Phillbo’s Blog Site

What a roller coaster week, but I hope some stability sets in.

Last night’s budget was a royal time wasting disaster. If politicians had half a clue, they’d limit their speech to three minutes, and reel off the the government’s proposal in about 15 minutes. As both the media and the politicians like to drag it on, I just gave up watching it, and read the details in the online late evening “newspaper”. Maybe I should turn up and “bust up” their speech. Then again, I’d probably be forcibly removed from the public gallery of parliament house.

I wrote a letter to Nicola Rixon, our Federal Health Minister to express my concerns. I hope she answers my letter, but I have an evil geek redunancy plan if she fails to respond. Dilbert would be so proud. I will keep those plans under wraps for the time being. The element of surprise has some added benefit.

I am going to sign off, my mind is tired, but my body isn’t. I will take my beloved Cindy for a moonlight walk. The moon looks almost full, scary!

I am not sure how reliable this news feed is, however the Honourable Senator Stephen Conroy, who is the Deputy Leader of the Australian Federal Government in the Senate is hell bent on spending millions of tax payers dollars finding a way to effectively filter the Internet.

As a geek, I know that this Internet filtering trial is total waste of time, nor is it even viable to consider. The government could save millions of dollars if they simply drop this Internet filtering concept. I wonder if the government will hear common sense calling them. My guess is that they are too stupid.

The Rudd government may now be looking at cost cutting measures, however canceling this unnecessary Internet trial would be a great way to reduce some of this government’s frivolous spending.

I remember seeing that Simpson’s episode, where Lisa gave up hope of being vegetarian, only to find out that the hot dog she just ate had no meat at all. In fact it had thrice the fat of a regular meat dog, but this is another story. Likewise, I have never been one to go with the ultra popular option, although the Internet world is hell bent on me changing my mind.

I’ve never signed up to MySpace of Facebook, and I had my reasons, however most of them were based on factional demographics of the typical user of these sites at that time. Although this strange concept was observed by an Immortal, and moreso agreed without question by myself (as I hate doing unnecessary research), I have never taken the plunge of joining up to either social network, even though the social aspect appears to be better grounded in Facebook.

I hear rumors all the time about what is happening on Facebook, but as a non-user they remain that way. I have received so many invites to Facebook, but they have all been declined to date, and all based on my steadfast refusal to join. On reflection, I think my initial reasons were somewhat obscured, however I believe if I joined now, I would be sucked into a vortex, and my time would disappear forever. Facebook addiction is a common illness in cyberspace, and pretty soon there will be Facebook anonymous support group — and chances are it will be hosted on Facebook too - just to have that added irony. But if you look at the alternatives, they’re simply not there.

In my observation, MySpace users seem to love themself way too much, and it is obvious it is marketed towards a younger audience, or an audience that simply wants to brag or show off. To them, I salute you, but I won’t waste my time reading any more dribble unless I am directed to a must see link.

My dilema is this. Do I hold on to my precious time, and continue to be a minority Internet user that isn’t a member of a main stream social network? Or do I take the plunge, become mainstream, and catch up with a million people from the past, most of whom I will rarely see again?

Time Vs Social Junkie. Maybe one day I will sign up just to see what the rave is about, but that won’t be today. My reasons may have changed now but I know if I join up, I’d be in front of my computer screen more than I would like to be. So today, I am still in the minority, but tomorrow may change all of that.

I witnessed once again today how over ambition and greed has clouded the judgement of someone. Maybe one day this person will question themself?

Only time will tell if this person can even redeem themself, but one thing I know for sure, this person strives for material possessions, but they them self live miserably.

Fortunately, I am glad I don’t need to suck up to anyone to live through my day, and I live with a clear conscience. This is mostly thanks to my beautiful woman who gently corrected me of my wearying ways. I love her so much!

To my beautiful and highly esteemed cousins and friends, I will respond to you all soon. I have had a lot on my mind, and a lot to do, but everything is beginning to look up.

Today was not even worth mentioning, but I do have this urge to vent some steam.

I get aggravated when people break stuff, and then blatantly deny all knowledge of doing anything. The good thing about being an old school BOFH, a logged history doesn’t generally lie. If they simply told the truth, a virtual slap on the wrist would be administered, but all would be forgiven, and the problem would fixed be fixed sooner than later. When they deny it, it makes your job ten times harder, as you have to determine exactly what they have done, and then attempt to fix the initial problem.

I also hate it when someone doesn’t follow your instructions as instructed. I know my methods may not be the best method, but they are proven and work. I am happy for people in my team to take inititive, in fact I encourage it, but it gives me the shits when they say one thing, do another, and still don’t get me the required solution.

In contrast to another staff member who actually resolved an issue at home, in his own time, just to prove his method works well. That gave me a big buzz. So that was the highlight of the day.

I suppose this is the challenge you face when leading a team, but I just hope that any decision I make will be respected, and not vetoed, otherwise my team will never reach their full potential, and my team has some serious talent.

On a more personal agenda, my nephew Joshua is participating in the MS-Read-A-Thon. A fund raiser to help beat the crippling disease of Multiple sclerosis. Feel free to give a donation for this worthy cause. Just a word of caution, if the link doesn’t work, try again later. Their SQL server isn’t the best, and it often times out.

Today I’ve had my ups and downs, and sometimes reality can smack you in the face head on. Work has been challenging, and I am not sure how to cope with what’s going around me. On the brighter side of things, my friend Esther announced her engagement, so I was very pleased to congratulate her.

My mind has also been distracted on other things, but I’d say they’re mostly positive. I saw Iron Man at the cinema yesterday (in a hung over state) after a Dave and Leanne’s wedding at the winery on Saturday. I think that was the first time I’ve been to a Gold Class cinema without ordering a beer.

I actually quite liked the movie. I also got to celebrate with my mate Ross being released from home detention. It was a momentous day.

But reflecting on today, I know that some tough decisions have to be made very soon, and I hope I have the wisdom to make the right choice.  I am physically and emotionally drained, but I will soldier on.

The concept of getting a reminder SMS alert is good in principal, but in practice it isn’t always the case.

I bought a new Ford Focus at the start of this year. I had a warranty issue that needed fixing, and after arguing with the dealership and Ford Customer Care, they finally approved my warranty claim. The moral of this story is, never collect a car that isn’t perfect. The dealership are not qualified to keep their promises, but that is another story.

Three days ago: I got an SMS from my local Ford dealership confirming my appointment for my warranty car service. On the SMS message, the dealership confirmed the date (14/2/2008) - which is fine, except the SMS date was sent on March 8 at 9.22am. I should have called to confirm the time, but I assumed the month was wrong.

Today: I got a phone call from the Ford dealership and Ford Customer care, asking me to drop off my car as soon as possible.

The lesson to be learned is, if you see a mistake, don’t assume your own correction. Today I spent my lunch break dropping off my car. I am just thankful my mate Ian was able to help me.

It’s no surprise that I would choose such a title. I used to represent that evil organization, and for years I got paid to do it. But when they go out of your way to make you angry, you really have to ask yourself how this company is able to remain in business. Anyone care to comment?

Just over a month ago, I had to f ight hard just to get a billing error fixed. That was an uphill battle.

Now the evil empire strikes again. For 3 weeks, my home telephone has not worked at all. About 5 weeks ago I reported a line issue, and 3 weeks ago Telstra technicians inspected the line, and proceeded to disconnect it altogether. Telstra have failed to fix the line, and have extended their own deadline to repair the line on 3 occasions.

Due to my line being in a state of disrepair, my ADSL has not worked either. Which means no Internet at home for me. So I am fuming every time I think about the evil empire.

But the biggest irony of all, this post is courtesy of Telstra. That’s right I am on call this weekend, and this post is courtesy of my employer’s Telstra wireless card. Damn them.

My mate Doug has opened my eyes big time. Hence, I am quite happy to publish comments, even if they are a bit personal for both of us. I do really appreciate in what he had to say, and the rest of my blog reading world can have the pleasure of learning from his advice. He is dead right about matters involving alcohol, and he is medically qualified too.

This year already has been a drain to say at least. I only got three days off over the Christmas break, and they were all public holidays, and right  now I am feeling very drained and emotional. I am being hammered from all angles, and I think I will snap any minute if this behaviour around me keeps up. Quite a few people let me down today, but others have been supportive, so I kind of balanced out my day. But holidays are now around the corner. Our new system administrator has been making stuff turn to gold, so chances are I will be mostly relieved of such duties in the very near future.

Now I just hope I get my much needed break before I get Saint Angered to the extreme, otherwise I may find myself doing something amazingly stupid.

Well that time of the year is approaching - the end of the year that is. I am reflecting this on the eve of New Years eve. How bizarre.

I’ve been invited to go to Josh and Carla’s place, to Willy Madina’s tavern, to Half Base & the Volley Maestro’s place, to Mansfield (which includes a flight), and I’ve also been invited to celebrate the new  year with (nameless) and possibly a few others.

Now what to do? Accept the first offer, the second, the third? Who knows, but time is running out to decide.

The simple fact is that the New Year celebration has little significance to me these days. New Years Eve was always previously a celebration of my grandfather’s birthday. In recent years, its has been about  getting drunk, and getting really sick the next day, and consequently wasting your public holiday. What a way to greet the new year! I’d rather greet the new year with a Stump Rump.

Still I could always make a new year’s resolution, and consequently break my allegiance to that promise in record time. Am I being a bit negative? Possibly. But the reason why I am skeptical about this is that I’ve seen it happen way too often, in fact I’ve broken them myself.

Am I all sour grapes? I hope not. But I think maybe my age is catching up with me.

I love meeting up with people and having a grand time, but I do not like seeing my friends turn themselves into absolute arseholes when they get overwhelmingly intoxicated. I am convinced based on my own experience that being inebriated brings out the truth in most people, and I often don’t like what I see when this happens. I’ve had a few embarrassing moment involving drunk friends, and a few other moments I would like to forget too. Some people I cannot drink with socially, simply because I do not trust them at all. They have hurt me before, and they don’t want to face the consequences of their actions. It is like being drunk is an excuse to fuck with you both physically and emotionally. For this reason, I will not turn  up, as alcohol brings out their evilness.

Some people will expect me to become as plastered as they are. This is good in theory, but its not on my agenda either. I hate being in a relatively clear frame of mind when everyone else is off their face. This is not what I would consider fun. Being plastered isn’t fun either - it is simply a short lived illusion.

So what to do? Well if it involves a guitar or two, a bit of singing, a few ales, a good souvlaki, and chilling out with a few friends, I am sold on the idea.  The only thing to do now is to go to bed early tonight, so I can finish work early tomorrow. I would much rather greet the new year without a hangover.