I've been asked to update an online bulletin board application and throw in some new features and collaborative stuff, but I'm finding it very hard to get started. Not because the coding is hard, not because it means I have to sit with the freaky crazy chick who is mostly responsible for the requirements, not even because I have lots of stuff to do because I don't. The real reason is philosophical. The application is completely retarded. It could quite possibly been designed by a team of rabid monkeys or Pauline Hanson herself for all the sense it's deranged internals make which is to say, not much. I can barely see the point in building on top of something which is hopelessly bad. And it makes me feel dirty to know that my code now in part makes something really awful operate. After I'm finished I know that I'll want to simply rip the rest of it out and clean it up, so why shouldn't I just start with that approach from the beginning? The answer here is simple: the management drones think it's a waste of time.

So I sit here and throw sharpened pencils at the ceiling, hoping to have them stick.

The other day was Melbourne Cup day, when australia comes to a grinding halt to collectively yell at a bunch of horses galloping around a track. In a rare break from my usual jeans and t-shirt I got dressed up and entered the fancy hat competition.