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	2003.08.17 23.03 Ha ha I just came across a live journal community entitled community_promo. Oh my god, it's so funny. For example: "con_singles is a community / meeting place for people who go to anime conventions alone, and would like to meet other people who don't have anyone to go with. If there is enough interest, people can carpool to conventions, book hotel rooms, etc. Come and make some new friends!" and: Think you're hot? Beautiful? Well, try it out. _bombshells We'll let you know There are also the following communities: see_my_hoodie ljfights I want to add this community so that I can read about the latest cool LJ Community, but don't know how to without adding it to my friends list, and I don't want them to think I'm actually interested in it in that way. Little help...? This should provide some light entertainment... .



	2003.08.09 17.12 Carpe diem I utilised the new Britomart service on Thursday evening, to go to Papatoetoe. The train journey was very nice indeed. Peter and Anne were both extremely helpful in supplying me with transport information - a hell of a lot more helpful than that fricken rideline website. Can anyone successfully navigate that waste of Cyberspace? Once at my destination, I was given a lift by my friend Peter to his and Anne's place, for a quick dinner with Tina, before Kevin, Gordon and Lisa arrived, and we went to the Spotlight Theatre to join Barbara and Peter C, to watch Matthew and Maree perform in "Guards, Guards", a dramatic adaptation of one of the earlier Terry Pratchett novels. I'd almost forgotten how funny his work was; so funny! Matthew had a migraine, and claimed that his perform as the droll Patrician was too dry because of it, but I thought that that merely aided his performance. Maree was great in all four of her roles. It is an entertaining play, reminded me of the 'Mort' and 'Wyrd Sisters' productions that we put on several years back ... good times! Afterwards we all went back to Peter and Anne's for coffee and cake, and chatted until past midnight, which was reminiscent of the Writer's Group days, whereby we got a lot of socialising done, but not a lot of writing! ;) Tina was her usual awesome self, and offered me a lift home, even though she lives in New Lynn! She's so cool! Go see "Guards, Guards", at the Spotlight Theatre on Tavern Lane, in Papatoetoe. $16 for adults, 8pm nightly, until the 16th of August. P.S - I just want to clarify, for that bitch paveway, that Anne, Tina and co are also friends of mine, who like me in return, not just Peter. Okay? I now return you to your normal programming... ;)



	2003.08.04 23.09 "It's been wonderful and crazy knowing you..." I assisted Alan in moving him into his new apartment in the central city, along with Jonelle, Nick and Justine. That basically consisted of going to Mangere Bridge and moving some boxes of comic books, and being shouted lunch at Alan's favourite bakery Dominion Rd - sweet! The new place is really nice, clean, and uber-spacious. Alan and Nick watched a DVD in the box-filled lounge, while Justine and Jonelle unpacked food in the kitchen and had their first communal-living disagreement. We all went shopping, and I was pleased to see that Justine has a similarly enthusiastic propensity towards purchasing vegetables as I have. In the evening I had a gathering of friends to celebrate my 27th birthday, which is actually today. It was well advertised, even on Live Journal, so if you didn't see the invite, I guess that means you haven't been paying adequate attention to the written version of my wonderful life :) I was pleased with the turn out, considering that people always seem to have something else on the weekend that I have my birthday party each year; Glenn, Kirsty, Young Mi, Mark H, Steven, Mark, Jacob Lana and her eccentric mate Katie, Pip, Chris, suzyd Dave, Ubiquity Andy, bcalj Dave, Vic, Andrew, Annie, Ben, James, Jeremy, Dylan, Melanie, Vanessa, Alan, Tahi, Beth, and Mike Coster. Most people seemed to enjoy themselves, and got along with each other, especially the trusted regulars. You all know who you are. Nothing too dramatic happened, apart from another one of M's chairs broke accidentally, but she relinquished them a long time ago, so that's cool. To all the people who wanted to turn up but couldn't, for whatever reason, I thank you for your kind intentions. To all the people who did turn up, I thank you for sharing your recreational time with me. I hope you had as good a time as I did.



	2003.07.06 11.25 Mega Friday was extremely cruisey. Boring, but cruisey, which is kinda good. No complaints here. After work I went home and relaxed, and decided to see "Charlies Angels 2: Full Throttle" so went and bought tickets to a Megascreen session for me and James. I hadn't been in the Imax theatre a very, very long time, and had forgotten how big it was. Well, I'm here to tell you that the Megascreen experience is well worth it! The screen and sound system are large and in charge! I looked back, at one stage, at the vast sea of people - every seat was taken! The seats are cool, too. I'm glad that they're utilising the theatre for something better than those short short 45 minute 3-D presentations. I can't see in 3-D anyway. True story. I cried when I couldn't see that revolutionary 3-D gorilla movie that was on TV in 1988 and everyone got special red and blue paper glasses for it and I couldn't see jack. :) I think that I did see a bit of 3-D when I went to an Imax screening with Richard and Chelsea a few years back, because my eyes have gotten much better over the years. In summation, I would be keen to see future blockbusters on the Megacreen. :) Charlies Angels 2 is lots of fun! Highly ludicrous, but really good fun. I knew nothing about the plot, so it was a surprise to me that Bill Murray wasn't in it, and that Bruce Willis and the crazy crazy Crispin Glover were. The Angels expose their bodies a lot, which leads me to suspect that the producers were deliberately targetting the male demographic, as if a martial-arts action film about crime fighting chicks wasn't enough of an attraction. Go to it.



	2003.06.03 13.31 Desensitisation I watched two BIFF films on Saturday. If I was using my LJ Client then I could link the relevant web page to the names, but I'm not, as I don't have it at work, and I can't remember the html for it. Dave came around to my place and we played Tekken to get in the ultraviolence mood (one must be desensitised before watching something as controversial as "Irreversible"). This was first film we saw, in the afternoon. It was pretty horrible. Well, there were only two scenes that qualified as obscenely repellent and offensive to the senses. The rest of it was fine. The film is shot in reverse, ala the formerly unique "Memento", and as a result, it begins badly, and ends nicely. It features Monica Bellucci from "The Matrix: Reloaded". If they edit the revenge scene and the subjugation scene, then it would be fine for general release, although that would defeat the film's assumed intended purpose - to shock. Later that evening, we joined Vic, suzyd Dave, and Cameron for the first session of "Battle Royale". James, Morgan and Claire were there too, but we didn't end up sitting with, them in the end. The film is subtitled, and there was a tall person in front of me, so I had to move around a lot to read all of the copious dialogue in the film. It's a cool, novel film, and you should go see it. Lots of fun violence that the whole family can enjoy, not like the brutal, realistic violence depicted in "Irreversible". Now I can't for the life of me remember what we did after the film, but I'm sure we hung out and did something cool. Oh, why aren't I cool enough to have a Palm Pilot with which I can transcribe my every thought and feeling as it comes to hand...? ;) My birthday is in two month's time - I would like a lap top computer, please. :) PS: I only saw Irreversible because it was initially banned. That's ironic.



	2003.05.07 13.20 Come back, Heloise :)



	2003.04.29 21.49 Dave is the greatest guy in the world. One day he shall be known as The Role Model to the World!



	2003.04.29 08.43 The wedding of Ruth and Martin Getting up at 8am on Saturday was no big thing - I had some bizarre reserve of energy for the entire day. I got to the church in Newmarket with plenty of time to spare, so bought lithium battery for my still camera (I didn't take pictures at the last two weddings this year, or in Wellington, as my camera was dead, and I seemed to recall that the last battery cost me in excess of $30, so went without! But this one was only $11.95, which is more affordable for me right now. Now I wish I had investigated the topic months earlier! It's true - I'm slow at everything. I was so happy to see William and Teri, (the coolest wedding couple of 2002!) there, as we hadn't caught up for ages. Nick, Justine, Nathan and Jamie turned up at the very last minute! The wedding was very formal, and I felt slightly uncomfortable being in front of absolutely everyone, along with the main players of the day, with my camcorder, as it was such a big church, but I got over it The weather was stunning, Ruth looked wonderful in her dress, with her hair all done up, and Jenni did a good job as one of the bridesmaids. It was all good. The reception was enjoyable - I sat with William, Teri, Nick, Justine, Nathan and Jamie, and missed out on some serious drinking time as I taped the speeches, but that's cool. Martin made a speech! This was more than I have heard him say in the past five years or so - he's a very shy, reticent young man indeed! People didn't stay all afternoon, and as they began to drop off, me, William and Teri remained, bringing each other up to speed on our own current events, and getting progressively drunker, as you do. William played Billy Idol's apt 'White Wedding' on the jukebox. They gave upon driving home and came back to my place, where we laughed at classic South Park episodes while they sobered up. All highly enjoyable. I wish Ruth and Martin well in their new life together!



	2003.04.24 08.48 Morcheeba On Monday I had lunch with Vic at 277 in Newmarket - we sampled the new foodcourt there and sat on a balcony overlooking Rangitoto, and I missed my old bedroom, which had a balcony overlooking Rangitoto as well. Good times. Had dinner with my parents in the evening. On Tuesday suzyd Dave visited and we went to the Domain for lunch, by the duck pond. I discovered that there was a duck pond in the Domain. We then strolled through the Botanical Gardens, which I haven't been to for many years, and was very impressed by The Fernery. In the afternoon, I received a text from bcalj asking me to call him, which I did, and he asked me if I wanted to go to some event that evening which he had scored tickets too, to which I said "Yep". I wasn't sure what it was, as I didn't hear him properly, but it didn't really matter what it was. When he came around that night I asked, and it turned out to be the Morcheeba concert at the St James! Now I think about it we should have had a few beers, which were in the fridge, before we went, but we settled for Easter eggs and lemon coke instead. We turned up half way through the supporting act, which consisted of a DJ spinning some platters. We got seats in the Grand Circle, which I preferred to standing on the pit for a couple of hours. The concert was highly cool, and the lead singer was very energetic, and into audience participation, imploring people to give her their spare spliffs. I had a good night, and a good finale to my holiday. Thanks, Dave!



	2003.04.09 08.57 Shiny happy people Today I would like to talk about the analogy between coca cola and people, if I may... You see, there are many different kinds of people, just as there are many different kinds of coke. Now, I have come to realise that not everyone likes all kinds of coke. In fact, most people tend to be quite specific about what kind of coke they drink, and will partake of no other version. Some people like plain old coke, while some people prefer Diet Coke, Others like Vanilla Coke, and yet more others like Lemon flavoured coke, or even Diet Lemon Coke! There are some many variations on the main carbonated beverage theme. It's interesting that people can have such a fondness for one variation, while despising all others! Is there no middle ground, I ask? Personally, I can tolerate and even enjoy, all forms of Coke! Okay, to be honest, I have never sampled Cherry Coke, but I'm sure I would like it if I did. I try to supply more than one variation of coke at parties, as I know that no one particular coke beverage is suited to everyone's tastes. Now here's the thing; you don't say "I'm not going to be attend your party because Vanilla Coke is going to be there, and I don't like Vanilla Coke" - why? Because it's just stupid, that's why! Because there are other variations that can scintillate your tastebuds! :) P.S: I like Pepsi, too, (yes, even Pepsi Max!) and I would even try the Blue Pepsi at the Warehouse that is being sold for 99 cents per 1.5 Litres, because you never know - it just might be enjoyable. Live the R.E.M dream! Shiny happy people laughing, shiny happy people holding hands...!



	2003.04.07 23.39 Sunday I attended the wedding of Peter and Anne on Sunday morning. It was held in a church on the Awhitu Peninsula, far away from the D-Camp, and the drive out was uber-treacherous, considering the torrential rain at the time. Okay, it wasn't raining that hard, but it was still annoying. I nearly drove into an oncoming car, going round a corner in the rain, as I had to reduce my speed from 100kp/h to 25kp/h suddenly! I don't think it's just country people who die on country roads... As I had offerred to videotape the event, I ended up being sequestered at the front of the very crowded church, trying to capture eveyrthing and not be in the way of the ceremony. The main players sure moved around alot, exchanging rings and signing stuff. It's interesting how each wedding I go to is conducted slightly differently. I wish I knew what was going to happen beforehand, so I could capture everything perfectly. Since it was wet and cloudy, and my camera was facing the windows, it looked like there was a refulgent glow shining down on the bride and groom, and when they walked down the aisle to exit the building, it looked like they were being swallowed up by an effulgent, ethereal light! Nice. Anne looked absolutely stunning! She actually stopped to ask me if I was alright for a lift to the reception, which I thought was cool, because she would've been so preoccuppied with everything else. It was good to catch up with the old gang again; Peter and Anne (obviously), Maree and Matthew, Malcolm and Judy, Tina, Kevin, Struan, Grant, Gordon and Lisa, Norman (who is up from Wellington), and Tom and Anne, whom I hadn't seen for years, whose new baby Samantha is already one year old! But the biggest surprise would have been seeing Tanja and Donald, who flew in from England that morning and were so jet-lagged! They are coming back for good at the end of the year. See how everyone filters back eventually? When I turned up, Judy was all like "you could've asked us for a lift, you know?" D'oh! I got to meet Peter's brothers and sisters, who share the same 2x male-female twin combo that me and my siblings do. What are the odds? That odd fact had completely slipped my mind after the past three or so years... The reception was cool, with a really nice buffet, and amusing speeches.I foolishly neglected to record Norman's speech, even though I was pointing the camera at him - too much wine, unfortunately! Don't worry, Ruth, I'll learn from my mistakes! ;) Tom and Anne kindly offered me a lift back to Auckland in the evening, and I bid farewell to the twenty or so people that I knew there, until next time.



	2003.04.05 17.12 Brotherhood of the Wolf I met up with James, bcalj Dave, Vic, Jeremy, Ness, and some of their friends, including Fergus and Kirsty, for a session of the newly released French film Brotherhood of the Wolf, which is one of the coolest films one could hope to see this year. My eyes were a bit tired, so I was a bit disappointed to discover that the film had English subtitles, and that it was 160 minutes long, but this was only a minor impediment to my enjoyment of the film, which I didn't regret seeing one little bit - it had everything! French opulence, Matrix-style fighting sequences and camera work, and one of the coolest characters ever devised for the silver screen - "Mani" (Mark Dacascos), an unique Iroqouis (sp?) Indian who excelled in whacky martial arts and kept laconic and placid demeanour the whole time - so cool! The storyline involved a ravaged French landscape, it's primitive populace decimated by an unstoppable malevolent force known only as The Beast, which is never fully glimpsed until the climax of the film, and leaves you with an intriguing mystery - what kind of creature would be capable of fomenting illimitable destruction on such a mass scale? You are given tantalising clues as to her possible supernatural nature all the way through, until an apocalyptic fight to the death ensues, but The Beast is only part of the story - there is so much more to this incredible film, which would probably be more appreciated, being viewed in the Becks Incredible Film Festival, than by the main-stream movie-going audience. The French really know how to make a good film; Tragedy, comedy, violence, romance, and mystery and mysticism, all rolled into one attractively dynamic package! Go see it! After the film, the others wandered off to do other things, while Dave, Vic and myself ventured to a new bar called Honey, a bar which boasts nice fifties decor, as if it was, originally, an old hotel. After that Vic went home, and Dave and I hung out at my place until about two thirty in the morning.



	2003.04.04 08.51 04/03 April is going to rule. This weekend is Peter and Anne's wedding, next weekend is Armageddon, the weekend after that is Easter, and Ruth and Marty's wedding is the weekend after that! I am such a fool! Easter Monday is on the 21st, and ANZAC Day is the 25th, and Special Lawyer Holiday is on the 22nd, which means that if I had worked this out ages ago, I could have taken Wednesday and Thursday off as annual leave, and had a ten day holiday! How dumb am I? Oh well, a five-day'er and then a three day weekend, with two working days in between is still pretty good! Last night bcalj Dave gave me a lift to Newmarket and we had coffee in the Rialto complex with his friend Kirsty, who is such a sweety, and her cousin, who is here from Korea, so Kirsty was showing her the sights of Newmarket, which I think is basically 277. Am I wrong, here? After dropping them in Town, we went to my place and o.d'd on popcorn, and watched the aforementioned Shannon Tweed film "Dead Sexy", which was quite funny - it had the guy who played "Flash Gordon", except his hair was black, and he has filled out a fair bit! Miss Tweed was amusing as a busty detective - she was the worst cop ever! Two guys broke into her house, and one into her car, without her noticing. So useless! Every time she came to a conclusion, or cogitated intensely about something, her eyes narrowed, like Homer Simpson does occasionally. - very funny.



	2003.03.30 12.41 Friday I vow that this weekend is the very last whereby I drink a combination of Jack Daniels, and beer in one evening! Yuck! I got up at 6.30am on Friday morning, three hours before I had to go to work - the only thing that could get me up that early is the promise of a new episode of "Buffy", fresh off the Intermanet. Only five more to go... After work, bcalj Dave joined me for work drinks, which had an Irish theme that evening (good one, guys, only two week's late!) and acquired many JD and cokes from the generous bartender, who was pouring very strong mixtures indeed. Dave sampled the anti-drink-driving token delicacies in abundance until his tummy was topographically tumescent, and could eat/drink no more! Then we swung past the London Bar bottle store and picked up some strong ale, and walked up to my place, where we eventually were met by Vic. We showed him "Black Belt Jones" on VHS (videos are so grainy in comparison to DVDs, but they do have a certain appeal to them...) I pity the fool who denies themselves the pleasures of video tape completely, in favour the new digital video medium, simply because one is better than the other! The way I see it, people don't abandon the old just because of the new. People still listen to vinyl records, even though they have since been superceded by CDs and MP3s, and people still visit museums to look at old stuff out of interest, don't they? Slotting a videotape into the VCR is like revisiting an old friend... a slightly grainy friend ;) Anyway, "BBB" ruled, again. It's one of the re-watchable classics. Those clothes! That hair! Those lightning-fast moves! All good. We made a start on "Women On The Run" but the superfast subtitles proved too much to bear in the middle of the night!



	2003.03.18 22.51 Monday Yesterday I almost let St Patrick's Day pass me by entirely. Almost. I had dinner at my parent's place for the first time in a fortnight, and weighed myself again - I am wavering between 47-48 now. On the drive home I got a call on my mobile phone from Dave, and I was so excited about having received a call on my phone at all that I almost forgot that I was driving, and barely successfully turned the steering wheel with my phone-holding hand, onto Queen Street. That was whack! Anyway, Dave and Vic were keen to do some St Patrick's celebrating, so they came over at about 9.30pm, and we walked down to The Muddy Farmer, which was crowded, with a marquee and a live, U2-covering band, and you had to buy tickets to exchange for Guiness and food. After we had had enough of that place, we went to the Shakespeare tavern and had some nice 11% beer. They played many retro songs on aglare TV there, and we discussed our favourite music videos from the eighties. Then we moved on to Murphys, which was small, jam-packed, loud and sticky, as usual. I had suggested The Playhouse, but that was already closed, at midnight! I don't suppose that I blame them, though, considering it was a Monday night. After that went stopped by Starks (next to The Civic theatre) for coffee/tea, as Dave had never been in Starks before. We finished off the evening with a fine meal and beer at Kangnam Station, down from "Real Groovy", a Korean restaurant which I had, for many years, previously thought was a mobile dining establishment, as from the front it looks like a caravan, but this is merely a facade, for when you explore the depths, you enter a cleverly disguised restaurant, with a tree bisecting the room! Talk about being bigger on the inside than the outside... The meal was superb (seafood pancake, bizarre vegetables and assorted condiments). I displayed my inability to use chopsticks, and before I knew it, it was 2am, so we quickly walked home and I gratefully fell unconscious for a few precious hours, before the working day began again!



	2003.03.10 09.00 Last week... I haven't written anything for a while. I must mention that votejj and ellygator visited me on Wednesday night ... twice! (I was forced to mention this...) and wreaked havoc with my place - rifling through everything! No, that was just Elly... ;) Thursday was no big thing - I wanted to see the film "The Ring" with Richard and Chelsea, but tenbaset vetoed that movie, as it was too scary for him. So no movie on Thursday for me. I just had the best weekend I've had for ages - it was so good. I spent the whole weekend in the company of some of the coolest people whom I have the pleasure of knowing, all in one small city. More on this later - when I have more time.



	2003.02.18 08.51 Reunion I was intending to join the anti-war demonstration march on Saturday, but I forgot all about it after Friday night, and slept in, and didn't know when it started, so I neglected to perform my duty, as a good Samaritan, for the day. If the world goes to war and the economy goes to hell, I'll feel responsible. I discovered, the other day, that Dubya is actually an alternately witty and irritatingly vernacular term for George W Bush, and not, in fact, the appellation of some previously unheard of Russian ally of the Bush Administration (doo-bye-yah) . Perhaps if people had written Dubya Bush, I would have clicked. maybe they did - I don't know. I don't read a lot of news. However, even I know that Russia is one of the superpowers opposed to the war effort, along with China and France, so I'm not completely ignorant of current political events. Andrew paid me a surprise visit that day, as he is now back in Auckland, and looking for a flat. On Saturday afternoon Jake and I got a lift down South with an old high school acquaintance, Vance, whom I had not seen for a great deal of years. We ran into the back of a car on the way to Manurewa. A rather physically imposing gentleman egressed the passengers side of the vehicle, I envisaged that the reunion with my old high school acquaintance was going to be very short-lived. There was no altercation, however, only friendly banter. I put my tire iron away, after this act of benevolence. We dropped Jacob off at Katrina's 21st, and I gave her a quick hug before we departed Auckland for Elly's 21st, held simultaneously, but in a place called Morrinsville, 30km or so out of Hamilton. On the way down, I discovered that Vance had dinner with Stargate's Samantha Carter during the last Armageddon. Cool. In Morrinsville we met up with Elly and her partner Joe, whom I also went to Primary, Intermediate and Secondary school with and had not seen for several years (four or five?) either. I had been in communication with him for the past few years, but had never physically met until this weekend. It seemed a bit surreal, after all this time. So that was cool. The 21st was enjoyable, and held in a fire station. There were firetrucks. Digital cameras own. The food was nice. Elly is just absolutely lovely. We stayed with Joe and Elly, at her parent's lavish and commodious domecile that evening, and retired at about 2am.



	2003.02.14 16.19 Fun! Last night I had dinner and saw a movie with Richard and chelseabun. We saw "I Spy", which is a really funny, cool film, and you should go and see it. Eddie Murphy is really good in it, and Famke Janssen, of course, is good in anything (except Model By day ;) ) I thoroughly enjoyed this film. On the walk home, we bumped into murrayn, who finally got to meet Chelsea in person, after all this time. It's always better when Live Journallers have actually meet in real life, I think. I took today off work, as I have a party at The Firm tonight, and I don't want to be all sleepy for it. It's going to be good. I might drop by the Asian Lantern Festival, as well, seeing as it's such a nice afternoon.



	2003.02.10 08.27 One thing I've left to do; discover me, discovering you... I'm going to Wellington, too... :) Mood: energetic



	2003.01.31 08.56 Violence Last night I saw "Bowling For Columbine" with Richard and Chelsea. It was a highly informative, fairly interesting and quite entertaining documentary about gun use in the United States of America. It exposed some shocking facts about the American government that I had previously been ignorant about, and revealed the various disparities and dichotomies between American culture and that of other cultures, utilising a series of interesting clips, ranging from episodes of South Park and movies, to news items. Did you know that Canada has more guns than America, and yet the crime rate and history of violence is significantly lower? They don't lock their doors in Canada - ever! The film raises the question of why Americans are so different from places like this. One theory is that America is fed violence and paranoia through the biased vehicle of the media, more so than any other nation. I guess that could be it. In Canada they are subjected to such harrowing and interesting news clips as the newest speed bumps in town, whereas Americans are shown depictions of local violence every evening on the news! The montages had to be the best part of this documentary, although, admittedly, these images themselves were edited together in a biased way to project the viewpoint of the filmmakers. Richard came around to my place afterwards and tuned my vcrs for me, as I wasn't having all that much luck. Thank you very much, Richard! :)



	2003.01.27 14.16 Dear all... I recently sent an electronic mail message to over seventy people. You may, or may not, appear to have received it, as mass e-mails of this nature often tend to be re-directed to the "junk mail" folder, especially with the hotmail.com service. Please refer to your "junk mail" folder, and click "This is not junk mail" for future reference. Thank you. :)



	2003.01.22 08.33 In this issue, Daniel buys a chair... BCJ came around last night and brought some more Vincent Price films with him - these ones were adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe works, such as The Masque of The Red Death, and The Raven. There was beer, too. Alan dropped by as well, briefly. Monday, of course, was about my parents and cats. There have been two fire drills over the past two days, at work. It's a bit of a stretch on the old back-from-extended-vacation legs. I think I might walk up the stairs every morning - that way, it shouldn't be too difficult during the occasional drill. We're talking over twenty flights of stairs, here, by the way... I'm glad I don't have the diminished lung capacity of a nicotine-addict. I need to retune my video cassette recorders, as they have been offline for a few days (the plug came out of the wall and I foolishly didn't notice). Time to fine the instruction manuals again. I have an office chair - now I just have to put it together. Then I can swing to face visitors, and swing back to the computer, with ease. It's not that easy swinging in an ordinary chair. I might assemble it now...



	2003.01.12 16.53 Friday I was keen to do actual stuff on Friday like go into town and buy stuff, but the incessant rain put me off so I stayed in for most of the day, although I did pick up a nice wedding gift for Saturday. James came over in the evening, as well as Benny and Matty, neither of whom I had seen for ages. James and I had dinner at Imax en route to my friend Michelle's 21st at Rakinos on High Street. It turned out that there were a few people we knew, like Glenn W, David and John. Glenn is going to University this year, part time, which I think will be quite good for him. Hopefully he won't find it too stressful. There were all kinds of six degrees of separation meetings going on that night, and there was a free bar tab, which kept me occupied for a while, but I decided to retire at midnight, as I had to get up early the next day. It was interesting to see a big bunch of people that I hadn't seen for almost a year.



	2002.12.31 17.51 At the same phone number, all the same friends, and the same address... Okay, so here I sit in the sun, at my trusty computer, beer in one hand, on a very pleasant, warm afternoon, at the end of another year.Time for my annual, mammoth summary for the year! Chances are likely that I will miss out numerous things, as I stopped writing in my calendar about six months ago, but that's all right. This doesn't need to go on forever :) I'm sure that everyone will find a mention of themselves somewhere here, all the same. January saw the usual festivities; bbqs, free concerts, festivals, birthday parties, etc. William and Teri got married, which was an absolutely beautiful occasion. Then they bought a house, which has us all outdone in terms of "doing major stuff" for the year :) Jon matriculated into the Doctor profession, set himself up in Taranaki, and then announced his engagement and subsequent wedding date, which was a surprise as I didn't even know he had a new girlfriend, so he's doing really well for himself, too. :) Ruth and Marty got engaged to be married next year, as well. They've been together for about eight years, so that is a promising move on their part, as did Matthew and Maree,. Visnja met and moved in with Rick, and she seems very happy, so that makes me very happy too. Hel, Mel and myself went down to Wellington in February, for Sara's birthday, before she headed overseas, which was cool, as usual - it's always good to go down to Wellington and hang out with the guys down there. Then there was Wellington again in June for the National Con, and a Con Artiste reunion with Richard, Kim and co. Then it was another trip down there for Armageddon in November, which was fairly cool - got to catch up with most people I wanted to. I have a sneaking suspicion that I visited Wellington again at some stage this year, but can't remember quite when. I also went to Rotorua for an enjoyable weekend, which was way cool. I really enjoyed it, and spending copious amounts of time in a spa is one of the best ways to while away the time. I met a whole host of new people, mostly through Live Journal curiously enough - I'm not really the meet-people-in-a-bar-type, I'm way too shy for that. scottieblack, moosifer42, pika, escapefromkorea, stazi, morge ellygator, murrayn, michaelchance, gialiat, k_j, masterfish, duhast, punkjunky, mentalsmurf, ronnie007, pimpninja, trypt, 10, and bcalj. New journals that we, collectively, persuaded people to get: cloudgirl, benza, grimmybug, andypulzar, gfsoul, paveway, suzyd, david_thewlis, khali, denerose, verchew, ferlengheti, xeronisus, manximus, talios, votejj, hamster_spanker, somecruelplace, and xd___bx As for the rest of the network - well get them eventually, I'm sure... :) Do you know that I wouldn't even have gotten onto Live Journal in 2001, if it hadn't been for chelseabun. Cheers, Chels! Surprise fake journal for the year: normancates - someone had the wool pulled over our eyes for a while until the real Norman revealed that it wasn't him writing about his life. We never did find the culprit. Weird stuff! Surprise reunion: michaelchance It took me a week or so before I found out that this was someone I knew when I was eleven years old. Heh heh. Good times, the 1980's.. Surprise journal I never thought would have been created: elle_kabong. Superbly written as always, Richard! I'm happy to say that I have met the vast majority of these people in person, with only a couple of exceptions - I'm really into meeting people in real life - none of this online friends whom you've never met business. I mean, honestly, it's a bit unusual. The accommodation side of things: Melanie left Cross Street, to be replaced by Chris, who in turn left after a brief two month stint, to be replaced by Jake. Looking for flatmates is stressful. I like it when things get easy. This has been my first full year at Cross Street, now. The people who left: I said goodbye to my sister, who is now in England for a few years, and Tori, Willow, Melanie, Vicki, Sara and Heloise, who are also on their O.E's in England. Actually, I don't think Tori and Willow will ever be coming back, and Vicki looks set to stay for a very long time if she pursue her enjoyment of psychology. :(. My long time work colleague, Evan, also went to Korea to teach English. Faith went back down to live in Wellington towards the end of this year, and we were rather sad to see her go, too. Andrew and Dave left, too, although David surprised everyone by coming straight back after a few days! Crazy stuff. People who have been, and will probably always be there for me: James. Thanks, dude. People who disappeared: Glenn did a vanishing act on us a while back, seldom to be heard from, for some reason. Maybe he'll be back one day. No one was too concerned to see the back of David-and-John. They kind of just disappeared, post-Beth. Oh well. Hanging out with Jesse fizzled out, once he moved all the way to Manukau City. Secrets I have kept: Lots! I should go into business, or something. Secret security. I've come away from this year with a few secrets of mine own that will hopefully never see the light of day. Take it to the grave sort of stuff, really. I think that one of the nicest things that has happened to me this year is having met Katrina, who is just such a lovely person. Okay, so I still suck at playing pool, but they don't care. And it's a refreshing change to have been assimilated, having assimilated so many people, myself, over the past half a decade or so. Work: I refuse to discuss work. I hate it. I have hated it for years. the only one who can save me from it is myself, and I won't waste my time writing about it in my journal. Life's too short. God, I haven't really done much for one year's worth of living, have I? It's pathetic, really. I'm a sad, pathetic loser who will never get anywhere in life. Don't mind me, I've had a few beers by now, and it's going straight to my head. But I have had a few surprises thrown my way, stuff I never thought would have happened, and it's made me grow as a person, I think, which is good. I don't think I have drunk nearly as much alcohol as I have in previous years, which is a good sign - one can tell how balanced and healthy one's life is by the amount of it that they spend sober, I think. That's my wisdom for 2002. I got more into the Internet than ever this year, even into ICQ, and have come to rely heavily on Messenger for communication with all of those people who have gone elsewhere. Praise be to the Internet! I've felt like I've been standing still all year, but I'm starting to realise that it's not exactly a crime. I'll move along at my own place. Did I ever mention before that the circumstances of my birth were synonymous with mental deficiency? I was fully brain-damaged at birth. I'm doing pretty well despite that, I think. :) Well, I'm sure that far more things happened this year, to me, to others, in the rest of the world etc, but I guess I can't spend forever writing this entry. There is beer to be consumed, places to go, people to see. Thank you for listening. I love you all! (...and that's not just the beer talking. Okay, maybe some of it is the beer!).



	2002.12.30 14.05 Those days are gone forever. I should just let them go. The week before last Dave had a party, and excluded me from the invitation list. Now, this isn't that big a deal, I didn't cry myself to sleep over it or anything, but the thing is, he's done a similar thing before; I e-mailed him about my birthday party earlier this year, and got no reply. This is fairly standard for Dave. But a while later I got an e-mail from him, inviting me to his leaving party, on the same night as my birthday. He was leaving to go work in Canada for three months. Okay, I thought, we can work around this, as I had already e-mailed about eighty people about my party a few weeks earlier. So I e-mailed him to see if there had been a miscommunication, and if perhaps we could combine, or that he could move his party to the Friday, as my was on the already Saturday, so that everyone would be happy. Again, I got no reply. Then, after a few more e-mails from me, he finally replied saying that there was no miscommunication, and that he was going to go ahead with his party anyway. Now, if it had been someone that I don't really feel that matey much with, like Ben Thomas, for example, I wouldn't have been too concerned, as we move in different social circles, but Dave and I know mostly the same people, so this was annoying. I mean, Dave and I used to hang out all the time, doing stuff every week, with Yolande and Alex. Whole big back story there... Anyway, I e-mailed him the other week and asked him if there was any particular reason that I had been excluded, and again,. no reply. Okay, I'm a reasonable guy, so I figure maybe he's hiking in Kathmandhu with Alex, or something like that, and hasn't checked his e-mail yet. But the point is, I said that if he had a problem with me, he could feel free to let me know. I'm not an ogre, and my head won't explode if I hear the truth. So there it is. Someone once asked me why I invited a particular person to my party, and I think I know why I did now - because otherwise they would probably feel fucking hurt if I didn't. I'm not really in the business of hurting people's feelings right now. I feel that if someone has a problem with me, they should tell me, rather than let me go unaware for god only knows how long. I'd much rather have the opportunity to change whatever it was that I was doing wrong, than not have that opportunity at all. Communication works wonders. I'm not perfect, just like everyone else isn't, and I'm also not a mind reader. Does that sound reasonable? I don't know. What do you think?

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