Crossing the road on the way to the shops for lunch today, there were a couple of young ladies opening big cardboard boxes and handing out smaller packages to passers by. Never one to pass up anything free I positioned myself in the crowd to grab one as I was walking by. From a distance the package looked like the kind of box you'd get a video game in and looked far more interesting than the huge cans of disgustingly flavoured energy drink that usually gets passed out. When I had the chance to glance at my prize however I still couldn't figure out what it was. There box said there were CD's and a book inside, and passing by the middle aged gentleman holding placards reminding us of Jesus I started to wonder whether it wasn't some Christian promotional material or scientology stuff. But the reality was somewhat weirder. I opened the box over lunch and all of my colleagues were left to scratch their heads and guess at what it might be. How could someone affort to give away a book for free, and 3 CD's for that matter? The production of everything looked high quality, with vaguely fantasy or Native American themes with the design. I still haven't read any of the book or decided whether I should, but the little note within promises a lot With the music you have before you, Wild Animus is complete Unfortunately the reviews on Amazon seem to say it doesn't live up to the promise.. This is easily one of the worst books I have ever read. It's difficult to believe that a publisher can have read this manuscript and thought it was publishable. Why, wait a minute! The publishing house, Too Far, was founded by this book's author, Richard Shapero! Well, that explains the lack of serious editing or promotion. Very short wiki on the author. He seems to have published the whole thing from his own pocket. This link provides some nice background to this. It seems like this book has been handed out free over the past few years at various universities, and I happen to work right next to one in Sydney. Handing out this book also seems to have caused a bomb scare at Yale university.

When I think of 80's movies like Lethal Weapon, they still feel somewhat up to date, not ridiculously dated (setting aside that HUGE phone). That film is from 1986, but the same amount of time has passed since then as had passed in 1986 since the release of Goldfinger in 1964 - that seems like a huge difference. I can't imagine in 1986 people felt that 1964 was as close as 1986 feels to me. Does it just seem that way because of my age or is there something more to it. If I think of films from the 80's on, plenty still seem to be set in a noticeably modern world, whereas going back further into the 70's and 60's, everything gets exponentially older. Anyway before I got to espouse any theories, Kottke.org has gone and done just that, complete with fancy graphics. So at least I know its not all in my head.

Though Sydney is similar enough to back home that I often don't think about being abroad, there are enough little differences to keep reminding me that I'm somewhere else. There are the security guards who ask you to open your bag when you leave shops, there're the hundreds of varieties of "Tasty" cheese in the supermarkets, the army hats where they clip one side to the head, Flat White's, Schooners, "Ute's", not to mention Christmas in the summer. But one of the kind of strange things I noticed recently is the apparent fondness for shops named after people, which means also including a cartoon of said person on the shop logo. Something about it feels a little..I don't know, quaint? Speaking of shops, it seems that without any Halloween to stall things, it's well into the Christmas season at most department stores. Many of them have had a Christmas section up since the beginning of October, and yesterday I saw plenty of reindeer and Christmas trees. Hearing "walking in a winter wonderland" in the background just makes no sense with its 27 degrees outside and getting hotter.

I happen to like tinned mackerel, but according to this link, it's being used as currency in prisons now that smoking bans have made packets of cigarettes hard to come by. And speaking of the Global Financial Crisis! (tm), there's a great thread on the StraightDope.com explaining just what money actually is, seeing as it turns out everyone's going to have a lot less soon.