Mahurmufurgenblerg. Blaherbermfnf. Yeth, I have been to the dentitht. They did thum fillingth and now my mouth ith numb all over. Tho ith my shin. Er, chin.

It was kinda cool actually. You know how I love anything medical and invasive, especially giving blood, but also trips to the dentist or the doctor. There is a great combination of a) people giving me attention b) uncomfortable poking and prodding c) the very slight chance that something will go wrong. A lot of people would shy away from those things, but to me they are just FUN. Now my mouth is numb I’ve been poking it a bit and laughing because of how cool it feels (or, rather, doesn’t feel). I don’t like my chances of having a conversation without biting my tongue off, though. Might stay in tonight.

I installed an ‘emo’ knob on my amplifier to get that perfect sound of pain. Note that it’s always turned up to ten.

In other music news, I have Joanna Newsom’s new album ‘Ys’. It’s five songs that wind up being an hour long. Totally prog or something. Cutesy harp-based prog full of lyrics about sailboats and dead birds and you wonder what the point is sometimes but in the end it all works out. If you’ve never hear Joanna Newsom I recommend the last album, The Milk-Eyed Mender, which is a bit more accessible. Other stuff I am loving now are Be Your Own Pet (like The Grates but better) and the Shins (as mentioned in Garden State - if Natalie Portman tells you a song will change your life, you better fucking believe it).

Today some amazingly good stuff happened and one lame thing happened also, and at the moment I’m concentrating on the lame stupid thing. How do I stop thinking about it if it happened last? Dammit. (It was a work thing so I’ll shut up about exactly what it was. Needless to say people DIDN’T take the opportunity suck up to me when, for possibly the first time ever, it was TOTALLY CALLED FOR)

Someone stole my cacti, Mr. Cactus (left) and Professor Cactus (right). Fuckers.

Meanwhile, here’s a meme from Misha. Shelley also did it.

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?
I thought, ‘cool, I don’t look nearly as fucked as I feel.’ It was hot this morning.

2. How much cash do you have on you?
Maybe fifty bucks.

3. What’s a word that rhymes with “DOOR?”
Floor!

4. Favorite planet?
I was totally going to say ‘Pluto’ until they ROBBED IT of its planet status… fuckers.

5. Who is the 4th person on your missed call list on your mobile phone?
Oddly enough… my own home phone. wtf?

6. What is your favorite ring tone on your phone?
Bleep bleep. The standard one.

7. What shirt are you wearing?
A gray t-shirt with buttons down the front. See what I have to say about my watch below.

8. Do you “label” yourself?
No, just others.

9. Name the brand of the shoes you’re currently wearing?
Rossi, dude. Black slip-on boots, no steel cap. Again, see the watch thing.

10. Bright or Dark Room?
Bright when the light is good, otherwise darkish.

11. What do you think about the person who took this survey before you?
Misha is sexcellent. Man I love that word.

12. What does your watch look like?
Silver, analogue, with a dark blue face. It’s boring but in a nice way. That’s kinda my approach to fashion.

13. What were you doing at midnight last night?
Dissing the films on Eat Carpet.

14. What did the last text message you received on your mobile say?
‘Make it 7:30 Gotta organise baby’

15. Where is your nearest 7-11?
Er, somewhere in the eastern states, I assume.

16. What’s a word that you say a lot?
Dude. Also, ‘just’ and ‘really’.

17. Who told you he/she loved you last?
My mum. Or maybe my dad.

18. Last furry thing you touched?
Towel in the bathroom.

19. How many drugs have you done in the last three days?
Zip. Unless you count the booze.

20. How many rolls of film do you need developed?
Nil.

21. Favorite age you have been so far?
I’m digging 24, though I’m only a month in. 23 was cool too.

22. Your worst enemy?
This is pretty deep. Let me say… laziness?

23. What is your current desktop picture?
A blurry closeup of a purple flower, from pixelgirlpresents.com

24. What was the last thing you said to someone?
Something about having tea on Wednesday and good night.

25. If you had to choose between a million bucks or to be able to fly what would it be?
Obviously (Shelley!!) the ability to fly would give me a quick way to earn all the money I wanted, plus I could sneak into concerts. So flying for sure.

26. Do you like someone?
You go first!

27. The last song you listened to?
A song I recorded today, called Traitor’s Tracks. The last real song would have been Ice-T vs Ice Cube on Rage.

28. What time of day were you born?
8 in the morning

29. Whats your favorite number?
42, baby.

30. Where did you live in 1987?
Rockingham, WA. Home of bogans, mullets, troubled kids, welfare cheats and general retards. That place is great. (Apologies to Misha for stealing half of her answer - it just applied so well to Rockingham)

31. Are you jealous of anyone?
Yeah, for sure. Not badly though. I’m cool.

32. Is anyone jealous of you?
Well, this guy Steve is jealous of me, but I think he’s got the wrong idea. That’s about it. All the people who ought to be jealous of me don’t have the sense to be.

33. Where were you when 9/11 happened?
In my room, getting ready to go to bed.

34. What do you do when vending machines steal your money?
Put more money in and hope to get double the payout on the second go.

35. Do you consider yourself kind?
Yep, usually.

36. If you had to get a tattoo, where would it be?
Either at the bottom of my ribcage on the right side, or on the inside of my ankle. It would be a primitive drawing of a frog.

37. If you could be fluent in any other language, what would it be?
Japanese. French or German would be handy for work, but Japanese would be more fun. Plus, European people tend to make me nervous.

38. Would you move for the person you loved?
I would move interstate or around the world, but I wouldn’t ever give up the good seat on the couch if I was there first. Make sense?

39. Are you touchy feely?
No, but I can adjust when someone is.

40. What’s your life motto?
Er, nothing springs to mind sorry.

41. Name three things that you have on you at all times?
Keys, wallet and mobile.

42. What’s your favourite town/city?
Perth rocks, especially Fremantle. Melbourne is also fun.

43. What was the last thing you paid for with cash?
A glass of Coke. I don’t even like it, I just forgot to ask for something else.

44. When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper and mailed it?
I honestly can’t remember. Mail is for dorks.

45. Can you change the oil on a car?
I know how it’s done, but I don’t have the gear to do it.

46. Your first love: what is the last thing you heard about him/her?
She is healthier and hopefully getting her life on track.

47. How far back do you know about your ancestry?
Only two generations.

48. The last time you dressed fancy, what did you wear and why did you dress fancy?
Sin, the goth night at Gilkison’s. I had a black jacket with sparkles.

49. Does anything hurt on your body right now?
My arms. I’ve spent waaaay too much time typing this up.

50. Have you been burned by love?
Of course. I think you have to be.

I wrote this while waiting for my plane. There was a couple next to me in the departure lounge who had a conversation that went a bit like this:

Him: How many drunk guys come up to you in bars? Heaps of them. But I don’t mind because I trust you.

Her: *mumble*

Him: See - I trust you, but you don’t trust me. You don’t.

Her: *mumble* *looks off into the distance*

 

So, what is trust? A few ideas:

1) Trust is a word that links the benefits of cheating with the costs of losing the relationship you already have.

2) Trust is a gift given to you by someone who realises you might want to cheat but doesn’t want to, or can’t, force you to stay with them.

3) Perhaps the minimal hypothesis: trust is a set of conditions that allows someone to cheat on you.

These definitions apply to trust in relationships, but if you change a few words they could apply to all kinds of trust. I’m still not sure which is the best though, or if all three should be rolled together.

Here is my old desk with my new computer on it, soaking up OS X updates thru da fat pipe of the uni network.

The yearly meeting went well. I was marked ’satisfactory’, which is fine by me. I told them I was suffering from a bit of rsi, and my co-supervisor asked if I had aids. I looked at him stupidly for a second before I realised he meant ergonomic computer aids, and not the HIV virus :) They made me revise my progress form to indicate that I would be studying full-time on campus in 2007, but not because they wanted me to; just because they want to justify having lots of office space.

Meeting after with my supervisor, she sat outside smoking and I sat on the side of her good ear and we talked about what I need to do next year. We didn’t set a date for going back to Sydney, though. I said that I would do revision and come back to her for more advice when I had done what I could. That will take a take a few months at the least, and she won’t prod me about it until March, so I’m off the hook for a little while. What I might do is go back for winter next year and stay for 6-12 months until the thesis deadline.

This is the back of the toilet door where I got changed in the airport. It was grimy.

This last picture is the food court at Sydney airport. The view from here to Botany Bay and beyond is pretty special. On the other hand, nobody puts their own food wrappers or drinks in the bin. Plus, what is it with drinking at the airport? You’re usually in a rush, and you’re also about to be stuck for hours in a place where it’s very difficult to go to the bathroom. I couldn’t think of anywhere less appropriate for a few beers, but people are still pretty up for it.

Oh, and hey - have you ever watched people trying to work a self-check-in machine? It’s like a chimpanzee with a Rubik’s cube as they struggle with the touch-screen, holding their crumpled itinerary form in one hand and furrowing their brows in a vain attempt to understand. Kind sad.

I’m off to Sydney tomorrow. I will take some pictures, copious quantities of pictures, but I am also a bit scared. My supervisor wants me back in Sydney so I can be under her watchful gaze, and this is the meeting where we decide when I have to go there and for how long. The problem with Sydney is I never really had the initiative, or the wherewithal, to try making a Serious Meaningful Life there. Despite the best efforts of a few fellow bloggers, I always felt bored and disconnected. Now I will have to go through possibly another year and a half of that and - this is the annoying thing - just so I can meet with my supervisor for an hour every month. The way things are going, I don’t even think I’ll be given guest lecture spots so I can learn how to be a lecturer. I’ll pretty much be doing what I’m doing here, except with less socialising and more wearing pyjamas during the day.

Not that I don’t want to be there. It is the best way to do things. I just figure I’m about to be sucked into a deal that won’t give me any balance between home life and away life. I’ll let you know how it goes.

PS: On a lighter note, anyone who watched Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone the other night will have TOTALLY MISSED the cameo by Joss Whedon in Veronica Mars. He was an annoying rental car clerk.

I’m all typed out, so I won’t say much today. Next week I’m going to Sydney for my review meeting, so that will be interesting enough, won’t it? Fun! People with ties! Accountability! Fun! The other thing is this meeting will decide how long I can stay in Perth, and at the moment it doesn’t look good. I might be moving away in March. *sniff* Work sucks.

Another thing is, someone at work is sending around emails: apparently the Sydney botanic gardens has one of those flowers that take ten years to open, and it’s opening this weekend. If you’re in Sydney and you haven’t had your dose of plant porn for the week, here’s your opportunity.

Anyhow, I’m hungry. I think I’ll eat what’s in the fridge then defrost the fridge. I need to defrost the fridge because it’s too warm and I think everything in there is off. Hmm. Someone call an ambulance.

Last night we watched Molly Ringwald in Sixteen Candles and then Tom and I drove around Fremantle stealing milk crates. It was excellent because we’re the sort of guys who never, ever do anything wrong and we were feeling a bit like gangsters just because we nicked these stupid crates and stuffed them into Tom’s Honda and drove off really fast. I think he is building a desk out of them. Sixteen Candles was stupid but.

Lu’s birthday party. It was a medieval theme. Everyone showed up in proper medieval clothes, like velvet dresses and there was a guy with a sword and some gauntlets and a shield, but I showed up in this:

Cardboard armour, with a munted tinfoil hat. It was sweet. I looked also a bit like a robot and it was very uncomfortable. But sweet. Anyhoo, we had KFC and got trashed. Tom puked a few times and missed his bungee jump.

Then Saturday we saw lots of movies and had more KFC. I recommend:

Jackass: Number Two - the funniest film I have seen for ages. There is a scene where Johnny Knoxville gets bitten by an anaconda… man, that is GOLD.

Cabaret, with Liza Monelli - it was either this or Chicago, and as it turns out this is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better. Great story, great songs, and a super-sad ending. Liza Monellia is also hott.

We also watched some McGyver.

Do girls always fall for the guys who are jerks, or do the guys always turn into jerks when some girl falls for them?

Discuss.

Personally, I can think of evidence for both propositions. I sometimes - okay usually - act like a dick when girls are involved. Feelings are tricky. On the other hand, if I were meaner I’m sure I would have more girlfriends. Pippa is case in point: if I were nasty and manipulative she would have hung around longer for sure, especially in light of the drug-dealing abusive cretin she went out with after me.