it all behind and just go. Then I think about how much money I (don't) have in the bank. Even the thought of getting another job doesn't really appeal to me...at least, not one in computers anyway. And so my mind wanders around in circles, going nowhere useful, merely getting more and more lost...