random skins hotness

Another televisual Random Hotness this week...

Back in April last year I posted a couple of shots of Alex Pettyfer... now it turns out that those particular shots were by photographer Kai Z Feng... who seems to have a thing about photographing attractive young men who also happen to be actors.

And one of those actors just happens to be Mitch Hewer who plays Maxxie in one of my favourite new British shows, Skins. Sadly he's only really been around as "supporting cast" so far, but as each of the characters seems to be getting an episode that is almost completely about them, his turn can't be far off.

I do know that there's some interesting action for the character ahead when they all go off on a school excursion to Russia, but I'm not saying any more... *grin*

In the meantime, I'll leave you with the blonde and cuteness that is Mitch Hewer...

mitch hewer by kai z fengmitch hewer by kai z feng

Current Mood:

the unworkable workness of work

zen workOnce again a "couple of days" of work doesn't quite make the grade... except that instead of actually getting it all done inside of a single day, this did take a day and a half.

There is one thing I hate about doing a bit of work here and a bit there (okay, less of the there, and more of the once in a while), and that's not being in any kind of routine. If I have a routine going on I can do just about anything for just about however long you ask me to. If I'm flying without the aid of a net or a routine then I'm liable to have a screaming breakdown within a few days. But this couple of days has been somewhere in the middle... not long enough to make a routine happen, not long enough to really need one and not long enough to make me mental.

I also hate working in a building where each floor is electronically "sealed", but not each floor has a receptionist to let you in if you happen to be a temp or a visitor or whatever. I ended up standing around like a lummox both days... and yesterday I ended up being let into the floor and having to fluff my way around until I found the section I was looking for. But then it is Government, what do you expect.

Now... for the Yaays and Boos...
  • I actually had enough work to keep me occupied for the day and half I was there, and it not being completely mind numbing and irritating and overly complex (YAAY)
  • Not having a swipe card meant I pretty much didn't go to the bathroom all day (BOO)
  • Managing to do my full walk both days (YAAY)
  • Logging onto the internet this morning only to find that I couldn't and that my computer was all screwed up modem-wise and didn't want to play at all (BOO)
  • Figuring out that all I needed to do was switch it off, then back on again and it was okay (YAAY)
  • Breaking the internet and making the Minister's Office cry yesterday (half YAAY, half BOO actually... and all I'd done was accidentally deleted the wrong copy of a page meaning the documents attached to it didn't work anymore, and all I had to do was reupload them)
  • Having lunch with my old boss (YAAY)
  • Finding the two books that come after Twilight, but discovering that the middle one is only out in hardback and costs over $40 (BOO)
  • Also finding out that the red plates they had on special at Harris Scarfes were all sold out, and they only went on sale either yesterday or today (BOO)
  • Coming home to a fairly cool house (YAAY)
  • Having some (extra) money to spend in Sydney come March (YAAY)
Current Mood:

movies: cloverfield

cloverfield - some thing has found usOh man... Cloverfield...

I am, quite possibly for the first time ever with one of these things, slightly speechless (and of course, now that I've said that I'll ramble on for about three pages)...

My brain is just a little bit frazzled after the whole experience... so much so that I had to sit there in the cinema while the credits were playing and just remember to breathe for about half the credits (or at least until the music started) before I could start to make a coherent sentence.

That's not to say that it's the best movie I've ever seen, but if you had to make a list of movies that really, really pull you into the story and just don't let you go, then this one would be up there somewhere.

I think partly it's the "first person, hand held camera" thing... which is a little disconcerting when the movie first starts, and I guess, if you're susceptible to motion sickness then this might not be the movie for you unless you pop a Dramamine first, since the camera work is "worse" than in any other movie I've ever seen. But while it usually bugs the hell out of me (and I won't lie, there were moments where I was thinking "Hold the damn camera still for two seconds, would ya!"), for some reason it just works for this movie... again, I think it's because, as I said, the whole movie was shot hand held, and by one of the characters to boot. It did keep reminding me of The Blair Witch Project, except this movie was actually interesting...

It does give the director and editors license to do a bunch of jump-cuts and miss out chunks of time and basically do pretty much anything they like from an editing perspective though. Which was interesting, occasionally frustrating and on at least one occasion scared the crap out of me.

The whole movie is something of an experiment both in trying to make a monster movie without actually making a monster movie, and also making this slightly "art house" movie with all the hand-heldness. And the first part is an interesting concept... you watch all those "big monster comes and squishes [insert city here]" movies, but do you ever wonder what happens to all the people who live in that city? Not the people who somehow get involved in defeating the monster and who you know are going to get rescued during the last reel, but just a bunch of regular folks. How scary and confusing and dangerous and chaotic would it be. And this movie does a pretty good job at exploring that.

It also took on a somewhat eerie tone during the beginning as they borrowed quite heavily from the 911 attacks to make part of the attack on the city even more realistic, and I remember that somebody at some point does say "Is it another attack?".

That's not to say that the movie is without it's flaws...

Firstly there's the ever-present video camera... not only does it not run out of tape, or battery power, even though it's running almost continually for twelve hours, but it also just happens to have both a light AND the ability to film in night vision. Now, supposedly it's the Panasonic HVX200 digital video camera... and if I could be bothered I'd look it up and see if it actually could do all of those things, because I'm sure it won't. The other thing is that in the midst of all this chaos and running and screaming and pain and whatever, the guy never puts the camera down... or if he does, it's not for very long. At the same time it's both somewhat unbelievable, but also has a slight ring of truth about it, especially in America. But because I kept going back and forth about it, it did pull me out of the movie once or twice.

And while they do keep the visibility of the "thing" attacking the city down to a minimum, and when you do tend to get a decent look at it there's the whole camera shake thing that breaks up your view... but I did think it might have been interesting if you NEVER saw the thing... if they could have played the entire movie just on the people and never really have to see the external attacker. Or maybe that would have just been really frustrating... you would have spent the whole movie just wanting to see the thing... and I guess they way they did it might have been a more "realistic" approach.

The other thing that I wasn't overly thrilled with was the look of the "thing"... the CGI isn't great... but then I do say that about most things, so maybe it's just me... or maybe it's just that my brain was having to fill in too many details because of the way it was all shot, I dunno.

But I will say that the movie is highly effective and affecting... I'm sure I spent a large chunk of it in a similar state of heart pounding, adrenaline pumping, over-excitement to the characters... and I know that there were at least a couple of occasions where I stopped breathing briefly... and I know I kinda threw myself back on my chair a few times. Then when the whole thing was over I had to sit there and collect myself for a while.

And while it's been proved a long while ago that I'm occasionally a big sooky-lala, but I very nearly cried twice... both towards the end of the movie when everything was going to hell in a handbasket... but there almost wasn't even time to fall to bits before we were off again.

It's also a movie I definitely want to see again, preferably on DVD... if only so that I have access to a pause and rewind button and the ability to go frame by frame during certain sections, because I'm sure there's some stuff that I missed and some stuff that I think I saw that I didn't... and I know there's something right at the very end that I missed that I now want to see...

While it's not a perfect movie, I will give them an A for effort... and for exploring a whole different concept.

yani's rating: 3 handicams out of 5

unconscious mutterings 260

"Found" a 640ml beer glass on my walk this morning and brought it home... working the next two days (not including today obviously, because it's the Australia Day Public Holiday)... up to my eyeballs in The West Wing (damn but I love that show)... and now, Unconscious Mutterings...

  1. Booze :: Bus

  2. Counter :: Intelligence

  3. Action :: Stations

  4. Trial :: By Fire

  5. Wheelchair :: Access

  6. 1-800 :: BITE-ME

  7. Chop :: and Change

  8. Relatives :: Scarce

  9. Bed sheets :: Brown

  10. Funnel :: Web Spider
Current Mood:

all about the ego

You Are the Ego

You take a balanced approach to your life.

You definitely aren't afraid to act out on your desires - even crazy ones.

But you usually think first. Morals drive you as much as hedonism does.

You've been able to live a life of pleasure... without living a life of excess.


Current Mood:

australia day shopping

some australia day bootay‹sarcasm›Yaaaay! It's Australia Day!‹/sarcasm›

Actually, a lot like last week, or maybe even more so, today wasn't a whole bunch of much of anything really...

I mean, I know the title of the post is "Australia Day Shopping", but it could just as easily have been "Australia Day Wandering Around Not Doing Much Of Anything Really"...

Partly I'm all crankified because after sitting side on in one of the highly uncomfortable chairs in the airport yesterday, my back is all sore down one side. And back pain always makes for a less than chipper yani...

Add to that the fact that Ma had her Haircut Day today, so we got off to a late start. Which is fine (that she had her hair cut I mean), but it's been a rather warm day, so we didn't get to take off while it was still super cool...

Basically I'm just in a Big Sooky Lala mood really...

Add to which it's Australia Day today... big freakin whoop-di-doooo... although there were some quite cute boys out and about wearing items of clothing containing the Australian Flag, which, while it doesn't get me any more enthused about our "national day", doesn't hurt either...

So we fought our way through the seeming hordes of stupid, slow and otherwise annoying people in the supermarket (including the middle aged Asian man who seemed to be stocking a store or something... he bought every bottle of Iced Coffee Light they had, bar the one I managed to sneak out right under his nose, all the regular Iced Coffee, some strawberry milk, far too many bottles of cheap ass fizzy drink, several containers of lamingtons... actually, it's just twigged, he must have been buying stuff for an Australia Day party *slaps forehead*... never mind!)... and I did decide that I would give in just a tiny bit to the spirit of the day and get some "Aussie Burgers", which are essentially burger patties made in the shape of Australia (lame, I know, but they were cheaper than the non country shaped ones)...

Then after everything had been packed away we sort of stood around metaphorically poking each other in the eye trying to decide what the hell we should do next. Outdoor activities were out because it was too hot... plus, wherever we went was sure to be full of people doing Australia Day things, and neither of us could be bothered... so in the end we just got in my car (ahhhhh airconditioning) and drove. I ended up heading down to Marion, since it was a better option than any of the closer malls.

And all we did was wander around aimlessly for whatever indeterminate length of time it usually takes to wander through one of those malls...

We halfheartedly looked for a new pair of sunglasses for me... the ones I have, while they're still okay, have a scratch on one of the lenses and it's right in the middle, so I can kind of see it as this out of focus "smudge" on the lens. But alas, even though I tried on like twenty pairs in two different places, nothing jumped out at me and screamed "ME, PICK ME!"... so I'll keep looking.

I also wanted the second and third books that come after Twilight. I obviously picked the right book after my little whinge the other day, because, while it's atypical for a vampire story, it's VERY good... and I'm nearly two thirds of the way through and I still have no idea where the book is going to end up. But because the Universe obviously hates me today both books are completely and totally unavailable... seems that the print run has come to an end, and they're all waiting for the printers to make some more books. Grrrrr...

And I was also looking for a little storage box to go on my bedside table... but it can't be too huge and it has to be square. I did find a halfway decent one, but it was somewhat see-thru, so in the end I just put it back, because while the general style was right, it wasn't quite what I was after (I half had a thought I might use it to store condoms and lube).

So that was about it really... we wandered around, didn't buy a single thing... didn't even really come close in fact... even when we stopped off at Freedom and Orrifceworks and some crap sofa store on the way home.

That's my day really... other than the fact I'm going to have burgers for dinner. My life is just THAT exciting...

Oh, and I haven't forgotten my promise, I fully intend to be tucked up in bed by midnight...

Current Mood:

photo friday: j go buhbye

leavin' on a jet plane...Well, J is on his way back to London... actually, I think he's currently on his way to Sydney, before heading to Singapore, and THEN on to London... but you get the idea.

And interestingly enough, this is the first time I've been to see him off where he's actually left through the "International" gates, rather than being on a Domestic flight to Sydney, then taking the International flight from there. So of course that meant that he got felt up by some old guy in a guard's uniform... and the last five minutes of our conversation was conducted via charades through soundproof glass...

Silly Rabbit.

It's always weird... I see him go through the gates, I watch him head down the ramp to get on the plane (okay, not this time, but last time certainly), I know he's going, but it doesn't really hit me right away that I won't be seeing him for another six, nine, twelve, eighteen months or whatever.

Maybe it's because by the time he's going back I'm kind of ready for him to be gone... which sounds nasty, but I'm going to file it under "you never want to have too much of a good thing", because that sounds better.

He's a dear, stupid, annoying, lovable, infuriating, twisted, frustrating, sweet boy... and I'll miss him (eventually)...

Current Mood:

fifty meme

I stole this one from Monty this morning... although there do seem to be at least one slightly altered version of it floating around... but that's okay... I slightly altered it myself too *grin*...

  1. What is in the back seat of your car right now?
    Errr... nothing. I keep a very tidy car...


  2. When was the last time you threw up?
    Honestly, I couldn't tell you... I'm not really very "throwy-upy"... and the last instance that I actually remember was caused by nachos and really cheap booze probably about ten or more years ago.


  3. What age will you be next birthday?
    34


  4. What's your favourite curse word?
    Fuck... because sometimes you have to go with the classics.


  5. Name 3 people who made you smile today?
    The guy on Triple J who was reading "erotic fan fiction" involving Ray Martin... and there were possibly a couple of cute-ish guys when I was out and about that made me smile slightly to myself.


  6. What were you doing at 8 a.m. this morning?
    Walking... I got up an hour late and then had to fight my way through the dumbass cricket fans around Adelaide Oval... grrrr...


  7. What were you doing 30 minutes ago?
    I can't say for certain, but I think possibly I was washing out an empty plastic milk bottle... the fun never stops here at Casa Yani...


  8. Where were you born?
    In a hospital, interestingly enough.


  9. Have you ever been to a strip club?
    Show, yes... club, no.


  10. What is the last thing you said aloud?
    Something along the lines of "Thanks" or "Bye" when the girly from my agency called me... some "hanging up the phone" phrase anyway...


  11. What is the best ice cream flavour?
    Currently, Milo... sounds weird I know, but it's really nice.


  12. What was the last thing you had to drink?
    Well, if the fact that I had milk on my cereal counts, then milk... otherwise, possibly water.


  13. What are you wearing right now?
    Right now? Honestly? Yellow tee shirt and grey Bonds "guy front" trunks... I really need to go for a shower...


  14. What was the last thing you ate?
    Weetbix... with milk, see Question 12...


  15. Have you bought any new clothes this week?
    Err... no.


  16. Where were you last?
    As in what? Inside the house, outside the house, as an existential mental state? What? I think the last place I was, other than right here typing this, was the kitchen.


  17. What's the last sporting event you watched? Who won?
    I don't watch sporting events. And if I do accidentally see some of one, I block it out of my brain instantly. And as for who won... how the hell should I know...


  18. Who is the last person you sent a comment/message while blogging?
    Something really sarcastic over at Tom's Place coz he's done a version of this meme too...


  19. Ever go camping?
    Really tempted to go with the alternative/gay meaning of "camping" here... but I'll hold myself back. I don't do outdoor camping stuff...


  20. Where do you live?
    Right here...


  21. What song are you listening to?
    I don't think the growl of some form of mechanical equipment somewhere nearby and the sound of one of my upstairs neighbours either showering or washing clothes can be classed as a "song"...


  22. Do you have a tan?
    I have three shades... white, vaguely beige and pink/red... so no.


  23. Do you drink your soda from a straw?
    Not "soda" no... Iced Coffee I do though... makes it last longer.


  24. What did your last text message say?
    I honestly don't remember... the possibly really sad answer is that it was Ma last weekend telling me she was on her way down.


  25. Who's your best friends?
    J, possibly Sheba.


  26. What are you doing tomorrow?
    Seeing J off at the airport... other than that, no idea.


  27. Where is your mom right now?
    Ma would be at work.


  28. Look to your right, what do you see?
    White wall with a chip out of the paint at eye level.


  29. What colour is your watch?
    Mobile phone coloured... I haven't worn a watch since like 1996...


  30. What do you think of when you think of Australia?
    Beaches, bush, kangaroos, speedos, lifeguards, bronzed naked bodies soaking up the sun's hot rays... sorry, just went somewhere else for a minute then...


  31. Ever ridden on a roller coaster?
    Actually I don't know that I have.


  32. What is your birthstone?
    I think it's Aquamarine... or something... see, now I'm going to have to go look it up... I was right... Aquamarine.


  33. Do you go in at a fast-food place or just hit the drive through?
    You know what? I haven't really been to a "fast-food" place that has that whole drive through option in a while... at least not in a situation where I had to make that choice. But, as a general rule, when I did or do do it, then I tend to go drive through.


  34. What is your favourite number?
    7, 14 and occasionally 3.. one for each of the voices in my head obviously.


  35. Do you have a dog?
    Nope, never have, never wanted one. I'm more of a cat person.


  36. Last person you talked to on the phone?
    The overly perky wench from my recruitment agency.


  37. Have you met anyone famous?
    Yeah, a few people... nobody really "super amazing famous"... just "local interesting famous"...


  38. Any plans today?
    Not really no... I'm still trying to decide if I can be bothered putting the oven on to make homemade pizza for lunch...


  39. How many states have you lived in?
    Three... dazed, confused and aroused... oh, sorry, with you now... geographical states... just the one.


  40. Ever go to college?
    I used to work in a Business College, does that count?


  41. Where are you right now?
    Ummm... sitting here, typing out this meme... where the hell do you think I would be?


  42. Biggest annoyance in your life right now?
    Right this very second? This meme! In general, my living/working situations.


  43. Are you in love with someone right now?
    Nope.


  44. Are you allergic to anything?
    Yeah, stupidity...


  45. Favorite pair of shoes?
    Currently that would be my $10 Big W thongs, which are actually more attractive and way more comfortable than they sound!


  46. Do any of your friends have children?
    Yes.


  47. Do you eat healthy?
    To a degree... I do what I can, but we all slip...


  48. What do you usually do during the day?
    Keep myself occupied.


  49. Do you use the word 'hello' daily?
    No.


  50. How did you get one of your scars (if you have any)?
    I think my most interesting scar has actually faded away, which is a shame, and it's also in a spot that's hard to check on my own without about three mirrors... but there's one on my left middle finger, diagonally across the second section, that I got from jamming it in the top of a swing set, while standing on the A frame and swinging the swing by hand... and looking at it now, I can't work out how the hell I GOT the scar, and didn't just slice my finger clean off...
Current Mood:

random aussiebum hotness

This coming Saturday is Australia Day... and what better way to celebrate than with a bumper Random Hotness containing Aussie guys in Aussiebums...

It makes a change from the previous years offerings of flag-clad guys that I've posted in the lead up to the big day...

Enjoy!

aussiebum hotnessaussiebum hotness
aussiebum hotnessaussiebum hotness

Current Mood:

rust

no standingrusty ladder
Good old iron oxide... both the bane of the urban environment... but also the thing that softens it, puts a little colour back into all that grey.

Or, you know... something like that...

The shots are from Sidestreets sessions two and four...

My mind is a little bit all over the place just at the moment... I think I've seen one too many news reports and "current affairs specials" about the death of Heath Ledger...

And sadly, it's not like they're going to leave him, or his family, or his ex and their daughter, alone any time soon.

So obviously, I'm going to spend the evening watching a couple of Heath movies...

Current Mood:

book angst

nobody & co bibliochaiseIn light of today's earlier post, this one seems a bit trivial and pointless... but life does go on...

So... I'm having book angst...

What is book angst, I hear you ask... well, I ALWAYS have a book on the go, even if I'm not actively reading it at the time, there's always something on my bedside table (and in my blog sidebar) that I'm theoretically reading at the present time. And I'm having dramas in my brain about what to read next...

I think it all stems from possibly having too many options about what I could read since Christmas.

And possibly it also comes from the fact that the last couple of books I've read were somewhat disappointing.

Firstly there was Blood Price by Tanya Huff, which was just slow, mostly uninteresting and completely predictable... so much so that I'd worked out how it was all going to end (more or less... maybe not all the details, but the whole general kind of outcome) by about a third of the way in, and it really didn't surprise me or deviate from that idea very much. So I won't be bothering to read any of the others in the series. And I'm just glad that they're on loan from Stu and not something that either Ma or I paid good money for.

That was followed by Stardust.

Now I LOVED the movie version... but the book just fell flat on its butt I think. Whether it was because I'd seen the movie first (more on that in a second) or what, but I just felt like the movie dealt with the ideas presented in the book to a much better degree and took them to their logical conclusions and tied the whole thing up as a cohesive story in a much better way. In the book there's not really any great sense of dread or danger from the main villain (in fact she's absent for large chunks of time)... and she's sent on her way at the end with basically a wave and a handshake which just left me feeling vaguely underwhelmed... whereas the movie gives you that big confrontation and resolves it accordingly. Don't get me wrong, its a sweet book, but the movie is infinitely better in my opinion.

Which brings me back to the whole "Book Then Movie" or "Movie Then Book" dilemma. This tends to happen to me a lot, but whichever version I tend to see first ends up being the "real" version in my head and the other one doesn't always live up to it (and I'm highly likely to pick it apart because it doesn't conform to the standard laid down by the other version).

That's not always true of course, The Princess Bride movie and The Princess Bride book actually compliment each other more than compete, and I like them both for their differences and changes rather than in spite of them. Actually that might be the key... if a book and a film COMPLIMENT each other (meaning they don't have to be exactly word for word the same, but they need to build on each other in some way) then I'm quite happy...

Interview with the Vampire is another example... I'd heard a bunch of stuff about the changes they'd made to the movie and this, that and the other... but during the opening credits I saw that Anne Rice had actually written the screenplay... so I just let the movie be what it was, because it was all coming from the same source, and that was okay by me.

Sometimes having read the book first is a little easier, provided they don't completely butcher the movie version (Eragon and Howl's Moving Castle, I'm looking at the pair of you!), because you know that there is only a finite amount of information they can take out of a, for example, 400 page book when they're turning it into a 110 minute movie. And sometimes when you go from Movie to Book you kind of wonder how the hell they actually got the movie they made out of that book... and you also realise that a lot of time they just kept bits here and there and made it all up.

Which is part of the reason I'm a little hesitant about reading I Am Legend. I mean the movie wasn't stunning, but it was quite good... however I always find myself sitting there reading the book going "well that's different from the movie... and why did they change that... and who the hell is this character... and where's this other character... and why didn't they keep this bit in... or leave that bit out"... that whole kind of thing. And I'm fairly sure that Legend is going to be one of those books... where they changed SO much of it to make the movie that the two versions are going to have just enough overlap to annoy me, and the rest of it will be totally different.

So, that's what... problem 3? 1. Too many choices... 2. Last couple of books were disappointing... 3. Worried whether Legend will be any good... yep... okay, good...

Number Four in my list of book angst items is that I've been intending for AGES now to read the entire Discworld series from start to finish. There are books in there that I haven't actually read yet, and I've never read the whole thing in order, and it's been on my to-do list for probably about a year now. But it's a 30-ish book series... so if I start it now, I'll still be reading it come April or May, at the earliest... and I not only have all the books from Christmas that I haven't read... there's also the books from the book sale in October...

So basically I've settled on Twilight for now... partly because it removes the decision for now, and I want to give myself some thinking space, try and work out a plan... maybe I do just need to dive into the Discworld books after this one... then, hopefully, by the time I finish all of those, then enough time will have gone past that I can read Legend without comparing it to the movie TOO much...

Then of course, there's the books I may or may not pick up when I'm in Sydney... *sigh*

Current Mood:

heath ledger found dead

heath ledgerOkay, my brain is having trouble actually processing this... Ma just called me to tell me that Heath Ledger is dead. So of course the first thing I had to do was jump on Google and try and confirm it.

And when you get 610,000 results, you know there has to be something going on...

Academy Award nominee Heath Ledger, 28, has died of a possible drug overdose involving sleeping pills in New York, police have confirmed.

He was found dead in his bed at his apartment on Broome Street, Soho in Manhattan, by his housekeeper at 3.35pm local time, the TMZ website said.

A police spokesman said the cause of death was unknown, despite the presence of drugs.

"We don't have that [the cause of death] yet. The matter is still under investigation," the spokesman said.

He was pronouced dead at 3.45pm (7.45am AEDT) by a medical examiner who went to the apartment.

US television network NBC reported his body was found surrounded by pills.

The New York Times reported Ledger was discovered by a masseuse who arrived at his apartment for an appointment.

The masseuse was let in to the home by a housekeeper, who then knocked on the door of Ledger's bedroom, The New York Times reported.

When no one answered, the housekeeper and the masseuse opened the bedroom and found Ledger unconscious.

They shook him, but he did not respond. They immediately called the authorities. The police said they did not suspect foul play.
My brain actually won't process the information... in fact, when Ma called me, my first response was "WHAT!?!"... so much so that I think you could actually hear the exclamation points in my voice...

And I really can't make a complete sentence in my brain because I'm still a little in shock.

Rest in peace Heath.

Current Mood:

naughty thoughts

who came first, the chicken or the egg?My brain has kind of been whirling around other thoughts connected with the whole "naughty bloke" thought process I mentioned the other day...

And part of it stretches all the way back to my concept of "everything happens for a reason"... not the post I wrote about it, but back when I was first introduced to the idea that we chose the lessons and obstacles that we need to address during this particular turn of the wheel.

As I've said previously, it was the woman I was working with at the time who said that to me... and it was really one of those things that's stayed with me ever since. And every now and again I'll pull it out of the bottom drawer of my brain, dust it off and think "Hmmmm... yes, well... that answers THAT now doesn't it" before putting it away again.

But part of what intrigues me about the whole concept is around my attitude to sex... but at the same time it's something of a "chicken and the egg" or Catch 22 situation.

Let me explain...

When it comes to pretty much anything of a sexual nature, provided all the parties involved freely consent to what's going on, I don't really have a problem with whatever you might want to get up to. You wanna dress up as a pony and let somebody ride you, fine... you like to be covered in food or mud or honey or shaving cream, just make sure you put some plastic down first... you wanna have sex with balloons, no problem... you get turned on by somebody missing a limb, go for it... you get all worked up over stuffed animals, more power to you. Of course I'm probably not going to join you for any of those... well, probably not more than once anyway, and only to see what all the fuss is about. And it shouldn't really come as a surprise to anybody who's been hanging around this blog for a while that I have no problem with the whole "tie me up and spank me" concept...

I will also quite happily hold my hand up to having a case of Odaxelagnia too...

And as far as one night stands or sex with anonymous strangers or just good healthy recreational sex is concerned... obviously no issues there either. Because wishing I was having more of it really isn't an issue, more a complaint.

But for the most part, if sex is on offer and the person offering conforms to some part of my concept of attractiveness (a concept so wide you could drive a bus through it), then I'll pretty much go for it.

So I pretty much made peace a long while back with the fact that there's a "slut" living inside my brain...

And that's where the chicken and the egg come in...

I've never been the "typical" body beautiful gay man... I am what I am, and for the last couple of years I've been making peace with that... but I'm never going to be Brad Pitt or [insert name of somebody that is you think is superhot]. But that's okay (well, not really... but we pretend like it is, because really, what else are you going to do)...

But I do sometimes wonder if I was The Hotness (or even The Far Above Averageness) whether my brain would still be wired this way... ie would I be an enormous slut in practice instead of in theory. And not only do I have no real answer for that, it's also one of those questions that's pretty much unanswerable. Because I am me, and I'm the sum total of all my thoughts and experiences in the world and the way I perceive things is coloured by the way I've been treated in the past, which in turn changes the way I perceive things... one big chicken and egg endless loop really...

It does make for an interesting thought though...

Does the physical cause the thought process... or is it some kind of tradeoff... did I "choose" this particular headspace to go with this physical makeup... like I knew that this was where my mental outlook was going to end up, so I chose the body to ensure I couldn't go too far off the rails.

Wouldn't that be a kick in the rubber parts!

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army men

green benzo soldiergreen benzo soldier
The men of the Benzo Propaganda Army...

They're from the street art I found under the bridge last Monday, and stylistically and graphically I just love them. From their cha-cha heels to their tentacle/floppy arms to their speech bubbles containing bits of signature.

Under the bridge they were actually side by side, but with the light coming in from outside and my camera and it's ongoing trauma with lower light conditions I couldn't get a wide shot where they both showed up equally well, so I had to resort to single shots... which, while it's kinda groovy, is also a bit of a shame because they're probably only about an inch apart in reality, and obviously having a "conversation".

But on the upside, like I said after I'd taken the shots, it was a different subject for Benzo's artwork that I hadn't seen before... and that just gives me the happy...

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unconscious mutterings 259

Empty skull... Unconscious Mutterings...

  1. President :: Of The United States

  2. Stare :: Eyeball

  3. Embrace :: Kindred

  4. Movie :: Review

  5. Everything :: Nothing

  6. Profile :: Hookup

  7. Satire :: Comedy

  8. Erratic :: Behaviour

  9. Costume :: Ball

  10. Secretary :: Spanking
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naughty bloke

spa nookieSomething kinda struck me this morning...

I was doing my usual morning routine, checking my emails, blah, blah blah... and waiting for me in my inbox was a new comment on a post from a while back that just said "You're a naughty bloke"...

Now, given the topic of the post, I couldn't really disagree... but my first instinct was to deny it. And had that particular comment turned up on any other morning than this morning, I might have.

But hot on the heels of my first thought ("No I'm not!") came my infinitely more truthful second thought ("You don't know the HALF of it")... there are lines of detail that I don't cross on this blog (for any number of reasons), and any number of stories that I don't actually tell (okay, not THAT many stories... but I can think of two in the last couple of weeks that I haven't mentioned... and one of them was probably quite story-worthy, although I'm not quite sure how I could have told it without coming across as even more of a "naughty bloke" than previously indicated).

Anyway, I'm probably rambling, because I'm working on something in the neighbourhood of about three and a half to four hours of sleep. And after last weekend's all nighter... and last night's little adventures... I think I'm down about twelve hours sleep...

I'm going to make a solemn vow... next Saturday night I'm not going anywhere or doing anything outside my house after 11pm... In fact, I will be tucked up in bed before midnight and actually get a reasonable night's sleep. I'd do that whole "Boy Scout" swear/salute thing... but I was never a Boy Scout (unsurprisingly) so I have no idea how to actually do it.

So, after a particular conversation with J last weekend, one of his comments in particular stuck in my mind (as it tends to do with him and with Sheba... in fact it's something of a toss up between the two of them as to which one has inspired the most "That think you said really stayed with me and made me think" type comments)... and I'd actually scaled back a lot of my random trawling of profile sites... not to the point of quitting sites, I'm just not leaving them running in the background all the time at present. Although I suppose if I HAD been doing that, this story might have been slightly different, and I could have gotten more sleep... but we'll never know I guess.

But after the final episode of Parkinson last night (yaaaay Billy Connelly... awww bless David Beckham... boo not enough Dame Judi Dench, although there was singing... sad no more Parky... now, where was I) I just decided to mess around online for a while before going to bed. And as we all know, boredom + slightly randy usually = disaster/disappointment. Or at the very least it involves thinking with parts of your anatomy other than your brain.

Which, given my usual batting average, would have been fine... I would have had several pointless and slightly frustrating conversations with inappropriate people, ended up having to take matters into my own hand(s), and then slept the sleep of the self fulfilled.

But given that I know that the Universe has a sense of humour that can only be described as "warped", that wasn't what happened. It was one of those cases where, once you stop caring or paying attention... THEN they crawl out of the woodwork and come find you.

A guy I'd been talking to previously on one of these sites messaged me with a pretty frank and direct message (my favourite kind for the most part... the way to my heart and places further south is to be direct, ask for what you want and don't play games). And it was funny because we'd chatted for a few days originally and then he'd gone silent, and then I noticed that he'd abandoned his old profile and started a new one... so I figured that was really that... but no... suddenly there he was, emerging from the wainscoting (as it were)...

So we ended up having an equally frank and direct conversation on MSN, and even though it was well past midnight at this stage, I still found myself entertaining the notion of driving thirty minutes to where he was (an hour round trip)... and possibly, if it hadn't been for the fact that he lived up near where I grew up, so I had an idea of the general geography, I wouldn't have bothered. But I figured there was only so much lost I could actually get in that area. Plus there was a spa on offer... so, you know... bonus and all that. And I only got "misplaced" once on my trip up there, because I didn't realise I actually had to cross a roundabout before I turned off... but that was it, which for me, is pretty much like a perfect run.

Of course, with all the arranging and looking up of directions and whatnot it was about 1am by the time I set off (give or take) and about 1:30 by the time I got there, even with the almost non existent traffic.

But there's something to be said for being told that you'll be greeted at the door by a naked 25 year old... and when you get there, that's exactly what happens...

I was also quite pleased to see that while he wasn't necessarily as cute as his best photo suggested (but then, who is... that's usually why it's your BEST photo), he wasn't as bad as his worst photo... if that makes sense. The short version was I was pleasantly surprised. Plus the whole naked greeting thing didn't do him any harm.

It's also the first time outside of the sauna environment I've "gotten jiggy" in a spa... can somebody sign me up for one of those please! It's all wet and warm and "naked outdoors in suburbia" and whatnot... perfect for the getting of the nookie. Granted I could have done without the two insane dogs (which I never saw, only heard) going annoyingly mental with barking. I'm sure the neighbours (if they were still awake) must have loved that. I know if it had been me it would possibly drive me insane in reasonably small order (but, then, what doesn't drive me more insane?)... especially if they were doing that all the time.

And while it would have been nice to conduct the whole adventure out there in the spa, between the really annoying dogs and our need for "supplies" we ended up taking the party indoors.

One of my "rules" is that you can never have too much lube. I'm sure there are some situations where that isn't necessarily true... I mean, if there's enough that you could fill a child's paddling pool with it, then unless you plan on taking up a career in "lube wrestling" (which, as a side note, I've seen at one of the Feast Festival picnics and is highly amusing to watch) , you've probably gone a little far. But as a general sort of guideline, "lube, good... more lube, better"... which sadly, my little playmate hadn't embraced as a concept... and I've never quite embraced the concept of fucking on a waterbed... it's not like I get seasick or anything... it's just a somewhat odd experience.

But, even with these few minor hiccups, the evening went along quite nicely... everybody got to their respective happy places... a good time was had, etc, etc.

By this point though, it's about 2am (so yes, half an hour trip down there... half an hour of nookage... and a half an hour trip home again to look forward to), so I ended up just hanging out for a bit, confirming that there really isn't a damn thing on Foxtel at the best of times, let alone at 2am on a Saturday night.

Of course, that was the moment when he mentioned the phrase "my partner"... for a little while now, one of my other rules has been that I won't be "the other woman". You have a partner, that's fine, I just don't wanna get involved. Unless of course it's you AND your boyfriend at the same time... then we can talk. But I guess it's something like the American military guideline... "Don't ask, don't tell". I mean, had I gotten any kind of hint off him, I would have called him on it... but his little off the cuff remark was the first I'd heard about it (and given the fact that the remark was actually about the house being his partner's parents house, my brain needed to retreat a little to marvel at all the things that were wrong with that statement given what we'd been doing). Interestingly enough (I just did a little digging), if I'd been chatting to him on Gaydar as opposed to another site I would have known he was partnered... on the upside, I did score the more attractive of the two... hehehe...

I may call him on it next time I speak to him... we'll see... depends on if I can be bothered really... and how likely it is that there will be a repeat performance.

I ended up leaving around 2:30am-ish, partly because it seemed like the right time to leave (the thing we were half watching on Foxtel had gone to commercial)... partly because I'd made myself a promise I would be at least on my way home by three at the latest.

And I don't know if it was just driving home at that late hour, or what... but every time I came to a major intersection I kept envisioning my own death. I know... weird... but I think it was that whole "late at night, car could come careening across the intersection against the lights, smash into the side of my car... and here I am on my way home from late night/early morning nookie... how do you explain that to everybody who wants to know how I died" thought process. Weird really... and I got over it the closer I got to home.

So yeah... me, naughty... but at least I've had a fair amount of practice at it, so I'm not without my skills in the genre...

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(not really) shopping

supermarket comic bookWell... that was a whole world of "non event"...

We didn't end up doing very much of anything productive really today. But there did seem to be a large number of homo orientated guys around for me to have a little pervy on while we weren't doing very much... so I guess it all kinda balanced out.

We started out doing the usual Supermarket Adventures... boring, but a necessary part of the Saturday routine... as is the Returning Home and Unpacking...

After all that was over though, we decided, mostly because a lack of anything more interesting to do, to go into the city, maybe wander around a bit, maybe go to the Art Gallery.

We ended up doing both... but neither one of them with much verve or gusto I have to say...

I'd originally wanted to go to the A Century in Focus photography exhibition, but like with all their exhibitions, entry was $10, which always seems a little steep to me... but then I am a tightwad...

So we kind of just wandered around the gallery somewhat aimlessly for a bit until we'd seem pretty much everything, then wandered off into town.

And then there was more wandering... much looking at stuff, and wandering... and that was about it really...

Then there was lunch... then we came back here.

So, yeah, not really a Red Letter Day...

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photo friday: lym

yellow lymI had writers/photographers/bloggers block trying to pick today's Photo Friday...

The stuff that I'd originally thought could have been a contender (no Marlon Brando jokes please) turned out to be less interesting photos than I'd thought they were... then I couldn't decide if I wanted to go for something thematic... but then I haven't had a very theme orientated week...

So I just fell back on my old friend, Street Art. And I really like this one because while it's obviously a face, it has that graphical, slightly tribal, somewhat abstract look to it that I love.

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random line hotness

A teevee related Random Hotness this week...

I mentioned The Line of Beauty on Monday, and the fact that the lead actor, Dan Stephens, was a bit cute, and I also happened to discover that the BBC website had some wallpapers of the cast.

Granted they aren't the best possibly shots (or he looks better in motion than in photos), but he's still pretty cute.

dan stevens as nick guestdan stevens as nick guest

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pre dawn

pre dawn - moseley squarepre dawn - glenelg beach waves
These are a couple of the shots I took on Sunday morning in the pre-dawn (or possibly dawn, the sun wasn't overly visible, but there was cloud... so I don't know how that works). I didn't tweak any of the colours, just the brightness/contrast in both shots, since my camera tends to take somewhat muddy shots in low light, and they came out amazingly well.

While the shot on the left isn't taken from exactly the same place as the sunset shot I took there back in August, I did find it interesting that although it was sunrise, and the sun was coming up behind me, there was colour out over the water.

Odd really!

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movies: i am legend

i am legend - the last man on earth is not aloneI have to say, I've been waiting for I Am Legend for a while now... Will Smith versus the vampires... what's not to love?

But the movie wasn't quite what I was expecting, which turned out to be both for better and for worse. For a start, the "vampires" probably have more in common with "The Infected" from 28 Days Later or the Reapers from Blade II than they do with anything resembling a tradition vampire. More zombie-like really...

Which is fine, don't get me wrong, but it does change the vibe of the movie somewhat even before you begin.

And I'd also assumed it was going to Will Smith ala I, Robot or Men in Black... the "wisecracking, saves the day, hero" Will Smith. What I got what something altogether different. Still interesting, but different.

He's a much more internalised character... he's been alone a little too long and he's possibly gone a little insane (as you would, not seeing another person for three years... well, I might be okay, but I'm already a bit insane), but it's that line between insanity and doing the things he needs to do to keep his mind from really falling off the edge. And Will plays the loneliness, the need for organisation and routine and just that desire for some sense of normality in this very unique circumstance. And when his carefully organised world starts to fall apart as the movie progresses, Will plays that very well too.

Actually the movie did have a lot of similarities to 28 Days Later... in some of the tone, in the whole concept of a virus out of control, and in the fact that unlike some of these movies you don't seek out the creature at the very top of the food chain, you keep your head down and stay out of their way as much as you possibly can.

I have the book, it was one of the ones I got at Christmas, so as always it will be interesting to see where and how and why they strayed away from the source material. But I am glad I didn't read the book first, because there was a whole bunch of unexpected stuff that I'm glad I wasn't expecting. And I'm kind of pissy that I happened to hear somebody who was reviewing the movie give away one particular plot point, because while it wasn't exactly unexpected, it did colour some of my viewing beforehand. I can't really explain it any better without falling into the same trap as the person I'm pissy at.

Now, as a general rule, I don't mind the horror movie genre... even the slasher movie genre doesn't bother me that much (although I won't be rushing out to see any of the Saw or Hostel movies any time soon), but the one thing that does make me jump and freak me out just a tiny, tiny bit is the "YAAAAAR BOOOOO" type movie... where things jump out, or even just a quick cut from a quiet scene to a loud sound effect makes me jump. Actually that's two kinds of jumps... the ones you're not expecting, and then the ones where the character goes somewhere you know he shouldn't be and you're just waiting for that thing that you KNOW is in there to jump out at him and chew his face off.

And there are a number of points in the movie where you just think to yourself that Will Smith's character kind of deserves to get his face chewed off... for either sticking it where it shouldn't go, or else not seeing things that are seemingly obvious to the rest of us.

So, now we start on the things that were bad...

The first and foremost things that bugged me happened within the first three or four minutes of the movie and just really pulled me out of the moment. And, as always, it was because of appallingly bad CGI. In this case deer... then shortly after that there were lions... then later on in the movie it was the large numbers of CGI (or seemingly CGI) "Infected".

In the case of the deer, they just seemed to slide and flicker on the screen as they were supposed to be running... they didn't seem to be "present", and you couldn't follow them with your eye as they ran, even though the whole thing was very fast and you probably shouldn't have been able to, but it just felt wrong.

Then the lions seemed to have been designed by somebody who had only had lions described to them, rather than something that looked and felt real. It just screamed "HEY I'M BAD CGI!" at you really.

And then there was all the Infected.

Actually I'm not sure about them... they all felt really fake and rubbery, like CGI people have a tendency to, but there are a great number of people listed in the credits as "Infected", so I'm not sure whether there were really people there, or if they were stunt people in blue suits who got replaced, or people on stage doing motion capture, or what... but they all felt fake. Even the supposed "Alpha Male" and "Alpha Female" characters, the male specifically, just looked CGI to my eyes. I mean I know that there would have been stuff where the characters would have had to be CGI doubles, because people (even stunt people on rigs) can't move like that. But I never really got a sense that they were real.

Other than that there were probably a few little niggling plot holes here and there, but for the most part while you're watching it you don't really get time to think about them that much since it's just one big thrill ride.

And I will compliment whoever was responsible for the locations and the organisation of making the whole of New York look completely abandoned and empty and unkempt... and so very, very silent. That's one of the things you do notice right at the beginning of the movie, how very silent everything is. And I would imagine for people who either live in, or have visited New York, that silence would seem even more eerie.

I'm not sure that it's one for the DVD list, but it was certainly an unexpected experience.

yani's rating: 2 zombiefolk out of 5

exposing my apartment again

Actually this really didn't start out with the intention to be another "Exposing Myself" post, at least not on this scale anyway... I just wanted to show off the placement of my Ticky Tack painting now that it's up on the wall...

But the last time I did this was September 2006, so there have been at least two "post-Christmas major change-arounds" since then... okay, major is perhaps not the right word... it's not like I can move any of my big furniture around... it's like jigsaw puzzle pieces... no matter how you try and squish it in a spot, it will all really only go together properly in one configuration...

But I changed some stuff around after Christmas 2006... and again this year... as well as the fact that all my tchotchka got taken down and dusted and rearranged this year. And I also put up my new cheap Ikea star lights in place of the pre-existing fairly lights (actually the set I took down was a different set from the ones in the original photo... same principle though).

There's also one of my first attempts at painting, Safari, down at the bottom of the bookcase, and I haven't actually noticed since I changed the lights over, but it used to look really groovy when the fairy lights were lit, because they fell behind it, and it would kind of glow from within.

I'm thinking about maybe doing a revisit of my DVD collection once I get back the ones that Ma borrowed on the weekend... especially now that the collection is spread across three cabinets (well, four technically, but three together in one spot)... we'll see I guess...

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more benzo street art

propaganda army standard bearertribal tiki facesMan I love the internet sometimes...

Okay, a lot of the time...

This morning I was trying to tack down some more information about the street artist who was responsible for the geisha image down in Port Adelaide... I'd seen something about her on teevee, but it looks like the show in question could have been a really old repeat, and there wasn't anything on the website, or anywhere else online that I could find.

But in the process of widening my search to try and get some kind of results, I found a website by a fellow Adelaidite who also loves himself some street art (although he did tend to overintellectualise the whole thing), but he'd photographed one of Benzo's pieces, and in the comments section was a link to a Flickr page with even more of Benzo's work (the tribal heads up the top)... and on one of the photos (actually, in the comments section again) was the exact location of the piece.

So I already had half a plan to go and see J, and I figured, since the piece was more or less on the way down to his place, I might as well kill two birds with one stone. And kill I did...

I also ended up wading in cow shit... but I'm getting ahead of myself... plus I think it was really horse shit...

I found the spot no problem (although every single slow, stupid and useless driver seemed to be ahead of me on the way down there), and it was this bridge across part of the Torrens (but way out in suburbia)... quite a big bridge really, so I just picked a side and went to have a look and try and find the nice tribal faces.

What I got was a bridge with multiple pieces of art... and very muddy thongs and shoes.

The first piece was this BIG duck, kinda stylised but really cute, the opposite side of the bridge didn't have anything on it, the far side had an interesting (but possibly non-Benzo) piece, there was a huge piece (which is where the green soldier man comes from) along the wall on the far side, but of course, the tribal faces were on the far opposite side.

And then I realised that the bridge actually had five or six sections to it, and there could have been work in any of the sections... and while the water level was low enough that the river actually only ran through one section, the ground in several of the others was still essentially mud and grass, and I was only wearing thongs. And because of that, I not only ended up with mud all over my feet, but there actually weren't any other pieces in any of the other sections. I think there might have been at some point, because there was a lot of patches where things had been painted over, but I ended up with muddy feet for no good reason.

Then I decided I would go and wash my feet off in the river... biiiiiiig mistake... I should have just given up and gone back to the car, because I had to hike down the grassy area so I could actually get to the water, but of course once I found a place where I could, the mud around there was all soft and wet and icky and I just made the problem worse.

And as I went back to the car I realised that there were actually horses grazing further down the riverbank... the whole area was fenced off, they were wearing little horsey coats and doing whatever... so it's possible that not everything I stepped in was mud... ewwwww...

I just wiped off as much mud as I could on the grass, and by the time I got back to the car I was hot, sweaty and covered in mud from the ankles down. When I got to J's place I went around the outside of the house and washed my feet before I went inside.

But I was very happy that I found a whole ton of new Benzo art... and all of it was stuff I hadn't seen before... the soldiers, the tribal tikis... woohoo...

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