Smap Smap

When I was in Japan, the first episode I saw featured Nicolas Cage. He was there to promote a stupid movie that came out last year. Anyway, there I was, got home from another day at the English Factory I worked at, cracked open a beer with my roomie Daniel and saw Nicolas Cage on TV. It was kind of surreal, but I can't exactly explain why. It was most memorable for me due to the way he eats his dish. Haha! enjoy~

I saw Earthlings

I have just finished watching the movie Earthlings, and have decided to do my part by trialling becoming semi-vegetarian, just eating fish and plantlife only. I will do it for a few weeks, and if I manage to do it, from now on.

Never has a movie struck me to my core. It is instrumental in me making this enormous life decision. Furthermore, I will also be conscious of the clothes/products I choose to buy and the entertainment I partake in. I was shocked to find my own wallet was made from hides in India (which you may be too if you watch the movie).

The film speaks for itself. Embeded is a the first 7 minutes of the film. Some parts are hard to watch, but I emplore you do. Otherwise, you can just watch the feature on Google Video, by clicking here

life is so weird...

I read that it is the little things, the coincidences and things that link us together. It may be me linking to you right now.

A moment ago I was just distracting myself by browsing the internet (and now by blogging!). Anyhow, I come across I website, namely 名古屋のアメリカ人 which I remember stumbling on from a mobile phone search I did when I was in Hospital in Japan. I was concerened about what I was going to do when I got out and thought I'd do some kind of search on my phone for "jobs, Nagoya, Japan" or something and I found it. I started reading. It was August and I was stuck in a hospital in a foreign country with my mobile as the only connection I had to the outside world. I started to read about this guy who lived there a few years before, working for the same company I did. I read about his adjustments with the new country, his opinions of people he worked with, his dates with local girls, struggles with the language, and towards the end his ventures to get back to Japan.
I think I lost the enthusiasm to look for work, citing it as too difficult considering my physical condition and the amount of cash I had at the time, but through those events (for less of a better word) I stumble on something.

Hmmm. What a time that was for me anyway. Many of the profound thoughts I have even today were formulated on the 4th Floor Ward of Tsushima Shimin Byouin. I solemnly reflected to myself about where I had been, the choices I'd made in my life and more positively, where I was going, what my dreams were and what I wanted to achieve.

I even made friends amongst the staff of the hospital, even though I obviously have a disadvantage at not communicating fluently, as anyone who has lived in a country where the language isn't their own mother-tongue knows, communication is can often go far beyond words. You can feel, sense, judge, trust your own senses about what is taking place and the person that is front of you. Whether it be in a war situation, love or anywhere in between.

I feel comfortable talking about it, but I believe I have procrastinated long enough for tonight.

If you've happened to 'happen' on my site, or you know me, say hi. I feel like a mad man shouting in the dark sometimes when I write on here, so it'd be nice to know that I'm not alone in cyberspace.

I have exactly 12 hours to submit a paper that is only partially started.... I'll try hard.

Currently listening to Elliott Smith

Moving out of home....

I was in a gas station in Redcliffe a few weeks ago, and I overheard two Police Officers having a conversation over the Cappuccino machine, while they awaited for their brews to be ready. It was about 3-am so I don't blame them for some nicotine induced policing! As I approach the coffee machine where I was making a Café Latté. One was saying to the other how her daughter had given her notice that she was moving out via a mobile text message. Their conversation continued even as I precariously hovered around the two officers whilst I tried to finish making my coffee. I had a quick word with her about moving out, telling her how I did it and she revealed that she also moved out of home at a relatively young age. I left on the road again, it was deep in the night and I was with nothing but my coffee and my thoughts as I continued in the darkness, over the Redcliffe bridge, down the Gateway Motor-way, towards Brisbane to pick up more drunks.

When I was 18, after I finished studying cookery, I decided to try to get some experience in an actual restaurant, with the intention of picking up an apprenticeship at one of the local restaurants in the area. My mother had just moved from Maryborough to Gympie (one backwater town to another) for her work, and I tagged along because it just happened to be a bit closer to some action than the prior place was. Gympie is a small town in the Cooloola region, just above the Sunshine Coast. The Sunshine Coast is just a bit north of Brisbane. However, I digress. With a bunch of resumé’s, printed on fresh white paper, sheathed in a shiny new folder under my arm, I proudly walked around to the various restaurants around Gympie to hand them out like fliers in order to drum up work. I made it clear that I was enthusiastic and possessed a winning attitude, however prospective employers didn’t warm to me it seems - possibly because the lovely resumés that I had worked on didn’t have any experience on them. I was straight out of technical college after all and just wanted to start making a dent on the world. If I remember my thoughts correctly, I had a feeling like I could achieve and do almost anything at that point in my life.

I came home later that day with many resumés remaining in my new folder, feeling a bit disheveled. I put it down to the fact that there weren’t many jobs going in the area. I decided to go to Noosa the next day, an hour drive south. Noosa is a resort town with tons of restaurants by the beach, I was certain to pick something up, I was sure.

Lo and behold, I got a call as soon as I returned home to Gympie - I thought nothing of driving down that night to do a night in the kitchen, a 2 hour return drive on the Bruce Highway to work my ass off, probably for free the first time, if it meant that I could get an opening into the restaurant industry. I did it and continued that for about 2 months, working a solid 60+ hours a week until one day I decided to stay at one of my workmates place, a chef, Vince. I did this now and again until I realized it was unfeasible to keep going this way, driving down everyday and work. I told mum I was moving out and was 18 and 9 months. I didn’t expect it, but its just one of those things that happens...

So, how did you move and and under what circumstances did you do it? I am curious to know and there must certainly be a short story about it.

勉強するについて

私、日本語を話す事のは、簡単文だけでも覚えると好奇心が沸いて、

その言葉をどんどん勉強したくなります。

その内に少しずつマイペースに日本語覚えていきたいです。

それで、色んな教材で学ぶしました、例えば、友のミクシー日記などウェブサイトなど教科書などユーチューブのビデオとかでから勉強しっています。

先日、こちらのビデオを見ました



もちろん、最初にはいくつくだけ分かっただけど、二度には見ながらウェブの辞書で色々言葉を調べた。

ところでさ、こんなビデオについて、日本にいた時に、私の会社です。その会社では大抵の日本人は知ってると思います。そこで、半年以上に働きましたが。。。８月に成るは辞めたけど、仲間はまだやってました。彼らは怖いそうので、この前からノバは倒産した。

とにかく、そのビデオで新しい言葉を勉強しましたがその下です

再出発
さいしゅっぱつ (noun (common) (futsuumeishi)) restart, fresh start;

方針
ほうしん (noun (common) (futsuumeishi)) objective, plan, policy

再開
さいかい (noun (common) (futsuumeishi)) reopening, resumption

運営
うんえい (noun (common) (futsuumeishi)) (noun or participle which takes the aux. verb suru) management, administration, operation

使命
しめい (noun (common) (futsuumeishi)) mission, errand, message

あなたはどうやって勉強するの？

Luke Vibert gig, a review of sorts...

I awoke from my overwork induced slumber in the late afternoon knowing that time was marching on and I should be preparing to get ready for my date with Luke. Luke Vibert that is, aka Wagonchrist, from the Ninja Tune label. How lucky was I, getting to see 2 artists from my favourite label within 3 weeks.

Anyway, after taking a train to Southbank and warming up with a solitary beer at the Fox, I got a call from an old friend Jason, whom I've known for a while, but we just talk music when we get together. I meet him at Subway and we head to the club.
I'd befriended the bar manager Kris before as I had dropped him off to work before, so he put me on the doorlist with 2 friends. Sweet! We head in early and the crowd was sparse. I was uncertain about what would unfold for the rest of the night, but easy. We had a few beers and shoot the shit, talking about music, life, uni etc

I message a new friend of mine, Simon, whom I met at the Kentaro gig a few weeks prior. He greets me at the bar and gentlemanly introduces me to his friends and girlfriend. Simon is also a DJ who also plays on community radio station Switch 1197. He is there with 2 hardcore techno friends, and we talk music for a while. Simon said he was keen to get me on the air sometime, so I was stoked about that.

I go into the main room and the crowd was starting to show up now with a quite sizable audience waiting for Vibert to hit the decks. I meet Jason's friends who say they saw him chilling, having a cigarette on the balcony. Awesome!

People congregate to the main-stage as support wrap up and Vibert sets up his laptop. With a round of applause to the local artist, Luke starts with a dance number which is the vibe of things at the moment. I was a little surprised, but it seemed to be working well.

I come out of the john and a guy grabs me, "Kayne?". "Are you Kayne?"

"... yeah!. ..?Ryan?"

whoa. I run into a childhood friend, one who I hadn't seen since about 10 years old, in another country. Crazy!
We shoot the shit, randomly about things that have happened. It was an amazing, incredible chance meeting.

We both go into the main room, and Vibert music has morphed from the user-friendly dance tunes from before to dark and dirty beats that he is renowned for. The rest of the set was full of dancing and screaming. It was fantastic.

At the end of the night, jubilant with hugs from friends all around as the music winds to a close, people leave or go out to the smoking deck with smiles on their faces. I head to the smoking deck and met Luke myself along with Ryan who also met him in New Zealand a few years ago. I shake the mans hand, appreciative not only for the fantastic music and set he just delivered, but the chance meeting with an old friend his gig gave me.

5 stars!

here is a taste of what some of the music was like. Found a clip on youtube.
enjoyyyy

quick round-up...

I sit here in a noisy internet cafe in Sunnybank, surrounded by Chinese people playing computer games. To my left and right there is a wall of noise and screaming in langauge I can't comprehend as they play their games. If my ears serve me, they appear to be speaking Cantonese. Whoa, the guy on my right is playing Counterstrike and is bloasting away with a pistol. They do not use headphones and just ignore everyone around me. Oh, the guy on my right has started to play now..... I'll 'try' to think through the chaos and write my blog entry.... I hate 'this'...


OK. I just returned from the School across the road to vote. It's one of the only times I feel like an Australian, that is, a member of the wider community. Things don't seem to phase me, or maybe concern me about the society here, I'm just in 'this place' at the moment, and don't worry about whats going on here. Many issues I'm aware of though, the drought that affects people everyday (people should only have 4 minute showers), the traffic congestion on the roads and lack of public transport (I'm a cabbie, so I'm well aware of this), the mortgage rate interest rises (I don't care about this much. Although I'm aware it affects the economy on a whole, I'm not worried. Don't think I'll ever get a house in Australia anyway) and many other things. People seem to ask me because its 'moot of the day' or whatever, and cab drivers are well known for having outspoken, strong points of views on various issues, but I remain invariably apathetic to the things that go on around me in a wider sphere. I'm not sure if I should, or not, but... yeah.

The girl who offered to help me with Japanese said she can't do it anymore because she can't offer regular help. I saw her only once and waited to meet again, after a month I contacted and she gave me a 'cop out' excuse. Its disappointing because I really need some kind of private tuition before I get back into Uni. It was so easy. No, too easy to find someone for the same purpose in Japan. Anyway, there are plenty more here, just hard to meet them.

I had two very drunk guys in my cab at 3am this morning. They were screaming at people on the street, throwing bottles at people and swearing. At the lights, they jumped out of my cab to punch some guy in the face before getting back in my cab. Well, thats what they had the guy in the next lane believe anyway, as soon as they got out and took off their shirts, the guy sped off. The two guys came back laughing, saying they were just 'arcing him up'. I felt sorry for that poor bloke though, he didn't deserve the stress and anguish. Thats' Australian culture though, to 'hassle the shit' out of everybody around you. I haven't adopted it, but I'm fully aware of it and how they operate, in a sense.
There was another guy moments before that I dropped off. He yelled at everyone on the street. He'd see people walking, or on the street and say "ooOOOiiii!.... (frienly, smiling. When they'd see him he'd say "Fuck off!" and give the fingers.

In a way it was kind of funny though, because the pedestrians wouldn't register who it was. However, very silly.

Some other guy was spinning out with his friends. He'd yell at pedestrians to "go back to your wives~!" and when we went past the Wickham, a gay club, he said "Stop being gay~!" I laughed because of the stupidity of that statement.

anyway, another week of drunken dickheads. Its Saturday night and I've gotta go pick em up again, another 13 hours of that crap is ahead of me.

So looking forward to the Luke Vibert gig at Uber tomorrow night. A few friends are coming and I'm meeting others. Furthermore, because I befriended the manager of the club when I dropped him off the other time, I'm on the doorlist, free (with 2 of my friends).

The thing I'm looking forward to the most is quitting in 3 weeks times ~ I need a break from this shit.

Take care~!