it’s music jim, but not as we know it — mmmm… artistic endeavour… i mean, enterprise. artistic enterprise… [warning: highly illogical.]

book launch — keri’s vagabond press booklet, super-regional, is getting launched tonight… 6.00pm in the john woolley building at the university of sydney…

sunday night reading — keri & i are reading on sunday night at the side-on cafe… which is in sydney somewhere. uh… what? well how would i know? i’ve got days to find out where it is. shut up. okay, look, here. are ya happy now?

burning lines — the 2001 australian poetry festival program… (april 6, 7 & 8 in balmain…)

townsville rockwheelers mountainbike club — hi guys. my bike’s doing time as a clothes rack at present… all the underwear that’s not supposed to go in the dryer fits neatly over the brake levers & handlebar ends… <grin>

uh, vroom? hmmm… there’s apparently an outside chance we might be able to pick up our car tomorrow… the dealer seems pretty confident it’ll be arriving today… & assuming they can get the rustproofing organised, & get the chassis/engine numbers to the credit union so they can sort out the contracts we need to sign, & assuming we can get to the credit union to do the signing, & then assuming we can get the cheque & make it to the dealer… sigh…

sum (re)search

• textual politics & the language poets
• language poetry and the lyric subject
• language poetry: dissident practices and the makings of a movement
• after language poetry
• introduction to deep ecology

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
29/03/2001 @ 11:03 | comments disabled

so i’ve been slack lately — what with work & study & the gym & (occasionally) yoga & trying to find time to spend with keri & writing a job application & working on a poetry manuscript & writing a grant application & trying to follow the necessary steps in buying a car & recovering data from a dead hard drive & rebuilding my pc at home & packing stuff & sorting stuff out & trying to work out a budget &… well, i’ve let things slip around here… <grin>

no promises mind you, but now that speedpig seems to have accepted its hard drive transplant with nary a murmur of protest, i might be able to start catching up with the backlog in magicdog vs camera later this week… gosh, now there’s something to look forward to, right?

speakin’ of catchin’ up — hands up all of those who were recently contacted by an old friend with whom you’d lost touch about a decade ago… now keep them up if you’re me. ha ha. you ain’t me. hey, wait-a-minute…

xrefer — keri sent me the link to this incredibly useful site…

translate-a-car — so i figured out today that “cuore” (which i still can’t work out how to pronounce reliably) is italian for “heart”… so apparently we’ve just bought (assuming we ever get to take delivery of it) a 3 cylinder daihatsu heart. which sounds about right. <grin>

& now — from the old poems discovered while rescuing data department…

advisory notice

mammals trade their options
for seats on the water board
& your heart throws leaves
out the window.
you’re as contemporary
as you’re ever gonna get
so swing it, honey -
be cheeky & gorgeous
the way accents mingle
in the moving air which makes
that string of lights
grin & tingle, distracting us
while our fingers do the walking.

work ethics

hopeful as dirt you skip lunch & press
your face against the photocopier,
each subsequent page blurred with faint patterns
a skilled beautician might use to recommend
an exfoliant & a good cleansing scrub.
you keep waiting for your lifestyle
to catch up with you but have you figured out
who’s following who to a handful of decimal places
or are you still thinking of sexy words
like “approximately”, & “filing cabinet?”
does your heart make the trains run on time?
someone’s been underlining the dictionary again.
someone’s watching your slack arse through a window.

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
27/03/2001 @ 13:01 | comments disabled

busy weekend — two housewarming parties (rachel & crina’s, then andrew & anna’s), & some tidying up, & catching up with dave & fiona & simon & jimbo, & still no car, & sunday night at the hopetoun hotel listening to diverse electronica… who did we see/hear at the hopetoun? well, amongst others, we saw/listened to…

& we scored a CD, which we’ll be able to listen to on the CD player in our car… (if it ever shows up…) meanwhile… busy busy busy…

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
26/03/2001 @ 09:04 | comments disabled

mmmm, debt — our loan’s been officially approved, which means cuore’s for all! (well, for us. you’ll have to get your own.)

mmmm, credit for course fees — & the university fees office called me yesterday afternoon to tell me they’d decided to credit the fees i paid for last semester’s inadvertent database debacle towards this semester’s adventures in database design…

mmmm, bored — & i’m just so bored by this webpage, but i can’t for the moment think of anything else to do with it, & i don’t have time to spend a couple of hours each day lookin’ for interesting links, & i don’t have the energy in any case, so it looks like i’m officially stuck in a rut… sigh. & i’m definitely bored with the whole magicdog monitoring system thing… so take a last look (at least in its current form)…

mmmm, 30-odd gig of speedpig — the good news is i managed to convince speedpig to boot off my new 30Gb drive… & then i convinced it to temporarily read from the old 6Gb drive… so i’ve grabbed most of my data, & now it’s pretty much just a matter of installing drivers & reinstalling applications, blah blah… on the plus side, i now have a new, much faster 30Gb hard drive & a CD-RW drive, so i can make regular backups of all my data & not have to rely on my somewhat eclectic collection of zip disks…

mmmm, sore legs — after getting stuck at work last week & missing the gym, i went last night & today my quads are just totally eternally grateful… youch… mind you, at my current rate of progress, i reckon i’m gonna be buff by july 2004 at the latest… <grin>

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
22/03/2001 @ 10:36 | comments disabled

overcast — grey day today, but i seem to be outta my post-deadline adrenalin-withdrawal slump & back into what passes for the swing of things…

loan (ar)rangers — still waiting for the credit union to ring to say that our finance has been approved for the cuore… [hums quietly to self. fidgets incessantly. stares at telephone.]

Ook deze Cuore is een intelligent ontwerp. no, really…

Maximaler Fahrspa� zu minimalen Kosten…

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
21/03/2001 @ 13:22 | comments disabled

daihatsu, woohoo! after more weeks looking at cars than we wanna think about, keri & i went to maroubra yesterday & put a deposit on a shiny new daihatsu cuore! hurrah! what does it look like? well, i’m glad you asked… kinda exactly like this, in fact:

so wow! how exciting is that? [answer: pretty damn exciting.] now we can zip around the city & go shopping! yay! shopping! & pay for petrol. hey, wait-a-minute… <grin>

anyway, it’s blue, & it’s new, & it’s gotta CD player & seats & dual airbags & side intrusion bars & a 989cc 3-cylinder engine & it’s just! so! cute! we’re hoping that we’ll be able to pick it up on friday so we can start zipping around next weekend…

in other stories — we made the deadline for the first of the major research funding rounds at work, which was a huge relief… now we’ve just about enough time to catch our collective breath before the next funding round lands on us… (hark, is that the sound of applications landing already?) <grin> but you know, things went pretty well, so i think we’ll be okay with the next one…

khe sahn

my hair & my heart are so grey! journey
to the edge of tone / ambient jazz
tasteful as a toothache i’m decorating
my flat with photos of arsecheeks, a long vacation
or holiday from lithium follows /
monitor your seratonin, send me
kisses in the mail (good on ya) flat chat
& hopeless as any formal model
the dog drags home now tired hip hop
arriving late to the post-national party,
sober tensions / blood on illawarra road /
chamber of commerce reassures shoppers
but i’m fiddling, cowboy bebop or gunsmith cats
& later, neither, vietnamese restaurant
walking home through the rain / tax reform
in my hip pocket / love handles casually swinging

busy busy — i’m pretty sure there’s more news, but i’ve gotta list of things to do that’s several forearms long, so i’d better start working on that…

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
19/03/2001 @ 07:48 | comments disabled

wooooooooo — hmmm. now, is that spooky? (spooky-ooky, even?) or maybe deranged? or somehow strangely excited? there’s a test at the end you know…

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
14/03/2001 @ 16:13 | comments disabled

radio userland — radio userland 7.0 has been released as a freeware app… if you’re managing a website & you’re looking for an easily extensible, ultra powerful content management system then you can’t go wrong… if you’re using frontier 5.0.1 or thereabouts, upgrade to radio… it’s way more powerful, & way more stable, & you can leverage all of your existing usertalk scripts & macros…

i am covered in filth, at least it’s my own — as severed heads once said… in a song called “hot with fleas”…

deadline getting closer — if only i had time to manage a website (properly)… got lotsa photos to publish… & a couple of new projects, too… mebbe on the weekend… if i remember/have a chance to buy a new hard drive for speedpig this week… & assuming i have time to reinstall all my software & can restore everything i need from my (admittedly fragmentary) set of backups…

important advice (from the thing i bought last thursday)

1. Do not pull the moveable and installed parts strongly to the non-rotational direction for fear to be snapped.

2. Do not press or trample on it for fear to be crushed.

3. Be careful of the tip parts of the dragon when it is fixed.

4. Open the bosom and close the leg joint as the figure until hearing the crack.

5. Do not make the feet root and the bosom cover bump.

6. Do not let the children under three years old play it for fear to be swallowed.

7. Do not clout it roughly.

8. Do not put your fingers into the interstices between the moveable parts for fear to be squeezes.

gosh. that’s a lotta stuff to remember… oh no! my fingers! the interstices! ow!

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
13/03/2001 @ 10:02 | comments disabled

oh lordy… urgh… brain death in T minus 5, 4, 3, 2…

monday monday

there’s no end to sex unlike the alphabet
& cultural studies starts from there, each premise
quietly crafted or you stop & the discipline
looks like a field that can’t explain
why your vertigo’s acting up let alone
show you where you came in. so is this movement
what we wanted? & who observes
the motion of desire? another classified moment /
another set of good intentions.

sorry dave & fiona — so i totally piked on el davebot & fiona’s engagement party on saturday night… spent most of the weekend in a proto-coma, just completely flatlined, no energy… & a round trip to canberra just wasn’t gonna happen… sorry ’bout that…

wurk — & now four days to deadline… hurrah. [sound of loins being girded...] ummm… oooh… excuse me while i gird my loins again… [sound of loins being girded, but kinda slower...] mmmm… huh? deadline? what deadline? oh, right… that deadline… be right there, just gotta bit more girding to get done…

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
12/03/2001 @ 06:58 | comments disabled

yoink! uh… hmmm… hey, what’s that over there? ha ha. made ya look.

big surf at coogee — went to coogee with keri last night after we’d been to the gym… we had fish & chips on the beach & watched the surf, which was pretty big… lotsa waves, lotsa salt spray, & lotsa people out on boards gettin’ pretty severely dumped…

wurk — eep. so how busy do i need to be at wurk? about as busy as i am, i think… maybe a little less busy would be good? it’s kinda okay, in a freaked-out-you-want-what-done-by-when kinda way… <grin>

showers, clearing — rain on the 339 this morning (well, okay, not on the 339… outside the 339. sheesh. rain outside the 339 this morning. alright already.) what was i saying? uh oh. wurk approaches… maybe if i’m really quiet it won’t see me? shhhh… uh oh… no! no! get away! aaarrrgggghhh!!!

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
08/03/2001 @ 06:54 | comments disabled

return of My Stupid Course — so i’m kinda pleasantly surprised by two new developments as i attempt database design again (this time, hopefully, without any kinda collapse in the middle of it)… first, there’s a new lecturer, who’s much more animated than the last one… & second, there’s a number of tutorials scheduled before the lecture, which means i can get home late (instead of stupidly late) on course nights…

three little words — so i’m pleasantly buoyed by the return of My (New, Improved) Stupid Course, & i manage to snaffle a seat on a bus without a seemingly interminable wait in railway square, & i get rained on in dulwich hill but that’s no big deal, & i talk with keri on the phone for a while, which is cool, & then i wander in to the spare room to fire up speedpig & have a bit of a surf… Hard Disk Failure… oh joy.

woah! backup there fella! so i’ve got pretty much complete backups of all my writing, but there’s a heap of grafx stuff that i don’t have copies of… i’m hopin’ it can be salvaged, but you know, hurrah.

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
07/03/2001 @ 07:30 | comments disabled

important news about robots — via andrew…

more important news about robots…

urgh. busy — shortstaffed at the busiest time of the year is not a good look… it’s lucky my newly blonded head is proving a huge organisational asset… hurrah!

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
06/03/2001 @ 07:50 | comments disabled

7.55am, overcast & slightly rainy — grey day in sydney today… how are things? blah blah… <grin>

email silence — sorry i’ve not been answering much email in the last couple of weeks… work’s kinda busy just at present, & will be until easter…

things to learn in the next six months

• more about python
• more about yoga
• more about SQL & database design/implementation
• more about java (hey jimbo, can i have my book back?)
• relearn filemaker pro

right. well, that little lot should keep me occupied. idle hands & all that… hmmm… although, now that i think about it, the devil’s work does have a certain appeal… hmmm… yeah! screw all that stuff! i’m not gonna learn nuffin! mwah ha ha haaaaah!

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
02/03/2001 @ 07:03 | comments disabled

spam spam eggs spam bacon & spam — you know how sometimes you get a piece of spam that takes your breath away? prepare to gasp in amazement at…

Subject: A gift from the heart!
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=”iso-8859-1″
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2001 01:45:43

When the occasion is here, and what to give you don’t know,
Go to www.poemfromyou.com and the best gift idea to you I will show!

I will take your personal information and put it in rhyme,
For the person you are giving it to, it will be the best gift of all time!

For any occasion from birthdays to graduations,
Even a new house, new job, new baby or retirement celebrations!

This is an awesome, unique gift that will touch the heart,
Go www.poemfromyou.com and let’s start!

Log on or call 866-328-POEM (7636)
This unique, personalized gift is ** ONLY $39.95**, but for the person who is receiving it, it will be PRICELESS!

wow! now there’s a business idea to which i obviously haven’t given enough consideration… a poem of that or similar quality for only US$39.95? gosh. i wonder if they’re planning to set up an australian office?

new feature ahead of schedule — so yeah, spent some time with speedpig last night & got a beta version of the new feature sorted out & ready to go… i think it’s kinda self-explanatory, & where it isn’t then it’s probably being deliberately obfuscatory… & on any given day it may or may not be seen to accurately indicate my actual mood, state of undress, &/or self-awareness… but anyway, look for it at the end of each day’s postings from today on… guaranteed to appear until i get bored with it…

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
01/03/2001 @ 04:41 | comments disabled