My prior prediction of impending doom has come true, at least a little. I’ve developed a sore throat over the past few days, which had the unfortunate consequence that I wasn’t able to attend Dave’s engagement party. I’m sure it was great fun though, and I wish I could have been there. I’m still not convinced that is the end of my doom though, it still feels like more is to come.

On the other hand, I made the trek down with my parents to the opening day of a new JB Hi-Fi outlet. A-mazing. It’s a shame it’s such a hike to get there though. My parents wanted to get me something for my birthday, so they said I could pick out a few DVDs. I could have spent hours in there. At one point I realised I had been standing looking at one shelf for a few minutes, having zoned out (cue Greg). There is only so much alphabetizing I can handle in one day. I ended up picking up Ren and Stimpy Season 1, Cabaret ($6 odd), Corpse Bride, Nightmare Before Christmas ($8), and the Rocky Horror 3 disc set, which I already had but wanted a copy of Shock Treatment (yay, movie night people!). My parents also terrified me when they picked up a DVD for their own purposes. It wasn’t anything obscene, but it’s not like my parents to spend any money on new technologies like DVD! I guess that’s not unusual when I had to read the liner notes to them, and I’m currently being blasted by it playing in the other room.

I’ve also been doing more DVD catch-up work myself. Last night I got up to the second last Moore bond film, Octopussy, and today watched the original version of Cape Fear with Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum.

I feel a little bad, but I really shouldn’t.

In June I ordered a new hard drive and an external case for it to shift all my music onto. The case was $95. I bought it off eBay (new, from a retailer) and it was shipped from somewhere near Sydney.

Three months later, the thing turned off and refused to turn on again. These cases are notoriously bad quality, supplied with (what I assume) is a cheap or inappropriate power supply unit. I packaged it up and sent it back with a note requesting a refund, explaining the problem.

It wasn’t until a week later, after an inquisitive email that I finally hear confirmation that it arrived at the store. The person who emailed me described very vaguely (and slightly contradictory) that it was going to be checked over and then sent on (or something…). But I asked for a refund? Oh, well, as long as I get a replacement. When that one dies, then I’ll kick up a stink.

This all happened the same time I my MacBook was in Apple Purgatory, so I didn’t think much of it, focusing my anger on Apple. A month passed and I emailed again, but didn’t receive a reply. A few more emails were sent, but never got any reply. The second last email I sent said something to the effect of “Before I take this further…”. Still, nothing. Do they need to hear the words? Obviously, yes.

Today I sent off a fax and email at the same time, outlining very clearly my rights to a refund, and stating explictly the magic words in any customer relations battle… Department of Fair Trading. I also said I was sorry it had come to this, but they had given me no choice (hrm, maybe a little too Ian Roberts)

What do you know, just now an email has come through with word of a PayPal payment of $95. Shame they hadn’t just replied to a few emails and saved themselves the loss.

Don’t forget to watch Naomi tomorrow night for the full story.

Today was the final class day of uni for the year. It was also my last class of my music degree (just the music side of things, don’t worry - I’m still dedicated to the ongoing persuit of knowledge, and as such, should be allowed to catch buses at half fare).

Sitting in the labs working on the compilation DVD this morning, I had a graphic from our graduation concert poster on the computer screen. An often vague peer said “Oh, I heard them advertising our concert on the radio the other day.” I asked him which station he was listening to, but he didn’t know. “They were playing classical music.”

“Uhhh… That was me.”

“Oh.”

I wonder if I do put on much of a ‘radio voice’. I don’t think so, but it could be subconscious.

In other news, I worked in exchange for money yesterday, the first time in quite a while. Tutoring has started up again, so that’s a little bit of change to let me catch buses places and what not. This could not have come at a better time with uni commitments easing off (I still have assignments and what not to do). Yesterday I also found myself in a bit of a pickle as I spent my last few cents (plus a whole heap of Kit’s) on food so I wouldn’t collapse somewhere, but that left me without transportation home. Thus, I must sincerely thank Kit and Zoe for investing crucial capital into my transportation fund, getting me home safely. Kit, I owe you $1.75. Zoe, I owe you $1. All debts will be repaid in full.

Okay, I really do think it’s time for a new camera.

I was taking photos of things I’m selling on eBay and my camera has giving me some nice effects. Firstly, there’s the 1970s bad film grain look:

Then there is the “Oh-My-God-Little-Coloured-Ants-Are-Eating-At-My-Brain” effect:

Let it be known that these images are not zoomed in anyway, they are pixel for pixel.

Oh - and the camera has also given up on the whole focussing thing, but I was never really that big on that sort of stuff anyway.

This evening I was lamenting my dire photographic situation to Jake. Firstly, without my mac, my iPhoto library is useless, so I’m on photographic hiatus for the time being. Secondly, my trusted camera, the Canon A60 (rating in at a now embarassing 2 megapixels), is on it’s last legs, giving me the dreaded E18 error more often, and inserting some pretty impressive streaking effects across my photos. Lastly, my Flickr account has only hours left of retaining it’s ‘Pro’ status before it is so harshly demoted to a mere resource-sucking leech. It has been a great year with Flickr, but I will remain an unpaid user until I have some spare monies, and frankly there are more important things to put my money towards at the moment (uh, like a new camera?). The down side is almost half of my photos will disappear come the 28th of September according to whatever clock Flickr uses.

I did have a moment of artistic soap-boxing, however, telling myself that art doesn’t need the latest technology. Often, the best art comes in spite of technology. With that spurt of under-researched wisdom, I searched the house top to bottom to find my old Polaroid instant camera. I managed to find everything but the machine that would spit out overly yellow squares, including an Advantix camera (expensive film!), an old digital camera (i’m talking pre-1 megapixel), and old SLR (which took a strange type of film), and about a hundred old mobile phones (what are we supposed to do with these again?). I searched every box and every drawer I have stuffed full of my childhood things, but the camera doesn’t seem to be with me anymore. I have a vague recollection of lending it to someone, possibly family. I also have a vague memory of playing with it not all that long ago. I’m very afraid it ended up in the wrong box when we moved and is now the town hall for a city of rats in landfill somewhere.

Ultimately, I realise, the thing is simply too expensive to use on a regular basis, and would probably be a nightmare to find good cartridges for. I guess there is also eBay. It might have even brought me $10 closer to a new camera.