Columbia clowns killed on stage

Story here

Election Strategies

Yes it's that time again.
What decoy will El Rodent come up with this time?
Tampa, Interest Rates...now what?

Maybe Ron Tandberg has the answer:



(From The Age newspaper)

Payback for Howard's recent anti-Democrat (Obama) rant maybe.
But I bet he's spewing that Blair just announced the UK's impending withdrawal from Iraq...

digitalinet SUCK

Yep, that's my opinion.
I recommend you take all of their alleged testimonials with a sizeable grain of salt.

Lately I have had nothing but hassles and ZERO response from them - they are yet to even acknowledge my support requests.

How's a mailserver that delivers your messages more than 24 hours late?
Pretty f&*king useless I say!

The search is on for a new hoster.

I wouldn't recommend these clowns in a pink fit...so I strongly recommend you keep looking.

Digitalinet web hosting bad service mail server problems bad support
email issues no response shit fucked crap useless idiots morons pricks

Argument for Iraq Withdrawal

Click here for some rightwing nutter interviewing a retired US general

Or here for the original article by the general

Rain

Yeah it rained a bit last night - so I rode home stark nekkid on my mountain bike, through the torrential, almost-horizontal rain!

Been meaning to do that for years!

Back in Sweatsville...

Yes yes, I'm back.
It's 1am, Thurs the 15th.
I have to work at some stage tomorrow, but I feel I may just be popping in for the afternoon.

So to recap:

Flew out of Auckland on the 3rd, I was very depressed to have to say goodbye to the gang, namely Karro, Tim, Rosie & Soul...but these things happen for a reason - I'm sure I'll be back there quite soon.

So after a fairly pisspoor kerbside goodbye (on my part), I entered the airport fully intending to quit the smokes at that time.
(Yes gentle reader, after 18 months off them, I did in fact get backon the cancer-sticks while in NZ. Don't ask how or why, just a holiday thing I guess)

Anyway I failed to quit at the NZ/AU boundary - so I smoked it up the whole time I was in Melbourne. I mean really - like back to 25-30 per day, no problem.
I am definitely a smoker or I'm not a smoker - _no_ intermediate stage at all.

Benny picked me up Saturday night, whicked me down to Mt Waverley, where I ended up spending a good portion of my Melbourne trip just enjoying the backyard, the dogs, and hanging the Spoonman, Anne-La and the Dinkos.

I forget what happened Sunday, likely more of the same, but Monday I saw Hoges who was down from Brimpaen, playing with his boat. Did a bit of a sail across to St K, then drove up in the new Ovlov beast.

Crashed at Casa de la Hoges, which is a not-too-shabby farmhouse that he resides in, 4 bedroom, but he has it all to himself...cheap too!

Micky V was around, so we hung out, got pissy etc, and eventually drove back on Wednesday arvo, in time for me to go to:

Testament, at the P.O.Wales in St K.
For those who (like me until last week) have never heard of them, they are some kind of proto-metal group, similar to old-school Metallica.
This is probably a really shitty description, but then I'm not an old fan or anything, so I can live with it. If anyone else can describe the sound better, feel free to comment.
Anyway it rawked to the max, my ears rang for many days afterwards.

More bludging ensued, I caught up with Mum and Aldo, saw Mia, Dave H and Russell (briefly)..then Saturday night actually turned into a fizzer - I just bummed at the Mt and didn't go out at all.
(Sorry BB, but you were the only one who even contacted me on Saturday...so max respect for that)

I was a little pissed off at the absolutely minimal effort that most people put in to catch up, but then I got over it.

The results stand; those I caught up with are the ones who are clearly my real friends, just funny that this list doesn't match up with who I thought I'd be seeing.

Yes yes, I know I rang all of you, and discussed potential times etc, but I also said "Hey, remember that I'm ringing 20-plus people, it'll make my life easier if you ring _me_ and tell me when it suits"

And yes, I know you're all such busy bees down there in Melbourne, moving house and doing all those other wonderful inner city things...just makes me glad I don't live there any more, is all.

Ok, so I've vented now, hopefully without offending anyone.

I actaully bet half of you won't even realise you missed meeting up until some time next month.

Ok, so back to the vague timeline - Sunday night was the night of the jealous ex - I may write this up into a proper story at some stage if enough people ask me what happened..

Monday Dinkos chucked a sicky so we hung.
Ditto Tuesday.
Ditto Wednesday.

I sleep now.

Cyas

Change is afoot

and I'm not talking about my hairstyle...

Homeward Bound

Long time no see.
Seems that holidays and blogging don't work for me much - that's a good thing though, I used to spend days at a time frigging around with this thing - wasted beach-time is how I see it now.

The pic above is from Culturefest, which is a festival I (kinda) worked at for the last two weeks. (Twas on Waiheke Island, a 30 minute ferry ride from Auckland)

I'll do a whole seperate piece about that wonderful experience, but later, when I get home. Let's just say it was the best time I've had in a long time, and that I met and hung with some of the best people ever!

(Hi guys and gals, if you're reading this crap!)

Hi Tim, Soul, Rosie, Trude, Amy, Nige, Darren #1, Laura, Darren #2, Bevan, Henry, Rachel, Carl, Jo, Tui, Dozza, Ford. Plus the rest I forgot.

Most of all a big hug to my bestest travelling buddy, Ms Karro.

I've been staying at Tim's in Auckland, but am flying to Melbs tonight (Saturday).
I'm not really ready to leave NZ, which is always a good sign about a place.
But I _really_ want to stay a while longer.
Shame about silly things like work and money huh?

I've got a lot more to say, but I'm a bit crook in the guts thanks to beer, Jameson's, ice cream and green.
(Had to have a decent green-out on my last night here, right?)

Love you all, see you Melbs crew real soon, and you Darzo mob on the 15th Feb.

(I'm officially back online, so mail me at will and I may even reply inside a cuppla days! I'm going to do a day of backlog clearing real soon now)

Big Dave the Plumber (To be continued)