From Projo.com:

BOSTON -- It is becoming more and more apparent with each passing game that these are not your grandfather's Red Sox.

The 2003 edition of the Red Sox still can hit the ball, as Boston teams have done for so long. But they do not need to bash opponents into submission. They not only are willing to do the little things to win games, they can do them very well.

DAMMIT!!!!! The one season that its damn near impossible for me to follow the sox, pitch by bloody pitch they really seem to put it all together. Yeah, I've seen enough and listened and read enough to know how suspect the bullpen is, and even the starters haven't been going deep enough into most games, taxing the bullpen even more. But 18-9 is a pretty decent record, even with a enough late inning collapses to last at least until the all star game. Do these guys have the stuff to play in the post season, or even, gulp, the World Series? I know the history of this team, always starting good and fading into oblivion, right? Its maybe not really exactly like that, at least for the past 10 or so years. Usually they are in it up to some time in September, or they actually make the playoffs (95, 98, 99). They still have an all-star laden core, and you gotta think that they are due for at least a post season berth. And I'm in Sydney, where its going into winter. Sure I can thank MLB.com for live radio feeds while I'm at work, and once I get DSL at my new apartment I may even sign up for MLBTV so can stream entire games in loving TCP/IP, but there is something missing, and that has far and away been the hardest thing about moving halfway around the world. You can't get off work and watch the game on TV at home or in a bar and have everyone dialed into the same actions. Everyone in the know knows what the pitcher has to throw under certain pitch counts. Add to this the fact that its summer, and its hot, and you're drinking a cold one...heaven on earth I tell ya. Its a feeling you live for. And if after a summers worth of missed ballgames, my beloved local none make it all the way? I wouldn't miss it for the world. To put it another way, if the sox go to the series, I go to the series. Then again, whats the Yankees starting 5 record? 16-1 or something obscene like that. All I know is they've had a very good team for several years now and have had more than their share of set backs. Its only a matter of time until things go their way (mookie wilson rollers aside).

Last few days or week I should say have been busy as usual. On the social front, I saw more Aussie bands. Gersey (pronounced Jersey) were kinda dream pop (fron their first cd) and kinda dawsons creek bubblegum (newer stuff). The guitarist was the standout here, really swirly dream pop. On the same bill was Gelbison. They're getting significant airplay down here (not that that means anything in the states), but they just released an album on Virgin and will probably be on NME any day now. They were the most polished band of the lot, but that don't make them the best. Following night at the Hoey, I saw Ninetynine. All the indie kids were there. I guess this is the new project from the first Sleater Kinney drummer. Shes not doing much drumming in this band - lots of Vibraphone stuff. Overall its part Stereolab and part S-K, with a drummer who knows his Steve Albini. I saw those guys on Friday night, which also happened to be Anzac day. Its the aussie-new zealand veterans day. Started off the downtown checking out the parade, then made it to Newtown for some 2-up. 2-up is illegal everyday but Anzac day in australia. Its a game where you place coins on a wooden board and bet on 2 heads or 2 tails. Everyone crowds around a square in the middle of the bar and you basically say "10 heads!" and hope someone wants to take you up on it and bet tails. They really get into it around here. I'll take blackjack thanks.
On the lame ass work front (I know you can't wait to hear about this) thinks are starting to gel. The countdown is on til one of my reps quits because soon enough the parties over folks. Eventually I'll have numbers that they have to hit, and more trainings than they really want (along with the requisite quizzes).

Went to McDonalds the other day - they have the McOz. Its a quarter pounder with a slice of beetroot and if I understand correctly, a fried egg. Beats vegemite and toast though.

in the playlist:
Whiskeytown - Strangers Almanac
Jayhawks - Rainy Day Music
Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison