nishatalitha

I had lunch with comrademojo at the waterfront today. It was full tide and I managed to find a spot on the bottom pavers where I could dangle my legs over the edge, and if I stretched slightly, my toes would be in the water. It was lovely.

My work plans for the afternoon were sidelined by the document management system crashing on my computer; Auckland IT being unable to fix it, meaning I had to wait for Wellington IT to get back from lunch to replace my PC; Wellington IT managing to get the replacement PC up and working, but when doing the necessary tuning discovering that there was too much that needed fixing (because there was something else wrong with the file sharing system interfacing with Word), which meant he had to go off and get a second replacement PC; coming back with the second replacement, installing it, fine-tuning, finding that the file sharing system was still not interfacing with Word correctly; Welington IT calling the person in Auckland IT who deals specifically with that system; that person from Auckland IT spending half an hour on the phone with me and her remoted on to my (second) replacement PC; and finally it was fixed and my computer was working properly again. Better, in fact, than it was working earlier this week.

This took two hours. I got it back at 4.10pm. Still managed to get a bit of work done, but not the bits and pieces I was hoping too.

Really late dinner tonight because I didn't get home until 7.00pm and didn't start cooking until 8.45pm. I learned a lot about how long to cook steak for our individual tastes. Dinner was a light green salad, freshly boiled corn on the cob, and barbequed porterhouse steak with a balsamic red onion sauce. The onion sauce was lovely and I think I'm going to turn the rest of it into tarts with a little bit of the dark ale mustard that is sitting in the fridge.

For future reference: maudlinrose's steak was good at 3 minutes a side, but tamarillow needs more than twice that, and mine also needs 5 - 6 minutes a side.

I haven't had a headache since I got the new lenses. Nor have my eyes felt dry, tired and scratchy. I hadn't realised I had become used to the latter. This is all kinds of awesome. I can put up with feeling dizzy from turning my head too fast and not being able to skim book titles in passing at the library and having to actually look at the books properly for this. And the being able to see things properly (when I look at them through the correct part of the lenses) is kinda awesome as well.

There was a neat essay on Wellington in last weeks Indulgence pull out of the Dom Post, which included the awesome line, "Friends, aquaintances, family, colleagues, strangers - the people provide the beat through Wellington's concrete veins." Something about that imagery really appeals to me. It sounds like the sort of thing that should be on the literature slabs around the waterfront.

Am currently reading in bed. I like this having a laptop business (I'm totally allowed to use it in bed if it's a weekend, right?). The music is playing on my desktop speakers, which are better than the laptop's and I can see the pretty swirly screensaver. I should install pretty swirly screensavers on Pania. Actually, that was easy - I have Vista, so done. Bubbles it is. All I could really want is a remote for itunes on Annabelle, so I can change songs without getting out of bed...

And so far, I have managed to convince my cat not to walk over it.

This is posted from Pania, who is my new laptop. She is a Compaq Presario with a 15" screen and a number pad attached to the keyboard. She is mostly so that I can sit in the sun in the lounge and do my homework and read on the internet. I will try very hard not to use her when lying in bed (yes, that's what I'm doing now, but she's new and shiny and one night won't hurt, right?) and only use Annabelle.

First thing I did when starting to set uo: try to remove Nortons.

People who already have multiple computers: is it possible to be logged in on livejournal, gmail, hotmail and delicious on two computers at once without any problems when both computers are on, or am I going to have to remember to log out on one or the other?

I rewatched Twelve Angry Men tonight. It kept me entertained through eating dinner, polishing two pairs of boots and one pair of shoes and only started to lose me towards the end when I started setting up Pania. It's a very good film. I haven't seen it since first year psych back in 2001 when we were learning about group dynamics. It was very good then, too.

The hardest thing for me to get used to so far (apart from Vista) is the mouse. I am so used to having to use one of my hands to deliberately move the mouse that I keep brushing the touchpad and occasionally hitting one of the buttons and then end up going places or doing things that I don't really want to do. Vista is somewhat annoying - I managed to turn off the pop up that asks for confirmation every time you add or delete things and that made it a bit better.

Saw the teaster for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland movie that is going to come out sometime next year. Seem to be quite a few changes, but that's more than okay because I seem to like almost every other version of Alice (and especially American McGee's Alice) more than I like the original. I just don't like Lewis Carroll's Alice, but I really like what other people do with it and the changes they make; the creepier the better, in my opinion.

I should shut down and go to sleep. At least I've found the shut down button now...

Comrademojo came around this morning and endeavoured to set up a wireless network for us (me having managed to mess the router up last night). He was partially sucessful - I now have wireless cable and maudlinrose has cable through the cable. tamarillow's computer did not take well to having a wireless network card installed and now doesn't want to get to Windows OS.

I also assembled a BBQ today (Dad having won it and not needing it, handed it over to me), which is a three burner and has side rests so that I'm not constantly looking around for where I put my tools. Cooked onions, potato and kumera wedges and pork steak on it tonight and it was good. Very good. And we were then able to eat at the table kindly given to us by my workmate MQM (in exchange for a dozen or so boxes and some beer). It is so good to eat at a table again!

New calendar has been hung and I even remembered to transfer over birthdays and anniversarys, heavy mirror has been hung (on hooks that are supposed to take up to 35 kgs) and general placement for art has been worked out, which will probably be hung tomorrow.

General plans for the week: call Telecom and say thanks, but no thanks for the free dial-up, we've switched to Telstra due to your lack of ability to provide us with broadband and it's working out well for us so far; read; do crossstitch - I'd like to finish Winter by the time I go back to work and made a reasonable start on Spring; cook more on my new BBQ.

It's good to be on holiday.

Upon getting a chance to play around with my parents computer, I installed (with their permission) AVG, MSN and iTunes. Firefox was already installed, or I would have had to do that too. I have since had to restore their toolbars in IE7 (AVG and MSN both added one), make Google the default search engine in IE as well as Firefox and give several lessons on how to use tabs (in IE7, which I'm unfamilar with).

I miss Annabelle, who has everything is set up as I want it and I'm logged into everything I want to be. Someone remind me before they come to visit to set up a guest user ID for her. On the other hand, no high speed internets until the 7th.

Now I'm going to have another go at folding the yukata so it goes nicely back in it's plastic sleeve. Dad says he never unfolded it properly so is no use to me now that I've tried it on.

Managed to get my shoulders/upper back a bit burned today. I thought I was completely in the shade, but I guess not and my shoulders have paid the price. Still haven't managed to go swimming; hopefully that will happen tomorrow and the tides will work out.

So far damage from Leaky Rental House includes damp books (fortunately not to the point of discarding as I'm not sure all could be replaced), multiple pillows, feather duvets, duvet covers, my old sheepskin and the carpet. The insurance people get rung tomorrow.

Just lost all my tabs - I close firefox, no differently than I ever do and they all disappear. I can get them back from History, evidently, but that means going through each item individually and that's too much effort.

Does anyone have an idea as to what I did and how to get them back? Session saver also seems to have disappeared.

*shrugs* Will sort it out tomorrow. Going to bed now.

My parents sent me a CD of the photos they took while at Brass Monkey. I've gone through them and noted about 20 or so of the 200 plus that are neat for one reason or another. Frequently they're neat because people are so blurry they're invisible! I'll post those ones when I have time. However, if people want to look through all of them or get a copy made of the CD, let me know. I need a frisbee icon.

I thought today was Friday for some of the day. I thought yesterday was Friday for some of the day. Both days I've been disappointed. Tomorrow, however, I won't be. There's just stuff on this weekend and I want it to be weekend now!

Saturday we plan to go out to the church to see bl9_knt and purplesparkler blessed and on Sunday Alessan is coming around to do computer things.

I've been reading David Eddings recently - Belgarath the Sorcerer and now Polgara the Sorceress. Belgarath is probably my favourite Eddings book. But I had an interesting discussion with tamarillow about Polgara the other day, which has changed how I look at the character somewhat.

See, I don't like Polgara very much. I don't get why all the characters think she's so wonderful. To me she's always seemed cold, controlling and condescending. Oh, she's exceedingly competent, for sure, and if I was travelling with her, that would make up for a lot. But after the battle is done and the travelling is over, I wouldn't want to hang out with her. I don't like how she treats her father - despite all the character's protestations that its a form of affection, there's an edge to it on her part, which isn't. I also don't like how she treats her successions of nephews. I don't get why one of the boys didn't want to run away from her control and have a life and get married to someone who is not foreordained for him!

Tamarillow said something that made me stop and reassess all this. It went something like this: "If we look at her from a feminist perspective, we can see that the author is essentially rewarding her for being chaste and obedient. No female in Eddings' books gets to have sex before marriage and live happily ever after." - correct me if I got that wrong, will you?

I'm still reassessing how I feel about Polgara. I still don't like her very much, but I think I'm starting to feel sorry for her now.

...I have this urge to reread the entire series - Belgarath, Polgara, The Belgariad, The Mallorean and all.

Putting your breasts to work - it would be rather awesome if these were actually made one day.

Some t-shirts I like the designs of, particularly the top and bottom ones. From bujold_fic

( Commonly Confused Words Test )

I made dinner tonight - lamb mince in filo pastry parcels. The filo pastry was fiddlier and took longer than I expected, but they turned out spectacularly well and there are more for lunch tomorrow. The lamb mince mixture also had onion, garlic, currants, pinenuts, cinnamon, cumin, sumac, an egg, parsley, salt and pepper. It's definitely something to make again, but maybe in half size parcels as a starter with a dip or as finger food at a party. Lot of work for a finger food though - definitely a weekend meal.

We went to dinner at Coyotes before we went grocery shopping last night. It was unexpectedly good (none of us had ever eaten there before), reasonably priced and there were about a dozen cocktails to choose between. The sign identifying the bathrooms wasn't lit particuarly well, although given that it's metal, when the mirror balls start going in the evenings, it might be more noticable. Going back to Chaffers St New World, on the other hand, was not a success. The isles are narrower, the store is more crowded, it doesn't have the gourmet range that Thorndon does and the layout is strange since they finished renovations.

We did buy some Early Cheer though and I have a sprig of it in my room, because I love the smell. Nurk by Ursula Vernon arrived yesterday in the Bookzone order and it's really fun. Yes, it's a children's book, but it's the sort of children's book that I would actually give to people of the appropriate age, or even people who are older than that. The illustrations by the author/artist are a lovely complement to the story. A practical hero who understands the need for dry socks is an awesome thing. It's short chapter book, hardback and covered - I'm willing to loan my copy out to people who want to borrow it.

Also arriving in the same order for me were volumes 5 & 6 of Kitchen Princess which is one of my favourite mangas. It continues to suprise me - just as I'm starting to think it's falling into traditional but enjoyable manga plotlines, it does something else and the characters have to get over things, which they do at times and don't at times, but in a fairly believable manner. I wonder when volume 7 comes out in English...

I think my cat has worked out how to turn my heater on. Sometimes I come home and the heater in my room is on and I swear I turned it off before I left for work! Like today, for example. I remember turning it off, because I've been somewhat paranoid about this happening lately, but when I got home, my room was lovely and warm and the heater was on. I'm going to have to start unplugging it to make sure it doesn't get turned on.

It has been a glorious weekend, weather-wise, aside from the showers on Saturday afternoon. I have done much study and am thoroughly sick of the ILAC method, the New Zealand Constitution, the Contractual Remedies Act 1979, Donoghue v. Stevenson and all the rest. Studying outside in the sun was nice. Tomorrow, I think I will give myself the afternoon, or most thereof, off studying and start again in the evening, whereupon I get to become sick of the Rules of Professional Conduct and (more likely) everything to do with Trust Accounts.

I have done hardly any handwork over the last few days. I mended my slippers (one of my toes has managed to hole my birthday slippers already) and a top I haven't worn for ages (because it was in the mending pile). The slipper now has a scar at one toe. It has been suggested that I embroidery or otherwise decorate the scar, but I don't know if I will. I kinda like how it looks.

darthsappho did good things to tamarillow's computer - it now has 50g of storage space. She tried to do good things to Jack, but Jack doesn't like being touched and had a temporary fit of the keyboard not working. Alessan helped me sort it out, but this is Jack's third keyboard (he fried the first after I installed a new DVD reader and I fried the second with tea), so it wouldn't have suprised me, although it would have annoyed me, if he'd fried this one, too. But no, the $5 keyboard from Cash Converters is still working.

My cat is asleep, or pretending to be, at the end of my bed. I should also go to bed. I'm not going to have my cellphone on me tomorrow, since they're really paranoid about that at the Law Society, or so I hear.

I am starting to get used to getting up around six in order to catch the 6.36am Wilton to go to the gym before work. Mum reckons that it takes about three weeks for a habit to form, so I'm a third of the way there. After another two, it might become easier. Either that, or I will have also formed a habit of going to bed an hour or more earlier than I used to, which will also make a difference. That one will be a lot harder, though.

However, I find it means that I get tired much more quickly in the evenings and also that it feels like I have less time. Tonight, while not being a particularly good example: I got home after seven (had a meeting until about 6.30pm), came online, checked emails and livejournal, put in the fix that Alessan showed me for the win32 error, which actually worked, did dishes, spent some time mucking around with Ceaser3 and Castle of the Winds (did one and a half mine levels) before deciding that it was about time to go to bed. ie, now.

The fix working means that I didn't get a couple of things done that I quite wanted to: continue checking quoth_the_ravyn's latest chapter, which I meant to and didn't, and finish updating the catalogue for the three piles of books on my desk. People who are British citizens and interested in the library might be interested in following this link: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/library/.

First thing in the morning, something that would otherwise take about ten minutes frequently takes about twenty. My thought processes work rather slowly and fixedly. The other morning on the bus a girl got on, wearing a jacket the exact same shade of maroon as my high school blazers were. I wondered vaguely as she stepped up to the bus driver and had her ticket clicked why a Hamilton Girl's High School hostel girl was getting on the bus at this time of the morning. Then she turned to face me as she went to find a seat and I realised that the jacket, while the right colour, was not actually a HGHS blazer, furthermore, I was in Wellington and a HGHS hostel girl would not be here and would not be wearing, what is, after all, a rather ugly blazer. The entire thinking process after she sat down took about ten minutes, until we overlooked the bay and I was distracted onto another topic.

Am going to curtail plans for Saturday, I think. I had been thinking of going to Te Papa in between practice and the party I'm not invited to, but instead will stay home, do stuff and relax. Might go to Te Papa on Sunday, after the Around the Bays.

And happy birthday to atomic_susan!