VolaciousNet

I haven’t updated in a bit. So much to say!
Where to begin?

&nbspMy first Christmas Tree!&nbsp

It seems so special for me… getting my first christmas tree! It seems like a rite of passage… moving away from the traditional family christmas tree to having your own, set up in your own living room, decorated in your own style. Mine, naturally, is decked out with fibre optics!

We started out at the Christmas Cave, a dedicated store entirely for christmas paraphenalia, located literally just down the road from me! Always handy to live in this part of the city. We went in… my gawd that place is huge! Everything that could ever be imagined for the festive season was there. Adam was absolutely beside himself! He loves christmas decorations. We found a tree, but sadly it was beyond our price range. I tried to talk the shop assistant down, but it was not to be. Instead, we headed off to K-Mart, were we found trees just as good, but half the price, and THEN on sale for 25% off !!! Bought a pretty little 4ft fibre optic tree and used the money I saved to get some extra fibre optics decorations, and some tinsel. It’s not much, but it’s my first tree!

It’s only missing one thing… the star! I asked Adam if he would be kind as to find a special star for the top of the tree, so it would be a gift from him. Make it extra special that way, y’see?

&nbspThe Perfect Sunday&nbsp

Oh my.. was yesterday special !! It’s been a long time since I’ve done anything particularly romantic or spontaneous with Adam, and this Sunday just turned out unexpectedly to be a really special day. It started off with lunch (yes I know… we’re late starters!) at Manly, with my cousin and his partner, and my brother, his wife Natalie and their kid / my nephew Timmy! My brother nor his wife had met Adam, and it seems to have gone down quite well. I burnt up some lovely chicken wings and veggie fingers, and enjoyed a few beers out near Manly beach. Of course, little Timmy was ever so gorgeous, and Adam thought he was adorable! I was playing with Timmy for a little, and bouncing him on my knee, which Adam thought was highly amusing! After that, Adam and I went for a walk along Manly beach, and picked up an ice-cream from Royal Copenhagen, and sat on the esplanade and talked. Absolutely wonderful.

On a fit of spontoneity, I decided it would be lovely to take Adam to the movies, where we went and saw The Grudge. That was such a freaky movie! I’m not usually scared by movies, but this one had me squeezing Adam’s leg so tight I’m sure he would have lost circulation at some points! That was probably the first movie I have been scared by since I was 10. And here I am sitting in my apartment alone….

What happened after was lovely though… we went for a drive down the scenic northern beaches of Sydney, along the coastal road. We ended up at Middle Head, sitting on a rock at sunset overlooking Sydney Harbour as it heads out towards the ocean. So romantic and corny it would make most men puke! But we did it. Mind you, it did ruin the atmosphere that the place was a beat (unbeknownst to us at the time), and when we went back to the car, there was an older guy sitting there eyeing us off, making a remark here and there. He blew us a kiss as we drove off. I blew one back! Oh my I love teasing.

&nbspOff to Temora!&nbsp

Yes, as of this Thursday, I’m heading off towards Temora, a town in the middle of NSW, to go to the U25 Nationals Gliding Competition. It sounds like a lot of fun! I’ve got so much to get ready… and there’s one or two things I’m quite anxious about which I haven’t gotten fully organized yet. It will be a big test for me, for a few reasons. Firstly, I’ve really gotta have my head screwed on and working properly to get everything right and not get into trouble. There’s a lot of organizing to do, and one thing regular readers of my journal will know, is that good organization is something I’m not brilliant at. I have to learn sometime though.
I’m going away for 10 days to a remote country town, with a whole bunch of str8 boys my age. It will be interesting to see how my internal social mechanisms adapt to the environment. I’ve noticed that when I come back from places like that, my accent is decidedly more “ocker” Australian, I’m talking more about cars and planes than usual, I’m covered in dust and am sporting a dark tan, complete with defined tan lines. It’s an interesting dichotomy I run… on one hand I can be as gay as can be, and on the other so “str8″ I scare people. I always wonder what my natural mannerism is, or if my natural mannerism are always variant.
Anyway, I know I’m going to miss Adam like crazy when I’m away for 10 days… it’s the longest time in 7.5 months we’ve been apart. I knooooooow… how tragic! I love it though. He truly is the best thing ever to happen to me.

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Our First Christmas Tree ©2004 A Stewart

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It’s not often I can get Adam to pose for anything, so this is a rarity! Doesn’t he do it so well???

Not looking forward to tomorrow. It’s apparently going to be a scorcher… 42 degrees! A record November temperature for Sydney, which is quite something considering that Sydney is a coastal city. No air conditioning here… I will just have to board my windows up, put my sleeveless top on, and hope for the best! Frosty Fruit anyone?

Volacious.Net.Au is under reconstruction!
Yes, the computer is finally getting booted from Windows 2000 Server to RedHat Fedora Linux Core 3, and the website is being re-written in PHP, with major updates on the way!
Lots of coffee tonight, and some major geekiness!! Yay!

I will re-post when it’s over. The website and mail server will be down, ending a record 3 weeks of uptime!

Here it is… D-Day!
Usually about this time of year, I quote some latin excerpt from the Requiem Mass, most likely the the “Dies Irae”, indicating that I think it’s Judgment Day.
Today, not so I don’t think. I’ve put in a mammoth effort over the past 24 hours, more work than I’ve done in a long time. I had 2 subjects to learn for two exams today. Now, my fate is sealed. I don’t know the work brilliantly, but even if I fail, I will have at least given it a try.

To me I think that’s the most important thing. This semester has not gone as well as I would have liked, as I’m sure all will know, and I’ve battled with so many of my problems, trying to keep my mind in order. There’s still a lot more work to do, and if I work my butt off over the weekend, I can probably pass another subject. I’ve attempted 6 subjects this semester.

I’ve felt surprisingly good over the past few days. Yes, I’m still stressed over the upcoming 2 exams in 3 hours or so, but unlike other semesters the stress is not debilitating. I’m finding that I can pull out good work when I need to. Although my assessments will have probably failed the course for me, I think I have an honest attempt at doing my best in the exam, considering my current position. No use crying over spilt milk.

As soon as this is over, I will be heading straight off to Oberon for my mother’s birthday. I forgot to ring her today… I hope she understands. Hopefully the weather will be good enough to fly tomorrow.

I’m really looking forward to the future.

But now…. in the immortal words of Donna Summers,
“So c’mon baby, dance that dance
c’mon baby, let’s dance tonight!”

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“All nighter sunrise” ©2004 A Stewart

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Two exams down! 3 to go !
I was granted the supplementary yesterday, and it looks as though I will be sitting it next monday afternoon. A little earlier than I would have hoped, but at least the pain will be over soon !!!! So there we are… 22nd November, pass or fail, it’s all over. Then what? I get ready to go to the U25 Nationals at Temora! Am looking forward to it. It’s going to be hot, dusty, full of blokey str8′s. Funnily enough I feel at home there :p haha

The exam today was quite good. For once, I started off on a good foot, already having 49 out of 60 marks for my assessment! Very unusual for me. So I only need 1 mark out of 40 to pass. I should be looking at a distinction! My first for 3 years! The next two exams are going to be nasty. Nasty nasty nasty. However, I think I’m in a relatively good frame of mind to give it my best shot! I got to sleep for the first time in 3 days last night, after getting some sleeping tablets from my mother. These new meds I’m on really screw with my sleep patterns, and cause my heartrate to increase dramatically. I took one Stilnox, and I was out like a light last night. Nothing could wake me! heh heh

This weekend should be interesting. I’m going up to Oberon with Mum for her birthday, and I’m taking her new bf for a flight in a glider. Apparently he’s excited as all hell! Hope I can give him all he expects!! lol What’s going to be more interesting is that I will probably have to drive the Suzuki ute from Oberon to Bathurst, and it’s only barely roadworthy, with a top speed anywhere between 60-80 km/h. However, I love a challenge!!!

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“Old Country” ©2004 A Stewart

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Btw, I’m sending the pics now to a faster server, as I’m finding poor old Volacious.net.au is getting overloaded with everyone downloading from their friends page. I’ve also moved the journal base files and pics so my journal should now load faster. Yay for me! I now use the pic bottom right as a tracker, as well as blatant advertising. I should really update it… there’s not a lot there yet. Laaaater!

*sighs*
It’s been one of those days.
The real estate agent has to come around tomorrow to inspect the site where one of the workmen fucked up, so we decided we’d get our house inspection over and done with.
I’m nervous as all hell, with 4 exams coming up, and 4 nasty ones at that. Thankfully, the closest one is a 1st year HRM subjects, which means that I shouldn’t have to study too much for it, considering the marks I got in the essay for that subject.
However, just when I need it the most, my body has decided to throw a wobbly and get sick. ARRGGGHH! Not what I need now. The only week in the year I need to function at my best, and I’m having trouble breathing. I feel like a truck hit me. I didn’t get much sleep last night, and after Adam and I fell asleep on the couch, he decided he would sprawl out completely, pushing me off the bed / couch. Of course, he was completely comatose and immovable. So I went to sleep on my bed, but for some reason these new meds I’m taking are really screwing with my sleep. Some nights, I simply don’t feel like sleep. Some nights, I’ll drift right off after dinner. Grrr. Tonight, I summond up every bit of energy I had to get this apartment clean before inspection tomorrow. I’m going to have to get a good night’s sleep tonight, hit the Demazin, because DAMN I am going to need the energy to study tomorrow. It’s getting nasty now.

Welcom to HELL WEEKâ„¢, Gus ! Get a good whif!!

I think this pic sums up my mood atm… decided to try a bit of impromptu photography tonight, after I got an idea and had to test it out to see if it worked. Hmm?

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Sacrifice Me ©2004 A Stewart

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4 more exams to go. In a week.
House inspection tomorrow.

Grr.

I am disillusioned and annoyed. What the fuck was he thinking?

Yes, I’m talking about Anthony from Australian Idol. After worshipping that boy, after he sang “The Prayer”, I felt sure he had the competition in the bag. But tonight, he went and sang that boy band SHIT whilst Casey sang a deeply moving Evanescence song. Casey wasn’t brilliant, and she was out of tune quite often, but tonight she had it over Anthony, whose little habits just became grossly annoying. If he had just sung something Bocelli-like, for example “Con Te Partiro” (Time to Say Goodbye), he would have no doubt whatsoever, and would be Australian Idol. But noooo… he wanted to sing something that made him sound extremely gay and camp, completely ignoring the judge’s comments.

For those that want to remember the good times, I managed to source out the audio and video for “The Prayer”, when he sang it a few weeks ago.

The Prayer – Audio (481KB)

The Prayer – Video (22.1 MB)

In other news… decided to pre-enrol today. Few days over, but yes. Of course, it seems as though I will have a few more years to go. The good thing is, my commerce degree could be over quite quickly. As for engineering, all the subjects are being changed so that they are now all worth 6 credit points. Before, they were worth 4, and many would have to be the hardest 4 credit points ever worked for in the uni. Now, they are 6. Grr. Shoulda started uni later! Oh well. Probably good I did the hard yards already.

Trying to muster up the motivation to study for the next few days. Today has been bullshit, but if I don’t pull off a miracle in the next 4 days, I’m toast. 3 exams this week, 2 of which I’m utterly unprepared for.

Sarah came home once in the past week, and left. Adam says she doesn’t come home because of my habits (i.e. messy). I wish she would tell me some times.
Onwards, ever onwards!

I’m running out of original stylish pics that I haven’t posted before, so I’m going with the archive of funnies…

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First Thought

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Which one of you geeks is proxying through http://www.the-cloak.com ??
I get a little suspicious when my bandwidth slows to a standstill, I tracert the connected address and find out it’s a proxy-server for cloaking connections, effectively hiding the original connection. A great tool for hackers.

Grrr.
They’re on LiveJournal, judging from the files they first downloaded.

Yawn.

Finally got some study done today!! Feel so proud of myself!
Still, I’m very worried about the final exam. The lecturer, Jim, is the biggest fuckwit known to mankind. He takes pleasure in being vague, ambiguous, and enjoys seeing students back the next year.

The exam I’m sitting on Saturday is worth 90% of my course mark, and consists of only 50 multiple choice questions. Naturally, being engineering, the choice options will be ambiguous, similar to each other, and require you to be absolutely precise. And, yes, this is the first time he’s done the exam like this, so there are no past papers or practice questions. FUN!!!!

I also managed to schmoozle (my fav. new word) my way into a few more marks out of ELEC2401… so yay for that! An extra few marks, and all it took was an email and 15 minutes.

Still going to be a hard slog. These new meds are great, but it’s hard to get to sleep. Is good though. The extra energy is always appreciated. Means I can work later.

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Sub Crux ©2004 A Stewart

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Cow dung cures
Sydney Morning Herald – link
November 10, 2004

A Hindu right-wing organisation claims waste emitted by cows has properties that can cure cancer and athritis.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP – World Hindu Council) has spent about $US500,000 ($660,000) over the past eight years researching the medicinal properties of cow dung and cow urine, the Economic Times newspaper reported yesterday.

In the Hindu religion, the cow is a sacred animal and its slaughter or the sale of beef is banned in most Indian states.

The VHP, along with other Hindu organisations, have special programs devoted to the “protection” of the cow.

Brochures of the VHP’s Govigyan Anusanchan Kendra (Cow Research Centre), based in the southern city of Nagpur, claims it is devoted to research and development on the role of cows.

Scientists and volunteers work on assorted projects devised by the organisation, including generating electricity using cow dung.

The unit also produces distilled cow urine which is bottled and marketed under the brand name Ark. The solution has been patented in the United States. Co-ordinator of the centre Sunil Mansighka said it had properties that fought cancer and athritis.

Three years ago, India’s then Bharatiya Janata Party-led federal government commissioned a professor at one of India’s premier management institutes to do a study on the positive effects of cow excreta.

Anil Gupta of the India Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, endorses that cow urine has some disease-fighting properties.

“But that is true of the waste of most animals,” he adds. “In India, it is more socially acceptable to touch or consume cow excreta than that of other animals.”

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The Three Amigos ©2004 A Stewart

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*edit*
Today’s Calvin and Hobbes is scarily suitable!