Melancholalia

Years ago, when I was with some friends at the pier in Hobart, buying freshly shucked oysters straight off the boat from a fisherman, I came across a woman who was a little bizarre. She was on her own, and seemingly speaking to no-one in particular. Only she wasn't having a conversation in her head - or maybe she was - but instead she kept repeating the same phrase over and over again. "Wouldn't have a clue... wouldn't have a clue... wouldn't have a clue..."

It seemed she perhaps had some mental problem, but in any case, this was my first and only encounter with someone who appeared to suffer from echolalia, often associated with autism or Tourette syndrome. People with this condition involuntarily repeat snippets of something they've heard someone else say.

It's been about two and a half months since my relationship with D ended. While in many respects, I've come to peace with this, and for the most part I'm ready and eager to move on with my life, I often find my mind wandering back involuntarily to my relationship. I well up with regret, resentment, and melancholy, and what I know to be futile and irrational feelings of inadequacy. Then after a while, I brush them off, think of happier things, and surround myself with friends and find an equilibrium again.

Part of me wonders if this melancholalia might be a sign that I still haven't resolved my emotions, and dealt with the breakup properly; that in maintaining my composure and control, I've somehow emotionally wounded myself. Or perhaps not wounded, but rather poisoned. The poison seems to well up, and then when things might otherwise become toxic, the overflow valve is released...

melancholalia.

Meme time

OK, I've had writer's block, so here goes (I borrowed this from a friend on facebook):

Rules: It's harder than it looks! Copy to your own note, erase my answers, enter yours, and tag some people. Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real . . . nothing made up! If the person before you had the same first initial, you must use different answers. You cannot use any word twice and you can't use your name for the boy/girl name question.

1. What is your name: Billy

2. A four Letter Word: Boat

3. A boy's Name: Bartholomew

4. A girl's Name: Belinda

5. An occupation: Baker

6. A color: Blue

7. Something you wear: Boots

9. A food: Broccoli

10. Something found in the bathroom: Bath

11. A place: Bangkok

12. A reason for being late: Bad public transport

13. Something you shout: Bitch!

14. A movie title: Brokeback Mountain

15. Something you drink: Beer

16. A musical group: Beatles, the

17. An animal: Baboon

18. A street name: ByrnesSt (the street I grew up in)

I tag: trackingbeam, peanutbutters, evolkween, and mspixieears

Slumdog Millionaire

I don't think Danny Boyle's ever made a movie I didn't like. Yes, i did fall asleep while watching 'Millions', but that doesn't mean I didn't like it. I also fell asleep during 'A Mighty Heart', and I llike just about everything Fat-lips Jolie is in.

The first thing I thought when watching Slumdog Millionaire was 'oh, this is neat!'. The plot is driven by the sequence of questions asked of the 'slumdog chai wallah' Jamal on the Indian version of 'Who wants to be a millionaire'. The questions are used as a neat device to tell Jamal's life story. As each story unfolds, we learn how he knows the answer to the question - seemingly against all odds.


There's not really much to fault with this movie - and you can kind of understand the four golden globes it just won - everything is deftly handled, and it's hard not to be drawn in by the vibrant cityscapes in which the action takes place. The score (punctuated by M.I.A. tracks) does well to set the tone, too.

I give it a 4.5 out of 5.

Playlisting as the dust settles

I'm a little at a loss when it comes to blogging at the moment, if you couldn't tell... so I thought I'd juat post a playlist of the music I've been listening to a lot lately. It's mostly to do with processing the end of my relationship with D (surprise surprise). I've always found music to be somewhat cathartic, even when it's in amplifying or resonating whatever pain you might be going through.

Mayonaise - Smashing Pumpkins
Breakeven - The Script
Last Goodbye - Jeff Buckley
How My Heart Behaves - Feist
Irreplaceable - Beyonce
How to Disappear Completely - Radiohead
I Forgive You - Darren Hayes
When You Were Young - The Killers
Free - Destiny's Child
Details in the Fabric - Jason Mraz

Duck FTW

@jessikatze Reason #37 why Ho Chi Minh City beats Hanoi:



For those of you who prefer a youtube version.

Gridlock

So I stupidly got talked into having dinner with a friend in District 1 tonight. I knew traffic would probably be a bit crazy, as it's been for the past two weeks, with crowds of Vietnamese families taking their kids to see the astoundingly abundant Christmas decorations and light shows.

What I didn't count on was the fat that tonight was ALSO the first leg of the Suzuki Cup final. Which Viet Nam won, beating Thailand 2-1 (thanks, in part, to some dubious refereeing).

For those of you from/in Melbourne, picture Lygon St after Italy won the World Cup in 2006. Put every second person on a motorbike. Multiply the four blocks of one street to a space about the size of the CBD. Absolutely. Packed. With massive Viet Nam flags, and red headbands galore.

The mood is decidedly festive though, despite the inability to move. People seem ready to shout and cheer for just about anything. Person A makes a fuss about Person B else getting in the way of their motorbike. Person C else points out that Person A has only moved abot a meter in the past five minutes anyway. Person B laughs, cheers, and the crowd cheers with him. And then the drumming starts. Banging on anything as a drum - street signs, car bonnets (they weren't moving anywhere fast), motorbike seats. Now THIS is a street party.

I really must learn to bring my camera with me everywhere in this country.

Cross-posting

So I'm testing out the instructions I found at Lexi's Lounge to cross-post simultaneously to Blogger and Livejournal.

Here goes nothing...

EDIT: Success!

... and we're back.

So after a long hiatus, well spent in the lands of LiveJournal, I'm finally coming back to the milky bosom of Blogger.

Anyway, just had to make it official.

Must work now - rant later.

Lady Punch

This lady takes one on the kisser. I love the noise. Sometimes I feel like doing this to people on public transport. Or in the supermarket checkout line. Or at the post office. Or the bank. Or when people can't shut their screaming children up.

The other blog

So it seems that I'm not really that up to posting on two blogs after all... for those of you who are interested, here's the blog that I DO maintain..

http://cloudcontrol.livejournal.com

New Photos

I've just updated my flickr, the photos are totally random, but someone might find them interesting.

I'm so fucking famous

Hah! eat that. Top five google hits.

The Other Blog

So I just rediscovered this blog account, which I started in 2003, apparently. I'm so cutting edge. Anyway, I've since been maintaining a blog on livejournal, and I have a bit of a social community there, so I don't think I can leave that just yet. However, I also have a few friends who blog on blogger, so I thought I might re-open this portion of my online footprint.

The tricky thing will be to decide which blog is for what posting - I don't think I'm going to be patient enough to post the same thing twice very often. I guess it's just going to be whimsy (on a whim) which blog I post to.

In any case, look out blogspotters, I'm back (with a photo)!