Ain’t no faffin’ around for my boy
So, on Monday, I was stuck on the Calder Fwy for an hour and a half because (it turned out) the alternator died. Fortunately, I realised something was going wrong with it, so I managed to pull off the road and not be a prime target for someone barrelling alon at 110kph.
This was after a weekend of discussion with my mother about how the poor old Subie was getting a bit old and J was looking online at car ads, teasing me that a van would be a good idea.
We bought a new (used) car on Friday. Fortunately for me, J recognised reality – that there is no way I’ll drive some monster to school – so it’s another Subaru.
See what I mean about no stuffing around?
My dad would be so proud
My dad could talk to anyone. And did talk to anyone. He truly had the gift of the gab. Me, not quite so much. Too shy and introspective, sometimes just too disinterested.
Tonight, coming home from dinner with J (he had his bike to ride home), I got a taxi driven by an Ethiopian man. I know this because when I got in he changed the music station from one playing African music to Fox, and I told him he could turn it back. I then got up the courage to ask whether he was from Africa originally, which part – because he just said east, at first – and then I said something about having just read a little about Ethiopia, about when the Italians invaded.
We proceeded to chat for the whole ride home – only about 10 minutes, I grant you, but impressive for me nonetheless. Helped that he did most of the talking. Apparently, the reason why Jamaicans revere Hali Selase (?sp) so much is that he made it rain, when he visited during his round the world tour, including being the first black African leader (?) to visit the White House. And it seems he also had a mark on his palm like a stigmata.
Fascinating. Maybe I should try this random conversation thing more often.
Mermaid madness
Cassiphone has started Mermaid Madness Month. In honour of that, I thought I would post my very first picture from the UK trip… this is from York. I took it for my friend Kate, who once wrote a story about mermaids with inflatable bosoms (how they manage to bob around on top of the sea, don’t you know), and with whom I saw a play that included a song with the words: “Mermaid fillets: kiss one end and eat the other/ Mermaid fillets: high in protein, low in blubber!”
… and then I wasn’t able to upload any pics. Will have to rectify that.
Adjectives
I hate it when people use phrases such as “woman president.” The French woman would be a female president if she gets elected! It’s like calling someone a Germany athlete or a happiness husband.
Drives me nuts.
The Good and The Bad
Random Way to Make Yourself Feel Great Number One:
Be young, and buy a $10 (or higher) badge from an old coot selling ANZAC Day badges (in April; also works in November with poppies for Remembrance Day). They will be amazed at a young person caring. If you are old, either enlist a young person to do this for you and do it yourself and strike up a conversation (conversation starter: “these young people today don’t know how good they’ve got it…”).
Random Way to Make Yourself Feel Smaller than a Snail Number One:
Run out of petrol.
Ipods and earphones
So it seems the thing to do these days as a teen is to share your ipod – walk around with someone, each of you having one earphone attached to the one ipod. Seems like a slightly looser version of the 3-legged race to me.
Thing is, though, lots of friends are in trios or more. So what I want to know is, has someone invented earphones with more than just 2 listening bits? Or a double-jack or similar so that more than 1 pair of earphones can go into the one plug? This would seem to be the next innovation that ipods bring about.
Life Support
I’ve mentioned this show before – SBS’ faux lifestyle show from about 5 years ago. We’re watching the tenth and last episode right now. In ep 9 and 10, it really went downhill. There were a couple of funny-ish sections in them, but overall they’ve been very disappointing. A bit repetitive, a bit gross, and just dumb. Nowhere near as funny as the earlier episodes. It’s not a huge surprise that it didn’t get a second season.
Death of a Mango
I love mango. Absolutely love them.
Global warming? Nah, nukes are more interesting…
I love this, about the effects of nuclear weapons. It’s a bit old, in ‘net terms, but still pretty damned funny.
Bad ideas
I started playing StarCraft again on the weekend. I gave it up for ages and ages because I got up to a level that was too difficult and I decided I didn’t like it anymore. Then, on the weekend, I thought it would be fun to try playing a game with J. Bad idea; he has a level of intuition with computer games that just makes it totally unfair for me to play against him (did I mention he has built a new desk for the study? Very nice). But I have started playing by myself… which is not good, since I have reports to do at the moment.
The other thing I think was a bad idea was getting a hair cut. Other people will still think it is fairly long, but I am suffering some anxiety because it just feels too short. Hopefully I will learn to cope with this.
Randomly Yours, Alex 