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The Stadium Band that still should be

April 14, 2006 by Leave a Comment

Remember the Hothouse Flowers? I loved them in the late 80’s and the 90’s. I found out they were touring so bought tickets and ordered their 2004 CD online – the CD is excellent. But not as good as their live show.

There were 100 people maximum at the gig. I felt a little on edge, thinking ‘how are they going to respond to an audience so small?’. Well, they responded with class, passion and skill.I find it isn’t that often that you see a band live that not only recreates the magic of a favorite, but actually betters it. And the Hothouse Flowers did exactly that – to 100 people in a provincial city. If that isn’t true musicianship then I don’t know what is.

Honourable mention to The Live Room as the support act – I bought their album and it’s a worthy creation to say the least.

Filed Under: Music-related

The Charles Feed Shed

March 18, 2006 by 1 Comment

When you live in an urban area long enough, you can forget the whole gamut of infrastructure that exists for primary producers. On a forum I was browsing, there was a Google ad for the Charles Feed Shed. Why do I have the feeling this could be used for non-stock feed purposes?

Filed Under: General rant

Fiction writing courses…

March 11, 2006 by 2 Comments

…can be dubious depending on where you sign up. That said, I signed up for a cheapo one ($280 for 8 weeks) – just a pdf workbook and weekly feedback from a writer. I went in cynical, but 5 weeks in I’m a convert. Just having someone objective to give you feedback is superb. That alone has inspired me to continue inflicting my drivel on as many people as possible, for as long as possible.

Filed Under: General rant

Must post

February 22, 2006 by Leave a Comment

Can’t let a month go by without a post.

Trust me, I’m not bored with pointless blogging, it’s just that I’m doing a fiction writing course and it’s sucked all my writing time. That and a certain forum full of near-thoughtless jive (you know who you are)

Filed Under: General rant

“Overheard on the internets” #1

January 26, 2006 by Leave a Comment

Forum dude 1: Yeah…bolt it to the base of a Piggly Wiggly shopping cart, connect the driveshaft to the back wheels, fill the tank, pull the cord, and let ‘er go.

Forum dude 2: At which point in that process do you light the burlap sack of horse shit on fire?

Filed Under: General rant

‘Ain’t the internet funny’ anecdote #199229983374

January 20, 2006 by 3 Comments

Most people have either experienced or heard about the huge family fight at a dinner table. Usually at some occasion like Christmas (or Thanksgiving to include my enormous USA following). It can be one of the most embarrassing, traumatic or even funny events to be experienced. And I doubt many people find it funny.

Well, it don’t get any funnier when it happens on the internet. You are still witnessing people you at least feel you know taking large dumps in the middle of the Christmas spread and then dancing around in it. And I think because it’s the internet people dance in it longer and even pick it up and throw it round the room.

Filed Under: General rant

The next big thing – in the next five years…

January 15, 2006 by 1 Comment

….will be a band called Jefferson Skateboard.

Mark my words, for they are prophetic.

Filed Under: General rant

The Pen Friend Hypothesis

January 13, 2006 by 1 Comment

Let’s say that in a parallel universe there is no internet. My hypothesis is that in such a world, pen friends would have evolved to be a cultural necessity. Globalisation still occurred so a lot of people would have an increasing perception of how we are all connected. But rather than blog or become a forum junkie, people would add another pen friend to the paper favourites list. Pen Friend liason officers would be employed with postal services, there would be shops dedicated to pen friend supplies – gifts able to fit in envelopes or very small packages. Las Vegas would have a strip of chapels where overly optimistic or romantic pen friends would shack up, believing their letter-based relationship can be set up for life.

Maybe that’s a better existence, although if there were no internet I think by now anyone in offices would be drowning in folder after folder of documents (using the logic that if the internet isn’t there then computers must be sucking badly). I’m sure there’s a D-Grade movie idea in this.

Filed Under: Ideas for songs / stories

I want to be Sufjan Stevens….

January 11, 2006 by 1 Comment

..but given I’m down here I don’t think it’s going to happen. His latest album ‘Come On Feel the Illinoise’ is probably the best album I’ve heard in 5 years?

Honourable mention to Architecture in Helsinki’s album ‘In Case We Die’.

Do yourself a favour and buy one or both of these.

Filed Under: Music-related

Nursing War Stories 1

January 8, 2006 by 4 Comments

1. Background

– busy emergency department in a rural city
– when a trauma case comes in, it’s all hands on deck.
– one afternoon one such trauma case comes in (a motor vehicle accident from memory)
– all RN’s and medical staff got involved in the trauma, with a nursing admin person do the bare basics on the other patients (taking obs etc)

2. The incident

– after an hour or so in the trauma room I need to get a piece of equipment from the main patient area.
– I walk past a previously vacant trolley and actually jump when I see someone in the trolley. The reason I jump is that the woman is obviously anorexic.
– I get my piece of equipment and go back into the trauma case.
– About half an hour later it’s back to normal and I attend to the anorexic patient – she’s had one BP taken and is reported to weigh 32 kilograms (70.5 pounds) and is aged 54. I look at her – she’s sitting upright in the trolley and staring into space. My assessment is she’s very depressed and non-communicative (based on nothing more than my psych training). I ask her if she’d like a drink of water and she doesn’t answer. I tell her I’ll be back soon, draw the curtain and go to check up on other patients.
– Another 15 minutes later an the afternoon staff have arrived – we do bed-to-bed handover. The RN I’m handing over to looks behind the curtain then pulls her back out again very quickly, looking shocked. I whispered to her ” yes, she scared me when I first saw her as well”. The RN’s response was “no, she’s dead!”.
– I look behind the curtain and the patient is indeed dead and obviously so now. The other RN, knowing I have offered her a drink whilst dead, is literally falling on the floor laughing.

Filed Under: Nursing anecdotes

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