See You Next Wednesday
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the driveway.
Shaun's car has become unreliable. It must be serious because the guy he got to come over on Sunday to help fix it was horrid, probably a relative and plainly a last resort. I think his name was Reg, but then dogs make that noise sometimes and they're not all called Reg. He spent the morning telling Shaun he was doing it wrong and calling him "maaate" the way a pig might if it belched at the same time. Meanwhile Reg's son did hand brake skids up and down the driveway on his bike. When Reg decided that was no longer acceptable he lit a fire in the driveway to keep the child entertained. Shaun's car still needs to be jump-started.
Can you see yourself in this picture?
(A: No.)
I saw Alison Whyte at work and again at the cinema on Thursday. She didn't recognise me at the cinema.
At the cinema I saw
Amelie. It finally made it here and I'm glad it did because it is an excellent film. Learn to speak French (again) has been underlined on my list of things to do. I was wondering what American films will be like when that culture is 2000 years old instead of 200, or Australian films for that matter. Montmartre jams a basilica, cobblestone streets, wrought iron lifts, the Metro, mopeds and video cassette recorders together. It was fascinating to see manifestly computer generated effects used to tell the story, occasionally, on purpose.
Alison Whyte wasn't at the arts centre when I went to see Dance North present Double Thrill:
Happiness... &
Bodies in the Library.
Happiness... was spectacular, more theatrical than usual with fantastic costumes. There was a pulley rigged up so Rachelle could steal the show after sharing a very clever ventriloquist duet with Robert.
Bodies in the Library was also clever, lots of entwining bodies linking individual contributions. It was a shorter work by freelance choreographer Brian Lucas, simpler without so much theatre as
Happiness... so I had a little cry, as usual.
Meanwhile, Emily has been helping me prepare for the move by marking my suitcase. Now I can tell it apart from all the other blue-Clipper-suitcases-with-brown-straps on the airport carousel by the name written on the side, the gaffer tape and the reek of cat piss. She was so satisfied with her work she went to sleep on my ironing. She has the brain of a cat.
Seven.
Does anybody even notice?
Does anybody even care?
(Eek.)
Is it just me?
I really wanted to read this article. It grabbed my attention, it was about something I find interesting, and it started promisingly. However I stopped reading after the second paragraph because I don't think I can trust a writer who would commit to paper the following two sentences, one after the other.
"
It all began when he found that sites on the Web form a network with unique mathematical properties. In itself, this may not seem very profound, but it soon emerged that these properties were not unique to the Web."
As I understand it, this means he was, initially, wrong and we are left with the insightless idea: 'that sites on the Web form a network with mathematical properties'. Furthermore, the author implies the bleeding obvious is somehow more profound than the original, albeit mistaken, uniqueness theory.
I have watched
Once More With Feeling four times now, or is it five? I think this line is mostly filler.
On the job front I got another rejection today. That leaves only three applications outstanding so it's time for another scouring of the papers, the gazette and the web for a bunch of selection criteria to annoy my referees with.
I'd better go. Emily is trying to get my attention by standing on the keyboard.
Yay! Water! Ow!
After three weeks of dribbling on the cement one of the hot water systems finally developed a full blown leak. The real estate agent had been told about it many times by Frank, who is still trying to get a working lawn mower out of them. The guys upstairs also had a lot to say about it because we thought the Gordian plumbing linked the suspect cistern to their flat. But when the water was shut off we discovered that it was in fact my hot water system. So now, after two days of choosing between brown water with metal flakes or cold water, I have a new and big hot water system. Before I do the dishes I think I'll have a shower...
A Midsummer Cat's Dream.
Emily has been using her catlike brain to participate in this week's packing. She has an uncanny ability to know which object, surface or container will be next and indicates which it is by placing herself on it. This precognition must be tiring because she usually goes to sleep.
I went to see Queensland Ballet perform
A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was excellent. Unfortunately I only decided to go yesterday and I failed to recruit anyone to share it with at such short notice. Also, I saw nobody I knew at the theatre so there was not much conversation for me. However I did a bit of people watching, and aren't we a peculiar lot.
After not being able to spot the gaps in the first act (because there weren't any) the audience was so desperate to applaud that the slightest opportunity was seized. Each scene in act two got applauded (and each applause was abruptly truncated when the next scene commenced). By the end of the third act it was like the third season of an American television sitcom where every character gets a clap when they enter or leave. At the end of act four the whole cast was on stage for the triple wedding and when the ceremony finished there was continuous applause as each dancer made their exit, which would have been appropriate except there was still another scene to go. Was this behaviour because: (a) the audience wanted it to be over already; (b) the audience could no longer withhold their acclamation; or (c) the audience were a mob of plebs who wouldn't know a curtain call if it fell on them?
Meanwhile, on stage, Tama Barry had obviously put the costume designer, Richard Jeziorny, offside because Lysander's tunic was the equivalent of two gold embroidered arrows pointing at his crotch. "Look at the large bulge my genitals make," he seemed to say instead of the more traditional "let us elope to the forest, Hermia". And in the forest Michael Braun's role as Puck was not harmed by his resemblance to a classically trained clone of Wil Anderson.
Observational logging.
I watched Friday morning's episode of
Rude Awakening. It was rated MA and had a warning about very coarse language. They said 6 fucks, 3 shits, 3 assholes and 1 slut; mostly uttered by Sherilyn Fenn's character, Billie. It did not have a warning about nudity despite the breasts in the opening credits, Roger Daltrey signing Katie Lohman's breasts, Nickie Yagger and Tess Broussard making out topless in a hot tub, and a butt shot of Jonathan Penner and Mario van Peebles. It also didn't have an adult themes warning despite the drug abuse, pedophilia and rape of Cindy Ambuehl's character, Lamella.
Then I watched
Relic Hunter. One of the 'ancient' pieces of statuary was from "200 years BCE".
This morning, after saying goodbye to my mum at the airport, I went shopping. The pharmacy had a big sign out front advertising "Rotary Bowelscans now for $6". Next to the door was a sign that said "Dicks Wicks". I did not go to the pharmacy.
Kevin Warwick has had an array of 100 silicon needles surgically implanted into the median nerve in his wrist to record electrical signals.
New Scientist had a quote about stimulating the nerves to trigger controlled movements.
Townsville Bulletin had a quote about super strength and x-ray vision. They also mentioned remote control of Kevin's wife.
Quel suprise.
My application was not successful, my boss doesn't think there will ever be enough staff. "And anyway, you might not even be here in June," was an interesting final point for him to make since the testing is in May and it's up to me to decide when I leave. I have packed up my lounge suite, desk, bookcase and the media shrine; and I am embiggened by this episode to boxing the rest, removing it to the shed, and living out of a suitcase so I can leave instantly.
If we're not Christian and it's not Spring, why do we get holidays at Easter?
On Saturday I wrote an application for a job with "Good organisational and communication." as a selection criterion.
Tomorrow I will lodge my nomination to be a system tester for the June release (thank you, Simon). This is a really good thing for an office to send staff to because essentially the attendees are given intensive training in the system changes and return to the office as experts. I was not released to go to the June 2001 testing because I had to do training for the June release. (Yes, that is a stupid as it sounds.) My nomination for the September 2001 release was given to my manager, Kathy, to fax on the closing date because I only received the information (thank you, Simon) the day before. I heard nothing more about it. I was on vacation in December 2001. I was not released to go to the March 2002 testing because that was expected to be a slow period so management were encouraging people to take leave at that time and we would be short staffed. Also my previous manager, Kathy, told my manager I had been a system tester for the last release. Perhaps my fourth application will be successful.
