On the way home last night, I bumped into The Organometallicist on the train. He was about to go see The Fog of War at the cinema around the corner from me. I've recently read a couple of good reviews, and John Ralston Saul was carping on about Robert McNamara's crimes and evil rationality in Voltaire's Bastards (which I finished recently), and also piqued my interest.

I've been meaning to mention this movie to Hyper (the army-reservist HM). Thus reminded, I told him about it when I got home, and he checked times (while I made a sandwich) and the next screening was in like 5 minutes and we decided we could probably make it. So we strolled over quite casually and got one ad before it started - v nice timing. We also ended up in seats right next to The OM.

I didn't realize until I was buying tickets and saw a flyer that it actually won the 2004 Best Doco Oscar! Quite enjoyed it. Thought he was quite admirably frank and open in many ways.
5:46:00 PM

 
Saturday I also hung out with E&M. They made me breakfast and then we had beer and played bocce in the park across from their apartment. Had a nap in the evening in preparation for going to a houseparty, but got up at 10pm, got dressed, grabbed beer from the fridge and stuck it in a bag, sat down on bed to put on shoes, and went back to sleep instead. V bad form. Apparently it was "the best party ever". Must find out further details.

Woke up v well rested on Sunday. Ran some errands, then to an engagement party for one of Loud's friends. It was aaages away. It said 1pm start, so we got there at 1:30. Decorations were up, bbq just started, tables and chairs and beach umbrellas up, but backyard totally empty of people, so go into the house and everyone still in the throes of preparation. Sudden realization: end of daylight saving. Oops - we were actually half an hour early - how embarrassing! Luckily we got to pitch in helping thread a massive stack of kebabs until everyone else started arriving. Ate heaps. Drank a bit. Speeches not too interminable. Left and managed to make it into Myer in town before closing to pick up wedding present from registry (only just realized that morning that I wouldn't really have any other chance to do so before leaving for wedding). The couple had listed Hot Food and Home Food. They're ok little books, but not very much in the way of either food-pornish (although tending in that direction), or in the way of interesting or detailed or informative - a bit pedestrian in all actually. So was also going to get them a cookbook a bit more useful and extensive, but The Cook's Companion is currently being reprinted and wasn't in any of the stores I managed to get to, and The Joy of Cooking doesn't seem to be on the shelves at all - I only ever see it on the internet. Anyway, ended up getting them Margaret Fulton's The Cookbook, which seems to be pretty classic, and I've heard a few good things about it, and it also happened to be on sale at the Borders just around the corner from me. Can feel a cookbook splurge coming on for self.
5:33:00 PM

 
Oops - think I just really offended The Officemate by not believing there was such a thing as "generic perfume" (no brand, no label, just different scents which get sold in random perfume bottles in stores in France). I was actually trying for "really amazed that they'd do such a thing" rather than actually disbelieving of her. Can I blame some of her offendedness on her being French? :P
5:01:00 PM

 
Sista She on Friday night were cool. They were pretty funny. Managed an amusing-but-not-nasty hip-hop vibe (and tracksuit style), as well as nicely synched choreography, and also displayed quite impressive singing voices (moreso during their occasional forays/detours into disco and ballads and other musical genres). Their lyrics were nicely put together and articulate. Notably (for me, anyway), they were pretty non-jarring for Australian hip-hop - the stuff I hear on JJJ is often quite jarring.
8:38:00 PM

 
uuurrrrr.... today going so slowly...

Just got invited to an anti-GM rally on Sunday, but am supposed to be at engagement party I think. Good on Nick Xenophon for speaking up. I don't have a problem with actual genetic modification of course (see my small shop), but it worries me hugely that control of this technology is dominated by multinational corporations with vested interests like Monsanto (who contaminate other people's crops and then sue the smalltime private farmers for Monsanto's own mistakes - bastards).
9:06:00 PM

 
Friday Five
If you...
1. ...owned a restaurant, what kind of food would you serve?
The weirder the better (but still yummy).
2. ...owned a small store, what kind of merchandise would you sell?
Books! or interestingly genetically modified organisms.
3. ...wrote a book, what genre would it be?
SF. *NOT* modelling :)
4. ...ran a school, what would you teach?
Obedience (to me - yes, would like my own cult).
5. ...recorded an album, what kind of music would be on it?
Epic trance? Old skool rave? Tree falling in the forest with noone to hear?
5:45:00 PM

 
Other things - um.
Monday night? What the hell did I do? Oh yeah, went for a "Pie and a Pint" at the local Irish Pub with the HM Hyper and caught up a bit and had a good conversation as we usually do (life, the universe, etc.). We had actually started a *more* interesting conversation earlier about capitalism and democracy (I was arguing that it was more capitalism versus democracy), and (as usual) I think he was just being contrary (although he is a bit of a rabid capitalist), but the other HM's were trying to watch TV and we got shut down :)

Tuesday night I managed to catch up with Calla one last time before she flew north (for the winter?). Stopped in at the Black Cat for an Amber Ale, then went to the Lambsgo again and had a (hot!) chilli beer, and a Chimay Blue. Did a couple of somewhat drunk texts. And then stopped at Kent St for one more drink before heading home.

Wednesday night I made it to a globalisation meeting. There were a whole lot of new faces, which was cool. But the old ones seem to have disappeared (apart from main guy Nick of course). Don't think I missed too much over summer though, I think most people had a rather busy time with other stuff. Made it through much organisational stuff for the next few months, hope I manage to follow through!

Last night I went to a seminar on risk management for Climate Change by a guy from CSIRO. Arrived quite late, this campus is much too sprawled. Thought 10 mins would be *plenty* of time to walk over. But seminar was pretty good (they started late too). Thought of some reasonable questions, but couldn't make myself ask them. Am v glad I went, was v pissed I missed a seminar last week on the dominance of corporatisation in western society.

Tonight am going to Comedy Festival thingo with E&M. Just booked tickets on web. Yay web. E&M just back from Apple Isle, will be nice to catch up. May be able to drag them to World Water Week hippy party too.
5:36:00 PM

 
Sheesh - another jar of sugar almost finished! How fortuitous that coffee appears to mitigate development of adult onset diabetes :P

Other stuff. Um. Sunday found another beergarden in Fitzroy. The pub was The Standard, and possibly the most notable thing about it is that it doesn't serve fries. You can get them with a burger or with fish, but not by themselves. When we discovered this, we'd already had a bit to drink and ended up having a big outraged discussion amongst ourselves and decided the pub was being totally fascist (and snobby). The waiter came around to bring cutlery for the people who'd ordered food, and as he was leaving I may have made a joking (really!) comment about fascists. He kind of stopped and explained quite seriously:

Waiter: "We're not being fascist because you're free to go to any of the quite numerous pubs in the surrounding area. Plus, imagine if you were the chef here and all you ever got asked to cook was fries, day after day - wouldn't that be terrible?
Us (chorus)"Well...", "Yeah, okay...", "True...", "That *would* be quite sad"...

I was a little abashed over getting him to go so serious. But didn't feel so bad because all the staff had looked quite bored that arvo, and I think everyone also started like flirting with him after that.
5:04:00 PM

 
Saturday I pottered around, read a bit, cooked a bit, until I managed to catch up with Calla for dinner. Went to the one place I've been to on Victoria St (which as a street is quite famous for it's asian cuisine). It's a divey but very popular Vietnamese restaurant whose name I don't even know. The dishes we had were kind of average I thought (a not very chilli squid and braised scallops with vegetables), but it was pretty cheap, and I ate too much. Then we strolled into the city for a drink. I didn't manage to find the Supper Club (again!), so we tried Sahara, and it was closed! So we ended up at The Lounge, which was quite acceptable and had a beer or three. Then Calla off to ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image), and me off home to change and then come back to town for an Earthcore party called "Bliss". Got there just after midnight, and it was scarily empty. Had originally been meant to meet friends in Fitzroy beforehand, but was running so late (2 hours) that I texted them that I'd meet them there instead. Had a bit of a boogie all by myself (although there were two other people on dance floor I suppose). Then a couple more people got up. And finally my friends arrived (not that much later, really) with The Osteopath, a really good friend of a really good friend back in Perth and who I've only managed to catch up with once since I've been here. The dancefloor was soon packed, and we retreated to an upper level and sequestered our very own dance space right in front of some industrial fans. Music v good. Lupus Infabula v good. Visuals good - from alien, to fractal, to anatomical, and botanical. Crowd density good (at least it was where we were, looked much too dense on main dancefloor). Had very good dance. But The Tripping Osteopath decided at a quarter to 5 that he needed some nature, so he drove us out to some (urban!) native bush and we had a massive walk over a bridge and onto a mountain biking track and watched bats and possums and the city skyline through the casuarinas and gums. We were very tired by 6. So back to Qat's where he fed us a dense hearty nourishing soup of lentils and peas and sweet potato and really good olive bread. He lives way on the other side of the city from me, but I managed to get a lift with one of his friends. In bed by 8:30 I think.
5:34:00 PM

 
Weekend was quite nice. Although only did two of the four "things to do this weekend". Friday night, met up with Della for drinks in Brunswick at "Bimbo" :P Had a couple of drinks, got Havel to meet us there. He seems like quite a normal young person (quite well socialized), but he seems to think he's been terribly sheltered thus far and is looking to go out lots and meet new people and have a good time, etc., and he seems to be trying to latch on to me as *some* part of this plan! Heh. Della also had a couple of other friends there, so we sat and talked over beer and champagne for a bit, then tried the Black Cat, but it was packed, so went round the corner to the "Lambsgo Bar". They have a hundred different beers from all around the world and in all styles. I tried a local boutique Mountain Goat Pale Ale which was drinkable, but quite bland. Della doesn't drink beer, but the knowledgable barman recommended this weirdo raspberry beer which tasted like raspberry and champagne or something. I also had a Zipfer? Austrian perhaps? Must go back and sample their extensive Belgian (and NZ and African and...) selection at some point. Then Havel and I went back to the other side of town and didn't get let into Revolver :( Havel v offended, but it *was* like past 1am and pretty prime time. Must get mobile number of friend who works on door. So went to 161 instead, a bit empty when we got there (although no seats left), but filled quite quickly. Drank too much, had a bit of a boogie, but left Havel there chatting people up around 3:30am.
5:05:00 PM

 
My cheapo best-deal mobile handset is good (Siemens A55, good size, weight, battery life, reception, with most minimal features available), but too common. Plus, The Officemate asked for phone advice a couple of weeks ago and I had to tell her this one was the best deal I'd seen. So she now has the exact same phone as me :P So last night I spraypainted most of the navy gunmetal grey instead. The rather fiddly masking with tape and liquid paper worked quite well, so it still has the chrome strip, and the original light silver grey sides. Looks totally like it's meant to be this way (*shallow-but-happy*).
4:57:00 PM

 
Am feeling quite popular this week. Sabinne was here after leaving old life in Our Capital and on way back West (left today). Della arrived on Monday after 7 months travelling (Europe and South America) - took her to dinner on Tuesday (place called Chinta Ria quite nearby - had a tasty Tamarind Fish, ate so much) and was regaled with lots of cool stories about people and places and weird USAns - hopefully will have drinks tonight. And Calla arrived yesterday and we get to hang this weekend. Woo! for Real Weekends (action-packed Woo-Weekends even).
6:47:00 PM

 
Friday Five
1. What was the last song you heard?
Um... really couldn't tell you, I think there was that Strokes song on the radio this morning, but was half asleep until I turned radio off.
2. What were the last two movies you saw?
Return of the King and Metropolis (the original) I think... (it's been a while since I went to the movies).
3. What were the last three things you purchased?
Soy latte, croissant, stack-of-groceries-last-night (coconut milk, bamboo shoots, red chillies, juice, tomatoes - the tomatoes were last to be checked out and should probably be the official third item).
4. What four things do you need to do this weekend?
Get a new spare car tyre, catch up with Calla, see La Dolce Vita, have drinks with Della.
5. Who are the last five people you talked to?
The Officemate, The Boss, NewGuyAcrossHall, GirlAcrossHall, CoffeeShopGuy :( that is one boringly depressing list (actually CoffeeShopGuy is pretty cool, he remembers what I usually drink and we also bumped into each other at an anti-war-protest-streetparty and talked).
6:23:00 PM

 
I made the housemates come with me to the local Irish Pub last night to celebrate speshal_K's birthday. But it was packed with other revellers with the same idea, and we soon left for a non-Irish Pub a couple of blocks away which was much more sensible. Happy Birthday K!
9:00:00 PM

 
Heh. We use Bayesian Networks a little bit around here: "Dr Stephen Unwin has used a 200-year-old formula to calculate the probability of the existence of an omnipotent being. Bayes' Theory is usually used to work out the likelihood of events, such as nuclear power failure, by balancing the various factors that could affect a situation.

The assumptions sound totally bogus (or just not stated), but I like seeing a report even glancing on it in a major newspaper.
8:39:00 PM

 
Oh - and this is so cool! Vive la France! "976 laboratory directors and more than 1,100 specialist team leaders [have] resigned from their management roles" over like reductions/lack/non-payment of funding and cutting of jobs in research.
6:00:00 PM

 
Phew - almost just sent an email to IT services about a machine being down or somehow fucked up - luckily I checked on another browser first, seems to just be Opera which was being dumb >:P
4:44:00 PM

 
Sunday (which was appropriately sunny), I tentatively started the consumer splurge I had been fearing. Went into the city and picked up two Bridal Registry lists - but couldn't make myself buy anything on them just yet. Thought I'd be more excited about buying housewares that I'd never really consider buying for myself, but I guess not when they're all picked out (colours and everything) and, well, pretty boring. Also had a look for a birthday present for M, who's birthday was two months ago. Didn't manage to get anything yet. Then on to Brunswick St to meet Sabinne for more shopping and drinking.

Stopped in at Polyester (please ignore their somewhat confronting anime logo) - a brilliant and wonderful subversive lefty bookstore, full of countercultural books on drugs and porn and art and politics (and which is open at all hours). S persuaded me to splurge ($60) on a book I've been wanting for years (almost a decade!). The book used to be banned (and I'm pretty sure you can't get it Out West), but I'm afraid to google its status now because I've been reading articles about ASIO (Hi ASIO!) and their silly-appalling behaviour during the Vietnam War and their current behaviour now and am all paranoid (even though book is totally unrelated to current "war on terror" raison d'etre and civil liberties infringement justifications).

Then we went and stopped in at various other stores, including Hunter Gatherer who are all lovely and non-sweatshop and working against poverty and stuff. And again I got convinced to splurge ($23 - bargain!) on a retro shirt made of material all printed with a lovely pastoral scene of hills and dales and a leafy well-treed middle-ages village populated with peasants and farmers and wenches dandling babies on their knee.

Then I convinced S to splurge on a tight dressy black top at a rather scarily busy factory outlet.

We went across the road to meet a couple of her friends in an excellent rooftop beergarden of the enigmatically euphonious pub The Labour of Vain (? I didn't actually see the sign - if any - this is what I was told it was called later). There was a laconic dreadlocked primary school teacher who'd just spent two years in central Africa teaching english to classes of up to 250. A rather outspoken lawyer who seemed (warning: prejudging ahead!) like the type to be irritatingly outspokenly opinionated, although since we didn't really cover any controversial topics, it's difficult to be sure. I kind of decided that she must be okay though, since she was going out with the teacher (is that wrong?). A rather cool and friendly graphic designer with an arty distractedness about her. And a funny English design manager who was all cutely glowy and grinny because she'd had an enjoyable one-night stand with the lead singer of some band the night before and not bothered to swap numbers with him.

Had been looking forward to going to a Games Day in Richmond and playing Squareball and Handball and Drinking Games and Trivial Pursuit in the alley behind Metrosexual's house (new blognym for Loud's friend who cooked us dinner the other night). But had a very nice Sunday arvo anyway.
9:13:00 PM

 
Saturday, I did a big grocery shop, and even made it to the markets. I also bought a Beaucarnea recurvata (a palm-like plant with a bulbous base/trunk) and repotted it in a bowl-like ceramic pot I found in our backyard. It also got a good soaking and was left to get lots of sun (it was on sale because it's not quite in prime condition, but will soon recover - I hope!). Then I went and visited my two local libraries after a many month self-imposed hiatus from recreational book use [*shiver-of-anticipation-and-rush-of-addiction-related-neurochemicals*].

In the sunny late afternoon I met up with my friend Sabinne, formerly of The City Beneath The Mountains, who is now moving on to a new life. She may move here, or to London. She's been offered rent-free residence at a friend's diplomatic townhouse, across the road from Buckingham Palace. Most people are somewhat flabbergasted to learn that she's hesitant about the move.

We went to a bar on Greville St and had a bit of Stella at a sidewalk table in the sun and hung out and talked and got various friends to meet us there (her friend A, and my friends E&M).

I was supposed to meet up with Havel to go clubbing afterward, but was quite sleepy by the time we got organized (10ish), and instead I stayed home and played scrabble and had dinner and slept.
8:49:00 PM

 
Ah, some good graffiti. I heart NZ. (Wish they had an actual pic of it!)
2:43:00 PM

 
Really should've done some work on the weekend, but had a really good time instead.

Am having trouble remembering what I did Friday night, but I think alcohol was involved. Am currently reconstructing the scene backwards - oh yes. Got home not that lateish, about 1am? and had a beer with The Pom. I didn't go out clubbing after that (was too trashed). I was supposed to go out clubbing with Loud and Maneater and the Bollywood crew who had also just come home with me. We had come home from the GB where I had bought way too many jugs of Piss (tm - their boutique brew?). It was good.
10:14:00 PM

 
Bah, hate dwelling on negative stuff, makes bad mood worse. So... Had a *great* weekend.

Birthday drinks for The Organometallicist were really good. It was at a cool bar in Fitzroy called the Ilk Bar. It used to be a Milk Bar, but then the M fell off. It's one of those places you can't tell is a bar (or is open, or is anything, really) from the outside. I also managed to get three of my four housemates to come with me (Loud, Hyper and Pom), and Loud got a couple of her friends to meet us there, so we had a bit of a posse of our own. I also drank enough to mingle brazenly and met some of the other people in my department (one of whom I just ran into at the colour printer, and all of whom we have little contact with usually, professionally or otherwise), plus some of his other friends.

Drank too much, but still managed to work out on Sat that, yeah, the missing data was not the disaster I feared. Then had dinner cooked for me Sat night by another of Loud's friends and watched Baraka on dvd (well, it was on in the background while we dissected Loud's recent breakup, anecdote there I must recount later), and then made my way to the housewarming. Discovered random guy I was chatting to was also from The West and also knows some of my Dancing Posse (DPs hereafter - or... most of them are from The West also - the Dancing Immigrant Posse?). V cool apartment - it's above a cafe, is very long, has an alleyway entrance, then up this rickety graffiti'd stairwell, but is just a really good space, balcony, rooms, view of the main street, etc.
10:25:00 PM

 
Managed to get through real work meeting this morning relatively unscathed. I fortunately discovered on the weekend that some supposedly "missing data" was mainly just data from after the period I'd gotten fully formatted and organized so far, plus there were irregularities with it that aren't sorted out yet, so not using it till those are sorted is totally legitimate.

But this arvo I got a report about a colleague (and I thought friend) who may have been a bit bitchy about me behind my back about work things. Don't know if I can report details here, since it would make them identifiable to themselves (and ID me!) if they were to stumble across it, as unlikely as that is. But it's put me in a bad mood :( Might go home early (well, early relative to recent leaving times).
10:16:00 PM

 
Subliminal

1. Dogma:: Tenet
   
2. Spirit:: Wraith
   
3. Voodoo:: Curse
   
4. Demon:: Dog
   
5. Digital:: Anarchy
   
6. Ceremony:: Cemetary
   
7. Research:: Associate
   
8. Career:: Path
   
9. Penis:: Puppet
   
10. Film:: Falm
    

These are a bit dumb, because you can't just read one line, you get a glimpse of the next word/s too, and that affects your choice of response :P
8:00:00 PM

 
Am having an oreo for the first time in about 5 years - it's not as amazing as I'd remembered. Yes, it's still full of salty sugary goodness, but it's just not as addictive as I'd expected.

Maybe if I finish this pack, I'll get those old rushing cravings...
6:04:00 PM

 
Ok other news, Supers finally gave me the go ahead to print this morning. But then when he replied to some of my questions about logistics and forms and things, he said, "well... I'll have to check that, maybe hold off on making copies till next week." Just as well, so wouldn't have gotten to print 4 copies this arvo, and am dreading finding out the colour printer and temp binding facilities are dodge.

But I did a last typo check (found HEAPS), and reference check (found one missing, almost by accident) and tried a free word-to-pdf converter - seems to have worked pretty well.

Had very depressing meeting this arvo about a real work project though - I may have been using the wrong field data all this time! :( Blargh. The field data was a total mess when I got here, and I thought I managed to get it in a semblance of order, but there were apparently a whole lot of cross-references between samples I didn't get, and so haven't organized. We have a big meeting about this project (officially is about someone elses part) on Tuesday morning -sigh-. Monday is supposedly a public holiday here, but I don't think I officially get it off. And I guess with meeting on Tuesday I'd have to work anyway.

This will be interesting since I'm supposed to go out all night with my friends on Sunday night since *they* all have Monday off. Should be quite a good weekend before the massive Tuesday-catastrophe-work-meeting though - have birthday drinks tonight for The Organometallicist, then a housewarming tomorrow night for a pg here.
11:19:00 PM

 
Friday Five
What was...
1. ...your first grade teacher's name?
Miss Keyhole. Or that was what my Dad insisted on calling her (and on being hilariously amused by *every* time).

2. ...your favorite Saturday morning cartoon?
Um... So many... Justice League of America? The Bionic Six? I liked the weekday evening toons just as much I think - Astroboy, Roger Ramjet, Voltron...

3. ...the name of your very first best friend?
David (should I also write his surname?!) But then he went to another school in year 5 (I think), and when he came back to my school in year 9, it just wasn't the same :(

4. ...your favorite breakfast cereal?
I *thought* I loved Coco Pops, but we had them so rarely it was hard to be sure. And then when I was old enough to buy my own cereal, I tried it and didn't like it any more.

5. ...your favorite thing to do after school?
Reading something from my almost-daily renewed stack of library books (while pretending I was doing homework - my parents thought I was *so* studious).
11:08:00 PM

 
Blargh - am getting v frustrated over how he seems to edit the beginning of the paragraph before getting to the end and actually reading the paragraph "climax", so his changes totally veer away from what the paragraph point was meant to be. Okay, maybe this is because my writing style is crap and it's somehow misleading the reader along the way, but if he just read to the end... My horoscope said I should try and listen to others this afternoon, but is very hard.
9:45:00 PM

 
Oh yeah, I get to do a weekend update! Yes, gave myself the Saturday night off since Supers was reading last draft and supposedly signing off on it (oh, he SO better not give me too much more to do - it *MUST* to be done this week or I Will Go Psycho).

Anyway, yes, I went to Fester's housewarming on Saturday night, just to the north of the city. Her new place is very nice, all wooden floorboards and long hallways and newly redone cornices and fresh earthtone paint. There were lots of new people, but I was too tired and uneffervescent to really mingle. So caught up with my Local Raving Posse, and since I haven't hung with them for aaages, was v good. Although was so very flakey and scattered, don't know if I was At All coherent, so just as well I didn't speak to too many strangers.

The main new person I actually had a proper conversation with was called Havel (a friend of Cecil's) who just arrived like three weeks ago after finishing undergrad engineering. We had a good chat about clubs and parties and cool places to hang out, and he said straight out that "because [I] was dressed pretty ravey" (which I was, possibly as a subconscious expression of my unspoken yearnings to get totally munted as soon as possible), "[he] knew that [I] should be the one to talk to about where to go".

Of course I really haven't been out half as much as I should've, so couldn't tell him a whole lot, and told him that and about the few cool places I'd been to. But he still seemed to assume I was some total club kid.

Finally we managed to move onto other subjects: how we knew the house inhabitants, what music we're into, the usual... then of course we move onto what we "do", where I let it slip that I'd been doing the bloody thesis for more than 5 years back west.

He kind of blinked and an expression of horror crawled onto his face, "How old are you?" he said.

I paused, I could see Cecil and Lane (both a good five years younger than me) looking on, amused.
"29" I replied (as evenly as I could, but admittedly with some chagrin).

He practically had a heart attack. I guess it could be flattering, but I felt quite old. I've turned into "the cool old guy". (Who possibly dresses much too young).
2:14:00 AM