basmathi

[insert lame excuse here]

Came home from work just in time to catch the latest episode of 'Glee' and wow. This show gets better each time I watch it. Matthew Morrison and Lea Michele are phenomenally talented performers (I knew that from their respective pedigrees) but Cory Monteith stole the show for someone who at the start of the season was clearly (IMO) one of the less talented singers in the cast. And the Susie Pepper scenes were hilarious! Can't stand Terri but she had the best line of the episode: "Listen, you little psycho. This is Will's wife, and if I don't get enough sleep my anti-depressants won't work and I'll go crazy and I'll kill you. STOP CALLING! [hangs up]"

I know, I know, it's just a high school parody and I'm probably too old for this, but something about the show just set me off and makes me want to get back into music again. I always felt bad that I just stopped piano lessons about halfway through high school and never picked it up again -- I'm under no illusions, I never seriously thought I'd pursue it as a career path and am (mostly) comfortable with where I am today, at least for the time being, but it was something I enjoyed and I guess I stopped because I didn't enjoy it anymore. Sure, there were reasons, but watching the glee kids' characters blossom on the show it's an outlet I really could have used back then... I want that again.

Preferably soon, too. I nearly got caught by a partner from work singing along to Finn's cover of 'Can't Fight This Feeling' at the gym a couple of days ago. Maybe I am a little bit crazy...

Mental note: must warm up properly before attempting to play soccer. Oh, the pain! :-P At least we picked up a few randoms during the game and they gave us a bloody good work-out. Remind me to never go for more than a week or two without getting some form of exercise. I think back to the hours spent in front of the computer during thesis-writing when I wasn't feeling all that productive and could have gone to the gym-- I guess I always needed some sort of external pressure to stay motivated.

Went and saw Avenue Q Friday before it moves to the nation's capital... I really really enjoyed it, was worried beforehand that it wouldn't live up to expectations as I'd heard a number of friends rave about it but they got it just right IMO.

I described it to my friends as Sesame Street with a 'grown-up' message but I didn't feel like I was being preached to (which I hate). Wasn't sure how the production would work with puppets instead of humans, but somehow, it worked for me and I thought it fit well with the general "growing up" theme. These were still trained performers singing behind the puppets and it didn't take anything away from the production at all. And when Kate finally got her solo in the second act, it didn't disappoint.

There was plenty of dark humour in there too but much like South Park it was a surprisingly sharp commentary about human nature despite the crudity (I guess that's what cardboard cut-outs/puppets/cartoons have in common, you can get away with a lot more on stage/on screen :D ), especially the schadenfreude and racism songs. The interracial couple cracked me up though-- perhaps from observing the white male/Asian female stereotype play out in supermarket aisles when I was living in Taiwan? :D

Ah well, enough procrastinatory rambling. If you are reading this far, hope you are enjoying your Sunday. Better get back to doing my tax return...

Wishing all my Jewish friends and family a happy and prosperous New Year!

I caught up with one of my friends at a gathering for Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) organised by the local Jewish community, and while I enjoyed the service and felt a part of the celebrations, I didn't really identify with the religious aspect, reinforcing my identity as a secular Jew as I recognise that it's a part of my culture but that it is quite separate from my everyday life.

I was chatting to a few American exchange students who came along because they were looking for a place to spend the holiday away from home, and after talking to them I realised I'd missed the feeling of living in a foreign country away from home... the openness to new experiences, the willingness to try new things and meet new people, that comes from being transplanted to new surroundings. I miss that-- I am so insular in my home environment, caught up with work, coming home to watch my favourite TV shows, going online, watching and talking about the football on the weekend. Travelling makes us more open to the chance encounter, whether it's a conversation struck up with a fellow traveller on the train or a local.

You don't have to travel to increase your awareness-- even if it's just a matter of leaving a few minutes earlier for work so you have time to take in your surroundings on the walk from the train station, or going out of your way to greet the barista who takes your order each morning. For me, it was seeing Sydney through the eyes of the American kids and remembering what it was like to be in a foreign, non-English speaking part of the world (i.e. Taiwan) and how rewarding it was discovering my new surroundings.

Updates: I went with a couple of friends last Sunday to see Lior, an Israeli-born Australian singer-songwriter, as part of a series of concerts at the Sydney Theatre Company and he probably has the smoothest voice I've heard in a male singer, performing songs from his two studio albums including 'I'll Forget You' (a duet with the beautiful Jess Chalker). Very chilled/laid-back kind of gig, as my mate Daniel put it you don't want to get too pumped on a Sunday evening before work. But the show was musically great!

Lior - I'll Forget You (feat. Sia)

Jess Chalker - Said the Raindrop to the Seed

WTF?!

Kim Clijsters refuses to be simply an appetizer

One of the more incredible sports stories of the year I reckon. Just behind Jelena Dokic's run at Melbourne Park earlier in the year. To beat one of the world's top players on her home patch after being out of the game for two years and having a baby... phenomenal effort.

Ironic use of the Rocky metaphor for Lleyton's ex! Can we still call her Aussie Kim?? Still an absolute champion and one of the more likeable players (male or female) in the game.

"Tennis is a great sport but I have a great family and I am very happy that I am able to balance the two things."

*EDITED 7/9/09*

If you don't write it down, it won't happen.

People are just so damn busy these days that the above sentence is starting to ring increasingly true... that if you don't write something down or make a note somewhere to remind yourself yeah, I've got to go and buy these things or I need to catch up with so-and-so next week, it's not gonna happen.

I wanted to write down a list of things that I actually want to do in the near future just as a kind of a record for myself to come back to later, so here goes. I purposely haven't put timeframes... I might add to this as I go along.

* Get better at playing a team sport
* Supporting my family a bit better than I do at the moment
* Get back into music and start playing the piano again, maybe even learn the guitar
* Following on from the last one, go to more gigs and check out good live music
* Start to do something about my single-status (don't expect it to change right away, but just take steps in that direction)
* Visit my relatives interstate and overseas
* Work on my fitness base, build up strength and flexibility
* Take up dancing again and improve my co-ordination, not be so unco!
* Visit Melbourne during the winter months and experience at least one AFL game per season in the flesh as a neutral
* Be a bit more adventurous with my taste in movies and watch classic films from the past few decades
* Come up with a more detailed financial plan and think about how to manage or invest my money in the years to come
* Read to expand my knowledge in areas I don't know all that well
* Learning how to cook a few more things
* Find ways to study harder given less time for when I start my CA, because I know the effort I put in will pay off
* Take on new roles/challenges in Toastmasters and try different speaking assignments in order to get more comfortable communicating in diverse settings so I can do my job better
* Make time to relax and 'switch off' from technology and other distractions

NNT = Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of "The Black Swan", part essayist, empiricist, philosopher and trader.

The following quote is from the book and is too good not to share. In his book, Taleb talks about how we often have difficulty in seeing the true odds of the events that run our lives, and goes on to present evidence supporting this assertion in the various chapters of the book. (Because he's a trader, a lot of his examples do come from, but aren't limited to, the financial markets).

He is a bit of a special breed in that he admits that he does not worry a lot and almost infuriatingly, says that he is often taken aback by how people can have a miserable day or get angry because they feel cheated by a bad meal, cold coffee, a social rebuff or a rude reception, to name a few examples.

In his opinion, we are quick to forget that just being alive is an extraordinary piece of good luck, and while he's technically correct in the 'big picture' of things, we're only human, and if I was to tell someone who'd just had a crap day at work or the like that they were lucky to be alive, I'd quite rightly expect to be punched in the face.

But if life's getting you down I think this quote can serve as a reminder to us not to sweat the small stuff, even though it's bloody hard sometimes. ;)

"Imagine a speck of dust next to a planet a billion times the size of the earth. The speck of dust represents the odds in favour of you being born; the huge planet would be the odds against it. So stop sweating the small stuff. Don't be like the ingrate who got a castle as a present and worried about the mildew in the bathroom."

I discovered i-to-i a few months ago while I was searching the net for travel ideas. Rated the concept -- an organisation set up specifically to cater for people who want a more meaningful travel experience and actually want to engage with other cultures, learning a heap of new skills and finding out a bit about themselves in the process.

I guess my renewed interest in 'meaningful travel' and doing volunteer or community work overseas stems from wanting to find out what I'm made of and wanting to experience something that's real... particularly for someone who literally took until his late teens to start to come out of his shell (and still tries to hide behind it when things get too tough -- it's an ongoing process.)

Anyway, I went along to their info session in the city tonight and was really impressed with what they have to offer. It's early days but I would feel pretty confident about booking for one of their programs in the knowledge that many of the headaches associated with planning a lengthy overseas trip are taken care of for you, even though you have to pay for your own airfares and incidental expenses.

It sounds really obvious but Mat, who took the session tonight (he was the volunteer at the Cape Town orphanage featured on Channel 9's "Things to Try Before You Die" TV special in 2007), mentioned that one of the things to bear in mind when considering volunteer work like this is firstly, is it for you? Sometimes it's hard with short programs like this to see the bigger picture, working with kids can be one of the most rewarding but also one of the hardest because you connect with them, forge bonds with them, but then have to leave after a month or so... which can be a tough thing to do when you say goodbye.

I still have much to investigate before deciding on this, but at least I know now it's an option. I cannot stress this enough that good things do not happen to those that sit on the fence. If you approach it with the right attitude, you'll come home from an experience like this with a fresh outlook on life. I'm off to bed! :-)

40 years ago today, man landed on the moon.

You know those 'where were you when...' moments in history, like Princess Diana's death or 9/11? I obviously don't have one for the moon landing and don't pretend to have any particular connection to it, but it still got me thinking today about the efforts of those that made it happen, in particular, the people manning the Parkes radio telescope in country New South Wales, or simply 'The Dish',  who made sure that the world got to see live pictures from the moon as Neil Armstrong took that giant leap for mankind.

I know the movie really romanticised a fair chunk of the story surrounding 'The Dish' and Australia's role in bringing the pictures of the moon landing back to Earth but I remember sitting down to watch the movie, properly, for the first time a few years ago and it still managed to stir something in me. It told a story that was so Australian and despite the dramatic license taken, it did not exaggerate the significance of the task that the crew at the Dish faced, when you consider that nothing like it had ever been attempted before. I think it still ranks as one of my favourite Australian movies, despite not being 100% accurate factually, it captured the mood at that time with such sensitivity that when I sat down to watch the movie, at least for a couple of hours, I was in Parkes during the year 1969, and felt that sense of wonder and awe at what was taking place just as much as the townspeople did. The Working Dog team's finest work.

I just signed up for the City2Surf next month.

I reckon I'm fit enough to at least walk the 14kms from the city to Bondi (forget running!)... I figure that doing it with a group of people from work, at least if I don't make it past Heartbreak Hill my co-workers will carry me to the finish line. (Or leave me on hands and knees at the side of the road while they enjoy a drink in the company marquee at the finish line...heh)

Today I told one of my co-workers who sits near me that she had a diabolical laugh. I probably shouldn't have, but it was very impressive. There's nothing better than a good, hearty belly-laugh for releasing those endorphins.

(Nerd alert!)

Finally got around to watching this... nice summary of the evolution of our financial system and goes a long way to explaining the sub-prime crisis and subsequent credit crunch. The entire premise of money being used as a form of exchange was built on trust, and when that trust is abused--with credit being extended to just about anyone--it's not surprising that the system collapsed. The great paradox of money is that a lot of things would not be possible without it, but you wouldn't want your life to revolve around it.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ascentofmoney/

She might not be (conventionally) beautiful in this video (but is in her own, quirky, way, and that's just fine with me) and has too much make-up on (IMO) but apart from that, this is just... perfect. Her voice has that rare timeless quality that you just don't hear much these days... *sigh* I listen to this song, and everything that's wrong in the world today, and all the problems that we face day-to-day, simply melt away...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ThRVUcmSa0

He's been described as racist, homophobic and depraved... one of those stand-up comics who can and does offend just about everyone... (though is it really racist if you make jokes about ALL ethnic groups indiscriminately?) I got dragged along to see his show at the unlikely location of the North Shore Temple Emanuel synagogue (he's Jewish) on the weekend. In an interesting scheduling combination he was the main act in what was billed as an "afternoon of music and comedy" featuring the Temple Emanuel choir who I thought sang brilliantly.

As for the show, well his confrontational in-your-face offensive style of humour is not really my cup of tea but the man IS bloody brilliant and as sharp as a tack as you'd expect for someone who's been around the circuit for so long and I did laugh out loud at some of his impressions... ranging from Hungarian/Polish Jews to South Africans to Chinese to Iraqis to Aboriginals. I can understand why he is not exactly loved by the mainstream and it's almost a shame that our tastes have become so sanitized/homogenized these days. That said, he does have a tendency to repeat the same 3 jokes over again and like all comics some his jokes do miss the mark.

To get a feel for the man, I googled his interview on Enough Rope with Andrew Denton back in 2005, and to understand where he is coming from, you don't really need to go past his views on Mel Gibson:

"I had a problem with Mel Gibson. I've known Mel since NIDA days. I was at film school at the same time as him. I didn't realise that he was as much of a fundamentalist Catholic as he is, and I believe he is in Opus Dei. I know that his father is a Holocaust denier. As the son of a Holocaust survivor, I found that disgraceful. I found it disgraceful that Mel didn't stand up and say something about his father. He didn't distance himself from his father, and I thought that was a terrible thing to do."

I could sense during the show on the weekend that a lot of the anger that comes through in his performance (and yes, he is an angry man, by his own admission) was a result of his Dad's experiences as a Holocaust survivor... he elaborates more on this in the Denton interview and I think it's important that we maintain an awareness of what happened in the concentration camps in order to prevent anything like it from ever occuring again.

A gem...

"The Internet is like alcohol in some sense. It accentuates what you would do anyway. If you want to be a loner, you can be more alone. If you want to connect, it makes it easier to connect." --Esther Dyson

So that once-a-year celebration of everything kitsch and cheesy in the world of pop music was won by a kid from Norway who was in love with a fairytale and didn't look a day older than 13. (He was 24, apparently). I personally favoured the entrant from Ukraine's tribute to the GFC, "I'm gonna save your world, I'm your Anti-Crisis girl"... and the Brits' vote-grabbing exercise bringing in Andrew Lloyd Webber of all people on the piano to boost their ranking after recent poor showings. Apparently Eurovision still matters to someone or other.

Managed to catch Eddie Perfect (star of Shane Warne: The Musical) on ABC radio this morning and found it interesting listening to him talk about the process of writing/researching the musical...not having known much about Shane Warne or cricket apart from what he'd heard from the tabloid headlines gossip mags. I'm not sure what it is about writing or doing research, whether it's for a musical, novel or thesis, that conjures up images of long hours in the lab/office/study, bad eating habits, extended periods of no physical activity, a lack of social contact and being in desperate need of a shave and/or haircut -- you wonder why anyone does it! 

But listening to Eddie talk about how he came alive when the time came to rehearse the musical on stage and see his creation come to life, leading up to the exhilaration he felt on opening night, performing in front of his peers (and Shane himself), I know why we do it. The challenge. To find out what one is made of. To satisfy a thirst for knowledge. The sense of achievement. The recognition, fame and/or fortune. Hell, you might just do it because it's what you love to do. Whatever it is, the challenge is finding out the thing that gives you that feeling. 

(Geez, I'd better stop before I turn into another Alain de Botton or something...philosophizing about the meaning of work on a Saturday night. Sad!)