Arc Tangent

I want to buy BT’s new album, These Hopeful Machines. BT is a rad dude and his music is excellently sweet. I’ve heard some tracks off this collation of musically arranged bits, and I know that it is something I wish to partake of more deeply. Sadly, despite the album being legally available in some places around the world today, I can’t buy it because I’m in Australia.

Now, Australia is not a large country, but we are fairly technologically advanced. We’re well connected. Sure we’re slipping backwards a bit in the sociopolitical sphere but we’re doing pretty well as denizens of the planet. We contribute. We get stuff done.

So why is it, in the era of the Internet, of cheap copying and digital distribution, a time of wonder and joy – why is it that I have to wait 10 more days than the rest of the world to buy these easily replicated bits? I want to give these people my money and they’re making it hard for me because I live in Australia.

They’re making it difficult for me to give them money.

Let those words sink in for a moment. It’s easy for me to acquire this album. I can go to any number of torrent tracking sites and get instant gratification right now. Today. It’ll take all of an hour, at most, for this album to download, and I’ll have what I want. The effort of doing so is virtually nonexistent.

Or, I can wait another 10 days for iTunes, Amazon and BeatPort to release this album to me in Australia. I can choose not to listen to the music, to be patient, and then hand over my $12 to have a digital copy of the album. In my imagination, I can see myself impatiently eking out my 10 day wait as a bitter second-class citizen, hopping from foot to foot to prevent the cold from setting in. Battered by advertising, I slouch into their digital stores, and weakly hand over my money.

Dear music industry: Do you even WANT my money? Quit your bitching and get with the program.

The photos below were taken yesterday, as I drove South from Canberra to Melbourne. It’s about a 680km drive – only trance music and caffeine kept me going!

The first is The Dog on the Tuckerbox. Story goes something like: old drover orders his dog to guard his tuckerbox as he goes into town to wet his whistle at the local pub. Being the kind of man he is, he gets into a bit of a biff, and loses his life over something silly. The dog, ever loyal, guards the tuckerbox – howling and pining for her master – until she finally expires.

Gets me all misty eyed every time.

The second is a bloody great submarine in the ground. It’s HMAS Holbrook – which I guess is named after the town – and it’s a weird sight as you drive down the arid NSW stretch of the Hume Highway. The town styles itself ‘the submarine town’ and has a top-notch bakery in it!

So. My story. I’m now working for sitepoint.com, and just to make it clear, my opinions and expressions on this blog are wholly my own and do not reflect upon my employer, etc etc!

I’m in Melbourne. To live. Looking for a place to call home, camped out in some friends’ largely empty flat. It’s weird and exciting to think I’m living here now – not going home at the end of the week like usual.

Ruzkin pointed out to me today that I have now been blogging on arcwhite.org for over a year. My updates may have occasionally been patchy and sporadic, but I’ve managed to post something just about every month at least – I consider that a bit of a win.

So – happy birthday, arcwhite.org!

Coming up in the next few months: Some more big posts about grandiose subject matter, more travel retrospectives, big personal news, a change in theme and plenty more waffle.

To everyone who’s been reading, and commenting – and there’s more of you than I ever really hoped there would be – thank you!

So I’m back from Europe. Harsh reality – work, no more partying, the beer isn’t as good, and I’ve got so much to sort out. That said I’m deeply refreshed and looking to get my life on a totally different track, so!

I have a huge series of blog posts to write about my adventures – with pictures – but today is the first day I’ve been properly conscious (thanks to jetlag and a nasty bug I picked up on the plane).

I have some stories to tell; please bear with me while I write them up. :)

Currently in a hostel in Aswan, the Keylaney. Highly recommended. Aswan far South, up the Nile toward Sudan. Surrounded by harsh, unforgiving desert, it´s a shocking blaze of green along one of the cleaner parts of the Nile river. No crocodiles though, thanks to Nasser´s dam.

Got here by overnight train. Didn´t manage to make it out to the tomb of Ramses II, which would´ve been cool, but requires one to book ahead a few days and get up at a ridiculous hour to avoid baking in the desert heat. Never mind, another time.

Floated up and down the Nile on a falluccia yesterday, seeing some of the islands here (this is site of ancient ivory trading station, many old tombs). People here very friendly, especially compared to Cairo folk. Got pulled into a shop run by a guy calling himself Antonio Banderas, just to talk. He didn´t even try to sell us anything. Smart, smart kid.

Many stories to tell, not enough time to tell them (yet). Off on falluccia cruise up the Nile to Kobumbo (sp?) in half an hour, will take 48 hours. Should be beautiful! Then 1-2 days to see Valley of the Kings before we have to return to Europe (life is so hard for me).

:)

(On this keyboard, that smiley face was a hell of an effort!)

Currently on a bus from Prague to Munich, where Brett and I will be catching a plane to Egypt. Insufficient sleep has been had – repeatedly. Almost over jet lag I think.

First night in Prague was crazy. Whirlwind tour of city and pubs, excessive beer. Partied hard. That’s on a Monday night. Whew!

Second night was opera (Dvorak’s Rusalka, told in very cool high-visual style) at Narodny Divadlo (the National Theatre). Amazing.

Can’t even begin to write about it all, and I’ve been here but three days. Feels very familiar here, like home. Czech people alike Australians in many ways (but different, too). Learning as much of the language as I can.

Czech women in particular much less shy than Australians. Got first phone number within 24 hours. :P

Will try to write more later!

I’m off to Europe for a month!

After a gruelling stint of contracting work, I’ve decided to take a bit of a holiday and go visit my best mate in Prague. While I’m there, we’ll also visit Egypt, Germany and the Netherlands. It’s going to be a non-stop trip of awesome and adventure!

I’m currently in Sydney, staying with some friends over the weekend. I fly out on Monday morning (depressingly early at that). I visited the Googleplex today – amazing building, very cleverly engineered and a very comfortable looking place to work if ever I saw one.

Hopefully I’ll get a chance to blog some more now. :)

Over the weekend, Australia lost our last living World War 2 VC – at the ripe old age of 90. His name was Edward ‘Ted’ Kenna, and I met him a couple of times.

It would have been 1995, possibly 1996. I was 11, and we were living in Puckapunyal, the Army base smack-dab in the middle of Victoria. Primarily used as a training facility, Pucka is little more than a massive artillery range with an Army base and a married patch attached. It’s surrounded by electric fences – not for security, but to keep the ‘roos from jumping out of the range into nearby farmlands.

Dad was running 1st Recruit Training Battalion, Echo Company in Pucka. A big intake had meant that Kapooka didn’t have enough room, so E Company was detached to Puckapunyal. The first march-out called for a bit of pomp and ceremony, and it turned out that E Company was Ted Kenna’s unit way back when (or so I’m recalling – it’s been a while).

He came over to our place for dinner, with his wife. They were both genuinely lovely people – just nice, real nice. Ted was happy to talk to me and my brother, and he was even okay with telling the story of how he got his Victoria Cross – though he cautioned us not to call him a hero, because he was just a bloke who was under pressure and lost his cool when he’d had enough. In fact, I seem to recall he called his actions ‘reckless’ and ‘a little crazy’.

Continue reading

I apologise in advance for the following post. I was feeling whimsical, having watched one of President Obama’s public addresses, and decided to loosely emulate the style for a blog post. Consider yourselves warned.

My fellow internet users,

Despite rumours to the contrary, I have not stopped updating this blog. True, my detractors would like me to be silent, if they existed. I say to them – you do not exist, therefore, I continue to blog!

Even if they did exist, I would continue. At this historic time, who could stand idly by, their voice still and silent? When so much is at stake, and so many give their all for the Good of the Internet, how could I sit by and not participate?

There are great things happening behind the scenes; great and terrible things. Just last week, I was accosted by some lawyers over a previous business situation. I thank you all for your concern, but urge you not to worry – for we are greater than this simple challenge, and together, we will triumph.

Continue reading

In about 2 months’ time, I’m planning to be in Europe for at least a month. I’ll pack up, leave Canberra, and spend 4 weeks kicking back overseas.

I may not come back.

Well, not to Canberra, anyway. I’m feeling a strong urge to relocate, to be somewhere else. There are people that I dearly love in Canberra, but I do not care for it as a city. People tend to be closed off; there’s a prevailing attitude of snobbery and affected elitism that I can’t abide. In short, there’s a lot of pretentious wankers here.

Plus, it’s bitterly bloody cold.

I’m considering a shift to Melbourne, where I have a lot of friends and family. It’s all very up-in-the-air. Assuming Europe goes ahead, I may simply give up my current place in a share house and make some decisions when I get back.

Time to hit the road.