This is a test.

Don’t listen to her – this IS a test!

Nameless

Just testing out a few new technologies. Blip, Blogo and Ping.

That sounds like a kids TV show.

leaky brain

i have created a very basic website to show off some of the stuff that has leaked out of my brain over the last 30-odd years of my life. you can see it here.

it is still very much a work in progress, but so far, I have uploaded 5 songs, 5 pictures and 2 films. let me know what you think.

also, if you’re reading this, you may have noticed that i have not updated this blog for a while – i have been tempted to the dark side. i have a jive journal account that gets updated more often than this one (but still ot very often at the mo). if your interested, it can be found here

iPOD, youPOD, he/shePODS…

is there anything left that an iPod can’t do?
also, this would seem to be too good to be true. would be nice, though.

quick thoughts on job hunting at thirty.

i’m writing my blog. i should be finishing off my resumé. i should be job hunting. i’m sitting on the couch at home, in my pyjamas, listening to an ash cd (is it just me, or do ash write some hella-catchy songs?), and specifically not job hunting. don’t worry, i will. it’s still only 9am. plenty of time still. (and i’ll keep telling myself that, right up until bed time.)

so i’ve been thirty for 2 weeks, now. i’m about to have my 2nd 30th birthday party (this sunday). everyone (well, everyone over 30, anyway) keeps telling me that the 30s are the best years. “life begins at 30,” they say. “30s are the new 40s,” and also “30s are the new 20s.”
seeing as how i’m supposed to be job hunting, i think now would be a good time for a quick look back at my 20s (“20s are the new teens, or perhaps the new octogenarians who knows?). my 20s were fairly good to me. i fulfilled several childhood dreams within the space of a few short years:

my early 20s were spent in something of a toman-fuelled haze at university, (i started uni 10 years ago! aaaarrrrgggghhhh!), but a fun haze, nevertheless.

at the age of 23, i got a job in a record store – i said in my interview (and it wasn’t a lie) that it had long been a dream of mine to work in one. and i have. and i’d do it again, by golly! maybe one day i’ll have my own store!

at the age of 25, i joined a rock’n'roll band and travelled to australia (where i have been living ever since), living the rock’n'roll lifestyle – like a modern day monkees, all living together in our comedy house.

still at 25, i met my wonderful, wondrous partner, who i think is spiffing.

at the age of 27, i wrote, produced, dirtected and edited my own film. yay!

at 28, my wonderful, wondrous partner and i travelled around western europe together – i find it highly amusing that waited until i moved to australia before i got around to seeing ‘the continent.’ and i have been exceptionally slack about travelling around my adopted homeland – i’ve only ventured out of victoria once, and that was to visit emily & richard when they were living in sydney.

at 29, my wonderful, wondrous partner and i bought ourselves a home! (2006 seems to have been the year for it – both my brothers have recently entered the property ladder, too). we went back to england, as well, and walked along the first third of the thames, which was fun and took about 5 days. then i turned 30 and was the subject of a documentary film by the diabolical directing duo louis segal (multi-madness, the psychiatric channel) and daniel moses.

the one thing i haven’t managed to get sorted out yet is a job. so i really must stop procrastinating, now – i AM 3o, after all, and old enough to know better – and get back to job hunting.

till next time

DISGRUNTLED FINNS OF THE WORLD… UNITE!

ah, helsinki… i think the world would be a better place if it contained more complaints choirs.
i was not surprised to find that the first complaints choir was from birmingham.

SPAM

this is the list of spam that was waiting for me in the spam folder in my gmail account today. my favourites are from Mima Oneal and Victor Frye. Especially Victor.

Werner Ola – Good stuff
Aeolus Copley – Re: good 8275
Jordan Thayer – New Home Lloan lApproval
Mima Oneal – grandmother diplomat
so – Re: much
Danny Cote – christmas are coming!
Pam Coffey – hi rhythm
Brady – show your sweet heart how much you care Armand
Jennifer Hurst – wind
Erin Lunsford – Want to be a hero in a bed? orderid:collision
Nanny Pickett – prejudiced
Meade & Trent Doherty – Meade & Trent Doherty is back and I got one of these
Wallace May – Home Improlvement Approvlal
first – Re: Sacked
Victor Frye – vagina earache
Nephele Malloy – Re: good 456

A STORY IN JUST SIX WORDS

wired magazine has asked 33 writers to write 6-word science fiction stories. (arthur c. clarke cheated – his has 10 words).

here are ten of my own efforts:

1. the trees cried one last time.
2. fun is outlawed. let’s leave town.
3. feet… too… sore. can’t… go… on…
4. smoking is good for your cancer.
5. i spread my wings and plummet.
6. the sky is blue. for now.
7. computer told me to write this.
8. the house collapsed. a homeless ghost.
9. time will soon go backwards again.
10. saddam wakes. sits up. rubs eyes.

ok, those are my spur of the moment efforts. leave your stories in the comments, or anywhere else you can think of.

congratulations to my very dear friends emily and richard on their engagement. i hope you continue to share many wonderful holidays together!

in other news, the countdown continues, with less than a week to go until our departure. we both only have one day of work left (j’s is tomorrow, mine is monday), then the serious pre-trip preparations can begin.

i read a really good joke the other day that i wanted to share with the world, but i can’t for the life of me remeber it. oh well. next time. but while i’m on the subject, i’d just like to say how much i object to all the sex on computers these days. i mean, it’s uncomfortable and i keep falling off.

the music in my brain at the moment is mainly by blondie, which can only be a good thing.

the birthday season

it was my brother’s birthday the other day – he turned 28. it’s my mum’s birthday next week, then a few of my cousin’s add another year to their respective ages. my 30th birthday is less than a month away, and the rest of november is filled with the celebrations of numerous friends and family members. and just when you think it’s safe to venture out again, my baby brother (i say ‘baby’ – he’s turning 23 and has a 4 month old baby himself) goes and has a december birthday. sneaky little blighter.

in one week and one day, we will be boarding a plane a jetting ove to the midst of these celebrations. the excitment is building…

DAN FIC

i’m not generally speaking a huge fan of fan-fics, but i thought i’d share this with you.

also, did anyone see this episode of eastenders?

This, is an ex-budgie.
On Friday 12th July 2002, the BBC once again proved that they are, indeed, the Monty Python channel. A new version of Monty Python’s famous Parrot sketch was woven into Eastenders”, the BBC’s award winning soap. Jim Branning, a leading character in the programme, is tasked by his wife to clean out the bird cage belonging to their pet budgie. Jim, never the sharpest tool in the box, decides to use the vacuum cleaner pipe; a reasonable idea except when the budgie is still in the cage. The inevitable happens and seconds later the bird has vanished from its perch and into the pipe.Panicking, Jim realises that he must replace the bird or explain to the wife. Numerous phone calls to pet shops later, he successfully locates a seller with the right bird and the right plumage. With the corpse of the last bird securely packaged in a shoe box, he makes his way to the pet shop and becomes an unwitting victim to the Monty Python loving shop assistants. Read the text below and/or download it as a 155k WAV

Shop Assistant 1 (S1)
Shop Assistant 2 (S2)
Jim Branning (JB)

S1: Are you sure it’s dead?
JB: Eh?
S1: It might be resting.
JB: It’s dead mate. Look at it!
S1:Maybe it’s just stunned?
JB: Stunned? It’s as stiff as a board.
S1: Norweigan blues you see, they prefer kipping on their backs.
JB: No ‘e ain’t kipping, mate. ‘e’s brown bread.
S1: See if you can wake him.
S2: Wakey, wakey! [Shakes box] There he moved!
JB: You moved the box!
S2: No I didn’t!
JB: Are you having me on or what?
S1: This budgie is no more. He has ceased to be. He has expired and gone to meet his maker. He’s a stiff. Bereft of life, he rests in peace. [Pause]
S2: This, is an ex-budgie.