Did I tell you about the man in the Pub who told me my laugh was horrible? well.. he told me my laugh was awful. He also mentioned my blue eyes were a sign of madness. well. I've been noticing he's in the carpark when I leave work, sitting in his car. and today, I was walking towards my car when i heard a loud cough and turned to see him crossing the road towards the car park. suddenly, I seem to see him everywhere. Weirdo guy. He's a jockey of a man. Older and small and pointed. Not a very nice heart I don't think. He sits at the bar with a man about as opposite to him as you can get - large and bellowy and handlebarmoustachey. I don't like either but prefer the larger man if either is going to talk to me. They sit in our seats, and that annoys me. I don't like sitting on the straight of the bar i prefer the curve. My brother phoned me today. Yah. He's keen on going to Rotorua for Boxing Day to see the other Parks and the Chalkers. Jo might come too. So it looks like I am driving down to Mum's for Christmas Day and to Rotorua Boxing Day. Thank God I have plans at last. I was feeling like a loser for a while there. Thinking I would sleep away the 25th December and pretend it didn't bother me that I had no where to go. Saying that, I haven't asked mum if I can come to Christmas lunch yet, but I suppose it'll be okay. My brother got all the cool genes you know. He got the quiet and mysterious cool genes and I got the knock-things-over genes. --------

Farah was reading Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. [another link for you] This book is the only book of recent times that I have read from beginning to end. Not really because it was brilliant, though parts of it made me laugh out loud, but because Mike "the goose" Perry told me to read it and if that man told me to set myself on fire and leap from the Coopers Lybrand building, I would. [ bit from the book ] "Many phenomena - wars, plagues, sudden audits - have been advanced as evidence for the hidden hand of Satan in the affairs of man, but whenever students of demonology get together the M25 London orbital motorway is generally agreed to be amoung the top contenders for Exhibit A. Where they go wrong, of course, is assuming that the wrteched road is evil simply because of the incredible carnage and frustration it engenders every day. In fact, very few people on the face of the planet know that the very shape of the M25 forms the signal 'odegra' in the language of the Black Priesthood of Ancient Mu, and means "Hail the Great Beast, Devourer of Worlds". The thousands of motorists who daily fume their way around its serpentine lengths have the same effect as water on a prayer wheel, grinding out an endless fog of low-grade evel to pollute the metaphysical atmosphere for scores of miles around." It was one of Crowley's better achievements. It had taken years to achieve, and had involved three computer hacks, two break-ins, one minor bribery and, on one wet night when all else had failed, two hours in a squelchy field shifting the marker pegs a few but occultly incredible significant metres. When Crowley had dwatched the first thirty-mile long tailback he's dexperienced the lovely warm feeling of a bad job well done." [ / bit from the book ] Kyle just made me coffee. Coffee tastes better when someone else makes it. The Articulate is still down. Differing statements from Hotelchat monitors have on one hand a Hardware problem with the server which was due to be fixed by yesterday but wasn't to the Hotel being shut down because it's too expensive to maintain. I hope its the former, not the later. I know the Articulate stinks even on a good day, but it's still a habit and a meeting place. Most of us don't have contact outside that room - not that I need to see 98% of the people that cruise by there, but then there is JohnB and raja and coolbananas and annapray and vampi and cherry and.. well.. lets just hope it's not the former otherwise I'm gonna have to use my thinking cap and work out lateral contactions. [nice new term mish]. Speaking of digital cameras, wouldn't it be nice to have one. A brochure arrived yesterday, the back cover showcasing Sony digitals. They are still so very expensive - 2 or 3 grand for a camera makes me choke - but I've been seeing and seeing the results from these babies and they're so impressive. Adam sent me a 6 second video clip taken with his Sony and yesterday, Scott sent me content for the Project using a Sony digital camera they have on trial down there, and the results were better than our Canon XL1 still shots (that thing's over-the-top for still shots). I am not at the stage of needing a digital, but am considering purchasing a small video camera for my trip overseas in April. I'll have to see how the finances go. It might be better to buy a lens for the old Pentax afterall. --------

So lazy, in fact, it's taken me until now, Monday morning, to write anything. My weekend was weak - I was lazy. I managed a load of washing and to clean the flat up including my filing cabinet but, that's all I managed. I didn't do any of my assignment, I didn't work on anything webby, I didn't work on my albums, I didn't draw anything. I got to phone Adam twice which was a lovely way to spend a Sunday morning then evening. I didn't go to the gym either. I did wrap parcels for [act] and yadda though, and a letter for Adam. Gathered up Magdy's address too for a similar parcel drop. Trying to think of a good 'something' to send the vdbosses for Christmas. And decided it was way beyond time I sent Charles his Golden Syrup. Behind where I work is a carpark.. and behind that is a large building that has been renovated over the last month or so. Last week they painted the sign "Target Education" on the side. Today, in the paper, there is an advertisement from Target Education offering a 19 week course in Graphic Design. Looks like another Multimedia/Graphics/IT college setting up. Looks like Papatoetoe is becoming the New Media Centre of Auckland at this rate. With Native Design up the road offering courses in web and Internet related software, Aztech Productions (us) offering cdrom production and computer based learner, and now a big freaking college spitting out new recruits, looks like employers'll be spoiled for choice. My life class ended. The final drawings from the last class were done in a very sticky, very messy, oil pastel - and besides the fact they weren't very good - they are impossible to scan due to media and scale. So that's the end of the artwork for a while. The term begins again in February, no doubt. The new tutor is good. Turns out Mike at work here knows her and Greg did the drains for the Company she works for.. Mango Design. It's a small world. --------