A photoblog and other things

If you’re like me you’ll be plodding along in your current job but in the back of your mind you’re always wondering what it is you’re going to do next, coz you sure as hell don’t want to do this for the rest of your life. I was thinking about this today and I was reading my latest computer music mag (instead of doing work – I sent out an e-mail that will get me an hour of free time at least) and there was an article about a guy who wrote the music for the PC game “Far Cry”. While I was reading it I thought “Eureka! That’s it!”. I have always loved music in computer games, even from the tinny, bass lacking sounds of the original NES. I remember I’ve been in conversations with people talking about such and such a game and I’d mention something about the music in that game being good or bad, but I mostly get raised eyebrows from them. I can remember feeling pretty disappointed if a game had bad music. In fact, the music is what I remember the most about any game I’ve ever played.

I think this is what I’m going to aim for. I’ve freaked some of my friends out when I play them music from an old game that’s been redone. I love it, but they just look at me weird. When a game has little or no music I’ll play my own music to listen to while gaming. Have you ever tried playing Carmageddon to Mozart? It’s sounds pretty weird, but it’s strangely satisfying. Err, I don’t think I’d go to that extreme if were to compose music though…

I think I’ve found the perfect combination of electronics, music, programming and games. To my highschool music teacher, Mrs Bond, I should have listened to you 10 years ago. Sorry it took that long.

EDIT: Ok, when I wrote this post, I’d just had a very strong cup of coffee on a fairly empty stomach. That’s probably the equivalent of drinking a litre or so of straight red cordial, just to put things in perspective. I’ve come down from the clouds a bit since that original post… but gosh darn, that’d be an ok job.

Did anyone see the debate between Kerry and Bush? I watched parts of it. I thought Kerry trounced Bush, which I thought was good. At least now people here may start thinking “that Bush guy, I ain’t too sure about him…” if for some reason they weren’t before. If you’re even vaguely interested in politics, you should read this excellent article about the WMD that never were. Yeah, I’m fairly interested with what happens in this election. I think it’s because Australia seems to align itself with the US so much that this election is more important than one back in Australia. The thing is, will Kerry do a better job? I really hope he has the balls to make some tough decisions coz he’s got to fix up a lot of the Bush administration’s “mistakes”. It’d be good to see some heads roll in the “Intelligence” community too.

Now there is a conversation going on in the cubicle next to me about how Kerry talks like he has a silver spoon in his mouth, whereas Bush seems to relate to the common man. One of the guys is also talking about how Kerry dumped his first wife for a much richer second wife. He said the first wife was worth $300 million, whilst the second wife was worth billions. Heck, I don’t know about those figures. Probably blown out of proportion to make a good Monday morning conversation though.

Speaking of a Monday morning conversation, I thought some interesting stuff happened to me on the weekend. Well, I was talking to my friend here at work, “da playa”, about what he did on the weekend. He dumped 2 girls, hooked up with another girl, and attended a funeral. I’m sorry, I just can’t beat that!

Friday night was a bit of a weird one. I went to the Bonefish Grill for some nice seafood for tea. Aside: I never ate that much seafood before coming over to the US. Now I’m eating it all the freaking time. I’ve always liked fish fingers but apparently that doesn’t count… So anyway, I’m at the Bonefish and this woman comes over to me and asks me if I’d like to speak to her friend. I thought “yeah, this will be good for a laugh” and I went and sat next to them. Errr, her friend was in her late 40’s!?! I travel around to the other side of the world and I still get hassled by older women (some people who know me well enough are cracking up laughing now, I just know it…) Anyway, I thought I’d humour myself and get into the conversation. I did get something out of this though, as I’ve been keen on going on a road trip to the Carolinas, one of the “ladies” was from North Carolina and she gave me a few tips on what to go see and when to go. So, I plan on going to the Carolinas in the next couple of weeks to catch the Autumn (I haven’t allowed myself to get converted to saying “Fall”) scenery.

Saturday was just one of those do-nothing days. I got back into playing my guitar on the weekend in a big way and my fingers are really hurting as I type this. I absolutely destroyed some songs by Coldplay, Travis, Nada Surf, Smashing Pumpkins and Steelers Wheels. For those of you who don’t play instruments or at least don’t attempt to sing when playing one, believe me when I say that when you first try singing and playing an instrument that it’s a bloody hard thing to do. I’d like to take this opportunity to formally apologise to my neighbours 😐

Sunday I did a bit of shopping. Clothes are so damn cheap over here! I got a pair of Calvin Klein jeans for $40 and nice long sleeved shirt for $20. Unfreakingbelieveble. If you’re so inclined, you can pick up brand name surf wear for like 10 bucks. God damn.

Sunday night I went to downtown Ft Lauderdale for some Margharita pizza at this place I know that makes it good. I was hungry and scoffed the pizza down fairly fast. The waiter came back and said “Oh Sir! Would you like another meal, perhaps another pizza?” Hehe. After that I went to Delray beach hoping to get some good moon-over-water shots. I don’t know where the bloody moon got to, I thought it was supposed to be out but I couldn’t see it anywhere. I did however snap a night shot that looks pretty damn freaky once you run it through Photoshop. I’ll have to post it up (yeah, when I post up the baseball pics). I’m pretty unhappy with a lot of the shots I’m taking with the camera so far. I just can’t seem to pick the right spot to stand to take a picture such that it conveys the essence and feeling of the location… ha!

I’ve been going on a full retro gaming binge recently, and was thinking how I could make my next flight that much more bearable. I think this would fit the bill perfectly.

Gotta go do some work now peeps, respecta!

Well, this has been a pretty weird week. The *big* thing that happened this week has caused me to seriously think about where I’m going to be and what the hell I’m going to be doing in the near future… coz I sure as hell don’t have a freaking clue at the moment. Some people would think ‘dude, you’re ok – nothing happened to you’, but that’s just it – now I don’t know when it will happen. I know I can’t believe anyone’s promises to the contrary, because they seem to have very little control over the situation anyway. Am I being cryptic enough yet? Some people reading this would know what I’m talking about… I just want to get up, walk away, and not come back.

Apart from that, I’ve had Avis contact me today and say that because I haven’t submitted a copy of my US license yet that I’m going to have to return the car tomorrow. Thus they completely ignored my e-mail days and days ago when I said I won’t be getting a copy to them in time because I only just received my social security card (I received it late… probably because of the FREAKING HURRICANES???), and the earliest time I could book in a license exam was early October. So, I sent them the exact same e-mail I sent last time. I ain’t returning the car. Sheesh, some people have been here for a LOT longer than I have and they haven’t even made any attempt to get a license yet!!! Legally I’m obliged to drive on my Australian license for 6 months anyway.

On top of that, I was told if I didn’t return a certain form then I’d get my overseas adjustment payments cut off. I was told at the start I didn’t have to fill out that form. Maybe I’m on the wrong list somewhere. What gives? Is someone just trying to piss me off?

Other than that? Heck, I dunno. I just ordered 4 books from Amazon: Chain of Command, The second world war, The first world war AND A daily show book, because God damn, I love the Daily Show.

Has anyone ever noticed that when Dave Chappelle tries to look like a white man, he looks a bit like Dave Grohl?

I’m completely and utterly exhausted. God knows how I’d be if I actually *lived* here. It seems that just about every weekend a damn hurricane hits Florida and it’s back to the bunker. What ever happened with hurricanes hitting *during* the week?

Hats off to the Power for winning the grand final on the weekend. I know a few bogans who would be pleased with the result. I was actually watching it live with a few Aussie mates in an English pub on Friday night. We were trying to explain the rules to a few other American people in the pub. They thought it was pretty cool how free flowing the game was and how there was a bit of biffo every now and then. I hear that there was just as big a celebration in Adelaide as when the Crows won a few years back so that is good. I saw little Johnny in the crowd at one point and said “look, there’s our PM!” The Americans couldn’t pick him out – he sorta blended in with the crowd. One thing I couldn’t explain to the Americans there was the pre-game entertainment. I know the people who organised this were probably taking the piss out of footy, but I found it hard to explain the following to the Americans in the bar: a bunch of gay-looking guys wearing AFL uniforms; a slew of Human Nature wannabes (c’mon guys, aim higher than that); Kath and Kim; and of course Guy Sebastian.

I actually went to see a baseball game last week, and that was pretty cool. It was the Marlins vs the Phillies and the Marlins went down 2-4. I nearly got the opportunity to catch one of the balls that the outfielders threw into the crowd. It landed a couple of rows in front of mine. I’ve got some pictures from it that I took with my camera so I’ll have to get my butt into gear and post them. It wasn’t a packed stadium but it was still a great atmosphere and I could see how people would get hooked on it.

I’ve fallen in love… with my camera. I’ve been pretty much non-stop taking pictures with it and annoying the heck out of a lot of people. I love the fact that I can turn it on and instantly take a picture. When I press the damn shutter release button, a picture gets taken, just like a film SLR. I don’t have to wait and completely miss the shot. There’s nothing really to look at yet picture-wise coz they’re all test pictures with varying apertures and exposure times and so forth. I have decided though that I do need a zoom lens however, and the Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8D ED AF Zoom-Nikkor fits the bill perfectly I think. I’ve seen it advertised for 1/2 the price these days, thank God. But of course, this is one of those ‘lofty dream’ things I always have. Give me some time and I’ll probably settle for something more reasonable… or I might not. Heh. I need to take some photography lessons at some point too. I’ve found this site to be quite handy for photography stuff so far.

Ok, got a farewell lunch to go to. Check yaaaaa.