Half our mistakes in life arise from feeling where we ought to think, and thinking where we ought to feel.

Sunshine came softly though my window today... Magnet Court, as seen from Mayfair Plaza car park. September 2012.

Sunday Stealing is closing down, it seems, which means that I'll need to find a new source for these questions! Until then, here is The End is Near Meme, Part 1

1. Ever been given or received an engagement ring?

Despite the fact that I am married, I have not experienced either honour.

2. Longest relationship?

It’s going strong at eleven (11!) years now.

3. Last gift you received?

I got a comfortable jacket for Father’s Day. As well as an Essendon FC bookmark.

4. Ever dropped a mobile phone?

LOADS of times.

5. When's the last time you worked out?

I’ve cut back on my non-habitual exercise of late. I walk everywhere, we do a bit of swimming and a lot of my ‘relaxation’ involves trekking somewhere or other and often involves carrying a reasonable heavy child, so the excess workouts aren’t really necessary.

6. Thing(s) you spend a lot of money on?

Kids. Hydroelectric power. That kind of thing.

7. Last food you ate?

A Granny Smith apple. Very tasty it was, too.

8. First thing you notice about the opposite sex?

It very much depends on their own characteristics. Could be anything. Face. Voice. Laugh. Boobs. Hair. Clothes. Smell. It’s not always good and it’s not always bad.

9. One favourite song?

Off the top of my head, why not try No Children by The Mountain Goats. Suitably bleak.

10. Where do you live?

In Geilston Bay. In Hobart (on the eastern shore of the Derwent Estuary). Which is in Tasmania (in the south east of the island). Which is in Australia (the little island south east of the really big island). Which positions us at the arse end of the arse end of the world!

11. High school attended?

Parklands High School, which is in Burnie. Which is at the other end of Tasmania from Hobart.

12. Cell phone provider?

Someone or other. What are you, a cyber stalker?

13. Favourite shop?

I subscribe to a form of neo-Kantian concept of Deontological (or duty-based) ethics. It’s easier for me to not think about shops. I do like the Tasmanian public library system.

14. Longest job?

I worked at the University of Tasmania for seven or eight year stretch for a while there, but it was flitting from casual work to contract work to casual work to contract work that really you couldn’t call it a single ‘job’. Rule that out and you’re looking at a three year stretch at an alcohol, tobacco and other drug peak body, although even that constituted three or four ‘jobs’. The world has changed!

15. Do you own a smart phone? Why?

What constitutes a ‘smart’ phone. It can’t explain J.S. Mill’s ‘Harm Principle’ and is useless at relationships so it doesn’t seem all that bright to me. Hang on a tic [looks up ‘smart phone’]. Yes. It appears that I own a ‘smart phone’. I can’t say that I do anymore than text or make the odd phone call with it, however.

16. Do you prank call people?

What are you, twelve?

17. Last wedding you attended?

Cripes. I’ve not been to many weddings. If you count my own, I have attended six. Two remain married. Two didn’t even crack a year married, so I might be a bad omen for people.

18. First friend you'd call if you won the lottery?

My wife. First I’d need to work out how I got a lottery ticket!

19. Last time you saw your best friend(s)?

This morning.

20. Favourite fast food Restaurant?

Hmmmmm. A toss-up between your fancy-pants Nandos or Legs ‘n Breasts.

Hold me now, oh hold me now, until this hour has gone around. And I'm gone on the rising tide, to face Van Dieman's Land

Theme Thursday again, and this one is rather easy. I am Tasmanian, you see, and aside from being all around general geniuses - as I have amply described previously - we are also very familiar with the concept of WATER. Tasmania is the ONLY island state of an ISLAND continent. That means, we're surrounded by WATER. That should help explain why I take so many photographs of water . Tasmania was for a long time the place where the British (an island race terrified of water) sent their poor people most vile and horrid criminals. The sort of folk who would face the stark choice of a death sentence , or transportation to the other end of the world. Their catalogue of crimes is horrifying : stealing bread assault stealing gentlemen's handkerchiefs drunken assault being poor affray ladies being overly friendly with gentlemen for money hitting people having a drink and a laugh public drunkenness being Irish Fenian terrorist activities being Catholic religious subversion. ...

Something unpleasant is coming when men are anxious to tell the truth.

This is the moon. Have I mentioned how much I adore the zoom on my camera? It's Theme Thursday you see, and after last week's limp effort, I have been thinking about how I might redeem myself. Then I clicked on the topic and discover that it was BUTTON. We've been hearing a lot about the moon in the past couple of weeks. Apparently some fellas went up there and played golf and what-not forty-odd years ago. The desire to get to the moon, however, was not simply about enhancing opportunities for Meg and Mog titles and skirting local planning by-laws in the construction of new and innovative golf courses. No, all of your Sputniks , "One small steps" and freeze dried ice cream was about one thing , and one thing only : MAD Now, I don't mean mad in terms of "bloke breaks record for number of scorpions he can get up his bum", no I mean MAD as in Mutual assured destruction . When I was a young man you see, there was a lot of talk about the type of m...

Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it...

I still have the robot on the job. Here you can see the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery . And here is a poem: Soliloquy for One Dead Bruce Dawe Ah, no, Joe, you never knew the whole of it, the whistling which is only the wind in the chimney's smoking belly, the footsteps on the muddy path that are always somebody else's. I think of your limbs down there, softly becoming mineral, the life of grasses, and the old love of you thrusts the tears up into my eyes, with the family aware and looking everywhere else. Sometimes when summer is over the land, when the heat quickens the deaf timbers, and birds are thick in the plumbs again, my heart sickens, Joe, calling for the water of your voice and the gone agony of your nearness. I try hard to forget, saying: If God wills, it must be so, because of His goodness, because- but the grasshopper memory leaps in the long thicket, knowing no ease. Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it... I like Bruce Dawe. He just my be my favourite Austral...

This will hurt me...

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