Hi, my name's Marc and it's been...

... four days since my last blog. I guess I'm conscious of not turning my blog into a "today I woke up, showered, and sat around, played with my dog, read a bit, went to sleep" kind of blog. I want it to be something that's going to be at last half interesting for those of you I've forced to subscribe! *laugh*

Yes, don't think you're the only one :P

What's new? Well, we had a long weekend here in Australia. ANZAC day I think, and shoot me now if I got it wrong 'cos that would be very unpatriotic of me. Not that I really think we should be celebrating death and war and destruction. Heros? They shot people. I think the heros are the people who don't fight. If only we could get *everyone* onboard for that one. Not going to happen, still, I can dream.. hehe

Hrm.. I detect I've been a little influenced by the last book I read. Well, it's a trilogy, but conveniently packaged up into one volume. K-PAX. You might have seen the movie, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey. Great stuff. The "omnibus" comes with prot's report on Earth, too. Which is lovely and damning, but he certainly raises some good points.

Basically prot is one of the personalities of a guy suffering from, you guessed it, multiple personality disorder. Or is he? prot claims to be from the planet K-PAX, where everything is wonderful, far from the troubles we humans have. Whilst he's around, he makes a report on Earth to report back to his fellow K-PAXians.

Inspired by Oliver Sacks's "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat", you find yourself drawn into the book so much that you find yourself wishing prot really *was* from K-PAX, and that his vision of what people can really be like is true. The book, obviously going into more detail than the movie, goes deeper into the psychoanalysis of Robert (prot's host), as well as the different patients at the same institute.

It's a wonderful book because of it's insight into the world of psychoanalysis, multiple personality disorder, as well as prot's report on how to fix what's wrong with the world. It's one of those books where you come away having learnt something, as well as being thoroughly entertained. And there's a strong message in this book too, very positive. So yes, I do think I've been influenced by it a little. Read this book!

I was up until 5am last night finishing it. Ewps!

What else.. Well, over the long weekend I felt a little discombobulated. It was weird, I didn't feel like doing anything. When I tried to do something, I found it wasn't something I wanted to do. Nothing was. Strange. Chatting with a friend last night, and having seen some indoor rock climbing on Queer Eye, I decided I had to do something *different*. So I investigated a few local indoor climbing places, and I'm going to promise myself to get along to one of them to have a go. To do something physical for once. And my friend and I have always talked about taking up a martial art. So, we made more plans for that, again. After I go back to visit my parents in the country, I think I'll be starting Aikido. Those of you who know me, would know I'm a bit of a pacifist, so it's rather interesting I should be attracted to a martial art. As well as it being fighting, I mean, how butch! All that grunting and testosterone. That's why I'm choosing Aikido, apparently it means "the way of harmony of ki". It's a more spiritual martial art, but no so that it's in-your-face. It's also slower to master if you want to use it to beat people up. It's a standing still but strong kind of martial art, mainly for defense, not attack. So that all goes well with me. Plus it's a discipline, which is always good, and it'll be good for my health, fitness, flexibility and general well-being. I think it'll be good. We'll see how it goes, I'll keep you posted.

Oh, and it's my last week at Hudson this week. Will probably be very busy. I get to start my new contract next week, back to shirts and ties. Well, at least for a few days.. *laughing*