Theses suck anus.
3rd December 2005.
It is time my beard died. It is looking bad and my lack of owning clippers to keep it under control myself is bugging me - so I think I'll just take it off entirely some time soon.
At my supervisory meeting on Thursday I was ordered to attend a symposium over the weekend on "(Trans)figuring Bodies". I hate theory.
So Friday and today have gone to sitting through seminars on things that aren't exactly my thing. Some have been pretty interesting though. The days have also featured some catching up with Giffy - she being in town for her boy's graduation. It's amazing how seeing someone makes you realise how much you miss them.
4th December 2005 - Osmund, Bp. and Conf.
Was going to write, but heat and mugginess makes me too lazy. May try later.
Okay, cooling of the weather has made me happier.
Last night I went to a BBQ at Lizzie's. And though a BBQ it was really more a dinner party but with paper plates. Lizzie does everything too damn well. It was a fantastic evening - which is no real surprise. It was also nice to properly meet her partner, who turns out to be very likeable. After Lizzie's I came home to drop off stuff before wandering off the Theatre-Claire's to catch the tail end of a party she was throwing. I think it was the late night-ness (early morning-ness) at work but I ended up just plain grumpy and a little unliking of people, so I headed home and slept.
This morning I headed in to the conference for some cultural theory stuff - atleast I think that was what it was, theory mostly confuses and loses me.
After the lunch - spent talking about intersex issues, as I somehow ended up sitting with two gender lecturers from Oz - I snuck off, and headed home to avoid the satan parade. After that it was a quiet day at home feeling overly warm - making me overly sleepy.
5th December 2005.
I spent this evening helping out at a conference thing my aunt was organising. it was pretty good, if a bit dull. However it did lead to me sitting for ages with Si's flatmate, who kept talking about him [amendation 8 December 2005 - reason: thoughtlessness on my part. Okay, it was incidental dropping of his name maybe twice in contexts that weren't about him - it occured to me that as it was written I was likely to get a mostly innocent (no-one is entirely innocent) party in trouble I thought I should uncharacteristically point out the giant lie-ness of my blog. It occurs to me how much more interesting my life would be if it lived up to the blog I write loosely inspired by it...][amendation of later on the 8th - reason: grouchiness. Basically, this amendation is here because I would be deleting the previous one were it not for my philosophical disagreement with deleting anything off here once written. Why do I want to remove the previous amendation, because this is a work of fiction. Read the disclaimer, people! So maybe I turned someone's worrying she had forgotten to ask her flatmate to record Desperate Housewives into "kept taking about him". So maybe I'm playing fast and loose with the exaggeration and lies. But fiction is lies. Plato was very clear in the fact all art is lies. As one doing a Masters of Arts, I am clearly becoming a Masters of Liess (the double 's' being to show that if one art is lies then arts must be extra pluralised lies(s)). And fiction aside, what is a blog but a spleen venting exercise in exaggeration. Okay, this is becoming more of a rant than an amendment, but the earlier amendment, having made perfect sense and seemed the proper thing to do at the time, has been bugging me ever since I uploaded it. I should not feel the need to twist my lies to make them more closely resemble the world they are loosely based on. They are my lies! Mine!]. Turn's out my blood pressure jumps everytime he is mentioned and I was all feeling my heart in my throat and my forehead and the bridge of my nose. For all my pretending I don't, I still miss him a lot. I'm also still kind of angry. So much for assuming personal growth.
While I'm complaining about the world... the package I ordered in October, which I'm informed was posted on the 27th October US Time (thus 28th here), still hasn't arrived. Okay, they said six to eight weeks and it's not quite six weeks yet. Still, I want it onw. I am cranky and impatient and have no control over the things I most want to be different.
8th December 2005 - Conception of Blessed Mary.
The kitchen still smells of my having burnt my steamed veges last night. It is not a pleasant smell - yet not as gag worthy as the food became.
Tuesday was spent in the office, though ending early as the late-night-ness of Monday led to a nasty migraine of the sort of pain that makes you feel like you're going to throw up from it on Tuesday afternoon. And I was amused by the book I was reading having last been issued in 1989, and even then by my supervisor. Not the most popular of books.
Wednesday, I finished going through the notes in all the editions of Patience, and went off to the graduation parade as I had promised Mandy that I'd watch and get a photo of him (yes, Mandy is a boy's name... really). It turned out a bunch of my friends were graduating. In addition to Mandy there was Catriona, Tavendale, Lee-Luan and Scott from my office, Cate (who I'm pretty sure has been Catherine for years), and Susan. By creepy coincidence everyone I have ever seriously attempted to ask out was at the same ceremony. Including "The first year" of many, many years ago, whom I started to ask out but wimped out before it had got past being turned into something innocently friendly - and that itself was a result of peer pressure after I admitted having never technically asked anyone out. And the girl I decided would make the perfect wife in fourth form, though she was audience rather than graduating herself. The world is a strange place. I need to put myself out a bit more so the chances of that sort of coincidence become much less likely due to larger than current numbers being involved.
Got distracted writing the first of the amendments to the entry above and was then running late to varsity, so I shall now (after further amending the above, but now in red - must resist urge to further rant about nature of fiction, but shall refrain... for now) try to work out where I had got to and continue with the rivetting narrative. You can tell how it is rivetting by the fact you've been riveted to your chair, with rivets holding your eyelids open, and thus you are forced to read this until you bleed to death. Otherwise I'd hope you'd have the good sense to go look at something more interesting like this.
Anyway, after the graduation parade I had gone back to my office, but it was swelteringly hot and muggy so after about an hour I realised work would never happen so I went and watched the graduation ceremony, having only missed the start. Then I hung around to use up the film in my camera getting photos of those I knew as they came out afterward. Something which I am pretty sure scared Scott a little. Ah well, if you can't befriend them, terrify them.... On the way home I put my film in for processing, and will have to pick it up tomorrow morning.
Today was spent in the office feeling over warm - oh, and chatting post grad issues at a meeting that deteriorated into a social gathering of goodness.
I'm late for the dinner I'm supposed to be going to, I should stop blogging and get moving.
Today's multiple entries have had terrible flow and miserable story telling. Not a good day for blogging.
Well, my flatmate finally caved and said I could have a party here, except now I find I'm too lazy to organise anything this late in the piece. I'm just going to go out to some pub on my birthday and have a few quite ones with people. Just have to pick a pub and invite people now. And maybe list it on here - in the hopes some random netter will come along out of curiousity and shout me a beer. Buyers of beer are always welcome.
10th December 2005.
It turns out clippering oneself with only the aid of a small pocket mirror is difficult.
I rang my father this morning to ask if I could borrow his clippers, but when he dropped them off it turned out he'd bought me a set of my very own. So after I had been down to the Gardens, to Filadelfios and booked for Tuesday (8pm, Tuesday 13th, drink and maybe desserts, all welcome), I set to work on my frighteningly large beard. It is now an inexpect #2. The inexpertly clippered look is definately an improvement, I had got just a little too hairy.
And I skipped over yesterday, which featured picking up of photos and delivering the double prints to the people they were of, work in the office and an evening spent play testing the sims2 mini-add-on I got my brother for Christmas.
That may be all I have to say for now.
12th December 2005.
Yesterday I went to the office and tried to get some work done but I was too hayfevery and it was too warm, so little productive was achieved. Late afternoon I headed to mother's and got my birthday present, a wooden kit-set filing cabinet and season four of Xena. She got me entirely stuff I wanted for once. This makes me happy. Then it was off to my grandparents for dinner to celebrate my birthday. The downside was that my mother decided I couldn't be allowed to go home and had to wait till sunset and go to the Waldronville christmas lights. After not very long there at all I was becoming very anti-christmas. Bah Humbug I tell you. Such great disdain of commercialised festivity. And I didn't get home till 11, so by the time I had my filing cabinet set up it was almost midnight, and then I filed stuff until about 2am when tiredness won of obsessive compulsion.
This morning featured more filing before heading to varsity. The filing cabinet is making me so happy. The day at varsity was semi-productive, but still not flash. I was too tired and wanting to go home to file some more. Which come four in the afternoon is what I did. All my crap is mostly filed now, I just need to buy some more folders for it.
Anyway, I should go sleep. Should try not too be so tired tomorrow - might end up sleeping through my own birthday function.
13th December 2005 - Lucy, V. and Mart.
I'm older and fuglier.
And it seems everyone is cancelling on my birthday drinks. Beginning to think I should have just not bothered - but I'm sure it'll end up fun, if not certain pikers may find themselves in trouble. And my package from the US still hasn't arrived, it has been about seven weeks and was ordered as a birthday present to myself so should have had the decency to be here in time.
Grrr, my cousin forgot me on the birthday calls. And I got up especially like.
I was just getting annoyed at birthdays, as pretty much all I had heard from people were from those cancelling on coming to my thing tonight, when the mail arrived. In the mail was a parcel, not the one I'm waiting on from the US, but a surprise one from Tina in the UK. The complete first season of Wonder Woman - colour me a happy camper.
Office work was somewhat productive, and I had lunch with my father. Now I'm watching Wonder Woman until it is time to go off and be social-like.
It is almost midnight. I've been home from my party over an hour, filing and watching Wonder Woman. The party was a bit of a flop turnout wise. Even Oli didn't make it. For the main there was me, Tavendale, Catriona, Michiel, Alana and Meg, with Midget and Andrea and Shannon turning up near closing time. It was fun, I'm just a little annoyed at the number of people who didn't show. And not so much annoyed and mildly disappointed that the one person I'd invited who I'm trying to impress enough to have worn all nice new clothes, even brand new sock, to my party on account of also didn't show. This, however, was somewhat expected.
I'm being childishly peeved that I didn't get a "happy birthday" message from Si. Which makes no sense as he was very clear on wanting the Matthew-free-life, so birthday greetings would make no sense. It is just pissing me off a little. Anyway, my brain is squishy and gross. Extreme tiredness and slight alcohol consumption has left me feeling quite shocking. Time I go sleep, or die - either plan is fine with me just how. My head is not feeling good.
14th December 2005.
Beer bad.
Broke out in some nasty allergy this morning so had a neck full of hives - which earlier today looked humorously like I'd been attacked by some horny teen set on hicky giving. Mostly just much unpleasantness and annoyingly itchy (not sure what it is too - it may be something I brushed against or maybe the dodgy international foods foodstuffs I have been sampling after receiving a gift pack of them). So I took the morning off and only went into varsity after I'd made myself lunch at home. The afternoon was semi-productive in the 28 degree office. How I miss the air conditioning pretending to work. At six I meet Oli for a drink, to make up for his having missed my birthday thing (though he had extenuating circumstances). A couple of pints later, on an empty stomach, I was feeling the alcohol quite a bit. It was fun thoguh, chatting to Oli and Johan. After a trip to the supermarket to pick up supplies we headed to a BBQ. This was all well and good expect that after quite elegantly jumping the supermarket fence a few steps later I fell in a hole and went over on my ankle. Add pain to the features of the night. The BBQ was okay, there were a few people I knew there and much more beer drinking. And Southpark was fantastic (Oli, Bridget and I sat and watched TV while everyone else was playing poker), invisible Cartman.....
Anyway, I'm quite drunk and in pain. Methinks sleep would be a smart plan.
15th December 2005.
This doing in of my ankle seems in the light of morning and sobriety to be the worst I've ever done to it. Very swollen and painful. Not a sexy look.
I spent much of the day with my foot up watching Wonder Woman until there was no more to watch (half the season is still wrapped as a christmas present and all). I did go to the Post-grad end of year picnic though, which was nice and goodly social. I got an awesome card in the mail from wormgirl - one they she had made herself but which I mistook at first for bought as it looks all professional like. Put with the randomly classy card I got from Karen yesterday, the mail has been good to me. Still no package from the US though. I spent a lot of money on it and its continued not arriving is making me unhappy.
I out-geeked myself watching Fantastic Four this evening, at the end when Dr Doom (aka Cole from Charmed/Julian from Nip/Tuck) was being taken away in the boat I found myself getting very angry at the fact the boat was from a Latverian port. Latveria is land-locked. Hello.
Yes, I got angry at the incorrect placement of a fictional country. I think even more disturbing is that I knew the placement of said fictional country.
I should go sleep.
17th December 2005.
It's late and I should be sleeping. Spent the day reading Garth Nix's Sabriel, which was ok, but I think I will try and make the book look unread so I can use the exchange card.
I'm in a weird mood, I should go to bed now before urge to attempt to strike up a conversation with Simon leaves me messaging into the void.
19th December 2005.
After all my complaining, I came home today and my parcel was here. It took long enough, but came, which is what matters.
I also went to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe today, not a bad film.
20th December 2005.
Christstollen is addictive. I find myself wanting it more and more. I may have to try and get the recipe out of Lizzie. Marzipan goodness....
Okay, Sunday I went to the office and achieved bucket lots fo sweet f all. Not much else to say for the day really. Oh, and I posted a Christmas card to England far too late to get there on time.
Monday I was grumbling about the lack of my parcel turning up (to the point I even talked to a post office monkey (Robin) as to whether or not it was taking longer than it should be) and went in to varsity stupidly late, getting nothing done before lunch. For lunch I went out for Japanese with my father who I then convinced to go to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe with me, and thus pay. Made for a none so productive day. Then I got home and my parcel had arrived. Contents are great and still keeping me distracted but I got a bit annoyed at the fact I'd been charged for US$27.40 for postage, and the package was labelled as having cost $11 postage. I'm poor enough for that to make me more than a little grumpy. I was going to order another pack, but now I'm not sure.
Today, my ankle was playing up and was distracting me, so I had another day of getting less work done than I'd have liked. I have to learn not to fall in holes. This evening I went to a 8th wedding anniversary. It was good, apart from the fact it reminds me how crap I am at making relationships last. That and the morris dancing - from which I fled.
21th December 2005 - Thomas, Ap.
I should never wish anyone a Merry Christmas. For one because I rarely mean it, and the another (and more importantly) because it fucks me off when people ignore it. Saying two words back would be so fucking hard. I'm having one of those nights when I wish I could wipe all human life from the face of the earth. I should go sleep.
23rd December 2005.
Okay, there are afew days to catch up on. On Tuesday night after I left the anniversary party I was at, I started to feel a bit off. turned out my attempts to eat around the tomato in the salads had failed. My tomato tolerance really isn't great. Lead to a night of not really sleeping very well at all, until it came to morning when there was much sleeping in.
So Wednesday has a slow start, lunch with Michiel happened before I'd actually done any work in the office. Not the best look. Then the afternoon was eaten up by a lot of attempted Christmas shopping with little achieved. I did get my cousin Lucas a fantastic picture book though (a Neil Gaiman one I wanted for myself, with a CD of him reading it). I did get it from the University Bookshop though - after having walked right through town looking for stuff I buy it from somewhere only a minute or two from my office. Basically Christmas shopping eats time for no good reason. In the evening I had dinner with Alana and Lyall. Yay for Alana feeding me. Later int he evening I was feeling the need to get into some festive spirit and spread some Christmas joy, so I 'Merry Christmas'ed the people who were online on my ICQ and msn lists at the time. Responces varied from nothing to going offline shortly after. End result - attempts to be Christmassy leave me wishing Christmas presents of slow and painful death on people in general. Lesson, don't try.
Thursday (yesterday) I took a packed lunch to the office. Something I should do far more often with the unhealthiness of my bank account. I got a fair bit of work done, but less than I'd have liked. The fact the main office closed early in the afternoon and everyone was heading off for Christmas was quite distracting. Then at about eleven last night I started reading Howl's Moving Castle, as I have been intending to read some Diana Wynne Jones for a while and thought I'd start with one I've heard of. It lead to being up later than planned.
Today the weather was shocking. I was supposed to go swimming with Meg, but realised I'd have to swim the streets to get to the pool (okay, surface flooding probably got not higher than ankle deep - still not weather to be wandering around moist in) so I cancelled on her. Plus, ankle still sucks. So I ended up spending the day finishing off the book, which I feel is let down by the movie. I'm glad I saw the movie first, otherwise it might have disappointed me. Just as I was finishing the book Andy and Shannon dropped by so we could exchange christmas presents, which was very nice. And since then I've been watching their gift to me. Chobits, a strange show even by CLAMP standards. But I'm enjoying it. The main character's preoccupation with internet porn is quite amusing. In other news, I shouldn't be allowed a credit card. I impulse ordered something I oughtn't have. Well, mostly something I just can't afford as much as I'd like to be able to. Darn temptation and special offers.
Anyway, I have sneezing and running out of hankies to do (hayfever), I should go get to it.
26th December 2005 - Stephen, Protomartyr.
It is almost midnight, and I've been up since my Back-UPS (uninterrupted power supply) started beeping at 5:30 this morning. I really should be sleeping. But my bed is centimetres away and I'm too tired to move. Considering sleeping here with my face planted on the keyboard - drooling as I slumber.
Christmas eve I arsed around the house most of the day being lazy and unproductive. In the evening I went to Oli's and had a beer with him before his foxxy younger sister started plying me with 42 Below... Anyway, I ended up drunker than I'd planned to be by the time I was home and considering sleeping before Christmas. It was about then I actually got a Merry Christmas from Simon, which was unexpected enough to make drunken me extremely happy with things before I pottered off to get some sleep.
Christmas day featured too much of my family. Too tired to get into it now, will have to remember to start from here tomorrow.
Alan (Wash): My script only goes up to page 105. It's weird. I don't have any pages for after that.
Joss: Oh, I just... that's the end. It just ends there. You guys land, it's a happy ending.
Alan: Oh, good. OK, fine.
27th December 2005 - John, Ap. and Evan.
OKay, Christmas morning my brother called at a bit before 7:30 to hurry me up. So off I went to my mother's for a morning of opening massive quantities of crap. Someone of it useful practical crap I'd asked for, much of it not and will likely lead to me having a closer relationship with type two diabetes melitis (which isn't how it is spelt, but I'm too lazy to find my physiology or biochem notes to check, maybe it has two 'l's). Then come lunch time it was off to my aunt's for the giant lunch, that after breaks between courses to let things settle went all the way to dinner. Two much food and far too much of my family. Atleast my little cousin seems to like the book I got him. Even if I want it for myself a lot. In the evening it was raining something horrible so after getting soaked just carrying my stuff to my flat from my gradfather's car I decided to stay in and watch the Wonder Woman DVDs I had yet to unwrap. It made for a good evening.
Yesterday, I had a boxing day of more Wonder Woman, doing of laundry and avoiding people. The laundry thing went horribly wrong when there was an attack of killer rain. We are talking rain like Dunedin isn't supposed to get. All the gravel from the road works on my street washed away leaving things a bit dodgy and precarious.
Today went to doing the laundry yesterday failed to get done. All my xmas stuff is now washed and usable. Today also feature a trip to steal books of my brother and a rather too long surprise visit from Fluffy. Not a bad day, but not as productive as it could have been. Tomorrow I must go to the office. Work must be done.
Todays quote from the director's commentary on Serenity, courtesy of Slashdot.
29th December 2005 - Thomas of Canterbury, Archbp. and Mart.
Yesterday, I got Season Two of Wonder Woman. My life is complete. The day also featured lunch with Stu and a couple of hours of work getting done in the office.
I really have to find out what is happening with new years today, I think my people are planning on leaving tomorrow - and as it stands they look to not be taking me.
I lied, my life will be complete once I have Season Three of Wonder Woman - or if I get to keep Tim's hat. I managed to steal Tim's hat today, and he forgot I was wearing it. I may have to ransom it - but that could make me the scary creepy guy. Scary creepy isn't the best look.
I also bought cricket tickets today, so I can spend New Years eve sitting in the sun and working on my skin cancer (and in the more immediate future an extremely painful sunburn) trying to make out that I understand cricket. Go me.
That is what I should try and keep Tim's hat for. Reducing how much my face burns - but I'm guessing he'll want it to protect his own. Damn it all.
