Tom Charman

No, really. I’ve just been… busy. I’ll get right on to all the things that need doing around here, very soon.

This is by no means an exhaustive list.

1. The ‘snap-to-grid’ guidelines do NOT include the surely obvious page margins. So, if you make one table (which defaults in size to the size of the page), and then make another and resize it, you have to hold down the Alt key to get it to line up with the one above.
2. When using the Alt key to resize a table, often (but not always) the place you dragged to is not in fact where the table border ends up. In Word’s infinite wisdom, the line immediately next to it is far more preferable.
3. Sometimes, resizing a table’s cells will cause the cell you resized to stay how it is, and the cells to the right to suddenly shrink. Attempting the same operation again will result in further shrinking. Sometimes the third time will actually resize the damn cell.
4. Sometimes, clicking and holding on the border of the table does not allow you to move the table’s borders. And then it does. I think it’s trying to fuck with my head in this instance, rather than being innocently crap.

I just needed to get that off my chest. Er. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Thank the heavens.

Speaking of money… filling out a tax return using the ATO’s e-tax program, is super-easy, if you’re like me and don’t do anything complicated like getting married, running overseas companies, accruing capital gains, getting old, or joining the defence force. There is one item that makes me think NTGF is due for some tax breaks, but I’m not sure they count as Australian Films for the purposes of the return.

However, they STILL haven’t gotten off their arses and made a Mac version. It’s not a complicated program, it can’t be that hard. I wouldn’t mind so much if they didn’t rub salt in the wound by always listing under the “system requirements”:

Apple Macintosh… with suitable PC emulation software.

The best thing about tax returns is the surprise Medicare bonus that I always forget about. You’re getting near the end, and you’ve only managed to get back around $250 of your $1250 in tax, and then suddenly it turns out you don’t use medicare and they’ll give you $235. Every year I forget about that, and every year it’s a happy surprise.

Does everyone else (in Australia) do their tax returns online? Or do you still use that crazy paper crap? Has anyone never gotten around to filling one out? Have the ATO come for you and your first born?

Some music is beautiful and timeless to me. I love it the first time I hear it (well, more likely the third time but that’s not as poetic) and I love it still.

Some music isn’t. And it sits around on my iPod reminding me that either:

• Love is transitory, or
• I used to have shit taste.

Coldplay are a minor offender in this area. I’ll always like ‘Clocks’, mostly for its first 30 seconds. But the rest of A Rush of Blood to the Head really grates when it comes up in my random playlist, and for a while I banned it from my playlist. And I’ve no desire to buy X&Y — having heard a single from it on the radio, it sounds just like everything I’ve heard before. Perhaps a little more tightly honed.

I get this image of Coldplay sitting around, desperately trying to sound like the platonic ideal of themselves.

But my Coldplay backlash doesn’t even begin to rival my Travis backlash. Every time they pop up on my iPod I have to skip them, even ‘Sing’, which I used to really like. Now, it all sounds like painfully happy treacley ikkiness. I listen to a bit of it and wonder how depressed I must have been to have needed such relentless happiness blasted into my ears.

But then, I may be odd in that I find sad music uplifting and happy music depressing, in much the same way that I like cold blustery days more than shiny sunny ones. I think it’s a contrast thing.

And just to show that my taste now is probably as bad as it’s ever been, the track I’m always hanging out for my iPod to shuffle to is Britney Spears’ ‘Toxic’. Now there’s a single that has everything.

Everyone’s getting all political here, so let me fulfil my natural function as the one who talks about irrelevant crap.

I have just boosted my nerdiness somewhere into the geek zone by installing linux on my iPod. Oh yes, you heard right. Linux has cool games. I’m just concerned at the potential battery usage. It’s felt recently that the iPod just isn’t what it used to be, battery wise, and playing tetris is hardly going to help.

But still. GEEK! You know, sometimes I amaze even myself.

I have a few friends stuck in painfully boring jobs. I may be joining their ranks soon. Even more people I know don’t know where they’re going in life.

I think we should all start our own business. Submissions on my desk by the end of the year for what exactly we could do.

(Seriousness rating: 6.5, upgradable by solid ideas, downgradable by scorn)

Sorry about the downtime, folks. Well, sorry to those that noticed it.

I’ve been using the time to sit around on my arse vaguely studying. “Vaguely studying” is when you’ve got all the study material in front of you, and occasionally you draw half a concept map, or attempt to summarise some points.

I’d be nervous about the exam but now I’m more anxious about the link between meat-eating and cancer. And I’m insanely excited about the upcoming Doctor Who season finale. And even more excited about the news emerging today concerning the show’s future. Just a quick summary for those who can’t be bothered clicking the link (and a much more reliable way to avoid spoilers:

• Both a second AND a third season have been commissioned. As well as a Christmas special for this year and for the next. That’s 28 new episodes.
• Piper will be back for ALL the episodes of season two.
• Barrowman will be back for SOME of the episodes of season two, and is willing to get naked again. I wish I could have typed that about Piper.
• Nerd news: the director of The Empty Child and the director of The End of the World and The Unquiet Dead will be returning to direct the first two blocks of filming in season two.
• Nerdier news: the director of The Caves of Androzani and Revelation of the Daleks will be directing four stories in season two.
• The Cybermen will be returning for season two! I’d say they were replacing those bloody Slitheen but in a way, they’re replacing the Daleks, who won’t be appearing in season two. They’re expensive.

Only for those in Melbourne, naturally. Back in April, when the Metcards had price adjustments, they changed the way that 10 times 2 hour tickets work. Now, if you validate them a second time in one day, they automatically last you until 2am the next morning. How sweet is that?

Well, it’s pretty good, anyhow.

I got Neverwinter Nights yesterday, having ordered it online the day before. Pretty efficient. My adventuring career is going well. Except, I keep trying to charm animals, and I do, and they’re my friend, but my actual human friend hasn’t noticed and keeps trying to hit it: which makes it angry and distinctly uncharmed. So I keep trying to charm, and he keeps getting hit by my stupid friend, and one of them dies while I desperately try to keep them apart.

And yes, I know Neverwinter Nights is a really old game that you can get for $20 for a PC. But that is the way of Macs and Games.