hello. does anyone actually read this?

i'm just wondering.

please.

comment if you're reading this.

i'm interested.

please.

The Last Question by Isaac Asimov (1956)

The last question was asked for the first time, half in jest, on May 21, 2061, at a time when humanity first stepped into the light. The question came about as a result of a five dollar bet over highballs, and it happened this way:

Alexander Adell and Bertram Lupov were two of the faithful attendants of Multivac. As well as any human beings could, they knew what lay behind the cold, clicking, flashing face -- miles and miles of face -- of that giant computer. They had at least a vague notion of the general plan of relays and circuits that had long since grown past the point where any single human could possibly have a firm grasp of the whole.

Multivac was self-adjusting and self-correcting. It had to be, for nothing human could adjust and correct it quickly enough or even adequately enough -- so Adell and Lupov attended the monstrous giant only lightly and superficially, yet as well as any men could. They fed it data, adjusted questions to its needs and translated the answers that were issued. Certainly they, and all others like them, were fully entitled to share In the glory that was Multivac's.

For decades, Multivac had helped design the ships and plot the trajectories that enabled man to reach the Moon, Mars, and Venus, but past that, Earth's poor resources could not support the ships. Too much energy was needed for the long trips. Earth exploited its coal and uranium with increasing efficiency, but there was only so much of both.

But slowly Multivac learned enough to answer deeper questions more fundamentally, and on May 14, 2061, what had been theory, became fact.

The energy of the sun was stored, converted, and utilized directly on a planet-wide scale. All Earth turned off its burning coal, its fissioning uranium, and flipped the switch that connected all of it to a small station, one mile in diameter, circling the Earth at half the distance of the Moon. All Earth ran by invisible beams of sunpower.

Seven days had not sufficed to dim the glory of it and Adell and Lupov finally managed to escape from the public function, and to meet in quiet where no one would think of looking for them, in the deserted underground chambers, where portions of the mighty buried body of Multivac showed. Unattended, idling, sorting data with contented lazy clickings, Multivac, too, had earned its vacation and the boys appreciated that. They had no intention, originally, of disturbing it.

They had brought a bottle with them, and their only concern at the moment was to relax in the company of each other and the bottle.

"It's amazing when you think of it," said Adell. His broad face had lines of weariness in it, and he stirred his drink slowly with a glass rod, watching the cubes of ice slur clumsily about. "All the energy we can possibly ever use for free. Enough energy, if we wanted to draw on it, to melt all Earth into a big drop of impure liquid iron, and still never miss the energy so used. All the energy we could ever use, forever and forever and forever."

Lupov cocked his head sideways. He had a trick of doing that when he wanted to be contrary, and he wanted to be contrary now, partly because he had had to carry the ice and glassware. "Not forever," he said.

"Oh, hell, just about forever. Till the sun runs down, Bert."

"That's not forever."

"All right, then. Billions and billions of years. Twenty billion, maybe. Are you satisfied?"

Lupov put his fingers through his thinning hair as though to reassure himself that some was still left and sipped gently at his own drink. "Twenty billion years isn't forever."

"Will, it will last our time, won't it?"

"So would the coal and uranium."

"All right, but now we can hook up each individual spaceship to the Solar Station, and it can go to Pluto and back a million times without ever worrying about fuel. You can't do THAT on coal and uranium. Ask Multivac, if you don't believe me."

"I don't have to ask Multivac. I know that."

"Then stop running down what Multivac's done for us," said Adell, blazing up. "It did all right."

"Who says it didn't? What I say is that a sun won't last forever. That's all I'm saying. We're safe for twenty billion years, but then what?" Lupov pointed a slightly shaky finger at the other. "And don't say we'll switch to another sun."

There was silence for a while. Adell put his glass to his lips only occasionally, and Lupov's eyes slowly closed. They rested.

Then Lupov's eyes snapped open. "You're thinking we'll switch to another sun when ours is done, aren't you?"

"I'm not thinking."

"Sure you are. You're weak on logic, that's the trouble with you. You're like the guy in the story who was caught in a sudden shower and Who ran to a grove of trees and got under one. He wasn't worried, you see, because he figured when one tree got wet through, he would just get under another one."

"I get it," said Adell. "Don't shout. When the sun is done, the other stars will be gone, too."

"Darn right they will," muttered Lupov. "It all had a beginning in the original cosmic explosion, whatever that was, and it'll all have an end when all the stars run down. Some run down faster than others. Hell, the giants won't last a hundred million years. The sun will last twenty billion years and maybe the dwarfs will last a hundred billion for all the good they are. But just give us a trillion years and everything will be dark. Entropy has to increase to maximum, that's all."

"I know all about entropy," said Adell, standing on his dignity.

"The hell you do."

"I know as much as you do."

"Then you know everything's got to run down someday."

"All right. Who says they won't?"

"You did, you poor sap. You said we had all the energy we needed, forever. You said 'forever.'"

"It was Adell's turn to be contrary. "Maybe we can build things up again someday," he said.

"Never."

"Why not? Someday."

"Never."

"Ask Multivac."

"You ask Multivac. I dare you. Five dollars says it can't be done."

"Adell was just drunk enough to try, just sober enough to be able to phrase the necessary symbols and operations into a question which, in words, might have corresponded to this: Will mankind one day without the net expenditure of energy be able to restore the sun to its full youthfulness even after it had died of old age?

Or maybe it could be put more simply like this: How can the net amount of entropy of the universe be massively decreased?

Multivac fell dead and silent. The slow flashing of lights ceased, the distant sounds of clicking relays ended.

Then, just as the frightened technicians felt they could hold their breath no longer, there was a sudden springing to life of the teletype attached to that portion of Multivac. Five words were printed: INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL ANSWER.

"No bet," whispered Lupov. They left hurriedly.

By next morning, the two, plagued with throbbing head and cottony mouth, had forgotten about the incident.

---

Jerrodd, Jerrodine, and Jerrodette I and II watched the starry picture in the visiplate change as the passage through hyperspace was completed in its non-time lapse. At once, the even powdering of stars gave way to the predominance of a single bright marble-disk, centered.

"That's X-23," said Jerrodd confidently. His thin hands clamped tightly behind his back and the knuckles whitened.

The little Jerrodettes, both girls, had experienced the hyperspace passage for the first time in their lives and were self-conscious over the momentary sensation of inside-outness. They buried their giggles and chased one another wildly about their mother, screaming, "We've reached X-23 -- we've reached X-23 -- we've ----"

"Quiet, children," said Jerrodine sharply. "Are you sure, Jerrodd?"

"What is there to be but sure?" asked Jerrodd, glancing up at the bulge of featureless metal just under the ceiling. It ran the length of the room, disappearing through the wall at either end. It was as long as the ship.

Jerrodd scarcely knew a thing about the thick rod of metal except that it was called a Microvac, that one asked it questions if one wished; that if one did not it still had its task of guiding the ship to a preordered destination; of feeding on energies from the various Sub-galactic Power Stations; of computing the equations for the hyperspacial jumps.

Jerrodd and his family had only to wait and live in the comfortable residence quarters of the ship.

Someone had once told Jerrodd that the "ac" at the end of "Microvac" stood for "analog computer" in ancient English, but he was on the edge of forgetting even that.

Jerrodine's eyes were moist as she watched the visiplate. "I can't help it. I feel funny about leaving Earth."

"Why for Pete's sake?" demanded Jerrodd. "We had nothing there. We'll have everything on X-23. You won't be alone. You won't be a pioneer. There are over a million people on the planet already. Good Lord, our great grandchildren will be looking for new worlds because X-23 will be overcrowded."

Then, after a reflective pause, "I tell you, it's a lucky thing the computers worked out interstellar travel the way the race is growing."

"I know, I know," said Jerrodine miserably.

Jerrodette I said promptly, "Our Microvac is the best Microvac in the world."

"I think so, too," said Jerrodd, tousling her hair.

It was a nice feeling to have a Microvac of your own and Jerrodd was glad he was part of his generation and no other. In his father's youth, the only computers had been tremendous machines taking up a hundred square miles of land. There was only one to a planet. Planetary ACs they were called. They had been growing in size steadily for a thousand years and then, all at once, came refinement. In place of transistors had come molecular valves so that even the largest Planetary AC could be put into a space only half the volume of a spaceship.

Jerrodd felt uplifted, as he always did when he thought that his own personal Microvac was many times more complicated than the ancient and primitive Multivac that had first tamed the Sun, and almost as complicated as Earth's Planetary AC (the largest) that had first solved the problem of hyperspatial travel and had made trips to the stars possible.

"So many stars, so many planets," sighed Jerrodine, busy with her own thoughts. "I suppose families will be going out to new planets forever, the way we are now."

"Not forever," said Jerrodd, with a smile. "It will all stop someday, but not for billions of years. Many billions. Even the stars run down, you know. Entropy must increase."

"What's entropy, daddy?" shrilled Jerrodette II.

"Entropy, little sweet, is just a word which means the amount of running-down of the universe. Everything runs down, you know, like your little walkie-talkie robot, remember?"

"Can't you just put in a new power-unit, like with my robot?"

"The stars are the power-units, dear. Once they're gone, there are no more power-units."

Jerrodette I at once set up a howl. "Don't let them, daddy. Don't let the stars run down."

"Now look what you've done, " whispered Jerrodine, exasperated.

"How was I to know it would frighten them?" Jerrodd whispered back.

"Ask the Microvac," wailed Jerrodette I. "Ask him how to turn the stars on again."

"Go ahead," said Jerrodine. "It will quiet them down." (Jerrodette II was beginning to cry, also.)

Jarrodd shrugged. "Now, now, honeys. I'll ask Microvac. Don't worry, he'll tell us."

He asked the Microvac, adding quickly, "Print the answer."

Jerrodd cupped the strip of thin cellufilm and said cheerfully, "See now, the Microvac says it will take care of everything when the time comes so don't worry."

Jerrodine said, "and now children, it's time for bed. We'll be in our new home soon."

Jerrodd read the words on the cellufilm again before destroying it: INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER.

He shrugged and looked at the visiplate. X-23 was just ahead.

---

VJ-23X of Lameth stared into the black depths of the three-dimensional, small-scale map of the Galaxy and said, "Are we ridiculous, I wonder, in being so concerned about the matter?"

MQ-17J of Nicron shook his head. "I think not. You know the Galaxy will be filled in five years at the present rate of expansion."

Both seemed in their early twenties, both were tall and perfectly formed.

"Still," said VJ-23X, "I hesitate to submit a pessimistic report to the Galactic Council."

"I wouldn't consider any other kind of report. Stir them up a bit. We've got to stir them up."

VJ-23X sighed. "Space is infinite. A hundred billion Galaxies are there for the taking. More."

"A hundred billion is not infinite and it's getting less infinite all the time. Consider! Twenty thousand years ago, mankind first solved the problem of utilizing stellar energy, and a few centuries later, interstellar travel became possible. It took mankind a million years to fill one small world and then only fifteen thousand years to fill the rest of the Galaxy. Now the population doubles every ten years --"

VJ-23X interrupted. "We can thank immortality for that."

"Very well. Immortality exists and we have to take it into account. I admit it has its seamy side, this immortality. The Galactic AC has solved many problems for us, but in solving the problems of preventing old age and death, it has undone all its other solutions."

"Yet you wouldn't want to abandon life, I suppose."

"Not at all," snapped MQ-17J, softening it at once to, "Not yet. I'm by no means old enough. How old are you?"

"Two hundred twenty-three. And you?"

"I'm still under two hundred. --But to get back to my point. Population doubles every ten years. Once this Galaxy is filled, we'll have another filled in ten years. Another ten years and we'll have filled two more. Another decade, four more. In a hundred years, we'll have filled a thousand Galaxies. In a thousand years, a million Galaxies. In ten thousand years, the entire known Universe. Then what?"

VJ-23X said, "As a side issue, there's a problem of transportation. I wonder how many sunpower units it will take to move Galaxies of individuals from one Galaxy to the next."

"A very good point. Already, mankind consumes two sunpower units per year."

"Most of it's wasted. After all, our own Galaxy alone pours out a thousand sunpower units a year and we only use two of those."

"Granted, but even with a hundred per cent efficiency, we can only stave off the end. Our energy requirements are going up in geometric progression even faster than our population. We'll run out of energy even sooner than we run out of Galaxies. A good point. A very good point."

"We'll just have to build new stars out of interstellar gas."

"Or out of dissipated heat?" asked MQ-17J, sarcastically.

"There may be some way to reverse entropy. We ought to ask the Galactic AC."

VJ-23X was not really serious, but MQ-17J pulled out his AC-contact from his pocket and placed it on the table before him.

"I've half a mind to," he said. "It's something the human race will have to face someday."

He stared somberly at his small AC-contact. It was only two inches cubed and nothing in itself, but it was connected through hyperspace with the great Galactic AC that served all mankind. Hyperspace considered, it was an integral part of the Galactic AC.

MQ-17J paused to wonder if someday in his immortal life he would get to see the Galactic AC. It was on a little world of its own, a spider webbing of force-beams holding the matter within which surges of sub-mesons took the place of the old clumsy molecular valves. Yet despite it's sub-etheric workings, the Galactic AC was known to be a full thousand feet across.

MQ-17J asked suddenly of his AC-contact, "Can entropy ever be reversed?"

VJ-23X looked startled and said at once, "Oh, say, I didn't really mean to have you ask that."

"Why not?"

"We both know entropy can't be reversed. You can't turn smoke and ash back into a tree."

"Do you have trees on your world?" asked MQ-17J.

The sound of the Galactic AC startled them into silence. Its voice came thin and beautiful out of the small AC-contact on the desk. It said: THERE IS INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER.

VJ-23X said, "See!"

The two men thereupon returned to the question of the report they were to make to the Galactic Council.

---

Zee Prime's mind spanned the new Galaxy with a faint interest in the countless twists of stars that powdered it. He had never seen this one before. Would he ever see them all? So many of them, each with its load of humanity - but a load that was almost a dead weight. More and more, the real essence of men was to be found out here, in space.

Minds, not bodies! The immortal bodies remained back on the planets, in suspension over the eons. Sometimes they roused for material activity but that was growing rarer. Few new individuals were coming into existence to join the incredibly mighty throng, but what matter? There was little room in the Universe for new individuals.

Zee Prime was roused out of his reverie upon coming across the wispy tendrils of another mind.

"I am Zee Prime," said Zee Prime. "And you?"

"I am Dee Sub Wun. Your Galaxy?"

"We call it only the Galaxy. And you?"

"We call ours the same. All men call their Galaxy their Galaxy and nothing more. Why not?"

"True. Since all Galaxies are the same."

"Not all Galaxies. On one particular Galaxy the race of man must have originated. That makes it different."

Zee Prime said, "On which one?"

"I cannot say. The Universal AC would know."

"Shall we ask him? I am suddenly curious."

Zee Prime's perceptions broadened until the Galaxies themselves shrunk and became a new, more diffuse powdering on a much larger background. So many hundreds of billions of them, all with their immortal beings, all carrying their load of intelligences with minds that drifted freely through space. And yet one of them was unique among them all in being the originals Galaxy. One of them had, in its vague and distant past, a period when it was the only Galaxy populated by man.

Zee Prime was consumed with curiosity to see this Galaxy and called, out: "Universal AC! On which Galaxy did mankind originate?"

The Universal AC heard, for on every world and throughout space, it had its receptors ready, and each receptor lead through hyperspace to some unknown point where the Universal AC kept itself aloof.

Zee Prime knew of only one man whose thoughts had penetrated within sensing distance of Universal AC, and he reported only a shining globe, two feet across, difficult to see.

"But how can that be all of Universal AC?" Zee Prime had asked.

"Most of it, " had been the answer, "is in hyperspace. In what form it is there I cannot imagine."

Nor could anyone, for the day had long since passed, Zee Prime knew, when any man had any part of the making of a universal AC. Each Universal AC designed and constructed its successor. Each, during its existence of a million years or more accumulated the necessary data to build a better and more intricate, more capable successor in which its own store of data and individuality would be submerged.

The Universal AC interrupted Zee Prime's wandering thoughts, not with words, but with guidance. Zee Prime's mentality was guided into the dim sea of Galaxies and one in particular enlarged into stars.

A thought came, infinitely distant, but infinitely clear. "THIS IS THE ORIGINAL GALAXY OF MAN."

But it was the same after all, the same as any other, and Zee Prime stifled his disappointment.

Dee Sub Wun, whose mind had accompanied the other, said suddenly, "And Is one of these stars the original star of Man?"

The Universal AC said, "MAN'S ORIGINAL STAR HAS GONE NOVA. IT IS NOW A WHITE DWARF."

"Did the men upon it die?" asked Zee Prime, startled and without thinking.

The Universal AC said, "A NEW WORLD, AS IN SUCH CASES, WAS CONSTRUCTED FOR THEIR PHYSICAL BODIES IN TIME."

"Yes, of course," said Zee Prime, but a sense of loss overwhelmed him even so. His mind released its hold on the original Galaxy of Man, let it spring back and lose itself among the blurred pin points. He never wanted to see it again.

Dee Sub Wun said, "What is wrong?"

"The stars are dying. The original star is dead."

"They must all die. Why not?"

"But when all energy is gone, our bodies will finally die, and you and I with them."

"It will take billions of years."

"I do not wish it to happen even after billions of years. Universal AC! How may stars be kept from dying?"

Dee sub Wun said in amusement, "You're asking how entropy might be reversed in direction."

And the Universal AC answered. "THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER."

Zee Prime's thoughts fled back to his own Galaxy. He gave no further thought to Dee Sub Wun, whose body might be waiting on a galaxy a trillion light-years away, or on the star next to Zee Prime's own. It didn't matter.

Unhappily, Zee Prime began collecting interstellar hydrogen out of which to build a small star of his own. If the stars must someday die, at least some could yet be built.

---

Man considered with himself, for in a way, Man, mentally, was one. He consisted of a trillion, trillion, trillion ageless bodies, each in its place, each resting quiet and incorruptible, each cared for by perfect automatons, equally incorruptible, while the minds of all the bodies freely melted one into the other, indistinguishable.

Man said, "The Universe is dying."

Man looked about at the dimming Galaxies. The giant stars, spendthrifts, were gone long ago, back in the dimmest of the dim far past. Almost all stars were white dwarfs, fading to the end.

New stars had been built of the dust between the stars, some by natural processes, some by Man himself, and those were going, too. White dwarfs might yet be crashed together and of the mighty forces so released, new stars build, but only one star for every thousand white dwarfs destroyed, and those would come to an end, too.

Man said, "Carefully husbanded, as directed by the Cosmic AC, the energy that is even yet left in all the Universe will last for billions of years."

"But even so," said Man, "eventually it will all come to an end. However it may be husbanded, however stretched out, the energy once expended is gone and cannot be restored. Entropy must increase to the maximum."

Man said, "Can entropy not be reversed? Let us ask the Cosmic AC."

The Cosmic AC surrounded them but not in space. Not a fragment of it was in space. It was in hyperspace and made of something that was neither matter nor energy. The question of its size and Nature no longer had meaning to any terms that Man could comprehend.

"Cosmic AC," said Man, "How many entropy be reversed?"

The Cosmic AC said, "THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER."

Man said, "Collect additional data."

The Cosmic AC said, "I WILL DO SO. I HAVE BEEN DOING SO FOR A HUNDRED BILLION YEARS. MY PREDECESSORS AND I HAVE BEEN ASKED THIS QUESTION MANY TIMES. ALL THE DATA I HAVE REMAINS INSUFFICIENT."

"Will there come a time," said Man, "when data will be sufficient or is the problem insoluble in all conceivable circumstances?"

The Cosmic AC said, "NO PROBLEM IS INSOLUBLE IN ALL CONCEIVABLE CIRCUMSTANCES."

Man said, "When will you have enough data to answer the question?"

"THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER."

"Will you keep working on it?" asked Man.

The Cosmic AC said, "I WILL."

Man said, "We shall wait."

---

"The stars and Galaxies died and snuffed out, and space grew black after ten trillion years of running down.

One by one Man fused with AC, each physical body losing its mental identity in a manner that was somehow not a loss but a gain.

Man's last mind paused before fusion, looking over a space that included nothing but the dregs of one last dark star and nothing besides but incredibly thin matter, agitated randomly by the tag ends of heat wearing out, asymptotically, to the absolute zero.

Man said, "AC, is this the end? Can this chaos not be reversed into the Universe once more? Can that not be done?"

AC said, "THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER."

Man's last mind fused and only AC existed -- and that in hyperspace.

---

Matter and energy had ended and with it, space and time. Even AC existed only for the sake of the one last question that it had never answered from the time a half-drunken computer ten trillion years before had asked the question of a computer that was to AC far less than was a man to Man.

All other questions had been answered, and until this last question was answered also, AC might not release his consciousness.

All collected data had come to a final end. Nothing was left to be collected.

But all collected data had yet to be completely correlated and put together in all possible relationships.

A timeless interval was spent in doing that.

And it came to pass that AC learned how to reverse the direction of entropy.

But there was now no man to whom AC might give the answer of the last question. No matter. The answer -- by demonstration -- would take care of that, too.

For another timeless interval, AC thought how best to do this. Carefully, AC organized the program.

The consciousness of AC encompassed all of what had once been a Universe and brooded over what was now Chaos. Step by step, it must be done.

And AC said, "LET THERE BE LIGHT!"

And there was light----

David and Margaret LOL

David and Margaret outside GoMA. LOLZ

Last Saturday I saw David Stratton (that bearded movie guy on those loser channels) receive the Chauvel Award at the Brisbane International Film Festival. But the unreal thing about it was that he was interviewed by Margaret Pomeranz. haha. It was David and Margaret: the live show. Fucking cool.

It was held in a movie theatre at the Gallery of Modern Art. The occasion started off with tributes to David playing on the movie screen, with David watching them. Among those thanking him were Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. After that David and Margaret took the stage. Margaret on the left, David on the right, as usual. She asked him about his past and how he got to where he is today. Then the audience was allowed to ask David questions. That bit was definitely the highlight. He talked about Michael Moore, Dancer in the Dark, how he's been sued, and the first movie he saw when he was 8.

I bootlegged the entire thing. Here's a funny story David told about his first trip to the Venice Film Festival in 1966. It's got an incredible ending.



I'll upload more if I can be bothered.

I also saw Margaret having a fag outside the State Library. Trippy shit.

stupid line

I am facing a dilemma. I am in the process of buying a sweet guitar, and today I played my favourite one yet. I can't find the exact picture of it, because it is rather special. But this is close to it.

Imagine silver hardware and block inlays, not dot inlays:


Looks very cool doesn't it? Yes. It fucking is. But there's one thing shit about it isn't it? That stupid line down the middle of it!!! Why does that have to ruin it for me?

Life is just too frustrating.

In other news I have nearly completed my goal of listening to all 20 albums by Tom Waits. That guy's a fucking genius. He has the roughest voice you've ever heard. I think he came to Australia once in the 70's. I doubt he'd come back. Meh.

Here's him playing The Piano Has Been Drinking on some old show:


On Saturday I'm playing bass in a band as part of the Scouts celebrations that are going on around the world at the moment. It's 100 years since Baden Powell started it all. There's gonna be some big show at the South Bank Piazza on Saturday. No doubt you'll see scouts doing skits and singing. Lots and lots of kids singing. I believe you need to pay to see it though. I recommend you save your money for the film festival which shall start soon. The only reason I'm doing this gig is cos I'm getting paid for it. w00t Scouts!

Stafford

The moon was an icy dagger piercing the sky, letting the rain in last night. It was the 23rd of the month and I had been 23 years old since my birthday on the 23rd of March. That's weird, but it gets weirder...

After the end of my concert last night I got on bus number 345 and headed north towards Chermside West. But when I got off the bus it was not Chermside West. It was Stafford! I was a few kms short. The rain was pretty heavy. Heavy walking through anyway. I started walking north wondering what I was going to do. Should I call someone or wait for the next bus? I came to a part in the road where the footpath ends and it runs into a road up the hill. I realise I'll have to take a detour to get up this hill, but then do I realise a couple on this footpath-less part of the road. They were having a domestic. On the edge of a moderately busy road. I see the woman fall down. As I get closer to them, I stop behind some bushes, take off my headphones and listen.

"Leave me alone!!!"

It's about this time that I am worried as to what will happen. Does he have a knife? A gun?!?! Why do I always think the men have got the weapons? As I try to listen and spy on them, I panic. Will they see me? Fearing they might, I decide to take the detour up the road.

As I am walking through the 'burbs I can't help but think what is going to happen to them. I eventually make my way up the hill and meet up with the main road. This bit of the road is where the footpath starts again. I see a bus stop shelter and sit down. Looking right I see the woman again. She is by herself. She's off the road on a little bit of grass this time fortunately. I can't make out what she's doing but I figure she's using her mobile. In not too long the guy walks up the footpath-less road and starts talking to her again. I can't hear what they're saying, but it's definitely not a fucking chit-chat. It's about this time that I decide to call Kristy to ask if she can get me. I tell her where I am and mention the couple that are having a little fight.

A few minutes later, while still on the phone, the couple starts walking towards me. I really, really panic now. It's freezing, raining, I'm in the middle of nowhere (Stafford) and there are two bickering drunkards coming towards me. "Oh shit shit shit they're coming my way" I tell Kristy. I sit as close as I can to the side of the bus stop shelter and look down. I stop talking to Kristy for a good 30 seconds. They walk by me, I catch a glimpse of the woman, the man brushes beside me and they continue along the path. The woman looks like a fatter, more drug fucked version of Courtney Love. Smeared eyeliner and everything. The whole bit. I realise they're more likely to be ice users than drunk fucks.

They continue up the road to a point just before the crest of a hill. The woman walks out on the road in this blind spot (I'm not surprised) but then stands still in the lane, arms open, Jesus Christ pose, awaiting a car to hit her. I am yelling into my phone "Get off the road you fucking idiot!!!" At this point I realise I could see her die. Hit by a car. Fuck off you're dead. You're under the wheels of a truck I'm explaining how you got there to the police. She stands there for a good 10 seconds or so. Given that it's a major road, she is very lucky she chose those 10 seconds.

After she walks off to the other side of the road the guy follows her. She starts waving her bag at him. They begin to walk away down a side street over the hill. A white limousine comes over the hill where the woman was and down the road. As I watch it all the way down I am reminded of Mulholland Drive. The spooky road in L.A. and that mind-fuck of a movie I couldn't understand. It summed up the Hollywood-ness of the whole ordeal to me. Where glitz and glamour disguises drug fucked bitches (ie: Courtney Love). That's what that limo meant. I'll never forget it.

Looking back on it I was quite scared. Though I realise if this had happened in the Valley I wouldn't have cared at all. The difference was that I was in an unknown part of town and the only two people near me were drug fucked crazies. It really got to me.

Fuck

NIИ

Last night I saw Nine Inch Nails for the second time. ohhhh yeah!!!!! They were good. Very good actually. Much better than last time. Last time it was at the Entertainment Centre, but it was so much better at the Riverside stage. Got a great view of the stage. Kristy and I stood right at the crest of the hill. Fantastic.

I was a bit disappointed that they didn't bring more lights. Their lightshow is awesome, a fuck-load of strobes, but the American tours get much better lights. Their guitarist is fucking insane. He was bending over the amp getting some weird feedback. He finished the show by smashing his guitar.

Before the concert I went to a portaloo and checked for any USB drives. There were none. Damn. I really hoped Brisbane would be part of the ARG thing. Although I managed to get a shirt which says: "ART IS RESISTANCE". Finally I've got a NIN shirt that fits me. Hurrah.

Trent was wearing shorts. LOL!!! He always used to wear long, industrial looking pants. It must be too hot for him in Australia. LOL!!!

Yesterday on the train to the city I was thinking of the weird timing of this concert. It was Labor day. A day where workers march. But this year it had more significance. It is an election year, and as we all know the government has been getting a lot of shit over its' IR laws they're introducing (understatement). So obviously Labor Day was just gonna be another big protest against these laws. Not only that, Kevin Rudd made an appearance in Brisbane at one of the rallies. So on this day of protest in Brisbane, NIN perform. A few years ago I wouldn't have thought this was weird. However it is a bit of a coincidence since NIN have gone all fucking political recently. It made me think.

Here's a clip of them playing March of the Pigs. Recorded by some lucky cunt in the front row. Trent really was at his usual screaming best.


I stole that pic of Trent from someone on the NIN boards. He won't mind.

I'm Big in Japan

Have been busy planning Kristy and I's month long trip to Japan and South Korea. You can see where we're going and what we're doing here in google maps.

I'm Big in Japan is a song by Tom Waits. Kristy reckons it's about his cock.

evade tax for the dole

Lindsay from Frenzal Rhomb, John Safran, Ron and Humphrey talk about work for the dole:

are we not men? we heart work for the dole!

Kristy got me a devo action figurine! Devo are a band that started in the 70's. They played bizzare rock/electronic music. The bad thing is I don't want to take it out of the box. It comes with 5 interchangeable heads, a whip and energy dome hats. It looks to cool:



I recently re-read my post about nerds at the work for the dole place I had to go to when I was unemployed. I feel great now that I have a shit-hot job in IT. I hope those guys are still unemployed. Even better I hope they are doing an excom course so they can have an "exciting career in IT!". I hate that commercial! This suave fucker is reclining in a chair saying:

"You want an exciting career in IT? You've gotta go to excom!"

Then later you see him driving a sports car. Sif he owns the fucking thing. It's probably his boss's. I'm certain that after that guy finished shooting that ad his boss yells at him: "Get back to fucking work and start putting these computers into boxes! By the way, stop driving my fucking car you poser!"

I still really hate those people I did work for the dole with. I want them to be in wftd forever. It affected me so much I felt like writing a movie about them. The tagline might be:

Six nerds
One room
No hope

Margaret: I really laughed out loud to this movie! I can't believe it was based on a true story. The nerds are portrayed in such a cliched manner. But it's all true!

David: Yes, but it really grated on me Margaret.

Margaret: Yes but that's the point! *loud chuckling* Oh you're so particular David!

David: I really didn't care much for the characters in this movie. I ended up wanting them to be in work for the dole forever. 1 star.

Margaret: Oh David! This was the comic masterpiece of the year for me! 4 and a half from me.

PS: The archive of all my old posts is available from the bottom of the page.

neo-nazi jabbing

So I got out my berettas and I was like fucking bang bang bang. You played CS yeah?

I'm gonna get the number 14 tattooed on my arm. You know what that stands for? It stands for "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White children".

You can get free a free meal from the Church there and one at the Jewish Church.

Those are a few lines I overheard a guy saying on a tram in Melbourne. I should probably tell you all about my travels in Melbourne:

My first Melbourne experience was when I got off the plane at Melbourne airport and I go to the toilet. I'm at the urinal pissing away and I feel a jab in my sides. I turn around (while pissing) and see this little kid behind me. I say to myself "what the fuck?!" and he runs away.

In the words of Ron Hitler Barrassi: "Vics are pricks"

I found this cool book store called Kill City. It specialises in crime books. I bought Chopper 3: How to shoot friends & influence people. Funny stuff.

Random shit:

• The company I work for was bought for $315m by some rich yank fuckers
  
• I'm trying to read Treasure Island
• I can't believe the Patriotic Youth League, which was present at the Cronulla Riots, is connected to the Australia First Party.
• www.korea-dpr.com - the only official site of North Korea. It blows!
• The head of the Korean Friendship Association is a Spanish guy called Alejandro Cao de Benos de Les y Pérez.
• Went to the Big Day Out.
• Someone who I play with at band was in a car accident with Clem Jones.

I couldn't be fucked writing something witty and angry. Why don't you think for yourself for once. Fucking christ.

melbourne

hello from fucking hot melbourne. Here is a list of what I have accomplished from my time in this fucking hot city. Me and Kristy are livin' the dream!

• Went to Springvale
• Got my picture taken with that iconic tism sign
• went to rare records in st kilda and saw a folder of old (80's) tism flyers, newsletters and press releases. The guy who works there is front row on the 'save our tism' dvd.
• Didn't buy a $120 tism poster
• had pizza on lygon street
• went to the zoo
• went to the casino and got a new appreciation of the packer empire

that'll do for now. cya!