Had a decent day today. Didn't get as much done as yesterday, but got some stuff done. The dvd recorder needed to be rebooted because it was outputting snow and couldn't hold it's vertical hold. What's with that?? Needing to reboot a hifi device?? But at least plugged directly into the tv the black bar that's been haunting commercial dvds wasn't there. Yay.

Half way through Half Blood Prince (and watched Chamber of Secrets on dvd).

Strangely sleepie considering how little I did today... maybe I didn't do enough...

So we just told everyone at work today to use paper and write the time of their appointments in the subject line.

It is going to be a disaster :)

And my boss is taking off for Japan for a week beforehand. I think he's hoping he'll get snowed in and not have to come back until the week is over.. :) (John's not though - would make things a bit awkward starting his new job that day heh)

Survivor is starting up again at the end of March. Fraggle. Too much tv dammit!

Stolen from Yvonne:

1. What time did you get up this morning? 8am (I know, on a Sunday, shocking!)
2. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
4. What is your favourite TV show? The Mole or The Amazing Race
5. What did you have for breakfast? Beef two minute noodles. I normally have cereal but ran out of milk
6. What is your middle name? The
7. What is your favorite cuisine? Meat! I know that's not a quisine, but anything with meat in it is usually good ;)
8. What foods do you dislike? Blue cheese, anchovies, really spicy food, smooth foods like pumpkin, sweet potato, avacado; onion, brussel sprouts, olives
9. What is your favorite chip flavour? Cheese
10. What is your favourite CD at the moment? Don't really have one
11. What kind of vehicle do you drive? A ford laser
12. Favourite sandwich? Maybe tuna. Don't eat sandwiches anymore - got sick of them in high school. If you count subway as sandwiches, then a pizza sub :)
13. What characteristics do you despise? Rudeness, lack of care
14. Favourite item of clothing? er, my jeans maybe?
15. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Europe
16. What colour is your bathroom? Blue paint, white tiles on the walls, red-brown tiles on the floor
17. What colour pants are you wearing? Blue jeans
18. Where would you retire to? Dunno. Probably somewhere in the country if Stu has his way :)
19. Favourite time of the day? Sunset
20. What was your most memorable birthday? I remember my 16th birthday being a thoroughly awful day
21. Where were you born? Sydney Australia
22. What�s the last thing you ate? A sausage for lunch
23. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Dunno. Red maybe, because they always ran out first.
24. Favorite flower? Sunflowers.. or carnations
25. What fabric detergent do you use? Cold power I think, I just get refills
26. Coke or Pepsi? Vanilla coke
27. Do you wish on stars? No
28. What is your shoe size? Well that all depends. I used to mainly be a 6, but now more often than not it's 7. Except in kids which I bought a pair of 5s the other day but they are too big. Bowling I think I am a 4 and ice skating 5.
29. Do you have any pets? Lots of tropical fish
30. Last person you talked to on the phone? My mummy, organising Christmas stuff
31. What did you want to be when you were little? For a while I thought I could be an artist cause I was good at drawing (pfft), then when I discovered flying I wanted to be an airline stewardess (pfft yeah like that would have been the job for me, but I didn't know you could be a pilot if you were a girl), and a pilot in high school (wanted to join the airforce where they pay you to learn to fly, except I would have been too short and my eyesight was too bad). Thoroughly jealous of Yvonne who was given flying lessons by her mother and actually became a pilot. And then she let it go :(
32. What are you meant to be doing now? Cleaning cockroach crap out of the flat before Stu gets here
33. What do you first notice about someone? Hair/skin/smile
34. Siblings? A little brother
35. What was your favourite toy as a child? Cutie!
36. Summer or winter? Spring! Oh wait, that's not on the list. Um. I like all the extra daylight of summer, but not the heat
37. Hugs or Kisses? Both :) Although hugs are a bit more universal
38. Chocolate or vanilla? Vanilla in most circumstances
39. Who is most likely to respond? Dunno. Richard and Dennis always used to be up for a good meme, but they don't blog much anymore :(
40. Who is least likely to respond? Yvonne, since I got it off her :)
41. Living arrangements? Apartment/flat
42. When was the last time you cried? Friday morning
43. What is under your bed? My old single bed until it ever gets taken away to the parents
44. How many countries have you visited? New Zealand, USA (x3), Canada
45. In how many cities have you lived? Just the one (Sydney)
46. Favourite movie of all time? Always changing, but Labyrinth and Peter Pan were both long time favourites
47. Mountains or beach? Mountains probably, especially if they have snow on them :)
48. The current friend you have known the longest? Luc probably (over ten years now). Maybe Fran although don't see much of her anymore, even though we work in the same faculty.
49. Full names of your potential kids? I'm not having kids. If I do it'll be because God is laughing at me.
50. Usual bedtime? 11pm

heh, it seems I've used that title before :)

Saturday.
Unpacked 13lb of lego I got from Canada in the post this week. There's a couple of cool space sets, but the rest of it is just classic lego, not terribly interesting. Took over three months to get here by surface mail - yuk!

Then went out for Thai with J&G and a bunch of their friends (which is impressive in itself since neither of them will eat spicy food). Experienced the joys of going to places alone.. after being held up behind an accident for fifteen minutes, so was running late, then had to navigate as well and try to find out where I was actually trying to go to, then had to park right in front of everyone which meant I hit the curb - twice, and after all that couldn't drink because I was driving. Except then James offered to drive my car home for me, so I finally relaxed and enjoyed the night. Which went very late. Didn't get to bed til 2am - whoops.

Sunday.
Today after church (through the pouring rain) and a bit of a chat to Stu, I cursed undergravel filters, as I had to pull the entire tank apart to clean it. Pulled out the undergravel filters and am going to stick to power filters. This was after the second tiger barb died, probably due to fetid conditions in the tank.

And tonight I went to the parents with Dave & Yvonne for dinner. After dinner we played Scategories (which mum won) and Star Wars Trivial Pursuit, which is a heck of a lot harder than I thought it would be. We didn't use the dvd because mum was watching telly, so just did all the questions from the cards. I declared the game finished when Dave finally got all six wedgies (I had five). Think I need to watch the movies a few more times. And read the books. And watch any making of specials (one of the questions was what did they mix with glass beads to make fake snow for Hoth). Much fun to be had with that game methinks. And I kept getting annoyed at Dad & Dave getting easy questions all the time. Oh, and if in doubt answer "Obi-Wan Kenobi" - it's seriously the answer to half the questions in the game ;)

For a while I was thinking it was Liz. Then I thought it was Craig. Then last night I was thinking John. I knew Liane wasn't, but she got eliminated.

Last week Liane and Kristy were convinced that the Mole was either Liz or John. And now they're both gone.

Craig and John have both been pretty mole-like in their behaviour. John in the first week was in the team that set off in the wrong direction in the snow and only just made it back in time. Craig was in the team that went past the flags on the side of the cliff, and Liz objected to going back down, and unclipped herself costing them money. In the getting kiwis to vote themselves a state of Australia, Craig bent the rules, costing them most of their votes. But then John does really well in the shooting challenge. John raised suspicions not knowing about Juan's like of the spice girls. In the cave, Craig leads John off away from the markers. In the boats, John leaves without putting his seatbelt on straight away although blames Mark for letting go of the rope. Craig and John both were involved in poor performances in the 4wd challenge. Craig took all the camping equipment, but no money (leaving it for the mole?), but John and Liz can't get back in time. John and Craig have trouble following each others directions in the maze. But then Liz and John were both against losing money for immunity.

I'm still tending towards Craig at this point, but wouldn't be surprised if it was Liz or John either. *sigh*. The only one I've ever guessed right, quite early on, was the very first series. I guess we will find out next week :)

It's a memeing kind of a day today. I saw this at Karla's last week and have been meaning to do this one too.

1. Snuck out of the house? Nope. I have snuck back into the house a few times when I really didn't want the parents to know just how late I got home :)
2. Gotten lost in your city? Not lost, although sometimes frustrated at having to navigate and drive at the same time
3. Seen a shooting star? Yep, a few times
4. Been to any other countries besides Canada? Like Karla said, why Canada? I have actually been to Canada, as well as Australia (obviously), USA (three times) and New Zealand
5. Had a serious surgery? Nope
6. Gone out in public in your pajamas? Only on camps etc. This photo was taken at the Jindabyne sport and rec camp in 1987:
7. Kissed a stranger? No
8. Hugged a stranger? Yup
9. Been in a fist fight? No
10. Been arrested? No. And never been pulled over on the road for anything more than a random breath test
11. Laughed and had milk/coke come out of your nose? Not anything that silly, although I have laughed til I've cried numerous times
12. Pushed all the buttons on an elevator? Nope
13. Swore at your parents? Yes, once, in America last year
14. Been in love? Several times
15. Been close to love? er, well yes
16. Been to a casino? Yup. The only one I've actually been inside and betted was Star City in Sydney. I was stunned by the number of security cameras in the ceiling of the place.
17. Been skydiving? Yep!!
18. Skinny dipped? No .. although there are plans.. ;)
19. Skipped school? No. Although I did get a note from my mum to take the afternoon off sport so I could come home and get ready for my year 10 formal. heh
20. Seen a therapist? Once. Pretty pointless exercise really.
21. Done the splits? Not since I was a baby (and who knows even then)
22. Played spin the bottle? No
23. Gotten stitches? Nope
24. Drank a whole gallon of milk in one hour? yuk, nope (hasn't anyone ever seen Jackass, if you do that you throw it straight back up again)
25. Bitten someone? Maybe as a kid. Now only playfully.. ;)
26. Been to Niagara Falls? No, but it's on the todo list
27. Gotten the chicken pox? No. I've been vaccinated for it now so hopefully will never get it.
28. Kissed a member of the same sex? Not in any romantic sense
29. Crashed into a friend's car? *into* a friend's car, or crashed while *driving* a friend's car? Neither, anyway.
30. Been to Japan? No, but maybe one day
31. Ridden in a taxi? Yep
32. Been dumped? Nod.
33. Shoplifted? No. But I did steal a few sticks of chalk from school in kindergarden. Of course then I had to lie about where they came from. I felt so bad about that that I've never stolen or lied that directly ever since
34. Been fired? Nope.
35. Had a crush on someone of the same sex? No (but see my list of actresses I'd turn for)
36. Had feelings for someone who didn't have them back? Hasn't everyone?
37. Gone on a blind date? No. I did however send two of my friends on a blind date, and they ended up getting married.
38. Lied to a friend? I don't think so
39. Had a crush on a teacher? Yep. First one would have been Mr Jirsa in year 7.
40. Celebrated Mardi-Gras in New Orleans? Nope.
41. Slept with a co-worker? No. But does fondling count? :)
42. Seen someone die? No. And I think I've only ever seen one dead body (that wasn't in an anatomy museum)
43. Had a close friend die? No.
44. Been to Africa? No, but I'd like to go to Egypt one day. And maybe on a safari to see the wildlife.
45. Driven over 400 miles in one day? I personally haven't done the driving, but I've been involved in trips of that length many a time. I've done probably 300 miles myself on one day.
46. Been to Mexico? No
47. Been to India? No
48. Been on a plane? Yep, and loved it every single time
49. Seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show? Yep. Saw it for the first time on video at a friends place in 1989. Saw it live in New York in 2000. Kicking myself that I never saw Striker in it in the Friday night midnight sessions when he was acting in it here :(
50. Thrown up in a bar? No. I've always made it home.
51. Purposely set a part of myself on fire? huh?? No.
52. Eaten sushi? Yep. Not a huge fan though.
53. Been skiing/snowboarding? Have been skiing. Love it.
54. Lost a child? In what sense? I haven't lost a child in any sense of the word lost.
55. Gone to college/university? Yep
56. Graduated college/university? Yep, with first class honours in human genetics, no less
57. Fired a gun? An air rifle, at a sport and rec camp
58. Purposely hurt yourself? Don't think so
59. Taken painkillers? Yep
60. Been intimate with someone of the same gender? No

FQ1: What's an ideal day for you when it's sunny and blue skies?
I usually try to avoid direct sunlight. I burn in about thirty seconds. Ideally I guess I'd like to be out doing *anything* but since the number of people I know that I actually get to do anything with is severely limited, I'm most likely to be spending it in front of my computer.

FQ2: What's an ideal day for you when it's overcast and rainy?
Sitting in front of my computer and/or a dvd

FQ3: What's an ideal day for you when it's cold and snowy?
Skiing of course! :)

FQ FORECAST: What's the weather forecast for your area this coming weekend? (find it at weather.com) What will you be doing out there in it?
Showers. I have to go to work to upgrade a server from NT4 to 2003. Also doing the rellie bash thing for mothers day.

FQ1: Where's the most beautiful place you've ever been? What made it beautiful to you?
hrm I've been to quite a few beautiful places. Anything with snow and mountains and lakes in combination are often winners. Crater Lake in Oregon is definitely a highlight.

FQ2: Who's the most beautiful person you can think of? What makes them beautiful to you?
I've ranted at length about various beautiful men I've had crushes on, but possibly the most beautiful person I know is Chris, and not so much physically (although he's certainly above average), but personality-wise. He's the most "decent" person I know, and the most Christian non-Christian I know :)

FQ3: What's the most beautiful object you've ever looked at? What makes it beautiful?
Um. One that comes to mind is something I saw at a bush doof one time. It was a stack of polystyrene balls painted in fluoro colours. They were suspended on fishing line in a kind of network at all different heights. If you pulled one and let it go, they'd all bounce up and down. Damn I wish I had a photo (or better yet, a movie) of it. Didn't take my camera with me that night. Ric said he'd seen it before. Maybe I'll see it again one day :)

FQ LIST: Tell us ten more beautiful things! When you think of "beauty," what one thing comes to mind for the following words:
music: John Williams
movie: Peter Pan
book: probably my favourite book - Star Trek VI by JM Dillard. Totally love that book
meal: oh definitely roast pork with crackling and gravy and apple sauce and cheesy/creamy sauced potatoes
gemstone: maybe diamond.. with ruby/emerald/sapphire for that lovely red/green/blue decoration :)
flower: carnation .. although sunflowers are also cool
web site: a beautiful website? hrm nothing comes to mind
artwork: nothing comes to mind for that either. Maybe the very cool picture my parents have of a sunset at a beach with a huge wave crashing over rocks. It was suspended above the oil heater and I spent quite a bit of time in winter months in front of the heater just looking its exquisite detail. I'm pretty sure it was featured in the Henderson Kids also.
appliance: a beautiful appliance? maybe my toaster oven cause it's great for heating up stuff without having to put on the big oven
animal: lots of birds come to mind. Or a gazelle or something.

1. Material world:: Madonna
2. Satin sheets:: very romantic (what happens when you're not in bed?)
3. Blizzard:: snow
4. Real estate:: agent
5. Dress up:: fancy
6. Wesley:: crusher
7. Robber:: thief
8. Saliva:: drool
9. Slave:: labour
10. Shift:: gear

1. What did you do in 2004 that you'd never done before?
   Met someone whose blog I read
2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
   This year I made up a Bible reading plan that I managed to stick to, for the first time ever. I read the entire New Testament and a third of the Old Testament. For next year I'll be continuing my effort to be more relaxed and happy
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
   Yep, Jodi at work
4. Did anyone close to you die?
   No
5. What countries did you visit?
   USA and Canada
6. What would you like to have in 2005 that you lacked in 2004?
   A boyfriend
7. What date(s) from 2004 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
   Probably the 16th May, which was when we left for the USA (the day is also the anniversary of when I settled this place, and my friends got married, and I hooked up with Vic, and my brother moved into his place).
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
   Probably switching over to w2k3/active directory
9. What was your biggest failure?
   File server disaster, with a corrupted file system and hours of down time
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
    I got sick twice, once probably from some old cheese, not sure about the other time. No flus which was awesome. Only real injury was a snowboarder wiping me out at the snow
11. What was the best thing you bought?
    My Sony DSC-F828 camera
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
    um..
13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
    Probably my father's
14. Where did most of your money go?
    On the trip to the USA
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
    Probably the trip to the USA :)
16. What song will always remind you of 2004?
    Double Trouble
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
    Happier or Sadder? - happier I think
    Thinner or Fatter? - much the same, maybe slightly fatter
    Richer or Poorer? - much the same, the trip to the USA kept me fairly even
    
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
    Sleeping
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
    Complaining
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
    This year or next year? Silly question to ask for an end of year quiz
21. Who deleted question 21?
    It wasn't me I didn't do it
22. Did you fall in love in 2004?
    If you count crushes on Jason Isaacs and Dave.. otherwise no
23. How many one-night stands?
    None
24. What was your favorite TV program?
    Survivor or ER
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
    No
26. What was the best book you read?
    Probably Prisoner of Azkaban, although I'd read that twice before
27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
    Yvonne's keyboard
28. What did you want and get?
    A new camera
29. What did you want and not get?
    A dvd recorder
30. What was your favorite film of this year?
    Peter Pan
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
    Went down to me little brother's place for lunch, then went to a dance party in town. I turned 31
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
    A boyfriend
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2004?
    Jeans and a tshirt
34. What kept you sane?
    dvds
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
    Jason Isaacs
36. What political issue stirred you the most?
    The US election.. even more than our own federal election, go figure :)
37. Who did you miss?
    Dennis and JC, they don't post nearly as often as they used to :(
38. Who was the best new person you met?
    Dave!
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2004.
    um..
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
    "Something gotta go wrong cause I'm feeling way too damn good" - story of my life - whenever I'm feeling happy something will come along to make me feel grumpy

So another year over. Another year older. I spent far too long rereading this years blog entries to get highlights and lowlights of the year. Strangely there were more highlights than lowlights. The lowlights tended to be just ordinary day-to-day rants. The only big disasters I had this year were the file server disaster, where we lost files and had daytime downtime for hours; and Faiele in Italy stole a big chunk of my money on ebay, and ebay refused to help.

At work, we upgraded our domain to windows 2003 with active directory, which we managed to acheive without too many dramas. I setup quite a few servers during the year, but my favourite was later in the year when I migrated our main production notes web server to new hardware in a total of an hour and a half from pulling out of the box to being live. We also got audited while I was overseas, and felt very happy that I'd done detailed documentation for all the servers before I left, which probably saved my boss. Lunches with Jim and John became the norm this year, as it was a lot easier to coordinate four people with Luc in our office than when he was elsewhere.

My cia work mostly dried up, after they hired Nhat to take care of Gamera. He had his trial by fire shortly after he started, having to rebuild the machine in the middle of the night when there was a multiple disk failure in the raid array. The relief of me not having to stress about the box anymore was enourmous.

My lego obsession kicked into high gear this year, with the completion of the classic space lego collection, all the Harry Potter sets, tonnes of plain bricks for making mosaics (of which I made four instructed ones and four of my own design), and later in the year getting Yoda and the Imperial Star Destroyer.

I had several fish losses during the year, but didn't really replace any. I did however get a tankful of baby kribs which was very exciting.

I saw David Bowie in concert which was phenomenal. Been waiting fourteen years for the chance, and it was very moving for me. Also saw the Lion King stage show which was fantastic. Quidam was good but not as good as Alegria.

Crushes included a massive one on Jason Isaacs, a little one on Dave, and the ongoing one on Jim. No prospects of any boyfriends tho.

Three decent trips this year - a short one at Easter to my uncle's wedding in Queensland, a six week adventure to the USA and Canada, and a three day skiing trip in September. The USA trip was amazing, probably the biggest highlight of my year. I took 3800 photos and movies on my wonderful new Sony camera, which I still haven't finished sorting out!!

The weather this year went Summer, Autumn, Autumn, skipped winter, went straight onto Summer, and now Spring.

And now I have to get ready for tonight's general partying. Happy new year to everyone!! :):)