Meanwhile

*

He must have orbited the Homestead Lounge for our five times - this was after casing and rejecting the Evergreen Tavernand the Brew Ha-Ha, both of which were much too conspicuously situated on Central Avenue in the heart of downtown - before working up the nerve to pull into the parking lot, conveniently tucked away in aathe rear of the building, which meant that he at least wouldn't have to worry about Pastor Dennis or anyone else from the Tabernacle edriving by at exactly the wrong moment and wondering if that was Tim Mason they just saw going into the gin mill, 'cause it sure looked like him'.

Even so, he felt shakey and exposed - but also oddly joyful like a convict tiptoeing away from prison - as he crossed the patch of cracked blackstop that separated his car from the back entrance, his heart heammering against his rib-cage the way it always did at moments like this, the blood roaring so loudly in his ears that it drowned out the panicky whispers of his conscience. It was one of those things that hadn't changed with age: he'd felt just like this at sixeen, buying a bag of pot in the high-school bathroom, and at twenty-one, ducking into XXX World, the sleazy "Adults Only Boutique" out on Route 27. The same heady mixture of exhilaration and dread had raced through his veins at thrity-two, the first time he'd cheated on Allison and again two and a half years ago, when he shook of a host of doubts, and stepped through the doors of the Tabernacle, a sinner hoping to be cleansed. It was impressive in its way, this lifelong ability to forge ahead in spite of his better judgement, to wade into one sticky situation after another with his eyes wide open.

The Abstinence Teacher, Tom Perrotta.

Well we were sorry in our luck, bouncing out of trees, as distorted and as quicksilver as ever, voices in the turbulent air, whisked away in a monent. He was always settled. Once there had seemed a higher certainty, a grander destiny. He ate crab like across the floor, moving each limb with agony. Squashed. Outside the day is bright, but he didn't want to go there. Even in the ordibut now they're teenagersnary times he had to find symbology to make it of more import. You know why you're a writer, his daughter said, watching him rattling away on the laptop. He looked up. Because you had such a terrible childhood and you had so many emotions you couldn't let them out. He grimaced. Who knows, Henrietta, he said.

Henrietta is off in the bush with a school friend, first to Dubbo and then to some outback station in the middle of nowhere. With Maddie. This large funny girl. It's entirely different having kids who are teenagers. Might of been cute once, behind all the chores, the bloke with the two cute blonde kids, but now they're teenagers and it's an entirely different story. The colours were drenched too rich. He could feel them, the desert Arabs in his veins, the ones who could not make visiual sense out of this endless oasis. Water everywhere, out of taps no less, glistening on the harbour. Spectacular views. Spectacular pieces of real estate. They came together in this indulgent place. He coujldn't bear the pain much longer.

Everyone's meant to be gettikng $900 this week as part of the government's economic stimulus package, but I haven't got mine yet. He couldn't be so sure it would work. The country seemed destined to another Depression. Everyone was being careful. Now he commenced to run. All those things so long ago had seemed so important. They'll write books about Obama, books and books. Other people were in their prime. On the world stage. On the other side of the ledger, pain ate away at the portals, the pinpricks of consciousness that recorded everything from almost every possible angle, life on this planet. They were the years that rolled by and he barely knew them. The tragedy that he had hoped for, the inspiration and triumph, never came.

The kids grew older. Another layer of unviersity students infested the houses up and down Lawson Street, a new batch every year, stretching their young fit bodies on the verandahs in the morning, mouthing the breath of lust and good cheer, while he hobbled past, an ancient crone, barely existing now in the witherging gap between pain and more pain. He had aged a hundred years and any chance of mingling was long gone now. Where once there was hope there was only envy. He had had his day and knew it too well. The pain drilled through him, a constant tormenter. The spirits were not helping him. The antiobiotics were having no effect. There was talk of hospital. Certainly he felt just about as ill as it was possible to feel without being taken there.

There where he would be trapped in another unpleasant nightmare, as Joyce had been trapped those months ago. I'd ather die in the street, she now declares. The geriatric wards locked and there was no way out. You were effectivfely a prisoner. She tried hard to convince them she was sane; for they presumed that everyone her age was gah gah. It awaited us all. Meanwhile the parties continued down at the corner block. He was always missing out. Life was so damn quiet. When they setttled into a different plan, when life or death meant struggling to survive, when hundreds of thousands were joining the dole queues, thn perhaps the pain would make him more alive.

The pain has still not gone away. The antibiotics are only partially working. Major is away being looked after by some odd friend of Suzy's, who has also taken in the dreaded festering Estie, the smelliest laziest stupidest greediest miniature sausage dog to have ever graced the planet. Once you touch her your hands smell. The whole house reeks of Estie within hours. But some kind lunatic soul has taken her in, washing her every day, walking them. There's always some one out there prepared to sacrifice themselves to a dog. A woman in Little Eveleigh Street has five of them, all geriatric, hobbling down the street with them at a glacial pace for their daily walk; carrying some of the particularly mangy exhibits across the road at the lights. We clutch to anything, we clutch to everything, and the days pass with one more postponed fear after the other.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL8294410

Clock ticking as Italy searches for quake survivors

Wed Apr 8, 2009 6:04pm EDT

* Hopes fade for finding quake survivors

* 17,000 homeless sleeping in tent camps

* Damage estimated at 2-3 billion euros

By Silvia Aloisi and Antonella Cinelli

L'AQUILA, Italy, April 9 (Reuters) - Rescuers picked through rubble for a third night searching for survivors of an earthquake that killed 272 people in Italy, but acknowledged hopes were fading as every hour passed.

A series of aftershocks rattled the medieval mountain city of L'Aquila and nearby villages, complicating rescue efforts and terrifying survivors -- 17,000 of whom stayed in tent villages for another cold night after being made homeless.

"This city has been annihilated and I don't think we'll ever go back to that house, our house. It's full of ghosts and fear," said Claudio Gaudieri, 53, sitting in a tent camp in L'Aquila.

His wife sobbed on the phone, and Guadieri held her hand.

"We lost everything," he said.

The death toll climbed to 272 after rescuers pulled more bodies from the collapsed buildings. Relatives began holding private funerals for the dead.

A mass state funeral and a national day of mourning are expected to be held on Friday.

At least 16 children, including a five-month-old baby, were killed by Monday's 5.8 to 6.3 magnitude earthquake.

Rescue workers haven't found any survivors in at least 24 hours. The last person rescued, a 20-year-old woman, was pulled out the rubble late on Tuesday.

"We're human beings, like the people who are still under there. So we're doing everything possible," said one rescuer, walking among the rubble in the historic centre.

"But it's clear that after 72 hours, hope is fading."

The interior minister said searches would continue at least until Easter.

Facebook Registers 200 Million Users As Social Networks' Influence Grows

http://www.crn.com/networking/216403582

By Jack McCarthy, ChannelWeb

7:18 PM EDT Wed. Apr. 08, 2009
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg proudly announced that his social networking juggernaut would surpass 200 million active users Wednesday.

The Facebook statistic seems to be just one more datapoint in the rise of social networking. Zuckerberg understands that and is looking to the future.

"Growing rapidly to 200 million users is a really good start, but we've always known that in order for Facebook to help people represent everything that is happening in their world, everyone needs to have a voice," he wrote on his Facebook blog. "This is why we are working hard to build a service that everyone, everywhere can use, whether they are a person, a company, a president or an organization working for change."

Zuckerberg cited some social networking achievements, including its use as an organizing tool by President Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

"Technology has made it easier and faster for people across the world to share more and more -- from the daily activities of their lives to events that impact their communities," he wrote. "At Facebook, we want to build the best service in the world for people to connect with and share everything that is important to them, whether day-to-day or world-changing."

He was correct in describing how FB is changing social communications.

"When we built Facebook in 2004, our goal was to create a richer, faster way for people to share information about what was happening around them," he wrote. "We thought that giving people better tools to communicate would help them better understand the world, which would then give them even greater power to change the world."

One important element of change barely touched on in his blog is the growing influence of Facebook and other social networks on businesses.Cisco (NSDQ: CSCO) CTO Padmasree Warrior, in a keynote presentation at VoiceCon Orlando last month said the blurring of consumer and enterprise communications networks is one of the important changes happening in the future of collaboration and communications.

"As human beings, we have a natural tendency to want to build relationships," she said, adding that the IT industry needs to build enterprise-grade collaboration platforms in recognition of consumer networks like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other social networks.

Showing the extent of the rise of social networking, Facebook and other social networking sites, according to Nielsen, has in 2008 passed e-mail in consumer popularity as Web surfers around the globe visited social networking sites more than they access Web-based e-mail.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25311782-2702,00.html

A SECOND influential ALP figure has been accused of spending union money on escorts, with enemies of Victorian union boss Jeff Jackson releasing bank statements showing payments to the same Sydney brothel where federal MP Craig Thomson's credit card was allegedly used.

Police were called to a union meeting in Melbourne last night as it descended into yelling and brawling between rival camps.

The meeting was called by Mr Jackson to reassert his control on the union's management committee. Mr Jackson, a prominent figure in the Victorian ALP, dismissed the claims against him as a politically motivated "dirty tricks campaign" and denied any misuse of union funds.

As secretary of the Health Services Union's number 1 branch in Victoria, Mr Jackson has been embroiled in a bitter power struggle with branch president Pauline Fegan.

Ms Fegan last night called on him to resign over the emergence of credit card statements showing the payments to 'Keywed Pty Ltd" - which takes money for clients of the Sydney Outcalls escort agency.

"It's a union-issued credit card and it has been issued to Jeff Jackson," Ms Fegan said. "On the face of it, it appears the union credit card has been used for escort agencies," she said. "He should have resigned ages ago, that's the reality."

The factional dispute is at the centre of the claims of misuse of union credit cards for prostitutes and election campaign funds that threaten the career of Mr Thomson and could damage other senior party figures.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,25309836-5001026,00.html

Hugh Jackman arrives in Sydney for X-Men Origins: Wolverine promotion
Article from: The Daily Telegraph

April 09, 2009 12:00am

HOLLYWOOD hunk Hugh Jackman said yesterday he was left "heartbroken" by the premature release of a pirated copy of his hit X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

"Obviously people are seeing an unfinished film. It's like a Ferrari without a paint job," Jackman said yesterday.

With the FBI called in to investigate the online leaking of the latest X-men instalment, Jackman, 40, said the whole debacle ahead of the film's opening later this month was "very disappointing".

He put some of that disappointment aside yesterday, arriving by helicopter to treat more than 600 excited fans to a 20-minute peek at the film on Cockatoo Island - where some of the movie scenes were filmed.

He then swept down to the island on a flying fox. As star of the film and a producer, Jackman knows a lot rides on its success.

"Yeah, without a doubt. Not only the amount of time and effort but this character's very important to me," he said.

And while he revealed Australia will always be his home, he and wife Deborra-Lee Furness and their children Oscar, 8, and Ava, 3, have been settling into their new home in New York.