tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61870942011-04-22T07:41:36.730+10:00A repository for the various things i consume in the course of daily existencelunchnoreply@blogger.comBlogger911100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1134337393839565412005-12-12T08:33:00.000+11:002005-12-12T13:35:27.100+11:00

It seems you can spend 4 years painting a significant section of your communities as terrorists in waiting and a potential threat to the community without them rethinking their allegiences to that community, but you also allow other members of that community to feel they have a right to act out against that section of the community.Of course, I may be oversimplifying things a bit, but you don't

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1133391282395818042005-12-01T09:17:00.000+11:002005-12-01T09:54:42.463+11:00

My younger brother brought a house on the weekend. Its quite a nice little place, two bedroom hallway house in Brunswick. It cost him $320,000. It has been something I have been concerned with over the past 12 months, brought into particular focus by the imminent emptying of the departure lounge which our third bedroom has become. The problem is that I am quite confortable paying the amount I

lunchnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1127279939653458872005-09-21T15:18:00.000+10:002005-09-21T15:18:59.660+10:00

blogger spam

lunchnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1126744885006356542005-09-15T10:36:00.000+10:002005-09-15T11:59:27.623+10:00

Fear itself? The communal fear of terrorism is evidently something we should be very afraid of. Our fear of being next in line for the Al Qaeda world tour of atrocity has meant that we have taken steps to protect ourselves from those hidden killers who so clearly frighten the pants off most of my fellow citizens.We are clearly so afraid now that puppet wielding peace activists are so much of a

lunchnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1126579984494425122005-09-13T12:46:00.000+10:002005-09-13T12:53:04.503+10:00

when i noticed the dilbert website has more adds and pop ups for dating services than almost anywhere else I've ever been on the web. what do you think that is saying about dilbert readers?

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1125970974227230172005-09-06T11:40:00.000+10:002005-09-06T11:42:54.233+10:00

... that Ketamine is a drug for horses... after all if the denizens of melbourne's revolver can work it out, anyone should be able to...

lunchnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1125378298181873332005-08-30T14:00:00.000+10:002005-08-30T15:04:58.210+10:00

After all it kind of works against the serendipity that caused the phenomenon in the first place but it made me look at google in a whole new light. I've been getting a bit jack of the ubiquitous search engine of late, particularly as using it to look for any information on anything seems to continually rock up with people trying to sell me something. Maybe I've judged it too harshly as it

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1122013382456841672005-07-22T16:21:00.000+10:002005-07-22T16:23:02.460+10:00

As far as I am concerned the issue we have is really that the people we shouldn't allow to be citizens were born here... a prime candidate is Mr John Stone.

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1120091083325166862005-06-30T10:20:00.000+10:002005-06-30T10:24:43.340+10:00

Sure big, bad warehouse chains are destroying smaller retailers, the demise last year of the Canberra institution Impact Records is an example of such, but I can’t help but be happy with the cause of this demise, JB Hifi. It was at JB I found The Go! Team’s Thunder, Lightning, Strike for $12. It is possibly the best $12 I’ve spent this year. All over the shop and reminiscent of The Avalanches

lunchnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1119576539341118312005-06-24T11:27:00.000+10:002005-06-24T11:28:59.346+10:00

8 minutes and 29 seconds and the only thing approaching a lyric is some random sample near the end which goes something like "please help the light". But it is exactly why I love mogwai’s second album, Come On Die Young, a dark, beautiful, complex mix of samples, music and feedback. The reason I love it is simple, it taught me that music doesn’t necessarily need words to say something. It may

lunchnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1119417283896104782005-06-22T15:08:00.000+10:002005-06-22T15:14:43.906+10:00

Well I finally got around to answering the zilla’s passed on challenge and here it is…You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451. Which book do you want to be saved?Why did they start with the hardest first? Like the characters in Fahrenheit 451 you want to put something worth retaining in your head. However spending the rest of my life with something like Plato’s Republic for company doesn’t

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1113188982418341852005-06-20T12:48:00.000+10:002005-06-22T11:40:20.223+10:00

I will never be an art writer or critic. I’ve been struggling with what to write about this album for a few weeks. I want to tell people how much I like it, but I don’t necessarily have the ability to analyse what it is about it that appeals to me and how that fits into the development of music forms and styles and what contribution Wilco have made to the evolution of rock music and break their

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1118108928747268182005-06-07T11:42:00.000+10:002005-06-07T11:48:48.753+10:00

Maybe I will never be all the things I wanna be,Now is not the time to cry, it’s the time to find out whyMaybe You’re the same as me, we see things they never seeYou and I we’re gonna live foreverI was at my Mum’s house the other week and the topic turned to Oasis, my younger brothers taking great joy in singing the words of one Oasis song to the music of another. They may be on to something, and

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1114557943509814342005-04-27T08:54:00.000+10:002005-04-27T09:25:43.513+10:00

it appears that from time to time Emma Tom can be one...I've been seeing these stupid drug adds on TV and I have been annoyed at their patronising tone and complete irrelevance to the reality of the majority of illicit drug use I have ever been in contact with. The worst are the secondary adds which show these perfect little families sitting around the TV talking about how drugs are so much

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1111104397891238782005-03-29T08:51:00.000+10:002005-04-01T09:45:39.370+10:00

The ideas that conquered the world are democracy, peace and free markets...I am sure no one will be shocked by that. There has been any number of political and historical commentators claiming the victory of liberal ideals since the fall of the Berlin wall and Fukuyama's "End of History". Mandelbaum looks more at the reasons why this ended up being the case and the features of these three ideas

lunchnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1110411490500468062005-03-10T10:34:00.000+11:002005-03-11T14:08:18.680+11:00

I've decided as this is in danger of no longer being a going concern that maybe I need to make some changes... although they may not be sufficient to save it...

lunchnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1108512530091845422005-02-16T11:07:00.000+11:002005-02-16T11:08:50.096+11:00

I went to court on Monday; I was there because I was summoned to give evidence in the hearing against the bloke who has been accused of unlawful possession of some of the DVDs which were stolen from us last year. The police found him because he had sold a number of those DVDs to a local second hand store. I was there to give evidence to the fact that the DVDs he had sold matched the titles of

lunchnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1107126114571456142005-01-31T09:05:00.000+11:002005-02-09T10:49:49.386+11:00

I think that Michael Howard has been looking far and wide for ideas to help him in his troublesome task of knocking Tony Blair out of 10 Downing Street. His search has discovered another conservative party leader named Howard, who has won four elections on the trot. He thinks, with the help of his Australian campaign manager, that he's discovered a trick he can use. Last week Michael thought it

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1102542967782432412005-01-28T11:40:00.000+11:002005-01-28T11:44:01.093+11:00

This is a beautiful day It is a new day We are together, we are unified And all for the cause Because together we got power Apart we got power Your soul don’t burn You dark the sun you Rain down fire on everyone Scabs, police, government thieves Venal psychic amputees Parasitic you’re syphilitic I know I am cheating a little bit, but I need to catch up with everyone else who are well into the mid

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1105915926727566522005-01-17T08:51:00.000+11:002005-01-18T09:05:14.846+11:00

And it really was, a few weeks away from the grind was just what the doctor ordered... I haven't felt more relaxed and refreshed for quite a long time and I am hoping I can carry this new energy through the new year and not get bogged down by the petty stresses this year like last year seemed to be full of. I'll just give a list of the things that I found helpful in the wind down of the last few

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1103850278401838992004-12-24T13:00:00.000+11:002004-12-24T12:04:38.400+11:00

I realise not much has appeared here over the past few weeks, work has been incredibly busy and once at home i can't get to the internet to post stuff either... I am working on the next few songs, but haven't got anything worth posting finished for a while... hopefully i'll be full of energy in the new year and will start doing interesting stuff again... For the few of you who read, I hope you

lunchnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1100576087777845002004-11-25T14:25:00.000+11:002004-11-25T14:20:52.020+11:00

Back in the early 90's a number of friends of mine were in local bands, some of them have even gone on to be in local bands in other states. One day on the bus to uni I ran into one of these friends who insisted that I listen to this great new Australian band who was going to remind us all what rock and roll was all about. So I humoured Murph and had a listen, Murph's walkman was pretty crappy

lunchnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1100575493069121662004-11-25T14:14:00.000+11:002004-11-25T14:13:54.820+11:00

Well I have finished... it wasn't as hard as I probably made out it was... it was more of a challenge to my motivation and work ethic than anything else, but last Monday I handed in what will more than likely be the final essay in my graduate diploma... This probably doesn't mean very much as I didn't devote too much actual time to it... but already I can feel the absence of the (minimal)

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1100582575251317622004-11-16T16:19:00.000+11:002004-11-16T16:22:55.253+11:00

then the only intelligent moderate in the white house took his bat and balls and went home...

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1099864487892173112004-11-08T08:52:00.000+11:002004-11-08T08:54:47.893+11:00

I realise this one is hardly a surprise, to post a list of 32 of my favourite songs and not include at least one Underworld track would have been dishonest. I had intended to make you wait, for this to come later in the list, so that it could follow some kind of chronological order. So this would appear in the second 15 of the list which would cover the last 7-8 years of my listening. However

lunchnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1098843026910835112004-11-06T16:47:00.000+11:002004-11-06T16:57:12.690+11:00

So we now have seen two of the three coalition of the willing leaders up for election and get returned with increased majorities, and a fair bit of wailing from those amongst us who recognise the damage that is being done by the actions of these administrations. However I am starting to get the feeling that all may not be as bad as we thought. Although we will have to live through the

lunchnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1099026723920819622004-10-29T15:09:00.000+10:002004-10-29T15:12:03.920+10:00

or does anyone else find this strangely convenient

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1099013776996291242004-10-29T11:35:00.000+10:002004-10-29T11:36:16.996+10:00

Hunter S Thompson calls the election.

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1098831501454941982004-10-27T08:45:00.000+10:002004-10-27T09:02:30.536+10:00

Although it was half a world away and I never had the opportunity to listen to his radio show, most of the music I listen to would never have made it to a radio station or record store here without John Peel.

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1098179197815833212004-10-19T19:37:00.000+10:002004-10-26T13:31:31.133+10:00

This is not in order, or even planned. This joins the list today because it has done something to me over the last couple of days. This song excites me, and that is what this whole business is about really. This song a perfect example of the immediate effect of a tune you love. It’s the one you can't stop playing over and over again when you first hear it. Mike Skinner is a shit rapper, he can’t

lunchnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1097458977078345412004-10-11T11:14:00.000+10:002004-10-11T14:29:41.080+10:00

So it happened, and we have to live with it I guess. What I'd rather not have to live with is a fringe group of religious fundamentalists having the balance of power in the Senate and being able to trade off their agreement to the Govt's agenda to pursue enforcing their morals on the rest of society. I have no problem with religion, what ever rules you chose to live and judge the value of your

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1097457258391436012004-10-11T11:08:00.000+10:002004-10-11T14:46:47.473+10:00

It’s about now that I start wishing again that this was a list of albums rather than songs, it would make it so much easier to choose the candidate(s) for this entry that way. I discovered a lot of my favourite bands through one album put out in 1992. It was the soundtrack to the Cameron Crowe movie, Singles. The movie was pretty dull, but the soundtrack was another thing entirely. It lists a

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1097193486769362102004-10-08T09:52:00.000+10:002004-10-08T09:58:06.770+10:00

Tomorrow night it will be official, we will have a liberal government for the next three years. Its disappointing, but thats the way it goes. Hopefully the outcome in the Senate will be decent and the greens and the democrats hold the balance of power so that there is some restraint on the libs. It'll be nice to be out of this electioneering that has gone on since Latham took over the ALP

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1097127557386686512004-10-07T15:29:00.000+10:002004-10-08T09:52:27.293+10:00

So apparently Rupe's papers won't promote criticism of Rupe's TV network. I realise this isn't surprising, but i thought it worth a mention, just as the film is probably worth a look. The attitude displayed is interesting, its kind of like... "we don't care if we don't even maintain the appearance of being an independent media". It gives me the same feeling that McDonalds new advertising

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1096417255484486402004-09-29T10:13:00.000+10:002004-09-29T13:46:16.596+10:00

It could be that John Howards ridiculous pork barrelling has gotten too much for me... but there is a real desire to find a politician who is actually focused on doing some good rather than having control. What has happened to the light on the hill? or any vision of what or where Australia should be heading, we have not had that since the Howard govt arrived, and Mark Latham has no idea either.

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1095983038354995122004-09-24T09:36:00.000+10:002004-09-24T14:50:02.463+10:00

Zilla's prescience aside, the reason that Living Colour have not appeared earlier in the list (which is in a number of ways developing semi chronologically) is simply because I can't pick a song. Now that he's raised them I couldn't put off making a decision any longer, because this is around the time the boys should be getting a mention, but which song? As probably their biggest hit, Love Rears

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1095915960116018722004-09-23T15:02:00.000+10:002004-09-23T15:06:00.116+10:00

embrace ignorance

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1095201850108096242004-09-15T08:39:00.000+10:002004-09-15T08:44:10.106+10:00

Sometimes, something happens that makes you think there might be light at the end of the tunnel... its a little thing, and by no means is it going to change the world, but I'd like to think it might be a ray of hope.

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1094782503832355962004-09-10T11:49:00.000+10:002004-09-14T14:40:25.356+10:00

I first heard Pearl Jam's Alive in 1992. I have always wished I'd brought the single. I've never been one for buying singles, particularly when I could pay a bit more and get that song and a whole lot more on the album. I've always felt that singles that don't form a part of an album experience somehow lack credibility (maybe this is some kind of attempted defence against falling for one hit

lunchnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1094778770191353212004-09-10T10:03:00.000+10:002004-09-10T11:44:16.043+10:00

At least 9 people have been killed, over one hundred wounded. The attack was clearly aimed at us, but appears to have claimed only one Australian victim. I'm not sure why but when I heard about it yesterday (and working in our particular govt office that happened quite quickly) I couldn't raise much emotion, and that worries me more than a little. I'm not sure if it's the ridiculous number of

lunchnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1094010086044336782004-09-01T13:37:00.000+10:002004-09-02T15:08:59.210+10:00

I realise I'm cheating a little with two, but this could well have been three or four songs. However, as the Captain and Grievous have already grabbed some sugar and been dancing with the neighbour I can limit it to two. I love guitars. This love never inspired me to learn to play the guitar properly, but I still love guitars. These two songs are all about the guitar. For a period in the late 80

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1093825717639408752004-08-30T10:22:00.000+10:002004-08-31T11:33:10.786+10:00

I was considering including Billy Joel's Matter of Trust as one of the list of 32 songs, but before I could John Howard stole it from me. Apparently Johnny thinks that we trust him more to look after the economy and our defence so the fact that we don't trust him to tell the truth doesn't matter. Its an interesting theory and I have a horrifying feeling that it just might work. Johnny's

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1093411045630206352004-08-25T15:14:00.000+10:002004-08-25T15:17:25.630+10:00

This is a little weird I grant you, but it’s a song and so it counts. It was featured on a tape, the Bert and Ernie Sing Along no less that was released by Sesame Street in 1974. It was brought by my Dad at some point in the late 70's or early 80's and was a staple on the family car trip menu from then on. I love this song, or rather I love singing this song. Its one of the bonds between me and

lunchnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1093239003913471882004-08-23T14:39:00.000+10:002004-08-23T15:30:03.913+10:00

They can call it what they will, but I call it a cynical vote buying exercise. Sorry, I should correct myself, a blindingly obvious cynical vote buying exercise. Although in one respect Tony Abbot is right, they aren't bribing older Australians to vote for them, they've already got the old vote sown up. On the first look it almost makes sense, the older you are the more likely you are to use

lunchnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1093224820862611512004-08-23T11:02:00.000+10:002004-08-23T11:36:43.976+10:00

This one starts the list as it is the first memory I have of choosing music for myself. At some point in my early years I (well me and my siblings) came in possession of a 45rpm-phonograph player and a collection of my Mum or Dad's small collection of 45s. In this collection was a copy of Hey Jude which my mum had brought when it came out. Hey Jude, along with Sgt. Peppers and Tommy, was one of

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1093217296586208572004-08-23T09:26:00.000+10:002004-08-23T09:28:16.586+10:00

There has been a blogging incident and unfortunately not all of the blog survived it. I will be attempting to fix everything up in the next few days, but at least all the posts remain...

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1092976490731521172004-08-20T13:53:00.000+10:002004-08-20T14:34:50.730+10:00

Ever since I saw Capn Coincidence's first entry in his list of 31 and the subsequent ante raising by the GBU to 31+1 I've been considering whether or not to jump on the bandwagon so to speak. My reservations have been many, not the least of which was the whole unoriginality of being the 5th(?) person to get on board and the inevitability of naming songs already listed by others whose stories

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1092704826246188852004-08-17T09:42:00.000+10:002004-08-17T11:07:06.246+10:00

I may be naive but I always felt the role of the media was to report and comment on government and public life. That was before I ran into Gerard Henderson. Gerry seems to think that although on the payroll of Fairfax newpapers he should still be running spin for the Prime Minister. While his assessment of the limited impact the children overboard had on the actual result of the 2001 election

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1089677405330390942004-07-13T09:46:00.000+10:002004-07-13T10:10:05.330+10:00

say what you will about Mark Latham, the bloke keeps finding the way out of every bind he gets himself into. By bringing his leadership rival and big bouncing ball of fun Kim Beazley back onto the frontbenches he's done it again. Kim immediately increases the international relations credibility of the alternative government, and his obvious and repeatly expressed affection for the US and the

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1089611705943694292004-07-12T15:16:00.000+10:002004-07-12T15:55:05.943+10:00

In the past few weeks i've done a little bit of travelling, and am about to massively increase the number of miles covered in my life over the next month or so. This has had an unusual effect on my finances. Because I am being sent rather than choosing to go, I am being reimbursed for the massive inconvience of being flown around the world. So I've been a little flush with funds over the

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1088661396153809682004-07-01T15:49:00.000+10:002004-07-01T15:56:36.153+10:00

its beginning to look like the latter... it seems that all the pundits predictions that we would be going for an August 7 election were wrong. We are definitely in an election campaign, but we just haven't got an end date in sight. I for one am sick of it, particularly the incredibly dodgy and increasingly annoying, government self promotion... the sooner they do it and get it over with the

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1086069282416452252004-06-01T15:37:00.000+10:002004-06-07T21:30:43.393+10:00

The Westminster System of Parliamentary government is based on the principle of responsible government. That is the members of the executive are held accountable to the people for the actions of the government, this boils down to a fairly simply idea. The minister for a portfolio is responsible to Parliament for everything that occurs in that portfolio, regardless of whether they were aware of

lunchnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1084925228608719652004-05-19T09:25:00.000+10:002004-05-19T10:07:08.606+10:00

So today in The Australian Janet Albrechtsen reckons that the media is biased against the US in the Iraq war, and as a result has paid more attention to the actions of the US guard at Abu Ghraib than the actions of the hooded murderers of Nick Berg. Janet, like Newt before her, has missed the fundamental point in the whole thing. Its possible that the people behind Jared's conspiracy have

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1084318479940516902004-05-12T09:28:00.000+10:002004-05-12T12:10:15.576+10:00

So this morning i work out that really cool song, which I've heard on the radio for months and is featured on disc 2 of James Lavelle's new GU mix (thanks to a friend, who burnt the same disc of the 2 cd set twice for me) is actually the chemical brothers... I can't believe i didn't know that, or work it out...

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1084244704615509292004-05-11T13:05:00.000+10:002004-05-12T09:28:22.486+10:00

Mr Gingrich has been afforded some opinion space in the Australian today arguing against the upper echelons of the US Government being held accountable for the actions of the Guards at the Abu Ghraib prison. Newt reckons that the arab media have double standards because they are having a go at the US for doing stuff which other arab leaders do without getting in trouble from the Arab media for.

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1081133109506733642004-04-05T12:43:00.000+10:002004-04-05T12:49:22.983+10:00

Maybe just for me... The BBC on Migration Small fry, and yet the biggest fry in these here parts...

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1079910653787116112004-03-22T10:09:00.000+11:002004-03-22T10:14:17.860+11:00

Seems i'm likely to start posting twice on any issue, once to tell people what I think, and the second time to crow because other smart people (often being paid to do it) have agreed with me. Makes me feel all clever and stuff

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1079568909730608062004-03-18T10:59:00.000+11:002004-03-18T11:55:22.233+11:00

Firstly before I begin let me put my opinions plainly. I think David Hicks is probably a dodgy, fundamentalist, misogynistic, anti-semitic and all around dangerous character. I think this is likely as he was captured in Afghanistan in the company of other dodgy, fundamentalist, misogynistic, anti-semitic and dangerous characters. I look forward to the powers that be providing evidence to

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1079480982049841292004-03-17T10:39:00.000+11:002004-03-17T11:04:33.996+11:00

Fresh from the revelations in regards to our intelligence communities syncophancy in regards to Weapons of Mass Destruction, and following from the bombing in Madrid comes another frightening display of the abuse of public power by the Howard Government, attacking a public official who did not toe the party line on Australia's current terror risk. Its lucky that the head of ASIO is there to

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1079478140778570162004-03-17T09:41:00.000+11:002004-03-17T10:06:11.733+11:00

I've always enjoyed visiting exploding dog. The concept is pretty simple, as is the artwork, but the way sam twists the fairly ordinary sentiments always intrigues me. Some of the time the things he does are just silly, other times the combined simplicity of the drawings, the words and the sentiment presented create something quite beautiful... I found the site years ago... and used to visit

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1079412905504817122004-03-16T15:15:00.000+11:002004-03-16T15:58:21.030+11:00

Just a little something I found which outlined the differences I flet between what happened in Madrid last week and in New York two and a half years ago... the reaction of the Spanish to this event, mass peace protests and collective mourning, struck me as much more mature and informed than the US reaction of why? and who can we hit back at? Also a bit of a warning involved with the results of

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1079393774079582992004-03-16T10:10:00.000+11:002004-03-16T10:39:29.543+11:00

Its pretty hard apparently. Although I'm not one hundred percent sure thats what I was doing. After all, this is listed as a public blog, and I've made no real effort to hide either my thoughts or identity through this thing. Sure I haven't blatently self promoted as others I know have been wont to do, but that isn't a crime is it. So now the question is, will it be worth it to all of you to

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1078290695136708272004-03-03T15:50:00.000+11:002004-03-03T16:16:13.093+11:00

I've never been particularly religious, for the first 13 or so years of my life I was in a catholic church every sunday, I was baptised, confirmed, given communion even was an alter boy for a short while, but I never made a conscious connection with the divine in any meaningful way. As far as i've always been concerned God is essentially a private thing, and that despite their many differences

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1078185375273405942004-03-02T10:53:00.000+11:002004-03-02T11:39:38.263+11:00

It appears as if my readership has grown exponentially... or maybe not, its quite hard to multiply zero and zero multiplied by itself regardless of how many times you do it still ends up at zero... exponentially sounds good, but even if you assume that I count as a reader of my own stuff then exponentially still will not work because 1 to the power of X is always going to be 1... so lets just say

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1077589277867424102004-02-24T13:14:00.000+11:002004-02-24T13:30:57.890+11:00

I'm not hugely familiar with Sean Cusick's work, I have a couple of his tracks on various cds and they seem pretty good... and this interview as well as his review of BT's latest collection mark him out as someone who has some idea of the artistic root of music. I think however what impressed me most was his turn of phrase particularly this little gem from interview above talking about the cult

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1077574589054343722004-02-24T09:15:00.000+11:002004-02-24T09:19:15.966+11:00

Not much to say of late... well that isn't really true, lots to say, no motivation to say it ;) anyway... on the meal theme of the blog... culinary crimes funny... and informative.

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1076378954221261082004-02-10T13:00:00.000+11:002004-02-10T14:50:42.560+11:00

So we've got one, unless congress decides they don't like it, so what does it mean? Its a little unclear at the moment... Our government tells us that the PBS is safe and the only thing we missed out on is sugar. The US reckon that there will be important changes to the way the PBS works, as well as getting nearly unlimted access to markets for their manafacturing. It also involves changes to

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1076364739601955502004-02-10T09:04:00.000+11:002004-02-10T09:14:47.200+11:00

Its a little wierd, yesterday I did something very small... hardly any effort at all, couple of numbers typed into a web browser, one or two emails... and I was able to secure for a friend something which they will absolutely love and could never have got without my help... its the best i've felt in a long time..

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1075760277763507652004-02-03T09:08:00.000+11:002004-02-03T09:20:15.670+11:00

A poor indian guy lamenting his countries lack of bibliographical respect. I love libraries, I can remember better times during my undergraduate days than winter mornings in the warm window seats at the National Library putting in my book order, then catching around forty or so winks while waiting for my books to arrive. There was something about those windows which made the Canberra sun seem

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1075416330020825202004-01-30T09:00:00.000+11:002004-01-30T09:47:42.076+11:00

So apparently we are gearing up for the online music wars. For all the use I make of music files, i'm not sure I like the implication that the market is leading towards the downloading on single trackes of the internet as its next major step. There's a number of reasons for this, firstly my personal love of packaging is a big one... I'd much rather own a copy of the original cd with the

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1075241052006162682004-01-28T08:53:00.000+11:002004-01-28T09:06:21.860+11:00

A new blog I discovered, My Annoying Coworkers petty, childish, but funny and interesting, which is more than can be said for this one...

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1075169447331415862004-01-27T12:51:00.000+11:002004-01-27T13:32:21.716+11:00

For the past 18 months or so there have been discussions of a free trade agreement between Australia and the US. The current government seem hell bent on getting us signed on to this thing at almost any cost. This being is spite of the unlikelihood of the agreement extending to agriculture, the area of greatest benefit to Australia, and could cost us a functional pharmaceutical benefits scheme

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1074561865842400172004-01-20T12:14:00.000+11:002004-01-20T12:26:24.686+11:00

Apparently John Howard reckons that state schools are too politically correct so thats why parents aren't sending their kids to them anymore. Apparently parent's want schools which will tech their kids values. I find it a little funny that Mr Howard can criticise, as it is the federal government which controls the pursestrings of education, and his government is responsible from the shift in

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1074481223552285642004-01-19T13:28:00.000+11:002004-01-19T14:30:44.216+11:00

Apparently we reached the end of history sometime in the last hundred to two hundred years, and ever since we have been witnessing the success of economic liberalism. Its probably old hat, Fukuyama wrote it in 1989 after all (it has references to Gorbachev being in power), but i fear he may have a point. I also understand his closing statements about how boring the world without history has

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1074205028164386472004-01-16T08:42:00.000+11:002004-01-16T09:44:37.186+11:00

So I wake up this morning and head into work, I stopped at Gus' to put of coming to work as long as possible. Here begins tangent number one, why is it that I get out of bed and 7 quickly shower and leave the house to go to work, then try to take as long as possible on the journey to work because I really don't want to go there? Back to the story, I'm currently reading Catch 22 and I've got

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1074118419001347322004-01-15T09:12:00.000+11:002004-01-15T09:19:02.403+11:00

I it was a night before christmas and all through the house we were sitting and watching the bond film which was the only escape from the shithouse summer/christmas eve tv programming when on to my screen appears the little round spectacled face of our all powerful leader (it was obviously an importantannouncement as he had trimmed his eyebrows). Jackboot spent a minute or two informing us on

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1074054876921790022004-01-14T15:33:00.000+11:002004-01-14T15:37:28.043+11:00

How funny is this

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1073955113537331482004-01-13T11:49:00.000+11:002004-01-13T11:52:35.850+11:00

I like food (its fairly obvious if you've ever seen me) and because of this I think that its great that I live in a society where a conversation such as this is considered important enough to be reported in one of the major metropolitan daily papers. Next time I am in sydney I think i'll be heading to Mosaic to check out a "real" carbonara sauce...

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1073950919060663912004-01-13T10:40:00.000+11:002004-01-13T10:42:20.013+11:00

I think i'd like to apologise, because I had meant to learn a bit of html over the course of the summer break to make this blog look a little better and so as not to be using one of the base blogger templates... maybe a bit of a vanity... hopefully I'll get on to this soon... even if its just changing the colours i use... orange is not so attractive...

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1073950278560373402004-01-13T10:29:00.000+11:002004-01-13T10:31:39.570+11:00

I'm developing a habit of checking all my good friends blogs of a morning when I start work. The first port of call used to be the papers, but know I rock up to the capn's and 'zilla's to see what my friends in distant places are up to. I think its almost a cop out… as a means of communication its functional to the point of letting everyone know what's going on or to maintain an idea of the

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1073869909421414672004-01-12T11:13:00.000+11:002004-01-12T12:14:43.220+11:00

So, yesterday was my 28th birthday... Doesn't make me feel a whole lot different... although I got to work this morning and couldn't quite focus on my monitor... i figured it was just age... but apparently everyone else finds it fuzzy too so maybe its just buggered. no mention of my birthday at work today... maybe i've gotten away with it... I must be getting old however... out til 4 on

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1073521468191647952004-01-08T10:51:00.000+11:002004-01-08T11:25:34.306+11:00

So here's the deal, which I just worked out while reading the captain's blog... Christmas cards... In the past 18 months, a great number of my good friends have left the city in which i currently (and have always) live. This Christmas I, for the first time ever, brought christmas cards to send to them. The reason for this was that i know feel as if the majority of my closest friends now live

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1073437362325764932004-01-07T12:00:00.000+11:002004-01-07T12:03:02.010+11:00

I've decided to stop caring about things. If you care you just get disappointed all the time. If you don't care, nothing matters, so you're never upset. (Calvin & Hobbes 1993)

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1073436912266593672004-01-07T11:54:00.000+11:002004-01-07T11:55:31.233+11:00

and what have i done... not a great deal I must admit... but I did read some books, which was a nice change, one or two were even fiction!!! Indeed Zadie Smith's White Teeth was the first, and probably the best of the books i got through, closely followed by Douglas Coupland's Hey, Nostradamus. White Teeth is another of those examinations of the asian immigrant experience in the UK, as well as

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1071616146916954112003-12-17T10:04:00.000+11:002003-12-17T10:09:53.273+11:00

This article was reprinted in the Age. Gurwitz's claims around mounting evidence are hard to trust, there has been that much said and so little proved its a little hard to believe these claims now. The Coalition of the Willing have cried wolf a few too many times now.

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1071531129391781852003-12-16T09:50:00.000+11:002003-12-16T10:38:52.030+11:00

So the US has found Saddam. What does this mean? Not a lot from my perspective. Its not as if the Iraqis who are unhappy with the Americans are now going to stop killing them. Its not as if the unilateral actions of the US and the effects of those actions on the attitudes of the surrounding islamic regimes. Sure it will give the US an opportunity for a show trial, proving how noble they are

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1071456687666452672003-12-15T13:42:00.000+11:002003-12-15T13:54:09.330+11:00

The Australian did print this reply by Dawn Casey (until yesterday the head of the national museum). Although Greg Sheridan was still talking up Rupe's big men, Johnny and George...

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1071200209415730592003-12-12T14:35:00.000+11:002003-12-12T14:37:01.833+11:00

It appears that the nerds are in charge.

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1071189760085464662003-12-12T10:28:00.000+11:002003-12-12T11:44:09.730+11:00

In my efforts to avoid burn out at the age of 30 (which i was oh so close to) i've determined to read the major daily broadsheets online each morning before starting my day. This morning I headed on down to The Australian. Now Rupert is not unknown for encouraging his editors towards taking a certain position of many issues. Mr Murdock doesn't appear to be opposed to the idea that he can use

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1071117824176212872003-12-11T15:38:00.000+11:002003-12-11T15:45:04.950+11:00

I'm a little worried now, only the second day and all I can think to put is gossip, and gossip about people that you don't know isn't overly interesting. As I am writing for an audience (who I don't necessarily know) then any information I have is hardly going to be of great interest to my (virtual) readership. On top of this is the aims of this site as a tool to provide me an outlet for any

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6187094.post-1071012567801433072003-12-10T10:19:00.000+11:002003-12-10T10:31:04.110+11:00

A number of my friends have recently started to compose on blogs. I've got the impression that there's something a little weird about taking the attitude, or the conceit this implies, that you have something to say which will be of enough interest to the rest of the web-enabled world. I still feel this way, however, as I am sure that there will not be a great amount of interest in what I have

lunchnoreply@blogger.com0