Happiness in a cup
I have a crush on the Happy Cup girl at my train station. She gives me a cup and it makes me happy. And she only charges me $3.00 plus an extra 50c if I want pearls with it.
I’ve been there twice now. And she’s very slow. But she’s also very nice. She can take up to 5 minutes just making one drink. But I suppose that’s 5 minutes well-spent. I don’t know how she manages during peak hours though.
She’s pretty, she feeds me and she speaks English well. What more can I want, really?
I guess it’s pretty early in our relationship at the moment to tell anything. Maybe eventually she’ll get to know me so well that she won’t even have to ask anymore if I want pearls. She’ll just know. Then we’ll work on our names.
Then we’d really be getting somewhere.
Monday, October 13, 2003
Friday, October 10, 2003
xtn according to Emode
As you can see, I went nuts with Emode. I shall never do this again.
- Your belief system is best suited to religions that value salvation from sin
Your score shows that you share core beliefs with religions that offer to deliver you from sin or save you from evil.
Some religions assert that all people are born with original sin and must seek salvation. They also maintain that a savior has come to save humankind and that you can find salvation by accepting this as the truth. You are attracted to spiritual groups that believe salvation is possible and encourage you along that path.
- Your IQ score is 129
During the test, you answered four different types of questions — mathematical, visual-spatial, linguistic and logical. We also compared your answers with others who have taken the test, and according to the sorts of questions you got correct, we can tell your Intellectual Type is a Facts Curator.
This means you are highly intelligent and have picked up an impressive and unique collection of facts and figures over the years. You've got a remarkable vocabulary and exceptional math skills — which puts you in the same class as brainiacs like Bill Gates. And that's just some of what we know about you from your test results.
- Your subconscious mind is driven most by Peace
You have a deeply-rooted desire to make peace in the world. Whether through subtle interactions with loved ones, or through getting involved in social causes, it is important to you to be able to influence the world in a positive way.
You have a deep respect for humankind. You care about the future of the world, even beyond your own involvement in it, and you inspire others to feel the same way. Your innate drive toward peace guides you in daily life towards decisions that are respectful toward yourself and others.
- Your true talent is verbal ability
You seem to know how to pick the right words for almost every occasion. Beyond your ability to interpret information and articulate your points, you appear to understand the power and aesthetic appeal behind language. Your verbal knowledge can make you versatile in expressing yourself. And your skills in this arena also allow you to pick up subtle meanings behind what people say.
- Your Emotional IQ is 112.
So, where are you most emotionally smart? Your test results show that your strongest suit is perception — your ability to pick up on what others are feeling.
Because of this, you are unusually good at reading people's verbal and non-verbal cues. You're especially aware of the subtleties of people's actions, and can feel out the vibe of a situation better than many. That gives you and edge many wish they had. People with high perception skills like yours, however, tend to rely on them to the exclusion of others. As a result, they sometimes have underdeveloped abilities in other realms of critical emotional intelligence like managing emotions, empathy, and being expressive.
- You're a Rock Star!
Your personality is actually determined by two personality sub-types - your primary, or dominant sub-type, and your secondary sub-type. You are a Rock Star which means you are a Success / Seeker. Your primary sub-type is defined by "Success" characteristics and your secondary sub-type is defined by "Seeker" characteristics.
That means you crave attention, the limelight, and the fawning admiration of millions. Chances are you have a bevy of fans and friends, and you like knowing how much others appreciate you. On top of this, you're a go-getter and you really shine under pressure.
- When it comes to psychic abilities, you have an unusually strong talent in the area of Retrocognition
This means you have an uncanny ability to look into the past at events that perhaps you had no part in and actually see what happened. This may happen with someone you are close to where you just know that for example, their father was too strict or that they were picked on in school. Perhaps you can even imagine the actual setting in which it happened. Oftentimes these imaginings are more than something your mind "made-up." What you are witnessing is actually true.
This is a highly valuable skill that can be used in any social setting to help to understand the people you are dealing with or aspects of the actual physical setting you happen to find yourself in. For instance, say you are in-between buying one of two houses and you apply your gift to learn that one property has a history of positive experiences and the other was a former battleground. For the sake of wanting to live on a property with more positive energy, you may then choose to buy the house with the more positive psychic history.
- You're a Type 2 - The Humanitarian
Friends, family, and colleagues probably appreciate your caring and generous nature. They're also apt to know that when they come to you with a problem, you'll usually offer a shoulder to cry on and unparalleled compassion. As a Humanitarian, you're likely to be seen as a loving and helpful person with a kind heart.
Being a member of this type puts you in good company. Mother Teresa, with her tireless devotion to aid the sick and destitute members of society, and Bishop Desmond Tutu, with his emphasis on nonviolent protest against racial injustices, are also Type 2s
This means that compared to the eight other Enneagram types, you have a strong sense of empathy for other people. In fact, you're the kind of warm, sincere person who can be uniquely capable of seeing the good in others.
- You're happier than 48 percent of the other people who took Emode's Happiness Test.
Your test results show that your relationships help you feel happier overall. This means that you often find joy in the people who make up your support network. You may also tend to gravitate toward communities that mirror your values. Because you ordinarily feel comfortable relating to other people, you can gain a real sense of belonging and connection.
- You are Balanced-brained
That means you are able to draw on the strengths of both the right and left hemispheres of your brain, depending upon a given situation.
When you need to explain a complicated process to someone, or plan a detailed vacation, the left hemisphere of your brain, which is responsible for your ability to solve problems logically, might kick in. But if you were critiquing an art opening or coming up with an original way to file papers, the right side of your brain, which is responsible for noticing subtle details in things, might take over.
While many people have clearly dominant left- or right-brained tendencies, you are able to draw on skills from both hemispheres of your brain. This rare combination makes you a very creative and flexible thinker.
The down side to being balanced-brained is that you may sometimes feel paralyzed by indecision when the two hemispheres of your brain are competing to solve a problem in their own unique ways.
- Your destiny is to be a Provider
Whether you know it or not, this is the role that is most in tune with who you are at your core. As a Provider, you have a genuine nurturing concern for the welfare of others and you're eager to serve them. You can recognize exactly what people need and your friendly, helpful, social nature makes them feel comforted. With your kind and generous heart, you are personable, talkative, and outward with your emotions, and your openness and sensitivity makes you concerned about the way others view you. Along these lines, be careful not to blame yourself when things go wrong. You cannot prevent bad things from happening, even though your tendency to be orderly with a strong sense of right and wrong may lead you to believe you can. Accept that you do what you can to take care of things and that this will get you far in the world. Bill Clinton, Mary Tyler Moore, and Sally Field are also Providers.
- Your career personality type is ESFP
That means that based on the standard measure of personality traits, you are well-balanced and place equal importance on work as on your personal life. You are dedicated to maintaining a level of culture in your life and therefore won't sacrifice interesting work for high pay.
With your high energy and chameleon-like adaptabilities, you seek work that is fast-paced and ever-changing. Working directly with people provides you with that outlet. On top of it, you have an uncanny ability to keep peace and maintain a level of serenity and happiness in your environment. If emotions flare up in the room, people look to you to pull out a story or joke that deflates the tension.
You prefer to live in the moment and appreciate what life and work offer now. The future is unknowable and does not draw you in like the present. Part of your easy-going outlook toward the future has to do with knowing that you can adapt to whatever comes your way.
The reason employers and recruiters might be on the lookout for you is that only about 8% of the U.S. population shares the unique characteristics of your personality type. Research shows that businesses succeed when employers create a good balance of personality types in the office. And since only 8% of the U.S. population shares your type, that means employers are looking for you.
- Your values help make you a Privacy Guardian
Even when left alone with someone's most valuable secrets, you appear to be one of those rare people who could forego the opportunity to snoop. Because you're one who usually places a high value on privacy — yours as well as other people's — you're someone who can ordinarily be trusted not to let the skeletons out of other people's closets. Because you like to keep your business to yourself and prefer that others do the same, you're not likely to become embroiled in others' battles or concerns. You're more apt to feel that it's better to focus on your own actions and welfare, rather than face the potential consequences of meddling.
The values types you're most likely to click with — whether in business relationships or in love — are those types that most closely resemble your own set of values. As a result, people with the same type are usually the most compatible. But besides being with another Privacy Guardian, the two types that you most closely match with are Loyal Rebel and Resourceful Independent.
- In the last year you've earned 716 karma points
You've earned these points by doing good things, therefore allowing good things to circle back to you. There are 6 different ways people earn karma, and by looking at your responses to this test, we can tell that your caring nature is earning you the most karma.
You seem to be one of those people who has an uncanny ability to anticipate and meet the needs of others around you. This nurturing quality has helped you earn your karma up to this point. Your thoughtfulness strengthens your current relationships, and suggests that such kindnesses will be repaid to you some time in the future. Through your concerted efforts to express how much you care, you generate good karma for yourself and the universe.
- Freud would say your strongest unconscious conflict stems from events that happened when you were a Toddler.
He would also conclude that relative to others, your personality today is moderately affected by the events of your childhood. It appears that your biggest unconscious conflict that still afflicts you stems from what Freud defined as the anal stage of development that occurred when you were between a year and a half and three years old. Freud would say that this conflict can manifest in your personality by giving you a tendency to be especially orderly or clean, or "retentive." You may also harbor a strong rebellious streak. This normally happens when parents toilet-train a child on some kind of schedule, rather than at the child's natural pace and the child naturally reacts by struggling for their autonomy and the legitimacy of their needs.
Freud defined five psychosexual developmental stages that everyone goes through on their way from infancy to adolescence. And each of those stages is associated with adult personality traits. At each stage, we all had to overcome certain "conflicts" or hurdles as we learned new skills and developed relationships with others. No one gets through all five stages without having trouble with at least one of them. And it's this unresolved "trouble" that Freud encouraged people to travel back to, recognize, and overcome.
- Your most positive energy is flowing from your Fifth Chakra
This is the chakra located at the top of your throat. The fifth chakra represents honesty and truth. In your case, this chakra appears to be clear and unblocked so that positive energy can flow from it freely. Radiating positive energy from your fifth chakra indicates that you've cultivated higher wisdom concerning the important life lessons associated with this energy center. You're apt to feel a more burning need than others do to speak the truth, treat people with respect, and act with integrity. Possessing strong fifth chakra energy also suggests that you're not one to fight your life's natural path. Instead, you seem to align your will with divine will.
As you can see, I went nuts with Emode. I shall never do this again.
- Your belief system is best suited to religions that value salvation from sin
Your score shows that you share core beliefs with religions that offer to deliver you from sin or save you from evil.
Some religions assert that all people are born with original sin and must seek salvation. They also maintain that a savior has come to save humankind and that you can find salvation by accepting this as the truth. You are attracted to spiritual groups that believe salvation is possible and encourage you along that path.
- Your IQ score is 129
During the test, you answered four different types of questions — mathematical, visual-spatial, linguistic and logical. We also compared your answers with others who have taken the test, and according to the sorts of questions you got correct, we can tell your Intellectual Type is a Facts Curator.
This means you are highly intelligent and have picked up an impressive and unique collection of facts and figures over the years. You've got a remarkable vocabulary and exceptional math skills — which puts you in the same class as brainiacs like Bill Gates. And that's just some of what we know about you from your test results.
- Your subconscious mind is driven most by Peace
You have a deeply-rooted desire to make peace in the world. Whether through subtle interactions with loved ones, or through getting involved in social causes, it is important to you to be able to influence the world in a positive way.
You have a deep respect for humankind. You care about the future of the world, even beyond your own involvement in it, and you inspire others to feel the same way. Your innate drive toward peace guides you in daily life towards decisions that are respectful toward yourself and others.
- Your true talent is verbal ability
You seem to know how to pick the right words for almost every occasion. Beyond your ability to interpret information and articulate your points, you appear to understand the power and aesthetic appeal behind language. Your verbal knowledge can make you versatile in expressing yourself. And your skills in this arena also allow you to pick up subtle meanings behind what people say.
- Your Emotional IQ is 112.
So, where are you most emotionally smart? Your test results show that your strongest suit is perception — your ability to pick up on what others are feeling.
Because of this, you are unusually good at reading people's verbal and non-verbal cues. You're especially aware of the subtleties of people's actions, and can feel out the vibe of a situation better than many. That gives you and edge many wish they had. People with high perception skills like yours, however, tend to rely on them to the exclusion of others. As a result, they sometimes have underdeveloped abilities in other realms of critical emotional intelligence like managing emotions, empathy, and being expressive.
- You're a Rock Star!
Your personality is actually determined by two personality sub-types - your primary, or dominant sub-type, and your secondary sub-type. You are a Rock Star which means you are a Success / Seeker. Your primary sub-type is defined by "Success" characteristics and your secondary sub-type is defined by "Seeker" characteristics.
That means you crave attention, the limelight, and the fawning admiration of millions. Chances are you have a bevy of fans and friends, and you like knowing how much others appreciate you. On top of this, you're a go-getter and you really shine under pressure.
- When it comes to psychic abilities, you have an unusually strong talent in the area of Retrocognition
This means you have an uncanny ability to look into the past at events that perhaps you had no part in and actually see what happened. This may happen with someone you are close to where you just know that for example, their father was too strict or that they were picked on in school. Perhaps you can even imagine the actual setting in which it happened. Oftentimes these imaginings are more than something your mind "made-up." What you are witnessing is actually true.
This is a highly valuable skill that can be used in any social setting to help to understand the people you are dealing with or aspects of the actual physical setting you happen to find yourself in. For instance, say you are in-between buying one of two houses and you apply your gift to learn that one property has a history of positive experiences and the other was a former battleground. For the sake of wanting to live on a property with more positive energy, you may then choose to buy the house with the more positive psychic history.
- You're a Type 2 - The Humanitarian
Friends, family, and colleagues probably appreciate your caring and generous nature. They're also apt to know that when they come to you with a problem, you'll usually offer a shoulder to cry on and unparalleled compassion. As a Humanitarian, you're likely to be seen as a loving and helpful person with a kind heart.
Being a member of this type puts you in good company. Mother Teresa, with her tireless devotion to aid the sick and destitute members of society, and Bishop Desmond Tutu, with his emphasis on nonviolent protest against racial injustices, are also Type 2s
This means that compared to the eight other Enneagram types, you have a strong sense of empathy for other people. In fact, you're the kind of warm, sincere person who can be uniquely capable of seeing the good in others.
- You're happier than 48 percent of the other people who took Emode's Happiness Test.
Your test results show that your relationships help you feel happier overall. This means that you often find joy in the people who make up your support network. You may also tend to gravitate toward communities that mirror your values. Because you ordinarily feel comfortable relating to other people, you can gain a real sense of belonging and connection.
- You are Balanced-brained
That means you are able to draw on the strengths of both the right and left hemispheres of your brain, depending upon a given situation.
When you need to explain a complicated process to someone, or plan a detailed vacation, the left hemisphere of your brain, which is responsible for your ability to solve problems logically, might kick in. But if you were critiquing an art opening or coming up with an original way to file papers, the right side of your brain, which is responsible for noticing subtle details in things, might take over.
While many people have clearly dominant left- or right-brained tendencies, you are able to draw on skills from both hemispheres of your brain. This rare combination makes you a very creative and flexible thinker.
The down side to being balanced-brained is that you may sometimes feel paralyzed by indecision when the two hemispheres of your brain are competing to solve a problem in their own unique ways.
- Your destiny is to be a Provider
Whether you know it or not, this is the role that is most in tune with who you are at your core. As a Provider, you have a genuine nurturing concern for the welfare of others and you're eager to serve them. You can recognize exactly what people need and your friendly, helpful, social nature makes them feel comforted. With your kind and generous heart, you are personable, talkative, and outward with your emotions, and your openness and sensitivity makes you concerned about the way others view you. Along these lines, be careful not to blame yourself when things go wrong. You cannot prevent bad things from happening, even though your tendency to be orderly with a strong sense of right and wrong may lead you to believe you can. Accept that you do what you can to take care of things and that this will get you far in the world. Bill Clinton, Mary Tyler Moore, and Sally Field are also Providers.
- Your career personality type is ESFP
That means that based on the standard measure of personality traits, you are well-balanced and place equal importance on work as on your personal life. You are dedicated to maintaining a level of culture in your life and therefore won't sacrifice interesting work for high pay.
With your high energy and chameleon-like adaptabilities, you seek work that is fast-paced and ever-changing. Working directly with people provides you with that outlet. On top of it, you have an uncanny ability to keep peace and maintain a level of serenity and happiness in your environment. If emotions flare up in the room, people look to you to pull out a story or joke that deflates the tension.
You prefer to live in the moment and appreciate what life and work offer now. The future is unknowable and does not draw you in like the present. Part of your easy-going outlook toward the future has to do with knowing that you can adapt to whatever comes your way.
The reason employers and recruiters might be on the lookout for you is that only about 8% of the U.S. population shares the unique characteristics of your personality type. Research shows that businesses succeed when employers create a good balance of personality types in the office. And since only 8% of the U.S. population shares your type, that means employers are looking for you.
- Your values help make you a Privacy Guardian
Even when left alone with someone's most valuable secrets, you appear to be one of those rare people who could forego the opportunity to snoop. Because you're one who usually places a high value on privacy — yours as well as other people's — you're someone who can ordinarily be trusted not to let the skeletons out of other people's closets. Because you like to keep your business to yourself and prefer that others do the same, you're not likely to become embroiled in others' battles or concerns. You're more apt to feel that it's better to focus on your own actions and welfare, rather than face the potential consequences of meddling.
The values types you're most likely to click with — whether in business relationships or in love — are those types that most closely resemble your own set of values. As a result, people with the same type are usually the most compatible. But besides being with another Privacy Guardian, the two types that you most closely match with are Loyal Rebel and Resourceful Independent.
- In the last year you've earned 716 karma points
You've earned these points by doing good things, therefore allowing good things to circle back to you. There are 6 different ways people earn karma, and by looking at your responses to this test, we can tell that your caring nature is earning you the most karma.
You seem to be one of those people who has an uncanny ability to anticipate and meet the needs of others around you. This nurturing quality has helped you earn your karma up to this point. Your thoughtfulness strengthens your current relationships, and suggests that such kindnesses will be repaid to you some time in the future. Through your concerted efforts to express how much you care, you generate good karma for yourself and the universe.
- Freud would say your strongest unconscious conflict stems from events that happened when you were a Toddler.
He would also conclude that relative to others, your personality today is moderately affected by the events of your childhood. It appears that your biggest unconscious conflict that still afflicts you stems from what Freud defined as the anal stage of development that occurred when you were between a year and a half and three years old. Freud would say that this conflict can manifest in your personality by giving you a tendency to be especially orderly or clean, or "retentive." You may also harbor a strong rebellious streak. This normally happens when parents toilet-train a child on some kind of schedule, rather than at the child's natural pace and the child naturally reacts by struggling for their autonomy and the legitimacy of their needs.
Freud defined five psychosexual developmental stages that everyone goes through on their way from infancy to adolescence. And each of those stages is associated with adult personality traits. At each stage, we all had to overcome certain "conflicts" or hurdles as we learned new skills and developed relationships with others. No one gets through all five stages without having trouble with at least one of them. And it's this unresolved "trouble" that Freud encouraged people to travel back to, recognize, and overcome.
- Your most positive energy is flowing from your Fifth Chakra
This is the chakra located at the top of your throat. The fifth chakra represents honesty and truth. In your case, this chakra appears to be clear and unblocked so that positive energy can flow from it freely. Radiating positive energy from your fifth chakra indicates that you've cultivated higher wisdom concerning the important life lessons associated with this energy center. You're apt to feel a more burning need than others do to speak the truth, treat people with respect, and act with integrity. Possessing strong fifth chakra energy also suggests that you're not one to fight your life's natural path. Instead, you seem to align your will with divine will.
Wednesday, October 08, 2003
I went to KFC the other day for lunch and just before I left, the girl at the counter says ‘Eat in or take away?’ so I considered this question like I would any other.
Yes, I do want to eat here, but I also prefer the box that you get when you ask for take away and I wanted the plastic bag so that I can have somewhere discreet to chuck all the bones away.
So I said ‘Take away’, which is basically a lie, really, but was necessary in order for me to get what I want. If she really didn’t want me to lie, she should’ve just asked ‘Would you like a plastic bag with that?’ or simply ‘Would you like that bagged?’ because that is, after all, what she’s essentially asking anyway. It’s more convenient to be straight with people.
For example, if you had a feral greenie type eat at KFC, he might want to take the food away but he probably wouldn’t want the plastic bag since plastic bags destroys the Earth or the Universe or something. So then he’d either have to lie like I did or explain why he just wants to carry the chicken in only the cardboard box, which takes a lot less time to biodegrade than plastic would.
Of course, this feral greenie type probably wouldn’t be eating at KFC in the first place since KFC is a big capitalistic corporation entity thing that uses under-aged slave labour to cook the chicken and is probably associated to or with some other corporation entity thing that knows someone that’s also destroying the Earth or the Universe or something. They just wouldn’t go there.
Which is precisely my point.
Yes, I do want to eat here, but I also prefer the box that you get when you ask for take away and I wanted the plastic bag so that I can have somewhere discreet to chuck all the bones away.
So I said ‘Take away’, which is basically a lie, really, but was necessary in order for me to get what I want. If she really didn’t want me to lie, she should’ve just asked ‘Would you like a plastic bag with that?’ or simply ‘Would you like that bagged?’ because that is, after all, what she’s essentially asking anyway. It’s more convenient to be straight with people.
For example, if you had a feral greenie type eat at KFC, he might want to take the food away but he probably wouldn’t want the plastic bag since plastic bags destroys the Earth or the Universe or something. So then he’d either have to lie like I did or explain why he just wants to carry the chicken in only the cardboard box, which takes a lot less time to biodegrade than plastic would.
Of course, this feral greenie type probably wouldn’t be eating at KFC in the first place since KFC is a big capitalistic corporation entity thing that uses under-aged slave labour to cook the chicken and is probably associated to or with some other corporation entity thing that knows someone that’s also destroying the Earth or the Universe or something. They just wouldn’t go there.
Which is precisely my point.
Tuesday, October 07, 2003
I've been added to Ricebowl Journals!
Dunno why I have to have that big Indonesian flag on my Ricebowl page though. I've migrated! Oh yeah, forgot. I guess it's some Asian pride thing... right.
Dunno why I have to have that big Indonesian flag on my Ricebowl page though. I've migrated! Oh yeah, forgot. I guess it's some Asian pride thing... right.
Tuesday, September 30, 2003
UPDATED
Dear Mr Mayer,
‘Well, that was pleasant.’
That’s what I thought.
Pleasant.
Maybe even good.
But never spectacular.
And certainly not $75 worth.
This was my John Mayer experience. I like your music. I really do. Room for Squares is a good album. A fantastic album. And Your body is a wonderland is one of my favourite songs. Ever. Really.
Maybe it’s because the Hordern is too big a venue or maybe you just aren’t that good a performer at the moment. But it was kinda bland. Kinda blah. You didn’t start with a bang, never really built it up and didn’t really climax anywhere. It was just… well… pleasant.
It reaffirmed my belief that you will one day be remembered as this generation’s Bryan Adams. Especially since you seem to be singing more ballads these days. It’s not a bad comparison. Bryan Adams sold a whole heap of records in his time. It’s just that one day, you and your music will be considered daggy. Not just daggy, really. But people will actually deny ever thinking you were cool.
Please don’t get angry. I’m not trying to insult you. I’m just telling you how it’s gonna be. And look on the bright side. At least you’re not this generation’s Michael Bolton.
But see, I reckon you can be better than that anyway. I wanna see you rock. I wanna see you, and your band (have they all been glued to the ground?) let loose! Why can’t you do that? Most good guitar-based acts know to really rock on stage. You’ve toured with Counting Crows. You should know. When they perform Mr Jones, they bring the house down! They go nuts! Adam’s pineapple haircut is flying everywhere and he’s jumping and his sweat’s splashing everywhere and the whole band’s moving around and jumping around and playing with and to each other. That’s how you rock.
OK, sure your fans were cheering too. But they’re teenaged girls. That’s just too easy. They’d cheer even if you just stood there.
Alright, so had your one moment. Come back to bed was very well done. But that was it. And that isn’t even one of your big songs. And while it was a great display of your guitar skills, it didn’t rock! And you never looked like you were particularly having fun out there. What about your big songs? You sleepwalked right through No such thing. Bryan Adams would never perform Summer of 69 with such indifference.
I remember Tegan and Sara playing Living room and I hear noises — their signature songs. And the Bens playing Khe Sanh with Jimmy Barnes. And Jason Mraz playing Curbside prophet. They all rocked! They all went nuts! They were performances that I'll never forget. That sends shivers up my spine just reminiscing about them! Michelle Branch rocks more than you! Hell, even Lo-Tel, your backup act, rocked more than you! They built up momentum very well. By the end of it, they really let loose! You’re too controlled. Too blah. Your face goes nuts but you don’t.
Forget about the fact that you’re all bigger than your body now and you have all these teenaged girls who want to sleep with you. Just loosen up and have some fun out there!
I do like your music. Really, I do. And I’ll continue to listen to Room for squares. But unless I hear that you’ve really beefed up your performances, if you come around to Sydney again for another $75 yawn-a-thon, I think I’ll pass. I’ll wait outside and listen to your CD in the car. One of my speakers is busted. But I’m sure it’ll be OK.
Your fan
xtn
__________
Concert grades 2003 Update
HD
The Bens (Enmore Theatre)
D
Jason Mraz (Metro)
Counting Crows (Enmore Theatre)
CR
The Whitlams (Metro)
Norah Jones (Opera House)
Michelle Branch (Metro)
Tegan and Sara (Annandale Hotel)*
Butterfly 9 (Basement)
P
The Superjesus (Metro)
John Mayer (Hordern)*
Charlton Hill (Basement)
*Tegan and Sara and John Mayer may have gotten extra marks if it weren't for their respective venues.
Dear Mr Mayer,
‘Well, that was pleasant.’
That’s what I thought.
Pleasant.
Maybe even good.
But never spectacular.
And certainly not $75 worth.
This was my John Mayer experience. I like your music. I really do. Room for Squares is a good album. A fantastic album. And Your body is a wonderland is one of my favourite songs. Ever. Really.
Maybe it’s because the Hordern is too big a venue or maybe you just aren’t that good a performer at the moment. But it was kinda bland. Kinda blah. You didn’t start with a bang, never really built it up and didn’t really climax anywhere. It was just… well… pleasant.
It reaffirmed my belief that you will one day be remembered as this generation’s Bryan Adams. Especially since you seem to be singing more ballads these days. It’s not a bad comparison. Bryan Adams sold a whole heap of records in his time. It’s just that one day, you and your music will be considered daggy. Not just daggy, really. But people will actually deny ever thinking you were cool.
Please don’t get angry. I’m not trying to insult you. I’m just telling you how it’s gonna be. And look on the bright side. At least you’re not this generation’s Michael Bolton.
But see, I reckon you can be better than that anyway. I wanna see you rock. I wanna see you, and your band (have they all been glued to the ground?) let loose! Why can’t you do that? Most good guitar-based acts know to really rock on stage. You’ve toured with Counting Crows. You should know. When they perform Mr Jones, they bring the house down! They go nuts! Adam’s pineapple haircut is flying everywhere and he’s jumping and his sweat’s splashing everywhere and the whole band’s moving around and jumping around and playing with and to each other. That’s how you rock.
OK, sure your fans were cheering too. But they’re teenaged girls. That’s just too easy. They’d cheer even if you just stood there.
Alright, so had your one moment. Come back to bed was very well done. But that was it. And that isn’t even one of your big songs. And while it was a great display of your guitar skills, it didn’t rock! And you never looked like you were particularly having fun out there. What about your big songs? You sleepwalked right through No such thing. Bryan Adams would never perform Summer of 69 with such indifference.
I remember Tegan and Sara playing Living room and I hear noises — their signature songs. And the Bens playing Khe Sanh with Jimmy Barnes. And Jason Mraz playing Curbside prophet. They all rocked! They all went nuts! They were performances that I'll never forget. That sends shivers up my spine just reminiscing about them! Michelle Branch rocks more than you! Hell, even Lo-Tel, your backup act, rocked more than you! They built up momentum very well. By the end of it, they really let loose! You’re too controlled. Too blah. Your face goes nuts but you don’t.
Forget about the fact that you’re all bigger than your body now and you have all these teenaged girls who want to sleep with you. Just loosen up and have some fun out there!
I do like your music. Really, I do. And I’ll continue to listen to Room for squares. But unless I hear that you’ve really beefed up your performances, if you come around to Sydney again for another $75 yawn-a-thon, I think I’ll pass. I’ll wait outside and listen to your CD in the car. One of my speakers is busted. But I’m sure it’ll be OK.
Your fan
xtn
__________
Concert grades 2003 Update
HD
The Bens (Enmore Theatre)
D
Jason Mraz (Metro)
Counting Crows (Enmore Theatre)
CR
The Whitlams (Metro)
Norah Jones (Opera House)
Michelle Branch (Metro)
Tegan and Sara (Annandale Hotel)*
Butterfly 9 (Basement)
P
The Superjesus (Metro)
John Mayer (Hordern)*
Charlton Hill (Basement)
*Tegan and Sara and John Mayer may have gotten extra marks if it weren't for their respective venues.
Friday, September 26, 2003
It’s Captain Jack Sparrow! ...or Where has my money gone?
The last three movies I’ve seen have all had something to do with the undead. One of them was even called Undead. All three are vastly different and they all succeed to varying degrees. Here’s what I thought.
28 days later
I really liked this. I liked the way that the zombies were fast and foaming at the mouth, rather than how they’re usually portrayed as lumbering, moaning things. What makes a horror movie work for me is the supernatural placed side-by-side with realism. This film had a very gritty feel to it (looks like it was shot with a handycam) and so when the zombies attack, it’s almost believable. The scene where they go shopping in an empty supermarket was especially good. As was the church scene with the zombie priest in the beginning of the film. The main problem, I thought, came in the second half. I don’t want to say what happened but it felt like watching The Beach a second time. Another big problem was the sense that these survivors had been living in this apocalypse for a very long time when it’s only really been 28 days. That’s a very short time. All in all, it’s worth watching. It’s an original take on the zombie genre.
***1/2
Undead
A more traditional zombie movie. Undead lies somewhere between Night of the living dead and Dark city. The result is only so so. The acting is hammy and there was no sense of realism whatsoever. OK, so maybe that’s not the point. But here’s where I get confused. What’s it meant to be? If it’s a spoof, then there’s too many serious bits. If it’s a horror, well there wasn’t a single moment where I felt the least bit scared. To me, the second half was quite good (but I can’t say anything without giving spoilers) while the first half was pretty much shite. I know there’s a lot of people who love this sort of thing. Maybe I’m just not one of them.
**
Pirates of the Caribbean
Ahh, here we go. This movie is wonderful! I’ve heard people say things like ‘It’s OK’ or ‘It’s pretty good’. What’s wrong with you people?! It’s probably the most fun film of the year! Yes, it was a little long, perhaps. But what was there was fantastic! Visually, it was stunning. But what made this work for me were Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush’s over-the-top performances. They shone in every scene they were in. They were perfectly cast. Even the usually scene-stealing Orlando Bloom took a backseat to these two. It’s rare that a film is genuinely fun. This film succeeds. Much like the Disneyland ride it was based on, I never wanted this to finish.
****1/2
__________
I’ve been buying a lot of CDs lately. Too many. But they’ve all been pretty good. Here’s a rundown of what I have bought in the last two weeks.
Rachael Kane – Appetite
Good but unspectacular. Girl with a guitar singing rock-tinged pop songs.
***
Elan – Street Child
Sounds frighteningly like Hanson before their voices broke. Soulful, but only a few songs stand out. The rest kinda blends together.
***
White stripes – Elephant
Hey, they are as good as their hype. It’s stripped-down back-to-basics bluesy rock. There’s just the two of them, no bass player, and they don’t swear or sing about drugs. It’s everything I didn’t expect from a rock band but the result is fantastic.
****1/2
Bob Evans – Suburban kid
Bob Evans is the alter ego of Kevin Mitchell from Jebediah singing mainly acoustic folksy music. I love it.
****
Rumanastone – By design
I have no idea why this Sydney band isn’t more well-known. They sound something like a rockier Gin Blossoms. They’re good!
****
The last three movies I’ve seen have all had something to do with the undead. One of them was even called Undead. All three are vastly different and they all succeed to varying degrees. Here’s what I thought.
28 days later
I really liked this. I liked the way that the zombies were fast and foaming at the mouth, rather than how they’re usually portrayed as lumbering, moaning things. What makes a horror movie work for me is the supernatural placed side-by-side with realism. This film had a very gritty feel to it (looks like it was shot with a handycam) and so when the zombies attack, it’s almost believable. The scene where they go shopping in an empty supermarket was especially good. As was the church scene with the zombie priest in the beginning of the film. The main problem, I thought, came in the second half. I don’t want to say what happened but it felt like watching The Beach a second time. Another big problem was the sense that these survivors had been living in this apocalypse for a very long time when it’s only really been 28 days. That’s a very short time. All in all, it’s worth watching. It’s an original take on the zombie genre.
***1/2
Undead
A more traditional zombie movie. Undead lies somewhere between Night of the living dead and Dark city. The result is only so so. The acting is hammy and there was no sense of realism whatsoever. OK, so maybe that’s not the point. But here’s where I get confused. What’s it meant to be? If it’s a spoof, then there’s too many serious bits. If it’s a horror, well there wasn’t a single moment where I felt the least bit scared. To me, the second half was quite good (but I can’t say anything without giving spoilers) while the first half was pretty much shite. I know there’s a lot of people who love this sort of thing. Maybe I’m just not one of them.
**
Pirates of the Caribbean
Ahh, here we go. This movie is wonderful! I’ve heard people say things like ‘It’s OK’ or ‘It’s pretty good’. What’s wrong with you people?! It’s probably the most fun film of the year! Yes, it was a little long, perhaps. But what was there was fantastic! Visually, it was stunning. But what made this work for me were Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush’s over-the-top performances. They shone in every scene they were in. They were perfectly cast. Even the usually scene-stealing Orlando Bloom took a backseat to these two. It’s rare that a film is genuinely fun. This film succeeds. Much like the Disneyland ride it was based on, I never wanted this to finish.
****1/2
__________
I’ve been buying a lot of CDs lately. Too many. But they’ve all been pretty good. Here’s a rundown of what I have bought in the last two weeks.
Rachael Kane – Appetite
Good but unspectacular. Girl with a guitar singing rock-tinged pop songs.
***
Elan – Street Child
Sounds frighteningly like Hanson before their voices broke. Soulful, but only a few songs stand out. The rest kinda blends together.
***
White stripes – Elephant
Hey, they are as good as their hype. It’s stripped-down back-to-basics bluesy rock. There’s just the two of them, no bass player, and they don’t swear or sing about drugs. It’s everything I didn’t expect from a rock band but the result is fantastic.
****1/2
Bob Evans – Suburban kid
Bob Evans is the alter ego of Kevin Mitchell from Jebediah singing mainly acoustic folksy music. I love it.
****
Rumanastone – By design
I have no idea why this Sydney band isn’t more well-known. They sound something like a rockier Gin Blossoms. They’re good!
****
Tuesday, September 16, 2003
One foot on fresh air
Every day when I wake up I assume that I am the same person that I was yesterday.
And I suppose I am. But then obviously bits and pieces of me change with every second of every day. That’s how I grow. That’s how I get older. I think I understand that.
But even if I can account for each link of the chain, from the first link to the last, it is no longer the same chain. Or if I focus on the chain as a whole, then the individual links cease to be discernable. It’s just how things are, I suppose.
How old do I have to be to start feeling old? Where is the point where plans have to be carried through? Potentials be turned into results? When do I arrive and where? When do some dreams have to be let go? When do I say goodbye to old friends?
The longer I let a chain grow, the further I am from where I started and eventually I realise that the chain will be bigger and longer and heavier that anything I can control. I may remember where I started. But I’ve forgotten how I got to where I am now.
You see, I’ve lost so many old friends. And the more new friends I make, the more I will lose in the future. Surely I used to have more friends. Oh yes, I did! Lots! But where are they? What am I doing about it? I don’t have time. But I must. Everyone has time. But I don’t have the energy.
I don’t have the energy to write emails to tell them all how I am and ask them how they are. Do I care about them? Sure I do. Do I care about them enough? Well…um… sure I do. At least some. Sometimes I miss them. Really miss them. It’s just hard. And it will just get harder. It used to be easier. It was much easier. I want to hold a party now but I don’t even know if people will come anymore. How much strain can these chains withstand? Over what distance? What can I do?
I think I understand how all this works. I take a little. I give a little. I gain a little. I lose a little. I learn so much. I forget so much.
I never become better or worse. I just become someone else.
I think I do understand. I just don’t like it.
Every day when I wake up I assume that I am the same person that I was yesterday.
And I suppose I am. But then obviously bits and pieces of me change with every second of every day. That’s how I grow. That’s how I get older. I think I understand that.
But even if I can account for each link of the chain, from the first link to the last, it is no longer the same chain. Or if I focus on the chain as a whole, then the individual links cease to be discernable. It’s just how things are, I suppose.
How old do I have to be to start feeling old? Where is the point where plans have to be carried through? Potentials be turned into results? When do I arrive and where? When do some dreams have to be let go? When do I say goodbye to old friends?
The longer I let a chain grow, the further I am from where I started and eventually I realise that the chain will be bigger and longer and heavier that anything I can control. I may remember where I started. But I’ve forgotten how I got to where I am now.
You see, I’ve lost so many old friends. And the more new friends I make, the more I will lose in the future. Surely I used to have more friends. Oh yes, I did! Lots! But where are they? What am I doing about it? I don’t have time. But I must. Everyone has time. But I don’t have the energy.
I don’t have the energy to write emails to tell them all how I am and ask them how they are. Do I care about them? Sure I do. Do I care about them enough? Well…um… sure I do. At least some. Sometimes I miss them. Really miss them. It’s just hard. And it will just get harder. It used to be easier. It was much easier. I want to hold a party now but I don’t even know if people will come anymore. How much strain can these chains withstand? Over what distance? What can I do?
I think I understand how all this works. I take a little. I give a little. I gain a little. I lose a little. I learn so much. I forget so much.
I never become better or worse. I just become someone else.
I think I do understand. I just don’t like it.
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