action man...

sporadic post number 2...I'm struggling with the corporate nature of the new job & all its associated 'buzz'...for example:

Me: Hey Anna, can you give me a hand with these messenger settings?
Anna: Yes, sure. Did you get the email about that?
Me: Yes....
A: So, did you action that?
Me: (internally)...what the fuck?...does she mean 'did I do that'?
(externally)...ah, no...
A: You really should action those emails immediately to keep your settings up to date...

Now I'm new to all this kinda buzzword crap, but it is very bizarre...'action' will soon be used all over the planet in its new grating, gut-jarring form...what sick person started this? Today I got an email discussing a "significant downward trend" in "individual productivity", while one of the people in the office was yabbering on all afternoon about "closing the deal"...sheesh! I'm out of my depth here...I'm a babe in arms compared to these hard-bitten hacks...I obviously need to lift my game or maybe even 'step up to the plate'....gag...

Other shit...(I'm over talking about The Job)...went up to Bris-vegas (yeah any excuse to use that name!) & saw 'Cirque du Soleil' with my Mum, J & The Kid last w/end....pretty damn impressive stuff...& you've gotta admit their marketing arm has been honed to a razor edge as well...any spin-off, from t-shirts to faux ceramic masks were up for sale at some nice inflated prices. Now I now I gripe about nearly everything, & yes they came all they way from Montreal just to entertain 'we the people'...but it really shits me at these 'events' that they take the opportunity to blatantly gouge the shit out of people (many of who are families with 2 or more kids) for this crap...I've gotta problem with paying $4.50 for a bottle of water I know they bought off the pallette for about 40 cents...yep a 1000% markup...same applied to all the other crap there too...my thrifty nature was sorely tested i can tell you!

Other: 'tHE dIVINERS' (Rick Moody) is nearly finished...what a book! I gotta read more of his stuff; scored the wonderful Life Without Buildings CD in a bargain bin for $5 yesterday...I forgot what a great album this is...a fine thing indeedy; The Kids end of year musical performance included a Misfits and AC/DC cover by one young girl...very entertaining indeedy & we even escaped before the recorders hit the stage!

Ummmmmmmmmmmm...i've run outta steam....later

public service announcement...

...yup! still alive...just not blogging! This is cos at the aforementioned NEW JOB they have an internet policy that doesn't permit hours of blogging & mucking around on the net like at the old job...so it looks as tho' dotdotdot may be relegated to occasional hometime posts utilising cutting edge dial-up technology...& this horrible laptop which I can't seem to type on very well...anyhow new job is good except when i have to ask some computer-related question for the millionth time....sheesh! Went out to the tiny town of Emmaville (look it up!) near Glen Innes this week...the Tattersalls Hotel there is a bargain at $20/night...& features the saggiest 1950's type mattress I've ever sampled...yes, we are talking horeshair stuffing here I kid you not...cold showers are another delightful feature...I felt like I was in India!

Cah...feeling too lazy to type more...felt mildly inspired 5 minutes ago...a list of good shit follows:

• seeing pair of beach-stone curlews on beach today...one of 20 pairs left in NSW
• Mcluskyism comp triple CD...yeah this is 10 months old but so what! Why are they so great? Why did they break up? Snif...I am listening now nice & loud...furious stuff indeedy!
  
• Darren Hanlon was good live at Byron last week, but lacked a drummer. Drummers are a good thing & their absence is felt most keenly. Yes, I was peeved...but even then he still tricked me into getting his new album, which J hates & I admit has a few insipid Ben Lee (shudder)-type moments
• holiday at Woody Head campground with J & The Kid...Kid joins BMX bike gang & has never been the same
• 'The Diviners' by Rick Moody is a great book...probably all his stuff is...I recommend heartily...

That'll do...will try & post stuff occasionally or not at all...that's the kind of wild & feckless liberties us webmasters take! hehehehe...

BTW...beware of Lindt caramel crunch chocolate...it produces feelings of nausea & over-indulgence after a mere 4 pieces, as I have just found out...errgghhhh.........
....sleep beckons. out.

the times they are a...

Let's suppose that you work for a small family company, are well paid, have a lot of licence to do what you want (more or less), have to do very little work at all & have lots of time for important things like doing a blog & downloading music...you'd have to crazy to leave a cushy job like that, no? Yep, well that's basically what I've done (& I'm starting to have doubts now after writing that!) - I'm moving onto another company which is bigger, corporate (they have a Human Resources Officer!), where I'll have to do a lot of work & will have to prove my worth all over again....perks are slightly more money & um, that's about all...& it's even further to drive to as well!

But it IS a good thing I'm sure - firstly I get to work with a team & be vaguely sociable & secondly I'm stagnating here & feeling bored as hell. Change over is in 3 weeks, so its goodbye sleepy Alstonville, hello to the bustling metropolis of Ballina - home of the big prawn! I'm not sure what company policy is gonna be on personal web-use but it's gotta be tighter than here! dot...may have to be relegated to home usage now...& as my friend Greg put it "I hope yr new job has even more powerful computers to make downloading mp3's even easier!"... so do I.

Will have to try & get a few more pics of sleepy Alstonville to post on here before I blow this village...ah shit! I'm gonna miss the 'Biggest vegetable' exhibition later this year! May have to come up here & snap a pic of a truck sized pumpkin.

Other stuff - I can only give the new Drones CD "gala mill" a so-so review...it's good but not great...where is all the wailing & anguish that I loved? Sadly, it appears to have been tamed...there's a few damn fine tracks on here...just in a more subdued form than earlier efforts...BUT they lose big points & instant dismissal from lyric writer school for using the line "where the dead wood aches" in not 1, but 2 songs! Sorry folks but that is lame, no matter how nice a line it is...

Finally - saw 3 Grey-crowned babblers today - they are the skulking fiends of the bird world and are very cool - here's why :

"The Grey-crowned Babbler is the largest of the four Australian babblers, reaching to 30 cm long. Its distinctive bill is scimitar-shaped, long and heavy...This species has a loud and often repeated ‘ya-hoo’ call which is a duet between the male and female (the female says ‘ya’ and the male answers with ‘hoo’). It is used to maintain the bond between the pair and as a territorial call. The ‘ya-hoo’ duet sequence is repeated rapidly, up to thirty times in a row." (DEC)

...sadly there was no ya-hoo-ing going on today... se la vi...

Sometimes I feel like a dork...

Took some time off work & spent a few days on the lovely Coochiemudlo Island with J & The Kid. 'Coochie' as the locals know it is off Victoria Point near Stradbroke Island and appears to be in a 1970's timewarp...which is no bad thing...it's all very beach holiday shacks & sandy beaches & very charming. It also features a population of Bush stone curlews (see pic) which got me very excited...

Conversation between me & The Kid:

The Kid: Come on dad throw the frisbee (yep, another dorky admission - I love chucking a frisbee around)...
Me: (looking around) Hang on, I though I just heard a Curlew...
The Kid: hurry up Dad...
Me: (excitedly) - hey wow! It is a Curlew...look there it is...& there's another one....look right there!
The Kid: (annoyedly) Dad, it's just a boring bird...
Me: (silence...throws frisbee dejectedly to Kid while lamenting Kids lack of enthusiasm for our feathered brethren)

Anyhow, Curlews have gotta be the absolute nerds of the bird world, they even look gangly & stupid...kinda like a feathered Buddy Holly. The funniest thing about them is that they freeze stock still when they see you, then slowly sink to the ground & lie there & hope you don't see them. The Kid & I even walked over & picked one up...it just lay there placidly & tried very hard to look very dead.

Anyhow Coochie is cool & I recommend it (for the Curlews alone!)...altho skip the pizza at the corner shop...it elevated the word bland to a new meaning! Got back from the subtropical paradise of Coochie to take The Kid straight to a ten-pin bowling party in Lismore....sheesh, is there anything more lame than ten-pin bowling? I used to think it was kinda cool in an ironic way, but now I can boldly say that it really is the slobs sport & has no redeeming features whatsoever, & I challenge anyone to look vaguely interested & NOT check the clock after 2 mind-numbing games. Well, being a kids party, where all present had a concentration span of about 0.2 seconds, 2 games (with time out for eating of hot chips & sausage rolls) somehow took a hellish 3 hours! I couldn't get outta there quick enough...but The Kid seemed to think it was a winner (probably a hell of a lot better than curlew watching)...

Got home to find the new Drones CD in the mail (drool drool) & tried hard to show I was a cool Dad by blasting The Kid with The Mad's wonderful punk rock anthem 'I Hate Music', which you can listen to /download here. Needless to say she was unimpressed...I better lift my game! BTW...you can listen to a Bush stone curlew call here...

Warning! Warm & fuzzy content...

Yeah, well it was Fathers' Day yesterday & as a result I am now the proud owner of a hand made shrinky dink 'Dad' keyring, knocked up by The Kid at school - cool no?

Abortive sorrow...

Have just been spending some time checking a list of supposedly bad Australian band names here...some of them really were tragic, which threw me back to 1983 when I came up with my first band name. I'd just discovered the wonders of punk rock & was revelling in its general obnoxiousness & nihilism...I'd also just finished reading 'The Great Gatsby' for school...now there's a line in there somewhere where Gatsby gazes across the water at the green light and muses on the abortive sorrows of life...That was it! The perfect punk rock band name - Abortive Sorrow...brilliant! I thought I was so damn clever - the name was snotty & offensive (& very punk) but yet also had a literary reference, thus lending it some kind of artistic flair...I feverishly spent much time drawing 'Abortive Sorrow' in notebooks & searching for the perfect font...I think the favourite was (tragically) in the Old English lettering favoured by so many bad metal bands (but no umlaught over the 'o'). I was unpacking a pile of old stuff at my folks awhile back & I found an old folder with 'Abortive Sorrow' scrawled across it - I ended up chucking it out...maybe I shoulda kept it...damn! Needless to say Abortive Sorrow never quite made it into the flesh...

Rites of Spring...

Spring kicks off! Top pic is flowering Red bopple nut (Hicksbeachia pinnatifolia) going hard in the backyard...bottom pic is a Small bolwarra (Eupomatia benettiana) in flower...these buggers are from an ancient plant family & are very slow growing...their flowers open for one day a year before the petals fall off - I got to this baby a few days too late. Small dot on flower is a little weevil which is sucking up the pollen and pollinating many a bolwarra along the way...