B-Vegas Love

I had a lovely weekend just been as I went to Bathurst for the Touring Cars. Cross, Spik and I stayed in Cowra after playing golf in Leura, then we drove 10000000 kay to Cowra to stay for the night.

All I can say is 'cracker' - what a tops weekend.

Here is the best photo I took too. The 'fones have the best livery on their cars, so the colour jump out:


Woop

Books and Covers n shit

We all say, 'you should never judge a book by its cover' but do we really believe it? Well I don't think so, because I'm so shockingly judgemental and tend to judge people on their appearance. I raise this point mainly because of what happened on Tuesday morning whilst I was on the train. As I was walking to the train at Central an elderly lady was pulling a bag to the same train. I thought that she may have wanted to get on the train, so was about to offer to help her with her bags, but then I thought that she may have been waiting for someone as she began looking around a bit on the platform. I got on the train and sat downstairs and started reading.

I felt bad shortly after as I heard one of the City rail team help her on to the train, and indicated that they would let the guards know to give her a hand when she got off. I felt pretty terrible, I should have helped, but I thought that maybe she didn't need help, or that she was waiting for someone, but I still should have asked.

I didn't feel sorry for that long though. Before the train left Central she phoned someone to say that she was on the train. She also said, 'I found a mobile phone this morning outside the gate at home. It's a Nokia and it works, so I took the battery out so they couldn't call it. I've got it with me.' I was shocked! Whilst not stealing, it was a pretty low act - some people just don't have any thought for others, it was shocking.

So can you judge a book by it's cover? Well no, it's impossible, and in a lot of instances it could be something so completely different it's worth telling a story about.

I have my graduation today, which is nice mainly because I don’t have to go to work. This has meant that I also get to do something that I quite like – sleep in. Well it’s been a sleep in for me, it’s 7.45 and I’m awake, but it’s lovely – I’m lying in bed listening to the Smiths. How could it be any better?

I thought I would just write a quick post to say how good it is to sleep in, but how much better music makes it. Oh now Maria is on by the Soft Tigers, so so good!

So, I'm crazy...

Everyone has a little quirk, don't you think? Some people like Garden Knomes, some people like stuffed animals, some people have to turn off the toaster before it's done (well I'm not sure if people actually like these things, I'm just making some willy-nilly suggestions).

I, for one, have a number of quirks, but today I wanted to highlight just one. It's the order that programs sit on my toolbar on my computer. What ever could you mean, I hear you ask? That sounds quite odd, I hear you chortle. Well, it's as simple as this. I normally open my mail first, so I am use to having it sit on the extreme left of the bar. So? Well I really don't like it when other things take its place. On my computer now, OC opens up as I log on and takes its place, and I for one find it difficult to deal with. It's the same if mail crashes half way through the day and you have a number of things open. I generally close everything so that it takes it rightful place. Just to illustrate my point I thought I would show you how out of place it looks; crazy hey:



If I had to put a hash tag to this post, it would be #lamewhitefirstworldproblemsofacrazy

Crazy indeed.

SUPER post

I meant to write yesterday; I was hell bent on doing it, I'd even thought about blog posts to write the day before that would be ready to roll out at the drop of a hat, but because of some other fun things I didn't get to. So I thought that day two (ACTUALLY three) of the return to the blog would be filled with a 'super' post of three separate entries. Amazing, I know.

KNOWING ME, KNOWING YOU
So yesterday I went to a breakfast to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Sydney Olympics. It was quite the corporate affair, held in the Wentworth in town with all the big wigs. Perhaps the biggest Whig was Alan, Alan Jones. He was MC and let me tell you, his reputation is as accurate as one could imagine. He is like a school master, talking to everyone in the room as if they're his dearest, closest personal friend. It was quite funny; he ordered Ian Thorpe and 'Katherine' Freeman about, had some personal jokes with Frank Lowie and Coatesy, lobbied the Federal Government for more money, it was all very good fun.
I, for one, prefer Alan Partridge.

With all that being said though, it was good fun.

MUPPET
So Jonathan Thurston (aka Mr Muppet) was arrested last night for being a public nuisance in Brisbane. Really, is there a more horrible person on the planet (rhetorical! I'm sure there are some frightful people)? He is a waste of space, I really can't stand him. It reignites my contempt for professional footballers and the amount of time they have on their hands - it's hugely problematic and will continue to be an issue. I was going to suggest that he go to France to play Rugby, but I wouldn't wish that on France or Rugby; I hope he goes to the UK to play League.

PHOTO
As I said last time I tried to write more here, it's a good spot for photos, so here is a photo from the Muscle Car Masters



Alright then, lovely. See, I can get this back on track!

Back on the Horse...

Given that Asako has started her blog (and I know that Charlotte is keen to get one rocking as well), I thought it might be time to get back to mine. For slander, mainly. That and I thought recently about writing a book, but realised quick smart that I actually don't write that well (if I ever did, it has diminished sensationally recently), so I need to practice. That and I like the sound of my own text.

So here we are, back on the horse

Photo from http://www.ci.dayton.or.us/index.asp?Type=GALLERY&SEC=%7B34D67609-3E41-477F-956D-A884072C7CFF%7D

Playing along

I love music. Lots of people do. I’ve always thought that music can take you back to a place or time when you hear it, it’s a great way of keeping track of things.

I’ve been playing guitar since I was 10, and whilst I’m still not very good, I was just thinking back to all the players that have influenced me. I then realised that they signified periods of my appreciation, so I thought I would backtrack and see who fitted where.

Eric Clapton
I remember listening to the Unplugged album and being amazed at Clapton – I then listened to Cream and Derrick and the Dominos and thought he was pretty good. Well, he was:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLXD2A9uXPg

Jimmy Hendrix
Jimmy was your typical teen rebellion music. He was pretty tops though, he gave you plenty of street cred:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQH8X4jkSxo

Wes Montgomery
I loved Wes because he played with his thumb, and the sounds was so full. Great player, I went through a Jazz phase, he was one of the best:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbXrdm63OAA

BB King
I then started listening to Blues, almost concurrently, and BB was again one of the best:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4GfRQSE-Ak&feature=related

Jerry Reed
So then I went to Bluegrass and Country. I think this is almost my favourite, Jerry was such a character and such an amazing player. He gets two because I love his stuff so much:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOGiW-y-Vhs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtmb-m4eG6w

Big Bill Broonzy
As I said, loved Clapton, but soon realised that he was just playing covers, and that the real thing was so much better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm1qtX7Mz5w

Tommy Emmanuel
Well I payed out Clapton playing covers, but he wasn’t as good as Tommy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwK4prPJz4o

So there you go. Lame. I am lame. Word.

Happy New Year

And all of that

Sydney 500

Here is the best photo I took at the car races over the weekend. Word

Crop

Same photo, two different crops. Which is better?


Or this one?

Thug

I just found this old photo from Rugby. I look tougher than I do now, but really, I've never been tough

Flash Art

I think this is probably the best photo I've ever taken.

Bloody bloody

I’ve heard a lot about Olympic Funding this week so I’m going to buy in and rant. John Coates this week argued against withdrawing funding for Olympic sports, indeed he pushed for more. Lots of people have argued that Olympic success is necessary for creating national pride, in turn motivating Australian’s to get out there and get involved in sport. Apparently funding for the Olympics trickles all the way down to the grassroots and supports kids on the way up. Blah blah blah.

I think it is shocking that we give so much money to the Olympics program. Not because it’s only every four years, or even because we’re funding numerous obscure sports, it’s because we have a nation of fat kids who aren’t healthy. We need to make kids healthy, so why not make them all play sport. I don’t care if you don’t like it now, every kid should play sport so that they have an active upbringing. I’m not talking just about rugby or cricket, sport is anything from running, to dancing, to lawn bowls – kids need to be outdoors and active, or indoors and active. They need to be active. There is no correlation between Olympic success and increasing participation in sport in the community. I would think though that there is some correlation between a lack of funding in regional and rural areas for sport and lowering participation rates. The answer is simple, fund the grass roots.

So there. Not a really coherent rant, but right. LIKE HEAPS

Tuck tuck tucking

How do you tuck your shirt in? Mine always looks daft, it tends to creep around? I’ve had this problem for as long as I’ve been tucking my shirt in, which has probably been since birth given my Father’s insistence that my sister and I look respectable when out. I’ve tucked in lots of shirts, from primary school through high school uniforms, to t-shirts into jeans (what a STATEMENT), yet all have the same issue – they seem to draw a bit around the side and never quite stay.

Whilst this post is an attempt to SEARCH for answers, I have done some scholarly research – I’ve googled ‘how to tuck in your shirt’. I’ve since learned that I’m not the only one with this problem – the quest for the ‘perfect tuck’ is shared by many, and documented on youtube clips and on websites. I found the website ‘How to do things’ to be particularly useful with its advice to:
- Pick the right shirt
- Make folds on the side of your shirt
- Zip and button up your pants
- Raise your arms
http://www.howtodothings.com/fashion-personal-care/how-to-tuck-your-shirt-into-your-pants

Well, what do you think? I’ve been conscious of the shirt and buttoning up my pants, but the folds and the arms could do the trick! Perfect tucking may only be a simple fold away!

Cab Home. Art

Backwards and forwards

25 revisited

I love looking at people’s top 25 most played songs on iTunes – it’s a great insight into someone’s tastes, above and beyond what their currently listening to. I’ve done this before, but I’ve done it again so please, judge me on mine:

1. Be the one (Jack Penate)
2. Song for Aberdeen (Mando Diao)
3. The Band (Mando Diao)
4. Getting Wise (Yves Klein Blue)
5. Heartbreaker (Metronomy)
6. She’s the Girl That Makes Me Not Want to Be Alone (Red Riders)
7. Courtesy Laughs (Phoenix)
8. Summer Wino (Dan Kelly)
9. All day and all of the night (The Kinks)
10. No You Girls (Franz Ferdinand)
11. The Reeling (Passion Pit)
12. Cato is a Yawn (of Montreal)
13. C-C (You Set the Fire in Me) (Tom Vek)
14. A Thing for Me (Metronomy)
15. Gronlondic Edit (of Montreal)
16. Lonesome Road (Black Sorrows)
17. Sleepytime in the Western World (Blitzen Trapper)
18. Paper Bag (Fiona Apple)
19. If you wanna be happy for the rest of your life (Jimmy Soul)
20. Safronia B (Calvin Boze)
21. Witches Rave (Jeff Buckley)
22. A Thing for Me (Breakbot Remix) (Metronomy)
23. You’ve Got a Lot of Nerve (Red Riders)
24. Buttons (Sia)
25. Sad Girl (Supergrass)

And the song that just missed out:
Roll Over Beethoven (Chuck Berry) & Spooky (Dusty Springfied) – equal!

I’ve had this machine since May. I did this for my last two computers, and a number of similarities are interesting to note:
- I had two artists that had two songs in the list off my old lap top. Of Montreal is still here, but with two different songs from last time. What is interesting thought is that the two here are different from the last two. The other band, Van She, didn’t make the cut at all. Here, Mando Diao, of Montreal & the Red Riders are all represented twice, but Metronomy is here THREE TIMES, with the same song TWICE (a remix & the original). On my old, old machine at home, the Beatles and Supergrass where there twice, and again the Supergrass song is different.
- The Oldest Song on there is Safronia B, which was recorded in 1950. It was also the song added most recently to my machine.
- The song that I’m most surprised is on the list would have to be probably Sleepytime.

Word

Art? Pt 2

What do you think? Art?

What do you think?

I’ve been thinking a bit about the Dennis Ferguson case of late. I believe that paedophilia is a most horrific crime, and is often due to mental illness of which there is difficult (if any) rehabilitation. There are a wide variety of issues associated with placing Ferguson in Ryde, and in hindsight he would not have been giving housing there. But what I want to say is this – Ferguson was sentenced to 14 years for his crime, which he served. I believe that more needs to be done to protect children from convicted sex offenders, but he served the associated punishment for his crime. Whilst this is an issue in and of itself, what I've really been thinking about is what this story suggests about our society.

Society is only as strong as its weakest member. I believe Australia (or even wider contemporary society) is weak - we don’t take responsibility for anything. We should make sure that people are managed, that there is not a constant shifting of blame or responsibility in our society.

Horrific issues, but there are no winners, just losers.

Sing, sing a song

B Shore and the Mods had our first full Jam last night. It was well tops, we’ll soon be ready to take over the world, one dark dingy rehearsal room at a time.

Can't help loving that shop of mine...

I’ve probably moaned about class before, but one little issue is that I can’t shop at my preferred grocery shop, Woolies at Leichardt, because it closes too early on Sunday for me shop after class. As such I have to go to Coles at Broadway. This is disappointing for a number of reasons:
1. It’s far too busy. You can’t move in the place, it is all go. I don’t like it when there are 23752 people in the place, it’s too hard to move up and down the aisles.

2. It doesn’t stock some of my favourite things. Simple things, like Deb & my deodorant. This is INCREDIBLY disappointing.

3. No self checkout. Self checkout is the single best thing about grocery shopping ever. It is amazing, but I can’t revel in its awesomeness at Coles because THEY DON’T HAVE IT. I miss it.

So there you go. Simple man, simple shopping pleasures TORN away by Sunday class.