Showing posts with label literary brilliance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label literary brilliance. Show all posts

Monday, May 04, 2009

BUTTS

So a while ago Andrea and I were talking about butts, as you do, and it came up that I saw more of them than most people. Not in the conventional setting (i.e. before/during/after sliming the banana Doing The Deed (although, ok, also then)) but rather in situations where most people would manage to avoid seeing someone's bottom. I have either amazingly good or amazingly bad luck, depending on which way you choose to look at it.

Story of the week is from a lovely friend of Andrea's and new friend of mine. Am not sure if she wants to be named, so won't name her, but during a generally ass-related conversation she told a great story about how she was on the gondola going down, and there was another gondola carriage coming up, "And as it went past," she said in a rather scandalised tone, "I saw a bottom." "What was it doing?" we asked. "Mooning me!" Poor thing. My mother was also once presented with a "large Samoan brown-eye" that was being thrust out the window of a passing car. Anyway, enough about other people's butt tourism.

I thought that as Andrea seemed intrigued by my chance encounters with random pairs of buttocks (or, as I call them, Accidental Bum Sightings), that I would write a book about these. Below are some excerpts. Do you know any publishers?


Tales from the Rear
Adventures in Butt Tourism

I remember my first ABS as clearly as if it was yesterday. I woke, slightly muzzy about the head, to the rays of the midafternoon sun streaming through my window. I flared my nostrils, sniffing at the stale, nicotine-streaked air. Something had woken me - an unnatural rustling sound, disrupting the peaceful noise of car engines and children's screams drifting in from the school outside. It was only much later that I found out that my flatmate, James, had woken midafternoon with a powerful thirst, inspired perhaps by the previous evening's debauchery. Under the impression that he had the house to himself, James had scampered down the hallway and into the kitchen to fix himself a drink and snack, clad only in hunger, hair and the skin the Lord gave him. The rustling noise that had woken me was, in fact, the destruction of the seal on a box of graham crackers. I was unaware James was in the house, and thought perhaps we were being robbed. Grasping a stiletto in my hand, I set out to investigate. Carefully, so as not to startle the intruder, I rose from my bed and donned my robe, then tiptoed to the doorway. The creaking of the door startled the snacking James, who bolted from the kitchen just as I stepped into the hallway. I glimpsed a pale pair of hastily bouncing buttocks as he skidded around the corner and disappeared into his room. Some five minutes later as I was updating my field notes, there came a knock on the door. "Enter," I said. James entered, now clothed and looking sheepish. "I am sorry," he said, "that you saw my bum." I reassured him that a naked arse between friends was no matter, and that perhaps some day our situations would be reversed. Luckily, this never came to pass.

One of the more traumatising ABS of my career took place not so long ago, in a small townhouse where I thought I would be safe for an evening from the ravages of the bare-assed. I was visiting a friend who, for the purpose of discretion, we shall refer to as Peter Pickle. It should probably be mentioned at this point that Peter Pickle and I had previously engaged in sexual congress, and that therefore he may not be entirely to blame for his misinterpretation of the situation - however. I had retired to the ladies' room to powder my nose, and when I returned to the boudoir of Peter Pickle, where we were watching a DVD and drinking rather heavily, I found that in my brief absence he had removed his trousers. He had risen from the bed and was staring out the window, and so it was that I was confronted with the sight of his naked buttocks. I enquired, politely yet frostily, why he had seen fit to display his rear. He shuffled awkwardly and, casting around for an answer that did not imply he had presumed sex was forthcoming (pardon the pun) declared that he felt like taking the air, and did not want to wear pants for this expedition. And so it was that Peter Pickle and I walked pantsless through suburbia at three in the morning on that chill Sunday.

Oh, the tales I could tell you! The buttocks I have accidentally sighted! But alas, dear readers, no more can I relate tonight, for I have to go and write a haiku.


Thursday, April 16, 2009

This is quite dull

I really have no news except that Google, which displays ads specifically geared towards my viewing preferences, thinks I might like a recipe for 'Spam Vegetable Strudel.' Seriously, Google, I don't even kn- oh, it's served with soy sauce? Well OK then.

So I'm going to take the traditional route when faced with a dearth of blog material: respond to a questionnaire I was tagged in ages ago. Or, in this case, respond to a questionnaire that I wasn't even tagged in in the first place. (I know, it's going to be boring. I received a request yesterday that said "do you think you could maybe not use strikethrough for a couple of posts and see if it doesn't kill you," so I don't even have that to fall back on.
Look! Look what I'm doing! Ha ha, fuckface!
Anyway, for the quiz. Here are the 'rules' (I say 'rules' because I'm not planning on abiding by them) for this quiz, which I stole off
Andrea:

1. Respond and rework. Answer the questions on your blog, replace one question you dislike with a question of your own invention; add a question of your own.

2. Tag eight other un-tagged people. Andrea didn't do this, and as she is my BestFriend and role model I am not going to do it either

What is your current obsession?
New book I have just started working on, having realised that completing old book would be kind of like spending 10 years making a sculpture out of Lego. No matter how awesome it is it is still on some level Not Really Art. Anyway this backfired because it turns out new book actually involves research and even though one of my extremely over-indulgent friends is doing most of the data monkey crap for me (he made graphs and everything - I may have to marry him) there is still research. I actually had to go to the library today. Seriously.

I am also obsessed with an $840 jacket from Andrea Moore. I was going to find a picture of it but then I got bored & realised that probably no-one would care anyway. Just imagine a full-length, fitted pirate's coat - long long cuffs, huge collar, those tuck things at the back. In charcoal. If anyone would like to give me $840 then by all means feel free - if it makes you feel better we can pretend it's for a child in Africa.


Do you nap a lot?

I am Sir Nap-a-lot. My mother and sister hate it, though, and wake me up whenever they catch me at it. My favourite place to nap, not that you asked, is on the floor with the dog. He is also a napper.


Who was the last person you hugged?
Charlie. Although actually he is a dog.


What's for dinner?
We have had dinner, and it was Toad in the Hole. Truly, the British have a talent for creating dishes that sound foul and look worse (see also: Spotted Dick) but which turn out to be nothing short of delicious. I cooked the Toad in the Hole (it is actually sausages in Yorkshire pudding, which is a sort of batter) and here is a photograph of it, which I made my mother take because I was so proud of myself. She said: "Please tell me you are not going to show that off on the Internet."

See? Looks nothing like actual toads, in hole or otherwise. Is clearly sausages.


What was the last thing you bought?
I...I'm not sure.


What are you listening to right now?
Damn! I hate that question but already used up my take-out-a-question on 'favourite coffee place.' Never mind. I'm just not going to answer it.


What is your favourite weather?
Really heavy storms. Obviously I am a tortured artist and NO - DON'T EVEN TRY TO UNDERSTAND ME - I AM GOING OUTSIDE NOW - TO WRITE - HAS ANYBODY SEEN MY CIGARETTES


What's on your bedside table?
Well, it's kind of a funny story - this one time I woke up at 3am and vomited half-digested Indian food out my window and stood on the bedside table in my urgency and now I no longer have a bedside table. But on the corner of my desk are the following things: phone shaped like a baby bok choi (not plugged in to anything but there regardless); a coffee plunger with grounds in the bottom; a coffee cup (empty); an iPod (mine); two pairs of eyelash curlers (hmm); various scribbled notes (the one on the top of the pile says 'I know you're a vampire but damn, put some pants on'); a Spanish dictionary; a small plastic statue of a Collie.

Say something to the person/s who tagged you.
I tagged myself and that is pretty much the first sign of madness so I think we'll skip that question too


If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you want it to be?
Good question. Probably somewhere in rural Spain. Why not, after all? They have wine and paella and good-looking men, and I speak more of that language than any other apart from English. Also they're tucked snugly up under the rest of Europe. Europe is Spain's blanky. And they have oranges.


Favourite vacation spot?
Any spot at which I do not have to vacation with other people and where there is a bar.


Name the things you can’t live without.
I presume they mean figuratively, although there is always some smartass who is all 'air and water nyuk nyuk nyuk.' Um...to be honest, I don't really know. Friends and family. Air and water. Nyuk nyuk nyuk.


What would you like to have in your hands right now?
A black AMEX that I never had to pay back. I realise that sounds a little materialistic, but...yeah OK it is. OH WELL


What is your favourite tea flavour?
I like many. English Breakfast is, you know, a classic. The (insert appropriate make of car here) of tea. Earl Grey with lemon is delicious; Earl Grey with Cointreau is super-delicious but people look at you weirdly when you say that (you know, that 'you're-an-alcoholic' look). Green tea with jasmine is nice; green tea without jasmine is nicer. Rooibos is nice, but only with soy milk; coconut rooibos is nice, but only without any milk at all. Kate drinks a tea called 'be happy.' "Are you happy?" I asked? "Well," she said, "I'm not unhappy."


What would you like to get rid of?
The long-dead rose which has been sitting droopily in a vase on my desk for literally weeks but which I haven't yet got around to throwing out. Actually, I'm going to do that now.


If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?
Either Wellington, or Vegas (via Denmark to pick up a passenger, because Vegas is no fun on your own and you can't even tell anyone about all the cool stuff that happened there because of that dumb rule). Also in this imaginary situation there would be lots of money and should Vegas turn out to be fun the hour could be extended indefinitely.


What did you want to become as a child?
I don't believe I was ever any more specific than 'awesome.'


What do you miss?
Oh, yeah, quiz, let's get all personal, shall we? I miss having a regular paycheck, and also some dead people. Not that I would like to have them back, unless they were alive. Or benign zombies. That would be OK.


What are you reading right now?
Where Underpants Come From, in which Joe Bennett answers that age-old question. (Not to spoil the ending, but it's China.) The book's very good, actually; would recommend. JB goes to China and has lots of adventures, most of but not all of which revolve around his underpants.


What do you fear the most?
Mediocrity.


What designer piece of clothing would you most like to own (new or vintage)?
Right now? That Andrea Moore pirate coat. But I'm pretty sure if I thought about it I would be able to come up with a better answer.


What is the coolest thing you saw today? (Question by me.)
Well, Ally, funny you should ask that! (Stop it! That's the first sign.) It is this wedding cake. It is from Pink Cake Box, and if I ever need a cake I am going to go and ask them. In fact when my research assistant and I get married Pink Cake Box is going to make my enormous, graph-shaped cake. (where y = affection and x = time)



Tomorrow: an action shot of me getting hit in the arse with a snowball.

EDIT: Shut up NT, Toad in the Hole is meant to look like that.

MORE EDIT: LOOK LOOK at my new clock it's over there --> and up a bit. If you don't get it well come on it's the guy from Prison Break. Prison Break. I wrote 4000 words today and yet I am more proud of constructing that pun than of any of those other words.

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Euphemisms!*

*Sometimes they're worse than the actual term

So after my stunningly brilliant recent Haiku post, there were a few of you (dear readers) who wanted more details on some of the featured liaisons, partially because 17 syllables is not really very many in which to sum up a relationship episode, and also because I told you to. Oh, biddable readers! So here are details.

Kelly wanted more details on iv, x, xiii, and xx.

A contest romance!
Such a pity about the
Surprise fiancee!

This is the British gentleman who featured largely in TLDOML Pt 2(I'm getting good at this linking thing now,) so if you hunger for details, you can revisit that. The link is right there, anticipating your clickage! Stop it, says the link. Oh stop it.

Leaving in two weeks?
Tough, I'm not going to let you
Stick it in my butt

Ha ha! This one is pretty much just like it says on the tin. I was working at a restaurant and we had a really cute, half-Dominican American guy working there, and he and I ended up doin' the nasty (I am going to try and fit as many awful sex euphemisms into this post as I can, by the way. I'll put them in bold so you can see them nice and clearly) a couple of weeks before he left. Midway through bumping uglies, he started an impromptu game of 'Where's That Hand Going?!" Only it wasn't his hand. It was his weiner. So I was all "Oh no you di'nt" and he actually said, "But I'm leaving in two weeks!" Not a good reason, buddy. I'm not sure what his logic was but it didn't work.

Due to my incompetent use of Roman numerals, there are two xiii's -

You at the party
Sitting lone and dramatic;
I so fell for it

Went to a party, and there was a very Edwardian-looking gentleman sitting by himself in the corner, looking melancholy and occasionally quaffing from a martini. Quaffing a martini? Drinking a martini. Sipping intermittently from a martini. Anyway, it was a fancy dress party, and I don't know what his actual costume was but he looked like nothing so much as a writer dying of consumption in a garret, all big haunted eyes and razor-sharp cheekbones and so on. I went over and talked to him because I do like the occasional emo kid, and he moped a lot and said things about Life which at the time were very deep, in an attractively nihilistic kind of way. And I was so very impressed by his general melancholy that I destroyed it completely by indulging in a little rumpty tumpty later in the evening. Turns out this is a well-known pick-up trick! I feel so used. (For the record, totally crap shag.)

&

Your only rule was
To never sleep with workmates
Sorry, I broke it

This is a guy I used to work with - he actually had two rules (the second one was not to bone exes, or something) and he went on and on about these two rules. Then we went to a aquatic-themed work fancy-dress party and somehow, over the course of the evening, what started out as 'we're both wearing sailor suits, what a connection' somehow turned into a bumpy ride on the love boat. And then he realised that he had Broken The Rule and had a little emo moment! However obviously he was not too worried as we broke the rule several more times over the next few months.

Your flatmate burst in
While we were going at it
And wanted to join

This story starts off as so many of mine do - met a nice guy at a bar, ended up back at his flat sliming the banana. However this story differs from the others in that while we were busy batter dipping the corndog, his flatmate charged into the room wearing a snorkel and flippers a pair of heart-shaped, red-framed sunglasses and nothing else. "What are you doing?" asked my new friend, and the flatmate said, "Can I join you guys?" No! No, you can not. The worst thing is that my new friend thought about it, then said, "No, that would be weird." Fucking right it would be! It is called 'the beast with two backs,' not 'the beast where there are three beasts and you only know the name of one of them and you're not even 100% sure about that.' I left my favourite earring at his place. Damn.

SF and Holly were both intrigued by xix.

To be honest I
Slept with you mainly because
Of the pirate clothes

But it's not really that intriguing - yet another work party story. Fancy dress themed, yet again. He was dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow. I was someone from Jem and the Holograms. The rest, as they say, is hide the sausage history.

Brooke wanted details on xviii. Again, there are two:

Cute percussionist
And a hotel in Brisbane
Holiday romance!

This one is a nice little story! Our eyes first met across a crowded auditorium at a national brass band contest. He played for Napier, and had a blonde mohawk. I played for Wellington, and didn't. Talk about star-crossed. That night, at the band after-party (a lot of my stories also feature this for some reason) I sauntered casually up to him (after running into the guy from haiku iv, Captain Surprise Fiancee, and telling him to fuck off) and started making conversation with Mohawk Guy. We talked for hours! Then I actually ended up going back to someone else's hotel room hotel spa, but that is beside the point. (He was haiku xv, if you're interested.) I thought of Mohawk Guy for some time afterwards, so imagine my surprise when, a year and a half later, his band and my band were staying in the same hotel in Brisbane! Needless to say, a squeeze and a squirt followed. The young part is because he was 17 but ENOUGH ABOUT THAT

You said you were gay
Guess that was a great big lie
Your boyfriend hates me

This one is interesting. I had a workmate who was gay (that's not the interesting part). He had a boyfriend/partner/thing he'd been with for 3 years and is now with again, funnily enough. He was a musician - quite a good one, which made me put up with his irritating, whiny personality; we used to hang out of an evening and drink and sing and play things, and talked about getting a band together, as people do when they secretly know they are never going to get a band together because neither of them can be bothered. One night we were singing some song or other when the music simply overcame us and we ended up makin' whoopee! Trust me, no-one was more surprised than I. Except possibly, his boyfriend, who he felt the need to tell. I'd also like to add that with the exception of Surprise Fiancee, this is the only time I've been The Other Woman (or, in this case, The Woman.)

Millieloise (who is a new commenter! YO WASSUP) was interested in xvi. Needless to say, there are two of those as well (I am never using Roman numerals again).

You had a big nose
And asked me to do weird things
I did not care for

This one is pretty straightforward, although his bedroom requests weren't. I mean, yes, everyone has fetishes, and that is fine, as long as your fetishes aren't really weird and related to feet and/or toenails. That is all I am going to say about that. In case you're wondering, I didn't do the weird things - it was more a case of a "again, with feeling! NO WOAH NOT LIKE THAT" kind of situation.

I deflowered you
One dark and drunken evening
What a minx I am

Also fairly straightforward - he was actually a very sweet guy, and a friend. I think, in hindsight, I may have been carefully selected for his first root - he said, "there's no-one I would rather have my first time with." Either that, or he was in love with me. Meh. Incidentally, that is the only time I've been involved in someone's very first time slipping her the pork sword.


Jumpsuit soon.



Thursday, April 02, 2009

Haiku

Today I wrote a haiku about everyone I've ever slept with. It was Andrea's idea. Here they are. I am so freakin' slutty awesome.

i
You liked to make love
To the Best of Queen CD
Which I now detest

ii
I liked you much more
Before you told our colleagues
The gory details

iii
For some weird reason
I was briefly enraptured
By your bad poems

iv
A contest romance!
Such a pity about the
Surprise fiancee!

v
What was I thinking?
You had an enormous nose
And a tiny wang

vi
A tall blonde workmate
We always laughed about it
And were friends after

vii
Thrown out of the dorm
Because you weed off the roof
I thought I loved you

viii
I have no excuse
You were really freakin' weird
But, with motorbike

ix
Black and white dreadlocks
And weekends spent by the beach
Sleeping in your bus

x
Leaving in two weeks?
Tough, I'm not going to let you
Stick it in my butt

xi
Told me you loved me
Then lent me your favourite book
Never returned it

xii
Captain Stamina
I was getting really bored
After the third time

xiii
You at the party
Sitting lone and dramatic;
I so fell for it

xiv
Oh, so cute but dumb;
Emo with snakebite piercings
Who also wrestles

xv
You said I shouldn't
Spread word of our liaison;
Ha ha, I told all!

xvi
I deflowered you
One dark and drunken evening
What a minx I am

xvii
Most sexually charged
Guitar Hero marathon
In all of history

xviii
Cute percussionist
And a hotel in Brisbane
Holiday romance!

ixx
You were pretty cool
After the sex act itself
We watched Family Guy

xx
Your flatmate burst in
While we were going at it
And wanted to join

xxi
When I was rat-arsed
You looked like Orlando Bloom;
Not so much next day

xxii
We play instruments
In the same musical group;
Good God! It's bandcest

xxiii
Your only rule was
To never sleep with workmates
Sorry, I broke it

xxiv
You were really hot
I should have known that you'd be
Quite selfish in bed

xxv
For something that had
Been building up for six years;
Quite disappointing.

xxvi
You had a big nose
And asked me to do weird things
I did not care for

xxvii
I convinced myself
That the Brits are good in bed
Well, you proved me wrong

xxviii
You said you were gay
Guess that was a great big lie
Your boyfriend hates me

xix
To be honest I
Slept with you mainly because
Of the pirate clothes

xxx
A drunken mishap
I met you at Burger King
and your name was Craig.

xxxi
Ah, karaoke!
Because we sung a love song
We then had to shag

xxxii
Ah, karaoke!
Once again I can blame it
And also the booze

xxxiii
We kissed in the rain
That last night in Wellington;
Then I missed my plane

xxxiv
Met you at a bar
Then I shagged you in a park
Fuck I am classy

xxxv
I am impulsive
That is not a good reason
To sleep with fatties


If you'd like the full story on any of these episodes, feel free to leave a comment and I will tell all in a future post.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Marmots and Anagrams*

* just kidding, it's actually a rant about neither of those

I was going to write a post about marmots and anagrams but actually I'm in a rotten stinkin' grouchy mood so I'll start off with that instead and see how I go.

Have another date tonight - novelty of dates has well worn off - will let you know how it goes. Date-to-Be asked what I wanted to do. I said "cask of wine in a park?" but this offer was RESCINDED in favour of the much more tame "drinks at a mildly convenient Irish bar." Blah can't be bothered. I cba with dates. More on this another time when I can be arsed writing about it.

Here is a little list of other things I cba with, besides dates and writing about them:

- Flies. Oh God do I hate flies. They are my most hated insect (they are an insect, right? can't think of anything else they would be but kind of feel like I've forgotten a class of animal) ever. I hate them more than spiders. Spiders are vicious bastards but at least they're silent and clean and aerodynamic* and basically everything that flies are not. I'm not going to rant about how awful they are (flies) because you all know that if you have ventured out of your computer room in the last two weeks (my hemisphere) or 6 months and two weeks (other hemisphere). I think all flies should fucking die no actually wait erase that strikethrough because that is how I feel about them. I have spent about ten minutes all afternoon swatting flies and still the bastards come. I shall fight them on the benches! Earlier today I swatted two flies at once while they were engaged in revolting fly sex. Buzz, buzz, buzz! Oh yeah ba- WHACK

Here is a haiku about flies or, as I like to call it, a flyku. Wait no that's not even clever. The only thing that sucked more than that was YOUR MOM OH SNAP. What was I- oh yeah haiku.

Look at all those flies
Those two are having fly sex
Not for much longer!

And now, PeTA's response:

You selfish bastard
Did you never realise
Those flies are in love?

Fuck that. Flies are revolting and have to go.


- Twitter. I know that twitter is fun and all but then this morning I talked to Zach about twitter and some other stuff (what if mice were magnetic have you ever thought about that) and he reminded me that basically if you want to ever be good at anything including life you have to shamelessly whore yourself on twitter (metaphorical whoring (unless you're an actual whore, I guess, but that's not my point)). Besides this I also take issue with people who tweet (actually I take issue with 'tweet' as well but again not where I am going with this) being referred to as 'tweeple.' Apparently twitterrage is catching.

Haiku:

Posted on twitter
Instead of saying 'tweeted'
I renamed it 'twat'


- People. I'm sorry, I don't think I can be bothered with anyone today. Why is it not socially acceptable to say that? I got home from coffee this morning and was all "now all I want is a nap" but no it was visitors here and friendly conversations there and now I have a freakin' date and I still haven't had my damn nap. (Shut up I know I could be napping now but I would rather rant.) Just quietly I would like to get drunk by myself and play on the internet and listen to emo music. Ooh actually that's not so appealing. I have a remarkable talent for making things that are good sound shitty. Oh yeah on that note, go and look up Avenue Q on youtube and listen to Everyone's a Little Bit Racist, or The Internet is for Porn or my personal favourite, Schadenfreude. I won't try to describe it because I'll probably end up saying something like "it's this...thing. This funny thing. It's kind of...I don't know. I think you'd like it."

In other news, I accidentally created a drink I like to call Teafee. It is what you get when you (accidentally) top up your coffee, but instead of the empty coffee cup you select the half-full cup of cold tea from this morning and pour your coffee into that, then drink it without noticing. Don't try it, it's not very nice fucking disgusting.

No marmots; no anagrams. There is a new character though. By the way, how do you guys say 'emoticon?' Because I've always said "emote-ick-con" all run together but then today someone said "emote-EYE-con" and it was real cute and now I like that better but think it's probably wrong but then who cares really it's not really a word you say often. Except when you are talking about the AT and his friend the IB who I will now introduce.

Awkward Turtle, who you no doubt remember... Oh, you don't? Oh. Well, that's kinda- <(")> BAM THERE HE IS

Well, he has a cousin, Inappropriate Bat! ^^..^^
Place both hands in front of you, palms down and fingers pointing away from you. Link thumbs together (if they won't link try again with palms down) and wiggle fingers in a motion which simulates the flight of a bat what you imagine the flight of a bat looks like. Just do it whenever something inappropriate happens.

Example: You and your friend are at a dinner party when a lull in the conversation exposes a guest who is the middle of relating a very sordid and previously untold story about someone else at the table and there is a HUGE SILENCE. Your friend does Awkward Turtle. <(")> You do Inappropriate Bat. ^^..^^

*maybe

Friday, March 06, 2009

Sulk

Ok, so I spent all day today being heinously unprofessional, saying things like, "Oh, well, I'll just tell you about it and if you get bored you can hang up," and I made three sales. Three more sales, need I point out, than I have made in my entire employment to date. (With this company. Not my entire entire employment - ooh, getting off the point.) Fuck. I hate being not-right! That is all I have to say about that. At least I made sales. Sales = money.

Ok so today I went to the Time Doctor. He is a doctor who travels into the future and steals technological advances, then goes back to the Middle Ages and stops the plague in its tracks! Not many people know this, but the Time Doctor essentially saved Europe from a horrible bubonic fate. Oh, what a kidder I am! He's a watchmaker & I dropped my watch in to get some links taken out, I was just lying to try and impress you with my famous and/or magical friends. Sorry.

Speaking of which, today I had lunch with Mothra - it was kind of lame 'cause he was all "oh I was going to invite Godzilla but then he was really weird the other day when we went out for a drink and now I really don't know what's going on with us and maybe I'm just being paranoid but now I'm worried he doesn't really like me and that he just hangs out with me because he feels like he has to because of the whole monsters-who-" and I had to put up with his emo whinging for, like, an hour. Some people. (Moths.)

Ok so today I was thinking about that line in that Poison song that goes "...& every cowboy has a sad, sad song." Why? Why do cowboys always have to be sad? Personally I've always thought being a cowboy would be pretty awesome. If I was a cowboy, this is the song I would have:

Fuck yeah I am a cowboy, out riding on the range
I'm so glad I'm a cowboy & I'd never ever change
My mom said be a lawyer, my dad said join the force
But I'd rather be a cowboy with a big hat and a horse.

I spend my days & nights out a'riding on the prairie
My horse is big and awesome and my beard is lush and hairy
The ladies all start swooning when I stride into a bar -
I don't want a corporate package, I don't want a car!

I never dreamt of luxuries, of thousand-dollar suits
I'd rather have wind in my hair and scorpions in my boots
And I can ride for miles beneath a blazing sun
If I start getting bored, I just whip out my gun!

Fuck yeah! I am a cowboy, out riding on the range
I'm so glad I'm a cowboy & I'd never ever change
My mom said be a lawyer, my dad said join the force
But I'd rather be a cowboy with a big hat and a horse.


Those folks that love the city, well, I guess that's kinda fair
But they'll never shoot a rattler, while trying to fight a bear,
While rawhidin' a dogie, while waving a lassoo...
Don't tell me that's the kind of thing that you don't want to do!

Redundancy and taxes don't matter much to me
Out there ropin' cattle is where I'm meant to be
Upon a tree I hang my hat, beneath the stars I sleep
& if I get too lonely I can always find a sheep!

Fuck yeah I am a cowboy, out riding on the range
I'm so glad I'm a cowboy & I'd never ever change
My mom said be a lawyer, my dad said join the force
But I'd rather be a cowboy with a big hat and a horse.

You know I will totally give you a live rendition of that, as well. All you have to do is ask. Mothra will do backing vocals. Bridge currently under production.

In other, non-cowboy related news, I'm working tomorrow. It's a Saturday! Why am I doing this? What is wrong with my brain? Also today at work I sold a holiday product to Mrs Death. Easy on the puns now, kiddies.

Sunday, February 08, 2009

If you don't like penguins, stop reading now

I have just watched March of the Penguins, and I have a whole new respect for them. (Penguins.) I am going to tell you some facts about penguins - actually, I am going to tell you an interesting and informative story about penguins. If you've seen March of the Penguins it's pretty much an abridged version of that. As Morgan Freeman so tenderly narrates, this is a story about Love. (Also Penguins, but mainly Love. No wait actually it's more about the Penguins but whatever.)

Penguins, as you know, live in the Antarctic (I think) and, like pandas, are covered in tiny oily feathers. Just kidding about that. They're actually covered in black and white rhinestones. Here is a nice picture of some penguins in action:


Yeah! Go penguins.

Anyway, each March the penguins get out of the water, where they live, and walk over 70 miles to their breeding grounds. 70 miles is a long way to walk! Especially when you are a penguin and keep falling over. Off they go in a long line - which is not unlike the veteran's sections of the ANZAC day parade - and walk day and night until they get there.

Here they are, walking. Notice the one in the middle has fallen over.


I tried to find a picture of an ANZAC day parade that looks like that, but a) there were no pictures and b) I felt slightly mean, but come on. Don't tell me you've never watched a parade where a long line of penguin-shaped veterans walked ridiculously slowly in a stoic line. Yeah...see?

Unlike with the veterans, the next thing that happens is the penguins get to the breeding grounds, and proceed to search for a mate. When they find one, this is what happens:


I don't know if you know this, but that picture you just looked at is penguin porn. (Zoologists mostly refer to it as 'pornguin.')

Anyway after all that the man penguin and the lady penguin (who we will call Frank and Doris) sit about for a bit and wait for Doris to produce the egg.

Once Doris has produced the egg, it sits under a flap of feather-and-rhinestone covered skin, resting on her feet. This is easy to picture if you imagine that you could control that little roll of fat on your belly - lift it up with some previously undiscovered fat-roll-muscle, shove an egg underneath it with your feet (the fat roll is on your feet) and then cover the egg up again with the fat roll. You also need to pretend your fat roll is covered in feathers and that you are a penguin.

Then, once this has been done, Doris realises that she is really hungry, and asks Frank to take the egg for a bit. Frank is a modern man (or penguin) and says Of Course Darling. Then Frank and Doris practice a very complex little dance where Doris passes the egg to Frank, from on top of her feet to on top of his. This is important because if the egg falls on the ground it will freeze and the chick will DIE, and then the 70 mile walk, and the pornguin, and the waiting have all been a complete waste of time. So you do not want Frank to drop the egg.

"Fuck," said Frank.

Provided Frank doesn't drop the egg, once it's on his feet Doris walks 70 miles back to the water and eats a lot. Then she walks back to Frank, who has now been standing about in the cold for 4 months or so without any food...but the chick has hatched and is sitting snugly under Frank's fat roll!

Provided he does not drop it.

If something should happen to Doris while she's away (i.e. eaten by leopard seal) then Frank will stand there for ages and ages, waiting for her to come back. But she won't, and then the chick will die, because Frank has nothing to feed it. Fucking leopard seals.



When Doris gets back, safe and sound, she locates Frank, which is not always easy because penguins all kind of look the same, and there is a lot of "Oh sorry I thought you were someone else." When Doris gets the chick back on her feet, it's Frank's turn to walk 70 miles for food. Doris feeds the chick by regurgitating stuff, which is kind of gross, but it's OK because the chick is really cute. See? Look how cute he is.



Frank and Doris wander back and forth for months and months feeding the chick, until the chick is strong enough to look after itself...and then they all live happily ever after swimming about in the water. Yay! Look at the little penguin in the middle. You just know he's going YAY!!!1


Isn't that a cool little story? The moral is that penguins rock. Except, possibly, for when they're doing this.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Movin' on Up (or down if we are being geographically accurate)

Well, Christchurch was an interesting three days.

Grandmother, clothes swap party and camping trip were all better than expected.
Managed to deflect grandmotherly enquiries about My Life by blurting out things like "So what did you think of the elections," and "There's a cat in your garden," (there was) and, in desperation, "How far into the turkey do you put the stuffing," every time a sensitive subject was neared. It was pretty effective, although my mother was not overly impressed, particularly with the turkey query. It was totally relevant! I have to cook one at Christmas! Hmph.

(Incidentally, you shove the stuffing all the way up - the ribcage stops it. I know you were wondering.)

Camping was good - put the tent up properly first time! This is completely unprecedented in my family (and, to my knowledge, also in the families of everyone else I know, except for those weird outdoorsy type families. You know the ones. They have a bach and go skiing all the time). Camping was with my little sister, and we sometimes have a um slightly volatile friendship, but we managed to avoid all arguments! Well, until we were taking down the tent and, after I spent ten minutes rolling it up while Little Sister leant against the car and txt her horrid boyfriend, tent would not fit in tent bag. Well. It would, but tent bag wouldn't close when tent was in, and apparently that is a completely vital part of tent putting-away. (Bollocks!) So I said "All right, if it's so important that tent bag will close then you can do it because I am not going to do it again," and it was all downhill from there. But apart from that camping was good fun!

Clothes swap party was great – met Andrea’s friends (all of whom were remarkably pleasant), ate a lot of biscuits and snagged myself several nice items of clothing, including these pants which I am wearing right now. You can’t see them, but they’re there. On my legs.

We shall draw a veil over the things that did not go so well (family arguments and reunions that would’ve been better left as…non-reunions. Estrangements, perhaps. Nothing like a nice reunion to make you realise why you never see someone.) I also hate the way that a long weekend always drives home how insanely crazy angry your job makes you. It may be because I got up at 5am to get on a plane, but I keep feeling like I’m about to fall asleep on my desk and dribble all over my paperwork (best use for it). People keep saying “Oh, you look tired,” which we all know is just a polite way to say “Oh, you look like you have been dragged through a bush backwards.” Am going to a tea tasting evening tonight – joined the loyalty club of my favourite tea shop - and they will be giving us little edible nibbly things and hot teas and iced teas and their 'famous Christmas tea.' Tragically, all I am interested in doing is going home and sleeping.

I’ve decided that I am going to move to Christchurch. I know I have been swinging wildly back and forth on this, not unlike – I was going to make a political metaphor but I don’t really understand how swing states work – but I have Decided. Move home. Save money. Work is not a problem as I can sort myself with an agency while I’m still here, and start temping more or less as soon as I arrive in the Garden City.

So far announcement of moving plan has got mixed reactions; excitement (from my little sister and Andrea, who I like because they can always be relied upon to look forward to Me), tentative excitement (from my mother and other family members, who say things like ‘well that would be lovely of course but only if you’re sure it’s the right thing for you'), mixture of happiness and faint irritation (Sister Flatmate, who wants me to be happy but feels slighted), and total silence (Christchurch based group of friends, who will no doubt give me a mixture of enthusiasm and trepidation ("Yay, we can drink all the time!" "Are you bringing back that umbrella you borrowed?" and, my personal favourite from That Friend Who Thinks They Know Your Very Soul But Has Probably Forgotten Your Birthday Again, “Are you doing this for the right reasons?” This must be delivered with an air of suspicion and, when you reply with a firm "Yes I am," a "hmm" of total disbelief).

Am not sure how actual logistics of moving will work. Sainted Mother has offered to help but only as far as Picton, because taking her car on the ferry would be hideously expensive. Hideously expensive as opposed to, oh, I don’t know, getting a moving van? Hmph. Don’t know how much moving vans cost. Am currently trying to think of friends with vans who I might be able to bribe into helping me move – but I can’t think of any friends with vans that I want to be stuck in a van with for 8 hours.

Am off to get a midafternoon gelato with colleague as am running out of steam somewhat. I wonder if there is gelato in Christchurch? I may have to rethink this moving plan.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

I had a Weekend!

You too, huh? Oh wow. Well, this is what I did on mine. (You can tell me what you did on yours, if you like.)

Went out on Friday night with pleasant workmates, as opposed to tacky sordid drunken work crowd who go out every Wednesday and Friday and seem to be constantly sleazing onto each other (it's amazing how judgmental I'm bein' here considering that until about 2 weeks ago I was a card-carrying member of that crowd) - anyway, it was a very enjoyable night! It is not every evening (or early morning, I do not recall the minor details) that you end up eating stolen pistachios in a convenience store. I really should empty all of those pistachio shells out of my handbag.

Sister Flatmate went to a wedding on Saturday - I forgot she was going until she charged through the front door at lunchtime in in a state of extreme over-excitement, shouting about how her friends would be round in ten minutes and how we had to clean everything. Sent her off to the wedding a couple of hours later, having sat through the standard "are you sure about this dress/lipstick/bag/coat/hairstyle/pair of earrings" and "do you think these stockings/earrings/boots/bangles are a mistake" and "do my ankles look awful? No? Are you sure?" (All the women on my father's side of the family have chronic cankles, including my three sisters and me - none escape the curse. It is B or possibly Z grade horror movie-worthy. Night of the Cankles. Just when you thought it was safe to wear shoes with ankle straps.)

Anyway, packed SF off to her wedding (well, to the wedding she was going to (it is really strange that I can't be bothered backspacing to fix a minor error of phrasing, but I have no issues with carrying blithely on and trying to explain said error, which takes many more keystrokes)), and then my friend who was down from up north for the weekend came round for a catch-up, which was great fun -

Except for two things.

1) She interrupts a lot, and completely shamelessly - you'll be about halfway through a sentence, and she'll just start talking over you. Sometimes it's on the same topic, and sometimes it's not. Also makes no difference whether or not you keep talking, she is unstoppable. For about half an hour I had an experiment running when every time she interrupted over the top of me, I kept talking until I had finished what I was originally going to say...but she got annoyed and I got the giggles (it's remarkably funny when you've got two people who are just talking at each other) and so I gave up and resigned myself to the fact that for the rest of the evening I was going to have to give up on every fourth or fifth sentence.

2) She always, always, always comments negatively on my weight and/or general appearance. If I've put on weight, it'll be something along the lines of "oh, what are the restaurants in your new area like?" Me: "Um, good, there's a really nice Chinese place up the road which-" Her, over the top of my restaurant review: "Hee hee, I thought your face was chubbier!" Hee hee. If I've lost weight, it'll be more along the lines of a musing, apropos to nothing (I think I might've used that phrase wrong, but hopefully it's close enough to the proper usage that you get what I mean) comment of, "you know, I'm glad I'm curvy." Me: "Oh?" Her: "Yes. I mean, men don't like a boyish figure like yours, they like women to look like women." Why, I hear you ask, why do I not then hit her in the face with a chair? Because - actually this is kind of like the punchline - she is the size of a house, which instantly renders all of her rudeness laughable. I feel like saying alternately "Yes, I have put on weight, and now weigh approximately two thirds of what you do!" and "Yes - damn that visible bone structure!" but I never do, because I was brought up properly.

Why is it that some fat people feel that because they are fat, it gives them the right to comment on everyone else's body shape? She also says things like "yes, I am large, but I'm in proportion - I go in and out at all the right places, and I'm still very shapely." Yes. You are shaped like a potato.

Anyway - she is a good friend and we did have a good evening (apart from a minor hitch where she wanted to heat something up in our oven, which was full of filthy dishes from pre-wedding clean. SF and I are filth wizards). We went into town and had a few cocktails before going to a karaoke bar and belting out Mr Brightside at about two in the morning - it was a fun night and a pretty sober one too, which was good. I have decided that sobriety is the new hedonism. (Except for paydays, public holidays, personal crises, friends having personal crises etc., in which case I am prepared to make an exception and become stinking rotten maggoted drunk.)

Got up nice and early today and spent a couple of hours with the Sunday paper, then 'springzanised' my room - it's more than tidying & re-organising, but less than spring cleaning - and did two loads of washing. Very very windy but warmish day here, so I thought I'd wash everything that looked even remotely like it might benefit from it, as well as SF's stuff. Ended up struggling out to the line with my arms full of clothes and cleavage stuffed with pegs (the peg bucket doesn't have a handle, and I hate having to bend down to get pegs on every item and dropping about five things in the process), much to the confusion of the neighbours, who were putting up a trellis. The neighbours also got to watch me playing Underpants Wrangler when bringing the clothes in again. For anyone who's never played Underpants Wrangler, you start off with a bunch of clothes stuffed under one arm and a bucket of pegs under the other, and you end up with a bunch of clothes stuffed under one arm, pegs everywhere, bras flying into the garden, and a pair of your sister's control pants on your head. Ideal playing conditions: gale force winds.

In other news, am going to visit Chch next weekend - more on this later as my excitement builds - and get paid my six-monthly commission this week. I'm also thinking about a revolutionary new hairstyle. Phwoar.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Once More, With Pirates

One of the forums on the National Novel Writing Month site is dedicated to writers daring other writers to insert things in their novels. One of my favourites is "Once again, with pirates" - in which you write a chapter exactly the same as the one before it, except with pirates.

Latest crazy novel idea:

Bounty hunter must regain pair of solid gold pants before they are possessed by the god of the merzombie snake people. Jungle adventure to follow, ending in climactic temple scene and possible merzombie invasion.

Still crappy (I cannot seem to shake the merzombies, for one) but much more doable. Also have all the characters sorted out. Am feeling kind of sorry for making them go on silly pants quest but oh well! They pop up in my mind, what do they expect? If they wanted to be taken seriously they should've popped up in the mind of Stephen King.

Had a long narrative dream last night which would make a great novel - is serious, heart-rending and poignant stuff. (Have written it down for future reference.) Problem? I can't write seriously. I can't do it! Is impossible. I know I've complained about this before, but it's frustratingly difficult to write about serious subjects when your characters keep making puns.

Plan now is to develop new, serious plot fully and then sell it on the international writers' black market (what with the amount of people who complain about writer's block, it must exist). Am frustrated because Serious Plot is a lot better than Pants Quest, but Pants Quest a lot easier to write as characters can arse about and generally be literary liabilities. Pants Quest is a great title, though. Sounds like name of old-school computer game with monophonic them song. "Deedle deedle dee...Pants Quest."

You are standing outside a building. The sea is to your left. To the right is a road.
enter building
You enter the building. A key is lying on the table.
get key
You pick up the key and put it in your pocket.
look
It is a small room. There is nothing of interest here.
exit building
You are standing outside a building. The sea is to your left. To the right is a road.
right
You have reached a town. You are on the main street. There is a small grocery store ahead of you, and a road leading to the right.
enter store
The store is locked.
use key
You are in a small grocery store.
open till
I'm sorry, you cannot do that.
look
There is an old man standing behind the counter.
talk old man
Old Man: What do you want?
pants!
Old Man: We don't sell pants!
hit old man
Oh No! The Old Man has shot you!

Sorry, you are dead. Play again? Y/N

I'm sorry, I don't know why I did that. I used to have a couple of games in that format, back in the day, and I never managed to complete either of the damn things. One of them involved putting a bridle on a unicorn, and in order to get the bridle you had to go into an ogre's house and somehow avoid being dragged off by the hair and killed. I never achieved that. I still have no idea how to. I wish I could remember the name of the game so that I could look it up on the Internet.

Anyway, nothing exciting to report, just felt like venting frustration about plot, lack thereof.

Monday, October 20, 2008

MERZOMBIES


Fancy that! A day has passed, and yet I have not lost the ability to post pictures to my blog. Prepare yourselves for a lot of (mostly unrelated) photos. Andrea suggests I start taking outfit photos - this is a good idea except a) I don't have a digital camera and b) I'm not at all photogenic and c) I'm usually dressed in boring work clothes and d) I'm vain enough that it would take me an extra half hour in the morning, especially when you take b) into account.

So, news of the day: Ghost Whisperer sucks. Or, as we refer to it here, Ghost Breasterer. Because Jennifer Love Hewitt's cleavage has, at the least, a minor character part. It should be in the title credits. "Jennifer Love Hewitt's Cleavage playing Itself." Cleavage is also a better actress (actor? actperson?) than JLH herself. Anyway! That wasn't actually the news of the day, but while I'm rambling about sexually related body parts I would just like to say that, contrary to Andrea's new theory, my obsession with the ENORMOUS BANANA is a) over and b) not Freudian in the least.

The actual news of the day is that I have a plot for NaNoWriMo! By which I mean I have a sort of plot. I have an idea. Basically, it goes like this. Prepare yourselves.

What if we accidentally found the lost underwater civilization of Atlantis? What if they turned out to be real douchebags? What if they started a war with us?

What if it was told from about six different points of view?

My NaNoWriMo is about a war between humanity and shapeshifting Atlantean necromancers.

Don't act like you're not impressed.

Brace yourself, literary world. Brace yourself for MERZOMBIES.

I'm not 100% sure about the merzombies. But it's just such a stunning word.

I promise heavy artillery and sadistic lieutenants and misguided bounty hunters and volcanic eruptions and underwater zoos and probably cross-civilization romance. Who's excited? I'm excited! Who's insane? I'm insane! Who has to learn about Atlantis and military organisation and strategy and salvage and weaponry! I have to...you get the point.


I know it doesn't necessarily sound like that great of an idea (by which I mean I know it sounds alike possibly the worst idea for a novel, ever) but I was just sitting there at work today and one of my colleagues said something and the idea fell into my head, and I thought 'Yes! That's what I'm going to do for NaNo! War Against Atlantis!' And then characters and motives and scenes started popping in my head like kernels of popcorn exploding in a pan. In my brain-pan. Kernels of thought in my brain-pan! Plot kernels, character kernels, setting kernels, military kernels! Ha ha ha. Did I mention I am very tired?

I think I am a nutter. But then you knew that already, it's a large part of my charm.


Crap Analogy of the Day:

Backstory: At work at the moment my team is only 3 people (since the departure of VB). It's really meant to be a 5-person team, but we were fine as a 4-person because VB and I did, between us, 60/70% of the work. So now he is gone, and I am left with the Gung-Ho Kid, and the well-intentioned but ultimately tits-on-a-bull Newbie. Ready for the analogy?

Analogy:Being in my Team is like being in a Dinghy.

Before, VB and I had one oar each and were keeping the dinghy upright and on course - not an easy task, but a manageable one. It didn't really matter if the Newbie and the Gung-Ho Kid sat at the back of the boat and looked at the scenery and talked about what was in their sandwiches.

But now that there is no VB, the dinghy is hideously off-balance because I'm the only one a) rowing and b) with any knowledge of how to row. I spend most of my day shouting desperately to Newbie and the Gung-Ho Kid, "Stop standing up in the dinghy! Sit down and row! Stop running around! Bail out, bail out! Can't you see we're going to sink if you don't sit down and help me out here?!"

Meanwhile, the Gung-Ho Kid and Newbie are shouting, "Ally! Ally! Come and look! I think I can see a dolphin!"

SIGH. Anyone hiring?

Sunday, October 05, 2008

The Semi-Sobriety Project

Today is a day for giving Impressive Names to not-so-impressive things. I shall call it Outrageous Nomination Day! (See, that was a perfect example.)

The Semi-Sobriety Project is basically an experiment to see if I can not be drunk for two whole weeks. (See? Not a very impressive thing.)
It was originally going to be called the Sobriety Project, but it's VB's last day on Friday and I have a party to (possibly) go to on Saturday, so committing to not letting a drop of liquor pass my lips is, well, a little unrealistic. But not getting drunk is very admirable. Even if it is only for two weeks, which is an experimental timeframe. If it works, I'll extend it! (Maybe.) Sigh. It should probably be called the Mini Semi-Sobriety Project. The Mini HalfAssed Semi-Sobriety Project. It needs more strongly defined parameters. It may not even be a good idea...it is definitely a very boring thing to write a blog post about! No, don't even try arguing with me, I'm right.

I don't think anything interesting has happened since last post, really - I've continued to be sick (but have switched to taking medication before bed to eliminate weird side effects all day...this should mean the end of posts like the last one. Just imagine that nonsensical ramble applied to me at work. Yikes. Sorry about last week, work.)

What have I been up to? I was very primitive yesterday - Sal was out, so I sat on the couch and edited and napped and napped and edited and ate and napped and edited. Then I sat up until 2.30am talking to Mr Recent Romance on Facebook Chat (which, incidentally, is not a very romantic way of communicating - somehow, when you spend an hour flirting to get the Big Admission, and then the Big Admission is delivered in the form of "btw, I really like you :p" it's a little disappointing. Somehow. It creases me) and watching Pretty Dirty Things, or Dirty Pretty Things, or British Art Film which was actually very good. It was, I hate to say, pretty much more entertaining than Mr Recent Romance - who decided that while he likes me and would like to get to know me better, he doesn't want anything with strings attached. And we all know what that is subtle code for! Is the romantic equivalent of my Outrageous Nomination Day, I think.

Today I woke up at lunchtime, walked to the dairy, smoked a cigarette (oh, yes, meant to add that to Semi-Sobriety Project (I mean Mini Semi-Sobriety and Non-Smoking or at least Smoking Less, Maybe A Limit of Three A Day Project (this is the least well thought out health initiative ever))), bought the paper and a can of Coke for Sal, came home, made large amounts of coffee, read entire paper (apart from Sport, Business and Property, none of which interest me...perhaps they will when I'm older?) and did both crosswords, two word puzzles, and all three sudoku. Sudoku is a sheep word, isn't it, in that the plural is the same as the singular? one sudoku, three sudoku (all of which I completed, even the Hard one). Who would've thought sudoku and sheep would have something in common.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Items of Note*

*Perhaps

Brace yourselves, people. This is going to be a long post, because I have so many things to talk about. Fascinating things! Such fascinating things, in fact, that they will have be in list format for fear of overwhelming me (and you) with their sheer powers of fascination. (I'm sorry if this post is very boring - I feel slightly like an awards show presenter giving a rather A-List introduction to a star who is definitely lower B-List at best.)

Oh well, you should be used to it.

1. NaNoWriYeahNah

I'm thinking that I might do NaNoWriMo again this year. This is a slightly mental idea because for the first two weeks of November I'll be working and the show will be on, then for the last two weeks I was planning to quit my job and go on holiday. (Although staff party is at the end of November, and it would be nice to go out with a bang (not literally (ok, fine, literally.)))

Main reason am dithering over NaNoWriMo is that I can't think of anything to write about. I briefly thought about doing some Serious Literary Fiction (oo-er), but this nice idea was somewhat spoilt by my complete inability to take myself seriously.

I'm currently struggling with the climax and/or ending of existing novel (which is mid-edit) because it has to be semi-serious...last time something serious was meant to be happening, my main character became distracted and went into a long and completely unrelated digression about eggs. Why did he do that? I don't know. I keep trying to take out the eggs, and yet the eggs come back. Even if I manage to get rid of Inappropriate Egg Digression, character unintentionally uses a word in the wrong context, creating very witty dick joke.

Obviously there is no way something totally serious would keep me entertained for a month.

So I figure I am going to have to write something semi-serious. It can be like one of those two-layer chocolates. But not really. Chocolates are not always the best metaphor. Suggestions welcome (for novel or better metaphor, I don't mind).

2. My Lack of Internet Celebrity

I wonder how people get to be internet celebrities? Probably they just have more interesting blogs than me - by which I mean they have a more interesting blog than I do. (Although multiple interesting blogs would probably also help.) (God I am so tired.) But no, that can't be right, because some famous-on-the-internet blogs are simply terrible.
Sigh - I am not a meme. ("I wanna be a meeeeme! When I grow up, I wanna be an Internet meeeme!")
I can't be a meme, I don't even have a blogroll! I do not like the term blogroll. I think from now on I'll write 'blogroll,' not blogroll, in much the same way as I am insisting on calling 6am 'new 6am' and making little quotation marks with my fingers in that irritating way that people do. (Daylight savings was yesterday. 5am is the new 6am, and I am very bitter about this.)

3. My Cough And Ribs (a complaint, feel free to skip)

My ribs are still sore, and I am still coughing a lot. In addition to the cough, I have developed a wheeze! I was going to treat you to a little poem about the wheeze and the sneeze and some other things of that (phonetic) nature, but then I realised that a) I would be ripping off A.A. Milne and b) I would be ripping off Joe Bennett and c) none of you unartistic bastards would appreciate it anyway.

4. Learning About Serious Phrases

I have been learning about Serious Phrases. It turns out that there are Serious Phrases To Take Seriously ("we have to pay the power bill," "I love you (sober usage)"), Serious Phrases You Can Ignore ("you need to buy toilet paper," "I love you (non-sober usage)") and Serious Phrases you Should Have Taken Seriously, but Didn't ("do not drink whilst taking this medication.")

Found a Word file today (hilariously titled 'do not drink whilst yeah whatever') which appears to consist completely of random, disjointed thoughts. Many of which trail off in the middle, or change subject entirely -

5. Now I have nothing to put here.

I just thought I was being kinda clever, there. And now I feel like I should not start sentences with 'and,' but also that I should have something witty and sophisticated to write here instead of just random sentences to make this paragraph look like something with an actual point to it and not just something to fill up space, which it is. I am sorry that this is not a pithy observation of society. Right now I am very tired and not very pithy at all.

Obviously.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

This Week In The News

Things That Happened This Week (in no particular order):
Disclaimer: the following items are not 'real' news on either a domestic or an international scale, just, well, Things that Happened This Week.

1. I am currently having a Romance (I say Romance because I'm not sure if it's a Fling (probably, but now he is Emotionally Attached so hard to extract Self), or a Fledgling Relationship (Gah! Hope not that one)) with a friend of a friend. Have just been (harshly and undeservedly) labelled "a spring-loaded baby" by Sister Flatmate's boyfriend, as the other key player in the Romance is 7 years older than me. "Spring-loaded baby" appears to be the reverse application of cradle snatching. Oh, he elaborates - "launching yourself from the cradle to latch to some poor unsuspecting man! Doing! Zat!" ('Doing' being the noise of a spring, to rhyme with 'boing'. 'Zat' is presumably the sound of me hitting my intended victim.) So yes - love life interesting, at least, although don't want to get accidentally stuck in Serious Relationship. Perhaps Romance ill-advised. SIGH.

2. I am becoming more maudlin and grouchy by the day - am still trying to decide if am going to move back to Chch or not. Probably not, to be honest - the idea has NO merit except that it would be something to do over a week or so at the start of November (which is when I will be resigning - VB resigned on Friday, it's obviously the season for it). Maybe I could go on holiday for a month or so? (My commission bonus is paid at the end of October). Oh no wait that's right, I will be going to job interviews. I shouldn't quit until I have another job, and I'm much more likely to get a decent job within the company, but - and this is the million dollar question - who really cares?

Not I.

3. I'm watching Becoming Jane, which I've seen before. It annoyed me then, too. Why can't movies display people having realistic emotions? Is all idealism and romance and feet-sweeping. Bleh. Realise quality of blog decreasing rapidly, but then so is mood. Also had a rehearsal this afternoon which went badly as had to sing songs which I didn't know and which were out of my range. Solo! Yay how could that not make my day awesome. I am going to the fridge now and getting a beer out because I've worked myself into quite a rage! Haha.

Not sure where sudden surge of irritability came from, but it's not adding a lot - think might sit quietly fuming to myself and shouting at the telly, rather than blather incoherently on, incensed about nothing easy to describe. Although, it is quite nice to have a rant, and so I shall continue! You know, I have one all lined up.

4. Our Team Leader had his last day at work on Wednesday just been. This is not something bad or rant-worthy as it is good for everyone (him included) that he's gone. Really nice guy, lovely guy, but poor people skills and just in the wrong role. Goodbye, Pigling Bland! Never darken my pod again! ...anyway, now that he's gone his manager is doing the day-to-day running of the team (because hiring a replacement within a sensible timeframe would just be unthinkably well-organised). The only flaw in this plan is that a) she's too senior to know the systems we use and b) she's too senior to be familiar with how we spend our time and c) she's too senior to, um, be in the office for more than about an hour a day. So she's delegated responsibilities (when she's out) to one of the guys in the team. However! Doubt about his competency is widespread in the team and the FIRES OF MUTINY are spreading fast! No-one is keen on Not Being In Charge, and so we have a classic case of too many chiefs, not enough indians. Or, to be more precise, we have a classic case of 'too many chiefs who spend all day running about with their heads up their arses, whooping and hooting and shouting and essentially not doing any of the work that they're meant to be doing, and about two indians.' I seem to have become the unofficial Actual Person to Ask Stuff & General Contact in My Team (for people in other teams), (because the guy who's officially the second in command, as it were, is, um, not overly helpful or for that matter knowledgeable). This would be OK except a) I still have a lot of Regular Stuff to do, which is gettin' all interrupted and backed-up like some hideous overflowing Paperwork Toilet, and b) it is intensely frustrating when someone asks me a question (to which I know the answer), and three different people pop up from their desks and start shouting answers, at least 2 of which will be conflicting and probably wrong - and even if everyone's right, there's no point in 4 people being right at once. Especially not when two of them dislike each other, and every tries to explain at the same time, actually shouting each other down in their manic fervour to prove that they, and they alone, have drunk from the Fountain of Temporary Leadership!

Ooh, I do like to rant. To rant is grand! (Rhymed better in my head.)

So work is frustrating at the moment. Have re-read post and decided Romance definitely ill-advised - oh I feel another rant coming on. I feel like one of those really bad stand-up comics who does a two-hour show and every joke starts "So you know those SUV's/cheap airlines/reality TV shows? What's up with those?"

So you know those people who come across as normal, rational human beings but are actually so emotionally bizarre that you wonder how they manage to function on any deeper emotional level? Yeah, what's up with those? It's really irritating when someone decides that their emotional issues don't only involve them (which would seem like the logical conclusion) but are also somehow your problem. And then they begin to tell you about every nuance of whatever emotional mess they have gotten themselves into (because it is invariably an emotional mess of their own creation). But they do not realise that actually their emotional mirage (as in, I am mired in this emotional um swamp, not as in lost in the desert or what's on a Chinese odometer (am I allowed to say that? hmm)), where was I, their emotional mirage is actually pretty boring and a little pretentious. This in itself is ok. Everyone is allowed their emo moments, even people who are hideously self-indulgent and mawkish about it (and also expect you to realise that no-one else has ever felt like this before, and not lose your temper and shout SHUT UP YOU SILLY FUCKER THIS IS YOUR OWN FAULT AND I AM BORED OF LISTENING TO IT, ALSO STOP TELLING ME ABOUT YOUR DREAMS BECAUSE THEY ARE ALSO BORING, YES THAT'S RIGHT YOU KNOW THAT DREAM WHERE YOU WENT TO THE SUPERMARKET BUT EVERYTHING WAS IN THE WRONG AISLE OH NO, THAT IS NOT INTERESTING, AND WHILE WE'RE ON THE SUBJECT WE BOTH KNOW YOU'LL NEVER WRITE THAT NOVEL SO FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP TELLING ME EVERY TIME YOU MAKE A MINUTE CHANGE TO THE PLOT WHICH BY THE WAY IS A TOTALLY CRAPPY PREMISE I MEAN WHO WRITES ABOUT A DYSTOPIAN FUTURISTIC SOCIETY SET ON THE MOON OH COME ON - and sadly I am always too polite to start shouting) - as I was saying, everyone is allowed their emo moments and it is fine if a friend is having an emo moment! but as soon as someone starts trying to make their emotional dramas something which it's my responsibility to solve I become highly annoyed, which makes me get really flippant about the emotional drama. This comes out in the form of blatantly unhelpful comments, which always go down a treat. I love it when I am being all distraught and wanky and accusing other people of being responsible for it, and they're all "maybe you'd feel better if you had a look at this comic I found on the Internet, it is pretty funny" or "i wonder if potatoes have changed much in shape since people first started growing them thousands of years ago" or whatever - but if you're going to accuse other people of making you emotionally weird then in that case, my friends, that is what you get. This usually goes on until I make a shockingly crap analogy involving a) Hitler or b) amputees (for some reason all of my really, really terrible analogies feature one of the former) and the person having the emotional drama abruptly becomes the person who is no longer talking to me and I think Oh thank God, now I can drink my tea and watch Coronation Street in peace.

This is becoming a very, very long post and for that I am sorry but hey, maybe you didn't have much to do and needed something to read. So maybe I helped? One final concept which I would like to put forward: what if your internal organs could email you? Actually that will be a new post and it will be above this one. But, what a good rant that was. I feel...better.

Sunday, August 03, 2008

Cancellations!

I had a rehearsal tonight and now I don't. How cool is that? (Moderately cool.) Cool because I can stay at home in front of the heater and the TV, and not worry about putting on makeup and finding something clean to wear and Venturing Out Into The World (although I may have to go to the supermarket and/or the DVD store (ooh, yes, the DVD store), but as I know no-one in this area (besides StupidZooBoy, who doesn't count because he's stupid anyway, and Band Neighbour (is neighbour who is also in band, which would be rehearsing tonight but now isn't and who I probably won't see anyway (although I do tend to run into him a lot, our supermarket & dairy clocks seem to be set on the same schedule (these brackets are WAAAAY out of control)), and if I do see him it doesn't really matter as he has seen me without makeup before (at nationals early in the morning, before the insinuations start)) it doesn't really matter that I won't have any makeup on and will be in grotty old hoodie with soup stain down the front), which is always nice on a Sunday.

I bet the inventor of brackets is a) dead (that's not the point I was going to make, it just occurred to me) or b) very proud of me right now or c) spinning in his grave in indignation over how his creation, probably designed to streamline the English language, has been so cruelly abused. Sorry, Mr Bracket (yep, they were named after him. I always feel a bit sorry for the people who invented things, like Mr Table and Mr Pot and Mr Flange (architectural usage)).

Obviously I have spent too much time in my own company this weekend - which is actually quite a stupid phrase - a redundant phrase, if we're being grown-ups - because all the time you spend is in your own company. Obviously I have spent too much time with no-one but myself for company. Like, all day.

Although flatmate is in the kitchen, making a sausage and mushroom casserole - she came in and said briskly, "Right! I am going to make a sausage and mushroom casserole for dinner, you interested?" "I am," I said thoughtfully, "just trying to think if I have anything to contribute," I said as I thought about it, thoughtfully. "You," she said, "have the sausages." Oh.

They are those Cheese Sizzler ones though - am not sure if they're perfect for casserole as a) are precooked and b) are probably not really made of meat and, c)'ly and most worryingly, are cheese flavoured (so when you heat them and cut into them molten cheese sauce squirts everywhere - mmm mmm. In my defence, I only got cheese flavour because they were out of double cheese flavour (in which there is not only squirty cheese, but the meat (ish) part also tastes like cheese - mmm mmm))!

Update on casserole to follow, when have eaten it. Will pretend am restaurant reviewer. "Lacking in ambience," I shall say (top 100 80s anthems on in background, sunday paper dissected on the floor) "but excellent decor, especially in the bathrooms."

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

TUESDAY BIRTHDAY

It is my! Tuesday Birthday. Am killing time until flatmate comes home from Auckland with wine & presents (hopefully). I do plan to have a shower (BIRTHDAY SHOWER!) and do the dishes (BIRTHDAY DI- sigh), but not quite yet.


Three Beautiful Birthday Things:

1. My colleague got flowers from his partner yesterday and I complained that no-one ever bought me flowers. Today the same colleague had a lovely bouquet delivered to my desk.

2. A Serious Businesswoman came into the office to have a 'face-to-face' (normal people call them 'meetings') this afternoon, and she decided to sign up. As she left, she turned around and giggled, "Starting a business is so exciting!"

3. We had a morning tea with a large chocolate cake for me and the other guy in my office whose birthday is also today. This, although nice, was not as heart-warming as the e-cake that was sent to me this morning and which I have saved to my 'personal' folder.

Bonus story: was accosted on the way home by a young man called David, who was training to be a monk. I found this out because he opened the conversation by saying, "Hello, my name's David, and I'm training to be a monk. Have you heard of monks?" I was still walking at this point but my interest was momentarily piqued by the word 'monk' and a momentary interest was, apparently, enough for David The Monk-in-Training (Monk-to-Be? Monkolyte?) to pounce on. I admitted that I had heard of monks. Then I admitted that I had heard of The Soul (David the Monkolyte (Monkprentice? Studonk?) mentioned The Soul several times during his spiel (or our conversation, depending on which way you want to look at it, although it was a fairly one-sided conversation as most of the time all I said was 'mmm') and every time he pronounced the capitals), and then I admitted that I had heard of Krishna. Around this point I began to get more of a picture of what sort of monk David the Monkprentice was training to become - a Hare Krishna one, not, as he said, 'your textbook monk.' Just what your textbook monk is I am not quite sure, but think it looks something like St Francis of Assisi is supposed to.

Then we talked about The Soul ("What do you think of The Soul," asked David the Monkprentice. I said something very pretentious out of spite, which in hindsight was silly because it spurred DtMprentice on - "But what do you think happens to The Soul when you die??" I said I didn't know), and then DtMprentice told me a nice little story about some chap whose name I don't remember but who was 'an administrator, of the kingly class' (makes no sense to me either; one can only assume that a) class structures were very different back then or b) he was an administrator in some spiritual sense of the word or c) processing paperwork prominently produces prodigious power, plus prestige (perplexing)). Anyway this kingly administrator (still not a concept that sits well) was caught in the middle of a war and had family on both sides or something and he was at his wits' end! And so he asked Krishna. The story got a bit fuzzy at this point (suspect DtMprentice hadn't been allowed to make it this far through his spiel before - he got a bit flustered and lost the thread of the story) and I never did find out what Krishna said, but it had something to do with a book that DtMprentice would have liked me to make a donation towards. It sounded interesting, but I had no cash on me.

However despite my inability to donate David the Monkprentice invited me along to their next evening of meditation ("not textbook meditation," he said, "it can get quite loud" (the phrase 'not textbook' is obviously a favourite of DtMprentice's mentor. My view of the soul - sorry, The Soul - was also 'not textbook') and said that I could stay for a lovely vegan dinner afterwards, and that if I was interested there was also a class on interpreting The Book Which I Did Not Buy (not its actual name).

Unfortunately, Krishnafest Evening (its actual name) is on a Sunday night. And on a Sunday night, I have band.

Once again, band is the...the speed bump on my path to enlightenment.

(Better than 'the bunker in my golf course of enlightenment,' which was the original analogy.)

Off for BIRTHDAY SHOWER and BIRTHDAY DISHES!

Friday, March 28, 2008

Gold Coast, etc.

Finally, an update! Have been a busy little bee so not much time for internetting. also, internet access was REALLY pricy at the hotel and outside time was dedicated to shopping or band.

Had a much better day after last post - went for a walk across the river by our hotel, which I think was the Brisbane River but perhaps I made that up. There's a huge market over there, full of lovely tacky touristy crap, some of which I bought. Wish I had splashed out for a leather purse in the shape of a dog's head (it was better than it sounds from that description, I promise) and also for little leather keychain animals, which I could've given to all and sundry. As it is I am going to give all and sundry excuses as to why I didn't buy them a souvenir. "Because," I shall say, "I couldn't find any."

So it turns out we didn't come last in the marching - we came about fifth to last, but this is a lot better than we usually do. We would've done better except someone farted right before the stepoff and people got the giggles.

We also didn't come last in the main competition itself - we in fact won the main competition, which was great and unexpected as we had no idea of the standard of the other bands. So now we are officially Australasian champions.

Umm...I know I did a lot of stuff in Brisbane, but most of it is a) uninteresting unless you're in a brass band or b) one of those had-to-be-there things or c) too long a story to tell when you're paying for your internet.

Last night of contest was every bit as debauched as usual - after-match function at some hotel, which was amusing as the lobby was huge and pristine and empty when we arrived, with this tiny bar in the corner and two barstaff and a night manager with looks of slowly dawning horror on their faces as a small army of victorious bandsmen poured through the doors, waving trophies and the bottle of bourbon they'd been swigging from while the results were being read (no, actually).
Ended up going to the casino at some mental hour of the morning. The casino was Large and Neon and full of people even though it was about 2am Monday morning. Australia is fun! Got lost in the casino trying to find the toilets - I'm not sure if this was just because of the size of the casino (suspect amount of alcohol consumed may also have been a factor) and the brightness of the neon, and the blinking of the lights, and the freakin' HUGE chandeliers and things (jealous of my casino experience?) but it was BIG. Distinctly recall drinking out of the trophy the band received then being told that the last person to drink from it had previously vomited. Hygiene was not a priority. Thank God the trophy did not come down the Gold Coast with us (more on that later).

I shall draw a curtain over the rest of the evening except to say that I got back to the hotel about 6am, wearing someone else's earring and with an unfortunate bruise on my neck. Which I was hassled about constantly for the next two days.

Then there were solos, a bit of swimming, went out for dinner to a restaurant near the fake lake - it's got palm trees around it and lights under the water, which changes colour every few minutes, and sand which is actually golden and feels like gingerbread mix between your toes. Not that I've actually squidged gingerbread mix between my toes, but i've squidged it between my fingers and I can't imagine...I'm going to give up on that sentence. you get my point.

Drove down to Surfers Paradise Monday night, have been here since (obviously) - apartments we're staying at are about 3 minutes walk to the beach, which looks EXACTLY like it does on the postcards (although I suppose that shouldn't really be a surprise). All golden sand and blue sea and high-rise buildings and beautiful tanned people. Beaches aren't as busy as I thought they might be, probably because it's not peak holiday season, which means there's enough room to play soccer and cricket on the beach and swim about merrily in the waves, both of which I've been doing a lot of. This post is grammatically terrible. Sorry. I'm going fast.

Went to Dreamworld on the Wednesday (Tuesday was taken up mainly with swimming and beaching (in the playing-on-the-beach sense, not the running aground sense)). Dreamworld was amazing - I know that's a touristy thing to say but there were ROLLERCOASTERS and I don't get out much. If you want a rundown of the rides go and look on their website or something - the best one was one where you get pulled up the side of a tower, with your feet dangling in space, to the height of a 40 story building, then you sit at the top for about a minute trying not to panic, then they DROP you. And you scream. The first time we went on that, there were I think 4 band people and 3 randoms, and as we got near the top the band guy sitting next to me said in a voice which was very close to panic, "ok, let's sing the march." And he started singing his part of the march in a very strained tone. Then as soon as we got off at the bottom we ran about whooping and decided to do it again. The second time, as soon as we started going up the side of the tower there was a chorus of "whose fucking idea was it to do this again?" Was terrifying I think mainly because of dangling feet. Also suspense of sitting at the top for almost a minute, waiting to DIE. People swear a lot on amusement park rides. Went on this thing called the Claw, which was the most terrifying, and the guy next to me, who is generally very staunch and has an emotional range that covers happiness, boredom and anger and that's about it, started shouting "Fuck! Fuck! Shit! Oh my God!" about thirty seconds into the ride, and didn't stop until we got off. Then he went and sat down.

Anyway that should do for now - am going to go back to the beach and lie in the sun for a bit. Perhaps I shall have an icecream. Apologies for badly-written blog, will fix it up when back home.