photo friday: cog pendant

That's the typewriter cog pendant I bought last weekend... I've been wearing it all week long and loving it to bits... it's chunky, has good weight to it and those little teeth are kinda sharp. The only downside is that it regularly gets caught up in the chain because the gaps between the little balls are just the right size for jamming between the cog teeth.

I had a spectacularly bad morning this morning... firstly I slept through my alarm, which would have been fine, but I don't know if I slept through it because I switched it off or it never went off... then as I went to get dressed I realised the shirt I'd been itching to wear since I bought it last weekend was missing the top button... so I ended up sewing it on, somewhat amateurishly.

That meant I was running a bit late, so three different buses stopped at the bus stop while I was waiting to cross the street. Add to that the fact that I was breaking in a new pair of jeans which is always weird, and wearing my Puma sneakers which eat my feet by the end of the day and I didn't get to work in a particularly chirpy mood.

All of which, now that I read it back sounds incredibly trivial, but at the time it was worthy of irritation.

The rest of the day was calm by comparison...

Current Mood:

random kitty hotness

For today's Random Hotness I'm combining two things that people generally thing are cute... boys and cats...

And that's all thanks to the Tumblr/blog Cute Boys With Cats... "because there is a serious shortage of pictures of cute boys with cats".

Current Mood:

basement birds

If there's one thing I love about the internet and smart phones and whatnot is the immediacy...

I got on the bus this afternoon, checked my Twitter feed, saw a tweet from Josh Pyke saying that the Basement Birds (Kevin Mitchell aka Bob Evans, Josh Pyke, Kav Temperley and Steve Parkin) new single, Waiting For You, was the iTunes Single of the Week.

And since the SotW are free, I downloaded it right there and then on the bus... and listened to it all the way home.

Now I really want a full album...

Current Mood:

aquarium silhouettes

Some silhouette shots from the Melbourne Aquarium...

Because, really, I've got nothing today...

Current Mood:

unconscious mutterings 378

Okay, so I've officially done nothing all day apart from watch movies and sit on my ass... it's not an unenjoyable way to spend a day off...

Of course it may make getting up tomorrow exceptionally difficult...

Unconscious Mutterings...

1. Hell :: Demons
2. Scott :: That Dilbert guy...
3. Dominion :: Star Trek: Deep Space 9
4. Stunt :: Man
5. Cougar :: Cat
6. Columbia :: Pictures
7. Gasp :: Last
8. Cancerous :: Mass
9. Bitty :: Itty Bitty Polka Dot Bikini
10. Quit :: Alt+F4

Current Mood:

constructive sunday

A nice quiet Sunday... or as quiet as it ever seems to get around here...

I finished up my Zombie cross-stitch last night... it doesn't look too bad... it just needs some severe ironing and then I should put it in a frame or something.

Then this morning I was again baffled by why guys come sniffing around, then when you say "sure", go running away. Men... I just don't get them...

Anyway, after lunch I finally got around to doing some photo processing... I essentially just dumped the same set of Photoshop layers onto all the photos, with somewhat mixed results... there may need to be some additional tweaking... but for the most part didn't look too bad once I printed a set of photo proofs. Normally I like things in large scale... but the idea of doing these shots as the little tiny proof versions is somewhat tempting.

It definitely requires further thought...

Although oddly, I printed another photo that looks great on the screen but was totally overblown with colour in hard copy... weird...

It also led me to tweak around with the photos with this post more than usual...

But at least I accomplished something constructive...

Current Mood:

a very crafty saturday

That's the image over there is how today ended... but it's been a very long and very crafty day... so let me rewind...

*blhpblhpblphblphblph* (that was the rewind noise...)

Today started out the same as always... well, other than me waking up and realising I had a short period of time to do all the things I wanted to do, which resulted in me not quite being ready by the time Ma got here...

Although there's nothing quite like waking up at your regularly scheduled work time, then realising you can happily go back to sleep for another hour or so...

I also had a mental breakdown about what to wear... Ma showed up looking quite snappy in a shirt and vest combo, so everything I'd considered wearing felt very schlubby... so in the end I went with my epaulette shirt... which trigger a desire for more of the same...

Anyway, same as always... Supermarket Safari... And I knew that I hadn't made a shopping list on my iPhone, so I didn't bother digging it out of my pocket... which was good, because I'd left it on the dresser in my bedroom. Of course as soon as I realised that I didn't have it I started to miss it... stupid really.

Once we were done with the shopping we wandered into Target, mostly just so I could look at clothes and then be disappointed that they didn't have what I wanted. Except they did... they had a bunch of different designs similar to the epaulette shirt I was wearing (with those little tabs that you use to hold the rolled up sleeves in), plus it was "Buy two things get the second thing half price"... so I ended up with a purple stripe shirt, a blue "Brokeback check" shirt and a grey one that doesn't really have a stripe. And a pair of "straight leg" jeans... and saved a bunch of money because of the way the girly put them through the checkout... and got to keep the coathangers because the girly was a bit docile.

Bargains all around!

Then we headed down to Norwood for the Magnolia Square Market... fairly chi-chi... although a number of the stalls there we'd seen at Bowerbird. The crowd however, was periodically obnoxious... normally at a place like that you have a natural flow to the crowd and people will slide to one side and be aware of other people and whatnot. Not this crowd... they all thought they were fucking Christopher Columbus discovering the new world or something... once they'd staked out a space they didn't want to move. Either that or they stood in the middle of the aisles having a conversation or just generally got right up my nose.

People... can't live with em... can't take them all out at once with an automatic weapon...

Anyway, we looked around, got an average cupcake from the cupcake stall, poked around various stalls a second time, but the only place we actually bought anything from was Type Key... actually I got two things... I was undecided between two pendants, one was a cog from inside a typewriter, nice and chunky and industrial... and other was a set of typewriter hammers, the bit with the letters that actually hits the paper. So when Ma said she liked the hammer one, I got them both... the hammers for Ma for Mother's Day (even though she really doesn't do Mother's Day), and the cog for me.

Next we headed into the city to do some wandering around before it was time to head off to the Format Gallery. So there was the required looking at DVDs (but even with JB's 20% off everything sale there still wasn't anything I was compelled to buy), consumption of Bubble Tea (note to self: don't get flavours that are the same colour, especially if you don't trust the girl making them to get them right) and looking at new stores in the Myer Centre.

Then, after much difficulty in finding a decent carpark (although we did manage it eventually), we headed off to the Radical Crafternoon #4 - Stitch Bitch at the Format Gallery...

I swear... I'm becoming addicted to that place...

Anyway, I'm sure you lose some coolness points turning up to something like this with your Mum... but I didn't feel so bad since there were two other woman of around the same vintage, although I think one of them was the mum of the girl who organised it.

It was a fun afternoon though... we didn't overly talk to anybody, but I don't really have a problem with that... other people who came together kind of stuck together, and a bunch of them did seem to know each other.

Although as Ma said afterwards, it was good to see that somebody is keeping it (cross-stitch particularly, but just that kind of craft in general) alive... but it was also interesting to hang out and watch a large number of uni students being uni students... *shakes head indulgently*

There were also more guys there than I'd expected... and only two of them were DEFINITELY gay... but then a couple of them were also just there to talk shit with the girls who were there... one of whom seemed to be doing everything known to man to show off the top of his bright blue underwear....

But it was fun... I got a big chunk of the way through my anatomically correct heart, even if I did screw up the placement of one bit and had to improvise around it a bit. I wouldn't mind doing it again anyway on grey fabric. It would also be easy to change the text to just about anything... although I like the idea of keeping the zombie bit... "zombie unicorns" did keep rolling around my head a bit... I blame @hexsteph!

The only real downside was the seating... I didn't snag one of the big plus comfy chairs, instead I ended up sitting on the improvised tyre seating they have... which may mean I get up all stiff and achey tomorrow...

But we stuck around until just before our car park ran out at 5:30 (and they were finishing up at 6 anyway). I'd definitely go to another one though...

So a very different, but entertaining Saturday...

Current Mood:

photo friday: struts

Let's see... highlights from today... or this week in general...

• Sugarmonkey did that "earworm" thing to me again... made a suggestion or a comment or some such that then burrowed into my brain... so now I own Lily Allen's first album... and Josh Pyke's too, but that was all me...
• Earlier this week I spent over $300 on Adelaide Cabaret Festival tickets... it wasn't intentional, I'd picked out shows, but never did the sums... but that's for both Ma and me, so she'll drop me some cash for her share... but still!
• Unintentionally exposed underwear never gets old...
  
• My iPhone was acting up earlier... actually it's been a little bitch all day... but it seems okay right now... maybe it just needed some new music...
• The fact that walking past a really beautiful guy still causes me to do the "deep exhale" thing kind of amuses me...
• I'm severely addicted to fresh basil, cherry tomatoes, haloumi, baby bocconcini and prosciutto... yet am still unable to spell the last three correctly...
• Could it rain now please? Big fat noisy rain...
• I realised yesterday that because of Grindr, I've had sex with more guys under the age of 25 this year than I have in possibly the last 5 years. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing... although it's fun while it lasts...
• Also, when did 19 year olds get so damn hairy...
  
• People who stroll in the city during the day should be shot in the back of the head and then moved out of the way... starting with The Pram Mafia...
• If you're going to send information out to writers, make sure you spell check and proofread it first...
• Additionally, if you're supposed to be highly focused on the web and innovation and new media tools and the like, please learn the difference between "Reply" and "Reply All"... the rest of us have no need to listen to your minutia...
  
• Tomorrow is shaping up to be somewhat "craftcentric"...
  
• And somehow while I know that this is obviously full sized stuff, my brain just rebels and sees it all as little dinky toys...

Current Mood:

random tattooed hotness

Today's Random Hotness comes from photographer (and general hotness himself) Richard Renaldi's Tattoo Boys project...

I like quite a bit of Richard's work, so I might have to revisit it again later...

Current Mood:

wandering wednesday dotpoints

These are the last two images I had stored in my pre-prepared folder from Street Dreams... one of Store's pigeons on the left, and the indecipherable "Nosie Nosie Nosie" with Jaws on the right (is it supposed to be a "keep out"/nosey reference?)...

Now... what did I do today...

• I discovered an interesting way to watch the #60MMO thread develop on Twitter... that is if it didn't make my computer a touch on the laggy side...
• I spent far too much of the day essentially on my own...
• I had a conversation with someone at my desk, and then they called me when they got back to their desk and we essentially had the exact same conversation over again...
• I discovered that I'm going to have the opportunity this weekend to get my hands on a cross-stitch pattern that says "I (anatomical heart) zombies"...
• I played "Words With Friends" (ie Fake Scrabble) on my iPhone with a total stranger (game still in progress)...
• I alternatively forgot and was slightly self-conscious about the giant hickey on my neck... and marvelled that on the same night I arrange a Gentleman Caller, a former Gentleman Caller just dropped around unannounced...
• I realised that I started reading Penny Arcade because it was cute and fun and had a bunch of nerdy jokes that I got and even more nerdy jokes that went screaming over my head... but once I started watching the PATV series, it became clear that Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik are two exceptional human beings...
• I read up on "social network theory"...
• I cooked something for dinner that involved finishing off with cream... don't know if I've ever actually done that before...
• I'm halfway between wishing Lost would finish and not wanting it to end... and Hurley episodes ALWAYS make me cry...
  

Current Mood:

how to redux your dragon

It's been a somewhat long, somewhat annoying, somewhat irritating day... not only for me it turns out, but also for Ma... so we didn't really want anything to taxing in the movie department.

So we settled on going to see How To Train Your Dragon for a second time, this time in 3D.

It definitely holds up to multiple viewings, and interestingly I noticed a whole bunch of little details this time around because of the 3D... textures mostly, whether they were on Toothless or hair or clothing or whatever.

I was a tiny bit disappointed that they didn't make more use of the 3D during the flying scenes... most of the action was contained from the screen going back rather than coming forward. It would have been nice if during the flying Toothless felt like he was right in front of you.

But there were some moments where the 3D was used in incredibly subtle but effective ways... from just seeing the curve of Toothless's eye, to ash falling, it all worked very nicely.

It's definitely going on the "DVD's to get" list though!

After the movie we went down the road to get dinner then wandered back here.

Can I just pre-empt the horrible day I'm going to have tomorrow by saying I'm going to have a horrible day tomorrow? Sugarmonkey is off doing training, H-San is on leave, La Ninj will be here, there and everywhere as is her want... so I'm going to be Fort Holding Boy.

Which is fine, but the potential for things beyond my control and/or understanding to screw up is exponentially high.

*sigh*

Can I just call in dead tomorrow?

Current Mood:

unconscious mutterings 377

"Yes, my hair is different... thank you for noticing"...

Unconscious Mutterings...

1. Drug :: Tranquilliser
2. Questions :: Answers
3. Active :: Passive
4. Facts :: Fiction
5. Amount :: Money
6. Supervise :: Direct
7. Ingredients :: Recipe
8. Dentist :: Teeth
9. Meal :: Cook
10. Packaging :: Tape

Current Mood:

the eleventh doctor

So... Matt Smith in his first episode as the eleventh incarnation of Doctor Who...

I was expecting it to take a couple of episodes before he really was The Doctor... but it didn't even take the whole episode.

It's always difficult settling into a new Doctor and especially since we've had four years of the wonderful David Tennant... and unlike the switch from Christopher Ecclestone to David, they've made a lot of changes...

The opening title sequence, including the font... changed... and I approve.

The theme song... changed or perhaps a better word for it would be reinterpreted... and I approve.

The Doctor Who logo... changed... and I think it will grow on me, but I don't hate it.

The Companion... changed... but that's happened once a season for the last few seasons, so no problem there... but even after one episode, I like Amy Pond...

The Doctor's sonic screwdriver... changed... it's bigger, chunkier, and the light on it is green to match Matt Smith's eyes... so I approve.

The Tardis... very, very changed... and while it's not as organic as the previous version, it definitely has potential.

And of course, The Doctor has changed... but I thought Matt did a fantastic job. He has that manic energy we've come to associate with the new series, he's a little bit pretty and a little bit weird looking and there is definitely a spark there... but it's hard comparing anyone to David Tennant. He held his own however.

The one thing I still don't like is his outfit... a tweed jacket and a bow-tie... really? That's the best they could come up with for him? Not a fan, and hopefully they'll change or adapt it along the way.

What hasn't changed is the great acting. And the fantastic writing. And the occasional gay undertone (Jeff, I'm looking at you).

It's not perfect yet... and Russell is gone, but I have confidence in Stephen (after all, he is responsible for one of my favourite teevee shows ever).

This is the first time that the "seasonal arc" has been introduced so bluntly and so quickly... "silence will fall"... but there has to be more to it than that... there usually is.

So roll on the rest of the season!

But I'll leave the last word to Doctor Who...

"There's something you'd better understand about me cause it's important, and one day your life may depend on it: I am definitely a mad man with a box!"

Current Mood:

vaguely clothing related saturday

I've essentially done very little today, but I'm reasonably exhausted... I don't know if it's because of the weather today, or I didn't get enough sleep this week or what...

The big news for today is that Adelaide had an earthquake last night... which sounds impressive, until you realise that it was essentially a minor tremor. In fact I didn't even know it was an earthquake, I just thought a big truck/bus had driven past my place... the windows shook a bit, and that was about it.

Also, I'm still a brunette... my hair looked much darker this morning than it did in the salon last night... so I'm still getting used to it. Plus I think my scalp might be kinda brunette at the moment as well...

Ma had her hair appointment this morning, so I went shopping on my own. I didn't end up getting very much but I had to detour to get my dry cleaning so I didn't get back to my place much before Ma got here.

We dithered around here for a bit, then ended up going to Norwood to look at shoes for Ma. Why is it that they are unable to make shoes with a low heel and appropriate support/comfort actually look interesting? Why do they all have to look like shoes for earnest, militant feminist lesbians (not that there's anything wrong with that... but they're some ugly shoes)? Eventually Ma found a couple of pairs she liked which were on special. Which is good, because they were over $300 bucks even then...

That seemed to set the precedent for the day.... not the expensive part, but the clothing related part.

We then headed down to Marion, somewhat more circuitously than normal, and ended up looking at clothes a lot. Okay, I also bought Transformers 2 with the gift card I got for my birthday from work... which I then followed up with a Transformers tee shirt with Megatron all shiny and metallic and blue... and followed that up with a baby blue sweater (not one of my usual colours, but I liked it)... so it's all connected, or something.

So between wandering around, looking at clothes and avoiding vast numbers of stupid people we grabbed some lunch and after more wandering called it a day.

Current Mood:

photo friday: alphapasta

Can you spot the (not so) secret message? And yes, I know that's technically a H... it was supposed to go the other way but it didn't quite work...

I'm officially a brunette...

Well, technically I'm always a brunette, naturally speaking... but my hair is an awful "nothing" colour normally... now I'm all brown with some depth to it... plus my eyebrows match...

Rewinding briefly, work was a whole world of insanity... not because I was especially busy, but because H-San seemed to have made it his mission to drive me to distraction. Whether he did all of this intentionally or not I don't know, but either way he still managed it.

It was also one of those days were 4pm seemed to take a very long time to arrive. But eventually it did and I trundled off to see Tink and get my hair did. I was definitely having one of those "my hair sucks and although I like the idea of growing it out, the reality sucks balls" moments... weeks... whatever. So I burbled at Tink about what I didn't like about it, she made a suggestion, which sounded fine, so I let her get on with the cutting (I think we're moving towards a similar style to one I had about 10-12 years ago, but we won't comment on that right now), then we had that slightly painful discussion about colours.

I wish there was a way you could just see what the colour is going to look like on you before you commit to it (and not a whole Photoshop way, an actual way with your actual hair) but alas this is impossible. And I didn't want to go particularly blonde again, but I needed to cover the grey find something that didn't look quite so bland... and I settled on a brown colour... but a brown that would end up looking warm since my hair always throws red/ginger into any colour.

But given that my eyebrows are essentially blonde I'm always a little hesitant about going darker with my hair... but Tink fixed that by very briefly applying some colour to those two... so now my eyebrows essentially match my hair colour. And according to Tink the combination makes my blue eyes look even bluer.

It'll be interesting to see what people notice, whether they just see the hair and now the eyebrows, whether they comment on my eye colour or what...

After we were done I wandered off, stopped to pick up some last minute things for dinner (I forgot to get tomatoes and basil to put on my pizza) and some Coopers Clear... although seriously, beer usually just goes straight to my head.

And I'm currently rocking the special features/Season 4 that never was from my Veronica Mars DVDs... this week has been all about The Mars... granted I think that Season 3 suffered a little bit from Jumping The Shark Syndrome, but it was VM episodes I hadn't seen so I'm not complaining too loudly.

I also got my hands on the Adelaide Cabaret Festival program book today... not sure if the stuff in it this time is a good as last year, will have to mull it over with Ma tomorrow, see what we thing...

Now if you're excuse me, I have to go and prepare for Live Tweeting of 60 Minute Makeover...

Current Mood:

random kick-ass hotness

I said on Tuesday that I had a new celebrity crush... Kick-Ass star Aaron Johnson... so of course there had to be a Random Hotness...

I really like the hoodless version of the costume... and the sweaty, beat-up thing doesn't particularly hurt either...

But I couldn't do a Random Hotness about young Mr Johnson without including these images... because if you are now or ever have been young, attractive, English and involved in cinema, it's highly likely that Kai Z Feng has photographed you... in your underwear...

Now THAT is the body of a superhero...

Current Mood:

scarily accurate

This Dilbert cartoon is scarily accurate to how I feel about my job some of the time...

Although today I had the added bonus of having to go through three different systems checking and updating email addresses/logins...

It was a very long day...

Current Mood:

movies: kick-ass

Kick-Ass is violent and vulgar and cheesy and over the top and realistic and excessive and pitch-perfect.

Kick-Ass lives up to its name!

In related news: I have a new celebrity crush.

Tonight isn't a scheduled movie night, but I woke up this morning with the desire to play hooky from work and go to the movies. I didn't... but I decided to go and see Kick-Ass after work instead.

Sweet superheroes, I'm glad that I did.

I was slightly unsure about it going in... not about the violence and the profanity, I mean please, I own Kill Bill and most of Kevin Smith's movies, so those things don't bother me. I do however, have a deep and abiding dislike for Nicolas Cage, and I wasn't sure whether I would enjoy the movie because of that. But you know what... he wasn't bad... annoying, yes... but not bad, especially as Big Daddy where he's essentially channelling Adam West.

But the stand-out for me, as well as my new celebrity crush... Aaron Johnson as the titular unsuper superhero.

And is it weird that I'd prefer him to keep the Kick-Ass suit on? Although there was that one scene with him in his underwear...

Other than looking hot in the green "wetsuit" (and I'm sorry, that doesn't look like any wetsuit I've ever seen), he does a fantastic job as this everyday guy who turns himself into a real life superhero. Without giving anything away, he goes from this dorky kid looking for a lost cat, to an actual kick ass hero. And you believe him the whole way.

In a way it's almost a shame that Chloe Moretz as Hit Girl, and by association Nicolas Cage as Big Daddy, didn't get their own movie. Their dynamic is so completely screwed up, bordering on actual insanity, that it would have been nice to explore that a little further... the "how did they get to this place" is only touched on in general terms and I would have liked to know more. But then that's the mark of a great movie/story... give you enough so that you understand and feel for the characters, but still leave you asking "what about...".

Personally the character that doesn't completely work for me is Christopher Mintz-Plasse's Red Mist. I didn't mind him as the regular person, but once he adopts his superhero identity it just felt a little m'eh to me.

The same goes for Kick-Ass's friends... okay, technically they're Dave's friends and they don't know about Kick-Ass... but whatever. They're good at the start of the movie, but then once Dave turns into Kick-Ass they essentially become comic relief and don't really add that much to the movie.

Actually the villains also felt kinda m'eh... yes, I know they're necessary for a superhero movie, you gotta have a bad guy, but Mark Strong was kind of a bad video game boss... you fight your way to him through all the goons and underlings and whatnot, and he doesn't really feel all that threatening. Brutal, yes... threatening, so-so.

All in all though, its a kick-ass movie!

yani's rating: 4 butterfly knives out of 5

unconscious mutterings 376

Things that happened today: I saw three crayons hanging from a tree on my walk... then I saw a chalk outline around a suspiscously bright red stain... and I also had possible the best Civ Rev Lite game I've ever played...

Not interesting necessarily, but true...

Unconscious Mutterings...

1. Habit :: For Humanity
2. Relaunch :: Website
3. Mondays :: Blow
4. Bootstrap :: Pull yourself up by your...
5. Funk :: Dance
6. Appreciate :: Silence
7. Yay! :: Boo!
8. Life :: Occasionally sucks beyond the telling of it
9. Sheets :: Bed
10. Date night :: What's a date?

Current Mood:

restful detective sunday

It's been a pretty good day...

I got about 8 hours sleep overnight, which I think is something of a record recently. Then I got up stuffed around a little bit (damn you Enchanted Doll blog!) then had a shower and did some "oh, I'll just do this, and now I'm doing that" style tidying up...

That meant I trimmed my Parlour Palm (and no, that's not a euphemism for anything) to get rid of some of the ratty looking and dead leaves, and make it somewhat more "up" than "wild". Conceivably it could still do with a shower to wash the dust off the leaves, but I think it'll live for a now.

I also stumbled across proof that the guy at work I was positive was a huge 'mo IS a huge 'mo even though I saw him out somewhere with a woman (yeah, I know, childish and pointless... but I like to be right)... so maybe it was his sister or something... that'll teach Sugarmonkey not to believe my gaydar...

And after I went out to get the paper, had lunch, etc, I then started a Veronica Mars Season 3 marathon... which I've essentially been doing on and off since I bought the third season on Friday... I think I have 7 episodes to go (out of 20). God I love that show!

But that's been about my day... not exciting, but very restful and enjoyable...

Current Mood:

unproductive window shopping

I'm officially filing today under "frustrating" and "unsuccessful"...

After a fairly average, if somewhat shortened, Supermarket Safari (we only went to the one supermarket, and didn't bother waiting around to wander The Red Circle), and a trip to the Honey Man which yielded neither honey, nor man (there was a sign on the door saying they have no honey, the honey vats are all gone from just inside the window and the Closed sign was up... so whether that means "no honey right now" or "no honey ever" I don't know... disappointing though, I love that place) we came back here, unpacked and then kinda sat around going "What do we do, what do we do"...

Essentially there's nothing we really needed to go looking for, nothing we needed to go and see, nothing much going on at all really.

So we were at something of a loss.

In the end we fell back on the old standby of "looking at things we might like to buy"... although it was a mission fraught with mediocrity, overly expensive crap, bored sales people and little success.

Seriously, how difficult do you think it is to find some sort of entertainment unit that isn't designed for a corner that is more than 80cm wide, but less than 110cm... and is around 60cm tall... and has a shelf on which to put, say, a home theatre system?

You wouldn't think it was a stumper would you...

But it's next to impossible... unless I wanted to pay more for the table than I did for my teevee. Which I really don't. All the entertainment units are about 5 feet long and maybe 30cm high... often I saw ones that would have been great, if they could get rid of one section on one side... but no joy.

I looked at entertainment units, I looked at coffee tables, I looked at end tables and lamp tables and what might have been bookcases... I looked at Casual Living and Jimmy Possum and Freedom and (heaven help me) Le Cornus and random no-name furniture stores... big fat nothing. I swore I saw something that was about the right thing in Ikea once, but the last time we were there I couldn't see it... so maybe I dreamed it up.

So we gave up and went into the city to hit the Central Market in search of honey... well, not so much searching, I was pretty sure they'd have it in bulk at Goodies & Grains which is my "go to" store for anything organic or grainery or tasty really.

On the way in though we got distracted by a Morning Glory store in a seemingly odd location, so had to swing around and go and take a look. Which did lead me to want to punch the overly perky, and sole staff member in the face... seriously, leave people in peace to browse, don't be all up in their face every two seconds... and turn the damn music down somewhat. No wonder they stuck him in a store by himself. Ma ended up buying a couple of reasonable looking yet handbags... no idea how long they'll last before falling apart, but she was happy enough.

Then we found a park near the market disturbingly easily... and got honey from Goodies & Grains (I was tempted by the Orange Blossom honey, but it was much more expensive than I'm used to paying so I stuck with standard old Blue Gum)... as well as random nibbly things and some vegetable alphabet pasta. God I love that store... partially I think because it was Lownee who introduced me to it way back in the day.

Next it was Nana's for little bun goodness, and a quick stop at the Morning Glory store in the Markets where I picked up a rather cute transparent orange plastic tiger moneybox with a reference to Year of the Tiger (badly worded though it might be) on his belly. So yes, essentially I am an 12yo girl.

Our final stop was to get a Bubble Tea from Chinatown and then we headed back here to consume some of the Nana buns... and I stuffed my little tiger dude full of $1... and essentially he is nearly full... I have so much $1 gold coinage that it filled him about up to his nose... and he's a good 25cm tall. But I liked the look of him so much once I was done that I suggested to Ma that we go back so I could nab a second one for my $2 coins. Which we did (although as to be expected we didn't find a carpark anywhere near as easily)... and now the second tiger (which has more of a girly face and is a lighter gold colour) is stuffed with coinage up to her chin.

I really need to count or deposit or otherwise do something with all that coinage...

Current Mood:

photo friday: painted shoes

I couldn't resist snapping this guy's shoes at Street Dreams... I want some!

Today was more than a little bit m'eh...

The weather was m'eh... work was m'eh (and I still can't decide whether Sugarmonkey is pissed off with me or just wanting to finish this neverending project brief he's working on... I think that even if he was pissed, he's mostly over it)... I was m'eh...

I also couldn't resist picking up the third (and final) season of Veronica Mars at lunch... it was cheaper than I've seen it anywhere else and having just watched the first two seasons I had Mars Fever...

And that's about the highlight of my day... like I said... it's all a bit m'eh...

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random mcqueen hotness

Some actual vintage Random Hotness this week... The King of Cool, Professional Badass and Total Hotness, Steve McQueen.

These shots come from a set of never before seen photos shot ("three weeks and more than 40 rolls of film later") in the Spring of 1963 by photographer John Dominis for LIFE Magazine...

And why is he getting naked? Well...

"We're sitting around the swimming pool up on the deck," remembers Dominis, "and Steve goes away and he comes back without any clothes on! He just enjoyed being out in the desert, looking at the sun.... He was just so natural about everything. There was no time to feel embarrassed, so I shot all the pictures that I needed to shoot. I shot some pictures specially of his backside so we could use them in the magazine, because in most of them he was just [full-on] nude. He wasn't hiding anything."

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