Stunt Cycle

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...

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

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

Actually really good

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

Animated Gif's - some are better than others

The Future of Books

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..

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.