Just for the record, I'm not going to go back and detail much of the past four weeks. I'll talk about my trip to Mexico. I may talk about some of the things I did. Who knows?

But I'm back from the ups and downs, and charging into the next bits. Here are a couple of highlights:

I went to Texas
Hot Uno Action
I went to Mexico City
I bought some shares
I visited Bria in Athens
I saw American Beauty
The company I work for has changed ownership - I am now an employee of Marconi Online, Inc

Oh yeah, one more thing. Daylight savings kicked in, so now Atlanta is 16 hours behind New Zealand. So if you're in Auckland and you want to know wha the time is here, just add eight hours to the time (and remember that it's yesterday).

More pictures from this period...

5 Apr

Important News!!!

Jesus is back! Read all about it here.

Also, news has been released about a dangerous chemical in our environment. Petition your local leaders to do something about Dihydrogen Monoxide.

Ah yes, I'm going to Nomenclature tonight. I don't think I'll be out very late, but I do think a visit is in order. But I must have food first. Food is good.

Did any other amazing things happen today? I had a meeting with some important people at Coca-Cola Enterprises. That was pretty exciting. I had a long day at work. That's about it really.

Well, I went to the Local, and had a burger and a couple of beers with Tim, Wicki, Joel, and Matt, and also saw Rebecca, Shannon, Daniel and Walt. Their team won the trivia that night, so I left there on a good note.

And then I went to Nomenclature where I caught up with Jenn, Lauren, Mike, Herb, Scott, Andie and probably a couple of other people that I can't quite remember. It was a mostly good night.

6 Apr

Atlanta Opera - Opening night of Rigoletto at the Fox Theatre.

This should be good - just waiting on Lauren and we shall wander up.

And it was. It started at 8 and finished at 11pm. The three lead characters were brilliant. The music was great. And I had terrific seats.

7 Apr

I didn't go to work today. The cough that has been nagging me most of the week became rather unbearable this morning, and so I decided to take a rest day. I may go in wo work over the weekend to tie up a few loose ends before Monday. But we shall see.

So I stayed home, read some more of The Brothers Karamazov and also read my first issue of Foreign Affairs. And I slept a bit, which was also good. I had some great dreams, too.

Hmm, it's 4:26pm. I haven't eaten since lunch time yesterday. I suppose I should do something about that, but I'm not particularly hungry. I might see how I am in an hour or so.

Well, an hour has passed, and I have had a shower. I might have a quick game of Civ before I do anything else.

As it happens, I went to the Local for a few hours and caught up with RaeAnn and Ben, who I hadn'tseen for ages. After the pub I went up to the Vault and caught up with even more people. I even met some new people - Jolie and Alice and Alice's friend Thompson.

Eventually it was time to go home, but not directly. Oh no, it was time to get some food; and not only that, time to get it at a new eating establishment. And that would be R. Thomas, on Peachtree Street. Scott, Kalina, Jolie, Skippy Will and Chason were my comrades in food. And good food it was.

8 Apr

A slow day. I slept in. I read. I played CivII: Test of Time. And then I went out.

Jesse picked me up and together with Skippy Will and Andie we went to a flatwarming party of a friend of Will and Andie's.

It turned out that this flatwarming was for Alice who I met last night. Wild, eh? Anyway, we arrived, heard some Poppies tracks (so I was already happy), met a very skittish cat, watched some great Anime (Bastard) and had a generally good time.

After the party, we headed out to Secret Room at Deux Plex. Definitely a very nice club. And some wonderful people there as well. I even managed to score some free drinks courtesy of Billy. I was able to catch up with more people that I hadn't seen for ages, and Durran was playing an awesome set, so it was a great night. This is definitely a night not to miss.

Jesse dropped me home about 3:40am, and once I finish typing this up, I'm going to bed :-)

9 Apr

Ah, Sunday; day of rest. And of reading - more of The Brothers Karamazov. I went to brunch at Cafe Diem with Russ and company. As usual, this was a fun and relaxing way to break one's fast. Afterwards I came home and played more of CivII.

Earlier in the day my new downstairs neighbour came up to introduce himself. I've forgotten his name already - me bad. Oh well, I'm bound to see him round again. (It's Mike.)

After a new episode of The X-Files, I went off to the airport to pick up John Cornford, who is here for the next three months to help out around work. Yay John!

10 Apr

The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert arrived in the mail today. Woohoo!!

I went to the pub for dinner (barbeque plate, with corn on the cob and extra hush puppies) and to read my latest issue of The Economist.

After dinner, Jesse gave me a call and he, Andie and I went to Phipps to see Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. This was a really fun movie, by turns philosophic and comedic. After the movie, we headed up to HexensNacht, which ended up being really fun. I caught up with some people I hadn't seen in a while (yay Brad, yay Shane), and reacquainted myself with a couple of people I had only met once before. Unfortunately it was also a late night; I got to bed about 3:45am.

11 Apr

Tonight me, Jesse, and John met up at the Local. Sarah from John's work also joined us later on.

Open book time. I fell in love with and dated a lesbian, and it didn't exactly work out. I have a friend who is a lesbian who fell in love with a girl that eventually decided she was straight. I have another friend (girl) who is in love with a very straight girl and can't admit her feelings to her. Yes, we're all fucked up in our own little way.

Heh, ain't life a bitch, eh?

Anyway, all that angst aside, I went to the Lcoal and then with John and Sarah went to a gay and lesbian bar called Tower II. For some reason, it's quite nice to be hit on, even if it is by boys... In a closely fought competition, Sarah beat me at pool and then proceeded to also beat John.

12 Apr

Went to the Local for Triva. Once again I was a part of Tim and Joel's team. We came third.

I came home after chatting with Joel and Kathleen for a while and went straight to bed. Damon need sleep.

13 Apr

Another long day at work and I came home with the intention of doing more work. I lay on the couch for a few minutes and fell asleep. Damn. I was woken again by my pager going off.

It wasn't a long sleep, but it was enough to prove a point. I decided that even though I wasn't particularly hungry I should get some food, so I went to the Local, had ribs and a couple of Newcastles and then came home.

And now I'm going to bed. Somewhat earlier than normal, but I just need to sleep.

14 Apr

Today was fairly steady day at work. Mark finally left, and now John Cornford is my chief assistant. This should be good.

And when I got home I was able to pick up some parcels from the leasing office. One had new CDs (Fun With Knives by Velvet Acid Christ and United States of Mind by Covenant. The other parcel was various pieces of literature I had ordered from the New York Academy of Sciences to do with science policy and the social and economic impact of science and technology.

I met with (Lawyer) John up at the Local, and amongst dinner and a couple of brews, worked on the crossword in the Creative Loafer with Shannon. John left around 9ish to meet up with work people in Buckhead. I stayed until around 10ish and went home.

Around 11:30ish I jumped in the car and headed up to the Vault. This was a really good night; I managed to catch up with Amber and Michelle, who I hadn't seen for many weeks. I had a bit of a chat with Durran, Kevin, Skippy Will. Alice also made an appearance, as did Billy. John and Barry also arrived at some stage. When the night was drawing to a close, Amber, John and I (and a friend of Amber's whose name I have forgotten) went up to Waffle House for a late feed. And then it was bed time.

15 Apr

Today I spent several hours at work. I did achieve a few things, which was very cool. After work, I came home and sat on my deck with a vodka (or two) and sprite and some reading material (the latest Economist and The Brothers Karamazov).

This evening I caught up with Jenny, who I dated for a couple of months about this time last year, for a drink. We went to the Local (now there's a surprise) and chatted about stuff that had happened in the intervening months. Lauren and Sherrod popped in for a bite to eat and then later Jenny and I joined them over at the Clermont.

Also at the Clermont were John, Vanessa, Stephen, Josh, Sherrod's roommate (who I didn't actually meet, but was actually also at the Local, too). There were also unfeasilbly large numbers of other people packed in as well. It was quite different to our usual Hot Clermont Action outings on Wednesdays. Jenny and I left arond 12:30ish.

While waiting for Jenny, I started reading Iain Banks' Song of Stone. The style of writing in this book reminds me a little of Mervyn Peake.

16 Apr

Well it apppears to be a beautiful day outside. According to The Weather Channel, at 1:10 this afternoon, the temperature was 73F (~23C). A pleasant temperature, and a partly cloudy sky. Forecasts are for up to 82F (~28C) over the next couple of days. I do believe summer is on the way!

Around 3pm, I went over to Tim's place and we traded our latest scotches. I supplied my Lagavulin 16 year, and Tim supplied a 15 year Laphroig. We both agreed that the Lagavulin was the tastiest of the two, but the Laphroig was nothing to sneer at.

Later, we wandered over the Local for dinner, the Simpsons, and to finish Shannon's crossword. A pleasant evening. I came home, watched the X-Files and chatted briefly with Lauren, and then it was time for bed. All in all, a very pleasant Sunday.

17 Apr

Thurston's 3rd birthday. Who is Thurston? Thurston is the übercat, named after Thurston Moore. Thurston lives at Lauren's. Thurston rocks.

There is now a preview available for the Lord of the Rings movie. Check it out here. Oh man, am I pumped about this or what!

For dinner I popped over to Marco's Pita for, well, a pita wrap. In particular, I had a greek wrap, which had lettuce, tomato, feta, olives, peppers, salami, onions, ham. It was sooooooo good. Marco's is next door to The Local.

Sonic Youth playing on June 23 at the Tabernacle! Woohoo!! I have a ticket!! Woohoo!!

Later, I made my way up to Riviera for HexensNacht. It was more gothy than industrial, for a change. I played three games of pool with John; he beat me 2-1. Bastard.

18 Apr

Yeah, so it's Tuesday. And therefore it's Local night. So sue me for instituting a tradition; someone had to do it.

Anyways, I arrived, read some of the latest Scientific American while chatting with Daniel, Walkt, Kelly, Tim, Rebecca. John also showed up a little later (ie after I had finished my excellent plate of ribs, corn and hush puppies).

Jesse and Andie also turned up and we retired to the lounge seats to chat some more. We discussed many, things, from parties, to drinkiing, to people who post of the local goth email lists. Ah, it was entertaining.

And, for no reason at all, here's a big "Hello!" to Nicole in NZ.

19 Apr

The short story is that I went to Trivia at the Local and we (John and I) lost and then we went to Nomenclature and then we went to MJQ. The long story will have to wait.

20 Apr

Well I went to Hooters at Cumberland to catch up with Joel. Also joining us was John C from NZ and Rob S from CCE. Very entertaining. I would like to say, though, that I find most of the girls too skinny for my taste. Nice breasts though.

After Hooters I went to the Local. I caught up with lots of people and left around half past one.

21 Apr

Good Friday. It's especially good as I have been given the day off work. An excellent plan if ever there was one.

And on this day off I have slept in and then I went shopping for comics and vodka. I bought Black Orchid by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, and a couple of bottles of Absolut: one regular, one mandarin. Vodka is good. I continued my game of CivII - it's going to be a tough one.

The evening was one of many festivities. It started (per usual) at the Local. Tim and Todd were at the bar when I arrived and so conversation was joined. A little later also John turned up. Up in the raised area beside the bar, was a group of people from Creative Loafing. One of these people asked if any of us four were gay - he thought we were all pretty cute. Hehe. At around 9pm, John and I paied up our tabs, wandered over to Green's to get a 12-pack of Newcastle and then embarked on a journey to Decatur.

For in Decatur there was a party being thrown by Kathleen, the girlfriend of Joel (of the Local, aka Senior). This proved to be a fun wee diversion. I was able to catch up with Julie (who I didn't recognise at first because she had dyed her hair) and met some new people. We played a little fusball (I beat John - woohoo!!). John became involved in a conversation with a woman who thought he was gay. Poor John; twice in one night.

And then it was off to the Vault. Where there was even more festivising. Alice and Thompson were there, along with two other friends of theirs. Chason was also in presence, as were Billy, Sondra, friends of Sondra (one of whom recognised me from MJQ: "Hey do you have a Manic Street Preachers t-shirt? Yeah I recognise you from MJQ" - good grief; the other I have met before at Sondra's birthday last year), Kelly and Melissa. Durran was DJing in the little room, where I was also able to find Stuart who indicated that Frank was also around. At one stage (late in the night) one very drunk girl came up to where we standing above the dance floor and proceeded to ask if we were straight or gay. It was a very odd night like that. Chason followed up on getting to know the young lady and walked away with a phone number.

All of a sudden, the lights went on and it was closing time. Chason wasn't ready to drive anywhere, so we (John, Chason, myself) went up to Landmark Diner for a meal and coffee (or, as in my case, coke). With the coke I had eggs florentine, which I hadn't had for quite some time. And it was pretty good.

Finally it was five in the morning, and home time. I dropped John off at his car at the Local and made my way home to bed. Sleep came very easily...

22 Apr

I woke up. That in itself is not so unusual. The problem was that I woke up earlier than I wanted to. This is a pain. Oh well, can't sleep so I may as well get up and do a little housework. I've invited a few people round this afternoon to sit on the deck, listen to music and drink vodka (or in John's case, whisky), so I figured I'd better clean the place up a little. I also went shopping - for sprite, coke, tostito's, salsa con queso (awww yeah!). I forgot to get plastic cups and straws though. I may need to make another trip.

I also played more of my CivII game. The Babylonians made it in to space before me (the bastards) and have now changed to a fundamentalist regime. I am the only democracy left in my game. Maybe democracy isn't going to work...

Alice and Thompson arrived around 3:45ish. We sat on the deck, talking and drinking vodka, and listening to music. This was fun. Lauren was the next to arrive and the entertainments continued. Over the course of the evening appearances were made by John, Warwick and Stacy, Billy, Jenn, Vance. I think I saw Jesse, too, but I really can't be sure (hate it when thawt happens). In addition to listening to music, we played some Uno (yay Uno), and watched Full Metal Jacket. Thompson had a bit much to drink (sorry) and so she and Alice departed. I think that was before Uno. Billy and Lauren and Warwick and Stacy and John went off to Deux Plex and Jenn (feeling like she'd had too much to drink) stayed over.

23 Apr

Jenn took off around 9:30ish this morning and I tried to get more shuteye. When that stopper working, I continued to read Song of Stone. That was a pretty damn good book; one of Iain Bank's best (but all of them are so good that it's sometimes hard to say which are his best). Once finished, I got up, had a shower and cleaned up from last night. I also put on a load of washing. And now it's back to CivII...

I went over to John's place for dinner. He had a ham and we had sweet potatoes and cauliflower. And that's about it for the weekend.

24 Apr

Nicole in NZ rang this morning, but due to the time (1:30am) I really wasn't in a talkative state. So I rang her back when I got home from work. Aren't I good?

Jesse's 25th Birthday Part One - Let the drinking commence...

First stop was the Local (I mean, where else?). True to form, I was the first to arrive, and chatted with Daphne and Jerry while sipping on Newcastle and supping on pizza (Pita Pizza Royale - yum). The first of the festivizers to arrive was Lauren, and we retired to a table where there would be room for all of us. And many of us there were. Jessie and Andie turned up, and Jesse received his first present - a bottle of Belvedere. Now that's what I'm all about. And then the people started flooding in.

We had Skippy Will and Sherrod and Jason and Brad and (Doom Cookie) Jen and Eric and Shane and much festivizing. Among Jesse's booty was a big bottle of bubble-liquid (which Jesse proceeded to take the lid off and guzzle, causing some shocked faces to ensue), a Bubble-Bazooka, a bottle of Chivas Regal. Excellentness. There was free-flowing Newcastle, Guiness, Hard Core cider, Coke, whiskey and Coke, and more popcorn than the popcorn machine could safely handle. Rock on Jesse!

And then it was time to move on to the next phase of the celebration - HexensNacht.

HexensNacht was good. A quick hello to Randy and Sick Rick at the bar before John and I racked ourselves up a pool game or two. Jenn and Vance were into the pool scene as well, so we gave big hellos there. I think I won one game of pool (yay me).

After HexensNacht we made the next change of venue - to the bowling alley. It was by this time the wee smalls, and Jesse was now 25 - and feeling the hit of age, so he went home. We grabbed two lanes and set up two games. The first was me, John, Jenn and Shane. The second lane was Lauren, Brad, and Jen.

John was prepared - he had is bowling shirt and proceeded to win. Bastard. Jenn went to get some food for Lauren and Andie replaced her for the second game. I even managed to get a strike or two, which was rather exciting for me.

Finally it was late, and therefore time for bed. Jenn dropped John and I back at the Local, from which we proceeded to our respective beds. I felt sorry for Jenn - by the time she got home she was not going to get much sleep before going to class.

25 Apr

ANZAC day (a public holiday in NZ - what the hell, I'll take the day off as well)

Jesse's 25th Birthday Part Two - Bring on the fine food...

But first an amusing aside. Just as I was writing this update, my cell phone rang. So I answered it and was greeted with a "Happy Birthday to you." "Hmm," I said, "I think you have the wrong phone number...Heheh.

So at 7pm I made my way over to the Local to meet with everyone else. Lauren was the first to show, and so we just had a non-alcoholic drink (I hear you gasp in shock; don't worry). We waited a bit and I decided to get a vodka. Andie rang to say that they were running a little late and were just going to pick up Shane. Lauren ordered a drink and then John arrived. Next to arrive was the birthday boy with Andie and Shane. We had been unable to get hold of Eric, so we made our way out to Sandy Springs and Ruth's Chris' Steakhouse.

We started with cocktails ("I'll have a vodka martini, very dry"), and appetizers consisting of shrimps, tuna, oysters and mushrooms stuffed with crab meat. Excellent starters. I skipped a salad, and ordered the Ribeye, blue. With mushrooms on the side. Lauren ordered the salmon with garlic mashed potatoes on the side. We shared sides. It was all so very good. The steak was huge. And tender. "Smooth like butter..." And it went down marvellously. To finish the meal, a glass of Cointrea over ice. I didn't feel like a port or scotch, although the selection was quite extensive.

After dinner, John and I stopped in at the Local for a whiskey (I was ready by that stage) and to let the food digest some more before bed. Ah, food. Roll on April 25th, 2001. A big thank you to Jesse for the invitation.

26 Apr

Trivia at the Local. Woohoo!!

Tonight, it was Syphilis, or Revenge of the Hot Clermont Action Team. Eh, I was feeling particularly uninspired. John and Daniel were the other three initial team-members. But we soon gained more (sitting at the bar, that tends to happen): Demetrius, Jenny, Steve. And the odd answer from Shannon.

We were in third place after the end of the first half, after some poor point allocations. And even though we completely screwed up round 5, we still remained in third place before the final question. Unfortunately, that's where we blew the game by betting zero and getting the correct answer. Oh well...

So John looked at me, looked at Shannon, looked at me again, and said "Hey, let's not go to Nomenclature. Let's just stay here." So we did. Kevin's team won, so he came over to give us some hassles. In the end he got his cute friend (whose name I can't recall) to give him a ride back to his car and then he came back. From there, Jenny, Kevin and I went to MJQ where I was able to have a good dance. I saw MaryJack was there, and hence decided to to cause a little stir.

Back to the Local I went and told young John that a certain cute girl he wants to meet was at MJQ. Teehee. Anyway, from there Jenny and I went home and apparently John went to MJQ (with Steve). Ah yes, and enjoyable night was had by all.

27 Apr

Let's see. A long day at work. Came home and tidied up a little. Went to the pub for a bite to eat. Got paged with X.25 problems. Sorted those out as far as possible. Did more work from home. Went to the Vault with Lauren. It was full of young raver kids, which was not quite what we were expecting, so we went to the Masquerade, which was having its 80's night. Had a few drinks. Talked to Mike C. Came home.

28 Apr

Friday night. A long Friday night...

I went up to the pub, where I was supposed to meet John at 8pm. Well, he was late. I had left my cellphone at home so I dived home to get it around 9pm and by the time I got back, John had shown up. We had a couple of drinks and chatted about the kid he's mentoring (basically a big brother program) and then went off to a party at Tricia's.

I didn't think I knew Tricia, but we had met at the Local once before, sometime last year. But anyway, Tricia is a friend of the Sarah that John works with and that's why were there. I think. Anyway, there was a keg of Sweetwater 420 which went down quite well. A very merry evening was had, even though there was some angst at Sarah;s leaving. Kristie, who John used to date, turned up, which was nice, although a little uncomfortable for John. Eventually, John and I went in search of Sarah, but she wasn't at the pub where she said she was going, so we flagged that and went back to the Local.

Which was entertaining.

And then I popped back to the party and chatted some more. And then I came home around 4ish.

While I was at the party, Myra called and said that the movie version of American Psycho was well made (she had called earlier to invite me along, but I missed the call). So I will have to check it out. We decided to get together for a drink Saturday afternoon.

29 Apr

Had to go in to work today. We had some maintenance done on our distribution board, so I went in to bring the computers back up after the job was done. After this I popped over to John C's for a while and then headed home to do some washing before catching up with Myra.

Yay - my Sonic Youth ticket had arrived in the mail!.

Myra called and she picked me up and we went shopping up at Cumberland Mall. That was very cool. I hadn't spent much time with Myra in the last couple of months, and this was very nice. I went back and had dinner with her and her folks, and then she dropped me back home. At the mall I bought some DVDs - Lain (disc one), Ghost in the Shell, and The Passion of Joan of Arc

And then I went to the Local to play chess with John. Oh yeah, and to drink a vodka or three, two. In the end we stayed there for quite some time. They closed up, and John, Steve, Shannon and I went over to MJQ. We drank more. We danced (kinda). And then we went home.

30 Apr

You know, sometimes I really wish I could sleep more than I do. Because I woke up early again, with very little sleep. And then I spent the morning essentially just lying around in bed.

Around 3pm, I went over to the Local with my latest issue of The Economist. So I sat on the deck, in the sun, drinking a beer and reading, when who should pull up but Stacey, who I haven't seen in god knows how long. She had come up to have a drink, have a bite and do some study. Well, study went out the window as we spent the afternoon catching up.

I made sure she got home okay, and then I went over to John's place to watch the Simpsons. Sarah and Vanessa were also there. Sarah invited me to join them for Trivia at Taco Mac on Monday, so I think I'll do that. Vanessa went off to meet a friend, and later John and I caught up with her at the Highland Pub.

There are too many old (well, not really so old, but non-recent) flames suddenly reappearing in my life. It's kinda disturbing in its own little fucked up way.