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Archived MoonFlakeLogs for Feb & March 2004
well, that's a quarter of the year gone.
hmm....good weekend. lazed about at alex's on friday night, got some banking done on sat morning. then went to roo's for firefly madness. thoroughly enjoyed it, and left before the end, but also before we got so irritated with ppl that we stopped enjoying it.
went to conference on monday. got home for lunch and just didn't feel like going back, so didn't. woke up on tuesday morning all ready to go, was on time and everything, went downstairs to discover my sister's car in front of my garage. fine. i went upstairs to get her keys and move it. get in, take off the steering lock, put key in ignition, turn....and nothing.
not fine.
well, today was the conference tour, which i didn't think i needed to attend (i've been to cape point, thank you, i also know what penguins look like) so i came up to varsity to do some work. went to a talk. chatted to andrew kessler on university avenue about life, the universe and genetics. had coffee. now i'm waiting for it to be a reasonable time to go home.
yay! roleplaying tonight!
31/03/04
well, as it turns out, physics did not pay me at all. the reason for this is that my forms have not yet been processed, despite the fact that half the forms in my batch were. human resources has promised to give me an advance by next week.
is it really an advance if you get it a week after you were supposed to be paid?
also, the reason i only saw R375.00 from nassp, is that hr, in their infinite wisdom, decided to take the lump sum i was meant to be paid, and divide it over the time of employment.
then they paid me one month's worth.
despite the fact that the form clearly stated that it was a once-off payment.
i hate this university.
i'm leaving next year. fuck my PhD?, i'm getting a job.
on a lighter note, tnm was great last night. Ginger Snaps II was just as good as Ginger Snaps...see them both. they are the most underrated werewolf movies of all time. also, played strange synergy, which was fun. when i know how the cards and the rules work, i will kick some ass :)
mmm...tv tonight. tapes of survivor and nip/tuck, courtesy of alex's mom. yay!
26/03/04
updation
just checked my account.
i got paid R375.00
that's all.
i haven't left off any digits.
someone is going to die.
earlier that day
Payday!!!!!
i was very tempted to put that as a wiki word, but then realised that i might feel the pressing need to click the ?. And what would i write that ppl didn't already know? it's a day. you get paid. if you work. possibly the best day of the month.
well, after a shockingly bad talk yesterday morning by one of the two prospective new HODs? (he used Darth Vader's Theme during an animation, then said it was 'The Emperor (sic) Strikes Back'), i just couldn't face the rest of varsity, never mind the next two talks. Alex had just had a similar experience (without the sacrilege) in stats, so we bunked the rest of the day and went to see Scary Movie 3. damn funny. charlie sheen should stick to comedy. We also ate crumbed, deep-fried baby cthulhus. it was good.
yesterday's roleplaying session was fun: we're in possession of an alien nav device, and spent the session evading pirates and the law, while organising cargo to ferry on our way. eventually found another alien village, lots more nav devices, and two of the computers that they fit into! w00t! also, our stash of drugs turned out not to be the drugs we thought...but we suspect they may have something to do with the aliens and a shady electronics corporation called dysun electronics (that's pronounced DIE-SOON).
there was milk tart and ice cream involvement. thanks again to shelagh. mmmm :)
25/03/04
ooooookay. we're back.
arg, now i have to remember what happened last week. hmmm....
right, wednesday's game was the bizomb. We went off in our new spanky ship, salvaged our old one, rescued the creepy girl, blamed everything on the dead characters, discovered a treasure map, and fought off heavily-armed gunships. we are on our way to a new system, with a lot of drugs, a lot of money, and a lot of fun to be had. Wheeeeeee!
also, there was apple pie and ice cream involvement. Thank you, shelagh :)
the weekend was fantastic. spent it at alex's place, sleeping and watching tv. went to a great braai at al&julie's new place (spanky!) on saturday. went for a great drive yesterday, to hout bay for fish and chips, and then a walk on llundudno (sp?). It's Llandudno - InfernalRabbi Ta, was only one letter off :)
an excellent week, from what i can remember. however, i may be blocking out a whole lot :P
23/03/04
not a bad w/e altogether. missed angel on friday :( but spent the rest of the evening watching tapes (survivor and nip/tuck) and then falling asleep on the couch.
saturday saw a very late sleeping-in session (mmm...sleep), and then just arbing around at alex's. watched Bad Boys II, which was as good as adam said it was...maybe a little longer than it had to be, but it really was a good sequel. then patrick came around, and we playing trivial pursuit. i came out of nowhere to win, after being 2-5 down to patrick (that's wedges, not games, we didn't have all month).
sunday at the folks. quiet. eaten by mosquitos last night, so a bit tired again.
blah, another week.
15/03/04
ah...that's better. actual sleep.
tnm was fun: watched gothika, and then shaolin soccer. gothika was great for the first 2/3 of the movie...and then it seemed as if the director and scriptwriter handed the project over to the makers of scary movie. shaolin soccer was dubbed shudder, and since alex had seen the original subbed version, he noted a number of scenes where the meaning was changed utterly, and some scenes which had been completely omitted. sigh. still, it is one of the funniest movies ever, with the best use of cheesy special effects in movie-making history. watch it. but try and get the subbed version.
12/03/04
okay, i'm officially tired.
alex went to his game on monday, so i stayed up late reading some papers, bathing, cleaning, and otherwise pottering around until shortly before he arrived home (~1am). i did make yummy macaroni cheese in my new casserole dish (thanks jo :)...mmmm, cheesy goodness!
tuesday day, we ditched varsity to hang around in cavendish, eat sushi (mmm) and little deep-fried prawn things (mmm), and watch underworld. all in all, i enjoyed it, but the final death blow to viktor was soo corny i cringed. the rest was cool...as i'm sure i've mentioned before, i don't go into a movie with any expectations other than to have a little fun and escape rl for a bit...so i was thoroughly satisfied. alex went to his other game on tuesday night, so wash, rinse, repeat. added a listen to the new korn album, which is great. again, asleep at about 1am.
last night was al's new space-pirates game. omg. as i mentioned in an earlier post, no-one on the ship really trusts anyone else. so by the end of session 2, alex had attempted mutiny, then locked himself in the cockpit (admittedly for good reasons), then killed tommy in a spray of gunfire when we landed, killing shelagh in the crossfire, then killed tommy's right hand man, and almost killed waynne as he afterburned out of the docks with my ship, leaving only patrick and i alive, and waynne seriously crispy. of course, during all of this, he forgot that the 'package' which had so spooked him into doing all of this, was still on board with him...and he died too.
so shelagh and alex rolled new characters, and this time we may have a party that will work...hopefully. i think.
another late night. yawn
11/03/04
well, dinner with dad wasn't too painful...my sister (ie i ) made good tomato bredie, and alex came around after my dad left. this isn't an avoidance issue - first friday night of every month is 'dinner with dad', a family-only affair. sigh.
anyway, spent the rest of the day reading in bed, got an okay night's sleep. this was a good thing, as we saved the entire world on saturday afternoon. al's witchcraft game came to a spectacular ending with world saviness and prophecy fulfilment. go team!
saturday night was roo's all night movie marathon. watched wyrd sisters, then the history of the world part I, then i couldn't keep my eyes open and we bailed. yes, i'm lame, but i saved the world this afternoon. give me a break!
sunday was relaxed...went to table view to visit family. stopped off at boardmans to get a mortar and pestle for my mom's bday (belated) and got one for myself while i was at it (shiiiiinyyyyy!). watched scooby do the movie, and the new guy, and had a great chicken braai for supper. didn't get any work done at all, despite all good intentions. :)
did i mention we saved the world?
-thanks, we owe you one :) - YetiBe
08/03/04
had a really good day yesterday! firstly, i discover that since i have confirmation on my bursary, i can get an advance! woohoo! i am no longer looking starvation in its sunken, dessicated eyes! also, yanke was a sweety and gave us a lift home yesterday (cos of this unseasonal cold and rain) and i fed everyone (me, alex, yanke and my sister) beef stroganoff (mmmm...).
then tnmt3k...we watched bull durham, which i thoroughly enjoyed. but then again, i have always been a fan of 80's romcoms, and kevin costner, susan sarandon and tim robbins, so it was an easy setup for me :)
friday...my dad is coming over for dinner tonight. bleh.
05/03/04
ah, tuesday was good...got a bunch of banking and admin-type stuff done, thanks to the 'varsity holiday'. didn't buy a rag. did spend the day parked off on the couch, watching tv, which i haven't had the chance to do in ages. ate popcorn, snuggled, had a generally great day.
spent most of wednesday working on tut solutions for the course i'm tutoring. it takes me about as long as it takes them to figure the stuff out...not the most efficient system, i'm sure, but this course has never been run before. i am conscientiously writing up all the solutions in a form that will probably be readable by the next person to do this.
i think sometimes i'm too nice for my own good. but anything that gives me a legitimate reason to avoid my thesis is just fine by me.
wednesday night was the start of a new space-pirates game (lock stock meets firefly) run by al, hosted at my house. made yummy chinese before the game for me, alex and schpat. my chinese is really starting to taste restauranty. mmmm....
well, the game got off to a wobbly start. we all owe this guy Tommy a lot of money (some of us more than others), we've been stuck on a ship doing his running around in order to pay off our debt (which will prolly never happen), and no one on the ship really knows or trusts anyone else. we have no party cohesion as yet, and no reason to work together. i would have preferred it if we were actually a crew, rather than a bunch of people in a shitty situation who are all in it for their own selfish reasons...but hey, this is only session one. i'm sure there's plenty of character development to come. we're already being chased by privateers :)
thursday night mystery theatre 3000 tonight. this had better be good.
- i make no promises. it's one of my favourite movies, but you might think it's shit... but you have to watch it to find out ;-) - ShadowsLight
04/03/04
good weekend...
started out with angel on friday afternoon...always good. then al's birthday thang (lots of alcohol and very good mexican food courtesy of julie), which i ended up falling asleep at (not my fault, it was 2am and people were arguing about politics, economics and ethics/morality).
saturday saw the WitchCraft game at my house...great fun! cruising across the countryside in a huey with a church bell dangling behind us, downing military jets and choppers...armageddon is fun for the whole family! Saturday night we went to dinner with my folks at Cattle Baron in Table View...mmmm...good food.
sunday i went shopping at makro with jo and phleep...i bet that place did a lot of business just before the '94 elections. Bulk beans and tp....now, if only they sold shotgun shells. they'd be your One-Stop Armageddon Shop (TM). Then, sunday night, got a call from garrick to play some card games at roo's. played ninja burger the card game (not the dishonourable rpg)...much more fun :)
I know you are being modest, but you can also mention that you sch0000000LLLLL333333ddddd Alex and I and managed to win both games... I don't mind ;-) It was great fun and I am glad Al was there for the inaugural game... *"Your franchise has been rewarded, Gain 2 Honour!" "That Didn't Happen!" "Ok... then Your Franchise has been Shamed, Lose 2 Honour!" "That didn't happen either!" "...Doh!"* - ShadowsLight
got to bed late, and as a consequence, got to work late.
rag tomorrow! no students! yay!!
01/03/04
last night was great! food was great, company was great, crowds not too bad...all you want from an international food festival. i have liquorice (munch munch), i've still got the arm-band on, and i got into work at 10:30. life is good.
um, yeah, my sister passed her drivers test (third time lucky), and it's al's birthday party tonight! woohoo!
things are looking up.
27/02/04
well, currently hanging out in my office, making myself 'available' for students. and i haven't seen a cent yet.
speaking of money, my funding was approved all-of-a-skielik. no apologies, no explanations, just a letter to the pgso saying 'the following students whose renewals were pending have been renewed' and my name on the list. they must have heard the dean was gonna be on their case :) w00t!
watched True Romance for the first time last night...great movie. huge cast. gotta love brad pitt...he really excells at playing either stoned or crazy. that may say something about him :)
maynardville tonight! (and i'm fairly certain that this time it's for real)
26/02/04
woohoo! middle of the week already!
made some seriously good chicken wings yesterday...sticky, sweet, spicy...mmmmm....
maynardville tonight! so excited! already salivating at the thought of belgian sausages with mustard, and polish potato pancakes, and donuts dipped in chocolate....hell yes!
um, sorry.
i'm busy reading Johnny and the Dead at the mo...hilarious. Pratchett really knows how to write kids. Stayed up late last night reading, so suffering from sleep deprivation today. yawn.
updation
okay, i have the inside line on maynardville: wednesday is not the best night to go because many stalls haven't received all their merchandise yet. this comes courtesy of the polish mafia, who are apparently undergoing a coup that may or may not play out violently at this year's polish stand. however, they did get the vodka, which is good. apparently, the night to go is thursday.
the skinny is, we're ditching tnm to go to maynardville. this is no great tragedy, as we weren't really keen for Clockwork Orange anyways. hope everyone else enjoys it, it's a great movie.
25/02/04
arg, another monday.
the weekend was too short, and went too quickly.
saturday: roleplayed, went to the first installment of jo's housewarming, played more trivial pursuit than you can shake a stick at. i think playing in teams is a bad bad idea...deliberation can take on UN-type qualities.
sunday: watched my little brother play cricket at rygersdal, then went to my mom for a small (haha) bday celebration. most of my stepfather's family pitched up, and boy are they a rowdy lot (referred to as the 'out-laws'). still amusing tho, cake was good, and i made yummy bean-and-sausage casserole after the ravening hordes departed.
btw: big thanks to roo for giving me a lift home on friday. felt too sick for words. no more god damn dodgy campus food (she says...)
23/02/04
lost in translation last night at tnm: hyper-real. every nuance of boredom, awkwardness, embarrassment, jealousy and displacement was portrayed in agonising faithfulness. the viewer was not comforted with a happy ending, but rather a very familiar one: a feeling of multiple possibilities for the future, of stepping out into the unknown and just hoping. it was...excellent, but i can't use the word 'enjoyable'. there is no way to enjoy someone else's painfully accurate ennui.
yeah, made the mistake of getting a slice of margherita from the pizza place in the student union. left right after the movie with food poisoning. that's the last time i try something besides sandwiches on campus. yech!
Eugh, that pizza looked a lot like what I remember of Capt. Dog's. I'm glad I was never tempted. At least it wasn't the morning of an exam, like that incident which spelled the end of my love affair with Steers. ;) - MyrdemInggala
20/02/04
okay, now i'm going to defend my position on bad service:
i have, in fact, had excellent service at the spur. it all comes down to work ethic. i have been in the position of waitressing (at st elmo's) and so i know exactly what it's like for them. fine, it's a shit job. fine, the pay is worse. fine, some customers can be annoying and downright rude (i'm sure he didn't have to deal with customers making lewd comments about his breasts). but if you could get something better, you wouldn't be working there. so you might as well make the best of it, do your job to the best of your ability (regardless of whether you like the customer or not), and rake in the tips. cos at the spur, tips are what it's all about. and getting orders wrong and then protesting that you didn't...well, that's just not likely to get you a great tip.
so, when you get bad service, especially at the spur, it can only be for two reasons: either the waiter just doesn't give a shit (in which case he doesn't deserve any kind of remuneration and should consider a different line of work, like tech support) or he's so stupid that no-one else would hire him (in which case he won't realise he's done anything wrong, or that you complained, or what day it is, so probably won't notice the lack of a tip).
anyway, found out yesterday that there's a slim chance i might get some money by the 10th. i'm not holding my breath tho.
caught up on survivor yesterday...man, some of those people are so stupid you could bounce coconuts off their heads and they wouldn't notice.
- *d@vid Jan 19 2004:* was introduced to survivor with the last two episodes - are they this stupid every show?
- you only missed the first episode then. and yes, they were that stupid then (well, morgan tribe at least. drake were cunning like a fish) - MoonFlake
19/02/04
hah, was actually woken up by my alarm clock this morning, at a time of my own choosing.
alex and i spent the whole of yesterday afternoon driving around in the heat cos i was trying to sell some second-hand stuff. suffice to say, the second-hand clothing market is more finnicky than one would imagine. had some fun looking at second hand books, and alex was naughty and added johnny and the dead to my terry pratchett collection. but by the time we got back, we were both really tired. alex ditched his not-quite-the-tuesday-night-game game, and we went to roo's for tuesday night tv.
now, the way this works is: we get there to watch gilmore girls, we take the hour-and-a-half break between good shows to go get supper, then come back for alias, csi and nip/tuck. Since roo had such a good meal at the golden spur on monday night, we went there.
the food was great. the waiter...well, despite writing our orders down AND reading them back to us correctly, he STILL managed to get them ALL WRONG. and then when we complained to the manager that our orders had ALL been wrong, and he spoke to the waiter, the guy still came back and argued with us that he hadn't got them wrong!
anyway, nip/tuck is great...it's like a mix between ER, beverly hills 90210, and soft core porn. gotta love it.
18/02/04
went along with alex to his monday night game, which was cancelled due to a lack of critical mass. alex wanted to try out ninja burger the rpg. it is painful. in many ways. my fingers still suffer. stay tuned for the haiku. oh yes, and the plural of ninja is ninja. don't forget it.
yeah, got woken up at 6am by incredibly loud gospel music. tossed and turned for half and hour, pretending i could ignore it. eventually got up, deciding that it must be some early morning service that Maritz Brothers is blasting over loudspeakers, or something. no, it turns out it's my next door neighbour. so i venture out in my gown and knock repeatedly on the front windows...to no avail. i then go to my balcony, lean across and knock on the bedroom window. music gets immediately turned down to apologies. when i say 'yeah, i've been knocking for the last couple of minutes, it was so loud you didn't hear me', she replies 'i wasn't in'. really? did she sneak into her house in the time it took me to get from my front door to my balcony? she must possess l33t ninja skillz. and then she offered the piece de resistance...
Will you forgive me?
oh
my
god
17/02/04
well, still no news about the monies.
lectures started again today, so campus is swamped...arg.
i really don't like masters...i think i might not be cut out to do research...hmmm...been thinking about doing compsci cos i got half the credits already...a real job with a salary and someone telling me what i'm supposed to do and when i need it done by...this sounds soooo appealing right now. only problem is, as usual, i would need funding...sigh. i hate money.
well, tnm was okay...i've seen the movie before tho. looking forward to lost in translation this week. friday 13th horrors at jim/dave/ross's was great...hadn't seen The Thing so really enjoyed it...except i got eaten by mosquitos. scratch scratch
valentine's day was great :) went out to dinner and got sparklies :) then snuggling in front of tv...great stuff
arg, my dad drove me nuts yesterday, wanting me to pick up a cheque for my sister, then bugging me about what time i was coming over, then not being home when i got there. had to go find him at the spur and ended up paying for parking! arg! parents! my sister owes me a big favour for this :) i have told her payment will be exacted at an unspecified time...hehe.
16/02/04
okay, just to clarify, the comment about the car was a joke. i'm not quite that desperate yet, there's still a chance they fscked up and i could still get my bursary.
in other news, guesting at the larp last night was fun....wish we'd been able to get there sooner, could have had so much fun messing with real characters' minds. anyway...still cool.
had a great anime-style dream last night. Lucas, Claire, Stu and i were part of a crack team protecting the us president on a trip to UCT (it's a dream, logic isn't a factor). snipers were in the buildings along university avenue, and lucas and claire came out, guns blazing, picking off snipers. then lucas comes up against this guy who must have had some kind of forcefield (AT fierdu!) or spell which made guns not work...and he was a big mother...starts chasing us, tackles me, i manage to get out from under him and slam his head into a pole...and by the time we get to the elevator, he's already getting up! so we get onto airforce one, and as stu takes a seat in the back, i see this guy's shadow fall right next to him...he's in the plane! well, as i'm desperately trying to alert stu without letting the bad guy know i know he's there, the guy grabs stu, i wake up...
sorry stu, guess you're dead.
12/02/04
well, on a day that would otherwise be great, i find myself facing possible eviction and economic disaster.
it turns out that the nrf have decided, for reasons they will only make clear to the pgso by the end of the week, to not renew my bursary. despite my achieving 85% overall last year, and despite my having filled out the renewal forms mid last year.
also, neither astronomy or nassp had their act together early enough to fill out my employment forms before feb 4, so now i'm only gonna get paid my first cheque at the end of march. meanwhile, the last vestiges of money from last year (including the money that i borrowed from my dad and theoretically was meant to pay back when i got my bursary) have dried up.
i might be able to cover my rent. if i don't pay any other bills and don't eat for all of march and the rest of this month.
but besides that, if i don't get my bursary, i won't have enough money to survive the year.
and before you ask, no, i can't go to my parents for help, they don't have money to throw around like some people. my dad had to go into overdraft to help me last year, and that was on the condition that i pay him back. my mom and stepfather do not have money to loan me.
so, anyone looking to buy a used car?
11/02/04
bored.
went to al's last night to shoot the breeze and watch some tv. made good butternut and chicken pasta for supper...mmmm....
al will be starting his pirate game in march...woohoo! can't wait!
um...not much else to say.
btw SynKronos: if i get a key cut for alex, then lauren has grounds to get a key cut for her bf, and then we're sitting with 4 sets of keys and i know the rental agency is gonna want to know what the hell is going on. yes, if price were the only issue at hand, i'd get another set. but it isn't.
/* Why is it that Alex can't visit as often? I don't have keys to Claire's flat, but I only visit her when she is there. So I don't need keys to get in. - InfernalRabbi */
Because on many nights of the week, alex has roleplaying that only ends post-midnight. and it is not cool to wake up your roomie (even if it is your sister) at one in the morning because your bf is ringing the doorbell.
thank you all for your suggestions, but we will sort it out ourselves. - MoonFlake
10/02/04
okay, back.
well, i've dropped off the face of the planet recently, but with good cause. for those of you who haven't heard, alex's dad had a heart attack at gym on wednesday. he's recovering, but is still in icu. thanks to everyone who phoned to give their sympathy.
well, we missed TNM, and thanks again for saving lost in translation for us :) my god, i can't believe STOVE was there! A friend of garrick's? what is he thinking? it's STOVE!! the man who was stripped of his position as claws treasurer for dodgy accounting (if i remember correctly). sheesh.
In the interest of fairness and accuracy: no actual, verifiable dodgy accounting occurred, as far as I'm aware. There was, however, a whole lot of dodgy conduct, which put into question his suitability for the position. He resigned under pressure from the rest of the committee. And that's why we don't let unknown people run anymore. - MyrdemInggala
well, i'm currently dog-sitting while everyone else is at the hospital. btw, kyodai mahjongg is the bomb. it's nagware, but not too irritating. try it.
yeah, not much else to say. cheers.
07/02/04
archived again
well, the last couple of days have seen me fighting with the science faculty for not sending my registration forms to the dept, like they said they did, then getting forms from them, then going back bcos they didn't give me all the forms....arg. also, getting access to things before registering is a pain, but i have to work, dammit.
yesterday i go down to the obs to ftp myself a few files and track down lisa so she can move out of her office. i get up to varsity, finally, and everyone is gone. claire tells me there was a binary astrophysics notice group (bang) meeting, and the email was sent out....that morning. fine. i can manage to miss a bang. what i don't like is the fact that since the new locks were replaced, only reta has a key to our office. guess where she is...
well, moved offices yesterday afternoon, so i now have my own shiny office - yay! and a key to this one.
went to the obs again this morning to get my reg forms signed...no sign of steve. arg!
my sister moved in with me on sunday. all is good, except now ZenStar can't come over as often due to not having a key anymore :( well, i had to do it, there was no other way to afford the apartment. still, makes me sad...
Get another set cut. It's not that expensive, even if it is some sort of funky key. If you need a remote as well, it'll be a bit more, but still not prohibitive. -- SynKronos
03/02/04
