Small Talk

Turning over a new leaf

2011-05-13T00:07:00.000+08:00

Soon, my dears, this blog will be disappearing and moving to a new location.

In the interests of me being able to spout anonymous things into the ether though, the address will remain largely undisclosed. Requests will perhaps be considered. I don't quite know as yet.

I bid you good day, and a wonderful future.

Much love.

Thanks for all the fish.

A letter.

2011-04-28T23:00:00.000+08:00

Dear Sir / Madam of the general whingeing class,

It has come to my attention that you are complaining about the introduction of a carbon tax and inevitable ETS in Australia.

It will, you say, drive up the price of coal and gas fed electricity. You also claim that it will increase costs for polluting industries and lead to the closure of many high-emitting companies. It might even force you to abandon many things in life that you have grown comfortable with, like driving a petrol-powered car long distances from your house in the urban sprawl (and being the only person in the car) so that you may spend a few hours in an overly-airconditioned office.

My response to your complaints is simple. Boo hoo. That is the direct intention of a carbon tax, even if the politicians don't want to say it outright.

In using the tax to drive up prices of emissions-intense products and industries (yes- deliberately), the government is subtly poking people to make them change to cleaner technologies, sources of energy and lifestyles. Those that don't will pay more, those that do will be in much the same situation as they are now with minimal compensation. Simple equation. That's why it is called "market based" - people generally opt for the lower-cost option.

The end point of all of this is that replaceable emissions-intense industries will be forced to close from lack of demand. The affected companies will rightly cry poor, but they need to realise that they operate in industries that deal with finite resources - meaning that they all have a use-by date anyway. People working in the industries will, inevitably, have to change jobs. Companies will also, inevitably, need to diversify to survive.

The great part about bringing it all forward is that we get to skip a hundred years or so of inflation and population growth that drives up the cost of changing over as time goes on. People like me also get to appease their enviro-conscience, which generally believes that even if the world isn't slowly drowning in it's own fume-fed excrement it's probably best to not pollute and do things that are better for the environment anyway. Government and industry call it "best practice".

Finally Sir/Madam Whinger, I also think that you shouldn't be taking the Liberals' "BIG NEW TAX!!!!!1!" slogan too seriously. Their policy of planting lots and lots of trees is costed in the billions which would be paid for by the taxpayer (read: big new tax). If you look further into the proposed carbon tax scheme, there is lots of compensation (read: money) for the average consumer to cover any short fall in cash so that you'll effectively be able to afford to switch to 100% green power at the extra 6 cents per unit cost without even noticing it. And it's the companies that are taxed, not you. See that gentle government poke there?

Sincerely,

Me.

Yeah.

2011-03-21T23:22:00.000+08:00

via Planet Tampon.

Call it what you want.

2011-02-27T23:38:00.000+08:00

Too often these days (these days being an undefined period of time that changes depending on my mood and circumstance) I find myself thinking [feeling?] that there is something inherently lacking in [my] life.

It's that same kind of thinking (sinking) [feeling] that occurs when, say, a blank wall seems to be staring back at you even harder than you feel you are staring at it, even though the intention to stare was never really conceived in the first place. Or something.

I don't know.

I'll finish this later.

I think. [...]

I have a habit of not writing anything for prolonged periods these days.

2011-01-18T22:55:00.000+08:00

However, I'm not going to apologise for it any time soon.

News with me? I pretty much have a new life, or at least I've taken ten steps towards 'older' without much in the way of transitory reflection. So many things have changed, yet somehow I still feel exactly the same. Perhaps that's what maturity feels like. Or monotony. Or both.

"But what?" you wonder.

Well.

In the months that have passed I've managed to graduate from my first uni degree (BAppSc (Architectural Science)) with a 76 average. [Yay!?] I also managed to do it WITHOUT having a complete nervous breakdown more than once, which was pleasantly surprising.

Today I also finished my enrollment for the Masters degree in Architecture, which is a welcome addition of many thousands of dollars to my already substantial study debt. Let's just say that it'll be more than I will earn in over a year once I've finished and got a job. It's rather exciting, and I quite like the possibilities that a reset of my course average presents. And, y'know, now I can say that I'm a postgrad student. Technically.

My significant other also moved into my house on the weekend, taking me one step closer to what I feel marriage would be like. The act of moving itself was quite amazing too really. We moved everything (and I mean everything everything) on Saturday, then cleaned his place on Sunday ready to hand back the keys to his landlord today. Somewhere in there I also managed to pop along to a friend's birthday drinks which was nice. I reckon that all deserves an A for achievement.

AND I've got a holiday organised for next week. Wine, cheese, restaurants. You know the drill.

AND I'm moving to Albany for a few weeks (oh god.) to work for an architect down there who's been chasing me to do some work for him.

AND my birthday is soon.

AND I've started growing basil.

AND I got a flat tyre last week after I ran over a nail. Just after I got new tyres. Just after I got a new car battery after that went flat and died too.

So much happening. So it'll probably be another quite prolonged period of silence from me on here in the near future.

Have faith though. I will be back.

It's really interesting to note

2010-12-07T12:54:00.000+08:00

In terms of blogs, I'd say that it's pretty rare to get anywhere near Julie and Julia status. Yet I can't help but wonder how much influence a host site has on the number of people that read a certain blog.

Recently it seems that Google has put my little neglected page on the "Next Blog" button for quite a few people. Randomly, I assume. However since then, the number of people visiting my blank white has gone up at least tenfold.

Actually, I'd say more like twenty. Or fifty.

Interesting, yes?

Dum, dum de dum. Dum, DUM de dum. Dah dah de daaah dahdee dum, dum de dum.

2010-11-12T16:37:00.002+08:00

The equal marriage ball has really been gaining momentum recently, hasn't it?

First, it was the election of the Greens in Melbourne at the election. More recently, it was Labor's Mark Arbib changing his tone on the matter, and now all sorts of MP's are voicing their opinions - throwing party solidarity away in favour of a debate that really should be had, but has been suppressed for years. There's also been quite a few protests this year, organised by Equal Love as part of their 2010 "Year of Action". I went along to the last one in Perth a couple of weekends back and joined the rabble for the first time. It was quite fun.

With the way things are going, Julia Gillard's blatant refusal to acknowledge the issue is at the very least making her look stupid. She consistently avoids talking about her real reason for not wanting marriage equality, instead replying with a recital of the law as it stands (we know what it says, so stop patronising us) and a dim "that's Labor party policy", as if a party meeting can't be called earlier than 2012 to debate if the policy should be changed.

Given the recent preoccupation of both major parties with chasing the popular vote, you'd think Julia would be quite happy to seek out something that would align her with the majority and stop her precipitous slide in the preferred PM stakes. She could sort everything out, get it out of the way quickly, and move onto other pressing legislation whilst also winning a swag of Greens voters back to Labor that bled off at the last poll and improving Labor's social policy standing.

In any case, the way things are going it looks like there will at least be a conscience vote on the latest marriage equality legislation that has been put forward by the greens - and it'll be nerve wracking as hell watching it happen. After all, it's not often that MP's that you don't even know are allowed to sit in a room and decide key aspects of your life for you.

Two years ago I got engaged - with a little side note that it would only happen in Australia as an equal citizen, with equal rights and recognition (not, as Alannah MacTiernan described today, in the apartheid of a supposedly separate but equal civil union). It looks as though it might come a lot sooner than I first thought, but I won't be holding my breath.

58%

2010-11-01T16:00:00.000+08:00

...is the mark i got back for a group assignment today. It's one of the reasons that I don't particularly like group work, and something that I think universities could really do without. I also know that I wasn't particularly responsible for the bad mark, because the assignment was split into parts so we could all see who fucked up.

My part got a reasonable 70. My position on group work is therefore justified.

It's kind of like being this fish:

Y'know?

Of life, time, mind and such.

2010-10-14T19:16:00.001+08:00

“To become a spectator of one's own life is to escape the suffering of life.”

-Oscar Wilde

Perhaps I am judging myself harshly when I say that I have very little of substance to offer the world at this point in time. A smile perhaps, or a laugh, but definitely nothing that would be noticed were it's presence suddenly suspended.

It's a realisation that I had a long, long time ago, and one that I'm sure most people have at some point in their lifetime. It's also quite the motivation killer, and one of the reasons that I decided to stop writing on here at the start of the year.

Since that time, life has remained as boringly stagnant as it was previously. I know that Liza always says that Life is a Cabaret!, but jesus, the interval in the performance is either way too long or I've accidentally missed the bell to go back in to the theatre. Lame, I know. But that's how it is.

That's not to say that I've been doing nothing these past few months. I've quite dutifully emptied my entire wine rack several times over many late nights, and I've probably slept on someone's couch because of that an equal number of times. Study also sits in there too somewhere (the exact time and place i'm not too sure, but I'll have my first piece of paper at the end of this year), and recently I've been finding time to watch some very good movies.

The most recent one (which I just watched for a second time) is Were the World Mine, a delightfully comforting homo flick that's left me smiling hopelessly at the end both times. The love interest in it (played by Nathaniel David Becker) has the most beautiful eyes and smile. He's also got a little fanpage going on Facebook where he replies personally to every comment that someone puts on there. It's sweet. I may just be a little in love with him, but don't tell him that.

This is where you're thinking "WTF Hayden, you stalker".

Whatever.

Where was I? Somewhere with uni and time and such.

I really can't wait until January. I have a holiday booked in my mind (but not actually booked yet) and it's going to be great. I want to trip somewhere, eat croissants, drink endless coffees, and maybe even have a drink and a dance. In my opinion life should be all french pastries and espresso. It's a pity it's not that.

Until then, I still have about five thousand words to churn out and many, many hours of CAD to sit through. Life, I feel, isn't going to be terribly interesting in the short term. Yet I'm hoping that it gets a little more interesting after then.

This post probably signals my return to 'Le Blog' too I guess, at least for the short term.

The bell should be soon. Party.

[Also, I wonder if Mr Becker googles himself much. If you do Nathaniel, feel free to come to Australia. I'll buy you drinks and you can stay in my spare room in exchange for a smile.]

Dudes et dudettes.

2010-04-27T18:50:00.001+08:00

Balloons!

Saturday May 15th is International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO)!

Given that 2010 is the defined "Same-Sex Marriage Year of Action" I thought I'd invite you to join in.

So.... here's Perth's rather boring list of things that are happening:

1pm for Stalls, Banner Painting, Petitions & Information,

2pm for Community March / Demonstration.

Meet @ Perth Cultural Centre (Outside the State Library).

Go on. Everyone loves a good rabble.

A letter from Eugene Delgaudio, Republican District Supevisor for Sterling Park, Virginia, USA.

2010-04-20T22:25:00.002+08:00

Dear fellow American,

The Radical Homosexuals claim you and other pro-family Americans actually now support same-sex marriage, special job preferences for homosexuals and promotion of the homosexual lifestyle in schools.

Is it true? What do you say?

But first I want to make sure you understand just how serious this issue is.

You see, the Radical Homosexuals are storming through Washington demanding passage of their agenda.

And with the passage of Thought Control last year, they say NOW is the time to push their perverse “life-style” on every man, women and child in America.

And they insist YOU actually support them.

The Homosexual Lobby played a major role in electing Obama and the majorities he enjoys in both houses of Congress.

I can only begin to imagine all the damage the Radical Homosexuals will do with their allies controlling the House of Representatives, the Senate and the White House.

As the President of Public Advocate of the U.S., I’ve devoted twenty-seven years to battling the radical homosexuals in Washington.

Backed by Hollywood celebrities, the media and millions of your tax dollars, the Radical Homosexuals have many Congressmen quivering with fear — and they have a Radical Homosexual-friendly majority in control of Congress.

That is why pro-family Senators and Congressmen are counting on me to find out if you really support the Gay Bill of Special Rights and homosexual marriage as the radical homosexuals claim.

Please click here to complete the American Morality survey and prove to Congress that Americans oppose homosexual marriage and the Gay Bill of Special Rights today.

Frankly if you really do support the radical Homosexual Agenda — or if you just no longer care enough to stand up for the family — insiders in Congress say the entire Homosexual Agenda could pass in a matter of months.

*** Special job rights for homosexuals and lesbians. Businesses may have to adopt hiring quotas to protect themselves from lawsuits. Every homosexual fired or not hired becomes a potential federal civil rights lawsuit.

Radical homosexuals will terrorize day care centers, hospitals, churches and private schools. Traditional moral values will be shattered by federal law.

*** Same-sex marriages and adoptions. Wedding-gown clad men smooching before some left-wing clergy or state official is just the beginning.

You’ll see men hand-in-hand skipping down to adoption centers to “pick out” a little boy for themselves.

*** Homosexual advocacy in schools. Your children or grandchildren will be taught homosexuality is moral, natural and good. High school children will learn perverted sex acts as part of “safe sex” education.

With condoms already handed out in many schools, Radical Homosexuals will have little trouble adopting today’s “if it feels good do it” sex-ed curriculum to their agenda.

And to add insult to injury, lobbyists for the Homosexual Agenda are paid off with your tax dollars!

That’s right, radical homosexual groups like the Gay-Lesbian Task Force and ACT-UP receive millions from the government.

Hundreds of millions of dollars flow from taxpayers to homosexual activists through funding for homosexual “art,” so-called AIDS-awareness programs, and research grants.

And yet, Public Advocate receives absolutely no taxpayer assistance. My small office of volunteers and low-paid staffers are making quite a sacrifice to defend America’s morals and values.

But hard work is not enough. Items like mail, stamps, and even this email cost money.
That is why I ask you to make a generous donation after you complete the American Morality survey today.

One stormy night I drove to a mailshop hidden deep in a nearly deserted stand of warehouses. I’d heard something was up and wanted to see for myself.

As I rounded the final turn my eyes nearly popped. Tractor-trailers pulled up to loading docks, cars and vans everywhere and long-haired, earring-pierced men scurrying around running forklifts, inserters and huge printing presses.

Trembling with worry I went inside. It was worse than I ever imagined.

Row after row of boxes bulging with pro-homosexual petitions lined the walls, stacked to the ceiling.

My mind reeled as I realized hundreds, maybe thousands, more boxes were already loaded on the tractor-trailers. And still more petitions were flying off the press.

Suddenly a dark-haired man screeched, “Delgaudio what are you doing here?” Dozens of men began moving toward me. I’d been recognized.

As I retreated to my car, the man chortled, “This time Delgaudio we can’t lose.”

Driving away, my eyes filled with tears as I realized he might be right. This time the Radical Homosexuals could win.

You see, even though homosexuals are just 1% of the population, if every one sent a petition to Congress it would generate a tidal wave of two or three million petitions or more.

Hundreds of thousands of pro-homosexual petitions will soon flood Congress , and my friends in Congress tell me there’s virtually nothing on Capitol Hill from the tens of millions of Americans like you who oppose the radical Homosexual Agenda and the Gay Bill of Special Rights.

I made up my mind that night to write to you and as many other patriotic Americans as possible. To stop the Radical Homosexuals and protect traditional marriage there must be an immediate outpouring from folks like you.

Will you help?

Homosexual activists mock me in the halls of Congress. They say it’s too late because Americans like you don’t care enough to help, especially with the Democrats in control of Congress and the White House.

They say you support them. I tell them they are lying. They just laugh and tell me to give up.
Are they right? Should I just give up and let the Radical Homosexuals win?

Will you fight?

If, as I hope and pray, you oppose the radical homosexuals and want to defend the family and marriage then please immediately click here to fill out your American Morality Survey and submit it with your most generous contribution to Public Advocate right away.

I must tell you, your financial contribution is critical.

You see, while the radical homosexuals get tens of millions of tax dollars, Public Advocate gets no government funds.

Public Advocate relies on the generosity of Americans like you who give $25, $50, $75 or $100. A few special friends of Public Advocate give $500 or $1000. For many Public Advocate supporters a contribution of $25 or $35 is a sacrificial gift.

I ask you only prayerfully to consider what you can afford.

You see, I’ve stretched Public Advocate’s resources to contact you and other select Americans whom I believe are most likely to take a stand in these difficult times. If you won’t help, I’m afraid there is little more I can do.

But the fact is, even if every person responds it won’t be enough to counter all the radical homosexuals are doing.

And not everyone will respond. Some are cowed by how pro-family Americans are portrayed on TV. Others will count on someone else to fight the fight and carry the load. I don’t believe you are like that.

I’ve identified nearly 10 million families I believe would join our struggle for morality if only I can reach them. That’s more than twice as many as all the homosexuals in America … and most of these families represent two or three voters each. But without your financial help, I’ll never be able to reach them.

My hope is you care enough to contribute sacrificially so I can reach these families.

A generous gift of $25 will let Public Advocate reach 45 more families. $50 will help us rally more than 97 homes. And a special gift of $100 will generate over 215 contacts.

Only you know whether a contribution of $25, $50, $100 or even $500 or more is best suited to your budget. I ask you to do what you can.

The Radical Homosexuals boast you support same-sex marriage, special job rights and the promotion of homosexuality in schools.

Please let Congress know the radical homosexuals are lying.

Sincerely,
Eugene Delgaudio
President, Public Advocate of the U.S.

P.S. Radical homosexuals claim YOU support same-sex marriage, special job rights and promotion of homosexuality in schools — and with Democrats controlling Congress and the White House, they think they cannot lose. Is it true? I pray it is not.

Please fill out your American Morality Survey right away so I can prove to Congress and the media the Radical Homosexuals are lying about you.

Also, please make a contribution of $25, $50, $75, $100 or $500 to help Public Advocate defeat the Gay Bill of Special Rights and defend marriage and the family. Your contribution is critical to reaching the millions of families I know still care for the future.

Because Public Advocate of the U.S. lobbies to fight the radical agenda of the Homosexual Lobby, contributions are not tax deductible for IRS purposes. This email was not produced or e-mailed at taxpayer expense. Public Advocate’s website is http://publicadvocateusa.org/.

Ignorant, conceited, and a religious freak.

Sounds a bit like Family First's Steve Fielding, eh?

Cunts.

From SMELLY TONGUES.

SUBMISSION

2010-04-10T01:30:00.002+08:00

Final schemes, without me saying anything about the brief.

Three schools of thought / design:

CIVIC

POETIC

TECHNICS

As usual, click for full size - These are all 1:100 @ A2.

Flipping a coin

2010-03-30T12:05:00.000+08:00

So quitting 'the Facebook' has turned out to be quite a good decision on my behalf. I've found that there's not a terribly huge amount of gossip that I don't find out about anyway and when I do hear it, it's the shortened and distilled version. Much more easy to digest.

The only thing that does shit me however is the tendency for people to say that they'll talk to me later (after meeting up with them), and then have them frown slightly and remark "Oh, you're not on Facebook any more. I guess I'll see you when I see you then."

As if Facebook has rendered phones obsolete in the realms of communication. Whatever.

I tend to find that it puts me in the position of ALWAYS being the friend who messages first when a conversation happens. I also hold quite a strong view that friendships shouldn't be a constant effort when it comes to keeping in contact with someone. So, consequently, I may have let a few friends slip in the past couple of months. The blame for that friendship falling away however is evenly distributed between both parties. Not just me. Not just them.

Call it a silent, mutual acknowledgement of the inevitable.

I raise the point because I'm also thinking of discontinuing the whole blog thing. Really, there's not much to gain from having it apart from an internalised, self-serving kind of satisfaction.

The idea seems to exist (or so I believe) in the same realm as a diary that is deliberately left in an obvious place by an emotionally-starved little girl with the knowledge that someone may read it. In one side of her mind is the intrigue/suspense/exhilaration that her deepest thoughts may be found by someone else, coexisting with the secret want for exactly that to happen. That want, by nature, also comes with a fear of what will happen if the thoughts are discovered and a [premeditated?] feeling of horror if they are.

Similarly, I often write with the knowledge that anyone can read posts on this site, but there are always a select few that I probably don't want reading it. Although they probably don't, the chance is always there.

Although speaking [somewhat] to yourself on a blog isn't considered as crazy as speaking to yourself on the street (with an equal chance of people hearing you), I think there's enough crazy within me without needing to nurture a whole other facet of crazy within my life.

Some people may regard my recent endeavours as me cutting myself off from the wider circle of people that I know. In a small way this is true, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it social isolation. I've simply come to the realisation that thoughts and friends, just like time, are all limited to some degree by my personal capacity to care and manage. I'd prefer to spend a greater amount of time on a smaller number of friends, rather than the reverse. In regards to the blog, I'm not thinking of shutting down, but simply re-allocating the time and thoughts to a different venue, be it friends or uni.

Consolidating? In a way. Thinking architecturally, you could say that I'm paring back the ornamentation and instead allocating the material cost to a more solid foundation on which better things can be built.

So um, yeah.

I think I just made up my mind.

Starry, starry night.

2010-03-29T15:01:00.001+08:00

I woke up with an image in my head this morning from a dream that I had. Basically, the dream involved me being smashed into rocks by huge swell near my beach house. Yet I wasn't experiencing it from in the water, I was watching myself from a distance with a strange sense of detachment and a feeling that was more akin to curiosity than horror.It was all very romantic (in the art-history sense). Very dark.

It's part of what I'd call a week of truly weird dreams, and there's no drugs to blame. Or cheese.

Anyway, I felt like painting so I did a quick oil sketch of it. Very quick.

Then I got bored and made lunch.

Spot the difference

2010-03-24T23:55:00.000+08:00

Poetic

Civic

Technic

UWA Architecture Library

2010-03-22T22:02:00.000+08:00

Holy fuck.

Uni, design and such.

2010-03-22T01:42:00.004+08:00

Without going into too much detail at this stage, I present to you my site (or two sites):

For this project, we basically have to design three separate schemes covered under the classifications of "Poetic", "Technic" and "Civic Narrative".

It's all one brief, a small pool and shade, but it has to be done three times in three vastly different ways, on a choice of either of two sites. The general site itself is Burns Beach - way out beyond where I care to wander, at the northern end of the freeway.

The idea of a pool is somewhat ironic, given that it is practically impossible to swim at the 'beach' because of all of the rocks in the water.

(click for larger image)

Just a short note to say...

2010-03-16T19:03:00.000+08:00

Regina Spektor is coming to Perth and playing in the Convention Centre theatre on the 21st of April.

AND I'M GOING!

Yay! What a way to spend my first Centrelink payment.

Jealous much?

More info and tickets here if you want to go.

There are probably far more constructive things to do with my life right now.

2010-03-14T20:18:00.000+08:00

There are so many things that I could write about today. Birthdays, friends, lunches, the beach, giving away my second most precious bottle of wine, sex...

However I'm going to instead make a simple observation. Namely that when I dig around in my garden, I always seem to blow large amounts of black, sooty dust out of my nose afterwards. I often think that I should wear a dust mask, but then also think that no one gardens with a dust mask. No one.

I've been ripping out and tidying up a long patch of garden which I call "the barren dead bit where nothing ever ever grows no matter what I do". It all involves removing large amounts of sandy soil and ripping away stray runners of grass that have permeated into the mix so that I can put in quite a bit of nice, fresh soil improver and manure, hopefully getting something to grow in the process.

That said, I don't really have a large amount of time to be doing it at the moment, so we'll see if I can get it done within a few weeks.

Fingers crossed.

Friendship is a two way street.

2010-03-10T22:53:00.001+08:00

That's my thought for the day.

There are so many hypocrites around that say you never call or message them, when really, they could just as easily call or message you.

Just sayin', your honor.

Yay.

2010-03-08T15:25:00.001+08:00

Centrelink have made contact! They're processing! Finally.

Update:

So yeah, following that little outburst, I won't actually be getting paid anything for another two weeks.
Fuck.

Welcome to the world of Centrelink, H.

2010-03-04T18:50:00.003+08:00

Uni! Coffee! My life.

Yes, it is true. After three years of full time study and working to support myself I have now actually applied for a bit of Centrelink help. Not in a bludging scab student way, but purely because my timetable only allows me to work one (generally five hour) shift a week on a Wednesday afternoon. The rest of the afternoons when my workplace is running, I have classes.

And I wish they would hurry up and process the bloody application. I lodged it two and a half weeks ago, and now that uni is back I'm working on the pay from those five hours of work a week. It's kinda hard. I mean, yes, I still buy my coffee, but I can't exactly go without petrol that easily. This week after buying coffee and petrol I find that I have twenty bucks left over for everything else. Food included.

Usually during the intense assignment times of the year I live on weetbix, toast, fruit and wine because I generally don't have the time (or motivation) to find food with substance. This diet might be extending into my normal hours of operation though, because it's also rather cheap. Or at least until I get some form of money from Uncle Rudd.

I was at Jacksons today buying paper for an intense weekend workshop thing that's happening this weekend when a dude walked up to my car and asked me for "a couple of bucks for some food". I replied by gesturing to my glowing fuel light and empty change tray, to which he responded "Eh? Oh... oh." and walked away.

Thank god I had quite a bit of food and wine just sitting around in the house.

Ah, queens.

2010-02-25T09:21:00.003+08:00

So I was reading around the news websites today and found something that didn't quite make sense to me.

Apparently Miss Beverly Hills 2010, Lauren Ashley, was asked what she thought about gay marriage. She replied:

"The Bible says that marriage is between a man and a woman.

In Leviticus it says: 'If man lies with mankind as he would lie with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death and their blood shall be upon them.

The Bible is pretty black and white."

To me, it pretty much sounds like she's saying "Die, you dirty Gays."

And yet later on when she was asked if she thought he comments would disadvantage her in the beauty contest judging, she said:

"I have a lot of friends that are gay, and ... I have a lot of friends who have different views, and we share our views together. There's no hate between me and anyone."

Now I don't know whether her friends are as dumb as beauty queens or she's just making shit up, but I can't imagine that any gay person would want to be friends with someone who has that opinion. Especially such a public opinion. Somehow though, she has "a lot" of them.

Right.

So... life without facebook.

2010-02-24T11:22:00.000+08:00

Call me mister no-face.

You know what? I've found that I have so much free time now that I don't use "the Facebook".

Gone are the periods of logging in, looking at a notification, clicking through to someone's profile from that notification, absent-mindedly looking at their photos and then going back to the homepage to see the live feed. Now I wake up, water the garden and do a few weights. Today I even managed to pick up a friend and head to the beach for a swim, then get coffee. All before eleven!

Oh and while we were at the beach we saw a guy in hot little short shorts who looked like this:

Except he looked even better than that, and had a cute dog too.

Much better than Facebook, I say.

Tattoo?

2010-02-23T13:14:00.001+08:00

Perhaps?

Maybe?

No?

It's love

2010-02-23T13:01:00.000+08:00

Facebook Adventures: The second-last chapter.

2010-02-19T10:48:00.001+08:00

It has been one year, two months and 26 days since I joined Facebook in what can only be described as the depths of sickness-induced boredom.

Oh, it has been an experience. I've seen acceptance, rejection, good times and bad. Battled addiction, beaten boredom, and generally wondered what the whole point of the thing was whilst also wishing for another notification or two. Let me tell you guys, it's not a fun place. You need to constantly fight off application invites, unwanted photo tags and even more unwanted relatives requesting your friendship.

In the end though, it is an adventure and one that has come to a near-end. After everything, I've now decided to abandon the "social networking buzz of the interwebs" (as some old journo dude called it once) and use the service purely as a management tool for photos and event invitations; all of which are conveniently delivered to my email inbox for me to peruse. Some would say that technically I'm still using the FB, but my justification is that I will never have to cut another tree down to print out a photo or write an invite. And that's good enough for me.

Twitter never grasped me, Google Wave never got me, and Myspace is well in the past. So, alas my dear peeps, I must say:

To all of this jazz - goodbye, good riddance, and good night.

(To see the start of the adventures, click on the tag at the bottom of this)

So anyway,.. Melbourne.

2010-02-18T15:20:00.001+08:00

It was a great trip. Lots of doing not much, lots of food, and LOTS of wine. What more can I say?

It was made even better by the rather expansive list of places that people recommended T and I go, and we somehow managed to get to most of them.

In the spirit of such, next time you go, here's a few of my recommendations from that list:

New Gold Mountain. It's a three-level bar / eats place hidden behind an unimpressive wooden door with a brass doorknob. All that shows that it is there is a small "21" above the door. It's one of those places that you need to be told about to find, I think. I had the most amazing cocktail containing hibiscus vodka and elderberry liqueur, amongst other things. Liverpool St in the city, just off Little Bourke.

Longrain. An old warehouse, converted into a communal style asian fusion restaurant. It's a tad expensive, but the meals are amazing. It's all designed to share, so you grab a bowl of rice and a few dishes and mix it up. Right near New Gold Mountain on the corner of Liverpool and Little Bourke.

Man Chu Ria. It's also hidden a bit, up a flight of stairs and around a corner in Chinatown. Old-style opium den furnishings with little, separated corners and nooks. It's cool. Waratah Place, off Little Bourke again, about 300m in the Docklands direction from Longrain.

Monroes. It's a pretty typical looking restaurant on Fitzroy St in St Kilda, not far from where we stayed. The service however was more than excellent, the food was great, and the size of the piece of mudcake that I got brought for dessert was massive. And delicious.

Waldorf Diner. A small bar / restaurant pretty much next to the apartment that we were staying in. It's owned by an old door girl from Luxe Bar, who started it up about five months ago at the front of the heritage Waldorf building. We didn't eat dinner here, but it's open til 1am. I liked it as a place to go and have a quiet wine and coffee at the end of the night before bed. The chick that runs it too is pretty cool. She gave us free cake!

Aside from all of that, I managed to get in a bit of time wandering around Chapel St with T and found some amazingly cheap, really good coats and jackets. Bring on Winter, bitches.

We also went out clubbing to a few gay bars on Commercial Rd, which were amazingly tacky and trashy (but fun). When it's only a brief one night visit, I'm always up for a good bit of trashy dancing.

So yeah, good shit.

Did I mention the city had flash floods and intense storms about an hour after we went on a sunny river cruise?

Block Arcade

Eureka Tower

Some random bridge

This made my day.

2010-02-17T08:05:00.000+08:00

Nothing more to say really.

Melbourne was amazing. I'll get to that later.

Adios amigos!

2010-02-09T11:16:00.000+08:00

T and I are off to Melbourne for a short holiday and well deserved break.

See you soooooooooooooon.

That guy, Dolce & Gabbana, Milan 2010

2010-02-05T11:15:00.001+08:00

This dude is cool. He has something. I like it. It's manliness, but not.

...and as a side note, I enjoy the hair on these two Burberry models.

Preferences anyone? I need mine cut again.

As the year moves on.

2010-02-04T13:58:00.002+08:00

It's time to reorganise.

Time to work something out.

Time to sit down and do something.

Time to sing a new song.

Chiquitita.

etc.

Hey ladies

2010-02-04T10:28:00.002+08:00

www.shoesofprey.com

Bespoke shoes. It's a woman's heaven.

And it's Australian.

2010-01-31T23:12:00.002+08:00

Lust.

Indubitably

2010-01-31T23:09:00.001+08:00

I've come to the sudden, stark realisation recently that nothing in life is solid. Nothing stays as it is, and despite all of the illusions that we put up in our minds to make us think that there is something to grab hold of to keep us on course, it all inevitably falls down and turns to shit.

It's made me take on the train of thought that the only thing I can really count on to be constant is myself. I (hopefully) know myself enough to be able to judge my reactions and expectations with everything. The other things in life; friends, jobs, family, money; they all seem to just be a long and convoluted line of dominoes that knock on to one another. Eventually, everything has to fall down and you hope that there is something else beyond that to either continue the sequence or resist the momentum and stay static.

It's depressing.

Yet it also makes me feel ever-so-slightly glad and reassured when I wake up in the morning because I know that something else is going to happen. Something has got to be better than nothing if you're perceiving from the glass half full direction. I did wake up after all, and there are worse things that could happen.

The only difficult thing that comes across in this whole sequence is the choice to knock on a domino early when you know the end result. Is the time that is spent with the domino standing worth the possibilities of experience that it offers, or are there better things beyond that you can only hope to achieve once it has fallen? It's a nicely wrapped version of fate that is both scary and inherently intriguing to consider.

At this moment in my life, I haven't knocked a domino in quite some time. They've all felt free to fall around me and leave me standing surrounded by the resultant white-speckled darkness. The question that arises really is this:

When (and what) will I knock?

Thoughts

2010-01-14T23:25:00.001+08:00

I'd like to apologise for my lack of interest or attention with this blog recently. I've had a few things that I've had to think about and [sadly] this is one of the first things that gets pushed to the back of the pile.

Anyway, I've done a portion of that thinking which has freed up a small amount of time for me to do something on here. Or at least to think about doing something on here.

So here's the go. I'm starting to think about the new semester of uni that is coming up and what wonders it may hold. Technically it's still more than a month and a half away, but I figure that if my boss is asking me for my availability during the semester now, then I should be getting a tidbit more organised.

This year, thinking about it, is one of the more crucial years for my (Architecture) course. It's the final year of the Bachelor degree. Meaning I'll have a degree in some form in about ten months' time. Yay. Being the end of the first part of a Masters course though, it also means that I need to work a bit harder than I have been to ensure that I get above the average that is needed to qualify me for entry into the Masters second half. If I don't get above the 60% mark, frankly, I'm fucked.

Getting decent scores isn't just about that though. There's also quite a few big-money prizes for the high achievers in certain aspects of the course. Add to that one prize which is a guaranteed job in a firm for the highest achiever (plus money), and I think I have the motivation to begin studying. For the first time in my life.

Aside from uni, I'm still procrastinating about applying for a job at a firm here in good ol' Perth. I have a couple of firms in mind that I'd like to apply to, but I'm fighting against the force of procrastination that comes from having a job that pays double what I would be paid as an unqualified CAD lackey in a firm. Basically, I'd be living on the bones of my arse for a few years for the sake of that ever-wanted "experience".

I will get around to it soon though.

Life apart from that is pretty boring really. I've been desperately trying to keep my garden alive during this obscene Perth Summer, with varying levels of success. I've been doing weights daily, and seeing just how much I can actually bench press when I try. And I've been going for the odd walk or two to try and regain some of the fitness that I used to have.

It's my birthday in a couple of weeks too, which makes me think that I should really start getting my life into some kind of order before I need a walking stick. I thought to myself the other day "Perhaps I should write a will...", surely a sign of my inner middle-aged lady. I then cast the thought aside, with only a slight niggling feeling that I would die the next day because life wanted to spite me. It tends to do that. Order, however, is much easier said than done, and I'll let you know in the distant future when I have achieved even a hint of it.

To end all of this, I've decided that a new car won't be happening for me any time soon and I am going to instead be directing my savings towards my dream of buying a baby grand piano. Ever since my last housemate moved out and took his little keyboard I have been extremely bored, and somewhat sad. If anyone plays multiple instruments, I'm sure you'd know all too well that playing the guitar is never as satisfying and engaging as playing the piano. It's a beautiful way to detach yourself from life.

Someone in my past told me that the key to happiness was an instrument, a garden, and a glass of wine. Chuck in a friend or two, and I think it's a perfect formula.

Truly.

People I Strongly Dislike

2010-01-10T21:47:00.002+08:00

In no particular order:

Rob Johnson

You are an ignorant douche.

Karl O'Callaghan

Stick to policing. It's your job. Politics and lawmaking are not.

Joe Hockey

You're a smiling, three day old beef roast.

Tony Abbott

They're called asylum seekers for a reason.

Japanese whalers

That little boat was much nicer looking than yours.

You DID deliberately hit it.

I hope you hit a sea mine and sink.

This guy:

Funny, but no.

2010-01-06T08:03:00.002+08:00

Such a pretty picture. I hate this hot weather.

Sorry about the page makeover.

2010-01-05T00:14:00.001+08:00

I was bored. I'm not really liking it. It will change again.

Perhaps.

Oh and speaking of Polaroids...

2010-01-03T13:19:00.002+08:00

I came across a blog towards the end of last year that I thought was interesting.

I don't know if it was particularly Julie and Julia inspired, but the basic idea of it is to take one Polaroid a day for a year. Hence it's name, Polaroid365.

It's a novel idea in my book.

Anyway, find it here.

2010

2010-01-03T13:13:00.001+08:00

...or @)!). It will be better than 2009. Guaranteed.

I can feel it.

Merry Christmas everyone.

2009-12-30T07:12:00.003+08:00

...and hello to the person who got here by googling "patrick wolf faggot".

You are a douche.

Bonne Année.

Oh Heather!

2009-12-20T23:48:00.002+08:00

It's not that I don't like a bit of M People action occasionally, but honestly, Heather Small is far better solo.

I have a deep love for this song. And no, it's not purely due to my teenage years spent watching Queer As Folk late at night on SBS.

Partly, perhaps.

Comparatively...

2009-12-20T23:26:00.005+08:00

The Eames 670 (chair) and 671 (stool)

Versus

the Lund and Paarmann Lobster Chair

I see a bit of inspiration from the former in the latter.

Personally, I prefer the Lobster chair. Eames may be a design classic and benchmark, but in my opinion it belongs in the past.

Lobster Chair is detailed in full HERE.

Patrick Wolf

2009-12-14T23:44:00.003+08:00

A few months ago I bought some tickets for T and I to go and see Patrick Wolf play at Capitol. It's the first time that he's ever come to Perth. I was pretty stoked.

That show was on Saturday night just gone, and it was amazing. I'd even go as far as saying that he was better than Sia and on par with Liza Minnelli in the "best show of the year" list, and it has nothing to do with his [fuckable?] British accent.

If you haven't heard of Patrick Wolf before, he's a classically trained musician that teaches himself various instruments and uses them to make indie-electro-pop-ish songs that are pretty awesome. Within the first couple of songs in the live show he'd managed to change between electric guitar, piano, ukelele and violin. It's something that you rarely see done at all, let alone done well.

All in all, my love for him and his music just keeps on getting stronger. This post is not about that though. It's about Perth. Yobbo, cuntish Perth. The Perth that really should not exist, but does.

You see, as Patrick was fiddling with his guitar trying to get it working at one point during the show he told the audience an interesting story of his day out in Perth. Apparently he went for a walk around the city, looking eclectically gay as he does, and he got a few comments from yobs when he walked past.

Not one comment. Not two. Quite a few.

In Patrick's words:

"What was it... oh yeah, "Hey Mum! Get back in the Kitchen!".

And the best one I think: "Hey Britney! Britney! Hit me baby, one more time. Go Britney!

...as well as the usual, you know, faggot, poof, queer, blah blah."

No one should have to put up with that, especially when it's a touring artist that's forming a first-time opinion of the City. It's shit. It gives every person in the city a bad reputation by association, because Perth society does fuck all to stop it happening.

I bet plenty of people heard the comments directed at him. I also bet that not a single person told the insecure douches to shut up. They just let it slide.

It's sad, really.

I'm all for lists at the moment.

2009-12-08T12:51:00.001+08:00

So here goes. Life is:

Work work work.
A bit more work.
I've also been binge drinking beyond the definition of the term, to the point where I woke up yesterday and thought "I have a drinking problem". Then I dismissed the idea and went to work.
As far as applying for a job at an architecture firm goes, I've heard from a friend at a firm I was going to apply to that the BIGGEST DOUCHE EVER (codename: Grease man) just got a job there. Needless to say my application wasn't sent. I'm still meandering around working out a few places to send letters and folios to.
Christmas is completely ruining my plans of paying off my credit card and saving some money. It's inconvenient. I haven't even put up the tree and really don't see the point of doing so if I won't be home on the day.
Christmas is only two weeks away as well. Gosh. I'm heading off to the beach house (Albany) for a few days to do the obligatory Family Thing and drink all of their alcohol. Here's a view from the house:

Sooner, I have a Patrick Wolf concert coming up this Saturday. Yay.
I have eight broccoli plants growing in random places in my garden. I chucked seeds in everywhere to see how many would actually germinate in this obscene heat. Needless to say, they're all growing in shady bits.
I may be joining the gym soon. Don't get your hopes up though. My track record isn't good.
I'm such an angry little man. Like a champagne bottle.
My new year's resolution is to speak less. I say the most unnecessary crap.

Thought

2009-11-29T14:05:00.000+08:00

Chronology is the best kind of order. Time sequences are so much easier to comprehend.

My life in general since portfolio submission: A dotpoint narrative.

2009-11-25T21:48:00.000+08:00

In short:

Trip to Melbourne booked for early February. Yay!
Trip to Tasmania booked for the start of July '10 to see my new nephew that's being popped out a couple of months earlier. Super yay.
Saw Sia play at the Astor last night (Tuesday). She was AMAZING, and so cute with her clumsy jokes and demeanor that I just wanted to wrap her up and take her home with me. The Astor however was a bit over capacity for the ventilation capacity it has. I was sweating like a bitch but loving it.
Seeing Patrick Wolf play at Capitol in a couple of weeks. Should also be rather fantastic.
Picked up my folio today from the uni after a few attempts to get it back. Now I can get onto applying for a job in a firm.
Getting uni marks on the ninth. Fingers crossed that it's a bundle of High Distinctions.
Drinking much G+T, also trying to cook whatever I can hack out of the ice in my freezer. There's shit in there that I don't remember buying, and there's a bag of Superfries in there that's nearly three years old.
Been fixing up plasterwork and cornices in my recently vacated housemate's room, and I'm part-way through painting the ceiling. Then all of the stuff from my room is going in there so that I can do the same with mine, as well as redo the walls.

That's about all.

Society is obviously fucked.

2009-11-25T21:35:00.000+08:00

I went to the trouble of scanning this in from my junk mail because I think it is so amazingly obscene.

McDonalds play stuff? Why the hell would a kid want to work at McDonalds? Surely their parents would encourage them to aim a little bit higher.

If this is any kind of indicator of the so-called "obesity epidemic", or just a hint of where society in general is heading, please kill me now.

Shame, Toys'R'Us. Shame.

Same with McDonalds.

I'm sure there's some kind of public health directive against this kind of subliminal marketing shit.

Folio

2009-11-18T18:52:00.001+08:00

So the semester's work is finally over for me. I handed in my portfolio today, and even had it in with an hour and a half to spare. Go me.

The end of year exhibition is also all sorted and pinned up. I've got three different things in there; one from each project. That's on tomorrow night and should be quite a good event. If you know me, you'll know that free alcohol is always a good event in my books.

It's on 6-8pm in the Curtin Architecture building (201) if anyone feels like heading down and having a look whilst rubbing shoulders with some amazingly obnoxious and self-loving architects. The Interiors people also have space on the floor, so you'll see some of Darcy's work too on the night.

As far as folio goes, it was nowhere near as much blood and tears as previous years. In fact, it was quite an enjoyable experience and I managed to get at least two hours sleep every night so far this week. It's not quite as developed as I would have liked (it's missing all of the models from Project 2 because they were stolen and I couldn't be bothered remaking them just to take a photo.), but overall I'm pleased with what I came up with.

I'd say that it is minimal. Some would say that it's pushing the definition of minimal. I don't care.

Here's a slideshow:

...or for a much better way of viewing it (as the one above has a habit of starting halfway through), go here for a funky full screen navigateable slideshow. It's much more pleasant.

A few notes:

-The blank pages in project one saying "Original Slides" had a pocket cut out of them with the full size pictures shown before slid in.

and

-The first two pages of submission plans for Project 2 were printed on drafting film (clear) so that all of the plans could be overlaid at once. That's why they look weird by themselves.

That's all really.

Drinks!

I'm sorry.

2009-11-16T12:48:00.002+08:00

I'm going to continue my little bit that I had to say at the end of the last post below. These stop and search laws are shitting me.

The idea that you are innocent until proven guilty is a base construct of our legal system in Australia. It's how things should be, and Karl O'Cockface needs to learn when to stay in his box. Police are there to enforce the laws that our society has. They shouldn't be campaining for new ones or trying to alter the way things are done. A person should be able to refuse a police search if they think it is inappropriate.

The thing that really shits me is that O'Cockface and the Police union dude are always saying "go into Northbridge at 3am and have a look. You'll see what we mean." The thing is, I've spent a lot of time in Northbridge at 3am, 4am and even 6am.The levels of violence are amazingly overstated and primarily caused by the big venues with their arrogant door staff and bouncers. The violent douches go there because there's a level of anonymity the venues provide that is only available in places with large numbers of people.

I also don't blame this whole situation entirely on Mr O'K. I lay the blame fairly and squarely on the media too. It's in no way a subconscious choice on their part to constantly publish inflated stories of violence on the front page of the newspaper. They make Northbridge out to be something that it is not, and it really shits me.

Shitting me more than that is the fact that they don't give equal weighting to the new laws in their publishing. On the weekend when the whole thing got elevated to the upper house of Parliament and made it's way towards restricting our freedoms, there wasn't any front page story. There wasn't any real story. In fact, as I believe, the only thing published on the weekend was about one politician's remarks regarding Nazi Germany, whilst completely skipping over the more pressng fact of the legislation that his marks were about.

Add to that the sub-standard level of shit reporting that is Today Tonight and Sunday Night (which is pretty much all of the news that the cashed up bogans in Perth watch) and you've got a situation where there are needless totalitarian laws being created to fix a problem that doesn't really exist.

Before we know it, half of the population of Perth are going to wake up and find themselves in a Police State and wonder how it happened.

And it's going to be the younger people, the most oblivious, that find themselves being discriminated against and driven out of the state.

It's folio time again

2009-11-15T20:31:00.002+08:00

...and I really can't be bothered.

I've done a storyboard of the whole lot so I know EXACTLY how much I have to do, and how much nice expensive paper I need to fork out for. The thing is that at this moment in time, I just don't want to think about the 27 pages I have left to do.

I've also just looked at the plans for the end of year exhibition that's happening this Thursday, and I need to put in three things. Not one like some people. Three. Or at least that's how I interpret that CAD file that I got sent.

Putting it in perspective, the money I spend on printing the three things I could instead spend on a desperately needed new pair of shorts for summer. Bleh.

Suck it up, sunshine.

Page one:

Click for full size.

Oh, and if that Police union dude actually does think that no officer is racist or discriminatory, he really needs to get a reality check and a new job. Arrogant douche.

"She has slandered every hardworking police officer - male and female - in WA. This two-bob politician is trying to undermine all the good work police officers have been doing over the years."

No she hasn't and she's not. You're just used to sweeping shit under the rug to maintain a good image.

Go Adele Carles. You tell it how it is.

Senate - again

2009-11-10T14:14:00.001+08:00

I was looking through the submissions AGAINST recieved by the Marriage Equality Senate Inquiry today. It's interesting reading.

Most of them tend to focus on the usual topics of kids and family dynamics, which I don't see an being of much relevance to the inquiry. After all, gay couples can already live together with kids if they like. Marriage won't change it much.

Quite a few people also need to learn the basics of sentence structure and punctuation, but that's another rant.

Anyway, a little way down the page I found a letter from an anonymous contributor that I found funny (in an "Oh my god" sad way). Somehow, the person managed to turn an argument against gay marriage into a muslim apocalyspe theory rant. I'd love to see their stream of thought as they wrote the submission.

Some people amaze me.

In related news though, the inquiry received over 10 000 submissions in favour of changing marriage law, and it was the biggest inquiry in Australia to date.

AME has a little article about the parliament debating afterwards here too, which is good.

Little Details

2009-11-08T12:53:00.000+08:00

Last week my new camera arrived at the front door in it's box, packed snugly in a bag between a few sheets of foam and bubble wrap. I bought it off eBay, the place where the quality of things is never guaranteed until you receive it. So it came as no surprise when I opened the (pervert-esque? looking) camera bag to find the three lenses sitting in there with no lens caps and gritty dirt all over the glass. The camera too was just shoved in the bag without much care, despite the fact that there was a case for it in the package as well.

Strangely, I wasn't fazed at all by the state of things. I just spent a bit of time wiping and cleaning things and getting them into some sort of order, and in the end the camera ended up looking pretty nice. It came with three lenses, five filters, and a myriad of flashes and stuff - although all I wanted was the camera body and the smallest of the lenses. The one that fitted inside the old leather camera case nicely when fitted. As a complete package, it look pretty sweet.

Excitedly, I went out and bought myself a couple of rolls of Ilford 400 Black and White film, loaded the camera up and took a few photos to test everything. It all worked. Nicely.

There is something comforting in the sound of an old SLR taking a picture. The click of the mirror moving to expose the film to light, and then the physical movement of winding the film to the next frame with faint, grinding buzz. It's a physicality and reassurance of working that digital cameras just don't have.

Looking at something through a lens [I find] is a lot like drawing. You tend to notice a lot of the smaller details that are generally missed, and you keep noticing new things even after the photos are printed. Sure, drawing involves a lot more examination, logic and 'looking', but when you're photographing something other than a landscape and working out depth of field, focus etc the 'looking' part becomes relatively the same.

You know, as they say: The simpler things in life... blah blah blah...

It all applies in this instance.

Seed Bank

2009-11-04T22:29:00.002+08:00

Apologies for not writing anything as of late. I'd love to tell you how amazingly FABULOUS Liza Minelli was. I'd also love to bitch and whine about how much sleep I didn't get in the past few weeks. However, I really can't be bothered. I've been quite happy simply doing nothing.

Nothing involves working, gardening and cleaning, if you were wondering.

Here's my final Design submission that I presented on Thursday last week. I'd have to say that it was the easiest critique that I've ever had to endure. There wasn't even any enduring, and i'd even go so far as to say that it was enjoyable. Shockhorreur.

In a nutshell, the project was to design a seed bank for the local plant species of the Merredin area, as part of the Millenium Seed Bank Project.

If you'd like a greater explanation, feel free to ask. We'll meet for drinks and nibbles and sit for hours.

As usual, click for larger.

I may not be writing much

2009-10-28T11:52:00.000+08:00

However I am in the midst of a uni meltdown. Here's what I'm doing.

For Darcy, with love.

As usual, click for larger.

2009-10-20T22:40:00.000+08:00

lol.

Dusty, gravel roads.

2009-10-18T12:42:00.003+08:00

Today I was thinking about stuff. Life, direction, everything along those lines.

Deep.

My thoughts were accompanied by an almost surreal appreciation (satisfaction?) that my life has changed so much in the last few years.

I remember back at the start of 2005 when I was seriously contemplating packing up one day and leaving Albany for Perth without so much as a Goodbye. My plans would generally have been along the lines of transferring within my job at Woolies and crashing at a mate's house until I found a bit of dirt-cheap accommodation that would fit my guitar, laptop and a bar fridge. The reality of it would probably have been far less fun than the romanticised version in my mind, but I really don't care. It's the thought that counts.

Thinking of where I am now with a steadily unfolding career, house, and generally 'set' direction in life, I always wonder where I would have ended up had I chosen to just wander off. On one hand it's a scary thought, but at the same time it's slightly exciting and intriguing.

One of my friends did the wandering thing not long back. He decided he'd had enough, packed up one night and drove to Melbourne. Sure, he slept in the car for a couple of nights, but somehow he managed to get a decent job and a place to stay and was quite happily set within a week. He has no one to think about. No attachments or obligations. It's a dream.

It makes me think that maybe I am getting bogged down in life far too early and should just lighten the fuck up. Who knows, I might just find myself in a better place.

At the same time, things have changed so much in the last five years that it's impossible to guess what the next five years will bring.

Such is the screwed-up lottery of life I guess.

Sunny Sunny Day

2009-10-14T21:53:00.003+08:00

It's always easier to smile when the sun is out.

Particularly with coffee, dips and turkish bread on hand and no looming assignments.

Green light for Yanchep development

2009-10-14T07:42:00.003+08:00

Hello urban sprawl, nice to see you again. Have you seen Sustainability or Environment around anywhere?

No?

I didn't think so. They must be 200km away on the other side of the city.

.

2009-10-12T23:56:00.004+08:00

I didn't ask to be born this way.

Saying that, I am who I am, and I wouldn't ever change it if I were given a chance. So FUCK YOU to all of the people in this world, in this society and in this country who seek to drag me down in every second of my waking life.

You are my family, my old friends, my colleagues and my teachers. You are everyone who pretends to give a shit but then turns a blind eye and says that it is too hard. You are the glare out of the corner of a person's eye as they pass me, and the rocks that are thrown as I run down the street trying to escape. You are apathy in it's greatest incarnation and the dead teen hanging in his garden shed, alone.

You may have had the best years of your life in your teens, but then who ever noticed that one boy who was never there?

That boy that you only saw at school, the quiet one. The one who was not allowed out of the house, not allowed to go to friends' parties, not allowed to go into town with friends and not allowed to go out on weekends.

The one with the nice parents, or so they seemed when they weren't at home. How were you supposed to know that they were cruel, small-minded and scared? Scared of what their friends would think. What people would think. Too scared to notice the harm and the sadness and the resentment that they were harbouring behind the closed door of their house. Too consumed in their own self-pity to notice the marks on their son's wrists from endless nights spent awake contemplating an easier existence.

How can you be blamed when you did not know?

You can.

You are society and pressure. Opinion and perpetuated prejudice. You are the uncorrected hateful remarks in early life. You are the look of hate on the faces of the gang as they kick, spit and stab in malice in a dark alley. You... are the muted voices of the media as they write a single line on page thirty-seven about that poor faggot who was killed. After all, who wants to hear depressing news when you can read about Britney.

You don't care.

You wave your flag of support for five seconds and then throw it in the bin when a new TV show comes on the programme. You think. You intend. You hope. Many do.

Thoughts cannot be read. They cannot be heard. Nor can they be seen.

You are the stagnant force of apathy and defeat that holds me back.

Fuck you.

Suggestion: Strip search the Premier

2009-10-12T18:21:00.004+08:00

The Barnett Government has many ideas which I disagree with. Mandatory sentencing, prostitution, the foreshore - the list goes on. It's latest invention however takes the cake in my book as being the stupidest totalitarian police-state invention I have ever heard.

As current laws stand, police are allowed to stop and search you for all manner of things if they have a reasonable suspicion that you are carrying weapons or drugs. The sticking point for police is that proving reasonable suspicion is a very dubious thing that many police simply don't have the patience or depth of reasoning to argue.

In lieu of that, good ol' Colin comes along and suggests new laws which give the police the power to search anyone they want without having to prove any suspicion in "trouble spots". If this actually goes through, what comes next?

Aside from being a violation of basic rights of privacy, I would like to know who exactly gets the power to decide where and when these searches are deemed permissable. If it goes anywhere near where Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan wants, I suspect there will be an amazing reduction in the number of people going to music festivals. After all, who would want to pay upwards of $150 and be strip searched in front of queues of people just to watch a few music acts and drink overpriced alcohol? Certainly not me.

Many of the supporters of the proposed changes take the view that 'if you don't have anything to hide, why worry?'. It's exactly that notion that makes the laws absurd. Surely if you don't have anything to hide, you shouldn't have to be subjected to humiliating public searches only to have the police find nothing and say "thanks, you can go now". In any case, I highly doubt the police would be carrying around a fold-up cubicle to enable them to conduct searches in relative privacy. In the case of Northbridge, this would be be on the sidewalk in broad view of passers-by.

Assuming the Government is successful in passing such legislation, I look forward to reading all of the complaints in the paper from innocent people who have been searched for no apparent reason. Thinking logically, the searches won't be able to do any more than a sniffer dog and hand-held metal detector already can - methods which are far more discrete and non-invasive.

Hallway

2009-10-12T17:49:00.003+08:00

I still don't know if it's the camera or the film, but the developing fluids aren't rolling through properly occasionally.

Oh well. As mother says, "it adds character".

2009-10-11T16:29:00.003+08:00

I didn't give this post a title because I don't exactly know what to say about it.

It's just a nice set of images of a hot guy that reflects something about the nature of men that only a man would understand.

Surely even a straight guy looking at this, absent of the dislike of pictures of guys in their jocks, can understand the whole in-underwear-front-of-mirror-absent-minded thing. Perhaps it's just me.

Hm.

Maybe it's just my polaroid love.

My latest submission.

2009-10-11T13:18:00.005+08:00

I bitched and moaned about it for the past six weeks.

I think I was justified in doing so, considering the end product doesn't even remotely reflect the amount of time and work that went into it.

"Yeah, whatever." I hear you say.

That's exactly what I say too.

Click for larger.

My week in which I did not blog.

2009-10-11T12:59:00.003+08:00

I may not have written on here, but here's what I did do:

Mon:

8am_ wake up
10am_ uni
2pm_ finish uni, go to work
10.30pm_ finish work, eat drink etc.
1am_ bed

Tues:

7am_ wake up
8.15am_ uni
2pm_ finish uni, go to work
10pm_ finish work, eat drink etc.
11.30pm_ go to uni to work
2am_ go to bed

Wed:

7am_ wake up
8.15_ uni
2.30pm_ finish uni work, go to work
9.45_ finish work, grab a burger, go home
10.30pm_ start uni work at home

Thurs:

6am_ stop uni work, go to uni to do design work
9am_ design class
12pm_ go home to continue uni work
8.30pm_ stop working, grab pizza, alcohol etc.
11.30pm_ start working again

Fri:

1.30am_ finish assignment, go to uni to print
2.30am_ go to bed
8am_ wake up, go to uni - submit
11.30am onwards_ drink

Adding it up, it's only 69 hours of working/uni. It felt like a lot longer.

Perhaps it was the sixteen hours sleep that I had in total over that space of time.

Senate Inquiries - Again.

2009-10-03T13:46:00.002+08:00

Officially, submissions for the Senate inquiry into marriage equality ended a little while ago amid extremely muted commentary and/or fanfare.

It strikes me as being extremely strange, considering the publicity that the issue got back in 2004 when John Howard changed the Marriage Act definition to man/woman. Could it be the general nonchalant and apathetic nature of most Australians causing this, or is it more to do with the media simply choosing to ignore the issue? Who knows. I've been following the process quite closely in any case.

Apparently, to date, this Senate Inquiry has garnered the largest number of submissions out of any inquiry in Australian parliamentary history, which I think is an extremely encouraging thing. It shows that at least a small portion of society do take the time to think about the things that are going on beyond the immediate confines of their social and family lives. Although a total count of submissions hasn't been released yet, and may not be released ever, I'm sure that it went far beyond the 13000 submissions of the 2004 inquiry.

The senate committee has released a small sample of these submissions on it's site, which you can find here. It's basically a representative cross section of the types of things that were received, but features quite heavily on the big players in the debate: the churches, political parties and lobby groups. Needless to say, my submission isn't there.

A few surprises for me were the submissions from the Australian Democrats party, the Metropolitan Community Church, and Cardinal George Pell. Pell's submission in particular I found interesting because it lacked the typical religious knee-jerk reaction to same-sex marriage that most religious groups chose to include and is actually a very intelligent, considered, well worded piece of writing. Although it goes against the cause that I am advocating, I applaud his consideration and well placed tact.

I'm also quite happy that Barry Hickey didn't feature on the list, because I'm not allowed to criticise him as much as I would like. He's a relative of my T, you see.

So yes. Go and peruse. See what people have said. It's interesting stuff.

You go girls! (but remember when to stop)

2009-09-23T13:31:00.002+08:00

Quite often on here I have a rant about a section of female society that feels the need to bring the 'plight of women' into every issue that comes up. They may be pushing an agenda, but by pushing so hard they are simply creating an audience that doesn't listen and effectively talking to themselves.

Reading online this morning, I got great pleasure out of the fact that I'm not alone in my views. The Australian's Opinion writer Janet Albrechtsen (yes, not a man) wrote a stunner of an article talking about how persistent, almost token feminism generally hampers the efforts of the women who are pushing for the true feminist aim of equality.

Specifically, Ms Albrechtsen concentrates on the roles of women in the workplace in her article, beginning with our parliamentarians who sought to make a spectacle of the issue in last week's question time (and completely fucked up any chance of a meaningful debate/resolution).

She then changes the focus slightly, and discusses women working in general and the work/life/children balance that needs to be met. Highlighting the case of one woman who was offered a job as a Principal's Assistant and then had the offer withdrawn when she said that she wanted to work part-time and spend more time with her kids, Janet says exactly what any reasonable working person would think:

"That’s not evil, unlawful discrimination against women. That’s life...

...While so many feminists refuse to accept it, some jobs demand full-time attention. Not every job can be done on a part-time basis."

...and I completely agree. Sometimes to get something that you want in life, you have to make a few sacrifices and acknowledge that there are limitations to various situations. The fact that the case was raised as a discrimination issue, to me, only serves to highlight the absurdity of some discrimination claims.

Topping it all off, she ends with:

"So here’s another idea. How refreshing and grand it would be if women could sometimes, just sometimes, resist the temptation to treat every occasion as proof that women are being mistreated by a big bad boys’ world. "

Thank you, Ms Albrechtsen.

Good read.

The local church message board:

2009-09-23T06:54:00.002+08:00

IF EVOLUTION WERE
TRUE MOTHERS WOULD
HAVE 3 ARMS

I'm not quite sure the priest is getting the concept there.

It's a thin line really.

2009-09-20T16:14:00.004+08:00

You know, sometimes I think that I may be an alcoholic. I always seem to have a glass of something in my hand, and generally have at least two bottles of wine in the fridge at any one time.

Then I think that I can't possibly be one, because I can stop and go without drink if I need to. Particularly if I have no money.

They just keep on coming...

2009-09-15T05:37:00.009+08:00

So here's another submission. This time however, it's going up two hours before I submit, not two weeks after.

This is the final scheme for my Merredin (Robert Juniper) Gallery Project.

I can't be bothered explaining much, because I've been at this computer for two days already.
It's all explained here if you're interested.

Here's some pictures instead.

...The plans are also refusing to load onto here. Oh well.

(Click for larger)

On-site image set

2009-09-13T21:29:00.007+08:00

Following my recent trip to Merredin, I completed part two of my site analysis image set; the on-site part.

Part one can be found here.

Apologies for the late posting of it. I actually submitted the project a couple of weeks ago. Oh well.

The basic theme for the set was "Division", and the on-site research concentrated on researching the ideas that I found in my off-site set to see if what I found was actually what was there. Another part of the on-site part was to zoom in, going from large-scale analysis to the small scale reality of the site.

It was supposed to be a quick and nasty project completed on site or a day after getting back. Hence, the images don't have a great deal of depth.

Buon apetit.

Rail lines dividing landscape/town

Limits of development/ Town boundaries

Small scale material division

Smaller again

Man-made divides in the expanse of nothingness

Suburbia/ nature; lines of division

Division of the water pipeline by obstructions

A collection of stairs that I love.

2009-09-11T16:32:00.013+08:00

Simply because they are cool, and I'm a little bit obsessed.

The third one I particularly love, because being solid folded steel it is amazingly heavy, yet it completely floats off the ground.

It's a real pity that the Australian standards would actually make most of these illegal here for safety reasons. Loosen up a little, Australia.

Yes... I really do need to find something better to do with my time.

Courtesy of Stair Porn.

Has anything really changed since the election? Not really.

2009-09-07T20:17:00.001+08:00

So how do you know that you're gay?

2009-09-07T14:32:00.004+08:00

It seems to be a question that everyone asks, regardless of whether they're an inquisitive straight person or a gay person looking for explanations. The problem is there isn't really an answer.

I hate to simplify it down to something as simple as "you like the cock" because it isn't true. A lot of people (when they think back on their childhood) realise that they were gay before sexual thoughts played such a significant part in their consciousness.

When I was ten or eleven, there was a kind of innocence that I don't have now playing a part. Gay wasn't part of my general vocabulary. I know that there was a definite attraction to guys there in lower school, but it was a natural feeling that wasn't tarnished by imposed society taboo. I didn't question it, it just was. It's only in high school when everyone was beginning to form some sort of sexual identity of themselves that exterior factors came to influence my thoughts and that was the hardest time of my life. It's something that everyone goes through, but at the same time everyone feels so equally alone in their own thoughts and fear that the notions of normalcy and irrationality don't really factor in.

I've met quite a few people in my life that have been in their mid twenties, previously had girlfriends and led a "normal" life - only to find themselves questioning who they are and wondering if they are gay or not. That's when they ask me the question, and my response turns into a three hour deep and meaningful where I try in vain to explain the deep workings of emotion and sexuality without the background of a psychology degree.

I often feel that they leave even more confused than they were before after realising that sexuality is not simply a black and white thing. It has many, many grey areas where borders blur and change and link up; which is something that most straight people don't realise. Particulary in older generations, the issue is seen as polar. You are either straight or gay. There is no gay straight men or straight gay men or men hovering in the middle with slight tendencies and a societal fear complex. This is generally where people feel confused, because they have feelings for guys, but then have also been with women. They wonder why they don't fit into the polar definitions. I guess, in a way, my aim is to explain to them that they need to find their place in this scale where they feel comfortable as themselves, without feeling forced into a stereotype or life sequence.

If I had to provide a short answer to the question above, I'd find it very difficult indeed because there is so much involed. I think, if it came down to it, my answer would be that "when you look into their eyes and something is there, you know".

After all, as someone somewhere so eloquently put it;

"The difference is who you love, not how you love."

1950's anti-gay video

2009-09-06T21:16:00.003+08:00

It's a reminder of the times I guess.

The Youtube comments were the disturbing/interesting part.

I bet you were that kid that dropped your lollipop in the sand and then refused a replacement because you wanted to keep crying.

2009-09-06T18:12:00.004+08:00

You know that sort of person who always seems to be looking for something to complain about?

Well right now, it's the overeager feminist types that are taking up that position with me. No matter what an issue is, they seem to be able to link it to a second-class treatment of women within society's psyche. Even if women aren't even a part of the issue (oh, we're being subconsciously excluded from the conversation by the patriarchal discussion setup!).

If I open a door for one, then I am reinforcing traditional oppressive gender roles. If I don't open the door, then I am being a typical rude man with no consideration for women. People read far too much into things these days. I may just be a nice person, ladies.

My old English Lit teacher (who was an active feminist herself) called these women "Neo-feminazis" which I think is a pretty apt term.

Please, just chill out. Society has better things to do than subconsciously think up ways to give you the shits.

Gosh.

Thin people need clothes too, you know.

2009-09-02T14:02:00.004+08:00

Not long ago Scott Schumann (the Sartorialist) put up a post to spark some discussion relating to the fashion industry and "healthy" sized models.

As he says, "It seems women desperately want more images that highlight the variety of beauty that the female form has to offer", adding that there seems to be a growing disconnect between the fashion industry and "average" women. It's a difficult topic to address, and I think that he has tackled it extremely well by offering a neutral base to start the conversation going. If he had taken a distinct side at the offset, there would have been far more comments simply criticising him instead of addressing the topic. Such is the sensitivity of women when it comes to the topic of body image and shape.

In my view, yes, the fashion industry does regularly ignore a section of society (the larger one) whenever they make advertisements and have catwalk shows. However I also think that since it is a show put on by a designer to showcase their views and their work, they should be free to use whoever they want as models. Many women feel left out or alienated by the process, but let's face it - fashion is an extremely exclusive thing. As with anything exclusive, there needs to be some who are included and some who are excluded.

If I were a designer, I would probably follow suit and use the traditional models despite considering these issues. From a design perspective, restrictions make the job far easier to accomplish and designing for a set of girls that are all one size, height and shape means that I wouldn't be constantly needing to alter the proportions of my clothes and mannequin. The alterations for individual clients are something that would come later if a design were to be commercialised.

Many people say that designers use thin models for their clothes to make the designs look good both in shows and also in print. The whole campaign to me seems to center around the idea that larger women should be substituted in these print campaigns to promote a "healthy" body image. To me, the problem here is that people are never satisfied. Change models to a larger person, and skinny people and the extremely large will still be complaining. Everyone wants to be accepted as the norm and will bitch and fight to defend the fact that they are, despite the huge diversity in humanity ensuring that "normal" is actually an extremely dubious term that means diddly squat. The clothes in the ads will always look good, because they are bespoke items deliberately intended for the models to wear.

"Normal" and "average" however are too very different terms and things that I think should be approached from different angles. Over the last century or so, it seems that the "average" notion of beauty has become thinner to a certain degree. This grates completely against that fact that the "average" person in society, particularly in America, is getting fatter and fatter. It's a sad fact and something that I don't think we should be celebrating. Yes, by showing "average" people in advertisements the fashion industry would be appeasing the self-conscious bruised egos of the larger sections of society. In doing so though, it would also be moving the point from which many people measure healthy body image and hindering the collective efforts of many governments to get their populations smaller and healthier. It's very hard for someone to convince a fat person that they are fat (let alone obese), and it would be ever harder to do so if there were fat models in magazines boosting their ignorance.

So, should there be a shift in the way that the fashion industry presents itself and it's models? As a society, should we be more worried about the small number of people that get eating disorders from seeing adverts using skinny models, or the large numbers of people developing lifestyle diseases simply because they are fat and refuse to acknowledge it and do anything about it?

It's a difficult topic for anyone to tackle. Everyone has a different view, as is shown by the huge number of comments on Scott's post. For my money however, I prefer the skinny models any day.

I'm also prejudiced though, because I am a tall, skinny person.

Recent projects

2009-09-01T12:38:00.012+08:00

Following on from the Merredin trip, I now seem to have a bit of direction as to where I'm going with this interior project that I'm doing.

The basic brief was to create a gallery in Merredin's iconic building, Pump Station No.4, to house the work of one of Merredin's children, Robert Juniper. It's a difficult task to get my head around because there is a massive need to balance the conservation of such an old and historic building with the desire to express the core of Juniper's work.

There's also a sense of irony in the task, as the class is being asked to locate the work of a landscape artist in a building which has very little openings looking out into the expansive landscape that surrounds it. The building itself though has such a massive interior volume that the idea of space that Juniper conveys can be encased within the walls, with little need for the outside to play a part.

Submission is next Tuesday, which is when I will put up my designs and submission panels. For now, here are some photos showing the building and what I'm trying to deal with:

(Click for larger)

There's also a lot of quirky but beautiful details in the building, such as the wicked little awning on the rear of the building:

So yes, it's a nice old place. In terms of the design of the interior, I'm trying to concentrate on Juniper's use of mutiple planes and views within a single image. Putting that physically, I'm trying to work with both the horizontal and vertical planes to direct vision and dissect the building, in a similar fashion to what Richard Serra does in his work. All of this is also referencing Corbusier's Ode to the Right Angle.

I think that's about it really.

All I can say is LOL.

2009-08-31T15:54:00.001+08:00

Hi there...

2009-08-31T15:10:00.005+08:00

Apologies for my absence lately, I've been in Merredin for uni. It was boozetastic and ever so slightly trashy.

The whole purpose of the trip was to check out some sites that I am using for projects this semester and document things that I need. On the side there was also a pin-up and critique in the local lawn bowls club and a few visits to the bakery.

It seems though that all of the walking that was done on the trip might have taken it's toll on me quite severely. I have amazingly dodgy knees and theoretically was supposed to have a knee reconstruction at the age of fifteen, which didn't happen because I managed to cut out a lot of the usual sporting activities that most people do.

In the last couple of days, both of my knees seem to have carked it chronically and I've had to book a doctor's appointment to see what's wrong. Best case, I'll be walking around with strapped knees for a few weeks. Worst case, I'll be having a double knee reconstruction soon and will have to quit my rather physical job and desperately try to find an office job in a time where jobs aren't really being thrown around too much.

So yeah, not stressing. Not at all.

I feel like such a granny. Where's my walking frame dear?

The Haunting.

2009-08-26T08:39:00.003+08:00

The weirdest thing happened to me today.

I turned on the shower and got in, only to discover the mirror in front of me fogging up to reveal "HELP ME" written backwards on the mirror (ie. from the other side of the glass).

It wasn't there yesterday. I've been home alone since Sunday night.

Either there's some cracked-up junkie hiding in my roof cavity having showers when I'm not home, or the old dead lady that owned the house before me has a ghost.

Yeah.

Where's the Windex when you need it?

Rhys Uhlich

2009-08-24T11:39:00.004+08:00

He's hot. You can't argue or reason with me. He just is.

Here he is modeling for White Charlie during this year's Melbourne Fashion Festival.

As far as my dislike of reality TV goes, I fully support Make Me A Supermodel if they're pulling people like this out of the woodwork and delivering them to my screen in hot outfits. It's almost akin to my support for all of the thin models out there that are taking a beating in the media when all they do is show fat people exactly what they are: FAT.

Don't even get me started on fashion sizes getting larger or the whole "Plus 14" trend. People just need to lose weight and eat a few salads instead of complaining that catwalk shows are unrealistic. McDonalds gets you nowhere girls.

Not that Rhys needs salads and exercise. He already does that and look at the results.

Gold.

Alcohol erodes the brain.

2009-08-19T15:03:00.001+08:00

...and sometimes things just don't develop like we want them to.

Who am I?

2009-08-19T14:28:00.002+08:00

It's the question that I ask myself all of the time, yet never manage to find an answer for.

Yes, you may say that my name is the answer to that question, but what's in a name? It's all historical threads and cultural influences that are of more interest to a person who delves into word origins than me, the person that bears it.

I think, personally, the "Who am I?" is more about a place in the world. Where do I want to inhabit, and who do I want to do it with? It's a life thing which determines associations, personality, and generally where I end up. In a sense, the "Who am I", or the decisions involved with the answer of it are perhaps bigger decisions than most I'll make.

The thing is, I'm hesitant about making those decisions. Setting a path. It's the thought that in every decision we make and every word we use to describe ourselves, we pigeonhole ourselves with implied restrictions. Leo Bersani discusses the idea with relevance to sexual identity in a couple of his writings, particularly Homos, and he makes some very valid points in terms of people subscribing to lifestyles and values by conscious thought, and then being trapped by those choices.

Naturally, everyone hates the thought that they might make the wrong choices in life and spend years doing something that they eventually realise is not for them. Yet to think that by the end of this course I would have spent almost a third of my life working towards being an architect, I'd hate to get it wrong.

Not making choices however is just as bad. Non-committal is like floating on your back in the ocean and never thinking where the currents are slowly taking you. Eventually, you'll wake up in South Africa looking like a prune with fish nibbling at your toes. Not a good thing. At least with conscious choices, you achieve something in your time before realising what it is that you actually want to do, rather than achieving absolutely nothing.

So yes. Who am I? I'm hoping that I'm an architect with a perfect partner, living in an upper-middle class alternative world.

If not, it would be lovely to open a coffee shop one day; sitting outside in a frumpy jacket sipping espresso and wondering where the world will turn next.

A reminder to our politicians

2009-08-18T13:01:00.004+08:00

Excuse me Brendan Gryll[th]s, Kevin Rudd, Colin Barnett, Eric Ripper and all other politicians.

Have you noticed lately that all you ever talk about is families?

"Late night trading will have no benefit for families"
"The ETS will push up costs for all Australian families"
"Families will be hard hit by rate rises"
"Australian families will be better off..."
...etc.

In case you haven't noticed, a large proportion of voters aren't the standard man, woman and two kids. There are lots of singles and couples out there too.

Last time I checked also, kids can't vote, so really it's just a singles and couples affair.

Your wide vote-catching net is completely missing me every time you speak, and it's rather annoying. So please, get out of your 50's christian family unit mindset and look around.

That is all.

Observations and Occurrences

2009-08-15T14:10:00.004+08:00

Recently on this page, I've changed my page view counter to a different hosting site (Site Meter, at the bottom). It offers a kind of tracking service which tells me where the people that view the page come from (city, not address), how they got to the page, and how long they stayed.

Anyway, I was looking today, and someone got to this page by going to Google and typing in "rainshower head hate".

I wonder if I write "Therese Rein underwear sniff" or "Malcolm Turnbull nude pic", how many people will arrive here via the wonderful world of Google.

I guess we'll see.

Update:
Within an hour of posting that, there was a hit from the Malcolm Turnbull one.

So...

2009-08-14T17:39:00.003+08:00

_Everyone has swine flu.

_I seem to be eating a lot of oranges.

_Oranges are about all the food there is in my house at the moment, apart from bread and cereal.

_I am craving steak.

_I have none.

_I also have no Polaroid film left. Again.

_I DO have a rather large pile of strange experimental photos now.

_I also have an obscene amount of work to do before Tuesday's class.

So what's new?

Not much really.

Coffee and CAD

2009-08-11T14:13:00.013+08:00

Being Tuesday afternoon, I've now submitted my first little design project that I was talking about previously.

So, here it is. The actual plates that I submitted were in grayscale to make my Gandelsonian influence a tad more apparent to the tutors. I've also cut down the number of images from ten to six, and thrown in a bit of James Corner influence for good measure.

Basically, the whole set is about the idea of divisions within the fabric of the Merredin township, both literal and implied. The central project idea is that it was the "off site" part of a larger project, and so everything was made with what could be found at a distance. This includes both the slides themselves and the ideas that they were based on. In a few weeks the "on site" part comes into play when we trek to Merredin on the Prospector train and compare our ideas to what is actually there.

Given that it's only worth about 5% of my total unit mark, I've only had to stay awake for two days, not my usual three or four. Saying that however, I've still managed to resort to my intense working diet of weetbix, coffee and wine to get me through. Tonight, I think I'll be making a salad.

Let's hope my eight shots of coffee today gets me through work tonight before I can finally collapse on the bed and sleep.

Playing around...

2009-08-06T14:16:00.005+08:00

...in a totally non-sexual way. With my Polaroid camera.

I've been trying to perfect double exposure shots on it, but that's only achieved by me disabling the film rollers in it. It's a lot harder than it sounds, considering it's made to be a point-and-shoot camera.

As I was saying...

2009-08-06T11:43:00.006+08:00

Following on from my rather vague description of the design project that i'm doing, here's the first two pages to give a clearer idea of the sort of images that i'm producing:

It's a small sample, but i'll put the whole set up here on Tuesday next week following submission. There should be about 15 images (plates) in total.

As usual, click the image to see it larger.

Freddie Stroma

2009-08-05T14:07:00.003+08:00

If you have seen the newest Harry Potter movie, more than likely you would have noticed the hottie that is hitting on Hermione throughout the whole thing. He doesn't say much, but then he doesn't need to.

Turns out he's a model. An underwear model. Some people have all of the good jobs. Bastard.

Here he is, prancing around:

This is a blatant perve, nothing more. I enjoyed it.

I also enjoyed Harry Potter too, despite the fact that it had no real story line.

Life and such.

2009-08-04T13:05:00.004+08:00

Please excuse my absence on here lately, I have been in dream land. It's that magical place where the alcohol never seems to stop and assignment deadlines just don't factor at all into my care-factor-thing.

Reading that though, perhaps dream land is a time or mental state. Who cares, really?

This past week I've been getting stuck into the nitty gritty of student life once again. I bought a text book (yay!), have been attending lectures, and have even been doing that [first week back] thing where I write a lecture heading and date at the top of the page in my sketchbook. It certainly is a rarity.

The design unit this semester should be quite an interesting one. Right at this very moment, I am breaking down the spatial context of Merredin into images that look remarkably like space invaders to identify the "invisible walls" in the town. It all relates to my chosen theme of "Division", which is a rather broad and dubious term. I shall post some pictures later on this week to explain it all a bit better.

Aside from uni, I can now happily report that my back yard has a fence once again. It's a tad higher this time for some reason, but i'm not complaining. The new neighbours are bogans that filled the back yard with car bodies the day they moved in. I also spent a bit of time on Sunday lopping the top off the massive tree that was out the front of my house, as well as fixing the garden from when the fence guys massacred it. All in all, the outside of my house has returned to a general state of order rememniscent of when i first moved in. It's fabulous.

Just like me, right?

I wish.

Taking architecture to a different dimension.

2009-07-31T15:46:00.005+08:00

This one comes to me via Gresley Abas (link on the side).

It's a projected façade on a building that is so amazingly realistic. I wish I saw more of this type of stuff around Perth.

555 KUBIK_ extended version from urbanscreen on Vimeo.

AMAAAAAAAZING.

The local church message board:

2009-07-29T07:07:00.001+08:00

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
ARE NOT
MULTIPLE CHOICE!

So you only have to choose one then?

Once again.

2009-07-24T11:24:00.006+08:00

Here's a rather awesomely funny blog that took up much of my time (unintentionally) this morning.

www.passiveaggressivenotes.com

Genious, considering a blog is one of the most passive-agressive things you can get.

Summing up the Architecture course:

2009-07-21T16:05:00.007+08:00

The design unit coordinator today, speaking to the remaining people in the group:

"I'm not expecting you to kill yourself, but I'd like you to try."

"I know it's a lot of money, and most students can't afford this much, but you'll just have to start saving. It's an essential part of the course."

"I've booked out the pub, so I'm assuming everyone here is above the legal drinking age."

A sequence.

2009-07-19T23:10:00.009+08:00

Mainly to gather my thoughts about what I will eventually do with the interior of this house.

They are moods and ideas, not what it will be.

It seems that i'm a bit of a quaint, gothic nerd.

I do love a ceiling-mounted rain shower head though. I've also decided that i'm putting in a light shining down the chimney of my fireplace since it is no longer used. A kind of strange, ambient mood lighting for the old house.

Melancholy madness.

2009-07-19T20:47:00.003+08:00

You know that feeling?

I get it a lot.

If ever a mind could be full-to-bursting with unpickable nothingness, it would be mine.

Meh.

Asking favours, of sorts.

2009-07-16T14:45:00.005+08:00

This past week i've been scouting around looking at friends' cars to see how much room they have inside. I'm not a car pervert. I don't like big boots. And no, i haven't decided to start liking wagons. I still hate the look of them.

For the past six or so months i've been eyeing off a nice big canvas in the local art shop that i want to buy, but it won't fit in my car. Short of walking home with it (which is only eight minutes, but they would be eight VERY LONG minutes) i'm quite limited in my canvas-transportation choices. I'm hoping my T's little hatch back will fit it somehow.

The point of the whole exercise is that my parents have asked me to do a painting for them for a rather big, blank wall. So being me, i'm going to paint them a bloody big canvas made up of lots of differently coloured/shaded squares. "Oh, how modern" they will say. As pixels work however, viewed from afar it shall be a nice work of ho-yay. Here's hoping they don't notice. If they do, i'll be quite happy to put it on my wall somewhere.

I'm thinking some kind of picture like the one that is reflected in my eye at the top of the page, if you've ever noticed that it is there.

It'd go something like this, except a tad more pixelated i think:

If you exclude the fact that painting differently shaded sqares is ever-so boring to do on a large scale, i think it'd be a fun exercise.