Entries from July 2005 ↓

It’s always kind of funny trying to remember events that are just long enough past so that the order in which they occurred, the days in which they took place and even that which happened itself becomes slightly blurred and confused, but I feel the need to try and make some record of them regardless.

On Friday the fifteenth, I was invited out to a poker game amongst a bunch of degenerate gamblers including the likes of Alex and Glen out in the desolate plains of somewhere North of Perth. Having grown up in a house with more board games than really makes any sense, and once having a Nanna who (along with letting me watch my first Indy Jones flick while my parents were away) was only too keen to help teach her grandsons every game involving a deck of cards that was known to man, I had the subtle advantage of knowing which hand beats another, quickly made almost completely useless by printouts of said information scattered around the table for those not so understanding. We played some variant called Texas something-or-other, which, much to my relief, did not involve copulating with ones sister in any form. After several hours of play, and calling a bluff that wasn’t really a bluff (I was convinced the guy was trying to buy his way out of the hand. Turns out he just took all my money instead), I was out, and resigned to playing some wacky game on the X-box where I got to play as Henry Rollins and beat the living snot out of a bunch of rappers and Carmen Electra. I can’t say it made any sense, but by gum it was entertaining.

Out of the blue I had also received an invitation from an old high school friend of mine to a kind of reunion-ish get-together in Bunbury the following evening. Having no other plans, and not having seen her for quite some time, I decided I’d haul ass down there to check it out. There was a turn out of probably just under forty, which, for a graduating class of ninety-something students, isn’t half bad. Some of my friends are married, more are engaged, and many of my acquaintances now have offspring. I couldn’t say what was the most disturbing of the developments, but none of them were particularly surprising. One thing I noticed though, stepping back from myself, was how absolutely cynical and dark all of my conversation sounds when I’m outside of my normal social and cultural groups. While most of my token self-deprecating quips and other anecdotes generally went down as well as usual, I also got a reasonable number of looks of shock and disbelief which seemed to be in surprise at the nature of the things that were coming out of my mouth. I guess you don’t realise how polarised against other folks you’ve become until you really spend some time with them again. Regardless, it was an interesting experience, and I generally found that most everyone that was that way inclined had finished their university or TAFE training, then gone on to take up a job in the relevant field where they found it boring, uninteresting or bordering on unbearably parasitic on their outside life. Not that there is necessarily anything wrong with that, in fact, I was kind of expecting it. The thing that irked me was that none of them seemed interested in changing their circumstance. They’re just planning on sticking with it. I guess somebody’s got to be the hard-working backbone of society. There but for the grace of God eh?

I spent some time with my folks and my dog while I was down and hung around to watch some football with my Dad on Sunday afternoon. Somewhere in there amongst all the token high school rebellion and torrents of teen angst, I started to like my parents, and it’s nice to spend time with them.

Some things change. Others don’t. Deep, huh?

Well it’s that time of the night at reload where I stick on my headphones really loud and type up a journal entry, which this time is about a quarter to one on Sunday morning. Normally it’s a bit later, but I got up early today, around 5:30am. So it’s been a long haul of a day so far and I’ve got another six or so hours left before I start to entertain the notion of getting some sleep. The body just doesn’t run on sugar and caffeine like it did when I was eighteen. I’ve been trying to avoid scoffing the soft drinks and chocolate bars as well, the bulge has been getting a little too bulgy for my liking lately. Gotta keep the sucker under control.

On Tuesday night I went to see Alice Cooper in concert, which, to put it as plainly as possible, rocked out. The friend I was planning to go with got unwell at the last moment, so after ringing an inordinate number of my friends to find most of them either too busy, too rational or too out of the country to come to an Alice Cooper concert, I managed to get one of my riding friends to come along, and he loved it.

Ugly or Evil, he rocks out.

There were several costume changes, a guillotine, a couple of killings, some scarecrows, a coffin, some raising of the dead, throat slitting, decapitation, some time in a straightjacket, some spewing of blood and just for good measure, Paris Hilton being attacked by a dog and blood spurting from her throat. And what rock show would be complete without that?

But the show was awesome. Sounded just like I always felt Alice Cooper should. Really goddamn loud, with a metric arseload of bass and heavy guitars. My favourite bits would have to have been his old anthem-style numbers like School’s Out and I’m Eighteen.

But back in the real world, I was out fulfilling some consumer whorish urges on Thursday night and ran into one of my old girlfriends and we had a bit of a yarn. And at one point she asked me if I was happy. I am. My life is good. I’ve been loving my riding, I realised the other night when making phone calls just how many good friends I really have, I’m learning to do a job that I really enjoy and I have a comfy place to go to bed at night. And while the quiet pile of cash I have between the mattresses slowly depletes itself in order to sustain my existence, who cares. It’s only money. It doesn’t really make a difference to me. There is no one joy so infinite that it will provide pleasure for all time and no such pain that will cause one misery for eternity. In the scope of this life, all tangible things are petty and finite, and so to put stock in them is a waste. It is more important to do what is right and what brings you joy than to have any number of possessions or ties.

Look at me, I’m spouting off like I’m the God damned Dalai Lama or something. All hail the mad red haired white boy.

I can’t help it if I’m loving it.

I’m still looking for it
I’m still looking for it yeah

So I’ve been busy like a jibbity jibbity lately, but thankfully that’s all about to change tone from being constantly busy with work to being constantly busy with stuff I feel like doing as well as sleeping. I finished up my five week prac, and everything went pretty well, particularly my second lesson that was graded by the uni supervisor. Essentially it went about the same as the first one, but this time my plan was pretty much letter for letter exactly what I did, so that day I got a half page of notes with things like “very good” and “excellent” wedged between other chicken scratchings I can’t be bothered trying to translate into words. I assume they’re either about my brilliant teaching or my astonishing good looks, so I’m happy to leave it at that and not go to the trouble of actually reading them.

I’ve also been out riding the last two weekends, despite it raining half the day last Saturday. Both days were absolutely brilliant, and I haven’t had that much fun in a long time. I couldn’t say exactly what it was that made me enjoy these last two saturdays riding so much, but everything felt right, the bike felt good and I just had an incredible time. The rain, mud and crap on the roads didn’t even get in the way last weekend, and this weekend the weather decided to suddenly go all Mary Poppins on us and was practically perfect in every way. There’s a few photos from Saturday here, the turnout of about 31 bikes was really good and probably due in part to the gorgeous weather, but it was a great day to duck off to Toodyay and a few other stops in the hills here and there.

I also went to see War of the Worlds Saturday night, which, despite having some pretty nifty looking alien tripod machines and death rays, was kind of average. Some of the film was pretty well done, but some of it was just plain bad. For reference, see the terrible line delivery of “That is so weird. The wind is blowing toward the storm.” by Tom Cruise which was also in one of the trailers. I actually enjoyed watching one of the girls I saw the film with jump out of her seat when sudden things happened much more than I did watching the film itself, and while there’s a lot to be said for the attraction of women leaping from upholstery, in this case I’m inferring that the movie wasn’t that hot. Appleseed however, which I just finished watching, was pretty damn kickass. I loved the action to bits, and while there were a couple of bits where the animation was kind of sub-par, the story was great and the movie was just really schmick-o. And in case I haven’t mentioned, Batman Begins rocked arse as well.

If anyone needs me, I’ll be looking for the dessert buffet.