Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Barring anything major happening, think this will be the last post for 2006. Will be going to Tarcutta (see map below) from 30th till 7th of Jan for mission so it's gonna be interesting spending NYE outside Sydney/Hong Kong for the first time. Gonna be quite busy over the next 5 days doing the following:

- Writing worksheets (yup, barely started and have a month to write 80-odd. The dude is right, no one feels like doing work around the Christmas period. I'm screwed)
- Last minute mission prep (making props/packing. Still tossing up whether to buy an air mattress or be cheap and just get a sleeping mat.)
- Hopefully going to look at chapter one of PTC: Intro to the Bible with Tin-Lok, Dan and Jeff on Thursday.
- Various little things. Mum's gone to HK for awhile so gotta step up with doing stuff around the house.
-Watch Warnie get his 700th Test wicket.

Let there be...less light...now

On March 31st, the lights of Sydney will go out for an hour (7:30pm-8:30pm) as part of the Earth Hour campaign.

Related articles:
-Sydney leading light in hour of no power
-A flick of the switch that will help save the planet
-Let there be...less light

The aim of the exercise is to educate Sydneysiders about using less electricity to address the issue of climate change. Households and businesses are encouraged to switch off their lights for an hour in the evening. Electricity providers will measure the power saved and the greenhouse gas emissions avoided. Public transport, street lighting and lighting that provides security will not be affected.

I think this is quite a good idea. I must admit I'm sometimes guilty of leaving my laptop on all night when I go to bed (yes, the whole MSN world needs to know Kogster is asleep :P) but surely we don't have to wait till March to do this. Why not start now...by getting rid of all the Christmas lights? Yes, they look pretty and really illuminate up the whole street but how much electricity do they use? You don't need pretty lights to celebrate the festive season. Such a waste of money (and electricity). And it's even worse at shops. A discount store in Top Ryde (Roni's) is currently selling all these Christmas lights and decorations. Obviously they have them switched on during trading hours which is ok I suppose but leaving them on after shutting up shop? It might look nice, lighting up the shopping centre but who's around to see it?

Anyway, that's my 2c rant. I will now switch off my laptop and go do something constructive :)

No Prams on Escalators please

There is a sign/picture on escalators in shopping malls which says "Prams not allowed" right? So why is it that in recent days I see parents doing exactly opposite that? I reckon some young kid is gonna get hurt bad or die real soon and parents are going to have no one to blame but themselves. Not to mention the prams/strollers take up the whole width of the escalator step preventing people from getting through. Idiots!

Mac Attack'd!

Just going through a big patch of procrastination at the moment so I decided to mod my desktop...



As you can see, it's not really a Mac interface but I can't be bothered making it look like one. If I want one, I would go out and buy a Mac. I guess the main purpose is to have a cleaner interface and not have a cluttering desktop. I'll prolly get a 'light' and 'dark' look happening and switch between the two depending on what mood I'm in. Quite annonyed with the little black patch just above 'RSS' on the desktop sidebar. No idea how to fix it...

Just got my results for the last two subjects of uni and I passed!! Seriously, I thought I was gonna fail/just pass one of them since I only got 40% in the mid sem...I guess having the final exam where you can bring 4 pages of notes helped alot.

2 (or 30) games for...$2.40

Went to EB Games at Macquarie Centre this afternoon to use a $20 gift voucher that someone gave me just before I finished up at TCI last year. I also bumped into Sam who was bored at work and went to MC for a stroll hehe...

What I got at EB:


Championship Manager 4 (CM4)
Some of you know I love to play CM. No, in fact, I'm addicted to that stuff. I remember back in the first two years of uni, during the holidays I would play CM01/02 well into the early hours of the morning (like 4-5am) and you have to wonder, how can anyone get so excited by a game that is pretty much text-based? CM4 was released around 2002/03 so it's quite old but a substantial upgrade from CM01/02.

Funny enough, there were two different packaging of the same game for sale differing about $30. I bought the cheaper one but it seems there's no manual in the el cheapo version (such a big box for one cd). Meh, just find stuff online.

Price: $14.95 (Even though on the box it says $19.95)


Taito Legends
The tagline of this game is: "29 games that defined a generation". I was expecting games like Tetris, Pacman etc but no, none of that is in it. However there is BUBBLE BOBBLE, one of my all time favourite!! Other games include Space Invaders (part 1 and part 2...lol), New Zealand Story and Elevator Action. You can find the full list here. To be honest, I don't really know most of the games so not sure whether it was worth it but seeing it cost around $7.50, what the heck.

Price: $7.44 (Originally $9.92 but it's 25% of marked price. I did see some other copies marked with a different price: $14.50 or $29.95)

Total amount paid: $14.95 + $7.44 - $20 = $2.40

Confused

Twice in one week mum talks about the importance of 'establishing a career' first before anything else. She even used people 'Blah' and 'Blah' (workers from church) as examples of those who serve the church 'in their spare time'. What the? It's not like I haven't been on the lookout for jobs...just not as active as some people. Yes, I have been spending a fair bit of time on mission stuff because it's nearly a month away and we have so much to get through and yes, I would like to go to KYLC 07 because I probably won't have time (if at all) once I get into full time work. She's not against me going to both, but why does she have to add a 'caveat' to make it sound like she doesn't want me to and I should be spending more time looking for a job instead?

I'm confused.

YAI (Yet Another Inflammation)

My foot is inflammed again. Been feeling a bit of discomfort around the left achilles this past week and the area got pretty red and hot when I woke up this morning so went to the doctor to get it checked out. Driving there (Eastwood) was particularly bad because everytime I pressed down on the clutch it was like 'OUUUUCCCH'. Luckily the doc said it's sports injury related rather than something else *BIG sigh of relief*. But now I'm stuck at home rather than at Elaine's wedding ;(

1st week of post exam/uni life

Has been tiring...and interesting. Looking forward to taking it easy tomorrow (and possibly the weekend) before hitting work mode next week trying to get some of this tutoring stuff done before mission (I gotta write just under 60 worksheets before end of January).

Whilst doing mission prep yesterday, got a call from Chris saying the new fussball table has arrived! Funny how the church approved the purchase so quickly. I shall check it out on Sunday and report back.