[due to slowness of writing, all todays are now yesterdays]

Today was filled with expectations contrary to my expectations. What I expected was a brief morning visit to the offices where my case manager, who handles me so Centrelink doesn't much have to, then to return home and participate in clearing out a dungeon in World of Warcraft, followed by an evening of composing an application for the latest library job I found going.

It was unusually tricky finding a parking space there, but at least I got to hear the end of Margarent Throsby's interview with Dr Peter Bowden, although it was a bit awkwarder than usual - I think he was not prepared to handle digressions from the topic of whistleblowing and ethics.

Contrary to the interactions I'd expected, talking briefly of what I'd been up to job-searchingly and what I planned to be up to, the only topic was that they'd found a possible job I could go interview for and preparing me to do this once I agreed I had some interest. That job was of an inbound call centre sort, handling account inquiries on behalf of a cable television company. I figured I would have to cancel the dungeoning to make that on time, but it turned out to be anyway already cancelled.

Spent a few hours having lunch and researching and getting changed, then set off to drive. That was a bit of a nervous drive, on the motorway, since the car I have use of is 21 years old and rattles a bit when it travels faster than 80 kph. I felt a bit like if I were standing at the top of a ladder and unsure of its steadiness. Rain grew heavier near my busier urban destination, peaking at one of the more stressful driving experiences I've had making the exit onto a quite busy main road.

I ended up mistakenly in a lane too far to the left, one marked 'must turn left', so spent several minutes poking around side streets until finding my way back to the road I needed, pushing 'about ten minutes early' into 'just on time'. Unfortunately the group had already gone in and the staff who met me didn't quite know what was going on, so it was a couple of minutes until I was directed to the right room. Not the last to arrive, either.

Interview was simple enough. Bit of impromptu self-introduction public speaking, a group task, then one on one interviews and we were done. Was annoyed that in the group with other candidates a lot of my communications were ignored until someone else expressed the same thing, although some were taken up with enthusiasm (we were supposed to diagram what customer service is and why it is important), but otherwise I felt I did pretty well. At least, that I did about as well as I was able, and if I don't get the position it won't be for any lack or fault on my part. Which is about all I'm after really.

Driving back I got to diagnose the problem with the motorway in that direction - too many lanes being created and then ended, congesting the drive by forcing repeated traffic integration. Also got another surprise on the radio travelling back when they played the 14th symphony by Sir William Herschel, more famous as the discoverer of Uranus and infrared radiation. Was fun to listen to, too, so now I want to try and collect the music of this famous astronomer. Am sure I must have known he was also a composer, since I read a lot of science history books and they'd be likely to mention such a detail, but I'd completely forgotten it.

Later in the evening my sister contacted me, requesting collection from the station. Despite coordinating activity I arrived some minutes early and spent a tense while watching a cat walk along the track, fearing a train would come along any moment and hoping the cat knew how to keep safe. But it vanished into the darkness long before anything happened, and that is all I know of that cat. A while later I saw behind me some queer green reflection which revealed a train coming from the other way. It stopped briefly, signed prominently as a prototype which no one should board, then departed in high unpleasant screeching. I saw a party of railway workers aboard, presumably testing the user experience, and then not long after my sister arrived to be collected.

The last and least pleasant upturning of expectation came watching again the series 2 finale of Ashes to Ashes and being informed that no, we still do not get to see series 3.

Okay, that's a day, done.

Just been listening to Love History by Sylvie Symbiosis and remembering how much I missed her music when lost my copies. Recommended to anyone who doesn't hate electronic music and microsampling. Or, presumably, others who wouldn't enjoy. But I am enjoying lots so I assume others will too.

Her music can be had so far from last.fm. Although if there are other distribution channels that would be nice to know.

Listening to music again, of which I'd forgotten how vital it can be.

Aanyway, listening to 'The Ballad of John and Yoko' again reminded me of the time my 4th grade teacher had the whole class learn and sing that song. Mainly that one sticks in my memory of all the songs she had us sing because for that one she struck out the word Christ from the chorus.

I think she replaced 'Chris' with 'Lord', since you pretty much have to for the song to make sense. It is after all John Lennon talking to Jesus, saying Jesus must be able to empathise with Lennon's situation of exaltation and persecution.

"Christ, you know it ain't easy,
You know how hard it can be.
The way things are going
They're going to crucify me."

So you can take the Christ out, but the way I see it that lyric's going to be blasphemous whatever you call the god in it. Sometimes I wonder if that was a bit of a response to the 'more popular than Jesus' incident.

Trying to catalogue my music collection has put me to thinking about ways music has changed over the years. The vast majority of popular music these days I am quite sure does not use the system of opus numbering found in Western classical music (and Wikipedia provides the term 'European art music', which for now I like so as not to have 'classical music' being ambiguous with the classical period, and intend to remember and use).

Popular music these days does not use opus numbers (and why would it, being of a different music tradition?), but I have received the impression a rigorous such numbering was always unusual, and anyway I have also found it increasingly difficult to locate such catalogued numberings for composers from the end of the romantic period on. I do however often derive pleasure from playing about with cataloguing and classifying systems, applying them in unintended ways, and wonder at what results we might get attempting to give popular music opus numbers. To play at ordering by similar schemes and see if anything of diverting interest shows.

Opus numbers, those seem a bit diverse in what they cover, since the signification seems to be 'chronological ordering of works released by %artist'. Covering single works, long or short, thematic collections or groups of pieces that happen to be released together. Seems fair for encompassing the variety of albums released these days as well. So what would we get then? Something like:

Enya's Op. 17, No. 5 "Only If..."

Or:

The CROSS of Changes, Op. 2: III. Return to Innocence by Enigma

The number is high for Enya because I attempted to count singles as separate releases, on the basis that those often feature additional versions of tracks and otherwise unavailable tracks as B-sides. For Enigma I did not bother, but probably should have reversed that since Enigma appears much more likely to release various remixes and cuts. Which means I took the easy approach there.

I think this is nifty. It would amuse me greatly if I could do this with all the popular music in my collection and have an easy way of switching between music identity schemes.

I'm not one of these people who posts reviews often. Mostly I've come to keep my opinions about consumable media quiet. I think part of this is that I had very few allies who liked the same things that I did. Everyone else seemed quick to make fun of me for this reason. When I first got into anime, I always had to explain it to people that "Yes, it is animated, but it's not a cartoon. It's not something for kids just because it's drawn rather than acted." Roughly the same time I was big into electronica, and was mocked for my "videogame music". After a while, I just stopped trying. Why invite mockery?

Today I'm still into anime, but my music tastes have shifted toward heavy metal. Over the last month I've come to enjoy two particular creations in each genre. Curiously, both involve the French, and both involve the Japanese. Weird, huh?

Le Chevalier d'Eon

Le Chevalier d'Eon

The first is an anime series that's currently running through the fansubbing network. Le Chevalier d'Eon is a 24 episode series produced by Production I.G. The story centers around d'Eon de Beaumont, a knight of King Louis XV. It's pre-revolutionary France, and d'Eon's sister Lia is found floating down the Seine river in Paris. Her corpse bizarrely incorruptible, the church denies her a Christian burial. d'Eon dedicates himself to finding the killer.

d'Eon, however, soon finds himself plunged into a world of alchemy, Western magic, and royal intrigue. Thankfully, he's not alone -- ever.

Unable to go to Heaven, the spirit of Lia takes up residence in the body of her bother. At first, d'Eon did not notice this. When enraged or threatened, Lia takes control and completes the battle at hand. Spiritual possession is not a new subject in anime. Hana-Kimi -- one of my favorite manga -- also features a possession subplot. Other examples exist. What particularly drew me to this series, is what happens to d'Eon when Lia takes control.

Throughout the series, it's noted how similar d'Eon and Lia look. Indeed, a properly attired d'Eon would (and does) appear to be a splitting image of his sister. During battle d'Eon isn't simply possessed by her sister, but becomes her. Subtle details betray the transformation: Posture, lip coloration, eye design, and most obvious, a change in voice. This isn't a Ranma 1/2 style transformation with it verging on fantastical. You can see an example at wikipedia. The effect is so subtle that the characters even use this to their advantage at key moments. How far the transformation extends -- are there actual physical changes or not? -- has yet to be answered at the episode I'm currently at.

This isn't the only thing fascinating about the series. The story is deliciously laden with conspiracies, secret societies, and plots against royalty from several countries. A type of Alchemy and Western magic based on the Book of Psalms predominates the series. Even without all the gender changing, this is a wonderful series.

I was only incidentally attracted to this series due to the title. Another series I have yet to complete, Blood+, also makes copious use of the word Chevalier. Upon researching the series and it's titular transformation sequence, I had to see it myself. It sometimes can be curious watching a series set in France, with French characters, where everyone speaks Japanese. This can be a bit confusing for a native English speaker. Despite other "high-priority" series on my anime queue, such as Ergo Proxy and Nana, Le Chevalier d'Eon has moved to the top of my list.

Gojira - From Mars to Sirius Gojira - From Mars to Sirius

For the last year, I've developed in interest in Heavy Metal. I've been introduced to several fascinating bands in that time through my Sirius Satellite Radio subscription. While "anything heavy" sounded appealing at first, I've come to adore bands that edge more toward Progressive Metal, Post-Rock, and Sludge Metal. Many of these bands are (reportedly) drug influenced.

A few months ago a new song appeared on my receiver, "To Sirius" by Gojira. The DJs would always crack at the incidental relationship between the song title and the corporation name. Despite that, it was a spectacular song. When I finally remembered to look up the lyrics, I was even more impressed. "To Sirius" told the story of a group of beings that left a dying world to seek beings on a planet orbiting Sirius C. I hit record on my Stiletto 100 and repeated the song often.

One afternoon I decided to seek out the entire CD. It had been years since I liked a CD. A few songs, sure, but the entire CD had always been a miss. Lacuna Coil's Karmacode was an exception to that trend last year. I was also happy to find out that Gojira's latest, From Mars to Sirius was also an exception.

Much like "To Sirius" (the second to last track), the entire CD revolves vaguely around the same subject. While some tracks are brutal examples of metal with curiously spiritual lyrics, others are more wistful. I've found myself listening to the CD again and again. Even more strange, I listened to the tracks in the order in which they're given. From Mars to Sirius tells a story best read (or listened to) in order.

The band was originally named "Godzilla", after the famous Kaiju. Due to licensing problems, the band decided to adopt the original Japanese name "Gojira". The band, however, isn't Japanese. From their songs you can tell they are singing in English, and despite the death metal grunting, no accent. To my surprise, the band members are French. Given the pride in which native French speakers have in their language, this seems surprising to me. A French band with a Japanese name that sings in English; if that doesn't suggest it belongs in my menagery of tunes, go listen to it yourself.