Strangely although this blog closed in 2005, its still getting a large number of visitors so i thought i would just remind that it is closed and that you can visit any of my current blogs:

Everybody Knows
Never on Wednesday
Hobart Daily
Typical Day
Blog On the Spot
Bitter and Twisted
Whole Universe

Thanks

As my last post said, this blog is now closed. But fear not, my new blog everybody-knows.com is doing well so my friends, please update your links and come visit soon.

So of late i have been restless in the blogging stakes, blogging too often or not enough and even speculated I might change my blog address. Even in a fit of blogloathing i thought i might ditch blogging altogether although my immediate reaction was to blog about it so i knew then i wasn’t going to give up.

But changes are going to be made. Back when i entered the online journalling/blogging world 5 years drakk was my pseudonym of choice and it was only natural that i would carry that name over for my almost daily postings. But in the 5 years changing interests and pursuits have seen it become increasly irrelevant from who i was.

The other thing is that this blog has been increasingly becoming the target of the misplaced. People looking for sims porn and all sorts of matches, few relevant to the actual content of my blog. The really interesting thing to note is many of these peoples when they don’t find what they are looking for, blame where they have ended up rather than their inability to use a search engine or in some cases hazarding a guess, their ability to relate to normal society.

But despair not, I’m not giving up blogging. No way. My new blog is set up and if you wish to visit me in my new home:

Hope i see you there.

I’ve always considered Grissom (my dog) part of the family. Like a child sometimes the first experiences of something new to them are the best, most rewarding of them all. Today I gave Grissom a boiled egg, his first and he wasn’t really sure what it was, he came over to me and dropped it at my feet wanting me to throw it for him to fetch like he would a tennis ball. Only when i put it in his dinner dish did he really get the idea.

I’m quite sure just about the whole world is aware of Hurricane Katrina and its effect on New Orleans, the utter devistation and the resulting pain and suffering it has inflicted on the residents of the once fine city. I’ll be the first to admit I don’t know much of New Orleans other than that they have Mardi Gra and … well really thats it.

Since the tragedy I’ve been a regular reader of Interdictor Blog watching both the live webcam and also looking at some of the pictures around New Orleans when they have gone outside. The author works for Directnic, a web hosting and domain name hosting company whose offices are located on the tenth floor of an office block in New Orleans and throughout the Hurricane and after they have continued blogging and taking pictures.

I’ve spent a lot of time tonight looking at some of the pictures. Some of the city appears to still be intact and has many grand looking buildings but now the biggest threat to the city seems to be coming from fires rather than anything else. Its all very sad really.

According to the CNET Science Blog Hamsters exposed to cigarette smoke are far less likely to conceive. So why don’t the packets have something warning hamsters about this?

Strangely i find myself picturing a hamster trying to light a smoke and then scurrying back to the other end to puff on it although on reflection hamsters appear to me more likey to be smoking a joint.

The entry does go on to point out that the research was not into rodent smoking habits but rather has implications for humans so ladies if your trying to get pregnant then stay away from any hamsters with a smoke

Update - address of scienceblog corrected.

It was a strange day at work today. I had heaps to get done and was flat out all day doing it which is nothing unusual, I’m always flat out getting stuff done these days. What made it unusual was that I was offered a temporary role this morning doing a higher role which is similar to the one i did for most of last year and tts one that I enjoy doing although it means very little more money and since none of my normal duties are taken off me when i take it on, a whole lot more stress and responsibility. Based on that fact it was why I had no hesitation in turning it down straight away. I explained to my team leader with my present workload its too stressful and the money isn’t an incentive to get it done.

Its strange watching people and sometimes it can be an insight into their character when you turn down more money or a higher job. They just don’t understand and that was the reaction i got from my team leader and its sad to think that they think people will just jump at the opportunity to do it with only a tiny bit more offered. I’ve learnt that money is nice, I like money but that money isn’t everything and its more important to try and keep yourself on an even keel without getting overloaded.

So all was well from that time this morning until the manager got back into the office around 5pm and i was shortly after called in. He didn’t tell me I had to do it and unlike my team leader, when i said why he understood but presented me with the option that either i do it or alternatively some of the work won’t get done and the stuff that did need to get done I would have to train someone to do it and check their work. From experience its quicker to just do it rather than training someone else to do it yet alone checking it as well and it was at this point that i had to capitulate and accept the position. I got some trade offs like being able to carry over time in lieu over the limits we normally have and approval to work what ever overtime I need to get it done and as my manager said “I don’t care what you put on the overtime form, it will get paid”.

So the upshot of it is that i guess they feel they have won, persuading me to do the job and despite the fact i stuck to my guns as long as i could, I still feel like i lost and since i guess i need to go in on sunday now, its just going to feel worse in the near future.

Just the one more day left for the working week. Lately the weeks just seem to be getting longer or maybe the amount of work just seems to be growing. I’ve got one day to get what seems to be a mountain of work.

I finished the Intermediate Excel course today and start the Advanced course next week. Unfortuately this week was no better than last, when the teacher was explaining the first part of a problem, i was finishing them, when he was saying how the bars on a bar chart can be images, i’d changed each bar to a different image and inserted a sound file. That basically sums up the course for me. And they didn’t even give a certificate or anything. Ripped off.

Other than that, it was one of those glorious spring days with beautiful clear blue sky and real warmth in the air. Its just a shame that i was inside all day. Its more of a shame still that the for the weekend there is a forcast and truely crappy weather to make me truely … unhappy.

Just happened on this article discussing how a missing ham & cheese sandwich and the email flamewar that followed from it has seen two legal secretaries sacked and other staff facing disciplinary action.

They certainly take their sandwiches seriously over there in Sydney

Reading the news today I realised I had to be an Australian when i read this:

“Prime Minister John Howard has urged employers to show flexibility if their workers are bleary eyed after watching the must-win deciding Ashes cricket Test against England.”

I’m not sure how many other countrys’ leaders would tell bosses its alright if the workers are tired from having stayed up all night watching sport on tv but its something us Australians take pride in.

In casts my mind back to 1983 on the morning Australia won the America’s Cup and the country embarked on a spontaneous celebration with then Prime Minister Bob Hawke when asked about workers celebrating too hard and not going to work remarked “Anybody who sacks someone today is a bum.”

Last night i placed a preorder for The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy on dvd. I prefer the original 6 part BBC tv series but i just don’t think my dvd library would be complete without it. Reading the email confirmation tonight i realised i made a mistake. I’ve ordering the dvd certainly but it appears i placed an order for a bonus Hitch Hikers towel.

Cool.

No two of my towels are the same, one is green being an towel i bought through the army, another is blue because i bought while in the army on an airforece base i needed a towel. A couple of them are beach towels and one is white because white towels were on special that week …

WTF. From dvd preorders to the history of my towels. Its special bonus night

I have the 1812 Overture running through my head at present which is a little odd, normally its just song lyrics from songs i hear but today its the 1812 right at the bit coming up to the finale where the cannons fire and the bells chime and the orchestra is excited and rather noisy. Strange.

Today at work was pretty much a nothing kind of day. Once again my team leader was off sick and like yesterday people tried to duckshove stuff my way. I politely pointed out its not my job and that they don’t pay me to do that stuff. Strangely it was more people from one of the other two teams so I also encouraged them to go see there own leader.

I had a post all written in my mind today and nearly posted it from work. It was lamenting the fact that i never receive personal mail, its all bills and solicitations to increase my debt past my eyeballs and the art of letter writing appears for all intensive purposes to have died somewhere way back. Shame i missed it but i expect i was busy doing something online. And then what happens, i get home and I have a POSTCARD. A personal postcard from Moose who is in Denmark stalking Princess Mary holidaying and visiting relatives. I mean how much more inconsiderate can you get than that. The barstard!. How much more inconsiderate can you get

With a plot that sounds more like an upcoming movie whose name i can’t remember it has all the hallmarks of a big hit. Advanced computer system gains self awareness and tries to wipe out all humans it comes into contact with with mankind only being saved after adrenaline racing high action scenes where our heros overcome the system only in the nick of time.

Thats kind of the story of my blog too in a way, just lacking the action, the hero and the big budget special effects. You see while it didn’t become self aware, it did turn nasty and try to ban everyone it came into contact with, sometimes repeatedly (sorry ChickyBabe). In my attempts to fix the problem i inadvertantly crashed Wordpress to the point that it was left displaying countless lines of can’t access blah blah at line blah and it was only a sudden stroke of inspiration using ftp to delete the offending files that allowed me to restore the blog to life, admitedly with the theme back in white instead of the far more interesting blue.

After some research, reading and playing with stuff i have learnt now that my antispam plugin isn’t compatable with all themes and those that aren’t compatable produce unpredictable results like not posting comments and banning visitors for no real reason. Hopefully things are back to normal, or as close to normal as i can get, having only a nodding aquaintance with normality.

What a long monday it seemed, just seemed to go on and on. It seemed like it too 400 hours to get through the work day and unfortuately the prospect of tomorrow at work seems more of the same. My team leader was off sick today and thanks to the deputy position being vacant, we were technically leaderless and everyone was coming to me with their problems. While in one way its a compliment that people have that faith in me, on the other its also annoying since i am the same level as them and have my own work to do and no authority if i make a decision anyway.

Listening to the news break before there was a rather unfortuate lead from one story to another. At the end of the story on a female high school teacher having sexual relations with 5 male students and then it was straight accross to the main newspaper for someone who started with “exclusive photos of …” and for the briefest moment i thought it was the same story. That it was actually photos of dolphins frolicing at the wharves was lost.

Yesterday I decided to take a drive to Launceston, around 2 hours and 200 km away since over the last week they have had some fairly heavy rain which has in turn caused some flooding and wild water in the Cataract Gorge and the noise was so loud even from a distance. Naturally i took my camera along.

Looking accross the Gorge. When not flooded there is an Olympic sized pool somewhere under there and a rocky river basin and in places i think you could just about hop accross the river. Not today though. In summer they often have open air concerts on the grassed area.

This photo is looking up the river as the water pours down towards the camera although strangely it looks as if the water is going the other way. Its a world class white water kayaking course apparantly when water levels are lower.

At various points there are chain links baring access to areas with signs hanging off them saying not to enter beyond this point due to possible flooding. Although you can’t see the sign, I think most would have already worked that one out for themselves.

With the river in flood there are two ways accross, the suspension bridge shown and a chairlift (where the photo is taken from)

Just to prove how much i risked life and limb, i caught the chairlift and here is a shot straight down at the water below!.

A shot looking downriver as the water exits the basin. There is a walkway on the far bank that follows the river down and has some great scenery but unfortuately time wasn’t on my side to be able to go down there as well.

Looking back accross the Gorge after crossing on the chairlift.

Up river from the Gorge is the Trevallyn Dam holding back the waters of the man made Lake Trevallyn. It looks so peaceful and still …

… until it pours over the edge of the dam

and slams into the river below.

Friday started innocently enough and there was no sign that anything untowards was going to happen. That night we had our usual first friday night in the month social club drinks and that was all too tame. As usual the beer was a little too warm and the foyer that the drinks were in a little too crowded for the number of people attending. There was the usual debates as to whether the crown lagers were correctly priced at $3 or whether it should be $4. Things were routine.

After that some of us moved on to a local pub for more drinks and it was a temporary stop, a couple of the guys had a 7pm session of speed dating that despite having been everywhere else, was apparantly only just starting to happen here, we’re a long way from Carrie Bradshaw and her Sex in the City friends apparently. They were drinking for courage and i was drinking because … well who needs a reason. Originally we were going to wait for the speed daters to date and return but in the end we decided we would move the block to the pub it was at and have a drink while providing moral support for those guys (and one girl) putting it all on the line in the name of romance.

So we get there and the boys register with the woman running it and we look at the various women wondering who is here for speed dating and who is infact here for the private function thats due to start out the back. Eventually the two groups divided to reveal that there were 9 girls and there were only 5 guys. Oh and that i should be taking my seat now. How did that happen, in particular because I certainly wasn’t dressed for dating with a couple of days stubble, jeans and a tee shirt.

I won’t go into who said what but it was a different experience talking to someone for 6 minutes and is harder than it sounds. It got particularly hard when I got to one chair because 3 of the women were doing the date at the one time with the guy, two of whom had the same name and one of them dominated conversation. From a looks point of view one of the girls there was the best of the lot but saddly one of the others dominated things and i never got to talk to her. Overall out of all the girls i think i did best with the girl that came from our own group, or as we said we talked crap best together. She is however a little weird although that could be a cultural thing, she was English and a little ecentric.

So after the speed dating was over we moved on to a different pub for more drinks. The girl from work got a bit plastered and into an unfortuate conversation with less than completely nice people and while i thought she was doing ok with one of them, she didn’t want me to leave her with them. I eventually got her into a cab to take her home and grabbed the next cab for myself.

So a usual friday went very, unusual.

Yes I’m still alive, despite no updates for almost 48 hours, things happened that weren’t expected and as a result updating kind of got missed. But i’ve got more things to write about later and its all good.

I have a secret fetish, its dark, its sad and its different. It doesn’t have a support group, no toll free number to call to trained counsellors. But its time to spill the truth as hard as it might be …

I have an online high interest bank account fetish

There i’ve got it out. I’m glad i’ve got that off my chest.

But its true in a way. My banking has progressively moved online with one month’s interest from these account more than the crappy interest on my other bank accounts. With interest rates ranging between 5.25% & 5.60% and no transaction fees its worth parking money in them even for a few weeks and with 4 accounts with 4 different banks i always get the best interest i can.

So there you go, thats my kinky fetish.

One word really sums up my day, disinterested. It got off to a bad start when Grissom didn’t want to go outside so i could go to work. And i mean really didn’t want to go outside, he was hidden under the middle of a double bed and when i reached under to get him, he bite me, not hard enough to draw blood but rather just to leave the outline of his teeth in my thumb. An umbrella both showed him the error of his ways and sent him outside but normally these days he is so good, i wonder why today was different?

This morning was the first session of my Excel course. Its an intermediate course yet some of the people in the class shouldn’t be there, their skills aren’t up to scratch and i would have thought it common sense that if you can’t do a simple formulae, then you would think that they might think that the beginners course would be the place to be. One of our own staff members walked out after 5 minutes because it was too hard. Since we use excel so much at work it really makes me wonder how he gets his work done and more to the point what he does all day anyway. My own experiences was that i learnt a few minor things but nothing that is really going to challenge the way i do things now. But its a tick on that damn performance appraisal.

After the course it was hard coming back to work, the body was there but the spirit was anything but willing and i arranged to leave early since despite my half day absence, none of my clients appear to have noticed that i wasn’t there or even needed me. Just the way I like it!. No seriously it is since working in payroll usually the only time i hear from staff I pay is when something is wrong so no contact usually means all is good. Saddly by the time I actually got around to leaving i only left ten minutes earlier than usual but hey ten minutes is ten minutes. At least tomorrow there is a 4.30pm finish for happy hour.