Work still sucks. The roster for December was given out on Monday. I get two days off during weekends this time round, Christmas and new years day. The two days that the place won't be open for business. But I have volunteered to work on Boxing Day, as they are offering 13.5 hours worth of pay for 5.5 hours worth of work.
I'm currently painting up a fancy tank for one of my warhammer armies. If I had thought ahead, I wouldn't have put the whole thing together before painting it, as some of the parts are very tricky to reach now that the tank is fully assembled. Anyway, progress is being made, slowly but surely.
My housemate has broken her leg, and is getting around on crutches.
I bought season one of Farscape last week, and have got through to the last episode at the moment. I enjoyed it when I first watched it and it's still good this time round. If they're still at half price I may pick up some further seasons in the coming weeks.
I saw a movie today in Gold class. I had a voucher for a free upgrade, and while the chairs were nice, as was having my drink brought in for me as the movie started, and there was little noise from others (there were only 30 seats), I don't think the full price is something I'd pay.
Well, that's a bit of prattle about nothing too significant, and I've kept it to less than two weeks between posts.
End post
writing time: 2 hours 20 minutes
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Learning opportunity for France
It looks as though the riots in Paris are continuing, but are beginning to settle down. I'm still amazed at just how messed up things have gotten, and how wide spread (7 other countries have had related incidents) it has become. But the thing that really surprises me is just how little attention it seems to be getting in the rest of the world. It barely rates a mention on the two main Australian new websites (news.com.au and the Australian). CNN doesnt seem to think it should be on the front page of their site, nor do reuters.
This is something big. It is more important than the trial of some model foolish enough to have drugs in a foreign country with harsher drug laws than our own. It's more significant than some guy going through Princess Mary's trash for photos. This is 12 days of rioting in one of the worlds major cities, that has spread throughout the country and the continent.
The fact that this much violence has erupted shows that there were problems that needed addressing that weren't. And while that may explain the violence, it doesn't condone it. I would advocate as rapid a resolution as possible to the actual violence, followed by a serious look at the causes and fixing them.
I hope that the French people and the French government are sensible in the aftermath. This should not be used to make a more authoritarian government. The American goverment used the aftermath of September 11 to strengthen the goverments powers at the expense of the rights of the people. France I hope will be wiser, and will learn from this.
Anyway, heres hoping it finishes soon and France comes out a better country for it afterwards. While this is not a good thing, if nothing comes of it, it will just be a waste, and probably only a prequal.
End Post
writing time: 3 hours 4 minutes (including heading down to the shops, having dinner and watching some tv)
This is something big. It is more important than the trial of some model foolish enough to have drugs in a foreign country with harsher drug laws than our own. It's more significant than some guy going through Princess Mary's trash for photos. This is 12 days of rioting in one of the worlds major cities, that has spread throughout the country and the continent.
The fact that this much violence has erupted shows that there were problems that needed addressing that weren't. And while that may explain the violence, it doesn't condone it. I would advocate as rapid a resolution as possible to the actual violence, followed by a serious look at the causes and fixing them.
I hope that the French people and the French government are sensible in the aftermath. This should not be used to make a more authoritarian government. The American goverment used the aftermath of September 11 to strengthen the goverments powers at the expense of the rights of the people. France I hope will be wiser, and will learn from this.
Anyway, heres hoping it finishes soon and France comes out a better country for it afterwards. While this is not a good thing, if nothing comes of it, it will just be a waste, and probably only a prequal.
End Post
writing time: 3 hours 4 minutes (including heading down to the shops, having dinner and watching some tv)
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Six
Someone brought all the other bins in last night. I'm not sure who, but someone did it at about midnight last night. So I guess I won't get to feel the self righteousness of having brought them all in.
Damn
End post
writing time: 1 hour 26 minutes (I got distracted)
Damn
End post
writing time: 1 hour 26 minutes (I got distracted)
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Two
I brought the second bin in this evening.
Works shitting me. Last week I asked for the weekend of the 19th and 20th of November off as my family is planning a surprise birthday party for my grandmother, who turned 70 earlier this year. Now work is telling me that even though they haven't done rosters for that week, or indeed for anything past next Thursday, because that's going to be the busiest weekend in November, their having a really hard time being able to give me the weekend off. It's not like I've only had one weekend since May where I haven't worked both Saturday and Sunday. It's not like I'm one of only two or three out of 10 people in my team who had their average call time at less than the expected 250 seconds. It's not like I've turned up to every single shift I've been rostered on for and have never taken any sick leave (not that I'd get paid if I did). It's not like I let them change shifts that were organised almost a month ago with two or three days notice. It's not like I've applied for a permanent position three times, and been told, you can do the job, but your attitude towards the job isn't what we'd like it to be. Is one weekend that much to ask? I'll tell you what, my attitude towards the job won't be all that crash hot if the expect me to work that weekend.
I wonder if now is a good time to ask my team leader if I can use her as a reference?
End Post (Rant)
writing time: 27 minutes
Works shitting me. Last week I asked for the weekend of the 19th and 20th of November off as my family is planning a surprise birthday party for my grandmother, who turned 70 earlier this year. Now work is telling me that even though they haven't done rosters for that week, or indeed for anything past next Thursday, because that's going to be the busiest weekend in November, their having a really hard time being able to give me the weekend off. It's not like I've only had one weekend since May where I haven't worked both Saturday and Sunday. It's not like I'm one of only two or three out of 10 people in my team who had their average call time at less than the expected 250 seconds. It's not like I've turned up to every single shift I've been rostered on for and have never taken any sick leave (not that I'd get paid if I did). It's not like I let them change shifts that were organised almost a month ago with two or three days notice. It's not like I've applied for a permanent position three times, and been told, you can do the job, but your attitude towards the job isn't what we'd like it to be. Is one weekend that much to ask? I'll tell you what, my attitude towards the job won't be all that crash hot if the expect me to work that weekend.
I wonder if now is a good time to ask my team leader if I can use her as a reference?
End Post (Rant)
writing time: 27 minutes
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
One
Last night I put out all the bins for our place for weekly collection.
Tonight I brought the first of them in.
We'll see how many I have to bring in.
End post
writing time: 1 minute
Tonight I brought the first of them in.
We'll see how many I have to bring in.
End post
writing time: 1 minute
Too soon to come up with something
Well, a mere one day after the last time I put something here, I'm typing again. Unfortunately I can't really think of anything to write about.
Let's see. Iraq ratified it's new constitution, paving the way for elections at the end of the year. Quite frankly, the sooner things get set up and Iraq can be run by Iraq the better. I don't believe the reason Iraq was invaded were legitimate, and since then things have not been handled well, and I think overall things would have been better if it had never happened. But given that it has, I feel we have to make sure that things won't go to crap once we leave. We fucked things up, so we have to make sure things are put back, hopefully we make it a bit better than it was before, but we should get the hell out as soon as is responisble. Pity the people in charge won't do that.
Apparently there is rioting happening in Paris. I'll admit I don't pay much attention to the news, but rioting in one of the most well known cities in the world should surely get some airtime.
There was an article on slashdot about how copy protected cds from Sony makes several changes to your computer, which make it more vulnerable to others trying to do the same, and that unless you really know what your doing, can mess up your computer if you try and get rid of it. The DRM prevents you from seeing any files with a certain name, and also installs drivers that sit between your cd drive and the operating system, so that any time you use a cd, it goes through their program. And if you get rid of it without being careful, it'll mess up your computer so you can't use your cd drives. When they start messing up your computer that much, and putting in jeopardy your ability to use your own computer, that's going to far.
End post
Writing time: 1 hour
Let's see. Iraq ratified it's new constitution, paving the way for elections at the end of the year. Quite frankly, the sooner things get set up and Iraq can be run by Iraq the better. I don't believe the reason Iraq was invaded were legitimate, and since then things have not been handled well, and I think overall things would have been better if it had never happened. But given that it has, I feel we have to make sure that things won't go to crap once we leave. We fucked things up, so we have to make sure things are put back, hopefully we make it a bit better than it was before, but we should get the hell out as soon as is responisble. Pity the people in charge won't do that.
Apparently there is rioting happening in Paris. I'll admit I don't pay much attention to the news, but rioting in one of the most well known cities in the world should surely get some airtime.
There was an article on slashdot about how copy protected cds from Sony makes several changes to your computer, which make it more vulnerable to others trying to do the same, and that unless you really know what your doing, can mess up your computer if you try and get rid of it. The DRM prevents you from seeing any files with a certain name, and also installs drivers that sit between your cd drive and the operating system, so that any time you use a cd, it goes through their program. And if you get rid of it without being careful, it'll mess up your computer so you can't use your cd drives. When they start messing up your computer that much, and putting in jeopardy your ability to use your own computer, that's going to far.
End post
Writing time: 1 hour
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