End of the financial year, eh? Who saw that coming, besides the accountants?

Was a pretty quiet weekend, really. Friday night did nothing much, Saturday I skipped the markets in favour of a lie-in (hoping to shake my sickness a little more convincingly than I currently have) and then went shopping with Mum at Chermside. Ran into Snod’s mum and sister there, had a yarn. I bought some mixing bowls, baking trays and the like, as well as groceries. I am quite good, I think, at buying large quantities of meat, and then cutting the fat off and dividing it up into meal-sized portions before freezing it. It’s a gift.

Saturday, Blacky was going to Ash’s “Homies and Ho’s” theme party, so I called John to see if he was busy - success, he wasn’t (well, actually he was, but just not very busy) so we caught some Sopranos. We’re into the third season, and I gotta say just how good the first episode of the series was. Awesome! That’s how good.

Picked up Blacky a little later, and we went home and watched Bruce Almighty. Not a bad film.

Sunday involved an early screening of I Spy, followed by computer re-organization and pizza at M&Ds with Grandpa.

Well, I’ve kinda fixed the clock that caused Leyton to be posting a full hour after he went to bed this morning.

I’m sitting here all by myself again, and slowly going CRAZY. Arrrggh!

I went to the doctor’s last night to get my ear flushed (you may recall that I’m deaf at the moment) and it turns out that wasn’t the problem. It’s a middle ear infection, so I have to take these drugs until it goes away. /sigh. That means that I’m deaf for a little while longer yet.

After the appointment with Herr Doktor I popped into M&Ds and was bored beyond belief. Mum was asleep, Bryce was computing, so I had tea at the Foo, and headed home.

I’ve finally got the whole “creating SVCDs” thing sorted. I’m almost getting to the stage where I’m “good” at it.

will you look at that it’s almost 4.30am. hmmmmm.

- Leyton

Hello my pretties. I can’t believe that I’m sitting here at 10:15, and I’m the only one at work at the moment. crazy.

Last night was pretty fun … We watched Queensland get thrashed in the State of Origin last night, which was unfortunate, but the night was still pretty enjoyable. I mentioned yesterday, I think, that I was making a vast array of foods, all of which were coloured the Queensland colour of maroon. This was a hoot. The pasta turned out perfectly - I’d cooked it in a coloured water and it basically just absorbed the colour nicely. The sauce that went with the pasta wasn’t entirely successful … I’d figured to get maroon, I’d aim at purple and then tell people that it was maroon, right? So it was a tomato-based sauce, and I added blue colouring, but I added too much and it went kinda … blue-grey. By this time, I’d used all my red colouring, so I sent Bryce out to the corner shop con mucho gusto to get some more … This relieved the situation somewhat, and it turned into a maroon-brown sauce. Pretty convincing.

Desert was a work of art - maroon icecream, maroon jelly, and maroon (ok, maybe a little pink) custard. It was beautiful. Would’ve been FAR easier had I been a NSW supporter in a houseful of NSW supporters. Blue would’ve been easy.

Glenn and Lara made their “official” return to civilization in joining us, and brought along a CD of photos from their trip. After a little mucking about to make the slideshow work, we enjoyed a rotation of photos and brief commentary. Looks like they had a great time, I’ll leave it to Glenn to go into more detail, if he chooses to.

What else is new? Shoutout to Woo who has a new computer. I’m planning my holidays for next easter already, but that’s an entry for another day.

If work is getting you down and you are feeling a bit stressed give this a go. (Flash required).

Well it has been an exciting couple of days if not exceptionally busy. I finally got to see the finished product of a project that I had been working on for months. Of course my satisfaction and sense of achievement is only matched by the pure apathy of the users who will actually use the new system that I have set up without actually understanding the logistics of it. Without boring you with details (although if you have read this far you probably have a high boredom threshold) I managed to get the Hawthorne and Balmoral cinemas linked through a wireless network even though they are about 1.5klms apart. Lots of planning, a couple of aerials and some wireless base stations later and voila! the thing works nicely.

Combine uni with having to spend a lot of time at the cinemas made for a very busy (half) week, so much so that I got home on Tuesday night and was feeling glad it was Friday, much to my dismay and the majority of workers around the nation this was in fact a figment of my imagination.

With all this work you think my brain would be occupied, but being blessed with the enormous intellect that I have (so much so that occasional things that I do may seem exceptionally moronic but are really devious and evil plans), I am not satisfied with a big work week. So what wonderful things does my brain construct (other than devious and evil plans) to fill in the void? Well what about this:

Having a car with central locking (preceded by one without) has made me realise exactly how useful this invention is. Because my enormous intellect is balanced by an enormous laziness (I still maintain it is the only thing that stops me from ruling the world), I carry all my stuff from the car in one go - even if it is a ridiculous amount that one man shouldn’t have to carry. Central locking makes this so easy - one fumbled click of the remote and BAM! the car is locked, much better than locking with a key or holding the handle up. (Have you noticed a rather large number of brackets in this entry?) But here’s the problem, I get to the front door and… I have to dump the enormous load of crap that I have been carrying (please take the preceding sentence in context) to use a key to unlock the front door, then pick it up again, balance it all, etc etc *very annoying* etc etc. Well why not this: Central Locking for Houses? A small remote that unlocks the front door, without the need for a key. No fumbling, no dropping stuff. Think about it - if you don’t agree that it is brilliant than think harder. Am I a genius or what?

(Yes Dean, I know this entry is long, I can’t help my mental diarrhoea).

- Leyton

So much planning for SoO tonight … I still don’t definitively know who’s coming. Bek bailed early this morning (curse cough mutter) but the evening is shaping up to be a complete hoot. I’m making as many dishes as I can maroon. It’s going to be a cracker.

Last night at family night, Mum helped me dye some of the food, and I’ve still got a little to do tonight. I dropped in the films from Grandpa’s 80th, and got them back this morning … there’s some really nice photots in amongst the 2 rolls. I also had 2 “mystery” rolls, which I couldn’t really remember taking … One of them yielded Mum’s birthday party with the Harley ride, the other was half the drunken debauchery night in Canberra, the other half was Bali panoramas. It’s quite nice to get suprised by the contents of the film, but not as nice to have to pay $11 to find what it was. I think it may be time to sell my SLR on ebay, and move onto a better digital camera. I’m going to the USA next March, after all, and duty free is pretty cool.

I tried eardrops this morning to ease my deaf ear … no good, yet.

Hey guys. Sorry I didn’t update yesterday, but by now you will have noticed that Leyton picked up some of the slack while I was in bed clinging on to my life with my weakened resolve. Yes, I was sick … All weekend, pretty much, from the time I left Grandpa’s party at about 3pm-ish (and boy, the fever came on fast, and let me tell you, that’s not an easy drive when you can barely maintain consciousness) and I fell into bed and don’t remember much of anything since.

Friday night, Leyton and Bek came over to watch Hulk. A bit boring, a lot confusing, not that great and a little too cartoonish for my liking. Still, perhaps seeing it on the big screen will alleviate these concerns, so ignore my illinformed opinion if you like. There’s this great moment where he’s fighting these mutant dogs, and one bites on his shoulder and Hulk just keeps flexing his shoulder muscle until the dog’s head explodes. Haha, golden.

Saturday was Grandpa’s suprise 80th. It all went really well, (except for when Auntie Marg went to pick him up to bring him to the surprise and he wasn’t home - he’d gone to buy some milk, and even then, came home and wasn’t shaved or showered …. ) and the whole family was there, 4 generations. His brothers and sisters, his children and partners, their children and partners, and their children, non of whom were old enough to have partners. Big party, lots of people. Grandpa was really surprised. It was great.

Blacky and I watched Scarface on Saturday night I think. That’s a cool movie. “You gotta get the money first. When you get the money, then you get the power. When you get the power, then you get the women.” Best quote ever.

Played a bunch of GTA: Vice City over the weekend. That’s a pretty entertaining game, really. Sunday, when Blacky went shopping, he was kind enough to bring me KFC for my fever. Spoke to Snod, also, on Sunday.

Monday I woke up feeling ok, but that got worse and I phoned in sick and went back to bed. Leyton came round at lunch and brought me KFC for my fever, and we watched Oprah. Back to sleep, big day.

Now, SoO is happening tomorrow. I’m hoping to borrow the projector from work, so that I can display it on the bigscreen. Most people who read this blog are welcome, just send me an email if you’re in any doubt.

Oh, and a big cheerio to my sub-zero Canberra friends. Man it’s cold there, eh? I’ve been thinking of you guys, we really must catch up soon. Perhaps it’s time for me to organize another visit, once I’m better?

Bek should seriously consider suing for copyright infringement on her signature phrase.

Shock news as well! The greatest american? George Bush? I think not. Alexander Graham Bell? No. That girl off the tic tac ad? Maybe, in my opinion. Not according to this survey, which has Homer Simpson in the number one spot. Also a big shout out to the parents of the 22 per cent of British children would happily swap their father for Homer. Way to go dad!

- Leyton

What’s this? A weekend entry on chuckler.org? Well this isn’t Dean, sorry to dissapoint. Sorry also for misspelling dissapoint. Well after my attempt at a solo blog I discovered that it was just too much for one man who is as lazy as I am. It’s a miracle Dean manages to keep this thing going (mental note: don’t piss off the person who has administration rights over your blog entries). So here I am, writing on Dean’s blog instead, writing for the man, working hard to make a living, bringing shelter from the rain, a fathers son, left to carry on blue denim in his vein. Although I am only first year Med I’m sure blue denim in your veins can kill you, so don’t try it at home kiddies.

So what has changed since last time I enlightened your lives? KFC still makes crap ads, Corro Drive still doubles as a parking lot during peak hour and UQ still charges outrages amounts for parking. So nothing really.

I saw Bruce Almighty tonight and if I had a star rating system it would get a 4 out of 5 stars, but I don’t, so it doesn’t. Lots of good laughs, better than I expected, go and see it. If I have built it up too much for you and you are dissapointed, don’t blame me, it’s your fault that you believed me in the first place.

Would like to give a “big up ya” to Bek who has started reading Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, one of my all time favourite series of books. Douglas Adams is a genius. Good for her, hope she sticks with it.

While following a car back from the cinemas tonight and being mildly frustrated at the fact that the driver considered 30 a resonable speed to go on a main road, I was tempted to pull off a manoeuver that Dean must be credited with. The other day whilst driving to or from a place (it all sort of blends as Dean has been my driver biatch a lot lately), Dean came across a total space cadet driving very slowly down the middle of the road seemingly unaware of the world that existed beyond their tinted windows. After the car dummied to make a right turn and continued on at a rapid rate of dawdling, Dean had had enough and promptly took them on the OUTSIDE of the (single) lane dodging a couple of parked cars in the process. My hats off to Dean for putting his foot down both metaphorically and literally and saying enough is enough when it comes to crap driving. The exhilaration was almost enough for me to hang out the window and shout “I WILL NOT DIE TODAY“. However, I later attributed this to something in the crab salad that I had eaten at sizzlers, when I was running around the backyard yelling “KING OF THE WORLD!”.

- Leyton

Can anyone believe it’s Friday?

I have a crick in my neck this morning, which isn’t very good. Must’ve slept oddly - it’s that type you only get when you turn your head to the left.

Soccer lastnight, and to everyone’s suprise, the WHOLE TEAM turned up. This meant that we had too many, and I had to warm the bench. Even so, we had three subs to sub in/out the whole game (versus the opposition’s none) so the constant supply of fresh legs really meant that we dominated them the whole game. I shouted encouragement from the sideline - all I need now is a minivan and an esky full of sliced oranges and I’ll be a freaking soccer mum.

Yesterday at lunch, Bryce was coming to my house to LAN our two pcs up and do some serious leeching. Rhys got wind of this plan, and came along with his PC too. Then Callun said “I’ll be in for that” and Leyton came with me at lunch, and soon we had a houseful. What followed was a debacle of monstrous proportions … no sooner had people arrived, it seemed, they had to go. So everyone left, except for Bryce, one lone geek in the great expanse of data.

Started playing a bit of GTA: Vice City last night. It’s not the kind-of game that is likely to hold my attention long, but it filled in an hour or so last night before bed.

Oh, those who are waiting on news from Glenn and Lara should check here on chuckler.org for the entry entitled “What Animal does Veal Come From?” where they’ve posted a comment with some of their return details, etc. Glenn also emailed me from a Hong Kong airport (I think) offering to grab me some DVDs, since they were really cheap. Nice offer, but I’ve got waaay enough movies to watch, huh?