the invention of a gravity inversion field is well overdue

I'm painting the bathroom ceiling. Or rather, I'm preparing to paint the bathroom ceiling.
Plan
Monday: sand and wash ceiling
Tuesday: undercoat ceiling
Wednesday-Thursday: paint ceiling
Friday: Tidy up

Reality
Monday: hand sand and wash, informed by dad I'll have to use the electric sander and a paint scraper because the current condition is so poor it won't take a new coat, sanded some and scraped off 1m square
Tuesday: sanding off areas that wont scrape and scraping as the sander hits loose areas - about 1 square foot done by lunch time....I might have it all cleaned by the end of the week. I have to keep stopping and doing other things to rest my aching arms.

Friday Update
Still sanding/scraping the ceiling - in some areas the sander works, in others it doesn't. In some areas I can scrape off swathes, in most areas its bits less than a cm 2. I'm also going through the paint in some areas and tearing off cardboard. Day 1 (Monday) had the most success. Tuesday and Thursday was sheer torture. Wednesday I did a lot of other things. Today seems to be more of the scrape off large sections again. If I can get all the loose stuff off today, I've tested a fine sandpaper which seems to smooth all the different types of surface and maybe I can undercoat tomorrow...but I'm thinking it will be closer to Monday. I do have to get it done by then though, or I'll be off on a plane with it half finished.

ah...

On Holiday. Of course, I've sort of filled my holiday completely up - but its not with work

Goldilocks and the three bears

I'm tempted to do a Chris - not that he's used muppets recently, so I can vent regarding aspects of life. Fairy-tale characters reused would be a good start, but I'd have to be far more creative than my current workload allows, and I'd have to work out who was who.

wow that was fast

I couldn't figure out how to do something on LOTRO - I thought there was a glitch, so I put in a help request - and a GM replied in game in under 5 minutes! It was actually me not noticing the right person to talk to. Duh.

books...books

My first lot of books from the Book Depository arrived yesterday. There was much reading of "I shall wear midnight" last night. I let my brother know about it this morning and he immediately got online and found it was cheaper for him than Amazon. Now of course, I have to read a lit review...then go into the lab! Glee!

Footloose

I found a new web comic called Footloose I had to stay up last night to read aallll the way through the archive. Tired now.

Ah - lecture recess - a week off from students

..no..wait...I have a project proposal, chapter of a thesis and half a literature review to write (lots of) comments on, 5 sets of 30+ practicals to mark, next week's lectures to write, a grad student to teach PCR to and another to teach the use of a freeze dryer to & a new PhD students offer to babysit through the paper trail. At least I got a paper submitted last Friday. With any luck they'll wait at least a week before rejecting it.

Rain

I washed the car on Sunday...so it started raining Sunday night. We had 38mm by 7am. My wellingtons have once more only lasted one season. I bought a pair a couple of years ago, used them for one wet season, tried to use them the next and found they leaked. I bought a new pair from somewhere else, ditto and ditto. Wet feet checking on the birds this morning. My next pair will be from a workwear shop it the hopes they aren't cheap junk like the previous few. My Dads wellingtons have lasted him years.

almost tempted to buy...

Theres a Miles Vorkosigan roleplaying game out - my favourite character by my favourite author. Perhaps I could just get it to have it.

WorldCon!

Loads of fun...oldest attender looked like she was in her late 70's, youngest was under 6months - possibly under 3 months but I have no baby age skills. This is my favourite shot of the con. I'm wearing my "come to the dark side, we have cookies -V" shirt. Which was appropriate for the shot :)

For those of you who haven't heard yet, there was a tie for first place for the Hugo for best novel and the Foglio's sold out of their graphic novels in under 2 hours - I got one - Glee!

dinner - Jamaica Joe's

I went out to Jamaica Joe's using my table 52 card on Saturday night with my parents. The weather was a little cool for it. The place is not sealed in, being on the water, but the food was nice. Mum and I had the best dishes; Jerked chicken and Goat curry. The curry was mild and tasty, the meat was tender. Dad's Angus burger was ok but not special. Service was friendly and prompt. Some of the prices were up there with Michels, but there were cheaper options.

Dropping balls

Up to 4 since last Friday.

forgot to let students into a lab on Friday
forgot to put lecture notes online prior to end of weekend
forgot to find reagents for Tuesdays prac till I woke up at 11:30pm last night having just got to sleep
went to the wrong lecture theatre this morning

Its going to get worse too.

Phew!

I got my updated computer home yesterday and the second thing I did was install LOTRO from scratch. I've heard of problems and didn't want to add to them by installing an old version and trying to upgrade.
The download went on all night (12 hours) then it installed directX 9 and microsoft net1.1 and started up fine. The computer then asked if I'd like to install directX 10 and I decided not in case something happens.
Of course, I haven't checked it again since I turned the computer off. Maybe the Microsoft net thing will screw up my computer and it won't turn on again :)


Edit: Ok not quite so phew - playing LOTRO caused my computer to turn off in 5 minute intervals, till I upgraded my video card & now it seems ok for an hour or so & then turns off. The fans do get faster & stay fast shortly before it shuts down (no BSOD, just off like the power went out). It lasts longer when I pull off my lit up mouse & turn off backlighting on my keyboard. The error is power kernal. Methinks the power supply isn't quite handling it. Its not overheating - I've been monitoring the core temp. When I have a minute to spit, I'll check how much wattage my power supply has.

Free Tickets!

I got free tickets to one of the chamber music festival events from Uni and had a lovely night out this week. I learned that there are musical notations for plucking strings as well as whacking the wood of your instrument with your bow. A violin/piano duet (of hebrew lullaby I think) was amazing. The violinist was celebrating his 30th birthday and the music was glorious. There were also some very slow gentle pieces being played at around 10pm - my mother just started to nod off :).

The civic theatre is undergoing an expansion, it looks lovely, but they'd better be putting more loo's in. 3 ladies toilets on one side is not sufficient.

stitches

3.

Across the side of my left hand. Now I can't do anything weight bearing with my hand. Typing is done with just my middle finger...don't know how gaming will go.

I pulled a ring pull lid off a can of salmon at lunch and it unexpectedly released more on one side than the other so I swung the sharp edge across my hand. A 1.5cm long and 5mm deep laceration resulted. Kind of puts me off tinned salmon.

I waited in emergency for 2 hours, fortunately with a well bandaged hand. When the nurse took the bandage off to check if it needed stitching (as there was a long queue and I wasn't very high up it if it didn't need stitching) it started bleeding nicely again, but it had mainly stopped when the doctor called me 10 minutes later.

He started cleaning it before putting local in - which made the rather painful local seem relatively mild :) I think that might have been a clever psychological trick.

Now I can't get it wet for a week, need to change my bandage twice a day and get stitches out in a week. The pharmasist siad take pain killers as soon as it starts to throb or they won't work as well. One of my co-workers said to take some before bed so I don't wake up in pain.

These are the first stitches I've ever had not under a general (I had my wisdom teeth out under general).

Sydney dinners

I was in Sydney for a conference the other week. I spent my travel time dodging FIFA celebrations and the state of origin match. The trip back home had full planes due to it being the day after state of origin and the day before the V8's in Tville.

I did have some nice meals while I was there...
Pork belly at the restaurant at the Novotel where I stayed. - lovely but waaay too much for me to get through


Peri peri chicken (assuming I remember the name) also at my hotel - forgot to photograph it till I'd eaten some






entree at the conference dinner

hmm - the rest are on my phone and I'm too tired to figure out how to download them.

Yongala lodge for dinner

I have a acquired a deck of table 52 cards which has 52 "buy one main course get one free" cards for various restaurants, pubs, cafes etc round Townsville. It runs out next May, so I'll probably get through a few of them. Last Friday my cousin and I went out to Yongala Lodge. We parked directly out front, ate on the balcony and generally had a good time. Food was good (greek themed) We shared an antipasto platter and then I had chicken koti and Ros had lamb on rice with baby potatoes. They altered a dish to take into account the no wheat, dairy, nuts or yeast limits she has. I probably didn't enjoy the koti as much as I would have if I hadn't filled up on antipasto. It was lovely but I could feel the calories going down. I thought the veg were very tasty though. The service was just right, service staff seemed happy to be there & turned up at exactly the right time intervals. Ambiance was excellent, its quiet, not cramped and the view is nice. We had a little entertainment when the ghost tour turned up. Though we didn't hear the details.

I expect I'll be eating out more now. I'm taking my parents to Michel's next month.

I'll write them up. Must remember to take camera - I haven't figured out how to download the phone pics yet

I should have been reading a students chapter but...

I was reading a web page on ciguatera poisoning today and was struck by the chemical structure of the toxin. It looks for all the world like a hairy caterpillar drinking through a straw.

not sure I like this new fangled technology

I've been reading through the Hugo award entries on my computer, so I can vote intelligently - or at least not based on whose name sounds coolest. I'm finding I'd much prefer to be lying on a bed with a paperback in front of my nose. Its more comfy and less hard on my eyes. Perhaps if I tech'd up and got a ipad I would be able to at least lie down and read, but I still prefer the ability to stick my finger in a page and randomly flick through, knowing I can get back to my page at will & immediately.

Arrr me hearties

In a continuation of my frivolous spending of yesterday, I bought boots on sale from rivers. I put them on and they made me laugh out loud, possibly not the best reason to buy accessories.
They have a flap at the top that makes them look exactly like pirate boots! I shall take a photo when I have something to wear them with. I should have dragged myself round the shops when Jeggings were in - I probably can't get them now and these will need something tight and not thick to go over. Bare knees won't cut the mustard. If I do make an outfit, I'm so wearing them to work on international talk like a pirate day on September 19. I'll even go to the chemist and buy an eye-patch.
On other news, I have the GPS working, so tomorrow I'm going to try "turning right in 300 meters"

frivolous shopping

This morning I went to buy my mother a mouse for her computer and didn't like any of the ones under $70. So instead, I gave her my cordless mouse and keyboard and bought myself a gaming keyboard that was on sale - microsoft sidewinder X6. So far so nice - glowy keys. I'll have to spend some time working on the macro keys though. The big plus is I can put the number pad on the left side. I also bought myself a car sat nav....haven't pulled it out of the box yet - but I have a long weekend and a new Wii game - ditto. I'm torn between playing with all that and playing with my new keyboard on LOTRO (since its a free travel weekend).

Did I mention that there were a lot of sales on today?

where did the weekend go?

To Ayr apparently, where some female friends and I went bargain clothes hunting - good Australian brands, very good prices. I now have a LBD and two pairs of terribly impractical shoes. I also bought black truffles for work and some sheeps cheese. Then we had high tea at the Pantry door - good value for money.

Going south, Hemorrhaging money

I had been wincing slightly at the ~$2000 it will cost me to got to Melbourne in September for 5 days of WorldCon...roll on Science fiction :D
Then I added up what it will cost me to go to Sydney for a week in July to get to a conference that will be very useful for my research work (and teaching)...$3500. I'm not even leaving the country! It doesn't help that registration for this event is $1000 and I'll have to stay 7 nights in Darling Harbour area so I can network efficiently after conference hours. Its the general consensus that if you stay a long way away from the conference, you miss out on the most useful part - making contacts. Otherwise I'd be angling for that fold out couch of Andrea's. At least I don't have to pay for Sydney from my own pocket, just my own research pocket.

Ah - exceedingly long epic questline done

It took a fair chunk of my long weekend to do it too. I thought it just gave me the option to buy a white horse - but apparently, it gives it to you free :) There's 5G I've been saving up that is now able to be frivolously spent :D

Also as really cool gifties is a very nice cloak and a painting of Narmaleth for my cottage in the shire. Kin should stop round to have a look - its next to the keg that takes you to places in Moria where you can't get down except by plummeting to your death.

update again

Just before I trot off on rounds handing things over to people.
On the weekend I finally got round to planting my Lilly Pillies and doing the last of the first coat on the fence. My touch up spray coat will have top wait for a less windy day. Also went out on Saturday night and saw how to train your dragon (3D) the screams and ooh's of the kids in the audience were entertaining. The little black dragon was the star performer and he didn't even speak. :) The running gags were funny, though some of the dialogue was a bit too mature for the age of the characters.

Also on the weekend I ran Bindy through two chapters of book 1 epic line (I'm now on Book 14 (heh just wrote 145 - it seems that long)). I tried to get through as much as possible while the travel was free - good thing too - I spent an hour or more quick riding back and forth from the east to the west side of the bay in Forochel just talking to two people who kept sending me away to talk to the other.
I will shortly be up to the Eregion components - I think that might be the last of it - there's only 15 books before I can buy my pure white horse.
Things I have learned on the epic line - never trust any female NPC's - its all treachery and lies.

making up for lost time

Today I;
Mowed the lawn
scrubbed the bath
vacuumed and mopped the floor
pulled up some grass from the driveway
planned, measured and dug 7 of the 14 holes for the lilly pilli hedge I'm going to plant
tested out the best method of painting the front fence:- spray bottle full of deruster followed by small sponge roller, followed by paint brush or aerosol spray can of the same paint for fiddly areas
looked at moving the aviary (need to get quote for getting a new slab down when we get the new driveway done)
played some Lotro
had a nap
wrote up my blog

Ah..it feels good to achieve something

mmm movies

I found a trailer website with a bunch of movies I wouldn't mind seeing this year

2 superhero movies - both with non-powered heroes (one a delusional man - I think)
the last airbender - I enjoyed the cartoons in the morning & it looks quite spectacular
killers - looks funny, similar premise to one with robert de niro & michael douglas (fathers of the bride and groom) - can't remember the name of it though
The losers - maybe

Looks like it might be movie year for me :)

tired, anxious and taking a deep breath

Sooo much to do and Lectures start on Monday. This is my last chance to finish the instructional videos I've been making, and organise demonstrators for next weeks prac :(

nothing to say

busy, tired - all the usual suspects...still here.

Thought I'd better let people know I wasn't swallowed by a black hole.

1 week down

Well,
I'm now one week into work and still haven't got through all my Monday stuff - not unexpected. My brother has left to go back to sunny Scotland and now I have the cooler room and more comfy bed back - ah. In spite of reading the late Christmas present that Andrea sent last night (thanks Andrea, one of my favourite authors) I feel wide awake this morning , ready to:

mow the lawn
take back the wii remote that's playing up
hunt for some sort of paint spray that seals in rust for the front fence
sell some cook books
copy some VCR's to DVD

but first, a little lotro - heh heh heh

sleepy..

Its Thursday,
I still haven't got to some of the things I thought would be done on Monday. I haven't looked at my own research yet (though that may happen today). I have talked to 3 research students though :) and they are all doing something now.
Its been rather hot, my bed is not as comfortable as the one I sleep in when my little brother isn't visiting and I haven't been getting my afternoon nanna nap that was a mainstay of my holidays..so I'm a little sleepy.
Its been 34oC at 9:30pm at night in my room and then 32oC the next morning - I need a better fan, or aircon.

I think I need to write a list of the gear I need to get my research going and then go find it. I ordered it all a year ago thinking I'd have time then, so its sat around, being shifted everytime the lab moves/fridges fail etc and now I have to find it all again :( I hope its all still in date.

On more fun news, this is my brothers last night here so we're going to the strand - I must remember to wear walking shoes for the long stroll after dinner to the icecream shop.

aaaand back

Back at work, too much to do - 9:30am and I've already had 4 people poke their heads through the door to see me.

No blogging recently as my brother has been home from Scotland for the first time in 10 years. We've been going out a lot and also ripping out the front fence and replacing it in a straight format.

Also,
Barbeques on the strand with plate sized t-bones, curries, pastas and roo dinners...Dougs cooking. Michel's mmm, Hervey's range tea house for cat poo coffee, Charters towers for lunch, lots of going out for coffee in the morning. Naps in the afternoon. Movie watching at night. Playing the Wii (and getting thrashed at boxing)...hmm I'm sure there's more, but I must focus on work now :(

What I did on my holidays

Today I went through 10 years of superannuation and receipts paperwork and files most of it in the shredder. The back room is almost clear enough for my brother to sleep in when he arrives, the front room is still a pigsty but I do have a pile of stuff in there ready for a trip to the salvos. I cut the ham I bought this Christmas for lunch today - mmm smoked ham.
I've been playing with a new high pressure water hose. If it hadn't been so saturated here the last few days I'd be out spraying foam on the house and cleaning it properly. The squelchy weather turns me off a bit. I mowed last week and the grass is higher now than it was when I mowed. I'm not looking forward to the first mow when it gets dry enough
I figured out what my dedunk error was on my computer - I think - and can deal with it fine now - its the card reader slots - they have an attached USB port which is probably what causes the error. I just disengage when the error first turns up and its all fine.
I spent the afternoon tanking for a group of 5 in Carn Dum and only died once.

I'm sure I've done more than this in the last few days...its something of a blur.