Sniper

I know it's not 1999 anymore, but, I just sniped my first eBay auction and it was so freaking exciting.

With 29 seconds to go, BAM, Brad - a completely unknown bidder - comes out of the blue and bids on the auction. "Congratulations," the page proclaimed, "You are the highest bidder!"
Adrenaline pumping, I watched the seconds tick away.

Then I got sniped with four seconds to go!

I lost, but it was still awesome. I then tried to find something else I wanted to bid on that was going to end soon but I couldn't.

All the while listening to Snyper, by Hybrid.


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The woman with the fake tan stepped into my office, sat across from my desk and lit a cigarette.
At least, she would, sometime in the next 20 minutes. Smelling the future has advantages, but precision isn’t one of them.


Emo Entry

I never thought I could post this, but, I wasted part of my day watching a game of cricket. I don't know if it was because the first 15 overs or so were so good, but the rest of it was really bad. This was in thanks mainly to the predictable nature of pretty much everything. I think this was also about the time that Damien Martyn got in.

The South African innings was just as boring, but even before that started I was thinking that as crap as 20/20 is at least that would have been over by now.

I guess this post is to support the media's claims that a 12 game tournament is too long. That and part of me longs for the cool days of winter where the Bulldogs will unpredictably win occasionally.

Sunday is my least favourite day.

Big Day Out Review 2006

I spent all day working on CSS and page layouts, and although I could go on for pages about that excitement here is, instead, part 1 of my Big Day Out Review:

The Big Day Out 2006 will not be remembered as the greatest Big Day Out ever. Primarily, the line up attending was the weakest I’ve ever seen. Another factor was the amount I had to drink. Nevertheless, despite feeling slightly ripped off after the second announcement was made and vowing not to buy my ticket next year until after the announcements were finished, I assured myself I would have a good time. A good time I pretty much had.

Gerling
Gerling were the first band I saw. I heard some of Faker but I don’t think I glanced at the stage that often. Sam had wanted to arrive in time for Faker and orchestrated the trip to get us there 10 minutes after their set had started, y’know, in case the band hadn’t shown up yet.
But anyway, Gerling: Yeah, they played some songs and I stood around drinking. They played “Whose Your Daddy?” which was ok and the rest of the stuff they played I can’t remember mainly because of lack of interest rather than extreme inebriation which was to become a theme for the day. A couple of enthusiastic “weoahs!” and the distribution of three earth balls into the crowd garnered their set with some respect. And it’s not like I walked away or anything.
3/5

Mudvayne and a Steak Sandwich
At the conclusion of Gerling there was, surprisingly enough, no good bands playing. This meant it was lunch time. Lunch time at the Big Day Out is all about picking what flavour your greasy meal will be, and I picked steak because the place was out of burgers. The steak was pretty good, albeit intensely greasy. After finishing that off and watching a guy with make up DJ from a parked Ice-Cream truck I decided we should go and see what Mudvayne were like. My main motivation for this came from being introduced to DragonForce not long ago and figuring that some metal can actually be pretty rocking!
So off to Mudvayne we went and songs were played. I remember the storming kick of the bass drum the most, walking towards the stage. Also a lot was said about shoe stealing in the mosh-pit not being very respectful. I like the lead singers of metal bands. Some yelling and a delicious steak sandwich combined:
3.5/5

Wolfmother
The crowd then migrated to the right a little to the Blue Stage to watch WolfMother. One thing I’ve noticed about new Australian bands recently, they all have this kind of warbling, melody-less manner of singing over their music instead of to it. WolfMother are a band that seem to be a little above this.
Wolfmother would qualify as the first band where I actually knew what songs they were playing when they played them. WolfMother rock. They are a rock band so if they’re getting contracted for major rock festivals you’d expect they do this anyway. But they did. However another theme for the day was constantly leaving sets early to see someone else and that applied here. I would have liked to see the end.
4/5

End of Fashion
I have never really listened to much End of Fashion. I know I said to Sam during the show “hey, these guys are alright” but they were on the Green Stage which was right next to the Toohey’s Extra Dry tent and, well, you can see how my opinion might be swayed in either direction.
There was some song I think I liked, but it might have been played by Faker.
1125ml/5

(more)


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Big Day Out Review 2006 - Part II

Soulwax
Before I went to the BDO I downloaded a few CDs by the touring artists to check out what they were touring. Because God knows no one had ever heard of half these shit bands before. However one band I decided not to check out, yet still attend, was Soulwax. The only experience I’d had with Soulwax was through their interesting remixes of tracks such as "Six Days", "Robot Rock" and "Dare". But they wouldn’t be remixing on stage; they’d be playing their own music! I would definitely check this out then.
I don’t remember any of Soulwax and I still have never heard a single song by them.
13 Photos, 1 Cowboy Hat and I think the only part of that concert I remember is actually going to the boiler room bar and buying 2 more drinks/5

Shihad + Hilltop Hoods + The Go! Team???
This is obviously where it starts to get a little blurry, but I remember walking towards the Converse Essential Stage with most everyone else to go see Shihad. The thing about going to see Shihad at the Big Day Out was I’d already seen Shihad last year. I saw them at the Flinders Tavern and my ticket only cost $10! Not only that, but the beer was a lot cheaper there as well. So, in protest I decided that I wouldn’t listen to Shihad at a giant music festival and similarly I also decided I would boycott digesting what I'd been drinking as well.
It kind of went like that. I left Shihad, walked past the Silent Disco and had a quiet sit for a moment while I'm pretty sure Hilltop Hoods were playing in the background. It was beginning to dawn on me that I was altogether fucked. I figured I would be alright if I just sat around for a long time... but at what cost? I'd barely even seen the bands I’d come here for. Well, band - I was at one stage referring to the Big Day Out as 'Franz Ferdinand with many national and international supporting acts'.
I decided to make a noble sacrifice and vomit the contents of my stomach in order to hopefully enjoy the rest of the day. This was actually a voluntary decision, one I spent much time sitting on a toilet considering before finally planting myself on my knees and using my fingers to discover parts of your throat that, seriously, you just vomit. It was kinda wicked.
I walked out of the cubicle and my head was a little clearer. Just in time to catch the start of MIA so apart from Soulwax it seemed I hadn’t missed much. However checking my camera revealed me watching a band on the Green Stage after Soulwax and I thought that Shihad had played on the Converse Stage? Surely my memory wasn't that bad! Turns out it was worse, and I'd been at 'The Go! Team' for at least two minutes in which time I took four photos. It might even have been my idea to see them because they seemed like a better option than Shihad for prestigious reasons. Oh well...
Multiple Jack & Cokes/My Mouth

M.I.A.
Aside from Franz Ferdinand, the other main attraction for the BDO was M.I.A. This chick is truly wicked and I’d been totally digging her album for the past two months. Along the way from my lunch to the Boiler Room I bumped into Sam again (as well as a further eight idiots who felt the need to discuss the Western Bulldogs with me ignoring the fact that I was practically incapacitated). I told Sam we should go see M.I.A. and then I got there and it was just so good. I had to force my way to the front to take some photos and once I was there I couldn’t leave. First of all she has mad producers working on her tunes and they were banging. Secondly she actually sings about things that, after you Google the lyrics and read about them are important and stuff; not only catchy, but also deep and with a true personal voice behind them. I really enjoyed M.I.A. and it was almost euphoric. This was pretty much because I was basically still off my tits, but whatev. I actually cried a little during 'Sunshowers' because I was a little overwhelmed by the happy energy that this girl was bouncing out whilst singing about her family tragedy. Also, yeah, off my tits…
5/5

2 Weeks Until Football

2006 is the year of the Dog, so I've got a good feeling about this season. After all we've only had two injuries so far!

My Life is a Sitcom

At a young age I became very aware of the literal implications of what I would say.
Growing up in the early 90's it was an era of "Kill me now!"s and "I would rather die than"s. However being an astute 9 year old I pondered these phrases and decided that I would eliminate them from my vocabulary at the minimum to avoid the wrath of a presumably literal God. This was also the course that led me to the removal of "Oh my God"s and "God damn it"s.

However times change and years of listening to sport commentary on television has ensured that choosing words appropriately has literally taken a back seat in my conscious. More recently, however, at a time when I was struggling to comprehend the meaning of one important word: "love", I realised that I was actually saying it all the time!
"I love House" I'd announce to whoever listened following a particularly sharp verbal jab from the wizened doctor.
"I love Andy Bichel!" I would slur loudly, as he hit a six in the final over to beat England.
But perhaps the best example of the way I use love can be stemmed from the recently ended life of one of the best television program's I'd ever seen: Arrested Development.
I loved this show. From the moment I turned it on it was love at first sight. What were the characteristics of my love?

I would never want to miss a new moment in its life.
I would think about it, even when it wasn't around.
I took an extended lunch break from work one day so I could drive home and watch the episode from the night before that I had to tape.
I sacrificed sleep and cash just to be closer to it... on DVD.

Loving Arrested Development was easy, because it reminded myself of a glorified me. The kind of guy that would perform courageous feats when his team was under pressure; the sharp mind that produced barbs of wit seemingly before the preceding context was spake. Without Arrested Development, I couldn't imagine my life would be as rewarding and enjoyable as it was. But things changed, and in the third season the show devolved into a more narcissistic, over-referencing shadow of its former self. I admit it, I turned on it. Watching it made me feel ill.

Where was my love now? How could I love something that I could no longer stand be around? What was my motivation? A sign of respect to the good times we’d shared wouldn’t do and obligation due the prior commitment I’d already given to the show seemed precariously cyclic.

When old, senile Arrested Development decided that last Friday night (or Saturday night by the time the torrents came out) was the time for it to die. I came along to be by its side. The truth was I’d never left it. This is unlike Family Guy, who I was just friends with but who I haven’t seen since about six months ago when I realised it wasn’t coming back from its walk on the inane side. Seeing no one reads this far in the boring entries my conclusion is I guess while originally I thought that loving something was basically an appreciation that, without it, the capacity for joy in your life would be reduced in some way. But perhaps it’s a little more than that, because I stuck by Arrested Development and the finale was actually good once they started making new jokes again instead of just constantly referencing themselves. Overall, this is something that needs more pondering.

Valentines Day

I spent $60 on my girl today. But it was the first time I've filled up with petrol since last month so it's not that big a deal.

I guess I'm whipped.

This is my Worst entry of the Year

If this was Google chat this smiley would be rotating 90 degrees and then winking at u ;)

The Future

Sometimes I ponder about the future of my journalling. Considering that, initially, my journal was to document the days of summer where weeks of freedom flowed like rivers what will happen when the summers run dry? After all, I'm probably enjoying the last week of Summer I'll ever have in this context right now. And all of that time is being spent working. What does the future truly hold...

Yes, yes that seems like a good entry to explain my lack of updates...

This looks wrong...

I had one of my best gyms on Friday afternoon. This was bracketed by days of basketball games in which I scored 20 points. Tonight my cardiovascular system seemed to reach a new level as the hill on my route that I couldn't summit a month a go and almost died by the peak a week ago on my runs was beaten without losing breath.

6 months ago I was the fittest and strongest I'd ever been. Then circumstances such as work, basketball seasons and others changed and I started losing it again. I haven't got back to where I was yet, but I'm on my way to being better. It's lovely! I didn't want to be one of those businessmen in their 30s who lamented that the fittest they were was when they were 20.

I can run further, last longer and lift more than I ever could. Yet these skills mean nothing when I need to try and force Internet Explorer to interpret CSS like a good browser would, no matter how fit I am. So perhaps I don't have to worry about being a businessman after all...

Teh Paradox

What do you do... when you have an idea for your journal system to make a small "ideas notepad" page come up that you can store ideas for future entries in... but you don't have time to code it and you want to forget your idea... XD

Post an entry about it obviously...

A message from our sponsors

A lot of people hate advertising. I don't.

There's a lot of "annoying" ads. For example: the Metropolitan Plumbing ads and the A&R ads. I regularly hear people saying they "hate" these ads, but really, they're very effective. How else could a company like A&R make a profit by just reselling commercially available products at marked up prices? Conditioning is powerful as well as awesome and people who dismiss it as "annoying" are narrow minded, and most likely, the kind of people it will work on.

However, the second kind of advertisement is the one I like best. They're the ones where some new product is advertised that is supposed to be really good but in actual fact is just a regular product with an improvement. I often hear people scoff at these advertisements as if they expect progress to come in giant leaps. But I think they're great. They're the reason I have this air freshener in my room that automatically squirts fragrance every hour. It's also the reason that I have a toothbrush that vibrates in your mouth and the head splits in half and buzzes about like a transformer while you brush.

The latest thing I picked up, and this brings me to my point, was Sunsilk's Shampoo for Men. Once again someone has taken a normal product - shampoo - and improved it slightly so that my life can be improved dramatically. It's just shampoo. It doesn't make your hair shiny. It doesn't make your hair have extra bounce. It doesn't make your hair moist, or lush, or springy, or grow faster, or fight dandruff or anything. It just makes it clean and MANLY. I don't need to use conditioner anymore or any hair styling products because after I shampoo my hair I just mash it down with my hands a bit and let it dry well just like that, instant normal guy hair. I recommend it, it's brilliant.

Shhh...

No one talk about erections....

Hahaha... yesterday the ad was small size and now it has grown to twice as big... :/

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Hands

No time to write in depth; rushed life fragment here:

When I got my first job stocking shelves I was shocked at how quickly my supple, tender hands got ripped to shreds after years of rare physical labour.

After two days at an IT corporation which provides a delightful handwash that, when combined with the gentle warm air on pre-towelled skin, leaves my hands so soft and pink I am equally shocked at the rate of change.