Moving Once Again

January 11th, 2010

It seems like yesterday that Allyson and I moved out of home and into our little villa for $250/week rent. But lo and behold, last week we were served a notice to vacate by the 17th of February.

See, we signed a 6 month lease, which runs out on that date. The owner, who had just bought the home, used her First Home Buyer’s Grant, which has a catch: you must live in the home for 6 months in the first year of ownership, or else you lose the grant. Hence why we’re getting kicked out.

We are going to miss that place.

But it’s not all bad news. This time, we are going to move away from Warilla, to somewhere closer to Wollongong, so that if either of us get a job in Sydney it will take significantly less time to commute.

Looks like 2010 is going to be a year full of change. Just like last year was. And the year before. And… the year before that. Yes.

Anyway, we’ve spent the past 5 days or so going crazy with looking at places and submitting applications. The earliest response we’re going to get is this afternoon. If it’s good news that would be awesome. For that place, in Figtree, right near Westfield, would be a really good place to live.

We can also expect a response on Wednesday for a place in Mangerton. It is an average location, but the house itself is FAB. I’m talking dishwasher, lots of space, split level and quiet as. If we were to be offered both, we’d take Mangerton, even though it’s 2 bedroom and the other one is 3 bedroom. However, should we be offered Figtree but not Mangerton, we’d still be very pleased.

Those are our two top ones. There is another terrific one in Unanderra, but there were too many people at the inspection – it wouldn’t be likely we’d be offered it.

The units we looked at were all very so-so. There was one in Wollongong that had absolutely amazing ocean views and was only $260/week… but the apartment was filthy and not very big, and the doors were all unpainted and ugly. Also there wasn’t any storage space.

We have a bit of time, but obviously we don’t want the 17th to creep up on us, as time likes to do when I’m in a hurry.

2 Litres

January 9th, 2010
31. Drink 2 litres of water in one day

Well, I did it today. By gum, it was damn easy. Today was hot. Really, really hot. So hot I had to keep fanning myself at work, and it was air conditioned in there. I went through one and a half 1.5 litre bottles of water in the space of six hours.

Well, one down. Only 100 to go.

101 Things in 1001 Days

January 8th, 2010

Yeah, I’m a sucker for these things.

Also on Skippy’s blog was a reference to 101 things in 1001 days, a long-term goals project focusing on doing a set list of things in the ensuing 1001 days precisely. For me, the end date is going to be Friday, 5 October 2012 (calculated using this tool). That’s shortly before the Mayan apocalypse, right?

Anyway, I have finished my list and here it is! I’ll be ticking them off as I go.

  1. Get a full-time job that I don’t hate
  2. Read the Hitchhiker’s Guide series
  3. Make one new local offline friend
  4. Quit Woolworths (in conjunction with #1)
  5. If I can’t buy a house yet, at least save up $10,000+
  6. Get down to 85kg or lighter, and keep it that way
  7. Get the matching tattoos my sister and I have been planning since we were in England
  8. Actually edit a NaNoWriMo novel
  9. Try to get novel published
  10. Hold the “plank” exercise for 60 seconds or more
  11. Go to the gym twice in one day
  12. Go to the gym every day from Monday-Saturday (it’s closed Sundays) for at least one week
  13. See a psychiatrist about my anxiety
  14. Have my gonadectomy
  15. Release the first issue of Ather & Earth
  16. Visit New Zealand
  17. Go on a road trip
  18. Go to the beach and go in the water (you’d think this would be an easy one, considering I live right by a beach… but I just never go)
  19. Get up early enough to watch the sun rise over the lake
  20. Pay off my Barter Card balance and close my account
  21. Learn to use a Javascript library
  22. Own a smart phone, preferably a Google one
  23. Visit the Blue Mountains
  24. Find out if I’m allergic to any food
  25. Have a shift at Woolworths where I do not want to scream in frustration
  26. Go one day without coffee
  27. Go two days without using a computer or video game of any kind
  28. Go one month where I work on Ather & Earth every single day.
  29. Go a month without buying anything made of chocolate or chocolate flavoured or containing chocolate
  30. Settle into a smooth weekly routine
  31. Drink 2 litres of water in one day
  32. Earn over $40k in one year
  33. Radically change my hair
  34. Spend a night out without having a panic attack
  35. Cook a gourmet meal on my own
  36. Connect my computer to my TV to become a Media Centre
  37. Buy better wheels for my rollerskates
  38. Quit playing Bejeweled
  39. Visit 24 hour K-Mart between 1am and 4am, just ’cause
  40. Visit Jamberoo Action Park
  41. Buy a DSLR camera
  42. Move to a bigger house
  43. Be complimented on my home by a visitor
  44. Drink a large Boost Juice
  45. Catch and eat a fish
  46. Get a perfect score on Rhythm Kung Fu (Advanced) in Wii Fit Plus
  47. Refrain from eating anything sugary on Christmas Day
  48. Buy that Beatles collection on the USB flash drive in the green apple
  49. Make delicious cocktails at home
  50. Roast green coffee beans in a popcorn maker
  51. Watch all Tom Baker Doctor Who episodes
  52. Buy a block of chocolate and eat it over the space of a week rather than all at once
  53. Win something. Anything.
  54. Finish at least the first draft of at least two novels
  55. Get my car’s headlights fixed
  56. Build a new shoe rack
  57. Learn how to use the washer-dryer properly
  58. Go one month without seeing an insect or arachnid in the house
  59. Go on a waterslide
  60. Get a kitten
  61. Meet three people in person that I met online
  62. Clean up my Gmail and keep up with all the emails instead of just looking at them all, sighing, and closing the tab
  63. Visit Uluru
  64. Get revenge on someone
  65. Bake fresh bread
  66. Go to bed at 9:30pm
  67. Spend a full day exclusively in bed except for using the bathroom
  68. Make a really horribly designed website for fun
  69. Live in the Greater Wollongong area
  70. Eat a taco
  71. Brew stout beer
  72. Make tiramisu
  73. Find a cake wreck and submit it to Cake Wrecks
  74. Make steak and stout pot pies
  75. Consider myself a responsible adult
  76. See Melbourne when it’s sunny
  77. Finish Final Fantasy V
  78. Feel financially secure
  79. Skate backwards for three laps at the skating rink
  80. Make scouse
  81. Make Irish soda bread
  82. Make soda bread ice cream
  83. Go to Bowral
  84. Borrow a book from the local library
  85. Make real buttermilk pancakes topped with sliced strawberries and pure maple syrup
  86. See the New Years fireworks in Sydney Harbour
  87. Have a picnic on the grass
  88. Wander the Haywards Bay home display village
  89. Take my parents out to dinner
  90. Learn how to take care of my car properly
  91. Make a sand sculpture
  92. Visit Caringbah Shopping Village for the first time since 2007
  93. Eat at Outback Steakhouse
  94. Buy a deck of Uno cards
  95. Visit the Southern Gateway Centre
  96. Walk on the Sea Cliff Bridge
  97. Stay awake for 35 hours straight, and see if I start hallucinating
  98. Get some new bedroom décor
  99. Make an animated short
  100. Eat at the Nan Tien Temple
  101. Go hang-gliding

Project 52

January 7th, 2010

Project 52Today, I was challenged by my English friend Skippy to participate in Project 52. The concept is to make at least one blog post per week for the entire 2010. Knowing that I need challenges such as this to actually be motivated, I accepted. I have never been able to get into writing a blog- maybe this will help me?

Given that today is the 7th of January, the week is nearly up so I’m getting in right away!

You might also have notice I still have not updated some of the pages on this site… I really need to get that done but first, I have to finish off some client websites. I was told off by one client for taking time off during the holidays. Heaven forbid I get a break in my work schedule.

Yeah, you might be able to tell I am having a lot of troubles with my business. I didn’t realise people could be as fussy as they are, and I never realised just how hard it could be to communicate. But that’s not the worst part. I am just not cut out to work for myself. I haven’t got enough of a work ethic to pull it off. I can work for a boss, but I am a terrible boss of myself. Does that make sense to anyone else?

Transfer: Complete… Kinda.

December 16th, 2009

Okay! So the blog’s been happily moved over. The next things to do are to add the relevant pages, and to make my design into a theme.
Hoping the site will be ready for the new year.

Moving The Site

December 12th, 2009

Hey all.

If you haven’t been following me on Twitter, you probably do not know that I am currently transferring this domain name over to my reseller account on Flexihostings. As I do so, I will be fully updating and refreshing the website to look a little like this, all built together in WordPress.

This means that the site will  be down for a bit. I’m not sure how long. In fact I figured it would have already been transferred by now, but it apparently takes far longer to do so than I thought.

Anyway, just letting you know so that if you come along one day and get an error or something, there’s a reason.

In other news, I was in That’s Life! magazine a while back. I meant to post about it then, but you know how I am. Here is a link to the article on their website.

Comic-ing

October 2nd, 2009

So, it’s been a while since I first came up with my comic idea. A long while, in fact. And hey… I’ve finally started on it. Spiffers, huh?

So far, I’ve digitally inked two pages (after having sketched their drafts last night). I will only post these two pages on this blog… because I want the rest not to be spoilt when I upload the full comic book to a new website!

The comic still does not have a decisive title yet. Working title is Ather and Earth, named for the two worlds the comic visits.

Click “Continue Reading” below to see the two pages.

Continue reading…

Back and Blogging Again!

September 13th, 2009

Hey people! I gave up on my blog when it was all weird with bizarre symbols. But I was going through my email spambox when I found a comment on one of my entries. So I popped on over here and like magic, it was as though nothing had ever happened. Sweet.

Well, I don’t have much time right now as I have to get ready for work soon, but suffice to say that there is A LOT to catch up on!

  • The largest change has been my change of address. I now live with my sister in a 2 bedroom villa. It’s not that large but it’s cosy and a good size for just the two of us. I have a queen size bed now which is awesome.
  • Business is still chugging along, though it stalled for a while there. Not making much money at this point, but what the hey. I’m making a little. Just working out kinks in my process. Working on four sites currently.
  • Comic has been on hold since Script Frenzy. Haven’t felt like it but I plan to start drawing at that moment of inspiration. It will come eventually. :-/
  • I skimmed Drawing the Line a couple of months ago, and decided that it sucked beyond repair. I consider it my practice novel and nothing more. The plot is just too pathetic.
  • Next month I’ve booked a trip for my sis and I to go to Melbourne. I paid for it all since I owe her money.
  • I own a laptop again. Brand new from Catch of the Day. I made sure it had a dual core processor so I wouldn’t get frustrated with how long it took to do ANYTHING such as even load a browser, unlike the Compaq Presario I bought off Dad for $150.
  • I am a member of Contours gym. It was really tough for the first few weeks. I got so sore all the time. Now I don’t get sore but do get muscular fatigue for about 4 hours after I go, so I make sure I do it in the late afternoon so I can focus on working during the day. I’m seeing an improvement in my strength, but my weight hasn’t decreased at all. Hopefully it’s due to my big, heavy, bulging muscles.

So that’s a quick update on my life right now. Will try to fill it greater details when I have a bit more time ;)

Later!

Clients!

May 1st, 2009

I have two Website clients as we speak!

Sure they’re not getting me much money, but the more sites I do the more my name gets out there, and that can only be a good thing.

Dad signed me up for Barter Card a few days ago – and that’s what brought one of my clients to me. It’s not “real” money, but it doesn’t matter, so long as I find things to buy with my BC credits, and others see my little icon at the bottom of every website I build so that cash customers find me.

Not only that, but the more clients I get, the better it will be for my whole system. I’ll learn the ins and outs much quicker since I’m a Barter Card member and attracting more jobs. Barter Card isn’t for everyone but I think it can certainly benefit me in those ways.

So… I’m pretty happy with business right now. Never mind my lack of actual money form the business. That’s what NEIS is for anyway.

Dinosaur Stampede and Hidden Messages: A Dream

April 15th, 2009

Once in a while, I have lucid dreams.  I haven’t, however, had a dream quite like this before.

It started out I was in a city of some kind, on the street and it was pretty dark. Then, for no particular reason, dinosaurs appeared and began stomping around destroying things. I think Godzilla might have been there.

For some reason, the way to avoid the dinosaurs was to walk briskly without ever stopping, and it made them not notice you. So that’s what I did, along with a group of people I think I knew in the dream but I’m pretty sure don’t exist in reality.

It came to a point where the only place to hide was this underground tunnel, which was made of stone and had a number of rooms. Somehow, I lost my group of people, but I was looking for a hidden message (apparently, I had been told about there being a secret message in the tunnels, the only way to save everyone). I wandered through the rooms, which were full of people hiding from the dinosaurs. Then, I heard that the tunnels were about to fill with water. Why, I don’t know. It was a dream. That’s why.

So I began to feverishly look for this message.

Then, in an empty room but for a small statue or something (I can’t remember exactly what it was), I studied it and found a hook. I undid the hook and then pushed the statue, and the top came off. Inside was a note.

Behind me, I could hear the fierce sounds of water rushing, and as I looked around I saw the lower area where I had entered the room was now filled with rushing water. I opened the note, and it said something about studying the ratio of unlikely stuff happening, and then it hit me. It was all fake! Of course, it wasn’t real. Then, the rushing water sound faded and it seemed like the water had consumed me, but at the same time I could still breathe. Then, the sound disappeared and I opened my eyes in bed.

It was pretty cool. Like… a quest to escape, ending with a realisation of it being a dream and then escaping… from the dream. Ha.