meet my hare daemon

I've just started reading the first book in the His Dark Materials trilogy (on the basis of Andrew's post some time back), and I was quite taken with this whole idea of the daemons and the whole "one spirit two bodies" thing, and I figured that somewhere online there had to be a quiz or something to find one's own daemon...

And what better place to find out than the website for the upcoming film version of the first book, The Golden Compass...

Now, I kind of wish I had a more exciting daemon... but I ran the test like three or four times and the more "true" I think my answers got, the more I ended up with a hare daemon... so a hare daemon it is...

Meet Aspasa...

Current Mood:

unconscious mutterings 221

Banana... algebra... ocelot... Carmen Miranda... Unconscious Mutterings...

1. Order :: Numbered


2. Mortician :: Bruce


3. Determine :: To be figuring it out


4. Ignore :: Unignore


5. Guy :: Doll


6. Crush :: Garlic


7. Garlic :: Vampire


8. Wacky :: Shack


9. Parent :: Child


10. Burning :: Man

Current Mood:

more purple stuff

Dark Purple

To others, you seem a bit dark, mysterious, and moody. In truth, you are just a very unique person who doesn't care what others think. And you really enjoy your offbeat interests and friends. You've decided that life is about living for yourself - simple as that.

What Color Purple Are You?

Current Mood:

journey to the afterlife

Since it was such a wet and dreary day today, Ma and I checked the folder marked "Things to do soon" and decided it was just the right kind of day to go and see the Egyptian Antiquities from The Louvre: Journey to the Afterlife exhibit at the Art Gallery of SA.

I have this thing about Egyptian stuff... I mean I've never really read up on it or studied it in depth or anything, but I have, I guess, an affinity for it. And then there's my ankh tattoo too.

But after having seen the exhibition, I realised I didn't know nearly as much as I thought I did... which is better I guess, than going through the whole thing and not discovering anything new. It might also be interesting to get my hands on a couple of books on the subject, read up a little, I dunno.

It was also really interesting to not only see how well preserved a lot of the stuff is (not really surprising seeing as some of it would have been happily buried away in tombs until the late 1800's), but also how incredibly intricate and detailed a lot of it is. Just taking a look at the minute chisel marks in the stonework carvings made by somebody over 4000 years ago, and seeing the exact spot where his chisel slipped a little and he ended up with a line where there shouldn't have been one... it was just amazing. Equally amazing were the ink/written hieroglyphics... looking at basically somebody's handwriting from so long ago (and the difference between two different styles), and seeing how small and intricate both the text and it's accompanying illustrations were. Just... wow...

And the stuff they brought over isn't even the whole of the Louvre's Egyptian collection... according to the website, they have "5,000 exhibits from the 60,000 housed by the Department of Egyptian Antiquities". I mean far out... I don't even want to think how long it would take to see everything in the Louvre, because even this small section took us over an hour.

I did look around a couple of times and think to myself "why the hell are you here?"... one teenage girl specifically who couldn't remember what hieroglyphics were called... I mean, you've presumable paid to come to see an Egyptian exhibition... some small amount of either interest or familiarity with the subject wouldn't be too much to ask.

I was also a little disappointed in the exhibition shop... I mean there were a couple of semi interesting books (including Peter Rabbit translated completely into hieroglyphics, which was actually very, very cool), but nothing really groovy in the way of random tchotchka... which was kind of a shame.

And unfortunately, just like I mentioned last time we went to the Art Gallery, the service in the cafe (which calls itself a restaurant, but pfffft) was appallingly bad when we stopped in there to have a spot of tea before we left... luckily there was cute boy behind the counter, so that was a plus... but really, they always seem like they're much less interested when we've been in there... and if it hadn't been pouring with rain outside we might have just gotten up and walked out.

Current Mood:

photo friday: sepia architecture

Some more nostalgic stuff for today's Photo Friday...

I think these were both shot in colour originally, but I like a nice bit of sepia work, and I did go through a stage when I converted a lot of stuff out of colour.

The Gerard & Goodman building at the top is in town and is pretty much abandoned I think, although I did go and see a play called "Cock & Bull Story" there which was about boxing (but luckily it also contained full frontal male nudity)... but the only reason I went at all was because I got a free ticket from a guy (who I'm guessing was involved in the production) while I was out to lunch with Lownee one afternoon and I was waiting for our food while she went off to find a table. And, of course, because it was free I figured I might as well go. During Fringe/Festival time, just about anywhere that can be converted into a performance space is converted, since all the "official" spaces disappear first.

The other shot is just one of the many churches around North Adelaide, but it's one I go past every morning on my walk, and it's just across from the place I used to live.

Current Mood:

drowned rat

When I got out of the shower a little while ago I was possibly LESS wet than I was during my walk this morning...

After yesterday morning's rain induced drama and the fact that I came out of it mostly unscathed once I finally got out there, I figured I would just do my normal thing this morning (although I did have a little bit of a lie in since it was raining rather heavily when I woke up)... when I set out the rain was a little heavier than it had been yesterday, but still manageable...

That lasted until I got to Wellington Square... when it decided to start raining heavily... then that calmed down a bit, but just as I hit the top of the hill it started to bucket down... and by the time I'd made it down the hill I was sopping wet... then I stepped in a puddle that was deeper than I though it was, and hey presto, my previously dry socks and sneakers were wet...

It wasn't helped by the fact that I was wearing my grey marle Fubu teeshirt... and you know what happens to grey marle when it gets wet... it gets a lot darker... so it was pretty obvious just how wet I was... that and the fact that the teeshirt was clinging to me like a second skin after a couple of minutes. I paused under the awning by Adelaide Oval and wrung some of the water out of my shirt (yes, I was THAT wet)... then gritted my teeth and set off again.

As I went down the slope towards the river there was this woman running the opposite way to the way I was going, and we had that moment where you make eye contact and we both smiled, knowing that the other person knew exactly how we were feeling, and the fact that neither of us could have gotten any wetter, and that we were both clearly insane being out in this weather doing what we were doing.

I stopped again under the Morphett Street Bridge to yet again ring as much of my teeshirt out as I could (and swear silently at the swans and the ducks with their waterproofing)... then off I went...

And just before I got to the weir, the rain stopped. Not slowed, not softened, but stopped completely and totally... so there I am, less than half of my walk finished, soaked through to the bone (although, surprisingly I wasn't the least little bit cold) and it stops raining. At least when it was raining I had a valid excuse for looking like a drowned rat...

If anything the weir (which I think technically is more of a sluice gate) was even more spectacular today than it was yesterday... since I started walking down by the river it's pretty much always been dry in the whole catchment area on the far side of the gate before the river starts again, but today it was a raging white froth of water swirling and churning and getting all into everywhere... very impressive.

And of course, by the time I got back the water had had a chance to soak through everything (if it hadn't already been wet), so even my underwear was soaked through. At least it's Friday, so everything that needs to (ie my sneakers) should have a chance to dry out before I need it again. But it didn't rain again (other than a few stray drops) until after I got home again.

Current Mood:

random stormbreaker hotness

I'm quoting from myself for today's Random Hotness...

Speaking of Alex Pettyfer... I'm officially putting him in a box labelled "Open in 2008" (the year he turns 18)... he's going to be heartbreakingly gorgeous in a couple of years time... he's about a step and a half away from that now...

I know it's not quite 2008 yet, but I saw a few of these shots floating around various sites, and then happened to come across an Alex gallery site with what I think is the full set of photos (although the ones I've picked seem to be from two different photoshoots) and they're fairly impressive, and don't contradict what I was saying in the slightest... but they also show why this week's Hotness is subtitled "When Bad Tattoos Happen To Cute Actors"...

Current Mood:

rained out

Oh joy, oh rapture... we have rain...

Dammit... we have rain that started just before 6:30am, when I usually go for my walk...

Double dammit... we still have rain... with the possibility of more rain...

I haven't been rained out of a walk in months! Actually, since around this time last year... funny that...

I'm thinking about going out and braving the rain shortly anyway, I just figured I would mess around online first to see if the rain actually let up.

I don't know if its the routine or the actual walking I'm addicted to, but I'm sitting here getting big fat withdrawal symptoms because I can't go out...

UPDATE: I lasted maybe fifteen minutes after I posted this... it was a case of either giving up on the walk completely and having breakfast or going out inspite of the rain... I got as far as putting Weetbix in a bowl and then changed my mind and went to put my sneakers on. I got wet obviously, but not as wet as I have been on previous occasions, and it was nice... I got to see the water positively shooting out of the weir at the bottom end of the track, and the pelicans laying in wait for little fishies (and a little fishie launching itself up out of the water to avoid getting eaten) by the stormwater pipe at the other.

Current Mood:

dolphins at the port

Maritime Dolphin (left), Dolphin and Flora (top right), The Road Not Taken (bottom right)
In my ongoing series of posts that Tom thinks should be sponsored by SA Tourism Comission...

Being a Public Holiday today and all (Anzac Day, don't ya know), Ma and I decided that even though we'd spent pretty much the entire day together yesterday (all the way from breakfast near my place at around 8:30am, though some random bits of shopping to going to the movies before getting back here around 5 or so) since she's on leave this week, we could go down to Port Adelaide and check out some of the random stuff going on for The Port Festival, specifically the Dolphins in the Port art instillation.

In celebration of the International Year of the Dolphin and the Port Adelaide's Dolphin Sanctuary, a pod of dolphins have been created by a selection of South Australian artists.

I actually had assumed that they would be in one general area, maybe spread out along the side of the Port River, but no, there's a whole walking trail kind of deal going on... various places around the Port have taken specific dolphins in and made themselves part of the experience. Of course, the downside of going to see them on a public holiday is that a couple of the places were closed, so we didn't end up seeing them all, but I did like the ones we did see.

My personal favourite was the Dolphin and Flora dolphin by Nina Rupena & Irena Levak (that would be it up at the top right of the photo), but pretty much all the ones we saw had something going for them.

They're only there until this Sunday though, and then they get auctioned off to raise money for the Dolphin Sanctuary, but if you're in the area, they're definitely worth a look and a bit of a treasure hunt.

Current Mood:

big brother musings

It's interesting that of all my recent posts, the one that got the most number of either lurkers or just random people appearing out of nowhere was my first Big Brother post for the year.

Another thing that I thought was interesting was part of Ozboi's comment "It's all so ... formulaic. Six years has really left nothing new except variations on the same themes." And it obviously got me thinking because I came to a realisation yesterday... at the beginning of every season of Big Brother what you most clearly remember is the END of the previous season... when you've known those people for three months or so and gone through all their up and downs with them and when all the random garbage and annoying personalities (for the most part) have fallen away and everything ends up much more cruisy... then that year is over, the new year begins and suddenly there's suddenly a new crop of housemates and you're back at that weird place where you don't necessarily like anybody that much and you don't know any of them very well and there are various people who aren't getting any screen time (Emma) and become somewhat forgettable, and others that are getting way too much screen time (Haley) and become annoying, but instead of comparing it to the beginning of the previous season where the exact same things happened, you compare it to your last memory.

Having said that, I'm not going to argue on the "variations on the same themes" idea... but that's actually kind of the point... we all know that Big Brother is going to be somewhat crap before we start watching it... but we know what to expect, more or less. And at the end of the day it's not about the twists or the things Big Brother inflicts on the housemates or any of that, that's always going to be highly formulaic, and honestly, repetitive, since there are only so many different things that you can do in that situation, it's actually about the twelve, fifteen, nineteen or however many people they choose to put in the house and their interactions. And that's always going to make it a completely different show.

That doesn't mean that somebody doesn't need to slap the crap out of "Jamie-eske" Harrison, take away his bandannas and cut all his crappy white boy dreadlocks off... because he looked very hot with "normal" hair in his audition tape.

From my list of "Random Theories That Are Fairly Obvious" comes the idea that the prize money for this year's winner comes from the Friday Night Live Games... they'll have to win certain amounts playing certain games, like they usually do at the end of the last couple of years when they've been given the chance to win back the money from the fines. Because there is no way they're actually going to do the whole "no prize money" thing.

And I'm officially bored with this whole "people in relationships sneaking around and people trying to find them out" thing... they did it last year and it was boring and dumb and actually didn't make that much of a difference to anything... they need to stop now.

On that topic, I'm actually much less interested in both Haley and Andrew now that we know they're a real life couple, although I find it funny that the other housemates also floated the idea that Andrew might be gay... and somebody mentioned that they don't have a gay person in the house. Although the new boy, Zoran, did set off a couple of alarm bells at one point... damn David and his trying to cover it up last year... now I just think there are homosexuals hidden under every bush!

I was, as far as I can tell, completely right about Bodie being the first one to nude up in the shower... I don't think he even made it through the first night before he was showing off his bits and pieces under the shower. Not sure what the nudie status of the rest of the boys is unfortunately. Screen caps, updates, anyone?

Speaking of which, the ever lovely All Aussie Beef has started his Big Brother postings again, and thanks to the miracle of labels, it's now much easier to see what he's been posting in a BB genre.

Most Appealing Male Housemate: Thomas

Most Appealing Female Housemate: Suzannah

Most Annoying Male Housemate: Joel

Most Annoying Female Housemate: TJ

Male Housemate Who Shouldn't Speak Ever: Joel

Housemate Who Is Growing On Me: Travis

Housemate Most Likely To Be Voted Out First: Joel

And, as mentioned above, Joel has overtaken Travis as the housemate who shouldn't speak ever and I'm pitching him as the first housemate out rather than Kate, and TJ replaced Rebecca as most annoying female housemate. I think I might throw this list in whenever I do a BB related post (I promise to keep them shorter in future, honestly), just to see what my thoughts are over time.

That's it for now... at least until the first eviction anyway... I promise!

Current Mood:

movies: sunshine

I love movie trivia and whatnot, but before I've seen a movie I generally like to know as little about it as humanly possible... enough to spark my interest in it (speaking of which, saw the new Harry Potter trailer before the movie... yummy!), but not enough that I can either work out what's going to happen or it gives away some vital plot point.

So Sunshine was a little bit of a mystery going in.

I'd assumed given the ads that it was a whole "we're all in a confined space and something's coming to eat us" movie... then part of the way through I though I was wrong and it was actually a "we're all in a confined space and we're losing our humanity and being all psychological and dramatic" movie...

Turns out it was a little from Column A and a little from Column B. First part very much "all psychological and dramatic"... last part "something's coming to eat us"... although not quite in the normal way.

And I have to say, the "interesting" camera work around the "something" has to have been because the particular makeup they chose didn't quite stack up to their expectations... I could be wrong, but it just seemed more like it was covering up bad effects than adding anything to the movie.

The other problem with those kind of "ensemble slasher" movies (I'm using a lot of "quotes" today, aren't I) is that you look at the cast and you think "yeah, don't know you, or you, or you, or you... so you'll all going to die painfully... but I know you, you, you and you, so you'll probably survive until at least the final twenty minutes"... and it was pretty much like that.

And speaking of casting, Cillian Murphy and his big blue eyes can just come along and be all intense and brightly blue in, well, just about anything... coz, basically, yum... and Chris Evans shouldn't ever let his hair grow out... he starts the movie with longish hair, and doesn't really start looking hot (or like himself for that matter) until he buzzes it back to that whole boot camp look. Michelle Yeoh has officially been added to that list of female actors that I'll just enjoy in pretty much anything... this role was definitely a departure from her usual (at least from what I've seen) all kicking, all chopping previous roles, but you totally buy her as this very "earthy" character. At least I did anyway.

It was more or less what I was expecting from Danny Boyle and Alex Garland, given their previous work together on not only 28 Days Later but also The Beach amongst other things. In some ways it was a little bit like 28 Days meets The Beach... more a tension based scare thing than an overly gory thing.

In other ways though it's a little bit formulaic space ship movie... think Alien, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and basically any other either deep space or underwater movie where bad things happen and our plucky heroes struggle against bad things happening to them and things blowing up and going wrong.

There are a few moments in the last section where you're kind of left just going "Okaaaaaay then....", but all in all, its not a bad movie.

yani's rating: 2 solar reflectors out of 5

unconscious mutterings 220

More randomness from inside my brain in today's Unconscious Mutterings... I quite literally put down the very first solid answer that comes into my head... which is sometimes a little scary...

1. Found :: Lost


2. Male :: Meat


3. Spoken :: Word


4. Life :: Magazine


5. Tonight :: Live


6. Fingernail :: Clippings


7. True :: Lies


8. Give up :: Get down


9. Shining :: Here's Johnny


10. Everywhere :: Nowhere

Current Mood:

this is big brother...

You know, I'd seen the "This year on Big Brother..." commercials... and rolled my eyes and declared myself over the whole thing...

I'd heard the rumours that there will be no all swearing, all nudity, all filth "Adults Only" show... so I figured that without that, what was the point...

I'd seen the ads about "Mr X" and the lack of prize money and whatever... and shook my head and told myself I wasn't watching this year...

And yet I still ended up watching the opening show tonight... well, I'm pretty much over Ugly Betty (I was watching more out of habit than anything else), the Robin Hood thing on the ABC looks like it is going to get old fast, so I figured, what the hell.

Quick note for all concerned though... having a Mormon housemate and the possibility of a Muslim and/or a Christian housemate does not cover the whole "your housemates will reflect all walks of life" thing you've been going on about for weeks. And putting in one nerdy slightly chubby boy and one plump girl with really appalling taste in eyeshadow doesn't fulfill the whole "more average looking people" claim either. To remember what that looks like, please refer to Year 3, when you actually did have "real" people in the house and many less gimmicks (although that was the year that the house was originally split in two, so maybe that's not completely true).

The "green" house thing is a nice touch though, with the rainwater tanks and the worm farms and the recycled artwork and light fittings and chairs and whatnot... although the four minute showers could severely cramp the possibility of naked screen captures.

Let's take a quick look at my thoughts on this year's crop of housemates though... if only so I can look back on this when the whole show is over and laugh at myself about how wrong I was...

Most Appealing Male Housemate: Thomas (second row center)... he just seems sweet, plus, you know, hot (and very, very, very tall)

Most Appealing Female Housemate: Haley (top row, center)... could be annoying over time, but seems nice enough

Most Annoying Male Housemate: Joel (bottom row, center)... you really aren't appealing or funny or interesting, shut up now

Most Annoying Female Housemate: Rebecca (third row, center)... the aforementioned Mormon... but trying too hard to be perky

Male Housemate Who Shouldn't Speak Ever: Travis (third row, left)... the really "Aussie" thing is going to get old really quick!

Male Housemate Who Seems Cute Now But Could Irritate Me: Bodie (top row, right)... underwear model, so, you know, I'm looking forward to seeing the evidence, but could be in need of a slap

Male Housemate Who Will Grow On Me Over Time: Jamie (third row, right)... chubby and nerdy, but could be worth watching... it will be interesting to see how he reacts to being the "unattractive" male in the house... or at least the "not thin" male

Housemate Most Likely To Win: Thomas, just coz I like him, at this point, who knows

Housemate Most Likely To Be Voted Out First: Kate (bottom row, right)... the green eyeshadow girl...

Male Housemate Most Likely To Shower Naked: Bodie (the underwear model thing)

Male Housemate Least Likely To Shower Naked: Jamie (the chubby thing)

Male Housemate Most Likely To Be A Big 'Mo: Thomas, Andrew (top left) and Bodie all score high on the 'Mo Meter (Joel kinda does too, but he annoys me, so probably not)... although Thomas was/is married and Andrew did claim not to be a 'mo... so god only knows... it would be nice to have a 'mo in again this year, but thinking about it, I don't think they do back to back 'mo years... first year had one, third year had an intruder 'mo, then we didn't have another one until year six last year (well, two actually)... so I think we're out of luck this year, but then I said that last year

Additional Housemates I Want To Go In: Suzannah and Harrison

Additional Housemates Who Will Probably Go In: Kara and Zoran

Additional Housemates Who Will Annoy Me If They Get In: Kara and Cruz

And obviously everyone was urgently trying to get onto the BB website tonight, because I tried to log in or sign up again or whatever, and it just kept falling on it's face... so hopefully that fixes itself tomorrow morning.

I will also acknowledge that it's incredibly dorky, but I just created a new label category for BB related posts... somebody shoot me now...

Current Mood:

a rare bird indeed

You Are Duck

Exotic and unusual, you are a bit of a rare bird - literally. You're known for being soft and succulent, though at times you can be a bit greasy.

What Kind of Meat Are You?

Current Mood:

wildlife photography adventures

It's kind of tragic, but since Ma and I started doing all this "art and culture" stuff since our little trip to the Museum at the end of January we keep collecting various things out of the paper or whatever about other things we could go and see... and it's just been sitting on the top shelf of one of my bookcases, kinda in a big heap, collecting dust.

So last night I got all uber organised on it's little paper ass... I cut all the relevant bits out so there wasn't as much paper, and filed them in separate plastic sleeves under "Things to do soon", "Things to do later" and "Places to eat"...

I know... too much time on my hands and tragic to boot...

But it was good, because I found things in there I'd forgotten about, specifically a blurb about the Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year and ANZANG Nature and Landscape Photographer of the Year exhibitions, the latter which ends next weekend. So after our Regular Shopping Adventures (during which I got some new canvases, Ma finally found a new handbag that she liked, thank god, because she's been looking for what seems like forever), and a quick side trip to Myer for the rest of the books in the Cherub series (which we somehow got at even more of a discount than what was advertised... yaaay), it was good that we managed to get along while they were still together.

The Shell exhibition was phenomenal... one of those things were, as a photographer, you look at it and go "Okay, that's it... I'm hanging up my camera... I give up." Even more so when you start looking at the under 18 entries... granted these are probably the children of professional photographers, and the cameras they're using are pretty damn pricey... but still...

The web versions of the shots are, understandably, not the best quality-wise, but up close in the flesh... just stunning!

It would have been nice to get the book of all the entries, but it was around $70... so Ma and I settled for a couple of postcards from the Museum Shop instead.

The ANZANG (Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica and New Guinea) exhibition was a little less impressive... I don't know why... maybe because a lot of the subject matter was much less exotic, or what, I don't know.

This year is definitely our year for doing all "art and culture" stuff... maybe because it's mostly free... I dunno... but I'm enjoying it, and it gets me out of the house.

Current Mood:

photo friday: lil geisha

I got a little over enthusiastic with this shot I think...

Last weekend Ma and I went to Freedom (and then Ikea, which still scares me a little bit, but we finally tasted the meatballs, and they're actually quite nice) and found these cute little geisha dolls... awwwww.... too cute...

Originally I was just going to photograph the doll on its own... then I remembered I had the fan and was going to use it as a backdrop... then I grabbed a red teeshirt out of the wardrobe to use as a backing...

Of course, I realised after I'd finished playing around that I should have been shooting them on a totally different setting on my camera, since most of them ended up coming out blurry for one reason or another... ah well... I still like the was this one worked...

And for the record... still awake... granted by the time Veronica Mars rolls around at 11:30 tonight it could be a different matter!

Current Mood:

sleepover fiasco

You know when you have one of those moments that part "Be careful what you wish for" and part "It seemed like a good idea at the time"...

That was pretty much last night.

I'm trying to think of the shortest possible version of this story that still makes sense, because we all know I have a tendency to waffle when the story mood takes me... so bear with me...

Over Easter I happened to have this rather nice hookup with this overly enthusiastic guy we'll call Clifford (as in Clifford the Big Red Dog, because he was all overly eager like a big puppy)... and we got all snuggly, which was awesome, because that is SO what I've been needing for the longest time, and if he hadn't had to work early the next morning then I would have gotten him to stay over.

But he couldn't, so he didn't (obviously)... but we did try and arrange for him to come and stay the night at my place the following Thursday... but he also happened to be moving house that day, so by the time he was over two hours late we decided to call it a night and try it some other time. Honestly, I should have known then that the Universe was screaming in my ear... but, you know, I have periodic Universal Deafness, so I didn't leave it alone...

So I messaged him earlier in the week and asked if he wanted to try it again on Thursday (ie last night)... but at his place, partially because my neighbours with the small children are driving me to distraction even more than normal, it being school holidays and all...

We agreed on a time, and I messaged him just before I was leaving to say that I was running a little ahead of time and that I would be there a little early... then he messages me back to tell me that he's actually not going to be there until quarter of an hour AFTER the time we'd originally agreed on, and could I get there a little later... and this is while I'm sitting in my car in the carpark, ready to drive over there.

But I went with it, killed half an hour or so reading my book, then took off.

Now he's a sweet guy... but he has two fatal flaws... firstly he keeps apologising for everything... even stuff he doesn't need to apologise for... and secondly he has a really shitty sense of appropriate timing... as in trying to have a conversation about random stuff in the middle of playtime... oh, and I guess there is a third thing which would be that he just won't SHUT UP!

Anyway, all those things were fine, I could cope with all that... what I couldn't cope with was my body's unerring inability to sleep away from home... seriously... lets say I've been sleeping the same way more or less since I was about 15... that would make it about 6570 continuous days of sleeping just the same way... which means that my body is very particular about what position it sleeps in, and doesn't like sleeping differently to that. I know, I'm a creature of habit, what can I say...

I mean I have managed to sleep with somebody else in my bed, but not always terribly well the first night... when BlueDragon was here it took me a couple of nights to get used to having him in the bed, but by the end of his visit I was fine.

Add into that the fact that my body is basically a big ol radiator... as soon as I have somebody else's body heat added to mine, I suddenly start pumping out heat like you would not believe... to even though it wasn't the warmest of nights last night, I still couldn't really spend any time under the covers with Clifford...

And for whatever reason, the really nice meshing we'd had at my place over Easter, all curled up together... well that just evaporated last night...

So let me sum up... I couldn't get into a comfortable position (and therefore my back started killing me), I couldn't snuggle, and I couldn't sleep... oh, and Clifford turned out to be a fairly light sleeper, so whenever I wriggled around trying to get comfortable it would half wake him up...

I stuck it out until around about 2am, and I decided that enough was enough... and I left... I did wake Clifford up enough to tell him what I was doing (and he apologised again), but I still left (and happened to discover that last night of all nights Monkey had decided to send me a random text message... J's ex Monkey... from England... what the?)...

Of course, once I got home it took me a little while to get sleepy again, but once I did I dropped right off to sleep, no worries. But I got up as normal around 6:30 for my walk... so I had maybe three and a half hours sleep, give or take...

So if I fall asleep in the middle of this afternoon, could somebody just nudge me so I don't get drool on the keyboard? Thanks!

Current Mood:

random aussielicious hotness

Something out of the ordinary for today's Random Hotness... it contains images I actually requested from the Hotness in question...

So big thanks to Brenton from Aussielicious for playing along and sharing the individual images he used to make up his "Multiple Brenton" HNT #45 post last week. Actually it's a little bit of a "full circle moment", since Brenton is trying on his new Ginch Gonch undies in the shots, and the first official Random Hotness featured former GG model, Kolten...

The reason I actually asked Brenton for a contribution (other than the pleasure of seeing more of his lovely self) was so that I could say a big fat thank you to him... I check my website stats every morning over at Stat Counter, and I've been noticing for a while now that when I get to the "Came From" page that Aussielicious is usually at the top of the list (and sometimes in second place too given that whole "www" and "no www" thing that Blogger does). So big snaps for sending folks my way B! *grin*

And as an added bonus, I couldn't resist adding this extra shot he sent me... after all, what's better than a little "self love"... no... not that kind of self love... the "cloning accident" kind...

Current Mood:

multiple choice book meme

I told you this week was light on content... and big on memes it seems... maybe Tom was right after all...

I do have a ton of saved up memes from my random searching, so it might be something regular for a little while... memes ahoy!

I actually found two versions of this one, and ended up squishing them into one bumper edition... I dropped a couple of questions that didn't make sense and merged the rest.

1. Contemporary, Historical, or Paranormal?
   Probably Historical, so long as we're talking about types of fiction... depends on the particular type of history I guess... if it's Japanese, Chinese or French themed, then I'm generally all over it.



2. Science Fiction, Fantasy or Horror?
   Fantasy



3. Hardback or Trade Paperback or Mass Market Paperback?
   Mass Market... Trade Paperbacks get a little heavy and frequently mess up my very precise "tallest to shortest" sorting system when it comes to particular series'... and Hardbacks have that whole "dustjacket" problem.



4. Amazon or Brick and Mortar?
   Bricks and Mortar... I love the browse... but if I'm looking for a particular hard to get thing, then I'll go Amazon.



5. Barnes & Noble or Borders?
   Borders, since I've never experienced B&N.



6. Hitchhiker or Discworld?
   100% Discworld baby!



7. Bookmark or Dogear?
   Sorry... WHAT? You think I'm the kind of person who ruins a perfectly good book by mutilating the pages... BOOKMARK! BOOKMARK! BOOKMARK! And I have about fifty-hundred of the things...



8. Alphabetize by author, Alphabetize by title or random?
   As mention before, I sort from shortest to tallest (or vice versa), but within that there's no particular order (other than keeping series together where I can), so I guess that would be Random



9. Keep, Throw Away, or Sell?
   Keep... although the last time I did a massive, massive, massive clean up here I did end up selling as many as I could and then anything that couldn't be sold was given away.



10. Keep dustjacket or toss it?
    You just want to ruin the books don't you! Keep the dustjacket... that's what it's there for... also, books with jackets tend to be kind of dull and boring once you've taken it off.



11. Read with dustjacket or remove it?
    Usually I remove it, just because it tends to slide around a lot and bug me, especially when reading in bed.



12. Short story or novel?
    Hmmmm... I'll say novel...



13. Sookie Stackhouse or Anita Blake?
    I actually have no idea who Sookie is... and I'm more than a little familiar with La Femme Anita, so we'll go Anita Blake.



14. Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks?
    Yes. I prefer to stop at a chapter break, and if I'm reasonably tired and get to a break then I will stop... but sometimes you just want to keep reading and when you realise that you've read the same sentence eighteen times, and the book keeps trying to fall out of your hands (highly inconsiderate of it), then it's time to put the bookmark in and call it a night.



15. Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket?
    Definitely Potter... I enjoyed the few Snicket books I've read, but after a while they just felt like exactly the same story with only the location changed.



16. "It was a dark and stormy night" or "Once upon a time"?
    I'm going to go with "dark and stormy", if only because it reminds me of Snoopy.



17. Buy or Borrow?
    Buy... I did used to borrow a lot, but I haven't in forever... and it always ended up that if I DID borrow something and really enjoyed it, then I just had to own it anyway



18. Buying choice: Book Reviews, Recommendation or Browse?
    Recommendation... whether it be randomly discovered on a blog, or somebody saying to me "oh, you should read this", that tends to be where my better reading experiences happen.



19. Collection (short stories by the same author) or Anthology (short stories by different authors)?
    Hmmmm... you know, I'm honestly not sure... I like the collection thing because if you like the tone of one then you're generally going to like them all... but the flipside is also true with an anthology, you might hate the first story, but at least you know that they're not all going to be the same... I think I'm going to go with Collection.



20. Tidy ending or Cliffhanger?
    Ending to what? The book? A chapter? Name me a book with a cliffhanger ending... but if we're talking chapter endings, then definitely "tidy"... since that way you can stop and put the book down in you need to.



21. Morning, Afternoon or Nighttime reading?
    Yes. Seriously though, I would probably say Nighttime, since I do a fair amount of my reading in bed at night.



22. Series or stand alone?
    Well seeing as I've just discovered a new series that I'm quite enjoying and I have, lets see... one, two, three and possibly four different series on my list of things to read, I think I'll have to go Series.



23. New or used?
    I honestly don't have a preference... I'm just as likely to hit a second hand bookstore as I am to visit Borders... so long as I can find what I want, I don't care.



24. Favorite book that nobody else has heard of?
    Does it count as a book that "nobody else has heard of" if I've mentioned it on my blog before? We'll pretend like it does count... so Caught Between Two Worlds by Scott Russell Hill.

Current Mood:

exposing my handwriting

I think this week may be a little light on actual blog content... unless of course something terribly interesting happens... which I kinda doubt, but you never know.

I mentioned last week that I went hunting for new and unusual memes... and it's kind of scary the number of things you can find when you put "blog meme" into Google... lots of references to the "book tease" meme though...

Anyway, I found this over on Logtar's Blog and it jumped out at me as not only a good meme, but also a good "Exposing Myself" style post... even though lots of you have already seen my handwriting...

Go ahead and get a piece of paper, then write the sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog." Sign it with your first name or your handle (not your signature) and take a picture. Then post this and your picture on your blog! It is that simple...

Big and girly and very printed (I did learn how to write in cursive, honest, but once they stopped making us write that way, I stopped doing it)...

Oh, and I haven't bothered dotting my i's for, ooooh, years and years and years and years (I actually don't know how long I've been doing that)... I do cross my t's though... otherwise I'd just have l's... straight legs on my y's... and usually big scary loops on my little f's, although that one is kinda tame...

And if I hadn't been going for clarity in the photo, it probably would have been in pencil, since I write almost everything (with the possible exception of birthday cards and mailing addresses) in pencil.

Current Mood:

unconscious mutterings 219

1. Freeze :: Water


2. Naturally :: Healthy


3. Painting :: Abandoned


4. Merits :: Prizes


5. Ironic :: Not Alanis


6. Survival :: Manual


7. Cow :: Grass


8. Anchor :: Boat


9. Sisters :: Giggle


10. 70 :: Disco

Unconscious Muttering Monday strikes again!

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out of this world

You Are From Mercury

You are talkative, clever, and knowledgeable - and it shows. You probably never leave home without your cell phone! You're witty, expressive, and aware of everything going on around you. You love learning, playing, and taking in all of what life has to offer. Be careful not to talk your friends' ears off, and temper your need to know everything.

What Planet Are You From?

Current Mood:

imdb keyword meme answers

I didn't realise I was either so inscruitable... or else that I made this one too hard... but between you, you managed to get three movies and six teevee shows correct. Granted, looking at my own clues I'm not sure that I would have gotten some of them if the shoe had been on the other foot...

I'm also surprised nobody thought of "cheating" and actually hitting IMDB and working through the list that way (since it doesn't say anything in the rules about that not being allowed)... I tried it, just to see if it worked, and it turns out that the particular combinations I chose pretty much led back only to my choices...

For example, while the keyword Donkey gives you 95 choices, Donkey + Sequel gives you 5 (including the oft-guessed Shrek sequels)... but Donkey + Cameo Appearance + Sequel gives you the correct answer of Clerks II!

Actually, Donkey + Cameo Appearance leads straight there without all the other messy possibilities.

But on to the answers...

For the movies, we have...

1. Photojournalist, Leg In Cast, Salesman = Rear Window
2. Sister Sister Relationship, Bloopers During Credits, Poetry = 10 Things I Hate About You
3. Lederhosen, Accountant, Gay Stereotype = The Producers
4. Black Widow, Campy, Screwball = Clue
5. Love Triangle, Sadism, Costume Drama = Dangerous Liaisons
6. Surfer Dude, Spacecraft, Biological Weapon = Lilo & Stitch
7. British Colonial, Jamaica, Swashbuckler = Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
8. Juvenile Delinquent, Head Shaving, Generation X = Empire Records
9. Gay Lead Character, Broken Heart, Secret Love = Brokeback Mountain
10. Donkey, Cameo Appearance, Sequel = Clerks II

And for the teevee shows...

1. Neo Noir, High School Student, Murder = Veronica Mars
2. Multiple Sclerosis, Government Agent, Scandal = The West Wing
3. Interracial Couple, Cheerleader, Japanese = Heroes
4. Flashback Sequence, Cliffhanger, Drugs = Lost
5. Cult, Supernatural, Returning Character Killed Off = Buffy the Vampire Slayer
6. Bleeped Dialogue, Explosion, Crash Test Dummy = MythBusters
7. Arrogance, New Jersey, Famous Opening Theme = House
8. Wish Fulfillment, Goldfish, Babysitter = The Fairly OddParents
9. Science, Police, Murder Investigation = CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
10. Character Name In Title, Non Fiction, Horror = The Oprah Winfrey Show

I'm still not completely sure how they got "horror" as one of the keywords for Oprah, but it's there, honestly!

Current Mood:

photo friday: nostalgic monochrome

I was looking in my photography folder for something else the other day, and I realised, since I moved everything back from CDs and onto the external drive that J bought me, I hadn't looked through any of my old stuff (at least not the "non people" stuff), and there was a whole folder full of semi-interesting architectural shots from forever ago.

So here we go... these are from all the way back in 2002, and were the first time I ever played with black and white film. Although I can just as easily take the colour out of normal shots with Photoshop, there's something about working with B&W film that I really like.

The arches are from one of the churches in town (and actually make up part of one of my Monday Montage shots... top row, center)... and the gate with associated shadow, actually I have no idea now where that was, only that I found it after driving around and stopping somewhere to shoot a different church across the road... and when I came back to the car I saw the shadow.

Current Mood:

random tim hotness

Tomorrow is the 25th birthday of my second favourite (Johan still claims first place) Bel Ami porn star, Tim Hamilton (aka David Fiala), so I figured what better way to celebrate than with a Random Hotness post, even if it is a day early.

I didn't intend to do a double post originally, but in the end I couldn't choose between (I'm guessing post-Bel Ami) casual, fluffy Tim and beachy, tanned Tim... since they're two different looks for him.

So, anyway, Happy Birthday Tim!

Current Mood:

imdb keyword memes

I was looking around for something to post today... actually I was looking for a new and unusual meme to post, since I always steal them from people in my blogroll (ie Tom) and I thought it would be nice if I found some on my own for a change instead... and amongst other random things I came across I happened to find the IMDB meme... well, memes actually, since there are two versions of it, a movie version and a teevee show version.

And since I use IMDB all the time, I figured this was probably a good one to try... it does however need audience participation... I need you guys to guess my answers... a perfect opportunity for all you lurkers (I'm sure there must be some of you) to post a comment *grin*...

Go to IMDB.com and look up 10 of your favorite movies. Post three official IMDB "Plot Keywords" for these 10 picks. Have your readers guess the movie titles.

1. Photojournalist, Leg In Cast, Salesman
2. Sister Sister Relationship, Bloopers During Credits, Poetry
3. Lederhosen, Accountant, Gay Stereotype
4. Black Widow, Campy, Screwball
5. Love Triangle, Sadism, Costume Drama
6. Surfer Dude, Spacecraft, Biological Weapon
7. British Colonial, Jamaica, Swashbuckler
8. Juvenile Delinquent, Head Shaving, Generation X
9. Gay Lead Character, Broken Heart, Secret Love
10. Donkey, Cameo Appearance, Sequel

Go to IMDB.com and look up 10 of your favorite TV shows. Post three official IMDB "Plot Keywords" for these 10 picks. Have your readers guess the show names.

(And for the record, there's only one on the list that isn't on air anymore... since I could only find nine shows currently on air that I really watch)

1. Neo Noir, High School Student, Murder
2. Multiple Sclerosis, Government Agent, Scandal
3. Interracial Couple, Cheerleader, Japanese
4. Flashback Sequence, Cliffhanger, Drugs
5. Cult, Supernatural, Returning Character Killed Off
6. Bleeped Dialogue, Explosion, Crash Test Dummy
7. Arrogance, New Jersey, Famous Opening Theme
8. Wish Fulfillment, Goldfish, Babysitter
9. Science, Police, Murder Investigation
10. Character Name In Title, Non Fiction, Horror

I'll either post the answers over the weekend, or, at the lastest, next Wednesday... of course if somebody guesses everything correct earlier, I'll confirm the answers...

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