| How do I get this noticed? |
[Apr. 6th, 2006|04:45 pm] |
I know you're probably none too impressed with my recent performance on the journal. Last update FEBRUARY? What's up with that?
I do apologise, but there's been nothing to report. No one really cares about the state of my hard disk drives, or my ability to walk 500m to Uni.
Oh what's that? You do?
OK. Well, let me throw some words out there firstly for the search engines and hopefully the people who get suckered in by search engines to read this entry. I really do hope they do. Why? Because if someone gave me this advice three weeks ago, they'd have saved me about 36 hours of my life. Promise IDE Card and the error the file or directory is corrupt and unreadable has a cause. This has been a bane of my life since I got the Promise card, and now I finally know how it ticks. If you move the card to a different PCI slot, boot without it and then boot with it - or any other generally normal system building activities, it reverts to the Microsoft provided Ultra TX2 drivers. This doesn't work very well with newly flashed cards. Use the Promise provided drivers. Trust me. It'll change your life.
With that over, you may be interested to hear what happened to me: I obtained a new network card for my computer machine, and shuffled PCI cards to put it in. I moved my PCI IDE card, which I'm using to connect an additional few HDDs. I rebooted and stuff went haywire. The card started ruining all the file tables and stuff. I finally figured out the reason four days later, after a complete (and again, destroyed) restoration of files. Such is life though. At least I didn't lose my Uni work.
Everything else has been reasonably acceptable in life. A few assessment pieces have crept up on me an will be doing their best to defeat me in the next few days, but do not fear! I shall slay the beasts.
Also, my camera is coming out from repair in a week or so. FINALLY. It's been in since November last year. I am considering buying some sort of present for myself when I get it, a remote or wide-angle lens or filters. Who knows. I'll see.
OK, well, that's about it. If you're still with me you can have a present. Check out the webcamera in my room. It's very exciting and you might get to see me do such things as: Type on a computer, drink milk or sleep. Check it: http://bilicam.bilious.org/
Cheerio |
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| Apple iPod, Microsoft Oddity |
[Dec. 27th, 2005|01:34 am] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Cursive - Sierra | ] |
So, in a lull in the Christmas festivities (read: visiting relatives without airconditioning) I decided to launch into an artistic project of sorts. Following in the footsteps of another Aussie iPod owner, and brushed my iPod. It looks good and means I can now remove the blue evo2 protective case I've had on it for the last year without fear of it getting much more flawed.
Now, much to my chagrin this afternoon, for some reason MSN Messenger blocks every message that contains any one of my photo gallery links. I'm exceptionally baffled at it. So, I figure I shan't forego a chance to bag out MSN doubly, and give you an image I made for no reason. MSN A-Patch (violate MSN's EULA in style). (Edit: Seems the URL has changed. Oh dear, oh my. I'm not updating the image, use this link instead: A-Patch)
Peace Out, etc |
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| EXAM BLOCK! |
[Nov. 10th, 2005|01:55 am] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Foo Fighters - Alone - Foo Fighters - Easy Target | ] |
The magic of an exam block never really wears off. It's got all the slackery and vapid days of the semester, but with the added responsibility of getting up for your 11am exam. These surely are my glory days.
So my last few weeks have been spent in a daze, doing such things as:
- using my elite Adobe Illustrator skillz to prepare final revisions of no less than five different T-Shirts for college wings and auxiliary groups.
- hum-drum work stuff.
- eating far too much McDonalds.
- seeing to it that my desk is perfectly clean.
- burning DVDs.
The Friday before SWOTVAC started, my work shifted over a new college (International House) to its network, which makes it now the predominant network administration organisation for colleges at the University of Queensland. There were a few hiccups, but the beauty of college students are that they tend to help each other out and not whinge too much.
I had an Accounting for Decision Making exam on the newly introduced additional exam day. (Last Saturday, for anyone who isn't aware.) It seemed to have gone well, so here's hoping. I've been spending these days being lame and sleeping, eating and well ... nothing. It's a worrisome thought.
Tonight while checking my website stats, I noticed that my domain www.thisisnotatest.org had an inordinate amount of traffic. (Inordinate here is roughly 25mb in the last ten days. It's inordinate because technically all the site has is my happy little trashcan.) Turns out my Drama Llama image (see it here!) is doing the rounds at various forums etc. So I appended a little message at the bottom. Excitement!
One more week essentially and I'll be out of college for another year.
And that's that. |
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| Tired. Long-haired. Mackay. |
[Sep. 23rd, 2005|07:44 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Death Cab For Cutie - Stable Song | ] |
So I'm in Mackay.
I woke up at 05:00 and did the necessary preparations for leaving my room all alone (lock windows, then realise that I should leave a little gap open in the screened one; change my sheets; clean off my desk). Passport, check. Licence, check. Dollars, check. Bag, check. Camera, ipod, phone, keys, mints, water, Semper Floreat (pretty good edition, actually), check, check, checkity.
Wake up Schultz to drive me to the Towoong railway station. (Thank you very much Josh, you saved me like ... $20 in cab fare.) Take some photos of the railway station (I really like the first one). And I'm off to the airport. Wee. Watched an unfortunate guy pick up his comically oversized rucksuck at the International Airport only to have the plastic components of the arm-straps bust. Unlucky.
Get to the Virgin check-in area and see that there's tonnes of bewildered looking people milling around the self-check-in kiosks. Seems that they've taken the jump from having them just for individuals with hand luggage, and now we get to check our own bags. (The magic is diminished somewhat because you have to take it up to the counter to deposit it anyways, so meh.) I got chastised by the guy telling people to use the machines because I didn't bring a print-out of my flight itinerary (which has the bar code to do the self-serve). Seriously, what's the point of ticketless air-travel if you need to print your own ticket? One of the wonderful things about the Australian airline industry in the last four years has been that you can just rock up at the counter and give 'em your name. Easy as pie, no fuss.
And besides, didn't want to waste my printer quota.
Photos out of the terminal. I was waiting for a security guard to come tap me on the shoulder, but I suppose they just realised I'm a sad, sad geek and not a terrorist. Took photos on the plane. Nothing exceptionally exciting as the window really prevented that - it's not particularly reassuring to see hundreds of tiny stress fractures in your plane window, but above all else it ruins a photo.
I took one of the "Life vest" notice, because it's always concerned me for a long while that there could really be no life vest there. I mean, removing it probably doesn't sound an alarm, and an inventory on safety equipment certainly doesn't happen before every flight. (If you did, they'd want to pay someone a lot for wandering around in knee-guards checking under each seat and that cost just isn't represented in the ticket). So someone may have pinched your life vest. And you'll never know. Until you really, really need it. Just end up hoping there's a toddler who can't use his daddy-sized life vest sitting next to you. Or even better, that you plane doesn't ditch into the ocean.
Little brother and his girlfriend picked me up from the airport and we went to the Department of Transport so I could renew my Learner's License for the fourth year ... yeh. Drop in at my Mum's work to see the staff, check out the new entrance/education facilities/lots of high ceiling-ed echoey spaces, take some photos.
Get home, check out my Mum's new iPod nano. She's such a hipster. She bought a mini four weeks ago, and when the nano came out, she had to have one of those. So now she has two iPods and only one set of ears. Shame that. Set up ml_ipod to transfer music from her mini to nano. Very neat little plugin that.
Fell asleep for a few hours, and just had a splitting headache afterward.
And now I'm here, for your benefit.
Woo.
I'm going to have dinner. |
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| Exhibits some forms of voodoo magix |
[Sep. 18th, 2005|10:55 pm] |
My goodness. Illustrator CS2 is the sex.
I know that the subject matter of my first foray into tracing isn't all that exciting, but it has the correct elements of linearity and realness to be appropriate. I have to say, that's a damned fine lamppost, made even better by the fact that it's definable by bezier curves. Take that raster.
In other news, I completed my Criminal Law B exam on Saturday. The result of that? Another post-exam photographic epiphany. I've also taken the opportunity to create a screenshot gallery
Oh, and the wasting of many minutes shouting at Rhett to make me some PHP galleries. Which is why they currently look all the same. (Because they are all the same.) I will be fixing up the galleries whose thumbnails contain those ugly grey sides soon enough.
And that's about it. I'll be on holidays in Mackay next Friday. |
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| Fraudsters, shysters and thieves! |
[Sep. 7th, 2005|02:26 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Pedro the Lion - The Bells | ] |
This shouldn't excite me ... but it does.
In my August 25th entry, I mentioned I fired off an angry postal letter (50 cents and all ... but I've found that companies are much more likely to take note of snail mail) to the domain registrars Enetica over medicare.com.au. Well, as you may note, I've linked it as it's now a blank page. To their credit Enetica acted pretty quickly to pull the plug on the shameless scum drawing in witless users who just want access to information about their subsidised health care. (Scumbags.)
The reason we don't have the .com.au 2LD being overrun (generally) by charlatans is that in accordance with auDA's policy - .com.au is specifically limited to only commercial entities - with the important byline that they're registered with an ACN or throught a state. I have a good feeling that an ABN might also get you in the door. Regardless, it's for groups with evidence of commercial propriety.
No offence to Enetica, or any of the other AU 2LD registrars - but how frickin' easy would it be to have a mandatory field for ATO/ASIC identity number? All the databases for that junk are online and it would take about a second to verify. Newly registered business? Give them a two week grace and then recheck. If the scum-spammers are stupid enough to take this option, pocket their fee and kill their 2LD next month. (Though abr.gov.au seems to be updated daily. So, even two weeks is probably a wide-ass margin.)
It should be noted that if the TLD rules were applied in the US ... I wouldn't be on bilious.org.
But then again, nor would bilious.com |
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| More photos |
[Sep. 4th, 2005|03:49 pm] |
Well, I sat my Accounting for Decision Making (ACCT1101) mid-semester exam yesterday. Afterward I wandered about the university grounds, with my camera at the ready. I've thrown some of the better photos up onto the web at my site.
Enjoy. |
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| It's Hot In Herre |
[Aug. 28th, 2005|02:28 am] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Mark Mothersbaugh - Ping Island--Lighting Strike Rescue Op | ] |
Herre != Here... Try harder next time generic rap star.
Anyways, I'm sure Rhett and increasingly Clint will relish this post with a certain amount of glee.
I'm an OCAUer. Rhett has the impression that OCAUers worry about their temperatures. (Disregarding the fact that in reality they no doubt worry more about The Pub than their core temp values.)
So it's now my turn to show off >> my temp stats!<< Click at your own peril; beware of the awesome.
Note: X scale is not continuous. X is compressed to 0.5 regular during the period that data is missing. I think I switched my computer off and missed two valuable save points.
That's right mofos. I'm a boring geeban now. |
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| Update |
[Aug. 25th, 2005|11:36 am] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Death Cab For Cutie - I Will Follow You Into The Dark | ] |
Well, lemme tell you. I've just ditched lj.net as my LJ posting program because, well, it's utterly terrible. Paste doesn't even work, which, in a text-based whinging journal, I very important.
But anyhow, moving along.
The week has been relatively interesting, or at least in the perspective of me. I blew up my LCD unit/fan controller by my fundamental stupidity. I have posted a letter to Enetica regarding a fraudulent registration of www.medicare.com.au (bastards are spammers using the Medicare name). Went on way too many Maccas runs. And formulated a political party in the upcoming UQ.union elections.
So, yeh, that's about it.
Oh, what? You wanna know more about my foray into politics?
It's nothing really! Over lunch, myself and a friend decided to create a Colleges' Party, and basically spam up the ballot paper with applicants. Well, we did and we have. I'm the Presidential applicant for the party. It is essentially a little fun in what is traditionally a One Horse Race. So, though Focus (goddamn lefty scum) will probably win, we'll have a little fun riling them up. Yeh, so ... woot for that.
Anyways, I'm gonna go do something over there. Bye. |
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| A day in the life of. |
[Aug. 19th, 2005|02:45 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | The Faint - The Conductor (Thin White Duke) | ] |
So I know what you're all thinkingg right now, "Greg, tell us what the hell you've been doing for the last week or so!" OK. Just for you, and because you asked nicely.
Well, the accurate answer is "Not much," but that wouldn't make for a good LJ entry, now would it? No, it wouldn't. So allow me to walk you through the boring minutae of my life in the last week, and we shall enjoy the ride.
On Thursday, I went to the GP and had my stitches taken out as they had apparently burst/reacted and got infected I was put on a course of Keflex, the off-brand alternative for which is called 'Sporahexal' and apparently doesn't do anything nasty with alcohol (score.) I also bought a tripod on Wednesday or Thursday, I can't remember which, but I have one of those now.
Friday saw nothing special, nor did the weekend. I can't even remember what I did it was that lacking in meaning.
On Tuesday I went to the Emmanuel At Home at the Carlton Crest in Brisbane. Not as good as last year's, but reasonable nonetheless. Not too many drunks, and if someone did get wasted they were quickly spirited away out of sight (out of mind).
The next day (Wednesday) while everyone was busy getting rid of hangovers or getting dolled up fhr the Students' Day Raceday - I went to Indro rail station to await my brother and co (probable future in-laws) to pick me up. We drove for about 2 hours and got to the Darling Downs Zoo. I have
photos up on my site, so enjoy them, including the hideous one of my brother looking somewhat like that goddamned Crazy Frog. Saw lions and tigers and jaguars (oh my) and filled my CF card to the brim. Awesome.
And then last night I went to Maccas. I have the feeling I know what the Desaparecidos felt like when singing Greater Omaha. (For reference, it's about a city getting lots of fast food restaurants).
( Permit me to leave you with this slightly nauseatingly Maccas picture. )
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| Updating |
[Aug. 4th, 2005|12:45 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  hungry | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Badly Drawn Boy - River-Sea-Ocean | ] |
Well then, it's been a while hasn't it. Not much to update, well, there sort of is.
A week or so ago I went to the doc regarding a funny mole thing and he got me signed up to get it taken out. Huzzah. Just on Monday, a few hundred dollars (and three local anasthetic needles) later and I am now one mole down and anticipating a cool scar that none of you ever get to see (it's on my upper buttock).
Last weekend I went to the Gold Coast to visit my Mum who was down for a conference. So I got to stay in the Jupiter's Casino, drink a daquiri or two and (most importantly) took photos. I'm quite enamoured by the slow exposures at night, but that seagull was pretty cool too. Also bought a nice belt, but shush.
And now ... now what? Well, not much it seems there's not much to say - my life isn't very exciting, no. Dangerous? Yes.
Working on a new look for my main page, one that will incorporate my AudioScrobbler. Also, hopefully an update of the template used for the photo pages will be forthcoming.
And that, as they say, is that. I'm going to lunch now, as it has been 24 hours since I ate. Fun.
Cheers.
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| Harumph! |
[Jul. 20th, 2005|07:23 pm] |
Well, I'm back but they didn't move the woman out of my room even though they said they would. Oh well, what can I do? Bunk up with a foreign conference guest? No.
Anyways, they've got me in some far flung Busch wing room, where I cannot find the power points. It'll do, until tomorrow at least.
My flight was delayed by one hour or so because of bad weather etc, but I got a cheap taxi fare back to St Lucia.
Exam on Saturday, must study for that. Woo.
And that's it. |
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| OMG ... bilious uses paste-test |
[Jul. 17th, 2005|08:28 pm] |
I'm sorry folks - but I know you all care extraordinarily about my power colour. I liked the way it can pick you with just five questions. Sort of like a horocope.
| Your Power Color Is Lime Green | 
At Your Highest:
You are adventurous, witty, and a visionary.
At Your Lowest:
You feel misunderstood, like you don't fit in.
In Love:
You have a tough exterior, but can be very dedicated.
How You're Attractive:
Your self-awareness and confidence lights up a room.
Your Eternal Question:
"What else do I need in my life?" |
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| bilious.org ... revisited |
[Jul. 10th, 2005|02:13 am] |
Well, I did the major design work for bilious.org before dinner tonight.
I like to think it's a robust design that could handle as many as three (3) links.
Anyways, working on getting the wiki going, from where I'm not sure what I'll be doing there... It'll probably be registered users only, so that any mass defacement will get linked to somebody and I can delete you! Woot.
Photos will probably be slow to go up, since I'm on dialup atm. Also, a lack of stuff I might want to put up. Meh.
Enjoy folks |
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| bilious.org |
[Jul. 8th, 2005|03:34 pm] |
I'm the newly proud owner of bilious.org* in addition to a new hosting plan.
Accept no substitutes. Especially not bilious.com
*Note, I'm waiting for the DNS to cycle, so until then you get the see GoDaddy's tripe. |
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| Uni-Utility |
[Jul. 6th, 2005|08:41 pm] |
I've long had a game I play with myself where I try to find items which lack multi-purposeness. Ultimate of lack of mutplie utilities is the key.
So there's very few things that but one purpose. Yes, you can take individual components for things (eg, a resistor whose sole aim in life is to annoy electricity) but it's much more fun to find fully formed items.
To date my collection of uni-utility items is one.
The humble egg cup.
I was looking at Tic-Tacs today, but realised people eat them like a lolly. So damn. Join the hunt. |
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| Results are up |
[Jul. 6th, 2005|09:52 am] |
Well, I woke up at 07:40 this morning (thinking it was 10:00). I'm pleased I woke up then, and not at 10:00 since right now Si-net is moving at roughly the pace of an academic. The University staggered the release of marks, no doubt to avoid a bum's rush but frankly I don't expect Arts students to get up for their 05:00 release. So now the University's staggering with the release of marks. (Oh, I'm such a witty pun-maker!)
The only result I can look up on Si-net is:
"Java Exception error '80004005'
psft.pt75.beans.ado.ADOException: bea.jolt.JoltRemoteService(MsgAPI)call(); nested exception is: java.io.IOException: bea.jolt.JoltRemoteService(MsgAPI)call()
/uqsa76pd/UQ/vbs/comm_fu_func_utils.vbs, line 542"
And frankly, I love a smoking pile of server.
However, being the early bird that I am I have good news!
My marks, from what I might describe as "My bludgiest semester ever." are:
ECON2010: Microeconomic Theory: 4
ECON2020: Macroeconomic Theory: SP (sit a special in two weeks)
LAWS2004: Criminal Law: 4
LAWS2005: Constitutional Law A: 6
Woot is me. I'm quite pleased. No repeated subjects! |
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