I went on a four-day trip to Auckland. University T2 has started again. An uncle of mine passed away. Both my parents birthday has come and gone. Rather eventful if I listed it down like that.

I was browsing Gamespot’s Pokemon Diamond when I came across a video that teaches you how to cheat the Pokewalker. OK, this is getting ridiculous. For fuck’s sake, how about not cheat the damn pedometer for once and just start walking? Who knows, maybe your fat blubber might be reduced?

Also, I happened to watch the Eurovision 2010 a few days ago. I think this year(held in Oslo, Norway) wasn’t as good as last year, which was held in Moscow, Russia. The songs weren’t as good as last year. The presentation before each country sang wasn’t as good as last year. Though! Madcon’s performance to while away the time while backstage crew were tallying the final votes was pretty good! I like how we saw each country had a few seconds to appear on the big screen. The in-house cameras all over Europe was a really nice touch as well. Overall, I think Norway did justice to their chosen theme “Share The Moment” what with the appearance of everyday people throughout the show. But when it came to what Eurovision is suppose to do, which is promoting singers with good song choices, they failed.

This year’s winner was Lena singing ‘Satellite’. She hails from Germany.

It sounds to me like a one hit wonder. But we’ll see.

Proof that Europe don’t quite appreciate good songs or singers…

Slovenia – Did not qualify to the final round.

Croatia – Did not qualify to the final round.

Guess who did qualify to the final though? This idiot from Russia.

And to finish up the Eurovision gag, I present Spain with Jimmy Jump about a third way into his performance. Just a note, I hated Spain’s performance as well. The singer looked like a pedophile who had escaped from prison. His breathlessness while singing doesn’t quite help that pedophilia image as well. And then he smiles and really gets into his performance, and the pedophile-o-meter reaches 100000%. I’m not too sure how I manage to sit through his two performances in the final. (Because of Jimmy Jump in his first, he got another go at the end.)

*runs away screaming*

The whole drama is over hosting. User A who shall be known as Missing, hosts around half the people on the board and the activity that is associated with the board. Missing is quite friendly with the owner of the board, who I’ll call Owner, and another person on the board who I’m going to name…Friend.

So, we’re all chugging along together until…oh noez, Missing goes, well, missing. So Owner and Friend check up on Missing with a txt message and Missing told them she’d be gone about two weeks on vacation. But after that, she’ll be back. The masses are appeased for the time being.

The two-weeks deadline come and goes. The masses are unsettled, but not ready to put a pitchfork in someone’s eyes yet until…OH NOEZ, Missing’s domain suddenly goes missing and the server is not serving and mass hysteria ensues.

So one of Missing’s hostee starts a thread on the forum asking whether Missing’s domain is giving out a 404 error to anyone else? A few people agrees with the 404 error. By about the seventh post, users are getting agitated that they might lose their files and all that. By the 15^th post, Missing is being crucified for being MIA. Until about the…20^th post, someone finally has some mind to say that perhaps Missing is in serious health troubles. Thank god, about time. After that, the discussion about the promised torture that shall be inflicted upon Missing on her return dies down dramatically.

Approximately one week passes…

Friend starts a new thread plugging her website that provides hosting to people in need. Well, that’s all great and dandy. I even had a look and it wasn’t too bad, it was pretty decent…besides the damn welcoming message that is probably meant to rub some dirt in Missing’s face! Intro went something like this (excuse my forgetfulness but after I saw that message, I never went back to her website):

…free but reliable hosting…

OK, I know what you’re thinking. “Oh for fuck’s sake, it’s just a damn word which has been italicized! See, even I can italicize it without sounding offensive!” But I think I need to remind you that this is my blog, my rants, my opinions.

So, I see that italicized font and I’m thinking there can be no way that this is some fucking coincidence that Friend not only has a domain after Missing’s sudden indefinite vacation, oh no, it’s a hosting domain, which is supposedly reliable. And that’s what I have an issue with. Nothing is reliable. Nobody is reliable.^** So essentially, Friend is promising something that she in actuality, can’t deliver. (By the way, after all these “reliability” crap, a few days ago, her whole server threw a hissy fit and wasn’t very reliable when pages hosted by her kept throwing up errors to visitors.)

My issues with this whole drama:

1) The people hosted by Missing shouldn’t have stoked the fire of crucifying Missing for “missing files” because the hosted were responsible for their own damn files. They should have made a fucking back-up weekly, or monthly, or whenever they have time to. Not to rely on Missing for back-up. Even if she did promise to have a backup of her whole website including hostees, the hostees should have jolly well have their own files anyway.

I’ve been hosted by a handful of people since I started this whole website thing. And I’ve never once relied on their back-up. This whole image files and whatever, I have it on my hard-drive. If there’s not enough space, I use GSpace. What’s that I hear about “oh noez, yours is a simple website. I use WP and I can’t get a back-up of my database unless my host does it for me!!11!!11″ Well, WP has it’s own database back-up system. Or you can use one of the many plug-ins available to do that. If a script doesn’t have many plug-ins or in-built functions to back-up a database, search through Google for a solution!

2) The whole “I can’t believe Missing would host people and then suddenly go AWOL!” business. Missing hosted all of you out of the kindness of her heart. She pays for the space and name. But does she ask the hostees to pay for the space that they are allocated/used? Nope. So those hostees should suck it up and shut up. Just be grateful she even hosted all these people.

3) Before mother nature can blow away the “Missing gone missing!” drama ashes, maybe even before the fire even burnt out, Friend opened her website with the whole “reliable” thing going on. The whole nature of it cannot be classed as co-incidental. I’ll be really lenient with my thinking and go with the masses that maybe she bought the domain name and had the whole idea for the website to be a hosting domain way before the whole “Missing gone missing!” drama started, but there is no way in hell the whole “reliable-in-your-face” thing could have been done before the drama.

—

^** In hindsight, I realize by saying that, I would instantly be painted as an extreme pessimist. I neither agree nor disagree with that statement. I am merely stating that while living my life up until now, and even my parents telling me, that I should never rely on anything or anyone except yourself. And this advice has served me well.

It’s been about two and half weeks since first trimester ended and I still haven’t sat my first exam. It really is a drag when ¾ of the student population have finished all their exams, and then there’s me who hasn’t even sat one yet. Well, my first one is this coming Friday. I’m going to fail that one. I know it. Fuck.

The next and last(!) exam will be Chemistry on the coming Tuesday. I’m…unsure about that one. I’ve told everyone, and myself, a million times that I intend to just pass that paper. I hate Chemistry but it’s required, so I’m just going to pass it. I’ll be glad if I actually pass it though…

The Saturday straight after my last exam, I’ll be going on a little vacation with two of my friends for four days. It’ll be interesting, me thinks. Not stating where I’m going cause I’m paranoid about my privacy but I’ve never been to this city, hell, I’ve never been to 95% of this whole country (New Zealand). I’ve told my friends that it’ll be a first for me to visit this city, so excited!

I’ve been planning a Teacup 2.0 for the past few months now but I haven’t been happy with where the design ended up. I must have thrashed at least three designs. And I don’t know if other people follow this rule (highly unlikely), any designs that I thrashed are archived. Never to be used. Ever. Again. It feels…dirty to recycle layouts.

An example of her being very supportive </sarcasm> like a friend should…I use to do Taekwondo but I quit not to long after my first exam. (I’m an official yellow belt. Don’t mess with me, hee-yah!) There are a couple of reasons why I quit. The first and foremost was because the instructor kept pairing me up with this friend. So every time we spar, I’ve got to kick and punch her as much as I can. But I can’t. Never once in my short time in that class have I ever lifted a hand with the only reason to hit her. It’s wrong. I just can’t do it. So of course everyone thinks she’s better at fighting, I’m not disputing that. It was my decision, and till today, I won’t change a damn thing. This reason, I have never told anyone before, till today not even my family knows this was one of the main reasons why I quit.

The other reason, which everyone thinks is why I quit, is because I don’t like people touching my neck. I flinch really hard when anyone even puts a hand within 20cm of my neck. And as we progress more in Taekwondo, we’ve got to touch other people’s neck and vice versa. I knew I couldn’t handle that, so I left.

That was at least four to five years ago. Come back to today…I was walking with her and we past this guy giving out fliers about a self-defense course. I wanted to grab it but we were rushing for the train so we walked past him but as the guy tried giving it to her, she said back to him, “No need! I’m doing Taekwondo.” I looked at her and felt like…she’s being smug? Maybe it’s just me but I swear sometimes she likes to have a pissing contest. Anyway!

As we walked, I said quietly that I’d perhaps like to try my hands on self-defense. Streets aren’t safe now and it’s better to have some kind of self-defense, than nothing at all. And she instantly used her hands and reached for my neck. So of course, reflex made my flinch at least a meter away from her. Then she smirks at me and says something like, “Hah! You can’t let anyone touch your neck! And you’re thinking of self-defense?”

And that was all she said. End of topic. I was…well, I just kept quiet. Sometimes I just don’t know what to do. At least it’s off my chest now…

Change of topic. Yesterday I had dinner with a few of my friends. Doesn’t include the one mentioned above. Anyway! I ordered a dish with a description of “served on a sizzling hot plate”…something like that. It was a cold night, I thought “Oh yeah, hot plate! Keep me right warm and toasty!” What actually came though, was a fucking downright disappointment. I read the words “hot” + “plate” and think of an actual hot plate. What came though, was a white plate, which felt like it just came out of a dishwasher. It was such an utter disappointment. And a rip-off.

PS. Click for the music playing to this post. Usual disclaimer apply. I don’t own it, please delete off your server after two days, blah blah. You have been warned. Anything after two days is not in my hands.

Oh yeah, may have been ranting on about DS and all that, below are my latest purchases. The DS Lite was from JB-Hifi while the cellphone charms from a private LJ seller. With the LJ seller, the only reason I bought from her was because the items were going at a really low price.

Forgive the smallness in the “big” preview. Not too sure what’s up with my YAWCAM software. *smacks YAWCAM* I haven’t touched the image settings at all but somehow it’s gone smaller. When I try and get it back to the size it was before, it was a “non-existent” image specification. Yeah right.

Right, the DS. It’s a DS Lite in coral pink. That was the last DS Lite in the store. Instant buy right there. And straight after, I got myself the Pokemon HeartGold. I’m going slow with that game. Trauma Center takes priority. I’ve got patients suffering from GUILT that needs my ~healing touch~. I’m slowly levelling up my Pokemon with the Pokewalker though. It’s on myself most of the time.

With the keychains, they are super-mighty-awesome! The left-most one is a bun and it smells like a real bun! Not joking. I’m being really real here. (＾▽＾) The other two supposedly flashes if a call is incoming (after plastic tab is removed, duh!) I’m waiting until my New Zealand charm breaks off to use these new cuties.

In real life, I attended a 21^st on Saturday night. It was OK. My two other friends and I left at about 12:30AM. I expected to last until about 2AM, guess not. But there’s another 21^st in about two weeks so I’m hoping to last a bit later next time. I learnt that next time, to last late through the night, don’t take a “food” break.

Within three hours, I had already downed three drinks. And these weren’t pissy low alcohol beers/wines. I started off with a Mojito, followed by a Midori/Lemonade mix, had a few sips of Grand Marnier with Lemonade mix finishing off with Cointreau/Lemonade mix. I did not like the Grand Marnier because it had that raisin taste. Yuk. Total spent = NZD ~$30.  Me = (ーー;)

I’ve got a Chemistry assignment which I need to beat with a stick to death at the moment, so…that’s all folks!

I was very upset about the redundancy. And the manager I told you about? Not a good working relationship with her at the moment? Well, if the news she was telling me wasn’t generally categorized as “sad”, she probably would have broken out the champagne and thrown a jamboree party before, during and after she told me the great redundancy news. Not kidding. Her face was trying, and failing for that matter, at containing her smile at the news. Well, that lazy bitch can jolly well…whatever. If I was such a shit employee, why is everyone else sad at seeing me go in a couple of months?

I just wish people weren’t so…frustrating to deal with sometimes. At university, it’s the inconsiderate bastard talking away in a quiet section of the library or the tutor who can’t be bothered helping you find out what’s suppose to be happening, at work it’s the manager who doesn’t know how to behave like a manager or the colleague who’s always taking time off to “study” when we all know she’ll probably waste it on partying until the morning and at home, the brother who’s so lazy that a sea sponge will appear more hardworking.

After I left work today, I felt so dejected and started planning out a lazy holiday after my exams in June. So far I’ve got down that I’ll probably take the train to travel, camp out at a motel/hotel for probably 2-3 days, take the train back. Not too sure yet…all I want is a break from this…madness. I can’t take it anymore. And this holiday is just me. No one to accompany me and tell me what to do, or take advantage of me and all that. It’ll be just me. Like it’s always been.

There was a supposed plan to meet up for dinner with a couple of friends. It’s supposedly happening in 24 hours from now and I still have no idea what time we’re meeting or if it’s actually happening. Doesn’t help that I feel it’s a drag as well…I want to be excited for it, but I just can’t muster the energy. I think I spent all that energy in my work environment.

All I feel right now is this…bone-dead tiredness. I want it to go away, especially since university starts back up next week and my first class is a Chemistry class on 9AM on a [censored] Monday. I hate Chemistry…

Totally change of subject but…you know, I never figured out how some people can develop crushes on a fictional character. Like…say for example, a video game character. Until now.

I was all cruisy-wuizy playing Apollo Justice – Ace Attorney…successfully getting past case one (with the help of a walkthrough, obviously.). Come case number two…and we meet Klavier Gavin. And I’m seriously (♥_♥) at him. Argh! I want it to stop…but I can’t he’s too good looking for a stupid video game character.

And not only is he good looking, he’s fucking hot in court! (That did not just rhyme…) And the person who voiced him for the US version, he sounds hot. I mean, the whole time I was playing case two, I’m sitting there waiting for him to yell “Objection!” I feel like I’m back in college developing crushes at the most minor things.

I don’t know what it is about Klavier Gavin’s character design, but it’s just so appealing. He looks cool, he looks hot, he sounds hot…*melts into a puddle of goo*

— Sorry, it seems the blogger is not in the proper capacity to continue this post. Let’s hope she will be back to her normal human form by the next post. In the meantime, enjoy these pictures of her supposed video-game crush, cause I certainly will!

Objection!

Yeah, I’m just hot.

Mini-tirade over, I’m 99% sure I’ll be getting my paws on the DS Lite Red Mario console next weekend. I can’t wait. Doesn’t help that there’s also the Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver game with more interaction via the pedometer. That should encourage me to exercise more. Mm-hmm. I’ve checked out some games that I may buy initially. They will hopefully include one of the following: Kirby – Canvas Curse; GTA – Chinatown Wars; and Drawn to Life. Hopefully.

And to entertain yourself some more, Modi’s take on good health is sound advice.

PS. Bought a few items online. Should be coming soon. *glee* ♥

These were bought at Hannah’s for NZD $50. They only had this color scheme or the neon orange in this sandal-style. I bought the sandals with the aim to be able to wear it anywhere. Including the office.

This is because my current manager, told my colleague to tell me that my old slippers aren’t “appropriate” for the office and that she has had “complaints” from a few people regarding the slippers. Right…complaints. Other employees are tramping around the building wearing black slippers and uh…yeah. Shall I lodge a complain about them for you?

Yeah, OK whatever. I’m still working on my feelings for my current manager. It’s coming along…

Anyway! With these slippers/sandals, she can’t say a word about it being “inappropriate“. Otherwise…let’s not go there…

But check it out! It’s awesome! I love it. I heart it. A lot. I expected them to be quite tough, but they are one of the most comfortable sandals/slippers I have ever worn. Now let’s hope they last until next summer.

I came across this handy-dandy post that shows a few tips and tricks on optimizing Firefox. I have to recommend the browser.cache.disk.capacity tip. I always knew that Firefox is a real RAM hogger but I didn’t know how to combat this without actually breaking Firefox. Then came along this article and I feel a bit safer knowing that I’ve set a limit that Firefox can’t override.

The fix to my pop-up issue is the last one. And thank god for it! I have already set in my Firefox options menu to always open pop-ups in a new tab. But somehow, some sites doesn’t follow that rule and half the time, will crash my Firefox because of trying to open annoying pop-ups. I’ve used the trick in that article, tested it out, and by my holy moly spaghetti it works! I can now continue along on my happy-browsing walkway.

In real-life, I’m thinking of taking up dancing. Hip-hop/contemporary dancing. Seriously. I’ve been checking out local dance theaters that offer this type of dance classes for beginners like me. There’s only one dance theater around here and the only way to contact them is by calling. The urge to take up this type of dancing came really suddenly and it just won’t go away…I’ll probably call them up to see about this sort of classes. Hmm…