Re-use is the best form of recycling

Being green once meant you walked everywhere in your sandals and didn't have showers. Now being green is seen as something cool. It's a trend. And while I generally hate trends. I have to say, the fact that everyone is jumping on the green bandwagon regardless of motives is pretty cool.

Some zealots may accuse those "trend setters" as hypocrites, and they'd be correct. We're all a bit hypocritical in one way or another. As human beings we can only try and do our best. My best might not be as good as your best, but at least I'm trying. I struggle just as hard at what I'm doing as your struggles with what you're doing, despite our skills being at two different levels.

I guess the trick here is to not look up or worse, look down at someone and what they do because it doesn't meet your standards.

A friend who has a high level of expectations about cleanliness expected his house mate to be the same. Turns out they are not. His life is jeopardised (or so he thinks) because they don't live up to his standards. So when I speak to him I tell him, do I do things to your standards? Does anyone? Both answers were no.

So, the other day when a "Greenie" approached me in the city and started to preach. I told him "Rather than spread the word, spread the example. I told him, rather than hand out pamphlets on paper that will end up in the bin, why not carry around an egg carton and suggest to people that they can be used to make goggles for kids.

Perhaps buy them from a farmer or markets where you can return them for re-use. Use them in compost. Collect a lot of them and use them for soundproofing a room. There is so much you can do, and that's just with egg cartons.

How many people do you see in front of you that can realistically drop what they do, change their lifestyle to one like yours, go save a whale, hug a tree and still be expected to come back to their inner city apartment in time for their favourite TV show? Monkey see, monkey do. Monkey no do as monkey told."

He ignored me, walked over to someone else and continued driving his train wreck into someone else.

Why do people look at me funny when I re-use old junk or rubbish?

Google Wave invites

Last month I received an invite to join Google Wave, and I accepted. I wanted to try it out but was soon disappointed because I assumed it would be like Email 2.0. Sadly, you can only Wave to other Google Wave account holders.

So a month on, I have a few contacts in the list and I have started to Wave at people. I can see the potential. But what I discovered the other day was hilarious. People are selling their Wave invites on ebay.

Some are going for $12 or more.

While I'm not surprised, I am finding it very funny that people are selling invites, and I'm not sure how successful they are, but I find it even more humorous that there's enough demand for people to pay for something that's basically free.

Performance Number Duo update

My friend who got up for the first time in his life, on stage, and performed a few songs all by himself last month called me a couple of weeks ago to play music with him live on stage at a venue where his singing teacher told him to go. Then our drummer cancelled, so my friend cancelled our band's time slot.

He did however have another band to play in which was formed at the music school he goes to. They had a drummer (a young little bird), a guitarist who was pretty impressive for someone who wouldn't even be 15. Another guitarist who's decent at soloing, and my friend of course singing and playing guitar on a few songs.

I told myself "Surprise me mate" as he got up on stage, nervous as usual. For the hour before hand that I was there, he went to check when he's on about 4 or 5 times. He went to the toilet about 15 times and never sat still for more than 3 seconds. As time drew closer, he admitted he was starting to get nervous.

However, when he started to sing to the band's music, he sang. He did well. Admittedly, there were a few flat notes, a few falsettos that were just too high to reach, a few missed lyrics. But so what? He had fun, the crowd mostly enjoyed it. Some people looked on it horror and I heard them comment "Great band, sack the singer" I felt like telling them this was his first time on stage with this band, only his second time singing and only after a few months or singing lessons. But I didn't have to, the MC of the show got up to congratulate them and told the crowd all that anyway.

He did exceptionally well. I'm proud of him. He's becoming a performer, not a bedroom Rock N' Roll star.

Speaking to him afterwards, I told him my honest opinion, the stuff ups, etc. He asked for it. So I was "brutally honest". His words, not mine. But I guess you can't tell him he was the best otherwise he'll never improve. So I gave it to him straight.

Later on, I asked him what's actually happening with "our" band and said our drummer couldn't even make it tonight to drum for us let along come in later on to support you in your performance. So, what are we doing?

Our drummer is also our friend and I feel my mate doesn't want to tell him "You're out of the band" because it may come across harsh. That's fair enough, but when you haven't played for three months then you get together for a couple sessions, then you disappear again. It's never going to happen.

I told my mate, if he was serious, he'd make an effort. No effort, no passion. It's time to find another drummer.... as I motioned to the pretty girl who dropped some beats on his performance.

He looked at me.... "Her?"

"Yep..... her"

He asked. She was happy about it. So I told my mate, "Set up a rehearsal. Email the drummer the songs we'll practice. No originals, just stuff that everyone knows so we can get a groove on. Worry about your originals later."

Meanwhile Val and I are still waiting to hear back from accountants. It turns out his accountant had to leave work for a short time because his son has been hospitalised. I hope he's okay, but we should hear back from Val's accountant next week.

Val called me the other day as I was about to snooze off in front of my computer while I did my accounting for my business. He said that he had a meeting with some people about the music we've been rehearsing as part of this theatre play Val has created.

They (the people Val spoke to) have accepted it and have put us into a festival to give the crowd just a taste (20 minutes) of the play in March next year. This will be followed by a full theatre play in Melbourne for a couple of nights. And then they are considering sending us to Greece to perform the play there.

The great part is, they're planning on covering all our expenses and because the organisation is non-profit, they plan on paying us with what's left over.

I was awake after that phone call. I finished off my accounts, decided to call it a day, went home, prepared dinner for my wife and I and told her the good news. I can't wait to start performing live.

I love the heat, but not this much

Summer is coming. The signs are here!

It's 42°C right now, and the last few days it's been reaching 33°C before 10am.

Fortunately it's not too humid. I can handle the heat, but mix in a bit of humidity and I fall apart. I can't function. I just melt where I'm standing and die.

Hopefully tomorrow isn't as hot. I have a busy morning booked with clients and then the afternoon making kebabs at the office with the guys downstairs from me who for every year at Christmas buy a skewer of kebab meat and attach it to their burner. It's a proper kebab burner.

Can't wait. I love making my own kebabs because you can put how much of whatever you want on it.

I've also invited some of my favourite clients to come and have some lunch.

Because of this heat, I have been sitting around, being lazy and fanning myself. Yesterday my nephew and niece said "why don't you just put the fan on"

Fanning myself with a hand fan was nicer and didn't use any electricity at all. I was more satisfied doing that than standing in front of an electric fan.

Just as I suspected

The account details my accountant received were my mate's personal accounts. The 'large' debt is the home loan, and all his other bits and pieces.

Looks like it's full steam ahead again.

That sucks

I have been hard at work trying to get on top of bills, and at the same time I've been trying to get on top of buying into this partnership with a mate of mine.

Sadly, my accountant called me yesterday to inform me that it is not a good business to buy into. I won't publish the financial information. However the debt this rehearsal/recording studio is in is about the same as the revenue it brings in.

Take out all the expenses, and you have a tiny portion of money left over that wouldn't even cover my mortgage, never mind the rest of my bills.

This really sucks.

Now, do I try and cypher the accounts further or take the initial advice of my accountant and walk away now?

I'm guessing I should walk away. First impressions are showing that the business isn't running to healthy. I was told by my accountant that if I buy into the business, since revenue is equal to debt, the business is worth nothing. However, I'll be buying into the large debt, and responsible for it regardless of how much or little I buy into the business.

That's not really a risk I want to take since I was already going to take out a loan (more debt) to buy into this in the first place.

I'll be jamming with my mate tonight and I guess we'll chat about it when I see him.

I do recall he said that he pays all his bills via the business. Perhaps the debt is his home loan? I'm not sure until I see it all. But at this point a nail has been hammered into the coffin, hopefully not the last one.

pip

When nothing works

I use to sit at things sometimes for days trying to make them work again. Often times I'd still end up with something that's still broken, with the added bonus of a beard and hunger.

When I worked in IT our boss would tell us if something isn't working, go for a walk. Come back in 30 minutes and try again. Most of the time this worked, and worked quite well. You'd come back with a clear mind and the answer would be staring at you in the face.

I found myself hanging over a problem today. A client's computer, which refuses to upgrade to Windows 7 due to the fact that his Vista installation isn't up to date. It isn't up to date because Windows Update won't work. And Windows Update won't work because.... well, my educated opinion is that it's because Vista is a shambles and as shiny as Windows 7 is, I would imagine these sorts of issues will be evident as time goes on.

I woke up this morning to a dead modem. Always a nice thing to wake up to. Then you realise "crap, how long has it been offline?" A question I ask myself because I run my own mail server at home. A spare modem is now in place, and the faulty one has been sent off for warranty.

I was able to act quickly, keep cool and get back on track as soon as possible.

However, there are times when things don't go according to plan, and they also don't go well while you're side tracked, fixing the unplanned breakages. At times, I have to admit, I try and keep my cool as much as possible, but I guess I'm only human (if that's an excuse) and sometimes problems get the best of me.

I'll feel angry, not at what's gone wrong but at myself because I can't fix it. Although there are other times when I can get angry at something because it sits there not working, but I just can't see why not.

In the end, calm and collected is a better way to be, because I've found that you'll usually solve the problem either in the same amount of time or quicker if you're calm about the situation. The same boss that told me to take a walk also told me something else when a computer isn't working "It's a computer, no one's life is at risk".

If it's not fun, don't do it

I've always tried to adhere to the principle of if it's not fun, don't do it anymore. I come across people every day that aren't having fun. They're at work, they work, they take things seriously. And while there are serious aspects to work, say, with high voltage, or construction where lives are at risk. I don't want to say throw it all out the window and just have fun.

What I want to say is that having fun, even at work can change the way you not only perceive work but life too.

I saw this video the other day that I would like to share.

Isn't that fantastic?

Me being overweight, I'm conscious of taking the stairs vs taking a escalator. I always find the further car parking spot because I know I can get a spot and walk to the shop quicker than the person who's circling around the same area waiting for someone to leave.

I guess the real question is, do we really need to make it fun in order to do something, anything?

Well, we don't need to, but why not make something pleasurable?

Why not make everything you do, fun?

I try and make games out of everything I do. Mowing the lawn. I try and beat my best time (3 hrs 47 mins). And when I can't go any faster, I try and mow it better.

If you've been following my blog, you'll know that running my business isn't fun anymore either. So I'm changing that too. I'm radically altering what my business does, and at the same time heading into an industry I've always had a passion for.

Actually, it's not even a passion. It's just my way of life.

I've recently ordered this book: Element - Finding Passion Changes Everything. Which is a book by Sir Ken Robinson. If you don't know of him, he parades around the world taking about something I do have a passion for due to my terrible experiences in school. He talks about how education kills creativity. He talks about how schools aren't meant for us. It was an idea brought together to feed the industrial revolution.

Now, while no one is against education. What Ken is passionate about is changing education to help your children, not your great and great great grandfather's children.

I'm wavering off topic here, but Ken clearly has a passion to change education. Deep down we all have a passion for something. And I bet if it's not fun you wouldn't be doing it.

If you're stuck in a rut like me at the moment. Maybe look at what you enjoy doing best and seeing if you can fulfil yourself with what you love. Make your life fun again, like when you were a kid. Being a grown up doesn't mean you can't have fun anymore, at least that's what I tell myself.

Let me take you back

Since I seldom look at the past things in my life, every now and then even I lapse into a bit of nostalgia and wonder "what ever happened to....?"

One of the things that recently came up in my head that I decided to look further into thanks to technology and crazy science fiction come to life, otherwise known as Google and its associated products like Maps. I found a pattern here that I really wanted to share.

When I lived in the US, one of the things I disliked the most about it was waking up every morning and having to bare another day of school. My school like was tough. Stabbed for being white during the LA riots (at the age of 13). Bashed until I couldn't move, and then my bus fair taken from me along with my bag and school work.

I wasn't exactly picked on all the time, but I had my share. This mainly happened in what US-folk call Junior high. We have no such thing here in Australia.

Well, while reading a very interesting story about someone who had experienced a great deal of suffering in school I related and this is where the "I wonder" part came to be.

I wondered if the school I went to still existed. I wondered if the place I lived in still stood. I don't remember anything I see currently on Google maps look like what I saw just now. However, I could still navigate my way around my US based home town.

Upon further reading and viewing I discovered that each and every school I've been to that was a nightmare to attend has a highly prized school today.

This doesn't just go towards the schools I went to in the US, but also the schools I went to here in Australia.

In fact, the mutual feeling of crap education has completely dissipated and when I read a blog about some current member of the schools I went to, or I stumble upon a website that rates schools, or a review some teacher wrote about their experiences. It's all a good thing, in total contrast to what I myself and a whole lot of other friends I had at the time experienced.

Was my timing off? Should I have started school a couple of years earlier or later? Would I have still been stabbed or bashed until I can't remember? Would I have still felt the same stomach churning feeling of gagging every time school was mentioned?

I'm not sure.

However, I can say, if I went back to those schools now, according to the reports I'm reading, I would love it.

The junior high I went to is now a big player in sport and even better for me if I still went there, a major part of JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratories). I remember once having the opportunity to visit the place and spend all day with a guy who worked there.

I was so enthralled by what I saw, full blown satellites they sent into space, real scientists. I wanted to live there.

However, I moved away and forgot about all that, taking on other interests which has led me here.

What I wonder about after seeing this is, could it have been different?

I don't want to ponder on that thought for too long, because I hate "what ifs". But, what if?

Electric Dreams - Episode 2

Last week I did a live commentary and opinion on that show on TV called Electric Dreams that covers a whole decade where a family lives back in the day with the technology only found during that time.

This weeks episode is set in the 80's. This is where a lot of our reliance of electricity comes into play. Sony Walkman, Microwave ovens, Video game consoles and computers.

Interestingly, the walkman is a hit with dad who jogs every morning. The Microwave oven, once mother had got accustomed to using a stove and over, she actually thought the microwave was a silly idea and couldn't see how it ever became a popular.

The son was straight on the video game.

Now we're on to the Video Cassette Tape. Beta vs VHS. And even some laser discs too. Since VHS was the popular choice at the time, the show sends the family a video player and also a video camera.

At this point, they find that they have nothing to play on he player. The father heads out to find a player, which is a bit unfair considering they've provided him with old tech in a new world. With no such things as DVD's or Blu-Rays he finally finds a video store that has some video cassettes for sale. $1 each.

Bringing the newly purchased videos home, he finds that the player doesn't work. It turns out the daughter of the house has tried to put in a betamax tape and has possibly ruined the player.

In the morning, the father wakes up to a knock at the door. Coming out to the front yard, he gets great news, a new set of wheels. Although, it turns out that he gets access to a C5. No, not a Citroen. An electric car that never took off. If anything, it was the biggest technological flop every. Though I can't see why it did.... electric powered, and has pedals for some human assistance.

The father likes it, but considers it a death trap due to the more modern traffic surrounding him.

Meanwhile at home, the family receives a "Compact Disc Player". The father isn't impressed. He much prefers vinyl (me too). Dad isn't happy and consoles himself by saying "That's progress".

The computer still hasn't been utilised well. So the father sits with the son and work on it together, loading tapes and they finally get a game to load.... several hours later.

It's now 1987 and they have launched the microwave dinner. Something I cringe about every time I see one.

The show is nearly over, it's 1989 and mum is on teletext and getting a recipe off the channel to cook for dinner for their celebration.

The younger daughter accepts that the 80's pushed technology, but nothing worked. It wasn't really plug and play like things are today.

Since the family received a camcorder earlier, they got to use it as he kids got to make an 80's music video. The father ends with his opinion that he loved the 80's and the technology. He recalls how awesome it was to see all this technology come about. But in reality, it was all a bunch of rubbish.

The show ends, roll credits. Next Sunday will show the family living in the 90's. Can't wait to see the Play Stations and laptops appear in the home.

What do you really need?

After reading another blog and me asking the question, what do you really need? I thought I'd talk about exactly that.

Many people, myself included have too much crap. We consume, we buy more. In a society where we'll buy a product because it comes with more you have to wonder, is retail therapy really an issue or are we all just hooked on having the next best thing?

I guess I'll cut a long story short. What do you really need?

Now, we all know food and water are a necessity. But what do you need that isn't so important to your life. Stuff that you could give up, but at the same time it's one of those things you couldn't live without.

Is it your TV? Internet? Car?

I thought about this and realised that apart from a few pieces of clothing and some guitar strings, which is what my blogger friend above said in a comment. I don't really need much else.

So, what do you really need if you were to live on a deserted island, or any favourite remote part of the world? A deck of cards? A drum? A book?

Band on board

Tonight, I finally got to play my new bass amp that's been sitting in my music room for the last three months collecting dust.

One of the bands I belong to finally got their act together and played some music at a rehearsal studio. I had bought my new bass amp because my old one was getting one. It was slowly dying. It had to be replaced. So I tried repairing it instead. It's such an old amp, I didn't want to see it just die and end up in landfill. While the repairs made it work again, it's just not the same. It's a bass amp, so it needs a really good bottom end sound. This amp had lost that oomph you get. The dropped note you feel rather than hear.

I originally went to just buy a cabinet with some speakers in it, but my wife insisted I don't do things half way and so I bought the head with the cabinet.

Having it sit in my room all this time has been one of those feelings you get when you're young and you can't wait to open the presents, except this feeling has been there for three months.

Finally, finally. I got to play it at gig volume. It was so silky smooth, low and powerful. Such a nice luscious bass sound. I love that smooth deep throb you feel when you hit a note on the lower register.

I'm playing tomorrow night again, and then I'll be playing every week with another band from here on. Though there's yet another band who wants me to play bass for them though I haven't done so yet. They sacked their other bass player and put me in, without an audition.

So, with all the stuff happening with music, I figured an update of what's happening with some bands I'm playing with should be included.

I'm also looking to buy a banjo and a Ukulele soon. My wife wants me to play banjo and Uke for her. We shall see how that turns out.

Bikes on a side track.

As you're probably aware. I'm an ex-bikie. lol. I love motorcycles. And my mates all know it too. A few months ago a friend of mine asked me if I could check out some bikes with him. I agreed, still being knowledgeable with all things two wheeled. And we ended up picking him a decent commuter bike for much less that what was asked for.

Another friend, by the same name who's been riding for a few years now called me last week to ask the same question. So I got up nice and early today, went to my usual farmers market for my shopping, came home, dropped the wife off at the beautician and took off to see my mate.

When I got there, we jumped in his car and drove about an hour to see this bike. It's a 99 model Triumph Sprint ST. Black in colour.

Was in very decent condition, obviously a careful owner. I could see he wasn't the ZX7-R Ninja hoon type, so I'm sure the bike hasn't been thrashed. No oil leaks, maintenance was all good. Just normal wear and tear for a 10 year old bike.

I test rode it and came back about 20 minutes later with a big grin on my face. 900cc Triple cylinder howling away. I loved every second of it and was thinking maybe I could buy the bike. I've always liked Sprint ST's and this one was nice.

My friend took off on the bike for about 5 minutes while I talked to the guy about the bike. I'd probably offer a realistic $6,500. He was asking for $7,000

Being the bike was the first road bike my mate looked at, he said it would be best to look at others too. A wise choice. So we thanked the guy for his time and drove back into town. I stopped at his place to look at his and his wife's current bike. Both leaking. One with oil, the other with water.

So I've been asked to look at them both because they spent money on getting a mechanic to fix it but it came back much the same. I think there's a trust issue with the mechanic now and they don't want to just keep taking it in only to have it come back with the same problems as before.

So, it looks like I'm pulling my tools out more often these days.

Then on my drive home, me being a day dreamer, and probably suffer from some sort of attention disorder started to think that I'm doing a lot of these bike pre-purchase inspections. What a nice business idea.

Hahahaha, just when my partnership with the music stuff is about to go through, I get side tracked. But don't worry, I'm focussed. We can all get a little side tracked every now and then. :)

Living things

I'm not really a hippy. Some of my friends think I am with the way I bang on about the environment and how to preserve it.

I am a hypocrite though. While I can eat a nice steak or a rack of ribs and have zero guilt. At the same time I can't put a lobster into a pot of boiling water. I usually get them to the front of back door of the house and let them out.

Last month my brother in law when to Thailand or something, and brought back a tennis racquet for me. But this wasn't an ordinary racquet. It was smaller than a full sized one. It was made of plastic, and it had a button on it that when you pushed it would send sparks out to kill innocent inserts.

While the idea is fun and novel. I wasn't sure I'd like to use it. It's one of these.

So, time did come to finally try it out when one of those really long winged ants flies into your house. The wife got me to try it out on the ant.

There were three loud pops. Really loud. The wings got blown off the ant. It crawled around, clearly dazed from the massive shock treatment it just received.

I regretted doing it, I apologised to the ant. I said I was really sorry. I regretted doing it, watching it helplessly crawl around in circles. Probably thinking "WTF happened just then?"

I promise to never use that contraption again.

Music that makes you move

Having been playing and performing music since I was 6 years old, I have always been in tune with sounds around me. Sorry about the pun. While I've performed other people's songs and pieces as well as my own personal stuff, I much prefer playing along to other people's music rather than writing my own.

From an early age, I would say that my influences were Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, Depeche Mode. Are you starting to see when I grew up?

When I moved to the United States, I met my oldest brother (half brother), which I had not known of before hand. He was an ex-Russian paratrooper, tough as nails, listened to heavy metal. I had not heard metal before. My house was usually full of the mainstream music of the time.

Heavy metal struck a different chord with me... sorry about the pun again. It was different. Obviously, but to me the structure was different, the patterns were different.

I have to explain something weird about me. Music has the same effect as drugs on me. I get taken to another world. I literally see things changing in front of me. I become so immersed in the music that it is truly a trip for me. I absolutely get sucked right into this other place.

Now that I got the weird stuff out of the way.... Metal was something fresh. I had to hear more, learn more about it. And I did, I listened to everything, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Anthrax, Slayer and so on.

When I moved back to Australia, things were different again. Mainstream music here consisted of techno and dance music. It sounded so unimaginative and loopy that I couldn't stand it. So I went on the search for more metal.

I found a shop where they sold nothing but rock and heavy metal music. At this stage I had played a myriad of instruments. Starting off with Piano and Triangle in school where I played in a percussion band at the Sydney Opera House. Moving to the US, I didn't get to play much because there wasn't much music in Primary school in the US... well, not any of the ones I went to. We did have a hippy come in to school once a week back in the year 4 that got us to perform at school. I played the Xylophone.

After not much music at all, I started Junior High. They had music, but the only option was Orchestra and the Orchestra had to play at the football games, it was a marching band really. I guess it was fun. I played Alto Saxophone for 2 and a half years. Got good at it, learn to finally read music (I don't remember or care for it now).

I left America to return to Australia where I left you before I dove into my music history in the US.

I joined the music class in high school here in Australia with everyone playing piano, I wanted to play a guitar. Piano got old for me and I had not touched it since I was in Australia before moving to the US. So I picked up a guitar one day and tried to play it. My science teacher walked past the room and saw me with it and said "You play?" I said no, but I really want to learn. It turned out he was the ex-bass guitarist for Rat Cat, a local Aussie band.

He taught me some chords and away I went.

Meanwhile, what were my musical influences doing? Well, they were a bit all over the place. I still listened to Judas Priest and Iron Maiden but I grew tired of the same old stuff from other metal bands that always sounded the same from one album to the next.

I discovered a whole new set of sub genre's in heavy metal that gave me that trippy feeling again. Something I hadn't experienced for a number of years. Power metal, Gothic Metal, Progressive Rock, Operatic Rock.

Bands like Nightwish, Tristania, Within Temptation, Sonata Arctica, Dungeon, Voyager, Amaranthe are all types of bands I mainly listen to these days.

Why? Because they sound nothing like anything else. They get me moving. They make me feel alive. Some of the sounds, and the combination of notes almost make me blind with visuals in my head and I enter a whole new world.

These aren't your ordinary bands. Their influence on me is huge. They're effect on me is unexplainable.

But their effect is totally different to a band I might enjoy. I might think they rock. I rock on listening to them.

One I found just today on MyfriendFaceBookTubes is Makeshift Innocence from Canada. They sound magnificent. Their first track on their page makes me want to grab my Djembe and shaker and go mental... in fact, just before writing "in fact" I went to their site, had a listen to their song "Your body" and had a beat on my African Drum.............. okay. I'm back. :)

That makes me move. Makes me want to dance. Makes me happy. It's a very different feeling I get from the other songs I first talked about.

I do think I'm crazy though. I don't need drugs to trip out. I just need a damn good piece of music to make me slouch in my chair, start drooling and wake up three days later dehydrated, comatose and in bad need of a bath. Ah the life of a rocker!

Hahahahahahahha.

Animal talk

I've subscribed to a podcast recently (a vidcast in actual fact) that interests me. It's about cars.

But this post isn't about cars at all. It's about talking.

As humans, we love to socialise. We love to talk. Have a catch up, a pow wow. We love a good yarn. A good story.

I love chatting. I love catching up with friends to find out what they're up to these days. So when I was waiting for a friend at a cafe today for a quick catch up, I sat alone waiting and listened to another conversation. Then I went off into my own world, as if I took a pill and waiting for the magic carpet bus to arrive and take me away.

I started to think about animals, in other words living things besides humans. And I started to think about if they have any conversation at all.

Are humans the only living creatures on this planet that have general banter and chit chat?

I'm sure the answer is easy.... Yes, animals communicate. But that's not what I'm asking. Do they converse?

Do they talk about their day off? How hard it's getting to find pollen? Does a dog sniff another bogs butt and laugh (in their own language) and say "dude, you have worms".

Do they sit around on their mat at the end of the day and talk about their day to their sister or friend?

Okay, so maybe they don't. Maybe they don't talk or communicate at all.

Maybe they just live every day like that's all there is. It's another day, lick my balls, piss on the grass, ooh the master is up, time to eat, drink, walkies? ooh, check out that bitch, wonder who she's seeing.

Do you think a dog would think that, how about a parrot?

I'm sure they communicate, but do they like to have a chat?

Yesterday, not so long away

Or something like that....

So, what's it all mean?

I'm watching a show on TV right now called Electric Dreams. It's probably a one off show, not a series. Hosted by Amanda Keller, of Beyond 2000 fame. I had a crush on her then, and I think she's still a hottie. :)

The show, in its basic format is taking a family, removing all technology, stipping down the house and only providing the family with everything that was available in the 70's. Each day will take them to a new year.

It would seem at first they (the family) found it quite novel. I'd imagine half way through the show the kids will start getting restless with the lack of stimulation other than a TV and guitar.

The show displays a really good example of how life was, but also, really how life can probably do without all the rubbish we deal with daily.

Easier said then done. I love technology, I love gadgets and I can't get enough of the latest and greatest things. Whatever those things are.

However, I could easily replace all the technology I have with good old fashioned old skool things.

Lets look at some technology as an example that we might take advantage of;

De-mister in your car. Pretty self explanatory, I don't think going back to a 1970's car in Winter would be welcome since we're all now quite well accustomed to a foggy free window in their car.

Then there's EFI. I think most people have probably even forgotten cars with manual chokes.

Yet, the car would more than likely be easier to fix. With simple design, no complicated systems keeping things in check. People would more than likely slow down and drive at more legal speeds instead of cruising around leisurely.

The family has now been given still cameras, and heading into the commercial break, the young boy of the family appreciates a bit of vinyl due to the fact that he's never held a piece of music in his hands, in total contrast to the digital age he's always known to download songs.

That's quite profound when you think about it. And I gather this is why Steve Jobs has introduced album art into their iTunes Music Store.

And while the boy admires the beauty of an LP, there's a power cut due to the industrial disputes in 1972-3. Power will be restored in the morning, where the boy goes on his paper delivery route at the butt-crack of dawn before school.

After school they (all the kids) receive bikes to ride on. And they love it. The parents are a bit off about it all because they worry the kids will get nabbed or hurt and won't know about it.

As they settle in for dinner, they play some board games. Something the father admits to not doing for a very long time.

It's 1975 now and the family gets a deep freezer and thus supermarkets are on the rise.... mind you, this show is filmed in Britain, so supermarkets may have been around before then in your locale.

Welcome 1976 and the family gets a colour television set. The son isn't so amused by colour on his TV, and would rather do without it if it's not as good as his current day setup (computer, hi-def TV, etc). Then all of a sudden they get a game console delivered. The Atari console with Pong. Or, in the case of this show, a Binatone. Enthralling.

They now receive pocket calculators and the parents do all the rude word before giving it to the kids. 58008 then turn it up side down. The son doesn't bother with it all, and starts to feel withdrawn from life due to lack of modern stimulation, so much so that he helps mum clean up by grabbing the vacuum cleaner.

Ohh, the TV is dead. The son is dismayed. The repair man is called, reminded that TV sets use to break down quite a fair bit and use to heat up so much that they would set the house on fire, nicknaming them Curtain Burners.

As the show draws to a near, the family looks more relieved rather than gaining from the experience and perhaps realising they don't really need any of that stuff.

We're now at 1979, and the family is putting on the very typical and boring slide show. Fondu is served along side the Soda Stream and Snow balls. The kids put on their mix tape they created from their records recorded to tape.

As the slide show rolls on, the husband reminisces, and loves it. The wife hates it, because the lack of tech made her life in the home harder.

One of the daughters thinks she had more freedom to play outside without her parents being so cautious. The son won't miss the lack of technology at all.

I was wrong about the show being a one off, the next episode will bring on the 80's and with it comes the Walkman, Simon, big music amplifiers and more cassettes.

I assume there will be a 3rd episode covering the 90's

Really when you think about it, most of us can remember when this was normal.

The question is, are we really better off with all the technology that surrounds our lives today?

Howdy Partner

Over the last few months I have been on the journey to find my next life... mainly my next career. I won't go into the whole reason why again, that's in an older post. However, my friend Val has returned from Greece and we caught up on Friday after work.

If I haven't mentioned it before, Val is the owner of The Sound Basement. A local rehearsal/recording studio that has a lot to offer. I met Val back in 2008 when a friend organised a band and invited me to play bass for him. We haven't played in 3 months, but that's a different story.

Upon meeting Val, we seemed to have got a long really well straight off the start. He invited me into the studio once to have a look at what he's doing, and I learnt straight up that this place he's created isn't just somewhere for people or bands to come in, jam for a few hours and go home or a gig later on.

Val has ideas, he's a crazy person with a million different ideas. The only thing is, he has too many ideas and needs a bit of focus.

Well, a few months back when I was looking at buying into a music shop franchise that pitches itself mainly as a music tuition place that happens to have guitars, drums, keyboards etc for sale as well. It's a great place and I love what the owner has done. It's a brilliant idea that appealed to me. However, for some reason I had an interesting feeling when I went to see the shop that I was interested in. When I told Val about it, he went to see the shop a few days later and called me to say "Steve, I went to the shop. Hmm, I didn't get a great feeling either".

We both agreed there was a vibe about it that didn't rub either of us in a positive way. So, after that Val and I met up face to face because at that stage both of us had shared personal projects with each other and have a basic understanding of where each of us stand in the art of music.

I went in that day to see Val in regards to an acoustic project he's doing and wants me to be the guitarist. I agreed and then we moved on to other topics, one of which was this music shop. The talk about that was short, we both had mutual feelings towards it and then the conversation quickly moved on to other things.

I identified that while Val had a bunch of brilliant ideas, some profoundly insane that will work only because they're crazy, while others more mainstream and easy to work with. Val appeared to need a hand. He's doing this all pretty much single handed, with only his wife, obviously a strong woman who has helped dramatically in Val creating this studio and making it nearly double in value in a little under 3 years.

Val comes out with "Do you see anything here that you could help with?"

A light bulb not only lit up in my head, it glowed so bright it exploded.

I saw this as my opportunity to finally let go of IT and become part of a more realistic idea of how I want to work and live.... in the music industry.

The only question was, "What the hell do I do here?"

What did I really have to offer Val apart from being an extra set of hands and maybe be his clone for times where he can't be two places at once.

Well, after much much thought, and with Val's return from his overseas trip we organised our Friday afternoon meeting and mainly caught up about his trip. Soon after, his wife turned up and the talk turned to business.

6 hours later and a numb bottom, we had something in place. A verbal agreement with some ideas on what is going to happen. I told Val I felt a great deal of relief that now a lot of the important questions have been answered and a lot of the doubt has lifted thanks to our chat.

It just went to prove that with both of us putting our heads together, we had this beautiful agreement (albeit verbal) where we both have a fair partnership with both of us coming out with everything we want.

Naturally, from here on we'll be talking to accountants, lawyers and other people we may need to bring in, and we'll both sit down with these people to have an actual legal partnership agreement set up so we cover all bases from the good parts to the bad parts.

While neither of us want the bad parts, we both know it's realistic to be aware that the proverbial poop can hit the spinning wind machine otherwise known as a fan.

We both ended our lengthy catch up at about 11 pm on Friday night knowing what each of us have to do to go to the next step.

So, it looks like the ball has begun rolling. We have set out what areas of business I will be responsible for. What profits and running costs I will be associated with. The split of business between us, how much I'm buying into the business.

In between all the chatter, we also had some more crazy ideas pass between words. One of which is going to be a first time thing using my skills in technology and his knowledge of music to develop a cool and interesting way to deliver music to fans.

Sadly, this has been done before, just not in Australia. But it's cool and crazy ideas like the one I can't really talk about just yet that are going to make this a bloody fun journey I can't wait to be a part of.

My goals appear to be covered well;

•Less time working in a business, more time working on it.

•Being more creative

•Setting myself up financially so I can support myself and my family without worry of losing it •all tomorrow.

Val has similar goals but his main one is much like my first one. Have a business that runs while we're not there.

I'm excited, terrified and looking forward to the challenges I have to carry over the ideas Val has and make them a profitable music experience for bands and regular people who just want to have some fun.

I wish I could share these ideas with you, but I can't until they're ready to be delivered. But when they are, you'll see, they're awesome ideas. Val's got them, I've got the motivation to get them happening. Together, we're hopefully going to have a brilliant creation of a music studio like no other. Fuck it's scary. I can't wait.