Shopping and lurking
17/02/2005 08:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaIzzie slinks into the nasty netcafe and finds that with the first semester of the new year fast approaching, the hordes of squawking squealing cyberwarriors are gradually returning and disturbing the peace and quiet of this place with their war games. Well can't really complain. After all - that's what this place is set up for. Just about no-one except the Izzie uses the computer for Cyberian surfing and general lurking.
Must seriously consider getting a pair of very snug pink and fluffy earmuffs.
It's so so nice to be back to the old Thursdays and Fridays off after some crazy rosters since the beginning of December. Next week is the ultimate in decadence - two requested days off in addition to Thursday and Friday and then one week's holidays beginning on Wednesday 2nd March. Iz put in for those about six weeks ago - had oodles of annual leave accumulated and just felt like a week off to get away from it all.
So after doing boring house stuff like laundry and watering the weeds, the Iz finally leaves the Lair around 1.30pm to go on a shopping expedition.
Since the girl at work told Iz about that laptop for only $$1,600 in Megamart and insisted that it was silver, the Izzie, in spite of being convinced that she'd confused it for one of the white ones had to check just in case. Sure enough - the Izzie suspicions were confirmed.
The prices in this store were almost identical to the first place Izzie visited in the arcades. The sales clerk said that Apple gets very nasty to sellers who go below the recommended retail price and the only concession they are allowed to make is to toss in extras like printers or Windoze for Mac.
So we have finally decided on the middle of the range iBook and it turns out the best place to get is is less than a fifteen minute walk from the Izzie lair in the university computer shop which has student discounts. An added extra is that if you get an iPod too they will toss in another rebate for $$200.
Izzie is not particularly interested in iPods - well at least not until podcasting becomes mainstream and Radio National begins to offer RSS feeds for its programs. (we've heard horror stories about the ridiculously short life of the batteries (one or two years) and how they cost nearly as much as the gadget in the first place.
Used to always wish that there was a radio version of the video recorder where you could tape radio programs that you couldn't listen at the original broadcast time due to pesky interferences such as work or study commitments. Online access to radio programs is just about the nearest thing but not very satisfactory since many of them are only available for four weeks or so. Some that Izzie did save as an audio file (or rather thought she did) would then try link to the website and would not play after the four week period.
Instead of lots of songs, Iz would be most interested indeed to have a rather large collection of Late Night Live interviews including the recent ones with Richard Doll, Arthur Miller (dug up out of the vaults) Daniel Ellsberg and Izzie's absolute favorite - Robert Fisk. Strange tastes indeed.
There was also a most fascinating interview with the man who wrote "The five people you meet when you go to heaven" Seen this book in the shops and it looked most intriguing indeed. After listening to the auther (Sounded something like Mitch Album - wierd name but nice guy) it will definitely go on the Izzie reading list. Much more uplifting than Elfriede Jelinek's "Die Klavierspielerin" which is the present Izzie reading adventure. Erika's mother is the sort of person that makes Dolores Umbridge look like the most benevolent of fairy godmothers.
So, other than a bit of sushi nibbling at the Jaws conveyor belt and a coffee crawl, Izzie's had a rather lazy day indeed.
Still have to think of a pertinent question to ask for tomorrow's public speaking group meeting. The proposer of the question usually picks something topical and the aim is to fairly present various aspects of the issue (both sides of the story) in order to give enough information for the folks who are then called upon randomly with no notice to answer it. Great training to be a politician this is. Would like to have done a question about next week's referendum on extending shopping hours but some one already did that one last week.
Daylight saving is another perennial favorite too. But that is just so so boring.
After Tuesday's digusting bottle of bubbly, today deciced to be adventurous and get some Yellowglen Pink. Sounds most intriguing indeed. Will be interesting to compare it with the Yellowglen Red bubbly and the Andrew Garret sparkling Burgundy.
After checking out the university computer shop again tomorrow, may soon be toasting to other fruity tempations. But first will have to ring up the mortgage goblins to get the gold galleons transferred to the Izzie vault. Was supposed to be keep the paws off the mortgage as a new year's resolution. Been very good so far this year. But since the Izzie graduation is next Tuesday, it's just the excuse for a reward for five years of being a good goblin. Will be most interesting to see if getting an overall course average of 72.34% will be enough to earn a 'distinction'.
Must seriously consider getting a pair of very snug pink and fluffy earmuffs.
It's so so nice to be back to the old Thursdays and Fridays off after some crazy rosters since the beginning of December. Next week is the ultimate in decadence - two requested days off in addition to Thursday and Friday and then one week's holidays beginning on Wednesday 2nd March. Iz put in for those about six weeks ago - had oodles of annual leave accumulated and just felt like a week off to get away from it all.
So after doing boring house stuff like laundry and watering the weeds, the Iz finally leaves the Lair around 1.30pm to go on a shopping expedition.
Since the girl at work told Iz about that laptop for only $$1,600 in Megamart and insisted that it was silver, the Izzie, in spite of being convinced that she'd confused it for one of the white ones had to check just in case. Sure enough - the Izzie suspicions were confirmed.
The prices in this store were almost identical to the first place Izzie visited in the arcades. The sales clerk said that Apple gets very nasty to sellers who go below the recommended retail price and the only concession they are allowed to make is to toss in extras like printers or Windoze for Mac.
So we have finally decided on the middle of the range iBook and it turns out the best place to get is is less than a fifteen minute walk from the Izzie lair in the university computer shop which has student discounts. An added extra is that if you get an iPod too they will toss in another rebate for $$200.
Izzie is not particularly interested in iPods - well at least not until podcasting becomes mainstream and Radio National begins to offer RSS feeds for its programs. (we've heard horror stories about the ridiculously short life of the batteries (one or two years) and how they cost nearly as much as the gadget in the first place.
Used to always wish that there was a radio version of the video recorder where you could tape radio programs that you couldn't listen at the original broadcast time due to pesky interferences such as work or study commitments. Online access to radio programs is just about the nearest thing but not very satisfactory since many of them are only available for four weeks or so. Some that Izzie did save as an audio file (or rather thought she did) would then try link to the website and would not play after the four week period.
Instead of lots of songs, Iz would be most interested indeed to have a rather large collection of Late Night Live interviews including the recent ones with Richard Doll, Arthur Miller (dug up out of the vaults) Daniel Ellsberg and Izzie's absolute favorite - Robert Fisk. Strange tastes indeed.
There was also a most fascinating interview with the man who wrote "The five people you meet when you go to heaven" Seen this book in the shops and it looked most intriguing indeed. After listening to the auther (Sounded something like Mitch Album - wierd name but nice guy) it will definitely go on the Izzie reading list. Much more uplifting than Elfriede Jelinek's "Die Klavierspielerin" which is the present Izzie reading adventure. Erika's mother is the sort of person that makes Dolores Umbridge look like the most benevolent of fairy godmothers.
So, other than a bit of sushi nibbling at the Jaws conveyor belt and a coffee crawl, Izzie's had a rather lazy day indeed.
Still have to think of a pertinent question to ask for tomorrow's public speaking group meeting. The proposer of the question usually picks something topical and the aim is to fairly present various aspects of the issue (both sides of the story) in order to give enough information for the folks who are then called upon randomly with no notice to answer it. Great training to be a politician this is. Would like to have done a question about next week's referendum on extending shopping hours but some one already did that one last week.
Daylight saving is another perennial favorite too. But that is just so so boring.
After Tuesday's digusting bottle of bubbly, today deciced to be adventurous and get some Yellowglen Pink. Sounds most intriguing indeed. Will be interesting to compare it with the Yellowglen Red bubbly and the Andrew Garret sparkling Burgundy.
After checking out the university computer shop again tomorrow, may soon be toasting to other fruity tempations. But first will have to ring up the mortgage goblins to get the gold galleons transferred to the Izzie vault. Was supposed to be keep the paws off the mortgage as a new year's resolution. Been very good so far this year. But since the Izzie graduation is next Tuesday, it's just the excuse for a reward for five years of being a good goblin. Will be most interesting to see if getting an overall course average of 72.34% will be enough to earn a 'distinction'.
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The Piano Player
Date: 2005-02-17 01:56 pm (UTC)Re: The Piano Player
Date: 2005-02-17 02:15 pm (UTC)Izzie is only about half way through the book. We only read it in the usual special places and it's a bit tricky at times due to a lot of colloquial Austrian expressions, lack of punctuation and stuff. Izzie's German is a bit rusty these days. But it's not every day that you can be reading what could be best described as a kitchen sink porn novel garnished with the perfect disguise of the "NOBEL PREIS Fur Literatur 2004" sticker. ;) Sorry about the lack of umlauts - Izzie hasn't mastered the art of finding them on Oz keyboards.
So Iz thinks that Dolores has finally been knocked from her pedestal by the ultimate Uber- literary Bitch. Still haven't found out the first name of the mother from hell.
Oh and sorry about chatland - Iz lurked around for 20 mins or so after signing in last night (this morning) and figured the Cat was busy working. By then it was just after one in the morning and Izzie was just too tired to have another go.
Bought a big fat juicy 11 hours on Tuesday and have only 2 and a half of them left! Bad bad Izzie. To think that if that book did not get sold before last Tuesday, would have had only 3 hours for the whole week.
Ps - That book should come with a free supply of razor blades. Must be about the doomiest gloomiest thing the Iz has ever read but still intriguing and fascinating nevertheless.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-17 04:33 pm (UTC)More friendseses!
Date: 2005-02-18 02:40 pm (UTC)Re: More friendseses!
Date: 2005-02-18 03:31 pm (UTC)The Five People You Meet in Heaven (Mitch Albom)
Date: 2005-02-17 04:45 pm (UTC)72.34% that's impressive, I'll keep my fingers crossed that Iz gets a distinction.
Re: The Five People You Meet in Heaven (Mitch Albom)
Date: 2005-02-18 02:48 pm (UTC)But after wasting all that time and money studying, Iz just feels that she has forgotten everything and anything more complicated than basic bean counting would be waaay beyond her.
So Iz is most curious to know about your day job and accounting career path. Any short cuts or useful stuff to know?
Haven't actually READ "The five people..." but it sounds most interesting. As far as Izzie is concerned, the best writer on this sort of stuff who unfortunately does not do it in the form of stories (which are more effective and more fun) is Harold Kushner of "When bad things happen to good people" fame. No pathetic platitudes or schmalz. This guy KNOWS what he is talking about.