- Location:Corporate Mothership (Macquarie Park)
- Mood:
cranky
Sadly Scott piked on us like a piking thing, but he did drive us out there which was nice. Security were extra crazy, they put their hands into every pocket I have and while wearing Strange Days phats that takes a while. While waiting in the line I got to see my first take down of the night, the police were really in force, kid got jumped by 5 cops and then started crying. Don't run boys and girls, don't run.
On arrival we did a quick tour of the outside area, being in the Acer Arena rather than the ANZ stadium was a blessing.. the outdoor area was about 3 times as big with extra rides, trees, places to sit and plenty of fence to lean against because I always meet randoms leaning on fences at raves. This time was to be no exception and we spent most of the night talking to a group of 16-19 year old candy kids who were lots of fun and played raver mummy a bit.
It was bad enough when I met all the Cloudlicker kids and felt a million years old (I had totally forgotten about the Mrs Robinson candy... thanks a lot Zor) but a bunch of kids planning their recovery around their parents and their HSC assessment is a bit depressing. Still they were cute kids and I got lots of cuddles off a cute graver chick so I can hardy complain.
However I did score 2 of 12 on Ted's Murtaugh list so I can't be all that old right?
Music wise was really awesome in parts and god awful in others. Most of the Team Rocket set full of mid 2000s happy hardcore was on while we were stuck in the line. Matrix who I usually dance to like a crazy person was god awful and kept stopping the breakbeat after 10 seconds for incongruous scratching and/or a complete tempo change, ended up giving up and went outside to chat and smoke. Masochist was extra crunchy good times and Endymion was unsurprisingly awesome but we were baby sitting a very trashy teenager for half the set and I didn't get enough dancing in. Dutch Master who I was dubious about to start with turned out to be so downbeat after Endymion that we pretty much couldn't dance to it and even the candy kids piped up with 'THIS MUSIC IS FUCKING BORING' and stormed off.
Favourite moments of the night have to be:
- A very trashed Chanice screeching "I felt my own boobs earlier and they feel aaaaaaaaaaawesome"
- A trashed couple running up to me and handing me glowsticks telling me I "needed them" and urged me to keep dancing because it was "helping them trip"
- The candy kids telling me they thought I was 18 based on my looks and asking if I still get carded in clubs. Har!
- Josh finally stopping his eyes rolling back in his head long enough to jump up for a dance and turning out to be a bit of a shuffle wizard.
Afterwards home for cups of tea, cartoons and bulbing before the night got too late and the transport got too irritating. All in all a winnar of a night that I think will have me raving regularly again at least while the goth scene is in its horrible state of undeath.
- Location:Corporate Mothership (Macquarie Park)
- Mood:
tired
- Location:Corporate Mothership (Macquarie Park)
- Mood:
busy
Last week was really nothign to write home about, which is why I didn't really. I caught a cold that toyed with me and refused to go away. The rest of my week has been fretting about work and catching up on Warcraft after a big break. My current program at work is in real trouble, they fired the project manager and replaced him and between myself and the new project manager we're trying to come up with anything workable to be delivered before Christmas. This is not the easiest task in the world.
Accordingly after work I just had to walk away from my desk before I brought a punching party to the face of many of my co-workers. A lot of other people were in the same state and I ended up staying till well past 7 at the company pub on Friday night just sharing in mental dumping time with other stressed colleagues. With plans for the next day we decided on a low key Friday night and headed to the Anandale with Matt and Helen for beers and fried food; you can read all about it on
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
goth_gourmande. Saturday was the Good Food and Wine show where I went to the live MasterChef showing and came home with more tea than can be good for anyone. Ran into Aaron and had big chats, finally got to meet his girl Gabby who I've heard of only in anecdotes so that was nice. Afterward my feet were destroyed (you didn't think I'd wear sensible shoes did you?) and I was feeling badly because I'd promised
languidbuterfly that we'd go for drinks but thankfully she was in a similar mood so came around to mine for a long run of Top Chef Season 3 to really round out the foodie day. Sunday consisted mostly of WarCraft grinding and my last driving lesson before my test as well as a trip to the White Cockatoo for simply ridiculous sized schnitzel that we couldn't even finish between two people.
This week I will be mostly stressing about work, also my driving test. More when I have news...
- Location:Corporate Mothership (Macquarie Park)
- Mood: cranky
Unfortunately the guests weren't so much up my alley this year, the only session I wanted to attend was Karl Urban (from Star Trek, LOTR, Xena, etc) but the wait was ridiculous and I wouldn't have got a seat regardless so I spent most of the time socialising, soaking up free Warcraft sessions for the Darkmoon Faire 09 and purchasing random otaku stuff.
The quality of the cosplay has gone up since most of the scene has cottoned on to the concept of cheap Asian tailoring (for those interested I use Cosplay007 for my coats). Unfortunately this means less DIY home made costumes but at least everyone looks pretty good. My favourite cosplay all weekend though had to be a non anime entry with this group of Ghostbusters.
I walked away with plenty of free WarCraft cards (sadly no ingame content for me) and a small army of new Kuroshitsuji and Chobits gacha, which look a little creepy when staring at you from the desk.
Unfortunately when I got home after a quick comparison to the genuine articles I purchased in Japan these appear to be knock offs, but as they were reasonably priced and the quality is still good I'm not particularly annoyed I think it's just worth noting that you should be aware that some are chinese versions when purchasing sets from Hobby Dream. Props though to Tamarket who had great items, great staff and reasonable prices, would buy again.
After the con I ended up heading out for catch up drinks with
littlenell and some of the Supanova crew which devolved quickly into the usual nerd crew conversations; what celebrities are twats, where to buy good cosplay materials, recent games, the horror that is the new Transformers movie, how awesome cats are and favourite game moments in recent history. Feeling quite unwell I'd gone in dressed down nerd shirt and cardigan which turned out to be a great hit anyway and much giggling of facourite Portal moments was had. Other stuff of note:
- There is an upcoming anime con Smash 09 at UNSW that will include a maid cafe that I am considering going to
- I am going to GenCon on the Wednesday before hand if people have free time and wish to catch the plane with me let me know
- Animavericks is still quite awesome and I'm considering asking them if they need more staff writers
- I did actually finally find the ladies Horde shirt at Zombster but they were sold out by the time I got there
- I have been given a source of special effects contacts for prescription lens wearers at Clearly Contacts and while they say all SFX lenses are available in prescription I can't work out how to enter the details. More news when I have it.
- Curley is awesome and drove me out on Sunday when I didn't want to deal with the multiple trains
- Location:Adult House
- Mood:
sick
Poll #1420844 What's better?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All
What's better 29
View Answers
Blagging
19 (35.8%)
Twatter 5 (9.4%)
Web Boards/Forums 9 (17.0%)
Facebook 11 (20.8%)
The internet is a source of information and not your purile memes 9 (17.0%)
What's better 30
View Answers
Clubbing 2 (3.8%)
Pub with good mates 18 (34.0%)
Quiet gathering at a friend's place 14 (26.4%)
Random adventures in the street 5 (9.4%)
Group hobby session (gaming/cooking/conventions) 14 (26.4%)
What's better 31
I am ...
View Answers
iPhone obsessed 1 (1.9%)
I have an iPhone but I don't talk about it endlessly 8 (15.1%)
I get why people like them but I don't have one 24 (45.3%)
It's a phone, who cares? 7 (13.2%)
going to stab the next fucking person who talks about the new iPhone 13 (24.5%)
When I am drunk I like...
View Answers
Sammiches! 14 (26.4%)
Sausage roll (mit sauce!) 10 (18.9%)
Chips and gravy 19 (35.8%)
Something sweet 14 (26.4%)
To touch people innappropriately 26 (49.1%)
To sing 19 (35.8%)
Everything! It's all a good idea when you're sozzled 33 (62.3%)
Secretly when I am alone I like to...
It is the apocalypse, everything is doomed, what do you do with your last 12 hours (keep it brief)
- Location:Corporate Mothership (Macquarie Park)
- Mood:
bored
*Actual sobriety may differ.
Addendum:
- Mood:
chipper
The particularly hard part of this for me is trying to work out where in there I can afford a car, and what can be afforded. Dreams of late 90s and early 2000s Citroens are rapidly disappearing and being replaced by visions of 80s Toyota Hatchbacks or potentially rusty bicycles. I'm losing 2-3 hours of my day in commute and I can't take it anymore, the cost of public transport to work is annoyingly comparable to the cost of petrol + parking but that outlay for the actual damn vehicle is getting in the way. This weekend the need to just grow up and get a damn car was hammered home as we once more spent 8+ hours getting out to Penrith and back for lunch with Das Boy's family even with lifts to and from the station. The question is can both be afforded, will getting a car delay buying a house or will I be busbound forever?
I'd actively consider changing jobs just to be working in the city a mere single mode of transport away from home but for the fact that my company pays for my grad school and really that's 5 grand every few months that I can't afford to find in my budget any more than the car.
Oh and of course on top of tall of that I actually have to pass my test in July or I have to wait 6 months before I can convert my permit to a NSW licence; so here's hoping I don't do something stupid.
- Location:Corporate Mothership (Macquarie Park)
- Mood: cranky
- Pondering whether to go to Hellfire tonight, haven't been in ages but not many people have talked about going either which makes it harder to convince myself to get dressed up and go out in the cold.
- This is not helped by the fact that I cannot drink tonight due to medication for my face wound. Stupid fucking cat.
- Saturday night will be sadly a bit quiet owing to family events on Sunday morning, so if I don't go out tonight I may go a bit stir crazy.
- Thursday I am taking out a friend from work who is having a rough time, he sounded hella keen on Kelly's Trivia, you should all definitely come along.
- Next weekend I am heading to Supanova Sydney, who else is going and how are you getting there?
- So I have finally tracked down part of the Chiwawa song we enjoyed so much in Osaka, however it seems to be mostly available in this mega mix with cross dressing ganguro para para "girls" Maeken Trance (Check 1:30 - 2:00). If you can find the Chihuahua song on its own I will love you for days.
- Mood:
annoyed
I enjoyed IT Contracts a lot, partially because I relate to the topic so strongly, partially because the research in the field is limited and mostly relevant. Accordingly I've asked the lecturer if I can do my research project for my degree with him; his research is on vendor management in telcos and that's something I feel strongly about. I have a couple of weeks to come up with a decent proposal for research, I'm thinking potentially looking at the Post Implementation Review process across multiple vendors, or perhaps something in environment and configuration management. As I look at my A3 list of vendor groups engaged for this release alone I figure I have a good shot at a meaty case study in 6 months if I plan it right, and my newly found supervisor agrees. This puts me a long way closer to finishing my Masters.
I've decided to take IT Research Methods after all. I've been debating if I need to but it'd be nice to have the extra time to prepare my literature review and get what is essentially free credit for it, and this why I can do my research methods this semester and spend all summer and next semester writing my dissertation.
This ends up with me doing 2 subjects in the Spring semester, IT Research Methods and also Strategic IT Investment. That class should be a nice foray into project selection, business benefits and IT strategy; something that I'd feel more confident about after a few months study as I seem to be embedded in strategic projects at work and scared witless by the sheer volume of money involved.
Unfortunately this means that I'll have classes on a Wednesday night again, which means less Girl Geek Dinners and less Mid Week Geek until Christmas. *sigh*
- Location:Corporate Mothership (Macquarie Park)
- Mood: cranky
Foolishly I tried to use the Optometrist in my building, bad idea. He preferred to use manual lens changes rather than the automated machine and eventually told me that I didn't need a new prescription despite my insistance I was struggling with normal tasks. Finally today I went and got my second opinion.
It turns out my eyes are -.5 worse in one eye and -.75 in the other, and both my eyes now have mild astigmatism. I haven't had a change that dramatic since I was about 20, no wonder I've been having so many problems. This now puts me in a class of eyesight so bad that they're not only restricting the lenses I can get due to the material compression required but also the type of frames I can get to support the lenses, thankfully I like heavy emo glasses or I'd be in trouble. On the plus side this also puts some sort of flag on my Medicare number so that I get additional free testing.
That's probably just as well because being the Inner West the only frames available at the optometrist were rather expensive designer spectacles and combined with the additional cost of the compressed lenses this makes my new frames a good $200 more than I was wanting to spend.
On the other hand designer nerd bling:
- Location:Adult House
- Mood: annoyed
Ensue wound in my cheek bleeding profusely despite numerous cleanings of the wound and Detol. By the time I woke up the throbbing had stopped but I have a large bright red patch in the middle of my face which implies at least mild infection.
Now have broad spectrum antiobiotics and antibiotic skin cream for the next few days. Complicated instructions ensued about when I can take them, with what, how much sun I can get and what vitamins I can take while I'm on them.
Stupid fucking cat.
She's been in time out in the bathroom since but is still spit firing like all hell.
- Location:Adult House
- Mood:
Upset and ugly
Presumeably so they can pocket my tuition fees UTS won't recognise any of my prior study or work experience and being an exam in project management meant that really I only care if I pass and that most of the material in the subject is what I do on a day to day basis. This didn't stop the exam being hard work though, 4 essay questions in 3 hours and I used all but 5 minutes of the exam time writing. By the end of it my hand and wrist were killing me. Not helped by the lack of heating in my exam room so I spent most of the exam with my overcoat over my knees.
On the plus side I also got my monthly pay and my annual bonus on Friday night so I got to celebrate with some spending, though surprisingly lots of it was fairly sensible forward planning with my money going on:
- All my monthly bills
- Huge amounts off my credit card
- A Coles gift card that should last through several weeks of groceries
- 6 weeks worth of bus tickets
- Tickets to GenCon Oz and plane tickets to Brisbane for it
- A ticket to SupaNova Sydney
- Tickets to Prophecy
- Prepaid movie vouchers
- A 60 day WarCraft card
- Sims 3 (conveniently with co installs for both Mac and PC!)
- A new Logitech MX518 optical gaming mouse to replace my MX510 which no longer reliably right clicks
- A new geisha book, the new Sano Ichiro novel and the new Sugawara Akitada novel from Amazon
- Driving lessons/test
- And unsurprisingly a night out drinking at Die Maschine
*Now* is the time to remind me of awesome events that I haven't bought tickets to, before my cash runs out. Oh except for DefQon1 because even though the lineup is good enough to make me want to put up with a giant Sydney rave crowd it's the same weekend as GenCon and I'd rather get my nerd on.
02. Explain in five sentences why you're using that wallpaper.
03. Don't change your wallpaper before doing this. The point is to see what you had on.
- I often use fake Motivational Posters as work desktops.
- Barney is awesome and How I Met Your Mother is one of my favourite television shows of all time.
- Sometimes it is actually the best work Motivational poster I've ever seen; because this is basically how my brain works and whenever I get pissed off at work, I read this, and I am awesome instead.
- It is surprisingly work appropriate and now my desk is in a thoroughfare that's slightly important.
- I love that suit. God how I love that suit.
Also:
Tonight I am going to Kelly's with Curley, you should come.
- Location:Corporate Mothership (Macquarie Park)
- Mood:
full
After a lot of mucking around I finally got rid of my riding chicken and now have a very hungry horse... That's on fire.
Did I mention it's awesome?
- Location:Adult House
- Mood:
amused
Friday evening we finally got a chance to go to the Moroccan restaurant in our building for the first time in months. They've been closed for a long time renovating, though we were told by the lovely manager that they were delayed by the council as well. We ate until we burst and maybe had a drink (or 5). There'll be pictures up on Goth Gourmande soon, I'm just still catching up on Japan pictures as well.
Saturday I slept in late and then headed off to the goth swap and sell at
lillim's place. Unfortunately I was low on cash after our holiday but after some strategic swaps and sales came home with 3 pairs of boots and a couple of work shirts and got rid of some clothes and one of the many suitcases threatening to take over my bedroom. rachelsoma and I had planned to come home and have some nerd time but by the time we got home it was getting quite late so instead we watched lots of episodes of Undeclared and drank port before going to Ascension. Ascension was good fun, I got to wear my new shoes and chat to lots of people. Unfortunately a lot of people left early owing to nefarious plans and cold weather but even still I felt like I told the same stories 9000 times about Japan. Eventually we wandered home and I got in bed with my laptop.
Sunday started off nice and slow, some internets, a little WarCraft and clearing up the house. Somewhat surprisingly Rachel turned up again and I found out via Twitter :P so she came in and we watched The Promotion and puddled around the living room until Das Boy and I went to the movies to see I Love You, Man. I have a serious soft spot for both Paul Rudd and Jason Segel and that was totally what I was in the mood for. Afterwards a date with Daniel and Azeroth but rather than questing together we helped Rachel through the Scarlet Monastery. This continued well into Monday when Mikey had to go to work so I stayed around the house questing with Rachel and cleaning up; the house finally looks much like its normal self and less covered in laundry and souvenirs.
Without a doubt much of this was due to the wonderfully bromantic JT and Stephen; it's like this heart touching manipulative Country Mouse and City Mouse Go to the Jungle.
If you look down on me for watching such terrible trash, I have nothing to offer you but this picture:
In slightly less cool news one of the contestants on Survivor: Bulgaria died during filming. WTF.
- Location:Adult House
- Mood:
LOOKIT'EM HUG MA
As we were in an H1N1 affected area and someone on our plane was quarantined corporate OH&S have told me to work from home until the test results are made clear.
Damnit that was a long commute to be here for an hour; really wishing I'd called in.
- Location:Corporate Mothership (Macquarie Park)
- Mood:
weird
- I feel like I should be writing Goth Gourmande posts but I'm a bit blagged out after Japan.
- I am looking for a tool to do itinerary maps, preferably with the Google API if you have suggestions let me know. There's Travellerspoint.com which I really like but seems to only allow you to publish maps to *their* blog brand.
- Kitty moods continue well, for the moment Chairman has forgotten she hates me.
- Have been unable to move my driving test online, fear I will have to cancel and lose the fee rather than be able to move the time.
- BAU release manager got the same attitude from management as I did before my holiday. I suspect that someone has promised improvements that they cannot deliver and are taking it out on us.
- Finally received my graphics tablet, unbelievably they only posted it last Thursday. Hoping to get *some* webpage edits done before University goes back in session.
- Does anyone want to come to Prophecy with me? I have a great desire to see Endymion.
- Due to my lost camera I now have 2 spare Canon NB-4L batteries (one genuine, one third party) and a charger if anyone wants them.
- Location:Adult House
- Mood:
drained
