Images of Reality

abaddontp @ 2009-04-17T01:35:00

2009-04-16T15:52:50Z

Heya guys,

I know i haven't been here in a VERY long while -- problems upon excuses. But here, now, for one post only, I am announcing a brand new blog, created entirely to house my musings and meditations while i travel the world:

http://daveabroad.livejournal.com/

Sign up, keep your eyes peeled, and sometime in mid-May i'll start updating regularly.

A-birthday, a-birthday

2008-08-19T12:44:35Z

Happy birthday, Jeanette!

Many happy returns!

I hope your significant others planned ahead and assisted you in preparing for the imminent zombiepocalypse -- one's duty to the continued survival of the human race is the best birthday present of all!

Waxing philosophical at work (or: I'm on hold.)

2008-08-08T03:31:06Z

Is it ok to beat Kaleb into oblivion????

Dave Ellis

Today at 1:29pm

Oblivion is a big place... perhaps his obnoxiousness will grow to fill the void, like a goldfish grows to fit the size of its bowl. Perhaps he will hunger for a larger bowl, pushing at the edges of oblivion, searching for more space to infect, leaking into our space, a strange energy, like gravity, becoming entwined with existance, a force of nature...

Eventually, realspace will come to its final, crushing end at the hands of humans, influenced from before birth by this radiated annoyance...

Perhaps the only way we may combat this insidious energy will be to cancel it out with another, equally powerful yet entirely opposite concsiousness.

There, in oblivion, beyond all natural laws and science, they will battle for eternity. Neither will emerge victorious -- indeed, neither can, or our reality will be rendered unto dust.

... I just want to be sure he deserves it.

Speed Racer Review

2008-06-13T03:37:10Z

I went to see this film on opening night, at about the time people would be getting off work and having dinner. I expected the cinema to be relatively empty - I prefer them that way, to be honest - but I did not expect the cinema to hold a grand total of 5 people (including me). Perhaps this just means that people are waiting until the weekend to go with their kids, or perhaps people have been getting the wrong idea about the film.

Let's not get the wrong idea here, then: it is a kidsy film. There's no swearing, very little sexual content (read: one kiss) and its cup overrunneth with family values. But all of this works. The script and story match to a tee the visuals -- a loud, bright, cliche-saturated caricature of the world of today, as told by the world of tomorrow. You won't miss the point of the movie - it pounds that in hard enough - but it's subtle about it, like being hit with the iron fist inside a velvet glove.

And the visuals -- gorgeous! The physical sets are interesting without being overpowering. The visuals effects -- all the car racing -- were a perfect fusion of cartoon and realism, as if it had come out of a child's imagination. The versatility of the animators is obvious - it takes skill to create settings that were as beautiful as they were implausible, and yet have me believe that one day they could exist.

As for acting, I found that the cast was wonderful. I believed in the characters, in their relationships, because the actors played them perfectly. Aside from the inclusion of the chimpanzee, a bit of comic relief that you got used to after a while.

There was one scene that kicked me out of suspension of disbelief comes right at the end of the film, and once that's over you get right back into things - and every film is allowed one stupidity.

Speed Racer is a paradigm shift. The idiotic flashback/remake market has been given a smarter, funnier, dare I say it sexier angle with this film. And the kids movie market, dominated by blunt, politically-correct cartoons has been given an adrenaline shot. This film seems to make its point without becoming pretentious, and bridge the kids and adults markets without removing itself from either. It is, truly, a movie that everybody will enjoy.

Dave

(Crossposted to TP.net -- with additions)

Pavlov's Dog

2008-06-13T02:43:22Z

People will be unwilling to acknowledge the truth of things -- that which was started by academia, the noble tradition of obfuscation for the sake of sounding intelligent, will backfire as a public unable to understand anything more complicated or involved than thirty-second soundbites reacts only to the best spin, and not the true state of things. Chaos will reign as the greatest good for the greatest many suffers under society's futile and selfish idealism.

Those countries that have been overlooked by the leaders of the world bide their time, consolidating their power, and only at the last will Western society realise that they no longer control the world, as they so long thought they did. And with realisation will come the understanding that they have lost the great game. A man shall strike out against his brother, and the entire world will take sides, polarising into those alliances built on old money and power, and those alliances built on mutual benefit. The former will be powerless before the latter, as the latter controls the world's production.

Natural resources are bartered away by corrupt officials looking for a quick profit. The public will realise that when the oilfields run dry, so do plastics, and they will not care - they will be happy to lose themselves once again in the trance of capitalism and the addictive sense of comfort they get from useless philanthropy. Pirates will once again take matters into their own hands on the open seas, and they will be the only ones who make a difference.

Scientists will create machines so powerful and alien that nobody will understand their true power until it is too late. The nature of reality will be as putty in their hands, but their great power will not be tempered with morality, only with the need to understand. They will discover with the rest of the world that some truths are meant to remain hidden.

The downtrodden and the hidden will rise up in a popular revolt so powerful that it can never be killed or silenced by their opressors. Once touched, a person becomes infected by what they represent, carriers of ideas that will spread until they control the world. Politics will continue unaltered, an old boys club that pretends to run the world, a footnote to the infected that will shape history in their image.

Mark these signs well, for then you shall see that we have reached the end of the world.

Fabio's unquiet spectre

2008-05-31T02:17:05Z

Is it just me, or are modern-day men just a cut below our 80s counterparts? I mean, in this day and age we sing about our bitches and our cars, and about how much we're gonna be getting, but way back in the day we had role-models that really knew how to treat women.

Rick Astley, for example, will never give you up, never let you down, never run around and desert you, never make you cry, never say goodbye, never tell a lie and hurt you. Isn't that just the model of responsible dating? Plus, he had a dancing black barman.

And Meatloaf. The man is so full of love and lust that his poetry comes spilling out at every opportunity. He'll do anything for love -- anything at all. But he won't do that, and gods help you if you suggest it.

Songs and lyrics are iconic of the times we live in - a time full of R&B, Hip-hop crap that objectifies women, but at the same time sells so well to women that it perpetuates the genre. We are slaves to capitalist demand, and slaves to our own lust for escapism through the driving beat and fantastic lyrics.

This has been a poorly thought out post, and poorly executed... i'm writing this as i'm working, so i've lost the idea a number of times, only to rediscover it through the magic of old music. Sorry, older.

Dave

Panoramic doom (sorry, thought of this phrase by accident when looking through Canadian travel brochures)

It's cruel.

2008-05-17T12:46:15Z

How dare you accuse me of charity, pity or philanthropy. Not in person, not in a text message, and certainly not while you're dumping me.

Talk to me.

2008-05-06T08:52:33Z

I can't help if I don't know what's wrong.

Stop me if you've heard this song before

2008-05-01T06:16:15Z

Finally the world is shaping in my image. The fog has started to linger all day. The leaves are changing from sickly green-and-brown to a dead orange and red. The days have suddenly shortened to five hours long, three of them usable. Provided, of course, that you aren't working full time, in which case you get up when it's dark, sit inside at your computer when it's slightly lighter outside, and walk home when it's cold and dark. The nine-to-five cycle is a cruelty that we visit upon ourselves for the sake of the fun we're supposedly going to have when we're out of it, but the entire outside is constructed on the foundation that we have to be fresh and ready for the following cycle, necessitating an early bed and a distinct lack of legal narcotics. Full timers live in a state of constant disappointment, punctuated by bouts of hopeless drive as they plan their "big break." There are also moments of comic depression, but they're hardly funny.

I'm always tired. My body refuses to adapt to my full time status, and my brain yearns for something more. I'm a young man, only twenty-two years old, and i'm working in the travel industry selling other people, full timers like myself, the one chance at happiness they'll have for a full year or two. I know at least ten different passwords for programs that I use once a week. I know the differences between One World and Star Alliance around the world fares. I know which seats on a plane have the most legroom, and why you'll never get them. And what's more, I have, in the past, felt that knowing these things is an acheivement. I'm twenty-two years old, a full time employee, and I feel like i've should have lived a lifetime. But I haven't. And the reason isn't me - perish the thought - it's the world I live in.

Terry Pratchett has written that people have so many demons because we're so good at imagining them. Demons are of our own making. Greed, sloth, avarice, pride, envy, wrath and lust are outlets, the first resort of a mind that is consumed by boredom. Humanity is an incredible beast, a hollow shell within which inhabits the horrific beauty and incredible complexity of consciousness. It is a temple where the human mind invokes its deepest fears and is consumed by them, enacting its vengeance on the world around it for wrongs simulated by a mind diseased with imagination. But the human mind is a mere amateur at creating demons when compared with its excellence in creating barriers and constraints. The nine to five working day is but one of these: racial inferiority, politics, self-importance, international borders, common courtesy, education, capitalism, and law are the tip of a terrifying iceberg that lurks not beneath but over the heads of our entire culture, ready to drop at any moment and sever our lives.

I can imagine only two things worse than their existence in the first place. First, that humanity actually enjoys constraints - they provide our lives with definition, a framework within which to prosper until we can forget about the outside world and say (according to us) truthfully that we are the very best at what we are. The second is that our boundaries have begun to evolve and grow without our help. Political correctness, once a nebulous issue for politicians and public officials alone, has grown to a point where you can no longer refer to someone by the colour of their skin, but by their racial background instead.

It isn't entirely true, though, is it? Humans are well equipped to imagine something worse. Take your worst fear - perhaps it's being trapped without water in the desert, or being chased through your house by a knife-wielding maniac. Now in your nightmarish reality, set yourself on fire. Add biting snakes and spiders. Flay your skin off slowly. Wait, there's more. Imagine that in all the universe, you are completely unimportant. That nobody is watching out for you. That none of your choices matter, and everything you do will eventually mean precisely nothing. That your destiny is, in fact, to be another pile of dust.

Humans have a unique ability to blind themselves to the truth of things, and to the worst of things. Perhaps that's optimism. On that, I will not comment. What I know is that i'm tired all the time, and the day has been grey from start to end. And there's a feeling lately, that the world is about to pass something important. Pass, like a kidney stone, or perhaps pass like a person ignoring an opportunity. Both terrify and excite me. I only hope that we recognise the opportunity when it comes.

Dave

Australian Media's Reconciliation Message: Let Your Spirit Flow!

2008-04-24T03:30:28Z

CANBERRA, ACT -- Tensions mounted today as the nation's capital played host to thousands of Tibetan and Chinese protesters. As the only Australian city to hold a leg of the Olympic torch relay, expectations were high for violence from all three sides, but went largely unsatisfied as AFP officers seperated both camps and prevented Chinese government torch guards from beating anybody "for the good of the party," or setting any Tibetan protesters on fire.

But not all desires went unfulfilled, as the Australian media led the public in one of the largest televised spiritual masturbation sessions since the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. Channel Seven presenters David Koch and Melissa Doyle commentated from the Melbourne studio while Mark Beretta, a sports commentator with great deals of experience in similarly large events, was on the scene to participate personally in sharing the Olympic spirit. "I just couldn't hold on," said an anonymous Canberra resident, "As the torch got closer my Olympic spirit just came rushing out early. I'm so glad the rest of Australia was as distracted as I was, or it would have been really embarrassing." Another spectator, Canberra resident Justin Cray, commented that "It was such a welcome release, Olympic spirit was dripping off me. I haven't felt so spiritually satisfied in my life."

The Olympic torch relay has been hailed as a rousing success. Officials have formally thanked the Chinese government for the opportunity to host an event so important to the spiritual and emotional needs of the nation, although many jaded Australians have criticised the spirit in which the the gesture was made, citing unconfirmed sources that have quoted a high ranking political official as stating off the record "Stroke our egos and we will explode with Olympic spirit."

Government and media officials are reportedly quickly rising again in the aftermath of this orgy of positive public opinion to face the challenge of organising the Olympic team for the Beijing Olympics itself.

--Dave Ellis

One step forward, two steps back.

2008-03-28T03:05:54Z

I've been really slack with a lot of things recently. Blogging is one of them, certainly, reading is another, writing is also very high on the list. I'm doing some more of the latter two now, but no more of the former, and so I start this project: I will blog at least once a week, to keep the creative juices flowing, and to ensure that you're all subject to my flights of fancy and unfounded opinions. It will be a long and perhaps tedious journey into the unknown, and i'm dragging you all along with me. Deal with it.

I'm getting back into writing after somewhat of a hiatus recently - i've decided that i'd like to adapt a novel into a script as I work out the kinks in a space-opera script. For all of you playing at home, check out the Eisenhorn trilogy by Dan Abnett. The first book, with hopefully the rest to follow.

Something has been brought to my attention recently: the government has been talking about raising the drinking age from 18 years old to 21 years old, apparently as a way of combating the "binge-drinking epidemic." A media sensation if ever I heard one, like violent videogames and shonky builders, but one that has suddenly captured the public eye. It won't be long before there are parents protesting outside of pubs and liquor stores, demanding the goverment stop drinking altogether, the whole scene buttoned with righteous cries of "think of the children..."

But there was a very good reason why the drinking age was lowered to 18 from 21. This reason begins in the early 70's as the protests about Vietnam grew louder, and soldiers as young as 18 and 19 were being conscripted and sent to war.

If it was good enough for these young men & women to be deemed adult enough to be sent into war zones and risk their lives in the name of our country it was not entirely unreasonable to expect that they had the right to other adult privileges - such as being able to drink in hotels, and the right to vote.

Lowering the drinking age was linked to other decisions about our young people, and so any decision about raising the drinking age must also be linked to other factors. We're talking about rersponsibility here, and so I would say that other elements of society in which responsibility is a factor should also be considered:

The right to vote.

Acceptance into the armed forces.

The right to drive.

After all, what do you really get with another 3 years tacked onto the legal drinking age? You get another 3 years of illegal drinking, that's what. You get the current underage binge drinkers continuing to binge, and their younger brothers and sisters and peers learning from their example. You get parents who don't agree with the legislation letting their kids do it anyway.

But I don't advocate any of these, really. I'm just playing devil's advocate to a government's uninformed and publicity-driven idea. I support keeping the drinking age the same it is now, or abolishing it altogether. Ultimately, if you want your kids - everyone, really, not just the kids - then you need better education. You need to indoctrinate people, steer them away from the culture of boozing that has been instilled over the years. You need real, proper, harsh penalties. Penalties that mean something to a the owner and staff of a shop, like loss of liquor license, or huge fines, or jail time. And you need penalties for the underage people who drink, too - and their parents, guardians, etc. Half-measures won't cut it if you plan to institute something that the coming majority opposes.

More than that, though, you need better parenting. I don't care if you work a full-time job at a law firm, if you've undertaken the committment to have children then you've damn well taken on the responsibility of raising them. Talk to them, show them what alcohol will do to them, and if need be impose your word as law. Don't pussyfoot around, fearing that your children will rebel - all kids do that. You have the power here. Impose your will.

I prefer a capital punishment / gladiatorial combat / public humiliation system, anyway: the first few times you break the law, you are publicly humiliated, perhaps in a mass spectacle which involves nudity or fruit throwing. Or both. The stocks, perhaps. Anyway, if you're still breaking the law after that, whatever the law may be, you forfeit your right to live in civilised society and are either executed or placed in an arena to entertain the bloody whims of the crowd.

Give them bread and circuses!

Dave

Consider my interest piqued

2008-02-13T00:06:49Z

Japanese scientists make paper planes for space

Posted Thu Feb 7, 2008 10:28pm AEDT

A spacecraft made of folded paper zooming through the skies may sound far-fetched, but Japanese scientists plan to launch paper planes from the International Space Station to see if they make it back to Earth.

On Wednesday the University of Tokyo researchers tested small, origami planes made of special paper for 30 seconds in 250 degrees Celsius heat and wind at seven times the speed of sound.

The planes survived the wind tunnel test intact.

The theory is that paper craft, being much lighter than space shuttles, may escape the worst of the friction and heat that much heavier space shuttles face on re-entry to the atmosphere.

"Paper planes are extremely light so they slow down when the air is thin and can gradually descend," professor of aerospace engineering Shinji Suzuki said.

Professor Suzuki said the technology might one day be used for unmanned spacecraft.

The team has asked a Japanese astronaut to release the 20-centimetre long planes, made from paper chemically treated to resist heat and water, from the space station.

It will take several months for the craft to reach Earth and there is no way to predict their landing spot if they make it, Professor Suzuki said.

"It's going to be the space version of a message in a bottle. It will be great if someone picks one up," he said.

"We are thinking of writing messages on the planes saying 'if found, please contact us' in a couple of languages."

- Reuters

Scientists make knee-brace power generator

Posted Fri Feb 8, 2008 11:28am AEDT

Scientists say they have developed a unique device that can be strapped on the knee that exploits the mechanics of human walking to generate a usable supply of electricity.

The US and Canadian researchers report in the journal Science that the device generates enough power to charge up 10 mobile phones at once.

Researchers have been working on ways to harness the motion of the human body to create power.

A shoe-mounted device was nice and light, but did not generate much electricity.

A backpack device that generated power as it bounced up and down while a person walks generated a lot of electricity, but was heavy to lug.

The inventors of the new energy-capturing knee brace say it seems to find a happy medium, generating decent amounts of power while still being relatively light.

The scientists envisioned numerous applications for such a device, saying it could be of value to hikers or soldiers who may not have access to electricity.

It also could be built into prosthetic knees or other implantable devices whose users occasionally must undergo surgery for a battery replacement.

- Reuters

BREAKING NEWS - IT'S TUESDAY

2008-02-05T03:56:46Z

CANBERRA, ACT—After running a thousand errands, working hours of overtime, and being stuck in seemingly endless gridlock traffic commuting to and from their jobs, millions of Australians were disheartened to learn that it was, in fact, only Tuesday.

"Tuesday?" Canberra resident Doris Wagner said. "How in the hell is it still Tuesday?"

Tuesday's arrival stunned a nation still recovering from the nightmarish slog that was Monday, leaving some to wonder if the week was ever going to end, and others to ask what was taking Saturday so goddamn long.

"Ugh," said Wagner, echoing a national sense of frustration over it not even being Wednesday at the very least.

According to suddenly depressed sources, the feeling that this week may in fact last forever was further compounded by the thought of all the work left to be done tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and, if Australians make it that far, possibly even Friday, for Christ's sake.

Fears that the week could actually be going backwards were also expressed.

"Not only do Australians have most of Tuesday morning to contend with, but all of Tuesday afternoon and then Tuesday night," National Labor Relations Board spokesman David Prynn said. "If our calculations are correct, there is a chance we are in effect closer to last weekend than the one coming up."

Added Prynn: "F**k."

Reports that this all has to be some kind of sick joke could not be confirmed as of press time.

Isolated attempts to make the day go faster, such as glancing at watches or clocks every other minute, compulsively checking e-mail, hiding in the office bathroom, fidgeting, or reading a boring magazine while sitting in the waiting room, have also proven unsuccessful, sources report.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology, which oversees the official time of Australia, is flatly denying that it has slowed or otherwise tampered with Tuesday's progression.

"The current Tuesday is keeping apace with past Tuesdays with no more than one ten-thousandth of a second's variation at the most," NIST spokeswoman Dr. Geraldine Schach said. "However, I sympathize with the common consensus that this week has already been a colossal pain in the neck."

Labor Secretary Elaine Chao released a statement addressing widespread speculation that it might as well be Monday for all anyone cares.

"We understand this day has been tough on many of you, what with meetings mercilessly dragging on and an entire stack of files still left to organise," Chao's statement read in part. "Yet we urge Australians to show patience. The midweek hump is just around the corner, and we have strong reason to believe that Saturday will be here before you know it."

"Go about your lives as best you can," the statement continued. "Do not, we repeat, do not take a sick day, as it'll make the rest of the week that much harder to endure."

In the meantime, citizens are doing their best to cope with the interminable week, though Tuesday is still hours away from ending.

"The more I try to speed it along, the longer it almost seems to take," said Dale Bouchard, a Sydney-based broker who has been waiting for today to be over since it first began earlier this morning. "Honestly, today could not have come at a worse time this week."

In the meantime, the latest wristwatch consultations indicate that it is somehow still Tuesday, if that makes any sense at all.

Absenteeism

2008-01-11T05:42:46Z

I haven't been arounbd LJ for a fair while... and I promised you guys i'd tell you all the reason. Honestly, there isn't much to it, so here's the breakdown:

1) Lack of important stuff happening. My life was very dull for a while there, nothing really happening, so I just didn't post.

2) I got a new job. Hurrah! I spent 2 weeks swanning around Melbourne for training, and then working full-time in branch. I work at STA Travel in Belconnen. Yes, that makes me a travel agent. It satisfies my need to meet all of the most unbearable people in Canberra, but i've made a bunch of friends in other states, so it all balances out. Also, I get paid on commission as well as a fixed rate, so the money rolls in :-)

Oh, I met Rebellious Krimpy (for those TP-ites) while I was in Melbourne - very cool!

So there's not much to it - I hope that clears a bit up :-)

Dave

Happy/Merry Everything

2008-01-01T23:12:53Z

Ahoy!

Well, I didn't forget to send out christmas cards this year, so I should probably explain why most of you out there didn't get one.

1) The Christmas cards I did this year involved fancy paper and a wax seal - an experiment in form and function for projects to come. Unfortunately, wax seals don't react well to post office sorting rollers, insofar as they tend to shatter. And so, rather than sending something shop-made, because I was trying to avoid that this year, I decided to simply not do it.

Besides, I figure you guys know me well enough to know that i'm wishing you a happy whatever over the silly season.

2) I didn't get organised early enough to get anything to you guys. Apologies, etc - better luck next year.

So I hope you all had a merry christmas and a happy new year, and best wishes for the following planetary orbit.

Dave

Movie Keyword Meme

2007-12-29T02:06:24Z

Because I haven't posted in awhile... and I will get around to telling you all why.

So you choose your ten favourite movies, look them up on IMDb and choose three keywords. Then all your friends have to guess what they are. And yes, I made the first one easy for you, too :-)

1) ~~Cat / Impregnation / Cryonics~~ Aliens - Jeanette
2) ~~Southern U.S. / John F Kennedy / Identity Swap~~ Bubba Ho-Tep - Oeter
3) ~~Radio Broadcast / Puerto Rico / Hitler~~ Contact - Jeanette
4) ~~Drug War / Hallucination / Bug Spray~~ A Scanner Darkly - Oeter
5) ~~Diary / Twins / Revenge~~ The Prestige - Jeanette
6) ~~Sururbs / Dysfunctional Marriage / Plastic Bag~~ American Beauty - Jeanette
7) ~~Irish / Ice Skating / Double Cross~~ Ronin - Jeanette
8) ~~Halloween / Black Cop / Vigilante~~ The Crow - Oeter
9) ~~Train / Racial Slur / Gold~~ Die Hard With a Vengeance - Jeanette
10) ~~Masquerade / Tragic Villain / Noose~~ Phantom of the Opera - Oeter

Actually, they're all fairly easy...

Dave

Damages: damaged goods

2007-09-16T14:42:55Z

I watched the pilot for Damages tonight... so to start with, for all those who didn't watch, a synposis:

- Girl is found wandering, covered in blood. Her house is searched by the cops who find her fiance dead in the bathtub.
(((SIX WEEKS PREVIOUS)))
- Ambitious, intelligent and beautiful female lawyer gets a job at a very prestigious law firm.
- She finds out about a break in the case that involves someone very close to her - and this is in turn found out by the person she would screw over by using the break.
- Despicable acts occur, attributed to the bad guy, but actually performed by the prestigious law firm.

So my problem with this particular series isn't the acxting, or the dialogue, or anything like that. My problem isn't the plot, because I really like where this whole thing is going. Formulaic, yes, but entertaining! My problem is the close-in editing of story, the episode-by-episode plot structure and the rate of reveal.

For example: Glenn Close's character has been revealed as the good guy in this particular drama. She's destined to turn evil - you don't have to be Einstein to figure that out - but it should take at least 3-4 episodes before we, the audience, find out for sure. Of course we should suspect long before then, but it shouldn't be SHOWN for at least a couple of hours series-time. And yet, it's shown after 35 minutes. Where does the suspense come from now?!? Why should we care how drastic Glenn's legally-horrible-recourses are when we already know what it's inevitably going to come to?

So while I like the dialogue, the characters, the actors, and the overall heading, I don't think this series has legs. People will like it, love it even, but I honestly don't believe that Damages deserves the praise that it's recieved so far.

Honourable mention for Ted Danson, who plays the rich cruel bastard so very well, and Glenn Close who once again plays queen bitch of the universe with poise, flair, and an indefinable cruelty of spirit that I would find impossible to master :-)

Dave

abaddontp @ 2007-09-14T15:02:00

2007-09-14T05:28:24Z

Thought i'd let the lot of you know what's happening to me on the job front:

I'm still working at Zone as a manager - weekends mainly, with the occasional weekday shift too. It's enough to get me by at the moment.

I've gone for a few jobs lately, including an interview for admin at the House of Representatives, which fell through fairly spectacularly. I do, however, have an interview on monday at Game in Civic, for the assistant manager job of Game in Tuggeranong, a job which I didn't apply for because the applications closed a week ago. I don't want a leg up, no nepotism until it all gets really bad... but desperation on their parts? No worries, mate! :-D

Dave

2 concerts, 4 days

2007-09-12T07:12:22Z

Went to Thirsty Merc at the ANU Bar on Saturday night. I tell you, peoples - Rai and his boys are one of the best bands in Australia right now. There were anywhere between 400 and 500 people present and the atmosphere was electric! It was the last gig of the tour, and they were enjoying themselves enormously up onstage - which filtered back through to the audience, and vice versa :-D

Anyway, after that little nugget, I got to go and see Silverchair and Powderfinger under the big top last night.

Their 'Across the Great Divide' tour is supposed to help promote reconciliation... I don't if they did that - there was a bit of propaganda splashed across the screen, and Powderfinger played a few songs written about the issue, but on the whole it was unobtrusive enough that I don't think people would have gone away with renewed purpose and vigor.

I didn't get in until after the warmup act... there was a problem with me reading the ticket correctly, and with an enormous queue too. I did, however, get in with time to spare to get a good spot for Silverchair, who opened the two act show.

Now, I'll be the first one to admit that I don't really like a fair bit of Silverchair's works, but they are catchy. Also, Daniel Johns is a bloody showboater, too, playing his electric guitar with what appeared to be his teeth on more than one occasion. Yep, it's pretty plain to see who the star of the show is when Daniel's onstage.

For me, though, it was Powderfinger who stole the show. In fact, from where I was in the 2nd act (dead centre, about 20 metres back from stage) it seemed like everybody was there to see Powderfinger. From the moment Bernard Fanning came onstage with his handheld video camera, giving it a thumbs up as he took a group shot of himself and the crowd, the entire big top was eating out of his hand.

Highlights included some of the new stuff, a lot of the best of, and a version of 'My Happiness' that was sung almost entirely by the crowd! They played some funky stuff up on the big screens behind the bands, as well - in particular, getting live feeds from the cameras pointing at each of the band members and displaying them behind the band itself. Very cool!

I suppose, all in all, this entire post has been to say: if you have the chance to get out there and see these bands touring together, GO AND SEE THEM! It was an awesome evening, something I wouldn't trade for the world :-D

Dave

GOODNIGHT, SWEET PRINCE

2007-09-06T07:42:47Z

October 12, 1935 – September 6, 2007

The world will not be the same without your timbre... I salute you.

abaddontp @ 2007-08-22T21:43:00

2007-08-22T11:50:02Z

I had the best day ever today! Very early this morning, after a really good night out with a woman that I like very much, I was going at 100km/h along what amounts to a highway. Suddenly there's something on the road in front of me! No time to think, or get out of the way, so I have to drive straight through it:

Strike #1

I ended up stopping about 50 metres further down the road, looking like this:

Strike #2

Want a closer look at a perforated radiator and destroyed front-bar?

Strike #3

A serious question, now: why is it that whenever something good happens to me, or i'm enjoying myself, does the universe suddenly decide to screw me with my pants on? Doesn't it have other people in other places to be keeping its sadistic beady little eyes on?

In related news, i've suddenly accumulated a lot of debt, bot actual and potential. It's time to get a job.

Dave

More photos from the nation's capital

2007-08-11T15:06:24Z

The High Court

Questacon

Old Parliament House

New Parliament House

I was bored tonight, so I went out and did a nighttime shoot of the various Canberra landmarks... enjoy! More to come at a later date, when i'm bored enough to go out and complete my collection.

Dave

abaddontp @ 2007-07-26T23:17:00

2007-07-26T13:26:01Z

I hired a couple of movies tonight... Hot Fuzz is finally out on DVD, so I had to get that one again, and Ghost Rider was their "hire 1, get this free" deal, so I got that as well.

Hot Fuzz is great. I love Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, they just rock my socks in whatever they do. The script is awesome, the acting is awesome - in short, hire this film.

Ghost Rider is even worse than you all knew it was going to be, so don't feel bad that you didn't see it at the cinema. In fact, the only good thing I can say about this film is that it marks a low point in cinema, the point which you can compare any other movie and say how good it is. Yes, it really is a big fat zero on the cinema-scale.

Oh, and I saw The Wrong Man the other day, too - really REALLY good stuff. The acting, the dialogue, the script - all great. It kept me guessing until about 20 minutes from the end.

Hope you've all had a better viewing experience than I have... I think i'm going to find some eyebleach, and write a note asking Death for that almost-2-hours spent on Ghost Rider back. I'm sure he'll understand.

Dave

abaddontp @ 2007-07-20T14:38:00

2007-07-20T04:42:54Z

I went touring with my grandmother the other day - particularly up to Mount Ainslie, one of the best viewpoints in Canberra, to see if we could still see some of the snow that had fallen around Canberra. Well, there were a couple of peaks that still had some snow on them, but for the most part, nothing. So I took the opportunity to take a few photos of Canberra, just for the hell of it.

Check out my Google / Picasa web album for a few more photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/Dave.P.Ellis/Canberra

Zone 3 presentation night

2007-07-16T14:02:02Z

I've had a great season... and when I went to put this season's 2nd place trophy on my shelf, I realised just how great it's been at Zone in general over the years. For those of you playing at home, here are the team names and places in order of left to right:

-- "The Ronins", 1st place, 2003 Jnr league (still undisputed champions :-P)
-- "The Ronins", 3rd place, 2003
-- "...", 1st place, 2004
-- "Foolish Mortals", 2nd place, 2005
-- "Where's the Beef?", 1st place, 2005 B-season
-- "I Hate It When They Get Tangled", 1st place, 2006
-- "Tonight's Safety Word...", 1st place, 2006 B-season
-- "Pack Abuse", 2nd place, this season's trophy.

Yes, that's a "Worst Alias of the Comp" certificate from last year's B-season, for my login name "Woobwoobwoob!"

So Zone's been pretty kind to me over the years... I've had some great people and teams to work with.

Dave