my mother is a teddy bear serial killer

My mother is a psychopath...

Or sociopath... or whatever we're calling it these days.

She has had way too much fun (way more than $6 worth in fact) with the Target teddies we bought yesterday...

At random times over the past two days I've gotten random picture messages from her which display something of a serial killer vibe towards the teddies...

The comments in italics are the messages she sent me along with the photos...

It all started so well...

All safely buckled up for the ride home...

"When she said did I want to come home with her, she never mentioned the ironing!"

"Or the washing"

So just some harmless teddy slavery so far...

"Or that we get sent to bed early."

And then it all got a little weird...

"Well we made it upstairs but now we're worried. Found some friends but one chick called Mama has '1994' tattoo on her foot and says she has not left the room for about 14yrs. And Blue as we call him is in bad shape."

So, teddies being held prisoner in the spare room... okaaaaay...

This shot just isn't right either...

"Oh oh... She's got Number 1, we tried to get away but it didn't end well. Number 2 fell off the ledge and she caught us."

"The Laura Palmer Trio"

Somehow I expected there to be another shot of one of the teddies strapped down to a table with gaffer tape and surrounded by rusty surgical instruments...

Obviously weirdness is genetic...

Current Mood:

wandering solo saturday

It's been a funny old day...

Everything started off reasonably normally, except for the fact that Ma and I took separate cars down for the second week in a row (and next week will make three weeks in a row), since she was headed straight off from the supermarket to go and get her hair did.

That and the fact that I forgot my wallet and my belt and my car stereo fascia first thing this morning... I was doing real well there...

And I think I've mentioned before that I don't like Stocktaking Days at the supermarket... it's that combination of the aisles being full of people/staff who, no matter how they arrange themselves, always end up being right in the spot that you want to get to and feeling like you're being watched and not wanting to take anything off the shelves because it will mess up their count.

Add to that the combination of unattractive folks with the odd shining gem of manly hotness, and lots of straight teenage boys who can't coordinate appropriate socks with a pair of black pants and black shoes (seriously... they're either white, or they're those supershort ankle socks... bad, bad, bad).

I did have a bonding moment with the Checkout Chick over the "Create-A-Jelly"... gave her advice on some of my experiments.

Then, once we'd gone across the road for the Farmers Union Iced Coffee run, we did a quick whip around Red Circle... and discovered they were selling off their Christmas bears (not sure if they ever had a name) for $2 a piece... and there were three of them. So they got adopted... not entirely sure what's going to happen to them though... but Ma's having too much fun with them at present (and trust me, there were more shots this afternoon, obviously spending most of the day on her own warped her brain... she had a bear helping with the ironing, looking in the washing machine, and all three being "sent up to bed early" on her stairs... she so scary)...

It was a little freaky though carrying the bears from the store to the car, with all of them facing me and staring at me as they bounced up and down while I walked... something unsettling there. I'm just glad they're not living in my house, I don't wanna wake up in the middle of the night and find the bears all standing at the end of my bed staring at me...

*shudder*

Anyway, once Ma had strapped the triplets safely into the back seat of her car, she tootled on down the road, and I came back home, unpacked and wondered what the hell I was going to do with my day.

The short answer is... not much, but I spent a long time doing it.

First stop was town to pick up a present... and to wrangle with stupid sizing scale for clothes that really should be simple.

Then I headed down to Marion and took a slight detour to Slick Willy's new house (not only new to him, but completely new... and much more complicated to get to than his old place)... although it was a visit that did not go according to plan... personally I think he had worked himself up too much and there was also something I said, but m'eh, whatever.

And then there was Marion... which essentially entailed me wandering around and around and around and around... I really could have just done one lap and gone home, I bought the only thing I came away with on the first lap, and had some lunch at the end of it... plus my feet were killing me... but no... I kept going.

It was kinda interesting though because I ended up walking much slower than usual (due to the aforementioned feet), so I think I saw stuff that I've never actually noticed before (ceiling detail and the like). Plus there were lots of pretty boys to perv on...

But that was it really... lots of wandering, and then I came home...

Current Mood:

photo friday: weibwurst

Something snapped just off Rundle Street on the way to breakfast on Australia Day... and yes, that sausage is exactly what you think it is... although I didn't notice it until I looked at the pic later.

And it's actually a fitting symbol for today...

I had a highly unexpected encounter at lunch... unexpected not only because of the swiftness of it, but the fact that the other party would normally be way out of my league. And while it didn't have the outcome I would have liked, it was still a pleasant, if strange, way to spend half of lunchtime.

Although on the downside, I didn't end up finishing my lunch beforehand...

Meanwhile, I spent the morning in a hour and a half meeting that was a follow-up to the hour and a half meeting yesterday. But it's always nice when people actually GET IT! When they realise that quality results don't happen in two weeks and take serious thinking about and a commitment to developing a process. Sadly, it's more rare than you would think.

Oh, and turns out that The Duck really isn't a duck after all... fricken metrosexuals...

Current Mood:

random buzzcut hotness

For today's Random Hotness we have the spectacularly buzzcutted and stunningly green-eyed Louisiana model, Daniel Edward Miller...

I mean seriously, look at those eyes! Stunning!

Current Mood:

melbourne sunset

Something from the Melbourne file... sunset over the Yarra...

I don't really have a lot to say... today was kinda weird... like a Monday, but not...

I woke up with a headache this morning, I kinda hope it was more about a lack of sleep rather than, you know, the fact that I essentially gassed myself for four hours last night. That's what happens when you don't turn the stove off properly. Thank goodness the door was open.

So, yeah... that's about it really...

Current Mood:

movies: up in the air

I think that the easiest way to classify Up in the Air is to say that it's equally what you'd expect and also not what you'd expect...

And, as I commented to Ma afterwards, George Clooney joins that club of actors who are kinda always themselves in movies...which isn't to say that his performance isn't excellent, but the essential Clooneyness does shine through... maybe to the advantage of the character.

It's a great movie though... even if it does take a little while to warm up... I kinda felt that it wasn't until the scene with the trio of George, Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick that I felt like it really started to ramp up.

And I can see why there's a lot of buzz around Vera and Anna for the Oscars... they're both excellent... very different and fairly low-key overall, but still excellent.

Actually, that's a good description for the movie... low-key... it's not big or flashy or overblown, I mean even the movie poster doesn't trade on George's face (and is actually taken from a scene in the movie... well, two thirds of it anyway). But there's some excellent writing there from (writer/director) Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, some genuinely funny moments and some excellent storytelling.

Because it's so low-key though, there really isn't that much to talk about... the performances are pretty excellent across the board (although even though there are a lot of people featured it feels like the cast is very small)... and it was interesting to see Jason Bateman yet again essentially playing third banana... in fact I didn't even know he was in it... a bit like Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium...

There's also a degree of predictability towards the end of the movie... or I guess it's more that there's the assumption of predictability, some of which pans out and some of which doesn't...

But it does make me want to see it again, just to revisit the end.

An excellent movie experience though... and definitely one for the DVD list...

yani's ratings: 4 loyalty cards out of 5

oz day excursion

Well, it's been a funny old Australia Day really...

I decided to sleep in this morning, which was nice... and then lay in bed for a while fiddling with my iPhone (which sounds kinda dirty, but really wasn't)... it was weird though, being a Tuesday and all, being able to lie in bed and not have to rush around.

Eventually I rolled out of bed and got myself ready to face the day, then ended up watching an episode of Dollhouse while waiting for Ma to come down so we could start our plans for the day.

Sadly I also discovered that the obnoxious neighbours that I thought were gone had actually only gone back (I'm guessing) to the Homeland over the Christmas break, and since school starts up again tomorrow, they're back... grrrr...

Anyway, when Ma got here, the first step was to hook her computer up to my wireless broadband and do the update thing, then we left that running and took off to Rundle Street to do a late brunch thing before going to the movies.

Sadly the place I'd figured we could go was closed, so we ended up somewhere I've always thought looked nice, but never ventured into... and it was very nice... Dutch fruit bread (although I have idea why the hell it was "Dutch") with ricotta, banana and honey. Very tasty!

Then we wandered across the street to the Palace to see Up in the Air (more on that later), only to discover that instead of movie tickets being the usual Tuesday half price, they were full price due to the public holiday... which is a bit wrong I say... not sure if it was just because it was the Palace, or if the regular multiplexes would have been the same too...

I'm sure we've done movies on public holidays before though... although maybe not a Tuesday and a public holiday...

Anyway, it's not like we were just going to walk out again...

After the movie we headed across the road to Eros and had some fairly tasty Greek themed burgers... that and watch the parade of fairly random folks wandering up and down Rundle Street on our national day.

Originally we thought about stopping off at Cold Rock on the way back to the car, but after the burgers we were both too full to be bothered...

And now I'm relaxing and half-listening to the tail end of the Triple J Hottest 100... and realising that I don't actually recognise a single song from what I've heard so far (which admittedly is only three or four songs)...

Current Mood:

unconscious mutterings 365

It's been a weird day... I had two days off (you know, commonly called the weekend), then back to work today... then tomorrow is a public holiday... then back to work on Wednesday... weird I tells ya!

And even though I essentially did nothing all day, the time still seemed to fly (mostly)... so who knows what the hell is going on there...

Unconscious Mutterings...

1. Food :: Fight
2. Death :: Discworld
3. Cafeteria :: American High School
4. Need :: Want
5. Born :: Free
6. Stitch :: Lilo &
7. Badly :: Behaving
8. Blocks :: Lego
9. Chuck :: Wood
10. Spiral :: Pasta

Current Mood:

exposing my apartment: part trois

I've "exposed my apartment" twice before... and while the general layout doesn't change at all, the details do... picture here, picture there, random tchotchkas shuffle around...

Although what's strange, even to me, is that even though I put 28 litres of stuff in a box yesterday (which is now loitering under my head), when I put the reduced amounts of stuff back in place last night, the shelves are all still full essentially. Which pretty much tells me that they were seriously overstuffed before I started.

I'm so not designed to do the minimalism thing though... I'd go nuts...

But I really do want new bookcases. My only problem is the same problem I have with replacing anything... what the hell do I do with the old ones. Or rather, if I want to give the old ones away, how the hell do I get them to where they need to be.

Ah well... it'll all come out in the wash...

Of course now everything else looks untidy by comparison...

Current Mood:

the saturday with no plan

I would just like to know one thing... where the bloody hell did today go?

Sure, we packed a lot of stuff into the day, but we didn't start out with any plans, and I couldn't believe it when we were on the way back to my place this afternoon and it was already 4pm... it was one of those days where the time just vanishes.

Also, as a note to myself: Wear this particular Optimus Prime top more often... boys try and pick you up (okay, that's not actually true, but two different guys said they liked it, and both were cute, if very different).

But rewinding now... Blblblblblblblblblblb... that was the rewind noise... you know...

Oh, forget it...

Today started off reeeeeeeeeeeally early... Ma had her car booked in for a service, so she got to my place around 7:30, about half an hour earlier than usual... which was fine because we did the random catchup before we left (in separate cars) to drop her car off at Mr Mechanic Man and then go shopping (one being across the road from the other).

If was one of those minor shopping days... very quick and I didn't end up with very much stuff, but then I have a cupboard full of stuff...

So we were back here reasonably early... although it was a little tricky trying to sort my groceries out, what with my kitchen counter being covered in some of the larger random tchotchka from last night's slightly insane cleaning attack... and I still haven't put stuff back, so I'm sitting next to the folding table at the moment which is just full... and a little scary to be honest.

Ma played with her DS (My Sims Kingdom, again... addict) while I got organised and once she'd found Dr N (don't ask) and Mr Mechanic Man rang her (that's in the real world) we headed down to pick up her car... actually she did that while I took a detour off to see The Honey Man and we met up back here.

We didn't really have any particular plans for the day, but there seemed to be more stuff that we wanted to look at in town than anywhere else, so we shuffled off to town... even though @matt_gilbertson mentioned that he was helping to host the Top Model auditions in the Mall...

Fortunately they kept the models corralled, and they're mostly skinny anyway, so they don't take up a lot of room...

The main thing we were looking for was a laptop bag for Ma's new laptop... and if there was ever any question about where I get my sense of impatience from, today confirmed it... she wanted one, and she wanted it now. Essentially we started at Crumpler, went everywhere else and ended up back at Crumpler (everything else was either too small or just plain old boring... or both). And she got the next one up from the Winston Fleece one I bought. I was sad to hear that they've discontinued the line... and was half tempted to either get the same one Ma bought or the next one up... although I'm not sure I really need one, it was more the thought that they're no longer available... Once you know something has become endangered, shopping panic sets in.

Or is that just me?

You can always tell when it's Festival/Fringe time... stranger people than normal start appearing in the Mall and odd things appear...

These three ladies stopped and did a little acrobatic performance (and seriously, muscle control, the one up on the top just seemed to appear up there with almost no effort) before sasheying off down the Mall... and I spotted Mr Sloppy who's the mascot for Street Dreams, the Adelaide Urban Art Festival...

There was also a giant puppet/stilt-walker with two little human buddies in very 80's workout gear... but I didn't get a photo of them.

Other than that, we picked up a few discounted things in the David Jones Food Hall, visited the ABC Shop where one of the boys complimented my teeshirt (we had a bonding moment), before we stopped off for Bubble T and headed back to Crumpler.

Once we'd gotten Ma fully Crumplered up we headed back to the car, stopped off here to drop things off and then headed down to Arndale, which was something of a wasted trip, although I did get a storage box to store (oddly enough) the tchotchka I don't want out anymore.

Then because I'd mentioned wanting another "booksafe" (since the current one is kinda full), we went off to Burnside to visit Smiggle since I knew I'd seen them there. I do so love Smiggle... but I managed to control myself.

Which is good, because one of the bookstores was having a closing down 30% off everything sale, and they had Tintin omnibuses... which are cheaper than the individual books, but still pricey, so I only bought two (and I already have two old ones from library sales somewhere... I can't see them right now).

Then we stopped off for something to eat at Cibo... tasty flat bread things with unpronounceable names... and I gotta say, I love the iced coffee and iced chocolate at Cibo, they're not overly sweet, and the coffee gelati/ice cream they use in the coffee is just amazing.

We also stopped off in the gourmet food section at Burnside and picked up some stuff for dinner (sweetcorn and fetta frittas... should be good) and tomorrow. Nothing like forward planning.

Then we headed back to my place, although we did stop off at Bunnings so I could pick up some bubblewrap to assist in the tchotchka wrapping... which is where I got my second teeshirt compliment.

Hmmm... looking at all that, it kinda explains where the day went, doesn't it!

Current Mood:

photo friday: pink robot

One from the Melbourne street art archives... Union Lane to be exact...

The words of the week are: "career", "assuage" and "Steve"... for no other reason that they've provided amusement to Sugarmonkey and H-San at my expense at various points.

And while parts of this week were intensely slow with not much going on, I definitely made up for it all yesterday, which was something of a coding nightmare... fortunately it was a nightmare that doesn't actually belong to me, so I was able to give it back at the end of the day.

I also briefly caught up (textually speaking) today with somebody I haven't spoken to in almost a decade... Thankfully he was still using the same nickname after all this time otherwise I probably wouldn't have recognised him. He looks good though...

That's really about all I can think of... partly because I feel a little like I've been chained to one computer screen or another all week... between Beast and Bumblebee and work (the work computer doesn't have a name beyond "f**kin thing!"), I seem to spend all day staring at screens... so I'm going to scamper off and, well, to be honest, probably end up staring at the teevee screen, but I might do other things too...

Oh, and I tweaked the blog template a tiny bit... just to bring it in line with the Twitter template...

Current Mood:

random roy hotness

This week's Random Hotness feels like a departure from my usual RT type... I don't really think it is, but 25-year-old Israeli model Roy Lavi is perhaps a little more rough around the edges than my normal choices.

But there was something about these shots on Queerty that I really liked... other than the bulging shorts, obviously...

Current Mood:

my adelaide fringe picks 2010

I went a little nuts on Fringe shows today...

I'm not completely sure why today in particular... but it was a slow day at work and I started looking around the Fringe website... then suddenly I'd spent $150 on entertainment.

This working thing is a bad influence!

So, come February 19 (actually that's not true, the first thing I'm going to is on Feb 12), I'm off to:

• Briefs: A late nite romp of circus, gender confusion, comedy and good ol' showmanship for the not so faint hearted!


• The Grimstones - Hatched: A gothic fairytale told with exquisite old-world marionettes and sign-language.


• The Kransky Sisters - Three Bags Full: If only you’d had the courage to visit those weird old aunts of yours years ago, you wouldn’t have had to wait until now to experience some of the joy they have to offer!


• Josh Earl vs The Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book: In 1985 Lyn Earl purchased a book that changed her life forever, as well as the lives of her three sons.


• Drags Aloud At The Movies: All pop and delicious corn and blockbuster funny, Drags Aloud is back with another gloriously twisted gender bender satire on the movies.

I've been a fan of the Kransky's since they used to be on some teevee show on SBS from time to time, so I'm excited to see them live, although I kinda prefered the previous third sister (the silent one with the tuba)... and Josh Earl's show I want to go and see based purely on the title. I remember reading Eddy's post about The Grimstones, go that's been in my mental rolordex for a while now. And then there's a little gay/drag action thrown in for good measure.

There will probably be a few other things too... a couple of fairs/markets, and I would like to do the Amococo (an inflatable 'luminarium' or walk-through sculpture of labyrinthine tunnels, soaring domes and cavernous atriums)... and I might finally get along to the street art festival.

As I mentioned early today, I think I've been to see more theatre and shows and stuff in the last three years than I've seen in the previous thirty years...

Current Mood:

iphone art

I downloaded an iPhone art app (Scribble) the other day that allows you to draw on the screen... and after a few false starts, I came up with these two... Untitled Face and Neon Bunny...

I'll tell you what though... if I thought real painting was hard, virtual painting with just one finger, much harder.

There's not really very much going on in The Life And Times Of Yani at present.

Work is work, there never seems to be enough time here at home, and I realised the other morning that I haven't actually gotten laid yet this year.

I do seem to be on something of a cleaning binge though (which started yesterday)... actually I think it's more of an organisational/sorting binge to be honest (I didn't end up getting as far as I would normally have yesterday because I got sidetracked by sorting stuff out rather than just making it appear tidy)... I really need to go through all my tchotchka and take a bunch of stuff down, not only because I have new stuff that needs to go up, but I just want less of it around.

That sounds fine in principle, and when I look at all the stuff as a whole I know that stuff should be put away, but the problem comes when you look at each piece individually. Ah well, I'll give it a go tonight, see what happens.

Random Question: A guy works in your extended, extended team... he dresses exceptionally well... he's cute as a bug's ear... he's somewhat metrosexual (okay, quite a bit)... he also seems a little bit camp around the edges... but office gossip has it that he's "married" (although "to a woman" was never specified). Then you see him out at lunchtime with another guy who dresses equally well, is equally metro, and seems even camper around the edges (as far as you can tell from walking past the pair of them)... The question is: Is he a duck?

Anyway... as my Nanna was always fond of saying, "This isn't making the baby a bonnet"... so I'll be off.

Today's post was brought to you by the Ampersand (&) and the number 3,672 (which is the number of dollars an abandoned restaurant I see every day when I get off the bus owes in back rent... they just vanished before Christmas, tables set, empty till on the counter, Christmas decorations up... and nothing... until I saw the sign in the door today).

Current Mood:

unconscious mutterings 364

Right... it's dull but it's true, I need to tidy the house up tonight... it's not messy per say... just unorganised. But there must be something in the air, because I had this overwhelming need to tidy/clear/minimalise my desk at work this morning...

Unconscious Mutterings...

1. Weak :: Ankles
2. Flashy :: Car
3. Sack :: Race
4. Business :: Meeting
5. Purple :: Rain
6. Fan :: Star
7. Airline :: Pilot
8. Guide :: Girl
9. Lunch :: Box
10. Exercise :: Bike

Current Mood:

a nothing sunday

Today has been a big fat nothing day...

I haven't really done anything all day... listened to the Avenue Q soundtrack this morning... watched some teevee (woohoo Rick & Steve and Doctor Who DVDs)... dragged the printer out from under the bed and did a few test prints on the magnetic paper I bought at the beginning of December.

Worked out quite well actually... I printed the little "Protected by Toy Soldiers" sign I made ages ago, as well as four photos all on the same page to make some mini magnets. Turned out quite well actually...

But somehow after doing that and printing out a couple of other 6x4 photos I realised that suddenly the day had disappeared on me.

It would also help if I could concentrate enough to keep a thought in my head for more than five seconds... stupid neighbours...

And I'd like to find the fly that's been buzzing around my apartment all day too...

Current Mood:

a very ma saturday

Apropos of nothing, I started reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland on my iPhone this morning (thank you Stanza)... mostly this is an experiment to see if I can actually read a whole entire book on my phone...

It was something of a big day actually... not so much for me, but more for Ma... but I'll get to that directly...

We started out, as always with the Supermarket Safari... nothing much of importance to report there... although I found myself picking things up to check the carb content...

Then we had a quick tour around Red Circle (and dealing with the sole check out chick who got confused because the couple of marked down things I bought had the wrong code on the tag) where Ma pretty much finished off her collection of Studio Ghibli movies (I picked up a few of them cheap for her yesterday at Borders but Target was also selling other ones cheaper than usual)... I swear, I didn't know what I was starting when I introduced that woman to anime...

After coming back here and doing the usual unpacking, we headed out to Good Guys because Ma said she wanted to go and look at laptops... and since we had such a good experience when I went to buy mine, she figured it was worth going back to the same place.

And we pretty much ended up repeating the experience... right down to being served by the same staff member. Actually we hung around and waiting for her to be free on purpose... and to be honest, Ma kinda picked out one before we spoke to her, and even though there was a last minute change, there was also an even more last minute change back, and she ended up getting the one I thought she would.

It's all black (actually I think it's a very black blue, if that makes sense) and shiny... and has Windows 7... and Microsoft Office... and, well, I'm somewhat jealous. Not that I would trade in The Beast... he showed up right when I needed him to, and I really can't complain about his performance. But, black and sleek and shiny and updated and new... *green eyes*.

I'm pretty sure it's an Inspiron 15... but don't quote me on that...

And, much less interestingly, I bought an iTunes gift card for myself... I'm furthering my exploration of the modern age and buying the Avenue Q soundtrack online since none of the stores seem to be carrying physical copies. That doesn't mean I won't buy a physical copy later if I see one... but at least I'll have it.

Plus it made me feel better because I didn't get a shiny black laptop... *grin*.

Next stop, also at Ma's suggestion, was Ikea... I thought it was a follow-up trip to the one we did at the beginning of the month so that Ma could get another one of those kitchen workbench things... but, no... turned out it was a "go around and write down everything she wants" trip.

And "everything" kinda turned out to be a different shelf thing for the kitchen, a couple of chairs to replace her lounge suite, and a new dining table and chairs. Actually she decided on the table she liked a while back, but not the chairs... so when she finally decided on the chairs she liked AND they were marked down, I talked her into getting them (she'd already decided to get the metal shelving unit). Hopefully this means she'll actually replace the table soon.

I also did some poking around, specifically at bookcases and TV cabinets. My next technological purchase is going to be a digital flatscreen teevee (and possibly a new stereo, since the one I have I got when I was 16)... and I really could do with some more storage space, so I'm considering some sort of very tall bookcase system... since I have the ceilings for it.

The only downsides are where the hell I put all my tchotchka (I mean I still have the tchotchka from Christmas in boxes) and where the hell I put the painting J did for me and the Benzo piece I bought...

But it's a thought process...

I did manage to walk out of Ikea without buying a single solitary thing though... not sure if that's a gold star achievement or not though...

And that was about it for the day really... we loaded up the car, headed back here and Ma couldn't resist getting the laptop out of the box... and then I hit the power button since she was talking about the battery... and after seemingly ages while the computer configured itself, we fiddled around with it until the battery died.

Shiny both inside and out thought... although I'm not sure how I feel about the top menu thing... but then I wasn't sure about the Google Sidebar in Vista either... plus I don't have to worry about Windows 7 for a while yet...

I'm glad Ma bought it though... she's needed a new computer for a while now, and I'm planning on hooking her up to my wireless broadband in the next couple of weeks so that we can at least check for any Windows updates or anything.

Current Mood:

photo friday: exposing my crumpler

I'm taking a leaf out of photographer Jason Travis for this week's Photo Friday... I saw his Persona series on Flickr and fell in love with not only the concept but the way he chooses to lay out the objects...

So this is my homage... oddly though, it shows that I carry a lot more shit around with me in my bag than I thought I did...

It's been something of an odd day... I spend about three quarters of it working on a workflow process structure flowchart... and I wouldn't mind, but it's not even for our group... but if I'd left it up to the group in question it would have ended up being distinctly half assed.

I also got my hands on all but a couple of episodes of Dollhouse... so very excited about that, not that I don't have enough unwatched teevee shows on DVD already...

Now... serious question... if it just me or does anyone else ever get the overwhelming desire to bite the neck of the person in front of them on the bus...

Okay, just me then...

But if a very attractive gentleman will get on the bus, sit directly in front of me in an otherwise empty half of the bus, then it's not my fault...

Moving along...

I spent far, far, far too long making ring tones for my iPhone last night... I got a program from one of the girls at work which allows you to choose a particular 30 section of a song to turn into a ringtone... but I didn't realise until this morning that I could actually do it with things in iTunes (or alternatively I was scared off by the intensely stupid "Artists" folder system)... so there will be more ringtones to be made...

Anyway, I really need to go and make some food...

Current Mood:

random gallagher hotness

While I do keep looking at model Kelley Gallagher is today's Random Hotness, I also keep getting drawn to the location... there's a quality to the light, and the retro stool, massive windows and exposed brickwork... and I got a big of an architectural boner...

That's not to say that I don't appreciate Kelley with his plump pink lips in his tight white undies...

Current Mood:

a question for my tweeps

Hmmm... just let me process that for a second... I have tweeps.

Do I actually have tweeps? Well according to the Twittonary, tweeps are Twitter people that follow each other from one social media/network to another... so if a blog can be counted as "social media" then I have tweeps...

But I'm mostly thinking aloud and getting off-topic again...

The question I wanted to ask was where do people stand on "controlling" their Follower list?

There have been a few people who started following me who didn't seem to be "real people"... they were either endless streams of links to a website, or ongoing retweets or just generally seemed like "spam". So I blocked them...

I haven't done that with anybody I class as a "real person" though...

So essentially two questions (there were three, but I can't remember the last one now)... a) Am I overthinking this whole thing? and b) What do other Twitters do?

Current Mood:

movies: fantastic mr fox

I had something of what I can only describe (badly) as a "meta-moment" at tonight's screening of Fantastic Mr Fox...

And technically it was more than one moment... but, work with me here...

There were a number of points during the film where the audience laughed. Some of these moments I'm still baffled over (although the very first one I think can be chalked up to the clunky animation style), but others I can acknowledge as amusing... but really, it wasn't really that funny, and it certainly wasn't laugh out loud funny.

So does that say more about me or more about the audience... there were more of them... so maybe they were right... maybe it was funny, or maybe there were just some very loud laughers who made it seem funnier than it really was.

But I'm definitely filing this in the "ho-hum" column.

As I mentioned before, the animation can only be described as clunky (at that was intentional since it was filmed in 12 frames a second instead of 24, although why still baffles me)... and while it did grow on me a little bit as the movie progressed, for the most part, I wasn't overly impressed. And it was worse because it's stop motion animation involving characters with fur... so essentially their fur is always moving and rippling due to the animators fingers messing it up, even when they're standing still, and even the fur itself isn't that attractive. They're not sleek, stylish characters, they're actually kinda shabby.

The story has some nice moments, but to be honest I cared less about Mr Fox and his foxy ways than I did about the story of his son Ash who is "different" (although doesn't think he is) and doesn't feel like he has his father's affections. But neither story is explored particularly well... Mr Fox, voiced quite suavely by George Clooney, gave up thieving twelve fox years ago, but for seemingly no apparent reason falls back into his old habits (he doesn't even have the excuse that one of the farmers is sleeping with his ex-wife)...

And the later part of the story has a fairly big plot hole (as well as a fairly big actual hole)... if they're so good at digging, why don't they just dig horizontally and make a run for it?

Speaking of fox years... I also wasn't particularly impressed with the use of on-screen text during the movie... I'm sure they're probably chapter titles from the original book, but they were unnecessary and at least once gave away what was coming next. So big fail in the "Show, Don't Tell" column.

The voice cast were all excellent, although once again, this movie falls into the "Known Voice Acting" trap... a lot of people who's voices I recognised enough to go "Oh yes... Dumbledore as a farmer... Venkman as a badger... Lightning McQueen as some white fluffy sports coach... William Stryker as a reporter"...

It's definitely not a movie I would recommend for children... I don't think there's enough to keep them entertained, it's not colourful or flashy enough... and it has more in common with Rankin Bass than say Pixar.

yani's rating: 1 cuss word out of 5