The Book of Ashes

Oriental Beach, digital photos, running socks and 3M 10:31AM

I have knews to convey. Oriental Parade beach all but lies in ruins. What was once Fryberg beach is now a pile of boulders and rocks. A heavy machinery track wiles its way through and large machines can oft be seen grazing there. The Oriental Parade beach (next bit round) is a overrun with tire tracks and the rocky bit (further round yet) is but a hastily made path and a road made of rock coming back into the sea. For now it is all a mess. But a mess can be smoothed over and covered up. Especially if you cover it up with sand!

I am going through all my photos very slowly, indexing them all. I have some pretty cool photos and its bringing back some good memories, many drunken nights out at the pubs, Dan wearing his brand spanking new suit when he was first up here looking for work, Farmgirl and Meads doing their topless run in the snow, photocopying of bodily parts at Techtonics, etc, etc. Its great and having them all indexed will be even better. Searching for ""Topless"", ""Breasts"" or ""Naked"" is going to make my browsing so much easier.

So I made a mistake the other night. I went for a run with Martin and I wore the wrong socks. Half way through a 10km run (1 hour jogging) I felt warmth which turned into a little 5c blister under the arch of my left foot. Blisters are just a pain but its my belief that you need to pop them, pull the skin off and let them dry and heal for best results. None of this leaving the blister full of fluid to go through its natural course. It may not hurt as much but I'm sure it takes longer to heal and blisters are just a pain. The funny thing with getting the blister is that I was wearing Computer Socks (yes thats what they're called) because my running socks were in the wash from the gym. These Computer Socks are legendary, they are tight fitting, stay up (very geeky) and are of solid build (none of this thin work sock crap). Obviously though, no one ever assumed a Computer person would ever run in these Computer Socks (almost a valid assumption as it is unlikely and could only happen to someone like myself who doesn't follow normal procedures and runs wearing anything and at any time). I will not make this mistake again. Computer socks are for programming in, running socks (Thorlo's) are for running in.

I read 3M's website the other day. I remember on my last day of my second last year at uni, having been out till 6am the morning before and coming to the lecture at 8am still drunk. I sat down, first person there and then the only hot chick (Justine Bone) came in. We talked a bit and she said she was going to Wellington (I've never seen her here) and asked me what I wanted to do. I told her programming was alright but what I really wanted to do was invent stuff and work for someone like 3M (as you do when you're drunk and out at the pub in the dark corners with other drunk people, rambling on about stories and stuff). She must have thought I was weird. I wonder if she could tell I was drunk :) Anyway checking out 3M's website I requested a booklet called ""How to submit your idea"". They sent it to me and I found out you can sell your ideas to 3M which is cool but usually you need a patent on them already and at least some kind of working prototype, preferably one not made up of ice-block sticks and cellotape. This requires more effort and investment than I can be bothered doing for my ideas so I won't be selling them to 3M...

We have a TV... 10:56AM

So anyway now we have a TV. A great big old fashioned 25incher... Much better than a blank wall :)

Tomorrow I have some birthday parties to go to. Jo's 25th (shit she's getting old fast), Sez's 26th (even older) and Cliff's... (no comment on his age!). But 3 B-days in one day! Thats gonna be messy. I also hear though the grape vine that its St Patricks day one day soon. I believe Martin has prepared for this auspicious occasion by purchasing some green pants and taking a few days off work as recovery days. What a legend!

OK what else is new? Did I mention I have Jackarse? An MTV series that is kinda addictive, the more you watch the more you want to watch. For those out of the loop its about some hard core skatie dudes who go around filming stupid stuff for a show. Examples are, riding down a steep hill on a tandem bike with no brakes till you crash, drinking chocolate milk until you puke (it makes for excellent puke), urban kayaking (yup, paddling a kayak through fountains and down stairs!), testing out deterance devices on themselves such as the pepper spray, the phaser, etc... its all good and mostly pretty funny.

Did I mention I signed up to the gym for another year? The prices were going up and its heaps cheaper to sign up for a year ($580) so that comes out at a bit less than $50 per month which is sweet. I am commited now. I better be buff in a years time tho. Will take before and after photos and see if I reckon I've got $580 worth of buffness out of it.

So summer has ended, daylight savings comes this weekend (don't forget) and all of a sudden it will be dark and colder, already its getting a little colder. Soon it will be my birthday and then it will be getting hotter again... Life goes in cycles, one day you will find yourself in the exact same spot, doing the exact same thing and thinking the exact same thought. For most its taking a dump in the morning and wondering what to wear for that day but it can vary.

Well I have other people to annoy right now