22.5 hours to go..

Not that I'm counting.

So with all the last minute packing and frantically trying to sort out all the things I meant to do weeks ago I've not had time for blogging..

Not much to say now either - still trying to get my book selection down to a reasonable level. And don't tell me I won't have time to read coz I'll be too busy doing things - I know that but it's an absolute physical impossibility for me to go on holiday without books. Or go pretty well anywhere without books actually..

Anyways, here's this wee article that fascinated me. Ahh, the romance of the sewers.. (hat tip to LinkMachineGo)

And finally, having recently started checking my stats it's been amusing to see the searches that draw people to my blog. Such as:

"nicknames for nasal speech impediment"
"Darth's real name"
"fnar fnar"

Weird.

unluck

I meant to blog about my recent string of bad luck - the dojo fire, the break-in, the car collision - and bad luck coming in threes and all that crap, but a friend from work died today so there goes that theory.

Let's face it - it only takes one bad throw of the dice to screw things permenantly.

countdown

One week from now I will be winging my way to sunny Paris! w00t!

Ok, technically I'll be halfway to a 2 hour layover in Singapore but I stand by my w00t.

Anyone who lives in Paris, Narbonne, Barcelona, London, Bristol, Amsterdam or the sprawling metropolis of Reigate may catch a rare glimpse of me at some stage in August. Ok, the chances are slim but you never know your luck. Drop me an email if you actually want it to happen.

Vanessa - I had no idea I was expected to plan anything... I'll try and organise myself and catch up with you around the weekend of the 12th/13th.

YouTuby goodness

A NEW POPE

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Apologies to any Catholics or Jedi who may be offended..

nostalgia?

A somewhat disturbing thing happened to me the other day: I was standing out the front of the registry where all the smokers and pigeons hang out (yes, and the smoking pigeons and pigeon smokers...) chatting with a smoker and I actually wanted to have a cigarette!

Very disturbing. Especially since it's been probably more than 15 years since I've had more than a single drag on a fag (that means cigarette to those from North America, I'm not revealing the last time I dragged a fag..). I've never really been attracted to smoking again since. Well, occasionally when extremely drunk and have regretted it. Very quickly. Regurgitantly.

I was a little concerned for a while that I might be getting back into the addiction. Fortunately, just this morning, I sat next to someone on the bus I swear had been wearing the dried lungs of Asian businessmen whilst wrestling Joe Camel in an ashtray. My clothes were turning yellow just being that close to him..

I managed to hold down my breakfast. Also managed to hold my breath for about 10 minutes without passing out. But it did me a favour really - my stomach churns just thinking about it even now..

So if you're a smoker and standing anywhere near me at some stage in the foreseeable future and I happen to projectile vomit on you, don't take it personal eh?

I got burgled

Wankers.

dead dojo

the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire..

Along with most of the rest of the building.

So RIP Sydney Yoshukai Dojo (aka The Sports Pit Gym and General Bogan Centre).

Hence why I'm not at karate right now - the fact that I'm hung-over, it's raining and I only got up a couple of hours ago have nothing to do with it I swear..

Now we're on the hunt for another space to train - anyone know of a cheap (preferably free - but we're realistic) space in the Inner West that has a polished wooden floor and doesn't mind half a dozen weirdos knocking the crap out of each other twice weekly?

shock! horror! dismay! fishboy blogs about rugby!

If you didn't see the game on Saturday watch this: the ABs new haka Kapa o Pango.

Ka Mate was/is an great haka but this.. this is real deal. Awesome.

Apologies for the lame Aussie commentators - and WTF is going on with that uber-mullet that Eaton is wearing? wrong wrong so so wrong...

And here's Ali Williams tossing Gregan around like a doll. Ahh, poetry in motion.

Yes, I've finally discovered YouTube.

listmania II: the bookening

Look at the list of books below:

Bold the ones you've read.
Italicize the ones you might read.
Cross out the ones you won't read.
Underline the ones on your book shelf.
Place parentheses around the ones you've never even heard of.
Add one word (where possible) reviews following entry.

Or do some of the above until you get bored and just post the damn thing.
Appropriated from Sleep Evangelist. From back in May. Yeah, I'm late. Again.

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown – never nope nuh-huh no way
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger - oblique
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams - scintillating
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - interesting
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - timeless
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - moving
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman - sublime
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling - annoying
The Life of Pi by Yann Martel - haven’t finished it yet
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story by George Orwell - important
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller - essential
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien - fun
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon - pacey
Lord of the Flies by William Golding - depressing
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - worthy
1984 by George Orwell - bleak
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling - disappointing

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut - surprising
(The Secret History by Donna Tartt)
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte - frustrating
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis - thin
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides – didn’t finish it, lost interest

(Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell)

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - dour
Atonement by Ian McEwan

(The Shadow of The Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon)

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway – forgettable
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood - immersive
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath - enervating
Dune by Frank Herbert - epic

Sula by Toni Morrison
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo – self-important

White Teeth by Zadie Smith
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien - swirling
Don Quixote by Cervantes – quixotic (heh)
(The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster)
Illywhacker by Peter Carey - overlong
(The Master & Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov)
(if on a winter's night a traveller... by Italo Calvino)

The Passion of New Eve by Angela Carter

Perfume by Patrick Suskind - gripping
The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks - beguiling
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende - fluffy
(Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin)

The Child in Time by Ian McEwan

My additions:

The Scar by China Mieville
The Arabian Nightmare by Robert Irwin
On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers
Beauty by Sherri S Tepper
The Star Fraction by Ken McLeod
Pyramids by Terry Pratchett

I'm not tagging anyone for this because I hate pressuring people. And I'm not sure anyone actually reads this site anymore..

Here's my start of a list of non-fiction books following similar rules. Or not. Whatever, I do what I want..

Almost Like A Whale by Steven Jones
Cod by Mark Kurlansky
A Short History Of Almost Everything by Bill Bryson
Longitude by Dava Sobel
The Botany Of Desire by Michael Pollan
The Devil's Cup by Stewart Lee Allen
Robert Mitchum: Baby I Don't Care by Lee Server
Uneasy Ethics by Simon Lee
Climbing Mount Improbable by Stephen Dawkins
Leviathan: The Unauthorised Biography of Sydney by John Birmingham

umm.. still nothing

I know, I know, I promised. Shows how much you can count on my promises, blogly speaking.

Bollocks, I've only got whinging so I'll spare you and furnish another cartoon.

Conversations can be continued in the comments as usual. Hell I could just take this site down and replace it with a forum, no-one'd notice.. *grumbles*

From gapingvoid.

place holder

I've got nothing interesting to say, I'm just sick of looking at the whinging garbage that was my previous post so here's one of my favourite Wondermark strips.

I'll cudgel my brains and attempt to come up with something personal this weekend. Promise.


Visit Wondermark (currently being guest-stripped).