empty

Now that i am home, my blog has moved back to http://www.nakedbonsai.org

click and enjoy :)

in Milano...crazy crazy stories involving car and military people in former russia. Also I learned to drive (aka they gave me the keys and fell asleep) in Estonia. Now me drives good. except gear stick is on the wrong side of the car so i sometimes forget myself and go to change gears with left hand and smack my hand against the window. Doh!!! :)

see yall soon. Ciao Ragazzi

Morning kids...just to let you know that i am alive :)

I am in Riga, Latvia. Look it up on a map...it is a beautiful city that you MUST visit. Baltic Europe, although hmmm....interesting at times, is actually very Interesting the rest of the time also. Cool. Ok, see y'all soon.

Hmmm...bad day...gregory peck died today and i am still stuck in Jönköping.. d'oh!!!!

OK, so this could possibly be it...my last post from Sweden...seeing as i begin travelling around after this and won't be online much until i return to the land of Oz. Life's been hella hectic these last two weeks...saying good bye...packing etc. i have heaps to tell you all and lots of photos to bore you with (actually i have close to 8,000 photos but don't worry only about 50 of them are what i would consider publically displayable!!!) but that can wait! Good luck to Mere with her exchange and i will see you soonish i guess! To everyone else for sure there will be a BBQ at my place nearer to my post return.

In the mean time Una, Bebe, Gian, Andy, Katja, Michie, and others spread throughout Eastern Europe...see you soon I hope...i'll let you know via email asap.

Hmmm...I wish i could think of anything mroe to say...my sister stayed here with me (jackie) and had a crazy arsed time....M + D she is now in Norway. Go figure! She is healthy though and in good spirits...has plans to possibly get a job on a ship in Greece...i say good for her. But you never know what she will do next soooooooooo...

ok

peace out see you all soooon.....

Last post from Sweden soon. In the meantime click here from Fush.

oh, and dear lord this is cool...2 player option would rock out more though...

w000000000000000000000t!!
My professor said my program worked!!! I have finished my Swedish studies!!! YEAH!!!
to the beach i say! to the beach!!

with only 6 days remaining in this pretty little town of jönköping the new radiohead cd is taking on all kinds of relevance in my life. As each day another handful of my 300 international friends leaves it gets harder to hold back tears, because for us australians having friends in europe makes for a pretty expensive weekend coffee trip (although sponsors would be dearly welcome). an advanced warning of the impending chaos that will be my physci upon my return to kanga-land, so please be patient with me.

in happier news jackie (my sister) arrived early on my doorstep yesterday 1 hour before my gig, so not only did she see it, but she and i played together too. it was muchly fun...and i have it on recording and video...although gawd damnit if she didn't make me hella nervous and screw up all my songs. her leg is better now, so there will be a strict diet of craziness in my house considering i now have her, michela and nicole all living on my bedroom floor. woah.

omg jaymis this is HILARIOUS!!!!

tortured arteeeest :)

so anyways i am giving a 1/2 hour concert with fabrice tomorrow...wish me luck!

the setlist will be :

- #7 [piano]
- freshest of daisies
- falopia
- black sheep of the family
- cat scratcher
- song for drums
- centrum (frenzy)

you don't know them yet, but remember the names because pretty soon you'll be voting them into the Hottest 100. Mark my freakin' words. :) Hopefully we'll have the whole thing recorded so you can all start pre-ordering your copies of "Rowley & Fabrice, Live @ HLK"

# Time: 0 ns Iteration: 0 Instance: /testbench/u1/u1
# ** Note: h_sync synchronised ok
# Time: 63701 ns Iteration: 0 Instance: /testbench
# ** Note: v_sync synchronised ok
# Time: 16854151 ns Iteration: 0 Instance: /testbench
# ** Success: synchronisation testing ok
# Time: 33580950 ns Iteration: 1 Instance: /testbench
# Break at G:/03b/vhdl/vga/hdl/testbench_tb.vhd line 111

Believe it or not ladies and gentlemen, but that little bold thing there is the single most attractive thing i have ever witnessed in the entirety of sweden. boo yah!

In case you are all wondering what I am up to over the next few days, here is my schedule, as decided for me by my friends!!! ;)

Friday, May 30, Chakanaka - You've already been hammered about this one.

Saturday, May 31, Barbecue in Raslatt - Including Jonkoping Olympics, Watermelon bomb, games, activities, fun & surprises. (all day) Bring food & alcohol

Sunday, June 1, Caps tournament behind Sockertoppen (late afternoon). Bring alcohol

Monday & Tuesday - recovery time (maybe some studying). Bring alcohol.

Wednesday, June 4 - Last Karen (Drain ... the ... taps!!) Followed by BONFIRE on beach in town! Then sleeping on the beach if you're man enough, drunk enough, or woman enough. Take alcohol from Karen. Bring marshmallows.

Thursday, June 5 - Barbecue at the beach (Rocksjobadet) - Including Volleyball, diving, American beach football, & football (whenever you can wakeup from the Karen tap draining contest). Bring toys, food & alcohol.

Friday, June 6 - Preparty in Raslatt (16.00), Party in Rosedlundsbadet (17.00 - 19.00. You'll wonder why you've never been there before!), then party in town (19.00 - 02.00), then Afterparty (02.00 - 06.00). Bring alcohol, swimming costumes optional (not applicable to guys)

Saturday June 7 - First ever JIBS party! I can't exactly explain what it is in this email, but word will spread :) Bring alcohol.

Requirements:
Bring plenty of alcohol.
Do not miss a party with a lame-ass "I had to study" excuse.
You must smile and have fun (repercussions are possible - translation: PARTY HARD!).

It's a good thing that after i finish my report today i won't be needing my brain any more..............

Morning kids. thought i'd mention 'the dreaded date' when i leave europe and return to the underage marraige capital of the world. I'll be landing in Brisbane on the 7th July at 7amish. :)

Also, I know I haven't posted a photo in a while, so here is one courtesy of my finnish friend Essi.

Nicole (Australia), great buddy David (California, USA), moi & Michela (Italy)

see look I am getting a tan again :)

Goober pointed this one out to me and I thought it so good I would place it hear rather than linking it. Am uber busy at the moment with last project. Will get on the case SOON!!

care of here

Countering a Wave of Hate

By Tim Robbins
April 17, 2003

Transcript of the speech given by actor Tim Robbins to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on April 15, 2003.


I had originally been asked here to talk about the war and our current political situation but I have instead chosen to hijack this opportunity and talk about baseball and show business. Just kidding. Sort of.


I can't tell you how moved I have been at the overwhelming support I have received from newspapers throughout the country these past few days. I hold no illusions that all of these journalists agree with me on my views against the war. While the journalist's outrage at the cancellation of our appearance in Cooperstown is not about my views; it is about my right to express these views. I am extremely grateful that there are those of you out there still with a fierce belief in constitutionally guaranteed rights. We need you the press, now more than ever. This is a crucial moment for all of us.


For all the ugliness and tragedy of 9-11 there was a brief period afterwards where I held a great hope. In the midst of the tears and shocked faces of New Yorkers, in the midst of the lethal air we breathed as we worked at Ground Zero, in the midst of my children's terror at being so close to this crime against humanity, in the midst of all of this I held onto a glimmer of hope in the naive assumption that something good could come out of all this. I imagined our leaders seizing upon this moment of unity in America, this moment when no one wanted to talk about Democrat vs. Republican, white vs. black or any of the other ridiculous divisions that dominate our public discourse.


I imagined our leaders going on television, telling the citizens that although we all want to be at Ground Zero we can't. But there is work that is needed to be done all over America. Our help is needed at community centers, to tutor children, to teach them to read, our work is needed at old age homes to visit the lonely and infirmed, in gutted neighborhoods to rebuild housing and clean up parks, and convert abandoned lots into baseball fields.


I imagined leadership that would take this incredible energy, this generosity of spirit, and create a new unity in America born out of the chaos and tragedy of 9-11. A new unity that would send a message to terrorists everywhere: If you attack us we will become stronger, cleaner, better educated, more unified. You will strengthen our commitment to justice and democracy by your inhumane attacks on us. Like a phoenix out of the fire we will be re-born.


And then came the speech. "You are either with us or against us" And the

bombing began. And the old paradigm was restored as our leader encouraged us to show our patriotism by shopping and by volunteering to join groups that would turn in their neighbor for any suspicious behavior.


In the 19 months since 9-11 we have seen our democracy compromised by

fear and hatred. Basic inalienable rights, due process, the sanctity of the home have been quickly compromised in a climate of fear. A unified American public has grown bitterly divided and a world population that had profound sympathy and support for us has grown contemptuous and distrustful, viewing us as we once viewed the Soviet Union, as a rogue state.


This past weekend Susan and I and the three kids went to Florida for a family

re-union of sorts. Amidst the alcohol and the dancing and the sugar-rushing children there was, of course talk of the war. The most frightening thing about the weekend was the amount of times we were thanked for speaking out against the war because that individual speaking thought it unsafe to do so in their own community in their own life. "Keep talking. I haven't been able to open my mouth."


A relative tells me that a history teacher tells his 11-year-old son, my

nephew, that Susan Sarandon is endangering the troops by her opposition to the

war. Another teacher in a different school asks our niece if we were coming to the school play. "They're not welcome here," said the molder of young minds.


Another relative tells me of a school board decision to cancel a civics event that was proposing to have a moment of silence for those who have died in the war because the students were including dead Iraqi civilians in their silent prayer. A teacher in another nephew's school is fired for wearing a t-shirt with a peace sign on it. And a friend of the family tells of listening to the radio down south as the talk radio host calls for the murder of a prominent anti-war activist.


Death threats have appeared on other prominent peaceniks doorsteps for their views against the war. Realtives of ours have received threatening e-mails and phone calls. My 13-year-old boy, who has done nothing to anybody, has been embarrassed and humiliated by a sadistic creep who writes, or rather, scratches, his column with his fingers in the dirt.


Susan and I have been listed as traitors, as supporters of Saddam, and various other epithets by the Aussie gossip rags masquerading as newspapers and by their "fair and balanced" electronic media cousins, 19th Century Fox. Apologies to Gore Vidal. Two weeks ago, the United Way cancelled Susan's appearance at a conference on women's leadership and both of us last week were told that both we and the 1st Amendment were not welcome at the Baseball Hall of Fame.


A famous rock and roller called me last week to thank me for speaking out against the war only to go on to tell me that he could not speak himself because he fears repercussions from Clear Channel. "They promote our concert appearances," he said. "They own most of the stations that play our music. I can't come out against this war." And here in Washington, [veteran White House correspondent] Helen Thomas finds herself banished to the back of the room and uncalled on after asking Ari Fleisher whether our showing prisoners of war at Guantanamo Bay on television violated the Geneva Convention.


A chill wind is blowing in this nation. A message is being sent through the White House and its allies in talk radio and Clear Channel and Cooperstown. "If you oppose this administration there can and will be ramifications." Every day the airwaves are filled with warnings, veiled and unveiled threats, spewed invective and hatred directed at any voice of dissent. And the public, like so many relatives and friends that I saw this weekend, sit in mute opposition and in fear.


I'm sick of hearing about Hollywood being against the war. Hollywood's heavy hitters, the real power brokers and cover of the magazine stars have been largely silent on this issue. But Hollywood, the concept, has always been a popular target.


I remember when the Columbine high school shootings happened, President Clinton criticized Hollywood for contributing to this terrible tragedy. This as we were dropping bombs over Kosovo. Could the violent actions of our leaders contribute somewhat to the violent fantasies our teenagers are having? Or is it all just Hollywood and rock and roll?


I remember reading at the time that one of the shooters had tried to enlist to fight the real war a week before he acted out his war in real life at Columbine. I talked about this in the press at the time and curiously no one accused me of being unpatriotic for criticizing Clinton. In fact, the same talk-radio patriots that call us traitors today engaged in daily personal attacks on their president during the war in Kosovo.


Today, prominent politicians who have decried violence in movies, (the blame-Hollywooders if you will), recently voted to give our current president the power to unleash real violence in our current war. They want us to stop the fictional violence but are OK with the real kind. And these same people that tolerate the real violence of war don't want to see the result of it on the nightly news. Unlike the rest of the world, our news coverage of this war remains sanitized, without a glimpse of the blood and gore inflicted upon our soldiers or the women and children in Iraq. Violence as a concept, an abstraction.


It's very strange. As we applaud the hard-edged realism of the opening battle scene of Saving Private Ryan, we cringe at the thought of seeing the same on the nightly news. We are told it would be pornographic. We want no part of reality in real life. We demand that war be painstakingly realized on the screen but that war remain imagined and conceptualized in real life.


And in the midst of all this madness, where is the political opposition? Where have all the Democrats gone? Long time passing, long time ago? With apologies to Robert Byrd, I have to say it is pretty embarrassing to live in a country where a five-foot-one comedian has more guts than most politicians. We need leaders, not pragmatists that cower before the spin zones of former entertainment journalists. We need leaders who understand the Constitution – Congressmen who don't, in a moment of fear, abdicate their most important power, the right to declare war, to the executive branch. And please, can we stop the Congressional sing-a-longs?


In this time when a citizenry applauds the liberation of a country as it lives in fear of its own freedom, when an administration official releases an attack ad questioning the patriotism of a legless Vietnam veteran running for Congress, when people all over the country fear reprisal if they use their right to free speech, it is time to get angry. It is time to get fierce. It doesn't take much to shift the tide. My 11-year-old nephew, mentioned earlier, a shy kid who never talks in class, stood up to his history teacher who was questioning Susan's patriotism.


"That's my aunt you're talking about. Stop it!" and the stunned teacher backtracked and began stammering compliments in embarrassment.


Sports writers across the country reacted with such overwhelming fury at the Hall of Fame that the president of the Hall admitted he made a mistake and Major League Baseball disavowed any connection to the actions of the Hall's president. A bully can be stopped. So can a mob. It takes one person with the courage and a resolute voice. The journalists in this country can battle back at those who would re-write our Constitution in the PATRIOT Act II or Patriot, the sequel, as we would call it in Hollywood. We are counting on you to star in that movie.


Journalists can insist that they not be used as publicists by this administration. The next White House correspondent to be called on by Ari Fleischer should defer their question to the back of the room to the banished journalist de jour. Any instance of intimidation to free speech should be battled against. Any acquiescence to intimidation at this point will only lead to more intimidation. You have, whether you like it or not, an awesome responsibility and an awesome power. The fate of discourse, the health of this republic is in your hands, whether you write on the left or the right.


This is your time and the destiny you have chosen. We lay the continuance of our democracy on your desks and count on your pens to be mightier. Millions are watching and waiting in mute frustration and hope. Hoping for someone to defend the spirit and letter of our Constitution and to defy the intimidation that is visited upon us daily in the name of national security and warped notions of patriotism.


Our ability to disagree, and our inherent right to question our leaders and criticize their actions define who we are. To allow those rights to be taken away out of fear, to punish people for their beliefs, to limit access in the news media to differing opinions is to acknowledge our democracy's defeat.


These are challenging times. There is a wave of hate that seeks to divide us, right and left, pro-war and anti-war. In the name of my 11-year-old nephew and all the other unreported victims of this hostile and unproductive environment of fear, let us try to find our common ground. Let us celebrate this grand and glorious experiment that has survived for 227 years. To do so we must honor and fight vigilantly for the things that unite us. Like freedom, the first amendment and, yes, baseball.

omg omg omg Veruca Salt is back together and they are playing at SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS!!! Woo hoo!!!

at the risk of jeopardising my already damaged camp reputation...

eurovision song contest this saturday!!!

new happy tree friends today!!!

oh...to people who wanted to know more about my awesome sister's music...this is a cool gig photo... I love it. From a cool little place called the 'Healer' next to a church that is now a nightclub called 'Heaven'

This will be me very soon. Mark my words.

How come no one told me Big Jim Sorley has retired?

In other news I just learned that a 5th person in Brisbane is getting married. I am soooo traumatised. Seriously...I have a few job offers here which I am REALLY considering taking to avoid the plague.

OMG OMG OMG OMFG!!

WORMS IS IN 3D!!!! B.T.B.S ppl!

dance like you don't care (or know how to dance...) thx zan

whitehouse.org - oh the humility

oh and in the mean time... Rafael has posted bulk photos..particularly of the hockey and jazz.. :)

click here

OK so i know i owe massive emails to very special people...bebe, katrin for a start...many more for a finish...I am soooo sorry...am in assignment and project and EXAM hell (just finished one)....I promise the first 4 hours of time tomorrow will be devoted to the computer ;(

Sooo soo sorry

project one done. we r0xx0r...kicked it's pink little ass. presented this morning at 8am...went to bed at 5am after work last night. do the math. fuck i'm tired.

heh heh i kicked its ass

oddly enough i feel compelled to post...seeing as i have done very little serious posting in a while...just meaningless links etc. although they have been pretty bloody funny.

i now have exactly (or less than even) 30 days left in sweden (but i won't be home until julyish) and i have a sneaky feeling i will be spending it in front of a screen finishing all the work i haven't done for the past few months. i wonder what the repercussions of failing a subject in a foreign country are? do i get to come back the following year and do it again? :)

friends are already starting to depart for the outside world, and i guess i will too soon. but until then i plan to make the best of my time absolut! so forgive me if i spend the first two weeks of my return in bed, because currently my schedule does not allow for sleeping very much. i.e. typical day for me was yesterday : up at 6:30, at university by 8am. programmed all day until 7pm with the exception of a one hour music break at lunch. have dinner, head to jazz club. chill/dance with mates at club until 1am, catch bus home. head to aformentioned friend's place for coffee and more chats. head home. in bed by 3am. get up 7am, go to uni........

and so on and so forth. so whilst this means that by 4pm in the afternoon most days i can no longer count in binary (a skill i assure you) let alone gray code and my brain (and subsequently intellect of conversation) has been reduced to a smiling pile of goo...but still it is one heck of a smile :)

in case you were wondering canada beat sweden in the final of the world hockey championships. boo yah. after supporting every single losing team in the competition i finally back a winner (and it gets me lynched by the locals!).

hmmm...can't think of much else. maybe a reminder that last sunday was mothers day. so if you forgot you are screwed. i remembered, and i'm on the other side of the world with a swedish diary that places mothers day in 3 weeks time...so i think i get bonus points for that little effort.

i came home last night to find a photograph of my naked butt pinned to the door. this alarmed me somewhat for two main reasons - the first being that someone still has the negatives (they went to great lengths to point this out) and also that i REALLY need to start riding a bike again. seriously...it looked like i used a fishbowl lens. it took me 1 hours and a helpful hint to realise who it was that took the photo. it was me. i took it. using someone else' camera to piss them off...but what really disturbs me is that this actually backs up my long held theory that my subconscious is secretly out to get me. i think it wants to claim control because i am not sleeping enough and giving it enough time to rule supreme. so i reckon it figures that it will suggestively frame me and set me up for as many embarrising scenarios as possible so that the conscious part of my brain flips out and goes all recluse on me and hides behind my inner child. little does my conscious know that my inner child is a kniving, scheming little bugger who will probably have a concealled cricket bat or something and beat the living crap out of mr. conscious. this is because secretly my inner child and my subconscious are in cahoots for the whole thing...i mean i guess it goes without saying that the subconscious reigning supreme will need the inner child for crazed company or something.

did i mention i need coke? please send coke. it's too expensive here.

oh, and if you are 6 foot tall with brown curly hair and you dance like a mo fo then i want to bear your children. seriously. i will track you down. you don't know who you are yet, but you will. ah yes...the subconscious is back baby yeah!

aaaargh! a friend of mine put up a website with evil photos without even asking. needless to say Birgit, I will seek revenge for this. oh well. at least i now have a blue hair photo.

ah hah! Jane...now I TOTALLY understand....

personally, i think i would have only one rule for married life. no granny pants. i will happily spend my life wearing Hanes or Lowes and fork over the $100s of dollars for their good underwear instead :)

sorry to the fam...this is definately a TMI post.

Bring Back The Death Penalty For This Man

**sniff** what a bastard.

8am. in lab working on project. and eating chocolate. yeah! soooo healthy me :)

have begun writing music on the piano now and i have 2 nice songs i like...gotta love your own private lab!!! yeah.

big bbq tonight...Una is going home to Latvia and we are saying good bye etc. because other people travel to norway tomorrow and she leaves friday. so we will cook something and listen to jazz. i hope to finish project asap so i can actually go, what with presentation tomorrow!

fingers crossed/hold thumbs.

tips for picking up italian women...they like money, sex and fun (apparently) and the italian word for kangaroo is 'canguri'. no luck on the koala front. it's spelt the same.

in addition to the last cool knock-things-that-do-stuff post Cadden sends this little gem

I won't elaborate on the party much except that it was hella fun...danced all night at a club called centrum, then walked home for an hour with 20 people...then made pancakes, drank baileys and listened to St Germain for several hours before having a 6am sauna :)

It was a blast except that I had to then go to university and do coding theory for several hours...eurgh...and then I was organising a music night, so my sum total sleep over the 40 hour period was 1.5 hours...eeek.

OK, so now for the make me laugh bit of today. Happy Tree Friends - I can't believe i haven't pointed this out before...don't be fooled by the slick child like exterior. These guys are just plain f%¤ked up. Must See WeeV. :) Thx to Bebe the Swiss Miss for sending this one :)

Also, thanks to Petrie (the) Dish for this awesome link. If you are an engimabeer you will love it. Everyone else will think it is just cool.

Alright. Back to the studio...err..I mean books... ?? :)

unbelievable party last night...was very very drunk and went to bed at 9am this morning...it's now 1pm and I am at uni for a group meeting...eeek! Big night...only cost me $8 bucks Aus...I swear i'm beginning to feel like the Swedish mafia the way this town is rigged for giving me a good time for free!

stupidvideos.com - a classic time waister guarenteed to make you piss yourself laughing.

i woke up this morning so irritated i was looking for something to kill. this hasn't changed much...but I am happier thanks to this. what can i say except this is pure brilliance. fucking amazing. someone download this and burn it before it disappears from the web forever. thx p-a.

code monkeeeeeeeeeeeeeey!!!!!

my heart specialist would like to say a little something to the other two members of my project who didn't show up to work group today when i was nice enough to buy them coffees and then had to drink them as well...after i'd already had one today. i believe his exact words were 'oh f#%k it...i give up'.

thank you. also, my personal apologies to anyone who has to deal with me today, especially those with english as a second language as i am as jumpy as a cricket and talking as fast as that guy who calls the races WITHOUT the break for a breath. booyah!

the guys at movie comics are so politically incorrect it is not funny. or rather...it is. bask in their glory before they are mobbed by every single activist group known to man, including the worldwide league of pacifists.

Hooray for Aussie slang in official interviews....

"UFO sightings are fairly common in the NT -- no place more so than Wycliffe Well, 1100km south of Darwin, where Holiday Park owner Lew Farkas is the local expert on UFOs, having seen them with monotonous regularity over 18 years.

"The closest look I got of one was the spaceship's portholes, but I couldn't see the alien bloke inside," Mr Farkas, 54, said last night.

He said the formation described by the Nightcliff residents was similar to ones he had seen.
"It sounds like it was one mothership, with the other supporting craft on the side," he said. "

t-shirt of the week.

rowley's bartender tip for today :

"every home should have a bottle of baileys in it. this is for several reasons. firstly, you use it to make all kinds of drinks ,simple (such as baileys straight), and complex (1 part baileys, 4 cubes of ice : called 'baileys on ice'). secondly it adds a chick drink flare to your cellar that defines you as a refined man who many different women will want to kiss in a bar (or so that tv tells me). thirdly, it adds a touch of class to an otherwise beer filled student room. but i feel the most important reason is the last, which is it's shopping reducing power. how so? well, it has a longer life than milk, tastes great in coffee or on coco-pops for breakfast, and last but not least actually contains alcohol as well, which despite what milo claims, is the best start to a day. boo yah. only drawback is that it makes my scrambled eggs taste a tad funny, but the bloody mary entre' helps those taste bud blues away."

cheers, and healthy drinking.

i plan to make a fast transition from child to senile old man

gawdammit [again]. another one of my freakin' friends is getting married...what the hell...that's 4 now...in 6 months...this isn't the post war 50s people! we do NOT have a population crisis...for gawds sake hasn't Sex In The City taught you ANYTHING????? aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

That's it. Fuck it. Sorry mum...but I'm not coming home. I'm going to England. Or Thailand. Or Canada. Anywhere for crying out loud...just as long as the incestuous shotgun weilding honky tonk father of brisvegas can't find me and force me to marry his buck toothed cousin-sister-neice from Ipswich. Did I say Aargh! yet?

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

A lot

of people have been asking me what my plans are for this Christmas seeing as I will be back in OZ and all, and of course it is of interest to me too. I note that some of the lads (Simone, Cads, Runge) are off to the wonderful land of Canada, and shite loads of other people are doing silly things like graduating, getting jobs and even getting married, which means they are leaving Brisvegas.

Unfortunately as I will return home from Sweden in the red, I am not going to Canada with the boys. With luck I will have a job straight away (hint hint keep an eye out for well paid jobs eg. bar work for Rowley) so I can save some money, but it won't be enough to join the boys, and I'll need it to pay back, replace instruments, etc. I also have to some how undertake several months of work experience as well, which doesn't help the social life! So I asked my self a simple question...What can a university bum with no funds and no sugar mumma on the horizon do for a laugh over Xmas? The answer is simple:

+ + +

Basically, the plan is to load the zooter (or some other car if I can't borrow it) with a mountain bike, surfboard, ukelali, tent, food, etc. and travel North, stopping whereever we want to surf and mtb. Camp anywhere, do anything...the point is we just cruise and have a good time. Obviously budget is the key point so I turn for home when I bust my budget. I reckon costs will be low enough...camp by the roadside, cook with a camp stove and cook mil issue stuff...basically main cost will be fuel I reckon. ANYWAY I'm hoping to do it in January to see a bit of this big beautiful country I've realised I know nothing about. I'm calling it...well shit I don't know what I'm calling it...something like 'Beer Survivor' or something. Anyway...if you are interested in ginning along (and pato I do expect your ute to be involved) then let me know via email so we can start organising the thing. Oh yeah, and if someone has a handy cam or something I wanna film the whole darn thing. Then the plan is to sell it to TV as a reality TV show/student travel doco, or if that fails use it as an application tape for Big Brother 4. :)

One Last Thing...

Did you know that there is a Nissan Pulsar Car Club of Australia? I shit you not. It's there. I found it when I was trying to look for a photo of Zooter (our '91 Nissan). Anyway, I figure these bastards don't have much of a club without our little Zooter in there (the most loved Nissan in the entire world), so I joined us up. Click here to have a geez at our Member's Page :)

Whilst I am mentioning Penny-Arcade I am very happy to point out that it seems that after a few months of rather dull commentary and 'eh' comics (eh as in brilliant...but not as good as usual) they are on fire :) Yeah baby.

PS. You know you have too many web comics when it takes you two hours to actually start work every time you sit at a terminal!

Gawddammit...why couldn't i have read penny-arcade yesterday???


WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME THAT YESTERDAY WAS NO PANTS DAY???????

I mean, I slept naked (haven't done washing yet this month...) but that just isn't the same as breaking out the lime green and canary yello 'spirit of oz' boxers and galavanting around the university carrying out random experiments with shrinkage on a cold wet may day... Dagnammit!!!

Courtesy of Barry coutesy of wax.org

The Last Hope
And to think, without the internet I would have missed out on this (courtesy of Waxy.org):
"If you're going to videotape your Star Wars fighting skills on a school camera, remember to remove the cassette when you're done. Watch this embarrassingly good video (Windows Media video).

It didn't take long for the online community to remix it with full Star Wars special effects and lightsaber noises."

Face it, the boy's got mad skillz.

Also, Ice Hockey rocks as a sport to watch. Mind you...I am yet to back a winning team...but still...ice rocks!

Who out there can tell me they are earning $40+ an hour tax free?
I've scored a black job packing bread that pays just that...only bummer is I only get one hour a week... still every little bit helps!


Also, avoid my sister Susannah...judging by her last email or so she is smoking waaaaaay too much weed :)

FINALLY someone who understands my pain...stupid pants...THAT'S why I choose to live in a country where I can walk around in underwear all day. Not now of course...but when I am usually living in Aus, and not some freaky cold place.

OK so I just got back from the Sweden Vs Canada game at the World Hockey Championships (Sweden lost), and although it was fun etc etc. the story I want to tell you is about the boat trip over and our run in with Russian Gypsy Mugger Prostitutes...

So basically we board the boat and all goes well until about midnight when we (California Dave, Canada Dave and Rafael) have had a few beers and are sitting in the upstairs lounge when four girls come over and sit with us. I shit you not the sum total of their ages would have been less than 60 (easily) but they were dressed in scary small miniskirts etc. etc. I tell Cal Dave I'm not all that keen in hanging around and go back to the cabin and leave the other three to piss themselves laughing. I come back later and they are still there but now the bar contains about 6 or so various other scary looking big guys (which the guys didn't see) all very interested in the conversation. Meanwhile the girls at the table are trying their darndest to drug the 3 guys so they can rape, pillage and kill. Luckily

a) we weren't THAT drunk
b) we weren't dumbasses
c) we weren't interested in 11 year old girls dressed like whores.

so we all eventually ended up in our cabin (just the guys...left the rest at the bar) undrugged and freaked out / pissing ourselves laughing. Cal Dave was nicely paranoid and checked the door every 15 minutes to see that the deadbolt was still in place so thankfully that allowed the rest of us to get a good night's sleep :) Thanks Dave!

So that's my scary Baltic Ocean boating story :)

It's a good thing I have a 12 year old age limit thing. :) j/k.