we find your lack of faith disturbing

::: untitled post # 677

mope-a-dope — been a bit distracted with the aftermath of the reporting deadlines, swamped by a whole range of tasks that had been on hold… have cleared the more urgent ones, trying to get my head into a better space… making plans for the rest of the year/decade/life… not much in the way of ideas as yet, but i really need to redirect my gaze from my navel to the horizon…

option fatigue — i keep waiting for some kind of gnostic revelation to show me the way, but it just ain’t happening… for instance, at different times the following possibilities all seem more or less interesting:

  • look for a new job;
  • restructure my current job;
  • choose the second option & enrol in an MBA, or some kind of masters in IT management;
  • choose the second option & enrol in a DCA;
  • choose the second option & do some oracle courses;
  • choose the second option & do a graphic design course;
  • buy a new bike
  • upgrade my old bike
  • find “bike” in previous two options, replace with “computer”;
  • throw it all in & work in a bike shop;
  • join a cycling club;
  • throw it all in & live in an ashram…

yawn — the vacillation is endless… but. taking the geographic/new employment cure will only defer the problem for another twelve to eighteen months… & retail therapy’s just a distraction that’ll but briefly assuage the symptoms… & for sure, me, in an ashram? so i’m really trying to work out which of the vectors i wanna hitch a ride on… pointy-haired boss? sandal-wearing database honcho? doctor poetry? graphics geek? i mean, no pressure…

hey, el davebot — did you know the scar is out in regular-sized paperback… (or should that be, badly edited regular-sized paperback? there are two relatively jarring inconsistencies in the text, just minor details, but annoying & unnecessary… the book says something on one page, then contradicts itself a few pages further on… & yeah, they’re mistakes, not dramatic irony…)

still — is it as good as perdido street station? i’m not sure… it is good, very good, but you know, perdido street station was astounding… having said that, the scar was very, very difficult to put down… has anyone read king rat? what’s that like?

it’s all downhill from here — taking a trip north in late august for some r & r (& r)… my mum’s having a birthday, alix is getting married, & his royal daveness, warwick & i are going to do the sunday part of the rrr from the atherton tablelands to port douglas… although i don’t imagine dave & i will see much of warwick once the ride starts… but yeah, i’m totally looking forward to it…

& it’s whispered that soon/if we all call the tune — as you’d expect, there are some long downhills on the rrr (that whole diving off the edge of the tablelands thing), so i’ve been riding down stairs whenever i get the chance… slightly dodgy, given the advanced state of decrepitude of my front forks, but you know, live for danger & all that… warwick’s going to loan me one of his extensive stable of bikes to do the ride, & to assist the slightly dirt-challenged among us, we’re gonna put in some training days in the week following alix’s wedding…

exercising his right — his royal daveness is taking the whole event so seriously he’s even started cross-training… let’s get physical, physical, i wanna get physical… if you listen very closely, you might be able to hear his body talk… <grin>

coffee wants to be free — don’t you hate it when your coffee climbs up the string of your coffee bag & lays claim to a large part of your desk (& the report that’s innocently sitting there, minding its own business?)

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
24/07/2003 @ 08:08 | comments disabled

::: untitled post # 678

fell to the red room — because she was there, oh-oh-woah-hoh…

deadline — as yesterday’s dancing robots suggested, the huge deadline that looms over the approximate middle of each of my years (for as long as i persist in working in roles similar to the one in which i’m currently working) has yet again passed… this year, with the except of a few fun-filled hours on friday afternoon/evening (i’m looking at you, Lotus Notes), it passed with a distinct lack of stress… partly the result of slightly better organisation & planning on my part, partly the result of having good people working with me…

havin’ trouble, with my direction — upside down, a chain reaction, yeeeah…

& now — onward into the remainder of the year, feeling slightly bereft at the moment (usual post-deadline let down), but kinda mildly interested in what’s still to happen… research management database implementation, website redevelopment, statistical archive to build, couple of months to take off, future to decide… just, you know, little things to take care of before christmas…

talkin’ ’bout — lard removal, lard removal machine

thank you, sbs— for not showing another live stage of le tour last night, because, you know, even though i was in bed asleep by ten, if there’d been live cycling on telly…

baby, baby, baby, baby, baby — i fell from the sky…

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
15/07/2003 @ 16:25 | comments disabled

::: untitled post # 679

& we’re back…

robots dance on grave of deadline

tour de france — speaking as a cyclist (albeit an amateur one, although, you know, a keen amateur), i have to ask: is there anything more boring than watching cycling on tv?

& another thing — speaking as a supposedly rational, mature man of 35 (albeit an amateur one), i have to ask: why was i sitting in front of the television at 1.45 this morning watching a bunch of sweaty, overpaid, lycra clad freaks pedalling their sweaty, overpaid, lycra clad freakish selves to the top of some mountain in the french alps?

four reasons why pirates of the caribbean already has my money:

  1. johnny depp;
  2. orlando bloom;
  3. over-tiredness;
  4. UNDEAD PIRATE MONKEY!!!

together at last — [insert name of actor] & undead pirate monkey… the hulk’s only been out for what, a few weeks, & already there’s a new contender for Greatest Movie Ever Made…?

they spit on their gravy — had a great time the weekend before last hanging out with (at different times) fiona & dave & anna & andrew & ev… andrew, dave & ev spent the week recording a new spit album… did they come up with anything as good (if that’s the right word) as mr tyrannosaurus rex goes to the shops…? when not being monstered by blogger, dave did the whole studio journal thing on lexifab

stories of the riverina — keri’s spending the week in wagga on a seven day writing binge (at least, it’s supposed to be a writing binge) so i’m rattling about in the flat by myself for a few days… hence the cycling on tv until the wee small hours… & struggling once again to get the quantities right when cooking for one… why is cooking for one so much more difficult? i always finish up making much too much…

metacruft: magicdog vs sydney
14/07/2003 @ 14:59 | comments disabled