Not *just* a rant

I’ll start off with the rant, so that there can be a positive ending to the post. Normally I love living in the city – it’s so convenient and easy to do whatever, and easy to get around (without even public transport, most of the time). However, there are times when I just can’t stand it. Times like today.

Today, I was pretty stressed out and highly strung, due to a number of mishaps, mostly due to my computer (couldn’t get an essential program to work, external hard drive broke for a couple of hours, etc.). So once I eventually got everything up and running more or less smoothly again, I decided to go for a walk to chill out. So much for chilling out… The only place I like to go when it’s dark is into the city, because I’m not sure about the safety of other places. However, the city isn’t a terribly good place for chilling out.

For one, you can’t just walk and be relaxed – you have to constantly dodge people, who don’t seem to even notice you’re there. The noise of the cars is so loud, I can hardly hear the music from my earphones over the roar. Then, probably worst of all – the smell. One of the things I miss most about home is the smell – or lack of it. At Dad’s, I have the smell of the bush – eucalyptus, flowers, and all that. Even in Ballarat itself, it’s at least pleasant enough. But in Sydney, there is no way to get away from the fumes, the smoke, the… everything. Mostly the cigarette smoke. It seems that 90% of the people in the city smoke constantly. Ugh. Anyway, I think that’s enough ranting for the time being. Onto better topics.

Yesterday Kale came up to Sydney with his Uni residence, on some sort of free trip they have. Well, he came to visit, and we sat around and chatted for quite some time. It was nice to catch up, and I had a really good time. Yay!

Friday night was the UTS Residences Annual Dinner, in the Great Hall at Uni. We had to dress up all nice in suits and stuff, which is always good fun. We got a free meal and two free drinks too, which was cool. The band was really cool – for the first half of the evening they were doing covers of songs that everyone knows, but with a twist. They were all in jazz/swing style! So, very cool and easy to dance to. (Yes, I got up and danced. Quite a bit actually!). Later in the evening it turned into more generic covers of songs (I think at least part of the band changed, actually), so it wasn’t as fun, but I still had a good time! I left a little bit early, and when I got home Silke and Iris were already there, and we took some photos of us all dressed up – some of them quite interesting . I haven’t got Silke’s yet, but when I do I might post some somewhere!

On a final note, I got some new CDs a while ago (been meaning to mention it for some time now). First up is Give Up by The Postal Service. Been meaning to get hold of this for ages, as they are one of my favourite bands. Interesting thing about them though… I was talking to Mollie the other day, and she mentioned how the had been listening to Iron and Wine’s cover of Such Great Heights, and was really loving it, but then heard The Postal Service’s (original) version and didn’t like it much at all. And I think she has a point in a way… Iron and Wine’s version suits the lyrics much better, I think. I found the same thing with The Shins’ cover of We Will Become Silhouettes. I think I like it better than the original. There is no doubt that Ben Gibbard is a truly wonderful lyricist, but maybe The Postal Service isn’t the best way to show them? I mean, he has Death Cab For Cutie, which has a more conventional sound, but most of his lyrics for them don’t live up to those of The Postal Service. Here’s hoping that somebody might do a brilliant cover of Brand New Colony.

I also got Life Is Full Of Possibilities by Dntel, which features the song that got The Postal Service started – (This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan. And although it isn’t as lyrically strong as a lot of The Postal Service’s other songs, I think it is the best aurally. I’ve been listening to it over and over quite a bit… =P. As for the rest of the album, there are some other good songs on there, as well as some not-so-good ones, but (This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan is definitely the standout.

Well, I’m going to go and… do something else. See you soon!

Phone survey

Am I different? I think I must be… I just got a call from some guy at the Victorian Education Department, asking stuff about what I’m doing and what I thought of Year 12 (I think I must’ve ticked a box on one of the many forms giving them permission to do such a thing). For pretty much every answer I gave, he couldn’t find the appropriate box to tick on whatever he was filling out. For example… I am doing Information Technology. He had to either tick Computer Science or General Science. I mean, come on… IT isn’t that uncommon! Maybe it is because I’m doing an actual BSc… Oh, and for the International Studies – is it a general Arts degree or a business/management course? Um… neither?! Pretty stupid survey, all up. No wonder the guy sounded so bored…

Milking It

This is the reason I don’t read The Daily Telegraph. Ugh.

Picnic!

I’m at work at the moment – I turned up on time at 10am to find nobody here, and sat around until somebody appreared to let me in. However, neither my boss or the big boss are here, so I have nothing to do except read the news (yay SMH!) and, of course, write a blag!

Yesterday was my flatmate Rob’s 18th birthday, and last night he went out partying with friends. This morning when I woke up, I went into the lounge room to discover an unknown person asleep on the couch, smelling like crap. I could also hear constant retching from one of the toilets, which lasted from when I woke up, almost until I left (over an hour later). It was only when I talked to Rob about it (he had to get up for uni) that I discovered that these people were the friend with whom he went out with last night.

I know that plenty of people drink alcohol responsibly and in moderation, but seeing things like that make me glad I don’t drink at all, and put me off alcohol even more.

Anyway, onto more exciting news! Yesterday, I went to a picnic with Steve, Bek, and Bek’s friends! It was the first time I’d met Bek (and, of course, her friends), so it was a little nerveracking – knowing only one person! But all was good, and I ended up having a really great time. We played a dice game in the park for a while, and met Dan and Jack, who are both awesome. We also went to a Philosophy lecture, which I found very interesting, although it did get me wondering what relevance an arts degree has in the ‘real world’. I mean, there are exceptions, of course – for example Bek is doing Psychology, which will be useful, as would something like journalism. But a straight arts degree with random subjects seems rather pointless, even though it would be interesting and thought-provoking.

Afterwards, we went to see Disturbia at the cinema. It was actually a pretty good movie, I guess! I mean, it was a horror to an extent, and I am not a big fan of horror movies, but it had enough other stuff in it to make it worthwhile and enjoyable. Even though it did get rather frustrating at times…

I also decided to go to ProgSoc once everyone had gone home. We sat around and watched Casino Royale, which is a pretty good movie – especially the opening scenes with the chase through the construction site and stuff. The only disappointing thing about it is that Bond’s beautiful Aston Martin gets destroyed without being very useful at all. You get that though.

Anyway, that’s about it from me, my boss just walked in the door. Cya later!

EDIT: Today for lunch, we went to this really nice place, and I sort of contradicted my earlier rant about alcohol and had a little bit of red wine. It was kind of nice I suppose… Not something I would choose to have every day, but nice enough for an occasion like that.

Rant – Feminists

Sorry about the two rants posted right after another, but sometimes it just needs to happen! I was reading the Sydney Morning Herald this morning (online, of course), and there was an opinion article in there referring to the break-up of Prince William and his girlfriend, Kate Middleton.

I won’t go into details of the article, but in it there was one of the things that I really hate about feminists. Total, absolute generalisation of men. Not “some men do this”, or even “most men do this”. It was one of those things where the writer basically says “ALL men are pricks”. Now, I can’t actually remember exactly what she was talking about – something to do with marriage and men having control over everything, and the whole “try before you buy” thing. But I can honestly say that not a single one of the accusations she made applied to me. For God’s sake, woman, not all men are idiots like you! Not all men are just out to get women. It’s women like you that ruin it for everyone.

By the way, I have to admit that the feminist movement(s) have had a wonderful effect on womens’ rights and stuff, but so often nowadays it just goes too far, with some women just hating men and ranting for the sake of it, rather that for the purpose of equality. Equality is good, and is what we need to be searching for. Yes, men have had the power and done some pretty horrible stuff in the past, but why should it go the other way?

Besides, it wasn’t always that way – you can pretty much blame the Romans for the lack of equality. Before that (in a good deal of cultures) it seemed to be pretty equal, some even being the opposite, with the women in power.

Rant – People who fail at life

No, I’m not talking about people like Bek and I, who have trouble winning Spider Solitaire on the easiest setting. That is pretty bad, but not truly failing at life. People who truly fail at life are people like the ones in this story:

Just before, I was taking my washing downstairs, and when the lift arrived at the ground floor I went to get out, but couldn’t! When the lift doors opened, the was a guy standing there, about 2 inches from the door, waiting to get in. As soon as he could, he got into the lift, followed by his friend. Didn’t even think to wait for me to get OUT of the lift. There was also another one of them trying to get into the lift, but I managed to force my way out before he did.

Isn’t one of the basic rules of living that for things such as buses, taxis, shops, ELEVATORS – in fact, basically everything that involves people going both in and out – you let people OUT before you get IN? It makes sense, really. Yet these idiots don’t seem to have ever learnt that. Or at least, they don’t take any notice.

In the past, I’ve had plenty of people almost walk into the lift before I could get out, but it was because they didn’t realise I was in there, and in EVERY CASE, they stopped and let me get out first.

Is there any way to stop this sort of blatantly arrogant and stupid behaviour? Maybe I should have stayed in the lift and given them a lecture on life rules. Or maybe I should have made them get out of the lift before I allowed the doors to close. But then, I think the sort of person that does that would not be helped by any amount of lectures or similar. I presume that they are just arrogant and/or stupid, and will never get anywhere. Because although passing the game of life with a good deal of style can be difficult, failing is even harder.

P.S. All the people involved (except me, of course!) were Asian guys. Rob seemed to think this made a difference (he had a similar bad experience when he was watching TV, and one sat down next to him and starting flicking stations), but I am pretty sure that every race has it’s stupid pricks. And there is certainly a good deal of very cool Asians, too.

And back to Sydney again!

So, I’m back in Sydney! It’s nice to be back – I like it here. Although you can definitely feel the deterioration in air quality compared to Ballarat (and especially Dad’s place). Still, who am I to complain?

I suppose I’ll start by recounting my adventures in Ballarat. Saturday night Jackson and Nick came over for an Xbox party. It was pretty fun, although not as outrageously fun as some have been in the past. Then Sunday night I went out for tea with friends, which was really good fun. It was great to catch up with everyone!

Monday I headed to Melbourne with Dad and Cal. We dropped Cal out in Warrandyte, as he is going on a camp thing. Then Dad and I headed to Grandpa’s. I got in some handy driving practice – something which I need to do fairly regularly or else I might become a bad driver! And we wouldn’t want that!

It was nice to catch up with Grandpa – we talked for a couple of hours about Uni, and the various subjects I’m doing, and how I’m going in general. We also had a rather passionate discussion about ethics, which is one of the topics covered in one of my subjects. Good fun! I also got to spend some much-needed time with Dad – we didn’t see each other much throughout the time I was at home, as he was working a fair bit. We had a good conversation over hot chocolate/coffee and it just helped to put something there that will keep us in contact and good friends in the times to come.

The train trip back here was actually really good. The train was fairly empty, and it turned out that the seat next to me was free for the entire journey, so I was able to stretch out a bit and get a good sleep for a change! This made it possible to go to work today, which had its own rewards!
They had a few LCD monitors that they didn’t need/want any more, and so offered one each to Marie (one of the other testers) and I. How could we refuse? So I walked home this evening with a 17″(I think) monitor under my arm! I’ve just got to get a cable so I can connect it up to my laptop. If that goes to plan, I’ll probably also grab a keyboard and thus make my desk a lot more ergonomic, and just plain comfortable!

Tonight Steve and I went to see the live recording of “The Chaser’s War On Everything” at the ABC in Harris St (just a few blocks from where I live). It was really good fun – they are hilarious! After that we went and got some tea at Nando’s in Market City, then walked to the train station and waited for the next intercity train for Steve to catch (the normal suburban trains don’t meet his standards, apparently ). And here I am now!

Just in regards to the train trip back… If ever you are on a train, staring out into the night and listening to music – try Hoppipolla by Sigur Ros. It suits the occasion quite nicely, I must say!

Anyway, I might head off to bed soon – big day today! Goodnight, hope everyone is super!

James

Back in the ‘Rat!

So, I am back in Ballarat! The usual long train trip home, didn’t get much sleep… Had some man sitting next to me that smelt of smoke. It was not too bad though, as it was campfire smoke, not cigarette smoke. If it was cigarette smoke I don’t think I would be able to cope! I read a fair bit when the lights were on, and actually started to enjoy the book I am reading (or at least found it interesting). It’s called Disclosure, and it’s by Michael Crichton.

It was nice to see my Dad and brother, and catch up with what’s been happening with everyone. That said, they went to Stawell for the night, so I was home alone! Not that I minded… I got to put the music up really really loud, which was awesome because I haven’t been able to do it for so long!

Dad had to wake me up this afternoon, as I slept in a bit late.. Catching up on the lost sleep from the past two nights, I guess. Strange thing is, I set my alarm, but it didn’t appear to go off! Silly phone…

And the exciting news for today is that I got my wisdom teeth out, all four of the stupid buggers! I was pretty scared, but it turned out rather good in the end. I got a choice out of a local or a general anaesthetic, and decided I was less scared of the local, so I got that. It wasn’t very painful anyway. In fact, the dentist and his assistant had me laughing at various times throughout the operation! They were super nice, it was good.

I couldn’t talk for the first while afterwards, as my tongue and the majority of my mouth was completely numb. I kept trying to say stuff and then laughing because I couldn’t. I’m starting to get over the anaesthetic now though, so I can speak a little better. I also took some pain killers before, but I wasn’t sure if they had actually gone down or not, because I was too numb. That said, I can’t feel them now, and they haven’t come OUT of my mouth, so I assume I must’ve swallowed them.

So now, I’ve just got a few days of sitting around doing not much while I recover. I’ll hopefully get some study done, but I’ll have to see how I feel. Also, I’ll have to organise a time to catch up with some friends, as that was one of the things I was really looking forward to! Maybe a Sunday lunch or something…

Well, that’s about it from me for the moment! Hope everyone is super-duper awesome!

Love James

Existential Crisis – Relationships

Last night I had some sort of existential crisis… At about 3 o’clock in the morning. I occasionally have this sort of thing (although usually not this ‘bad’), but never remember exactly what they are about. However, yesterday evening I decided to put a pen and paper next to my bed, and… viola! This morning it was full.

Anyway… On to my crisis. I was thinking… I have always, for reasons not explained, figured that you go into a relationship with somebody to be closer to them – in an emotional/mental way (as opposed to a physical way). This made sense to me, up until last night, when I asked a question.

What happens if you are already as close to that person emotionally as you can possibly be (within reason), but without being in a relationship. Does this mean that the only reason you would go into a proper relationship with the person is to to have some sort of physical relationship with them? (As the emotional one is already there).

I’ve always thought it was wrong to go into a relationship for physical purposes only, but… where does this leave you if you are in the above situation? Is it wrong to go into a relationship with that person, because the only further thing you can get out of it is physical stuff? Or am I completely missing the point of relationships, and it is perfectly okay for them to start a proper relationship, because they are so close?

This really confused me last night… And it’s still confusing me now. Two very strong values/morals/whatever of mine are currently conflicting, and it’s rather confusing indeed! Oh well, I have 11 hours on the train to Melbourne tonight to ponder it!

New site up!

So, I finally got around to designing and putting together my new web site! It’s still not completely functional (ie some of the links don’t work, as I’ve only made the home page), but it’s a lot better than it was! I’ll work on the other stuff soon, but I’ve got work tomorrow and then am heading home, so I’ll have to see what happens. For now, enjoy what’s there!

P.S. Like the hackergotchi? (my floating head)