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Friday, August 30
[Subconscious]posted by peter at 12:15 .......I'm coping far better with far less sleep these days. I feel refreshed after 7 hours, and have been getting by on around 5 over the last few days. Either I have trained myself to require less – which could, no doubt, be attributed to the ridiculous hours kept in our house – or I'm going to hit a very sturdy wall rather soon.
I tend to hope for the former.
Really, it's a good thing. I have often exclaimed that I could get so much more done if I didn't need to sleep so much. Maybe I'm being given an opportunity to <cliche> get more out of life </cliche> for the next few years, before I hit the one-third-life zone, get tired at 11pm and fall into some sort of *gulp* routine.
Which is clearly what has happened to our narky neighbours.
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[Citizenship]posted by peter at 17:31 .......I am not getting into this essay.
I am just not getting into it at all.
[B'day fun]posted by peter at 01:07 .......Wishing a super 30th birthday to my gorgeous sister Miriam, who will no doubt be catching some rays in her adopted homeland of Fiji!!
Also, yesterday marked the 21st birthday of the glorious Asia Ange! Congratulations lovey! :)
And in non-birthday related news, yay to Lisa B for agreeing to be my new housemate! Woohoo!
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[Madness sets in]posted by peter at 10:49 .......It would seem that Deb and I went a bit mental last night, probably from a combination of tiredness and, for me, uni-induced mania. We manifested our madness in ways such as shrieking, laughing crazily, making noises, frothing at the mouth, etc. The crescendo occurred at around 1:30am when the tidiness bug hit and we were inspired to chuck all unwanted junk from our rooms off the landing onto the floor below.
The items we flung into the void included boxes, coathangers, money, a blowup cactus, shoes, clothing, feminine hygiene products and other nick-nacks.
A terrific source of stress relief, I must say.
Talk of all this carry-on brings me to another subject which I've been surprisingly quiet about... noise complaints. Deb and I are effectively on our last warning from the strata for undue noise. This sounds so feral, but there is so much more to the story than meets the eye. Protagonists in the drama include one set of neighbours (out of 10) who have a bee in their bonnet, so to speak, and are rather fond of sending us anonymous notes or, failing that, calling the police to attend to our racket. It is just so unfair. There have been strata meetings about us and everything, but fortunately our landlord is on our side and has been really supportive.
The amazing thing is that most people in the block say they NEVER hear us. It's borderline harrassment as far as we're concerned. We admit, we do make noise. But so do other people, and I think we cop the blame. Just because we're young, fun and interesting doesn't mean that we can be scapegoats for the woes of the boring pre-middle-aged one-third-life-crisis-ridden folks who inhabit a townhouse three doors down.
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[You know they're out there]posted by peter at 15:48 .......Hello to Hannah, merrily blogging away in Adelaide!
[Jessica is glorious]posted by peter at 15:42 .......My friend Jessica deserves prize after prize just for being wonderful. Yesterday she and I were enjoying a leisurely pot of green tea when, as always, the conversation turned to food, homewares and interiors. Sometime during the proceedings, she whipped out a recipe book and began transcribing a recipe for some sort of Thai or Malaysian curry, (containing eggplant, potato, lemongrass, coriander, coconut milk, the works) and demanded that I make it that very night.
Naturally I had almost none of the ingredients in my fridge/cupboard, and I informed her of this immediately. Then, before I realised what was occurring, she had assembled a lovely box of fragrant ingredients for me to take home!
So, rather late last night I made this exotic dish, with much help from Ange. It was easy to make and seemed rather appealing.
Sadly, we may as well have eaten air, for all the blandness this dish presented. It had very little flavour, and required the addition of much salt (or pasta sauce in Ange's case) in order to become enjoyable. Deb refused to try it. Perhaps I should say it was subtle. That's much more positive! I think the flavours matured over time, and it actually became rather delicious when I had some later in the evening. After all of this, I am in fact really looking forward to finishing it off tonight.
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[Pizza]posted by peter at 18:10 .......Whereas your standard dish of nachos is the product of Tex-Mex mentality, I think pizza has been distorted by virtually every popular international cuisine. Having moved far from the original (and delicious) concept of tomato and cheese, today's postmodern pizzas are adorned with all things hip and frou-frou. We have artichokes, sundried tomatoes, semi-dried tomatoes, blue vein cheese, potato, kalamata olives (a far cry from bog-standard Spanish black olives), caramelised onion, roast garlic, pumpkin, haloumi cheese, bocconcini, cucumber, yogurt and even bok choi.
And there's no doubt that they can be delicious. In fact, I've come to expect that little bit more these days. Having said that, I'm not sure if I was disappointed or refreshed by the simplistic ingredients of last night's overpriced pizza that I purchased in Victor Harbor. Plain old tomato, onion, cheese, Spanish black olives and capsicum on a thin base drenched with vegetable oil. Upon reflection, I think I was disappointed.
Sandra and I were discussing the concept of outrageous pizza names. I'm sure it's been done somewhere (nothing's unique anymore), but wouldn't it be great to select from a menu that included such delicacies as Hell's Inferno and The River of Hades (essentially topped with chillies), Tectonic Vegetarian (massive slabs of roast vegetables on a rich tomato base), Hong Kong Stir Fry (with a wonderful assortment of Asian vegetables, guaranteed fertilised with human manure), Sushi Galore (bring on the nori), Human Cadaver (literally – it would suit some of the militant vegetarians) or even John Howard's Tertiary Vision (no topping on a mouldy base)? I'd love it.
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[A is to B as...]posted by peter at 18:49 .......Today I had my third and final Hep A+B vaccination, which heralds that day that I can travel the world fearlessly!
I feel that I need to write about the doctor who gave me the vaccination. He was perfectly nice, and delivered the injection as painlessly as possible, despite the fact that he himself was in excruciating pain from a mysterious back ailment. He could barely move because of this, and was restricted to shuffling about on a chair or taking hesitant steps around the clinic. He expressed his pain through hearty swearwords that some other people would find highly offensive. I don't particularly care, but I'm not sure how he arrived at the conclusion that I was one of these 'swearing-friendly' types. He was also very inquisitive and asked me far more questions than the other doctors had on my previous booster shots.
For example, whether I was vegan. This question was based on his sighting of my email address. Then he wanted to know if I was fit and well. Fair enough. He found out I'm a blood donor and started talking about haemoglobin and vegetarianism. I assured him that I obtain better-than-adequate nutrition. Then he wanted to know whether I take drugs: nicotine, dope, intravenous or up the nose. He wanted to know whether I'd had any suspect sexual encounters, whether I had a partner, and whether it was a problem that I don't. (Like, what?) Whether I had any tattoos. Whether I was planning on getting any. Same went for body piercings.
My conclusion was that either he was unnecessarily cautious and inquisitive, or my previous doctors had failed to impart appropriate advice.
The session ended with my discovery that some of my medical records have been lost. There was no record of my second booster. I know I had it. So I'll be going for a blood test in 8 weeks to determine the level of my immunity.
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[Me, my friends, and why I love them]posted by peter at 23:21 .......Ooh, I've put together a bit of a photo essay!
Aren't we delightful?
I'm especially fond of the vile JPEG degradation that occurred when I was forced to resize an already-compressed image, having not saved the photoshop file. Bad practice aplenty on this site.
[Oh poisonous friend!]posted by peter at 09:25 .......A couple of months ago, my workmate Beajaye told me about the compounds that are emitted by flame-retardant plastics. As in the sort that encase your computer monitor, television, stereo, etc.
I was already fairly paranoid about another toxic plastic characteristic – xenoestrogens. Sandra had informed me of their existence a year or two ago. Xenoestrogens are compounds that are similar to the oestrogen hormone, and form during the breakdown of chemicals like DDT, from the combustion of fossil fuels, and seemingly in the plastic production process. Evidently they are linked to rampant cancers and also seem to trigger early sexual development in girls. We're talking 5, 6, 7-year-old girls. And xenoestrogens can leach into food if it is stored in plastic. Altogether, they are worthy fodder for a neurotic reaction.
Then Beajaye tells me about the flame-retardant plastics. Apparently we literally bathe in unseen emissions from these materials, and the effects are said to be far worse than any complications which may arise from so-called 'screen radiation'. Yuck.
Welcome to the poisonous world. Don't even get me started about dioxins.
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[Ridiculous]posted by peter at 16:20 .......Hmm, I just received another email from an academic organisation I joined, upon invitation, a few years ago. Despite the rather hefty fee incurred, I decided to sign up, and to this day have derived not one single benefit from them. What an utter waste of time and money, and what a worthless exercise. Maybe I just haven't invested enough energy – "the gift of giving is the gift of receiving" and all that – and perhaps some members enjoy wonderful social occasions and get a kick out of funding other people's scholarships. But really, I feel that role is for the government. Meanwhile we sit back and watch higher education go through the shredder.
I think I swapped topics a number of times then. Gotta love a good fractured narrative.
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[Credit reduction]posted by peter at 16:42 .......Due to a lingering credit card debt and the desire for more international travel at the end of the year, I've begun living rather frugally. So today when I was in the city and had time to kill, I decided to go for a walk, rather than taking the more typical option of coffee somewhere. It was really fun to walk around some of the backstreets of the west end, being a tourist in my own town and all that. There's actually some really interesting things to see around good old Hindley Street.
My dollar-consciousness means that I am interested in as many work hours as possible over the next few months. Hence, the opportunity to take an extra tutorial this week was one that I greeted with enthusiasm, even though it is a bit strange to walk into a room full of students who you've never seen before and who are sitting there waiting expectantly for their normal tutor. I think I responded to this stress with a bit of narkiness, so I hope they don't hate me too much. No doubt I've forgotten to deliver some crucial content or something – hopefully I won't have left Josh (the normal tutor for that class) too much in the lurch... :)
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[Blades]posted by peter at 20:15 .......Given that during the past 11 months I've lived in a townhouse surrounded by vast concrete expanses, it is difficult to understand why today was the first time I've ever bothered using my rollerblades. In fact, I only did so upon Deb's prompting, after she complained that she'd never even seen the said contraptions. So I donned my skates, she dragged my bike outside, and we proceeded to do laps up and down the long driveway, in full view of other residents. I guess the sight of me teetering unconfidently on skates and Deb shakily riding a far-too-big bike must have proved quite amusing. We received a few perplexed looks, and someone commented that it was "a nice day for it".
Indeed it was.
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[Flora]posted by peter at 12:07 .......The warmth of the past few days has brought out the first of my anemone flowers. It's a rich, vivid blue, and the fleshy yet fragile petals have finally emerged to reveal the large central section of the bloom. However, I suspect it might be the only flower I'll get, and this 'batch' of anemones will go down in history as one great big failure.
As our back courtyard is entirely paved, I planted the corms in pots, and I did this at the recommended time of year for my particular geographic region. The plants at first seemed rather eager, sprouting readily and growing rapidly. Unfortunately the actual foliage is not very attractive, and the spindly leafage was often mistaken for coriander. At these times I would point out that it obviously couldn't be coriander because nobody knows how to keep that herb alive. I think the trouble was that I didn't understand the way in which anemones grow, and if I had, I would have re-thought my planting arrangements and pot groupings. In any case, it seems that anemone flowers emerge as a single stalk, seemingly unattached to the plant.
They look rather ugly. At least in the context that I've grown them. I think they could look spectacularly beautiful if grown densely and flowering profusely, as the actual blooms are lovely. However, it's hard to appreciate these plants when a few straggly stalks snake their way out of a pot and drape unhealthily down the side before gracing me with one measly flower. Maybe they're just not cut out for urban living.
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[Mean]posted by peter at 16:31 .......Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be judgemental by branding the people in my previous stories as 'unusual' or 'strange'. In their own way they add a splash of colour and interest to my life, but I just lack the means to accommodate their actions within the culturally-conditioned spectrum of 'normal' behaviour. The telephone guy I can handle, but I do object to actions that are designed to make another person feel uncomfortable.
[Arrrgh! It continues!]posted by peter at 15:45 .......This morning someone bared their teeth at me... and this afternoon I was 'miowed' at! Once again, in the city. In some ways I hope that I imagined this. Or do I? Cat noises are the last thing I need when walking down Rundle Mall. Am I losing my mind, or am I just easy prey for a plethora of weirdos? Maybe the sound wasn't directed at me, and I'm manifesting early symptoms of psychosis. In any case, I think I need to avoid people for a while.
[More transport tales]posted by peter at 10:15 .......Seriously, I just keep stumbling upon them.
Two nights a week, I catch the 8:45 bus home from the city. Every single time I catch that particular bus, a very strange man boards it. He is ALWAYS talking earnestly into a mobile phone, seemingly in a foreign language. Every now and then, he bursts forth into vigorous shrieks of joyous laughter, much to the amusement of other passengers. I shudder to imagine his phone bill. Or is he actually even using the phone? I'm not so sure. With all the unusual people in my area (indeed, mental instability is virtually a prerequisite for living on my street), I wouldn't be surprised if he is engaged in imaginary conversation on a $3 cheap-as-you-are plastic mobile phone toy. I'll have to try to inspect the phone sometime. I'll suss him out.
In a similar vein, I was in the city this morning and someone bared their teeth at me. Why am I always perceived as an evil entity? Please refer to my story from August 4.
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[Distractions]posted by peter at 16:04 .......I'm finding it very difficult to work right now, because I'm obsessed with notions of travel...
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[Oops!]posted by peter at 23:57 .......Sorry to anyone who may have had trouble accessing the Flash section... I'd accidentally published the menu for Flash Player 6, which very few people seem to have installed at this point in time. Hopefully the problem is rectified now.
[Extraneity]posted by peter at 12:47 .......For what it's worth, I've finally added two new pieces to my Flash section, namely M1 and M2.
The purpose of these Flash experiments has always been to apply coding concepts to animation and to test out randomisation of generated content. Sometimes the results can be quite interesting, as countless other people doing this sort of thing would no doubt concur.
Sometimes I look back at one or two of the earlier pieces I've done and cringe, but I'm going to leave them online in an unchanged form for the sake of posterity. Originally, I'd always do them in pairs, and one piece would build upon another. That doesn't happen so much anymore. It's interesting to see how my knowledge of Flash and the way in which I've applied it has evolved over time. People, this is Flash for the sake of it!
An important point to note (for the hordes that read this, hehe) is that these pieces do not illustrate how I would apply Flash to visual or user interface design... I guess I'm taking a more demo-oriented focus, attempting to discover what can be done before worrying about how to apply it in a well-integrated and appealing fashion.
[Sleepover]posted by peter at 10:39 .......Last night was as fun-filled as could be expected, what with Misa and Mad Sandra to keep me company. Fuelled by lifestyle shows and multicoloured jellybeans, we pretty much just talked the evening away. Mad Sandra was moved to tears at one point, because the UK Real Rooms actually renovated someone's house properly – ie. with sensibly chosen, well-made fixtures and furnishings – and she felt that this renovation would have restored hope and perhaps even instilled some happiness into that person's life.
On the home front, I have to say that I'm somewhat thrilled because it seems that I may have found myself a flatmate! I won't unveil who it is just yet... but let's just say that dinner parties would be an almost nightly occurrence!
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[@ work]posted by peter at 13:51 .......Lunch break. Have been to North Adelaide, collected some travel brochures and bought something resembling a nutritious lunch.
On my way to O'Connel Street, I ended up walking side-by-side with a guy who works on my floor, but whom I don't know and only very rarely greet, and even then it's usually in a non-verbal fashion. When I saw that our paths were to converge, I tried to speed up to avoid walking next to him. To no avail. Then I slowed down and dropped back, feeling that if we walked abreast I'd have to try to think of something to say. But he also slowed down, so I sped up and overtook, narrowly cheating death at a set of traffic lights in my haste.
I'm not sure what I was trying to avoid – if I hadn't recognised this person I would have just walked along as usual. I think it's just that I couldn't be bothered with the art of conversation when I had a food-related mission in mind. Actually, all the while he was pretending not to notice me, so why should I bother trying to be friendly?
[Bleach]posted by peter at 12:32 .......Last night I braved the consequences and let Trish and Ange cut and colour my hair. I'm meant to be telling people that I got it done in Unley, which is true, but I'm also meant to say that it was at a new salon called Le Minge. Which isn't true. In any case, I'm pretty damn happy with the results, in a highly uncertain kind of way. It sticks up a lot, and has huge blotches of yellow-blonde. It's pretty uneven. But that's all part of the look! (Or so I'll tell myself...)
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[Stupid reply]posted by peter at 15:07 .......As a tutor I get my fair share of poorly written emails which require some thought as to what they actually mean. I'm usually pretty careful to try to discern their context and reply in a meaningful, non-patronising fashion.
Unlike my tutor for State, Power and Society.
I emailed her a fairly simple question the other day, which perhaps could have been better articulated, but nonetheless wasn't particularly demanding on cognitive processes. Her esoteric reply shed no light on the situation and was written in a tone that suggested annoyance. So, apparently I had the nerve to send her a 'stupid' question. Perhaps if she'd actually read the question she may have seen that I was talking about something entirely different.
This happens to me a lot.
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[Whales]posted by peter at 19:03 .......As far as sea creatures go, whales are up there with the best of them. Today Jacqui, Shane and I watched them frolic off the coast of Middleton, and there can be no doubt about the fact that the four whales we saw were having pleasant times. Why wouldn't they? A whole bay to wallow around in and not much to fear. Apart from the vile barnacles and other creepy shellfish that seem to want to attach themselves to whatever part of the mammal they can. Or is it in fact some other sort of growth? It looks like shellfish, but I don't pride myself on my general knowledge pertaining to whales.
The south coast was as wonderful as ever, and the opportunity to catch up with Jac and Shane as well as Sandra, Peter and Lisa just capped off the whole experience. As did the fact that I drank an incredible amount of green tea. Antioxidants ahoy.
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[1969 in the sunshine]posted by peter at 18:29 .......OK, so I'm listening to Boards of Canada and couldn't think of a decent title for this entry – the purpose of which is simply to remark on the gorgeousness of today's weather and the splendours of spending a pleasantly sunny afternoon outdoors at a local cafe (in the shade of course). Tonight I'm heading down to Pt Elliot, which no doubt shall prove a welcome respite from the looming shadow of study which approaches at tremendous velocity.
By the looks of things, it's "same old, same old" as far as study is concerned this semester. Clearly I have absolutely no motivation, even though my course material is genuinely interesting. I just can't bring myself to actually do any assessable work. I'd hoped to break out of the vicious 'eve of deadline' cycle that I'd so comfortably sunk into.
Instead I'm going away for the weekend.
Going away after having spent all morning in front of my computer with the intention of doing work, but looking at the Lonely Planet website instead. I'm trying to decide whether my next trip will be to Thailand (where I've been invited), Japan/Korea, Europe or the USA. Maybe I can combine them all. But all the spectacular travel musings in the world won't complete my courses and earn me my two degrees...
[Forces of grammar]posted by peter at 18:18 .......There's something magical about opening a dictionary to the exact page containing the word you are seeking. It's as if your choice of word has been sanctioned in some way.
[Cab etiquette]posted by peter at 18:16 .......Does anyone know anything about taxi etiquette? Whenever I'm catching a cab alone, I'm never sure whether I should get into the front seat or the back seat. Being in the front seat seems friendlier and more logical in terms of directing and paying the driver, however being in the back gives a nice feeling of being chauffered and perhaps a better sense of security. What with all the stories of being groped by salacious drivers and all. It's probably of little consequence, but I wonder what is most appropriate?
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[Of buses and signs]posted by peter at 15:07 .......Having been a frequent user of Adelaide's bus network during the past five years, I've had my fair share of frustrations and annoyances due to late buses and generally poor service (despite frequent fare increases). However, only yesterday was I moved to compose an official complaint, but in the end I changed my mind because I felt sorry for the driver.
I think it must have been her first day on the job, because not only was she 30 mins late, but when she did arrive, the bus crashed into a sign at my bus stop. Thus, the next 5 mins were spent trying to realign the bent rear-vision mirror. Next, a corner was misjudged at a busy city intersection, which resulted in the bus becoming lodged on the median strip. The fact that the corner was resplendent with road works and orange tape made the task of reversing out into the oncoming traffic that much more difficult. Finally, our poor, stressed driver had to muster the courage to inform the irate/amused passengers that the bus would be going no further and that we'd all have to board another vehicle.
At that point most people decided to walk.
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[Home]posted by peter at 12:37 .......Some sad news this week – it looks as though I'll have to move out at the end of October, or find someone to move in. Lovely Deb has to leave, and I'll really miss living with her because she's been so fun. If a bit feral. Only kidding! :)
Maybe I'll try to move into the city. I've wanted to live there for the last few years, so maybe this is my opportunity before I head off to Melbourne. Or Tokyo. Or Berlin.
[Ooh, it gets dark!]posted by peter at 12:24 .......Despite my love for theatre, I only occasionally get organised enough to attend. One such occasion was last night, when Gossy, Dad and I went to see Wuthering Heights at the Odeon in Norwood. Our first surprise was that it was virtually sold out – we had to put our names on an odd little list and were then lucky enough to get tickets about 3 minutes before the play commenced. And we got to sit in the stalls, which made us feel terribly important in response to the mildly jealous looks we received from the plebs below.
The play was terrific! Really well staged and quite well acted. It captured the feel of the book rather successfully, and dealt with a somewhat challenging narrative structure in an effective and satisfying way. What a depressing story... hatred, vengeance and hauntings!
I'm currently halfway through the novel, so it was interesting to be only half-familiar with the story, and learn of the outcome via a different medium to that which I began with. But I still need to read the novel – it's written in such a beautiful and engaging manner, and it's such a classic, so it would be ludicrous for me to neglect it.
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[Evil drifts by]posted by peter at 17:08 .......It never ceases to amaze me how often I attract bizarre people and occurrences. This morning I was crossing the intersection of King William St and North Terrace in the city, and a guy who was crossing in the other direction made the sign of the cross at me, as if to ward off evil. He held out his crossed fingers and circled me at some distance, smiling all the while. Do I give off some sort of aura of evil? Do I look creepy? I wouldn't have thought so. Admittedly I did have my hair spiked in unusual formations which may have resembled horns, but it was strange nonetheless. Ironically, I was on my way to church at the time. :)
Is this the face of evil?Last night was a lot of fun. I met Selena and her friend Darren at Caos, then we went to Worldsend, where my neighbour Ben happened to be, and finally to Rock City at Swingcat, where we were joined by Jordie. It was a rather bittersweet evening, as whilst the company was terrific and the cocktails were delicious, it marked the farewell of my lovely friend Pippa who is tritting off to Spain, Eastern Europe and regular old Europe for the next seven months. I envy her entirely, but no doubt shall miss her. And damn did she spin some terrific tunes last night!
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[Look at the wildflowers...]posted by peter at 16:16 .......I think I need to perform some sort of audit of how many different types of shirts I have, taking into consideration the suitability of each for any given season. For some reason I impulsively bought two long-sleeved shirts today, and on the bus on my way home I realised that in actual fact I probably needed short-sleeved shirts instead. Winter is in the throes of death and soon we will be hit with all the temperamental weather systems of the Spring, and the possibility of warmth and humidity cannot be ruled out. Unfortunately any further purchases in the next few months CAN be ruled out.
Hence the need for an audit.
If I can determine which things I can keep wearing, which things need to be thrown out and what needs to be purchased (obviously a bit further down the track), I might find myself better prepared for the creepy and unpleasant seasons that await us in the coming months. I still have garments that I bought in op-shops in 1998 (during my recycled clothing phase, which hasn't quite died) sitting crumpled at the bottom of my clothes box, so it really is about time to be decisive and donate unwanted things to charity, from whence many of them came. Or if they're too horrendous I'll just throw them straight in the bin.
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[The competent tutor]posted by peter at 08:40 .......I began my Multimedia Concepts tutoring in an interesting fashion last night – I fell off my chair in front of the class. This was not as embarrassing as it might sound, and I think I glossed over the whole situation pretty effectively. You know, turned it into self-deprecating humour and whatnot. Then it took me 1.5 hours to get home.
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[Cue the harpsichord]posted by peter at 14:12 .......I'm obsessed with the idea of singing in a baroque choir. It would be a perfect upward transition from my days of belting out karaoke in dingy Adelaide semi-alternative clubs. For a while there, a select few from my group of friends would attend Generation X nearly every week and actively participate in a variety of on-stage antics. It was all a bit sad, but so much fun. Deb and I have been known to hook up a microphone to our stereo and commence renditions of Shiny, Happy People and There is a light that never goes out on more than a few occasions, and lately I've found myself singing various harmony parts of Scarborough Fair whilst using my computer.
I've discussed the choir concept with Pippa (whose idea it may originally have been), Jess and (I think) Melita, who all seem keen, and it would be so fun to have a bunch of us involved. Really, any sort of singing group would be fine.
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