... not unhinged

having lunch and catching up on reading phd comics and in a strip about visiting comic-con for the first time jorge cham referenced another online comic called unshelved. i took some time to check it out and while it refers mainly to to the world of librarians, i think there are some gems in there for anyone who's worked in customer service. now that i've been working in a bookshop for a while, i'm enjoying rather a bit more of it than i would have before. delicious. you should check it out.

... visiting el norte

i have my flights booked - 09h15 melbourne to sydney on the 5th, 21h15 sydney to melbourne on the 8th. i even worked it out that i'll have clean work clothes for the monday and tuesday after i get home that i will have washed on the tuesday night before i leave! (bonuses to being a creature of habit...)

i'm looking forward to catching up with people in sydney while i'm there, as well as kicking back and relaxing a little. i'm especially looking forward to visiting mars hill cafe - it's been such a long time since i had my classic chicken quesadillas and dark horse coffee, i've almost forgotten what they taste like!

... some musings on wisdom

i've been thinking about wisdom a little bit lately. here are some quotes on wisdom that have stuck in my head:

wisdom for a man’s self is, in many branches thereof, a depraved thing. it is the wisdom of rats, that will be sure to leave a house, somewhat before it fall. it is the wisdom of the fox, that thrusts out the badger, who digged and made room for him. it is the wisdom of crocodiles, that shed tears when they would devour. but that which is specially to be noted is, that those which (as cicero says of pompey) are sui amantes, sine rivali, are many times unfortunate. and whereas they have, all their times, sacrificed to themselves, they become in the end, themselves sacrifices to the inconstancy of fortune, whose wings they thought, by their self-wisdom, to have pinioned.

- sir francis bacon, of wisdom fo a man’s self

in seeking wisdom then art wise; in imagining that thou hast attained it, thou art a fool.

- rabbi ben azai (aze)

the moving finger writes; and, having writ,
moves on: nor all thy piety nor wit
shall lure it back to cancel half a line,
nor all thy tears wash out a word of it.

- omar khayyam, the rubáiyát

the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction.

- the Bible (esv), proverbs 1:7

the words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one shepherd. my son, beware of anything beyond these. of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
the end of the matter; all has been heard. fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. for God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

- the Bible (esv), ecclesiates 12:11-14

... in recent news...

there's been a few things happening, so this is kind of a catch-up entry: there'll be more to follow of other musings and i may even finally start posting on my movie review blog. don't get too excited - i say may - we'll see what happens.

work continues well. i enjoy my job and work with good people and continue to be able to say that i have fallen on my feet and no mistake. i am reading quite a bit - i just finished john birmingham's new book, after america, and am currently working my way through a book slated for release in the coming months. i've not long since finished a couple of bill brysons - the lost continent and a walk in the woods - and i'm also reading all gone to look for america (peter millar), intercessory prayer (dutch sheets) and thriving youth ministry in smaller churches (rick chromey and stephanie caro). there's quite a bit on the go, as i indicated, but i'm enjoying the richness and variety available. my favourite book of the last twelve months remains the brain that changes itself by norman doidge, m.d. - it's a brilliant book, electrifying in its ability to inspire hope in the face of tragedy and the excitement of possibility in the face of the apathy of assumption.

my sister was married recently. it was a great day and i'm very glad for her. i'm sorry - i didn't take photos - i'm simply hoping to try to acquire some of the myriad photos taken by others i know who were in attendance. i'm a pretty poor photographer anyway. my sister looked beautiful; my new brother-in-law, mon beauf, seemed pretty pleased with himself and my mum seemed wonderfully content with the day. i'm glad. i'm hoping to visit sydney for a few days to see one of my sisters in Christ get married. (my weddings-and-funerals suit is really getting a workout...) if you're in sydney and would like to catch up, please give me a bell. i hope to be in sydney for three, maybe four nights. we'll see how we go.

i've been struggling with a cold this last couple of weeks but hopefully it's on its way out and i'll be back to my usual self in short order.

... what the...?!

my yahoo id has vanished. i checked my email today fine, last time i checked was about 2-ish this afternoon at work and now it's as if i haven't had the same email address for, oh... i don't know... a very long time!!!

maybe i'll wake up in the morning and it will all be a dream.

... i really like this

i was put onto this by a friend. personally, i think that the papyrus font has been seriously abused in the video clip and i'm sad to see such a versatile and robust font treated so badly. like ms comic sans before it, papyrus seems to be going through a bit of... well, it would be the font-equivalent of radio over-play, like with teardrops by womack & womack (in its heyday) or love is all around by wet wet wet. on the other hand, i do like the font used in the slideshow...

"Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

... tweet?

it's only a very short post but i had to pass on a retort i read as a comment on a vlog on youtube.

a canadian viewer commented:

"oh were you making fun of canada?
i couldn't hear you over my health-care benefits."

pithy but, as the vlogger commented in return, "i put this in 'cause it was a good call... that would hurt me if i were american... that would, uh, that would hurt..."

good thing it's an australian vlog.

... this is so true!

i was going to simply past the url for this image into my post but it takes up way too much of the column-inches. i love piled higher and deeper and today's comic is no exception.

check it out.

... time marches on

well, nanowrimo was a fizzer as far as my writing is concerned but that's not entirely a bad thing - it got me thinking more about writing and what i want to do with it. one of my new year's resolutions is to write more, and write more frequently. we'll see how we go from there.

Christmas and new year's passed quick as a flash, it seemed. all through 2009 i was dumbfounded at how fast the year seemed to fly by and after a week into the new year, 2010 doesn't show much sign of being any different. i'm hoping to visit tasmania for a brief holiday this year, as well as doing some planning for a five-week trip to the united states in 2011. we'll see how we go from there.

i'm going to be updating my movie-viewing blog more frequently, too. we'll see how we go there. i've got to put my thoughts together after seeing avatar and sherlock holmes. i saw rocky horror on new year's eve and plan to do so again next nye - i'm told it's an annual event at the astor.

as an aside, i'm amazed by the international (read: some american responses) to the kfc advert featuring west indian cricket fans being quietened down by a bucket of kfc chicken. perhaps kfc might broaden their appeal by creating adverts featuring such colourful groups as: hip-hop fans; shire-dwellers; bogans; politicians...

yes, i'm a bit tired and cranky. please forgive me.

... a rod to my back

i signed up late last month for a month of insanity this month, commonly referred to as nanowrimo, a wonderful, rolls-trippingly-off-the-tongue acronym for "national novel writing month". what began as an american thing quickly evolved into an international thing, as well as yielding other texts besides novels. (i am assured that there is a forum on the nanowrimo website for "nanorebels" - those people who regard the strictures of nanowrimo as being much like the pirates' code: more of a guideline than a rule.)

at present i have managed to knock together a little over 1600 words, or a little less than the daily average required to come up with the fifty thousand words that nanowrimo exhorts participants to achieve. the website itself is unapologetic for its disregard for the quality of the produced work - the emphasis is on quantity. diving for quality (a task not unlike diving for pearls, apparently) is a task left for the editing process. there may be some to be found but you might want to be careful about holding your breath.

so i have three ideas that i have been tossing up between:

1. a straight-out fantasy story using the campaign source material i created for a dungeons & dragons group i used to play with,
2. a body-swap story where a cat and the cat's owner wake up one morning in each other's bodies, and
3. a story about a guy who buys some revenge-of-the-nerds-style horn-rimmed glasses and is finds himself haunted by the spirit of the glasses' previous owner.

i'm not going to say which one i've picked.

please pray for me that i'll stick to my personal plan of 2000 words a day, with a day off a week, and that i'll not let anything else slide (too much) throughout november. like... oh, i don't know... sleep? proper meals? church commitments? getting to work on time?

thanks!

... the five greatest warriors

disappointed.

too much happening, too many rabbits.

intricate is fine (see temple); plenty of action is fine (see hover car racer); threat to loved ones is great (see contest, ice station, temple) or harm even (see scarecrow, seven ancient wonders).

too

many

rabbits,

alas.

... YAY!!!

my sister announced her engagement yesterday! she and her fiancé haven't set a date yet but it wouldn't surprise me if the big day happens early next year.

i'm so happy for you. congatulations, sis!

... still in the image of God?

we had an interesting time at small group on wednesday night, which, of course, is not to say that it's not usually interesting but tonight was a bit of an in-between night for a break between romans and nehemiah. we were discussing the question, are we still in the the image of God?

we looked at several passages in genesis (but none elsewhere in the old testament, it now occurs to me to notice) and several in the new testament (james, colossians, corinthians), considering a fairly general timeline of creation - fall - re-creation through Christ's death and resurrection.

discussion afterwards has really peeled back the lid on a worm-can-full of reading that i'm currently ploughing through. lots of stuff, right back to early church fathers like augustine and contemporary thinkers like john piper. i'm probably going to be pretty quiet on the subject for a little while as i ruminate on what i think about the whole thing.

part of that thinking will include the questioning the worth of thinking much about it at all. it feels to me that there's a certain dancing-angels-on-the-head-of-a-pin quality about the discussion: i'm not saying that mankind being made in the image of God is a pointless discussion subject but it would be so easy to get too caught up in the debate and lose sight of the point of it all, which should surely be an improved relationship with God? i'm somewhat pessimistic that the debate will lead to unanimous glorifying of God at whatever result emerges.

right now i'm thinking that on this side of glory we are simply unable to comprehend the imago Dei concept. it's already taking up a lot of brainpower thinking about it.

... slapped upside the head by God

so i've been on a fast for the past couple of weeks - a free-to-air-television fast. i don't have cable tv, so i'm not fasting from that much choice, and i'm not including videos or dvds either, so it would be easy to look at the whole thing and say, "well, where's the sacrifice then?" i know that if left to myself i'll happily stare at the tv for three or four hours straight of an evening with nary a blink, especially if i can channel-surf. not difficult most nights. thing is, though, if i choose to watch a dvd or video (yes, i still watch programmes on videotape!) i have to make a conscious decision about what i watch. if i channel-surf on the tv, the only conscious decision made is to turn it on - the channel-surfing happens on automatic pilot until the time/guilt factor kicks in and i decide to go to bed.

so i've been watching less tv, overall, and i've been reading and praying and listening to the radio all a lot more. my kitchen is tidier. i'm cooking more. (i know anything is more than practically nothing but hey...) it was while i was listening to light fm's rebroadcast of focus on the family that i was slapped upside the head tonight.

i can't even say that i've been feeling particularly sorry for myself lately in the usual "i hate being single" kind of way that i can be prone to falling into. it's long been a matter for prayer that God would give me contentment with the single status i currently enjoy (no pun intended) and i believe i can say that that contentment is gradually settling into my spirit. the loneliness that i've felt in the past doesn't have quite the bite that it used to and i firmly believe that it's God enabling me to trust his hand on my life that is the reason for this; i'm no less single than i was a year ago, or five years ago, or twenty years ago - it simply doesn't loom so largely in my field of vision. i pray earnestly that this perspective might continue, and improve.

tonight's focus on the family episode was part two of a discussion between dr james dobson and elisabeth elliot. as soon as i heard that elisabeth elliot was on air, my ears pricked up because i know the popularity and impact her book, passion and purity, had when i was younger. i'm encouraged to hear that that popularity and impact continues to endure. they talked about a bunch of stuff and the thing that jumped out at me - slapped me upside the head, so to speak - was her recollection of jim elliot's letters to her and his reference to amy carmichael's poetry. she mentioned a fragment from carmichael, who wrote:

if thy dear home be fuller, Lord, because a little emptier my house on earth, what rich reward!

i've said that as time has gone by i feel that in my experiences in youth ministry i feel that i have many more children than i could have been a blood brother or father to and that considering those times in that light lets me see the truth that "no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life." [luke 18:29-30, niv] (i know that the corollary passage in mark mentions persecutions as well but in the depths of i-hate-being-alone depression that usually feels like being persecuted by God anyway...)

what made this a bit of a slap upside the head was elliot's follow-up argument - that we are not our own, that we were bought at a price! the sacrifice that Jesus talks about in luke, above, isn't about trading one-for-many, it's about sacrifice for the kingdom of God. the service that we render to God in heaven begins here on earth and how insidious and easy it is to forgetting/ignoring that fact! satan's lies don't stop at doing everything he can to stop us looking at Scripture but continue to strangle and contort our perception of the truth even as it stands before us! i am certain that i could stand at the foot of the cross and satan would be doing everything to make me see Jesus' self-sacrifice and weakness in that action as human frailty and futility, rather than divine humility and grace.

so i'm praying hard now; not that God would make me content with my life where i find myself but rather that he would make me passionate for the kingdom of God, whatever that might mean. (argh!!!) it's probably one of the scariest things i've ever prayed but at this moment it is the only thing that feels right to ask. i don't want to be a jonah. i want to be a son.

... rhyme and rhythm

when i was a kid, my uncle (i think) gave me and my sister a cassette tape called "rhyme & rhythm". it had a lot of interesting and old poetry on it - it was the first time i'd heard the hilaire belloc poem, matilda, who told lies and was burned to death - and there were some english folk songs and poems set to music - the death of admiral benbow, the coasts of high barbary and bruton town. this last one was made popular by a group called "the pentangle" and, given the subject matter, i am these days surprised that such a dark and gruesome murder balled should be on a tape given to six-year-olds and not found instead on a nick cave album!

i've been thinking of a poem that was on the tape but i could only remember the last line: "and the moon sank red". turns out the poem is by a war poet named siegried sassoon; here is the poem in its entirety:

middle-ages

i heard a clash, and a cry,
and a horseman fleeing the wood.
the moon hid in a cloud.
deep in shadow i stood.
‘ugly work!’ thought i,
holding my breath.
‘men must be cruel and proud,
‘jousting for death’.

with gusty glimmering shone
the moon; and the wind blew colder.
a man went over the hill,
bent to his horse’s shoulder.
‘time for me to be gone’...
darkly i fled.
owls in the wood were shrill,
and the moon sank red.

just something i had to exorcise from my brain and now i know where i'll always be able to find it if it gets lodged in there again.

... here be spoilers - district 9

i've decided to start a new blog. since i'm seeing so many new movies these days - i've been bitten by the bug to see more movies again - i thought i'd create a blog that i could just say what i think about a movie without worrying that people might not have seen it. the blog is going to be plainly stating that there are spoilers. no surprises.

we'll see how it goes.

what else has been going on? had church camp two weekends ago - that was quite good. our speaker was rob miller, a minister with st jude's carlton and previous at caringbah anglican in sydney. he gave a series of talks on the Holy Spirit and his role in the life of the Christian. the thing i brought away from the talks that most stood out to me was the idea that the Holy Spirit's job is to deepen the Christian's understanding of God as Father. i don't think i've ever thought of it in those explicit terms, although, thinking back on what i've learned of the Holy Spirit and my understanding, experientially, of his work in my life, it does make a kind of sense.

i've always conceived of the Holy Spirit as a counsellor (quelle surprise), interceding in prayer for me when my own prayers fail, and an agent of change to conform me increasingly to the image of Christ. both of these are true and i've experienced the fruits of both in my life, i think, but i don't know how much it's impacted my understanding of God as Father. i pray, "our Father in heaven...", but it's hard to think of God and my dad as both being my father. they're so different but there are a couple of things they share in common.

me, obviously. dad was my father, making me "born of a husband's will" - although he had no idea of what exactly i would be like, my dad decided that i would be his child (in a roundabout kind of way). when i became a Christian i took hold of the promises in the Bible that tell me that before the creation of the world, God had determined to adopt me as one of his children - making me "born of God".

as i mature i am coming to resemble them more and more. in the almost twenty years that i've been a Christian i think i've changed, become more loving, more forgiving, more certain of what's right and what's wrong, more aware of myself and the immensity and power of God's grace. of course, these changes show my flaws and failings in ever-more(?) stark contrast and the variety of context means that not all the pros and cons show up at the same time - it's not always easy to see the changes but i believe they are there.

likewise, in the (soon to be) thirty-five years i've been kicking around the planet i've grown more and more to resemble my dad. i'm a bit of a spendthrift; i enjoy working in retail and dealing with people (mostly); i have a big gap in my teeth; i have a scottish accent that ebbs and flows depending on who i'm talking to or what i'm talking about. i resemble my dad's dad a bit too - more than once i've caught pop looking out at me from the mirror first thing in the morning... it's a wee bit scary...

typically, i've looked at my relationship with the Holy Spirit as if i am a work in progress and he is the one moulding me to be like Jesus. that's true, i think, but also think that i've been conceiving of my relationship with the Father as a similar work in progress. that's false, since the promise isn't that i will be moulded into being a child of God over the course of a lifetime, "kiln-fired" (so to speak) when Jesus returns and changed in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, then declared to be a child of God. i'm a child of God right now.

so the way i figure it, that means that the more i come to know and understand God as my Father, the more i will be changed as a byproduct of my relationship with my Father in heaven to be like Christ and the more the fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit show in my life. hmmm... something to think about there. i'll keep turning it over in my head and let you know what i'm thinking. thoughts and comments would be greatly appreciated.

i'm also settled on a small group at church. this was in a state of flux for a while and i'm looking forward to growing relationships with my brothers and sisters, praying regularly with others and getting into the Bible on a regular basis with multiple points of view to hone my thinking. "as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." this will be a good thing, i think.

i've been reading heaps and here's a brief list of some of the things i've been looking at, since before i went on holidays:

• the consolations of philosophy (alain de botton)
• cleo - the uppity cat that changed a family (helen brown)
• dreams from my father (barack obama)
• the brain that changes itself (norman doidge, m.d.)
• the girl with the dragon tattoo (stieg larsson)
• the girl who played with fire (stieg larsson)
• the hunger games (suzanne collins)
• hunger games - catching fire (suzanne collins)
• pride and prejudice and zombies (jane austen and seth graeme-smith)
• viruses, plagues & history (michael b.a. oldstone)

lots of reading going on and i'm loving it! this month a new kim stanley robinson is out (galileo's dream) and next month we see the third stieg larsson book (the girl who kicked the hornets' nest) and matthew reilly's new jack west jr adventure (five greatest warriors). plus, i've joined a book group! phew!

watch this space...

... already!

it's been two weeks since i came back to work after my holidays - two weeks already! it's frightening how fast the time goes by; i'm sure it never went so quickly when i was younger but i suppose that as all new experience is accrued and compared to past experience it time must seem relatively faster. what on earth is it going to feel like when i'm in my seventies?

i've been dreaming a bit, dreaming about work (serving customers - "i'm sorry but you'll have to ask b---, i'm still in bed asleep...") and dreaming about portland. the portland dreams feel fuelled somewhat by the zines i've been reading since i got back, especially those by ten foot rule creator, shawn granton.

portland was great, despite all of the downsides of being in a city with such a hipster culture and with such high unemployment (i talked to many people who'd been looking for work for a long time without success - five months or more in some cases). if i had a job stitched up for a couple of years i'd move but it'd have to be ironclad. most people i talked to who'd moved there to live didn't have anything beyond living accommodation lined up...

it's great to be home in melbourne. church is great, i'm looking forward to settling into a regular weekly Bible study, church weekend away (can't call it a camp, apparently!) coming up soon, where i'll be leading a small group... and the weather is lovely. i'm enjoying the chilly mornings, the wet, the fog, especially after the unusually warm and humid (read: sydney-like) summer portland was enduring. it's nice to be among real trams again.

anyway, back to work...

... if you're ordering something that's not on the menu...

... expect to pay for it. i would have thought that that was common sense. alas, here at portland internaational airport, common sense does not necessarily prevail. i'm stopping in for lunch. my flight leaves at 14h52 and i'm sharing a table with a stranger, since i didn't want to be one person taking up a table for four. the people sitting over from me ordered something and asked for something to be added that wasn't on the menu, hence the subject line. i wouldn't be expecting to be adding anything for nothing... you might just as well ask for crude oil in a bucket as dipping sauce, or gold leaf as garnish and not expect to have to pay. you can bet they won't be tipping, even though they should, getting something that wasn't on the menu for nothing. crikey.

(settle... it's the kind of thing that will be bugging me all the way home...)

checking in was fine. the next hurdle is immigration in los angeles. (wow... they did leave a tip after all... custom trumps worth, i suppose...) two and a half hours flight to l.a., then five hours-ish to transit, then off to melbourne. my computer is telling me that it's now about 6.30am tuesday in melbourne, so my flight time of about 27 hours is right on schedule.

my last porter before i go home. (sigh...) i'm going to check my email and sign off. i'll blog again when i get home and maybe this weekend, maybe next, i'll go through my photos and start posting those too. please fire me off an email and let me know if you received a postcard - i'm curious to know how many of them will get home before i do.

vaya con dios!

... last night in portland

it's my last night in portland but it feels a lot more like a night in bangkok! rather humid, 36 degree forecast for tomorrow and my flight leaves in the afternoon. i'm planning on getting to the airport about 12.30pm, settling in for a comfortable, unhurried lunch in air-conditioned comfort. it'll be nice. ahhh, but the wisdom of these hostels! i hired a towel so my own towel will be dry as a bone going into my suitcase in the morning...

the russians have gone, the place is much quieter, and i ran into a couple of interesting people. one is a college career advisor in a high school in san antonio, texas. that all sounded very interesting and austin, tx, was recommended to me very strongly. i also ran into a kiwi travelling north america with her daughter looking at colleges to pursue studying under a sport scholarship for volleyball. apparently she shows great potential, so volleyball camps have been booked into to hep get her on the recruiters' radars. she extolled to joys of seattle and remarked how happy she was to be travelling through the classically australian weather that the pacific northwest is currently enjoying - apparently the east cost is suffering under some horribly wet weather with floods in new york, amongst others.

the zine symposium wound up today with some post-symp' drinks at a great little eatery called xv (fifteen), most conveniently located to bring me back hoe to the hostel. i had great plans of going to a restaurant in se portland for macaroni and cheese (allegedly the best in the city). alas, i may never know, now, but if i come back to portland anytime soon then maybe i'll find out how good it is.

i feel extremely tired. i'm almost looking forward to sitting in a chair for fifteen hours on the way home. i'm not ecstatic about having to transit flights in los angeles but tough luck pour moi, i suppose. i was going to buy a game i saw called "bookopoly" over at powell's but that's not going to happen either. i'll have a look for it at home; if i can't find it, i'll get it then. i have one last souvenir to buy, then i'll be off to the airport.

i'm off to bed. i didn't get eaten by bears.

... almost at the end

it's a little hard to believe that i'm almost at the end of this trip that felt for a long time like it was never going to begin! i've come at what appears to be a warmer-than-usual summer for portland, with the temperatures today getting up to around 31 degrees celsius and it felt (un)reasonably humid (to me) but they're forecasting about 33 tomorrow and happily i'll be on the plane on monday - yahoo!'s weather tracker is forecasting 36 degrees for monday... and i'll be in air-conditioned comfort in a plane. alas, i have to transit in los angeles, where i'll be cooling my heels for about four hours, which isn't as bad as the seven hours i was there between sydney-la, la-ny flights my last trip here.

these last few days there's been a group of russians staying here at the hostel. there's about eighteen, twenty, including as few young fellows about 13 or 14, several chaperones (of the "oh victor you are very unattractive man" style), and the rest girls of about the same age as these young fellows. all raging hormones and thorough clothing-acclimitisation in a foreign country. i'm a tad surprised they only sent five chaperones. they should have lo-jack on all the kids, with a laptop and google maps on it or something. i'd trust any one of these kids about as far as i could throw one. (although most look fairly light...) they're here on a "salmon camp" where they've got a few days here in portland before they're off to study salmon fishing and canning and shipping, all aspects of the salmon life cycle and fisheries. (so i gather.) interesting on paper but i don't know how it'd be. one of them is eating peanut butter out of a jar with a spoon.

given that the portland beer festival (july has been craft beer month here in pdx) is in full swing this weekend, there have been a great deal more inebriated folk about than i'd noticed before.most seem to be carrying some kind of re-usable beer stein, looking to hold about half a pint. being taken up with the zine symposium, i haven't been out during the day to try any of this stuff out and i've been pretty tired in the evenings - i'm less worried about that, since i'll be happy to be a bit out of it when i'm flying home.

the zine symposium is huge! ninety tables, any one of which could be having two zinesters "tabling", with the possibility of two different tablers for each of the three days. going at maximum capacity, you could conceivably have 540 different tablers over the three days of the event. imagine that! and if each tabler brought only two new zines with the that would be over a thousand zines.

of course, that doesn't happen. many tablers take a whole table to themslves, or use the same table for all three days. when the symposium handbook went to print there were 182 separate tables listed, which is about a third of the conceived maximum capacity. that's pretty good and it's worked really well. mad props (apparently that's the style of the time) to the organisers of pzs this year, especially the really visible movers and shakers. there has been an abundance of volunteers, more coming out of the woodwork every day, and i was fortunate to be able to go around the tables again today, get a whole bunch of zines, and go along to a workshop of working to deadlines and how they can increase your productivity! (makes them sounds like some kind of control undergarment... eeek!)

it's been a bit of an experience seeing so many zinesters i've only heard about or read about. meeting alex wrekk has been fantastic and a real thrill; blue (whom i'd not met before making my initial enquiries about pzs) is an absolute championne; jesse reklaw (of applicant fame, among myriad others), who was so laid back about everything and talked with such warmth; katie, who is kind of new to the scene but an all-in pzs sympanista and organiser and who sympathised about my sense of being star-struck; one of the editors of zine world; ciara, creator of love letters to monsters and others; zine distro organisers; zine librarians; etcetera, etcetera, etcetera...

fantastic. i've been feeling like kenny at the portaloo trade fair. there are two other workshops i'd like to visit tomorrow, so we'll see what happens. there may be some post-event get-together (i don't know, i might have heard rumours but to be honest i'm having a bit of a seniors' moment about that) and i've been trying out "mac and cheese" (macaroni and cheese) while i've been here. i've twice now been directed to a particular restaurant for what i've been assured is the best mac and cheese i will ever taste in my life. with a scant thirty-six hours left in portland, i feel the pressure's on to make sure i try the best portland has to offer - this mac and cheese may well be the piece de resistance... who knows?

the symposium certainly hasn't just appeared overnight - copious amounts of planning, with a (classically un)healthy sprinkling of last-minute madness, has brought to fruition the ninth iteration of an awesome concept. i'll be going to the gns trade fair in melbourne in a couple of weeks' time (less, actually) and given the resources they have to throw at that may find that in comparison it is somewhat wanting.

two things that i think are great are the sponsors' efforts and the lead-up events. for the month leading up to the zine symposium, there were several events, including a multi-city 24-hour zine challenge and a kick-off dance party.looking at the list of sponsors, i'm confident many were responsible for the nigh-endless flow of food in the free-food section of the symposium space. i don't remember seeing any of the on any of the promotional material, which i also think is great - these sponsors, to whatever degree, valued the symposium enough that they donated without expectation of more than a mention in the booklet (and, obviously, participants' continued business over the year... maybe). very cool.

i have an idea that perhaps that kind of patronage could be something to use in getting some zine-ish thing off the ground... another tool to keep in the shed, just in case it's useful...

i should get to bed. more later. i'm rather looking forward to cataloguing my photos, and these blog posts will help put me in the mindspace of where i was when i took them, which will be good (hopefuly) for reminding me why i thought a picture of photocopiers might be funny... good night.