If Xade‘s to be believed, Quilly and Operative Ice (whose blogs have both gone down) are one and the same – and they’ve been given the Neuro-axe.
Tobyesterhase continues to put the tough questions to Maxwell Knight.
And it turns out his fellow Buffalo, NY operative Bob the Mediocre has a blog after all.
Operative Reanimator of the l337 chess sk11z has a a blog. With pictures.
And Constance has (some) news of the group assignment in New York City tomorrow.
Tonight is the last night of my Canberra sojurn. The folks are moving to Geneva in a few months; I might not be back here again for years.
I don’t know what to say. I was going to blog the whole thing but I don’t know what sort of spin to put on it. It’s been cathartic in some ways and banal in others. It brought me back to the place I was in when I moved in November to some degree, which was horrible.
It was sad and strange and made me glad I don’t live here anymore.
Taken quite a few pictures; ‘spect I’ll post some of them when I get back.
I just had a really lovely conversation with my Dad, which is worth mentioning.
Filed under Life
Jojo‘s posted the assignment and an account, Tript has a nice photo of himself along with a few well-chosen words, and Wednesday night attendee (and new blogger) Melbourne Wintermute (as distinct from German Wintermute) has posted his report.
I went on Tuesday. I beat Li, got thrashed like everyone else by Operative Reanimator, and got half a game in with Jojo before 10pm rolled around. I chatted to Tript about John Wayne Gacy’s horrible painting, and had encounters with a few other ops as well. It was simultaneously more convivial than the Bolte assignment, and also more intense. I liked it.
Filed under Neurocam
Well, I submitted my report on Assignment NTC-5781/01 this morning and have already received another, Assignment NTC-6421/02. Unfortunately I’ve had to knock it back for not-in-town-this-weekend reasons.
Got to Canberra. Missed my flight, but caught the next one. Just had dinner with my father. Caught up with the dog. Made & confirmed various arrangements with various people. Wrapped a birthday present for my mother, who is 56 tomorrow. Happy birthday, Mum.
It feels really funny being here.
Although the largest one was made by holding a lighter to my wrist. I did most of them between 1995 and 1997. A couple in 2000.
I never used to think about them very much, but I’ve become a bit self-conscious about them over the last year or so.
My sister of the getting-marriedness – who is a photography student – is doing a series on scars. She herself has significant scarring on her neck and stomach as a result of several operations for various types of cancer. We spent yesterday afternoon at her place taking pictures of me and my arms.
She is getting married. Have I mentioned that already?
This afternoon I’m off to Canberra ’til Tuesday.
In both senses. Thank you for a weird but enchanting evening.
I still don’t understand, but I think I love you.
Anyone game for some kind of extracamricular get together at some point? Tahiti at the end of the year seems too far away.
In other surreal news, my sister is getting married.
My sister is getting married.
This is going to take a while to process.
Filed under Neurocam
Around August last year, in response to one of my then-not-infrequent bouts of handwringing but-what-shall-I-doery, a friend and sometime mentor of sorts suggested that I should get my license, buy a kombi and go on a road trip around the country. I wasn’t sure about the roadtrip or the kombi, but the learning-to-drive idea seemed a good one. The hassles of getting around Melbourne on public transport sealed the deal; I got my Ls in February and have started taking lessons.
I had my third proper session out on the road yesterday. It’s very weird. I wonder to what extent it feels weird because of my age (28). Unsurprisingly, all of VicRoads‘ learner driver promo material is leveled squarely at a teen demographic.
In some ways it’s much easier than I’d expected, in some ways a lot harder. I’m starting to feel more comfortable on the roads but I still have great difficulty assimilating all the information you have to process simultaneously. Successfully co-ordinating the accelerator and the clutch is also proving a challenge. I stalled three times yesterday. I half wonder if I shouldn’t just learn on an automatic. But I’m jaundiced by my mother’s consistent assertion that they’re “not real cars”.
My instructor is this rather stern and incredibly worldweary old French guy called Moshe. He spends a disconcerting amount of time during our lessons playing with his Treo, but he’s always on hand to grab the steering wheel when I’m just about to kill a cyclist or slam on the breaks before I plough into the back of a police van. I like him.
Here’s a nice article by Suzanne Vega, of all people, about learning to drive on the streets of New York City at the age of 43.
Filed under Uncategorised
Sooner or later I’m going to have to get another job. I’d like to work in a cinema. Concomitant to liking movies, I like cinemas. I’ve worked in two previously.
Firstly this one, from 1997 to 1999. I was also apprenticed to the projectionist there for a while. Prior to discovering Peter Greenaway at the age of 14 and deciding I wanted to be a film director, my ambition was to become a lighthouse keeper. Lighthouse keeping is a dead profession, alas, but I reckoned projectionism would be the next best thing. In some ways even better; lighthouse keepers can’t splice single frames of pornography into children’s films. Unfortunately what with increased automation, not to mention the inevitable imminent digitalisation of cinema exhibition, it’s also a dying trade.
Subsequently, in London, I worked at this incredibly cool and scruffy old revival house in Hampstead called the Everyman. It’s since been sold and upmarketed beyond all recognition, which is sad.
The downside of seeking employment in a cinema is that it will involve cold canvassing, which – shy & retiring semi-recluse that I’ve become – fills me with unholy dread. Also, I don’t really feel like I’ve been taking enough interest in movies lately to be very convincing as a prospective cinema employee.
(Digression: Didn’t get to Sideways, due to its timing being misadvertised; saw The Life Aquatic instead. It wasn’t great, but it was unique, and had a number of absolutely classic moments. And it looked really nice as well.)
One of the great virtues of my current job is that pretty much anything would be a step up from it, so I’m not hidebound by snobbery. I’m easy. As long as it doesn’t involve really severe public humiliation, or cold-call telemarketing. Or wearing a suit, goddammit.
All of this is theoretical at the moment, though, coz I’m going to Canberra next weekend before hitting the employment trail.
Charlie loves me after all.
To: Neurocam Operations Division
From: Teigan
Date: 2 April 2005 8:07:37 PM
Charles –
Am I correct in assuming that, despite advising of my availability on the 5th and 6th of April as requested, I have not been chosen to participate in the associated assignment, as advertised at http://ex0.blogspot.com/2005/03/did-you-get-yours.html?
Operative Teigan
To: Teigan
From: Neurocam Operations Division
Date: 3 April 2005 12:04:36 PMDear Operative Teigan
Our records show that you have indeed been selected for this assignment. Perhaps it was filtered by your email package? Can you please confirm receipt of this email.
Here it is again:
[snip]
Regards,
Charles Hastings
Head, Operations Division
Neurocam International
And I’ve scored a comment from the scary but ever-engaging Desci. W0Ot!
Massively explosive revelations at Chez Tript, exposing at long last the true purpose and origins of Neurocam.
!!!
Some cynics have suggested the post’s got something to do with today’s date, but pay no mind – they’re just jealous they didn’t uncover it first.
Filed under Neurocam
With absolutely impeccable timing, the Tax Office has decided that I owe them $300. From 2003. With interest.
I hope they die.
I dreamt last night that I was a girl, specifically Constance. I’ve mused about being Constance before. I don’t know why, other than that I think she’s cool. And I’ve often fantasized about being a girl. I don’t think I’m a repressed transsexual or anything. I just reckon it would be awesome. Girls are much nicer than boys. Or at least much more appealing.
Tangent: In my early teens I was completely obsessed with periods. I only found out mentruation existed when I was, like, twelve. This was possibly the origin of my interest in the occult. I was just astounded that this bizarre and horrendous phenomenon had been going on all around me all my life, completely sheilded from my view.
This unhealthy preoccupation was only entirely cured when, at the age of 22, I fulfilled my long term ambition of actually having sex with a menstruating woman, something I will never, ever do again.
I ran out of cigarettes last night. I thought not having any would motivate me to bounce out of bed bright and early this morning and go to the gym. But instead I just lingered in bed for a really, really long time. Then I went out in my pyjamas to buy some and came back home to drink coffee and blog. I’m a disgrace.
In other news, Jojo & Xade report excitably that Tori Amos is coming to town.
I saw her last time she toured ‘Straya which was, I believe, in, like, 1994. Sort of tempted. (But upon glancing at the latest incarnation of her website: she really badly needs to fire her current stylist. Admittedly, though, so do I. Or at least I would, if I had one.) I haven’t heard her current album, but I grew to love Scarlet’s Walk, despite an iffy relationship between us at first.
I can’t really afford it, though, especially since.. well, I’m so shat off about this actually I think a separate post may be in order.
