rdfreak

Someone on datinandrelatin posed the question of what guidelines warrents a friendship and a deletion on Facebook, so here's my response; just for the record as it stands to date:

I find a lot of "friends of friends" add me and I may or may not have heard of them. I usually add them back but if they don't talk to me in the following month or so, I will remove them.
I tend to have various rules for adding people to my list and I can't quite work them out yet. I mostly don't add just acquaintences but occasionally I do if I feel I want to get to know them better or if we use to be pretty good friends. However, as with the above, if they don't talk to me, or if I try commenting and they never ever reply back I remove them again.
I use to have a whole heap of school people on my list and I noticed a lot of them were never replying to my comments, so I've removed a lot of them. Furthermore, a lot of "friends of friends" like to add me to beef numbers on their list; I'm on to it!
However, there's a couple of people from school I now click with better than i ever did at school; in other words, we've established a much more stable friendship as a result of facebook.
I do like to network and also try and get to know people from my work places etc. So I added a few people from work recently and don't regret most of them as I've become good friends with them in real life.

Til Next time, RdFreak
P.S. Am writing this on Dreamwidth as I'm not able to get to the "post" page on LJ at the moment. :(

"Belated" because good old livejournal was down all yesterday and half the day before; so I had written the following birthday message yesterday morning but couldn't post it. (note it's the longest time in my LJ history LJ has been down.)

26th July: 8.45 AM
It's my Livejournal's 8th birthday today! A lot can happen in eight years; on some levels I have achieved a lot, but on other levels, I don't know if I have. Of course the highlights have been the overseas travels, all of which have been documented in here; so that's one reason to be proud of this here LJ. -- The only overseas travel I haven't documented in here were my trips to New Zealand as a baby, and the trip our family made in 94, though I have got a lot of recordings on tape which I'm sure I'll find again one of these days.
Of course LJ has seen me through my first job and now, my second which is proving to be a huge huge success. Unlike the previous time, my boss is fantastic, not to mention my increasing amount of friends!
I only moved into my unit a little over a year before this LJ began and soon, just short of the ten-year mark, I'll be moving again; that will be a huge change for me.
of course some of my low lights throughout this LJ was obsessing/loving people who couldn't give a damn about me, but .. ya know .. I guess I wouldn't have been human if I didn't experience that crap.
After a lot of heart-ache and disappointment, I'm now in a very stable committed relationship and I definitely couldn't be happier there.
Health of course is starting to prove a challenge but I can only remain positive and it won't stop me from completing my lifelong goals and dreams.
I have, and continue to make some great friends through this LJ, who have prooved very surportive of me. I have likewise lost a few along the way (generally online and real life), but .. hey .. that's OK; The ones that stay are the ones that really matter at the end of the day.
As mentioned in my recent bio update, this LJ went from being mostly public to mostly protected from the beginning of this year but regardless, I am proud of most entries; speaking of which, more news coming soon.
So happy birthday to RdFreak's LJ, and let's hope it's around for many many more years!
Til Next Time, RdFreak
2541 entries up to date.

Today is the 1st of July in Melbourne Australia; what I've started to call my "lucky month". It's sixxteen years from the 12th since I met Celine dion, Heartly's 13th birthday on the 20th and my LJ's 8th birthday on the 26th. It's winter though; that is unlucky.
Tomorrow I have Trudi's party and I'm really looking forward to it; getting back into it all after so long and putting trust into people again feels good. :)
Oh, and I haven't got a cold like i thought I did; yeah! it must have been alergies or something; had been sneezing for like three hours from the time I got up.
Lol before:
me: We're now into the second half of the year.
C: Yes it goes so quick.
Me: Goes way too quick these days; soon enough i'll be 85 and in a nursing home.
C: Lol you're thinking very far into the future there (friendly laughs from others around us).
me: And all I'll want is my computer and a good internet connection (laughing from around again); so I can chat to other people in nursing homes far and wide.
Yes I'm mad.
Til Next time, RdFreak

This is the 2500th LJ entry; go me! anyway ..
I heard the following song on 3AW's overnight show with Allan and just fell in love with it.
( Josh Turner - Why don't We Just Dance )

Til Next Time, RdFreak

One of my favourite things to do on LJ is looking at random journals or going right back in new and old LJ friends' archives.
I guess, random journals are my fave because they're allowing me to get to know them. I have always loved reading about different people's lives, and have appreciated so much that people leave their LJ public, or the majority of their entries. So, I did the same. I loved sharing my story with the world.
But, as I've gotten older, I have come to respect more and more that some people I speak about need their privacy. Furthermore, there seem to be more and more individuals that like to troll the net for information so they can gossip amongst their friends; That's what the net is coming too. Work is also a big reason; sometimes, i need to vent about work where I won't be afraid of anyone finding it, not that I think it would happen, but, as the saying goes, it's better to be safe than sorry.
Over the eight years of my LJ life, I have noticed more and more people locking down their journals, and it is sad, but I understand why they do it. And now, it's my turn. I have thought about this for sometime now. I will not be going back to lock past entries, mainly because it would take too long; Lol
In addition to locking the majority of my entries now, I will be doing a bit of a cleanout of my friends list; I'd say the cleanout won't be huge, may not even need to happen at all, as I have done a bit behind the sceens lately so am therefore quite happy with everyone. I will prob use my filters a tad more too; I only have a couple set up which I have used pretty infrequently.
I need to be able to trust everyone.
So, unless an entry is entirely about me, consider these LJ entries "friends only" from now on.
Catch ya in the next post.
Til Next time, RdFreak

Where is my love of writing in my LJ going?
It's not that I don't love it, i jus don't have time these days; what with my work that I'm there 8.5 hours a day and at B's for the weekends etc. And when i do get home to blacky, I am zonked and will listen to Neighbours online that I've missed, eat dinner and crash.Occasionally I have been able to catch neighbours live on my new set-top box I bought a few weeks ago.
Also got a digital radio in Paky a few weeks ago. idea is to see if I can use it at work but haven't had a chance to ask M about it yet.
Everyone here is still lovely.
My technology is almost all there but there is one aspect which isn't quite working yet. i can use everything else, just not the pulse call cue thing; jaws goes a bit spaz when i switch between my remote desktop and that program.
So Michael W has been here prob about half a dozen times since my first and only entry (up til now) for the year.
George from VA has also been here to help me click on unlabeled buttons on the elearning thinggy. By next year, the outsourced company will be required to have it sorted.
Since it's the end of the FBT year, Maxxia have rewarded us with plenty of fun things like popcorn, games with fun prizes and today, a free lunch of a subway meal; they are good to us and I can't complain.
I am also no longer the newest kid on the block as of yesterday. Sophy seems shy, but that's how i was; now I'm not; lol
I am having to drink heaps more water than i use to to prevent headaches; it's weird; I get them so easy now.
I will write in here more often as I use too.
Til Next Time, RdFreak
P.S. I keep up to date with LJ friends page between calls, though this takes me a very long time since it's so busy.
My individual record so far is 501 calls in a day!
P.P.S My health is better in general since B insisted we visit this health food shop so I have better iron tablets, and they do seem stronger.
in saying all this, i think i have a minny cold; not one to hold me down at all, but just one to give me more sneezing fits than my usual annoying alergies, and now, a sore dripping nose.
P.P.P.S. I keep remembering things to add. It's was Miss joy's 3rd birthday yesterday. I will write an entry later about the adventure Joy and her mate had Sunday; not happy Jann!

I've noticed lately that things will happen which link to my contemplations of late. OK I know that sentence didn't make sense.
I'd forgotten to mention in here, that by about last Tuesday, I started contemplating seriously becoming a Vegetarian. Dad had given me some of his home-made lentil potato pie for dinner which I had two nights in a row, and I just felt more physically there. Meat products seem to, more often than not these days, make me feel bloated and pass wind (sorry bout the TMI but seriously.) -- And of course, that wasn't the first time I'd experience vegetarian cooking.
Last year while in cairnes with the lovely Cole family, I went Vegetarian the whole week (as they have been for years) and I honestly didn't miss meat at all as I totally thought I would. They cooked such yummy meals, and I didn't even object to their Tuna dishes. -- And I love marinated fried tofu.
Anyway, as my LJ suggests, my health, for some unknown reason, as seemed to take a bit of a decline in recent years, with the most recent concern being my Kidney issues (which will hopefully be diagnosed tomorrow.)
When I eat a meal of meat, I can't eat any chocolate afterwards without feeling bloated and windy. Last week I found, I could quite happily enjoy a bit of chocolate afterwards without feeling anything at all.
Of course, my being iron deficient much of the time these days, I'd have to consult with the doctor on iron supplement guarantees, but if all promises to be OK there, the lifestyle may be one to really consider. Like dad, I would go off at Christmas and special occasions, so I wouldn't totally be sticking to it; but 99% of the year, I'd expect too for sure.
I'd also need to learn to cook very very creatively; this brings me to the above-mentioned coincidence; On the front page of LJ today, there's a spotlighted community called vegetarians, and the description offers people who may be considering the lifestyle an opportunity to learn, so seriously things talk to me sometimes.
Also, going Vegetarian much of the time, would have an added bonus as it would make me feel better about the whole animal rights thing, not that I judge anyone, or even myself when eating meat, but still, it's hard to think properly about what we're really eating.
In other news, I was supposed to meet Peter for breakfast at 10.30 but totally slept in. I got to sleep at about 1 this morning after having two lovely new friends over; Nina and Chrissy! Nina cooked; Chrissy and I combined the mixture and stuffed the cannelloni, and surprise surprise .. that was vegetarian. Nina had planned to cook that before she even knew of my contemplations there, so that was pretty impressive.
We gossed, we laughed and we cried (at least, I thought Nina was crying at one stage, but she was really only laughing too hard, which was good). Joy was a hit, as usual. -- I should be getting photos soon of her as Nina took a few. I have only got my darling Heartly here.
Might go for a walk today. Walked to the station yesterday to meet Nina, and I so must keep this up daily.
Til Next time, RdFreak

Let me tell you about my night of last. I went to my parents; that was great; we had a roast chicken, meatloaf and vegies; thanks Mum! I gave dad 50 bucks for fathers day (I use to think money was a cop out, but they prefer that than something they really don't want so this makes them happy).
But then Nan gave me a lift home and that's when all the trouble started; well, initially it was good as I was playing a uno game with Edward A from the "Blind double Trouble" podcasd; so we finally met officially and spoke while we were playing, but then, I decided I might try and switch to eloquence to try and read something he said as unfortunately there's still no option to be able to review text in this client, as I had suggested to them prior but anyway; I'm use to being ignored, Lol (poor me! :) haha)
Anyway, so I did that, and then when I reloaded tripple-talk, it spewed out some random numbers and then died; in fact, I couldn't get anything to work, so i was forced to reboot puter. Trippletalk was no better so I uninstalled and reinstalled jaws; still no better from trippletalk, so I repeated the uninstall and reinstall of jaws, this time removing all my user settings as I did hear eloquence announce that it could not open my ini file, so I'd thought something was wrong with that file. -- Oh, I might add that NVDA was very useful during this time; lucky I had it on this puter finally.
Anyway trippletalk still behaves the same, so now I just have eloquence as my primary synth and as dad is coming later, i shall get him to read the error message that comes up when I try and load trippletalk. Fun times for sure. I do love eloquence really, but I'm use to trippletalk being there and I hate it when I don't know why things aren't working. :( -- Anyway I'm sure dad will be able to help me with this; thank goodness it decided to wait to happen when he arrived home. -- I am not sure what could have happened to it; I didn't do anything out of the ordanary.
At any rate, I need to get in touch with edward and tell him it wasn't anything he said, lol
Til Next time, RdFreak
::edit:: I love it; "pissed off" is now an official mood theme on LJ; classic! I don't remember it being there in the past; but it suits my mood hence my selecting it obviously. :)

Wow, what a lot of LJ entries; still it's taken 7 and a bit years to get there! :)
Am off to Vision Australia's technology expo today; should be a lot of fun. originally I was thinking of getting there at 11, but now I think 11.30 will be better. I'll be able to listen to J and co's Braille presentation, have some lunch at good old tillies cafe, go to an apple presentation, spend a couple of hours looking around the exhibits, and then I'm going to participate in a tactile drawing experiment at 3 for a uni student; I get 20 bucks for it so why not? :) I can't remember properly what it entails now but i shall find out. -- have even deleted the email with the details but will explain tonight.
Yeh for my LJ; still love it the bestest; still rules!
Til Next Time, RdFreak

I haven't played an audio game in ages, but i should, since I have so many high quality ones! I love audio games, and there's only a couple I've ever mannaged to complete on the easy level.
But through taking a read of a former LJ friends LJ (Lou's to be exact), i stumbled across this great audio game called Q9! -- The demo version enabled us to play the first two levels; I successfully completed the first, not the second yet but I decided I would buy the game to unlock it! The music and the quality of the sounds are just magnificent! -- So I now have three side scrollers in my growing game collection. -- we are just so lucky to have such great quality games being made for us; I've never taken that fact for granted. I think, when it comes to gaming, we are honestly just as well-off as the sighted folk. it is clear that these game programmers believe in blind people having their share of fun, Lol (that sounds cheesy probably but it's true! :)
I'm so glad I was introduced to this game because, it's been ages since I've been to any game sites. And as I say, I haven't even clicked on any of the games on my puter for a while; wow I've now got heaps of them, mostly bought, some freebies.
Now I can't remember how I've tagged my audio games in the past, but I really need to take some time and clean up my tags as some of them were never meant to be created and others are kinda inconsistent.
I've already gone back a number of times to the beginning of my LJ and have tagged entries (since the tagging system wasn't available in 2003), but I still have a bit to go as I've recently added a few more tags; how confusing!
So off i go to play this game again. :)
til next time, RdFreak