Condolences and best wishes to those who've lost friends and family in the Victoria fires; as well as hoping that those left behind are able to rebuild both the physical and emotional structures they lost in them. While I loathe the people who participated in deliberately lighting fires, I'm suprised so many people find the behaviour impossible to conceive. For the amoral and stupid out there, it's a one way ticket to getting lots of attention and causing a lot of drama.

I also think the evacuation policy being discussed at the moment doesn't need changing, it seems that better fire education would endow people with the knowledge and prepatory skills needed to asses whether they'll stay to fight a fire or make a break for it. It's things like embers sparking housefires or people not made aware of just how close the fires are (and how quickly they can move) that seem to have taken many by surprise.

It'll take days to fight fires, months to identify bodies and a year at least before the reports yield recommendations of any note and weight. Let's hope that people can find some peace in the middle ground. Here's hoping you're all well, take care!

BAM!  Update Attack!

Saturday night was a dinner/party-esque event arranged by aussiehusky, held at a threateningly named (but otherwise rather good) restaurant bearing the moniker of "A Thousand Spices". The food was good, and delightfully afordable, so thanks as usual to Aussie for organising and hosting. With people like Tzup, Tursiae, JMHorse and Kiroo visiting from out of NSW it was a notable night, it was good meeting and saying hello once more to the far flung flurs.

Sunday saw dustandfox, Lupie and I go to the Gaslight Inn in Darlinghurst for drinks (arranged by Clay Bear as a positively minded memorial for his recently deceased grandfather). I was shouted WAY TOO MUCH Bombay Sapphire by a fellow there, I think I counted six of them, so by the time Jay Fox, Eldrichk and Angel showed up I was well beyond the veil.

With some unexpected party supplies obtained from a daring stranger, the furry contingent returned to Balmain for a night of trash and sin. Much fun was had and it was good catching up with people I hadn't seen in quite a while.

Attacked the weak spot for MASSIVE damage! Take care and enjoy yourselves in whatever you're doing! 

I just finished watching Aliens, for the third time, and it got me thinking. Despite the hardcore action and sci-fi trappings, it's a tale that we see told more and more often now. In fact, I hope that some day films like it are used in sociology classes to depict what I think is a growing concern in society.

Watch Akira, seminal 1980s anime film. Play System Shock 2, an action-RPG from 1999. See the Alien films.

For every evil government research project, psychotic artificial intelligence and rogue android... there'll be a destructive amorphous lifeform, hive mind monstrosity and xenomorphic nightmare.

Contrast the animes Ghost in the Shell and Neon Genesis Evangelion, the former depicting the loss of individuality that results from the implantation of the human mind into machines, the latter depicting humanity being threatened/consumed by massive biological entities.

Cables are tentacles, and vice versa. The thought of having one's mind made into a channel or linking point in a network is as terrible as the thought of one's body being a vessel or organ within a greater being. Personal preference will mean we find those polar opposites frightening in varying degrees. Machines are clean, and sleek, but cold and distanced from the mess of emotion and sensation that people identify with. Great biomasses are powerful and organic, but deformed and too far lost in primal biological urges.

Think of it like this, in System Shock 2, the rogue AI SHODAN has convinced herself she's a deity. In her mechanical thought processes, annihilating humanity is perfectly acceptable, seeing them as a mess in an otherwise clean and ordered environment. In Aliens, the Xenomorphs seem to have no interest in actions other than perpetual propagation, spreading their biomass further and consuming all alternate lifeforms.

We don't fear silicone or slime, and maybe not even death itself, as much as we fear the cessation of our being. Be it due to death or integration into an unfeeling network of either flesh or metal, this terror only grows in a society more and more able to determine its form with machinery and medicine.

The great ontological fears distilled: Will we be lost in a sea of virii and chemical weapons, or stripped of self in a bed of cold and unfeeling machinery?

Translation of the title: Being drunk, drinking, humanity, sobriety, beauty

Well friends and foes alike, I return to scourge the earth with my fearsome tales of past events, and auguries of the terror that awaits. Let's get all existential.

A week or so ago I attended an amusing rock gig by the name of Black Cherry, a sampling of retro rock and light metal at Hermann's Bar near the Sydney Uni campus. The security were a lovely bunch of lesbians and islanders, and while small and watered down the bar was definitely affordable. Much love of the A and E variety was on offer too, and let it be said that the foundations of reality itself were unsettled by the deep and meaningfuls shared that night.

Work the day afterwards was an amusing affair, it's amazing what raver candy, a hangover and two hours of sleep will do for you in a customer focused role.

The subsequent week has been an even more perplexing affair, some quandries as to my life plans were interrupted by the stark reality of food poisoning from what WAS one of my favourite restaurants. I'm a very forgiving fellow but when my drinking and socialising is harmed by your bacteria, I turn nasty.

I have greatly enjoyed the past couple of days however, time at both a quiet do by Aussie Husky and hanging out with a certain Balmanian wolf and fox for the Eurovision song contest was spent.

In the future, as in the upcoming weeks, I sense great turmoil and a change in the natural order of friendships for everyone. Me, because June's coming up and I always get mopey around June, and for my friends as I know that uni and work weighs on them heavily, like a stone on Atlas' shoulders, or Oprah's thighs after a yo-yo diet.

So, we must show great reserves in these trying times, for dark things lie ahead. Okay, lol, kay, thanks and bai for now.

Tonight I am the essence of cliche, I'm drinking murky red wine, reading old love letters and listening to mopey music. I'm pretty sure I'm violating copyright just by existing.

Love and lolcats to you all.

As I farewell one friend, off to foreign shores for time indefinite, I welcome another, returning from the Land of Queens.

I'm facing increased hours at work... or much, much less money otherwise... which is going to complicate my plans regarding study. Living a life of halves, maybes and hopes is a tiresome enterprise at times.

With increased personal space and time, but less money, the life coaches would be telling me to "better" myself through cultural enrichment and making time for those I care about. Well, it's something to consider.

Writing has been more of a focus for me as of late, it tends to be a pursuit that waxes and wanes against my will, giving some purpose to my grayer phases, as they bring out my inner penman.

In that creative spirit my video gaming collection is falling under the hammer too, if any are interested in salvaging those digital gems before I cast them into the wind they should drop me a line. Such idle fixations only do me harm.

Otherwise, I hope everyone's well. At the moment, I'm not. See you all on the bright side of the moon.

Hello furs and murrs! Jay here, with all that's here and some of what's queer!

- Kevin Rudd and Hu Jintao (Chinese Premier) had an awkward meeting about the state of affairs in Asia at the moment. Summary? We've got money. We have no problems. What's that? You say we have problems? You're wrong. Kthxbai!

- Waiting eagerly/desperately/crazily for news re job interview, I have work at the moment but I'm always looking to move on and forward.

- TAFE is fine albeit slow, school holidays coming up, yay for state endorsed laziness!

- A nice, out of the bottle Indian dinner with beer at dustandfox and his wolf's place this evening, very nice!

- Will post tarot story sequence soon!

G'night and love to all!

Tarot cards. I've mentioned that I find them interesting. I find their narrative construct really appealing, and at the moment, I'm the Hanged Man seeking Death. NO! Don't run away! I'm not emo I swear!

See, in tarot circles, a common interpretation of the Hanged Man is that of someone in an altered position seeing things clearly, discovering things from a perspective most would find unappealing. Death often represents only the death of a phase or element of life, as is associated with change and beginning. And so with those concepts in mind I'm seeking to shake off elements of my personality that I feel have obscured my vision, getting over some of my intellectual snobbishness and social guards and experiencing things i may not have been willing to do in the past.

Love, work and life in general as a matter of fact, I feel I've gotta hurl myself into new opportunities recklessly and see what happens, I'm 20 years old so there's time for mistakes and regrets.

To all out there, a good night!