The Little Padded Room

A little bump in the road

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:49:10 GMT

So last night's post was a little premature saying that I got Ubuntu to work and be stable. Thankfully, I work with someone who knows their stuff and I hope (touch wood) that I have a stable version running now. What a drama it's been.

Won't write too much... but glad to be back on LJ for a while, anyhow.

You may have noticed the tumbleweeds

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:15:36 GMT

All is dead in the world of my journal... you may have noticed, or you may not. :-) I have just been distracted by other things, mostly Second Life, but also conferences and work and life in general. My laptop, which has served me well for 3 years, is being handed on to my mother and she will use it to browse the web in the comfort of her living room. They have broadband and wireless now, so it's all fancy up on the farm. Yay, no more using dial-up when I go up there.

Instead I have a brand spanking new desktop and netbook. And... no more money lol. I have just finished installing Ubuntu on the netbook and I can't do any updates, because one of the updates breaks the operating system. This is about the sixth or seventh (or perhaps even more?) install of this operating system I have done today. No more updates. Haha. It all works fine JUST as it is. Ok? Thanks.

It was dad's 65th birthday just the other day. We're having a family dinner this weekend to celebrate. I got him his present today and now I just need to wrap it.

I keep getting hiccups. I'm holding my breath right now. Argh.

Dee is in Canada and I'm very very jealous.

And I've been having some very uncomfortable health issues that I won't go into detail here for the sake of my more sensitive (and male) readers. Nuff said.

OMG this program just crashed and I thought I'd lost all of this. Eep! Better post NOW.

I'm bad

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:13:32 GMT

I should update this journal way more often. If you wanna know what I'm up to then find me on facebook or follow my Twitter feed at kihitara.

Testing bubbl.us embed

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 23:05:52 GMT

Hey folks... I'm currently sitting in a session at the ULearn conference and just trying out the bubbl.us embed feature. So please disregard this post LOL.

There is a light… and it’s not an oncoming train

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:36:09 GMT

Had a much better sleep last night, despite yesterday being the worst day of my cold. Between Tuesday evening and Wednesday evening, I used a box and a half of tissues. That’s about 120 tissues. Gah. Then, last night when I lay on the couch, I only used a couple. Once I slept, I woke up only to roll over and I didn’t need to use any tissues at all during the night. Yay.

So, despite flatmates doing their morning routines (and one needing to turn the lights on in the living room so he could iron is shirt), I slept until about 10.30am. I feel somewhat caught up on the sleep I didn’t get the night before now.

Now that I’m up and about, though, my nose is runny and my chest is sore. Still, I feel a million times better than I did yesterday.

When I get back from my meeting I might even do something about the house. It’s been neglected and it’s messy.

Restless night

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:13:57 GMT

Didn’t sleep too well last night. I’ve been fighting off a cold since Thursday last week. On Monday my throat was so sore I could barely breathe, but it was better by the evening and I went dancing. I even slept better than I had on Sunday night. Yesterday I spent the day at the library working, had the sniffles and a tickly cough, but nothing too bad. Thought I might be getting better.

Foolish, foolish me.

Last night I was feeling worse again. Took some medication, but decided to sleep out on the couch. That way I feel better because I can toss and turn to my heart’s content and I know I’m not disturbing anyone, and my husband gets an undisturbed night of sleep. Except that I hardly slept. I kept having to blow my nose, cough, blow my nose… And I was also fending off the cat, who seemed determined to sleep on my feet. At one point I woke up and I’d obviously propped my legs up on the end of the couch to give the cat room. Unfortunately, this meant that I was sleeping this way for who knows how long (the first bout of sleep that night!) and my knees felt the strain of the position (ankles suspended while lying on back). I kicked the cat off (again) and slept on my side, knees drawn up to try and alleviate the pain. Left knee still hurts. Stupid cat.

So now I’m sitting at home in my sleeping bag, cat curled at my side, waiting for the plumber who is supposed to turn up this morning. It’s nearly quarter past 11. If he doesn’t turn up before noon I’m going out. I need tissues. I need honey. I need more cold and flu meds.

Stupid plumber.

Stupid cat.

Stupid cold.

Affirmations

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:46:36 GMT

I’m reading an article right now by Stephen Downes called “How to be successful”. I got to it while looking up things at the NZ Curriculum website. Anyway, it caught my attention. There are a lot of things in there that get me thinking.

I like this idea, though, perhaps to use in a classroom one day. Saying affirmations. I know it seems pretty lame at first, but I think by saying affirmations with a class every morning, it could help boost the confidence and self-worth of some of the more reserved students.

So I’m looking for ideas of what could go into these affirmations. Here is my start…

I am cool. I am smart. I am strong. I am good. I am worthy.

Gah, I did have more ideas, but the LJ page took so long to load, and then this silly program took so long to load, that the ideas have slipped out of my mind again.

Ok, fine, I'm putting it here after all... lol

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:24:50 GMT

YOU'RE ON MY FRIENDS LIST. I want to know 28 things about you. I don't care if we've never talked, never really clicked, or if we already know everything about each other. You are obviously on my f-list, so let me know with whom I'm friends with!

1. Your Name:
2. Age:
3. Single, Taken or Other:
4. Favourite Film:
5. Favourite Song or Album:
6. Favourite Band/Artist:
7. Dirty or Clean:
8. Tattoos and/or Piercings:
9. Do we know each other outside of LJ?
10. What's your philosophy on life?
11. Is the bottle half-full or half-empty?
12. Would you keep a secret from me if you thought it was in my best interest? 13. What is your favourite memory of us?
14. What is your favourite guilty pleasure?
15. Tell me one odd/interesting fact about you:
16. You can have three wishes (for yourself, so forget all the 'world peace etc' malarkey) - what are they?
17. Can we get together and make a cake?
18. Which country is your spiritual home?
19. What is your big weakness?
20. Do you think I'm a good person?
21. What was your best/favourite subject at school?
22. Describe your accent:
23. If you could change anything about me, would you?
24. What do you wear to sleep?
25. Trousers or skirts?
26. Cigarettes or alcohol?
27. If I only had one day to live, what would we do together? (If you have no idea, just say something crazy, it'll entertain me!)
28. Will you repost this so I can fill it out for you?

Dreamwidth

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:36:57 GMT

To be honest, I totally forgot about my Dreamwidth account. Until right now, when I received an email saying I’d been given two Dreamwidth codes. So, if anyone wants some Dreamwidth codes so you can sign up and see what it’s about, just leave a message here. First in best dressed.

Dry patch

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:56:36 GMT

I seem to be going through a little photography dry patch, which is sad since it's photography month. Oh, damn, I knew there was something I wanted to do on Tuesday night! *grumbles* I spent all Tuesday night thinking I needed to be somewhere... there was a gallery tour! Grrrr.

Anyhow, back on track. It's photography month, and I'm going to participate a little. I'm going to dust off my poor neglected Olympus and enter a competition. My problem is the early rising. The competition runs on Saturday, midnight to midnight. I'm leaving for Whangarei first thing Saturday morning, so I'm going to rise up early, drive to Northcote Point and snap off some shots of pre-dawn and the sun rising. It's just so beautiful there. Then I'm going to drive north.

What this means is that there might be some photos coming your way!

On another side note: it's so damn bloody cold here right now. And I don't have nearly enough work. I got all excited when I got a call this morning, thinking that someone needed me to come in and do some relief teaching, but alas no. Just my agency checking what days I'd be available next week. It was not the nicest way to get out of bed, though. We don't get very good cellphone reception down in our valley, but I have one of the house landline phones right by my side of the bed. Instead of calling the landline (and thus enabling me to stay in bed while talking), they called my cellphone (thus making me leap out of bed, run upstairs, and OUT THE FRONT DOOR to answer it). While this impressed my breakfasting flatmates with my dedication, it only served to make me cold and annoyed.

Learning languages

Tue, 26 May 2009 12:09:49 GMT

Stuart posted a link to this website, Livemocha.com, on the MoodleSchool site we’re working on. I thought it sounded fun and followed the link. I have to say, I really enjoy this way of learning a new language. I get to hear it, see it, and interact with it. I get quick feedback from native speakers of the language. It’s awesome. If you’ve ever wanted to learn another language, go look! It’s free, too!

I brought my car in first thing this morning to get its WOF done. I then spent the day bussing from one place to another. Visited Katja and Bruno, they made me lunch (yum), then my sister picked me up to go to her place. Got there at 3pm, looked up on Maxx to see when I needed to catch a bus to get back to Beach Haven by 5pm and discovered I had to leave at 3.15pm. Damn. So a few minutes later I left my sister’s place and ended up getting all the way to Beach Haven by 4.15, picked up my car and got home by 4.30. Maxx is usually good, but they majorly sucked for planning my route today. I could have stayed at my sister’s place a little longer, even if only another 15 or 20 minutes.

Got work tomorrow, hoorah! I hope the teacher has left me something, but if they haven’t then I’m going armed with some stuff for the kids to do. It’s always hard going to a new school because you don’t know anything – bell times, routines, planning format etc. I’ll make sure I get there in plenty of time tomorrow.

Tomorrow evening I’m babysitting (or child-sitting, as he prefers it called) my nephew for a few hours. I have to try and get some work done during that time, but I’m not sure if I can get on the Internet at their place. Might get Geoff to set up the wireless on my computer when he gets home so that next time I’m around there I can work. Will be child-sitting every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday until further notice.

Bridge walk

Sun, 24 May 2009 05:24:52 GMT

I did the bridge walk with my nephew today. We turned up at Pt Erin and the organiser said specifically, “We are not going to force our way onto the bridge. We will abide by the decisions of the LTSA and the police.”

The LTSA said no. We were making our way back to the footpath when a cheer went up. We were told to go to the motorway onramp. I thought they’d changed their minds. Then I see that there are some cyclists on the motorway. I assumed (correctly) that they’d forced their way on. We continued moving and saw the big traffic truck moving off, more cheering etc.

The news report said, “Auckland motorway traffic was severely delayed today as thousands of protestors stormed the Harbour Bridge.” It was hardly like that. A few broke through (stupid people, in my opinion – they could have caused major accidents! The traffic is going a considerable speed along there), the police decided to save the situation and make it safe for the rest, and we then went onto the bridge in a calm and ordered fashion.

By the time I wanted to get home at about 11.30am, traffic was flowing freely again along the motorway, certainly from Fanshawe Street onward. Perhaps it backed up a little longer further south, I don’t know.

So, considering there were no injuries or accidents, I think “stormed” is perhaps too strong a word.

Tired. I can has sleep now?

Thu, 21 May 2009 10:11:29 GMT

Should be going to bed but am writing a journal entry instead. Naturally.

Been at Rosmini this week and it’s been good. I do enjoy working with computers but still teaching people. I do think this might be the perfect job for me.

I haven’t done much with regards to my fitness, though. I’ve been very slack. My problem, as I’ve outlined before on here, is self-motivation. Like right now. I know that I probably should be doing some crunches before bed, but will I? No. What’s my motivation? Who am I competing against? No one. Damnit. I really do think I need to compete against someone. When Brendon was living here I was trying to keep up with him, and he kept doing more crunches than me, but I was working towards catching up. I almost had abs!

Damelza! Do you think we could do some sort of long-distance competition between us for fitness? Do you think that could work? You want to get fit for your next test thing, and I just want to get fit to lose the belly that’s starting to develop. What do you say?

Winter. It’s cold. That is all I have to say about the weather.

We have blower things going 24 hours right now to dry out under the carpet. The constant sound is getting to me. If it goes on too much longer I might be responsible for dehumidifier destruction.

Am writing and reading lots.

Sleep. Now. ‘Night!

Minka

Fri, 08 May 2009 06:42:52 GMT

This is a song that we used to sing at primary school. I came across my attempt at remembering the words in a writing diary and thought I’d Google the song. It took a few tries, and there are a lot of people out there looking for the words for this song (though different versions, by the sounds of it), but I was happy to finally find some lyrics that closely resembled those I learned years ago.

From the Volga was he riding
On his horse so quickly striding
When he saw, in ambush, hiding
Who but pretty Minka

Minka, Minka go not from me
Do not in the forest hide thee
Come and tell me if you love me
Pretty little Minka

Shy thou art and very bashful
Tho’ my heart is ever faithful
Yet to thee I’d be more grateful
If you’d love me, Minka

Minka, Minka go not from me
Do not in the forest hide thee
Come and tell me if you love me
Pretty little Minka

Thou art playful as a kitten
Knowing when a heart you’ve smitten
I have been by you sore bitten
Wicked little Minka!

Minka, Minka go not from me
Do not in the forest hide thee
Come and tell me if you love me
Pretty little Minka

Wolves are through the forest swarming
See! They come in packs alarming
I will save thee from all harming
If you’ll come, my Minka

Minka, Minka now I’ve got thee
Why did you so much provoke me?
Wolves won’t come, but I’d devour thee
Pretty little Minka

Wellington!

Tue, 05 May 2009 11:23:16 GMT

I’m heading down to Wellington on day trip on Tuesday 19th May. I arrive early morning, am busy all morning and possibly partly into the afternoon, but after that I’m free to meet up with people. My plane leaves at 6.30pm, Mum’s plane leaves a little earlier. Would love to catch up with long lost friends who have moved down that way.

So who’s keen?

But wait, there’s more!

Tue, 05 May 2009 07:04:04 GMT

I also have to eat my Magnum with a spoon, because it’s so broken that the stick fell right out of it.

Go Hell. You’ve done really well by me tonight! </ sarcasm>

Cheesy Hell

Tue, 05 May 2009 06:49:38 GMT

*sigh*

Despite telling the guy on the phone what must have been THREE times that I wanted the regular cheese removed from the pizza toppings, my pizza arrived drowned in cheese. I put feta, cream cheese and camembert on it, so it really doesn’t need the regular cheese. When he repeated the ingredients at me, he said “cheese” and not “cream cheese” and I said “No, I don’t want regular cheese on it, I want cream cheese.” He said “Yes, I know” in an impatient tone, so I took it as understood.

*grumble*

So now I’m eating a very cheesy pizza, which I don’t particularly like but I’m damn hungry.

My little slice of Hell

Tue, 05 May 2009 06:15:52 GMT

So I called Hell Pizza just then to place an order, because their website wouldn’t process my credit card. Again.

Hell: So that’ll be $30.50.
Me: What? I’m looking at my website order right now, and it comes to $23.50.
Hell: There’s a $7 surcharge on delivery. If you were to come in and pick it up…
Me: No, that’s not right. On Tuesdays if the order is over $20 it’s free delivery.
Hell: That’s for website orders only.
Me: But I explained at the start that I tried ordering via the website but it wouldn’t process my payment.
Hell: Sorry. It’s $30.50.
Me: So because your website is broken I have to pay an extra $7?
Hell: It’s not an extra $7, it’s the delivery fee.
Me: Yes, but if your website weren’t broken I wouldn’t have to pay it, so it’s extra for me.
Hell: Hang on, I’ll just ask my manager.

So the manager agreed to give me the $7 “discount”. Then the guy who I’d been talking to was just saying bye and your order will be with you soon when I interrupted to remind him that I was trying to pay by credit card, so could I please do that? I don’t have cash on me.

He processed my credit card and, surprise surprise, it went through. It’s so not my credit card that’s the problem. It’s their website. Stupid Hell. If they didn’t do kick-ass pizza, I’d call elsewhere.

Fiiiiiiire!

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:06:44 GMT

In the interests of using up the money on my Loaded card, I bought myself some fire poi. This is my excuse, and I’m sticking to it. I will hopefully get them on Sunday, at the next FireNight in Mission Bay.

So damn excited.

Oh, and I cancelled my gym membership today.

Exercise

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 10:47:38 GMT

Ok, so I’m leaving the gym I’m a member of. I’m not going very often (mainly because it’s boring going on your own *sigh*) and it’s costing me $66 a month. That’s $66 I can’t really afford to be without right now. So I have a new exercise plan.

Poi. Lots of poi. Upper arm and wrist workout.

Staff. Shoulder and wrist workout.

Dancing. When I can be bothered. It’d be nice if I could find something that is new and interesting for me but doesn’t cost the world. Leg workout.

Rock climbing. If I do this with Claire it is a shitload cheaper, so I’m going to see if I can do this once a week. Arm, tummy, leg workout.

Pilates. I have a DVD and big ball thing that I bought ages ago. I WILL use this. I will. Whole body workout.

Aerial silks. Claire and I are trying to figure out where we can learn this, and hope that it doesn’t cost too much money. If it does, oh well, but if not, then yay. Definitely tummy workout.

Things that are ruled out due to cost:

Modern dance (*pout*)

Ice skating (*sniffle*)

Snowboarding / skiing (*cry*)

Live Journal via iPod

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 07:16:19 GMT

I'm using a LJ application for iPhone and iPod touch and the main feature I'd want doesn't appear to be available. I'd love to be able to read my friends page on my iPod without having to use the browser. Anyone know of an app that will let me do that?

Podcasting

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 02:23:29 GMT

I’ve got a podcast space up and running again. Wasn’t happy with mypodcast.com just because it was throwing a spaz and wouldn’t upload my mp3 file. Silly thing. But the one I’ve got now would accept my mp3 file and LOOKS better, too. That’s just a bonus.

http://kihitara.podbean.com/

So there you go. I’m going to see about uploading the videos from last night’s FireNight to there, as apparently it’s possible. If not, then they’ll just go on YouTube.

Weddings and stuff

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 22:41:54 GMT

I went up to Whangarei in the weekend for my little sister’s wedding. It went really well, she looked gorgeous, and the weather miraculously cleared up. It was meant to be cyclone weather, starting from 9am and building up during the day. Well, the Friday night was pretty bad, really stormy, and then when we woke up on Saturday morning it wasn’t raining. The clouds looked ominous still, but we were still feeling positive. The weather only got better during the day, and even managed some sunshine in the late afternoon / early evening. Janey reckons it’s her dad. She always said her dad wouldn’t let it rain for her wedding day. I think it’s a sweet thought, even though I don’t believe in any of that stuff.

She was a very beautiful bride. I will have to put up some photos here at some point. Oh, and Ryan scrubbed up ok, too. Haha. Such a lovely couple. Chloe (their daughter) was gorgeously well-behaved during the whole day (minor tantrum when it came to putting her dress on) and put up with over an hour of photos after the wedding.

Duncan and I went to Mission Bay last night. It was the Jazz Festival. The What’s On In Auckland site isn’t that comprehensive, as they didn’t even list the Jazz Festival or have any hint of it what-so-ever. This isn’t a small event. They close down a whole section of Tamaki Drive and turn it into footpath. This year they even charged for entry (which was an unwelcome surprise as we turned up). *grumble* It used to be free!

Needless to say, with the combination of huge crowds, little space, and a $10 fee to get in, the fire crowd wasn’t there. But there was some good music, a great atmosphere, and we had a good time wandering around.

This morning I’ve been up to Albany and picked up some time sheets, did a little shopping (finally caved and got Thin Lizzy – and you know, it’s pretty good), drove to Fox Outlet in Northcote, got my timesheet signed, came home, faxed timesheet, and now I’m catching up on email and stuff. Stuart is coming to pick me up in about 20 minutes to talk about this contract, but it’s all looking very good for that. The school is going to call me sometime early this week to set up a meeting to discuss and sign the contract, and to finalise my role and goals. Woot! Again, more info once contract is actually signed.

Fire! More poi!

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 09:54:48 GMT

Ok, my friend Jase came along to the Renegade FireNight tonight, so I had someone to man the camera for me. This means that yes, I have videos of me playing with fire poi now! They’re not my poi, they belong to a lovely person called Kat.

Me with poi

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 01:49:03 GMT

Video as promised. I’m doing a very poor 5 Beat Weave in this video, too.