Saturday, September 23, 2006

My 12 days of work is finally over!! Apart from not having any handouts for the 1st yr class on Tuesday, N6 being a nuisance when I covered for Dan-ski's 2nd yr class on Wednesday, & being slapped a deadline on Friday for the Blacktown project, things have been pretty uneventful. What's more, it's mid-session break next wk! No class! Alas, I registered myself for the 'submitting your thesis' seminar on Tuesday, so still needs to head in. And it looks like Kev's transnationalism project has hit another rock & require some SPSS assistance. He actually asked my already while on the 1st yr field trip last sunday, but I was so dense I could barely process what he was trying to get out of the database I ended up being not much help at all. Looks like one of the RAs is coming in to meet with him on Tuesday so I might be called up again to do SPSS. At least that'll bring in some more dough as I've just been slapped with a $1400 tax-owing payment. As far as I'm concerned I'm still low income, but not according to effing ATO! So now I have to pay MORE tax. How wrong is that!?!

On a brighter note, finished the long 12 days with a Swans match last night. No, we didn't end up going because for some reason there wasn't a purchase option on the Ticketek website for the Swans match. Never went around to an actual Ticketek office either, so, no tickets. We just watched at the Fung's after dinner. Well, the 1st half anyway. We came home for the 2nd half. Yay, another Grand Final berth! Alas, will be stuck mid-way thru the ceremony of the Dan-Will wedding. Maybe I can sneak in a quarter or so while the girls go back to the hotel to change clothes/dresses before the reception? Also Auntie Francis' birthday yesterday, so cake was on offer. Hmm, rich chocolate mousse cake...

Missed the swordtail birthing again this time. Maybe I should just wait until I get a proper digital video camera to do the birth-filming instead of just using the low-res video function on the Canon...

Friday, September 15, 2006

You know you in fact look old when

  1. salespeople of computer-based tutoring software in shopping centres stop you & ask, "do you have any children in school" when you thought all along that you yourself barely look like you're out of school
  2. you're disgruntled about most things (or does that mean you're a US postal worker?)
  3. your optometrist prescribes you progressive lenses (luckily that's my boss, not me :D)

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Working marathon

It's Day 2 of my marathon working stint. Here's how it goes:

It's 1st yr field trip wkend and because there are only 4 tutors this yr instead of last yr's 5 ot 6, all have to be on hand for both days of the day-long field trip. Normally I don't mind the 1st yr field trip at all as it's pretty easy to do & it's also kinda fun, but having to come all the way to uni by 8:30 in the morning for BOTH Saturday and Sunday, now that's a downer. At least traffic at that time of the day wouldn't be heavy at all so that's a bit of a relief I guess. Also, no AFL finals to watch this wkend as the Swans won a thriller against West Coast last Sat nite & we move straight to next wkend's prelim. Am contemplating going to Telstra again for the match. Will have to see if others are willing.

On top of the 1st yr field trip this coming wkend, I'm also starting the 3rd yr tutorials tomorrow (wednesday). Big Kev finally decided that he doesn't want to do them himself so I am left with the 4-hr wkly tuts. Luckily most of them are only online discussions so I don't have to come in for them except for the intro workshop tomorrow. With that slated into my usual sleep-in Wednesdays, that will string my working marathon to 12 days straight, starting yestreday with tutorial briefings, followed by the 4 hrs of tut today, & tomorrow, 2 days at WESTIR (thurs & fri), 2 days of field trip (whole wkend), back again for field trip debrief & workshop briefing monday, 4 hrs of workshop on tues, 4 hrs online tut next Wednesday, before finishing off with 2 more days at WESTIR at the end of next wk. And I only have to be re-writing chapters on top of this schedule!! In anycase, at least I'd have $$ coming in to recoup the mass spendings that I've been having. Queen & ABBA back catalogue, approximately $500; 3 x Freddie Mercury biographies, another $100; return tickets to HK, $1,000; flight-hotel package to Taipei, approimately $500. Am also looking at options of travelling to Shanghai, & maybe even throwing Beijing in. And don't forget the up-coming Wedding #2 in a little over a fortnight's time. Still have yet to go look at the registry after a whole month of sitting on the invitation.

On a sad note, 1 of my swordtail died last nite. I thought it was preggers as it looked big, so I moved it (along with another 1 which IS definitely preggers) into the birthing enclosure. But a closer look late last nite saw that it (navy blue) was actually bloated. A quick reference to my fishy guide revealed that it had some sort of quick-setting bacteria with no cure. Scales were dropping off, & by this morning it was dead. Unfortunately the navy blues had never really breed successfully so I'm only left with the male & a rather pale, bronzy looking 1.5" long fry from its previous birthing. At least the reds are still shitting them out like there's no tomorrow. No blue replacement
is planned as the TV-quarium is really running out of room to hold everyone in. Be on the look out though as I'd be doing late nitely patrols to try & capture the red birthing on video this time.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Monday, September 04, 2006

Busy rant

Why is life so busy these days? I've hardly had time for a breather this past wk or so. Here's how I unfolded:

1. Teaching. It was "western suburbs" week for the 1st yr tut so naturally there were plenty of lively & interesting discussion. But unfortunately Senile Kev also designated Tuesday as marking day for Essay 1 so the lot of us cramped into that tiny room on Level 5 for the whole day (8:30 start, so naturally I arrived at 9:30), stepping out whenever we needed to go do something else. I had 4 hrs of tut straight 11 thru 3 (as per every Tuesday) so I escaped that boredom for a little bit. Unfortunately the marking still wasn't done by the time my tuts were over & I got stuck for nearly 2 more hours finishing up them up with Karin while the rest went on their tuts & putting marks up on WebCT. 1st yr essays are such a dredge. More marking this wk - workshop reports. Great, tiny maps without colour. & I only have 30+ to mark x_x

2. Council. Headlining project for Blacktown Council yet again (why do I always get stuck with headlining even though I'm only there 2 days a wk?) & while we continue to struggle with the problem of not receiving any health data for the compilation of report on community health (how ironic is that!), Gaynor (Council planner) needed some prelim results to showcase the new style report to a meeting group. I thought I was in the clear after giving her the tables & graphs to an entire chapter the Thursday before, but in clearly Council fashion she did not reply to that email until Monday. She decided that she needed to change her mind & instead of showcasing one chapter she needed 1 indicator from each of the 10 chapters instead. As a result I went into work a day earlier than usual (thus skipping my Wednesday morning recovery session, which completely threw me off myrack for the rest of the wk) as she needed the stuff by Thursday. Spent Friday morning lulling around at home & at plant nurseries to try & regain momentum but failed with doing much mroe writing. Lucky I decided to skip the laser war game that night otherwise my Saturday writing session woudl've been wrecked as well.

3. Queen. Was orignally on a high earlier in the wk when I completed my Queen back catalogue buying spree. Well, also complete. I ordered A Night At The Opera from DirtCheap but it turned out to be a Chinese import (knew about the import part, but not the Chinese part. I wouldn't have actually minded except it has Chinese characters written all over it, making it looking nothing like an original/remastered copy. Very legal, just not very original looking). Have yet to open it, & am not planning to. Will sell on eBay instead & buy the 30th anniversary edition CD/DVD combo. Am still waiting for the Freddie Mercury Tribute concert DVD anyway. With those 2, the whole back catalogue would've cost me $350+!! Curbing spending my ass!

4. ABBA. Yes, am really curbing spending. Except I've also decided to buy the ABBA back catalogue. Luckily unlike Queen (22 albums, including Greatest Hits I, II & III) ABBA only had 8 albums & ABBA Gold (which I've had for yrs) & the Definitive Album (which I also have). Am not bothering with other ABBA after-the-fact compilations like Classic ABBA or whatever they are called. Am really stopping my back catalogue buying sprees after this. Really.

5. Peter Freestone. My "Freddie Mercury book by Peter Freestone finally arrived at uni bookshop so very happily paid for it with my bday voucher. Got change in yet another vouhcer (cos it was 30c over the minimum cash refund -_-). Am waiting for the Mercury & Me & Definitive Freddie Mercury bios to arrive from UK Amazon. Will take wks I'm told. More $$ spent on Mr Mercury there... Am really curbing spending.

6. Swans won by 92 on Saturday. Dejavu as we head west against to plat West Coast for the 1st qualifying final. Given what happened last yr, I wouldn't mind losing this 1 as long as we win the flag again. Oh heck, we'll win the flag even if we beat West Coast this coming Sat night. Great, finals fever just when I really need to put my head down so I can pick up my writing rate. Now where is my Swans wristband?

7. Croc Hunter Steve Irwin got killed by a stingray today. Good conservationist. His antics though, as I've always 'criticised' where a bit out there. Sure that did bring some humility and, umm, 'fun' to the whole greeny/nerdy conservationism front, am still wondering how Americans can take us Aussies seriously if the only regular Aussie they see if the croc-hugging Irwin. it'd be cool if his last word was 'Crikey' as he got stung by the stingray though.