My wife and I are planning our honeymoon at the moment, although we’ve been married five years. At the time we were married, neither of us were able to afford to have the sort of honeymoon we both wanted and to be honest, the last five years have gone by so fast, we’ve not had much time to think anymore about it. But we are now. The plan is to travel for about three months, going first to Hawaii, then the States, then to England and Europe, India, Malaysia, and then home to Australia. W...

What is a mid-life crisis? Am I having one right now? And who determines what is my mid-life anyway? I could be in my last days or I could live until I’m 130, for all anyone knows. So to describe these intimations of mortality as a mid-life crisis could be potentially misleading to both myself, my delicate psyche and to those around me. These questions were raised in my thoughts after I recently received an email from a close friend who pointed towards an article posted on MSN about me...

Okay, how would you handle this? Near my work is a great coffee shop. A well-known ex-boxer, an Italian man with a large personality, owns the shop. His main shop has been in business since the 50’s and has a world-renowned reputation as they really do make excellent coffee. The baristas who work for him are generally very good indeed. However, I am a soy drinker. And my order is a always a large soy flat white. Nothing too hard about this, right. Well here is where the problems s...

I’ve been wanting to post something other than poetry but to be honest, I haven’t really had anything to say that doesn’t involve repetitions of previous information about either my life or my band. But something happened recently that has been in the back of my mind, bubbling away in my subconscious. This occurred at the end of August, which goes to show how slow my mind works The band has been going great guns. The last Friday in August was our last night of a very successful month ...

I know I'm getting in real early with this but here it is: HAPPY JULY 4TH to all my American friends here at Joe User. Hope you all have a wonderful, relaxed and peaceful day and enjoy the fireworks. Peace!

In a recent post ( Link ) I suggested starting a t-shirt swapping group for anyone interested. Well, I've been looking at t-shirts and have found some good ones. I guess the next step is to get details from those who'd like one. Please email me at my gmail address: dynamaso@gmail.com and let me know the best size (and a fallback, if necessary) as well as your address details. As soon as I get these, I will be taking it as a sign you want to go ahead and make a swap. I will then send yo...

I've not been on here much over the past few weeks. To be honest, I've been cheating a little on my JU friends by spending time on our Myspace site (www.myspace.com/jcronikal - for anyone interested) trying to increase the band's profile. We began 2007 with our three songs still at numbers 1, 2 and 3 in the JJJ Unearthed hip hop charts and at numbers 8, 9 and 10 in the Overall charts. We are very excited about the work this success will be bringing us in 2007 but more on that later. I m...

My band, currently called JC Ronikal & The Maniacs, has entered a local competition run by a national radio station, JJJFM, or TripleJ, as is known. The competition, called Unearthed, is one of the most unique in the world and has been running for quite a number of years now (over ten, at least). It is responsible for discovering some of the biggest bands in Australia in the last few years, bands like Silverchair and Grinspoon, for those who might know Aussie acts. This year is the first...

“The balance we approve of in architecture, and which we anoint with the word ‘beautiful’, alludes to a state that, on a psychological level, we can describe as mental health or happiness.” Alain de Botton, ‘The Architecture of Happiness’ We first met you when we were in the first heady days of our beautiful partnership. We were giddy with the excitement of being together, seeking together and setting up a life together. You were just around the corner, waiting for us. It w...

I've got a thing for tattoos. I was told years ago, before I got my first, that I would either hate the process and never have another or love the process and want more. I am of the latter group. The problem is, like a lot of things, tattoos aren't cheap and I don't have as many as I'd like. But slowly, I am getting more. For my birthday this year, my lovely wife bought me some time in the chair. I wrote a bit of a blog about the tattoist and how I'd be going back to him for my next...

I’ve been dreaming a lot lately, more so than I have in a long time. I’ve been dreaming all sorts of things too. Everything from success dreams, where I’m living a rich man’s life to disturbing, not exactly nightmares, which become luggage for my day and have me feeling somewhat out of sorts. I think I know why I am dreaming more than normal, although it is much too private to discuss here. But I do feel like I’m opening up something I’ve had closed for quite some time. One of the posi...

CATTLE & CANE I recall a schoolboy coming home through fields of cane to a house of tin and timber and in the sky a rain of falling cinders from time to time the waste memory-wastes I recall a boy in bigger pants like everyone just waiting for a chance his father's watch he left it in the showers from time to time the waste memory-wastes I recall a bigger brighter world a world of books and silent times in thought and then the railroad the railroad takes him home throu...