pitches & pictures

i did mean in that last post to write something about this frontier of image management i seem to be on and how having an (admittedly insignificant) public profile opens you up to all kinds of weirdness. the comments over at NM are often useful, informed remarks, but i do wish more folks would play the ball and not the man.

instead i have just stopped worrying about it. as i enter the editorial phase of The Diamond Anchor i'm reminding myself to have, if not the rhino-hide toughness i lay claim to, then at least the flexibility of mind needed to relinquish attachment. having met the lovely folks at UQP i am looking forward to the process - the overwhelming feeling is of curiosity, which puts me at my most motivated. we'll see if there are any tantrums.

speaking of tantrums - my car has had another one. she politely waited until we were 35km away from Alice to "break down" - the phrase doesn't begin to evoke the melodrama of grinding noises, bubbling oil and smoke-blowing that accompanied her chewing through another gearbox. i pulled over and waved down the first vehicle that passed - which was the AANT tow truck, driven by the car's previous owner. so Caulfield is over in the yard while I look for another gearbox, but i am home.

i don't want to go anywhere else for a really, really long time. at least a month.

outback queensland was interesting. the actual outback, in some ways - the one i was given to expect - a lot of cinematic flat savannah country pocked by the odd spooky-looking corrugated iron shack. was reading a little of The Secret War while there to get perspective on the whiteness of it. which was also cheating as I was stuck between Y and Z in my alphabetical reading challenge. I'm into the Z book now. I had to cut myself some slack due to the added limitations of small town op shops.

i'm being flippant. it is a sobering read. apparently crucifixions were quite a fad for a while there. some images really stick.