Here's a tip for you kids: Next time you're meant to be adding people to your 'band' myspace page, triple check that you're actually signed into the band account, NOT your personal one. Way to waste 2 hours and confuse a lot of people Owen.
Holiday is happening soon. Just over two weeks and I leave! Woo!
Last two days was JMC Showcase stuff. I was meant to be doing FOH sound, but instead I was shoved on Monitors for the night (sound on stage, the stuff that the performers hear for the uninitiated). The upside of doing Monitors is that because you're tucked away on the side of stage out of sight to the public, you can easily curl up on the floor for a sleep when you've got nothing to do. Downside is that you've got to deal with performers being whingy and doing things they shouldn't: for example, pointing the microphone directly at a speaker then wondering why it keeps feeding back.
In the end, it wasn't too bad because we had 6 practices to get everything right, but it was bad because we had 6 practices (going through everything so much is very boring for sound guys) and I'd gotten all the levels fine after the first band had done their song for the first time.
It was good to work with fellow JMC types to see what skills each group of people had, to see what skills people lacked, how I could improve my game a bit, and to see Trainers in their prime (i.e. in the bar after the show).
It was also good for me to have something 'responsible' to do. Because I was doing monitors, it was my job to direct a couple of 2nd year students in helping me out (I don't need help, so most of the time I was telling them to chill out) and to also keep the performers happy by making each one of them feel like they're the centre of the show. It was good in that it gave me something to do.
Back onto the topic of this sweet holiday I'm going on and that you're not (unless your name is Esther), flights around Europe have been booked, tickets to see The Slackers have been booked, tickets to see The Pogues & Billy Bragg have been booked, tickets to see Arsenal have been booked (!!!), tickets to go on the Eurostar have been booked (!!!), and the only things left are accomodation in continental europe and our Eurail train pass. Oh, and I need to pay for this all. I owe someone a lot of money right now. They'll get it soon.
Next week I can finally get my full licence! Yay! This means I can drive at 110km/h legally and also not be patronised by other drivers for driving better than them while carrying a 'P' plate. This week after I get that, I'm going to go and get an International Drivers Licence (only $50 from the NRMA, you can even get one on your L's), and then get an International Student Card. Pretty exciting stuff from my end, its okay to he jealous, I know you are.
Ok, now on to the annual blog entry rant:
Why are bands that I like releasing albums that I don't like?
This week I have two prime examples: The Hives and Hot Hot Heat (both of whom Esther is seeing live this week, so darn jealous).
I got The Hives album in my CD player, hit play, and this weird noise came out. It sounded like a rock band, but was it The Hives? There was a rock n roll sound, but apart from the distinctive vocals, it really didn't sound like a Hives album. After a couple of tracks, what's this? Pianos? RnB? What? Turns out Pharrell Williams (one of my most loathed musicians) co-wrote and produced two songs on the album. Really not cool guys.
And Hot Hot Heat? What happened to their fun indie rock n roll? They've turned into a Stadium Rock band. You know what I mean, minimalist guitars and drums with whiney vocals sung over the top that only sounds good mixed in a stadium. The only song I can really say I like is '5 times out of 100', which is a re-recording of an old song!
Annoyance aside, hooray for holidays and all that. Also, I just noticed I really like brackets.
- Owen
This is the topic of conversation...
sick of it all
so i'm sick today. hooray! its one of those "i feel like i'm going to be sick everywhere but i'm not so i'll just curl up and try to sleep" type things. it's really annoying.
this past month has been mega busy with college. i've handed in all but two assessments (inc the major ones) so i'm almost finished up for the year. i've got a restoration project due on monday, where we need to restore a wax cylinder recording and try and remove as much of the crackling as possible, and my final soundscape recordings for the semester on friday. i can't wait to hand all of these in as they're weighing on my mind quite heavily.
i'll be arriving overseas in 1 months time. i'm very excited by that prospect, but 1 month is a really long time when you're excited about something. esther and i trying to work out where we will be and when, so its really fun just going through and doing that. it also looks like we'll make it to germany too.
hometown throwdown is coming back! we're going to start it off as a smaller event and try and build them up again. its on the 30th nov and features three bands: Dr Buff, Airship Colour Majestic, The Understatement. it'll be pretty cheap, i think $8 or something, so it'll be a good night. i'm going to try and record the entire thing multitrack into protools and set up some video cameras to film it. in the end we'll have a sweet dvd. i might even be able to mix it for 5.1 surround sound at college, but we'll have to see. i'm pretty excited by throwdown being back, and all the recording process that'll get done too. it won't get done until i get back from my holiday (i leave 36 hours after its on), but once its done it'll be great.
royal crown revue are touring in 3 weeks. because they're touring at the gaelic club i not only get in for free, but i might even get to do monitors for them. fingers crossed is me!
oh yeah, once i work out how to compress the doco i made for college, i'll upload it to youtube for you all to look at and tell me how good i am at things.
if you're doing things in the next month, please invite me along. the lack of not going anywhere with anyone to anything is making me feel kinda lonely to be honest.
thats enough for one day, speak to you next time.
too much paranoias
argh
right now i'm having one of them.
i don't like it, i wish they would stop.
why does it happen? i kinda know, but don't fully understand it
what can i do about it? i don't know yet
i like to call them 'brain explosions'. basically it's an anxiety attack of sorts.
for no reason whatsoever my brain will go "hey owen, BLAH" and make me think something horrible, then get me worked up about it, make me have some sort of freakish daydream about it, make me think i'm physically in the situation, then dump me back in the real world to deal with it.
right now my brain is telling me i hate someone. i don't really hate them and they haven't done anything wrong to deserve it. my brain is telling me they did something, which actually didn't happen. my brain put me in the room that this thing that didn't happen happened in for me to see and has now thrown me back in front of my computer screen again.
worst thing is, i KNOW that none of it is true, but now i'm left with this horrible feeling of pain and hate for no reason at all. hate is a strong word, but thats what it does.
sometimes things will trigger this off, sometimes nothing will trigger it off. most of the time that something will trigger this off, the situation isn't actually happening and there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for everything, yet i still have these problems.
sometimes when it happens and i'm sitting at my computer, it makes me want to break the computer. again, i don't know why because i like my computer a lot, but it's just what i happen to be sitting/doing at the time.
confused? don't worry, i am too. i am also trying to fix it.
EDIT: turns out what my brain was telling me was partly true. i'd say that this one was approx 75% correct. when i spoke to the person involved they said it was "freaky" how accurate i was. unfortunately this is the case whenever this happens. a gift? it can be, because when the outcome is good it's wonderful, but when the outcome is bad, it's really not fun
earthquake and fire
this blog entry is dedicated to David Fuentes, Hepcat bass player who died this week. he was only 36 years old.
i got an email from esther telling me about a whole bunch if goings on in manchester. if she doesn't respond to emails and things for the next few days, her computer is a bit broken so she needs to use the library computers. who says macs never have any problems?
in the email she said that she saw Death Proof. SO not talking to her right now :p
this week has been a bit nicer in that i've had stuff that wasn't assignments to do. monday at college was kinda boring though. our usual lecturer mark was away (nine inch nails played the night before, he would have been there) so we had a guy come and read through some photocopied sheets of paper. boring.
having no parents around has been kinda good most of the time cause i can do things in my own time. i'm alive, have clean clothes hanging on the clothesline drying and am fully fed, so no problems there. it's pretty boring just sitting around the house by myself though, so if you're a person also looking for someone to hang out with this week, give me a call.
i worked at the Something For Kate show this week with johnny. i'm not really a fan of theirs, so my highlight of that was spending time in john's hotel room checking out the view from the 62nd floor of the World Square building. pretty good that was. pity i didn't have a camera with me.
after hanging out with john the result was that i'll now be stage managing The Metro stage at Blackstump next weekend. i'm very much looking forward to the challenge. it'll be hectic and hard work, but it'll also be great fun. don't worry, i've done stage managing before so i'll be able to do it quite well (sound pompous much?). if i'm not running around like a crazy fool at the stage, please come and say hello to me as i won't get too much time to explore the site and be a social butterfly.
this week i plan to get started on both dvd's for college and my live sound assessment. i've also got a soundscape based on Luigi Russolo due on friday, so i'll be pretty busy this week.
oh yeah, Arsenal kick ass.
last weekend they beat Tottenham 3-1, they beat Sevilla 3-0 and Derby 5-0. while Derby are a bad team, Tottenham and Sevilla put up pretty good fights and both games were really good. they should have beaten Derby by a lot more, but after going two goals up and it was clear they were going to win they relaxed and didn't play so hard.
i have clothes to bring in, some lunch to eat, and then some church band practice to get to, so i'll leave this entry at that.
bye!
update on me
well, it's been awhile since i posted a new blog. time for a new one i guess.
please note i've bought the name of the blog into line with the URL as i now have a more appropriate use for the old name. you'll find out what that is sometime!
big news this week is Esther left to go over to England yesterday. i think she's about 2 hours away from touchdown in Manchester if my maths are correct (but hey, i've never been good at maths).
so yeah, now that she's not around i've got lots of free time to fill in. i've got lots of college work to do, but i need time away from that. who's up for hanging out and tearing up the town? let me know!
that college work. this week i've got 2 essays to do and also a soundscape that i've been putting off doing to record and mix.
my first essay is on a 'sound artist'. basically they're people that use the medium of sound as their art, instead of paint and canvas. they're NOT musicians.
the second essay is basically an essay version of a script. i need to research a music producer (i'm going to do Lee 'Scratch' Perry) and write an essay on them, which will become the basis for a script. that script we will then use to narrate a 10 min doco that we will need to make from scratch (hehe) and must be on a playable DVD.
the soundscape i'm doing needs to be in the theme of either: Futurism, Dadaism, Surrealism and something else i can't remember right now. basically it involves finding out what sound art in those styles sound like, then try and record and mix our own piece. it's interesting, thats for sure.
oh yeah, for college i need bands to record. if you're in a band and want a free recording in a professional studio, let me know. you won't be allowed to sell the recording, but it'll make a really good sounding demo. leave me a comment/send me a message/give me a call if you're interested. i want to start recording next week.
also, are you in a band thats playing at blackstump? if so, i' more than willing to do sound for you. everyone always complains about the sound at blackstump (i get particularly frustrated by the lack of quality mixes) and i'm putting myself out there this year to do sound for you and make you sound good. again, comment/message/phone me for more details.
i think thats about it for one blog, i'm off to rock out to Less Than Jake and pretend i'm 16 again (no matter what that Last FM thingy says, i think it's broken)
Webcam fun!
i bought a webcam today. esther is going overseas and her computer has a webcam in it, so i got one so we could talk over skype/msn/whatever. it only takes tiny photos, but thats ok cause it was the cheapest one i could find.
it's has some weird effects for the pictures. some are below.
here is me in flowers:
tickling a monkey in the jungle:
on your tv, reading your news:
on your computer, hacking your interwebz:
no! don't kill me!
the paper says it so it must be true:
bbrrrr, so cold!
anyone for a kiss? mwah!
EDIT: after taking those photos i found the "change resolution" setting, so i can make bigger photos :)
News Of The World
duuuuuuudes, whats up?
well, since i last posted, i'm back at JMC Academy and LOVING it. compared to doing maths and physics, it is BLISS. so good being able to mix songs and just play with freaking sweet equipment.
bad thing? i've got a billion assignments to do.
mondays i have 'history of recording'. for that subject i need to make a 10 min DVD about an audio engineer, including pictures, video, audio and narraton! also have an essay to hand in for that.
thursdays i have 'live sound' (dead easy subject) where we are given some briefs (no NOT underpants) and need to make up the P.A. requirements for it, including manpower and costings. it's gonna be pretty complicated.
fridays i have 'audio aesthetics' where we discuss things such as aesthetics, philosophy and alternative audio. the philosophy stuff is great fun (we discussed 'what is good music?' this week) but we need to listen to all these highly pretentious audio clips. next week i think we're listening to a recording a guy made called "silence". reminds me of dudes that paint a canvas white and sell it for billions of dollars. argh.
anyway, for this subject, each week we need to take a recording device called a Zoom H4 and go out into the world, recording sounds along with that weeks theme, then make them into a 'soundscape'. interesting, but also boring. like i said, pretentious.
that subject needs an essay too.
for my prac class, we need to record 3 songs (each of a different style) and then take 10 mins of a movie and redo all the sound for it in 5.1 surround sound! crazy!
lots of work to do!
this week i got to do sound at The Gaelic Theatre and the in house guy (who also happens to be my 'live sound' teacher at college was really impressed with my work. hopefully i'll be doing a lot more work for him!
here's something really cool. we got a rabbit today!
dad went outside to get the newspaper this morning and there it was, so we got it and put in our bird aviary. funny thing is the last bird we had in the aviary died today and now we have a new rabbit to replace it. highly cool.
i've named it 'Warren' :)
it'a bit spooked (it was in the gutter outside, so i think the cars scared it) bit it's starting to warm to us.
click here
and
also click here
so yeah, things are a bit hectic right now for me, but also fun. lets hope they stay that way!
check it out:
latest goings on?
hey all
i haven't been posting so much lately as there's been lots of stuff going on but it seems i've got some stuff to type about.
on the weekend Esther and i went to this camp called the 'School Of Discipleship' that was run by the Uniting Church down in Canberra. it was an interesting weekend, thats for sure.
essentially, the days went: talk, food, small group, food, something else, food.
the talks were a bit weird, and i didn't really like them. the guy giving the talks seemed to focus too much on theologians and didn't reference the bible very much at all (which i didn't like) and i also disagreed with lots of things he said. the good thing about that was when it came to the small groups where we discussed the talks, we had a whole bunch to talk about. for most of the small groups, i just sat back and had a good listen to what people thought of the talk, and after a while i'd pipe up, say what i thought (which was usually very different to everyone else), which spurred the conversation on to a different path.
they focused a lot on Social Justice (which i thought was great) but (to me) they seemed to place more emphasis on justice for people in this life rather than salvation for the next, which also bothered me.
i also found out that the uniting guys LOVE the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. i could imagine some of them having posters of him plotting to kill Hitler on their bedroom walls (i can be very imaginative sometimes). i went to a talk to hear more about him, but unfortunately the guy giving the talk was told he was meant to be talking about something else so didn't have stuff prepared which was a bit annoying.
one great elective i went to was called 'Project Green Church' and was run by Maroubra Uniting Church. basically what they've done is made their church environmentally friendly in really simple and practical ways. it has inspired me to hopefully get some stuff like that going back at Panania.
there was also lots of wildlife. kangaroo's everywhere, and i almost ran over a wombat in my car.
good parts about the weekend: i got to hear alternative views on the bible i hadn't thought about
bad parts: i was quite lost most of the time because all the uniting traditions were new and confusing to me and the talks moved very fast
i also have some exciting news. esther made it in to Manchester Metropolitan Uni! that means she's going to go there in early september (boo, i'm gonna miss her) and i'll go over and visit in december (yay!) and then we're going to travel around for a couple of months on a sweet holiday before we both come home! yes!
today we booked flights and are now VERY excited about it all.
current dates (for once i'm over there):
manchester 3rd-15th dec
london 15th dec-3rd jan
brussels/amsterdam/luxembourg 3rd-12th jan
dublin 12th-19th jan
london again 19th-23rd jan
new york 23rd-29th jan
salt lake city 29th jan-5th feb
san francisco 5th-9th feb
home again: 11th feb
so yeah, looks like i'm going to be getting another job so i can afford it all!
i'm getting sleepy now and i know i was going to mention something else, but i've forgotten cause of sleepy. night!
wow
so, it's been one heck of a week.
last thursday some stuff happened to some friends of mine, which has really sent some shockwaves through me and the rest of my friends.
i'm not sure what to say about it, but it wasn't good.
anyway, if i'm feeling a bit weird over the next few weeks and say a few bizarre things, please understand that it's going to take me awhile to deal with this. it wasn't something i wanted to ever have to deal with, but it's happened and so i need to sort things out. i haven't done anything wrong, like i said it's happened to some friends of mine, but it still affects me and many others pretty deeply.
anyway, some prayers and understanding for my friends and me would be appreciated.
there was also some upsetting news about another friend (one of my best friends) which will hopefully have a happy ending. that needs some prayer too. i hope he's going to be okay. i'm scared about it.
saturday i went to the Live Earth concert. it was pretty fun. thanks to Richard Bow for taking me along. i got to see quite a few bands, and enjoyed it very much. highlights were Crowded House (of course), John Butler Trio, and Ghostwriters. Wolfmother bored me to tears. seriously.
sunday was a sporty kinda day.
Esther and i headed off to see the Swans beat Freo at the SCG. it was very very cold, but i was happy because we won.
that night, church was pretty sombre (as everyone was dealing with what was mentioned above) but it was really nice.
after church it was off to Alex's house to watch Oman va Australia and the score was a 1 all draw (O-man! tee hee). i got to see Alex's train sets (two of them!) and be VERY jealous of him and his dad.
next it was to my house to watch the Formula One. in poll position was Hamilton (1st) and Raikkonen (2nd) with Alonso (3rd) and Massa (4th) close behind. Massa stalled his car so he had to start at the back (sucker). the rest of the race was excitig, cause Hamilton led the first third, Alonso the 2nd third and Raikkonen the final third and went on to win. nice to see him get another win! Alonso came 2nd with Hamilton in 3rd.
today i got to hang out with one of my best friends (different to the one mentioned earlier), John, down in Gerroa. it was good because we haven't hung out in forever. we sat around playing each other cd's we've bought and we watched the movie The Good German (it was a good movie).
it was nice to sit around and talk about todays newspaper headlines with him.
anyway, i'm gonna go listen to new cd's i bought.
bye.
is it okay if i get nerdy for a bit?
ok, nerd, release!
i'm very excited, and i don't know why i didn't do this before.
i have a model train set in the shed in our backyard (my pop built the entire thing, from the concrete slab all the way to the shed and set itself) and i haven't used it for a couple of years (which is crazy).
the other day i thought "wow, i should really fix it up", and so i have been!
on wednesday i opened the shed to find that the shed was GROSS. as i hadn't touched it for a long time, dad has been storing the lawnmower, wippersnippers and whatever in the shed. dad isn't the best at putting things away and cleaning things (apart from his beloved car) so stuff was everywhere and everything was covered in spiderwebs. there was leaves and grass all through it. the plastic cover over the train set had water all over it from the rain (shed's leak you know).
i pulled EVERYTHING out of the shed and hung up the plastic to dry, then swept out the shed. i got some surface spray an sprayed all the corners down (inside and out) to kill all the spiders and bugs. they were falling from all the cracks as they died for an hour. i then had to sweep them all up!
i set to work on the track itself. the track needs to be clean because you need a good connection between the track and the train wheels for the electrical circuit to work.
it was black. i grabbed my old track cleaner (it's like a rubber thats tough and abrasive) of which i had a small 20c size peice left. cleaning the track wasn't working so well. i had to pack up everything by this point, but i had caught the fever! this thing could be cleaned!
thursday i tried cleaning the track again. i used metho and the track cleaner, but after 3 hours i'd done only 1/3 of the track. i vowed to buy a new track cleaner, and the 10yr old one didn't cut it anymore.
i pulled out an old diesel to try and see if it would work on the track (old faithful as i like to call it. it runs on clean and dirty track) and it wouldn't budge on the clean track. i took one look at it's wheels. caked on dirt. i realised then that this was gonna be a big job.
friday i bought a new track cleaner and dragged esther though hobbyco, the best store in the world.
saturday i set to work again. the new track cleaner was amazing!! i got the entire set done in an hour. the rails were the colour of silver! i raced inside and gabbed 3830 and my 42 class diesel (with heritage rail cars for 3830 and indian pacific cars for the 42 class) and after cleaning their wheels got to have my first play in ages!! it was the best!
esther took a bit of a look cause i dragged her out there, but i don't think she liked them at all. i was a bit dissappointed cause it was a lot of hard work. oh well.
the next few days seem to have rain forecast, so i think it'll be "sit inside and clean and organise your trains, owen" week. a few of them need new rubbers on the wheels because they've perished and some need a new paint job, so it's going to be an interesting trip as i clean and organise them all. i think i'll make a database of each train and carriages so i know exactly what i've got, then match them up according to country and use.
i might take some photos too! who knows!
oh, revesby station had it's new 'lift towers' put in this weekend. they look pretty awesome. that palce is gonna look totally different once it's finished. the culverts over river road seem to be coming along nicely too.
i've also been looking up trains in england for when i go over there (as i love the english steam trains). he national rail museum is in york, which is only an hour and a 1/2 train ride from where i'll be, so i've got to go there. they have 4472, which is my favourite steam train housed there, so i'll be glad to see it again (they bought it out here in 1988 and i got to go on it then. that was the best ever).
hopefully i can find a bunch of other great locomotives while i'm there and get to ride on a few also.
so yeah, i'm totally excited about trains right now.
weird
weird.
monday is my birthday and i'm turning 22.
for some reason thats a bit strange.
i'm going through a time of change, and it's very very annoying. right now i'm doing some things that'll (while are very scary) help me out. i'm also still at college, but also wanting to work. i want to earn money, move out of home and get on with my life.
people say "you're still young, just live it up", but i sure don't feel that way.
everything thats good for me takes a long time to happen. it makes me more thankful for it once i have it, which is great, but i want to start moving on.
many people say to me quite often that moving out of home will do me the world of good. they're probably right though.
the reason i haven't moved out is i'm not in the position to do so, monetary wise.
i can't remember if i mentioned it in my last blog, but i cleaned my room. it's quite amazing how much floor space i have now, and how i still only step on those 3 parts of the floor where i could only step before thanks to habit.
turning point
so today i did some stuff i needed to do and called some people that needed calling. i even cleaned up my room a bit and vaccumed it.
yesterday i threw out all my old uni stuff. it was very freeing.
my floor is now almost 100% empty. it's amazing.
as i finished cleaning just then a song i haven't listened to in a VERY long time. bought back lots of memories. these guys wrote a lot of very bad tunes, but there were a few really quote good ones in amongst them all which very much made up for it. this one sounds very appropriate for how i've been feeling of late. forget the verses, it's the chorus thats important:
The O.C. Supertones - Jury Duty
v1
5 am on tuesday
Why am I up so early
Drive out to santa ana 'cause I've got jury duty
No breakfast short tempered
And I cut my head shaving
Ten miles out I hit traffic
Some days just aren't worth saving
You know I haven't had the best of days
But I want to stop and thank you anyway
v2
At the courthouse I waited
And waited then I waited
At lunchtime my car stalled out
I couldn't get it started
Had a book by c.s. lewis
I finished the last page and
Slept on my desk for three hours
Just like my high school days
You know I haven't had the best of days
But I want to stop and thank you anyway
chorus
Cause every single moment whether sleeping or awake
Is your creation
And what you've made is good
I don't always thank you for the rough days and
The hard times in my life
Even though I should
v3
Got home and decided I'd be in a bad mood
My shy and quiet wife said she didn't like my attitude
Got a call from my mother
Forgot my sister's birthday
I'm a lousy older brother safe to say I've had a bad day
You know I haven't had the best of days
But I want to stop and thank you anyway
chorus
Cause every single moment whether sleeping or awake
Is your creation
And what you've made is good
I don't always thank you for the rough days and
The hard times in my life
Even though I should
x3
where they wander
so today i went a wandering
i took a film camera and a digital camera with me as i went wandering around the city today. i filled my ipod with some good reggae and headed out. here are some of the results (the batteries in the digital camera ran out after a while Sad).
EDIT: YES I KNOW THE PICTURES DON'T FIT!
me waiting for the train:
sydney harbour bridge:
opera house (requested by pedantry):
me chilling on the opera house steps like all the cool kids do:
a traffic light (requested by geo):
"the woman in the red dress.....":
sydney tower:
again:
tasty lunch!:
who says australians aren't racist?:
this little girl was challenging an old asian guy to chess. she was pretty good:
the park. the batteries died after taking this photo Sad:
oh, i also got a passport photo done today for college:
BEST!
ok, so i went to that meeting at JMC (or the Jupiter Mining Corporation as i like to call them, 10 points if you know what thats from) today about doing 3rd year stuff and jumping straight on in to second semester.
i was pretty nervous about it all, as the woman who i was dealing with is a very serious lady.and really full on.
i sat in the hallway waiting for her, when my old 2rd year lecturer Greg Simmons saw me and so we ended up having a great chat. he teaches some 3rd year stuff, and was able to tell me all about it, understood my situation and told me not to sweat it. he said there should be no problems with doing it, told me some things to tell them which would convince them and even offered to "go in to bat" for me if they arrived before he needed to get to class. he ended up needing to leave, but it was exactly the cheering up i needed.
eventually someone came out to get me who was also going to be in the meeting, and it was my 1st year lecturer, Glen! he was pleased to see me too!
basically the meeting consisted of me, the manager woman and glen. the woman was very serious about stuff, but because glen knew me he was all like "nah man, you'll fit right in and love it, no sweat".
so basically, I'M IN! hooray!
it turns out they've updated everything since i was there last too.
they converted the massive old Euphonix analogue beast into a smaller digital Yamaha unit that contains 92 tracks and is hooked up to a ProTools HD system (kills my home system for sure).
the best thing though?
ALL THE WORK IS NOW COMPLETELY RELEVANT
they've restructured the entire course!
i get to record bands again! i get to try my hand at mixing movies in 5.1 surround sound! i get to have a go at recording sound effects!
heck yes! this is seriously the best thing EVER. you cannot understand how excited by all of this i am.
i had to do some crappy stuff before, but thanks to what what does it mean?
i'll have used (for any gearheads out there):
-ProTools HD (92 channels, yes please)
-Euphonix Analogue desk with 2 inch analogue tape
-all the best outboard effects (mostly fully analogue tube components with a bit of digital)
and everyone else will only have used one or the other! i'm extremely lucky to have this chance and boy and i happy!!
:)
does it really matter anyway?
first, this blog is dedicated to mark collins. he doesn't have to read these but read's half and gives up.
---------------------------
okay, today i'm grumpy.
so i wanna change what i'm doing at JMC from the hard stuff to the easy stuff. i was told over the phone "yeah, just come and fill in the forms". i went in there on thursday keen to fill out some forms and be on my way.
the people were then like "yeah, we're not sure if you can do that" and got some woman who's the manager of the place to come out and talk to me about it. they ended up giving me the forms and taking my phone number and saying they'd call me back.
today they finally rang me back. they said "well, we've got new gear that you haven't used and we don't want to put you through without using that gear". at first you might think "yeah, sounds fair enough", when when you realise that in 3rd year you don't actually touch any of the gear and i've already got my advanced diploma saying "yes you passed 2nd year so now you can do 3rd year" it's really crap. now i have to go in on friday to have an interview with them all. i'm going to take my advanced diploma with me, and also point out that some students would have gone though without using the new gear too.
oh yeah, they want me to take 'private tuition' to have time using the new gear. i think they just want more of my money.
why does this have to be so much trouble! i can do sound stuff, just give me a smegging degree already!
and whats this rubbish about Thomas The Tank Engine i've been hearing?
turns out in america (their attention spans SUCK) they had to add this bit on the end of each show where these people live in a jukebox and play songs! i've bee trying to find a clip of this abomination all afternoon.
to all those people who i owe cd's/dvd's to, i'll mail them out asap.
i bought tickets to see this at the Sydney Film Festival today:
i'm amazingly excited, though i think they gave me bad seats.
i've finally got some work this week. tomorrow and thursday. i'm VERY happy about that. bad thing? my rego is due, which means: rego, car inspection and 3rd party insurance. all this while i'm meant to be saving for a holiday! i can't win!
get another job people would say, but i'm trying to hold off until i get this JMC stuff sorted out. also, if you can think of good ideas for a job that pays ok and after 6 months if i quit it's not big deal? i don't care how boring it is anymore, i just need a job.
in summary, i'm not having a good day, and welcome to my blog for anyone that read this for the first time. it' not very interesting i know.
massive edit:
ok, thanks to info from Mike, i've tracked down the american version of Thomas The Tank Engine.
be prepared and make sure you're sitting down, cause you're about to see some of the worst television ever made, and you'll be screaming for the original british version again.
and here's a clip with those guys in the jukebox i heard about:
way to ruin my childhood memories America. this time you've gone too far.
we're gonna take this city by storm
so i'm starting to get a bit worried about out nations police powers.
ever since 9/11 (argh, it should be 11/9, you know it) there have been news laws bought in for counter terrorism forces to arrest anyone they want because they're a suspected terrorist, even when there is no evidence for it.
now, they've just bought in new laws to stop people protesting.
Crackdown On Nasty Summit Protesters
basically they allow the police to arrest you if they think you're "suspicious". that could mean you're standing in the city during APEC holding a sign saying 'Bush Go Home' and be arrested with no bail.
did you know that everywhere Bush goes, there's gonna be a helicopter with signal jamming devices in it following him everywhere?
what that means is that if you're on your mobile phone and Bush is nearby, so long phone call. oh, that also means no more 000 if you need it either. i have a suspicion they'll simply use it over the city over the protesters, but hey, we'll see.
in other news, David Hicks is back in town (finally). nice t see him back, but he should have been back to serve his sentence after being charged 5 yrs ago. pity neither thing happened. "Honour Bound to Defend Freedom" huh 
. way to be hypocritical.
oh yeah, i'm also pretty keen for this:
Rudd Stand on Whaling is Piracy says Turnbull
enough of this crap, what did you do on the weekend owen?
funny you should ask.
saturday i didn't do much, i washed my car and bummed around a bit, but that night i saw Sick Of It All at Manning Bar in the city. it was a brilliant show, totally wort the money.
after that it was off to watch Chelsea beat Manchester United in probably the most boring F.A. Cup final i've ever seen. argh.
it was still fun cheering for own goals and that the umpires would win.
sunday was AFL day. my day consisted of:
wake up
drive to esther's house
pick up her pass
meet megan at SCG
watch footy
go to after match
see esther for 1/2 hour
go to church
go to YAM
type blog entry
the swans played pretty well in the beginning, holding off port adelaide for awhile and getting a nice early start which set them up for the win.
megan was laughing for most of the match because she is a fremantle supporter so she just laughed at all the dumb things players did.
had a nice walk home from the SCG with esther's dad. it was a bit weird (he can be a bit of a formidable guy sometimes) at first but it was alright in the end.
poor esther. not only did she miss seeing the swans win to lose a soccer game 3-1, but she's getting a throat infection when she has 3 assignments due this week and a singing concert to perform at. you'd think that just not doing the singing concert would be a good idea, but thanks to her nanna coming all the way up from narrandera to see her perform she's in a bit of a weird position.
the thing that sucks for me is that i'd LOVE to help her out in some way, but i'm not magic (though she probably wishes i was) and can't make throat infections or assignments go away. kind of makes me feel helpless. argh.
oh yeah, my uni work.
so i've tried looking around to see who can help me with electrostatics and maths, but EVERYONE is busy. Hugh can help me out with electrostatics, but only on saturday morning. thats a whole week or not doing much at all. BORING. also, hows that for suck: me sitting around with nothing much to do while esther is sitting under a pile of work with a throat infection. if i was her i'd be pretty angry/annoyed with me right now.
i get to call JMC tomorrow to see whats happening with my course.
basically i'm going to change from what i'm doing, but i need to see if i can jump straight into second semester in july and do first semester in march (meaning i'd be finished in 13 months time) or if i have to wait till march to start (finish in 18 months time).
if i need to wait, i'll need to find a job in the meantime. anyone offering me one?
actually, i'll need one on weekdays anyway because this course i'm changing to is on every friday from 9am-4pm and some thursday nights.
i'm getting tired now and my train of thought is quickly being derailed, so i'll leave you with this:
http://www.postsecret.blogspot.com
bookmark it, read it every sunday afternoon, make yourself feel normal. it works for me.
a moment has left the building
ok, so i decided to head on over to 'http://www.hometownthrowdown.com' for old times sake just to see if the website was still chugging along and whether the forum had been devoured by spam and bots yet.
there was nothing
it seems the hosting and domain name have expired and it's gone.
it got me thinking about all the shows we put on and all the people who enjoyed the shows. i think its been a year and a 1/2 since the last show, but people still ask whether another one is going to happen anytime soon.
i hopped on google to see what it had to say, and it turns out that when you type in 'hometown throwdown' it comes up the link to hometownthrowdown.com as the number one result.
when we started putting the shows on, John and I called them Hometown Throwdown's as a reference to The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, who we both love and were still around and touring like crazy. all the search engines used to be full of the Bosstones when you typed those words in to search engines, but since then both the Bosstones, and us have moved on, and now our humble site is there at number one.
it's a pity the shows don't happen anymore. i used to love seeing all these people turn up and have a great time listening to bands, hanging out, skating on the ramps and just having a good old time without alcohol or drugs involved in any way.
most people who we'd try and tell about the shows (people from school for example) weren't interested and didn't want to go, but the ones that did come along had a great time.
it was so much hard work though, and when less than 300 people turned up i was disappointed, but when we managed to pull 500 people it made it very worth it.
since starting to put on the shows, i've learnt many things. audio production, event management, advertising, lighting and staging setups, OH&S laws/risk management etc
hopefully i can find a way to use these skills i've acquired over the years to do something else worthwhile. not only use them to get paid and support myself, but to do something socially practical and ethical, and above all have a whole bunch of fun.
to all of you that like to ask:
-will Hometown Throwdown's ever come back? who knows.
-will i be doing something sometime in the future? yep. just you wait and see.
-will it be anytime soon? maybe not, but when it does happen it'll be brilliant.
fun fun fun
ahh, what a great night
tonight i went to church and played some sweet tunes. i decided to go to the band practice so that i could practice playing guitar along with other people and have songs to play to. i ended up playing during the service and had HEAPS of fun. it was great! that was the first time i'd played in front of more than 1 person before, so while i stuffed up heaps, i still had lots of fun. i was turned down pretty quiet anyway :p
after that i went to gloria jeans with people from church and had tasty overpriced hot chocolate. after scooping the froth off i only had 3/4 of my drink left, so i'm debating wether to bother buying drinks from there again, just cause i really can't afford things like that. i probably still will though as i can't resist chocolate.
back it then was to the west's house to watch the Formula 1, play some poker and then watch Sheffield United vs Wigan. Raikkonen went out early in the race unfortunatly (some engine problem). Lewis Hamilton came 2nd, which means he's coming first in the championship! quite an acheivement for the rookie of the pack.
the football was very exciting. basically it was a playoff to see who would get relegated down to the lower division and who would stay in the premier leauge. both teams just happened to play each other in the deciding round, which mean both teams really wanted to win. it was brilliant as both teams pushed hard. a few players were knocked out (the united goalie punched and headbutted a wigan player while attempting to punch the ball out and also heskey went down and swallowed his tounge after someone looked at him funny) the final score? United 1 - Wigan 2. poor United got relegated.
Ben Mostyn asked me to go to his bucks party on saturday, which sounds like brilliant fun (go-karts at marrickville) but it's like $35 and i really don't have $35. i'm also seeing Sick Of It All on saturday night with little Ben (not engaged Ben) which is gonna be amazingly awesome as i really like that band and Ben hasn't been to a concert like that before.
oh, also F.A. Cup is on (as it is every year the saturday i'm busy) so who knows where i'll be watching that (either esther's house, church, my house or alex's house). it's Chelsea vs Man U so i'm gonna boo both teams just as hard as each other. for once i'm hoping a show will finish before 11:30pm so i can drive home quick to watch the match at midnight.
well, now it's off to bed because i have another exciting day tomorrow (not)
an explanation...
today i've been trying so flipping hard to work out what on earth these text books are telling me!
i've got this maths module to do for uni and i can't work it out.
so far it's been on quadratics, which i didn't understand at first, but mananged to scrape through that bit. now it's moved on to differentiation.
i don't understand it. i just simply don't get it.
i failed this subject last year at this point because i didn't get it then either, and i'm getting so frustrated at it all that when i even look at the smegging textbook or workbook it just looks like scribbles on a page.
i try and read stuff, but i just don't understand what it's trying to tell me. the worst part is it's not like i can just skip on over to the next bit, because you need to know the beginning of that bit to do it
i don't know what to do. maths just isn't my thing....
it all feels so darn hopeless!
i just wanna pass and be happy that i can do it and move on, but no, it's stuck in my face like a big fat loser sign. just sitting there staring at me while it's picking its nose and scratching its bum. going apsolutely nowhere and getting increasingly more annoying as the days tick by.
i missed out on handing in last weeks assignment (only 2%) but thats not what i'm worried about. what i'm worried about is that i need to know the stuff that was in the assignment so i can do the next assignment, which is due tomorrow. if i don't know how to do that then i don't know how to do the next assignment. if i don't know how to do all them, then i don't know how to do most of my exam at the end of semester.
then what?
big fat stinking loser of the century.
uni fees wasted. time wasted. all of it wasted.
ARGH
shut up maths
i just wrote a song called 'Shut Up Maths'. add gang vocals where appropriate. enjoy:
shut up maths,
shut up maths,
shut up maths i hope you die. (x2)
derivatives can go jump in the lake
along with functions too,
go jump in the lake now all of you
i don't know what to do
shut up maths,
shut up maths,
shut up maths i hope you die. (x2)
why do i have to do all this
why is it all so hard?
i just wanna record sweet bands
and sit on my behind
shut up maths,
shut up maths,
shut up maths i hope you die. (x2)
*solo*
shut up maths,
shut up maths,
shut up maths i hope you die. (x2)
cleaning
ok, so tonight i decided to clean up my room a bit
why?
cause maths sucks and i'd rather clean my room than do maths.
anyway..
so i found a place for that CD rack i've been meaning to put up (ontop of one of my speakers), put it together and put all the CD's and DVD's that have been floating around my room in it. it didn't make much difference to the state of my room.
i decided to throw out all the spare pieces of paper and stuff. usually this is the killer, i'll put it all in the recycling and my room will be tidy. that STILL didn't make much difference.
thats when i worked out what is killing my room. UNI WORK.
i have three piles of uni books. i have another pile dedicated to letters the uni send me. i have a pile of important papers i need to keep somewhere for tax and banking. i have a huge plastic tub thing that my parents bought me (meaning well of course) so that i could put stuff in it, but under my bed is full and it won't fit.
after moving things around a bit, i discovered i made a BIGGER mess. great.
i can't wait till i can move out. that way i can fit all my crap somewhere. i have a small room as it is, and when you're trying to fit uni work, billions of CD's and some audio gear in my room amongst my bed, cupboard, drawers, desk and stereo, there is NO room.
don't get me wrong though, i'm not complaining that i have lots of things, cause lets face it, i'm pretty lucky to have all the awesome things i have, i just need space for them all to squeeze somewhere.
oh, if you read this and know some friends who are in a band and want a recording, i'm pretty strapped for cash, so please pass my details on. i want to work, i really do.
thanks to having a very sore back, i've been going to the physio, and it's been slowly getting better. the physio has been stretching my neck and back muscles about every few days, and while it's painful, oh boy do i feel good afterwards. i've got one more session on wednesday morning, and hopefully that'll be the last.
if you like music doco's, be sure to watch "Some Kind Of Monster" on SBS at 10:10pm this saturday night for a doco about the making of the latest Metallica album. i'm not a fan of their music, but it's a behind the scenes look at the band, the recording process and the interpersonal relationships in the band. should be good
also, check out this doco called 'American Hardcore', which is about the origins of hardcore music. it's pretty good and part 1 can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0LHomP0SNE
the other parts are linked to on that page.
thats about it. nothing too interesting.
Anzac Day
so today is anzac day
it's a day or rememberance for those aussie/nz people who've lost their lives in war
many ex-soldiers and family members will participate in services and marches all over the country.
it's a time for saying 'look how bad wars are, lets not do this again'
john howard will be on tv tonight during the news talking about how anzac day is a 'sad day' and something that 'all australians will be touched by' or something to that effect.
meanwhile, john howard ups australian military funding and sends more troops to iraq......
so i'm back
well, what have i been doing?
i was in Armidale for awhile on a Uni Residential School. i think i might even pass this time! yay!
i'm home now, and pretty happy about that.
i'm a bit annoyed there is no milk. it's been a week since i had a drink of milk. i'm craving it so bad.
oh, and here are some photos i just took:
so the story is i found a fisheye lens in amongst an old analog video camera who's batteries are stuffed! yay!
it doesn't hook directly onto the camera, so you need to hold it in front of the camera while you take the photo, but it still works pretty awesomely!
this it for now. i should update this more with interesting things
Sleep?
well, the answer is no, i can't
anyway, just letting you all know what i'm up to/have been doing/discovered and blah.
i've been procrastinating from Uni work as per usual. Simultaneous Equations were never my strong point. I've got to hand it in tomorrow. Boo.
Last week i saw Dropkick Murphy's play at the UNSW Roundhouse. They played really well, but i suck because i forgot my earplugs and the ringing is only just going away. so bad for my ears. yuck. i was a bit disappointed with their lead singer, he kinda just stood there. one of their guitarists jumped off the stage and into the pit, so he earned my highest respects. esther made it onstage at the end and got to dance around so she was pretty darn happy about that. there were a LOT of songs they didn't play which was kinda dissappointing, but considering the amount of songs they're written it was bound to happen.
this saturday i'm seeing Flogging Molly and Gogol Bordello play in their double headline show. with esther's love for Flogging Molly and my joy about seeing Gogol Bordello, we're going to be going nuts.
Uni work has been pretty hard. i've been learning and understanding more than the first time around, but i'm not too confident about it all. we'll see what happens, cause i'm trying as hard as i can to pass. if i fail, i'm going to try and go back to JMC, but i don't want to fail as i haven't talked to them about it and it's not 100% certain that i will be able to go back (even though i don't know why they wouldn't let me). also, i really don't want to miss out on fridays and saturdays for almost 1 year.
music i've been listening to a lot lately:
Beastie Boys hardcore days (before they turned hip hop)
Billy Bragg - Back To Basics
discovered recently:
Bullet Treatment (feat lead singer of the bronx)
i discovered today that Tim Armstrong's new solo album 'A Poets Life' is now going to be released as a CD, rather than released online for free. this sounds bad, but once you learn it's going to be only $19 and come with a DVD that will have a video clip for EACH SONG then you realise it's not all that bad after all!
have a look at his new video "Into Action":
on thursday it looks as though esther and i will get to go to the movies for the first time in ages. i've got to see more movies this year than last. i think i only saw 18 movies last year. gotta beat that. we're going to go see Hot Fuzz. it looks pretty funny. i'm just hoping that other people in the cinema don't suck. if you have hot food, sit next to us or smell, seriously go home and don't bother watching the movie. hire it out once it's on DVD or something. just don't bother me.
i like to go to the movies in the middle of the day during the week. the cinema is practially empty and i get the whole row to myself. it also means i can concentrate on the movie (cause i usually see doco's) and not have to worry about people eating hungry jacks and talking about something other than the movie, if at all.
my guitar playing is getting better, but only slightly. i'm no good at it, but it's way fun. i'm very determined to be good. i've been listening to a lot of hardcore lately (minor threat, sick of it all, early beastie boys, suicide machines etc) and i'd love to be able to play/write/record songs. it gets me going, you know?
oh yeah, new Aggrolites album in june. so friggin excited.
also, how much does it suck trying to be romantic?
i'm no good at thinking of ideas for anything. it was ether's 21st the other week, but we've both been either sick or busy so i haven't had time to take her out somewhere and trying to decide what to do is driving me insane. i know she's gonna read this, but oh well. i'll find something!
i wish i has something of substance to tell you all, but alas i don't.
Instead, have some dodgy video clips
i know i'm going out of style, 10000 miles from you
word up
so i'm bored. whats new. huh
last night i went to Richards house to get some physics tutoring from him, and after that i'm getting pretty annoyed.
there is SO MUCH involved in each question that i can't believe they make us learn so much. seriously. richard is bamboozled because he designs different mechanical and other engineering devices, and he doesn't even know this stuff/need to use it. argh
the maths is pretty darn confusing too. i'm afraid that thursday hangout with esther in the morning will just turn into her trying to explain it to me, and me getting grumpy for not understanding and blah
i'm still trying really hard though, it's just that it's hard to do work when you're stuck, or just get so annoyed that you don't want to do it
poo
also, i've rediscovered how good Mustard Plug are
shut the blog up
hey all, welcome to another installment of self absorbed blogging
i'll just give you a quick run down of whats been going on in the owen camp lately, than explain more in depth whats going on
i've got no money, i've seen some good bands play, i've missed some good bands playing, my brain has been playing tricks on me, and i've decided to do some more travelling.
okay, the no money situation:
basically, i was on top of things and was starting to save up a bit of money, which was brilliant (as i'm very bad at it, damn you jb-hifi). i had my wisdom teeth out, and mailed off the forms to medicare to get the discounts i deserved from my health fund and booked my car in for it's 100,000km service. the service was meant to only cost approx $200, and wisdom teeth claimed and made much cheaper.
i got a call from the mechanic to say "hey owen, your car is in brilliant condition, except for the fact that it needs CV joint replacements, the drive shaft repaired, new spark plugs and to have the automatic fluid flushed". i was like, "oh great, so i need to get the CV joints and drive shaft fixed else my car might crash and i'd die, so how much is this all gonna cost me?" his reply was "$680". crap! i didn't have quite that much money to pay him, so i needed to pay with the credit card, and he was like "oh, there a credit card charge, so it'll be $715". bugger again.
also, it turns out medicare lost the most expensive reciept (the surgeons bill) and took forever to refund me some money for the aneithsetist that they're both demanding i pay up, so i had to go to medicare and complain to them, so they recon they'll sort it out, but i'm not so sure.
i have work tomorrow, but it'll go towards my phone bill and pay off enough of the mechanic bill so i can pay it all off with the amount of money in my account. my final balance will total $0
oh well, at least i won't die in a car crash. well i could, but it won't be cause of any mechanical fault of my car, as now all that needs to be replaced since i got it is the transmission, brakes and suspension (which got checked and are fine). i hope they stay fine for a long time...
seen some good bands play:
in the past month i've seen Damien Rice, The Bronx and The Evens. these were some of the best shows i've ever seen. Damien Rice was brilliant at guitar and storytelling (and has a wonderful backup singer who looks as good as she sings), The Bronx still put on the most rock n roll shows i've ever seen (someone reviewed it in the drum media and commented on how they'll be telling grandchildren about the show i saw) and keep amazing me each time i see them, and The Evens were so brilliant in their two-peice-drums-and-guitar-and-vocals way and Ian MacKaye is the nicest musician i've met (i shook his hand for real) that i was the biggest fanboy ever.
(i swear since Ian shook my hand, that that hand has all of a sudden gotten much better at guitar, while the other one is slow on the uptake)
i'm going to see Dropkick Murphy's play in two weeks and then Flogging Molly & Gogol Bordello in their double headlining tour. these shows are another reason i have no money, but it's worth it to see them play. (i've also already bought the tickets, so i don't need to find money to buy more tickets)
missed some good bands play:
my friends in Sounds Like Chicken play their final gig tomorrow down in melbourne. i'll be missing it as i need to work so i'm not completely broke. i was going to go down and do a live recording of the show, but after their tour to adelaide cost more than they expected, they didn't have enough money to even cover my fuel costs of driving down, so they got another dude who lives down there to do it. it's a pity, cause i really wanted to go, but i can't even afford $20 to squeeze in an overcrowded car to go down. besides, i've got work on now to try and have no debt
my brain has been playing tricks on me:
well, i think i have some sort of anxiety thing, because my brain keeps making me get worked up over nothing. for example i'll just be sitting here and my brain will tell me something like "hey owen, you know that time esther said she couldn't hang out cause she was busy? WELL SHE WASN'T, SHE HATES YOU" and i'll be all like "but she really was busy, she was at uni and even showed me the work that she did there" but my brain will go "I DON'T CARE, SHE HATES YOU" and then i'll get all confused and worked up over it cause she doesn't hate me, and she really was busy, but my brain tells me the opposite. so annoying. Olga recons i should see a doctor, but that scares me a bit. she knows about these things though cause she was studying to become a doctor but got sick while studying (thats another story).
i've decided to do more travelling:
Esther has applied to go overseas to study in London for a few months. i'm going to miss her HUGELY (seriously massively) but i really want her to go, cause she'll have the best time ever andlearn so much stuff. we don't know if she's going to get it or not, we have to wait and see.
but anyway, if she goes, i'm going to go over and visit her when she's finishing up, and if she doesn't go, we'll just go on a holiday anyway because we would have been saving up to go anyway! anyway anyway anyway
we were looking at a map of europe, and we're currently thinking (subject to huge changes cause we talked about it for only 15mins or so): London, fly to Amsterdam, then catch the train to Brussels, then to Paris, then back to London. after that fly to somewhere on the east coast of the USA (New York or Washington or something), then over to Salt Lake City to visit Olga and her husband Alex because Olga is one of my best friends and she's having a baby in October, then on to either Los Angeles or San Francisco, then home again.
i've been scouting out 'round the world' tickets and they'll cost approx $2600 cause we're still students. add on another $1500 for other travel costs, and it'll cost about $4000ish. that, plus spending money for when i'm there (so i can eat/see arsenal play) and i'm going to the saving every penny i make ever. something tells me i might need a part time job in the meantime. anyone hiring?
i'm not going to need to pay too much in accomodation, as Esther's cousins will be living in London so we can stay with them, and i'll stay at Olga's house too. i think we'll be staying in a lot of backpacker hostels, but it'll be GREAT FUN i know it :)
so yeah, coming up for me is more pain with uni (maths and physics are seriously killing me, i HATE them) and not spending any money, so if i come to your house and eat as much food as i can or borrow as many DVD's/CD's as i can, please take pity on me as i won't have eaten much while being out and i can't afford to buy my own CD's and DVD's
k thanks
oh, tonight i saw the Swannies play against Port in a practice match. they lost by 4 points or something, but i think they'll need to pick it up (literally) if they're going to beat West Coast in round 1.
High Anxiety
this song pretty much sums up how i'm feeling right now. i hate it when things that are out of my control get on my back. i wish they'd go away so i can sleep...
[Chorus:]
Well it's the high anxiety
(I'm a victim of society)
high anxiety
(I'm a victim of society)
high anxiety
it's my high anxiety getting to the best of me.
[Verse1]
Sometimes I feel like I'm gonna explode,
and when I'm approaching total overload,
I know that when I'm having a panic attack,
to duck and cover cuz I can feel it coming.
[Chorus]
[Verse2]
This time I feel like I'm gonna die,
cold sweat the fear is paralyzing,
you know I wish that this was over and done,
heart pounds I can feel it escalating.
[Chorus]
[Bridge x2]
I don't know why,
sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night,
I don't know why,
I gasp for breath I'm really feeling like I'm on the brink of death.
[Verse3]
I wish I could get this crisis under control,
then I could feel some kind of closure.
I feel this could go on and on without end,
I guess I'll just have to ride it out cuz
[Chorus 2x]
..addiction
yeah, i'm addicted to the internet
it's 4:20am, i should have been in bed 5 hours ago
eep...
..read the news the other day, about a boy they threw away..
so last night i saw The Bronx play
*best show*
seriously kicked total ass.
so many good things happened at that show that i can't explain them all.
tonight i'm seeing The Evens play at Glebe Town Hall and am pretty darn excited
whoopee, another massive blog
..it's not hard to fall, when you float like a cannonball..
i want to go overseas.
i want to see the world.
i want to experience everything our Lord has made.
i want to travel.
i want to see new things.
i want to meet new and interesting people.
i want to do things i'll never forget.
i want to make memories so wonderful that the note of one song or the glimpse of one photo or the sniff of one scent take me right back to that irreplaceable moment.
i want the world to be my oyster.
i want to swim in every ocean.
i want to climb every mountain.
i want to sit in every forest and breathe.
i want to gasp at every tall city.
i want to fall asleep to the sound of rain every night.
i want to meet someone from every single culture and country, and talk to them.
i want to rest in the bungalows, roam every resort, relax on every ship deck, recuperate in every snowy little town.
i want to pack up my bags and take them places dreams are made of.
i want to live out of a suitcase, backpack or bag.
i want to curl up with a pillow on every long distance train while it passes through the countryside quietly in the night.
i want to be by myself, with one person, with a few friends and everyone all at the same time.
i want to photograph every interesting thing i see.
i want to ride every rollercoaster.
i want to fish in every lake.
i want to eat the worlds best foods.
i want to get dirty while watching an elephant tend to it's baby in the shade of a tree.
i want to see every rock band, in every venue, in every corner of the room.
i want to give everything i have to the poor people on the street.
i want salvation for every person ever who have and will exist.
i want to sleep in every day and stay up every night.
i want to throw away my phone and call everyone i know.
i want to be the best i can in everything i do.
i want to be free.
but despite all of this:
i want a family.
i want to have a house in the suburbs, city, country, outback, hills, valleys or on an island.
i want to raise some kids.
i want a good income.
i want to sit and do nothing.
i want to study interesting thing.
i want to make some place my home.
i want to settle down somewhere.
i want to be able to afford everything i need.
i want to run a successful and ethical business.
i want to work for myself and i want to work for someone else.
i want to buy the best things for my future children so they are happy.
i want to teach them to be responsible.
i want to have a loving wife who treats me well, but is tough and keeps me in line.
i want to be safe and secure.
i want to go through with all of these things, but i don't know how.
no time for sitting around
well, i've worked out this week is gonna be very busy:
tomorrow:
do some mixing
pick up Damien Rice tickets
see big ships in Sydney Harbour
wed:
go to o-week stuff with esther
do more mixing
do more maths
start physics
thurs:
more maths
more mixing
more physics
see Damien Rice at night
fri:
make sure maths is finished and mail it off
hopefully have finished mixing by now
hopefully would have understood and done at least one physics question
oh dear...
you act as if you just don't care, you look as if you're going somewhere...
ok, so there is nobody online right now, just me, my computer, and everyone else having a life or something.
ok, checked my emails, myspace, forums, comics, news, weather, bank balance... what is left to do?
there's nothing on tv (well, i WAS going to watch the Bourne Identity but forgot it was on) for awhile till JTV is on, but i've already gone and sneak peaked a look at tonight's Hack which looks to be the only part that interests me on tonights show. those young liberals sure annoy me a lot. matter of fact, all liberals annoy me. if you're from overseas and reading this (i doubt it as this is the first day) the australian liberal party is the 'right' party, and the australian labor party is the 'left'. weird huh.
right now i'm just sitting here listening to 'The Police' and imagining what they'll be like when i see them play live. it'll be great, even though large scale concerts have been ruined for me for the rest of my life. i'll feel like i'm being ripped off, after paying $90 to sit in the back row, but i guess it's not often i want to see bands at large concerts. it'll be weird being herded into the stalls instead of just walking around wherever i want like i usually do. bizzare.
i got my wisdom teeth out last week (7th feb) and all day today the stitches have decided to come out. it's VERY gross. i've never had stitches of any kind before, so having some and having them in my mouth is kinda grossing me out. i feel sick every time a new bit comes out or i accidentally swallow some. yuck!
the good thing about it all is that it means i'm getting better. i can't wait to eat things like hamburgers again, where you just bite in and eat, rather than cut it all up small and chew with your front few teeth for an ice age or two.
i've gotta get a life, but instead i got a blog.
all stitched up
well, today i didn't do very much. basically i went to the newsagent and bought exercise books for uni.
i've got to get stuck in to doing this work. i've already failed it once, and i'm extreemly afraid i'll fail it horribly again. this time i've got some textbooks from esther i'll hopefully use and get knowledge from, and maybe i'll start my physics stuff a bit earlier this go around!
who knows.