It’s been weeks since I bought takeaway food, and I’m getting quite accustomed to cooking myself a quick dinner (usually involving onions and mushrooms— I seem to crave mushrooms lately). I’m slowly getting the hang of cooking I think, although it’s easier to cook for myself because if I screw up and make something revolting no one need ever know.

Sometimes however the simplest of meals is the most satisfying, like for instance: coffee with a roll and butter— Yum! — I often make the mistake of having sweet biscuits with coffee, which reduces my ability to fully appreciate the flavour of the beverage (because of the sweetness and [usually] chocolatey-ness of the biscuits). I think from now on I will limit my consumption of bikkies to the company of a nice milky tea.

What is it with WindowsXP scanning files on a removable hard drive every time I connect it, and not giving me the option of turning it off? I never ever want this functionality enabled for any device, and yet the WinXP UI seems to have been designed to force it on me. I know I can probably kill it in the registry, but when you have to go to the registry to disable an intrusive and unnecessary feature, that is shit design.

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I saw History of Violence today… not bad… Aragorn looks weird with short hair.

I’ve been getting a few bug reports for JujuEdit lately, which means it must have been linked from somewhere I think. They’re generally pretty specific but I’d still like to fix them sometime. Unfortunately I just don’t have the time/energy to do it right now, since work is very busy at the moment.

Same goes for Drivey, in that I’m looking forward to getting inspired and creating a version 2 with some really nice features, but right now I just can’t find the time.

So, not much to look forward to in the immediate future on the Jujusoft/Drivey front— It’s all I can do to doodle a picture now and then, and I haven’t even any comic ideas at the moment.

Incidentally, my favourite comic so far is definitely this one— I think it’s funny and kind of touching… BTW you can view all comic posts using

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Currently listening to The Who’s Baba O’Riley on my very minimal stereo system, ie multimedia speakers + iPod. Feel like writing a song but have no idea how, so I drew this picture instead.

I used to make stuff when I was young, before I had access to a computer. Lots of stuff involving felt-tip pens and cardboard. There was a boardgame at one point. Further back, I even remember writing murder mysteries and making miniature sets and figurines [aka dolls] to act them out (with my slightly weird neighbour).

It’s funny that even though I find myself writing all the time [ie here] I don’t seem to be able to just make stuff up like that anymore. But then I guess my interest in fiction has also declined, so it probably says something about my changing tastes. Fiction seems so tricky— as the author you have to care about it, even though it’s not real. How to avoid that crashing doubt when you think to yourself "Why should anyone give a shit about this imaginary guy in a situation I just made up?"

I filled out my NZ census form the other night and will probably post it tomorrow. It was surprisingly dull, lacking any real personality style questions, which is a shame because the advertising leading up to it implied that it would be loads of fun, with quirky and specific questions to make us realize how special and individual we are.

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I bought myself some Logitech R20 multimedia speakers on the weekend so I can listen to music without headphones for a change. I spend too much time in my own head already, so blocking out external stimuli may not be for the best. Right now I’m listening to the soothing sounds of Belle & Sebastian, interspersed with the fantastic squalling of Joanna Newsom.

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My mission to prepare my own meals is going reasonably well— although I think I’d better lay off the sausages for a bit. Also it’s very hard to buy the right amount of vegetables when you live on your own, because they are perishable and before you know it you’re dumping last weeks soggy groceries in the bin, so it’s hard to say whether preparing my own food is actually saving me any money at this stage. I must do one of those budget thingies.

"I only like the White Stripes"

Aw crap the stupid NZ dollar is diving below AU$0.87— this sucks! It means that every $1000 of my Aus debt now costs me NZ$1150 to pay back (not including fees and charges).

I cooked myself a steak last night, just because it seemed like the thing to do…. I’m buying pretty much all my food from supermarkets now, although not sure if it’s actually saving me any money since I seem to be constantly buying food from supermarkets. Also I seem to have suddenly become addicted to mushrooms.

My new little coffee machine makes a pretty decent cup for a cheapie. It does pretty good froth too.

How does anyone get any goddam work done anyway?

It’s starting to really cool down here in the afternoons, sometimes very chilly. Good for evening walks.

Saw Me and You and Everyone we Know recently… very nice. Also saw Brokeback Mountain and thought that was pretty good too. Looking forward to The Squid and the Whale (UPDATE: saw it, not bad but not exceptional either)

People are asking about Drivey. Where’s Drivey? they say…

I was rather sad last night when my iPod nano died — I was plugging it into various things (TV, old stereo) trying to come up with a home stereo solution that didn’t involve me spending more money. Instead I got a static discharge off the tv ports and the nano went dead.

I’d really grown attached to the little guy (and was even getting used to spending $10 a fortnight for a new pair of headphones), but buying a new one here is prohibitively expensive (RRP $429), so today I had a look around for cheaper alternatives, and while sort of impressed realized I couldn’t stand to give up two things: 1) the click wheel which makes navigation so fast, and 2) iTunes integration, specifically smart playlists— The idea of manually selecting music files from Explorer and dragging them to a device seems absurd now, I simply couldn’t be bothered.

Then RichardN informed me that it might be worth trying a hardware reset… (click hold on-off, then press down menu + select for 10 seconds) and joy! My tiny buddy is back from the dead. Hooray!

And so, since we’re on the subject, here are some further thoughts & impressions about iPods:

• Getting a foofpod for it means you needn’t screw around with the hold button and can still switch tracks when the thing is in your pocket, without accidentally changing the volume
• The headphones that came standard are pretty ordinary sound quality, and developed quite a buzz in the right ear, but somehow they continue to work to matter how many times I catch the cable on a door handle. They really do seem indestructable in that regard (so are always my fallback position when my newer ones die completely, which they do with depressing regularity)
• There needs to be a way of switching in and out of shufflemode without changing the current song… ie if I randomly come across a song from an artist I haven’t heard in a while, I’d really like it if I could hit a button to continue listening to that artist’s songs (if there is a way of doing this please inform me in the comments a non-sarcastic way).
• For some reason it lets me play music without headphones plugged in, which means I have flattened the battery a few times by accidently pressing play.

NB To assuage my temporary grief, I did go buy myself a mini espresso machine, to console myself for a day without music. First cup tasted blech, second is already getting close to how I like it. So there’ll be no more plunger coffee for me (what I know as the coffee plunger is also known as the French Press… much more fancy sounding!)