::: untitled post # 388
::: untitled post # 389
looks good on paper — hey, kewl, the paperwork from sydney uni turned up today… it looks good, although, in accordance with the time honoured traditions of human resources departments everywhere, they can’t spell my name & they got the salary wrong… but hey, at least they got my address right… & yeah, i’ve a meeting with my new director tomorrow, so we can sort out those minor glitches & it’ll be all systems go…
::: untitled post # 390
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…
::: untitled post # 391
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…
::: untitled post # 392
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…
::: untitled post # 393
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!
::: untitled post # 394
hands up everyone who went to the zoo yesterday
- alphabetical animals — new in magicdog vs camera!
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 /
do the business in indonesia. was this
what we wanted? a big recliner-rocker
& that voice repeating ‘welcome to television’?
::: untitled post # 395
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
::: untitled post # 396
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!
::: untitled post # 397
aloha tambourinist — after flying in from townsville last night, rob made it to my place just after eleven… & then (as you do) we stayed up until two-fifteen or thereabouts discussing, among other things, just how bad the dinosaur movie was… i mean, it’s not like there was any shortage of lameness to discuss… i realised it was way past time to go to bed when i heard myself saying, “i’m so angry about that movie being so bad that i think i’m gonna go & watch it again…” yeah, i know, it made no sense to me, either…
paging mr supersleepy — rob hadta be at the airport early this morning, so my alarm went off at six as planned… what wasn’t planned was hitting the alarm on the head & going back to sleep until just after seven… fortunately, rob’s apparently made of less sleepy stuff, so when i finally got outta bed & wandered into the lounge room to see if he was awake, he was all packed up & headin’ out the door… at least there was one responsible adult present… if i don’t lift my game, my lounge room floor’s gonna lose its five star rating…
northern safari — speaking of five star accommodation… keri & i are headin’ north for a few days in late september… gonna fly up to townsville on 24 september, where we’ll be staying at the lavishly appointed seagulls resort for a few days before heading over to magnetic island for the weekend… then we fly back to brisbane on 1 october to meet up with a bus that’s gonna take us to byron bay for a few days, before catching another bus back to brisbane & flying home to sydney on 4 october…
social butterflication — so rob brought to four the number of visitors to my flat over the weekend… this represents a huge increase over the previous record which was, uh, well, one… (& which was set the last time rob was here… please note: official visitors to my flat figures do not include myself, keri or my tropical fish…) hmmm… mebbe i need to invite more people over more often? but yeah, louise & richard visited on saturday, then clair dropped in on sunday afternoon, then rob shows up… gosh, all that sociability! i’m exhausted just writing about it! on second thought, back to my hermit-like ways! (at least until i catch up on some sleep…)
::: untitled post # 398
got hills — oh lordy, do sydney got hills… jumped on my treadly & headed off to centennial park this morning, following what appeared to be the most direct route according to my trusty street directory… of course, what my street directory doesn’t include is any kind of elevation data… still, it was a nice day for a lot of asthmatic wheezing, a couple of bouts of Spots Before the EyesTM, & a quite a bit of pushing the bike up some nigh vertical inclines…
but i did get there in the end, & i had just enough energy left to do a leisurely lap of the park, which is really a great place to be on a clear spring morning… &, of course, the trip home was a lot easier… <grin>
midnight rambler — rob’s gonna stop over tonight on his way back to japan… i’m expecting him around 11.00pm, & then he’s gotta be back at the airport round about 7.00 or something in the morning…
