Category: Uncategorized

This is probably the one thing that makes being on the other side of the world really suck. My mum called up this morning to say that our family’s cat had died. His lungs had filled with fluid, the vet thinks this may have been due to cancer, so it was decided that he had to be put down to save him from any more pain. Up until the last couple of weeks he was still being the larrikin cat he’s always been, but his condition deteriorated rapidly.

He was a charger of a cat and had a real personality – much more than some people I’ve met in my lifetime. He outlived a lot of other cats by nearly making it to 15 years old. Some people may think “dude, it’s only a cat, get over it” but it’s the memories I associate with him that make it all the more painful. I’m very big on memories and I get extremely attached to things, so I spent the whole day reminiscing about the time from when we first got him (when I was in primary school for crying out loud) up to this point. I just wish I could’ve said a last goodbye to him before he went.

He was a cat model I reckon. If he hadn’t been neutered all the girl cats would have been forming lines blocks long for a chance to see him, and I would have had to tell them to just leave the poor guy alone for a few minutes.

RIP, and thanks for the memories…

Heck, what a weekend. I’ve got a bit of a headache today (very unusual for me to get one unless I’m listening to an annoying person) and I actually didn’t do much to cause it… honestly. The good thing is that I did receive most of my stuff on Friday. Yes, I finally have a digital camera! Problem is I didn’t receive a memory card in the time frame promised by Amazon so I couldn’t do anything with it anyway. The instruction manual looks nice though. I also received some Event TR5 monitor speakers for music production stuff. For the moment though they’re doing a fine job of being a part of my improvised stereo system until I actually have the equipment/skills to use them for their intended purpose.

I’m currently being hassled by Avis reminding me that I’ve been here for 50 days and they still haven’t received my driver’s license details. I only *just* received my social security number. Well, considering it took a while to have me entered into the system for some reason (approx. 3.5 weeks) and then processing delays (it took 3 weeks for me to get my SSN – we had something called hurricanes?) that brings me up to about this date. I’ve got a booking for a license test this Tuesday anyway. Cool, I’ll have a Florida driver’s license (assuming I pass the test 🙂

Now to the title of this post, I think I fried my network card in my computer on the weekend. Maybe I was downloading too much stuff? They probably don’t like the fact that I’d have around 5 Gigs of virtual instruments on the download queue. Whatever the case, I’m going to find it a bit harder to update this site until I figure out what the heck’s gone on. Actually, that’s a big fat lie. The more furiously I work the more often I update the blog because I actually *need* to take a break. So now you’ll know if I’m working hard or not…

I’m also thinking of getting some home contents insurance over here, I’ve got a lot of $$$ invested in the stuff I’ve bought over here already. I’d be a broken, dribbling mess if I lost that.

Oh, I won’t be answering any phone call or replying to any SMS to my Aussie number until I get back from the US. The reason? I went a bit crazy calling people when I first got over here, knowing that it would cost me a lot but making the calls anyway. Now I have a very expensive phone bill from the Telstra bloodsuckers. I should have grabbed one of the fairly cheap phone cards over here to make my calls… stupid me.

Nerdy site of the day: http://www.physorg.com/

I don’t know what the freaking hell is wrong with me (there are probably some people who could give some suggestions… wisearses) but lately I seem not to be able to get to sleep. I’ve been lying in bed for the last couple of hours trying to get to get some shut-eye but it seems impossible. My mind continues to race. I get up for a bit and play a few chords on guitar, and then I end up wishing I had my piano. Next I’m listening to some songs on my ipod, sampling anything from Rachmaninoff to Roxette to Rammstein. I’m freaking jumping around my apartment like the people in the iPod ads (except to Rach – can’t really jump around to classical… at least I haven’t yet figured out a way to yet). Why is this? Is it because the succulent, sumptuous, salivacious (???) pork ribs over here are just so good? Is it because the amount of fat in the food I’m eating is much more than it would be over in Oz? But hey – it’s all “low carbs”… yeah, whatever that actually means. Take the stairs every once in a while instead of the lift pilgrims. Maybe it’s not the food. Maybe it’s the humidity. Maybe it’s the fact that the air conditioning isn’t working properly at work and I’m so bloody cold I have to wear a jacket. Then I get outside and instantly I’m covered in water from condensation. Maybe the sudden changes in temperature are causing the meninge of my brain to expand and contract weirdly which could somehow adversely affect the sleeping centres of my brain, if they’re located on the periphery of the brain… which they probably aren’t… wtf am I talking about now???

Maybe I can’t get to sleep coz I’m looking forward to Christmas tomorrow (or rather, later on today). I ordered a bunch of stuff online on Monday, and I should be receiving it soon. Not getting the stuff instantly gives me time to get over the buyer’s remorse so when it finally does arrive I’m as happy as Larry.

I’ve taken on a promise to myself to not rely on other people as much as I used to. On several occasions now I’ve changed plans to wait for people who in the end never call to say they’ll be late or not even coming. Bastards. That really, really pi$$es me off. Screw ’em, I’ll make my plans without them.

And… how the heck do venus fly traps work? And why am I asking that question when I’m not even drunk? People answer that by saying ‘the doomed insect stimulates the cilia-like hairs which causes the trap to shut’. That ain’t enough I’m sorry. I think I concluded last time by saying that the stimulation of the hair may cause a cell laden with a saltier-than-normal substance to release said substance. It could also be less saltier than normal too I guess. Through osmosis and some sort of cascade effect enough water gets moved around which causes the trap to shut. That’s probably utter B.S. and I should really do some reading to find the true answer. Maybe then I could sleep…

Quick update: I’ve put up some of the pics from the Keys and some stuff from hurricane Frances. There ain’t a heck of a lot there (I think I’ve got more somewhere…), and I couldn’t think of any decent comments for some of them, but hey you’re reading this so you’ve obviously got nothing better to do anyway. Knock yerself out, yeeharrr! The Keys, Hurricane Frances

What – you want more? Ok. I’ve uploaded some movies to my Ozemail account. I’ve got two from the time I saw the booty shaking at the Clevelander in Miami’s South Beach. The other one is from the visit to the Everglades. All of them don’t have sound, sorry. For the Clevelander movies, put some RnB music on. For the Everglades movie, put your lips together and blow. Add a “whoa!” at the end when you see the camera shaking a bit (that’s me trying to hold onto the camera). The movies are in Quicktime format so you’ll need the player from Apple to view them. Also, if you can’t download the movies that’s probably because Ozemail have reached their download limit for the day. This is probably not much more than the 10MB space limit they give me. Cheap bastards. Try downloading them again another day.

Clevelander 1 – disabled

Clevelander 2 – disabled

Everglades – disabled