sunday wanderings

Talk about your "four seasons in one day" day... okay, maybe not all four, but it was freezing and windy and raining first thing this morning, then this afternoon it was all blue skies and fairly warm but still windy... now it looks like it's heading back to cloudy and somewhat windy...

And weather was an important theme today, since I went out this morning to snap some photos of Honeysuckle Lane... it was fairly early when I went out, but really grey and windy... which is good for photography, one giant "softbox"... but of course, as soon as I got in the car it started to pour with rain, and once I got to Honeysuckle Lane I must have sat in the car for about ten minutes waiting for it to stop. And actually that was kinda nice... I love the sound of rain on metal.

Anyway when it finally finished I wandered down the lane taking a bunch of photos... most of it is actually the "New York style" stuff... words you can't actually read but that look pretty cool from a graphical standpoint... but there were a few "art pieces".

The photos at the top are two of my favourites... I love the Blue Graphics Man, there's some sort of Fifties vibe about him (but that could just be me)... and what's not to love about an Emo Frankendolly (it's the stripy tights... I'm a sucker for stripy tights)...

I managed to get back to the car without getting too wet (it was spitting a bit, but nothing drastic) and headed home via a grand detour (including an abandoned house which had some of the "New York" stuff in it, but it was too dark inside to get a decent photo... and I drove past the abandoned shop that's given me some good photos in the past, but it now has a chainlink fence around it), and with a quick stop off at the petrol station to fill my tyres with air (oddly, the front tyres looked flat, but the back tyres had much less air pressure in them, no idea what's up with that) and my wiper tank with water (both jobs I've been putting off and putting off)...

Then after lunch I went on a random wander around North Adelaide.

Mostly I wanted to snag a couple of new street art pieces I noticed yesterday at the electric sub station (or whatever it is) down the road, but I ended up just wandering about and I snagged a few more shots for the Montage I've been working on for a few weeks now.

But while I was out, so was the sun and it got fairly warm... still windy as hell, but warm enough for me to take my jacket off... the sunshine was nice though...

Current Mood:

bumper book shopping

Book, book, book, book, book, book, book...

Way back in the dawn of time when I was a wee lad (okay, maybe not THAT wee... but I would still have been in some form of schooling) one of the libraries near our house would have regular book sales (and I count it as a proper "book sale" when fiction books are about 50 cents a piece or less). Big ass book sales too, like "hire out a big educational gymnasium" type book sales... which is why any number of books in my shelves have library shelf stickers on them...

But the last proper book sale was probably over ten years ago, and the only book sale that has come close in recent memory was back in October last year... and it took me a long while to find anything I wanted... plus I don't think I've read more than a couple of those books yet...

Which brings me around to today...

Prospect Library (which, I guess really means Prospect Council) had a book sale this morning (which Ma and I found out about when we stopped off at the Library during SALA)... so after we'd done a very early bout of shopping (I think it turned out that way because firstly I went out to meet Ma at the car when she got here and we went straight out and secondly because I don't think I bought that much stuff, or at least bought stuff quickly) we headed over to Prospect Town Hall and rocked up just a few minutes before the doors opened.

We also discovered Honeysuckle Lane, a little backstreet/laneway near the Town Hall that is sanctioned as a place for street art... I'm going back tomorrow (weather permitting) with my camera to take some snaps...

Anyway, there was a massive line stretching around the front of the building, but because we came from the back of the building, we chose to ignore the line and just stand with a bunch of other pushy people near the doors... and got in pretty damn quickly... woohoo...

I will say that I was in Book Pig Heaven... I snatched up my first book (not that I have any idea what it was) within about the first minute or so and didn't look back, dumping everything in an empty cardboard box. I'm not sure how long we were there, and we might have stayed longer, but the other book sale participants that made me want to leave, rather than running out of books to look for... these people had no idea about Book Sale Etiquette! Grrrr...

Anyway, I think I ended up with about fifteen books and Ma wasn't far behind... then we came home to unpack the groceries and compare book purchases...

Of course, because Ma and I sometimes think with one single mind (which is both scary and wrong, but not really surprising) we both thought it would be an idea to go back again after we'd finished at my place. And it was...

There were a ton less people, and I found a bunch more books... I ended up with 35 books in total (including the original fifteen), for about the price of an average paperback ($17.50)... and some of the books were essentially brand new... there were a mix of library books and donated books, so some of them don't even look like they've been read once. Woohoo!

Sure there are books that I'm not sure why the hell I bought them... and some that I have a feeling I'm either never going to get around to reading or else read and wish I hadn't bothered. It was a case of going "I'm not really sure about this... but, hey, 50 cents!"... and as I said to Ma, we can always pile up any of the crap ones and send them back to Prospect Library for their next sale...

Anyway, after much book-related joyfulness we headed down the road to Makin Mattresses... since I'd gotten all inspired last week to replace my bed with something new, it seemed like a sensible first stop on the quest for a bed... I was actually surprised, given the enormous size of the building, at how few mattresses there were on display... but then it's their factory as well as the showroom, so I guess it makes sense when you think about it.

We wandered about a bit and then were set upon by Nice Salesman... who was actually quite nice and fairly helpful, I guess I was just taken aback by the price of a decent mattress. I was leaning in the direction of the latex type (partially because I thought it would be cheaper), but it seems that they have pretty much the Rolls Royce of latex mattresses... $1895, just for the mattress! Which just seems very steep to me... granted he was talking about the mattress lasting about 25 years (by which point I would be about 60, which is scary)... but he also said something about the people who invented the latex stuff saying that it could last up to 100 years (by which point I probably wouldn't need it anymore)... I'm not exactly sure on that bit, I think I'd gone into retail shock by that point.

On the one hand, having a mattress that's going to last for 25 years at least makes sense... although the one I have at the moment was like a $90 piece of crap from somewhere and it's mostly lasted at least ten years, although it's all lumpy and awful now... but dropping over two grand (once you factor in the frame I was looking at from Ikea) on a bed does seem a trifle excessive to me. And I kinda wanted to buy it all by myself, with my tax cheque which wasn't anywhere near that much... so essentially I am a world of indecision at present.

After the Mattress Shock, we went down to Arndale for a little bit... I got a new, yet cheap-ass, mop and bucket... I've never really liked my mop, even less so after last Monday's cleaning frenzy, and this one looks like it will dry better afterwards. Granted it will probably fall apart in five minutes, but you get that...

We finished off the day with a trip down to Glenelg for pies from Orange Spot by the sea and a somewhat pointless wander along Jetty Road...

Now all I have to do is find somewhere on my already full bookshelves for all these new books... *sigh*... and it might also be time to snap a photo of my bookshelves again...

Current Mood:

photo friday: restricted area

I have a thing about signage... I don't know why... but I do...

The Mystery of No Phone Call was solved yesterday... H-San emailed me about something else and at the end of the message asked me how the work was going... to which I replied that it wasn't because they'd never called the agency... so later on I got a call from the Ginger Ninja and it turned out that they'd just assumed that because I hadn't turned up I didn't want the job. And this was after they'd been told multiple times that they needed to call the agency! To top it off, you would think that when I didn't show up on Tuesday morning they would have called La Ninja to go "what the hell is going on?"... I know if it had been me I would have been doing that around 9:15 on Tuesday... but no, they just left it alone and, from the sounds of things, sulked about it.

You would think that people in finance would understand how commerce works and would not have been expecting to be able to "sort it all out" when I got there on Tuesday. It's not like you take a product home and THEN call the store and order it... *mutter* stoopid people *mutter*...

So now they're going to have to wait until the week after next, if they bother at all...

Current Mood:

random shorts hotness

Just a plain old "hot model" Random Hotness this week... although I have to say that these shots of Philliphe Tanner do push more than a few of my buttons...

Peekaboo shorts, hoodie jacket worn with very little else... and sadly, although I know it's SO five minutes ago, the "photo stripped of all colours but one" thing...

Current Mood:

botanicals

It seems like Spring is very much on it's way... except that it's still kinda cold, even with the sunshine. But it's starting to look Spring-like, which is good.

And I took a brief trip to the Botanical Gardens on Sunday amongst other places and the place is definitely starting to look like Spring.

I still haven't heard anything about the job I was supposed to be doing this week... which is just plain old rude I say. And it's not even like if one person got run over by a bus that nobody else knew about the arrangement... so, rude I say. I think I would probably care more if I didn't have the work organised for next week. What happens after that is anybodies guess...

As for me, well, I seem to be going through a very asexual/celibate phase... it's weird, I don't know if it's because of the weather or if I'm going through some sort of vaguely depressed phase or what, but I really can't be bothered currently... even with, you know, monkey spankage. Weird...

Current Mood:

movies: the forbidden kingdom

I know I say this on a semi-regular basis, but I wasn't expecting a whole hell of a lot from tonight's movie, The Forbidden Kingdom...

Although given the fact that I don't think I read anything about it and there weren't any teevee ads for it, I'm not completely sure how I reached that conclusion (and I do like a good wuxia movie). But, like I said, I wasn't expecting it to be that great.

And while it wasn't the greatest movie ever made, it was pretty good, and a lot better than I expected...

I will freely admit that the plot isn't going to win any awards for originality, you pretty much know what's going to happen in broad terms all the way through, particularly since there's a scene at the beginning where the hero gets harassed by a bully. You just know that after he's learned all his kung fu and is all ass-kickingly-fantastic he has to vanquish that particular foe before the movie is over.

But there are a few genuine surprises... one in particular which makes sense once you see it, but that you never actually see coming. Well, I didn't anyway... which is pretty rare.

The movie itself is very "Crouching Tiger", but with more laughs... lots of wire fu/wuxia action which is pretty impressive for the most part, there was actually only one fight scene where I went "okay, enough with the 'fu already, let's get back to actual plot" and that was when Jet Li and Jackie Chan's characters meet for the first time. I know it's a big thing and all, since this is the first time they've ever co-starred in a movie, but it went maybe a touch too long. There are other fight scenes that probably go on for as long if not longer, but there are more characters involved, so it feels more exciting.

And I want to give the person responsible for Michael Angarano's hairstyle progression a big fat slap (I'm guessing it's Rufus Hearn since he's down as "prosthetic hair technician")... nobody looks good with a ponytail mullet, and it looked very much like it was just a piece stuck on the back of his head. Of course he also did a really good job with a white wig for Bingbing Li so maybe he only gets a small slap.

I also wish they'd spent an extra 30 seconds explaining why Yifei Liu's Golden Sparrow character talks about herself in the third person for the whole movie... I mean, if you think about it once the movie is over it makes some sense, but would it have killed them to throw in a line explaining that it wasn't an affectation?

My only other real problem that I occasionally missed bits of dialogue since 99% of the cast was speaking with an accent and with the music and the sound effects it was sometimes hard to pick up certain lines (like I didn't actually hear Sparrow introduce herself as "Golden Sparrow")...

All in all though it's a pretty enjoyable movie... a little brainless maybe, but good on the butt kicking scale...

yani's rating: 3 Monkey Kings out of 5

no call but cleaning

You know, I just don't get it...

They get me in to talk to them on Friday, they're all overly eager, we set it up so that I'll come in on Tuesday, I tell them they have to call the agency, then I hear nothing from either them or the agency all day today...

So, basically I'm not going to work tomorrow...

I called La Ninja around noon to remind her to call and remind them that they needed to call the agency (yeah, it makes my head hurt too)... and she said she would let them know... and I told her that if I didn't hear from the agency I wasn't going to turn up... so it will be interesting to see what happens come 9am tomorrow when I'm not there. If they get all panicky and throw a fit then it's their own damn fault...

I mean, c'mon... it's just rude... you want me, you guilt me into turning up at short notice and then you don't follow through like you're supposed to... how hard is it to pick up the phone and make one phone call? Sheesh...

I also cancelled my dinner with Rockchick on Friday... Ma has to go to the hospital on Friday afternoon and she'll be having drops in her eyes again and getting big scary alien eyeballs, so she won't be able to drive for several hours so she'll be hanging around here for a while... and it just seemed rude to come home, say hi, then turn around and go out again... so we'll reschedule...

Other than that I was overtly domestic today... my bathroom was getting somewhat festier than normal, and I picked up some "Mould Killer" at the supermarket on the weekend, then nearly gassed myself with it this morning (note to self: don't close the door when using toxic chemicals in a confined space). The bathroom looks pretty good, but still smells like either an over-chlorinated swimming pool or a bottle of bleach, not sure which.

Then when I went in there a little earlier this evening I realised that the screen on the window looked very dusty and gross compared to the rest of the room, so that got an impromptu rinse in the shower...

It's very much a case of "Washing The Windowsill"... but literally this time, which makes a change... and it's mostly because of my new clothes hamper... it's all new and sharp looking, plus I had to clean the floor, so that helps with the sharp looking...

Lord only knows what will happen if and when I get a new bed...

Current Mood:

unconscious mutterings 291

The only problem with watching an episode of the Dexter teevee show right after having read all three Dexter novels is I found myself wanting to yell at Teevee Dexter and tell him that he wasn't following "The Harry Code"...

And now, Unconscious Mutterings...

1. Cry :: Baby
2. Stretch :: Exercise
3. Efficient :: Energy
4. Brunch :: Eggs
5. Afro :: Comb
6. Preheat :: Oven
7. Delicious :: Cookies
8. Global warming :: Penguins (I have no idea why)
9. Actions :: Louder than Words
10. Ride :: Car

Current Mood:

innovate baby

You Are the Innovator

You're the type of person who is always a step ahead of everyone else. You thrive when you're experimenting with new designs, ideas, and attitudes. You are a creative person with many talents. You have to have artistic outlets in your life. You need to create - whether it's writing furiously or redecorating your home. If not, your life becomes chaotic. You tire of doing the same thing every day. You change your job, friends, and personal style often. You are at your best when you have a focus. If not, you develop a flaky artist's temperament.

What Role Do You Play?

Current Mood:

perfect ten

"Mitcham's final dive was the highest scoring dive in Olympic history..."

Okay, so I'm the King of the Hypocrites... I couldn't even tell you how many gold medals Australia has won, but when out gay diver Matthew Mitcham wins gold I have to mention it.

"Mitcham is one of only a few "out" gay athletes in Beijing and the first Australian to openly declare his homosexuality going into an Olympics..."

Which is almost as impressive as his dive...

He scored 112.10 points (out of a maximum 114) with a back 2 and a half sommersault 2 and a half twists dive... and he went from 9th spot to 2nd after his second dive (which I'm pretty sure I saw on teevee last night)...

Go Matthew, it's your birthday, not for real-real, just for play-play...

Ahem...

I was also amused by the comment of the 14 year old British diver... you know there were all kinda of media consultants and team officials shaking their heads after he said it though...

"Matthew Mitcham today was absolutely fantastic and I am so glad that a non-Chinese person won, said young British rival Thomas Daley, after the Australian's win raised the spirits of foreign divers who had seemed doomed to only second-best."

UPDATE: After I finished writing this post I went into the lounge room and figured I would flick the teevee onto the Olympic coverage just in case they happened to show Matthew's dive... and what did I tune right into... yep, Matthew's dive...

And I got all teary eyed watching it (hello, tragic much!)... he's so fucking adorable and so sweet (and SOOOO gay, but cute with it) and just his reactions when he got out of the pool, before he even got his score... in a word, ADORABLE!

Current Mood:

long productive shopping

It's been a pretty good shopping day, but a long one...

Part of the problem with starting work again is that I never quite remember how much stuff I should buy and what proportion needs to be easy to make stuff for after work (yeah, I know... my life is so hard, not!)... so I think I kinda fudged my way through this week... I'll probably end up with too much stuff, especially since I'm supposed to be going out to dinner at Rockchick's house on Friday...

We'll see...

The Red Circle Boutique we wander around most Saturdays is in the midst of a makeover, and suddenly there are aisles where there was (and still is) carpet... and spots that used to be aisles that now run straight into shelves... annoying really... and they're moving both the DVDs and the menswear to a different corner (they're still together though)...

Have I mentioned that I don't really like change? And that I'm a big sookiebaby? *wink*

Anyway... after the Supermarket and RCB Adventures we headed down to Marion. No real reason, except we haven't been down there in a while... and I needed a bulb for my glitter lamp. Okay, so I've needed a bulb for months now, and keep forgetting to get the bulb out of the lamp (which takes all of about 30 seconds) but this week I got all inspired and took it out so I didn't forget.

I also got some new socks (thrilling, I know, but it was a topic of discussion earlier in the week)... some ones specifically for walking (the label has a photo of a guy's very impressive calf muscle and is all covered with words like "performance" and "active" and "cushion" and "support" and "Sizes 6-10"... oh, wait... scratch that last one) which have a coloured toe and heel so at least I'll be able to tell them apart from my regular socks. One thing I have to ask (although the answer occurs to me as I write that) is why they always make the colours all different on multipacks of socks with coloured bits. Yes, yes, I know, it's so you can tell one pair from another, but it still offends my aesthetic sensibilities... plus if you get a hole in one of the blue toed pair and one of the black toed pair, you look weird making a black and blue pair...

After we'd wandered around Marion for some indeterminate length of time and I'd ogled all the variably attractive guys in their trackpants (I don't know what was up with that, but there seemed to be a higher proportion than normal in trackpants...) we decided the head over to Ikea to continue "The Search For The Perfect Clothes Hamper"...

I noticed earlier this week that my old wicker hamper which I must have had for about 108 million years had finally started to succumb to living right next to the shower and getting a little damp on a daily basis.

Trust me, you don't want to know... let's just say it's passed it's use-by date...

I'd looked at one in one of the el cheapo shops that wasn't bad because it had feet, got it up off the ground, but it was also some wicker stuff... we'd seen one somewhere else that was all plastic and had a "two stage" lid or something, essentially the lid tipped forwards and backwards, but I could see that that would become annoying in short order...

Basically I couldn't see anything good for a halfway decent price...

Then we hit Ikea...

I realised at one point that the store layout seemed to have changed... then I realised that we were actually going with the arrows (and the sheep) instead of going backwards around the whole floor... funny how that will change your perspective.

Anyway, there was much looking at sidetables (Ma bought one that I'm supposedly going to have to varnish or stain or oil or something so it's currently living under my couch in the flatpack, and I got a little cheapo steel and glass table that has gone away for Christmas, which is good, because I have no idea where it's going)... and beds (I need a new one, or a mattress at the very least... and the Mandal one kinda looks good)... and dining tables (Ma needs a better, smaller one but she can't decide what she wants) before we got around to laundry hampers.

Behold the blackness and the metal frameness of my Antonius hamper (only without the castors, because really, where does my hamper need to go so urgently, and also the wheels were almost the same price as the whole hamper... so screw that)... I went with black because white is all boring and whatnot (plus the "shows dirt" factor)... although given that I have a few pairs of black Calvin Klein boxerbriefs I can foresee an occasion where either they or a lone black sock is going to get stuck languishing in the bottom of the hamper...

It does seem very striking when you go into the bathroom though, it's all BLACK AND EYECATCHING against the white tiles... but I suppose white wouldn't have been much different, other than the general whiteness and newness of it.

I did take some sweet revenge on my neighbours during the construction phase though... the whole thing is metal (well, the frame obviously, the rest of it is all 100% polyester) and needed to essentially be hammered together... I quite enjoyed that... hammering away with all my might and having the vibration/thumping/noise echo through the building to whatever neighbours were around... it's called karmic payback people, deal with it...

Ahem... moving on...

Course then I had to mop and scrub and otherwise clean and de-yuck the spot for the hamper (also, I need a new mop, my mop sucks)...

So that was my day... how about you?

Current Mood:

photo friday: winter sun

Oy! What a day!

You know how they say it doesn't rain but it pours... I was already going into the city to meet with Ginger Ninja and some random folks about the job they wanted me for... then I got a call from the agency asking if I was free and giving me a week's work (in the same building, obviously). I wasn't sure if it was the same group or not, so I said yes to it.

Turns out it's a different group, but it should still work out okay.

Then I went in for the meeting, and of course La Ninja was running late (typical really), but when we eventually got up there it wasn't too bad. I did feel like I was blushing the whole time, but I think that was because the building was overheated... it was weird though.

And I'm also pretty sure that I've met the guy I'll be working with/for before... or I've seen him in the elevators a lot, or something... he looks very familiar. Seems nice though, so that should be okay.

It sounds like it's going to be a reasonably huge job, but it could be interesting... or if not interesting, then it could frustrate the crap out of me. But on the upside the receptionist is actually cute and blonde and a boy (him I know I've met before, I think he came to somebody's birthday morning tea thing last time), which is unusual but good.

I kinda got talked into/talked myself into/felt somewhat obliged to start next week. I think if I didn't have the week of work on the other floor then I could quite easily have slotted in then, but as it is I start on Tuesday, work with them for the rest of the week, leave them with things to be going on with, go downstairs for a week and then come back.

Now all I need to do is pick up my security card on Tuesday (Rockchick wasn't sure where it was, and La Ninj was off in another meeting) and I'm all set...

Current Mood:

random jozef hotness

Today's Random Hotness is one from the art drawer, and also a blast from my proverbial past.

I was first introduced to the work of Jozef Szekeres by Lownee way back in about 1996 (lordy, was it really TWELVE years ago!?) as part of my discovery of Elfquest... the Australian Black Mermaid Productions crew (then consisting of Jozef, Bruce Love and Julie Ditrich) produced a spin off comic book about sea-elves (Wavedancers), and I fell in love with not only the artwork, but the fact that there was a male couple (Maron and Paffa) amongst the elves. Woohoo, gay sea-elves!

Anyway, relations between the EQ folks and the BMP folks fell apart (a by product of which is that you can't find a copy of the comic books anywhere and they're never going to be reprinted *sad face*)... and that was that.

Then last year there was an awesome Mardi Gras poster but I could never find out who the artist was... well, I happened to be randomly digging around back in March and discovered that the artist in question was... yes, you guessed it... Jozef Szekeres! And not only was he gay but he'd also done a bunch of stuff for various gay publications.

For more of his work (and a peak at some of the original Wavedancers artwork) take a look at his deviantART and y! Gallery pages...

Current Mood:

if i were a meme

This one was actually harder than I thought it was going to be... partly because it was hard to separate "I like" from "If I were"... and partly because I've never really wondered what kind of verb or metal or song I would be...

And some of the answers might be a little vague...

• If I were a direction I'd be... lost
  


• If I were furniture I'd be... a chaise lounge
  


• If I were a liquid I'd be... water
  


• If I were a gem/stone I'd be... amethyst
  


• If I were a metal I'd be... copper
  


• If I were a tree I'd be... an Acacia
  


• If I were a flower I'd be... an Anthurium


• If I were a fruit I'd be... seedless grapes (and what do you mean "if")
  


• If I were weather I'd be... stormy
  


• If I were a music instrument I'd be... a double bass
  


• If I were an element I'd be... water
  


• If I were a colour I'd be... silver
  


• If I were an animal I'd be... a house cat
  


• If I were a sound I'd be... a foghorn
  


• If I were a lyric I'd be... "clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you."
  


• If I were a song I'd be... "I'm Going Bananas" by Madonna
  


• If I were a music style I'd be... lounge music
  


• If I were a perfume/cologne I'd be... What About Adam
  


• If I were a feeling I'd be... bipolar
  


• If I were a book I'd be... the dictionary
  


• If I were a food I'd be... bad for you
  


• If I were a city I'd be... San Francisco
  


• If I were a taste I'd be... tangy
  


• If I were a scent I'd be... sandlewood
  


• If I were a word I'd be... complex
  


• If I were a verb I'd be... know
  


• If I were an object I'd be... a puzzle
  


• If I were a piece of clothing I'd be... a comfortable sweatshirt
  


• If I were a body part I'd be... hands
  


• If I were a facial expression I'd be... mugging
  


• If I were a cartoon character I'd be... Snagglepuss
  


• If I were a movie I'd be... Amelie


• If I were a geometrical figure I'd be... an irregular polygon


• If I were a season I'd be... Autumn
  


• If I were a sentence I'd be... "thank god that's over with" (okay, not really, but I am glad it's over and can't really think of a sentence)

Current Mood:

graffiti detail

More shots from the SALA Graffiti Safari...

I love close up graffiti details... they don't have to make any sense or be readable... it's all about the colours and the shapes...

And now I'm going to go to the supermarket to buy chocolate chips so I can use up my slightly squishy 'narnas and make some Banana & Choc muffins...

Current Mood:

two hundredth book

On the 10th of February 2007 I broke the hundred book mark for "Currently Reading" books, today I reached my second hundred (okay, technically I broke it yesterday morning, but I actually wanted to read my 200th book first so that I could blog about it)...

The title that marks 200 books is Peter Pan (which I went searching for back at the beginning of July, thanks to the First Tuesday Book Club)... I think that I was expecting something with a little more oomph to it after hearing what they had to say on FTBC... It's sweet and all, but a little anachronistic (as you would expect for a book written nearly a century ago) and therefore a little difficult to read in spots. I have to say that the 2003 movie version sticks fairly close to the novel for the most part (the beginning and ending probably moreso than the centre section), so I didn't really feel like I was getting that much more of an expanded story. The whole thing is sweet (and if ever there was a slightly lackluster adjective, there it is), and the ending is actually a little on the sad side (and where they obviously extracted the entire setup of the plot for Hook), but, yeah... I didn't find it anywhere near as engaging and affecting as I thought I might have.

But if you compare that to my 199th book, in something of a similar vein (in that it's also a children's book, features an element of fantasy and has been made into a movie that I've seen), Bridge to Terabithia was a much better experience... and although it was also a little anachronistic too (having been written in 1977 when a dollar went a long way), I was more emotionally invested in that book and found myself tearing up in the same place that I did in the movie (whether it was because of the memory of tearing up at that point in the movie or not, I don't know).

Now... talking a little more randomly about the last 100 book...

Nearly 40% of the books in this montage are from the Discworld series... I'd been plotting and planning to read the entire series all the way through for months, and when I was having Book Angst back in January I predicted that because it was a 30+ book series (36 as it turns out, because I got a couple more of the series while I was in the process of reading it) it would take me until "April or May, at the earliest" (which would have made it about four months)... yeah, right... try six and a half months... I started reading the first book at the very end of January, and finished the last one last Friday...

At least this time around I didn't try to orchestrate things so that the most recent Discworld book just happened to be Book 200...

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole series, don't get me wrong (especially the later ones that I'd only read once before, or hadn't read at all), it's not like reading a series that's all about one group of characters, the series flips between four or five major groups of characters and there are also independent books that almost stand on their own, so it never feels like a chore (okay, it kind of did when I got to about the three quarters mark, but only briefly)... but if I ever suggest reading the whole Discworld series again, somebody please slap me upside the head and make me lie down until the desire to tackle the series goes away...

It's also a little disheartening to discover that Terry Pratchett (author of the Discworld books) has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's Disease... although according to him, he has a variant that's apparently "a good one to have" (as far as these things go obviously). And while I know that it's never good when somebody has Alzheimer's, I kinda think it's doubly sad in his case because he's such a talented and witty writer, that it could be stripped away from him is tragic.

I'm also very thankful that I was introduced to LibraryThing (thanks to Tom) the day after the first 100 books... I still don't use it like a normal person (and I haven't listed all of my books under another username), but I did upgrade to "Lifetime Member" recently... not a bad deal at $25...

And yes, anybody being particularly sharp-eyed (and, some would say, obsessive compulsive) will notice that there are some repeats between the first and second hundred books... the Harry Potter series for one, and a couple of the Discworld books... but I said 200 books, not 200 unique titles...

Now we start the third hundred with some Dexter action...

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unconscious mutterings 290

Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy... new shoe bouncy... actually my new sneakers don't seem to be anywhere near as bouncy or snug fitting as I remember them being in the store... not completely sure what that's about, but they are very comfortable...

Bouncy, bouncy, Unconscious Mutterings, bouncy, bouncy...

1. Signature :: Fragrance
2. Olympics :: Hype
3. 100% :: Pure
4. Damn! :: Magazine!
5. Gold :: Medal
6. Fresh and natural :: Meadow
7. Fraction :: Denominator
8. Hurry :: Up
9. Summer :: Heat
10. 29th :: Warrior

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random album cover meme

I don't remember where I stole this one from now... but I did a somewhat similar meme once before, only this one has pictures!

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
   The first article title on the page is the name of your band.


2. http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
   The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.


3. http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
   The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.


4. Use your graphics program of choice to throw them together, and post the result.

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undirected shoe shopping

Sometimes it's good to do a little "undirected" shopping... just wandering about, not looking for anything in particular, but finding useful things...

Okay, the undirected part isn't completely true, we had a little bit of direction, but not a lot...

After the regular Supermarket Adventures™ (and is it just me, or is everything really expensive at the moment... I mean Iced Coffee has gone up to $3 a carton... rude!) we went into town... again...

While I may be gay and understand the need for accessories, I just don't get Ma and handbags... she finds one she likes, she uses it for what seems like not very long, and then suddenly it's too heavy or there's something wrong with it or whatever and then we're back to looking everywhere for a new one. And she's been carting around these frankly unattractive bags the last couple of weeks, so I pointed her in the direction of some bags on sale in Harris Scarfes, and actually got her to make a decision (which is a feat in itself), so we'll have to see how long this one lasts... it's nice though, kind of like a small satchel. And I had a Fellow Mo moment at the register... he was having trouble with the security tag, which was on a plastic look around the handle and I said something about just cutting it and then we had a bit of a girly bonding moment, complete with additional Friends of Dorothy Additional Eye Contact as we left... amusing...

I also had half an idea about getting a new pair of walking shoes, I figured I might as well put my tax cheque to some good use (since we don't seem to be planning any grand adventures like last time)... the ones I got at Christmas are pretty much a waste of time (that's the last time I buy New Balance), they've only lasted for eight months, whereas the Reeboks lasted for a year and a half...

We headed over to Joggers World again... but not only did they have a glut of New Balance (everywhere we went did actually), I was pretty underwhelmed by my choices otherwise... men's sneakers seem like they're being designed by hyperactive 10 year olds with a full box of crayons... they're just generally fugly. I was also somewhat underwhelmed by the service at Joggers World... I mean the guy was helpful and all, but not as helpful as the one from last time (although more attractive... I kept getting distracted by his arms, all buff and biteable in what I assume were skintight white Skins).

Then after we were finished with everything else we called into The Athletes Foot (and you know, it's only when you go to write it down that you realise how wrong that is for a shoe store name)... and again I was underwhelmed by the choices in shoe... but then I got pounced on my big lanky B-man who was very useful and attentive... he measured my foot, let me use the special foot analysis machine thingy (my feet roll in, and I put a fair amount of my weight over the front part of my foot... but I knew that already), then wandered off to get some styles he thought would be good for my feet. He didn't help me on with the shoes or do up the laces for me or anything... I've had that done before (not for a long while though) and it's always a little creepy.

Eventually I settled on a pair of Asics... they're not the prettiest shoes ever (again, that whole hyperactive 10 year old problem, although mine are in silver, black, white and blue... not sure if that is better or worse than the yellow version), but they felt nice and bouncy when I put them on (because of all the "gel" and whatever else they stick in these shoes nowadays). So, again it was substance over style in a walking shoe...

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photo friday: snuggle

This is another shot from the SALA safari a couple of weeks ago... sprayed on the top of a dumpster. It intrigues me that using a question mark instead of an apostrophe seems to turn the whole sentence into a question... at least in my brain...

I also think I may have invoked Job Guide (the God of Employment) this week... I went to lunch with Stu on Wednesday, and because I can feel underdressed going to lunch with him even when I'm working (the boy does like to overdress for the office, what can I say... and I haven't worn a tie in years), I pulled one of my work shirts out of the wardrobe and threw it over my teeshirt...

And then last night I got a call from none other than Ginger Ninja... I didn't actually take the call, it was a number I didn't recognise and it was late in the evening... so you know, screw it... but when I checked the message it was an offer of work. Not back with The Dysfunctional Family Robinson (ie the old crew) sadly, but with another group in the building. I sent her an email last night saying that it sounded interesting (because of, you know, the cash), but I wasn't sure how it was going to last until November (which is what she'd said)...

She sent me another message this morning with more details... and I haven't replied yet partly because I've read the damn email about a dozen times and I'm still not completely sure what I'd be doing... okay, that's kind of a lie, but I'm wondering about the rationalisation about getting me in to do it. I know that I should just shut up, say yes, do the work, take their money (which I think is a level up from what I've been paid in the past) and run, but I look at what La Ninj has outlined and I wonder what the point is... they're talking about reorganising all of their information and then creating a position for the ongoing management.

But to me that just reflects the ongoing problems with that organisation... you get somebody in, you get them to do all the scutwork, they set up whatever it is the way they think it should run... and then they leave and somebody else comes in and takes over and has to relearn the whole system from scratch. Does that seem productive or an effective use of people's time to anybody else?

There's also a line in the email that's kind of worrying me, because Ninj said that the job needs "some one who has a good knowledge of [Department]"... and I know that I've been in and out of the building for years and years and years... but I've never actually been PART of the organisation... I've never been paid by them or had to deal with HR or had much to do with any section that I wasn't involved in (and usually then, only in relation to whatever website I was working on). So I'm not sure I have that knowledge.

I also know that part of it is me trying to talk myself out of a situation I feel might be over my head... granted I can bullshit with the best of them and can usually pick stuff up reasonably quickly, but I'd be theoretically locking myself into something for about three months, with the option of three more... and I might spend that whole time drowning.

Maybe I just need to call her and burble down the phone...

[Twenty Minutes Later]

Yes... well... I'm not completely sure I'm any better off information wise than I was a little while ago, but it does look like there's, as the saying goes, movement at the station... so I could be gainfully employed again in a couple of weeks. Whether it's for three weeks or three months is anybody's guess right now, but it should be interesting either way...

Current Mood:

random showering hotness

Sometimes it's just nice to have an uncomplicated, "almost naked but not quite" Random Hotness...

Today's specimen is 18 year old Thiago Rufinelli from The Boy... and the fact that he's all wet and showery is just a bonus... although I don't know that you'd pick him as eighteen in a million years...

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yanicrest

I followed a link from Monty... and we all know how much I love these kinda things...

This one is from the nice folks at Scion, which as I understand it is "a youth oriented sub-brand of Toyota USA", isn't bad, although like Monty says, it's not perfect. I do like the somewhat bewildering number of icons for the shield (and yes, those are handcuffs on mine), and the descriptions for the "Top Creatures" are quite amusing...

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misty morning

We had some fairly impressive mist this morning... not as impressive as last year (and certainly not as photogenic) though...

And it was kind of odd... When I left my place it was fairly foggy, then the entire east side of North Adelaide seemed to be fog-free (but I could still see it down the other end of the cross streets), when I got down to the river it thickened up, but didn't really become impressive until I came past the King William Street bridge...

What was really cool (and I wish I could have gotten a decent photo of it, but my timing was off) was watching the four (cute) man rowing crew slide off into the fog...

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