Fugmeithurts!

One of my bottom right molars needs a root canal. It first gave me grief about 2 years ago and the dentist put a temporary filling in and said to wait because it might calm down. It did after a week of agony. Since then it has flared up 3 times. I wanted it pulled (can't afford a root canal) on day 1 but everyone talked me out of it. I still want it pulled. It's not worth the recurrent pain.

I hate toothaches. The dentist said I'll have lots of problems with my teeth. They're just not resilient and I have fillings in most of my molars. Mum only has a few of her own teeth left and that's been the case since her early 20's. I suppose I'm lucky to have all but 1 at 33 ( I asked to have that one pulled instead of filled).

Oh well. I think sleep will elude me for a while longer despite Panadeine Forte :(

And This Little Piggy

HaunT and I visited a financial planner on Friday. He has recommended stuff that makes me VERY happy. Hurrah for going ahead and buying our retirement block and retirement home.

Building the house.

I have decided that where ever it is within my power I will be as environmentally and power conservationisty as possible.

So the house will be built of strawbales like the ones here. Strawbale building is not a new age type of building, and I guess it is only human nature that equates straw with "flimsy" and that it would blow away in the wind....not so when you have a couple of tonnes of render and a roof on it...

Speaking of wind, we will combining this with this. I gues by now you have figured out that this house will not be in suburbia. Yep this is for a country house. On as many acres as possible. Which means no services...so hopefully they have a solar version of this or we could go with my old favourite which is this ( you have no idea how excited thinking about effluent makes me!)

Alas unless there is some kind of miracle, all my self sufficency (yes choocks and potatoes and all of that country stuff) monetary savings will be burned up by having to pay for 2 way satellite internet. Currently it is about $150 a month for just a couple of hundred meg! Fuck that!

Oh and also I will be able to follow one of my longest held dreams. To breed Dexter cows...a miniature breed who are so cute (and expensive, and loved by the japanese dead and sliced into mini steaks)

Hey guys and gals

...remember me ?

After a considerable absence from the world of Atomic and blogging in general, I finally decided to post something.

I left Atomic several months ago, during the Green Room subscription brouhaha, yet not because of it. I left because Atomic was becoming an uncontrollable addiction. Like many Atomicans, I used to stay up all night, mindlessly clicking the refresh button to check for new posts. I would forget to eat, drink, sleep and perform all the usual bodily functions designed to keep the human body working as it should. I was out of control.

So I added my farewell post to the dozens of others, and took my leave.

You may be interested to know that since quitting, I've made a number of changes in my life. I've (practically) completed uni, I'm now employed as a PHP developer, I've taken up photography as a hobbie. I've also finally gotten my drivers license, only about 8 years too late (much to the excitement of my girlfriend).

Most recently, due to a medical condition I've been forced to make some lifestyle changes, mainly concerning diet. I've had to cut down on a lot of things, including coffee (damn that was hard - believe me), but generally I feel better for the change.

One of the main reasons I wanted to post was I'm looking for support from the Atomic community for a project I am working on in my spare time. Its called CerebralStorm, the basic premise of which is a website designed to facilitate the discussion and brainstorming of software/web/multimedia project ideas. I know there are a number of developers amongst the Atomic community, and so I am after the support of the community in the form of comments, suggestions and feedback on the project, as well as performing some testing for me.

The site (www.cerebralstorm.net) is in very early stages of production, but if you are willing to help out on this endeavour, please email me (khendar at gmail dot com). Any help you could offer would be greatly appreciated.

Take it easy people.

khendar.

Mid week update

Three days into my new job and I'm liking it. Truly the best company I have ever worked for and the first place that actually seemed 'adult' in all their policies rather than the childish 'your break is now, you do this here, this is that' and so on. Instead I don't even have set hours, you work what is required to get the job done.

Another example is the ethic towards problem solving. i.e. I pick up on your error and call you about it. Instead of other places where I've worked we're it's been a battle of wills as to who will solve the problem (the creator or the person finding it) it's a collaboration of minds to find the best solution and prevent it. The people are so open and great with responsibility.

I guess the only bad thing at this stage will be if this initial view comes back to bite me in the arse later, if things take a dive for the darker side. Oh, and the monthly pay cycle - I need to learn to budget fast!

Nice people I'm working with, nice people company wide it seems, Looking at grabbing a new portable media player now that I'm doing the public transport hustle again in peak hour. The Zen Vision M looks mighty nice and it's priced just under the 30Gb iPose Video - goddamn white headphone wearer's everywhere!

There's Something Wrong

Occasionally I will stop doing things around the house. Stop doing the washing, stop changing the toilet rolls, stop going to the office. Well maybe it is more than occasionally, but it is definitely not regularly.


Anyway I recently stopped doing things again. And one of the things I stopped doing is buying food. Now no one else will buy food. Haunt would not eat at all if he didn't have to and the kids, well being teenagers they still expect everything to be provided at no effort to them.

But tonight I will have to go shopping again because the fridge is bare. Bare but for a packet of smoked salmon(!?!), an easter egg from 2004 and 3 litres of milk (that is there because I asked Haunt to buy it on the way home from work.

I guess the smoked salmon means that now we are a 2 income family I don't feel guilty about buying myself treats as much (and the salmon would be gone if my sister hadn't eaten my CCs while I was at a gaming event).

On the plus side...I guess I could wipe the fridge out while there isn't anything to move around in it.

On A Jaunt

Haunt and I are crazily driving 5 hours down to almost the border tomorrow, to go look at a property. It sits on 100 acres (like where the heffalumps lived!) close to both snow and beach (an hour each way I am guessing). We will have a chance to have a quick look then drive the 5 hours back because Haunt starts work at 7am Sunday morning.

I have this bad feeling that the block is not zoned for building or something because it seems insanely cheap....