photo friday: opalite wolf

This is the opalite wolf that I bought at the Body Mind & Psychic Expo... and thank goodness I mentioned what kind of crystal it was in my blog post, because I'd totally forgotten...

And my ongoing mantra of "everything happens for a reason" holds true (oddly enough I found the card I bought a few weeks back that has that printed on the front and stuck it to my bedroom mirror last night, so the message is fresh in my brain), even if the everything in question is me putting my foot in my mouth.

Who is the worst possible person to get into a heated discussion with when you don't actually recognise them?

Yep, the new boss (well, technically she's kinda my boss's boss... which may actually make it worse).

I didn't even know it was going to become a heated discussion, but for some reason it touched a button and I kinda got a little bit cranky and a tiny bit ranty... and while I knew the person I was talking to looked familiar, I hadn't been at any of the staff meetings in the past two weeks that had involved her.

I did hear the little Sugarmonkey in the back of my brain whispering to me (the real Sugarmonkey wasn't in today, but it seems I carry one around with me now, which is very scary), so I did pause at one stage and apologise for getting cranky. Then when she went back to her office I said to La Ninj (who was also involved in the conversation)... "Did I just get cranky at our new boss?".

And yes... I did...

How embarrassment!

But like I said, everything happens for a reason... so a little bit later she came out of her office to ask me something (about the earlier topic under discussion) and we had the whole "we haven't been officially introduced" conversation... to which I think I apologised again and admitted that I hadn't recognised her. To which she replied that it was lucky that she wasn't a bitch. And then she said the thing that kinda floored me.

"It's also lucky I'm a faghag from wayback."

I hadn't officially met this woman before today. I'd had two conversations with her, one where I was cranky, one where I was just me. And she picked me out of the homo lineup in less than three minutes.

I guess I flame just that little bit more than I thought I did. Oh well.

Actually I looked at my desk after she'd gone (between bouts of just grinning to myself and muttering variations on "I don't believe that")... and, you know what, I think my desk is pretty homo. Way too many toys and random junk and general campness. Hehehehe.

Ooops.

But at least we had that bonding moment and we all know where we're coming from now. Seriously though... under three minutes...

While we're on the general subject of homo... there are way more decidedly homo boys on this year's American version of So You Think You Can Dance than there has been in previous years (waves at Kupono, Jonathon and Brandon)... but the latest "scandal" romping around the blogosphere seems to involve one who I wouldn't have picked outta the homo lineup...

Seems that a couple of the dancers have shown up on Guys with iPhones... and one of them is showing off all his business! But I'm not convinced.

I think that the guy on the right is definitely Jonathon... but he's only got his shirt off. The guy on the right is too slender through the jaw to be Ade though... and he's the one that's showing everything.

I'll just have to pay very, very careful attention when I watch it tonight...

Current Mood:

random robe hotness

A simple Random Hotness this week... black and white shots of a blonde model in nothing but a white bathrobe.

Oddly enough, even though I'm totally not a bathrobe sort of person, I did wonder about getting some kind of robe for my trip to Melbourne. I think I probably had the same thought before the trip to Sydney...

Current Mood:

general wednesday rambling

Thoughts for this Wednesday evening...

• Getting over a cold, having my back go out each morning since Monday and dealing with weird sinus issues... all at the same time... what the hell is up with that?
• United States of Tara... could become annoying over time, but started very strongly. Although why does every dramedy series suddenly need to have a protohomo sissyboy character?
• Harry Potter fangeeks crack me up.
• As one part of a seemingly neverending project draws to a close, the "living with it" portion begins on Friday... and will I eventually yearn for the planning stages?
• I thank all appropriate deities for hot water!
  
• I'm just superstitious enough that I didn't want to get out the same shirt I had out last Wednesday for this Wednesday, since I never wore it on account of oogy.
• Why did the countdown timer that I found last week not work then, but did work when I tried it today? Either way, there are 64 days until Melbourne...

Currrent Mood:

movies: harry potter and the half-blood prince

McGonagall: Why is it that whenever something happens, you three are always involved?
Ron: Believe me, professor, I've been asking myself that for the last six years.

I have to say that when I walked out of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince I was absolutely wiped out. And knowing what I know of my reactions to reading this book and then the final book, I can only imagine how utterly flattened I'm going to be during the final two movies. Although hopefully I won't be suffering possible sinusitis then...

But I will freely admit that I cried like a big girlyman... in fact the big girlyman crying started with the trailer for Where The Wild Things Are before the movie... I can't wait to see that... but that's not why we're here... we're here about Le Potter.

Like the previous two movies (Goblet and Phoenix) there is a lot of truncation of plot going on... although honestly, I've only read the book a couple of times, and so with the exception of a couple of very major set pieces and a few minor plot points I couldn't really tell you how much more was missing. But once again there were things that, if you've never read the books, would have gone whizzing right over your head or completely passed you by. Yes, lots of it is character backstory stuff, but it's stuff they're going to have to reintroduce in the final double movie (which I guess is why they're doing it like that). As just a movie though, it does hold together well.

It does do a seriously bipolar balancing act in a lot of ways... there's a lot of very, very funny humour to it (mostly due to Rupert Grint and a love potion... Daniel Radcliffe and a luck potion... plus Emma Watson whacking people with stuff), but there's a hell of a lot of pain in there too... more so than I remember there being in the book... or maybe it's just something that is easier to skim over when it's the written word, but harder to ignore when you're seeing it on people's faces.

And once again my hat has to go off to not only the three young stars, but also all the supporting cast of young actors who surround them, and have surrounded them from the very first film. I think that it says something about the ability of their acting that they've all returned for the last six movies (unless of course a number of them were contracted for all of the movies way back when, but that seems unlikely). And none of them more than Bonnie Wright and Tom Felton, although for very different reasons.

Bonnie refines the strength she's developed in Ginny Weasley during the last couple of movies and makes it obvious why Harry feels the way he does beyond mere plot machinations. Whereas Tom, after being very much forced into a minor supporting role in the last couple of movies, brings Draco Malfoy back with such venom and pain that you really do feel for him not only in the final scenes, but during a very brief moment of torment in a bathroom my heart broke for him.

And he also gets big snaps in the General Hotness department, even if his haircut is just that little bit too Hitlereske, and there are a couple of scenes early on where he's channelling the ugly for his performance something fierce. Also big with both the Hotness and the Creepy is Frank Dillane as Tom Riddle (age 16)... even if I couldn't work out if they'd given him weird contacts or not. And yes, the whole gay world seems to be going gaga over Freddie Stroma thanks to some random video of him dancing around in his underwear in a modelling way... but while he's cute enough, the character really is a complete git...

While the movie clocks in at around two and a half hours and never really pauses for very long, there really isn't a lot in it. Which isn't really the fault of the movie... the book is very much like that too... it's setting up a lot of the groundwork for the final book, so in a lot of ways it's condemned to be The Exposition Fairy, imparting valuable information without that much plot of it's own.

Even the reveal of the titular Half-Blood Prince is pretty much thrown away... because, honestly, by that point it really isn't particularly important any more (I do have a vague memory of the book spending much more time and effort on the identity of the Prince, but it's pretty much a big fat furry MacGuffin that's completely inconsequential).

There are a few other things that I generally look out for in a Harry Potter movie... one of them being whether or not the paintings in the background move on their own... and honestly we really don't spend enough time in the parts of the castle where there are that many paintings which made it slightly disappointing that they didn't make more effort when we did. But that's really a minor point, because for the most part the CG is outstanding... although I did feel like we've seen the Inferius designs before... they feel like a bad Gollum knockoff maybe.

It wasn't enough to bother me that much though... and by the end of the movie I was so invested that even though I knew what was going to happen, and even though I've never liked Michael Gambon's version of Dumbledore (although I will say that I think this is possibly his best of the series), I still made with the aforementioned girlyman crying.

And while I think I'll need to see it again, I think this may very well end up being my favourite movie in the series (so far anyway).

yani's rating: 4 missing canaries out of 5

unconscious mutterings 339

Let's see... I tweaked my back after I got up this morning... and the space where my brain used to be seemed to have been filled up with cotton wool... most of the emails that were waiting for me when I got in this morning were overly complex and needed actual reading and attention (or maybe that was just the aforementioned cotton wool), and I'm still feeling a bit like a space cadet. But I do have hot water!

Unconscious Muttering...

1. Taxman :: July
2. Material :: Tenting
3. Format :: Document
4. File cabinet :: Metal
5. Ignore :: Me
6. Super! :: Thanks for asking!
7. Fireproof :: Walls
8. Blockbuster :: Video
9. Snooper :: Detect
10. Good will :: Hunting

Current Mood:

when bad things happen to sick people

I do not believe that you would read about it, as the saying goes...

I awoke this morning to discover that once again my hot water heater had packed in and I had nothing but cold, cold water. I swear it feels like this has happened about four or five times already this winter, but it only seems to have happened once this year.

Maybe because each time it happens it's a major freakin production to get it working again and it never gets fixed there and then... and drags on and on and on.

So I called the Land Agent's after hours number and interestingly I actually got a better quality of service than I think I've gotten in a while. Yes, he did initially call me back with questions of "have you tried relighting the pilot light?" (and really... if I could make the pilot light relight, do you think I would be calling you... don't you think I would just relight it and get on with things?)... but since that dumbass water heater was installed four years ago I have never, ever been able to relight it or do anything with it. I have the instructions, I follow them perfectly, and nothing happens... it just sits there on the wall like a big useless lump.

If the plumber would come out here and stand there with me and go "this is what we do"... and make it so that I knew I was doing the right thing, then I'd be fine... but it never seems to work out like that (mostly because I don't think it's gone out at any point where I wasn't working and therefore had the whole day to wait around for the stupid plumber).

Okay, I lost the thread of my story there... anyway, of course the plumber wouldn't come out today just to relight my pilot light (which doesn't sound filthy no matter how hard I try)... so I have to wait until tomorrow. So here I am, recovering from some horrible flu-like illness and I have to bathe in a bucket again. *sigh*

All I ask, and all I will be asking for when I move somewhere else (either by choice or as forced to by circumstance) is a quiet place with respectful and considerate neighbours that also has air-conditioning/heating and a reliable hot water system. Doesn't seem like it's that much to ask, does it? Sadly my place currently has none of that...

Current Mood:

low key saturday with car stuff

Despite the fact that this morning was the first time in four days that I've woken up without a headache, I'm currently feeling decidedly not right... it's not a headache, and it's not really general nausea... well it kinda is... but it's also a little bit like a headspin... which I'm going to guess is from my Saturday morning Iced Coffee, added to the fact that I really haven't eaten very much all day due to the aforementioned "not quite nausea" feeling.

So if I start trailing off or making much less sense than usual, you know why.

For the most part today was a very low key day. It started out somewhat differently though because my car was booked in for a service at the Ultra Tune store near the supermarket... so Ma and I drove down in separate cars, dropped mine off with the very nice mechanic man and then went off to do our shopping.

Partly because I've been working the low-level nausea thing all day, I didn't end up getting that much stuff at the supermarket... actually it was more or less a bare minimum of items, and on a day that it might have been better for us to spend a large amount of time in and around the "shopping precinct", we were finished fairly quickly (not that it really mattered, because I didn't get the car back until noon).

Once we'd come back here for Ritual Unpacking, we headed down to the frame store to pick up the two Chinese outfits we had framed for La Cousina's Christmas present. On the way though, the nice mechanic man called to let me know a few of the things that needed fixing above and beyond the regular service... which, considering that I actually haven't had it done for far, far, far too long (actually I'm not sure if the last time I'm thinking of really was the last time, but it's up there), was a reasonably short list... couple of wires/cables, new front tyres and some windscreen wipers. Granted it all came out to a ridiculously excessive fee... but still... so I told him to make with the fixing and we carried on down to the frame place.

When we got there the nice lady from last time served us again and brought out the two frames facing each other and with much pomp and circumstance (as well as telling us that everybody who'd seem them thought they were fantastic) revealed the finished articles...

And the were lovely... really... framed beautifully...

But all I could see was that the white washing care labels with "Made in Vietnam" emblazoned on them were so incredibly OBVIOUS! And the girl's outfit also had the size tag sticking over the top of the care label. Arrrgggghhh...

I did wonder if maybe it was just me with my detail orientated and picky eye... because Ma didn't say anything... so I didn't say anything... I mean what are you going to say when they're all finished and sealed and ready to go. But the nice lady went out the back to ask somebody something about another matt that Ma wanted cut, so I mentioned it... which made Ma realise that the woman had said that they would cut the tags off (I'd wanted to do it in the store myself, and really should have), so she mentioned it when the woman came back... and they're going to fix them up, remove the tags and make them all pretty again. So very glad I said something, because really, other than that, they were beautifully done. I'll have to snap some photos of them when we finally get them back.

Once that was all done, with the promise that we could pick them up next weekend, we went down to Arndale for a general wander to fill up some time before heading back to Ultra Tune.

Turns out there was only one thing he couldn't do, which was a cable for the vents in the air-con system, but he's ordering that in, along with a new aerial (because the old one has only been broken for a year and a half, so it might just be about time it was fixed) and I've booked the car back in for next weekend for him to fix those. I asked him if it was possible to get an electric aerial that hides itself away when you turn the car off, and he said it could be, even though it's about two and a half times as expensive... and the normal ones aren't really that cheap (actually I'm sure that I've seen aerials in motoring stores for like $18... so hello and welcome to the world of mechanical markup).

But woohoo... the car has finally been serviced... and I think I'll be going back there again, even with the price tag... he seems like a good guy, and it's always good to take your car to the same place over and over.

Oh, and he also gave me a free "new car smell" car smell tree thing (even though I hate that you're supposed to leave them in the little plastic baggy... what design retard came up with that?), and a couple of Ultra Tune branded reusable shopping bags (one for me, one for Ma), which I'm sure comes under the general heading of "the least he could do"... but it always feels good to get something for "free", even if you've just paid an excessive amount of money for something else at the same place.

So basically it was just past noon and Ma and I were pretty much ready to call it a day. But we decided to drive down Prospect Road to find a shop that had had a stall at the Body Mind & Psychic Expo... I've kept looking for it whenever I've been down the road, but for whatever reason I had a totally wrong street number in my head, so of course that never helps. Turns out that instead of being in the 110's, it was actually in the 320's... whoops.

I'm not actually sure it was really worth the trip in the end. I didn't end up buying anything (and given that I only worked two days last week, I think a bit of frugal action isn't uncalled for), but Ma got something for a woman who's leaving her work, so it wasn't a total waste. And since we were already out, we headed over to the other side of the city to Flourish which is where we spent a fair amount of time (and I spent far too much money on Ma) last Christmas. We were very well behaved though... and didn't buy anything. Then after wandering around the Made in Japan store next door (which always looks more interesting than I think it really is) we went across the road to buy French pastries from real live actual French people.

We followed that up with a brief trip to Haighs, mostly so Ma could get the final thing she wanted for her workmate, but we can never just leave it at one thing... bad really (although not as bad as it could have been).

And then we called it a day... and I'm still feeling decidedly wobbly around the edges, even though I've eaten my very tasty French éclair...

Have I mentioned that I HATE being sick?

Current Mood:

photo friday: blanket

Since it's been a very "internal" week for me (as in I've spent over half of it in the house), I wanted a photo of something appropriate... and after fiddling around with another idea I was curled up on the sofa with my "teddy blankey"... and of course, camera with macro setting + furry blanket = photo opportunities. While this particular blanket does get a lot of use in Winter, it's probably had more than its fair share this week.

I'm actually feeling much, much more like a member of the human race again today, but it has been an odd couple of days. I've already babbled about how it all started, but Wednesday just got weirder and weirder. After organising the flights to Melbourne I half ate some lunch and then hunkered down on the sofa to watch the last Harry Potter movie and managed to go from being overheated to intensely freezing cold and yet still drowsy, so once the movie was over at about 2pm I crawled into bed and fell asleep pretty much straight away.

Now anybody who knows me well knows that that is VERY rare... there are only a few instances where I can nap/sleep during the day, and most of them have involved staying up the night before. But sleep I did, on and off until about 7pm when I rolled out of bed, stuffed around on the computer for a bit, watched Spicks and Specks and then went back to bed at around 9pm. So out of that particular 24 hours, I think I was only really awake for about 8 or 9 hours.

Yesterday was better... even though I tossed and turned again during the night, I woke up earlier and didn't sleep at all during the day. I even went out to the supermarket to get some supplies (fruit and juice mostly).

Today I'm feeling much better by comparison... I was still a little headachey when I woke up, and I've started each morning feeling incredibly overheated which then turned into being freezing cold by about lunchtime... but like with everything else, it seems to be less intense each day.

Part of me wonders if it might have been a mild case of Swine Flu... or if it was just a bad case of the regular flu (I'm not entirely sure what the hell the difference is between the two... I mean, really, if you have the symptons of flu, then you have the flu, right... it's not like you suddenly grow a curly tail and ears if you get Swine Flu)... and I also wonder if I caught whatever it is from TrevMama... or more accurately, if she passed it on from her son to me (since he was supposedly sick the day before and my immune system was already taking a hammering because I was all sniffly).

But this is officially it... I don't want to get sick any more this Winter! I've been really, really sick (by my standards) twice now, and I've missed work and everything, so I'm very much over it. All I can say is roll of September, then Winter will be officially over!

Current Mood:

random manor hotness

For today's Random Hotness we have the loveliness that is Judson Manor...

Judson Manor is adjacent to a richly landscaped park and only steps from the heart of University Circle. Built as a luxury residential hotel in 1923...

Oops, hang on a second... that's a totally different Judson Manor...

This Judson Manor has modelled for All American Guys and has the cutest freckles, a Boy Next Door smile and a bubble butt straight from the gods!

Current Mood:

melbourne here i come (again)

Well, its official... Ma and I are going back to Melbourne during the first week of October... and we're taking Princess T with us...

Ma booked the hotel last night, and I took care of the airfare this morning... I'm not even going to think about what it's costing... because it's three people instead of two and we're going during the school holidays, so that puts the kibosh on any kind of cut price deal.

But after last time, when we had a hotel out on the fringe of the city (bad idea... took forever to get anywhere and forever to get back again), we'll be staying in a very lovely looking hotel in the middle of the city (the one I found a week or two back that had an Indian restaurant in the basement). And even though it's "apartments", it worked out cheaper than if we'd gotten hotel rooms (score!) plus Ma worked out some shady deal with them so that we're getting our rooms at a cheaper price (double score!).

And unlike when we planned our trip to Sydney, it's really only just around the corner... just 71 days to go...

Current Mood:

flu-like?

I really don't understand this... normally, during the course of a winter, I might get really sick once, if at all, although I'll usually solider along with sniffles for a while.

This year though, I've now fallen over for the second time... like I said yesterday I was all sniffly, then I woke up at midnight feeling very hot, went to the bathroom, came back and was shivering uncontrollably for a couple of minutes... then woke up every couple of hours feeling very hot and just generally not right.

Then (for whatever cosmic reason) it turned out that I hadn't switched my alarm on on my phone (or if I did I switched it off and went straight back to sleep, but I kinda doubt it), so when I did surface I figured I would just sleep in a bit before I got up. The longer I lay there, the worse I felt, and when I finally did try to get up I felt even worse...

At present I don't feel that bad... I still have a headache, I'm still a little overheated and I'm still wondering if this might actually be swine flu since it's very atypical for me to feel this way. Hopefully I start feeling better this afternoon or I'm going to have to do the doctor thing again...

Urgh... I hate being sick...

Current Mood:

tuesday botpoints

So what could be better than sharing some Benzobots and some random happenings from my Tuesday...

Yeah, you're right... a whole bunch of stuff... but we'll go with what we've got

• Of all the lessons I really need to learn, the one at the top of the list is knowing when to shut the hell up. Either because I take the conversation that one step further than it needs to go or I just come across a little bit psycho or I wind up getting myself involved in a conversation that I could have avoided.


• The next lesson on the list is knowing when to keep my nose out of stuff... for very similar reasons...


• I watched the "Special Advanced Screening" of Glee last night (it was on on Sunday, but I taped it)... and you know what, I liked it. I figured it was one of those shows that could go either way... either it would be totally cringeworthy and awful or else it would be worth watching. The downside? Having to wait until September before it's on! Although it could have been worse... it looks like the pilot episode aired in the US in May, and they also have to wait until September. Rude!


• My left shoulder has come out in sympathy with my right shoulder... although to be honest I think it's just the muscles complaining because I'm using it much more to compensate for the right...
  


• Would you believe that I have a cold/the sniffles again! It just came out of nowhere today and I'm all snuffly and congested and drippy again... urgh... hate it, hate it, hate it! And doubly so because the weather has been glorious the last two days...
  


• I wouldn't mind, but I dosed myself up on a bumper helping of Vitamin C this morning too... Trev's Mama brought in a bag full of these itty bitty teeny tiny mandarins... and I collected some up with the full intention of bringing them home, but I left three on my desk to eat... well, three led to four led to more led to both of the little containers... but damn they were tasty... and completely seedless, so I could just peel them and pop the little orange nugget in my mouth.


• Of course now I'm craving ice-cream...

Current Mood:

unconscious mutterings 338

Is it Monday again already?

Unconscious Mutterings...

1. Banter :: Talkshow
2. Amazing :: Grace
3. Towel :: Boy
4. Cinema :: Junkie
5. Newspaper :: Mama
6. Not good :: Bad, very, very bad
7. My type :: Nerdy yet hot
8. Twinkle :: Little Star
9. Actress :: Katherine Hepburn
10. Daft :: Apeth

Current Mood:

footlong or six inch?

You Are a Sub

You are casual but a bit picky. You know what you like, and you know what you hate. If you're able to do things your way, then you can relax. You like to have a say. You love variety and adventure. You get bored easily if nothing changes. You're always looking for the next new thing. You tend to get creative and think outside the box.

What Kind of Fast Food Are You?

Current Mood:

movies: red cliff

Take a chunk of the plot from Troy, add a touch of Seven Samurai, the tiniest hint of possible magic, season liberally with director John Woo's visual trademarks and you have Red Cliff.

It's a long movie, I'm not going to lie... although from what I understand it's even longer in Asian where it's been split into two separate movies, whereas we're getting the condensed 2¾ hour version.

Actually in some ways that makes me a little sad, because even though I did get the fidgets a number of times (but that was more about my knee twitching for no good reason and the chair being slightly uncomfortable) it was a very interesting movie and I think I would have been up for the double movie treatment (just not all at once)... but then I guess that's what DVD is for and hopefully I can get my hands on the extended editions at some point.

I knew that it was a John Woo film going in, and even though I think I've only seen one or two other Woo movies, I knew there were certain things I could expect... flying doves (one of them even serves a purpose to the plot), gravity and physics defying action, intense battles and slow motion/freezeframe. Some of that is to be expected from this kind of Chinese quasi-historical drama (the middle two mostly), although unlike many of the other CQHD we've seen, this one didn't end really strangely with everybody on screen dying. So big thumbs up there! But after a quick Google for John Woo trademarks I realised just how many of them this movie gets a tick for (numbers 1, 2 but with swords, 3, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12 and 13... just in case you're interested).

It's not as lush a movie as something like Hero or House of Flying Daggers, but it does make up for it in terms of action and these almost odd (but not unwelcome) little moments of peace within an otherwise fast paced movie. There's a little bit of everything really... action (with plenty of CGI bloodspray for the gory-minded), a romance/love story, dark humour and as I mentioned before, some mild supernatural themes. Actually that last one is very much up to the viewer... I thought there was a whiff of magic about one of the characters (as did Ma), but you could just as easily say that he was just very observant.

One of the biggest flaws with the movie though is that a number of the actors looked very similar, and when they're dressed in very similar armour it can be a little difficult to tell them apart... plus, even with the very helpful introductory names and ranks that appear on screen as we meet a number of the main characters (who are mostly generals for one side or the other), I really have only the vaguest idea of what anybody's name was by the end of the movie (and it doesn't help when one of my favourite characters had a distinctive name in the movie but it doesn't appear on the IMDB list).

But none of that stopped me from enjoying the movie.

Its big, its bold, its brash, its beautiful, it has lots of big booms... and I definitely would have gone to see it even if I hadn't won free tickets!

yani's rating: 4 bird's wing fans out of 5

another very long saturday

Lordy, lordy, lordy... it's been another very long Saturday...

I mean I knew it was going to have to be because we had the movie at 3pm, but I "overslept" this morning, so I was only just dressed by the time Ma got down here and didn't get much of a chance to do anything else (thank goodness I actually wrote my blogiversary post last night), so I felt a little behind the 8 Ball.

But there also seemed to be a lot of "spouzdas" going on today (that's "supposed to's" by the way)... We were just spouzda be where we ended up when we ended up there, so that was nice.

This morning's Supermarket Safari was as painless as supermarket shopping ever is and contained much discussion of So You Think You Can Dance (it's going to be a theme for the next seven or eight weeks, a bit like me settling down on a Friday evening to watch it after finishing my Photo Friday post). Oh, before I forget... Baker's Delight Cranberry and Fruit Loaf... yummy!

Then, after unpacking and suchlike we headed into town to check out the Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize exhibition at the Museum. I'm not sure if it's on earlier than normal this year or what, or if we just haven't gotten around to it until later the last two years, but we didn't go and see those until August...

Once we finally got into the gallery (there was a whole thing with Ma putting her cloakroom token into the turnstile instead of the token... blah blah blah *rolls eyes affectionately*) there seemed to be a lot more entries than what I remember from previous years (although I could be imagining things), but I don't know that the quality was as high. And oddly there wasn't any one or two entries where I could automatically say "that's my favourite" (because that helps with the filling out of the People's Choice entry form)... it was more, for both Ma and me, a case of "well I like these ones"... but nothing outstanding. But there were also a number of entries that seemed extremely below average, and I did wonder why they were picked as finalists.

It's like the winner... none of the entries that have won the major prize for the last three years has really been that great in my opinion... and this year there were definitely a ton of entries that were so much better than the piece that won.

Neither of our People's Choice picks are in the image at the top of the post... mine (Little Red by Simon Ward) had a crappy photo that wouldn't have cropped well and Ma's (Totem for the Transient II by Roh Singh) didn't photograph all that well. But the top three shots are from my "runner up" choices, while the bottom one was one of Ma's faves.

Once we'd finished wandering around the exhibit and had dropped our People's Choice entry in the little box we headed back to the car and tootled down to Marion (since it was the only place that was showing Red Cliff this weekend).

Actually we didn't go straight for the shopping centre, we stopped off at the Marion Cultural Centre (which is a photography excursion just waiting to happen... the building is amazing) to take a look at the exhibition in Gallery M. I'd seen it advertised somewhere, but only paid enough attention to work out where it was, I hadn't actually paid that much attention to what the exhibition was...

Turns out it was the Blake Prize (Exploring the Religious and Spiritual in Art)... and to be honest the Gallery gift shop was kinda more interesting than the exhibition...

Anyway, I think it was close to 1pm by the time we finally got into Marion, leaving us a couple of hours to wander around before the movie. Perfect.

And wander we did... Ma found a new watch with a big clear face and big visible numbers (woohoo, finally!) from one of those $20 watch stalls... I found (actually Ma found it but I would have gotten there eventually) a classic Soundwave teeshirt (woooooohooooo! It's actually the same image as the Gen 1 box art image on the Wiki page, although much paler... and yes, I am indeed aware of how monumentally dorky I am), some black and red striped real live actual authentic football socks to wear with my Croc boots (I know, how butch, right? *grin*) as well as finding, completely by accident since it was a case of "should we go up to the cinema now, or look in this bookshop first... oh let's look in the bookshop" a book of male nudes photos by Francois Rousseau (he of Dieux du Stade fame) for under half price!

Interestingly it was also Redheaded Guy's Day Out... I swear that somebody left the cage door open because there were a plethora of redheaded guys of varying ages at Marion... it started out with one in Big W with deathmetal hair and then I kept seeing them everywhere... and mostly true redheads too... none of this strawberry blonde or dark auburn crap. And we all know how I love a cute Ginger... so I was a very happy camper.

Then it was time for the movie... which, as usual, I will prattle on about in another post in a little bit. I will say though that I'm not completely sure why it is that the inhabitants of Crazytown seem compelled to come to the same movies as Ma and me, but I wish they'd stop! Also, who sits through two and a half hours of a two and three quarter hour movie and then gets up and walks out about fifteen minutes before the end? Seriously!? Enquiring minds really want to know!

Once the movie was over we headed down to Spago to get some dinner (mmmm I have not had tortellini alla pana in the loooongest time) before driving back here about eleven hours after we started out...

Granted it's not the longest Saturday we've had in recent weeks, but it has to be up there...

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fourth blogiversary

Last week I posted the following comment as part of a meme...

Today 4 years ago: I start a blog. I have no idea that it will happen or what it will mean.

I've tweaked it so that it still makes sense today, because it was one of those sentences that leapt into my brain fully formed and I honestly didn't realise what I'd written until I stopped and reread it.

My blog did quite literally sneak up on me out of nowhere. I didn't wait until the first of the month or the first of the year or even pick a favourite numbered day to start it... I'd been cleaning/clearing up all day and as far as I remember, halfway through whatever job I was doing I sat down at the computer, typed in the address for Blogger, and boom, I had a blog.

If you'd told me way back when that I would have a blog and I would post something everyday I would most likely have laughed at you. Now here I am, 1860 posts later (that's about 8.5 posts a week)...

And if you'd told me that it would keep me sane and prod my creativity and connect me with some amazing people... well that I might have believed, having had similar experiences with other websites. But when I sat down to type those fateful words "Okay... here we are... I finally have a blog" I had no idea how much the blog or the people I met through it would invade my life.

I guess what I'm saying is this... thank you all for coming along for the ride... I know it hasn't always been earth-shatteringly important or exciting, but I guess that's just me really. And while some people have disappeared along the way (and I still think about some of them from time to time), I'm glad you've all been around!

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photo friday: pizza pie

That'sa good lookin' pizza pie...

Actually that's possibly the best looking pizza I've ever made... and altogether the most "gourmet"... prosciutto, roma tomatoes, fresh basil and bocconcini... what can I say, I had this craving for both pizza and tomato/basil and it kind of invented itself from there...

Other than that, it's been a bit of a non-event Friday... H-San was already nuts when I got to work (normally I'm in before him but I had bus related issues), but I did a stupid thing and warmed Sugarmonkey when he got in that H-San was the Mayor of Crazytown, so of course H-San made me look like the crazy one by behaving perfectly normally... grrr...

My shoulder is still a little "tweaky"... only at certain points, but its still freaking me out every time it happens.

I also had something of a battle between my ability to nitpick fine detail and my oft-times "it'll do" attitude which meant that I ended up fixing different bits of formatting on the same dozen or so documents on and off all day. I'd fix one bit, upload all the changed documents again, then notice something else and start all over again. Productive and satisfying... but also annoying.

But, yeah... a very quiet day... so quiet in fact that Ugly Mutant Woman from the other side of the floor came over and asked us to keep the noise down... actually she said that the story H-San was telling could be heard "all the way over there"... pffft, fuck off, it's an open plan office, it's Friday and you're just jealous you don't have the conversations we do.

Thankfully, I have the pizza, followed by So You Think You Can Dance and Haighs Peppermint Pastilles to finish off my Friday...

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boxes, straws and shoulders

You know how they say "no good deed ever goes unpunished"?

Welcome to my day...

Actually it may have been the Universe's way of telling me to quit goofing off and get back to work, but either way I'm not impressed.

The workgroup in the pod across the way from The Nut House were on a cleaning frenzy today... not completely sure why, but they were... and at some point in their frenzy a box of stationary and associated crap belonging to us showed up... I have no idea why or how, but it did.

So I took it upon myself to sort out said box (and lock and label our storage cupboards properly just in case they got any funny ideas, or that was where they'd been sticking their noses and found said box)... which then led to my looking at some of the boxes we have in those cupboards and wondering just why we were keeping a lot of that stuff... so I started with the lightest and most interesting box and progressed up to a couple of boxes that had been filled by a former employee who clearly had a paper/printing fetish... seriously, every email, every document, every minor bit of random dross and she'd printed it out and put it in a folder. Cue one very full confidential paper bin.

But somewhere between the first giant box full of that stuff and the second giant box full of very similar stuff that was even heavier, I did a silly thing. Well, a silly thing happened, whether or not I actively caused it is open to debate.

I tweaked something in my shoulder.

That isn't good.

It's the same shoulder that I've dislocated three times and have had reconstructed once. I don't think it was just the boxes though... part of it has to be that it's my dominant arm, as well as the fact that I've been throwing my Crumpler bag up and over my head with that arm for months and months now... but the boxes seem to have been the final camel-adjacent straw... so I'm being very, very, very, very careful with my right arm at the moment. Even the memory of the pain of not only dislocating my arm, but also having the reconstruction done is enough to make me cringe. Not something I want to experience again.

You would think that the Glucosamine I've been taking would have helped in some way (even though it mentions just about every other body part except the shoulder on the side of the bottle)... but if anything I think it's having the opposite effect, not just on my shoulder, but in general... *sigh*... or it feels like that anyway...

Or is there some sort of karmic payback happening for an incident I'm not currently aware of?

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random zacquatic hotness

There's no particular reason for the bumper Random Hotness this week, other than the fact that I couldn't just pick two of these shots...

Given that it's been particularly wet over the last week, the whole "wet businesswear" theme seemed appropriate (I have no idea where they're from originally, I could attempt looking it up, but I just can't be bothered right now)...

And I'll freely admit that like half of the 'mo population, I do have a bit of a thing for Zac Efron... I resisted it (and by extension resisted seeing any of the High School Musical movies) for a long time, but you just reach a point where you have to stop and say "Yes please, I like 'em twinkaliscous and athletic but of questionable acting skill"...

Plus, look at that smile...

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wild things mural

Bless the panorama making software that came with my digital camera... doubly so because rather than using the camera's panorama mode which overlaps the end of each shot so you can see what you've already taken, I did this one by hand (as it were).

This is, in fact, the entire length of the mural, and the entire length of the wall if it comes to that... and it's from my last trip down to Glenelg (although I did feature the blue beastie with the pink balloon at the right hand end back at Easter).

Other than that trip down mural-related memory lane, there isn't much going on with me.

I got the free pass to Red Cliff in the mail today and I'm still none the wiser about where the hell it is. I think it's anywhere that's having a preview screening, so I'll have to take a look tomorrow and see where that might be. Which also means that'll tweak whatever we end up doing on Saturday.

I held the fort at work for a couple of hours this afternoon... everybody else went off to have lunch with a former team member but honestly I couldn't be bothered (it was Nasal Bitch... and although we parted on good terms, can you really blame me), plus I was more or less officially broke until payday tomorrow, so I stayed behind. And you know what... not a damn thing happened the whole time... not a phonecall, nothing...

And I'm so glad I bought that new umbrella on the weekend... we've had buckets and buckets of rain this week... although fortunately most of it has been while I've been indoors.

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movies: coco avant chanel

I don't think there could have been a greater contrast between this week's movie, Coco Avant Chanel (or Coco Before Chanel), and last week's movie...

Unlike last week's exploding robotfest, this was a somewhat quiet, slightly slow and very character orientated movie. Now, other than the fact that she made fabulous clothes (and possibly the most famous perfume in all the world), I don't know a damn thing about Coco Chanel... and while I'm still not sure I know that much about her once she became THE Coco Chanel, it was an interesting look into her background... however accurate or invented it may have been.

It does make me want to find a Coco Chanel biography though...

One of the downsides was that because it was focussed on a particular period of her life before she really became successful, it had to gloss over how she got from where she was to who she became and it was really only covered in a brief montage at the end. So a touch disappointing in that regard.

Audrey Tautou was wonderful as always as Coco, although it was about as far away from as you could every hope to get from Amélie... Coco is a much more prickly character and you often don't get a sense of what she's thinking or feeling (I did wonder at one point whether narration would have helped, although it might just have been because I've seen Audrey in a few things that have narration).

Her co-stars are excellent as well, particularly Benoît Poelvoorde as Balsan, who goes from likeable to repellent and most of the way back again... but then that's people for you... they're very seldom always one thing forever in real life.

I'm also having a big ol crush on the very European sounding but American born Alessandro Nivola, even with the little moustache...

I will say though, that for a movie about one of the most stylish women ever, the clothes (while I'm sure they're completely accurate and appropriate to the period) are actually fairly awful. There are a few stand-out pieces... the "first ever little black dress", and a number of her outfits towards the end, as well as the fashion show right at the end... must it was a little disappointing from that perspective.

I also have to give a big fat brickbat to the focus puller, Hugues Espinasse, who couldn't seem to grasp the concept of his job... and whoever was responsible for the subtitles, because they weren't the best I've ever seen.

But even with those minor complaints, it was still an interesting movie.

yani's rating: 2 chapeau out of 5

unconscious mutterings 337

It's been an eventful little Monday... I delayed going out for my walk for so long this morning that I ended up doing a super shortened version (down to Montefiore Hill, past the Cathedral, across the street, up around the back of the hospital and up the hill), which meant that I had TONS of time at my disposal this morning. I got to work about 15 minutes early (and left 15 minutes late) so I'm putting the extra time in "the bank" for when we go away to Melbourne (La Ninj said I could).

Then I discovered that I won tickets to Red Cliff next weekend. A simple phone call to my agency about pay slips not looking the same means that I'm now signed up to do my timesheet online (woohoo).

And I'm pretty sure there was something else good, but I can't remember what right now... so behold, the Mutterings of the Unconscious...

1. Sister :: Nun
2. Talks :: Incessantly
3. Electric! :: Boogaloo!
4. Corner :: Office
5. Turnstile :: Showground
6. Swap :: Wife
7. Young :: Dumb and full of cum
8. Horrific :: Accident
9. Block :: Party
10. Wind :: Machine

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explosions, excursions and excuses

Today started off with a bang, literally!

I'd turned on my computer, went off for my shower while it was getting itself booted up and organised, got out of the shower and was getting organised. I'd just saved an image and was standing in the bedroom doorway about to put some clothes on when there was a flash of light, a pop sound and then a shower of sparks from the powerpole outside my apartment building.

And because I turned when I saw the flash, I saw the whole explosion/sparks thing.

Then the power went out. Actually it went out somewhere between the pop and the sparks I think... I honestly don't remember. Fortunately it was only out for maybe 20 seconds before the backup system (whatever that is) kicked in. But it was scary for a minute there.

But the rest of the day was kinda like that... lots of flash and noise, but not a lot happening.

I went into town briefly this afternoon as part of my ongoing obsession with photographing numbers... I really should have gone in this morning, but I got sucked into the last third of my book (Casino Royale... and now I wish they'd stayed a little closer to the book in parts, because Bond doesn't mind wandering bareass along the beach) and didn't go out until the middle of the afternoon. So of course, it was impossible to get a park. Eventually I just gave in and went into one of the multistory carparks.

I'd also been half waiting to get a text message all afternoon for a bootay call. A guy I hooked up with forever ago was back in town and messaged me last night... actually I think he was looking for a little sugar there and then, but I was too tired to be bothered... so he said he'd message me today if he could. I really don't know why people say that if they don't intend to do it. And really, you have a pretty good idea of how busy you're going to be on any given day.

Anyway, that didn't happen...

So yeah, explosions and excursions and excuses...

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craft fair saturday

A fairly straightforward and not overly long day today... even if we did have to endure questionable arts and crafts.

The Supermarket Safari went off pretty much as usual, although with much discussion of SYTYCD and a post supermarket visit to the Honey Man (I think I went through that last batch at a rate of knots ).

Then we headed off to the "Craft & Homewares Fair" at the Showgrounds... mostly because entry was free. And you never know what you might find (not that we've ever been to one specifically like this, but we've been to a few similar things)... okay, I'll admit, I was half on the lookout for more toy soldiers, but with the exception of one extremely questionable example (and really it could have been a toy soldier or it could have been Michael Jackson... so somewhat unclear there) there wasn't a one to be seen anywhere... *sulk*...

While I kinda expected the Fair to be packed with little old ladies (and lordy, was it ever), I don't know that I was expecting it to be filled with quite so much tacky crap. Seriously, there was a whole world of "Primary School Fete" action going on. And there were a bunch of stalls that we've seen in other places... some from the BMP Expo, some from various markets.

I half expected there to be more stalls with "craft supplies" on them (like the fair Andrew went to recently), but there really weren't... instead there were lots of sparkly things, immense amounts of really ugly jewellery, far too many "cutesy" things and a bunch of stuff involving cats.

*shudder*

That being said, I did pick up a couple of bits of tchotchke, a "naked" hourglass (it's not in any sort of frame, it's just the glass piece with the sand) and a sweet little Asian figure. Oh, plus a pendant to put away for Ma for Xmas (lordy, it's starting already... it's only July and already I have three things tucked away). Oh and a couple of those pointless "Super Shammy" things that probably work really well, but you never have them around when you actually need them, and once you buy one, that kinda thing never happens again.

So after elbowing a number of little old ladies out of the way (not really, but I felt like it on a number of occasions... what is it with little old ladies and a complete and total lack of any kind of spatial awareness coupled with that whole slow walking and taking up space thing?) we ran screaming from the building as fast as we can (well, on the inside anyway).

Then we headed into the city, mostly because I wanted to call into JB Hi Fi and I also wanted to look for a new umbrella. The JB visit went well (woohoo DVDs... its a sickness!), but the umbrella search was somewhat frustrating for a while there. I knew what I wanted... a sturdy, decent, reasonably priced umbrella... and not one of those giant walking stick ones either, they're great when it's raining, but crap when you have to carry them around). And I knew where I bought the last one. But of course, I couldn't find any in that store, so they lost out and we went elsewhere. A few elsewheres actually.

But eventually I found a bunch of decent umbrellas in David Jones... and they had the same make and model as the one I currently own. I didn't get that one though (well, a change is a good as a holiday, and what's the point in getting something new if it looks exactly like the old thing), I got the same brand, but a different model with a new and unusual opening mechanism (which will probably go off about three times a day until I get used to it... at precisely the wrong moments) and a faux leather (I'm guessing) handle.

That was pretty much it. We got some food downstairs in the food court under DJ's, picked up some little cakey things from DJ's food hall and came back here to watch Heroes. And we didn't get rained on once... well, until we got back to my place... typical really.

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