Life - 1

More importantly though, pity us poor IT sods who still have to take a bunch of manual steps to prepare systems for the coming new financial year. Woe unto us.

Today I'm flying off to Greenville, South Carolina, one of 31 Greenvilles in the USA (or 32, if you count Greeneville). I've been told by Mr. Brewer, who went not too long ago, that the southern hospitality is something to behold. Even after my last business trip to Miami, where I was told repeatedly that “this is not what America is like”, I think I need to brace myself for yet another culture shock.

I'll be privileged enough to be stuck for several hours in cattle class on Delta to Atlanta, only to wait there for six hours waiting for my connecting flight. Maybe it's not so bad, since it doesn't beat my 8-½ hour stint in Dubai. Fortunately SITA have Wi-Fi hotspots all over the place there, and it'll take me at least an hour to get through customs.

Whilst you all bestow me with sympathy comments (or not), I thought I'd share my thoughts (read: ramble) on some things that evoke a sense of culture shock for me.

So I've finally completed the five things you didn't know about me meme, and I've gone and twisted the rules of the game laid down by Jeff Pulver when he started the whole thing. The reason is simple: people I know are either blogless, or would ignore the request.

If I read your blog, and you're feeling left out, then apparently I misjudged your character, at which point you may go ahead and consider yourself tagged.

I was curious about the history of my tag, since there's a large element of social networking involved behind blog tagging. Continue reading "Five things: Epilogue"

This is the final part of my response to the “Five things you didn't know about me” meme; following parts one, two, three and four.

I thought my final entry in this five things serial should be something a little less morbid…

This is part four of my response to the “Five things you didn't know about me” meme; following parts one, two and three.

Probably coming as a surprise to most people, I was once diagnosed with latent schizophrenia. Apparently you're supposed to call it “schizotypal personality disorder” these days, but that sounds somewhat dramatic and verbose to me.

Until recently I have been reluctant to discuss it, but it's a part of who I am and I can neither change nor deny it. I'm not proud of it, and I don't really follow the psychology behind the whole thing, but I do know I have control over what's going on inside my brain.

This is part three of my response to the “Five things you didn't know about me” meme; following parts one and two.

In 1999, around my 18^th birthday, I was homeless for about a month. This isn't to say that I'm suddenly an expert on homelessness — far from it in fact — rather the brief experience had a profound effect on my attitudes to life. I'll be honest in saying the situation wasn't extraordinary considering I was kicked-out of home by my father.

According to Rebeccas Community, it is the number one reason for runaways, which is not too surprising.

This is part two of my response to the “Five things you didn't know about me” meme; following part one.

While I've never been entirely proud of it, I am quite content to remain a high-school drop-out. I never completed the VCE, and never went on to do university or TAFE.

After leaving school half-way through year 11 I have never really looked back, and now prefer to educate myself because I find it more reliable and rewarding than the education system ever was.

I suppose this means I'm only qualified up until middle school level!

Since Prae's blog entry requiring my attention, I've thought of responding with much apprehension. After much personal debate I've compiled a list of five things you don't know or probably dismissed.

Sorry for the rhyme, I've been doing that all day.

To be honest, since this annoying thing popped up, a few others have also suggested I follow suit. So here I am, more than three months late, but I certainly won't request that five other people must do this, because that's just as bad as a chain letter. Let's leave that stuff to the MySpace kiddies.

I've decided to not only list my five things, but explain them properly since I'm often easily misunderstood. To this end, I will explain five things you didn't know about be over five days.

Once again, the flu jab has proven useless as I've come down with a flu strain that was not foreseen in the 2006-2007 northern hemisphere influenza season immunisation.

I took the day off from work on Monday and spent a lovely feverish day going back and forth between the couch and bed: uncomfortable and bored no matter where I was. I eventually gave up with exhaustion and went to bed around 7pm. After waking up from my 12 hour sleep yesterday, I felt pretty good, albeit a little dehydrated, so I went to work.

That was a big mistake.

During Christmas, I escaped the cold of Brussels and headed off to the posh side of Bristol for an unusual but slightly traditional Christmas with good food, good company, and lots of grog. Apparently the thick freezing fog wasn't too bad compared with the fog in the south that grounded flights.

So, it's Christmas again, which means we're closing in on the end of another year. Time is flying past so quickly lately, that Christmas is a welcomed change of pace. As with every year, even the Mannequin Piss is in on the action!

As an experiment, and as my way of proving that my life is just as mundane as the next, I thought I'd finally exploit the (horribly inadequate) camera in my Nokia E70 and capture a day's worth of mindless monotony. While some insight into my current lifestyle may not sway humanity, it will provide curiosity and humour to my future self, if the archive of my blog can be somehow assured.

Now, it's interesting to note that despite Gartner's predictions, modern archaeology is already taking note in the blogging movement, and some universities are beginning to encourage archaeology and philosophy students to blog. Ultimately, the incessant self-publishing phenomenon will provide future civilisations a window into our own; albeit for now, its view into a somewhat obscure facet of our present reality.

Armed with this as my primary excuse to cover up my general state of disregard and laziness, I've decided to leave the images from the E70 in their original state, including those which are blurry and normally inadmissable. This is my day, as seen by me, through my trusty camera phone.

For me, Christmas shopping season has begun this weekend. Normally I wait until the last minute, but this time around I felt it was a good idea to start battling the hordes of relentless Christmas shoppers early in order to avoid any unwanted surprises, and help me find presents for people. It's only one week away from Plaisirs d'Hiver (Winter Wonders), which includes lots of Glüewein, Christmas markets, and so forth. Brussels is going to be chockas again, so it's a good idea to start early.

J'habite en Belgique depuis trois ans maintenent, et mon niveau de français est encore terrible. Et je ne fais rien à l'améliorer. Rien. Absolument rien.

Before arriving in Belgium, I was somewhat news obsessed. I'd listen to ABC NewsRadio on a regular basis (with the exception of when they were broadcasting from Parliament). I'd even go to bed and listen to the news from the BBC (naturally being retransmitted via NewsRadio).

Sitting on my own in my new and baron apartment in Brussels a feeling somewhat lonely (amplified somewhat by the time of year), I tuned into NewsRadio over the Internet for a news-fix and to see what was going on around the world. To my surprise, NewsRadio would cheer me up and make the world feel small again for me in no time.