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29.04.2005 Apple Overspend…

Well… I went to the Apple Store Bullring as planned. Although we arrived at the Bullring at around 2pm there was no way on earth I was going to queue for 4 hours until the 6pm opening, so we had a look around and grabbed a coffee etc until 4pm at which point I jumped into the queue and begin my long wait. I'm glad I got in the queue when I did because it soon began filling up. Within minutes hundreds of people turned up. I was lucky enough to be able to get in the queue when it was still inside the building, others were not so lucky and the queue went quite some way down the road outside.

The two hours went pretty slowly, but I got through it by talking to my fellow mac heads in the queue and playing Worms Forts on my mobile. At around half 5 the staff from the store came out and started making a racket to get everyone excited. This mostly consisted of them running around, shouting and starting the odd mexican wave (or five!).

Anyways, we eventually made it inside where we were greeted by a bunch of kiddies giving away tshirts and then we got a scratch card each. No major prizes for us but we did get 20% each off any purchases made in store. So… typically, I got a bit carried away and as well as purchasing the iSight webcam that I planned to buy, I also bust into company funds and bought myself a 12″ iBook as well.

I don't know if I definately needed the iBook, but I was fed up with my crappy laptop with it's knackard battery and needed something a bit more efficiant for working on when away from my usual computer. The little iBook is perfect for my needs and its working a charm (I'm using it here as we speak!).

All in all its been a brilliant but tiring day and I'm relieved to actually have access to a good laptop now. I'll try and post some pics later on tomorrow if I get a chance.

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26.04.2005 You Know You're An Uber Geek When…

You get excited because there is an Apple store opening in your area AND you book the afternoon off work so you can definately be there in time for the opening at 6pm!

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26.04.2005 Have You Ever…

Found at JaG's.

So have you ever… (x) snuck out of the house
( ) gotten lost in your city
(x) seen a shooting star
(x) been to any other countries besides the united states
( ) had a serious surgery
( ) gone out in public in your pajamas - Sure, my night clothes are comfortable.

(x) kissed a stranger
(x) hugged a stranger
(x) been in a fist fight
( ) been arrested
( ) laughed and had milk/coke come out of your nose
( ) pushed all the buttons on an elevator
(x) swore at your parents

(x) been in love
(x) been close to love
(x) been to a casino
( ) been skydiving
( ) skinny-dipped
(x) skipped school

( ) seen a therapist
( ) done the splits
(x) played spin the bottle
(x) gotten stitches
( ) drank a whole gallon of milk in one hour
(x) bitten someone
( ) been to Niagara Falls
(x) gotten the chicken pox

(x) kissed a member of the opposite sex
( ) crashed into a friend's car
( ) been to Japan
(x) ridden in a taxi (has anyone not?)
(x) been dumped
(x) shoplifted (once - i stole a free gift off a magazine aged ( ) been fired
( ) had a crush on someone of the same sex

(x) had feelings for someone who didn't have them back
( ) gone on a blind date
( ) lied to a friend
(x) had a crush on a teacher (my music teacher - year 6)
( ) celebrated Mardi-Gras in new Orleans
(x) been to Europe (duh… i live there!)
( ) slept with a co-worker
( ) been married
( ) gotten divorced
( ) had children
( ) seen someone die
( ) had a close friend die
( ) been to Africa
( ) Driven over 400 miles in one day
( ) Been to Canada
( ) Been to Mexico

(x) Been on a plane
(x) Seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show (does the movie count?)
(x) Thrown up in a bar (yes - frequently!)
(x) Purposely set a part of myself on fire (do shoes count?)
( ) Eaten Sushi
( ) Been skiing/snowboarding

(x) Met someone in person from the internet
( ) lost a child
(x) gone to college
( ) graduated college
(x) fired a gun
(x) purposely hurt yourself

(x) taken painkillers

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25.04.2005 Hong Kong gets 1Gig Broadband.

WANT A GOOD REASON to move to Hong Kong? How does 1GBps home Internet access for $215 a month sound? Too spendy for you? Then how about 100MBps for $34, or 10MBps for $16? I want to thank Hong Kong Broadband Network for making me feel inadequate with my mere 5MBps cable connection for vastly more than $16 a month.

Source: TheInquirer Can you believe this? 1 GIG broadband? over here in the UK our providers are singing and shouting about our impending 8 Meg broadband. I can't even begin to think how fast 1 Gig broadband is. I currently have a 1 Meg account and compared to dial up it's amazingly fast but 1 whole gigabit per second? Thats just insane.

You know what else… its not like the crap we get over here either we get Asymetric DSL that means downloads are faster than uploads. The 1 Gig connection in Hong Kong is SYMMETRIC that means you get 1 gig up and 1 gig down. These connections are fast as fuck!

Ok… At $215 USD per month It's not the cheapest option on the planet, but the same telco also offer 100 Meg broadband at a 10th of the price. Now THATS a fuckin bargain! (considering I pay ?30 GBP per month for 1 meg - thats nearly $60 USD)

I've decided I'm going to sell up here, move to Hong Kong and setup a data center in a bedsit somewhere. I'll be rich beyond my wildest dreams!

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25.04.2005 Interesting Story…

A philosophy professor stood before his class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly he picked up a large empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks, rocks about 2″ in diameter. He then asked the students if the jar was full? They agreed that it was.

So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the rocks. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. The students laughed.

“Now,” said the professor, “I want you to recognize that this is your life.”

“The rocks are the important things -- your family, your spouse, your health, your children - things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.”

“The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car.”

“The sand is everything else. The small stuff. If you put the sand into the jar first, there is no room for the pebbles or the rocks.”

“The same goes for your life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you.”

“Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out dancing.

There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner party and fix the disposal. Take care of the rocks first - the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.” But THEN…

A student then took the jar which the other students and the professor agreed was full, and proceeded to pour in a glass of beer.

Of course the beer filled the remaining spaces within the jar making the jar truly full.

Which proves: that no matter how full your life is, there is always room for a beer.

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22.04.2005 Boy is my face red…

You'll never guess what I just did? Those of you who know me will know that I live on the fourth floor of an apartment block. Well I've just got home from work and walked up the stairs as usual and went to open the door. It was locked. That's not normal. So I tried my key and for love nor money I couldn't get it to work. I tried my key for about 5 minutes before giving up and knocking so that the missus would let me in from the inside. I heard a blokes voice inside and feared the worst… was my missus having an affair?

Nope… turns out I wasn't paying attention and had tried to let myself into the flat on the floor below mine. Doh! boy was my face red.

Note to self. Check number on door before letting yourself in.

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20.04.2005 Sleepy Sleepy

Aha! Last night I found a solution to the sleep issue (and it didn't require the use of soft drugs!). Tetley make a brand of tea called Tetley plus calming it's basically a low caffine tea with some weird hippy shit thrown into the bash. Anyway… whatever's in it, it works. Knocked me out like a light. I think I'll have another one tonight.

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19.04.2005 Holiday Snaps…

Heres a few pics from my holiday in Tenerife… enjoy.

I fuckin love my new camera… it takes brilliant pictures all by itself. All I do is hold it, point, press and voila! nice pics. I don't know how but I just seem to get better composures with the bigger cam. Strange.

People have been asking about my makeshift antfarm. Well it's made and ready but we've had pretty much none stop rain over the past few days, so I've got fed up of waiting for good weather so I could go ant poaching and bought some instead. I nicked a photocopied coupon that came with Richyb's and farm and sent off an order today. Ants should be with me in around 10 days, so I think I'm going to chuck out the jelly I made and make some more with lemon jelly closer to the time (in a glass bottle as well!).

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19.04.2005 Insomnia

Deep in the bosom of the gentle night
Is when I search for the light
Pick up my pen and start to write
I struggle, fight dark forces
In the clear moon light
Without fear… insomnia
I can't get no sleep

I used to worry, thought I was goin' mad in a hurry
Gettin' stress, makin' excess mess in darkness
No electricity, something's all over me, greasy
Insomnia please release me and let me dream of
Makin' mad love to my girl on the heath
Tearin' off tights with my teeth
But there's no release, no peace
I toss and turn without cease
Like a curse, open my eyes and rise like yeast
At least a couple of weeks
Since I last slept, kept takin' sleepers
But now I keep myself pepped
Deeper still, that night I write by candle light
I find insight, fundamental movement, uh
So when it's black this insomniac take an original tack
Keep the beast in my nature under ceaseless attack
I gets no sleep
I can't get no sleep

I can't get no sleep
I can't get no sleep
I need to sleep, although I get no sleep
I need to sleep, although I get no sleep (song courtesy of Faithless)

Goddamit I'm fookin knackered for some reason I just couldn't get off too sleep last night! I bought some calming tea the other day which is supposed to help so I'm going to give that a try tonight I think, cos if I don't get some sleep I'm going to go mental I think!

What do you do to get yourself off to sleep when you are having sleeping difficulties?

(update… I've just read through what I've typed and it makes no sense at all… I could change it but I think by leaving it as it is it better demonstrates my current mental state)

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18.04.2005 Cactus Emergency!

Does anyone here no anything about cacti? One of mine is growing this really weird white fluffy stuff with spikes on it and I don't know what it is. It looks a bit like mould, but it can't be that because it has spikes growing on it… is my cactus flowering or something?

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