So it seems I've been tagged by Delmer:

List five things you enjoy, even when no one around you wants to go out and play. What lowers your stress/blood pressure/anxiety level? Make a list, post it to your journal, and then tag five friends and ask them to post it to theirs:

1. Watching DVDs. I have a steadily growing collection, but due to the amount of tv I watch, I really only get to sit down and watch one on Friday nights.
2. Tinkering on the internet. I feel utterly lost if I'm at home and the computer isn't on. I can't actually account for all the time that I spend online, it just disappears out there on the ether.
3. Playing with lego. Buying, cataloging, building, enjoying, selling. Using ebay for evil.
4. Reading a good book. I'm not a huge reader, but when I get into a book, I'll read it to the exclusion of almost all else.
5. Watching tv. I definitely watch far too much tv.

It seems to be the trend with memes these days to tag people you know to do them. Now the issue I have with this is that a decent chunk of the people whose blogs I read **all read each others blogs** !! Dave, Ben, Delmer, Gary, Neil, Karla, Richard, Dennis are all interconnected in at least one direction. Mushroom and Fiona also. If this trend in tagging continues, it's going to be a problem to tag people, because they will have probably already been tagged! Argh!! So on that note, I'm not going to play the tagging game. If I get tagged I'll happily do the meme (I'm always up for a good meme, and Fiona, I promise I'll do yours next!), but it's just going to be too complicated for me to find people that haven't already been tagged yet ;)

Aside from sleeping and getting dressed, I've spent a total of one hour home this weekend.

Friday night was the Unreal Tournament night and didn't get home til Saturday.

Saturday day was a big working bee at Luc's place. We filled a really big skip and half filled another.

Saturday night was Matt and Helen's engagement party (and his 21st). My dad piked cause he hates going to rellie stuff, especially where they play the music loud. Neither of his brothers came either, nor did me brother, so of the "nuclear" family, there was my mum and I, my aunty, and her three sons (one of whom was the guest of honour). And about 60 other people, some of which I see regularly at these events, including really cute uncle-in-law. Was a really good night actually, and they didn't turn up the music to deafening volumes til quite late.

Sunday morning church, then headed out to Picton for a Bookcrossing meetup. Picked up two books. I really *really* need to read some of them!! Took some pics of a steam train running out of Thirlmere then wandered back to Yvonne's and watched the entire tv series version of Hitchhiker's.

My new toll tag didn't go off on the way home, so hope they don't fine me :( Stoopid roadworks mucked everything up.

Star Wars II is on telly tonight, but I don't think I'll watch any of it, hoping to do a Star Wars marathon on Wednesday night, assuming Striker's friend can secure tickets for one of the midnight sessions..

I'm not coping at the moment. I need some time at home, even if it's only to clean up my flat! I feel like I just can't get my life in order because I'm out all the time. It's starting to stress me out.

Felt like a zombie for much of the afternoon. Got home and just needed to *sit* for an hour.

Got Lost and The Amazing Race watched, water changes in two tanks, and moved the papa krib into another tank (mama was beating him up). He flipped himself out of the net and onto the table in the process though, so he got even more stressed out :(

Now I want to go to bed, but that requires getting up out of this seat, and washing my plate from dinner, and brushing my teeth, and getting into my pjs. It'd take less energy to just sit here :/

So my day started with someone commenting on my 100 things list about how lucky I am that I know what I want in life (although I'm not sure how he got that idea).

It descended dramatically when I had to buy petrol this morning. The local Mobil was 115.9c/L, yet across the road it was 108.9c/L. The problem is, to get across to the other side of the road takes a good ten minutes as it requires getting through the same intersection twice against peak hour flow. After having to stop at the same set of lights three times I decided to bite the bullet, put $5 in at the Mobil and get more after work. I'm not sure which works better as a protest, not buying anything, or buying just enough to give them the message that I don't want to buy from them.

Then Marc sent this link round the staff list. You put your income in and it tells you where you rank in the grand scheme of things.

(big chunk of post removed, the thoughts had no socio-economic basis in reality)

I know damned well that I have it good in Australia. Every so often I have to convince myself that I do actually have friends, even though it doesn't feel like it sometimes. I probably have more money that most people I know. I know that complaining about the price of petrol between different petrol stations, and the ten minutes extra out of my life it takes to get a discount is among the shallowest things you can do.

I would simply like the ability to appreciate the good things and not get stressed out by trivialities.

So two nights before Easter, I noticed that the light was on in the neighbours place directly opposite my bedroom and up a level in the next block of flats. It was on all night. It kept me awake because every time I looked out the window the light was on. Something was wrong.

At first I thought that perhaps the flat was up for sale or lease, and someone had left the light on while showing people around. It stressed me that the light was going to be on all Easter weekend using up electricity. Saturday I looked up on Domain to see if it was for sale or lease. No sign of it.

Then I thought that perhaps the owners were on holidays and had left the light on and gone away. But it's now been two and a half weeks. And school holidays have only just started.

So then I started thinking bad things. Like perhaps someone died in there and noone has noticed yet. Presumably the neighbours would have noticed the smell in the stairwells by now, so it's probably not that. But certainly a possibility. Was wondering if I should try and get into the building and have a look.

So anyway. What can you do hey.

Campbell and I went snorkling at Long Reef today. It was great, except that we only had about 20 minutes of actual real snorkling time and the rest was just getting there and back :(

Didn't get out of here til nearly 2pm, picked up Campbell, then he drove my car up to Long Reef. It was 3:25 by the time we got there. Then changing time, then getting down onto the beach, then wading out to where we could swim. That was probably 20 minutes. Once in the water (after negotiating waves breaking over the rocks where I was trying to get in without getting sliced to pieces) it took me a while to relax and just breathe normally through the snorkel. I kept getting stressed that I was going to inhale a lungful of water. Once I realised that that wasn't likely to happen (unless the wave was breaking) I could actually just sit and watch the fish and seaweed. Saw a few interesting fish and a couple of big urchins. Campbell had somehow left his face mask at home, so he borrowed mine a couple of times. After probably 20 minutes we decided to head back in. Which is where it got messy. I couldn't get my footing when it got shallow and kept getting tossed around by the incoming waves. I got dragged across the rocks a couple of times and ended up with a couple of big scrapes on my hand and a few little ones elsewhere. Not fun. Managed to get out eventually, then spent the next *two hours* getting home :( I'm glad Campbell was driving otherwise I'm sure I would have been a lot more stressed.

Spent two minutes getting changed, and then out the door again for dinner. Then home and wash the hair and suddenly it's midnight.. whoops there goes 12 hours :)

Lost another baby krib yesterday. Who knows how many other dead ones are amongst the moss. Really should try and sell em before they all die :/

And lost one of the neon tetras in the tetra tank. This is the biggest neon tetra I have ever seen, at nearly two years old. I measured him when I pulled him out of the tank - 4cm ! Noticed he was looking a bit distressed yesterday, and tonight he'd gone :(

The betta in the tetra tank is also looking very sad. He's a year and a half old, and hasn't been well for a couple of weeks.

And finally worried about one of the black angels. She's been off her food for a week or two, same as what happened to the white angel just before she died :(

All my tanks are a disaster at the moment and I don't know why. Probably acidic water from not enough changes. That'll learn me to be a slacker .

And on an unrelated topic, one of the freakiest things I've seen in a while - pictures taken on someone's digital camera of the tsunami. The people that took them died, but the memory card from their camera was recovered, and had pictures of the tsunami rolling in.

I had to explain one of my favourite scenes in my favourite book to someone today..

"Spock," McCoy gasped as they half staggered, half ran down the trembling corridor with the bulky sensor, "I know you won't believe this, but ... in a way, I'm gonna miss this."

The Vulcan glanced at him; for an instant McCoy fancied he perceived something very like nostalgia in Spock's eyes. Then Spock lifted a brow, "I suspect you do not refer to this specific situation."

McCoy groaned with fond aggravation. "Bet you wish you'd stood in bed."

The brown arched even higher. "I see no profit in standing in bed, Doctor. Vulcans sleep lying down."

For a moment McCoy didn't follow; and then he realized that the stress had caused him to use an ungrammatical colloquialism, one he hadn't heard since he was a boy. All the kids in his neighborhood had used "stood" to mean "stayed."

Okay, he almost snapped, so I goofed. Do you have to be so damned lit-

And then he saw the glint in the Vulcan's eye.

"Spock," he said, with dawning amazement, "that was actually funny."

"We do sleep lying down," Spock admitted, his expression perfectly deadpan, but the glimmer of humor was unmistakable.

I had one of those days where everything I touched didn't work, so by the afternoon I was reluctant to start anything that could be broken.

Watching the pilot of Desperate Housewives. Dunno if it's really worth watching though. Anyone seen any more of it?

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!! :):)

My fish tanks are disasters at the moment.

One of my angel fish died overnight :(:( She was the smallest of my very original fish (I always thought she was a bit stunted). She hadn't been feeding properly for weeks and last night I noticed she wasn't staying vertical very well, and this morning she was dead :(:( Very sad.

Then in the krib tank, a few of the leftover babies were dead, and I noticed as I dumped the rest of the babies into the big tank with the rest of the babies that their fins look very sad. Worried I'm going to have a tank full of dead babies, and the parents will probably end up dying too :( Oh well, at least if the parents survive, they'll have a tank to themselves again.

I also weeded the tetra/betta tank. It was a serious jungle - so much so that the surface wasn't flowing anymore, and mildew was growing on the surface - yuk! Hopefully the cleanup hasn't stressed them out too much.