Jar

This year I'm writing down a good thing(s) that happen to me each day, and putting it in a jar. The idea is on the last day, you can read all the cool things that happened! And already I'm feeling pretty good about how the year's gone. It's been good for sure, but being more aware of the good things is always helpful. As Kurt Vonnegut ('s uncle) said, regarding nice moments, 'I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, "If this isn't nice, I don't know what is."'

Look

Thought experiment: You go for a walk down the street, just for a wander. You look around as you walk, and get to the end of the street. You've seen everything, right? No. Turn around and walk back. See the other side of buildings, the reverse view. And why not now walk back up the street, looking down at the flowers, into the gutter, that cat on the fence and your own shadow in front of you. There.  Hey, but turn around and look up as you walk back home. Check out the tops of the buildings, the trees swaying in the wind, the hot air balloon floating through the sky, the clouds drifting, and the very colour of the sky. 
Bingo. You know this street. You've seen it all. Nope, you'll never see it all. But there is so much to keep you going

2012

Hey, I'm back from travels. They were good. I'll make a proper post about that soon, but for now, holy flip! It's the end of the year! Not too many posts this year, but let's have a recap

Favourite Films
1 - A Separation
1 - Cabin in the Woods
3 - Shame
4 - Moonrise Kingdon
5 - The Pirates! Band of Misfits
6 - Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
7 - Tyrannosaur
8 - The Dark Knight Rises

Favourite Albums
1 - Teen Fortress - Tepid Vapid Callow
Lawrence Arabia - The Sparrow; Opossom - Electric Hawaii; Love Connection - Euphoria; Seth Frightening - Don't You Worry (Heat Death)

Favourite Gigs
1 - Mark McGuire @ Gasometer - redefined guitar playing
2 - Metronomy @ The Hi-Fi
3 - The Beach Boys @ Rod Laver
Camp A Low Hum; Cults and The Horrors @ Laneway

Favourite Reads
1 - Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude
2 - Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore
3 - David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas
David Foster Wallace; Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex

Highlights
Trip to Malaysia and Indonesia, spending lots of time with great people, winning an ipad was pretty good

Lowlights
Bike got stolen. Dumb. Ending a great relationship because we were going separate ways.

Favourite Pastings
Skyline map, Captain Planet, 'No Change'

Art Shows of the Year
TwoOne @ Backwoods; William Kentridge @ ACMI; Ghostpartol @ Backwoods

Food items of the Year
La Panella Vegan Bakery; Indonesian gado gado and avocado juice; tofu asada burrito @ Trippy Taco

Number of People Kissed - 4

Asia

Hey, so for the last week I've been in South East Asia. Kinda forgot to mention that here. This blog will take a little snooze while I'm away, but I've made a travel blog - Adventure500 - where you can read about what I'm up to. Take care til we talk again! x

The Beach Boys at Rod Laver

Last Friday I was extremely lucky to see The Beach Boys live at Rod Laver Arena. It's part of their 50th anniversary tour, and as such afforded me the kind of opportunity I never thought I'd get to have. Original lineup (sans Carl and Dennis), 50+ songs, great backing band, and a great view from my 'cheap seat'. It was an awesome night.
I'd read that while the guy's voices still sounded good, they are all 70ish, so hey, expect them to sound different. But I was amazed with the record-quality vocals. Everything sounded great and beautiful. Mike Love sounded like Mike Love, and he still kinda acted like a 20something, groovin' around. Brian Wilson sat at the piano mostly looking pretty glum (...Wasn't Made for These Times), but still sounded great (especially on tracks like Heroes and Villians). And he of course recieved continual ovation. Al Jardine was great, and seemed really fun and charming (and Help Me Rhonda went off).
It was spectacular to see and hear The Beach Boys playings songs like Wouldn't It Be Nice and Good Vibrations. Mythical songs colliding with your reality

Within

Life's going pretty well at the moment. I'm really happy about a whole bunch of things, and excited for the future. In a recent post I mentioned meeting someone who made me feel giddy - her name is Lynda, and she's awesome. We met through a friend, and I think we had really good chemistry. She's great fun to be with.
Changes are on the horizon, however. In October I'll be travelling to South East Asia. I'll be going for a few months, and trying to see and do as much as I can. So I'm leaving my jobs and moving out of my flat and saying farewell to a lot of people I love. After the trip? I'm not too sure, though I feel like I'll move back to NZ. Lynda and I have talked about this a bunch, which is all you can really do. Things are great; timing not so much. I love life here right now, and there are so many reasons to stay. At the same time, it's time to go. There's so much to see. With this in mind, it's time to charge straight fucking ahead at life itself. 
I'm not sure how much of my travels will be captured here, but stay tuned

Movie reviews

I work at a cinema, and a huge perk is free movies. There are reciprocal deals with some cinemas in Melbourne, so I mooch around Palace, Nova and Imax - fun times.
I've made a new page of films I've seen (at the cinema), with simple reviews, and an 'out of 10' rating. I'll keep it up to date, but some of these are stretching far back in to the memory banks, and reviews could be a bit sketchy. Hope you enjoy

Melodious

Stop. Do you have a song playing in your head? Something that's just cruising along despite whatever else you're doing? I do. There's a near constant stream of music playing away in my mind, and I love it. I really like music, but I only occasionally listen to it directly. Usually in the mornings or evening when I'm on my computer. I never listen to a walkman when I'm outdoors (there are just so many amazing things to hear!) - instead just having my Inner Jukebox soundtrack life.
Sometimes I wake up with a song in my head - where did that come from? The other morning, just waking, I felt Purity Ring's Lofticries sneak slowly in to my mind, and I smiled. I currently have another song of theirs playing in a medley with a Panda Bear song. I could be a great mashup DJ.
My computer was laggy a while ago when I tried to listen to Lux Aeterna. I shut it off and let the tune play in my mind. Within and without. Isn't it the same?
Let me know what's in your head.

Some things

-I've started a new job. It's at (one of the best) French bakeries in Melbourne, 'A Treat of France'. I make coffee and dish out croissants, and I'm quite enjoying it. It'll allow me to save money and work towards traveling, which has been on hiatus. I'm also still working at the cinema, and going to see lots of films. My Top Five films so far this year are
1 - A Separation
2 - Shame
3 - Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
4 - The Muppets
5 - Battleship (oh, this was supposed to be the The Avengers)
I'm a sucker for Big Budget Action Thrillers. And the first two are just absurdly good, with engrossing storylines and so well acted
-I've met some new people lately and it's been great. I've been feeling super comfortable and relaxed. Perhaps in the past it's made me nervous, but there's so much exciting potential with someone new. One particular new person has been making me feel quite giddy (more info to come)
-I'm helping to try make a baby. Sadly, things didn't work out with the couple I blogged about previously. We tried again, but they decided they were happy with how things were. I'm helping another couple now, and fingers crossed for them
-This post on Tumblr got quite a lot of attention, which was great because I think it's awesome

Hangovers

I think yesterday was a strong contender for the title 'Worst Ever Hangover'. It was a complete write-off of a day, and I really felt like death/dying. I know that it's my own fault, blah blah, boo hoo. But really. It was awful. And I think after two whole days, I now feel alright.
When I drink too much, I get memory loss. More than a couple of beers makes the night hazy; six plus will probably cause some kind of blackout. And Saturday was a few bottles of wine. Maybe more? Who knows. Waking up and not knowing what you did for several hours is surreal and frightening.
My new year's resolution this year was 'not to drink to the point of not remembering', and it's happened twice so far. The worst hangovers I've had have all been in the last year. I feel like my body isn't really suited to handling alcohol, so I'm going to be more aware of that, and try and foresee and prevent bad drinking experiences.

(On the plus side, I just passed 20,000 blog views, which seems like a lot. Thanks for reading! More frequent blogging coming up)

Suburb

I often cheesily say that Northcote is "the best 'Cote." It's amazing. I love the suburb, and in particular where I live - it's got everything I want.
-My room is big, affordable, and gets lots of sunlight. I found a double bed a few days ago from next door's hard rubbish (upgrade from foam mattress). Perfect.
-My flat/'share house' is awesome. The people are really great (fun, friendly, stimulating, challenging), and the house is full of character.
-Within five minutes walk is a supermarket and shopping plaza, library, train station, tram stop, parks. My work is 15 mins walk.
-I can cycle to Brunswick, Fitzroy etc in 15 mins, the CBD in 25. Or train or tram similar times
The suburb is beautiful, and full of nice people. I'm pretty happy here

Give Blood

Last week, I gave blood. It's something I enjoy, and one of the best things you can do. Each donation can help or save three lives. One in three people in their lives will need blood or blood products, but only one in 30 donates! It's such an altruistic act, and is so helpful, only inconveniencing you slightly. Like, an hour of your time and a little scratch to save lives? Okay.
As a vegan, I feel good seeing my iron counts at good levels. I was once told 'you must eat a lot of red meat' - nope.
Please consider donating, it'll make you awesome(er) - New Zealand / Australia