I'm dying to revamp so much of my life. Get rid of the clutter and clear it all out. So I'm selling a few things on ebay. It's just clothes at the moment. Check out the auctions!

Mum was here on the weekend and we totally redecorated the lounge room. New rug, new cushions, new wall hanging lamp, new tv cabinet, and also some things that are just purely for decoration. The whole room looks much more grown up and everything matches. There seems to be a theme, colour scheme etc etc. Which I've never had before because all my pieces of furniture were odd hand-me-downs and cheap pieces.


I also got a new bed linen set. Doona cover and a couple of sheet sets, different colours but ones that match the doona!


I always get motivated to throw old things away when mum is here, and this weekend was no different. A filled a couple more garbage bags full of clothes I just don't wear anymore. God there's so much and when I look back on some of these items I feel so wasteful. There were just so many clothes I never wore. I don't know why I bought them half the time. I had a whole outfit from a wedding years ago that I wore once and then just never wore it again. It was a bit too dressy, maybe that was it. I don't know.
Anyway, I've put up a few things on ebay, but I would much prefer to just take it all to the markets one time and sell it there....for cash, right then and there. I hate having to take photos of everything, and try to adequately describe the clothing, and being charged a fee to post the ad AND a percentage of whatever it sells for. I hate knowing that some many people will use ebay snipers to win the auction at a really cheap price. It just doesn't seem worth the effort. blah :(

sooooo some news - I'm giving up smoking. From right now..... I didn't even get one last cigarette for the day or anything. The reason - I'm going to go ahead with some surgery in the next few months and I have to give up for that. Otherwise I put myself at higher risk of infections and complications. I've been fine all day, haven't even wanted a cigarette... but now its night time and I'm a tad bored. And I was going to go and have a shower and usually I have my one evening cigarette right before my shower (coz I really do hate smelling like cigarettes afterwards, so I like to shower immediately afterwards).
Anyway the craving is getting bad now. Its not that I really WANT a cigarette, but the thought of not being able to have one is scary...

Lately I've been smoking so few cigarettes. During the week I barely smoke at all, and when I do have one I roll it really small. Sometimes I'll only make it half a cigarette (the benefits of rolling your own smokes). I get about 5 puffs out of it and then I'm sick of it. It makes me feel yuck and I put it out.....
But now, the thought of not even being able to go out and have those 5 puffs (that will ineviably make me feel a bit sick and make me repulsed at myself for smoking) is stressing me out.

God only knows how I'll go on the weekend when I have a few drinks :( I keep thinking - my flatmate doesn't smoke, my boyfriend doesnt smoke, most of my friends don't smoke, hardly anyone at work smokes anymore (I dont even smoke at work anyway, unless its after work and we're having a few drinks). So I dont know why I'm worried. No one in my life really smokes so I should be glad that I won't be that one filthy smoker in the group anymore.

But its just the habit of smoking that I'll miss. When I'm stressed, I like to smoke. I like to have one smoke in the mornings to kinda... get my body moving. Again I barely have more than 4 or 5 puffs, but its enough. I've blogged about my pooping routine, I like to go in the mornings after breakfast, before a shower. Usually I have that morning smoke just after breakfast to get the body moving, you know what I mean. Seriously my body is like clockwork some times... Sometimes I'll just be ROLLING the cigarette and my body will wake up and go "HELLO, I NEED TO GO TO THE TOILET!!!!!! like....uh.... NOW!"
I'm worried that I'll be worrying so much about not being able to poop, that my body will get all tense and stressed and won't behave. Ironic huh, it will be the worrying about not being able to go #2 that will actually stop be from going. ARGH

ok now i've got myself all worked out about this, I'm just dying for a 'stop being so stressed' cigarette......

The weekend once again reminded me of the fragility of life. One minute you can be happily watching a movie with your trusty friend, the next minute..... DEAD!

Olimar, david's iBook (purchased the same time as my dear friend, Willow) was happily playing us a dvd on saturday night, and as we went to put on the next movie, we heard a strange noise. It sounded like the fan was going crazy, so he turned it off to let it cool down.
But then when he tried to boot it up again- NOTHING! NADA! the hard drive died in the ass :(

poor thing was stressed out all weekend, about the cost to repair and the possibility of having lost EVERYTHING on his iBook... however he has a good chance of recovery most of the data (turns out the girlfriend of a guy at work, had the exact same problem. the hard drive was dead, but getting a replacement one and then hooking up the old one, externally, meant she was able to save everything)

It got me worried about my own computer and the chance that a computer malfunction to mean I lose YEARS of photos and my whole internet history (past layouts and whatnot). The internet sucks in the way that it doesn't really RECORD anything. So many sites have been lost over the years... the domain expires, the content is lost in cyberspace. The internet wayback machine is great, but obviously it hasn't saved everything. I can't view Muntedmess.net in the wayback machine because that stupid company snatched up my domain and put results on it. *sniff*

I think I'm going to buy an external hard drive, as well as a dvd burner (again, keep it external so I can use it with my iBook and PC). I'll probably check out UMart, but dear Muntedmess readers - is there any advice you can offer me? I value your combined tech knowledge, and appreciate any opinions, suggestions and advice you can offer! You have helped me out many times before.

friday night - we rocked up to the Alley bar anyway to play a game of ten pin bowling, and the band had a Mini DV camcorder (one of their friends had brought along). So I ended up filming the headline band afterall with my own tapes! Crisis kind of averted. Luckily my cam can still be used to capture the footage. I'm taking it out to a repair shop today - out in the middle of the fucking 'burbs of course. Stupid shops not being open on weekends - what a load of crap. These are the times I wished I had a car. I'm usually pretty good finding my way around via public transport - because I over-prepare, and print out maps and bus timetables and all sorts of junk. I look like a tourist fumbling with my sheets of paper, trying to read the poorly printed map.

The other day my student card FINALLY expired- even though I graduated back in 2003, I had sneakily changed my graduation date to 2005, then paid $10 for a replacement student card and then changed the date back. I remember at the time thinking 2005 sounded so long away - surely by then I would be working in a successful job and earning BULK CASH. Sure, its pretty much true, but I'm still a tight ass and adult priced bus/train tickets are such a rip! I'm tempted to keep using my student card because most times no one really looks at it too carefully, but I know that it would just be my luck to get a ticket inspector on my bus. I don't want to be an adult, paying adult prices! Its stupidly expensive. How am I supposed to ever save anything, ever buy a house/unit when everything is so expensive, and the tax man takes soooo much of our salary.

Seriously its a third of our salary- 30%! Up until $60k or so then it jumps to 42%, and heaven forbid should you ever earn over $95k- then its 47%!!! Almost half of your salary GONE in tax. ARGH!!!!

Instead of obsessing over my teeth, gum recession and fluoride in our waters, I should focus my slighty obsessive behaviour on learning more about the tax system. Its just so damn boring though, but I hate not understanding why so much of my wage is gone in tax. And if there is any way to get tax back, I want to know how.

omg i want an iMac SOOOOO badly! We've got a 17" iMac here at work, its on loan from the apple store. Its so beautiful and so powerful and speedy. Not to mention the inbuilt iSight with crazy image effects has provided hours of entertainment. *sigh* If only I could salary sacrifice a personal computer.... fingers crossed I suddenly win the lottery (which I never enter). Capturing all this footage off the camera, is making me realize I'm running low on HD space. Both on my iBook and my PC at home- so many tv shows, movies, years and years worth of digital photos, cam images, old websites, uni work, music... Not sure if I should get a dvd burner, or a portable hard-drive to store all my stuff.