I was driving home today, and while I was stopped at some lights in Lindfield this little white car pulled up beside me. There seemed to be a lot of movement in the car, so I looked at it. Inside were two girls. The girls were looking at me and the girl in the passenger seat seemed to be leaning over the driver to wind down her window. I thought it was odd but didn't want to stare so I looked back at the car in front. The little car beeped so I looked back and both girls were still looking at me, the window was down now. They were giggling, one waved, and the other did the Thumb-Pinky wave at me. I thought "Oh goodness, I think they might be flirting." So I smiled an indulgent and probably rudely dismissive smile, and then drove off (the lights had changed) and tried not to look at them again, just in case they really were flirting. I don't know how to do inter-car flirting so I thought my best response was just to drive away as quickly as possible. Shame really, because had I known what to do, I could be partying with the ladies right now.

Sigh.

Personally I'm happy to pay a levy to rebuild Queensland. I won't because I don't earn enough, but if they decided to take 0.5% of my pay to go get a car out of a creek or something, that'd be fine by me.

I can't see what everyone's complaining about.

I left the Howie's tonight after doing some rehersing for our LIVE VIDEO tomorrow night and I called Ant to see what we were planning for tomorrow day. As I was talking on the phone, I could hear someone in the street talking. I looked around and saw someone else talking on the phone as they walked along. And they seemed to be only talking when Ant was talking. And suprise, suprise, it was Ant. I called him just as he walked down the street that I was in. Amazing.

So we hung up and talking in real life.

Tonight left my unit and I went downstairs to do my washing in the laundry. I left the unit door open. My housemate went out and thought I was in unit, so he closed the door. He hopped in his car and drove away. I kept sorting my washing. When I was done I went back up to the unit only to find the door was locked and I had no keys. Bugger.

I really needed to wee. I rang my housemate to find out how long he'd be out - about half-an-hour. I went to the park and did a wee, then I went to visit my friends the Witteveens. It was good. And my clothes got cleaned. So it was a productive night.

"You can never know the future, so make friends with the past and your present will be a kind companion."

I made that up myself.

just then

...thinking about going into the inspirational quote business.

"You can never know the future, and your past is out to get you, but watch out, it's the present that will punch you in the face while you're not looking."

Totally inspired

written for cynics.


"You can never grasp the future, the past is out of reach, but the present is in your hands."


OMG!


...freaking deep!

<3


I love me.

I remember hearing a lot during the early part of the Iraq war/occupation about people getting shot at checkpoints. The soldiers manning the checkpoint would signal for cars to stop and they'd keep coming, so the soldiers thinking they were a threat would shoot them. Then they'd find that in the car it was a just a family going to visit relatives or something equally benign.

I remember thinking "Why wouldn't those people stop?" I couldn't imagine why they would just keep driving and get shot up.

I read in Time magazine that when the soldiers would signal a car to stop they would hold out "an open palm, waving downward". It's a symbol we all know means "stop". Unfortunately for Iraqis it means "come". So they would come thinking they were doing the right thing, the soldiers would think they were a threat, and shoot them.

These days the soldiers stop cars by holding out a clenched fist.

I've kept thinking about that since I first read it. Something so simple, some small bit of cultural knowledge, could have saved so many innocent lives.

Communication is a dangerous and tricky business.

People often ask me what I do when I'm at work during the holidays. The answer to this question is vast and profound. Today I designed covers for the resource we're printing. And I looked at photos of boats, also for the resource we're printing. Plus I listened to This American Life on the internet. Not for work, but I'm doing work that means I can listen to stuff while I work, so I do.

I also ate fried rice.

So if you're wondering, that's what I do.

I went out to my car this morning and discovered I had a parking fine and a bird had pooped on my car, twice. Or perhaps two birds had pooped on my car once each. I'm not sure. Probably option two, I hear they work in pairs.

On the matter of the parking fine, it was for $430 because I was allegedly parking in a disabled parking zone. This is untrue. I was parked in a "No Parking" zone. It became no parking at 8:30 this morning, and I forgot that when I parked my car last night. So I was fined, but not fined for the thing I was doing. And the difference between a "No Parking" fine and a disabled parking fine is about $350.

So it looks like I'll be going to court, which is exciting.

As it turns out then, I'm more upset about the birds than the fine. Because the fine I can fight, the birds I can't.

I went to see Blue Valentine tonight with Lesley and Jem.

I had been wanting to see it ever since I read how they shot it. The film is set over two periods, about 6 years apart. So they filmed the first part 6 years ago, and the last part recently. That was a really exciting idea for me. To have people that committed to a project that they'd start it and come back. I can't think of anything which I started 6 years ago which I'd come back to. I'd just want to start the whole thing again.

The film itself is a pretty depressing look at how a relationship can fall apart. All the two main characters' initial stages of falling in love are intertwined with the dying days of their marriage. It's the sort of film that I watch and wish I was in a relationship because I'd love to see if I could do better. I'm not sure I could, it's probably just the arrogance of the untested but these sorts of films make me want to give it a shot. It's funny how films about relationships failing make me more desirous of a relationship than films where things go well.

Anyway, the film is very well done. Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling are both wonderful. The script is very well written. And the direction is pretty spot on. Nothing is over played. My biggest issue with the film is that I struggled to see how Ryan Gosling's character could change so much over the time period of the film, but I think that mainly is due to the wardrobe. The old-Gosling/new-Gosling change is most significant in his clothes. The worst bit of the film certainly is his 2010 wardrobe, all red-neck and seedy glasses. Still it's not actually a huge part of the film, but it did bug me.

Aside from that, it's excellent. It won't cheer you up, but it is quality cinema.

Today I spent most of the day at work reading celebrity tweets. It was hard. I want to go back to my normal work of watching YouTube. That's much better toil.

I brought in the new year by defending the US against it's Russian invaders in Modern Warfare 2* (Thanks to Dingo and his Xbox). It was pretty fun.

I heard the 9pm fireworks in the city, but the midnight ones were lost in the noise of automatic gun fire.

As I hoped, I had a very good NYE.

What I am excited about is the annual New Years KFC and movie. That never lets me down. Bring is on!


*Yes, I know Black Ops is out gamers, but I haven't finished MW2 yet