two thursdays

Two thursdays a go I went to hamilton. Two thursdays ago I said goodbye to my grandma for the last time.

Me, Matt 'n Keir had been gearing up for ages to go to Hamilton for no reason for a while now, to celebrate Matt having his full license. We had a chilly bin full of coke, a shit load Matthew the mathematician carefully calculated.

We were getting ready to go when keir suddenly had a job interview, so she went off to do that. About the same time Dad sent me a text. Grandma was on the way out and I should probably go see her while I had the chance. She had been going down hill for the past week or so, going in and out of conciousness.. Water in the lungs etc...

I decided to walk. The day was AWESOME. The sun was blasting down on us, but there was still a slight morning chill about the air. so it was comfortable. I sipped on one of our cans on the way across. My mind wandered in other directions. Dredging all my memories of Grandma up. The two that popped out as being the earliest sprang to mind quickly.

I must have been about 4-6, cause I couldn't read at the time, but I had developed a sharp interest in Asterix comics (as well as tintin, but there was far to much talking in that for me to handle,) and I'm sitting with grandma making her read bits of it to me that piqued my interest(Asterix in Belgium). Pointing at one frame I ask her what it says "Lets get them!" she says in her old person voice. "And what does that one say?" "Aaaaaaaarg." she replies. Cracks me up now thinking about it.

The other occasion that I recall is when I'm a bit older. She's staying with us and twenty dollars goes missing. I'm instantly blamed. I was furious, the injustice of it all! This was a miscarriage of justice I tell ya! She found it behind her bed a few hours later and Mum demanded she apologise to me. Ha ha. After that I vowed that if I was blamed for stealing and I hadn't, I would go and nick something so at least it was true. Lol, kidding.

Although, which is better, Being bad and having the truth? Or being good and given a lie? I

I made it to the hospital and found mum beside her knitting, which sort of reminded me of those movies when someones about to be hung, and the old woman are suddenly compelled to make that scarf they were working on last execution. Grandma was having trouble breathing, and was unconscious. I had never seen her that bad before. She's that grandma thats always in hospital for one reason or another. Oh did I mention she once drove her car down a bank, and into someones deck/house?

Mum said that Grandma could probably still hear us, so we were encouraged to talk to her. It was an odd one sided conversation, telling her about my plans for the day etc, and then talking to mum about her own parents and grandparents (My great grandparents). It was a real cool experience really. It felt like I was listening to all of these stories of my long gone past. The sun was still filtering through the window. It was ground level so you could look straight out onto the trees and grass.

Mum asked me what my goals were. Not thinking overly hard I told her how I want to update the parables to a more modern context. get some humour in there etc, help people relate to it, the same way they did back in the day.

The time passed quickly. I kissed grandma, and gave a jovial goodbye as I went to meet Matt 'n Keir.

We got ice and a chilly bin, filled it with our "shit loads" of coke. At PaknSlave the checkout girl asked us why were going to Hamilton "Uh no reason, just cause we can really." "Their going to the comic bookstore" Keir said truthfully. I went and stole something so at least I could be bad and live with the truth. My awesome street cred was totally destroyed with that comment Keir, THANKS. Lol. Kidding once again, ahhh. What a card Izak.

We played road games all the way there, and listened to our combined music. Unfortunatly I went mental when choosing my own music, so about 90% of the music on the player was mine. Oops.

The crazy thing about the tron is that (as Matt observed) You only need to take about two right turns from his house to get to the Hamilton CBD. So we never got lost. Which is cool. But it would have been cooler if we had ended up in Wanganui (With or without an H its still the same place. AKA we must have missed a turn off and went a waaaay to far.)

We were all sorta spooked by the tron. Where were all the people? Why is it so quiet? Why does the Mc Donalds wait for its ingredients to spontaniously pop into a product resembling a burger rather than doing it by hand (Which takes about a trillion years less time to do). Oh wait. Were not in Auckland, ha ha, Silly us. We got to the comic book store, got a 20 sided Die and another munchkin expansion.

Just on the outskirts of town heading home I got a text saying Grandma had just died at 2. I guess it was time.

Bradley Hathaway came on the radio. And it was really good to listen to.

to be continued (Much like the last post I did.)

Headspace Reunion

This blog was primarly started to immortalize my adventures last year with headspace, so it would be a crime to not write about the reunion now.

day 1 (friday): Got woken up and told that if I wanted to get a ride into town I would have to go at 10. My bus leaves at 12:40. I spend the next hour or two on the waterfront enjoying the glorious day and blistering heat by sitting on a bench with my vaguely fem bag, watching the ferrys while absentmindedly fiddling with my... rubics cube.

I get no word from Jo during this time, no matter how many texts I send her. She's catching the same bus as me to Tauranga. As the time arrives to leave still no word from Jo. I get on the bus and waylay the driver for as long as possible. Still no reply from Jo. I presume she's dead, or at the very least immobile somewhere in a ditch.

Just as I'm getting out of town she texts saying that she's been texting the wrong number the whole time, she saw us pull away. STINKASAURUS.

Spend the rest of the trip wondering what Tauranga looks like and whether or not my bus is going in the right direction.

Get there at about 4, where I spend some cool hangout time with Mark. We change the tires on the old Headspace van, still sporting scars from its year spent with us.

Then I got sleepy and decided to do the rest of this post later.

Why do I want kids?

This was an interesting question posed to me by long standing mathematician Matthew Rust. While on the subject of children he queried me, and after I told him not to try any more gay shit on me he asked me why I wanted kids. Wow. That joke just made this whole first paragraph sound.. dirty.

So being the stubborn person I am I side stepped the question cause honestly it isn't something I haven't put a whole lot of thought into.

"Do you want kids just because thats what you have been told/or always just expected." I can't remember the exact words he said, something to that effect. So now I have composed a list from point A to point Z on why I think I want kids.

A: The process of making children has always appealed to me.

B: I have always wanted little clones of me, since cloning technology hasn't developed that far yet ill settle for the old method of making people that vaguely resemble me.

C: It'l give me something to do apart from eating/sleeping/working/dieing.

D: Someones gonna have to look after me in my old age, and I don't think my own parents would be up to the job by then.

E: I want to battle my children against other children to see who's got superior genes.

F: Gives me an excuse to hang around highschool girls again later on in life.

G: Gives me an excuse to act like a child again myself.

H: Gives me an excuse to wake up every few hours and get grumpy at something apart from car alarms.

I: I want to name something "Morpheus" and I don't want to waste it on something stupid like a pet or inanimate object.

J: Want something to love.

K: I don't think there are enough Taylors on the planet yet.

L: Want to show the world I'm serious about having a million babies.

M: Need child to fix and work all the electronic wizardry that will obviously exist in the future that doesn't exist now and I wont be bothered learning myself.

N: I want to lie to something that would believe anything, and I'm afraid other parents will correct all the mistruths I put into the heads of their own kids.

O: Want to be that dad that kind of frightens the boyfriends of ma daughters.

P: am thankful that I'm alive and assume that they would be to.

Q: Want to see what I missed when I popped out. I don't really remember it, I don't mind having a slightly different point of view either.

R: Want to show woman who's boss by indirectly inflicting great physical pain on them lovingly.

S: Send them to music lessons that they'l absolutely hate until later on in life when they come to be thankful for it.

T: Because it was built into us to procreate, and who am I to argue with that?

U: now that Matts challenged me on this I can't NOT have kids.

V: want to bless the world with the fruits of my loin.

W: Not abort them and say "These are the ones that are going to cure cancer."

X: 'cause their cute

Y: wants to know for certain if a babies first poo is green and sticky.

Z: Why do I want kids? "Because I can. (With a little help)"

HeadTree (A short story illustration)

Enjoy!

IFM: Musings of Art and Life

Update 21/10/13: Huh, The links broken now. It used to go to my issuu account, so check out my library page for other issuu type stuff I've done. I guess we'll never know what my musings are, cause I honestly can't remember. Guess it wasn't that important.

SUPER post

Well it seems as though that ol' rascal Brian Tamaki is at it again. Him and his cults. Well Boys will be boys. Especially ones who have power trips.

Now first off I was informed the other day that "blogs gave people the idea that their opinion actually matters." Now I would like to kindly point out that this w

as said over the internet, thus making his opinion more than just a little ironic. Be more self concious next time fish face. Any way! Back to MY OPINION >=( .

Today while driving all over Auckland I have been seeing billboards of Tamaki looking very sinister, grim faced, emerging from the murky depths of the black background. Along with that is the words "A super city needs a super church." I would beg to differ.

I think a super city needs a super hero. It should be the only way you can label Auckland a super city. Or perhaps Tamaki should dub himself the "super bishop" before making a "super church" for "the" "super" City. Shit. I went a bit nuts with the "things" "there".

Wow, isn't this blog becoming a veritable pumping house of current affairs! Makes a change from the fringe culture of graffiti and getting picked up by random druggies in the middle of the night. Speaking of which (Not druggies)!

A bunch of buses in the inner city are painted up by the cut collective. I saw this one randomly and was able to grab a shot. There's meant to be prizes if you can get a photo of five of them.

Well, I thought that this was the 100th post. But I might be wrong since I got a bunch of unfinished drafts from over the last (almost) two years. So if your feeling board, heres a scrap book of them all here today, unfinished for one reason or another.

2/14/08

Vampires day

I went dumpster diving on valentines day and found this old tatty board and decided to deck it out in true holiday spirit. "Happy Vampires day", Thats what I presume it is. Walking around the streets all I can presume is that its vampires day. All that neck biting going on between happy couples and the sharing of body fluids.

Everyone did valentines cards for everyone. Fun fun. Woop woop.

We leave this camp tomorrow. Thank goodness. I havent wanted to wash any of these clothes by hand. and I'm in short supply... I think thats why I'm not getting as many hugs as before. -_-

I also seem to be catching Jo's cold. DARN YOU. Darn you to HECK!

So yea, Happy Vampires day girls. I know at least one reads this. ha ha, Hanna.

3/22/08

Splash planet

Well it was rather a dissapointment really. Well the bumper boats were awesome when we went waiting in line. And smacking into Zac all the time on the Go Karts was amusing. Its just that the rides don't seem to have the speed or excitement of Waiwera. Maybe I'm just getting old and patriotic or something. Also they don't have any hot pools, apart from one pool which feels as though it is heated with the combined effort of all the small children peeing into it at once. I never realized how much I take hot pools for granted till now.
At one point I went to push Frank down the slide, His matt stayed where it was as he went shooting down. At another point Peaky tried going down the slide without a matt, it was rather pitiful watching him pushing himself down.
Last night we watched Jurrasic Park, me and zac stayed up talking and occasionally got freaked out by Frank and Peaky sleep talking. Our conversation summed up is "Blah blah blah WOA are you awake? he's not awake, hahahaha. blah blah blah."
Oh yea, the other day Frank sent in an irish joke to a radio station and won some gift cards to KFC, lol, so we got to use em today.
Jess gave me chocolate this morning! Yay, turns out I did get chocolate for easter after all! Our paintings are starting to be sold now at riverbend. It'l be interesting to see how they go. Emmily and Hahays are awesome as.
Classic conversation between me and the Caltex girl. I try to strike up a conversation. "Oh hi, wassup, its nice to see someone new." "Oh I'm not new, I have worked here two months." "Oh, ok, I usually come in here when the night shift are working." "I am the night shift." "Oh.. Well in that case.. Did you replace someone?" "Yea, Kelvin." "Oh aight, was he the fat one all the tall one?" "the fat one about this high?" "Yea yea!" "That was my UNCLE, Hes working the day shift now." ".... Thanks for the coke."

5/8/09

well its 3:30 in the morning. Im currently listening to the second proper release cd by greenday, "dookie." I listened to their first album "Kerplunk" and for the most part the songs were throw away forgetable.

Best song on the dookie album is "welcome to paradise" and maybe "basket case" because its so true.

Why am I doing this? because they got a new album coming out next week. and I think it might be decent. Before now I only listened to the songs that we have been fed like "wake me up when september ends" "Holiday" "american idiot" that sorta thing..

3:50 am. Finished that album. Now onto the "insomniac" album. ha ha. How Ironic. "no pride" The first songs pretty good... "brain stew" is a good change of pace..

4:23 woops. missed an album. their first ep "1039 smoothed out slappy hours".. The first song "16" is cool.

10/22/09

My eyes are tired. I should sleep. Finished my essay and handed it in this afternoon. Things are winding down. But this is only our world. On the dark side of the sun a world is being birthed.

Oh I think I figured out why I didn't post these before.. BECAUSE THEY SUCK.. Yes believe it or not my posts go through quality control. We usually ignore spelling errors though.

americans having paddys

Well lately it seems America has been throwing a bit of a paddy with itself. So they're probably even more self absorbed than they were before. Somewhere in your day to day life you may have heard about Joe Wilson, the guy who shouted "You Lie!" at Obama during a speech. This has prompted a rather vement attack back at ol' Joe. People are calling it outlandish and immature. This got me thinking, what would Americans think of our politicians? If you have ever heard the parliament in session on the radio you might know what I mean. I swear our people spend more time calling each other dorks (And then spending the next half hour complaining at Mr speaker to make the bully apologise.)How would they react if two of their politicians went and had a fist fight outside the white house?

Food for thought.

Wow. Only two more frickin weeks till uni is over and done with. My first year as a student designer is almost over! I don't feel magically any better at anything.. I guess that happens when they give me the degree or something..
I shall leave you with a few more photos from my museum excursion.