Tuesday 30 October 2007

Picking up the pieces, again

Contrary to the previous post, a lot has happened over this weekend, and especially stuff that I would in fact want to write about! But. (There's always the but at the worst time, no?) My laptop's gone for a spin again. Almost exactly a year since the last major cock-up. This time though, it merely refuses to let me do anything with the net. X-((((((( Thankfully, that has done nothing to stop me from getting to my music... the small mercies. At least until they come along and haul it away to try and fix it again that is :|.
So anyway, crew-change! And yes, it was a very satisfying feeling to be getting off with the rest of the bunch :D. But not without a little bit of drama. The last day on the trip we had to spend sort of on the back deck, since we had to break off from the prospect and sail closer to land to get within chopper range. But when I went up to the helideck for the customary sunrise viewing, I was in for a major shock! The ship was pitching hard and the swell was bad enough for anyone to tell you there was no way in hell any chopper could land!!! So the last few hours we spent intensely worrying, till eventually the first chopper was due in a few minutes and some of us made our way up to the MOB standby station. Nothing unusual about that, only this time, we actually made sure everything was in proper order for a launch, just in case :|.

The first chopper appeared in due time, preceded by the roar of its twin turbo engines. I knew there was something funny when it hit the deck a lot quicker than I've ever seen before. Soon the deck was clear for the second one to land, we saw it make its turn, but then it just kept flying around in circles around the ship! The pilot was too afraid to land!!! And this was barely the second chopper! I was way down the list on the fourth!! Major panic!! Thankfully, after about a couple of circles the chap figured he could land :D. The next landing went without incident, only, there was still no one to relieve us so we could go get ready to leave :(! When I did get away, there was still a good half hour to the scheduled arrival of my helo, but I'd barely packed up my stuff and was just about to hit the shower when the PA blared out that our chopper was just about to land :|. And NO it didn't take me half an hour to pack!!! Oh well, good thing I'd packed before the intended shower eh?
We were all happily back in Perth when some very weird weather greeted us. I'd heard that the temperatures around midweek had been up in the 30s! Well, it was getting pretty close to summer anyway. But it was practically freezing when we got off the flight!! 14 degrees and raining /:).

The rest of the weekend...

Well, suddenly it was Monday morning, and it was arguably the worst case of M-m blues since like 1st grade in school :-<. (That was when I had the worst class teacher of my entire life :|.) And it was still cold enough for thick jackets. Decided to alleviate the walk to work by entertaining myself with the brand new GPS receiver we got over crew change! Only made me regret the lack of trekking opportunities in the last two and a half years. And then I got to the office, and discovered my latest device malfunction :|.
Oh well, at least I did quite fantastically in this weeks EPL games. And the best part was Tevez scoring twice! And of course, I had him as captain, so double points :D :D. I finally broke through 500 points and now I'm back up to 12th place, joint :P. Let's see how long I have to survive on friends' laptops. At least there are the friends this time :).

Currently:
rather pained
Listening to: Ellen Allien & Apparat - Jet (oh yeah, landed a massive cache of cool music! including Radiohead's latest :D)

--
Update: It's fixed!!!! It's fixed!!!! \:D/.. Well, just the laptop.

Thursday 25 October 2007

Interruptions

The last week onboard before crew-change is never the quickest, but this time, the days seem to be... well, not quite flying by, but at least trotting past at a fair pace. The way it stands now, it's just one more day and a wake-up! And if everything works out as planned, (Oh how I hate that phrase! It seems to attract disaster :-<.) this should be our last trip in Oz for a while. The Trident is headed for New Zealand over the summer (winter for those in the north :|). But, even though the boat will definitely get there by mid next month, there is a non-zero possibility of most of the crew not making it, thanks to the fantastic fiasco that the visa procurement process is all set to turn into /:). But after two years, you tend to give up on the worrying a bit.Durga Pujo came and went over the weekend. Well, it didn't quite get this far out to sea. But a few emails did :). I spent a good four years not particularly hating the fact that I was missing Pujo. Then I spent another two not particularly ecstatic over the fact that I wasn't. But this year there's a strange sense of a void. The really good part about this festival is the end. It's perfect for people like me, who keep forgetting dates, or (therefore) put great effort into reminders and stuff, only to then find themselves whisked off by circumstances that totally blow everything else out of their minds.. it's an endless blame game :P. But with Pujo, you technically have almost a full year (minus say, 15-20 days) to get around to wishing people :D. Okay, so the practical thing to do is to limit oneself to a month or so. But that still gives me another four weeks at least :D.

It's not that I don't try. Wishing Shubho Bijoya to everyone who understands what that means :).
Ah yes, EPL. I did disastrously. Really. Below the average, and way down the league in my lowest rank yet. But I couldn't get too depressed over it thanks to the F1 weekend! I'm still pretty kicked about it actually :D.

Oh, have been watching a few movies in the mean time. The only one that would actually deserve mention is Pirates 2. This is barely the second time I've seen it, and it felt like I'd never seen it at all!!!!! I did always say the circumstances were less than ideal for getting my head around something quite as complicated as that the first time :P. Bottom line, two is every bit as good as three :D.

I seem to have less of stuff that I really want to write about these days, and more of what the mind seems to fill up with instead....

Feeling: stretched
Listening to: U2 - Where the streets have no name

Monday 22 October 2007

Roulette, anyone?

What are the chances of the third place runner to actually go and win the World Championship really? Not much right? That's what I thought. So here I was, ruing the fact that this season would hide how outstandingly fortunate Lewis Hamilton has been to be in the place he is! No one can possibly deny the fact that LH is in fact very very good. But he's just not that good. Given one of the fastest cars for a major part of the season and one that has (well, had) been amazingly consistent, plus his exceptional ability over a single lap, Hamilton's season was the kind of stuff fairy tales are made of! It's just so bloody annoying for someone who doesn't share the euphoria X-(.

If the last bit has left any doubt in anyone's mind, let me clarify. This is not a neutral point of view I am trying to put forth here. I hate the fact that a McLaren driver is poised to win the World Championship. I hate it even more that it's a rookie that crumbles repeatedly under pressure but has somehow managed to escape unscathed on the leader board. It's only a marginal relief that it's most likely not going to be Alonso.

Right, that was before the race, so scratch that.

YAIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! \:D/ Ferrari won the drivers' Championship!! Massa totally ruled his home race at Interlagos and while I wasn't totally happy about it, at least Todt had the sensibility to make it look like Kimi wasn't just presented the lead and did it over the last set of pits. With, as usual, Kimi driving up a storm with a couple of scorching extra laps with low fuel. Boy, did the reds rule the track! There were only 6 drivers on the leading lap, meaning, everyone else had been lapped by the charging Ferraris. In the end the 3rd placed Alonso was 57, FIFTY SEVEN, seconds adrift of Kimi!! The entire bloody lap's only about 73 seconds or so!! In the end Massa was putting in his customary heroics to secure the fastest lap on the last one of the race, unfortunately Raikkonen's time proved too much to beat...

The shit finally hit the fan for Hamilton. And I have absolutely no sympathy for the mysteriously dead electronics on his gearbox! At least he got to finish the race, no catastrophic hydraulics problems, no engine stalling! You can't possibly go an entire season without the slightest mechanical glitch! And of course the shit he pulled on turn 4 was merely the rookie showing his true colours. As for Alonso, I didn't follow the last two seasons at all, but I'm beginning to think that he must have either been luckier than his current team mate, or he's simply lost it this season! Which is a good thing.

And, about three hours after the chequered flag, scratch that second bit too.

Apparently some Portugese online newspaper reported it first, 'cos Vic, having seen me jumping around came over looking all concerned and translated for me what I suppose now everyone knows from BBC World and the F1 official site :|. Apparently BMW - Sauber and Williams - Toyota are now being investigated for fuel temperature irregularities! What that means? It means that lucky bastard is right back in the game again!!! Even after screwing up the last race!!! Hamilton finished 7th behind Rosberg (Williams), Kubica (BMW) and Heidfeld (BMW). So if these three drivers are disqualified, he moves up to 4th! And thus manages enough points to snatch the Championship right out of Kimi's clutching hands :((((((.

What makes it a whole lot worse is that the advantage the temperature difference is supposed to have conferred is about a second. Maybe. And the difference between Hamilton and Heidfeld on the penultimate lap? About TEN seconds!!!!!! I mean come ON!!! McLaren could have pumped LH's car with as much low temp, high density fuel as they possibly could, and it wouldn't have made the slightest difference X-(((((.

And finally, over six hours after the end of the race....

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!! The Sao Paulo race stewards weren't that heartless (alternatively, insane/retarded) after all! :D BMW and Williams escape penalties.... and.... FERRARI ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!!!!! I almost did another victory lap right there :D. The folks over at BBC put in a lot more and a lot better, so let me quote the bit that expresses my sentiments best:
Excluding the cars would have risked turning one of the most exciting championship finales in F1 history into a farce.
Which is all very satisfying, but guess why I am beginning to really like Kimi Raikkonen? This is what he had to say at the FIA post race press conference.
Q: And how is your feeling to see McLaren beaten in the last race, the team you were with for five years?

KR: Like I said before, I enjoyed every moment with the team. I enjoy Formula One more this year than the last few years for many reasons, but not because of the driving – for other reasons. And I am more than happy to win the championship with Ferrari, especially the first year with the team has been a great year overcoming all difficulties and giving me such a nice big family and great people to work with – and I would rather win with them than with anybody else.
Attaboy Kimi!!! Perfect answer :D. I couldn't possibly have picked a better year to get back to following F1 up close >:).

Currently: ecstatic!!!! (eventually)
Listening to: AC/DC - Hard as a rock

Thursday 18 October 2007

Crisis

A mere relativity of evils I suppose. But when you tug on one of those cords that you presumed held you on to something, you find it slack. In a little while, having pulled in some length of it, trying to camouflage a growing restlessness in part with a short temper, you see what seems like the frayed end in the distance. Should you stop? Blame the mist and a lousy week or ten.. fifteen.... fifty days? Or do you grow the balls to face your greatest fears?

In a couple of days things have gotten a little better. (You'd obviously chickened out.) But then you're just waiting for it start again... Where does it end? A change that could do you some good? Or a long holiday? I'd settle for less.

Currently: wedged in
Listening to: The Prodigy - Minefields

Sunday 14 October 2007

Demon days

I don't really feel like writing about it, but I suppose an entire week must be accounted for in some way. I have one word for you, back-deck. Automatic associations may be made freely with disasters, depressingly long hours, the stench of rotting barnacles, frayed tempers, (and nerves,) plans gone awry, dull sunrises, nice ones almost missed despite them being in your face in a rather blindness inducing manner, cold nights, hot days, deja vu of the horrifying kind.... and many other such wonderful things that can make anyone go suicidal.

But, now that it's over, I'm very happy to find myself with only a fortnight to go till crew-change! That, unfortunately, means that I will miss watching the final F1 GP of the season at Interlagos next weekend live on TV :(. I hope it's a thriller though, given that the VSAT situation has improved enough to give me unparalleled access to the next best thing: F1 Live Timing! But I must say, at the end of the Shanghai GP, when Massa set successive fastest laps on the last three laps, I was almost screaming "WTF were you doing for the rest of the bloody race?!!!!!" :(( The one good thing that has happened over this F1 season is that I've come to accept Raikkonen as an absolute genius. I like Massa better, but 'the Iceman' is simply phenomenal!
EPL Gameweek 9 went by almost unnoticed as the stench of barnacles slowly but surely permeated the vessel, and another mediocre performance saw me slide back out of the top ten. But it looks somewhat promising from here on, I have quite a strong line-up for next week, let's see how that goes.

Just for the record, I'm really looking forward to the ship getting out of Aussie, even if only for a few months, and only as far as New Zealand!

Feeling: drained :-<
Listening to: Moby - Sunday (the day before my birthday)

Wednesday 10 October 2007

Doubts

When you think of the future, do you see the whole thing play out in your mind? Like it's happening, with conversations and what you say and all that stuff, only, inside your head? And every time you do, do you go, "Oh come on!!! Now it will never happen like that!! :(("?

What do you call it when after two years you get tired of cropping your hair short and suddenly one morning it hits you, at this point in time, you are actively in touch with more people who have never seen you with hair this long than otherwise?

How should you feel when you figure that more and more people working under you this year are actually a lot younger? A marked difference from last year. That you are getting old, not just in your head, but in the real world.

Is this sky empty, or half full?
Currently: aching (just physically :), no wait, :((!!)
Listening to: Dido - Who makes you feel

Friday 5 October 2007

The Hollow

...it seems a little desolate
It's hard sometimes not to look away
And think what's the point
when I'm having to hold this fire down
I think I'll explode
if I can't feel this freely now
A man lies in his bed in a room with no door
He waits hoping for a presence, something, anything to enter
After spending half his life searching, he still felt as blank
As the ceiling at which he stared
He is alive but feels absolutely nothing
So, is he?
Borrowed lines, stuck in the mind like a splinter. Is this what it has come to be? Or is it merely the power of suggestion?

Currently: whistling in the dark
Listening to: quiet tuneless attempts at melody

Tuesday 2 October 2007

Gameweek 8

The recovery continues, and I must say I am very relieved to remain static and within single digits in the league :). As is obvious from above, my defence did a splendid job this weekend! And Anelka scored again! The man is amazing, Bolton keep losing, but he somehow almost always manages to get a goal in! Well, I'm not a Bolton fan, so I'm not complaining :P. I also finally have a Liverpool player on my team, and for the first time got a clean sheet from a goalie! Only, now I'm seriously contemplating getting proper forward to substitute the injured Forssel, so I don't have to depend on Tevez so much. Especially when he seems to have been relegated to a second line striker with Rooney's comeback :|. But that will have to wait, for this week, I chose to get rid of Lampard before his price goes down any further.

Currently: eighth
Listening to: Creed - Higher