Monday, October 31, 2005
The Cup.. It Calls To Me...
There's a Horse running tomorrow that everybody just loves except for me, cos I lost $20 betting against it last time. vengance shall soon be mine, as visions of payouts beyond hope dance before me, the thrill of previous wins charge through me as I build the scenario up. there's me, dashing out of class towards the race, much like the two I pick. worry as the early runners spurt forth, only to be swept away as my horses dash forward to take the lead, bursting past the line.It's a really hard thing to do, betting against the hype horse, but I'm pretty sure I'm right in doing it. I should've paid more attention when I was working at a TAB... what i tried out was picking $5 worth of bets a day (not that I bet them), and then seeing if they paid out. I was doing pretty good for a while, but then I lost interest. sigh. I'm not even sure I was doing good, I just think I did. it meant buying the daily telegraph, that's why I gave it up. only good thing in that paper's the form.
good luck to everyone tomorrow, at least everyone who's betting on the same horses as me in the same order!
posted by Keegan at 6:59 pm ... 0 comments
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Wednesday, October 26, 2005
I Was Executed.
Shot down in the street by a sniper. I begged Bush to say something, anything, and he just sat there, all four of him. The British sent the Muslim Council as a delegation to negotiate for the life of their soldier, But the Americans wouldn't touch me. Fox news thanked me for my Heroic Sacrifice.and it really cuts. I know it's a game and all, but it didn't feel like it when I had that piece of paper in my handcuffed hands, when you could hear the pain in my voice. I was dispensable, because the US does not negotiate with terrorists. And when I was Zarqawi, I was a terrorist of the worst kind, blowing up random civilians, torturing, and crippling the economic lifeblood of a crumbling nation.
I logged on again a couple of minutes ago, and I just didn't want to play anymore. I'd demand a response from the Americans, get none, and execute another, and another, until they were all gone. and then I'd commence an operation to go and get some more. I can't make the Americans leave - the american people have to want to leave, want it bad enough that they'll die fighting their own government to make it happen, like the kids at Brown University facing the national guard.
I've never really had a normal vision of my own future - either the last man on earth, a violent death in protest against an evil government, or a life of scholarly bachelorhood. Today, I kind of died. It'll take a while before I feel born again. especially if Born Again means being the type of person who would ignore the dying pleas of a soldier you sent into harm's way.
posted by Keegan at 6:31 pm ... 0 comments
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Tuesday, October 25, 2005
That Was Fun. Let's Do It Again.
I was just browsing, and I know I posted 10 Min Ago.here goes:
keegan is tactically naive
keegan is the man for the job
keegan is the best historian that i have read
keegan is the first celebrity i've interviewed
keegan is irish for "little fiery one
keegan is so electrifying that the show dims when he is offstage
keegan is a life member of the national eagle scout association
keegan is running on a platform that includes strengthening america's military
keegan is driving to answer the question "what wills men to battle?"
keegan is currently 'courting' a beautiful
keegan is undoubtedly a gifted writer who
keegan is seen in our picture receiving his knighthood on may
keegan is savagely shot by the allies
www.googlism.com yourself. it'll make you smile.
posted by Keegan at 9:39 pm ... 0 comments
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Hostage Crisis
Tomorrow, I will be handcuffed, my 'broken arm' will be bandaged, and I will be forced to read out a statement from Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi. I'll have to pretend there are terrorists behind me, unless I can coax someone into being a temporary terrorist. Not that I particularly want to. Inevitably, George Bush will state categorically that he does not negotiate with terrorists, and I will be executed 'live', broadcast as far away as Austin Texas. I may or may not have my last Cigarette, either before or after my death. If I plan now, I may even have a few drinks after my death, but probably not. How well I beg for my life will be graded, and if I'm lucky, it will be watched by a reporter from Fox News.and then I'll have to get the car back by about 4.30, unless I catch public transport again (shudder). It's the most fun I've had earning grades.
posted by Keegan at 9:10 pm ... 0 comments
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Sunday, October 23, 2005
Four Seasons In One Day
It's been almost a week since I've posted. stuff has happened, or not happened in interesting ways. without being written down, things begin to fade from the mind. I can remember a girl in first semester of uni being nice and fun to hang out with... and then I do the kidney thing and she starts to fade from the mind.A CD collection's great because you can track what you were listening to at a particular time. or you could, if you marked down when you got the cd. and if people listened to CDs. this is more of a complaint against Windows XP, for not letting me sort music according to 'modified'. otherwise I'd be able to figure out what I was listening to three years ago. or three months ago.
I don't know why, But i'm starting to write again. it must be orwell, inspiring and articulate. eases tension, in a way a blog can't. in a book, I can hide it forever. dozens of notebooks, whose to tell where something secret lies. here, it can be found. find my name, find my last name. find my blog. find what I've said, and then judge me on just one of the hundreds of thoughts in my head at any given moment, the one thought that made it out onto the keyboard, and stuck here. it's been so long, over a year now since I started this thing.
And everything is designed to distract us from politics. look how far it's come from even modest hopes of a minor political blog, to a therapy tool, to a habit.
posted by Keegan at 8:53 pm ... 0 comments
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Monday, October 17, 2005
So, Why Lucio?
I saw Measure for Measure with Dad, and old Will is undoubtedly brilliant. Lucio is a gentleman of leisure, a lechereous blowhard who hits on a nun (Hail, Virgin!), and claims to be an intimate of The Duke, right to The Duke's face. He got a girl pregnant, and his punishment is to marry her, a fate worse than death.It's kind of my alter-ego after I've had a few. Lecherous as more than a few girls I know can attest to, and not adverse to uncouth behaviour and swearing. sigh, hard to put a good spin on yourself. 'not bad', 'yeah, alright i guess'. others have to give the good word, cos if it comes from the individual, it's as though there's no-one who'd speak up for him. but not to let this post turn into a downer, on with the story.
So Lucio hangs about in bars and all, but when he hears a mate's getting a harsh punishment (death) for a crime that is hardly a crime (the mate slept with his fiance, and there was to be a child out of wedlock), Lucio's on the case. he's off to the nunnery to find his mate's sister, because a plea for his mate's life'll sound better coming from the lips of a nun than those of a 'gentleman of leisure'. Gossip gets around, and his marriage is a result of gossiping to the wrong person (the Duke in disguise as a monk). He makes a pass at his mate's sister the nun, sure, but doesn't push it. just a bit of harmless muckin about.
SO, my MSN tag for a while. Lucio. step up from Victa, but not out of the woods yet. have to see if it's possible to not push anything on the girl with the boyfriend all the way in byron... if the situation arises where i have the opportunity to.
posted by Keegan at 7:13 pm ... 0 comments
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Saturday, October 15, 2005
"Suicide Is Painless..."
It's so great to hear a song that you haven't heard, and get all tingled out. In this case it's one you've all heard, but maybe not with the lyrics - the theme from M*A*S*H. also tingly is something kev's picked up from a friend, a String Tribute to Tool. Tool's Awesome in their own right and all (damn right), but this makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck, it feels like you're in a horror flick of a higher quality.Thing Is, it's been a good week and a bit. from Wednesday to the Thursday of the Next week, I got two numbers, and two rides, one cigarette (which i've not yet smoked, saving it for when it's socially benificial to do so) and a generally good outlook on life. I've been encouraged to pick up my guitar again to learn this tab, and it's made me realise that i really do need at least fifteen minutes a day just to keep these building skills warm. If i spent as much time on it as I do on tony hawk 3 (why I'm playing THPS3 when there's three fresher TH games i've no idea), I'd proabbly be able to pick up this tab in no time. as it is, i can only really fumble around with the opening picking.
Zarqawi's fun enough to play, though we need the Texan al-Jazeera to pick up on the reporting, and I want to set off a systemic attack over the three cities where control's supplied weapons. maybe tomorrow. al-J really needs to pick it up - if they were playing as well as Fox is this season, it'd turn out a really good game.
"And I can take or leave it if I please..."
posted by Keegan at 9:19 pm ... 2 comments
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Tuesday, October 11, 2005
The Mad Russian
So there's two great movies coming out, I may have already given props to one - Jarhead. Starring Donnie Darko. Set during the Gulf War (this is the 1991 american coalition sent to the middle east to 'liberate kuwait' from the evil dictator), it's just gonna be killer sweet.and I just found out about Syriana, and the trailer's got me drooling. It's about oil, I mean c'mon, even more excitement than Harry Potter.
but the real grins today come from my day. Early on the going got good, and I struck out and hit 1000 words in two hours, before going to the lecture where the girl sat next to me, and after class I asked for her number in one of the most awkwardly confusing conversations I've had in a while, and piecing it together afterwards I've seen that I've had a stewie moment after she told me she had a boyfriend, but I still managed to get her number. nothing suss now, I'm all calm and the nasty case of infatuation has blown right off. just want coffee to explain why I'm not planning on cutting any grass. it's a good story, if I'm capable of the telling, and it's always better in person. at least in a 'getting to know you' kind of way, to show I'm a 'safe' friend. well at least the record's not too bad. but man, it had me smiling all day. need to go out drinking with the boys to give it a proper relating to, and probably the girls as well.
posted by Keegan at 9:45 pm ... 0 comments
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Monday, October 10, 2005
No, Really
this essay is sickening me. it's badly written, poorly structured, weakly argued and filled with filler. It tastes like I'm out of my depth and it feels like something i would have written first year. it's incredibly frustrating because I know how well I can write when the circumstances allow, and here I have to drag myself to create something that doesn't deserve to exist. I worked a lot over the break, but it wasn't uni work. The material gains are nothing compared to the intrinsic value of a few well written essays that will never exist.I don't even want to read it after I reach the word count, for fear I'll erase what has come to pass, like i've already done once thus far. a couple of days ago, mind. I know I write better under pressure, but the pressure's not there like it has been for so long. today I don't really care if I fail everything, there's another degree to fall back on, and I know that even this abysmal effort will still eventually produce a pass.
that's it, i'm going home. I don't work any better here than I do there, but at least i do work here. I'll be staying up all night to get something done.
posted by Keegan at 4:35 pm ... 0 comments
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Game Theory
bloody game theory. I'm stuck less than a third into an essay because i'm trapped by game theory. it's something I haven't come across yet, the application of the prisoner's dilemma to international relations, but it seems incredibly plausible. What I need is to formally state this hypothesis and a professor to give me six months to come up with a 10,000 word thesis, and then maybe I could get somewhere. working this idea into three hundred words in an essay with a deadline which I flew past almost a week ago, and it's very frustrating. the excellent gains I've made in another subject will have fallen by the wayside due to an essay i'm yet to start research on, and tomorrow marks the beginning of the Simulation, Thursday the deadline for the one essay not already late.I'm sick of it all, it's just not fun, 16cp is beyond too much. it was expected at newc to do four third year subjects a semester, here they want 14cp - three and a half third year subjects. Mac is wierd.
also, the results on a running experiment with my shiny new phone.
From my Birthday to October 8th, I have sent 1000 messages. that's roughly 7.2 Messages a Day. For every 10 messages I've sent, i've recieved an average of 8.3 back.
this is massively countered by Call Duration. Recieved Calls have seen me listening to people for 8 hours and 48 minutes, while Dialled Calls have lasted a scarce 1 hour and 12 minutes.
so what does this show? I've preferred messages as my medium of communication, though this is likely to change with my new plan. we'll see when it gets to 2000 messages in... roughly... about march.
also, after these essays are finally out of the way, I'll start asking people directly about feburary, with a specific place in mind and with a specific amount to be laid down to represent interest, with the specifically first to pay to specifically recieve the specific best spots. any specific opinions, now's the time to let me know, so I can try and squeeze it all in. message me up!
posted by Keegan at 3:42 pm ... 0 comments
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Friday, October 07, 2005
Where To Begin.
Coheed came. I'm wearing the shirt, slight tingle while the cd plays at me. I'll have listened to it a dozen times or maybe more before the week is out. okay, I read the lyrics along with the song and wow. I'm gonna have to buy the old cds now. does take some listening to if you're going to become hooked.And, I quit the phone monkey job, just under 30 hours of work in the den. I like my soul, and I want to keep it. I'm into customer service, I like serving people when they're somewhere they want to be, or to share a knowing grin with a person dragged along to something. Cold Calling occasionally gets a nice person I'm glad to talk to, but more often than not, I'm rejected outright by people angry to have been disturbed. and I can relate to that. only I'll be nice whenever I get called again, I'm normally nice but now it'll be a matter of policy.
I summoned up the blood, and asked a girl for her number. and got a real number back, and it's very exciting, but I'm not going to say anymore just yet cos I don't want to jinx anything right now.
Two essays already late, and a realisation that I should've spent all those hours earning money on study instead. there's only six weeks left, then $1700 for the semester will have been money will spent, if i pass. and I've already spoiled most of this day.
I've been downloading some TV as well, kev told me that there's uncounted time on the broadband, so there's some season four family guy creeping into my mind. great stuff. but there's some anime I'll be more interested in, Furi Kuri, though I might buy it it's just so awesome.
this is where I'd complain about copyright laws in my own little way - If I could get what I want the way I want it when I want it at the price I want, then I'll be happy to pay. I don't want to buy the shopping channel when I want just one half-hour cartoon ready for viewing every morning. last mp3 I downloaded I wouldn't have paid more than 10c for, because I wouldn't want it as anything other than an MP3, maybe to be used as a track on a soppy cd at some point (bee gees - you don't know what it's like, if you're interested). there's a new product called a CD/DVD dual disc, which plays like a cd in your cd player, and has all those piles of extras you want for forking out $20+ for a cd these days on a dvd.
I don't see why rupert murdoch needs my money anyway.
posted by Keegan at 2:37 pm ... 0 comments
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Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Focal Point
New Stuff. to make me feel better. Not nearly as good as it felt being on the coast and just hanging out with my lil' sis on her birthday. but... I still needed a new shirt this morning cos I came straight to uni from the coast - and nailed my presentation. three hours of study and one hour of organisation resulted in a smooth, effortless presentation that sounded knowledgeable and with opinions backed up by stats. I rock.Because I've just gotta focus on the good things in the day, because she didn't show and I was so ready. sigh. next week.
for now, up for another hour and a half, then off to bed and writing another essay on the day. you reap what you sow.
posted by Keegan at 7:44 pm ... 0 comments
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Sunday, October 02, 2005
Fucking Brilliant, Dickhead. (Self-Referential)
24 hours after I woke up, 18 hours after work, i happen to glance at the screen just before walking into the kitchen, and someone says to kevin on msn while he's distracted drying his tips"hey, have you heard about the bali bombings?"
here, I commit a massive error in judgement, cross far too many lines than I'm allowed, because it's been three years since it happened and I've been trying to work on a joke surrounding my own injury of 2002 and the attacks. a lame attempt at the sort of black humour that has kept this old chestnut limping about like a zombie joke...
"Would you Take Ecstasy?" (No.) "Anna Wood."
Not only have I missed one of the largest attacks on australians in indonesia since the embassy bombing, I've done so in a callous way to the sister of someone who is in bali right now, using kevin's MSN (just putting my name at the end of a sentence isn't a disclaimer), my head is pounding and I just can't sleep with this on my mind.
I've got tears in my eyes I feel so stupid. I just had no idea. it's not even funny anyway, and I know better than to do something like that than without permission.
So I've just donated $50 to Medicins Sans Frontieres . my tips for the day were $35, but I barely worked this last shift, so i'm giving it to someone who can use it. I can't take back what I've done, but I can make someone's life a little better somewhere. might as well have burnt it for all I would have done with it anyway.
Lesson is: Don't have your first drink at 6am. It doesn't make any sense, and neither will you.
posted by Keegan at 10:23 am ... 0 comments
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