Marita was reminding me on Saturday of Dragon’s song Young Years (a discussion of various music lyrics that culminated in my car gaining the nickname Black Betty).

Secret meetings at the river’s bend
Simple days when I called you friend
Came a time, we went separate ways — Dragon, Young Years

As it happens last week I had a sudden rush of nostalgia while listening to the radio and they got onto a discussion of “things we miss from our childhood”.

I quite frankly never believed it back then when I was told those days were the best of my life. But since I’ve seen my kids growing up and enjoying their school years, I have been looking back much more fondly on my own time at school. If I had to put my finger on it, it might be the memory of the innocence and the lack of responsibility that I miss the most.

Some of the people I knew back then, I’ve kept in touch with. Others I’ve encountered from time to time on my travels. At least one, tragically, didn’t make it this far.

So I know more-or-less what Raoul M, Mark B, Merlin T, Justine H, Konrad K and Sam V are up to, even if I don’t have time to catch up with some of them very often. I’ve even heard of or from Olivia F (née D), Mark S, Josh H, Conrad L, Stuart/Lisa/Tracy M and Andrew V in the last few years. I know some of them lurk on my blog.

But what ever happened Andrew K, Daniel I, Stephen T, Michael W, David H, Craig B, Matthew S, Ingrid H, Gar S, Josh B, Leon M and all those others who are only a brief entry on the FriendsUnited web site (if that)?

What happened to all those Greek kids that used to be my neighbours? What happened to that other Matthew, the prick who used to pick on me? What about Darren D — did he end up on a farm like he thought, or is he the same guy of that name who is the fire brigade spokesman?

Okay, they’ve FU’d up the FU web site a bit. What’s with having to click through twice to get to the profiles? But some of the people I remember are in here. OMG, this says Undine S has two kids. And Andrew K’s profile shows he’s still the same joker he always was. Stephen P became a pilot just like he wanted. A few people show up in Google, too.

I suppose we’ve all gone off in different directions, scattered across the country and across the planet.

Let’s have that quote from Ben Elton’s Blast from the Past again:

Every golden generation, every fresh-faced group of friends, must statistically contain those who will fall prey to the sad clichés of life. The things they never thought would or could happen to them. Divorce, alcoholism, illness, failure. Those were things that happened to one’s parents’ generation. To adults who no longer had their whole lives before them. It comes as a shock when the truth dawns that every young person is just an older person waiting to happen, and it happens a lot sooner than anyone ever thinks.

Yikes, what a nostalgia overload. I hope I’m not heading to an early mid-life crisis or something.

In each generation, most kids show boundless enthusiasm for creative pursuits. Whether it be drawing, building things, play-acting, whatever.

When I was a kid, there was a lot of Lego building going on. My sister and I constructed whole cities. Sometimes we’d stick to the official designs of the sets, sometimes we’d go out on a limb with our own creations.

Later I moved onto computers, and writing. And at one stage, I was helping with some of my friends to make videos. Video cameras and editing equipment had reached the price point where high schools could afford them, and so over a number of years, we churned out a Blakes Seven tribute, a Doctor Who tribute called “The Battle for Mecros”, and a whole series inspired by The Professionals.

The tapes of all these still exist. I must talk to Raoul (who wrote and produced most of them) about putting the best of them onto YouTube or Google Video. I’m not going to pretend they’re Oscar-winners, but we had a lot of fun doing them, and they do serve as a permanent reminder of our teenage years.

My kids have seen the Doctor Who tribute. They really enjoyed it. They noted my contribution in the title graphics (which alas didn’t meet my expectations, and led me to do a much better later version in preparation for a re-edit that never happened) and my credited appearance hidden inside a Cyberman suit. They watched the blooper clips, which included numerous fluffed lines and footage of putting out a burning Dalek with a fire extinguisher.

Combined with the presence in our house of a digital camera (that shoots movie clips) and Windows Movie Maker, it has inspired a flurry of short film-making. Not just in my house, of course — Chris Anderson mentions the proliferation of free movie editors in The Long Tail book, which I’m reading at the moment. This and other advances in technology are leading more and more people from being just consumers, to also being producers of content.

In fact both kids are embarking on separate Doctor Who tributes, with Isaac and his friend Adrian having been in pre-production for some months now. I’m not sure what the state of the script is in, but I did note with some amusement that at one point Adrian was declaring just about anything that would involve more than a smidgeon of effort to film be deferred to post-production. If they continued down that route, there’d be not a lot actually filmed, and an awful lot of post-production work involved. They have started work on getting props and sets and so on ready, but it seems there’s a way to go before the main shoot commences.

Thankfully some other films have made it to completion. Between them Isaac and Jeremy have completed about 10 short films, varying from live action (the “Two Guys” series… guess who have the starring roles?) to animation (starring a Lego Jack Stone figure).

Anyway my point is that kids’ creative outlets move with the times. And it’s great to see their minds at work.

We lived in a number of places when I was growing up, but this block of flats at 62 Hotham Street, East St Kilda, was where we were the longest — seven years, for me from the age of about 4 to 11, covering most of primary school.

The place doesn’t seem to have changed much at all since we lived there, except that it has shrunk — the various kids of the block (and surrounds) used to have football matches in the front garden. On hot days in summer we’d set a sprinkler up on the grass and run through it, and marvel at how hot the pavement (then made of tarmac) was.

At the side is a laneway, which goes up to the next street, where our friends Stuart, Lisa and Tracey lived. We walked to school with them. Across the lane was another block of flats, where the neighbourhood kids used to play hide and seek.

At the back of the block is the carpark, still with the ancient garages, with wooden doors that now seem to be rotting. Under the fire escape is a little alcove, which us kids wanted to use as headquarters for our club… whatever that was. The alcove is still there, boarded up.

A painted wicket no longer features on the carpark wall. Woe betide anyone who hit a tennis ball over the garages; the neighbour at the back was rumoured to be pretty grumpy.

Some of the first floor residents would try to convince the kids to move from the front to the back and vice-versa, depending on where their nightshift-working relatives were trying to sleep.

I’m struck now by the architecture, which looks to be thirties art-deco, and much more appealing than the other, 70s-style blocks that litter the area. It almost has the air of colonial outpost about it, as if it should be somewhere in the tropics, surrounded by palm trees. Either that or a kind of melting pot for local artists, a creative St Kilda hideaway — like The Secret Life Of Us, but more bohemian.

It was a fun few years, living there as a kid. Lots of happy memories.

During the continuing clearout of junk, today I came across my first tax return, from 1988-1989.

The highlights:

• I had a HECS debt of $900
• Income was $3167 from Austudy, and $2368 from my part time job
• The only other money earnt was a mighty $1.57 in bank account interest
• Total income a huge $5536, with $42 deducted in tax
• $5 donated to the Salvos and $28 in self-education expenses made up my tax deductions for the year

Reminds me, should do this year’s soon.

I just did a load of washing, including a doona cover. Every single other item ended up inside the doona cover. How is this possible?

Number of people observed at the mobile blood bank last week who were reading The Da Vinci Code: 2.

It’s hot again today. Trying to take cover, keep the house cool. I’m not impressed with the evaporative cooler I bought last summer. It does blow out cold air, but doesn’t seem to make a huge difference. Either the concept is flawed, the hot is just too hot, or the particular one I bought (a cheapie, admittedly) just isn’t that crash-hot.

The Gollum sold for $15.50 (plus postage, but it’s to a local, so I expect to drop it in personally.)

Music has come a long way in the last 25 years, but it’s quite possible that Come Together is still the coolest opening song on any album.

Thursday used to be my favourite day in year 12, circa 1988. It was the day of the Green Guide. It was the day of double period of Computer Science after lunch. It was the day The Bill (favourite programme at the time, well before it soaped up) aired. Only one of these is still the same.

Was chatting the other day to Tony about radio web casts from across the globe, and I was remembering how much harder it used to be before the age of the Innanet.

About 20 years ago I had a rickety old shortwave radio with which I used to listen to the BBC World Service. It only worked when the solar activity was minimal, and they used to switch frequencies at different times of day and year. But I was rapt every time I managed to pick up a signal and hear the words on the hour “This is London.”

Geelong beat the Bombers by ten points on Saturday night in a rain-soaked MCG. Next comes the Preliminary Finals, and it’s the Brisbane Lions, which isn’t going to be an easy one to win.

I’m not the world’s biggest footy fan, but I do like to keep an eye on Geelong. It’s been a while since they got this close to a Grand Final. I’m ashamed to say I have no club clothing or merchandise (bar a key tag). I might have to invest in a scarf or a jumper or something to show my support.

So how did I become a Geelong supporter? With a dad from Queensland and a mother from England, there’s no great football tradition in my family. No, it was all by chance.

When I was a young’un, a school friend of mine, Mark, was a Kangaroos supporter. One day I said to my mum that I’d like to get a football jumper. So we went into Myers in the city and looked. Lacking any other affiliation, I decided I’d align myself with Mark’s team and get a Kangaroos jumper.

The shop was out of Kangaroos jumpers. What teams did they have that I could adopt? Looking around, I thought about a school holiday day trip to Geelong I’d taken, and noted the colours were similar (okay so they’re horizontal instead of vertical, and it’s navy blue instead of royal blue, but this is little kid logic we’re talking about). So I said Geelong.

Presto, one Geelong supporter. And as is specified deep down somewhere in the AFL’s bylaws, as well as in Melburnian race memory, once one has a team, it cannot be changed for any reason whatsoever. It’s part of your identity, part of who you are. So I’m still a Geelong supporter.

My sister (for reasons I don’t recall) became a South Melbourne Swans supporter. Over the following few years my dad would take my sister and I to games, some at grounds no longer used… a cold and windy VFL Park… down to Moorabbin to play St Kilda… Arden Street to play the Roos… Western Oval to play Footscray. One time he even got us grand final tickets, and we went along to the MCG, only to find they were in the (now gone) standing section, and we were rather too short to see anything. We decided to go home and watch it on telly, but at least I could say I’d been in the ‘G on Grand Final day.

It’s been several years since I last went to the footy. It’s probably time I started taking the kids, who have somehow picked up a mix of Tigers, Bombers and Cats affiliations — maybe now is the time to get THAT sorted out!

I won’t be going, but I will try to keep tabs on the Cats next Saturday night. Here’s hoping for victory over the Lions. GO CATS!

How did your team get your support?

• Where it came from
• What’s in it
• Where it’s going to
• Why this name
• Comments
• Other stuff

Where it came from

When I originally started writing and posting stuff to the Net (via e-mail and Usenet) in 1990, it was pretty much all off-the-wall “I wish I was a Python” surreal bizarro kind of stuff. And arguably not particularly funny. But by the mid-90s a lot of it had morphed into more auto-biographical material: amusing anecdotes and so on. A colleague, Stewart, suggested I write it as a diary, and never one to let someone else’s good idea go to waste, I tried it.

As far as I recall, the diary first appeared on the web in early 1996, switching to its current address in December 1996. The pages were updated by hand until January 2004, when I switched all new entries into Wordpress 1.2. During the coming months I hope to migrate all the old entries across into Wordpress, though as I remarked once switching to something like that [is] a job in itself.

Another early experiment of mine in the style of what has become known as blogging was a page poking fun at the March 1996 Australian elections. The Political Circus was updated daily with japes and laffs of all types, and to my surprise, earned itself a feature in The West Australian newspaper.

Anyway, all these years later I continue to write a few paragraphs most days, doing my bit to contribute to the sum total of inconsequential trivia on the Internet. And it’s pleasing to see many friends and acquaintances also doing so — you can find some links to some great blogs along the right hand side navigation.

What’s in it

A tiny subset of my life makes it into my diary. It’s usually something I think might be moderately amusing, and often things will be exaggerated for comic effect — sometimes I will whinge here about something that is really trivial, and I would not complain about to anybody in real life. Many events go unreported. The lesson here is: Don’t think you know me based purely on what you read here.

From time to time in the past I’ve descended into coarse language. This is not something I apologise for, but since my kids have started reading (so far principally for the pictures) I’ll be mostly refraining from this in the future, looking elsewhere in my vocabulary to achieve comic effect and to express frustrations.

Where it’s going to

For the forseeable future, I’m going to be blogging, and maintaining the web site. ‘Cos it’s, like, fun. Some other parts of toxiccustard.com that get regular updates and would be suited to blogging tools (eg The News You Had To Have and the Guide To Australia) and are likely to be converted at some stage.

A comment from Rae the other week got me thinking about the long-term future of blogs, and mine in particular. Will this content be recorded for future generations to look at? Would anybody be interested? Perhaps just my descendants? Please?

In the case of my diary, some of it almost certainly will, since (for whatever reason) the State Library of Victoria decided to archive it in the National Library of Australia’s Pandora archive, though the updates seem a tad sporadic. Archive.org also has a massive library of archived web content, and a cursory glance seems to show it has a few local blogs archived in it.

The longevity of such archives depends on how long those programmes continue to get funding, and whether or not the devices of tomorrow continue to be able to read the media of today. I suspect that at some stage I will feel the need to make a copy of at least some of my writing onto that most flexible and futureproof of media — paper — for future Bowens to read, if they should wish to do so.

Why this name

Some reasons why this diary has this name:

• When I first put it online there were hardly any diaries on the web, and I thought it would attract hits from people curious about Australia
• Because the “average” word sounds a little self-deprecating, which I like, though lately I’ve thought it sounded almost grandiose
• To annoy any white supremacists who might be outraged that someone who is not entirely Caucasian would dare to call themselves an average Australian (okay so I thought of this reason after it happened — if I find the e-mail again, I’ll post it)
• It was originally “An average Australian’s diary” so it would be near the top of the alphabetically sorted Yahoo directory — though I note I’ve fallen out of that list completely now.
• It was a better name than Toxic Custard

Comments

I reserve the right to delete or edit anything. It’s my web site, I pay for the hosting. If you want to express your freedom of speech, get yourself your own web site. That said, I generally don’t act like a Nazi on the comments, and I don’t generally fiddle with comments which disagree with my opinions. Comments that will incur my wrath include:

• Spam. This gets deleted, out of hand.
• Comments which (like spam, really) are blatantly irrelevant to the topic at hand.
• Anything plainly designed to offend, be it aimed at myself, my friends, or whoever.
• Anything else deemed inappropriate.

Think of it as being a bit like going to the pub. Everybody’s welcome, but if you’re just causing trouble, insulting other people or annoying the proprietor, you’ll be ejected.

New comments are currently disabled 60 days after the post has gone out. Theoretically this may cut down on comment spam, though I’m by no means certain that it works, and I may change this in future.

E-mail addresses on comments get stored in the database, so I can reply personally, but never shown on the pages, to avoid spammers picking them up.

Other stuff

Sometimes I edit posts after I have published them. Yeah, apparently this is very bad form. It’s mostly fixing typagraph… typograf… typos. Occasionally I’ll read something back and think of a much better (wittier, usually) way of saying it, and change it. But I try my best not to fundamentally change the essence of what I’ve written. And certainly not after someone has commented on it.

This particular post may get added to as a kind of one stop FAQ.

Anything else I should say? Any questions to add? Put ‘em in the comments.