Dork... (aka complaining about the internet...)

I don't know if I like the new Google Analytics. I'm not a graphs/statistics minded person. The old Analytics was good enough for me. It was basic and I could understand it. New Analytics is basically mind boggling. I actually have no idea what all the graphs/stats mean.

To be honest, it scares me. Most of the time I just click on the handy "old interface" link. What a n00b!

Speaking of Google though: I love iGoogle. It is awesome and rocks my world. For awhile there I was even able to have Google Talk at work through the magic of iGoogle. But then the IT dept wised up to all the page refreshing and blocked it. Still, we had a good two week run.

My layout is the tea house. I love it. The little fox is awesome. For awhile there I also had the seasonal scape and I became quite fond of the frog and ladybird. Basically I go to work each morning and watch what they do. I especially like the fox because I can identify the time of day with what he's doing. This was harder to keep track of with the frog and ladybird because they were always doing crazy things.

For example; with the fox 11ish - 12ish is sushi time. (This same time is picnic time with the frog and ladybird) After sushi time is row on the lake time (I think!!) Other times I am fond of are mandarin picking time, bird feeding time, singing to the birds time and contemplating the little lit boats on the water time (now).

I am a geek.

But seriously, iGoogle is awesome.

I haven't actually blogged anything of substance recently because life has been busy. But tonight Isaac has gone out with the boys to watch a movie so I actually have time!!

And I just spent it all talking about Google.

In other exciting news...I did go see PoTC 3...

But more about that later...

P.S - Don't you hate it when Firefox screws up and won't let you Ctrl-T to open a new tab???? Grrrrr...

ALSO: Youtube rocks my world

Ahaha

"Maybe he's got one of those pornographic memories..."

Ahahaha...there's this crazy Japanese show on C4 at 7.30 on a Tuesday. It's some whacked out Japanese game show with English people ad-libbing over the top.

It's hilarious!!

BNO...

Hanging out at Laser Strike

Playing Playstation guitar...

Girls...

Boys...

Waz...

Lasers...and striking ;)

Da fooz...

Mmm...sea salt, vinegar and a twist of lime!!

Bowling is cool yo!

When I remind myself that I'm not black...

But bowling IS cool ;)

Posing!

Can you SEE the red bull???

And finally...

He's a geek but he's so cute and I loff him lots!!!! :)

So yeah, what really more is there to say about Big Nite Out. It's tons of fun, we take 100 kids around town and feed them and stuff them full of Red Bull (thanks guys!) and then make them bowl, laser strike and swim and hydroslide.

Not that they protest much!!! Hahaha. We do this every year so if you want to throw some sponsorship money at us, go right ahead!!! We only do this for $20 a head and leaders come along for free. It helps the community!!!

Thank goodness it's the weekend!!!!

Hello Echoman

It's been a busy weekend. We went to check Echoman rock it up at Battle of the Bands on Friday night. The boys were great!! They didn't get into the finals but that's ok because they made it to the finals and they sounded 'o for orsome'.


Before them there was this island-style band, with - surprisingly enough - a white chick as their vocalist. They weren't TOO bad (considering it was the semis) but they did use a drum machine instead of the actual kit.

Minus points for their drummer not actually having the ability to drum on a kit!

Okay, I admit it, I am selfishly loyal to Echoman...

AFTER them was the heavy metal band that made us all leave the room. Seriously! They had two guitarists - one who had a Hello Kitty guitar (I mean, street cred completely out the window...) and one who had more pedals than he knew how to use. Both of whom played EXACTLY the same thing. Now what, I ask you, is the point of having two guitarists if they're going to all play the same thing???

And the bass player...ugh. Seriously, he either did one-note plucking or just played chords. CRAP. He had NO style whatsoever and his strings were WAY too low and kept hitting the fretboard.

The vocalist was all right. At least, he had the ability to interact with the audience. Ability to sing/screech/shout something remotely understandable he did not have. Shame really.

We all met before hand to hang out in that pinnacle of University institutions The Common Room:

Erhm...

Take two??

It took about 3 tries to get this right :P

Happy couple?

NOT (in a very Borat tone of voice...)

Mel!!!

Take three...

The soon to be married...

Anyway, it was fun. It's not often we ALL get together like this. And we cheered lots for the boys. AND even though they didn't get into the finals they were asked to play while the judges we deliberating at the finals. Which is good exposure to say the least!

Finally...Echoman finishing off Election Night by Bic Runga:

Money Woes

My tax rebate came through! $400ish from the government. Yay. It means that I can breathe easy for awhile.

Thanks to work being stupid and overpaying me for two months my pay is just enough to help me scrape by. So the rebate helps. It will also help when Mel and Louis pay me for the Ashton. And also when Isaac gets paid (supposedly tomorrow...)

I bought black card from work today. I decided that I've had enough of having to pay $4-6 for a card every time someone's birthday rocks around. I am officially starting to make my own cards. Now, if only I actually had a birthday to make a card for.

All of this is really an exercise in money saving. Saving can suck the big kahuna sometimes. But then, I suppose that really it's a good thing.

Anyway, am hoping to tutor English at both Lincoln and Canterbury - hopefully there's actually a need for this. But then again, seeing the case studies male flatmate has had to mark I'd certainly say that there is need. If I get some students at $25 an hour it will be GOOD.

Also, haven't been paid for website work in awhile. Mainly because Isaac is effectively working three jobs and seeing as how the business (formerly known as Beep2 Media, soon to be re-branded as Pirate Pups) isn't really off the ground yet it's being pushed to the back burner.

But it's all good. Sometimes I think I have way too much on. In any case, all is good. BNO is this weekend which will be EXHAUSTING but good. I don't have to take a group so I suppose I shouldn't complain. I WILL however be behind the lens - where I belong.

Yay :)

Mother's Day

WHAT a mother's day.

Yesterday felt extremely long. Actually, before yesterday felt extremely long. My mother has been going on and on about how she wants to start collecting Friends on DVD. So, being the extremely thoughtful daughter that I am (and because KMart was having an incredible sale - $29.99 per season) I thought that I'd get it for her for Mother's Day.

Anyway, on Thursday I trek down to Kmart and buy Season 1. Saturday rocks round and I am in a meeting for most of the afternoon. While there through I get a text from Isaac (who is out shopping for a present for his mother) saying that he's run into my parents out shopping and my mother has bought Seasons 1 -4 of Friends.

WHO DOES THAT????

WHY would she do that the day before Mother's Day????

So, when I finally get home at 4pm I ring Kmart and the phone rings and rings and rings and rings and rings and rings and rings and rings and rings...

Meanwhile...I am thinking of how we ring retail stores at work and how we are only allowed to let it ring four times...

...and rings and rings and rings.

Finally, someone picks up. I ask if they have any of Season 5 in store. There's a whole lot of noise and the girl tells me that she'll go check. Turns out they don't. They do have Season 7 though. So, I ask her if they can hold one of those for me until I can come in at about 5. She tells me they don't do holds for sale items.

WHAT?

How stupid and crap is that??? I realise that the whole point of a sale is to move stock. But I've already told her that I want it for mother's day and I'll be in later that day. What kind of STUPID, unhelpful policy is that????

Worse still she tells me they don't do swaps on DVDs. Regardless of the fact that I haven't touched the packaging. If it doesn't have a security seal on it - the security seal that the incompetent in store neglected to put on the DVD when I purchased it on Thursday - they won't take it back.

By this point I'm pretty highly pissed off. Kmart's customer service is CRAP at the best of times. It's impossible to find anything in store. And when I was there on thursday, instead of giving me proper directions to where I could find the damn dvds the man chose to just tell me that they were in the middle aisle of the store (which they weren't) and answer the phone in a manner that suggested that I was seriously inconveniencing him by asking such an obviously stupid question.

Isaac gets home around now and is pretty concerned when he sees exactly how pissed off I am. To cut a long story short he makes me go into the store and take the DVD to the counter. The guy on the counter makes two long phone calls and then finally tells us that yes we can return it. I'm not feeling particularly charitable towards Kmart anyway and had he said that we couldn't return it I would have shouted.

To me, something like that screams of bad customer service. I work in customer service. The girl who I originally spoke to on the phone should have at least tried to solve the problem or to offer some sort of alternative. The guy who originally served me on Thursday shouldn't have been so damned rude and actually helped me.

It pisses me off because I wouldn't treat anyone who rung into work this way and I don't really expect to be treated that way when I'm out shopping.

It'll be a long time before I set foot into Kmart again.

Spider Man 3

Finally went to see Spiderman 3 last night. I really enjoyed it. I think I have high expectations for the Spiderman movies because I remember reading the comic books and watching the cartoons. In any case, I've always loved them.

That an Kirsten Dunst is one of my favorite actresses, so you know! I found the movie much more character driven than the second. Peter Parker was more at a personal crisis point than anything else. Everything seems to start out so right and yet end up spiralling down and becoming so horribly wrong...


Visually the movie is amazing. I certainly see where the "most expensive movie ever made" title comes in. The fight scenes - especially the finale - were some of the best I've ever seen in the Spiderman franchise. And of course, Stan Lee makes his appearance too.

What I didn't like was the way everything seemed to just wrap up so neatly in the end. Venom and the New Goblin both meet their timely ends and the Sandman - resolved - just flies away on the wind.

Sure, all the loose ends needed to be tied up. It is the last movie after all. But part of the beauty of Spiderman - and indeed of any - comic book superhero is their ability to continue living on as a superhero in our minds. I'd like to think Spidey is still out there - married to MJ - swinging through the mean streets of NY and fighting crime.

It doesn't all end when the movie ends - nor does it have to.

Overall though, the movie was a step up from the last. Casting was a dream - Topher Grace made a fantastic, cocky, smart ass Eddie Brock, and Thomas Hayden Church was utterly believable as the Sandman. James Franco - as always - was fantastic, and I don't mind admitting that I was rooting for him at the end.

I'd recommend the movie to anyone. It's good fun and there's plenty of action and romance to keep anyone entertained.

Stalkerazzi

I'm so glad the week is over. Work has been seriously hideous. It's just been really busy, and not in a manageable way. It's been messy and just sucks the big kahuna.

Another job interview tomorrow. This time at Haines in Christchurch as their Account Coordinator. Been reading the job description and it sounds really interesting. And right now I want to get as far away from Officemax as I can.

Ugh.

Anyway, stalkerazzi photos from the wedding last weekend:

Bride walking in...isn't her dress gorgeous???

Awww...I seriously almost cried when she walked in!!!!

Couple!!!!

Ceremony...I was sitting WAYY too far away for shots like this to work. Look how lit up the row in front of me is!!! Haha.

Signing of the register :)

Awwww....

It was just gorgeous. I don't have many photos and they all look like I was the paparazzi sneaking into Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones's wedding. (But I'm not!) Anyway, they're off honeymooning now (Ooooh...) so I'm willing to bet they're having fun.

It put me in the mood for weddings, lol. Luckily Louis and Mel are getting married in November! That should tide me over at least :)

Photo worth mentioning

Lol...we are such nerds! Haha. It was just the amazing nerdiness and symmetry of the colours of the laptops that required such a photo to be taken.

Work was crappy today. Lots and LOTS of calls. I wish they'd all just stop calling! Ugh...

new bass!

New bass!!!!! They dropped it off today - I was so excited. Excepting that I wasn't even HERE when they dropped it off lol.

Good thing Isaac is fantastic and came over so that someone would be home when they came by...it's just so freaking pretty!!! It was in pretty good nick - really, really dirty though. Like covered in dust, just like the bag and the amp. But I've cleaned it up as best as I can and it looks great. I've even tuned it!

Check out it's crazy mirrored surface:


Awesome eh!!! I already like it. I think I might need to get the strings lowered ever so slightly though.


And the ever-so classy (but dirty) fender amp. :)

I'm so excited. I don't even know why I'm currently posting this when I could be playing with it. AND I just worked out my tax return and it looks like I'll be getting $440ish so I basically paid $60 for this :)

YAY.