"It Sucks to be Me"

Here on Avenue Q! That was a great night. Tash, myself and a few of my work and gaming friends went to see Avenue Q last night and I was very happy to say it really lived up to all of the hype I've heard. I'm sure I'll be humming "The Internet is for Porn", "It Sucks to be Me", "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist" and "If You Were Gay I'd Shout Hooray!" for many days and weeks to come. Its even funnier if you're a parent of a young child as Seseme Street is often a staple part of your day.

But the other nice thing is this was Tash and my first night out in a long time. Last year we wnt to see my mate Greg in the Macbeth rock opera and we left Alex with my folks. He hated it and cried and cried until we got home. He was about 5 months old at that point and I'm not sure he was ready. He's now 15 months and is much happier to be left with his Nanna and Granda now. He was so happy in fact he seemed to be waving me out the door as we left, quite content to be left with my parents. He loves them a lot. And so Tash and I had a nice night out. I think we're going to have to do it more often now that we can. Next step: sleeping over at Nanna's or Meme's (that's what Tash's Mum likes to be called). That will be nice.

A very special moment.

Its the simple things that make you happy as a parent. Monday, my boy took his first steps. Three, unsteady steps before he fell onto his hands and then crawled the rest of the way at break-neck speed but nonetheless, first steps. His Mum and I are very proud.

But last night he took what I consider to be his first walk. He walked about a metre and a half without holding anything or anyone, didn't fall and made it to his goal. And he did it just for me. Tuesday nights are Tash's night out. She gets a break from Alex and he and I spend some quality time together, a boy's night. And to show off to me, he walked on his own. Tash is extremely jealous. He hasn't done that for her yet.

To say I am proud is a bit of an understatement. I feel very special that he decided to make his first real walk a special moment just for the two of us.

And doesn't he look pleased with himself?


I love my little boy.

Toll Roads!?! I hate freakin' toll roads!

Toll roads. What the hell is up with toll roads? Brisbane has recently "celebrated" (I use the term very loosely) the opening of the Clem Jones M7 Tunnel, commonly known as the Clem7. It is apparently the longest tunnel in Australia at 6.7km (or something). It allows people to travel from one side of the Brisbane River to the other without travelling through the City/Valley areas and avoiding lots of traffic lights. Nice. It cost $4.30 per trip. WTF!?! Why the hell does it cost me to use it? Didn't my taxes pay for the freakin' thing? And now they want to charge me for using it? I helped frikkin' pay for it! But even better, they have made the tunnel free for the first 18 days, then half price for the following 5 weeks. So like a good drug dealer, your first taste is free then they'll give you cheap hits until you're hooked, then charge you like a wounded bull 'cause you can't give it up. How can anyone use this thing and think its saving them money? They claim it will save you petrol. How? If you use the thing during Peak Hour, it will cost you $8.60 per day to use it and surely this tunnel will not save people over $40 in petrol costs per week? Time? Sure but at the cost of $40 per week? Surely it won't be that much faster than the current routes? If I was on a significant salary, I'm sure I could afford the $1100+ a year it would cost me to use the thing but the average bloke like myself can't afford it for a daily commute!

We have another river crossing being made as well: the poorly named "Go-Between" Bridge (yes, they really called it that). Another new road. Yay! Another way across the river. Yay! Another freakin' toll road! WTF!?! Yet another road built with public money that they're going to charge us to use. What in the hell? They claim it is to help recoup the costs of building the road. I can handle that (roads are expensive to build) but once the cost has been regained, will the toll go away? Not bloody likely. The Gateway Motorway paid for itself 10 years ago yet they kept the toll going. They're even talking about increasing it again.

The more I look at it the more I'd like to move away from the city.

Wow. Nerdcore.

Damn. I'm pretty Nerdcore. I have a couple of Nerf(TM) guns and their rip-offs. I have a very cool one that requires you to load the foam darts into shells and then fires them using a lever action that primes the gun and then ejects the empty shells. But when I saw that KMart(TM) had the Nerf(TM) Vulcan machine guns on sale, I had to get myself one. And damn its cool. A belt-fed, 25 dart capacity, fully automatic dart gun that comes with its own tripod. And its huge. There's no way Nerf(TM) designed this thing for kids. It's aimed squarely at nerds like myself. Check this out:

How Nerdcore is that? Pretty damned Nerdcore IMO. I need to get out more.

Holy Geek Retreat, Batman! Its a Man-Cave Update!

Yes! Finally I've gotten the Man-Cave organised. There's still a few tweaks here and there, like picking up the fridge I've got on hold for it ($50 makes for a good Man-Cave fridge methinks) as well as a few boxes of stuff still lurking under the house but otherwise, its ready to go! Its nice to have a space to hide in. I'm hoping to get some minis assembled and painted soon.

As promised a while ago, here's the pics:


Two pics of the outside and yes, its really is that tall. Three metres from ground to the top of the roof. Its gives it a nice, roomy feel inside.

And a few pics of the inside. As you can see I've got a nice, big painting table that I intend on putting to good use as well as space for a decent 6ft by 4ft gaming table in the centre (pretty much the standard on which most games are played for you non-wargamers out there). The shot of my shelves shows I still have some organising to do but on the whole, I'm very happy. My own little retreat from the world (bar the pram which will move as soon as we find a spot for it upstairs, or so I'm told). Now to find some time to use it...

Wet, wet, wet.

I like the rain. I love the feeling of serenity that comes over me when it starts to fall. I love the sound of it on my roof. I love the feel of it on my face. I especially like it when its accompanied by the rumbling of thunder and the flash of lightning.

But you can have too much of a good thing. Its been nearly two weeks now with near constant rain and I'm getting a little tired of it. And the main reason is: public transport. When its dry, I ride my scooter into work. Its fantastic for several reasons:

- Cheaper ($6.40 per day on the bus as compared to $8.00 per week in petrol on the scooter plus free parking).
- Faster.
- No waiting. (I hate waiting for buses. Its such a waste of time.)
- More fun.

I miss riding my scooter. Its way too dangerous to ride it in the wet. I've come off it twice in the wet now and simply refuse to risk it if there's the chance of rain. If you lose grip on one tyre in a car you've got three others to take up the slack. If you lose grip on one tyre on a scooter or bike, you've lost half of it and only have one tyre left gripping the road! Too scary, thanks very much. So to get to work I join the massed throngs and ride the buses. But bus seats are uncomfortable, other passengers tend to be very rude and the ride is unimaginably boring. Even with the iPod and its collection of Firefly episodes, movies and YouTube Muppet videos its a still a very boring and very uncomfortable trip. What kind of creature is man that it subjects itself to tortures of its own design like public transport, politics, advertising executives and peak-hour traffic? I wonder...

Mr Weather Man says we're in for another week of this. Bugger. I think I'm going to have to stand in the rain for a while tonight. Things seem simpler and less troubling when I do that. Strange that the cure to my rain-soaked woes would be to get rain-soaked. I never said I wasn't weird...