It's Been A While

Well, there's no big news relating to where I've been; it's more a case of absence by a thousand cuts. So, where to start ...

Work has been busy. On top of everything else, I've had to tend to some old gear that basically fell over when the weather warmed up. So there really hasn't been any slack time where I could just dick about on the internet.

One of the old aunties died, and I was out of town for the funeral. It wasn't a sad funeral. She'd had dementia for a while, and the family had already done their mourning -- the woman they loved was long gone. There was more just a sense of relief that the scared, confused, and angry stranger they'd been taking care of had finally reached the end of her suffering.

Sadder news was that another one of the cousins has the big C, and it may be too far gone to treat. They were talking about the option of pouring their life savings into the hope of some long-shot experimental drug. It doesn't sound good anyway.

I also caught up with some cousins I hadn't seen in a while, which was nice. Amongst them was a pair of twins. It'll become obvious why I mention this later.

Lil' Cuz from down the road (I should really give her a name for on here) took the whole ordeal a little bit hard and had a falling out with her house-mate. So, basically, she's been hanging out here. A lot. That's one thing about having a secret blog where you whinge about your family: you can't very well update it in front of them. And it's not like I can go in the other room -- because there aren't any. My place is tiny. I sleep on the lounge when my folks visit. I don't mind looking after her when she's going through a bit of grief, and it's not like she's horrible to have around or anything, but y'know, she's a young person who does young person stuff. And I'm not. And this place is tiny. She rocked up here drunk on Friday night, with a young man in tow, which I wasn't real impressed with; especially since I had "aunt duty" early the next morning. So I'm going to have to find a tactful way of nudging her back to her own place befor long.

And yes, aunt duty. Been doing a lot of that on the weekends lately. My mum's been seeing to that. You see, it's report card season; and since writing report cards is now apparently a labour that would make Hercules cringe, Mum's been down here co-ordinating things. I don't know how teachers get on that don't have mothers and sisters to pick up the slack; I guess they burn up and explode or something. I guess part of it's that mum used to be a teacher, and maybe part of it's that she thinks the boys need a bit of extra "looking after", but I also reckon there's a little piece of her that's upset that I didn't have kids of my own -- so this is the least I can do to make up for it, sort of thing. I'd like to think that last bit is my imagination, but I suspect not.

 On the plus side, I've discovered a really good kids show that one of nieces is into. It's an NITV show called Double Trouble, and both ABC and SBS have episodes up. Basically, it's about twin girls, aboriginal mother, European (literally) father, separated at birth. One lives a posh life in the city, the other lives in a remote community in central Australia. As teenagers, they have a chance meeting and decide to switch places in order to meet their other family members. Not real original, I know, but very well made. Really good attention to detail.

Anyway, at one point, we're watching, and my niece says to me:
"Hey, Arnyelix? Y'reckon one day you'll take me out'n the bush t'look f'nanas an' honey ants t'eat?"
... "D'ya reckon I'd know how to find all that stuff, do ya?"
... "Yes."
Isn't it grand how kids think you can do anything?

At another point, I started thinking about my twin cousins trading places. One is about 6'2" and built like a rugby player, the other is short and petite ...
 "Watcha laughin' at, Arnyelix? This show's no' tha' funny, is it?"

***

Melbs, I will try to get over to your blog tomorrow, and maybe Sarah's too. Right now, I'm pretty tired and really looking forward to getting to bed. On a slightly weird note, I've been having serialised dreams. About a copper in a small farming town who starts a sexual relationship with a married farmer who is growing cannabis to make ends meet during a drought. She's just had sex with the farmer's nephew as well, which complicates things a bit. Can't wait to see what happens next.

Hope everything is well with everyone and their families. I'll be around as much as I can, but I'm expecting rellies from W.A. over here soon, so I won't be able to commit to much. I still want to read that comic at some point down the track. 

Bad movies, Gough Whitlam, surprising interviews, sexy outfits, masks, and weird sex shit.

Been a bit busy over the last few days. But I had the evening free tonight, and decided to spend it productively, by drinking tea and watching videos.

After hearing that P had such glowing opinions of the V For Vendetta movie, I went back and re-watched it, trying to imagine what it would be like to see it without having read the comic.

...

... nope. Still think it's rubbish. Sorry. 

Somehow, Hugo still manages to emote more convincingly than Natalie.

Then I went and had a look at the docos on the SBS website. I see they've got one up that features John Faulkner talking to Gough Whitlam in the last years of his life. I haven't watched it yet, but I think I most definitely shall. I wonder if Kettle knows about it?

I also found this doco on the UK dogging scene, which I did watch. If you haven't heard of "dogging", I guess the best way to describe it is it's sort of like swingers' parties, except people meet up in the woods for (usually) anonymous, (usually) group sex in front of an audience. When I gave the porn industry away, dogging was breaking away from the broader categories of amateur and gonzo to form a distinct sub-genre; and I remember one of the things that made it so distinct was that all of it seemed to be coming out of Britain. Strange; you'd think the weather'd turn folks off, but apparently not.

The film is pretty poorly made, which is disappointing, because some of the stories seem quite interesting. One woman who'd battled anorexia reckoned the more men she had sex with, the better she felt about herself. Her husband came along to chaperon.

Melba, didn't you once say you had a bit of a fascination with this sort of stuff?

More people who are more engaging than Natalie Portman.

And speaking of stuff you might be interested in, Melbs ... I was catching up on some podcasts regarding what's happening in the world of open-source software, and for some inexplicable reason, one of the episodes happened to be an interview with some author named Hugh Howey, who reckons he's making a shit-ton of money self-publishing on the internet. I know you've said you're not interested in going down that route, but it still might be worth a listen. He has one or two interesting things to say.

MP3 Download Here.

And speaking of both podcasts and strange sexual shit ... sorta ... Seeing as how a lot of the tech/news/tech-news podcasts I listen to are American in origin, Halloween has been a big topic this past week. One of the things I've heard repeatedly, which I've found a little surprising, is complaints about the gratuitous sexualisation of the event. Basically, I've been listening to people grumbling that more women are dressing in more sexy-fied costumes, and most of all, that younger girls are beginning to imitate the trend.

There's a Canadian article here about how even the little kids' costumes are going feral

These sort of complaints aren't new, but I found it strange that so many people seemed to be complaining about it this year. How big of a deal has it become? And is it just a yank thing? Squib, how much of this did you see? And how did your night go, anyway? Was the bat costume a success? What was your sweety haul like?