#photoadaysept

So this is September... Photo-A-Day-wise anyway.

This month's photos came easier than last month's, although at the end of the month I did have a little bit of a creative bottleneck (Day 27 specifically, but it spilled over to Day 28 as well).

September's Lego photos (Days 3, 10, 12, 16 and the aforementioned 27) have some of the shots ones I'm proudest of for the whole month (Days 16 and 27 particularly), and as usual they're the most liked photos (in order, Days 12, 3, 16). They also bring the year's total of Lego photos up to 35.

Although I think Day 7 is my absolute favourite... the bright green grass and three slightly sleepy pelicans... gorgeous.

• Day 1: Me, now (I kept trying to think of something clever for this... but in the end, went with what I was wearing)
• Day 2: Father (I've had this statue of one of the Asian deities for a while)
• Day 3: Far away (good old DOF)
• Day 4: In my mailbox
• Day 5: Bright (this was a hard one, but I finally my big glass "diamond" and my LED torch came to the rescue)
• Day 6: Every day (I make this walk every work day)
• Day 7: Natural (the middle pelican gave me the evil eye as I approached)
• Day 8: At night
• Day 9: Something I do most weekends (read the paper and drink Iced Coffee)
• Day 10: Hero (Lego Superheroes... and a Supervillain)
• Day 11: Black + white (or, as I commented on Instagram, "Caution: Floating hipsters in this area)
• Day 12: Together (once again my LED torch came to the rescue and made an average shot pop)
• Day 13: Table
• Day 14: Favourite (my favourite chocolate is Haighs)
• Day 15: First thing I see (this is a little bit of a cheat... it was actually the first thing I saw when I remembered I hadn't taken a photo yet)
• Day 16: Strange (putting this one together was a little time consuming, but fun... zombie popstar, vampire geisha and Frankencheerleader)
• Day 17: In my fridge (oh, look, a Ketchup Dunny in my fridge!)
• Day 18: Price (the sodas at La Cantina Co are very yummy)
• Day 19: Underneath (sitting underneath a tree enjoying my lunch)
• Day 20: Man-made
• Day 21: Sometimes (marshmallows are a sometimes food... and they're only available from Haighs during some of the year)
• Day 22: Up (on the wall at the Bakehouse Theatre)
• Day 23: Before bedtime (laying out my breakfast dishes)
• Day 24: Three things (my three Lunartiks)
• Day 25: Frame (Popeye framed in the City Bridge over the Torrens)
• Day 26: Near (the Burger Theory "Shizzle" Artburger)
• Day 27: Love/hate (the love/hate relationship I have with my body in Lego form)
• Day 28: A good thing (street art in my neighbourhood is a good thing)
• Day 29: Errand (I needed some duct tape)
• Day 30: Me, then (Baby Me seems to have a strong opinion about something)

As always, the October list for Photo-A-Day can be found over on FatMumSlim's blog...and Chantelle did an interesting wrap up of the month there too...

Current Mood:

walletless saturday shopping

It felt like we hit the supermarket earlier than normal this morning... I'm not sure if we did, I wasn't really paying attention, but it felt quieter.

Of course, having zero interest in the world of sport, I didn't even realise that it was the day of days for balls being kicked through big sticks until I overheard someone at the supermarket mention it. Whether that was the reason for the lack of people or not I don't know.

It may have been the reason why we ended up with a checkout operator who was one of the worst packers I've ever seen (and that's saying something).

When we got back to my place, Ma did what is rapidly becoming a habit and wandered down the road to get a coffee while I unpacked the groceries.

We really didn't have much that we wanted to do beyond some minor errands, but since today's Photo A Day word was "errand", it seemed fitting enough (even though I've been a day behind since Thursday... but I intend to catch up as soon as I finish this post).

So the day essentially consisted of me going in search of duct tape (and as an aside, why do we call what Mythbusters always describe as "duct tape", "gaffer tape"... and then duct tape is something else entirely... confusing) and Ma seeking out a new shower curtain.

Thrilling I know.

There was other stuff... after stopping at Bunnings for the aforementioned duct/gaffer tape I discovered that I'd actually left my wallet at home... so that pretty much put any plans for buying anything must else on the backburner. Yes, I could have borrowed money of Ma, but there really wasn't anything I wanted.

And really, Ma suggested that we head to West Lakes, and that's always a little bit underwhelming. It was mostly fine though... although for a supposedly more "upmarket" area the shopping centre does seem to contain more than the usual helping of what may or may not be cashed up bogans.

So that was it really... other than a brief trip down the street to buy some bacon to make a BLT for dinner (I only thought of it after I got home).

Ma did make the first rumblings today about starting to think about Christmas shopping though... so that could become a thing.

Oh, and for the record, I have no idea what's going on with the photo at the top of this post... as far as I know it's taken in some sort of Russian sex museum or gallery or something (in the shop part, clearly) and I think these guys and some of their buddies were hired to be... naked? Generally weird...

Current Mood:

photo friday: past and present

As I mentioned yesterday, I've felt a little bit like I've been underwater this week.

Not in the peaceful, naked swimming way... mostly in the "I've been sick" kind of way.

What started out last Sunday afternoon as possible hayfever degenerated into some other randomly non-specific illness, but I think I've dosed myself up with everything imaginable (I even had one of the girls at work give me a glass of apple cider vinegar) over the last five days and I seem to be mostly winning. I still sound horrible, but I don't feel like I want to crawl into a hole and die.

I think the underwater feeling has also come from the fact that I've been really busy at work for the majority of this week... Wednesday especially felt like it was just going from one meeting to another for the whole day... and at certain points this week I've really felt like the man with two eyes in the land of the blind and cyclops.

Or possibly the reverse... the one eyed man in the land of the sighted... whatever it was, I felt like I was seeing something different than everybody else and I can never work out why it is that other people don't seem to be able to communicate in a way that lets me know that they can understand this blisteringly obvious thing too.

I'm sure there's a less confusing way to write that... but buggered if I know what it is.

My love affair with food trucks continues unabated... and there's a new player in town. So, at present the line-up looks like this:

Burgers: Burger Theory
Tacos: La Cantina Co
Beverages: Raw Thirst
Non Meat Alternative: Veggie Velo

I tried Veggie Velo for the first time this week (their haloumi and mushroom burger) and it's fucking tasty! In fact each mouthful was a different mixture of tastes. But then I do love me some haloumi.

Although technically VV isn't a food truck... it's more of a modified food cargo bike. Still awesome though.

Oh, and speaking of tastes... the third Burger Theory Art Burger (the Shizzle Burger) made an appearance this week... and I wasn't enthusiastic when I first heard about it, being that it was dressed with avocado. I've never been an avocado fan, but I am a Burger Theory fan (as anyone who knows me will attest... in fact one of the girls at work is convinced that I have a Burger Theory logo tattooed somewhere about my person... I don't, but the idea is interesting), plus I want to be able to say that I tried all of the Art Burgers.

So try the Shizzle Burger I did... and it was DELICIOUS!

Turns out that the avocado was an avocado, lemon and salt mash... which was so very tasty. And I love lemon/sour flavours at the best of times, so that combination of the lemon in the mash and the pickled red onions was really good.

Now there just needs to be a decent dessert option within the Adelaide food truck community (I'm not counting the yellow cupcake van as their cupcakes were dry and uninteresting the first and only time I've had them... I'd much rather go to BTS for my cupcakes) and I would be a very happy, if overfed, little bunny.

I finally got around to watching the finale of Season 9 of So You Think You Can Dance last night.

This season has definitely been an improvement over the last few, although I still don't think any of the recent ones have been as consistently good as "the golden age" of Seasons 4-6.

This year came close though and I ended up really getting connected with a number of the dancers who went all the way through to the finale. In fact three of the top four were amongst my favourites. And I don't think I've ever had a reaction to the moments before the winner's name was announced (for the boys anyway) quite like I did for this season.

I still say that the show needs a regular injection of work by Mia Michaels to really make it exceptional. And I think the episode completely devoted to dancing Mia routines from previous seasons this time pretty much reinforced that.

Ma and I ended up having a really in-depth discussion about the final four dancers and who we wanted to win and why (again, more specifically about the two male finalists) and at the end Ma did comment that it was weird that we were getting so into it... which is true, but that really is the point of shows like that when they're done well (and not done here in Australia). Plus it's doubly weird that when I first told Ma about SYTYCD back when Season 4 was screening she initially turned her nose up at the idea of the show. Now she's more of a hardcore fan of it than I am.

And thanks to the interwebz we didn't even have to wait to see if it was going to screen here on TV, I just grabbed the episodes right after they screened in the US. But if it does screen on TV at some stage I know that Ma will just watch it all again anyway.

I also managed to get hold of the last remaining Lego minifigure from Series 8... if I'd started at the beginning of the box instead of the end I would have actually found it really quickly.

And I definitely need to spend some time over this long weekend going through the 5GB of photos on my iPhone and deleting a ton of them... fun times... fun times...

Current Mood:

random underwater hotness

Sometimes the right images come along at the right time to match your mood.

And Marcos Doimingo Sanchez's Underwater set for Fantasticsmag just about sums up my week. I've kind of felt a little "underwater" myself this week.

Although Tao Fernandez Caino does look a lot better underwater...

Current Mood:

unseen theatre company: reaper man

After seeing Pratchett Pieces Three by the Unseen Theatre Company during the Fringe I said that I'd have to keep my eye out for the next full length Discworld play that they did.

That turned out to be Reaper Man.

The story is typical Discworld fare... Death (Hugh O'Connor) is "fired" from his job by the Auditors of Reality and finds himself working on the elderly Miss Flitworth's (Pamela Munt) farm at harvest time.

At the same time, Windle Poons (Leighton James) a 130 year old wizard at Unseen University dies... but due to Death being unemployed, finds himself returning as a zombie.

In the original novel the "B Story" involving Poons is much more involved, but for the play that's simplified down to mostly reinforce the main Death story.

The script itself contains all the genuine laughs of Pratchett's work, aided by some very strong performances from the small yet versatile cast.

O'Connor makes for a brilliant Death... seeing him in a secondary role as one of Poons' fellow wizards you would never guess that he also plays the anthropomorphic personification of Death (I love saying that)... his has the perfect monotone yet booming voice for the character, as well as great comic timing. But there was one moment when he's standing right at the front row where looking up into his blank skull mask was genuinely intimidating.

James does well in a predominately comical role as Poons, particularly with the undead zombie shambling of an undead wizard. And the scene between Poons and Mrs Cake (Michelle Whichello), as a psychic who's precognition reaches about ten seconds into the future are genuinely hilarious.

Other standouts include some of the actors in the same roles as Pratchett Pieces Three, Samm Blackmore as the dryly humorous Footnote (aka the narrator) and Paul Messenger who has found his groove in the role of wizard Archchancellor Ridcully.

Messenger, James and Michael Coumi are also great in their brief appearances as the three Auditors... they've clearly been inspired by the vocal performances of the Auditors in the Hogfather miniseries, which just felt right.

In fairly minor roles both David Dyte as Modo the dwarf gardener of Unseen University (as well as a couple of other roles) and Danniel McInnes as both the Dean of the University and Lupine (a "reverse" werewolf) are worth watching... particularly McInnes' physicality as Lupine even if the character only has a single scene.

As always the black walls of the Bakehouse Theatre are easily turned into any space required, but the idea of projecting a still image of a scene onto the back wall worked brilliantly, especially for the opening "Auditors in Space" sequence as well easily defining other interior locations.

If there are any criticisms beyond the occasional slightly clunky line delivery, it would be the movement of items by the stagehands between scenes. Usually this was covered by Blackmore's Footnote speeches, but there were occasions where it was a little distracting.

All in all though it was a worthy adaptation and an enjoyable night of theatre.

Current Mood:

series eight saturday shopping

Today was pretty straightforward...

Or at least it was after my brain worked out that it was actually Saturday and not a weekday and that was why the alarm didn't go off on my iPhone at the usual time.

But at least that's better than thinking it's the weekend when it isn't.

As Ma and I are going to a play tonight it was something of a short day... which is fine, while this morning was pleasant, the afternoon went all grey. Not that that bothers me, but it certainly was a radical change in the day.

I explained "the Sydney plan" to Ma on the way to the supermarket and she agreed that it was the preferable option.

So the October trip is off... and it's an April trip to Outpost 2013 instead.

After the usual morning routine we headed down to Arndale so that I could stand in the Lego aisle in Big W and feel my way through every single packet of Series 8 Lego minifigures in an attempt to find the whole set.

On the upside, at least I wasn't doing it on crutches this time... although I do wonder whether the combination of being in pain and on crutches and not having left the house for a week last time really focused my mind in on what my fingers were feeling... or possibly the last series were just easier to tell apart.

For whatever reason I had a little more trouble picking what some of the figures were.

And there were either a complete lack of the Trader/Businessman figures in the box I was looking through or I was just never able to identify him... because he's the only figure I didn't get.

So at some point in my future there will be more standing around trying to identify a single, fairly unremarkable figure.

That was really about it... after a further wander around Arndale we called it a day and Ma headed home for a few hours.

Current Mood:

photo friday: travel thoughts

Sometimes when you realise that the Universe it nudging you towards a course of action, or possibly a course of inaction, you need to listen.

The facts current are these...

• I love travelling to Sydney a lot... like A LOT
• Sculpture By The Sea runs from 18 October to 4 November
• Outpost 2013 runs from 29 March to 5 May
• Ma and I want to go to Outpost 2013
• I floated the idea of going to Sculpture By The Sea a few weeks ago (possibly before I knew about Outpost 2013)
• We don't want to return to the same hotel we've been to previously for reasons
• I have been unsuccessful in finding another hotel in Sydney that is all of the following:
• In our price range
• Not skeevy looking
• North of King Street
• Available during the dates of our travel
• My bank balance is only just recovering from all the travelling that we did within a short period of time last year

And so I had a little rant to Ma via email on Wednesday about said dramas and her reply (which mentioned the Outpost trip next April) started the cogs whirring in my brain.

I'm not super excited about going to SBTS again this year.

Last year was fine (weather notwithstanding), although that whole trip was several days too long due to us needing to head to Melbourne on a specific date and that SBTS was moved back a week. But we did a whole bunch of stuff we might not otherwise have done (like Taronga, and the original Outpost). And I do want to put my feet down on Sydney soil (figuratively speaking) again.

But if I was forced to choose either Outpost or SBTS, I'd choose Outpost.

So I think that's where the Universe is directing me/us. I think rather than trying to cram in two trips into the timeframe (even though they do work out to be about 6 months apart) it would be a better idea to save our money now and visit in April... that way we can spend a little more on accommodation and generally have more money in our pockets for the trip.

I also found out yesterday that it's very likely that I'll be extended at work until next June... so I'll actually have the money to pay my way on the trip which is always good.

Now I just need to convince Ma that it's a good idea... I think she'll see the sense in it though.

I'm still in two minds about the whole new Twitter look with header images. On the one hand, I'm hardly every going to see them as I don't often visit other people's profiles, but they just seem to stand out and get in the way, especially on the iOS version of the app. And it's an extra swipe to be able to see somebody's profile, which I usually use to judge whether somebody is a spammer or not.

And I'm not especially thrilled about how large you have to make the header image in order for it to show up clearly on the Twitter website. It's stupidly large (1200x600 pixels), and anything smaller gives a crappy resolution.

I did decide to be a little bit tricky and try and make the header image look like it's missing and that you can see my Twitter background through it, which is kind of cool when it works.

However it does mean that I'm going to need to do some fancy math (divide 1200 by 520, then take that number and multiply 1400 by it, etc) to get a new version of my Twitter background that's enormously huge that I can then use for the header images too.

I'm also a little disappointed that newly updated Twitter profile pics are being resized/saved at lower quality. They look fine on the iOS app, but are all fuzzy and jaggy on the website version. And I do like a crisp avatar.

I swear that I'm getting sunburn sitting next to the windows at work. It may not be actual sunburn, it may be that the glass is radiating heat after catching the sun first thing in the morning and I'm being slowly cooked... but it's very warm and my forehead has been very red of late.

I thought having a window seat was supposed to be awesome. I don't really relish the idea of being baked alive (or roasted... the jury is still out on exactly what the difference between those two things actually is).

Squeeeeeeee! Lego Series 8 minifigures have touched down. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time at lunch yesterday to stand there and feel my way through an entire box (plus they were more expensive in Toyworld than I remember them being in Target last time)... so I just grabbed one. But tomorrow... tomorrow there will be standing around and feeling up foil bags (which sounds like it could be dirty, but isn't).

Current Mood:

random cyan hotness

Guys in hoodies and little else, Aussiebum briefs, taking the time to match the colour of their underwear with the colour of their outerwear. Like the song from The Song of Music say... "these are a few of my favorite things".

The images from today's Random Hotness were uncovered on Tumblr, which seems to be where all the GPOY (gratuitous pictures of yourself) are found these days.

Bless you Tumblr!

Current Mood:

things that happen on a saturday

I'm very much part of the problem rather than being part of the solution...

But more on that later.

If my life was a movie and they wanted to do a montage showing my routine, they would definitely include a section of the Saturday Supermarket Routine... the only things that would change is the time of the year, the specific groceries (and sometimes that doesn't change that much)... but other than that, it's all pretty bog standard.

Thus queue up today's section of the montage...

Oh, wait... there was one bit of today that wasn't an average morning... I was standing in the shower, like you do... brushing my teeth (I'm lazy, it saves time, plus I'm sure I would get toothpaste on my clothes otherwise), like you do... and I was rinsing my mouth, like you do... happened to look up and just hanging there, seemingly staring straight at me with it's little compound eyes was a fairly sizeable Daddy Longlegs spider.

Now generally spiders don't freak me out. Yeah, maybe if one dropped out of the sky and landed on my face, but otherwise not so much. And even though this one was a large spider (for a Daddy Longlegs), and it very definitely lived up to the latter part of its name, I didn't freak out.

I was a little weirded out by the fact it was just sitting there, seemingly staring at me. I was like "dude... I'm naked, you're a spider, you're staring at me, you're officially weirding me out".

Suffice to say, when I got out of the shower I sprayed it with bugspray... I might not be freaked out by spiders, but if they come into my house I figure they're officially fair game.

I swear though that either all bugspray is now being watered down so that you have to use more, and therefore buy more, or else the entire bug kingdom has developed a tolerance for the stuff... we're breeding a race of superbugs... *Kermit Flail* AAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!

Ahem... anyway... it took entirely too long before it finally fell from the ceiling. When it did, I drowned it, just for good measure...

Okay, so that was a much, much longer version of the story than I intended on telling...

Moving on...

On an unrelated note, could the eight fucking series of the Lego Minifigures be in the shops already? I know it will be a whole world of "Yay, they're out... yay, I have them all... when's the next series coming out?" as soon as I see them... but still.

Other parts of the world already have them, why don't we!

But getting back to me being part of the problem.

Ma and I went into the city after the supermarket portion of the morning... partially to get something for Princess T's birthday... but while we were already in the general neighbourhood, we decided to just go and have a look at the Christmas decorations in Myer and David Jones.

I know, I know... it's still September, and Christmas decorations have no fucking excuse for being out in the world before the end of October at the earliest... but they're already there... so, you know...

Just as an aside... you know how owls seem to be the hot fashion item just at present... everywhere you go, it's OWLS OWLS OWLS... yeah, seems like Christmas isn't going to be any different... there were definitely more owls amongst the decorations than I think I've ever noticed before.

But the reason that I'm part of the problem is that Christmas decorations wouldn't be available so early if people didn't buy things this early... so early in fact that the stores haven't actually completely finished putting out all their merchandise...

And then factor in my toy soldier addiction... and the fact that Myer had a simple white porcelain toy soldier on the shelf... which is now on my couch.

The thing that is kind of freaking me out though is the fact that given that I've amassed five times the number of Lego minifigures that I had last Christmas, as well as a hell of a lot of artwork, I really have no idea what I'm going to do this Christmas about putting away my regular stuff and bringing out the toy soldier collection.

It's definitely one to ponder.

[end materialist musings here]

We haven't advanced the Sydney musings any further forward... but if we're going to find somewhere decent in mid-October, we need to get a wriggle on...

So yeah... that's all a thing that happened...

Current Mood:

photo friday: sydney shots with brain dump

I'm sure I've said this before... in fact I know I said it on Twitter earlier this week (and I got a random reply from some website that has a listing of hotels, but no company information on their website)... but I really, really don't like the "finding a hotel" portion of making travel plans.

I went looking at hotels in Sydney earlier this week... I want something located towards the Circular Quay end of the city, that looks halfway decent (or at least doesn't look like they haven't updated the decor since the 80's), and isn't horrendously expensive.

Melbourne has a whole bunch of little boutique hotels right in the midst of everything, but in Sydney those seem to gravitate to the southern end of the city. Or be ridiculously expensive.

Other than that I really haven't had much time do even scratch my butt at work this week.

I spent pretty much the first two days of the week wrangling spreadsheets and graphs and whatnot, and it seemed like everybody wanted to ask something slightly unusual of me for the remainder of the week, which has kept me on my toes.

And it's surprising how many meetings I've had of late that kind of end with "you really need to survey your customers".

Fortunately, the fact that both H-San and La Ninj are on leave this week really hasn't been an issue. Invariably whenever H-San goes away the wheels fall of something or there's some major panic about some random crap. But so far, so good.

Although he is away for another week, so I could be tempting fate.

This week was another "Food Truck Lunch" week...

Two days at La Cantina Co, two days at Burger Theory, one day of wandering around the food court feeling vaguely disappointed.

I missed out on the new Art Burger on Thursday though... they were short on supplies... but I did snag the new art print. Hopefully I'll score one next week...

I finished my last chiro session this afternoon. Well, the last one until the reassessment session on Monday afternoon.

Unfortunately I've been sitting up for too long in the evenings this week which isn't good... so my body has been complaining about that a little bit... but for the most part I'm feeling 95% back to normal.

I'm not sure I'll ever be all the way back to normal... according to my chiro it's not like the disc in my spine is going to suddenly plump back up to be a normal healthy disc... I can get the blood pumping through it again so that it doesn't block the nerve, but it's already degenerated and there's no treatment to fix that.

So, yeah... vaguely depressing... but at least I've done all I can about it at this stage.

I think my Parlour Palm is dying...

It's split into for individual plants in the same big pot and one of them has already died off... but now a second one, which was one of the better plants has turned all brown and doesn't look very healthy.

Part of me wouldn't really mind if the whole thing died off... it would give me a chance to start over and re-pot the thing... maybe get one of those ones that has a much taller stalk...

Although I have had it since 2005... which is pretty impressive.

Current Mood:

random wickham hotness

We're visiting the world of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries again for this week's Random Hotness...

I already covered Christopher Sean as Bing Lee but this week saw the introduction of Wes Aderhold as George Wickham.

In this modern retelling Wickham is a swimmer instead of a soldier, so Aderhold, with his outrageous abs and general smoking hotness (and I understand he used to be a gymnast) is perfect for the role.

 

And if his abs weren't good enough in photos, wait until you see them in motion...


I think I speak for everyone when I say "Bless you Lydia Bennett"!

Now if only there was a reason to have an episode where both Bing and George show up shirtless...

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