aaaahhhh....

... man is it good to be sitting in my recliner with my feet up and the chair slightly reclined!! Excuse me for a minute while I let myself think, temporarily of course, that this is heaven. Aaaahhhh... soooo comfy...

... zzzzz ...

... oops almost drifted off, sorry!!

Sometimes I think going shopping aint that bad and sometimes I think it's hell on earth. Right now my feet hurt, my knees hurt, my fingers are chafed and dry, my elbows hurt and my head hurts. Tonight Indooro seemed so hot which is most likely the cause of my headache. And carrying heavy shopping bags around for a couple of hours hasn't helped either. I can't believe how red raw my hands feel from the chafing they must have copped from the plastic bags. Generally I feel pretty crappy right now but I'll survive now that I've had a whinge!

One good thing came from the trip though, I managed to snag a copy of Eldest. The second novel in the Inheritance series by a "new" author Christoper Paolini. Why am I excited about a book that has been out for a reasonably long time?? Well they finally made it in a "normal" sized printing!! Previously it has only been available in a large format book and not what you would call a standard novel sized volume. I have had Eragon sitting in my bookcase since I first spotted it, which now feels like forever ago. I have been refusing to buy Eldest until it came out in a reasonable size, and now it has!! Looking forward to devouring it... hmmm... tasty new book... *drools*

Funny thing is when I went to the movies a few weeks ago I saw all these posters for a new movie called Eragon and it seems that it is indeed the film version of the book of the same name. Which is an interesting investment by the filmmakers in a series that at the time of shooting had hardly begun to evolve... in fact I'd question if the second book had been published when they started making the movie of the first!! I am, of course, assuming that they plan to turn the rest of the trilogy into film also so it was an interesting gamble on their behalf. Unless they knew more about it than we did from the beginning!

Well by the time Eragon hits our screens I will be hankering for the third novel and I hope the movie can help tide me over until then. I hope it's better than trying to watch the trailer though because at the moment trying to do so is like drawing blood from a stone... I'll have to watch it some other time...

NB: this blog entry was written last night and I tried to publish it on about five ocassions without success... hopefully it publishes this time, even though the "moment" has been lost...

Just another one of those days...

... ever had one of those days where no how hard you try you just can't physically bring yourself to be at work for a second longer? It was 16:30 when I finally snapped this afternoon. I'd been staring around the office for god knows how long, I'd checked and rechecked my email for something new to do, I'd checked, rechecked and triplechecked my to do list for anything interesting to do and then suddenly I'd had enough. I was soooo bored, it had been building for an hour and a half or so, and I just couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't concentrate and I had even started to get a headache from not doing anything productive. So I upped and left. Now I know I just lost all of you who aren't in a job where that is possible from my "I feel your pain" empathy group but I did it so learn to deal :)

I stepped outside and into pretty much what I had expected... (the BoM website gets hammered at the hint of rain by everyone in my building)... heavy, grey clouds and moderately heavy rain. Which cheered me up. I like being out in the rain and walking. For some reason it makes me happy. Now I'm not talking walking around drenched in the rain, although that can be fun too! I'm talking huddled under an umbrella walking while the sound of rain beats down on your umbrella, splashes of water are still getting you everywhere, cars driving past create cool sound effects and the wind is usually up making you just a little cold. I love it. I don't know why but being pent up in an office or sitting inside while that is going on is always frustrating, for some reason I just want to be outside in the rain.

Unfortunately by the time I'd gotten off the train the sun was breaking through, the rain has eased to what you could barely call "spitting" and my lovely, dreary, rainy afternoon had deteriorated into that cloudy yet sunny, warm yet cold, paradox that spells the end of my fun. Oh well maybe I can go outside and jump in some puddles to try and reclaim the moment! :p

Rude Mick!!

Ok I admit it, I've been very rude. Here I am talking on and on about baby blue and I am still yet to formally introduce the little guy to the world. Well, the time has come. With no further ado, here is my little baby blue for all to see:



I must admit I found it harder than I thought to get a nice photo of him because he's so shiny and the lighting over the kitchen table wasn't helping by shining right down directly on him. Sure I could've tried to take the photos elsewhere but that would have required more effort than I was feeling at the time... remember Mick is lazy... this is my best attempt at showing you how shiny he is and how vivid the screen looks:



And finally I didn't think it was fair for everyone to say hi to baby blue without allowing him the chance to return the favour:


So there he is ladies and gents, baby blue. I am still waiting on my official Dell invoice which should provide me with an easy opportunity to copy and paste his specs for everyone to see... for now be content to look at some very crappy, badly taken photos of him to tide you over.

Mum & Dad will be here soon for our weekly dinner so I'm off to finalise preparations...

Plans change

So after being asked to play indoor cricket it turns out I wasn't required. When you're standing with the team prior to the game and you realise there are a lot of team shirts being worn around you then you start to think you might not be required. When you then count them and discover there are eight that thought becomes a reality.

Surprisingly I am not that annoyed that I wasted the effort. Mainly because this means I get a little Baby Blue Entertainment, from now on to be known as BBE, while watching one of my new favourite TV shows Criminal Minds. This episode has been a bit flat but maybe that is because baby blue is distracting me.

Mainly because he is mainly showing me the live Brownlow Medal count. Which is having its own dramas. After 10 rounds of the count Brownie was actually leading on 13 points!! For those not in the Mick know Brownie is far and away my favourite AFL player. I have been known on many ocassions to say "I love Brownie in a way a man should not love another man", which I admit is a blatant rip off of Dunc when he talks about Matty Clarke but I don't care. I love Brownie and I am not afraid to admit it.

Unfortunately Brownie's season went downhill after he began to struggle with injury but it was pleasing to see it wasn't just Lions fans who thought he was on fire early this year. The men in white (yes I know they don't wear white much anymore) thought so too. Currently Scott West is leading the way, after 14 rounds, on 19 points... will Charlie be hanging around his neck finally? He is a champion of the game and it would be fully deserved.

Only time will tell... oh and I lied... this episode is getting quite good...

News Alert: Nemo Found

It's ok, you can now all rest easy. Nemo has been found in Sydney Harbour by his dads friend Dory. Marlin & Nemo have been reunited and no doubt live happily ever after... at least until the sequel :p

It's on, it's on...

... Finding Nemo is on!!! Woooot!!

Just what I needed for a lazy Sunday evening. Cruising the information superhighway with baby blue on my lap while watching Marlin attempt to find his son Nemo... ahhh.... it's a good life.

What is not so good is what happened to baby blue this afternoon. He got sick :( When ordering my notebook part of the package was a 15 month subscription to McAfee Security Centre which seemed pretty cool. This afternoon after installing a few things it started going nuts telling me about PUPs, or Potential Unwanted Programs. Seemed little baby blue had been infected.

Sure it's my fault for not looking after the little guy properly and I'm trying to make it up to him by letting him display all sorts of pretty things and play nice sounds but I feel bad nonetheless.

I guess when life gets you down you gotta just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

Enough to make you angry...

... so I forgot the part of the story I wanted to blog most about my pint with Ben last night. He had just given me a $20 (it was his shout) to get the beers so I dutifully headed to the bar while he ordered the snacks. Upon arriving at the bar I perused the on tap selections and decided upon Stella Artois for our pints. I ordered a couple and casually, in true Mick style, leaned on the bar waiting for him to finish pouring. When he presented the pints I presented the dosh and waited for the change... I got it, he left and then I stood there staring at my hand. In it I had a $2 coin... yes a $2 coin.

In disbelief I looked at the guy, but he had already walked away. He started chatting to another bar staff and I waited for him to look back at me. He attempted to leave the bar area, saw me still there and came over. I said "Those pints were $9 each?" with a slight incredulous tone in my voice, he replied "Yes" and I just walked away.

Moral of the story: O'Malleys in the Brisbane CBD is off limits in future for Friday arvo pints ok Ben?

And just quickly installing software on a new computer is something I enjoy. Getting the chance to set everything up again just the way I like it is something that only a true geek can understand. Just before I was sitting here and I torrented the latest version of WinRAR. When it completed I went to the directory where the torrent files are located to install and found that the WinRAR installer and associated files were archived in a RAR file. Just gotta love the irony... need WinRAR to open RAR files, so download WinRAR only to find the file is in RAR format... funny yet frustrating.

ARGH!!

So it is now official, as if there was any doubt, I am an idiot. After coming home from work I was uber keen to prove Ben wrong and blog. However I was unable to log in to blogspot... it kept saying "Invalid Password" so I was trying to remember what password I set during my hazy, fatigue based setup of my blog last night (yes it is much later now than last night and yes I am more tired now).

Problem was I was convinced I knew what the password was... and it turns out I did. What was wrong was I kept putting in the wrong username. Stupid me forgot that my display name MrJorge is different to my blogspot username... once I figured that out here I am... blogging...

Today, thankfully, was a much cruisier day at work and for once that wasn't caused by it being a Friday. The work I was planning for and stressing about yesterday and took up most of my day turned out today to not be as bad as I was dreading. In my usual idealistic frame of mind I was trying to completely cutover one "system" (for want of a better word that won't require detailed in depth technical explanation) to another.

I knew we only needed to cutover some by next weekend but I lost track of that concentrating on the big picture and doing it all properly in the first place... i.e. ideally. Someone pointed out to me that all I needed to do was cutover the little bit that HAD to be done by next weekend and then plan to cutover the rest slowly piece by piece at a later date. Once that was pointed out to me the change proposal documentation and associated planning was a breeze... sure it leaves me with a lot of work still to do later but it gets me to my goal by the deadline in a way that ensures less stress and less prepatory work. Which is good... I stubbornly think it would be better to do it all properly in one go but there just isn't time...

Anyway after work I met up with Ben for a pint and we had a good chat. It was refreshing to just sit and chat with him because we normally hang out at "events" and don't actually get that much time to really chat. I enjoyed the chat and the pint and hope he did too.

I then came home to go to Dunc's and watch the Swans vs Dockers AFL preliminary final. The Dockers struggled bravely but probably fairly lost the match. Which pissed me off as I hate the way Sydney have been playing lately and the "purist" in me (thank you Ben) wanted Freo to march on. I believe it would have wonders for Freo and wonders for the sport in general if they had advanced but it wasn't to be. F@#$ing Swans!!

Dropping another mate home and discovering the Captain Cook Bridge and Riverside Expressway were shot just about summed up my night... I'm now tired, hot, have a headache and am grumpy. But I got to chat to Scotty while messing with my laptop so I got something out of being home... sleep is the next and some cuddles from Bee... night all.

My new home!!

Welcome to my new home on the internet. I am blogging this while I sit in my lounge room with my new baby on my lap... and no Belinda hasn't given birth but Dell did!! They produced me a beautiful blue baby Inspiron 6400 notebook. Clever ppl they are :)

Sure I had to pay for it but I feel it was worth it. I will blog soon with the specs of my new toy so you can all drool in envy and wish you were me. I know you all do that anyway but this will give you yet another reason to do so.

I'm very, very tired right now it is about 22:40 Bris Vegas time and I have had an absolute sh1t of a week at work which has been dragging me down. On top of that life outside work has been pretty damn hectic also... anyone who has seen the inside of my house recently will certainly attest to that (or they will simply point out what we all know... Mick is very, very lazy).

So I don't know how far I will get customising this blog for tonight but I will at least put in a token effort but expect to see "Mick's World" (yes this is a deliberate knock off of Wayne's world and I want you all think "party time, excellent!!" everytime you log on here) change over the coming days... or weeks.

Unlike my old blog I will be attempting to keep this one very much updated... if only so I can feel ub3r l33t sitting in my lounge room blogging on my notebook.

For now, good night and welcome to Mick's World...