Tuesday, September 18, 2001
early morning ache head -- ow! ow ow ow ow ow ow ow! coffee! aspirin! ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow...
heatin' up -- it's been like, noticeably warmer the last couple of days... which is kinda icky, but i guess is probably good practice for next week in townsville... lemme see... sydney today, forecast maximum of 22 degrees C... townsville today, forecast maximum of 27 degrees C... uh oh...
gladiator, ready -- sigh... joined the local video store on sunday & got out gladiator (i dunno, i was standing in the G section & i panicked, okay?)... the store runs some kinda two-for-one deal for my first month of membership so i also grabbed ghost dog... (hey, i said i was standing in the G section...) i managed to fit in some time to watch maxiruss, but had to take both videos back this morning without getting a chance to watch deep forrest... i can't help thinking i chose kinda poorly... gladiator was soooo lame...
psychomalology -- i'm sure there's some deeper psychological factor underlying my continuing failure to watch the videos i hire... i mean, in dulwich hill the guy at the video store used to try to stop me renting tapes... "you've already watched that one," he'd say. "nope," i'd reply, "i've rented it three times, but i still haven't seen it..." am i caught in some kinda bizarre time-management delusion, in which sitting down to watch the tape would be a waste of time that could be better spent doing, ummmm... well, i dunno, something else?
condition improving? i guess at least i'm returning them on time these days... unlike, for instance, the sicilian, starring christopher lambert, of which i watched the first fifteen minutes, turned it off in disbelief at how bad it was, & then didn't return it for several months... was i punishing myself for having rented it in the first place? i dunno what it's about... hmmm... maybe this is some kinda message from my unconscious about not having a comfy couch?
pre-lunch head update -- less ow equals more better.
post-lunch head update -- icky hot & sweaty, but clearing toward the late afternoon... & hey, just gotta call from sydney uni... the paperwork's on its way... kewl. although they also said something about the cheque being in the mail... hey, wait-a-minute...
Monday, September 17, 2001
coherent weekend -- i can never work out when the weekend is more or less coherent -- as i'm living it, or when i'm trying to figure out where it went... not that we're talking huge amounts of coherence, right?
quickly, then -- so, i... went riding on my bike (twice) & cooked dinner on saturday & did some tidying up & went shopping & andrew came over on sunday & we went walking & walked to the nsw gallery & saw a cool exhibition & then walked into town but all the movies sucked so we walked back down oxford street & went to ariel bookshop then we walked down victoria road & had dinner & andrew went home & i went to sleep & now it's monday...
pranksters maintain phone hoax -- gotta another call this morning from sydney uni, made an appointment to visit & sign the paperwork this thursday... i really hope i haven't stumbled into the pilot episode of World's Funniest No You Don't Really Have a New Job...
hit the ground, running -- sometimes even the miracle of punctuation isn't enough... you wouldn't believe the number of loose ends i have to tie up...
Friday, September 14, 2001
stunned silence -- spent much of the last couple of days wandering around in a daze for various reasons, some of them good, some of them bad...
bad reasons -- i missed the tv news on tuesday night, the first i knew about it was when i staggered, still half-asleep, across the road to buy the paper on wednesday morning...
keri's got friends in nyc, but thankfully they're okay... it's just such a freaky, freaky thing... it feels kinda weird that everything continues regardless... i was walking through the sydney cbd last night, just looking up at all the buildings... & from my office window i can see passenger jets on their final approach to kingsford smith airport...
good reasons -- & then a bit later on wednesday... went for an interview at sydney uni... got a phone call on thursday morning... i've been offered a job managing the information systems in the research office there... my soon-to-be new title? uh, manager, information systems... i'll be in charge of a small team consisting of me, two other full time staff & one casual... the duties will be pretty similar to my old position as research data coordinator at uts, managing the research management database, developing the research office website, coordinating the annual reporting to detya...
paperwork -- still waiting for the paperwork to come through, but at this stage it looks like i'll be finishing at uts & starting at sydney uni around the end of october... i'm gonna miss uts, i've enjoyed working there, but the position at sydney uni was too good to refuse...
Monday, September 10, 2001
a satisfied customer writes:
Dear purveyor of fine quality wombatalia,
I recently downloaded from your website a fine desktop picture of a wombat, and I'd just like to take this opportunity to thank you, and to point out that since this event my life has improved immeasurably. Previously, my desktop was drab and lacking in personality, but now that it has been emwombattened, it is lively and vibrant, and brings true joy to my working hours. I have noticed a spring in my step that was previously lacking, and my heart is filled with the gladness that only digital pictures of burrow dwelling marsupials can bring.
Thank you again.
Yours, Der Simonster
gosh. i think i'm picking up a reading on the sarcasmometer... or is that the phonyenthusiometer? still, wombat picture! getcha wombat picture! wombat picture! (hmmm... maybe i should start charging?) wombat picture!
Sunday, September 09, 2001
hands up everyone who went to the zoo yesterday
wombat desktop special offer -- you just know your computer's gonna work better when there's a wombat on the desktop, right? well, you're in luck! simply right click (or, if you're a macperson, click & hold) on the image below, then choose set as wallpaper from the context menu & wham! instant wombat wallpaper!
public secrets
where the hand leads, caricature follows,
construction site logic calls for time out
as sexual politics renegotiates your aesthetic,
ex-prime minister flown in at great expense,
the silver bodgie's still got it,
battalions of queen's counsels tearing their briefs off
while a heightened calm imagines the waterfront.
expressionist poetics follow the big project
into cultural studies, all the pretty lights of theory
coughing up that sexy blood into scented hankies,
then the conference furphy & who's up for drinks?
let's skip the last session, hotel style
for the fashion conscious on a sensible budget
& art, metronomic, banging its head
on a fistful of jargon inside fortress australia.
long shadow of the keating years, now
fear & loathing in kirribilli /
downer, reith & ruddock
do the business in indonesia. was this
what we wanted? a big recliner-rocker
& that voice repeating 'welcome to television'?
Wednesday, September 05, 2001
dawn elizabeth henderson!!! anne & dave have a brand new daughter! dawn elizabeth was born at 6.43pm on monday 3 september... & for those of you who can combine a working knowledge of imperial measurements with some idea of how much new babies should weigh, dawn elizabeth was six pounds, fourteen ounces... mum, dad & baby are all doing well...
quotes from the new parents department
- "i don't think it's really sunk in yet" - anne
- "well, you know, articulate me, but hoo boy, wow..." - dave
coming soon -- baby photos!
dawn's smurf name -- hey, look, don't ask me, but dawn's smurf name turns out to be Phil the Smurf...
as promised...
helpful hint: dawn is on the left
Tuesday, September 04, 2001
BIG NEWS! although i can't tell you anything about it just yet, 'cause really, it ain't my news to tell, but wow, as far as news goes it's like, yeah, totally big... more actual news about the big news as soon as the big news breaks... hey, look there! in the next paragraph!
unleash your inner smurf -- uh oh... here's an important smurf-related link just sent in, allegedly by The Real Slim Smurfy (who you might recognise as The Correspondent Formerly Known as Der Simonster)...
it may come as no surprise to discover that my own smurf name is apparently Naughty Smurf... & for some reason, el davebot turned out to be Chanukah Smurf... other smurf name updates to appear whenever anyone can be bothered to send them, unless, of course, everyone's enthusiasm levels are even lower than usual on account of it being a tuesday & all...
smurf names are not the big news -- just in case you were wondering... uh uh, nope... the big news is much bigger than smurf names...
hey, el davebot -- what sort of a job title is Desk Officer? sounds like the sort of job long-suffering, slightly-grouchy-because-the-commissioner-is-busting-their-chops police captains might use to threaten headstrong detectives who keep bending the rules to dispense their own particular brand of justice... "damn it Riggs, if you blow up half the city again just to catch some jaywalkers, i'll bust your ass all the way down to Desk Officer!" or mebbe it's more akin (i just had to say akin) to being a Plate Captain? i mean, i thought being the Research Doodad Cohinkivator was bad enough...
el davebot the Desk Officer is also not the big news -- although, in it's own way, el davebot's new job is big, & you know, congrats on getting out of that soul destroying HR job into something that doesn't require you to have a big bowl of lobotomy washed down with a warm cup of cynicism every morning... (& yeah, if i were you i'd just ignore any attempted slanders on the quiet dignity of your new title... don't forget you follow in a proud tradition of Desk Officers... remember Montgomery's 83rd Fightin' Desk Officers, & Old Stonewall's Desk Officer Irregulars, &, uh... ummm... sorry... that'd be more of that there slander, wouldn't it?) but really, el davebot's new job is big, but not big enough! nope! it ain't! the big news is absolutely much bigger!
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ted@magicdog.com -- 20 December 2000
