Lotusblog

The great thing about having to stay at home and convalesce is that you get time to do the things you’ve been meaning to do for ages. Namely, reinstall your system software, and do lots of geeky things to your computers. Thanks to this, my iBook is feeling much more responsive too, which can’t be a bad thing. As I have complained many times, OS X 10.4 seemed to be a de-evolutionary step, but it seems that a good spring cleaning brings performance back to a 10.3 level.

Anyway, I can now clench my left fist, hold a glass, typing doesn’t kill me anymore, and I am well on my way to recovery. Thank goodness. Anyway, I had better get going because Disk Warrior is rebuilding directory data on my desktop computer, and I think it needs my attention.

Everything is going wrong at the moment. There’s a glitch in the matrix. This was confirmed by my crash last night. Cruising along, slowing down for a corner, turning the corner and WOAH! I under-steered like a ‘60’s Mini , my front tire lost the bitumen and I came down hard. Typing hurts, my left wrist is in a bit of a swollen state. Scabs on my knees and elbows. Skin stripped from finger tips. (but thank goodness I was at least wearing half-finger gloves).

But I am OK.

My post (almost exactly one year ago) in which I raved about my slicks seems so funny now. Ah, 2005. An innocent time. Wide-eyed and naive.

Sorry but I can’t type any more.

Good-bye.

Interesting that I just wrote about the Sydney Morning Herald in my previous post. Today, I awake to find that Boing Boing quotes from another SMH source the interesting news that it will now become illegal to watch a personally recorded copy of a TV show more than once.

I’ll say that again, after you have recorded a TV show, you can watch it once (and only once) and then you have to delete it. You can read more about it here.

Personally, I think that once is still too many times, but I guess if you really have to watch TV then it’s better than nothing. Surely.

The Sydney Morning Herald has a secret page. I can’t find a link to it anywhere on their site, but it does it exist, as I look at it several times a week. The link is here . If you clicked on this link, then you’ll see that it is quite unremarkable- just a list of all the stories in today’s newspaper. And here’s the important bit- with no ads! No banners. No Flash. No flash. No fluff.

[Err, in 2009 it does have ads. Not sure when the change was made]

I first came across this page when I used to subscribe to the SMH “channel” on my PDA. I was delighted to find that it could also be accessed from a normal computer. At the time, RSS didn’t really exist in the mainstream, so this link of “text articles” was my only option to get a stripped down version of the news (the whole news, and nothing but the news).

Since I have been television-free for about 5 or 6 years now, I really depend on the internet to tell me what’s going on in the world. Also, and I think this is an important point, since I am television-free, and since I rely on 5 different text-based news sources, and because I am essentially the news presenter, presenting the news to myself, “my” news becomes stripped of emotion. The SMH link I give you above is about as close as you can get to impartial news. Not completely, however. After all, it is written by a private company which like all businesses, has to make money and certainly has vested interests. And it writes for its readership, which is also a pretty compelling point. But if you understand that, and keep that in mind, then you can probably agree with me that it’s a fairly “clean” source of news.

Anyway, the point I wanted to make: A story of two men trapped in a mine, is just that. When they are freed they are just two men who survived a particularly grueling ordeal. Heck, one of their colleagues died, so they certainly weren’t on a picnic. And while it’s fantastic that they survived, that’s the key point: they are survivors. Not heroes. Not national icons. Not puppets to be manipulated by the Prime Minister as example of “Australian courage and mateship”, they are just survivors of a terrible accident. They were rescued, they didn’t escape. It’s easy to get caught up in the euphoria of survival, but it’s important to stay balanced.

I leave you with a few lines from a story on the SMH which talked about the same story, and even offered this example of an hysterical, biased media. How many people knew about this story?

Besides, it’s all so arbitrary. Webb and Russell were trapped down a mineshaft for 14 days while, at the other extremity of the country, three men were trapped much longer – 22 days, more than enough time to starve to death – in a five-metre boat out of fuel in stormy, sharky seas in the Torres Strait.

Compelling story. But three remote blackfellas with no union powerbase just don’t rate.

I was deleting all the stuff that has built up in my phone, and found these pictures that I had forgotten all about:

This is Coronita giving an Okinawan fisherman-dude a ride.

A view from my balcony, and the aquarium near my house.

The Honorable Lord Flounder

The Hon. Lord Flounder.

Lunch at Kua Aina (the Hawaiian hamburger chain) at Namba Parks with Graeme and Justine.

It’s been a pretty action-packed week or so. Wasn’t feeling too crash hot last week (probably Juneitis, a common Japanese medical condition that occurs in June) so I didn’t ride or swim at all. It meant that today, while the ride was as exhilarating as always, I couldn’t quite maintain my usual average speed, and my swim was pathetic.

There’s always tomorrow.

Got my tax return done after all. The pre-preparation was the hardest bit- the filing and consultation (and subsequent payment of outstanding taxes) was relatively painless.

The last week was insane. I lost 3 kilograms. Got incredibly stressed out. Vomited. Had lots of silly fights with my girlfriend. Shaved my head. Worked very hard. Started some new projects. Bought an iPod. Got some suede Puma Mostro’s. Rediscovered some clothes I forgot I owned. Went to some gallery reception parties.

And now I feel great.

It’s about 15:00, Saturday the twelfth of March.

I managed to get the bulk of the tax return preliminary preparation done. The pre-prep if you like.

Now I have to actually crack open the envelope and whilst going through the “How to” guide fill in all of my numbers. It would be great if I could actually concentrate and get it done in one hour. That would totally rock. But I spot dust on my shelf, around my computer monitor and I will be darned if I let it be!

Think I might do some cleaning first then.

I got back to Osaka yesterday after a long, tiring and sleepless flight. With the worst breakfast ever served by a human being. If any Lufthansa people are reading this, then take note. What the hell are you people serving? I know I am only in cattle class, but still, I ain’t actually cattle.

Anyway, the last couple of pictures. The first is our departure from Frankfurt- it started snowing the morning we left, and the second is what your chin would see (if it had eyes) as you drink a wheat beer. Damn, those beers were good.

Well, I had better start getting efficient. There are hundreds of people wanting my attention, thousands of emails awaiting a reply, and millions of tasks on my executable actions list.

Here we go.

Bye Frankfurt

Hello beer!

So… I am somewhere in the sky over Moscow at the moment. Flying at 981 km/h. Seven hours and fifty-five minutes remaining until I can breathe Osaka air. Somehow, flying home always seems so much easier. So much more bearable. At least I have the seat next to me as a repository for my collection of newspapers and magazines. And a bit of extra elbow-room.

I can’t believe it is all over. We came, we saw, we took pictures, we wrote articles, we ate sausages and we left. Arriving in Geneva (on Monday, which was only 6 days ago) seems like an eternity. The Mazda MX-5 launch party, chocolate eclairs, roast duck, icy winds, Turkish kebabs… Geneva had it all.

What Geneva also had was stupidly high prices. Kazuya and I, whilst searching for a place for dinner in downtown Geneva, came across some fast food burger joints. Burger King had their Whopper set available for just under 11 Swiss Francs. McDonald’s, which was right next door, had their Big Mac set available for 11.95 ChF, Now just pause for a moment… a Big Mac set, which in Japan is about 600 JpY, (or about 5.80 USD) costs 1040 JpY or just over 10 USD. Incredible. By the way, we ended up eating Turkish that night.

More later. I am a bit sleepy. It’s now 16:45 Saturday (in Germany) or 00:45 Sunday in Japan. Might be worth having a nap soon.

B’ bye.

I am now in slightly ridiculously cheerful hotel room in Frankfurt. What I mean is, the curtains are a loud mix of yellow, blue and red swirls, the “wood” trim (and furniture) is in a fake varnished oak (makes you feel like you are sitting in cheap car) and the bedding is a rather disturbing lemon colour. All a little overwhelming. The most important room, the bathroom, is however the antithesis of what we see here. Simple, large, white-washed; a power-shower, an intelligent washbasin, an enormous radiator. All the elements that make a good bathroom.

Frankfurt is an amazing city. It’s cool. It’s a bit edgy. It has great food. Even better drinks. The people are most affable and accommodating. The only area where it falls down (and I suspect this is a Europe-wide problem) is internet access. Let me dedicate only a few words to this topic as it is a sore point at the moment. Let me just say it sucks. Don’t these Europeans understand the society-transforming power of a de-regulated, always-on, fat-pipe info super-highway?

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures taken over the last couple of days.

The old and the beautiful

40 years on, and still, it remains one of the most beautiful cars ever made.

Afternoon elegance

Geneva in the afternoon. A very elegant city.

Plenty of yachts and ducks

Yachts. Geneva is that kind of city.

That smile is fake

The smile was frozen onto my face. It took several hours before I could move my mouth again.

The Boss

Kazuya’s neck remained in the “turned 50 degrees to the left” position for many hours. It made crossing roads a perilous endeavor.

Swiss train station ticket machines. Ahh, you gotta love 'em.

Early Tuesday morning- off to the motor show.

Frankfurt. Big, bold and blue. The three B's.

They don't call them frankfurters for nothing.

Kazuya in ecstasy.

These hotdogs were washed down with the best hot wine I have ever had.