BubbaJay

A Study in Contrast

2011-06-28T09:26:00.001+10:00

I have moaned about two IT corporations many times in the past. But this post is a measure of redemption for one of them. I have an iPhone (or more accurately an iEmail) and the biggest benefit of the iPhone re music is its podcast capability. It is very easy to load podcasts onto the device and access them.
Actually finding the podcasts is not as intuitive as I would like because the iTunes GUI is horrible (HORRIBLE). But I have been able to listen to lectures and the like while commuting into the city.

By comparison my new laptop (LOVE IT) is running Windows 7. I have railed against Microsoft on occasion, but I must say I really like this OS. It's comparatively unobtrusive and just as engaging as the Mac OS's that I've used (and I am an old school Mac user from way back) with the added advantage that it wasn't designed by the R&D staff at Fisher Price.

The point of this article, dear hearts, is that I found an old MP3 player at the bottom of a draw the other day. It's a Sony Walkman, only 1GB capacity, but chock full of great tracks. I plugged it into to my laptop and have been able to swap files effortlessly. No proprietary software required. No files have been irrevocably deleted etc.

It's a simple device that even comes with a built in radio and stores a PDF User Guide. As soon as my phone contract expires I'll be flinging my iPhone into something concrete and getting Nokia smartphone or two cans and some string haven't decide which yet.

The most interesting thing in the world

2011-06-27T08:53:00.000+10:00

No not really, just regular parenting stuff. Over the weekend I did not get up to much except eat a lot of great food. Which could be any two days starting with a 'S'. But for some reason I was exhausted by Sunday night, got to bed about 8pm and slept through.

But an odd thing I woe up in the middle of the night and had trouble getting back to sleep. Usually (every other time) my thoughts drift off towards the 'everything that is going wrong' direction as happens to us all in the wee small hours. But instead my thoughts went 180 and reminded me about everything great going on my life. I finally got back to sleep with a feeling of enormous peace of mind.
I cannot tell you the last time that happened...

So I hope you guys all have a great Monday and if this possitivity is contagious, I hope you catch it to!

Squash VS Tennis

2011-05-20T08:50:00.000+10:00

Last night I played a couple of games of social competition Tennis. Infuriatingly our opponents were dirty Smurfs one of whom was particularly patronising. But I digress, I usually play Squash on a Monday night (just with a bunch of the lads) and it is a lot of fun. But what I have noticed is that the techniques for holding a Squash racquet and playing a shot is very different from those techniques used in Tennis.

Most obviously is the force applied to the ball and height of the return. Squash is played on a court about the size of half a Tennis court. However in Squash the surface area of play is much greater (incorporating the side walls) also the height of the playable shots is much lower than a Tennis net. The strokes I play in Squash are forceful to carry a small heavy ball against the wall for the effect of the rebound.

So as a comparison in Tennis I'm trying to land a ball within a smaller playing surface area on a flat trajectory. The net (sic) result is a major modification of how I hold the racquet and serve and return and more or less every thing. This manifested itself in very slow play, though I was happy with the accuracy. Tennis is just another skill to learn but I am amused at the experience that Squash has given me for both sports.

For the record I lost every game, but did win a couple of points.

Movie Review: C'or it's Thor

2011-05-18T11:48:00.000+10:00

or alternatively 'You're thor?!? I can hardly walk!'

Firstly I should say that this was my first 3D movie experience. So on the basis of a single 3D movie I can't say it did much (in an obvious fashion) for my viewing experience. I didn't feel things leaping out of the screen and in most cases the screen looked a lot like some of the 3D comics I have. By which I mean each scene with layered foregrounds etc looked like a stage set from a Gilbert and Sullivan opera. Flat trees and rocks in the foreground, flat trees and characters in the mid ground etc.
Though having said that I did have a feel of largeness of space for the Bifrost gateway. In my opinion when 3D actually adds an extra dimension then it might be worthwhile. For example compare the differences between colour and black and white movies. The initial colour movies were perhaps a little gimicky (eg secret garden).

But what did I think of the film? I thought it was perfect for the material, lots of biff, lots of comic book banter, great linkages with the other avenger films and very pretty to look at. It's nice to see that studios can commit to an idea of a good plot connecting multiple movies and characters. Perhaps someone explained to them that not arsing around with a character or story (Judge Dredd, HHGTTG) will get more geeks into a theatre.

Tidying Up

2011-05-02T18:55:00.000+10:00

I have undergone some Autumn tidying. Or clearing as the case may be. I've boxed up a large number of books and CD's from the study. Partly because CJ can reach the lower shelves (an activity of seemingly endless satisfaction is pulling CD's out of the shelf then separating case from disk, repeat) and partly because it recently occurred to me that despite owning hundreds of CD's I mostly listen to a small handful of them at any one time.
Part of the epiphany is due to the appalling GUI that comes with an iphone. While trying to load a new CD I managed to erase all the 1,000+ tracks I had. The software is just horrible to use and after destroying my avant garde collection I realised that most of the music was there to impress other people. I didn't listen to it. Using itunes is such a pain the arse that I have not bothered to load more than a couple of CD's. I can't say that my musical experience is diminished. I find the MP3 format quite frustrating for good quality music so the convenience of the medium is tampered by the dissatisfaction of the form.

So oddly this lead to a cleaning out of the library in the study. Perhaps minimalism is the the new maximisim. Who knows...

The Food Dude

2011-04-28T09:49:00.000+10:00

I am preparing a cooking blog and while in the shower I had a great name for the blog, The Food Dude. Unfortunately this rhyming name is already taken by a World Health Organisation program seemingly reminiscent of Jamie Oliver. The images around the web site look twee, the kind of 'cool kids' crap that Hungry Jacks has on its kids meals.
The programme (and subsequent blog) is all about getting kids to eat more healthy foods, blah, balh, middle class angst etc...

The other Food Dude page I found was for a catering firm. I will say this about catering food, it is only a slightly more up market version of fast food. Nevermind how hard people work at it, catering for 20 or more people means razor thin margins on ingredients. I have been to many functions at all times of the day or night and I have come to loathe the food served there.

When I do eventually come up with a name for my blog it will focus on home cooking. It will be mostly for guys and will be sympathetic to a 30minute window of cooking time. More to follow, any suggestions for a name appreciated...

Oddly Specific

2011-04-28T09:36:00.000+10:00

I'm thinking this has to be a joke or delayed April Fools gag. But I have said this phrase in my thoughts many, many times.
Link to Go the Fu*k to Sleep here

I can't comment as to the effectiveness of this book in helping a child go to sleep, so I suspect the audience is us parents.

Is that what I think it is...

2011-04-12T16:37:00.000+10:00

Saw this cloud on the train last night heading home, it looks a lot like something familiar...

Is it just me or does that cloud look a lot like a Star Destroyer?

Rockin' It

2011-04-12T16:35:00.000+10:00

I got to do something I've always wanted to do on Saturday. Well more accurately, something I've always wondered what it would be like to do. I got up on stage with my guitar mentor Steve and played a couple of songs at a 'groovey pub'.

I'm not the worlds greatest guitarist, but I do love music so I guess that counts for something. I say I've always wondered what it would be like because until Saturday I'd never played in a public venue before. Maybe we all have a 'stars in the eyes' moment, mine usually occur in the shower where in my imagination I'm rockin it in front of a huge crowd at some expansive stadium...

So Saturday was something of a milestone and if I'm truthful, I was not all that good. I missed a couple of chords changes and the sound equipment was not the best (it was great if you were at the end of the bar, not so good if you were on stage) so it was hard to hear what the others were doing. So the good news here is that I've realised a life long dream of playing in band, at a pub in front of a (admittedly small) audience. Something worth sharing I think.

Almost, but not quite there yet...

Old Skool is the New Old Skool

2011-04-08T16:42:00.001+10:00

If you watch one satirical video about the history of the Beastie Boys today, watch this one.

On the weekend

2011-03-30T10:14:00.001+11:00

We went to an Apple Fair, it was a bit shite to tell you the truth. The location was Pettys Orchard, which is right on the Yarra in quite a lovey location. The orchard is well known for it's commitment to preserving heritage varieties of apples. It's a remarkable fact that most apple trees can have different fruit grafted onto to them (therefore growing 2 or more varieties on the same tree) allowing for the preservation of trees and fruit.
So there are good intentions here. However, as was pointed out to me, there was also very little apple themed activities going on at the festival. No apple bobbing or apple pie eating contests (which myself and CJ would have won in our respective age categories). But lots of overpriced 'organic' food and healing-power-of-crystals rubbish.
The highlight, such as it was, were the snakes. I finally conquered a trepidation I have felt about snakes and let a Murray Darling Python (actually a rather affectionate Murray Darling Python) climb over me. They are surprisingly soft and I felt the outward skin to be feathery (of all things) while his belly was very smooth.
Can I say my reaction to snakes has changed? Not really but I am glad I did make friends, briefly, with a snake.

Getting with IT

2011-03-30T09:52:00.000+11:00

So I suggested a new direction or new medium for BubbaJay. My thinking is a cooking blog.
I love food and I love to cook and I think it's a good thing to write. I'll continue BubbaJay but will be preparing a cooking blog. My goal is to have a starting line up of 12 recipes by the end of April and kick it off from there.

Anyway more excuses for slack blogging performance below...

It has been a while

2011-03-15T10:06:00.000+11:00

I would be lying if I said it's because nothing interesting has occurred. But it has been a while since my last post. Trying to decide whether or not to continue with BubbaJay or to try something different.

Brevity, at its best

2010-11-05T12:00:00.000+11:00

Many moons ago I won second place in a creative writing competition. I was beaten by a plagiarising girl who exceeded the word limit, ripped off a Roald Dahl short story. I'm confident she is wracked with guilt and a hollow feeling till this day.

I've always entertained a fancy to be a writer and were it not for the need to eat occasionally and pay bills, I would've committed my self to that road years ago. I found this article (courtesy of the New Yorker) that put me in mind of the afore mentioned writing competition.
It is a review of a gimmick book. A collection of stories 25 words or less. They are rather a nice example of the old trick, 'Don't think of White Horse'. You inevitably do and often picture its surroundings or the weather or the time of day.

Have a read HERE

My RE Teacher may have laughed

2010-10-28T10:54:00.000+11:00

It's funny because its funny.
F#ck Off Jesus HERE

May cache a little slow, hang in there for the Freedbird one...

Awesome Flow Chart

2010-10-27T13:47:00.000+11:00

How to explain the Internet to a 19th Century Urchin.
Link HERE

And now the calming...

2010-10-05T19:59:00.000+11:00

The end of the Winter sports season has passed. In Melbourne this means the end of pointless (to me) AFL news and the welcome pause before irrelevant inter-state cricket competitions. But in our house the sporting rivalry is alive and well. CJ has taken to playing with balls of all sizes and shapes, while CJ is asleep Evie and I have taken to competitions of 'Donkey'.
(for those who came late or who live in barren cultural wilderness of America; Donkey is game where people chuck a ball at each other. Whoever drops the ball gains a letter in the word Donkey. First to earn all the letters in the word wears the appellation for the rest of the day)

Needless to say the competition is getting more heated the more we play. Sanity however may have been restored this evening when we both agreed to quit while we were each on 'DONKE'.
I think sport is the winner this evening.

If it works, do it

2010-10-05T07:17:00.000+11:00

The past couple of months I've been laid low by a series of bugs picked up by CJ from child care.Both of us have been crook as a dog. An effect of this has been not going to the gym. Which isn't all bad to tell you the truth. But as we all started to get better I did notice that unlike previous absences from exercise I was not gaining weight. In fact when I restarted my gym ambition I discovered I had lost another 3Kg's.
Most surprising!

But what did stand out was the low energy levels and sapping strength. I ran about with a ball with CJ for a few minutes and I was exhausted. Not the kind of Dad I want to be. Thankfully CJ seems to be through the worst of it all. The headline there is that Evie and I have been improving and I've been able to get back to exercise.
Starting to feel a little bit sore this morning, but glad to have the positive benefits.

DB's I have known

2010-10-03T14:26:00.000+11:00

Last month was very hectic and I have been chastised for not keeping the blog up to date. It's a case of real life chewing up all my bandwidth.

++++++++++++++++

So I was in Canberra last week, for work, doing a flying visit. Dropping off something before turning around quickly to head back to Melbourne for some other stuff. Well I bumped into a DB I had known from a previous life. Exchanged some pleasantries but I was reminded almost instantly what a complete and utter Richard Cranium this DB is.

So in a way it forced a comparison of the people I know in both cities. Up in Canberra I had several circles of friends and even more circles of acquaintances. This particular DB was in a social intersection of two of those groups. While down here in Melbourne I actually have a number of friends and people I like.

What I am trying to comment on is how people or personalities of a like nature group together (in a vague and untested hypothesis). In Canberra I had these dear friends who were this amazing social contradiction. Most of the people I met through them were complete and utter DB's. People who were just uninterested and uninteresting. The phenomenon is one I can really only address in retrospect. Looking back I recall that any of their social gatherings I attended mostly comprised people who worked together with no scope of conversation and a limited interest in people outside of their work environment. They had no discernible charm beyond self flattery and thrived in situations where they could self actualize with the same people they saw everyday.

So having moved on, these memories are what last weeks encounter stirred up. I defend Canberra as a location because I liked living there and I like visiting it, but when analysing this rich seam of DBaggery I am confounded that so dominant a personality trait could be so concentrated. But perhaps that is the focus that objective distance can produce.

Stunt Cycle

2010-08-24T06:25:00.000+10:00

In summary, went back to drinking some coffee, election uncertainty and a long time between guitar playing.
Re Coffee, no good reason there. After managing almost 3 weeks I tried a cup of tea and felt really good for having drunk one. So a few days later it was half a cup of flat white. Mostly this was brought upon by a work trip to Canberra. In Canberra coffee is drunk at ever opportunity and when one is going from meeting to meeting a cafe is the natural meeting place...
So I have drunk coffee, not necessarily back on the coffee wagon.

The election occurred without an immediate result. The counting continues with results swinging back and forth on the tiniest of margins. It's becoming apparent there is a growing divide between the city and country, especially Queensland and WA. Easy to make fun of people who don't read and hate learning, but they do vote.

Haven't had the chance to play the guitar much lately. In the evenings it wakes up CJ and first thing in the morning is the same. During the day (on the weekend) we are usually rushing about so much that it's just impractical. I'm looking forward to this Sunday arvo and a jam with my buddy.

It continues...

2010-08-13T09:25:00.000+10:00

We'll Bubbas we are through the looking glass on this one, it's almost two weeks since I last had a coffee.
I'm over the headaches and other withdrawal symptoms. But being back at work coffee consumption is so much of a habit, 10am, 2pm, meetings with clients etc. Overall though my body seems to have adapted, I'm not snacking as much (which is good) and my afternoon alertness is about the same.

Found this article about coffee HERE a bit of fun and timely...

No Caffeine

2010-08-09T21:26:00.000+10:00

Well my Bubbas last week I was struck down with a vicious tummy bug. How bad you ask? I lost about 5kg's, which in my book is pretty bad. However there is an upside 1) I fine and can eat again and 2) I couldn't drink coffee or tea during my recovery (just didn't like the taste). I've been without caffeine now for a week.
What I notice most of all is my level of hunger has risen. Before with the coffee (2 or 3 a day) I did not need an afternoon snack. Today I had a pie and I still managed to have room for soup, salad and eggplant lasagna for dinner. If there is a connection (coffee is rumoured to be an appetite suppressant) it is more surprising than I would have thought. I intend to keep this caffeine free period up for as long as I can. I'll report back in a weeks time...

Awesome Info Graph

2010-08-08T19:23:00.000+10:00

Actually really good

2010-08-07T15:06:00.000+10:00

I found this via the Daily What, it's a very clever (ultraviolent) short based on those games hacks one see's now and again. Tres gammer nerd chic, enjoy!

The Goon

2010-08-03T06:22:00.000+10:00

Oh my Bubba's, as you are all well aware I am a sucker for a good trailer. And each good trailer I recommend does not necessarily translate to a good movie.
However, this time I know it's going to be awesome;
1. Clancy Brown
2. Paul Giamatti
3. It's a violent cartoon
4. With zombies
and the clincher
5. Any movie that plays Southern Culture on the Skids "White Trash" is a stone cold oscar winner.

Open to your thoughts after you witness it HERE

Soccer Milestone

2010-07-27T06:29:00.000+10:00

So last weekend (the one before last) I played my first game of soccer in like ages! To be honest it was only indoor soccer (mheh) but still... My old flatmate talked me into it and our competition was a bunch of young people who had fine falling down in front of the ref acting skills (SKILLZ).
I swear to Bubba those little shits where hopeless (at falling down) but they did score a shit load more goals than us.

And I learnt an important truth about my fitness, my cardio is way down on where I would like it. After 7 minutes (I think) of playing I was exhausted, sweat pouring off me and energy drained.
The good news story is that my knee held up. The next couple of days my legs were sore, which I was expecting, but my knee was fine. So at least my gym work is paying off in one respect.

Super Melody

2010-07-08T20:26:00.000+10:00

This guy is probably a one hit wonder, but what a hit (HERE).
I first heard track while stuck in traffic on the way to work this week. It just caught my attention with it's melody and retro sound.
RRR is the station to blame and thank you to the breakfast crew that I heard it again this morning and remembered to repeat the artists name 10 times so I would not forget them...

Distraction

2010-07-06T07:11:00.000+10:00

After some consideration we went to Lake Mountain on Sunday. Lake Mountain being a cross country ski run just up from the devastated (but recovering) ruins of Marysville. It was our wee girls second time to the snow and she didn't do too bad. She didn't cope with the slope we had her on, but to be fair her boots we not a perfect fit and I think we can all claim to have had trouble on the snow the first time we walked on it.

So after a half hour or so we took her back down to the carpark and played amongst the snow there. Built a snowman threw some snowballs around and generally had a grand old time of it. I think she started to get the hang of it all on a level surface.

We're off to Perisher in August, hopefully for some good weather, so we can all experience the fun of wall to wall snow. This weekend got us thinking that perhaps we need to go somewhere decent for a ski trip. That Australia has snow at all is incredible, but for the most part the resorts are mediocre at best. We've been lucky in the past couple of years with the weather but typically there is as much mud as there is snow.

Perhaps I'm trying to justify this to myself more than to you Bubba's... So we're thinking either Japan or Canada. To be continued.

Forget and Recall

2010-06-30T07:42:00.000+10:00

This past month and a bit has been a collision of the old and the new for me. I feel on the one hand that I'm continuing a phase of my life I thought I would not reconnect with here in Melbourne. On the other hand I see a continuation of another life via Canberra while at the same time watching my new life open out before me.

What a wonderful place to be in. All these threads of my past lives (Melb mk.1, Canberra and Melb mk.2) are coming together. I'm loving it, I feel more complete for the experience. My old flatmate and I were shooting the breeze and we both confessed how much we had unconsciously missed the others company. when you live with someone in a share house you get to know them pretty well. But flatmates are very hit and miss, one of the reasons I never went down the shared house route in Canberra ( I figured, with some justification, that there would be more zero's than hero's).

But it's also important to remember that people change and that evolving and growing and accepting of changes and challenges can help you become more than the sum of your parts or experiences. Perhaps this is what they call growing up?

Pillow qUEST

2010-06-30T07:32:00.000+10:00

I had this great pillow see (have just started reading 'The Lady in the Lake') it was a perfect balance of soft with just enough form to hold my head in place. Delightful is the only word to describe it.

One problem though - it smelt. Stank is the way Evie described it. I went down the path of denial for a while. How can you say that, it just needs and airing, I really like this pillow, it's the only one you haven't stolen from me etc But the truth of the matter was, it did smell.

It seems that the filling was a synthetic kind of material, but one that absorbs human sweat. By way of background being bald means my head gets cold during the chilly winter evenings, I usually combat this by draping a t-shirt over my head. Seems that we had some warmer than usual nights and I found myself waking up bathed in sweat. The comfy-comfy pillow soaked it up. You know I defended that pillow but when I read that last sentence I understand the position of my loved ones. (the pillow was not even allowed to be on the bed during the day.)

Well things came to a head (chortle) a couple of weeks ago, even I could smell the pillow and our daughter was playing on our bed. I struck a deal that any pillow I got was mine and would not be appropriated. With both parties in agreement my daughter and I headed off to our local Spotlight.

There are pillows and then there are pillows. Most are too hard and shapeless or perhaps more accurately unable to be shaped. Most of the hotel pillows I have ever used fall into this category (true story, when traveling for work, if I was going to be in a place for more than a week I would pack one of my pillows for the trip). But this variety means that people have a wide variety of preferences.

I settled on a duck feather pillow that combines softness and shape. I have slept like a log that is very tired every night since. Mission accomplished.

Old Flatmates, New friends

2010-06-30T07:10:00.000+10:00

So one day not long ago, as I was walking out of a place I bump into the (deep breath) the brother-of-the-mate-of-an-old-flatmate whom I flatted with when I lived in Melbourne during last century. Still think that is fun to write it that way.
So we swapped cards and said let's catch up for lunch. Usually with these sorts of things it takes a while or two or in fact I don't follow up. Well this time I did follow up and a couple of weeks later we're having lunch at docklands. It was great to catch up so we agreed to catch up again next month and invite my old flatmate.

Not having had much contact with my flatmates since having moved to Canberra I was surprised how quickly we picked things up. I guess we had both grown up some but also kept a core of what was good about ourselves. After lunch I was invited to join an online game evening with some of the boys.

To be honest I was thrilled, I love playing computer games - I know the women in my life don't get it, that it is Girl Kryptonite - but I love it. Short story I had a blast and over the next couple of weeks I've managed to catch up and meet some old friends and new ones.

Melbourne is making a good case for residency.

Haven't written for a While

2010-06-30T06:59:00.000+10:00

My excuse this time is more about opportunity than subject matter. In the past two months I've written 3 things. Which is not to say I haven't had only 3 things to write about but more I haven't had the time to write.

So rather than do 1 big brain dump I will share a collection of short blogs to follow...

Feeling good is good enough

2010-06-04T16:56:00.000+10:00

Boy howdy Bubbas, last month has been a blur... of sickness!!
I lost a week or so plus to a lurgy (See previous post ) that was diagnosed (by SCIENCE) as laryngitis. I lost my voice for a couple of days and spent my birthday curled up on the couch covered by a blanket watching 'The Empire Strikes Back' and 'Kelly's Hero'. Not all bad.

But I'm feeling better now and ready to go for June.

Karma is a funny thing

2010-05-12T20:54:00.000+10:00

In think the theme for the past few weeks has been karma or perhaps the benefit of being in a (spiritually or mentally) healthy work environment. I've been struck with a throat lurgy that only gets worse when I'm at a particular location. It gets so bad that I go home and start to feel better almost immediately.

In conversation with a friend at the gym we got to discussing yoga (as you do) and the kinds of energy a state of mind can conduct. Mental energy affects physical energy, I believe this to be true. So when I get physically sick from being in a certain building, do something that I no longer enjoy... Perhaps there is a metaphysical cause at work. My friend asked me about the lurgy, I said that I didn't know what it wanted yet (meaning that for colds and flu's get to a point where I crave a food or a smell or a location. And once I get said want, the lurgy starts to dissipate). then my friend said something really odd, 'Have you got what you want out of the lurgy yet?'.

It got me thinking. The answer is no, not yet (it will have by the end of this week).

Speaking of the lighter side of Karma, I liked this story HERE

Space Awesome Radio

2010-05-02T10:15:00.000+10:00

When I've been on the radio, doing my thing, I would play a piece from the Brandenburg Concertos and introduce it with an anecdote about the Voyager space probes. As these craft leave the solar system they are broadcasting music from Earth to anybody who is able to hear it.
Just imagine what sort of impression you would get from hearing music as the first introduction to our civilisation. Hopefully a positive one.

Thus below we find the complete play list of both Voyage 1 and 2. An excellent selection, I'm sure you'll agree.

Too Soon?

2010-04-26T20:35:00.000+10:00

A flash game from Miniclip re the Icelandic Volcano (whom we call Davo) HERE

Animated Gif's - some are better than others

2010-04-24T15:45:00.002+10:00

The Future of Books

2010-04-24T15:22:00.002+10:00

Kindle, iPads and whatever... an intersting article HERE

I would hope in the future the printed word still has a place. This move to putting them on screens fills me with no enthusiasm for the medium. Books have two advantages for me at the moment, they don' t need batteries and I can read them on the loo.

Your move technology...

Listening to Lou Reed makes you do stuff..

2010-04-24T14:52:00.000+10:00

Last night at band practice we had a really cool moment when we were in the GROOVE. We had this tight sound and headspace going on. I started off mucking about with some chords (I was trying to recall the sequence for "Across the universe". We managed to keep a rhythm and lock in a beat and energy that was fantastic.

So I happened, for an unrelated reason, to be listening to The Velvet Underground's "Waiting for the Man". The thing that strikes me the most about that song is the simple 3 chord structure (3 1/2 if you count the Suspended 6th in the chorus). Mr Reed himself described the recording of the song as seeing what happens if you keep up 3 chords for as long as you can.
Listening to the sounds and various instruments on the track you can hear people experimenting with effects and emphasis and contribution but still managing to stick within the songs structure. All in all a great example of a jam working well.

Sell the Swindle

2010-04-09T10:25:00.000+10:00

Others might not care but the passing of Malcom Mclaren is the passing of Punk's Nixon. Forever dispised by the Indie music scene for always selling the swindle and having a swindle to sell.

From the John Lydon website HERE probably the most honest obit you will ever hear about the deceased.

An interesting Article

2010-04-05T20:00:00.001+10:00

In my last year at Uni (last century) I did an anthropology course Anth 101. (Sounds like the name of a BBQ CD Best of...)
One of the (many) useless things we had to do was write a story about a tribe (creativity!!) from the perspective of one of the tribal members. I picked a tribe from the Amazon called the Yanamanno or Yannimato or whatever. The name roughly translates as the 'Real People' and yes they ingest an ungodly amount of drugs. They also had an interesting counting system.
One
Two
More than Two

That was it. They also wandered around vandalising the jungle and stealing (way big on stealing stuff. From everyone and anything).
After a while reading about these wild men of the jungle I got the distinct impression that the anthropologist who was visiting with them just really wound up loathing these guys with every fibre in his body. The whole counting thing was only the tip of the iceberg. Numbers for these guys = just not that important.

Nice to know I'm not the only one, HERE.

Always good to know...

2010-04-04T19:29:00.000+10:00

Action!!

2010-04-03T08:27:00.004+11:00

Many upcoming action infused adventure movies will be coming to a cinema near you soonish. Just about all of them will suck completely and utterly, rendering my will to care (about crappy action movies) paralysed.

All except, perhaps, possibly for this guy HERE

Background data Here and Here
So yes it is another SNL straight to video movie, but it could be worth a larf or two (as a video).

*******

In other news the weather has finally turned into Autumn, which means we cannot be too far away from that first dump of snow!!!

On the nature of Food

2010-03-28T09:23:00.002+11:00

We watched 'Julie/Julia' last night and was not impressed. I think the concept is great, take a cook book and cook every recipe (assumes that every recipe is worth cooking or that in the process you become more proficient).

One of the things that struck me about the film (have not read the blog) was the absence of endorsement from Mrs Child for the project. In fact I later discovered that she thought it was a completely facile project. She also noted that the food was rarely commented on (in the movie the only adjective is 'Yum') and never addressed the flavours or textures.

I felt overall that the movie did nothing for cooking and was a missed opportunity. I did feel however that Meryl Streep did a fine turn as Julia C and it is always a pleasure to see Stanley Tucci. But there was so little emphasis given to the cooking in the movie, so little attention paid to ingredients, to ovens, pots, pans, frying, blanching, steaming or roasting. Poaching does get a mention but the emphasis is on the reaction of the protagonist to the finished product. Given that the idea of the film is cooking it becomes a movie blog with a character who has no language to communicate the raison d'etre of the cook book.

If I were to recommend the reader to any good food movies I would simply start and finish with 'Big Night' (thank you, Mr Tucci). Here the meal is important, the ritual of preparing the meal, concentrating on the available time for dishes, guests and music all follow in order with finality being the mouthfuls of this amazing feast. It's a movie that takes food seriously, its about people who are serious about food, it's a recognition that food like music has an audience. Its a lovely movie.

I mentioned at the start that to cook every recipe in a book should in the least improve your proficiency in the kitchen. The movie implied the Julie character cooked dishes blind without having tested them first. This I find hard to swallow as they had just moved into a new place and had no experience with the oven. Every oven is different, they cook differently, they heat differently. Some have an uneven heating distribution, some heat from above but not below, one side more than the other etc. The variations are endless but the upshot is - you need to know your oven because only then will you know how to adapt recipes to suit it's behaviour.

But I will finish by acknowledging that all this started with a blog (like this one) that took off and got turned into a movie. So firstly, well done. My Blog is my personal ramblings where I am the main character. Occasionally I'll look at something else, but it will always be from my viewpoint. The movie (not the 'Julie/Julia' blog) is intended for an audience whereas the blog can be entirely personnel. If the movie was looking at the herculean task of cooking recipes it treated it like pressing each key on the keyboard of a piano ('Today I cooked aspic', 'Today I pressed Middle C - Yum').

Versus the Wasps

2010-03-24T16:27:00.003+11:00

Well it was an exciting venture, I tell you whut Bubba's. Me against a whole mess of angry wasps. I was wrapped up like a environmentalist standing before the riot police, rock poised my hand.

*******

A few days ago we noticed an ever increasing presence of wasps around the house. Being mindful of our beautiful child we looked about for the nest. It transpired that there were two nests nearby, one at a neighbours and one out the front of our place.

I do not like wasps. I grew up with them in NZ, they are aggressive, they hurt like hell and can sting multiple times (unlike a bee). They also scare me, I have a scar on my left thumb from an encounter with a wasp.
But that nest had to go. Traditional methods include tipping a jerry can of petrol down the entrance and blocking it up with a rag and a brick. Not having a jerry can I called on my neighbours who lent me a tube of some kind of 'DeathKill' powder for bugs.
When dealing with wasps one has to wait until it's dark when they go to sleep. Alternatively you can wait until it's cold. Both have the effect of limiting their activity.

I waited until it was dark. I also bound myself up with gloves, a thick shirt, heavy boots, my work pants (tucked into my socks) and had my head covered by a hat, t-shirt and tea towel around my face. Angry wasps go into a stinging frenzy, take no risks.

At the entrance to the wasp nest were a few sentries. Holding my Zippo lighter at arms length I fried them with a can of Baygon and ignited a tree stump nearby. Needless to say my adrenaline was up. I quickly dumped the contents of the 'DeathKill' powder into the hive entrance, blocked it up and slammed the rock in place just as the first wasps were teetering their way out of hole. Another burst of baygon napalm.

Which is about when I heard the buzzing near my ear.

A wasp was on me trying to get inside my protection and sting me behind the ear.

I ran inside (calmly)

I calmly called to Evie to spray me with Baygon (this engendered a robust debate about baygon).

Some more buzzing and then quiet.

I stripped off washed myself and sat shaking on the couch for a half hour.

By then I recalled I set fire to a tree stump and I had to brave the dying wasps nest again to put it out. Thankfully I seemed to won the battle with my first strike. The fire was extinguished successfully.
It was then and only then did I feel I needed a beer.

Does not seem that long

2010-03-11T19:29:00.002+11:00

Realised today that I've been blogging here for 4 years (now in my 5th). Not bad I must say.

It was interesting to go back over the older posts and see what I was doing and what I thought was worth recording. I know I've left some stuff out, but it's been fun to be reminded of some stuff.

I have to confess I enjoy jotting down my thoughts here and I only hope that every know and again people enjoy my writing. Even the short little notes like these.

They look through your rubbish bin

2010-03-10T15:18:00.002+11:00

This will be one of my more bizarre posts.

For a couple of weeks now the on ramp of the Eastern Distributor that I take coming home has had a suspicious looking red plastic bottle on the side of the road. The more I noticed it the more the more I realised 1) The council doesn't clean up the side of the road often enough and 2) it began to look more and more like a male genital enhancement device (a P$nis Pump).

Which got me thinking. What if it was? Why is there on the on ramp? Who threw it out the car window (or truck or bus or taxi...)? What if it was a gay guy on a date, had been talking up his endowerment (I made that word up) and was afraid of the moment of truth. So he goes to the porno store, gets the pump and is furiously trying to 'fix the problem' while driving. Then has to throw it out the window 'to hide the evidence'.
Or maybe its a hens night.
Or maybe an enraged lover flings it from the moving car.
Or the Bishop is driving a Nun to the church. She finds it asks what it is...

The possibilities as a story are great! But today, while driving home I saw it had gone. The street cleaning machine had been and swept it up. Whoever flung this device onto the on ramp may have had to drive by it every day. The shame like the beating of the Tell Tale Heart as he passed it, accelerating to join the rush of traffic on the motorway.

And now it is gone.

A very, very good article

2010-02-24T11:48:00.003+11:00

Have a read of THIS. Possibly the best example of the reduction of literary discipline in the Blogsphere (via the Boston Globe).

But having said that, recall if you will the tenants of 'Here comes everybody', don't confuse your ability to find content with the intended audience of the content.

New Talent

2010-02-21T12:02:00.003+11:00

The more I think about this young man, the more I think this may be the saviour of Rock and Soul for this country. I see he's playing at the CMC Rocks the Snowys festival coming up early next month, so maybe that's got me thinking...

The artist is Dan Sultan, he is fantastic and his voice has an incredible energy!! Check out his performance on Rockwiz last year HERE

Check out his website HERE

I think Dan is going to be huge, he ought to be. Get on the bandwagon early children.

Exercise/Diet update

2010-02-07T14:46:00.002+11:00

Well its been 3 weeks since I began my well-being challenge to lose my excess Christmas weight. 3 weeks of watching what I eat and drink and exercising. My goal was to drop the 4kgs I'd picked up and improve my cardio strength.

The results are in, I've done it!! And the effort was totally worth it. I feel back to normal and in possession of my normal energy levels.

Very Awesome!!

Beware: New Rap God Alert

2010-02-05T08:11:00.006+11:00

Before you watch this, be sure to encase your head in solid titanium concrete or it will splode baby!!
(Can you name the tracks covered?)

Kids CD Goodness

2010-02-01T08:28:00.002+11:00

Growing up is a lengthy process, I myself am still a work in progress. When I was much younger TV was a relatively new product. When we got a TV it was black and white and rarely on (only one channel with a second added later). When we eventually got a colour TV only some shows were actually in colour! Most were still in black and white.

I listened to the radio a lot. From Casey Kasums top 40 countdown (where all Sunday afternoon he would count down the top 40 charts from the week and from the corresponding weeks in the 70's and the 60's) to the kids shows Radio National put on during school holidays. My earliest memories are associated with music and radio. I deeply treasure the stories I listened to while sitting in my dressing gown eating marmite on toast.

So for my daughter I would like to share those experiences. Which is problematic. In the first instance the majority of children's entertainment is on TV. So it's visual and colourful, but the kids are starring at the screen. Secondly when I have found a CD of stories or songs the production quality is low and calibre of the artist is lower (ABC I'm singling you out and that dreadful Georgie Parker). Tuneless records accompanied by the Freeware version of Garage Band as far as I can tell.

But every now and again I find a winner. As usual for Australia this release slipped right under the radar in this country. Probably because they didn't sign a marketing tie in with the ABC (the CD's are release by the artists in conjunction with Disney. This means Channel 9 here, which means no one at the soulless corporation would have a clue who they are).

I speak of They Might Be Giants and their CD's 'Here come the ABC's' and Here come the 123's'. Absolutely magical is my two word summary. I really enjoy the work of TMBG and these two CD's are perfect. The songs are inventive and humorous and full of wonderful imagery. In fact I was surprised to learn that at least one of the tracks was mixed by the Dust Brothers (Beck, The Chemical Brothers, Fight Club soundtrack etc).
Go looking for these CD's and find them if you can. I found our copies at an independent music store in their bargain bin. I encourage you to search them out. The TMBG albums are just superior in every way to the community theatre crap the ABC produces.

TMBG website HERE
My favourite song about 7 HERE (from the album 'Here come the 123's')

Take it off!!

2010-01-25T10:28:00.002+11:00

I love food, as regular readers will know.
Some people like food, they way they like music (eg Coldplay, any U2 album NOT produced by Brian Eno and Rob Thomas) . By which I mean cardboard and fancy free range French cardboard will taste about the same to them. They have a narrow range of flavour and sensations and have aspirations of only slightly broadening their pallette depending on which News Corp or Fairfax media outlet they preffer to tell them what to do and think.

I love food. I agree with a passion with Brillat Savarin that a the discovery of a new flavour brings greater joy to mankind than the discovery of a new star. Replace the word 'mankind' with 'my tummy' and we are entirely of one mind. In fact definately replace those words because I hate being hungry, ordering a food favourite, only to be told that some cardboard loving-Coldplay listening-drone has eaten the last one.

I love food, but as I get older my ability to expend the delicious food energy I consume becomes challanged. Especially over Christmas, with its barbies, beer and chips and rich flavoursome meals 3 (and somestimes 4) times a day. Recently I showed some friends a picture of me 20 something years ago and we all laughed at the curly haired youth with the Pixies t-shirt. That person was about 25kgs lighter than I am now.
Some people might be upset y such a difference, I am thrilled. Growing up I was pale, skinny and nerdy. Nowadays I've filled out (still nerdy) and I am happy about that. The difference is I now have to watch what I eat and exercise regularly to combat the sedentary lifestyle of working in an office.
Awesome dosen't just happen people!

After this Christmas I gained 4 kgs, so I am on my second diet ever. Cutting back on sugary foods, processed foods and fried foods (includes beer). As I've stated previously, I love food. My challange, and I am meeting it, is to cook wonderful food from good ingrediants that meet my dietry requirements. Thankfully its easier than you think.

Hope all you Bubba's are off to a good healthy and fit start to the New Year!! Will keep you posted on my progress!

Honorable Mentions

2010-01-18T16:27:00.002+11:00

Over the Christmas break I read a couple of John Mortimer 'Rumpole' case files. Jolly fun reading (though no exercise in the interpretation of the law). Rumpole spends his time in the courts of London and its environs, defending his clients by providing a reasonable alternative series of events that can in the very least provide grounds for reasonable doubt in a jury.

It has been a reading exercise I have enjoyed so much I have had to put the books down before the character of Rumpole subsumes me. I should mention that I was meandering with out of town friends amongst the stalls and hippies of the St Andrews market when I spied a collected works bargin. Three books of Rumpole for $3, how could I refuse!!

Killer Robots

2010-01-17T12:29:00.002+11:00

Don't know much about the guy who made this awesome short film.
It's 5 minutes of giant murderous robot rampage!!!

Link HERE

Could Giant Robots be the new craze to replace our waning interest in Zombie hordes? I hope so, roll on battling mecha hero's and villians!!

Housecleaning

2010-01-11T07:54:00.005+11:00

Over the weekend we cleaned out the fridge and the pantry. I know it doesn't sound like a Epic Win for the weekend but we learnt a lot from an archaeological perspective.
For example:

Once upon a time we had a problem with the house Alpha Male eating any and all chocolate biscuits that were left in the fridge as a votive offering to his AWESOMENESS. Thus denying the Alpha Female any gifts for visitors who drop by. Solution, buy these Griffins Orange Choc Biccies that are made entirely out of an inedible industrial grade orange substitute. Result: We have 3 month old foodstuffs to serve guests.
We have doubled up on nearly empty tomato sauce bottles.
There appears to be no rule for when to discard jam and other preservatives that both lack mold and were placed there last ski season.
The Back of the Fridge is a place where food goes to become a permanent resident. Once its at the Back of the Fridge, there it stays. Immortal and undying in a sleep of a thousand years or until we have another power blackout.

The freezer section is a whole other realm of frozen curiosities. Therein lies a plethora of leftovers and soups, empty iceblock cartons and frozen blueberries from last year. We don't often eat the food we freeze as it turns out we don't own a microwave.

To be honest we cleaned out an enormous amount of foodstuffs unfit for human consumption (but not those horrible, horrible Orange biccies) and it was at least a cleansing process. Liberating almost.

So if you are in the neighbourhood, drop by and enjoy our hospitality and eat the last of those awful biscuits so we can get some new ones.

Good Advice

2010-01-06T18:26:00.003+11:00

Good advice is something that you only realise when you don't take it. It's one of those moments of clarity where you smack the palm of your hand against your forehead and utter the immortal 'D'oh!'.

Then there are those moments when you do take someone's advice and wonder why you didn't do it sooner. In this particular instance I took my Guitar Mentors advice and got me a Lucinda Williams album (Car wheels on a gravel road).

Every song is fantastic. It just fits the mood I'm in musically at the moment. Now I see why we've been playing so much of her music at band practice. So while this may not be everyone's particular cup of tea, it is mine.

There is a lot to be said for giving advice, particularly good advice. So I owe a huge thank you to my Guitar Mentor.

Off to a good start

2010-01-04T07:25:00.002+11:00

Welcome to 2010 Bubba's!! Who'd have thunk it. 2010 sounds (or sounded) so very futuristic. A pity then we don't have spaceships and moon bases yet. I'm only slightly encouraged by the current PM's funding of the Australian space industry. So probably highly likely we won't see such sights any time soon.

On the other hand we do have a lovelly baby girl who is getting bigger and prettier by the day. My lovelly little girl is also a seasoned traveller who handled a trip to Sydney with ease and a car ride to Canberra without complaints.

Which reminds me, as part of my ongoing and irregular rant about pub food, I would like to thoroughly recommend the kitchen at the Mittagong Hotel (in Mittagong, NSW) for their excellent Chicken Schnitzel and Lambs Fry and Bacon. I'll let you gentle Bubba's decide for yourselves who had what. Both dishes were superb, the chicken was wonderfully dry on the outside yet tender within and the Lambs Fry was frankly as perfect a dish as I would have liked it to have been.

So I recommend with extreme pleasure the Mittagong Hotel. Know this as well, the Mittagong Hotel also serves Catalan style Tapas and the dinning area is festooned with gorgeous flags from the Catalan region. Not bad for country-regional pub.

The Mittagong Hotel gets multiple well feed Ninja Stars of approval: ************

In summation

2009-12-23T08:40:00.003+11:00

Well the year is nearly over gentle Bubba's and I doubt I'll making any further posts before we close the book on 2009 and welcome in 2010.

This year has been fantastic. It has truely been a wonderful and inspiring 12 months. I have a lot to be thankful for.

So I've now begun my holiday rampage of relaxing and indulging (may not last long). I wish all my Bubba's, where ever you may be, a wonderful Christmas and a very safe and happy New Years!!!

Tele-Movie Review

2009-12-15T11:24:00.003+11:00

Dear Bubbas, last night I watched Stargate Universe (the first 2 feature-length-tele-movie etc episodes).

First reactions;
- This is just BSG redux in the Stargate universe
- Even the camera angles where startlingly similar
- The premise is almost exactly the same vis a vis: An old enemy attacks a colony; survivors (who are a rag tag assortment of personnel) flee on an ancient large spaceship, they must find a new home etc No word as to which tyranny that might be fleeing

Even within the first episodes they have exactly the same probles as on BSG Water, food etc

I like sci-fi and I will continue to watch SGU (assuming channel 10 does not frack with the format the way they did with BSG) but it does seem very, very reductive of Galactica.

Loved the special effects though.

She's leaving the Bank

2009-12-11T06:44:00.003+11:00

We finally pulled the plug on Helstra yesterday. Go with its next major rival. Turns out we can get our internets over cable (faster than ADSL etc),so whoo-hoo for us!! Turns out also that in the process of doing this we've halved our phone and internet bill and get a Playstation3 thrown in.

So not bad all in all.

++++++++

I've been messing around with open tunings on my guitar lately (mostly inspired by the 'Paris, Texas' soundtrack) and I'm loving the new sounds. It's very satisfying to hear new harmonics and to get the guitar to sound the way you want it to. My Epiphone has this gorgeous resonance that just suits the new tuning. It has this lovelly sustain thats a combination of the sound box and these kick-arse strings I got.

Knee-Riffic!!

2009-12-09T16:32:00.002+11:00

The Doctor told me today and told me straight, I had done myself a significant injury. However there has been no major damage to the ligaments and no damage to the cartilage or meniscal disc. In fact the Doc went to say that by all indications the body is repairing itself slowly but surely, he estimated I have another 12 months to go.

Which is not bad considering he was firmly of the opinion I would need surgery. All in all I'm very lucky. I should be able to go skiing next year and might be able to manage some more surf action this Summer.

Prediction

2009-12-08T19:40:00.002+11:00

Tomorrow I discuss the results of my MRI with my GP. I'm hoping he will tell me my knee only needs a few magic beans. That would be nice.

++++++++++

Other news, I'm working from home at the moment which has the awesome perk of letting me spend time with CJ. Everyday I learn something new or watch her get better at something. Last week, incidentally, was her 6 month mark. Hard to believe.

+++++++++

Now as it is the Christmas season it is also the time of Christmas specials. This little video below is one of my all time favourite seasonal stories. I hope it becomes one of yours too.

Mechanic

2009-12-01T09:15:00.003+11:00

My right knee has been bothering me for some time. I damaged it last year skiing at Mt Hotham (understandably not my favourite resort) in near white out conditions. The fact that it has never been quite right and that it is over a year later made me decide to see a doctor.
The upshot of which is that the Doc suspects I'll need a knee reconstruction to as it is highly likely I've torn my ACL.

I'm inclined to go gently unto that good night on this one. The other day we took CJ to the beach (her first time in the water!) and I hopped off out to catch some waves past the sandbar. It was all going according to plan, until I tried walking out of the waves. My knee felt like it was filled with wet spaghetti. It's done that before and usually only lasts 24 hours or so. But still...

I resolved to do something sooner rather later and now I'm off to get a MRI. Will report on the outcome!

Protest

2009-11-26T07:47:00.002+11:00

I could so easily get behind this kind of protest movement.

(HERE)

A Burden

2009-11-24T06:42:00.002+11:00

One thing I have never liked doing at Christmas is Christmas Cards. I dislike writing them, I dislike receiving them. Especially in the corporate world, I intensely dislike having to write a card to clients ('Dear Dude, thank you for spending money with us. Have a safe holiday break so you can continue to spend money. Like I care, Bubba.')

But some people get really a-retentive about it. They have to get the cards out in time etc. Cards which typically contain some personailsed image of family or pets in Christmas Drag. You know what I'm talking about, the Santa Beanies with or without flashing lights.

Now I am all for Christmas decorations, I love them. I will be your personal shopper for decorations. But the cards don't do anything for me. It surprises me when I come across people who actually care that I have not sent them a card. To whit my response can only be, you obviously don't know me that well (ergo why would I want to send you a card?) .

So if you wish to know for sure if I care about during our festival of Jesus, ring me or I will call you. And I can tell you as a spoiler, I do care I just don't like Christmas cards.

This time of year

2009-11-24T06:19:00.002+11:00

When I was a wee lad (almost 30 years ago) I used to hate this time of year. School was dragging on and on and on and on... It seemed like the holidays would never get here and that Christmas was miles away.
I recall walking to school one morning thinking 'This is just such a waste of time for everybody. We should scrap the pretense and have Christmas next week. This intervening time is just filler.'

I was a very philosophical child. Perhaps I'm thinking about it as a portent of my own child. This will be her first Christmas and I wonder what she will make of it. Probably not that much on the day, but I know she will love seeing her cousins up in Sydney.

Sea of Sounds

2009-11-15T13:20:00.002+11:00

There is a new store that may just be constructed entirely out of awesome called the 555 Music Company (check it, HERE).
The specialise in unusual and wonderful guitars and accessories. A buddy of mine from band practice put me onto them. But the other reason why they are awesome is their Saturday in store concerts. Put on for free (bring your own beer), one sits around on comfy couches and chilaxes!

Well yesterday we took CJ to her first gig, the family all went and checked out the amazing Mr Kutcha Edwards. He was fantastic an absolutely wonderful artist. He had the kind of voice and projection that infects you with a sense of humility and awe. A truely moving concert and free!!

If you ever find yourself in Melbourne on a Saturday arvo, checl out the 555 Music Company.

Smells of Summer

2009-11-12T10:07:00.001+11:00

I'm working from home this week. Its been super hot in the house the past couple of days and we don't have air conditioning (yet). One of the few advantages of having to go into an office each day.

Well its a bit cooler today, thankfully. Outside a breeze is blowing and its carrying the smell of smoke and bush fires. Sadly this smell always reminds me of Summer.

Time and Music

2009-11-11T07:26:00.002+11:00

for a moment on the 'Internets' there was a rehashing of an old question (What would you do if an alien landed and invited you into their flying saucer for a faster than light ride?) this one involving time travel back to the 11th century in Europe.

Most of the answers that I saw were from nerds in America (ps link to an article as to why Wikipedia is terrible HERE) who claimed their superior knowledge of chemistry/biology/math/economics/engineering would ensure they lived a rich and prosperous life.
My problem with such claims of genius are;
1) You could get burnt at the stake for just about anything in those days
2) Nobody likes a smart arse (see 1.)

But would you want to go back a 1,000 years anyway? Life was awful, brutish and short. I'm reading Xenophons account of the 10,000 crossing Persia, guys who a 30 years old are regarded as almost cripples because of their age. I doubt things had improved by the year 1000.

If it were up to me and I could take a trip for one evening back in time, I think I'd like to sit in on the recording of Miles Davis 'Kind of Blue'. As opposed to sitting in a hovel, planning my Gatsby like rise to money and influence. All the while praying someone invents toilet paper soon.

Space Hog

2009-10-26T19:40:00.002+11:00

Yeah the actual band, remember those guys? An awesome one hit wonder with 'In the Mean time'. Which reminds me a persons 'best of list' will always be subject to mood and whim.

When I finished up at the radio station earlier this year I was given a lovely gift of '1000 Recordings to listen to before you Die' an absolutely must have for us music geeks. Its wonderful to search through the listings with a friend and comment on what was left out as much as what was left in. Of note is AC/DC gets one mention as does Bowie. Bizarrely Boston gets a listing. Boston the ultimate rock one hit wonder gets a listing.
Eno gets two.

JS Bach is split between artists who have recorded Bach (Vivaldi does not include the Kennedy recording, WTF?!?) and Bach works.

Anyhow, here is wonderful Spacehog with some mid 90's rock.

That is my Tree

2009-10-07T08:05:00.002+11:00

So the other day I signed up to be a supporter of the Wilderness Society. I'll give you a minute or two to visit the site.
The main reason I liked their pitch was not the haircuts or even the clothes. It was the chance to contribute a little bit toward helping the forests of Australia survive. We all need wood, heaven knows I use enough of the stuff printing things out. But I feel very strongly about farming wood.

The debates about logging old growth forests usually run along the lines of we need wood, growing trees will take too long, here's some we prepared earlier, good news guys if we cut it down it'll just grow back.
Then you get the regular noise about job creation for high school drop outs etc

Australia has about 15% of its original forest cover left. Most of the farm land is beset by water salinity, top soil erosion and a shrinking water table. In summer I've driven past wide brown sheep paddocks, with the flock clustering under the sole gum tree for shade.
Farming in Australia is badly managed as is the forestry industry.

I am an advocate of working smarter not being as wasteful as these industries have been.

When I got my welcome pack it included a picture of a forest giant that is now being sponsored my Ladybird and I. It would be nice to think that this tree will be there when I take Ladybird to visit it.

Finsh Line

2009-10-07T07:47:00.003+11:00

The past couple of days have seen my wishes for a writing assignment come true. I just completed a very serious work document. Its a funny thing, but I really enjoyed the whole process (once I got started).
Well now its in the mail and today is back to the regular grind.

The Dragon song of the same name

2009-09-28T06:53:00.002+10:00

It's been raining on and off now for two days, which believe you me bubba's is kind of a big deal. Where I lived in Canberra you might get a dash of rain in the afternoon or overnight, but hardly ever a whole day. Now I can look out my window and see the neighbourhood covered in fine rain or mist.
I recall growing up with this kind of thing in the old country. Mum would have stashed away so toys or books for rain days. These were the times before video's you see, when a child was required to utilise their imagination. Mostly I think it so Mum could ensure I stayed indoors. I loved puddles. I like water as a rule, but puddles held a magnetic attraction for me. They were best experienced by jumping on them and watching the water SPLASH!! It was a game that never got old. But it get my clothes soaking wet, so you can see why Mum might not have been a fan.

It is still raining outside.

No Spring, Yet... or is it?!?

2009-09-27T10:03:00.002+10:00

What is Spring trying to do?

Yesterday saw Mt Buller get 40+ cms of snow, while a few days earlier it was sunny and over 20c. The snow is welcome, even though neither Evie or I are heading there (other, higher responsibilities to manage). But it does ask the question, what is going on with this whole Spring thing?

Other news, band practice has been going well and I've discovered I play better without a beer or two. Thankfully that doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things re Friday nights, but it is good to have that validated.

Tuesday was a trip to Adelaide and the whole week was taken up by meetings. It threw my non-work schedule out the window. No gym, less internets. My little girl only saw me leave for work and kiss her goodnight when I got home.
I know I'm not the first dad to have that happen, but I think it sucks.

I'm working on a plan for a 'better way'. One that involves not wining lotto (though it would be handy) for a change. I'll flesh it out in more detail in a later post.

Lancelot Link

2009-09-21T19:39:00.002+10:00

Boy howdy, just re-read my post from this afternoon. What a maudlin rant!! Anyway here are links of interest:

Because I have often ranted against the food in America. This (LINK) is in defense of the indefensible.
Because Dan Brown is just a truly, truly dreadful phenomenon (LINK1)(LINK2)
Because computer games these days are just so unimaginative (LINK)

Enjoy!!

Time Flies

2009-09-21T13:43:00.000+10:00

Today while driving back from lunch I listened to a report on All things Considered about the events leading up to fall of the Soviet Union. For some reason it took my mind back to 1989 and those early years at university.

It’s what you can get nostalgic about. For no good reason I looked up the website for my old university. I was hit with flood of memories, stronger than they’ve been in years (decades). For some reason I recalled the vague sense of ambition we all had. The fun we all had. The learning, the conversations, the carelessness of all. The summer holidays which were almost identical to regular class weeks (for me at least) except I carried I change of clothes in my backpack and not my class notes.

I remember our writing club, each week you brought a piece of writing and handed it around for some peer review (which was always meant to be constructive and amazingly I found it was). I wanted to be a writer, badly. Perhaps it was the only strong ambition I ever had in those days. But I never applied myself to the study of being a writer. To be honest I don’t think I ever knew where to begin. Or perhaps I just liked the idea of being a writer without putting myself to bother of actually writing something.

I’ve looked up from my desk and I see my work colleagues engaged in ‘work’. Something I need to get back to, though I wish just for a moment I didn’t have to.

Helping Ma

2009-09-09T20:38:00.002+10:00

Just finished a survey by the University of Melbourne into Breast Cancer. My Mum has had a history with it going back 12 years or so. They asked me some health questions and weight questions and oddly drinking questions.
Which got me to reflect on my drinking patterns over the past 20 years or so. These days I rarely drink, usually its 1 or 2 beers on a Friday night at band practice and perhaps a glass of wine at our family lunches once a fortnight. If that.
This is down from the dozen or more 'standard drinks' of my youthful 20's per week. Although when they asked the question I was thinking, 'are they asking about Schooners, pots, pints, longnecks or stubbies?' Truth be told I can't actually remember exactly how much I used to drink, but I recall I rarely if ever let a day go by without one.

These days I don't drink because of personal decisions and because I find hangovers chew up so much of my weekend I hate wasting my time on them.

But I was glad I could help out with the survey. I'm even giving blood for them, something that shocked Evie who knows my aversion to that sort of thing. I hope it helps the survey and I hope it helps other people including CJ. Nice to feel part of something bigger than myself.

Trailer Time

2009-08-30T07:53:00.002+10:00

I could definitely get behind this kind of war effort.

LINK

Looks like The Dude is back, abiding and on a hitch!!

Its not me, it must be the kids who are out of touch

2009-08-29T07:55:00.002+10:00

The other day I was in a car that had tuned into Triple J (I stopped listening after they dumped Merrick and Rosso then amped up their advocacy journalism). So anyway, I'm listening away to the current generations breakfast hosts as they discuss this decades Hottest 100 of all time (LINK). They invited listeners to participate in a quiz to win a copy and in the spirit of commercial radio they could win it before it goes on sale NEXT WEEK with LOTS of icy cold cans of COKE etc...

Anyway, long story short, they called Blur an 'Old' band.

When did that happen? When did Blur become old? I asked. I still remember watching the episode of Top of the Pops where Blur and Oasis went head to head for number 1 single one of the week.
Then I paused for reflection.

That was 1995. Way to go grandad.

Time for some remembrances of things past (HERE).

More Dumb

2009-08-29T07:31:00.002+10:00

Following on from my previous post about 'Dumb' overheard this week at work someone talking about this great movie they saw of Vlad the Impaler. They individual in question was excitedly relating how 'really historical' it was and that this guy 'was like the original Dracula'.

Words fail me.

A link to a similar theme HERE

It comes by night

2009-08-29T07:01:00.003+10:00

Oh my dear Bubba's, I awoke last night to a feeling of intense pain on my back. I do not know what it is that I did but I have a muscle cramp that makes sleeping difficult. Its that painful.

I probably should not be typing at the keyboard but, Meh!

******************

The weekend just past saw us do our first family trip to the snow! We all manged it very well logistically. Little CJ is good traveler (for her age) she managed to sleep most of the way to Mt Hotham and back. She is also a very relaxed little lady and is comfortable in all manner of settings (pubs, hotels, restaurants etc) and even more happy to have a crowd (much like her Dad) to entertain.

The snow itself was okay... Very icy and cold on the lifts. But the big win for me were the Demo skis I tried. They were a pair of next seasons Atomic Blackeyes, very comfortable, great edge and highly maneuverable. Not fast, per se, however my fitness level this year is well below last years so the speed thing is less of an issue.
Those skis did not let me down the whole day, which is more than I can say for some of the previous models I used last year.

So although we only got one day in for the skiing it was a worthwhile road trip to take the whole family away. Looking forward to our next trip!

Made of Awesome

2009-08-16T21:26:00.002+10:00

John Hughes passed away last week. In my mind the ending of 'Pretty in Pink' was the wrong one, should've gone with Duckie.

Well I caught up with my classic '80's movie Better Off Dead. Stars a very young John Cusack, involves skiing, has some truly forgettable music (except for the Muddy Waters track) and also has the chick who played Joan of Arc in Bill and Ted's (thats gotta be worth something).

Best of all I discovered upon viewing it with my beloved last night that it was written and directed by Savage Steve Holland. Thats right kids, THE Savage Steve Holland of Eek! the Cat fame!!!

Wonderful when you understand why you connect with something...

Idiotocracy

2009-08-16T20:36:00.003+10:00

One of my pet hates in other people, and this is only something that I come across every now and again, is the realisation that I am actually smarter than that person. Do I sound arrogant by saying that? I hope not, I hope it is a brutal reality that we all should face. There is a bell curve to a persons ability to learn, we are familiar that there is a sliding scale as to how well one retains information.
Some people are just dumber than other people.

So when I say 'smarter' than someone I mean that in about every measure that its possible to take. It's difficult to hold a conversation with someone who takes time to catch up with ideas. When you have to slow down mentally to engage with that person. When it dawns upon you that you are in the slow lane of the intellectual highway behind a Nana in a busted arse of a car. When you have to use short words, avoid even mildly multi-stepped arguments to advise a person not to advertise their disbelief that the Holocaust ever occurred (based on the viewing of a Holocaust deniers DVD because presumably it is easier to watch 20 minutes of TV than to read any of this pfaff).

Another real life example would be hearing someone tell me that they bought all the Harry Potter movies on DVD because they don't like reading. Or to be held in awe because you know not only the name of the ship in 'Alien', but what book it was taken from, the name of the author and have read both the book in question and 'Heart of Darkness' (actually happened, person in question was complaining about the complexity of the questions on 'Who wants to be a millionaire'. Had I answered the above question I would have been on $200,000).

What is even worse than dealing with a dumb person, being held in awe as if I'd just invented fire, is coming across people who for some reason get resentful. As if its my fault that I can remember the basic periodic table because I listened to Tom Leher growing up and I like Gilbert and Sullivan melodies. If they get resentful because I'm smart I get resentful because they are not. Because it hurts my brain slowing down, because they are a conversational dead end, because it pisses me off to think that these people can breed, drive cars and worst of all that they can vote.

On Friday I was sent a link (in jest) that suggested a Big Mac contains all the necessary nutrients a growing child needs in meal. I have no comment other than to point you, gentle reader, to the following links
Here and Here.

An Open Letter

2009-08-12T19:12:00.003+10:00

To the court of moral smugness,

Have you ever been troubled by a selfish and or evil parking person near your house. I too am afflicted by a similar person or more accurately person's or probably more alerting but not alarming Parking Terror Cell. This PTC, if you will, appears to be made up of YOUNG PEOPLE (who are, as a social demographic, not well known for thinking of others)(I am told however that it is a phase)(I assume YOUNG PEOPLE as the cars are almost always P-Platers and have fully sick mufflers).

I live on a quiet and narrow street, we are blessed with kind and considerate neighbours on both sides (everybody loves good neighbours). Our house is a terrace that includes a basement garage where my wife parks. I park my manly car on the street, the narrow street.

Enter the PTC: Stage Left... Who then parks directly opposite our driveway, like a lump of inconsiderate cholesterol choking an artery. There is the whole rest of the street to park along side, its a long street. But for whatever reason, directly opposite our narrow driveway is where they want to be.

Perhaps it fulfils some extreme design as befits the manifesto of the PTC.

So in conclusion if you know someone who can, ask them to reign pillars of fire upon they who transgress the protocols of parking decency.

Kind Regards,

BubbaJay

H'Scopes

2009-08-04T20:55:00.001+10:00

My dear Mater put me onto this site [HERE] lots of fun astrology stuff!!

Can't say if it is at all accurate, but worth a look.

Burger Files: Name and Shame

2009-08-01T08:09:00.001+10:00

Well Bubbas, a few blogs ago I posted about my utter dislike for places that served salad with burgers. So it happened again and now I get my cyber revenge.
Cafe on Burgundy I name and shame you for an awful burger and for daring to cover 1/3 of my plate in an inedible salad. The chips were sh&thouse, the burger was very average - but the salad. What were you thinking.
Am now sending the cyber-lads over for a kicking...

Snow Time

2009-07-29T19:59:00.004+10:00

Can't write for long, holding wriggly baby, squirming out of grasp.

Quickly then (silence small internet hating enfant, Daddy will give you his loving, TOTAL, attention soon) I wish to announce that next month we get to go to the snow!!

Epic Win.

Curse you Helstra

2009-07-29T19:35:00.002+10:00

The largest telecommunications company in Australia is also the most incompetent. I despise that company, my internet is supplied via a 3G card (ps I discovered the person responsible for withholding the adoption of the 3G standard in Australia for so long, then crippling it's introduction. So I actually know who to blame for my lousy service) (funny how life turns out).

I finally worked out how to monitor my data throughput. The fraking 3G service is capable of 7mg's TOP. But mine has only managed a maximum of 17% of that in the past 20 minutes! This means we will be going cable and not through Helstra.

Though how often I or Evie will be allowed to use the internets remains to be seen...

Abscence

2009-07-29T14:59:00.002+10:00

Well my apologies Bubbas, I'd have written sooner but y'know I've been tied up. My little girl is just a bundle of energy. My days of late have been taken up minding our little blessing and enjoying every minute of it!

The fact is I'm only able to write this short note as I've taken home sick this afternoon. So nothing intelligent or clever to say, just tired and a bit under the weather.

Music and My Daughter

2009-07-16T07:42:00.002+10:00

There are things I am learning about my baby girl that amaze me everyday. I go to work, come back home and voila; she has been upgraded.
The other night I was in a jamming mood, so I got out my guitars to fool around with a couple of country numbers (simple C, D, G variations). Evie calls out to say CJ is grooving to the sound.
For the next couple of hours I'm showing off to my daughter.
And she is loving it!! She has a boogie thing going on, she is vocalising (not doing too bad) and concentrating.

So I'm feeling good about that, but last night I'm busting out some jams (Utah Saints, PWEI, Bomb the Base etc). Evie calls out again and I wind up cuddling a beat box baby!! She loved it!!

Her current favourites music wise, Chris Issak, LL Cool J, Glen Campbell and Young MC.

Cricket

2009-07-10T14:51:00.002+10:00

The Ashes are back on.
One of my favourite things to do in summer is to drive home after work and listen to the cricket on the radio. The television is good,but radio has something magic and personnel about it. Perhaps its because the commentators are talking in slightly hushed tones. As if you were both at a table in cafe and the match was sitting at a table just opposite you.
To me it means summer evenings with the promise of a BBQ and a beer. It's quiet times and enjoying some national pride as the Aussies ritualistically smack the snot out of the pompous Pom's. Occasionally the Pom's win, which is great because off the field most of the Australian team are degenerate scumbags whom Channel 9 place on a pedestal for public adulation. Every Australian at heart is an iconoclast.

And then there is baseball. The only people who care about a baseball v cricket rivalry are the Americans (bless them). The first baseball game I watched all the way through (and loved) was the Red Soxs versus someone else. We were at a pub/bar in San Diego, a friend from Boston was explaining the various players and their strengths and weaknesses. Then all of a sudden 3 beers later, the game ended. Abruptly.

I like baseball and I like cricket. Both make excellent radio and both are summer sports. But Cricket has it in one respect that baseball does not, length of matches. I'm used to enjoying the run chase of a one day match. The final days of a test can be thrilling. Still not converted by the 20/20 matches though.

Occasionally an American writer in their sad insular way tries to get to grips with Cricket. This article (HERE) is a Pom in America, writing for Americans. I think he does a good job.

A new Favourite

2009-07-02T20:27:00.001+10:00

Hooray!!
Check out this blog, Everything is Terrible
HERE

Fun, wrong and kitsch. All at the same time.

You'd think I'd more excited...

2009-07-02T07:58:00.004+10:00

As for the horror genre of movie I'm more of a fan of the scary as opposed to the gory. Yet for some odd reason I like Zombie movies. I like them more than some people like Vampire movies.
While my preference for Zombies is a personal one, lets make it a head to head challange for those Vampire loving losers (sorry lost my objectivity there)..

My challenge will be contested in the upcoming movies (via Apple Trailers);
Zombieland
Dead Snow
Daybreakers

So my assessment thus far based on the quality of the trailer;

Zombieland - Sounds a bit like Zealand doesn't it! World over run by Zombies etc Woody Harrelson stars as a Zombie ass-kicking cowboy. Gotta tell you, I'm on board with this on.
Awesometre Rating; +++++

Dead Snow - All you need to know is in the following words... Nazi Zombie Super Soldiers. Could be Snakes on a Plane redux though (actually it probably is) but the concept is fun.
Awesometre Rating; +++

Daybreakers - Moody vampire evolution thing. Pro's Sam Neil, Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe. Con's Sam Neil's accent, Vince Colosimo. Looks like it filmed in Australia a la Matrix style. Interesting concept (not really). Ultimately everyone is a vampire, humans are farmed, vampire world on the surface is perfect (just everything happens at night, instead of the day) blah, blah.
Looks like some did a Find and Replace search on a early draft of the Matrix.
Awesometre Rating; Mehh

So there you have it folks, the potential of the Zombie films to entertain is up there with the winners. The sole Vampire film, down there with the non-winners.

Remember

2009-06-30T07:24:00.003+10:00

Do you remember when YouTube was actually a useful site? When you could type in the name of a song or an episode of a TV show? (which is pretty much all I ever used it for).

Ever since the fun nazi's (read corporations) found YouTube and lawyered it up, it sucks. Type in anything and you'll be surprised exactly how many crappy Fan Made videos appear. Its like the children who grew up with 'Funniest Home Videos' have now each been issued with a camera and an iMac.
The value that was once YouTube is being increasingly diminished by the number of sad, talentless people who want to record and 'share' themselves playing guitar (badly) to 'Chains of Love' (for example).

On a related note, I ocassionally get spam messages from an old Friend Finder website I tried many years ago. Do these people just live under a rock, in a cave, on f*&king Mars?!? How hard do their employees work to keep the boss from finding out about Facebook?
It boggles the mind...

This is Sparta

2009-06-30T07:12:00.002+10:00

In fact this is the 301st post on Bubbajay!! So a little bit of a milestone blog wise.

I am finding the difference between the me at home and the me at work is becoming quite marked. I spent most of last night trying to have a conversation with Evie and singing to Ladybird. I seems, for no good reason, that country and western songs are working at the moment. Perhaps its the lower register or the prevalence of songs in the key of G or D. At any rate we've worked through most every Johnny Cash number I know, Glenn Campbell has worked as well. Last night was John Denver covers and Patsy Cline.

Don't get me wrong, in no way do I want to project an image of begrudging my beautiful daughter music. I love to sing, it gives energy and light to the soul (as I believe Beethoven said).

Personally I'm just amazed at just how many Country and Western CD's I actually own. So the difference between the work me and the home me... There is a lot less singing being done by the work me!

Monster Raving Looney

2009-06-25T12:29:00.002+10:00

What they don't tell you in the 'So your going to be a Dad' type books is that the sound of your childs screaming is one of the most (simultaneously) annoying and heartbreaking sounds imaginable.

Last night Ladybird began exploring the higher range of her vocal cords. In each case I was trying to mind bub while her mother could have a shower, leave the room for 15 minutes, talk on the phone (you get the picture). In each instance of the scream, the mollifying answer was ... 'I is hungry'.

I have had to date a good level of success with my kid wrangling skills, but an inconsolable progeny has, I have to admit, defeated my usually fail proof charm.

Got to bed late last night. Had plans to re-string one of my guitars. Wound up trying to cuddle an extremely displeased baby who calmly waited until the commercial breaks were over to begin broadcasting her displeasure. That was my entire evening.

My admiration for the job her mother is doing knows no bounds.

Now is Winter

2009-06-21T09:29:00.002+10:00

Hooray! Hooray! these winter's is killing me! (sincere and heartfelt apologies to S Terry and B McGhee)

Today is the first day of Winter. With snowfall promised for the week to follow it has been a great start to the snow season. Alas however our family trip to the snow in August is under threat, numbers are fluctuating and people worrying about price of accommodation.

Earlier this year I had a fancy to get some skis, I am glad that I did not commit to them this year. Looks like we won't be going up as often as I hoped (was planning for at least 2 trips). Which is always the problem with skis. You buy a good pair and within three years you need a new set (because they are old tech and daggy).
Years a go I was given the excellent advice of buying a great pair of boots and just hiring the premium brand skis each time you go. That logic held true then and holds true now. My boots are an excellent brand, specially fitted for me and will last for years to come. Skis are subject to fashion sense and can date very quickly. But even from an economic investment/capital acquisition perspective, for an $800 pair of skis, how many times would you use them in one season? Compare that price to the cost of renting a great pair... (eg if I make it to the mountain twice that's still less than a $100).

Well the only downside to renting is the added time it takes to get your gear fitted out versus being on the mountain. But an other upside is being able to dump your rented gear off when you leave rather than worrying about transporting it home. Plus its rented kit, so you can be less mindful of how you ski on it...

Aqua Teen Awesomeness

2009-06-21T08:36:00.002+10:00

Cartoons for TV seldom make the transition to a movie format as well as the Aqua Teen Hunger Force have. The movie is one for fans (which is why they made it) and if you haven't seen the series, well you are not missing out on much character development in all honesty.

In my humble opinion the opening of the movie starts good and it just keeps going. Great song at the start about etiquette while watching the film. Time Traveling Lincoln makes an appearance (explaining that part at long last...)

I may sound even remotely serious about the movies qualities as if I'm some kind of movie review expert (I'm more your professionally qualified book review expert, thank you Vic Uni). If I was a qualified movie-review-professional-guy I can tell you there are far more cerebral television or movies for someone like that to review (eg True Blood) .

But I digress, as is my want. The real scoop here is that I managed to watch most of it in one sitting. My darling and beautiful daughter comes first. So I managed to watch the first 15 minutes over the course of 40 minutes or so. There was a nappy changing, cuddles, me singing 'New York, New York' (mental note, must learn actual lyrics) to help Ladybird get some sleep. Then some serious Daddy/Daughter time as she slept, fitfully, allowing her wonderful mother to rest.

The unspoken reality here is that the ONLY time Ladybird will ever have an interest in watching a movie like Aqua Teen Hunger Force with her dad, is when she is asleep or very young. And here we are...

So in conclusion: ATHF Movie ***********************************

Watching it with my Daughter: * times infinity plus infinity plus one more *

(She earns the extra * for not asking questions during the good bits, 'Who's that guy? Why is he a milkshake? I don't get it?' etc)

Run to the hills

2009-06-12T08:09:00.002+10:00

The Australian Ski season opens this weekend!!
There has been an amazing dump of snow for the start of 2009 season, unlike previous years. Some have opened to bright blue skies and green rolling hills. It matters not for me, any skiing this year will include a co-ordination with Ladybird minding duties. Ladybird will learn how to ski early and often we have both decided.

Although my '3 Year Theory' of snow fall in Australia marks this year as the dud year, the snow fall so far is impressive. Evie's brother commented the other day that the ash from the Victorian bush fires has settled in the upper atmosphere creating nuclear winter conditions of the Snowy Mountains. Perhaps there is something to that, it would be nice to think there is a silver lining to the devastation those fires wrought.

So two positives then, hopefully a bumper snow season and also all that snow will melt and ideally fill up the dams that feed drinking water to the rest of NSW and VIC.