26 June, 2002
I can now officially say that food poisoning is a nasty experience. I figure it’s simply safer to not eat anything than go through that again. For some reason this year has been one in which nature seems to want me gone.
Word
6 June, 2002
All my latest design work is ending up looking ads in a snowboarding magazine. I have started reading Voltaire’s Bastards. I can’t wait to see how it turns out.
31 May, 2002
My little venus fly trap has caught it’s first fly…all by itself. I was quite impressed really considering how small it is. My inspiration has come from a plant 🙂
9 May, 2002
It’s been a while since the last note. Partly due to work, partly due to a lack of enthusiasm. I went for a walk yesterday looking for some sort of inspiration and found very little. Days seem to be passing and disappearing with very little changing. People seem to be all very similar and doing very similar things and I’m as guilty as anyone. Apathy.I have, however, bought some greenery for the office. The hell with a pot plant though, I got carnivorous plants…and so far they seem quite happy.
8 March, 2002
CyberPunk…I want cybernetics, I want a microphone embedded in my jaw, an audio set embedded in my ear, solid-state memory in my head. I want eyes that can see InfraRed and UltraViolet frequencies, I want zoom lenses built in. My eyes should be cameras to world just as they are windows to my soul. I want bio-implants monitoring my health, fitness and emotional state. I want a virtual environment, I want to fight with samurai swords risk free, I want to ride a motorbike at the speed of light and crash it, I want to play zero gravity sports, I want to play SpeedBall. I want Nano Technology, I want programmable hair, I want an enhanced immune system, I want the paint on my walls to change at a whim. I want to reach up into the biosphere and grab information as it passes by.
28 February, 2002
Golf eh?…interesting concept. I went to a driving range with some friends last night. Having never really hit a golf ball with any seriousness before this was an experience to be remembered. I discovered quickly that inline hockey skills are very little help in this game of crazy posing and metal sticks. Did you know that slapshots are illegal in golf? Go figure. I wasn’t prepared for having sore muscles in the morning though. I mean…it’s golf.
22 February, 2002
Last night I was struck by a rather odd juxtaposition of television programmes that highlighted something about Australians and New Zealanders. I can’t remember which was first (they may have been on different channels) but the two programmes in question are: Australian Survivor and 60 minutes (or possibly 20/20, who can tell the difference).
The 60 minutes programme had an article about some Australian guy who had slagged off NZ in an article he’d written. Apparently many New Zealanders were offended and it had caused an uprising of sorts. He was hauled over to NZ where we…put him on TV trying to get him to apologise by touring him around the country. This was fairly weird by itself but there is also apparently great indignation amongst New Zealanders at a growing level of “racism” in Australia towards NZ. This racism is, by the way, in the form of jokes, inuendos about sheep etc. As a Kiwi I found this amusing because a) some of the jokes are funny and b) we give as good as we get…sometimes more so.
The second programme, Australian Survivor, was weird for a more personal reason. I’ve watched the American versions on and off and had a great time completely slagging off the contestants as being over-analytical wimps. I was ready for a good bit of Aussie bashing of a similar nature. I was frozen in my tracks while watching one of the contestants crawl out from under a tarpaulin and proclaim, “Jeez that was a cold one mate”. He was obviously refering to the rather cold night they’d just had…obvious to an Australian and a Kiwi. This weird feeling of familiarity was heightened as I watched them stand around a campfire holding their drinks and chatting quietly. It could happily have been a scene at any New Zealand campsite. It was also a bit concerning when some of them didn’t appear to have accents implying that it was very similar to my own.
All in all it was a great example of the similarities we share with Australia and also the insecurity New Zealand (in general) has in dealings with Australia. Could it be the equivalent of sibling rivalry?
18 February, 2002
I think I had a holiday a week ago…I seem to remember a beach.
Had to resort to NoFX this wonderful Monday morning to get a kickstart. It was that or coffee and alcohol and, quite frankly, it was pretty close there for a while. NoFX won out and have just this minute merged into Millencolin.
23 January, 2002
The gobstopper is no more. It was finally conquered last night at 8:37pm.
Here’s a question. Why do companies think they can get away with having email addresses that don’t work? It’s like having a phone number that no one answers.
18 January, 2002
Computers suck. The things you can do with them are great but the whole environment including the crappy boxes suck.
After years of making web sites work for clients, users, managers, project managers, bob the janitor and the design institute of web awards (or something), a pursuit that requires, form, function and interaction to be merged in a delicately impossible symbiosis, I find it ironic that we still use computers that are complete bollocks.
16 January, 2002
The gobstopper mission is still a go. It’s finally changed color though so progress is being made. Looking forward to having my stereo fixed…Rancid just isn’t the same without some real bass and decent speakers (though who can really tell).
14 January, 2002
I have been given a gobstopper which is proving to be a challenge. It’s about 4cm in diameter and so far it’s taken 3 hours to remove the first 2 layers. I still can’t get it in my mouth though I haven’t forced the issue in case I can’t get itout again.
13 January, 2002
Okay now the weather’s just being silly. It can stop raining anytime now and it’ll be okay with me. At least the house hasn’t flooded…yet. 🙂
10 January, 2002
I’m having one of those days that seems to be bursting with time. This morning I spent what felt like 2 days working on a web concept only to look up and find it had only been a few hours. While I kind of like these sorts of days where time doesn’t drag, there just seems to be a lot of it, it is a little unnerving for some reason. Maybe it’s guilt..who knows. Maybe it’s just a benefit of working at home or maybe it’s the rain.
I was all set to go for a skate but as the driveway is flooded and not conducive to wheeled activities I haven’t been yet. Instead I sat at the computer and read punk articles…which really just made me want to go out for skate.
Interestingly enough time appears to have sped up again. Life can be weird sometimes.
9 January, 2002
After spinning around a couple of punk sites I learned that Bad Religion’s drummer has had to stop due to injury and that 59 Times the Pain and No Fun At All have split up. NFAA’s break up is particularly sad as I have been a fan from their early days. I even have an email from Ingemaar from 1996 when they had just released “Out of Bounds”. It’s interesting to note that punks had taken to the Internet so well. I like punk bands..they stay real.