A week ago Jim mailed the staff list and said "we're setting the domain password policy to expire passwords next week, change your password this week to avoid being forced to do it next week when you login on Monday." Of course, a decent chunk of people completely ignored him, and this morning had all sorts of weird and wonderful issues trying to log onto their computers. Sometimes it wouldn't accept old passwords, sometimes the new passwords just wouldn't work, sometimes people weren't even logging onto the domain, so couldn't change their passwords, they just lost access to domain resources. Now if these lusers had just taken the time to read Jim's email they could have avoided the chaos that ensued today. We were all running around like crazy just to get people logged onto their computers. But you can never tell these sorts of people. *sigh*

The upshot of all of this is that we now have forced everyone to change their crappy passwords that they've had for years and no amount of asking/pleading was going to get some people to change them. With the move to active directory and a new security policy being developed centrally, it was a good a time as any to start tightening things up a bit globally. Now these people have no excuses, because everyone else had to the same day also.

The thought popped into my head tonight that I haven't talked to Todd Sinclair for a couple of years. So I thought I'd do a quick search for him on the net to see if he's still around. I totally freaked out over this page though .. although it hasn't been updated since 1997, all the people I used to know from #relax were there, including Guy and myself! Scary stuff :)

If I have another day tomorrow like I had the previous two days at work I'm seriously going to go on strike. I couldn't get any of the work done that I *need* to get done because people kept calling me up and dumping crap on me. I spent two hours just doing help desk calls! My brain cannot cope with the load of a stack of crappy problems when I have a stack of big problems to work through.

I think I'm going to disconnect my landline and send everything through to voicemail for at least the morning and not check my email so that I can at least get some of the crap out of the way.

ok I have not heard that song in 13 years. In fact I didn't even remember it existed until just now, as I was cleaning out a drawer, and found the lyrics that my brother had written out for me :)

So I've rearranged my study yet again to fit in the filing cabinet. But in the process I decided not to put things back into the shelves/drawers unless I had a good reason for keeping them. All was going well until I got to all the letters I'd gotten from penpals, and then to a collection of "letters" that Jacqui and Chris and I used to write to each other on the outlines in church. I only read bits of a few of them, but they had all sorts of miscellaneous crap on them, including talk about boyfriends and people I might ask to the year 12 formal. I know I should just throw them out, but just think of all the memories I wouldn't be able to dredge up if I did that.. hehe

I also dug out my music books from when I had keyboard lessons in primary school, and worked pretty much all the way through it in a couple of hours! Then got totally frustrated because the chord keys listed were different to another book I have, so I have no idea which is correct. Must ask Sami.

The other thing I did tonight was spend ~3 hours talking to a couple of the other people on the body corporate. First one party, then a second. These are the two parties that were swearing at each other at the last meeting. So I went and talked to them individually just to see where they were coming from on a few issues, and I think we may be able to avoid a lot of gossiping and bitching just by having a meeting in a couple of weeks. A meeting of course will have its own problems, but at least everyone will have a chance to have their say.

I'll let you know how it goes :)

Stolen from Richard

NUMBER OF

piercings = 2, one in each ear
tattoos = 0
height = about 155cm give or take
shoe size = 5-6, depending on the brand
hair colour = blond
eye colour = mostly green
siblings = 1

LAST
movie you rented = sheesh I can't remember it's been so long.
movie you bought = Under Siege
song you listened to = dunno, but "hey, roll over dj" is in my head, so it could have been on the radio on the way home
cd you bought = the John Farnham best of
cd you listened to = I don't listen to cds one at a time anymore, they all get mixed up
person you've called = Peter to do the crossword
person that's called you = perhaps the air conditioner dude .. he said "Tuesday" and I said "no, tomorrow!"
tv show you've watched = um.. it's been days.. could have even been Nip Tuck last week
person you were thinking of = Janelle, and whether she saw last weeks Nip Tuck or not
friend you made = How about all the people that read my blog? I still can't fathom how other people can be so interested in my life :)
enemy you made = dunno

DO
you have a crush on someone = several in fact
you wish you could live somewhere else = not really
you think about suicide = sometimes
you believe in online dating = sure
others find you attractive = not often
you want more piercings = nah
you drink = sure
you do drugs = everything you put into your mouth and lungs is a drug of some description, what's the definition? :)
you smoke = no
you like cleaning = as per Richard's answer - depends what. I'm much happier cleaning up other people's messes than my own, go figure
you like roller coasters = oo yes :)
you write in cursive or print = I don't write, I scrawl

FAVOURITE
food = Roast Pork with crackling and apple sauce, the way mum makes it
song = don't really have one
thing to do = hrm, that's made me think. I like travelling and going to the movies.. and watching fireworks while drunk, now that's nice .. lots of things
thing to talk about = lego, fish
drinks = orange juice, baileys
clothes = jeans and a t-shirt
movies = in no particular order.. Harry Potter, Dragonheart, Hunt for Red October, Titanic, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Princess Bride
singer = don't really have one of those either
holiday = the two usa trips, and Western Australia, Central Australia and Lord Howe Island were awesome

HAVE YOU
ever cried over a girl = only when they pissed me off
ever cried over a boy = Several
ever lied to someone = I outright lied in Kindergarten about stealing some chalk, and it scarred me for life. I don't (actually I can't rather, it just doesn't work) lie outright, but I may stretch the truth
ever been in a fist fight = no
ever been arrested = no

DO YOU THINK YOU ARE
funny = funny peculiar
hot = yes, but then it's 30C here
friendly = sometimes
amusing = not often
ugly = I'm inwardly ugly. Outwardly average I suppose
loveable = no
caring = sometimes
sweet = pfft
dorky = yeah

Owing to a chronic shortage of sleep, today was a grumply day. Fortunately there weren't too many disasters around the builidng from people not being able to login .. just a couple of minorish ones and one mystery one that we still haven't figured out.

Anyways, I'm off to bed to try and catch up.

A couple of anniversaries I forgot to mention yesterday ..

It was ten years ago that the "January 94" bushfires swept through Como, destroying over 100 homes (a dozen of those being owned by people that we knew), my parents' church, and killing one person (three others were killed in other fires around the state). Seeing bushfire footage on tv still affects me deeply.

And on a lighter note, this blog is now one year old.. happy birthday blog :)

well you can, but you'd probably end up with a hangover :)

Today was another hot and sticky day, with minimal use on my puta because it would have just melted the fishies. As a consequence I got almost nothing done. Although I did tidy the flat almost to the point of respectfullness, and even did the vaccuuming!

Then a lovely night out with good wine and company. *smiles*

Last night was also fun; Pete (who I went to America with a few years ago) organised a night out with a bunch of people, which was great. James was completely in his element (a self-confessed people hater like me), and it was good to see him come to life for a change.

Now it's 9:35 and I just feel like sleeeeeping .. :)

If I had one word to describe today (and yesterday for that matter), it would be "sticky".

Hot + Humid = Sticky

The pic is of the star at the top of the 3-storey Christmas Tree inside the Queen Victoria Building. Isn't it purty? Snapped it coming back from dinner - Kin Hoong was in town for the weekend and invited a bunch of old friends out for dinner. Tonight's outing had him, me, Nicola and Paul, and we went to The Little Snail in Darling Harbour, which was lovely, but definitely on the pricey side. $50/head for dinner is a little silly in my opinion.

I also got a new fish today - another betta. He's gorgeous, and I'll take some photos tomorrow. I inherited a big bowl when I got the last tank, and needed to put *something* in it :) I'm a bit worried about it getting cold in winter though. How do people heat their betta tanks in winter? I wonder.