No more dessert

That'll teach me to be optimistic :( Foolish, naive past-self!

Sadly, very little of my hope turned into anything over the past few years and now, at best, all I can hope is that little won't be rolled back during whatever term a minority government of either flavour maintains.

But wait, what am I depressed about, Tony is offering us "stable, predictable and competent government"! Apparently too much to ask for innovative, sustainable, compassionate leadership... Maybe the Greens' increased presence in the Senate will rub off on the right-wing fearmongers?

Oz songstresses

Brought to you by the letter S apparently...

I intentionally don't analyse the music I listen to, in order to spare myself one more thing I overthink, but I'd still like to occasionally write about it, since it forms a constant backdrop to my daily life. So here's a little something:

It probably started back in 2003, when I saw Amiel performing Obsession (I Love You) on (the sadly short-lived) Micallef Tonight. I really, really liked it, despite (or maybe because of) it having nothing in common with my punk/rap/rock mainstays. I bought Amiel's album, listened to it plenty, but didn't really go any further down the new path.

Then in 2008, Lenka released her first solo album and Kate Miller-Heidke released Curiouser, and the floodgates opened. Those two albums formed the gateway to Bertie Blackman, Elana Stone, Sarah Blasko and (with her debut album release last month) Megan Washington.

Sarah Blasko was probably the hardest for me to get into, because of the spare instrumentation in her earlier work, meaning it has to be listened to rather than just overheard. I ended up going backwards from As Day Follows Night, which allowed me to ease out of listening-to-singles-in-one-ear mode to absorbed-into-the-world-of-the-music mode.

Sometimes the strong emotional response which these artists can invoke is a bit too draining for me, other times it's energising, but either way it reassures me that I still have feelings :) Plus there's plenty of humour in their work too, which is a key factor in almost everything I enjoy.

And that's how my 180 track "Oz Songstresses" playlist was born!

Uggh

As expected, writing positive things in my last post has lead to feeling pretty ordinary. Of course I'm not really that superstitious and I expect it has more to do with bad weather getting in the way of my walking schedule, and a drop in firefighting duties at work, giving me some time to do bigger picture stuff (which lacks the drive and urgency). I've started meditating again after letting my routine slip, and am hopeful that will help my mood stay at least a little upbeat through this latest health lull.

One thing that my body has still permitted me is plenty of reading. Admittedly plenty of lightweight stuff with the Roswell High series and Angel spin-off books, but still more active than glazed viewing of TV. And I'm now on to the meatier Children of Dune (3rd in a series of 6) and Stonehenge: Where Atlantis Died (which is my lunchtime read).

Wanderin'

While I'm here, I've avoided being too positive about a return to significant walking over the past month. After an 8 month relapse into CFS, I've finally been able to act out my enthusiasm for the longer walks surrounding my house, which I'd missed terribly while physically incapable of reaching them in the 30 minutes max I could sporadically manage.

Spend spend spend

The thought that more than 2 people would actually read these blog posts has clearly been freaking me out, leading to total cessation of writing. So I broke the auto-link setting on my Facebook profile to basically ensure almost total anonymity... and I'm back!

Last Wednesday I bought a replacement for my aged computer, which was really struggling to deal with my wish to both listen to music and read email at the same time, let alone do some digital sketching. While it took 5 solid hours of trial and error to get iTunes and my iPod to recognise my music and each other, it's now running very smoothly, and I've fought past the inevitable buyer's remorse that $4700 of tech entails.

I suppose it's exactly because I'm such a spendthrift in general that I can both afford to use that kind of cash on something (which I will definitely use a lot) and also feel somewhat ashamed that I spent any money at all. Really my brain just refuses not to overthink anything!