This will hurt me...

Shadow portrait. Napoleon Street, Battery Point. September 2012. Sunday Top Five already? An easy one this week: My Top Five Seven Picks In Fighting Games! The Barbarian (Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior) Johnny Cage (Mortal Combat) Chun-Li (Streetfighter) Sub-Zero (Mortal Kombat) Eddy Gordo (Tekken) Ling Xiaoyu (Tekken) Dhalsim (Streetfighter)

Me! Castray Esplanade, Hobart Waterfront. September 2012. Sunday Stealing is back! The Who Are You Meme ! 1. What is your biggest pet peeve? People's general selfishness/ lack of concern for others consistently frustrates me. 2. Where and when were you born? I was born in Burnie, Tasmania in the week that Hotel California by The Eagles was top of the Billboard charts in the US. 3. Where did your parents meet? You would have to ask them that question. I assume that it was in Melbourne, Victoria. 4. Do you have any siblings? What are/ were they like in four words? I have an older brother. He was an older brother. 5. Where do you live now, and with whom? I live in Hobart with Jen, Hen and Ez. 6. What is your occupation? I like to call myself a "Policy, Research, Communications and Academic Professional". 7. Write a full description of yourself. I'm just a sore and sorry little bot who needs to be loved. 8. To which social class do you belong? ...

Here is and extreme close up of Ezra, who has recently recovered from the very same does of the influenza that has wrought havoc with my mind and body these week. Suffice to say, the little bloke has pulled through with far more vigour and vitality than I think I will (should I survive, that is). Ezra has been achieving a number of milestones of late, not least that of standing up unaided and walking . For those interested, I will be posting a video of these marvellous feats either today or tomorrow (again, provided I have not joined Michael Jackson the that great Neverland in the sky...) In other news: this post is number 1,250 on this blog! Congratulations blog. Cards, presents and brown paper bags filled with cash should be directed to: Att/Of:Kris McCracken Tasmania Australia

I thought that I'd share another self portrait with you, this time down near the Supreme Court down here on the Salamanca/Battery Point/Hobart pivot. In the spirit of sharing, I thought that I'd supplement this self-portrait with a brief pen portrait of ten things about me that seem to exist around these here Internets: I have never lost a sock. I hate easily. I love to think about water. I honestly believe that my two lads are the best going around. I would like to eat clouds. I think that women , and not dogs , are a man's best friend. I want for little. The colour blue is my favourite. It's my birthday on Thursday. I try each day to be a little bit better.

As we enter the week before Henry turns two years old, I thought that I'd kick of a retrospective of Henry-related pictures. Think of it as a pictorial 'this is your life'. I thought that I'd begin with one of Henry and I on the second day after his birth. We're both a bit buggered, and I still find it odd that the most energetic of all involved in the birth at this point was Jen, who had actually done most of the work. I will claim some credit though, as holding her leg up in the air for a good hour with nary a complaint was not easy.

Finally I have reached the last of the five old poems that I pulled out of the notebook. This one has me channeling Ginsberg and messing about with tabulation. June 1996, and I really must have been an enfant terrible . I don't care what anyone says, I still like this one. Far more so than a certain poetry tutor at university anyway. I should post some of his poetry one day, that really would be good for a laugh! [ MEOW . Kitty, get back in the cage!] The Outer Hebrides hip cool               cat knows the score. sweet sixteen and                                never                                            been                                                     fucked in his arse. one hundred                        and fifty dollars is all it takes               he fakes                               for fifty more।

Here we have a juicy little number from July of 1997. T'was an excellent year: I discovered the joys of political theory, 'playing it cool', Wilco's Being There , a certain degree of 'swagger' and was turned off the UTas English Department for good. I also managed to get some poems, and even more prose pieces published here and there. I have chosen, however, yet another 'off the cuff' bit to post, as I think that time has been far kinder to it than the tosh that got in the luvvie journals. romeo and juliet now that i love (love!) you and you love me (lights out outer than outer can be) can’t can’t do any more (can’t!) (why cry now i can’t see?) me and you happy to be neither too far neither to be

Here we go again, another quick one, this time from November 1998. This poem is a little heavy handed in the symbolism department, but I like it nonetheless. It rather depresses me that I play the 'homoerotic' card to shock (give that I don't find it all that shocking); but I figured that religious iconography, homoerotism and prostitution all add up to something offensive to someone out there. Forgive me, I was young... Last night i met Jesus no time ago. walking the wall “Jesus!” i cried. (inside) mine eyes fell down trouser level (the glory!) Christ stood still watching my every move.

Alright y'all, continuing my own take on the promotion of gen-yoo-ine Tasmanian writing, I have another McCracken original poem to share with the world. I am saving a couple with nice homoerotic undertones that I really do like for the after dark crowd, and today will offer up a pithy little piece about fancying girls from the lazy days of early December, 1998. time gentlemen please is it the way that she belies a ‘no’ of ‘yes’ (surely Audrey herself interminably is) rooting out questions (or answers) perhaps no more doings of sin ever the equal of you

Here are just some of the wonderful and shocking things that have happened on this day in history: 1429 – Joan of Arc ends the Siege of Orléans, pulling an arrow from her own shoulder and returning wounded to lead the final charge. The victory marks a turning point in the Hundred Years' War. 1664 – Louis XIV of France inaugurates The Palace of Versailles. 1824 – World premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven 's Ninth Symphony in Vienna. 1832 – Greece is recognised independent by the Treaty of London. Otto of Wittelsbach, Prince of Bavaria is chosen King. 1840 – Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is born. 1892 – Leader of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito is born. 1895 – In Saint Petersburg, Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society his invention – the first in the world radio receiver. Today, Russia and Bulgaria celebrate this day as the Day of Radio . 1915 – World War I: a German subma...