watching Skins

I went shopping today, got some books, CDs and a DVD (first one I’ve purchased since comming back from Sydney). Then I ended up watching the whole of the first serries of “Skins” (the DVD I purchased) and must say I really like it. I am going to see if my sisters want to watch it when I go over East, they watch the OC and shows like that, what Skins references.

I think I like Skins because of the story arcs and how it seems a little grubby. Not the pris clean sort of teen drama (well it is actually R rated here in Aus, so that sort of defeats it being a teen drama if not many teens can watch it).

Just as I logged onto the internet for today to write this entry, I was thinking maybe I should write back up stories for this blog. Sort of like how in “Race around the world” they contestants had a backup story that was used if their story for the episode couldn’t be made or just sucked. Maybe I should make the aim of this holiday to write a good blog, as well as kick start a strong fitness regime in the new year, drive across australia, visit Noumea with Wade, chillax, make friends and visit family.

Just a thought…

Money gets in the way

The other day Simon came around to my place. It was a pretty big moment in my houses history, few people ever drop around. He soon made it clear though what his intentions were, he wanted to get my laptop of me for about two hundred dollars.

A very cheap price, for a laptop that is only a year old, has 2GB of memory, Bluetooth, 160GB of hard disk, CD-DVDBurner, SD Card reader and heaps of other features I got it for. But haven’t really used much, and then Windows died on it, so I didn’t bother fixing it, loaded up Linux and used it maybe once a week until I got my new Mac (that I like using heaps more than I ever did my other laptop). Problem is that he wants to get Windows onto the system, and is having problems with it that the tech guys he talks to say will cost him a couple more hundred dollars.

I didn’t get the cash from Simon when he came over, but happily let him take the laptop so he could try and get it working and he promised to come around and drop of the cash. But hasn’t come around. Instead he calls me up and asks if he can not do the sale. Sure I answer.

Then he has another attempt at “fixing” the laptop (I have heard some arcane things have happened to the laptop to try and get her running Windows again, that apparently she does now, just not very well). And I go over his house and figure that he will drop around tomorrow and leave the laptop if I’m not in like I offered him. Or possibly call me and say when the money will come.

I should be more laid back about it all, but it is a strain for me. Money is so precious and I get strung up about it all the time. From the furry I feel when I make a downpayment and have to wait an extra few days for a delivery, when I figure I should had made a different choice. To when my money is inacessable because of needing an SMS from he bank, or the bank not liking the characters I type on my phone for anything but the password to get into the online banking. I get furious.

It is one of things I am taking a holiday from though, I have my cash easily acessable incase I want to spend it, and have plenty enough that I shouldn’t be worried about any costs. If it works though? I am yet to see…

holidays have begun and…

My holidays have begun, and today all I have done since finishing work is surf the internet and cook dinner. [boring...]

Oh and I played Facebook Poker, FreeCiv (what is an open source version of Sid Mier’s Civilization II) and a bit of Privateer (another open source game based on Origin’s Privateer from the Wing Commander series). Actually they are the only two games I have on my MacBook (unless you count Inform 7 being a game, but I actually have no interactive fiction games on my computer).

Anyhow, I logged on just now to watch more documentaries and news reports on You Tube. After watching some docos on the Cold War and how the Nuclear Arms System works I am really starting to love having the internet back again (with a more generous download limit).

I turned 25 today

I am a black coffee no sugar sort of simple guy...

At twenty five, I am a Black Coffee no sugar sort of guy. I live an equally simple stable life, have a steady source of income from the Navy (where I do very little work, as a so called “technician”), am usually quiet and clean shaven.

At the moment though, I am growing a beard (started on monday). And I dream of a complex social life, but haven’t the closeness to anyone to actually sustain it. Maybe I will meet people at an occasional party, but other than that I am not someone to collect numbers, or have one night stands. I am instead a black coffee, work, relax alone at home, sleep, work sort of cycle guy. And frankly I wish I wasn’t equally as much as liking the freedoms it allows (like knowing I can play a computer game all night uninterupted by the phone or friends dropping in).

I use to be more social when I worked in politics, but the thing was that the work was too life consuming that I didn’t have a change to take advantage of it. My housemates and I, I can only remember a few isolated nights we got up to trouble and even then it was only for a few hours at the most at a time. But I loved those housemates, Adam, Andy and Rachel (and Doug, Colin and Jordon when they were there and the house was more serious but even then still social enough for beers and movie nights).

I remember a night going around to one of Colin’s friend’s places and falling asleep on the couch, I had worked that hard all week. If only I was that social in my current job, I think I would be alright. Maybe all I need to do is get a house mate into my small house to share some fun with?
Though my place being so small, and cheap, I barely need it for anything other than social reasons…

Now since I am twenty five, I think my goals are going to change a little. Being money aware, I think saving for a deposit on a house by I am 30 (especially since I have a solid paying job) is a good aim. As is trying to get out more.  It would be fantastic to have a girlfriend by Christmas, but I think I have to be serious there, as I have had fuck all luck with dating sites and seem to never meet interested single women out on the town (when I do go out on the town), maybe I should aim to build a stronger network of friends first (but then where the fuck would I find them).

Anyhow, maybe my twenty fifth birthday isn’t a time to be making resolutions at all. Maybe I should be just reflecting.

Romantic Comedies

It isn’t really that weird when you think about it, that I a single mid twenty something guy, who is seeking (very unsuccessfully in the seeking) a relationship. Is drawn in by Romantic Comedies like “Numb” and “Elizabethtown”.

I must admit I like both of them, and maybe it is because I emphasize with the protagonist. Maybe its because I dream to one day (soon) find a woman who is almost magically in love with me, Like the Sara or Clare in “Numb” or “Elizabethtown”?

Thinking about it, the two stories lean heavily on that “magic”, it seems the girl falls in love with guy is the key to both movies. It is a sort of magic like explained in fairy tails about stealing clothes of Nymphs to make them good wives. Maybe the magic of the movie is what draws me in, wondering how it works? Maybe I am subconsciously trying to take notes, so I can cast a similar magic : )

But what every it is, I like these two romantic comedies and how they encapsulate a comical slice of life. How the characters have fun, and go through trials on the screen in minutes that can take heart wrenching days and weeks in real life. Another movie (though it has been a while since I’ve seen it so maybe my memory is playing tricks) is “Wedding Daze”.

The magic in  ”Wedding Daze” comes from a waitress asking (or was it the customer) off handedly to marry. And the answer being “Yes”, both characters only just having seen each other for the first time minutes ago. That click, like the long phone call in “Elizabethtown” (after all the ground work Clare put in to get Drew her number). It makes me wonder if that magic, of first impressions, of love, really is that binding. Honestly I haven’t been in a relationship to find that out.

I wonder if the producers knew there was a dynamic of single men who actually wouldn’t mind watching a movie like these?