krazy kat's korner

I got a credit pass in my Payroll assessment (not sure if there was a higher grade). Only got the one thing wrong, which I already knew when I finished it. I was so bloody anxious this morning before going to tafe.

I'm now finished my Statement of Attainment in Bookkeeping. Only took ~15 months.

Any further study plans are off the table at this stage. Can't cope with it energy-wise, and my ability to cope with my anxiety has slid this year, so I need to concentrate more on dealing with that.

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My brother dropped around today with the kidlets for a number of hours, so sister-in-law could sleep. Liam's still very unsettled, and now he and Lara have colds.

Liam has rolled over - around 3 weeks old.

We took Lara shopping with us this afternoon for her birthday present (will be 2 in 5 days). She's fun to shop with. We had her in the trolley, and mum was racing up the aisles, saying "wheeeeee!" and then "whoa" to stop. Lara's, "More whee!"

We were looking at dolls in Kmart, and I heard this quiet plaintive, "Kasey". I looked over to find Lara's lip trembling and tears welling. She'd caught her hand down the side of the trolley (my brother said she does that all the time). I got her hand out and she got cuddles. Probably sounds mean, but the tiny voice and the face was the most gorgeous thing.

I had to leave them at a couple of stages, and Lara's calling, "Kate," after me.

She has her new favourite toy - a lawnmower. She mowed all the way up to the registers in Target. People were smiling. She got to take that present home.

When I was pushing the trolley, I was saying, "round the corner". And she's leaning over sideways saying, "more corner!"

To lifeasanamazon, who is incredibly naughty and gorgeous and a total sweetheart. There were tears.

To mandysbitch, for the love meme, and to rinkle and sangerin for adding to my smiles. I was really touched.

To ex-tropical cyclones Odette and George. You may both have lived only a day or so, but you've bumped up my season total to 4 and will forever be in my heart. Now I just need another 3-5 in the next 2 months.

To my gorgeous Lara Kate, for sleeping in my arms like, you guessed it, a baby. My upper arm wasn't so pleased 3/4s of an hour later, but it was wonderful.

But not so much thanks to Huey for the thunder and lightning very very frightening display tonight. There were up to half a dozen extremely close lightning strikes, the ones that sound like a massive crack/gunshot.

Isobel is the first tropical cyclone of our season (off the NW coast of WA).

On the very slim chance that anyone's interested, my tropical cyclone seasonal forecast is here.

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Totally dead. Had to get up at 7am because the plumber was coming. So got into the cleaning early, by lunchtime it felt like I'd done a full day's work. The rumpus room floor is now clear for the first time in a couple of years and we can get into the cupboards without moving my junk. And the cupboard opposite is lovely and neat. Still have to clean this cupboard/desk, but that will be a slower job.

Aching, hurting and tired. I kept falling asleep in the bath, at one stage with the washer and soap in my hand.

Looks like we finally figured out places to put extra cd/dvd storage units. The situation is a little dire...I did a rough count of my cd collection and was a little disturbed...but I think my dvd collection is worse.

My brother is staying at the moment (he's not been well), and so his cockatiel, Wee Jock, came too. He did surprisingly well on a 90 odd minute car ride, wasn't even covered up (though he was in our smaller budgie cage) - just fell off the perch a couple of times going round corners.

Wee Jock is so lovely. Surprisingly light (I thought he'd be much heavier than the budgies), really loves people and sitting on your hand/wandering up your arm. He's hilarious preening, shakes himself quite violently (mum says he looks like a pullet (teenage chicken) when he does that), and gets annoyed if you interrupt him (hisses or snorts). But he's a bit loud and one note (though he's developing new noises just being here). He and the budgies haven't shown a lot of interest in each other, and don't seem to talk.

But if we have Wee Jock out, Danny and Woody come and land on front of the cage to be near him (Danny was the first brave one on Sunday, Woody only found his courage today). We've let Wee Jock walk around on top of the budgie cage, they freaked each other out to start with, any little movement. But now the budgies don't seem to care. Woody and Danny get up on the swings to get closer, and have tried nibbling Wee Jock's toes (have to watch them carefully) or grabbing his tail.

This arvo after the budgies fly, we got Wee Jock out and put him on top of the cage with Woody. The size difference was amazing, especially since Woody is a small budgie. Woody was talking to Wee Jock, and trying to get close enough to go beak to beak, but Wee Jock really didn't know what to make of it and tended to run away. Kinda like a small yappy dog freaking a big dog.

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You'd think that once someone got to third year uni they'd know how to read the bloody question...yes, after a year's break, I'm marking again. N was desperate and I was the last resort ;)

Anyone used VNC to connect from a PC to a linux/unix platform? It was all pretty the first time I connected, could move the xterms around the desktop, click on the desktop to bring up a menu...but after I changed the password (as needed) and connected again, I've lost all that functionality. Now it's just an xterm in the middle of a grey desktop, I can't move the xterm or resize it, I can't click to get a menu... I broke it :(

Floyd's just formed north-west of Broome (Western Australia).

So the seasonal total is now sitting between my two model forecasts (7 for the EPT model, 9 for the SOI model - both models predicted 3 in the Coral Sea (*fingers crossed no more there*)). Go away monsoon trough.

( Larry wreaking havoc )

Larry's now down to Category 2 as he moves across Queensland. Huge amount of wind damage, but luckily it was fast moving (about 25 km/hr), so flooding isn't expected to be too bad due to lack of sustained rainfall, and it didn't coincide with high tide (though there were mandatory evacuations of low lying areas). The townships in the path have a lot of property damage, some areas up to 50-80% of houses seriously damaged, apparently mainly the older houses that were built before the codes were tightened. But only some minor injuries and looks like no deaths.

Main problem seems to be that it's virtually decimated Australia's banana crops. They're estimating fruit losses of $350 million and about 4000 jobs, more than 80% of the bananas growing in this country are gone.

Another cyclone, Wati, has formed in the Coral Sea, and while further out, may follow the same path over the next few days. On a selfish note, as long as there's no more forming (and we're late in the season now), my forecast is right on. 7 overall, and 3 in the Coral Sea.

My tropical cyclone forecast:

Using the SOI predictor Poisson regression model we forecast a total of 9 (8.6) tropical cyclones to form in the Australian/southwest Pacific Ocean region during the 2005/2006 season. This is slightly more than the long-term average of 7.4 tropical cyclones per season. Using the EPT predictor Poisson regression model we forecast a just-below average total of 7 (6.8) tropical cyclones to form in this same region and season. With the SOI and EPT predictor models we also forecast 3 (3.1) and 2-3 (2.5) tropical cyclones to form in the Coral Sea subregion in the upcoming 2005/06 season.

TC Larry formed today off the Queensland coast, bringing the season total to 6, with 2 of those in the Coral Sea subregion.

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I'm behind the times, but just watched Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. OMG!!! So so cute and funny. And all the things in there for adults. I cracked up when Gromit turned on the radio and "Bright Eyes" was playing. I think there was a South Park reference in one scene too, but I could be wrong.

And "Run rabbit, run rabbit, run run run" - hehehe! They're playing the Tourism Vitoria ad with the song on tv again, so I already had it in my head.

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So tired, physically exhausted. Just watched dvds this arvo, pilot of X Files (finally trying to get a start on the dvd backlog), and first 2 eps of season 7 Buffy. I've been missing Buffy.

There were problems getting it up in the first place, and then they left off an author and transferred my supervisor to the Met Bureau, but it's all fixed now. (Hakeem Shaik is with the Met Bureau in Darwin and marked my Masters thesis).

My tropical cyclone forecast: Seasonal forecasts of tropical cyclone numbers in the Australian/southwest Pacific Ocean region using a new Poisson regression model: Verification of 2003/04 and 2004/05 season forecasts and forecast for 2005/06 season - by Katrina A McDonnell, Neil J Holbrook, and Hakeem Shaik

So far it's a slow season, only 5 tropical cyclones.

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Damn gmail pop has been mucking up since this arvo. Won't download emails.

Didn't go into work today. Still this damn virus. So exhausted, I could barely wash myself tonight and mum had to help me get out of the bath.

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I'm seeing sparkage between Ziva and Gibbs on NCIS. Mum did too in the fifth episode, she was waiting for a clinch in the elevator. Actually it's the most chemistry I've ever seen on the show. She stands up to him, and he respects that (Abby is similar in not taking his crap).

So tired. Between losing an hour because of stupid daylight saving, and then last night was finishing off the tropical cyclone forecast (still have to do the graph, but that will be tomorrow when hopefully I'll be alive enough to try and decipher my damn program (I will never be an elegant programmer--if there's a long way to do something, I'll find it)). And then work today. So tired.

Grey's Anatomy is improving, but only because of those who aren't the two main characters. I so adore Christina/Burke (climbing into bed with her at the end *sniffles*).

Need to call Centrelink and find out where the hell my bloody health care card is. Got the letter telling me it was coming nearly two weeks ago, but nothing since. And my present card expires on Wednesday.

But it has been raining which is very good. Thought the humidity's into my joints, which isn't so good.