tatey.com

It all began early on Friday morning when I entered work as usual and gave a greeting to Tyler. All I could see were a pair of legs, and as I looked closer it was actually Laura that I had said “G’day mate” to. Laura is a funny character, and I enjoy working with her very much. In some aspects, she actually reminds me of myself. Perhaps that is why it’s enjoyable for us to work together? Anyhow, I originally anticipated a quiet weekend restoring shoebox to it’s former glory. Fortunately, Laura had other plans and invited me to her house warming party that night. I’m somewhat fond of the girl, so how could I decline such an offer. In addition, it was another reason to justify the consumption of beer :).

Apparently, my brother had also known about this party and Laura had suggested that he could drive so that I could drink. Alternatively, I could convinced father to drive me and kyrin, or even worse, pay $$ for a taxi. The first suggestion was foiled when it was discovered that my brother was already rostered on to work that night. Father had not arrived home at the usual time, and I really didn’t want to pay money for taxi. I also had my doubts about the party, showing up without already drinking alcohol when everyone else would be completely drunk and there would be people who I wouldn’t know.

Fortunately, Carol and Nic invited me over to their place for some casual drinking. Even better, they lived just up the road from Laura. After a few issues, I had a shower, got changed and off I was to Carol’s place. A quick detour to Liquor King and I arrived at their place in a relatively short time. After two beers, I and the rest of the group were ready to hit the party. We walked about 45 minutes to Laura’s place where we finially arrived. My brother had also rung me, asking me where I was. I told him, and he decided to join us.

I can’t believe it, but I was drinking Vokda from a mug. A MUG! I felt alot like Wesley :(. At least I wasn’t the one drinking Goonta (A combination of Goon and Fanta) *me looks at Carol and Nic*. Overall, the party was awesome, and I had a great time. Especially considering that I was able to spend time with Laura outside of work, and formulate a different perspective of her. In comparison, another co-worker who was recently promoted to management was also there. Heh, it’s funny because I use to be his boss, and now he is mine :(.

Saturday night proved to be just as fruitful, as it was Ashley Gaterell’s 21st birthday party (For Wednesday). He lives in the sticks, and I had to drive so there was no drinking for me :(. Tamieka picked up the presents and wrapped them very nicely (On that note I still owe her a sum of money for Ashley’s gift). Next, we picked up Scott and headed off to Ashley’s place. The usual #n00b crowd was there, where I had LAN’d just a week earlier. Still, like with any mates, it’s always good to catch up. However, someone that I hadn’t seen for a while, Owen’s sister, Kirsten was also there. She is also slave labour for KFC, and it’s interesting to discuss work with staff from other stores. Last time I spoke with her, she hadn’t even started the job yet.

On my way driving home, we stopped by Chris’ place to pick up sparklers and I saw his infamous junk room, which is *exactly* that. Back at Scott’s we made an awesome sparkler bomb, much more successful than at the previous LAN. The guys also showed me how to make a flint bomb with a lighter, and that is a trick I’m definitely keeping up my sleeve. Empty lighters are suddenly not useless ;). In conclusion, both party’s were great and I thoroughly enjoyed getting out of the house. I caught up with a lot of people, and made some new friends. On the downside, I didn’t get a chance to fix shoebox. *Hopefully*, it’ll be all fixed up by the end of tomorrow. Over and out.

Shoebox, the Tatey[dot]com web server in addition to performing HTPC functions will be taken down over the next couple days for maintenance. I feel that configuration files and applications have been altered to the point where I can no longer find anything easily, and managing multiple users is becoming a tedious process. Furthermore, I purchased a brand new graphics for the box, which should improve HDTV playblack with MythTV. A wipe and clean reinstall should address other issues that I am encountering. In addition, I intend to use some funky scripts in conjunction with webmin to help manage the server. In the meantime, the tatey.com domain will point to Ashley Kyd’s box. Thanks for your patience, guys.

UPDATE: Tatey.com is operational again, however I’m experiencing DNS issues with the domain name. On a related note, there is still some configuring required and consequently, tatey.com may appear up and down. Cheers.

I’m having a huge discussion with Tamieka over the terms, “Pretending” and “Lying”. I argue, that they’re both the same, she argues that they’re not. I’m right, she’s wrong. Tamieka insists that I put forward this example.

“Person X is pretending that they’re smoking a cigarette with a standard ballpoint pen. This is not lying, but simply pretending”

Comments appreciated.

A couple days ago, father pasted me links to a few eBay auctions for some motorbikes. Eventually, we stumbled across this cheap Kawasaki ZRX750. In the photos, it looked like it was in great condition and it only had 16 000km on the clock! Unfortunately, the auction had a few seconds left before it ended and we weren’t confident in placing a bid without discussing and gathering prior research. That said, the bike had no bids on it and we were stumped as to why. Maybe, something was terribly wrong with it for the price. Somewhat curious, I emailed the seller asking him if we could arrange for a test-ride and close inspection of the bike, explaining that we had missed the auction by a few seconds. He agreed and on Saturday we headed over.

Now, you have to remember we both ride a Yamaha FZX250 Zeal, it’s just a small light bike that hasnt really got a lot of power (Still beat your average car :P). It was our first experience with a larger bike, and I dont even have my unrestricted license, so legally, I’m not even allowed to ride it. Let me say, it’s about twice the size of the Zeal with about four times the amount of power. I comfortably went from 1-140km/h in a few seconds without even realising the speed I was doing. It was so smooth and easy to keep straight, unlike the Zeal. I’m inclined to believe that this is because it’s a proper race bike, and in addition, it has fairings and a lot more weight to help it keep on the road and cut through the air. I ended up taking it for about half an hour around country roads as well as suburbia and it handled pretty nicely. Brakes were fantastic. However, I did notice that at high revs (8k+) it refused to go into second gear. Father didnt seem to have this problem, and I blamed my lazy foot for the poor shifting (The Zeal is *very* soft on your feet). Other than that, the gear box was rather smooth and the bike was in great condition. We really could not fault anything on to it.

Eager to take it away, the guy suggested that we return tomorrow (Sunday, AKA today) and take it for a good 2-3 hours to make sure we’re comfortable and satisfied with the bike. It was ironic that after he had said this, we noticed a drip of oil. In the end, we nailed it down to the clutch fluid that would leak when you pressed and released the clutch. The bike had apparently been sitting for over four years and it’s possible that the seals may have corroded. This may also explain the problem with shifting into the second gear, something to do with the pressure. After test riding it again today, as well as allowing fathers mates to test ride the bike, it became evident that there was definitely something wrong with the clutch pressure. At high revs, it just would not take second gear. Whilst this wasn’t anything major, and relatively cheap to fix, the seller wanted $4500 for the motorbike. We were not prepared to pay more than $4000 and therefore we could not negotiate a deal. It was unfortunate, but we anticipated that it would cost around ~$500 to service and fix the seal. That said, I still think it’s a nice deal, and we’re considering offering $4200 next weekend.

On a related note, the bike was FANTASTIC to ride! It had *so* much power, especially above the 6000rpm range. I had no problem pulling away from anything, and even though it’s rather heavy (205kg), I still managed to take corners pretty nicely. The seating position was like that of professional racers and while at first it seems intimidating and strange, I soon become use to it. After hopping back on to the Zeal, it just didn’t feel right any more, it’s more of a play toy, throw around bike. All and all, while we didn’t actually end up buying the bike this weekend, I think dad will seriously reconsider or look for an alternate bike. That said, It was great to ride something other than the zeal!

*It’s really fathers new bike, which we didn’t end up purchasing.

I was at work today, and I decided to take home some of their refresher towels. KFC is currently going through a marketing reposition. That is, they’re trying to shift or enhance their image to appeal to a greater/different audience. In addition, I snapped some pictures of my favourite drink and a very silly picture of dog. If you’re interested, take a look here.

On a completely unrelated note, Tamieka finally has a real blog! Scott was nice to host her and setup Wordpress with a cute little theme. I’m considering implementing a custom website for her, much like I’ve done for Flora. Hopefully, Tamieka will have a gallery on her site where she can upload some cool images too :).

In other news, my last exam is on Monday morning and then I’m finished university for the year! FOUR MONTHS HOLIDAY! OH YEA! I *can’t* wait. Just need to buckle down and do some more study and I’m set. In comparison, I’ve decided that I’m going to do a double major for my commerce degree. That is, Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations. I’m really looking forward to it Cheers, fella’s.

I received some snail mail from the Queensland Government the other day, informing me that I’ve been summoned for Jury Duty! I was somewhat excited and annoyed after I read the first few lines. I believe that it will be an interesting experience, however, I’m effectively on stand-by for three weeks and you don’t get paid for it either ($22/day, hardly compensation for the amount of time I spend in court). Anyhow, here is the official notice.

Dear Sir/Madam,
Your name has been selected at random from the electoral roll and you may soon be summoned for jury duty. This notice and questionnaire is the first step in determining whether or not you will be required for jury duty.

On an interesting note, my father has been on the electoral roll for close to thirty years and he has never been summoned. Here is me, Tate, who enrolled last year and I’ve already been summoned. I guess it’s better now than when I’m working full-time.