The Effects of Gasoline on Fire

Sun, 09 Apr 2006 08:40:06 GMT

Futurama. Box Set. 4 Series. On DVD. Now owned by the Strattons. Oh yeah.

Mum and Dad are in law in town for another couple of days, they've been recruited into painting the windowsills. I patched a giant hole in the drywall today. Everyone v. impressed. It only took 2 years of mulling how to patch the hole.

Does anyone know when Bakke's wedding is/was? Send them my regards/a link to this page. Bakke, if you're reading this, "Regards".

The big move is only 2 weeks away tomorrow. Yikes! We've got flights and accommodation sorted, now I just need to fill in the form that says we're not sending drugs or cane furniture. I think it's a bit late to be worrying about cane toads at this stage. Plus I don't think an end table is going to exacerbate (meaning: "to make things worse") the problem too much. I'm not looking forward to the toads. Apparently they're as deadly as playing with electric nunchucks in the bath.

Anyway, I've got Futurama to watch. Later all.
P.S., lobster sticks to magnet.

Life and movies

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 08:28:26 GMT

I realise it's been about 12 months since I posted, I'm not even going to try to explain what I've been up to since then, since noone will read this except the CIA guy with the task of reading blogs containing the phrase 'Al qaeda'. And I don't want him snooping around.
So I was watching Saturday morning TV, and the runner up from NZ Idol has done a remake of "I Believe In A Thing Called Love" by The Darkness. Turns out it's really a love ballad, and best sung by someone who can't hit high notes. It is the saddest thing you'll ever see on TV.

So Karyn and I are moving to Melbourne. In less than 2 months. And neither of us have ever been there before, which is kinda wierd really. I think this is the first time I've ever been somewhere I haven't been before. Except Germany, I know I hadn't been there before I went that time. Have to sell the car, get on a plane and that's it. Everythig else taken care of by work.

I got told I should be a lawyer at work yesterday; not sure if it was a compliment or not. K doesn't think it's a good idea. By the way Edsel, not all engineers have bad grammar. I've used at least 3 apostrophies already.

I got K jewellery for Valentine's day, she complained that all she wanted was a card with a GT40 being driven by a T-rex.

Best movies of the last 12 months: 40 year old virgin movie, Johnny Cash movie, and Gay cowboy movie. All will seriously haunt my dreams. And Randy Quaid stars as a non-gay cowboy - talk about a diverse cast.

Worst movie...Stealth, and no, before you ask I didn't see it.

Can't wait to see the Da Vinci code movie, I loved the book. Apparently there will be an intermission every 3 minutes. Frankly after 3 minutes of Tom Hanks I could use a break. It's amazing how art parallel's life - Dan Brown (author of DVC) is being sued for plagrarism; Tom Hanks looks terrible in a greasy wig.

Speaking of art, going to get my Cezanne and Picasso on this Thursday, free exhibit at Te Papa.

I own all Star Wars movies on DVD now. Karyn says she's thinking of leaving me for a computer programmer or something, you know, a real man.

Take care all.

Wed, 01 Dec 2004 08:20:25 GMT

This post already in Poncho's journal, but those of you who haven't read it, read on...those who have, skip to the new bit. Like you need directions.

I'm really just posting so my account doesn't expire. Am going to Auckland tomorrow for a company-wide Fire engineering conference, which is pretty sweet as it's really two days holiday. 'Cept that its in Auckland.

"Hi, you've reached the Cory hotline. Lets see whats in the news today... Hmm, civil unrest in the Maldeves..." (Don't know if that's really the quote, but still).

Speaking of which, I read the funniest letter to the editor today - "I'm from Britain which NZers used to make fun of cos of its cold weather. Some scientist better splain why come NZ has cold weather in Spring. I thought we were sposed to be in global warming or whatsit."

The thesis is almost complete for the fourth or fifth time. I forget which. I've decided to fix two out of the three biggest problems my supervisor still has with it, then hand it in and get a crappy grade, but a pass nonetheless.

Karyn sez hi. Also to girly. We went to the Dido concert a while back, that was actually pretty sweet, and the tickets were half price too. A guy got a standing ovation for a bongo drum solo. And he was just in the crowd.

Maybe I should make this an actual post. Hold on...

New bit!!!!!
Our kitten's gone mental again, as Hannah and Dan have moved in for an indefinite period of time (till they get jobs and find a nicer place I guess).

Work's still going good, have been working really hard, but at least my hours have been coming down a bit (i.e. 43 hour weeks instead of 46)

My team won our frst game of indoor soccer today, and we kicked ass! OK, so that's not big news to most people, but we have played about 20 games and keep getting destroyed by these tiny asian guys.

I'm reading Virgil's Aeneid. It's pretty interesting, asnd I think I was right in disliking Troy (the movie, not the city). Also, Virgil's description of the games in sicily is more engrossing than the olympics coverage was on TV 1 this year.

Must go and watch spiderman before bedtime. Poncho - hope you enjoyed "It's a small world".

Its been a while

Fri, 22 Oct 2004 20:29:12 GMT

Well now, this has been a long time coming. How is everyone? I haven't written in this journal for about 2 months now. Youd think I'd have something interesting to say, but as you can see in this introduction, I'm really not doing much at the moment except work and bitching about mowing the lawns.

The rugby's on tonight and I'm going to it (for free no less!) I know how much that means to most of my friends in Christchurch - even though its your team Wellington are going to kill, you still don't really care. OK, so the odds are firmly against us, but its our home ground and blah blah blah...

Dammit, I have to mow the lawns today. They haven't been done in about 2 months now, last time was such a crappy difficult job and now they're worse. It just hasn't stopped raining enough to let the water go down on the lawn, as the water table here is pretty high (we're about 20 m above sea level, if that). In short, today is going to be a crappy cleaning and weeding and mowing day.

Hannah's coming up to visit sometime soon (Monday). Not sure if that means much to many, but it does make K happy I think. Will be good to see her. Probably means I will get to use my coffee plunger for the second time in a year or so. And drink more beer than the surgeon general recommends. Do we even have a surgeon general in NZ? Woudn't they be like "We recommend doing what other, larger and therefore better, countries are doing"? Can you be surgeon corporal? This is the guy who recommends cutting down on smoking if its not too much trouble. What about the sturgeon general? Leading an army of fish against us in the final apocolypse, this is the greatest threat mankind will ever know. Whoever wins, we lose. Or something like that.

I can't believe people are actually paying money to see Alien vs Predator. But then again, I've seen dodgeball twice (and oddly enough picked up on lots I missed the first time round). I was called a genius at work yesterday (which I'm going to get printed on my next set of business cards). Perhaps they were just mocking me.

Work's so busy its unbelievable. I billed 46 hours the other week (i.e. not including lunch breaks etc.). This week was slightly better, as I usually got home before 6:00pm. A lot different to uni life last year: up at the crack of noon, go to my 2 hours of lectures PER WEEK, work on an assignment or don't, you know whatever.

K and I went kayaking on the harbour a few weekends ago. It may sound really mushy, but it was great just the two of us being out there, drifting along (I got tired OK) and sharing a great time. It seems we don't have time to do that sort of thing now that I'm working, and I really enjoy doing slightly odd things. I had to borrow a pair of shorts from the hire place, as the pants I was wearing were apparently a drowning hazard (though strangers commented on the buoyancy of my codpiece). That was OK I guess, but in my experience, borrowed shorts are never the ones you would pick for yourself. They showed more of my legs to the general public than even Karyn has seen. Seriously, these pants answer the question "What happens if you take something, and divide it in half, then again and so on...?"

I figured out how to steer the kayak after 50 minutes (we had it for an hour) and I must say things got pretty smoothe from then on. No, It wasn't just a case of paddling more on one side to make it turn, I'm not that moronic (just a little moronic, don't you think. Thanks Alanis) There were these little foot peddles for the rudder, which were just out of reach cos my feet were in the wrong place. So I was all munty and stretched out. For a time. Lucky people couldn't see my legs from land or I would have looked like a real idiot (though search and rescue turned up and asked me to stop signalling them).

OK thats enough

Fri, 27 Aug 2004 22:57:30 GMT

I really can't be bothered writing. I was going to write something about how not to make a sequel, but I'll skip that for now. Oh, how about how the last two weeks have been Blair?

I'm down to my last $20. Who said getting paid monthly was a good idea? Still, the cash starts flowing again in a couple fo days, and Kar Kar has been working up a storm at my sister's work. The girl she's been filling in for has been saying she's going to leave, then asking for her job back, then not showing up, then asking for maternity leave (her underaged daughter - don't ask apparently). If I had my way I'd be all upons! Leftist intentions be damned, this is a case for right wing fundamentalism. Fired!!!

OK, so I have no jurisdiction here but still.
And I don't really have a beef with anyone anytime.
Please noone be mad at me.
I can't stand rejection.

Anyway, the last few weeks at work have been pretty cool. I've been having meetings at the hotel Intercontinental, and saw Lenny Henry and Dawn French there. they were just hanging out in the lobby. That's where my meetings have been, and there's free coffee for all, as well as these little biscuits which are incredibly hard and shatter leaving crumbs all over my notebook and me looking foolish.

A couple of days ago a couple of schools sent a couple of students on a couple of work experiences. We got to take a bus out to a construction site and got free lunch and morning tea, which is bloody awesome as we don't get enough free stuff in my job. We had to wear high-visibility jackets and hard hats; does anyone know how to get day-glow orange lint off a $900 suit? Actually most of its come off now, and I was the hit of the prom! Seriously, it was quite good telling kids about engineering, and I showed them a state of the art fire model which impresses everyone. I recommend going here to look at it.

I got busted looking at pornography at work yesterday. To clarify, the automated webmarshall thought that a news article about president Bush on Stuff.co.nz was pornography and wouldn't let me view it. Maybe it wasn't about the President. I'm sure my job is safe though.

And a couple of snake-oil salesmen came selling their fire alarm stuff to me and another guy. I ended up buying $10000 of the stuff, now I just need ot find somewheres to install it. Does anyone have a hospital I can borrow? Actually, they were just telling us about their products so we can recommend them to clients (which we never, ever do). so that was an hour well spent.

OK, so to make a sequel, just follow these simple rules:
1. Don't double the budget of the last one, expecting a far better movie. Case in point, Chronicles of Riddick.
2. Don't halve the budget and expect a return unless you're willing to wait for vhs sales. Case in Point, Cruel Intentions 2 (and 3 apparently).

I bought Karyn a dvd for her bday which she didn't really want, so we exchanged it for the original Italian job and Bruce Almighty and paid some extra moneys. The original italian job is great, if only for Benny Hill, and Michael Caine's unbelievably terrible acting. It looks and sounds like he's always looking for direction and doesn't really understand his character at all. But that actually works for his character in a roundabout way.

I love my kitty. I'm not afraid to say it.

"Hope this evening finds you well"

What is a mind?

Fri, 13 Aug 2004 21:59:29 GMT

Where is my wife?

I miss her.

Fri, 30 Jul 2004 21:50:34 GMT

Karyn just kicked me out of bed for reading - could it be that she, an English major, is terrified of literacy? I guess I do move about a lot when I read lying down so it's not her fault. Hope that everyone reading this is having a good second semester, and that some of you are looking forward to K's impending visit in a week and a half or so.

We've got my work ball tonight. K made a really cool outfit, but she's afraid the bits are going to fall off it. I hired a puffy shirt and a big black coat like an 18th century admiral would wear. I realised as soon as we left that I didn't get a hat, but no matter, it's not like I have to fool members of the royal navy into believing I'm their new admiral and in so doing spirit them away on a magical quest through the East Indies.

Its a little cold at the moment, and its a funny shade of overcast outside.

UPDATE! It's now sunny. I've been lost in cyberspace for an hour or so.

Yawn. Work's going really well. I'm challenged every day, and everyone's impressed with my typing abilities, not to mention the cool Fire modelling I've been doing. AND! I opened one of my drawers to put stuff in (I'm running out of space on mine now that I've cleaned out the last Fire Engineer's office) and I found a whole bunch of stationery!!! Need a paper-clip Blair? No thanks, I"VE GOT A WHOLE BAG!!! And bull-dog clips and post-its and highlighters, markers, three twink pens...I think I've become addicted to stationery. It's free now, but I'm afraid if I leave my job I'll create a new chapter in K's psychology textbooks - stationery junkie. Extra extra...Local Engineer Arrested Trading Car Stereos For Correction Tape!

Anyway, going to watch Farenheit 9/11 this afternoon. Should be good. Then the ball as I mentioned earlier. But for now, thesis time.
Blair

Superman vs Spiderman

Fri, 23 Jul 2004 23:39:42 GMT

Damn its cold. I'm wearing my collared superman shirt, but its only short sleeved and I'm sitting in what is quite possibly the coldest room in the house. At times like this I have to think who would win a fight out of Spiderman and superman? What if the flash was on spidey's side? What if the green lantern movie sucks as much as I think its going to? I mean, seriously, Kevin Smith hasn't done a decent movie in years. Speaking of KS, I just found out where Jay's line in Clerks ("I'll f... anything that moves") comes from - Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet (unless my memory fails me cos it was last night when I read that somewhere). Is there anything in that movie (Clerks, not Blue Velvet) that isn't hilarious? 37!? Hilarity. Hey, you can't rent here anymore!

Thanks for the speech Edsel. It's still hilarious the second time 'round. Most people think that they are the funniest person alive, you must know you are.

Oh so cold.

I still haven't finished my thesis. The other day my boss came up to me kind of confused when I asked for business cards and filled out a form saying all I had was a lowly honours degree. I told him I was working on finishing my thesis. I guess that means I should work on it today. But its so freaking cold.

I keep trying to get Karyn to pose for me - everyone else at work has collections of pictures of their spouses neatly framed and surrounded by first person perspective crayon drawings of spaghetti fights. But every time I hide in the wardrobe with a camera waiting to photograph her she either screams or goes to bed saying "I wonder where Blair is...oh well, come here Henry*..." She alternates between the two every night.

I'm beginning to like casual Friday, as I only have 4 shirt and tie sets. It's wierd, you'd think that I could match one of the ties to the other shirts, but they're all completely mutually exclusive. If I were boss I'd rule out casual Friday and bring in casual fire-day, at least it wouldn't be so freaking cold. Oh yeah, fr some reason that reminds me, there're a bunch of college kids coming to my work in a few weeks, we're supposed to encourage them to go to uni and do engineering. Bah!

Am catching up with my only friend from High school today. Sometime today we're going to buy some gym equipment as well (I'm not stretching it as much as before, but I still need a new suit cos of my huge belly)

Thought for the moment:
I tried to think of one but I'm just too cold.

I'm going now, and I don't know when I shall return. Probably after lunch.

Blair
*Henry is my stuffed toy elephant (picture shown)

Fri, 16 Jul 2004 08:32:05 GMT

Me again. Just replying to comments from last week - this is the first time I've used the internet in a week again. Its wierd, just like giving up Caffeine I suppose. I don't really miss it but it's nice on occasion. Speaking of which, it was nice to hear frmo those of you who took the time to comment last week. we really miss you guys, and though I'm busy at work Karyn hasn't really found her place in Wellington yet so it would be nice if some of you took the time to email her.

Hope everyones not too cold. It's been raining here lately. Might go watch a movie soon. Umm, forgot what I was talking about. Oh well, better go, internet costing per minute.
Take care of the puppies
Blair

Wellington

Sat, 10 Jul 2004 22:56:02 GMT

Hi all,
I know its been a while, but since noone actually reads these things it doesn't really matter. I've been at work for one week now. Got an advance on my salary so we can afford to eat as well (we're usually paid on the last day of the month, since I started on the 5th it was going to be a while. Unfortunately 1000 dollars is only worth $560 after tax and student loan. But we're getting by. Rent isn't exactly expensive, as we're renting off my parents (we're yet to pay anything).
So work's going good. I've been promoted to senior fire engineer, as the last guy quit and hte other guy was on holiday - that's right, no experience, and I'm suddenly the "go-to" guy for everyone's fire engineering needs. "Sure Mike, I think that penetration needs to be fire stopped using a combination of ...and an F rating of 30 minutes ought to do it. Depends on the escape height though" Of course. It always depends on the escape height.
Anyway, the other fire engineer is back on Monday to correct all my mistakes ("No you idiot, thats and F45 rating, not an F30").

Happy birthday to Edsel for tommorow. Expect a little something in the mail sometime soon (a box of anthrax). Damn, now you know what it is.

Haven't actually read live journals recently so assume noone has done anything interesting. Actually, playing the averages, I'll make the following comments:
Sounds like scrumpy soc went well
You should really stop going to Dragon Garden Ponchy
Well done on your exams Jon, Coffey
Have fun on your date Gareth
And Edsel...just quit!

Well, that's all from Wellingto-vegas (no, doesn't quite work does it)
We're going to town today to look for cheap exercise equipment.
Blair

For Avron's Benefit

Mon, 21 Jun 2004 22:22:36 GMT

The picture that so often accompanies my lj posts (Henry the elephant) was taken with said pachyderm resting on a very dark-looking set of blue sheets, and not some fancy black background as first thought.

I have to go see my supervisors about my thesis soon. Am not looking forward to it, as more things to change in my thesis will lead to less chance of me getting it done before we leave in exactly one week. I might be in here nights/Saturday to get it done. Of course if they tell me to run another simulation, I'll have even less chance of getting it done, as each takes at least 4 days to run.

GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

"A regular grid size is the quickest method of calculating the volume of the 3 dimensional representation as the number of points in the final point cloud can be multiplied by the volume of individual cells in the point cloud" What a load of crap I write.

For Shuffler's Benefit

Mon, 21 Jun 2004 02:16:23 GMT

Dear fellow purveyors and consumers of electronic correspondence,

It has been brought to my attention that certain previous missives posted by this epistler lack a sufficient grammatical correctness especially as relates to the frequent misuse of the first person singular present indicative of be, 'am', at the start of sentences relating to the writers feelings and doings, for example: "Am looking for somewhere to hide the body;" "Am going to do something crazy anyway;" "Am unsure of correct use of 'am';" "Am sure shuffler gets the point by now."

Therefore it will be this writers mission to avoid this obviously lazy start to each sentence and will attempt to submit journal entries only after properly checking for grammar, spelling and general synergy as relates the topic at hand.

Hope this clears some things up shuffler.

Had a good weekend. Are going to do some more work now.
Blair

the DG

Fri, 18 Jun 2004 00:57:07 GMT

Ahh the Dragon Garden. I can see now why Poncho has spent about 2/3 of his disposable income on chinese food this year. Quite nice, intimate smoky atmosphere, and I felt not out of place in a room full of mostly chinese. interesting how the opposite isn't always the case, eh New Zealand. I also had no trouble with the chopsticks, so I am glad I taught myself how to use them a few years ago. I think I've become addicted to green tea overnight. Didn't get to bed 'till about 2:00 so am a little drained now.

Am meeting an ex-classmate and her husband for lunch on Sunday, 12:30 in case I forget to put it in my diary.

Am still waiting for my supervisor to tell me whats wrong with my thesis. Sigh. I might not get it handed in before I leave. That would suck.

Have completely run out of thoughts for the day. Am spending the last $2.60 from my internet account reading leftist propoganda. I should probably eat soon.

Had trouble getting a park this morning. It's supposed to be study week people! I suppose the library's probably warmer than most flats though.
Well, only two weeks 3 days till I start working. And only one week four days till we move. Scary.

Ouch

Thu, 17 Jun 2004 00:01:15 GMT

Thought: Never try to stand up when your ears are surrounded by headphones. Ouch.

Am hungry. Must get fd.

Am programming. Must get Coke.

Am procrastinating. Must check Onion.

K not feeling gd today. Poor thing. Will bring her loving this afternoon. Unfortunately have much to do today in terms of getting ready to leave university for good in week and a day. Am feeling a little nostalgic. 5½ years will do that to a person.

Absent office-sharer's cellphone rang for about 10 minutes this morning. Uncatchable melody though. Other office sharer came in to slurp loudly on Chinese tea. Seems to be a morning ritual. Damn my ears hurt. I need gummi stat.

Have much to do before we can move out in less than 2 weeks now. Packing for one. Hopefully K will make a start on that today. Getting rid of fod in fridge. Getting rid of fridge/washing machine. Have decided to give these appliances to City Mission. Saves me having to place ads + haggle - you can't get much cheaper than free. And its for a good cause.

Thought: Several programs+movies I've seen recently have used a serifed font for their subtitles (example the Day After Tomorrow). Do they think they're being clever or ignorant? It's actually harder to read projected serifed fonts such as Times NR than sans serif such as Arial, while the opposite is true for printed text. Did anyone else know that? Am I being pedantic.

Blair

Sun, 13 Jun 2004 23:48:16 GMT

The fact that we're moving in only 15 days is slightly daunting. We've only packed up one box of stuff. Yikes. We're probably going to be going bowling sometime before we leave, more details to come for those interested.

Am possibly meeting with Alex (girly) and Alex (Ponch) for lunch tomorrow. Have to wait for the missus to wake up before I can confirm sorry guys.

UPDATE!!! We can meet for lunch. I'll ring tonight to confirm time, place etc.

Am thinking about taking my computer home from uni to remove need for me to leave the house at all. Would miss the reasonably fast internet I can get in my office, but the petrol and annoyance factor of having to top up internet account etc are increasing. Whatever happens, the day after I take my computer home I will most likely get an email from my supervisor asking me to come in the next day. Sigh. Still nothing to do here as I haven't received my draft thesis back yet. That's a bad sign at this point since I have to reedit it, get it bound and hand in before I leave in 2 weeks time.

Scrumpysoc was interesting. Apparently I'm quite the evangelist when I have three beers. Interesting how someone remembering a comment I made three years ago can lead to a discussion about Jesus.

Apparently:
I am most like...

</a>
[Take the Freaks and Geeks character quiz]

I'm going home now to eat lunch and nothing else. Maybe some packing.
Peace out!
Blair

Tue, 08 Jun 2004 22:06:52 GMT

A reason not to hate the french: http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2935107a10,00.html

Draft Ponchy

Tue, 08 Jun 2004 01:39:03 GMT

No, not daft Ponchy, the r is meant to be there.

As promised, a post on America. According to http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=8&id=297144, over 80% of Canadians dislike Bush (GW, not the plant-type). I'm sure a similar number could be found among the so-caled allied nations and friends. I dislike 80% of Bush myself. Mostly from the shins up. His feet are fine with me. Why should I care? Our economy seems to be doing fine while his suffers (millions of jobs lost, 5 trillian dollar deficit etc). The fact is, while he's in power, which he wants to be for four more years, which will hurt the world economy, the environment, poor throughout the world, disadvantage groups such as unemployed blacks in America (the highest rate in 20 years) http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18864

I've met several 'merican's in my time (and visited there once too, back during the reign of Bush the first). Nice people, most of the time. Sometimes, a bit wacky. GWB, however, seems to me to be a different beast entirely. A man who flip-flops on as many issues as the press accuses his main political rival of (http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=42263). Anyway, the point of this post is to instigate a recruitment campaign. As some of you may know, Poncho is vehemently against voting, and I quote "If voting could change anything, it'd be illegal". That may be true. However, as seen in the last presidential election, it can come down to a matter of a few votes. Around 500 votes (not counting those not counted which would have seen Gore win Florida) separated the two rivals last time. The same could happen this time with the country still relatively split between voting republican and democrat. That's where poncho comes in. He is a resident of Oregon, a 'swing state', that is a crucial state for this election http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_state. He doesn't vote, but I reckon he should. So this is a call for readers of this lj (both of you) to 'persuade' Poncho to vote (for whoever he wants, mind, I'm not trying to unfairly or illegally influence an election here) in the November election.
Right, 'nuff said, I'm off to lunch.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said in 1968, "When there is massive unemployment in the black community, it is called a social problem. But when there is massive unemployment in the white community, it is called a depression."

Procrastination hits new levels

Tue, 08 Jun 2004 01:17:02 GMT

Hi all,
Just thought I'd again regail you with thoughts from the most boring office in the world - mine. Am about to have lunch so 'scuse the sticky fingers on the keyboard. Had a good weekend however am back at uni with nothing? to do. That is, I could be fixing some of my programs I made for my thesis so that someone else can use them, but nnye, you know how it is. Karyn made me go to the library the other day, found the new (well, 1999( Adrian Mole diary (hilarious I thought). Also a Stephen Fry novel which I'm almost finished. Its about a guy who manages to sterilise Hitler's father 10 months before his birth and changes the course of history - however there was still a power vacuum created by the ramifications of WWI, 50 years of anti-semitism etc so its a ?slightly? worse situation than the current one. There's now a cold war between the whole of Europe and the USA. Interesting paralells to McCarthyism (OK, so I don't know what I'm talking 'bout, but it sounds like I could have passed a first year 'merican history course).

K got a ring from the moving company today - they can't shift our stuff to Wellington in one day, so we're going to be a day without it. I suggested to her that apart from not having some of our stuff for a day, the good news is that we should be able to stay a night in my parents (bitchin') apartment on the Kapiti coast. I think she'll come around and see this as a blessing. Though it does kinda suck that we're not going to be able to use our new flat for an extra day. By the way, since you're probably the only one who's gonna read this, Hi Honey.

Took the car in for a warrant 'o' fitness today. That in itself is going to be cheap, but 'cos I'm not at all mechancially minded (and I don't like grease and oil), I'm getting the guy to put a new cam belt and change the oil etc. Could be expensive.

Have almost run out of money, but the job starts soon so we'll be set then. I never got round to writing the government about their proposed changes to the student allowance for marrieds under 25. Oh well, maybe I'll do that this afternoon.

Gotta pay the phone bill.

Did anyone else hear the 'president' GWB compare the war on terror to pearl harbour and America's involvement in WWII last week? What does that say about news media in this country (I mean NZ, USA news is already screwed)? New post to come on that train of thought soonish.

"The shopkeeper and his son were a different story altogehter...I had to beat them to death with their own shoes"

Finished

Fri, 04 Jun 2004 04:19:55 GMT

Hooray, no more thesis (for a little while anyway). Gots ta get me sum füd

Beer and thesis

Fri, 04 Jun 2004 02:55:18 GMT

OK, ok so I didn't get my thesis finished yet. There're only a couple more formatting changes left. Unfortunately, I just left the Foundry. It's a little distracting trying to work when I'm in a different computer lab with people talking all about, as opposed to my office where the only distraction is the internet and my bean bag. I wish I could be there when they burn that thing. Anyway, couple the distraction of human interaction/avoidance with a couple glasses of the West Coast's finest, and the mind just doesn't want to work out why the table of figures won't find the figures in the rest of the document. Never mind that I'm using Word '03 here which seems a nasty beast compared to the relatively docile XP edition.

Must finish today though so I get my thesis read over the weekend before Craig (I don't know why, I just feel I have to beat him for some reason.)

Right! Onward and thesis-hand-in-ward
Blair

"Well what? Is it me? Do I repulse you? Look, I can stop yelling 'Tina Arena, you will be mine' at the moment of climax."

Gaz from Two Pints of Lager...

This is the day

Thu, 03 Jun 2004 02:52:57 GMT

So, it comes down to this - my thesis can be handed in within an hour or two for draft checking. And here I am finding yet another way to avoid working. Al I need to do is search the document for highlighted bits, change the offending text, update the table of figures and table of tables (maybe find a new name for that too) and I can print. 77 pages of glory later and I'm done for the weekend at least. And its only Thursday. I know what both of you are thinking - there's no way he can miss an opportunity like this. but this is Blair you're talking about. The "there's no deadline like an immediate deadline" Blair. And to make matters worse Friday is one of those self-imposed deadlines, the kind of wall that's made out of really thin tissue paper, that you can see through and when you reach it it's no big deal to push it back (OK, terrible analogy, but I'm looking for word count here, not an interesting analogy.) The point is, I'm at uni, on my computer, with the power to end things here and now (well, at least within the next hour or so). But will I take that chance? Well, probably, but at least I just wasted 10 minutes.

Thought of the moment: I can't actually type the word the, even though I've been using computers since I was three.

"I'd like a small soda"
"Uh, we don't have small"
"Well, what do you have?"
"Uh, Large, Chunky and Extra-Super-Chunky"
"So then wouldn't a Large be a small?"
"Uh, I'll have to ask my manager"

Bizarre

Wed, 02 Jun 2004 02:19:45 GMT

So! The sun thinks it can invade my desk, making it impossible to see the computer? And the tuna I ate for lunch thinks it can make me hate the smell of my own breath to the point I almost kill myself with an Eclipse TM Flash strip?? And the other guys in my office speak a language I do not understand? The solution: One more Coldplay song and then a short drive home to be with my wife and complain about things.

Thought for the moment: This LJ thing is a great way to avoid theses, or faeces.

How do these people know me so well?

UCAUTION

IN THE INTEREST OF SAFETY IT IS ADVISABLE TO KEEP BSTRATTON AWAY FROM FIRE AND FLAMES.

From Go-Quiz.com

The government

Tue, 01 Jun 2004 22:00:52 GMT

This is a slightly angry post aimed at the (NZ) government. I plan to write a letter this weekend after handing in my thesis, however it makes sense to tell random people I'll never meet as well.

Although it doesn't affect me, new proposals will alter the way married students under 25 get tested for whether they can get a student allowance - namely, their parents will be income tested instead of their spouse. In the case of Karyn and I, we would be losing about $320 a week, not to mention loan interest. Does it make sense that someone in our situation could be punished that much financially for being sutdents next year? I think not. Don't mean to get all biblical on the government, but a large proportion of married students under 25 are probably christian, who, like us, believe in the verse:

Genesis 2:24 - Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

One way of looking at this is: "don't ask your Mum and Dad for money, cos you've left them for new things." Is the government really expecting married students to be supported by their parents?

Anyway, gotta do some thesis. Be interested to hear other ppls thoughts.

Ciao for now
Blair

A new beginning

Tue, 01 Jun 2004 01:43:11 GMT

Hi all (or noone). I'm about to get lunch so I'll make this quick. This is my lj, see. And I don't take fondly to sarcasm cos noone reads it that way. So if you're gonna make a post, think twice before using hyperbole, amplification, ballyhoo, big talk, coloring, distortion, embellishment, embroidering, enlargement, hype, magnification, metaphor, overstatement, PR, puff, tall talk, then talk the talk before you walk the walk.
That said, I've got nothing interesting to say.

Blair

"Interesting quote goes here"...Guy who said it