OMG - it's mid September!!!

I have been looking at the good old social calendar, have been trying to arrange a time to catch up with some friends, and it has dawned on me that we are approaching the birthday season! Well i kind of know that the birthday season was coming - but now i am like "Oh yerrr, it is getting close!!!"

And how is the social calendar looking? Pretty impressive i must say!!! I have had to put the catch up with before mentioned friends till October!!!!!!!!

Of course this year there is another celebration on top of the birthday circus, M34tb4LL and i will be celebrating our first wedding anniversary that falls smack inbetween our birthdays (: We have made plans with some friends - wittnesses at our weddding - to go out to dinner, nothing fancy.

But it does raise the question of what to get M34tb4LL for a present! I think i have his birthday present all wrapped up (tee hee), the normal bag of random crap. I have to put the ole thinking cap on...

It is the 13th today, so i have 16 days to get my brain into gear and think of something. THAT IS NOT ENOUGH TIME!!!

The traditional gift for a first anniversay is paper, so what does that mean as a present? a paper hat? an origami crane? a note book?

Wait i just got an idea! not going to say what it is here, M34tb4LL reads this (: I'll fill you in after the event (if it works out that is)

(: G

Choices choices...

So here is the dilemma, it is not a life changing one, but it is one that might be faced by a few of you from time to time so i feel it should be discussed.

Ice cream is a little luxury that i sometime like to indulge in. Wait a minute - is every other day considered once in a while?

Anyway, with the convenience of drive thrus getting the daily ice cream fix is easier than ever! and that only really leaves the choice of going for an icecream from the "Some Old Man Who Had a Farm Family Resturant" or "Famished Johns" (think about the names for a minute, you'll get it). But this is also where the dilemma comes into it.

SOMWHAFFR's ice cream tends to be nicer, creamier and betting tasting. But Famished Johns icecream has the advantage of a choc dip option.

So what does one do? Get one of each of course!

(: G

*** Warning *** Cull Imminent

I give this warning to the people who have been enjoying the photos on 'Flickr'.

Unfortunately, at any given time, only a maximum 200 photos will be displayed on an individuals flickr page - unless of course one wants to ungrade for a annual fee to their "pro package", which i don't want to do if i can help it.

Seeing as i there are currently 199 photos on the page this cap is near reaching.

In one week from today i will be randomly culling some of the older photos to make room for newer one. So if there are any phots that you have a particular fondness to on the first few of pages i would suggest you either grab yourself a copy or take one last look.

(: G

Internet-less

Question - how does one that spends many hours a day on the internet, uses it as the first place to get any information, and uses email and online chatting more than the phone or much more that snail mail; cope when there is no internet in the house for two weeks?

Answer - not well!

Lately the ISP that M34tb4LL and myself use decided to increase their prices, they did offer us a plan at the same price that we had been paying but at a decrease to the monthly cap.

We use the internet a fair bit, it is fair to say that we use it more than most of our friends and family (DK and Droidy excluded of course). So rather than taking a drop in monthly limit or paying more we chose to look elsewhere for our internet needs.

We found a provider that, for the same price as before, we could get a higher monthly cap and VoIP thrown in for good measure (so cheaper phone costs).

But before we could think about switching we first had to make sure that there was no unfulfilled on-line commitments, we waited till all the eBay dealings we had dealing were finalised and we signed up with the new ISP. The next step was to do the all important swap - a scary thought to two such internet dependent peoples like us.

We then canceled with the (then) current ISP and waited to be cut off. The cut off actually happened right as i had typed out a 'farewell for now' message in the favourite forum, just before i had time to publish it - of course - and we just had to wait to be reconnected.

We were told that the wait would be three to five working days, a doable time frame, at a pinch. Well at the five day mark i gave the new ISP a call to get an ETA.

The funny thing was, as far as they knew we were still connected to our previous provider!!! So i called them and after three phone calls and about two hours on hold i found out that when they cut us off they 'forgot' to send the request to telstra to have the codes removed!!! Which means that though they had stopped providing us with the internet, it was not possible for anyone else to.

After I brought this to their attention they said they would get the request through within 24 hours (and four days late).

About two days after my phone call to the previous (and evil) ISP, M34tb4LL got an email from the new (and shiney) ISP saying that we would connected with them in about five days. I would like to point out the whole "DDEEERRRRR" factor about sending an email about connecting internet, if we needed internet connected we obviously didn't have it, and if we don't have internet how can we get emails! M34tb4LL could check his email at work, but still...

Now with two blogs, a tumblr log, a flickr and a youtube account to maintain being without internet was a rather difficult thing. I did suffer a bit of cyber withdrawal. And i must confess there were a few minutes one Thursday, while i was at the public library the eyed one of their computers that internet access with envious eyes.

But the internet is back, the balance has been restored, and my insane random ramblings can continue.

(: G

LOL speak

I h8 LOL speak!!!

This is going to more rant than post - cope.

First of all I will explain what I refer to as LOL speak. It is the kind of thing that you can use while sending an SMS and want to save on characters, seeing as you get a limit of how much you can have. In this use i find it acceptable, don't do it myself but I can understand the reason for using it. However when it is (ab)used in emails I just feel that the person is being lazy.

There is a person that i have to deal with at the moment who insists on sending me emails typed in LOL speak. Here is an example of what i am getting -

'hi how r ya? just touching base 2 c how u r doing. hope all is well with ******. any problems please dont hesitate 2 call me. l know l never made ur last appointment date so if u feel u need it let me no.'

And it goes on... I mean come on!!!

The first email this person sent me, I opened and saw that it was written in this fashion and promptly deleted it without reading it. She then asked me what I thought of the idea in the email and I told her that I had received it but did not read it as it was gibberish. She has not gotten the hint as she has continued to send them to me like that...

Now for my disclaimer:

I myself have been known to use the phrase LOL, as well as WTF, RTFM, ROFL, LMAO, NSFW, one of my personal favourites - PEBKAC, regular readers on this blog might be aware of MFL, and regular readers of the Peanut blog will be aware of BTD.

I feel that these in context (and used sporadically) are fine!!! It is when the sentence has more abbreviations and shortcuts than actual words I get a bit ** groan**

And I have just thought of another that I use on occasion -

TTFN G

My "Lord of the Rings"

As some of you might remember a few years ago there was a movie released called "Lord of the Rings".

For anyone who has not seen the movie and intends to i suppose you could call this a spoiler alert, but if you have not seen the movie by now it is your own fault if i am about to spoil it for you.

Now i must go back in time even more and explain my previous knowledge of the whole "Lord of the Rings" thing - NOTHING. I had never read the books or seem any of the previously made TV shows, cartoon or whatever had been produced under that Lord of the Rings banner.

So when i went to see the movie i was aware of only a few things -

1. This was the first of a trilogy of films
2. The title was Lord of the Rings (rings plural)
3. The first movie was called "Fellowship of the Rings"
   
4. and that was pretty much it (:

With the knowledge i had - three movies, multiple rings - i made the assumption that each movie was about one of the rings. I also made the assumption that the first ring was a fellowship ring (?). The funny thing is that no-one in my circle had made the assumption of what little knowledge i had.

M34tb4LL and i sat down in the cinema and started watching the movie, some good special effects, storyline not at all what i expected though. Walk walk walk, fight fight fight, walk walk walk, hello uncle - my what big teeth you have, walk walk walk, fight fight fight, a couple of bare footed hobbits hop into a boat and float along a river and then...

Well that was it!!! i was waiting for them to drop the ring into the volcano or where ever they were headed, but the movie just finished!!!

And the sad fact is when the movie finished i did verbalise my disapproval right there in the cinema.

You see, i was expecting this story to be finalised so the next two movies could be about the nextcoming from? what kind of a fool am i?!?!? DON'T ANSWER THAT.

Now you might ask why i am telling this story only now, well i have just been watching the Antiques Road Show (love that show) and there was a gentleman on it who wanted to get an idea of how much a letter from Tolkien was worth. A letter that he received from the writer very many years ago after he wrote to him expressing his disapproval that he had bought the first book and read it and did not have closure on the story.

I should also add that i have not seen the second or the third movie (yet)

(: G

We live in a golden age

Time for a little bit of a feel good post.

There are so many great things around that make life easy and pleasurable, for example -

• Toasters with crumpet settings
• Cameras that fit into ones handbag or pocket
• Internet shopping
• Chocolate pudding cups
• Mum's and bub's movie sessions
• Spell check
  
• Cheese
• "Degrassi"
• Home delivery
• Lime juice in a bottle
• Calendar reminders
• Game consoles (and hand helds)
  
• Cupcakes
• LCD monitors
• PS2 Singstar
• Mobile phones
• Sudoku
• Polar fleece jackets
• Photo editing
  
• "The Amazing Race"
• Podcasts
• Midnight snacks
• Fluffy slippers
• Milk chocolate
  
• Youtube
• Arm warmers
• Hair straighteners
• Ice cream
  
• Apple laptops
• Comfy couches
• Skype
  
• Central heating
• Starbucks coffee
• iSketch (and Wacom tablets)
• Doonas
• Long range weather forecasts
• Remote controls
• McDonald's cheese burgers
• Internet blogging
• and of course friends, family, loved ones and pizza

Just thought i would share

(: G

A brave new world.

In all my years of being an internet shopper, i have never tried to be an internet seller. That is till now!!!

I have just listed my first few items to sell on eBay!!! a big day, a proud day even.

It was a lot easier than i thought it would be, straight forward, explained the whole way through the listing process and it did not cost as much to list items than i thought it would.

So over the last week and a bit i have listed 7 items for sale in total. The fist thing i listed was a pillow that i bought to use while feeding Peanut, but because of the position we use and firmness of the pillow it was not working for us. I would have returned to the shop as "not fit for purpose" but to get it out of the (resealable) bag it comes it i ripped the cardboard insert. I have had a few question about it and there are about a dozen people watching it, but only one person bidding on it so far - there is still 22 hours to go in the auction so anything can happen.

I am also selling some DVDs that we have twice (long story) or that we have been given and do not want!

It is pretty exciting watching the price of things go up (or not). gives the same feeling as internet shopping does but instead of spending money and i am making money!!!

Hmmmm, what else can i see?

(: G

Postage??? or more!!!

As any of you who know me i love my shopping, whether it be at the local shopping centre or in the comfort of my own home - via the Internet - eBay is my friend :)

Lately i have been cruising eBay for a couple copies of an infants picture book that was originally published in 1951 by Rand McNally called "Captain Kitty". The book has a very special place in the hearts of members of M34tb4LL's family. His Nana read it to all him and his two brothers as babies to the point that they all had the story memories.

I found a number of copies of the book on eBay, all in America of course, and priced everything from $2.00 to $75.00 - seriously!!!

But i manage to find a few copies of the book that did not have too much wear and tear or age stains and were a reasonable price!!! the next step of course was to get a quote on the postage. Now people sending from eBay can really ship by any means they like and therefore charge for the postage accordingly. They can also add charges for "packaging" and some people opening admit to adding costs to cover the eBay charges.

However for the same item (the book) I received four very different postage quotes -

1/ Airmail Letter Post = $2.75 USD
2/ Global Priority Small Flat Rate Envelope = $6.00 USD
3/ Ship by Air = $7.50 USD
4/ Airmail Express = $15.00 USD

I ended up buying two of the books, the ones with postage quote 1 & 3. The reason i did not get postage quote 2 is because the price of the book was a lot more than 1 & 3.

Now here is my point - the exact same thing has such different prices for postage? How is this? And if i don't agree with the postage my only choice is not to get the item, can't really bargain the price.

But also, still in the postage train of thought, I have found that things i get from eBay tend to delivered within a day or two (as long as the item is not coming from overseas that is). However things that i may order from online stores, and tend to pay a higher postage price for, will take on average a week or maybe even two to arrive.

Now here is my second point - the more professional the seller is, the longer it takes to get the goods (on average, there is of course exceptions to the rule).

(: G

Excuses excuses

So it has been nearly two months since i have done a post, and i know i have said in the past that i do at least one post a month - but lets face it the last two months have been kind of full on!!

If you don't know what i am talking about see the other blog that i have, click on "peanut's blog" and have a good read.

(: G

p.s. - and there is a post coming here within minutes and if it doesn't make sense, it would be because my brain is very mushy at the moment.