Oh, and Dave's started a website full of Zeus pics, it's cute!

Just found an online version of Melway Edition 1, it probably dates from sometime in the late 60's! My area hasn't really changed too much, but a lot of other people commented on what's missing from their areas!

Had a pretty neat little party thing last night, mostly to celebrate me getting a job, but also just for fun, and I also found out Chantell finished her exams last week so we celebrated that too! It was just BohulerDave, MyDave, Chantell and I, although Andrew and Cossack were invited but piked out. So, Bohuler and I got slightly drunk, we all played some game called CashFlow which nobody had ever heard of except Chantell (she brought it), which was kinda fun, and Bohuler also brought Good News Week - Unseen and Obscene video, which was hilarious! So, all in all, a pretty good night.

Mum is coming to the city tomorrow, to see me and buy me some new clothes. I need another pair of pants, another jacket, and some more long-sleeved shirts. That'll be good.

I have just discovered the saddest thing I've seen in a long time. I mean sad as in pathetic, not sad as in mournful. Alex Chiu's Immortality Rings. Yes, that's right, Immortality Rings! The dreadful website and numerous spelling errors do nothing to inspire confidence. In the explanation on how they are supposed to work, the phrase "The Eternal Life Rings and The Eternal Life Foot Braces invented by Alex Chiu are believed to allow humans to stay physically young forever or turn humans physically younger" grabs my attention... Believed to? Apparently their lawyer told them to say that! In other words, they have no proof, it's a hoax, a scam, a way to gain money from the gullible. Ah well. It happens.

Right, let me see, what has been going on the last few days when I haven't updated!

I had a job interview this afternoon (the TXU position mentioned below) and found out this afternoon that I have the job. I start training on Wednesday.

I have some better photos of my hair: Vaguely Styled and Spiked.

We were supposed to celebrate me finally getting a job tonight - we were going to get drunk and see a movie. Well, we saw a movie, didn't drink a drop, got home and Dave was too tired to anyway. Ah well. Now we have lots of alcohol in the fridge (Dave nicked heaps from his work, they had some after-work drinks thing tonight).

I saw dad today, that was good, we went out to Headwear and did some stuff he needed to do, then he came back here and met Zeus. Also my dad has bought himself a quite reasonable little digital camera - he would have shown it off to me, but it ran out of battery!

I noticed Blogger have implemented their changes on my site - as far as I can see it's made no difference to the appearance of the site itself (this is a good thing), but as I write this I can't help but see all the changes in the editing fields - nice colours, different layout, etc. Very nice guys (if anybody from Blogger reads this, which I doubt, but anything's possible!).

Anyway, that's quite enough for now, it is just past midnight (dammit, this entry will have tomorrow's date and it will look like I was slack for another day!) and Dave has gone to bed... strangely I don't feel the need to join him there, I had as little (possibly less) sleep as he did, and have had a busy day too. Nevertheless, it is time to relax and do nothing for a while. Reading some Agatha Christie books sounds like a good idea to me...

I look like a man! Or a dyke! The butcher of a hairdresser cut my hair far too short! I told her how I wanted it, she made a few snips and I said "Yeah, about that length is good", and then somehow it just slowly got shorter and shorter... I guess she was trimming it, making both sides even... but the upshot is, I now look like this:




(Sorry about the crappy picture quality, it's just my little webcam!)

The other news of the day is that I have a job interview with TXU on Friday! Apparently my phone test was "excellent" - always knew I had a good phone manner.

Today's requisite half hour's disco dancing: Done!

Had another call from Hays Personnel this morning, I had to call a phone number (recorded message, automated) and read off a speech - basically just a test of my phone manner. Was rather nervous, but I think I did ok.

Also I'm absolutely certain I put a fairly long entry here last night, and Blogger screwed up and it didn't post and now I'm buggered if I remember it.

My list of incredibly sexy actors:

Sean Connery

Alan Rickman

Colin Firth

Kevin Costner

to be continued...

I had a very weird dream last night.
Eminem broke into our house while we were in bed, apparently we had something that he wanted and he was trying to find it and steal it back. I remember lying in bed telling Dave to just leave him alone, let him get whatever it was and go and then he'd leave us alone, but then my grandmother got up (I don't know why she appeared to be living with us) and he attacked her with a hairbrush. So I told Dave to get up and bash Eminem, which he did admirably well (Eminem's a weedy little guy after all). I remember my grandmother (who wasn't actually my grandmother, but she was in the dream) was pretty badly hurt, she had a big gash on her forehead, bleeding badly, and she'd passed out. I remember being quite worried about her, and while I don't remember anyone calling an ambulance I do remember that there was one there at some stage. I don't remember how it ended, or if it ended just there - I don't know what happened to Eminem or the object he was after, or what that object was. Weird.

Stacy been a bad bad girl! No update yesterday. That is for no reason whatsoever, but it must be rectified immediately.

The property inspection yesterday went absolutely fine. Landlady arrived first, I invited her and she wandered around for ten minutes or so before the agent got here (late), then they stayed for another three minutes or so, and left. I asked if the place looked fine, and she said "Yes, yes, looks good..."

The cat problem was solved simply by putting him in a box in the car - with Cossack to keep him company!

Excersise lately has been almost non existant. Must stop being so darned lazy! I've been reading a lot (in the bath) and playing the Discworld MUD for hours at a time. And that's about it. I'll force Dave to come for a run this afternoon/tonight, for half an hour or so, that might make up for a couple of days of non-movement!

Haven't done much besides cleaning today. Bedroom and bathroom are immaculate, the rest of the place will darn well do! I semi-cleaned the laundry, and just as I thought, Zeus messed it up again afterwards, so I'll do that again between putting him in the car and having the inspection. Oh the hassle!

Dave and I have just been for a nice 20 or 30 minute jog around the oval just down the road. That's today's excersise for me, and probably the month's excersise for Dave! I was very pleased with how well I stood it - despite the relatively short time that I've been working on my fitness, I think it's already starting to pay off!

We have a property inspection on Friday! And we have a cat we're not supposed to have! Dave reckons he should just park the car around the corner and I can put all the catty stuff in there (incluing the cat himself) before they arrive, and get him out when they leave. He should be ok - it won't be for long, and I'll leave a window or two down for some air... It'll be half an hour, max. As long as some busy-body doesn't come along and shout animal cruelty or something. That's really gonna piss me off. But I'm sure it'll be fine.

Well, I had a very interesting meeting with a recruitment agency today. I went along expecting the usual questions ("Why do you want this job, what qualities do you have, what skills do you think you can improve on?") and the usual computer tests (MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc). What I got was something entirely different. They had this computer program set up to act almost like a call centre simulator. I sat there with headphones on, listening to recorded coversations (faked, obviously), and depending on the excersise I would have to pick what the customer service rep did wrong, choose a response, or enter customer data into a database as it was spoken. So bascially it assessed my customer service skills as well as basic data entry skills. I scored very highly on working under pressure and speed and accuracy of information entered. I did pretty well in almost all areas tested, but not so great on upselling - I tend to think in terms of keeping customers happy, no matter what, and I know that being upsold to annoys me, so that'll be why I didn't upsell very well. But I suppose that's just another skill I can learn! Anyway, as a result of today I'm being put forward for two customer service positions and I should hear whether I have interviews for them late this week. Cool!

There are a few things Dave should realise by now.

I'm going to get pissed off at him every now and then. We live together, for God's sake, these things happen - probably more often than we'd like, but what can you do?

That doesn't mean I don't love him and value the relationship. I do. A lot.

From that you can deduce the position of any and every other guy I know - friends.

Think I'd risk ruining what we've got here by screwing around? Hell no.

Even if these friends want to (and I flatter myself in even contemplating that they might), they all bloody well know better.

I am a mature and responsible adult and can realise the consequences of my own actions - even when a little drunk, like tonight.

Bah!

It has not been a good weekend. There have been arguments, silences, snores, couches, and finally another silence.

I slept on the couch last night. I think, once you've kicked a man for an hour and he still snores, all hope for a good night's sleep is gone. Therefore, the couch, where it was at least quiet.

Well I've done today's dancing (half an hour) and the walk to Subway and back. I'm still flabby! I expect instant results and they're not happening! BAH!

I had a call yesterday afternoon (While I was watching Robin Hood dammit) from a woman from Manpower (the recruitment agency, not the male strippers). There are four jobs she's recommending me for, which I was very happy to hear. It works very weirdly - she recommends me, then passes me and the jobs on to somebody else who, if they agree with her recommendations, calls me to arrange a meeting. Weird.
Hey, you know what I've noticed about women working for recruitment agencies? They're all British. I get a call and a British accent asks for "Miss Horsfall" or "Stacy", and I just know it's about a job. In a way it's annoying, because quite frankly they all sound the same, and I can't pick their voices apart. In another way, however, it's quite sexy. I like a good British accent!

What do people want from a customer service representative?

Accurate information and extensive product knowledge
To be listened to and understood
Patience
Capability
Undivided attention

Zeus keeps sitting up on the washing machine meowing, and I don't know why. He has food, he has water, his litterbox is clean, if he's just after attention he knows where I am. Perhaps he doesn't want anything in particular, maybe he's just a vocal cat.

Anyway, time for today's dancing. I don't really feel like it, but I guess that's what this "Fitness Campaign" thing is about - being able to force myself even when I don't want to.

Negligible total excersise today. Not to worry, I'll do a fair bit tomorrow with any luck.

I have a feeling I did something else today that I was going to add here. But I'm darned if I remember what it was. Maybe I'll remember tomorrow.

I've just gotten home from the job interview from hell. Ask no questions, I tell you no shit.

Excersise today so far has been just walks to and from train stations - feels like quite enough for the moment! Might do some dancing later. Might go watch a movie now.

Fitness Campaign Day Three
I've decided to dance today. Less strenuous than jogging, but it gets the heartrate up and burns some energy/fat. I can also keep it up for longer, which is probably better. And I enjoy it more!

Woo, that's half an hour of dancing! And I'll probably do more later! I like this idea!

I have decided that the 70s was the funkiest decade ever. Honestly. I have. The 70s produced Daddy Cool's Eagle Rock, Amii Stewart's Knock On Wood, and Wild Cherry's Play That Funky Music. The 70s was responsible for The Jackson Five's Blame It On The Boogie and Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons' Hit And Run. How can any decade beat that? And I won't forget the number one reason for the 70s being utterly funky: David Essex's Rock On. What has any decade ever done that can beat any or all of the above? Sure, The Beatles were huge, they had some great songs. But that was simple, basic rock. Which has it's good points. (Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge Beatles fan.) But nothing can compare to Santana's Black Magic Woman or Earth Wind & Fire's Boogie Wonderland. (Older readers: is this a trip down memory lane, or what? You'd never believe I'm only 20!)

Oh, someone showed me this shirt today, love it! I gotta get me one of them - if I could afford it!

I got a letter today from Emergency Services Victoria, I didn't get the job. I didn't think I would. No biggie!

Fitness Campaign Day Two
Well, my ten minutes this morning was decidedly easier than yesterday's, despite my sore legs - really should have done some warm-ups! I might move it up to 15 minutes tomorrow instead of waiting for next week! We'll see. Subway for lunch again today - I'm not the kind of person to get sick of things, Subway is nice and healthy and it's a good walk to get it each day.

Got our first electricity bill for this house today. $253.19, which sounds like a lot until you remember that last winter my bill was about $360. It's cheaper here because we don't have electric heating - got gas! So now I'm dreading receiving the gas bill!

I can not believe the stupidity of that cat. He's just fallen in the water feature for the third time. You'd think he would have realised by now that all that green stuff on top is not solid and can not be walked on. He manages to get himself out of there, somehow, and walks away spasmodially shaking his legs, one at a time, trying to get rid of the water. He then mews pityfully through the towel-drying routine and sulks for a few minutes in the laundry before launching into the next activity!

Fitness Campaign Day One
Have decided I need to lose the unsightly flab that is my stomach. This morning I aimed to do 15 minutes of vigorous excercise - today just jogging on the spot - to see how I went. I was shocked to find that I could only just manage ten minutes before almost collapsing! I knew I was unfit, but I hadn't realised just how unfit. I now plan to do several ten minute sessions of excersise per day, and may increase this to fifteen minutes next week depending on how I feel. I am also going to eat a lot healthier. Subway is approximately 7 minute's walk from here, so that's some more excerise and a healthy meal.
Note to self: Excersise before having a shower, to save having two!

I have paid aboslutely no attention to the content of the blog But It Sounded So Good In My Head, so I can't comment on interest. But I can say, wow, look at the colours!!! They change, all the time!!! Cool!!!

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I think I may have figured out why my blog is a little on the uninteresting side. It's because there's nothing wrong with me! I mean, like anybody, I'm a little bit crazy, I get mad, I get sad, but ultimately I'm a normal person. I have all my limbs, I can hear fine, my eyesight is slightly below average, my boyfriend isn't in the army/at war, both my parents are alive and well. No major drama besides my frantic job-hunt, and that hardly makes me special or interesting.

Female - nothing that interesting there, 50% of the population are the same.

Jobless - again, no shortage of people in the same situation.

Cat-owner - something for me to blabber about, but not something everyone's interested in.

Living with partner - OK, perhaps not every 20 year old girl has lived away from her parents for three years. But still, nothing that exciting.

Boring - duh.

There you have it, my main components listed in a simple and easily understandable manner, and there is nothing there to grab the attention or make you say "Wow!".

Dave stumbled across this article from Melbourne's The Age this morning, which interested me as a blogger. Apparently Google is giving us a search engine of our own! Google already segregates categories of website, such as news articles, and now it seems blogs are soon to get their own little section of Google too.

Despite many attempts to "submit" this page to Google, I've never managed to find it in a Google search - perhaps their recent attention to blogs (including their acquisition of Pyra Labs, the company behind Blogger) will change this!

Today's Stupid Thing:
We went to Hungry Jacks, and I asked for a Quarter Pounder.
The chick said, "We don't sell those, McDonalds does."
I was so glad this was through the drive-through speaker and she couldn't see me blush!

I've just been reading a post in another blog, the woman is talking about how she has a pain in her tooth, but the medical folk can't seem to find anything wrong with it and think she's a hypochondriac. Reading it just reminded me of my own experience with labyrinthitis. It is surprisingly common, and unsprisingly difficult to detect. I had to have a CAT-scan, and was told nothing was wrong with me, before my incompetent doctor came up with the labyrinthitis idea. It just goes to show, medical science is overrated!

The chronicles of Zeus.

He fell in the water feature again the other night. Of course, I locked him outside while I went to find a towel. Well I don't want wet-cat-prints all over the house!

Dave left the lid of the washing machine up, he just fell in there and couldn't get out. Of course I delayed in rescuing him long enough to take a photo!

He goes psycho every night at bedtime. So that means, two hours before I go to bed, I have to exhaust him. Throwing stuff around the house for him to chase, chasing him myself, etc.

7yu6ftgrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrvbggggggggggggggg - need I say more?

He goes psycho every morning before I want to get up. I now have quite a large hole in my thumb from those sharp little claws.

Cats are fun.

Now, I'm going to try to restrain myself today, and not make more than three entries, no matter how bored I get!!! This seems a difficult challenge, until a few minutes' though reveals that I can in fact "edit" previous entries and add more information to them, instead of making a new entry! So I might end up with three quite long entries today! We shall see, though - maybe I won't even get that bored!

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, pee in it, and serve it to the people that piss you off.
How brilliant is that? Courtesy of the Down with Gravity blog.

You can tell when I'm really really bored. There's about five short entries in one day. Possibly more. I have nothing better to do. Perhaps I'll have a bath with a book, that's always good. But that poses the question which book, now that I have three unread books to choose from (thanks to Ebay), instead of the several hundred ones I've read as many times before. Two of the new books are by Greg Bear, and other (actually 3 books in one) is by C. J. Cherryh. Both of them should be on my Favourite Authors/Books List, and if they're not, well, I might put them there someday.

If I were on Southpark!

I just stumbled across something with the word "dishevel". For no reason I know, I began wondering if the word was somehow related to the phrase "She-devil". Also if this is such a word as "hevel", for how can one dishevel if one wasn't hevelled to begin with?
Reminds me of the old "Why is there no such thing as a gruntled employee?" The English language is full of little oddities like that.

What I hate about looking at other people's blogs is that their designs are all so much better than mine!

I just did a funny little Personality Test. I wonder if it's at all accurate?

Disorder / Rating
Paranoid: Low
Schizoid: Low
Schizotypal: Low
Antisocial: High
Borderline: Low
Histrionic: Moderate
Narcissistic: Very High
Avoidant: Low
Dependent: Low
Obsessive-Compulsive: Low

I found the test on another woman's blog, Curmudgeoness, part of the "Blogs by Women" webring I've just attempted to join. I often ponder how on interesting others find my blog, but if my opinions of others' blogs are any indication, mine might be quite interesting! It is oddly fascinating to read another person's blog, to take a peek into their life and their world. Often I find I can relate to somebody, or I find myself looking at something in another way - their way. Very interesting indeed.

Today is a bloody horrible day. See?. When it looks like that at this time of the day, that's pretty bad. Gotta love Melbourne. It is apparently one of the most livable cities in the world - they obviously didn't consider weather in this study. Or it was conducted in summer.

i watch them bloom for me and you says:
hallo
Well I'm an Unki's Munkle! says:
hi
Well I'm an Unki's Munkle! says:
how are you?
i watch them bloom for me and you says:
tired
i watch them bloom for me and you says:
you?
Well I'm an Unki's Munkle! says:
the same
Well I'm an Unki's Munkle! says:
you?
i watch them bloom for me and you says:
tired
i watch them bloom for me and you says:
you?
Well I'm an Unki's Munkle! says:
the same
Well I'm an Unki's Munkle! says:
you?
i watch them bloom for me and you says:
tired
i watch them bloom for me and you says:
you?
Well I'm an Unki's Munkle! says:
pretty bored, really
Well I'm an Unki's Munkle! says:
you?
i watch them bloom for me and you says:
same
i watch them bloom for me and you says:
hehe
i watch them bloom for me and you says:
i really am quite tired though
Well I'm an Unki's Munkle! says:
does this mean our repetition is over?
i watch them bloom for me and you says:
same
i watch them bloom for me and you says:
you?
Well I'm an Unki's Munkle! says:
shut up

Friend came and cooked. Bloody nice meal. Impressive mousse. Very full.

Sometimes I wish I was a cat. No worries, lots of pats, fed when you need it, sleep all the time!

I don't know why I'm so tired all of a sudden. I just are.

Why do people keep blogs? I don't even know why I do it, but here I am [almost] every day, blogging away! I would ask "What is a Blog?" but it's answered at that link. More important than "what" is the "why" of blogging. They are read but rarely, often by people you don't know. Your words just float out into cyberspace, if you really care you can submit your site to a search engine but who knows if it will be stumbled upon and by whom... it just seems such a colossal waste of time, when thought about logically. Fortunately, however, I'm not a logical person. So I'll keep on blogging. Mindlessly, if need be. That link to cyberspace, by the way, is quite interesting.

Today we went to buy Dave a new computer!

We didn't actually buy one. But that's what we went for.

I wish he'd hurry up and buy one already, because I'll get his old one when he gets a new one!

I need to pee.

no lies, just love says:
sounds cool but i think its been dpone.. like everything else in the literary/artistic world
no lies, just love says:
but try it
Well I'm an Unki's Munkle! says:
i know. but i wanna do it differently
Well I'm an Unki's Munkle! says:
see, i'm not gonna tell the story from the humans point of view
Well I'm an Unki's Munkle! says:
i wanna do it from the aliens viewpoint
no lies, just love says:
how do they find earth?
Well I'm an Unki's Munkle! says:
an accident. navigation equipment fails, they hit a meteor shower and have to go a long way off course
no lies, just love says:
cool
Well I'm an Unki's Munkle! says:
and get lost in the backwater which contains earth

I had a kind of lame idea for a story to write. I've forgotten most of it now, so it's even lamer. Something about aliens discovering Earth, but being friendly rather than hostile. But there's an intergalactic war going on, and of course Earth is drawn into it by their new contact with alien races - it's interstellar politics! With, naturally, the added confusion of Earth's own international politics. There's the decision to be made as to which side Earth will take (symbollically of course, Earth's help in warfare against far superior races will be less than useless), and the ramifications of whatever decision is made. And that's just the start!

Oh. In the excitement of the mystery woman and her odd tools, I almost forgot to mention the two job interviews today. The first one, for Emergency Communications Victoria, was pretty dull. Lots of sitting around waiting for other people to complete things such as typing tests and personality tests. The job itself sounds very intense, full-on. The hours alone (7am-7pm day shift, 7pm-7am night shift) are tough, let alone all the training and simply dealing with the emergency calls on a day-to-day basis. Interesting, but demanding!
The second one, for a customer service position with RACV, sounds better. Still much to learn, of course, any job requires product knowledge, but it sounds simpler, perhaps friendlier.
Anyway, no point in speculating, as I'm entirely unsure as to which (if either) I'll get. Probably neither. Then again, I've said that before...

There was a woman on the train. I stared at her. I will never in my entire life figure out exactly what she was trying to do, though I stared for twenty minutes or more. She had what I will call for the sake of simplicity "tools". These including tweezers, nail scissors, and something vaguely needle-like which wasn't a needle. She was poking around at one of her fingers - yes, just one of them. It seemed almost as though she had something stuck behind her fingernail (possibly a splinter), but despite all her poking and prying with the tools her face never showed any pain or even annoyance. It will be a mystery till the day I die. I don't know why it was so intriguing. I almost got up and asked her what she was doing. It was very weirdly fascinating - weirdly, because I don't know why. But there you go. A mystery of life.

Boo! My bad, didn't update yesterday. But nothing happened yesterday! Today, on the other hand... well, not a lot happened today either. I did have a visitor! Good old Dave (yes, yet another bloody David) came round, this is the Dave who... well, he's not my boyfriend and he's not the chef. The other one. Anyway, he came, met Zeus, said the house was nice (although messy), and then he left when MY Dave's dad and their George turned up. Confused? Good!

Yesterday was fun. We went out to the Kennedy & Wilson chocolate factory to take some photos for their website and brochure, because a friend of mine works there. Afterwards he came back to our place and we all got drunk.

I had a phone call today about a job in the Emergency Services Victoria call centre. Sounds very interesting, but twelve hour shifts at weird times would be a little difficult. The ad doesn't say how much they're paying, either, but it should be around $35k which would be very nice. I'm attending the so-called "Assessment Centre" on Wednesday, it's a six-hour session, and I have an actual job interview straight after that. Busy day Wednesday!