Why Cheat?

I'm a little confused by some people. Okay, admittedly I probably am a little more ethical than some people. Like, I've never seen the point in 'Cheating' in life. I don't cheat on people, I won't cheat with people, and I certainly can't see the point in cheating in tests and businesses etc. Today, someone tried to get me onside with something - in our business course, we were given some Business Plans to look at yesterday (seems as we are making ones of our own) and two of the ppl took them home, as they didn't realise you were not supposed to. An honest mistake. Anyway, upon hearing about this, one of the other students DEMANDED that they be allowed to take one home. It was pointed out to her, that it was against the rules. We were only given the plans to look at briefly, NOT to take home. To me, it seemed obvious that the lecturer wouldn't allow it. Two wrongs don't make a right. Yes, those other two students did something wrong - but there are thirteen of us in the class. The other student kept insisting that SHE be allowed to take one home, as she claimed the other two students had been given an unfair advantage, that SHE should be allowed to have as well. After the lecturer had turned her down (and rightly I beleive), she came up to me, and asked that I get one and give it to her! HUH? Why? I don't have one, I don't want to cheat and I couldn't understand why she needed this other persons business plan. After all, two out of thirteen made an honest mistake. They hadn't tried to get an unfair advantage (and even if they had done it deliberately, it doesn't make it right for anyone else to cheat). Why couldn't she just let it rest!? It's against the rules to have them, and against the rules to take them home! We were just shown them as examples, in order to help us get a grasp of what is involved. It was just for us to browse, NOT for us to study. We already have a blueprint with what to do for our business plans. We alreayd have a manual on how to put it together. We don't actually NEED these things anyway. Upon not getting any satisfaction with me refusing to help her cheat, she then went and started on one of the other students. The funny thing is, at no time did I ever hear her say that the REST of us students should have them. It was always SHE should have one! SHE should be compensated for the other students getting an unfair advantage! We aren't even COMPETING against the other students! It's not like they squeeze us all under a bell curve and mark us from one to thirteen. We either pass the course or we don't! It's not hard! It reminds me of when I used to work as a nightfiller in a supermarket. One guy was notorious at not working. He'd dilly dally and was really slow. At the end of the night, we'd have to go and help him finish stocking his aisle. The other night fillers started to complain. They felt they should get compensated for this guys poor performance. They came to me to try to get me onside. As I said to them, 'I get paid the same regardless of what he does.' Regardless of how good or bad the other workers are. It's a management problem. If he isn't working, then he is costing the company money. Management have to make the decission. It isn't a good enough excuse for them to gang up on this guy, as their work load wasn't going to change. They weren't going to be paid more. It's the same for the lady on my course. The lecturer isn't going to allow her to cheat just because some of the other students did. The rest of the students aren't going to help her. Why should they? Why can't she play by the rules and just do the course the right way? In the end, if she does cheat, and lifts a lot of information from someone elses business plan, it won't help her, as her own business will suffer, as she won't have understood her own business. In life, it is better to do the work. Earn what you will have. Study to understand, not to get good marks. If you understand, then the good marks should follow. If you take shortcuts just to get good marks, in the end, your lack of understanding will hinder you in your endeavours. You have to accept your own limitations! Yes, it might be harder for you to do something than what it is for other people to do it. Isn't that what makes a victory all the more sweeter! If someone has natural ability and you have none, and you train harder and longer and beat them, have you not earned more? Why cheat? The rewards are short lived and just make sit harder and harder as life goes on.

How have we changed? MEME

Okay, as the person who has the blog where meme's come to die, and ones I start just remain and die here ... here is another soon to be dead MEME! How have we changed? I got this idea when reading a girls blog (can't remember her name, as it wasn't one of my normal blogs I read - I have a habit of going for wanders around blogdom some days reading twenty or thirty new blogs). Anywat! (That's my new word - Anywat!) ... Well, Anywat, I was reading this girls profile (because I am eternally curious about the people whose blogs I visit ... so any info in the profile is a kewl thing to read), and I noticed her favourite colour was purple. (Think it was Jessy's blog now that I think about it!) Which reminded me, back when I was a youngster in the early 70's, and Hippy Flowerpower was still a hot thing, I remembered all those PINK, PURPLE, and other bright coloured things with ugly clashing colours like everyone was drugged up beyond belief all the time! Like, we had pasley blue shirts with pink, purple and other colours on it. BRIGHT, EXTROVERTED, I AM HERE, TYPE CLOTHING!!! I hated it! (Being an introvert, you can understand that) Anyway, because of all that stuff, I really started to hate the pink and purple colours which always seemed to be used to clash with the other colours and stuff. It really was an ugly over colourised time to live in. Now a days, I dont' mind pink or purple. I've used some nice purple colours in someof my paintings. Some purples are really nice ... but back then I HATED IT! BLEH! I think I was too young to realise it was the colour combinations, and not the colours themselves that really didn't work. So, I thought about it ... and thought, what other things and tastes in my life have changed? Which leads me into the MEME: How have we changed? Favourite = Favourite or most liked (or least disliked) Hated = Hated or disliked (or least liked)

	FAVOURITE		HATED
SUBJECT	CHILD	ADULT	CHILD	ADULT
Colour	Red	Blue (or red or white or black)	Purple or Pink	Brown (Esp. Poo brown)
Food	Roast Potatoes	Pizza	Brussle Sprouts	Brussle Srouts
Fruit	Rambutans	Bananas	Lemon	Orange
Ice Cream	Chocolate	Mint Choc Chip	Strawberry	Caramel
Male Movie Star	John Wayne	Johnny Depp	Dr Smith from Lost in Space	Anyone who can't act
Female Movie Star	Katherine Hepburn	Audrey Hepburn	Joan Crawford	Anyone who can't act
School Subject	Art	Art	Phys Ed	Phys Ed
Band	Beatles	Pink Floyd	Black Lace	Black lace
Movie	Jaws (Maybe)	Seven Samurai	Wizard of Oz	Any Hollywood crap
Song	Maximillian Mouse	Careful with that Axe Eugene	Agadoo	Agadoo

RULES of the MEME: 1. Steal it and do it. 2. When you steal it, add another subject to the meme which the original owner must add to the meme, and you must also do. (Leave it in comments section). 3.You are not required to do subjects added to the meme after you have stolen it (other than the one you add), but you are required to do the ones added before you steal it. 4. When other's take the meme from you, they can add subjects (see rule 2) which you must add to yours. 5. Have fun. 6. No explainations are required as to why you love or hate something.

Yeah, I do write too much!

Well, I've already posted today, as well as reading and commenting on twenty odd blogs - but, I can't help myself. Mainly as I didn't blog on what I wanted to write about! hee hee Baka Dabido! Well, my fifteen to thirty readers (as I don't know exactly how many you are - maybe there are more who only visit once every week - I don't know!), here is what I was planning on posting on: Yesterday, I did my washing, and then stuck it in the dryer. I took everything from the dryer and stuck it in my washing basket. Eventually, after all the washing and drying was done (three loads) I stuck it on my bed. Then, I promptly left it there, like I do! :-) I then went back to doing everything else I do during a day. Was some good Japanese Anime on TV last night. Porco Rosso and a doco about Ghibli Studios! Anyway, I had a lot to do, so I taped them. Hope to see them later this week. (Or next week, or the week after ... or something!) :-) Decided to go to bed last night at about midnight. Got to the bedroom, and all my washing was sitting on my bed ... which included my bedsheets! No problem, that's normal operating procedure for me! Folded my washing and put it away. Was half way through it all, and noticed a WHOLE STACK WAS STILL WET!@!!!!! @#*^@*(#^@!!!! Baka Dabido! Didn't check it after getting it from the dryer! Actually, the wet stuff and got tangled in the fitted sheet and formed a big ball of wetness in the middle. Well, the wet stuff included MY BED SHEETS! @*#*^#@&*!!!!! Okay, no problem, I have plenty of bed sheets - I decided to use my favourite ones! BLACK bed sheets! (Have no idea what that means from a psychological stand point!) Anyway, I'd bought them back when one of my flatmates was trying to convince everyone I was this suicidal freak! I think she was doing that because SHE was a suicidal freak! Her and my other flatmate kept telling me I would suicide one day because, 'You listened to GRUNGE!!!! And Everyone knows that Kurt Cobain suicided, so anyone who listens to his music will do the same thing!' I always thought they just had something against grunge and Kurt! Oh well. She (the mad cow of a flatmate) used to tell other people I was suicidal and stuff - and she was always saying things to me like, 'Why don't you go kill yourself if you're that depressed?' Of course, I usually interpreted her statement to really mean that she was depressed and wanted to kill herself ... but wanted to project that onto me! (Okay, I coudl go through depressions too ... just because someone is depressed doesn't mean they are going to kill themselves! I worry about people who's first instinct is to talk about killing themselves or who think everyoe wants to kill themselves). Well, I went out one day - and I love BLACK things, like black guitars, black synthisizers, black TV sets, black furniture etc ... black clothes, and I decided I should try black bedsheets! (And my love for BLACK HAIR is like ... well ... amazingly well known amongst my friends!) As soon as I got them home, my mad cow flatmate told me that black bed sheets means I want to kill myself! (The irony of this is that people who are suicidal don't care what they want to look like and don't care about their image! They certainly wouldn't have bothered buying bed sheets!) So, she went and got other people and my other flatmate to tell me the same thing! Yes, they all graduated from the 'Idiot School of Parrot Psychology'. "She told us it was so, so we repeat it!" Oh yeah! Love that logic! And THAT sort of stuff just made me like my black bedsheets even more. (Just call me the rebel in black! Zoro of the bedsheets! The Fonzie of sleepville! The Sam Spade of Snoooze town! The Darth Vadar of the ... oh wait, he's a bad guy!) :-) Anyway, last night, I decided to stick them on my bed (seems as my light blue bright sunny non-suicidal bedsheets were still wet). Then I discovered a curious thing! ONE OF MY BLACK BEDSHEETS WAS MISSING!!!! (Hmmm, why can I see that title being used for a sitcom?) I still had the pillow slips, I still had the top sheet! BUT MY BOTTOM FITTED BLACK SHEET WAS GONEEEE!!!!! My only conclusion is some dark depressed suicidal bastard stole my black bed sheet! :-) Okay, I better not press charges, don't want their death on my conscience ... of course, maybe it was my old mad cow flatmate! The bitch! She stole my bedsheet and has probably committed sepuku on it in order to prove she was right! Only suicidal maniacs have black bedsheets! :-) Okay - so my humour is a little dark tonight. Anyway, my bedsheet is missing and I haven't used it since I left Sydney ... so maybe, some Kangaroo stole it on the Nullabour plains! Probably that one who lept in front of my car and killed itself! Bloody suicidal kangarooooos! STOP STEALING MY BEDSHEETS YOU KAMIKAZE MACROPODS!!!!! :-) Just kidding. Yeah, it must have gone missing before I left Sydney. I better replace it. My bed never looked so good as when it's dressed in black with two black pillows for Sunglasses! :-) It's the matress they should have in "Men In Black" and "The Blues Brothers"!! :-) Certainly would ahve improved bot the sequels ... but then a striped giraff in a spandex ballet tights could have improved those sequels! :-) Well, it was too late to dry the rest of my washing, so I had to wait till the morning.

-----

Another curious thing which happened today, was our business calss was joined by a new student. She was going to start a 'counselling' service for people. Towards the end of the day, she and the lecturer didn't see eye to eye on an issue. There wasn't an arguement - but neither would conceed the point - and the counsellor suddenly burst out crying and ran out of the room. I have always suspected that a lot of people become councellors, as they are unhappy themselves and wish to help others like themselves. I once heard that the largest percentage amount of suicides is amongst Psychiatrists! I feel for this woman. I'm not sure she is in the right business. I am surprised that neither she nor the lecturer could just agree to disagree - or that the councellor couldn't see that she was never going to convince him, and just let the point go. Very strange.

How Weird?

How Weird. I arrived at my blog, and the OBJECTIONABLE FLAG was up! I wonder what someone objected to! Was it the FireAngel Fan Club button? She seems to be accumulating enemies. Was it the my objection to the comentary from SlashDot? Was it something in my 'I Am That Blogger ...' Meme? If someone is going to be critical of what I am writing here, I prefer if they tell me, so that I can understand the objection. I don't have naked people on the blog. I avoid using swear words ... and I've seen plenty of blogs which have had both of those! Or is it just someone doesn't like me and wants to remove me from the blogsphere? Well, that won't happen. If I am forced to move the blog, then I am sure I can afford to host it myself (and then you'll never be able to remove me!) Anyway, if you have a problem, then please talk to me. I am a pretty friendly sort of a guy. Actually, I was wondering last night if I shoud expand on some of the points I made inth e 'I am this blogger ...' meme! Some are pretty criptic ... but then again, maybe that's the point of leaving things in point form. Wonder how many of my points raised more questions in peoples minds about me! Hmmmm, wonder what people think about me now! I tried to include me at my evilest! After all, my ex-wife claimed I have no 'dark side' - it's all exposed, so I don't hide stuff. Better to live life naked so that no one can get anything on you. I never did drugs, I was never a violent drunk, I've never beaten children or women (and don't go around starting fights with men - they usually pick on me!) Well, my Business course was interesting today. I am feeling more confident about starting this business ... hmm, wonder if that's why my blog got flagged!!! :-)

I Am That Blogger

First up - The FireAngel Fan Club button I made and stuck on my other Blog Site. I wasn't able to load it (or other pictures) here before. But now I can. Will link to the fan site. I wonder where the creator of the fan site will take it. I don't think there is much more that can be done ... or is there? :-) I was going to write a little about this: BLOG COMMENT on slashdot - mainly as the blurb at the beginning makes a lot of assumptions. I was slightly offended by the '15 minutes of fame' remark. Gees! It assumes everythong blogs to be noticed! Talk about not understanding the intricasies of the human psyche and the differences in motives in the four personality types. It sounds like it was written by a typical melancholic who thinks all bloggers are sanguines! Doesn't matter! I guess that's my shortened version - was some other assumptions I won't bother ranting about! I AM THAT BLOGGER! MEME! I might have commented before ... or it might have been in someones comments section. There has been a MEME going around called 'I am that blogger ...' which is like, out there and lots of people have done it. I can't even remember everyone - but I know Minishorts did it, and Kyels did it ... and other's. Lots. I know it's lots, as I lost count of everyone who did it! Anyway, I started to write out in Open Office my 'I am that Blogger ...' stuff, and got to four or five pages when the computer froze and I lost it. (Baka Dabido - it kept asking to auto save, and I kept cancelling! That'll teach me!) After it froze, I switched the computer off, and then wrote another page by hand in my bedroom. I was amazed at how much I had done in my life. The problem was, I could have continued for hours more. It probably could have filled a book - and that wouldn't have included me ransacking my diaries to find more things I'd forgotten. I might have to start my diaries again. My blog doesn't go into anywhere nearly as much detail as my diaries used to. I feel I am loosing a lot of my life by not continuing the diary. Actually, the diary used to take one or two hours of writing each night. Anyway, I decided that maybe it was for the best that the computer died before I could post all those things. Some were too sad (similar to my post the other night about the Teflon suit). Others, you'd wonder what I'd been doing in order to do stuff so stupid. Other's were embarrassing for other reasons. I figured if I included too much, you might even get a bit of an idea about the different threads which make up the Teflon Suit. Tonight, without going into too much detail, I'll include some of the things here. Some will be confessions (let's face it, I'm sometimes honest to the point of pain). Other things I find funny, and other things will be sad. I am the son you didn't want, as I wasn't born a girl. I am the son you used to tell everyone was gay. I am the flatmate, who knocked on your door five times calling your name. When you didn't answer, I walked in to find you with ... um ... your thing in your hand! Sorry. Oh, phone call for you! :-) I am the flatmate who, realising you had slept in again, raced into your room to get you up, only to find your ... um ... I didn't know girls could do that! Um ... sorry! :-) [Yeah, even I didn't think I could do that to a second flatemate!] I am the flatmate who arrived home from work to find you cooking in nothing more than a G-string! Um ... can't blame me for that one! I do live here! :-) I am the son you left on the streets of Sydney. I am the husband who waited all night in the thunderstorm hoping you were coming home! I am the husband you tried to insure for a million dollars, then you tried to suffercate me in my sleep. I am the System Administrator you almost worked to death. I am the flatmate you threatened to kill with a baseball bat, because you didn't like my joke. Then you told everyone it was my fault! I am the patient you prescribed medication to which made my go suicidal. (Twice!) I am the patient you claimed was faking it. I went to another Doctor up the road. He actually examined me, and I had pneunonia. I am the brother you held while I had the crap beaten out of me. I am the friend who broke you and your fiance up ... sorry. I am the friend of your fiance that you kept hitting on! Sorry, I can' t sleep with you! I am the network engineer who stood up to you and stopped thousands of people loosing all their money. My reward was unemployment. I am the fellow student who disarmed you when you pulled a knife on me. I am the brother who knocked you out, because you were lying through your teeth. I am the centreforward on the soccer team that won the Under Eight Premiership. I am the guy your wife wanted to leave you for. (I said "No!" - but you'll never know she wanted to leave, and I'll never tell you!) :-) I am the flatmate you raced in on when I was stark naked in the bathroom! Um ... you slept in again silly girl! :-) I am the flatmate you abandoned when I was vomiting blood. I am the flatmate who arrived home from work to find you topless with another guy ... don't worry, I didn't tell your BF. I am the bass player who walked out on stage with everyone chanting the bands name! It was a great buzz. I am the idiot who told you off when you had done nothing wrong. Sorry. I am the idiot who bought a car without breaks and no traction and drove it into a tree. I am the idiot who drove the same car into an embankment a week later! I am the cyclist you drove over after failing to stop at a giveway sign on. (Which was why I ended up buying a car!) I am the neighbour you blinded with rocks. I am the patient you wanted to amputate the foot off. I am the husband who explained, that kangaroo doesn't have a joey's tail hanging out it's pouch! It's a male Kangaroo! :-) I am the husband who never said a thing, when your friends husband told the story of his wife making the same kangaroo mistake! :-) I am the friend who held your hand after you were run over by a drunk driver. You were already dead. I am the friend who didn't attend your funeral, as no one had told me you'd died till months after. I am the shy guy at school who liked you, but never asked you out. Years later you died of anarexia because you thought no one liked you. I am the musician who exploded at you because you hurt my feelings. (Damn ego!) I am the comedian who walked on stage and forgot all the punch lines! How embarrassing!!! :-) I am the blogger who writes way too much and had better shut up, as I still have more and more and more I could write! :-)

Sick Last Three Days

The last three days (or is it four now?) have been very difficult for me. Not because of what I was talking about in the last post, but because I've been really sick. Actually, it started on Wednesday, or Thursday. I was getting itchiness in my nasal passsages, inner ear and throat. Often a sign that my allergies are being set off. After all, it is spring, and there is pollen in the air. I kept taking Clarinaise tablets. They were ineffective. Saturday, I developed Flu like symptoms. I had so much homework from my business course, that I decided to soldier on, still thinking it might be allergies. Sunday, I knew it was something else. Still having Flu like symptoms, it might have been a bad head cold or something. Left lung was having major problems. Possible pneunomia type thing happening. Lots of pain in the left lung. Monday, it really became REALLY bad. Flu like symptoms were joined by migraine type symptoms. Was like a bad head cold, etc with all yesterday's problems, only now I was throwing up all the time, throat was as sore as can be, my eyes were getting flashes (migraine sufferers will know what I am talking about). The only reason I know it wasn't a migraine, was the headache is what would be considred mild by migraine standards (and probably medium to bad by other sufferers). I also had some major sneezing fits, which saw me use a LOT of handkercheifs up. Dizziness, and I almost fainted a few times. [Plus the depression episode too]. My friend Kat phoned me from Sydney. (She does that often. Just phones to make sure I am okay and everything. I think everyone needs friends like Kat.) We had a big Deep and Meaningful conversation. We were talking about depressions, our ex's and all sorts of things. I mentioned that I was having major doubts about starting the business. I wasn't sure I had what it takes to do it. Kat said to me, 'David. You can do this easily.' 'Really? Why do you say that?' 'Because everyone knows you're brilliant!' WOW! I loved her choice of words. She didn't use, 'Smart', or some of the other adjectives which might surfice. She used brilliant. 'Really? Thanks.' 'David, I knew you were brilliant from the first time I met you. You'll do this easily, and you'll wonder why you ever doubted yourself.' All I could do was thank her. It's probably one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me. Anyway, we talked other things, like when was I ever going to go back to Sydney and visit everyone. Eventually, she had to go to bed (being in Sydney), so we said goodbye and stuff. I was still feeling really sick (and did some more vomitting later on, just to make sure my brain knew it too! My brain decided to agree, 'Yes! I was really sick!') :-) I had decided Monday night, I was too sick to go to my course on Tuesday. I was definitely going to one place, and one place only. My Doctor's!!! Tuesday morning I awoke, and it wasn't as bad as it had been. I was still very tired and larthargic. My throat was red raw. I was no longer sneezing or vomiting. I wondered if the worst was over. I was in two minds. Should I go to the Doctor's? Should I go to my course? I kept flip flopping until the last minute. I decided to go to my course! On the way, I had to drop off and buy more medical surplies. I had the cold and flu medication, but was desperate for anything to calm the sore throat. The lecturer saw the strepsils and said, 'David's got a cold'. (One of the few times he has called me David. He often calls me 'Dave', which I really hate being called!) Well, I almost slept threw the first half of the day. After lunch, and more medication, I was feeling a lot better. At lunch, I was relating my reservations about starting the business to one of the guys. I told him how I had spent the weekend wondering if I really should be doing it. Then, I told him what my friend Kat had said about me being brilliant. He agreed. He also told me that from the moment he met me, he thought I had a brillint brain. WOW! I was totally flabergasted! TWICE in TWO days TWO people HAD told ME I WAS BRILLIANT!!!!!! Why is this not common knowledge in the Universe? Do I normally have this affect on people and have NEVER realised it? I know a lot of people think I am smart, or even intelligent. But BRILLIANT! WOW! It certainly made me feel good about myself. Now I live with fear it will go to my head. Anyway, I hope they are both right. I'd like to use the compliment to spur myself on to doing everything I need to do, without becoming arrogant or self righteous. (Maybe talking about it here means it has gone to my head!) Tonight, I still have a headache and some other symptoms, but I beleive (and am hoping) that I will awaken tomorrow feeling my normal 'baka bodoh Dabido self'. If I am lucky, I will be feeling totally brialliant! :-) [Health wise that is] :-)

Teflon Suit at Work

Yesterday was Fireangel day around a lot of the Malaysian Blogsphere. I suspect it is a lot of FA's friends trying to cheer her up and get her a BF. Anyway, when writing one of my more serious replies to a post at Minishorts site, I fell into one of my depressions. It is a long and confusing thing to explain - but, basically, it's part of the Teflon Suit at work. When I was a lot younger, I wrote a song about the 'Walls' people build (Little did I know, that Pink Floyds Album, 'The Wall' was exactly about the same sort of thing). Actually, the timing wasn't all that bad - 'The Wall' came out in 1978 (or was it 1979), and I wrote my song in 1982. Anyway, I hadn't seen the movie, nor heard the Pink Floyd album, because I was still a student at school, and had no money. Anyway, I was thinking along very similar lines to Roger Waters 'Wall' at the time. I've now changed my thinking a little. What used to be a 'Wall' between people (or 'Shell' according to some), is now what I consider the 'Teflon Suit'. It's more flexible than a wall. Walls are very rigid (unless in a cyclone), and have no room for movement. The 'Teflon Suit' is more complex too. Walls are made of bricks and mortar and are basically Uniform throughout - with each 'Brick' possibly representing a piece of the 'personal barrier' towards other people. The Teflon suit has more flow and is made of thousands of complex threads, which are not all Uniform. Than can be different lengths, go in different directions and even have other bits sewn onto them (like pockets and stuff). They can be taylor made for the wearer and can even make big statements in style. At the end of the day though, Teflon is a major 'Non Stick' substance. It's also used in flak jackets and stuff, so is highly durable and difficult to damage. Wearing one of these is a lot better than hiding behind a wall. Anyway, that explains where the concept comes from. Part of the concept also, is the fact that you often don't think about, nor see each and every thread in the suit. Some things can unravel into your mind at random. A lost memory which you thought was gone, and your mood can change and swing very rapidly. This is what happened while I was writing my reply to Minishorts Article. Without knowing it, my brain cascaded down the one thread, which I thought was being rather sensible. Minishorts was asking guys to make their move on FA, and I was giving (what I think were very logical reasons) as to why it is impossible for me to commit. That's when IT hit me! I've always been good in the 'Relationship' part of a BF/GF relationship. I've always been bad at the 'start' and 'end' parts. While writing the comment, my brain went back to my distant past. This will seem completely off topic to my comment and what I was thinking about. It was 1985, streets of Sydney. Cold winter's night. Probably about midnight, maybe a little before or maybe a little after. Funny thing about 'living' on the streets. You have to have a completely differnet mind set to living in a house or flat. It's a differnet world, and logic often flies out the window. I was wandering around the streets. It wasn't raining, it wasn't windy. Doorways are always a good place to sleep if you can find one where you aren't too exposed. You don't want to be seen by passing police cars or anything. Anyway, I was wandering around, and I went past one of the churches on Broadway, somewhere between the University of Technology (then NSWIT) and Sydney Uni. In the church yard was an old man. A vagrant. A drunkard. He was lying on the other side of the iron fence which was there. He was lying on the grass (what little grass there was) moaning and stuff. I could hear him breathing pretty badly. Anyway, I didn't think much of it at the time. Drunks sleeping around the place is quite normal. Just because he was in the church yard didn't make it any different to him sleeping at a bus stop, or in a doorway. Actually, Railway Square was also a place a lot of the drunks and vagrants used to sleep. Doesn't matter. Well, I was wandering around, as some nights, that's actually the best thing to do. Keep moving and keep yourself warm. Don't stop. Always look like you know where you are going so nobody stops you to find out you don't have a home. I must have gone past the church two or three times. That drunk, snoring or moaning or whatever. Sometime during that night, someone must have found him. Maybe a clergy man, or maybe just another passerby. Anyway, a police car turned up, and an ambulance ... and there he was. The drunk, placed in a black plastic body bag. Sometime, between the last time I'd past him, and when I'd come back, he had been found. I don't know if he'd been alive when he was found and died after, or if he'd died, and then been found. For all I know, someone might have found him and killed him. The fracas of someone killing him might have attracted a passerby who then phoned the police. I really don't know, as I wasn't there at the time. I'm not sure if it really matters either. At the time, I remember I felt a little sad. I can't remember how sad. When the memory came back to me last night however, it made me very sad. It made me so sad, that I literally sank into a depression which stopped me dead. I was almost in tears and I couldn't help but wonder about the incident. Why was it making me so sad now? And this is part of the Teflon Suit. I have no control over this part. Sad memories. Bad memories. Things I thought I was immune to, as I'd lived through them, or lived past them. Things which don't make much sense now, or even then. It's part of the suit which my ex-wife could never understand. I'd just sink and sink and sink into a depression which sometimes has no cause, or the cause does not make sense. It saps me of energy. It saps me of confidence. It saps me of things even my closest friends think cannot be taken from me. I am here, but that's all. I am just here! The substance that makes me, has been drained by the sadness and madness of this world. Though I do not inflict the pain or sadness that is caused onto anyone else, they know it is there. They can't explain it, nor do the understand it. It is the part of the suit, which I've always asked my GF's and friends to just accept. I get annoyed when others try to make me happy, or try to give me sympathy. I get annoyed when they try to explain it or try to use logic to break me out of my depression. Somedays, you just have to accept, that you don't know, and you can't do a thing. And that's how it was with me and that drunk who died. It made me sad that he passed away that night, but what was I to do? Maybe that's why it makes me sad. Maybe I blame myself for not checking to see if he was alright. There are good reasons why you don't check things like that when you are on the street. I won't bother explaining. Too many details. As it stands though, I just didn't know, and I just couldn't do a thing. Now it's passed into the Teflon suit as a thread. Something no one can ever relate to, nor understand in detail. A thread that will disappear into memory until the next tiem I inadvertantly come across it when least expected!

What's Dabido up to now?

As I am studying for my Cert IV in Business Management at present, I'll make this really quick. Yeah, getting my Business Plan together and a Marketing Strategy which both need to be complete by tomorrow. Marketing has to be implimented on Wednesday - I'm a little scared at the prospect, but isn't that what makes life worth while, doing something which scares you and coming out on top. No wonder I love Rollercoasters! I hope, if I ever get together with a girl sometimes in the future, that they too like rollercoasters! I mean real ones that you go on at theme parks - not the one life is made from. Life's rollercoaster is compulsory, whether you like it or not! :-) I'm not sure why, but Blogger isn't uploading my pictures. I was trying to add three to the site - One of Douglas Adams book, 'The Salmon of Doubt'. I'v ejust finished reading it today, and thought I'd stick the picture here, and write a little about it ... for those that don't know, 'The Salmon of Doubt' was published post-humously (that means after he died, not after a joke ... after a joke is post humourously). It contained the start of the book he was working on called 'The Salmon of Doubt', which is a Drik Gently detective novel. This is left to last, while the front quarter or so of the book consists of articles published and other work unpublished which were sitting around on his beloved Mac waiting to be placed in book form. It's a good read and and Hitchhiker Fans would (IMHO) love to read it. Those people not familiar with Adams writing should probably start with the book 'Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy'. Read it before seeing the movie. They are ... um ... different. The second picture I was trying to upload, was of the book 'The Diary of Anne Frank'. That's what I'm going to start reading tomorrow. I've actualyl visited Anne Frank's house in Amsterdam, which is now a museum. If you are ever in Amsterdam, then definitely drop in and have a look. I probably should also have tried uploading one of my photo's from outside the house (which I took in September 2000). Oh well, no pictures today, blogger doesn't love me any more! :-) Third picture was of Everclear's album 'So much for the Afterglow', which I was about to start listening to. The other three books I am currently reading are all 'Small Business' Management or Marketing books, and as such, not really that exciting. I'm also gettign stuck into my course notes and trying to get my Business Plan and Marketing Strategy ready for implimentation! That's all for now. If I end up blogging intermitantly over the next few weeks, then you know I am studying hard. I have a Certificate to acheive. Can't have too many pieces of paper in the modern world! Might need them as toilet paper once all the trees have disappeared! :-)

Quick How To Guides (Part Five)

Quick Guide Five - How to make a totally disgusting drink, which is healthy for you. 1. Take half a cabbage, a large celery and some beetroot. NOTE: You can add other things to make it more palatable too, like fruit etc. There are good reasons why I use this combination for my totally disgustingly healthy drink. The Cabbage is one of the best things for the stomach lining. As a lot of my regular readers know, I've had stomach problems for the last twenty years. So getting a little cabbage into me, is a good thing. The beetroot is one of the best things for helping the liver. It helps fight fatty liver and also is great if you've been out on the town drinking yourself stupid. It helps reverse some of the damage done by a big binge. The celery is also good for weight loss and has other health implications. (Which is why celery tablets are also available from health stores and supermarkets etc). I'll let you look up the other health benefits of all these things. 2. Clean them. If you are like me, the last thing you want in your drink is sand or bits of insect (celery seems to come from the super market with both of these things! Yuch!) 3. Chop them up so that the cabbage and celery will fit into a juicer. Yes, we are juicing these and not blending these. I bought the juicer about seven years ago, as I was (at that stage) juicing cabbages for my stomach problems. I discovered something about cabbage juice. First, it is totally disgusting to drink on its own. Second, it has a nasty tanginess to it, that doesn't do the tongue any good. Third, no matter what you stick with it, you can never seem to make it taste any better (though the beetroot and celery seem to take the edge off it). If anything, sticking apple juice or water melon juice or other things with it, just seems to ruin whatever you stick with it. 4. Put the cabbage and celery through the juicer. 5. Chop the beetroot up so that it will fit into a blender. The reason for blending the beetroot, as opposed to juicing it, is I found I could juice a beetroot, and get very little in the way of juice from it. Someone once gave me a book which showed the equivalent amounts you need to eat in order to get the same quantities of vegetables. Juicing (or blending) helps to break the vegetable down so that the body takes it in quicker, and less is lost through not being digested. According to the book, a juiced cabbage is equivalent to something like one hundred cabbages! I have no idea how accurate the book is (or was), but the numbers certainly looked very impressive. 6. Put the beetroot through a blender. This of course leaves all the chunky bits of beetroot in the mixture. You'll find it floats on top once all the ingredients are mixed together. 7. Take the blended Beetroot and Juiced Cabbage and Celery and stick them in a jug and mix them up. Actually, the jug is also so you don't spill the juice all over the place. It's easier to do the next step. 8. Pour the contents of the jug into a bottle and add water. See, told you it was easier! :-) The water also helps make the concoction more palatable to drink. Don't try to water down cabbage juice on it's own though. I found that just made more bad tasting cabbage juice. :-) 9. Drink. Actually, when you get to this stage, you'll notice all the beetroot bits at the top of the bottle, which makes the juice hard to get out. Shake the bootle before pouring into a glass (or drinking it straight out of the bottle like I did). What I did fitted into a one and a half litre bottle (with water added to fill it to the top). I find this is easy enough to drink, without the problems of the cabbage overwhelming the flavour. My mother claimed I was going to be releasing wind all day today ... I haven't. (Yes, that is a little surprising). Cabbage has a bad reputation in that category of things. (And probably well deserved). Of course, most human wind is the cause of undigested products breaking down inthe bowels. With less cabbage undigested, there is of course less reason for it to create wind. My brother Jeff is a big advocate of beetroot. He told me that if you eat enough of it, all your waste products start to look purple. (Including your pee). I haven't found this to be the case, but, I am not living off beetroot and nothing else like he does some weeks. I'm also not that obsessed with my waste products to care what colour it is. I've been drinking about a quarter of the bottle each day. Tell me if you try this ... another good one to help the chronitc alcoholic is to have raw vegetable juice made from Purple Cabbage, Carrot, Orange, and Beetroot with 50% water added to dilute it. According to scientists this mixture restores a thing called 'glutathione' to your body, which is essential for liver regeneration. Liver function also relies on Vitamin K - this is found in green leafy vegetables, so chow down on that cabbage and bok choy! [As I've had one drink in two and a half years, you probably wonder why I am bothering ... well, I suspect some of my readers drink more than me, so hey, just helping look after your livers!] :-)

My Daily Walking Trail

You are looking at my daily walking trail. Every morning I walk for one to two hours along this trail. Lately, it's been one and a half, except this morning, when I did two. What it really shows me, is I need to mow the lawn. :-) Normally, the dogs do their business all over the path. I don't know why, but I assume it has to do with them trying to associate their smells with where I walk. Every morning, I start my walk off, by going around with a rake and playing Dog Doo Golf. Hitting the dog doo into the garden and off the track. Soon, all this grass will turn brown and start to die. Pity.

I used to read while walking. Now I listen to a tape recorder. I suspect the walking and reading simultaneously was causing me eyestrain. As you walk, your eyes have to adjust to take into account the fact that the book is bobbing up and down. The little red car you see parked next to our house, is my proton satria. Made in Malaysia. It's been all over Australia - well, not all of Australia. It easily made the trip across the Nullabour Plains until THAT kangaroo lept in front of us and WHAM! $4500 worth of damage! OUCH!~!

The dog in the foreground in Toby (or Tobias). He's a good dog. We also own his sister Elly. She is a demanding little dog who likes to yap a lot. Yap Yap Yap Yap ... hmmm, wonder if she'll ever shut up. Probably not. I suspect three years after shes gone she'll still be yapping. Anyway, if I want Toby to go for a walk with me, I just jog a bit. He likes to leap up and bite my butt! Elly never ever goes for a walk. She just sits and watches me. I think she's figured out that I just walk or run in circles. :-)

The white car in the foreground is my youngest brothers. He also owns another car which my mother uses.

Below is Toby rolling around on the grass. One of our sheds is in the background. Some of the trees are already turning brown ready for summer. Our wood shed is behind the shed you can see. Most of the wood now has termites in it. The builders didn't follow my mothers instructions. They didn't build the house in the middle of the block like she'd asked.

We suspect my father might have had something to do with that. Apparently, he went into the builders office and made changes against my mother's will. So bits of the house were changed and re-arranged to annoy her, rather than to fit the actual design she'd made. It's a pity the builders did that, as my mother was the person who was paying for it all. She had saved the deposit and everything. My father just changed things because he's an absolute d***head, and liked to annoy the rest of the family. Part of it was a control thing. He likes to pretend that he can do what he wants, and everyone else has to do what he says! No wonder no one talks to him anymore.

Steal These Buttons

Here we go with two new buttons for you to steal. Use them to link to these sites if you visit them, or add them to your own site for others to steal. First, Kyels button for her site: Then, Beerbabes button for her site: Other buttons for you to steal are in my side bar. Check them out if you need a button to link to any that I have buttons for. Cheers.

Who Are You?

Just out of curiousity, (and so I can do some market research), who comes here? I get about thirty hits per day, and about half are return visitors (which might mean that I have fifteen regular readers, and about fifteen people passing by each day). So, who are you? What do you like me blogging about? What do you hate me blogging about? Should I include more pictures? Should I write less? (Do I write too much)? Do you like the buttons on my side bar? (Have you noticed all those buttons on my sidebar?) Any other ways you believe I can improve my blog? Are you a regular reader, or just passing by? Anything else you care to mention? Cheers, Dabido

Quick How To Guides (Part Four)

Guide Four - How To Avoid Blog Block (or writers Block), or What to Blog About! I've been meaning to write this for sometime, and I guess what I just wrote (last post), is as good a reason to include this now. First let me ask, Why do some people get 'Blog Block', and other's (like myself) never have that problem? (Or won't shut up!) First of all, I think I don't run out of ideas to blog about, as I have an innate curiosity about everything. I also love THINKING about everything. It doesn't mean I know about everything nor do I have an opinion about everything (though when I tell people I don't have an opinion about something, or have to think about it more, it usually surprises them). Due to this 'curiosity' thing, I can normally think of something to write (and as a lot of you know from my long comments on other peoples sites, I can normally rattle off a long opinion or advice about most subjects at hand). So, where do I get my ideas from? That depends. Normally, I don't know. I don't think that hard about things. First thing I normally start my blogging day with, is what's happened to me during the day. It's a bit like 'Seinfeld' claiming his show was about 'nothing'. The fact is, 'nothing' in the Seinfeld sense incorporated almost 'everything'. In truth, the Seinfeld show was about a 'New York Comedian' living in his apartment and occurances centering around him and his friends. As it had a very large scope (pretending to be about nothing), it was able to go almost anywhere, provided it didn't move to far from the central characters and their lives. Like, you couldn't suddenly find the characters on Mars or back in the past ... where as Star Trek or The Twilight Zone could if they wanted to, go to those places. On our blogs though, we have a choice. We can choose to blog on a theme, or we can choose to blog on a huge range including ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. If you have chosen to blog around a theme, then you had better know your theme pretty well, and stick to that theme. If you have done this, then I would pretty much say that you probably don't need help and can research your own ideas. If you do get a block, then your best place to find ideas, is other sites/books etc based on a similar theme. Unless that theme is your life, or something so unique that only you can answer the question of what to write about. So, without further adieu, here is a quick bullet point list of things to blog about:

• Your life/day (something that happened) [Birthdays, exams, idiots on the road etc]
• Something on someone elses site (blog or not) which inspired you (but don't rely on this for inspiration. I find it is best to do this when you do find something inspirational, NOT as a means of finding inspiration)
• Latest News Event (anything from the news, whether serious, or humourous)
• Food (very popular)
• Review a book, DVD, movie, CD, song, art piece, (endless) anything really
• Write about an historic hero of yours
• Write about an historic idiot/villian/event.
• Write about something philisophical (One of my favourites)
• Write about religion (try not to offend others of other religions or even your own)
• Write about a personal opinion (You do have them you know)
• Write about a problem or quandry (this often helps people think their way through them, and often helps others who are suffering similar things - it also invites discussion which might include things you never thought about)
• Write a poem
• Write a piece of Fiction.
• Complain and whinge about idiots you encounter, or things which annoy you.
• Write about things or people who inspire you
• Write about some profound saying which you find helpful in your life
• Write about something which happened in your past.
• Write a self help guide on something (like, how to change a lightbulb without falling off the ladder, or how to avoid burping ... anything ... how to write better blogs)
• Write something you find funny (and think others might)
• Steal a joke from somewhere and draw cartoon pictures to go with it. (eg KY)
• Write about your possible future
• Write about how something in your past might have changed your future if you did it different
• Write about love (your first or latest, or lack of)
• Write about the world in general - get political, or pacifistic, or defend the downtroden, or just be a bastard/bitch about it all.
• Write about where you've been or where you'd like to go.
• Write about technology/money or anything you might include as one of your hobbies
• Write about what you'd like to do (skydive - scuba dive - climb everest - sit on the beach)
• Write about a weird dream you had (or make one up and pretend it was a dream) :-)
• Lie OR get overly honest OR confesssssss everything! (Yes, the body is in the boot of my car) :-)
• Offer an opinion on anything and ask for other opinions
• Sports (if you do them) - which team do you follow ... why ...
• Culture (your own, or others you have experienced)
• Pat someone on the back for something they've acheived (World intergender nose rubbing champion of the year?)
• Go to Yahoo! or some other site with a list of subjects and follow links down as far as you go ... whatever subject you arrive at, that's tonights topic.
• Randomly open the encyclodepia to any page, and then research that topic ... then write what you have learnt
• Write about famous people, non-famous people who you think should be famous, or famous people who shouldn't etc
• Write about brands you support and ones you don't explain why.

The list is in fact endless (well, almost). You can add some in the comments you think I should have included (this is NOT the definitive list). Anyway, maybe if you link to this post, and next time you are without inspiration, you can browse through and try to think of something. Your opinions never go away, no matter how uninspired you feel, so finding something that challenges you or the way you think should get some response. If it doesn't (or you can't find anything), as a last resort, write about why you feel you ahve blog block, or feel uninspired! Are you not well/ender the weather? Are you confused? Are you just feeling nothing you say is important anymore? Then WRITE ABOUT IT! :-)

Why do we blog?

Here is an interesting article from the 21st of September. It quotes some stats collected by AOL concerning blogging etc. So, why do we blog? What do we blog about? et hoc genus omne! Let me check if I fit in by comparing to the 'What people blog about' stats.

• Anything and Everything - YEP!
• Family - YEP!
• Friends - YEP!
• Hobbies - YEP!
• SelfEsteem/Self Help - YEP!
• Job -YEP!
• News - YEP!
• Gossip - YEP!
• School -YEP! (In my case whatever I am studying lately! I'm not actually AT SCHOOL)

Okay, I fit into all of those! What about you? Let's compare myself to 'Reasons for reading other people's blogs':

• Entertainment - YEP!
• To get a different, fresh perspective on the news - NOPE!
• I like interacting with participants through posting - YEP!
• For Gossip - YEP!
• It's the easiest way to get the latest news - YEP! (Off Slashdot in my case)
• I like the format - HUH? (What's so different to formats that websites had before?)
• To Stay Up On The Competition - Huh? What competition? I'm supposed to be competeing?

To say another one not present, I also like fresh persectives on things I like thinking about - not the news so much, but other perspectives to philosophies, life, religion etc etc. How about you? Can someone explain the 'Format' thing to me? Let's compare myself to the 'Reasons for keeping a blog':

• It serves as therapy - YEP! (It's replaced my personal diary)
• To stay in touch with family and friends - NOPE! I have to get friends now? What's wrong with hanging out with computers? :-)
• To improve my writing skills - NOPE! Definitely not. In fact, I usually write so fast on my blog, that I don't spell check nor think too hard about anything. (Same as my comments! Straight out of the brain - no re-writes, no deep thought, no polishing to make more diplomatic or savoury)
• Because my friends, family and colleagues do - NOPE! Don't know anyone who fits into that category (other than my 'friends' I've met through the internet).
• Interested in Journalism - NOPE! Not really.
• It's the latest trend - NOPE! Arrrgh~! If anything, I see this as a reason to STOP blogging!
• To stay ahead of the news or gossip trends - NOPE! Is this possible, considering that most blogs get their news/gossip etc off other sites? Just subscribe to the websites that generate this news.
• To expose political information - NOPE! I'm no Jeff Ooi. I occasionally give my opinion of political stuff, but expose it? Nope!
• Information on the web doesn't fulfill me needs - NOPE! If I can't find what I want on the www, I can normally find somewhere on the www which will sell it to me in some form. Besides, BLOGS are on the web! Ptttthhhh!
• Hope it brings fame or notoriety - NOPE! Not me! I prefer to avoid fame. Can't think of anything worse. Notoriety probably means you are deliberately antagonising others for some reason. I can do that by accident! :-) Besides, isn't notoriety just 'fame for the wrong reasons' ???

So, why do I blog. Obviously for me it isn't just the 'therapy' aspect of it all. There is the creative release, the hope that sometimes I write things which will help people, a means of self expression. Why do you blog?

Happy Birthday Suanie

Today is Suanie's birthday. Yes, she has turned sweet sixteen again ... for the tenth time. KY has some interesting pictures of her hugging her new BF ... Mr Toilet Bowl. (He gets more action than I do, so I won't laugh!) Today was also day two of my Business Management Course. Sort of scarey in many ways. Also, sort of boring in many ways. The boring part is because I've done a lot of this sort of thing when I did my Marketing Certificate. It's like a bad re-run (Thank goodness the economics part isn't repeated!) Anyway, have to get stuck into a SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats) analysis tonight. The weekend is goingto be interesting. I ahve to start writing my Business Plan ... and hand half of it in on Tuesday. Thank goodness Monday is a public holiday ... though, that may not help me much. It means my opposition in the market place is not open, so I can't phone them to gather information. I hope they have some on their websites and stuff. Had a good talk for a brief moment with Sean Paul, who is going to be designing websites. Mainly talking about Linux and stuff. He likes to run Fedora Core type stuff (from Red Hat). I ran Red Hat linux from 1996 till (was it last year, or beginning of this year?) Anyway, the computer I was running it on died. As soon as I buy a new computer, this one will probably take over as the Red Hat machine, and I'll run other stuff on the new one. Very tired. I stupidly drank a coke yesterday and couldn't get to sleep last night. Then had to get up early to go tackle the Government Departments over my enrollment and starting my own business. Got in there at eight thirty am and was lucky. I was only person there, and I also got to speak to someone who knew what they were talking about. After numerous phonecalls and to other Departments/people etc etc, she figured out she was going to have to manually fix everything on the computer system herself. (The opposite of the other day). FINALLY it was fixed up. (I hope! Been here before when the whole thing falls apart and some idiot decides they know better). Anyway, means I am free to concentrate on my course for a while. Phew! (Stupid Government!) Guess I better get stuck into my homework! Funny thing, my mother said she wouldn't disturb me ... and she's done nothing BUT interupt me ... now she's eating her dinner, so I have some time to get started! Woo Hoo! So tired, so much work to do!

Start of Business Course

Well, the fun never ever ends! Today, tried to start my business course, but my usual problem with the Government Departments fighting over who's supposed to do what continued. I went in this morning, and was late for my FIRST DAY, as I was not sure I was allowed to start the course. (I was told I wasn't without it being sorted out ... only, it still isn't sorted out!) So, I was there talking to one group of people ... because another group had said it wasn't thier issue, and another group said it wasn't theres .. and a fourth group was phoned and it's not their issue, and the people I was speaking to said it wasn't their issue. So, was told to speak to the same Dept. I spoke to the other day ... only I had to go to the course ... so I went, arrived late and filled in the forms. Was pretty boring course so far. I hope it will get better. The lecturer has said he's going to fast track it for us. Normally a six month course, which gets cut down to six weeks, which we're doing in four weeks ... which we are going to try and fast track even faster. Lunch was more exciting. One of the guys has funny eyes that never look at you. He was saying how he was blind till he was four. He also suffers seizures and narcalepsy. He's the first Narcaleptic person I've ever met. He seems pretty cool too. Well, may he just impressed me because I'm a geek. He's starting a business designing webpages etc. One of the girls is really cute. There are only two, the other one is older than me. The cute girl has a partner etc, so against my principals to chase her (plus she is neither asian nor Japanese). :-) One of the guys is starting a jewelry business. He seems pretty cool too. Plus I have a German guy sitting next to me, he's starting some electrical generator business. Two guys are starting Handyman businesses. Another a mowing business, and the last guy a Masseur business. I feel like I have no idea what I am doing there. Weird! I can't wait to get into some more nitty gritty on the course and start to get things together. I took the course notes home and everything ... but I have been busy watching TV tonight. I'll read it when I get up in the morning. I'm feeling very tired tonight.

---------

Just a quick story I want to share from when I was sixteen. When I was younger (younger than sixteen), my friends younger sisters always used to like me. I don't know why. Anyway, when I was sixteen, I was riding to my friends farm (we'll call him B), with my other friend (let's call him S). As we were riding along, S was telling me how B has a sister who will be there. Me, being the silly Dabido that I was, automatically assumed it was a younger sister. I rolled my eyes and made some weird sigh which meant, 'Oh Gees!' S asked what the problem was. So I told him about how my friends younger sisters always seem to get crushes on me and won't leave me alone. I was afraid the same thing was going to happen. S laughed at me and assured me it wasn't going to happen. I kept telling him, as sure as night is day, IT WILL HAPPEN! IT ALWAYS HAPPENS! S just kept laughing. So, we got to B's place and B showed us around. As we're going around the place, a girl, older than we were walked past. S said to me, 'Hey, that's B's sister.' 'Oh!' was all I could say. She wasn't a younger sister like I thought. She was B's elder sister (and B was about a year older than I was). S asked me if I still thought she was going to develop a crush on me. I told him that it might, but I explained how I'd made the assumption that she was younger than us. A few minutes later, B's sister walked back in the courtyard with a girl I knew from school. We were standing at the other end of the courtyard from them. They stopped and they both gave each other a very passionate, 'Hey, this one wriggles like a very wriggly electric eel dancing the electric boogaloo', tongues all over the place kiss. I turned to S and said, 'Okay, it ain't gonna happen!' S laughed. B wanted to know what we were talking about. So S told him. I don't know if B ended up telling his sister, but the next time I was over B's house, his sister walked past and gave me a 'knowing' sort of a smile! Yes, even back then the world knew I was an idiot! :-) Baka Dabido! (Both of the girls had very short hair too ... why! Why! WHY! Didn't I see the signs!) :-) [The one from school was cute too!] :-)

Quick How To Guides (Part Three)

Guide Three - How to use Dabido to pick up girls (for the guys) Following on from yesterdays Quick Guide Two, today I present the other side of the coin. How my friends often used ME (yes, little ol' me), to pick up girls. Technique One: Obviously, after reading yesterdays post, you will realise, if we are at a pub / nightclub etc together, the easy thing to do is wait. Once I pluck up the courage to ask a girl onto the dance floor, dance on over and start a conversation with the girl. She will surely ditch me and go off with you. It's never failed (except that time my friends GF was on the dance floor with me). Technique Two: If I happen to be anywhere with a guitar, I often attract a crowd while I am playing it. Actually, one of my favourite things to do on my Birthday, is serenade girls. It's not part of my technique, it's just something I like to do. Sing a romantic song to a girl, and look deep into her eyes ... and hope she hasn't drunk too much! Nothing worse than them chucking up while doing that! :-) Actually, I did this on my thirty fifth birthday to a young (30 yo) Japanese girl named Momoko. As everyone said later, I made her melt. (I think we were able to unmelt her later and remold her into shape!) :-) They asked me, 'why is it, when you have such an obvious "IN" like that, that you dodn't take advantage of it?' I told them, 'She's got a BF already. An English guy named Paul.' Of course, there have been other times when my friends have taken advantage of these situations and used my romantic mood setting music to move in on girls. Seems to have 100% success rate. I don't know why. Technique Three: Back when I was with my old band (or one of my old bands), one of the things my friends would do is tell the girls they are 'with the band'. Easily confirmed when they'd scream out my name and wave to me on stage and I'd wave back! Also, 100% success rate! (Still no idea way). Technique Four: Being the friendly, trusting sort of guy I am, a lot of girls naturally trust me. So in Sydney, we'd often head off to the pub, and I'd naturally strike up a conversation with almost any one. Occassionally, I'd make friends with a group of people, or a group of girls, and my friends would take advantage of the situation. I distinctly remember one night, when I went out of my way to talk to two nice Japanese girls. One of them left (because as my friend put it, I didn't 'make a move' on her). My friend then texted me, 'I'm in. Go Home.' I almost texted back, 'Half the guys in the pub are "in" with this girl' (which was true ... I was also pretty much 'in'), but I decided not to. Mainly as I know I would stuff things up if I pursued her. So I pretended the text message was important and that I had to leave. Five minutes later, my friend was heading home with her ... um, make that two minutes later. I knew she liked me, as she later e-mailed me asking me to move to Tokyo and live with her. I declined! NON-Technique: If you like my latest GF, then don't wait till I dump them. I am usually in for the long haul and seldom break up over stupid things. I put up with a lot of crap from girls. Out of courtesy, I expect you not to hit on them either. (Though you could add Technique Five as 'Hit on any girl with Dabido'. It has a very low, almost nominal success rate though ... unless the girl is a friend, in which case, refer to yesterdays 'Quick Guide') :-) Technique Five: If you see me talking to any girl, and they seem to be my friend (not GF), then hit on them. Often, I am so busy developing a relationship with the girl and trying to figure out if I like them enough to acutally ask them out, that the girl gives up on me every asking them out. Often, I have found out that my 'female friends' did actually like me 'in that way' when we first met. Just I procrastinate over whether a BF/GF relationship will actually work with them, that their feelings change. For any girl reading this, this 'stalling/procrastinating' technique of mine is part of the Teflon Suit. Of course, in other situations, we are ONLY just friends. Yeah, hard to work out if we're friends or if I am thinking that way ... also, part of the confusing Teflon Suit. [See, I keep saying it's not easy to tear your way through it]. :-)

Quick How To Guides (Part Two)

Guide Two - How to Use Dabido to Pick Up Guys (for the Ladies): There is something about me, that makes females (in general) like me as a friend, and makes guys think they can take women from me. I don't know what it is, but no matter who I am with, there is always some guy who thinks they can take the lady away from me. In most cases, it just doesn't work. We'll get to the actual 'Method' for girls to use me to get guys at the end. Here are some examples from the past. I will start with the sad tale of my first love. Yes, it is sad, and the only person to blame for my loss, is me. [Don't cry ... was long ago.] :-) Anyway, I saw this girl at school (I was thirteen at the time), and instantly fell in love with her. (Or should we call it infactuation or something else). Anyway, at the time, I had no idea who she was. I asked one of my friends. He told me. Then I spent the entire next month asking other friends who were in some of her classes if she was single and if she would go out with me. Yes, she was single ... and her reply to, 'Would she go out with me?' was a solid, 'Who?' Yes, I was a nobody in her universe. That's not the sad part. :-) Anyway, another guy at school wanted to go out with her, and she didn't like him, as he acted as though he owned her, like some possession. A lot happened between me and him, including him and his friend threatening to pulverise me to dust (with me quaking in my boots ... literally shaking like an escaped jelly from an eating contest). I kept telling him I wasn't afraid of him, but alas, the jelly impersonation was a dead give away. After a while, the guy saw the sort of stuff I was going through to be with her and to be her BF. He turned to me one day, with me expecting him to finally make good his threat. I braced myself for the worst. He said to me he was going to withdraw from chasing her, as I obviously was deeply in love with her. (By this time, I was her BF anyway). Things weren't going too well though. She was weird. Like, she'd go lock herself in the toilets and stuff to avoid me. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know this at the time, but that was her normal behaviour towards her BF's. What happened though, was another guy started chasing her. A guy named Danny. Danny (like many others to come) thought he would just walk in and take my GF off me. Anyway, to make this story shorter, Danny kept working on me. Telling me that the reason she was locking herself in the toilet all the time, was that she didn't like me. After a while, this sort of thing started to sink into my little brain. Finally, the night of the end of year dance, I was sitting by the speakers at the front of the stage, slowly going deaf, waiting for her to come out of the toilets. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Eventually, Danny sat next to me, and he kept telling me what was happening in the girls toilets. He told me that she was trying to figure out some way to dump me! After a while, I got really upset by this. Eventually, she did emerge from the girls room. She was okay. She'd just been building her courage up to hang out with me. I didn't realise this. What ensued was me accusing her of everything that Danny had been planting in my head. (Yes, not very nice. It's was like a teenage Othello, with Danny as Iago, my GF as Desdemona, and me as Othello ... except of course, that I was white). What I discovered, was she absolutely hated Danny. Alas, my stupidity had got me into trouble. One thing she didn't need was my stupid accusations. A fight erupted, which eventuated in me getting myself dumped by her! I cried the rest of the night. I learned a lot about it all later - so I know she wasn't in the toilets trying to figure out how to dump me. She was apparently very confused by why a guy would be in love with her at all, and why I wanted to hang out all the time. Anyway, I guess there is also a lesson in not listening to gossip/propaganda etc. My fault. I don't blame the ex GF or Danny for what happened. (Though both of them were pretty weird in their own way). I am just happy that Danny was 100% unsuccessful in picking her up. As an afternote, Danny often tried for many of the GF's that I had, or girls I was chasing after. He was always unsuccessful! Somehow, it became a perosnal thing with him ... and at one time he was supposed to meet me behind the school sheds for a fight. (I think was over him hitting on one of my GF's and I was supposed to defend her honour). He chickened out. One of my friends spotted him sneaking out of school, and I ended up chasing him down the street. I was the smallest guy in school too ... can you imagine average sized Danny being chased by little me! haha! :-) Note: I am pretty much non-violent, but this was pretty funny. I wasn't the one who wanted the fight either! hee hee!

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That didn't stop the guys from trying to take girls away from me ... or even succeeding. Out at the nightclubs, I was pretty hopeless with finding GF's. My nights at disco's etc usually consisted of this:

• Spend all night getting courage to ask girl to dance. (Another Black Russian thanks)
• Finally, ask a girl to dance.
• Get up on the dance floor with the girl.
• Dance.
• Some other guy would dance over, start talking with the girl ... and off they'd go together!

DARN! It even got to the point where some of the guys actually knew me, and would wait to see which honey I brought to the dance floor. Then they'd move in and pick them up! I was so upset by what kept happening, that one of my friends and his GF decided to do something for me. My friends GF went up to the dance floor with me and danced with me. When the guys tried to pick her up, she told them, 'No way! Do you realise how good in bed this guy is?' I blushed redder than a Ferrari team uniform! It gave those guys some new respect for me. Didn't stop them picking up the girls I took up to the dance floor. They did, however, all act like I was some sort of hero when they saw me! (Much to my embarrassment). I suspect none of them had ever had a girl say that about them to anyone.

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Eventually, after many GF's, I was successful in finding a girl I thought worthy to keep. So, we got married (and later divorced). Even when I was married, guys would hit on my wife. The funny thing was, I was often there at the time. A conversation along the lines of this would occur:

• Guy: Hey, you wanna make out?
• Wife: No, I'm married.
• Guy: So, I don't care. You wanna make out?
• Wife: No, my husband is right here! (Pointing at me)
• Guy: So, I don't care.
• Me: Hey, she's said, 'No' twice already! We're married, don't you get it?
• Guy: Yeah, Okay. So, you wanna make out?

And off they'd go. Only to hit on her as soon as I went to the bathroom or something. Actually, I have a bit of a funny story before we got married too. An american guy who was a friend of my then GF and me, told me one night he was going to take my GF off me. I told him he couldn't. He kept telling me he was going to, because he thought my GF was in love with him an not me. (If you knew the guy, you'd know he thought this of all women!) Well, I told my GF about the conversation, and she thought it was weird. She thought he was one of the ugliest things on the planet (a bit uglier than a very charming slug, and less uglier than an very ugly slug). A few days later, I heard that he'd hit on her. He'd tried to convince her to leave me for him. This was of course hilariously funny for my GF and her friends. (And me too).

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Here is another example from after my divorce. One night, me and a large group of friends from my then second job went to the local pub. It was a Saturday night. One of my friends (who was also very married with three kids), was sitting on my lap (just as friends. Nothing sexual or anything ... it was a lack of chairs thing). Anyway, some guy was looking at her all night. (For a mother of three, she was still a pretty hot chick). So this guy (who must have been about twenty to twenty five), came over and started hitting on her. He was obviously very drunk. So you get the picture - I'm sitting there, she's on my lap, this guy is hitting on her! Like, SHE'S SITTING ON MY LAP DUDE! All the time, he's hitting on her, and he keeps looking at me and whispering appologies. Like, he wasn't fooling anyone! I kept telling him, 'She isn't my GF, she's my friend. Stop appologising.' But he wouldn't. He must have felt guilty. Anyway, eventually she took his phone number and stuff. (Not that I think she was going to use it ... but it did get rid of him).

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So, if you are a single girl out there, and you are having trouble picking up men, then this is the way to do it. Go to the pub with me (as friends) and you are almost sure to get picked up. [May only happen in Sydney]. It also only seems to work if people 'THINK' we are a couple. I don't know why. If it looks like we're just friends, then it doesn't work. The extra desperate amongst you, may want to just copy one of my photo's from this site. Blow the picture up to life size and stick it on the front of a dummy. (No one will notice any difference). Take it to the pub as a Dabido Doll. Tell me how it goes, I might just start marketing it! :-)

Quick How To Guides (Part One)

Guide One - How to Waste Dabido's Time: This morning, it was raining, and had been raining heavily all night. So instead of my one hour walk outside, I decided to do it inside. This took my two hours and five minutes. How did I manage to take so long to complete a one hour walk? Well, it comes down to time wasting. I don't like wasting my own time, but other people seem very adept at wasting mine. In my case, it was because my mother kept wanting to have conversations with me. Only, I was wearing a walkman and listening to a tape as I walked. My mother would keep saying things to me, and I'd have to turn the walkman off and ask her to repeat what she'd said. After having a brief discussion with her, I'd wait and see if she was going to continue. No, she had stopped talking. Good. On with the headphones and on with the play button. Then, just as I've taken one or two steps, she'd suddenly start talking to me again. Gees! Off with the play button. Off with the headphones. Then I'd have to get her to repeat it again. Mind you, none of this was important stuff either. Just random chatter my mother believed she needed to tell me. Add to this, the Governments latest effort. As you know, (If you are a regular reader) I am trying to do a Cert IV in Business as well as starting my very own small business. Last night, at four thirty, I received a phone call telling me that I wouldn't be allowed to start my course without clearance from a different Government Department (as they were unable to update it on their computer screens). Only problem, is the Government Dept. I needed to see, closed at four o'clock. So I had to wait till this morning. Down to the Government Dept. I went. I had obviously chosen the wrong time to go, as there was a large queue. My timing was even worse, as I was standing behind a lady, who smelled like a garlicy durian left out in the hot sun with horse sweat and pig fat smeared on her body. The worst thing was, the line was almost out the door, I was only just able to fit into the office. I tried to stand about two or more feet behind her, but more people kept arriving. On top of that, I noticed that a large amount of people were already waiting in the waiting room. Eventually, the line slowly moved forward. Only, this lady was waiting behind her husband. I was fortuitously not able to smell him. I figured his odour would be of a similar nature to his wife's. Only, she started to stand a few feet away form her husband, so much so, that eventually the line was in two parts; her and her husband, and the rest of us. The 'rest of us' was made up of about ten people, all trying to squeeze into the office. Maybe she was standing furthur back from him because he really did smell worse than her! I know, it's hard to believe, but the possibility was there. Eventually, they were served, and I was able to move to the very front of the line and 'the rest' were able to fit into the office. I got to see one of the people behind the counter, and they asked me to take a seat and someone would see me shortly. I looked around the waiting room, and realised that one side had all the seats taken up. The other side had some okay looking asian ladies. My radar is very good like that. Ask my friends, I've been sitting in Sydney pubs before, with my back to the door, and suddenly gone 'Asian girls' and spun around. Sure enough, a group of asian girls would be walking through the door right at that instant. I should point out, there were no windows, or mirrors to catch reflections or anything. Sometimes I just know! (My spider sense is tingling). The joke being, that if I ever get to Japan, I'll get whiplash in the first five minutes after getting off the plane. Anyway, what I didn't realise, was 'smelly lady' and her husband were sitting over this side of the room. In fact, they were sitting four seats away from each other. Obviously, they don't like each other's smell! Who can blame them? Well, I ended up walking to the back of the waiting room, and tried not to sit near either of them. I started off pretending to be reading the Government Properganda on the walls. After a while, I ran out of things to read, so I had to take a seat somewhere. I sat in one of the chairs behind and to the right of 'smelly lady'. Eventually, all the people we getting seen to. A Government official would come out and call their name, and they would disappear into a distant office / cubicle somewhere. While waiting, they called for a guy, who's last name she called 'Coran or Koran' or something (pronounced like the Islamic Holy Book). He corrected her, and said it wasn't Coran. Somehow they'd added Coran onto the end of his name. The rest of his name was correct, so he got to disappear into the back office. It got me wondering though. What if his last name was 'Koran', like the Holy Book? Would that be considered blasphemous or extra holy by Muslims? Of course, it might have been from another language, so might just sound the same, in which case, would it still be an acceptable name if the person converted to Islam? (Yes, these are the sort of crazy thoughts which go through my brain. Especially when waiting or bored). Eventually, my name was called, and I was ushered into a cubicle to talk to the Government official. They were perplexed by why I was there. Apparently, they have nothing to do with my course or business and told me so. They tried to phone the people who had phoned me! Sorry, they couldn't contact them today. Anyway, they told me, another Government Department handles this sort of thing, and they have to talk to them. Nothing to do with me. So I was sent off. So, one hour of my morning wasted in Government waiting rooms for no reason at all. Only, according to the phone call last night, if it doesn't get sorted out by Wednesday, then I won't be able to start my course. No course, means no business. No business, means WTF am I still doing in Australia!!!!? If I turn up tomorrow and find they won't let me do the course, then I really am off to the UK. (Yes, I keep threatening to do it. I keep trying to find ways to stay here ... but the Government just keeps finding ways to behave incompetently and ruin every attempt I make to stay here.)

Found!

Most of you probably don't know (as I don't think anyone reading this is from Perth), but they have been looking for a young boy (14 years old) for the last three weeks. My mother and I drove past a big police search the other week. There were television crews and everything. As I was helping out at the PCYC, I also got talking to some of the police I knew. I was of the opinion (as were some of the police) that the poor boy had been murdered. My mother however, was certain he was alive somewhere. Today, there was some good news, and some bad news. The good news is the police found him alive! Apparently, he was in such bad shape, that even the police cried when they found him. He's been taken to hospital. He was found in a house not very far from where he'd last been seen. Two men, one aged forty one and the other aged forty four have been charged with obstructing his freedom. The News haven't said any more, but you can imagine how sick the two guys must be to have taken the young boy. I won't go into details, but it is a shame that in todays society, that this sort of things still occurs. I am, of course refraining from saying much more. It is best to keep ones emotions in tact in cases like this. More details will come to light, so we will wait until we hear more officially.

Malaysian Astro! (Not Idol! Astro!)

I wonder if any of my Malaysian friends will try to enter the MALAYSIAN ASTRONAUT CONTEST. Yes, Malaysia is going to be voting to see who it can send into space. (Yes, forget Malaysian Idol ... you want to tune into Malaysian Astro) :-) Technically, they'll be goin gup wit the Russians, so they will be a Cosmonaut, not an Astronaut. (Have to get the marketing correct!) I'll let you all decide WHO from the blog sphere should be nominated as potential candidates. Actually, suggest a few names here if you like. I vote for KY ... I just figured he might like the opportunity to be first Malaysian in space. Think of the Pictures he could stick on his blog then! :-) (Move the cursor over the pic and it turns into a funny joke involving Mooning and Uranus!) :-)

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The Montreal Gazette has and interesting article about a guy who has invented a Hydrogen Generating Module for cars. What's it mean? Well, less polution, more savings for car owners and combats global warming. Let's hope it works out. I've seen many things like this bought out by the Petroleum cartel in order to keep themsevles in business. Actually, I think the first Petroleum producer to break ranks might actually be the one who will end up making the most money (and even putting a few of their competitors out of business). They really just need to think it through, and time it right, and they will leave their competitors behind. (Maybe they need to buy a car manufacturer too, to make it all come together very fast!)

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Received my acceptance for the Certificate IV in Small Business Management course today! Woo hoo! Another piece of paper to add to my resume! I am so excited! Let's face it, I love to learn new things! (Probably why I READ SO MUCH!) One of the things it says is, 'You may like to bring your own laptop computer.' That's funny, I would like to bring one ... um ... except I don't own one! Darn it! It came with a 'Language, Literacy & Numeracy Assessment Form Certificate Level IV'. Basically a small test to see what level of English and Mathematics you are at! I almost laughed at how easy it was. When I got to the end, I then read the last page - it says you don't have to do the test if you can prove you've completed year twelve or a Cert IV level in anything! Um ... why didn't they say this at the BEGINNING of the test? I can prove I completed Year Twelve, plus I ahve my Marketing and Theology Certs! That's THREE things straight off the bat, and all were sitting in a folder next to me as I did the test! That's the problem with being pro-active. You get something, you react and finish it, and find that you didn't need to! (Believe me, the letter of acceptance said I had to do the test, and the test had nothing else written on the front to say I didn't need to!) I just thought (from the letter) that it had to be done. Anyway, sometimes you turn up to these things and they tell you, you have to do the test anyway! Better safe than sorry.

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I finished 'Moab is My Washpot' the other day.

As I said previously, it is sad in parts. Not that Stephen was after the sympathy vote. He really just tells it like it is, in a humourus fashion, so that we get a good laugh along the way. Not a laugh at his expense mind you, just a laugh, to show that there is humour inmost of life's situations if we look for them. It's more a bitter sweet sort of saddness though. A remorse because of some of the things he'd done, and wasn't proud of. It's given me the hunger to seek out his other writtings (knowing that his fictional novel, 'The Thief' is partially based on his own life). The book also concentrated mainly on his 'school' days and the days shortly after that. I was a bit upset that it wasn't longer and didn't go into greater details of his life after school / University. University and Hugh Laurie are mentioned almost as a footnote at the end of the book. I wonder if he is planning another book from when he started at University, to now. I'm sure he has enough material to do this.

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I also finished reading 'Warren Buffet Wealth', by Robert P. Miles. I can sum up this book in a few lines ... or bullet points.

1. Live below your means.
2. Avoid Debt (no credit cards, loans etc)
3. Purchase VALUE companies and hold them for life.
4. Don't diversify (as it waters down your profits. If you bought the right company/shares etc, then you shoud only be benefiting from them. Diversification is a way to minimising loss from poor decisions).
5. If you can't find a VALUE company, then don't purchase anything.
6. Give back to the community/world.

I feel I must explain a VALUE company (one of the reasons for using capitals & italics to highlight it). A Value company is one which is worth more than it's shares are selling at. Anyone who has done their research will be able to find such companies. (Do a business course or an investment course which teaches how to value companies - or better yet, read some books which explain it - 'Security Analysis' by Benjamin Graham and David Dodd comes to mind). I am fortuitous in the fact that I learnt (while being left on the streets of Sydney) how to live below my means. I saved up, while working in a factory, to return to University (though I then left University, as I realised it wasn't what I wanted to do with my life). Okay, so that was a slight mistake. Actually, I plan to return and finish all my courses one day. (Yes, all six of them!) Plus, add a few others along the way. If you've read my bullet points, then I dont' think you need to read the book (but it is a good read, so grab a copy if you feel so inclined). It does give good examples to back up what it is saying. I was about to say, 'It's not for everyone' ... actually, I did write that, then I deleted it. I think good money management is for everyone. Let's face it, we all earn money, we all want to maximise it's potentials. Good money management should be taught in school while we are still young. Drummed into us. It can certainly help in the 'First World' (Rich developed countries) where most people earn enough to not only feed themselves, but to have a good life. When I was working in a factory earning $12k a year (a pitance even then), I was able to make ends meet, AND save enough to return to University for a year. Anyone in the west earning even a low wage should be able to get by, if only they learn to use their money right. In underdeveloped countries, it is more difficult. Still, it is not impossible and money management doesn't change from country to country. (Starving communities without income it is impossible to do this ... after all, you can't live below your means, if you have no means of support). That's what point six in the list is about. YOU who can earn/save and use your wealth should want to give back, as a humanitarian. I've written enough today ... I coudl go on ... and on ... but I know a lot of readers don't read the really long posts! Defeats the purpose of my writing such long posts! :-)

Se7en (the Meme, not the movie)

Was passed this meme from Beerbabe: Seven things you plan to do before you die:

1. Visit Japan
2. Become a Millonaire
3. Complete one of the F***ing degrees that I've started [Degrees started so far - BAppSc(Geology1985); BAppSc(Physics 1987); BCompSc(1996); BA(two different ones, 2002); BGenStudies(2002).]
4. Marry a Japanese Woman (Or at least an asian one ... but she has to lie to me and tell me she's Japanese. Yeah, I know, it's an unhealthy obsession!)
5. White Water Raft on every continent on earth (possibly including Antarctica if we are allowed to slide a zodiac down a big icey slope)
6. Release an Album (Music)
7. Get published at least once more (novel preferably)

Seven things I could do:

1. Study more
2. Become a better/nicer/gentler/kinder person
3. Work out more
4. Give more to the poor
5. Do more volunteer work
6. Purchase tiles and flooring and fix my mother's floor in her house.
7. Pray and read the Bible more

Seven Celebrity crushes: None have torn their way through the Teflon suit! (Hee hee) but, in the spirit of things ... You know, I really, honestly don't know! These are possibilities ... but really, I don't think about that sort of thing too much.

1. Vicki Zhao Wei (She sooo cute)
2. Zhang Ziyi (Hidden Dragon! Woo hoo!)
3. Gigi Leung
4. Any of the GIRLS (Not Transvesites) on Nics Blog - Post 1, or post 2 ... or previous Japan posts.
5. Hitomi Kuroki
6. Yumiko Shaku (Well, most of Japan actually)
7. Um ... probably so many other Japanese movie actress (and Chinese ones ... and other asian ones) I haven't even heard of!

Seven often repeated words / phrases:

1. There's a reason for that!
2. Yeah, Yeah! Sure, Sure!
3. Um ...
4. What?
5. Holy Smackerel! (Yes, I do get strange looks when I say that.)
6. Shut Up! (Usually when talking to the dogs)
7. Here! (Also, when talking to the dogs)

Seven physical traits I look for in the opposite sex:

1. Nice Face
2. Nice Hair (Preferably BLACK)
3. Nice Smile
4. Nice / Okay body (aka, not a waif, and not a beached whale - somethng in between, hopefully with some baby fat) :-)
5. Nice mouth (Not too big, not too small)
6. Same height as me (Don't liek looking down on people, don't like looking up!)
7. Asian (Preferably Japanese)

Seven tags go to:

1. Ghoul (If he wants it and hasn't had it before)
2. Melisa
3. Doro
4. Sarah
5. Anyone else who comes here who wants it or hasn't had it (I know a lot have already had it passed to them. Difficult to keep up with) Grab it if you want it!
6. [Soul Thief ... do you still come here? Grab the meme!] :-)
7. <--- the number seven ... just added this line to round it out! :-)

Real Wealth

2600 years ago, Aesop told a fable about a miser. The miser was a penny pinching, tight wade. He saved and saved his entire life. Eventually, he took everything he owned to the market, and sold it. In return, he purchased a lump of gold. He took the lump of gold, and buried it in a hole in the ground. Every day, he would go and look at his lump of gold. One day, he got to where he had buried the lump of gold, and after digging the hole in the ground, and found that someone had stolen the lump of gold. He was distraught. His entire life savings had been stolen. Learning of what had happened to the old miser, his neightbour suggested that he find a stone and bury it in the same place. The miser could then imagine that the stone was his lump of gold. The miser was upset. Why would he bury a stone in the ground? 'Well,' his neighbour replied. 'It will be performing the exact same service. After all, when you had the gold, you made no use of it what-so-ever!'

----

The moral of the story, for those of you who didn't follow it, is that unless you are using your wealth (or talents or anything), then they really don't exist. In order to possess something truely, you must use what you have. Otherwise, it's about as useful as a stone buried in the ground.

Mondegreens!

Woke up this morning, went for a walk. Started pouring with rain, so stopped early. I normally time my one hour walk by putting the alarm to go off on my mobile phone. I forgot about it and hit the shower. Was standing there in my towel, when suddenly the alarm went off ... and I'd left the phone in my study. Argh! Had over half the house to run in my towel, with my mother sitting in the dining room playing on her computer. I had to make the dash too ... when does a mobile alarm stop ringing? When the battery goes flat! Anyway, as a lot of you know, I read the Japan Times everyday (or almost everyday), and found this funny piece I thought I would share. It's about Mondegreen's (The article explains where they get this title from). A Mondegreen is a misheard lyric in a song, and there have been plenty by lots of people. Please share yours here, as I will mine: The first few times I heard 'I'm Every Woman', I misheard the lyrics as: Climb Every Woman. Of course, I knew I'd misheard it. Why would a woman sing, 'Climb Every Woman'? Doesn't make sense. So I waited till I knew what was being sung before ever singing along. Of course, being a musician, we have a little 'trade' secret we don't offen tell people. What happens when you forget the lyrics to the song you are singing on stage? You make stuff up till you get to a part you know; Or just mumble along incoherently till you get to a bit you remember; Or my favourite, sing one of the other verses. (Yeah, I've sung the first verse of a song three times once as I couldn't remember the second or third verses! People who know the song often comment after you make these mistakes!); another common thing to do, is to suddenly point the microphone at the audience (or someone in the audience) who are singing along! (It gets a lot of them to either shout louder, or shut up!) :-) A Mondegreen my sister and one of her friends once used to sing, was to the Kiss version of '2000 Man' (Originally by the Rolling Stones). Instead of 'Hey Father, proud of your son?' They'd sing, 'Hey we're, coming out of the sun!' Or one I once heard of - Bronski beats 'Hit that Perfeft Beat Boy' sung as 'Hit the perfect meatball' What's your favourite Mondegreen (either from one you have misheard yourself, or someone else)? I'll try to remember some others I've done or people I know have done. (p.s. Don't go out and try to 'climb every woman' ... they get upset for some reason!) :-)

Exhaust

Very, very tired after an exhausting day. Woke up this morning, and my right eye was twitching. My right eye is the one which suffers the most. When I was six years old in Penang, Malaysia, my next door neighbour (who was also in the same class as me at school), threw some rocks at me. Some of the rock fragments got caught in my iris. I ended up seeing a Doctor Lee, on King Street (I think). This was a plus, as he had some very cute nurses (Chinese). Good thing my left eye was still working! :-) Even at this tender age, I still had a 'thing' for Asian girls. (Readers might remember me once before mentioning a crush I had on my Ahmah's daughter Helen. I was about six, and she was ten! Damn older woman!) :-) Well, after a month of the nurse lying me downand using a contraption which flooded my eye with water, Dr Lee gave me the all clear. I could see out of my right eye again. I'd spent the month with a bandage over my right eye, and I ws told, not to peek out from the bandages, as it would make the iris contract, and the rock fragments would damage the iris. Being all of six, it never stopped me. I would peek quite often and think I was just being naughty! :-) Thanks Dr Lee and your nurses! You saved my eyesight. Anyway, this morning, the right eye wouldn't stop twitching. It might be eye strain. I just hope that at the tender age of forty, my 20/20 vision hasn't at last given up on me. My father and mother had glasses at much earlier ages than me. I must have got good eye genes. (Though I am worried after a comment I left on someone elses blog ... was like I am going stupid or blind!) Well, got to work, and there was plenty to do. We still don't have the eight computers to set up. Anyway, I faxed my application through to do the Cert IV in Small Business Management. Seventeen page application! (Yeah, who can't write such a small amount!) :-) Spent most of the day wondering if I was accepted! Lots of other work to do. Was asked to take photo's of the Tiny Tot's Gym class. I got the instructor to get permission from all the parents. The stupid camera has a delay on it, and it takes a few seconds before it actually takes the shot! Very difficult when kids don't stop moving for you! The batteries started giving out, and I had to stop. Later in the day I had to go home for lunch. I made my lunch the night before (as I always do) and then forgot it this morning! Baka Dabido!!!! Went back to work ... was flat out again till about three thirty. Then, ran out of work to do! Good thing, as it'is my last day till I complete my course. Got home, phoned regarding the course! I'd made IT! I was accepted! (But, you knew I would be!) So, my business (hopefully) will be next on the agenda! I'm also planning on doing a simultaneous Cert IV in Training and Work Place Assessment. Have to free up my money from my managed funds to do that though. Got home ... walked for half an hour as the dogs were playing up. There is a rock 'n' roll thing happening up the road, so music and loud crowd making noise! Dogs loved barking at it. So got them in. Will have to do some weights in a minute. not much else happening. Cooking borign old dinner at present. Will watch the NEW Survivor series just starting tonight.

Allergy Doctor Revisited!

Started the day on a bad note. Got up, and my mother immediately wanted an arguement! She did this by telling me I was wrong about something, and I asked her if she even listened to what I had said. She then tried to back out of it by pretending she hadn't said 'No', but had actually said, 'I know'. (If you were here, you'd see why it wasn't the case. She was insisting that someone was decended from the English, and I was pointing out that they also had New Zealand Grandparents ... okay, the sentence was something like this - No, you're wrong! Her Grandmother is from England! Now, what my mother tried to pretend she'd said - I know! You're Wrong! Her Grandmother is from England! Not a very convincing arguement in context!) Well, she then tried to tell me I was in a cranky mood and said she didn't know why she bothered getting out of bad. Then she stormed off to bed, and I went off to work. Got to work, and Rebecca was in a bad mood. She didn't stop complaining for the first fifteen minutes. So when she asked how I was, I said I was Okay ... lol Kylie was phoned (I took the original call), and looks like she has a new job with the Department of Justice. Congrates Kylie. I was then given a heap of stuff to do. So was flat out. At 12:45, I finally finished everything. (Was looking for smoke machine/lights hiring companies, as well as chasing computer equipment I was going to need etc). Was amazed at my boss. Someone asked how good I was on the guitar, and he said I was a legend. He said I was a guru on the computers, but was even better on guitar! WOW! What a compliment! Hmmmm, why don't I return to being a full time musician! Only thing holding me back is I need to start practicing again and get some confidence up! Well, I am considering recording that 'Baroque Guitar' Album. We'll see what happens with the Macro Plan and business etc. There were supposed to be four Work For The Dole people in today. Only Michael turned up. Amanda phoned to say she couldn't make it ... and the other two ... I have no idea! Doesn't matter. Michael vaccuumed the gym and some other stuff ... and then got to go home early. Once I finished everything, I left at 12:45. I was going to leave at 1pm, but Chas gave me an early minute. Got home in time to take her for her check up. I think the extra lie in might have helped. She was no longer cranky or starting arguements. I drove her to the hospital, and we got there ten minutes after leaving home! Amazing. Normally takes fifteen to twenty minutes. I guess the lack of roadworks is the reason. (Normally lots on the way. They've completed the Tonkin Highway access ramps, so less work being done). My mother was amazed (once again) that my quick and easy route is quicker than her 'backroad' convoluted routes she normally takes. (My mother is an expert at making complex ways of getting places. I just look at the map and go ... hmmm, straight down the Highway and turn left. my mother will look at the map and go left, right left right left right, following a backstreet path which basically follows the one road!) We had forty minutes to wait till she was to se the Doctor, so we walked extra slow to the Doctors rooms. We even got passed by (what my mother called) 'geriatrics'. Yes, we were walking so slow seventy and eighty year olds over took us! Got to the rooms, and had a ten minute wait as the receptionist was on the phone. That chewed up more time. Then we only had ten more minutes to wait! It ended up being fifteen (the Doctor was a little late). My mother was fine. Her Operation was a success. She doesn't have cancer or anything! Woo Hoo! What she did have was very unusual and the Doctor was going to have to consult another specialist about it. He just assured her that it was nothing bad! Just ... different! My mother was happy, and I treated her to Subway. She really didn't have a clue about ordering, and the poor girl behind the counter had to bite her tongue I think! (Imagine Abraham Simpson ordering ... then you get the idea!) Got home, and I read through the usual blogs. Then, off for my own Doctors appointment with my specialist. Short version - I don't need an epipen for my allergies! Cool! That'll save me money. (Will be p***ed off beyond belief if I get stung by a bee or something though!) Got home ... and ready to do some studying and watch a littel TV. Princess Blade and Ghost in the Shell (the TV series) are on tonight. Not sure if I will watch them though. I have Princess Blade on DVD. Have seen 'Ghost in the Shell' the movie. Haven't seen the TV series! Not sure if I will like it or not.

Akira and Terrence!

What Akira and Goh really look like without their shirts on!

Something to fear - Five idiots to Midnight!

USA - Reported in the Washington Post today, was that the USA is going to pass a bill allowing them to use nuclear weapons in pre-emptive strikes. Anyone else feeling a little scared by this bill? There is a reason why the Police do not have 'pre-emptive' powers against people, and why most nations don't allow pre-emptive strikes on other nations. It's because 'Pre-emption' normally means that 'you think' they are going to do something, so you get in first! The fact is, we can't read minds, and we don't actually know if things will happen! Think of all the times during the cold war when there were build ups of arms on boarders and the world was at the brink ... but diplomacy pulled us back, just in time. With this policy, there may not be a 'just in time'. Things will build, and build. Rather than waiting to see what ACTUALLY happens, now there will be a, 'Let's attack now! Before they get the first shot in!' It's the old joke: General Public: When did this war start? President: It started when they hit us back! With the opposing nations also knowing of the US 'pre-emptive strike' policy, they probably won't wait either anymore! They know the US will strike ASAP, and so they'll just strike! The difference being, now the political grandstanding and diplomacy phases have been removed! Wasn't 'pre-emption' what got the British police in trouble recently? Look a bit foreign, wear a napsack or coat, run a little, get shot! After all, it's what they THINK you might do that gets you shot or in trouble, not what you are actually doing. I worry too, that the article says they will use the nukes against terrorists! Terrorists are usually mixed in with the populations of countries. It's not like are all in one town, or one city. [Next exit Terrorist City 1km]. If they were, they'd be easy to combat! No, they mix in with the general population, look like us, and seem as normal as possible. Next time a tube station gets attack, is the US going to drop a nuke on London to get rid of the terrorists? Terrorism involves a different sort of warfare. Nuking large parts of the general population just doesn't work. Intelligence is needed, and pin pointing individuals. If a terrorist training camp is found, surely the new smart bombs are enough to take it out, without spreading nuclear contamination on the face of the earth (and through the air we breath!) Weeding out terrorists and terrorist cells is more like getting rid of termites! You don't demolish a house just because it has a small termite infestation in the roof. You go in, spray for termintes, then remove the damaged wood and replace it with good wood! The majority of the world aren't terrorists! Even in nations which harbour and support terrorism, there is still a large amount of the population who are normal people and want to live in peace. (Sure, they can't do much about the terrorists in their neighbourhood, because if they speak out, they'd get shot!) There is also another problem! What is there to stop the US from just walking in anywhere? It smacks of Hitler's war against Poland and Czechslovakia. Germany annexing the Czech's and attacking the Poles were made out to be strikes by Germany to keep it's boarders safe from supposedly hostile neighbours. There was a reason it only took one month to take out Poland! They weren't ready for a war. If they really were the aggressive neighbours, there would have been a build up of forces and Poland would have lasted a lot longer. Possibly long enough for the British and French to have at least got a better defense together, rather than the half cocked effort that was thrown together. I remember a poll taken before the Iraq war, where American's were amazed that 95% of the rest of the world thought that GW Bush would be the next person to start a war ... that 95% of people were RIGHT! If we took a poll now for America to see what the rest of the world thinks about the 'Pre-emptive' policy, would they listen to us? I would be happy to hear what the polls in the US are saying as well. Why is nuking a nation into a boiling pot of lava before they are a threat to anyone a good thing?

Someone Must Love Me!

Wow! My e-mail is constantly being jammed with PHISHES for e-bay and paypal, and I just received an e-mail telling me my e-bay account had been compromised ... only, I am pretty sure it's a PHISH of some sort too ... even though it looks like it came from e-bay, it arrived with a virus attached. I automatically deleted the file in question. I started running my virus checker, and it spotted two other viruses attached to my C drive. Hmmm, these are new. My system was clean on the weekend. Anyway, they will require a manual remove, as my virus scanner could neither remove, nor stick them in the vault, nor clean the infected files! Not good. I'll quickly try a few of my other virus scanners, in the hope that one of them can clean the files ... otherwise it's onto the internet for it. I seem to be getting targeted a LOT lately. MainlyPHISHES and VIRUSES (I've had a few come my way, but my firewalls and protection seem to catch them ... plus I am paying for virus protection though my ISP ... wonder how many they catch before it even gets to me?) On other sites I'm getting a lot of those stupid SPAMS, you know the ones, 'I am the Son/Daughter of a Nigerian/Kazakstan/Somalian/etc President and i need your bank account number to stick millions into it' etc. Then there are the RUSSIAN / CHINESE / JAPANESE / and other foreign language e-mails I often get spamed with. Mainly advertising cheap software, porn sites or whatever! (Okay, my Russian is exceptionally minimal and my Chinese is pretty bad! I can read some of the Japanese ones though ... except when written in that script that leaves funny question marks in diamonds instead of proper script!) THEN, there are all those girls from Coast D'Ivory, Russia, etc who send me love letters on the chatsites / Friend sites etc. 'You are handsome, I want to meet you in person! Please, be my BF. I have read your profile, you are man I want to marry! I love you' blah, blah, blah, blah! Yeah sure, you've never met me and you think one e-mail like that will convince me you love me!? Ppth! How stupid must you think I am? (And all the other men you send that crap to!) I know they send it to everyone they can, because some sites I have more than one profile ... and I get the same SPAM! So, which one you really love? My Profile A, or Profile B, or Profile C ... hmmm, sounds like Perfect Match (for those who remember that dating show!) Then, there are the times I receive the same SPAM from different profiles! Like it's some form letter that someone in Russia or Coast D'Ivory is selling to stupid girls wanting to leave for the West. If I'm wearing a TEFLON suit for the girls who know me in real life etc, then surely I must be wearing a concrete bunker for those who send this sort of non-sense to me. Surely no one can fall for that sort of stuff! But then again, PHISHERS seem to make money from it ... maybe there are some girls who get ou tof Russia/Coast D'Ivory etc from these things! I guess there really is 'One born every minute'!

Impossible List ... Almost Complete!

Well, go up this morning. Yesterday, my mother asked me like five times to take her to the shopping mall. Everytime, I said, 'Yes!' I don't know why she insists on annoying me by asking the same qustions over and over after I already told her I would do something. So I got up this morning, and I took her shopping. Shopping consists of me following her around a supermarket pushing the trolley. This was the first time out since her operation. There is something very weird about my family. [Other than me that is! :-P] My Grandmother has been a recluse most of her life. A virtual shut in. She won't go anywhere without my Uncle John (who lives with her and looks after her). My mother is sort of the same. She hates to go anywhere, and she prefers to get either me or my brother to go places and get things for her. Often, she will request us to do things, and we refuse, because we know we can't buy what she wants. I am using the term 'can't' in the sense that no matter what we buy, she will say it's not what she wanted! Like if she wants us to buy blue curtains or something. If we actually purchase them, then she will say they're too light, or too dark ... or the material is wrong. That's why I always insist she comes with us to purchase such things. Normally, she'll refuse to go, and we won't have to get the item. She does normally go shopping or to the post office withoout a problem though. Since her operation (well, since her bleeding), she has basically been relying on us to do everything for her. So, today's venture outside, even to do shopping, was a great thing (at least for me). On Thursday I am taking her back for her post operation visit with the Doctor. (Get the results. Make sure nothing cut out was cancerous etc). Oh, I side tracked. I was going to complain about the way she tries to shop when I am there. As I've taken her shopping quite often, I have to go throug hthe same routine again and again. This consists of her telling me to go ahead of her, and me explaining that I can't. She has to go first. I don't know where she is going, or what she is after. Every shopping trip it happens a number of times. Probably two or three, and on occassions, almost everytime we stop for her to pick something up. I think part of the excitement she gets with having me along, is occassionally, people think that we are a couple! My younger brother Paul hasn't been anywhere with my mother since a car salesman refered to her as Paul's 'pregnant wife'. Paul was very offended! My mother thought it was funny ... though she didn't like the fact that her 'fat' was mistaken for being pregnant! Often people have said similar things to us. Like when a checkout lady once told me I should buy my GF flowers, and nodded towards my mother. I was very offended, but I take these things in stride. Other times I've had people laugh at me, as they think my mother and I are a 'couple', and wonder how an old woman landed such a young guy ... the jokes on them. They shouldn't jump to conclusions. It's my MOTHER not my GF you bodoh idiotic baka gila brained people! Anyway, my mother likes it. She gets a kick out of it. I guess it's better than when I am with my younger brother and people think we're a gay couple! Anyway ... on with today's events. Got home, (and to be perfectly honest, I wasn't sure we were ever going to get home), and still had my business stuff to get in order. The hardest thing, was trying to get three 'Letter's of Intent'. My old boss never returned my call, nor my e-mail to him. In fact, he hasn't replied to a number of e-mails I've sent him, so I think he can't be bothered anymore. I waited most of the day, and then phoned the PCYC to see what they had done. Nothing. Chas is on annual leave, and didn't receive my e-mail. On Thursday, I'll be writing the 'Letter of Intent' for them, and Kylie's going to sign it. Another 'Letter of Intent' is going to be signed by another company, but I have to write that one for them as well. (It's becoming a habit ... not only do I need to do everything for my business, I have to do the other companies bits for it was well! I need a company that does everything, then I won't have to worry about other businesses at all! I'll just buy and sell to myself!) I spoke to my brother Paul, who knows some people who own businesses, and he knows some will be more than happy to talk to me about it. Hopefully, my third and final 'letter of intent' will come from them. I spoke to the Local Council and cleared things with them, also with Insurance and heaps of other stuff. Looks like it might all be a go - ahead. If it doesn't come about, then I'm heading off to the UK. My mother doesn't want that! Oh, I had ANOTHER JOB OFFER FROM SYDNEY!!!!! SYDNEY! I LEFT THERE! WHY OFFER ME A JOB WHEN YOU KNOW I'VE LEFT!!!!???? Anyway, it was a very long and depressing day! I hated it! Left me very depressed in the end! What I need is a job which allows me to read books all day. Not review them, just read them! Not bad books either, or stuff in a slush pile! I don't want to be an editor or anything! I need a job where I get to read good literature, and science fiction, and comedies! Or even encyclopedias! Things I like to read! No such job could ever exist of course. Even if I had the job, I'd be thinking, I need a job where I get to draw pictures all day ... or play music all day ... or write all day ... let's face it, I'll always be wanting to do something else! Actually,I think the trauma of today was what probably set me off. Too much of my mother, and too much of trying to through together business plans etc (which often really are just guesses and hopeful wishes), and too depressing chasing other people for 'Letter's of Intent' which I am going to end up writing myself. I should just invent a company, make a letterhead and sign the 'Letter of Intent' myself under some pseudonym pretending it's a real company that wants my services! It's almost the same thing! In fact, if my brother Paul can't find the third company to sign a letter of intent, then the whole thing is for naught anyway! At least I have TWO so far. Somedays I wonder what it's all about, and if it's all worth it anyway! When I was in school, all I ever wanted to do was write, paint and play music ... any of those for a living would have been worth it. Yet, the world always likes to push me away from such things! I feel wasted! Of course, it's the depression after my body has started getting rid of that coke I drank the other day! Not enough sleep, and then my body needs to get rid of that Sodium Benzoate preservative they stick in coke! Always causes depression in me! Anyway, back on my allergy diet now! Rice, potatoes, green beans, preservative free bread, water and soya milk! See, so much quicker to name what I can eat, rather than name what I can't! :-) Saw a new Simpsons episode tonight ... and I don't think I laughed once! Was it the Simpsons? Or was it just me? It's rained most of today too. That never helps! No exercise - no walking! I probably should have done some weights or yoga! Anyway, I have no idea what I want to do with my life still! I think I am going to die not knowing what I wanted to do! I recieved an e-mail saying how good my blog is. I suspect it is SPAM though. (Something in the content gave it away!) I could be wrong! [Nah! They said my blog was great! They must be lying! This is the blog with the twenty secret quite readers!] :-) Actually, this morning, I had so much to blog about, I was wondering when I would finish blogging on any of my ideas! Maybe I need to write a Blog article on 'THINGS TO BLOG ABOUT. ' Then, people can link to that post, and when they hit a block, they just click on the link, and Hey! Presto! Instant ideas!

Impossible Task List for Monday! :-)

Before I start on today's event's and the impossible task list I have been set, I'll just quickly stick two links I find of interest here. First, from the Japanese Times, and interesting article concerning the US and the wars against Afghanistan and Iraq. Then, (as a bit of a security freak), her eis an interestign article I nabbed from SlashDot concerning the Six dumbest Ideas in Security. Haven't we all had idiot managers in our lives who believed in 'security thrugh obscurity' ... and you try to tell them it doesn't work, but they think they know better because they're managers! (Managers are dumb ... says ME, the next CEO of his own company ... maybe!) Yesterday I broke my allergy diet! My mtoher wanted take away chips for dinner, so my brother Jeff and I went and bought soem fish and chips for my mother. I also bought a bottle of coke for them (as my brother had conveniently ran out of money). When I got home, I thought, gees, I paid for half the fish and chips and coke ... I think I should eat/drink some of them. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Except, because my body REALLY isn't used to caffine, I just couldnt' sleep! (That's why I am known as a 'stayer' at the pub or parties ... always partying ... well, my secret is out. I ain't partying, I just can't friggin' sleep!) I was also breaking out in cold sweats! Wonder why that was? Maybe I'm in love ... with coke! :-) Well, at five in the morning, I was still wide awake. Only I needed to get up at seven! Arrrrgghh! What to do? I heard my brother get up and shower to go to work. I needed sleeeeeeeep! So I did a drastic thing. I took my mouth splint out (which stops my sleep apnea) and decided the only course of action was to allow my sleep apnea to stop me breathing a little. I was asleep in a few minutes. So I got almost two hours sleep. Then, I had to get up and get ready. I went for a long walk to a faraway bus stop. I couldn't get on my normal bus, as it wouldn't arrive at the right time. (Either too early or too late). I didn't want to wait around. So I did a twenty minute walked all the way another bus route. I got into the city on time, and then had to make it all the way to North Perth. I couldn't find the Blue Cat (Free City Bus) stand at the bus terminal. I looked at the map and saw that it had a few stops just outside and down the road a little. So I went for a little walk to find one of the blue cat bus stops. Only, I miss read the map, and was on he wrong road. Eventually, I got to a road I knew the blue cat takes, and found a bus stop for it. I then checked the map! Argh! Bodoh Dabido! That's why I hadn't seen any bus stops on that road ... it was the one parallel to the actual route! I had a four minute wait for the bus. It came, I hopped on caught it to the stop outside the arts centre, and then did the fifteen minute walk to where I needed to go. I got their five minutes early. I was ushered in to discuss my plans for my own business. Mind you, I dont' get any funding or anything for starting this. I just get some mentorship etc. I also am required to do a Certificate IV in Business Management. Easy to pass ... but I was given an impossible task to perform. Today is Monday (You knew that), and I was given to Wednesday Morning to get three business's to give me a 'Letter of Intent' to say they woul dbe using my services! Um ... that gives me tomorrow to get those letters! no tmuch time. The reason the time factor is so short, is the course starts next Monday. So I have to get my enrollment in ASAP. There were some other things I need to do. I have to get Business Insurance, and Local Government Approval too! I left the meeting wondering if I coud do it. A little voice in my head said I could! Hey, I've worked in Network Engineering! Impossible! That's Standard Operating Procedure! Plus, I've worked in System Administration with managers who wouldn't know how to manage a piss up in a brewery! The Impossible?! Huh! That was an everyday responsibility under them! So, today and tomorrows impossible tasks:

• Three business 'Letter's of Intent' to prove someone wants what my business will do.
• Get Business Insurance worked out. (Public Liability, Professional Indemnity and Comprehensive Cover!)
• Get Local Government Approval to operate the business.
• Create a Business Action Plan.
• Do a Risk Analysis of my competitors.
• Prove I can provide something the competition is not providing.
• Provide a 12 month provisional expenditure report. (Of operating costs and personal expenses). Have to prove I won't go bancrupt.
• Perform Market Research of the idea (to prove there ae even more customers out there).
• Sign an Indemnity Statement to release the consultancy company of any liablity if it all goes belly up.
• Fax all the paper work (plus some other things, like qualifications etc) through to the consultancy.

If I fail to do ONE of those things, then I don't get to start the business! Hmmm, time is ticking away. I then had a twenty minute walk back to the state library (I didn't catch a free cat anywhere this time). Main reason I wanted to drop into the library, was to check on the sort of books there have there. Especially the computer books. I can't borrow directly from the state library, I ahve to return to my local library and place an order for a book to be sent there. Then when my local library gets it, I can go and pick it up and borrow it! I also had a good look at the Philosophy and Psychology books they had on offer, as well as the MUSIC! WOW! So many classical guitar books! I was in heaven! I also had a look around the other stuff (like the other sorts of guitar books and the scores and the oboe/clarinet/recorder/piano music ... yeah, I can play them!) Funny, I didn't look at the cello music ... my hea must have been spinning too much from all the works of art sitting there! I must order a LOT of those books! So many I've never seen before! (Okay, it is a long time since I played anything new on the old classical guitar!) I must get back into it one day. Then I can release that Classical guitar album I always wanted to release. The library had an exhibition of Russian stuff on display (just outside the enclosed library area, but still inside in an area specific for displays and stuff). Interesting stuff. (nah, it wasn't, I just said that so the KGB wouldn't kick me in da nuts!) :-) Okay, it did have a copy of Mark Chagall's "Me and my Village", painted in 1911. A picture I admit I like. (I admt, I didnt' know it was painted in 1911 till I looked it up!) :-) It also had a handwritten copy (not original) of Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" complete with him complaining of a tooth ache on it (in Russian. I read the translation. I don't speak Russian ... not yet!) :-) I walked past the stateart gallery and contemplated going in. They also had an exhibition on Russian Art from 1900. It didn't interest me! (Though it might have contained the original "Me and My Villiage") I then walked the rest of the way into the city. I was looking for a specific baroque album (that's in the classical department, but is of a style which pre-dates classical). I went to the 'Classical Music' shop in the Wesley arcade! I'd previously looked for this album all over the place, and I figured the classical music shop was probably the only place in Perth which would have it. (I still can't find a copy of Bach 2000 anywhere). I was lucky! They had ONE (yes, that number again 'ONE!') copy! On the internet it was $7.99 (with $2 postage). Here it was $10. One cent more, but right there! In my grubby little hands! (Note, my hands weren't actually grubby! I am vey clean!) :-) So, I bought it, and I've been listening to it since I got home! Well, after that find, I went to the bus terminal, and I'd missed my bus by five minutes! DARN! Why do I alays do that!!!!? I then had almost anhour to wait for the next one. So i decided to have lunch. Off I went, and found a nice Italian place in a food hall. I had a vegetarian cannollini with a side salad. The guy behind the counter was very good at serving. (Like, so helpful I was wondering what I'd done to deserve such fine treatment). Maybe he mistook me for beingItalian! (It's happened before ... and mistaken for being Greek ... and every other caucasian genus on earth). I must be such a mix! Everyone can see their own nationality in me! Anyway, I was eating and heard him talking to some girl from Melbourne. He was also from Melbourne. I have no idea why I remember that! Or why it even matters! I wasn't even trying to eaves drop! Anyway, the police were targeting Jay Walkers today. I saw a few people cross at the lights against the red, and they were getting on the spot fines! $150. I was glad I wasn't in a hurry or anything. Actually, I seldom cross at the lights against the signal. I wonder if the police were bored, or if they were targeting it for a reason. Trying to make us more like Singapore maybe? Or just raising revenue? (most likely) Caught the bus home. Explained to my mother my impossible task. Sent off two quick e-mails. One to the PCYC, where they want me to do computer training (part fo my business plan). I was basically asking them for a 'Letter of Intent' to say they want to use my servies. The other was to my old boss, who now has his own Network/IT company. I wanted to find out what he charged etc and get anyideas off him that might be of help. Tonight, I plan to ... well, plan! Get a good idea where I want to target, find out insurance costs etc, get that business plan writen etc. Easily done (I hope). Who knew it was going tobe such a rush? And me with no sleep! Arrrggghh!

Sarah's Meme

Sarah gave me this meme to do. WARNING: SOME THINGS MIGHT SEEM DEPRESSING OR SAD - BUT DON'T READ THEM THAT WAY. I AM FINE AND HAPPY. THIS IS JUST THE FACTS. 40 years ago [1965] (It was forty years ago today, Sargeant Dabido taught the band to play, they've been going in and out of style ... nah! just kidding!) :-) Forty years ago, the year I was born. Born in a baggage room. When my mother's water broke, she phoned my father to take her to the hospital. He told her, 'Wait till I knocked off work!' (which explains the baggage room). Eventually, at the hospital, my mother asked him [my father], "What shall we name him?" He replied, "Name IT what you like!" (I was an 'IT', as I would be to him for the rest of my life). So, my mother named me 'David-Lee', because she always wanted a David, and the Lee part was after Lee Marvin (I think 'Paint Your Wagon' was very popular at the time). Probably explains why I was born under a wandering star ... and I call the wind Maria! :-) At the time, we were in Ipswich, Queensland, Australia. My father never forgave me for not being born a 'girl', which is what he'd planned (and I'd ruined it for him!) After all, it was supposed to go, Boy, Girl, Boy Girl when you have kids ... right? (pppttthhh! The idiot!) 30 years ago [1975] This was shortly after our return from Malaysia. I was living in Perth, Australia. A lot of kids thought I was strange, as I always talked about this exotic [to them] country [Malaysia]. Many thought I used to make up things ... like some stange fruits called Rambutans and Durians. How could a fruit taste good and smell like dog doo?! A red hairy fruit?! Pttthh! What a liar!!!! Anyway, I think this was the year I broke my foot (and my father wouldn't take me to the Doctors. Might have been the previous year) I was playing Soccer for the school, and my soccer team out side of school made it to the finals and lost. I was centre forward. I was left footed (because of my broken right foot) and my coaches wouldn't believe me! Hated the teacher I had, as he was an English 'school master' who beleived in the British Empire and thought the Commonwealth and Metric system were stupid things, and he hated Australians and Australia. (Why was he even here?) [Actually, he hated ANYTHING or ANYONE not English!] 20 years ago [1985] At the beginning of this year, I was thrown out of home by my father. (What an @rs3hole! ... Sorry, had to be said!) I had spent the last year having him yell at me, as he wanted me out of the house. He didn't want me going to University (as my elder brother had failed pretty bad at University) and my father didn't want me doing better then my elder brother (his favourite). I was left on the streets of Sydney with no more than a napsack full of clothes, and my guitar! My family returned to Perth. I tried to explain this to the Councilor at University, but he just kept telling me to go back home and beg my family for forgiveness! [But, they're in PERTH IDIOT!] Anyway, I couldn't afford to continue my University studies, so I took a job in a factory to feed myself and eventually moved into a share house in Chippendale. Had very selfish flatmates who never did housework! It was this year that I had the worst night of my life - mid winter, Sydney - freezing cold - rain - running around the streets soaking wet - trying to find a bus shelter or somewhere to sleep! It was so cold, my skin actually turned blue. I'd lost my fat layer because I'd refused to steal in order to eat - beleive me, I used to make waif models look fat! I might also add, that my survival this year depended on many friends who took me in and bascially gave me a roof over my head and occassionally some food. I also had a very sad incident involving a brief romantic encounter with a Japanese girl named Chiaki ... WAH! Broke my heart! I only have myself to blame! Developed a stomach problem where I'd vomit a lot. Probably caused through stress and not eating. 10 years ago [1995] Still in Sydney. By this time I was married. Working at AGB McNair being a Graphic Designer /Market Analyst. This was also the year I made the New South Wales American Football State Team. We travelled down to Victoria. I played special teams. I got to play Defensive line as well, and sacked [Tackled] the Victorian Quarterback. [Woo Hoo!] Against the Queensland team I was pretty ineffective! Was a very happy year for me! After I made the state team however, my wife (at the time) made me quit playing American Football, because it was her idea that I play nthe first place. she thought I was going to get creamed by the big guys playing the sport. She said she was trying to find something I wasn't good at to prove to me I wasn't good at something! Blah! Oh, was the year I broke my ribs playing American football ... also the year they wanted to amputate my foot ... also because of American football. I told the Doctors where to go and still have my foot to this day! :-) My stomach problem had developed to the stage that I occassinally vomited blood and my intestines would occassinally bleed too (with great pain). 5 years ago [2000] Five years ago I was working as a Network Engineer for Credit Union Services. Was divorced by this stage. This was the year I went to Europe (in order to avoid the Olympic Games in Sydney). Just before leaving, I discovered I'd won tickets to the Opening Ceremony's Dressed rehersal and the finals for the canoeing. I gave the ticket to my flatmate and organised to return to Sydney to see the final (which ended up being cancelled because of the wind!) What a waste! I could have remained in Europe for another month! Had an awful flatmate who loved to put me down! She used to tell me, my ex-wife was ugly (though she'd never seen her) and she'd tell me my GF's were ugly (though she'd never met them). She also used to tell me I had the hots for her, and that women find my gross and ugly! I also went on an adrenaline journey of self discovery to Cairns - about four white water rafting trips - a skydive - snorkling [chasing reef sharks aound] - fake dragon tattoo - sea canoeing - many other things too! A great trip! Was hanging out with Rie [Japanese Girl] in Cairns [she'd flown in from Japan ... I flew up from Sydney. She later met me in Sydney too! She wanted me to move to Japan and move in with her ... but then she got a BF and stopped e-mailing me!] Had a cancer scare (growth on my aorta!) Possibly it is my Thimus gland still in tact (though this is supposed to disappear by the time you are twelve). I later had some benign cancers identified in the same area. (So probably related). Also, continued suffering of my stomach - vomitting blood and intestinal bleeding etc. (Worst year was 1997 for that). [I wonder if it's realted to the benign cancer? Doctors say it isn't! After them wanting to amputate my foot, I wonder if I can trust them!!!] 3 years ago [2002] Still a Network Engineer for Credit Union Services. Living in a flat in Sydney [Hurstville - it's like Chinatown] by myself. Often would go out drinking with my best mates Corey, Rizaldy and Steve. We also had Patricia, Laurel and other's along a lot. Was a great year. I am not an excessive drinker, usually drank lemonade or coke [but many a night we finished off a lot of scotch and cokes, including the record for the Zambezzi Bar - two and a half bottles of Scotch! I blame Corey!] :-) I think there was another adrenaline journey to Cairns - Mountain bike riding through the rainforests - scuba - snorkling - broken ribs (on a jungle tour!) Was a great time! last year [2004] One of the years of my great life re-think. Why am I here? What am I doing? Why am I not drunk yet? Wrote two or three film scripts. Studied. Writing a few unfinshed novels. Painted many pictures and many unfinished ones. Recorded some music and entered some song contests. Savings dwindling to very little. (Okay, I still have more than someone in a third world country, so can't complain!) I'd moved back home with my mother and youngest brother by this stage. [My father having walked out on the family a long time ago ... in fact he's walked out a number of times] Living in Perth. Went to many interviews for Network Engineering roles, but no one in Perth wants to hire me! Have helped in the family, (but I won't go into details). Feel rather let down by the country. Also, trying to get my health back in order. Had my nose fixed (it's been broken about four times in my life). Was causing me sleep apnea (along with my other problem of having too small a jaw, and too long a tongue). Was recommended to have jaw broken and realigned to fit my tongue in my mouth. next year [2006] Well, if I start my own business [Network Engineering], then that's what I'll be doing. Otherwise, I'll be in the UK, probably either as a Network Engineer, or as a musician. Hopefully, I will have met the woman of my dreams and be in a nice steady relationship. (and she will have figured out how to tear through my teflon suit to get to me!) Hoping to have visted KL, Penang, and Japan by this stage (whether I am going to UK or staying in Aussie). ten years from now... [2015] Hopefully, will be married with children by this stage with a nice house and a successful business of some sort. Work - I don't care. Prefer artistic stuff (like music, writing, painting, acting etc) Hopefully, I will have built up my portfolio of shares again (which I've slowly been selling off in order to keep the wolf from the door). Hopefully I will be a better dancer, a better lover, a great father, and richer. :-) Happiness is the main aim though. (Which includes the happiness of wife and family). Am I supposed to pass this meme on? Most people never do the meme's I pass on ... I will let my readers grab it for themselves (I get twenty hits per day ... I know you are out there!) :-)

From Zero back to Hero! Amazing!

Wow! What an amazing day I had. Got to work. First thing, the computer I couldn't get to print yesterday was in worse condition somehow. The boss was trying to do stuff, and it just wouldn't run! It had completely frozen. I took this oportunity to quickly add static IP addresses on all the PC's (as per yesterdays post Hero to Zero, I couldn't get it to see the PC with the printer attached.) Giving them their own Static IP addresses solved the problem! In theory it shouldn't have. I had it previously set to allow them to get their own IP addresses, but a funny thought occurred to me last night, and I decided to test the theory this morning. Thank goodness! Now it could print, and all the PC's coud see each other and share their resources! Second problem (which had me baffled all day). Why was it running so slow? Even after re-boots continued to be slow. I didn't get to tackle it straight off. I had other admin things which needed to be done. I kept explaining to the boss, I'm not a PC support person. I don't think I can solve this one. He assured me I could (darn ... he was right, and I was wrong! I could solve it!) Well, there wasn't time to look at it. I'd cleared the viruses off it the day before. I'd removed the adware stuff. It was running okay yesterday (except it couldn't see the other PC & printer). WHY? WHY? WHY? was it suddenly running slow after the boss used it this morning? Lunch time came around. The boss and I had made a deal to bring our guitars in and jam in one of the back rooms. So, we went the long way round to the back gym, as a school was using the lesser hall for air rifle. (And we didn't want to be shot). We sat in the back room and jammed a little. I showed him some of my classical guitar (on a steel string no less). He could play virtually ANYTHING, provided it was pre-1975. He was pretty good (which is why he still plays in a working band at present). Afterwards, he said, "I wish I could play like you!" HUH? I didn't think I was doing that good in the jam. Okay, it wasn't the greatest jam on earth, just half an hours worth. We spoke a little about our musician pasts etc. Anyway, something I've been praying about was confirmed. I've been praying recently about where the frig my life is heading. I have so many choices and I really have NO IDEA what to do with my life. Pray, pray, pray, pray! I was forever getting the feeling that God was telling me that it didn't matter what I decide to do, I will be successful at it. On Wednesday, I asked God to confirm it in someway this week. Some sort of sign to tell me WHAT I NEED TO DO! WHICH PATH TO FOLLOW! The boss turned around to me (this was pre-lunch), and he said, "You know David, it doesn't really matter what you do. You'll be a success at anything!" He then followed it up with a bit of sermon and verses to back up why he believed it! Okay, to the non-religious amongst you, it might seem like a co-incidence. I'm like thinking and praying about something and really only blogging about it here! I haven't discussed it with anyone. No one in Aussie, other than a few close friends, know about my blog. So even my mother and youngest brother don't know the anguish I've been going through. Somehow, I got this confirmation off my boss. Let's face it. Most people think I know exactly where I am heading most of the time. They confuse the fact that I am highly knowledgable, with the fact that I should have an idea what I am doing on this planet. They think, he's smart, he must know where he is going in life! Nope! I have no idea! Somedays, I change my mind from I wanted to do yesterday to what I want to do today! Today, I was even considering becoming a Doctor ... I have no idea why! I hate blood and guts and stuff. I'm probably the first to faint (unless it's my own blood. That I can live with. It's other people's blood, or their pain. Argh! I feel other people's pain! Stop hurting yourselves! Stop hurting other people!) Anyway, Monday I'm off to discuss starting my own business, and then trying to do the Macro Option thing I discussed in previous posts! If you can't decide on one thing to do, do them all! Well, I had plenty to do in the afternoon. One hour before I was due to leave, I ran out of things to do! Woo hoo! Time to tackle this new PC problem. Why was it running so slow? The first thing I asked myself was this, "If this was a Linux/Unix box, what would you do?" "Easy," I replied, "Check what processes are running." So, I checked the processes, and 98% of the CPU was being used by the spooler! HUH? What The Frig (wtf) is the spooler doing that it needs 98% of the CPU? I checked, and then I spoted it! There were some old Printers Configured to run off the computer (before we got the new laser printer a few months ago). Someone had been trying to print to an old HP printer which was no longer attached to the computer!!!!!! It had nine jobs queued in one spot, and two in another and one in another. None of them were to anything attached to the network. The computer was TRYING TO PRINT and couldn't!!!! [Which reminds me, I better remove those configs next Thursday. Sloppy of me not to think of that today!] Well, I cleared all the print jobs, and low and behold, the computer returned to having 97% idle processes!!! The thing ran like a gem! The boss walked back in, and said, 'Have you got that working yet?' 'YEP!' I explained it to him. He said, "I knew you could do it!" He was right! I was wrong! I could. I am the bizaro little red engine ... I thought I couldn't ... but I could!!! WOW! What a way to end the afternoon! A complete success. He said (something like this) to me, "David, you are one of the most amazing people I've ever met. Even when you don't have a clue what you are doing, you seem to get the right results." You know something ... maybe I'm just blessed, maybe I'm just lucky. Maybe it's just good karma, or maybe it's just that God is on my side (that's God, the guy in heaven ... not Terence, who is nicknamed God ... hmmm, maybe I am Terence's son, my nickname used to be Jesus at one point!), now that I think about it, that's the same as being blessed isn't it! :-) What a way to start the weekend! :-) Anyway, I hope anyone reading this story can take something away with them. Sometimes, even if you aren't sure, it's sometimes best to just give it your best shot, and you might just hit a bullseye. Even though you never thought you could. (Or in Aussie Slanguage, "Give it a go ya mug!") :-) ***BIG HUGS*** Thought I'd add that for anyone who might have needed it. :-)

Meta Ethics and Applied Ethics

I said over a week ago I was planning on writing a little about this ... so here goes a brief discussion on Meta Ethics and Applied Ethics. (If you are studying Philosophy or Ethics, then you are at the wrong website!) :-) Meta Ethics - This is basically the attempt by mankind (philosophers etc) to try and work out whether there really is a right or wrong. If there is a right or wrong, then what makes something right, and what makes it wrong. Can we take something, which in the minds of many is based purely on personal feelings and upbringing, and place an absolute value on it? Okay, I toned that explaination down a bit for those who might not have understood an actual definition. I'll stick the Wikipedia definition here too as it's quite a good one: Meta Ethics seeks to understand the nature of ethical evaluations. A lot of people today (in the last century or so) have argued that there is no right or wrong. I even read a book once where the person believed that 'Right' and 'Wrong' and 'Correct' and 'Incorrect' and all other words along the same line should be striped from the english language. Personally, I think the person is an idiot. Someone tried to make out that I didn't understand what the person was talking about. They missed the point of where I was coming from. I knew/understood exactly what the person had meant, I just disagreed with the persons logic. I believe that those words 'Right' and 'Wrong' etc came into the English (and all human languages as far as I know) for a reason. Like most words, they have meaning and definition (look them up in the dictionary if you don't believe me). What's it REALLY mean to be RIGHT? Well, I know a lot of people tried (especially in the fifties and sixties .. and later) to pretend that nothing is right or wrong because there is no proof that we actually exist! (um yeah ... sure ... I think therefore I drink!) I'm not going to tackle that branch of ... um ... philiosophy (using the term very broadly in this case). I'm more concerned with RIGHT and WRONG! The concepts as defined in the dictionary ... and in Ethics case, we can chuck in GOOD and EVIL just to really open it up. What is GOOD then? Well, we could look that up in the dictionary as well ... but meta ethics isn't arguing over whether the definition exists or not ... it's asking 'Does GOOD really exist?' Most philosophers have come to believe that most things defined as being ethically good, have come into being because it's what we FEEL is good. It's all based on emotions. For example: Caring for BABIES is good, as they are young and helpless, and looking after them is the right thing to do, because we, as humans FEEL it is the right thing to do. (Sure, it's been put there by either God/s or Evolution [depending on your beliefs]). At the end of the day though, a NORMAL person would look after babies as that is what is commonly accepted as the right thing to do! We FEEEEEEL it is correct. It's purely emotive. While EVIL, is basically given an ethical definition based on the opposite feelings. Also, it is an emotive response. Someone who doesn't care for their baby would be considered a BAD parent ... or EVIL if they truely were bad to their baby. It's because we FEEL the right course of action is to care for babies, that we place this value on it. So far, that seems to be the leading theory as to what GOOD and EVIL, RIGHT and WRONG are all based on. Now, the caring for babies example is actually an example of APPLIED ethics. (And me defining 'Caring for Babies' as good is a use of Normative Ethics ... confused ... sorry. It's sometimes hard to keep them seperate). Our Ethical value has come about because human evolution or God/s have given us these emotive responses. Due to those emotive responses, we then start to behave/act on those feelings. The ACT of caring for the baby is applied ethics. It's the right thing to do, so we do it. WE BELIEVE, WE FEEL, WE KNOW it is the right thing to do. The construction of ones PERSONAL ETHICAL THEORY (or personal philosophy if we want to widen it a little), leads us to APPLY what we believe is good or evil. Most fighting in the world has come about because of differences in ETHICS. Religions in particular, or even Government types (Cold War), or even arguements with neighbours. Now, in many cases, it's a fundamental difference in the use of NORMATIVE ETHICS. e.g. Person A says it's wrong to steal under any circumstance ... person B says it's okay if you are starving. What happens when person B steals food from person A? Is it okay? What if Person B wasn't actually starving? What if both A and B were starving? What if A worked for his food, and B refused to work, and was starving from their own laziness? Sometimes it can be a difference in Applied Ethics. e.g. A and B both agree that it is best to forgive someone. Person C shoots both A and B (and luckily they both live). They wrestle C to the ground. Person A forgives C but refuses to give the gun back. Person B forgives C but gives the gun back (beleiving that he hasn't truely forgiven unless C has his gun returned). Both A and B beleive in the same ethical value (forgiveness), but apply it in differnet ways. (Okay, technically, some might argue that it's actually another example of Normative Ethics. I say it is applied, as they are in agreement as to what is good and bad). The Marquise De Sade had a difference in META ETHICS with most people. He didn't beleive in a right or wrong (or maybe I just misunderstood him). He did things like whip people to death for his own pleasure (amongst other things). Most of us would say this was 'Bad', or Evil', or 'Wrong'. To him, however, as there was no 'right' or 'wrong', there was no reason for him NOT to do what he wanted. Anyway ... thus concludes my little discussion on Meta Ethics, and Applied Ethics. It was written, quick and dirty ... so hopefully it isn't too incorrect, nor too confusing for anyoone to follow. Just really giving people something to stop and contemplate for a while. What do you think? What is your application of ethics like? What about your normative ethical values? Why to you apply the ethical values on what you do? Do you actually apply what you believe to be ethically correct?

Hero to Zero in One Afternoon!

The day started off quite well. Got to work and Kylie and I cleaned out the back storeroom so that it could be converted into a gym area. Before that though, I was considered a hero for just doing common sense stuff. Yesterday, I was phoned regarding one of the PC's running slow. I gave them two instructions; first reboot it; Second, run the anti-virus software. I got to work this morning, and the PC was still running slow. I asked about them running the Anti-Virus ... Nope. What's Anti-Virus? Okay, I checked the PC, and it had Ad-Aware on it, but no anti-virus software. I downloaded a free copy of AVG. I ran Ad-Aware first, and was able to remove ten surf tracking programs. I then ran AVG ... after two hours, it had found 3685 infected pieces of software. Most consisted of the Netsky worm (a Q and a B type of Netsky) and another worm (which only made up two of the worms infecting the machine). There was also an instance of Back.Orrifice, a trojan made by Cult of the Dead Cow. Well, I removed all of these from the machine. I looked like a friggin' hero. I also installed a copy of ZoneAlarm (which is free for personal use, or Charitable organisations). I was getting my praises sung everywhere. Though to be prefectly honest, I was wondering why I hadn't installed these things before. The bosses PC has a copy of Norton Anti-virus on it, so I ran that to make sure it was okay. It was. On Kylie's PC I installed AVG as well. It was clear too. The worms hadn't spread. Then came a big fight. One of the girls I work with (I won't mention names), who seems to fight with everyone, decided to make a racist comment. Up until now I had avoided a fight with her. Stupidly, rather than letting it slide, I decided to defend the person in question. (The actual comment regarded a politicians wife - where the girl in question claimed the politicians wife was a mail order bride. People in Australia will actually be familiar with this, as another politician was forced to resign over making the exact same comment.) Anyway, the politicians wife was born in Malaysia. A lot of people (including the girl today) think she is Phillippina. Well, my mistake. Unfortunately, I hate racism no matter where or who it comes from. I guess it's a little like a red rag to a bull with me! So off I went defending the politicians wife. Somehow the arguement got twisted along the way. It went from me defending the lady in question (whom I think is a brilliant lady. You might have to meet her to fully appreciate how intelligent this lady is), to somehow me defending ANYONE who comes to Australia. I might quickly add, the girl I was arguing with is an Aboriginal (this is important). She was first of all attacking white people for coming and taking their land etc. Okay, I agreed with her. The aboriginal people have a good reason to be p***ed off with what has happened. Especially with their treatment at the hands of white Australia. Yes, I think the Government should apologise to them! Next, she then started having a go at all the Asians who have come here. She was claiming the white people PAY them to come here and give them aboriginal land etc. She claims it's the aboriginal money they are giving these people. She was claiming that ALL Asians are given AUD$10,000 to come here. I pointed out that I know a LOT of asians who have migrated here, and NONE of them were ever paid to come here! I actually gave some examples, like my friend John, who came here from India. When he left India, because of the law at the time, he was not able to leave with more than the equivalent of AUD$8 in his pocket. Once here, he had no other menas of support other than his family, and he had to get a job almost immediately. The girl in question claimed that was only one example, and that it didn't prove her wrong. I siad it did, as she'd said ALL of them get AUD$10,000. I only needed one example to prove her point wrong. She then claimed that my point wasn't valid. She tried to make out that it was hearsay from a friend of a friend of a friend. I said, "No! It was MY FRIEND! I KNEW HIM." Well, then she started having a go at the refugees! Saying they shouldn't be allowed into the country. I tried getting her to place herself in the shoes of a refugee. Explaining, a lot of them flee their countries, because if they didn't they'd get killed! She didn't think that was a valid excuse to flee a country. I told her, if someone invaded Australia tomorrow, and you could either stay and have them kill you, or get on a boat to New Zealand what would you do? She said she'd stay and go bush and no one would ever be able to find her! (Talk about missing the point). Anyway, the arguement went on and on! She refused to conceed and she also claimed I'd presented no evidence for my arguement (in spite of me naming more people and stories of people I know who never received a cent from the Government to come out here!) Well ... told you it was a mistake to argue with her! I broke my rule of not arguing with idiots, because idiots cannot follow logic! Oh well. She was actually nice to me for the rest of the day. (Might have been because earlier I'd cleaned up the mens locker room, when she'd been asked to do it. She'd basically refused.) Anyway, it was nice that after such a heated arguement, she didn't seem to hold any malice towards me. Not to my face anyway. :-) Well, worse (for me) was to follow. After installing all the anti-virus software and firewalls etc, I then found I couldn't get two of the computers to see each other! This was a major tragedy, as I needed them to see each other as one prints to the printer through the other one. DARN! I spent the entire afternoon, trying to fix it! I even turned the firewalls off ... still no satisfaction! I'm at my wits end trying to figure out what MS has in it which does that! I had a similar problem at home, where my computers could see each other one day ... then the next they couldn't! The weird thing is, another computer on the network can see and access both of them without any problems what-so-ever! It's so confusing. I'd never have this problem with Linux or Unix! I went through both computers making sure they were set up exactly the same as the computer that can see them both! Nothing had changed in their network configuration! They are all set up the same! Bloody confusing! I even stayed back fifteen minutes trying to fix it (but the phone wouldn't stop ringing ... so I decided to leave). After such a good start to the day, I ended up a ZERO! DARN!!!! Funny how I always try to explain to them that I'm not a PC person. I'm a Network Engineer ... firewalls, YES, routers, YES, Switches, YES, hubs, YES ... Microsoft Windows, huh?!!! That's right! I'm NOT a PC Support person ... I just seem to be constantly caught up being one! [If anyone has ANY clues why that stupid thing happens with windows, please tell me how to fix it!] On the way home I had to stop off at the shops for my mother. It was drizzling a little (like it had been all day) when I entered the shopping mall! When I left though, it was coming down in buckets, so I had to run to the car and got soaked! On the way home, it stopped raining! Darn! Is God telling me something? Anyway, I'm still rather confused as to what to bloody do with my life! I spent some of the day discussing the prospects of my own business with the boss, and one of the bosses friends (who is an ex-police officer, and always trying to convince me to do a Cert IV in training and work place assessment through his business. He's a very nice guy). Monday, I have the meeting to discuss starting my own Network Engineering company ... but I''m still in two minds. The call of the UK is still very strong in me, as well as my need for constant travel! I need a new place to be ... but I don't want to leave my family again when they rely on me so much ... so damn confused! Yeah I know ... it's one of those situations where I have to make a decision! No one can decide for me. I just have no friggin' clue what I want to do! Only thing I know for sure, is I need a friggin' change! I'm so friggin' tired of it all! I don't think there is a wrong decision to be made here ... either way I think I will make it ... but I feel like I am going stir crazy in Perth. Where to go? ... what to do!?!? So damn confused! Either way ... which ever path I chose, it's going to be a big risk ... I only have so much money left, and whatever decision I make will cost me everything I have ... failure is not an option! It's do or die! Blah!

Cows Forced to Eat Grass????

There was a story in the paper about the Russian police. They were searching for drugs in a field, and trampled all the maize and sunflowers. This meant that the farmer had nothing to feed his cows for the winter ... so the police are compensating him by feeding them confiscated marijuana. Like, imagine the milk you'd get from them (with the THC drug being highly fat soluble, it'll certainly be present in full fat milk). It'd certainly give new meaning to Hi-Lo (an Aussie type of milk). Lo in fat ... makes you High! Yeah, if someone asks where the good s**t is, just point to the field. (Light up a cow pat man!) Yeah man, that's good grass! Imagine the news headline they'd have used ... 'Cows force to eat Grass' ... um yeah ... front page stuff there fellas! Russian Cow conversation: Cow 1: MooooOOOOOooooo ... ooooOOOOoooo ... oooooOOOoooo ... oh man, I think I need to be milked again ... and I'm sooo hungry! You got anything to eat man! Like, I crave chocolate man! Cow 2: Dude, let's go for pizza and stare at the television a bit more. Cow 1: Shouldn't we turn the TV on, man? Cow 2: What, and damage our eyes, dude? Cow 1: You're right, man! I can't see out of mine anyway. Too blood shot! Cow 2: MoooOOOOooooOOOoo. Oh yeah! Got any corn chips? Forget about the British and their Mad Cow disease ... we need to get the Russian ones to a Betty Ford clinic! They have a psychological addiction to weed! Sorry ... I milked that joke for all I could get! :-)

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Other headlines ... Gilligan's Island star Bob Denver died. He actually passed away on the 2nd of September, but we've only just heard about it today in Australia. There are only three castaways left. Dawn Wells (aka Mary Ann Summers), Russell Johnson (aka the Professor) and Tina Louise (aka Ginger). Many years ago I read Bob Denver's book - 'Gilligan, Maynard and Me'. I also once visited his website (about three years ago) and sent him an e-mail. It was pretty lame ... but he (or his wife Dreama) e-mailed me back thanking me for the kind words etc. Some Gilligan's island trivia: 1. What was Gilligan's first name? (The character ... Gilligan was his last name) 2. Which cast member thought they were going to be the star of the show, only to find out they were a supporting actor? 3. What was Jim Backus (aka Thurston Howell the III) mumbling when he used to do his 'mumbling walkoffs'? 4. Which of the actors used to be in a series about Casey Jones? 5. Which of the actors did the voice of Mr. Magoo (the cartoon)? 6. Which of the actors won her state championship of a beauty contest? 7. Which actor was in the cult B-Grade Sci Fi movie 'It Came From Outer Space'? 8. What was 'Lovey' Howell's complete name, and who played her? (The character). 9. What was the Professor's name? 10. What is Dawn Well's (Mary Ann) nickname? 1. Willie Gilligan - In Bob's book he mentions that he was glad it was never used in the show. 2. Tina Louise was originally told by her agent that she was the star of the show. When she complained, Sherwood Schwartz said to her, 'The name of the show was "Gilligan's Island". Didn't that give you a clue?' 3. Apparently, when Jim Backus did his famous 'mumbling walkoffs', some of what he said was quite crude and unfit for little ears. (Like mine at the time!) 4. Alan Hale (The Skipper) used to play Casey Jones in a TV series of the same name. (Casey Jones of the train and song fame). 5. Jim Backus used to do the voice of cartoon character Mr. Magoo. 6. Dawn Wells was Miss Nevada. She was also in the 1960's Miss America Pagent! 7. Russell Johnson (it was one of the first 3D sci fi movies ever made! I can rememebr watching it as a kid and me and my brothers were like, 'Hey, it's the Professor!' :-) 8. Eunice 'Lovey' Wentworth Howell. Natalie Schafer played her. Once at a trivia night at a pub, one of the questions was to name ALL SEVEN actors who payed the parts on Gilligans Island. I could name the first six, but had trouble remembering Natalie's last name. I could only remember it started with an 'S'. I've never had that trouble since. 9. Dr. Roy Hinkley. (Actually, I didn't know this till I visited Russell Johnson's web page! I don't remember it being mentioned in Bob Denver's book). 10. Pooter. I have no idea why. I swiped that one off a Movie Trivia website ... so I have no idea how true it is. And just for the record, my favourite episode, was the one where all the characters are kidnapped by a mad scientist who swaps the bodies each of their minds are in. I thought that was hilarious. I remember reading somewhere, (probably in Bob Denver's book), that none of the actors were very confident in the script,and thought it was ... well basically a bad script. Yet, Bob says it is considered by many fans as their favourite episode. (Yeah, it was friggin' funny!) :-) Gilligan's Island is still in re-runs - and as is often pointed out, many of the original watchers of the show are now enjoying it with their grandkids! WOW! I've also always wanted to read Sherwood Schwartz's book, 'Inside Gilligan's Island', which explains what all seven of the castways characters represent. (Each representing a different type of person in Society ... the castaways were a microcosm of modern society). I think it would be a very interesting book if I could find it someday.

Stoooopid Hospital Update

Have now picked my mother up from the hospital. They phoned and told me to pick her up ... which I did! (I am clever like that!) :-) Drove to the hospital ... went to park and found I was pulling into a reserved parking space (for elderly people ... darn, I'm not old enough ... yet!) Some Doctor had pulled in right behind me, and wouldn't let me reverse out of the spot! So I waited till he drove off to the Doctor's parking spots. Then I reversed out and drove around to another parking spot. I saw someone about to leave ... so I waited ... and waited ... and waited ... the idiot was waiting for me to drive on, but I wanted his spot! Eventually, he realised what I was waiting for, and he reversed out and left. (He had enough room to reverse out, land a jumbo jet and cook a whale! Not like I was crowding him or anything!) So I got the spot. It was raining, so I brought my mother's umbrella with me. I put it up, and noticed I was still getting wet! Um ... oh ... er ... then I realised, I hadn't stuck it all the way up! I must have looked like bodoh baka Dabido walking along with an umbrella half expanded! I went up to the day surgury ward, and asked where my mother was. I was told to go through the doors and to the right. So I did! I then asked a nurse where my mother was. She grabbed a list of names, and started looking through it. 'I'm sorry to scare you,' she started, 'but we have nobody by that name here.' 'Yeah! I dropped her off this morning, and I was just phoned to come pick her up.' 'No! There isn't anyone in this ward by that name. You must have the wrong ward.' 'No, I dropped her off at this ward.' She then asked another nurse ... who didn't know my mother either. Then, another nurse walked in the ward, and they asked him. 'Oh Jeanette! Yeah, she's in the discharge waiting room,' he said. 'Oh, that Jeanette!' chimed in the second nurse. The first nurse then took me through some doors to the discharge waiting room. We then left the hospital. My mother's umbrella was only large enough for one of us to fit under, so we walked back to the car. Me, holding her umbrella over her head while getting wet. On the way home, my mother was talking excitedly about how scared she'd been, but how it was a complete difference to the last time she'd beeen in hospital. She said it wasn't bad at all. I suggested I take her sky diving to get her over any of her other fears ... she wasn't amused! :-) All the way home she talked about the experience ... mainly how they knocked her out, then she dreamed, then she woke up! She was a bit upset that she didn't get to finish her dream. (Unlike one time I went in and I woke up was too soon. The nurse told me to lie back down, as my blood pressure was too low for me to even be conscious! heehee! Naughty Dabido being awake when it's not medically possible!) I'd received a call from work. Their computer was playing up a bit (kept freezing). They wanted me to fix it. I gave them two things to do - 1. Reboot it, and 2. run anti-virus software on it over night. I'll have a look at it tomorrow when I am in. They assure me that I am an absolute PC wizard. I keep telling them, I'm not, I'm a network engineer! PC's! Pttthhh! Give me a router or switch to play with! Screw these silly PC's! I'm sure the ten PC's I have to set up won't be there tomorrow too! Not sure what they will want me to do when I do get in either. Can't be too much for me to do! Anyway, if I get my business up and running, in future I'll be able to charge them when they phone me all the time! hee hee! They migt not be happy about it ... but I will have a business to run! :-) I better take a good look at what contractors charge in order to see what I will be able to charge for this business! Hee Hee! Time to start putting a business plan together. (And maybe shopping around for resources etc)

Stoooopid Hospital

Well, yesterday my mother never received her phone call to tell her what to do before going into hospital etc. Today, my mother woke me up early (about five minutes BEFORE my alarm was due to go off), in order to tell me it was five minutes before I wanted to be woken up! Eh! Thanks mum! I was sort of half awake already though. My brother and mother had been talking at 5 AM for some reason. Aparently my brother went to work earlier than expected. Anyway, I drove my mother into the hospital, and we got there early because my mother, in her usual panic mode, decided we had to leave earlier than we needed to. We got there at fifteen to seven (she was due there at seven). We then got to wait around for half an hour before the nurse asked who my mother was ... and we discovered that the hospital didn't have her listed to go in! Well, the nurse tried to look her up on the computer, but got my mother's name wrong ... after that, the nurse was too busy looking after other patients for ten minutes. Then, she looked up my mother's name on the computer again ... yes, she was due to come in ... but wait, there is no paper work! The nurse then went and spoke to the Doctor ... and the Doctor said, 'Yes!' she was definitely due in that day. The nurse then had to run around to find the paperwork! While we were waiting, one of the other patients had asked my mother, 'Are you in for Helmuth?' I was a bit confused. I'd never heard of a Helmuth operation before ... what the frig is a Helmuth???? My mother relied, 'Yes!' Huh? I was deeply confused ... but as the conversation continued, I realised that Helmuth was the Doctor's name! Phew! My medical knowledge hadn't hit a brick wall! No wonder I was confused! There is no Helmuth operation ... that's why I hadn't heard of one! Well, after being there an hour, my mother was finally admitted to the hospital for the operation. I was told by the nurse to await a phone call to tell me when I can pick her up. Probably around 1 PM. I then went off to my meeting regarding starting my own business. Only, they told me I have to go back Friday ... um ... sorry, working that day. She handed me a business card, saying, 'Okay, phone this number instead and talk to someone about arranging another day.' Kewl! So off I went home ... and I phoned the number. 'Can you come in today?' 'No, I have to pick my mother up form hospital.' 'What about tomorrow?' 'Nope, working!' 'Friday?' 'Nope, still working. Can I come in Monday?' 'How about Monday?' [Didn't I just ask that?] 'Um, yeah, Monday is fine.' I grabbed a date and time off her. So, I'm off to discuss starting my own IT/Networking/Security/Server support/Training ... whatever company! [I should see if my friend Melisa wants to join me once she finishes her Degree .. of course, it is reliant on me starting the company to begin with.] Well, I'll have the money from my managed fund (once I leave it) ... so plenty of cash to play with ... provided I get some good support. I also get to do the Cert IV in Business Management through College! No problems! Me plenty smart ... me good learny guy! Another piece of paper to add to my inch thick folder of pieces of paper/qualifications etc! I got home ... one of my other brothers had phoned to try to 'catch my mother' before she went into hospital! Um ... yeah, you phoned after nine ... mum went in at seven ... I've been out ... so two messages on the answering machine from him! Grrrr! Why don't these people listen? Another message was from a bank for my youngest brother ... wanting him to give them a call! Like ... yeah, we keep giving this stupid bank his work number ... and they always phone here when he isn't here! Dumb friggin' bank! This is like the twentieth phone call from them in the last six months. Why are they so stoopid that they can't follow simple instructions! T H I S I S H I S W O R K N U M B E R . P H O N E H I M A T W O R K! Obviously we speak to friggin' fast for them! He never gets a call at work! Well, now I am just waiting for my phone call from the hospital to pick up my mother. In the mean time, I'll do some study etc for my certification and see what I can do! :-)

Big Day Coming Up

Tomorrow, I am off to talk to some people about starting my own IT business. Just preliminary talks at present. Not sure if it will result in anything happening. Anyway, I have to be up at 6am to drive my mother to hospital. She's having an operation (as per previous posts mentioning it). She's very scared! I don't know why. It shouldn't be too bad. I get to phone the hospital at 1pm to see if she's alright to come home. She was a bit upset today, as the hospital was supposed to phone either yesterday or today. They didn't! She feels like she's been forgotten! I started off the morning with one of my usual one hour walks ... only it started raining, so I came in to walk around the lounge room. Then my mother was trying to make me stop and listen to her, only she had nothing to say. It stopped raining, so I went outside again to walk. Then, it started to come down hard! Stupid rain! On top of that, one of the dogs keeps pooing where I walk! Maybe he's trying to give me a hint. I usually walk around with the rake and get all the dog doo off the lawn before I start walking, but Toby (the dog) keeps doing his business on my walking track! Today, I actually broke my sneakers too! They're pretty worn out in the sole, but today, the laces broke through the shoe rendering the shoelace holes useless towards the top! Not just one hole, but the top two! These shoes are probably due to be chucked out. On top of that, I've developed a large blister on my foot. I've been ignoring it for a week in the hope that it will go away. It hasn't, it's got a little worse! I might have to pop it and stick a band-aid on it. Anyway, after my post last night, I decided to try for the 'Macro Option' ... ie try to do everything on my list! First up, starting the IT business (and getting my certification etc). Last ditch effort to remain in Perth with my family! Second, finish one of my novels. Funny, my mother brought this up with me today too! She was watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkabahn (or what ever it's called) and asked me about J Rowlands (the author). Then she asked why I haven't finished a novel lately! I told her, I'm writing them still, just I have half a dozen of them, and I do a little work here and there on them when I find the time! Time is something I have little of. Third, record that album. (Yes, this is something I've never been able to finish! Though I've been published, been in IT, and done heaps of other things, I still haven't released an album ... something I've been trying to do since ... well, for the last twenty odd years!) Fourth, get some of my art finished! Fifth, provided I can get enough money together, I'll try to make another film. Maybe I need to write a short film and do that. Easier to get enough funds together to do that! Pity I have a habit of writing feature films! I spent a lot of today working on my planning. Time to plan at present. Soon, it will be time to do. Now, it's time to go to bed I think so I am refreshed for tomorrow! :-)

Chinese Odyssey 2002

I saw a funny Chinese movie last night. Chinese Odyssey (2002), not to be confused by the movie of the same name (from about 1995 I think). The TV Guide only gave it two stars, but I liked it. (I don't always follow what the TV guide says! It gives four stars to crap, just because a movie did good at the box office. In fact, I think that's how they actually do their ratings. They look up it's box office and if it earned over a certain amount, they give it four stars ... less box office, three stars ... less again, two stars ... less again one star.) The one star ones are normally correct, because if it flopped at the box office, it usually is a dog. However, every now and then, a gem of a movie comes along which they only give two stars to. (Or a dog of a movie comes along which they give three or four stars to, just because a lot of people went to see them after all the hype, or all the effects attracted them). Anyway, inspite of the poor review in the TV Guide (which doesn't have a friggin' clue about what's good and what's not in foreign films), I watched and enjoyed this movie. It was funny to watch (yes, it's a comedy). I am so glad I ignored the TV Guide. I'd like to own this one on DVD if I can. Read more about the movie here! Yeah, it comes with subtitles for us Mandarin Impaired people. I've become so used to watching foreign films, that I hardly notice that I'm reading what they are saying any more. It seems more natural and enjoyable to me to hear it in the proper language with the mouths in sync rather than watch a stupidly dubbed movie. When I had the chance to watch 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon', I had a choice between the 'Dubbed' and the 'sub-titled' versions. I chose the subtitled. Anyway, Vicki Zhao Wei is totally hot! I saw another movie she was in recently, 'Warriors of Heaven and Earth'. She was hot in that too! Wonder if she'll be in one of my movies? hee hee! (No, I'm not suggesting anything naughty in that comment! I am serious about a part in a movie I have written! Actually, it's a serious of movies, so if she agrees to one, then hopefully she'll agree to be in the sequels too!) Maybe I should run around and try to get a grant and backing to make that movie! I want to do a second draft before I start to do that anyway! Not that my first drafts are bad. I still have some Japanese parts to translate as well. I paid my friend Lillian in coffee to translate the Chinese parts. (And the rest is in English with no reason to translate it!) :-) Which reminds me, I never did finish writing the third film in my 'Rock Saga' trilogy ... I better find time to finsh that one off! Wonder if Vicki wouldbe interested in that movie too! Actually, I've been meaning to convert the 'Rock Saga' trilogy into books anyway. I better find more time to do that TOO! Darn! I really like most of the Chinese movies I see. (So I'm not just into Japanese movies/anime!) :-) As most of my friedns can tell you, I'm also partial to a few French and other European movies too. Hollywood might be tinsel town, but it's movie efforts of late are half arsed repeatitive monkey droppings. They just keep regenerating the same stuff ad nausium, as they know people will keep eating it up!!!!

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I did a lot of searching on the internet today. Mainly was I'm trying to decide 100% what I am going to do! I can now exit my managed fund and get my dirty little hands on my money. This leaves me with the dilema of what to REALLY do with my life. 1. Get my Certification and go to the UK for work! Pro - 100% confidence I can get a good paying job. - Get to travel to places I've always wanted to go. Con - It's like ... overseas! - No safety net! If I screw up, I'm broke! - I hate IT and the stress of long hours and no appreciation! 2. Get my Certification and start my own business here in Perth Pro - 100% confident I can make it work - Close to family Con - Close to family - Won't pay as much as going to the UK - I hate IT and the stress of long hours and no appreciation! 3. Finish writing one of my novels Pro - Can do it from home without exiting my managed fund - A job I love doing. Con - No guarantee of success or money. 4. Fix my musical instruments and continue recording my album Pro - A job I love doing - If I am successful, I can travel and play live all over the world. Con - No guarantee of success - How much will it cost? Will it make me broke? 5. Use my money to create a different sort of job (like owning a Subway Restaurant or something) Pro - Be my own boss - Should be easy work Con - Might fail (make me broke) - Might not like what I do The MACRO Option - Get my Certification and start IT business on a shoe string budget, fix my musical instruments and finish recording my album, finish writing novels and get them published, finish my movie script and seek grants and funding to make the movies. If all of this fails, then use money left over from managed funds to move to the UK and go back into IT! I think I like the Macro option the best ... though it still seems a little scarey to me! The only other options are to just plain starve, or get some other rubbish job somewhere! What a dilema! Forty years fo age, and I don't have a clue WHAT I want to do with my life! I only have a good idea as to what I don't want to do! And after all that, I forgot the ART stuff as well! Better insert 4a - Become an artist/painter etc! ... and slip it into the Macro option as well after the novel's! :-) Oh ... and option 6. Do a TESOL course (which I can afford) and tevel the world teaching English in China, Japan and South America etc! Geees, too many options and I still don't have a friggin' clue! Maybe I need to flip a coin! Anyone else out there have a hint for me?

Disco Dance Party

As I blogged yesterday, tonight was the Blue Light Disco - a Disco run by the police for primary school kids. Got up this morning - in fact was awoken by a guy phoning from Sydney who wanted to offer me a job ... in Sydney! FRIGGIN' ... I don't live in Sydney! I moved to PERTH!!!!!! I had to turn the guy down! Why do I get job offers from all over the friggin' country, but I can't even get arrested in Perth!!! I wonder how friggin' dumb they are here. I go for interviews, and tey make comments like, "With your experience, I'm surprised you aren't working in IT already in Perth!" WELL SO AM I YOU FRIGGIN' STUPID IT PERTH IT PEOPLE! Doesn't matter - I am either off to the UK very soon, or will start my own Network/Security company! Still trying to decide how to spend my hard earned cash! Anyway, I went back to bed (as the call was like 7:50 AM). Got up an hour later and spent an hour walking. Then did some weights and yoga. Then at 1 PM off to work. Well, nothing difficult to do today. Updated the activities program, did some computer stuff, helped everyone a little. I talked to Chas, as he wants me to run compuer training there. Well, if I am still in Perth at the time they run it, he wants me to run it. I might be off to the UK by then! Then time for the Blue Light Disco! About fifty primary school kids. I decided to cook the chips to begin. Stuck them in the deep frier ... and to my horror, the oil started to boil and bubble up ... and over the sides ... and onto the floor ... and all over everything! OMG!!!!! Boiling oil everywhere! I was STANDING IN IT! I quickly took tyhe chips out of the deep frier ... but the kids were queuing up wanting to be servered! Chas grabbed the bucket and mop and said he'd take care of the mess. (PHEW) I was the only person in the KITCHEN! So, off I went to serve the kids ... Me: What would you like? Kid: Hot chips. Me: Um, sorry, we've had a small accident, chips won't be getting cooked for ten minutes. Kid: But the other guy said you are already cooking them. Me: Yeah, but we've had an accident. We have to start cooking thme again later. Kid: But I want hot chips. Me: Sorry, you;ll have to have something else. Kid: How much are the killer pythons? Me: Um ... uh ... let me find out. [The killer pythons didn't have a price written on them!] Almost every kid was after hot chips at that stage of the night! Luckily, after Chas finished mopping up the oil, another lady came in and started cooking the chips. The oil must have melted the souls of my shoes a bit, as they were pretty sticky for a short while. About an hour into the disco, another volunteer came and took over the canteen for me. That was good, as I was required to take photo's of the disco for the PCYC newsletter. I took a lot of photo's and even tried to capture soem movie footage. Alas, it was too dark, and you can see flashes of colour as the moving spotlight hit different kids. The kids seemed to enjoy themselves and rather than dancing, the main event seemed to be chasey around the hall. Kids running beserk everywhere! We got them to play a few games, and they won prizes and stuff. I took some photo's whiile they were limboing, even though I was holding one end of the limbo stick. I was just holding the camera out and taking photos without being able to see what was in the view finder. Some of the shots looked quite good. Wish I could load some of them up here ... but I don't have access to the photos (they're at work). Besides, I doubt any of you would be interested in dancing/limboing primary school kids. At the same time as the disco, one of the preliminary finals was on TV - Eagles (my mother's team), versus Sydney (my ex-fathers team). A lot of the kids were sitting in the foyer area watching it (as we had the TV on for the Eagle fans who work there). It looked like the Eagles were loosing, but not by much! Sydney were oftena few goals in front. [Yes, I am talking Aussies Rules! Like most of you readers, I don't follow the game ... just everyone around me does! Like my mother!] Every now and then, I'd have to move all the kids back into the hall for a prize draw, or a game or something. Well, towards the end of the night, I went into th emens roomto ensure all the kids were in the hall. There was no one in there. I came out, and realised I had a camera in my hand! Um ... that must look friggin' weird ... a guy walking out of the toilet with a camera! What would he have been taking a photo of? Baka Dabido! Should have left the camera with someone. Anyway, all the kids seemed to have a great time. Was glad to finally get out of there and come home. Saw the last ten minuts of the game! The Eagles were still trailing ... then BANG a goal, they were in the lead ... thne BANG another goal! Woo Hoo! Five minutes left! BANG! Sydney scored a goal ... four points the difference. My mother and brother were going wild! The Eagles eventually won! Woo Hoo! My mother and brother were happy! It was a close game! They get next week off (WOO HOO! I don't have to put up with Aussie Rules next weekend!) My mother and brother started to watch Spiderman (the Toby McGuire Movie) and I got on the internet! Then, they both went to bed ... and I am falling asleep here! :-)

No Exercise makes me instantly fat!

Was rather exhausted yesterday for some reason. Did no exercise what-so-ever! No yoga, no weights, no one hour walk! I am soooo fat! Well, was under the weather a bit. Allergies playing up, and feeling depressed! Had an interview in the afternoon. No idea why they wanted to look at me! Was a server admin type role! I'm not a server admin type person! There was a little firewall, networking in the role, but not much. I must be the most underqualified person they were looking at! Well, worst fit! Always good practice to goto the interview anyway. I received a letter from the Aussie Writers guild president asking me not to leave the writers guild. As I am most likely heading off to the UK, I doubt I have a reason to remain a member. Had an interesting day at work today. The Work For The Dole guy (Rob) turned up (which was miraculous event in itself, as he normally never shows). He was shown where to paint. I was asked to help him lift the BIG TV set down, so he could paint behind it. After he got all the paint out, he came and informed us that he couldn't paint as he'd hurt his neck on the weekend. So Kylie gave him some vaccuuming to do (the Gymnastics Gym). About fifteen minutes to half an hour later, Rebecca asked where he was, as it was awfully quiet! So Kylie went in seach of him ... and couldn't find him. So she asked me to go into the Men's room and the men's change room to see if he was hiding in there! I couldn't find him! Kylie and I then searched the entire premises! Nope! No sign of him what-so-ever! He'd disappeared into thin air! (Or buggered off, as we'd say in Australia!) In order to work for us, this guy needed police clearance! I dont' know how he acheived it, as he alway sseems to be high on something! Either that or his not all there in the head (which could also be true. My money is on marjauna abuse!). He never looks at you when you speak to him, and he is always vacant! I left at 12:30 pm to take my mother to the hospital! She is now going in for an operation next Wednesday, so I have the pleasure of driving her in then. On the way to the hospital, we drove past a LOT of police vehicles and the channel Ten News crew! Some young boy has gone missing and there is a huge search on for him. They found what they believe is his school clothes. I'd place my money on either murder or kidnapping. It's highly unlikely that he's just run away and left his clothes behind. I bought a set of strings for my accustic guitar yesterday! AUD $20!!!! Far OUT! When did strings become so expensive! I was expecting the $15 or $16 mark! Maybe even $17! Geees! Why why why! They're not making them out of petrolium!!!! As you may have noticed, I blogged in Malaysian yesterday to help my Malay friends celebrate Malaysia's National Day. No one has corrected my Malay yet ... so hoepfully it was pretty much correct (and if you can speak Malay ... then please have a look and tell me what I got wrong. That way I can improve my Bahasa Melayu!) :-) Today I am blogging in English to help celebrate the fact that it is a normal day! :-) Myabe I need to blog in Japanese again one day, just to help with my Nihongo (Japanese Language) :-) Oh well ... not much else to do today! Tomorrow I will be going in late (1PM) to help with the Blue Light Disco (Police run Disco for primary school kids!) They can always do with a hand ... someone like myself cooking the chips and serving the drinks! Any excuse for the parents to dump their kids on someone else for a few hours! :-) One good thing which has come out of my mother's illness, is my sister won't be dumping her kids on my mother as much. She's placed them in daycare on Wednesday (when my mother had them all day long). My mother will still be getting the youngest one on Friday mornings now, and I guess we'll be having them on the weekends again too! (But I assume not till after the operation!)