Time management in French

Boy I tell you whut, I'm loving my French course. The people (there are about 8) are really cool and friendly, ages range from young un's to oldies.
But the class times are 6 - 8pm Tues, Thurs and its a pain in butt to try and get something to eat afterward that isn't crappy junk food...

Oh well something I'll need to work on.

Link to an on air blog

Okay Cats and Kittens, thanks to the power of the internets my on air partner in crime, Deano set up a blog site for our monthly Monday night radio duet.
Called Down in the Basement Laboratory, we've posted the track listings and will link more stuff over time.

But it is a chance to get a feel for the music we play.
In other radio news I've been offered a late, late night spot to do pretty much what ever the hell I want on Wednesday nights!!!
The only catch is that it is 10pm - 12pm. Still the opportunity for mischief is hard to turn down...

We took the name Down in the Basement Laboratory because we play a very funk heavy vibe in our set. DIB is traditionally a Jazz based show, so we invented the 'Funk Laboratory' (which happens to be next door to the Basement) to give us some latitude.
So I'm Prof JR and he's Dr Deano, and together in the Funk Laboratory we experiment with distilling the essence of Funk and or Groove!

A fun Space Blog

And no this is not a link to a nerdtastic sci-fi web site.

Its a link to the blog of the Sydney Observatory. I love astronomy and am very lucky that the night sky over Canberra suffers very little light pollution.

I've found this blog to be both fun and interesting with some great links to the local astronomy community. Well worth a look.

Kinda Superbowl

Today was Superbowl Monday (results here)
Patriots vs The Giants, I do enjoy Superbowl Monday, one of the pleasures of working for a US company was being able to take the day off to watch the game. This year I was able to sneak out to a club and catch half the match.
Superbowls are usually not cliff hangers historically, typically one team gets a lead by about the 2nd quarter and there is usually a wide spread.

This years game was a low scoring affair, both teams pretty evenly matched skill wise. But neither team was really firing either (just after half time the commentators announced banana's had been rushed to the players to boost their energy!!)(True story!).

Well that wraps up NFL season, soon Super 14 kicks off!!

Oh La La etc

Have seized the day and will begin to execute on one of New Years resolutions next week - Travel to Europe.
I've enrolled at the Alliance Francaise school so as to talk all Frenchy and stuff while I'm taking a cycling tour along the Loire river.

Have shit house French speaking skills, so the chance to improve quickly is one I'm looking forward to.
Alliance Francaise is a great organisation which promotes the language and culture of France. I'm really looking forward to being part of the experience. Here in Australia (pronounced Straya) we have a TV channel called SBS - the multi-cultural channel (as it is known). Blah blah exposition re SBS. At 6pm they have this top show called Global Village, its a series of imported documentaries about people from all over the world. One of their more popular series covers the rivers in France, taking a tour by barge, cycling about in the day. Eating great food and generally having an awesome time.
Its that show thats made me want to talk Frenchy, ride my bike, hang out on a barge and travel along the Loire.

And it all kicks off next week.

I can't wait for this one!

Clue from todays crossword;

'Season of Blackcock Display'

4 letters.

Pervert

At what point do you think to yourself, 'I've ridden my bike enough today'.
After 14kms, 24kms, 46kms?

I did 48kms yesterday and was almost going to do another 30 when I decided I might want to use my legs today.

Sometimes you have to have a self intervention.

Magazine Reading

I've never been a magazine reader (with one exception), since my days in direct marketing it became dog bollocks obvious to me that the purpose of any magazine is to get you to buy the next months issue.
Usually at the cost of content, which meant more adds or self promotion about the particular 'x-factorness' of the current well hid corporate sponsors product.

Ahem... But there are a couple of magazines whose online issues I do read most every week
The Economist and The New Yorker.
I used to read The New York Review of Books, so I could A) Feel clever and B) enjoy well written articles by literate people (the letters page are usually an interesting read in themselves). Have stopped because A) I can never find a copy when I want one and B) while the quality is always excellent the topics of late have been sophomoric.
As I'm also a bloke I read the Fred Gassit comic in Australian Motorcycle News and get the occasional fishing mag as well. The fishing mags however have succumbed to the 'big fish' photo and occult like claims for how to catch fish (whenever I have followed their advice I've wasted a good trip to the water).

Anyway I told that story to tell you this one, have a read of this link on how to read The New Yorker (LINK) .
I suggest it works just as well for The Spectator et al.

The End

I've had this recurring dream for some time now about the end of the world. Like most portentous dreams I have no recollection of the circumstances leading up to present. But its early morning, I've woken up among the ruins of a flooded city (its warm already, so it must be summer). I'm not panicked at all, but I get the feeling I'm trying to hide from something or someone in the sky.
And there is all pervasive feeling, like you get before Christmas, that I'm waiting for something final to happen...

Well I saw this link and thought it might be fun to look at some end of the world scenarios. Enjoy!
LINK

A nice restaurant

There comes a point in any experience when you become detached from the emotional investment.
Perhaps not a state of grace, perhaps more a stoic level of awareness (I did not want to use the word Zen as it seems regretfully to be locked up with desperately earnest young men or old smart arses)(Myself, I was young and foolish then, I'm old and foolish now).

So, I'm taking this in the direction of why I don't own a tv, seem quite relaxed about my life, enjoy bike riding and terrified of my boss.
Its an odd frame of mind.

I don't own a tv, haven't had one for 6 months and I don't miss it at all. I will watch DVD's on my laptop though, but I mostly (on the odd occasions I am home) listen to music and read a book. TV is a total thief of time, in my humble opinion, it would steal time I just do have to spare. Frank lloyd Wright called it 'an ugly peice of furniture' and I'm inclined to agree.

Why am I relaxed about my life? Should I be? Hell I don't know, I'm single enjoying not being with anyone but not plussed that there are no 'irons in the fire'. I have a well paying undemanding job (in comparison with my last one). I live in a nice place, friends are nearby, good food, good company. I'm healthy in mind, body and spirit - as far as I can tell.

Love bike riding! Especially going off road. Probably because my fitness level is up and I can handle most of the tracks around Canberra. Going down Mt Stromlo was absolutely terrifying, but I'm glad I can look at that hill I know that I did it (going back up next Sunday). I really enjoy having some mates who all love bike riding too, its great to be part of the Canberra Sunday Bike Hash (every second Sunday). But its that wonderful wind rushing past you feeling as you coast down hill I think that does it for me.

I am terrified of my boss, probably because we have a lot in common and I'm kind of in awe of him. But also because he reminds me of why I don't want to work in Sydney. In a weird kind of way I'm glad he is a hard arse about some things, every body likes to be motivated and terror seems to push me that extra yard. Probably because I'm bone lazy at heart and not good with managing my down time.

So anyway, I had lunch with a very dear friend yesterday, he's having work drama's as well. I mentioned the black dogs were bothering me and he said - 'lets go to India!'.
We should all be so lucky to have a friend like that, will book things next month and head off late May.

The restaurant was a Japanese joint (name escapes me) but very pretty, well laid out and the food was great. On the wall were some interesting pieces/reproductions of Japanese art, one of which was a calligraphic work of Zen mantras. The one thats stuck in my mind, 'harmony is all important'.
Or something like that.

Compare and Contrast

That was one of my favourite essay topics when I was studying English Lit at Uni (thats right Bubba's one of my majors in Eng Lit). It was an invitation to focus on the likeness or not of two or more works.
You could always find common themes or polar opposite views to play with.
So it is with much pleasure that I submit my 'Compare and Contrast' review of 'The Golden Compass' and 'No Country for Old Men'.
Both are adaptations of books although Hollywood decided that 'The Northern Lights' was (justifiably) less sexy than the 'Golden Compass' (a rare use of good judgement). No Country for Old Men is set in South West Texas in 1980 and The Golden Compass is set in a weird alternate universe where Coke doesn't exist but indentured servants do (the horror!).
Okay so first impressions as a book adaptation, The Golden Compass sacrifices a lot for the sake of the big screen and concerned illiterate Christian parents in America. Boy talk about the Galileo treatment huh? Hows that for irony! No Country for Old Men is described as a fairly faithful reproduction (no comment, I'm current working my way through Prisoner of Zenda, will schedule a read in later this month).

The plots are not equally complex, one its all about revenge while the other is an involved story ultimately about free will and the nature of the soul. Both draw upon the question of god (although 'Compass' can't too heavily) and both don't provide any depth 'No Country' is deliberately ambiguous though.

So which is the better picture, for me in every category it has to be 'No Country'. I did not enjoy 'Compass' I knew the plot and winced when ever the movie strayed. Some might call it a pretty film, but as an audience we would be let down if CGI based celluloid wasn't.
I wasn't displeased with 'No Country', but I'd have to say there weren't any surprises for me. The way it finished was really good, prompting me to coin (and you heard it here first) the phrase; Texas Noir

Enjoy.

PS I'd say 'No Country' also had it over 'Compass' in one very important respect, 'Compass' had zero, nada, zip, doughnut F-100 trucks. 'No Country' had over a billion, it was the best part of the film for me.

Fighting Fit...

...and twice as dangerous.

Well Almost.
A bit of a catch up then, for those that came late, of my gadabouting of the last two weeks. Spent a week up in Sydney for Niece #1 birthday, then Xmas then Dad's birthday. Flew to Wellington for New Years in the lovely little village of Martinborough. Currently in Sydney tonite and back home tomorrow.

Synopsis of first week, did all my xmas shopping at the last minute but I think my pressies were all well received (eg got bro a great vintage photo of Bon Scott cicra '76)nieces got Hi-5 DVD's and activity sets. In my opinion Katoomba is a great place to go for shopping for gifts. There are so many great little second hand trash and treasure joints up there (eg got dad a copy of Duke of Wellington biography from the 19th C). Had a great idea for the nieces when they get older, I'll get some dress up clothes for them from the second hand clothes stores. They got all sorts of great hats, shoes, dress, jackets and ties to choose from. I'll leave them at Mum and Dad's.
Should be a lot of fun for them.

Well Wellington was a lot of fun, despite 4 days of bad tummy. Seraph and Viv were wonderful hosts and it was lovely to see them and catch up with people. They only downer was the tummy bug that hit me on day 3 and kinda wiped me out energy wise. Viv commented she could tell I was crook as I wasn't at my usual operational tempo (I think her exact comment may have been along the lines of 'I was acting like a normal person' LOL :). But on reflection, if thats how normal people feel EVERYDAY, my god how do you people do it!?!)
Suffice to say, that now I'm back in Sydney and feeling almost 100%. Second day of solid food, energy level maybe around 60% but climbing all the time.

New Years was 2 and half days in a fantastic spot called Martinborough. Its one of my favourtie places in the world and despite feeling lousy I was really glad to be there. We went to dinner, vineyards, fishing, swimming in the river. Just fantastic fun and the weather was perfect.
If you are interesting in visiting Martinborough I thoroughly recommend staying at the Pinot Villas. The photos do not do them justice, just wonderful. Full marks to Viv for sorting that out!

Alas I was something of a wet blanket for the rest of my time. I was super kind of Viv and Seraph to put up with me mooching on their couch. Oh well there is always next year...

And to everyone out there I hope you've had a grand holiday break and I wish you a fantastic new year!! Lets get out there and make it a great one!!

New Years Resolutions

Well in comparison to my last lot of resolutions, I got at least one done.
That being a regular gig on the radio.

So this year, I want to go to Europe for a holiday (will require a language improvement) and do some community theatre.
Going to try for both if I can.

Burning Daylight

I have 1 full day of work left before the entire city of Canberra shuts down for 2 weeks over Christmas. Its a beautiful thing, unique amongst the towering and glittery metropolies of Australia.
Unusually I've been working right up to the wire. Typically December is a slow down with the last week being a blur of Xmas parties, work BBQ's and random drink driving tests.
Not this year, this year has finished busy. So I have to say I'm glad that I have time to jot down a few notes. I haven't even had time to go shopping for presents, I've got an office Secret Santa, a nieces first birthday, Jesus's birthday and my Dad's to sort out.
My apartment is decoration free, mostly because I haven't been home and partly because all the decorations are at my ex-Wife's place (but at least they'll get used, so thats a good thing). I haven't sent out any Christmas cards because I find it a pain in the arse and I've only received one. People are getting the message.

And yet I'm waiting on that last minute phonecall from Sydney, insisting that we force through an action with a customer on issue X... Perhaps if I play dead.

Well I only have a few more days left before presents are due and as usual it looks like descending into a last minute scrabble. I both like and detest Christmas shopping. I like buying presents for people I genuinely do. But Christmas has this pressure cooker feel to it that shits me and nobody wants an IOU.
Like anything creative shopping for that perfect present requires a state of mind or grace that cannot be forced. Its an ascension of the spirit and budget that should reflect harmony and happiness.

I'm not quite there yet.

Why, Why, Why

My car is back in the shop.
I've had this vehicle for 2 months and its been off the road for about a third of that time.
I name thee Achilles.

This time it turns out the drive shafts I had replaced where for a 4 cylinder Landie not my 6 cylinder. The correct parts won't be ready until mid Jan...

On the plus side its Christmas soon, so having a car will be less of an issue as I'll be up in Sydney for a week. After I have discharged my fillial duties it'll be off to NZ for a New Years monster PAR-TEH with Seraph, Mrs Seraph and others.
Possibly might be low key, we'll see...

Actually I'm really looking forward to it. This year has been one of huge changes and I'm grateful for the chance to drop out of it all. And to be honest I don't know what the next year will bring. Or where the hell I'll be or what I'll be doing. As I'm typing this out I have this sense of big change coming. Perhaps a new city, definately a new job.

A wiser man than I once told me 'everything changes, nothing stays the same'. In my book he has not been proved wrong. The way to handle change in my opinion is to either be effected by it or be responsible for it. When ever I can spot that a change is coming or is needed, I try and face it on my terms.
Otherwise it can just be terrifying.

A lot of Soccer

While some people manage to cripple themselves horribly in a social game (LINK)
I manage to win 'Best and Fairest' awards.
This weekend was Soccer a go-go, had the final Saturday Morning match of the year (Blue team got pantsed by the Red 2-1). We will now retire for the Summer and regroup around March some time. Its just too darn hot trying to play in 30c+ temperatures, or so those guys say...
I've just started playing in a Sunday league and their games are Sunday arvo. I've only played in 2 games we lost last week and this week pulled off a 1-0 victory. Part of the way the league works is a Golden Boot award and a Best and Fairest award at the end of the year.
Golden Boot = Most Goals
Best and Fairest = For being a good sport

Its a lot of fun and everyone is there to enjoy themselves (except the odd dickhead who has nothing else in their miserable meaningless lives)(but you'll always get at least one).
Part of the responsibilities is being a ref for other games. Usually the teams can ref themselves very well (being adults) but its part of the game. As I got Best and Fairest I got to ref a game as well.
Which gave the chance to see last years champs (Goalissimo)play - those guys where fraking amazing!! The other team was great, but these guys made them look like they were underwater. Wow!
Both teams will ofcourse utterly destroy my team, Nerds FU, when they next meet.
We should probably just forefit now and save our energy...

Do you believe me now?

I filled in on the radio last night and brought along my regular late night radio conspirator Deano with me.
We programmed a fairly loose mix of Motown, jazz, funk and the occasional soul track thrown in. we even got a couple of calls telling us how awesome we were. Always helps I think.
Here's a photo of me looking all professional and with a cold head!

Bubbajay's Totally Awesome and Well Researched Book Review

His Dark Materials By Phillip Pullman
I really recommend this series. Its a trilogy of The Nothern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.

In a nut shell, we start off in a parallel world were the Reformation never happened and neither did the two World Wars. People also have personal Daemons which are a physical manifestation of themselves (its get weirder and more fun).

The writing style is actually quite light and although the book is marketed at 'young adults' ("nosin' around, nosin' around") Pullman advises that he had no particular audience on mind. To that end there are some great ideas explored about the soul and the nature of identity, awareness and consciousness. As well as an ever quickening pace of an adventure that involves armoured Polar Bears, Zeppelins, murderous children, angels, tourture and fanatical priests.
In comparing these book's to the Harry Potter series, the principal difference in my opinion is Pullman is a better writer. He knows when to economise, when he has painted a scene with just the right amount colour for us the reader to see as well as allowing us to see though the eyes of the characters. He also has that rare talent for a fantasy writer to be able to invent names without employing the lesser used consonants.
I've never been a fan of the Fantasy Genre for the simple reason that, to me, the author spends far too much time inventing the setting, its history and people's and too little time on prose. The story doesn't seem to want to move along without the usual crutches or clichés.

His Dark Materials works for me because its is simple on the one hand and on the other explores some really great ideas about humanity, evolution, quantum theory.
I can't imagine what some children will make of it, but for me it was good fun.

Four Ninja Stars: ****

PS If you do decide to buy it, look for special edition covers (not the movie tie in's) in the back of the book there are some 'bonus features', that mark Pullman out as good writer.

Bike Riding

Its not the distance, I've been getting better at that (last Saturday was a ride around Lake Burleigh Griffith 37km and a 20km ride on Sunday) its my seat.
Or more specifically my tail bone. I've noticed it starts to cramp after about the 10km mark.
Will have to find a more comfortable seat (perhaps one with arm rests!!)

Well other than bicycling around and catching some really sweet air on the odd jump (like swear to god, one had to have been 5 feet at least) there was an election on Saturday.

So some buddies and I held an election night BBQ and there were fun and games (election night Bingo, which I won!) and a new government.
I'm a little stunned to tell you the truth. I had a good feeling that Labor would get in, but certainly not by the margin they did. And no body went the mongrel in their victory or defeat speeches.
It was eerily civilised. Like I said stunned mullet.
Having voted earlier in the day, I was full of vim and vigour for the democratic process. Labor has run an aggressive campaign from January when Rudd took over. Canberra is traditionally safe Labor and after the humiliating defeat last time... I was just gobsmacked by the result this time round.

To be continued...

Some good old fashion ROCK

These guys were my world in '85.
Its time to reconnect with some fantastic good old fashion family values.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO WITH YOUR LIFE?