Archive for August, 2001
Don’t grow up!
Ahh crap! I’m back to my old habits and only updating every 2 days. You know what they say though - ‘If you haven’t got anything worth saying, don’t say anything at all ‘. Anyone who has had a grandmother would know that saying.
Thanks Shauna. Gotta love that lady. She’s true to her word and what a lovely business card she does have. Content Manager indeed. The only beef I have is the message on the back of the card states that I have to go directly to jail without collecting $200. Bugger!
Interesting take on blogs. I’m quite happy for people to read this blog and wonder who the fuck I am. Either that or just dismiss me as another lonely heart or something. I don’t ask myself why I bother blogging, I just do it. Who cares? For gods sake, when I catch a tram I talk to whomever sits next to me. At the MCG I yabber on with the poor soul who has to put up with my constant abuse of AFL umpires. I am wierd one I tells ya, I even talk to the person in front of me at an ATM (cash machine US, automatic teller AUS, cashpoint UK) queue. I love yacking (chatting) on, admittedly most of it is utter shite but, never-the-less I just love yacking.
Music. Now there’s a subject I don’t often speak about. My neighbour lent me a copy of a Yo la tengo double CD. Whoa! What an album. Somehow the need to post a review on RAN becomes all the more urgent. You know you’ve found a good album when you feel the need to tell everyone else about it.
Looking for a good night out? Try Tors Hammer my favourite Norweigen bar. If you don’t believe me, watch their promotional video! Make sure you check out their patron interviews. Watching this promo reminds me of crappy Friday night nightclubs in the northern suburbs of Brisbane, where I spent too many years growing up. I still haven’t grown up yet by the way…
It’s a big world Johnny Howard.
After seven wonderful work-free days I now face the horror of returning to my daily routine. The only upside is that this week will be a 3 day ordeal instead of the usual 5. Phew!
The feeling of disappointment with my fellow human beings never ceases. Our recycling bin was stolen last night. I am aware that these little bins are a valuable resource, but I never expected to be a victim of such a heinous crime. At least I know that I am not alone.
The feeling of disappointment with my fellow human beings never ceases for another reason. What the fuck is MY government doing? Soon coward howard will give shoot on sight orders if he keeps up with his present behaviour. As far as I’m concerned, if you support the globalisation of economies and trade you should support free movement of people as well. It’s a big world out there Johnny (you fuckwit).
Out and about.
I have been out and about for the last few days hence the slackness of the entries. Melbourne has been providing myself and my friend Bea (from Sydney) with a plethora of entertainment options. I’m kind of glad she came down to visit, as I tend to only get out and about when a friend visits from interstate.
Practical CSS layout. I owe that Zeldman many favours. A List Apart is brilliant and this weeks article is a must read.
Embedded head.
Fuckidy fuckidy fuck! I missed Fantomas! How the hell could I miss them? I must have my head embedded up my arse!
New Rulers.
Late last year I heard of a project that involved creating a database of every public toilet in Australia. I stumbled upon this article in wired. It appears as though this project has been put on the backburner as the article is dated 10 months ago. What an idea though! All you’d need is a GPS handset and the will to pee and you’ll never have to pee in alley-ways (guys) or crouch behind parked cars (gals) again.
So…the end is nigh for the first day of my 7 day holiday. I ask myself each night ‘Now Tony, what did you achieve today?’ I gave myself a glorious answer tonight. ‘Absolutely nothing Tony, slept in until 11am filed away 7 months worth of mobile phone bills, iPrimus bills, phonenumbers scribed in drunken handwriting and washed my socks and jocks, went to Uni tonight and ate a 1/4 Chicken and chips’. Why can’t every single day be like that?
Graham (virulent memes) mentioned an SBS show that was on tonight. I took his word for it only to discover that it was in fact on last night. Thanks Graham…I accidentally taped over the first Thunderbids episode because of you! John Pilger’s ‘New rulers of the world’ sounded good. Here’s the SBS online TV guide’s summary of the documentary -
8.30 THE CUTTING EDGE: THE NEW RULERS OF THE WORLD: A JOHN PILGER INVESTIGATION
This special report by award-winning journalist and filmmaker John Pilger takes viewers behind the hype of the new ‘global’ economy, where the divisions between rich and poor have never been greater. Pilger turns his attention to the new rulers of the world – the great multinationals and the governments and institutions, such as the IMF and the World Bank - which back them. In Indonesia, Pilger reveals the conditions of the sweatshops where many famous brands are made; and divulges the alleged scandal whereby the World Bank has “lost” up to $10 billion in Indonesia. Pilger believes that rather than apathy about globalisation, millions, particularly young people, are beginning to make their voices heard on the imposition of the new economic order. (From the UK, in English and Bahasa, English subtitles).
I tend to act against these monsters by staying local. Sure, like any other politicallly aware adult, I do give some of my money to multinationals. My internet connection is through iPrimus and my electricity and gas are supplied by American conglomerates. My webhost is a small local firm on the Gold Coast. I buy pizza from the local pizzeria, not a chain store. The chicken and chips I ate tonight was from a local business. I won’t buy Richmond footy club gear because it’s all Nike stuff. Simple changes in spending behaviour make a big difference. Far too much of our weekly pay packets are given away to pricks who don’t deserve it. Watch who you give your next 20 dollar note to.
Enough of my crap, now for something completely different.
Woop woop woop.
I have a friend coming down from Sydney on Thursday, she is on a whirlwind tour of the country as she has to travel back to London to teach the next generation of English brainiacs in a few weeks. Apparently Australia doesn’t have to worry much about slipping behind in the educational stakes. Interesting.
Found a great new blog via w.n.p. Trenchant.org. The rants are pretty amusing too. If you have a spare 5 minutes let your right/left index finger do it’s stuff.
Those poor immigrants are copping it even more now. For fucks sake, half of them are highly educated and fleeing persecution for being so. Let ‘em in. We are a nation of immigrants…we can deal with more clever and hard working families.
There IS one perverse side to my already wobbly personality. I love finding photos on the ground. Snapshots of different lives get me all gooey. Well, not that excited, I mean, they just make me think.
I wonder what they sound like
I wonder if they are happy people
Are they rich/poor?
Where the hell are they now?
Do their shoes smell when they take them off?
Here’s one I found on the ground at Latrobe University last night.
The writing on the back says :
Amanda
Armenia, Quiudio, Colombia.
Bloody Gilchrist! I spoke to some Sri Lankan colleagues (from my cricket club) today and they ribbed me about our cocky aussie cricket captain. Needless to say I gaver them a juicy reply. What about that though…the filthy poms beating us. It’s good to see the Aussie team get a thrashing every now and again though. I feel my Sri Lankan friends may have a point about the Australian team getting just a tad too complacent. Of course, it was complacency by Australia that influenced the outcome - England couldn’t have won it otherwise. (The hate mail will be hitting my server soon…I can feel it.)
Coincidences.
Too many coincidences jump out at me. Tonight I was sitting in my Spanish lecture. As usual, at 7pm, the lecturer let us out for a ‘half-time’ break. I got speaking to a guy named Vincent, from Paris. I told him that he looked familiar to me. Much was said and then BOOM…we remembered each other. In October 1999 I was living near Parmentier metro station and used to go to a café/bar 2 minutes walk away, called Electro. He was the barman, I was the habitual Kronenbourg drinker. Amazing. Six degrees of separation hey? More like two for me these days.
For anyone planning to go anywhere near Paris, you MUST visit Café Electro. If it is still there, for I once again cannot find a mention of it online. Well, now there is one mention of it. It is on Rue de Oberkampf anyway, closest metro station is Parmentier. I sincerely hope you have enjoyed Tony’s top travel tips for Monday.
Well, apart from being blown away by coincidences this evening, I am also in high spirits because tomorrow is my last day of work before I take a much earned week away from employment. Don’t you just love that feeling? Oooo! What to do? Too broke to go anywhere, so Melbourne will just have to provide me with some entertainment for 7 days. I’m sure that will not be too much too ask of this fair town.
Milkshake.
How would you like your milkshake? If you have a slow connection just bear with it. This animation is worth the wait.
If you’ve always wanted your site to have it’s own little icon in the address bar (IE5+) have a snoop around this site. favicon.com. There are some privacy concerns with those little icons though, so I hear anyway.
Couldn’t be arsed.
Couldn’t be arsed updating this last night. Had a rather busy and frustrating week at work and just wanted to let loose. This involved a goumet pizza and believe it or not, a few cans of Jim Beam Bourbon and cola. Urk! I spent my late teens and early twenties drinking that stuff on Friday nights with friends (wearing flanelette shirts and tight black jeans of course). That stuff made me so ill it wasn’t funny. Maybe my tastebuds are maturing - beer and wine only now. Who knows, maybe one day I will start eating brussell sprouts.
It’s a grand afternoon of listening to Richmond play West Coast on the ABC and studying like a mad thing. I can hear you all pissing yourselves with laughter from here. ‘Study, Saturday, he can’t be serious can he?‘
So, NT goes to the polls today. I hope that One Nation doesn’t get very far. I like to think that most Australians can see through divisive politics. Lately however I have been a little nervous about it all. There’s a great deal of unhappy and suspicious voters out there.
Have you ever.
Have you ever had one of those days, or weeks? Well I am in the middle of one of those incredibly fucked up weeks. I swear I am going to endeavour to change my line of work. I wonder if my boss has found this site yet. If he has, this message is for him - EAT A WARM, STEAMING, FAT POODLE TURD! Ahh…that feels better.
I was reading realkosh and noted his suggestions for creating a better Australia. Here are my top 5 ways of creating a better Australia.
1. Free Tertiary education - completely free for life, for anyone.
2. 35 hour week and a 40 hour maximum per person per week.
3. Free dental cover for every citizen.
4. Unfairly imposed roductivity gains to be collected and shoved up the arses of the entire Liberal front bench.
5. Make Tony Abbott and Philip Ruddock permanantly wear a moo-moo made out of the flags of Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan.
I think they would both look quite sexy really. Don’t you. 
Today we are told by Peter Costello that we all should work for nothing once a week. You absolute prick. I bet that if you do one hours work the community Mr. Costello, you’d claim travel expenses, meal expenses etc. Yeah, butter us up and bend us over Costello.
If you have proceeded this far in todays entry you will probably have noticed that I am a tad annoyed. Well, all is OK now after one 750ml bottle of beer. Now I have nothing to say…hic!
No, hang on! I’m back with some more crap for you to read. Cannibalistic Capitalism. Now there’s a headline that should grab you goolies, twist them into a reef knot and suspend you 200 metres above a rock-lined ravine. My favourite quote from the above linked article - "Is a eupeptic stock market a sign not of new wealth creation but of a redistribution of resources from workers to owners? Or, rather, from workers to their own pension funds? "We are all devouring ourselves," <snip>. "We all own stock, and as stockholders, all we care about is profits. So we are the ones who are encouraging the conditions that make our work lives so awful." Too true in my opinion (Shit, I actually voiced an opinion). You can only tighten your belt so far, one more notch and lunch heaves forth.
Thinking Brisbane.
I lived in Brisbane from the age of 4 until 23. At 23 I decided to perform the compulsory ‘piss off to England and drink lots of beer while working for below-average wages’ trip. For the last 5 years since leaving Brisbane I have lacked one important part of my life. Laughing my arse off at redneck themed bumper bar stickers. Today, in the blustery conditions of downtown Melbourne I spied this classic on a beaten up Toyota work ute -
IF IT MOVES SHOOT IT
IF IT DOESN’T CHOP IT DOWN
IF IT’S GREEN PISS ON IT
Enough said really…
The above quote comes from the introductory paragraph to an article from JULY 1945 titled ‘As we may think’. I found it on the website of my favourite journal . Computers ‘eh! What you have in front of you now was the equivalent to the computing power of the entire planet 56 years ago.
Cathy Freeman speak.
Well, our Cathy Freeman isn’t good enough for the BBC. I cannot for the life of me find a link to the story - but this morning on the ABC I heard that Freeman was booted off the commentary team for not being articulate enough. Fucking English snobs.
Screamfeeder. A fantastic band that I caught by chance the other night at the Punters Club in Fitzroy. I just rolled up for a beer or 5 and behold, Screamfeeder were in full voice. I haven’t seen them since late 1996 in Brisbane, and it was refreshing to see them again. I’m going to have to see more gigs.