I don't even know if I can answer that. Without virtual reality, I don't really know what reality is anymore. My internet got cut off for a couple of weeks without notice, and now I'm left with some sort of crap internet that must have come from 15 years ago. The connection is so unsteady that I can't sign on to chat, and it's hard to even stay on a website for more than 3 minutes without it getting bored and kicking me off. Pretty poor excuse for internet at a technological school.
So I'm pretty mad about that. But life isn't all about the internet. I've been getting out and trying to find a job. I went to about 5 places today, and the general consensus seems to be that the town is closing down until the next tourist season. That better not be the freaking case. But I didn't have a shining bit of luck yesterday. Melisa's also looking for a job, but she's never had one before, so I said I'd go along and help her out, kind of guiding her along. We went into the beach hotel, sat down, and I started to tell her what to say to the people when she went up to talk to them. It took about 10 minutes to build up her confidence, and in the end they said that she should probably hand in a resume first and blah blah blah.... We had left our resumes at home since I was used to the States where you just go pick up an application first. So we left there, and went across the street to the Curry House where I was thinking of getting a job. I walked in and started talking to the manager, and walked out no more than two minutes later and he had offered me a job. He said I was gonna be washing dishes for the first week at least, but that's fine with me. So that got Melisa pretty pissed off.
He called later and said that once he looked at his schedule, it might not work out as soon as planned, which sounds like a "f*** off" phrase, but he seemed nice enough, so I went back in and dropped off my resume to some girls working there, so hopefully he'll know that I'm actually serious about working there.
So that's going on, and as far as school goes, we're starting to get into it more now. We've got quite a few projects lined up, and we're gonna have to record our first full band coming up in a few weeks. It's a pretty daunting task, but hopefully it'll be fun. So that's it. I just haven't been into writing much recently, but that doesn't mean I'm dead or nuthin'.
So I hope everyone had a good spring break, and just be glad that you got a break. I know Byron Bay is the most relaxing place on earth, but now I need a break from it. I want a big city with flashing lights and 30 story buildings. I think I'm going to Vegas first thing when I get back.
Mar 20, 2007
Mar 8, 2007
Mar 7, 2007
Feeling Good
What's new? What's new? First of all, I had a really good weekend. On Friday night, we went to a Sarah Blasko concert at a small bar in town. I'm pretty sure I had heard of her before I came down to Australia, so I thought I should jump at the opportunity to see a potentially big name at a small venue for a meager ticket price. I'm glad I did. Both the opening act and her band were really good, and they put on quite a show. I likened it to a Yeah Yeah Yeahs concert with a little less energy and a lot less Michael Stipe face paint. I hope someone knows what I'm talking about.
On Sunday, we had the monthly market, and it was almost too much to handle. The sun was relentless in its quest to kill every organism on Earth. We got there and got some food, and could hardly move out of the shade afterwards. I did have a few purchases in mind, though, so I knew that I had to go get those, and then we could get the hell out of there. I went and bought a machete and a chili plant, and that was all I could handle. I had what I needed, so we were getting out. As we started unlocking out bikes to leave, we saw this guy selling puppies for $50, and I started into a huge debate with myself on if I should get one. $50 is only $50 more than a steal! I was practically counting my money when I talked myself out of it. I knew there was too much that I was overlooking; like the fact that we can't have pets. So in the end I think I made the right choice even though it broke my heart.
As we were driving around later, we heard on the radio that Nine Inch Nails were coming to Brisbane in May, so when we got home, we jumped online and grabbed some tickets since they were actually really cheap. So we'll be seeing them on May 7th, two months from today, which is funny since it's also exactly one month after I'll be at the Blues and Roots festival, watching the Roots. I won't rub it in by telling you who else I'm gonna be seeing there, but they've got a pretty sweet line-up this year, except they don't have Sigur Ros who I really wanted to see from last year.
So on the other end of the spectrum from music, I saw Apocalypto last night, which I thought was freaking awesome, especially the part where the jaguar eats the dude's face. OK, it was gross, but you gotta admit, it was pretty cool. But I also finished the book I just told you I was reading The Society Of Others. It was also really good and had some pretty insightful stuff. But the more impressive fact for me is that I counted, and I've read 7 books since I've been here! In order, they are:
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Stuart:A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters
Operation Typhoon Shore by Joshua Mowell
The Prestige by Christopher Priest
Tokyo Cancelled by Rana Dasgupta
Politics by Adam Thirlwell
The Society of Others by William Nicholson
I say that's not bad considering that a couple years ago I wouldn't read anything except Harry Potter.
So finally the weather is cooling off here and has been dumping rain on and off by the buckets full for a couple days now. I can finally sleep well at night and I'm getting some energy back. Yep, feeling good.
On Sunday, we had the monthly market, and it was almost too much to handle. The sun was relentless in its quest to kill every organism on Earth. We got there and got some food, and could hardly move out of the shade afterwards. I did have a few purchases in mind, though, so I knew that I had to go get those, and then we could get the hell out of there. I went and bought a machete and a chili plant, and that was all I could handle. I had what I needed, so we were getting out. As we started unlocking out bikes to leave, we saw this guy selling puppies for $50, and I started into a huge debate with myself on if I should get one. $50 is only $50 more than a steal! I was practically counting my money when I talked myself out of it. I knew there was too much that I was overlooking; like the fact that we can't have pets. So in the end I think I made the right choice even though it broke my heart.
As we were driving around later, we heard on the radio that Nine Inch Nails were coming to Brisbane in May, so when we got home, we jumped online and grabbed some tickets since they were actually really cheap. So we'll be seeing them on May 7th, two months from today, which is funny since it's also exactly one month after I'll be at the Blues and Roots festival, watching the Roots. I won't rub it in by telling you who else I'm gonna be seeing there, but they've got a pretty sweet line-up this year, except they don't have Sigur Ros who I really wanted to see from last year.
So on the other end of the spectrum from music, I saw Apocalypto last night, which I thought was freaking awesome, especially the part where the jaguar eats the dude's face. OK, it was gross, but you gotta admit, it was pretty cool. But I also finished the book I just told you I was reading The Society Of Others. It was also really good and had some pretty insightful stuff. But the more impressive fact for me is that I counted, and I've read 7 books since I've been here! In order, they are:
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Stuart:A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters
Operation Typhoon Shore by Joshua Mowell
The Prestige by Christopher Priest
Tokyo Cancelled by Rana Dasgupta
Politics by Adam Thirlwell
The Society of Others by William Nicholson
I say that's not bad considering that a couple years ago I wouldn't read anything except Harry Potter.
So finally the weather is cooling off here and has been dumping rain on and off by the buckets full for a couple days now. I can finally sleep well at night and I'm getting some energy back. Yep, feeling good.
Mar 2, 2007
3 Short Stories About Byron
I have a couple short stories, which, frankly, aren't really much of stories at all. If I put them on their own, they would be the waste of a post, but I figured if I combined them into one super-post, then they might squeak by as something that can be classified as "entertaining" or "edutaining". So strangely enough, two of the stories involve my friend Cameron, who I never get to hang out with much. He lives on the other side of town, and is married, so we basically get to talk during our break at class. So, naturally, I wasn't there when these things happened, but I don't think that even really matters. So I'll start with him....
1. Cameron was walking down the beach, taking a dip and body-surfing some. The sun was hot and the beach was crowded, and it seemed like nothing was wrong. And there was nothing that anyone should be concerned about. Sure, there's sharks in the waters around Byron, but there haven't been attacks, but like it or not, ever since Steve Irwin died, there has been a lot more reports down here of people getting stabbed by stingrays. One happened just up the road at one of our fishing spots, in fact, we always see them swimming past, where they'll lift up one of their wings out of the water, and wave as they pass. Maybe they were trying to lure us in. I don't know.
Cameron was just walking through the knee-deep waves, and when he took his next step, he felt something slimy underneath his foot, and as he lifted it up, there was an unbelievable pain that shot through his foot, and could feel it climbing his leg. He dragged himself back up out of the water and looked down at his foot, where there was a small hole, clean through. His wife was lounging in the sand, so he called out to her. She helped him up the beach, along with the help from some concerned on-lookers, and took him to the hospital. I guess these things are normal. The doctors shot him full of this and that, and something containing an anti-venom, and sent him on his way.
2. Cameron again. This time he's walking down the main street in Byron. He's good friends with the owner of Sharky's Tattoos, so he rocks up there every once in a great while to say hello. This day he walks in and starts talking to his friend who's sitting down, concentrating on giving a tattoo. The man who's getting his skin inked has his head down, looking at the work that's being done, but when he hears the conversation between the two, he look up at Cameron. "Hey," the man says. "Hey... HEY! You're Ryan Reynolds." "Yeah," says Ryan Reynolds. For those of you who don't know Ryan Reynolds, he's best known as Van Wilder, but has been in several other amazing movies such as Blade Trinity and Waiting....
So Cameron strikes up a little bit of a conversation with him. I don't know how this conversation goes. I don't even know about the "Hey"s. I made that part up. Pretty good, eh? So they talk for a little while while Ryan's getting his tattoo, and I guess Ryan's on a motorcycle trip across Australia with his friends, and just happened to drop in to Byron.
3. The last story. I was gonna do a fourth about how Chirag spray painted the street, but it started to fizzle out the more I thought about it. So the last story. I wasn't here for this either. Maybe this is why I can't make a complete story out of these things. But this one was big news all over Byron. There's a biker gang called the Nomads that come and go through the area, and a lot of the members are settled down here. Well, apparently, this isn't just any biker gang. I guess these guys are bad. Real bad. They don't settle for just beating up puppies, I guess they also deal drugs throughout the region and have built up enough money to radically modify their bikes. Sweet. Totally.
Well, people can only deal drugs for so long before the fuzz catch a breath of what's going on. In one hour, over 20 houses were raided in New South Wales and Queensland where the police found lots of drugs, money, and chrome. So what does this all have to do with me? Apparently the lady that my friend is living with was the person that all of the bikers had called the most. I don't know what that really means in the grand scheme of things. She's a very nice, creative lady, so maybe they just wanted to talk. But either way, the cops rocked up (they do a lot of rockin') to my house because they were lost, and wanted to know where building 5 is. I told them "I don't know where building 5 is." That's the truth. I have absolutely no idea. Half the people here don't know where they live. So I guess that was my contribution to the case. Confusing an officer. So I guess they eventually found the house and asked the lady some questions. I don't know what she said, or how she killed the cops, but she's still around today, so I guess all is well at Cape Court.
Just another day in Byron.
1. Cameron was walking down the beach, taking a dip and body-surfing some. The sun was hot and the beach was crowded, and it seemed like nothing was wrong. And there was nothing that anyone should be concerned about. Sure, there's sharks in the waters around Byron, but there haven't been attacks, but like it or not, ever since Steve Irwin died, there has been a lot more reports down here of people getting stabbed by stingrays. One happened just up the road at one of our fishing spots, in fact, we always see them swimming past, where they'll lift up one of their wings out of the water, and wave as they pass. Maybe they were trying to lure us in. I don't know.
Cameron was just walking through the knee-deep waves, and when he took his next step, he felt something slimy underneath his foot, and as he lifted it up, there was an unbelievable pain that shot through his foot, and could feel it climbing his leg. He dragged himself back up out of the water and looked down at his foot, where there was a small hole, clean through. His wife was lounging in the sand, so he called out to her. She helped him up the beach, along with the help from some concerned on-lookers, and took him to the hospital. I guess these things are normal. The doctors shot him full of this and that, and something containing an anti-venom, and sent him on his way.
2. Cameron again. This time he's walking down the main street in Byron. He's good friends with the owner of Sharky's Tattoos, so he rocks up there every once in a great while to say hello. This day he walks in and starts talking to his friend who's sitting down, concentrating on giving a tattoo. The man who's getting his skin inked has his head down, looking at the work that's being done, but when he hears the conversation between the two, he look up at Cameron. "Hey," the man says. "Hey... HEY! You're Ryan Reynolds." "Yeah," says Ryan Reynolds. For those of you who don't know Ryan Reynolds, he's best known as Van Wilder, but has been in several other amazing movies such as Blade Trinity and Waiting....
So Cameron strikes up a little bit of a conversation with him. I don't know how this conversation goes. I don't even know about the "Hey"s. I made that part up. Pretty good, eh? So they talk for a little while while Ryan's getting his tattoo, and I guess Ryan's on a motorcycle trip across Australia with his friends, and just happened to drop in to Byron.
3. The last story. I was gonna do a fourth about how Chirag spray painted the street, but it started to fizzle out the more I thought about it. So the last story. I wasn't here for this either. Maybe this is why I can't make a complete story out of these things. But this one was big news all over Byron. There's a biker gang called the Nomads that come and go through the area, and a lot of the members are settled down here. Well, apparently, this isn't just any biker gang. I guess these guys are bad. Real bad. They don't settle for just beating up puppies, I guess they also deal drugs throughout the region and have built up enough money to radically modify their bikes. Sweet. Totally.
Well, people can only deal drugs for so long before the fuzz catch a breath of what's going on. In one hour, over 20 houses were raided in New South Wales and Queensland where the police found lots of drugs, money, and chrome. So what does this all have to do with me? Apparently the lady that my friend is living with was the person that all of the bikers had called the most. I don't know what that really means in the grand scheme of things. She's a very nice, creative lady, so maybe they just wanted to talk. But either way, the cops rocked up (they do a lot of rockin') to my house because they were lost, and wanted to know where building 5 is. I told them "I don't know where building 5 is." That's the truth. I have absolutely no idea. Half the people here don't know where they live. So I guess that was my contribution to the case. Confusing an officer. So I guess they eventually found the house and asked the lady some questions. I don't know what she said, or how she killed the cops, but she's still around today, so I guess all is well at Cape Court.
Just another day in Byron.
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