I know I should be more serious but...

I know that I should write something serious and political here today, but I really don't feel like it. I'm feeling a bit apathetic. Maybe it's because I'm avoiding all the junky right-wing blogs. Maybe I've just eaten too many cashews? Maybe I just don't feel like it because a whole lot of people died in today Baghdad and New Orleans is underwater? Or maybe it's because I'm just getting back into the swing of things at work? You decide.

Anyway, I'll get back to it in the next few days. In the meantime, go and check out the new improved Webdiary. Alternatively, go and check out Road to Surfdom, which operated by Tim Dunlop, the guy tipped to replace Margo Kingston at smh.com.au.

I'm back from holiday!!!!

Crap. Back from holidays...

Sorry everyone no hard-hitting blogalism today. Just worked my way through the inbox and, well, it took most of my day and my brain is fried.

Though, to keep you all reading this blog, here are some cool pics from my travels.

To begin with here is a photo of my brother and sister (half pissed) in a not-so-typical but totally cool english pub:

Now, next is an obligatory tourist shot of me and Sarah by the Thames. If you look closely (well, not too close actually), you can see "Westminister", "Big Ben", and the "London Eye" in the background.

And finally, I ended my holiday by visiting Sarah's home town, "Bad Laasphe", where they were having their "stadtfest" (for those non-Germans out there, it's basically just a big pissup that the whole town goes to). Oh yea, Germany can be really pretty when it wants to be.

I'm on Holiday!!!!

I'm now on holiday! Yay! I'm going on a real, proper, holiday this week. Tomorrow my girlfriend and I are flying to London to meet up with my sister (who lives in London), my bro, and my bro's girlfriend (both of which are en route to Vancouver). It should be absolutely awesome. I haven't seen them all since March.

I was planning to post a bunch of hard-hitting articles on issues including: multiculturalism, global warming, industrial relations, and "negative quantum information" but screw it, the world can wait a week can't it? For the next week or so as I don't intend to do anything more taxing than trying to decide which Indian restaurant to have dinner in...

Stay tuned for much more ranting and raving in the following weeks...

Oh yea, if anyone is interested in my brother's travels they should go here.

Fightbacks in frisbee (The Lovers lost again :-()

*FRISBEE POST*

So, for all of those out there that care, the UQ lovers lost the "Dog Cup" final last week. The team went down 11-9. It sounds pretty close but from what I gather the team started slow, got behind and spend the rest of the match playing catch-up. Nice try though guys. Really, from what I've heard there was some great play and you put on a bit of a spectacle for the crowd. I heard that a lot of the crowd were backing the Lovers to take the cup home this year. I still wish I could have been there, I'm sure a bunch of the ex-Lovers would have liked to be there screaming "GO LOVERS" from the sidelines... Oh, and Jill took some photos at the match here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Debate question:

I wish I could get some stats on how many games of frisbee are won by teams that get a lead and hang on to it. I can't remember too many games that I've played in that have had a successful fightback. I've been in plenty of fightbacks, but normally you tend to miss out by a point or two. Basically, you always end up hitting the time-cap. I also wish I knew how much fightbacks are related to the team in the lead running out of legs versus this team running out of motivation. I guess these two things are related, but is there a general rule about which comes first?

On a related topic, is it smarter to come out onto the field "all guns blazing", totally pumped up to win the first few points - and then suffer the inevitable adrenaline/energy crash; or to come out calm and just hope that you win the first few points and save energy for later in the match? If it is true that frisbee games are often won when a team gets a lead at the start then you could mount a pretty convincing argument that says that you should go out onto the field without any notion of energy conservation. That is, put the best 7 on the line and tell them to run their pants off for a few points. I'm sure this doesn't work at the elite level, that is when two equally matched teams are playing each other, but maybe it isn't such a bad idea as a tactic early in a tournament?

If anyone has thoughts on this issue drop them in the comments box. I'm really interested in hearing what people have to say about this.

Frisbee training schedule

*Frisbee post warning!*

Last night I played in the weekly frisbee scrimmage between the Old Sox and the Flying Circus. Well, it wasn't so much "between" the teams last night as "with", we kinda mixed up the combos for a bit of fun. Anyway, to the point... I was asked by one of the players how much training I do each week, kinda after a point involving some pretty crazy sprinting. So I figured I'd write a bit of a post about my training regime. It isn't a perfect regime. It isn't even that great for frisbee. I know a lot of places where it could be better (especially with running and skills training). I'm also not doing a very serious regime at the moment either because I'm not getting ready for any tournaments any time this year that I'm taking very seriously... But if you want to comment on ways I can improve it would be more than welcome. So here goes.

Loosely, this is what I do in a good week that isn't interrupted by the shear craziness of life:

1. 3 gym workouts
2. 3 running sessions, 1 day dedicated to running
3. 2 frisbee scrimmages/training sessions

Ok, I should explain a lot more.

Gym sessions

I have 3 gym sessions a week, each works out different muscle groups. I do vary the workouts a bit, especially if I've been doing the same thing for a few weeks and I'm bored. For each exercise I normally do 3 sets of 6, 8, 10, or 12, it depends how long I've been doing the exercise. As is typical, when I start a new workout program with new exercises I start doing reps of 12 with a low weight, and then every few weeks I increase the weight and drop the repetitions.

Here are the three different workouts:

Chest and tri's

• Warm up chest with off-the-wall pushups and stretches (5 mins)
• dumbbell benchpress (or normal benchpress, I switch between these every now and then)
• Incline benchpress
• Tricep exercise 1 (Normally tri-pulldowns with a rope)
• Tricep exercise 2 (tri-pulldowns with something solid)
• Tricep extensions alternating with barbell bicep curls
• Abdominal exercises (2 or 3 different exercises, depending on how tired/bored I feel)

Legs and Shoulders

• Warm up, probably running or cycling
• Squats
• Deadlifts
• Lunges
• dumbbell shoulder press
• 1 arm bent over dumbbell shoulder rows (the ones where you but a knee on a bench and lift the dumbbell up to your side)
• Lateral raises
• Abdominal stuff

Back and Biceps

• Incline bench rows (dumbbell or barbell, depends on my mood)
• Lateral pull downs
• Seated row
• Standing barbell curls (aim for power)
• Seated dumbbell preacher curls (low weight, aim for better form)
• Back extensions

Ok, like I've said. I normally do an ab routine when I go to the gym. I vary it all the time, I've found that if I stick to the same thing week-in week-out I get bored and I don't gain that much after a few weeks. Normally I do 2 or 3 different exercises. There are a million different exercises that one could choose...

Running sessions

Ok, this is a little more random than my gym workouts. I try to do 1 day a week where I do nothing but running and stretching. Lately this has taken the form of a 10km or so run along the In river (the river that Innsbruck is built on). I chose this route mainly because it is a really nice run and has nothing to do with trying to train on flat ground vs hills or anything (something that I sometimes do think about).

When I get closer to a big tournament I tend to drop the distance running and spend some time working on sprint training. Normally I either do hill sprints (anyone who's been to Innsbruck or Brisbane would know that you can do this anywhere...) or I do some sort of shuttle run things.

The other running sessions that I do are mixed in with my gym sessions. Sometimes I have some quality time on the treadmill at the gym (normally when the weather is pretty shitty) where I run for 4 or 5 kms and try to do a pretty decent time. Other times I run to the gym, do my workout, and run back. This is actually a pretty good running session. I have a 1 km downhill followed by a 1 km flat on the way to the gym. This gets me nice and warm for my workout. Then I have a 1 km flat and a 1 km uphill home. This is a pretty serious workout on its own. The hill is an absolute bastard...

Frisbee training

Ok, obviously this depends a lot on what the team (Flying Circus) is doing and what season it is etc, but at the moment our team has a training session followed by a scrimmage every Sunday. Every Wednesday people in our team drive to a nearby town to play the Old Sox in a scrimmage. Thursday nights people play beach ultimate, I pretty much always skip this though. At the moment this is pretty light frisbee training for me. Back in Brisbane I'd play at least 2-3 days a week and would do skills training at least 2 days a week. I'm not doing as much here basically because I don't have the time and there aren't so many people here banging down my door asking if I want to o do some skills training with them...

Ok, so that's it. Like I said, it isn't perfect or even that intense. I've taken training much more seriously in times past, especially when training for Australian mixed ulti championships last year with the Lovers. I guess I'll take it more seriously at times in the future as well...

Go the Lovers!

My old frisbee team, the UQ Lovers, are playing in the Brisbane MAL (Men's A-League) final tomorrow. I am totally stoked that they made it! They knocked off the top seeded team (that they had never beaten) in the semi-final to make it into the final. We did exactly the same thing last year! I swear that semi-final was one of the best games I had ever played in. The final wasn't too bad either, 'cept we lost by 1 point after time-cap....

Anyway, good luck guys! I expect emails telling me how the game went!

For those of you that are interested in nostalgia, here is a photo of our team taken after the final last year (aren't our campy 70s style shirts uber-cool?):

Anyway, good luck again guys. Go one better than we did and bring home the "Dog Cup"! I will be sleeping in my Lovers jersey tonight to bring you guys some luck...

Oh yea, whoever is marking Matt, stay on him like a shadow. Whoever is marking Mike, um, good luck...

And one more piece of advice, play a tight game! Any long swill will be eaten by Mike (but it isn't as though Guns won't have said this already!).

Am I an angst-filled rock star?

In order to counterbalance yesterday's rant, my posting today will contain almost nothing political and hopefully will make you all feel happy and balanced (maybe, except for Helene as there are photos of her drunk in this post - but she never leaves comments here so I don't care :-).)

For those of you that don't know, I turned 27 last Friday. For those of you that did know, thanks for the birthday wishes.

(Speaking of well-wishers, Lora (from the US) email me about playing frisbee in Innsbruck. We are always happy to play disc with new people here :-).)

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Last Friday I turned 27. For those of you that know your angst-ridden rock star history you'll know that most of them seem to die at the age of 27. One could pose the question, "am I a rock star?". This might seem like a stupid question to ask, but at least one person in the last 2 weeks has asked me this question - some guy came up to me on the bus a week-or-so ago asking if I wanted to be in his band because he thought he'd seen me playing before... Weird doesn't begin to describe it... Anyway, if I die in some unfortunate circumstances this year I guess I was really meant to join that band and be a rock star...

OK, that's more than enough smack-talk for one day.

I had a great birthday and lot of people helped me to celebrate it. I was a bit worried (as was my Mum) that my first birthday in Europe would be a bit of a lonely affair. Well, that didn't happen as I seem to have found myself some really nice new friends, not to mention the efforts of some really nice old friends that also conspired to make me smile a lot.

Some special mentions include my girlfriend who started the birthday shenanigans for calling me at midnight to wish me a happy birthday (though not forgetting my mate George who messaged me 4 days in advance :-)). Another goes to my new(ish) flatmate Karolene (who's name I've probably misspelled) who baked a totally awesome birthday cake for me. I woke up to find that my three flatmates had organized cake and coffee for breakfast. It was a really nice way to wake up. Here is a photo of the three of them (Helene, Maria, and Karolene):



In the evening we cooked a serious Thai food feast (kinda inspired by me going crazy and buying everything in the Asian grocer downtown). The green vegetable curry was great but I was disappointed by my attempts at a laksa (if anyone has a good recipe, send it to me!). The dinner was made extra-special because an old friend of mine from home, Pat, happened to be in Innsbruck on my birthday and could make it to dinner. It was really cool to catch up with him. Anyway, here's a photo us all about sit down to the feast (from the left: me, Maria, Georg, Maria, Stefan, Helene, Pat and Karolene was taking the photo...):



The only down-side to my birthday was that the following morning one of my flatmates, Helene, moved back home to France after spending her summer here working with the experimental BEC group here in Innsbruck. Helene was a lot of fun to have as a flatmate, and as I threatened her I would, I'm posting some photos from her "going away" party last week:

Here is a photo of Helene madly preparing food for the 30 guests that were agout to burst through our front door:



Here is a photo of Helene at about 2 AM after she drank more glasses of wine than she could accurately remember (note the beanie she's wearing, this was a gift from the BEC group that she received that night, she was very proud of the beanie...):

I think I feel sick

This editorial that has appeared in today's Australian makes me feel sick. There is nothing at all rational about the argument for voluntary student unionism. In the editorial a paragraph is devoted to attacking National party senator Barnaby Joyce, I quote:

In effect, student unionism has been little more than a playground and training
facility for Senator Joyce's political enemies. He has a short-sighted view of
his own interests if he throws it a lifeline.

What exactly are Senator Joyce's interests? Does he believe in democracy? Do you think the editorial would read the same if the Labor party were in power and they were making efforts to destroy the National Farmers Federation, the AMA or any number of other breading grounds for Coalition members of parliament? How exactly is it in the interests of the country if it decided that it is okay for a government to blatantly economically destroy their political enemies. It's really nice to see that the editor of the Australian believes that the government doesn't need to win political battles by, gee I dunno, providing arguments and evidence for there point of view.

What's next? Maybe they should make payment of membership fees to the Labor party voluntary.

As for the argument that VSU is about implementing a "user pays" system of service and support in universities, well, this is just plain bullshit. This argument that "only a fraction" of students use student union facilities is total crap. Apparently:

students are grown-ups and perfectly capable of choosing what they wish to spend
their money on.

Again, total crap. Student unions are mini-governments. In fact, they aren't even so mini. My old university had a population of about 50 000, the student union organizes and provides services for these 50 000 people. This is not a union, it's a government. The notion that student unions are purely left-wing political organizations is also complete crap. Students VOTE FOR THEIR LEADERSHIP is it the left-wing organizations fault that THEY WIN THE ELECTION. Students don't want Liberal party leadership of their unions. They don't like the Liberal party. So students are being made to suffer because of their political preferences.

Would the Liberal party be happy to let student unions change their name to student governments? Maybe then the "union fees" could be called a "tax", which everyone should be forced to pay. The point I'm trying to make is that the student unions ARE GOVERNMENTS. The argument that they are unrepresentative can equally be made about any government at any level. It is bullshit, they are representative.

There is one more extremely disturbing point to the arguments put forward in this editorial. The editor tries to argue that good universities will get more students, will have more funds, and will subsequently be able to chose whether or not to spend money from their budgets to spend on services. It seems like a reasonable argument. I know plenty of pro-VSU people who put this forward. Again, it's complete crap. I'm going to bypass the whole "they probably won't use the money for services because they are broke anyway" argument and get to the real problem. The pro-VSU camp likes to say this is all about choice. They are giving people the choice to spend their money on what they want to spend it on. In short, they are not being forced to subsidize the union.

Where this argument falls down is that by letting universities decide how to allocate support budgets they have completely taken away the only control that students had over their money. It could be countered that all services on campus become strictly "user pays", thus letting economics become a quasi-democratic process. Well, this might happen, but it is unlikely. I believe it is much more likely that services will be subsidized by the university as as attempt to try to lure more undergraduate students. Universities with nice campuses, good facilities, and an active student life will attract more students therefore the big, wealthy, universities will introduce a service budget which won't be controlled by student unions but nevertheless will control services (especially sporting clubs and counseling services etc) that were previously administered by the student body. Democracy is definitely vanquished by choice. With student unions, students can vote for a party that decides on how money is allocated. With VSU, the university administration is the sole arbiter of service funds.

It's meant to be bloody summer!

It freakin' snowed here last night. It's August and we are in the middle of summer. This is nuts...

Here are some pictures I took today:

The world gets one more doctor

Yesterday Marc Hein successfully defended his thesis! Congratulations Marc!

Last night we went out to celebrate. This might have something to do with why I thought the "yogurt fresh" magnum ice-cream I ate this morning was the greatest thing I've ever eaten. It is probably also the reason why I desperately craved a kebab for lunch, and then really regretted eating one. It might have also had some small influence on why I've been struggling to look at my computer all day and why I keep falling asleep on my desk...

Orwell would be proud (actually amazed, but you get the idea)

Today the Oz government tells us that they didn't sign the Kyoto Protocol because it doesn't go far enough. A new report, entitled Climate Change: Risk and Vulnerability has just been released by the government basically claiming that everything that all of us hippie-scientific-fear mongers are actually right and that the greenhouse effect is nasty, real, and going to create a whole lot of serious problems.

The report claims that all measures that the international community have taken to limit greenhouse gas emissions thus far will be completely ineffective for halting climate change, which might be very true. The government is claiming that this is the reason why they have failed to support the Kyoto protocol and other efforts, now this is a total lie. For years John Howard has been saying that the reason Australian won't sign is primarily economic. It is true though that he has muttered stuff about enough not being done, exceptions for developing countries, and the policies of China and India with regard to global warming, however, the primary reason why NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE is economic.

The government's new position raises some interesting questions that no-one is going to ask. If we are so concerned about the Kyoto protocol not being enough to halt climate change, where are the reports suggesting alternatives? Has Australia been involved in diplomatic work that is trying to establish a new and better standard for greenhouse gas emissions not to mention the development of technology that might fix these problems?

I wonder how much of this is related to George Bush's recent quasi-position reversal on the issue of climate change. It appears that the republicans have decided that maybe us little humans have actually created a problem with our environment. At least Bush is tough enough to admit that the reason the US isn't really interested in doing a lot about it at the moment is that it would be bad for their fossil-fuel driven economy. In the days leading up to the G8 meeting there was a step up in the rhetoric coming out of the US about finding "technological solutions" to climate change, as everything else is ineffective. I guess Australia is going to tow this line now as well.

If they are serious about "technological solutions", and not just shifting position a little to escape criticism, we should see an injection of funds into alternative energy sources (no guys, uranium doesn't really count as "alternative", though I see it took about 20 minutes for someone to bring it up already in response to this new climate change report) and greenhouse gas management policy development. What's the bet that this will go into the "too hard" basket?

Anyway, I love the Orwellian nature of this debate. I mean, there is soooo much double talk and position reversal going on at the moment. It's really interesting to see that the right-wing bloggers and commentators seem to have gone quiet on this issue. Some of them have gone on some amazing rants about this issue, talking up divisions within the scientific community (which pretty much don't exist) and making out that scientists like to scare the population because it brings in more funds. Will they ever take back their words if Howard and Bush keep talking up being the champions of the anti-global warming movement?

THE CROCS ROCK!!!

SERIOUS WARNING! THIS IS TOTALLY A FRISBEE POST AND ABSOLUTELY WON'T MAKE SENSE TO NON-FRISBEE PEOPLE. IT PROBABLY WON'T MAKE SENSE TO MANY OF THEM EITHER...

Holy Shit!!! The Australian mixed ultimate team competing at the World Games just beat Canada! I really wish I was there. The final score:

Australia 15 - Canada 14

That's right people... it went to cap! They were all tied up at 10, then 11, then 12, then 13, then 14... For a while there it looked like Australia might coast it in! We had them at 9 - 6 then Canada came back to level at 10s! You can check out "when-who-threw-what-to-who-to-score" by clicking here.

General match info for all the games can be found by clicking here.

So what does AUSTRALIA BEATING CANADA mean for the World Games tournament? Well, if Australia wins one game tomorrow then they will definitely make the final. Tomorrow they play the USA (who haven't lost a match) and Germany (who haven't won a match).

Here's hoping I can catch the final on Eurosport 2.

Oh and, I'm a dumbass (not that this piece of information wasn't on the public record already) because I COULD HAVE BEEN THERE. My girlfriend lives a 30 minute train ride away from the fields. I decided to "do the right thing" and not visit my girlfriend this weekend because she has exams in a week... I'm a dumbass I should have gone anyway...

To celebrate, here is a photo of Jonathan Potts, the Australian captain:

This photo was taken at the Australian mixed nats tournament in 2004. Oh Jonathan is the one on the right. The one on the left is Anna, she lives in the states but was in my team at mixed nats (and she's a damned good mid - and like most people who have ever played for a Queensland team, she's fun to drink with). Coincidently, she and I were trading sms's when AUSTRALIA BEAT CANADA. We were both watching from our computers at the time and could have been sending emails, using Skype, msn messenger, or anything else, but we chose to send international sms's (nice and cheap...). Again, I'm a dumbass.

More frisbee cutting advice

Further to my last post, I thought I'd add a bit more advice for cutting effectively.

Before every game the coach should pull the runners in the team aside and go through the following dialogue with them:

Coach: What are your legs?
Runners: Springs. Steel springs.
Coach: What are they going to do?
Runners: Hurl me down the field.
Coach: How fast can you run?
Runners: As fast as a leopard.
Coach: How fast are you going to run?
Runners: As fast as a leopard.
Coach: Then lets see you do it.

Any Australians reading this might recognise the dialogue as coming from the Peter Weir movie Gallipoli. It pretty much epitomises my philosophy towards cutting. You've got to run hard and have confidence that you can always beat your defender.

Oh and I was reminded about Gallipoli when I saw it in a dvd store here in Innsbruck the other day.... go figure. I wouldn't have thought you'd find an Australian film from the 80s being sold here but I guess it's a pretty small world.

Words of advice for young people

WARNING! ACHTUNG! This is a frisbee post, it won't make any sense at all to non-frisbee folk.

Parinella has been playing frisbee for ever and has been involved in coaching and explaining to people how to play frisbee for almost as long. He recently posted his rules for cutting. These rules are awesome. Any self-respecting mid should memorise them and recite them about 200 times a day. Here they are:

1. Cut sharp.

2. Cut hard.

3. Cut decisively

4. Think, but only before or after the cut.

5. Know when to just run.

Parinella expands on what he means by each of these rules. Read his explanations, understand them and make endless yards on the field...

Oh, and my team here in Innsbruck, the "flying circus", has a new website.

Photos from my holiday

I was going to write a post about why I think Tim Blair is a wanker this week, but I decided to chill and instead post up some pics from my holiday a couple of weeks ago.

Here is a photo taken from Prestwick (in Scotland) International Airport's train station:

not bad eh?

Oh, and for those of you that know Nick:

I was in Scotland for his wedding. That's Nick in the middle, I took this photo about 5 minutes before the wedding...

Anyway, more photos to come later.

By the way, has anyone else noticed that Blogger has a new cool photo upload feature. You don't have to use "Hello" anymore...

People suck

rant mode on

So, today some absolute arseholes decided to launch a terrorist attack on London. I'm pretty much speechless. Less than 24 hours after London was awarded the Olympic games in 2012, they decide to unleash hell on in the middle of peak-hour.

I mean, let's look at the symbolism of this attack. The fundamental principles of the Olympic movement are spelled out in the preamble to the Olympic Charter:

1. Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in
   a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport
   with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life
   based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good example and
   respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.
2. The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the
   harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a
   peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.
3. The Olympic Movement is the concerted, organised, universal
   and permanent action, carried out under the supreme authority of the
   IOC, of all individuals and entities who are inspired by the values of
   Olympism. It covers the five continents. It reaches its peak with the
   bringing together of the world's athletes at the great sports festival, the
   Olympic Games. Its symbol is five interlaced rings.
4. The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must
   have the possibility of practising sport, without discrimination of any
   kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding
   with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play. The organisation,
   administration and management of sport must be controlled by
   independent sports organisations.
5. Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person
   on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is
   incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.

Now, does anyone have a problem with these principles? Why attack a city that is in the midst of a celebration of these principles? It doesn't make any sense.

I guess you can say the attacks were due to the G8 meeting in Edinburgh, but then why attack London?

Are you trying to send a message to Blair? Give the guy a break, he has spent the last month or so trying to work out a way of saving Africa from destitution and to fix the massive problem of global warming. He might have screwed up on Iraq BUT NOW HE IS TRYING TO DO THE RIGHT THING!

I think this all has me kind of pissed. Maybe it's because my sister lives in London and I'm having a brotherly bout of "you pick a fight with my sister you're picking a fight with me" syndrome. But maybe it's because I think this is a really despicable act that is designed to ruin a celebration of something that I believe should be celebrated.

rant mode off

Holidays and apathy

Hey blogland, sorry for my lack of posting. I could say it is because I went on holiday last week. I could say it is because I've been snowed under at work (side note: it actually snowed here in the mountains around Innsbruck yesterday! Oh, for the "Strayans" - it is the middle of summer, kinda weird). But the real reason is nothing more than apathy. Lots and lots of apathy.

Does anyone have a good apathy cure?

More blogging soon, I promise.

Homesick (I wanna go to the Valley Fiesta!)

Crap, it's a Saturday afternoon and I was busily working (aimlessly surfing the net), when I realized that in a couple of weeks my home town, Brisbane, has it's annual Valley Fiesta. Damn, I wanna go home so I can spend the best part of a week drunk wondering around watching good bands, going to art exhibitions, eating good food and checking out cool fashion.

Oh, I haven't explained what the Valley Fiesta is yet have I, well normally it's a weekend where you wonder around drunk watching good bands, going to art exhibitions, eating good food and checking out cool fashion....

The "Valley" is an area of Brisbane that has a bunch of pretty decent nightclubs (Okay I'll admit it also has a bunch of pretty crap nightclubs as well, but no-one remembers them and they don't survive long...) packed into a fairly confined area. It also has numerous art galleries, lots of fashion boutiques (so you can get clothes to wear to said nightclubs and exhibitions at aforementioned galleries). Oh and the Valley music scene is famous for churning out great Australian bands, they are particularly supported by clubs such as Rics, The Troubadour, The Rev, and The Zoo.

Anyway, the Valley Fiesta is normally a weekend where Brisbane celebrates, well, The Valley. All the clubs run good gigs, the fashionistas do their fashion parade things, and the artsy people appreciate art. The city council chips in by shutting down some streets to whack up some stages for the biggest bands. Basically, it's one big party. This year it is running from Wednesday the 6th of July to Sunday the 10th (in Bris Vegas weekends are a bit flexible). Last year the Hilltop Hoods headlined, and about 200 000 people showed up to watch... It was a pretty crazy night...

Damn I wish I could just fly home for a week...

What's awesome on my ipod this week

This week I'm totally into a "best of" Billy Bragg album I bought on the weekend:

Must I Paint You a Picture: The Essential Billy Bragg - by Billy Bragg

OK, so normally I just focus on a song or two, but this week I'm changing the rules (Billy would be happy about that). If I were to focus on a song or two (or, more precisely, three) it would be hard, there are a hell of a lot of really good songs on this album. But just to be quirky:

To have and have not - by Billy Bragg

To have and have not - by Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards

I've chosen this song, and the wicked cover by Lars and the boys, because it sums up what Billy is all about. Politics, dammit, politics. Billy is pissed, and still is, that this is a world where people can work hard, try to do the right thing, and still end up getting screwed over. This has been his fight all along. He spent the best part of the 80s fighting Thatcherism in Britain, specifically he played a large part in encouraging the youth to get politically active. Anyway, musically the song rocks. The singing isn't perfect, but you don't care because the emotion is all there and it all just fits into place. I guess that's what good folk music is all about. The punked-up cover by Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards (pretty much Rancid in disguise, at least for this song), is pretty much perfect. As Lars put it - the song seems to be written for them by Billy, even though they didn't exist when he wrote it.

Anyway, I said I wasn't going to post about individual songs. I guess I lied a bit. The reason I love this album is because it reminds me so much of my angry, angry political youth (anger is additive, two angers is bigger than one). The first time I got into Billy Bragg was when I was about 17, a really good friend of mine (Dim, to all those that know me) introduced me to his music while we were camping on an island just off Bris Vegas. At the time I was a pretty vehement anarchist. I had spent way too much time reading about history and politics and I was pissed at the world. Billy, was perfect.

A great thing about Billy's lyrics is his ability to punch out catchy one-liners. In Sexuality Billy professes,

"Safe sex doesn't mean no sex, it means use your imagination.".

Another classic, which speaks volumes the more you think about it, comes from A new England,

"I saw two shooting stars last night. I wished on them, but they were only satellites. It's wrong to wish on space hardware.".

My favourite line though comes from Waiting for the great leap forwards, where Billy emphatically exclaims,

"The revolution is just a t-shirt away.".

Actually, Waiting for the great leap forwards, is far and away my favourite Billy Bragg song. Everytime I hear I'm filled with regret. Any regular readers should, by now, realize that I'm an idealist. I'm always torn between what my instincts are saying I should do and what the world around me is telling me I have to do. Politics is my passion. I've been obsessed by it since I was about thirteen years old. However, I'm a physicist. I chose this path as a purely pragmatic decision. I always wonder if I didn't turn my back on something important, that maybe politics is what I should be spending my time doing.

Billy's song is aimed at me. Well, it's aimed at all of those who yearn for a real change in our society, yet seem to be unable to find it within themselves to actually work to change it. I'm pretty sure Billy puts himself in the same camp. Ultimately there is something, but I can't work out what, that seems to temper our spirits. If we want change, we have to start with ourselves, but this is something that seems impossibly hard. It is also something that is probably very easy.

Why do I think Billy feels as though he is unable to grasp this sense of change himself? Well it's pretty much because of this line:

"Mixing pop and politics, he asks me what the use is? I offer him embarrassment and the usual excuses. While looking down the corridor to where the van is waiting, I'm looking for the great leap forwards. ".

Oh yea, for all the physicists out there, hopefully this line will get you thinking,

"And in the Soviet Union a scientist is blinded by the resumption of nuclear testing and he is reminded that Doctor Robert Oppenheimer's optimism fell at the first hurdle.".

So does anyone out there think that I made the wrong decision? Should I be doing politics or physics????

Shout out

Ok, so I have to give the Paris Hilton of Physics, Caolionn O'Connell, a major shout out for successfully defending her thesis. Well done Caolionn!!!! Oh, and if you didn't want to be known as the "Paris Hilton of Physics" you should never have used the phrase in your blog! :-)

Which leads me to wonder. If I was a "celebrity of physics", who would I be?