suki suki suki

Hot on the heels of my ibook breathing it's last breath, it seems my ipod has also gone to a better place. Not only that but my Sony amplifier is in Protector mode, meaning it needs some kind of maintenance too. Technology, why are you forsaking me? Maybe I am overly statically charged. Perhaps I should get around in some kind of anti-static clothing, or lay a big anti-static mat in my room.

Anyway, the good thing about when your electronics pass away is that you have a perfectly good reason to buy some new toys. I'm planning on getting a new laptop in the next few weeks, and am kinda hoping they release a new ipod too, but I guess with the impending release of some phone device, apple probably arent about to update the ipod.

I have uploaded some new pictures to flickr - we have been eating some really awesome food at home lately thanks to Yoko and Shiori. I had my first ever experience with making your own sushi and have to say it was probably the best sushi I have ever tasted. My favourite combination was nori, tuna, natto and egg roll. Hoo boy, my mouth is watering just thinking about it. Healthy too! We also had Oden, and then last night, my favourite - sukiyaki. We are seriously spoiled I think. Unfortunately Yoko left for Japan today for a month, so I'll probably go back to less healthy italian home cooked food. I reckon I'll try homemade sushi again though.

I've been a bit slack on the Japanese front lately, and with posting on the learn Japanese forum. I got a couple of new kanji learning programs for the DS, so will get into it again in the next week or so. I haven't listened to the last couple of NFTOS episodes, but will catch up in the next day or two.

I should get back to work.

またね！

drunk

After a turbulent, stressful and very busy week, I spent the entire weekend either drunk, hung-over, or in that state where you feel a bit seedy, but you are starting to get drunk again, so it's ok. Friday night saw Brad, Yoko, Ben, Chris, Adele and myself head out to King of Kings - a crusty little Chinese restaurant on Russell Street. The food is pretty good and really cheap. Crispy skin pork on egg noodles with corn and chicken soup for about $11. We also got stuck into beer and a couple of bottles of wine, before heading off to the Croft Institute. The next thing I knew, I was having random drunk conversations, and enjoying my freedom from university for four weeks.

I woke up the next morning feeling pretty good despite a hangover. One of the best saturday mornings in a long time, I reckon. Had a late lunch, before heading to the Mount View Hotel in Richmond to watch New Zealand v Canada play rugby. It was a pretty boring game to be honest, though Canada played beyond all expectations. I was drinking gin and tonic, trying to convince myself that because it looked like lemonade, that it would somehow fix me right up. And fix me, it did.

By 8pm saturday night, I was with Brad and Hayden, drunk again. We left shortly after and went on somewhat of a bar crawl in Melbourne - visitng that pink rooftop bar above the hostess place Asuka for some random Czech beer, then Loop for a Hoegaarden (they dont sell Hoegaarden anymore!), then to Double Happiness, before finally heading to possibly the worst pub in Melbourne - The Elephant and Wheelbarrow (not my suggestion, I assure you.) We stayed there for a couple of hours, watching some shitty coverband play awful sport/punk music while fat bouncers stopped people drinking on the dancefloor. The place was starting to get to me, though luckily we left, and headed to a Karaoke bar. By that stage it was maybe 3am, and to be honest, I was ready for an open fire, a blankey, and a Police Academy marathon. Getting old, getting old.

Sunday was a lazy day, but Brad and I managed to make it into the studio on Sunday arvo to record some more stuff. I'm happy with how that is coming along, and am looking forward to sharing some of it.

The downside of me being on University holidays is that I am now working full-time for the next month. Good for money I guess, particularly as I need to buy a new laptop, but I havent worked 5 days a week in a while.. The upside though, is that for the next month, I can play video-games completely guilt free. I can go home from work and just watch tv if I want. That is something I havent been able to do for a long time.

i just cant get started

That song by You am I has been in my head for the last few days, and has managed to seep into my waking life by way of philosophy. This is week 13, the final week of university for semester one. It is the business end. Shit is due - all at once, shit is due. Lots of shit. I apologise for the lack of an update for a week, and I would like to tell you that it is due to me working studiously away at finishing up these pesky major projects, but the honest truth is I just cant get started. Like a rabbit caught in headlights, frozen by the idea that I need to put fingers to keyboard and punch out some quality musings, while adhering to strict guides and templates of course.

See, the thing is, I know that once i start typing, I'll be fine. I'll punch out one project and move straight on to the next. I'll cut through it like a knife cutting through something. It will flow, then flow faster, until finally I am typing at full speed (20 wpm!), and I will start to actually enjoy what I am doing. Once finished and spell-checked, I'll feel that sense of satisfaction and an elevated interest in the topic at hand. I'll enjoy submitting the document electronically, and will be able to go back to playing with my pokemons, which is really all I want to do right now, without feeling the guilt that I currently feel when I am doing anything other than my homework (like writing this blog entry).

But I just cant get started. I can hear Tim Rogers in my ear, and he wont leave me be.

Right now, my laptop is sitting there, Word open, with my name at the top, student number, and then the word "Title" with a blinking cursor. OK, fuck this. Im going to go and get some food, then when I come back I'm gonna dig in. Dig in hard.

I'll post a decent update after the week is out. MUST FOCUS.

ghouls and ghosts

On Sunday, I went for a drive up to the town where my parents live. It's about 45 minutes from where I live, directly away from the city. It's the kind of place that you loathe, when you are young and stuck there on a friday night because you are too young to go out to a club, and because there really is nothing that you could term "adequate public transport". Having left said sleepy town when I was 17, and now being the very wise and mature age of 31, I have had plenty of time to forget about all the things I hated, growing up there. It's funny how your memory does that - selectively remember good stuff.

Don't get me wrong - I still dont want to move back there. It's a suburban hell of housing estates and kit homes. There are maybe 4 pubs - none of which I would dare enter on a friday or saturday night for fear of being beaten up but a drunk bogan local. The culinary options for dinner start at Chinese and extend to Italian and back to Chinese. Oh and Fish and Chips. I am yet to find a decent coffee in the entire town, and hold no hope of EVER getting a decent coffee - no-one embraces mediocrity like a small town in the outer suburbs in my opinion.

Anyway, despite all that - I have come around to the idea that the town itself is actually not a bad place to visit (for a few hours - a day, tops), and the drive is pleasant.. good even. The road goes past the airport, so if you are lucky, a 747 will fly over your car at only a couple of hundred feet. Then past the airport is rolling hills (currently green hills thanks to the recent rain).

My parents love to feed me. That's what happens when I visit - I get fed. I have been visiting a bit more often lately too, as they are currently in the process of building a new house, so they love to take me up to the property and show me the new wiring, or point out where the wall oven will go (incidentally they are getting 2 wall ovens). I had been meaning to take some photos of the place while it was being built, and finally did so this weekend just gone. There is one in particular that you should take a look at. I apologise for the lack of light..

This photo is the view over the back fence. As you can see, there is hill, some trees, a town in the distance, and well, a cemetary. Directly over the back fence. In fact, if you happen to occupy the bedroom at the very back corner of the house, the view out your window is crosses and tombstones. Creepy?

Nope. My family has a pretty good grasp of death and it's related traditions. My mum is a grief counsellor. My mum, dad and younger sister have a business creating funeral books. I myself only a few months ago, was engaged to create a video montage piece for the funeral of one of my primary school teachers. I presented it to the husband of the deceased the night before. My mum has a great outlook on death and the funeral process - buy the cheapest coffin, no need to spend money on the ceremony, etc. Family conversations have been known to hover around the topic of what funeral songs we would like (my younger sister wants a live band, probably featuring Jack White if possible - I would rather have a Chinese woman croon out Neighbourhood #1 by The Arcade Fire on a white grand piano, while someone releases 12 white doves, and perhaps one assassin eyes off another, finger on the trigger, in a back row pew. Or maybe some radiohead.. I dunno).

So the fact that they are building a new house that backs on to a cemetary is really no big deal to us. There was talk about growing a line of trees along the back fence just high enough to block the view (for friends and relatives I guess), but I am completely opposed. I say, if you live near a cemetary you should not shy away from it - in fact you should completely embrace it. As a side note, the cemetary behind them is no longer having people buried there, so there will be no random coffin sightings.

Maybe I'm alone on this one. My dad keeps joking about how he wont have to buy flowers ever again, but I sense a very small uneasiness in his voice. Going out to the shed at night may take on a whole new vibe for him.

One last thing - when my grandmother passed away (17 years ago, I think), her request was that she be buried somewhere close to the family. She got her wish - we can see her grave from the backyard.