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On why I no longer regularly purchase books. [Oct. 20th, 2009|11:59 pm]
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[mood | sleepy]
[music |Expo '86, Death Cab For Cutie]

This morning I wandered into Basement Books. I noticed that they happened to have I Am Not Esther on sale for $2.
(Aside: My choice of purchase there may need a bit of explanation; one of the key books from my childhood was a short (probably 15 sentence) picture book by the same author. If anyone ever sees a copy of A Surprise For Anna by Fleur Beale available anywhere, buy it for me and I'll pay you back. Probably pay you more than you paid, even.)

Anyway, so I had this book. I read a few pages as I walked to the office, a few more during my lunch break, and a few more after work. ...I finished the entire novel before 7pm, on a day when I had a Hell of a lot of other stuff on.

Admittedly, it's only 150 pages of not terribly taxing content (it's a young adult novel, for starters), but still. If I'd paid full price for the book? I would not have been rapt.
(As another aside, this is why I picked up fantasy in primary school. Even I am unable to get through a 600 page tome in a single day. ...Unless I really work at it.)

-Mmaster
linkBe an Angel

[Oct. 17th, 2009|11:59 pm]
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[mood | amused]

Tonight was the EGG AGM.

They occasionally do events for Child's Play. They jumped at my suggestion that they have an event inspired by UWA's Charity Vigils. "We normally stay up anyway! Get people to pay us?!? Awesome!"

There you are, UCC. Your ideas are good. :p.
-Mmaster

P.S. Speaking of UCC, is it just me, or have you guys been having a bunch of connectivity issues? I read the Planet, and the flow of posts just... stops... on a fairly frequent basis, followed by a flood of posts when the system is reset (I assume).
link4 Divine Judgements|Be an Angel

[Oct. 17th, 2009|10:44 am]
[Tags|, ]
[music |Rage is playing on Mike. Apparrently it's 80's day.]

Am I the only one who confused Jordin Sparks' Battlefield with Pat Benatar's Love is a Battlefield?


...This is quite aside from the fact that if your relationship is a war, you're doing it wrong.

-Mmaster
linkBe an Angel

[Oct. 10th, 2009|08:26 pm]
[Tags|, , , ]
[mood | amused]
[music |Personal Jesus, Depeche Mode]

Aww. In Hotmail, you're not allowed to mark emails coming direct from Microsoft as spam.

*pouts*
-Mmaster
link2 Divine Judgements|Be an Angel

[Sep. 30th, 2009|10:31 pm]
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[mood | sleepy]

I wonder how much the average person's music taste evolves over time.

Will retirement villages of the 2050's be blasting ACDC?


...And now to bed. I have an 8am Uni meeting. Graraagargh.
-Mmaster
linkBe an Angel

[Sep. 27th, 2009|11:11 pm]
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[music |Don't Stop Believin', Glee]

Australian Idol ads were trumpeting "80'S NIGHT".

...I wonder how many of the participating contestants remember the eighties. It'd be getting fewer.

-Mmaster
linkBe an Angel

Sister Psychic, can you tell me, does it ever get better? [Sep. 27th, 2009|09:35 pm]
[Tags|, , , , , , ]
[mood | irritated]
[music |Sister Psychic, Smash Mouth]

Today my "It sucks to be me" hat came in handy. As did my "I don't work here" shirt.

I had some uni work to do. On a weekend. Self-inflicted injury, but still not one to improve my mood.

Since the Internet at home is busted (I think I hit the cap again), I went in to Uni to do stuff there.

Things going okay till 6. Suddenly no website not connected to UTS or Google was accessible. Since I was supposed to be having a Skype meeting at 7, this was a little inconvenient. There wasn't much I could do about it, though, so I just connected as best I could. Eventually Skype died permanently, and they forwarded the call to my mobile. I think I now have no Skype credit. *sigh*


I caught a cab home. The cab driver was listening to 2GB. The evening shock jock was suggesting that we should ban people from walking the Kakoda Track, since people keep dying. "Maybe soon we'll even have schoolchildren walking it! Where's it going to end? It's not like you're experiencing what the diggers did! They had bullets shooting past them!"

...This irritated me. The attitude seemed to be, "Why take let people take risks?". I think that if they're suitably prepared and wish to go, they should be able to do so. ...Not my scene, but I know others who are interested.

So, I asked the cab driver to change channels. He switched to 2UE. It was The Psychic Hour, or whatever they call it.

"Hi Cherine. Do you think that if I move house, it will be better for my health? I'm having trouble with the stairs in my current home."

...Lady. If you're having trouble with the stairs in your house, then move. You don't need a psychic to tell you that.


...I may dislike Dad's radio in general, but at least it's better than the alternative...
-Mmaster
linkBe an Angel

[Sep. 25th, 2009|10:19 pm]
[Tags|, , ]
[mood | calm]
[music |You Are My Number One, Smash Mouth]

Chris was late to our lunch date today.

Things that happened while I waited:
* I was amused by a guy on a soapbox yelling about the Bible and how non-believers are going straight to Hell.
* I was even more amused by a guy trying to have a semi-rational debate with the soapbox guy.
* I told a charity spruiker I was 18.
* I was approached by a person trying to sell me a very expensive haircut.
* I was personally preached to by a born-again Christian who was previously an atheist. "Do I sound crazy?" "No, you just sound like you're trying to convert me." ...I resisted pulling the "My boyfriend's Christian" card on him. Just.


...I now smell like Lush products. Life is good.
-Mmaster
linkBe an Angel

[Sep. 25th, 2009|04:35 am]
[Tags|, ]
[mood | sleepy]
[music |Brand New Day, Dr Horrible]

The news reports on the dust storm said that normal Sydney levels of pollution are about 10 units (micrograms of particles per cubic metre of air), and that during the dust, it was at 15400 units. And that hazardous levels were about 200.

I'd be interested to see an analysis of the air from the dust storm the other day, compared to what smokers breathe in, in terms of impurity level and hazard to health. No, I'm not a smoker, and never intend to become one, but the comparison would be a good data point for me to see how much damage I did to myself by not bothering to cover my face during it.

-Mmaster
linkBe an Angel

"What is it?" "Dust storm!" [Sep. 23rd, 2009|06:57 am]
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[music |Pacific Coast Party, Smash Mouth]

Dad told me yesterday that there was going to be "a violent wind that reduces visibility".

This morning he woke me up to show me the window.

The world looks like it has been steeped in Sunkist.

-Mmaster

EDIT: Pictures
linkBe an Angel

"My mother made me a homosexual." "If I gave her the wool, would she knit me one too?" [Sep. 22nd, 2009|11:07 pm]
[Tags|, ]
[mood | cynical]

I've been watching Glee.

...Or maybe "watching" implies less interaction than I've been having. "Jumping through" might be more apt terminology. I find a scene irritating, so I skip it, only to realise that I've gone too far and have to go back in smaller jumps to figure out what I've missed... And wind up more or less seeing the annoying scene anyway.

One of the characters is this painfully camp young boy. In the most recent episode, he confessed to one of the girls that he was gay.

...I would have been more shocked if he was totally straight. At least then they'd be doing something to bend stereotypes.

But this is American TV. Stereotypes act as a shorthand, providing a crutch that prevents the necessity for character development. Alternatively, as my father put it, "They're Americans. They need things spelled out."

-Mmaster
linkBe an Angel

[Sep. 18th, 2009|11:30 am]
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[mood | blah]
[music |Tech Support For Dad, Tom Smith]

I had been wondering why the data mining notes had a picture of Bonzi Buddy on the first slide of every week.

...Then I realised that it was, in fact, perfectly appropriate.

-Mmaster
linkBe an Angel

[Sep. 16th, 2009|03:23 pm]
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[mood | amused]
[music |Don't Stop Believing, Glee]

In the database tables I'm migrating, "UK" means "Unknown".

One of the departments listed is "USA", and there's no map as to what it translates to.

...It's vaguely entertaining to map "USA" to "UK". Most people think it's the other way around.
-Mmaster
linkBe an Angel

[Sep. 3rd, 2009|10:49 pm]
[Tags|, ]
[mood | tired]

A little over an hour left of being twenty one.

Bed time, I guess.
-Mmaster
linkBe an Angel

And they say I've got talent, in that pure yet edgy way... [Aug. 28th, 2009|03:42 pm]
[Tags|, , , , ]
[mood | tired]

Today was a bad day for Uni bureaucracy.

I kept falling asleep in the data mining lecture. When I went to the tutorial and the Windows XP VM refused to give me a network connection, I said "Screw that" and went hunting in search of naps. I then did some of the assignment in the CompSoc room. I discovered that the network port has been disconnected or is broken or something.

*Mm goes to the tech desk
Mm: Hi, the network port at CompSoc is broken. Who do I speak to?
Safa: *takes down the details* I'll go check.
*Safa wanders off, and then returns a while later
Safa: You need to go to this address and submit a ticket.
Mm: Sigh.

So I go back to CompSoc and write up a ticket. Half an hour later, I receive a response. "Hi Catherine, go talk to the tech desk. Your ticket is now closed." Sigh. So I traipse back over there.
Engineer: Sorry, Safa's just stepped out. Why don't you email this top tier guy and ask him?
Mm: Sigh.
*Mm forwards the response to the top-tier guy.

Later, I happened to be walking past the ITD tech desk, so I go and ask them.
Mm: Hi, the network port in the CompSoc room is down. I went to the FIT tech desk, and they said I should submit a ticket to you guys. When I submitted it, the response was "Go talk to FIT". ...And, by the way, it was directed to my middle name. But anyway, what should I be trying now? They suggested emailing top-tier guy, which I've done, but I have a feeling he won't get back to me.
ITD Guy: Yeah, he probably won't respond unless you've gone through the proper channels. See, what you should do is ask FIT to open the ticket, because they probably control the room.
Mm: You know, it would have been helpful if the email could have said that...
ITD Guy: Anyway, I'll reopen it for you and say that you know it might need to come from higher up.
Mm: Thanks.


...Later, I visit the Union to check ProgSoc's mailbox.
Mm: Hi, can I grab the key to ProgSoc? It's either number six or number sixteen.
Girl: Go check.
Mm: ...Six?
Girl: Go check.
Mm: ... ... ...Fine.
*Mm thinks: I gave you two choices. It would almost certainly be quicker for you to look than for me to go around the corner and come back.
*Mm goes and checks, and then comes back
Mm: Six.
*Girl collects the key, and carefully examines the tag before handing it over
Mm: ...


Less a Uni-fail story, but still:
*Mm wanders into the Mac-fanboy computer shop to take a look around
Mm: *to the shop assistant* Y'know, I went into Harris Technology the other day, and they'd hooked up an Intuos to a Cintiq. You could sort of go, *scribble scribble*, *scribble scribble*.
Shop Guy: That would blow my mind. ...That says a great deal about Harris Technology, now I think about it.
Mm: "More money than sense"?
Shop Guy: ...Something like that.
*Mm turns to leave
Shop Guy: Y'know, ah, Snow Leopard came out today...
Mm: Right.
Shop Guy: ...Only $39, for a single user licence...
Mm: ...Y'know that thing where my Macbook is permanently booting Windows?
Shop Guy: Well, Snow Leopard isn't much good for that.
Mm: Not really, no.
Shop Guy: Do you dislike Macs?
Mm: Not really - I was raised with Macs, because my father dislikes Windows. But I haven't used really them regularly in the last ten years or so. I'll probably be getting a new laptop at some point - my machine's taken a few beatings. But not right this second. I don't know what I'd pick, actually.
Shop Guy: Well, if you're a Windows user, there's not much point in getting a Mac, I suppose.
Mm: Yeah, the reason that I got the Macbook I have at the moment was that I went into Dick Smith, and they were having 15% of all Macs at the time - which negated the difference in price point. Without that, I don't know if I'd bother.


...And now I should go do some more of the data mining assignment. Whoo, party on.
-Mmaster
linkBe an Angel

[Aug. 24th, 2009|07:54 pm]
[Tags|, , , , ]
[mood | amused]

Chris and I had lunch at Maquarie Centre yesterday. Chris ordered Eggs Benedict.

...Apparently he'd never had it before, and didn't actually know what it was.

"It's okay, but the sauce is a bit much."
...The sauce is kind of the point, boyo...

-Mmaster
linkBe an Angel

Definitions. [Aug. 10th, 2009|10:23 pm]
[Tags|, , , , , ]
[mood | hungry]
[music |And They Say I've Got Talent, Tom Smith]

According to The Oxford Dictionary Of Computing:

nerd Derogatory Slang Someone who spends excessive time using a computer, often with unreasonable enthusiasm. (The term is also used more generally.)

geek A person who [is] knowledgeable about and talented at developing or working with computer systems, but to an excessive and often unworldly degree. A geek is distinguished from a nerd by having talent.


So there.
-Mmaster
linkBe an Angel

[Jun. 16th, 2009|10:00 pm]
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[mood | okay]
[music |Telling Everybody, Human Nature]

Aww, Human Nature were so cute before they became a Motown cover band!
-Mmaster
PS: You do kind of have to wonder about the lyrics, though:
I'm tellin' everybody
Tellin' everybody what we did last night
Tellin' everybody
You're the reason why I had a good time

The response that keeps running through my head? A quote by Bette Davis:
"There goes the good time that was had by all."
linkBe an Angel

[May. 20th, 2009|11:54 pm]
[Tags|]
[mood | sleepy]
[music |A Match Made In Texas, Her Space Holiday]

Does anyone know the origin of the quote "Computers allow us to make very fast, very accurate mistakes"? The Internet just seems to be coming up with the ever-popular Anonymous. I wanted to use it in an assignment, but it's far too late now (we got it back today), so it's just curiosity.

-Mmaster

EDIT: I'd originally written "Computers" as "Humans". Kind of shows the hour it was typed at, I guess.
linkBe an Angel

[May. 20th, 2009|11:22 pm]
[Tags|]
[mood | sleepy]
[music |Home OF The Blues, Joaquin Phoenix]

I find it interesting that picture wire is now sold in lengths of "3660 mm".

...Evidently the machines were never converted to metric.
-Mmaster
linkBe an Angel

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