^ image credit Matt Caplin

No real theme here, just some songs I've been listening to.

01: THE AVETT BROTHERS - The Ballad of Love and Hate
02: YEASAYER - Tightrope
03: BAT FOR LASHES - Bat's Mouth
04: BON IVER - Blood Bank
05: FEIST & BEN GIBBARD - Train Song
06: KINGS OF CONVENIENCE - The Build Up
07: GRIZZLY BEAR - Two Weeks
08: SUFJAN STEVENS - You Are The Blood
09: IRON & WINE - Belated Promise Ring
10: THE FRAMES - The Blood
11: MÙM - Guilty Rocks
12: DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE - Bixby Canyon Bridge
13: BADLY DRAWN BOY - Pissing In The Wind
14: WHY? - Simeon's Dilemma

Zip (85MB)

PS. The word 'blood' recurring in the title of 3 songs is unintentional, ha.

I used to make some 'mix-tapes' on my Livejournal account, and as I have been listening to some sweet music of late, I thought I'd cross post and put one up. There's a lovely little Livejournal community I post to sometimes called Mixshare, where I've found a whole heap of good music.
C brought home two awesome albums a few weeks ago which I can't stop listening to; Go Go Smear The Poison Ivy by Múm and Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear. Get yo' hands on some.
My tail bone is REALLY sore. I have had a recurring abscess on my spine for about three years, which comes and goes in varying pain-filled visits. I basically just have to let it fix itself up. Ouuuuuch.
I went to pick up my fixed phone today and now it has sound, which is just wonderful. Now I can be one of those people who has siiiiick ringtones and message tones and all my keys beep when I touch them.
C and I went out with a couple we're friends with earlier tonight to watch an ice hockey game. If you've never been, it's probably exactly what you imagine it to be like, as it was to me - very American and very aggressive, players and fans alike. I kept thinking of Mighty Ducks and C kept asking 'which one is Wayne Gretzky?'. Everyime the ball (puck?) wasn't in play the latest top 40 music blared above us in 7 second spurts (a different song every time). Apparently we don't have an attention span long enough to withstand the 7 second breaks when the puck isn't moving. I imagine that would be really frustrating for the players. Maybe not. C was more interested watching the ice resurfacing machine which came out in the breaks between halves, it was pretty cool. Bridie, Chris, C and I entertained ourselves towards the end by trying to guess the nationality of the world flags that hung down from the roof. World flags are always interesting. We got into the game eventually, and the home team, the Newcastle "Northstars", beat the other team, the Adelaide "Adrenaline", 5-3. I probably won't go again, but I enjoyed it. On the way out we saw this poster that said "Have you ever considered playing Broomball?" with a picture of kids on ice skates carrying a stick with what looked like a claw shaped thing on the end, with a ball in it. I pretty much love broomball now. According to the Wikipedia article about it, it's just field hockey on ice, but I think it's much more than that. I wonder if they first used brooms to play it? Have you ever considered playing broomball? Now I have.
C is carrying in things from the shed to the spare room and cleaning things and I feel lazy, heh. I should go help.


^ retro Broomball with BROOMS!

I'm basically using this blog to post about all of the mail I send and receive and my boring day-to-day life, I'll do something better with it one day soon, ha.

Today I got two postcards (one from Malaysia, one from the Netherlands);


and a cute little mail-tag package from Paige;


I tried scanning the contents and making an awesome collage with them, but the only image editing software I have is The Gimp, and it's not always so user friendly. Anyway, it contained the following ('apr' stands for as per request);

A letter
A list of pets she has had and their names (apr)
A list of famous people she would be friends with if she could (apr)
A tatoo design she'd like on her arm (apr)
A list of professions she'd like to try (apr)
A piece of cardboard.
A small toy dinosaur.
A packet of candy 'Magic Dust' (apr)
Two buttons.
A list of requests for me.

I've already made a return envelope, but I can't post it here until I send it in case she sees, ha.

In other post-related news, I made an envelope and started a letter to The Missive Maven (I'll post it here once she receives it) and I decorated this 'cd box' I got from Aldi, for my sister (we also play mail-tag);



It is currently epically windy, thunderous and raining, so I'm looking forward to a stormy night in.

Also, I love this;

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

Not feeling awesome tonight. I went out today, lodged my Centrelink form (some of those guys really have no sense of humor), walked down to Darby street, saw Manneh and his work friend on their lunch break and sat with them while Manneh ogled women walking down the street and verbally commented on their breasts, I bought more henna dye and some sweet lunch from Natural Tucker, visited the very cute High Tea With Mrs Woo shop, and bought some more postcards at Blackbird Corner.

I navigated my way to Eckersley's in search of free Avantcard postcards, got quite a handful.
All up I got 25 postcards today (some doubles, and some free). Want one? :) Send me a message;






I missed the 100 bus by about thirty seconds and waited almost an hour for the next one. I sat next to this little old lady at the bus stop who had 'lived in the same place in Gateshead for more than 50 years'. This guy kept pacing backwards and forwards in front of us on the road, throwing his hands in the air and saying something about 'are you trying to say something to me?' and 'Jack the Ripper', to himself. Every now and then someone would think he was talking to them and he would frantically apologise. He started yelling and pointing at cars, and a few people actually stopped, in the middle of traffic, got out of their cars and started inspecting the front of their vehicle (his pointing must have made it look like he was telling them something was wrong with their car). The old lady kept covering her mouth and giggling at him, and eventually he wandered off. This situation got me thinking about how 'afraid' you feel when somebody is not behaving in a way that you can predict.
I watched a documentary at the Dungog Film Festival called 'Dance Like Nobody's Watching', about a lovely young man called Paul Matley who has down syndrome (he wrote much of the film as well) and he talked about stigma attached to disability, and being afraid of people with disabilities, and that he doesn't 'suffer' from Down Syndrome, and I think a lot of it comes down to not necessarily seeing somebody with a disability as 'weird' or 'strange', but more of a feeling that people with disabilities are 'unpredictable'. We want to know that people aren't going to do anything that takes us out of our comfort zone, and people with 'disabilities', whatever the type, seem challenge this.
The old lady beside me said 'he must be mentally disabled, or on something, or both', and giving it a name seemed to make her feel better about it. I felt totally helpless, like he was going to walk into traffic or hurt someone. Most people at the bus stop ran away from him, or laughed and stared at him, and I basically just sat there not knowing what to do, pretending it wasn't happening, for fifteen minutes. I just hope he didn't damage himself or anybody else on the way home.

It's Chorus' last night here, and he just got himself tangled in the cords from computers, the modem and router and pulled it all down with him. I'm worried about him, heading off to this new place. What if he tries to come home? I asked Dave and he said that when he comes to visit he'll bring Chorus some time.

Although I want to spend the night curled up on the couch, our house inspection is tomorrow, and I need to mop and sweep and clean. C was basically the manliest he's ever been today and cleaned up the yard and chopped things, very impressive.

Naaight.

^ A set I've titled; 'The cats think I'm creepy'. They both scratched me considerably, haha.

Chorus (our house mate's cat who is surprisingly unphotogenic) was just fighting with the door snake. I'm going to miss that little guy :( Our housemate is moving out this week, and I seriously considered how much money I could raise to purchase his cat, but I decided that I wouldn't be able to raise enough money to afford him, he's kind of priceless. I'm going to walk down to the Hunter Animal Watch Op Shop sometime in the next few weeks and check to see if there are any notices for giveaway or cheap kittens. If it were more socially acceptable, I'd have HEAPS of cats. I'd be the crazy cat woman. But three is probably the maximum before I turn crazy, so I can probably get one more. I think I'd like to call my cat 'Morrissey' or name it after a Morrissey song, but I guess I'll have to see the cat first to decide.

I unearthed one of my old lady dresses circa 2006 and my favourite green jacket and wore it out today. It's one of my favourite pieces of clothing. I love the collar and buttons. Macbook photobooth camera shots aren't entirely flattering.


^ Weird hand.

C and I went to the op shop near our house on the way out today and I picked up an awesome abacus and C bought a cork board made out of real bottle corks. Some people must drink A LOT of wine. The guy at the op shop is very nice, but he makes lots of funny conversation faux pas. He told me I was a bit old for the abacus, and I told him I was going to put it on display, as a sculpture. Here is the abacus and yours truly:


^ I had a mouthful of chocolate bullets at the time.

I must have checked the mail box like three times today before the mail came, and when it did it was bills anyway. C likened me to the crazy woman in Donnie Darko who sits on her verandah all day and repeatedly checks the mail. I am definitely that woman. Wow, I'm all about being crazy today aren't I?

Today I went to post six postcards and bought a pack of 100 gorgeous world stamps for $4 at the post office. I thought that they must be replicas but the packet says they're 'all genuine'. I was tempted to go back and buy more packs, but I'm sure they'll still be there when I get paid. C and I went to Raj's for some food and I tipped the packet out on the table and looked at each stamp one by one (and then noticed people watching me but had to continue). They're so pretty, all different shapes and sizes and colours and from all over the world. I guess I'm easily amused.



Here are some of the postcards I sent today (mostly handmade because I've run out of the fancy kind and am poooooor):




I'm considering taking C out to see Harry Potter tonight. I still haven't seen it and I've been meaning to, but I am poor and I'm sure I'll regret the decision once I have bills to pay. I might just stay in and watch Buffy Season 7 instead, yeah that's probably a better idea.