A few Conversational Snippets

Snippets of conversation can be bizarre.

The folks next to me appear to have just met, and in the time I've been sitting here, they have discovered that she has, at her 21st, hooked up with his cousin. And she sounds like a Queenslander.

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This morning, during the extremely long wait for the bus, I heard a discussion between two girls that went something like this:

"My arms get sore, after like, 4 hours of playing the drums.
Oh, do you play the drums?
Ya, I'm pretty good.
Oh wow, I only play guitar. How good are you on the drums?
Well, I can go really well, but only on easy.
Ya, I was going to play the guitar yesterday, but the batteries were dead. I had to plug it back into the console."

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Definitely the most annoying voice, and the one most commonly heard causing unpleasant train trips for all on the north shore and western line, is the heavily american influenced 'North Shore Girls" accent. The one I like to think of as almost always saying:
"Ohmygod, like totally, fallout boy. No way, really? Fallout boy? Oh. My. God. Fallout boy." etc
I simply cannot stand it. Often I simply leave the carriage is search of somewhere more peaceful; be it quiet, other general babble, or drunken shouting and abuse. Anything is better than that voice.

One particular quote I heard at NIDA the other night (when it was not lit up nicely like in the pic) was in that very voice:
"I know, it's like, I totally can't stand american accents. Like, British ones are just totally so hot, but oh-my-god, I can't stand like american accents; you know?"
I could barely stop myself from telling them. Luckily my politeness got the better of my urge to share the irony.

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Recently I heard about an hour of a conversation, right here, where I'm currently sitting, on this very couch on Level 10 of UNSW Library tower. The discussion, when I sat down, went something like this:
"So, your baby is 18 months old. He was breastfed for the first 6 months, then he went onto formula. He isn't on any medication and has been brought up in a non-smoking environment. He had a rash at around 12 months old, but it cleared up with medication from the hospital. Has he been to the hospital any other times?"
This conversation continued in a similar vein for about half an hour, and I thought perhaps they were adopting. At this point however, the roles changed, and the mother started asking her interrogator questions about her child. It took me some time to figure out: they were nursing students, doing role plays.
Sorry that story is anti climatic, I found it so as well, and wished to share my disappointment when I figured it out.

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Anyhow, I have things to do, and should probably stop procrastinating and get on with my work.

Take care,
M'

With some urgency

Please do sign the above petition. Hopefully I'll see you at the rally tommorow on the lawn of parliment house in the ACT.

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Today I forgot my iPod, so I'm on the train listening to music on my laptop (with headphones). It is for this reason that I've found time to post.

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An aside before I so even start; I recently joined the microblogging Twitter subculture.

I was in an educational psychology lecture; these are a very slow kind of lectrure that crawls along, turning slow circles such that over the course of an hour, nothing is really said, but unrealted examples are given. The lady sitting next to me distainfully pointed out one student who last lecture sat infront of her with his laptop charger plugged into the presenters concole, microblogging his way through the lecture on twitter.
At this point, I decided I should get a Twitter account, as I thought microblogging lectures was a great idea.
Due to a restriction on the number of characters, I couldn't get surroundsound5000 as my Twitter name, so I had to go with Surround5000.
Anyhow, Twittering is just like status updates on Facebook, but without the Facebook attatched. It seems to me a little silly to be randomly changing your status; to quote Adam Hills:
"Barry is at the Adam Hills show."
"Barry is laughing."
"Barry has stopped laughing."
"Noone likes barry."

It's a lot like that.

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Finally, I was in Chatswood today, and noticed they have expanded their parking restrictions, but this is one for the better. In Chatswood Westfield, along with the Disabled parking and the Prams priority parking, they now have Hybrid vehicle only parking. I think it's a fantastic idea. In application, it's probably fairly pointless (if hybrid owners park in the convenient locations, and drivers of inneficient vehicles have to drive to the top level and lap the parking lot looking for a spot), but the idea is definately sound.

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Also, if anyone has tips to improve my samosas, I'd appreciate them. Currently they're a little bland.

Peace,
M'

Backlog

It has been a very long time since I posted last. This is not because I have had nothing to post about. Far from it. My life has effectively started afesh. The reasons for my lack of posting are twofold: I have had an ideas backlog that became so large I simply couldn't think what to write first, (and couldn't put in day to day updates for the lack of chronology) and secondly I haven't had the time.

I have scribbled a few things down, and now is probably the time to get them out.

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From (I think) late last year (Written on my phone):

I have never liked Newcastle as a city.
It is only because everyone I speak to seems to think it is so nice that I even considered living here. Every time I come, I remember how sad town it is.

Today has been a typical newcastlo day. It is too hot, I an bored and hungry, I have wandered aimlessly for most of The day, and I cannot find out the info I came for.

I was sitting on some steps when I saw a sign fall over, and felt so dejected by the atmosphere of the town that I simply let it fall . I didn't move to pick it up until I saw someone else struggling. When I helped him, neither he nor I said a word to each other. I fear this seems to typify the town. In fact, I have been here for a few hours now, and not one person has said a single word. Now, I an beginning to wonder; is this really where I want to live?

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As a result of this boring day, I decided I'll be moving to Sydney. See you there.

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If you are searching for love: this is not the way.

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In the past few weeks, I have seen a few good bands, a few good comedians, and a few good movies.

The bands include Grinspoon, Old Man River and The Herd, amongst many others. I really need to get back into the habit of bringing my camera to gigs. This post is long and boring without photographic interjection.

One of the comedians was Wil Anderson, who gave a hopelessly underwhelming show. Another was Adam Hills, who'se show was one of the best I've seen. There were others who were generally either good or bad or good and then bad. I'd like to go into detail, but I'm too tired, so I'll leave it at that.

As for movies, I saw Spike Lee's "Do The Right Thing" last on Monday (which left me desperately craving pizza), and last night saw two more films. One was "The International", which has one of the best action sequences of any film I've seen, and overall makes for reasonable mindless viewing. The other was NOTORIOUS, which was more interesting than I expected, but I didn't expect much.

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Also since moving to Sydney, I got a job doing odd jobs and helping out in an office (on a two day contract, which then became three weeks - egad I'm good), finished up there, and now have a part time job. I'm contractually bound in confidentiallity, so I best not post details on the interweb.

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Well that should get the ball rolling again.

I feel I just needed to get started and maybe now I'll be able to get posting more frequently.

Take care,

Carpe Diem (We all need that subtle reminder once in a while),

M'