The Fillet Skillet

I'm moving.

For good.

It's been a good run here on Live Spaces. I've made many friends. Don't worry I won't be doing anything as silly as deleting this blog or anything (I'll still need this account to comment on all you lovely people's blogs) but I have gone and uprooted to Blogger.

Thankyou to all who spent the time reading my blog here on Live Spaces, but to be honest, the network has gotten unbelievably slow and I know it's not just my slow internet connection. Also I don't like how little you can change here. Many sad faces for Live Spaces. I hope the Live Network doesn't close down completely, though, because there is a lot of work that I've done here that I'm incredibly proud of.

Please follow me to The (new!) Fillet Skillet. I've set it up so anyone can comment there so you don't even need a Blogger account if you don't want one!

Grand opening is today so don't be shy! Add my new blog to your RSS readers!

Rohan

Happy Australia Day to all you Aussies and non-Aussies alike. All over the world today, in every country, there will be all sorts of drunken people yelling "Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!" and other forms or eloquent Australian patriotism.

I find it interesting wishing people a happy Australia Day on the internet, because I know that the vast majority of people on here aren't actually Australian. Still, the Americans can get away with wishing everyone a 'Happy Thanksgiving', even though as far as I know, the only place that holiday is applicable to is the United States.

This afternoon (or 'this arvo' as I'm supposed to say on such a day as this) I'm going to go to a movie with friends. It's not a very 'Aussie' thing to do. Really we're supposed to be going out four-wheel-driving with beer and women. But hey, it snuck up on us and we didn't even organise a barbecue. I know the lambassador would be very upset with us. I don't think I'm even going to eat lamb today.

I do, however, look like a bogan - so there's that. I'm wearing black fisherman's pants and a shirt about two sizes too big for me. I also mowed the lawn this morning and my hair is like a birdsnest. Oh I assume I'll pretty myself up before I go out. It's a wet weekend this weekend (no water restrictions) so I can have as many showers as I please.

Thank you Gold Coast City Council.

So it looks like with all my holiday merrymaking and the post-moving runaround-ing that I've been doing I totally forgot to tell you guys about an interview that I did for another blog.

Introducing In The Air and it's author Matthew, who is a boy whose age I have presently forgotten (which I'm sure, if he finds out about this, he'll be fairly distressed about it). Rest assured that his age is somewhat younger than the average blogger. It brings the mean age down from about 14 to about 10, if you understand maths-talking.

Or should that be median age? It's been, like, four years since I did that stuff in Year 11. (WOA! Four years!?! That's nearly five years ago!)

But enough about that. The entire POINT of this entry was so I could tell you about an interview I did with said Matthew. I answer questions about favourite meats and Perth and my old job that I did for ARDS back in the day last year.

Find it IN THE CAPITAL LETTERS.

More on the car once I can find someone to take my photo while I'm draped across the bonnet - pouting sexily.

Rohan

In my previous post I told you I would keep you updated and I didn't. You know why? It's not because I was too busy or anything. It was because I failed at finding a car that day and I didn't want to tell you until I actually had come back with results. Anyway, today I successfully bought a car, so here I am. Yay me!

Introducing Dihatsu Pyzar. This car is a 1999 5-door wagon coloured silver for that extra sheeny-shinyness. I'll have a photo of it soon, so you can see what the car looks like.

BUT I HAVE THIS PROBLEM... all the people in my family (apart from Mum and Dad, I don't know why) name their cars. My uncle's car is Spook, my cousin's car was Lucy, my sister's car was Tiefie (sp?). But the question remains...

What to call the Pyzar?

Esme was an awesome name for my old Festiva, because it was an old lady's name for an old lady's car (it used to be my grandmother's). But Esme is also a fairly common name, so people were familiar with it and got used to it quickly. My cousins are the ones who usually bestow the cars with names, but they are living in England now. I guess a picture would help with the naming so maybe I'll ask you again then.

But for now, I'll bid you farewell. I have other news, but it belongs in a separate post.

I BOUGHT A CAR! FINALLY I BOUGHT A CAR!

So the move went without a hitch, but there was no internet for Christmas/New Years, and even when I tried to update the Live network was malfunctioning and I couldn't do it. Also now that I am back home, I am re-experiencing the slowest... ever... broadband... connection............. ever. I've made a YouTube video but I can't actually upload it it's that slow. I also can't really watch any videos because they take so long to download. I should go and find out if the public library got that wireless connection they said they would get just before I left. It wouldn't surprise me if they didn't because, hey, that's the Gold Coast. Economy bigger than the state of Tasmania and they do all sorts of bizarre things.

I experienced an uninterrupted three days of Christmas in '07, which is the perfect length of time in my opinion. It was the first time in years I wasn't working on Christmas Eve or Boxing Day. I also met my friend Peri, the first friend I made on the internet. I played Munchkin with him and a group of his friends, most of whom also have blogs somewhere out there in the Live network. It was a really good night.

New Years was also pretty cool. I did it in Canberra with my brother and a few friends of his. We saw the fireworks in Canberra and it was brilliant. In the end I was really glad we didn't drive to Sydney to do celebrations. It turns out one out of every 20 people in Australia were all crowded around Sydney Harbour looking at the sky. Too crowded for me.

So as I said, the move out of Darwin went smoother than I could have hoped. I even snuck in a Christmas party hours before I got on the plane to leave. Good times. My move into the Gold Coast is also going very well, except for my endless search for a new car which is rapidly making me lose the will to live. Do you know how unusable the used car websites are? They are very unusable. Very very. In the mean time I can use my Mum's car because she doesn't need it until the end of this month.

I updated my resume yesterday. Working at Dymocks has made me sound very proficient and capable. I hope I'm as good as I make myself out to be. Applying for jobs tomorrow. I want to work in that games store, because whenever I go in there they are so helpful. I want to be as helpful as that.

Already gone to see two movies with some of my Coast friends. I haven't caught up with Rick yet though. I'm told he's in the country (he travels a lot) so I should snag him before his uni starts with the studying.

I also just finished reading The Diary of a Young Girl (or as it's more commonly known, The Diary of Anne Frank). It's a good book, and not just because it is a first-person view of the suffering the Holocaust caused. Anne has a very clear, intelligent voice and she goes through a lot of very normal teenage things even though she is stuck in an attic. She articulates them very well, although there are a surprising number of "nobody understands me's" in there. All in all a pretty good book and I think you should read it if you haven't already. Ends on a bit of a downer though, poor girl.

Ta

It irks me when people say that they are 'behind' on YouTube or their blogs. It makes it sound as if it's a chore they just have to get through or their universe will collapse and all will not be well with the world.

I, however, am BEHIND. I'm out of the loop during a crucial holiday period when people are networking as if their lives depend on it. I want in and I can't have it. Think of all that fun going on online and I'm not getting any of it. *pouts*

I'm moving again. Now we all know how much moving just sucks so I won't dwell on it for long except for the fact I have the added bonus fun of having to figure out exactly how much my stuff weighs. I have figured it out, and the answer is 60 kilos, not including hand luggage, which sucks considering the baggage limit for JetStar is 20 kilos.

Solution? Purchase an extra 20 kilos of excess baggage on my flight ($80) and send another 20 kilos of stuff I don't need right away by bus to the Gold Coast ($60). Joy joy joy.

Wanna hear an awesomecool story?

Stressing about stuff never works out. What the hell was I going to do with Esme? That car was becoming a pain in my... posterior. It was going to cost over $800 to send it by truck back from whence it came. It worked out that if I sold it for a reasonable amount in Darwin, I could buy another car on the Gold Coast for not too much extra, plus I wouldn't have to go through the rigmaroll of re-registering it in that gloriously all-too sunny state of Queensland.

Only problem is, I'm an indecisive person. For a while I figured selling it would be too much hassle, so I was going to keep Esme and ship it after all. Then I flipped and flopped and flipped and flopped until I finally decided with about a week left in the city that selling it was the best option. I stuck an add in the paper which appeared yesterday (Wednesday) and all day I got not one call : (

I figured, 'well that's that' and resigned myself to the fact that I would have to ship the car after all and that my mind had been made up for me. But I'd been praying and other people had been too, and right at the end of the day I got a frantic phone-call from one of the mechanics around town who wanted to buy my car for his wife (I think it was a Christmas present). This morning we negotiated a price that I was happy with, considering that one or two things needed fixing. Done and done. Just like that.

One ad on one day in one paper and I got one call from one guy who turned out to be exactly the right guy I needed to call me.

You could say I'm a bit excited.

But yes. Heartwarming to say the least. I should compile it into a book called "Chicken Soup for the Soul That's Moving House Across the Country". However, I think a better title would be something along the lines of "Moving. Cheer up."

(Written while sitting on a plane. I actually explain this in the thing but I just wanted to be crystal. I've also left out most people's names when I talk about them, just for the sake of not talking about new friends on the internet without them knowing about it.)

I'm on a plane to Darwin and my iPod has resolutely given up the ghost at a very inconvienient time. I would sleep, but the immense difficulty the lady across the isle is having finding semi-comfort is evidence enough that such an excersise is futile. So instead of reading or coughing up money for drinks I have asked the steward for pen and paper. I'm trying to write small becasue I only have one A4 sheet. I would write on the airsickness bag, but someone has put used chewing gum in it. Lovely.

I needed the pen and paper because when my mind is left on its own it begins thinking things that another part of my mind wishes it could record. It's a bit self-important really, but if people didn't write down what they think, the world would be much worse off. Or better off, depending on how you look at it.

I was actually thinking about my trip in Melbourne and how much I enjoyed it and how utterly strange it is to meet internet people who spend their free time being odd in online videos, only to find that in real life they are very much like me. That is to say, they are normal, with similar passions and senses of humour. They might not ACTUALLY be normal, but they pass for normal in my universe, so it's all good really. I mean, it wasn't as if there were a hundred Rohans walking around chatting to one another using exagerated and unneccisary hand gestures.

*** was quite softly spoken really. He used short sentences. He kind of waited for someone else to engage him as if he would be an intrusion otherwise, or as if he was a bit embarrased at being so easily recognisable. *** was really outgoing, striking up conversations all over the place. I followed him around, limpet-like, because he broke the ice with other people so well. One guy I thought was just brilliant was ***** who after I said hello went on to drive a very enjoyable conversation about this and that. He's added me on Messenger too, so I'm looking forward to shooting the breeze with him digitally.

I've noticed that all these people are male and have one-sylable names. Tom, Rob, Steve, Lou, Nick, Matt, John, Sean. My exotically two-sylable name puts me in league with Andrew and Cory, but ev en we can't reach the dizzying heights of Damien.

There were a few girls there, but they had all seemed to have planned multiple things for the day (typical lack of focus :-p) and they all swanned in and out going to jobs or concerts or friends places, which made them very difficult to track down and actually talk to. I only really talked to three girls the whole day. One of them was Lani. Oh and her mum. Make that four girls. Not that I have been, but there are better places to look for girls than YouTube (although it worked for Nate) but I enjoy it all the same. You make good mates there to be honest. Nice people. Great day.

(Ed. Can you imagine?

Person: "So how did you two meet?"
Us: "... on... YouTube"
Person: "Oh")

No more paper left. now what am I going to do? I should have bought one of those notebooks today.

Aaaaah! What can I say about this day? I could just say "it was a pretty awesome day" and that would give you a general idea that it was a positive experience, even though getting to Melbourne nearly killed me. The flight down was delayed and redirected and all sorts of things. In the end what should have taken up four hours of my life instead took up eight. I was flying Jetstar too so I got no food (on Jetstar you have to pay so your airfare is cheaper, but I'm not paying for any crappy airline food).

Anyway, I got to Melbourne having had no sleep whatsoever the previous night but in the end had such a good time I stayed up until about four the next morning. For a bit we were all just kind of milling around interviewing each other. I wasn't really. I was running around with Azukar getting something to eat and conning other people to come with us. Then we all kind of gravitated into our own little groups and had chats over beers or coffees, depending on your age and preference for that kind of thing.

To be honest though, it wasn't particularly what we did that made the day such a blast, but the people we saw. Sure, going out to the afterparty at a local bar was heaps fun (and laughing at the two Americans who came and thought I wouldn't get in, being 19). There's a real sense here that I can't do this justice putting only my thoughts into words. One of the organisers, seanbedlam, has already done a stellar job at particularising his thoughts on the day. I'm gonna steal from him for a bit. K? (Caution, he swears! No! Not swearing! Noooooo! Okay, okay. So on the balance of swears, it's a pretty bad swear. But I'm still leaving it in so I can corrupt the children.)


And that's really the crux of the matter. These weren't just people who you say a quick 'hi' to and move on with your life. They weren't the computer nerds that people might expect to see at a YouTube gathering. Everyone had real, vibrant personality, and not only that, everyone was very open and talkative. I'm not what you would call a big name on YouTube, even in the Australian community there. Nobody cared about subscriber numbers and we all got on like a house on fire full of scurity cameras. I made some good friends there that day and I think I'm addicted.

There are whispers that there may be another gathering mid-year 2008 in Sydney, although it's all still up in the air. Based on the resounding success of Melbourne I'm inclined to set some finances aside so I can go to that too. Too much fun was had to miss out on it all happening again. Really truely.

Here is my favourite video of the day so far. It's by HalfScottishGuy, who I hung out with most of the day (although I don't feature in this video much). What little footage I took will be going up on Friday or so. I forgot to bring my video transfer cable with me.

  

The prancing man wasn't from YouTube. I don't know where he sprung from.

Excuse me? Can anyone tell me what happened to the oh-so-stable Liberal/National Coalition? Just a week ago they were telling us they were the ones to trust because they were so stable but now look what's happened!

People are resigning and retiring all over the place. I with Peter Costello just took the job of Leader of the Opposition. Then the only problem would be who would lead the Nationals. I'll tell you what, the Coalition had better sort themselves out soon or we'll be back to having a country with no credible opposition. I just went through almost 11 years of that. I don't want to go through it again even if it is Labor who's in power this time.

Also, who won the senate? Did we figure that out yet?

*researches*

Ohhh. Interesting. The Greens now have 5 Seats. Bob Brown will be pleased. It looks like neither Labor nor the Liberals can control the Senate on their own. It looks like it's up to the Greens (and to a lesser extent the lone Family First senator and the lone independent) to tell the Government what to do. This has the potential to be messy, but it means that the Senate will actually perform its function this time around - a house of review - rather than just being a great big Liberal Party rubber stamp.

Also it's occurred to me that there may be some confusion as to what I mean by Liberal. I understand that in America this term refers to someone from the left of the political spectrum. In Australia it's the name of the not-quite-as-right-wing-as-the-Republicans-but-almost party. It's like in this sentence "The Vietnamese government is becoming increasingly liberal in it's economic policy." It means Vietnam is moving from a left-wing, communist style economy to an open(er) free-market, less government control model (which is a right-wing ideology). That is what Liberal means in Australia. (Alright Hendi, now tell me I'm wrong).

Sorry about this post. Next time I won't talk about politics. I promise. I'm going to Melbourne next weekend, so maybe I'll be able to talk about that.