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Alabastor_Twob
I've got a cute little kitten here. 
Unfortunately he's partially paralyzed from the waist down, so he has trouble moving about. Apparently it's some kind of infection, so he's on a course of antibiotics. He was almost completely paralyzed, but he's getting better. Now he's able to waddle around by himself. He's also the most playful kitten I've ever seen, and I've seen plenty. I've got him on my lap so he can sleep for a while, it's getting cold and my house isn't heated, so he should be able to take a bit of warmth from me.
I would have made a journal about this earlier, but I spent a large part of yesterday sleeping.
On Friday I went to Setlist, a comedy show where stand up comedians are given five topics, topics that they had never set eyes on before, and they have to improvise and come up with material on the spot. Some of these topics were funny, and some were weird, but most of the comedians managed to pull it off quite well.
The comedians there were:
Phill Jupitus
Karl Spain
Colin Murphy
Tommy Tiernan
and Rich Hall, who appeared in that order.
Among the topics were 'Casual Racism', 'Mandatory Erection', 'Motivational Workshop for Serial Killers', 'Group Burka', 'Grenade Pranks', 'Casual Friday at the Third Reich', and about twenty more that I won't type out for fear of filling up this journal with a big list. They also had a big bucket of pieces of paper full of audience suggestions for reaching into whenever they couldn't think of anything more for their current topic.
Overall, I would say I found Rich Hall and Colin Murphy the funniest, with Phill Jupitus and Karl Spain tied in second place. Tommy Tiernan's act consisted mostly of "Feck, I wish I could think of something funny to say right now", but he managed to get a few jokes in, although it's a pity, as he had some potentially awesome topics.
I would say Phill Jupitus could have been much better, it's just that as he was on first, and the crowd hadn't been warmed up at that stage, his jokes weren't met with as much laughter as the rest of the comedians.
Overall, I would say I would go again. And as the tickets were only about €15, I probably will if I get the chance.
Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures, as I didn't have a camera. Plus, I would rather focus on the show than a camera.
On Friday I went to Setlist, a comedy show where stand up comedians are given five topics, topics that they had never set eyes on before, and they have to improvise and come up with material on the spot. Some of these topics were funny, and some were weird, but most of the comedians managed to pull it off quite well.
The comedians there were:
Phill Jupitus
Karl Spain
Colin Murphy
Tommy Tiernan
and Rich Hall, who appeared in that order.
Among the topics were 'Casual Racism', 'Mandatory Erection', 'Motivational Workshop for Serial Killers', 'Group Burka', 'Grenade Pranks', 'Casual Friday at the Third Reich', and about twenty more that I won't type out for fear of filling up this journal with a big list. They also had a big bucket of pieces of paper full of audience suggestions for reaching into whenever they couldn't think of anything more for their current topic.
Overall, I would say I found Rich Hall and Colin Murphy the funniest, with Phill Jupitus and Karl Spain tied in second place. Tommy Tiernan's act consisted mostly of "Feck, I wish I could think of something funny to say right now", but he managed to get a few jokes in, although it's a pity, as he had some potentially awesome topics.
I would say Phill Jupitus could have been much better, it's just that as he was on first, and the crowd hadn't been warmed up at that stage, his jokes weren't met with as much laughter as the rest of the comedians.
Overall, I would say I would go again. And as the tickets were only about €15, I probably will if I get the chance.
Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures, as I didn't have a camera. Plus, I would rather focus on the show than a camera.
I am so happy.
I've taken out and dusted off my old laptop, to find out that it works surprisingly well, considering my memories of it. My current laptop is still experiencing a few problems. Several keys don't work, and two out of the three HP charger's we've got in the house don't work, which is why I'm using this computer.
The reason I stopped using this one is because I had managed to get a virus on it, which I hadn't managed to get rid of. I remember it getting BSOD's every five minutes, and being completely unable to work, although it seems to be working quite well. Before I stopped using it I backed up all my important files, and pretty much uninstalled everything apart from Hammer, Google Chrome, and things like MS Paint that came with the computer, which might be why it's working fine now.
Although 'working fine' isn't entirely correct. One of the things I remember about this computer was that it was excruciatingly slow when loading files, and that is certainly true. At the time I believed it was due to overheating or something, but looking at it now I see that I never once defragmented the hard drive. I'll be doing that now so I can see how much it changes.
The reason I stopped using this one is because I had managed to get a virus on it, which I hadn't managed to get rid of. I remember it getting BSOD's every five minutes, and being completely unable to work, although it seems to be working quite well. Before I stopped using it I backed up all my important files, and pretty much uninstalled everything apart from Hammer, Google Chrome, and things like MS Paint that came with the computer, which might be why it's working fine now.
Although 'working fine' isn't entirely correct. One of the things I remember about this computer was that it was excruciatingly slow when loading files, and that is certainly true. At the time I believed it was due to overheating or something, but looking at it now I see that I never once defragmented the hard drive. I'll be doing that now so I can see how much it changes.
Hello there.
I'm currently staying in the Gold Coast with some family friends, who have a really nice house.
I arrived in Brisbane yesterday, but all we did in that time was find our way here, have dinner, and go to bed. Today however we went to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. While we have been lucky in the past few weeks with regards to seeing interesting wildlife, we saw pretty much the rest of the well known Australian animals. There were a load of koalas, although the two days ago we were doing water tubing at the Proserpine dam, and we saw a koala in a tree there. They are apparently extremely rare in that area, so it wasn't as exciting to see them today. We also did the Green Challenge, in which we climbed along wires and stuff at the treetops. We fed kangaroos as well. Last time I did that was years ago, and the kangaroo I was feeding gave me a big scratch down my arm. Luckily that didn't happen today.
And last but not least (in my mind anyway), there was a machine that lets you punch holes in coins. The machine was actually meant for imprinting designs on copper discs, but the fact that it let you punch a hole in the end result was what I liked. I ended up with a load of 5c coins with holes in them. I might end up making something with them.
Anyway, today was a good day.
I'm currently staying in the Gold Coast with some family friends, who have a really nice house.
I arrived in Brisbane yesterday, but all we did in that time was find our way here, have dinner, and go to bed. Today however we went to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. While we have been lucky in the past few weeks with regards to seeing interesting wildlife, we saw pretty much the rest of the well known Australian animals. There were a load of koalas, although the two days ago we were doing water tubing at the Proserpine dam, and we saw a koala in a tree there. They are apparently extremely rare in that area, so it wasn't as exciting to see them today. We also did the Green Challenge, in which we climbed along wires and stuff at the treetops. We fed kangaroos as well. Last time I did that was years ago, and the kangaroo I was feeding gave me a big scratch down my arm. Luckily that didn't happen today.
And last but not least (in my mind anyway), there was a machine that lets you punch holes in coins. The machine was actually meant for imprinting designs on copper discs, but the fact that it let you punch a hole in the end result was what I liked. I ended up with a load of 5c coins with holes in them. I might end up making something with them.
Anyway, today was a good day.
Hello thar from Australia!
I've only got about two weeks left in the country.
I haven't been checking TWHL really as I've only had sporadic internet access, but that is about to change...
For the worse. We had a little mobile broadband thing which ran out yesterday and my parents have decided not to top it up.
No more internet for me, so I can't talk to people at home.
Right now I'm on an internet kiosk in Canelands Shopping Centre in Mackay, typing on a rather crappy keyboard.
I met one of my two best childhood friends yesterday. His name is Joe Balma, which is kind of funny. He's changed a bit since then, mainly that he's now about 6 feet 4 inches now. I was kind of nervous before meeting him, as I hadn't really made any contact with him in about a decade, but it wasn't really an awkward meeting. We were talking for about 5-6 hours.
I had resigned myself to not meeting my other best friend, as he moved down near Brisbane shortly after I moved to Ireland, but it turns out we'll be spending the last week of the holiday in Brisbane, so hopefully I should be able to meet him.
We'll mainly be going there because my mother's best friend also moved down there. Most of my family were good friends with most of theres. Some of the family had come up to meet us in Proserpine, but we'll be going down to meet the rest of the family.
Anyway, I have to go soon, as the internet time at this kiosk is running out. I probably won't be able to go on the internet until I get to Brisbane at least, so I'm just explaining my absence really.
Bye bye.
I've only got about two weeks left in the country.
I haven't been checking TWHL really as I've only had sporadic internet access, but that is about to change...
For the worse. We had a little mobile broadband thing which ran out yesterday and my parents have decided not to top it up.
No more internet for me, so I can't talk to people at home.
Right now I'm on an internet kiosk in Canelands Shopping Centre in Mackay, typing on a rather crappy keyboard.
I met one of my two best childhood friends yesterday. His name is Joe Balma, which is kind of funny. He's changed a bit since then, mainly that he's now about 6 feet 4 inches now. I was kind of nervous before meeting him, as I hadn't really made any contact with him in about a decade, but it wasn't really an awkward meeting. We were talking for about 5-6 hours.
I had resigned myself to not meeting my other best friend, as he moved down near Brisbane shortly after I moved to Ireland, but it turns out we'll be spending the last week of the holiday in Brisbane, so hopefully I should be able to meet him.
We'll mainly be going there because my mother's best friend also moved down there. Most of my family were good friends with most of theres. Some of the family had come up to meet us in Proserpine, but we'll be going down to meet the rest of the family.
Anyway, I have to go soon, as the internet time at this kiosk is running out. I probably won't be able to go on the internet until I get to Brisbane at least, so I'm just explaining my absence really.
Bye bye.
Well, now we're out of Cairns, and are in Tully. It's quite a small place.
We're living in port-a-cabins at the hospital where my dad now works, as apparently the original hospital accommodations blew down in the last cyclone.
The accommodation has WiFi, which is good, but my laptop is missing the wireless card drivers, which is bad. I think I managed to download them all in the 5 minutes before we left the house in Ireland, so all I need to do is install them.
We're living in port-a-cabins at the hospital where my dad now works, as apparently the original hospital accommodations blew down in the last cyclone.
The accommodation has WiFi, which is good, but my laptop is missing the wireless card drivers, which is bad. I think I managed to download them all in the 5 minutes before we left the house in Ireland, so all I need to do is install them.
At the moment I am in a departure lounge in Singapore, and I'm waiting to board a plane bound for Australia.
I'll be there with my dad and brother for 2-3 months, as the job money is good, and we'd like to visit our hometown again. Although for the first month we will be in the small town of Tully, in north Queensland. After that we will be going to the equally small town of Proserpine, also in Queensland, as that is the town where I spent my childhood.
It will be the first time I've been in the country for a decade.
I'm kind of nervous about it, as pretty much all of my old friends moved out of the town as soon as High school ended, so it will be months basically in the middle of nowhere, but we should end up going to the beach and stuff, so it could be fun.
I'll be there with my dad and brother for 2-3 months, as the job money is good, and we'd like to visit our hometown again. Although for the first month we will be in the small town of Tully, in north Queensland. After that we will be going to the equally small town of Proserpine, also in Queensland, as that is the town where I spent my childhood.
It will be the first time I've been in the country for a decade.
I'm kind of nervous about it, as pretty much all of my old friends moved out of the town as soon as High school ended, so it will be months basically in the middle of nowhere, but we should end up going to the beach and stuff, so it could be fun.
Anyone else know that feeling when you're told to do problems from previous exam papers to practice for an upcoming exam?
And then you start doing them in order of least recent to most recent?
And you're doing some of the older ones and you think "These questions are pretty awesome, they're challenging enough but they work out nicely in the end and they're not overly difficult"?
And then when you get to the recent exams you realise that for the past few years the lecturer has replaced these questions with ones that don't work out nicely at all and you end up covering pages and pages with numbers and ridiculous fractions and decimals?
And you realise it will be like that in your exam and it's going to suck balls?
I know that feeling.
And it is bad.
I just wanted to let off some steam in a rant. I hate it when they do this, the exam becomes less of an actual test of your knowledge of the subject at hand and more a game to see if they can make you forget or misplace one of the numbers somewhere and end up screwing the whole thing up.
And then you start doing them in order of least recent to most recent?
And you're doing some of the older ones and you think "These questions are pretty awesome, they're challenging enough but they work out nicely in the end and they're not overly difficult"?
And then when you get to the recent exams you realise that for the past few years the lecturer has replaced these questions with ones that don't work out nicely at all and you end up covering pages and pages with numbers and ridiculous fractions and decimals?
And you realise it will be like that in your exam and it's going to suck balls?
I know that feeling.
And it is bad.
I just wanted to let off some steam in a rant. I hate it when they do this, the exam becomes less of an actual test of your knowledge of the subject at hand and more a game to see if they can make you forget or misplace one of the numbers somewhere and end up screwing the whole thing up.
Well, my new HDD seems to have died. My computer says it's not sensing any operating system, and any attempts to reinstall it fails, telling me there's an input/output failure in the drive. Right now I'm working of an Ubuntu Live Disk. :
Well, after all that crap about My Little Pony, I decided to watch it, to see why it has such an avid following.
Frankly, I don't see what all the fuss is about.
I'll watch it some more over the next week, maybe I'll get to the end of the second series, but so far it just seems to be another children's show.
I'll update this journal once I've watched to the end of the second series with my opinion of the show as a whole.
[Edit] Another thing that happened, on Saturday I got access to my older brother's laptop. Not content with simply fraping him, I went onto YouTube and subscribed, liked, and commented favourably on a load of videos of the type found on this list, particularly number one. Now that's all that shows up in his suggestions list.
Frankly, I don't see what all the fuss is about.
I'll watch it some more over the next week, maybe I'll get to the end of the second series, but so far it just seems to be another children's show.
I'll update this journal once I've watched to the end of the second series with my opinion of the show as a whole.
[Edit] Another thing that happened, on Saturday I got access to my older brother's laptop. Not content with simply fraping him, I went onto YouTube and subscribed, liked, and commented favourably on a load of videos of the type found on this list, particularly number one. Now that's all that shows up in his suggestions list.
Nobody here speaks Russian do they?
I decided to open the little tin that came with my gas mask, and inside I found several round, clear disks and two small pieces of paper, which seemed to be instructions for use and manufacturer's info. I've heard they're supposed to be antifog lens inserts, or some kind of emergency replacement lens, but I'd prefer to know for sure. I spent some time copying the characters into Google Translate, but that didn't provide much clarification other than the fact that they were manufactured in 1972. I've made an image of the text, as I'm not sure if TWHL works with cyrillic text, and the pieces of paper were too small to get a clear enough photo with my iPod.
The top paragraph is printed on one side of one sheet, the second on the other side, and the two characters at the bottom are stamped on the tin. The second piece of paper only had the number 44 on it.
I decided to open the little tin that came with my gas mask, and inside I found several round, clear disks and two small pieces of paper, which seemed to be instructions for use and manufacturer's info. I've heard they're supposed to be antifog lens inserts, or some kind of emergency replacement lens, but I'd prefer to know for sure. I spent some time copying the characters into Google Translate, but that didn't provide much clarification other than the fact that they were manufactured in 1972. I've made an image of the text, as I'm not sure if TWHL works with cyrillic text, and the pieces of paper were too small to get a clear enough photo with my iPod.
Well, I got three things in the mail today.
First was a set of round cake tins. I've always liked food, so I recently decided to make more of it. Tonight I will be making a Red Velvet cake for my gf for Valentine's. It's her favourite type. While a large cake for one person might be a tad much, I can't be bothered to adjust the recipe.
Second thing was 5 Ubuntu installation disks. For some reason none of the ones I made would work, so I went and ordered one on the internet. Unfortunately the minimum order number was 5, so I got that.
As a result, my computer is now in working order. It will take some time to get used to Ubuntu but I think I might like it.
The last thing was a package from Ukraine. Inside was a PMG gas mask. I've taken to collecting them. I already own a PBF gas mask, and those two are the ones the Civil Protection masks are based on in HL2. It's interesting how different they are. The PBF is an unusual design, the filters are on the inside, which as far as I know makes it unique. Impractical in a gas attack, the filters can't be changed without removing the mask, but still quite cool.
The PMG is much more conventional. The bulge that goes across below the eyepieces is an air channel, when you breath in it blows the incoming air past the lenses, defogging them. The disc at the front that looks like a showerhead is a voice diaphragm, it allows the wearer to be able to speak and be understood. The reason the filter is to the side is so the soldier can look down the sights of his rifle without it getting in the way. I notice it seems to be of cheaper construction than the PBF. I can't wear this one, it is a size medium and I have a size extra large head, but it looks like it wouldn't be too comfortable. The PBF on the other hand is extremely comfortable, due to the amount of rubber on the inside giving it a padded feel.
They both come with bags as well. The PBF bag looks like a handbag, but it looks quite nice and is well constructed. The PMG bag looks like a satchel or book bag (at least when closed), and is also pretty well constructed. Might work as a drop pouch for airsoft, seeing as how it has a magazine pocket and an extra leg strap so it doesn't swing when running.
tl;dr: Got cake tins, Ubuntu installation disks and a gas mask in the mail, and now my computer works.
[Edit] I was mistaken about the PBF being unique, the US M17 gas mask also has internal filters.
[Edit edit] I've baked the cake. I think it turned out quite nice. Unfortunately the exterior surface of the cake is brown rather than red, but since it is iced that isn't really a big deal. The icing didn't turn out as good. I thought I had forgotten to take down the instructions for it. It turned out the website I got it from had forgotten to put them up, they only had the cake recipe and the ingredients of the icing. I decided to just throw them all in a bowl and mix them together, which worked to an extent. It came out looking like glue. I assume I was supposed to whisk the egg whites until they were 'peaky', but that takes bloody ages to do by hand.
Anyway, at this point it's running off the top of the cake and off the plate. My housemates don't mind, I've told them that we'll only be having two or three slices between us, so they can finish it off after my gf leaves.
First was a set of round cake tins. I've always liked food, so I recently decided to make more of it. Tonight I will be making a Red Velvet cake for my gf for Valentine's. It's her favourite type. While a large cake for one person might be a tad much, I can't be bothered to adjust the recipe.
Second thing was 5 Ubuntu installation disks. For some reason none of the ones I made would work, so I went and ordered one on the internet. Unfortunately the minimum order number was 5, so I got that.
As a result, my computer is now in working order. It will take some time to get used to Ubuntu but I think I might like it.
The last thing was a package from Ukraine. Inside was a PMG gas mask. I've taken to collecting them. I already own a PBF gas mask, and those two are the ones the Civil Protection masks are based on in HL2. It's interesting how different they are. The PBF is an unusual design, the filters are on the inside, which as far as I know makes it unique. Impractical in a gas attack, the filters can't be changed without removing the mask, but still quite cool.
The PMG is much more conventional. The bulge that goes across below the eyepieces is an air channel, when you breath in it blows the incoming air past the lenses, defogging them. The disc at the front that looks like a showerhead is a voice diaphragm, it allows the wearer to be able to speak and be understood. The reason the filter is to the side is so the soldier can look down the sights of his rifle without it getting in the way. I notice it seems to be of cheaper construction than the PBF. I can't wear this one, it is a size medium and I have a size extra large head, but it looks like it wouldn't be too comfortable. The PBF on the other hand is extremely comfortable, due to the amount of rubber on the inside giving it a padded feel.
They both come with bags as well. The PBF bag looks like a handbag, but it looks quite nice and is well constructed. The PMG bag looks like a satchel or book bag (at least when closed), and is also pretty well constructed. Might work as a drop pouch for airsoft, seeing as how it has a magazine pocket and an extra leg strap so it doesn't swing when running.
tl;dr: Got cake tins, Ubuntu installation disks and a gas mask in the mail, and now my computer works.
[Edit] I was mistaken about the PBF being unique, the US M17 gas mask also has internal filters.
[Edit edit] I've baked the cake. I think it turned out quite nice. Unfortunately the exterior surface of the cake is brown rather than red, but since it is iced that isn't really a big deal. The icing didn't turn out as good. I thought I had forgotten to take down the instructions for it. It turned out the website I got it from had forgotten to put them up, they only had the cake recipe and the ingredients of the icing. I decided to just throw them all in a bowl and mix them together, which worked to an extent. It came out looking like glue. I assume I was supposed to whisk the egg whites until they were 'peaky', but that takes bloody ages to do by hand.
Anyway, at this point it's running off the top of the cake and off the plate. My housemates don't mind, I've told them that we'll only be having two or three slices between us, so they can finish it off after my gf leaves.
Well, I've just bought myself a new hard drive. It should be arriving on Thursday. It's a Samsung SpinPoint M8, 1TB capacity, so maybe now I won't keep running out of disk space.
And I think I will try Linux for a while. Stojke said in his last journal that he managed to get Hammer working in Linux.
And I think I will try Linux for a while. Stojke said in his last journal that he managed to get Hammer working in Linux.
I finished my finals on Thursday, and slept a lot since then. When it became time to rejoin the internet community at large I got a system notification saying that I have a HD failure imminent and to back everything up. I'd been getting disk errors recently, but I had hoped I could at least last until Christmas when I'd actually have another HD to back things up onto.
At least my computer is still under warranty.
At least, I think it is.
At least my computer is still under warranty.
At least, I think it is.