Monkey Socks!: August 2009

I love my friends; I’m acceptably nutty

Jazzy - Is waiting for The Resistance (to come in her mail) says:
*I need to get a lightsaber
*ive decided i NEED one now
janelle marie, in case you couldn't guess. =). says:
*HAHAHAHA
jarielle. 'I need to get a lightsaber. I've decided I NEED one now.' says:
*ahahaha.
*Thank you for making my MSN nick look more normal :P
Jazzy - Is waiting for The Resistance (to come in her mail) says:
*MEGALOL
**feels pwoud*

I love my friends. Because they don't think I'm weird at all. They feed it.

Exhibit A [upon reading my MSN nick]:
*Korina <3 meow. says:
*backkk
*ooo
*you can buy lightsabers at borders
*you can, I saw them.

I quoted this to Jazz, and the following conversation ensued:

Jazzy - Is waiting for The Resistance (to come in her mail) says:
*ZOMG! Must. Go. To. Borders.
*I probably will on Wednesday and freak my friend Bec out when I drag her there.

These are the people in your neighbourhood

Shut up. Dana and Maree last night were showing me Youtube clips from Sesame Street. I woke up this morning to find the last one Dana sent me had loaded. I bring you Ben Stiller singing about friends and neighbours:

On another completely random note, I had the weirdest dream last night involving a few Monkey Sockers, most of whom ARE neighbours. I sent Kory an SMS about it this morning, since she was in it, and I figured I’d post it up here. Here’s the SMS. Just imagine you’re Kory.

I just had the weirdest dream. I was meant to walk Josh home from school but it was early so I went to work [which is a five minute walk from Josh’s school], got distracted talking to Jae Tee then was late. And I got to Josh's school and couldn't find him. So I called my house and a RANDOM picked up. Turns out the random was a friend of Maree's [and they were both at my house]. I ended up looking for my brother at your [Kory’s] house. Your [Kory’s] mother said try looking upstairs. I've never been to your [Kory’s] house and don't know what your [Kory’s] mum looks like. I woke up and Josh was standing by my bed dressed in uniform. I was like, ‘Holy shit. I thought I'd slept all day and had woken up in the arvo and you'd walked home.’

The funniest thing was Josh saying to me, ‘So did I! Then I realised it was only 8 o'clock.'

[MAREE, WTF WERE YOU DOING AT MY HOUSE WITHOUT ME? I had a pleasant conversation with this random friend of yours as I walked to Josh’s school.]

Ah. I enjoy my neighbourhood [even if Kory doesn’t actually live anywhere near me], aaaaaaaaaand DANA WAS IN IT YESTERDAY. She smsed me to say she was at my local plaza – while I was at Indro.

Goshdarnit.

A Challenger Appears...

Some of you know me already (think "riding in the boot last friday night"). Some of you, I will exist as nothing more than a few pixels, one drop in a veritable ocean of internet.
About me: Engineering student at UQ, Mech to be precise (although I should be enrolled in Procrastineering). Don't quite know how I got there, but like many things my spare hours are occupied with, it seemed like a good idea at the time. I have a soft spot for things that go bang, fwhoosh, whiz, and crackle (or a combination of those). I try to conjure up humour wherever possible, and I have no specific favourite genre in music. I have played 5 different instruments (some seriously, some less so) but have never wanted to 'go professional'. I have a tendency to be cynical, no idea why.

Finally, I've never really 'blogged' before, so be gentle.

Aaand that's pretty much me in a nutshell.
My posts may not be frequent, but I'll try to make it worth your while.

Side Note: I happen to own a parrot, an eyepatch, a ninja star, and an asiany sword. I can only surmise that I am the resultant progeny of some unholy internet-meme-union.

Here's a webcomic that made me chuckle (SMBC to be specific)

Recap, Awesome day

So, I had an awesome day. Just to recap for you, I decided to write a blog entry on beloved MS.

Firstly, I would like to thank Jelly and Kory for coming into uni especially, because they don't even go to UQ and yet they came.

Secondly, I would like to thank Jelly and Chris for getting the best Black Forest cake ever (last time I got one from the cheesecake store, mum stole it and gave it away to people at work).

And thirdly, I would like to thank all my friends for making my day amazing, especially Toni, going around the SLC and asking everyone to sign my birthday card, even randoms I don't know.

I think the highlight of today must be when Nish kissed Kory... the first, second and third time. Chris and I laughed ourselves shitless.

Oh and THANK YOU CHRIS, for driving us to Indro for free tea, books browsing, coming PJ shopping with me and driving everyone home, remind me to dump all my spare change in your car next time I have coins.

And now, for the photos:

The amazing cake.

The birthday card from Toni.

Kira and Jel's letter.

Taking flight, Toni's fairy wings.

QA* taught me a thing about personality

And you can’t discard it.

*QA is my good friend Queen Anne

Oh, and I found this at work the other day. A flower!

I’m not usually mushy,

but since she turns 19 in a few hours, it has to be said:

I love Tiffi! [in a non-sexual, I adore you kind of way.]

We've been through so much shit together and I think I’d have gone nuts without her. She's never not been there for me, and she's helped me through soooo much.

I adore her, because she's such a geek, such a nerd, such a loser, such a turd. She's hilarious, clever, witty, and she's become this beautiful little social butterfly with this amazing personality.

To think that when we met, it was her life’s ambition [or something like that] to annoy the shit out of me.

'Am I annoying you yet?'
'Good luck, lol.'
'Now?'
'Nope.'
'How about now?'

She never succeeded, and she still hasn’t.

Happy Birthday, Tiffi.

Things that should be said

I wrote my question out for my interview on Friday, and I saw something hilarious.

Click it open and see word count.

In other news... nothing. I just found that interesting.

Hey Hey Hey FUCKING Hey

I for one will never understand mothers. I do not think that the ignore the child screaming Hey Hey Hey Hey every freaking five seconds is an effective way of making the irritating little brat shut up.

Maybe I am mean. I know nothing of raising children so yeah it might come across as harsh for me to be ranting about poor parenting. But come of it. When my parents ignore me I do the exact same thing. i..e. I just call their name loudier and loudier until eventually they have no option to pay attention to what insignificant little thing I deem important that I want to tell them about. I'm sure you all do the same thing. [NO DENYING IT YOU HEAR?] Why the hell do you think a kid wont have the same fragile I am important and have something fantastic to say so pay attention to me attitude will be any freaking different? My little brother does the same thing. The easiest and fastest way to shut him up is ask him what he wants to say, listen, nod and smile and wow their is now silence. Ignoring makes him loudier NOT quiet and yelling at him to shut up only makes him do it to piss you off even more. Really if I know that how the hell to make a child stop trying to get your attention loudly how cant a mother?

So please have some fucking respect for people with split headaches from the heat who have to come home to four years old brothers and do not want to hear your child loudly trying to get your attention which you are not even, out of human decency, nice enough to give.

Either ask the kid what the fuck he wants to say or tell him to shut the fuck up [Which as previously stated will properly not work. Unless you smack him which might just make him cry loudier then he was screaming]. He should know at six-ish yelling doesn't give him any brownie points.. And sugar it sure as hell didn't make anyone feel anything praise worthy of you!

NEWSFLASH no one feels [too] pissed off at the child. Everyone thinks horrible bitchy mother for ignoring her child slash not teaching him proper manners for public transport.

Princess

Passwords

I re-joint this today. I was originally a member but lost my log in and other such important details. Small things like passwords slip my mind. Highly annoying when one is trying to log into her QUT account whilst a tutor stares at her impatiently. [Mainly because I have a bad habit of walking in 10 or so minutes late {if I turn up at all}]

And really its not my fault I have numerous passwords. Facebook, twitter, hotmail, google, QUT, Spiritus Platfrom, Procura, Sun Systems, and other various devices with requirements for passwords beyond my gold fish memory span capabilities.

And to make matters worse most of the passwords expire after sixty days and cant be repeated. So forgive me if I am one of those people that emails her passwords to herself or write them on a sticky note that is stuck to her desk. [Which FYI is helpful for me and people tyring to log into a secure network ;)] {But from an IT perspective try not to do that... but as I like to point out if I cant remember my password to my outlook how the hell am I meant to get in and find the email to myself that has my user name and password to get in to outlook in the first place? Therefore to be pro active I email them to myself and write them on a conveniently located sticky note on my desk}

The lesson my friends is the following,

Always email your passwords to an email account that you have the password and username saved as remember me so you can automatic log in and can find the pesky little buggers.

Secondly use that damn sticky note. Screw the consequences of some random person logging in as you. Buddy if you want my debt, my poorly written assignments or want to answer my work queries be my guest. I'd love someone else to take on my debt, fail a subject and do my work!

Princess

Excellent: Camera Returned + 1 New Author

Technically, none of these photos were taken recently from the camera I recently received and so I could have at any time posted these in its absence but I wanted to put some images up while advertising to a new member, who I hope fits into our niche of the net.
For the record: some fans, a tree and a pile of cubes.

Electromagnets!

It’s Science Week once again and my brother’s class is show-and-telling science experiments! Back when I did show and tell, science experiments or arts and crafts were what got me going.

Josh's science 'experiment' [it wasn't really an experiment and more amateur engineering] involved ELECTROMAGNETS!

Just in case you aren’t aware, electromagnets are what you get when you use electric current to induce an electromagnetic field. In this case, my brother and I used a bolt and wrapped wire around it, and connected the wire to the battery. Hello electromagnet with ferromagnetic core!

An electromagnet by itself didn’t seem so impressive, though, so we made a crane.

I especially love the way items from a cosmetics store made its way into our crane's production. I'm pleased with it, even if it doesn't have wheels because we couldn't be bothered with a proper chassis, or getting material for the wheels' axis. Or wheels. We could have used CDs, even, but meh.

It comes complete with a switch, so you can turn the electromagnet on and off at will. I figured not having one was a bit stupid because it’d heat up too much and trying to pull the wires off at that point would be frustrating.

Yay for paper fasteners and paper clips!

iz undahcuva spai-ninja, srsly!

I SAW LIZ TODAY. OMGAHHH. Yesterday Toph asked me what my favourite flavour of ice cream was -- and today, he, Tiff and Maree came by after work WITH MANGO SORBET. We sat at the Plaza until five, just eating it.

Next thing I knew, we were on a trip to Maree’s work – in the same suburb where Liz lives. So we decided we’d pay her a visit.

I sent Liz an SMS as we approached, quoting Tiffany.

Me: " 'I think that is her car. I'll go up and smell it.' "
Liz: "What?"
Me: "What what?"
Liz: "The message u just sent."

At this point, we rang her doorbell.

Me: "Come to the door, turd. Tiff's getting giddy."

When we got inside, Liz fully berated us:

“YOU GUYS FREAKED THE SHIT OUT OF ME. I GOT THIS SMS AND THOUGHT SOMEONE HAD STOLEN JANELLE’S PHONE AND WAS GOING TO KILL ME.

“Do NOT freak me out, especially after I’ve been home alone and watching Criminal Intent all day!”

I would like to take this time now to say that today was AWESOME. Sure, I was at work an extra 3.5 hours (I got to work at 8:15; half an hour later, Jae Tee walks through the door and says, 'good morning, what are you doing here?' -- MEGALOL), but I LIKE being at work -- especially when Jae Tee’s there just because she is lol and generally awesome.

Toph, Happy Birthday. I’m pretty damn sure all your friends [at least Tiffi, Karen, Maree, Queen Anne, Mitch, Nish, Sarah and so forth] are in agreement when I say you rock our socks.

Thanks for today.
It will take me a while to calm down. I think I'll read. Leave MSN until I'm coherent.

Just in case I haven't said it enough: I love my friends to bits.

Signing out,

-- teh littel philow cat.

Camera on Holiday

It has nearly been a fully week since my dodgy digi camera was taken hostage/holidaying in the philippines. It seems to be mainly through absence that we truely look at the potential of things. In my case, a neglected camera.

In other news, cats are emotionally needy too.

Epically Fun Fails

Tiffany called today, asking me to check her location on Google Latitude. I was still at the Plaza just after work, meaning I had dodgy reception and connection difficulties.

I got the funniest error message. Lo and behold, Google Fail #1:

I came across another fail when I tried uploading that last photo to my laptop.

No, Microsoft, I want you to get the Mac OS up and running just so I can import my pictures and videos.

Another fail was when Dad was trying to reverse out of the parking lot, but he couldn’t see because my kid brother, Josh, shot-gunned the front seat.

Dad: ‘Josh, I can’t see. Take your head off!

Actually, that's got to be a win. ESL ftw. :P

Challenge, favourite place

Jelly's challenge said to post photos of my favourite place, so here goes, my ROOM.

My view from my pillow xD.

Wall collage.

Me2U bear for my 18th last year.

IPHONE Case, Movies, and the sharpener.

'Without Geometry, Life is Pointless'

I overheard the funniest conversation at work today.

Child: 'Mummy, mummy, what's this? Is it like when you get sunshine and put it in a bottle?'

Mother: 'The label says says Hair Growth Therapy.'

And the post title comes from a free NAB postcard that I thought was awesome. It has a pretty central place on my wall.

I'm not a maths nerd at all.

Walking Home

Away From Home

Bibles & Bookstores

I went on an adventure today through the city with my mum as it was her birthday. Originally, we wanted to go to Church as my mother is really quite religious – but when we arrived, we found that even the Church closes on Public Holidays. Instead, we stopped by the Book store by St. Paul’s Cathedral.

As I told Maree, the book store is actually kind of cool. They sell Dante’s Inferno, and a book called ‘God is Not Great’, which is an argument for a secular approach to living.

Mum bought a bible, and while she was paying for it, we overheard the funniest conversation as a lady took a pendant of some sort to the counter.

Lady Customer (of the pendant): ‘Is it blessed?’

Sales Assistant 1: ‘No, but I can bless it for you.’

Mum (overhearing): ‘Oh, can I get my bible blessed?’

Sales Assistant 2: ‘You can. But: it’s the Word of God. What more blessing can you get?’

I laughed inside.

O.o Soo hi

My wall...there we go Jelly =] like it :P

...stalking my cat...i turned away to only turn back and find her drinking from my glass....evil cat O.o

my new bookshelf...that i helped build =]

Meow. =]

Meow. once again =]

Ladybug =]

So I've just recently changed my room around and was talking to Jelly about it and she said i should join Monkey Socks and put them up for her challenge, so here i am =]

So yes...hmm...=]

Small things.

So, has anyone ever really noticed the small stuff?

I mean the really insignificant sort of things, that wouldn’t affect your life that much, unless you made a big deal out of it.

Today I was working, obviously at work.

It was like 5.05pm, and I was ready to just leave and go buy my cheese.

This man came in, we shall call him Mr.N (Because he is a Nitpicker) or Knit-picker, or Nit-picker whatever suits your fancy.

He bought an item for 2.95 and he gave me a $5 note.

Me: ... and here’s you’re... oh, I’m sorry, I don’t seem to have any more 5c.

Mr. N: Then give me a 10c piece.

Me: Um... I’m sorry, I can’t do that. Do you happen to have a 5c piece, so I can give you a 10c change?

Mr. N: No. You should have 5c pieces.

Me (getting a bit bored): I’m sorry, I haven’t had a chance to go to the bank, since I’ve been here since 9am, and by the time I finish, the banks are closed.

Mr. N: Well that’s not good enough.

Me: Well, I’m sorry, but that doesn’t change the fact that I don’t have any 5c coins.

Mr. N: You should give me something though, because you’re ripping me off.

Me: If I give you 10c, then I will have lost 5c, so you would be ripping me off.

Mr. N: I want my change.

(I give him a look, I usually reserve to children who are throwing fits because they want some ice cream)

Me: Alright... There you go.

As he leaves, Mr. N walks out, and at one point bumping his trolley into the register stand... I can’t feel it Mate... and mumbling that people should have 5c to give to customers.

I was just glad that work was over for the day, and that the next day, I was going to go see Coraline for free with my sister, and then enjoy a Wednesday off thanks to the EKKA holiday that the Centre gets. ^^

So when I went into Coles, I had to go get some Feta cheese for dinner.

We shall call her, Miss V (V for voice, as she had a very nice voice)

Me: Can I have, 200g of *points* that cheese?

Miss V: Sure.

(Does her thing)

Miss V: It’s 204, is that ok?

Me: Sure, yeah.

(Walks away and I start to remember that 5c guy)

Miss V: There you go

Me: Thanks... Um... Do people get angry at you?

(She looks at me, slightly alarmed)

Me: Sorry... sorry, no I’m not angry at you. What I meant was... do people get angry at you when they ask for, say 200g and you say 204... do they like say “No, I asked for 200g”. Like, do they get angry at you.

(I could tell she was about to say no, but she hesitated, and thought for a second)

Miss V: Yes, yes they do...

Me: Isn’t it strange?

Miss V: Yeah, it is.

Me: *laughs* Alright, well thanks *waves the cheese* Have a good night!

Miss V: *laughs* Yeah, you too.

Or another thing I’ve noticed.

If you’ve worked in customer service, retail, hospitality or something else... you know what this next one is.

For those who don’t... imagine.

You’ve been working since 9am, a few customers have been relatively good to you, you’re a bit tired and frankly you’re wishing you would be anywhere else but at work, even Uni sounds like a better place to be, you’re not smiling, because frankly you see no point.

You’ve been repeating yourself all day, and wish people would read signs that say important things, so it save you saying them.

You: Hello, how can I help you?

Customer: Do you take eftpos here?

You: No, sorry, the eftpos machine is broken.

Customer: That’s alright.

(You do your thing)

You: That’s $5.90

Customer: Why aren’t you smiling?

You: Pardon?

Customer: I’m a customer here, and you should be smiling because I’m a customer here.

(You wish to throw her things across the room; instead you opt to blinking at her and putting them in a plastic bag)

You: That’s $5.90

Customer: You shouldn’t be so grouchy, I’m a customer.

(You wish to impale her with a pen, but fear that you’ll be made to clean up the mess afterwards)

You: That’s still $5.90

Customer: Don’t take that attitude with me! (Finally gives you money)

You: And that’s 10c change. Have a good night.

So even when people are doing their jobs, and are resisting the strong urges to destroy the things that you’ve just paid for, or from spitting in your face, or from doing other things that they wish to do so ever badly, we are still trying to do the best we can (which is better than what we can say about you)

So why do you get angry at such small things?

Seriously, get a life if you can’t handle, not getting 5c or a couple of grams off some cheese, or even a smile.

Cause when we’re not at work, we’re customers, but unlike you, we’re not complete son’s a bitches about it, cause we know how it feels, and frankly, that make’s us the better people.

So fuck you guys, I’m going home.

A/N-- and no, I'm not actually affected when people do that (referring to the 5 guy), but the fact is, it happens in ALL workplaces, and I don't like it, when nice people, are treated badly, I really like Miss V. and I can't imagine anyone being mean to her.

Challenged by a Vampire

There are a million ways of looking at the world. No matter which way you go, something’s always fuzzy. That, or you miss something.

On an unrelated note, I challenge you, fellow Monkey Sockers, to take us all on a journey to your favourite place, any way you want. Be as creative or uncreative as you like. Just make sure you don’t get stalked.

Here’s mine. Despite the picture above, my favourite place isn’t my work; it’s just full of colourful wonders in unexpected places. Since photos aren’t allowed in Libraries and I’m too lazy to find old photos of UQ Lakes, the SLC or the Box Canal (of whose physical location I’ve moved on from), I’ll start with my room.

I bring you a tour in ink; click to enlarge.