end of week approaching — ummm… it’s friday already? uh, okay. so. how was your week? mine’s been pretty productive, i guess. got lots done at work, did a bit of writing, got some webstuff closer to being ready to go… even managed to fit in some aimless wandering about the shops last night… <grin>

bite bite bite bite bite — woohoo! the largest carnivorous dinosaur ever discovered has been, like, uh, discovered! bigger, even than giganotosaurus (which was bigger’n t-rex)… chomp chomp chomp chomp chomp chomp chomp! rowr rowr! dinosaurs! woohoo!

linkosaurociticitiness

dinorama — at the national geographic site…

dinomorph — oh. my. god. how cool is this?

yo! sue me! — so mebbe t-rex is lookin’ kinda dinky these days, but you still wouldn’t want one to get out of its electric fenced enclosure & start pounding on your stupid little glass-topped amusement park car, now would you? hey! that’d make a great movie! oh, that’s right, no it didn’t.

giganotosaurus — does this page have the best animated gif on the entire web? my money says yes! my brain says no.

deep breaths — okay, i’m feeling much calmer now. calm enough to talk about… spiders! well, calm enough to make a link to a spider page at least. strange how pictures of actual spiders don’t look all that much like the “museum quality” replica spiders at k-mart… i just don’t understand. although my spidey-sense might well be tingling. oh, no, that’s the onset of cramp. what the? uh oh! battlebots!

woah! three words — bear! tag!! sneakers!!! i just bought the coolest pair of sneakers in the world! they’ve got little bear faces on them! hee hee hee!

mildly amusing — oracle’s dot-com-dot-au database info page features the slogan “7 seconds is all it takes to lose a customer” in large type. unfortunately, most of the links on that page open pop-up browser windows that go looking for documents from their dot-com site… i started timing how long it took to open one of those suckers, & i was doing fine until i started to black out from sleep deprivation & hunger… <grin> of course, your mileage may vary…

post-lunch linkage, etc

eurodisco — excellent! the official site for bis, strong contenders for the most jumpin’ up & down-iest band ever… via saturn.org…

cool enuf to melt brains — woah! java being used for good, not evil. i mean, not e-commerce. ah, who knows what i mean… via evhead…

william shatner acting simulator — mildly amusing & spookily lifelike… via kottke.org…

www grudge match — two or more enter, only one leaves… via metafilter.com… (& if you do visit, make sure you don’t leave without reading tarzan vs aquaman…)

removable media jacket — so i’m leaving the student union shop, & i’m trying to get my brand shiny new zip disk into the inside right pocket of my jacket, & it’s getting hung up on something, & i’m getting more & more confused & looking less & less like a secret agent (what?!?) & so i finally give up with the random pushing & jiggling about (what what what?!?) & decide to take a look at what’s already in that pocket, & looky thar! two 3.5″ floppies &… another zip disk! does that make me a cyborg? what if i hooked one of the floppies onto my earrings?

tutorial mystery solved — gosh! if i’d looked at the right handout, i would’ve known that as far as my course is concerned, this week is the somewhat mysteriously named “TUT WEEK”, in which there are no classes. i hope they don’t decide to have an “OXYGEN WEEK”…

so i guess that still means i’m a snapperhead for not being able to read the right piece of paper, but at least i’m not a snapperhead who’s missed a week of classes… wow. now that’s comforting… <grin>

jimbo, put on some pants — & then go & get some red meat…

& once you’ve done that, go & buy me an iBook dagnabbit! i don’t care if it’s upgraded or not. in fact, if you buy me an iBook, i’d be willing to use it for a while (let’s say, a couple of years) & report back to you on how good or bad it is. that way, you could make a really informed decision about buying one for yourself! i doubt you’ll get a better offer…

wurgle argle fargle urgle — hello? systems modelling? hello? anyone? i got held up at a work function & missed tonight’s lecture, so i wandered over to the tutorial room a few minutes early & set up in what looked to be a prime position, only to be outsmarted by the tutor & the rest of the tutorial group, who had obviously decided en masse that there were better places to be… sigh. captain! i’m picking up an increase in debacleon particles!

aaaahhh i can’t stand it, i know they planned it, i’m gonna set it straight this watergate… oops. gone all beastie there for a minute… it’s just i can’t, i won’t & i don’t stop, i said i can’t, i won’t & i don’t stop… i mean, obviously my tutorial group was in another dimension, another dimension, another dimension, another dimension…

rules for systems modelling, part one — this may or may not be a charade, but you’ll never know if you can’t find the rest of the class. (heh, i got so paranoid that i even checked to make sure i was in the right building. i was, but then again, i obviously wasn’t. wow, my very own, like totally quantum state. the systems modelling uncertainty principle?)

okay, okay, i’m going home. sheesh. if only i had a tae-bo video. or a snake robot.

bus-tastic — wow, sydney buses actually managed to make the trip into town this morning without breaking down once! at least, not on my route… <grin>

dancin.fool.inc — & what should i find in my inbox but the ever so elegant dancin.fool.inc! heh, magicdog.com is now officially a Place To Dance On The Internet. excellent! nice work chrisT! now those people in cannnnbrrraaa who don’t have web pages look even more like dave & jimbo & simon.

speaking of jimbo — here’s some excerpts from jimbo’s review of last friday’s jebediah gig:

Well, it was a dark and stormless night. We were surrounded by teeny boppers, muscling their energetic bodies to the bar and drinking our valuable beer. Then there was some music or something.

Area7 were pretty funky, and had stupid hair. The Diahs were pretty damn good, but nothing more exceptional than the other times I’ve seen them. Still that’s pretty good and I jumped up and down.

gosh, jimbo — on the strength of that i think you should rush out & buy us both iBooks, no, i really do.

keep away from… doh! — well, the horoscope always seems like a good idea at the time…

Some will inevitably misunderstand you, but that’s because they can see only a fraction of what you’re doing. You may not even recognize your own progress. Prepare for a happy surprise.

hmmm. this is progress? well, whatever. hey, i hope the happy surprise wasn’t just getting a bus that didn’t break down, cause that’d kinda suck. or maybe the surprise is that my replacement monitor’s still working? i’m finding it kinda difficult to work up much enthusiasm over that as well. product works as expected, film at eleven. sheesh.

technophobia — so first the bus breaks down on the way to work (”ho ho ho, it’s broken. everybody off, thanks,” says mr happy the bus destroyer), & now my new trinitron monitor is whacked. some kinda alignment problem with the guns, i think… in any case, the left hand side of the screen as i look at it has the whole way outta focus rgb banding thing happening. i’ve tried adjusting the horizontal convergence, but there’s not enough adjustment available, & in any case, trying to sort out the left hand side stuffs up the right hand side… sigh.

25.08 & counting — so far DELL’s tech support line has had me on hold for 25 minutes… i’m being (repeatedly) consoled by the fact that my call is important to them…

8.5″ display — i’m writing this with the window squashed into the legible half of the screen… hmmm. that still gives me more screen real estate than the original macs had… <grin> hmmm. i guess it could be a problem with the video card…

junkitron — nope, it’s definitely the monitor… i finally got to speak to a DELL technician after about 30 minutes, & after swapping back to my old screen the problem vanished, so i’m told a new junkitron is gonna appear some time this afternoon…

so how was jebediah? — jimbo & the simonster (& dave? hi dave!) were off to see the jebblies in cannnnbrrraaa on friday night, but as yet i’ve not seen any websites with reviews of the gig that i can link to…

for a minute there — well, i’m feeling marginally fitter, happier after setting up my new pc at work (celeron 466, 128Mb RAM, blah blah). now i’m kicking back listening to radiohead (yeah, the new pc’s gotta soundcard & speakers) & waiting for windows update to finish downloading a heap of security fixes for internet explorer…

hot banana morgan — went to see hot banana morgan’s latest solo show at the performance space on cleveland street last night with keri & claire & andre. there was some minor trepidation before the show thanks to some earlier experiences with audience participation, but those fears turned out to be (largely) baseless. we did, however, get to participate in a ten minute workshop on beatboxing, poppin’ & bodyrockin’… kinda like being trapped in the fatboy slim video for “praise you”…

apart from the workshop (which started the show), hot banana did a heap of various characters & monologues, including a roadie who was setting up for the hot banana morgan show, & a couple of long, at least partially improvised raps that were kinda cool. very physical kind of show, too, with lots of leaping about & shouting. hmmm. & much more skilful than that previous sentence might’ve suggested, just kinda, i dunno, energetic?

cold dis mornin’ — howdy neighbours. kinda cold in sydney this morning, windy ‘n’ overcast too… why do i like that ice cream hands song “nipple” so much? i hesitate to type the words intelligent pop but oops! there they are! kinda like (well, not really, but bear with me here) the muttonbirds in some ways. & no, i have nothing to support that claim.

hey looky — nuffin from wired news today! phew. now if i can just avoid that stupid horoscope icon on my calendar… no! you lousy mouse! get away from that icon! mustn’t… click… must… fight… no… no! nnnooooo!!!

phew — so, what’s been happening? hmmm. hands up all my friends with email. okay, now keep your hands up if you’ve got your own website i can link to. let’s see. hi ken, & linda, & andrew… hmmm… i’m still prepared make lame-ass graphics for people who can’t or won’t make their own… well, for some of those people. & maybe for certain kinds of animals. & obviously for certain kinds of transgenic organisms. let’s say half-man/half-monkey creatures & leave it at that.

i mean, it’s not like you need any content or anything. right? am i right? i’m right, aren’t i? what were we talking about? huh? hello? wow. who would’ve thought my text editor could generate a dial tone? so anyway, this guy walks into a bar & the bartender says, “yeah, that’s the trouble with modern art.”

hi fred! — how are things in canada? i guess if you’re not showing up over here until 2002 i’ve got lots of time to try & find my squash racquet & then try & run into some kinda form… <grin>

Wired News: Sooooopercomputer — so apparently it’s like a supercluster running linux. whoosh. i bet my text editor’d fly on it! <grin> which reminds me…

hey, jimbo — have you got your iBook yet? remember, if you got two, you could give one to me. think about it. no, really. you know it makes sense. you are getting veeerrrry sleepy…

Wired News: Beaver College — you gotta admit, it does sound like a bad frat house movie from the ’80s… maybe a lower budget animal house or something?

sydney today — well, the morning was kinda sunny for the first time since late last week, but it’s getting pretty overcast again now… could be more rain this afternoon… gosh. the nigh ceaseless (okay, the actually ceaseless) drama that is the weather…

in a rut — hmmm. i just realised: two news items from wired news on two consecutive days? uh oh. i might be slipping into a rut… i know! i’ll check my horoscope!

You can outlast anyone, uncomfortable as it might be. Maybe you should try to
keep your connections vital instead of waiting for them to dry up. Good allies are
hard to find.

okay, that’s it. i’m now officially in a rut. hmmm. i wonder if good allies are as hard to find as good horoscopes?

alrighty then — i’m off to newtown to meet linda & track down some food.

at last! moderately interesting stuff via email — just when i thought the megabytes of email newsletters flowing through my inbox were all irreversibly & irretrievably dull…

Wired News: Engineering Multimedia Art — heh, i had a machine that destroyed itself once, but i didn’t really think of it as a piece of art… italian motorbikes… sheesh… <grin>

Wired News: More Amiga Vapourware? — i’m still trying to work out if i actually care about this or not. not, i think… which might mean that putting the link here is just an expression of some kinda morbid curiosity on my part.

good places not to have an anxiety attack, part one — a crowded cityrail train on a wet sydney morning. yeesh. hell isn’t other people. hell is a train full of other people. so there’s like lotsa heat, right? & how about we ramp the humidity way up as well! yeah! & let’s get everyone packed in there like some kind of really tightly packed things! & what’s say we keep them away from any handholds so that they fall into each other when the train stops & starts… & just when they think it can’t get any worse, let’s cram in even more people! looks like i’m destined to be a bus boy after all…

unrelated to anything department — & now, may i present… the gila monster! hmmm. coulda done with some of them on the train this morning. i bet you’d get some personal space if you were festooned with gila monsters. hmmm. do you get festooned with gila monsters? infested, perhaps?

uh oh — why oh why do i keep clicking on the icon marked horoscope?

Now that you’ve shown what you can do, add some style to it. Your self-expression is in
full flower. You can make others see the hand behind the masterpiece.

wow. my self-expression is in full flower? great, looks like it’s all downhill from here… or can i sustain these incredibly high standards? <grin> i guess the question is now: what is the hand behind the masterpiece holding? & why would others wanna see it in any case?

lunch — a salad sandwich on wholegrain bread & a bottle of chemically sweetened beverage please! so here i am back at work after my extra-long weekend, & i’ve made it to lunch time… a small victory, but i’ll take it. <grin>

lotsa rain — didn’t think i was gonna make it to work to begin with… the traffic this morning through petersham & enmore was absolutely nuts… the express bus took an hour & five to drop me in railway square (it usually takes around thirty-five minutes)… i dunno about you, but there’s no place i’d rather spend an hour or so of my morning than in a dank, crowded, slow moving bus. mmmm…

artist’s impression — here’s what i looked like on the bus this morning:

you think that’s bad, you shoulda seen the other people! <grin>

survived the reading — the reading at gleebooks went off okay, turned out to be quite a lot of people there. the readings were good, too, i think about seven or eight of the contributors read one or two poems & then dan veach, the editor of the magazine, read a few of his own poems. keri & linda & i wandered down glebe point road after it was all over & finished up at the dakhni indian restaurant for dinner.

extra long weekend — i’ve today & monday off work, & i’m about to head off into the city in a few minutes to do some serious shopping! on the list? well, the major item is some bookcases, & possibly a book or two to put on them, & definitely some breakfast… <grin>

ahem — i heard about this a little while ago but wasn’t completely sure it wasn’t a hoax… i guess it was for real after all… <grin> & now, an announcement from the Fellowship of Australian Writers (FAW)…

FAW Anne Elder Poetry Award — the twenty-third year of an award for a first book of poetry. Sponsored by a Trust Fund managed by John Elder and FAW Victoria.

Winner
Amanda Stewart (NSW) I/T (Here & There Books)

Second Prize
Kevin Murray (Vic) Jaywalking Blues (Domain Press)

Commended
ted nielsen (NSW) search engine (Five Islands Press)

Commended
Martha Richardson (Vic) In an Empty Room (Five Islands Press)

Commended
Patricia Sykes (Vic) Wire Dancing (Spinifex Press)

Judges’ Report: Jennifer Harrison and Philip Salom
This year, no traditional collection leapt out as a winner. Instead, as we re-visited the collections, we were struck by the innovation and stylistic finesse of Amanda Stewart’s finely achieved book and CD entitled I/T. This is no conventional collection of poems in print with parallel readings, but a very spirited, energetic exploration of poetry as textual, textural, aural and visual. Listening to the dynamic and highly syllabic, multi-tracked CD actually re-conditions the listener, transforming the non-representational written poems into fields of rhythm and group, into multiples and conceptual ironies - so that reading the poems is never the same again but is made excitingly performative. Second prize was awarded to Kevin Murray for Jaywalking Blues. This collection could not be more different - providing ample evidence of a poet very much at home in the lyric poem and offering a broad-ranging and highly literate observation of life through a consistently successful group of lyric poems. Murray writes with poise, humour and quiet assurance. The Commended books represent three entirely different approaches to poetry. Martha Richardson’s In an Empty Room is a collection of firm, personal but deeply ’seen’ poems, using language in a strongly representative mode; ted nielsen’s search engine is witty and very inventive and employs a likeable, low-key abstract wit combined with surreal insights; Patricia Sykes’ collection Wire Dancing ranges widely and energetically and, at her best, brings off striking poems.

advertisement — remember that reading i mentioned at gleebooks on 16 march for the launch of the atlanta review? well, check this out:

you can read the original notice (just in case you wanna make sure that i didn’t add my name over the top of someone else’s) by going to gleebooks & scrolling down their events page. for some reason the page doesn’t render properly in navigator 4.x… ie3 rendered it without any problems. lousy web browsers. grrr.

weird — it’s weird, but i was kinda excited (rowr! no, not that kinda excited) when i saw my name on the gleebooks site. it was like, “cool, i’m on the web!” hmmm. did anyone order this truckload of irony? <grin>

alrighty then — what was supposed to have happened yesterday, astrologically speaking?

The Gemini Moon overwhelms you with petty annoyances and easy targets. You
may need to make a quick shot from the hip instead of taking more careful aim. An
unpleasant moment passes quickly.

hmmm. nope. that’s just all wrong. okay then, a random line of… let’s see, what have i got here… ah ha! pam brown!

Where’s the pesticide ?

ah, now that was exactly what yesterday was like! <grin> (the line comes from a poem called “abstract happiness”, which can be found in pam’s book 50-50 (ISBN 0646322257, published in 1997 by Little Esther Books).