New Year, New Goals
Ok, I know this is perhaps a little trite, but I figured I'd throw my Goals for 2008 out onto the web, in the hopes of giving them some semblance of accountability. So, here goes:
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Get my finances in order
I've got buckets of debt, I'm saving almost nothing, and Ben has to chase me up for rent each month. That's got to change. Now, I've got myself a awesome permanent job (with a healthy pay raise to boot), I don't really have any excuses anymore -- of course, I didn't really have any excuses prior either, but whatever. -
Lose some weight
I have no illusions about this. I may not be huge, and I don't really feel like my body image is holding me back much -- if at all -- but realistically, I'm bigger than I should be, and I need to lose some fat, gain some muscle, and finally get rid of my gut. I've started running a little lately, but as Emeril would say, I've got to "kick it up a notch." -
Stop smoking
Goes hand in hand with losing weight, really. This shit just isn't doing me any favours.
My three goals for 2008: the three things that are pissing me off the most right now. Now to create a more specific, concrete plan to achieve them, and come 2009, I'll be a new man.
Repaying my debt to society
Today I repayed my debt to society. My temporary lack of propriety was noticed by an City of Sydney enforcement officer, and a penalty notice for offence code 9607 was issued to me:
I am now $60 lighter, or to be more accurate, my credit card is $60 heavier.
Certainly taught me a lesson, however, as I haven't been dropping cigarette butts on the ground since!
Me being a somewhat legal-beaver, I of course, had to look up the legislation/regulations governing said penalty notice:
(Note: gets a little gritty with details here on out; discretion is advised.)
Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 no 156 (NSW) s.145 (1) states:
(1) Offence of littering
A person who deposits litter in or on a public place or an open private place is guilty of an offence.Maximum penalty: 20 penalty units.
My legal-lust only partially sated at this point, I was obliged to continue...
A couple of frustrated minutes later, and I found what I was searching for; in Schedule 1 of the Protection of the Environment Operations (Penalty Notices) Regulation 2004 no 601 (NSW) , in the table pertaining to the PEO Act it states:
Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Provision of the Act Officer Penalty (individuals) ... ... ... Section 145: Deposit litter, being unlit or extinguished cigarette 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, $60 (excluding litter deposited from vehicle). 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 Section 145: Deposit litter, being lit cigarette (excluding litter 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, $200 deposited from vehicle). 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
[Column 4: "Penalty (corporations)" omitted, due to it being a) empty, and b) too wide.]
At that point, I realised I caught the officer on a good day (or perhaps, was caught on a good day!) and should probably count myself lucky that it was a Friday.
NSW Government: please spend my $60 wisely.
As a sidenote, the NSW Government's Legislation website is incredibly well done: simple, effective and easy to use; eclipsing by far the efforts of both the Australian Government's ComLaw , and the New Zealand Government's PAL projects. Also, I was pleasantly suprised to find that legislation is, in general, pretty damn easy to read too.
Anywho, that's it from me for now. See you in August NZ folks.
Day Seven – April 22, 2007
Thunderstorms are God's way of telling us we should have listened to Gore about global warming.
Day seven already, the last one!
Got up early today, far too early; everyone else in the house was still asleep. Pottered round on Ben's laptop, listening to music, reading stuff on the web, and finally figuring out how to move stuff from the computer to my cell phone.
Round 10am people finally started getting up. Was just about to fry myself up some hash browns when Ben suggested heading to Katipo cafe and restaurant on Bondi rd. In spite of my being such a discerning eater, I decided it wouldn't be so bad if I forewent my hash browns to settle for their Kumara mash.
After breakfast, I spent the afternoon watching more nature docos, reading, and smoking far too much. By about 6pm the rain started to pick up, culminating in a terrifyingly spectacular thunderstorm that lasted well into the 8:30 movie, Kenny.
Kenny was great, very entertaining. Now though, it's well over, and I'm tired as, so, off to bed for me. See you next time.
Cigarettes: far too many.
Day Six – April 21, 2007
Alarm didn't go off today - no work. Woke up around 9:30.
Eye of the Leopard was on again at 10, got Ben to watch it too. The animal world is so damn vicious.
I had planned to go climbing with Ben and Bob et al, but didn't in the end. Spent the day watching movies, reading a bit, and generally vegging out.
We had Kate's house-warming party (to celebrate her moving from the guest room to Steven's old room) tonight too, consisting of copious amounts of alcohol, and drinking games; and less Irish accountants than I had expected. I put my contact lens in in anticipation of my virgin playing of Beer Pong, only to find that weeks of sitting unused in lens fluid has somehow managed to separate the lens into it's two constituent parts: a rigid lens which actually does the focussing, and a softer silicone gel (I assume) base.
Thoroughly liquid, we began our pilgrimage to Fringe bar to continue the night (and keep our neighbours happy.) The trip was woven with struggles, evidently, as only about 50% of the party made it; due to road blockers of love, inebriation, and dress.
By about two am I was getting bored, tired and a little too sober; so I jump in a taxi and head home.
Day Five – April 20, 2007
Slept in this morning, worried about having a hangover; thankfully, I mostly dodged that bullet. 22 cigarettes 
Work was really crap today, sadly. Had some interesting complaints, but I was feeling real shit all day with a headache building up from about 11am onwards (I ended up buying some Nurofen and a litre of Powerade as a cure; the Powerade was more to fix my semi mild alcohol-induced dehydration, but perhaps it helped the headache too.) As a result of my feeling crap I couldn't think properly and seemingly simple things tended to take like twice as long.
Got approached by a girl trying to sign people up for donations, again. I forget what charity. She first asked like two months ago; managed to convince me as well, but as I was writing out my DOB she suddenly seemed a little disappointed. I'm too young to donate apparently (need to be 21--whether because of legislation or an organisation policy I'm not sure,) and to be honest, a part of me is thankful I have a reasonable excuse.
After work (and a couple Nurofen) I headed off to The Teacher's Club, for De-Tension (HA HA HA) with Bob. It's become somewhat of a tradition on Friday evenings now; play a little pool, drop back a couple happy-hour, $2 schooners. After that, we went and met up with Ben, Jeremy and Johnny at the Arthouse hotel on Pitt, a fairly classy place, low lighting and, I assume, reasonable incomes.
After literally 30 seconds there--enough to form first impressions about the place, just--we went off to Roof Bar (aptly named because of the rooftop terrace that constitutes about 40% of the seating space), eventually meeting up with Crystal and her work cronies.
A Jagerbomb and a couple SoCo and Cokes later, and I'm feeling good. Sydney is a beautiful city at nighttime, especially on a clear-ish night like tonight, with the skyline of lit buildings contrasting against the dark blue sky.
12:32am now (on the 21st :O !), time for bed methinks. I have a big-ish day planned tomorrow and need my beauty sleep. Of course, you'll have to wait 'til tomorrow night to hear about it (or, in all likelihood, sometime Sunday.)