Dude, Where's My Serenity?

I kicked off the long weekend with a nice start last night.

I met up with Mikey (the lovely ex) straight after work and went to see an early session of the movie 'Serenity'. I really liked it, it was very action packed and had some lighter moment like the 'Firefly' series, but I feel like I have to see it again to really sort out my feelings about it. That isn't negative, but... well I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it so I'll reserve saying anything more.

I had a half an hour to kill before the movie so I went into JB Hi Fi in Galeries Victoria and bought a couple of DVDs on sale, Lust In The Dust (Divine, Tab Hunter and Lainie Kazan) and Dude, Where's My Car? (Ashton Kutcher, Sean William Scott). Two deeply silly films, but at under $20 for the pair, not bad value. Divine is/was my favourite Gender Illusionist and there are worse things in life to look at than a shirtless Sean William Scott... And then?

After the movie Mikey and I went to Miro for tapas. Miro used to be a favourite of mine, but sadly it seems to be losing its edge. Some of the dishes were as good as always, but a few of them were barely edible. The service was enthusiastic, but not brilliant, and the dishes dribbled in over about a 45 minute time frame. So the restaurant was less than thrilling but Mikey and I had a great conversation, got into a deep conversation about our time together, where we are both at in lives now, his ciurrent guy troubles etc. It was an interesting conversation and Mikey told me some stuff I hadn't heard before about what went on during our time together, and how he feels about where I seem to be at these days (all quite flattering). It was a good conversation to have had, cleared up a few things. We left the restaurant about 11 and headed our seperate ways.

I wasn't ready to go to bed when I got home, so I sat up until about 1am watching "Dude Where's My Car" (I only slow-mo'd over the Ashton Kutcher/Sean William Scott kiss like a couple or five times). As proud owner of the title of the "Most Crap At Sleeping, Ever" I was bing! wide awake at 5.30am and so have been pottering around the Interweb since. The best thing about an unplanned long weekend, the potential for naps are endless.

Everybody's Working For The Weekend

Thank you Jeebus that this week is almost over!

It's Labour Day here on Monday, so a three day weekend is in the offing. Woot! After the work craziness of the past two weeks, and giving up my whole weekend last weekend to volunteer at the conference, I'm looking forward to this weekend so much that I can taste the anticipation.

Tonight I'm off to see the new Firefly movie "Serenity" with the lovely ex, and then the whole three day weekend is stretched out ahead of me with few plans. A bit of house cleaning, maybe a couple of movies, probably a bit of volunteer work at the Buddhist centre... nothing too taxing. Sweet.

Addenda

Further to my last post regarding public displays of affection, I should add that applications for the position of Object Of My Affection are now open.

Applicants should possess the following minimum characteristics:

1. Sense of humour.
   
2. A dislike of Adam Sandler and Rob Schneider movies (this is not negotiable).
   
3. Kissability. Hugability. Shagability.
   
4. Pretty eyes. Wicked mouth.
   
5. A good balance of Yin & Yang, although not necessarily at the same time.

Other desireable characteristcs include (but are not limited to) the ability to hold my interest in a conversation about art/books/films, wicked dancefloor moves, a collection that includes the back issues I've missed of Martha Stewart 'Living' and strong hands.

PDAs

The crushtastic Michael of Pipedreams has recently been posting about a bit of French kissing and a sweet little sofa duo who've been ruffling some feathers. Seems the world is struggling to cope with Public Displays of Affection (PDA) between dudes who dig other dudes.

I live in a suburb of Sydney called Newtown, which is the second largest gay community in Sydney, and home to a couple of Sydney's most famous gay bars. (One of which provided some interior and exterior shots in the film Priscilla: Queen of the Desert.) Newtown is also home to a cool blend of university students, old people who've lived in the neighbourhood forever, doubleincomeonekid couples and inner-urban hipsters. We all manage to get along just fine.

One thing I love about Newtown is that it is such a blended neighbourhood. I love that I can see a young couple with a pram right alongside a hot gay couple holding hands, and nobody bats an eyelid. Violence in Newtown is pretty rare, and as far as I know there hasn't been a gay bashing in the area for a long time. Sydney is a pretty cool place for gay people.

Like any big city, you have to pick your time and place to be open and affectionate with someone of the same sex, but I think that on par Sydneysiders are a pretty liberal bunch. I used to meet a couple of my guy friends in the middle of the city almost every Saturday for a shopping expedition ('Suzie Shopping' it was dubbed for some long forgotten reason), and we always met with hugs and kisses all round. The only reaction I ever noticed was the occasional smile, especially from women.

I think it is important to be as open as you can be, within the boundaries of not putting yourself in direct risk. It's our right after all. I remember the first time I ever held hands with another boy in public, and how it made me feel eleven feet tall. If you are a couple of girls, or a couple of guys, on the street and you are holding hands, sharing a kiss, or having 'a moment' together, then you will always get a smile from me. I'm proud of you.

Shut Uuuuuup!

Ok, hopefully you all get by now that I'm a fairly nice guy, right? Pretty easy going. Fairly slow to anger. One who (generally) tries not to be too nasty to people.

I have a dark side. I get very irritated when I am trying to concentrate and am either getting constantly interrupted, or when there is lots of unnecessary background noise. I work in an open plan office, and so try to be considerate about not making too much noise.

Long story short. Today a woman from our accounting firm is working alongside me, doing some end of financial year journals etc on our software. This lady cannot make a single key stroke or touch her mouse without discussing it with herself. She is slowly driving me insane.

"So OK, that goes there... and then I'll just put this here... and where did that go to?... oh, why is that balance different to?..."

I just tried to give her the hint by asking if she was talking to me, because we aren't talking whispered conversations here, we're talking about regular conversational volume. Her answer? "No, if I'm talking to you I'll say 'Andrew'..." Well, ok then, glad that's clear. (Bitch.)

[Updated: Ok, she has just left. She apologised for annoying me by talking to herself constantly. Yes, I'm a mean, mean, mean and terrible, horrible person... not really, but I did feel a little guilty for letting my frustration show. The fact that she got where I'm coming from straight away would seem to imply that I'm not the first person to find it annoying though. Gosh, sure is quiet in here all of a sudden. ::crickets:: ]

The 23 5 Meme

My favourite internet crush posted this post, which was based on this meme post by Aussie cutie-pie Sunshine. Still with me? (Want me to draw you a family tree, 'cause it sure gets incestuous 'round these parts?) OK, the stizz is that you go back to your 23rd post and copy in the 5th line of that post.

Michael's result was very amusing, and just a wee bit raunchy. Mine, err, not so much:
"Tonight I'm off to see "The Prisoner of Azkaban".

Doesn't that just leap off the screen, zinging with personality?! Yet you still come back here...

File This Under Whatthefuh?

From Japan, home of much of the world's whackiness, comes a live action version of Sailor Moon.

The character profiles are very illuminating. For example Tsukino Usagi, who portrays Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon, lists talking as one of her hobbies. (OMFG!! Me too!!!!) Of some concern though is the fact that Chiba Mamoru, or Earth Guardian Tuxedo Mask, lists collecting random trinkets as one of his hobbies. Kleptomania is too sad, and frankly illegal, for me to endorse or condone here. Of all the cast though I feel the most affinity with Queen Beryl, or the wicked Queen of the Dark Kingdom, for I too would list "eating while walking" as a hobby.

5 Things I Used To Wear, When I Was A Young Homo Activist

1. A pink triangle badge
   
2. A t-shirt that read "So.do.my: so do my friends, so do my lovers, so do my idols"
   
3. A badge that read "How dare you presume I'm a heterosexual"
   
4. A t-shirt with a picture of two hot young sailors kissing, and the caption "Read my lips"
   
5. An Act-Up SILENCE = DEATH style badge that read "HIGH = HIGH RISK"

As a person who understands the value of restraint, I usually only wore one of these at a time. Usually.

Tired But Happy

Jeezalou, it's Monday already?...

What an amazing weekend. As I have mentioned here a couple of times, the Buddhist centre I attend co-hosted a conference over the weekend on the topic of Mind & Its Potential. We had 600 attendees, many from the medical or mental health professions, and a great collection of speakers from scientific, religious and philosophical view points. We kicked ass man (in a caring, non-violent way of course). The conference ran without a hitch, or more accurately with a serious small hitches that the punters never saw, and the venue really came through for us and did a great job on catering for the delegates and making sure that everything ran smoothly for us. Out of 600 delegates we got 1 unhappy feedback form, based on something quite unreasonable, so not bad going really!

The bookshop was my domain, and it went great. We exceded expectations quite dramatically sales wise, and got lots of great feedback from the attendees. We were so busy during the break times that we couldn't actually serve people fast enough, and people were buying 5, 6, 7 books and CDs at a time. Without exception everyone was kind and patient, and in retail that's not a very common thing.

I managed to keep my shit together, even though I had the stress of a queue of customers breathing down my neck, a bunch of volunteer sales people (some of whom had never even served a customer or processed a credit card before) and anywhere up to four or five people asking me questions at the same time. There were a few points where I had an exchange that went something like this (additional thoughts that ran through my head but I didn't say are in italics):

Everyone, just slow (the fuck) down, and ask me one (goddam) question at a time (otherwise I swear, so help me, I may just cut you).

OK, that's an exaggeration, but at least when the stress got to me a bit my Buddhist practice gave me enough mental space to take a step back and watch my frustration as it arose, and not just snap like I might have in the past. So, that's a good thing.

An exhausting weekend of long busy days and early morning starts, but a very rewarding one.

Mrs Bowers For President

Deb, over at one of my favourite haunts Freakgirl, linked to the hysterical The Homosexual Agenda Revealed! by Mrs Betty Bowers, 'America's Best Christian'. Now I'm as excited as if someone just told me tomorrow is Christmas.

Mrs Bowers is cracking me up, case in point her Free Katie post. Oh, and I want one of her "Scientology: Providing gay actors with wives since 1978" t-shirts so bad.

Why Dost Thou Vex Me So?

Sorry for the paucity of posts in the past few days, I've been hella busy at work and then working until after 10pm each night at the Buddhist centre, getting ready for the conference this weekend. I'm tired.

Blogger has also been a bit craptastic this week, trashing a truly edifying post and sometimes locking me out of my comments, and the comments of other Blogger blogs.

Truly vexatious.

It's not all bad though. This morning I was buying my breakfast on the way into work (muesli with soy milk because I'm all about health) from Alex the hairy chested, dirty blonde cutie pie and the store was playing 'Kiss' by Prince at full volume. It put me in the mood from some dirty, dirty dancing and made me want to really, really kiss someone.

Un Petit X-Wing

I don't speako the Frencho, but the pics alone on this how to make a miniature X-Wing fighter from used Metro tickets site make me want to go out and wrap my tongue around a Frenchie.

[Link via the always entertaining kottke.]

All Hail The Independent Bookshop!

One of my little dreams for the future is to have a bookshop of my very own. I'm kind of sublimating that at the moment by running the bookshop at the Buddhist centre I go to. Oh, and I have lifted sales dramatically thank you very much.

I'm a huge fan of the small independent bookstore. One of my favourite bookstores is Better Read Than Dead in my suburb of Newtown. It's a true joy when you find a bookstore where the buyer has a taste aligned with your own, every single time I go in there I find a half dozen books I'd love to buy. The range isn't huge, but I get stunned by too much choice anyhow.

So, I was interested to read that Australians seem to be moving away from the big chains and back to the independents. Apparently Australians are also amongst the highest purchasers per capita of books and magazines in the world, and also hold one of the highest literacy rates.

Makes me proud.

Extremely Sad

The dark side of 'reality' television. This story is so sad. The 'Extreme Makeover' producers manipulated a woman's sister into making cruel statements about her sister's looks, then they decided not to procede with her sister's makeover and sent her home, where her sister was so wracked with guilt that she committed suicide. The show may not have directly caused the suicide, but by manipulating this woman into being cruel towards a sister she loved, certainly a causative element.

I'm not a big fan of this style of 'reality' tv, shows where they play on the fragile emotions of people who going through some sort of suffering already. I liked the joy of the people transformed on shows like 'The Biggest Loser', but squirmed at many aspects of the show, worried about the people who were voted out for example. I guess on this show though they at least seemed to have carefully screened the contestants for people who would cope with the rigours of the game. I remember reading somewhere that the reason the Survivor cast is so carefully screened (and seem to be so dominated by somewhat ego driven type A personalities) is the the first person voted off the original Swedish production killed herself, feeling like she had been publicly shamed.

The Spirits Made Her Do It

All over the blogoshpere gay men (and the two wonderful bitches at Go Fug Yourself) are asking one question:

Patricia Arquette, what the fuck?...

The hair is kind of yikes, and the dress makes her look porky. Not. Good.

All In All You're Just Another Brick In The Wall

While we were strolling through the shops on Sunday the topic of the allure of Lego came up. I only ever had a modest collection, but my inner 12 year old finds the Lego digital designer very appealing. It's a downloadable program that lets you design virtual Lego models, upload them to your own gallery and even enter them into competitions.

Have a look at the bios of the past competition winners, a heap of 10 - 12 year olds with the occasional 30 year old industrial designer thrown in.

Ahh, The Serenity!

Woot! September 29 is the official Australian release date for the Firefly movie Serenity. It has been getting a decent amount of plugging on tv, more than I thought it would as the tv show was not heavily supported in Australia, so hopefully it'll have a substantial run.

Long enough for me to see it, what, 7 or 8 times at least. Just scratch the surface and I'm total 17 year old fanboy underneath...

Another Weekend Recap

Monday morning just wouldn't be a Monday morning without a weekend recap:

• Saturday I spent on a meditation retreat at the Buddhist centre I attend. My mind was leaping about all over the place for much of the retreat, the so-called 'monkey mind', so it was a bit more like a session of mediation between a group of chattering monkeys that meditation... but that happens every now and then. Watching your own mind chatter is in itself a meditation, so long as you just observe and guide your focus gently back to where it should be, and resist getting frustrated.
  
• The rest of Saturday late afternoon and early evening I spent ticketing all the stock that has arrived for the bookshop I am running at next weekend's conference. We're up to around 600 attendees for the conference, so I have had to keep increasing my orders and trying to get enough stock for the event.
  
• Sunday turned out to be a beautiful sunny day, after the cool drizzle of Saturday. If you've read this blog for a while, you might have noticed a nice chap who goes by the name 'Mesquirt' commenting on some of my posts. Martin has a blog of his own, which unfortunately is sadly a bit neglected of late as he has been on tour as part of his role as a dancer with the Queensland Ballet. Martin and his lovely girlfriend Lisa were in Sydney this weekend as part of their tour, so late morning I met up with them and my good friend Bodhi to spend the day sightseeing and shopping around Sydney. It was a lovely way to spend the day, and Martin and Lisa were just as warm and friendly in person as I had expected them to be.
  
• Sunday night was the standard night of Sunday evening tv; channel surfing between Australian Idol and Broadway: The American Musical, and then afterwards I watched the new made-for-tv drama Little Oberon. [There is a review here.] I quite enjoyed it, although my interest lagged a bit through the middle, but it was a good attempt at doing something a little different from the usual Aussie dramas. The very handsome Alexander Capelli [sorry, I couldn't really find any decent links to speak of] was extremely attractive in the role of Gresham/Pan.

Now it's Monday, and while it's not a Boomtown Rats kind of Monday I'd still much rather have another day of weekend.

5 Things I Do Understand

1. Procrastination can be very rewarding.
   
2. The difference between really bad man-sweat and really, really good man-sweat.
   
3. Self deprecation.
   
4. Grooming. The allure of clean hair, neat fingernails and sweet breath.
   
5. Pretty is nice, but make me laugh and I'm sucked in for sure.

Mysterious Skin

I just realised that I still hadn't posted about seeing Greg Araki's film Mysterious Skin last Sunday, so here goes.

For some back-story, this review from the LA Times, reprinted in the Baltimore Sun, gives a pretty good run down of the film and a fairly succinct plot synopsis. Sunshine over at Like Sands Through The Hourglass... has also posted some comments about seeing the film, so get thee over there if you feel like a second opinion.

I really enjoyed this film. It may seem wrong to use the word 'enjoyed' about a film that deals with a subject as tough as pedophilia, but I got so much out of this film and found it so moving, that it was great cinema experience for me. Ok, maybe 'rewarding' is a better word for it.

I like films that step outside the everyday, and Araki uses flashbacks and 'dream sequences' to really develop the narrative. I haven't read the novel by Scott Heim, but I think I'll seek it out now as I admired the handling of the story. I respect that Araki stops short of manipulating his audience by demonising his characters, even the perpetrator of the abuse. We never really discover his motivation, or if he feels remorse for his actions, and I certainly grew to loathe him as the film progressed.

He handles the scenes with his young actors very sensitively, managing to get the emotional punch of the story across without having to expose the young actors to dangerous behaviour. The actors all turn in very good performances, and I especially liked Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the older Neil.

It is a tough film and some aspects, like the manipulation of the young Neil by the perpetrator, were particularly distressing to me. For me it was saved from being a dour experience by the light and shade in the film, by the themes of friendship and survival. The two main characters are both damaged by their joint history, and yet they both found a way to survive, and hopefully transcend it.

5 Things I Don't Understand

1. Rap music.
   
2. The concept of a dress worn over pants (or even a skirt worn over pants for that matter).
   
3. Why accents turn me on so much, for example Firefly's Badger (Mark Sheppard) drives me to distraction.
   
4. CityRail's new timetable; fewer trains + more crowding + slower trips into the city = an 'improvement in customer service'. Huh?
   
5. Why I'm still single.

Hit The Ground Running

Sorry if posting here seems a bit sporadic or lacking in wit and zing! this week. My work is very demanding at the moment, and has me plodding my way through 3 years worth of records to get them fully up to scratch fo an audit.

(Oh, fie my natural 'forensic accounting' skills! Most of the time I'm really proud of my problem solving skills, but this time around why couldn't it be the thing I really suck at? Instead I'm the go-to guy for the hard tasks...)

I'm also really busy with my voluteer work at present. I've mentioned here previously that I do quite a bit of volunteer work for my Buddhist centre, and my biggest task is running the bookshop. We are involved in hosting the international Mind & Its Potential conference in a couple of weeks time, and so I've been frantically getting everything organised for the bookshop we'll be running at the conference.

Fortunately, that's all starting to fall into place. I've established relationships with a bunch of new suppliers so that we can get books by all the major conference speakers, the orders are now in, and so that part of it is starting to ease off a bit. The conference numbers have swelled dramatically to around 600 people, so it should be quite an exciting event.

So a busy, busy week. Of course, if it all gets to be too tedious I may just end up hiding out here more than usual!

F. Murray Who?

Never, never piss off Jean-Jacques Annaud.

Last week I bought the DVD of Jean-Jacques Annaud's 1986 film The Name Of The Rose, which was based on the medieval mystery novel of the same title by Umberto Eco. I read the novel and loved it when it was first released, and then subsequently saw the film back in '86 and enjoyed it also.

The thing I love about DVD's are the extras, I especially love watching the film with the commentaries turned on. It's kind of like getting the backstage gossip. In this instance the commentary is by the director, the aforementioned JJ Annaud. Well, the commentary is very interesting and informative, and he has nothing but praise for his actors... until he gets to F. Murray Abraham, where he decides to hell with 'political correctness' and is extremely frank.

As it turns out F. Murray was hot from having won his Oscar for Amadeus, and decided it was time to throw his weight around a bit and wreak some revenge on directors as a species. All the other actors played as a team, but not Abrahams. Annaud makes an interesting point about difficult actors, he explains how directors will frequently discuss certain actors and what they are like to work with and the stories of who is difficult and who isn't quickly get around. He goes on to say that those actors may keep on working (and you just have to look at Abrahams list of films to see he is still a very active actor) but the quality of the jobs they get offered suffers hugely, as only second and third tier directors can be bothered with the fuss.

Interesting.

(Un)Reality TV

In one evening, tonight in fact, I:

• Watched 5 minutes of the 2004 Paul Hogan film Strange Bedfellows, and although I had low expectations, it was 5 minutes of my life I will never get back. This film is a huge stinking pile of doo doo. Paul Hogan and his tightly drawn face can't act, the lovely Michael Caton looks like he wants to place a call to his agent, and the gay characters (both those that are supposed to be gay, and those that are supposed to be only pretending to be) are so broadly drawn, two dimensional and cliched that... oh, AAAAARGH! There, that's better.
  
• Caught the first of the Australian Idol Top 12 13 shows (Yes, 13! Wildcard Show shock!). What surprised me this year is that although I have no clear favourite on musical ability yet, I am finding some of these singers hugely likeable. There is a joyousness and good humour about some of them (James, Lee, Milly, Dan, Tarni) and a heartfelt gratitude also (Anne, Daniel, Roxanne) that is totally winning me over. If this year is like previous years, likeability and 'nice' appeal will go a long way with the punters.
  
• Channel surfed between Idol and the fantastic Broadway: The American Musical on the ABC. Wonderfull stuff, and the early history of the musical in America was all new to me, and very interesting. Oh look, it's out on DVD!
  
• Caught the opening 10 minutes of the mockumentary Oil Storm on Channel 7. Now, this went to air in the US in June and as such made for an interesting and sobering piece of entertainment. To air it less than two weeks after a devastating real life event, one which is almost exactly described in the opening sequence, on almost exactly the same date, one which is still not yet resolved and has killed/displaced/ruined the lives of many, many people - well top marks for insensitivity Channel 7.

Phew, I also saw Greg Araki's film Mysterious Skin at the movies this afternoon, but its getting late so that's going to have to wait until tomorrow.

A New Look For Spring

Spring has sprung in my neck of the woods, and frankly I'm bored with my options for Spring wardrobe. I need something new, a new style. Something that shows expresses me.

You know, when you go to the closet and look in and think "I have nothing to wear! I hate all my clothes!! Anyhoo, I'm not likely to throw it all out and start again, so maybe I'll work with accessories for a new look.


K who? I might go for something a bit more cheery. Could I fit on "Today is the first day of the rest of your life!" I wonder?


Scrolling LED Belt buckle. I could definately fit that on here.


I might get thirsty.

[All items, and so, so much more, available at Iced Out Gear. Bodhi, just in case you were wondering.]

I Wanna Bring You Close To My, I Wanna Bring You Close To My Lips Yeah

Bright sunny morning? - check
Industrial strength cleaning products? - check
Stereo? - check

My 'La Crawford Ajax Mix' top 5 songs to scrub the bathroom to:

1. "Professional Widow" by Tori Amos (Amand Van Helden's Star Trunk Mix)
   
2. "I am Woman" by Cassius feat. Jocelyn Brown (Extended mix)
   
3. "Brimful of Asha" by Cornershop (Fatboy Slim Edit)
   
4. "One of My Kind" by Rogue Traders Vs INXS
   
5. "4 My People" by Missy Elliott (Basement Jaxx Remix Radio Edit)

None of this is particularly new, but crank it loud enough and the dirt just disappears. (Kinda makes you gay though.)

My Backyard

This post by Michael set me to thinking that it might be a nice idea if I posted a picture or two of my lil' courtyard garden.


Fountain & ficus in my courtyard. Newtown, Sydney, 2004.

This fountain is flanked on both sides by raised garden beds, with two standardised ficus trees on each side. Since this picture was taken last year (gee look, rain, I remember rain... vaguely) the ficus have grown to almost obscure the fountain. Somewhat Tuscan in feeling, no?

[Note to self: get trimming the ficus this weekend.]

This fountain has never run, my friends who own the house got as far as putting it in but never waterproofed it or bought a pump. I have a few plants in the bottom, but it's all a bit bare at the moment. The grand plan is to eventually fill it with (removeable) pots of decorative foliage plants like cordelines, or flowering gingers.


Violets, 2004.

These violets unfortunately were the victim of the horrible drought we are in here, and the water restrictions we are living with. I thought I had lost both pots after a surprise hot spell (and some inattention) but I have managed to save one. The other lives on in pictures only. RIP lil' buddy.

Massive

This week's Photo Friday theme is Massive.

These pictures are taken at the closed brickworks at St Peters, only about 15 minutes walk from my house, which have been incorporated into Sydney Park.


Brick kiln chimney. Sydney, 2004.

There is a similar disused brickworks in my old home town of Adelaide. Unfortunately these buildings here are all closed, most likely because of vandalism and structural weaknesses, but the Adelaide brickworks houses a lively market inside the kilns.


View along the main kiln. Sydney, 2004.

This gives some idea of the huge scale of the place, and the various buildings which make up this part of the park.


Brick kilns and chimney stacks. Sydney, 2004.

Learning Experiences

I had the oddest day today, one which taught me lots about expectations, assumptions, confrontation and frustration. Here is today's weirdness:

• You know when you walk into a room and all conversation stops, and your first thought is 'Did I miss something?' When I walked into the office this morning, everyone was standing around, pushing in chairs and then heading back towards their desks, as if there had been an impromptu meeting. I didn't think much of it until one of my workmates asked my boss how he was and his answer was "Good, considering." Err, did I miss something?
  
• My second run at a birthday lunch (moved from last week) with my work mates was cancelled, without anything much being said. I only sort of found out after the fact and was quite disappointed.
  
• The office had a very tense, angry mood today and seemed to be particularly airless. Oh, and really busy.
  
• When I went into the office kitchen this morning there was a birthday cake box in the fridge, and earlier in the week I had seen a wrapped present on my boss's desk. I though 'I wonder if they?...' Well, they didn't. The cake was left-overs brought in by one of the language teachers in the office next door and the present was for someone else. That's fine, but I very nearly made a fool of myself by gushing that they shouldn't have.
  
• As I was getting on the train to come home tonight, a guy and girl were straggling a bit getting off the train and some passengers started to get on while they were trying to get off. This has happened to me a few times and it is mildly annoying. The guy lost it. Red faced, screaming, spittle flying. Weirdest thing was, I got on after they got off but I was nearest to him when he lost his shit, so I copped it. I just love having someone scream at me that I'm a fucking DICKHEAD!!!. Sure, I can be, but not in this instance.
  
• I was crossing the street near my house on a zebra crossing a short while ago and missed getting run over by a car that didn't stop. Missed me by a couple of feet, and only because I had hesitated as I wasn't convinced he was slowing. I got angry.

So it was interesting. One thing my Buddhist practice has given me is a certain degree of mindfulness about what I'm thinking and consequently doing. So it was a crap day in some respects, but a day full of lessons that ultimately I am grateful for.

The Top 100 Songs of 1981

I'd been tagged by one of these fine folk for a meme and I didn't even realise it! (Thanks for the heads up Lou.)

I couldn't figure out where to get an Aussie version of this list from, so I've made do with the US (default) version. It's quite different than what I remember being in the charts here in Oz, as we had a lot of Aussie and UK hits in our charts in the early 80's, but we'll just have to make the best of it.

For this one, you need to go here and type the year you graduated from high school into the search box. (Yeah, it shows everyone instantly how old you are. Depends how cagey you want to be about that one...)

Click on the link "Top 100 hits of... (your graduation year)" and cut and paste the results into your blog.

Bold the songs you like, strike through the ones you hate and underline your favourite. Do nothing to the ones you don't remember (or don't care about).

Top 100 Songs for 1981 (ie: A long, long time ago!)
1. Bette Davis Eyes, Kim Carnes
2. Endless Love, Diana Ross and Lionel Richie
3. Lady, Kenny Rogers
4. (Just Like) Starting Over, John Lennon
5. Jessie's Girl, Rick Springfield
6. Celebration, Kool and The Gang
7. Kiss On My List, Daryl Hall and John Oates
8. I Love A Rainy Night, Eddie Rabbitt
9. 9 To 5, Dolly Parton
10. Keep On Loving You, REO Speedwagon
11. Theme From "Greatest American Hero", Joey Scarbury
12. Morning Train (Nine To Five), Sheena Easton
13. Being With You, Smokey Robinson
14. Queen Of Hearts, Juice Newton
15. Rapture, Blondie
16. A Woman Needs Love, Ray Parker Jr. and Raydio
17. The Tide Is High, Blondie
18. Just The Two Of Us, Grover Washington Jr.
19. Slow Hand, Pointer Sisters
20. I Love You, Climax Blues Band
21. Woman, John Lennon
22. Sukiyaki, A Taste Of Honey
23. The Winner Takes It All, Abba
24. Medley, Stars On 45
25. Angel Of The Morning, Juice Newton
26. Love On The Rocks, Neil Diamond
27. Every Woman In The World, Air Supply
28. The One That You Love, Air Supply
29. Guilty, Barbra Streisand and Barry Gibb
30. The Best Of Times, Styx
31. Elvira, Oak Ridge Boys
32. Take It On The Run, REO Speedwagon
33. No Gettin' Over Me, Ronnie Milsap
34. Living Outside Myself, Gino Vannelli
35. Woman In Love, Barbra Streisand
36. Boy From New York City, Manhattan Transfer
37. Urgent, Foreigner
38. Passion, Rod Stewart
39. Lady (You Bring Me Up), Commodores
40. Crying, Don Mclean
41. Hearts, Marty Balin
42. It's My Turn, Diana Ross
43. You Make My Dreams, Daryl Hall and John Oates
44. I Don't Need You, Kenny Rogers
45. How 'Bout Us, Champaign
46. Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Pat Benatar
47. The Breakup Song, Greg Kihn Band
48. Time, Alan Parsons Project
49. Hungry Heart, Bruce Springsteen
50. Sweetheart, Franke and The Knockouts
51. Someone's Knockin', Terri Gibbs
52. More Than I Can Say, Leo Sayer
53. Together, Tierra
54. Too Much Time On My Hands, Styx
55. What Are We Doin' In Love, Dottie West
56. Who's Crying Now, Journey
57. De Do Do Do, De Da Da, Police
58. This Little Girl, Gary U.S. Bonds
59. Stop Draggin' My Heart Around, Stevie Nicks With Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
60. Giving It Up For Your Love, Delbert McClinton
61. A Little In Love, Cliff Richard
62. America, Neil Diamond
63. Ain't Even Done With The Night, John Cougar
64. Arthur's Theme, Christopher Cross
65. Another One Bites The Dust, Queen
66. Games People Play, Alan Parsons Project
67. I Can't Stand It, Eric Clapton
68. While You See A Chance, Steve Winwood
69. Master Blaster, Stevie Wonder
70. Hello Again, Neil Diamond
71. Don't Stand So Close To Me, Police
72. Hey Nineteen, Steely Dan
73. I Ain't Gonna Stand For It, Stevie Wonder
74. All Those Years Ago, George Harrison
75. Step By Step, Eddie Rabbitt
76. The Stroke, Billy Squier
77. Feels So Right, Alabama
78. Sweet Baby, Stanley Clarke and George Duke
79. Same Old Lang Syne, Dan Fogelberg
80. Cool Love, Pablo Cruise
81. Hold On Tight, ELO
82. It's Now Or Never, John Schneider
83. Treat Me Right, Pat Benatar
84. Winning, Santana
85. What Kind Of Fool, Barbra Streisand and Barry Gibb
86. Watching The Wheels, John Lennon
87. Tell It Like It Is, Heart
88. Smoky Mountain Rain, Ronnie Milsap
89. I Made It Through The Rain, Barry Manilow
90. You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin', Daryl Hall and John Oates
91. Suddenly, Olivia Newton-John and Cliff Richard
92. For Your Eyes Only, Sheena Easton
93. The Beach Boys Medley, Beach Boys
94. Whip It, Devo
95. Modern Girl, Sheena Easton
96. Really Wanna Know You, Gary Wright
97. Seven Year Ache, Rosanne Cash
98. I'm Coming Out, Diana Ross
99. Miss Sun, Boz Scaggs
100. Time Is Time, Andy Gibb

So it was a pretty big year for Barbra, Barbra & sundry Gibb brothers, Andy Gibb without Barbra, Neil Diamond and Air Supply... yet I survived it! The songs I've left untouched are due to apathy or not having any recollection of them.

Rather than tag others, if you want to play then do so and just let us all know in the comments so that we can read your list.

The 10 Song Meme

OK, I can't post about Katrina anymore so it's a return to the frivolous here at TOA! This meme has been doing the rounds for a little while, so in keeping with my Late Adopter nature, here's my contribution of 'old and new' current favourites.

10 songs I'm digging at the moment:

1. "If We're In Love" by Roisin Murphy
   
2. "Ruby Blue" by Roisin Murphy
   
3. "Intuition" by Jewel
   
4. "Destroy Rock & Roll" by Mylo
   
5. "Absolutely Not" by Deborah Cox
   
6. "Strict Machine" by Goldfrapp
   
7. "Love My Way" by The Psychedelic Furs
   
8. "Big Time Sensuality" by Bjork
   
9. "This Is The Sound Of Breaking Up" by Paul Mac
   
10. "Missing" (Todd Terry mix) by Everything But The Girl
    

Your 10?

Anne Rice Is Mad As Hell

...by the sound of it, with good reason.

Anne Rice has written an eloquent and strongly worded opinion piece about the events in New Orleans post-Katrina. Rice has not only been a long-term resident of The Big Easy, but has also set the majority of her fiction there and has researched the history of the city in depth. It's her loving descriptions of New Orleans that in part that had added to my desire to want visit it some day.

[Link via towleroad.]

I'm OK

A website called I'm OK has been set up for people in the Katrina affected areas of the US to register that they are OK, and where friends and loved ones can log in and see who is registered in the database. Other sites such as the Red Cross are doing the same sort of thing, but it is supposedly quicker and more accurate because it uses the person's telephone number as the main search criteria, speeding up the searches. If you know someone in the region, it might be worth checking this out in addition to the Red Cross's Hurricane Katrina register.

Flying Too Close To The Sun

I am so deeply in love with this Icarus light by Tord Boontje, that I can scarcely contain myself. It makes me want to claw at myself with pleasure. I love that someone has made something so beautiful, even if I never own it I love knowing that it exists.

---

Speaking of beauty and grace, or more accurately the flip side of which, I have kept silence on the events in the US until now. Partly because I don't feel informed enough to add anything meaningful to the discussion.

I feel kind of flippant, shallow and callous posting entries about how much I love this lamp, when nightly I'm seeing the horrifying images coming out of New Orleans and Mississippi. I sit and watch it with a lump in my chest, a tightness, that I just can't go too near to for fear that everything will just unravel. Does that make sense? We are so far away from it down here in Oz, but I've been watching it on the news, transfixed and on the verge of tears, until I have to get up and leave the room or change channels. Nightly this tight ball of pain under my sternum seems to be growing more tightly wound, larger, more painful.

All I can do is hope for the best resolution possible, as quickly as possible, and that the US people fire that idiot who's asleep at the wheel.

My Mate Nate

If you have read this blog for a while, then you might have clued in that I am obsessed with the world's cutest interior designer (and Oprah regular) Nate Berkus. Design*sponge recently broke the news about a new range of homewares by Nate.

If I ordered some sheets, what do you think the odds are that Nate would deliver them himself?

Birthday Recap

Today is Father's Day here in Oz, so I decided that it was easier to do most of my birthday celebrating last night and avoid conflicting with the Father's Day plans of most of my pals. So last night I had dinner with a bunch of friends, including cyber pal turned real-life friend Bodhi, at my favourite Thai restaurant Thai Pothong. Good food was had, lots of laughs and conversation, and I scored some lovely gifts (although lets not tell the Naturopath, Doctor or any future Cardiologist about the big sampler of deluxe soft cheeses I received, 'mkay!). Bodhi came back to hang out after dinner and we sat up talking until until the early hours.

I had a lazy start to the morning this morning, lying in bed drinking coffee and reading. Back in January I posted an entry about my visit to Canberra to see the excellent Vivienne Westwood Restrospective at the National Gallery, well my sweet friend Judy (who also went to the exhibition) bought me the fabulous book that accompanied the exhibition as a birthday gift. Nice way to spend a cool and rainy birthday morning, just me and Viv.

Late morning I met up with Bodhi again and we headed to Bondi Junction for A Shopping Outreach at the new Westfield Bondi Junction. I have to say that I was quite impressed, I was expecting a big shopping centre, which it certainly is, but the design of the centre and the stores, and the mix of retailers which favours the higher end, was a pleasant surprise. I did some Retail Therapy and birthday-treated myself to a very cute black straw pork pie hat, some favourite lemon verbena scented soap and a DVD of The Name Of The Rose. Bodhi and I had lots of laughs and headed home around sunset after having a Good Day.

It was an enjoyably low-key(ish) birthday with lots of friendship and laughs, just what I was hoping for.

Order

This week's Photo Friday theme is Order.


Darling Harbour park, Sydney. January, 2005.

I took this picture last Summer when I was down at Darling Harbour working as a volunteer at a Buddhist festival. These kids were having so much fun and had made up a game where they were racing backwards and forwards across this fountain, always in order. They were going so fast and some of the stones were quite wet, so my heart was in my mouth a few times, but nobody fell and I'm sure the risk just added to their excitement.

A Humbling Experience

Yesterday turned out to be a doubleplusungood shitstorm of a day. On top of dragging my sorry ass into work still feeling sick, part way through the day my boss uncovered a mistake of monumental proportions. A mistake which I, though not having actually caused directly, was at least complicit in allowing to happen and should have picked up and prevented in time. It was fixed by day end, but it'll cost my company enough money that it'll wipe the profit from that particular client for the rest of the year. It was a new part of my job role that I hadn't really been shown how to do properly, just drip fed information, so all agreed that it really wasn't my fault per se, but the shine of Golden Haired Boy and Number One Favoured Son has been tarnished somewhat.

I spent much of the afternoon working to minimise the damage and ended up leaving work around 6.30pm, but on the up-side my boss finally sat down with me and stepped me through all the procedures I needed to do for the client. Stepped me through very carefully that is, like I was the slow reader in the class. Oh well. In fairness my employers were quite reasoned about it and chalked it up to experience, so things could have been a lot worse than they ended up. Birthday lunch got canned, in part because one of the other staff has taken a few days off as bereavement leave because her Grandfather passed away. So we rescheduled for next week.

Like my buddy Michael on the other side of the planet, today is Haircut Day. I heart Haircut Day! Then tonight I'm off to dinner at a favourite restaurant with a small group of friends to celebrate turning 41 on Sunday. Should be low key compared to Birthday Extravaganzas of the past, but that's just what I felt like this year.

Pretty Pictures

Time for a little round up of some new photoblogs I've discovered, and one old friend I've rediscovered:

• Sidney Snoeck is a Belgian engineer living in the Philippines, who posts lots of pictures of life in Manila at his blog My SariSari Store. I find his huge collection of shots of people sleeping amusing, and oddly unsettling. [Site is very picture intensive and can be slow to load.]
  
• Miles is from Toronto, Canada and his photoblog may be called Mute, but his pictures speak for themselves.
  
• Robert hails from North Carolina in the US and posts great pics on his (curiously named) blog Border Trench Safaris.
  
• Zishaan is one of my favourite Indian photobloggers, and his site Point & Shoot is an inspiration. I'm glad to see he's back posting after a bit of a mid-year hiatus.

Not On My Wish List

I got an early birthday present from the Universe, a virus of my very own! Ack.

I woke up yesterday with a bit of a headache, a bit of a sore throat and feeling generally a bit off colour, so I took the Great Aussie Tradition of the 'sickie' and took yesterday off. It was sort of 40% feeling crap(ish) and 60% wanting to have a Mental Health Day.

Turns out it was the precursor of feeling yet more crap. So I've taken today off and stretched out ahead of me is a day of reading people on The Internets who are more entertaining than I find myself right now, Oprah, and possibly a leave-in treatment and a home mani-ped.

I have to go to work tomorrow though, because work is throwing me a birthday lunch and aside from hello, free lunch! it would be bad manners right? I had a huge 40 Extravaganza last year, but this year we're stylin' it low key. My birthday is on Sunday and coincides with Father's Day, so lots of friends have familial commitments anyhoo. I'll probably do something on Saturday night, but as yet I still haven't made any plans. Don't be looking for me on Boys Gone Wild this year.

[This post is kind of the Tipping Point for this blog becoming "The Other Andrew: More Fun With Weight Loss and Medical Maladies!" but stay with me, like your mother hoped - it's just a phase.]

Here There Be Dragons

Stone dragon, Chinese Garden of Friendship. Darling Harbour, Sydney, July 2005.

I'm not a big believer in astrology, I find most of it pretty general and non-specific, and although I keep an open mind about it, I have never found that the descriptions of Virgos ring all that true to me. Yet I find that the descriptions of my 'star sign' in Chinese astrology seems to be quite a bit closer to the mark (and generally a lot more flattering than the usual 'neat freak, nit picky, blah blah' Virgos usually get!).

I am a Wood Dragon:

"Dragon people are the most eccentric in the Chinese Zodiac. Soaring high into the serene heavens, they can be stubborn, passionate, excitable, honest, and brave, wear purple and walk barefoot in public fountains. They listen to their own drummer, thank you very much, while the rest of the world stands in amazement. People always admire their individuality and feisty personality. Dragons are capable of doing great work for mankind and they inspire trust in almost everyone. The Dragon symbolizes life and growth and is said to bring the five blessings: harmony, virtue, riches, fulfillment and longevity.

Dragons are majestic creatures. These Dragons are the chivalrous knights and guardian angels of life, generous with their friendship, compassionate, even heroic, in their deeds. Showing great tolerance towards others, they move easily among all social strata and travel extensively, opening their minds to new things. Brave as matadors, their courageous lives are truly inspiring. Natural curiosity leads Wood Dragons to pursue very interesting career paths. The dichotomy is they are successful human beings but not all that successful in their careers, despite all the help they get from friends and mentors. Fortune comes to them anyway! Now, as you know, the chances of winning the lottery are pretty slim, but Wood Dragons just might do it. Rainy days or sunny, good fortune seems to shine on these money magnets, just like magic. The Wood Dragon is steady as a rock when it comes to Love & Relationships. They just don't believe in love at first sight. To them, love, relationships, and marriage follow a progressive course, evolving naturally and slowly out of friendship. Once the love bug catches them, their love is deep and passionate. The Wood Dragon partner is loving and supportive of the loved one's needs and love is never taken for granted."

Quote taken from this site.

It's nice to be a called a 'majestic creature', and anyway, it's not like I was going to post a picture of a virgin...

Doctor, Doctor, Gimme The News!

Just got back from seeing the doctor and getting the test results for the huge collection of tests I had done after my freakish blood pressure result. 90% good news! Blood pressure still high, cholesterol at the top end of normal and triglycerides (some sort of blood fat - ewww!) was waaaay high. All other results were normal, and he tested things I didn't even know could be tested.

Surprisingly, no mention of my Sanguinity...

I have three months to lose some weight before I get it all re-tested and book a check-up visit to the cardiologist. I lost 16kg about 4 years ago, and then put about half that back on after my car accident induced immobility a couple of years back. So I know I can do it. I just celebrated the good news with a fatty carbo-load of pasta, for tomorrow we diet!

From here on in, if I start posting endless diet entries, someone please shoot me. You have my permission.

I Just Can't Get You Out Of My Head

Yesterday morning I woke up with the following going over, and over, and over in my head:

Tumble out of bed and stumble to the kitchen,
pour myself a cup of ambition,
and yawn, and stretch, and try to come alive...

I am not making this up. It's been running through my head periodically since, but not incessantly like it was yesterday morning. I don't know what this says about the dreams I was having, but there are worse ways to wake up than having a bouncy Miss Dolly warbling '9 to 5' in your head.

On the topic of things sleep related [touches wood, strokes rabbit's foot and throws salt over shoulder] but my sleep 'issues' are getting better it would seem. Last night I slept right through the night, even though I did wake an hour and a half earlier than I needed to. Still, baby steps.

I'm Not Mad At You, I'm Mad At The Dirt.

A bunch of cancelled plans yesterday meant that I ended up with a whole unplanned Sunday stretching out before me. A sunny and warm Sunday. So I did the only grown up thing I could do, threw open the doors and windows, cranked up the music and cleaned like whirlwind.

Hundreds of loads of laundry later, a whole mess of things thrown away, a whole bunch of other things dusted/washed/waxed/aired out in the sun, and finally the inner voice I like to call 'Martha' was stilled. It was sort of like a day of home detention, only with music.

Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam...

I just went and deleted 11 SPAM comments from my last post, and it's happening more frequently, so I'm going to trial a Blogger feature to try and stop it. I just turned on the 'Word Verification' system in Blogger comments. If (when!) you go to comment Blogger will show a word on the screen that you have to type, sort of as a password.

I hope this isn't a pain in the arse, and please let me know if it is!

Ready For Spring

It's been a bit cool and grey in Sydney today, and I'm feeling that particular itch that you get when you're done with Winter and you just want it to be warmer already. People reading this is the Northern Hemisphere are probably rolling their eyes at the thought of a Sydney winter, it's true it doesn't get all that cold here by international standards, but when you live in a place that does warm weather really well, well you get a little spoilt.


August, 2005.

I took this pic just over a week ago, and I'm really very pleased with it. It's one of my favourite recent photos. This looks very dramatic and tropical, but in reality this bush grows out of the footpath a block away from my house. The combination of the early morning light, and exposure contrast with the background, has made this come out much better that I had hoped. I hope you like it.

On The Nightstand

Well, I finally plowed my way through the remainder of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince". The verdict, it was my least favourite of the series so far although to be fair the last quarter of the novel did claw back some of my interest.

At the other end of the spectrum, I just bought Divided Kingdom by Rupert Thomas and I can't put it down. I'm only a third of the way through it so far, but the creativity of the concept has me hooked. What would it be like if overnight everything you knew changed? If you were classified into one of four 'personality types' and sent to live with others deemed to be of the same 'type'? What would it be like to live in a nation divided?

Thomson never fully explains many of the logistics of his concept, but the main character's blind acceptance is an important part of the story. Thomson also uses the premise to play with ideas of totalitarianism, eugenics and human adaptability, but his straightforward writing style avoids the story being bogged down in abstract concepts.

Meanwhile he has me turning every page, eager to find out what happens.

Death Takes A Train

Sydney rail commuters have had their limits tested of late; major delays, cancellations, closures for track work and a myriad of other inconveniences. This morning my train pulled into the next stop after my starting station, where it sat for a few minutes, and then the guard announced that there would be a short delay as we waited for the signal ahead to clear. Nothing unusual.

A short while later the guard announced that there was a deceased person on a train a couple of stations ahead of us, and that there would be further delays heading into the city while emergency services dealt with the situation.

I found the reactions of many of my fellow commuters really disappointing and saddening. More than a few did the usual rolling of eyes, checking of watches and reaching for mobile phones that normally accompanies a delay announcement. Like it was a regular everday inconvenience.

It just struck me how horrible it is that we have become so walled up in our internal landscapes of self-talk, delusions, ego, petty angers and frustrations that a person could die and they get treated as an inconvenience. That person was someone's father, mother, sister, lover or friend. Also, what of the other passengers that were with that person in the train, as they died? What must that have been like to be beside someone and to perhaps have tried in vain to resucitate them, or to have just noticed that the person next to you was dead, or to have been so overcome with fear and self-doubt that you sat there not able to help?

I've been thinking about this person all morning, about the stranger on the train that is now no longer with us. I hope their death was painless and swift, and pray they have an auspicious rebirth.

I Heart Travel Blogs

While I'm chained to my office desk, working like a complete working thing, part of me is off dreaming of elsewhere. In this spirit, here are a couple of travel blogs I like:

• Mike Pugh's travels are long since over, but Vagabonding really set the benchmark in excellent travel blogs, and still has some great content.
  
• Konchok Ngodup is a young American Buddhist who is travelling through Tibet, China, and other parts far Eastern, learning to become a translator. His blog Sojourning Across The World chronicles his experiences and has plenty of interesting photos.

Apologies for the light content of the past couple of days, I keep telling myself that work will settle down enough soon for me to go back to my old web surfin' ways!

One

Isobel at her birthday picnic. Sunday 21st August, 2005.

Miss Isobel,
This week you are one year old. One! Who knew just 12 short months ago that you and I would be such friends!? In that time I've seen you learn to do so many things, but the new one, the hugging thing, that's my favourite.

I knew that I would probably like you, because your parents are good people and I figured the odds were stacked in your favour. I was kind of surprised that with one bat of those big brown eyes I turned into 100% Doting Big Gay Uncle. Oh, and the first time I saw you fix someone with an appraising look, I knew we'd get along just fine.

I'm glad you enjoyed your party, and I'm glad I'll get to see you have a lot more of them.

Love,
Uncle Andrew

[This week's Photo Friday theme is One.]

Recap-A-Rama

Today is another day of work frantic-ness so just a little update post on the weekend, including a recap on things medical:

• Friday was a birthday extravaganza for my friend Bodhi, which was a heap of fun. I was feeling a bit tired and off-colour, so wasn't exactly the life and soul of the party, but I had a good time. From the comments Bodhi left on my previous post he certainly had a good time!
  
• Saturday was a chilled out sort of day, I had slept really badly on Friday night so was looking forward to a quiet day and an early night. Unfortunately my next door neighbours had a party until the small hours of the morning, so a good night's sleep was elusive.
  
• Sunday was a gloriously mild day, and I headed to a local park for my God(less) daughter's first birthday picnic. It was a lovely afternoon of eating, playing with the various babies in attendance and seeing friends I hadn't seen for a while.
  
• This morning I went to see my new doctor (who I heart very much already) for a follow-up on my alarmingly high blood-pressure from last week. I had a better BP result (although still high, my diastolic measurement was down by 16 points) and he did a lung function and ECG test. Lung function was good and my ECG showed a small electronic anomoly at first glance, but nothing that looked to be outside the range of normal. I'm having a full set of blood and urine tests, and I have a feeling that I'll probably find I have a Cholesterol problem. I have another appointment next week to get results, but already I'm feeling a little less stressed about how things might be. My new doctor is really nice, and being similarly of the Munchkin persuation, when I climbed on the height/weight machine was stoked to find out that I'm shorter than he is. It's so easy to please some people.
  

Happy Birthday!

It's my friend Bodhi's 40th birthday today. If you have read this blog for a while then you will have heard Bodhi's name crop up quite frequently. He's a friend, a fellow Buddhist, an all round good egg and a blog commentor par excellence.

Go give him some loving. Happy Birthday!

Herbalism For Fun & Profit

Some insights and thoughts after my visit to the Naturopath about my sleep and chronic sinus problems:

• The herbal sleeping tablets (aka "The Great White Hope") he prescribed are, frankly, a disappointment. I'm still waking up in the middle of the night, but instead of the usual Bing! Wide Awake! there is a noticeable degree of grogginess. The jury is still out on whether this is an improvement.
  
• Horseradish, Garlic & Vitamin C tablets sound like they'd taste disgusting don't they? They do, not least of which because they're coated in aniseed. BLECH!
  
• Is it weird to fall in love with a nasal spray? My new saline and eucalyptus nasal spray combines almost the exact same degrees of life enhancing qualities and ick factor as some boyfriends.
  
• Major doses of vitamin B make me borderline speedy, I'm that cheap.

Wave The Flag

Blogger have just added a new feature, which I'm not sure I like. See up in the top right hand corner of the page there... go on, I'll wait... see the new FLAG? button. (PS. Why the question mark? Not sure if it's a flag or not?)

If you hit that, and please don't until you're off my site, it lodges the site as having 'Questionable Content' with Blogger. Now, when I played Blogger Roulette a while back I ended up on some weird sites, some I really didn't like, and a couple that were thinly disquised commercial 'blogs'... but I'm not sure I like the idea of people in effect labelling other people's blogs as 'questionable'.

Who administers this at Blogger? Who decides if the blog is bona fide 'questionable', and on what criteria? If you don't like gay people/haikus/Outback House/overuse of italics could you label my blog as 'questionable'? So many questions!

Perhaps this was prompted by hate blogs, or by people posting sexually explicit pictures without appropriate warning pages. Maybe there are instances when this could be genuinely handy, but right now the idea makes me uncomfortable.

Some New Reading

Because we all need more blogs in our lives, here's a couple of new Gay Boy Blogs I've stumbled across in the past couple of days:

• fourfour not only posts some of the funniest cat pics on the interweb, but he also does high-larious recaps of the new Whitney "Houston-we-have-a-problem" & Bobby Brown 'reality' show. [Link via Michael McHotterton at Pipedreams]
  
• Duane Moody; 26, cute, has a loving boyfriend, with whom he bought a home that they are renovating. I'd hate him if I didn't want to be him so bad.
  
• Angel Headed Hipster, who I'm prepared to love just for his domain name alone...

I'm always on the lookout for new reading, so if you have any recommendations hit me up in the comments.

I Like Nice Big Round Numbers

That WhineFest of an entry from earlier today (too much work... last minute changes... woe, woe I say!...) was my 300th blog entry! Talk about celebrating in style.

300! Given that I started this on a whim (and knowing my own lack of discipline and 'commitment issues') I'm surprised I made 30, let alone 300.

Stand Back! He's Gonna Blow! (...And Not In A Good Way)

Urgh, yesterday I blogged about my blood pressure... and right now I think I should get that sucker tested again. You know that thing at the Carnival, where if you hammer hard enough the puck thingee shoots up to the top and rings the bell. Right now my blood pressure is ringing that bell!

(OK, that's a weird metaphor that doesn't really work, but you get the drift.)

I've spent the past few days creating a whole bunch of documents that need to go out to a client today. Complicated stuff, all different share plan offers, some with all sorts of performance criteria... blah, blah. My boss just came back to me to review my drafts, and in the process handed me all the info he had (that was pre-approved by the client) but which he hadn't handed on to me. Well, I have to trash 90% of what I have done already.

Ho, ho. The client is so not getting this today.

Time For A Little Uncharacteristic Self-Disclosure

So this morning I had an hour long consult with a Naturopath about my issues regarding poor sleep and lack of energy. Long story short, I have a bunch of strategies to try in terms of modifying my diet, and some herbs and stuff to take, to also combat my chronic sinus problems and a few allergies I knew about. As I thought might be the case, my sinus issues may be contributing to my disturbed sleep.

It wasn't all good news thought because apparently my blood pressure is majorly broken and needs some big time fixin'. Given my interesting family history (cancer, heart disease, strokes... nothing major) alarm bells are ringing off the hook. So, I gots me an appointment to see a new doctor for some blood work, and for a referral to a cardiologist for some tests.

I've been burying my head in the sand for a while about the possibility of cardiac issues (La-la-la, I can't hear you!) My father had his first heart attack in his early 50's and all of his siblings never made it to 60. Given my sister's stroke in her late 40's, well I'm about to turn 41 and we are now entering the red zone.

Anyhoo, even though I'm a little rattled by how bad my blood pressure was at least I have kicked off the process of getting things checked, and either way whether the news be good or not so good, informed is the best way to deal with it. Right?

Update: In the interests of honesty, I should amend this post so that the term "a little rattled" actually reads "absolutely crapping my pants". Just so we're clear.

Dr Who Gets Some Man-On-Man Action

I've really enjoyed watching the new Dr Who series. Saturday night saw the airing of the final episode in the first series, and sadly Christopher Ecclestone's last episode (boo!), Parting Of The Ways.

I missed the episode where the lovely Captain Jack (played by the equally lovely John Barrowman) was added to the series. Consequently I missed some of the set-up of his character, but what I did start to pick up on from the subsequent episodes is that Cap'n Jack is a notorious flirt, and... bisexual. As the BBC website coyly describes him "...he has a lot of love to give". Indeed.

So, cut to Saturday night's episode. Firstly we get a cute one liner about Jack wanting to get in on a hug The Doctor and Rose were having, with The Doctor not Rose. Then when Cap'n Jack says his goodbyes (convinced the Daleks are going to kill him) he gets into a nice long lip-lock with Rose... and then turns around and gives The Doctor a big long lingering wet one. Yup folks, old Aunty Beeb gives The Doctor some man-on-man action. Yeah baby!

The best thing, there was no mouth-wiping or weirdness, just a smile from The Doctor as if to say "Thanks very much, that was quite nice actually".

Not So Wild About Harry

I'm working my way through a borrowed copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and I say 'working' my way through it because (as of page 294 so far) I'm finding it, well, kind of tedious. I feel like this makes me some kind of heretic, but I'm just not enjoying it very much. There's nothing particularly wrong with it, but at nearly 300 pages in there just doesn't seem to be much going on that's holding my interest.

I have also read the other 5 books, and while I quite enjoyed them, as an adult reader I haven't been swept up in all the fuss surrounding the series. I have, however, found the books to be quite entertaining and diverting reads - just not exciting.

What I do think is absolutely fantastic about these books, is how excited children are about them. Anything that gets kids excited about reading, and so excited that they would sit down and read a whopping great book in a single sitting or re-read them several times, is just fine by me.

Monday Morning Ramble

As I intimated in my Friday Haiku entry, my workload last week was pretty much out of control. I have a major client project due on Tuesday, so once that is out of the way, this week should quieten down considerably.

After the frenetic week I just had, I wasn't up for much other than being lazy this weekend. A goal which I pretty much acheived. The only noteworthy things to report from the weekend was a lovely afternoon spent with my ex, Mikey. We had lunch at a new little pasta place in Newtown, sitting out on the footpath discussing Mikey's latest misadventures and watching the passing parade of DIOK couples (Double Income, One Kid), inner-West tribals and urban hipsters. After lunch we went to see the movie Tarnation, which Mikey found a bit depressing but I found really interesting. Jonathan Caouette quite obviously blurs the lines between fact, fiction and 're-creation' at times, but I found the view into the chaos that mental illness brought into his family sobering and ultimately fascinating. Afterwards Mikey needed a drink, so we headed to the Newtown Hotel for a couple of late afternoon beverages, before heading our seperate ways. A pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

Violet

The latest Photo Friday assignment is Violet


Princess Tree flowers, 2004.

I took this picture last summer, of a tree growing in a neighbour's front yard. These trees are quite common in my neighbourhood, and have the most glorious blue-purple flowers. I can't remember the real name of this tree (starts with an 'L'), but I have heard them referred to as 'Princess Tree'.

I kind of like the name 'Princess Tree'...

Friday Haiku

Work, why pile up so?
In monster teetering stacks,
Making me feel small.

Interesting Events Of The Past 24 Hours

• Last night I slept like a baby.
  
• Let me just check I have this right. It is babies that wake up every couple of hours feeling cranky and demanding, isn't it? I wasn't wet or squealing to be fed (those days are a few decades off yet) but I sure as hell was cranky.
  
• I made an appointment to see a Naturopath about my sleep issues. I'd rather try a gentle approach to solving it first, but am keeping the option of industrial grade drugs in reserve.
  
• The departure of one of the senior staff members at my work has meant that changes are afoot. Myself and another staff member just scored ourselves a wonderful pat on the back, some scope to tailor make our job roles and yet more $$s. Sweet!
  
• My work load has also just exploded. Not some nice little lady-like champagne cork pop of an explosion, but a regular Big Bang. Right now I have more work than I know what to do with.
  
• I just made one of my bosses' day by showing her how to take the LEFT and CONCATENATE functions in Excel to convert a table of hundreds of client names and convert them into valid email addresses based on the format the client uses. There was squealing and jumping around in delight.
  

Complexity

This week's Photo Friday assignment is Complexity.


Window, Chinese Garden of Friendship. Darling Harbour, July 2005.

I love the way the windows in the background repeat the same type of carpentry as this window surround. I'm somewhat carpentry 'challenged' so I can't even begin to imagine how time consuming it must be to put it all together, with all the corresponding angles and such.

This photo is from my visit to the Chinese Garden of Friendship in late July, the rest of the pics from the trip are here, here and here.

Owww, My Eyes!

I don't know why, let's call it today's dose of PMT, but I just read this as someone's 'byline' on their blog and it made me want to claw my eyes out in desperation:

Community encouraging. Grace exploring. Kingdom of God embracing. Progressive politics expressing. Bicycle riding. Snow playing. Family supporting. Indianapolis loving. Future anticipating.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm sure he's a perfectly nice person. He certainly gets two thumbs up for the "Progressive politics expressing" thing.

However, all that 'Noun Verb. Noun Verb. Noun Verb...'ing, well ack.

UPDATE:
Again with the eye clawing! This just in, from the 'About' section of a fashion blog from Yemen*:

My blog is a window into fashion,for people who don't know how to dress well.Truely,my blog does contain other stuff.People need to read this blog So people can learn how to dress good and do other stuff good too.

* All spelling and grammar is original. Oh, and it's a fashion blog from Yemen... who knew?

Specific Gravity

I woke up feeling lethargic and heavy limbed this morning, and feel like I've been dragging my butt around ever since. Like someone upped the gravity overnight without cueing me in on it. I'm still having some sleep 'issues'; which found me resisting falling alseep on the sofa at 9.30 last night (aided by a dull CSI re-run in part), then going to bed and reading until about 10.30, tossing and turning through the night and waking up this morning just as tired as when I went to bed.

After the frenetic past week at work, things have gone all quiet on the Western Front for the time being. I'm transitioning into my new job working directly for the Managing Director, but without anyone to replace my old position it means that I'm still doing my old job as well. The MD has gone away for a couple of days with all my frantically prepared presentations and offer documents in tow, so that's brought my work load down to a more manageable level. That, combined with the increased gravity and all, has left me sitting here staring heavy lidded at my monitor.

Even the blogsphere has been a little dull this morning. Case in point, right?

Blogger Roulette

Does anyone other than me ever use the NEXT BLOG >> button, on the right hand side of the Blogger Bar on this page? I have no idea what criteria it uses to determine which blog is 'next', but the results can be very bizarre. I just hit it around a dozen times and ended up at:

• About 6 blogs in a row from Chile/Argentina
  
• A 'how to cut the cost of your wedding in half' pseudo-commercial blog, which was oddly anonymous
  
• The blog of a homeless man
  
• The blog of a fictional character from Star Wars
  
• A blog which was in a language that I did not recognise at all, not even vaguely (Icelandic? Inuit? Vulcan?... actually I probably would have got the Vulcan.)

Next time you have 10 minutes to kill, and none of your usual reads seem be updating, play Blogger Roulette! Those bloggers, man, they're a weird bunch.

[Oh, and how tired am I of seeing the sidebar link defaults of "Google News", "Edit Me" and "Edit Me" on Blogger templates? Answer: very. 'Cause one "Edit Me" is never enough! Guys, you may be new at this game, but I think the Blogger template guys never really meant for you to leave their cunning hint of "Edit Me" there for all the world to enjoy... especially when your blog is like 6 months old, it's time.]

Recommended Reading

Michael over at Pipedreams has been posting a few entries about books he's enjoyed recently.

I got me to thinking, if I had to recommend one book to someone, what would it be? Well, there's no real simple answer because I'm a very eclectic reader, so I read a very wide range of books, and obviously one book does not fit all. Anyhoo, I think if I had to suggest just one, based on a book that I think is very well written and that I think most people would enjoy, my pick would be Michael Chabon's wonderful novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. It's one of my favourite novels of all time, but I think more importantly it's so well written that I have no issue recommending it to others.

So, if you had to pick a book that you think most people would enjoy, what would it be?

Related links:

• Michael Chabon's Blog
  
• Fansite The Amazing Website of Kavalier & Clay
  
• The real Kavalier & Clays

The Chinese Garden of Friendship: Part I

As I promised earlier in the week, here are a bunch of pics from my visit to the Chinese Garden of Friendship with Bodhi and his daughter Ashley, last Sunday. I've posted the pics in roughly the same order as you'd come across them if you walked around the gardens. This map gives you some idea of the scale of things.


Black bamboo. Darling Harbour, July 2005.

I fell in love with the black bamboo that was throughout the gardens. In some places it formed thickets which met overhead, almost blocking out the light.


Bodhi (R) & Ashley (L) inside the Round Pavilion. Darling Harbour, July 2005.

My two co-conspiritors on the visit to the gardens, Bodhi (who I met through this blog) and his daughter Ashley, aka The Kid. I really like this pic of the two of them, and I like the dappled morning light coming through the bamboo grove around the pavilion.


The Twin Pavilion, looking across the Lake of Brightness. Darling Harbour, July 2005.

This pic only hints at the large size of the garden, but it does also give you an idea how close the city buildings are. The garden has been cleverly constructed though so that most of the time you can't really see much in the way of buildings, and the various waterfalls go a long way towards masking the sounds of Sydney in the background.


Bridge between the Lake of Brightness and the Lotus Pond. Darling Harbour, July 2005.


Moon Gate alongside the Reading Brook Pavilion. Darling Harbour, July 2005.

The Chinese Garden of Friendship: Part II

Here are a few more of the many pictures I took on my visit to the Chinese Garden of Friendship last Sunday.


Ashley. Darling Harbour, July 2005.

Ashley gives us an 'inscrutable' look. For only $5 Bodhi & I got to play dress-ups with Ashley, and wander around the garden taking pics for half an hour. This picture was taken inside the the Pavilion where the costume hire was located.


Roof of the Twin Pavilion. Darling Harbour, July 2005.


The Gurr (or Clear View Pavilion) interior. Darling Harbour, July 2005.

This is the inside of the three storey tall pagoda type structure at the top of the garden. All the carving inside the Pavilion was of different types of plants and the lantern was really beautiful.


Winter magnolia. Darling Harbour, July 2005.

We passed these small magnolia blossoms on the way from The Gurr, as we walked around the lake.


Windows. Darling Harbour, July 2005.

This passage way ran behind the Peace Boat Pavilion towards the Teahouse, and I really loved this view through the windows and a glimpse of the banana palm growing in between.

The Chinese Gardens of Friendship: Part III

The last instalment of pictures from my visit to the Chinese Garden of Friendship last Sunday.


Peace Boat Pavilion window, looking towards the Teahouse. Darling Harbour, July 2005.

This Pavilion juts out over the water, where you can sit out on the sunny deck and feed the huge Koi fish, or look out through the side windows towards the Teahouse as here.


The Teahouse balcony. Darling Harbour, July 2005.

Bodhi, Ashley and I sat out on the balcony eating cake, drinking Jasmine Tea, and feeding the sparrows in the late morning sun. Of course the conversation turned to life, the universe and... boys.


The Lenient Jade Pavilion and Lotus Pond, from the Teahouse Balcony, Darling Harbour, July 2005.


The Aquatic Pavilion and gardens entrance, from the Teahouse balcony. Darling Harbour, July 2005.


Sydney city skyline. Darling Harbour, July 2005.

Finally, I like this pic taken from the Teahouse balcony as it gives a clear idea just how close to the city centre the gardens are. The tall thin tower is Centrepoint Tower, right in the heart of the Sydney CBD.

Jeremy Sheffield

Jeremy who? I hear you ask.


Jeremy Sheffield. Woof.

Some years ago now, I was watching one of the music clip shows and a film clip by petite little Aussie soapie actress, now pop princess, Natalie Imbuglia came on. That song was Torn. Nice song. Catchy.

What really made me sit up and take notice though was the hugely tall, beyond hot guy in the film clip. A blue sweater never looked so good.

That my friends was Jeremy Sheffield. What I didn't know was:

• He was a dancer with UK's Royal Ballet
  
• He's a jobbing actor, with some tv credits, a movie, some commercials, and a stint on a popular UK hospital soapie Holby City under his belt
  
• He is one of the few openly gay actors on UK tv

There's more info, and even better pics of him over at his fan site Jeremy Sheffield Heaven. I feel a crush coming on!

Computer Says 'No'

Urgh, I just tried for the second time to replace my missing mobile phone at a Telstra, shop only to find out that I didn't have the right ID for their purposes. Something about needing signatures from my 1st through 7th grade teachers, a blood sample and the head of John The Baptist on a platter.

Hey guys, thanks for not telling me specifically what you wanted yesterday when you asked me to bring in ID today! No, I don't mind making a third trip in. At all.

Lapses In Taste: Part I

The art of trying to make a Silk Purse Out Of A Sow's Ear...


ATM, Darling Harbour, Sydney. July, 2005.

Nope, still a sow's ear.

Link Envy

Blogger Existentialist Crisis #17

Because I feel very close to you, I've decided it's Share Time.

I just discovered that one of my favourite bloggers of all time; someone I admire, someone who I read daily, whose comments I fill with bon mots that glisten like diamonds, who I would almost consider taking up drinking again for just so that we could hang out on their porch and get trashed and talk about boys and how much we love, love, love Mr Ben Affleck (even in the heavy times) and hate, hate, hate Tom Cruise...

(Sorry, give me a moment. I need to pull it together...)

OK, so, imagine if you will someone else from this person's Comments Community goes and gets themselves a blog. Gets some traffic, you even help 'em out a little, link to 'em and send 'em some readers. Show them some kindness.

Here's the kicker, not only do they (let's call them 'Johnny Come Lately') get themselves a shout-out entry, but their very own sidebar link.

Yes folks, I have fallen victim to Link Envy. Now if you'll excuse me, there's poetry to write and a few more Patsy Cline disks to work my way through.

Helsinki - Fashion Capital Of Finland!

My first reaction to this picture was "Oh, no..." I feel very, very bad for this (probably) perfectly sweet and otherwise (possibly) functional young man.

However, what I do require, is for someone, anyone, to explain to me what "My style is incoherent, cheap and ethical..." means. I mean, I think I grasp the 'incoherent' part.

Finally, in this cavalcade of 'style', one of those whacky Finns!

Hypotheticals Time

Hey kids, let's play the hypotheticals game! Let's imagine for a moment that:

a) You are a huge fan of tv show, which we'll call 'Firefly'

OK, got that? Right. Then, let's say, the show was axed but fortunately after a couple a couple of years wait:

b) They made a movie about it, which for argument's sake we'll call (for want of a better name) 'Serenity'.

OK, so, let's pretend that:

c) Unbeknownst to you, there was a special preview of this new film, two months before it was due to to be released,

Now, remember that you've been waiting for this film for ages, OK, then let's pretend that:

d) A bunch of people you know, got to go to this preview and you didn't.

How are you feeling right now? I thought so.

[Actually, all joking aside, I am happy for them. No, really I am. Mostly.]

The Best Adjective To Describe My Weekend...

...would be 'SWEEEEEET'!

As if the blast of premature Spring weather wasn't enough to make for a good weekend, in addition:

• Friday night was a fun party at Chez Harry, with a bunch of old friends that, as it turns out, included the crowd from the For Battle! blog.
  
• Saturday was a whirlwind of inertia, web surfing, desultory attempts at housework and a couple of hours of data entry at the Buddhist centre.
  
• Sunday was a most excellent visit to the Chinese Gardens of Friendship with Bodhi, and his daughter Ashley. Tea and cakes were had, fish and birds were fed, lots of photos were taken and a good time was had by all. [Photos to come in the next day or two]
  
• After the Chinese Gardens I walked the hour long walk home from the city in the beautiful sunshine, pottered around the house for a few hours and then headed off to my friends John & Judy's house for dinner. I got home about 10pm and then sat down to watch the final episode of Outback House.

Like I said, sweet.

The Other Kind Of 'Outing Oneself'

What's weirder: a) finding out that a bunch of people you know have a group blog, b) walking into a party and having everyone greet you by your 'blogging name' or c) all of the above?

Oh, I pick c)!

It's not bad, but it is a bit weird. I kept this blog kinda quiet, partly in case I ever wanted to write hand-wringing, pearl-clutching, hair-tearing entries about how horrible life was - you know, the sort of stuff that you would be embarrased if anyone you knew ever read. Diary stuff. Thankfuly life hasn't thrown me that sort of situation, and in hindsight I would probably never write such an entry anyway.

So when I left a comment on their blog last week, after following a link I stumbled across at a mutual friend's blog, I knew I was 'outing myself' as a blogger.

It's fine and dandy, the world didn't end after all.