Created a really awesome song in my head when I dreamt last night. Of course I forgot the meldoy and the lyrics as soon as I woke up. Today's subject is all I can remember from it. But in the dream I do recall that I was being chased by a really HUGE bee. Like the size of my fist! It was seriously intense.
I don't know a goddamn thing, do I? Slow it down, check things out then go forward!
I'm not listening to a lot of English songs at the moment, but when I do, I'm listening to a healthy amount of Haim and Creed. Strangely, a very good combination.
In today's rant, I must say a big 'fuck you' to Apple and iTunes! I recently procured my sister-in law's $50 iTunes voucher, and was glad to get a few songs that are very hard to find. Ok, let's not rag on the fact that most songs on there are like $2.20AUD! What the fuck?! Why are people paying 99 cents in the US, especially when the Australian dollar is higher? Don't talk about production and shipping etc. because we are dealing with virtual audio! There's no physical copy of this shit! I can go to JB hi-fi and pay an extra $2 and get my own PHYSICAL copy of the CD, and I can rip that shit to my computer in 320kpbs MP3 audio. Not some silly M4a format. Anyway, I asked my sister in law what songs she wanted, considering she gave me the voucher. So I decided to select the option to gift her some stuff on the program, but bang - went from my credit card as opposed to the iTunes voucher that I had already redeemed. What the hell?! There was no warning whatsoever that it was coming out of my credit card, as opposed to the gift voucher. Doesn't matter anyway, it was just one song, so I'll live. Still, would have been nice to know that you can't gift a song from a gift voucher purchase on iTunes. Would have made more sense to just buy the song for me then give it to her. Nice workaround!
But I did buy some pretty nifty games. Got Infinity Blade, which I've never played before and it was absolutely awesome. Quick hack and slash action game with RPG elements. Probably the best game I've played on iOS. Love the art direction, music, gameplay, it's all fantastic. Chugs a bit on the iPhone 4, but not enough to get in the way of enjoyin the fun. Epic! Loving it, I'll have to get Infinity Blade 2 after I've gone through all the endings and actually defeated the hidden bosses (I have died at the hands of the God King and beaten him, but I still need to join him). Need to save up to buy the infinity blade in the game!
So the Government here is looking to implement some of the recommendations in the Gonski Report. Not bad, but here's the problem - the Government is going to fund higher education by pulling funds from tertiary institutions. Oh for the sake of fuck, why is this occurring? Tertiary institutions are already running on little funding! They're struggling, and this is going to impact students most of all, as the price of education will go up in order to stay competitive and viable. It's a pretty bullshit thing to occur, considering most Australians who went to university in the 70's and part of the 80's were able to do so for free. Then it's the same bastards (the ones who reaped the rewards of such a system) who started charging uni students on 'pseudo-loans' for their higher education contribution scheme. Whoever implemented that should be killed and then left to rot outside so that their bones can be hanged. We are supposed to rely on education and the innovation of our youth when they're stuck in debt and likely to give up on education? Not going to happen! The Labor Government needs to be voted out. And when I say voted out, I mean utterly annihilated at the elections. Let the Liberals take over and govern us into the ground with their backwards and outdated views. Then, and only then may someone worthy rise up from the Labor ranks and take over again. Pretty fucked up when you consider how much funding goes into private and religious schools in this country. They already charge huge fees to the parents, so why can't government funding to these places be reduced? It's a failing system.
It's this silly thing about the older generation making it harder for the youth to gain any benefit from life. Most people my age can't afford a house because prices are so exorbitantly high. This is due to the older generation buying loads of investment properties and then negatively gearing them for tax purposes. Market demand pushes housing prices through the roof, and rental returns get stretched as a result. End result - we are all renting, and paying too much for it, without the hope of ever being able to purchase a home. I think that people should only be allowed to purchase homes that they live in. Investment properties are a joke, and the concept just serves notions of greed. Housing everyone is more important than someone's property portfolio.
Totally torqued my back the other day at the gym. I can lift pretty substantial weights now, but the result is that my hands get massively chewed up by the equipment. I've got callouses and blisters all of my hands, and it's not great to touch, but I can still play guitar (thankfully). So I bought gloves to help me with that, but on Thursday I forgot to take my gloves to the gym, so at the risk of damaging my hands I decided to do some lighter weights. Then on Saturday when I did another weights session, I took my gloves and lifted my regular weights, and damn! Ouchhhh! Totally wrenched the top bit of my neck (where it joins the rest of the spine), as well as my lower back, just above my hips. My weekend was a bit painful, but it's starting to dissipate now.
Got in some guitar over the weekend, but not as much as I hoped. So I'm going to try to spend this week working on original material and get some new ideas down.
As I'm sure I've ranted on about before, it really sucks that in this day and age, most people can't afford to buy cars or own homes without entering into a ridiculous, exploitative loans by banks. It's not a nice system. Things really need to change.
Looking to travel again at some point in the future. But the question is where??
Only an hour and a bit until I'm out of here, and I can't wait!
Well this has been a pretty damn good blog, if I do say so myself!
Let's keep it there for now.
Joaquin out.
