Random Rant from Hicksville

Default program no.2 in G major

2006-01-27T23:05:00.000+10:00

Been a while since i blogged, so i thought it was time.

Today I got my car back from the auto upholstery dude. Thank heavens. For those who don't know, I've got an old Eh stationwagon which i'm 75% through restoring. It's taken a while to all come together, but it'll be worth it.

Also on the news front, our drummer decided to part ways with the rest of us which is a pity. We've auditioned one drummer so far, and a few more are to come. The guy seemed nice though, and could definitely play which helps. I'm part way into mixing a few tracks, so should have some finished product in the not too distant future.

I've been thinking a lot about my relationships with women lately. I've been thinking about why mine haven't been what i wanted, and came to the conclusion that it's because I've been with women that i haven't really been into. That's my number one problem. Stop settling for what they want if it's not what i want. Sounds so selfish. But i think it may be the only way to have a long-term partner in the future. Right now i just want to find a girl who's in the same boat I am (ie: in need of regularish sex, but not about to start a real relationship) and shag her stupid. I'm an overloaded custard truck heading for a brick wall at the moment. Don't really know what else to say. Way too concise as usual, oh well. Until later.

Mum's the Word...

2005-12-19T21:15:00.000+10:00

Hey there Kiddies!

Well, I just arrived at my mum's place and I have to say, I think she probably has the best view of anyone I know. Look out the window to Africa my friends! The house is on the west coast of tasmania (Marrawah, just south of a huge wind farm at green point, and home to Tassie's big wave community. Yes, it gets rather large here) situated on a little bit of a hill so as to have a great view overlooking the ocean and nearby cliffs and stuff. The house (or shed if you like) looks small and spartan from the outside but is rather warm and accomodating on the inside. I'm sure it would be a killer place to contemplate the world and write/record some really good musical ideas. I will have to do that!

Seeing my little sister Chloe for the first time in ages was amazing. She's way too cute, with a HUGE bubbly personality that just craves attention and praise. I will attach photos once I get them myself. Before my mum moved down here she was barely crawling, with only a little head of hair. Now she's running and bumping into things, grinning from ear to ear, dancing to anything, singing as only she can, all with curly locks that everyone adores. I'm so glad I've been able to see her before she got any older. My little bro' Eric is here too. He's 8 now, playing in the Redpa football team, wreaking general havoc, but he's such a great kid mum doesn't mind too much. It's so much fun having younger siblings, I just wish they weren't so far away!

Alex my other younger brother has also come down for Christmas from Brisbane. He's 16, knows everything, and has done everything else! I was never like that was I ?......

I'll post pix of the view so as to arouse jealousy, but it probably won't happen until I'm back home as I'm still on film and this place is a fair way from anywhere I might be able to get photos transferred to disc. Having said that, I'm supposedly driving to Devonport on thursday to pick up my sister so I may get the opportunity then.

Tight lines!

I'm a Crew Member, get me a Beer!

2005-12-09T17:40:00.000+10:00

Since my last post I've been pretty busy working on a tacky show called, "I'm a Celebrity, get Me out of here!" which screens on ITV1 in the UK.

I got the gig as a camera assist, which basically means I carry a lot of heavy shit that costs a lot of money that I can't drop or it'll break. The idea for me was to get an entry-level gig and meet all the right people so that next gig I can get an audio gig, which is what I've been planning for a while.

I have to say though, I'd definitely do camera assist again because it was actually a lot of fun and quite a bit different to what I normally do (and there's also the probability of doing more shooting, which is very cool and I quite enjoy it). I was lucky that I hooked up with a really good cameraman who ended up getting to shoot nearly all of the 'celebrity chest' challenges which were stacks of fun. Fiji is hopefully on the cards next, although it's not confirmed just yet and I'm hoping to get an audio gig on that. That would be a considerable cash injection (4 months work!) and would mean i can finally up and go to do my euro trip that I've had not-so-secretly planned for the last few years. The idea of the trip would be;

1/ Get on plane to france.

2/ Purchase bicycle or cheap moto (i'm not sure yet, I might even just walk but the bike appeals 'cos it means i can't take much with me which will hopefully lead to more fun things like living by the seat of my pants a little more)

3/ Start riding/ walking / whatever

4/ Go to UK when i run out of money and work a bit (hopefully not before 12 months have elapsed)

So that's a brief update for now, more to follow when I remember what happened

6Hr Race Report

2005-11-09T12:56:00.000+10:00

Waking up at 5am for your birthday may not be everyone's cup of tea. And to be honest I'm not sure if it's mine just yet! Might take some getting used to.

Anyway the day started reasonably relaxed, except halfway to Tam's house, I'd realized that I'd forgotten my Accel Gel's which I knew I'd really miss if I didn't have them. So at 6:16am, I turn around and go back home therefore making me a weee bit late picking up Tamyka. She didn't mind too much, but I'm sure she wouldn't have knocked back an extra 15min in the sack. Poor baby.

Did I mention it was raining? Yes buckets were dropping from the sky and it looked like we were in for a muddy 'ole time. Unfortunately for me, it stopped. I say unfortunately 'cos I like riding in the mud and I know a lot of people don't (or can't) and with my fitness level a bit sub-par, I needed all the help I could get! Bummer.

We started with a bit of a lame run, Le Mans style, and although I knew there were lots of really quick people there I didn't want to get left behind too much 'cos it'd suck to be having to pass all the slow people who thought for some reason that they'd be able to maintain their early pace. It's quite hard riding 20cm from the guy in front on a trail you've never seen before. Thankfully the people in front of me weren't too gumby and there were only a couple of close calls when some unco dude stacked all by him/herself on a really easy bit of track.

The thing that got me early on was that there were some really unco dudes riding really slow and not helping people to pass, which isn't really cool, but understandable considering the type of event this is (ie 'fun'). But worse than that were the semi-fast dudes that thought they were it and a bit and just went off if they had to wait behind someone for more than 3 seconds. Tossers. Thing is, the really fast guys were generally really good about passing and were smart enough to realize that waiting 10 seconds for somewhere to pass didn't really hurt their time and kept their cool demeanour intact.

Tamyka had a good ride and didn't have any major dives, and I came through pretty unscathed too. I think she was a bit shitty at me for not being at checkpoint and forcing her to do two laps, but my back was pretty sore (it has been lately) and I really needed a bit of a rub on the bum to sort it out (which it did).

We managed 5th in the 2 person mixed which is pretty reasonable considering we didn't give a toss about quick rider changes, we hadn't been riding much, there were two pro's in front (one of the female riders had this fantastic panting thing going on which I'm sure gave all the guys wood) and we're on pretty cheap bikes. I had fun anyway, and that's gotta count for something doesn't it?

Thanks to Tamyka for dragging my sorry ass along too!

Aiiiii

What? You want a nutt?

2005-11-02T08:53:00.000+10:00

I haven't blogged for a while which is terrible I know. I've let so many down....

Not too much exciting has happened, except that I got a gig on "I'm a celebrity, get me out of here" which is filming at Murwillumbah from the 10th of November. Should be fun. I'm a camera assistant on one of the field crews, which means we'll be climbing trees and hiding in the dirt filming people in a voyeuristic kind of way.

I lost my wallet the other day at the movies (the second time in 6 weeks, and before the first I had never lost one) and it really sux. Can't do anything that involves cash. Urrrrr.

I haven't been riding much either, which is pretty shit, because Kooralbyn's coming up on the weekend and I'm pretty out of shape. I did a lap of Coot-tha yesterday and didn't have too much trouble with it, so maybe I'll be okay. It was fairly hot (1230pm) and I didn't die so that's a good sign right? Oh dear......

Last night was interesting. Ando and myself were staggering back from the Paddo, en route to MaccyD's for a not so chilly quarter pounder and these two douchebags that were pissed as were walking towards us. We started laughing about how they looked 'Munted' and then they tried to go us! Idiots. They were just swinging punches everywhere and couldn't fight and all I remember of it was stepping back from one dude who was swinging, then grabbing his mate in some kind of head-hold and trying to rip his fucking head off, then Ando broke it up and tried to be responsible. We didn't throw any punches and I don't even think Ando got hit. Good thing he was there, because I wanted to hurt them a lot. Anyway all i got out of it was a ripped shirt, and it was one that's had a pretty long run anyway. What sort of stupid numnuts would take on Ando and I anyway? They would've only been 70kg's a piece. You'd have to be nuts. I wouldn't take on Ando. Tools.

And life goes on....

2005-10-03T20:59:00.000+10:00

Well today i found out that another person i knew has passed away in this year.

Karly had a long battle with ovarian cancer and leaves behind a daughter, Luka.

I told Jo (my ex, and one of Carly's best friend's) and she was distraught. We spent the day with Holly at Ric's immersed in alcohol and tears. What a loss, and a waste of a beautiful life. I hope she is released into a higher level and is able to watch over and protect the people she loves. Buddhist's believe that within hours of a person dying, they must be released by their loved ones (to continue their journey), so i feel it's important to mourn quickly, so that she may continue freely.

May she be free as I would hope all can be when they leave us.

Rant time

2005-09-27T16:22:00.000+10:00

Well, since the EPIC, I've been really slack and haven't been able to ride anywhere exciting which sucks the big one, and whenever I try and get a group ride to happen (off-road), everyone's busy, which is cool, but it's been too long between stacks for me and I need a reason to buy some new tyres. The only exception to this was Ando's first ride in a while during which his chain snapped and we had to walk about 8km.

For anyone that doesn't know, I've moved house finally, which means I'm no longer living with my ex-girlfriend which is an altogether healthy thing to do. It's so weird being single again though! Already one of my flat-mates is moving out next week (which is a pity, as she's pretty cool). I'm within walking distance to the city, and I expect there to be a bit of a house-warming thing will probably eventuate pretty soon, which will most probably end up being rather messy.....uh oh, ploblem.

Have to start kicking some butts to go for a ride.......got to get team dickhead ready for action for the Kooralbyn 6hr. Our motto; To fall off the most, and be intoxicated for the duration.

Wotakrokofshit.

2005 Epic

2005-09-05T20:59:00.000+10:00

Hard to believe but we both made it through relatively glitch free!

Here's the run-down from my point of view (which may or may not be entirely correct depending on who you are!)

Wake up (very slowly). Remove hand discreetly from myself, wonder why I'm awake this early on a Sunday, and remember the nightmare I've gotten myself into (with the help of a certain someone who happens to think I of all people conned her into being here....as if), shower, eat a little, get out of hotel, go for little drive, piss-fart around in carpark of winery trying to get bikes/packs/minds ready for who knows how many hours of hurt. See Ando, laughing at us (on the inside), attempt to jump the starting proceedings like a dickhead, hurry up and wait. Race starts. Oh dear.......what am i doing here?

So off we go up this big hill and already it's obvious that we're probably fitter than some of the dudes here. There's a lot of people struggling and we're just happy to stay behind at this stage because there's some downhill soon that we're not keen on getting run into by others just yet.

Not long after I have my first stack which was really stupid and hurt quite a bit. But I'm so tuff i keep going... Rock!!! Hit my left-knee though which isn't good 'cos i stacked on it at Daisy a few weeks ago. Grrr arrr. And I twisted my right ankle a bit which initially was cool, but came back to haunt me later in the day. About 1 hr later I have another stack in which I attempted to pull a cool mono and fell onto my right side. WOTADIKHEAD! At least there were some people to see it....

Finally we arrive at our first checkpoint and Tam stacks in the shit they put up to try and make you stack in front of people who are official looking. I laugh my guts out while concerned on-lookers try and help. As if....

Bloody hell. The Razorback climb is killer. We do fairly well, riding past a few that are walking then stop for a Gel. Then we walk, then ride and start to get our pace again. First stage was long, but looks like this one will come up in no time. We keep passing the friendly group of riders we've been talking too whenever there's a hill (up) or flat. Thankfully Tam has been kind and hasn't embarrassed me yet. The mighty quads have yet to unleash their fury....But they will

10k's to second checkpoint and we get some fast bitumen downhill with some nice twisty's. Sweet. I resolve to not touch the brakes and get a new top speed of 74km/h. Not bad. Big steep straight bit at the end onto gravel with SES people waving at me to slow down... Not a chance. It's too much fun....

Tam catches up at the bottom and we're onto some flat bitumen for a while. I initially think this is good until I realize that the mighty quads are about to teach me a lesson. Oh dear. So far I've been Ok on the ascents, but this pace on an MTB with a 2.35" front is ridiculous! I fear for my well-being as I try to keep pace but I eventually cry and Tam slows down (only a little though). Bitch.

Checkpoint 2 comes and goes with Mark the legend providing refreshment, ego massage, bike adjustment and food. Top stuff!

Off toward the Duff farm and up until this point I feel fine. Not long after though,the punishment I've just been dished on the highway starts to hurt. Not good. Time for more Gel and blue. Ah, that's better! We continue through what I think is the 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' stage and get to more hills which hurt more and more. Thankfully the mighty quads are feeling it too. We eventually get to checkpoint 3 and feel a sigh of relief as we realize we're nearly there. Not yet though.

The mighty quads have revived and start to cause me more pain on the road again. It's only a short stretch, but it's a constant struggle to keep pace. GRRRRARRRR! Finally there's a turnoff and some climbing to do. Relief at last! We get through another ridge and back onto the road. More pain for me! I can't believe that I'm looking to hills for relief....we pass a few riders we haven't seen yet, and turnoff for the last 8k's which is closer to 9...

By now we're pretty rooted. It's been a long time in the saddle and we're both starting to lose co-ordination. Way too easy to fall off on stupid shit. We have our last gel and start to get some pace back again...Nearly there!

Just about lose it through a patch of sand at Peppers, same again on some little rocks, and then there it is. The Finish! Yay!!!!!

We cross the line together and elated, mark grabs a few pics, people clap and cheer, and we're NOT LAST!!!!!!

Time for beer, and Mark has it cold and ready. Legend.

Stay tuned for more details.....

Drunk idiot reporting for duty....

2005-08-20T23:56:00.000+10:00

Hello to the thousands of you that follow this well established, controversial, yet well regarded BLOG.

I begin this scribble listening to 'Air', at full tilt on my B&W's after having consumed a substantial amount of his highness Johnny Wallker the third (red, i'm broke).

I'm coming to many strange realizations about myself, least of which is that I'm feeling much more in touch with my spirituality in the past year or so; which I've always known was there, but was unable to let it out due to guilt. About what i'm not quite sure. I don't care about the things I used to. I always pictured myself being career focused, with money a motivator, being single, doing what i wanted, when i wanted to do it. It's not happening quite the way I'd imagined, but i'm completely cool with that. I want to achieve goals, but at the same time i don't care about them at all. Everything i do is for now, not tomorrow or later. I want to live with the idea 'i may not be here tomorrow' in the noise-floor of my thoughts. No regrets. Everything counts all the time, the smallest interactions are worth an unthinkable fortune.

On a lighter note, I also discovered that fashion models are not my thing. I spent the good part of the week in the lingerie department of myer looking after a few fashion parades. In that time you can expect to see quite a few naked 'girls' which used to get me excited, but now I'm nearly over it. Does every chick have to look like they're sixteen? I preferred the producer Kathryn with her beautiful smile and gorgeous shapely figure. A kiss would have been nice. Fuck models. They suck. Give me the real woman anyday. Preferably with the eyes of a vixen, the kiss of heaven, a body of chocolate, and the soul of a muse. Not much to ask really is it?

Shut up all of you....

2005-08-12T21:22:00.000+10:00

Alrighty, I'm blogging already!!!!

Seeing as I have to account for nearly a week, I might go point form because my fingers are cold and I'm having trouble typing.

Sunday:
I meet Rampaging Paul, and Speed-demon Lotte. Cool Cats. Lots of fun on the Daisy Hill ride, I took a dive, froze my nuts off, and realized how bad my brakes actually are. Picture Balsa wood on polished marble and you're close. My knee is still hurting a bit (yes, i did have a cry) but should be right to obliterate myself again on wednesday. Tamyka thinks she's so cool 'cos she's good at hills. Biatch.

Monday:
Did the launch of the Sony PSP at the powerhouse. Pretty shitful really. Ben Gilles' new band (timbre something?) played. They kinda sucked except for a few tunes. Although there were plenty of hard nipples, none of the girls there actually had anything for me. Again. They all suck.

Wednesday - Friday:
Off to Couran Cove for an AAPT webcast/training thing/Galah dinner thing. Boring. Thing is, I'm one of the few people I work with that actually likes the place, in summer. In winter it's really boring. No point going to the beach, it's just too damn cold.

The outlook is bleak, I have to work down at Royal Pines for the next 3 days, not really sure what for but I think it could be for the movie convention. At least I can plug in to broadband.....I might even get enough time to work on a mix I'm mastering for Ralphy.

Haven't had a real ride since Sunday. Not good. Need to hammer myself a bit more. Not long until the epic and I feel like I've done bugger all to get ready for it. Ah well. I guess i can just attach a rope to Tam's bike and she can pull me up the hills with those huge quads.;.....

Porkrind do the Trouby

2005-08-01T23:23:00.000+10:00

Yo... well the gig came and went. All was good, people rejoiced, babies stopped screaming momentarily and Prado drivers looked in their mirrors before pulling stupid manoeuvers on fellow motorists.......

I was feeling like shite, suffering badly from a flu-ey thing and was just glad to get through the night. Tam got kicked out b4 even getting in, but seemed sort-of ok on the phone. (that is, the same 'sort-of' that a cockroach would complain of if you stood on it and asked it if it was ok).

Unfortunately for Tam, the people at the door/bar are the manager/owner. So no luck there. Ah well, there'll be more gigs. We think. I couldn't believe how many big-ass rats were out the back of the place in the loading dock. Heaps!

Got to go to bed and try and get better. Need beer. Always need beer. And need a new bike saddle, to relieve severe groing pain. Who was the wise-guy that thought a hard, thin thing was a good idea anyway? Balls people, balls! They have to go somewhere.....

Ok, bye bye

I don't like Nebo, oh no........

2005-07-28T17:05:00.000+10:00

Woah. Nebo is a big hill. And I'm a big girl when it comes to riding up hills. I thought I better get some more hill climbs in with the epic only a few weeks away.....

I'd just like to have a whinge about my left knee. It's the one thing that's really holding me back and I'm a bit pissed off with it because I've never really done it any harm. What gives?

We've got another gig on Sunday, so off to Haycom to go and practice and whinge to more people about my knee..

Cats in the Alley

2005-07-26T15:18:00.000+10:00

Well, Saturday was our first gig in a while (see 'parkland' link) and it went pretty well I can safely say from the feedback we got. Got another one this sunday@ the Troubadour which should hopefully see some rust taken off the toons.

Got bummed on another house yesterday. Moving sux the big one. Might just buy a tent and be done with it. At least I can assimiliate with the homeless a bit more though, they must have just gotten sick of looking.

Starting to get worried about the 'Epic' I mean, it's 100km, which is fine. But it looks like 50km on a 45deg incline, with little flat bits in between. Boooo hooo. I'm gonna die! I have been riding a bit though, only problem is that to go for a big-arse ride takes quite a bit of time which at the moment is something i don't have much of. Tomorrow maybe?

I'd also like to express my disgust at 'walkers' on the bicentennial bikeway. Fair enough it's a popular walk (as well as ride), but is your ass that big that you need to take up THE WHOLE PATH! Maybe I'll ride on the road more, WHERE THE SAME FAT ASSES RUN ME OFF IT!

I'm not angry though......

Bang Bang Bang

2005-07-22T21:39:00.000+10:00

I just thought that it was time that this was re-circulated....time to eat animals and look at chocolate

Market Penetration

2005-07-22T21:11:00.000+10:00

Once again I have been thrown into the depths of general insurance and survived. There was definetly NO penetration in my department either. Come to think of it, there wasn't even anything to look at. Except the beach. Ahh the beach.

I'm definitely pissed off about that girl killed in Germany too. I know too many people that have had accidents on two wheels of some form and unfortunately it can happen to anyone. My best friend in year two died on a pushbike (i didn't find out until it was on the abc news) and I've probably been lucky on more than a few occasions too. I just read a post from another pongo and it appears the same has happened to her....lucky about that car....

On a lighter note, I managed to catch up on some reading to do with directional bass arrays and actually learnt some new stuff........boring i know. But can you ever have enough bass? I don't think so

I'm sick of monkeys that can't do their job properly. It's not rocket science! I hate having to re-do shit that other ass-clowns haven't gotten right......GrrrArrr

Enough bitching, have to catch up on a serious lack of sleep from the last few days. Plenty to do tomorrow, gigging tomorrow night and all that.

Joining the bandwagon.....

2005-07-16T21:34:00.000+10:00

Wassup. I'd like to thank all the good people for letting me talk absolute and utter rubbish in some sort of civil fashion. For those who don't know me, I'm The Kurt that may have made the odd special guest appearance in The Ando and The Tamyka's BLOG's from time to time.

Not many, if any.

I decided that it was time for a change, and although I've been contributing to a few other posting's in various other crannies of the cosmos for some time (namely sector404) I'm going to concentrate my efforts and consolidate a lot of crappy idea's and observations that I may have previously had, and now wish to regurgitate upon you good people. It sux to be you....ha ha!

Standby for a standby on all of the above and plenty more where that all came from, whatever that means. There will also be plenty of stupid comments about myself and others, information about things you don't really need to know, and pictures of my dog Alfie who moonlights as a non-executive director of flight centre.

Stay tuned kittens