WordPress and another day in the life of Josh

A few loosely-strung-together observations about today:

• I need to build a caffiene tolerance. Last night became 3am before I realised (but I did get lots done, so it’s not all bad)

• O-week-day sucked. Hardly any corporate types handing out free crap this year. Not that I’m one of those acquisitive types, oh no. :

• Went to a UNSW English lecture — just for kicks — and stuck my hand up to answer a question — again, just for kicks. It’s one thing to randomly rock up to lectures at another uni, and another thing altogether to actively partake in them. Good times. It’s kinda like the agony that was ENGL1005 only with tacit acknowledgement that it is, in fact, well within the realm of linguistics. It was a cross-listed english/lingustics course-coded course, and they’re focusing on systemic functional linguistics instead of pure functional grammar — the NCELTR/Butt UFG text was sitting on the lecturer’s desk, but she didn’t mention it.
  Which is, in my mind, probably more sensible. The lecturer clearly delineated that there are, in fact, two different disciplines at work in that course which can serve to complement each other, unlike in ENGL1005 at USyd where everything just got heaped into a mass grave and students were left to sort out the bones. The UNSW course is more like a well organised, air-conditioned morgue. (I jest, though feel that more than any other subject thus far, 1005 nearly killed me).
• UNSW have a nice relaxed library lawn at lunch. It’s like the front of the quad only more intimate & shady & with added live music… though that might just be them sucking in first-years in the opening weeks.
• I was not the only UNSW imposter today, which was at once strange, amusing, and scary.
• I am not a good songwriter and revel in sharing that general ineptitude in an amusing way. It is fun having someone around who can play the guitar well, even when they sing worse than you do.
• WordPress 2.1′s front-page-as-page capabilities are abysmally over-rated. Or, at least, I abysmally over-rated them when the feature was announced. There’s a reason it was a point-release addition, methinks. I’m using a mixture of post-chronology and the usual hackery that I tend to get by with. I’m renouncing Semiologic’s front-page-plugin because it’s easier to just hack it up in the templates nicely. I get by.
• I am scared of designers.
• I feel increasingly like a designer as the days go by.
• Everyone is getting business cards printed at a thousand different print shops. I am beginning to think the only thing that differentiates them is turnaround time. Mine takes ten working days. I need them in seven. *fingers crossed*
• I dislike having to wait on people for things with looming deadlines.
• I am looking for an excuse to complain about a certain website’s hosting so I can campaign to get it moved somewhere I trust (and not in a conflict-of-interest type way, for I wouldn’t touch running hosting for it with a barge pole)/with a better track record of reliability
• I signed up for a Voice over IP service with DID without really knowing why. Something to do with redirection and giving a mobile a landline number without incurring ridiculous bills in these dark post-Orange days. And no, 3 have nothing to offer me.
• A certain Pharaoh got very seriously pwned in the exodus of the Jewish nation from Egypt in the Bible. Everyone (yes, including the other people of the Egyptian nation) saw it coming, including himself: “Pharaoh hastily called Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the LORD your God, and against you. Now therefore, forgive my sin, please, only this once, and plead with the LORD your God only to remove this death from me.” So he [Moses] went out from Pharaoh and pleaded with the LORD.” — he pleads hastily, and begs to be forgiven only this one time. I think this is like people praying in extreme circumstances today — they don’t necessarily know anything about God, and just turn to him as a very last resort. But as soon as he’s forgiven (in this case, he wanted to be forgiven because locusts had just eaten every single plant in the entire country, and “the land was darkened” there were so many of them) his heart is hardened and he refuses to release the people of Israel from slavery.
• I am feeling particularly un-on-top-of-things at the minute, and anticipate this may get worse once uni starts up again. I’ve been working stupidly lots this week to try and get in front but it’s like trying to climb out of quicksand (hint: the best trick is not to move). Well, maybe not moving would be a bad thing, but even so. I’m only doing 3 subjects and hoping that’ll be beneficial in balancing various commitments.
• I am too excited about freelance things. They are the subsistence farming of web & creative employment. And pouring everything into a job is the subsistence farming of life… it’s never going to be quite enough. I am trying hard not to fall into that trap but can’t resist it by my will alone.
• My sleeping patterns need to be beaten back into submission. Last year I was more regular in holidays than any time uni was on, but this year I’ve been working from home so that means I’m free to work caffiene-powered 13-hour days if the need should arise. Less of this would be more healthy.
• As would joining uni gym and eating less pizza. I really have no idea where to start, though.
• I am going to bed 3 hours later than I had planned to.

*files under “everything”*