Archive for the ‘Rants’ Category

The Office

Monday, September 20th, 2004

The NEW office

For those that don’t know I have recently left the horror 9 to 5er that I was struggling at, so that i could engage myself in something more meaningful to me. This involves reviving my business partnership. I am also in the process of constructing a brand new Australian music venture in conjunction with Time Signature Studios to promote up-and-coming bands and established rock outfits, which through my 15+ years experience in the industry (playing bass guitar in band chillum/recording in studios/performing live gigs all around Sydney) screams of success. So where do I go to get the creative juices flowing required to construct this magic? Why the office of course. This isn’t your typical run of the mill office though. The office is a sun-soaked balcony in a sleepy suburb in Sydney (see image above). I just sit out there with the laptop and a coffee or 6, and let the fingers dance on the keys. The table comes with its own ornaments (yes the gigantic cat is real – 6 year old Himalayan called Billy) and the sounds of the outdoors, the fresh air, the sunshine all put me in a deep state of calm and working doesn’t seem like work at all.

I can’t describe the liberation you feel from casting off the shackles of a role where you have to be up at the crack of dawn to prepare yourself for the day, then travel on Sydneys rail system (I won’t even bother commenting further on that, suffice it to say that it is the worst rail system in the world BAR NONE), then work MORE than 8 hours at a job that is beneath you for a paycheck that covers your bills and not much else. Time-wise the breakdown was 12 hours dedicated to work (including travelling; actual work; getting ready for work), 8 hours sleep (hopefully), which leaves a grand total of 4 hours to yourself a day. Fuck That! If you wanted to have anymore time to yourself that involves eating into your sleep time. I can’t do that. not for another 40 years. I think the worst thing about it was standing around waiting for work, and spending that time thinking fuck this is boring there has to be something more meaningful I can do with 8 hours of my day. My mind would often wander to working from home and using the skills that I am both qualified and adept in. When you think like that for 4 months straight somethings gotta give. For once I made a decision for ME. It’s my life I should be living it the way that I want. Fuck this 2 weeks notice bullshit, that’s THEIR problem, not mine. I’ve done that in the past and given an employer 4 weeks. So I do believe this balances that out.

So I’ve taken this step and hopefully it proves to be the right one. I have a powerful piece of hardware at my disposal (and I’d like to be a geek and get a whole lot more) and the impetus and momentum to make this a success. Working for oneself incorporates doing things your way (hallelujah!), and you can take a break when you want for how long you want OR you can work a full day without a break if that’s your bag. You can have a day off in the middle of the week if that suits you better, and that means getting things like banking and shopping done are a breeze. Under that context a 12 hour day doesn’t seem so bad. In fact, under that context working 12 hours a day over 7 days doesnt seem so bad. There’s a lot to be said for autonomy. It’s the factor I value most when approaching employers. I value it even above the salary. It gives you freedom, in a place where you are stuck for 8+ hours a day, and in that sort of prison-like structure you need that freedom. Otherwise you may as well be the bitch on the block, bend over, grit your teeth and just bear it. I did a Shawshank Redemption, and escaped :)

I know many people do the suit and tie thing, and put the hard yards in, get the job done, and climb the ladder. If they can do that, then kudos to them. I’m the kind of person that doesn’t want to wake up in 30 years time and think where the fuck did my life go?, what did I get done? I want to be creative, I don’t want to live in the box. I want to be a bass player and make records, I want to be a web designer and create fresh devastating design work, I want to be a world class photographer and travel the world taking shots of beauty, I want to live oh why won’t you let me live!!!! Sorry had to get that off the chest hehehe.

So if you’re sitting at your desk, in your cubicle, and your online in your 30 minute lunchbreak and you are reading this and thinking to yourself “I want to own a petshop, I want to design a golf course, I want to be a professional tennis player, I want to bungie-jump off Mt Everest, I want to make money from carving little wooden pinocchios out of the dead branches that fall in my backyard… I want to live!” then take my example and MAKE it happen. Why dream about it any longer. Sure you have bills to pay, and you need the money to pay them, but in 40 years time when you’re Senior Manager at your cubefarm, and you’re 10 times as stressed and earning 10 times as much, those bills are still going to be there, fatter and uglier. Like a cranky, old friend they grow with you over the years. Take the plunge now while you are still young and have the energy to enjoy living your dream.

p.s. Thanks to Dave for suggesting I improve the readability of the site. Not one to mince words, the geek lets you know what does and doesn’t work on your site, without beating around the bush, so cheers for that dood. The vilesilencer is a living, breathing, coding dinosaur, it needs a back-end update, I’m aware of that. Tables are out CSS is in. I know I know. The silencer is built on a nested-table structure as complex and dense as a beehive (and just as sweet hehehe) and I’m not about to start fucking with it. I’ve added a line-height so that hopefully the site is easier to read, but I wont be making any drastic design changes anytime soon, so for now do as I do and maintain the rage :)

Posted in Bands, General, Music, Rants | No Comments »

Attention Passengers On Platform 3

Tuesday, August 24th, 2004

Big Buck Hunter

Ah Cityrail aka Shittyrail. This was the message that greeted me as I arrived at Hornsby Station on a Thursday night recently after catching a late-running train from work:

Attention passengers on platform 3, Due to an incident with a hand grenade at Concord Station, your 5:57 Cityrail service is running approximately 18 minutes late

So when my train arrived over 40 minutes late (where did they get that approx. 18 from?) I thought to myself Hand Grenades? Now who in their right mind would want to blow up Cityrail? The “hand grenade” in question turned out to be a plastic toy that didn’t even resemble a hand grenade… is paranoia setting in or what? One bad observation from a dim-witted passenger and the entire Cityrail network goes into chaos – Interesting how life works isn’t it.

While we are on hoaxes, as predicted by vilesilencer several weeks back, the internet beheading fraud videos have started. One 22 year old American chap by the name of Benjamin Vanderford has taken it upon himself to demonstrate how simple it is to create, with the help of a few friends, an authentic looking terrorist beheading video which the media will run as a story when really the cast of the video are sitting snug in their suburban homes not in Iraq.

The Olympics are also upon us, and I am similar to Dave who suggests in the latest Shintara update that he doesn’t watch much sport. I will usually watch the odd game of Rugby League if 2 decent teams are playing (watching the bunnies get flogged week after week isn’t my idea of entertainment), and I do like the Union internationals. In the latter’s case though after last weekends dismal performance by the Wallabies where no less than 3 penalties were given (where one resulted in a try) for not delivering the lineout throw in time, you could be forgiven for thinking it was a schoolboy match.

Back to the Olympics the latest drama seems to be the failure of young Sally Robbins to complete the womens 8 rowing final, and not being one to sit on the fence I’ve decided to dedicate some page space to my opinion on this issue. The other 7 rowers and the cox (the girl in the boat that keeps them in rythym) have all come out labelling Sally a quitter and a choker. Many top coaches have also said they have never seen this sort of thing happen in a rowing event before… BUT it has happened before, and it was the same rower involved. Sally Robbins. In the 2002 World Championship Quad Scull race she collapsed from exhaustion AND the current coaches and rowers in the squad KNOW of this performance. Why then did they not only have her in the team but put her in the “engine room” the number 6 seat in the boat, which is where you put the power source of the team, the most powerful and competent rower goes there. If they knew she had failed before, why do this??? Well it’s interesting and we could debate about it for hours, but it really all comes down to trust in a team, and they trusted her in that position. So to me, those that gave her the chance in that position are also at fault in this, if we are going to start blaming people.

After giving her all for the team Sally has let them down, and no one will be more hard on her than herself for that… Maybe she rowed too hard too early, but what’s been lost in this whole spectacle is that the Olympics is not about winning medals, or ruining peoples lives if you don’t win. Sure a medal is the reward at the end of winning the race, but surely the games is about mateship, sportsmanship and pride in your country and your team. Because the team didn’t win all the blame has rested at poor Sally’s feet. If Sally has rowed herself to the point of exhaustion, where was the rest of the team? Were they not pulling their weight forcing her to do more? I think its disgusting for 7 other people that have oars in their hands to blame one person for not winning. They put her in the power #6 position. They knew she had failed in a championship before. They are at the Olympics and should behave as a team, wether they come in first or last. I’ll leave the last word on this from Pat McNamara, Rowing Australia President, who passed on what one of the coaches said to the rest of the team “He told them the reason they were in the position they were in was because of Sally, Being in the engine room, she was the strongest. His comments were: ‘Don’t be too hard on her because she got you to the position where you were challenging the Romanians. If the rest of you had put in as hard, you probably would’ve been a length in front of them’.” I think that says it all

What’s happened to the wrestling? I flicked over the other day and none of the big names are ever on anymore… Goldberg, Nash, Steiner, Stone Cold, Big Show, The Rock, Mankind, Sting, even The Hulkster. None of them wrestle anymore… Whose this Chris Benoit bloke? He sux. Dodgiest champ they have ever had. I know he’s been around for a long time but he was never championship material, he was usually fodder for the other wrestlers. And what about John Cena? He’s like a 2k version of Vanilla Ice. Word! hehehe Bring back Stone Cold, the show sux!

Australian Idol have almost decided their top 12, and after the unheralded success of the Big Brother Forum and to a lesser extent the chatroom, we’ve decided to support Idol as it rolls into the top 10. The Australian Idol Forum is already off to a flying start. There is a lot of discussion, including a massive fan base supporting Chanel Cole and her bid to become the Idol. So join us at the Australian Idol Forum or the Australian Idol Chatroom and join in the fun :)

For a few weeks now I’ve been going to the Greengate Hotel on a Thursday night to have a few bevvy’s after work and play a few games of Big Buck Hunter (see image). A great cover band coverdrive began playing up there and made the nights a lot of fun… The guys played all throughout July and Thursday a few weeks back was their last gig. I wish the guys well and thank them for entertaining me during July.

After a big night on Saturday just over 2 weeks back, I blew the KFC ban the following morning. A Bacon & Cheese combo, with BBQ and satay sauce to compliment the large chips and popcorn chicken, went down like a dream, and cured the hellish hangover. Therefore the NO KFC counter resets after a mammoth 135 days without The Colonel. Perhaps the longest stint without those 13 secret herbs and spices since its inception into the Australian culture.

My final snippet this week is to share with you this hilarious picture parody I stumbled upon last night. It’s probably been around on the net for years, but I will share it anyways as its a clever way of showing why you should Never post your picture on the internet – enjoy ;)

Apologies for the delay in creating Version 2.0 of this site. It really needs a facelift but finding the time to alter the text file to make these updates is difficult enough let alone finding the time needed to do some back-end coding, so the wait will continue.

Posted in General, Rants, Sport | 1 Comment »