The Life Offline

Nearly four whole weeks since I knocked off from work last year - and just one 90 minute session on the Internet in that whole period. Some would call it a drought, I consider it a holiday. As much as the Internet can be a solution to boredom, too often boredom escalates into frustration as you realise that the people having fun generally aren't online willing to recount tales past. Predictably, I now only crawl back to the Internet and you, the readership at large, as this is my first day of full-time, non-intern work. Hey, if my manager wants a slack day, I'll be ... supportive. Yeah, supportive.

The cricket always seemed to keep me occupied. In fact, at one stage I was synchronising my lunch with the lunch break in the cricket, so much so that I felt like Australia's 12th man. In the past week I've seen two of Victoria's 20-20 matches, including the grand final win over Tasmania. Courtesy of that, and Bill Lawry's exclamational style of commentary, I am now a fiercely proud Victorian. Cameron White, Brad Hodge and Shane "Stickers" Harwood are bloody terrific - and hopefully Adam Crosthwaite will be Australia's next keeper of the future. That said, I am super impressed with Taswegian Ben Hilfenhaus' bowling. With his swing, Stuart Clark's accuracy and Brett Lee's pace, Australia's bowling attack should be solid for a good half decade. It's nice to see some of the "buzz" about Hilfenhaus actually being justified, as I felt that Mitchell Johnson was highly overrated and that Shaun Tait is shithouse, as his slinging action leaves him prone to inaccuracy and injury.

I had a terrific little trip away, just when I needed to escape the folks for a bit. It turned out quite well, as I arrived home the evening that my parents returned and they were more refreshed also. Helps to keep everything very friendly. The next morning I felt like a totally different person. In the style of George Dubya Bush, I "declared war" on the mess in my room and section by section, a little each day, I've got it back to a decent state - the best it's seen in years of neglect. In an odd way, I found the purging of my old stuff, that destructive nature, a little bit exciting. Imagine it as the caffeine free, diet version of pyromania, if you will.

The break was also the chance to do all those things I'd put off until exams and work were over. I haven't done all of them, but at least the list is down to four...and I actually made a list, which in itself is an achievement. I even became pumped to move out, spotted a nice place and all, but it looks like that one's on ice for a while. I could probably use a few months to accumulate more cash money, perhaps just to ensure that I am able to live it up when I do take the plunge. And not just have beanbags in the lounge. Let's face it: I'm in no hurry to be doing my own washing et cetera unless the folks try and put me under the thumb.

It's a shame that my week of post-holiday enthusiasm blew over before I had a chance to bring it into work. Yep, in one short week I discovered that insignificant menial tasks are the way that people (i.e. adults) manage to pass the time (FYI: in November I was seriously wondering how people did it). I even got a bit of a kick out of that sense of achievement, even if you knew it was easily achievable, it still had to be done (which for a lazy person is still a considerable step). It was an ultimately artificial and transparent exercise though - by the week's end I'd regressed back into the warm glow of TV, DVDs and video games. And it feels cosy.

I've been preoccupied with copying more DVDs and getting my hands on more music in the past week. My DVD collection is finally worthy enough to negotiate with the "Richlist" (of a guy at work). While I've made no blogs and only a few not-to-be-released video blogs, I have prepared my top 100 songs and top 10 (possibly 20) albums of 2006, with only a minimum of tinkering left to do on the album list. I've learned to accept that I'll never be able to listen to all the albums of 2006 that I want to, so I might as well post it now and revise it at year's end, as Jiggy does so effectively. Since I'll be online five days a week, keep checking back as I post the lists little by little, starting with 76-100 of the top 100 songs tomorrow I reckon.