'You are lovely, goodbye'

Just rang up faults because my phone is screening all calls. I am such a naypals that it has probably been this way for months. The phone rings once and then cuts out, so then I have to ring all my friends and some family members and ask them sheepishly 'Did you just call?' And then I feel stink that they didn't and then they don't believe me when I explain the problem and think I am just desperate to get someone to talk to me. So I ring up the faults people and explain the problem and they make me hang up and try to ring me. And guess what? They couldn't get through. So I rang them back up and said - I am the guy with the broken phone that you just tried to ring, and they say - Oh yes it is broken. I don't say I already knew that. I am tempted to ask if they can look on some screen and see when the last call actually got through ... but I fear I will to be too depressed by the result. Anywhoo they are sending some guy tomorrow to leave a note on my door to arrange a time when I have to be here to let them in .... What the? Why can't we just organise a time now? Its not the way things are done here... Okay. End of business part of phonecall. And then the faults woman says 'You are lovely, enjoy the rest of your day'. I told her she was lovely and I am sure that she will enjoy herself as much as I, though I am pretty sure I won't be disturbed, at the very least.

Oh word count still zero.

I left out the whole point

I watched the news and no one else seems to have seen the flying thing, so I guess I am going mental. Oh well. Oh and I forgot the entire point of the ghost thing. I noticed in the credits that it was produced by someone who rejected someone I know's proposal for a very similar show. Said the population wasn't interested in that sort of thing anymore. Isn't that spooky?

My friends' version was going to star ... well in least one episode ... my friend R. He used to live in a house with two ghostly ladies who every night would walk up the stairs talking and go into the other bedroom. He seems to be a ghost magnet as before that he used to live in a house with a gay ghost that would get into bed with him .... Apparently he would pull R out of the way because he liked to sleep next to the wall. R never explained how he knew that the ghost was a 'he'. Maybe he felt something pressing against his back when they were spooning.

And word count for article? Zero.

I think I just saw an unidentified flying oject. Well I saw a flying object that I couldn't identify, anyway. It looked like a white tube with black ends and looked maybe 10m long. It floated rather than flew because it didn't necessarily point in the direction it was heading, more like drifted I guess. So maybe we are being invaded by whimsical wherever the cosmic winds will blow us kind of aliens. I personally think that if aliens do visit Earth its probably either just holidays or teenagers playing an inter-dimensional form of chicken.
I have also been watching this documentary about haunted places in this country, where they rig up volunteers who then wander around haunted houses in the middle of the night. I kind of like it because it appeals to my two inner geeks, held in by my outer geek of course. That is, my superstitious side which kind of secretly believes in all that stuff, and wonders if my dead relatives are watching all the time - a little bit perverse don't you think, and the scientific evidence side. Note, I am not entirely convinced by the science, but there is enough wires, gadgetry and infra-red carryings on that it looks impressive. Anyway last week's episode saw the foolish explorers wander about two haunted houses on the same street in A. The guy intrepid explorer went into a room where 3 little kids died within 9 days of Scarlet Fever ... the very disease that blinded Mary in little house on the prairie ... for all you kid lit fans. Something knocks him over in this room. He was on his knees before it happened but then suddenly he was on the ground. Being the intrepid type, he says is there anyone there and would they like to talk to him.

At dawn he gets out of the house and goes to the techy expert guy's van who plays him some kind of recording made in the room while he was there. Apparently just as he says would they like to talk to him, you can hear a little girl's voice sat 'go away'. It was pretty spooky.

Not much else has been going on. My seminar went well. One of the philosphers didn't like my argument, which is fine, because, I thought, a lunchtime seminar has an entirely different important research to entertainment factor ratio. And besides as a philosopher, what we would he know about the implications of context on meaning?

Should be working, got a paper due in 15 days and you could guess how much I have written ... hmm. Ah well and procrastinate through some other method ...

complications arise out of cost cutting measures

Heard in my corridor this morning.
Academic A: Well at least there are only 11 more weeks this semester.
Academic B: Yes, well, that is something to look forward to.

In other news, I am giving a talk on my fieldwork for my colleagues tomorrow. I say talk because I wasn't quite planning on anything as formal as a seminar. Besides which my colleagues, who are all in totally related disciplines though do not realise it, would not understand the main thread of my research ... That came out snippy, didn't it, but that is the result of lumping disparate departments into nice and tidy school structures.

Anyways, then I get a phonecall from the philosophers saying they'd like to attend, so I am imagining that I will need to do something a little more um well comprehensive now ... as in a properly constructed argument, and possibly some diagrams, though I do have to sing four songs. Then I get a phonecall from our administrator saying that since she made a mistake on the flyer about the room number and had to send it out again she couldn't change the other mistake which sees me now scheduled for an hour long seminar.

Hence the procrastination here.

Had a good weekend though in our local wine producing province with family to celebrate my sister's 40th (I am next) and my dad's all clear on the medical front.

town

A couple of days ago I legitmately left town and went to the big city and researched stuff including my sister's birthday present, met with the big city academic types and confirmed my little schedule of special guest star lectures down there. But best of all I ran into two old friends. Saw Drew at the third best coffee shop in town. Have seen him once since I moved to Palmengrad. He is a very huggy guy and I kinda like being bear-hugged by him because he is so big and solid. I miss his ex-wife. She ran off to Auckland to get away from his partying, and now shares a house with her sister and parties with her dj brother in-law.

Later, I saw Damage across the street, and kinda snuck away, but he caught me and he was very excited to see me. He misses his wife, who is holidaying in Sweden with their son. Damage is the most handsome man I know who knows my name, but as I have said before one of the most disturbing flatmates I have ever had the pleasure of living with.

I guess the thing that surprised me was the excitement they registered on seeing me. I guess I assumed that I had been refiled in their mental rolodex or whatever from friend to old acquainatnace. Though, I guess, particularly with my male friends I can never tell what I might mean to them.

we all learn in spite of our teachers

I have just had the dubious experience of marking my high school teacher's assignments. Hmm how the worm turns, and how inauthentic the whole experience made me feel. Though she did piss me off when she chose not to be able to interpret they as gender neutral singular pronoun. Also cringing from the recalled memory of me and my friend J Mary being so foulmouthed brats to this poor woman.

A while back I found some notes that JM wrote to me when we were at school. Luckily they are all incomprehensible now, with the private language we developed that included verlan, latin and little tricksy semantic inversions - the little magpies of language that we were. Untranslatable now, but I imagine embarrassing adolescent stuff about not being invited to parties and hating this poor guy called Ian.

cleanliness is next to ... impossible

I guess it is time for the weekly whine ... let's say weekly ... well whine works but to be less blunt we'll say mope ...

Today I realised why I oculd never become one of those clean freaks. You know the type, the house is spotless 24 7. They could keep carpet white in a kindergarten ... that sort, just like my big sis No. 2. The reason too many machines. Or more specifically too many machines with cords. Today I have battled the cord of the vacuum cleaner which I think my landlord+lady... We need a title for these people which is not gender specific land-nobility? the gentry ... gendered and too Jane Austen ... anyway I think they stole it from my employer. The property of .... [insert institutional name here]. Do not remove sticker kind of gives it away. Anyway that wouldn't behave. The cord tried to strangle me and then the iron felt the fever and the cord wouldn't wind back round the little moulded part where it is s'posed to sit tidily. I also had to deal with the dishwasher. I know it sounds bourgeois to have a dishwasher but again see above description of people I pay rent to. Besides I worked in hospitality for millions of years and sucked down their ideology that dishwashers sterilise ... well not this one! I foolishly used the economy cycle which apparently saves the environment by recycling water and I now discover electricity by not heating above mentioned water. So this extremely short cycle equivalent to me just throwing a bucket of old run off over the plates once or twice, did in no way remove the remaining skerricks of dried egg and mash potato .... mmm comfort food ... from the plates, who simply had the equivalent midwinter swim in the [insert name of local dirty river here].

WARNING EVIL CLEANING MACHINES

Oh and can anyone please explain to me how to fold fitted sheets nicely. I have asked, but all methods seem to leave weird bunches at either end, and look unimpressive in linen cupboard.

swings and roundabouts or is it doors and windows?

Today my employer well the HR guy who is mr friendly and often picks me up at drives me to work cma ein to my office looking very concerned. I of course got incredibly worried. He then admitted that due to an error on their part based on an oversight on my part they have not being payii=ng me correctly for a year and a half and I am going to a nice little wodge of backpay. In fact it is a few cents off the exact amount I had to pay in a rent dispute from years ago that finally got 'resolved' recently so its all swings and roundabouts isn't it.
Now if I could just find that important file I lost it would be a great day.

If I had a school bag I would write 'The Accelerants Rock" on it*

I forgot to mention that I saw one of the other Ludos on the telly (look in the may 2004 archive). His CD finally came out and it is muy fantastico. Yes rock n roll like all the other hipsters are doing but with a much more sixties rythm to it. He was interviewed by the lovely Jane Yee and spoke so softly that it was quite charming depsite the bitchy things he had to say ... his wife leaving the band and his passive agressive plan to kick the other guitarist out. He came right at the end and was truly truly charming. So much so that J.Y said that he was in her top 5 .... of what she did not say ... Despite this ambiguity I did something which I am ashamed to admit, I waved at the television in excitement. I do in fact wave at the television quite often, particularly at cute old people, but as they say, it is nice to have a hobby.

Anyway, I am glad that one of the other Ludos is getting it together. It took him 2 years, a broken marriage, the methadone program and ther assorted shit to get his music out there, and me I am so proud of him that I think you should indulge me that telly wave.


When I was first at university many many years ago my friend AH had a crush on this guy because he had VU written on his bag. He of course was then referred to as VU guy when we logged in our sightings of him .... can you say stalker-enabling....
Many years later I met him at a work do. A mutual acquaintance tried to introduce me and I said 'Oh no, we have met before, your name is ...' and of course the letter names V and U started coming out of my mouth and there are no known names that begin with that sound sequence ... so tried to segue into the nearest name I could think of and so Viiii Uuuu became Viii uuuuuuaghan. And you know it, it turned out to be right.
Enough already

back on track and bound for nowhere

The doom and gloom of post illness blues are lifting and I have celebrated by cleaning and tidying about 65% of the house. Unfortunately it was the 65% percent that was not looking to shabby. Unfortunately I got tired and side tracked by Levi-Strauss while putting things back in the pantry and fell asleep in there... yes I fell asleep in the cupboard. Apart from being robbed of stamina b y being sick last week was pretty busy which explains it. In fact broguth home a lot fo work to do which I have successfully avoided by cleaning staring at screens, both computer and tv kinds and also managed to do some aimless wandering. Procrastination will continue after this post by the concocting of a borshch like soup and perhaps a lie down, and then some marking fo some incredibly late assignments and then some editting of some articles I am trying to hash into some kind of book and then back to Levi-Strauss. I am giving a department seminar which is no biggy except for the fact that I keep changing my topic and then changing my approach to the topic, so perhaps I should give a seminar entitled "Some interesting things about The story of the hen which don't quite gel into a lucid or interesting whole"

In my reading of reviews of L-S, yes they are still being written despite the fact that he hasn't published anything for quite some time due to the fact that he is dead, someone, and I admit I can't remember who and I didn't write it down, said that structuralism is anti-humanist. I would like to hear more on this so any guest bloggers would be welcome...

School starts back again and I will be officially teaching again for the first time since November. I have to keep this a secret as at my institution you are not a real academic unless you like to whine about your teaching load. Anyway enough of the text-based procrastination, am of to practice culinary procrastination.

Oh and btw, while asleep in the cupboard I dreamt that I went shoe shopping with Nick Cave. He was much shorter than in real life. I hope Monkey's Max will tell me what that means.