James

edgar_frugenteit@yahoo.com — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 10:53:22 GMT

OK so this is a thing that people have been doing I guess. I don't have an mp3 player at the moment, unless you count my phone (which would just result in a lot of Wedding Present and a song whose words are "Dup Dwee Do Dap Do Dwee Dah", or something pretty similar (bonus point for picking that - shouldn't be too hard)), so I'm gonna chuck up a playlist in foobar of everything on my computer, put up the words to the first line of the first 20 things to come up on random, and you have to tell me who and what they are.

1: OK right off the bat we have the theme from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. This has vocals I guess, but I most of them are sort of grunts or prolonged "Ahhh"s. I guess you could guess "Ah-e-a-e-a... wah weh woh", but I'll be fair.
1, part 2: Strawberry fields banana trees. Banana fields strawberry trees.
2: Under houses. Under houses. Under houses.
3: Sitting up late. The ash in the grate. (according to the site I looked this up on 'cause I couldn't hear it clearly enough. Sounds more like ash on the ground to me).
4: The frickin' Conet Project. I have no idea what the Czech lady is saying. Or that she's Czech, I'm just getting that from the filename.
4, part 2: You're not punk, and I'm telling everyone.
5: Put that gun to my temple. Put that gun to my heart. (for the sake of clarity, I'm listening to the version of this song with the shorter title. Much clearer).
6: ~~Who took the bomp? Every day and night~~. Le Tigre - Deceptacon cadaverique
7: ~~Eighteen thousand lira. Eighteen thousand lira.~~ 18 000 Lira - Art Brut cadaverique
8: I looked into the light, I couldn't find a single place I knew but then it's been that kind of year.
9: All my life I have wondered why life's tragedies seem to pass me by.
10: Lately you seem like another language.
11: Go! Been so long. Forgot what it's like.
12: ~~I'm leavin' here, gettin' out of this place.~~ British Sea Power - How Will I Ever Find My Way Home? frankenchokey
13: I called you up the other day to see if you would come to play.
14: A sound clip from the Simpsons. Must've had that one for a while.
14, part 2: An instrumental.
14, part 3: I'll tell you this. I'll tell you for sure. We have a future.
15: Rains for days so you stay inside and lock your door.
16: One more coffee one more cigarette. One more morning trying to forget.
17: This was Halogen's "Caught Me", but I can't figure out what the first line is.
17, part 2: Skies falling down. I feel ashamed.
18: ~~My name is Jonas. I'm carrying the whale.~~ Weezer - My Name is Jonas frankenchokey
19: Another instrumental.
19, part 2: ~~The reception's gotten fuzzy. The delicate balance has shifted.~~ The Mountain Goats - Dilaudid cadaverique
20: I'm pretty sure this isn't in english, even though I found english lyrics for it on google. Anyway, it's My Little Airport with "Song of Depression".
20, part 2: ~~Turn around. Every now and then I get a little bit lonely and you never come around.~~ (this version is a cover, and I don't think it spoils the game too much to tell you that I'm listening to Boyracer, because A: they've covered everything, and B: It's pretty easy anyway). Total Eclipse Of The Heart cadaverique

Man, ridiculous. There's actually three of those that're by the same act (one was instrumental though), and two by another act. Which makes me wonder a bit about foobar's random function. Also there's a song in there that's by a band formed by a former member of a band with another song in there. Though it seems unlikely foobar would make that connection.

edgar_frugenteit@yahoo.com — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 12:37:18 GMT

So I've been listening to Paris 1919 by John Cale a bit lately. It's on the CD in my car, and it's too hard to change disc while driving, so I hear it about once every 80 minutes that I'm in my car. Which is depressingly often.

Anyway, I've been thinking about what it's about. I'm going to attempt to write about it from memory, since as you can see I'm listening to a one minute and forty-one second song about David Gedge for the period of time it takes to write this, including when I walk downstairs to get either a beer or a coke in a minute (and when I check my diary to make sure I don't have work in the morning). I got beer and coke. Aw yeah, livin' the life. I certianly will not be checking a written copy of the lyrics.

I figure it's about some historical event, but maybe that's because I've been listening to a bit of the Lucksmiths' The Green Bicycle Case album lately, which has a historical title and at least two historical songs in it (speaking of which, I got a copy of Tess of the d'Urbervilles today). My initial thoughts had to do with the justice system, on the basis of the line "I am the judge and I've come to claim you with my iron drum". I obviously don't know much about the French justice system. My current line of thought has to do with Ghosts. "I am the Church and I've come to claim you with my iron drum" seems sort of sensible. Plus I'm pretty sure the word "Ghost" appears in the song.

Is the line "On Mondays she'd be there, but on Tuesdays not at all, just casually appearing from the cock across the hall"? I'd say probably not, but even if we assume that when John says "Cock" he means "Clock", that's not right. Although "Cock" raises the interesting and upsetting possibility that the song is about ejaculate, in which case the Church is probably coming for some kind of decency related behaviour. A ghost appearing from, or through, a clock seems to make more sense.

Alright, time to look up the words. Actually first I'll listen to the song again, but don't tell the music thing that. The only other thing I can remember without reference is pleasant sounding French place names in JC's voice. Oh yes: Grief. Fridays she'd be there, Mondays not at all. Hear a ghost. La. It all comes back. "William William William" seems like kind of poor lyric writing. "I am the mission"?

Maybe it's a metaphor? Time to actually look it up this time. Apparently I'm almost all wrong. Wednesdays not at all. Bloody hell.

Betrayed by channel 9!

edgar_frugenteit@yahoo.com — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 11:25:04 GMT

So my pal Jhonny and I were on our way to the big day out back at the start of the month, and as we're on the train in the station a Channel 9 cameraman comes over. We figure it's some thing about crowds of young people thronging to Claremont or whatever. Anyway, the guy's to Jhonny like "Just talk on your phone a bit, mate", which he does. The guy films.

That evening, Channel 9 screens a report on people talking on the phone on the train, or something. I haven't seen it, being as I was at the BDO (and also because Channel 9 is locked in desperate battle with 7 for the title of worst TV station in the country and I don't usually watch their news anyway). But the word is, Jhonny was on the TV, and Channel 9 was lying about his being an example of poor train etiquette. Posed news! So weak.

edgar_frugenteit@yahoo.com — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 10:50:49 GMT

So it's been a big week for me. My band broke up last sunday. Apparently I was on get shows and organise recording while everyone else is out of town duty. The shows fell through and I didn't get around to the recording research. Not that it likely mattered much, since we can never manage to get everybody in one place at once unless we're at a BBQ or something, which is inappropriate time for band practice/recording. There's more to it than that, I guess. Wasn't my decision, so how would I know.

I guess it's kind of a relief, in a way. Hope nobody was hangin' out for Fireflies shows, 'cause it's too late now. Ben and I have another thing on with Kenta, hopefully to start shows before too long. I think we have one on Feb 8th at the Hydey. Jazz might take this chance to join El Cid, I don't know (guys I'm pretty much joking here, unless that actually is your plan. Like I say, I don't know).

The other thing is I bought a car. It's pretty sweet. 2005 Camry, 'bout 26K on the odometer. Not really used to driving a sedan, and I guess now it's possible someone'll decide to break into my car if I leave it lying around, but still. Is good. I've never spent so much money all at once before. I feel so grown up.

Movin'

edgar_frugenteit@yahoo.com — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:49:04 GMT

So I've failed in my epic quest to find a replacement flatmate, and I've decided to temporarily move back to Mum's while I find a new place. Possibly a bad decision, I don't know, but I've kind of gotten myself excited about the prospect of change.

Anyway, packing. Man! I've filled six boxes so far, and all I've packed are CDs and books. Seriously, what is with (by coincidence, as I type these very words, the West calls up to see if I want to run my property ad again. No thanks, the West!) me owning all this stuff?

Anyways. Anybody got a room going spare, or know of one? I'm looking for someplace awesome, in an awesome location, with awesome house/flatmates. Or as close to it as is realistic.

Good News

edgar_frugenteit@yahoo.com — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 11:15:48 GMT

Good News!

Careful now

edgar_frugenteit@yahoo.com — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 13:02:37 GMT

So one day of living alone and already I've injured myself. God! I forgot to turn the fan over the stove on and managed to set off the smoke detectors. I muted the first one ok, but forgot that I had two, so I thought that I'd just managed to reduce the volume somehow. Spent a little while wrestling with it, managed to take the battery out to no effect, which confused the hell out of me, then decided to just bury it in bedding and towels to muffle the sound. So I set off down the hallway, where the sound just got louder, and that's when I realised there was a second detector (I don't set them off very often, and I'm just going to assume that my flatmate was doing the weekly checks to make sure they were functioning. Tonight proves they were, anyway). So I moved a chair into the hallway, got up on it and silenced the second one. Couldn't get it loose to take out the battery (just until the smoke cleared, of course), but luckily it didn't set itself off again. I turned on the fans and opened the windows and it all cleared up. Meanwhile my food got pretty burnt. I'm not sure if that's ironic or not.

Anyway, the injury: Just now I set off down the hallway from my room to the kitchen. The light was off. Suddenly, something struck my shins! I'd left the chair there! Down we both went! I managed to get an arm to the ground and not fall completely, but I hit my shins, one of my forearms, and managed to get a poke in the ribs from one of the chair legs. So there I was, rolling on the floor thinking about that episode of 30 Rock where Liz almost chokes to death alone in her apartment. But I'm ok now.

If You See Something, Say Something

edgar_frugenteit@yahoo.com — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 09:29:25 GMT

So my flatmate moved out yesterday. I am living alone! But not for long. Hopefully. I need to find someone to go into the other room. Anybody know anybody? I had a friend actually just get kicked out of his place, who attends Murdoch uni (just around the corner, really), and is in all ways perfect for the room, but alas, he's decided to temporarily go back to his parents' and save up some monies.

Anyway, the result of the move out was that I suddenly had no tea towels or cooking utensils. Which I didn't realise last night until I was already halfway into cooking dinner. It was like, how am I going to do anything with all this stuff I just stuck in the frypan? How am I going to dry these mushrooms I just washed? Not to mention my hands! So today it was off into Fremantle to buy replacement stuff. Also I got some eggcups, which weren't a replacement as we didn't have any before.

There's a lot of people in Freo on a sunday! Especially on a day like today when there's some kind of parade going on and the streets were closed to cars (I parked like a million miles out of town, but I would've anyway 'cause I'm too cheap to pay for parking). Plus there were these big banging sounds that I'm pretty sure were explosives of some kind being set off, like every five or ten minutes for ages. No idea what that was about. Hopefully we weren't being invaded. I'd feel a real tool if I just carried on my commerce while the town was being took over.

Anyway, on my way out of Freo I found myself crossing Norfolk Street at the intersection with South Terrace (I think that was the intersection, anyway. The one where the Norfolk Hotel is). There was me, a woman pushing a pram, and a dude on crutches waiting to cross. This is a pretty bad intersection, I think, mainly due to how much foot traffic it gets and the way the lights change. I very nearly hit someone in my car once when they stepped right out in front of me when I had a green light. Luckily I was in a car with pretty good brakes and stopped just short of them. Anyway, today me and this couple didn't have the green pedestrian light, but we jaywalked halfway across to the island when there was a break in turning traffic off South. At this point I looked over at the light for the westbound traffic on Norfolk (the lanes I was about to cross) and saw that, although the light to go straight was red, there was a green arrow to go left. So I looked left and saw that there was a car coming up in the left lane planning to turn. So I stopped at the island. The woman with the pram and the guy on crutches kept going. Luckily, the driver of the car was paying attention to her surroundings (unlike these two pedestrians) and managed to stop without hitting them or their pram. These two carry on to the other side of the street.

"Lucky she stopped", say the woman. "Asian driver"

"Yeah, they usually don't", says the man.

So, in the spirit of Amy's blog in the spirit of Jess and Az's blogs, I present the following:

Dear Woman With Pram and Man On Crutches,
Why don't you pay some attention to what you're doing when you cross the street with your baby? How dare you make racist remarks about the woman who just saved your baby's life, which had been endangered by your own stupidity? If that car had hit you or your pram, it would have been entirely your own fault for crossing against the lights. If you want to endanger yourself, well, whatever, but you have no business involving your innocent child, not to mention the emotional trauma the driver would have suffered had you not been so lucky and her so competent. You should be ashamed.

I kind of wish I'd said something, but I wussed out. I'm pretty sure I could have outrun them both if they really took offence (which I'm pretty sure they would have).

Cooking with Jim

edgar_frugenteit@yahoo.com — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 12:44:35 GMT

So I think the most important part of teaching yourself to cook through trial and error is to not use any ingredients which have the potential to poison you if cooked incorrectly. With that in mind I guess the sausages tonight were a mistake. But I think I can manage sausages. If I'm sick tomorrow I guess we'll have been shown otherwise. Anyway, tonight's dish:

Bangers and mash (and asparagus)

OK, this is obviously a fairly easy one. But I put other vegetables in the mash! So it's complicated a bit?

Preparation time: The length of the first thirteen tracks of the Mountain Goats' Protein Source of the Future, Now! compilation (appropriate, I guess, since there's soy in this, but also not all that appropriate since there's lamb).

Ingredients: Lamb and herb sausages (4 (quantity and type of sausage open to variation)), potato (2), carrot (1), asparagus (3 shoots), onion (1 half), butter beans (however many are left in the can), garlic (some), soy milk (some), water (enough), the finest olive oil (a bit).

Implements: Knife, cutting board, fork x2, pot, steaming pot (or whatever it's called, it goes above the other pot and has holes in the bottom), pot lid, kettle, frying pan, bowl (microwave safe), stove (I used gas, but it probably doesn't matter too much), plate.

Method:
1. Boil the water in the kettle (in my mind this is quicker than doing it on the stove). While that's happening, cut the potatoes into little bits (leave the skins on).
2. Transfer the water to the pot, put it on the stove, set stove high enough to keep it boiling. Add the potatoes to the pot, stick the steaming thing on top and chuck in the asparagus (I kind of suspect the asparagus may have turned out better boiled, but who knows)
3. Start cutting the carrot, onion, and garlic into little tiny pieces (this is probably not the right way to use garlic, I don't know). Try not to cry. You haven't cried more than a drop or two in like ten years, and now is no time to start.
4. Put the frypan on the stove with some oil in it and the stove on. Add the sausages.
5. At some point add the carrot, onion and garlic to the frypan. Leave the sausages in there, having all that vegetable matter in there will make it easier to get them to sit where you want.
6. By this time the potatoes are probably done enough. Pick a piece out with the fork, run it under the cold tap for a second so it doesn't burn you and put it in your mouth. Is it soft enough? Now do you realise that running it under the tap will cool the outside but won't help with the boiling temperature inside?
7. If the potato is done, take the asparagus from the steaming thing and put it on a plate or something, then use the steaming thing to strain the potato. Efficient! Whack the potato back in the pot you boiled it in and start mashing it with a fork because you don't own a potato masher (weak).
8. Somewhere around here chuck the butter beans into the frypan, along with that gross fluid they come in. Stir, obviously.
9. Stick some soy milk in the bowl and put it in the microwave for a minute or so (this is probably better done in a pot on the stove, but you're not made out of pots) (apparently adding cold milk to mash will muck it up. Whatever), then add it to the mash. Stir it in. If you got the quantity right, you'll get a nice creamy mix. If, as is more likely, you put in too much, you'll have something that looks kind of like soup. In this case, turn the heat back on to steam it out a bit and hope for the best.
10. Right, the sausages are probably done by now. Cut one in half to be sure if you want. Looks good. Take them out of the pan and onto the plate. Stir the vegetable stuff around a bit.
11. Add the vegetables to the mash. Stir. Looks a bit less soupy now, right? Better turn off the heat.
12. Scoop some of the mash onto the plate. If you're living the lonely life and only cooking for one, you've probably got way too much mash. That's cool. You can stick it in the fridge probably and then maybe forget to eat it until it goes nasty.

Results: Man, these are nice sausages. Cooked exactly right, too. Damn! The asparagus hasn't really come off as hoped, although that one piece was really nice. The mash is a bit odd. Dunno if that's the fault of the soy milk (the too much soy milk, that is, your previous experiences with soy mash have been pretty great) or the beans. Or something else. Maybe you should have chucked in some margerine or something. Anyway, there are no poisonous components, so you should get away with it.

Update: Turns out the mash, once chilled, is way nice. Sweet!

edgar_frugenteit@yahoo.com — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:07:58 GMT

So I'm looking into nursing in Canada. I guess I'd like to go somewhere, and I guess Canada seems like a pretty good place to go. I'm thinking maybe do a year there, that sort of thing. That way, when someone says to me, "What's that accent of yours?", I can say "Oh, I lived in Canada for a while.", which is a much better answer than my current "I think I watched too much TV as a child.". Also, maybe I'll run into Scott Pilgrim over there.

Anyway, I don't really know a great deal about nursing in Canada (or, when you really get down to it, Canada itself). Hence the research, I guess. The main thing I wanna know right now is what's the typical nurse/client ratio (obviously there are factors involved in this - when I was working wards, my typical ratio was one to four-six, where when I was in high dependency, it was one to one-two, and in a high school I was in recently it was one to thirteen hundred, if you want to consider every student to be a client). I've heard from nurses from other countries that you often get like three times as many patients overseas, which is a bit daunting but presumably counteracted by differing ways of running a hospital.

From the looks of it, to get a Visa I need to have a job lined up. To be eligible to work in Canada I have to pass an exam and then arrange registration with the governing body of whichever part of the country I want into. It looks like to do the exam you have to be in the country already. There's a limit of three attempts, but I tend to be pretty good at written work. Guess I'd have to study first, figure out how it all works over there. It'd be a shame to line up a job, make the trip, and then not make the grade to be able to work.

Anyway, I guess we can consider this entry a declaration of intent. I would like to travel with my work sometime, preferably not too far into the future, and currently I'm looking at going somewhere cold. Of course, I'm just doing this nursing thing until my band takes off, so if I'm a rock star before all this happens, I guess that'll put the kybosh on the whole thing.

Meanwhile, I'm listening to Star Time. James Brown makes some pretty good music, but I don't know if I really need five hours of it at a go. Also, the man can be hilarious. "Red, man, what kind of horn you play?". "I'm not gonna ask you to play, Jack, 'Cause your horn is too big. Man, you got too much horn over there." I wish I could run a band like that.

edgar_frugenteit@yahoo.com — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:49:45 GMT

So I was making a mix tape for my car (for the first time this year! What has happened to me?), and obviously I like to make little sequences. So I've put on Art Brut's "My Little Brother", and I think, "what'll follow that?". The answer, of course, is My Little Brother's "My Little Brother". Then I think, "how can I round this out?". The obvious option would be another My Little Brother song, so that the tracklist would have the phrase written four times in a row. Unfortunately firstly I don't have any more My Little Brother (the one I have is off a compilation), and secondly one just doesn't put two songs by the same group in a row on a tape. Geez!

Anyway, I wound up putting on a track by my actual little brother. I am so clever.

edgar_frugenteit@yahoo.com — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 07:50:29 GMT

Just got back from a bikeride. If I'd known how far I was going I might've taken some water. Feels good, though. Must've cleared up some of that black bile. Wound up walking a big chunk of it, though. I was on the way back home and I found myself at the bottom of a big hill and I just couldn't see myself cycling up it. Nice walk after that, though. I saw a man sitting with a dog. The dog's looking away and the guy reaches over and grabs this black thing away from the dog. Since the dog has black fur I hadn't noticed the object. The dog starts running around trying to get it back. The guy looks over at me and smiles. It was nice.

On top of that, I found a dollar on the ground, and a copy of Gauntlet Legends for N64 that was out on the street for roadside collection. It was actually in a 64's cartridge slot, but I wasn't gonna carry the whole console home. So I have no way of using the game. Fond memories of playing it at a guy I went to uni with's place, though.

Semper Jim, semper dolens; or, Sadly, not the nerdiest entry I'll ever write

edgar_frugenteit@yahoo.com — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 06:08:48 GMT

Dad came around today to take away the bathtub. A new one's coming in this week. While he was here he pointed out his dissatisfaction with how we've been upkeeping the place, which is fair. I've been lazy. He also pointed out a tree visible through one of the windows, and how nice it's gonna look come spring and how much it's grown since he was living here. It got me thinking about autumn, despite it being the opposite of spring. I guess it was the skeletal tree that did it. Anyway, the way that this kicked in was a desire to play an autumnal video game. Sad, I know. I guess that maybe stems from firstly it not being autumn at the moment, and the fact that as an adult I can't interact with real autumn the way I did as a kid. There's probably a difference in how I interact with games, too, but I guess there's an opportunity to reexperience the exact same thing with something static like that, unlike the real world.

Anyway, the game that first sprung to mind was Soleil for the Mega Drive. That's pronounced So-Li-El, by the way, not So-Lei or however you'd spell out the correct pronunciation, because when I first got the game I was not particularly familiar with the idea of French. Actually I can remember the day I bought the game. Got it from Target in Fremantle. Also the first day I had mango Hubba-Bubba bubble gum. That was in winter, I think, or at least it was overcast, and I have a feeling it was a thursday morning, so it must've been school holidays. Anyway, the part of the game I'm thinking of I suspect was actually a winter bit, but it had the right feeling. Also there may have been a change of seasons? I replayed Soleil maybe a year or two ago. To my surprise, I found myself playing through the whole game in one sitting. I guess it's just that good.

I'm sure there've been other games that felt autumnal to me, but I can't think of any. Google didn't help, though I probably just can't think of the right search terms. "Pixel autumn" turned up a few things, but nothing like what I wanted.

edgar_frugenteit@yahoo.com — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 10:41:07 GMT

So right now I've got more money than ever have I had before. I would've had slightly more yesterday, but I got paid late do to a mix up (payroll thought I was no longer employed, which I was not happy to discover).

Actually I've got a couple hundred dollars on my credit card, so maybe I'm not quite the richest I've ever been. Hafta think about it.

edgar_frugenteit@yahoo.com — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 09:29:32 GMT

So I've just done the first ironing of my professional career. Shocking! I mean, I've ironed before, just not for work. When I was in uniform in the hospital they had a laundry service and everything came back all clean and smooth, and when I did my own uniform laundry I didn't bother to iron (lazy!). I managed to get by last week and the past two days (one useful trick is jumpers), but today I decided it was time to bite the bullet.

I'm really bad at ironing. Probably shouldn't have started with the shirt with all the pockets and flaps and things (it's the one that I decided I would be least upset about if I set it on fire, or something). I think that one maybe actually came out of it looking worse. But the others! Oh, my! They didn't look that bad to begin with, or so I thought. What a difference! And that's when they're done badly! I must improve my skills, then things will be something.

edgar_frugenteit@yahoo.com — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:09:35 GMT

So I've been to three movies in two days and my last five meals were fast food. Ah, holidays! Actually, annual leave. Once again I'm struck with illness while I'm off work anyway. At least it's a proper infection, I guess. I had a sore throat for a few days at first and I thought maybe I'd damaged it singing on thursday night (which would have been totally worth it because we were t3h r0x0r on thursday night).

Anyway! In my defence, one of the fast food meals was leftovers (pizza), and most of the others were in company, before or between movies. Still. Badly in need of a trip to the shops.

Meanwhile, I don't suppose anyone's read a comic (probably online somewhere I think) which takes place at a rock show and features a scene in a lav where an angel or something tells the singer that God really doesn't like the band's music? I think the band was about to break up anyway? I'm trying to remember who it was by, what it was called, etc. OK edit: I found it. World End Solution, Bryan Lee O'Malley.

edgar_frugenteit@yahoo.com — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:24:07 GMT

Finally got in a food shop today. Been living on whatever I could scrape out of the cupboard for a while now. Not a good way to go, considering how poorly stocked it was to begin with. I don't really like food shopping. When I go to the checkout, I feel like people are gonna be thinking "Man, look at how that dude lives! Shocking!" or some such. Of course, as a fortune cookie once told me, I'd worry less about what people thought of me if I realised how little they did.

My upstairs neighbours (I think, it's hard to judge direction through the walls and floors) woke me up again last night with a litany of curses and grunts that I'm pretty sure were the byproducts of the physical act of love. Much worse than their music, but slightly better than the night before when I was awoken by dreams of being covered in ants. Still though, there's a privacy issue, partly in that I guess I involuntarily invaded theirs, but more so in that they invaded mine, even unknowingly. You've got to be considerate when you live in apartments!

Saturday Night In

edgar_frugenteit@yahoo.com — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 15:23:41 GMT

I was feeling a bit down tonight, I decided to sit on the couch and watch a film. The Lives Of Others may not have been the best choice.

I've put one Kaki King song in the "Music:" box, but in fact the song I'm listening to is "Life Being What It Is". I listed the other one because its name appears as a line in the film. I assume Kaki is referring to the movie, but perhaps they are both referring to something else. When I first heard "Life Being..." I thought, "My God, a Cannanes reference!". Then I looked it up, and in fact it appears that both the Cannanes and Kaki King are referring to Paul Gauguin (The Cannanes song in question is called "Owerwhelmed" (not a typo, that's how it's spelled in the packaging), and is very much recommended).

Holy God

edgar_frugenteit@yahoo.com — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 10:37:32 GMT

I've got no idea how it slipped past me on Your Cassette Pet, but I put on some Que Possum today, and I thought "this sounds kind of unresty/weddo" (fast guitar, I guess), and then the song ends and I'm pretty sure the last line is "You were the very first one, and I would like to say", and then I look at the vinyl and it's called Unrested. So There You Go.

I'm not even entirely sure this is the same song, because it's so awesome (an unusual reason to be unsure), but hot damn, this is sweet.

While I'm posting links to videos, a quick and easy way to improve your life is to watch this video. A slightly longer and more difficult way to improve your life would be to purchase the album it's off, The Cannanes and Steward's Communicating at an Unknown Rate. You can do that here, although I got my copy by getting a shop to order it in. Probably cheaper to buy of the internet, I guess.

Upstairs Neighbours

edgar_frugenteit@yahoo.com — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:31:57 GMT

So alright, I've got a long history of being bad to be next door to myself, and alright, it's friday night, but some of us are shift workers and don't get every weekend off (did I mention that last week I had my first full weekend off in six months? Sweet!), and some of us don't wanna hear the first two bars each of twenty-odd songs on amplified guitar at ten thirty in the evening.

People! I am trying to listen to Big Black!

If I hadn't swapped into an afternoon shift instead of morning tomorrow, I think I'd have to actually go over there and ask them to turn it down. What an awful fate!

Eggs

edgar_frugenteit@yahoo.com — Sat, 03 May 2008 04:30:19 GMT

So in celebration of my first full weekend off in like six months I had a bit of a cookup at brekky this morning. Man! Why have I been wasting my time on cereal?

Never been so happy to see a man's poo

edgar_frugenteit@yahoo.com — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 14:56:14 GMT

Funny ol' night at work. Had all the makings of a pretty rubbish shift: Sunday afternoon, for one thing, when all rational minded people are not at work, up the end of the ward that's been a madhouse all week, the morning nurse I took over from (who has sometimes almost yelled at me for not doing tiny things) apologising for the stuff she'd not had time to get to (I perhaps should have reminded her that that excuse didn't seem to work for me when she was the afternoon staff and I the morning (or perhaps of the time she was angry that I'd not given antibiotics at eight o'clock that hadn't been prescribed until twelve forty-five), but I guess that's just not how I roll), I had to give an enema, the cafeteria was closed by the time I got to my dinner break so dinner was a vending machine biscuit (supposedly they close at three on weekends, but I've worked a lot of saturday arvos and rarely brought my own food), I didn't actually finish until twenty minutes past my scheduled clock-off (which is to say, nine hours and ten minutes before my next scheduled clock-on), but I actually finished up in a good mood. There's just something about my job. On paper it looks naff, but once in a while it all goes right, even when it's all going wrong, and makes you feel nice. Maybe it was one of the patients at the other end of the ward telling me she wished I was her nurse tonight instead of who she had, maybe it was when one of my patients insisted I do her dressing before I go because she didn't want it getting done by someone else later (I honestly would never have expected people to prefer to have me over someone else as their nurse, so it's all very shocking and quite an ego boost), but when it comes down to it, the highlight of my night was another man's poo. What has my life become?

edgar_frugenteit@yahoo.com — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 09:14:09 GMT

So I'm trying out my new record player, to match my new vinyl, and I'm thinking, "Man, this song really does sound different on vinyl!". Then the instrumental track finishes and the vocals start and I realise I've got the thing running at the wrong speed. Oops.

edgar_frugenteit@yahoo.com — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 11:17:57 GMT

So I more or less by accident bought a keyboard today. Musical keyboard, I mean. Well, I tell a lie. I've been in the market for a keyboard for a while. I was driving along around five o'clock thinking "I need to get out of this traffic" when I noticed I was near a music shop. Being in the market for a keyboard, I went to take a look. Suddenly I found myself buying something. I think I did it just to spite the sales assistant, whose "assistance" seemed designed to prevent purchases. Quite a sneaky sales pitch, I must say. I very much doubt he was actually spited by my patronage.

So, my new keyboard. Here's a top notch pitch from the manufacturer's website: "It will fill the gap of the particular hardware for composing cell phone ring, which has the market of billions of dollar." Sweet! I want a piece of that pie!

I had no idea when purchasing the device that it was intended for use as a mobile phone ring tone composition device. You'd think that would be a bit of a niche market. Anyway, the keyboard itself is four octaves long and about an inch wider than the keys, which means it fits pretty much perfectly in the top drawer of my desk. Unfortunately I don't think it'll be practical cable-wise to keep it there, but I may be able to figure out something. I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be used as a MIDI controller, but it's also got a built in tone generator and speaker. Basically I was looking for something I could use to mess about at home that wouldn't take up too much space, and it seems to fit that category.

Workaworkaworka

edgar_frugenteit@yahoo.com — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 09:11:06 GMT

Bit of a naff day at work today. Busy busy busy. Didn't manage to get out the door until 20 minutes past my clock off time. Which sounds kind of wussy to complain about it writing, actually. On the way home from work I went by the main branch of the hospital to pick up their offer for my next two placements (I'm in the graduate program, so I do two years of six month stints in various places). As it happens, they offered me the two places I nominated as my first preferences. So I accepted the offer.

The combined best/worst thing about this is that both of my placements (Population health and the OT) are office hours. No more working every weekend (I've had two saturdays and two sundays off since november, and never in the same weekend). But no more penalty rates. Goodbye, income.