Unemployed.

I applied for three more jobs. By this stage, I feel like I have applied for every job ever advertised and NOTHING. The only glimmer of hope is from tutoring – I’ve got a new student now (finally)…I’m tutoring her for the first time on Tuesday so we’ll see how that goes… *fingers crossed*

I’m really broke and I owe people money and I’m sick of everyone acting like I’m not looking for a job. I even went to motherfucking JobFind – clearly I want to be employed.

/rant

Special K

WHO REMEMBERS THIS MOVIE?!

 

 

I wanted to be this guy when I grew up…

 

 

These last few days have not been very exciting. I haven’t gone further than Cabramatta. I visited Centrelink to get them to help me find a job because I’ve pretty much failed with every other option. Tomorrow I have to get up really early for an interview with Jobfind. I put together a sort of portfolio thing, with some of my writing. Not that that will help find me a job, but it makes me feel good about myself. I went to the dentist, again. Two more teeth taken care of. I’ve become obsessed with reading the newspapers. I’m still broke as a fucking joke and it’s really frustrating. The novelty of being broke whilst reading Down and Out in Paris and London wore off rather quickly. It’s Religious Boring Time (aka our Patron Saint Day…thing) in the house so I’m stuck at home Thursday and Friday, helping out, pretending to care, all that sort of thing. I’m forcing Jasmina to come over and keep me sane. Hmmmm what else? Here, read my review of the Mercy Arms gig the other night.

Damaged goods, send them back

 

WHAT I DID TODAY

Lived through incessant cramps

Read Down and Out in Paris and London in the sun in my backyard

100 sit-ups and 50 crunches

Lots of work for TEETH LOVES STUFF #5

 

WHAT I STILL HAVE TO DO

CD reviews for The Dwarf – Circlesquare (really good) and The Tossers (not so good)

Gig review for Faster Louder – Tim Freedman, happening tomorrow night

Make it through a night at The Vanguard without killing myself or anyone else

Rewrite article for Stiff Magazine

Add finishing touches to TEETH LOVES STUFF #5 and copy it

Post new band interview on the TEETH blog

Marry Stephen Colbert

Send zine orders/trades

Vacuum room

Find a job

 

WHY THE HOLIDAYS ARE REALLY GOOD EXCEPT FOR THE OBVIOUS

Because I can do TEETH stuff all the time

Because Law & Order: SVU is always on TV

BUY MY ZINES!

Alright, because I don’t have a job at the moment, I need to sell like 40 of my zines to get my haircut. Yeah, I know, $75 for a haircut, it’s insane. But I need to get rid of this thing living on top of my head. SO, you know what to do.

Gonna live on science alone

    

 

I’ve been feeling down but I have ways of dealing.

 

Yesterday I met up with Kylar in the city and we went to American Apparel where he spent forever trying on clothes as I wished I’d been born a boy because their clothing is much better. Except for the heel-wearing girls get to do, but I’d wear heels even if I was a boy, and I don’t actually get to wear heels much now because I am a giant and also don’t really know how to walk in them. Anyway, the customers at AA bugged me a little but the employees are lovely, and Kylar bought green jeans. Then we had coffee at Bill and Toni’s, wandered around…I guess we wandered around a lot because I sort of lose track here and we end up at Jet…oh yeah, we went to get Kylar’s novelty lighter fixed but that didn’t really work out. We saw Albert so he joined us for a while at Jet. He was waiting for a friend who was an hour and a half late and we left a little after she arrived. Kylar went home to feed the cat and I went home to watch too much TV, then talk to Nenad until 3^rd Rock From the Sun was on at 1.30 in the morning, doing lots of sit-ups in between because I have lost my mind and think that sit-ups are the cure for everything. (Since 10^th November, I have done 1120 sit-ups and 450 crunches altogether. Go me!)

 

 

Today looked good to start with, then absolutely everything turned to shit rapidly, I did some crying, etc and then decided I had to make myself feel better or else, so I left the house in a hurry, went to the city with about $5 to my name & walked up Broadway giving my resume out (I am so desperate for a job I even gave my resume to that horrible Goth-by-numbers store near Easy Way). Then I walked further down to the University of Sydney where I met up with my sister and we walked to Newtown where she bought us Thai food for lunch and we wandered King St for a bit. By this stage I’d basically completely forgotten how miserable I’d been earlier. I just need to keep myself distracted. Then we went back to her uni, to her interesting but sort of depressing lab (it’s fascinating but spending long hours there would be horrible) where she finished an experiment. To my disappointment there was no fire, smoke, bubbling liquids…nothing. Science isn’t as fun as they make it seem on TV! Then we headed homewards, and she continued towards Liverpool to meet up with friends.

 

My Canadian cousin Vlado was at my house; he’d had lunch with my parents and so we hung out, talking, watching TV, etc. I found out he’s got a job at the same place Kylar works, so I warned him about it. Oh and then I got my grades and that sort of brought the good mood to new levels.

 

So the downside now remains that I am broke as a fucking joke, have no idea how to get any money, am on constant bad terms with my mother and my sister is going away for the weekend! But I’m ok and am seeing Die! Die! Die! & Ohana tomorrow regardless of the money situation…I’ll figure something out (dentist money, anyone?).

Thursday, 20th November

 

 

On Thursday I went to work. My job somehow manages to make three hours seem like the longest time in the world. It also doesn’t help that a lot of the people I call are very rude. My supervisor tells me I take it too personally. The good news is that they’re relocating to Bondi Junction which should help improve my mood when at work. St Leonards is just a little too quiet and depressing, and the office is dark and horrible. It will also be easier to get to work from uni because there are buses going directly to Bondi Junction from UNSW. I still need to find a job that is closer to home and that gives me longer hours. Preferably something that doesn’t make me want to kill myself. I really want to work at PSC in Liverpool but I don’t know much about skating. ALTHOUGH, I have met Tony Alva and Tosh Townend! I should put THAT on my resume! (Although Tony looked a little more like this when I met him.)

 

After work I met up with friends for dinner at a Spanish restaurant in the shady part of Pitt St. It was: Kylar, Zig, Morgan, Jack, Lee, Jasmine-from-uni & Morgan’s friends Mark and Anita-I-think-is-her-name?, and Annie joined us later on. Being a vegetarian, gluten-intolerant, picky eater isn’t helpful when eating out. Luckily there was a lot of wine. Also, good company. I’ve gotten so used to hanging out with one or two people without those people ever actually hanging out together, that it’s a bit strange when I’m around a big group of people. Still, it was nice. And I liked the people I hadn’t met before so that was good too. After dinner, Annie, Kylar, Jack and I went to Oxford St where we were going to see Warhorse play at Exquisite Corpse but figured they’d finished by then so we just hung around instead; were joined by Morgan, Mark and I-think-her-name-is-Anita in the gutter, had various strangers talk to us, etc. One of the reasons that gutter parties make life better is because of the random strange people that one encounters whilst in the gutter.

 

So Thursday was good.

 

  

(Photos: stolen jewellery – a fork from the restaurant and the little muscly man from Kylar. Fisheye photos by ANNIE LY - Jasmine, Kylar & Jack; Kylar, me & Jack; me, Kylar, Jack, Morgan & Mark.)

 

When the smack begins to flow, I really don’t care anymore

Yesterday I was sitting outside St Leonards station before heading home from work and an old man with a long-neck in hand came up to me to ask for a cigarette. Then he started talking about how he is “from the clinic” and I had no idea what he was talking about so he explained how there is a methadone clinic nearby which is run by a man who was “on the needle” for twenty-six years and was a hardcore criminal to support his habit and has since cleaned up and opened up a rehab centre! The man I was talking to, Billy, has been clean for nine months but now drinks a lot. He has a two-year-old son called Alex. It made me so…sad? I really wanted to sit there talking to him for hours but I was cold and had to head home and he was having trouble stringing sentences. Before I left he asked me if I had any change. I hope I didn’t contribute to fucking up his getting-clean process but I guess that’s his decision and not for me to meddle with. And I gave him three more cigarettes and my lighter before I left. He looked so surprised that I was willing to shake his hand. I guess ‘normal’ people mostly avoid him. It made me realise I should stop dwelling on my trivial problems.

 

Positive: I’ve written 815/2000 words for my essay.

Negative: It’s all really poorly written and has no point and the essay is now so late I don’t even know if they will accept it, so I’m really likely to fail another subject. The even worse thing is that I really enjoyed studying this unlike the other subject I failed, Political Economy, which was the bane of my existence.

 

Positive: Looks like I’ll get out of having to work again today.

Negative: Because I am sick again. My body hates me.

 

Positive: I had the funniest conversation via emails with Annie yesterday.

We need to talk, we need to talk, we need to talk

 

NO PANTS REVOLUTION

 

Yesterday was preeeeeetty rad. Annie and I went to the city where we met up with my Canadian cousin Vlado who is doing the backpacker thing across Australia. I hadn’t seen him for a little while and in that time he has managed to travel through the Gold Coast, Byron Bay and Nimbin and meet some Japanese Rastas who played Bob Marley songs on their guitars. We went to the Glebe Street Fair which was basically impossible to move through because of the crowds. There were a few interesting things but it really wasn’t very exciting. I made Vlado try Easy Way taro milk tea and once he did, he said he would never doubt me again. It is seriously like liquid cake. Soooo good. Then he went back to his hostel because he was sleep-deprived and we headed to Oxford St. I wanted to develop some photos but everything was getting ready to close by then so we went to Hyde Park instead where I read aloud from this fucking hilarious pamphlet I picked up at the Glebe Street Fair – “God’s Guide to Sex”. It’s so good I’ll be writing a separate entry here with my favourite bits from it. Let’s just say that this was one of the conclusions we drew from it…

 

Annie: So you know now what will happen the next time you pick up a joint?

Me: I’m going to have sex afterwards?

 

And they say drugs are bad for you!

 

Then we moved to another part of Hyde Park where there was a Christmas tree and lots of tourists looking really excited about it and taking awkward photos next to it. So I had to do the same… Annie and I came to the conclusion that we are incredibly offensive people and if anyone overheard our conversations, they would hate us. We have to censor a lot in everyday conversations with other people. “Yeah roll up your jeans; that’s attractive.”

 

I showed Kylar a photo of the Luhv Of My Life and he responded with “is that a man?” Bitch.

 

I think I’m getting sick again. My immune system hates me. The plan for this week is: work today; write essay before I fail History; hang out with Aleks and Anita, and also Kylar sometime; dentist and seeing Outrun on Friday; hang out with my sister on Sunday; figure out how to buy my sister a birthday present, my Girl Talk ticket and my Kings of Leon ticket, and pay back Annie for my Prodigy ticket – more shifts at work? Nooooo.

 

& finally…

 

You don’t fuck with The Fuck Whats. The Fuck Whats fuck with you.

    

If you have come looking for love, you have come to the wrong fucking place man.

I’d been relatively inactive for the last few days that yesterday made me exhausted. I didn’t sleep much, then I got up early (at 10…) and made my way to the city. Met up with Kylar at Kinko’s and got rid of almost $20 worth of 5c, 10c and 20c coins. I didn’t realise until we were putting all the coins into the machine that it would have been so much easier if I’d taken the coins to the bank and exchanged them for a note. But anyway. I made FIFTY copies of Feels Like Friday #8 and ten of #7 to send to Sticky. If anyone from Melbourne is reading this, you will soon be able to buy copies of #7 and #8 from Sticky so please do so! #6 was available in the past but I’d like to put that issue behind me like I always do a few months after I make them. That’s the problem with making perzines…

 

ANYWAY. Kylar turned out to be really useful as he stapled all the zines for me. (Thank you!) But his collating skills aren’t all that fantastic. (Speaking of collating, I used to have this badge that said “copy, collate, staple” and it was ‘borrowed’ by this kid Tee in high school who didn’t even know what zines were but liked the badge, and I haven’t seen it, or all the others he ‘borrowed’, since.) After Kinko’s we wandered around for a bit, had a classy daytime gutter party, hung around Hyde Park, put up a few of Kylar’s radio show posters (Spirit House, Mondays 10pm, 89.7 FM – did I get that right?), I bought a couple of CDs with money I found left on my bag in the morning (thanks dad!) and then I went to work.

 

I hadn’t been to work in a while but I was nicely relaxed because Kylar is such a thoughtful person. Also, the supervisor I dislike wasn’t there and the girl I was working with was quite nice, albeit an idiot – “I don’t really leave the North Shore much”.

 

By the time I got home it was around 9.30 and I was exhausted. It’s the time spent on trains that kills me.

I just spent about an hour on the phone with Jasmina. I hadn’t talked to her in forever. Was nice.

 

Cassette Kids – We Are (mini album)

Really, really good but after seeing so many of their live shows, a bit of a disappointment… I see this is the direction they want to go in and it is great but I really wish they’d stuck to what they used to do back when I first started listening to them. It was that gritty sort of sound which has now become way too polished. But still, if I disregard what they used to sound like, I can still appreciate that We Are is really good. ‘Techno Dan’ is probably my favourite song. I also really like that they put the lyrics in the sleeve.

 

Warhorse – Gun$ (EP)

I don’t really know much about Warhorse yet and I haven’t seen them live but once at Exquisite Corpse the door dudes gave me a piece of paper with Warhorse written on it and Annie says they’re amazing live. This EP is really fucking good and I look forward to attending one of their gigs. They sound like they’ve grown up on a healthy dose of Iggy Pop and The Cramps. The little Red Eye sticker said “for fans of Brian Jonestown Massacre” but I haven’t listened to them so I wouldn’t know. ‘Skeletor’ is my favourite! “If you have come looking for love, you have come to the wrong fucking place man.”

There was a lot of hanging out

 

MySpace photo! We are necklace twins.

 

Well I’m really glad that Obama is the new president of the United States. Zig and I had celebratory hugs in the middle of the city today when we heard the news. Everything automatically felt a little better then.  

 

I thought the weather was going to be really nice today so I decided I had to leave the house. The weather was actually pretty bad but it was still nice not to be in the suburbs. I met up with Zig and we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art. I miss the Jimi Hendrix room but there are some really interesting things in there at the moment. My favourite was “Leisure Lady (With Ocelots)” by Yinka Shonibare but the “Astro Black: A History of Hip Hop” video (by Soda_Jerk) was also interesting. “Leisure Lady (With Ocelots)” is absolutely amazing. I couldn’t stop staring at it. I felt as though the ocelots were running towards me. The school groups taking part in guided tours were a bit annoying because I really don’t like hearing someone’s interpretation of what the artwork is about. I’d rather not get it at all but enjoy looking at it, and then research it myself later if I want to know more. Having it forced upon me by some loud-voiced guide is frustrating. There was one adorable kid though with his school pants tucked into his Docs that made me think I really did go to the wrong high school. We didn’t have kids like that!

 

 

 

After the MCA we hung around the city a bit. I was looking for places to apply for jobs but I’m very picky. I did end up handing in a resume at some random clothing store in Market City though. And I spent the last of my money on a pair of really awesome sunnies at Dangerfield (and a badge and a magazine). We hung around Chinatown eating $1.30 cakes and imagining ninjas are about to jump from the rooftops like in those kung-fu movies that are on SBS at two in the morning.

 

Later on I met up with my sister at the University of Sydney and we walked to Newtown for Thai food; her shout. I always feel so comfortable in Newtown. Would be quite nice to live there or nearby.

 

Another good day and another mark off my essay. Should probably think about writing that sometime soon.