Pointless Pursuits

Example: sitting in front of a PC for a couple of hours painstakingly compiling favoured tracks from CDs to be burnt onto another CD, then having this process fail abortively about four-fifths of the way through.

Example: hanging a load of laundry on the washing line, then watching as it starts to rain within five minutes, taking the laundry off the line and hanging it out on a rack inside, then watching as it stops raining within five seconds.

Example: updating one's web-log.

Uncle types and their leisure-suit wives,
Helping out amongst the disabled,
From the flats and the maisonettes,
They're reminding us there's things to be done,
But you and me all we want to be is lazy ...
Suede, 'Lazy'

Somehow got myself into a bad mood about halfway through yesterday afternoon. This was around the time I last updated, and it shows through in the final paragraph. Have since had a few gratifyingly anxious messages from people asking whether they're the ones whose mannerisms I find annoying. Amazingly, none of them were. Fortunately, since there was no apparent reason for my bad mood, it faded away within a few hours. Might have been something to do with watching The Killer which is the finest depiction of platonic love between males ever brought to the silver screen, and also charmingly melodramatic in between awesome gunfights, and The Dentist, which, although undeniably complete crap (and definitely very dodgy in places) was a fine recommendation for eliminating everyone in this world who suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder. Probably wouldn't leave behind many of the people I know, but then that might not be any great loss. Dentists have a very high suicide rate it's rumoured. As do anaesthetists. I hypothesise for the sake of my own amusement that their condition derives from some kind of lack of certain nutrients due to excessive hygiene, which would be ironic. I did love watching Corbin Bernsen running around insanely muttering 'decay' like a white-coated Claudius. Maybe people should stop saying 'going postal' and start saying 'going dental'.

Beat MFoG by half a moku earlier today. Was suitably chuffed, even if it represents one win in a sea of losses against it. The computer AI was on level eight again. Then came into university and beat Adam, who appears to be ignoring the fact that he has a large project deadline on Monday, which is effectively Friday morning due to Terracon. I only beat him by 14.5 moku but I think this was because I am developing a more conservative style to combat MFoG's play, which is much more focused on acquiring influence than starting and winning fights in various parts of the board, which is the usual way UniSFAns play. The point is, I won and I didn't look like losing at any point of the match.

This morning, I finally started drawing together the various strands of the travel insurance claim I have to make due to being robbed whilst on holiday during the summer. It's taken a fair while for the whole saga to play itself out because of some of my stolen items being found by the police in Spain after I had already returned to Australia. This entailed a long, complex and bureaucratic negotiation with the Australian Embassy over there to have them couriered here, and put the claim on hold because it was impossible to find out exactly which things had been recovered. I can tell the claim itself is going involve a lot of aggravating paperwork, since the forms used by my insurance company are designed to thwart all but the most persistent clients, and there are a lot of stupidly complex receipts and other documents that must be interpreted, and a lot of half-forgotten dates and names to be dredged up. I quail at the thought.

When what used to excite you does not,
Liked you've used up your allowance of experience,
Just step sideways from this world, today,
The joker says go the opposite way, today, today.
The Fall, 'Just Step Sideways'

Certain people who I normally like are annoying me at the moment. I won't name any names because I can't tell if this will be transitory or ongoing. The funny thing is, I can't tell if it's because they've changed or I have, or whether my annoyance is situational, circumstantial, or habitual. Suffice it to say that people's mannerisms, which I often hate anyway, are grating even more than usual for some reason. Perhaps I've just been stagnant for too long. Perhaps I've just gotten older, more decrepit, and more intolerant. But it can be difficult to go around with hackles raised half the time.

Head Half-empty, Heart Half-full

Tell all of my friends, I don't have too many,
Just some raincoated lovers, puny brothers,
Dallow, Spicer, Pinkie, Cubitt,
Every jammy Stressford poet,
Loafing oafs in all night chemists,
Underact, express depression, oh
But Bunny I loved you ...
I was tired again I tried again but
Now my heart is full,
Now my heart is full,
And I just can't explain so I won't even try to.
Morrissey, 'Now My Heart Is Full'

Exams are over. I am hung over and tired, but at ease. A couple of lazy days sprawl invitingly before me. I have plans, but I think a little relaxation is in order first.

The last update I made to this page was actually during my second-last exam - that's commitment. Of course, I didn't know it at the time. Fortunately the university was willing to let me take the exam in the afternoon instead of the morning once I'd informed them of my situation. I'm choosing to regard the incident not as an indication of some kind of deterioration in my ability to organise myself, but rather as a near-certain hiccup in statistical terms once one has been at university as long as I have. The exam itself was surprisingly easy once the bureaucratic details (signing statutory declarations, getting assigned a new exam venue etc.) had been sorted out.

Didn't sleep much on Friday night due to cramming hard for my Saturday exam, and spent the morning sitting in Winthrop Hall furiously ransacking my brain for pseudo-convincing short answers to hard questions, feeling very sick and very fatigued. Came home and somehow beat Many Faces of Go by 80.5 moku on level eight, then proceeded to get whipped by it five times in succession. Strange that.

Went to Dave Thatcher's party to welcome his Scottish visitors last night, despite feeling lousy. I spent about five seconds introducing myself to his guests before leaving them to a grisly fate at the blabbering mouths of certain unnamed crashing bores. Then I went off and got trashed, finishing the night well and truly drunk under a doona on the couch arguing the legitimacy of Aboriginal compensation claims with Tom Pope. Left feeling satisfied that I'd made my point, even if this hadn't been readily apparent during our conversation.

So, I was feeling hungover before I went to the party. Now I have some kind of evil, extended hangover situation happening, having again had little sleep last night. Lucky I've got nothing more strenuous than watching the World Cup Final, playing computer games and watching videos planned for the rest of the day.

Ah, sweet relief.