The selling out of Sigmund Stardust

Corporate Adventuring

2010-12-08T17:43:00.002+10:00

I have returned to my old haunts, I have laid down my roots once again, wide and shallow. I have found that the new roots no longer match the imprints of the old.

Tearing new ground asunder I am plunging forth into the corporate world. I am taking a two pronged approach.

My initial forays in both directions have come with some success.

I am trail blazing directly into the maelstrom of middle and large corporate worlds, struggling to find companies that are struggling with big unwieldy operations and need someone to measure them up and tame them.

I have found examples of organizations where I can triumph over adversity and succeed through elegant design, they have yet to request the services of a hero to vanquish their ills, but when they call, I will be ready!

The second prong, I'm also creeping up behind it, learning and researching the esoteric arts that the finance and corporate world calls financial analysis. There are many hurdles and trials to overcome and push through. I have encountered the first major hurdle! A series of riddles so intricate and complex they would turn the mind of lesser men inside out! There were many other brave souls beside me, attempting to take the same route, many had fallen to the wayside or been driven mad and despondent by the conundrum ahead.

Never the less I pressed on. Thinking, reasoning and imagining. So tricky and arduous was the riddle that six hours did it take me to find the answer.

Next I wait to find the next hurdle on the back ways.

At the same time I am commissioning trumpeters to perk the ears and criers to call my name from the rooftops so the the monsters and evils of corporate inefficiency and wasted cost hear my name and cower, afraid that I may find them.

Interesting stuff

2009-06-27T08:27:00.002+10:00

My last post was entitled nothing interesting is happening...

Interesting things are now happening... mostly possible new bits of work, new flatmates, residency for Kana seems about to come through, I played guitar and sang which was recorded and may appear in an upcoming commercial and most interesting of all, my house was burgled. For the third time in a year.

Things are reasonably interesting, however for some reason I am not particularly satisfied. I wonder why. Is it too much to ask that things be interesting and good?

In relation to the possible appearance in a tv add... my playing was severely upstaged by people who can actually play well, and know the song well.... :(

Current feeling : Bitter

I'm not doing anything interesting

2009-05-27T22:09:00.003+10:00

No, really, I'm not. It's hard to believe but it is the truth.

The most exciting thing I'm doing is expressing interest in various items on sale at Kathmando.

Why do I need a lightweight jacket that is rain and wind proof and breathes... I don' know!

Why do I want fleece jackets?

Why do three thermals for the price of one excite me?

Why do hiking boots made out of material that are still supposedly waterproof interest me?

Is it because its getting stupidly cold, wet and windy...

probably.

Is it because if i want to go outside and do anything several layers of elemental protection are required...

quite likely.

Is it just a little bit sad.....

maybe :'(

Work

2009-05-18T19:26:00.002+10:00

Work. Recently work is becoming more full on than usual. More important time critical things seem to be coming across my table more and more frequently and a few seem precariously close to going wrong.

What I say, how I say it and who I say it to seem to be becoming much more important.

And then there is the actual work that needs doing.

Where is the sunshine, the booze and the bikinis. I think something was misrepresented somewhere.

I have no excuse

2009-05-12T21:39:00.002+10:00

Well, I believe I have an excuse, lack of a muse. New Zealand has not been inspiring me to write, however heartfelt pleas of written word from my fans and loved ones have moved me to tap the keyboard once again.

Over the last (almost) year numerous interesting things have occurred, you will be getting the cliff notes:

Events:
I was a best man at a wedding (awesome)
Melbourne Australia was visited for Jewish New Year and my dads birthday
Japan was visited, Yokohama, Tokyo and Kyoto
Tokyo: Amazing cheap booze and kareko
Kyoto: Amazing temples, sites, culture
Yokohama: Friends/family - dodgy taihition dancing
My granddad's health worsened significantly
Melbourne was visited again
My granddad got a bit better
My granddad got a bit worse
My granddad got a bit better
My mum came and visited and saw the bay of islands and surrounding attractions with me and my missus (North Island of New Zealand, very pretty and scenic)
Overall my granddad isn't so well but stable
2 weeks were spent traveling around with friends around the South Island of New Zealand, the impressively scenic part of the country.
White water rafting
Alpine rail travel
Pants wetting terror in a suspended rope obstacle course
Many cars driven
Glaciers walked
Insane roads driven
Amazing scenes
Pretty walks
Kayaking

Work - continuing
Guitar - continuing
Mr2 - continuing
House - leaking

A cousin who I haven't seen in 10+ years had a near miss with me on the south island. To make up, he is going to come to visit next month.

I think that sums up most of the significant events of the last year, feel free to bug me to expand on items :p

Oh, one more thing, I got a year older...

The silver lining

2008-08-09T13:11:00.002+10:00

I was expecting that New Zealand would be wetter than north east Australia, I was not expecting this.

The amount of downpour here is phenominal! Barely a day, let alone a week has gone by without multiple downpours of some description. Dreary, wet, soggy and occasionally bleak are all apt descriptions of the climate, colour and feel of this place, especially this winter.

The contrast is astounding, especially considering the last place I was living in had undergone 5 years of drought and the time I spent there I could have counted the amount of downpours on my hand. The days that were overcast on two hands...

Looking up at all of these grey clouds spitting down at me, a sliver of light shone through and damn near bowled me over.

The thing about this sliver of light was the amount of colour in it. A rainbow did stand before me.

The amount of rainbows I have seen in this country is staggering. Often on my way to work after/during a light downpour there will be multiple rainbows, I believe one morning I saw 5 different rainbows.

No wonder there are so many Astin Martins around this place, people keep on stumbling over pots of gold.

Sigmund Stardust rides again!

2008-06-15T12:14:00.003+10:00

I have recently acquired a new guitar!

An ESP LTD EC-50 (read awesome electric guitar). The rocking out has begun! Photos will follow, as soon as I get my camera back.

Badly rendered rock songs will also follow.

Wonderwall by Oasis, Back in Black by ACDC, Throw your arms around me by Hunters and Collecters, Barracuda by Heart.... the list goes on.

Also, I created a drink a while back. I think its awesome, you should try it.

The filthy martini.

Make a martini, insert more olives than martini.

There you have it, a filthy martini!

Eat olives, replenish olives, eat more olives.

When martini tastes like olive, consume the martini.

Start again.

Possibly only for people who are stark raving mad for olives....

:)

i also noted the other day that i exist in comic form, i'm going to assume next to me, is a filthy martini

comic me

Hauntings

2008-03-20T12:25:00.002+10:00

As a change from the usual I tagged along with a group bound for a place called 'spookers' somewhere outside Auckland. This place is a mansion in the country-side that only opens up after dark.

To give you an idea of what to expect a 3 meter tall skeleton grimacing and glaring eriely out at the night sky from the second story balcony with a dark cackling emenated from it greeted us as we approached.

This place is essentially set up as a haunted house experience. There are mutliple sets... the main one being the house. Each room is set up to remind you of a different kind of horror movie or nightmare experience. Mutilated babies, strange medical experiments, homicidal soliders. Everyone running around looking disfigured and dead often with some kind of dangerous implement and acting creepy and "spooky". The costumes were amazing. The set designs were very cool. The popping out, hiding, random loud sounds that ring out in the night, not to mention the people that you cant see screaming in terror really make the experience thorough.

A maze inside another part of the hosue was painted with almost comic book designs of villans and ghosts and demons in 3D fluro paint, when combined with 3D glasses really popped out at you!

Possibly the most scary setting is a cornfield out in the dark, where mutilated people with chain saws await you.

A definate must for people who like to be scared, or for people who like wierd creepy stuff.

teh awesome.

P.S: Freddy Kruger made an appearance

P.P.S: undead scrubbers asking you to impregnate them is possibly the scariest thing imaginable, ever

P.P.P.S: very cool

Within the Standard Deviation

2008-03-09T06:35:00.000+10:00

In the last six months there have been quite a lot of changes in my life such as a new job, new country, new colleagues and new friends.

Everything has been going well. Not always as well as I would have hoped, and in some cases better than I hoped.

However it does feel a lot like everything is happening around a life determining mean. It’s all sitting around some unseen average marker. Although things are sometimes up or down from the average, they don’t seem to be deviations so high or low to truly stand out.

Either way, I noticed I hadn’t been updating much in the last few months…

Some of the smaller changes in my life:

Work: On Monday I have a new boss, they finally hired a replacement to the last one. In general things are going well. I’m going to have to learn C++ to write many a complex mathematical program, plus lots of semi interesting in context projects.

Home: I have a new one, I moved over Christmas, Kana and I have a house to ourselves in a somewhat fancy part of town, a walk from a nice beach with a nice view.

Visa: Kana got herself a better visa and lots of stress and pressure evaporated. Another one soon to be applied for.

Car: Still Awesome, soon to be starting driving lessons for Kana. Possibly will be getting a second one at some point in the future.

Computer Gaming: On the decline again

Food: Lots and find new and interesting places to get it from

Muscles: Lots, of the Seafood kind generally around $2.00 a kilogram here for live ones in shells. Good on a BBQ.

BBQs: Lots and often, spreading the mythos of Australia where ever I go. Must get one of my own.

Friends: More and new, some came and visited. Much fun and booze was had.

Birthdays: Oh so many both near and far!

Holidays: Busy periods of moving house, friends visiting, birthdays and traveling to hot springs and geysers.

Booze: Lots, most New Zealand beers, some of which are pretty damned nice, NZ Pinot Noirs and for Kana the same, except for the beers, and aromatic white wines and sav blancs.

Flatmates: Possibly looking at getting one, haven’t decided much about it all yet.

Travel: A little around Auckland, a couple hours north and a couple hours south. Soon to hit the sun and sand in queensland again. Planning of visiting the land of the rising sun soon, as well as the south island (of New Zealand) and to go home (Melbourne) for a bit too.

Creators of Dungeons and Dragons and driver for the current wealth and popularity of the fantasy genre: -1

Small things that may amuse: For about a month or 2 I was getting up every morning at .5:30 am and driving Kana to work, she started at 7:00am (damn hospitality), I no longer have to do that due to the improved proximity to the city, the nicer area and improved and more accessible public transport around our new house. Except on weekends where the buses and trains don’t start early enough, which is how I could possibly be awake enough to have done all my web surfing and write this BEFORE BREAKFAST!!!!!!

P.S.: For those of you who may not be aware, during my university years the morning and myself came to an agreement. We did not like each other you see. The very presence of one would upset the other, and so did we agree to part ways and never inflict our presence on the other. Through this agreement both parties were happy. This agreement remained unbroken for many a year, with the occasional reprieve being given for still being up and about after nights of drinking and revelry, where it is not truly the morning, but really the end of the night before. It does seem that I and mornings have either mellowed or have grown used to each other and no longer do we abhor each other. Instead we have come to an occasional co-existence. Although through testing the boundaries recently anything more frequent than occasional is most unpleasant for all.

Commemoration

2008-03-09T06:04:00.000+10:00

Gary Gygax has recently died. He has failed his final save against death. He fought the Tarasque and lost. Many other epitaphs might be appropriate.

It is a sad day when you consider all that he did with his life and how all of us have been affected in some way by what he did.

I along side many people played Dungeons and Dragons and various other roleplaying games. I wasn’t around and playing for Basic Dungeons and Dragons, First and Second edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons are just recounts of stories from gamers who have been playing longer than me. I enjoyed it all anyway.

If you aren’t sure what Gary Gygax has done or how he might have affected your life, have a gander over at websnark, Eric Burns said it better than I can, or check order of the stick by Rich Burlew .

It is amazing how widespread role-playing is today. When I was a wee little thing role playing games were something I had heard of, they were strange, played by strange people in strange places, and quite possibly caused people to do strange things, often with implications that these things were done in gloom and darkness possibly with occult implications.

As i grew and found role-playing games late in my adolescent years, I found the truth of this (except for the occult implications). The people that played these games were delightfully strange, as were the games themselves. Now days when I play these games there is less darkness and gloom, my tired old eyes cant see the numbers on the dice anymore and as for gloom, I prefer to game in open well ventilated rooms.

In honor of Gary, I will now commute to an open, bright and well ventilated room and roll lots of different kinds of dice and imagine that a hero walks the land and that chance is in his favor.

My poor neglected blog

2008-02-18T17:41:00.001+10:00

Why hast i foresaken you

Games, one frame at a time

2007-11-21T17:32:00.000+10:00

I remember uni, waaaaaaay waaaaay way back when in the "good old days" when i really started to get into "twitch" gaming. For those of you who are unaware, twitch gaming does not mean, play until your eyes are black with sleeplessness you're dehydrated, smelly and your limbs have atrophied to a point where the skeletons you've been fragging (digitally annihilating)are saying "Woah dude, maybe you should stop and eat something" and you start twitching... that's called something else. Twitch gaming refers to the quick reflexes and fast, but small movements you need to make to play them, that to the unobservant admirer might appear as twitching. These games are generally all about killing things. When i was serious about playing these games I was a little obsessive about frames.

Frames, not the things around pictures, more like a picture that moves, think of all the pictures that go into making a movie. Playing a game is similar to that, enough of them and everything is smooth as, making the binary evisoration of your enemies that much easier. The opposite is like watching bad stop frame animation you have almost no control over. Playing those kind of games in stop frame animation is the mental equivalent to ...

considering possibilites for that particular similie made me feel sympathetic pain for the imaginary constructs in my mind that were experiencing those possibilities.

Suffice it to say it is bad.

Strangely I now find myself moderately addicted to click and wait type games.

They go

Click

Wait...

Click again

Wait some more

and again

opps, that didnt work, refresh the page,

click again

etc

If that isnt a sign i'm changing, what is :p

It is incredible that i'm not finding these games as frustrating as i used to...

possibly the various work environments i have been in now have redefined frustrating to something that would not have been recognisable to an earlier version of myself

Update

2007-11-21T17:21:00.000+10:00

There doesnt really seem that much to update people on at the moment, maybe the various agents of inspiration and enthusiasm have been on leave recently, or the charges have been reprioritised.

It is entirely possible that those agents that are supposed to be responsible for me have be re-organised into a group to more effective inspire a group of us, with degrees of success and time being measured on "preformance metrics" and requireing to meet certain output quotas, improving overall their departments output and numbers, but truely sucking for me.

What can i do? start a rival agency? Write in spite of them? bash my head against a wall (Ever thankful to michael, i never before meeting him realised that beating ones head against hard objects could be a cure all) I don't know.

Perhaps to truely spite these agents of inspiration and drive, I will... do nothing.

Words and Movies

2007-11-06T20:36:00.000+10:00

Words, something I have been skipping on recently. With my girl moving over here with me there was a whole new range of things to settle into again, some for me, more for her. I guess now we are mostly settled with some things going pretty well and a lot of things that could be going smoother and hitch free.

None the less we are trooping on and settling in.

The important matter that I bring to you today is Stardust, a movie that I have been impatiently anticipating and, just recently, finally saw. The book was a very sentimental fantasy story, reminiscent of a fairy tale that hasn’t been bastardized and standardized by Hollywood or Disney.

I loved the book.

The movie, well, I’ve been disappointed by the last neil gaimen movie I saw, it didn’t quite meet some of my expectations. This one I merely eyed off sideways, so as not to get too excited about a possible disappointment. The cast was star studded, much like the story line and title, things that can bode well, or unwell…

I got off my arse and saw this movie, in spite of negative reviews from my significant other (she saw it without me and fell asleep). I was impressed by this movie. Not only did the movie impress me as a movie, but as an adaptation of a book. The plot and feel of both the book and movie were consistent.

The most powerful thing about this movie I can think of was that I went into the movie feeling pretty crappy, and damn it if it didn’t cheer me right up.

A sweet and sentimental movie that’s not overly flowing with syrupy sugar, unusual in a fairy tale, this one should be seen and enjoyed.

I see electronic people!

2007-10-10T20:03:00.000+10:00

Yes, it's true, I see electronic people. They are everywhere! or they should be. I can really only see electronic people in certain places, here.

Gone are the days when the trendiest thing you could do was put a hit counter on your site, and then hack it so all your mates thought you had a million hits in about 3 hours, no. I have attached google analytics to the site... why you might ask, partly because I'm curious to see what it does, and to see how many people do come to the site... how many people are actually listen to me ramble on!

I mean obviously if its hundreds of people trolling out there in cyberspace, thats awesome, I'll follow the prompts from google-analytics, and make sure my pages reflect my ad-blocks and try to make people actively stay on the site so they can participate in e-commerce which it can also pick up...

Or, in contrast there is no one here. I can use this online space as my own private journal, safe in the knowledge that no one will read it. The will be no chance of @$@$#@#$@$#Pty Ltd finding out I post here, vent a spleen about who and whatever and fire me.

Such things aren't actually a worry to be but i thought i might do the bloggy thing of mentioning something i read in another blog, me being lazy and forgetful, i cant remember which blog, and i'm not going to search for it and link to it... it was at penny-arcade the other day when they mentioned it, my brain slowly kicked into gear.

But yes, now the curse is upon me! I see electronic people, and in this electronic world, where I hold my electronic party, I see how many guests arrive, broken down in quaint marketing terms, hour by hour, day by day.

I know how popular I am in ways facebook can never understand.

Such is my curse.

Such is my shame.

on projects and parties

2007-10-08T17:33:00.000+10:00

This car that i have, it's good, minor little tweaks and adjustments to it have been made, and already many more have been planned. This weekend just past did see me attempting to make a few minor changes to the vehicle. Now, the car doesn't actually these things done to it and thats not the point. These are things that I hopefully do cheaply, but mostly they are about achievement, understanding and enjoyment.

It's a fantastic excuse to fidle with various bits and pieces and find out how they work and interact, the sense of satisfaction in finishing something successfully and making something that is yours that little bit better. These should not stop you from enjoying the various little tweaks and adjustments.

One of the key elements I have found is to find a balance, some adjustments and tweaks are fun, but to realise how far you want to go and to achieve happiness with something less than the best ever. Maybe just the best for you :p

It is of achievement and accomplishment that I come to now, never is it more satisfying to stop drop and party than after spending much time and effort on something. The taste of revellry is always sweeter in contrast to salty sweat of effort.

Soon A major accomplishment will be nearing completion. The moving from one country to another, its been a stress and a trial at many different times, and for many different people. It feels like a major accomplishment, not exactly a necessary one, but important and enjoyable in a similar kind of way to a self directed project.

The upcomming event of importance, obviously, as needs requires is - a party. a celebration. With the sense of achievement and accomplishment and shadows and clouds. For as much as I do, as far as I roam, there is more that I leave behind.

To say good bye what can we do better than to celebrate the time we have had together and drink to good times yet to come!

Moving and shaking

2007-10-07T21:03:00.000+10:00

I've been a tad preoccupied with other related things, like missing my girl, but it has come to my attention that this friday I will be back in Brisbane. Mostly likely it will be quite a few months before I return to Brisbane, so all those whom I have come to know and care for, let us make this an occasion to remember.

Let there be drinking and merriment and revelry!

Tedium and Celebration

2007-09-30T11:32:00.000+10:00

Mostly i can't think about much else other than seeing my girl again. This has the effect of regardless of what is going on it seems like there is very little going on.

My car has recently been giving me some trouble, battery related. It's my own fault for leaving the lights on.

Geeking out has been on the menu (a game called in nomimine) as has looking for minor cosmetic improvements to my car, in the nature of better seats and a new steering wheel.

New front tyres are also on the menu and there is a long weekend coming up.

I unfortunately also miss being around for my dad's birthday :(

Happy Birthday Dad!

Beware

2007-09-28T16:03:00.000+10:00

I may have become slightly addicted to facebook, if you are there...

Beware

counting down till i see my baby again

Reporting from the Scene

2007-09-23T20:06:00.000+10:00

At the moment it feels like there is nothing special to report.

Religious endeavours were pursued successfully, a relaxing if slightly starved weekend was had. The last week has been pretty full on with a fair amount of stuff affecting friends of mine and requiring a lot of my attention.

My boss at work announced his resignation and a company sponsered fashion event was attended.

The weekend prior to this one had numerous events contained within it as well. Many parties thrown by my flatmates, for an expectant mother, and a soon to be departing friend, driving about with another Mr2 and getting to drive a turbo charged version of my car.

All in all it was a pretty busy weekend, with much booze, rugby, food, relatives like you wouldn't believe, awesome cars and amoungst it all, during the revelry a car was towed and because of the revelry someone was given an eviction notice.

Just so you don't jump the gun. The car towed was not mine, and no i don't have to leave the place where i'm living, that wasn't me either. Everything did get smoothed over in the end, however on the actual night in question it was all a pretty big deal.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!

and thanks to everyone who dropped me a line over the last 2 weeks!

And shame on all of you for not letting me know what you thought of the emo norseman. (except jen)

There is now a count-down for when my girl moves over to join me here! Which is awesome!

Car pics now available

2007-09-13T16:12:00.000+10:00

I think pictures say this best.

http://sigmund-stardust-stills.blogspot.com/

The emo norseman

2007-09-12T15:50:00.000+10:00

In the depths of the darkness didst the Hero look upon his own gaze, meeting the stark eyes starring out of the stark gaze. He didth ponder the reflection before him. His sinews flexing with each breath didst his despair know no bounds, for he was inconsolable. He didst stand at the peak of the mountain that straddled the world, for naught was there left to conquer. The gods of old, who’s passing the mighty warrior had striven to accomplish had left him bereft of passion. For he who had grown from only a babe, with stories a plenty of injustice and immorality inciting the very foundation of all he based himself upon, and drove himself to learn and grow and fight until he hadst ridden all such things from the land; Gods, demons, villains, monsters. They had all fallen to his mighty conquests. Although his name and verse were now so solidly intertwined, he hath no joy from his name being passed as the breath of the wind throughout the world. This was not what hath driven his mighty stature throughout the years of lore. It was the challenge, the struggle, the act of defiance in the face of terror and that which was wrong. It was the indeterminate will to continue that had brough him here!

For he had set himself task. Whenst he had found that, as a young man the wrongs which he hath seen, perpetuated against the innocent in his home town, eradicated, by sinew, strength and cunning, didst set himself a second, the goal the same, but now the place he didst consider his home did expand. Did his influence upon the world grow, Uutil now, the area that was his home had straddled the world. Beneath his feet didst the world tremble and tumult as did his mind. For as much as he didst love the accomplishment and that which he had achieved didst he wish for more. Alas there was no more. Evil had been ended. The remaining challenges he couldst find in this world were swim the longest river, traverse the greatest desert, find the fruit the gods did plant of infinity and wisdom. All these he had done. The last stood beneath his feet, he hath climber the world mountain. The birthplace and rudder of the world, which didst sit in its shadow. Unstatisfying was the sensation that no truly great challenges and tasks were left. A hero, without which to continue to be a hero.

Gazing in the wall of ice, he saw his eyes, cunning and fierceness had been replaced with drawn and introspection. He reached forth his mighty digits breaking before him, icicles like those he had driven into the massive eyes of the hydra as he unblocked the river of ages righting the balance of the underworld, and with a slight twist didst he break it from its root. Grasping the now free dagger of ice, didst he catch his gaze again. This gaze he did keep as the freezing sharpness of the ice was drawn over the taut muscles covering the inside of his wrist with agonizing slowness and intense pressure.

Crimson staining the summit astride the world, did the savage intensity of the Hero, who had set so many legends of justice and triumph in his wake stare into the glassy gaze until the last drop of life, left those eyes.

Emo norse poetry? What do you all recon. I think it wasn’t norsey enough?

Starting afresh is lonely

2007-09-09T09:03:00.000+10:00

This isn’t a happy post.

This is about the down side of my recent move.

One thing that I treasure about what I have done, picking up and moving and starting afresh in a new place is the insights it gives me into my life and the various different elements in it.

Now I generally feel pretty distant from myself. I feel things and they seem far away. It tends to be pretty hard for me to decipher feelings I have. Finding reasons for feelings or deducing how to feel or objectively looking at a situation has always been easy, just understanding what it is I am feeling is hard.

This is apparently typical of my star sign, the elements my birth chart aligns with, the things indicative of the year I was born in, a lot of different things agree with that. It’s all fairly irrelevant. It’s just how I am.

Normally I have an internet connection or phone calls aren’t expensive, so I can pretty much keep in contact with everyone. At the moment, I can’t practically do that. So where I normally feel in touch with everyone, now, I don’t. I really do feel isolated, which I’m sure is exacerbating things.

The point being, I feel pretty down and lonely. I am here in my room, which although furnished with my own stuff, feels a bit stark and sterile (even though the pile of dirty laundry in the corner probably is starting to get pretty far from sterile). I’ve been watching season 5 of scrubs (awesome I might add) in bed on my laptop (also awesome) and it highlights some of the things I really miss. Those things are people. If you’re someone who reads this, your probably one of the people I am talking about. (I may be sorely misrepresenting my audience, if you read this and I haven’t heard from you before, drop me an email or comment, or if you read this and haven’t yet emailed or commented ever… you know what you should be doing right about now)

Now scrubs I guess is where it starts. I love scrubs, I don’t know why. I just do. I like it so much it’s almost an addiction. Now I used to watch scrubs with people, sometimes without. But there was always someone to talk about it with, or make fun of the fact that I was awake all night watching a season or agree with me that it was worth it.

So, eventually getting to the point, I might feel crap, but I feel it strongly enough to know what it is, and it took scrubs to work out the reason for it, which is ‘damn I miss you guys’. Knowing that I miss you all is kind of awesome. You are all people that are awesome to have in my life. Missing that awesomeness is a crappy kind of awesome, but it’s still awesome.

Now I know, slowly I’ll meet more awesome people here and I’ll get more settled and an awesome person I met not that long ago will come over here and things will be more awesome. Until then, you guys rock.

For a downside, its pretty good.

Emo Stardust Signing off.

P.S: I always thought in some ways this wasn’t a proper blog, there were no totally depressed emo posts… to be fair there was one, but it was more in the nature of a joke. Now this blog is complete!

P.P.S: Can you imagine an emo post in norse prose? Can ya? Can ya!? That is sooooo in the cards!

P.P.P.S: Currently I am in Brisbane, with Kana, and quite happy, interenet has been sorted out back in Auckland and everything is going quite well.

If I had access to the internet earlier this week, this post would have been rocking your world earlier. As it is, it is up now. Much like a birthday card that comes a few days late handed to you by a friend with a vaguely guilty and lopsided smile as they say 'sorry'. The card probably have 'belated' written on it somewhere in large cursive gold type. This post also contrast a little with how I'm feeling at the moment, which is very happy.

I just have to say, its been awesome to see Kana again, and catch up with friends in a relaxed way, where I can merely enjoy their company and not worry about a myriad of things that are going on.

P.P.P.P.S: There is a emo norse post waiting to be posted :p

Internet is forthcoming...

2007-09-01T16:01:00.000+10:00

I am as yet without reliable internet, all the internet acess I use is not my own and as a result, unreliable for my purposes.

Fortunately I should be hooked up by the end of next week. I will endeavour to have pictures ready to post by then.

I was also witness to the World Rally Car Racing this weekend, it has inspired even more ambition to drive my MR2 faster than is advisable. I have some photos, I will sift through them and post some of the better ones.

I have also booked 2 tickets. Airplane tickets.

Next weekend shall see me once again in Brisbane, although for a short stint. Drop me an email or 2 if you want to organise anything. I will be leaning towards the organisation of some big get together where i can see everyone... otherwise I just wont have time to catch up with all of you or spend time with my girl who I am missing!

So...

Adeiu

Mountain Pearls

2007-08-26T18:24:00.000+10:00

Never trust a Kiwi in search of Mountain Pearls, ask not why or what, merely accept the advice, avoid the situation and move on!

I have found a residence, I have furnished my room. I am more settled. I need to organise a decent internet connection, some phones and some car paperwork, but mostly I'm sorted and all this after being in a foreign country for 2 weeks.

I am reasonably impressed with myself :p

I am also completely shagged.

Its been 2 weeks of full time work with a complement of full time sorting my shit out! I look forward to a quiet weekend next week, although I am planning a quick trip to Brisbane soon, exactly when I am not sure.

Next weekend currently promises to have some close up viewing of some rally driving! I might also have some time to sort out the many photo requests I have had for my new car :p and may even take it for a spin in some mountains.... definately NOT looking for pearls...

*shudder*

Blazing from the heavens

2007-08-21T21:26:00.000+10:00

As didst Siegmundt partake of his momentus journey, he crossed the oceans of the Asiatic, he conquered the land of sun and white sand. He didst ford the oceans to the east and didst eventuate in a new land.

This land people were not unlike those in previous lands he had strode upon. They were slightly odd of speech, making thy verse with the shortening of certain syllables of which he had been unaccustomed. They assured him that the speech that they did utter was “choice”. And low, he did believe them.

Still unsettled and fresh from recent adventures, didst we find our proud hero still without roots. Swaying to and fro in the breezes that did harrow this new land.,‘Be calm’ he didst decry unto himself, for he was uncertain, new in this land without proper bearings. His love and most of his belongings didst stay out of sight, across an ocean, for where he did pine his comforts, what he held dear, and his love.

Even his chariot, had been left to wayward folk, the hills bathed in the Sunshine and sand of the North, leaving him as naked amidst the howling winds and sleeting rain of the new land.

With no where else to turn, did he look both high and low, near and far for a sign of those who ruled the land. When he had though all had been lost, didst from the corner of his eye, scream forth from the skies, a fiery comet. This comet didst sally forth from whence it came and laid itself sleek and fast at his side. So didst those from the new land provide this hero with his new chariot. Every inch of his new metal steed did gleam red, and shine forth reflections of all that lay around it. The chariot did vibrate with sheer ecstasy and joy of speed.

This was how in the record of the deeds of this hero coming to number, as some of our forefathers did note it ‘C’ the chariot ‘Blaze’ came into the possession of Sigmund of the dust from Stars, and so shall continue his story.

Down under in Kiwi land

2007-08-18T20:18:00.000+10:00

Hello All,

I've successfully arrived in Auckland and started work. Been checking listings for cars, and share houses.

It seems like it will be reasonably full on, the work is more interesting, complicated and structured.

They have a full on cafe style coffee machine at the office!!!!

any barrista style tips or advice would be useful :p

The people I work with seem pretty nice, and its a

In other big news, I've bought a car, a nice little 1994 MR2, and house hunting has started to yield some rewards!!!

The people at work are a lot younger, around my average age as compared to my previous job.

It has rained intermitantly since I arrived, hehe, reminds me of Melbourne in ways Brisbane never did :p

I expect to start being settled in and hooning around the country side within a few weeks.

I'll be making a trip to Brisbane soon (probably) and a trip to Queenstown (maybe) which is in the south isle with the next few weeks as well. The plans havnt been made yet, so offer suggestions of good times, or mention if travel plans collide. Queenstown seems fairly expensive, in the way of around 700NZ dollars, so unless I can find some way of making that more affordable, I may not be able to go :(

Otherwise, things are going pretty well, the weather is colder than I'm used to, but its not as bad as I thought it would be.

How are you all going people!

The Best of Intentions!

2007-07-25T22:43:00.001+10:00

My intentions were to blog all the bits and pieces of my trip in partially chronological order after the event… as in now, or the last few weeks. In addition to post pictures to go with each post on the Image blog…

As you may have noticed, that has not occurred – YET

I expect it too fairly soon as I have a brief holiday!

No longer will I be ensuring the continued running of the trains in Brisbane, but instead making sure all the flights in New Zealand are manned!

Between the 2 jobs I have some down time. Lots and lots of free time in which I have nothing to do…

Except:

sell a car
help kana buy a non-dodgy computer
pack
wrap up all lose ends
send over what cant be packed
and plan out things for kana to join me in kiwi land

Well, maybe not so much down time and maybe not so little to do.

None the less, I will make an effort to fit in between in all retrospective blogs and photos

Slowly my account of the selling out, a suit in a tropical city is relocating. From white glistening beaches and babes in bikinis (which I am slightly restricted from ogling at) and dry tropical flora to a lush wet cooler climate with interesting landscape of volcanic proportions.

I will report on that as soon as the opportunity presents itself!

To Melbourne`s open.... arms

2007-06-25T00:39:00.000+10:00

For those of you who are melbourne bound, this post is for you.

I will be in Melbourne for about 3 days.

I will be arriving probably quite tired from an all night flight and will need to spend some time with my family, and my brother, who will be on a break from the army who I haven`t seen in I don`t know how long!

So the plan is:

Thursday night:
Jen will be organising a pub crawl!!
BE THERE!

Friday night:
Folks place (I have yet to ask them)
Recount of tales from my travels　accomanied by photosplus other stuffBE THERE!!

Sat:
Flying out

Please use the messages bit to let me know weather your coming or not, and to which. This is important although I am not at liberty to explain why.

For those of you in Brisbane, feel free to complain about the lack of plans for you guys (feel free to organise a catch up for the friday after I return, e.g: Friday 7th July)

Sitting on crutches

2007-06-20T14:52:00.000+10:00

I am a bit unwell today, and as such am sitting down writing of my travels. The crutches fortunatly are metaphorical.

My meanderings through Japan have resulted in my disruption of more than a few places.
Initially after my foray into the nightlife of Tokyo which first shook me up and laid me out I ventured forth once again into the big city. Feelings of dread tormented me on the massive and regualar trip from Kamiooka (a suburb within yokohamma) to near the centre of Tokyo (around 1.5 hours)

As we alighted the train vestibule we were immediately assailed by a wonderous gaiety of human fashion all being agressively dsiplayed!

Harajuku has a reputation for having the wierdest and strangest fashions loudly displayed.
To start some background information. Japan is fashion mad! Everywhere you go, this is mostly the girls, because the guys when they are around are mostly in suits, most of which are black (and cut way to skinny to suit me ). Well the girls wear clothes almost to suit a personal style that tends to fit in one of my different fashions. I'm not talking about girls dressed as maids or giant mecha. It just seems that there are so many different styles available. In melbourne and especially brisbane it seems like there are only so many different clothes available. Eventually or immediately you see someone else wearing the same clothes, or clothes that have a similar cut, a similar pattern, stuff that just looks the same.

That isnt really the case here, upon consultation with my local guide (Kana :p) finding an outfit that you see someone else wearing is close to impossible. There are so many different shops, brands and outlets finding the same clothes is difficult especially since not all outfits cater for all of the styles. It creates a very diverse visuals whenever you walk the street.

In shinjuku I have previously mentioned a shop where girls congregate in wearing the extremes of fashion. Normal fashions, and mostly slightlier sluttier or risque fashions.

The only part of fashion of Japan that remains constant is that most girls like wearing long black socks or stockings some of which go almost all the way up the thigh. I suppose in those cases its finding the clothes that let the top of the stockings still be visable.

Anyway. Harajuku. It even at the station had more extreme fashions, tending towards cosplay(looking like cartoon characters), gothic (black with lace), punk(black with pvc and metal or tartan), lolita (looking like a little girl in a maids outfit). It wasnt quite as extreme as i was lead to believe, but it was still highly prevelant. I also have not actually made it to the area on a weekend where it apparently goes off and squeezes the life from you (this is more a result of the sheer number of people you expect to have there on such an occasion.

The streets were filled with clothing shops to cater for everything. Heaps of Goth, punk, lolita and combinations of the above were prevalent, costume shops, underwear shops (with cheap price tags, kana exploded with delight) as well as lots of normal fashion outlets, expensive retro opshops (similar to what you can find in aus, although some of there stuff was very good and more expensive than retail shops in the area). Fast food outlets dripped from the seems between clothing shops. The most impressive ones were waffle shops. The have a plastic 3d display that shows all the different waffles they make in creamy fuity cakey glory.

Its a nice place :p

more later

Wallowing in the aftermath

2007-06-10T15:14:00.001+10:00

I write this is aftermath of an all nighter...

I caught up with Stewie who followed the trail of beautiful women into the orient 3 years ago and never returned. Stewie took me on a tour of the different species he had encountered and their habitat.

Main habitat: A gigantic shopping mall, contained with 1 building shooting up into the sky, only featuring girls fashion clothes of all different styles and fashions and relatively cheap prices (so i heard) and thats it. Nothing else except clothes. The building was struggling to contain all its inhabitants.

Species:

One such species is the mumba, easily identified by peroxide affected hair, an orange tan complexion and the inability to wear clothing that covers anything below their butt cheeks

another such species is the school girl, societal pressure and strict regulations mean that all girls who attend school must wear a skirt... where I say skirt, I of course mean a large loose fitting belt made out of a heavy cloth that generally covers the waist region and attached parts, thats about it. This is the only species not tending to be found wearing height altering apparrel (high heels).

There is also a strange propensity for the wearing of long black socks.... I have not yet determined the significance of this particular mating display.

In his travels he had also found the wonders of shibuya, which has the really big intersection of which a picture was taken from the middle of... lots of electronics, huge tvs and watches in the side of building lots of lights, hidden away stores filled with obscure manga memorabilia including man sized robot suits and women sized suits/dolls, as well as minature ones in various states of (un)dress, not to mention a staggeringly huge collection of general meorabilia and used manga (hopefully not too sticky) as well exactly how perverted the people who create manga are exemplified for example by the character sketes from the artist who made neon genesis evangellion. Imagine if you will one of the girls from the anime every way possible. Specifically all the poses facial expressions everything he thought of for that character before actually making the anime...

His tour extended to Shinjuku of which we explored to the early hours of the morning. This particular habitat is know by its bright lights numerous of which are red, excessive amounts of bars and clubs and resturants. The lights, oh the lights. Everywhere small narrow winding streets with symbols emblazzening themselves on your retina does not make for easy navigation especially once so much alcohol has been consumed walking in the middle of the street and taking photos of taxis instead of getting out of the way seems amusing.

The full gambit of the area was tasted, ex-pat bars, seeing drunk japanese girls be carried out of pubs, resturants politely ushering us out after we had outstayed our welcome, scored free booze and the drank all the stuff you had to pay for. There was the general open air exploration and then penultimately kareoke, of which once you pay the entry fee you get free booze and kareoke until you decide you cant be arsed any more! After Kareoke the only slice of shinjuku we had yet to sample were the clubs.

Due to the currently altered state of stewarts inebration and female tendancies, in spite of the fact that an afterhours club was discovered... by myself!!! with a line!!! at 4:30am! and looked fairly interesting as the only person who knew about it was slightly unable to walk and remember his own name, not disimilar to the current party comprised of us (stew, ross and me) Stewart preffered to get something to eat and a taxi home...

That such a venue existed in the area we were in was a suprise to stew and ross, the local predators, so the find was quite a prize. This was especially impressive as this area wasnt the gigantic skyscraper full of 24hr clubs,pubs and other things related to the first 2.

By the time dodgy drunk food had been consumed we could catch the first trains home.

This marks the end of the first week (or so) in Japan

To date I have seen Ueno, A humoungous version of vic market, with expensive branded stalls strewn throug everything else

Akihabaru, the electronics district, I am still convinced the whole district was some strange wet dream. As well as being full of geeks, geek supplies (CHEAP) and everything a computer or electronic hobbiest could ever want generally for a good price, they even covered things i hadnt considered, such as minature model building galleries, manga minature model parafanellia and maid cafes attached to a small (large) store so you too can collect all the supplies you need to clothe your own 'maid'

Amussingly enough I saw actual school girls looking as if they were considering buying a school girl costume...

baffled.

Yokohama a pretty cool city, a very cool china town soooo much bigger than melbournes with some cool stuff in it, such as a t-shirt that had written on it in japanese "i love hentai" i will probably be going back there to pick that up :p

Also had some cool gardens etc...

The shopping malls - well to start with they are everywhere, they are all like light versions of everything i have so far described... except for the pub/club stuff

I got an awesome camera in one... olympus FE 230 its pretty awesome and tiny and a lot cheaper than in aus!

Kamokura is the only place i have yet to mention so far. To get there we took an old train, so old it looked a lot like a melbourne tram. It was pretty cool, by the ocean. Black sand beaches with birds of prey flying over head. Fascinating.

I mean a beach thats black looks kinda wrong and dirty, but when you look closer it is gleaming and glittering black sand.

Around the beach were hawks or eagles, hovering overhead, possibly looking out for being fed, and will swoop down and snatch stuff off the ground around you if there is stuff there. So much cooler than feeding seagulls or pigeons.

At Kamakoora was also a narrow pedestrian paved road full of traditional japanese shops full of handmade paper, crockery, kimono clothes as well as second hand kimono and yokata shops (I picked up a pretty cool Yokata, kinda like a casual kimono, however I am having trouble finding an inexpensive belt for it as well as appropriate sandles in a large enough size) as well as a small art gallery, knives... everything. At the end of the street there was a huge and impressive buddist temple.

I believe that covers just about everything to date except the Onsen (translated: japanese hangout for freedom space and relaxation)

Onsen more literally translated is hot spring. It like a health spa, with massages and stuff like that available as well if you order it and pay for it, most people come to get naked soap themselves up on a little stool with the most advanced hand held shower system ever! digital temperature displays and analogue adjustements for your handheld shower and lots of liquid sop stuff and a towel.

After you have convinced everyone that you cant get cleaner they have pools filled with black water. All the water is coloured black . It is opaque! There are digital readouts for all the pools temperatures. Some are calm, some bubble and jet, some are cold some are hot, some are ridiculously hot, some are inside, some are outside.

Did I mention everyone is naked!! All you get is a little towel which people look at your strangely if you happen to let it fall into one of the pools.

Oh and they keep the naked girls where the naked guys cant see them :(

It is very calming and relaxing. It felt the most spacious and luxurious place I have been to so far in Japan.

Apparently Kana's family will be taking me next weekend to a bigger more famous more luxurious one where you also stay the night near mount fugi

And now before my fingers fall off I will continue to recover.

My　first taste of Japan

2007-06-03T13:28:00.000+10:00

So far it looks amazing.

Tokyo, which we just caught a bus through was huge, incredibly developed with highways plaiting themseles up, down, over and under an absolutly massive city, with highrises as far as the eye can see with little shopping districts brightly illuminated way over there and just underneath the highways we were travelling on.

We took a bus from the airport to Yokohama (sooooo expensive $35 aus each,，apparently a taxi to our destination would have been like $300), it was silent except for us. The bus was eriely quiet, so were the people on it. While we chatted tried to learn/teach japanese and laughed at japlish signs and ogling the sights of Tokyo.

The bus was pretty cool, quite spacious and very organised and efficient for transporting lots of luggage, which was very useful. Very clean as well.

I bought noodle flavoured tea!!!!!

When we arrived in Yokohama we changed from a bus to a train. We had to walk with our luggage through a shopping mall to get there. There were a whole heap of girls in their school uniforms, 10:30 at night on a saturday!!! (apparently its cool to wear that stuff) There were also a lot of guys and girls in yokata, which is a semi formal kimono with less material, because there was some kind of minor celebration and a lot japanese people wearing japanese clothes, which look a bit different from what you see in Aus.

Kana`s mum had heaps of food waiting for uｓ、like a miso soup，reminiscient of chicken soup，tuna sashimi (raw fish) and inargi and ngiri (different kinds of rice balls) and japanese beer and a few kinds of sake (booze).

There place is very unusal to me its smaller than I am used to in Australia but larger than I was expecting thanks to numerous warnings from Kana and her mother. It is jam packed with stuff!
It is very cool here and Kana`s family is very nice!

My phone with international roaming on it just dosnt work here!!! I am very suprised and very disappointed. I will have to get a japanese phone for myself... :D

Janei
(catch ya, in japanese)

Melbourne

2007-06-03T13:25:00.000+10:00

I have just arrived in Japan and as such I am going to make best use of nmy time here by... updating my blog :p

We arrived in Melbourne late at night, I had not reminded Kana about the weather in Melbourne, partly because I didn`t remember and partly because I didn`t want her to pack to much.

This was slightly sad and funny when we arrived and it was 9 degrees and Kana was only dressed for a winter night in brisbane!!! I did have a spare warm jacket for her and gloves and scarves however I didnt bring extra pants for her!!!!

It was great seeing everyone again. Friends and family.

The first night back it was straight into meeting the family. I think it was a bit late and everyone was a bit tired, so as well as updating each other on how we were and what was happening and lots of pictures and what was new, we also degenerated into a few family arguments.
All in all it was very nice and very touching.

They did manage to make improvements to the area we could stay in the spare room/little sisters study.

My grandparents had not changed much since I saw them last, 6 months is a long time. I am glad they hadn`t changed much.

Once again it was great to see and talk to them again and eat all their food.

I went out clubbing to the nightcat with some friends. A very bohemian night club in Melbourne. They had a live band playing, it was very remineiscient of traditional melbourne bands. A mixture of hip hop regae and jazz/funk. Just like cat empire, still thinking and a bunch of others. People wear completely different kinds of clothes (different from brisbane) cut up the dance floor, I drank an unsual beer and some wine and generally had a good time.

Catching up with friends was pretty amazing too. Everyone was still the same and at the same time different. Everything is changing a little without me around. Some are engaged and looking to buy a place, some are settling down and moving in with each other and a little afraid of that ( :p ) some are just getting more confident and experienced and knowing what they want a little better. Some are still the same :p.

Lots of great food was eaten in lots of different places. For me the highlight was almost a faulty towers style french resturant.

They asked us if we wanted coffee 4 or 5 time throughout the night, got my main meal wrong, forgot about the bill, ended up forgetting to charge us for desert and wouldnt give us crepe suzette still on fire!

The food was amazing however, everyone desrves to have some foi gra on top of an awesomely cooked eyefillet and inch and a half thick and proscuitto and smoked duck should always be in salad.

Jen took us on an impromptu tour of the alleys of melbourne which also coincided with looking at free renegade art gallereis of melbourne (hoisure lane, etc). Awesome looking graffiti.
Kana and I stunned our family just before we left with some awesome Japanese style cooking, teriyaki ocean trout and japanese style green bean salad plus a lot more
The party at the end of the trip made it all worth iｔ, not to mention about 3 hours sleep before we jumped on a plane for 9 hours!

Welcome & Going away party

2007-05-20T01:18:00.000+10:00

I threw a costume party, themed ‘traditional Asian.’ The purpose of the theme was more to have an excuse to wear fancy Chinese clothes Kana and I bought to attend a friend’s wedding at the end of last year, however it turned out really nicely. Almost everyone came in costume. We had a very nice turn out, lots of talking and drinking and sharing company.

The purpose of the party was a bit more serious. A friend of ours arrived in Brisbane this morning and what better way to catch up with all the friends she hasn’t seen in 9 months than throw a party. Kana and I are due to leave Brisbane on Thursday, as such we wanted to say good bye to everyone, what better way than to throw a party. :p

We even decorated the house, stark black Chinese characters on large white butchers paper, proclaiming to those who can read bad Japanese calligraphy (mine :p) ‘welcome’, ‘see you soon and good luck’ (it’s a lot shorter and only one word in Japanese) and our names. Strung up gold and red shiny ribbon (very Chinese) made some dim sims, spring rolls and anything else that came in the frozen ‘asian banquet’ pack at coles. A massive amount of pizzas were ordered.

There were some awesome looking costumes. I suppose the standout was one of our friends who came as a female or transsexual Thailand hooker. He was very convincing. Everyone looked awesome, soooo many pictures were taken, I will put some on here at a later date.

The sad part of the occasion was that some of the people we were saying goodbye to, we might not get to see again, or at least if we do see them again, it might be years down the track.

See you all soon,

To those we are leaving behind, we will miss you

To those we are about to see, we can’t wait!

To those we haven’t met yet, we can’t imagine :p

The return of the Blog!

2007-05-13T21:44:00.000+10:00

I have been tardy in my blogging duties, sorry.

Much has happened since I last committed text to the digital format.

Kana and I have visiting Mt. Tamborine, a strange and ideallyic village on top of a mountain with lovely view, lovely walks and a waterfall somewhere and strangest and most unexpected of all, a strong polish heritage. Here I was reminded of the food of my fathers family. All of a sudden beset by menus containing buckweat and dill and perogi and cabbage rolls.... spectacular.

We also managed to get along to O'Reilleys Rainforest, another mountain top, this time a rainforest at the top. A more rustic place less developed and yet, plenty of walks travelled enough on for the spider webs to be clear :p. Beautiful valleys and gulleys and waterfalls and trees... you get the idea. To get there you do have to travel up a road, that has many stretches of only 1 lane for both directions, countless completely blind corners... As a fan of Initial D it is a drivers wet dream... if i knew it backwards and had assurances of no oncoming traffic. This was not the case and even taking it slow and easy, just a little bit scary. Also alpackas lovely soft beautiful creatures... not at all like the massive agro things that live net to k'ni'ght.

My dad came to visit and brought with him his newest toy, a massive black digital SLR camera, of which he viewed all of brisbane and the sunshine coast with... and took many nice pictures.

It has been pretty full on with all of these little trips, getting some finaces sorted, getting tickets and organising what to do for the oncoming trip. I'm having trouble believing it, in 11 days I'll be back in melbourne.

Currently as things stand

Thursday: Arrive to late to do anything
Friday: Booked by family, and depending on how things go, Dougy may have something planned that i can attend late friday night
Saturday: To be played by ear, suggestions and ideas welcome
Sunday: See saturday
Monday: Free except in the evening where Miski has booked ridiculously in advance
Tuesday: Mark has been Penciled in for the evening
Wednesday: To be advised - contact my PA
Thursday: To be advised - contact my PA
Friday: To be advised - contact my PA
Saturday: Leaving for JAPAN!

So, somewhere in all that I gotta get presents for japanese people i havnt met and make sure i see everyone else and eat at as many places that i like as possible. Oh, and you know... catch up with the folks!

There are many of you i've missed heaps, I'm looking forward to seeing all of you soon!

Oh and we saw spiderman 3, awesome. (not as awesome as 300, although Kana has a vastly different opinion :p )

The return!

2007-04-23T20:32:00.000+10:00

As things currently look I will be returning to melbourne on the 24th of May (late at night) and will be staying there until June the 2nd, upon which Kana and I shall depart for Japan.

Please feel free to start booking up some of our time in Melbourne, there are many of you we wish to catch up with! Please start planning things!

I hope to get some R&R time between work and going to japan, a country where I will have to think and expend effort to communicate with everyone... including my girlfriends parents!!!

They apparently speak none, or very very limited english!

I dread some serious middle aged japanese gentleman tell me in gutteral tones in the traditional location of a men's hot spring, that I had better be taking care of his precious little girl or his mates with the ugly looking tats will carve me a new one...

I'm assuming my understanding of the translation might be something more like "Do you like kabuki theatre and samurai moves"

I'm sure some serious and lifethreatening misunderstandings are likely to take place...

Either way be sure to start putting in bookings on my (our) time (who knows it might be my last!) and wish us well on our forthcoming journey. I hope to see much of Japan before I am ritually decapitated to remove any dishonor from kana's family

Picasso

2007-04-14T19:05:00.000+10:00

Kana and I have decided to try our hand at some painting, we picked up some paints and brushes and canvases... this is what turned out so far....

enjoy :p

P.S: we also went to noosa recently with 8 friends of ours...

pictures are available here
http://www.sendspace.com/file/as7j7x

300

2007-04-06T12:22:00.000+10:00

300 was awesome!

It just feels like any sentence used to describe the movie should be made almost entirely of the word "man"

Something like "Some men using their manly talent created this awesome man made manly movie about men killing men awesomely manly .. men"

I suppose the other tact you could use would be to use phrases like "a testosterone explosion" and "a rollercoaster of an adrenaline ride" the list could go on.

Basically it was an awesomely stylised movie of he-man style action figures with heaps more points of articulation and realistic looking muscles that flex and pop being awesomely savage in the face of a massive horde.

I'm not sure i can describe it in a way that does it justice. I liked it, I thought they could have stayed on the screen fighting for ages longer.

It is bloody, there could be more story, but I suppose there didnt need to be.

AWESOME MANLY MEN MASSACARING MORE MEN!

PS. I have a new housemate, a french girl who is currently sunbathing in the backyard in a bikini

Silver Screens

2007-04-01T16:25:00.000+10:00

My workload looks like its going to slow down to something resembling normal on monday, that should be an awesome change from the last month and a half.

During this time I have managed to capture some time and with it see ghost rider and hot fuzz.

Hot Fuzz was one of the best comedies I have seen in a long time. If I sat down with a bunch of mates and tried to think of the biggest piss take of cop movies, thinking of the setting the characters and the badies I don't think we could have come up with sillier and funnier.

It starts very unassuming, I think Shaun of the Dead was better, but not by much :p

Ghost rider by contrast was not a particularly clever movie. Simple to the point, some average CG and some atmosphere. It was enjoyable, but dont go in with too high and expectation. I havn't read the comic before, and I'm assuming if I had, the details and intricacies of the story were no doubt left out of this silver screen portrayl.

I'm hungering for 300 and Spiderman 3!

S P A R T A ! ! !!

Work Stuff

2007-03-14T08:06:00.000+10:00

My bosses boss has been asked to step aside and work on a project. In his place a man with a very negative reputation has been put forth and has many large personal problems with a lot of the staff in the area who have been there longer.

I haven’t really met the man yet, things should be quite interesting.

This comes at the same time of year as my areas busiest.

Currently we are undertaking 90 something casual staff…

That’s right! Mass murder! MUHAHAHHAHA

Yeah, um, a survey of people on trains anyway. Basically it means for the next 4 weeks I have totally sucky hours!

2 weeks starting very close to midnight

And then 2 weeks of fininshing very late, almost always with long shifts.

Monday will be approximately 11 hours long.

The overtime should be good.

P.S: This was written out a couple o weeks ago. That project is now underway, its time consuming but interesting, an obscure kind of fun. I have come to slightly know the person in question, he is a wanker and from what I can see so far his reputation is justified. The guy who was running the project before just had a baby (Congrats!) so now me and the other guy are running the show.

The tour of my abode

2007-03-04T20:32:00.000+10:00

I thought you all deserved a closer look at my place,

from the outside it looks a lot like this

I

and it was nice and cool and empty, with floorbaoards throughout!

and then we bought...

4 of these

and 1 of these

and a few other odds and ends and our place looks a lot like this....

and then i had a party and it looked a lot like...

and then i bought a car which looked quite similar to....

if i start uploading photos again someone may need to shoot me

damn if digital camera's ain't fun :p

PS. the master bedroom isnt shown as yet.... those photos are private :p

OW

2007-03-04T11:35:00.000+10:00

G'day everyone

First week of the Passenger load survey has passed. Things are a bit unsettled. The work is interesting and out of the office, but the shifts are around 11 hours long and starting not that long after midnight 3 nights a week.

This coming week should follow suit with slightly nicer hours.

While this has been occuring my bosses boss has been 'outed' from his office and someone else with an unpleasant reputation is in his place.

Things are shaping up to be... interesting.

This weekend I thought some downtime was in order and went out with some guys to the goldcoast for bodyboarding (i have a body board now) and swimming and ogling.

Needless to say that i came back with a body board and a massive sunburn

Sunburn is me. Probably more of me is burnt than not, its all one big ouch.

Eragon – Revisited

2007-03-01T13:17:00.000+10:00

I read the book, I wandered into borders, with a decent wait expected for my girl, settled into one of their comfy arm chairs, flipped Eragon open, and started skimming through the pages.

I was hooked. Gone was the excessive single dimensionality, the excessive magnification of each event. The story was complete and detailed and painted a picture of words that well described events and characters in a captivating way.

Just a quick word though. This book is archetypical fantasy. Do not be expecting quirks of story or character to blow your mind. It’s a story that presents pretty standard fare with workmanship and quality. It’s worthy to note that it doesn’t feel like it’s the first novel offering from a young author, quite the opposite. (Especially since it is a first work by a new and young author)

I suppose the book is also pitched at young adult fiction, so I guess it might be semi reasonable to let the book get away with its few basic premises which are a tad overused, but nevertheless main stays of fantasy, a farm boy becoming a hero with the main consuming flaws of being impulsive, stupid and honor bound. Elves who are oh so wise and powerful, but can’t do anything useful. All powerful all knowing evil, who are at some risk from said farm boy. Well look the list goes on, but doesn’t address what I feel is the main issue.

It’s an engrossing read. For a few days I was essentially incommunicado as I read Eragon between work and sleep, with sleep suffering, and then continuing on the Eldest the next installment. They are nice reads, the final book is on my too read list now, and although I expect more standard fantasy fodder, I will also be expecting it to be engrossing and engaging and well written, like the preceding books.

Heroes

2007-02-27T18:11:00.000+10:00

I love that show, I got most of the series copied for me, and after episode 1 I was hooked. Now none of the abilities the heroes have has rocked my world, I heard of em all before, and I don’t care. They have these strange funny characters and they do intriguing things. Their take of prediction and time hasn’t become clear yet, but it seems like it will be interesting. The evil superpowered guy is kinda cool and I have run out of episodes to watch.

This is actually the part that has me the most frustrated!

I am downloading the next episodes, but not that many have been released yet!

It’s driving me nuts! I want to see who lives and who dies, I want to see which good guys turn bad guys.

I want to see what ends up happening to the government agency type thing.

And I really want to see more super powers

A soap opera with superpowers that isn’t superman related!

I’m in love!

The saga of Fire and Water

2007-02-23T22:07:00.000+10:00

To commemorate the date of my birth under the flaming sky did gather around me mine companions and set forth on a journey. Slowly didst we meet each other each winding into the tangled skein of fate each in our own allotted time.

The many bonds of the earth represented amongst us in the form of some men wearing of half pants and women scantily clad in nylon and polyester in appealing geometric shapes.

Together did we come, in chariots, breathing hot wind and thunder down on the open plains. Only recently did my chariot which gleamed the colour of night (the black neon) cough and gasp and run ragged with despair, mimicking its colour. So did I trundle thrugh the hills and wander through the ‘magic mile’ ( actually called that ) and find a car to procure. With silver and chrome plated wheels, did set off the lightning white of my new means of travel. ( I bought a commodore that works a lot better than the neon, is white and older and cheaper and has a lot less kms)

Through the human infested concrete jungle did we pass into the more deserted lands to the southern coast, where on the horizon didst we see complex circular patterns disrupting the horizon. As we drew closer we were transfixed, it seemed… unavoidable!

Together didst the six of us prepare to assault the looming esoteric encampment that rose steeply into the sky. As we passed through the entrance way did we all declare “Wet ‘n’ Wild, we shall defeat you!”

As we bravely ventured forth trudged up many a pathway always up, into the sky, didst we encounter heavy opposition. Demons masquerading as little boys and girls pushing and shoving us. Sirens bedecked in almost nothing beckoning us. If not for our trusty female traveling companions (girlfriends) we would have been drawn astray, into the arms of doom, no doubt. Harpys and Gargoyles guarded these passenges, that seemed inevitably to contain at the end of each arduous trek, a trap, based on the element of change and mutability.

Endlessly it did seem we were caught in these contraptions, over and over again. We were sent spiraling down wet tubes and tornadoes and luckily landing safely in sparkling lagoons.

Every inch of the place we didst investigate, no evil did we find there. The traps were merely endless, and surrounded by beautiful traveling companions (girlfriends again) we came to enjoy the challenge (they had a six people raft you could take, we tried our best to rock it off the slide, almost succeeded)

Eventually we didst declare Wet’n’Wild defeated. No longer did it hold any secrets from us!

From the half century

2007-02-15T20:54:00.000+10:00

Thank you to all of you for lovely birthday wishes.

for all of you who havnt yet passed them along.... *shame, shame, shame*

Its been a nice birthday, the out look from here is good, i want to see what it looks like from a half century, when i can run all over the pitch and wave my bat around to the adulation of the crowd!

;)

later kids

and thanks

Money :(

2007-02-12T17:41:00.000+10:00

Brisbane remains hot consistantly so, as my visiting sister has found out. I believe the constant heat may be whats responsible for her being a little cranky at the moment.

My grandmother is still dead, but after talking with my sister about it who saw her last year its easier to come to terms with. Mum is out of the country with her family hopefully doing well.

My car, the new shiny black one, is a shiny black lemon. Me and sis looked at cars today and found one that I will probably settle on, a not as shiny old white commodore, '92 with 130,000 on the clock at 4k thats in good nick.

Hopefully this will last me a while.

With moving into the new house the spending spree at ikea and an upcoming trip to japan money seems to be a difficult commodity to manage... at least for me :p

My grandma died

2007-02-08T21:32:00.001+10:00

bummer

Damn

2007-02-05T19:34:00.000+10:00

I just found out one of grandmothers is dying. Mum is going overseas to see her before she dies. I’m not going to. She hasn’t been well for a long time, she is quite old, she can’t remember anyone these days, can’t speak a language I can understand, except grandmother, which every grandchild is fluent in, but I’m not sure how much of that she remembers.

It’s quite unexpected. Well, she hasn’t been well for a long time… but she has been pretty similar for a long time. So it’s not entirely unexpected. It is however disturbing and upsetting.

I'm not sure what to say, I'm not sure what I can say. I don't even know what to hope for in this case. I'm not even sure how I feel, except a large portion of sad.

This comes on the heels of feeling pretty happy about what seems like a nice beginning.

Bittersweet, happy with sad, ...

I'll miss her, and she isnt gone yet.

Show me the way to my abode

2007-02-04T21:36:00.000+10:00

I’m settling into a new place, a much nicer place, with only me and my girl. We moved in together. In a world seemingly full of people we didn’t want to live with, we were intrinsically drawn to each as people we each love and want to spend time with… A vast contrast to some of the people we have cohabitated with so far.

We have been doing the rounds. In the past week I have ogled more kitchen utensils, outdoor settings, dining room tables and chairs, tvs, dvd players, couches, sofa beds the attractive females who cannot cover up due to extremely severe prevailing heat. Proving this heat does have its fringe benefits.

Most of the decisions have been made and many purchases finalized, which weren’t as expensive as I had a right to expect in this throw away consumable society we live in… sometimes consumerism and capitalism work well for you :p

One such decision was organizing the continuation of my internet service. Its nice to be able to say to you all again.

Come visit my new place, up here in the north… Don’t forget to wish me well on my birthday, as my sister is currently on her way up here to do.

Fit

2007-01-25T16:58:00.000+10:00

I’ve been going to kung fu twice a week now for a while, just the other day I went to a 3^rd classin a week, a tai chi one. All this training takes up a reasonable bit of time and it can be reasonably draining and exhausting. However, I feel distinctly better because of it, and more relaxed and comfortable through the days compared to when I wasn’t doing anything physical.

I also am starting to feel fitter and stronger.

OHH MY FUCKING GOD!!!! Kana just gave me some chips!!! WASABI LOBSTER CHIPS!!!! Now I love wasabi peas, these chips knock them completely out of the water, I’m assuming you would get them at some asian supermarket!!! Go now! Buy buy buy buy wasabi lobster potatoe snacks! GET THEM NOW!

Its just a nice feeling, I think in conjunction with this I’m also slightly bigger than I used to be, I’m going to think positively and assume some of it is fat, but some is muscle!

PS: This post was written about 1.5 -2 weeks ago, since then i havnt attended kung fu, due to looking for a place to live related activites and overtime work. Ironic.

P.P.S: I have also lost the paunch I developed in melb, so i'm assuming a lot more is muscle than before, I put this down to healthy living... that, or living in a perpetual sauna, either or.

Blogging

2007-01-18T22:29:00.000+10:00

I hope to blog more in the future, this I endeavor I hope to be aided in by the purchase of a Palm Top PDA, with it I shall hold the future in my hand, esoteric hand stokes, aided by a small plastic wand will turn every gesture into a mystical creation of words, wireless would aid immensely in conveying that information to the centre of my mystic universe… my awesome laptop… which can now be purchased for a grand less than I paid for it, almost a year later…

Anyway, any suggestions or advice on what to get are appreciated, someone in melb has one they want to get rid of for $50, if your reading this, post the details on here, so the nice people can read it and advise me :p

Bloody Queensland

2007-01-17T20:04:00.000+10:00

It's hot here. Really hot. I have almost had enough of nights too swealtering to sleep in and queenslanders relating to me in a way I can only describe as truely australia; "Hot? Nah, this isn't summer. Now last summer, that was a summer. I think I've only had the aircon on twice this summer, if you can it a summer, more like spring. Wait till next year. We should have a real summer then."

Accommodation

2007-01-17T20:03:00.000+10:00

I hate it. Every place I’ve lived in recently, either it has people living there who suck, in one way or another (the bad way), or the place sucks. Air conditioning is a must. People who clean up after themselves is a must. Crazy old alcos are definitely out.

Me and my baby are going to be moving in together, most likely with some Korean girl, there are some other options, but basically, as long as we know the person, they aint a pig, or like crazy or something them living with us would be awesome. At least then I don’t have to take pot luck with whoever moves in with us.

Taking essentially pot luck with what a place is like and how much of a pain, or lack of one the owners are is enough.

I recon as long as the place seems clean, big enough, has aircon and I’m living with people I am pretty sure I can live with, it should all be fine.

This is Brisbane… maybe if we went for the random flatmate option we might end up with one of the hot strippers who strut around the city in black tank tops and hot pants, distributing discount vouchers to their next lap dance…

The blackness of night returns

2007-01-17T18:23:00.000+10:00

My vehicle has been repaired, its graceful black lines will grace the tarmac once again, occasionally shuddering and shaking and rattling as per the other issues that have not as yet been address

The day my car exploded

2007-01-16T21:06:00.000+10:00

I thought today was going to be an ordinary day, get up, get dressed, go to work, have my usual set of frustrating encounters with the usual people and go home and eat and stuff… ordinary.

As I drove my car into the city to drop off my girlfriend she tells me the story of her dream last night, she dreamt that I had some kind of relationship with someone else, who is a friend of mine in Melbourne, and then after finding this out, she started a relationship with the same person. In this dream I then found out about her relationship with this friend of mine. Jen you were part of a dreamt love triangle :p

The only part of this that seems particularly out of place, ok, well one of them is that I would be upset…Admittedly on some levels this would bother me, but my girl, having a relationship with a girl, that I was also having a relationship with… I may not be much of a mathematician, but 1 + 1 + 1 = THREESOME!

All that aside, after the dream was related to me as I drove to work in stop-start traffic, and after I finished laughing and promised to relate this story to whoever frequents this page, did the atmosphere become severly 80ish as clouds of dry ice, surrounded us, and there was David Bowie, complete with glass juggling ball, tights and tennis balls… No, just kidding, the bonnet of my car started vomiting evaporated coolant through the gaps of the main panel. A passing driver kindly informed me of the pooling coolant underneath my car, and so I turned it off.

Stopped in the middle of a busy near-city street I interrupted a lane of traffic while the RACQ tow-truck was on the way. A kindly Brisbane Transport truck kindly waited behind me, protecting my vehicle and making nice with traffic flows. This vehicle came fully equipped with a padded bumper, ready to push me off the road if required.

My car was eventually towed to a radiator repair place, within a few hundred meters of the incident. The fixing of the broken pipes will run me down $440 dollars, damn Chrysler and their parts. This has already occurred and has not solved the problem, apparently my fan, the thing that cools the radiator is not working… further looking at will occur and an auto electrician may be called for.

This incident is possibly not that major, and can be expected of a car of this age, however the addition problem of the fan seems to be icing on the cake of a problematic vehicle.

This has not been the best of days.

Eragon

2007-01-15T19:59:00.000+10:00

Recently I saw Eragon. As a lover of fantasy, this was a treat. I have some good and bad things to say about the movie, but for a variety of reasons I will call this movie good.

The Good

In recent years any major movie that was fantasy or sci-fi based tended to have a dodgy unoriginal story, weak characters and there has been a recent move towards good special effects.

Serenity would be an exception to this. Lord of the rings was a good well rounded series of movies, if a tad long.

This movie does have well produced special effects, pretty dragons and magic. The story is based on a novel, the basic story seems fairly standard fantasy fair, I have not read the books the movie is based on although I have some vague intentions of doing so.

The cast was fairly good, although some melodramatic overacting on the part of, well a lot of people, but mostly people in the bad guys camp, John Malkovitch I’m looking at you.

But basically you have a farm boy, and dragon, magic and awesome fights, happen to him. He plays his part of too naïve and stupid to survive well, and the sheer luck and ‘things’ that make him special suffice to keep him alive in these situations, pretty standard high fantasy fair. He manages to play this well.

A commendation deserves to go to Jeremy Irons for his acting and character in this movie. Playing the grizzled old guy who has been there and done that, takes the role of helping out the young whippersnapper and trying to make sure he doesn’t die horribly too quickly. His character has the most depth of any in the movie and probably is by far the most interesting and engaging.

The Bad

This movie struggles from two main aspects, the first is detail, the second is storytelling.

Detail

The movie seemed very standard fantasy fair, nothing terribly new or exciting in any of the concepts presented, giving the books the benefit of the doubt and knowing that they are quite long books (also standard fantasy tradition) I’m quite sure a lot of detail has been left out of the movie. This resulted in just about every character being fairly 1 dimensional. The boy with potential, The girl who is a princess, the evil sorcerer, the evil tyrant, I think you get the idea. This included the story. My belief is they could have shown us less story, but told the part of the story they chose more completely.

Story telling

The movie started off with a juxtaposition, they overviewed a series of events, bloody wars, killing and oppression (by the evil king). We were then quickly introduced to The Village, where The Boy With Promise resides, while The Princess is pursued in some other place by the Evil Sorcerer. So we have a world in turmoil, the village they then introduced us to was idyllic, a lovely place to be, so the tone of the scenes and music lead us to believe, later it became a darker village, with more nasty overtones.

This was contrast at the same time by a violent battle, these scenes were mixed together, for story line reasons, but together they make the combination of events seem to clash with their underlying tones. I think the reason for this was they didn’t know if they were making some kind of fairy tale for young people or a grittier story set in a fantasy land. This dichotomy of purpose resulted in a few other scenes that seem to jar with the feelings the music and imagery presented when contrasted the context and content of the scene, such as mid way through the movie, DUN DUN DEEERRR something bad happened. The aftermath of this really bad thing was serene music and an idyllic picture of mountainous terrain with an almost divine evening sky and sunset… how is that sad!? How does that imagery and sound enhance the moment, to me, it didn’t, it was just a bit silly, pretty but silly.

I griped a reasonable amount about this movie, but I’m happy with it, because the overall quality of the movie was higher than most fantasy offerings, and I hope for more in the future. This is a good, vanilla or white-bread fantasy movie. Not great, but not terrible. There might be the odd overused cliché but they can be ignored and there are some good performances. Lest we forget, pretty scenery, special effects and dragons :p

Struck Dumb

2007-01-14T18:18:00.000+10:00

Saturday was going to be a hard day, full of getting ready for the week ahead andd house hunting. It was going to be a right pain, but for a good cause.

On Friday I found out that this pain, that would have been in the name of improving the quality of my life in Brisbane, could not occur.

Currently we are working on a silly project in a kinda silly way. This project was also excepted with too little time to complete it, so my Saturday was taken up by overtime. In spite of this getting in the way of things that I needed to do, I guess I didn’t mind that much, except that on Saturday my car didn’t start. The second time within 1 week, battery issues that related to other things… I’m no car expert.

The amount of pain and hassle this caused was unbelievable.

House hunting will have to wait till next Saturday now, because of work and this is Brisbane where real estate agents don’t work too much on Sundays.

This morning I went to tai chi class, run by the kung fu school I go to, and that was pretty nice and energizing.

Keeping you updated…

Whirlwind

2007-01-09T19:22:00.000+10:00

My girlfriend and I find ourselves back in Brisbane. The ebbs and flows of our trip to Melbourne left me almost without breath, but definitely relaxed and relieved.

On arriving there I was greeted by my best friend and we immediately went to the city to China Bar, one of my favorite restaurants, for a late dinner. We were joined by his girlfriend and went back to there place. The following day we went to Chadstone, for shopping, and my grandparents, for Shabbat, and Brunswick St, to Polly for late night drinks in a decadent atmosphere.

Melbourne knew how to greet our arrival with unseasonal cold and wet weather, quite out of the range of Queensland weather, and did it ever make me miss that town. So following the cold I was taken down with a bad sore throat. But never did I let it get me down. The bad weather did not actually start until after the wedding that was one of the main purposes of our visit.

After that there was Christmas with family and friends, hideous amounts of shopping at as many major places for shopping as possible. Dinners, restaurants, cafes, chocolate, clothes and a New Years party in the middle of the country in an abandoned converted church with my friends and copious amounts of stuff that you bring in a new year with, food, drink, other and music.

And then the wind down… more of the same, shopping, eating, friends.

It felt full on, relaxing, and awesome.

I miss you all.

My girl loved every minute of it, the place, the people, the food, THE SHOPPING

We even managed to get sick numerous times during the trip and it was still awesome.

Further break down and description of events by request, all requests be answered via blog.

PS2 Envy

2006-12-08T20:15:00.000+10:00

I am at a quandary, I walked into EB games today, low and behold, before me I did see a play station 2 for I believe it was around $150, new. That’s pretty cheap for a good games console, which now has cheap second hand games available for it, as well as able to be chipped and games ‘acquired.’ I haven’t had a games console for a long time, and that seems a pretty reasonable price for one…

I also don’t play games on my pc that much either… I haven’t really had a chance to play the games I’ve got already… however… CHEAP. I mean it would be pretty cool, it would be handy, fun and I might play games a little more, as well as have a dvd player of my own, for when I actually have to get all my own furniture and stuff…

I cant decide.

Help me!

Shagged

2006-12-04T22:45:00.001+10:00

I'm too shagged to write or think too much at the moment, so lets try something different.

In approximately 2 weeks I'm going to be in Melbourne (W00t!!!)

I have some stuff to go to, weddings, New Year's parties... that kinda stuff.

In addition my girlfriend is coming with me, who has seen none of Melbourne and Victoria, very little of Australia in general except for some of Queensland. How about this, can you all suggest places to go and see and do in Melbourne/Victoria. Anyone who suggests hitting the 21st century nightclub in Frankstone with the revolving dance floor will recieve a backhand and the suggestion will be taken under advisement :p

so get crackin suggest away!!!!

Some suggestions I have recieved so far are: Great ocean road, grampions, botanical gardens, st kilda beach and your mumma!

Free movie!!

2006-12-02T00:43:00.000+10:00

I managed to get two free tickets to “To catch a fire.” I just saw it with my girlfriend on a Friday night. It’s a good movie. I have some issues with it. It is an interesting story depicting two men struggling with apartheid from either side of it. The movie raises a number of issues and depicts a lot of concerns that confront a people suffering from oppression, lack of rights and resources.

It was not a light film.

I have read many a story detailing the horrors and unpleasantness of various wars and oppressive reins. There are many films I have seen that deal with those issues. I have spoken with people who have lived through them, some of them being members of my own family with the memory of those events tattooed onto their arm.

I have an issue with the film.

That issue was the repetition of those points. To me bringing them up, for me, is to dwell on them. I no longer wish to have those points brought to my immediate attention unless they are coupled with a suggestion of what can be done about it, a course of action.

That was not the intention of the film, nor do I think it should have been.

On a Friday night after what feels like an awfully long week of work, recently returned from a brief holiday, regardless of how interesting the story was, this movie was too heavy and disturbing to be palatable for me.

However, for those of you who don’t share the same opinion about the way these things should be thought of, see the film, it captured attention, told an interesting story and had good acting.

It was also a free movie!!!

A trip by the seaside

2006-11-30T22:43:00.000+10:00

This title feels like it should be heading and Enid Blyton novel.

A long story short is that 2 friends came and visited me from Melbourne. Them, my girlfriend and I spent about half a week showing them around Brisbane, the beautiful places and all the good restaurants that I know of so far.

They were blown away by the fake beach, which is awesome, the hot weather and the atmosphere. After a few days of getting to know Brisbane we headed out north, to Maleny. A laid back, mountain, country town, with a fairly rich population focusing on organic produce and a hippesque lifestyle. Awesome food was had. A lovely place owned by my relatives (also lovely) was stayed at. Keys were locked into my car and fun was had.

2 nights were spent in noosa, awesome seafood was had. Much mucking around in the pool, spa and beach. 3 people were taught how to body board by myself and many a wave was caught, in some cases for the first time.

A fun time was had, a joyful reunion now over, sweet, and yet bittersweet. Now the rest of life intrudes.

The different faces of the North

2006-11-18T14:10:00.000+10:00

Earlier this week I happened to pay attention to the weather forecast as I left for work in the morning. Normally the words from the radio announcers slightly amuse me and flow around me without leaving a mark, especially anything weather related. I generally feel, as someone originally from Melbourne, the weather will happen and generally whatever I have on that day will be good enough to deal with most variations.

So I normally don’t pay attention. On this day, Brisbane, a top of 30 degrees and showers and Melbourne, a top of14 degrees and rain.

This I do have to say tickled my fancy, Melbourne damn cold in November and Brisbane, every with an ‘unseasonal’ storm still ridiculously warm and nice. As it turns out Melbourne was a fine and dandy top of 7 degrees… CELCIOUS! And it snowed in few places in Victoria from what I heard. At the same time, it did get ridiculously hot that day in Brisbane, at least 30, however, the storm that came through was black on the up to the minute satellite overview and washed over where I worked.

My co-workers told me it was coming an hour or so in advance, there were all looking at the satellite readout. They then told me I should move my car to a place out of the weather, in case it hailed. An hour before the storm, all those spots were already taken… and more than a few people were trying to do similar things.

As the storm came through gusting winds were whistling through buildings and heavy rain was pounding on roofs. Then the sounds of the beat changed, hail was coming down. Weather veins were being blown this way and that. Heavy iron girders that held up thousands of volt wires were swaying and buckling in the gale. I was told to worry when the staccato beat on the roof got quiet, then the hail would be large and my car would be in significant danger of mutilation by the elements. Palm trees outside were being blow around, hail the size of dice were coming in at 45 degree angles. The storm blew through us in about one and a half hours, about 5 minutes after the storm, the sun came out and the temperature must have jumped up about 10 degrees.

Later I found out that the storm was a hairs breath away from turning into a tornado.

These kind of storms are common around this time of year, it’s where they get most of their rain from.

Crazy…

Still, better than 7 degrees in Melbourne :p

Mountain Air

2006-11-13T23:02:00.000+10:00

And so didst Sigmund and the lily of the orient (better suggested phrases to refer to my girlfriend in this manner are requested) didst travel along the rolling planes, south west of the City. Many a cheap banana was spied and prized from the hands of those who kept them with gold coloured coin. Jams and fruits of amazing quality were plentiful and purchased. A garage sale of mamoth proportions was set upon and great prizes wrung from the hands of said garage in titan battles of frugalness (a $10 gas bbq a $2 wicker picnic set, a $2 camping chair)

The views on the curling trail up to the mountian was stunning. It was enjoyed while prawns were feasted upon ($12 a kilo) and a motel with a spa was booked for the night. Decent tai food was found, sunsets were looked at from lookout points. Much relaxing was done and a very nice time was had. Lovely breakfasts found.

Awesome cheeses and sausages and not bad wine was found on the return journey and old acquaintances were renewed in brisbane, as one of my friends, recently relocating to NZ dropped in for a nice lunch.

A very full and very fun and relaxing weekend was had.

Well look whats blowing in

2006-11-04T18:39:00.000+10:00

This month someone from New Zealand is dropping by for a visit, as well as someone from Melbourne.

Both of them good friends of mine.

I also actually seem to be saving some money these days... Yeay for me

I like the school of kung fu i'm attending,

I apologised and seemed to have worked stuff out with the RP guys (geeks)

The stuff at work has been smoothed out,

it's looking to be a good month

After party

2006-11-04T12:46:00.000+10:00

Well, its after the party now, teasing japanese girls who look younger than me but are all older than me is definately fun...

not entirely sure what i'm going to do for the weekend... as its forecasted to piss down everywhere in south east queensland

ahhh well

the weekend exists in potentia... and by the sounds of it potentia means a shopping mall

Suprise

2006-11-02T23:55:00.000+10:00

Well, I been working, sorting out work stuff, which is where I spend much time. Revolutionising the Qld Rail Industry with new progressive scientific, mathematical and statistical ideas...

Doing martial arts, playing tennis (for the first time in years), driving my new car. I mean I said I was gonna do some stuff, and I been doing it...

Not much time left over for much else actually...

Ah well.

Tomorrow - A party (I missed having a halloween party... didnt get around to it)

A Brazilian themed party at a cocktail bar in a swanky part of brisbane, I will be attending with many a very cute japanese girl, one of which will be my girlfriend (Not drawn at random)

Oh, No, it's like i'm all alone up here, nothing to do, no familiar faces, no friends or family... these cute japanese and sexy brazilian girls will have to console me ;)

Things I'm not doing...

2006-10-28T19:12:00.000+10:00

Normally my blog has talked about what I am doing, what I am thinking, what I'm planning.

Right now, I'm tired, it's been very hot and work has been reasonably stressful. I've taken up martial arts again, black crane style. It seems that will provide the balance I will need to reduce stress.

However in general, right now, I'm tired.

So one thing I am not doing is blogging

Gaming madness

2006-10-27T21:58:00.000+10:00

I had recently cancelled my subscription to Blizzard's World of Warcrack, only to find more ppl i know just starting up, i am starting again... Zathor the pincale of Night Elf masculinity and smackdown on Cho'gall

The vortex is sucking me in...

No................ from the vortex of EEEEVVVVIIIILLLLL!!!!!

I thought I was giving it up for oblivion and the plethora of gaming software that is forethcoming....

*sigh*

Ethics

2006-10-24T20:25:00.000+10:00

Some of you may have commented on the elusiveness of some of my comments at various stages of my blogging history. Part of the reason for this is that I often don’t see the short and direct literary route in most instances, the other is culpability.

This is the internet, anyone can read anything I write (in theory and provided big guns in internet service providing industry don't to require payment for bandwidth access.) That includes loved ones, work colleagues jilted lovers, legal adversaries, ANYONE! As a result I try not to write anything I wouldn’t admit to, to just about anyone.

This is the result...

At this point you are probably wondering what things I am omitting by this methodology, the answer is simple… the good stuff :p

P.S: If by some chance I particularly wanted to vent something about someone, that if read by that person could have negative repercussions, that venting would most likely not occur on this blog... and for this reason, woe is me.

Frustration is also me AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On the death coloured chariot

2006-10-23T20:46:00.000+10:00

And so was the brow of Sigmund humbled as he did gaze upon the chariot, gleaming in the son. The ashen colour of its flanks did blind his eyes as he surveyed the lines of the labor and pride of his tribe.

So didst the chariot finally arrive. The great wheeled land beast didst carry many chariots from the distant homelands in the south. With baited breath and great anticipation didst Sigmund greet the chariot. Spake to it in hushed tones and rub away the toils and hardship of the road.

With great poignancy didst Sigmund lower himself into the deep set seat of the mighty and sleek chariot. It was as he had remembered it. Cool to the touch, a warm purr felt through the vibrations of the felt covered reins.

As Sigmund brought his chariot from cool sleep into wakeful life didst the beast roar and shatter the silence that had beset the conglomerate of giant wheeled land beasts.

Through the mountain passes of the great city of the North did Sigmund and the chariot acquaint themselves with the details and feel of each other. An understanding was reached.

Sigmund and the chariot would consent to the company of the other, so that their goals and conquest of the North could be speedy. Until the time when the North was subjugated below their heels, at which time the alliance may end, so each may sally forth and battle for the North between the only two true Warriors from the South present in these lands.

Great battles await, until then, Sigmund rides the death coloured chariot. Let all fear the reaper of mountain passes and winding asphalt.

Planning

2006-10-22T14:45:00.000+10:00

Now if you go back about 2 weeks, there were a bunch of things I wanted to say all at once, now, listening to your complaints and constructive critism of days past, I gathered if I felt the need to vent, I should do it in palatable sized bits. So thats what i did, wrote short to the point comments. This gave me about 6 or so of posts. Every so often a new one got written during the posting process :p

So you had shortish new comments regularly each about a different aspect of my life.

Palatable bit sized chunks.

I hope you enjoyed the regularity, I will aim to keep it up, but not too hard :p

Either way, the backlog has been consumed, I've got to start re-developing and saving up a new back log, or well, I will as it seems its the best way to achieve the regularity of writting I wish.

Now feedback time.

Was that enjoyable and interesting enough for you?

or would you prefer unbalanced posts and more impulsiveness and more accurate up to date, up to the second posts, when they occur?

Soon to follow news of the shiny new death coloured chariot

The winds of foreboding

2006-10-21T18:41:00.000+10:00

This most recent Monday I woke to feel the sticky moist air cling to my body, as it had all night. In the grey light of day the heat was oppressive and present in every droplet of water in the air.

The mugginess concentrated itself against the force of my movements as I fixed food and made my way to work. Early in the morning a clouded day did nothing to dilute the steaming gaze of the sun. As the clammy material of my shirt molded to my body and I trudged onward towards work I could feel in the wind, this was only the beginning.

As torturous and arduous as that mornings weather was, it was merely a taste of things to come. By all recollection of the people who live here, the weather is only going to get worse.

P.S: today in brisbane it was overcast, and then it started raining... duuuude!!!

P.P.S: and still freaking humid the whole time

P.P.P.S: I GOT A NEW FRIGGIN CAR!!!!! NEW POST TO FOLLOW SOON IN VIKING PROSE TO CELEBRATE!!!!! THIS DIDST SIGMUND DECLARE UNTO THE FALLING SKY!!!!!!!

Fighting

2006-10-18T19:56:00.000+10:00

Well it looks like talks between me and my ex-landlord through a go-between fell through and it seems likely that I will be looking at a small claims court appearance. I’ve never had the ill fortune to land there before. It should be interesting. Also interesting as I think the other party has a lot more to lose from this encounter.

I managed to get in a fight, a physical one, the only real consequence of that was I found some of my reactions were very good and that my forehead is particularly solid.

I may need to look for a method of calming down.

Intra Office Politix

2006-10-17T20:55:00.000+10:00

This office environment is pretty new to me overall. Its strange how bitchy sneaky or backstabbing people can be and yet just about everything is done in hushed muted tones and conversations.

Impressions carry a lot of weight, hallway conversations reek of secrecy, importance and reliability and I work with what generally seem nice people! I get to do interesting stuff, its pretty easy going... isn’t it?

Or is it? Maybe I don’t play the game as well as I thought I did!

Fashion Victim #1

2006-10-15T11:04:00.000+10:00

I saw the Devil wears Prada the other day and I have to say I was impressed. Not only were there buckets of pretty girls in pretty clothes, but the anne Hathaway is too cute for words.

What impressed me most about the movie however was Meryl Streep, playing the bitchy ice queen. This was not a movie with a hero and a villain as such (although if you really wanted to you could look at it like that,) what makes this astounding is how much menace Meryl Streep seems to evoke in her minions and by her on screen presence.

Its uncanny, if the evil scheming villain in a James Bond movie acted like she did, well bond movies would be a touch better. The most compelling scene in the movie was all of a sudden Meryl Streep, sitting in a bath robe on a sofa in Paris, no makeup on delivering tragic news of her personal life to Anne Hathaway.

The amount of shock and tension that scene created was uncanny. It was the only time in the movie we did not see Meryl frocked and dished out to look like Cruela De’Ville. Definitely worth a view, this movie is one of the better told stories on screen at the moment.

OMG! More Railroads!

2006-10-13T17:03:00.000+10:00

Many of my favorite games have been made by Sid Meier, Civilization, Civilization 2, Alpha Centauri, the list goes on. Amongst them is Railroad Tycoon 2 (I never played the first one) I have just found out they are putting out a newer more awesome version, with fiddly time consuming bits cut out, only pure strategy and cut throat economics are left.

Pure GOLD!

I find the fact that I play with this stuff, except as a real life version no deterrent to look forward to acquiring this newest Sid gem!!!

I don’t know building track, making big rail decisions, buying industry, running other companies out of business... it sounds awesome!!!!

I mean I am part of driving big decision making decisions about the actual track that gets laid and a lot of the iterative processes underneath and behind that, roughly speaking, its also significantly slower moving.

*sigh*

I feel a little disappointed about how excited I am about a computer game to play with stuff I play with all day… I believe this may qualify me to be a consummate geek of some description :p

Obligatory girlfriend post

2006-10-12T22:23:00.000+10:00

I wasn't going to write about my girlfriend a lot, however she found out about my blog and insisted I write more about her (complimentary of course.) Well I don't have anything other than complimentary things to say about her, I mean I'm trying to think of something... and I just can't. Perhaps because she is looking over my shoulder as I write this? No that can't be it, shes just too wonderful for words. Really.

Generalities

2006-10-12T22:12:00.000+10:00

So the actual events that are going on at the moment include
• Minor to medium disgruntlement at work, that seems to have been sorted
• There is a new person who is being referred to as Sigmund 2 who I am effectively showing the ropes to and training (after being there only 6 months!)
• My new car should be heading my way soonish!!!! (I really really really hope, but it should, REALLY)
• I am organizing my upcoming trip to Melbourne at the end of the year
• I am currently engaged in negotiations about the bond for the last place I lived at, either it gets worked out or it gets taken to small claims court, the guy from the residential tenancy authority who is supposed to be the intermediary for conciliation is being a total A-hole. He doesn’t bother doing anything except say, look give in or you’ll go to court, you have no case, did you talk to the tenant’s authority, you’re still going ahead? For someone supposed to be impartial…
• The place I’m living at at the moment is pretty cool, the people are pretty cool and last weekend I had a housewarming that was pretty nice
• My best friend M:CSH and his girlfriend and my folks and my girlfriend’s mum are all apparently enroute to brissy in the next 2 months
• I think I might be slightly sick atm… like physically, mentally I wont discuss at the moment :p
• Oh I’m also deciding to stop studying teaching for the moment

Signoff~

Toot! Toot!

The love affair continues

2006-10-11T18:38:00.000+10:00

I love a good story, and there is no story I love more than fantasy fiction novels. There is no higher literary goal in my mind than the ability to weave a story together that is engaging and believable where you have some hairless youth wielding the biggest flaming sword since the creation of the earth and throwing lightning bolts left right and centre as he battles a god or demon for the continued existence of the universe, or something of that nature…

I mean it’s improbably, most people if they saw it happening wouldn’t have a bar of it! If you told a drunken hobo in a bar, it’s pretty unlikely he would believe you. He is more likely to think your some kind of hallucination.

Writing a story that makes you believe there is some snot nosed kid living in the valley of cherry blossoms whose dad was the retired dark lord of oblivion who accidentally happened upon the sword of utter catastrophe which was wielded in the battle of wailing sands against the epitome of evil who held the world in endless foreclosure by said snot nosed kid is a masterpiece.

I’ve been getting into the stories a bit recently, helped along by the Baen free library and there have been some stand outs there, some David Weber stuff in his oath of swords series, the stories by Keith Laumer about his character Retief who delves into interstellar diplomacy. But none of these roused my old feelings for a

A book I picked up recently renewed these feelings of love I have for all things fantasy fiction, mostly by being a damn good read “The White Tiger” by Kylie Chan. It also reminded me that no matter how precarious a ledge the world you are reading about is sitting on, no matter how shiny the armor, how hot the sword, how wavy the hair, if you hero/heroine doesn’t also come to have a massive thing for the most beautiful thing in creation and somehow steal their hearts it just doesn’t quite grab you as much.

I mean in some ways I probably am a hopeless romantic, but this book made me believe the world (modern setting fantasy) feel like the characters were real and some damn implausible things were happening right in front of me. It also made me think a relationship between a mortal character and god was plausible, kudos.

Martial arts, magic, gods, Asian mysticism, demons and a love story, this book really targets my weaknesses.

I am however incredibly upset the sequel hasn’t been written or at least published 

Into the ring of fire

2006-10-10T22:41:00.000+10:00

The other day I watched Waquim Pheonix (however you spell that) play johnny cash in walk the line.

It was a pretty standard story of boy can play guitar, boy makes a lot of money playing, boy marries wrong girl, does lots of drugs, dumps girl and has a thing for some other girl who is a lot better for him but nothing goes quite right until he is a totally rich drug fucked hobo, and then things get better.

The best part of this movie for me was near the end, when Johnny is on stage playing and singing a song that goes "down down down, into a ring of fire"

This song brings a special warmth into my heart. Let me explain why, my best friend in melbourne, let me annonymously refer to him as "Mick: The crazy singaporean hacker" or M:CSH.

So M:CSH was ( IS ) a bit of a video game junkie. One game he played was a basic flash animated game, you played some big tough slow moving guy in shining armour and had a flaming sword. You could move back and forth and swing your sword. The purpose of this was to kill as many demons as possible, which would come faster and faster. When you had killed 666 demons you could try and kill the devil. M:CSH got to the devil... he is a freak. However this game has a backgound track, "Johnny Cash: Down into a ring of fire."

I had no freaking idea it was johnny cash i barely knew who he was, i thought it was some retro country band accidentally producing some awesomely sarcastic song for the game, or just by providence. It was so apt it wasnt funny.

This movie allowed me to realize I did like and appreciate Johnny cash, that little flash game laying the beat down on the devil is what johnny cash was born to support!

strangely enough there were a number of Cash songs i heard and liked and a bunch i had heard before unrealizing

Oh the horror!

2006-10-08T18:39:00.000+10:00

As i write this am sitting in my lounge room on a bean bag, beer sitting next to me, laptop on my lap and oh god, the horror, TV infront of me with meercat manor screening and some bastard flatmate had left the remote in view and out of reach.

What on earth could be the driving force behind this disturbing banality! Some tv exec has no doubt gone, "Meercats are pretty cute, lets make a tv series of em" Someone craps on and gives em names, meercats act like meercats.

Its just stipid and boring, and after a while, they arnt even that cute.

So the update.

There was a housewarming, it was a little lackluster in turnouts, all of my girls friends turned up, most of the people i invited either called or smsed to say they couldnt turn up due to tickets for games, just having got up from the results of the night before, or i assume just clean forgetting.

It was a small and nice party. Without too much to clean up afterwards.

So the general update is I find myself in love with a Japanese girl in Brisbane, she is the sweetest and most gentle girl i have ever met. She is also insanely cute, as probably only a japanese girl can be.

Work is settling into a groove, I sit at my desk work, chat with some ppl around as i make coffee or clean crap up and every so often have a bit of ruffled feathers showing with my boss. In general things are going well... I'm due to come off a probationary period soon.

I even got some housewarming presents a budhist windchime with dragons and red tassels and a bell, and a teacloth with japanese writing on it, its pretty cool.

I also just saw Teladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. It is probably Will Farrel's best film to date. I fully recommend seeing it. It was awesome, from Ali G playing the bad gay french guy to the longest crash in the history of NASCAR and the best vagrant dad ever. Let us not forget the silliest and coolest training montage I have seen in a long while.

Also on the list of things to see is The devil wears Prada

There was some other movie I saw recently and... well... I can't actually remember what it was right now...

I'll get back to you on that one.

signing off for the moment

Ziggy

P.S: I am currently waiting for my new car, it was supposedly missing a rear wing, a newer one has been reattached, it has be serviced and repaired and tweaked and fix, and shortly it should be enroute to me

Introspection

2006-09-30T20:07:00.000+10:00

And so didst the mighty Sigmund roll onto the balls of his feet and consider the events that hath past. Many were the leagues that he hath traveled, many were the skills he hath gained. He had won the favor of the most buxom of foreign and exotic beauties. His victories and battles were too numerous to list.

The wrangling of the chariot of cobalt lightning, which hath been the veteran of many a meteor shower.

He hath infiltrated the mighty empire of giant steel carriages.

The lands and constructions hath lain before him and given him breadth to make a new home.

His generosity knew no bounds as he gaveth away the cobalt chariot.

The gods looked upon him favorably and seers showered him with the knowledge that a greater chariot was to be bequeathed unto him. Sleek and black and fast.

As he look upon the vista that were his accomplishments his unobstructed view led him to wonder what might be next in store.

Visions assailed him and the belief that his brother in arms would come and greet him in this distant land was concrete in his mind. The foreknowledge that many of his brethren would follow flooded his mind.

As Sigmund took to the new land, the new land took to him. Although he felt that an exodus of people would flood the landscape of the town, he made plans to reacquaint himself with the lands where he grew and to reward himself with a journey to the lands even further North over the sea, where his lady hailed from.

In more normal English, the new place I’m at is pretty cool, the people I live with are significantly younger than me, which is a nice change from the opposite.

I have probably spent to much money on housey type stuff, and we purchased a new fridge, one that fits inside the house. This leaves a massive rusty, yet functional beer fridge outside!

Next weekend has a party organized to warm the new place.

Everything is going well, as mentioned above (vaguely) some of my best friends are coming to visit next month.

I have also met some of the Jewish community in Brisbane, where it is massive and insular in Melbourne, bursting at the seams, so big that its trying to isolate itself from the rest of Melbourne, in Brisbane it is relaxed and less bustling and squashed, especially on high holidays.

I am not looking forward to the next high-holiday, mostly because it means that I wont get to eat or drink for an extended period of time (25 hours) which never bodes well for me.

If anyone taunts me on Monday I will kill them, IMMEDIATELY or the next time I see them.

The recommencement

2006-09-17T22:54:00.000+10:00

I have settled into my new place, bought all new, schick furniture, get along with the people i live with, have a minimum of squalor and have gotten broadband setup here finally.

The difficulties in scheduling and delivery of the modem need to have been experienced to be believed. It was an awesome achievement that took 2 weeks.

A wireless broadband router was then purchased, allowing me to make this post, with broadband speeds, without benefit of cables, naked, from my brandspanking new bed!

My bed just so you know, is a modern styled, quasi japanese dark wood frame, with a fancy mattress, the top layer of which is known as "plush". It is awesome, and i all new matching bedside table and chest of drawers.

Things are most cool

more posts will now follow more regularly... i have run out of reasonable excuses not to be able to post.

Just so you know, lack of internet IS a valid excuse!

Also i really hate those random or possibly computer generated messages that say "Generic Compliment" & "Link to some gay sight which wants to extort money from you or data mine your computer for some stupid bit of info"

If anyone has the knowhow to root up those sights that put those kinda comments and links in my blog, send me a friendly email (as opposed to one which makes my lovely computer die) or leave a message as to what nefarious options are available!

HOME!

2006-08-31T19:07:00.000+10:00

You may or may not be aware of the inadequacies of my current residence. The people are ok, some of them, some of them are older out of work vagrants of slightly violent and erratic tendancies. Most are just older single and making a go of it.

The landlord is an invansive arsehole.

There is also no air conditioning and this is queensland... I have not yet been privledged to experience the hot weather yet.

House hunting occured.

There have been some interesting experiences.

such as awesome place, cool chick who has similar interests to me liing there... oh yeah by the way, your girlfriend cant come around too much. ....

Kinda cool place, too expensive, would be living with a ooollllddddd Feng Shui consultant, works at home, has a clipboard on one knee. Only organic cleaning products to be used. My friends might be round, they do alternative therapy stuff, crystal gazing, navel gazing, reiki and shit. After all that i find out tiny room, no aircon, very expensive....

Another place, lives a webdesigner and a video game reviewer with a day job, 74inch tv, board games, video games, regular bbqs and beer and pot. No aircon hot place, room like a cricket pitch.

another place, decrepid, disrepair, dirty, a band recording as I reached the door, 5 ppl, resident artist... cool, but not for right now. Maybe 5 years ago while i was in uni.

Last place i saw, boss's friend's place, older single white female, brand new townhouse, aircon in all rooms except mine and the study, spotless, immaculate, new, with dare furniture. Pretty nice. Oh yeah so your a friend of your boss, heh, known him for years, how long have you known him, only 4 months, ok, references please....

A unit in a unit complex, has a small pool, an island kitchen in the middle of a lake of living space, a split level air conditioner and two cool easy going aussie ppl around my age. You are the most decent person we have seen so far, when can you move in! Tomorrow!? AWESOME!

- Sunday in reality

MAYHEM!

2006-08-25T18:24:00.000+10:00

I have been a slack arse. I am sorry. Although I have not promised or given an intention of how often I would blog, my intention was to blog every couple of days, minimum once a week...

I am less than impressed with myself,

Basically my life has just been full. Full of work. Full of my girlfriend, and full of me just not budgeting my time effectively enough and being tired making everything more difficult.

However it has not all been mundane. What I have described isnt mayhem.

So to recap... recently I went to melbourne, ate so much yum cha I was going to burst! Then i did it again the next day. All with my closest friends, much fun and food was had by all... except one.

This gluttony was interrupted by my little sis's 21st!

Happy birthday! (again)

There were like a hundred ppl runnning around talking and drinking and sometimes dancing and eat - generally having fun. Speaches were given, they were awesome, I wasnt told I had to give one... mine was all impromptu

Order: Jackies friends:
We've know jackie so long, and shes gone through so many girl phases, its pretty funny, the shopping phase, the ripped jean phase, the red cordial phase, the indie phase... etc

ME:
I've know jackie for longer. We have known her stages as well... we know the differently, crying, screaming, screeching, wailing, etc. however these stages were interspersed with lovely eyes, smiles and laughter and my speech continued a short while longer in the same vein, bringing em down and then back up again, like a kitten playing with its food.

Mum:
Mum made a slightly rambling speech about how her poor little baby was so grown up and so independant and she was so proud of her grown up independant baby, is she going to be so independant she moves out?
*many ppl laughed, laughed so loud my sis couldn't ignor the jest*

People started to make too much noise through mums speech. So i told em shut up! or you wont get fed. Also gained many a laugh.

Dad:
I have know ****** for 19 years, she was the only albino nigerian i could adopt. In the last 19 years ****** has been the sweetest, most obedient and polite child I have ever known. She always listens and does what she is told always helps out, is kind and considerate of others.... the list rambled on in kind for 5 minutes

Everyone cacked themselves laughing. Sarcasm is lovely. The speach was made while dad wobbled onto of a chair with a glass of claret in his hand.

Great round of speeches.

So Melbourne. Slower paced than last time, still jam packed, sooo much done.

I am getting a new car, shipped from melbourne, back, black mags, tinted windows, rear wing, nice cd player. Happy... when am i getting it? still in a few weeks :(

So back to QLD, i went to noosa again, cause one of my housemates moved out while i was in melb

I went to visit him with my girl. Awesome time. Sashimi picnic by the river, then the next day, surf club breakfast and playing in the surf. Caught a wave or 2!

Back to brissy. Work. Pleasure, work. Tired. My girl needs help with her assignments that are in english, I try and do work tired. I throw a party for my flatmate and my girlfriends friends

They want to meet aussie guys and have nice food. My flatmates want to make nice food and meet pretty asian girls!

Awesome menu. chicken satay skewers, prawn and chicken ceaser salad, bruchetta, rice, potato something

all made by a good chef (one of my flatmates)

checking out new places to live that arnt as hot, and have less crappy landlords

found one. Moving probably in next few days!

*Gasp*

thats enough for now.

keep hasseling me to write more!

I'm sure the upcoming move and search for furniture will be worth viking prose

the looking for places to move to has also led me to a number of parties this weekend

wierd

BIFF!

2006-08-08T22:20:00.000+10:00

I met Cleopatra Wong!

So like, i'm at this festival right? and they show flicks, right. And i've like bought some tickets, yeah? and ya know, i go and see some vids on a fully sic screen like and you know, its arty shit (the massuer) with gay poofda filipino dudes, dudeing each other and like calling in massage. Like massage your dick with ma lips, ya know? And i'm like what the fuck! and huh? I suppose it was ok... ya know, but there was like the dudes dad, and he was like proper fucked... like ya know... dead. and it was wierd.

So thens i say to ma girl, he babe, lets like check out dis other movie. Like your a nip, and this is like a nip flick. Yous gotta luv it babes! So we goes inta dis movie right, and the guy, he like goes, "its smut" like fully smut, like crazy silly smut, so i turns to her and i sayz, what crazy shit smut did you nips put tagethor. And like theres this nip chick, right and shes all like, "i'm teaching you and I dont give a shit, look at my titties" and this guy he's like frothing at the mouth and hes like "AAARRRRRGGGG!!!! Must FUCK!" and like in2 minutes of the movie, they are like fucking rabbits! Mutha fuckin rabbits! and shes like a fucking rabit for like the whole movie. Except she like shot! SHOT in da fucking head! Bang! Bang! popped! capped! whadeva da fuck you wanna call in! and still fucking like a fucking rabbit. And all these nips are like going off like shes got like space boobs thatr gi-fuckin-normous! and dey only like little bitty boobs, like you know, they be a decent handfull! but if she smacked ya in da head with em, they wouldnt give you consussion or nothing!

Soz, anyway. Dis chick, jap girl. Fucks everytime she breathes in right! and shot square in the fucken forehead, and walking the fuck around, goes fucken mental psychic and shit. Starts quoting philosophy and shit and rubbing her clit on books and shit. Has some wierd cloned fuckin finger of Fucking George fucking BUSH! and sticks it in her fucking hole in her fucking head! and then it like fucks her! Muther Fucker!

And there is the like dude, whos like stalking her to kill her and there are weapons of mass fucking destruction.! This shit is fucking wacked!

GO SEE IT!

"The glamorous life of satchiko hanai"

soz, anywayz, I'm fuck! this festival is wack!

and i'm like soz, what now, and theres this movie called "they call her cleopatra wong". Like dis festival shit calls it a fucking "Sexploitation" film. Like I'z just watching some chick whos been topped fucking like a fucking rabbit and that shits called a "pink" film for da nips, and der was some gay filipinio masseur shit going on and that aint sexploitation, but this shit is! I'm like I gotta see dis shit!

No fucking way, its like some old fucking movie, like 1978, and dis chick right, shes like getting in on at 4 in da morning and i'm like fuck yeah, dis is da shit right, while dis gringo fuck he calls her and he's like get to fucking work and shes, like aww damn.

Soz, dis chick is like da bomb, she damn fine and she like kicking ass like she fucking bruce lee and shes like a spy. like james fucking bond except its all fucking filipino and singaporean! I mean muthafucka! dis bitch right! she gets herself captured and dis bozz man, hes like, i'm gonna sic you bitch on ma pets!

Wrestlers! Get her! I mean who da fuck has 3 huge, i mean massive huge ugly fucks covered in grease gropping each other on the bloody lawn! ITs completely wrong! and she like fully takes em apart! and then a fuckin school of karate fucks comes and she kicks der arses as well!

and like they talk in english! you can see the lips move! but some wankers from california tlak over them and fuck it completely! and like every one dies in slow moe!

Dis movie is like da bomb, right! and cleoptra was like in the movie! and she spoke to us and shes gonna make another one!

Dis bitch rocks, and I like went to her, like "please please please sign this here poster that you have given me of yourself cause you are fine!" and she was like "whats your name, ok"

OMG!!!

Dis festival is da fucking bomb!

PS> Like MUTHER FUCKER! i completely like fucking forgot! like dis movie, da cleopatra one, the end of the movie, right?! everyone is like running around dressed as nuns with fucking AKs! shooting the fuck outa eachother!!!!! Mutha Fucka! its awesome! I mean, fucking NUNS!! NUNS! WITH AKS! WITH SPANISH FACES!!! AND DODGY MUSTASHES!!!!! AND EXPLOSIONS!!!! AND SLOW MOTION DEATHS!!!

The rhythm

2006-07-29T21:08:00.000+10:00

I've been in a little slump.

Being tired most of the time and a bit grumpy. I feel the rhythm, its bob sled time.

Back into the swing of things, enjoying my time, my girlfriend, my job and going out and meeting people.

I'm not enjoying chores like cleaning... but what is new.

Unfortunatly one of the crew i'm working with threw in the towel. He just could stand working with some of the other people he has been working with for a long time any more.

It seems sad. I dont know weather he left for reasons that seemed trival to do with managing relationships of longtime work colleagues or lack of support in his work, or if it was a series of fairly significant personal and health problems that cropped up.

In general the atmosphere in the office is lighter and easier that he has moved on, although it will not be as funny or entertaining.

I am already starting to get excited about my trip to melbourne in T - 13 days.

Hope to see a lot of you all soon.

zig out

(one of my work colleagues also recently got himself a laptop. Its bigger better and faster than mine. Although its of an inferior brand whos support i have had many issues with in the past. It is also cheaper than mine. Needless to say, he's a bastard)

OMG FREE BOOKS!

2006-07-15T15:36:00.000+10:00

I love reading. I specifically love reading fantasy novels. I have just found out through Websnark that there is actually a publisher that has a large range of their books available for free reading online at:

Baen Free Library

Now this publishing company produces many titles that I love by many authors that I much admire. There are many more authors and books they publish I havnt encountered yet.

I am in Love.

My only complaint is that I found this out through the obituary of Jim Baen at Websnark. Sad that a man who achieved much in directions that i agree with died before I found some of the fruits of his work. However I feel a bit better that I have read and occasionally even bought many a Baen title....

F R E E B O O K S ! ! ! ! !

The week

2006-07-15T14:47:00.000+10:00

Things are rolling along at a nice pace. This last week has left me slightly tired due to spending my time in ways that I wouldnt change :p

Now last weekend ended oddly. I found myself walking around with my girl, a friend of mine and her friend. Who turned out to be a stripper with a speed habit. Who had movie style bad luck in drug and sex related incidents the night before and was still recovering.

This weekend has started off in a similarly interesting vein. A friend of mine, who recently broke up with his (ex) girlfriend has been taking it extremely badly. Movie badly.

(I realize movie badly might be an unusual term, so an explaination follows. Imagine you are watching a movie, to explain to the audience that something is going badly, considering the time frame and the sensational style of media a movie is, would they try to impart this knowledge on you subtly? No. Gernally blatant and over the top stories and events will conspire to find themselves on the screen with the most dramatic and graphic images possible within the appropriate rating level. Gotta love movies :) )

He has also had his lease run out on him, so he will be leaving Brisbane. This has all the earmarks of a celebration/commisseration. Now I was late to meet up with him, and his phone was no longer being answered.. intentionally or due to battery, its all uncertain. However I managed to track him down and where the event was occuring. Some guy smoking a cigarette in a doorway in the city filled me in on the exact location of the event.

When describing the reason for the event he said, yeah. That would be the right place.

It turns out that he decided to have his farewell at a strip club. DAMN they had some hot strippers there. And considering it was his farewell, I was convinced in chipping in for a spa show for him and the rest of the party, which was pretty cool.

This all seems to be in heavy contrast to the rest of my week, which mostly includes "working" and seeing my girlfriend. Where working seems to currently involve spending half a day on bus, throwing stress balls around and designing flowcharts in publisher, oh and a couple pretty laid back meetings.

Oh, the weather here is fantastic :p

The Valkyrie Rides Again!

2006-07-08T18:13:00.000+10:00

Early this week past, did the Sister of Sigmund, Valkyrie from the South break through the raging winter of the Southern Climes and break through the channels of the sky and land, forth with in the Realm of Sun.

As such did I greet her arrival at the Witching hour. As I welcomed her from the sky chariot did brother and sister reunite. Jokes and remenices sallied forth.

The greats works that Sigmund undertakes were introduced to his sibling. The great steel wheeled chariots that travel upon the tracks were shown, as well as the many and diverse peoples with whom his works are assited by.

The multitudes were smitten and did question the swapping of Sigmund for his sibling from afar.

And so did the Valkyrie did wander off on her own account and view much of the city of Brisbane. Then did the cobalt blue chariot, known as Zigma, showing the scars and wounds of its recent battles with concrete, with Sigmund at the helm, did ride out and behold the depths and wonderment of the city from an overlooking peak. There Sigmund and his Sister were well met by the offspring of the brother of Sigmund's grandfather.

We travelled to a the building of a cook of no mean skill, where food from the country of greece was made. There was much merriment. In the day that followed His Sibling did travel through the lands on her own and did see many sights. She was later joined by some companions of Sigmund. Later did we all meet and congregate and wage was on the peace of the town in revelry.

Drinks flowed like rivers and dancers writhed like fish and those from the land of Sun did battle those South of their borders and didst win in some battle, not known to those originally from the deep South from where Sigmund and his sister hail from.

The following day we set out to find food. When we arrived at the next door house of fish that has been fried did we find that no breakfast shall be served after 9. With the scathing glances of Sigmund and his sister, The Valkyrie, did they leave, only to later be bemused and woed by the amazing delicacies of the Red Deli, of whos provisions we did partake it.

This provided us with the vigor to ride the chariot to the North to take in the sights of the land and visit relatives long removed and remote.

Sad was it when later that day Sigmund and his Sister had to resign to parting ways, for Sigmund's life is now led here, in the land of Sun, Sand and Surf and his sister must venture back towards South, to Sydney, the merchenter city, and then Melbourne, The home of the morning chill.

The reunion of a brother and a sister is always a source of much joy, and rememberance of good times past, however, their departure is sad.

And so didst the mightly Sigmund shed a tear as his sister did depart, and never was the tear mentioned again.

Another friday night

2006-07-07T22:40:00.000+10:00

I am uncertain.

Things are awesome. I mean I have this awesome job, that I still think is awesome. I have a free car. I have an really cute girlfriend who is ridiculously sweet. I am living in a fantastic climate in a city that has most everything I want. Friends and family are coming to visit me...

and yet...

I, right at this minute, am guzzling claret. I am not happy.

So many things are going well.

Some things aren't. I miss my friends and family. I crashed my car. These things dont seem to be bothering me so much. I have new friends up here. They are different but not the same. They dont quite fill the same void.

This still dosnt bother me that much.

Little nigling things to do with things that I will not write for I do not wish to own up to them at some point in the future are bothering me.

Some of you know what they are, cause i have complained to you about it.

It is something I could not complain about, unless something particularly good had occured. In this really awesome thing occuring, it has given me new information and perspective to be dissapointed and dissatisfied with something.

It is much like a well orchestrated anticlimax.

mmm claret...

In true blogger style: I am listening to "the commitments"

Wangst

2006-07-07T22:34:00.000+10:00

Semi-recently someone introduced me to the term Wangst. When agnst and wankers combine.. so beautiful.

I was starring into the dark depths of twin pools whos ken i could not fathom. Their darkness overwhelmed and drowned all light and hope from their gloomy visage. The terrible and overbearing weight dragged me towards the abyss. Their entirety was my end.

As my gaze moved down from the savagery of despair the sight did impart did my eyes move away from the reflection and see the bright sun outside the bathroom window....

Brisbane rocks :p

Living it up

2006-07-03T22:11:00.000+10:00

Well, things have certainly turned around since this time last week.

I have a very cute girlfriend, whos from japan. <= most awesome

I spent the weekend at the goldcoast visiting friends who were holidaying up on the goldcoast. I lived it up in the sun in the resort's pool and spa, splashing girls and children indescrimantly with superior kung fu water fighting skills.

"The fast and the furius: tokyo drift" was seen by us all

It was very silly.

Basic premise if you crash enough cars through bad street racing your mum and the police will be mad at you and have no other option but to send you to japan, where gangstas will give you awesome cars to trash and hot babes will undulate wildly all over you and the reckages in your wake...

I'm sorry, that actually made the story of the movie sound better than it was...

To summarize, pretty cars going sideways, hot japanese babes (I have one of my own), really really stupid story.

We followed this movie up by watch "Initial D"

Now this is a japanese movie, based on an anime by the same name (which totally rocks) This is a good movie about drfiting.

There is this kid, and he's a spaz. There is a pretty japanese girl who likes him. There is a crappy car that he is allowed to drive which he accidentally kicks the arse of every man and there super hot wheels on some freaky mountain in japan.

Basically, there is lots of drifting, you care about the drift in this movie. There is no stupid shit with gangstas and guns and money, just really cool car racing.

When the final race occurs you Care. You want that stupid kid to win. Unlike Tokyo Drift, where you just want to take the writers and crucify them to the bonnet of a honda and cruch them and it.

In other news, I crashed th Zigma.

*sniff*

no one was hurt. only my pride and some panels

As i arrived at the gold coast, coasting through the underground garage in neutral, possibly slightly quickly, I turned into the parking space as I put my foot on the pedal, the car didnt slow. I slammed my foot down to no effect. As my foot plastered the pedal to the floor the car smoothly drove straight into a concrete wall and bounced off it.

(This further cements my nick name as unstoppable!)

The car is still ok, it drives. It is a trooper. Poor baby, I'm probably going to have to fix that.

Oh and my sister arrives soon. Much shenanigans are in order!

Unusual

2006-06-27T17:55:00.000+10:00

Today I do not have much of significance to report.

Not that much has happened since the weekend... I have almost finished my first bit of what I would like to call real computer modelling...

but nothing terribly interesting (to anyone else) has occured.

I'm tired because I have been staying up watching a new series I bought on DVD "Dead like me" its funny and morbid. I like it.

There are also a number of things (one) that is bothering me a little (Lots) and I dont really have anyone around that I would like to discuss it with.

That in particular sucks.

It seems like things are slowing down a little for me, I am no longer avid adventurer of new city, I have nestled into a rut.

Maybe when I rest more and am less tired and complainy adventure will re-occur.

For some reason people seem to keep suggesting that my moral fibre when it comes to women may be white bread? I find this most offensive. I demand to be reffered to, if white bread it must be, as a Vienna loaf.

Late breaking news

2006-06-25T20:04:00.000+10:00

Melbournians are flocking to behold the wonder with their own eyes.

Sigmund Stardust, now relocated to far north brisbane, able to be seen by appoinment only !!!!

In a more normal form of English, some of my friends are coming up to visit me (they claim they are just going on a family holiday to the gold coast, I know better!)

When you might ask ?

"TOMORROW" I would say

For 2 weeks as it happens.

Next week, my sister comes to visit me. With my new found abilities and skills in the are of scheduling, I have booked my sister out for the few days she has planned to visit me.

PS

2006-06-25T19:59:00.000+10:00

Wendy seems to have unofficially capitulated. She has been unable to weather the public eye and the scathing tongue tongue administered by mara and has removed her blog from a public forum. Deleting it, in its entirety I belive.

I offer my condolences.

The blogging world appears to be harsh and swift

The link will soon be removed... but not yet.

The link remains like a tattered piece of skin, hanging from a wounded arm, causing pain with each flutter to its bearer. This may remain amusing to me for some time to come.

Noosa

2006-06-25T19:51:00.000+10:00

I have just returned from Noosa

There is nothing in Noosa. Nothing at all I say. Completely nothing, except beautiful scenary, weather and beaches, overpriced food, quaint little shopping strips and an awesome farmers market which had some of the best

-curry spices
-feta cheese
-fresh fruit
-yogurt
-fresh lemonade
-honey
-under 12s AFL

I have ever seen

The people there were nice too

At this point I would just like to add I love spas and juccuzies even more now than previously.

I also got to try out my new digital camera which was a present from my folks in melbourne... I have been modernised.

Pictures to follow... maybe :p

Oh my new glasses are black rimmed transitions. When wearing the right clothing and in the right conditions I go from emo to rock in 10 seconds

The following week

2006-06-25T19:45:00.000+10:00

Working working working.... recovering from being in melbourne.

This week my work consisted of trying to work on a badly written and desgined bit of train modelling software that was written in cobol, in the way that people in universities tell you not to write in, 20 years ago.

This is my work at the moment, that I should not focus on because "soon we will get 2 new programs that do the same thing where we dont have to deal with this old piece of crap anymore"

when will we get it? after this current project. Help out, but dont learn too much, cause your going to have to throw that learning out in a month.

ARRRRRGGGG!!!

However this was nicely interspersed by my completing a tour of the entire brisbane rail network. It took 2 days.

I now know more about the various intricisies of the network, and of the internal politics behind its operation.

I met someone who wears a hankerchief around their neck to hide their circumcision scar.

I also had to make some hard decisions about things, which I wont discuss here, one of which involved going to Noosa.