Category: Life

A Roadside Electronic display by the NSW Police Force:

Strike Three: Your Out

We’ve got illiterate American coppers now?

If you look toward Surfer’s Paradise from Coolangatta, it looks like something out of Final Fantasy. As your eyes follow the hilly coastline north, the shoreline seems to disappear, and then a gaggle of skyscrapers poke into the sky, seemingly from from beyond the shoreline. It gives it a sort of ‘floating city’ effect. It’s an amazing sight.
One of the good things about not having a travel plan is that you (by definition) constantly surprise yourself. I had parked the car at random and gone for a quick walk, before realising I had stopped less than 100 meters from the border of New South Wales and Queensland. I couldn’t have planned it better. I was able to easily walk to a monument which marks the separation of the two states, which is just outside the ‘Twin Towns’ RSL. (‘Twin towns’ means Coolangatta turns into Tweed Heads once your cross the border, which is right down the middle of town. Weird. It looks like the RSL is actually in Tweed Heads/NSW, which is very likely a strategic decision.
You’ll notice I’ve done bugger-all research for this report .
I’m only mildly lost, now.

Wow. That’s great planning, Dave. Hitting Surfer’s Paradise just as ‘Schoolies’ starts. (Schoolies is the annual school leaver’s traditional party-fest. WA readers can substitute Rotto, US readers can substitute ‘Spring Break’). I might not stay in Surfers as long as I thought. Don’t want to get caught up in that kerfuffle.
I made sure to visit sections of the Indy race track which are just normal streets at the moment. (You know how I mentioned feeling sad about going to theme parks without the kids? I’m getting that feeling now: I wish the WRX was here to enjoy this.)
The only way I can describe Surfers is as a Vertical Las Vegas – presumably, that’s where it got the nickname Brisvegas. Real tall buildings, lots happening.
I’m getting lost. I wish I had a map, now.

You know what? I think the dodgy CDs/CD Player is a blessing in disguise. Over a couple of extended trips, I’ve realised that one great way of cementing a trip is to record a mental soundtrack.
Most people like to remember a trip by taking a lot of photos or video which help them re-call and re-live their adventures in the future. Sometimes, by accident, you might find a unique smell which you can associate with a certain location in the future.
I’m sure I’m not alone in discovering that music, especially pop music, can have the same effect. The song Clocks, for example, will always remind me of a trip to Las Vegas, where it seemed to be on quite high rotation in the sound systems there. “Smooth Criminal”, by Alien Ant Farm, will always remind me of September 11, because I remember it being performed a lot while I was in New York, then.
If I had taken all my old CDs, I’d be bringing a lot of home with me, and wouldn’t be creating that soundtrack which will help me remember where I was in the future. I’m going to listen to Hit Radio instead and see what I can find. It’s been a while. I’ve already discovered a lot of new music. I’ve also realised that Judith Lucy can actually be funny when she’s bouncing her lines off others. It’s a shame she attempts solo stand-up so often.
Breezed past Warner Brothers Movie World, Sea World, Wet and Wild and Dreamworld, which are closer to Brisbane than I thought. They don’t open for another hour, and then I’d have to spend a good part of the day there to justify the sixty dollar entry fee. I’ve learnt from Disneyland and Legoland that you just don’t visit kids places without your kids – you feel guilty the whole time. The Matrix exhibit at WBMW almost sucked me in, but I think I’ll use the time to explore Surfers’ or Coolangatta instead – for free.

This is the first time I’ve been in Brisbane – properly – and also the first time I’ve dared to hire a car while travelling on business. Scary stuff.
Yesterday, I completed the first of a series of morning seminars in our Brisbane office (on the topic of Application Development Life Cycle Management) and will be taking the roadshow to Sydney. With the next one not until Wednesday, I thought I’d extend the stay and travel the 1000 kilometers to Sydney over the next few days.
The reason I call this a ‘brakeslam’ tour is that I have no map, no research, and no idea where I’m going. I only know that I’m due at Dad’s place on the NSW Central Coast some time Sunday.
With the sunroof peeled, the Barenaked Ladies loud, and the GABBA in my rear vision mirror, the adventure begins.
I’ve been given a Nissan Maxima to play with, mainly because I asked for cruise control. Unfortunately, it appears the CD player won’t read the majority of the CDs I’ve burnt especially for the trip. the journey just got a lot longer.
The ‘plan’ is to travel via Surfers Paradise, and maybe stop off at Coffs Harbour tonight.

I’m not normally one to keep track of the comings and goings of movie makers (apart from the Star Wars movies, of course.) However, there’s been a strange confluence of events over the last couple of days which is worth reporting.
Yesterday, I discovered the awful trumour that Tom Hanks is set to play the lead in the movie adaptation of ‘The Da Vinci Code’. The movie’s never as good as the book.
Over the last week or so, I’ve been introducing Caleb to one of the greatest music albums of the 20th century – Jeff Wayne’s ‘The War Of The Worlds’. It’s a dark, dark story, but such a brilliant aural canvas for your imagination to run wild with. Caleb’s asked if the school library has the book. Sadly, they don’t. (I wonder how many pirimary schools stock H.G. Wells?)
I happened across some information that Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise are filming a version of the book right now, for a 2005 release.
It also seems that a British outfit has filmed their version of it as well. We could have the happy occasion of TWO Wars of the World next year. (Or should that be ‘War of the Worlds’s’?)
On top of all that, Jeff Wayne is also planning an animated version, it seems – presumably based on the music and artwork of the album.
I’ve got a couple of new sites to keep an eye on, now: www.eveofthewar.com and www.eveofthewar.co.uk.
It’s been so long since I’ve listened to the album – probably a good 20 years. I remember well the dark nights in the back shed, huddled over the record player with the headphones on full bore and the album cover on my lap, getting completely freaked out over and over again. Even after two decades, I realise I still know every word by heart.
That’s the sign of a good story.

I’m really losing my patience with incompetent government departments. First Centerlink decides to mess everyone around with family payments. Now, there’s a 40 billion dollar miscalculation by the so-called experts at the ATO.
It wouldn’t be so bad if the government afforded the same leniency it’s now expecting from us taxpayers, but given their history with the Centerlink debacle, it’s not a two-way street. (Yes, we were hit. Bad.)
Try getting away with a $40 miscalculation on your 2003-2004 income tax return; it won’t happen, buddy.

Interesting snippet of information discovered during a Quiz Night on Friday: some guy called David Cook changed his name to become David Essex and then go on to fame and fortune as a singer and part-time actor.
Why on earth would you change your name from David Cook? What’s wrong with you, man?
There must be some sort of cosmic significance to this discovery – I found myself listening to the War Of The Worlds Soundtrack today by accident and, sure enough, David Cook/Essex was there as the Artilleryman. Spooky.
I think, therefore, it’s up to me to serve this name well. On behalf of all David Cooks everywhere.

Good gravy. Has it really been 10 years?
The first web page I ever published was on November 5, 1994: a ‘hello world’ type page which I chiselled on the servers at Ozemail a few weeks after I got my first access account (around October, 1994). These were the days of the text-based browser (no pretty graphics) and the early days of the Mosaic web browser, so the standards weren’t that high for graphic design… it was only important that you helped create the ‘Web’ by linking to other useful sites and also contributing a little of your own content along the way.
That’s where ‘Bits Of Net What Are Good’ came from. I started by creating a list of links, and then later contributed to the Body Of Knowledge on the Web with the ACM (Australian Christian Music) site, which I started in February 1995 – to help with my job at Sonshine fm.
And haven’t things changed since then?

Lookee what we got.