Tinfoil on the Windows

JAMES: Tried watching Citizen Kane, gave up, put on Predators.

ME: (laughs)

JAMES: I could tell it was good film-making though.

ME: How long did you watch it for?

JAMES: Eighteen seconds.



In his defense he did say he would give it a go. At some point.

via dashing

It's been almost nothing but full days and late nights since I got back. Kinda good, kinda starting to freak me out. Book needs doing.

Detroit in ruins. Beautiful.

Wondered if the second last shot was used in Fight Club.

I very much like being in Melbourne.

It's likely my presence on social networks is going to drop sharply. Life's better without it and I prefer functioning in meatspace with actual human units. I'll still be posting here regularly, just less frequently. I figure this'll result in some falling away of acquaintances but that's probably for the best. Otherwise I'm pretty easy to get a hold of.

Doctor Who gets better once they start letting him be not-omnipotent, show fear, be weak, take away his toys, let him lose and generally not be Superman. And it's still got hands-down them best theme music and credit sequence of any TV show ever.

Looking forward to getting back to Melbourne.

I'm glad that's dealt with. Now if we can eradicate rampant narcissism maybe we'll get somewhere.

http://monsterlicenses.com/index.php

That is all.

- Last night my brother and his family came on over. My nephew is a lively quick-minded genius. Nothing small-town about him at all. If he can get out of here when the time's right I think he'll go far.

- My new niece is some kind of fairy-goblin that reminds me a *lot* of Cavalorn's daughter. Which surprised the hell out of me. It kinds burns that they'll never get to meet while they're this age, never knowing the kind of bizarre crap they would have inflicted on the neighbourhood.

- My mother's terror of tree frogs endures.

- Alan wants to take me for a run sometime next week. Got no interest in hunting but I'm curious to see if I can keep up across broken ground in this heat while carrying whatever we'll be carrying. Guns, presumably.

- A massive wallaby turned up at the scrub line this morning. Just loped around, grazing. Dad's dog isn't anything like the pack my brother keeps. Stumpy's a blue heeler/collie cross that's almost exactly like a Ribena-fuelled five-year-old kid. Took Dad ten minutes of work to get the dog to even notice it. Stumpy's not a killer, he just plays. Bounces around. Likes a chase. One time Dad stopped the truck, pointed out a wallaby in the middle of the road and the dog took off. Wallaby didn't move. Dog slowed down. Wallaby stared at it. Dog stopped. Looked back at Dad, waiting for backup. Wallaby took off. Dog took off after it. He's sweet.

- I look right and see jungle. Soundtrack is the constant flatline trill of cicadas. At night it's the kiss-face sound of geckoes. Queensland gets a lot of flak, but most never really give it a chance. Just go on and on reinforcing what they've been told to think about the place. Personally it'd take a bit of work on my part to be able to live here, but in a lot of ways this is the dream.

- Penguin emailed an offer for Rowley Monkfish to be included in a forthcoming ghost story anthology. Been working on that the last few hours.

- Probably won't be posting photos 'til I get back to a decent connection. Doing it from here could wipe the folks out for the month.

- I hear Melbourne's rainswept and freezing. Up here it's at least mid-30s and muggy. At least two showers a day and I'm living in the swimmers I picked up in Reykjavik, which are the only shorts I own. This whole year I've dodged the cold. Melbourne had one of the coldest winters in years and I was in 40+ New York with sweat raining off me. It's been 12 months of heat. Even in Iceland. I could do that forever. I've been really lucky this year.

Staying awake all night to collapse this room and leave at 6 for a flight at 9... or... something... is seeming less smart that it did twelve hours ago.

Really wishing I'd brought back a case of that trucker fuel they sold in rest stops along Highway Whatever. 5-Hour Energy. That was it. Probably causes lymphoma and gill formation, but Christ it worked. No caffeine hangover, no comedown, just straight zip.