Say Girrawheen, It Makes You Smile

What can we say

2005-04-30T07:33:35Z

Being a rock star should be a full time occupation. We have done well to dabble in the lifestyle this weekend, the Dandy Warhols would be proud.

I have not slept since I got up late to go to work on Friday morning. Jesus fucking christ. I am going to annoy Alex for hours because I may never sleep again.

Say Girrawheen, It Makes You Smile

2005-04-26T03:44:52Z

ACT I

J: Troy, this is Sara.
T: Hello Sara.
J: Troy, you do know who Sara is?
T: Well, I assume she is some freind of yours..
J: She's Kristinn's girlfriend!
T: Kristinn has a girlfriend!
S: He didn't tell you!
J: Why did you think I was bringing strangers round your house!
T: It wouldn't be the first time..
S: I can't believe he didn't tell you!
T: What did you say your name was again, Anya?

ACT II

J: Dennis Cometti!
T: What ?
S: Dennis Cometti?
J: Dennis Cometti!
DC: Hi, my name is Dennis Cometti
S: Dennis Cometti, I can't believe it!
DC: Are you guys on holidays?
J: Yes, we all live in Perth. I worked for Channel Nine, once, and I lived in Girrawheen
S: Dennis Cometti, we have to take a photograph..
(J fumbles with camera, DC poses with one arm around T and S)
DC: OK everyone, say Girrawheen... it makes you smile.

S: Dennis Cometti touched my shoulder
S & J & T in unison: DENNIS COMETTI. OH MY GOD!
S: I don't even like Dennis Cometti.

Al Grassby RIP

2005-04-23T09:36:03Z

Al Grassby died today. He was immigration minister during a small part of the Whitlam era. He was one character, amongst all the other elements of that government - of that period - that changed the lives of our families quite immeasureably. I wish I was a public servant under a minister like this. He is pictured here at the launch of the Racial Discrimination Act. The Racial Discrimination act applies to almost all aspect of life today - but now there is one important piece of legislation that has been excempted.... the Immigration Act.

I will put a picture of him on my desk at work on Tuesday

Excercise

2005-04-11T07:39:11Z

Nick is very devoted. He goes to they gym three times a week with astounding regularity. Monday, Wednesday, Friday. It is the kind of regularity only an ex-border could manage. Nick is quite good at routine.

I, alternatively, am a routine disaster. I cannot go excerise. I cannot bring myself to go to the gym. It is too embarrassing. I keep putting off swimming. Sigh. Middle-age is encroaching.

If I think about all of you on my freinds list I realise that we are all reasonably sel-aware people. That is not a bad thing, we are just aware of our image and all of us- without exception - happen to be breath-takingly beautiful. But some big changes are ahead of us as we near 30 and beyond to 40, physical changes as big as puberty. What will we be at the end of that?

The way I interact, my personality, is of course linked to my physical attributes. I am smaller and younger than most people I communicate with on a daily basis and that affects how I deal with them. In a way, I can be a little more abrupt, a little more rude and get away with it. An community leader from an ethnic council came to visit today and I forgot to stand up when I shook his hand. An awkward lapse in manners from inexperience now, but when I am fat and old it may seem more of a lazy, inpolite snub.

Some people make more sense when they are older. They just fit their faces better or their body shape is more acceptable at an older age. There might be an advantage to my upcoming old-man shape that I have deduced yet (googly Jeff-Goldblum like bags under my eyes?)But maybe not. Who knows? Will I continue to do what I like, or will my aging body make me lose confidence and alter the things I do?

Last night I decided to go on a raw vegetable diet for a week. Fuck that I say now. I had too many drugs over the weekend and it faulted my ability to make sensible dietry choices. Tonight I am making chicken and cous-cous.

In which an unsightly stain appears on the carpet

2005-04-09T06:39:35Z

I have been appropriately houseproud today, and Nick and I have cleaned everything quite thoroughly. Last night, I ended up bowling at Strike with my fellow officers of the Commonwealth. Then I went out with Nick and Alex to see a DJ from the Ping Pong Bitches. God damn Melbourne crowds. If you go to somewhere slightly cool, no one wants to shake their booty. And I wanted to dance. So we went to an 80s night instead.

We just spilt an entire can of beetroot on the carpet. It fell out the fridge and the fridge is on the carpet. The fridge is on the carpet because their is no room on the lino of the kitchen. I washed the kitchen lino with spray and wipe and a sponge today. That is because it is smaller than a small kitchen table.

What I have been up to (What I remember)

2005-04-06T08:53:33Z

Now would be good to update everyone on what went on the past few weeks, or at least, pen my version of events. I do not remember much though and besides, too much goon has gone under the water since then. I have moved to Level 24 in my work building and now have a fantastic view of the Melbourne CBD. Today we watched a crane make itself taller for a good 20 minutes. It is a facinating process. I also ordered new stationary for my new position.

Wendy, could you please email my work email with your home address. I have something that belongs to you that you may want back. I will send it with a simple card that says...

Thants.

hisnameisjustin @ 2005-04-06T12:43:00

2005-04-06T02:43:43Z

I have internet again. Way to go wireless!

hisnameisjustin @ 2005-03-30T17:39:00

2005-03-30T09:39:42Z

My last night in perth. @What do I remember teh best? Who knows... I cant remember. God damn if I make it to the plane I am doing ok. Alright... goodbye...

hisnameisjustin @ 2005-03-19T15:42:00

2005-03-19T04:46:27Z

I live 5 minutes from the city of Melbourne. If you look in the Melways, I am in the insert bit. I can see the Telstra exchange 5 minutes from my building. 5 minutes if you walk slow.

So explain WHY they have told me I cannot get broadband at my new house. Explain to me WHY I cannot even get FUCKING DIAL-UP!.

I am at Alex's house ( my old house) using my old Dodo connection. This morning I was discussing chastity belts and I was speculating if they really did exist or if they were invented by Mel Brooks. "I know, I'll look it up on the internet!" I say. DOH!

I am home on Wednesday night. Who has any ideas of something we should do....?

PS I am going to get two tin cans and some fishing wire and make my OWN connection to the telstra exchange.

Dance the night away by karchan85
Name
What you Look like
The Music	Jazz

Quiz created with MemeGen!

Sunday

2005-03-06T07:12:35Z

Well I had my first six-day week in about two years. I am getting heaps of overtime at work because we are so busy with all the overseas students. It will be good for the bottom line. However, financial disaster still hovers as I am moving this week and things may not work out bottom line so to speak, ie. i still don't have anyone to move into Drummond Street so I may have to pay rent times two. Heres hoping to not. ($125 a week + $85 a week = six days at immigration + giving blow jobs on Wellington street).

I have a sore throat that will not go away. I weighed myself today, two extra kilo's since last month. Whoops. Here comes middleage.

7.6% snotty

2005-03-02T07:36:48Z

Today is the first day I have felt properly back on track for about a week. Yesterday I got very angry at work and was extremely rude to all concerned. It was very unlike my usual suck-arse attitude. It took me till about 11am to calm down properly and there was no proper explanation, like.

This morning I had the same purposefullness I have had for a couple of months. A weird resigned-ness to routine. The pleasure in having both my black AND red pen at the start of the shift (black for marking my signature and position number over the stamps, red for correcting the application forms). My coffee in the paper cup. The cumalative totals from the EFTPOS machine the only thing in my otherwise empty cash drawer. This is all there is for me at the moment.

I found out yesterday I do not have another sick-day credit till 01/09/05. That means I have had 18 sick days since September last year. Wow. only 3 of these were without doctors certificates... that means I have been doctor-certified sick for 15 days in six months. That is 2 weeks out of 26 weeks. That is 1/13 of illness. That is almost 7.6% snotty.

I went for a swim and the amount of chlorine I swallowed made me almost barf in the toilets. Now I am at home hoping Alex has cooked me something delightful for dinner. It is nice having him around again.

Next week, the tenth, only 8 exciting days to go.. I become officially... A DEFACTO! Nick and I move in together - what a really big occasion. I have never lived with a partner before... so this should be interesting. As a condition of moving in, I have already arranged the broadband connection for the house. I will have broadband BEFORE I have a fridge.

Here is my room...

2005-02-27T10:59:36Z

I don't know how long this will take to download...

Justin Calls

2005-02-26T11:58:08Z

I am calling it for the ALP. I cannot do the sums to work out the existing majority.. but I have a feeling that there will be a majority of four. The number of independents changing hands makes the exact number a bit hard.

But I call it before Liam Bartlett, or Antony Green...

Live from the Tally Room

2005-02-26T11:31:26Z

It looks like the northern suburbs may win it for the Gallop government. I am not prepared to call it yet, but I am quitely confident. I expect to have my decision in 30 minutes.

If ALP wins Kingsley and retains Joondalup, then when I go home I will catch the train and go thank every single one of them.

Melbourne Types...

2005-02-26T06:43:47Z

ATTN all concerned West Australian citizens currently residing in Melbourne! 9pm tonight the 720 6WF election night coverage courtesy of ABC online. All welcome.!!

hisnameisjustin @ 2005-02-25T18:35:00

2005-02-25T07:45:44Z

I never learn. Dexies are the root of all evil. There is no good left in them at all. With the recent arrival of my good freind, so have arrived the last, ever, ever, little pouch of his old prescription. But, oh, god damn, the days after are more terrible and more terrible and more terrible. I went out Wednesday night and acted like a fool. Whats new. But then I got so sick yesterday I couldn't go to work and then today I lose my bag. I had to go sign the lease for my new house with Nick and he was very very late. So I decided I almost didn't want to live with him anymore he was so late. I almost ended it there and then.

That is not good. That is dexies.

It is ironic that I could be having these feelings on the same day my manager tells me I am one of the next in line for a promotion to APS4. So many years later and still some of the mistakes remain the same. I have golf-ball lumps in my armpit and I keep getting so dizzy I almost fall down. Sigh. And tonight there is a decent party and I think all I can do this weekend is stay in bed.

Last night I dreamt I was living in the fourth installment of the Lord of the Rings movie. Gandalf was dead so Tom Baker's Doctor Who was in charge of the hobbits. The hobbits lived in a giant wooden boat that hung suspended in the air. There was a sense of urgency that we had to get buckets of water from the river and fill the wooden hull with water. Filling the boat with water was the only thing that kept it floating in mid-air. "Hurry, little Hobbits, hurry!" Tom Baker kept urging.

Guest Star Erika Jellis makes a contribution to my journal

2005-02-23T09:32:15Z

I (that's me...justin), had an long day at work. The bus ride home was a relief the hectic working day that is Australian Immigration. often think, gazing out the bus window, that I would not posses the intelect that I have now if it weren't for years of contemplation made possible by public transportation. Thank god I can't drive.

I drank a bottle of red wine this evening with my good friends Erika and the newly arrived Alex. My indie music knowledge was utlized by Erika in compiling music cds for her current affairs program.

And then we had a perve on Tom Baker.

Erika has juicy big titties and I envy them.

Week in, not out

2005-02-21T11:40:07Z

So another week. Sometimes, I don't mind going to work. I get a kind of satisfaction out of sitting down at my desk, dead on 9am, with my miss maud mug full of instant coffee. But nothing else of interest to say. The whole Hunter S thing is interesting. The whole Tony Abbot thing is not. But what can you do. I will try and do something interesting tomorrow I promise.

Making the most...

2005-02-19T11:52:54Z

I have downloaded the most insane amounts of music in the last few hours. I have been trying to make a habit of getting anything remotely interesting in the reveiew section of pitchforkmedia for the day. I should bring my laptoppie to Perth so there can be lots of sharing. Todays aquisitions -

Hood
Piano Magic
Antony and the Johnsons
Matt Sweeny and Bonny Prince Billy
Bloc Party (new album and old EP)

Nick is meant to be coming round soon... where is he?

So many gaps...

2005-02-18T08:11:34Z

A lot has happened this week and I have not made one single post. Here are things abbreviated.

1. Another Fag Event (Sunday)
There is a fair in a park and Nick and I drink goon and I sit at bad alex's queer student stall. I inhale helium from a cannister.

2. Alex is a Driver (Sunday evening)
Alex completes the trek from Perth to Melbourne in a Subaru. We drink an awful lot to celebrate. I keep my hands OFF Nick's very attractive freind Dave.

3. Monday I go to work.

4. Tuesday I go to work

5. Wednesday I fall sick. Then I notice that the Weevils have laid lavae in the ceiling of our kitchen. There are MAGGOTS falling off the roof onto the kitchen counter. EWWW. Much cleaning ensues.

Little Britain, "Yes Martin, thats right, the big fat Leso"

6. Thursday I have a med certificate but I am feeling better. Alex and I have brought Aldi Gin and the real estate agent calls me when drunk. I make a bad sexual-inuendo joke. Nick and I get a new house and we move in March 10.

7 Friday, today. I go to work. Now I drink beer again with Alex.

Short but sweet. There you go.

hisnameisjustin @ 2005-02-12T18:45:00

2005-02-12T07:45:41Z

Dear Mr Harman,

Many thanks for your feedback, which has been passed on to News & Current
Affairs.

Regards,

Kirstin McLiesh
Audience & Consumer Affairs

To: Audience & Consumer Affairs
From: Justin Harman (justin.harman@immi.gov.au)
Subject: News Refurbishment
Date: 27/01/05 22:40

Below is the result of your feedback form. It was submitted by Justin
Harman (justin.harman@immi.gov.au)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ABC program: 7pm Bulletin

Date of program: 27/01/05

Contact type: Appreciation

Location: VIC

Subject: News Refurbishment

Comments: I would just like to say how impressed I am with the new set,
graphics and music for the 7pm bulletin. It is by far the most professional
looking bulletin on Australian tv. Congratulations.

My partner adds that the colour scheme is his favourite feature, and that
the old theme was in danger of becoming 'so 1990s'.

I quite like the red bar under the words 'ABC News'. Thank you.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Important Warning: If you have received this email in error, please advise
the sender and delete the message and attachments immediately. This
email, including attachments, may contain confidential, legally privileged
and/or copyright information, the unauthorised use of which is prohibited.
Any views expressed in this email are those of the individual sender,
except where the sender expressly, and with authority, states them to be
the view of the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous
Affairs (DIMIA). DIMIA respects your privacy and has obligations under
the Privacy Act 1988 (see www.immi.gov.au)

hisnameisjustin @ 2005-02-10T21:57:00

2005-02-10T11:16:29Z

Oh so tired! So much time spent at work. I have nothing else to do at the moment so I am there from 9am to 6pm. Then I come home and write my lousy job application to go work in the new refugee section. My job there will be processing humanitarian applications lodged initially in Beruit (including countries like Iraq). That would be fun.

If you have never written to selection criteria, here's an example of the pap I have to spew -

I reflect our corporate values in my daily work at Client Services, from the quality of my decisions to the collection of public money. I have also received calls on the complaints and feedback line, and so I am particularly aware of the importance of these corporate values to our clients.

In other words.. I don't steal. I don't cheat. Much.

I might be going to the country with Nick this weekend. I am so tired that I just saw a scotty dog on Rathdowne street and I went up to it and said, "WOOF WOOF WOOF". It would be funny if someone was with me, but I suddenly realised I was on my own and all the people on the street, and the dog, looked at me like I was crazy. I saw my doctor today, who is not particularly attractive but is kind of sexy in a way. Last time Nick went away I kept making dentists appointments, this time it is the doctor. I had a shot so he said, "If your sleeve doesn't roll up, I might have difficulty giving you the shot." Before we even tried it, I had whisked my shirt off.

I think I am feeling a little devoid of real human contact.

Punch card

2005-02-08T08:31:13Z

This machine is an early punch-card card sorter. Today I had a client who was one of the most talented operators of these machines in post-war Victoria. After studying for 12 months in the UK she migrated to Australia and worked variously for major banks and accounting firms. She was earning 36 pounds a week, way over the average wage. She had a staff of three girls who would punch holes into rectangles of card with something that looked like a typewriter. There were only 13 keys, the numbers 1-0 and the letters xyz. Xyz would stand variously for the different letters a = x, b = xy, c=xyz. In the illustration above you can see the panel of sockets. It was my client's job to operate this like a switchboard operator would connect calls. Plugging cords into different sockets would cause the machine to do different functions with the punch card data, add column 1 to column 3 for instance.

It was fast-paced work. She got RSI in her hands from plugging and unplugging a combination of 3600 different functions and grabbing the huge stacks of data-encoded card. And don't think this was isolated in some single-government backroom. Every single major office had one of these machines - extending down St Kilda road - calculating payrolls, takings, survey results, weather patterns.

When a new calculation was needed you had to draw up your plans on pieces of paper and design how the cards would be set up. You then needed to work out the different combinations of sockets that were required to complete the calculation.She left work in the mid 1950s to have a child but, unlike most women in that era, found it exceptionally easy to get work again when her son went back to school.

This makes getting up in the morning interesting! Here's to the Punch-Card!

Back to Normal...

2005-02-07T11:57:39Z

The summer festive period is over. It is time to get ready for the long stretch of another year of work and routine.

Lateline is back on ABC TV. Welcome back Tony Jones! I could not sleep without his informative summary of the worlds current affairs at the end of every evening.

hisnameisjustin @ 2005-02-06T21:56:00

2005-02-06T11:02:49Z

Oh I forgot my best dream. I was at Nick's parents house and it began to rain torrentially. Everyone, especially his mother, was upset because they had a crop of strawberries that would be ruined. So I get this big wooden barrell and I go out in the rain and start madly picking strawberries. I am going so fast. As I pick, I am thinking of how I am going to save the Wurlod farm and that they will make so much money from the saved strawberry crop. They are sure fine strawberries.

Finally I finish and I bring the barrell of strawberries up to Nick's mum. "Thank you Justin" she says and she places them on the kitchen table. Suddenly the barrell has become a small wooden bowl. "This will make a lovely centrepiece for the table." I feel so useless.