Journal Entries
A quirky hypothesis
Posted Apr 5, 2003
Sometimes, you find a quirk in a system so intriguing that you devise a hypothesis and consequent test to discover the nature of the quirk. It's always a pity when that hypothesis is proved wrong, though. But when you're right, well, it made Einstein a famous man.
As for me, none of my hypotheses are so world-breaking. I guess I'll just get rich instead. Still, I have my hypotheses, all the same.
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Apr 5, 2003
The Trouble with Tickets
Posted Nov 11, 2002
The good news is that I have my Pearl Jam tickets: one each for the shows in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. The not-so-good news is that I discovered how crappy people can be sometimes. Allow me to explain.
Yesterday, I made a plan with my cousin and good friend, Patrick, to get our Pearl Jam tickets. In this plan, we made sure to accommodate several people, who all acted in good faith, giving their orders and setting them in stone. All too easy.
This morning, Patrick and I went about bringing this plan to fruition. We logged onto the internet an hour before the "presale" tickets went on sale, signed in and prepared ourselves for the nerve-wracking task of trusting our fortunes to telecommunications. Well, long story short, we got what we wanted without much drama. There were, however, some side-notes.
These side-notes all come in the form of phone calls. Between about 8:30am and 9:30am, our mobile (cellular) phones rung constantly. People wanted to take advantage of our hard work and put in last-minute orders. Some people had legitimate excuses -- like being forced to work, or being on another continent -- but those people were not the ones calling us. No, the ones calling were those too lazy to put in the time and effort that we went to, thinking that since there was already a train going their way, they could simply jump on without paying the fare.
Maybe I'm overreacting, but I think my point is valid. If you want to see a show so badly, then make the effort. If something out of your control is in the way, make arrangements beforehand. You have to remember that there can't be free rides all the time -- other people don't go to that kind of effort simply to accommodate the lazy.
Now that I have that particular gripe off my chest, let's focus on the good part: we have our tickets. More accurately, the transaction for our tickets has been completed, and we will receive them in the mail shortly. Now all I have to do is toil at work for the next three months so that I can afford to travel the east coast of Australia in February.
Hope to see you there!
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Nov 11, 2002
Techno Tix
Posted Nov 10, 2002
A lot has changed in the last five years.
As a matter of fact, I always believed that serendipity would be the order of the day when I purchased Pearl Jam tickets, but not so. This time -- unlike a November night in 1997 -- will be completely different.
The night in November 1997 was a magical one. Having arrived at the ticket outlet at 6am the day before tickets went on sale, I was first in line for Pearl Jam tickets. The day passed without much incident, and then the night followed. The assembled crowd were kind, friendly people who all loved the band to varying degrees, and it seemed that no one could do any wrong. We played Pictionary (which is far better at 4am when everyone's tired and cannot think straight), a strange variant of soccer using a frisbee, and set the event in stone-- er, wood, when we carved our names into a nearby table.
The first change, then, is that this table has been removed. An even bigger change is that when we line up for Pearl Jam tickets (they go on sale in another five days), we won't be doing the 'all-nighter' routine. This is because we will already have some tickets at this stage.
In fact, we will have tickets four days before they officially go on sale. This is because of the wondrous advent of online purchasing -- the ticket outlet will be releasing a limited number of "presale" tickets for their subscribers. So tomorrow morning, my friend and I will be up extra-early to send his credit-card details as binary impulses down the telephone lines, in the hope of getting some of these presale tickets.
I will still be lining up for tickets in five days, but it won't be the same as it was five years ago. Back in '97, I was with a huge group of friends. Not this time. Also, if there is a lineup, I shan't be at the start, because I will already have tickets to that show. So I will only be there in the hope of getting tickets to the second show that will surely be announced later that morning. Hey, don't give me that look -- this is Pearl Jam we're talking about. They always sell out quickly.
In a way, I'm saddened. That night out in '97 was so fun and exhilerating -- modern technology has seen to it that I shall bypass a similar experience this time. One could argue that it has made my life easier, but I disagree. A lot of effort has gone into this: precise planning; money arranged; phone calls; it just keeps going on and on. In fact, we're fairly confident that we have left no stone unturned, have covered every possibility, and left no margin for error. Our contingency plan is very loose, and does include a small amount of panicking (with or without the arbitrary flapping of limbs -- it's down to personal preference), but my confidence is high. It should be, after all the planning we went to. Isn't it nice how modern technological conveniences have made life easier?
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Nov 10, 2002
What Colour Grass Does a Black Sheep Eat?
Posted Oct 31, 2002
Sometimes I really hate being the 'black sheep' of the family.
On some occasions, it's painfully obvious that I'm not quite one of them -- I don't fit so neatly into the mould as they do. Conversely, I play by a different set of rules to them. This is great for me, until it is brought to my attention that in fact those rules infringe on theirs, and I'm outvoted three to one.
The obvious thing to do is go to another pasture; somewhere where the grass is a different colour and the shepherd has different tolerances. As a matter of fact, the obvious thing is to be one's own shepherd -- take off the sheepskin and fling it to the ground, never looking back. To venture into the world, seeking adventure and excitement, throwing caution to the wind, hang the expense, and LIVE, dammit, LIVE!
Man, I wish my job paid more.
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Oct 31, 2002
The Train Jinx
Posted Oct 23, 2002
It is with a startling and increasing sense of alarm that I realise that I probably ought not bother with trains any longer.
My train was ten minutes late today. Well, the announcer at the station said it would be ten minutes late, but he only meant ten minutes late *arriving*. Add to that the extra three minutes before the train left, and I was frustrated and displeased to realise that I was On-Time for work, rather than Early.
I always plan to be Early to work, because being On-Time actually translates as being Late. This is because the lifts in my office building are grossly inadequate and have stolen whole minutes of my life, and also because of the sign-on procedure which seems frivolous but is -- I am assured -- wholly necessary. Then I must retreive my headset, fill my water bottle and then ask my supervisor if I am required on the phones yet. You get this a lot at call-centres: if there are no calls, there are workers being paid for nothing, and their time is being wasted. But at least you get money for your time.
Regardless of my work-related woes (of which there are many, but that's another chapter), the train making me On-Time was not an isolated incident. My last train experience -- a mere 3 days earlier -- was an even greater miff-maker.
Now, a cynic may be content to say that this is all because the train system is terrible, and it's tempting to agree. I think something more than mere poor service is afoot, however.
The train journey from Wollongong to Sydney is supposed to be short and comfortable, and there are at least two things wrong with this statement. It takes roughly one and a half hours, whereas you can make the drive in less than an hour, and some studious genius has worked overtime to ensure that the seating provided affords as little comfort as possible. Also, I previously worked at a hotel in Sydney, and made this train journey twice a day -- once in the evening to Sydney, then a hard nights' work (graveyard shifts are something I do not recommend), before another journey home again. Suffice to say, I despise this journey, and a strange consequence of this is that I absolutely must remove my shoes if I am to make the journey.
On this particular day, however, I kept my shoes on. This was in kindness to my friends, who were my travelling companions. We were travelling to Sydney to see the "Livid" music festival, and thought we had planned our day well. However, it was just after I boarded the train that the conductor informed all aboard that we must change at Hurstville, due to track works. Hurstville station is only 15 minutes away from Sydney Central station, but only if you're on an express train. We were on an express train, but being forced to change at Hurstville also meant taking an all-stations to Sydney Central.
This could have been neglected and forgotten, owing to the excitement of the day ahead, but our journey back was something of a discomfort, to say the least. It would have been fine, except that we had to wait at Central station for the final train to take us to Hurstville, so that we could board the final train to Wollongong and beyond. This was right before midnight, and is an inconvenience that no one deserves so very late. At midnight, all you want to do is collapse on the train, sleep until you arrive at your station, then walk home, trying to pretend that you never woke up and you'll go back to sleep without any hassles. Especially when this train is not an express, and stops at every single stop, thereby extending a journy of 1.5 hours to 2.5.
Even worse, we had planned to take the train that left an hour earlier (which was an express!), although we had a problem. One of our party was unaccounted for, and we couldn't well leave her behind. So we decided to be really smart and wait where our collective powers of deduction determined she would be at a certain time. It was brilliant stuff, but doing so meant missing that early express train. Still, our chivalry certainly would have paid off, except that we didn't factor in the possibility that we had been told the wrong thing, and that she had in fact left early to catch the express train. (She was really sorry, though.)
All this is tolerable, except when you're chafing badly. We-ell, it was my own fault, I guess. I saw 3 great bands perform, and I moshed for 2 of them, and although the weather was fine, I did a lot of sweating. I should have worn better 'chafe-retardant' clothing to begin with, but that is a mistake that I had to live with. To paint a picture, it is 3 days later and I still feel some after-effects of that chafing. In other words, if I did too much extra walking, I would have been grinding bones. It *really* hurt.
The other thing I noticed is that no one else seemed to be chafing badly, except for one of our party. So we suffered together, which was fine, but no one else that I observed walked strangely. There wasn't anyone adjusting their pants, or walking the bow-legged walk of a cowboy, or even tottling along in that self-conscious way a person has when they're trying not to look like someone suffering a bad case of chafing.
Try and get a taxi after a huge public event, with some 50,000 visitors. Not everyone drives, and while buses are provided (inadvisable), the best option is a taxi. By this time, we knew we had missed our early express train, so we had plenty of time to get to the railway station. The solution? Why, we'll walk along the road and hail a taxi. So that's what we did, despite my protestations, and the far more urgent protestations of my aching thighs...
The entire rant goes on like this for some time. Don't be fooled, though: I had a great time on Sudnay, despite some of the shortcomings surrounding the events, but that's because I'm focusing on those shortcomings, rather than the excellent music of the day. Even so, it makes me wonder about trains. Why would they do this to me? These inconveniences only seem to occur when I have a valid reason to not be inconvenienced. When I am in no rush or urgent situation, the trains run smoothly and on-time, ferrying me to the destination with time to spare that I could otherwise waste in my office-building's lifts. It's cruel what they did to a chafing man last Sunday, and I think it's equally cruel to make me On-Time for work.
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Oct 23, 2002
Lowmankind
Researcher U207066
Write an Entry
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times and under many different editorships. It contains contributions from countless numbers of travellers and researchers."