Archive for January, 2004
get your war on
If you haven’t caught it yet, have a gander at Get Your War On.
at last!
Hooray! At last all pages relating to this blog look the same. It’s only taken me 3 years.
Just when you thought that television could not get any worse, along comes another reality show. “The Littlest Groom” is modelled on “The Bachelor” except it has the aim of finding a mate for a dwarf. The tele is getting sicker.
The ALP is having a huge pissup in Darling Harbour this weekend. I thought they’d pick somewhere a little more working class than the gentrified docks of inner Sydney. Christ, the only thing worth visiting around Darling Harbour is Wagamama. Even there the beer is $7 a stubbie. Latham is looking good though. I can sense people warming to him. His apparent honesty, straight forward nature and quick mouth is rubbing off on many people. I won’t vote Labor anymore (to conservative for me) but I’d love to see a Latham led Labor Party win by a seat or three this October. The last eight years have changed Australia. For the worse. There’s less tolerance, less patience and far less trust. Those three things might not figure in polling, but they make a huge difference in quality of life.
homebrew is dangerous
It’s a washout. Australia WAS playing the equivalent of the West Wyalong First XI so I’m not to concerned at the lack of cricket on the radio tonight. At least the Zimbabweans got some points. They deserve some after the last few close games.
Yeah. This blog looks different. To be absobloodylutely honest I borrowed and adapted styling and html from these wonderful sites. cssZenGarden, mezzoblue and kottke.org. Y’know, that’s what makes the web such a wonderful place. All that sharing of information just makes my knees tremble.
Icon-theft. Well, there’s another thing for me to work on. I’m a music stealer, a css robber, an html thief…I might as well bag myself some icons ‘eh. Honestly.
An ordinary blog just doesn’t cut the mustard anymore. Audio?
dog food for dinner
Appparently a new virus is zipping around the world wreaking havoc amongst Windows users who can’t be bothered protecting themselves. I was caught out once by using Outlook Express and not previewing my email. I learnt my lesson the hard way when I was hit with the badtrans worm in November of 2001. I find it very funny how the same people get hit with viruses (my employer gets hit every time) whenever a mass-mailing worm hits the copper wires. My method of virus detection is very old fashioned. I use AVG for the drives, and Mailwasher to check all my mail manually. I was caught out once and that’s enough. I helped spread the virus last time but I won’t be doing it again. I wish everyone took a little more care (or took the time to learn about the computer they use).
I’ve had to remove a few links from my list of blogs. About 5 blogs I had regularly read over the last 2 years have folded. All of a sudden it’s become more fashionable to close your blog than to start one. Well, I’m still here and one day I will find something decent to talk about.
don’t fiddle with it too much
The wonders of Moveable Type! Tonight I sat down with the intention of teaching myself more about how the archive templates work. I ended up screwing my archives. It’s true though - you do learn from your mistakes. Here’s some posts on how to make your URLs spankier.
http://diveintomark.org/archives/2003/08/15/slugs
http://mar.anomy.net/entry/2003/06/22/17.15.00/
http://www.ashbykuhlman.net/blog/2003/07/27/2227
fashion by other means
For the first time in my life I went to a tennis match last night. Lleyton Hewitt played a Spanish 17-year-old. Rafael Nadal. Rod Laver Arena was awash with famous people wearing ridiculous looking sunglasses and furbrained idiots who didn’t know how to turn off the flash on their new cameras or turn off the ringing tones of their mobile phones. It was a great experience. One thing tht hasn’t changed is my dislike for Lleyton Hewitt though. Towards the end he turned to the crowd and yelled “C’mon Balboa” about three times. For an elite athlete to find inspiration in a Silvester Stallone character seems to me to be a little bit strange. A bit wanky too if you know what I mean. Anyway, this Rafael Nadal dude is big, strong, powerful, only 17 and will be wiping the court clean with Lleyton’s Nike hats within 18 months.
Cricket’s funny game indeed. A man was killed by a bolt of lightning as he was about to take strike on the south coast of NSW. Shit! Lightning struck one of my team mates a while ago. Here’s his picture 5 years after the event…he still blames his mohawk on the lightning.
the hetfield four
An article in today’s Fairfax press mentions “The band that made Kiss and Motley Crue look like prancing Spandex sissies are still doing their best to strike fear into the heart of heavy metal.” The article is about Metallica. Having seen some decent hard rock last weekend I would beg to differ. Metallica are old, worn out and approaching their next level of angstiness. Middle age. Forget about their hit from the early nineties, ‘Enter Sandman.’ Maybe they should re-record it and entitle the song ‘Enter Pool Cleaning Man.’ After all, a clean pool is all you worry about once you’ve sold so many units.
ashtraya day
This week is going very slowly. I have some sort of flu-like thing going on somewhere in my body. Where exactly? I just don’t know. I have no cough, no runny nose, no upset stomach, just an all over body/joint ache. Weird.
when hooksey hooks he hooks
David Hookes ‘eh! I knew things weren’t well for the bugger when his colleagues came on ABC local radio this afternoon and started talking in the past tense about his career. Very sad.
what should i do
Right. I don’t care how the weather is tonight. There’s a crapload of bands on and I want to see some. Here’s my choices.
BUGDUST + M.A.D.E The Evelyn, Fitzroy.
CLANN ZU + KIM SALMON + THE GREY DAYTURAS The Rob Roy Hotel, Fitzroy. 9pm. $10.
CUT COPY + REMAKE REMODEL + THE MIDNIGHT JUGGERNAUTS Revolver Upstairs, Prahran. 10pm.
DAMAGED The HiFi Bar & Ballroom, City. $15.
DEBORAH HOCKING + MORNING STAR + LIMINAL Yak Speakeasy, Abbotsford.
DIGGER & THE PUSSYCATS Front Bar, The Tote, Collingwood. 5pm. Free.
DREADNAUGHT + PLODHEAD + NUTS CHUTNEY + BURNING SLOWLY The Tote, Collingwood. 8.30pm. $8.
HEADBANGERS BALL: MOLTEN STEEL + PEGAZUS + ATOMIZER + FURIOUS GEORGE The Central Club Hotel, Richmond. $15.
KIND OF PLUTO + BLUE JUICE + BROWN HORNET The Espy, St. Kilda.
LAKES + WYDYSDF + TALKSHOW BOY + OH! BELGIUM Good Morning Captain, Collingwood.
LIMINAL + MORNING STAR + DEBORAH HOCKING Yak Speakeasy, Abbotsford. 8.30pm.
MAN BITES GOD + ANG FANG QUARTET + BETH CLEARY The Empress, North Fitzroy. 9pm.
MASTARD SQUD + CHARTER 77 + SLICK 46 + THE MURDERS The Arthouse, Melbourne. 8.30pm. $6.
PORNLAND + THE RED EYES Corner Hotel, Richmond. 8.30pm. $12.
SHUTDOWN 66 + THE HEKAWIS + THE STABS The Townhall Hotel, North Melbourne.
SPRUIKER + THE FRANTICS + THE UNTHINKABLES The Cornish Arms, Brunswick. 8.30pm.
SUNSHINE HARVESTER + WAYFARING STRANGERS The Old Bar, Fitzroy.
TANG & THAT BROWN SUIT 303, Northcote. 9pm.
THE DIDDLEY DADDIES + SPOONFUL Public Bar, The Espy, St. Kilda. 5pm.
THE ARSE BANDITS Pony Bar, City.
THE EXOTICS + THE PSYCHODELMATICS + THE MYSTAKEN Pony Bar, City.
THE HIGHSCHOOL HELLCATS The Greyhound Hotel, St. Kilda. 9pm. Free.
Shit! Digger and the Pussycats sounds good. The Tote it is (thank god there’s a local music rag that has a gig guide online).
grapeape grapeape
The weather. Whether you like it or not the weather pokes it’s nose into every conversation with a stranger. Each day in my job I deal with approximately 100 people. Out of those 100 at least 50 bring up the weather as I speak to them face to face. Conversing about the weather is usually an icebreaker. It’s a last resort in creating common ground. After all, the only experience every person has in common in any given region, is the weather.
I have spent most of my life (19 out of 31 years) in Brisbane where meteorological events are predictable. Very predictable. Not many people in Brisbane talk about the weather. You’ve probably heard the Queensland Tourism office boast that Queensland is ‘beautiful one day, perfect the next.’ The one thing you can’t accuse the Queensland Tourism office of is false advertising.
When I moved to London on a working holiday in 1996 I was constantly asked about the weather by curious English, French and Spanish friends. At first, like any Australian, I boasted about long hot days with seafood jumping out of the fridge, rump steak sizzling on the BBQ and cold beer flowing out of the kitchen taps. That was until I experienced REAL long hot days. A 30º day where daylight lasted from 5am until 1030pm. My first hot day in London made me realise that the colder a winter was, the better the summer became.
Does the weather have any significance in your daily conversation? Feel free to comment.
bad taste bears
Me? Nominated for anything? Let alone an award for this blog? The bad taste bears are out on the town I think. Unbelievable! I mean, I know all of us should have a good, healthy self-image and really have a strong, positive belief in what we do but honestly, this weblog is crap. I’m a jack of all trades and a master of nothing. Other bloggers are so far ahead of me in terms of their ability to express themselves effectively. Shit, in everyday conversation I need 2 fags and a six-pack to get my brain whirring over fast enough to spit out a half sensible response to a mostly sensible question. Politics…I’m way to far to the left to enter into any half sensible politcal discusson. Sorry, you can use the power of reasoning with me. Conservatism is just wrong (until I get to about 55 years of age). Computers…I still can’t understand what Moveable Type’s trackback thing is. Literature…unless it’s about meteorology, botany or politics I won’t read on. Sport…aussie rules and cricket, boring to most. So who’s the joker that nominated me? C’mon Mum, own up.