tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62482322011-08-27T22:14:44.865+09:00SerepaxBecause the world needs more overwrought candour.Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.comBlogger3191100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-64586440210665233002007-02-25T16:23:00.000+09:002007-02-25T16:27:49.535+09:00The endWell, after three years, I'm a bit bored of Serepax. I've enjoyed the ride, but had enough of inflicting overwrought candour on the world. If you like, you can join me in my 100% emotion-free blog, Whisperling. There will be less wank, I hope. Thanks for reading.Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-87877786618930775262006-12-16T17:24:00.000+09:002006-12-16T17:26:05.398+09:00Two word-of-mouth rumours about Mel GibsonOne could be put down to possible exaggeration, but two rumours have a little more weight. OK, so the story is: two female friends have independently told me they have been approached by Mel Gibson in a Sydney club. K told me she and her friend spent the night dancing with Mel and his bodyguard before his minder called them the next day to suggest a Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-46890435247199540672006-12-04T17:03:00.000+09:002006-12-04T17:16:29.355+09:00BoratSo good I had to watch it twice - but what a difference between viewings! Slumming it with the plebs at Melbourne Central's multiplex, everyone laughed at the heavy satire of the Running of the Jew or Borat's priceless speech outlining his Iraq strategy. The rather educated audience at the Nova was much less certain of laughing at racial jokes, even if the joke was that the exposed AmericansDoughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-49767424440512770772006-12-02T17:45:00.000+09:002006-12-02T17:48:35.409+09:00DroughtAustralia's record drought shows no sign of breaking, and as the environment changes, so too are the gears of society slowly grinding into a new, more suitable configuration. So now we have the remarkable sight of four large Victorian businesses pleading, begging, cajoling people to use LESS of the product they have on sale - water. It's stunning - millions spent on advertising to ask Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-615373626055148142006-12-02T17:07:00.000+09:002006-12-02T17:10:38.195+09:00IkeaAfter successfully wrestling an Ikea wardrobe into existence, I collapsed into bed contently. Lying there, I wondered why it was so satisfying to make Ikea furniture. Then it dawned - it was exactly the same feeling I used to have after making Lego according to the instructions. And what is Ikea but larger Lego? Both companies hail from Scandinavian countries, the design-oriented areas of Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-19126289163639292052006-11-20T15:08:00.000+09:002006-11-20T15:14:30.395+09:00ChinaOk, so by popular demand (well, Laura's comment), here is China in two weeks:Every country evolves its own set of road rules. Traffic flows can tell you a lot about a country. Australia's are rigid - cars keep to their lines and burst into angry flurries of beeping when the rules are flouted. China, on the other hand, with 50 times as many people, has embraced the Tao of Traffic. Scooters Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1163149576221785792006-11-10T18:00:00.000+09:002006-11-10T18:06:16.240+09:00Action before motivationThe essence of blogging is meant to be continuity, so consider Serepax dead and resurrected. What happened? A trip to China (great), a wall of work and a complete lack on inspiration. But! Jayden told me yesterday he reckons action comes before motivation. Normally Jay likes to inspire controversy with the minimum number of syllables, but here he got me interested despite Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1159192354987711882006-09-25T22:38:00.000+09:002006-09-25T22:52:35.006+09:00My near near death experienceSo I went hiking on the weekend up in Mt Baw Baw national park with a couple of friends and we bravely forced our way through maybe 12 km of thick scrub before finding an elusive Scouts Hut. It was a fortress - bars on the windows and a cover over the keyhole. To break in, we adopted a two prong attack. Willy removed a corrugated iron section from the back, peeled Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1158752590895828892006-09-20T20:42:00.000+09:002006-09-20T20:43:10.910+09:00Thoughts after seeing An Inconvenient Truth- Imagine if George Bush had the passion to make such a thing- Imagine if Mark Latham had the passion to make such a thing, not the twistedly intriguing dummy spit that was The Latham Diaries- Imagine having politicians with actual passion in the system- Imagine 100 million refugees fleeing the sea - the chaos, the starvation, the amorality, the fear Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1157769276948743732006-09-09T11:33:00.000+09:002006-09-09T11:34:36.966+09:00Odd deathsFirst Steve Irwin, now Peter Brock. Australia's legends and larger than life men keep dying in ways that matched their lives, by things that defined them: wildlife and a rally car. Many commented that Irwin's death shook the nation, nearing the frenzy around Princess Di. She was also killed by something that defined her - the paparazzi. Is it irony or neat symmetry the way these three Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1157378709444386632006-09-04T21:08:00.000+09:002006-09-04T23:05:09.600+09:00WorkI've been a full time worker for about six or seven months now. While I quite like the cycle of work-stop-work, the disturbing thing about it is that I can see the rest of my life unfolding in a similiar vein and it scares me. I've also acquired a new temporary housemate, K, who told me an abridged version of her life story over an hour. I did the same thing and it took about a minute. It Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1156498957891679612006-08-25T18:41:00.000+09:002006-08-25T18:42:37.910+09:00On pornI wonder if porn is the greatest weapon yet devised by the male backlash? Consider porn's conventions: - Head jobs: The woman cannot speak through her mouthful of cock- Male orgasm: Denoted by the degradation of jism spattering the woman's face - Female orgasm: Unknown bar whimpers designed to secure the male ego - The female body: Sculpted (apparently, adjustable implants have now been Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1156252002824401402006-08-22T21:48:00.000+09:002006-08-22T22:06:42.843+09:00TaggingRiding home a couple of weeks ago, I came to a 20 kmh speed sign. Someone had thrown a hasty '1' in front with a jagged dash of black paint, with a smiley face beneath. Looking at the sign, I couldn't help but think of it as a metaphor. What if the supposed disengagement of youth - the disillusioned slacker culture apparently typifying Generation X and beyond is just a wider version of theDoughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1155653914503121522006-08-15T23:49:00.000+09:002006-08-15T23:58:34.546+09:00OddI like it when life turns turtle - when things turn upside down and there's that oddly off-centre feeling in the tummy, the feeling that always puzzled me as to how to name it until I rode my first rollercoaster. I spose it's weightlessness - that sense of floating while the world shifts and rearranges itself around you, like the point during an action flick where the cops leave the ground at Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1154956713407721552006-08-07T22:14:00.000+09:002006-08-07T22:18:33.446+09:00Uppers and downersThe link between depression and creativity is well documented - but what do anti-depressants do to creativity? Does the numbness my friends report comes with them take away the impulse to create?Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1154777561380569512006-08-05T20:30:00.000+09:002006-08-05T20:32:41.400+09:00High notesTo pinch a joke from my friend Pat: Q: What did the Jamaican dudes say when they ran out of weed?A: What's this shit music?Why are drugs and genres of music so inextricably linked? Is it because the drugs and music work in tandem to produce certain headstates? The soaring emotions of ecstasy and intricate uplifting beats of techno / Weed with introspective genres - chillout and reggae /Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1154353804865925302006-07-31T22:41:00.000+09:002006-07-31T22:50:04.906+09:00MissionI get to interview the director of a missionary organisation on Wednesday and already my mind is leaping ahead to the showdown. The scene: a too-quiet compound reminiscent of Waco in the outer burbs. Doug enters, a suave product of the post-enlightenment. The missionary is seated behind a desk, levitating slightly out of zeal. Our eyes lock. The battle is on! I launch many questions at himDoughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1153639087548050622006-07-23T15:59:00.000+09:002006-07-23T16:18:07.580+09:00What youse up to?Hating bogan-speak is one of the principal joys of the middle class, myself included, and for this reason I've always winced at 'youse'. But B and I were talking about it yesterday and I was surprised at the linguistics factoid that youse offers something new to the language - a helpful delineation between you plural and you singular. This was news to me, but remnant Indonesian Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1153055203503487232006-07-16T22:01:00.000+09:002006-07-16T22:06:43.526+09:00SnipI've been struggling to get out of a dire mood of late and wondering why, when I found this in a book of essays (penned by a La Trobe uni academic who heaps praise on Australia through the prism of sport, strangely):...the strange mixture of taking the activity, whatever it might be, with ultimate seriousness, with devotion, striving to complete it with godlike perfection, while realising Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1152525641124631852006-07-10T18:59:00.000+09:002006-07-10T19:00:41.140+09:00Australia-only reference: Cigarettes and road killWith the entry of cigarette-packet advertising into the hitherto closed market of government shock health tactics enjoyed for many years by the TAC, I foresee a raising of stakes and an escalation of said shock tactics. No doubt TAC strategic planners are grimly contemplating the new cigarette packets, replete with pornographically-tender images Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1152081473880273862006-07-05T15:36:00.001+09:002006-07-05T15:37:53.880+09:00Failed punsDespite my occasional dreams of being a lauded and much loved subeditor, whose divisive puns are loved and reviled worldwide, I don't think I'll get there. Two of my proudest moments didn't make the cut past my editor, much to my disappointment. Perhaps they were a little tasteless, but that doesn't make me less of a proud father. So, without further ado: On a story about a kid who Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1152081021777191632006-07-05T15:23:00.000+09:002006-07-05T15:30:21.793+09:00SuperChrist is back!Ok, so I've missed the boat on this, what with living in Australia and all. But I saw Superman Returns last night (don't ask) and was astounded at the film's overt Christianity. Sample scenes: When will I see you, pines Lois Lane. Answer: "I'm always around" (Nice Holy Spirit hat-tip)- Lois has lost faith as Superman takes off for five years. The fickle woman! That's an order Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1151909722850458232006-07-03T15:53:00.000+09:002006-07-03T15:57:14.776+09:00Quick! Follow the link! (If you're Australian) If you go here very quickly, you'll see an amusingly muffed banner ad on behalf of Telstra "Big Bond" internet services. Big bond indeed - must have been a Freudian slip on behalf of a frazzled ad exec. "Ok, so our selling point is that we lock people in forever until they can't be bothered attempting to escape, all the while taking advantage of our Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1151649286368396092006-06-30T15:22:00.000+09:002006-06-30T15:34:46.386+09:00SnipEdited from the BBC: Nigeria is routinely ranked as being seen as one of the world's most corrupt countries. According to Centre for Law Enforcement Education (Cleen) director Innocent Chukwuma, their survey was conducted across Nigeria between October and December last year. He said that those surveyed were asked about their "perception of corruption - whether it had decreased or increased Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1151637185829861142006-06-30T12:11:00.000+09:002006-06-30T12:13:05.850+09:00Three anecdotesI know, I know - public transport stories are for teenager angstophiles and journalists desperate to fill a column. But these three anecdotes from the past week are decent, I hope. #1: Scene - Clifton Hill station, 6pm. Two guys are sauntering along the platform and come to a Crimestoppers billboard. For your prejudiced pleasure, the two men have patchy skin, unshaven with unsteadyDoughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1151384563528004372006-06-27T13:59:00.000+09:002006-06-27T14:02:43.546+09:00Like puzzle piecesDozing next to B of a morning last week, my mind drifted off. I started thinking about whether what we had would have been possible in Victorian times, or earlier, in times when Christian thinking ruled. What were relations between men and women really like? Could we have spoken honestly about ourselves? Would there have been much laughter? Or would the emotional walls and Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1150864762854787802006-06-21T13:36:00.000+09:002006-06-21T13:41:24.320+09:00The perpetual motion machineMuch has been written about the vastly increased movement of people in a globalised world, with modern transport effectively shrinking the world into managable chunks of between-time. The discussion generally falls into two camps - glowing reviews of the lives of 'global citizens', nomads with money, the ever-moving creatives and jet-commuting businessmen, contrasted Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1150164927638765062006-06-13T11:13:00.000+09:002006-06-13T11:15:27.656+09:00We grew here, but as for you...It's strange how selective national guilt is. Germany went through an agonising orgy of recrimination post-Nazism and produced a fine body of self-lacerating literature, while Japan's nihonjinron - the doctrine of racial superiority - survived two atom bombs unscathed and continues to enrage war vassals China and South Korea. But as for Britain's gradual takeover ofDoughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1149598503654829132006-06-06T21:23:00.000+09:002006-06-06T21:55:03.673+09:00Celebrity, baby. My slow day at work produced a fine bantering session on the riff of sleeping with celebrities. This got me thinking. Surely, surely, surely there must be a market for celebrity sperm. Of course the Nobel sperm bank was destined to fail because no matter how many pop scientists there are, science will never be pop. China is onto the idea. But what about the country that exists toDoughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1149081598426090032006-05-31T21:56:00.000+09:002006-05-31T22:19:58.493+09:00Bits and pieces #5I wonder if each age has diseases which reflect its excesses? I know it sounds apocalyptic and God-Ordained, but I'd rather plump for irony. If syphilis highlighted the fraudulent piety and repressed sexuality of Victorian times - and doubled as slight payback for the illness inflicted on the colonised, travelling back from South America as a visible sign of carnal sin, then Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1148890525962044992006-05-29T17:13:00.000+09:002006-05-29T17:15:25.980+09:00About meI learnt an interesting thing the other night. Apparently, I had significantly changed for the worse when I first got back from Japan, according to an expert on my character (Mum). This came as news to me - I just thought I was hideously depressed. Which I was. But to the world-outside-Doug, it was more than that - I was a harder person, less forgiving, less pleasant. When I remember backDoughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1148531232983077242006-05-25T13:07:00.000+09:002006-05-25T13:27:12.996+09:00Shaking the saltHear ye! Hear ye! The Saltshakers have unleashed a manifesto on how to conquer the human condition (at least, the lust-from-porn part of it). How? With the aid of a rubber band, telling a friend when you feel the urge in your loins (but not that sort of friend, sadly), or meeting up at a lust accountability group, which sounds about as well thought out as a Sex Addicts support/Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1148455042975603932006-05-24T16:15:00.000+09:002006-05-25T08:32:49.140+09:00Oh myFirst, check out this pic: (That should show the oil companies)Then go to the website from whence it came and wonder at these words:Reverend Bray was incarcerated for four years in the 1980s after being convicted of burning a number of abortion clinics around Washington, D.C. After his release from prison, Rev. Bray became a national spokesperson for the idea that children in the womb were Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1148371591650190752006-05-23T16:49:00.000+09:002006-05-23T17:10:33.526+09:00FactionI've never had too many pretensions about my writing - it's hasty, impression-laden stuff without overlong thought - but what I do best is write faction - heavily altered fact. Sadly, life as a local journo seemed to preclude editorialising past being the now-sole journo on the paper, and hence having almost complete control over what goes in my little baby. But then the plot thickened. Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1147745353239413582006-05-16T11:06:00.000+09:002006-05-16T11:09:13.253+09:00Bareback MountainI knew the porn takeover of Brokeback Mountain couldn't be far away. But Lee made it much funnier than I could have. Sample lines: SO. WHAT'S IT ALL BASED ON..?Brokeback: The short story by Annie Proulx, which first appeared in The New Yorker. Bareback: A couple of cowboy hats left behind after a hen party in The Yard.WHICH CAME FIRST?Brokeback: This one did, inspiring a raft of Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1147740164529789462006-05-16T09:33:00.000+09:002006-05-16T09:42:44.550+09:00LetterI WONDER what all the rabid feminists thought when those great warriors, the miners, trapped in hell for 14 days, arose and cradled and kissed their womenfolk? All the magnificent miners and engineers who risked their lives to rescue these men; the scenes of these great men emerging from such danger, clutching their womenfolk to them, epitomised what man and woman is all about. It is God's Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1147491150610340472006-05-13T12:11:00.000+09:002006-05-13T12:34:55.946+09:00Musical impairsFrankston station was one of the early adopters of classical music generational warfare in Melbourne. Once a place for right-thinking citizens to scurry between transport modes without looking at the loitering young hoodlums, Frankston station has largely emptied of the young restless. By piping classical music into potential teen-gathering spots, the powers that be make the Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1147489825907624412006-05-13T11:48:00.000+09:002006-05-13T12:10:25.923+09:00Bits and bobs #4I was just inspecting the words people use to find my blog, as every good self-obsessed blogger does and uncovered a stash of people searching for "fresh lolita" as if Lolita were a vegetable of some kind. More interestingly, several used Ask Jeeves to search for the elusive fresh Lolitas. This is where the whole concept of asking a Jeeves - a starchy butler with a penchant for Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1147488483065696262006-05-13T11:46:00.000+09:002006-05-13T12:33:46.490+09:00Overheard"God, John Howard can't even bring our dead soldiers home from Iraq"- South Melbourne, earlier this week.Ouch. RIP, Private Kovko.Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1147343939390754422006-05-11T19:21:00.000+09:002006-05-11T19:38:59.416+09:00Bits and bobs #3I was riding my bike down the road from my family's house and a car stopped and gave way to me. It was a guy I vaguely knew as a neighbour and we gave each other slight nodds and continued on with our days. I thought about this tiny interaction and wondered if that one of the reasons community has died in cities and been reconstituted as the commonalities of television celebritiesDoughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1147319985925268502006-05-11T12:54:00.000+09:002006-05-11T12:59:45.940+09:00No mysteryDolphins create a signature whistle for themselves that researchers believe is comparable to a human name, suggests a new study... Dolphins in Australia do seem to produce more simple whistles, while Florida dolphin whistles appear to be more modulated," she said. "Right now, we don’t know why that happens." - From the Discovery Channel.No idea? I've got a pretty good idea, mayyyte. Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1147010821960641682006-05-07T22:13:00.000+09:002006-05-07T23:07:02.003+09:00English mark IIAs English consolidates its position as the language most commonly learnt around the globe, a number of global dialects have arisen - Engrish, in Japan; Singaporean Singlish (a Hindi/Chinese/English hybrid), and Indian Hinglish, to name the most well known. The dialects shows up the flaws in the arguments of academics decrying the dominance of this linguistic monolith - as one Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1146575608654475382006-05-02T21:40:00.000+09:002006-05-02T22:13:28.670+09:00Closeness = actionContrast these two snippets of news: Demand for water in Melbourne and elsewhere is expected to outstrip supply within 15 years. To counteract the shortage, Melburnians will be asked to conserve more water.Melburnians already beat a target for reducing water use by 15 per cent before 2010 — the average household now uses 22 per cent less than during the 1990s. Under the proposedDoughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1146376972482507552006-04-30T15:00:00.000+09:002006-04-30T15:02:52.516+09:00CorrectingI've been reading Malcolm Gladwell's Blink and the section on unconscious racial bias caught my eye. Gladwell took the well-known Implicit Association Test (IAT) on race and found that despite his conscious assumption that races were equal, his unconscious had other ideas, caught deeper. He, like the vast majority of Westeners who take the test, found that it was easier and quicker to Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1146136671663862912006-04-27T20:12:00.000+09:002006-04-27T20:17:51.676+09:00HappinessThese days go so fast as a worker bee. But one thing you find, in contrast to the lovelorn fool of old, is that love is quite real and that, far from being something that strikes you like an arrow or bolt from the heavens, love is something that grows slowly out from a seed, until you find yourself thinking of this girl and wondering what she might be doing and feeling undressed without Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1145427210188974662006-04-19T15:11:00.000+09:002006-04-19T15:13:30.190+09:00When is a game not a game? I used to play a lot of video games as a gangly teen and it dawned on me this morning that the appeal of gaming to me is that games represent how we think life ought to be. When you're stuck in situation in game that you don't know how to get out of, you never get depressed because you know that the game has a purpose and that it has been designed to be finished. This Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1145427060431778712006-04-19T15:04:00.000+09:002006-04-19T15:11:00.443+09:00FameI wonder if fame has become a new social divide over and above class. With the rise of all forms of entertainment and the much hyped creative classes, the measure of a person's standing is increasingly less about money, I'd argue, and more about fame - the process of becoming known. Fame crosses over into business and leadership hagiographies, but the divide is clearest in the creative Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1144817260180448182006-04-12T13:43:00.000+09:002006-04-12T13:50:48.713+09:00Apocalypse!In further proof that drinking and writing go hand in hand, I wrote this late one night with the aid of red wine and a copy of the Bible and managed to get it published in Mel's fine publication, Is Not magazine, which you might have seen on walls around Melbourne. I include it here because it was so much fun to write and I'm proud of it. Subcultural Apocalyse! Then war broke out in Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1144764335755785502006-04-11T22:41:00.000+09:002006-04-11T23:05:35.850+09:00Two thingsIf you were to avoid traditionally based morality in which a life is sacred and indivisible and plump instead for utilitarian thought and cost benefit analysis, you'd find some interesting things. This report notes that malaria costs some African countries around 1.3 GDP growth points per year. There is a strong relationship between malaria and poverty - tourists are reluctant to enter Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1144652700104134152006-04-10T16:03:00.000+09:002006-04-12T13:58:22.903+09:00Tourism as pacifierWhile it has become popular to condemn tourism on the grounds that it destroys cultures and recreates them as empty spectacles, I wonder whether the net effect is in fact more positive. One aspect of tourism is that it subjects little-known countries to the public gaze. While this is largely for lifestyle purposes - the reinvention of still-Communist Vietnam as an earthy, Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1144331393473816672006-04-06T22:22:00.000+09:002006-04-06T22:49:53.546+09:00ServiceThe interesting thing about the much vaunted service economy is that it at last allows us to attach a rough value to the unpaid, unseen work of the home. It's easily arguable that the service economy arose as a result of the successes of feminism. Of course, the boom in singledom, wanted or unwanted no doubt helped, but there's no doubt that women working outside the home led to the rise Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1143798994208696582006-03-31T18:14:00.000+09:002006-03-31T19:00:52.820+09:00Hard LabourI've been wondering for a long while why I'm not sufficiently left-wing to be accepted amongst lefties as one of their own, nor gung-ho enough to be a marketeering neo-Christian hypocrite, which seems to comprise the Right these days. Clive Hamilton 's Quarterly Essay, 'What's Left?' may have answered that for me. A tad flippantly, I tried to sum up how I felt a couple of years ago Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1143763496788288782006-03-31T09:04:00.000+09:002006-03-31T09:08:17.200+09:00Rare Wiggle sighting!Last night I was at Meyers Place in the city, trying to consolidate the journo-alcoholic character trait when I saw a man with startling eyes. He and his friend, around 40 were drinking and checking out girls. But this man with the startling eyes carried himself as if every moment he expected to be discovered, like a minor, insecure celebrity. He was dressed strangely, a Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1143612605018696222006-03-29T15:07:00.000+09:002006-03-29T15:10:05.033+09:00World wide cookingI had an idea a while ago to compile a sharehouse cookbook, based not on the idea of shopping prior to cooking, but the lazy student's method of inspect-shelves-toss-ingredients-in-pot-wait-ten-minutes. This is a cooking method I know and respect, as it has allowed me to create staggering works of genius (AKA a greeny spinachy fry-up of divinely cheesy proportions) and hellish Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1143546879240558372006-03-28T20:36:00.000+09:002006-03-28T20:54:39.250+09:00Work partySo last Friday I had my first work party, which was rather odd. I've been gainfully employed as a local journo for all of three weeks now, long enough to bid a heartfelt farewell to dole letters. I ended up on a table with three presumably single women. Midway through the entree, their slavering over a particularly juicy piece of manmeat became too hard to ignore. He was hot, in an Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1143116713956513592006-03-23T20:56:00.000+09:002006-03-23T21:25:14.026+09:00Bits and bobsI have been a very bad blogger now routine and contentment has set in. But here are some tidbits.L told me a wonderful story of a tramride, packed with people and she was standing close to a man, both of them reading. Instinctively, their bodies softened into each other, curved around each other while their minds roamed elsewhere, not surveiling their domain - and then at once, both Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1142942228137419382006-03-21T20:55:00.000+09:002006-03-21T20:57:08.146+09:00Better words than mineAll the questions man asks about his life are multiplied by the factof death: for man differs from all other creatures, it would seem, inbeing aware of his own death and in never being fully reconciled tosharing the natural fate of all living organisms. The tree ofknowledge, with its apple that gave man awareness of good and evil,also grew a more bitter fruit man wrenched Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1141904840310531082006-03-09T20:43:00.000+09:002006-03-09T20:47:20.320+09:00Job!At last! I have a real job, after months of floundering, unrealistic dreams of life changes. I'm a journalist at a local paper, after so much agonising about whether it was for me. In the end, I didn't really choose so much as had the job chosen for me. I thought Masters in Politics might delay real life for long enough to get a grip on what the hell I wanted to do, but I didn't factor in my Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1141097435422642072006-02-28T12:05:00.000+09:002006-02-28T12:30:35.496+09:00StigmaWhat a brilliant idea. Gay men in Sydney can now send anonymous text messages informing their sexual partners they may have a sexually transmitted infection. From an article in the Sydney Star Observer:“I thought it was a good idea because every gay man has a mobile phone,” said Dr Chris Bourne, the head of STI in Gay Men Action Group (STIGMA). The text message reads, “Someone wants 2 Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1139287733370976342006-02-07T13:37:00.000+09:002006-02-07T13:48:53.386+09:00Know anyone?At last, a chance at the big(ish) time. I've been commissioned to write an article for a newspaper magazine liftout. But I need contacts, which is where this plea comes in. The story is on Australian expats who return from overseas, and what they think of Australia now. All I need is a nice mix of Sydneysiders and Melburnians who've gone overseas for career purposes and I can do the Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1138763066079706392006-02-01T11:53:00.000+09:002006-02-07T13:54:50.250+09:00Quick oneNo access to the net makes Doug a dull boy. But I'll be back shortly. Until then, join me in pondering at the recent report released by AMP.NATSEM entitled "May the Labour Force be With You." While on one hand I find it childishly amusing that Big Name Serious Journalists have to use the heading, it's baffling that a large wealth management company would put its name to a report headed Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1137394581305052992006-01-16T15:14:00.000+09:002006-01-16T15:56:21.343+09:00I'm back!No, I haven't vanished. I've been away, first to Perth for Christmas by my grandmother's deathbed. Happily for us, she returned from the dead. But the look on her face - weathered, resigned - when she came back to full consciousness told us she would have preferred to have done with it. The flipside of modern medicine's power to save is that death for the old is protracted, a lingering Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1134652887342953592005-12-15T21:42:00.000+09:002005-12-15T22:24:51.623+09:00The battle for Cronulla BeachDespite the embarassment and cringe-worthiness of watching Real Aussie Blokes beating newer migrants with beer in hand, there's something almost farcical about the setting of Sydney's race riots. The battle is over a beach. The humour of these confrontations is that whiter Aussies are laying claim to being more Australian, claiming to have been born here, not flown Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1134030748624511602005-12-08T17:12:00.000+09:002005-12-08T17:32:28.636+09:00Salivating over technologyI never used to be like this, I swear. Technology was always just technology, just a tool, not a fetish. But more recently, I've felt something shifting in the wind. These days, something moves in my guts when I spot a sleek handheld device - a phone, a BlackBerry, an Ipod. I blame my time in Japan. Mobile phone culture is huge there, and I slotted right in. It was two Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1133326628798652742005-11-30T13:47:00.000+09:002005-11-30T14:00:48.696+09:00If you're my baby...While there's often a love-hate relationship between pop culture figures and real people, between representation and reality, sometimes pop culture captures reality perfectly. As Keisha, Mutya and Heidi of the Sugababes cavort in an elevator for the "Push the Button" clip, each couples off with a hapless, dorky man and coaxes some hot dancing out of their unexpected dates. So Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1133073097832114962005-11-27T15:27:00.000+09:002005-11-27T15:43:22.203+09:00In praise of Bill GatesThere's something drastically wrong when we have to turn to Bill Gates to point out the deficiencies of the free market. But who else can the poor of the world turn to for cures to the diseases which help keep them in poverty? There is no money in third-world diseases. Big pharmaceuticals focus on drugs which alleviate the diseases of the rich, many self-inflicted like Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1133066574489176252005-11-27T13:31:00.000+09:002005-11-27T13:54:54.186+09:00People are strangeFrom an article in Wired on Timothy Archibald's book, Sex Machines: Photographs and Interviews: The Huskette has a $300 KitchenAid mixer motor inside it. We thought it was silly to spend $300 on something with only one use, so we made this detachable. So, if you wanted to make cookies, you can detach the mixer from the machine, hook it to its original base and bowl -- clean it Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1132743251456853002005-11-23T19:35:00.000+09:002005-11-23T19:54:11.466+09:00Just wondering... As monthly line rental fees push young people and professionals into mobile-only arrangements, I wonder if the subsequent decline in landline usage may have an unexpected benefit - far fewer spam calls. Or is it just an untapped market for the offshore and local telepest farms? Are mobiles safe? Not being listed in phonebooks helps, of course. But if people's phone rages are Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1132665077487098642005-11-22T21:57:00.000+09:002005-11-23T12:42:08.063+09:00The war that missedIn March 2003, the United States invaded a Middle Eastern country in an attempt to reduce the threat from rogue states and radical Islamists. Unfortunately, they missed the real threat, and the US army took out the neigbouring local loudmouth instead. The country America should really have been gunning for, if any, was Saudi Arabia, the world’s near-monopoly exporters of Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1132553744690780452005-11-21T14:39:00.000+09:002005-11-24T16:47:07.206+09:00CriticsI interviewed an existentialist philosopher a few weeks ago and I asked him what the meaning of his life was. What he said was simple but it stuck with me. “That is a very difficult question. I do know one thing about human existence that many of us have forgotten. It’s the philosophical conviction that humans are creative, and many of us have forgotten that, many of us live like consumersDoughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1132118596513052412005-11-16T14:13:00.000+09:002005-11-16T14:31:56.720+09:00Thoughts on the IR changesI've been trying to come to grips with Howard's IR changes, amidst the clamour of those on the left who think that after July 1st, it was only a matter of time before he unleashed his fascist tendencies and those on the right who think the changes are well overdue. According to the liberal educated view, both the industrial landscape and our civil liberties will be Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1132013822237488032005-11-15T09:09:00.000+09:002005-11-15T15:18:51.763+09:00A bad punWhy don't celebrities start promoting drugs? Perfume and clothing lines are a direct link to chemical wonderlands. And I'm not just talking the hottest new line of cocaine (now with 50% fewer nosebleeds and heavily reduced washing powder!). Nup, celebrities need to get into pharmabusiness. But because most prescription drugs have to have stupid ingredient names like Xanax or Tylerol or Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1131965046261798712005-11-14T19:40:00.000+09:002005-11-14T19:44:06.340+09:00On editing bitchilyI wrote a story on domestic violence recently, a topic I know little about. So I did a fair bit of research, interviewed a number of people and wrote an article. I was happy with it, despite having a niggling feeling that I hadn't really come to grips with it. Most of the people I talked to were strongly feminist, as you'd expect. I think they saw working in the domestic Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1131277874340141332005-11-06T20:24:00.000+09:002005-11-06T22:14:42.150+09:00ID v. Science: a largely unnecessary debateSo, I've been trying to write up an interview of a man who specialises in several things I know nothing about, namely heavily mustached German philosophers and Kurdish nationalism. Somehow, I ended up here. The internet is wonderful for meandering. I really don't know why it's called web surfing. It's more like hopscotch. Or skimming stones. Anyhow, it'sDoughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1131251963437452532005-11-06T12:50:00.000+09:002005-11-06T13:41:11.283+09:00Be watchfulWalking through the leafy streets of East Melbourne today, I noticed a neigbourhood watch sign. The signs are commonplace, everyday. But today, for some reason, I actually noticed the sign. Here's what I saw: East Melbourne is an anachronous sliver of wealth stuck in the unwashed teeth of surrounding suburbs. It's wedged between the jeering and cheering of the MCG and Fitzroy's runningDoughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1130386863259094652005-10-27T13:17:00.000+09:002005-10-27T13:22:18.470+09:00StoryI want to have children because I want to make something that bleeds, she says, I am tired of wood and paper and ink and the making of lifeless things. He says but that’s utterly selfish, and he says this with shock. He stops stirring the white sauce, stops adding cheddar cheese and he stops these things so that he can look at her. Her chin quivers. He knows this quiver. It is the Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1130119970018578162005-10-24T10:23:00.000+09:002005-10-24T12:09:35.210+09:00The perils of SYPHILIS!I deliberated about whether to share this embarassing little gem with you all, but if I don't, I'll have nothing fresh or juicy to read. And that is worse than DEATH! I've already told a version of this story, but not the aftermath. So this is the merry tale of Dashing Doug and the Evil STD Clinic. It opens with our hero's father giggling his way through a very practical Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1128942807766374692005-10-10T19:50:00.000+09:002005-10-10T20:13:30.096+09:00The taste of bittersweetSo here's fresh-faced young me sallying forth into a rather prestigious newsroom for a week of work experience, saliva stored up for the kissing of suitable butts. Sadly, fresh-faced young Doug is also toting a Heavy Heart which makes for maudlin train rides and a lack of enthusiasm. There was a girl, she who must not be blogged. Her emotional backlog has claimed her. In Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1128655784795770282005-10-07T12:29:00.001+09:002005-10-07T12:29:44.803+09:00Hot mineral water, Shirahama. The very last pictures from Japan, I promise. Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1128655743699519922005-10-07T12:29:00.000+09:002005-10-07T12:29:03.700+09:00A building from which to conquer the world? No - a very Tokyo Disney store. Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1128655699147547872005-10-07T12:28:00.000+09:002005-10-07T12:28:19.153+09:00Eerie light at train stationDoughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1128655669583297082005-10-07T12:27:00.001+09:002005-10-07T12:27:49.590+09:00The reward for working on a rice farm: very good riceDoughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1128655632803468972005-10-07T12:27:00.000+09:002005-10-07T12:27:12.806+09:00A happy theme park workerDoughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1128654587403244392005-10-07T11:29:00.000+09:002005-10-07T12:17:29.816+09:00Oh, to be a child againLast week I came home to find a council of war brewing in my kitchen. My parents were conferring with relatively-unknown-neighbour Chris on the fate of the house next door. Afflicted with middle age regret, the parents moved to Darwin to seek happiness and escape their children. In their absence, an encampment of dubious teenagers has grown and flourished, to the point Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1127977160501776822005-09-29T15:30:00.000+09:002005-09-29T16:21:02.723+09:00The joy of hypocrisy This is interesting. A US study has found that heavily religious societies actually do significantly worse on social indicators such as murder rates, teen pregnancy/abortion, STDs and all those other vices that religion is supposed to wean us off with the carrot of Life Eternal. Formerly religious European societies (supposedly about to collapse as the nuclear family implodesDoughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1127880049589290512005-09-28T12:22:00.000+09:002005-09-28T15:58:29.966+09:00ELIZA loses her innocenceTo date, no computer program has passed the Turing test. Devised by Alan Turing in the 50's, the test pits a conversation program against a human. The human must try to guess whether their unseen conversation partner is flesh or software. If a program ever passed the test, reasoned Turing, it deserved to be thought of as sentient. While programs like ELIZA had some Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1127720286679203602005-09-26T16:37:00.000+09:002005-09-26T16:38:06.686+09:00A lil' bit of angstI haven't written because I've been unemployed. Theoretically, this would mean I have more time on my hands. In practice, it means I pad around the house in fluffy slippers, hangdog plastered across my face and make endless cups of tea to help me avoid the terror of applying for work. Adjusting to life back hasn't been so easy. I hate not being needed, or not having anything Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1126861948842060222005-09-16T18:12:00.000+09:002005-09-16T18:12:28.846+09:00Now that is a scary jelly. These are some of the last photos I took in Japan. A few more to come later, perhaps.Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1126861856636853832005-09-16T18:10:00.000+09:002005-09-16T18:10:56.636+09:00Anti-smoking campaigns are a titch different in Japan. Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1126861679246261752005-09-16T18:07:00.000+09:002005-09-16T18:07:59.250+09:00A poster for Queen-the-Musical, a utilitarian bike, a restaurant, and a large tentacle threatening Mt Fuji with a baseball bat. Yup. Just keep walking. Nothing to see. Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1126861505464324532005-09-16T18:05:00.000+09:002005-09-16T18:05:05.466+09:00No! No! Please, whatever you do, please don't rape me with the vacuum cleaner again! I promise I'll do all the housework from now on! Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1126861341955594962005-09-16T18:02:00.000+09:002005-10-07T12:21:18.156+09:00I never imagined how well dashing young Colonel Sanders would take to the kimono, if bribed with sufficient watermelon. (My brother took this pic)Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1126861267038840812005-09-16T18:01:00.000+09:002005-09-16T18:01:07.043+09:00Ke-san and Sho-san, man and woman of the soil. Tougher than me, that's for sure. I only lasted three days on their rice farm. Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1126861085317202912005-09-16T17:58:00.000+09:002005-09-16T17:58:05.323+09:00Yep, a rather small frog on a wooden slipper.Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1126861028226273722005-09-16T17:57:00.000+09:002005-09-16T17:57:08.230+09:00Manga featuring languorous, entwined young lads. Very big amongst teenage girls, apparently. The flipside of the lesbian fixation amongst Red-Blooded Men, p'raps? Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1126860807891695522005-09-16T17:53:00.000+09:002005-09-16T17:53:27.896+09:00... because a man needs to look stylish when he's trawling the streetsDoughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1126860623852002822005-09-16T17:50:00.000+09:002005-09-16T17:50:23.903+09:00Sculpture in hipster shop, TokyoDoughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1126772721789707882005-09-15T16:29:00.000+09:002005-09-15T17:25:21.850+09:00Serepax 2010I'm not entirely sure what I should do with Serepax now. I seem to be tending towards Serious Issues now that the travelogue has drawn to an end. I can't write about my life in Melbourne because there isn't one. I've fallen into the void between student and worker and my days are filled with job searching and frantic internal searches for something resembling ambition, or at least Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1126499172514101502005-09-12T12:54:00.000+09:002005-09-12T13:34:33.930+09:00InversionIsn't it amazing how Christianity tries to completely invert human nature? By nature, we, like other animals, are pleasure-seeking, pain-avoiding creatures. But Christianity's mould for the ideal human, created in imitation of founder, leader, and deity Jesus is the inverse: pain-seeking and pleasure-avoiding. Yet Christianity was revolutionary in that for the first time in monotheistic Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6248232.post-1125898754217574992005-09-05T14:12:00.000+09:002005-09-05T15:36:15.890+09:00TimeI hate watches and timepieces and timetables and routines. If I have to go to work at a particular time, it's a combination of pure chance and resentment that brings me to a workplace "on time." In Japan, I was routinely tongue-lashed (nowhere near as pleasant as it sounds) by our kindergarten principal for lateness. I also hate being told off for anything, particularly "lateness". My worst Doughttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01465644000149066476noreply@blogger.com0