Ok so I wanna keep this post brief. I must first start with a major way-cool discovery I have made. There is, in fact, Outback Steakhouse restaurants, just like in the US... here. Isn't that just a shear mockery of the Australian culture. On behalf of America, I apologize to all Australians. Proof: http://www.outbacksteakhouse.com.au <---- notice the '.au' suffix.
Aye! What's that in the air? A fecal tenge of consumerism, the celebration of money and corporate whorism, Christmas time! Actually, I'm not sure how present-driven it is out here. I noticed that, while it's Christmas, my neighborhood doesn't really seem to decorate much. That's fine with me. I much rather celebrate Yule and the change of seasons. Krampus is pretty cool too. One thing I did notice is that it seems most Christmas decorations feature "stars" versus the "snowflakes" that the Northern Hemisphere litters Christmas with. Since it is summer, that does make sense. However, not everything is free from the snow and its contradictory summertime Santa Clause affiliation with the Southern Hemisphere. Santa still pilots a sleigh. Maybe that's for like when Mr. Clause decides to get trashed and cart-around in the "bush."
The "bush," apparently the term outback is more of an Americanism. The Aussies do not seem to understand that term so much, in fact, I do believe they refer to it as the "bush."
My research is finally going. I have been hackin' away on the Go front-end for the GCC compiler in an effort to implement region-based memory management. Ian Taylor did a fantabolous job, the guy (I think he is a machine) is a marvelous developer.
So I was walkin' down Smith Street this evening. I stepped into the Blue Tile Lounge and catch some metal. The band covered some Pantera. I was totally humbled, it made me feel energy! I was happy, they sang New Level, and I can't recall ever hearing a cover of that badadadaasssss track!
This post is dedicated to Mitch, who encouraged me to update this blog, and the letter X for being often used as an algebraic variable.
Krampus eh? Wow, who knew? In the words of Douglas Adams, "I wish I had a daughter so I could forbid her to marry him".
ReplyDeleteThe apology for OBSH is really appreciated. So far it seems the travesty is limited to New South Wales. That's a good thing.
Sydney is a funny place. Insanely beautiful in all the ways Melbourne isn't. Same money, same language, but the mannerisms of the people make me feel I'm in a foreign country.
Sydney. I never met a city more deserving of the horror that is "Kookaburra Wings", nor one more likely to enjoy them.
"Out Back" has been used by Aussies (like Henry Lawson) since before the turn of the last century (1900).
ReplyDeleteThe Outback and The Bush are different places.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Australian_bush.jpg
That's generally considered The Bush. Or Bushland.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fitzgerald_River_National_Park_DSC04436.JPG
That's generally considered part of the outback.
The outback is probably some of the most inhospitible territory on the planet, everything from desert to mangrove swamp, usually passable only by a 4x4, people who know what they are doing, and plenty of emergency equipment (think: a spare diff, lots of drinking water, lots of fuel, large CB radio antenna etc).
dhp,
ReplyDeleteThanks for clearing that up. I didn't know there was a difference!