a bad start

I didn't have the best start to the day today...

I got up, got my walking gear on... all in the pretty much pre dawn pitch black... took my housekeys off the ring, went outside, closed the door... and realised that what I was actually holding were the keys to Ma's house...

WAAAAAAAAAAH!

Yep, for only the fourth time EVER, I'd locked myself out of my apartment... and only the second time I've ever done it as a result of my walk (although it doesn't look like I blogged about the other time).

I went into meltdown a little bit... my dumbass landlord has recently taken the spare keys away from the place a street over, otherwise I could have made a pest of myself there... because I knew trying to get in touch with him at 6am would be an exercise in futility...

So instead I went to the old standby and called Ma... god bless Ma... you gotta love her!

I went off for my walk, she trucked on up the road, and we met up back at my place at around the same time.

And I wasn't even late or running behind schedule or nothin!

Thankfully the day did improve...

I continued to struggle with Access, treading water furiously to keep from going under the surface completely. And by the end of the day I managed to float (I think I've thrashed this whole water metaphor a little too far)... and the function that I didn't think I could make Access do, I made it do... woohoo me!

That's pretty much been my day really... Locked self out... Struggled with Access... Came Home...

Current Mood:

mostly in a mood

It's weird...

I had a pretty good day at work today... but I'm in a little bit of a mood now...

Maybe I just strained my brain a little too much... I'm not doing so well with the whole sentences right now, so I might switch to the time honoured Yaaay and Boo system...

• Trying to get organised to get out the door on time (BOO)
• Getting a reply from Sheba before I left the house (YAY)
• Having a huge pain in my shin either from doing my walk at faster than average pace this morning or wearing my work boots again or some combination of the two... it was just painful (BOO)
• Not having to pay for my trip into the city since the ticket machine in the bus was busted (YAY)
• Working with "the old crew" again (YAY)
• Being somewhat out of my depth trying to work out an overly complicated database (BOO)
• Feeling like I was actually accomplishing something today (YAY)
• Riding in an overcrowded bus (BOO)
• Finding an invite to Stu's housewarming party in my letterbox (YAY)
• Getting another piece of mail that I'm not ready to talk about but which could be a bad thing (BOO)

So, yeah... I'm a little bit m'eh right now.

Current Mood:

monday ramblings

I'm having a stream of consciousness moment... so just stay with me...

Today's photos are brought to you by the letters CNMCL and the number 56 and are from way back in December last year...

It's a little bit weird that I'm not starting my temp job until tomorrow... it's good because I have today to myself... but I usually have nothing but "days to myself", so it's not that special or unusual. And it's been bloody cold today too... it was a little better for a while this afternoon, at least the sun came out, but it's kind of been grey and raining all weekend, which is fine by me, but it was bloody freezing yesterday. Anyway, I just spent today curled up on my little red sofa under my "Teddy Blankie" and watched both the Kill Bill movies... you gotta love random violence and Lucy Lui...

While I was curled up I got a text message from this stupid dude who just keeps messaging me even though I never reply (he had his chance, he screwed it up, he can go play hide and go fuck himself)... so finally today I did reply... he asked how I was, and my reply went something along the lines of "Completely uninterested in talking to you and wishing you'd get the hint and delete my number"... funnily enough I didn't hear back from him. Hopefully that's the end of it.

Obviously I was having questionable text message karma though... I figured I should send Sheba a message, since I haven't heard from her in a while... but I couldn't quite work out a quick and efficient way to say "Hey, I haven't heard from you, and I don't want to be messaging you all the time because I know you have the husband and the three kids and the presumably now full time job, and I don't want to bug you, but I would like to see you, plus you also have one of Ma's DVDs, so I have to see you again at least once, but I also want you to want to see me, so why haven't you messaged me either?"... bit of a mouthful yeah, and I probably could have managed to say something along those lines (maybe not that blunt) face to face, but I couldn't find the right words in a text message... gave it three or four tries, and finally gave up, went to quit out of the message (without saving a copy) and accidentally sent it instead. Bugger! So then I had to quickly come up with a second message explaining the first one. Haven't heard anything back yet, so we'll have to see if I was supposed to send that message or not.

I tuned in for the end of So You Think You Can Dance last night... I haven't watched any of the show (mostly because I can't stand the woman hosting it, which is a shame, because I loved the American version), but I did want to know who the hell won. Thankfully it was Jack... I like Jack (based on the about ten minutes total of footage I've seen of the whole show)... nothing against Rhys, but I saw them dance together and Jack is the better dancer (plus, if I'm being honest, Rhys just bugs me... I mean what the hell was up with the black sequined jacked and long dangly earring last night... you just looked stupid). Not that I think there was a single straight male in the Top Ten... and if you told me any of them were straight I still wouldn't believe you. Of course the stand out performance was Henry's buttocks... I happened to tune in briefly during the African number he did... and YUMMY! I still think the stylist who cut his hair should be taken out and shot though.

Suddenly I realise for somebody who hasn't watched the show, I'm suddenly displaying a lot of knowledge about it. I didn't watch, honest.

Speaking of teevee I'm not going to be watching... Big Brother 08... I'm officially boycotting the show... I know I said a very similar thing last year... but this year I actually mean it. I loathe and detest the two new hosts (particularly Kyle... actually, especially Kyle), and the fact that they're specifically picking housemates that are going to have conflict with each other... thus far there have been ads featuring a "racist" grandmother, an Aboriginal girl (who actually seems the most likeable of the group), a "Christian virgin" guy with a scarily high voice who thinks he's all that, an overly tattooed trucker who believes in UFOs (and has Roswell tattooed on his arm *rolls eyes*) and a midget girl of non-specific ethnic origin (I think she might be Indian, but who the hell cares). And they keep trying to convince everybody that this year is going to be different... well, they can just shove it up their crappy Nielson Ratings as far as I'm concerned.

Actually, if they were doing all that stuff but they still had Gretel as the host I would probably end up watching it... I just hate Kyle THAT much (he's an immature, argumentative, unstable, delusional wanker). I'm waiting for the theme song they've chosen for this year (I Don't Think So by Kelis... which is also a shame, because I really like the song and they're just thrashing it to death) to become the show's deathknell... I'm sure some "witty" teevee critic will come up with the line "Is anybody watching anymore? I don't think so!". Plus it frees up more than 250 hours over the next fifteen or so weeks... and since I'm about to start working for an unspecified length of time, that will come in handy to just do everything else. That's not to say I won't end up watching the finale... I think I've watched all seven finales... but we'll have to see.

I'm going to be strong though... no flicking over "just to see what's going on"... no watching Friday Night Games because "there's nothing else on"... no letting Stu fill me in on what's going on... no nothing...

I will be strong and resist... I will be strong and resist... I will be strong and resist...

I think the whole "oncoming work" thing must have inspired me a little bit yesterday... normally I'm not one for excessive amounts of unusual housework, but I ended up mopping both the teeny tiny oblong of kitchen lino, and then throwing the mop around the bathroom floor a bit... not completely sure why... other than the fact that the kitchen floor was a bit manky... I felt better afterwards though, which is the main thing.

I also took some superglue to the strings on my new stunt kite, so hopefully they won't keep coming undone. I ended up hanging it on a spare hook in my bedroom after the glue had dried... it doesn't look too bad, I mean it's a bit of an average looking kite, but I think I might have to get a hook and hang it where my kamikaze print was...

And I really need to do something about that print... it's still leaning up against the wall by the fridge with the big piece of glass still in the frame. Not sure what the hell I'm going to do with it... but I need to do something.

I just gave myself an unnecessary heart attack... I bought a Multitrip ticket on Saturday for this week (since it saves me a truckload of money, $14.60 instead of $24.00)... but the $14.60 did seem excessively cheap... so I wondered if the slightly dopey man had given me the ticket for use between 9am and 3pm instead of the one for any time... I just pulled up the website and looked, and it did indeed look that way to begin with... so I was in the process of calling Ma just to go "WAAAAAAAAH!", and pulled out my wallet to look at the ticket. Ticket was red... any time tickets are red... the 9-3 tickets are grey... so I didn't end up needing to have a conversation with Ma after all, turns out I just misread the website... and I have the right ticket... which is the main thing...

On the upside I have my usual Monday night dinner of chicken with smashed broccoli to look forward to...

Current Mood:

unconscious mutterings 274

I got stalked very briefly this morning by one of the stupid "Boot Camp" groups... very offputting... and I also got rained on... *mutter mutter mutter*... Unconscious Mutterings...

1. Thug :: Rap


2. Slurp :: Drink


3. Alley :: Cat


4. Sweater vest :: Josh Hartnett


5. Targeted :: Fire


6. Snazzy :: Duds


7. Oy! :: Vey!


8. Jury duty :: Pauly Shore (I apologise, but it was honestly the first thing that popped into my head!)


9. Low fat :: Milk


10. Responsibility :: Brown

Current Mood:

city walk

Not actually my city walk... but interesting none-the-less... I don't think the "stranger" thing is particularly accurate though...

What Your City Walk Means

You are thoughtful and contemplative. You enjoy spending time alone with your thoughts. You are generally confident and friendly with strangers. You are well mannered and sociable. Money is very important to you. You like to have lots of nice things... and you don't care if you're being greedy. You are curious about ideas. If you had the means, you'd like to explore the whole world.

The City Walk Personality Test

Current Mood:

wet weather shopping

Woohoo... grey skies, wind, rain... I loves me some wet and wild weather...

This week's shopping adventures weren't really that much different to last week... a little different... but similarly interesting...

In theory I ended up getting a little less stuff than normal at the supermarket... I'm working for most of next week, so there wasn't much point in getting sandwich stuff or anything overly elaborate, but I guess I made up for it by getting stuff that I can take for afternoon snackage... apples, cashews, those little cracker ball things with nuts in them...

I also picked up some Anzac Biscuits... I did try and make some yesterday, but I'm not sure how great the recipe was because while they were edible, they weren't that great really...

Anyway, after The Shoppage, The Unpackage and The Paper-readage, we headed off to Arndale for a couple of bits and pieces... Ma wanted to get some trackpants (since she's started doing her own little walking thing in the mornings... awww, bless), so we fiddled around down there for a bit, including a little spin around The Reject Shop... while we were in there I remembered that the last time we were down there we'd seen a cool looking "stunt kite" for about $7.

When I originally saw it we hadn't done any kite flying since the Kite Festival, but this time we had last week's little excursion under our belts and figured that it was probably worthwhile getting it.

Then once we got back to the car again we weren't quite sure where the hell to go... so we figured we might as well head down to the beach again and do some more kite flying... it didn't look overly windy at Arndale, but once we got down to the beach it was appropriately breezy.

I love me some stunt kite action! Once I managed to keep the damn thing in the air for more than two seconds at a time, and stopping it doing nosedives, then once I'd retied pretty much all the guide strings on it (multiple times actually), I managed to get the hang of it and had it sweeping and swooping and buzzing all over the joint. It did keep doing nosedives into the sand, but the longer we were doing it (Ma was flying her bluebird kite, since she keeps it in the car), the better I was getting.

But eventually, when one of the guide strings came undone for the three thousandth time (I was triple knotting the damn things, but they still worked themselves loose) I was kinda over it, so we called it a day. It was nice on the beach though.... green-grey sea with white waves, grey skies, a fair amount of wind... booooodiful! Of course, having said that, I think I've got some very fine sand blown into everywhere and it's a little scratchy... either that or a little windburn...

Then we decided to head down towards Glenelg and go to The Orange Spot Bakery, which is very much up there as far as bakeries go... and I have to say it didn't disappoint. We grabbed some food and found a spot further down the foreshore where we could sit in the car and eat it, enjoying the stormy seas. I had a Chicken Mango Curry pie, and it was actually as good as it sounds, a nice sweet curry, big chunks of chickens... very yummy.

We kinda drove down the foreshore a while, headed kind of in the general direction of Brighton, but never getting that far, since the road wasn't a straight run along the beach. Instead we just wandered back to my place in a general, non specific kind of way. It was nice though.

Current Mood:

done ran out

"We apologise for that break in our regularly scheduled programming and return to the movie already in progress..."

Well, after nearly three years of getting those stupid "you have 250MB remaining" emails from my ISP, I finally discovered what happens when you have 0MB remaining...

Your internet "done falls over"...

I'd always assumed that since I'm paid up for three months, if I ran out in say Month 1, then they started eating up MB from Month 2... seems that's not the case...

I was halfway through my regular Friday morning internet crawl and my connection dropped out... and when I tried to log back in again it was telling me it didn't recognise my username and password, or some similar malarky...

No Friday Internet for the yani... No Photo Friday... No nothing... and while I could go and "backfill" a post, I think I'll leave this break in transmission just to remind myself what does happen when I run out of MB...

Actually I survived pretty well, I didn't sit in the corner muttering to myself and I didn't need to sit here and look longingly at my connection icon... granted I did end up wasting a bunch of time just fiddling around with stuff in Photoshop, but you get that...

So thankfully (and obviously) I'm all charged back up with the appropriate amount of MB's again...

*wanders off muttering about stupid dumbass ISP*...

Current Mood:

random adonis hotness

Some fairly random randomness for today's Random Hotness...

I'm not really sure where these shots came from, I found them again recently while searching through my folders for something else... they're probably from one of the many profile sites I've wandered around over time... all I do know is that they had the file name "adonis" attached to them.

I love the pose in the shot on the left... totally naked, but artistic not graphic. Definitely something I'll have to remember the next time I have somebody model for me.

Current Mood:

musician challenge meme

I lifted this one from Kooky Knut the other day...

I used to be a big Madonna fan, but like with any number of the music artists I really used to like, I'm kinda lukewarm on her these days... but she did seem to be a good choice for the meme, given that she's got about 150 years worth of song titles to choose from...

Musician Challenge

Pick an artist: Madonna
Using only SONG NAMES, cleverly answer these questions...
No repeating song names...

1. Are you a male or female: He's a Man


2. Describe your self: I'm So Stupid


3. Describe your day: Easy Ride


4. Describe where you currently live: Why's It So Hard


5. If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Hollywood


6. Your best friend is: Miles Away


7. Your favorite color is: Rain


8. You know that: Nobody's Perfect


9. What's the weather like: La Isla Bonita


10. If your life was a television show, what would it be called: Human Nature


11. What is life to you: I'm Going Bananas


12. What is the best advice you have to give: Nothing Really Matters


13. Describe your ex: Deeper and Deeper


14. Your current relationship status: Bye Bye Baby


15. What's your favorite hobby: Bedtime Story


16. When you think of your friends: Ray of Light


17. What do your friends think of you: Bad Girl


18. What does your current love interest think of you: Love Don't Live Here Anymore


19. You always travel with: Skin


20. The best way to end a long day: Hanky Panky


21. Your occupation is: Back in Business


22. When you grow up, you want: Sanctuary


23. What does your family think of you: Little Star


24. Your favorite food is: American Pie


25. You want to be remembered as: Fighting Spirit

Current Mood:

movies: st trinian's

I will say that I really, really, really wasn't expecting very much from the new version of St Trinian's... so much so that we very nearly didn't go and see it, but we were out of "good stuff", so Trinian's it was...

I've never seen any of the original movies in their entirety, but I think I've caught various bits on teevee over time, so I have a general sense of what they were aiming for...

Of course, it always helps to go in with very, very, very low expectations... that way, anything decent you get is actually a bonus.

But I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. There were some genuinely funny bits... the plot moves along at a good pace, and while it isn't going to win any points for originality (outsider comes to new school which she wants to escape from, but it turns out that she fits right in and helps save the day... etc, etc), you do get caught up in the moment.

And having Rupert Everett playing two roles, one frocked up as the Headmistress (I'm sure he's channelling several female members of the royal family) and the other as the Headmistress's brother was fun... if only to see Rupert getting every opportunity to chew the scenery.

It was also quite amusing since he's playing against his The Importance of Being Earnest co-star, Colin Firth, and having seen that movie again very recently (it was on teevee yesterday), it just added to the amusement value.

They also seemed to be taking the mickey out of Firth's screen persona... there's a dog called Mr Darcy, the painting at the centre of the scheme is Girl with a Pearl Earring, his name is actually mentioned at one point, and there's a recreation of a "wet shirt" scene from Pride and Prejudice (which I didn't get, but Ma pointed out to me afterwards).

As I've mentioned with other English movies, there were definitely a lot of actors that I recognised, even if I didn't always know where I knew them from... Stephen Fry (I'd know him anywhere of course), Lena Headey (from The Sarah Conner Chronicles), Celia Imrie (from about half a billion things, including, interestingly enough the first Star Wars prequel), Toby Jones (who does the voice of Dobby in Harry Potter amongst other things) and Fenella Woolgar (last seen as a pregnant lesbian in Jekyll).

I did mistake "Head Girl" Gemma Arterton for Jemima Rooper from the teevee series Sincronicity though... they sounded very similar a couple of times, and given the very severe look that Gemma was sporting, it's not really surprising that I couldn't identify her right away.

The movie has a great soundtrack too... a lot of it is high energy stuff by female English artists (Lily Allen, Lady Sovereign, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Sugababes), but I like that... and the Theme to St Trinian's performed by Girls Aloud is pretty groovy. It's also well worth sticking around in the cinema during the credits to hear Rupert and Colin sing Love is in the Air to each other in character...

I also have to give snaps to Rebecca Hale and Penny Rose (who did the three Pirates movies), the costume designers... I can definitely say that because of the pair of them this is quite possibly going to be the movie "most stolen from the video store or downloaded from the internet by teenage boys for the purposes of self-gratification"... particularly Talulah Riley's post-makeover outfits. Personally I was quite fond of Gemma's high-waisted skirt and belt combo, but then I like that high-waisted skirt look.

So all in all, it was a surprisingly decent movie... very campy and over the top, but enjoyable.

yani's rating: 2 hockey sticks out of 5

deco bricks

I was flicking through the photos from the Sydney trip, specifically the stuff from the last day in Potts Point with all the Art Deco buildings.

It also kind of tied in with a show I saw yesterday about modern architecture and how everybody seems to cling to copies of the past instead of creating something new... especially when it comes to those new housing developments (I do wish they'd followed through the story of the developer who said he would meet with the architects doing really creative stuff in Holland). It did kind of strike a cord in me because I totally fell in love with the Deco buildings in Sydney.

I know that if I won the lottery tomorrow and hired an architect to design me my perfect house, he might need to bring his own valium, because I don't really have a "perfect house" in my head. I like the deco brickwork, I like modern architecture with clean lines, I like interesting windows in interesting places, I like balconies and courtyards, I like wooden clad houses, I like curved lines, I like stone houses, I like the original Tudor buildings, I like crisp white render, I like the idea of having a red front door.

All I know is that the house would have to have an entire room or wall or staircase or something that was basically all cubes or bookshelves or something. I've always loved the idea of having one of those library rooms where the walls are floor to ceiling bookshelves... and I really love the idea of those stepladders that slide along on a track.

I also like the idea of bold coloured walls, scarlet and green and chocolate and gold... and at the same time I like clean white walls...

It's so obvious I'm a Pisces... two little fishies, both swimming in opposite directions...

Current Mood:

unconscious mutterings 273

Monday morning... brain all empty... Unconscious Mutterings...

1. Questioning :: Reality


2. Immunity :: Gameshow


3. Online dating :: Pointless


4. Calcium :: Deficiency


5. Dressing :: Salad


6. Bucket :: Sick


7. Stain :: Remover


8. Advanced :: Chemistry


9. Dramatic :: Persona


10. Self-medication :: Addict

Current Mood:

high class chocolate

What Your Taste in Chocolate Says About You

You are sophisticated, modern, and high class. Your taste is refined, but you are not picky. You are often the first to try something new. You are laid back and fairly easy to please. All you need in life is your friends. Sometimes you go along to get along... but you don't mind. You love the feeling of accomplishment. You enjoy doing what's important. You feel lost when you have to do frivolous tasks or hang out with shallow people.

The Chocolate Oracle

Current Mood:

a simple day

Woohoo... Haircut Day!

Ma was having her Haircut Day today too, so I figured I might as well fit one in, save me waiting around the house for her.

Nothing overly complex from a haircut perspective, just a simple cut... but it's always nice to be all trimmed and tidy... had a good old natter to Tink about my Sydney trip, then Ma picked me up from town and after a quick trip to see the Honey Man we headed off to do the shopping...

I really do hate having to the shopping "late"... but it wasn't too painful this time around. A little busy, but okay.

Then after we came back here to unpack, Ma made the suggestion that since it seemed to be fairly windy outdoors, we could take our kites off somewhere and do a little kite flying.

We ended up heading down to the beach, and it wasn't bad... a little warm maybe, but nice and windy. And Ma's kite very much behaved itself this time.

I kept feeding more line out on my kite, and it did really well, but I got a little bored and went wandering up and down the beach a bit, then down to the water, mostly because I was curious to see if it would do as well over the cooler water than over the warm sand... for the most part it was okay... dipped a little low a couple of times, and the string did get wet once or twice... but it was only after Ma's kite did a nosedive into the sand that things kind of went pearshaped.

As per the dramatic reconstruction (on left), as I bent down to throw Ma's kite back into the air, my kite took the opportunity and did a nosedive into the water...

I thought I might have ended up losing it actually... the string got caught on some seaweed and I wasn't sure I was going to be able to pull it back in... but eventually the waves freed it up and I could drag it back to shore. It looked quite groovy actually, it was flying along under the water and looked like some kind of exotic sea creature. I tried to get Ma to take a shot of it with my camera, but the camera confused her and the kite ended up beaching itself in some seaweed before she had a chance.

I still had to clean the sand and the seaweed and muck off it, so I snapped the above shot when I was doing that. And luckily because the kite is essentially made of waterproof plastic, it went back up into the air no problems... it was a little insane for a bit, but sorted itself out pretty quickly.

We gave up when we ran out of wind, and headed over to West Lakes to get a drink and cool off a little... but the foozeball was on down there this afternoon, and trying to get a carpark was like finding a needle in a haystack. We did eventually manage to snag one though, wandered around for a little bit and then headed home again.

A simple day, but pretty good overall.

Current Mood:

photo friday: waterlily

What is it they say about the best laid plans of mice and men?

But interestingly enough, while it wasn't what I'd expected, it was a somewhat productive day... I got out of the house, I was able to amuse small children (nice ones who don't live in my building), I fed the ducks, I saw Amazonian Waterlilies and I got offered work... so a pretty full afternoon really!

I'd lent Stu the Kate Miller-Heidke CD yesterday, and since I wanted it back so I can show Ma a couple of the tracks on the DVD and he had the day off to look after his two girls, Trouble and Strife... plus the fact that I hadn't seen his new place since he moved, I said that I would go up there and pick it up. I really only intended to be there for maybe half an hour... an hour tops...

Try ten hours... plus dinner and a movie...

He called me around noon and said that the girls wanted to go out and feed the ducks, and they wanted me to come with them... I'm not entirely sure why to be honest... I think I've only met them the once... but Ma and I have sent them Christmas presents via Stu a couple of times... so who knows...

And I figured it would get me out of the house, which is currently a bonus, so I said I would come along...

Of course, the park near their new place (although highly groovy and maybe worth a photo safari at a later date) didn't have very many ducks, so we ended up coming all the way back down to my neck of the woods and going to the Botanic Gardens. It was kind of full of "da chillens", but there is something quite zen and restful about feeding the ducks... so that was fun...

Then, after we'd stopped off in the Amazon Waterlily Pavilion (which is all glass and open and prettylike) and we were headed back to the car (and I was giving Strife a piggyback ride) I got a call from my Agency Girly, wanting to know if I was available. To be honest, I knew the call was coming, I'd already been tipped off by my former boss (and asked if I was available)... and I'm not really that sure on all the details (it's kinda hard to concentrate on a phonecall while you're walking through a park with little kid on your back), but she's going to email me or send me a letter or something, so that's cool.

After we got back to Stu's place, the kids wanted to go to the playground near their place, so we messed around there for a while... then as we were headed back to the house, Mrs Stu got home... and I got invited to dinner (lackluster Indian takeaway, but it was still fairly edible, just not stellar), and then Stu and I sat around watching The Wrong Man (Mrs Stu did start out with us, but piked out early and went to bed), which totally stands up to a second viewing, until very late o'clock before I headed home again.

So, not quite what I was expecting to do with my day... but still very enjoyable.

Current Mood:

random danvers hotness

A somewhat unusual Random Hotness this week... 19 year old porn star, RJ Danvers, who just happens to be the youngest "exclusive" model in the history of Raging Stallion Studios.

The porn star bit isn't that unusual... I've featured porn stars before, but this time around the half Lebanese and half Irish self confessed "baby bottom porn pup" and "pig slut bottom" is unusual only really because my tastes don't normally run to guys as hairy as him. But there's just something about how grounded he seems to be, and how "normal", and that he's so enthusiastic about what he likes (sexually and otherwise) that's very appealing.

He's also something of an "internet whore"... he's just about everywhere at the moment...

He has a blog (which is where these four shots came from), then there's his official website, plus he keeps a Dudesnudes profile and a MySpace page... he also has a Yahoo Group, and he does webcam shows. There's even a Wikipedia entry about him...

Then to top it all off he's entered in the 2008 Ford Model Search contest...

But even without everything else, anybody who makes a video of themselves singing a Britney song to their vibrator is okay by me...

Current Mood:

sydney grey

Another couple of shots from the Sydney set...

The horse and rider statue is the same shot that I'm using for my template... but this is the wider, clearer version, and you can see this horse. Normally that whole contrasty sunshine shot doesn't always work out well... but in this case I think it actually makes the shot.

And the text is from the top of Macleay Street, right before it turns the corner and becomes Darlinghurst Road and Kings Cross. I would have liked to get the whole piece of text in, but it was too hard to frame it properly... luckily I'm a fan of that abstract partial text thing too...

Current Mood:

coffee, conversation and confusion

Okay... so I'm officially a little confused...

Not "last time" confused... but possibly "in need of a specific conversation" confused...

Of course, the cause of confusion is Coffee With Marc Part III... well, technically not the coffee part exactly, but the whole general thing.

I will freely admit that I am in some seriously uncharted territory here... I've never really successfully tried to integrate the whole "have had sex" thing with the "friends" thing... well, I kinda have, but not for very long, and it was usually the death of one half or the other... people that I could have been friends with, but I wasn't that fussed on the sex part... or people where we had the sex, and then the friendship stuff got difficult.

To be honest, I think in this case it's more that I haven't had the overly confrontational conversation about the whole thing... so I don't know what the rules are and I'm not sure where the appropriate lines are. Once I know where the lines are I'm more than happy to play within them, but you throw me out in the wilderness with no lines to play in, and I'm going to be all over the map.

Confused yet? Yeah, welcome to my brain... I'm sure chunks of this aren't going to make a whole hell of a lot of sense, because they don't make that much sense to me either.

Anyway, as I mentioned this morning, we had coffee here in North Adelaide (actually I took Marc to the place we always had coffee after Camera Club, since I know they do good coffee)... and we probably spent about the same amount of time having coffee as last time... I'm not sure if it's by accident or design, but it was about an hour and a half both times.

I will say this... and it's something that I've noticed with other people too... or maybe it's just him, I don't know (no, actually, it's other people too, but I'm not mentioning any names)... but one thing that does annoy me in conversation is not being allowed to finish my damn story. I'll happily sit there and let you tell me whatever the hell you like... and unless what you're saying is so patently a load of bullcrap, I won't necessarily interrupt you (of course, if I couldn't care less, I'll just sit there and let you tell me anything you like, nod, smile and run away as soon as I can)... but in return I expect you to let me finish a damn story! I don't have a problem with a minor digression here and there (that's pretty much the nature of my relationship with J... we digress our brains out, but we let each other tell a damn story)... but if you digress by telling a story that actually has nothing to do with what the hell I'm talking about (especially if you start it by making me think it has something to do with the topic at hand and it ends up out in the middle of nowhere), and then keep talking, taking me further and further away from what the hell I was talking about... well, that's just going to annoy me.

Doubly so if you've specifically tried to get me to tell a story or take charge of the conversation, and then continue to cut the legs out from under me. Sometimes I'll just get stubborn, and bring the conversation back and finish the damn story no matter what... other times I'll just wave at it as it floats out to sea, never to be seen again.

And if you tell me something once, and I don't ask for further clarification, then I got the point you were trying to make the first time, don't labour it and say the same damn thing three times...

Hmmm... whiny, demanding little shit, ain't I?

Maybe I just don't really like people that much... or possibly just in small doses.

For the record, I didn't jump him... I possibly would have, but the opportunity never really presented itself... which brings me back around to needing to have the overly confrontational conversation with Marc. It's not so much that I don't know the rules of the game... it's more that I don't actually know what game we're playing... once I know that, the rules will take care of themselves...

There's always next time...

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free kmh stuff

Woohoo! Go me!

I'm officially batting 3 for 3 (that means I'm winning, right... I'm never any good at sporting phrasology) getting free stuff from Blaze, the local gay paper...

First it was the Pink CD... then came the Assassins tickets... and now, it's Kate Miller Heidke's new CD/DVD combo (which I don't think officially comes out until the beginning of June)...

KMH is the woman I went to see in concert with Stu (who's already jealous that I won the CD, since I SMS'ed him first thing this morning... he's been trying to win it from the Messenger, without any luck)...

And it's doubly good because it is a two disc set... one CD and one DVD...

The only downside (and it's not really even a downside) is that I'm due to have coffee with Marc again this afternoon, and if I'd gone with his suggestion that we meet at the same place instead of suggesting he come here and we find somewhere in North Adelaide (now I just need to work out whether or not it's appropriate to jump him when he's here), then I could have swung by and picked up the CD beforehand... and now I'm going to have to make a "special" trip into town to go get it.

Oh well... WHO CARES!

*does the Free Stuff dance*... Free stuff, free stuff, free stuff... cha-cha-cha...

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unconscious mutterings 271

Oh, I forgot to mention... on Friday I opened the microwave after it had been running on high for two minutes, and what should appear from between the two sheets of paper towel I'd used to stop splatter but a teeny tiny spider... completely unharmed and totally mobile...

I was going to put it back in and see if I could make it explode, but it disappeared while I was getting my bowl out... so if I start exhibiting Spiderman-like powers, you'll know that it bit me... damn radioactive spiders!

In other news... Unconscious Mutterings...

1. Silence :: Is Golden


2. Wall :: The Village of


3. Killed :: In Action


4. Wishful :: Thinking


5. Poodle :: In The Microwave


6. Sullen :: Teenager


7. Do not disturb :: Sign


8. Philadephia :: Story


9. Anticipation :: Rocky Horror Picture Show


10. Sidewalk :: Cafe

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meet miss raven blue

Somewhere deep down inside me there's some sort of frustrated fashion designer or costume designer or production designer or art director trying to get out...

Okay, if I'm being honest, it's actually not that deep down, it's pretty much just under the surface.

And I added the last two in because I don't just like to create things, I also like to shuffle around things that other people have already made, and put them together in new and unusual ways...

So it's no grand surprise that I love avatar makers and the like (doubly so because I've mentioned it on several occasions)... be they dollmakers, avatar creators like MiniEgo or Meez, making an M&M self, a Simpsonized likeness, doing a Picasso portrait or making a South Park doppleganger...

And Miss Bimbo is the latest in a long line...

It's more dollmaker than avatar creator, but it's in the same family...

I first heard about the site at the end of March when there was all this bruhaha because it supposedly was encouraging "girls as young as nine to 'buy' virtual dolls breast operations and facelifts". And of course, I love a good bit of media hysteria over internet sites... so I had to check it out...

But of course, because everybody else had had the same idea, the site had basically fallen over and gone boom, so it slipped my mind until this weekend...

You have to love it when the media gets itself all worked up over something, and only does a half assed job at reporting the facts, which then gets everybody else worked up, which then lets the media get all worked up again...

I was skimming some of the media reports earlier, and one particular line stuck out to me... "when the contestants run out of virtual cash they have to send text messages"... now, let's just look at the word "have" in that sentence... the dictionary defines "have" in this type of instance as "to be required, compelled, or under obligation"... but you don't HAVE to do any such thing... you CAN buy extra money by sending text messages... but you can also get a boyfriend and a job, since both of those will earn you money too... and I've always been a strong believer in never doing something that requires cash when you can get the same thing for free...

It reminds me of a whole storm in a teacup that was whipped up about the Neopets website a few years back when an Australian mother got her panties in a bunch about her son playing on that website because there were "slot machine" games... and you know, we must protect the kiddies from the gambling... but the kid had obviously only been playing on the site for about five minutes because he came out with a massive amount of garbage about how the site worked, and nobody at the "current affairs" program bothered to do any fact checking... but I digress...

You gotta love a good controversy though... it's the kind of advertising that money just can't buy... there's no way that they would ever have gotten this kind of media exposure without it. God bless a completely rabid and unfettered media...

Anyway, I'm not sure how much I really like the website... well I kinda do, I like the little "goals" you have to complete to get to a new level (which is also why Miss Blue has long, straight, blue hair... despite her name, it's actually part of the tasks on this level), but I'm not really fussed on the fact you also have to "challenge" other Bimbos at certain points to level up as well (although so I don't end up doing the "rabid media" thing myself, that only happens on five out of twenty levels)... partly because I'm still not completely clear on how it works, and partly because it relies on other site users playing ball with you, and that's always a big ol' pain in the butt, waiting on other people.

It does let me indulge in that fashion designer/costume designer urge, to a certain degree, though... as much as my "Bimbo Dollars" will allow anyway... and it's always annoying that the items you'd like to see in certain colours are never available like that (although stuff does keep becoming available as you level up)... I do like the ability to mix and match and layer and accessorise though... yeah, I know, gay much right?

Now all they need to do is create a "Mr Bimbo" with pretty much the exact same game play, but just different graphics and I'll be a happy chappy!

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i heart chachi

Your 80's Hunk Is

Scott Baio

Who's Your 80s Hunk?

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shopping and wildlife photography

The joys of Saturday shopping...

Actually I ended up getting quite a bit more stuff than normal... or at least it feels that way... and my kitchen counter seems to reflect that... lots of bottles and packets and tins that are going to need to be crammed in amongst everything else that's already crammed in there... I really need to reorganise my cupboards yet again I think...

Other than that, not really much to report on the Land of the Shopping Adventure... we came, we saw, we shopped, we came home again...

While I was flicking through the paper after I'd put all the stuff away (well, "away" as in out of the way... since the back counter is still full of crap) and there was a whole story about the dance company Pilobolus coming to Adelaide... which is pretty freakin exciting... as is the fact that Ma and I might end up going to see them *fingers crossed*...

Anyway, I remembered that I'd seen an ad about the current Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition (which we went to see last year), and since we wanted to go into town anyway, we figured it was a good way to spend a couple of hours.

We did do a bit of wandering around first... went looking for the book Bridge to Terabithia after Ma managed to find an ex-rental version of the DVD last week, and it never fails to amuse me that it can sometimes depend on what version of the book you buy as to how much it ends up costing... the "movie tie-in" version was about $17, but we ended up finding a (I think) Puffin Classics version that was about $14... same thing happened with the copy of I Am Legend I got for Christmas... there were about four or five different versions of the book, ranging from about $16 to nearly $25... just weird...

So after some random browsing and a quick trip to Starbucks for a bite to eat (as a side note... I love me some chaise longue action... they have this kind of short stubby one in Starbucks, and I love stretching out full length on it, waggling my feet in the window... if I ever end up replacing my little red curvy sofa, I'm going to have to track down some sort of scarlet chaise longue!), then we toddled off to the Museum...

Like last year, the Photographs in the exhibition were just stunning... although you do end up thinking "yes, if I could afford all the camera gear you have, and trips to the Antarctic or Africa, then I could take photos just like that"... and that goes double for the Under 18 sets...

I also found myself looking at a couple of the somewhat abstract shots, or ones that had very shallow depths of field, or whatever... and I wondered how the ancient and deluded judges from the Camera Club would have judged some of those shots... there was a couple in particular, one of a frog eating a worm and the other one of an elephant's foot that really made me think that the judges would have panned them.

Ma and I also ended up doing the same thing we did last year... we started off together... then I ended up moving faster than her, and let her go at her own pace while I went off at mine... then afterwards we went back and looked at everything quickly and compared notes on what we liked and didn't like.

As with last year, they also crammed the ANZANG Competition in with the Wildlife Photos... which, to be honest, really doesn't do the ANZANG photos justice... you go around looking at the ones from all over the world, then look at the more local shots and just go "yawn!"...

Interestingly (to me anyway) all of the shots in one of the categories were printed on that fancy shmancy "metallic" photography paper... which just makes everything POP... I'm sure it's horrifically expensive to have stuff printed on it though...

But all in all, it's not a bad way to not only spend a couple of hours (once you've read all the little tags and looked at all the photos), and pretty good value for money for $5 admission.

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