clo_again

Off to Melbourne soon for a last day of Aussie funsies, so this'll be my last internets for some obscene amount of time (maybe like thirty-six hours? More?) And then I suspect when I get home I will be sleeping for some indeterminate amount of time, only staggering out of bed to grab coffee, check my mother hasn't depleted my limited supply of TimTams already and then fall back asleep. So I'll be back!!!... sometime.

Have fun with your internets. *mourns* I wish they'd find a way to install it on planes already.

Good News Week from yesterday is up on iTunes. And my hostel here has the same excellent wireless as the YHAs. In the room.

Except I really want coffee and I should go see something of Christchurch, so I'm thinking I'll wannder off to get a takeout Starbucks then come back and eat cold Chinese and watch a film or something while it downloads. That is, if I can find a plud point in my room dammit.

It's amazing how much this has cheered me up from the sulk I was in not two minutes ago. I should not be sulking on my almost-last night in New Zealand but I'm totally looking forward to getting back to Oz and people I can hang out with now.

Speaking of which irradiatedsoup, what's best for you to meet up on Thursday? I'll get the airport shuttle in to Southern Cross but should I go hang out in a cafe from there... Sadly I think Starbucks by Fed Square is too far for me to walk without collapsing under the weight of my backpack. *sadness*

My hostel here in Dunedin does not have crap wireless internet. It, in fact, does not have wireless internet at all. When I asked at reception I was directed "go out, down to the lights, turn right and the common room is twenty metres/minutes on your left". I didn't catch whether she said metres or minutes and, on reaching what I assumed to be the correct set of lights (I arrived here at 1pm this afternoon; at 1:10pm I got on a minibus to do a wildlife tour and only just arrived back), I couldn't see anything that looked promising to my right. I could however, see a McDonalds to my left. In Sydney definitely, the McDonalds had free wireless and I thought in other places too.

So I'm in McDonalds. Wireless yes, free not so much. Still cheaper than my Queenstown hostel though, I think. I rather suspect I'll be back here tomorrow morning for a coffee and then again in the evening because I have nothing to do tomorrow and I was kind of hoping to spend it hanging around the internet and the rest of it in a cafe somewhere as the weather is appalling. I was going to head to the cinema across from my hostel tonight to see Star Trek again but now I'm thinking I should head back and watch Skellig, which I downloaded at Easter and still haven't watched, and save the cinema to kill some time tomorrow. Dunedin so far is prettyish but just driving around here in the bus has left me with the distinct impression that I'll get lost if I just wander. Also doesn't help that my hostel doesn't have maps. Why my hostels seem to be degrading in helpfulness and facilities the further south I get, I don't know (Dunedin has like 120,000 residents so it's not like I'm in a backwater) but there you go. I'm staying in the YHA in Lake Tekapo on Monday though and they've yet to let me down on internet so hopefully I'll be able to download Good News Week then. And then I'm back in Oz, and then Alice Springs and you know, I just might be able to watch one damn episode on an actual television before I go home. BUT PROBABLY NOT. Not with the way my GNW luck is going. I'm just glad they have the podcasts up for free at all though, since the website doesn't seem to load the episodes properly outside of Oz. *mourns*

I watched my last unwatched episode last night though and I'm so, so glad I saved it until last because it was the one where Amanda Palmer (I was like HAI NEIL GAIMAN'S FRIEND YOU ARE AWESOME :DDD) did a table dance on Paul's desk and he couldn't speak for a minute or so after. I now heart on Amanda Palmer so much. Remind me to look for Who Killed Amanda Palmer while I am in Melbourne because it looks like Amazon doesn't stock it personally so I may as well try to pick up a copy firsthand. They advertised it on GNW so I'm thinking it's probably around.

Money? MONEY I HEAR YOU SAY?! Yeah. I had McDonalds for dinner tonight. I can afford a damn CD after that. (But only one. >_< Yeah.)


~

My other thing while I have internet, since that seems to be becoming a problem down here in the unpopulated wilds of 120,000-people-cities, is irradiatedsoup, I'm still good to be coming to yours on May 28th right? I promise to not talk about Paul McDermott too much and flail over everything and you can taunt me with your BSG knowledge beyond the end of season two. And also, do you have a printer I can steal borrow to print out my flight confirmation for Alice Springs? If not I can do it at the YHA in Tekapo I think.

I'm just waiting for George singing chocolate pudding to finish downloading before I can head back to chill with coffee and downloaded TV for the rest of the night. I am definitely ready to go home now, or at least back to Australia where I will have TV and fun people to talk to and buying milk for coffee will not be an epic adventure every two days when I move somewhere new. How people live in hostels for a year is beyond me. Even though this one actually seems nice (muuuuch better than the Queenstown one, even though you still have to go outside to get to the showers) despite the lack of internet and staff who seem to have better things to be doing than giving directions.

I do miss my Sydney hostel where staff were nice, I liked my room and my view and the showers and the lounge and the wireless. Or maybe I just miss Sydney, where I was learning my way around and was happy to be there and it was beginning to feel a little bit like home after seven days. I do miss Sydney. I want to save money for other trips, like America and Canada and Peru but I rather think I may be heading back to Sydney sooner rather than later. What's the point of travelling if not to find the places you like and go back to them?

C'mon George. I want to get out of McDonalds and away from the irritating over-junk-fed kids now.

The internet finally worked again on the desktop! Yay! Of course it'll only work until I have to turn the computer off again but it does mean I get to upload this icon and actually use the Keyboard of Awesome a little before I head off to London tomorrow.

This network adapter is ridiculous. Honestly. I didn't do anything that I haven't done a hundred times before, yet this time it mysteriously worked. Alas, the completely illogical intricacies of technology.

Like how difficult it is to type when you've changed keyboards. It's taken me twice as long as it should to type this because I'm not used to the keys being slightly further apart on the KoA.

...I love that my keyboard now has its own abbreviation. Mwahahahaobsessed.

And now I may go watch Human Traffic (Remixed), which was the reason I turned the computer on in the first place. Or maybe 24 Hour Party People. Neither of which I should watch because I'll probably be watching them again in the next few days but... I want to. Argh. Must resist John Simm. Finished State of Play last night by the way, and it was indeed full of awesome. One of those endings where I now have to watch it again (or make kindoftrouble watch it) to see it all again when I know where it's leading.

But you know, I really don't see how Hollywood will be able to remake it because I just don't think Hollywood is that smart. Case in point: their casting for it truly sucks. Russell Crowe as Cal? Um. Really? Which blind deaf idiot decided that? Also I expect the film will be reset in the US, because they do that with everything they make that's supposed to be set in Britain (and it's a pet peeve of mine and seriously pisses me off; if audiences around the world can identify with American characters, American audiences can identify with British characters who are not the comic relief or evil or have exaggeratedly stupid accents, goddamit) so all in all, I recommend y'all buy the excellent BBC series and skip the bastidised remake. I don't get why they feel the need to remake these things anyway. Yes the plot was excellent but honestly Hollywood, there are many excellent stories out there. Just admit that the BBC pwns you and try for something original.

...Oh wait, you are Hollywood.

The sheer amount of great British TV/films I've watched in the last month have in no way skewed my perspective on this. Ahem. But seriously, we have some bloody fantastic TV over here and it annoys me when Hollywoodland steals it all and ruins it in remakes. We don't remake American stuff, we watch the originals. Because they are original and we appreciate them in all their originality. I don't want to see a British remake of Grey's Anatomy because (a) we have a our own and it's called Casualty and (b) that show only works because it *is* American. Buffy only works because it is American, really. Red Dwarf only works because it is British, something Hollywoodland thankfully realised, though not for want of trying.

And State of Play works because it is British and it is excellent and John Simm is far better in the part than Maximilliantus will ever be. So there.

...I believe I was supposed to be considering which DVD to watch. About forty minutes ago. Um. Yes.

So after a blissful week of shiny internet in my room? The network adapter thing my brother gave me and swore was awesome, is broken. Again. Past the point of no return it seems, since even unplugging it/replugging it in, my failsafe method up until now, didn't work. Not even reinstalling it all, because the 'device won't start'. So back to the laptop it is and my brother's getting angry text messages amounting to "FIX THIS."

How difficult can it be to get the internet to work in my room? Apparently very. Ack, I hate being back on the laptop mouse.

On the plus side, Cloverfield was good. I kept thinking how stupid they all were and how they really didn't deserve to live, until I realised that ( sort of spoilers )

It did make me feel kinda bad though, because if monsters attacked Manhattan? I would totally be glued to LJ and youtube and Sky News going "OMFGMONSTERS GIVE ME MORE PICTURES AND INFO AND PICTURES" and yeah, worrying about the people there but in that nebulous sort of way you worry when big disasters happen on the other side of the world and you don't know anyone there. You watch big Hollywood movies where the US army waltzes in and blows up some buildings to defeat the bad guys and you never really think 'but there might've been people stuck in there', you think 'yay! The hero made it!' or 'yay! Building go boom!" It's good how Cloverfield gives you that perspective.

...yeah. That's all I got from my interesting life. Torchwood was pretty good this week*, except I didn't see the BBC3 one that I just read all the spoilers for and now I'm wishing that I'd watched it, because bzuh? Totally cannot see that lasting.

Tomorrow I get to do the four stacks of washing that I didn't make it through today. *gloom* Funsies.


*Okay, except for the cheese. But those glimmers of something that could be a really good show do surface every now and then. Maybe by series ten they'll be Buffy good. Possibly. It could happen.

My weekly idle check on Farscape prices just brought up the Complete Collection for £128. Which, even at Amazon's cheap per-season prices, works out cheaper than buying the three series I don't have individually. Not to mention Peacekeeper Wars on top of that.

I'm thinking that I'll have earned more than that by the end of this week and last time I waited on Farscape, I missed the chance. I'm passing the bank tomorrow morning when I go get a Subway for lunch anyway and there's more than enough in my savings to cover it... I can just replace it when I get paid.

So, so tempted. And I'd get at least a tenner or so reselling the season I already have to my brother. Teeeeeemmmppttttteeeeeedddd.

I'll transfer the money tomorrow and if it's still that price when I get home, I'll get it. And then not buy another DVD until after Christmas, because £128 pretty much takes care of my DVD budget for more than a few months.

~

So for all my dire predictions of A Day In Hell yesterday, it was actually a good day. Felt better on getting there and working the extra two hours meant I got an hour break for lunch instead of twenty minutes, which both me and my feet appreciated. I think spending most of lunch involved in a serious discussion with my boss and co-workers about what we'd do in a mass zombie invasion helped a a lot. The people I work with are awesome. My boss' flatmate (I assumed partner then felt bad for assuming) said they'll be driving along somewhere and my boss will turn to her and say, in all seriousness, "So what would you do if the undead were around the next bend?"

(Her answer was "...Cry." Did I mention the awesome?)

My official 'buddy' (lovely, total geek) told me I was doing really well at learning the computer system and everything too, which is reassuring. Especially when, after managing to do three gift cards (involving complicated touch-screen complications and the chance I could give someone an empty gift card if I get it wrong) fine in the morning, I abruptly forgot the button combination in the afternoon and had to go to Rob begging for help. Though it was only my second day, so maybe I should let myself off the hook. Still. Was immensely irritating.

Also, discovered the worrying fact that sometimes someone will ask for a book, I'll search for it and it won't come up on the system, only for me to discover said book an hour or a day later and feel terrible. Even though it didn't come up on the system and honestly, people should just check the damn shelves before asking us to do all the work (if it comes up in stock *we* have to go fetch it off the shelf and it's like argh! If I'm looking for a book in a bookshop, I check all possible sections before bugging the staff. Not to mention the guy on my first day who stood and made sarcastic comments while I tried to work out why nothing was coming up on the system, only to ask him how to spell the author's name and find that when he said 'Houston' he meant 'Hewson'. Then, ten minutes after we showed him the fairly obvious shelf of books, he was back saying "Where were those books? I've forgotten." This job is going to ruin any remaining illusions I have about the average IQ of humanity.)

~

Hotmail is still not working for me. At all. Am unimpressed. The brother said to try it when I installed a new wireless adapter on my desktop today before calling Virgin; installed it, tried internet, internet worked fine, tried a hotmail site, computer crashed, restarted computer, internet refused to work again. Not entirely sure what I did, but something broke it. So I'm back on the sofa with the laptop, emailless and pissed off.

Modern technology would be really cool if it didn't actually make life more difficult.

Going to make dinner and watch the end of Battlestar Galactica's mini-series before washing my hair for work tomorrow. Next day off is Sunday. *gloom* I definitely need Farscape to get me through this next month and a half.

Ohmygod that's Kaylee in Atlantis. It was just background noise, then I glanced over and was like "She looks familiar, hm, KAYLEEWTF." I need to start catching up on Atlantis. Dammit.

This song makes me want to rewatch that part of Moulin Rouge. It's possibly my favourite piece of a film ever, with the angst and the violins and the *mind-bogglingly* beautiful camera work.

Mmm, yes. Rewatch.

Oh, what I'm actually meaning to say and got sidetracked by the pretty; turning the internet off. It's distracting me and I'm trying a new tack of "being less distracted while I do things". I'll let you know how it works out.

Mmm, Ewan. Awesome liek whoa.