1. shoes in, shoes out: It was just back in april (but damn that seems a long time ago now) when on the same evening that the laptop got pinched, so did a pair of loafers which were in a bag next to it. People who know me would say that I wailed and bemoaned the loss of the loafers more than the computer. In some ways, rightly so – there are dozens of toshiba 530CDTs i could get my hands on (given I had the clams to buy one with) but that pair of shoes was a one off. I happened across them in ‘86 in an opshop in southland (or one of those megamalls) (which in itself is odd – how many opshops do ya see in those places these days?) — they were 2 bucks, but probably didn’t wear them for several years. They were good quality leather – and there’s something about the way that, as a material, ages – it’s like it moulds into your shape.
During the last few weeks I was thinking about writing a ‘Lament for the loafers’ (and may still do) but getting the creative process rolling again is like getting a 2km long train up to speed.
Anyway, was walking past a joint, decided to pop in and like an old man with a pair of metal rods i was mysteriously drawn to one section of the shop — and bam! there these were, as seen on your right+above. Perhaps just a tad less quality than the old pair, but in much better shape – and only 50 cents more than 16 years ago. Of course, with socks is not very cool but has been wintery here – wet n’ wind-swept. These ones have these metal things on that make the faintest clink reminiscent of either a gunslinger or a little eastern european cobbler.
I’ve decided the revolution isn’t going to happen, so I heaved these hobnail boots back to where thay came from. They weren’t very comfortable and on anything smoother than asphalt would tend to slide around on account of the steel in the heels.
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a must for any serious head-kicker!
2. I was just about to go download the 120 meg. bootable kicker of
Gentoo but read that their version 1.4 is only a couple of weeks away so will hang out for that.
3. Ever since I started using linux i’ve been using Gftp as an ftp client but recently gave Kbear a go. I’m sure I’ve downloaded it in the past but it’s proved touchy in the same way that Quanta has been …. this version of GCC isn’t right, that version of Qt is too old etc….
Anyway — Kbear is pretty neat. Most of the time I don’t need all the file/folder info of the ‘detailed’ view and it’s good to have the ftp client behave similar to Konqueror; ie. – in icon view and using the single click. I have used konqueror as an ftp — but for logging into this here webspace it kept asking for the password which was just annoying.
4. Some differences between here and anglesea: I really miss the birdlife – I knew I would. But as nice as they all were – the magpies and cockatoos and little blue wrens and kookaburras – they weren’t keeping me sane. Here the scene is very suburban. There’s a bunch of little blackbirds – and they rap their blackbird thang – and that’s nice (except for when it’s from on the areal [is that right?? the thing that makes tv work.. areail.. fuck. air-ee-al. I still don’t have the dictionary, and as capable as the openoffice spell checker may seem, i just don’t trust it. Some of my stuff including fridge is still sitting in the carport in anglesea, exposed to the elements and more of it is sitting in the car at the anglesea RACV/mechanics – fucking retards. i bet there’s monkeys in Borneo that know more about fixing cars than they do. As you can tell – even just thinking about this situation gets me riled — so I won’t.] except for when it’s on that tv-thing at 5am). Have seen one or two magpies but they’re really low key. And you’d have to be infinitely more enlightened than me to see any beauty in sparrows.
Junk mail. I haven’t seen any in2 years. The ‘Toys R Us’ catalogue was inneresting. As someone who had a vague understanding of the toy-biz (my folks used to run a toy shop for a while) I can see how it’s changed. The first page had a picture of a bike and some other peice of junk, and then the next five or six pages were filled with stuff that essentially was information technology. Weird. They had DVD players in there, alongside disks of harry porter blah-blah-blah. And then, of what I remember there was: kiddy-Hi-Fi-s, other music things, game systems, these toy ‘laptops’ (similar to the old ‘Speak n’ Spell)..... and then at the tail-end Lego, but it’s not Lego as we know it, Jim. Programmable robots and ‘spy-bots’ – bloody hell!
From what i know, Lego is the only major toy line that’s not owned by some corporate giant – they’ve remained the independent, Danish-based company they always were — but probably because they’re right out on the cutting edge of combining the concept of ‘toy’ with the latest discourses in what I’d call the “Scary and Brutal Future” – like surveillence robots and combat-equipped robots (battle-bots).
And how the hell do you play with a DVD player? How does it engage the imagination? They’re adult appliances, not kid toys.
Anyway – it’s clear that the “information age” is here when it’s being served up to kids. All these things require some form of ‘intelectual property’ to make them useful; a movie disc, a music disc, a game disc or program disc in the case of the Lego.
Like those scooters, and cargo pants – they start off as a market to the hip n’ groovy people, then they get to the Myer crowd, then the Taget crowd not far behind and then they’re marketed to kids as the last stop. You know that when you see 5 year olds wearing the same outfit as you that your in trouble. In fact you might as well ride it out til you get to anti-hip hip.
Even though i’m only using the rabbit ears, (the co-ax cable is in the car) the telly reception here rocks. i haven’t really been able to watch SBS at all since living in West Geelong last time- mid 2000.
T’is nice to hear way off in the distance – locos rumbling around at the train station at midnnight. Got a beat feel to it.
5. I find out my 2nd semester uni results at 9 tonight.
