i just got some pics from nick, but he accidentally deleted the money pics we had of us drinking beers on the beach at 10 in the morning at straddie island.

here’s some pics from raceday, the big piss-up at the racetrack. while it would appear from this picture that i have a ton of hot chicks for friends, i dont know all of these girls unfortunately… though the one on the left im behind is my roomate eliza, and my other roomate gordo is on the right in the blue shirt not looking at the camera.

and here’s annie, me, steph, and pat, about to lose another bet

this is from the pajama party at the tavern that the rest of us didnt dress up for (well i did put on pajama pants and my bcs shirt, but that was pretty weak), while dave-o and pete won a prize for these kids size shrek shirts… priceless

here i am pretending to be a skateboarder… for some reason nick was fascinated by my pink shirt

and here’s me and alex in our matching pinko shirts, so hot right now.

ps i can see fireworks out of my window right now for show holiday, man fireworks are stupid. ohh look there’s bright lights and loud noises! yay!

hey faithful readers, it’s “show holiday” here in australia, whatever the fuck that means. no school, but i dont have class on fridays anyway. weak.

well not too much has happened this week for me to report (apart from my “anti-pokerface” tactic actually working in a poker game, winning lots of money, then losing it all in one spectacular all-or-nothing bet), so instead im goin on a political rant of sorts. the republican national convention is coming up, which i think i would of gone to had i been home (easy for me to say since im NOT home and there is no threat of me getting a riot police beating…), and a lot of shit is gonna go down in the next week. will it be good for bush or bad for bush, who knows.

ive read a few interesting articles lately, one from salon.com that talks about the plus side of surveillance, which says we can keep an eye on big brother, more or less. which got my thinkin about the republican convention, there is gonna be so many video cameras in new york that maybe it wont be the same old “protestors are bad, police have the right to control the crowd however they want” kinda bullshit that the mass media and fox news try to spin. if there is documented proof of police behaving badly (which will undoubtedly happen) maybe it will get out there this time. i suppose the majority of americans still wont get the message…

then theres this article from salon.com about a group of homeless activists that are making there way to new york for the protest, setting up “bush-villes” on the way. they have a woman who is 8 months pregnant and will be on the front line with them, think the police will beat the shit out of her too? this is especially interesting since the census bureau just released figures about how much the poor and uninsured population has increased during bush’s reign.

interesting article about the dramatic effect of farenheit 9/11…

really scary article about the possibility of an attack on iran for election purposes… wouldnt surprise me though…

and finally, naomi klein’s latest little diatribe really caught me off guard,

“United for Peace and Justice states that “there are two key moments this year when people throughout the United States will have the opportunity to send a resounding message of opposition to the Bush Agenda: November 2, election day, and August 29, in New York City.” Sadly, this isn’t the case: There is no chance for Bush’s war agenda to be clearly rejected on Election Day, because John Kerry is promising to continue, and even strengthen, the military occupation of Iraq. That means there is only one chance for Americans to express their wholehearted rejection of the ongoing war on Iraq: in the streets outside the Republican National Convention. It’s time to bring Najaf to New York.”

uhh is she saying she has no faith in kerry either so she wants chaos to come down on new york city? in a way, i’m all for that, but that seems pretty intense. at the very least, i wish i could be there…

ps i love canada and this chick, sing it sister, coalition of the idiots indeed.

pss sorry that was so long, i hope *someone* reads it :)

we played paintball this afternoon, thought i’d share my battle wounds with you. apparently most people are too afraid to get hit so they just hide behind trees and tires and shit and pick off the people who are dumb enough to run around. people like me. so the first one is the shot i got in the hammy, it doesnt look too bad in this picture, but it got me the best battle wound award (well, in combination with my others). this mother is startin to bruise up pretty nicely.

actually the most painful one didnt leave a very bad mark, me and dave-o were storming the bridge and cassidy and gordo totally saw us coming so they just sprayed us with paintballs. i get hit in the ribs and it hurt like hell so i yell something like “im down!” which makes dave-o turn around to fire back at them but he ends up hitting me in the ass, the bastard.

this last pic is from the very end, me and gord-o each saved one final paintball to fire at each others legs at point blank range, further insuring our reputation as the crazy exchange students…

so thats my paintball experience, getting my ass kicked for the most part, it was great. i did manage to hit some chick in the back of the head from long range though, that was fun. i yelled “got you good you fucker” at her…

ps check this out, an anti-bush ad starring man-god will ferrell: http://whitehousewest.com

well my roomate’s beloved van, that i was so hoping to buy from her in november, is apparently a “death trap” according to the mechanic. turns out the lady who owned it before never did any maintenance or oil changes or anything. so it needs like new brakes, new tires, etc etc. its gonna cost them another grand if they want it road worthy, which they might not do. and if they do, theyll want more than the few hundred bucks i was prepared to pay. shitty…

on the plus side i finally got new strings for my guitar and my camera is fixed. im goin down to pick it up soon, so pics are on their way. hot surfer boys for alicia and pool boob for jonny…

really bored (like me)? check out this month’s vice magazine, hilarity: www.vicemag.com

and you heard it here first, the best movie of 2004 will be “TheLife Aquatic with Steve Zissou”, the new wes anderson film with bill murray and owen wilson, coming out in december. pretty sure this will cement anderson as the most talented filmmaker alive today (high praise for a film i havent even seen yet eh). check out the
trailer.

and the only prescription, is more olympics! and apparently i can be late for school/work tomorrow to stay up and watch the much-anticipated showdown between australia and the US in the swimming final tonite. you know who said so? the fuckin australian prime minister! how cool is this country?!

and seeing as ive done nothing but talk to people on msn and watch the olympics for the past couple days, i got nothing else to say… peace.

whoa, turns out ive been in australia for a little over a month now, what the shit. things are finally settling down a bit, i am no longer ingesting copious amounts of fine australian beer on a regular basis. its saturday night and im staying home alone, maybe because i went out last night but forgot my passport and had to wait an hour and a half until pat showed up with it. damnation. had a pretty nice little day at the beach yesterday though, complete with beach volleyball and body surfing. spent most of today playin guitar, learned the greatest and best song of all time: tribute by tenacious d of course.

its nice to have internet at home, though here in communist australia you pay by the amount you download. im signed on for a gig a month and ive chewed thru a quarter of that in 3 days without downloading any music! damn msn. but you know what really chaps my ass? my external hard drive with 17000 mp3s on it is f’ed. i dont know why but a lot of my songs have blips all thru them, its terrible. and the thing crashes all the time. maybe my computer is trying to tell me i should get out and enjoy the sun…

so my roomate eliza and some of her friends bought this old hippie van, its priceless. its got a “custom” paint job, has big wooden speakers, its manual and the stickshift is on the steering wheel, the back seat folds down so you can put in a mattress, theres all these hippie stickers on the windows, and somehow it smells like the 60s. and the best part: it came with a single solitary tape that is quite possibly THE perfect tape. if you’re thinking grateful dead or CCR, you’re close, but the correct answer is marvin gaye. oh man. once “whats goin on” starts coming thru those shitty speakers, its magic. i might buy the van off them for a couple hundred bucks when the semester is done.

and this guy is my hero: www.youhavebadtasteinmusic.com