• Saturday, July 30th, 2005
Sometimes it just seems no matter how you try things beyond your control can drag you down. Yesterday was hell. I really did think I’d managed to avoid overtime this weekend but then after working flat tack all day, about 4pm yesterday I suddently found out there’s another whole pile of work to be done I hadn’t even been notified of and I had various people pestering me about other things. I’m currently the only developer on this project capable of doing this work so how they thought it was going to get done without telling me is beyond my comprehension. It seems at times too I’m having to tell others how to do their job. I’ve never been into management but somebody has to do it and often it seems to be me because no one else is doing it even when it’s their job. On top of that, I had some dinner plans with some friends too but at the last minute they pulled out…Lovely.
Despite yesterday, this morning I was feeling very positive and I really was rather more cheery about many things. It seems though the day was just not meant to go my way. In the early afternoon I went to drive out to Harvey Norman’s only to find my car had been broken into in it’s very secluded parking spot next to the house that is not visible from the road. The most valuable things in my car are the stock AM/FM stereo with cassette deck, a small collection of 10 cent pieces lying around randomly from the previous owner and some two dollar shop “L” plates. So yes, nothing worth taking and they didn’t end up taking anything, but now the driver side lock is stuffed. Thankfully it still locks but I have to access the car via the passenger door.
So, anyway, after that surprise I ended up stopping in at the new Warehouse near Harvey Norman’s. I’m walking through the carpark to the entrance when I’m nearly run over by some crazed shoplifter making a getaway from store security. My escape was close although not quite as close as the security girl who would have smashed a leg at least had she not reacted so quickly and lunged backwards. I feel though that she’d most likely have gone under the wheel had she not moved so fast. How utterly ridiculous to risk potentially killing people for an insignificant amount of cheap goods. Only got a rough look at the driver’s face and it hosted as much unbridled rage as I’ve seen in a long time.
I’m not a paranoid person but with days like these it almost seems like someone or something out there doesn’t want me to be happy. It’s not like I didn’t already have enough problems. Well fuck it, I’ll be damn well happy anyway…
Current Mood: Defiant
Current Music: Noriyuki Iwadare - The Sandy Beach - Grandia OST 1
• Thursday, July 28th, 2005
I’ve been feeling rather frustrated today but I have no idea why really since things have overall been pretty good and my level of motivation is still much higher than it has been for a long time. It looked like I was going to have to put in some overtime at work this weekend but I managed to fly through a days worth of work in an hour and a half from home even with slow as ADSL. No unwanted weekend overtime for me! I’ve also had quite a bit of fun at various meetings and outings with friends. Nice dinners, good movies and good company. To top it off, I’m also now booked in for a test very soon for the next step of my driver’s licence. A good thing for sure, even if I did have to stand in a queue for ages to book it.
For a long time no one in my immediate family had a car and buying one myself would have cost a lot of money that just didn’t seem worth it when I couldn’t even drive the damn thing for months on end until I got a licence. Very much a typical “chicken or the egg” situation. It wasn’t something that bothered me for a long time but somewhere along the way I found I needed a car but of course at that point it was so late it was a problem. Anyhow, after starting to learn, breaking my leg, recovering and learning again I finally see some light at the end of this tunnel. Any kids I ever have are definitely going to have a family car of some kind to learn in.
All going well, soon I’ll be sitting out the six months till I can go for my full licence and will be able to direct some more willpower into my house plans. I can’t say that currernt house prices are amusing me too much though…
Current Mood: Suspicious
Current Music: The Flaming Lips - One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21 - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
• Wednesday, July 27th, 2005
It looks like the NZ pre-election hype is really starting up now. The local National party announced recently they would give some substantial tax cuts if elected and yesterday the Labour party announced they’d wipe the interest on student loans if elected. Now both of these would affect me substantially since I have a reasonably well paying job and a student loan to pay off. As usual though, the media is proving less than useless in helping people evaluate the pros and cons of each policy. In regards to National’s tax cutting policy, the media has asked where the money for the tax cut was coming from but so far do not seem to be too concerned about the lack of a satisfactory answer. Certainly though a tax cut will directly affect the amount of money collected by the government each year and will reduce money available for public spending. I certainly have no problem with the government taking less money off me but it isn’t that I am not willing to contribute my share for the wellbeing of all. Also, when it comes down to it, the numbers being talked about are not that significant to me. I would rather see it spent on safer roads, lower doctors fees, much cheaper dental care or improving the education system or the economy.
As to Labour’s interest wiping policy, things are a little more complicated. The media has also been asking them where the money was coming from but they are not really thinking about this issue too clearly since a tax cut and wiping interest are not the same thing. The figure of NZ$300 million has been thrown around but noone is saying if this is what is current being collected each year due to payments on student loan interest today, or if these numbers are projected figures that will eventually cost us $300M per year some day in the future. Whichever is true though, I don’t believe it’s as significant as the media seems to think. I say this because many student loans today are astronomical and short of people getting extremely high paying jobs, the chances of them ever paying it back in full at the default payment rates is slim to none. With ever spiraling interest only adding to the money owed, some people will be taking their loans to the grave. Either these debts will be wiped then or the government might one day start taking an even bigger cut of people’s estates (or at worst case, from their families).
I am one of the more lucky ones myself, my loan is sizable but is smaller than many and I earn enough that over time my loan is decreasing. That said, even if the government changed policy tomorrow and wiped all interest, I would still pay them as much money as I do today. The difference is that my payments would all be going towards paying off the original loan rather than barely compensating for the interest like they do today. In effect, the government would have no less income this year or next year than they do today since I would still be paying the same amount. Yes, there’d be some variation due to those finishing their loan payments early but I don’t believe that group is currently statistically significant. Yes, the projected future revenue would be lowered but why this is a money making scheme in the first place is beyond me.
It also has to be taken into account what effect this policy change would have on the economy as a whole with it’s vastly reduced graduate debt. The ramifications are too complex to go into here I feel but it is hard to believe the results would be anything but positive. After all, an economy powered by driving down the financial position of the so called “best and brightest” doesn’t sound very healthy to me.
Current Mood: 
thoughtful
Current Music: Judgement Day - Nobuo Uetemasu - Final Fantasy VII OST disc 4
• Monday, July 25th, 2005
This has been a very, very odd day but I’m am not going to talk about half of it. Crazy stuff. I’ve changed my LJ avatar because I got a hair cut the other day. Yes, the fact my hair was crazy and all over the place is really the only reason I picked my last one. I’m not saying my hair now looks anything like Maes Hughes from Full Metal Alchemist but the length is closer and Hughes is cool. He is also somewhat cheery which is better fitting with how I am feeling on average these days. Sometimes I wish there was less damn drama though.
In a rather unusual move, I was at a Latin church service tonight. Mum is very religious and has always preferred the traditional service rather than the modern politically correct church services. I actually agree with her on that, since many modern Christian churches are so lacking any substance and serve as nothing more than a social get-together so why people even bother is beyond me. As you may guess, I don’t normally go myself. Anyhow, normally my brother takes mum to church and was booked to take her to the Latin mass next week but this morning mum found out there was a mistake and it was on tonight. My brother for some reason couldn’t make it so then I got a call to see if I’d drive her over instead. I felt maybe it would be interesting being in Latin and all, and with it being in the old church too rather than their 70’s monstrosities so I agreed to take her. The Latin service was as confusing as hell since the priest was mubling and adding to that the fact that I don’t know Latin made it yet more confusing. It was kind of interesting though. Not a language you hear spoken much these days. The old church was interesting too but with typical stupidity they’d removed the old wooden chairs with all their character and put in some budget chairs like you’d find in a school PTA meeting. Talk about a crime. @_@
Current Mood: indescribable
Current Music: Amaral - Te Necesito - Estrella De Mar
• Saturday, July 23rd, 2005
Today I went to see the new Warehouse store in the north of Hamilton referred to as “the base”. It certainly is rather big. I feel safe in saying that it’s far better than any of the other Warehouse stores in Hamilton but it’s still largely full of a lot of junk. They have a much wider selection of junk than the central city Warehouse which is something and there’s lots of room to walk around which is nice. The carpark seems needlessly confusing but at least they have a lot of parks. I didn’t buy anything but I can see that they might get the odd interesting thing in there.
For the first time I busted the cap on my internet account so now I’m down to 64Kbps for the last few days of the month. It doesn’t bother me too much but it would be nice to have a slightly higher cap.
I was talking to one of the guys at work the other day about the GTA San Andreas “Hot Coffee” mod and how the ESRB in the US decided to re-rate the game over sexual content not enabled by default. I made the comment at the time that other games are similar and why were they not going after them. A specific example I came up with was The Sims as the censoring mosaic is little more than a texture obscuring the naked sims and was most likely removable. It seems I
spoke too soon. I guess I should never underestimate the paranoia of those with authority.
Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Armand Van Helden - Ghandi Khan - Ghandi Khan
• Wednesday, July 20th, 2005
Busy, busy, busy at work. Not going into detail but suddenly things that I felt and said were urgent are now actually urgent and I’m being asking to do overtime which could have been avoided if the work had been started earlier like I’d suggested. As you can probably tell, I’m not amused by this development but it’s not really raining on my parade either. Just makes me look forward to my holidays even more.
It seems there’s finally a phone on the way that might actually be something I can replace my deteriorating Motorola V525 with, the Motorola V3x. It isn’t due out till the 4th quarter though so I really hope my current phone lives till then. It has been playing up a little on and off but nothing too serious since I flashed the firmware. The V3x is a V3 RAZR variant but is 3G, has more memory, a card slot, a 2MP camera (not that I care) and is supported by iTunes.
I feel really tired tonight…might just go fall into bed…
Current Mood: 
calm
Current Music: David Bowie - Afraid - Heathen
• Tuesday, July 19th, 2005
I’ve been surprisingly cheery today. Not really sure why, but what the hey, it’s not something I want to complain about. I felt quite motivated for a change too and my leg just seemed normal (as opposed to “formerly broken”). I was thinking as well that I should organise myself a bit better. I’ve always avoided that sort of thing as it just seemed to be a quick route to high stress, but thinking about it, I have always been well aware of stress when I’ve encountered it and I believe I can trust myself to minimise it.
Checked out some PSP games too see what’s new Tenchu Shinobi Taizen looks like a nice follow on of the Tenchu series so I’m hoping for a quick port of this after it is released late August.
Current Mood: optimistic
Current Music: Pixies - Wave of Mutilation - Wave of Mutilation
• Monday, July 18th, 2005
Had quite a lot of fun over the weekend with my brother’s kids around. Lots of gaming and joking around. The gaming was mostly Super Smash Brothers on Gamecube (not my suggestion B.T.W) and Tenchu 3: Wrath of Heaven on PS2 (Some of the best co-op play ever IMHO). All the kids played around with Garageband and my MIDI keyboard I picked up a while back and came up with some pretty cool stuff all by themselves. Otherwise I’ve not been up to a lot.
My Shure E5c earphones seem to have burned in quite nicely. The frequency response has balanced out a bit but the upper midrange and treble is still in no way harsh. The punchyness in the bass is still there but doesn’t really kick in until the volume is turned up above work-suitable levels (heh). The bass is more consistent overall too irrespective of the sleves I’ve been using although the triple flange sleves are still superior. Perhaps though I am just getting a better seal. I am also getting better inserting the flex sleves and my ears aren’t getting sore (They were quite sore for a day or two). All in all, I’m very pleased with these.
I’m sooooooo looking forward to having some spare time again. It seems I might actually get a chance to take some more regular holidays in the not-too-distant future. I’ve been wanting to do this for quite a long time now but I’d have been leaving work in the lurch by doing so.
Oh, and I had a driving lesson with a local instructor on Saturday. I’ve had a lot of trouble getting hold of an instructor but after the lesson she seems quite happy with my driving and says I should book my test. I plan to do so. She did give me some things to improve on as well but nothing too serious and I plan to take those on board. At this point I’m really looking forward to being able to drive around on my own. I’m not planning to wait around on my full license either which thankfully I won’t have to wait too long for at my age.
After 5 now, I think I might mosey home…
Current Mood: calm
Current Music: Jean Michael Jarre - Ethnicolor - Zoolook
• Friday, July 15th, 2005
I am extremely sick of life right now. There is just so much eating away at my soul. I have zero intentions to do anything stupid but I certainly would not have the slightest blame for those that do. If this is the way things are going to be I wish it would end quickly but I guess though that would make things too easy and I also still have enough optimism to know things will improve. I try to make a point of not taking this crap out on others but with this excruciating pain I feel, I expect it cannot help but colour who I am to a degree. I do feel a bit better getting this off my chest. I guess I will try to steer my mind to more positive thoughts…
Current Music: Winter - October Hill
• Tuesday, July 12th, 2005
I came home today to find my Shure E5c earphones and the DVDs I ordered a while back had arrived in the mail. I was straight into the earphones as I was eager to find out what these things were like with my 4G iPod. Now there’s no point going into detail yet claiming what these sound like and how great (or not) they may be as they haven’t yet had time to burn in. My initial pre-burn in impressions though make me suspect that a number of reviewers on the internet have possibly been commenting on them right out of the box since my impressions are very similar. So far using the default medium sized flex sleeves, the bass response is great. In comparison with my Sony EX71s, there does not seem to be more or less bass but on the E5cs it is deeper, more accurate and much to my delight, very “punchy”. I initially felt that the midrange and treble were a bit lacking but after pondering it more and giving it time, I feel it is more that the EX71s overdo the upper midrange and treble. Listening to the EX71s again afterwards confirmed this to me. The E5cs are not lacking either midrange or treble, but they are more veiled. This in turn makes them less fatiguing to listen to for long periods of time whereas in the past I have found the Ex71s quite harsh and tiring to listen to at times. If anything, the treble especially is much more clearly rendered and nothing is lost in the process. In complex pieces of music with lots of overlapping instruments, each sounds clearly distinct and separate, much more so than the somewhat muddy EX71s. All in all, I’m hoping that these characteristics largely remain as burn in continues. One complicating factor is all the optional sleeves. I tried each type and the best sound clearly came from the triple flange sleeves but these are also the most difficult to insert. The default flex sleeves seem the next best to me but with a good seal there is no comparison to the triple flange sleeves.
One of the DVDs that arrived was my Region 1 copy of Full Metal Alchemist volume 2. Some may remember me complaining about the video quality of the local Region 4 discs and I had ordered this one to see if the R1s were any better. The short answer is no. The R4 disc is slightly fuzzy and washed out with some compression artifacts visible. The R1 is sharper and the colours are more consistent, but the compression artifacts are even worse and the picture is grainy. The most irritating fact is that the problems with the R1 are largely due to the bitrate being to low. I suspected that maybe it was a single layer disc and they just ran out of space with all the extras but on closer examination, it was 5.8GB in size. So, in other words, they only used 23% of the second layer. How on earth this sounded like a good idea to the people mastering the disc is beyond me. Gah!
Current Music: Annie - Chewing Gum - Anniemal
