So I’ve finally started writing. After two years of bludging around it’s finally started. Friends have noticed a slight change in my demeanour, that I’m a little more energised, calm, optimistic. I can blame all that on the fact this thesis has reduced in size from a multidimensional nebula to a medium size planet. Like, with a powerful telescope, you can easily see where it ends.

But I’m also getting rather distracted from things going on in my life that are not thesis-related. Sometime I reckon you could shove me in a dark room and it’d take me a few minutes to realise that I’d need to find a light switch. Until then, I standing in the middle of the room, contemplating the next section of the paper I’m writing, and wondering why I can’t tell if the pen in my hand is working or not.

Anyway, if you click on the link on the sidebar titled “The thesis” (dum-de-dum-dummmmmm), you can have a read of the first half of the introduction. These are bits that my supervisor has not suggested re-editing (so far) and where people mentioned have given approval for their mention.

There’s more to come though. It’s slow, but it’s happening.

Woo, like, hoo.

A few weeks ago my supervisor and I met with a couple of members of RMIT’s Globalism Institute (I think that’s what it’s called). We discussed the idea of hosting a conference in Melbourne next year with funds from the Fulbright Symposium. The theme of the conference, if it gets up and running, will be Religion, Ideology and Media. It’s a loose title, but can incorporate so many things.

The night before I had seen Channel Ten’s first “sneak peek” at the Big Brother 08 contestants. The first was an older woman who stated “I believe religion is the root of all evil”. It made me think, what is on Channel Ten’s agenda that leads them to make this statement the first utterance spoken publicly from any BB08 contestant? Mmmm, methinks therein lies a good starting point for a paper.

So I’m working on the abstract now. In the meantime my new life-partner, an HDD digital TV recorder who has stolen my heart, is collecting all episodes of BB08 for me, so I can maintain some sensibility in the household and don’t have to give in to my daughter’s constant pleads to watch the show. It also means I can just sit down one weekend and get the whole damn viewing thing out of the way.

Worst thing about doing research on Big Brother, it means you have to watch it.

I took the ex and the kids for a drive to Adelaide last weekend. We were a little scared about how the kids would get on in a ten-hour drive, and how we would actually get on. Tragedy brought my ex and I closer together. We had two accidents in our time away (neither were technically my fault, though I didn’t get the plate number of the truck that threw off a fruit crate that wrecked the front spoiler, radiator and air conditioner; fortunately my mum’s neighbour who backed into the car while it was parked on the street ‘fessed up).

But the kids were great passengers. Megan dived into Harry Potter’s world for the entire 22 hours we were on the road, and AJ enjoyed watching the dashboard for the next indicator symbol to flash so he could tell us which way the car wanted us to go. Very cute.

They were so cute I couldn’t help but film it.

The kids, and then Kate and finally I caught gastro within the few days back home in Shepp. Though none of us was particularly happy with it, I for one was totally relieved it didn’t hit any of us in the car. Many more accidents would have been had. Made mum and dad remind me of all the urine, vomit and sweat smell stories that plagued their interstate journeys when I was young. They’re feeling rather miffed at the mo’, having been hoping endlessly that my children are as bad as I was.

One of my students found this photograph and sent it to me a while back. Unfortunately it got caught by a spam filter so I only got it just now. Sorry bud.

Catchy slogan, yet another attempt to scare us into going to church, or at least trying to prick at our own fears of not going to church a “ignoring God”. Man, it’s 5am here, I’m sure that didn’t make sense.