2006-03-22

repetition

Enough repetition of the same thing will drive anyone nuts. I've been going to Fitness First Indooroopilly basically 5 mornings a week and I reckon I hear the Samsung LCD TV and Samsung D600 ads about 5 times each in 2-2.5hrs. Also, constant constant repetition of "Standing Still" by Jewel, "Eight Easy Steps" by Alanis Morrisette, and "Breathless" by The Corrs. On slightly lower frequency rotation, "Escape" by Enrique Iglesias (that's not so bad, at least Anna Kournikova appears in it.) It drives my flatmate nuts too. Is it just the price of going to the gym these days? I remember at the UQ gym they used to play "Roses" by Outkast over and over on Channel V, which I thought was complete talentless shite, much like (more current FF music) "Rock'n'Roll Machine" by Client, "Tomorrow" by Lillix, "Sk8er Boi" by Avril Lavigne, "Axel F" by Crazy Frog... surely no-one buys that shite, the record companies do to put it up the charts in a Scientologyesque fashion. If I brought my own music, then I wouldn't get to talk to anyone. :(

2006-03-19

escape

I have left the Indooroopilly place for Corinda. I remember Jenny wrote in her blog that she should not have stayed
with Indra for so long. But I can't remember what the problems she had with Indra were, exactly. And probably neither can she ;) One thing I remember clearly is that Indra complained her showers were too long. But the graph shows Indra was right! Dam levels in Brisbane have been dropping continuously since March 2004 - we have a problem here! Another problem was Indra would make phone calls from 7 in the morning after Jenny came home from night shift at Ginga. And Indra complained once she had left two lights on at once for some small period of time, and Indra had forbidden guests except for Midori one time. I think that was it, was it? She was just too picky about small things?


First impressions count, it's true. I stayed too long at F's place, I had too much inertia... I should note any signs O gives me quickly. I guess I should have noticed immediately that there was no way it could be F's house - very few people can afford that sort of place at 27 and he had not been working. People who get given expensive houses by their parents tend to be spoilt by the experience, I would say. I'm actually glad my parents would not buy me a car, like my boss did for his son. Next problem was that F forbade his tenants to ever have people stay over - while his girlfriend was living there! (and just what was his problem with people staying over anyway?) And she was forbidden to talk to the tenants... And when he placed the ad after my flatmate M left, he wrote that it was just 2 males and no females - like she didn't exist. No parties allowed, except he had one himself recently. And the time he interviewed 14 prospective flatmates but said there was no-one suitable. The times he lied to me about the reason for wanting me out, and that he had someone to come in after me. Why did I put up with it for so long? Some inertia problem! That's the last thing I wrote on my old blog too (uh oh!) -- why did I put up with low pay in Iran for so long? Hmmmm.


So, the first things I have noticed when I have turned up on Saturdays at O's place - he plays music a lot in the living room, he is pretty relaxed about security (I should insure my notebook!), and he hasn't written me a receipt yet for the first two weeks' rent - well, I haven't given him any bond yet either. There probably is none, but we haven't really discussed it. I hope not discussing things works well, because we are similar enough ;) I hope I get the receipt today. He was going to a dinner party last night in New Farm and remarked that he should have bought a unit in New Farm, Fortitude Valley, or Teneriffe ("really the same suburb" he said) because all his friends live there. This could be because he used to live there, or it could be because all his friends are gay. It would be good for me to have good friends in about the same proportion as in the population, though, wouldn't it? That is, half female, half male, about 2% gay. And would be good to have uncommitted, unmarried, single, straight male friends. But I think the straight male world of Australia doesn't work like that - I would need to join an organised team or group or something. I don't have so many one-on-one friendships with unattached straight males -- perhaps at my age they are usually attached somehow? Or if they are not attached, there's something wrong with them? I don't know... am I missing out on something in life by not having enough of these kinds of relationships? Perhaps just by reading Jenny's blog I got the impression she had no problem with having lots of single straight female friends. Or I am just worried I am becoming a fag stag or about something I read in a book about love and shyness.


I lost horribly at chess on Thursday night after my opponent gave a piece away in the first 5 moves. Unbelieveable. Cost $100 in a rating group prize too. Oh well. Perhaps I should go back to the trivia night instead.

2006-03-18

Samsung PC Studio

Today I installed Samsung PC Studio on my old laptop. It's the notorious Compaq Evo N115, which shut down after a few minutes of CPU usage at 100%. It doesn't have a screen anymore when I went walking with it in the rain in Auburn, Alabama...


Anyway I managed to download all the text (SMS) messages off my phone (Samsung D600) except the ones longer than 160 characters. Apparently these are "EMS messages" and a message comes up saying "This is a EMS message! View in phone". So I can't move those to the computer - I can only delete them with that program. It would be nice if there were a "Message Manager" program like that for the Mac. While googling today I thought maybe I can treat it like a modem and send Hayes AT commands like "AT&V" to it and download them that way. But do I have time to write my own software to do it? I wish Samsung would respect Mac owners enough to write a "Mac Studio". I will have to write to them.

2006-03-09

Recently I have been looking at return airfares to Seoul from Brisbane around May 1. I have been using Zuji because it is so flexible and I think it would be cheaper than using a travel agent anyway. I can't understand how Flight Centre is still in business. Anyway yesterday I set the dates for Flexible (anytime in April or May) and the cheapest airline was China Airlines from Taiwan.
Every time you click on a date and it's unavailable, the system searches for 2 days before and 2 days after the date you picked as well. So I spent a while clicking and got this. Kind of funny.


Currently, the cheapest is Cathay Pacific, which my officemate says is supposed to be a great airline! I should be able to decide by Monday 5pm at the latest what to do.


I am still looking at options for where to live. I will be looking at two places in Indooroopilly on Friday and Monday, I think, and a place in Corinda on Saturday. I had a discussion with landlord last night - he still wants me to leave by the 23rd. It will be good to meet some new people, I reckon. He suggested I buy a car too... he said girls will respect me more or something like that. I don't think I have mentioned that reasoning to him, but it does reflect my thoughts. I have been browsing Sam and the City a bit - many Australian men have "given up" on caucasian Australian women -- I know many people like that in real life here too.


Personal training is costing a lot of money lately. I want results. And I have no excuse for not getting a Persian teacher now.

2006-03-03

march is here

This means it's the end of summer in Australia. There will be fewer varieties of fruit in the shops. :-(


I had a dream last night. I was on the bus on the way to university, but it was an Iranian bus (in Australia haha!), so all the girls had to wear headscarves while they were ON the bus. But for some reason, boys and girls were sitting together, and exchanging adult films on CDs and USB drives. The school bus these days must a very different experience to when I was at school. In my day the rebels would sit at the back of the bus perusing Penthouse Black Label (does that even exist anymore?). Of course, I was a good Christian boy so I never bought anything like that. In the early 1980s, there were some feminists like Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin who used to argue that porn was about the subordination of women and should be banned. I don't agree - who gets to decide what "porn" is? Some scientific research has found porn is good for you and lately people make their own adult videos, so how can that be exploitative. Surely a case can be made that they are educational.


I was going to write about my loss last night at the chess club :-( but still too embarrassed.