Directions and the weather
If I have any complaint about Sydney is it's highways and street traffic laws and signs. If you see the street sign you are looking for, then you have already passed your turn. And the sure way to tell which way you should turn up ahead, is most likely the direction the sign says you can't turn.
Yesterday, I decided to take advantage of the clothes line out back and for the first time in my adult life, hung clothes out to dry to see if the air breeze makes them smell spring time fresh. They smell fresh alright, it rained all last night and all this morning. I now have a wet pile of clothes and nothing to wear.
But I digress. Still having fun. Cheers.
An evening with us
Last night, while wondering around circular Quay and making way up to the Sydney Opera House, it struck me funny to read on the program of events that on the 6th of May is "An evening with the Oklahomans" choir performance. Even weirder is that a friend I used to work with was going to be in that group but couldn't get off work to go.
Getting to know all about you.
The most freighting part about the Lacey and Scott Peterson case is that when we meet someone new, we always wait to get to know him or her to make sure they are not an axe murderer or something scary of the sort.
Imagine being married for several years and starting a family to finally figure out the truth?
Didgeridoo Breath
Thanks to my pal at Didgeridoo Breath in Perth, I am the proud owner of a sweet new didge. Thanks for the lessons Matt. If you want to buy a nice dideridoo, go see their stuff.
Also, a special thanks to my tour guide and the people I met and hung out with at the Quiet Man Irish Pub over the Easter Holiday in Victoria. I had a great time.
Penguin Parade
Last night I got to see natural South Australian Penguins swim onto shore and make their way past the awaiting seaguls who were there only to mess with the flightless birds.
These were the smallest penguins in the world according to the park.
Bic Runga
I have fallen in love with a kiwi girl (New Zealand) and Bic Runga be thy name. Her music is fantastic to listen to. I have only heard of her for a short while but a favorite is off of her album "Beautiful Collision" called "Honest Goodbyes".
Things are going well in Melbourne, I have met some great people and having a lot of fun. In my honor, we even made home made Reese's Cups and they were terrific! Have been sight seeing and Melbourne has a bit more of a Europe feel to it. The weather isn't known for being the best here but has held out since I have been here. Going to see the 12 Apostles tomorrow.
Driving to Melbourne
Happy Easter holiday everyone. I am heading down to Melbourne for some fun for the next few days. Hopefully the rain will let up. Looking forward to the nine hours drive south down across some baron roads with few signs of civilization in between. That is if I can even manage to make it out of Sydney.
Idiot Tax
Today, I drove across the Sydney Bridge and it reminded me of just a few months ago when I was driving across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and for a moment I marveled in the great architectural triumphs I had experienced as of late.
About forty-five minuets later I drove across the landmark again, trying to make my way back to the suburb of Manly and not doing a very good job.
After the third pass across the bridge in under an hour, it was a little less awe inspiring and this time I had to pay an extra toll for my confusion. An idiot tax, if you will.
In Sydney, the minimum tax for being an idiot is $3.50
Changing Lanes
"I can live with myself because at the end of the day, I think I do more good than harm. What other standards have I got to judge by?"
At the risk of admitting I like a movie that stars Ben Afleck, I saw one recently that voted very high on my likes list. No, it was not that Daredevil crap recently released. Changing Lanes, also staring, and redeeming in my opinion, Samuel L. Jackson.
The beauty of the film is the way it compares and dissects human motivation and how it evolves from moment to moment depending on our circumstances and our range of emotions. Our sense of right and wrong constantly changes on how the world treats us. When people feel screwed over, they tend to feel more compelled to screw the next guy over to equal out the score.
In the end, Afleck's character makes a brilliant analogy on comparing his inability to "do what was right", to a moment lost in time.
Rage against the voting machine.
On a recent election in New South Wales, thanks to a computer mishap that has been compared to the Florida election disasters of late, a recent news interview with a technical advisor was quoted as saying:
"I think we should upgrade the Commodore 64's, there's no doubt about that."
Thoughts while standing in line for an hour
There were three conferences going on at the same time this weekend. One for Axia, one was a for a law convention and then there was the Semi-Permanent Design conference by "Design is Kinky". It wasn't hard to tell which line to get in.
How to be a designer, step one, fashion:
- If you're a male, then wear anything from the 1970's that you wore to school that other kids used to beat you up for wearing then. You will rise quickly in the ranks if you act as homosexual as possible, or at least the once spurned youth who never fit into any crowd growing up. Only the angst from years of repression can cultivate a great designer.
- If you are a female, you have many choices, but usually, the 1970?s throw away wardrobe will do just fine but include many more piercings. Show the midrift in anything you wear and wear shoes that were built for the Incredible Hulk as well or your just not all that hip.
- If you are Asian, don't worry, you are already on the in-crowd. Just wear a power puff girls shirt or something (either sex), Anything that confuses everyone else will be accepted as brilliant.
I sound mean spirited here, but I am not, I am only using humor to illustrate a point. Many of the people I talked to today were genuine and nice and talented and I know some people who dress artsy hip who accept me, even though I do not. But still, I couldn't stop wondering if it felt uncomfortable for so many non-conformist people to suddenly be in a group where everyone looks like they are conforming?
Finding It
On the plane a few days past, it rained calmly and I had some time to reflect on some of the emotions I have had since being far away from the place I call home. I've been happy here. I've been happier here than I have been in a long time and knowing this, I thought it needed examination.
It wasn't the change in geography that brought me the happiness. It wasn't the expectations of what I was doing here nor was it the adventure. It was something more than that.
Friendships are a precious commodity. Lifelong friendships are worth more than anything. True friends stick by you when you make mistakes and don't have excuses when you need help or support.
I have a few friendships that I consider as essential to my life as water. If I admitted to them as much, it would probably be a surprise for them to hear. I have others that I try to maintain but find myself wondering why. I'm so tired of all the lines being drawn and the sides being taken. I wasted much energy in these things over the past few years. I fear many of us will someday realize that we kept ourselves too distant, by means of nurturing our own ego.
You shouldn't have to ask yourself if the people you want to be involved in your life are people that you can count on, you should just know.
As I mentioned before, upon thinking of these things on the plane, as it rained calmly outside, I found that I was happier than I had been for a very long time. Somewhere on the other side of the world, I forgot these things that weighed down on my mind and quietly kept me hostage from happiness. I forgot to concern myself with these things that don't really matter and the people that hide in the shadows for too long.
So, on a plane, somewhere on the other side of the world, in a country where I knew only a handful of people, on a journey all alone, without any great signs or revelations, I found myself looking out of the window with a smile on my face. I had found something that I have been looking for, for a great long time and I was simply overcome with the happiness of it.
Leaving for Sydney
Heading into Sydney today for the design conference. I'm looking forward to it as well as the pre party this evening. How often do you get to hang out with the guys from k10k and Australian InFront?
Reese's Cups
Mnnn, reeeses... (drooool)
(As said in a Homer Simpson voice)
They don't have those here. Could somebody digitally photo some and send it please so I can drool over it?
Venting on Websites
Some day's I really wish some websites had a place to put some public feedback on. Since they don't here are some loose and random thoughts to different websites I just had to get out of the system;
- The new UPS logo isn't all that bad and if you had bothered to study anything about branding, you'd know that a logo or identity could be, and should be, changed if the company is well established. It's done all the time. Do you really think people will walk out of a UPS office confused where they are at because the logo changed? Paul Rand was great in the day but Paul Rand's not here anymore, is he?
- Show me a logo that doesn't look like it resembles something from the website boom?
- If you are in a relationship only because you are bored, well, that's just really sad.
- Weblog man, where is it?
- You gripe about the world not being nicer and the U.S. being self-absorbed, but then you make fun of "tourists" visiting a foreign place. Guess what honey, your a tourist too, just on extended stay. Get over yourself.
- Glad you found out how to fix your website.
- I really liked that link.
Okay, I feel better now.
Quotable Conversations
Me: So your x-husband never bought you flowers or celebrated an anniversary?
Tracy: "nope, never".
Me: "Not even when he was sucking up for something he did wrong?"
Tracy: (long pause) "He sent me flowers when I died".
(A few years back, Tracy's lungs filled with water and she not breathing for a few moments in the E.R. room.)
Last Night in Perth
"Gee guys, I haven't gotten all that pissed (drunk) since I have been in Australia."
Several hours later I am regretting the challenge. We went to go watch some local heavy metal thrasher bands play at a local pub and of course Tequila shots were involved. After that Josh, a band member let us come hang out at his place for a party.
I apologize to anyone I came in contact with last night. I'm sure it wasn't pretty.
ow.
Fight the Power
Thoughts of an AOL structure, circa 1995 cloud my head. For some reason, Earthlink decides to tag on an international roaming charge to my dial up calls to a local Perth phone number at the rate of .15 cents per min. When I got the bill yesterday, already charged to my card mind you, I pretty much wigged out. It's fraud to say the least and I, you, we, have to put up with it because it's been allowed to become a standard policy through passive acceptance.
It's amazing what people will just pass on as acceptable and corporations expect to get away with because no one stands up and complains. Lemmings we are. The amount Earthlink just stole from me could have paid for about a month stay here in Perth.
This lemming is going to bitch pretty loud then find another local access provider.
Ned Kelly
"Such is life."
Tracy and I went and saw a movie during lunch today, she insisted we see it since it was about Australian history. Ned Kelly staring Heath Ledger, Orlando Bloom, Naomi Watts, and Geoffrey Rush. It was a great movie. I am surprised that we never hear about such things in the states, every school kid here knows the story.
If it is showing back home, go see it. I recommend it.
Moon Conspiracy
On the television in the background tonight, was a show called "The Dark Side of the Moon", an Australian/French documentary on the Apollo moon missions and the validity of them. What made me take immediate notice of the show was how it involved background stories with Stanley Kubrick, Donald Rumsfeld, Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon, General Walters, etc. These interviews seemed to present these high profile people saying outright that the moon landing was a hoax and how the CIA under advisement of President Nixon, eliminated all of the remaining film crew of the said film hoax. An interview with General Walters, a former CIA Director during this time, was shown saying he would reveal information if the camera was turned off. The next day he died of a heart attack before the follow-up interview.
After the program, the credits began rolling and then what looked like bloopers were shown, people being interviewed asking to look at scripts again, retakes of serious statements being made and so on.
I honestly can't tell if this was something of a hoax documentary (that included some important participants) or former persons of political power admitting the greatest scandal and Presidential directed murders in our nation's history. My guess would be the former but how did they possibly get these people to participate?
