It's Wednesday already?!?
OK - so it's been a little hectic with some bump-ins happening and just
a lot of work on. I kinda like it - as it makes the time fly. Of course,
on the down-side, the faster time flies, the quicker the end of the
contract comes up - and that's a bit of a pain-in-the-posterior. All too
soon it will be the 21st (or 28th) of September, and I will be out of
here. I have decided to take 2 weeks off doing absolutely nothing,
except whatever I want to do. After that, then I will be looking
at a new contract.

We had a visit from one of those IT outsourcing companies this morning
(not an agency per se, but an actual outsourcer who may want to take on
a few of us). They smartly realised that they should take members of an
existing team and keep a few of them together. Smart move - but will
they pay roughly the same. Poor fellow got blindsided when he spent 30
mins talking about his outsourcing company and the overwhelming response
to "Do you have any questions?" was: "To be honest, we don't
really care about the actual company-structure, how much they've grown
in the past 2 years or what their 5-year $200 million plan is. We simply
want to ensure our continuity of pay-rates and income security." He
had no comeback - I wish I'd been the one to say it.

Sheesh! there're a lot of things slated to happen in the weeks coming up
- and really quite a few that I want to do/see (concerts etc...). As it
is I MAY be lucky enough to get off work (this weekend) so that I can
shop for the final bits of my outfit on Saturday (for Bloodlust) and then
attend Bloodlust. Yes, for me - this is the lead-up to the final
big event (of this contract) happening and as such, I MAY have to work
Saturday during the day, but I believe I have Saturday night/Sunday off.
The following week, however, will be OMG horribly busy. At least I was
smart enough to ask for the weekend of Under The Blue Moon off -
which is such a godsend - and then I will have stupid days and
hours until September 10. 10 days after that (or 17 days - they aren't
sure as yet) I finish up here. I wonder if anyone else has had
difficulties with the USync paymanes system for UTBM. I have paid twice
with a new credit card, and appatrently the payment has defaulted to an
old one. It driving me nuts, and the USync people have not returned
emails about it. I wonder of I can book (again) via the phone.

Last 3 days have been quite worthwhile with a quiet homelife, but nicely
seeing worthwhile people on a daily basis (afternoon-wise anyway). You
know that old adage - "Don't take anything for granted..." along
with "Some things are better than you realise..." there's also
"You don't what you've got 'till it's gone..." . Ahhh I love it
when I'm cryptic ;) - ANYWAY... It's been a good week so far - including
the craziness surrounding work. It will be a good weekend as well, with
things on and happening. I have also received a phone-call this
afternoon telling me that my replacement laptop will be arriving on
Friday afternoon, at about 2pm. So I will have the data cleaned off the
old one (old meaning September last year) and the pristine OS loaded
onto it tomorrow night for a Friday replacement. So, at the end of this
saga, I get more RAM, more HDD space, a faster CPU, more memory in the
graphics card (integrated I know), (allegedly) a more robust
manufacture, AND a continuity of my 3 year, on-site,
parts/labour/replacement warranty (which has 2 years to go).

Oh yes, I managed to get a little time to update the upcoming weekend
Events In Sydney post (coming out later tonight/early tomorrow morning)
noting the revised Bloodlust times.