A friend of mine, who is perhaps one of the few people who frequents this particular corner of the 'Living Web' <hastly searches Google for a free hit counter in a brief moment of paranioia>, (Cheers mhjb(hehe - gotcha - you gotta put something there now)) refered this to me. It makes a lot of sense, really (if you ignore point '8.').
I think it doesn't really make much sense at all to write something that other people aren't really going to be interested in, cos then you'd only be writing for yourself, which is a fairly decent way to waste ones time. (unless, of course, you're despicably forgetful, as I am, and need to transfer data from the extremely unstable media between your ears, to the slighly more stable, and oh-so-public world of electronic media(yes, your hard-drive is public) - but even still).
So I have to make 'it' more interesting - 'it' being here, where you are now - reading this stuff I'm writing for you (since I've decided I'm not writing 'it' for me).
Trivial things shall become just that. No lists of actual things what I done or are doing. Its not the 'what' - that stuff is easy - its the 'why' that matters. More passion and excitement, less fact and crap.
So, having said that, I've kinda put the ball partly in your court. How am I to know what is going to excite you, and stir up your passion, unless of course you tell me. Note the 'Shout Out' at the bottom of each post - you can let me know if I'm on the write track (intentional pun)(the bit in parentheses after kind spoiled it, didn't it...)(did it?)
In other news...:
I felt not the anticipated apprehension of my first week back at tech - it was almost as if I had never left (I left over 2 years ago). Despite the fact that I'm the only guy who wears a suit to class (I dash out to lectures in between work and work), I quite enjoy wielding a little bit of the 'adult-student' attitude(I think I am aided in this partly due to the suit, and partly due to the fact I also wield a Compaq Pocket PC(not mine - it belongs to 'the firm' - but the kids don't know that) - a toy that only an 'international student' could afford). Ah well - hopefully my 'adult-student' attitude was packaged with a free copy of 'adult-student' motivation and the 'The-government-isn't-paying-your-fees-this-time' handbook.
Parking in the CBD is expensive. Doubly so if you have to pop out and back during the day, rendering useless the 'Early-bird special'. I have four hours of tech lectures each week. That doesn't sound like much until you envisage each hour being on a different day (Monday - Thursday inclusive). That means I gotta go in to town for work, back out to Manukau for tech and then back in to work and then back home again at the end. Four times a week. Lots of wasted time and lots of money spent on short parking stints. Contemplation of this situatation has left the realisation that alternative means of transportation is in order. Buses don't go where I need them to (do they ever?) - nor do the trains. So i have settled (albeit lightly) on the idea of getting a scooter - of the those 50cc jobs that you can ride with just your car licence - since they're free to park in parking buildings, are nippy in traffic, easy to squeeze into tiny parking spaces, and are insanely fuel-economical. The only down-side (theres always one) is the whole wet-weather scenario. But a good bit of PVC gear should solve that. Might have a look at some shops on Saturday - we'll see.
Since I am talking about scooters, it is patently obvious that I have run out of drivel, and am becoming increasingly tired. I'm bound to have left a few spelling errors in my wake, but hey, its all about being part of the 'Living Web'
Spot something serious that is missing from this post (in comparision to many of my previous posts) and I'll make your name up all flashy-like in Photoshop and post it here. (You have to come up with the exact same thing that I'm thinking of right now - other stuff doesn't count - my decision is final - some correspondance may be entered into)
I think this is perhaps my worst post yet.
I've started tech now - just doing one paper - am able to shuffle my work hours around lectures, so I don't have to cut any work. Quite good really. Only problem is parking - really expensive in town for just a few hours - since I'm not staying in town for the whole day, I can't just get by on the Earlybird rates.
Tech is good (so far) - this semester is my third attempt at the Systems and Control paper - same lecturer and all - hopefully I'll be able to deal to it properly this time. It's quite scary to think that I first started my course in 1995. I won't be finishing it unitl the middle of next year, which means I won't be graduating until 2005. So a total of 10 years spent on a 4.5 year degree... pretty shocking really.
I've been getting into a bit of anime/manga. I've read the whole megatokyo strip. I really love the art work - I must have a bit of a play around with a pencil and see if I can turn out anything useful.
Matt - did you sort out the old ASCII Mona Lisa?
--==Gotta jet
Grrrr - thats 3-0...
I'm riding my bike into work tomorrow morning - its 'Bike-to-work' day - all cyclists get a free breakfast at Aotea Square.
I used to ride into work last year, but things got a bit busy. The only riding I've done this year is mountainbiking. It will be good to get back on the road.
Added some stuff to the right hand column (in case you didn't notice)
Its pretty boring, but could be developed.
Alinghi are beating us. Again.
They're currently leading by 81 metres down the fourth leg.
Be advised - all links to pictures of our house below no longer work. The real estate agent has removed the listing for our property. (The pictures weren't anything to write home about anyway)
Will get in with a digital camera as soon as we can and will post them somewhere around here. Watch this space.
YAY!
Our house has gone unconditional - it is ours!
Looks like possesion date will be the 1st of March, which is less than two weeks away - very excited.
Finance is good to go - the house purchase goes unconditional on Monday!
We found the coolest little radio-controlled cars at The Warehouse. They are the size of a Matchbox car and are fully controllable (forwards, backwards, left and right). Muffy has a Toyota Celica and I have a Honda Accord wagon. They're a cheaper version of these.
Ah well, back to work.
Homestar Runner is very funny. Especially Strong Bad's emails. The Cheat is very cool....
Could be a bit slow on dial-up - its all Flash movies pretty much.
Here is our house!!!!
We signed the agreement last night. YAY!
So - its all on, LIMs and Building Inspection Reports and Registered Valuations and Mortgage Brokers and Solicitors and other housey stuff. We have until the 17th of Feb to sort everything out; finance etc - settlement could be as early as three weeks away. I still hasn't really sunk in that we've just bought a house - I guess it will when we start to move in.
Had an excellent time of study and fellowship at lunchtime today. Muffy and I met up with a few other young people who work in the CBD and started working through the book of John. Wednesdays at 1pm - meet on the Albert St steps of the old Finance Plaza (by the Simpson and Grierson building).
Just been reading Proverbs 4.
It strikes me that all too often wisdom is seen as something boring and old-fashioned in today's culture - you're a geek if you seek after understanding. But the writer(Solomon, I'm assuming??) here says in v7 - "Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.". Though it cost all you have - this means that we should forsake the things of this world to gain wisdom. This is a very powerful verse - one that would not go down well in today's society.
I think the world replaces wisdom with pleasure - it doesn't matter what you know or believe as long as you are happy - but as God's people, we should seek His wisdom at the expense of our own comfort.
Lets don't be ignorant and lets not be happy to believe something cos thats what someone else believes, or because it 'sounds like a good idea'. We need to seek the truth for ourselves and question what we believe, that we might grown in wisdom and understanding.
We put an offer in on a house last night - it is a backup offer - the vendors are already negotiating with a purchaser, so we're praying lots. It really would be perfect for us - location is good, it has new kitchen and bathroom big bedrooms, good outdoor flow, easy-care garden, room for cars, quiet street - the list goes on.
Well, would like to say more but I gotta get ready for work - might get back to you later iof we hear back on our offer. Have a great day!
Well, the weekend was excellent - went Moutainbiking up in Woodhill forest on Saturday morning for a couple of hours - I love it. Then I discovered about 20kms of gravel road between Helensville(I hadn't been there before) and Puhoi (SH1) on my way to Omaha Beach - Adele Johnstone had the use of a bach there for a few days so we hung out there for the rest of the day - got some bad sunburn/tan lines on my legs cos I fell asleep on the beach. Then we went to the Starlight Symphony thingy in the Domain and caught up with a few more friends and watched some excellent lasers and some choice fireworks and some big-as Army guns finishing off the 1812 Overture. All in all an excellent day.
Sunday morning found me with one of those sore throats that makes you wonder if you really did eat a whole lot of broken glass last night. I was recovered enough to eat some luch and then Michelle and I went out to look at some open homes - found an excellent one - we're going to put an offer on it tonight, all things going according to plan(His plan, not ours). Then went to church in the evening - we had a farewell for Steve and Eva who are going down to Owaka for a month. We also had a welcoming for Caleb and Alison Gray - Az's brother - they have come up to study at Grace for a year. It was good to catch up with a few people(we'd been at parachute the week before).
Work is good - got my number of calls down below 10, which is something I haven't done for a while.
Well, I gotta split - going to have another look at this house and then praps make an offer on it. I'll let you know how it goes.
