Snakes 1, S'mooks 0

Just when I thought it was safe to walk along the Yarra...

Last night I was watching 'The Great Outdoors' and Hawko was doing a story on a reptile pavilion at Taronga Zoo, Sydney, I think.

Anyway, at one point she had a great big snake draped over her shoulder and I was fine with that.

Then the snake was coiled around her neck and the handler was saying, 'Are you alright? Can you breathe?'

Whilst Hawko may have been fine, I certainly wasn't. I started to feel a bit constrained in the old chest plate and my heart started beating just a tad too fast... That's right, folks, it was a panic attack in the making!

*hmph*

Snakes are gross.

Ask yourself this:

How sincere is your pumpkin patch?

The Great Pumpkin is a-coming!

Office morale.

Lately I've been thinking of ways to increase office morale.

We're a pretty tight group here at work seeing as there are so few of us, but I thought it would be nice if we had outings, like a Golf Day or even going to a Day/Night Cricket Match. I know I spend more time here than anywhere else and why I would want to spend even more time with the fellas is beyond me, but I just thought it would be fun. And summer's here!

Anyway, I bought a toasted sandwich maker/sandwich squisher because I'm over having stale bread sandwiches towards the end of the week. The new appliance received such an enthusiastic welcome that I think we've all bonded through how much we love toasted sandwiches.

I still want to go to the cricket though. This year's Tri-Series is Australia vs. England vs. New Zealand... it's going to be a ripper!

Explosive Arts.

I'm off to see Bill T. Jones' 'Blind Date' as well as 'La Clique'. I'm rather excited.

Now, I've been trying to work out if Bill T. Jones is the fella that was in the milk campaigns back in Canada. I may have him confused with someone else.

I'm very chuffed that I finally get to see 'La Clique' as I missed them completely last year. 'La Clique' is a vaudevillian show described by the New York Times as "Cirque Du Soleil's more brash, less inhibited and more naked younger sister".

I *heart* the Melbourne International Arts Festival.

*claps*

And another thing...

During 'downtime' at home, I've been slowly progressing through 'American Chopper' on the PS2.

I say slowly because I've been trying to deliver a bike for about 3 months now and finally managed to do it last night. My play time on that particular mission was 20+ minutes. Disgraceful.

I may even attempt 'Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault' again.

Insen.

So we went and saw 'Insen' on Friday night. Judging by the number of people who left throughout the performance, I think it was maybe a bit too minimalistic and experimental for their liking.

There were occasions when I was hoping for more than chords from Ryuichi Sakamoto and in my head I was screaming, 'COME ON!!!' But overall, I was just so happy to finally see him perform, that it didn't really matter.

And in the encore (I think the 3rd), when I heard the subtle chords from 'Forbidden Colors' building into that infamous riff, I was in my happy place. Brilliant.

One of these days...

I'm going to learn to warm up and warm down.

I wish my glucosamine was here.

I'm a Star 1.

Went to roller-skating lessons on Saturday morning. I reckon I was at least 23 years older than everyone else having lessons but I had no shame. I'd rather fall down in a controlled environment around other people falling down then going for a full face plant on the street!

Our teacher, Shona, didn't bat an eyelid when we entered the rink. She was amazing. Her skates were like an extension of her body... like she was born with them. While she was instructing us, she was skating around and doing little tricks and I think she knew that we thought she was just a little bit cool... especially when she skated backwards and toe-stopped.

Anyway, the first part of our lesson was to learn how to T-start, T-stop and fall down. I was the least graceful of everyone doing the crouch and slide. I'm just not a slider, which explains some of my more horrendous volleyball injuries. It was rather amusing seeing everyone stretched out and lying on the rink. It was like some B-grade horror movie set in a roller skating rink.

After we had the basics down, we learned to crouch whilst moving forward. Shona thought that we were doing well so she taught us to 'shoot the duck', which is to extend one leg forward whilst crouching. She said, 'Have a go lifting that leg so you're on one skate.'

Easy tiger, maybe once we're Star 2s.

Then we learned to scissor skate, backwards scissor skate and jump. I reckon I got a good 2.5cms between my wheels and the rink on a good jump.

At the end of the lesson, we played 'Come over Red Rover' which is nothing like the playground Red Rover. Any breaking of arms was purely unintentional. Basically, we had to make a mad dash across the rink without being tagged. Anyone who was tagged became a tagger. In the first round, Shona was the only tagger. Watching her stalk her victim was terrifying as she floated across the rink, slowly extended her arm and executed the tag of death. She came after me in the 3rd round but I managed to skate around some kamikaze toddlers and was out of her reach. In the end, I was tagged by Rollerblade Boy who proclaimed, 'I GOT YOU! I GOT YOU!'

All up, it was an exhilarating 40minutes. I was a little bit sore yesterday but today, my right leg doesn't want a bar of me. I've dragged it to work with me against its will.

More next week... I think we're doing a 180 degree jump. I might bring my wrist guards for that.

Jinkies!

House of Sticks.

...

When you're sitting at your desk in the inner city and are suddenly overwhelmed by the smell of a bushfire, you know that summer is no longer coming... it's here.

Brace yourself, Melbourne... we are well and truly in for it.

Ryuichi Sakamoto is coming.

And I'm going to see him.

This is the man that brought us that epic piece, 'El Mar Mediteranni' which was performed at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, depicting the arrival of the Vikings to Spain and so on and so forth.

I think I may be correct in saying that he is also the composer of that very familiar Asian riff from 'Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence'.

For you children of the dancefloor, it's the sample used in 'Heart of Asia' by Watergate, as featured in Show 2 of Red Raw 2001.

How very, very exciting...

Another open letter. (ranting alert)

Dear Moronic Lady on Smith Street,

Just because I'm Asian and standing in a $2 shop, it doesn't mean I work there.

And when I tell you that I don't work there, don't roll your eyes and curse under your breath at me.

I hope someone slaps the make-up off your face one day.

And on another note...

Camper Dan is back from her overseas adventures.

Welcome home, honey!

The results are in...

I can't keep my poll open all day, you know!

I've opted for the iPod Nano. The possibility of having to re-build my music library started to do my head in.

Plus I can't wait for the 8th of November.

Now I bet that my current installation of iTunes won't work with the new Nano as it is associated with my dead Shuffle.

If that's the case, you'll be hearing about it here.

*grin*

A poll.

I'm having somewhat of a dilemma. Should I get the new Sony S200 2G Sports Walkman or a 4G iPod Nano?

This would boost my cache of MP3 players up to 3 but the Shuffle is cactus and the Zen has a crappy battery life.

This Walkman has a flash armband and has pedometer functions. My main concern is that the software will clash with iTunes, which hasn't been the most stable program on my computer. Will it copy all my music twice?

Anyway, it's very pretty. What do you think?

Happiness is not...

Wandering around the perimeter of a rural hospital and having the Project Manager say to you, 'Mind the snakes... I've seen a couple.'