Surely Paul Banks could've picked a less stupid sounding name. Not heard it yet. Let's see if it's any good...

P.S. I love you Paul! :P

Courtesy of Julieanne for putting me onto this.

23:23:37: J: Why don't you hand deliver those CDs? :P
23:23:45: Chris: :D
23:25:28: J: I really should've gone to Europe instead of North America...
23:25:34: J: Then I could've come and stalked you.
23:25:38: Chris: YES
23:25:52: Chris: reciprical stalking
23:25:56: Chris: is the way forward
23:26:20: J: How does that work?
23:26:33: Chris: you come to Europe and stalk me
23:26:38: Chris: the i go to Aus and stalk you
23:26:47: J: How can I stalk you when you're stalking me?
23:26:48: Chris: then8
23:26:52: J: Oh, I see...
23:27:10: J: Not simultaneous stalking...
23:27:30: Chris: no, consequential stalking?
23:27:37: Chris: is that the word?
23:27:41: Chris: possibly not...
23:27:50: J: I don't know... I was trying to think of what the word was...
23:27:57: Chris: erm
23:28:10: J: Then changed my wording to say "NOT simultaneous stalking"... :P
23:28:21: Chris: haha
23:28:22: J: Round robin stalking?
23:28:37: Chris: could be
23:28:55: J: Round robins involve more than one team though, like a group of 4 a la Euro.
23:29:13: J: Well you could bring Jones into it...
23:29:27: Chris: a 3-way stalk
23:29:46: J: The triangular stalk if you will.
23:29:58: Chris: oh, i will

"Enemies & Immigrants" - Modwheelmood.

"Teenagers" - The Thrills.

"In/Casino/Out" - At The Drive-in.

"So Tonight That I May See" - Mazzy Star.

After a bit (or a lot) of freaking out about the inconvenient presale date and time for NIN tix, I was able to convince Sir Nicholas to get up at 7:50am (as opposed to the usual 11.30am...) and buy the ticket on my behalf, by way of my fantastic tango skills the night prior. (We are seriously ripping it up now. Seriously, we rule the school.)

SO, Nick got my ticket - YAY! And I'm organising a flight from Vancouver to Dallas as we speak. I get the first direct flight out (8:45am o_O). By the time I get to the venue, it'll be like 4pm or something. Hope the line up isn't too long by then (it's all ages)... But it's the best I can do.

Anyway, it is dear Nick's 24th today (old man).


Happy birthday Nicky!

I thought I'd be clever, but that play on words didn't work at all. It doesn't even make sense.

What's with people who feel they need to name drop? Does it makes you/your life sound more interesting? Yeah, to an extent, but when you do it ALL the time in that "superior than thou" way, it just makes everyone roll their eyes and turn on their selective hearing. Retards. I pity them. They just make me laugh.

Anyway... (at this point, I waffle on for a bit):

So Maddie and I went to see ze boys, i.e. The Silents at Spectrum. When we arrived when doors opened, there was no one there but bar staff, so we went for a little walking excursion down Oxford St. People with horrifically bad dress sense kept walking by and inflicting it upon our eyes and Oporto beckoned so we stopped in for some food even though neither of us were particularly hungry. The power of Portuguese chicken.

We rolled back in at quarter to 10. There were a few more people there by this point. The second support band was on. They were this weird alt-country sounding thing; it made me rather sleepy and I was wishing we were back on that bench with a badly shaped back rest, people watching... The Silents finally came on. They were great, very tight, and played two new songs (not off the album) which were awesome. The crowd was a bit weird - it was almost a full house, yet everyone looked really bored and disinterested. Even the crazy dancing girls had stopped and were sitting down. I suppose there is something be said for the story of the tortoise and the hare.

Afterwards, we said an hello and hugged the boys and got moistened with third party sweat. It was rather sweet - they were selling their own merch. They had new t-shirts for sale. The black one was a men's shirt and Alex pulled out the small which was still really big on me and dress length, so I went with the other one which was a girls' shirt anyway. I liked the design on the front (a couple of guys riding a cart, whipping another guy who was pulling it) but it's this odd colour. Alex said it was meant to be red, but turned out pink. I thought, "yeah, I can deal with pink" but that was in the dim lighting of a bar... In natural light, it's this oddly salmon colour, like pink that really wants to be red. I'm going to feel self conscious in it, but I will wear it... feeling self conscious.

Jamie said they were doing a DJ set somewhere afterwards, but I had to go to get the last train home (thus is the frustration of living 2 hours out of the city). I would've stayed all night till the first trains tomorrow (4.30am), but I had to get home and feed MJ, our guinea pig. She's been sick and won't eat, so we have to handfeed her every four hours. Anyway, so yeah, we chatted a bit with the guys. I got them to sign the album for me. Lloyd was being super careful because he'd cut his finger before they went on stage (don't know how...) and there was blood all over the frets of his guitar. So gross. He was careful not to get blood on the album sleeve. :P

We ran into Craig and Brad as well. Maddie talked to Craig while I talked to Sam from The Silents. I don't think he actually knows who I am because I didn't talk to him much on that '06 (?) tour. I should probably introduce myself one day. Craig was all happy and chirpy, and went and bought a Silents t-shirt. I mean, how cute is it that he buys his own t-shirts? I would've thought they'd just give him one. I didn't even actually see Brad; we were on our way out and he waved at us and said hi. We chatted a bit about their tour plans for the year; they're having a meeting this coming week to discuss it - I begged him to object to touring in August/September until I'm back from OS to which he said: "Yep, no to Tibet and touring in August and September in one go". Then I formally met Bronnie. She's so adorable and pretty. ^_^ Then we left.

I want The Silents to move to Sydney so they can do more local gigs. I also want to be more succinct.

P.S. I realise the irony of that first paragraph preceding my "name dropping". :P

"At the specified time, local time in Sydney is 15 hours ahead of Dallas

Location Local time Time zone
Dallas (U.S.A. - Texas) Tuesday, 6 May 2008 at 5:00:00 PM UTC-5 hours CDT
Sydney (Australia - New South Wales) Wednesday, 7 May 2008 at 8:00:00 AM UTC+10 hours EST"

This is when the Dallas presale for NIN tickets is happening... I'm usually stuck on a train at 8am on the way to work and don't have access to internet til 8.45 when I get in the office door. The only solution is to get to work REALLY early, so it seems it's going to be a 5am train for me.

Oh, apparently some dude from Eighties Matchbox is the new guitarist in NIN. Since Robin's back, I'm assuming this other guy is replacing creepy Jeordie. Is this right? I haven't bothered to verify.

I just read that Robin Finck is returning to the NIN live line-up for a US tour in August/September, which made me almost wet my pants because I'm in the country at the same time! Even if I can't make it any of those gigs, it's AWESOME that he's back again. (But wait, does that mean Aaron is gone...? :( ) I'm going to try to make it to one of those gigs. None of the tour dates coincide with my "free time" days, so it'll involve interstate travel. But if I can, I will.

Nick and I start ballroom lessons tomorrow night. ^_^

The list of CDs becomes longer and longer by the day. I have a whole lot of back catalogue ones to buy (when I'm not poor): At The Drive-In, The Thrills, Sparta... Plus I lost "First Impressions of Earth" about two years ago and have never found it again. (That, or I lent it to someone and forgot who it was.) It is rather horrible being out of the loop. It's a mighty job catching up the last five years of music........

The Mars Volta are touring Australia - too bad I'm not really into their music, or I'd go. I would like to sexually assault Cedric. Right now.

Yep.

In relation to: this post

NICK: God I'm thirsty.
NIKO: Jess, are you hungry? You're much too thin. I'll make you a Boca burger.
ALBERT: Can you make me one too? I'm hungry.
NIKO: Make your own.
ALBERT: Jess, I'm hungry. Can you make me a sandwich?
JESS: Um...
JULES: Hey Jess, voulez-vous coucher avec... Oh fuck. How does the rest of it go?
JESS: I thought you spoke French.
JULES: Nick, how does Lady Marmalade go?
NICK: *drinking a gallon of lemonade*
JULES: Hey Niko, how does Lady Marmalade go?
NIKO: What? Jess wants marmalade on her burger?
JULES: No, how does Lady Marmalade go?
NIKO: Julian, I am far too busy cooking to teach you French! Ask Albert!
ALBERT: I'm not answering until I get a sandwich.
JULES: Fine. Fab, how does Lady Marmalade go?
FAB: I just farted!!

I'm thinking about doing post-grad study... I did a market research course as part of training for work a few days ago and to my surprise, it dug up this hidden desire to get another qualification.

At the moment, I'm thinking a Master of Commerce (Marketing). In post-grad, one option is coursework, which is like normal uni - attending classes, doing midterms, assignments, etc. The other is research work which is writing a thesis under the supervision of someone in your faculty. The last time I had to write something like a thesis paper, it took me forever to decide what my topic would be, then I had moments during the 10-month project when I would get bored with the topic, then love it, then have trouble and think I chose the wrong one... So yeah, I think I would prefer the variety and structure of a "standard" course.

They say it takes 3 years part time for this - I can probably only manage one subject a semester while working full-time, so I think that works out to be 3 years - so it'll be a long way off before I finish. Like I said, it was only a few days ago that I started thinking about this, so I may find myself changing my mind! If I do it though, I don't plan to start for a while, maybe next year.

Oh, and the update on finding an apartment is there is no update. Nothing.

I just established the link.

See:
Brian Molko & Helena Berg
Patrick Matthews & Julia Wilson
Nick Valensi & Amanda DeCadenet
Paul Banks & Abby Drucker

I'm sure there are others.

Aren't you glad this was much less intense than my other posts?

... today caps off a particularly shite week.

Wednesday.
I was in such a rush the night before getting on the train that I put my weekly train ticket in my pocket instead of my wallet where I ALWAYS put it. What happens Wednesday morning? I wear a different pair of pants - that doesn't have a valid train ticket in it, so I have to buy another $8 on top of the $45/week I've already paid.

Thursday.
I was checking my account balance at the ATM. I took the receipt and walked off, stupidly leaving my debit card in the ATM with my PIN already entered. Therefore, the next person after me was free to select the "withdrawal" option and consequently walk away with $800 of my savings. And they did. I suspect I won't be able to get it back because it was my own negligence that caused it. It's a bank. It'll do anything not to have to give me money.

Saturday.
I've been sitting here for something like three hours working on this one Word document on the computer. I've always made a habit of pressing save every time I pause. I go to close the document and some warning pops up saying "Word has lost data due to the disk being removed" or something like that. The flash was still plugged in. I hadn't touched it. Word then freezes and I lose everything I've been working on. The original file on my flash isn't even there, and it is nowhere to be found in back up files on the hard drive. To make matters worse, my sister's dog, who were babysitting, has developed a penchant for chewing on my arm and it hurts.

You know, there's still Sunday left. What else could possibly happen? Perhaps I have just jinxed myself.

I feel like I'm teetering on the edge of bursting into tears.

EXCITEMENT - I just splurged $2,000 on myself for a new laptop (which I have been wanting since I was 15).

EXHAUSTION - I work 9 hours a day, starting at 7am with no sit-down break. Commuting at 5:07am = not cool.

CONTEMPLATION - I racked up $30,000 or thereabouts (I think) in HECS debt going to uni and doing a degree. Thus far it has gotten me nowhere. I have applied for 25 marketing graduate jobs and so far, one bite.

REFLECTION - I've let too many friendships go. I need to get back in touch with everyone properly.

PAIN - My tummy hurts from recurring gastric reflux. But I like food! No fair!

WONDER - NIN is amazing. Very grateful that Serap introduced me to them. So very grateful.

DISCOMFORT - I need a shower.

Nabbed from Kaz

Here is how it works.
Copy this list.
Leave in the bands you've seen perform live.
Delete the ones you haven't and add new ones that you have seen until you reach 25.
An asterisk means the previous person had it on their list.
Two asterisks means the last two people who did this before you had that band on their list, and so on...


1. The Libertines**
2. The Strokes*
3. Jet
4. P J Harvey
5. Kasabian*
6. Kaiser Chiefs*
7. Cut Copy
8. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
9. You Am I
10. Youth Group
11. Red Riders
12. Yeah Yeah Yeahs
13. The Vines*
14. Gerling*
15. Nine Inch Nails
16. The Silents
17. Franz Ferdinand**
18. Bright Eyes
19. The Hives
20. Interpol*
21. Kings of Leon*
22. The Cure
23. Supergrass**
24. Panic! At The Disco
25. The Who