AFL is a stupid game because it has no shape of playground, and the whole game rests on free kicks. There’s really not much else going on, because everyone aims to get free kicks.
Still, the guys are much more beguiling to watch in AFL than in NRL. It’s like the difference between an antelope and a rhinoceros, where the antelope is an AFL and the rhino is an NRL.
Tim and I went to Wellington for the Easter long weekend (also my birthday). I’d never been to Wellington before, but being that it is in NZ, odds were good it was going to be beautiful.
Wellington is green, windy, hilly and lovely. We stayed in the Intercontinental Hotel, which advertises itself as ‘the only internationally 5-star rated hotel in Wellington’, which I found sort of amusing, but I’m not even sure why.
We were pretty close to a lot of things. The harbour was only a couple of streets away, as was the Cable Car, and Te Papa was just down the road as well.
The construction of Wellington is something I can’t even fathom. Houses cling to the sides of the incredibly steep hills that surround the harbour; in the city centre, buildings tower over others simply because of the dramatic incline the further you get from the water.
Also, I got to try feijoa for the first time in my life. Like chinchillas, I was not even aware this thing existed. They’ve got a strange, medicine-y flavour that’s not at all unpleasant. And the other day, I found that Delicurious has feijoa lemonade, and it was good. I tried to find a reasonable-sized picture of the lemonade, but apparently, Charlie and his Honest Thirst Quenchers don’t like cooperating with me or my blog.
And so we’re now at the point where I humour those who are inclined to say, “Pics or it didn’t happen!” Though why they’d say that to me is anyone’s guess. It’s not like I’ve made outlandish claims of my crazy adventures.
Here’s my own picture of the cable car (this is a stock standard tourist photo, apparently)
Aaaand here it what you’d be seeing if you were in that cable car
Here’s a zoomy looky device with a face
And here’s a more disturbing face, in a playground.
The puppets in NZ have attitude (from the ‘kid’s store’ in the Te Papa Museum)
I think this lion statue looks really awkward and uncomfortable
Well, I’m sold!
When I haven’t written for a while, I have to make a lot of revisions to a piece of writing before I am happy with the flow and content.
I’m discovering that more and more, as I used to blog much more prolifically than I do now, and I think not writing may be affecting not only my ongoing ability to write at all, but also the way I process information and my understanding of my own feelings.
That is, I’m far more capable of coping with things when I’ve written about them. I understand things better when I’ve put my thoughts into words.
I like writing, and the longer I leave between posts, the harder it is to start up again. Anyway.
I’ve recorded the tv miniseries version of ‘Pillars of the Earth’ by Ken Follett. I’ve held off watching it so far, because I’ve found when Tim and I start watching a series without having the whole thing to watch at our leisure, it’s too irritating. The Pillars of the Earth thing is being shown over four nights, but I don’t think I would be watching the whole four eps at once.
Tim and I have been watching ‘Game of Thrones’, which is by an author Tim calls Fat Man Martin. The tv series is pretty good. I haven’t read the books, but Tim gives me a running commentary, and that makes the show better because I get a lot of subtext and knowledge of what’s going to happen, the underlying reasons and background for characters and situations, and more details than the show reveals.
For example, one of the characters, Daenerys Targaryen, is married off to Khal Drogo, who is the leader of a crazy tribe called the Dothraki. In the tv show, Daenerys looks like she could be around 20. In the book, she’s about 13 when she gets married off to the Drogo guy (they don’t let you in on that in the tv show). There are a lot of other creepy things going on in the story – incest seems to be a common theme, as does mental illness and regicide.
Daenerys and her lovely new family
Another show we’ve been watching lately is ‘Boardwalk Empire’. I’m really enjoying that, as well. It’s about time Steve Buscemi got his very own tv show. He’s awesome. The show is set in prohibition-era America, mostly in Atlantic City. Surprisingly, Marky Mark (read: Mark Wahlberg) is an executive producer, as is Martin Scorcese. I think that’s a pretty weird combination, but it seems to be working (though, as Tim says, do executive producers actually do anything?). In any case, I recommend it.
Since I received half of a new MacBook Pro from Timotei for my birthday (OH YAY), I’ve been going through the files stored on my portable hard drive.
There are a lot of pictures. When I’m on the web, StumbleUponing or whatever, and I find a picture I find aesthetically pleasing in some way, I save it. Consequently, I’ve got a whole heap of various folders full of pictures that I rarely get a chance to revisit.
Now that I’m deciding what to transfer to my MacBook Pro, so as to hopefully have a more logical file architecture than my previous computer, I get to go through all these images again. It’s fun! And here are some pretty CGI pics I’ve found over the last couple of years or so.
All images are copyright (c) their respective owners. If you own any of these images, or know who does, feel free to email me at copyright at casbot dot com dot au.
I’m enjoying the ‘who’s online?’ plugin for WordPress. It’s a lot of fun. I don’t know how people find my blog, because the only people I promote it to are those I know personally, but for some reason there are people from all sorts of places visiting. Hi! Ni hao! Dobry den! Hej!
Chris and I went to Chinatown today and had yum cha at our favourite, Hingara. Then we went to one of my favourite shops, and I don’t even know the name of it. It’s near the Momo shop in one of those arcades that come off Dixon Street. I bought a thing that is sort of like a mask, but also not really. I’m not entirely sure what it’s meant to be, but I think it might be a fan.
I’m tired, so I’m not able to be all that successful in conveying my thoughts into words that are interesting and readable.
It’s Mary’s last week next week, which I’m quite sad about. Also next week is my bday, and we will be in Wellington. I’m looking forward to the cabley car.
I’m surprised that Tim could go up this cabley car at all, considering his debilitating fear of heights. Here is a bridge that made his face completely white:
This bridge is in Canada, close to Vancouver. Tim and I started walking across, and he started getting scared a few steps out, and so he turned and went back to solid land. I continued on, and got to play in the treetops over the other side (they had lots of platforms and ladders and rope bridges and everything a person could want to play on). Whenever we talk about it, Tim increases the distance he says he got out to on the bridge, until it’s almost to the point where he crossed the bridge, and walked through the woods on the other side.
Just now I showed him the picture, and he said, ‘oh yeah, that’s the bridge I went 15 metres out on!’. And then, ‘What are you writing about? How I walked out 25 metres?’
The bridge is called the Capilano Suspension Bridge, and it’s pretty fun. When we were walking across it, there were some dumb kids jumping up and down and running back & forth, and making the bridge sway, which might have contributed to Tim’s reluctance to continue on it. It was still good.
I don’t know why, but each night I start a new post. And the next night, I open my laptop and see that I never even did anything with that post. I think I just keep getting distracted by stumbleupon, and emails, and Tim and Po. I’m not really blaming anyone. My brain is easily distracted.
Tim didn’t believe me that n was an actual thing. I like to relate this back to the saying ‘the nth degree’, is the furthest possible point to take something. Coming from a mathematical point of view, I’d relate that back to polynomials (i.e. from Wikipedia: “The degree of a polynomial is the highest degree for a term with non-zero coefficient in a polynomial expressed in canonical form…“). Tim didn’t believe that ‘n’ stood for anything other than just an unknown number. ‘N’ is used to refer to the set of all natural numbers, which is infinite, but countable (countably infinite).
In any case, I’m going to make the connection between the saying and the definition of ‘n’.
Tim and I are going to Wellington next weekend. That also means that next weekend is my birthday! I’m happy about it. Also, it’s Easter, so it’s fun. I don’t know what I want for my birthday (other than a MacBook Pro, which I know I won’t get), but I know what I don’t want:
* tickets to that Justin Bieber movie
* John Howard’s book
* polyester pyjamas
* capsicum
* ennui
Actually, I was keen on the idea of getting a new tattoo for my birthday, as a present to myself, but I am so far without any clue as to who is a decent artist here in Sydney. I have done a little bit of research, but so far all the ones I like the look of seem to be booked out for at least 18 months. I know it’s good to think about tattoos and be sure of it and everything, but I feel like I’ve been thinking about this now for years. I want a new tattoo! I think I want a koi. But I’m not sure where, so I guess I would still have to think about that. It’d be good to have the tattoo artist to discuss it with, because I think they’d have good suggestions as well.
I’d like to post some pictures, but I can’t seem to create paths on the server (for image files). I’m not sure what the problem is, but I also don’t have the time or inclination to do further research into it right now, especially when I can just use photobucket.
Also, I did this thing called the Pierley/Redford Dissociative Affect Diagnostic (found through Stumbleupon) and here’s what it came up with for me:
Fond of tradition, but attached more to the joy of human interaction, you are often a beacon of hope to those members of society who have lost faith or who are in need of succor. You are often emotional, and this emotionality is rarely held in check. Kind and helping by nature, when affronted you will explode, and just as suddenly when the pain has passed return to normalcy again. On occasion this quick and vibrant emotionality is translated into a life on the stage or screen. You have a strong sense of right and wrong, but can sometimes be left confused and uncertain in times of stress or when tough decisions must be made. You avoid conflict, tending to stay out of trouble in hopes that the group will benefit most from this behavior. Because you have trouble putting your own needs first, you will be put in much stress if you find yourself in an unequal relationship, one in which your partner is not as giving as you are.
So, in some ways it’s scarily accurate. But countering that is the fact that I did this test a few days ago (on the weekend, I think) and it said something different (I can’t remember the answers I gave that time) which was also quite accurate, but in different ways. I’m not saying that it’s not a clever program, because it’s got more insight than any online test I could make, but maybe it’s only relevant for the mood that you’re in at that point in time. Make up your own mind on it here.
Here are some things you might see in Sydney:
Man in tree in Wentworth Park
Myer at Chatswood
Targeting mutant children for their latest formalwear collection
Outside Myer, corner of Market & George Sts
Who is this woman? It’s a mystery. And that’s why, so is mankind.
In a shop that’s part of the same building as the Four Seasons Hotel, Sydney
This doll wants to steal your soul and drag it into the depths of hell.
In Haymarket (Chinatown)
A happy, ursine mannequin (Rilakkuma!)
At Taronga Zoo
‘I wonder what happens when I put my hand here?’
Lastly, you should read A Small Free Kiss in the Dark by Glenda Millard. I know it’s technically young adult fiction, but it’s just a good book. The writing flows easily; Glenda Millard is a pro story-teller.
<3
Since the weather has started to cool down again, I’m being reminded of the same time last year. Cold weather is awesome, and it’s one of the main things that I was looking forward to about Sydney – a real winter. Unlike Brisbane. Brisbane just randomly decides, “Oh, today I might not be oppressively humid and hot. But don’t count on tomorrow!” I really love the weather here, when it’s being normal.
I’m remembering when we first moved here, and I’m trying to remember what it felt like being a relative stranger in Sydney, with only vague childhood memories of certain places as reference points. It feels like an entirely different place to the beginning of last year.
I found Sydney intimidating in the beginning. It was difficult to find my place (even though that’s really just something in my own mind). I didn’t know how to exist as myself here, whether or not I would be accepted. When you move to a new city, you get the feeling that you’re different in ways you can’t even begin to understand (to start with, anyway). I felt incredibly conspicuous.
It’s also a weird thought when you realise that not many people are aware of your existence in this new place. While feeling like I stood out as someone not from ‘here’, I also felt like I was invisible in other ways.
After a while, the out-of-the-ordinary becomes the ordinary, and it starts to feel a little bit more comfortable. You start to find your niche. You make connections, even if they’re not friendships to start with.
Being part of something speeds up the process. It’s like a catalyst – for something that would have happened anyway, getting a job or enrolling in a course just makes everything happen faster. You’ve got more opportunities to meet people, make connections, learn your place in the new scheme of things.
I was lucky throughout all of this – my best friend moved to Sydney around the same time as me. As did one of our mutual friends. And then another of our mutual friends had already been living in Sydney for a couple of years. So, I had built-in friendships, a ready-made support network.
I really like Sydney. I’ve come to recognise myself as a citizen of this place, even just a temporary one, rather than just a visitor. I take ownership of my past as a child of Queenscliff/Manly, and it makes me feel a little more like I belong here.
Sydney is a beautiful city. I’d like to have the opportunity to live in other places in Australia, such as Melbourne, so maybe that’s something for the future. Right now I’m happy where I am.
Mum and i watched ‘The Town’ last night. Baffleck was actually pretty cute in this movie, and I think it’s because he didn’t look like a boofhead yuppie grot. He had a buzz cut, and he looked all five-o’clock-shadowy and a little bit dangerous. That movie also did a good job of making me feel paranoid at work today, being that it was about a whole slew of bank robberies and such.
It was an okay movie, not terrible, and there wasn’t really anything too annoying in it. A few tiny inaccuracies that could have brought down the entire operation, but apart from that, they were fine. And really, it’s probably just me being pedantic and not being able to suspend disbelief for the sake of a decent movie. So my point would be, I suppose, that I’d recommend The Town to anyone interested in a gritty, Bostony accented movie about Charlestown and their woes. Also, anyone interested in seeing Serena from Gossip Girl as a crackwhore. That was cool, too.
She's the slut... BUNG!
I am le tired. See you all later!
I don’t really ever want to be prohibitive. I want to experience, learn and understand. I sometimes think I’ll drown in the every day, the mediocrity, the drudge and dreary… I want to be outside the box allocated to me. Sometimes accepting things as they are is exhausting.
I think I’m so lucky to work with Mary. She’s always a lot of fun, and we seem to have a similar view on our work. I feel like we are a good team, and we work well together. It does seem like whenever something is good, there is also something else within the same sphere that’s a bit horrible. But then again, perhaps it’s all relative. Perhaps if other things were amazingly awesome and everything was perfect, I wouldn’t be so aware of how much I like working with Mary; maybe I wouldn’t appreciate it as much.
I don’t know.
I’d like to be someone who catches animals in people’s houses, such as snakes. It’s funny when there’s a snake in someone’s house and it’s so stressful for that person, but the snake has no idea of any of that going on. The snake is just existing, being a snake, and the person is freaking out. Not all snakes are posionous, but every person in the world has the ability to hurt you. I’m more bothered by people than any sort of other creature.
Maybe that’s why I feel worse for animals who get hurt than humans. They have no idea! It’s probably also why I don’t feel right hitting Napoleon for biting me. I don’t think he’s being malicious, and perhaps if I were a cat, I’d be biting him back, but I know better. It’s unnecessary.
I wonder where I’ll be next? I can’t wait to go to Japan. I know it’s a long way off yet, but I keep thinking about it. I keep remembering our last trip, how excellent it was. I wish I could go there for months at a time, and just spend that time traveling across the country. I would like to take a different train every day, and choose random shinkansen stops to get off and explore. The trains in Japan are the best.
I feel discombobulated at the moment, like my thoughts, feelings, perceptions and reactions don’t match what’s happening at any given point. I feel like I’m in a fugue state, not myself, and when I return to normalcy I will have no memory of this. Goodbye strange world, I don’t think I’ll see you again! At least I hope I don’t.
Well, it’s not as if I’ve been dead, but I guess I do feel like I’ve been out of regular social interactive circles lately. This is mostly due to work – I’ve been working five & a half day weeks for a few weeks now, pretty much since I got back from Europe in January. I’m so tired!
I had drinks with Chris & Brenden on Friday night. Chris wasn’t drinking, and so dropped me home at a reasonable hour, seeing as I had work the next morning. i didn’t end up getting to sleep until about 2am, following my usual late night ritual of staying up long enough not to feel room-spinningly drunk. I usually avoid hangovers that way. That and drinking lots of non-alcoholic, non-caffeinated fluids, and eating vegemite on toast. Vegemite ftw!
It was so good to see Chris and Brenden again, and hanging out on Luke & Michelle’s balcony, with its view right across to the harbour bridge, wasn’t bad either. I’ve missed the time with friends while I’ve been in self-imposed hermit-mode.
I still feel it necessary to say, however, that I am missing other people as well, and it’s not as easy as just saying, ‘let’s tee up a time, shall we?!’ Several people live a 23 hour plane ride away, and others perhaps only a two hour plane ride, but it seems not to make any difference to my ability to see them.
Anyway, I’m going to play guitar hero. I’ve been playing most of the afternoon, and it makes me feel nostalgic. Due to lack of practice, I’m crap at the drums, but the guitar seems to be just like riding a bike.
The name of my band in Guitar Hero (randomly selected by the game) is ‘Kitten Jugglery’. I don’t know whether to imagine kittens juggling, or people juggling kittens.