Friday, December 05, 2008

I want you back...

I got the CDs, thanks PeeBoo.

Of course that makes me a music pirate (as if Symo's DVD of eels and Beatles didn't already make me so), something I've been against; since I know what it costs to pay for a recording session. BobSpeaking is an inveterate pirate.

Hmmm. Do you ever listen to a song and think "I've ripped that off" ? Possibly you have to have written a song.

Anyway, I'm sure I have a song that has the lyric "I want you back" repeated randomly throughout. It seems I ripped that off from "Man O'Sand to Girl O'Sea".

I remember once realising that I'd ripped off a song from the Undertones' "Sin of Pride" album. I can't remember the song or the bit I ripped off now, but when I listened to that album again, I thought "Hmmm..." I think it was a guitar line that went "da-dah da-dah da-dah-de-dah-dah".

By the way, my neighbour two doors down is an Irish woman and one of her dogs is named "Feargal".

Oops the boss is home, better go now. One final thing - "People Say" ? I always liked the B-side "Don't Let Him Come Back". My sister Annie had the original single. Or was that the B-side to "Lee Remick" ?

[END]

Friday, November 28, 2008

Hi Y'all

Thanks Paul, I got the CDs. You know that I had all of the Husker Du except the Zen Arcade outtakes, right?

And I've got REM Accelerate. My review: Meh. It's better than recent stuff, but it's pretty much REM by numbers. A lot of the songs sound like faster, rockier versions of old REM songs. There's one that you can sing "Losing My Religion" to, etc. For the record, BobSpeaking thinks much the same.

You know what I'd really like - the non-bonus-disc of "Don't Try This At Home". I listened to about three hours of the Billy Bragg podcast when I drove to Sydney in August, and I couldn't get the crappy "Sexuality" demo out of my head. I had to use YouTube to listen to the Johnny Marr version. Also "Workers' Playtime".

Also, you could send me that Go-Betweens best of. I've got a couple of tracks, but I'd like the whole thing.

Hi Symo. Welcome back to the unreal world.

[END]

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Also I...

...downloaded the Hydrogen drum machine, and the Kristal and Audacity audio programs and I started creating music again. I won't say writing, because mostly what I've done is create some stuff while learning to program the drum machine and use the other two audio programs.

These are the first things I did. These are just Hydrogen and Audacity, I didn't get onto Kristal until later. All of these sounds are various free samples from around the net programmed in and sequenced in Hydrogen; there's nothing live here at all. I actually prefer "test 2" to "test 3" because of the piano (a sample from the end of "Leave the Biker" from Fountains of Wayne)...

test2_110bpm

test3_110bpm

I'm pretty sure this gives the game away about who I am. Oh well, if they want to arrest me for the sedition on my previous blog, "loudmouth, hothead", they can go ahead.

More stuff when I transfer it from a Wave to an MP3...

[END]

Recently I...

...read some Kurt Vonnegut short stories that I printed off on 7 March 1998. (EPICAC and Long Walk to Forever). See, when I say "I'll get to it" I do mean it.

...watched "Pump Up the Volume" again. It may be an indicator of my age -- did I mention I'm now 39 (!?!?!) -- but I really like this movie. I just worry the the next 4 years in the US will be like this.

...wagged work twice in the past fortnight.

...watched "WarGames" again. What a cool movie.

...I can't think of any more. I'll post again soon, I promise.

And of course, I posted again to my blog for the first time in 4 months. Kung-fu S, where are you? No one can do this without you.

[END]

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Stuff I did since I last posted anything substantial...

I watched the movie eXistenZ... It's like Videodrome but with videogames. It was interesting, but in the end it came down to the standard problem with 'fully-immersive' video games. It may as well have been called "Better than Life".

I watched an interesting "Air Crash Investigations" about DC-10 accidents in the '70s. The reason I was interested is that, growing up, I always knew there were problems with DC-10s, but I never knew why precisely*. I knew their cargo doors fell off - funny thing is, there appears to have only been one incident in 1972 and a crash in 1974, that's all, so I'm not sure why I was aware of it. Maybe the investigations took up the rest of the '70s and that where it entered my consciousness. (I was aged between a half and ten-and-a-half in the '70s.)

It's that weird thing where there's stuff you 'always' 'knew', but it's a lot of years before you learn the real story. And this is such an esoteric thing to know, I guess it's because my parents like to travel a lot.

I watched R.E.M. on the Colbert Report. The song was okay. I guess I should probably buy the record.

I watched the final episodes of a couple of great shows - Life on Mars (Yes, torrent fans, I waited until the ABC showed it, given that trying to download it - even if I knew how - the torrent would use up my monthly bandwidth allocation) and Intelligence, a great Canadian show about spies and drug dealers in Vancouver where everyone was informing on someone else and lying and double-crossing the rest. There's a conspiracy theory going around that the Canadian government got it cancelled because Stephen Harper (the PM) is a U.S. Arselicker and the show was perceived as being anti-American.

I learned why so many people think Dane Cook isn't funny. Dane Cook, Vicious Circle was on the Comedy Channel. But I acknowledge that I am not his audience, not being a drunk white guy from the south side of Boston.

I watched Flushed Away, another CGI animated film; this one about rats, mice and frogs in the London sewer system. I don't think it made much money in America. It's very frenetic and it's very British - Americans usually like their jokes to be telegraphed. It's an Aardman film, so it's weird to see Nick Park-like designs being computer animated.

I watched some Indian Premier League cricket. I don't know who I support yet, but what is interesting to me is how in the Knight Riders vs. Chargers match, Australian captain Ricky Ponting was telling Indian bowlers how to bowl to Andrew Symonds. If this continues, International cricket will get very interesting because players from all countries will be privy to these typoes of team secrets. Except for the English.

I bought the R.E.M album and Fountains of Wayne's back catalogue from Amazon. (I used to own the first FoW album, but it got nicked from the car, or the cafe or somewhere.) They should arrive next month.

I received all of my Fountains of Wayne albums and the R.E.M. one, except the FoW b-sides compilation; because I've been writing this for weeks. I haven't listened to them all yet.

I bought a $2000 treadmill. I'm hoping to teach the dog to walk himself. Jane get me offa this crazy thing!

I watched more Indian Premier League cricket. I think I like Kings XI Punjab. I don't know why, I just found myself hoping they'd win. I thought I'd support teams that had my favourite Australian players in them, except it seems that for every Michael Hussey, James Hopes or Adam Gilchrist each team also has a Picky Ponting, Andrew Symonds or Matthew Hayden. I also discovered that I don't really dislike Warney as much as I thought.

Australia's Next Top Model and Project Runway have started, So You Think You Can Dance has ended and can someone please kill David Archuleta on American Idol?

This wasn't supposed to be anywhere near as long as this. It was supposed to be a simple "This week I watched TV and ate a lot of crap", like at the end of Charlie Brooker columns. But I forgot to send it home from work three weeks running.

[END]

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Jury Duty

Day One. No one was called.

Day Two. Called Up. We sat around for 20 minutes, then watched a video telling us about the system, then we sat around for an hour and then they came in and told us that the defendant had pled guilty, so we weren't needed.

Day Three. No one was called.

Day Four. No one was called.

Day Five. Public Holiday

Day Six. Jurors 65 to 130 were called. That's not me.

Day Seven (Today). Called Up. We sat around for 20 minutes. They played us the video again. They told us that the matters dealt with before the trial were taking longer than usual, so it would be a little while. That was at 10. They told us that again at 10.30. At 11.05, they said it would be 5 minutes. Around 11.30 they took us into the courtroom. After the formalities -- it was a stolen car case -- they started calling jurors. They'd done 6 with no challenges and then they called me. I was almost up to the bailiff to take the affirmation and I got challenged. By the time we got out, it was around midday. Buggered if I was going back to work, since I'm on Miscellaneous Leave with Pay, and only two of my six team members are at work (the rest are on training). So here I am.

Today's trial was due to take 3 days, so I assume that means no one will be called for the next few days (because there's only one court that tries cases at Beenleigh). That would leave Friday, and I doubt they'll call people in for one day before a long weekend (next Monday is Labour Day) so that would be it until next week, my last week on call.

[END]

Sunday, April 20, 2008

April 20. The Fourth Set

4.50pm. Watching TV. Yes, I'm 16 months behind.

5.50pm. The cat gets two photos but I don't get any? That's better.


[END]

April 20. The Third Set

1.50pm. Boycat's parents say hi to the mud at Manly.

2.50pm. Just something for the afternoon.

3.50pm. My chilli plant.


[END]

April 20. The Second Set

8.50am. Outside at home.

9.50am. What time do you call this? I've been waiting for FOUR hours!

10.50am. At the Chandler markets.

11.50am. Going to get some lunch at the Manly Hotel.

12.50pm. At lunch (we "shared" mine first).


[END]

April 20. The First Set

5.50am. Daddy! Wake up, it's April 20. You've got to take some photos. Oh, and feed me!

6.50am. No photo. Daddy didn't wake up. Instead he went back to bed and dreamed of taking April 20 photos (and, for some reason, of Steve Coogan being attacked by a crocodile).

7.50am. Coffee!


[END]

Friday, April 11, 2008

My Phone Says

It's Paul's birthday. It's that right?

Assuming it is... happy birthday; you're 40 next year.

Scary.

[END]

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Seriously

How come if you tool around on the internet for long enough, everything leads back to xkcd?

Speaking of which, this one is really cool.

No power in the 'verse can stop me.

[END]

Charleton Heston is Soylent Green

Story.

Get your hands off me you dirty ape!

Now someone can pry his rifle from his cold, dead hands.

But seriously, I know at least one of my readers was a fan of Soylent Green, although I believe your women were called "conversation" and not "furniture", if I recall correctly.

[END]

Friday, April 04, 2008

Photos from the past few months

Flooding on the Logan River.

The view from my seat at the Roar's home semi-final.

Playing bowls in Tuggeranong.

Buffalo Tom at the Zoo.

Dirt at Buffalo Tom.


[END]

This mini bar is not complimentary


...you should hear what it says about you when you leave the room.



[END]

Friday, March 14, 2008

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end

Well, it's the end of an era.

Today, I went to work in Gold Coast City. On Monday, I will go to work at the same place, but it will be in Logan City.

[END]

Thursday, March 13, 2008

REM Stuff

But I'm sure Peeboo already knows about this.

[END]

Buffalo Tom at The Zoo

I just got home.

It was awesome. They played Sunflower Suit!

Yes, they played Treehouse and Summer and Velvet Roof and (of course) Taillights Fade and loads of those songs with one word titles that I can't remember which is which, but man, they played Sunflower Suit!

They didn't play Birdbrain, what a shame

Dirt was there, as was Robbie Warren and a couple of other people I know. I took some photos, but I have to load them off my phone to see if they're any good.

[END]

Friday, March 07, 2008

Hey Mick

Good to hear from you again. It's been like 10 years since Cheeky Machine disappeared off the face of the 'net. You're a photographer now?

Yes, it's me. I pretend that my identity is secret; but, as Lisa Simpson says, if you follow the clues, you can work it out.

So that makes my audience at least 4 real people and some sock puppets.

[END]

Monday, February 18, 2008

Summer Glau plays ass-kicking teenager

Whoa, that was a casting masterstroke. I would never have thought of that.

(I read she checked with Joss if she should do it.)

[END]

Friday, February 15, 2008

Welcome to all of my reader

D, how did you find me? I'm interested, 'cos it is a little insight into how this internet thingy works.

I now have 3 readers. Yay! Three more people listen to me on the 'net than listen to me in real life.

By the way, I'm not sure if people know, but if you post a comment and then delete it, the original comment will still be emailed to me.

[END]

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Best intentions

Imagine this. Imagine it's back before we understood as much about alcohol; about how a person's reflexes, etc., could be diminished even though they appeared fine.

Someone has drunk too much but the think they're right to drive. Someone else needs to get to the train station to catch a train for some very important purpose. So the first person offers to drive them. Person two makes the train and gets to do their very important thing. Person one has an accident on the way home and wipes out a car full of people.

Is this okay because person one had the best intentions and they didn't know at the time that it was wrong?

Misc 080213

Say Hi to Professor Johnny Marr. (He's from the Smiths, Peeboo.)

I had a dream this morning in which I said to a person "Where is this?". She said "Brisbane". I said "This isn't Brisbane, this is a dream landscape."

The Queensland Roar won, 2-0 to go into the Preliminary final by the way.

Coolamon - not the fertile crescent but not that far from Bogan Gate, all things considered.

[END]

Friday, January 25, 2008

Qld Roar, Qld Roar...

Currently, we're at 80 minutes in the first leg of the semi; it's nil-all. But...

Griffin McMaster is pretty good. I hope we keep him as back-up to Liam Reddy next year. Of course, I haven't seen Matt Ham play, since he's been injured since July.

It will be a real shame if we lose Sasa Ognenovski to Adelaide in the off-season. Our defence looks pretty solid with Moore and Sasa, with Danny "Surely none of these cameras will see if I thump this guy in the head" Tiatto in the mid-field.

Full-time; 0-0. We've got to win at home in two weeks, otherwise we're out. But no matter what happens, it's our Best. Season. Ever.

[END]

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Streetwise Street Punks

"Why is this kid standing out front of the 7-11?"

"Shit, act normal."

[END]

Tasword for the Commodore 64

I have a whole bunch of 5 inch floppy discs originally created in a program for the Commodore 64 called "Tasword". They have a lot of my early fiction on them. Does anyone know how I can get the data off them? I don't care if I have to clean it up a lot.

Ahhh, forget it, I've just had a quick look through my filing cabinet and I can't find the folder the discs are in. I did, however, find a folder marked "Paul Booth" which contains a series of cartoons from approximately 3.8.90 (according to the title on one of them) which contain stuff like nine drawings of a chair, nine drawings of a toilet tank, nine drawings of a power-point and of course the classic "James needs a blue snake" and "Bart Simpson being hit by a bus" from the trip at Servodio's...

[END]

Fascinating New Thing

So I got out of the shower at about 7.50 this morning. As I was getting dressed, I could hear Sky News coming from the lounge room (I was a few minutes behind 'live to air') and they're talking in those tones where you know there's breaking news and somebody has died. They're talking about some role from some movie, and it sounded like they were talking about "Brokeback Mountain". So... someone from Brokeback Mountain is dead. Please please please, tell me it's not Jake.

I wasn't that big a fan of Heath Ledger. I did like his 'couldn't give a shit' attitude. I will be very interested in seeing "The Dark Knight". But I haven't seen a lot of the films they've been talking about all day; I kinda saw "Brokeback Mountain", in that I was in and out of the room as Boycat's Mum watched it.

But I really liked "10 Things I Hate About You". I'm a sucker for a remade Shakespeare film. The title of this post is a reference to the Semisonic song ("f.n.t.") that plays during the paintball scene in that movie.

---

I've been thinking about time. When did Neil Armstrong land on the Moon? The Americans say one thing, we say another. When an Australian dies overseas, when do they die? New York time or Perth time?

At least September 11 happened on September 11, unless you were in New Zealand.

[END]

Friday, January 18, 2008

Holiday snaps

Coolamon, NSW.

The Coolamon Post Office.

The Royal Tavern, Coolamon.

The Coolamon Fire Brigade

The "Up To Date Store", Coolamon.

Empty storefront, Cowabbie St, Coolamon.

Note: This was the first hot day of our trip. It just got hotter and hotter, culminating in 41 degrees on New Years' Eve in Melbourne.

[END]

How rude are you to telemarketers?

It's a bit of a weird situation. We have a silent phone number (for which we've never been charged the $3 a month, by the way) but we still get a couple of telemarketers who have our phone number - thanks, I think, to my mum who gave my number to "trendwest" who have since changed their name to something else.

They're just about the only people who call us on our landline. Well, I think it's them - someone has been calling us several times a day for the past fortnight at least - we pick up the phone and there is a very long silence and then - if we wait long enough - someone for whom English is not their first language asks for one of us. I won't say my surname* but it has a couple of Es in it, which they stretch out.

Anyway, I'm reasonably polite to these guys, since they're making $1 an hour in Bangalore... I just found myself saying "Anyway, I'm not interested, thanks for calling, bye."

How polite are you?


*I'm still pretending that I'm untraceable, although my blogger nickname and my flikr logon and all of the hints spread throughout this thing mean anyone could find me... since this blog has a post that links back to my old blog which is technically illegal under Australia's sedition laws.

[END]

Friday, January 11, 2008

Help me write a song

It's simple, just take these words and make them rhyme...

What would Bjorn Nitmo do?

Sixth of May what a sad sad day
"Let it all come out," she said
Grant, I hope it was only a rumour
And this line would end with a word like 'dead'

At least I'm writing again

She said "Why do bad things happen to really good people?"
But I think there are no good people

This is a revolutionary suicide
Keep your emotions down. Children, this will not hurt.

George, you lived your life like a football match. It was a game of two halves.

Aegrescit medendo -"The disease worsens with the treatment" or "The remedy makes the disease worse" or "The remedy is worse than the disease" or "He becomes ill by being cured"

It rubs the lotion on its skin/
Or it gets the hose again

Howl at the paratactic syntax

I'm so cool Armani wears my clothes

A line from her letter, May 24


...that's all I do, non sequiturs that rhyme and then I do some Em, Am, G, D progression over it. Have a go, you can't be any worse than me.

[END]

Mandy Moore

Why, oh why do I really dig Mandy Moore doing a cover of "Senses Working Overtime"? [No YouTube link because the one I used a month ago is now gone. Although someone else has used it as the music for their own video.]

Is it because I like this song so much that I'm really chuffed when a chickypopster likes it too, so much that she decides to cover it and makes it the lead track off an album. Kind of like if Britney or Christina decided to cover "Cattle and Cane" or "It's a motherfucker"?

[END]

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Speaking of Cyclones

A guy from my team got a temporary placement with the NT Invasion Taskforce. He would have arrived in Darwin on about the 3rd of January. Good to see you pulled out the nice weather for him.

[END]