27.6.05

Back to Orkut

Out of curiousity, I'm finding myself logging back into Orkut (Orkut? That thing *still* around?) to check out what's up, who's live, who's not.

I'm pruning my groups list. If 80% of conversation is in a language I don't speak, if my association with the group is either not representative of reality (*cough*DomainsRUs*cough*) or really quite funny (St Augustines Alumni?), it's gone. GONE baby.

I sort of hope the first wave of internet locusts have moved on from Orkut and the servers now stay up.

Pictured is the Hudsons on Elizabeth Street, it is comfy and that corner is ideal for controlling your Internet Empire from a laptop. Except for the Optus bill I guess.

19.6.05

X&Y

Today's Earworm- Coldplay X&Y, White Shadows

Ok there's been an awful lot of things going on since last post.
I've got Coldplay's X&Y, and it is better than the Foo Fighter's 'In Your Honor' for getting stuck in my head, at least at the moment.
Square One, White Shadows, Talk, Low and Twisted Logic are my current favorites, but the others on the CD could grow on me sooner or later. X&Y picks up geek points for its use of made-up code on the CD booklet. Figuring out what the graphic on the back page of the CD booklet said made my train trip a bit more interesting (downside of iPods, no instant gratification on new CD purchases).
The Foo Fighters new CD is *good*, but nothing's really standing out at the moment. It might grow on me later. I should mention I like the acoustic CD more than the other CD.

Today's the first day I've really felt better after having a bad cold for a good week at least. I dragged my carcass in every day until Friday when I had to admit defeat to laryngitis and a pickaxe of a sinus headache. I couldn't do much except watch tv. That's nowhere near as fun as it sounds. If I tried working on my laptop the stabby sick headache would get worse. I couldn't believe how bad it was, all the way up to throwing up once. I was really irrational and upset with D for not being there the whole time, you know, for being out selfishly getting groceries for the both of us rather than holding my hair back or ferrying ibuprofen. Its hard to whine with your vocal cords in wet cement, though. I guess it's funny in retrospect.
I'm about 95% better now, better than I've been for at least the past week. I have a 7am shift start so my circadian rhythms are going to be a little out of whack. At least the afternoons are free for shopping ^H^H^H^H studying so I can get further up the ladder.

Oh yeah. MacTel. I'm over that. I think. I fully expect post-Longhorn WinOSen to run on PowerPC arch. You heard this baseless spec here first! I'm looking forward to badass new PowerBooks, which I'm *almost* tempted to start saving for now.

1.6.05

Train Wreck

Today's Earworm- Technologic by Daft Punk

Today was the sort of day that leaves you really reconsidering your work/life balance. It began with all kinds of human-error transport issues. I started the ball rolling by forgetting my train ticket. I also managed, in the rush, to punch in the wrong ticket zone, but, fortunately the ticket inspectors were fairly forgiving of that.

Train (#2, #1 having departed whilst i searched for my ticket and fumbled with the machine) serenely cruised onto the platform slightly late.

Escaping from Flagstaff, the screen on the tram terminal assured me that the next tram was going to arrive in 20 minutes. *Delightful*. That blew away any buffer time I had. Also, as a footnote, the screens belong to a firm I had a fairly excruciating sysadmin/support interview with a few months ago, followed by deafening email silence. It was the sort of morning to be thinking of that sort of thing. Nobody is ever going to give me a break.
Have you any idea how hard it is to flag down a cab in the Melbourne CBD of a morning? Now I do. The tram arrived just as I managed to flag one down with the assistance of another cab that was waiting for a fare. The cab driver was great. Couldn't fault him. Traffic abysmal. Got to work, had to hit the phones right away, there's difficult paperwork I have to complete (late), there's a uni assignment I should have handed in (also late), the stress of managing my own panic at not knowing nearly enough answers yet, by 3:30 I'm vibrating with stress and I can't picture making it to the end of the day, let alone however long one normally stays in this sort of role.

I collapsed earlier on this evening but now I'm too tired to sleep and I don't know how I'll get through this week.

My job is somewhat less than ideal for my personality. Actually my personality is only ideally suited to ordering about a few personal slaves while I read trashy books on a remote beach. But its where I am for now. Any energy I have for bettering my circumstances has to come from outside work. I have to recharge my batteries by remembering to lead a meaningful life outside of work, remembering my friends, my home life, my interests and my dreams, because despite being a geek *I will not find meaning at work*. Not being a tiny cog in someone else's machinery. And I've been guilty of only sleeping and working and wondering why I haven't got anything else going on in my life and feeling downhearted and overwhelmed. Can't recharge the batteries on 24 hours a day stressing about career.

By de-prioritising work in my realm of things, it will take the pressure off me to be good enough, and maybe I'll get better at it? Maybe with enough energy left over for my other projects, maybe that will open more doors, even live off those in future?

The pink sector of technology


Speedball 3
Originally uploaded by MidBlueMac.
Wellll.... weekend before last I did some shopping on Glenferrie Rd. There's a decent sized Mac store there. Check out the giant Wacom Cintiq if you go there. OMG. If I was any sort of real artist I'd dream of nothing but owning one. Also, cinema displays, iPod paraphenalia, and SpeedBalls (pictured) to lift my iBook's butt off the desk and allow better circulation. I dunno if it helps the iBook run cooler, but they are fun to play with.

There's a computer store there too, which looks less like a store and more as if a tilt-tray truckload of boxed computer bits was avalanched into an empty shopfront. More fun are two local yum-cha computer stores (by local, I mean 'near $newwork'). Western computer manufacturers (other than Apple) don't really understand why squishy wrist rests shaped like koala bears, pink-scarfed girl penguin screen chamois, or any other pink or pastel peripherals are cool.

I don't think that gadgets should *only* be marketed to women in pink, but I like the option being there.