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Did anyone see the debate between Kerry and Bush? I watched parts of it. I thought Kerry trounced Bush, which I thought was good. At least now people here may start thinking “that Bush guy, I ain’t too sure about him…” if for some reason they weren’t before. If you’re even vaguely interested in politics, you should read this excellent article about the WMD that never were. Yeah, I’m fairly interested with what happens in this election. I think it’s because Australia seems to align itself with the US so much that this election is more important than one back in Australia. The thing is, will Kerry do a better job? I really hope he has the balls to make some tough decisions coz he’s got to fix up a lot of the Bush administration’s “mistakes”. It’d be good to see some heads roll in the “Intelligence” community too. ...

If you’re like me you’ll be plodding along in your current job but in the back of your mind you’re always wondering what it is you’re going to do next, coz you sure as hell don’t want to do this for the rest of your life. I was thinking about this today and I was reading my latest computer music mag (instead of doing work - I sent out an e-mail that will get me an hour of free time at least) and there was an article about a guy who wrote the music for the PC game “Far Cry”. While I was reading it I thought “Eureka! That’s it!”. I have always loved music in computer games, even from the tinny, bass lacking sounds of the original NES. I remember I’ve been in conversations with people talking about such and such a game and I’d mention something about the music in that game being good or bad, but I mostly get raised eyebrows from them. I can remember feeling pretty disappointed if a game had bad music. In fact, the music is what I remember the most about any game I’ve ever played. ...

Well, this has been a pretty weird week. The *big* thing that happened this week has caused me to seriously think about where I’m going to be and what the hell I’m going to be doing in the near future… coz I sure as hell don’t have a freaking clue at the moment. Some people would think ‘dude, you’re ok - nothing happened to you’, but that’s just it - now I don’t know when it will happen. I know I can’t believe anyone’s promises to the contrary, because they seem to have very little control over the situation anyway. Am I being cryptic enough yet? Some people reading this would know what I’m talking about… I just want to get up, walk away, and not come back. ...

I’m completely and utterly exhausted. God knows how I’d be if I actually *lived* here. It seems that just about every weekend a damn hurricane hits Florida and it’s back to the bunker. What ever happened with hurricanes hitting *during* the week? Hats off to the Power for winning the grand final on the weekend. I know a few bogans who would be pleased with the result. I was actually watching it live with a few Aussie mates in an English pub on Friday night. We were trying to explain the rules to a few other American people in the pub. They thought it was pretty cool how free flowing the game was and how there was a bit of biffo every now and then. I hear that there was just as big a celebration in Adelaide as when the Crows won a few years back so that is good. I saw little Johnny in the crowd at one point and said “look, there’s our PM!” The Americans couldn’t pick him out - he sorta blended in with the crowd. One thing I couldn’t explain to the Americans there was the pre-game entertainment. I know the people who organised this were probably taking the piss out of footy, but I found it hard to explain the following to the Americans in the bar: a bunch of gay-looking guys wearing AFL uniforms; a slew of Human Nature wannabes (c’mon guys, aim higher than that); Kath and Kim; and of course Guy Sebastian. ...

Whoa! I’m in a sleep deprived state of mind at the moment. Another hurricane is heading this way (apparently), which I don’t really give a damn about anymore. A group of women in their mid thirties are in the aisle next to my cube giggling about what singles bars are good. I’m trying to listen in but I’m just so spaced out at the moment I can’t really understand what they’re saying. I’ve been advised that taking Melatonin for a couple of weeks could help me out a little with this sleep problem. Oh God, they’re getting really loud now. A guy has joined the group. I bet he thinks he’s the bomb. Hats off buddy, and whatever. ...

This is probably the one thing that makes being on the other side of the world really suck. My mum called up this morning to say that our family’s cat had died. His lungs had filled with fluid, the vet thinks this may have been due to cancer, so it was decided that he had to be put down to save him from any more pain. Up until the last couple of weeks he was still being the larrikin cat he’s always been, but his condition deteriorated rapidly. ...

This has been really, really bothering me lately. I am getting sooooo pissed off with the two completely and utterly different worlds that exist in America. I believe that the American media can be given a huge pat on the back for most of this. I thought Australia was getting a little bad, but over here it’s ridiculous. I cannot believe how censored the media is over here. Every swear word, no matter how tame it is, is “beeped” out. I watch a few shows on the comedy channel where the sound channel is nearly a constant “beeeeeeep”. There is no blood shown of incidents for where there should be lots of blood. They’re very careful not to show that because that would indicate, heaven forbid, that someone could have died. Most importantly, no-one seems to be pointing out enough that Iraq never had any weapons of mass destruction… which is the whole reason why innocent civilians and Americans over in Iraq are getting killed right now, isn’t it? Where is the media asking the hard questions to get the people thinking? Why has president Bush got such a high approval rating at the moment (47%)? Are these people who make up the 47% doing their research? Are they really analysing why Iraq was invaded? They were lied to!!! The Bush administration itself says they were “misinformed” (or so they would like us to believe). That’s a big f%$ken cock-up. Now they’ve got a hell of a mess to clean up. But take a step back and look at the situation: they went and invaded another country WITHOUT APPROVAL FROM THE UN. These people in Iraq didn’t pose a threat to them. North Korea poses more of a threat by saying “look here - we have nuclear weapons!” but they’re silently ignored. American has killed thousands and thousands of innocent people in Iraq and they’ve gotten themselves killed in the process. Do the people back in America realise this? Do they really believe that by being in America they’re doing the right thing? Do they really believe the bullshit that Bush is saying? Sure, some would believe that ousting Saddam Hussein was a good thing. Was it America’s right to go and do that? They have replaced him with a US puppet. A lot of people are pissed off because these Americans have come and invaded Iraq, because they don’t believe America’s reasons either and they want the US to get the f*$# out of their country. Howard decided to support the US because they’re big and powerful and if in the future Indonesia or someone opposed to us decided to attack Australia then we could say “hey we helped you in Iraq, remember? … help us”. Oh, and then there is that free trade agreement thingo too. It’s just a big game of chess. ...

Heck, what a weekend. I’ve got a bit of a headache today (very unusual for me to get one unless I’m listening to an annoying person) and I actually didn’t do much to cause it… honestly. The good thing is that I did receive most of my stuff on Friday. Yes, I finally have a digital camera! Problem is I didn’t receive a memory card in the time frame promised by Amazon so I couldn’t do anything with it anyway. The instruction manual looks nice though. I also received some Event TR5 monitor speakers for music production stuff. For the moment though they’re doing a fine job of being a part of my improvised stereo system until I actually have the equipment/skills to use them for their intended purpose. ...

I don’t know what the freaking hell is wrong with me (there are probably some people who could give some suggestions… wisearses) but lately I seem not to be able to get to sleep. I’ve been lying in bed for the last couple of hours trying to get to get some shut-eye but it seems impossible. My mind continues to race. I get up for a bit and play a few chords on guitar, and then I end up wishing I had my piano. Next I’m listening to some songs on my ipod, sampling anything from Rachmaninoff to Roxette to Rammstein. I’m freaking jumping around my apartment like the people in the iPod ads (except to Rach - can’t really jump around to classical… at least I haven’t yet figured out a way to yet). Why is this? Is it because the succulent, sumptuous, salivacious (???) pork ribs over here are just so good? Is it because the amount of fat in the food I’m eating is much more than it would be over in Oz? But hey - it’s all “low carbs”… yeah, whatever that actually means. Take the stairs every once in a while instead of the lift pilgrims. Maybe it’s not the food. Maybe it’s the humidity. Maybe it’s the fact that the air conditioning isn’t working properly at work and I’m so bloody cold I have to wear a jacket. Then I get outside and instantly I’m covered in water from condensation. Maybe the sudden changes in temperature are causing the meninge of my brain to expand and contract weirdly which could somehow adversely affect the sleeping centres of my brain, if they’re located on the periphery of the brain… which they probably aren’t… wtf am I talking about now??? ...