legend of the premature download cap
3 days before the end of the month and im over the download limit on cable.. grr... its that stupid green dragon! he wont leave me alone, i must fight him everyday!! im soo close to getting him =) but i need a horse first!!

anyways.. i can only post whlie im at work now.. so theyll be like a day behind or something. although i jsut kinda post whenever anyways =p sometimes i do stuff, but i dont think its blog-worthy till about a week later then i go "hm.. i shouldve blogged that".

nihongo
after dinner, i headed off to my first japanese class. twas in the insearch building.. and it was one sample lesson for $15.. pretty good =) the teacher was pretty ok, she went a lil fast though, considering she basically just reeled off a bunch of japanese words, and wrote a bunch of hiragana words on the board, and expected ppl to get it. every1 seemed to get it ok though.. which was suprising.. im sure its much easier of i have the katakana and hiragana alphabets sitting in from of me.

ohayo gozimasu, icchan-san desu, dozo yoroshiku. o namae wa?

work work
work was a yawn.. as usual.. we won volleyball convincingly against the other RBA team. i played terribly.. and we still won =) i made a couple of spectacular dive-saves.. but then again i also let so really easy ones go thru my fingers... gah! i also took some skin off my knee.. *sigh*

after work i met up with jel for sushi train. twas nice as always =) especially since she neither fell asleep nor had to stop halfway to sms other ppl as she tends to do. =p .. i really like sushi train btw.. we went to ippon sushi which isnt the best, but sashimi is soo good even from a sketchy place.. =)

OMGSOCOLD
man its cold today.. *shivering* stood around heaps today in the freezing cold.. had bible study tonite, which required qaiting in front of townhall chattering my teeth cos i didnt quite wear enuf clothes today. Hunt's back from BBB and snow (grr).. so we hae the whole crew now. its been a while... today i supposedly "lead" the study.. cept i suck at it.. and just kinda read it .. then say what i think is puzzling, then we talk about it for a while =p still good though.

i seek you
im not sure whats goin on, but recently ive been getting an unusually high number of random icq ppl adding me to their icq list. all girls from china.. weirdness.. its like the icq of old... last time this happened, some site had my icq# in an online dating service, listed under some hot russian chick.... maybe im listed beside some Jay-Chou-esque guy on a Chinese online dating service =p

brr... its cold in here
omg it was sooo cold today.. apparently coldest day of the year. *chatters teeth* while i write this, im sitting in my new sleeping bag.. so toasty, i cant wait to use it for real =) also.. i just found a pocket inside.. im not sure what its for =p

in other news.. i wanna go to the snow *pout* im thinking of just catching a bus down by myself this weekend... i mean, i dont really need other ppl there, they just slow me down.

dance dance
twas gus n mendels party tonite.. was at the hotel CBD.. cept they neglected to book.. so when we turned up, it was all booked up =p so we jsut kinda milled around the main bar for a while till every1 turned up. it was pretty cool to catch up with a few ppl who i dun see often... and meet a few ppl here and there.. spent a lot of time talkin to shelly, cos she didnt really know ne1.. and im wasnt drunk enuf to get involved in the party =p .. stood around for a while talking to randoms, bitching about how i coudlnt go to the snow but my boss is there now.... made jel fall asleep with my ever exciting dialogue.. after a while we moved to the Forbes hotel.. to inhale some second hand smoke.. and stick our shoes to the floor.. and dance next to desperate mid-aged ppl trying to stay "hip".

my haircut went down ok with the kids..i think its too short.. but generally it had a good response from the ppl there.. probly cos it was pretty shocking before i cut it =p hehe.. my scar is kinda showing now, although no one really said much about it.

in other news: i bought the Goonies on dvd =) i havent seen it in ages..

windswept no mroe
more than once in the last coupla weeks i had my hair described as windswept.. in other words: messy =p it was getting pretty long.. and i was finding it a bit annoying.. so today i got it cut.. its ok.. although a bit shorter than i was hoping for. itll do i spose.. it all grows back in the end =p

ice ice baby
work was a drag.. as always..
but afterwards i went ice-skating and to see T3.. it was scheweet =)

ice skating was not too bad.. i can sorta almost kinda skate backwards now... but i cant really do it without constantly lookin at my skates.. so i kept bumping into ppl cos i wasnt watching where i was going =p my feet are hecka sore atm.. im so tempted to buy some skates jsut so ive got skates which fit and dont mush my feet into a bruisey pulp.

T3 was good =) but not as good as it coudlve been.. seems this year has been riddled with dissappointing movies all around.. but this one isnt too bad .. well relatively.. =p the story was acceptable.. the action was hecka good =) the special effects were cool... but it didnt have the suspense and overall cinematography of T2.. and the ending was a lil anti-climatical. =p but still enjoyable..

legend of the sketchy BBS game
ive been playing a web-based port of the BBS classic Legend of the Red Dragon (L.O.R.D.) by Seth Able Robinson. this version is called Legend of the Green Dragon. and its pretty much the same gameplay.. made into a php version. its pretty schweet.. cos its been modified to make 1 real day into 4 game days.. making the game much faster..

i had a bad "day" today.. i saved up 1200 gold then got it all stolen by a stupid Special event which is jsut a random event designed to screw me over if im doing too well. then i tried to bribe my way into the Inn.. and got screwd 5 times in a row.. grr..

meh..

in other news: i bought a new sleeping bag =) 25% off at the Gowings sale.. only $112 for a -5 degree rated bag. US made and with a 3 year zipper warranty =)

java.util.pagan.dateUtils
grrr.. i am once again pulling out my hair over the date implementations in java. After some research on the ever reliable source of google =p ive discovered that the reason that java months all start from zero (while everything else starts from one) is that Sun wanted to cater for lunar calendars. Seems they didnt want to discriminate against the pagan druid java programmers of the world. So countless numbers of regular coders are being frustrated to allow for the 3 times in history some1 needs to write a program which makes calculations based on the solstice.. or chinese new year, or greek easter.

makes sense to me .. i do love Sun ever so much... *hugs*

month = month - 1;
ack!!
month = month + 1;
grr!!!

a new template
well i finally changed the template =p im not sure if i like it yet... its certainly not as i planned it, but itll grow on me i spose.. im jsut glad im not using one of the default templates =p

ill write more about this tommolo, im tired.

aussie rules
played aussie rules today... part of training for our intrabank aussie rules match in a few weeks. anyway man i suck now.. im so slow and unfit.. i played for about 40 mins and i was exhausted, like my lungs were in pain. i can still kick straight, but not far though =) i was,however, wearing basketball shoes.. so it was hard to run and jump on grass.. ill swipe my brother's soccer boots for thursday =p

in other news: i signed up for the city to surf... im not sure how ill go, agfter today's poor effort. my prediction is 120 mins, if i can do it in about 110 ill be happy =)

omg!
so i come out of the gates at Martin Place station... to be greeted by a bunch of ... Effie impersonators trying to sell me cheap long distance calls to the UK and NZ... omg! there was about 10 of them all dressed like effie and doing that eternally irritating voice.. why would anyone in their right mind pick effie-imitators as a marketing strategy? who ever thought that up should be locked away or something.. its just wrong.

woe is me
woe be unto me.. so anyways.. im not at the snow (have i mentioned that before?) .. because i have to be at work.. strange since im at work right now.. and im doing.... absolutely nothing!!! grr... ive fixed one problem so far, and anyone who had half an idea what a webserver is couldve fixed it. other than that.. i wrote a script which took me a total of about 10 mins!! i cant believe im missing the snow for this!!

supposedly they need my expert advice to fix this system if it breaks.. and i agree that its hardly stable... but.. argh!! *pulls out hair*

this is not happening, this is not happening, this is not happening.. *closes eyes and covers ears* la la la la la la la

yawn-age
i suffered from sunday laziness as usual this weekend. didnt really do anything.. got up and watched futurama and simpsons for a bit, then i finally started playing Final Fantasy X.. gah i hate starting new RPGs.. cos the start is always a whole bunch of cutscenes and a few highly restrictive sample fights to get u in the mood.. i wasted so much time learning the FF8 battle engine and character magic junctioning.. and now i have to start all over by learning this ability sphere.. weird =p

..Rikku is a fox btw =p although so far ive only seen her in the full diving suit thing.

this one is for all the suckers who still believe in love
hrm.. *looks around* im not at the snow ... grr ... lousy work *grumble*

anyhoo i went out to the city for karaoke and dinner with the old schools. twas pretty good.. i sang off key .. but ok =p ended up being at k for 3 hours.. hehe .. such fun. bunny said i looked "clean" which is about as close to a compliment as i ever get out of her =p

afterwards we went to dinner at soup plus ... mmm .. tasty.. we were too early to catch any live jazz though. still good though.. good value food too =) finished off with a bit of oh so rich n tasty heated mud cake at this cafe. a nice quiet day out is a nice change to my regular angsty-ness =p

julia^2
went to see Charlie's Angels II tonite at broadway with Julia and.. Julia =p two julias for the price of one hehe..

anyhoos.. it was a lil disappointing.. like the action was good, it was ratehr amusing.. and entertaining... but the whole movie didnt fit together that well... like the plot clues were a lil obscure and not that clever... meh.. lucy liu.. *sigh* hehe

return of the dead
speaking of returning items... i went to return a purchase today. not cos it had a lil scratch on it.. but becuase i bought the wrong plug for my cable modem. in the end, i wanted to buy a connector which doesnt exist =p so i had to buy a connector and also a cable. when i got back to my office, i realised that the cable actually came with 3 connectors in the box.. 2 of those connectors were the connector that id bought separately.. grr.. id take that back too.. but its not worth the walk for $3 =p

lisa lives she never lies
lunched with lisa today.. and her cousin fresh off the plane from HK.. its been a while since i last saw her but it was kidna hard to catch up.. cos her cousin didnt really speak english =p.. so theyd talk in Canto.. and me and her talked in english.. it was kinda weird =p also met her friend wendy from UNSW.. um.. i duno what else to say.. she seemed nice.. =p they took ehr cousin shopping around town.. how exciting =p

im hecka stressed out at work cos the place was kinda frantic due to a new system being rolled out this week.. ack.. stress.. and the live ldap broke.. ack.. if it isnt working before the end of tommolo, i probly wont be able to go on my snow trip =(

anyways.. had dinner with jel, just a quick quiet bite down at darling harbour. also did a spot of shopping (being thursday and all) and she got a handbag from the mooks store, which she later found a scratch on.. and felt like she should return it =p gee twas jsut a lil scratch. anyway she did return it.. and the guy didnt mind at all.. makes me think i shoudl return more stuff =p

i walked her to some restaurant in East Sydney where she got a ride from her mum and brother. funnily enough id been to this restaurant before.. i remember it because isntead of serving you water, they serve u cordial.. apparently its quite cheap to eat there too =) i went there years ago with Paul, on the way to a Warren Miller film and i coudlnt remember where it was .. till now =)

news
have u ever heard something, and thought it was big news.. and tried to find some1 to tell.. and couldnt find anyone.. and then realise u cant find anyoen to tell cos its not really that exciting and ur jsut a sucker for any kind of gossip? no? oh well maybe thats just me =p

in other news: i saw khanh today.. um.. i dunno what to say.. it was so nice.. but at the same time weird. its been a long time since i last saw her.. its sad that its come to this =( she seemed happy though so its all ok.

technicalities
seems we are only 5th on the ladder in volleyball.. despite being undefeated... apparently they count back sets won and lost.. and we had one set unfinished.. and one we lost.. and other teams have had clean sweeps.. dang

anyways.. we wont today =) and i played quite well too.. i had a couple of ok-ish spikes.. and i made quite a few winning .. uh .. shots.. or whatever u call a hit =p

meh
cell group was pike-city today.. half the group didnt turn up. i think i got food poisoning from the food =(.. my tummy is churning like paddleboat at low tide. *keels over* .. bleh =p

in other news: there appears to be a intra-bank aussie rules game which i can play in =) .. hopefully i can remmeber how to play

new kid on the block
hrm.. whats this new peripheral on the server in my workspace??
its small.. white.. different.. kinda looks like a fat cd-player... there are letters inscribed on the front: D....V....D...+..R...W

omg!! we got a DVD burner at work now.. let the burnination begin!!
time to get my playstation 2 chipped =)

impulse shopping
impulse buy of the day.. looks something like this:


.. the sign said $40.. the tag said $35 and the cash register said $30 .. woohoo

i dunno if ill ever wear it though =p

mmbop
i was talkin to annie last nite and it reminded me of this uber-stupid annie-like comment this person made to me last week. this person claimed that pop songs were the hardest songs to write and that ppl who write pop songs are the most talented songwriters. *clutches brain* arrghh!!... basically he is saying that the guy who wrote "oops i did it again" is more musically talented than Daniel Johns.. the genius who wrote Holly Valance's "kiss kiss" is more talented than U2's Bono.. and the mastermind behind Bec Cartwright song "All seats taken", is more talented than Ben Harper..

his argument was that anyone can write songs for a guitar.. but a pop song is "really complex". sometimes theres nothing more u can do than pity the ignorant.. and throw spare change to the stupid.

they say that ignorance is bliss.. and this is just one more of those comments i wish i was ignorant of =p now pardon me while i go and expand my horizons by listening to the unmatched musical brilliance of Bardot.. and *shudder* Scandal'us.. ::rolleyes::

ernest goes to camp
For no apparent reason i spontaneously burst into tears today. so heres the lyrics from a song out of "Ernest goes to camp".. its the first movie that i can recall crying to.


Gee I'm glad it's raining
There's always something to be thankful for.
I'm awfully glad it's raining
Cause no one sees the tear drops when it pours.

And no one knows the thunder
As your heart breaks in the sky,
And they think those rainy nights
Cause that sad look in your eye.

Sure am glad it's raining.
The gentle river soothes the pain inside.
I'm glad the stars aren't shining.
This wounded warrior needs a place to hide.

I thought I had found someone
I could count til the end.
What they wanted was a hero,
All I needed was a friend

Gee I'm glad it's raining.
I hope the morning sun won't come up soon.
As long as it keeps raining,
No one knows my heart broke right in two.

I thought I had found someone
I could count til the end.
What they wanted was a hero,
All I needed was a friend

Sure am glad it's raining.
I'm awfully glad it's raining

boredom
jsut played kingdom hearts today.. and watched "National Silverchair Day" on Channel [v]. i kinda wish id gone to GodSpeed now , my friend (who is an RnB person) went last nite.. and said it was my kinda scene =) damnit! grr..

layered pie in the sky
after much debate.. i decided to just go to Lapy's party today.. and skip the rest of the things, altough GodSpeed was damn enticing.. i doubt my legs could hold up after orieenteering and volleyball last week.

Lapy's place is schweet.. down by the water at meadowbank.. *jealous* there was good cake to be had.. and i havent seen most of those kids for a while. her lil brother is rather amusing.. hehe. there were lil kids running all over the place. they were also playing FF8.. and they were like masters of the game, heaps further than ive gotten.. grr.. *feels motivation to go back and play*

we played a lot of mahjong.. (not suprisingly) and i still suck at it rather =p i won one game.. and that was enough for me..they were all hoarding winds and dragons.. grr.. =p

there once was a lightbulb named ian
went out west for dinner for minh's bday with some of the old school gang... went to Chillis finally =p it was alright i spose.. nothing to write home about though. theyr real nazis when it comes to seating n stuff there.. its pretty ridiculous. anyhoo.. we left without too much excitement... and headed to that ever popular harris park bowling alley, famous for their lack of customer service skills =p

as always is sucked like a vaccuum cleaner... first game i came dead last.. with a grand total of 65, and i think i hurt my shoulder a bit... but i got better, scored an almost respectable 132 in the second game giving me first place =) hehe from last to first .. and more than dbl'd my score. i wasnt really playing properly the first game though.. i wasnt feeling that well..

i was talking to thao about tenny and amy.. and she says "ian, ur next" .. (if u know what that means..) hehe gah... im scared =p there was some serious lightbulb-age going on though... im ok with it though.


** in other news: i may have an opportunity to work out at West Penno.. in the IBM complex.. as part of a disaster recovery site which is being set up =) thatd be schweet.. although it is yet another reason to get my license =p

shopping.. grr
*pulls out hair* .. went shopping for minh's bday gift today.. gah. it was frustrating as hell.. basically no one could agree on what to get. just saying like "get a shirt" then "get a jumper" .. then "get something electronic" .. and then finally "meh.. i dont care anymore". in the end i was just gonna buy something by myself, and so i picked something.. and they went "yeh thats good" and we split it.. *sigh*

in other news: my favourite twins are back from their cruise. saw jelly today for lunch.. she woke up and called me as the first person to lunch with since she came back.. how sweet =) ... havent seen shelly yet.. hopefuly will soon ^^;

work work
the day at work today started quite unpleasantly.. i had to "install" and icon on someone's desktop.. and show them how this application (which me and another guy wrote). but the application basically didnt work at all =p it was pretty embarassing.. "click on this link and ull see.... um.. this wouldnt normally have an error..". hehe not good at all =p but we got it all sorted out in the end. =) i even wrote some code which worked later on today hehe..

in other news: we played terribly.. and still won volleyball today =) my ankle is fsked as ever though.. i dunno what im gonna do with it. i may have to get an ankle brace.

unity
i had some1 (who i have never met ) add me to their icq list.. cos they happened upon my blog.. thats uber-cool =) hehe. according to my eternally busted counter, hardly anyone visits.. and i must say it woudlnt hurt if there were a few more comments and tags.... but still i find theres more ppl stopping to peek. i wont list who they all are.. but its nice to see all my procrastination is being read =)

forced leave
i was on semi-forced rostered day off today.. cos i have accumlated too many days.. i had to take one or id start losing them.. grr..
and i made full use of the day doing.. absolutely nothing.. jsut slept in and sat on my butt all day.

i played a bit of SSX Tricky.. and watched some soccer.. and the MLB all-star home run derby.. and played some cs... hardly an exciting day..
i did however finish an ever tardy webcomic viewable here: http://www.eclectical.net/uploads/files/angstville10.gif

not much else.. cept nige invented a perpetual motion machine..
it looks the goods this time, unlike his teleport machine =p

yet another KK
so we're on the way home.. and we go past Penrith (were i never normally go) and decide to stop at this new donut chain called KrispyKremes (http://www.krispykreme.com.au). the Penrith store is the first outside of North America (where there are about 350 of these stores), and i didnt really expect that much froma donut store, but as we arrived we saw a line out the door, around the corner, and around the next corner.. it looked like the opening to star wars episode 3 or something was going on. after waiting in line for a lil while we thought the drive-thru might be a better option, but i counted 40+ cars waiting for the drive thru!! omg!.. this was 4pm on a Sunday afternoon in Penrith..

whilst in the line we had an opportunity to watch the production line for these Krispy Kreme original glazed donuts being deep fried in oil and them waterfalled with a sugary glaze.. mm healthy =p there was a guy employed basically to pick out reject donuts and chuck them in the bin.. and he got a suprisingly large ratio.. i reakon about 1 in 8 was a reject.. luckily they were giving out the rejects to the ppl in the line as freebies for the ridiculously long wait.

after a 1hr 20 min wait.. we made it to the front of the line.. and had a vast array of donuts to pick from.. i went for the box of a dozen assorted donuts.. mm.. tasty, but quite spectacularly bad for my teeth and arteries =p

.. the donuts were good .. i dunno if theyre drive-2hours-to-penrith-and-wait-in-line-for-8mins good, but the popularity of it makes me wanna open a krispy kremes franchise of my own.. id make a killing i reakon.

orienteering
w00t for NavShield.. even though we sucked .. it was heaps good fun.. and we started to get the hang of it towards the end. I think if i had more time to plan stuff.. and a team which was a bit less diverse i could put in a pretty good effort at this thing. ne of u faithful readers out there wanna join my team next year?

on the first night we arrived late and couldnt register till morning.. a rather annoying set back. cos it meant we didnt get the night time to plan our route or set up our maps.. but it wasnt that bad really. we pitched our tents among the small village of tents and cars that was called base camp, there were supposedly about 800 ppl there.. eep. when we got up in the morning, my tent was covered in ice!! apparently there was condensation on the tents.. and the sub zero overnite temperatures caused my tent to be frozen into a sort of icy shell =p

we ended up start a tad late, but in the end it didnt make too much difference... we headed off and in almsot no time we had found our first check point!! yay! .. now im thinking "this isnt so hard"... but onto the next check point... this army guy from another team told us it was jsut along the ridge, pretty simple .. fast forward 2 hours.. and we're walking around blindy looking for a "watercourse bend" .. and we have no idea whether its north, south, east or west... argh!! it was pretty embarassing actually.. but ill take the blame for that one since i thought we were about 1km NW of where we actually were =p

we decided to give up.. and head for a few check points which were worth bigger points.. headed due west hoping to come across a road.. unfortunately we found the wrong road and basically staggered around for a few more hours.. untill we happened across the right road by luck =p the rest of the day was pretty much a repeat of those events.. till i fsked up my ankle.. and then the sun went down while we were still about 2 hours away from the closest radio station. according to the UTS Outdoor adventure club fitness rating system, im rated at about 6.. out of a possible 8, which is pretty good.. unfortunately my ankles are rated at about 2.. and have a tendancy to cave in on me at any given moment. we ended up getting to the radio station at about 7pm (3 hours after dark).. that combined with the first check point gave us a total of 2 checkpoints in a day.. pretty pathetic =p

the campage was good as always =) i do so enjoy a good campfire .. toasting marshmallows.. and eating tinned spagetti =) it was rather freezing though.. and i should probably go and invest in a sleeping bag which is rated something more like -5 degrees or maybe less.. (or is that more).. must thank julia for keeping me warm.. even though i know she doesnt read this..

... the next day..
woke up feeling pretty shafted.. my ankle felt like id had had a giant rock lying on it all night. but the second day is a short day (finishes at 2pm) so we chirpily got up at 9am =p and headed out after swiping the campfire left by a previous group to cook our brekkie =) .. we were basically on fire the second day.. we decided not to try too hard.. and jsut head back to base camp.. but there were 3 checkpoints almost on the way back.. so we thought we'd at least look for them a lil bit. and we were lucky enuf to get all 3 of them. =) which is pretty good since we only got the one on day one (not including the radio point). they were all pretty easy ones, but it still feels good to find them considering the first day frustrations.

in the end we got 4 check points and 2 radio check points in total. not too bad for a first effort. we didnt realy wait around for the end of the show.. jsut packed up and left for home.. feeling rather exhausted.. but still quite happy =)

destiny is against me
gah.. seems im destined never to be enrolled into tafe.. whatever i do, i cant get into that place.. all the courses i wanna do fill up. regardless of whether i turn up 5 mins late, or 2 hours early.. theyre full before i get there. gah!!

in other news: i had a really bad dream last nite.. maybe a sign , maybe something else.. one of my good friends was being a real jerk to me.. and didnt care.. made me sad =( also .. i hate my life.

exercising
unleashed some volleyball ownage today ^^; it was the first game of the season.. and my first game back at the RBA.. i am heaps heaps rusty though.. i missed all the spikes i tried (which was like a dozen) .. and i dont mean missed as in i hit it out of court.. i mean i mis-timed them and hit them up in the air.. or into the net. gah!!

my ground game is still going ok though.. made a few good ankle-high saves. it was wet in spots and i slipped a few times.. and i could feel my ankle about to die, but in the end all was good =)

retail therapy
today i was running a tad late (as usual) so i ran out of the hosue without my umbrella or a jacket.. brr.. it was apparently the coldest day in Sydney like ever.. or this year or something =p so at lunch time i went out and bought myself an ever so nice brown jacket/coat thing. it was $90 marked down from $180 =) woohoo.. and it is really warm.. suprisingly so, it is 75% wool and dbl layered so i guess its meant to be warm =p hehe