photo friday: video monster

A little bit of over-Photoshoped work for Photo Friday today...

Welcome to Friday, and Yani's World of Snark...

I realised this morning that I've been fairly snarky at work the last few days, particularly in the general direction of the Boss Manchild. And not without good reason... I gave him stuff last Friday that he swore he would get back to me by that afternoon. A week later and I'm still waiting on it.

Of course, as soon as I started pondering that thought (and had a bout of additional snarkiness this morning), he actually got his arse at least partially into gear and gave me enough stuff back so that I had a project that kept me completely occupied for the whole day (and I'll have to finish up on Monday).

Even so, I've got no qualms whatsoever about walking away from the place come next Friday whether the job is finished or not... they know I'm going, they know there is X amount of work that needs to be done before I go, and yet they (and BMC particularly) drag their feet with it.

Rudeness!

We'll have to see how it all works out though I guess.

I decided that today needed to be a Market Day... I was in need of a Central Market excursion, so I took an hour for lunch and toddled on over.

Obviously the Universe heard me whining the other day, because there's a store that opened since the last time I was over there... Little Tokyo! (complete with exclamation point I might add)... sadly they only had a three teir Bento box, but with any luck they're getting more in next week. For now I settled for getting Ma a little mouse/bear/keyring thing in a pink kimono... all cute and stuff.

Oh, and as I was going into the store, who should be outside in his chef's outfit and red Crocs but Simon Bryant, Executive Chef at The Hilton and star of The Cook and The Chef. Hey, I said it was a true story, I never said it was interesting!

Then I got some bad service (I've been standing looking at things for like five minutes, could you at least ASK me if you can help me, ya stupid bint) and a brooch made with Japanese paper for Ma (it's like clear resin over the paper, it's loverly).

After that I hit Goodies and Grains for Vegie Chips and dark couverture chocolate (and bonded with the serving girlie over their Rocky Road... she made appreciative faces when I told her I make mine with Turkish Delight) and kind of wandered around aimlessly looking for anywhere in our pathetic little "Chinatown" that might have the kind of box I'm after. No luck.

But then I stopped off at one of those hippy dippy stores (a new one, rather than the one I've visited previously) and found a very cool Bastet statue... most of the smaller ones aren't nearly as detailed and interesting, but this one was just very regal and gorgeous... and also the last one left in the store... and now she's mine (and headed for the Christmas Abyss).

Oddly I didn't actually buy a damn thing inside the Market proper... just skirted around the edges. I should have bought some apples, even though I really didn't have time to be hungry all afternoon.

And I got distracted by a hot, skinny guy in one of the Chinese supermarkets who was wearing impressively filled bike shorts... nummy!

While we're on the topic of men, the Universe has decided to throw redheads at me. Okay, "throw" isn't quite the right phrase since I haven't caught any of them yet, but I think I've seen more cute redheaded boys (and we're talking BRIGHT CARROT ORANGE, none of this Strawberry Blonde nonsense) this week than I've seen for months. Can I have one now... please? I promise not to break him (very much)!

Oh, and speaking of Signs From The Universe... today on my way to work I saw two Crumpler bags (okay, one was a paper bag, but it still had the Crumpler logo on it). I couldn't tell you the last time I saw even a single bag (the logo is a different story, because you see that around as a sticker in weird places from time to time), but today, two. So obviously I'm supposed to buy one (see, I can justify anything!).

Also, I'm in geek-related mourning... David Tennant is quitting Doctor Who *pout*. But I've think I've decided which of the names being bandied about that I want to replace him... Paterson Joseph, because he would be the first black Doctor, and how fucking cool would that be! Either him or James McAvoy (aka Mr Tumnus)... coz, again, nummy!

Oh, and Happy Halloween too!

Current Mood:

random bunter hotness

Behold today's Random Hotness, Eric Bunter... I'm not exactly sure who the photographer is, but I do like a boy who plays with his balls...

Current Mood:

i heart toy soldiers

I have this thing about toy soldiers...

Not the little green plastic army men type (or the 1991 movie featuring Sean Astin's buttocks, although I did have a thing about it at the time), but the classic toy solider that you tend to see a lot around Christmas (and with less than two months to go, Christmas is starting to creep into the collective consciousness once again, which is what made me think about this post)... the type with the big black hat and the red tunic with the white belts and blue pants. Like those two in the photo...

If I had to pick my favourite Christmas symbol, it would have to be the toy soldier (an odd choice, I know, but I've never been particularly conventional)...

I think that they're based on the British Army uniform from Days of Yore, but simplified down to it's basic graphical interpretation obviously...

I couple of weeks ago, when Ma and I were at West Lakes, we wandered through the Christmas display in David Jones and I happened to see a flat, silver (silvery really, because I'm sure it's not actual silver) toy soldier Christmas ornament, so I had to have it and it got added to the Away For Christmas Abyss...

But it got me thinking... and just kind of bubbled away in the back of my brain for a while until it resolved itself into a question...

"Where the hell did this obsession with toy soldiers come from?"

And you know what? Even after pondering it for some time now, I still have no idea where the obsession came from, I don't even remember when it started, but me and Christmas and toy soldiers, it's a thing...

I was never particularly into soldiers and war toys as a kid (although give me a plastic sword and shield and I was happy for months, or until it broke, whichever came first), so it's not just a general "war" thing... and it's a very particular type of solider too.

If I had to delve into the pop culture zeitgeist looking for toy solider explanations, the first one that springs to mind is the one from The Nutcracker Suite... but it's not like I've ever even seen it, at least not that I remember (and Ma mentioned that she hadn't ever taken me to it when I was little... and I might have seen all of about five minutes of it on teevee at some stage, but that's it)... so it can't come from there.

Which would at least make some kind of sense, because the wooden nutcrackers that creep onto the shelves around Christmas tend to be dressed up as various kinds of soldiers, but I'm not really that fond of some of them... partially because they usually have the "wrong" outfit (or they covered in glitter like one we saw last weekend... which is a shame, because he was on a "music box" and drummed to the music, and I could have been up for getting one... but, hello... tacky glitter)... but I still have to have a look every time I see them, just in case I find the "perfect" one.

Actually they have some halfway decent ones in The Reject Shop of all places (which was also home to the Music Box Abomination), so maybe this is the year to get one.

The only other pop culture reference to toy soldiers that I can think of is from Hans Christian Anderson's story The Steadfast Tin Soldier. Now, that I DO remember from when I was a kid, although I don't quite remember whether it was a story on tape that I had or if I actually read it (I'm guessing that wherever it was from it didn't come with a whole lot of pictures)... but I know that I've always loved that story, tragic though the original version is (and don't even get me started on the travesty of the Walt Disney Corporation version that they released as part of their Fantasia 2000 project... happy ending my arse)... so maybe part of it comes from there (that might also account for my occasional slight fondness for people missing body parts... although that's a whole other, much more twisted, story).

But I can't really point to any one thing and say "THAT'S why I like toy soldiers"... story of my life really... I like what I like because I like it, and that's usually enough for me without a lot of soul searching.

The entire toy soldier concept is very wrapped up (no pun intended) with Christmas though, they're usually one of the items that can be seen poking out of a Santa sack (traditionally anyway, who knows what the hell he's got in there these days), and I'm pretty sure some of them would have showed up in the (then) John Martin's Christmas Pageant (actually that could be at least part of it, because I saw a lot of Christmas Pageants in my youth)...

Other than the whole Pageant thing, the earliest Christmas toy solider I remember must have been on one of my Christmas stockings... but I can't remember if that was part of the cause or if I got it because I already liked toy soldiers by that point. I also found a toy solider glass ornament (not technically a bauble, since it's roughly toy solider shaped) at some point, which sadly doesn't get put on the tree anymore since we switched to "all balls".

I don't actually know what I'm going to do with the silver one... maybe I need to buy one of the nutcrackers, liberate the glass ornament from Ma's place, buy the wind-up drumming toy soldier from the newsagent near work and have a little toy soldier shrine this Christmas...

But no matter where it comes from, I do indeed heart toy soldiers!

Current Mood:

thought for wednesday

If your default position upon feeling like crap is to sublimate your emotions with bad and wrong food, it's not really an overly productive move when it's caused by feeling fat and lumpy in the first place. It's doubly annoying when the mood is caused by your favourite red shirt.

Current Mood:

critters by jules

Jules has previously done birds... now it's fish... well, one fish and one kind of vague stylised fish-type creature...

It's been one of those days today... every time I think I'm making progress at work I come up against the Great Wall of Delay. Is it so hard to take five minutes and actually give me back the stuff I need to do my job?

Anyway, it was a trying day all around, I just felt all frustrated and out of sorts... and occasionally sleepy...

In a word: Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Current Mood:

unconscious mutterings 300

Nobody knows nothin' about nothin'...

A large number of people at work seemed to be confused about the concept of "Casual Monday", but I was happily wearing jeans and my new pink stripy polo, so I didn't care in the slightest.

Then at lunch I went down to the Japanese gift place, which it turns out is called Ikeguchi (so no wonder I didn't remember it)... and that lacquer box that I saw in the window on Sunday is the only one they have in the whole store... *pout*. And I can't think of anywhere else that would have the damn boxes, not in this city anyway... I'm sure if I was in Sydney or even Melbourne I could go out and find a perfect little Bento-type box in the right size, no worries... grrr... I can't even find anywhere online...

So I bought myself a Maneki Neko for my desk and came back to work...

I'm thinking about getting the larger one they have in Ikeguchi, if for no other reason than it will completely confuse Ma when she opens it... or, I kind of have another plan in mind, but not sure about that yet...

And since my conscious mind is all in a huff, lets see if my Unconscious Mutterings are any better...

1. Contemplate :: Meditate
2. In the house :: DJ Hizzy
3. Classical :: Music
4. Quest :: Elf
5. Best friend :: Lownee
6. 1991 :: School's Out
7. Never will :: Say Goodbye
8. Fool :: April
9. Unhappy :: Man
10. Best man :: Gomez

Current Mood:

sundayness

Thank the gods for Sunday shopping...

Even though I work in the city, I'm just that little bit too far away from the main shopping strip, and don't quite have a long enough lunch break to get down there, shop, eat and get back in time. And Saturdays are spent with Ma...

So I've found myself doing some Sunday shopping...

Although, like today, it's not always successful.

This morning I went down to Arndale to pick up a copy of the Michael Parkinson autobiography from Big W, since the store at Marion had it out for about half price. Unfortunately the one at Arndale didn't even have any copies. So, Strike One.

Then this afternoon I went into the city, I figured I'd just have a look around, maybe check out the Crumpler bags, have a look at some Japanese/Chinese fabric, see if I could find a lacquer box, that kind of thing.

The cool Japanese store on Pultney Street... closed. Strike Two. But I did peer in through the window and they had a fairly sizeable lacquer box for about $30, so it looks promising... I'm going to have to go down there on Monday at lunch (I'll take a longer lunchbreak, screw it).

I also want to look there and see if they have some sort of scarf or squares of fabric... because while I found some nice Chinese brocade fabric in hot pink, I don't know if it will be right for what I want to do with it. What I really want is (I think) red silk fabric with pagodas on it... which I know sounds pretty damn specific and slightly odd, but there is a whole story behind it...

When Ma was a little girl she and her sister were going to have these dresses (or blouses or something, I forget now) made for them by some random lady... and Ma chose this fabric with Chinese pagodas on it, while her sister picked something with horses. The outfits were duly made, but aforementioned lady screwed up and had made the one for Ma in, you guessed it, the horse fabric. If I ever find fabric with little pagodas on it, I'm buying the whole fucking roll and giving it to her so she can do whatever she wants with it.

Anyway...

I did go and look at the Crumpler bags... chatted with the vague yet slightly groovy girlies that work in there (well, at least one of them works there, I think the other one was just visiting)... and, still not sure. I mean I LOVE the bags, but I'm halfway caught between "what if I get bored" and "what if it looks crappy on me because of the way it sits" (I should really have tried one on today, but didn't for some reason) and still not being sure which one I like. It's definitely between Barney Rustle and Western Lawn... I like the Barney because it's like the original, but it has buckles as well as velcro on the flap, but it has little zipper pockets and stuff... while the Lawn is equally groovy, but doesn't have either the buckles (which is good) or the zippers... so I'm around 50/50 on which one I like best. Indecision, just one of my many talents...

The only thing I really accomplished was buying the Grand Designs DVD... for Ma. Although even that was a production, because I wanted to check if anywhere else had it cheaper than the ABC Shop, which nobody did, so I had to trek back up there after I'd checked a couple of other places.

Then I wasted some time in the Charm Shop looking at some Thomas Sabo seahorse charms and earrings... lovely, but hideously overpriced and sadly the earrings only come with turquoise stones. And you know that situation where you know something is very overpriced and you have no intention of buying it, but the salesperson just won't shut up and let you escape with dignity so you just let them talk themselves out before you high-tail it out of there... that was me.

I did have a slightly selfish realisation while I was out and about though... well, it's kind of selfish, but I can't think of what the right word should be... I realised that the only person I really care about getting things for Christmas for is Ma. I'm not sure that it's a new thought, but I'm pretty sure it's the first time I've really articulated it as a fully formed thought in my head. Last year I was all caught up with getting all those bits and pieces for J's hamper... and the stuff for Sheba's kids... and the paintings for my cousin and her girls (which I know didn't cost money, but required a thought process)... this year I have the money to do more, but I honestly don't care.

I also wandered into a hat shop in Adelaide Arcade... I wasn't really seriously looking, I just kind of wanted to see what they had, given that I have a funny shaped head and I can't find hats that fit anywhere else... and normally I'm quite happy to have sales staff leave me alone until I actually want something, but then if they ignore me I get huffy... I'm a complex little moppet really. I was a little miffed that one of the stupid wenches in the store asked the couple right near me if they needed any help, but ignored me... so I left. Plus their hats were overpriced... *grin*

So other than a quick wander down the Rundle Street Market that was about my day...

Current Mood:

movies: eagle eye

I can't remember the last time a movie finished and I was quite so wiped out...

But after Eagle Eye it was a whole world of taking a long, deep breath. The movie not only has a LOT of running and ducking and dodging and hiding and things blowing up, but they manage to keep the tension pretty high, so even when it's just people standing around talking it still feels like you're running and dodging. And that's what you want in an action movie, I think.

Although when the movie first started I did check my ticket just to see if we were in the right cinema... it didn't start the way I thought it would. And it almost seemed like a completely different movie for a while... but that was all just setting up the backstory for the plot, and it went away eventually.

Then there was some character backstory... blah, blah, he died, he has a trumpet, oh look explosives and guns and SWAT team, oh my, blah, blah, blah... and THEN the story really kicked into high gear and never throttled down again for the rest of the movie.

Okay, the beginning section wasn't as uninteresting as I might be making it sound, but it was starting to feel like it was trying to be one of those political terrorism drama movies that seem to be flavour of the month at present.

But then a crane crashes into the side of a building... so you know it can only improve from there.

And the movie is full of people I'm quite fond of... the ever-lickable Shia LaBeouf (yeah, you can say what you like... I still think he's Teh Coolness), Michelle Monaghan (I told you she was going to go places, and I was right), Ethan Embry (who I didn't recognise for the longest time... he got all grown up and stuff), and the ever lovely Rosario Dawson (being all buttoned down, which makes a change from the other things I've seen her in).

Even the people I'm not traditionally fond of, like Billy Bob Thornton, were pretty good.

And while it wasn't a perfect movie, there really isn't anything I can pick on it about... if there were any bad special effects I honestly didn't notice them... but I was so caught up in the story that pretty much all the possible plot holes (and I'm sure there were more than a few) passed right by me. The only thing I did notice was that we didn't see one particular character at the end, so their fate was kind of left up in the air.

But it's just a big, rollicking adventure really... definitely one for the DVD collection!

yani's rating: 4 surveillance cameras out of 5

grand shopping trip

Whooshka... it's been a big long day...

Four shopping centres, a trip to the movies, dinner... big, big, big long day... and a day of questionable weather... it's been hot, but cloudy, hence a touch muggy... but on the upside, we've spent most of it in air-conditioned indoorness...

Ma came down nice and early as per usual, and we went off on our regular Supermarket Safari (that would be Shopping Centre #1)... all without the aid of a list, because I was too slack to actually write one...

The safari ended kinda early... we were back at my place by about 9:30 or so... and full of all kinds of wonderful indecision about what to do with the remainder of the day.

We ended up going down to Marion (Shopping Centre #2) because I wanted to have a look for pink shirts and hats and reindeer and a possible decision about Christmas presents (since there's now officially two months until Christmas)...

One out of four isn't bad... no, actually it is bad, it's very bad (okay, technically it was two out of four, but the two wasn't the two I was actually looking for).

So, oddly, it was only the reindeer that I decided on (it's all perspex with bells and metal bits and I'll probably photograph it closer to Christmas... plus all of Myer's table top decorations were 30% off, so, hello... big fat bargain!). Although I do now have a bunch of possible ideas for things for Ma for Christmas... you know, in addition to all the stuff I've already bought her.

So, note to self... Parkinson biography and one of those tabletop water fountain things if we can actually find one she likes... ummmm... Oh, and maybe the Grand Designs DVD (although that might be a "sharing" present). And I knew that I'd seen a black lacquer box somewhere... the Oxfam Shop, they have one with goldfish on it... not quite what I was after, but maybe as a fallback position.

I also found some groovy teeshirts in appropriate sizes elsewhere... only got two out of the four that I originally picked out though. I'm sure I've complained about this before, but I want to know why the hell two shirts made by the exact same company in the exact same size can fit completely differently... grrrr...

Anyway, I now have a choice between a Transformers teeshirt and a random purple teeshirt to wear on Christmas Day.

I will also say that any "3 for $20" offer at EzyDVD is just evil... especially when we could only find two decent titles... *sigh*... we did eventually make up the three, but it was touch and go for a while there... yeah, I know, abuse of sarcasm right there...

Part of the plan for the day was finding me a pink top for Monday... yes, I didn't actually need to go out and buy something new for Pink Ribbon Casual Day on Monday, but I'd seen some cheap, yet okay looking polo shirts a few weeks ago, so it was worth a try. But you know that feeling when they have every single possible size but yours? Yeah, colour me less impressed... and not even in pink...

So we wandered around everywhere, ended up mostly buying stuff for ourselves again, then sat down to have a drink and a look at Ma's Christmas List. It wasn't an overly productive look though... she doesn't really have that many people on her list, but the majority of them are people we don't see that much during the year, just at Christmas (okay, that's a slight stretch, but not by much), so it all comes down to "I'll know what to get them when I see it"... not helpful really...

After much wandering around we called it a day, but took a semi-detour (I say "semi" because it's on the way home, but we wouldn't normally have stopped there) to another Kmart (Shopping Centre #3) to check on whether they had Le Pink Polo. Solid pink, no... a nice pink and while stripe, sure. I'm not completely sure about the colour, but it's not that bad.

Then we stopped off here briefly, before heading down to Arndale (Shopping Centre #4), although that was mostly to go to the movies (Eagle Eye... more on that shortly). But we did do a quick tour around, and I picked up a small Kwan Yin statue (at least I think it's her), which is actually really nicely detailed considering how cheap it was.

Next came the movie, then it was back here and we went down the street to get some dinner (since neither of us had really eaten properly all day) where I had a girly bonding moment with the Serving Wench over Lemon Spritz...

It was a pretty good day, even if we didn't end up buying THAT much stuff.

But now my house is a bit of a tip... and I'm not sure I can summon up the energy to tidy it...

Current Mood:

bait and switch

Okay... I'm pulling a bait and switch...

I originally did a post earlier this evening about Movember (actually it probably still shows up in Google Reader... damn this modern technology, in a perfect world I could have gotten away with this without anybody being any the wiser)... but I was thinking about it a little while ago and decided that I'd changed my mind...

Not about Movember, but about posting about it now...

I'm going to repost the same post on the first of November... er, Movember... since that seems like a better time.

Consider the earlier post a trial run...

Hello and welcome to Yani's House of Indecision...

We are experiencing technical difficulties, please stand by...

Current Mood:

photo friday: foodies and boobies

Behold, the Magical Mystery Morning Tea of Pinkness...

And lo, tremble before the chocolate bountifulness of my handmade Rocky Road (it's the kind of brown splodge with the pink and white bits near the pile of pink napkins in the middle of the table)...

Okay, I'm having a bit of a post-sugar brain coma (which I suppose is better than the post-beer brain tumour of last week) right now, just ignore me...

Today wasn't half bad! Well, half of it wasn't half bad... the other half was just kinda dull.

We finally had our Pink Ribbon/Breast Cancer Morning Tea at work, hence the profusion of pinkness in the above photo (and if I never see another pink item after the beginning of November, I'll be a happy bunny). Technically the day isn't actually until Monday, but the Powers That Be decided that it's better to have Morning Tea on a Friday than a Monday, and who am I to argue with logic like that... nobody, that's who...

So we got to dress in casual today (woohoo Casual Friday)... and we get to dress in casual again on Monday because it's the Actual Day (woohoo Actual Day)... and then Friday is the monthly Casual Day for this floor (woohoo Actual Casual Friday)... so out of a possible six working days, I get to wear casual gear for three (and the following Friday, my last day, I'm wearing at least semi-casual, just because I can!)... once again I say wooooohooooo.

Technically I was only Half Casual today... I'd intended to wear my lilac business shirt (not being able to find a pink shirt in an appropriate size or tone as yet... damn you Tom), then yesterday they said that today was a casual day, so I was in a quandary, I thought about wearing red, changed my mind eight thousand times... and ended up wearing the lilac shirt anyway with the sleeves rolled up and paired with jeans.

God knows what I'm going to wear on Monday... I might have to scope out something pink over the weekend... which could just be an exercise in frustration, but there you go (either that or I'm resorting to Plan B, red).

Muchly food was consumed at the Morning Tea (actually there almost wasn't enough room on the two long tables for everything... soooooo muuuuuuch foooood)... as well as much standing around like a pillock because I never really know who to talk to at those things, and I usually spend at least part of the time standing around by myself like Nigel No-Friends. Anyway, I kept an eye on who was eating my Rocky Road (all reports back were, of course, favourable... including one comment that it was "like an orgasm in my mouth"... which we decided was probably NOT the most appropriate thing she could have said... funny though)... there were still a fair few pieces of it left at the end of morning tea, but when I had a look after lunch it had all gone bar two bits... and I only ended up bringing in just over a third of what I made (I could have brought more but I couldn't get two of the containers in my bag this morning, and one container pretty much filled a plate).

On the general theme of Pink Ribbon Day, I somehow became the unofficial 2IC of the Pink Ribbon merchandise on this floor (probably because I'm working with the woman who's in charge of it and I can't help sticking my nose in... plus I have the kind of face where people either ask me stuff or just expect me to know... but mostly I think it's the nose sticking thing) and with or without me and my proverbial oar we raised almost $400 on this floor alone... granted $28 of that was mine since I bought two teddy bears and two rubber bracelets (one of each for me, one of each for Ma).

But this whole Pink Ribbon bonanza is the thing that got me thinking about Movember... and I've been going backwards and forwards about it for a few days now, more because of using my real name than anything else), but when I got back from lunch today I took the proverbial whatsit by the horns and signed up... but I'll go into that in a separate post later...

After the morning tea, while I was waiting for my boss to get his act together, I got a text message from Stu going "Lunch? Yum Cha?"... how do you refuse an offer like that? Okay, probably really easily, considering that I was a little bit stuffed to the gills with food... but I said yes anyway.

Yum Cha was very nice... but my fatal mistake was suggesting that we go and get a Bubble Tea afterwards (and I had to insist after Stu looked at me oddly and had no idea what I was talking about... I had to pop his Bubble Tea virginity)... it was nice, don't get me wrong, but a wee bit stronger in the flavour department than what I'm used to... and it was far more filling than any of the food, so I felt a bit Fat Buddha Belly for a while this afternoon.

The rest of the afternoon was pretty damn nondescript... but thankfully hometime came around fairly quickly.

I did discover that the cheap-ass dishwashing liquid they have at work smells exactly the same as the liquid soap they have in the showers at the sauna (and for that matter, I'm pretty sure it's the same smell as the stuff in my old gym)... which is slightly worrying somehow... I'm guessing that the common smell comes from it all being cheap rather than being forced to wash in dishwashing liquid...

And after the Orgy of Food that today has been, I'm going with random salad fixin's for dinner...

Current Mood:

random jakob hotness

Today's Random Hotness is another piece of tasty randomness from British photographer Kai Z Feng... this particular tasty specimen being Jakob Hedberg.

There are certain photographers of the male image whose work I just automatically love... Howard Roffman is one of those... and I realised when I was going through some of his work to find these shots that Mr Feng is another.

Plus, I'm a sucker for a well orchestrated lens flare...

Current Mood:

brick wall wednesday

I'm goin' home!

Okay, not in the sense of "the place where I live" (coz, you know, that's where I currently am)... but in the work sense. As of November 10, I'm going to be back working with my former crew... woohoo!

So I'll be returning the same week that all my Feast stuff starts... which seems fitting in some odd way that I can't really explain...

After a number of weeks of "I have no idea when I'm going to be finished" and a slightly drunken (on my part anyway) conversation last Friday night where I said I probably had about three weeks left (which honestly was a number I pulled completely out of the air) The Ginger Ninja has asked for me back.

And this could, as I think I've mentioned once before, turn into a fairly lengthy stint... I'm filling in until January, I think, for this bit... then in March, Rockchick takes off for about a year, and I'm supposed to be filling in against her too. Not sure what happens in February though...

Just give me a damn permanent job already!!!

Oh, for the record I didn't win the $5 million dollar lotto prize... in fact I didn't win a damn thing. Not surprising, but it would have been nice.

I'm also seriously considering joining in with Movember since I'll be working this year. Could be entertaining and if I get all officious about it, I probably know enough people in the building (and surrounding buildings) to sponsor me.

On an unrelated note, I was also planning on getting a Crumpler bag for Christmas (as nice as my Ikea bag was when I bought it five months ago, it's looking a little grubby now), but I might actually treat myself before then and buy one for my return to Crazytown. I need to go and have a look at them again in the flesh, but I'm torn between the Barney Rustle and the Western Lawn (and possibly the much larger Complete Seed, but I'm less sure about that), since they're the exact same size, but there's the $50 difference between them... whichever one I end up picking, I'm thinking scarlet (or purple, but probably scarlet).

In the "hmmmmmm" column, I found myself considering getting another tattoo this afternoon... nothing grandiose, but I've been scribbling this little doodle a lot the last couple of days of a trio of dots with a line of smaller dots leading off from each one... and I can't help thinking it would make a cool tattoo, specifically somewhere on my spine. Not sure really (plus I don't really think that my back is really right for a tattoo), and it's probable that nothing will actually happen with it, but it was a nice daydream for a while.

And that's about it for my Wednesday really...

Current Mood:

movies: the duchess

There are those people who hate Keira Knightley, and there are those people who love her (I'm not sure there's actually anybody in between)... and I'm definitely one of the latter, so I quite enjoyed The Duchess.

Which isn't to say that just because I like an actor I'll always like everything they're in, but this was actually pretty good. And I thought that Keira did an excellent job... she's sad, she's stylish, she's emotive, she's passionate... and at no point does she look like a stick figure.

In a lot of ways the movie doesn't really feel like anything I haven't seen before... but I have a weakness for movies involving big wigs, corsets, wide dresses and jacked up cleavage, and some of the themes that run through this movie are slightly similar to Marie Antoinette, although this movie is about a billion times better than that.

And because I'd read something somewhere about the movie having parallels with Princess Diana (and the fact the main character is distantly related to her), I could very much see the similarities... the fame, the clothes, the husband with a mistress, the unhappiness... but I'm not completely sure that if I hadn't read about it that I would have made the comparison on my own. Maybe, but the movie stands on it's own quite well without feeling like it's leaning too heavily on any modern links.

Surprisingly for a Big Wig And Corset movie, I think I got more lost in the story (and possibly some of the locations) than I did in the outfits... which is rare for me. I mean, yes, I remember a couple of them, but my attention was held elsewhere.

Ralph Fiennes plays the suitably nasty husband, although there is an odd but effective scene at the end of the movie... but I spent a large amount of time wanting Keira to be very inappropriate to the timeframe and just throw something at his head.

I'm not sure that it's a happy movie... in a lot of ways it's probably quite depressing, the titular Duchess, Georgiana, is completely boxed into her role in society... and with an uncommunicative husband that is equally trapped by his own role... it doesn't make for big laughs or high spirits.

But it still manages to end on, if not a high note, then a note of hope... and I would say that it's definitely worth a look.

yani's rating: 2 corsets out of 5

montage monday: botanic green

Behold the greenness of green...

I hadn't actually intended on making a Montage when I went to the Botanical Gardens yesterday... but then I went for a wander looking for an out of the way bench to sit on and read (the first two suffering from "Goldilocks Syndrome", the first was too cold, the second too hot), and found myself taking a few shots... which then became a "green/textured" theme.

It's been a bit of a cruisy non-descript day... probably partially because I spend a chunk of the morning organising Mikado tickets and emailing people about hats and photos from Friday night's beerfest and partially because the website I needed to access crashed this morning and didn't come back up until after lunch.

I ended up booking the most expensive tickets for The Mikado, partially because they were in the "Premium" zone, right in the middle of the stalls (although the ones I ended up with are about 15 metres back from the stage and possibly right at the very back of said zone, but still), but mostly because they were about five dollars more than the next lowest category of tickets, so I figured why the hell not.

So in the last two days I've spent a grand total of $257 on "supporting the arts"...

Now all I need to do is make sure that I don't let slip to Ma that I've bought tickets, while at the same time making sure that she doesn't go booking any other excursions for that particular weekend (or worse still, float the idea that we should go to The Mikado, which means I'm going to have to lie through my teeth... which isn't really a problem, just annoying).

I am a little annoyed with the whole online ticket system though... it doesn't let you pick the seats you want. I guess that makes sense, because there would be times that the system would be so packed with people that it wouldn't be able to do that, tickets would be disappearing too fast to keep track... but if they can do it at the branches, I don't know why the website can't show you the same detail. Greater Union does it with their Gold Class system... can it really be that hard? Anyway, enough rant...

The final (and most amusing) act of this fourteen part ticket story occurred when I went to pick the tickets up at the closest outlet (which turned out to be a newsagency in the middle of City Cross)... and of course, after she printed all the tickets out (in one long strip of eight sections, five tickets, three receipts) she did what they're obviously supposed to do and talked me through them all to make sure that they were the right ones.

That was fine (to give her credit, she didn't even pause at Another Gay Sequel), until she got to the last one... The Adventures of Butt Boy and Tigger... she didn't quite make it through the title before she starting chuckling, which in turn made me laugh.

But WOOHOO, tickets!

I just want to arrange some sort of Japanese themed "wrapping" for the Mikado tickets now (I'm thinking about getting either a small black lacquer box or a gold box and wrapping the tickets in some Japanese style fabric, with or without the possibility of rope bondage)... I might have to do a bit of research on that.

I also got a copy of one of the photos from Friday night (I haven't seen the others, even though the girly responsible for taking them was supposed to send me copies today)... whoooooo nelly. I don't know what facial expression I was going for, but between the borrowed hat and the face and somebody's disembodied hand reaching in from the side, it's a bit of a worry. It's pretty much just a typical unflattering beer-fuelled pub photo really...

And when I got home I found one of those little "We tried to deliver this parcel while you were out" cards... woohoo... the two calendars I ordered from Amazon got here in seemingly record time (the expected delivery date was the week before Christmas).

All in all, a productive day... now all I have to remember to do is buy pistachios (the only thing I forgot to do today)...

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unconscious mutterings 299

I saw a kookaburra on my walk this morning... well, more accurately, I heard one (even over my headphones), then saw it. You don't normally see them this close to the city, but it was outside the zoo, so maybe it had come to town to visit a relative in the Pokey...

And now, the completely un-bird-related Unconscious Mutterings...

1. Magical :: Pixies
2. Shrimp :: Cocktail
3. Project Runway :: Overkill
4. Economy :: Crap
5. Porch :: Monkey (it's a Clerks II thing)
6. State of affairs :: Regular
7. .com :: Boom
8. Fifty cents :: Flat sided
9. Ripping :: Yarn
10. Bull :: Shit

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botanical sunday

What better way to spend a sunny (yet temperate) Sunday afternoon than by packing my Penguin bag with a bottle of water, an apple, my camera and my copy of A Clockwork Orange...

I spent about three hours just sitting in various spots reading (actually I finished the book) and wandering around taking snapshots...

Glorious... although I may end up with some sunburn on the back of my newly trimmed head.

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the-atre

It's interesting...

I don't know if it was feeling "overly gay" on Friday night, or being appropriately cashed up (with other people anxious to get hold of me once this assignment ends, so I've got the promise of additional cashfulness) or just the fact that I picked up the Feast program yesterday (on a whim while Ma was paying for the parking)... but I'm now planning on going to more Feast events this year than I think I've ever been to (including Picnic in the Park) in the whole time Feast has been running...

I'm partially blaming Brent Corrigan (which seems odd, but stay with me)... Another Gay Sequel is playing at the festival (and Brent has a role as Stan the Merman, hence the blame), and even if it turns out to be a big pile of crap, I want to see it (not just because of Brent, I quite enjoyed the original)... so instead of waiting for it to come out on DVD, I figured I could go and see it properly in a movie theatre with real people...

That led me to looking at some of the other stuff in the program... and this morning I went through and booked tickets for not only AGS, but also Blowing Whistles and the amusingly titled Adventures of Butt Boy and Tigger...

So that should be amusing/entertaining/interesting... and I've managed to stagger them out across three weeks, all six days apart from each other.

Then I was flicking through the Sunday Mail earlier and there was an ad for the new Simon Gallaher version of The Mikado... Ma did mention it to me last weekend, and I pointed out the ad to her in the paper yesterday, but I kind of decided today that I'm going to buy tickets for her for Christmas (well, Ma and me obviously)... maybe even splurge a little bit and get really good tickets (or at least find a balance between "really good" and "too expensive").

I think in the back of her mind she'd really love to go, but I don't think she'd actually suggest it... and if she does I'll have to make some "well I dunno, tickets expensive, not the same cast as the original" noise about it to throw her off the scent. Because if I do the "you'll have to wait and see what Santa's bringing" thing, she'll know I've bought them.

Tickets don't go on sale until tomorrow for The Mikado though, but that's going to be two plays, a movie and a musical I'll have bought tickets to in the space of 24 hours...

I feel all cultured and shit...

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beer bad, hair good, shopping bad

Yay... Haircut Day...

After last night's little adventure, I did a bit of a systems check when I woke up this morning...

Hangover... Not Found (*phew*)...
Humiliating Blunders... Not Found...
Totally Inappropriate Comments... Not Found...
Embarrassingly Drunken Blog Post... Not Found...

So all in all I was pretty much okay... although when I got on the bus to go into town for my haircut, I did think that perhaps the bus seemed to be going a tiny wee bit fast... and once I hit town I decided that a Sausage and Egg McMuffin was the order of the day... but other than being a bit tired now (which I might well have been anyway), I'm not really any the worse for wear.

Although when I got to the salon, the first thing I said to Tink was "Beer is Bad!"...

I decided a day or so ago that my request for today's haircut would be "just this side of crazed mental patient"... which kinda translated into very, very short on the back and sides and a severely "chunked" top section. Actually, I'm not sure if it's really chunky enough through the top... the stuff that Tink put in was a bit crappy and my hair feels all fluffy... but I think with some proper product and a little time I can get that proper Arkham look going on...

After I was done Ma picked me up from town after her own Haircut Day and we headed off to do grocery shopping... wheeeee...

And even though I had a whole proper list and everything, we still forgot to pick up some Turkish Delight so I can make Rocky Road for the Morning Tea on Friday...

To be honest, forgetting did kind of seem to be the order of the day. I chose to blame the combination of beer and hot weather rather than any kind of mental defect on my part.

Once we were finished with groceries and whatnot, we headed into town, because supposedly we had so MANY things we needed to do in town... and I think we forgot as many as we remembered... which isn't really that good. But I did get new sunglasses (which I gave up to the Christmas Abyss), but that was really about it... forgot to get pistashios for the Rocky Road, forgot to go to the place with cheap Lynx bodyspray... I'm sure we forgot other things, but I can't remember what they are right now...

Oh well...

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beer good

Want beer. Like beer. Beer good. - Buffy

Beer good... beer also bad...

While I'm not actually completely drunk, I'm somewhere in that world of cotton wool that is beer... and possibly staring down the barrel of a big fat hangover tomorrow...

I'm probably sober enough that I can make a coherent sentence, but drunk enough that this is going to be short(ish) and sweet(ish).

Had drinks with my former work crew tonight... was very good... had lots of beer. I managed to kill a $50 note in there somewhere, and I didn't really think I had that many drinks... more than I would usually have, but not tons. I did buy other people drinks though, which is probably where all my money went... because I only bought one pizza... we had nearly a dozen between the lot of us though.

Was fun though... went to The Duke of York, groovy pub... they have all comic book pages plastered on the walls of the mensroom... is groovy... make good pizza too...

And they have hotness behind the bar too... hot customers, but hotter bar staff... and thank you Mr Yellow Boxer Briefs for showing me your underwear (unintentionally) every time you served me... you all hot!

Have none of the upper register left in my voice what with talking too loudly and whatnot, I'm all husky late night DJ...

It's funny... I'm never quite so "gay" as I am when I'm out for drinkies with that particular crew... and it's usually everybody else that brings it up, but not in a bad way...

And Sugarmonkey... Sugarmonkey is funny... when we're actually working together we don't always get on that well... but when we're being sociable, we get on pretty well... and tonight the pair of us were on fire... partially that was the beer... but we were pretty damn funny.

Managed to offend a new boy too... he was part of the work group for all of five minutes after I'd left the first time, I'd never met him before tonight (had a thing for all of three minutes before I worked out he was overly straight)... but you really don't want to try and claim that you're the biggest smart arse within the first ten minutes of having met me when I'm having beer... especially if you're about 12 and easily offended. The best thing was I didn't even really need to do anything... hehehe... stoopid Ewok...

I had my photo taken in an ill-fitting pimp hat, talked a whole load of crap, laughed a lot... oh, and I think I still have a big pink lipstick mark on my cheek... must go wash that off...

And then when it was all over I walked my drunk ass home... which was nice actually... it's all warm and summery out there, even at 9pm...

But now I either need to roll off the computer chair and into bed or else go and lay on the couch and watch whatever the stupid movie that's on is...

I think bed is the better plan...

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random daniel hotness

Today's Random Hotness is model Daniel Alex enjoying some time in the garden and an outdoor shower... nummy! Enough said really...

Hmmm... wet or dry... wet or dry... wet or dry... ah, dry THEN wet!

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chookchookchook

I was kinda offended by this until I read it properly... I'd say it's actually pretty accurate...

You Are a Chicken

You are a naturally curious and inquisitive being. You are often poking your nose where it doesn't belong! Collecting nuggets of knowledge is important to you. You enjoy knowing everything you can. You are very independent and strong willed. You don't like to be bossed around, and you do as you please. You are quite determined and able to take on challenges. You will "peck away" at a problem until it's gone.

What Animal Are You?

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internet stalker

I think perhaps Google Reader is stalking me... or, more specifically, my blog...

I didn't notice it at first, or if I did it wasn't quite so obvious... but it's approaching a Z grade horror movie now (not really that scary and actually kinda amusing)...

I mentioned Melbourne a couple of times last week... didn't Google anything about it, just mentioned in on the blog, most recently on Friday. Saturday morning I noticed that there were a bunch of new "Recommended" blogs waiting for me to have a look at... first one on the list was a blog about Melbourne.

I also mentioned American's Next Top Model in the same post... one of the blogs in the list was for male models (yeah, I know it's not exact, but it obviously knows me better than to suggest female models)... and whenever it's seen me mention libraries or books or some combination I get hit up with all these blogs about libraries (after the last library sale particularly)... and if I happen to mention underwear (or do a Random Hotness post about it) I get some underwear blogs in the list.

Of course sometimes it doesn't know me very well at all and I get all kinds of weird and wonderful things in there, and I know that at least part of the list is based on the other blogs you've recently signed up for... but it's the creepy stalking action that's a little bit of a worry...

Although it does kind of make me want to write a post on unicorns or Japanese rope bondage or abseiling window cleaners (we had some on the building across from me today, and I had prime location to watch them scampering around on the roof like little monkeys) just to see what might happen...

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montage monday: backstreets eight

I'm going to assume that it's just me and that this isn't actually one of the single dullest Monday Montages I've ever done (although I want that door knocker in the centre)...

Can you tell it hasn't been a stellar day?

I've got blisters on the balls of my feet (always guaranteed to make me cranky), I had an annoying tangle with a Bootcamp squad on my walk this morning, I got stared at (and as a result got all paranoid for no good reason) by a Father/Son duo on the bus and then when I got to work it was full of people being overly sociable and noisy and just put me in a mood...

And once I got in the mood, I couldn't shake it, so I ended up just closing myself off in my little corner and I maybe said half a dozen words to anybody all day. Well, nobody at work anyway...

It's doubly annoying when I get like this because if nobody notices or says anything then I get moodier because nobody noticed... and if they do notice (which, I'll admit, a couple of people did or at least made a comment about me being "quiet") or attempt to cheer me out of it then I just want them to leave me be.

Damned if they do, damned if they don't...

And I'm still not completely over it, which is fun (not)...

I actually wrote this whole thing out in much greater detail earlier, but there's nothing worse than listening to somebody else whinge about their day, so I decided against posting the whole thing... and I'm going to shut up now...

Thank all appropriate deities I have a couple of Magnums in the freezer though...

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unconscious mutterings 298

Stoopid foot blisters... stoopid neighbours... STOOPID Bootcamps... and stoopid daydreams about what would happen if I won the lottery...

That's where my head's at this morning... now for the other kind of Unconscious Mutterings...

1. Zoo :: Animals
2. Neighborhood :: Urban
3. Salute :: 21 gun
4. Immortality :: Vampire
5. Dominion :: Deep Space 9 (what, I'm a nerd)
6. Rhonda :: Birchmore
7. Parties :: Drunken
8. Prince of Darkness :: Satan
9. Garbage :: Disposal
10. Standard :: Drinks

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sidestreets part eight

Ooooh... my poor feets...

I envy those people who can wear a pair of thongs to do everything in, run around, walk everywhere, etc, etc... me, I get to a certain point and I don't know if it's because my feet start to sweat (yeah, not a pleasant image is it) or the thongs heat up too much or what, but they always start to rub and I've ended up with blisters on the balls of my feet more than once...

I decided that since it was a glorious day today that I should try and kickstart my Sidestreets and Alleyways project again (partially because I was running really, really low on Photo Friday and Featured Photo images)... and this time actually doing "proper" shots in the backstreets, not just looking for various bits of street art. And very foolishly, I chose to wear thongs...

Big mistake... I actually had to give up halfway through, come home, put on some socks and sneakers and go back out again... and my poor footsies are still kinda burning when I put weight on the balls of my feet...

Other than that though, it was a pretty productive day out... the weather was Very Summer-like and was just crying out for me to be out in it...

And because I wanted to get back to the original backstreets concept, I figured that somewhere further removed from all the street art of the western side of town...

So Angas Street it was...

Actually, that was kind of a fluke, I wasn't sure where I was aiming for, and then there was a really obvious parking space right there on Angas Street in amongst a bunch of stuff that I'd been intending to photograph for a while. Perfect...

I kinda, sorta set myself a little secondary project while I was out there (well, a couple actually, but one might turn out to be a bad idea)... I was looking for some other theme to base a montage around... at first I thought locks and doors... but it actually kind of turned out that I was taking a lot of shots of "edges" and the line where things met (see Exhibits A and B at the top of the post)... more so than I'd noticed before. But more on that (possibly) another time.

Now, I don't think I look particularly shifty when I'm out there taking photos, but maybe I do a bit and don't realise it... mostly I try not to creep around, if I'm going to be somewhere I'm not really supposed to be, then I'm not going to try and be secretive about it, because that makes it look worse, but I was just snapping a couple of shots of the side of an apartment block that had a red section and a grey section and a purple seciton, and there was a guy on a bike who'd just come out of the building who was kinda watching me, and then when I turned around to walk out of the sidestreet he asked me why I was taking the photo... I kinda thought he might, because he'd looked at me weirdly when he went past me, so I had my "I love those three colours together, it looks great" answer ready... *waves nicely at Bike Man*... and he seemed satisfied with that (which is good, because it was the truth).

After I was done with photos, I stopped off in Rundle Street to buy one of the coin pendants for Ma that we saw yesterday... I bought her the one I liked the most (well, maybe my second favourite), but it's an English coin, so she should like it. And the girly packed it all up in first a little red bag (which I think they came in from whoever makes them), then one of their gift boxes, and then a little paper baggie with their logo on the back. So I don't even think I need to do anything about wrapping it when Christmas comes (although I could be evil and put it in yet ANOTHER layer of packaging).

Unfortunately I was too late for the actual Rundle Street Markets, because I had thought about buying some cupcakes to bring home with me... but everybody was packing up when I got there...

And from here another work week begins... *sigh* (but at least I'm getting paid)

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