Crappest Day ever...and it's only 8am!!

Yesterday I was involved in a conversation that really ruined my day. It's no ones fault and it's not as if the conversation was malicious or deliberately hurtful but ...well .... I didn't really need to hear AGAIN what this person was telling me. What made it worse was that I know they are only trying to be subjective and mostly playing "devils advocate" and that everything they said was in fact true and I know it's true. The short version of this saga is that I find myself in a situation I cannot change and have very little influence over and certain "people" seem to think that because I am in this situation I shouldn't try and make the best out of it because in the short term I can't "win". They have this view that because the outcome will not likely benefit me in any way I should not try too hard or invest any time and effort to achieve anything. All I can say is you have to "pick your battles" I suppose? Is it better to be seen as someone who'll not even try if there is no personal benefit or is it better to be seen as a person who'll at least "participate" and "contribute" even if ultimately they'll not get any recognition in the short term or any thanks or any personal benefit? Anyway, this conversation was stuck in my head for the remainder of the evening and I couldn't get it out. I kept mulling over it, over and over and over again....which is really not a good thing to do when nothing I can do is going to change anything. I had basketball training with the kids last night and a few of them commented that I seemed a bit "sad", well that was a bit of a wake up call. I usually don't worry about much, especially things that I have no control or influence over but obviously this is affecting me more than I thought. The team manager (Kellie) also asked me if I was alright as usually we talk quite a bit at trainings and the actual games, I've also discussed this situation with her before and she's probably given me the best advice on the subject. Her take was 'No one can tell you what is important to you. That is the beauty of the individual and just remember people aren't judged only on their actions in the good times".
Needless to say I had a really crappy evening when I returned home from basketball. I had organised to get my washing machine looked at on Thursday due to it recently leaking like it belongs at Rachels house ( :P ). Tonight however it decided it would make the most of the repairman's visit and flood my kitchen. Fucking FANTASTIC. To top it off, the skirting around the walls in my "Laundry" weren't ever sealed when the house was renovated and all the wood has swollen and buckled and come away from the gyprock.... plus it's now water logged and mouldy. I'm hoping I can kick up a real shit-storm over this because the last time the house got flooded I pleaded with the owner to install a DRAIN in the laundry so this couldn't happen. They of course said they didn't see it as "nessicary" and didn't want to do it....well, come and look at your wall now you cheapskate bastards and tell me it wasn't "nessicary"!!
I'm pretty sure that I won't be getting my bond back now when/if I leave.
I dealt with that minor disaster as best I could and then tried to relax with some soothing Scrabby. Earlier in the day I had the good fortune to unleash a bingo tsunami on my opponent. I got 3 separate REAL words as bingos in different games and was in a pretty commanding position. So much so that a bit of SMS gloating was in order....... which true to form had little effect on my opponents moral. I opened up game after game to see that I wasn't really "winning" any of them. Most of them were still quite close ... was I really losing so badly before all the bingos that they simply brought me back into contention?? I went to bed and simply couldn't sleep. The day had been such a shocker that as soon as I tried to shut down my brain it simply started mulling over everything that had gone on. I slept in bursts of about 1hr at a time and eventually woke up at 4am (what is with that???) and couldn't get back to sleep. BRILLIANT start to the day. When I got to work this morning I then had one of my colleagues inform me that the left brake lights on my car don't work ...AAAarrrRrggHHH!!! If there's one thing I don't need it's things on my car breaking. Not that I can't fix it... one of my pet psychological hates is people who don't appreciate their cars (maybe it's just because mine is worth so much??) and I just HATE seeing other peoples cars with faulty lights or unrepaired damage etc. and always think "Fix it you TOSSER!!!" ... now I am currently the TOSSER (note: Rachel you are exempted from this generalisation). Also, troubleshooting tail light problems is nearly impossible by yourself as you can't press the brakes AND look at the lights at the same time, not without backing the car into the bathroom to utilise the mirror in there....BAH. Note To Self: Do it at night...in the garage...with the roller door down...look for lights on both sides of the car. Now, just checked the data I have had running overnight on the GC...and there is a contamination in all of it. I cleaned and replaced EVERYTHING in the GC over the last few days but this crap is STILL there and it's getting WORSE!!!!!! Anyone with any idea of where it's coming from let me know because I am at a loss to explain it. I have basketball tonight too, it's an early game..which is good I suppose and it's against the bottom team, but the way things are going today...I bet we lose. Something pretty damn terrific better happen today because I think I need some one to make ME laugh for once.

What a great weekend....

Well this weekend was certainly one of the better ones I've had in Melbourne in the last year or so. Did lots and caught up with some old friends. The weekend started off on Friday with some awesome news of a pending visit to Melbourne by Rachel in a months time. THAT is going to be brilliant and i've already been compiling a (quite expansive...as it turns out) list of "Activities" that are possible during the time she is here. The Rach is good. Can't have too much Rach. I am going to take some holidays to really take advantage of this rare occasion and a big thank you to all the assorted Yacoumii who are "Allowing Rachel to go" again...you all rock harder than the rockiest Rockers in Rocktown.

Saturday started once again with an Alarm going off at 8am. Alarms on the weekend are just not getting any easier to deal with for me. There are very few things I will trade sleep for willingly and it is still a struggle each Saturday to get up within 15 mins of that alarm. Eventually my overwhelming sense of duty and commitment to the 7 kids in the team get the better of me and I get up and get ready. Thankfully the game was at the 2nd closest venue to my house so that meant a quick travel time. I arrived at the venue with about 10 mins to go before game time and scanned the place for my players..they were mucking around under the goal trying to throw the trickiest trick shots they could think of. You know, like trying to throw the ball up over the backboard from the rear and have it go in the basket etc. Totally useless in a game situation but no matter how hard I try week after week after week they just won't practise shooting from ANY position that they'll actually be in with the ball and trying to shoot a goal during the game 99.99% of the time. Accordingly when the game started we had to endure several minutes of shots at goal that were not even close to going in. The game was fairly neck and neck for the most part and my team was again playing quite well except for a few "brain fades" where their little brains go.."When all else fails...just chuck the ball as far and as HARD as you possibly can!!", never ends well that strategy.

The game came to a close with us winning 18 - 12. This is our THIRD straight win now and sees us firmly in 3rd place trailing second place by 1 point. We play them next week I think....if we win...we'll be second going into the finals...or....so I get told by all the parents that are at the game. I tend not to really care where we are on the ladder.... it's really irrelevant....but I feign interest and excitement for the sake of the children :)

After the game I said my goodbyes and as quickly as it all started not 1 hr ago everyone was gone. Having multiple children all playing sport on Saturday mornings must be hell for parents who have child-A playing basketball at 9:20am in Vermont then having Child-B playing footy at 10:30am in Oakleigh some 50km away. The car park is empty about 2 mins after the actual game finishes.

Saturday, Day was started with a trip to McDonalds for breakfast. There is one of those 24hr Jobbies near me that also has a McCafe in it. So sometimes I go and get a coffee and hotcakes after the game (I try not to eat alot of "Burgers" from these places as they really are foul, fat encrusted devilry ... Bacon delux burgers are the exception of course...they are delicious). I was planning to go and fill out my day with some looking at TV's as there where some very good "deals" at the moment on Sony stuff. The problem I face (if you can call it that) is I don't actually watch much "TV" I usually watch movies and shows I download on the internet. For that purpose the TV I have is brilliant...it's ridiculously large (72" widescreen) and it's native resolution is 476p. Getting a 1080p TV would make all the movies and TV shows I download look like crap due to excessive upscaling. I think the new TV idea can go on the backburner for a while as I really don't "need" a new one at all.

I was supposed to go and meet up with an old Adeladian friend of mine from around 1998-99 on Saturday night who had tracked me down on facebook earlier in the year. However they had spent the day shopping and didn't get home until about 7 pm before they contacted me and by then it was far too late for me to start heading into the big, bad city. We rescheduled for lunch the next day. I went and got some Indian from a nice little family place near me and proceeded to kill myself with "Worlds Best Garlic Naan" and Vindaloo. Saturday night was then looking good for a extensive Scrabulous session with Rachel. Much to our collective dismay the scrabulous webpage was just throwing up error after error when we tried to access any games. I must admit...I panicked a bit....we both did I think...scrabby has become much more than "just a game" to us. We both seem to be uncontrollably addicted to it and when it was not there we tried to find something internetty to fill the void. I must mention that we decided NOT to indulge in the "official" Hasbro version of Scrabble in a silent protest against their litigation against Scrabulous. This however left us floundering in internetland quite at a loss as to what to do. I think we eventually decided the non-facebook version of Scrabulous was just a monstrosity of complexity and we couldn't be bothered with it. So Rach went and blogged ... or something... and I went and played Teamfortress and worked off the aggression by punishing the randoms who dared stand aagainst me :). I had a good laugh when I got 7 dominations during a round of the map "Gold rush". Sure, my sentry gun did all the killing and all I did was smack it with a wrench for 20 mins keeping it repaired and full of ammo....but I came out a clear winner. 7 dominations is unheard of as to get a domination you have to kill the same player at least 4 times without them killing you. That means I had killed over half the opposition team repeatedly without them getting me. In my defense though, my sentry placement was exquisite and sneaky beyond belief. To satisfy the internet rule "Pics or it didn't happen" here's the pic (2 players actually left the game before the score sheet screen appeared..so only 5 are still there). EDIT: According to the bottom of that screenshot..I had *8* dominations..so this result is actually 14.28% more impressive!!!

Went to bed and had a good sleep after that. Slept in until about 10am and then got ready to head into Melbourne for lunch with Louise and her sister. I parked in the casino and headed to southbank in order to meet up with my lunch dates. We found each other quite easily and proceeded to find somewhere to have lunch where a sandwich didn't cost $700 (which is probably the standard price on 99% of Southbank). I remembered there was a good Irish pub in a little mini-mall thing a bit further up the river bank so we went there and were pleased to be greeted with reasonable prices and HUGE glasses of beer :)

I settled on the Chicken Parma...because you can't really stuff that up. It was not too bad...at least it was cooked and not pink on the inside. The beer I got (Heinekin) was pretty flat and bland out of the tap..actually tasted watery..but meh...it had alcohol in it. We talked for about 3 hours. It was really good to hear about what Louise and Craig had been doing in the last 10 years. Time really is a strange thing, this is the second time this year I have regained contact with someone from my distant past and discovered really quickly that people don't really change "personality" wise. Louise was pretty much how I remembered her, just older and wiser and not such a bundle of unrestrained energy as she was previously in our youth. We used to absolutely run amok together at various "band" nights when our friends and her husbands band used to play all over the place. We used to be the only ones out of our "Circle" who weren't too "Rock'n'Roll" to dance and stuff with the general populace. Good times, good times. She also has 3 kids now and seems to be enjoying herself being a mother.

After lunch I took them to the best cake shop I have ever encountered in Melbourne, "Greico" on southbank...they have a huge assortment of artery clogging delicacies that you gain weight just by looking at. We spent about 30 mins "trying" (in vain) to choose just one cake to eat....we

gave up when we realised it was 4:30pm already. A small victory that we manage to dodge the several thousand calories contained in one slice of those cakes. I think I counted 30 different cakes on offer so that is quite an achievement :)

We parted company and I headed back to my car in order to make the longish journey back home. Stopped off to do my grocery shopping on the way so I'd have food for lunch for the week. All in all a good weekend in Melbourne...for once.

In totally unrelated news, I finished my first modelling gig last Friday and the results are now circulating in the print media. You probably always said to yourself, "That Mikey...he's so really, really, really, ridiculously good looking....he should be a male model". Well, in the immortal words of J.P. Prewitt "I'm a hand model, mama. A finger jockey. We think differently than the face and body boys... we're a different breed. ". Behold the beauty that is me...if you're really lucky one day you may be touched by me, or stroked, or massaged ...either way you now know you're in the grip of a celebrity.

I think i've missed my niche...

My sister sent me some pictures today about a strange phenomenon at the West-Lakes Mall in Adelaide. Apparently "The Field" is all the rage?? Now, I was aware that we as a family were pretty popular....but I had no idea that this was happening. We decided (we being "Fields") that we should go to the aforementioned mall and just stand around and lap up the admiration...I mean really, who could resist??

<--- Got a nice "Style" about it that logo. Much like myself. Should be able to get some T-shirt printed with that fairly easily enough.






<--- I was recently informed that "Good Manners Cost Nothing" and that is so true. So accordingly this sign would help purvey that we do appreciate the adoration of the public.




<----- Hahahahaha so many jokes there isn't there?
I am quite "minty" between the hours of 8am - 10am, then I take on the flavor of freshly brewed and aromatic coffee until about 1pm. Mid afternoon I am salad fresh with a hint of vinaigrette. By 4pm I am becoming quite savory and go well with strong cheese or pate. Late afternoon I have the delicate aroma's and taste of smoked meat. So step on up and have a lick :)

No, I don't smoke crack...in case you were wondering.

odds and sods..

Just a few things to mention at the moment....

Firstly, After living in my current house for 9 months now I finally got my fist electricity bill in the mail. I have been getting regular gas, water & phone bills the whole time I have been there but for some reason an electricity bill never arrived. So I am 9 months in arrears for payment you would think? The power bill I got yesterday is only for May, June and July of this year and totalled $142. I rang the power company and asked if this was correct (without letting slip I have been at my house since late October 2007) and the guy assured me that the current bill covers from when I was connected (April 29th according to them) until now. So looks like I got 6 months power for free :) SCORE!!

Secondly, Played Basketball again last night at the ungodly hour of 10:10pm. Once again I left the venue wondering when the rules of basketball changed to the form we currently are subjected to?? The umpiring at the venue is amazing, each week we think it can't possibly get any worse or any less consistent but, amazingly, it does. Last night I got called for a foul that was just so NOT a foul that I sort of...lost my cool...sort of....and sort of dropped a pretty vulgar F-bomb straight at the umpire. He was not amused...and he technical fouled me as well. I was ropeable when later in the game I was driving to the basket and some guy on the opposite team steps across to block me just as I launched myself upward towards the basket, he slams into me while i'm soaring like Michael Jordan and sends me spinning off into "unbalanced-this-is-going-to-hurt-when-ground-and-I-meet" land and thus I miss my shot. No foul was called (of course), I beam several different kinds of grisly death stare at the umpire who simply shrugs and goes "No foul, you jumped into him" .. WHAT THE F#$K?? The opposition then run the ball up the other end and the EXACT same thing happens with the roles of defender and attacker reversed and HE CALLS A FOUL ON OUR GUY!!! I (now being the most uncool tempered person in cool-tempered town) not so politely ask for an explanation of how that is different to what happened not 5 secs ago down the other end of the court?? I get tech fouled again...for apparently being belligerent ...can you believe that?? ME..Belligerent?? At the end of the game the score was 18-20. Technically a "loss" for our team, but since the other team had no scorer to help with scoring and the scoreboard we should get 4 extra points and thus the win.

OOOOOOooOOOO also, during warm up I was practising 3-point shots and was getting a very high percentage of them to go in. So during the game I twice found myself open, with the ball, on the three point line and threw up shots. BOTH of them went in!!! :)

Thirdly, I was checking the state of Scrabby on facebook just before and was very pleased to see that every single game was waiting for ME to play. Many thanks to my Scrabby partner for such diligent work. I promptly played all available games but there was no bingos to report sadly. The competition continues. While checking the Scrab I noticed that there was a new notification there so I decided to check out what it was. I was dismayed to see that Facebook is now no longer content to just throw demoralising ads at you every 1.2375 secs offering you all sorts of sordid encounters with single males and/or females in your age group. It has now decided the best way to get your attention after noticing that you have clicked exactly 0 ads is direct insults to your self esteem via notifications.

<------ See, apparently I am some sort of ugly, unlovable, undateable, disfigured freak. Please tell me it isn't so Facebook!! I just don't understand the mixed signals FB keeps giving me. On one page it's telling me 7 of my friends have a secret crush on me and I should "Click Here" to find out who. On another, one of my friends who is mysteriously anonymous thinks I am "Hot" and I should "Click Here" to find out who again?? And on a further page, 87% of my friends would like to be trapped on a deserted Island with me?? Now I know I am a bit self conscious about a few things , but blatant "No one likes you and wouldn't date you even if you were the last man on earth and there was no sheep" notifications are just about crossing the line Facebook!!

Tomorrow sees the week come to a close (Thank God) and thus sees me eating WBBC for lunch :) It's also Rachel's birthday which is almost as exciting as having WBBC lunch...almost. So........

Happy Birthday Rachel.

You just can't kill the Devil!!!

You may (or most probably may NOT) remember about the love/hate relationship I have with the Thermo technician. He just LOVES to make me HATE him.

see HERE for the refresher course.

Well, today he is back to look at the Mass Spec again after I arranged for some maintenance work to be carried out on it. True to form though he arrives, asks me what I think is wrong (again, this was ALL in the email I sent to the Customer service manager at Thermo yesterday) and then proceeds to inform me that I am wrong. Again, apparently I am so wrong that even if I was in the wrongest place in wrongtown people there would still point out that I could still be more wrong that that. I have arranged for a certain "non-user serviceable" part of the Mass Spec to be cleaned. By "non-user servicable" I mean, this part is absolutely critical to the functioning of the machine and should it break..the machine is useless.....therefor...I am not going to touch it myself :) Anyway, after sitting through 3 excrucisting hours of him going through every concievable possible cause of the Mass Spec not working EXCEPT for what I thought was wrong, we finally reach an impass. That being that what I said was wrong all along WAS what the problem was and *I* was right all along and he was going to have to eat humble pie again. You'd think he'd learn though wouldn't you?? Why do people even bother to question my awesomeness? It really is beyond me.

So now 4.5 hours after he arrived he's starting to clean the thing I organised him to clean from the get go. We'll get the pleasure of him then charging us 4.5 x $185 for his "Services". I'm definaitely in the wrong career.


EDIT @ 4:30pm: I left "technician Guy" to clean the Mass Spec and went to have my lunch. Not being one to ever gloat over victory I decided to continue with other work to keep myself busy (and away from Technician Guy) because, again (and this is turning into a regular occurrence) someone has not been scrabbying during work hours!!! I know this person will sprout some nonsense about "parenting" or "having appointments" or something as equally unbelieveable but I cant stress enough how dissappointed I am. Technician guy cleaned and re-assembled the Mass Spec and turned it back on. It worked and the cleaning had fixed the problem I had identified. He sauntered into my office to get me to come see the results of his "labour" and asked me "What do you think about that? It looks really good now huh?". "WHAT A FUCKING SURPRISE EINSTEIN!!" was the answer my facial expression probably gave, my actual spoken answer was something much more acceptable to a harmonious client-company relationship.

After all this he's just informed me he'll be BACK TOMORROW!!!!!

I think I'll call in sick.............