Somewhere in the haze of feeling crappy yesterday, I decided that I needed to get onto some house cleaning. I don’t really remember how it started; the whole thing is a bit of a blur. One minute, I’m at the computer looking into Embedded Debian for possible use at work, and the next minute, I’m moving furniture.

There is still a small mountain of work remaining, but I got a fair amount done.

• The living room seems huge now. It’s almost too big, given that we have a very small TV and it’s now almost 4 meters away from the couch. But there is a useful amount of space for the beanbag chairs to get used.

• The dining room is in danger of actually being used as a dining room. Not just yet, but it’s a threat on the horizon.

• There is space in the kitchen for the cookware. I found a few things that Julie is sure don’t belong to her. Sterilisation of such things is usually a good idea.

I’ll have to draw the line soon. After digging up the living room, I’m very tempted to get ahold of a belt sander, clean up the wooden floor and stain/seal it. Given that we’re just renting the house, that might be going a bit too far. Of course, she was the one talking about building a deck over the car ports.

In an email conversation, I mentioned that I had just sent in my passport to the New Zealand Immigration Service to get a new sticker added. When that happens, I will no longer be living in New Zealand on a work visa; I will be a resident. Upon being asked what that entails, I replied:

I’m still a Canadian citizen. That won’t change in the near future (I think I can hold both passports if I were to go that far). I will be allowed to vote next time, though. And I’ll have a little more freedom with entering the country. And a lot more freedom with who I work for. I could be a high class software prostitute. None of this bottom feeding for me!

He was impressed with the metaphor, so I decided to record it here.

I do have a lot of opinions on the nature of a work relationship between the employer and employee. Most of them are based on idealism, but that doesn’t necessarily make them unrealistic. In short, employment is a rental agreement. I agree to give my time and skills for a certain renumeration. This agreement is not non-negotiable.

I’m really unsure about this one. It’s good, but only sometimes.

I grabbed a bunch of things to throw into an impromptu salad for lunch today: apple, green bell pepper, carrot, cucumber, walnuts, almonds, dates, raisins, garlic flakes and feta. The result varies from moment to moment. I think it’s good until there are raisins in the way. The sweetness doesn’t seem to be friendly towards the garlic/feta combination.

Or maybe it’s possible that the balance between the two must be favourable towards the feta. Too much garlic can start to overpower. Such is the tendancy of garlic, I think.