Great Southern Steve

The weird internet malaise that has been over me nearly all year continues. My blogs are withering and places I used to post go unattended. Every time I sit down to do anything computer-wise, the overwhelming feeling of “why bother?” rears up and grabs me.

I have been very active at the gym and at work and work is going well but increasingly I am finding my connection with computers to be tedious. I find most of the people on the internet tedious too. I got run off a message board recently for this exact reason.

I have lately had the option of either going to see The Pixies (about $60, playing tomorrow) or spending almost the same amount of money firing 50 shots with a .22 at Flinders St Firing Range, and I chose the latter. Yesterday I blasted the shit out of the target for about twenty minutes and got a pretty decent score. The Pixies show would have lasted hours. But I thought about schlepping all the way over there, queuing, queuing for drinks, standing around on the beer-stained floor, jostling for a good view, and thought: fuck it.

Also I went out in Sydney on my own and saw four different bands last week while on a research trip for the rail project and the “serious rock band” was the lamest. Rock music holds less and less appeal to me.  Every time I hear distorted guitar or earnest male vocals I just think, “oh, just shut the hell up you big wuss.”

So I took the shooting option. For twenty minutes, I was Bangy the Shoot man, who is a good person and not to be underrated. If you have never fired a gun I suggest you try it at least once. I have now fired a .22, an AK-47 (in Vietnam), and an air rifle. The .22 was probably the best fun. The AK47 would have been more fun if it wasn’t bar mounted.

In other news – I got myself a tattoo back in January (pictured below) and have gotten money together to buy another one from my friend J.

My band played a market show on the weekend, and it went all right.

And, ah, that’s all.

S.