Yesterday I headed off to the Old Colonial Inn to celebrate my friend, Emily’s (Em), 26th birthday.

I originally met Em and Mark through Anthony and Nicole. At the time, Em and Mark were a couple, and I got to know both of them through various outings with Anthony and Nicole. Usually for drinks and time infront of one console or another.

They turned out to be really cool people. But the world, well, it’s a very mysterious place.

You see, I met this girl, Angie, years back through a mutual friend (Jennifer). I must have been 18 at the time. I lost contact with Angie over the years, until recently.

Here’s the strange thing… Angie, Em and Mark, all know each other through Bohemian Soul! Bizarre? I think so. It’s a massive trip out.

So anyway, Em turned 26, and she invited some friends for a gathering at the Inn. We had a few drinks, chatted and listened to, what I thought, was a pretty cool band. They almost had that funk/rock sound, and a bizarre name that I probably couldn’t say if I tried.

Eventually we all moved outside because loud music isn’t conducive of (audible) chatter.

Em has some pretty cool friends, it was nice to mingle with creative types that shared interest in the arts.

Catching up with Em and Mark was awesome, I hadn’t spoken to them properly in a very long time.

So to that, I say, “Happy Birthday, Em!”

Yesterday, with foolish resolve, I decided to quit smoking.

Again.

For the fourth time.

So today, I’m reconsidering my choice. Fat lot of good that’ll do as I’m broke, so even if I decide to have a few more cigarettes, I won’t be able to buy them!

I started smoking again because I missed the ‘feel’ of it, you know, that sensation as you take a drag?

To be frank, my reasons for not smoking are purely monetary ones. I owe my parents a bit of money, and rather than paying it off steadily, I’m increasing it. It could be worse, right? Atleast I’m not paying interest. But that’s not the point - I feel guilty, not only in asking them for more, but also just in the knowledge that I owe them.

While I obviously don’t want cancer and the other lovely diseases and ills brought on by smoking, I can’t help but ask myself why.

Why quit for the money, and not for my health?

Why quit at all?

And I just don’t know.

Most importantly, a year down the track, will I be smoking again?

We shall see.

I’ve been meaning to blog about this for many days, but have not found the time.

The Rudd government is planning (and already doing trials) for an internet blacklist. A mandatory filter, at ISP levels, that will censor whatever the government damn well thinks is illegal or harmful to children.

They had also tried to sell this plan with an option to ‘opt-out’ of this blacklist.

There are two sets of blacklists. One that blocks content that would be deemed harmful to children, and the other, the one you can’t opt-out of, blocks content deemed illegal by the government.

ISPs are up in arms about this, not only because of cost, but it would also severely cripple our internet speeds.

Tax-payers should bloody well be up in arms, too. This filter is currently looking to cost $125.8 million to implement!

Once set up, this filter is out of the hands of Joe Citizen, the government will then be able to add sites to the blacklist. This is in a similar fashion to the Chinese firewall, that has basically further oppressed it’s people.

What does this all mean?

Drugs are illegal - therefore, no school research, no research for a drug user to check up on some facts to avoid overdosing, and it has the potential to accidently block drug awareness and help websites.

And dissidence? Well, that would be considered illegal in the eyes of the internet filter. It will all start with extremist sites, then it will lead to anything that remotely goes against government policy.

Euthanasia will no longer be something we can read about, too.

P2P networks? Nope.

Violent games? May be on the agenda.

Buying exported video games that are refused classification, what will happen then?

If I suddenly post ALLAH AKBAR! Will this site be blocked to Australians? Or any other forum? Will we be pushed to censoring ourselves so that our favourite message boards suddenly don’t appear anymore?

Stephen Conroy - you’re a fucking wanker.

On Friday, Anthony and Nicole picked me up for our planned tree top walk. We went back to their place for dinner and a chat. Melissa, one of Nicole’s cousins was also there. We didn’t get up to much though, as we all had to be in bed early enough to get up at 5:30am the following day.

I got up surprisingly easy on Saturday morning; I’m known for being a very heavy sleeper. We had a light breakfast, then piled into the car and headed for the Great Ocean Road.

From Sunbury, the Great Ocean Road is a fair way - we must’ve spent 3 hours in the car before we reached Erskine Falls. Erskine Falls is a small waterfall an hour or so from Apollo Bay, and it’s an awesome sight.

The path to the waterfall was a rather steep descent, my legs were trembling with fatigue and I wondered how I could possibly make it back up to the car. The waterfall was definitely worth it, though. We spent a small amount of time admiring the waterfall and the rock pools before making our way up to the car.

My legs burned with effort, and my heart was pumping like you wouldn’t believe. But I made it back to the car, eventually… As I type this, the muscles in my legs are still sore.

Next stop was Apollo Bay, which would lead us to the Otway Tree Top walk further inland. We stretched our legs in Apollo Bay, had some lunch and ice cream, asked for directions, then it was back into the car for a few more hours.

Once we got to the Otway Forest, after initially missing the turn off, we were in for quite a treat. Like the Erskine Falls, there was a warning about snakes being present. You’ve got to love Australia! Where else can you find such lethal wildlife? Sharks, snakes, jellyfish, spiders and the Blue Ring octopus. I should be in tourism.

Entering the Otway Forest was surreal. There was a path to follow, yet we were surrounded by dense vegetation, it was truly unbelievable. The canopy provided a cool environment and shielded us from Saturday’s harsh sun.

Eventually we got to the metal bridges that would lead 35 metres up into the tree tops (although not above them, the trees were massive!). It was such a humbling experience being among vegetation that was older than I am, and that would easily outlive me.

The highlight of the Tree Top Walk would be the tower near the end, climbing the stairs we were 50 metres above the ground overlooking the forest. I can’t say it enough, it was spectacular.

On our way home, we went past a town called Colac, where we drove past a very distraught woman (and police) in nothing but her underwear. She was clearly hysterical. Something very terrible must have happened to that woman, but I do not know what.

Anthony had clocked up over 500km of driving in the one day. Insane.

Sore, and sleep deprived, we all made our way home. I really needed the company of my friends, and am grateful for it. The Tree Top Walk was just icing on the cake.

We were able to salvage some pictures off the memory card, which is apparently on the way out. It’s a four year old memory card, and has seen its fair share of photos.

So as promised, there are some new paintings on display in the gallery.

There’s another (bigger) group exhibit coming in late October, which I want to be a part in, so it’s back to painting I go.

I had been frantically painting over the last few weeks so I could have new works to show at the Old Fire Station Cafe Gallery, in Preston. Which was the main reason for not posting.

It went well, and there was a fair amount of people there.

Anthony and Nicole came over before the opening night was to begin, but I wasn’t very talkative as I was stressing out about the Exhibition. Sorry guys! Nicole took some photos of Jazz, and the Exhibition. I’ll post some photos when I get copies.

So yes, I was stressing. I was stressing about the people that would be there, or wouldn’t be there; I was stressing about the speech; and I was just stressing in general! Haha.

Had dinner there, which I highly recommend, as the Old Fire Station’s food is quite palatable - actually, it’s damn nice. Sunk a couple of bourbons, which didn’t help the nerves at all.

Angie and Jennifer showed up not long after the night had started, which was good as I was unsure whether they would attend.

Unfortunately, Lisa and Debbie couldn’t attend. It would’ve been good to see them, as I haven’t done so in some time. But it’s understandable given that they would’ve been up to their arm pits in small children.

Eventually I started calming down, and by the time I had to give a small speech I was eager to get it over and done with.

That was such a huge weight off my shoulders - I felt so much better after the speech was done, then I started enjoying the night for what it was.

Thank you to all who showed up!

I did have some photos of my new works, but it seems that the digital camera has malfunctioned, and I can’t even access it, let alone copy files over. Ugh.

This past fortnight has been a timesink.

Not in a bad way, of course. It’s just that I’ve been neglecting this site a little bit.

I’m currently thinking of changing the colour scheme, and banner for the site, but am yet undecided - though if I choose to do so, it’ll still be a while away.

At the moment, I’m working on six different paintings at once (and one completed), in anticipation of the upcoming group exhibition in October. I can multitask!

I’m shocked and amazed.

Unfortunately, two of these paintings consist of oils - while I love working with oil paint, it dries incredibly slow. So whether those two pieces will be ready by then, I don’t know.

Being able to paint again has truly been awesome, and I can’t believe how much I missed it.

I was meant to post about this the other night, but suffered a lapse in memory when I did end up writing.

I’m having a little trouble deciding on my future.

It has been a fair while since I withdrew from classes mid year, and I’m still unsure how I should approach my life, and my career.

Do I focus on financial assurance, or chase my passion?

I have always wanted to be involved in the games industry, doing level design, animation or just concept art. This was a childhood dream, but now, something has changed. I want to further my art work, but not to the mandate of Company X.

Painting has shown me self-expression - expression is something that I’ve been avid in doing since I formed my own identity (you know, what everyone does during their teens).

Why can’t I do both?

I can’t… In 2007, while I was studying full-time, I did not paint a single thing (if my memory serves me correctly - if I did paint something, it wouldn’t have been completed until now). I neither had the time, motivation, or want to do so. School left me drained, creatively and physically.

That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy TAFE. I loved it, it was great.

But here I am, now, contemplating a serious move to being a ‘professional artist’.

The downsides? A lack of money, people calling me a slacker.

The upside? Self-expression, freedom.

I don’t know… It feels like a conundrum.

I haven’t posted in a while, so I apologise to anyone who may have missed me… *waves to the single person in the back of the crowd*

It’s been a rough few weeks.

About a month ago, I decided that it would be a good idea to stop taking some of my medication. What followed was a week of boundless energy and enthusiasm. I loved it, I felt alive!

Then I crashed.

To go from a massive peak, and then just plummet down at a near vertical drop, well… It wasn’t fun. I was a real mess, and while I’m still not all that lively, I am slowly getting there. It could’ve been a lot worse, but we all say that in hindsight, right?

So anyway… This weekend was awesome. I finally got to get out of the unit and socialise with friends! I know, it’s scary isn’t it?

I was invited to a psychic night by a friend I had not seen in ages, so I took the opportunity to go. I got to catch up with Angie, whom I last saw 8 years ago - and I got to see a psychic, which is something I have never done.

There were around 10-15 people there, one of which was Mark, a friend of Nicole and Anthony. It tripped me right out, and the night had not even begun!

I’ll spare you all from what my reading was, but it definitely left me feeling a little befuddled. To the point where at the end of the night, Mark asked me if I was okay. Haha.

I was fine, just lost in thought. Wait… Can you do that without a brain? =P

Saturday night was Anthony’s 27th birthday, so Lisa and I made our way over to Sunbury for drinks.

I wanted to get Anthony a copy of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I had seen Anthony looking over the game a few months back, and he seemed keen. Although my Nintendo experience pretty much ended with the SNES, I never really experienced the Smash Bros. series.

Having seen it in action, and having read reviews - it looked like a fun party game. So why not get it? Lisa and I went halves and got that for him. Hopefully he’ll enjoy it.

All in all, this was a great weekend - I finally got out and had some fun, which was something I desperately needed.

I hope your weekend was an awesome one, too.

Alright, I’m not one to spam links, but browsing the awesome PCPP forums I came across a thread about conspiracies.

Now, as far as ways of thinking, I’m pretty out there - I have some unusual views of the world and I relish researching into conspiracies to pick out the truth behind them, if there is indeed any.

Do yourself a favour and check out, Zeitgeist - The Movie. To be fair, it’s long at just a little over 2 hours. But this movie really draws you in like you wouldn’t believe!

Part 1: The myths of religion - very interesting, and it expanded my knowledge of what I already knew of modern organised religions.

Part 2: 9/11. If you’re an American, be warned, and prepared to have what you know about these events challenged. Keep in mind that the world is indeed a scary place, and what you hope to be true may be a farce.

Part 3: International banks. This one is by far a clincher… Sure, at times it doesn’t seem plausible, but when you sit there and think about the state of the world and it’s financing then wow - mind blowing!

Part 3 was what really hit a nerve with me. Why? Keep in mind that Australians owe $44 billion in credit card debt alone, and you will see…

Don’t write off this excellent documentary, keep your mind open, think and be prepared for a rude awakening…