Phillbo’s Blog Site

Well today I am doing something I don’t like to do, but I am doing it anyway… the swear word I will refer to as overtime. I have a few unexpected expenses arising, so I need to prepare for it. My house is also getting organised too… and I can see it all fall nicely together.

I think this new house, is the first place that I have felt so settled in such a long time. I think it is nice to have a place you can learn to love as your own. Well I am pretty content with it anyway.

On a more sour note, I broke my left car mirror backing out of the garage this morning (or yesterday morning at the time of this post), however hopefully it can be salvaged, or used for spare parts (if I were to get a whole new mirror assembly). Only a tiny amount of plastic is broken, so I will see what can be done. I suppose it is another reason why I should be content knowing that overtime is on offer. Time for sleep… Miles has coffee waiting, and he sure makes them quite different from anyone else.

Well for many people, Monday is the start of the working week… however for me.. it is usually my equivalent to a Sunday. I stayed at home all day, did a little vacuuming, cleaning, and went for a small walk. The house was rather cold, as I could see vapour leave my own mouth whilst breathing.

My housemate Chris finally got his money, and is booked for a flight to Japan. He was pretty excited about it.. as he will inevitably be Best Man at his brother’s wedding.

I am definately having an early night tonight… so sleep must come to me soon. I think my cooking skills are improving too; which can only mean good news. You never know.. I may become a contestant on the Iron Chef one day! Only time will tell I guess

My new housemate Chris has been hogging my TV viewing time, but I ain’t upset by it. I don’t tend to watch too much TV these days. Chris is on holidays from University, and he’s been playing “Star Wars - Knights of the old Republic” on the Xbox, for the past week. I think he’s almost Jedi Master status.

I did play a bit of Revenge of the Sith game for a while, and I did manage to make it to the last stage against Count Doku on my first attempt. As I took the quick and easy path (using someone elses saved gamed); I was destined to fail. I think it would be wise if I actually learned how to operate as a Jedi.. but maybe another day.

I mowed the jungle of a lawn on Friday, and now I can see what the backyard looks like. It was majorly over grown when I arrived, but it looks somewhat respectable now. Anyway… I better get some sleep, as I can’t see any good purpose staying up in this cold weather.

Today has been quite different from the rest of my week. I’ve walked right through the suburb with my friend Peter. I also discovered a few places that I’ve driven past in recent times, but never knew their existed. I’ve discovered a few parks that are quite well hidden from a drive by, a local pie shop, and a few other unusual shops.

I’d estimate it would take me about 20 - 25 minutes to walk from my house to my usual train station, and 35 - 40 minutes travel on the train to Melbourne city. This adds up to about an hour, give or take a few minutes.

The tram line on the other hand, is right near my house, and takes about 2 minutes to walk to the local tram stop. The tram ride from my house to the city (17km according to road sign) takes well over an hour and 20 minutes. I think that is quite pathetic..

So when it comes to public transport.. it takes ages using either means. However the train would have to win still, simply because that is 40 minutes a day more I could claim for myself.

If I drove to work, it would take half the time (traffic conditions permitting), however with the added cost of parking, car maintenance, and rising fuel costs, I can’t see this as a beneficial option. So I think I am now more determined than ever to find other employment arrangements.

Well last night, I made my long awaited return to the tennis court. My ground strokes were rusty, however I haven’t had such fluent motion in my serve in such a long time. I think my shoulder is working much better since surgery.

Today didn’t turn out as expected, and unfortunately I had to take a sick day from work. However I will try and be positive, and make up for lost time. I also spoke to Rodney, “The Grand Poobah” tonight.. I haven’t heard from him in a while, but he is planning to come down to Melbourne and Geelong sometime soon. So it was good having an ol’ yarn with Rodney.

Well one problem just won’t go away. You could say ex-housemate, but it appears that he doesn’t have the nerve to call me. I have been sent five or six SMS messages, replied to one, and even tried calling him once, however he then didn’t answer. What it all comes down to is simple; I’ve left, get over it, and enjoy your broomstick. Maybe I should have left him a bed knob too?

I worked pretty much eight hours at the Catholic Church today. Did a workstation prep, ghosted it, installed a few DVD burners, tinkled with Windows group policy editor, did a full system back up, installed some patches across a network, and then Ghosted every workstation. It may not sound like much, but it did take a while. Made it home by 10.30pm.

Went out to K-Mart tonight (as it was the only place I could think that was open at 11pm) and finally got myself another RCA lead. Now I can watch everything quite nicely from my DVD player to TV — in a “surround sound” enviroment. I have hardly tested it.. but it appears to work all OK, even on the old and crusty VCD. Anyway.. its time for bed, must sleep. I have a big day ahead of me.

On the previous night, I had a dream about Ebony. This dream didn’t make much sense. I probably remember more emotions than anything else in the dream….. however I did brush it aside, being a dream, and commenced my day as per usual.

In a bit of a surprise, I received an SMS from Bronwyn today, informing me that Ebony has given birth to a son yesterday. I won’t jump to any conclusions, but I do find it a bit strange that I dreamt such an unusual dream. The good news is however, that both mother and child are well.

Today is catch up day. I have good intentions to get up my book keeping up to date… and I sure hope I can find everything since moving house.

Well Saturday is fast approaching.. and to me, Saturday is just another working day. But the weather forecast is overcast and wet, and if that holds up… it won’t be so bad.

I worked for the church again today. Anna and I had a marvellous afternoon tea, and I did manage to order some new hardware and fix a few minor problems since installing Service Pack 1 for Windows 2003.

I did get a good sleep in, and I sure hope like hell that I will force myself to go to bed now.. as I don’t want to be late for work tommorrow. I think I feel pretty settled in my new place. I haven’t slept so well in a long time.

Well I am getting about 30 spams a day on this site.. even from posts that are no longer accepting comments. Either my SQL database is insecure, or they’ve discovered an exploit in the blog code.

But time willing, I may put one of those type in text from binary images features, that is if I can find a compatible plugin to work. But rest assured, I will find out how it is being exploited.. well I sure hope so anyway.

I wonder if anyone would ever care if a spamming bot got a denial of service attack?

Enough ranting from me anyway.

I worked for the Church this afternoon, and got quite a bit done. Looks like their Soup Kitchen is now getting a brand spanking new computer, as their existing computer is pretty much beyond repair… you have to love old hardware. I did back up their important data, and all should be good for them within the week. Well I hope so anyway.

Well I’ve finally moved house, and cable was installed the day I arrived. I love it lots

It is so nice having speed to work on a few things at once. I am impressed, but very tired at the moment; it was a long day at work, well it felt like it anyway.

I didn’t sleep as much as I should have last night, however tonight I am going to bed early. No ifs, buts, or maybes.