April, 2005

This day, 90 years ago, Australian and New Zealand armed forces landed on the Gallopili peninsula and so began an integral part of Australian history.

90 years on and the legend continues. Droves of people turn up every year to their local ANZAC memorial at the crack of dawn to listen to the last post and pay their respects. I go every year, one day of the year where i wake up before the sun and venture to a memorial to stand and ponder.

Lest we forget.

Melanie and I went to Mackay to vists Roland and Bec this past weekend. We left friday afternoon after lunch and managed to reach Mackay before dark (not surprising since its only about 3hrs max)

We went out to eat at Cactus Jacks on Saturday night, i had the usual Aztec Pie which was good. After tea we went and saw The Extra – Jimeoins new movie. To be honest it was crap. Didnt do Jimeion justice at all. We had to reassure melanie that Jimeoin WAS wactually funny. The movie was very dissapointing, not that funny, story wasnt that good and overall not recommended viewing.

We headed back to rocky today, got home before dark and all is good.

Nick came around and watched CSI, Melanie and i have managed to get him hooked on it

We are all watching a pretty weird movie on tv – Phantoms, about zombie moths or something. Kinda cheesy but kinda funny also.

So yeah, the weekend was good. Im heading to the Anzac dawn service in the morning. Ill probably post about it when i get back in the morning.

Ive been meaning to rant about this for a while now, but something happened the other day that has driven me over the edge. So here goes.

Ive had a problem with my right eye for a while now. Randomly it will get itchy and irritable and over a period of about a week it will get really puffy and eventually clear up.

Ive been to a total of 3 docters in the past 6 months about this. The first doctor gave me some cream to put in my eye which seems to work. So the first time i do this and it goes away.

The next time it happened i was in newcastle, so i go to a doctor down there. I take along the cream the other doctor gave me to show this new doctor. This new doctor takes one look at my eye, one look at the cream the other doctor gave me, then spent a few monutes reading a medical book. In the end she just perscribed me the same cream as the other doctor and i was pushed on my way.

Only a few weeks ago it happened again, so ive gone along to another doctor here in Rockhmapton (doctor number 3). This doctor was the worst of the lot. She was from a non enlgish speaking background and to be honest i had trouble understanding her. I had to ask her to repeat herself a number of times. Anyway, she asked me a heap of questions, then looked in my eye with with a torch. This took a whole of around 5 mins at which point she said “ok im sending you to a specialist, the problem keeps occuring so there isnt much i can do so sending you to a specialist is the best option, you agree?”. Of cours ei said yes, i mean what else was i meant to say?

I got the impression that really she didnt have a clue, and didnt want to waste any more time with me. So she says im good to go and to see the girls at the front desk. I leave, stopping by the front desk where they get me to sign a medicare bulk billing form. They also tell me that a letter will be sent to the specialist and they will contact me with an appointment. I say thanks and leave.

Now, around 3 weeks pass. No word from the speicialist until yesterday when i received a letter form them. In short it said something to the effect of:

“We received the letter from your doctor. Currently we are very busy at cant fit you in at anytime soon. We will contact you when an appointment becomes available. In the meantime we adives you to contact your doctor to arrange other treatments.”

Is this nuts or what? Basically they are saying that they have no appointments and wont have any anytime soon and i should go back to the doctor again to see what to do.

I can pretty much predict what will happen. I go to the doctor, she gives me the exact same cream that the other doctors have and send me on my way. Once again patching the problem and not actually fixing it.

So anyway, i think the Australian medical system is a joke. I pay around $68 per month for private medical insurance (which i might add is going up soon to around $80 per month), yet finding a doctor who actually gives a shit is like finding a needle in a haystack.

Medicare in theory is a good system, but most of the medicare bulk bill places ive seen are staffed by people form non english speaking backgrounds which makes it a nightmare trying to talk to them about medical stuff. Theres other doctors i could go to and pay a $50+ dollar consultation fee, but really how would that be any different? Chances are they would just give me the same cream anyway.

Whats a person to do when doctors cant help and specialists have no free apppointment in the foreseeable future?

Either way, im going to have to bite the bullet and go see ANOTHER doctor. I need something for my eye.

*double sigh*

What is wrong with the following image?

If you cant figure it out, ill tell you.

The white car in the image is driven by an idiot. They ALWAYS insist on parking at a crazy 45 degree angle, even though noone else in the entire row does. Everyone else has no problems with parking at a roughly 90 degree angle, and usually theres no problems fitting people in.

Its only when idiots like this driver come along and decide to park at an insane angle conpared to everyone else that parking becomes a pain.

I cant see the logic in it, the only reason i see is that the person is too lazy to turn the wheel a bit further. They just like to cruise on in and stop.

*sigh*

Finally got our flights booked for the trip to San Francisco for WWDC 2005. Took a bit of a while to go through the necessary uni travel business, but its settled now.

Should be a great year to attend WWDC, with tiger being release very soon the info they provide will be awesome for any developers.

Luke, Thomas and myself are all attending this year and we are all looking forward to it. Should help move C4D along a bit hopefully.

hrmm, recent movies me and mel have watched…

Shall We Dance – Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez. Wasnt a bad flick. Actually had some funny bits in it. Overall i enjoyed it.

The Final Cut – Robin Willaims. Wasnt very impressed with this movie. Seemed to take forever to get anywhere and the ending wasnt that great.

So, last few weeks ive read 2 books.

First was the second book in the Warcraft War of the Ancients trilogy. It followed on well from the first book and was equally as good. Im waiting now for the third and final book to be released. Its really cool how it relates so much to the games, the storyline from the book flows right through all the warcraft games and theres a lot explained in the books so far that i hadnt picked up from the games.

Second book was the Davinci Code by Dan Brown. Flicked through it when my sister was up at easter and thought id grab a copy. Its a really good read as well. I had a hard time putting it down and the storyline was awesome. It has a lot of interesting topics in it and made me think a lot which was good.

So yeah, thats about it. Both books are great and worth reading.