Bed Bugs

I got a problem.

Our mattress needed replacing. My mum kindly offered to pay for one because Jeremy was getting a bad back from it and when Jeremy is tossing and turning, naturally I wake up too. So, she bought herself a bed and rang to tell us of this strange bed made from some material developed for NASA that is like foam, but is guaranteed to return to it's natural shape when you move off it. It also has nil roll so your partner doesn't get disturbed. So we went and tested it. Jeremy declared it to be fine. We laid on another bed too. Both only got a 2 minute lay down as jeremy hates bed testing but he said he was happy with it so we got it. It cost $1600.

Within a night he was uncomfortable with it and it's getting worse. We're all awake at 5am every morning (nil roll doesn't stop all the other signs that Jeremy is getting up or the fact that this house is very thin walled). So what the hell do we do? Live like this for the next 10 years? We can't exactly send it back and it cost $1600 fucking dollars! Bad karma!

Dual Personality

Dear Blog Readers

I have decided to start a separate blog to record the ins and outs of my Vietnam adventure (to which I will be jumping in a car in 1 hour to head to the airport). This is not because I do not love you my readers, it is because I will be spamming the address to a wider range of people like work colleagues, and we don't want them seeing I have had a negative attitude recently regarding some events.

But I do not want you all to miss out and so I invite you all to add http://backpackingvietnam.blogspot.com/ to your favourites list because I know you all will be hanging on the edge of your seats waiting for updates. It all could go pear shaped if web access is limited, but let's see what happens.

Started the day off on a positive note at a women's business breakfast with guest speaker Shelly Taylor-Smith and then to work to clear my desk (filling half a Otto bin with paper!) and then last minute shopping and running about. I am exhausted already, hope it helps me sleep on the plane.

Anyway it is time to get the last minute things done, hug the kids etc

See you when I get there

Gramyre

Music Rations - Part II

Well here as promised is the list. They are by no means my favourite songs of all time, but they will have to do.


TISM - Greg! The Stop Sign
Jill Soubule - I Kissed A Girl
Cake - Short Skirt Long Jacket
Cornershop - Brim Full Of Asha
Anni DiFranco - Untouchable Face (live)
Blink 182 - (All The) Small Things
Butthole Surfers - Pepper
Ben Lee - Cigarettes Will Kill You
Eskimo Joe - Sweater
OMC - Bizarre
Sneaker Pimps - Underground
The Bloodhound Gang - The Bad Touch
Beck - Loser
Strapping Young Lad - In The Rainy Season (not from the Hottest 100)
Blind Melon - No Rain
Fun Loving Criminals - Scooby Snacks
Alex Lloyd - Amazing
Powderfinger - These Days
Coldplay - Yellow
The Whitlams - No Aphrodisiac Like Loneliness

Music Rations

Well I am here at home doing the important things before I leave on Thursday. One imprtant thing is to get a playlist of favourites together for my MP3 player. Now this is where you need to be sorry for me because my MP3 player was really bought as a voice recorder and so I didn't think much on size....so I will be going to Vietnam for 2 weeks with the prince(ss)ly sum of 128 megs of MP3s.

For those that aren't old enough to have parents old enough or english enough to know of desert island discs I will enlighten you on the concept. A long time ago in a country far away a radio program invited famous people (and it still invites people) to come on and play their 8 most favouritist tracks (that's how big a vinyl LP used to be) that they would not be sick of should they be stuck on a desert island for the rest of their lives.

My desert island 128 meg of MP3s has a further complication. I do buy CDs and I did have them in a CD carry case. My CD carry case unfortunately has disappeared. I won't say lost as there is the possibility it was stolen. That CD carry case also had a shitload of my games (original) and CD back ups of photos from way back where. So back to the complication, apart from holding on to every cent so I can spend it overseas (so I won't be buying new CDs) here in Australia many broadband plans are "unlimited downloads" but if you go over a certain amount per month you end up with throttled speeds. This means no downloading of a bazillion tracks to pour through.

I sat and thought about what would contain a great deal of my favourites. And the answer was the Triple J Hottest 100. So by hook and by crook I am obtaining the boxed set in mp3 format and that contains about 10 years of hawt trax.

I will post my final list as soon as I choose them.

3 More Sleeps!

Yes only 3 more sleeps till I am getting on a jet plane and heading to SE Asia *does a little dance*. I got my backpack in the mail on Monday and it is awesome!

The work send off went OK. I got given a 2 gig flash card for my camera. Thing is the camera didn't feel like recognising it, so it is back to the gift givers to see if it is faulty.

I hope the rest of the gang post more while I am in Vietnam. I am not sure how often I will get net access to keep everyone updated...often I hope!

By The Bye

I have worked in my current position for 5 years. Studies show that women stay in jobs on average 2 years longer than men just to prove they can do it. I think I stayed in this job because I made the job fun and the people were great. But in the last 18 months I have had itchy feet and a nagging feeling of being underappreciated.

This is the longest I have held a position. Prior to this the longest I have worked for someone else was 18 months or so (average 15 months). My early "career" was one of being poached from various places by bosses that moved on.

So when I come back from Vietnam I will be starting in my new role of Network Program Manager. Will be a bit of a steep learning curve (just how I like it) but should be good for the resume and hopefully the paypacket.

But today is my farewell lunch and it sounds petty but my whole send off has been pretty poorly handled as it hasn't been me who has been organising it (yes I am the person in the office that usually sends the cards round, does the footy tipping comp, organises special events). Just a tip to everyone who might be doing this sort of thing....think about what message you are conveying when you have a long term founding member of your department leaving a week before someone who has only been there a year or two and you send round a combined envelope to collect cash for the presents, that will be split evenly. Wrong, wrong, wrong!

I am debating what to say at my farewell....I think I will have to hold my self back from screaming USELESS CUNTSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

Bags To The Wall

Well after my momentous struggle with winning a backpack on eBay I have finally come through with the goods. I've also won a couple of microfibre traveling towels which have already arrived. Soooooo all I need to get now is another battery for my camera and a universal power adapter... oh and a hat and sunscreen...Just over a week to go and I have butterflies every time I think about the trip .. weeeeeee

On the work front I have had a meeting with my new boss to get an understanding of what I will be doing, what I will be called and what I will be paid. I will after November 1st have the grand title of Network Program Manager.

Little morning ramble

It's early morning and no-one is awake,
I'm back at my cliff - Still throwing things off.


Early morning Bjork

Got in about five o'clock this morning and haven't slept much - I'm blaming the girl who cello-taped my hands together and gave such good, good conversation. I'm sure it couldn't have been the alcohol, drugs or bad music being played really loudly...

The police came four times, threatening a $500 fine if they had to come back again each time but not being willing to actually do it lead to the amps going back to 11 within 10-30 minutes of them leaving.

Really weird is that I noticed at the ripe old age of twenty-five I was one of the youngest people there, sure there were a couple of twenty-one year olds but most of the crowd was hanging around the thirty mark. Doesn't really make much of a difference and my soaked brain my have over-stated it's importance during internal monologue time.

Peanuts Turns 55

For those who dont know, Charles Schulz characters of the Peanuts variety (including snoopy) are 55 years old.

I garnered this knowledge from a Hungry Jacks promotion in which tiny plastic figurines of these beloved and revered characters are being given away to small childeren who will hopefully injest them and spend much time in the emergency ward. The promotional poster clearly states that it is celebrating 55 years of Peanuts.

55 years is a long time, unfortunatley not long enough since this fucking comic STILL SUX FUCKING SHIT. How the fuck did it keep going for this fucking long.. its the most boring POS ever along side dilbert and garfield, and yet its still running after FIFTY FIVE FUCKING YEARS.

Time to ditch that shit and replace all those spastic characters with something much better. I suggest something with tits and tentacle rape, now that would kick arse.

Darrkon

Gene Genie

Several months ago I posted this about posting off my genetic material for testing and taking part in this.

I have been sporadically checking to see if my results had appeared and yesterday BINGO! There they were. And here they are




Yeah I know, that looks like a whole lot of gobblydegook right. Well in a nutshell it says that I am part of the Haplogroup U (determined from my mitrochondrial DNA) and that my ancestors left Africa and traveled north through Europe around 50,000 years ago. Here is their travel diary map.




The pink arrow shows where I was born. Not a great deal of travel needed to get from where they were 50,000 years ago to cross the English channel (which didn't exist then see here) and settle in England. Now the family history has said that on my father's side (and I have never really checked this out) came from the French invaders in 1066 (my surname is the bastardisation of a French word....possibly). But looking at the map it makes me wonder if something else has occurred...

SHIT A SOLID GOLD BRICK ITS BEEN A WHILE

Well hello every body, its your main man Darrkon kicking it back to fucking oldskool in the Gramyre powered atomic blog or some such shit.

WOW what the fuck barbequeue sauce.

Whats happened since I last spoke... I bought burnout 4, the sequel to my all time favourite game ever (burnout 3) and its a piece of shit. Stick to burnout 3 people.. theres so much of the good fun missing from part 4 that its not worth it.

What else.. got a hole in the side of my tyre and had to buy a new one for $145 fucking dollars.

My Garlos Pies article apparently gets me nazi of the search engine award for being the first hit on google when searching for Garlos Pies...

http://www.google.com.au/search?q=Garlos%20Pies&hl=en&safe=off&lr=lang_en&sa=X&oi=lrtip8

We dont have enough lesbian nuidity which Gramyre relates to our poor ratings for the blog, so I have mentioned it a few times below.. please do not get too excited:

lesbian nuidity lesbian nuidity lesbian nuidity lesbian nuidity lesbian nuidity lesbian nuidity

Hopefully that will get some more people in here and appreciating the high quality relevant links.


I have used the Sydney Cross City Tunnel once, which I recieved a gold plaque for from the RTA and Cross City Tunnel owners. They said if I could just make eighty two million more trips then it would pay for itself.

Apart from this, not much else has happened. I found that randomimage.us is a cool image website since you can submit your own content for review. I also found out that paint stripper burns your skin :(

Love youse all and hope to talk to someone soon or something.

Warmest Regards,
Darrkon

eBay Spree

Two weeks today I fly out for Vietnam and I am excited but now starting to get nervous as I have yet to purchase some essential items to go with me. The most important one would be my backpack! I have been bidding for several backpacks on eBay over the last couple of weeks but managing to lose each one. Shopping for backpacks on eBay is fraught with danger due to the high percentage of Chinese knockoffs being sold under popular brand names. While normally I wouldn't care but the thought of the straps falling off, zips or buckles breaking in a place where there is no K-Mart adds an element of danger to the trip that I can avoid by buying something half decent.

I have also purchased a couple of microfibre towels, some pants and I am on the hunt for travel laundry detergent for hand washing clothes.

The funny thing is my brain is thinking Vietnam: Possible Third World Conditions but the reality will probably be much different.

Just The Usual

Went for my 19 week ultrasound this week. All is as it should be and it's probably a girl but the little dear didn't want to open it's legs. The sonographer waggled her little device around hoping to upset it but to no avail. Let's hope she keeps that habit for about 18 years.

I've got myself another casual job distributing Home Care magazines. It's commission based and I only have a small area at the moment but it's something I can leave and come back to after the baby is born. It's also being paid for something I do anyway...walking. I'm gonna love it.

We have rats in the roof and walls...or perhaps a small possum. It's in the inaccessable part that the handyman had to lift tiles off the roof to access for insulation. The part right over our bedroom and adjoining lounge. I can hear it/them scurrying and munching away. I really hope it's not chewing the electricals because it's favourite spot is right behind the power point. Gotta get Rentokil.

My daughter is back from Big Camp safe and sound but accompanied by this

http://sacrificialnewt.com/images/godcert.jpg

No more Christian camps. That is just so ghey!

I Love The Internet

Following on from yesterday's post about hating Crabtree & Evelyn in the spirit of balance I have decided to post about one of my true loves, The Internet.

I could bore you for hours and hours about why I love The Internet. But that would like listening to one of your crazy relatives rave on about why they love shaving ducks.

Suffice to say that The Internet has such a shitload of good stuff that it brightens my day to come across something like this. If you have seen it before then boo to you. To those that haven't I'll see you in a couple of hours after you have had a good laugh about the end of the world or some such nonsense

I Hate You Crabtree & Evelyn

I am not a perfume person. Nor am I a make-up or hair product person really either. Being a cheap arse who was brought up to be frugal, the only perfume I have ever owned has been bought for me. And the only perfume that has been bought for me that I have worn was a bottle of Crabtree & Evelyn Vanilla.

I loved that perfume. Wore it almost daily. My sister took to wearing it when she stayed over ( a few days a week) and so when it inevitably ran out I was sad. But hey! I have friends who would buy it for me right? Then my friend who knew I loved it (and originally bought me the bottle) announced that she was going to be studying in Paris for the next 6 months and would not be around for Christmas (or my birthday).

So as chance would have it I have been doing a course that means I am parking in the QVB where there is a Crabtree & Evelyn shop. So I decide that yes I will go buy my first bottle of perfume and damn the expense (from memory they were around $40 AUD). My happy thoughts as I walked into the shop were cruelly dashed when the immaculately coiffed shop lady told me that as the European market did not like the richness of the Vanilla scent and preferred floral, Crabtree & Evelyn had stopped production....a year ago!

Time stood still, colour drained from my surrounds. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I loved that scent. I HAD to have more of it. No fear says the friend who originally bought it for me. It will be on eBay, everything is for sale on eBay.


I found a bottle on eBay and this is what the cunts are paying for MY perfume.

Invisible Advertising

You see ads everywhere. Big blaring in your face ads. Ads that stink the place up with their total addiness.

It is a pleasure then when someone goes to the effort of making invisible advertising.

I mean how could you even guess that this is some kind of ad?

I Like Eggs

What to say when you've not posted for a while and have nothing worth posting about?

Well, I'd like to say that I like eggs.

Vitamin E cream is also working.

That is all.

Do Or Do Not

There is no try .....So my efforts to post an awesome flash advertisement I saw by following link from here (one on my lazy list for must read blogs. Don't you love it when someone else has done all the work) to here were thwarted by technology.

I decided to rip the ad and then just have it as a standalone post here. But to do that I had to get a something that would suck the flash from the page as I could not find it in my temporary internet files. So I download a flash sucker from here and start installing it. As it is a browser addon it required my windows closed thankyou very much, so I did just that.

Installation went fine and so I then triumphantly returned to the page to find NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO *deep breath* OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO the damn ad had changed. And not only that, 50,000 refreshes would still only bring up Monster or Microsoft ads. Pain in the arse. I attempted again this morning but to no avail.

I really didn't want the whole shebang as presented on the home page plastered here, so instead all I can ask you do is visit here and have a play.