Dan’s Online Diary 

# 26.9.03 by Dan
[Party Up]
Brother jono be gettin da age on. He be knockin on 21, wit da toxic-most, radioactivist, shin-dig what you ever saw.
We be gettin down, make no mistake.

[Studien und der Schweiz]
Seriously tempted to study full time and get my degree out of the way by the middle of next year. 2.5 papers may still give me time to do a bit of part time work.
Pray and further consideration required.
Would like to get some overseas work experience at some stage too - have a great opportunity to work in Switzerland, given Michelle is a Swiss national, and all.
More pray and further consideration required.

[Stress, with Footnotes]
Sometimes Jim Hopkins is funny.

# 23.9.03 by Dan
[Grouse Hardware]
Just set up a Sony Ericsson P800 for one of the partners at work. Such an awesome phone/PDA/camera/MP3 Player. Ultra user-friendly.
And it synchronises with Lotus Notes out of the box - no third-party applications required.
Magic.
And it looks like this:

# 22.9.03 by Dan
[I'm slack]
I haven't got much to post.
- I can learn German online here.
- Scotty has a discussion on the Treaty of Waitangi.

# 18.9.03 by Dan
[Good Stuff]
From time to time I've glanced at Jason Kottke's blog. I took a little bit more time to look through it this morning.
Its really good. I like his work, and I'd like to steal his mandate:
Jason Kottke designs, codes, and writes for the web live from New York City, with a special interest in clear, simple, user-centered design, microcontent, and the writable web.
Clear, simple and user-centred are like the most important aspects of web design and presentation.
I wanna design like him when I grow up.

[Disinterest, Dissatisfaction, Dischord, etc]
By the end of this year I will have spent three(3) years as a Lotus Notes Administrator for a multinational accounting firm with a very long name.
I consider it amazing that I got this job in the first place. It was the first job I found in the paper, and the first job I was interviewed for. I had only 12 months part-time experience with Lotus Notes, and no qualifications whatsoever. It all seemed too easy.
A blessing, without a doubt.
But now, I have well and truly settled in. The challenges are becoming less frequent. The opportunities for creative release are too few.
I wanna do more cooler stuff.
I wanna help people make their web stuff look good and work fast.
I don't wanna deal with complaining users who, through their own foolishness, are daily receiving hundreds of spam messages and expect me to be able to do something about it.

<sigh>

[Browser-friendliness]
By-the-way, you should be pleased to know that this blog will now look the same whether you're using IE or a Netscape-based browser.
(Such as the totally awesome Mozilla Firebird)

[Soups of Yesterday and Today]
Today's soup doesn't have a picture. It is Maggi's Creamy Vegetable Soup for a Cup.

Yesterday's soup:

# 16.9.03 by Dan
[Days Off]
Yesterday after I woke up, I decided not to go to work, and so stayed at home and slept and played Playstation instead.
And I don't feel guilty in the slightest.
Because I was sick.
Runny nose and headache and stuff like that - you know what I mean.

So I finished Midnight Club 2. When you complete all the circuit races in arcade mode, you win an awesome jet-powered beast that does 250mph. Awesome.

[I Am Hot]
Whilst walking the Queen at lunchtime today, I got wolf-whistled at. And judging by the comments that followed, my appearance was quite obviously to someone's liking.
'Someone' was a hairdresser.
A male hairdresser.

[Soup Of The Day]


# 12.9.03 by Dan
[h*r]
Everyone is different.
No two people are not on fire.

# 12.9.03 by Dan
[Whaddaya know?]
A new template for you.
Three guesses as to who inspired the color.

[Standards compliance]
I'm trying to make my code validate error-free, both the HTML and the CSS.
Still a few things though - the validator gives me warnings for '<br/ >'.
I thought that '<br/ >' was correct XHTML, but maybe the validator doesn't care - it prefers '<br>'.
...dunno.

CSS is the archetypical feline negligee.

[New Nude World Altitude Extreme Ironing Record]
Check it out...

[The Bitter End]
This morning, in a brief - yet intense - flash of revelatory insight, I suddenly obtained the knowledge of the origin of the saying - '...to the bitter end.'
The saying comes, of course, from eating carrots.
The foliage end of the carrot is more bitter and tougher than the rest of the carrot, so if you eat it pointy-end first, (as I have always done, and as most others do, per my observation) you have to keep going 'to the bitter end' if you want to finish the carrot.
From this day forth, I shall eat the thicker and more bitter end first so that I am then left with the sweeter end to finish with.

[Soup Of The Day]

 

# 11.9.03 by Dan
[Midnight Club II - PS2] Played a bit of Midnight Club II last night. I'm at the second-to-last level in Career mode and its pretty nigh impossible. I can get to within 5 seconds of first place, but no further, it seems.
I'm not going to use any cheats until I've completed Career mode, and I've won all the bonus police cars in Arcade mode.

Cheats are for cheats.

[Blog Template]
I'm cooking up a new blog template. I might even do what chud has done, and implement a template chooser, so you can pick whichever one you like.

['Stolen' Car]
I sold my 1200 coupe to a friend a couple of years back, and some other jerk came across a photo of it, and decided to post it up on ratemyride.co.nz, passing it off as his car.
Scandalous.
Pure unasham-ed thievery.
I had to post in in my friend's defence, since there was a fairly heated debate over who actually owned it. No response from the thief since.

[Lunch]

  

# 10.9.03 by Dan
[New]
Corolla GT - fast without the fury.

[Useful]
stock.xchng - free royalty free image library - you can even add your own.
spoono.com - graphics resources, links, tutorials etc. An old favourite.

[Creative Driving]
Scotty's attempt at 'roofing' produces a less-than-desirable outcome.
Details will be published, no doubt. (Bro, I saw the pile of glass)

[Soup Of The Day]

 

# 8.9.03 by Dan
[The Weekend]
We spent the weekend up north (Tutukaka) with Michelle's family.
It was grouse.
Despite the blustery weather, it always seemed to be fine when we wanted to do outdoorsy stuff.
A weekend is not enough.

Sometimes I get all self-absorbed and am more than happy to just go do my own thing.
Maybe thats why I like this so much.
I'm not sure it is good, however.
Scotty tried it the other weekend, and ended up not doing it. ie: his mountain-range solitude was shared with drunk people and a youth group.
Introspection is a bit like self-pity, in that we all enjoy it, and even seek after it.
And I'm not sure if it is as necessary as it is enjoyable.

You tend forget about the other stuff - especially other people and most especially, you tend to forget about God.
It is an indulgence, I guess. In much the same way as we might occasionally eat a whole packet of sweets by ourself, or a whole block of chocolate, we often sit down and think about ourselves for a bit, and then afterwards feel guilty, and slightly ill.

I dunno.

Notice this is still under the [The Weekend] heading?
And I'm rambling.
Yay.
Not quite so aimless rambling, and it does bear some significance to the heading.
At least in my head.
Anyway.

In fact, how about a Dan's Diary special feature on...
[Abandoned Places]

- Lost America - the colors, the colors...
- Modern Ruins - check the field of B-52s...
- Night Photographer - more colors...
- Deserted Farms - in black and white.

Most of the above places have more links to other sites, and/or are members of various webrings.
Such awesome stuff.

# 4.9.03 by Dan
I can't be bothered with a heading.

Having a heading means I kinda have to be a bit specific. I can't just ramble on aimlessly.
I'm feeling melancholic.
Or maybe fey.
Or maybe just weird.

I have this unusual feeling.
Kinda like I am invincible, but at the same time, powerless.
Like being the best looking person ever, but being invisible.
Like having all the money in the world, but being unable to decide on a single thing to buy.
Like some pent up energy without a means of release.
The grey skies don't help.

I went into Farmers - man, what a woman's world. They've redecorated/rearranged/reordered everything. You walk in the door and you're met with the sickening scent (and sight) of a thousand perfumes. You have to walk past each and every one of them to get to anything else in the store - theres no way around.
Only to be confronted with racks of cosmetics and shampoos and stuff that isn't soap. And then... ... only to be confonted by racks and racks of lingere.
I really don't want any of that crap.
I bought a father's day gift for dad - the reason I was there - and made a hasty exit.
To the fresh[sic] air of Queen St.

I keep looking out my window. Downtown house is ugly and I'm sure no proper female can risk a quick glance at the Royal & SunAlliance building without the automatic gut-instinctive thought/reaction - 'he's left the seat up again'.
I can see the Metropolis peeking out from behind the Tower tower. I like the building. Rather gothic - it could do with some gargoyles and maybe some big tesla coils.
Theres really nothing of character from the 70's/80's - nothing worth not tearing down.
I do like the Dilworth Building, on the corner of Customs St and Queen. Its well weather-stained, but it would look wrong all sparkly and clean.
I'd really like to have a look through the old Guardian Trust building - it was gutted by fire a couple of months ago - it would be really fascinating.

I could spend hours here. In fact, I should put a proper link to it over on the left there.


<sigh>

# 3.9.03 by Dan
[Utter Rubbish]
I read this in the NZ Herald today.
I'm not doubting the fact that the Y chromosome now only has 41 active genes - down from 1438. Although, if this is a fact that 'Professor' Jenny Graves has determined herself, then perhaps I should doubt it, based on her statement in the last two paragraphs of the article.
"The Y was likely to vanish altogether in about eight million years, but she reassured men that another sex-determining gene would develop elsewhere.
"Evolution will find another way. Don't worry about it," she said."
Piffle!
How, in the light of everything in the universe around her, can she give us any reassurance whatsoever that another sex-determining gene will develop anywhere else but in her dreams??
As a geneticist she must have surely observed that, across the board, the genetic makeup of all living things is deteriorating. I mean, hello - hasn't she only just stated that the Y chromosome has degenerated such that it now contains less than 3% of its original active genes?
I would really love for 'Professor' Jenny Graves to provide me with one single indicator of the fact that another gene will(not 'might' - 'will') develop, sex-determining or otherwise.
Its a pure, simple, rational, observable fact that everything is turning to crap, rather than evolving from crap.
Whats more, Scripture backs it up.

In order for something to evolve, the information for that evolution must already exist, right now. So where is the information? I maintain that the only place this information can be found is in the blinded minds of humanists who make science their religion - who make evolution their Saviour.

Look around you people, its all turning to crap, and there is stuff all you can do about it.
Look to Him who offers you the real eternal life - a life not found in creation itself, but rather in the Creator - in Him who wrote the genetic code before you were even a twinkle in Adam & Eve's eyes - Him who breathed your very life into you.

Dang.

[Flash Mobbing]
www.flashmob.co.nz

# 2.9.03 by Dan
[Discussions...]
...don't seem to work here.
I guess its understandable that the comments system isn't the best conversational tool, but I'm beginning to think that Muffy was right when he said that discussing Christian doctrine/principles/etc in the public domain isn't particularly helpful, especially if it makes us look like a bunch of bickering, self-focused something-or-others.
I'll still post my opinions, and feel free to comment, but maybe if we come across an issue that requires further discussion, you should let me know and I'll invite you all around for dinner one night, and we can discuss it properly. Dunno - whaddaya think?

[Miscellanies]
- I've lost a little weight already - 2 kilos since last Wednesday.
- I've been a bit lacking in the poetry department, of late.
- Got my bike back on the road over the weekend. Now I just need to ride it.
- Aquired another box of Liquorice Spice tea. Its the best.

# 1.9.03 by Dan
[Welcome Back Alisa!]
My sister Alisa has returned to NZ after two and a half years study in Germany. Yay!!!

[Party]
Saturday night saw us celebrating the engagement of Corina and Martin.
A good time was had by most, if not all. The helium balloons were rad, and by the end of the evening, there weren't many left - their contents having provided us with a great deal of chipmunk-esqe vocal entertainment - at a small cost, however, upon discovery that my vocal cords weren't quiet up to scratch the next morning, when trying to lead worship. In all humility, our place is is an awesome party venue. Seriously.
To quote Richard D. Bartlett - "We win".

[Blogging-related Questions]
Should Christians discuss/debate doctrine etc in the public domain?
Should those of us that do discuss/debate doctrine etc via blogs cease to do so, and instead spend that time developing better personal relationships with our workmates/classmates/families/friends with the intention of sharing the gospel etc with them?