If It's Monday, It's Recappin' Time

I hope everyone had a nice weekend. It's Monday morning down here in Oz, which for some of you guys makes us so tomorrow, you know?

Monday morning means weekend recap time, although in the grand scheme of things this was a pretty quiet weekend:

• I decided that I was on such a roll with my walking 2 hours a day to and from work stizz, that I did plenty of walking this weekend to keep the momentum going. I always have my camera with me, so walking means picture taking. I uploaded a few to my Flickr page already, with more to come.
  
• I went to see an advance screening of Rize, a documentary film about 'clown dancing' and 'krumping'. What an amazing film! I was really dragged into the experience of these of kids, an experience which is soooo many worlds away from my own. The dancing itself was amazing, but I was more caught up in the charisma of the kids involved and their determination to find an outlet that's more positive than the traditional gang culture, but one that still satisfied their need for community.
  
• Housework, housework, housework. Boring, boring, boring.
  
• I went into the Buddhist centre and did a few hours of data entry, unpacked a shipment of new books that arrived for the bookshop (just like Christmas!) and wrote a few new orders for the bookshop (just like shopping!).

So, not a huge amount of social contact this weekend, but it was very relaxing and recharged the batteries a bit.

More Bougainvillea Goodness

Bougainvillea
Originally uploaded by Other Andrew.

When I was out walking yesterday I saw this bright fuscia Bougainvillea growing on the front fence of this terrace house, and was struck by the contrast of it with the creamy yellow colour of the house.

Bougainvillea On Stucco

Bougainvillea On Stucco
Originally uploaded by Other Andrew.

A bit more Flickr-y goodness to brighten your day.

I love the hot, bright colours of bougainvillea. This pic comes from the front of a house a few streets over from mine. Bougainvillea seems to love the climate around Sydney, and they brighten up the streets of my neighbourhood fantastically, with their variety of colours.

Comedy Gold

One hand, poor doggie, but on the other hand high-larious!

Keep Me In Your Prayers

:::shhh:::

Ok ::shhh:: I have to whisper this ok, so nobody hears. A real cutie pie just showed up in our office for an appointment with my boss; natty suit, expensive (read 'homo') haircut, well scrubbed complexion that speaks of quality skincare... really quite handsome.

OK :::shhhh::: here's the thing, if you have any religion at all, or if you don't just like cross your fingers or make a wish on Paris Hilton's firstborn, or whatever, but I want you to pray that he's here for a job interview. This office needs another 'mo, especially a cute one.

:::shhh::: Ok, thanks. Bye.

[UPDATED: Oh, my people! THE POWER OF PRAYER! His name is Mark, he's English, definately a 'mo, he starts on Monday. Thank you Jeebus, Xenu, Britney, Kylie...]

Colour Me 'Emotionally Neutral'!

Today has been a bit bleh so far, busy with re-doing a bunch of work that was done over a year ago (not by me) and then lost, feeling a bit tired, a bit dull etc. I remembered that Yaniboy posted a couple of days ago about biorhythms, so I thought that for a bit of fun maybe I'd go and have a look at my biorhythm.

Result: 'Physical' at the lowest point, at the bottom of the cycle. 'Intellectual' on the downward trend and almost at the lowest point. 'Emotional' smack bang on the 'zero line' or neutral. Now, I should add that like these folks I'm not a believer. Open minded, but not convinced that there is any science behind it.

Still, whether it's the power of suggestion or pure coincidence, the scores do kind of fit. Anyone care to try for yourself?

Perks That Perk

My boss just went out to run a few errands and came back with chocolate bars for the entire office. My poison? A giant King Size one of these. More addictive than crack, I swear. Um hello, diet?

Cha-Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes

It looks like I might have a replacement flatmate by the start of the year. My old flatmate moved out a few months back, about the time that a raise in my salary meant that keeping the house to myself in the short-term was feasible. Expensive, but feasible.

My last flatmate I found through a share registry type place, and although he was OK, he misrepresented himself a bit. My future flatmate is not only a friend, but someone who actually is easy going and who I trust. He also reads this blog, we actually met and became friends through this blog. It'll reduce my rent and bills to a level that will allow me to save enough money to go and do a month of study at a monastery in Nepal late next year, and also helps him out as he needs to leave where he is currently as the owners are selling.

Sounds like a win/win situation.

[Updated: I decided to excise the comments I made about my ex flatmate in this post, we no longer speak and it isn't really fair for me to vent about him and not allow him the courtesy of defending himself.]

Elizabeth's Bookshop Sign

Elizabeth's Bookshop Sign
Originally uploaded by Other Andrew.

Words of wisdom outside Elizabeth's Bookshop in Newtown.

(Note the dog pee. Everyone's a critic...)

; )

Next year, if this 'Halloween thing' really takes off here in Oz, I am totally carving this.

[Link via kottke.]

Better Living Through Technology

I got out of work a couple of hours early yesterday, after the 'horse race that stops the nation' had run it's course. So, I had some time to kill and decided on a little retail therapy.

Spare time + empty stores = someone stop me before I spend my entire paycheque!

A couple of hours later, and a couple of hundred dollars later, I headed home with (as Michael says) something that "frantically pulses in my mouth for two minutes" plus a little something to trim 'the goat' with. (An extra sweetener, after taking the 'allways negotiable pricing' sales pitch to heart, I asked about a better deal for cash at Bing Lee and they lopped a substantial $27 off the $149 asking price for the Braun Sonic Complete 'oral hygiene system'. Cool.)

Hygiene and grooming, or as I like to think of it, an investment in me.

Sydney Weblogger Meet-Up

Last night I went to my first Sydney blogger meet-up. Since I found out about the monthly get togethers a few months back I hadn't been able to make any of them because of conflicting plans. I'm not sure exactly when these meet-ups started, but from my understanding they have been going for quite a while. The venue was recently changed from an 'Irish' pub called Kelly's to the Coopers Arms Hotel on King St, Newtown, to take advantage of the Tuesday night trivia night at the Coopers Arms.

We did well in the trivia, coming second from a field of about 10 teams and winning a $30 bar tab. We only lost by a couple of points (sorry about the 'carnation' answer guys). Not surprisingly a team of bloggers does very well on pop culture and any obscure nerdy questions. So we didn't actually win but we can hold our heads high in the knowledge the team who did win only won because they had been given a bonus 5 points by the trivia master, because he liked their name the best.


The crowd starts to build. Sydney blogger meet-up. 1st November, 2005.

I had a really great night. Caught up with some friends who I've known for a long time, before any of us even had blogs, and met a bunch of really nice new people.


The entire gang. Sydney blogger meet-up. 1st November, 2005.

In attendance were:
Back row (from left to right) Morgan, Mark, Glen, Vi & Spleenie (with hat), me (with what looks like an oddly pink face), Rob (handsome face hidden somewhat) and Harry. Front row, James, Coz and Amanda.

Interesting factoids; I've known James for years through mutual friends and I've known Coz, her sister Amanda, her husband Rob, and Harry for years as well. I only found out that Amanda had a blog, and that Coz, Rob & Harry have a group blog, earlier this year. Small world, huh.

[Updated: If you are interested in coming along to future Sydney blogger meet-ups, then check out Glen, Mark & Amanda's Sydney Blog Meetup for postings about future events. It looks like future meet-ups will be on the first Tuesday of each month, but check in advance for details.]

[YET FURTHER UPDATED: Ooooh, check out Mark's post about the meet-up. Dude totally harshes me about my 'carnation' mistake! Hmmm, 'darn queers', huh? Alrighty then. Winged monkeys to the ready! Fly, my pretties!]

Freak Like Me

Freak Like Me
Originally uploaded by Other Andrew.

A little inspired Newtown grafitti for you. I count myself in this number by the way, fresh air and open spaces are wonderful but give me the crush of humanity to get me veins thrumming.

Boos And Yays

Australia grinds to a halt for a horse race later today folks, and so in preparation I ground to a halt work-wise at about 9.00 am. To do anything less would be un-Australian. Mental processes are likewise sluggish, so I'll take the path of least resistance and give you a Yays! and Boos! list for today:

• Passing a beautiful young man in a gorgeous navy suit on the street this morning (yay!) and spotting that he had tan shoes on (boo!).
  
• Walking to work (yay!) and half way it started raining (boo!).
  
• Running into a friend during said walk to work and discovering that while on holidays in Thailand her boyfriend (who is my old flatmate) proposed and they are now engaged (yay!).
  
• Finally understanding that I am like the last single person in my social network (boo!) - ok that's an exaggeration but sometimes it feels like it.
  
• Good coffee (YAY! - never a boo! let's face it).
  
• Tonight is a Sydney blogger meet-up, which I can actually go to for a change (yay!). Coopers Arms Hotel at 221 King St, Newtown from about 6-6.30 onwards.

I think the Yays! have it.

From The 'World's Worst Kept Secrets' File.

Star Trek's George "Mr Sulu" Takei comes out.

World says, "Well, duh."

[Link via kottke.]

All Hallows

Last night was my first ever Halloween party and it was a blast! Web-Goddess and The Snook very kindly invited me to a Halloween bash at their house, along with a bunch of their friends that included other Sydney bloggers. Kris and Rodd went with a very cool Iron Chef theme for their costumes, Kris as the Hiroyuki 'The Delacroix of French Cuisine' Sakai and Rodd as Chairman Kaga (complete with yelow capsicum, for the biting of). Kris turned out to be just as nice and funny as I expected from reading her blog.

I had a really great time, ate some very cool 'creeptastic' food Kris had gone to all the trouble of making, discovered the US *cough*delicacy*cough* Marshmellow Peeps (err, a bit yuck), and enjoyed the music and conversation. Some of the other Interweb cool kids that were there included Gadgetgirl & Yank In Oz and Helen of Spycore (complete with Blythe dolls).

Good times. Thanks for invite Kris & Rodd!

Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Dry Bones...

As I mentioned yesterday, I scored an invite to EstogenFest 2005 Adrienne's baby shower and everyone was asked to make and bring a quilt square in 'warm blues' as a surprise for the mum to be. I hadn't ever done any quilting before (but of course, so wanted to), and it was fun. Getting all those parallelogram points to line up exactly tapped into that deep, dark, Martha-esque part of my psyche that has VIRGO stamped all over it.


My finished patch. 29th October, 2005.

I originally just bought the two mottled blues, and it looked kind of 'meh'. Then I found the fabric with the tiny orange bones on it (Halloweenish no?) and fell in love.


The collection starts to grow. October 29th, 2005.

It was a really fun project, and as you'd expect the end results varied wildly - in a good way. I think the final quilt will be wonderful, all that fun, care and time spent by friends to make something. (Miss 'World Peace & A Speedboat' and her mum made the really cute dog and elephant patches. Which I coveted secretly.)

It was a fun afternoon, presents for the baby were exchanged, opinions on how the quilt should be arranged were offered, there were cucumber sandwiches and Pimm's Cup. Good times.

Just When You Thought I Couldn't Get Any Gayer...

...I just got back from the fabric store, where I bought quilting fabric, because I'm the only guy going to a Baby Shower tomorrow afternoon and we are all asked to take along a quilt square to be assembled into a quilt for the mother-to-be.

I mean, really.

My Town Newtown

I frequently mention my 'hood of Newtown in my posts, and the pictures I post on this blog are often of things I've seen around the streets of this little enclave. Newtown is a cool blend of the down at heel and the high heeled. The second biggest gay community in Sydney, a big universtity crowd, old folks who have lived here forever and now lots of 'two income & one child' young families. Once off the main streets, Newtown is mostly a warren of narrow streets and back lanes with either two storey terrace houses or narrow fronted single storey 'workers' cottages' (like mine).

I just joined the Newtown photo pool on Flickr, so if you're interested in a more detailed and varied look at this little place I call 'home' why not check it out.

Does This Constitute A Blog Entry?

So far I have held off posting anything today, because, well, frankly there isn't much to post about. (Does posting about not having anything to post about create some sort of existentialist conundrum? Or just make me a 16 year old LiveJournal user?)

So, here is a brief recap of today with my subjective Interest Factor scores:

• Woke at 3am and couldn't get back to sleep. (C-)
  
• Read the internets and cruised for online porn until 6.30am (A+, remember this is my point of view)
  
• Walked to work, weather already hot at 7.30am (B)
  
• Spent a greater % of time over at Pipedreams making thinly veiled/not veiled at all penis and bum comment referrences, than actually working (A)
  
• Still haven't reconciled loan account, should have finished days ago (D-)
  
• Boring lunch, 2 minor (and not blog worthy) budget DVD purchases (C+)
  
• Most fave bloggers from the Northern Hemisphere now fast asleep, curse fate as blog commenting grinds to a halt (D)
  
• Desultory work attempts (F)
  
• Compose lame blog entry instead, consider hating myself then decide can't be bothered (C)

Metal Sculpture

Metal Sculpture
Originally uploaded by Other Andrew.

I took this picture of an anodised metal sculpture at World Square on my way into work yesterday. The metal is a purplish colour that changes through magenta and bronze depending on the light.

[This is also an experiment in picture posting from my Flickr page, as I was curious to see how it would turn out. Verdict: I'm not wild about the size of the picture or the black border, both things I can probably change - although, so help me, if I touch it I will break it. Clicking the pic takes you to the picture's Flickr page and a larger version, which is somewhat cool.]

5 Reasons To Be Cheerful

1. Another rockin' walk into work this morning. Sure it's hot and I was schwitzing like a pig when I got into work, but quality deodorant saves the day.
   
2. A lunchtime purchase of the DVD of Broadway: The American Musical. Show tunes!
   
3. New office, new flatscreen monitor, new printer & new scanner. My veins are thrumming with the technology that surrounds me.
   
4. Delicious strawberries.
   
5. Noticing that one of the über-macho workmen installing the glass doors on the front of our building was slyly checking out exactly the same business suited hotties I was. Gotcha!

If I Had To Describe My Outlook On Life...

Detail of mural outside the Humanist Society headquarters. Sydney, 25th October, 2005.

...well, this is would be a pretty good place to start.

Unexpected Results

At lunchtime today I was tooling around on my new playground Flickr. My Friend Flickr. I thought it might be fun to do some people searches and see if anybody I know (or whose blogs I read) had a Flickr page. I already knew that a couple of my favourite guys from the interweb were Flickr users, and I've already wasted valuable work time spent some 'free time' looking at their photos.

So, it has probably become apparent that I have a certain, shall we call it an 'unresolved internet crush' (for want of a better term). I don't know if you've ever tried it, but it's really hard to stalk long distance. So I tried a little people search on both his real name and his blogging name, with unexpected (and frankly quite scary) results.

Whoa. Michael, is there something you're not telling me?

Pep In My Step

Waking up a half hour earlier than usual + a comparatively good night of (drug free) sleep + bright and sunny morning, tending to hot = decision to walk to work.

I did the approximately one hour walk from my front door to work this morning and despite getting here with a bad dose of 'pink face', and some impressive sweat stains, it was very enjoyable. I sometimes walk home from work, but this morning I decided to reverse that and start the day with some exercise instead. I took a few snaps on the way, and tried a few new side streets to get away from trudging along main roads for a while. Nice.

Today is going to be quite warm so I slapped on some sunscreen before heading out. Note to self, like any Max Factor saleslady would encourage, go for full coverage. I now have a very fetching pink spot on my forehead where I missed with the suncreen. I burn like unwatched toast. Seriously, I just have to look out the window and I burn.

But I digress. Walking to work. Maybe I'll make this morning walking thing a regular routine like the other cool kids do. Is anyone else in the habit of morning walking?

Lost In Music

Last night was a big night for music down here in Oz. We had the Australian music awards The ARIAS. We had the Motown week on Australian Idol. Over on SBS we had the 50 Years of Eurovision special.

I only watched the second half of Idol, as I forgot that this week it was on earlier than usual. It was surprisingly good. This season has been a bit 'meh' for me, none of the contestants were really drawing my interest in that much. Those that were consistently giving good performances were (for the most part) doing material that wasn't that appealing to me, or had a style that I didn't dig, or were really not showing much growth. That seems to have changed though, because of the performances I saw, and from the recaps of the others, it looked like everyone upped it a few notches last night, and Daniel in particular seems to have come ahead in leaps and bounds.

The Arias were kind of excruciating, but I'd say that about most music award shows. Too much hooting and air punching for me. I was channel surfing between it, the Eurovision special and the very entertaining Casanova* mini-series on the ABC. (Stupid broken video recorder.) The Arias opened with a live performance of "Voodoo Child" by dance outfit Rogue Traders, a risky move given the disasterous live renditions by dance acts in previous years (*cough*Madison Avenue*cough*). All the awards that were based on single or album Cd sales showed just how dominant the Australian Idol marketing juggernaut is.

I only caught bits of the Eurovision special, what with the channel surfing and my poor SBS reception and all, but the bits I did see were either completely fabulous ('80s flashbacks and mangled English lyrics) or turned my brain to mush so that it started leaking out of my ears. I'm a fan of the Eurovision song contest, but this special was like someone upped the dial labelled 'cheese' and set the dial marked 'excitement' to off.

On balance, not a bad Sunday evening in though.

[*Having only seen David Tennant in photos before I was really surprised at how appealing, and well sexy, he was in this mini series. I'm a sucker for cheekiness I guess. I hope this bodes well for his role as the new Dr Who.]

A Bracing Start To The Week

This morning I woke up about 10 minutes before my alarm was due to go off, which is a pretty standard practice for me, but then I noticed a little while later that my alarm didn't ring. A glance at the clock showed - no power. I got up and tried the lights, because on a few occasions the surge protector on my home has tripped the fuse, but no go. A quick trip outside to the fusebox showed that all looked fine.

One of my favourite pastimes is doubting myself, so my next thought was whether I'd forgotton to pay the electricity bill. Nope, I would have received a reminder at least.

Just after I leapt about in the shower washing my hair in cold water and trying to do the quickest (yet most effective) wash possible, I heard the handsome bearish guy who lives behind my house and his neighbour discussing the fact that they had no power. OK then. I put a pot of water on the gas stove to heat, so I could have a shave (I normally use an electric) but 5 minutes later the power was back on. After I'd reset the thermostat on my instantaneous hot water heater, I was back in business.

All this prompted me to think, was there ever to come a time when electricity wasn't available, or some other apocolyptic scenario such as a sun spot enduced global power surge thingie fried all electric appliances, my grooming would be shot to hell.

Kiss Me Hardy

October 22nd, 2005.

Last night my friends John & Judy hosted a dinner to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar. It was a great evening, everyone had a lovely time and went to the effort to dress up and get into the spirit of the occasion.

(The flash on my camera is a little harsh, so none of pics turned out all that well. However, here is a little sampling to give you an idea of what the night was like even though the quality isn't great.)


The motley crew of the HMS Victory. 22nd October, 2005.

I learnt that 19th C food is for the most part very nice, and 19th C ideas of what passes for 'cocktails' are for the mostl part bad... and lethal. After dinner we played Trafalgar Trivia, which turned out to be very hard, but as extra points were given for creative and outlandish answers (my specialty) I at least won a couple of prizes. I now own one very cool pirate eyepatch.


A bunch of handsome sailors. 22nd October, 2005.


The 'Three Graces' (and One Munchkin). 22nd October, 2005.

That look on my face, yes that one in the pic above, that there is my special 'photo face'. It's the look of a man who hates having his photo taken. However, I know that I would get into all sorts of trouble if I left myself out of all the pictures, so there it is. *sigh*

As I said, it was a fun night, and I spent all afternoon helping Judy cook and prepare and then serve the dinner, so it was nice to see evryone enjoy themselves so much. Good times.

CostumeWatch 2005

Have you ever seen that movie, the one with Bette Midler I think, where the cops go to her apartment and think it has already been trashed by the thieves or murderers (or whatever), but she says "No, it's always like this"?... Well, that's kind of my situation right now. You see, I'm making a costume for the Trafalgar Dinner that I'm going to tomorrow night. A 19th C naval uniform. It's very pretty, but lots of work. 34 motherfunking brass buttons on the coat alone (and consequently the same number of a-hole buttonholes), and because I am a verchachte anal historical accurist I sewed the entire shirt by hand, and even did a minute hand rolled edge on the 'stock' of the shirt (the long bow tie thingie that men's 19th C shirts have - think Mr Darcy style), all like 13-14 feet of it...

Anyhoo, my point is you see (I do have one), I've been in The Zone. Now, when I'm in The Zone, well, bins go unemptied, the floor gets covered in snipped off threads and scraps of fabrics, and ::ouchfuckouch:: the occasional pin and needle make their way into the carpet, pizza boxes pile up (cooking just takes too much valuable time). However, I kind of like The Zone. The Zone allows for all sorts of bad behaviour. The Zone allows for unwashedness sometimes, for not answering the phone, for giving full reign to the obssessiveness that yes that button will have to come off and be done again because it's clearly 2mm out of line with its neighbours...

Is there a 12 step for this?

The Apostrophe Police Files

*sigh* The new sign for what has always been known as, until now, the Bowlers' Club. York St, Sydney. October 20, 2005.

For Bodhi, with love.

There May Yet Be Tears

I might just be pre-menstrual, or maybe it's because today would have been my Dad's birthday if he was still alive, or maybe it's because Monday was the 20th anniversary of my Mum's death, or maybe it's because I still have a rotten sinus infection and now an ear infection... but I find myself walking a bit of an emotional tightrope today. One false step and it's tears. I'm pretty emotionally self-sufficient and stable, so it's unusual for me to feel raw like this, you know without watching Oprah anyway. Anyhoo, it is what it is.

The negative stuff aside, I've done my usual surfing of the internets superwebway this morning (ok, actually a little more than usual - but faced with reconciling a share loan plan, what would you rather?) and it made me reflect on how grateful I am for the connections that this media allows. I mean, on one level it's like having a huge bunch of pen pals. The fact that I might never meet any of the people that I like to read, and share comments with, doesn't make the friendships that I've formed online any less real for me. It's very, very cool.

I think I'm about to hug my monitor now...

Comments

I just had to change the format of my comments page temporarily, because I seem to be having a problem with the comments pop up screen, for some as yet unknown reason. It's not my pc or server issue, because it seems to work fine when I visit other Blogger blogs, but maybe I broke something on my template when I added the Flickr stuff on my sidebar yesterday. Stupid HTML.

Anyhoo, comments appears to be working in the amended format pro tem so go at it kids. Without your comments, how am I supposed to know you care?

Images Of Buddha

I'm obsessively working my way through the 7,592 (at present) images tagged Buddha on Flickr. There's some gorgeous pictures, and I'm especially enjoying the images of monks making a sand mandala, and some pics of the giant Buddha and Monastery on Lantau Island in Hong Kong, which I visited a few years ago.

A Quick Ride On The MemeWagon

I cannot resist a)tagging along with the cool kids and b)being a late adopter, so here is my stab at the 7 Things Meme:

7 things I want to do before I die

1. Discover the secret to immortality and eternal youth
   
2. Climb all the towers of Gaudi's "Sagrada Familia"
   
3. Make out with Jake Gyllenhaal
   
4. Be the new Prada muse
   
5. Make someone really, really happy
   
6. Walk the streets of Venice
   
7. Solve world peace, hunger etc

7 things I can't do:

1. Wear my old 28" waist jeans
   
2. Do a smart and sassy turn, turn, kick, turn
   
3. Roll my tongue
   
4. Convincingly feign interest in team sports (unless they involve semi nakedness)
   
5. Eat popcorn
   
6. Sing in tune
   
7. Remember where I put my [insert object here]

7 things that attract me to the opposite same sex:

1. Pretty eyes, wicked mouth, dirty mind
   
2. Strong hands and great arms
   
3. Strength and vulnerability, Yin and Yang, Rodgers and Hart
   
4. A slammin' bod, slim hips and a great butt (what, you expected depth?)
   
5. Humour and kindness
   
6. An appropriate use of 'product'
   
7. An extensive vocabulary

7 things I say most often:

1. I'm as full as a fat lady's sock
   
2. Sh*t, f*ck - all the old school cuss words
   
3. Don't you think that should have an apostrophe?
   
4. Call the fashion police
   
5. That's ugly as a hat full of arseholes
   
6. He's cute
   
7. Something inappropriate

7 celebrity crushes:

1. Jake Gyllenhaal
   
2. Chris Evans
   
3. Jeremy Sheffield
   
4. Brodie Holland
   
5. Michael (c'mon dude, you're a celebrity!)
   
6. Adam Hills
   
7. Sister Wendy Beckett

Anyone care to play?

Time To Get Fat, Stat!

Last night I was watching The Biggest Loser on tv, when they dropped the bombshell of all bombshells. The show is coming to do a local version in Australia. As if that weren't exciting enough, the two trainers from the original US show will be here to scream, cajole and get all intense on the contestants' asses.

So I need to put on like hundreds of pounds fast. I need to get up close and sweaty with trainer Bob, the sexy Nashville accented, lean and lanky, tattoo'd streak of hotness that he is. I need Bob to take me in hand, show me some discipline and make me work for it. After weeks of wimpering and whining, of hollering and hooting, and enduring the embarassment of shirtless weigh-ins on a scale big enough for an elephant (and yet oddly slow to calculate my weight after swinging up and down until after the commercial break) I will then reward him with an ugly duckling to swan like transformation. Bob will love me.

I'm off to programme my speed dial for Domino's.

On The Nighstand

Just to show that I have loftier interests than internet porn or watching The Biggest Loser, here's a quick rundown of my current reading list:

1. Re-reading Wicked by Gregory Maguire. I love this novel. I have a 'thing' for The Wizard of Oz and I love this imaginative re-telling of the events surrounding The Wizard of Oz, but told from the Wicked Witch of the West's point of view.
   
2. All queued up and ready to go just this past weekend I received a copy of the sequel to Wicked, Son Of A Witch, as a belated birthday present. As soon as I finish Wicked I'll be diving right in.
   
3. I've just started the biography "Tibet: My Story" by the sister of His Holiness the Dalai Lama Jetsun Pema. Amazing stuff.
   
4. I saw the movie 'Serenity' again yesterday, and because I am nothing if not a fanboy, when I was in Galaxy Books and happened to spot the Serenity novelisation and just had to buy it. Looks like it'll be beach reading, but any Firefly stizz can't be half bad.

What's on your nightstand?

The Ubiquitous Monday Recap

I was really struggling with motivation and a rotten sinus infection last week, so at short notice I asked for Friday and today off as a couple of days of holiday leave. My friend Stephen is in town for a few days from Brisbane (where he moved recently) and so taking today off also gives me some time to hang out with him some more.

I was kind of flat and uninterested at work for much of last week, and when I asked for two days leave it must have sent them some sort of message because on Friday I answered the door to find a delivery guy standing there with a great big fruit basket. (Nice basket, I thought.) My employers sent it with a card saying 'Look after yourself'. Which was very sweet, but kind of weirded me out a bit because it made me wonder what sort of impression I had made on them last week. Do you know what I mean? I wasn't sick sick, just feeling physically flat and tired in the way that sinus infections can make you feel. It was a lovely gesture but just seemed a bit out of proportion. Anyway, I'm grateful... and does anyone want a mango?

I hung around the house and didn't do much on Friday, then went over to Bodhi's crib in the evening to watch some DVDs. On Saturday I did some volunteer work at my Buddhist centre, caught up with my friend Stephen in the afternoon and then went to see The Producers in the evening. Yesterday I had another fairly chilled out day, went into the Buddhist centre again to unpack more books and then worked a bit on my costume for the Trafalgar Dinner next weekend. In the afternoon I went and helped my friend Judy plan the shopping list and order of prep for all the food for the Trafalgar Dinner (all 19th c recipes), and we worked on some of the decorations. Today I'm off to catch up with Stephen again before he heads back to Brisbane tomorrow.

So it has been a nice few days, a blend of restful and social. Oh, and some nice fruit.

"The Producers", The 'Best' Show On Broadway?

I went to see the Mel Brooks musical The Producers on Saturday night, with a big bunch of people that was organised through a friend of Mikey's (the lovely ex). It's playing at the Lyric Theatre at the Star City casino complex. I had never actually set foot inside the casino before, and yech it's horrible. I don't have a gambling bone in my body (must be the Scots in me) and felt no compulsion to have a try, and I found the atmosphere really strange. Aside from that the decor was hectic and ugly, with a walk through grotto here, a 70's style bar there, giant fishtanks over there, neon everywhere... it was like it had been designed by a committee (of people with ADD).

It was quite a pleasant evening, we started off at the Astral Bar on the 17th floor of the hotel. The views are absolutely spectacular, and I recommend it as absolutely the best place in Sydney to enjoy an $8 mineral water. One of the guys ordered 3 cocktails and got very little change from $100. Having said that, we did have a pleasant drink and I met some very nice new people.

Anyway, the show. It has been running in Sydney since May this year, so has had quite a long and still very successful run. It was almost an entirely full house the night we went. Surprisingly though, I thought the show was a bit crap. Some of the audience were almost rolling in the aisles with laughter, while we all looked at each as if someone had just told a joke we didn't get.

The musical numbers were fine, and a few of them like 'Little Old Ladyland' and 'Springtime For Hitler' are excellent, but most of the linking story pieces were, well, cheesy and flat. I'm a fan of Mel Brooks, so I know and love his usual 'cheese factor,' but I was surprised how lacking in cleverness I found this show. So much of it relied on lame 'tit and bum' jokes that fell flat and seemed a tad desperate for laughs in this context. Maybe it was the direction, because everything was played super broadly, but I think it was also a big mistake to have one of the characters break character and talk to the audience about current events in the middle of the show.

Anyway, it was pleasant enough, but I could think of more fun ways to blow the $100 it cost me for the ticket, and for me it fell well short of the "Best Show On Broadway" advertising tagline. General consensus after the show was that it was quite a disappointment.

The Days And Years Of Being Yourself

I just had a very amusing phone call from my friend Bodhi. Bodhi likes to celebrate milestones, and today is 1,000 days since he came out of the closet. The phone call was to tell me that he had SMS'd our friend Rabbit to remind him of the milestone, and Rabbit had SMS'd back "How long before they put you back in?".

It got me to thinking about how long it is since I came out. I don't have a clear date like Bodhi does. I told my school friends first, when I was 15. About 4 years after that my sisters found out, just before I was going to tell them, because I ran into one of them in a gay bar. (She isn't gay, she was there with friends.) By that time I was shacked up with a boyfriend, who emigrated to Australia so we could be together. I don't think it was a surprise to anyone.

I can hardly remember a time when nobody knew I was gay. I can't even imagine my friends, family and workmates not knowing anymore. So I guess I came out 26 years ago, or somewhere around 9,500 days ago. 9,500 days of being myself.

Spicks & Specks

This will be a bit boring for anyone who doesn't live in Australia, so apologies in advance, but I just have to share my obsession with the Aussie ABC tv show Spicks and Specks.

I will stay home on Wednesday nights so that I don't miss it, and I haven't done that for a tv show in ages. I don't think I have caught an episode yet that has been less than hysterical. The talent co-ordinators on this show do a great job, by blending comedians and musicians they pretty much always ensure that at least 2 out of three people on each panel are funny and the depth of the music knowledge from everyone can be really surprising. What can be a nice surprise is that sometimes the musicians are as funny as the comedians.

I love the anarchic nature of the segments, and the loose and funny feeling of the show. This Wikipedia entry has a pretty good summary of the show and some of my favourite segments. Who knew that it would be so hard to tell the difference between an unflattering picture of a musican, and a flattering picture of a serial killer?

Oh, and the fact that host Adam Hills just oozes congeniality, while being so very funny, is such a plus for me. What with this and his 'regular guy' cuteness, he had me at "Hello, I'm Adam Hills".

Feel My Pain

I'm labouring under a killer headache and really bad sinus pain today, feeling weary and flat and a just a wee bit mean as shit around the edges. I'm at work, but planning my escape (unfortunately no sheets to knot together, and a couple of skanky tea towels from the kitchen just won't reach down 11 floors).

If my mood and headache improve I might post later today, otherwise play nicely and don't break anything.

Tiny Tales

I'm in love with the work of photographer Lori Nix. She creates, and then photographs, painstaking miniature dioramas that are usually drenched with a strange sense of foreboding. Abandoned cars in the desert, lightning stiking a tent full of Christian fundamentalists, a giant wave crashes over two tiny life jackets bobbing in the ocean... They remaind me of the dollhouse dioramas of murder cases that were used as teaching tools for forensic science students.

There is something about the construction of these that appeals to the craft nerd in me. When I was a child my grandfather had a huge model railway that took up an entire shed in the back yard. My grandmother and I were in charge of doing all the scenery, as my grandfather was only really interested in the trains themselves. His model trains were all steam trains, not modern locomotives, so we created tiny villages that were stuck somewhere around the 1950's or 60's. I remember lots of fun Saturday afternoons with my grandmother creating tiny corner shops, tree lined streets and flower filled village railway stations. Good times.

Oh, and not a single abandoned car or looming tidal wave in sight.

5 Interesting Things I Did This Weekend

1. Kissed a man in the supermarket. Twice*.
   
2. Popped Bodhi's reality tv cherry by making him watch last night's Australian Idol 'Big Band' episode
   
3. Got my costume for the Trafalgar Dinner about one third finished
   
4. Discovered I have blog readers in South Africa, France, Germany and Mexico
   
5. Went blonde (ish).

* Same man! What, you think I'm easy?

You Tarzan, Me Dumbstruck

When I posted the other day about Collingwood Australian Rules footballer Brodie on "Dancing With The Stars", Michael quite rightly suggested that photographic proof was required. I'm all about sharing.


Brodie descends on a vine. Who knew tiger print lycra could look so good?


Does this picture really require a caption? I thought not.

Oh, you're welcome.

[Big thanks to the lovely Yaniboy for the heads up to the source of these pics.]

The 41 Year Old Adolescent

I'm just back from a trip out to the outer western suburbs of Sydney, almost to edge of the map (where the dragons are). My boss and I went out to give a presentation to a new client who owns a string of fashion stores around Australia. The presentation itself went well and we drove back in quite a relaxed mood.

On the way back to the city my boss and I were chatting about life in general, and it tipped over into a weirdly parental conversation. Keep in mind that my boss is only about 5 years my senior, but her life involves kids, her own business and probably at least one mortgage. At one point she said "Maybe it's time to grow up", not in a nasty way, but in the context of taking on responsibilities.

It sort of got me to thinking about how other people might view my lifestyle. I'm single, don't own a house or car, have only small debts, no pets or kids... I certainly do feel like I'm a grown up, but I guess in many ways I have engineered my life so I can live in permanent adolescence. That is, if you take these sorts of responsibilities as signs of adulthood.

I'm interested in simplifying my life, not getting too attached to things, and in giving myself some mental 'room to move'. I think it's interesting that once a journalist asked one of the most senior Lamas of my Buddhist order for one piece of advice that would be of use to readers. I think he was expecting something profound and mystical. The Lama's answer was "Simplify your life."

It sounds easy and simple, but when it is so easy to get caught up in doing more, having more, keeping up, filling up time with distractions... it actually takes quite a bit of effort and resolve. At least, that's my take on it.

I think the Lama was skillful in that his statement was the simplest way of saying a whole lot of things. That we should put our concentration into what is really important. To stop getting so caught up in ego, in acquiring things, in fearing that we will lose what we have, or not get what we want (or get what we don't want), or thinking that things are permanent, and that we are permanent.

Anyway, I'm not advocating throwing everything away but I do think that being too attached mentally to all this stuff just brings stress and anxiety. I think it's interesting to consider the mental freedom that comes from having simplified your life.

The Eternal Question: "What To Wear?"

Put your thinking caps on. I have two costume parties to go to, only a week apart. (Ideally I would be able to wear the same costume to both, but unfortunately that isn't going to be possible.) I know what I'll be wearing to the first party, but I'm a bit short on ideas for the second one.

Sewing is no problem for me. I have done a lot of costuming over the years, including having done some freelance costuming for drag queens no less, and am a trained milliner, so I know my way around the Janome. Time is going to be a huge factor though, because the first party is on the 21st of October and the second party is for Halloween a week later.

The first party I'm going to is a Trafalgar dinner, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar. Some friends of mine are mad keen naval history fans and big fans of Bernard Cornwell's "Sharpe" series, and so decided to celebrate the event with a dinner. Everyone will be in costume and the food and drink are all going to authentic early 19th C recipes.

I've already started a costume for this, and it's a huge amount of work. I'm making an early 19th C naval Lieutenant's uniform; white shirt with jabot, white waistcoat, navy coloured tailcoat with white piping and cream breeches. Well, I have started it I should say... I have half a shirt so far!

What I'm a bit stumped on is the Halloween costume. I've scored an invite to a certain well known Sydney blogger's Halloween party, my first ever Halloween Party. What does one wear to a party where a) you haven't ever actually 'met' anybody, including the hosts (so it's hard to know what to expect) and b) the 'hip and funny' standard is bound to be high.

Ideas, people!

Blogger Issues

Sorry if you have had problems connecting to this site today, I noticed a little while back that all Blogger hosted blogs seemed to be down for a while. I'm investigating moving this blog to my own domain, but in the meantime thanks for your patience. As much as I heart Blogger (it's pretty cool for a free service, let's face it) it does seem to have had more downtime than usual just of late.

Maybe There's Something To This Tarot Thing?

I am The Lovers The Lovers often refers to a relationship that is based on deep love - the strongest force of all. The relationship may not be sexual, although it often is or could be. More generally, the Lovers can represent the attractive force that draws any two entities together in a relationship - whether people, ideas, events, movements or groups. For a full description of your card and other goodies, please visit LearnTarot.com

Alright! I got your attractive force right here baby! Oh and you better believe it's sexual...

[Updated: Oops, I accidentally trimmed off the link to the What Tarot Are You? site by mistake.]

Telephone Conversation During Last Night's Episode Of "Dancing With The Stars: Series 3"

Collingwood Aussie Rules footballer (and hottie) Brodie Holland & his partner Alana take to the stage to dance the Salsa. Brodie descends on a rope vine, wearing nothing but a pair of skin-tight leopard print lycra pants. His torso is quite spectacular.

my phone rings

Me: "Hello?"
Mikey, the lovely ex: "Are you watching Dancing With The Stars?"
Me: "Holy CRAP!"
Mikey, the lovely ex: [laughs] "Exactly!"

What Is The Sound Of One Blogger Blogging?

I spent some time over this weekend futzing with my blog; deleting dud sidebar links (R.I.P. AussieBlogs), adding some new ones, adding some links to my favourite picture posts etc. Tarting and fluffing, basically.

I also happened across a pretty cool set of blogging tips and links called 31 Days To Better Blogging, on a site called ProBlogger. It was an exercise whereby for the 31 days of August 2005 they posted links to tips about blogging written by a variety of bloggers. ProBlogger is primarily aimed at helping people who are interested in blogging as an income earner, something that I'm not into myself, but the majority of the tips are good general blogging tips useful for amatuers (like me) and professionals alike.

Afterwards I did some blog surfing at Globe of Blogs and enjoyed discovering some blogs from far away places. Quite a few of the blogs seemed to have been started and then abandoned after less than 6 months of blogging, something which seemed surprisingly common.

All this got me to thinking about blogging; why people do it, why I do it, why some people seem to be so good at it (and why others, well, frankly aren't), and why some people take a stab at it and then disappear without warning.

The easy questions to answer are the ones about myself. I started blogging pretty much on a whim, and after spending a while haunting the comments of some favourite reads like Freakgirl and Lots of Co. Years before that I used to read some classic 'journal' websites, most of which are now long gone, and I became fascinated by the glimpse into these people's daily lives. Long story short, I thought Why not? Maybe it's fun?

Well, it is. I can see why some people start and then pack it in though. I nearly did about 5 months or so in, when it seemed like I was talking to myself only for a while there. I added a hit counter and discovered that surprisingly I was getting some hits after all. One or two people left me a comment, and then once this became a little bit more interactive my enthusiasm really took off. I think comments are probably one of the reasons that blogs have taken off so much in the past year. It becomes less of an excercise in onanism and more about communication. It's a double edged sword though. I've written some entries that I think are great and they garner no comments at all, and then some entries I think are pretty ordinary and the comments go up to double digits. You just can't estimate what will appeal to readers, and I'm glad I don't try. I would hate to get that self-conscious.

Once picture posting became easier my enthusiasm for this took off even further. I really enjoy picture posts on other people's blogs, it's fun to see these little slices of their world, and I love putting my own pics up.

I have gotten so much more from this blog than I ever anticipated. I've made some very cool new friends, both cyber and now 'real world' (so to speak). Through the medium of the comments I feel a connection with people from all over the world. You guys make me laugh, sometimes make me sad, and frequently make my day. I have a fun outlet for self expression, and something that sometimes brings a bit of mindfulness to my day, a bit of reflection. This has also made me take a stab at improving my photos, and given me an outlet to share the ones I like.

So thank you all, for stopping by and for dropping me a comment every now and then. Those of you who have your own blogs, what is it that keeps you coming back to the keyboard?

The Fabulous Foster Boys

Last night I watched about a half hour of a pretty lame comedy on tv, and I'm watching it thinking to myself you know, that young guy starring oposite Kirsten Dunst really is quite charming, quite cute actually. Then of course the shamestorm descended because he was like 21, and I'm like 41, and technically I could be old enough to be his father, and that officially makes me a Chicken Hawk in the eyes of all thinking individuals, and it is waaaay heading into creepy territory, and... but I digress.

(Just a thought, maybe I'm developing a thing for guys who's eyes are set a bit close together?)

Anyhoo, said cutie is called Ben Foster, as I discovered after consulting the twin oracles of Google and IMDb. He was the suspiciously gay friend/boyfriend of Claire on Six Feet Under for a while, remember? (Thankfully he's cut his ratty collar length hair that he was sporting on Six Feet Under.) He's about 4 or 5 years older now than he was in the film and my, my hasn't he aged well. Oh, and he has an equally handsome brother.


The Foster boys, Ben (L) & Jon (R).

I should say younger brother. Bring on the shamestorm!

The Kransky Sisters

Amongst the sentences I thought I would never say (or type) is "I'm in love with three sisters." I heart the comedic cabaret act the Kransky Sisters.

I think Helen Razer captured some of their appeal well, when she wrote:

The Kransky Sisters have emerged from an Oedipal nightmare to change the songs of Michael Jackson forever. Looking like pill-addled bank tellers circa 1981 and sounding like a sherry-addled Country Women's Association musical auxiliary, the Kransky Sisters cannot be adequately described in text.

If they were a smell, it would be naphthalene flakes and sausage mince. If they were a flavour, it would be lard, tea-cakes and fear.

Alleged natives of unremarkable Queensland burg, Esk, these girls offer a seamless performance and an entirely new spin on drag. Their views on femininity, pop culture and the nuances of gravy are extraordinary and bust-a-gut, shed-a-tear, sputteringly funny.

The Kranskys' world of doilies, repression and vintage Butterrick patterns gone horribly wrong must be seen to be appreciated. This twisted representation of suburban Australian femininity is up there with Dame Edna - they are that good. Don't even think about missing this show.

I would add that the Kransky's also layer in a whiff of old school Eastern European repression, as if they were first generation immigrant children of slightly mad and fearfull parents from Warsaw, or the Russian Steppes.

On last night's episode of In Siberia Tonight they did a cover version of "Intuition" by Jewel, full of tuba highlights, that gave more than a nod in the direction of a Volga folk song, that had me squealing and rolling on the ground with delight. If they bring their comic cabaret show "We Don't Have Husbands" to Sydney again (because I missed it last time) I'm so there.

It's A Miracle!

I'm taking this as a sign that the Baby Jeebus wants me to shop. Sydney, 2005.

Port Wine Magnolia

When the lovely Martin and Lisa where in town a couple of weekends ago, my friend Bodhi and I showed them around Sydney and ended up at one of my favourite places, the Chinese Gardens of Friendship.


Magnolia blossoms, Chinese Garden of Friendship. Sydney, September, 2005.

These blossoms really caught my eye, and I just had to take a picture of them. No really I had to, Bodhi insisted. I'm glad he did, the colour and the light are lovely.

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.