Activities and such

Originally published at a denizen's entertainment. You can comment here or there.

Late post this, wanted to write it most of a week ago, about the previous week and a bit, but that last writing post took too long. Anyway, that was a big week. Don't know how much I can remember to write about now, but the determination is to try.

I did my first coding in Java under the tutelage of Elly, and that was fun. It was just the basic "Hello World" and some other very basic formatting. Exciting, since most of the projects I want to undertake would probably work as a Java program than in a browser with Javascript. I sure hope so and I am looking forward to finding out. Meanwhile I am trying to finish my web design project as quickly as I can so I can move on to something fresh.

What else? I've been listening to a lot of European Art (Classical) Music lately, and enjoying it a lot, so I thought I should take a look at some other art music traditions and see if I could enjoy and collect from those too. I started with Chinese classical music (inconsistent capitalisation = doesn't know if there is a convention, suspects there isn't, and is winging it) and managed to find some samples quickly. Those were pleasing to the ear, so when I can afford to I will be trying to get my own copies of recordings. Probably starting with soundtracks to films I've enjoyed (those seem likely easier to get hold of than music for itself) and exploring from there.

My sister had an appointment in the city and the bus timetables had changed, so she asked me for a ride to the station quickly. Sadly the car I had been given use of would not start, so she drove us both in her car to the station, then I drove it back. I'm not used to driving cars made in the past 20 years so it made for a tricky start. Especially as I couldn't find the lever to adjust the seat (it was in the one place under the seat I hadn't looked). Managed to stall half a dozen times before I even pulled out of where we'd been parked, but after I got the hang of it the driving was much smoother than I was used to.

It worried me that the car I was using wouldn't start, as I had an interview the next morning as part of my ongoing requirement to show the government I am making a good-faith job-search effort. When I woke that day almost the first thing I did was check the car again to see it it would start. It wouldn't, so I looked up bus timetables and saw I was going to be at least a quarter hour late. Then my sister woke up and offered to drive me there, so that worked out.

On the way to my appointment I was approached by a white man who said he wasn't from the area, but that a few nights ago he had been mugged by a group of Aboriginal men, who stabbed him with a needle, that he'd been to see his doctor and was waiting on results from testing for hepatitis, and needed some money to get medication from the pharmacy about a dozen metres down the road. As usual in such situations I panicked and told him I was on my way to a job-search appointment, that I only had enough money on me to get home again. Which wasn't quite true: the bus back took all but 10 cents of my change, but I also had a $20 note.

At my appointment my case manager wasn't in that day so I saw someone else, gave details again about what sort of work I am looking for (including my job seeking plans for the day), and that was over quickly. I headed over to the head office of the local council library and requested a volunteer application form. That needed printing out, so I wondered if I had missed some space on the website where I could print it out myself, when I had looked previously.

On the application form there is a notice saying volunteering is not a path to employment. The unemployment arm of the government seems to think it is. Awkward.

I also had with me a copy of my resume for delivery to the local book-selling franchise of Dymocks. The thought of approaching someone while ey is working and asking for a job made me nervous, so I delayed. First by visiting the ABC Shop and browsing their classical music section, wishing I had more money for non-essentials so I could spend a few hundred dollars there. Then, visiting a couple of places that sell some electronics looking for a USB hub, as since supplementing my laptop's failing keyboard with a harvested desktop keyboard + mouse I found myself with a number of peripherals demanding frequent use which exceeded the number of ports I had available.

At first I thought I'd failed some sort of intelligence test to take the hub off the rack and to the counter for purchase, but as it turns out the staff had taken to using cable ties to prevent theft of small devices and the salesperson had to cut it off for me. Pleasantly surprised by the music there; I think they were playing a mix of "Carly's Song" by Enigma I hadn't heard before.

I made another attempt at putting in my resume, starting by browsing the books to see if anything new and interesting were in. One of the stuff asked if I were in want of any help so I said actually I came in here to enquire if you had any positions available. She said they didn't, but they're always accepting new resumes and might have some places soon. So I gave her my resume and was asked to write some of my favourite authors and books on the back. I blanked out and only wrote a few down, kicking myself from immediately after (when I saw Robin Hobb's name on a shelf) to several hours later for things I had missed which I thought would look good on that list. Mainly it hit me that despite being probably large from some perspectives my literary collection is small in others, and unfocused in a way I don't like. I've been very erratic, mostly taking whatever was available from sparse local book stores.

Then I took the bus home, reading my mother's copy of The Great Gatsby.

For entertainment lately I downloaded in the past period of time the latest version of OBLIGE, automated mapset generator for Doom, Doom II, Heretic and Quake. It feels quite improved from the 3.47 release I was using previously. The maps it makes on default settings are I think harder off the bat than the stock Doom maps, and if I don't adjust the ammunition provided upwards I find myself frequently short, but it doesn't yet generate traps except accidentally.

I also after reading about it downloaded a copy of Scoredoom to try. Scoredoom is modified from the Zdoom (and GZdoom [which adds OpenGL support] and Skulltag [focused on multiplayer, with new weapons and monsters]) family of Doom source ports and for its personal selling point it adds a scoring system. Points are awarded for activities like damaging demons, killing them, getting a large number of kills quickly, collecting items, getting keys, achieving objects, provoking in-fighting among enemies... that may or may not be anything. Anyway, I do seem to play faster and more recklessly with Scoredoom, trying to get better scores.

Those have been making for fun secondary attention activities when I am on Skype and not able to perform other online activities or locally productive ones like writing or coding.

I think that's what I have been up to.