 Screw my unhappy brain...
My shiny new iMac should be arriving on monday. I think I'll take a day off to celebrate.
Gah, I'll need to think of a name for it...Labels: iCatherine, retail therapy
posted by Catherine, 10:14 AM | permanent link
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 Fuckity...
Figured out the reason I wasn't buying a new computer is because I don't feel that I have earned a new computer or any other shiny things. IT'S NOT MY FAULT I HAVEN'T FIGURED THIS SHIT OUT YET, IT'S HARD DAMNIT!!!Labels: computer camp, iCatherine
posted by Catherine, 2:11 PM | permanent link
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 More on just how much I rock...
The science behind these images requires a lot of explaining, but the images themselves are easy to explain: they're my results (in red) pasted over the results of the guys whose work I've been duplicating. (I haven't done the middle sections because they're not that important and they're more image editing that I'm too lazy to do *grins*.) Purple is the expected solutions that things are meant to tend towards (and where you can't see purple, it means things exactly overlap).
 Labels: happily ever after, iCatherine, never going to graduate, phd
posted by Catherine, 4:21 PM | permanent link
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 So, I'm allergic to cleaning...
No, really.
Pretty much since Honours when Liz had a spack with me owning furniture and decided that she was going to revoke my rights to half our bookcase by dumping half a bookcase worth of books on my bed while I was out one night (which I was sure I had blogged about but I can't find it anywhere) my room has been a mess. A big huge mess consisting of things living in boxes and piles and just generally being all over the place because I've been too busy studying to clean up.
So, when I bought myself the ikea furniture a few weeks ago I realised that I ought to go through everything and properly clean. So far I've filled two bags for the vinnies (uh, goodwill, I guess), thrown out several more and sorted all of my craft projects so that I might actually get some of them done. And I have a feeling that in a few more weekends I might actually have a neat bedroom, just in time to go away. :)
And it's so worth the effort even though I can't sleep properly and I can't stop sneezing because of all the stirred up dust.
My laptop's still dead though, which makes me sad. Question for the readers: Should I buy a new one (probably after the trip), or repair poor old Minako? Labels: iCatherine, losing sleep, random, tidy-cat
posted by Catherine, 9:56 AM | permanent link
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 Curse you Apple...
iWant. Labels: iCatherine, reality distortion field
posted by Catherine, 7:39 AM | permanent link
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300 posts later...
...and I still want to do this blogging thing. Who would have thought?
So, in the personal news, Minako is back! Woo! *does the happy laptop dance, which sounds much dirtier than it actually is*
James bought me some stickers from MOO with my flickr photos on them, and I've been gleefully sticking them all over my once immaculately white iBook. I'll post photos later, I imagine.
Actually, on the subject of photos, the other week I knitted a scarf in three days for my dear friend Nilanka's birthday. It was the short row rib from Magknits, knitted in Vintage Hues by Cleckheaton and it was really fun to knit something fun and simple for a change. Which is to say something other than my jacket of doom (last seen in this blog post by my mum), which is coming along nicely, but the last stages (knitting the collar and sewing it up) are going very slow.
As a part of her birthday present I also promised to teach Nilanka how to knit herself, and so last Sunday I went to see her and taught her how to both knit and purl and she's now the proud creator of the first 15cm of a scarf in a 3 rows knit, 3 rows purl rib (much the same as the one I knitted for her, but without the short rows). It's very pretty and I hope she enjoys knitting from now on. I may have to go back in a week or two to teach her how to cast off.
I've also knitted a scarf for Heidi in the last few weeks, but I forgot to photograph it. :(
I'm currently at 6 pages on "Skirting the Paradox", for those who care about my fictional works. I'd love to have this finished soon, but I'm really bad at writing fight scenes, and when you get right down to it the whole story is one long string of fight scenes. *sighs* I kinda just want to skip them and get on with the fun mystery stuff, because that's really the point of the story, but the violent setting keeps getting in the way.
Oh, and I suppose you want to know about the PhD. Well, I think I finally made a breakthrough today. I'm still not going to finish anytime soon, but I feel like I know what's going on and where I'm headed. I'm sure that'll only last a day or two, but right at this moment, I'm feeling good about it.
James has started a new job today. That makes me inordinately happy. I imagine he'll be blogging about it soon enough. In the meantime, everyone should go and read his post where he points out the uncanny resemblance between the latest iPod posters and screenshots from Battle Royale. Because it's awesome and while I believed him when he first told me that was what they look like I didn't realise just how similar the imagery was.
My sister has packed herself a "go-bag" in case of terrorist attack during the APEC summit next month. We're reasonably certain she's being ironic, since it primarily consists of her St John's Ambulance first aid kit (which she keeps in her car anyway), a change of clothes and a packet of timtams (which will someday run out), but you can never be too sure.
My grandmother on my father's side is currently in the Sydney Eye Hospital (she had the cataracts removed from one eye last week and it promptly became infected) and yesterday she had an operation which was apparently successful. She's in the room next door to Anthony Mundine, who's got himself a horrible eye infection because he noticed a speck on his contact lens and licked it to get it clean. The good news is that my nanna will be fine, the bad news is that no one is sure about "the Man".
Actually, while we're on the subject of Catherine's relatives, my grandmother on my mum's side recently loaned me her collection of newspaper clippings about her father (my great grandfather), Edward Michael Boland. My mum took the time to scan them all into a pdf file for posterity, and it's available for download if you are interested in my family history. He was a great man (even the Queen recognised it, giving him an OBE *smiles*), being Apprenticeship Commissioner in NSW for more than 20 years, known for being fair minded and working with Liberal governments in power despite him being a Labor man through and through. Grandma informed me that the Liberal government actually changed the age of retirement laws so that he could stay on longer in his job.
My favourite quote from the collection reads:
The Commissioner is not concerned that his OBE puts in the same order of chivalry as the Beatles with their MBEs. But he commented wryly: "I still prefer youths with hair short back and sides."
- (We think the Sunday Telegraph), 27th June, 1965
Moving on to the world outside my circle of peoples, we have a couple of great bits of news to discuss:
Giant Lego man washed up on Dutch beach
This is just amazing. Both for the quotes ("I saw the Lego toy floating towards the beach from the direction of England.") and for the thought that maybe he was made to walk the plank on a giant Lego pirate ship. Or maybe he was just washed overboard. We may never know!
China tells living Buddhas to obtain permission before they reincarnate
You read that right. The Dalai Lama must now ask permission (no doubt in triplicate) before he reincarnates.
And while that sounds amusing at first (and indeed, those of us here in the office laughed when we first read it), it's also terribly sad when you think of the Chinese government using this power to corrupt the beautiful mysticism of the Tibetan people.
Skipping away from depressing news, the new iMacs were released today. I think they're pretty ugly, what with the giant black border around the screen (which is really a quite clever way of hiding the fact that you can't actually fit a computer in the space behind the screen alone), but they're better than the mockups James showed me last week and still reasonably sexy. And I'm sad to say that I want one like burning. Good thing they haven't released Leopard yet, or I'd be in trouble. Bloody Steve.
And this story about Magic has just made my day. I must wire some of those switches into my life.
So, this is the end of my 300th blog post. Was it good for you too?Labels: crafty-Cat, Domus Prime, family, history, iCatherine, knitting, lego, longest blog ever, magic, never going to graduate, news, old photographs, phd, reality distortion field, web stuff, writing
posted by Catherine, 9:52 AM | permanent link
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blargh...
Finally felt I was human again after all those conferences, and my immune system promptly declared that it was shutting down to recover from all my stresses too. Which means I now have the flu, and am completely unable to function (though for some reason I decided a half-day at work would make me feel better... why?).
The only good thing about all of this is that I finally looked at the ingredients list for those hot lemon drinks and realised that the reason I feel worse after my mum foists one on me is that they contain phenylalanine (try typing that three times fast while under the influence of a cold), which always makes me feel headachey and bleh.
Minako has gone in for service, and we can only hope that she will come out of it okay. The ASA has very nicely given me $200 towards the repairs, which is about the nicest and most generous thing I've ever encountered from such a big organisation.
So anyway, if I'm not online much at the moment, that's why. Sickly, and without my nice computer.Labels: conferences, iCatherine, sickly-Cat
posted by Catherine, 10:04 AM | permanent link
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 Back to work today...
Not that the thought of going back doesn't make me into a gibbering wreck, but we have to fight past that if we want to succeed (and go on that long-awaited round-world trip when I get the PhD). So, it's a new day and I'm going to fight on.
James has taken charge of my iBook, and yesterday he pulled it apart enough that he was able to get it charging. With two full batteries, it looks like he might be able to do a full backup of the hard disc, which would be great. And if we're lucky, when he puts it all back together it might just work. Otherwise, we'll apply money to the problem and see what Apple has to say. I've only had one good experience with Apple servicing my machines (*huggles the replaced iPod, named Haruka for the curious*) and a couple of bad ones with respect to the laptop, so we'll see what happens.
The toe's almost completely healed up, which is great. Still hurts sometimes when a shoe presses on it in the wrong direction, and doesn't quite have full mobility, but it's close enough.
The conferences are mostly done; I just have to do a set of final updates to the websites with photo galleries and the like, but I'm hoping that will be sufficiently fun that it doesn't particularly stress me out anymore. Oh, and I have to make a naked set of web pages for the WA peoples who are hosting it next year, remembering that I need to put in a few pranks, to see how long they propagate in the system.
Anyway, I'm going to go catch a bus now. Hope this finds you all in great health and spirits, and that you've all kept out of mischief while I've been away. I will be catching up on everything soon, I promise.Labels: astronomy, conferences, iCatherine
posted by Catherine, 7:38 AM | permanent link
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and I'd get him to give me a fucking computer because this just isn't fucking fair...
Uh, I'm down one laptop battery now, and I'm not sure if there's enough charge on the other to get me through the conference tomorrow. Then I will send it off to Apple to see if there's anything to be done, or if I'm just screwed for all eternity, just like Brendan's old iBook.
I'm very tempted to just throw myself out the window, but I know it's not high enough.Labels: conferences, iCatherine
posted by Catherine, 6:36 PM | permanent link
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(1) comments
I need a crippled Chibi-Catherine icon...
Well, it's certainly looking busted. All black and blue and ouchies, but it's mostly stopped hurting. Oh, it aches when I put any weight on it, and it feels completely mongey most of the time, but at least it's not actually throbbing like it was last night and this morning.
I guess that's why they call me Catherine the shocker.
The rest of the conference went well, I had a lot of fun and talked to people about many things. It was mostly interesting (there's a certain speaker who is notoriously bad, but we were very short on speakers so in he went, but it did mean that everyone fell asleep in the first session after lunch today.
So that's one conference done, another one to go, and all I need to do now is figure out why my laptop has stopped responding to the charger. I plug it in, and instead of turning amber the light flashes amber and then goes green, and the percentage charge on the battery continues to go down. I'll jiggle the cable a bit when I'm done with the blog, and hope that it sets things right, but I really need to get this sorted before the other conference on monday. *sighs* At least I have three other batteries to last me a few days if it really is kablamo. Maybe I can rush over to the shops to get myself a macbook (although they don't accept student discounts anymore, so I think I'm screwedd in that regard too).
Anyway, I'm going to stop stressing now and go to bed. Maybe I'll even find the time to go to a doctor tomorrow.
Labels: conferences, iCatherine, pain, suck
posted by Catherine, 11:00 PM | permanent link
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(3) comments
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My Diary
Diary Archive
What My Desktop Looks Like
Current Craft
Finished Craft
Rose's wrist warmers
What I Can Hear
Made in Twenty (20) by BoA
Pocky I have loved
Décoré: -Montblanc Chocolat
-Strawberry Gateau
Mousse: -Hokkaido White
-Honey & Milk
-Yoghurt
-Chocolate Orange
-Pumpkin
-G
-Almond
-Milk
-Coffee
-Mens
-Strawberry
-Original
Current Anime / TV
Code Geass
Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori
Hikaru no Go
xxxHOLiC
Recent Movies
TMNT (woo!)
Hot Fuzz
The Illusionist
The Holiday
Casino Royale
Websites
The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation
Wonderella
James Crisp's Website
Spamusement
Cheap (last-minute) Accomodation
John Howard, Prime Minister
Project Gutenburg Distributed Proofreading
God Ate My Homework
Neighborhood Hazard
Big Bunny
Sydney Harbour Webcam
Brendan's American Pie Archive
Sailor Jupiter's Colouring Page
PrincessSerenity (Where I got my sm eps from)
My friends are like that sometimes.
Lee Soo Young
Elemental Haiku
[German] Anime Cocktails (I'm hanging out to try a Dr. Tomoe's Special)
[FF] "Nothing Special"
Sailormoon Cocktails
Korean Teas
Japanese compliments
Cool Photo of the Columbia
Amusing (The US should go to war with everyone)
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