shoujobill

Yours truly will be headlining the warmup at the outside stage.

Which means that I will be playing to an empty dancefloor whilst folks arrive because I will be playing first from 8-9 outside in the beer garden. Hopefully it's a pleasant night though.

BUT!!! That's why I need all you fine people to come. And after me will be playing some of Brisbane's best DJs including Andee (The Met), Jimmy Vegas (GPO), Dynasty (Qld's #5 dj), Noise residents Rob_James, Tails (supported by a trio of live drummers), Scott Harms, and the newly formed duo of MintFlux.

And of course the production will be kickarse with lasers (THAT'S FUCKING TECHNO RIGHT THERE!!!), plasma walls, moving lights, flashing lights, big speakers, and all that cool shit.

Starts at 8pm and goes until 4am at the Jubilee Hotel, Cnr. Constance and St Pauls Terrace on Saturday, October 31st. Entry is $15.

Hope you can come!

more music charts

Lookit at

http://www.bill-cooney.com/2009/01/19/くいどころバー登貴/

Here's a photo of my current nerd shelves - because I'm currently living with my folks, I have to keep all my crap in one place where it can easily be concealed if we have company.

This is in the TV room and these shelves contain all my PS2 games, DVDs, little bits of nerd detrius and figurines. If you go to flickr, you can see the notes where everything is labelled.

Y'all may be interested in this.

http://www.manga-award.jp/

Here are 40 shots from this year's Bathurst 1000 I took on Saturday.

Check the rest out here : http://www.flickr.com/photos/aussiebill/sets/72157608028595281/

Someone needs to tell Rob to look at this post.

Awesome photo of him from Riverfire.

So after a Visa card killingly fun week in Tokyo, I'm back in Australia.

Had friends over on Saturday and Sunday and touched base.

Ate cinnamon donuts and a sausage roll and was sick.

Enjoyed watching mum and dad's new 46" full HD LCD. NEATO!!

Now today I have a phone interview and am off to the bank to get paperwork for my pension refund underway.

HOT STUFF!!!

Tomorrow is my last day as an ALT. I'll finish up 3 years of working in Japanese junior high schools and elementary schools as an English teacher.

I dunno. Today I marked a paper from a 3rd year student that had the following written :

"Rice is derisyasu."

I'm sure I've influenced or benefited some kid somewhere, but I'll never know who it is. Such is life.

Here's a rough translation of my farewell speech for tomorrow. I kind of just used the same generic speech for all my schools and added a few specifics about the school in question. It was interesting because this year I've started writing stuff directly into Japanese, so when they want me to do it in English I have to actually translate my Japanese. I find it easier than trying to translate the nuance and style of my English into Japanese.


[quote]Good morning everyone. For the last three years, I've taught at this school. It's been incredibly fun. I'm thankful for the warm way in which you accepted me. Over the three years, you tried hard in class which made teaching enjoyable. Together we learned a lot. I hope you enjoyed my classes.

Before I leave, I'd like to share some thoughts with you. Presently, we live in a constantly changing world. Everything is always changing. Whilst living in Japan, I've had the opportunity to experience working with people from many different countries. From this experience I've learned that whilst people come from many different places, we have many things in common. I think if we focus on our similarities rather than our difference, we can have better relationships.

At school you can study English which gives you an opportunity to better understand the world. English is a common language, so the person who can use English can more easily understand the world.

Until August, I'll be in Japan so if you see me around please say "Hi!". During summer vacation I'll return to Australia. If you have the chance, please come to Australia. I'm very thankful to have had this experience. I'll never forget it.

Thank you very much.[/quote]

So my packing is FINALLY pretty much done. Just have to tape the boxes closed, label them, make a list of what is in each box for customs and an estimate for the shipping insurance.

How to market polarised glasses that look ugly as shit to stupid fucking yanks.



Not aimed at any of my American friends in particular, just lamenting that there are enough sofa-bound behemoths that would fall for this kind of shit.

Yeah, I should post something considering the mail I got from Andy and Hiroko (everyone else, thanks for not GIVING A FUCK!!!)

Yeah.

Anyways, I got woken up by it and it was a little worrying but I've been in bigger. Anyways, the after shocks were more worrying. I'm fine, my apartment was fine (although I've boxed up all my books and figures). My bottle of gyoza sauce did fall off the shelf, but it was intact - just lateral.

What pissed me off the most was the fucking trains being shut down until 4pm (quake happened at 8.50am). I had plans to meet a bunch of friends in Sendai at 12.30 and take the train to the Sendai Nikka Whiskey Factory, go on a tour, get tanked on the free tastings and then go to the beer garden on the roof of the Mitsukoshi store in Sendai.

In the end I took a taxi into Sendai and just met people for the beer garden and then bars.

I finished my night out by bluffing a security guard into getting two girls from Fukushima's car out of a shopping center parking lot and scabbing a lift for me and friends back to my place.

It was still fun though.

I am NOT going to miss the fucking earthquakes here though.

Oh it was awesome. I grabbed this shot before I got too drunk.

And we stayed until they kicked us out which meant we got an extra hour of drinking!

I just got a torrent of a rip from a VHS promo copy of Evil Dead : The Musical.

I really want to produce it in Australia. It's awesome.

I've been reading old libels on the internet this afternoon. A form of verse that dates back to Roman times, ie.

Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo,
Aureli pathice et cinaede Furi
qui me ex versiculis meis putastis,
quod sunt molliculi, parum podicum. . .

The translation is at the bottom of this page, after the cut but please try reading the above out in your most solemn Latin.

But this next one is awesome too.

Downe came grave auntient Sir John Crooke
And redd his message in his booke.
Fearie well, Quoth Sir William Morris, Soe:
But Henry Ludlowes Tayle cry’d Noe.
Up starts one fuller of devotion
Then Eloquence; and said a very ill motion
Not soe neither quoth Sir Henry Jenkin
The Motion was good; but for the stincking
Well quoth Sir Henry Poole it was a bold tricke
To Fart in the nose of the bodie pollitique

The above is known as "The Censure of the Parliament Fart" which I think is splendid.


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So I turn 26 today. No party tonight though. I am going to have dinner with a friend and look forward to Saturday which will involve a whiskey distillery tour, a beer garden on a roof and possibly a bar where all the girls are dressed in bunny ears, mini skirts and tight t-shirts.

I've been growing a beard too. I took a photo to show how much Japan has taken it's toll on me.

Article on study on health benefits of red wine.

Specifically, the researchers found that low doses of resveratrol mimic the helpful effects of what is known as caloric restriction, diets with the full range of nutrients but up to 30 per cent fewer calories than a typical diet, which extend lifespan and slow the progression of age related diseases such as obesity, diabetes and cancer.

So basically, you can eat your regular healthy amount, but adding a few glasses of red wine (what has this resveratrol in it) gives you the benefits of eating a lower caloric intake overall. Of course you'll have to consider the 180-250 calories your glass of red wine adds to your dietary intake, but not bad.

I'm cracking open a bottle tonight!

Robot's Day Out (ロボットのお出かけ) won the People's Choice Award at the Miyagi ALT Art Show last night, and there was serious competition. Not only that, there were more random Japanese people than ALTs there so I feel legitimate.

I won flowers in a vase with this year's poster design thingy etched on it. Coolies!!

Jason from Morioka took this photo of me at the Tohoku Cricket Tournament party.