Post #500 – woohoo!!

Well… I did it! *Raises glass*… 500 blog posts!! …and it only took me 9-and-a-bit years, too! haha. My next milestone, obviously, will be the 10 year mark, which will be on the 22nd of October 2010… so not toooo far to go for the 2nd major milestone. Now, apologies in advance, but I’m going to do that annoying thing that all the TV shows do when they reach a milestone, which is make a flashbacks / best-of episode – so here goes!

Back in October of 2000 (around the time of my first blog post), 166MHz machines were being replaced with “kick-ass” 933MHz machines. LOL – then again, I suppose my 2.6GHz 8-core CPU in my work machine will seem super slow in 5 years time.

I was also getting excited about an upcoming trip to Sydney (my first time since I was 5 or so). While there, I also got to meet a great guy called Simon Kearns, who I’m still friends with today. Thankfully, his flatmate’s annoying cat (at the time), which used to get a kick out of pushing CDs off the top of the stereo, is no longer around. I also hung around with some of Michael’s friends, Chris and Keith (aka ‘LilElf – who, as I have it on good authority, apparently wasn’t that little downstairs if you know what I mean). It was also the year of the automated toilet – I recall my friend Michael trying to, shall we say, “visit the lavatory with another person” when the door sprang open after a few minutes. There’s a picture of said friend from Sydney linked above.

On Friday the 27th of October 2000, I posted a rather humorous entry (my 3rd post ever) about something I’d seen out of a bus window when travelling to work from my place with Ross in Kenmore. The Western Freeway’s usual morning traffic jams were made more interesting when I looked out of the window and noticed a lady eating cereal – out of a bowl mind you, while driving. The bowl was, how did I say it… “delicately poised”, I think, between breast and steering wheel. Check out that great post here (scroll up a bit to the 27th)

In late November of 2000, my brother got his first job at Maccas. I think he used to work at the Albert Street store in the City (underground – it’s gone now)… I used to love visiting him there for triple-quarter-pounders with cheese & beetroot, and other weird, custom burger creations.

It appears that I used to go clubbing a lot – like, almost every weekend. And god – I used to stay out till 5am. Can you believe that? Now I’m lucky if I’m out past 2am, haha. I must be getting old. Then again, we do strange things when we’re 18.

Black & white was in.

In December of 2000, I was seeing a DJ called Simon, from the Gold Coast (photos at the bottom – man I acted like a nerd / dork then, haha! Oh wait, nothing’s changed ). Our relationship didn’t last too long (if you could call it that, haha) – but we remained friends and I see him once a year or so, and we still text each other every now and then to say g’day. I don’t think he’s DJing anymore, but he listens to my mixes every now and then. Here’s a fact you probably didn’t know… he’s the guy that taught me how to DJ! If i hadn’t met him, I’d prolly have no idea how to beatmix, cue tracks, and all the other guff that comes with DJing. Simon used to play my mixes at the nightclub where he was working, so he helped get my name out there a little – on the Gold Coast, at least.

Then, in 2001, I began enjoying trance a little more – obvious by the tracks I was listening to as I posted – such as Angelli & Nielson – Everyday (my friend Michael & I often requested it, along with Olive – Outlaw, at The Wickham), Art of trance – Madagascar (extended dance mix) and DONS & SM Trax – Jack to the sound of the underground.

In April of 2001, I became incredibly excited about a Kylie concert that was coming to Brisbane. Other then Michael Jackson (in 1006 or something), i was my first real, big concert that I went to without my parents. Granted I was 18, but still – new experience and all. hehe Someone called Jem was sitting next to me at the time I wrote that – but I have no idea who that is?

In May, I’d released my 5th CD / Remix.

Sepia was in – bigtime.

In June, my brother turned 16 (wow, how time flies!). I had also upgraded my computer from an Intel Celeron 500MHz to a AMB Athlon 1333MHz – with a… wait for it… 45GB drive! Oh, and a Creative LiveDrive II, LOL. I don’t even think they make those things anymore? I also went to see Final Fantasy the movie (the one that was 100% computer animated – one of the first proper ones). I remember reading that it took them a year to render it, or something… they could pretty-much do that in real-time these days – how technology changes – and so fast, too! At the time, I had been with my partner, James #2, for about 4 months

In August I was running Windows 2000 with a “whopping” 512MB or RAM. Probably 4 sticks of 128, haha! Geewhiz, I don’t know how you could survive on that today… my work PC has 12 gigs of RAM in it… about 24 times when I had in the year 2001!

I turned 19 in 2001! Yay… it felt weird not being 18 anymore. I felt… dare I say it – old. At least I was still a teen! I was also up to my 6th website redesign which featured a bizare photo of me looking through a roll of paper towels?! It was one of many odd photos that my webcam captured, involving things like paper towel rolls, teddy bears and overly bleached blond hair.

In October 2001, I did a boat licence course, and got my boat licence. To this day, I think I’ve driven a boat only once.

Still in October, I was whinging that it was hot. We’d just come back from a trip to Moreton Island. Also in October, I was using this antiquated device called a “Video Cassette Recorder”, or VCR. A friend had come round to set up my stereo to play audio from said antiquated device.

In November, James #2 and I broke up-and he moved out. I haven’t seen him since, although he did email me out of the blue earlier in the year. He’s in Japan or London or something now – and recently married someone, actually! (yes, gay marriage – won’t mean a thing in Australia though – well, not yet anyway…).

About a week later, I met Brandt. Some people might mention something about a rebound here, but Brandt & I ended up being together for over 2 years (from memory; albeit it on and off at times). 2001 ended with a run of 4 concert production for one of my major clients (my business was called Net Box at the time). She’s still my client today, actually – except she now only does 2 shows a year, instead of 4.

The 2001 – 2002 New Year celebrations were a bit boring apparently, but in January I got to go down to Tamworth with Brandt for the Country Music Festival. Now that was an interesting trip – Brandt’s dad took us in his B-Double truck! There’s actually a bit of a ‘Tamworth Blog’ of sorts at the end of the above-linked page that tells the story of burning myself with an iron, the truck breaking down, the Country Music Awards, the Kasey Cambers concert in the park and so on.

Version 6 of this website went live.

In March, I moved into a small apartment with my friend Michael (aka Milk) in Spring Hill – about 1 minute walk from work, haha. Brandt, who I dated at his time, also worked nearby; just own the road at Woolies… but he wasn’t there everyday – just a few nights a week after school.

Blonde hair was in. As was sepia – again.

In May, I was doing my firearm licence. Later this month, I was busily replacing the Thermaltake Volcano II CPU fan in my computer with a Thermaltake Volcano 7 (which apparently made the CPU run a lot cooler).

In June, I decided to create a Members Area where I oddly began posting photos of me wearing nothing but a Pride Flag? LOL…

Also in June, I apparently wasn’t dating Brandt anymore and had met someone from the Gold Coast called Danni. We didn’t really date as such, just other stuff. I haven’t seen him in 4 or 5 years. Furthermore, I was addicted to playing Rollercoaster Tycoon (#1, I think?). Man that was a cool game…

On the 26th of June 2002, I participated in the Brisbane Pride Festival / Parade thingy. It’s actually on again next weekend (13h June 2009) if you’re interested – from about 10am in Queens Park (next to the casino). Somehow, I was back with Brandt here (don’t ask)… and we went riding / rollerblading at Southbank.

In August, ‘gay steaks’ were in. With Caesar salad. And rolls… mmm

December 2002 saw the introduction of someone called Daniel – from Melbourne or Sydney or something. I’ve no idea who that is. I never met him, but apparently I liked him? The 17th of December saw a blog bitching about ladies and shopping trolley’s.

New Years Eve 2002 – 2003 was spent with friends at The Beat. I’d never been to NYE at The Beat before- it was pretty good actually.

The 6th of March 2003 saw the Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras parade take to the streets of Sydney. Brandt (we were back together again apparently) & I actually marched IN it this time – we got a photo in the paper too (holding the PFLAG Gold Coast sign). Later that month, I was getting into the XPlane flight simulator game – and I still, to this day, cannot land at Brisbane Airport in gale force wind. It’s just too hard. Actually, let me rephrase that – I could land, yes. Just not very well. Like, not even in one piece

In April, I must have been right in the middle of my non-chocolate eating years (for about 4 or 5 years, I didn’t eat any chocolate) – I recall taking about Easter and saying I’d have scrambled eggs instead of chocolate ones. On the 21st, I blogged about receiving flowers and a bunny from Brandt as an Easter gift (the whole no-chocolate thing). I still have that bunny actually…

At the end of May, my keyboard at work was having issue with it’s entire left side – sorry, no Q’s A’s Z’s W’s S’s X’s E’s D’s C’s R’s F’s and V’s for you today! I was also into the whole Big Brother thing – bitching about some “arrogant prick” (my own words) on the show. I was going to bed quite late in May – like sleep at 1am, work at 7am

In June of 2003, I was house-sitting a millionaire’s place with Brandt. I remember they had a cool cat called… oh, I forget. Started with ‘T’. On the 3rd of June, our family dog died – I wasn’t there at the time (I hadn’t lived with my family for some years at this point, having moved out of home at 17 [in 1999] after finishing high school and going into the workforce). Apparently because of the storm, our dog ran under the moving car and… yeah *tear* ;-(

On the 7th of June, I attended a baby shower for one of my workmates, organised by one of my colleagues, Amanda – it was up at The Summit Restaurant (Mt Coot-tha). I haven’t seen Amanda (the lady who the shower was organised by – it wasn’t *for* her though) in like 6 years – but get this… her brother is a regional manager for one of our clients today, in my completely different line of work. Small world, huh?

On the 10th, I was rambling on about some quote from a James Bond movie and how it mate me dream about fulfilling my dreams. Something tacky

On the 12th (gee I blogged a lot more often back then – almost every few days.. shows you how much spare time I used to have, haha!), I had a fetish for Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut Cornflakes. I’ve always liked that cereal I guess you could say that I’m a bit of a crunchy nut sometimes.

2003 in general was also the year of wearing boxer shorts on my head. Full gallery of madness here.

On Saturday the 5th of July, apparently I went to The Beat. Some gay guy from Big Brother was there, pashing some guy on the couch, lol. Later that month, Reggie won Big Brother.

In late July I broke up with Brandt and posted a bunch of stupid drawing about it. Don’t look, they’re stupid

On the 3rd of August, I was apparently very trashed, had Maccas for breakfast, was deaf from clubbing the night before and had had many, many rums & cokes at The Beat. Later that month, Brandt & I were speaking again. By September, I was introduced, by my brother, to this wonderful drink called Franjelico (hazelnut liquor). Mmmm Franjelico We spent many a late night together since then, us two. We go way back. haha.

In September, I had my 21st birthday part at The Beat (I must have really liked that place? ). Oh wow, what a night that was. I was so busy making sure everything was running well, that I didn’t actually get that much time to have fun, or talk to people. So many people came – like, over 100. The photos are here, hehe. Later that month, I moved into Petrie Point with my brother. Eventually, so did his girlfriend – and my new boyfriend, Jono (lol).

In October, the Dixie Chicks performed at Boondall – it was an awesome show – we had good seats, too! Later that month, I accidentally swallower a mouthful of Petrie Point pool water (ewww, gross), and it made me sick – sore throat and all. Also in October, my brother started working in a nightclub (I think it was GPO?) – it’s where he met his wife (of today), actually. We had some fun times there – especially trivia nights with Simone Simons (she’s at The Beat sometimes these days) – this is before she faker her own death ad left GPO, as my brother will recall. I was posting a few entries around this point, commenting on the fact that I was sad because I didn’t see my brother that often – I mean, we lived together, but we only got to see each other for about an hour a day (as he worked nights – nightclub and all).

In November of 2003, my brother and I were DJing together at The Columbian – a small club around the corner from The Fringe Bar. We’d take turns. That Deep dish – Flashing for Money (Deep Dish vs. Dire Straits) song was big about this time. We used to DJ with this guy called DJ Sparkles actually – he was some hotshot lawyer who got sick of the long hours and quit – to take up Jing. I still have his number in my phone somewhere… I wonder if he still DJs?

Somewhere during 2003, I was wearing eyeliner one night at the clubs and forgot to wipe it off before going to bed. I woke up with ‘panda eyes’ – the name stuck. I’ve been known as “Panda” or “Andypanda” for years now (hence the name DJ Andypanda).

On the 16th of November, a helicopter was flying incredibly close to the Story Bridge – it woke me up. See photo here – close hey? :S

In early December, I dropped a jar of sundried tomatoes at Woolies Spring Hill (down the road). Adrian cleaned it up for us – he was shift manager or something there. I also met Jono somewhere in December. We moved in together sometime around the end of 03 / early 04.

In 2004, my Misc. Stuff collections began – after diary-posting became too complex with photos, etc attached. I also had an active webcam. It caught some really weird things – like me with a colander on my head.

Somewhere in 2004 (probably), v7 of this website’s design went live.

The 2003 – 2004 New Year was seen in at The Beat, with my brother, my partner at the time, mum, dad and my brothers girlfriend at the time.

There was a huge storm on January 30th – photos at the bottom of this page. There’s also some photos of my parents old place out at Greenbank -oh, and be sure to check out the PowerPoint from Hell in May on the same page Hehe…

On the 22nd of February, it was about 41.5 degrees in Brisbane City. I was blogging about how the next terrorist attack would be a cruise ship running into a bridge, or a wharf or something Somewhere after that, one of my hermit crabs, Crabinetta, passed away. So my partner of the time bought me another one – he was called Squishy! There are some photos of him over in August on this page.

Early in 2004, I was into a track called “Shakedown – At night”… my brother used to play / request it all of the time at the club where he worked.

My partner of the time (Jono) and I started a business together. I still run my side of it to this day – it’s doing quite well =)

In April, I bought an MP3 player from Hong Kong off eBay. I think it broke a few months later. I also had incredibly blond hair, haha.

In June, we were buying up a lot of gear for aforementioned business… lights, speakers, lazers, strobes, etc.

On Saturday the 12th of June (Sunday morning at 3am or something, actually), the power went out at our apartment in McWhirters and the evac alarm went off. Actually, it went out in the entire block. Let’s just say that it was interesting to see about 60 gay guys, in nothing but boxer shorts, standing in the valley mall waiting for the all-clear to return to their apartments. Whoo haha. That night, Merlin was evicted from Big Brother – he’s the one that caused all those issues with the ‘save the refugees’ or whatever he was doing…

In June, I was hooked on Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 – some photo of my cool rides are near the middle of this page.

Around July, I began a webcam that was focussed on the tank of my hermit crabs. It proved quite popular for a number of months, getting a few hundred hits each week.

In August, I posted a rather large entry about all the A/V gear we had accumulated / acquired – and I’d also bought an o2 XDA II PDA-phone – wow, top of the line, man!! It ran Windows Mobile 2003:P

Saturday the 18th of August saw me vomiting – out of my nose. Let’s just say that Jalape�os taste spicy in BOTH directions. Lesson: don’t mix drinks and have Mexican pizza

In September, another one of my hermit crabs had passed away :S I was also into LA Cola (gross) and 2kg bags of Cheese Kransky sausages from Coco’s markets Also probably gross… haha. September also saw Riverfire – Brisbane’s river-based festival. I posted a video of the F1-11 doing it’s dump-and-burn on Misc. Stuff (on this page).

Saturday the 16th of October saw me go for my first ever automated car wash. Wow… haha, so lame, hey? But I posted a fairly long blog about it – how it worked, what it did, etc. I’m weird Here is a rather funny excerpt…

“We drove in. Now, this was the bit I wondered about – how does it know where the car is, what kind of car it is, and all that kind of stuff. Like, you don’t want to have it snap off your antenna or your mirrors, or crack your spoiler in half or anything – how on earth does it know where the car is and all of that kind of stuff? Anyway, we Jono drove in, there was a sensor pad that the front wheel went onto, so obviously, that was how it knew.

For a few seconds nothing happened. Then, suddenly, the green light at the side went to red, and the whole contraption started whirring as it moved towards the car, and then these jet-type things started spitting and dribbling foamy stuff at the car – kinda like a baby – you know, when they sorta aren’t sure whether they’re going to eat that mashed banana in their hand, or just dribble it all over the floor. It went to the back of the car (dribbling bits of white foam) then came back. Again, it was silent for a while.

All of a sudden, the big brushes started turning at the front. I don’t think I wet myself. They were spinning so fast, the coloured rubber bristly things spinning so fast it became a rainbow whir of colour – a bit like a gay-pride flag being waved around by a dyke [on a bike] on speed. Then they began moving towards the car. Then a long horizontal one from above came down just infront of the car – spinning like crazy, spinning like there was no tomorrow. By this stage, I had put my seat belt back on again… I could even see some fear in Jono’s eyes as the big horizontal brush headed straight for the bonnet (unlike me, he’d been through a carwash with his car before – maybe he was just pretending to be scared so I didn’t feel so silly – hehehe).

Wish an clash, it hit the front grille of the car and started to lift a little before pounding its way across the bonnet towards the windscreen. Water was going everywhere!! It raised again and began to make its way up over the windscreen – the wipers straining to hold onto something against the force of the spinning bristles. With an almighty roar that sounded like 20 hailstorms, the horizontal brush slowly made its way over the roof. By this stage I was screaming and squealing in a mix of both fright & excitement (Jono was laughing, of course ).

These black brushy things on the side were cleaning the wheels and along the bottom of the sides of the car, and the two colourful spinners were going down the sides, PLUS the big one going along the roof, down the back then across the end of the car, almost as if it wanted to rip off the spoiler and add it to its’ collection. By this stage, Andy was very excited, which meant a lot of squealing and laughing rather loudly

Then they came back and stopped at the front. Wow, that was awesome! But that’s not all. Then these giant fans started (with that scary high-powered kind of noise that machinery and fans make when they start – like that “ddooowwooooii” noise) and this bracket thing moved towards the car. It came about 5cm of the windscreen before it went up and around the car – high-powered heat jets blowing hot air all over the car. As usual, it came back doing the same thing, only not as scary this time – but the big metal bracket thing still coming of about 5cm of the glass. And that was it – out we drove, as if nothing had ever happened (only the car was much prettier now)! Talk about a cheap thrill; I’ve already asked Jono to take me again next weekend. That’s the best $8 I’ve ever spent (even though it was Jono’s money )!”

In December, I went on a Brisbane City Council Christmas Lights bus tour with friends Iain and Joel.

Also in December, I purchased Zoo Tycoon 2, and Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, and gave both games about a 9.5 out of 10. I miss Zoo Tycoon 2 – I can’t seem to get it to run on Vista

Then we get to 2005… my blog got so big (a 1MB+ HTML file!), that it became a real pain to update. Even opening it now (in 2009, as I write this) it took like 4 mins to wait for it to load, haha!

In 2005, I got a new fridge. I had to buy one cause my BF at the time took the one we bought when he moved out. I only had $850 to spend so I bought some stupid NEC that I hate even today. It clicks randomly – as everyone who’s been to my place will tell you. I also got into Inspector Rex quite a bit this year.

On the 3rd of March, I posted a log about how I was feeling unwell – it was quite detailed, actually. Apparently I had all kinds of things – from Ross River Fever to just being anaemic. I never found out what was wrong with me – suffice to say that now, in 2009, all is well. A few days later, on the 5th of March 2005, I posted an email conversation I had with Queensland Rail about their ‘tag the tagger’ stickers on trains (aka ‘No Graffiti’).

Around Easter, mum, myself & some friends went camping at Cooloola – man, that was fun. Unfortunately I haven’t been camping (anywhere) since! *super sad face*. There are plans, however, for my boy and I to go camping with our friends Iain & Joel in a few months time. Yayness!

In April, I was into Transport Giant (the game). I also had a job interview! I ended up getting it – and I’m still there today

Also in April (the 7th, to be exact), I decided to review the new version of Windows Messenger (then MSN Messenger). It was sooo cool at the time

On the 11th of April, I wrote some pro’s and con’s about my new job. Some of the “interesting” points were that the only food places near the office were junk-food places like KFC, Hungry Jacks, etc – thankfully we moved to a new office in 2006ish.

By late April, I was ‘dating’ (‘seeing’? not sure…) a hairdresser by the name of Will

Skipping ahead to June, I posted a ‘venty’ blog about the ‘w@nkers’ at the Brisbane GPO post office not being there to let people get their ‘more mail’ On the 1st of July, I wrote an email to QR about late trains – they actually replied – both my email and their response is in that post.

Later that month, I posted a funny ‘fake’ news article I’d read somewhere…

Associated Press (AP) 15 July 2005, 01:32
(Brisbane, Australia)
Earthquake Rocks Ipswich

A major earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale has hit Australia in the early hours of this morning, with the epicentre believed to be in the South Eastern City of Ipswich. Victims were seen wandering around aimlessly muttering, “F’kin ell” and “Whadda carnt”.

The earthquake has completely decimated the area, leaving a damage bill expected to exceed more than $3000. Several priceless collections, including mementos from the Torana Appreciation Society and the Ipswich Progress Hall, were destroyed in the quake. Three areas of historic burnt out cars were disturbed. Many locals were woken well before their welfare cheques arrived.

Brisbane radio reported that hundreds of residents were confused and bewildered, still trying to come to terms with the fact that something interesting had happened in the area. One resident – Tracy Sharon Smith, a 15-year-old mother of 5 said, “It was such a shock, my little Chardonnay Mercedes came running into my bedroom crying. My youngest two, Tyler-Morgan and Levi-Storm slept through it all. I was still shaking when I was watching Jerry Springer later in the morning”.

The people of Ipswich are a resilient community and evidence of a full recovery can already been seen, with looting, muggings and car crime carrying on as normal.

The aid response from local charities has been swift. The Red Cross has so far managed to ship 4,000 cases each of Bundy & Coke and PJ Durries to the area to help the stricken locals. Rescue workers are still searching through the rubble and have found large quantities of personal belongings, which include Centrelink booklets, Bronco tee shirts, Acca Dacca cassettes, Holden HSV bedding covers, Priceline jewellery and fine bone china from Bi-Lo.

The Red Cross seeks to raise money for food and clothing, to be air-dropped as parcels for those unfortunate to be caught up in this disaster. Donations of clothing are in demand. Items most needed include baseball caps; tracksuit tops (his and hers); flannelette shirts (female); footy socks; ugg boots; and any other items usually sold in “Op” Shops.

Food parcels may be harder to come by, but are needed all the same. Required foodstuffs include, Pluto Pups (Dagwood Dogs), doner kebabs, McDonalds,KFC, ice cream and cans of UDL Bourbon and Coke; Passion Pop and XXXX Bitter.

Charities are also accepting cash donations through any Liquorland outlet. $0.25 buys a ball point pen for filling in compensation forms; $5.00 buys chips, sausages, gherkins, crisps and blue fizzy drinks for a family of nine; $10.00 will buy a packet of Winfield Blues 25s and a lighter to calm the nerves of those affected.

Aid agencies have requested that no tents be sent into the affected suburb, as the sight of posh housing is unfair on the population of the neighbouring areas.

On the 18th of August 2005, I decided to vent about one of the guys at work (boss’s son, actually) say ‘gay’ to everything – ‘gay’ this, ‘gay’ that… lol. I think he eventually figured out that I took offence to it.

In late August, I posted the most bizzare birthday wishlist…
Andy’s birthday wishlist:
10-pack solarium pass at Living Well Fitness (Brisbane CBD)
Some kind of accessory for the iPod shuffle, such as a case or something to protect it?
Charcoal (from Lush)
Good thick-glassed blender of some description
Woolies vouchers (sounds funny, but food is always one thing I don���t spend enough money on)
MYER voucher
A voucher to get my eyes checked (can you do that, or is it free?)
Any form of money – to pay the tax man who is currently asking me for $2900 :-S
To have sex (again) while I’m still 22 …I’m pretty blunt on here, hey?
Another big night out with the following people: Brandt, Marcel, Jacob, Nikki & Gretel (aka Christa)

In late September, I did some podcasts with my friend John, from Sydney. We only did two, haha If you haven’t heard them before, check them out here – quite silly / funny

Then I posted a list of what I actually got for my 23rd birthday
What Andypanda got for his 23rd birthday…
10-pack solarium pass at Living Well Fitness (Brisbane CBD)
Logo Lounge 1 (book; see here)
Logo Lounge 2 (book; see here)
Some kind of accessory for the iPod shuffle, such as a case or something to protect it?
Charcoal (from Lush)
Good thick-glassed blender of some description
Woolies vouchers (sounds funny, but food is always one thing I don���t spend enough money on)
MYER voucher
A voucher to get my eyes checked (can you do that, or is it free?)
Any form of money – to pay the tax man who is currently asking me for $2900 :-S
To have sex (again) while I’m still 22 …I’m pretty blunt on here, hey?
Another big night out with the following people: Brandt, Marcel, Jacob, Nikki & Gretel (aka Christa)

Then I had an exciting night out, and posted some of the things that happened / things we saw…

* Jake, being straight & all, thoroughly enjoyed the drag show… which was good, cause I’m getting sick of it… haha! [see video of drag show]

* I have decided that mum has an unlimited supply of energy – the three of us danced non-stop from 1:30am – 5am when we left.

* I don’t know where I got the energy from to dance as much as I did? I usually get a stitch (Jake did at one point), but for some reason I didn’t… I think it might have to do with the amount you drink, when you drink it, and how often you go to the toilet? Yet to prove that one…

* Sadly, Brandt wasn’t out. We were all looking forward to seeing him there… me especially. By the time we’d got off the bus from West End to the Valley, we were so pumped to see him… the commentary towards the end went a bit like this:

Marcel: “Is Brandt coming out tonight?”
Andy: “I hope so – probably, he’s always out”
Nikki: “He’s always at The Beat isn’t he?”
Christa: “Haha… he’s like a fixture… chair, dancing, toilets, light bulb, bar, Brandt, drinks, dance floor…”

*laughs all round* Ah, we all love our marmoset!

* I’m told (by Brandt; today) that I sent cryptic SMS’s to him throughout the night… he says:

“You kept me updated as to almost every song that you liked when it came on – including w3bkongtohetr (or something quite similar) [that's supposed to read 'We Belong together', but I was... um... 'happy'? haha... - Ed.] Someone was a little drunk I think ”

* There was a fight at the cab rank – one girl pushed another onto the ground, then literally dragged her out onto the road by her hair… it was at this moment that it was out turn, after waiting in line for 45 minutes, to get into a cab.

* Jake had a ball!

* I watched someone spew up as they walked past the cab rank. It’s funny when you’re drunk, everything is kinda slow… oh look, they’ve stopped… now he’s bending over… what’s that stuff coming?!…. oh.

* Here I was squashed between two people, with no seatbelt on, in the backseat of the cab with a psychotic Indian cabbie doing 110km’s/hr over the Story Bridge LOL.

* In another interesting twist, at about 6am, I’m was attempting to blow up a double airbed – without any luck.

* Mum, Jake & I eventually got to bed around 6:15am Sunday morning, and woke for KFC at around 1pm the same day.

On the 26th of October I posted a detailed entry about how a storm blew the manhole cover off… picture and all! Well worth a read.

In December, right at the end of the year, I posted a large entry which covered virtually everything! I also posted stacks of stuff in Misc. Stuff

On the 11th of January 2006, I decided to buy a box of weights… and somehow managed to walk back to the office with them. I eventually got them home some days later – but not before the box ripping apart on the way up the stairs. Checkout the linked blog for more madness.

Also in January, I had some weird dreams. The ones I remember (and posted at the time), were:

The Dream:
I was at my old high school (MacGregor) down on the oval near where the art block was, but for some reason, the art block wasn’t in my dream – cause my friend & I were there building it. Dwah? Like WTF? Anyway, here we were, building this classroom, and some bully’s came along – so Brad threw a besser block at them and they scampered off.

Then we decided to take a break from construction and walked around to where the music block would normally be [in real life], except it was a JB HiFi store – like a massive warehouse one – in my school.. LOL! My friend wanted to get a sound system for his plane (?) so we went in and he bought some cable, some speakers and an amp. It was weird, everything was on the floor, not on shelves… not sure why, but this is one of my dreams we’re talking about here, so it’s ok if it’s really warped

We went back to the plane, which he had parked on the oval and spent a few hours fitting the new speakers and stuff to it. Then we got in the Cessna, turn it around, took off and flew home. Then my alarm went off and I woke up.

Dream Analysis:
School – I think the fact I was at my old school, has to do with a friend from Grade 6 in Primary School (wrong school, but still..) contacting me a few days ago to see what I was up to these days.

Plane – This most certainly has to do with my friend; yesterday he got to take off, fly and land the plane he was reporting from.

Warehouse style store – I bought the weights I was using to exercise, from The Warehouse. It’s a big warehouse – literally.

Bully’s, audio / speakers – Not really sure where these came from?

The Dream:
This one’s a bit of a short one, but I remember walking into my bedroom at night & hearing strange noises. I turned on the light, looked down to the floor, and saw 10 or so large (size of a hand) sand-crabs, all with really vivid, brightly coloured shells (as in, fluoro colours, yellow, green, blue, etc) spinning on the carpet. They all spun-up slowly till they went fast, then slowed down, stopped, and then they did the same thing, but in the other direction, and all out of time (so it was like a blur of colours). My colleagues give me shit about this dream sometimes (in a nice way tho, just to stir me, hehe *grins*), hehe…

Dream Analysis:
Crabs – One of my hermit crabs had died that week.

Oversized & spinning – Scott Sigler’s podcast novel, EarthCore (which I was listening to at the time), featured ‘Silverbugs’ – crab-like metal machines that would spin.

Heaps of colours – One of my colleagues is colour-blind, and we were talking about it. Maybe this has something to do with it?

Somewhere in early 2006, I dated Jake. Well, dated is an interesting word – more like ‘friends with benefits’ to a degree… nothing major. I actually live with Jake and his BF of several years at the moment. His BF is great actually; so glad he lives with us. He is always cleaning the house, cooking stuff, cleaning the house, making sure Jake cleans his messes, did I mention cleaning up after Jake and cleaning the house? He also calls Star Trek TNG “dribble”… teehee *ducks*

Entry #331 saw me pondering the existence of this very blog (I’m glad I didn’t can it then )… read more here.

On Monday the 27th of March, I confessed my love for my bank I don’t love them as much these days, but they’re still pretty good!

Entry #352 saw me cursing at my PC (for the Nth time ). I was going to buy a Mac, but cancelled the order because while Mac’s are good, they’re overpriced for what they are and I couldn’t afford it due to my mum not wanting to buy my laptop anymore To this day I still have issues with my PC every 5 or 6 months, but considering they cost 1/4 the price of Mac’s, it’s worth the pain Put it this way, my new work PC has 12gigs of RAM in it and an i7 processor – it cost half the price of a Mac with only 1/3 of the RAM. Go figure…

Around September, I finally met Jon (a friend that added me on Mogenic a few years prior to this time) in person. We just kinda hung out and became good friends… we’re still friends to this day, although I rarely get to see him (damn my work and never having enough spare time ). That said, I did see him a few weeks ago, cause he bought a new laptop through one of my suppliers

Late September / somewhere around October, I met this guy called Adam. He lived in the Valley and we got on pretty good – but I think he wasn’t after what I was after – or vise-versa (if it’s not the same thing)… I think we dated for a bit, but then we decided to end it because we wanted different things. But we did have some good times, so that was alright I suppose. One thing I remember is doing certain bedroom things four times in one night. Like, waking up in the middle of the night and then… yeah. Again. Four times. Moving right along! It ended around the 3rd of November.

November saw me rubbing toothpaste on my shoes to make them white again. It worked
&
Also in November, I met a wonderful guy by the name of Dale. I’m still with him today 2.5 years and counting (as of mid 2009)… woohoo. There’s a photo of him on my homepage, actually. And about a million others scattered around this website

Entry 370, in December, saw us go bowling for a friends birthday. I also blogged about some stupid str8 guys that were in the lane next to us – drinking beer …and how crap they were after a few beers. Read it here

I had my “first kiss” with Dale on New Years Eve – at our friends place (the girls)… woot

Entry 381, in January 2007, saw my blog about how much better my iRiver (which my BF gave me) was than the iPod shuffle I used to have.

Shortly after, Inspector Rex wasn’t't on SBS anymore. It was replaced by some other show… I made fun of the TV guide listing for it:

Don Matteo is a detective [ed: Awesome!] with a difference [ed: mmm hmmm.. go on]. To begin with, he is the local Catholic priest [ed: ummm...], with a profound knowledge of the human psyche. In tonight’s episode, a famous tango dancer suddenly dies during a practice session [ed: bra was on too tight? tripped on her stockings? ate too much over Christmas?]. The town’s pharmacist and his wife become prime suspects as they strongly opposed their daughter Evelina’s relationship with the victim [ed: Eveline hey...]. Evelina accuses her father of the murder, not knowing that in reality more complex circumstances connect her family to the victim [ed: I see. And will tonight's episode of Inspector Boring contain any German Shepherd's, by any chance? A Rottweiler, perhaps? No? what about a Poodle? C'mon, I'll even settle for a poodle! Okay, cat? No..? No cats? Fish then? Rock? Pet rock? Anyone...?].

On the 28th of January, I bought my first Xbox360 console. There’s 3 in the house now :S Gotta start somewhere, I guess!

In February, I wrote a long blog about reorganising my MP3 collection.

About 101 entries ago (from this one), I blogged about a trip to Sydney (among other random things, as you’ll see).

My 400th blog post was in March 2007.

The 22nd of May saw an interesting post about Gays 3D… a porn site with 3D / computer-modelled people. A very interesting read, even by today’s standards

On the 1st of June 2007, I got annoyed at Reckon Software / Quicken / QuickBooks, lol. Thankfully, they now support 64-bit operating systems – and very well, I might add The interesting thing is that as a result of that post, I’ve had many other Quicken users find my website by searching for the same errors I received. Hopefully it led to them fixing their issues as well!

Entry #410 saw the end of “all in one” blogs, and the start of “a new blog on a new page – every time” blogging. Oh, and a new colour scheme – YaY for pink

The 23rd of July 2007 saw me delve deep into my webstats to report on some very interesting facts about this website.

Entry #419 saw my blog about something that happened 289 days ago (at the time). You see, a friend of mine actually introduced Daz (my current BF) and I! Here’s the email he sent me about a week or two before I met my boy for the first time… I still have a copy of it Awww… thanks to my good friend Edz for introducing us!!

…I don’t know if this is appropriate but I have a friend whom I think may be a good match for you. His name is Daz, he is 24 and he’s single too. Obviously, I don’t want to be held accountable for what happens but I’ve mentioned you before and he seemed keen. Interested in meeting him for coffee? You’re both nice guys and I’d think there is a possibility there.

In early September, I was fiddling with Photoshop and adding tattoo’s to myself Photos via the blog post.

I blogged way too much in October (list below), but an interesting one was Sandwich Pie Milkshake – read the post to find out what I’m on about. The shop is still there today, btw Becoming The Terminator was also an interesting post.
#435 – Monday 29th (Himalayan Wraps)
#434 – Friday 26th (Christmas is coming soon…)
#433 – Tuesday 23rd (TERMINATOR!)
#432 – Monday 22nd (Tic Toc)
#431 – Friday 19th (Pranks)
#430 – Thursday 18th (Weird dream)
#429 – Wednesday 17th (Just another day)
#428 – Tuesday 16th (Don’t mess with my man!)
#427 – Friday 12th (Sandwich Pie Milkshakes)
#426 – Monday 8th (Unreal weekend – Draculas)
#425 – Tuesday 2nd (Sleepy head & me in the gothic pants)
#424 – Monday 1st (Midnight Kisses)

In November, I celebrated 1 year with my BF Daz

On December 25th, I posted a Christmas-ish blog with lots of photo-links

NYE 2007 -> 2008 was great – check out the photos here.

In March, I bought a new home gym. I still have it to this day

By April, I was doing quite well with my exercises!

May 2008 saw not one, but TWO bin orgies! Photos via the linked blogs… oh, and it all started in 2005 via this photo.

June 18th saw the first ever Whiteboard Story posted. I think we should start them again actually… they were cool

Thursday July 24th saw us head to Dracula’s for the second night down there. I think it’s becoming an annual thing – yay!

Entry #469 was about me visiting a new city – Adelaide!

On Thursday October 2nd, some idiot tried to get me to make him sell the house. Long story – but it’s a funny email conversation – see here.

October 20th saw the 2nd Whiteboard Story posted.

A week later, I posted about a funny thing I’d seen from the bus that morning on the way to work.

In late December, the last entry for 2008, I posted a blog about what I’d achieved during the year.

…and that brings us to Post #482, on the 11th of January 2009! The first for the year. So much happened, I just had to post links to all of it (see linked blog for info).

February 5th saw me post about an upcoming trip to the dentist. The following day I posted about all the bad things the dentist told me

On Saturday March the 7th 2009, I posted about my first SIPL treatment. I’m still going today – it’s going well actually

Some weeks later, I got to go to Melbourne with my boy and our group of friends. A week later, my boy and I went to Sydney to view the Star Wars exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum.

On the 20th of May, the structural integrity of my umbrella was compromised!

…and that’s it. Welcome to post #500! I hope you’ve enjoyed this “best of” episode! Feel free to send me feedback, or let me know if you think I’ve forgotten something! All the best, and thank you for reading. Here’s the the next milestone… 10 years!