Programmed: Something you can’t change.

Its been a while since I’ve posted something here, so I thought I will do some kind of update.

I decided to start selling again on eBay about a month ago. The first week or two I wasn’t making many sales and it didn’t feel as though it was going to be worthwhile in continuing to sell but thankfully sales picked up.

Around the 2nd week in I received a policy violation warning about selling a blender set that was infringing “Copyright” of Brand Power Australasia. After reading the violation warning and trying to make sense of it all, I thought I had to remove the brand name related to the product and also removing “Danoz Direct” from the Item Description.

After a week of contemplating as to whether to relist it I decided that I would, and it was the wrong decision. The listing had been up for around three days until last Monday when the item was removed and I was slapped with another policy violation, and as it was my 2nd violation, I was slapped with an item listing restriction for 7 days. This restriction meant that I could not list any new items nor could I edit any existing item. SO NOT HAPPY EBAY

I wrote to eBay customer support a couple of times begging requesting for the restriction to be lifted but nah, they weren’t budging, their replies didn’t even show one sign of empathy, heartless barstards! lol. The reason why I was so desperate to have the ability to sell again is because my supplier was having all these specials on the items that had been selling so well, and I knew that if they were listed with a special price I would have sold a lot.

I was still able to sell items which was good but now I only have 5 items up for listing of which the last one will end on Wednesday. I am able to relist items on Monday which I am l0oking forward to because I have so many things to list, some items’ start price will be starting from $0.99! I have also decided to open up an eBay store, I’ve called it “Ben’s Bargain Deals“. I also got creative and made a banner for it:

Ben's Bargain Deals

Well, I wasn’t really creative because all I did was steal a background from PhotoImpact and put a bit of text on top. I welcome any banner submissions that I could use instead of the one I have created =P . (310 x 90)

I would like to share these videos created by KSicsFaces, the video titles explain themselves:

Karem quite easily expresses my many thoughts about this topic, some views of which I vary rarely talk about with other people.

Tomorrow I’m going paint ball skirmishing. I’ve never been skirmishing so I’m looking forward to it quite a bit.

Thanks for reading

One chapter closes and another one opens

Its amazing how fast a week and a half goes, that’s how long its been since I’ve made my last blog entry. This time though I’ve wanted to do a blog entry the few days but other things have just taken priority I guess.

Last Monday night was the last night of the league and it was important for two reasons. The first reason is that Paul and I needed to win at least 5 points to have any chance to come first in the league, unfortunately we only won 2 points which meant we come second. It did make us feel a little better that by the end of the night we couldn’t have won anyway because 1st place won enough points to secure 1st spot, it may have been different if we applied pressure, oh well.

The second reason why Monday night was important was that it was the last time in at least a year that I would be bowling in a league. It didn’t really hit me sentimentally that it was the last night I was bowling until the end of the day, where I was thinking of how long I had been bowling for. Its definitely going to be a chapter that’s being closed in my life, it is a very strange feeling that I had committed to this decision that I had made at the beginning of the year, but its a decision that I’m glad I made.

I haven’t completely stopped bowling yet though, because I still bowled tonight in the league’s fun night. Actually it was quite fun, I was the mic man and giving away stuff the way I wanted to and gave away stuff that I wanted to give away, it was really good. The fun nights are the type of nights that I enjoy bowling

The next two times that I plan to bowl is this coming Sunday in a tournament (that I don’t have to pay for) and in a tournament in November to defend my winner’s title. So I have a four month break from August to November and then I’m starting the year break from November onwards, let’s hope I can save up a bit of money.

Talking about money, something I don’t like talking about now a days, I decided that I was sick of juggling credit cards debts and I wanted to combine the debts into one. So since it had been a year since I took out the previous, I applied to pay out my current loan and credit cards and just have the one loan to repay. Unfortunately the bank didn’t give me all that I wanted, but they gave me enough to close two credit cards and a store card which is great. Its a lot of pressure to take off me and for to stop thinking on how I’m going to pay the next monthly repayment.

All I have to think about now, week by week, is to make sure I make my weekly repayments on my loan and eventually pay out my only remaining credit card, which hopefully won’t take that long, I predict maybe 2 years.

I’m also proud of myself that I have retained my automatic savings plan, I am well on my way to have the amount that I want by the end of the year, so yeah, I’m happy about that.

I finally bought the middle two air fares for my holiday in January. I had been watching the airfares over the last couple of months and last week one of the routes went up a couple of dollars and I didn’t want to risk the airfares going up anymore, so I decided to bite the bullet and commit myself to the biggest holiday that I’ve even taken.

As I’ve discussed before and what you going to see by the picture below, I’m leaving the Gold Coast and going to Melbourne. Then from Melbourne I’m flying to Perth, then from Perth I’m flying back to Sydney and then driving to Newcastle and finally, at the end of the month coming back to January.

It’s going to be one of the most memorable experiences that I’ve ever had. I’m sure to meet some amazing people and get to know a little bit more of the places that I haven’t seen in Australia. I’ve blanked out the dates and flights because I’m paranoid that some strange stalker will track me down lol. Those people that I plan on seeing will know the dates that I’m coming to see them, most probably in September. I think late September is around the right time to organise meeting places and accommodation etc etc. This holiday is going to be sooooooooooooo great, I’m so bloody nervous yet I am excited still.

Unfortunately sales on eBay hasn’t really taken off as I have expected them to, so I have decided to not put up any more listings and just let the current listings end. Actually with eBay, I’ve realised that the buyers on eBay have become rude, no one leaves feedback anymore, at the moment I’m waiting for 9 people to leave me feedback, most of which who have already received their item.

In regards to my holiday and also future planning, I think I’m going to buy myself a video camcorder or recorder thingy as well as a digital camera, its something that I want/need and won’t be satisfied until I get one now. I think it will come in handy for the bowling presentation night this Saturday, and I also think it will be a good idea to use it for my clothes shopping trip. I need so many new clothes its not really funny.

The plan was to go shopping with my cousin and and a family friend but they cancelled on my , so hopefully now I’ve organised for another ‘girl’friend to come shopping with me. The reason I need somebody to come shopping with me is that I need feedback from a female friend as to what to wear etc etc, I also won’t be buying from the one place *cough* Target *cough*.

I thought this week that since I got 6 out of 8 for my footy tips I would have gone up the ladder for SportsBet MillionDollar Tipping Competition but noooo, I dropped, it seemed as though everyone above me got 7 or 8 out of 8, bastards, I will endeavour to make it back into the top 1,000 next week.

I think last Tuesday so sometime around there, I walked into work in the morning only to be told to call a New Zealand centre immediately… fucking great start to the day. Sometimes its hard enough to listen to kiwi’s speak, but when the kiwi is an Asian its even harder, fortunately (I think), he was the only one that knew what he was doing. Anyways, I spent about 45 minutes on the phone fixing this centre’s problem up and once I was off the phone I was praised by everyone for fixing up the problem, that’s one of the best things about working in a family office environment and also not being part of the family.

Last Thursday Naomi decided that she wanted to do the weekly shopping by herself and I’m never ever letting her do the shopping again, she is so inattentive to what’s needed in and around the house. First off, the previous week’s shopping she noted that we needed dog food but I suggested we wait until the Thursday just passed to get the dog food, but no she forgot that.

Next up she knows that we buy cookies that come in a sealed container sort of thing or chocolate biscuits to put in the fridge, the reason why we don’t buy normal biscuits is that we don’t have seal-able Tupperware containers to but the biscuits in and keep them stale. So what do you think she bought this week? The stupid bitch bought Oreo biscuits! Ok sure, they are nice but it means that once the packet is opened, the biscuits have to be eaten within 3 – 4 days. There were other things that she forgot, but I can’t remember what they were and I can’t think of a way on how to describe how important they are. lol =P

So Today when I went and got lunch from Coles, I dropped past the cookie section where Mars Bars cookies can be found, uh huh, that’s right, I bought Mars Bars cookies and you betchya, I have hidden them to make sure nobody else eats them. If the do eat them, watch out, there will be trouble!

I’ve realised that this entry is extremely long and I want to watch Big Brother UK from today and I also want to watch the Home and Away episode from tonight, the episode where Belle dies, ohh it’s going to be sad, so I’m going to watch it now.

Thanks for reading

Its one of those days

I always LOL at the people who complain about their hair when their hair is just not working for them in the morning because I very rarely have that problem, until today. =P

As I usually have my hair cut short I don’t usually have to brush but as I’m growing it for a style cut in two weeks time, I do have to brush it to make it look presentable. Anyways my hair was being a bitch this morning, I’m trying to part it and bring the fringe up how I like it but after 5 minutes of trying I just gave up messed the front up because I ended up not caring.

As I described last night I was pretty disgusted at how Naomi and Charles left the kitchen after dinner, but I was pleasantly surprised when I come down stairs to leave to see that the kitchen had been cleaned quite reasonably. I won’t complain how there was still food scraps in the kitchen sink because I should be happy with whats been done as it doesn’t get done often.

Today I had to put my car in for a service and I knew it was going to cost me a lot of money as its a major service, 90,000kms. Well I was shown a rough estimate of what it was going to cost me before I left, I was shown that it was going to cost me at least $1,000! :O

The service cost me more than what was estimated but I’m going to be chronologically correct and describe the rest of the day.

Paul picked me from up from Von Bibra and went back to work and it wasn’t a great start! As soon as I walked in the door the phone started to ring and then the next line rung, great, perfect way to get both Paul and I in a shit mood. I had to deal with a reasonably easy computer network related problem whereas Paul had to deal with a centre that was using the DOS program with Windows 95!

Thankfully I was able to grab a coffee before the next phone call and the next phone call and the next one, as I got off one call another line would ring, the 2nd line just wouldn’t stop. Seriously don’t people know that half the staff aren’t in the office on a Friday. When Paul finally got off the phone to the Windows 95 centre we both said simultaneously “It’s going to be one of those days” and we really thought it was going to be because the phones didn’t stop.

I’m glad that by lunch time the phones had finally stopped ringing which allowed me to process a sale I had made on eBay and then relax a little and get some lunch. The little bit of relaxing did me well as I needed it because AS SOON AS I walked in the door the phone rung again GAHHHH and it was a centre that called earlier in the day. I wanted to eat my lunch and couldn’t be bothered thinking hard so I put the call on to Paul, he fixed the centre’s computer problems in 5 minutes. Seriously we should charge centres service fees when they do stupid things to their network… it’s not our fault you don’t know what you are doing!

The rest of the afternoon was fairly quiet which was great, both Paul and I relaxed and got a fair bit of work done.

Von Bibra called to tell me that they had just finished servicing the car, apparently it had taken them all day to service. When I walked in the door I was presented with a $1362.10 bill! HOLY FUCKING MOLY, THAT’S HUGE. This is what they did and what cost me so much:

• Replaced engine oil and oil filter
• Replaced spark plugs
• Replaced timing belt
• Inspected air filter element
• Inspected ignition leads, distributor cap & rotor
• Inspected engine timing belt, tensioner & idler pulleys
• Inspected valve clearances
• Checked fuel & emission system (includes PCV valve)
• Inspected charcoal canister
• Replaced brake hydraulic fluid & engine coolant
• Checked all fluid levels & topped up as required
• Checked lights, wiper/washers, horn & electrical systems
• Replaced alternator belt
• Checked drive belts & adjusted tension as required
• Inspected cooling system including radiator & hoses
• Checked brake system for component wear or leaks
• Inspected suspension & steering components for damage/wear
• Checked & adjusted park brake as required
• Checked brake pedal travel
• Inspected drive shaft boots
• Inspected tightness of chassis & body bolts & nuts
• Lubricated bonnet lock, hinges, door hinges & stops
• Checked condition & pressures of all tryes including spare
• Carried out final inspection and road test

That alone cost me $414.75… that was job #1 !

The 2nd job cost me $126.00

• Replaced front brake pads
• Includes removed & refitted wheels & calipers
• Carried out final inspection and road test

The 3rd job cost me $54.55

• Checked front wheel alignment & adjusted as required
• As per manufacturers specifications
• Carried out final inspection and road test

The 4th job cost me $78.50

• Carry out Power Steering flush
• Drained all power steering fluid from system
• Renewed fluid and tested

The 5th job cost me nothing, oh how nice of them

• Fit and supply 2 front tyres and rotate to back

Subtotal – $673.80!

Then comes the parts cost:

• 1 x Gasket – $0.38
• 1 x Time Belt – $82.88
• 3 x Spark Plugs – $24.48
• 1 x Alternator V Belt – $20.53
• 1 x Filter A Oil – $9.56
• 1 x Injection Cleaner – $19.06
• 1 x Engine Cleaner – $19.06
• 1 x Coolant – $41.76
• 1 x Brake Fluid – $12.11
• 1 x Front Brake Pads – $115.39
• 2 x Nankang Tyres – $179.18

Subtotal – $524.39

There’s still more to come!
Then there’s the Petrol, Oils, Lubricants and Supplies

• Valvoline Problend – $26.73
• Maxlife ATF Oil – $31.50

Subtotal – $58.23

Then they added on shop supplies cost and an Environmental Levy and then GST! If you are thinking of getting a car, don’t, they cost too much money!

So from now on I’m going walk everywhere and leave my car in the garage… I wish I could!

For the football tonight I really wanted the Titans to win against the Cowboys but no, the Cowboys had to ruin the Titans winning run at home and beat them which completely stuffed my anticipated perfect tipping round. I tipped the Dragons to win against the Storm to win by 10 points (the all important margin!) and the Dragons won by 14 so that’s really good for my tipping. I know hope that I get at least 5 out of 6 remaining matches correct.

We have a house inspection early next week so it seems that I’m going to spend a little bit of time during the weekend doing a fair bit of house work… how thrilling!

Thanks for reading

A Strong Heart is a Kind Heart

You know how you can feel your heart beat when you put hand over the top of your heart  and its usually a soft beat and whatever, well I’ve just put my hand on top of my jumper and I’ve felt that my heart is beating very strongly. It’s quite strange, like my heart isn’t beating fast its just really strong and yeah, I’m not sure why its doing that.

Anyway Wednesday was a reasonably quiet day for work, not many service calls which meant I got a fair bit of work done. If my memory serves my correctly I’m fairly sure I didn’t have to do with anybody over the phone which is always good.

After lunch time I headed home to move all the furniture out of the lounge room to put some new carpet in to replace the water damaged carpet from a couple of months ago. I didn’t get to see the kind of carpet the house was getting because I went back to work for the rest of the afternoon.

I was hoping to get a darker carpet then what we had because the old carpet showed dirty marks quite easily. The owners must have been thinking of what I was hoping for because they ordered the darker carpet, it really suits my lounge suite, rug colour and it just suits the lounge room really well. The carpet is also very soft which makes it comfortable on the feet, and yeah, its really good. Take a look:

New carpet colour doesn't really show correctly

Last night I convinced myself that I was going to Tafe in the morning because I couldn’t really afford to miss out on any more classes, especially since that I didn’t realise that Tafe started last week… since when did Tafe holidays end before school holidays?

My convincing didn’t really work Today. I woke up to my alarms as per any other work day but I lacked the motivation to get out of bed at such an early time especially to go to something so boring. I did however get out of bed at that time to put the dog outside but I decided that my bed was a lot more inviting so I went back to bed.I know, how naughty of me.

I woke back up at around 11am and decided that I would go to Tafe for the afternoon session. I got to Tafe, had a bit of lunch and went to class.

It was biggest waste of 2 hours ever. The class was split into thirds for a “team” project which is something I hate with a passion because more than often some people do more work than others and I think its extremely unfair. But apparently being split into teams is something that happens quite often in the IT environment… meh whatever. The teacher talked about the “team” project for most of the lesson and we didn’t learn anything at all, I hope that changes because I really need to get the motivation to complete the other modules I didn’t do last semester.

On Big Brother UK Noirin finally told Marcus that she kissed Siavash, and because Marcus was severly stalking Noirin he was devasted to learn that Noirin kissed Siavash and vise versa. So in retaliation, Marcus decided that he wouldn’t talk to hardly anyone, actually it was quite a change because it allowed other people to talk without getting spoken above, now all we have to do is find someone to shut Lisa up.

Up for nomination this week is Noirin and Marcus and its an absolute given that Marcus will go home, well I think so anyway. I’ve seen for the last two weeks when the Eviction show has been on the crown has been chanting “Get Marcus Out” so obviously the UK public don’t Marcus, they don’t like Noirin either but I fairly sure Marcus will go, just check out how many people have typed the #GetMarcusOut tag on Twitter.

I went shopping with Naomi this afternoon and as we were coming home I told her that the kitchen was all hers, she replies “as it always is every Thursday” (in a sarcastic tone), I stated back that she’s not every Thursday. I asked her to ensure that the kitchen is clean like it is now before she cooks dinner and I would like it done before she went to bed. I know it might sound harsh and that I should stop whinging but really, I so tired of cleaning up after Naomi and Charles mess every single afternoon especially when I always attempt to clean up after myself.

When I finished eating my dinner tonight I put my plate in the dishwasher and I haven’t done anything else since. My sister and also Charles has been in and out of the kitchen a couple of times since but obviously cleaning up after themselves was on their priority list. I’ve just looked in the kitchen and their plates have been left next to the sink and the cutting bored is in the sink with food scraps over it still, its just disgusting. I want to clean it up but I just have resist the temptation because otherwise they just won’t learn.

I’m hoping that my NRL tips do well this week because I’m currently ranked 956 out of 56056 in SportsBet NRL MillionDollar Tipping Competition. If I can stay in the Top 1,000 for the rest of the competition, only 6 weeks to go, I will be extremely pleased. A good start to the weekend should see Dragons win by 10 against the Storm and the Titans win against the Cowboys… wish me luck.

Thanks for reading

We all need a bit of comfort

I know its been a while since the last time I’ve written a blog entry, but I haven’t really been bothered to write anything. I’ve thought about doing a blog entry quite often but when I go to write the entry I get discouraged and lose interest.

The Friday before last I headed to the cinemas with Emma and watched My Life In Ruins. The movie itself was quite good, a bit of light entertainment and enable me to relax out of the home environment. It also made me realise that I miss the connection I used to have with a really good friend especially when hanging out in the movies.

I was relax and talk about things that have been happening in my life without fear that what I was talking about would be spread around like wildfire, its been a while since I’ve been able to do that and have that connection. On reflection I still don’t want a relationship, but I really want to make another no relationship friendship that I used to have a few years ago. I want to have someone to go to the movies with, go driving with, cuddle on the couch with but without having the connection of a relationship… I know, how fussy of me!

Between the Friday before last and the Friday just gone nothing much has happened so I’m just going to skip that week.

Friday night I had a really awesome time at the football with the family. Dad, Sina, Johnny, Rachael and her parents and I all went and watched the Titans thrash the Broncos at Skilled Park. We have had tickets for the game since April so we have been looking forward to the match for ages.

The whole group had an absolute amazing time and that can be contributed to the amazing atmosphere in Skilled Park. What I found really funny as well is that when a chant went up for the Titans, Dad would always chant for the Broncos and so would the people sitting behind us would do. I don’t know why they bother chanting because the Broncos were getting flogged, luckily for the Broncos the Titans gave the Broncos a couple of sympathy tries to the end the game with.

The family decided that we are going go to the Titans vs Broncos match at Skilled Park every year, its going to be something that we are going to be looking forward to every year from now on.

On Saturday I slept in and did absolutely nothing… that’s the idea of the weekend hey?

Then comes Sunday where I had another amazing day and funnily enough the day involved bowling. I competed in the Bowler/Carer Challenge for the annual Bowlers with a Disability Championships. Every single bowler over the course of the weekend and especially during Sunday every single person in the centre had an amazing time and that’s because a bowler with a disability knows how to enjoy their bowling!

Every time when my bowling partner bowled a spare or a strike he would turn around and give a big C’MON! The best thing about that is that no one told him to be quiet, no one told him to stop doing it, many other people joined in on the celebrations. I bowled a 224 and a 269, usually anytime during league when I bowled those scores I wouldn’t get any kind of reaction, but this tournament was different. When I bowled the ball in the 269 game, which happened to be a strike to finish with nine in a row, I turned around to a crowd all clapping and cheering for what I bowled and that was the most amazing feeling. I can safely say that the experience can easily beat the experience I had when I bowled my 2nd 300, I really don’t think that the experience can be matched for quite some time.

Last night, as per usual was another night of league, and the night is going to be the 2nd most important night of the league, next week is going to be the most important. Paul and I had to hope that the 1st place team lost all their games for us to have any chance of coming 1st next week and guess what… THEY DID! WOO FUCKING WOO! lol . We won 5 points which allowed us to be 5 points behind 1st coming into next week. That result means that Paul and I have to win all 7 points next week and for 1st point to only win 2 points for us to steal 1st place, it may be a draw on points but we will be ahead on pinfall and be first. Wish us luck because I think we might need it.

Over the last week I’ve decided to get into selling on eBay again, you can check out my listings HERE. All week I didn’t think I was going to make a sale but in the last 24 hours I’ve made 3 sales so I’m quite happy with that. I think I’m going to give it a month to see how things go, see what items are popular and see what sort of profit I’m making after a month and consider whether or not to continue. Have a look at my listings and if you know anybody who has been talking about wanting to buy something similar to what I’m selling then please pass on my link… my seller name is benjya18.

Big Brother UK is slowly turning into what Big Brother Australia used to be but it can be considered worse. Like BBOZ, BBUK is rehashing old tasks which makes the show very boring and repetitive and what makes the show worse is that so far there has been 3 people that have left the house voluntarily. Last week BBUK had intruders and one of the intruders was Karly’s boyfriend Kenneth (tool). The night Kenneth went in Karly got evicted which ultimately meant that Kenneth didn’t really get to spend anytime with Karly. In combination with Kenneth being very bored and a little drama regarding contraceptive pills Kenneth decided to jump the fence and evict himself… actually I’m glad Kenneth left because he was a tool anyway.

Only a couple of days ago, Tom, another intruder, decided to leave the house because he had enough and was bored. He believed he had lived the experience of the Big Brother house and had nothing else to gain so he decided to leave… he was a tool as well. Why do people enter the Big Brother house to only decide to leave a week or so later because you were bored, ergh, its so frustrating to watch.

My Aunty and Uncle have come up from Melbourne for two weeks holiday, the same Aunty and Uncle that I’m going to visit in January. Anyway, I decided that whilst they were up it was the perfect opportunity for me to tell that I was coming down to visit. My Aunty replied with “You are lucky I’m sitting down because I would have fainted by now” then followed up with “Are you being serious?” lol. I informed that I had already bought plane tickets and that their son (my cousin) had known for the last 3 months and yep, I’m definitely coming down and that I all really had to do was organise accommodation and travel plans in and out of destinations.

Tomorrow the house is getting new lounge room carpets so sometime between now and tomorrow lunch time I have to give the place a vacuum over and move the heavy furniture out to the garage. I don’t really have to vacuum but I the carpets are messyish and I don’t want the property management to see how they currently are. I’m also going to give the kitchen tiles a wash over just so they look presentable… I know, I’m fussy lol

Thanks for reading

She has nice skin

I’m never taking my sister to the movies ever again, she is so embarrassing!

Ok maybe I’m over exaggerating a little bit but ergh, if she wasn’t my sister I would think she would have some kind of disorder. Being the nice brother I am I took Naomi to see Harry Potter tonight, and the movies were packed, and it seemed as though we would have to sit down the front. Yuck, luckily we were able to locate a couple of seats up the back, but my seat was behind the ledge above the steps so I had a partial view, it didn’t bother me though.

As soon as we sat down Naomi opened her bag and grabbed out a can of lemonade and opened it up, the she digs into her bag again and grabs out a packet of chocolate sultanas and starts divulging into them even before the movie starts. Then she starts blabbering to the people sitting next to us asking how much of a fan they are of Harry Potter, if the read the book, watched the movies beforehand, etc. I don’t think they really wanted to talk to Naomi but I don’t think she got the hint (she’s a bit slow like that), the people mentioned they liked Twilight more and omg she then starts talking about Twilight. Then Naomi starts telling them how I have only watch the Harry Potter and Twilight movies and I’m saying to myself, don’t talk about me, I don’t want to be social (I was trying to use up time by twittering and smsing friends).

So that was going on before the movie or preview starts and I was hoping that she would stop sort of embarrasing me, nah, I was wrong.

A preview for “I Love You, Beth Cooper” came on and my sister lets at the biggest hyena laugh during one of the scenes that only she thought was funny, that was pretty bad to be sitting next to her, I wonder what the other people felt like. The next preview was “Where the Wild Things Are” and this movie seems pretty good to watch when it gets released, anyway, my sister some how remembers reading this when she was younger and she insisted on telling that to the people sitting next to us.OMG, I’m sure they are hoping for her to shut up.

Then the last movie preview was “Twilight: New Moon” and it gets to a scene where the character Bob (I think) is shirtless and my sister exclaims “OMG HE IS SO HOT, oh oh oh” she was saying it like she was having an orgasm, seriously I felt like walking out then and there, but then I didn’t because there were people to step over and really I wanted to watch Harry Potter.

The movie, I thought, was a little jumpy at times but overall very good. Near the end where Dumbledoor dies you could hear quite a lot of people sniffling and I must admit it, I was a little bit sad to see a main character die and I might have had a little tear in my eye as well lol, (sorry if that was a spoiler for anyone). I enjoyed the movie until the very end and the lights come on and Naomi says “They left out so much, it could have been so much better”… do you really have to ruin the movie for me by saying they left shit out, grrrrrrrrrrrrrr?

I’ve now decided that I’m not going to take Naomi to any movies anymore what so ever, I’m going to leave that for Charlie to do, after all they are the ones that are in a relationship and supposed to be married next year… they can’t even go to the movies together!

At work today I didn’t have to attend to any service calls, but the day still seemed busy because the phone was ringing quite a lot which made everyone quite agitated, and unlike many days the phone didn’t stop for the afternoon. I think I know why we were agitated and that’s because we didn’t have out Viva Mobile coffee that we have all become so accustomed to over the last couple of days. After the day we had yesterday, I think everyone in the office is going to order a coffee tomorrow morning.

I’ve already been told that I’m heading into the bowling centre tomorrow morning for scoring testing, I really hope its all day because that will mean I don’t have to put up with any phone calls and I won’t be as stressed as I was today.

I went to put my recently washed clothes in the clothes dryer (only because its too cold to hang them outside) but, you guessed it, Naomi or Charlie’s clothes were in the dryer… still wet! Grrr more! I’ve turned the dryer on for them but I’m just going to put up with the freezing cold temperature and hang my clothes up outside.

I haven’t watched Big Brother UK for today yet so I’m going to do that now, after I hang up my clothes.

Thanks for reading

I’m coming to get you!

The last couple of nights I have been finding it really hard to get to sleep and I put it down to the amount of caffeine intake via coke or coffee I have had the last 72 hours. I shouldn’t really need caffeine, but I find its the only way to get me going or to last through the day without feeling sluggish. I’ve been thinking that I could wake up early, have some breakfast, walk the dog, but then I figure I will only get tired earlier in the day, but will having breakfast make it easier? I’ll have to try that one day because if I don’t get out of the habit soon its just going to stick.

Last night I come home in a really good mood, I had bowled well, won the league raffle and I currently had the lowest unique bid in the Titans Reverse Auction which was closing at midnight. The Reverse Auction was for two return tickets to Tokyo thanks to Jetstar and I had the lowest unique bid of $1.79 right up to 11:30pm, but then I received a notification to say that someone bid that amount. You know how annoyed I was? I was very annoyed!

Anyways, I had a backup bid of $2.27 which was still unique, but wasn’t the lowest, so I had to knock out all the lower bids in order for that bid to be the lowest unique bid. Thankfully I didn’t have to bid that many until it was the lowest unique bid. I was getting that nervous excited feeling as it got closer to midnight because I still had the lowest unique bid, and as the minutes went by and I talked more with a friend on msn, I thought I was going to win it UNTIL 11:59:54pm (according to optus online) when I received a notification to say that $2.27 was no longer unique! So as quick as I received that notification, I sent back another bid hoping that the auction hadn’t closed but it had! FUCK. So, because my bid was no longer unique I didn’t win the auction. After realizing that I had lost the auction and spent a little over $100 trying to win it, I went from a really big nervous, excited, high feeling to feeling really bummed and down, oh well. I’m glad that my tax return is coming through next week which will pay for the phone bill. I’m going to promise myself that I’m not going to bid on the next reverse auction when I go to the Titans game in a fortnight.

I know I’ve complained about this before, but I’m going to complain about it again and that is Naomi’s and Charlie’s lack of initiative to clean up after themselves. Seriously, it is so so so annoying coming home after work to see that the kitchen is in a bigger mess to what it was the previous night especially when both of them had been home just about all day. Another thing that is annoying me about them is when they put their clothes in the washing machine and leave them in there for the next three days! Now, instead of waiting, I have resorted to pulling out their clothes and leaving them in the basket. I know I’m whinging, but I believe its justified considering that I always make an effort to clean up after myself, always make sure the house is clean and try and remember to take my clothes out when the machine is finished.

There’s three weeks of league bowling remaining, a fun week of league and then the presentation and I’ve decided on a few things in regards to this presentation. In order for me to signify the change of things to come, I’ve decided that instead of cutting my hair now (because its brushing length) I’m going to leave it and do something different with my hair on the day of the presentation, some 4 weeks in the future… my hair is going to be so long (in my terms) and its going to get very very annoying for me. Also, I’m going to buy or hire a tux to wear or something really formal for the presentation night, sure its only a fun presentation dinner but its something I need to do, because its truly something different that I haven’t done before and in addition to that, I think the night is going is going to be a night to remember.

On Friday afternoon, while I was at the bowling centre for work, I was talking to Emma about the movies that were on and we discovered that we both had mutual interests in watching Hannah Montana, so we went and saw it that evening. I’m glad I went and saw it, because it was a really great movie and I got to relax for a couple of hours out of home, something that I’ve needed to do for quite some time. The only problem with going to the movies with me is that I always have to go to the toilet midway through, even if I don’t have anything to drink during the movie, its so annoying not only for me but for anybody else that is watching the movie with me… I can’t help it! I don’t know how I’m going to last tomorrow night when I watch Harry Potter with Naomi, the movie goes for an hour longer than Hannah Montana!

So Thursday last week I decided that I was going to go to Tafe to get the 2nd semester timetable and guess what, I went! But there were hardly any cars in the car park so instead of parking and getting my timetable, I turned back around and went home again, I just didn’t want to see any teachers lol. I should have really gone back to work, but because it was in the afternoon it was just easier for me to go home lol. In regards to Tafe for the 2nd semester, I will be going every week, no excuses, to enable me to complete the units available and get the motivation to complete the on line units, the motivation that I have lacked the last three months.

I think for me to complete the units, I may have to cut down on the number of hours of TV I watch through out the week, but its going to be hard as the TV programming is so good right now, not only on TV but also via downloaded TV shows.

Speaking of which, Big Brother UK was so good last Friday night when the most boring housemate got evicted, whose name was Kris. All Kris did was sun bake during the day, pash DogFace during the night and be a complete tool to Halfwit whenever Halfwit wanted to have a conversation with him. Even though I haven’t watched the nomination daily show for this, I have been spoiled as to who is nominated. I’ve trying to avoid all nomination talk but its really hard to do that and from what I’ve read, I believe Karly, Noirin, Dogface and Siavash are up for nominations. Most of those housemates are quite entertaining but I think I like to see Siavash or Dogface go. Siavash sort of sits on the fence with many arguments and Dogface is really only good viewing for her boobs. At least Karly and Noirin get fired up with the arguments that they want to try and win and they both have a really good accent.

Last night NRL game the Titans won again at home which meant I got my first ever perfect round for footy tips and I got it perfect on SportsBet.com.au. I’m coming 1329 out of 51936 tipsters and I’m really confident that I can make it into the top 1,000 by the end of the season, if I can get into the Top 500 I will $50, so I’m going to aim for that. I hope I can get there!

I ordered two new tyres for my car today and got told they are $90 each, that’s really expensive for my car! Good thing my tax return is coming through next week because it will be used to pay the tyres and also the car service which is going to be really high.

That’s not the only reason I can’t wait for my tax return to come through because I’m going to use it to pay for my holiday airfares to Perth. I seriously can’t wait for January to come around and go on these holidays, the experiences and people I meet are going to be so awesome. Watch out you Perth people, I’m coming to get you, as well as the Melbournites and Newcastlemen.

Talking about coming to get you, I’m going to watch the nomination show for Big Brother UK.

Thanks for reading

A lack of motivation and concentration

I’ve kind of been unmotivated to do anything the last week or so, just all I want to do is sleep, but because I have to earn money I have to go to work during the week for 8 hours starting from 9am.

The unmotivation has been that bad that when the alarm goes off during the morning I hit the snooze button and I continue to hit it until I realise that I should really get out of bed. That time is the time that I should really be at work but I’m still in bed.

Once I get to work I’m sort of fine, as long as I have a cup of tea or a coffee then I’m able to concentrate on the task at hand, but that concentration only lasts just after lunch time. Even though I have a coffee or something around 3pm the motivation or concentration doesn’t kick in at all and I feel all, ergh, I dunno, like I just want to go to sleep.

I’m not really motivated to write this blog entry tonight but I felt like doing something and writing a blog entry come to mind, so that’s what I’m doing.

Its been a week and a half since my last blog entry so I’m going to try my best to recap each day in a paragraph or two.

Monday 29th June

I was struggling with a stuffy nose today mainly because I hadn’t taken an antihistamine or had a nasal spray since the Thursday or Friday before. I didn’t think antihistamines made a difference but after being on them for a week and a half prior, and now being off them, I really felt the difference.

I had bowling Monday night and I bowled pretty good. Actually Monday night was a pretty good night as my team won all three games and 1st place on won 2 of their games which meant we were able to catch up to 1st place by 2 points, yay us!

Tuesday 30th June

I think my immune system was fighting well against my nose reactions today as I wasn’t really suffering match, just the occasional sniffle

Tuesday night is a TV night for me, I think its a night I really look forward to because of the programming.

What makes Tuesday night better now? Yes, that’s right, Packed to the Rafters is back on. This is one of the best shows on Australian TV, actually, I say its the BEST show on TV currently and I don’t care if you don’t agree with me. I think what makes it good is that the show relates to a family environment, its not really over dramatic and it focuses on problems and/or situations that families and individuals encounter.

Another good thing about Tuesday night’s programming is of Talkin’ ’bout Your Generation. Talkin’ ’bout Your Generation is truly light entertainment and I really think it will win a silver logie next year for the most popular light entertainment program. If I was a gambling man I would put money on it, lucky I’m not hey?

Wednesday 1st July

The day of my allergy test and to get results of what I am clinically proven to be allergic to. After having 24 pricks full of serum getting stuck into my arm, I had to wait 15 minutes and see what kind of reaction I was going to get.

There was myself and two other people in the clinic getting the same test done so I didn’t really feel like a spaz with holding my arms out looking at the red marks over my arm. While I was waiting, a mum and her son come in and I think they got a bit weirded out by us and I think that’s because the son was in for the same test.

The mum was asking me about how they did the test and because she was really good looking I got a bit tongue tied lol. I was explaining to her about the pricks and how they are full of semen {{pause}}, serum and then your arm reacts to what your body is allergic to… how embarrassing!

After the 15 minutes was up I had two large bumps on my right arm and it has also increased in size by about 25%. My left arm only reacted slightly to fungi but I couldn’t tell. Because my arm was really grossish looking I decided to take a photo to share with everybody

The arrow is histamine and its a control substance, so any reaction is compared to the histamine reaction. The circle is dust mite serum and the reaction really doesn’t surprise me one bit. The clinic person measured it and the bump was 1.3cm in diameter. The serum had sort of flowed through my arm and had created another lump on the bottom side of my arm, the nurse was really confused as to where it had come from.

Anyways, today was also the day I would normally get my tax return done but because I signed up to Private Medical Insurance, I have to wait for MBF to send me their tax statement thingy before I can send of my tax return… I want to do it now, but I have to wait.

Thursday 2nd July

I sort of planned on going to TAFE today, but nah, I would rather sleep and I didn’t get out of bed until 1pm, needless to say I didn’t really do anything.

Friday 3rd July

I spent half the day in at the bowling centre testing new scoring software, which I really don’t mind at all. I don’t have to talk to anyone over the phone, I’m not always in front of the computer and I get to listen to music of which I think is the best part of doing that for work.

Saturday 4th & Sunday 5th July

Both these days I didn’t do much at all! I woke up around midday but didn’t get out of bed until 2pm, I just spent those two hours in bed thinking and thinking and thinking about stuff. All weekend I didn’t drive the car, I didn’t spend any money and the only time I left the house was to walk the dog. That’s what weekends are for right?

Monday 6th July

I bowled better this week than what I did last week so once again I was quite pleased with my performance. Unfortunately my team on won 2 out of the 3 games and so did 1st place, so my team didn’t catch up any points, hopefully we will catch up a bit next week.

Tuesday 7th July

I started the day off with a nice coffee from the Viva Mobile Coffee van and that seemed to allow me and concentrate on doing my current task. I actually got a lot done during the day so it made me feel like I accomplished something, and what made me feel good was that Ross complimented on how fast I was getting things done. I spent the last two hours of the working day with no concentration and I ended up browsing forums, etc.

As usual it was another good episode of Packed to the Rafters and an entertaining episode of Talkin’ ’bout Your Generation. Actually talking about Talkin’ ’bout Your Generation, Josh Thomas who is on the representative for Gen Y was twittering on Monday I think about wanting to do something to fill in time, so I replied and suggested doing a podcast. About 15 minutes after my suggestion Josh tweets a reply to Tom, his mate that he does the podcast with asking if he wanted to do a podcast, woot, I like to think that he did a podcast because of my persuasiveness. lol

Today 8th July

I got sent into the bowling centre for more scoring testing for the whole day. Ross always apologises about sending me in and I always tell him that I really don’t mind, its good having a good boss. Being in the bowling centre today I kind of realised how much I miss certain aspects about working there, but on the other hand I don’t regret not working there anymore.

I was there until around 7:30pm where I just had enough of bowling and being around people so I went home. Also, I think it was because I was getting a little head ache from all the loud noises and annoying people talking to me.

Big Brother UK shall be interesting this week as there’s 5 people up for nomination; Halfwit (surprised?), Marcus, Charlie, Dogface and Kris. I am so so so HAPPY that Kris is up for nomination because I am sure he will get evicted this Friday. Kris is such a prick to Halfwit and he is so smug and egotistical, he’s going to be so pissed off when the crowd boos him when he gets evicted and he’ll also be pissed because he will be evicted before Halfwit… I can’t wait for Saturday when I download the eviction show.

I might actually go to Tafe tomorrow, but not to go to any classes, but to get next semester’s timetable. I’m fairly sure I will be able to complete next semester quite easily on the provision that I don’t have any major problems happen over the next six months and I’m not offered an early admission for my nose operation.

Now I’m going to listen to Josh Thomas’s podcast that I so kindly persuaded him to do, lol.

Thanks for reading

Week 26, Month 6, Half Year – Partial Success

So here I have come to my 100th blog post, a milestone I guess is relevant for this post. We are at the end of the financial year, some 26 weeks into the year I decided to set some significant financial goals, most of which I guess I succeeded but with some exceptions.

As I came to the end of 2008 I come to the realisation that I had to make a massive change in my life to get my finances under control, and that change was to stop gambling. This change included all forms of gambling including lotto, keno, sports betting, and the biggest challenge of them all, pokies.

This goal I succeeded with ease for the first three months, I simply ensured that I had things to do on the weekend and avoided going out anywhere near places that promoted gambling. I still had to resist the urge to gamble online but because I legal obligations to validate my identity there were always second thoughts in taking such a risk to gamble online.

The next three months were not easy. Anzac Day was a day of tradition were Dad and I head out to Twin Towns have a few drinks and have a flutter. As much as I avoided gambling by myself I knew I couldn’t avoid having a shared flutter with Dad without having to discuss my changes. On that night only $10 of mine was gambled away by my Dad and my oh my I felt pretty bad doing that.

There have been additional weeks where I have been out with Dad in places the promote gambling and although I may not have completely avoided gambling, I believe that I did a bloody good job of restricting my spend especially when I have been left by myself.

Now we come to the final two days of the financial year and the Australian public have been offered a massive Oz Lotto jackpot of $90 million. As much I want to really really really want buy my opportunity in winning such an amazing amount I have resisted the temptation. I know there are still two days to go until the draw, but I know that I won’t buy a lotto ticket and bring this goal to a failure.

The next significant goal for me was to lower my liabilities to a total of $45,000. I was well on the way in making this goal a success until four weeks ago when a water leak ruined my lounge suite. I could have waited until next week to the make the purchase but the uncomfortableness and smell of the single seater meant I couldn’t wait any longer and I bought a new lounge, thanks to 18 months interest free GE Creditline… it’s very comfortable.

With that purchase and on the provision that I don’t make any additional payments or purchases to my liabilities, my total debt at the end of the financial year comes to a total of $46,961.12. I am still confident that I can reach my yearly goal of bringing my total debt down to $40,0o0 and that should be accomplished with reducing the interest I pay on the debt total.

I am reducing the interest I pay by taking advantage of ANZ’s Balance Transfer promotion. I may have only transferred a small amount but that will help in allowing me to pay off Credit Card 1’s balance by the end of the calendar year, which was another goal I have. What will also help in paying off this balance is the tax return I shall get in a couple weeks time and also the generous offer of two weeks rent free by the house’s owner, as a small compensation for the water damaged lounge.

Another financial restriction I had was that if I made any purchase on Credit Card 2, I had to pay for that purchase within 48 hours of purchasing. (I thought that if I made a purchase via credit and the payments I made to cover that purchase would repay any cash advances I made in the past, but I have come to the understanding that this is incorrect, so I might have to change this policy). I have been very successful in this goal with the exception of last week, where I bought tickets for Green Day concert but haven’t yet repaid that cost. I am aiming to repay that cost when I get my tax return in a couple of weeks time.

I also set to accumulate $1,000 in savings of which I have done successfully of which I am very proud of.  I am still aiming to have $2,000 worth of savings at the end of the year which I think am sure I will achieve.

In conclusion of my financial goals over the last six months I:

• have resisted the temptation on gambling for nearly all 26 weeks of the last 6 months. Those times where I did gamble, I did so to avoid the awkward conversation with my Dad.
• paid my debt down to $45,000 only for this achievement to be overshadowed with the purchase of the replacement lounge last week.
• paid off the Store Card but as with the previous point, that debt was replenished with the purchase of the new lounge
• attempted to reduce the amount of interest I pay on debt owing in the future.

and just a quick summary of future financial goals:

• maintain the resistance to temptation of gambling every week
• lower my total debt by the end of Dec’ 09 to $40,000, and this will be helped by
• paying off Credit Card 1’s balance
• maintain a savings goal of $2,000
• pay off the Balance Transfer card by the end of June ‘10
• pay off the new balance of the store card by the end of Dec ‘10
• I will also try to get additional assistance by the bank in terms of lowering the interest rate I pay, I will most likely do this at the end of the year.

In other news, I have had to stop taking anti histamines and using my nasal spray in preparation for my allergy test on Wednesday and already I am having withdrawal symptoms. For the last few hours or so I have suffered from some sort of nasal headache, which I am really not going to miss when I have the operation.

I hope that not taking medication for the next 72 hours turns into a hay fever attack or something like that where I really want to take medication to resolve the problem.

Umm, what else, its really hard to think with a head ache, this new lounge is really comfortable, no, that’s not it, I have to decide what I’m going to do as my middle course as part of my Christmas holidays. There’s Perth where I know of quite a few people that live there, its a place where I’ve never been but its a fair bit of travel distance. Then there’s Sydney where I don’t know of many people, I’ve been there a few times and also its not far to travel back home in case of any kind of emergency. Or I just not worry about the 3rd leg and just have an extended stay in Melbourne or Newcastle which is where I have already purchased the plane tickets to/from, I will have to decide soon.

Although I’ve only watched three weeks of Big Brother UK, I have a feeling its going to turn into another season of Big Brother Australia. I really do not want that to happen because I have read so many articles of the housemates on BBUK in previous seasons are how they are really interesting and exciting. Unfortunately, the public of UK evicted one of the most interesting characters I have ever seen named Angel. I really didn’t want to see her go, but it seems by creating conflict in the house a also a reason to be evicted even if the public sort of likes you… kind of reminds you of why Big Brother Australia became a failure.

This week should be a bit more relaxing at work because Ross and Paul are back, I don’t have to worry about taking most of the service work load. Oh, goTalk have shaped my download speed for the rest of the month so it looks like I will have to take my notebook to work once again and download the next episode of BBUK… don’t tell anyone! =P

Thanks for reading

Throw up your arms into the sky

You know my last blog entry where I was worrying about my operation costs and the options I had, well I was kind of relieved of the financial pressures of the operation costs on Monday morning.

It was a good start to the week when the specialist’s receptionist calls to inform me that the specialist is able to do the entire surgery through the public system, which means, if I understand correctly, I don’t have to pay for the operation. The only downside to going on the public waiting list is that I may have to wait up to a year to have the operation, *sigh*.

When I was talking about this news with a friend on Monday night she asked what would I do if a position become available to have the operation when I planned to go on holidays in January. Ummm, that would suck if that happened. I guess I will just have to decide what to do when that situation arises, I definitely don’t want to delay my holidays any longer but on the other hand I don’t want to delay the operation.

For all of this week I have been the main service support on the office because Paul and Ross are overseas for BowlExpo so I have to put up with all of the service calls and try my best to resolve them. The last time I was by myself it was fairly quiet but unfortunately this week is far from the same. Every morning of each day has been busy with phone calls and they haven’t been little problems either.

Well, they have been problems that would normally only take 5 minutes or so to fix, but due to stupid decisions or policies, these 5 minute problems have taken up to 2 hours to resolve.

Monday wasn’t that bad with service calls but I can’t remember the severity of the morning, the last two days have just blocked them out.

Tuesday’s problem has been left unresolved until next week because I just couldn’t get things to work. I was trying to get Windows 98 networking protocols to work on Vista, usually it does work but, I don’t know, it just wasn’t working for the centre (it was working for me on all the computers I tried).

Today’s problem involved me trying to recover a league that was accidentally deleted. The system has a feature where it backs up data daily and overwrites on a weekly basis, the league had been deleted over a week ago and the staff member didn’t realise until today, which then meant that I couldn’t recover the league via that method. Wait, there’s a second option, via a manual backup that the centre has to do, but noooooo, the centre hadn’t done a backup from over a month ago. So I spent nearly two overs on and off the phone setting the league back up and trying to get it right… hopefully its right now.

On Monday night for bowling I bowled really good, I bowled the best I have done for quite a number of months. I knew I had to bowl really well to make my team to win the games because Paul bowled really really bad.

I started the series with a 289! Oh yay, I get money, nooooo I don’t! There weren’t enough people on the pair of the lanes for me to get money for that achievement, but as a consolation my team won the 1st game. The 2nd game I bowled a 245 and lost the game, I probably should have bowled higher but I dropped the ball on the 9th frame and then missed the spare *shock* , never mind. The 3rd game I finished with a 268 which meant my series was a 802 and my team won the last game and the bonus overall point, so that made a good night.

I’ve been religiously watching Big Brother UK and I am really really liking it. There are so many interesting characters which makes it really good to watch. I was going to describe what I feel about each housemate but I can’t really be bothered so now I’m not. =D

Buuuut I just thought of something, Angel you are really beautiful with your hair down, but as much as I like women, please keep your clothes on, I really don’t want to ruin that beautiful cute face that you have by a not so beautiful body.

The last time I watched any form of Big Brother religiously like I have with BBUK, was back in BB3 or BB4 where I would download every episode and watch it at 1 or 2am each morning. Oh, I remember back then the official site had a BB trading card competition and I would stay up especially to get a card to complete my set, I think the card was released at some stupid time of 4am and you had 5 minutes to collect… that was really frustrating, but it was also fun lol, I don’t think I could ever do that again though.

Anyways on Monday I won a new rug off eBay for only $108 which was a really great bargain.

I really hope it arrives tomorrow when my new lounge arrives, that would make the week slightly better.

One thing I MUST NOT forget tomorrow is to buy Green Day tickets at 1pm via a presale opportunity. I must buy them tomorrow because if I miss out I will not get an early opportunity next Wednesday morning because I have an allergy test appointment and it won’t be finished in time to get any tickets.

I should be awake at that time to buy the tickets but because its a ‘Tafe’ day I’m sleeping in. But I should be awake because the lounge should be delivered in the morning, but if not I will set my phone to hopefully wake me up. I say hopefully because Monday and Tuesday morning I somehow managed to turn my phone alarm off without waking up to it… I blame it on my new medication, of which I must take now.

Thanks for reading

QLD Wins State of Origin 4 years in a row!
QUEENSLANDER!!