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I have acquired a Sanyo Xacti C5 (in bronze, for those playing at home).

It’s taken me a while to find a video/digital camera hybrid that I can operate left-handed. There aren’t many ultra compact models out, even in Japan.

The Xacti, which only won over the JVC Everio because of it’s ability to take 5MP digital stills, is so small, I could probably operate it with my toes.

It’s pretty damn sexy.

I also got a 2GB SD card to go in there which almost cost as much as the camera….

Oh, and in other gadgetry news, I have acquired a Nokia 6630 mobile phone, which is a 3G phone so I’ll be able to operate it back home in Australia. Not really sure what I should do with my 7610 now. Anyone want to buy?

For anyone who wants to email me on my phone (or heck, even CALL it) then msg me and I’ll give you details.

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I’m finally getting around to selling them. I’ve collected them from around the house and backyard, took the photos, labelled the photos, now I have to write a list of the chooks in the pictures and post it on eBay. Starting bid? Oh, I don’t know…$100?

Gah!

Some unrelated pieces of information:

Some members of The (awesome) Cat Empire seem to have found time outside the band’s hectic touring schedule to even put together some side projects. Harry and Ollie are in a group called The Conglomerate while Ryan, Will and Ollie (again! Busy boy) have a band called The Genie. I don’t know how long these projects have been going on, I suspect I missed it while I was listening to music with titles written in kanji. Plus, I was a bit disappointed with the Two Shoes album so I guess I zoned out on TCE news. I wonder if the boys have these side projects to get away from Felix and his often ‘life coach’-ish demeanor?

Another piece of band news that took me completely by surprise was that The Presidents had reformed and are now touring. I ran to Eilix and said “ZOMG~! TEH PUSA ARE TEH REFORMED!! gllLEEeee~!!!!11one” and she said “Duh, I’ve known that for ages!”.

O_o

Eilix only leaves her room to use the bathroom and make toast. Her life revolves around Ragnarok Online! How the feck did she hear about it and not me??

Should probably stop listening exclusively to AM radio.

Anyway, they’ve reformed, released an album and ARE TOURING AUSTRALIA …aarrgh pain pain why must I be in Japan…

PUSA, with Dave McCormack and Tripod supporting at only $46 makes for a damn fine gig, so all of you who can go better do so and avenge me.

Last Friday’s attempt at a farewell party……well it was fun, but I would like to state how much I hate all you pikers and I hope you all choke on your computer snacks. I will be back at Robot on Tuesday night because Yoshi promised me a free drink. Take the hint. That is all I have to say about that.

And in conclusion, ladies and jellyspoons, I’d like to reiterate how difficult it is to pack. I own too much crap.

As you were.

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This Friday is the farewell party that isn’t really a farewell party. It’s more like a I-am-going-to-the-city-to-drink-and-get-pished-come-join-me event. I may end up surrounded by 30 odd people O_o This makes turning up at a restaurant without booking a frightening idea.

Well, we can always just move on to Robot without eating dinner. Hooray for drunken shenanigans!

I suspect that on top of that “party”, certain people will be coming to my place the night before I fly out to drink more and loot my belongings.

Hmm, I guess I should take an inventory before that happens. Another item to add to my growing to-do list.

And there’s only one week left before I leave.

Bugger.

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OMFG. The politics in this country have reached a new level of soap-operaticity.

Costello with his goddamn smarmy face STOP SMILING FOR FUCK’S SAKE JUST STOP is trying desperately to be Prime Minister and doesn’t seem to get the idea that no one wants him. Honestly! I mean, Howard has people who want him and his eyebrows dead, but I’m pretty sure none of those people want Costello there to replace him. He’s trying to stick his nose into everyone else’s business already. And his “I think I already lead the country, in a sense” comments? YOU LOSE! You have no charisma. Even the midget with uber-eyebrows has charisma. But not you.

Now Tony Abbott. Like my dad once said, I never had anything against him until he started spouting Catholic anti-abortion bullshit. Then came that perfectly timed long-lost son saga, which became incredibly amusing once people found out that he wasn’t in fact the father of a child that he saved by fighting off abortion surgeons, he was only a cuckold.

In all that saga, nobody asked him the really important question: If you’re such a good Catholic, Mr. Abbott, why didn’t you abstain from sex before marriage?

And now he’s had a slip o’ the tongue and said that “(a particular health care proposal) would be as dead as Mr Brogden’s political prospects”. John Brogden had just tried to kill himself after resigning in disgrace from his own slip-of-the-tongue. So, Tony Abbott is anti-abortion, but doesn’t really care if a political opponent attempts suicide? Wait, Brogden wasn’t in the Opposition! He was a Liberal too! WTF??

Another thing about Brogden: his comments calling Bob Carr’s wife a “mail-order bride” were deemed racist. I’m confused as to how they’re racist. I mean, I can understand that they’re insulting, but racist? There are Russian and other Eastern European mail-order brides, there are even Latin American and African brides - the phenomenon is not restricted to Asian women. But no, every politician and his dog stood up to say “Anti-Asian! How dare you! Resign! Resign!”.

You might look at an old, fat white bloke with a petite Asian woman next to him and think “mail order bride” (even though what PROBABLY happened was that he met her while serving in Vietnam or similar) - but really, even if it was a mail-order bride, who’s the one that the insult is directed at? The woman desperate for a new poverty-free life? She may even have been tricked or kidnapped and forced into the sex trade by international crime rings.

Or is the one being insulted really the old, fat bloke who couldn’t get a woman in Australia, so he had to buy one?

Brogden was completely un-PC, yes. He was also accused of sexual harassment and had to resign. But you know what’s dirtier than Brogden’s comments? The fact that they were sprung on him three weeks after they were made, when people within his own ranks ganged up on him to take him out by the worst means possible.

What the hell is wrong some Liberals that they’re intent on destroying each other?

Oh wait, the ABC have just explained everything: “Tony Abbott is an ambitious politician who would love, in the short-term, to be deputy leader under Peter Costello.”

Ah hah. Hah. Hah hah…haaaagodsfuckit.

I’m glad I’m going to Japan for a year, hopefully stuff will have sorted itself out by the time I get back and am forced to vote again.

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I haven’t slept enough in the last few days. Been working on this blog (which has been reinstalled from scratch - again!), been packing suitcases and long-term storage, been tying up loose ends, been watching late-night SBS movies (thank fuck the cricket is finally over)……I should get a decent sleep tonight since I’m leaving for Baw Baw tomorrow. This’ll be a weekend filled with alcohol and freezing cold from snow and artificial warmth from alcohol. And since 8 hours sleep tonight seems unlikely, it’ll also be filled with ramblings and hallucinations and withdrawals from lack of laptop.

You know how difficult it is to pack for a year’s stay overseas? In a country where your size in clothes and shoes is near-impossible to find and exorbitantly expensive? I have 40kg over two suitcases to use, and I’m a good 10kg short, I think. Some stuff I’m shipping by sea mail - I won’t need summer clothes for ages - but I think I’m going to have to pay the $15 per extra kg of luggage when I check in.

13 days to go. I want it to be now.

You know how there’s occasionally a fireman who’ll start a fire so they can be the first one to report it, the one to put it out? I wonder if that ever happens with forensic scientists. There’s a large number of people studying to become one, since shows like CSI started getting popular. But there’s also fuck-all need for them in Australia. Do you think one of them will get bored from lack of work, and murder someone and make the crime scene ridiculously difficult from a forensic point of view? Only for the forensics guy himself to solve it, impress his colleagues, and lead the police to the perpetrator, who happens to be…..wait, let me rethink this.

The PSP was released today in Australia. I wonder if Joe managed to get through the day without buying one? I think at least one person will have it at Baw Baw and $20 says it’s him.

Amusingly, on the day the PSP was released, and all video games shops were packed with customers, Breedles went in and bought a DS. She was making a hell of a statement without really realising it.

All the animals are getting narky. Kicia insists on sleeping on me every night, no matter what position I sleep in. Eilix cannot be satisfied, but it’s been like that for a while with her. I wish she and Kicia would be friends. Hell, I wish her owner would act more like her friend.

Errol was very cranky today. I think he’s adapted to living in cold temperatures, and doesn’t like being put in a heated tank. He gets quite toasty quite quickly. I’m sure that the cats can tell that something’s going on, that I’m leaving soon. I wonder if Errol does too? Not likely. Extra boxes and things on my floor just means extra terrain for him to conquer.

I’m listening to the pillows obsessively again. Their chords and melodies are like real waves making my body feel warm, becoming a soundtrack to my life, making me feel all sorts of emotions, mainly euphoria. That worries me slightly, because euphoria can kill you, but I soon stop thinking about it. Maybe I should intersperse some Naruto OPs and EDs just to jerk my conscious back to reality.

Burn the past, burn the past. My sister found my Year 7 envelope yesterday. A time capsule from 1995. It’s quite lame, from a contents point of view. Stamps and stickers from teen magazines. Soap, for some reason. It also revealed my then-obsession with a certain boy band, but nobody had let me forget that in the last 10 years anyway. Burn the past, burn the past, my sister says. I’d disposed of my old diaries and birthday cards already, but not this. Why not? It’s so lame! Burn the past, burn the past.

That reminds me, I need to change the smoke alarm battery.

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