Squeezy

Yes, I have no original thoughts on this website :) Click through to get the full size pic.



Damn! two cheap calls already:
HAHAHAH thats hilarious.... and yet disturbing .....
but nonetheless..... HAHAHAHAH
Addy - 23 January '06 - 12:40

hahaha - as if you guys haven't done that yourself!

RC
randomcow - 24 January '06 - 08:25

Balancing The Alone Time

Having just gone down to Jervis Bay for a New Years celebration with 20 friends, I'm beginning to realise that I draw a lot of my energy by having those good friends around me. When they are animated, I'm animated. When they're calm and settled, I'm still animated. They bring out the entertainer in me, and I laugh myself to the floor at some of their antics.

What I do miss out on is the real alone time needed for deep contemplation. The kind of alone time where I find out what I really want out of life, what motivates and drives me forward. The kind of alone time that energises me in a different way, and provides insights to the real me.

So the 30 day trial is to draw upon energies from my relationship, my friends and myself and not just my relationship and my friends. The morning walk has definitely helped. Anyone know much about that meditation stuff?

Yay for New Years and new 30 day trials!

Damn! two cheap calls already:

Travelling to new and different places.. the great energiser.
Bjee - 03 January '06 - 07:42

Yeah, its funny how when travelling, even when you're in a big crowd or city, you can feel alone in your thoughts and emotions. Can really help to focus and clarify things in life. And yes Bjee, also a great energiser!
anton - 03 January '06 - 16:15

The Art Of The Early Riser

For years, waking up late has been a chronic problem of mine. No matter what it was, school, uni, work, I would have issues getting there on time. Granted in those early days, I would be up late playing games, going out partying, or even using that nostalgic internet app ICQ, these days I still have those issues but without the partying!

Reading on a website, there was an article about a method to waking up early. So I decided to give it a go.

It's been a week and one day since I've started this attempt to wake up at 6:30am each day, even on Saturdays. I go for a walk around St Leonards, before coming home to do some reading or what not. Here's what I've found out:

1. It's much easier to get up if as soon as the alarm rings you get out of bed and have something to do i.e. brush your teeth immediately.
2. Have an activity whether it be gym or a walk around to get the fresh morning air. Now in summer is especially a good time since it's not too hot but there's plenty of sunshine.
3. I feel a lot more awake going to work at 8:30am, and feel more productive in the mornings.
4. I do drop off quite quickly at night, due to the body getting used to the routine.

So the process continues this week. What this is really about is achieving some mental discipline. It's a small private victory that is affirming every morning. Having the feeling that I can achieve the little things sets my mind up for bigger victories during the day.

Damn! nine cheap calls already:

From a first-hand viewpoint at knowing just how difficult it is for you to get out of bed on time, I'm impressed and inspired by your new found mental discipline. I'm also half afraid you'll break your neck the way you sprint off the bed when the alarm rings =) Keep up the super work!
beckster (link) - 18 December '05 - 04:50

i have developed a very annoying body alarm clock which wakes me up at 7.20am sharp! This also applies on weekends!! Fortunately and unfortunately, once im up, im up and its tricky for me to fall back asleep unless im very tired. And whats worse is that even with the 3 hour difference im experiencing in Perth, Im STILL waking up at 7.20am. ARGHHH
Its true though, The snooze button often doesnt work as it resets ur sleep clock and often makes you more tired than rested. And yes, once you roll out of bed and shower (thats my trick) or brush your teeth, it does make you more awake. Good luck in this tricky endeavour! I wonder if i can get ben to do it! HAHAHAHA
Addy - 18 December '05 - 07:50

i sense a balancing comment is needed. kev you wake up around the time jojo and I are leaving the bar!! an invitation for random phone calls if ever there was one... BAH!
Bjee - 20 December '05 - 19:09

Then call me biatch :) All I heard was silence when Mantwaan was over there!
JookBoy (link) - 21 December '05 - 02:00

ooooooooooooooooooooooo :P
addy - 21 December '05 - 15:12

one word... bizzzaaay!!
Bjee - 28 December '05 - 09:32

you can try the bart simpson approach, drink 12 glasses of water before going to bed. you're bound to wake up early in the morning to pee ^_^
reenie - 02 January '06 - 07:20

just don't drink too much water or you'll be waking up all night to pee...just like me after field day. damn that 44 degree day!
anton - 02 January '06 - 16:49

BJee: Hope MoS was the bomb.

reenie: What I did have the other day was the strangest dream where the dream told me to wake up when the alarm rang, and I got up at exactly 6:30am.

anton: I think I did that at Jervis...at least you didn't have to navigate past 6 bodies to get to the toilet!
JookBoy (link) - 03 January '06 - 01:31

Food Flavourings

Reading an article about why Macdonald's fries taste so good, it's amazing what food manufacturers do these days. That "natural flavour" at the bottom of the contents list really means a lot. I liked the metaphor that the flavourists are like the modern-day alchemist, mix a few ingredients, and poof! a new flavour appears.

As a beginner foodie, I am already impressed by the quality of some of the meals that I have tasted in the last few months. Places I used to deem pointlessly expensive have now moved into the "still expensive, but there's something worthwhile there."

I wonder if in the future we will just eat a slab of material (probably plasticy) and you can create any taste, any texture with the right chemicals. It would just be like Star Trek, where they can reform atoms into any meal that is required. What would become of the Tetsuya's, the Bennelong's, the Claudes's (I feel cool just knowing these names!) of Sydney? Will they disappear? Can a food flavourist ever get a Three-hat rating from Sydney Morning Herald?

Or will people place an even greater premium to the "wizards" who can create flavour not from chemicals, but from a mixture of natural foodstuffs? Theirs may the skill that will live on.

Damn! five cheap calls already:

I don't make no damn fries! If you said chicken nuggets I'd understand...
h0rnbag - 09 December '05 - 06:55

if you want a rant about maccas, read morgan spurlock's "don't eat this book". i'm sure you've seen supersize me. this is just more information that came out from making the movie. interestingly enough, maccas in europe have changed the oil they use to make fries. maccas in the US still refuse to do it.
reenie (email) - 11 December '05 - 05:23

I saw these in Time Magazine in the 2005 Best Inventions section. Flavor Spray is a collection of delectable flavor sprays that can be mixed with a variety of foods including poultry, seafood, beef, salads, vegetables, dairy and bread products.

The flavor sprays are designed to simulate the taste of dieters' favorite foods while eliminating the guilt of eating them -- each contains no fat, calories, carbohydrates or cholesterol. Each spray contains a liquid extract made up of water, salts, emulsifiers, and natural and artificial flavors, with Splenda used as a sweetener in the “dessert” sprays.

Hmmm. Now they've just gone too far.
http://www.flavorspraydiet.com/
milli - 12 December '05 - 06:25

geez, wheres the enjoyment in that.......
i like my food , like kev, only recently have i learnt not to be so damn picky and try different foods - in particular, sample fine cuisine. Im so glad i have. yumbo
addy - 12 December '05 - 16:30

So all I'm eating is water and salts. Are emulsifiers things that make other things gooey? Yum! :P
JookBoy (link) - 18 December '05 - 01:33

Throwing Away Knowledge

I decided to remove all the magazines that I had collected over the last 2.5years at Crows Nest and was going to archive them in a box upstairs. During this time, I came across a website that provided some advice on living a simpler life. It talked of reducing clutter in your house, and making sure things are in the right place.

So I decided to just throw the magazines away. However, as my flatmate succinctly put it, "I can throw away clothes and material things, but I have issues throwing away knowledge". It's the promise that there is some nugget of information that can be found be reading the articles again that will always haunt me.
I had a conflict. I knew that if I archived them, I was 95% sure that I would never read them again.
Luckily my Mandarin teacher wanted to read up on some investing magazines. So now they have a new happy home. I just have to work out what to do with The Economist, Time, Men's Health....

Why do we hold on to things that really have no value to us? Knowledge should reside in the brain, and if it's not there, then there's many other places to store it, is there?

Damn! two cheap calls already:

i'm sorry, but are you calling Men's Health knowledge? wow, that explains a lot :P instead of throwing out, give to charity. that's what i did when i moved, gave majority of my books to st vinnies.
reenie (email) - 29 November '05 - 03:51

Sounds like it's time to join eBay!

I understand the inclination to not throw out knowledge. Knowledge is valuable, but it is everywhere.

I doubt your old Time and Economist mags are going to give you any valid up to date information (knowledge). And you know that the 95% chance of you not reading them again is really 100%.

Perhaps if you had not read the mags yet it would be different. However, you did read them, took what you learned from them and moved on. Nothing wrong with that.

I hope your recycling bin is not full :)
taipan (link) - 01 December '05 - 05:02

The Perfect Organiser

Throughout my short career, I have had the issue of sychronising data from work to home and vice versa. Things events (sorry I double-booked this Sunday Reenie and Bei!), to-do lists and scribbles all lived separate lives within the work computer and the home computer. I was also looking at ways to capture my thoughts from day to day, even when I wasn't near a computer.

Over the last year or so I've been getting quite hooked into reading about productivity, and all the wonderful websites and software that geeky people like myself would toy with because:

• I like to tinker.
• I thought it would help.
• It was cool!

After a while, however, I would think that the system would not satisfy my needs, and move on to some new software. In reality it failed because I didn't take the time to work out what I really needed out of an organiser or PDA.

All this searching for the 'perfect PDA' is a useless exercise. There is no such thing. Quoting from another productivity website, the system should provide you with..."your absolute must-have requirements mixed in with the shortcomings you’re willing to tolerate will determine what’s right for you. (Coincidentally, this is true of jobs, relationships, locations, houses, and cars, too.)".

And so I'm back to square one. What I need from a PDA is:

1. The ability to jot down thoughts when I need to
2. Flexible entry style
3. Captures future events
4. Task oriented
5. Somewhere to hold things I collect during the day.

The new Franklin Covey organiser that I got on my training course is getting some workout, but I need to dedicate some more time to keeping it updated. The beauty is the weekly role piece of paper, which outlines what I have to do for the next week, according to the roles that I have. I think I can live without a lot of the other stuff. A learner and meaner organiser awaits!

Only one cheap call:

That thing looks similar to the Day Timer I use. Is it two pages to a day? Between that, and the month-to-a-view (good for organising social life and big work events, and updating with people's birthdays at the beginning of each month) it had everything I needed to keep relatively organised. And I put all my little projects in the tabbed section.

I think the only thing an electronic organiser wins in is the automatic meeting reminders. Apart from that, paper wins hands down every time.

Flame away, biatchez!!!!!

RC
randomcow - 20 November '05 - 07:13

Melbourne Review

In one word: fantastic. Whilst the "four seasons in one day" still rings true, this trip introduced a variety of sights and sounds, from The Great Ocean Rd, to the dark little lounge bars along Hardware Lane in Melbourne city. I like Melbourne for its structured-ness i.e. the trams, and the wide walkable streets in the city, not to mention the tourist-friendly assistance of the locals, both on the street and at the places we stayed.

Maybe it was Cup fever, but there were so many people out and about on the streets!

So the obligatory top ten (I swears there are some copycat sites out there :))
1. The craps table at Crown Casino. The buy in was only $5 per bet, so much cheaper than Star City!
2. Great Ocean Rd drive. I had forgotten how dramatic the scenery was off the Victorian coast, especially on a windy and rainy day.
3. Vintage clothing. I am officially a convert! Looking forward to more markets and vintage store shopping for my clothes.
4. Free trams. Well, no-one asked me for a ticket....
5. Sake at Kazen. So much drunkenness for only $8 each!
6. XR6 Falcon. Maaaate, she goez! Plus some quality rally driving from Bec :)
7. St Kilda. I like the casual laid back atmosphere of the place, plus the markets there were really good.
8. Albrect Dürer at the NGV. Really impressed with his drawings, I am a bit etchings fan myself. Was disappointed not to find some decent prints at the NGV, but will get some one day.
9. La La Land bar. Big tumblers, comfy couches all add up to plenty of entrepreneurial ideas for doing the same here in Sydney.
10. Deliberately losing our watches. Always helps slow down the pace of the trip, and makes everything relaxed, as a good holiday should be.

Looking at her list, we're almost the same! Goes to show that the highlights of a trip are always the ones where fun is had by everyone.

Good times, will post up some photos soon.

Only one cheap call:

Fantastic indeed. Looking at your list - who's calling who copycat??!! =p
beckster (link) - 02 November '05 - 02:55

Neurotic Imposture

Reading this symptom is Boss magazine, and the actual research paper, probably the best way to describe this symptom is with a story.

A bright young employee is promoted to a mor senior level within the company. He/she is very clever, but feared that they couldn't take on the new job's responsibilities. At the root of the dlemma was their suspicion that they are just not good enough, and they lived in dread that they would be exposed any minute. Whilst on the outside observer their achievements are great, annd that they are extrememly successful leaders, deep down inside they see themselves as frauds. It causes them to believe that they don't deserve their success at all.

Now the problem with this is that as you go higher up the corporate ladder, there will be a time where you will be in the number one position. This is where the person is expected to stand on his or her own. When this occurs, risk aversion sets in, and the organisation with a neurotic impostor as its CEO will fail to tackle entrepreneurial and high risk activities, stifling growth.

Something struck me in that article, it seemed to be quite similar to how I feel. Granted, I'm not top 5% of the INSEAD graduation class (as per the article) but I often tell others that I think the achievements I have made have been due to luck and right timing more than anything else. I look towards the future of my career and there is a fear that I will head up some business unit and I will just not have the right stuff.

But there can be a cure. Of course the first thing is self-identification of this issue. The other is to recognise that mistakes and failures can offer great opportunities for learning and personal growth, and that the fear of failure should not be debilitating. Constructive criticism should be welcomed, not a catastrophe.

Anyone out there a neurotic imposture?

Damn! seven cheap calls already:

as a 'professional services' professional, i think ppl pay waaay too much for my services. then again, i know other 'professional services' professionals who charge at almost twice my rate. i also feel that i'm over-paid, which probably explains the need for my exorbitant rates, but that doesn't stop me from wanting more money!!

impostor, i don't know, but definitely neurotic. bwahahahaha

btw, u were mighty stoned or drunk or your left pinky must've been hanging off your hand when u typed that post. check out all the typos!! :b
ken (link) - 19 October '05 - 09:50

Yeah, it was a bit of a rush post before dinner :) Not of the usual high standards.

Ah, the key to the exorbitant rates is known as "overhead" ie drunken corporate parties, karaoke nights, free birthday cakes, stationery etc etc
JookBoy (link) - 19 October '05 - 09:59

Dude, you're not an impostor. You've worked hard up until now. Give yourself some credit.

When the day comes for you to head up a business unit and you don't have the right stuff, you'll probably stuff it up. You wouldn't be the first.

Actually, as you know I started work out here in Hokkaido about three weeks ago. They've got me working as a Bell boy, so I greet the guests, take their luggage and show them to the front desk. Then when they have finished checking in I take them to their room, and explain the features of the room (air con, fridge, japanese YUKATA and slippers, the view, etc). Thing is, there's this whole seperate language for when you speak to customers/guests which I had read about but never actually used. Which could be the same as you - you can do stuff to prepare for the next big step, but there's nothing like actually doing it (there's no shortage of 'How to be a CEO' books out there).

So first couple of times I took guests to their rooms I stuffed up a lot. But by the end of the first week I was doing it like a pro. These days I have relaxed a lot more, and I joke with the guests in the elevator. At the same time I'm still trying to refine my language and do the best job I can.

RC
randomcow - 22 October '05 - 07:43

dude, sorry to hijack your blog, but I couldn't think of a more suitable place to put an update so that everyone could read it.

So this week I got kicked out of the place I was living. It was a shit place to begin with that the agent had found for me and this other guy working at the hotel for the same agent. 30 minutes walk from the station over a huge fucking hill (fun until winter comes along and it starts snowing. Like, this week). Asshole owners who don't let me use the kitchen, and are just dislikable people. strange smell. old. 200yen for a shower, or to use the washing machine. Cold. Expensive. Nothing open nearby after about 10pm. Well, the convenience store was open until 11:00pm. Kinda like a guest house except shit.

So me and the other guy living with me there had pretty much decided we were moving out, and had already started looking for a place in TEINE which is much closer to Sapporo. They have 24 hour stuff there, like a supermarket and bars that are open until late.

The thing is, there is a contract between the agent that we are working for and the owner of the shitty house. Please understand that the agent chose this place without looking at it. In fact, the agent that I'm working for has never been to Hokkaido. So of course when we let the agent know that we are thinking of leaving after just one month then he decides to try and get out of the one year contract as cheaply as possible. he ends up having an argument with the owner of the house, who says he wants us out THAT VERY DAY.

Luckily the guys in HR (HR people in Japan actually do stuff for their employees. So refreshing) managed to organise me and my mate to live with this manager who lives near by in his one bedroom place. Well, he lives there with three other guys who crash on the floor. So now there are six of us here in this one bedroom place.

But back to the day we got kicked out, I arranged with one of the guys from work who finished about the same time as me to drive me back in his van so we could pick up all our stuff. I was packing stuff into my bags like a madman. We apologised and left at about midnight, back to the hotel to drop of 95% of our stuff. I have been living out of a small backpack for about a week now. It's tough.

So we arrived at the manager's apartment at about 1am. The manager is asleep, but he wakes up at about 1:30 - "Ok, let's go to the spa!" We soak away our stress in the specially salted waters of this establishment for a couple of hours, go for gyudon and a beer, and end up in bed around 4:30am.

The rest of the week was crazy-busy. There was a public holiday last week (I think there is one almost every week here in Japan) and so between work, looking for a new place to live, and getting drunk every night with my new temporary sharemates I didn't have time to fully appreciate how crazy my Japan adventure is getting.

To top things off, yesterday the manager and I happened to have the same day off work. So after cracking open first beers at 11am, we went for japanese style gengis kahn (Sydney's is better), more drinking until he fell asleep at a beer hall at about 5pm for about an hour. I got bored and so I went and made some new friends. (^o^) Then the manager wakes up and we walk around the town looking for some action. We decide that there wasn't anything going on, so we catch a train to Sapporo!

First bar we went to was all-you-can-drink (that reminds me - when you guys are here, I found an all-you-can-drink for 290yen, that's about AU$3.20 these days, for 30 minutes. bar-style karaoke included). And you want to drink a lot, because each time the bar girl goes and pours your drink you can see her pussy. Oh, I forgot to mention that the hostesses were all pantyless, and walking around on our table reaching up to use the alcohol-pouring devices. and their breasts were out for all to see, too. Some busty girls too, expecially considering they're asian. You guys are probably not the best crowd to make that comment to now, but it's late and I'm drunk. I have my own private girl come sit on the table in front of me for a bit and hold my hand while we chat. She was dumb, but it's kinda cute. Lucky my time with her was up quickly. Nice tits, too. Smooth skin.

Anyway, after a short while the show starts. Basically many variations of the same theme, where the girls spend a few minutes doing an activity before moving around the circle. Oh yeah, it was a circular bar, with all seedy gyuys like me sitting around and getting drunk.

So what were these games? Well, there was one where everyone had pen-lights. The lights went out, and while the girl in front was rubbing her pussy you use the penlight to see as much as you can. Funny stuff.

Then there was the one where the girls would grind their ass against your crotch in tune with the music, and the one where you have about 30 seconds fondling time. And then the one where they rubbed you crotch.

But the best game was the paper scissors rock, where the prize for beating them was a nice look at their pussy. Of course, they show you what they're going to play before hand, so you can't lose! I felt like a king!

I touched the breasts of about 12 different women last night. Closest I'd ever have come to that in Sydney is a measly 3 or 4 in one night, and they were all wearing a bra.

Anyway, the homeless thing will sort itself out. Hope you're all well.

RC
randomcow (email) - 06 November '05 - 21:49

Wow nice post. I've got a few wild KTV experiences to tell you about - but over email instead hehe
Al (email) - 09 November '05 - 12:48

Let the record show that my all-you-can-drink experience in Shibuya was waaay different to that. It was much more expensive, for one! :)

No wonder I'm getting referred to by all these pr0n sites. RC, have you been referring me?
Sounds like a great trip mate. Is your blog up yet?
JookBoy (link) - 09 November '05 - 14:57

I've started posting work-related stuff here:

http://participate.jhip.org/?cat=2

I don't know if you can set up a RSS feed to only read the stuff I'm posting though, so if you subscribe you might get all the unrelated posts too.

RC
randomcow - 19 November '05 - 22:19

Is Chivalry Dead?

On the news the other day on CNBC (go the Foxtel at work!) they ran this acted scenario in one of the local parks (middle of the day) where a man was shouting and pushing his girlfriend around. Then they filmed passer-by's reactions to the scene, and what people would do. They found out, compared to men, double the number of women stopped to tell the boyfriend to back off.

This is ordinary! I would hope that as a male, I would be willing to step up in these situations.

I hate to admit it, but I did watch one guy get beaten up by three other guys outside a dance party once. In those cases, your body just freezes. And you think too much, like "what if the other guy was getting beaten up cause he was beating up someone prior?". And another thought that comes through, "I don't want to get caught up with this stuff". Looking back, I'm still not sure if I did the right thing.

I would say, though, with a degree of confidence, that I would come in to defend my friends and and females. Lucky my friends don't get in fights all the time!

Damn! three cheap calls already:

hey i saw that too. pretty freaky stuff
sadly, it was also emphasised that due to legal issues nowadays, people are more scared to intervene.
i hope that my friends would help me if a guy was hurting me. i hope that my friends would intervene if one of their friends was being hurt. No i dont condone fighting, but if someones getting hurt, you will soon know who your friends are..
addy - 03 October '05 - 14:18

Mate don't ever doubt the Doraemon incident mate, not good to step into that one. I'll back you :)
PeeDz - 03 October '05 - 20:22

legal issues, as well as the chance that you get your head smacked in. There is more chance of the guy turning on you if you're a guy, rather than a girl. No way I'm stepping in to protect a girl from her boyfriend. Why the fuck is she going out with an abusive boyfriend?

RC
randomcow - 09 October '05 - 05:33

Search Strings

I can't remember if I've written about this, but I checked my search logs (yes, it's quite entertaining :)), and I have found that all the searches that rate on my site are pr0n searches.

It turns out that I am on the first page for searches on "girls going down on each other" as well as "four girls kissing". Not to be outdone, I'm providing for the 'ghey' community with "best looking guy in the world" (though not on page 1 of the results). People actually put these things in for searches?? And people actually click through to my site? This site isn't even trying to be hardcore!

To all your pr0n readers out there. Welcome!
Edit 22 May 07: Those search strings aren't up to date anymore :(

Damn! two cheap calls already:

me too! for some reason my site always comes up for searches where the words wild girls, petite asian girls, strippers etc etc!! and for awhile search strings for "xbox vs the girlfriend" or "halo vs the girlfriend" was a very hot topic leading to my site...it made me feel a bit better that it wasn't just me out there!!
mushiejc (link) - 16 September '05 - 15:25

Someone say pr0n? :)

Ohyeah... its how I ended up here...

"azn boy love"
PeeDz - 16 September '05 - 20:02