Remember

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Right about now

I have been cruising the internets for movie trailers. Its something I like to do, I happen to like movie trailers. Besides if I waited for Murdoch or Fairfax to decide when I should see something...

Actually it's more of an excuse to mind Ladybird while her mother gets some sleep. She is a week old today. In the week just gone I've seen more rain that I've seen in years. Personally I see that as a good luck sign for the arrival of my daughter who is currently fast asleep and farting.

Next Monday I'm back in the office with a lot of work to do, so I should just enjoy this rain (now the sun is shinning) and Ladybirds company :)

Fun Movie

It's called 'The Goods', I don't know much about the plot or reason for it - except that it is about selling. And its by the same guys who did Talledega Nights and my current favourite Step Brothers.
It just looks funny, in a 'someone will get hurt' kind of a way. Which, I have to tell you, is OK with me.

Safe and Sound

Ladybird has arrived at long last on Wednesday night.
I am a father to beautiful baby girl. She has a little scrunched up face that looks like each of her three cousins up in Sydney at the same age.

So I will be forming a consortium of Right Thinking Fathers with Daughters. Current membership includes chapters in Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney. The purpose is to use our collective buying power to purchase barbed wire, shotguns, wild dogs and rocking chairs. There will speech therapy classes to perfect phrases such as "Ain't nuthin here for you boy" and "You make my little girl cry, you gonna die" and "Get off my lawn douchebag" with suitable menace.
Planned activities will include Daddys Little Angel Appreciation Class, How to spot a Deadbeat and what I hope will be a perennial favourite Sound Financial Management and Business Development Class. Fathers Day will be replaced with the more practical Why Daddy is Right Week.
Contenders for our anthem include a reworking of the Cramps classic, "All Men are Bad (except for Dad)" and the Brandenburg Concertos.
Our founding philosophy is something along the lines of, 'While it may be a mans world, very few of them are good enough for my little angel' (Some of them can obviously be trained to pay for dinner and buy my little angel shoes, houses etc) (Mental note explore option of expanding into credit reference checks for potential suitors).

We will also be conducting Douchebag identificaiton training for future Dads. Examples of Douchebag tells include, Wearing sunglasses on their head on a cloudy day while inside, wearing of the collars upturned. Not liking Magnum PI or not knowning who he is. Fondness for comercial radio, fondness for the AFL, being short. Borrowing money, concerning levels of familiarity with Creed, Jonas Brothers or Bette Midler (that last one will require an intevention and a shifting of candidate from the Douchebag list of suitors to the Douchebag list of 'will not give her mother grandchildren').

Suitable male role models include; Dad, Mr T, Barrack Obama, Bob the Builder and Elvis (the Vegas years)
Unsuitable male role models include; Elvis (the early years), Prince, People who are Not Dad and Helen Clarke.

There is much work to be done and the final draft of our founding charter to complete. However our core message is resonating well with Right Thinking Fathers with Daughter everywhere and we will consider expanding into new territories soon.

Bank error in your favour, collect $10 Mil

The report of a couple from NZ whose bank accidentally credited $10 million into their account has got me thinking. Firstly, that banks are bastards (but that can honestly go without saying). Secondly, how would I handle that temptation?

Perhaps one could use the money to secure another loan of an even greater value (I understand that's how the current mess got started in the states). Or I could take the money and run (but you can hide forever). Or I could alert the bank and give the money back.

In my opinion its a case of giving the money back. But the bank is doing nothing in my opinion by sounding tough and warning of penalties and trouble. Like some ineffectual school prefect that no one respects. Banks have jerked me around often enough and I have rarely had an apology from them.

Perhaps this is an opportunity not only for people to understand that bank errors are rarely in their favour, but also for the banks to show some charm in dealing with this kind of thing...

Still waiting

Bub has not arrived. In fact they show no signs of arriving. The value of their arriving status is nil.

The due date was yesterday.
It is interesting to me because in the near if not immediate future (just checked my phone, no missed calls) bub will arrive and from that point on they will have always been here. Their life begins. Trying to imagine what their parents were like before they were born will be difficult.

And yet... Still waiting. Have run out of nervous energy and so has Evie. Just waiting and carrying on as usual.

Why weird is good

Last year I heard a talk by a former marketing manager of Toyota cars (Australia). He was a really interesting guy. His talk was an interesting take on standing out in a me-too market. His advice was to be weird. Don't be normal.
No problem for me.
But his advice went to the core of adaptability in a changing market. It also captures the idea of passion for what you do, that perhaps not everyone gets it but sometimes that's okay.

This week is the PBS Radiothon (last week was the 3MBS one) and I will be pledging my support as I did last year. I regularly write about the appalling state of mainstream media in this country, so where does one turn to to hear good music? Why to community radio my friend. And I should say that there are grades of quality in Community Radio. PBS is one of best ones in the country (with a current fetish for funk and soul in all its varieties).

So last night I was driving home and I caught the tail end of the country and western show. I'll be honest country and western for me is more miss than hit, but I will listen to it because every now and again you find a jewel Well in this case an Eilen Jewel [MySpace page HERE] the DJ played a couple of fantastic moody country tracks and finished with 'Rain Roll In'. Thankfully I had a pen in the car and wrote it down.

I consider myself to have a good ear for music and Eilen Jewel is good music. I invite you to check out her songs on MySpace, I'll be buying the album this weekend (I have no respect for people who do steal music) and I recommend you do the same.

Going back to my earlier point, without PBS I would never have heard Eilen Jewel, I would never have been exposed to some music I like. This service, this revelation of grooves was given to me by someone who gets on the radio because they love their music. Because they are passionate about their music. Probably because they are weird.

I also encourage you to support your local community radio station. Link to the PBS Radiothon [Here].

Snow Cat

Went to the Zoo on the weekend and had a great time. Will definitely be taking Ladybird there when they are older (and actually here). We saw Lions, tigers, monkeys, giraffes, bogans and bears. In fact it was quite the cross section of mammals. Notably absent where any reptiles or such like. Well it is almost winter...

Evie announced yesterday that she is officially ready to give birth. Ladybird has not yet made any indication of arriving, they are due on the 26th though, so they are not late (per se). Myself I'm holding out for a post 20th date, but only for the silliest of possible reasons. After the 20th will make them a Gemini, born in the year of the Ox (like me!)
So we continue with the waiting game...

Last night we had the great pleasure of watching a performance of the Nefes Ensemble at the Abbotsford convent. I cannot in any measure do justice to the beauty of the music I heard. At best I can tell you it was music from the Ottoman Empire. Parts were improvisation (just love the sound of the Ney), parts were Sufi calls and one peice was compossed by a Sultan. Every note was haunting and beautiful. It transported us all to an amazing place. My only regret was the short length of the concert. I could have listened to them for hours. Myspace page HERE...

Robot Menace

Fun blog from the New Yorker that has taken on a life of its own.
[HERE]

Machine Mundi

Last night was the budget address, same sh*t different a$%hole.

Today Evie and I had breakfast at the wonderful Lentil as Anything restaurant here at the Abbotsford convent. We are taking advantage of moments like this while we can. Our beautiful child will be here any day now, so getting about while we can is important.

Also as important is me doing some Dad-to-be-research. The other night on the telly (Daddy, what does hypocrite mean...) we watched a documentary on the Snow Leopard. My goodness, set cute meter to max!! AND I turns out that Melbourne Zoo has a some baby Snow Leopards OMG!!

So this weekend we are off to the Zoo. Gonna check it out for Ladybird and make sure we know the lay of the land and check out those little cutey pie furry killing machines!!

Going Bodly (motion away)

The New Yorker has a review of the latest Star Trek movie HERE.
I'm all for Star Trek movies, Wrath of Khan is still an all time favourite, but I have not enjoyed any of the incumbent directors previous efforts.

I hold no high hopes for this movie.

Film versus TV

The media in Australia is appallingly bad. Its bar is set so low Australian media is routinely banned from limbo competitions around the world. I did hear an interesting rumour that the reason the print and TV quality is so bad is because advertising revenue is down significantly. Which means less revenue to spend on talent, which means having even less talent on hand to improve the output. One figure mentioned to me for a metropolitan broadsheet advertising was $4 mil per week to $1 mil.
Would that not encourage a lifting of standards? You would think so, but alas it is not to be. The three major TV networks are similarly running on the smell of an oily rag. Which is demonstrated by the abundance of cheap 'reality' shows (backyard makeover talent cooking expose) and the lack of programs. One channel is actually re-running the previous nights entertainment the next day at lunch time then again on Friday evenings. Probably having spent every last sent on the brutally flogged horses corpse that is The Simpsons most recent series...

How will our media masters meet the challenge of delivering the audience up to advertisers?
The Onion has a vision for us all to fear [LINK]

Fate

Its been a busy past few weeks Bubbas.
Highlights include;

• Getting an awesome new job
• Having my Ma down from Sydney for a couple of days
• Getting a framed Elvis poster

Well in the job kicks off in a week. Its doing the same kind of stuff that I've been doing in Canberra. So while I was good at it up there, I didn't necessarily enjoy it. Well trying to find a job down here that keeps as part of the network has been hard. The work I've doing at the Radiostation has been very enjoyable. The best part has been to make friends and meet some amazing people. The time now, however, has come to move on as was the plan. So we are doing well on the front.

Ma came down last week. What I noticed the most about this visit was how much I missed her when I put her on the plane. My beloved is due any day now, so Ma wanted to come down before the bub is due. To have her here in her role as a Mum and a Grandmother was special. In my mind I felt we were under assessment (in a good way) by Ma to make sure our house, our community and family in Melbourne were ready for Ladybird. I am a very independent minded person and yet I wanted Mum to stay like I never needed her before. It was a very special weekend.

ELVIS!! Among the many things I love the story of Elvis is very prominent. So the framed poster is of a very young Elvis, performing just after Sun Records sold his contract to RCA. Elvis has been recording and performing for about 18 months, he has not yet met Tom Parker and his truck drivers license is still current in case this all goes wrong... A magic moment in the story of music in the 20th century.

So its been a pretty jam packed couple of weeks. Not sure if I have successfully relayed the scope and magnitude of it all...

The Snow Gods Truly Love Us

They truly do love us, Bubbas. This week end saw the start of Winter with snow falling all over the mountains.

For example, here is the car park at Mt Hotham this after noon...

BEHOLD THE MAJESTY THAT IS SNOW. QUAIL YE MORTALS AT THE MIGHT OF THE SNOW GODS. (dear Sno Godz my name is Bubba, plz to keep gives sno. kthx).

Let us hope it will continue as it has begun!!

Fish News

Some more Onion themed fun about fishing (HERE)