Exhaling (after 6 months)

..."subject to minor revisions"...

like, the relief!
6:18:00 PM

 
Do we know any USAns? Now that the Pentagon is trying to prevent USAns who might actually be in another country (apart from the military, i.e. progressives, i.e. Democrats) from registering, they need to go here rather than the official blocked site: http://register.verifiedvoting.org/
11:16:00 PM

 
Synchronicity from the New York Times:
"Fever burns in the evening. Asthma, ulcers and certain forms of arthritis worsen at night. Heart attacks and strokes brew in the predawn hours and often erupt after sunrise.

The study of how the time of day affects the body's functions, called chronobiology, is still a very new field"

I've just been noticing over the last couple of months that my histamines often go wild about half an hour after I wake up, and then settle down again by early afternoon.

Hail Victoria Hale
"In 2000, disillusioned with the pharmaceutical industry, she launched America's first non-profit drug company."
6:50:00 PM

 
D'oh - everyone getting online to book friday night Fringe Fest stuff. *frustration* Online booking getting v slow...
10:45:00 PM

 
Also just sped through Decline and Fall (E. Waugh), whilst trying to distract self from annoying landlord shenanigans. Proposed rent increase dodgily done (no forms filled in). Consumer Affairs informal assessment is place isn't worth the increase. Tell landlord. Landlord tells us we should leave :P Like house, don't like landlord. Like housemates, but 5 room places hard to find. Hyper overseas for a few more months. All annoying. Find it v difficult to blog about annoying stuff. Ignoring stuff works for me.

A presumption of death (J. Paxton trying to continue from D.L. Sayers) is also annoying. Peter and Harriet would never be so slow on the uptake. Or so annoying.
7:13:00 PM

 
Books:

Consilience, E.O. Wilson;
[broad scope, really should try to write reviews while i still have copy of book, covers a lot of ground trying to link up different areas of human knowledge - e.g. the arts with the sciences, but not quite detailed enough in most areas to really enthrall];

Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain, A.R. Damasio;
[meh - not very convincing about said error - not quite sure if Damasio seems to have missed the point about what Descartes was saying, and really hardly discusses philosophical aspects at all... other more neuroscience bits about role of the body with the brain in producing the mind quite interesting though];

Busman's Honeymoon, D.L. Sayers;
[the last Wimsey Sayers chronologically, and also the last available in my local libraries, which is a bit sad, but there are a couple of earlier Wimseys I'll have to look out for at secondhand bookshops or something]

Something by E. Moon

Tangents, G. Bear;

Some other short story collection by some hard-SF author (wracking brain - is on tip of cerebral cortex).

6:55:00 PM

 

Wed dinner by Fleur;

Strike on Thursday at work;

String of posh gallery openings Thursday night;

Manage to find THREE cool birthday presents at markets on Friday;

Friday sunset wine and cheese in corporate boardroom with amazing view over city;

Then meetup with HM Ben in scary club in town w many suits;

Then hippy birthday party where I was already V trashed then finished bottle of red - hope I wasn't too embarrassing;

Hungover all Saturday :( Loud also v sick with flu - emesis and everything;

Saturday birthday BBQ by a chef - amazing spread: dips, tapenades, tapas, pestos, breads, roo burgers, sausages, and many different weird and wonderful salads. He and his family are all rather intellectual, but I don't know him well at all (was mainly there via Nora), so was glad he seemed happy with a rather polymathic looking classic by Bertrand Russell;

Half-hearted clubbing in town with Haclev and Lain and Ellen and Ellen's new scottish housemate Darren and his french friend Uriel;

No occasion BBQ on sunny Sunday arvo for exworkmate Freddie;

Monday was Loud's birthday, but flu meant she had to cancel Sunday BBQ and Monday dinner, was feeling v sorry for self - was sick last birthday too! But heaps of friends dropped round Monday evening and hung out.

10:40:00 PM

 
Was IMing Ellen about some industrial action (we're striking tomorrow - the Execs here are getting a 50% pay rise over the next 2 years while the staff/academics are getting 15.5% over 3 years! And apparently other uni's are getting 18-20%), and also about the wrongness of palm trees in inappropriate settings and blowing them up. I got kicked off and we wondered whether it was Big Bro. So we started IMing about Bush and Osama and JFK, and then when I sent "cuba FBI CIA napalm" Ellen got kicked off! I hope I'm not about to get -
10:16:00 PM

 
Sunday, I got up at 11 when Ben was just coming home after a big night out. I went and met Haclev^[1] in town and we went to see the Man Ray exhibition at the NGV. Checked out a small part of the rest of the G, then home.

Ben and Chris did a roast for the house. Big slab (log?) of cow. Lots of potatoes and pumpkin, and some boiled broc and carrot. Was good.

^{[1] Should I change Haclev's blognym? I think I was going through a phase of being impressed with Vaclav Havel when I named him - and he (Haclev) isn't Czech or anything...}
7:35:00 PM

 
Saturday I helped Daria move a table from some store to her apartment. The hatchback (should I name it? I worry I neglect it, it really needs to be taken for a service, it's very good to me, maybe a blog mention will keep it behaving beautifully?) was most accommodating (just). Then went and had a rather tasty Mediterraneanish breakfast at a Turkish restaurant on Swan St. V busy place. The barista (Turkish equivalent?) draws human faces into the froth of any froth-topped coffees, shaded and everything! Is v cool :)

Then had a leisurely arvo reading the paper in our lounge while it poured and hailed outside.

In the evening I got Daria to come with me to Errol's going-away party. Am glad I did as there was only one other person I knew there (apart from Errol and gf). Had a quick catchup with Errol and a chat to the other guy I knew. Really should've mingled, but a friend of Daria (whom we shall call Samwise) was having a party too, so we headed off to that. The party was in Fitzroy, and I was happy to find parking, since that area is madness on weekends. As is often the case in this city, a rather worn frontage revealed a rather recently done-up interior, polished blonde floorboards, new kitchen, etc. Some nice catering, with little sandwiches, large wedges of camembert with good crusty bread and deluxe fruit bread, plenty of fresh fruit, and cookies and muffins later. Lots of people, rather dense as a matter of fact, was a little difficult to move around. Settled in and mingled a little. I was a bit dodgy and even though I'd never met Samwise before, I'd arranged for Haclev to meet me at the party since he was having dinner at that end of town - I *did* clear with Daria first that it an openish kind of party, she'd had the go ahead to invite friends and had invited Fleur and Neiman as well as me.

Met a lot of young professionals: doctors and lawyers and accountants - which felt a little weird... I guess the ambience was just a little more cleancut than I've been experiencing lately (bloody hippies and rock bogans). Had a good chat with a couple of people. Haclev and Fleur and Neiman all made it over too and infiltrated reasonably well. Haclev in particular is an inveterate mingler - the type of person who, whilst walking down the street, starts up a full-on conversation with a random bouncer to a place we have no intention of going into. He also talks with shop assistants and waiters and learns their names and later bumps into them on the street and chats. It makes going places with him quite slow.

There was also an unobtrusive dj, who played some nice breaks and drum'n'bass and general dance. Was generally too crowded to dance, although it cleared out enough for a bit of boogie 1ish, but we left soon after.
6:52:00 PM

 
Cooked dinner Friday night for Ellen and Lain and Dallas. Ben and Nadia were home too, and Evan was over as well, so cooked for them also. Am glad I'd already decided to double all recipes. Really must control urge to say to housemates "oh, I'm cooking if you want dinner", but feels rude to cook just for friends. Anyway, had a good catch up, and drank too much red wine. Actually everyone had a perfectly appropriate amount of red wine, except perhaps for Dallas, who returned the excess to our carpet. Don't think the stain's going to come out (carpet cleaning tips anyone?). Poor darling is terribly embarrassed. And I've been a little chagrined over last couple of days as I've tried to get the stain out, particularly as various housemates come across me trying and Make Comments - which are probably more amused than annoyed, but because I'm The Good Housemate (Who Never Does Anything Wrong), I'm oversensitive about this fall from grace. And anyway I blame it on Ben bringing out his hookah (not for anything illicit, just apple tobacco) *vexed-frown*.
11:40:00 PM

 
Stuff I've missed blogging over last few weeks:

Hip hop night with Neiman and co? Hilltop Hoods were ace. Bliss and Esso were also pretty good;

Hippy BBQ (for Bea's birthday, Oat and Koko's friend) with lots of kids;

Birthday dinner for Nadia (now subletting Hyper's room) at Street Cafe in St Kilda;

Party at Ellen's? surely must've blogged that already?

Catch up with Hird (over from west) at Bimbo Deluxe, plus his gf Min and her f Blaine, then Thai across the road, and John Saffran running by;

Catch up with Girlie at Loud's new boy Ewan's standup comedy competition final;

Haircut;
um...

7:20:00 PM

 
Go these journals!
"Editors of major medical journals joined forces on Wednesday to make researchers and companies register all clinical trials when they begin so unflattering or unclear results cannot later be covered up."
6:16:00 PM

 
*sickly-shudder*
have just been mentioned (in a professional sense) in an official newsletter in COMIC SANS!
10:42:00 PM

 
32 petabytes of HD storage! yummy!
7:36:00 PM

 
Last night, played another new boardgame with crazy germans again (ok, maybe a couple of non-germans too). Not only new to me, I think this one has only been produced recently, it was called Tahuantinsuyo, which, as we all know, is the Incan's name for their empire. There was a fair amount of strategy required, but a bit of deliberate balancing of players in the lead and those not, plus a bit of luck to keep it interesting for the novices.
6:11:00 PM

 
Weekend lovely. Friday after work, we had going-away drinks for Errol, a research assistant/tech/thingo here who's off to other hemisphere to start a PhD. I tried a Hoegaarden in a bottle. Was not as nice as tapped, and was also v v expensive. Was originally supposed to go see a play with Daria (a friend of her friend was somehow involved...), but they were sold out by the time I tried to book tickets. So home instead and cooked and also didn't go get trashed with Loud and friends.

Saturday I did a bit of housecleaning, then went into the city.

Exp_Err and Homonculus drove down from City Beneath The Mountains for the weekend. Was really good to see them and catch up a bit. We went to yum cha in Chinatown at Shark Fin House, a rather more upmarket example of the genre (don't think you can tell from their webpage). It was rather nouveau in terms of cuisine. About the most traditional thing we had was the sticky rice (really should know the trad name) - no cha sieu bao, siu mei, ha gao (all totally dodge made up spelling there), although I wasn't particularly pro-active in asking about them. Has been interesting to note the last couple of times I've been to yum cha, there've been these new types of dumpling wrapped in seaweed - definitely non-trad, and one place even had raw salmon slices with soy and wasabi! Am sure if Chinese cuisine was personified and was dead and had a grave, it would be spinning in it at the thought of the Japanification of yum cha.

Afterward we headed to the "Beer Ambassador" at Young & Jackson. I'm losing count of the number of times I've been. We were early, so we had a beer and played Trivial Pursuit for a bit. Exp_Err and Hom were totally thrashing me, but luckily we had to end the game. Xena and Dolly met us there. Then we tasted beer. Hung around a bit afterward, then me and Exp and Hom went to Arts Centre to check out status of potential cultural activity later. Booked out again, perhaps culture is against my participation.

Hairy Canary for dinner. Tried to order the eggplant tart with mascarpone again, and waitress told me they didn't have it (again)! But halfway through our meal, the waitress said they'd made a new batch, and brought one out gratis :) Rest of meal not that amazing, pumpkin and eggplant and chicken pizza last time much much better.

Tried to take Exp and Hom to St Jeromes afterward, but in the trad of Callas's visit, I couldn't find it (ooh, just had a thought of how to find it...darn). Am hopeless. Thought about trying the Supper Club again, but was too discouraged. Went to Misty instead. Then home. Loud and Ben and Nora and friends all around and about to go out. But bed too tempting. Was in bed by 10:30? 11? and didn't get up till past 11 on Sunday morning. Was good.

Sunday, had a couple of beers in sunny backyard with random people. Think Loud getting a bit tired of Nora and co. hanging around. Hyper's replacement, Nadia is friends with a lot of Nora's crew, who via Hyper had been hanging at ours quite a lot before he left. Anyway, random people were hanging at ours Sunday morning, while Nadia went to her Dad's. Ben and I had to leave too for various engagements also. So Loud came home later in the arvo to a bunch of people, none of whom lived there. Understandable annoyance - really, if people just had a bit more sense, so many problems wouldn't be problems (Nora and Evan - Nadia's boy, both know Loud quite well, they really should've been able to predict her reaction and prevent it).

3ish, met Exp and Hom at Luna Park, and made them wait in way too long a queue for the "Scenic Railway" (not quite a roller-coaster), which I've wanted to try for ages. Nice view once we actually got on, but over WAY WAY WAY quickly. Suspect most available rides are a bit... pedestrian. The setting is quite nice though. Then coffee and cake on Acland St, where Hom was frankly rather horrific. He had this MASSIVE piece of Rygar (?) Slice? - two thin pieces of chocolate cake separated by the most massive cube of ridiculously rich, dense, chocolate mousse ever produced. And he washed it down with an iced chocolate.
5:12:00 PM

 
Other goss from Sat night is I snogged yet another friend. More a good friend of Loud's friends and of Nora and company. Was more discreet than last time (middle of dancefloor and middle of living room), but not particularly discreet. Fallout as always will be of interest. Haven't really hung with that crew since then coz Lauren was over from Wild West to help Fleur plan wedding stuff, and we've been hanging out every spare moment (evenings). Soul Mama in St Kilda Monday night - had heard some good things about it previously, but it wasn't particularly amazing: nice view over the bay, interestingly militant vegetarianism (but only on the placemats), the service was a bit hopeless (waiters didn't know anything about menu, and didn't seem inclined to find out, and generally seemed vague). The food was good vegetarian, but Neiman cooks stuff just as good (if not better), regularly.

Tuesday I had Lauren and Fleur and Neiman and Daria over to mine for dinner - veg moussaka, spicy chickpeas, greek salad, rice, chocolate brownies with icecream. Cooking after work before people arrived was a bit hectic, but also fun because I was using a new chef's knife given to me by exOfficemate, Dolly and Xena (birthday prez only 3 months late - they all know that by my standards, that's like early). Sharp as. exOfficemate told us of a tradition where the knife receiver gives the givers a coin each so they won't cut themselves on the new knife. What a crock. Blood everywhere - but luckily was later when everyone gone and I was washing up.

Wednesday, Neiman cooked for us (Asian theme): veg wontons (steamed and fried), nasi goreng, sweet and sour thai salad, and asian greens in oyster sauce. I think Fleur was in charge of dessert, but was too busy doing wedding planning with Lauren all day, so she'd bought pandan rice dessert thingos and little lychee puddings. We drank three bottles of champers, three bottles of red wine and an amount of Cuervo. Played board game called ImaginIff, fun, but no real skill involved.

Last night went to Vegie Bar in Fitzroy. Ate way way too much.
6:23:00 PM