Daniel85

So I got a couple of emails today informing me that two subjects I’d selected for next year have been cancelled. I was really looking forward to them, too. One was entitled “Television And Australian Culture”, the other “The Victorian Supernatural”. Now I have to find some replacement 3rd year Cinema and Literary Studies subjects, all the while avoiding the dreaded ‘tutorial presentation’ requirement.

It’s kind of annoying to have subjects cancelled this late in the year. I don’t know if there weren’t enough students enrolled, or the subject coordinators just decided to bugger off to Europe next year, or what. They’d better not cancel the William Blake lovefest subject (entitled simply “Blake”) on me, cos then I’ll really be pissed. I’ve been looking forward to that subject ever since first year.

I was at uni yesterday to return some books and pick up some holiday reading, but the self-checkout machine wouldn’t let me do my thang because there were ‘unresolved issues with my account’. Turns out I owe $24 in fines for overdue books. I just dumped the books I wanted at the nearest ‘recent returns’ trolley and got the hell out of there.

I could’ve just gone to the loans desk and paid the fine, but I was feeling like a bit of a dickhead and didn’t want to have some librarian tsk-tsking at my infringement. That’s the good thing about machines; they don’t judge you.

I’ll probably go back tomorrow morning and pay the fine so that I can drink deep of the font of all knowledge. I have a lot of reading to catch up on over the holidays, some of it academic, but most of it just taking advantage of the library’s many splendid hardcover comics collections. Will Eisner’s The Spirit, the classic E.C. titles, pretty much all of Marvel’s Masterworks and Essentials collections, and the handful of Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman works I’ve yet to read… so much comicky goodness. Alternatively, I could just refuse to pay the fines and go sit in the library reading all day for FREE, but that’d be kinda tight-assed.

Speaking of comics, there’s an interesting-looking exhibition on at the State Library of Victoria from RIGHT NOW until February; Heroes & Villains: Australian Comics and their Creators. The title is a mild example of the ‘Biff! Pow! Zap!’ attitude towards comics from non-comics-type-people, but that’s okay. It’s nice to see the funnybooks getting some recognition in an institution like the State Library. I’ll definitely be checking it out, but there’s strength in numbers, so let me know if any of y’all wanna go.

Couldn’t think of a title for this post, so I just put down the first thing that popped into my head. And because advertising jingles run through my head every waking hour, it was the Roof Seal song.

Speaking of the Roof Seal, has anyone noticed that they’ve done away with their classic ad for a newer, less-catchy, less-awesome one? It boggles the mind, really. That jingle was all they had going for them. Who cares about some crappy tile sealing business? It’s like Lube Mobile– they are at the top of their game, solely because of their kick-ass jingle and equally kick-ass ads. I hope Roof Seal goes out of business now, just to teach them a lesson.

I forgot what this post was actually supposed to be about.

Oh yeah, it was about some stuff I’ve overheard on trams recently. The first one was yesterday morning, where I saw a guy get pinged by the trenchcoated boys-in-blue-and-green (Yarra Trams ticket inspectors). The conversation went a little something like this:

Ticket Inspector: Excuse me, mate, can I see your ticket?
Fare Evader: Nah, I don’t have one, so I’ll just grab my license for you.
TI: (Slightly bemused) Alright. (Takes license, starts writing down details.) Can I ask why you didn’t purchase a ticket?
FE: I’m only just going up Bourke St. Short trip; thought I could get away with it. Just being honest with you.
TI: (Crosses off the report he had been filling out, with savage penstrokes.) You know what? Forget about it. Because you were honest with me. Just get off here, just next time buy a ticket.

Rather nice, don’t ya think? It’s kind of like how parents always say ‘We’re not going to be angry with you, just tell us what you did.’ And then POW!

The next thing I heard on my way home tonight. Some vacuous airhead trying to explain the metaphor ‘the icing on the cake’ to her jock boyfriend, only she didn’t call it a metaphor and she didn’t really explain it. It was painful just listening to them.

The final thing, and the most hilarious, was from that same trip. It was pretty packed, being peak hour and all, and there was this lady standing up in the aisle holding her baby. No-one thought to offer her a seat, of course. She was doing the usual maternal stuff, singing to her baby and such. After a while I realised what she was singing: “One rude person, two rude people, three rude people, four!” Awesome.

And in scholarly news, I just got back a Lit essay that I wrote the night before it was due. Got an H1 for it. Whoever said you can’t procrastinate your way through university?