jim-hill.com

Men are biologically programmed to act as idiots when they’re young. It’s all about being a mammal. Because mammal females invest so much time and energy into reproduction, in most mammalian species they all need to be breeding to sustain the population. Therefore females can’t be involved in the selection of genes for the next generation. That means that males must be the selection vehicle, and because the females aren’t involved they have to carry double the amount of selection responsibility.

As a result small numbers of males are required for reproduction and that small number is selected by competition between them. In order to go out and challenge a much bigger male for breeding rights you have to have lost a certain amount of your instinct for survival, in fact probably all of your instinct for survival. Which means that men, particularly when young, are completely unhinged.

Women, on the other hand, are biologically supposed to be breeding from the age of about 13 or 14. So the fact that they wait until they are 30-35 in this modern world probably explains why they’re off their rockers too.

Conclusion: We’re all mad.

Philip and I got to work on removing the carpet and laying a new laminate floor in my house during his visit. It took a lot longer and was far more exhausting than we expected, but the result was pretty good. I have some pictures I’ll put up at some stage. Still got a few things to do to finish it off, but they’ll be, hopefully, pretty easy.

Whiskey disappeared for a couple of days but came back last night.

In the last few yards John overtook Styggie and he nimbly made his way to the top of the rocky outcrop. His assumption that it was this outcrop that Styggie was running to was confirmed when he heard Styggie collapse in a heap below him. John turned to look into the desert whence they had come but he could see nothing to suggest that this race to the rocky outcrop had been necessary. With the exception of the pair of lings below him gasping for air the desert was quiet and peaceful.

“Get… down!”

John looked down to see Styggie waving his arm. He jumped down off the rock and moved to Styggie’s side on a flat rock at the edge of the outcrop. “What the Hell is going on Styggie?”

“Wait.” Styggie staggered to his feet and waved in the direction of John’s tent. John could see nothing. Then, suddenly, he felt a movement in the air, a sudden gust of wind blowing in the direction of the the tent. John  turned around to see where the wind had come from but saw nothing except the rocks silhouetted against the moonlit sky.

“It’s over,” said Styggie. “If you had stayed in your tent you would be gone by now.”

“Gone? What do you mean gone?”

“Gone. That’s all. Your tent is gone and you would be gone with it.”

“Gone where?”

“We don’t know.”

The people of Atherton must spend thier entire lives in the dentist. Whenever you call an Atherton dentist the first appointment they have is always months away.  Anyway, I’ve booked in for an appointment on Friday in Cairns.  So Philip and I have an afternoon in Cairns on Friday. I’ll just keep taking the painkillers till then.

Going to see Star Trek this evening on the way to pick Philip up.  I’ll also pick up some more flooring. I’ll write more about laying the new flooring in a different post.

“Nerf” is a word used by people who play massively multi-player on-line role playing games (or MMPORGs). It is a term used to describe the actions of the host company when they change the way a character plays so that it is no longer as powerful as it once was. This always leads to unrest among those who have that character type. Anyway, this is probably utterly uninteresting to most of you.

In Queensland you go to a hardware shop and buy a shower head for your shower. I did this because I didn’t like the one that came with the house. So Igot my new shower home and fitted it and turned it on. I had expected the same sort of pressure that comes out of all the other taps in the house, but instead there was barely a trickle.

Further investigation found a revealing message in the packaging indicating that the showerhead was rated for 9 litres per minute. A quicks search discovers that this is the regulation put in place by the Queensland government to save water. In effect, they are nerffing everyone’s showers. See how good a word it is?

I live in a tropical rainforest environment. We have stacks of water. It seems a bit thick to me that the same regulations should apply to us as are applied to all those people who live in the desert south of Townsville.

Anyway, I opened up the showerhead and discovered the small piece of grey plastic that was responsible. For good measure I drill some extra holes in the interior workings of the thing.

Now I have a shower which you can actually wash yourself in. I wonder if you can measure just how much unhappiness that small piece of plastic causes the people of Queensland?

Played golf on Saturday in the onthly medal. I struggled a bit with my lob wedge, but it is definitely the solution to the small greens and erratic lies you get in Atherton.  Shot 84 in the end, with several duffs and a three putt. I did play some very good shots and the feeling is nearly there for hitting the ball as well as I used to hit it in St Andrews. Wish I could find a driving range nearby, but there isn’t one.

A friend came over on Saturday evening to watch a couple of movies. I should do a movie review section on this blog. Watched the Coens’ Intolerable Cruelty and their remake of Ladykillers. Reminds me I should try and get hold of the original Ealing film.

Went down to Cairns on Sunday to look for flooring. I bought 12 packs of the 6mm laminate flooring which looks pretty good. I still need another 20 packs at least. But when I put it in the car I was slightly alarmed at the way the ar settled over the back wheels. But the car drove home ok.

I weighed a pack and it cam out at 15kg, meaning that the full twelve packs were only 180kg. Less than the weight of three adults. The car should handle it no problem, so I’ll just have to pack better in the future. I still think I’ll need two trips so 12 at a time will be OK.

Philip is arriving late tomorrow night. I’ll probably take the big car and pick up another 12 packs of the flooring plus the underlay so that we can get started. His plane gets in at 12 so I’ll probably go and see Star Trek while I’m waiting.

Got toothache . Always happens at the weekend. And today is a public holiday, so i can’t do anything about it. Will call the dentist tomorrow.

Think I’ll put all thoughts of a new computer on hold for a while. The highest priority is to get rid of the carpet in my house and replace it with something else. I saw laminate flooring recently in Bunnings which is going for $14.90 a square metere which looks very reasonable. It’s cheap enough that if I dont like it I can replace it later on.

Just thought I’d test this blog’s capability to show pictures.

This is the old fire station in Yungaburra before it was knocked down in 2008

Hmm… That seemed to work. Good. Perhaps my future posts will have a touch more colour

I’d really like a new computer.  My old PC at home is showing its age. I really only use it for playing games and I can still play games on it, but it’s very creaky and sometimes it doesn’t start.

Of course I could go out and buy a new computer. But I did that just before Christmas, when I bought a MacBook. The Mac now does all the communicating with the internet and I use it for whatever writing I find myself in the mood to do.  And it cost $2000.

But the PC isn’t just about games, it’s about scanning and storing photos and video and editing video (although the Mac is very good at that). It’s about mucking about with house design and poster design and about printing.

Still a new computer will cost about $1500. I’ve just bought a house and there’s loads of things I want to do to the house. I want to get rid of the carpet and put down wooden planks or even those good looking vinyl planks. That’s an absolute minium of $2000. I want a new two car shed with workspace and room for the laundry and that’s $15000 minimum.  I want a deck out the front and I want to build in the back porch area.  And I don’t know how much that will be.

But then the house is there to invest my spare money in. So perhaps the best thing to do is buy the computer, and get the itch over with. If I buy the right one now it’ll last for five years before becoming obsolete again.

Aye. Right.

Want to fix up the MR2. I bought some interior door panels on ebay to replace the worn ones I have. They’re black leather so should make the car look pretty good. There’s a front wing on sale which I might also buy if the price is right  and the whole lot has to be shipped over from the UK.

Philip got his old job back, which is brilliant news!