Me and my

2012-02-12T22:38:00.001-08:00

The painter who paints pictures of himself and his friends says that the theme of his work is "the history of Europe in my lifetime." the writer who writes about himself and his friends and family says that the theme of his work is "the history of the world in my lifetime." Heavily mediated to be sure.

2012-02-04T01:08:00.000-08:00

Freedom of speech always depends on those who wield power, and whether or not they allow us a platform. It looks as if the platforms are getting shut down one by one.

2012-01-17T02:42:00.000-08:00

Teacher, writer, drinker, gambler. Ex-smoker, ex-dishwasher, ex-clubber, former undergraduate. Fornicator, cinephile, appreciator of literature, skier, couch potato, part-time househusband, self-trained cook. Traveller, tourist, commuter, drifter.

2012-01-16T22:42:00.001-08:00

Will the economic collapse arrest the dumbing down process? One must hold out some hope, just a little.

2011-12-31T00:52:00.000-08:00

Human scale ended an awfully long time ago.

2011-12-30T22:55:00.000-08:00

If only it were possible to declare all-out war against creeping blandness.

2011-12-12T11:46:00.000-08:00

Your mother delivers you into a world of pain. Is it any surprise that people have so-called issues with them?

2011-12-11T15:36:00.000-08:00

People have their ways of interpreting things. Then that hardens over time and becomes dogma.

2011-12-08T12:33:00.000-08:00

It is sobering to know that however important we think our problems are, our solar system and billions more like it could just as easily be sucked into a black hole and the universe wouldn't miss a beat.

2011-11-24T19:19:00.000-08:00

Frothing at the mouth shock jocks get paid millions, politicians get away with paying for hookers on government credit cards and here I am with my degree and my career and my unpublished novels flying economy class and paying taxes to support these scuzzbags to the tune of Gawd knows how much. Not that anyone should really be bitter about anything. When has the world NOT been lopsided in the extreme?

2011-11-09T22:42:00.000-08:00

Is there any hope of redemption for what actually happens, in the real world?

2011-11-06T15:16:00.001-08:00

Our economy is predicated on growth. But the oil is running out, the land is running out, the money is running out.

Love

2011-10-28T23:53:00.000-07:00

Family self-portrait

2011-10-28T23:52:00.001-07:00

Water everywhere

2011-10-28T23:44:00.000-07:00

Water water

2011-10-28T23:42:00.000-07:00

Last light first lights

2011-10-28T23:37:00.000-07:00

A balcony with a view

2011-10-28T23:32:00.001-07:00

City and sunset

2011-10-28T23:29:00.001-07:00

God in the goalposts

2011-10-28T23:25:00.000-07:00

Downtown

2011-10-28T23:14:00.001-07:00

River view at dusk

2011-10-28T23:09:00.001-07:00

Big fun!

2011-10-28T22:32:00.000-07:00

Squeak squeak

2011-10-28T22:27:00.000-07:00

Fishy

2011-10-28T22:11:00.000-07:00

2011-10-28T21:40:00.000-07:00

The tides of time drain out to sea, leaving you with nothing but memories fragrant and foul.

2011-10-15T01:54:00.000-07:00

Us Westerners. Us greedy, vain, shallow, self-satisfied malcontents.

2011-10-08T20:23:00.000-07:00

Where were you the day the literature died?

2011-09-25T22:50:00.001-07:00

It is no longer so easy to divide the world into industrialised countries and the rest. Every country has now been touched heavily by industrialisation.

2011-09-22T00:26:00.001-07:00

People have all these plans and all these expectations for themselves and their offspring but it's good just to be alive. When so many are not.

2011-09-22T00:26:00.000-07:00

The planet may yet survive despite our best efforts.

2011-09-17T00:42:00.000-07:00

Thanks bubba boo. For giving me a reason not to jump off a cliff. No matter what happens.

2011-09-11T22:12:00.000-07:00

The key: write like you've got nothing to lose.

2011-09-05T15:42:00.000-07:00

The mountains don't offer complete silence. You can still hear the ringing in your ears.

2011-08-28T15:41:00.000-07:00

The ski fields of the world, temporary home to a roaming group of international adventurers. Where the milk of human kindness flows as naturally as meltwater in spring that feeds the streams and rivers.

Goin down...and splat

2011-08-22T02:50:00.000-07:00

Final descent o'the day

2011-08-22T02:31:00.000-07:00

Gregarious

2011-08-22T02:10:00.000-07:00

Heli cruise

2011-08-22T01:57:00.000-07:00

Up n away

2011-08-22T01:31:00.000-07:00

2011-08-21T00:55:00.000-07:00

Side effects of Avanza: heavy sleep followed by feelings of drowsy heaviness. Increase in appetite, decrease in libido. Feelings of irrational anger or hatred. A desire to work hard and mechanically despite tiredness. Increased appetite for caffeine, decreased appetite for alcohol.

Side effects of a clear blue-sky ski day: feelings of excessive energy and exhilaration. Increased appetite for alcohol, slightly reduced appetite for caffeine. Increased libido. Mild insomnia, reduced desire for sleep, increased desire for staying up and partying.

Fantasy and flesh

2011-08-20T01:19:00.000-07:00

Hopefully slightly above cliche

2011-08-20T01:15:00.000-07:00

So pretty it's a cliche

2011-08-20T01:04:00.000-07:00

2011-08-06T23:37:00.001-07:00

Better a guide than a guidebook.

2011-07-24T03:54:00.000-07:00

The Republican party doesn't want to raise taxes on the rich because they think it will be bad for business. WELL WHAT IN THE FUCK DO YOU THINK WILL HAPPEN IF AMERICA DEFAULTS!!!??? It's the whole world being held to ransom because of the ideological bent of a few right wing maniacs in Washington. Bent as in twisted and deranged. Assholes.

Ah those trees

2011-07-15T03:31:00.000-07:00

Love ya!

2011-07-15T02:40:00.000-07:00

Yep we skied it

2011-07-15T02:36:00.000-07:00

2011-07-11T13:41:00.000-07:00

You try to be nice, you try to be subtle. You try to be delicate, cultured and refined. And then the representatives of the world in all its criminal vulgarity and stupidity come along and piss all over you.

2011-07-07T04:02:00.000-07:00

Greatness storms through the door like a grenade explosion. Unless it slips under the radar like a stealth bomber.

Mmmm mmmm mmmmm

2011-07-02T03:47:00.000-07:00

2011-06-26T21:22:00.000-07:00

Let me get back up to where the air and my head are clear.

2011-06-18T03:43:00.001-07:00

Heaven is a place where there are no swings, there are no roundabouts.

2011-06-16T03:17:00.000-07:00

Without the cataclysms there won't be any life.

2011-06-04T05:31:00.000-07:00

Those bright shining stars that were extinguished by war or excess.

2011-06-01T04:48:00.000-07:00

Weeks slip by and the life of the mind seems as featureless as a sand desert.

Giggle n squeak

2011-05-19T02:20:00.000-07:00

2011-05-17T05:21:00.002-07:00

Ireland is a republic and we're not. And it's been that way for a whole century. How do you figure that?

2011-05-01T14:28:00.000-07:00

The living come and go, but the money machine just grinds on and on regardless.

These boots were made for...

2011-04-23T20:59:00.000-07:00

2011-04-23T20:58:00.000-07:00

No matter how great, the events will all recede into the backwash of history.

2011-04-23T20:55:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it feels like two great cultures merging. Sometimes it feels like tectonic plates colliding.

2011-04-13T01:58:00.000-07:00

I wonder if there are any artists out there who might come up with the bright idea to actually create something beautiful. Never mind the musicians...

2011-04-13T01:52:00.000-07:00

Hands up those who are suffering from humourless management in their office.

2011-03-26T21:26:00.000-07:00

Digital natives these newborns, already swimming in the sea of technology before they even know how to speak. Cloud-dwellers before they can walk.

2011-03-26T21:25:00.000-07:00

Those sleepless nights, those apparent epiphanies that seem so strange and futile in the morning.

The big climb

2011-03-13T03:01:00.000-07:00

Generations

2011-03-13T01:26:00.000-08:00

2011-03-13T01:25:00.000-08:00

Violence breeds violence, complicity and silence.

2011-03-13T01:24:00.000-08:00

If it doesn't happen so what? At least you can dare to dream it.

2011-02-24T02:15:00.000-08:00

Billionaires and prisoners are bound by the laws of gravity and death.

2011-02-22T22:22:00.000-08:00

Nothing smells more rotten than a stale old idea.

2011-02-22T22:19:00.000-08:00

Every now and then something happens to remind you just how thin the strand is where hanging from. It's always a jolt no matter how well known or familiar.

2011-02-02T22:44:00.000-08:00

Power obeys its own logic in dictatorships large and small. Egypt, your office, wherever.

Splish splash!

2011-01-23T01:16:00.000-08:00

2011-01-15T01:21:00.001-08:00

Don't fear death. And don't fear life.

2011-01-15T01:20:00.001-08:00

You don't get what you want. You get what you get.

2010-12-30T22:02:00.000-08:00

It's a beautiful day today and that's enough.

2010-12-28T18:19:00.000-08:00

Life plans? I just want to win the lottery and disappear discretely into the abyss.

2010-12-22T22:13:00.000-08:00

The Joycean reality is still the one worth embracing. Life is a circle, sex and enjoyment of the senses is a good thing, war and violence is a very bad and vulgar thing. Beauty can be found in every day in the most mundane things.

Christmas cutie!

2010-12-21T22:46:00.000-08:00

2010-12-21T22:41:00.000-08:00

The society that promises us softness and comfort delivers hard complexity.

2010-12-10T00:30:00.000-08:00

2010-11-25T01:44:00.000-08:00

Drifting into the back nine of life, you take stock of your achievements and the likelihood of anything comparable to come. Negligible and not likely.

2010-11-24T22:35:00.000-08:00

Probably the best and only way to approach the whole writing thing is to remember that it is a JOB. And so I've been an unemployed writer through most of my writing career.

2010-11-24T22:24:00.000-08:00

When I came home today and I saw you sleeping your eyelids were flickering, showing that you were in REM sleep, dreaming. At that moment it really hit me that you are a little person, you looked like a small adult in all her seriousness at that moment. What were you dreaming of as you twitched in your sleep?

2010-11-17T01:47:00.000-08:00

Everyone wants immortality but nobody wants to pay the price.

2010-11-10T12:58:00.000-08:00

The roads were bending at insane crazy hairpin angles. From the bottom of the mountain they were a formidable, terrifyingly beautiful sight. To hit those roads was like an invitation to the other side. But this was where I wanted to be, in the higher ground.

2010-11-09T20:06:00.001-08:00

Some days it is enough just to still be alive.

2010-11-09T19:53:00.000-08:00

I sometimes think how good it would be to write another novel, or at least make a start. But there are already enough words in the world, already too many. And how can my story compete with all the acres of crap that fill the shelves of our bookstores?

2010-11-09T19:51:00.000-08:00

We love to think we are free but who do we really think we're kidding?

Lovin mama

2010-10-28T02:58:00.000-07:00

With grandma

2010-10-28T02:56:00.000-07:00

Happy face!

2010-10-28T02:53:00.000-07:00

Bub n dad

2010-10-28T02:48:00.000-07:00

The family dinner

2010-10-28T02:28:00.000-07:00

2010-10-26T14:05:00.001-07:00

At night I dream of you my love. I dream of you standing up, walking, talking. Such powerful dreams you give me of the future. Because you are the light that leads the way.

2010-10-26T14:04:00.000-07:00

It's always fun to indulge in behaviour that pisses off feminists, journalists, humourless mind police.

2010-10-26T14:03:00.000-07:00

A change is as good as a holiday. A change and a holiday even better.