POI

Life has been pretty slow around here recently, but to keep my blog up and running freely, and just to let you know some more about what I'm doing, I thought I'd throw some of these little tidbits at you. Mostly they'll just read like commercials for the products, but maybe, just maybe, it'll be a good conversation starter for your next shindig.

KILLER BUNNIES
I'm pretty sure they have this game in the US. It's a card game, much like Magic: The Gathering, except that always seemed way too complex and nerdy. Killer Bunnies is simple. It's about killer bunnies. You might be able to tell from the name that the game has a pretty good sense of humor, and it carries on in everything from the weapons you use in the game, all the way to the instruction manual.

That's another thing... it is a little bit complex, and will probably take until the end of the first game to figure out exactly what the hell is going on, but after that, it's amazing how well thought out and easy the game is to run through. It's also a lot better the more players you have, so try to get everyone to sit down together and keep their ADD under control for a night. But it does say on the box AGES 12+, which is probably about right if you want anyone younger to be able to fully grasp the game.

If you buy it and get into it, there's 10 different expansion packs available, which would give you 660 cards to play with! Then you, sir, would be addicted. Check out their website for more fun at: www.killerbunnies.com

My favorite card: Green Gelatin (with evil pineapple lumps) Weapon Level 2

WICKED CAMPERS
These vans are awesome. I was seriously considering getting one for my birthday so I could drive up to the Gold Coast, but it turns out the closest place that rents them is an hour further on the OTHER side of the Gold Coast. But either way, these things are all over Byron, and I don't like so much for the fact that some of them have a full kitchen in them, but the fact that the artwork and the sayings on them are always really sweet. The pictures range from bands like the Gorillaz to Jimi Hendrix, to movies like Team America and E.T. And the sayings... here's some that are on there:

"I'd like to meet the person who invented sex and see what they're up to now."
"Don't be difficult. Put in some effort and be impossible."
"Support bacteria. It's the only culture some people have."
"Cocaine is God's way of saying you're making too much money."

It's always good to see these when you're having a slow day. If you want to see more, check out www.wickedcampers.com.au.

BANKSY
Hopefully you've heard about Banksy, whether you like what he's doing or not. I think he makes the world a better place. OK, better will be debatable, but I'd say more magical. He shakes people out of their daydreams.

I think probably the first time I heard about him was a couple years ago when they found a painting that he had put up in the British Museum of a caveman pushing a shopping cart, and the painting has stayed up for several days before anyone noticed, and it was only after he put up a scavenger hunt for it, that anyone found it as a hoax. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

But really, his work speaks for itself. Check out www.banksy.co.uk for more.




MUSIC AND BOOKS

As I mentioned in a post a while back around the time of my birthday, I got this CD Movie Monster by Sound Team, and it's STILL rocking my face off. They have a really raw, simple sound, yet they're really melodic and sharp. Check them out for sure.

I've also been getting a good deal of reading in recently, and I just finished Tokyo Cancelled by Rana Dasgupta, which was good, but fluttered out at the end, and Politics, by Adam Thirlwell, which was really good. So now I've started on The Society of Others by William Nicholson, who apparently also wrote both The Velveteen Rabbit and Gladiator, so I suppose this one falls somewhere on that spectrum. I'm only 3 chapters in, but the narrative so far is really captivating. It's also got a great quote which caught my eye: "Either be silent or let your speech be better than silence." I like that in today's loud, obnoxious world.

So that should be good for a while. There was a couple other things that I was contemplating putting up here for you to have a gander at, so those might be coming around unless I find something better to talk about.

The Church of You

Alright, I know I just wrote that huge long post about my drinking escapades, and that's really all I've been writing about recently. It's really fun when you're there, but maybe not so much fun to read about, and I don't want everyone to think that that's all I'm doing down here. So I have this little one too.

For the past couple of weeks, this french dreamboat that goes to our school has been trying to get my roommate Chirag to go to this church where he runs the sound desk. Chirag kept saying he'd go, but when it came time to go, he'd always back out. It's no skin off my back. I hadn't been the one that was chomping at the bit to go. But tonight, after a lazy, boring day, "the four" of us decided to go over there. Let me just clarify: usually when I say "we" or "the four", then I'm mostly referring to Chirag, our neighbor Matt, Melisa and I, since we're the closest friends here and we usually do everything together.

So the four of us go over to the church and it's a really friendly environment when we walk in. Instead of pews and a stage for the preacher, there's tables set up and everyone is sitting there drinking their coffee or tea, and right when we walked in, at least 5 people rushed up to us to try to make us feel at home. It was almost a little off-putting. Most of the tables were full, but we found a nice couch off to the side were we found a seat, and the sermon began. With the laid-back attitude of the room, I figured the sermon would be really short and fun, but the preacher starts rambling on about abortion and the devil eating babies, and the rebirth of christ being from an incestuous union.

I really couldn't grab on to a single thing he said, and everytime he tried to back up his comments with facts or figures, he would just tend to contradict himself. But everyone in the congregation was nodding along and adding their "mmm"s and "uhhuh"s at the correct times. And some of the stuff that he said was so ludicrous. Like for the figures that he gave on abortions in the United States to be true, there would have to be as many babies aborted in 5 DAYS, as babies that were actually born in an ENTIRE YEAR. And everyone sits there and gasps at these figures because they think it's so tragic. Tragic indeed. And he ends off with saying that if Jesus Christ was to be reborn today, he would be aborted. He makes it sound like the world isn't pro-choice, but pro-abortion. Maybe it would solve over-population.

So after the sermon, I was ready to take off since I'd taken enough of the bullshit, but that's when the music started, and we got to get a glimpse at what we'd really come for. We went back to watch Jean Luc work the desk and while the other three were asking him questions and taking it all in, I was still captivated by the congregation. Maybe it was because I'd been through it all before, but religion at that point seemed so inane and stupid to me. The people were up there with their hands in the air, or they were crouched down on the ground with a fist to their forehead, being born again.

A guy comes and starts chatting withe me. He's just a couple years older than myself and he starts up about how he just got back from travelling the world doing missionary work. He was a really nice guy and he had some interesting stories, but when I started talking to him about religion, he started criticizing me.

Me: "Well, I kinda think that it's not necessarily as important to be a good church-goer as it is to just be a good person."

Him: "I disagree. There's lots of nice guys out there, but if they don't have God in their hearts..."

Me: "Doesn't that take too much power away from an individual?"

Me: "Doesn't it say in the bible that you should praise God on your own terms, and not to be like the false fanatics in the temple..."

Me: "Can't something just be what it is, and not an act of God?"

And he kept arguing with me. That's fine that he thinks he's right, but he wouldn't let me believe that I was right. And that's the main problem that I've come across with organized religion in the past years. Everyone is too controlling, and really just too worried about the things that should just be left alone. They get so caught up in trying to live their lives through God, that they forget that they can do these things. Look at a child who has no concept of religion and their minds are so vast because they haven't been limited by talk of sin and heaven and hell.

But there was one thing that we could agree on after the entire debate. You do it for the people around you. Back in Timnath, that's what it was. It was never a religious experience for me at church, but the reason I kept going back wasn't necessarily because my parents made me, but because you have friends there and you can always count on them for support for the rest of your life.

So what turned me away from religion? It wasn't the crazies, the ones on the streets that yell of fire and brimstone. That came later. And it wasn't that I "grew out of it" once I got to college. Once I got away and all of my friends moved away and or we consequently broke up, I lost that support in my life, and I started to realize that it was me controlling my life. I needed to make something happen, and I knew that if God was there in the beginning, he'd be there in the end, and I didn't have to make a deal out of it. But I still can't think of any event in my life up to this point that was altered or acted upon by a higher power. And I don't think that we have to pray to God to get a response from him.

OK, I'm rambling and getting pretty sacreligious here, but it all comes down to what I said earlier. I don't need someone to preach to me about a life that they haven't lived. And even though I don't know what it is, that's why I like the sound of the Church of Life. It could be The Church of You.

I guess it's about time

I guess it's about time I tell you about my birthday. My actual birthday was last monday, and because I knew my 21st here wouldn't have the same meaning as a 21st in the States, I just wanted to do something where everyone could have fun, and not just have it revolve around getting as tanked as you can. I can do that anytime, anywhere here, so I wanted to go up to Surfers Paradise and see what there was to see. So that's exactly what we did. A small group of people got together and we all set off up the coast around 8 at night and made it up to surfers in about an hour.

I had two main things I wanted to do: 1) Go to the arcade 2) Go to the casino. We were all a bit hungry when we got up there, so we stuffed ourselves full at Oporto and then went to play some video games. They have a pretty good deal where for $15, you get two hours. The first hour you get unlimited video games, and in the second hour you get to do bumper cars, putt putt and laser tag. Most of our time was spent playing Time Crisis 4, which will absolutely blow your mind, so we were well warmed up when it came time for the laser tag. We busted some heads, and I came out second out of everybody, so I felt like a virtual badass.

After that we drove over to Conrad Jupiters which, if it isn't the only, is probably the most popular casino in Surfer's Paradise. They have some really annoying jingles on TV, so we figured it had to be good. And it was. It was really nice and we had a lot of fun. I won't say how much I won or lost, or how much was spent on drinks, but I came out of the evening looking pretty good. When we looked at our watches, it was already 3 o'clock and we figured it was probably best that we leave then before the tables turned on us.

So it was a good birthday. I had fun, and so did everyone else, so I was pleased.

Then last night we had a huge barbecue. This is something that Melisa and I had been planning for quite some time. Her birthday is tomorrow, so we wanted to have a little joint celebration right in between the two days. So for the last week we started spreading the word around town about the party, and we were expecting a packed house. When we went to the grocery store, we didn't hold back. We bought about 11 pounds of ground beef, about 50 sausages and a couple packs of chicken legs, along with countless bags of chips, boxes of potato salad and some baked beans for good measure. All in all, we hauled back $160 in supplies.

And then there was the alcohol. We told everyone to bring their own, so we didn't really have to worry much about it, but I was feeling a little bit risque on that night and I wanted something a little bit different, so as I was browsing the shelves at the liquor store, I stumbled across a bottle of absinthe. You know what? Why the hell not? I picked it up, along with a box of apple juice for mixing. Everyone was warning me to be careful of it and not to drink it too fast, and once I mixed it up, it was so yummy, I thought it might be a problem, but it was alright in the end, as you'll see in a minute.

So people started showing up around 7 when they were getting hungry, so I fired up the barbecue and threw some meat on. It was cooking nicely and everyone was starting to have a good time, but there was one problem. It was a beautiful night out and everyone wanted to sit outside in our backyard, but we really only had a small table and 2 chairs out back. We started to worry about what we were going to do, when not more than 2 minutes later, some friends come running in the door saying they have my birthday present out front. If that's not making me skeptical... So I go out front and there's a truck parked there and two huge guys are unloading tons of junk. They take down a table, 6 chairs and a old blue refrigerator that the guys had been using for bait, and they were giving it all away for free! Now this is just too perfect. We take the table and chairs out back and voila! It's absolutely perfect. We even hooked up the fridge in the back too, and it works! It even became a favorite seat for people that needed to cool down from dancing too much.

So more and more people kept coming and the grill was spitting out food left and right, trying to feed all these people. Here I am, drinking my absinthe and apple juice, and it starts giving me this incredible energy! I'm running through the house grabbing things that people need, flipping burgers, greeting people at the door, everything! I even went inside and got to dance some. I was having a great time and people kept telling me how great everything was. I was smiling from ear to ear. So once we got some food in everyone, the consensus view was that we should go to the beach for some fire twirling.

Luckily the beach is within walking distance, so we all made it over there safely and started up a bonfire. It was warm out so people were dipping their feet in the water and having a good time, at least until one of the mexicans tried to do a cartwheel, and ended up putting his hands right into the fire. I wasn't there, but I heard that it was a) funny as hell and b) bad enough that he had to go to the hospital. So some of the people left, and I was stuck down there with my feet in the water, staring up at the sky. Apparently the absinthe had super-sensitized my entire body, so I was listening to the shooting stars, and I could feel the waves hitting my feet throughout my entire body. It was creepy how much control I had over my environment.

So I snapped out of my daze and realized that about half the people had left already to go to the hospital, and everyone else was kinda wearing thin. We gathered our things and came back home to our messy house. Chirag put on some Pink Floyd, and we sat around for maybe an hour more, just talking about life and girls.

It's really impossible to fully describe how great the night was, and there was lots of pictures, but apparently Melisa deleted them by accident this morning, but I'll see if anyone else had some. Luckily everyone had a good time and I still got to enjoy myself while working my ass off playing host.

Slow Night, So Long

Not much to talk about these days. My birthday came and went, and while it was fun, it wasn't on the gradiose scale that I always thought my 21st birthday would be presented at. Then Valentine's Day. What a joke.

So the days have been slow. There's been some massive waves, like 10-12 feet, here because there's a tropical storm off the coast of New Zealand. Most people would be pissing themselves with excitement, but I was mostly just pissing myself. They were way too big for me to surf, but I went out and bodyboarded on a couple of the beasts, and it was then that I was happy I didn't take my board out. The waves threw me down into the ocean floor with such force, I couldn't believe. Luckily, I could execute my tuck and roll method along the sand so I didn't get hurt too bad.

Today I woke up and cleaned up this sty a bit since we have housing inspections coming up in a couple of days. It's gonna be even worse since we're having a barbecue here in a couple days, so I hope it doesn't get so out of control that we can't clean everything up before the inspections. After I'd cleaned my ass off, I wanted to get outside, so I hopped on my bike and started to ride into town. I didn't know exactly where I was going, but I stopped by my friend Cameron's house to talk to him, but by the time I got there, I realized I was only 40 short kilometers from Ballina. Maybe I messed up the conversion in my head, but I somehow thought that wouldn't be too far to ride on my bike. Mostly I needed something to do. I started riding like a madman and I got about a quarter of the way there before the hills got to me and my water started to run out. I started back home and barely made it before collapsing in a heap of self-satisfaction. It must've been about a 20 mile ride all together, and I did it out of the blue, so I was pretty happy.

And now that I'm thinking of it, I don't think I've ever given a link to my brother's blog. He always sends his friends over to mine, so if you're the blog-surfing type, you might want to go check out his page. Especially congratulate him on his marriage, and check out the pictures of him and his new wife. Much better than the old wife.

Other than that I've just been playing guitar, reading, listening to music. Whatever catches my interest. I just got my birthday present from my family yesterday so I'm digging into some of my new music. I'm especially into Sound Team and The Shins' new album right now. Also, the Kings of Leon just released a single for their upcoming album and it's freaking amazing. It's called On Call if you want to check it out, but maybe it's already all over the radio in the States. I'm not there, I don't know.

So hopefully I'll get some good pictures from the barbecue tomorrow. I know I always say that, and never get any, but hopefully SOMEONE will get a picture of the hairdo I'm planning. Hopefully those will be coming!

Take care.

Small Town Trap

Yeah, so I haven't been posting much lately. Big whoop, wanna fight about it? Life is just going too slow for comfort right now. I suppose I'm at the 4 month skid where you really start to learn just how boring the town you've moved to really is. Everything was great before Christmas, because you always have that to look forward to, but after that... I just don't know what there is. Costa Rica in July? Christmas again? Even with my birthday coming up in two days I'm not getting excited. 21! That's the golden number in the States, but in Australia it's nothing. Especially if you're 21 in Byron, and you don't have dreads or smoke copious amounts of weed, you don't exist. But yeah... not that excited about this one.

What's more is that the weather doesn't let up here. It's been constantly hot the entire time I've been here. Technically, I don't think it's as hot as it was in Colorado over the summer, but I really just need a break from it. I'm really starting to see a correlation between the temperature and my mood. I miss the cold nights when you're shivering when you get into bed, then you wrap all the layers of sheets and blankets around you to keep you warm. That's the best sleep I ever get. I'd wake up in the morning and feel so full of energy. Whenever I go to sleep here, I have to lay spread eagle on top of my sheets, directly underneath my fan, and I'll still wake up feeling sweaty and sticky. And that's when it's cooler at night!

But I suppose I can't really complain. I've been trying my best to keep busy all the time without resorting to getting pissed all the time like a lot of other students that live around here. I think I've been using my brain more than I have in years. I read a lot, been playing guitar, learning minute amounts of spanish... And at night we've been having fun the good old fashioned way. We play uno, and celebrity heads, and on certain nights of the week, we'll go out to our favorite places. Tuesday is $5 pizzas at eagle boys and cheap movie night at the theater, Saturday night is steak night at the services club so we go and eat and play some pool and darts... As much fun as it is, it does get pretty frustrating that the town doesn't offer much more than this. We're already stretching the limits of our imaginations.

I used to think that Fort Collins was a nowhere town and everyone just wanted to get out, but I can see now that I had it pretty sweet back there. So if any of you back there are getting discouraged or bored, I can tell you all the great things there are to do there, which I wish I could take advantage of now. But, and I only say this because of what I've been hearing recently, just get out and do something different. Don't worry so much about other peoples problems, or even your own, and go and discover everything there is to do in the world, before it's all gone.

Suffocate from lack of stimualation... My friend and I stick to the tired couches... Inspire me cause if you don't I think I'll dissipate to dust. The liar in me says somethings gonna happen soon because it must. Eve 6