In the Bag

After spending a lovely day soaking up the summer sun at the local pool before the weekend wraps up, I scuttled back home to get stuck into my Master's work and the ever-looming final deadline. Though, due to last night's drinking/social marathon, the subsequent lack of sleep and three hours in direct sunlight, I'm left feeling somewhat sleepy and rather uninspired. In order to get my cerebral juices flowing I ended up turning to the web wheelings and dealings of my friends and family and found an entry and request on my sister's old blog which seemed a lot more intriguing than the old book-learning: What's in your bag? The deal is you take a picture of the interior machinations of your messenger bag, pocketbook, briefcase, sparkly clutch, what have you, and then explain to your loyal reader/s what is the what.

Hey ho, let's go:

• Small pocket-sized notebook for jotting down story ideas, anecdotes and other random things I'll never read again
• Pen for writing in said notebook
  
• Sunglasses case, which holds the first pair of sunglasses that I've paid more than ten dollars for, because I'm a big boy
  
• iPod cover
• Security ID so I can get into my work building (complete with alarmingly serial killer-esque photo)
• Stack of CDs
• Lip balm
  
• Prescription pain killers to help me cope with the invasive dental work I'm currently undergoing
  

And just because I took some shit out prior to the shot, I've included a selection of items usually found in my bag that were M.I.A.

• Expensive headphones that have more than paid for themselves since purchase
  
• Wallet
• Lighter
  
• Eau de toilette
  
• Banking correspondence
  

So, what's in yours?

Shit I Like

After a pronounced bout of whining, my flatmate dragged my sorry arse up the road to get breakfast. I thought I'd be much more content to sit in front of my laptop checking out various celebrity blogs and steeping in my own special blend of post-break-up depression juices, but boy-o am I glad I took a break from my mundane indulgence. I was flipping through this magazine and came across the work of an artist that I read about many moons ago but had forgotten existed. His name is Chris Jordan and he looks at the modern age-old artistic obsession with consumption but does it in this ingenius way. My favourite work is this photographic series that, according to his website, explores the notion that "the pervasiveness of our consumerism holds a seductive kind of mob mentality. Collectively we are committing a vast and unsustainable act of taking, but we each are anonymous and no one is in charge or accountable for the consequences."

Me likey.

New Horizons

Today is all about new beginnings, new directions and, indeed, new horizons. Despite a quietly overwhelming sense that the weight of personal history deems it an uphill battle of Sisyphean proportions, I am aiming to make this little vanity project more than what it currently is. What it currently is has turned out to be a dumping ground for published interviews that I put up when I've decided to stay in on a Saturday night and turn to it from sheer boredom. But after reading the first few posts of my friend D's new blog, I'm inspired to be a little less lax about the whole thing and make mine a little more, well, engaging.

So, much like the denizens of so many second-rate addiction rehabilitation institutions, I will fight my hardest against something so inherently part of my nature, let go and let God.

Take my hand...