Moving…

Moving blogs that is.  I’ve wanted to start something new and exciting for a while and finally got it together.  I don’ t think this blog and it’s name represents the multifacetedness that is me to my full sparkling best.  I wanted to combine my other, never updated, blogs and put it all together.

So come on over this way —->  Project: Me!

Ouch

I spoke too soon about the running.  A few hours later, my hip started aching again.  The physio said it was a pulled muscle but I’m starting to think not because it keeps reoccuring.    I did my PT session tonight anyway and think I’ll stick to the X-trainer at the gym for my cardio for a while – boring but at least I can get a decent workout without making things worse.   Umm, also might need to get stuck into the pilates for core strengthening.

My plan for the week was to eat light and have a guilt free easter but then my sister started baking!

Update

After the guilt of overindulgence, I figure the best thing is to take action of some kind.

First I directed my energy at the mountain of boxes in the spare room.   I own far too much stuff but at least I’ve made a sizable dent in them … well a pathway through the room.  Mum’s coming to stay next month so I have the motivation of wanting to remove anything with any kind of personal information from that room!

The next step is to go through the zillion boxes of books and sorting out what I want to keep.  I figure if I’m not going to read books again, why keep them?  I might take a trip to the secondhand book shop to trade them.

After the sorting, I went for a run.  A very short, very slow run but it’s the first time I’ve been out since R4tK and I’ve been a bit lacking in running confidence – actually have been not felt very keen for a long time.  It was good to take it easy and just enjoy a jog around the streets.

I think I should keep things simple.  Rather than feeling this pressure to run like I used (for what, a brief period after a lot of training???), just getting out and running is good.

Overdone

This weekend was a big case of overdoing.  I went shopping and spent far too much money.  I’m not even sure what I bought, just a major binge of retail therapy.  Followed that with night out drinking far too much.  Actually I think I was quite drunk for the amount I drank, if that makes sense.

Time to get things back under control.

***

You know who are on my death list atm.  Paypal.  What a totally incompetent organisation.  I have had this ongoing problem with them for months.  Well not just with them.  Last year when I went to Japan, I used a company that bids on Japanese auctions to get concert tickets.  You can bid on most auctions if you live outside of Japan so we had to use a service like this.  I got my tickets okay and life was good… except I had to pay them a hefty deposit.

I asked for my deposit back and sent a heap of emails over the period of a few months.  They finally sent it to me.  I got an email at the email address I use to log in to paypal but the money didn’t show up.

First up paypal said the email was a scam.  Zoinks!  But paypal were wrong!

Then after spending hours on the phone to them, the best they could suggest was cancelling the refund and resending an invoice for the amount.  Because their computer systems were totally incapable of transferring the cash from the limbo account it had gone into to my real account.

Okay, I should have really put my foot down then but they refused to take any responsibility or do anything to help me.

So now 2 months later, I have had no communication from the other people, even though I’ve sent a zillion payment reminders through paypal and no help at all from paypal.  I can’t even register a dispute with them because I am the one requesting money.  I would never use Paypal again for anything.  They are so unhelpful.  I am definitely never using that business to get tickets overseas again. I really don’t belive they are dishonest – they did make the payment once – but they are slack and also maybe don’t understand English that well.

I’m not sure what to do next.  It really is a fair bit of cash and I don’t want to lose it.   Any suggestions?

A Long Whinge About Work!

I’m so sick of my job at the moment.  I don’t want to say too much but basically when I took the job it was to fill in for someone going on maternity leave. 

All good and well except they had a guy doing the same role in Sydney and a few weeks after I started, they asked me to take on some of his projects.  What they didn’t say was that I had to take on ALL his work because they were getting rid of him.

So yeah, I’m doing the work of two people.  It gets worse.   The reason they got rid of Sydney guy was because he’s totally incapable of doing the job.  I think even more than anyone realised.  Even now, months later, I’m finding stuff he’s screwed up.  But he’s long gone and now they are MY projects.

He wasn’t even just annoying.  My opinion is that he really couldn’t do the job but didn’t want to look like he was doing nothing so went into the system and just randomly changed stuff so he looked like he was working.  Since you would never expect any sane person to do stuff like, I’ve never tested for it.  There is absolutely no specifications or documentation of the work he was doing either.

He’s done all manner of crappy crap.  Like people kept emailing him with updates for a few months after he moved.  Instead of letting them know or forwarding the emails to the relevant person, he ignored them.  Suddenly I have months of updates to do.

Sydney guy is just lucky he’s in Sydney.  I reckon at least 2-3 times a week I find things that make me just want to punch.  I wish they’d just scrape the projects and let me start from scratch.  It would have been far less work in the long run.

On top of that, I have to do support.  I freaken hate doing IT support.  I hate it more than anything.  I like working on projects, shiny new projects that no one has screwed up.  

Not crappy support where your day gets taken up with people emailing you saying shit like “I have a problem.”  (full stop… no more information)   I want to punch those people too.  Seriously, if you ever have to contact IT support, do NOT say that.  I so want to reply saying well gee just let me use my special psychic powers to figure out what that problem is, moron.  

Also today someone contacted me because they had a problem with a spreadsheet.  They wouldn’t actually send me the spreadsheet, they just wanted me to fix it. 

Some people should just not be allowed to have computers.  They probably shouldn’t be allowed to leave the house.

A Metaphor for Stuff

So I’ve been mucking about on the net today, mostly on account of finding it hard to generate any interest in the doings of the evil corporation I work for… let’s just call it Wolfram and Heart for anonimities sake.

Anyway I found this awesome article about learning Japanese.  I can pretty much relate this stuff, not necessarily for learning Japanese which is one of the binge free areas of my life but most other stuff like weight loss and getting fit and prolly even love.

Go read.  It’s smart and funny 😀

Fedup

I’m getting so fed up with my family right now.  They are all bugging me so much.  My mum rang up the other day, bitching at my sister because I said on facebook that I’d bought two pairs of shoes!  Like I can buy shoes with my own money.  So annoying.

Andrew owes me money and is arguing with me over how much it is.

My sister owes me money and spends half her life bitching about being sick but then goes out drinking all night.  She’s always having money issues but as soon as she gets paid, she buys new clothes and other crap.

I’ve had a gutful of it.  I’m not loaning any money any more and I’m not listening to their bitching.  It’s not my responsibility to solve their problems.

My other sister has been in Bali on holidays.  I have no issue with her.

15 years ago

I just found out it’s 15 years ago today that the Sarin gas attacks took place on the Tokyo underground.  I recently read the book, “Underground”, by Haruki Marakami.  In these days, where every tiny little incident is so sensationalised, where we have booming voice overs making the trival epic, this is a quiet book.

For some reason, it really got to me.   Stories of people going about their every day life – geting ready for work, eating their breakfast, saying goodbye to their family and catching the subway to work.  Many of them saw a parcel of newspapers on the floor of the subway car or noticed a strange smell.  One men felt quite ill from it but he’d got a seat on the packed subway and didn’t want to give it up.

Those people didn’t think they were victims of a terrorist attack.  You wouldn’t.  You’d just think “that’s odd” and assume that someone, somewhere would be dealing with it if it was a major incident.

People began getting sick but there was no system in place to deal with it.  This was Tokyo, this kind of thing didn’t happen.  Some of the victims took cabs to hospitals, where the staff had no idea what had happened.  Others went into work.  There was no Jack Bauer swooping down to save the day, no emergency task force to the rescue.

Even 15 years later, some of the victims suffer from the affects of this attack with health and pyschological problems.  It’s horrid to think what a small group of insane people can do – not just causing death and injury, but undermine the trust we feel that our society, and our lives, are safe.

Sunshine

The other day I was sitting at work when I had this moment of … well like a huge cloud had lifted from me.  Since then, I’ve felt weirdly sunnier and in much less of a funk. 

For the past god knows how long… maybe a year even, I’ve not been myself.  Maybe a paler, greyer version of myself like a photocopy when the toner is getting low.

I don’t know where this change has come from, and it’s not like I’ve transformed from Murky Dismal into Rainbow Brite or anything, but it’s a definite change.  It’s more like going from overwhelmed to capable.  Things are all sparkles and joy but that’s okay, I have the strength to deal with it.

For example:

• weight gain => bad but it’s not permanent.  I know what to do to fix it.  I’ve got a strong, capable body (once this hip problem sorts itself out).  I can exercise, I can build from this.
• man problem => yeah well it’s never going to be perfect but then he’s not the one, and in the short term, it’s pretty fun.  I have a tendency to get tied up in knots most through wanting validation and approval when I shouldn’t need that.  It’s stupid (and also not fair on him either – it’s not his job to fix my self esteem).
• crap running/lack of running =>  I’ve been crap before, I’ve been less crap.  I’m actually thinking of taking the pressure off altogether and spend the next 3 months doing other things.  No point feeling like I *have* to run then feeling guilty because I don’t.  It’s only one form of exercise and if I’m not enjoying it then I just need to find something else.  I’m not quitting altogether but not stressing.

OK, it’s lunchtime.  I need to eat some bento and try to get Japanese particles implanted into my brain!

Improving…

I’m feeling a bit better this morning.  Last night I ended up on RSVP — my stars keep saying to update my online dating profile so I figured it’s worth a shot.  I hadn’t been on the site for ages – like years, and I think I must have more than one profile. 

Anyway I had to get my password sent to me because I couldn’t remember any of my details – then when I got logged in, I looked at the profile and through they’d screwed up because it just wasn’t me! 

***

I have a bit of an issue thing at the moment.  Normally my issues are quite jovial but this is a bit more serious.  Last year, one of my friends died.   We were friends on facebook and her profile is still on there.  Every now and then, I get up one of those “You haven’t talked to …. for a while.  Reconnect with her”  type message. 

Every time I see it, I get a bit blerk inside.  It’s a constant reminder.  Of course, being the type of person I am, I then yell at the computer – “I can’t reconnect with her.  She’s DEAD!” Naturally,  I don’t do this at work.

At the same time, I feel like defriending her on fb is kinda wrong, like I’m removing the last trace of her from my life.  Maybe it’s good to have that reminder. 

It’s a hard call.

***

Run for the kids is tomorrow!  I’m going to die.  Actually more worried about having to get up at stupid o’clock than the run.