Confusion #2

Well, at least I was right. Procrastination is definitely making things worse...

Cats

It's cat time now.

Confusion

# Warning: ramble ahead. You have better things to do than read this.

So many things in life are confusing. Let's start with the definition:

Confusion:

• Unclarity or puzzlement, e.g. arising from ambiguity.
  
• Literally, to mix or join together. The word itself is a confusion of the prefix "con" ("with" or "together") and the verb "fuse" ("join").
  
• The third season of the Discordian calendar.
  

adapted from wikipedia

Take computers, for example. They're as confusing as anything - and ironically, they're almost impossible to join together. Ever tried to network windows 95 with OS X? Not much fun. Why would you? I don't know.

Still reading? Good.

The thing that really confuses me is people, though. I suppose that's why politics annoys me so much; all they're trying to do is confuse each other (and, unfortunately, sometimes the public too). Confusion taken to an art form.

But anyway. People. Why aren't people honest all the time? (By honest, I mean saying everything relevant at the first opportunity. Keeping silent when you know something is not honest ;). I suppose it's usually because there's something to be gained from keeping quiet, whether it's keeping others feeling happy, keeping yourself happy, or something else. So there are good motives for it - they just don't often turn out to be good reasons. If people know the truth, they can just deal with it and move on.. if they don't, there is confusion. While tension may be better than boredom, it's not much fun for anyone in the long run, and I think it's rare to have anything good come of it. I think, as long as one is perfectly clear and sensitive, the truth is often kinder.

But I've never been much good at taking my own advice.

So, once you get into a confusing situation, what's the easiest way out of it? You may have got into it without realising what was happening, but now you're there, what do you do? Well, if you've got the guts, you can just face the music and talk about it with the affected parties. Failing that, procrastinate: wait for the opportune moment, or until things resolve themselves. This is not a good option, for two reasons: You may make things worse by waiting; and they might not resolve themselves in a way you like.

Girls: how to date a geek?

Well! I have finished the assignement due tomorrow at the respectable time of 2am. No sarcasm intended - that is respectable by my standards.

Just discovered yet another Pratchett. I was a whole book behind! The man seems to churn one out every six months or so. Quite a few people know about them now, I hadn't realised how popular the books were. The quality has definitely improved over time, although my favorite is still Small Gods. Religion was asking for it.

Whereeee iiiiis the riiiight geeeeeeerrlll..... (yes, I know my singing hurts..)

Random activities

Today's discoveries:
1. Random activities can be quite rewarding if undertaken in the right frame of mind.
2. Problems set by teachers always have a solution of some sort, even if the solution is that the teacher wrote the problem down incorrectly.
3. Never cross a cat with orange eyebrows.

Hmmm. The spring cleaning of the room isn't so bad either. I have carpet again :)

Music. The spring cleaning of the mind.

Argh. The Chinese have a curse: "May you live in interesting times". Funny, I can't remember offending anyone who might say a curse like that lately..

I think it's time I tried to stop bagging my friends. The whole culture at school was intensely bagful - there wasn't much else to do in the breaks, and it was fun, and other people did it to you. But it's really not that much fun. Much better to say nicer things, although not too often, of course, and only ever when you really mean them.

People like to be comfortable*, and that requires acceptance (ie. not bagging)

Although I suppose it's a sign of a strong friendship if you can get away with bagging them. But does it really need proving all the time?

*Most of the time.

The relationship games people play. Occasionally you'll hear people complain about it, "why can't people just say what they're thinking?". Of course, they don't complain when they don't mind, which is probably most of the time. And I reckon games are "safer" - ie. less embarrasing, less likely to jeopardize friendships. Everyone gets a while to think about things before things come into the open (which, in my experience, they almost always do). So, in my opinion, games are good.

Only a few unimportant games were harmed in the making of this drivel.

Hmm... having a girl turn up drunk to a first date is not a pleasant experience. How can it go so wrong?

If there is a teenage/twenty-something girl out there who has written a book on dating, I'd be interested to read it... there are lots of books from the other side, like Adrian Mole, Wilt (for older readers).. perhaps, as soon as you figure out how girls think, they change. Ah-hah! Now that I have figured that out, does that mean they won't?

No more work for a few weeks (until after exams). Hooray!

Most Public Date Ever. Don't try tthis at home, kids. Although I probably deserved it, for reasons best left unmentioned. Oh, and for irony: Thanking the Matchmaker for their help. Drove home extremely tired, another bad idea.

To post or not?

On a more positive note, I discovered a wonderfully entertaining site... enjoy. Clickie

What's in a name?

Quite a lot, I reckon. I've always thought that someone's name defines a fair amount about them, if only because people treat them differently depending on their name (treat them like others with the same name).

Anyway, find out what your name means.

Sindoor Occer

Wow. An indoor soccer game has two 15-minute halves. We scored 9 goals! The fighting mongooses live up to their name! Unfortunately, the other team scored 22.

Frankly, we deserved it.

So.. back to the drawing board. Plans so far have included hiring real mongooses, hiring Maradona or Ronaldo, and the most extreme of all, using more than half of Ben's family (but that would just be cheating).

Sadly, half the team didn't seem to enjoy the game. Ironically, I don't think winning's ever meant less to me. So I did.

I wonder if there's a company out there who would pay an experienced programmer more than the _tragic_ average of $12 an hour I'm getting at the moment.

Never had more fun than at dancing yesterday. Some of those girls really know how to move.

Oh well. I knew it was too good to last...
The End.

Best day ever

A grand total of four good things happened to me yesterday. Not bad for the first day back. Had a dancing class (you can laugh, or call me whatever, but it was fun), so there. Girl was late, so I didn't get to dance with her, but she came up to me afterwards.. and now I've gotta find somewhere fun to take her. There's rumours of a trip to a drive-in on Friday, but there's a (free) swing dancing night on too.. choices! I don't know if I want to go with her to the drive-in yet.. so anyway, they were the first good things. Then I got to play indoor soccer for a new friend.. which was the most alive I've felt for ages. There's something about good exercise. Oh, and beating the other guy to the ball... Sadly we lost, but at least we got a few goals. That game's all about speed, and I just couldn't keep up. I'm quite stiff today. It made me think though, it wouldn't be hard to get a team together so I could play every week ! Ah, the possibilities... so that was thing number c. A nice girl gave us a lift there and then drove me and my other mate home.. so we could all play pool. Ah pool.. thing 4. Is that a good day or what?

Then, almost as if it was trying, I had work today. At least there was time for a walk at lunchtime, which was peaceful. There's a national park next to the office.. that's how far away it is, for those of you playing at home.

I think I've been listening to the Jays too much lately. They seem to be playing the same stuff too much. Good stuff.. but I'm getting sick of it. Shock! I never thought that would happen... however, they are making quite a lot of the stuff available on their website for people to download. Makes sense to me - I reckon the artists will make a lot more money if people get hooked on their records. True, they might not sell that much more, but for the artists the real money is in the touring and licensing anyway. I wonder if Collusion will ever put up stuff for download.

Me, ramble? Well, I guess so, like that time when some guy said something to that girl and then that other thing happened and no-one really woke up for a few hours and then we tried to tickle the goldfish (which didn't work to well) but no-one cared anyway because.. well, I can't quite remember but I think we went to be late so we must have been tired the next morning eh and ARE YOU STILL READING THIS? Well done ;)

What a week. Science ball on wednesday, puggs on thursday, and Jono's last night. I don't think this is healthy.

Life is too full at the moment. Peace and quiet would be so nice... the trouble is, almost whenever I'm not at uni, I have to go to work...

Had an interesting (if slightly drunken) discussion with a friend about optimism the other night. I reckoned hope is really important. He claims there's no reason to have any, we're all going to die anyway.

What would humanity be without hope?

Hopeless, I guess. (yes, I have rediscovered puns. Cue groans.)

Seriously.. I don't think we could develop at all without it - after all, what would be the point?

So remember, when you're sad.. there is always hope.

Enough one line paragraphs... on to cricket. Taken from a post on alt.fan.pratchett:
> The rules of Cricket as explained to Foreigners
> ===============================================
>
> There are two teams, one of which is in, the other of which is out.
>
> Each member of the the team that is in goes out and the members of the
> team that is not in try to get them out. When a man that is in is out
> he goes in and the next member of the team goes out.
>
> When all the members of the the team that is in are out (although you
> can have some players who are not out and thus still in) the team that
> was out goes in and the players from the team which was in (and is now
> out) go out and try to get all the members of the team that was out
> and is now in, out,
>
> When all the players have been in and are out (including the not
> outs), the game ends.
> Thomas Sarp

A crazy party by a crazy melz :) Thanks mel, it was awesomoe!

And awesome, too. There's nothing like a good drinking game to get a night started.

Note to self: Do not write letters to girls while drunk. Suggestive comments inevitably ensue. Arr.

Pool brother

My brother took me to play pool today. He needed a lift, as he was drinking.. so I got a few games out of him. I even managed to beat him a few times. I was amazed at how well he knew the place. The bar guy gave us cokes after a few minutes.. on the house! He said that he'd tried to get a job there but couldn't because he goes there too often, and the owner didn't want to lose the business. Fair enough, he goes there a lot. He's deferred uni now... so I reckon he's aiming to become a professional pool player. He played the Australian snooker champion the other day, apparently (and was soundly beaten)... but maybe one day he won't be. If he survives.. it's a very smoky pool parlour.

Is it wrong to still be thinking about your ex six weeks after the (mutual) break-up?

Well... at least the pool table's getting lots of use. I am now officially tired, after having played/watched 12 hours of pool... If I keep this up, I'll either get sick of it or... no, come to think of it I'll just get sick of it. It's not addictive like computer games (which, disgustingly, I've been playing a bit lately again. Meh, I can stop any time I like ;).

A good night, though. And café Nova (brunswick st) does an amazing big breakfast.. even at 3pm.

People who get lucky shots in all the time deserve to sink the white ball more often. It doesn't matter how much of a fluke it is, as long as you predict which ball(s) in which pocket. It's when balls just randomly go in that I get annoyed. No, annoyed is not the right word... mildly irritated? It's like the feeling when you're being tickled, and you want it to stop..

Congratulations to Moe for going swimming at 7am. Courage. I don't reckon 12ºC is as cold as Milford Sound, though.. that was really just melted snow :p.

Good show about hypnotism on Catalyst this evening (yay for abc 2). Apparently it's amazingly effective on about 10% of the population - and doesn't work at all on another 10%. One of the lucky ones managed to go through abdominal surgery without anaesthetic! "It was like someone drawing a line on my tummy with a pencil". The usual other rubbish - a girl who had to roar like a lion every time she sipped a glass of water. Looks like fun, actually... and there were no pendulums involved, just talking. Look out church, you can now _pay_ to be hypnotised. As opposed to donating. And working. Not that I think most people go to church for the hypnotic aspect.. but I'm sure it's a factor for some. Ramble.

hehe.. apparently I was so tired by the end of scav hunt that I "looked at the mortal combat stage where you are about to die and it says finish him and you porcarisly wobble before you fall down". Cheers Adric.

I have new blades! They are awesome... damn salesmen, make me pay too much money... and the worst part is the kid looked about 16. Still worth it though. I can now take a friend/sister/dog on my old ones!

No work today... thank goodness. The boss wasn't going to be there and he had some hard stuff to do, so I got let off. Should it feel this good?

Dancing tomorrow. Benny might be coming..

scav

Scav hunt week. The blur of drinking, swimming, pool and staying out all night.

I feel awful.

Except about the pool.

Wow. Wet t-shirt competitions aren't as good live as I'd been led to believe. I mean, don't get me wrong, you can't complain... but still... hmmm.

Hmmm... I don't think I like raw oysters. Eating one is like drinking a glass of seawater.. and I'm told those were the good ones. The cooked ones were ok though.

The danczor classes are starting to get more interesting (challenging). I had quite a lot of fun today. It's great when you spin the girl really fast and she snaps around and back into the normal hold.

No more lan... until next time.

Lan Pics:

Boredom.

I am constantly amazed by how much girls like compliments.

Had my first Algorithms lab today. Unfortunately I'd forgotten most of my C skillz so a crash course in malloc and pointers was required. It's such a pity gvim doesn't have autocomplete...

So of course I asked my lab demonstrator lots of questions, and she was very helpful. However, she wasn't impressed to find me in one of her tutes (Logic, I think, a second year subject) several hours later.

Is it wrong to try and seduce your lab demonstrator? ;) My friends tell me not to go there.. they're probably right.

Maybe if I write enough boring stuff on here, people will stop reading it... then I'll be able to write whatever I like!

Or I could just not publish it...

I wish my job paid better.

Another day, another adventure. I just went way too far on rollerblades... ow.

Another day, another programming language... Started learning about Object Oriented Java today. Not very interesting; I've been working in *Object Oriented* Pascal since last year.

Free marks? I'll have mine with chilli.

Another day, another beer.. uni didn't start 'till 3 today (no tutes 'till next week) so I went rollerblading. Found a skate park (I'd seen it before, but there were always people there) and had a go - it was excellent fun. It wasn't exactly a challenging park - just a few slopes the council had knocked up - but it was fun.

Went out to the pub tonight (hence the late post) - if this was a diary I'd have so much more to write. As it stands, lots of intereesting stuff happened. Relationships are so much fun (before they get serious anyway - and especially to watch).

I hate the way pubs and clubs make me smell like smoke. Disgusting.

Blah.

In other news, I'm a dick.

Well. Uni today.. I have a SWEET maths lecturer. On discussing Fourier series (used a lot in sound tech.) he said something like "Fourier was raised in an abbey and wanted to be a priest. Thank God that didn't work out."

In other news, a five hour break between lectures is quite a long time. It was spent well today watching the opposition lose three open misère hands in a row. Ah... the satisfaction.

Another day, another dance. Today the latin classes were on - first the Silver, then Bronze. Silver was too hard - I'd never done it before - so (almost ;) none of the girls wanted to dance with me. Bronze was easy as after that.. and they started introducing themselves. Figures.

Wikipedia

(If you've seen wikipedia, don't bother reading this.)

Argh... If you haven't heard of wikipedia (the free encyclopedia anyone can edit) yet, look at it now.

Some interesting articles:
Melbourne
Fubar (crude language)
John Howard (not that I like the guy)
Harry Potter
The Beatles
Ancient Rome
And some that I find interesting (but that you may not):
Open Source
Terry Pratchett
Infinite Monkey Theorem
Triple J
Python Programming Language

If you're a schoolteacher, this page will answer many of your questions:
Wikipedia Schools' FAQ

Want to edit an article? Add a tip about your favorite recipe, maybe? Add a fact about your town? Have a glance at the welcome page first: Wikipedia welcome page.

The easiest way to look up articles is to type "wikipedia Monkey" into google and hit "I'm Feeling Lucky". If you're using firefox, you can type this directly into the address bar, and it will do an I'm Feeling Lucky search for you.

Dancezor

So.. uni back today. Lecture cancelled, people on train nervous, and a new street latin dancing class which a surprising number of my friends turned up to. :) Meant for a few collisions as we were choosing partners but it all worked out ok in the end... except that my partner (a really nice girl I hadn't met before) left half-way through. Fair enough, I smelt bad ;).

busyness

What a few days. Didn't get around to sleeping Thursday night: full size pool tables are awesome! :) Friday was a poker night; Saturday I sensibly stayed at home and ended up playing pool all day (we got a new (small) pool table on friday :D - and this one's good) and reading Harry Potter all night... and now I'm still up late. Uni back tomorrow... let the dancing begin.

Was that too fast?

Oh, btw.. if you're bored, and you read some technical propaganda you can't understand, play Bingo!

Fubar!

I have finally discovered where the terms Foo and Bar, commonly used in programming to give examples, have come from!

Be warned: the language is a bit coarse.

Fubar on wikipedia

Took the radio to work today. It's so much more fun to listen to JJJ while programming than just sit there with the occasional question to the other programmers.

I think I'm in love with Rosie.

Not that I've ever met her..

She's just so... wonderful!

In other news, I've just spent the last half hour trying to teach our German exchange student to play Warcraft II. She can't see the point. On reflection, neither can I.

Back to work again... more programming. I'm getting promoted soon :).. just as soon as I learn to answer the phones. I really didn't feel like doing much work today, I'm tired after teh lan. I guess 3 hours sleep takes a while to catch up after.

Yes, there really WAS no point to this post.

Lol... funny piece about blogging on Maddox. Funny... he bitches about blogs being full of crap, and how they are a waste of time. Well, we're allowed to waste our time - I'm writing this blog not for people to read (although they can if they want to) but for the hell of it. I suppose it's important to me that the things I do mean something, and this is one way of showing that they do.
Maddox

It's over. Fun :) Thanks for coming guys, see you next time...

teh crowd: Adric, Mel, Tyson, Matt, Andrew 

Tyson surrenders after choosing a difficult song 

Blur :( Jeremy, Andrew, Me in the mirror, Ranger, Seeker 

Jono, Matt, Adric 

Jono v. Mel 

Well... teh lan is almost over. Everyone seems to have gone to sleep in various places around the house. Quite a good night, DDR is more fun than I thought it would be.

I am having a lot of trouble typing this because I'm quite tired. ;)

LAN today.. yay! :)

Just went and bought heaps of food... I hate the way supermarkets put the most expensive products at eye level. It's so tempting. And the way a 2L bottle of Coke costs less than a 600mL is just ridiculous. Economics.. I mean mob behaviour.. is so weird.

Jono

Frist Pots!

I just got back from skiing Buller. The snow was average. People fun. I think I'll have to try snowboarding if I ever go back to the snow. I won't be going back to Buller but.

Lots of shenanigans happened.. girls chasing guys and getting tagged (signed on the tummy with a permanent marker) and then rejected.. people getting drunk..

I discovered what a genis is - the shape the fly of your jeans makes when you sit down. Apparently it is also possible to have a pantis and a shortis.

Bye bye girlfriend...

Orange movie development continues....

Jono