( The Morning—Tennis @ Rod Laver )

( The Night—Them Crooked Vultures @ Festival Hall )

Got home around midnight and didn't sleep until 1 AM. I woke up at 4 AM this morning, so I was pretty much awake by the mercy of adrenaline. Gonna pass out and hopefully recover tomorrow.

This time I had my lesson on Friday 4pm, which means peak hours and I think I freak out a bit. What I have to remember this time:

It's OK to drive at slower speed, even or especially when the road is crowded.

I got nervous with so many other cars and always try to speed-match them, which is kind of silly >.<

Gonna sleep soon, I've been having trouble sleeping more than 4 hours every night this week.

After worrying a bit because my driving RACV instructor is not Australian (I'm always worried with communication problems), I had my first driving lesson today and was really happy with it.

He didn't keep a running commentary while I was driving, which was always a guarantee that I'll lose concentration and wreck my nerves for the rest of the drive. Instead he made this silent hand gestures to the different parts of the car I should pay attention at just the right time, which totally works for me.

Today we're mainly driving around, looking at my positioning in relation to other cars, road signs and marks and speed limits. I need to improve:

1. Keeping 1-1.2m (which now I know is roughly the span of the car door) distance from kerb or car, moving only slightly away from parked cars. Where there's less space, speed must be reduced.

2. MIB, Mirror Indicate Brake or Mirror Indicate Blind Spot. I used to be confused about the order to do this and no one can tell me for sure (and they're slightly different from each other). Now I know I have to check the mirror even when braking and also, indicate first before braking (which means I can indicate further than closer). Ahhh, it's so much clearer now but need more practice on this one.

3. How to tell you're stopping over the dotted line (I'm really bad at knowing where the edges of my car are from the driving seat) and that I can stop up to 2m before dotted/solid line. Yay! I don't have to be bloody precise :)

4. Concentrate on the speed and maintain speed unless it's not safe to do so (I tend to slow down EVERY time the road is too narrow or I can't see other cars properly--this is not ALWAYS necessary).

What I learnt to be wrong: At the STOP sign, must be in complete stop and no matter if there are cars or not, wait for 3 seconds before driving off. (Last driving instructor taught me this)
What's true: At the STOP sign, must be in complete stop and drive off whenever it's safe.

What I learnt to be wrong: There must be at least 100 meters between an oncoming car and your car before you can drive into a road. (Last driving instructor taught me this)
What's true: When there's a safe distance and speed, drive in. Use judgement.

I have good control, which I totally have to credit Rebekah W for, she whooped my ass for not making 'decisive turns'. I was doing this weird 'turn bit-by-bit' that I never noticed until she told me about it.

I'm cleaning house and I still have programming books from my uni era, if anyone is interested in adopting any of them, let me know otherwise come mid-November they're going to Oak Park Library.

- GDI+ Programming: Creating Custom Controls using C# by Eric White with Chris Garrett and Simon Robinson (Wrox).
- Teach Yourself E-Commerce Programming with ASP in 21 Days by Walther and Levine (Sams).
- Professional XML 2nd Edition (Wrox).
- E-commerce, Strategy, Technologies and Applications by David Whiteley (McGraw Hill). Comment: Best practices, not programming book.
- 3D Studio MAX R3: f/x and Design by Jon A. Bell (Coriolis).
- Macromedia Flash MX ActionScripting: Advanced Training from the Source by Derek Franklin and Jobe Makar (Macromedia Press).
- Computing Concepts with Java 2 Essentials 2nd Edition by Cay Horstmann (Wiley).
- 3D Studio MAX 3 Bible by Murdock (IDG Books).
- Core Java 2 Resource Kit by Gary Cornell with Cay Hortstmann (The Sun Microsystems Press) (This includes Core Java 2 Volume 1 and Core Java 2 Volume 2)
- Teach yourself ASP .NET in 21 Days 2nd Edition by Chris Payne (Sams).
- C++ For Programmers Third Edition by Leen Ammeraal (Wiley).
- Using Macromedia Director 8.5 by Gary Rosenzweig (Que).
- Teach Yourself Active Server Pages 3.0 in 21 Days (Sams).
- Teach Yourself J2EE in 21 Days by Dan Haywood and Peter Roxburgh (Sams).

Looking at all the housing options around Melbourne, half of me says "Move! Right. Now." the other speak of patience, perseverence and timing.

Half of me looks at possibilities right now, the First Home Grant, 10%-15% deposit and a car that I have, fairly secure job (I'm not making that big a dent in Payroll's books) and low interest rates while the other half wants me to save till I at least have 50% of the house deposit and maybe get a Construction loan instead of a Home Loan so I can be sure my house is Green from ground up, it also points out experts' prediction that house prices will reach bottom next year and I can still live in rental comfortably since I'm not picky.

We know this two, the planner who likes secure choices and the child who isn't afraid of hard work to get what it wants but often overestimate its abilities. The planner would then say, "I told you so." although from time to time the child gets to be smug too.

Which is the root of the matter.

I'm not sure if anyone's interested, so I thought I'd put it out there. Anyone care to join me take Owner Building Course at Building Display Centre in Abbotsford? You save $100 if there are two people joining the course.

Wow, August was the last time I wrote anything? Man, I've been slack.

First thing, here's a little something to read if you're interested: Afterlife by Douglas Clegg. Supposedly a free eBook, but I don't know if it's free for a limited time or not.

Second, I'm back from New Zealand! grungypoo has written most of the highlights, although he keeps his LJ friend-locked (you should friend him!). It was a good trip, although the timing was not so good for me so I couldn't join the fun of bathing in the sulfur-scented hot water. I sat and slept under the sun with a book over my head.

One of the many things that I found striking was the green grass blanketing the land, a contrast to the now yellow and dry grasslands of Australia. It kind of made me sad about the farmers here, they really have it hard at the moment.

There were also the snow-capped mountains and the melted glacier rivers (the water is opaque white), the sun and the moon setting on the same horizon, the abundance of adventure sports and nature. It feels like a country you can get lost in :)

On my list of lookouts, are cheap fares to Brisbane for November so that I can attend Conquest. It's not a 'must go' event, but in the event that I can get a cheap airfare to it and they still have the Full Convention package available, I will go. Mom is going away around the same time to attend bro's 'Crowning' anyway, so I thought... a chance for me to get loose and run wild!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! *cough* It didn't hit me until today that I probably won't get a cheap ass ticket to Brisbane ever because Virgin Blue is the only one running flights to/from Brisbane! What the...? Other airlines runs flights to Sunshine Coast instead (a town about an hour's drive from Brisbane). Why does Virgin has monopoly on flights to/from Brisbane? Oh anyway, I've filled this month's expenditure quota when I bought my Metcard yearly ticket, so I can't buy anything else until next month :/

The plan for the trip to Christchurch is coming along though. I have a better idea now of how much I'm supposed to save and I still have to call AQIS to check if I can bring honey from NZ since I found so many varities the last time I was there, I want to buy them all!!

Also, note to self: Never be as angry as I was on Monday, ever again. I woke up Tuesday with The Worst Migraine Ever (throbbing head, throbbing back and the rest of my body felt numb) and even though it's better now, it doesn't take a lot for the headaches to come back. Sometimes I wish I'm the only child, but not really because I can just see myself being a spoilt brat and I'm so not liking that picture.

Thanks for all the encouragement to 'hang in there' and the birthday wishes, I'm really bad with birthdays, I don't know what to do with one. Maybe next year I'll so something for my birthday? We'll see :)

What I did do in this month of my birthday though, was finally getting off my ass to change my mobile phone plan to Prepaid, changed my home phone plan to something cheap ass and we'll see about changing my broadband. I'm contemplating shaving my head bald and bought some clothes that supposedly will improve my 'posture' (Sometimes I hunch without realizing and I'm concerned about that).

Happy Birthday Michael Weatherly!

One day I'll seriously send him a card, but that also means for once I'll remember my birthday before the day arrives.

I need to dig up stuffs to make me happy, this day didn't start off so well.

Anyone care to share the other half of $500 (You pay $250, I pay $250 for a return ticket) for a ticket to Christchurch on the Bring a Friend for $4 Jetstar deal? I'm thinking 12-17 September.

So yeah, it's February 2008 already, time flies. I thought I'd renew my resolutions and reflect on how well or how bad I did them last year.

1. Send birthday/christmas/new years/etc. card(s) on time
Kind of half-half, I managed to remember more than the year before, but it wasn't perfect. I totally failed with Christmas mailouts. Whereas I sent close to 100 Christmas cards in 2006, I sent a mere 15 in 2007. Have to prepare much earlier this year. Like start mailing out from October or something.

2. Read 50 books
Failed. I don't think I can read a book a week, more like a book a month. This resolution got me back to reading books again though, which is a good thing. I am going to redo this resolution but readjust the quantity to something I can actually achieve.

3. Work on yokaze design and programming 5-10 hours a week
Crashed and burn. I really should get back into it, somehow.

4. Write two pages of SGW guide a week
Failed. I don't think I can anymore, the game has changed so much I don't know it inside out as I used to.

5. Watch a movie
Did, but not quite to the level I wanted to be. I was aiming for at least a movie a month.

6. Make good with neighbours and friends
50/50 I guess. The fact that one of my neighbours called out to me the other day, "Howdy stranger!" says it all.

7. Make one food post a week on LJ
Failed. Didn't even make a post a week on things other than food, in fact.

8. Drink at least two litres of water everyday
I think I nailed this. Yahtzee!!

9. Eat a piece of fruit every meal
Only when I remember and only when mom is around. So, failed.

10. Save $$$ every month
The fact that I managed to raise enough money to buy a new car says it all.

11. Translate a page worth of translation or 2 hours translating
*sigh*

12. Write 2 hours worth of fiction
Nope, didn't happen.

13. Donor blood at least once a year
Did! Now we'll see if I'll be consistent.

14. Rewrite Japanese notes every month, every week during semester break
Nope, didn't do it and now I've finished my class. I still have to do this though, if only for reference's sake.

So, that's 4 successes and 10 failures.

Two weeks left to getting my new glasses and for the time being I have to try and not get run over on the street, I suppose.

Last week I fell on the road and abraded my right knee. It's now scabbed over with pinkish new skin around it. Then this morning I sprained my ankle when I accidentally stuck it in that gap between the tram stop ledge and the last step of the tram. Didn't hurt as much as abraded knee, but now if I move my ankle quickly pain shoots up from it.

Getting run over would just wrap it up for me. *sigh*

"Our FIVE CENT sale is proving incredibly popular right across Australia, and our website is experiencing very high levels of demand right now."

They're having a sale for tickets from Melbourne to Hobart, Launceston or Newcastle for 5c one way (10c return) for travel periods between 3 May-3 June 2008, and 29 July-9 September 2008 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays only, limited to 5000 seats.

Wanna join? I want three to Hobart and leaving from Launceston.

I forgot to post this first thing today, I thought they were quite interesting. Basically, the first move that the Coalition made was really quite clever because it strikes the heart of every working class: Income Tax cuts. The Age even has an Income Tax calculator to show you how much Income Tax you would save a year with the cut. I basically save around just over a week's worth of income. The tax cuts impact primarily the $75,000 p.a. and above income earners.

Labor's proposal was not much different. It included the tax cuts in the form of higher tax refund and defers the tax cuts for those earning $180K and above. Honestly, how many people actually earns that much?

The Age also put up a game on their website: Whack*A*Poll for your childish enjoyment. I'm thinking the game designer is kind of biased, Kevin Rudd is not that cute. My highest score was 94% Labor and 6% Liberal.

In a related matter, MyCareer published salary information on their website so that you can check if you're being underpaid in your position. In short, everyone I know who works in the company I'm currently working in, is being paid minimum wage across the board. Makes me wonder how much these people gets paid. Geez Louise... Netspace is so out of my list of recommended ISPs just for treating their workers like that.

For those interested, please note that on the right side there's some links on how to Ask For a Pay Rise or Negotiate a Higher Starting Salary. I hope they'll be useful to some of you.

*Write up the Christmas list*

Can you imagine it's three months away from renewing some of my resolutions? It's scary.

I wish there's a DVD of Rove episodes, I really can't stay awake until 10.30 pm and I want to convert some overseas people.

*collapse on the floor*

God, I'm so tired. And God knows why so many people are so nasty today. Public Transport ticket machine swallowed my $20 and didn't give me my $6.20 change, then went to customer service office where the guy behind the table scolded me for buying from the ticket machine, he gave me a refund form and said, "Maybe, just maybe, you'll get your money back." To think that 3-4 years ago I was scolded by the customer service officer for buying from the counter than from the machine (I didn't have small change to buy the ticket with). Can't they make up their minds?

Then called New Zealand immigration office to check that they've got my mother's documentations for visa and she said, "Just a warning, next time you apply for a visa just to revalidate your Australian visa, pick another country." and before I can say, "But we are having a holiday, which is why we are going to spend eight days there and not just pop in and pop out." she hung up on me. I can understand if she's upset if we go in for a day and then leaves the next day, but... I don't get it? I mean, yes it's to revalidate mom's visa, but it was also a vacation because mom never went to NZ. Which is why we're there for longer than necessary to revalidate her visa.

...

Of course, this is just scratching the surface. If mom doesn't get her visa and passport back by Tuesday, she'll have violated her Australian visa by staying longer than 3 months here and I really don't want to know (not now anyway, I think I've had enough blow for one day) what's going to happen.

I'm not going to be much use for the next few days and a week, just got so much I need to take care of. I'm leaving for NZ, hopefully on Tuesday, and I said 'hopefully' because I'm not too confident about it, considering what happened with the immigration officer. If I do go, I won't be back until Wednesday August 1st. It's gonna be even colder there, I'm so not looking forward to it. I bought mom a -15C sleeping bag but I didn't buy one for myself since... well, I want to make sure we have enough money in NZ and sleeping bags can be expensive (mom's was $125—after a 50% discount).

Sometimes I just don't know why people are so...

So... um, Happy Birthday Michael Weatherly!! I considered using this excuse to watch Dark Angel episodes, but 'tis a Sunday which means it's the day I drag my mom out to do something new and experience something she never tried before.

druscilloskayne recommended a couple of eating places on Chapel Street. One of them is Amici (242 Chapel Street) which, on my last visit, was serving Thai grilled chicken and mushroom risotto on their special menu. Unfortunately though, mom wants to go to Victoria Market today, so we'd probably end up eating in the city.

Edit: ( Long entry about today when I found that a stone can get as hot as 400C without melting. )

Food with high soluble fibre content is good for people with cholesterol or heart problem. Oat is one of them. Lately I've been trying out different recipes using oat and oat bran to show my mother (who, at her age, has to watch her cholesterol level) that there is more to eating oats than a daily breakfast bowl of porridge. Being an Indonesian, I don't know a lot about the many ways to cook oats, so I had to learn. I found this recipe from Joyofbaking.com and decided to give it a shot.



The verdict: Not the most attractive-looking cookies, but really, really GOOD! I had misgivings with the recipe, especially at the part I was measuring the 260g rolled oats. I was stirring in the oats with my eyebrow raised, thinking, "Is this for real?" because the dough was absolutely packed with oats, and I still have yet to put in the chopped pecans.

But, it turned out alright. One more into the cooking book.

Yoinked from i_am_chi

Anubis Clever, fatalist, deep. Sympathetic, generous, loving and perseverant in proving their view point Colors: male: sienna, female: crimson Compatible Signs: Bastet, Isis Dates: May 8 - May 27, Jun 29 - Jul 13 Role: God of death and mummification Appearance: Jackal or a jackal-headed man Sacred animals: jackal What is Your Egyptian Zodiac Sign? Designed by CyberWarlock of Warlock's Quizzles and Quandaries

Fatalist! ROFLMAO.

Found an unexpected and pretty cool website from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention): KABAM! Comic Creator Game. Had fun making a *cough* slash *cough* comic.

13375p34|< assisted by Wiki.

If your ISP is Optus and you don't know yet—and you most likely didn't because I'm on Optus and I didn't know if not for the fact that I've been shopping for a new ISP in the past few months—you might want to check when your Internet account contract will end. There are threads about Optus' price hike on Whirlpool discussing the ramifications of this price increase, but the story is pretty simple.

This move is mainly due to Telstra's price increase that is affecting Optus' older products (which were mainly resold Telstra products bought wholesale by Optus)[1]. This price increase is a shakedown to move costumers with these older products to change to the newer one. Up until May 6th, Optus will have a promotion of two months' free Internet on a new DSL product called DSL Direct (24 months contract).

If you are looking for a non-Optus move, Netspace offers a pretty nice transfer offer with 6 months contract. Anyone has any other recommendations for a non-Optus move?