ethnic details

The photos are just some things that I pulled out of the folder... some sort of brass Asian animal (lion? dragon?) detail and part of a cool red "lacework" Middle Eastern monument in one of the squares in town...

You know... there's really, really nothing going on with me right at the moment... so I'm going to ramble about the world of pop culture for a bit...

I've started rewatching The West Wing again... damn I love that show. Which is odd because when it first came out I rolled my eyes and didn't want to know anything about another jingoistic American series that was the US patting itself on it's back. Of course that was before I saw it... and then bought all the seasons on DVD... love, love, love, love...

I have the teevee on in the other room and Network Ten keeps playing Hungry Jacks ads for their new "Dark Whopper"... which they're bringing out because of The Dark Knight movie (don't even get me started about the appropriateness of marketing a movie like that to children with kid's meals, toys and whatnot, that's a whole other conversation). Except I've heard the same ad about ten times now, and not once have they actually told me WHY it's a "dark" Whopper... I mean it's not on a black bun (also, gross), it just looks like a regular crappy Whopper... stupid Hungry Jacks...

Big Brother is finally over... and as I promised, I didn't watch a single episode, not even the finale... and I'm actually kinda pleased that it's all over, not just the season, but the whole show. They'd completely screwed it over this season, and there really wasn't any coming back from that, so it's good they just let it die. The fact that Channel Nine has potentially picked it up for next year is a little worrying... they don't have anything similar, they haven't really run anything similar, Ten is the one that has all the big, long-term reality shows, so Nine could screw it up before they even start. Although I heard an idea on the radio this morning that was actually somewhat appealing... the rumour is that they're thinking about filling the Nine version of the house with thirty-somethings. Which could actually work... dammit...

And now that BB is over, we have the US versions of So You Think You Can Dance and America's Next Top Model filling in those spots (I only heard about ANTM tonight while I was typing this up in fact)... so basically that's a big fat double WOOHOO there... at least once they get past all the audition phase, I don't wanna see that, just start it when you have the final crew thank you!

Ian Thorpe showed up on Rove on Sunday night... I've said it before, and I'll say it again... SO! VERY! GAY! He can deny it until the cows come home, but you know that they say about walking and quacking ducks... yeah, big gay duck... I just wish he'd come out already...

So, yes... nothing of substance, just some abstract rambling...

Current Mood:

monday ramblings

I'm having a stream of consciousness moment... so just stay with me...

Today's photos are brought to you by the letters CNMCL and the number 56 and are from way back in December last year...

It's a little bit weird that I'm not starting my temp job until tomorrow... it's good because I have today to myself... but I usually have nothing but "days to myself", so it's not that special or unusual. And it's been bloody cold today too... it was a little better for a while this afternoon, at least the sun came out, but it's kind of been grey and raining all weekend, which is fine by me, but it was bloody freezing yesterday. Anyway, I just spent today curled up on my little red sofa under my "Teddy Blankie" and watched both the Kill Bill movies... you gotta love random violence and Lucy Lui...

While I was curled up I got a text message from this stupid dude who just keeps messaging me even though I never reply (he had his chance, he screwed it up, he can go play hide and go fuck himself)... so finally today I did reply... he asked how I was, and my reply went something along the lines of "Completely uninterested in talking to you and wishing you'd get the hint and delete my number"... funnily enough I didn't hear back from him. Hopefully that's the end of it.

Obviously I was having questionable text message karma though... I figured I should send Sheba a message, since I haven't heard from her in a while... but I couldn't quite work out a quick and efficient way to say "Hey, I haven't heard from you, and I don't want to be messaging you all the time because I know you have the husband and the three kids and the presumably now full time job, and I don't want to bug you, but I would like to see you, plus you also have one of Ma's DVDs, so I have to see you again at least once, but I also want you to want to see me, so why haven't you messaged me either?"... bit of a mouthful yeah, and I probably could have managed to say something along those lines (maybe not that blunt) face to face, but I couldn't find the right words in a text message... gave it three or four tries, and finally gave up, went to quit out of the message (without saving a copy) and accidentally sent it instead. Bugger! So then I had to quickly come up with a second message explaining the first one. Haven't heard anything back yet, so we'll have to see if I was supposed to send that message or not.

I tuned in for the end of So You Think You Can Dance last night... I haven't watched any of the show (mostly because I can't stand the woman hosting it, which is a shame, because I loved the American version), but I did want to know who the hell won. Thankfully it was Jack... I like Jack (based on the about ten minutes total of footage I've seen of the whole show)... nothing against Rhys, but I saw them dance together and Jack is the better dancer (plus, if I'm being honest, Rhys just bugs me... I mean what the hell was up with the black sequined jacked and long dangly earring last night... you just looked stupid). Not that I think there was a single straight male in the Top Ten... and if you told me any of them were straight I still wouldn't believe you. Of course the stand out performance was Henry's buttocks... I happened to tune in briefly during the African number he did... and YUMMY! I still think the stylist who cut his hair should be taken out and shot though.

Suddenly I realise for somebody who hasn't watched the show, I'm suddenly displaying a lot of knowledge about it. I didn't watch, honest.

Speaking of teevee I'm not going to be watching... Big Brother 08... I'm officially boycotting the show... I know I said a very similar thing last year... but this year I actually mean it. I loathe and detest the two new hosts (particularly Kyle... actually, especially Kyle), and the fact that they're specifically picking housemates that are going to have conflict with each other... thus far there have been ads featuring a "racist" grandmother, an Aboriginal girl (who actually seems the most likeable of the group), a "Christian virgin" guy with a scarily high voice who thinks he's all that, an overly tattooed trucker who believes in UFOs (and has Roswell tattooed on his arm *rolls eyes*) and a midget girl of non-specific ethnic origin (I think she might be Indian, but who the hell cares). And they keep trying to convince everybody that this year is going to be different... well, they can just shove it up their crappy Nielson Ratings as far as I'm concerned.

Actually, if they were doing all that stuff but they still had Gretel as the host I would probably end up watching it... I just hate Kyle THAT much (he's an immature, argumentative, unstable, delusional wanker). I'm waiting for the theme song they've chosen for this year (I Don't Think So by Kelis... which is also a shame, because I really like the song and they're just thrashing it to death) to become the show's deathknell... I'm sure some "witty" teevee critic will come up with the line "Is anybody watching anymore? I don't think so!". Plus it frees up more than 250 hours over the next fifteen or so weeks... and since I'm about to start working for an unspecified length of time, that will come in handy to just do everything else. That's not to say I won't end up watching the finale... I think I've watched all seven finales... but we'll have to see.

I'm going to be strong though... no flicking over "just to see what's going on"... no watching Friday Night Games because "there's nothing else on"... no letting Stu fill me in on what's going on... no nothing...

I will be strong and resist... I will be strong and resist... I will be strong and resist...

I think the whole "oncoming work" thing must have inspired me a little bit yesterday... normally I'm not one for excessive amounts of unusual housework, but I ended up mopping both the teeny tiny oblong of kitchen lino, and then throwing the mop around the bathroom floor a bit... not completely sure why... other than the fact that the kitchen floor was a bit manky... I felt better afterwards though, which is the main thing.

I also took some superglue to the strings on my new stunt kite, so hopefully they won't keep coming undone. I ended up hanging it on a spare hook in my bedroom after the glue had dried... it doesn't look too bad, I mean it's a bit of an average looking kite, but I think I might have to get a hook and hang it where my kamikaze print was...

And I really need to do something about that print... it's still leaning up against the wall by the fridge with the big piece of glass still in the frame. Not sure what the hell I'm going to do with it... but I need to do something.

I just gave myself an unnecessary heart attack... I bought a Multitrip ticket on Saturday for this week (since it saves me a truckload of money, $14.60 instead of $24.00)... but the $14.60 did seem excessively cheap... so I wondered if the slightly dopey man had given me the ticket for use between 9am and 3pm instead of the one for any time... I just pulled up the website and looked, and it did indeed look that way to begin with... so I was in the process of calling Ma just to go "WAAAAAAAAH!", and pulled out my wallet to look at the ticket. Ticket was red... any time tickets are red... the 9-3 tickets are grey... so I didn't end up needing to have a conversation with Ma after all, turns out I just misread the website... and I have the right ticket... which is the main thing...

On the upside I have my usual Monday night dinner of chicken with smashed broccoli to look forward to...

Current Mood:

it's time to go...

"I'm the ditzy blonde country bumpkin with the bogan accent"
- Aleisha on self reflection

My god... talk about your close run things... the closest Australian Big Brother Finale ever, with quite literally 2% difference (and, according to Gretel, less than 500 votes) between them.

From twelve Original Housemates, four Intruders, four White Room Wildcards, two Public Vote Wildcards, a Golden Key Winner, Mr X and a very brief visit from an Australian Idol Judge Special Guest (making 25 in all... or 24 official Housemates)... it all came down to tonight...

And the winner is... Aleisha!

Actually, I have to say, when they revealed what percentages the two finalists were sitting on at the beginning of the night, it did seem like a forgone conclusion that Aleisha would win... but I have to say, I honestly didn't know what the result would be when it came to crunch time and I was gripping my remote (actually I think I tensed just about everything while Gretel was doing the long drawn out pause) and hoping and wishing it would end with Zach as the winner... but I should have known... my BB Winner Curse holds true... not once has my preferred winner actually taken it out!

And once again I do feel all flat and weird now that it's over... the Post BB Sad... although for whatever reason it doesn't seem as bad as in previous years.

Whether its because I liked this year's crop of Housemates less overall, or because they just spent so much time, as Travis put it, "dog paddling" during the show tonight because the result was supposedly too close to call, I dunno. But really, one of these years they are actually going to just say "yes, the Final Eviction Show will run until at least 10pm" instead of saying "Oh, no... it will all be over by 9:15".... pffffffffft... like buggery.

Two things before I go any further... first off, where the hell was Intruder Laura? She wasn't around at all... and they didn't even mention it, they showed the video package of her time in the house, but didn't interview her or mention it... they just skipped right over the fact that she was absent (and I'm guessing that Demet actually filled in her part during the actually rather amusing Pantomime that the Housemates did since she was the only Housemate who did double duty during it)... very strange and very interesting... I'm sure the reason will surface sometime within the next few days, I'm just interested to know what it is.

The second thing... I LOVE Aleisha's Mum! Seriously, she's a groovy lady... and the fact that she was really sweet to Zach both during the "Loved Ones" visit during the Finale, and the fact that she was the first person to hug Zach after Aleisha was announced as the winner. One classy lady!

And how sweet was Zach with his folks... okay, he fell apart and had a big girly cry... but, to use the phrase I've been overusing of late... "Awwwww BLESS!"

As far as the Finale itself went... I preferred last year's format... with all the previous Housemates coming into the House again all glammed up and whatnot... and again I always prefer it when they announce the winner in the House rather than on stage, but I guess since all the little Counting Gnomes were still counting the votes they had to do something... otherwise the show would STILL be going on.

That was one of the downsides to this year's Finale actually. They just plain ran out of material... wouldn't you think they would have planned SOMETHING "just in case"... but no, they ended up just filling in dead air time really. When they have to resort to sending Mike Goldman out into the crowd to talk to the punters you know that a producer somewhere is banging their head on a tabletop somewhere and weeping.

And alas the "Pink Vote" didn't manage to get a gay Housemate across the line... we did manage to get a step closer though... third to last Housemate last year, runner up this year... maybe next year there will be a gay Housemate or Intruder who actually wins.

So, as they hang the last two nametags on the Housemate Graveyard and turn off the lights for another year, congrats Aleisha and enjoy your $450,000!

Current Mood:

aleisha vs zach

I have to say I was both surprised and, well, not really surprised at the results of tonight's Big Brother final eviction...

I know back when there were still six Housemates I'd kind of put my money on Billy... but once there were only four left I honestly couldn't pick who was going to go tonight. I went back and forth about who was in and who was out and who the final two were... and just about any permutation looked like it could be a viable option. As the week went on, in the back of my mind I did kind of think it was going to be Billy first up, but while I'd entertained the idea of the Gay Guy/Country Girl finale, I actually didn't think it was going to happen.

As far as I know this is the first time in Australian BB history that an Intruder has made it to the final two (and, from what I read somewhere that if he wins he will be the first ever intruder to win a Big Brother series worldwide)... and the first time a gay Housemate of either gender had reached this point (although David from last year did make it to the final four). So even if Corset Queen Zach doesn't win tomorrow, he still makes the "record books". And if he does, well, then the gayest gay Housemate ever in the history of the show becomes the winner of BB07.

Given the audience reaction to Zach during tonight's show (they screamed for him much longer while Gretel was talking to the Housemates than to any of the other three) he may just take it out too... I still hold to what I said about the final six... I think Aleisha will end up as the runner up... but then what the hell do I know, the last three seasons the person I've wanted to win always comes in second (Chrissy, Tim and Camilla respectively).

So here's to "Zach Slap and Aleisha Tickle" (together they are "Slap and Tickle")... I have no idea who's going to win, but whoever it is, it's nice to see Australia getting behind a "different kind of winner".

PS: I noticed that two of my Aussie blogmates (Tom and Euphoric) have both posted very similar "Save Zach" posts... I wonder if there's enough power in the gay Aussie blogosphere to have the first gay Aussie BB winner...

Current Mood:

big brother final six

We're now officially staring down the home straight for Big Brother 2007... six housemates left... two weeks to go (which means a double eviction this week, and then another double next week, leaving the final two for the Monday finale)... everything is suddenly starting to wrap up... this Monday was final nominations... I'm not sure if there is one or two Friday Night Live's left...

As I said at some earlier point, this has been such a BLAND year... whether it's because there was no "Adults Only" show... or because this particular crop of housemates were so damn vanilla... or because Big Brother crushed the spirit out of them in the first couple of weeks and turned them into rule obeying little robots or what, I dunno...

And unlike other years, I've been able to accurately predict each and every eviction... it hasn't always been the people I've wanted to be booted out, but it's been the people I've expected... which is kind of boring too...

Since we are down to the final six, I thought I might just have a little ramble about each of the finalists, see if I can make some predictions about the winner...

Aleisha
Originally, because of her close association with Bitchqueen Emma I really didn't like Aleisha very much... but after Emma left she did start to grow on me, and now she's probably up in my top three favourites (being her, Billy and Zach for the record). I'm pretty sure she's going to be sitting on the couch come the final Monday, but I think she's going to end up as the runner up.

Billy
Again, because of the link he had with both Bratty Bodie and Bitchqueen Emma I was never particularly fond of Billy at the start... granted he's pretty damn hot, what with the floppy blonde hair and the low riding pants and whatnot... but again, once the "bad" influences left the house I warmed up to him. I would like to think he'd end up as the eventual winner, but I'm not completely sure... I would say that he'll end up in the final four though.

Joel
Urgh! Former Housemate Nick was right about Joel... he's just not funny... at least not from what they've shown of him on the shows... and he also hasn't shown me anything about himself in the footage I've seen... there's nothing of depth there and what is there is all front and fairyfloss. I would hope that he gets thrown out this weekend in the double, but I'm not completely sure that's going to happen, but I don't think he'll make the final two.

Travis
Will somebody just gag him please!? I'm not disputing that he's a great guy... because he definitely seems to be... a good father, and all-round good Aussie bloke... but he just NEVER SHUTS UP! Even when Big Brother is giving them instructions, he still feels the need to say "Okay", or "No way", or the ever present "You're joking!"... shut up already Travis! I said in the very first BB post for this year that he was the Housemate Who Shouldn't Speak Ever... and I totally stand by that. I also don't want him to win. It's not really anything personal (well, other than the fact he needs to shut up and stop putting 'O' on the end of every single word), but he's the same guy now as he was when he went into the house... in fact you could drop a house on him and he'd still be the same guy. I want more change, more dimension in my winner than that thank you.

Zach
Okay, so I was possibly a little evil about Zach when he first went into the house... although I do still stand behind my GAYEST! HOUSEMATE! EVER! comment... and I retract that whole statement about the "solo porn career" (although I'm not discounting slightly inappropriate Gaydar profile images, but you would have thought they would have surfaced already). He's somewhat of a sweetheart, although the massive indecision thing he has going I could live without, and in a perfect world he could have a shot at not only being the first gay winner of Big Brother, but also the first Intruder winner. Alas, I think he will possibly be knocked out of the final four. Would be nice though.

Zoran
I go back and forth on Zoran to be honest... I think he adds some good value to the house, but I just don't see him winning. Actually, having taken a look at the poll on the BB website, I think his number may just be up this coming weekend, since he has about half of the votes in the "Who will you evict" poll currently. Personally I'd like to see him survive this weekend and make it through, but somehow I don't think that's going to happen.

So yeah... to sum up, I'm thinking that the final four will be Aleisha, Billy, Travis and Zach, and then the final two will hopefully be Aleisha and Billy, with Billy the eventual winner... although maybe I shouldn't wish for that too hard, because of all the previous final twos, the person I want to win is never the one who does...

Current Mood:

random monday musings

You know, I haven't done a Monday Musings (or better yet, a Monday Montage) in what feels like forever... mostly because I've been doing the rambly post shopping roundup thing on a Saturday, leaving Mondays free for, well, a general sense of Mondayness really.

But since I did the Shrek movie review thing on Saturday, I just felt... I dunno... like I missed out on a good solid vaguely pointless ramble. Not that there is a whole lot of anything interesting to say, I just feel like a ramble...

We had another day of rampant cold in the office again today... I didn't notice it at first, I thought it was a little nippy, but as the morning progressed, it just kept getting colder, until I ended up having to put my jacket on again... once in the morning and again in the afternoon just before hometime. What the hell is up with that... could they just fix it already please!!! Especially since last time this happened I ended up getting sick... so I don't really want to be having a repeat performance of that thank you very much!

Speaking of cold... and jackets for that matter... it's been cold here of late, Thursday, Friday and Saturday last week it was just FREEZING! On Saturday we're talking a 1.5°C minimum at 6:30am and it only got to 3.7°C when Ma and I headed out to on Random Shopping Adventures™... it was "scrape the ice off the windshield" cold in fact... well, Ma had to before she left her place, I never went and looked at my windshield. Don't even ask about me getting up at 5:40am to go out on my walk on Thursday and Friday either... the less I have to think about that the better... I ended up wearing gloves and a very unstylish beanie on Friday...

But back to the jacket related stuff... since it was SOOOOOOO cold on Saturday and I had rather foolishly left the house without a jacket or any additional layers (I figured... house to car, car to supermarket, supermarket to car, car to house... there wouldn't be much time spent out of doors, how bad could it be), we checked out the menswear section of the Red Circle Boutique just to see if they had anything even vaguely interesting of the jacket persuasion... every other time I've looked in recent weeks I've been pretty disappointed, it's all either been Uglytown, or else there's just nothing around. Plus all the jackets I still have in my wardrobe from last year are a little bit like wearing small tents of some description (yaaay me, but boooo not having stylish outerwear).

Anyway, the Fashion Faeries were obviously taking pity on me, because I was actually spoiled with a plethora of possible choices... but in the end I culled it down to two, a black faux suedey type finish one that's a little more "work appropriate" (and thicker than the jacket I have been wearing), and a general "sweatshirt" type material one with a big design across the front of it (albeit bisected by a zipper). And because RCB were having yet another one of their seemingly neverending sales and/or price reduction specials, both jackets were about 40% (I think) off, so it almost ended up as a "two for one" thing. Unfortunately the checkout girly didn't play the "swipe the security tag" game when we were at the register, so the more expensive jacket (black and suedey obviously) set the alarm off, and when the nice doorboy came over to investigate, he just pulled the security tag sticker off of the lining of the pocket instead of just cancelling it out... the upshot of which is that I had a pocket full of sticky label residue this morning... not so nice... but it seemed to sort itself out as the day goes on. Don't even get me started on who's dumbass idea it was to PUT the sticking inside one of the two main pockets in the jacket in the first place though...

Also while we were out and about I decided that even though it was twice the price of all the others I had to get my hands on the final season of The West Wing before I ran out of job, and therefore, out of disposable income. Interestingly enough, when you do the math on it, all it means is that I paid maybe $5 more for each of the other seasons... it does make for a scary total though, so I'm not going to think about the math too much. We also won't think about how much money I spent back in the day on all seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation on VHS which I haven't watched in forever, or what I paid for the full run of Buffy (although they were on sale at the time) ... why are we still talking about this?

Moving on...

Since I'd just bought two new jackets, and we had some time to kill after we got back from the supermarket but before we headed out to see Shrek the Third, and I've been lamenting the fact that all my existing jackets were too big, etc... I decided to do a brief mini wardrobe cull on Saturday afternoon... partly because I only did a halfassed one at Christmas after I got those new clothes, but also because there hasn't been a single occasion where I've gone back and worn any of the "bigger" clothes since I got ones that fit better... and if I haven't worn them at this point, it wasn't ever going to happen. So pretty much all the old teeshirts went, as did the old longsleeved teeshirts (a couple of which I still love but which look like crap when they're on me) and almost all of the jackets (including my very favourite but now monstrously oversized and sacklike green jacket with the hood... *sob*).

While I was moving things around and throwing things away (and changing over some of my older, "non matching" crappier coathangers for some of the better ones) I decided to try on my black trenchcoat, just to see how it was fitting. I might have tried it on last time I did a wardrobe cull, I honestly don't remember... but it fits again... yaaaaay... possibly still a tiny bit snug, but I could do up all the buttons again. Woohoo me. It did however need a bit of a clean (unidentifiable lapel and cuff smutt... plus I'm not sure that it ever HAS been cleaned up until this point, and I've had it for at least eight years), so that went off to the drycleaner before possibly going back into rotation.

You know how you get cravings for particular food items at certain times? Well, for some reason, I've been craving really good gingerbread men for a while now... actually it might not even be "really good" ones... I think I'm actually craving the ones that Pizza Hut used to do (they may still do them, but I haven't been inside a Pizza Hut in YEARS)... and for whatever reason, the ones I keep finding are never quite right... so this week I took matters into my own hands. We were wandering through the cooking supplies aisle (I think we might have been reviewing the soup choices on the opposite side) and I noticed that Nature's Selection have brought out a range of "Kids Cooking" cake mixes... and yes, one of them was for gingerbread men... and came with it's own little cookie cutter and a little piping tube to add the icing. So at some point in the next week or so (maybe next Friday night) I'm going to try my hand at quasi homemade gingerbread men... scary.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before in so many words... but Heroes ROCKS! Ma and I have been watching it together on Saturday afternoons (since I watch House and tape Heroes and she's out on Wednesday nights and just tapes House)... and usually at some point in the proceedings I end up talking to the teevee. Part of me wishes that I'd gotten Ma hooked on Lost way back when... I think she could have been addicted to that right along with me... but for the moment, Heroes is enough. I'm not actually sure how far behind the States we are, I know that they've already finished the season, and I think we have like three episodes left... which is just annoying, because I don't want to look online for anything in case I fall across some spoilers (because spoilers are BAD m'kay!)... but last week's episode was the "five years in the future" episode... and obviously the key to living five years in the Heroes future is that you slick your hair back... everyone was doing it (okay, not EVERYONE, but there was a lot of it going around). And how hot was Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia) with the scar and the slicked back hair... plus all the additional superpowers. NUMMY!

Big Brother Season 7 continues to be the most vanilla and bland season thus far... I don't know why they couldn't just have come up with an "Adults Only" show that wasn't quite as full on and filthy as previous years (and honestly, with this season's crop of housemates, I don't know that they would have had to worry about anything resembling controversy) and didn't get the morality police all hot and bothered, but still gave us some idea of what was going on in the house in a non-6:30 time slot. And this whole concept of putting it all on the website and calling it "Premium" and charging money for it, BORED NOW... I don't want to pay to watch online what should be a free teevee show... in fact I don't want to watch any kind of teevee show online, that defeats the purpose of both my computer and my big beautiful teevee. This is the first year in a long while where I haven't seen any of the male housemates naked... granted I haven't gone looking (although I think somebody was looking for shots of Thomas showering on here the other day, since I got a search engine hit from it), but I shouldn't have to... they should just be around (having said that I might have a dig around later, see if anything turns up). Either that or they should sell Big Brother to SBS, I'm sure we could see all the nudity we wanted then.

I'm not sure whether it's just the rampant beigeness of the shows in general or just the vanilla flavouring of the housemates, but I'm rapidly loosing interest... I'm still watching, but I'm not always paying attention (or even in the room if it comes to that)... in previous years I've been addicted to Friday Night Live... but at least twice this season I've just given up and gone off to watch other things instead (especially when it looked like the people I really didn't like were going to make it past the second round)... although whether that's because I have six seasons of The West Wing that I can watch (have I mentioned I'm just a little tiny bit addicted to that at the moment, even on my second viewing of the fifth season) or the fact that the winners don't seem to be as random as they have been in previous years, I don't know. On that note, how good was it that Jamie took it out from three time winner Andrew this week... viva le nerd!

This morning, when I was doing my usual stats check I noticed that a hell of a lot of the traffic seemed to be coming in from Best Gay Blogs... which as at yesterday morning had been on hiatus for almost two months (although I just realised maybe not, since I've been checking the .net site rather than the .com site, so it could just be me), but it seems like they are back with a vengeance. And at the top of the list when I stopped by to take a look at the new and improved site was... *insert fanfare* ME (see pictorial evidence and everything)! They sent out an email to everyone in their database (I assume) saying that if you wanted to be a featured site, to fill out the questionnaire and send it back... so I did... and there I was (and still am, at least as I write this), front and center. Yay me! I'm not sure how I feel about their new layout just yet though... it will probably grow on me over time, but I kinda miss the old version.

And just as a random musing to the universe... if you were going to send a bunch of workmen to work on scaffolding between the building I work in and the one next door, do you think you could have seen your way clear to providing a few more pieces of worthwhile eye candy? Or don't they let the young and the pretty up on scaffolding these days? Actually, it was probably better that there weren't more, since that could have been far too distracting, and I KNOW I would have gotten busted perving. It was a little creepy to have them THAT close to the window though... we could see them, they could see us... it was a whole world of less good. Fortunately they put up some boards later on this afternoon, so now we can't see them at all...

TORCHWOOD DEBUTS TONIGHT! Bisexual, time travelling, Captain Jack is back! No, not THAT one, the OTHER Captain Jack... it better live up to all the hype... and Network Ten better not pull it off the air after half a dozen episodes... I can almost guarantee that they WILL move it to some godawful timeslot between now and then though... the sooner the ABC can buy the rights (like they did with The West Wing when Channel 9 didn't know what the hell to do with it), and show it back to back with Doctor Who, the better...

Current Mood:

long live the queen... or not

Queen Emma finally got thrown out of the Big Brother house... thank you Australia!

And with 76% of the combined vote... I think possibly only BB3's Jo (who got kicked out with, from memory, 86% of the vote) was more disliked (or just voted out with a higher percentage, whatever)... maybe it's the "blonde from Adelaide" thing (well, Emma used to be from here, but we can play that one down)...

Seriously, she should have been out at the first eviction, but with this whole new power that people have to save somebody and put another person up she's managed to avoid the bullet way too many times... and then the times she has been up, there have been housemates that needed to go even more than she did. But with all her sniping and snideness and bitching and manipulation and just general cowness, she had to go... and tonight was that night...

I also loved that since it was another double eviction (hello, "two men enter, two men leave" revolving door BB house or what?), and she had pointedly said there were certain people she didn't want to be evicted with, she actually got evicted with the person she liked least (well, one of her top two anyway), Rebecca...

Now Rebecca was never one of my favourites, but I gotta say, both with her new hot hair and the "realness" she showed during her eviction, and in her "message from the grave" which I just caught on the Sunday Up Late show, you gotta give the girl snaps. And now Emma has to spend the whole week travelling everywhere with Rebecca, doing all the interviews and being asked a million billion questions about the fact they didn't get on. To quote the highly annoying former Housemate, Brodie... "Suffer in ya jocks!" (and god, how lame and 1983 is that phrase).

And tonight they've sent in two new intruders (yes, even more intruders very early in the series)... a possibly female version of uber-Aussie Travis (so she has maybe half an hour before I want to gouge her eyes out), and the gayest, gayest, gayest, gayest housemate ever in the history of the universe... I mean, seriously, the little I've seen of "Zach", he makes Rob from last year look butch... I mean he went into the house looking like an extra from a big gay musical and wearing a corset that he made himself... which isn't surprising, since that's what he does... he makes corsets... GAYEST! HOUSEMATE! EVER!

Lordy, lordy, lordy... And I can't wait until some random naked and inappropriate images of him surface... coz you just know, given the photos he took himself for his BB montage (I'm sorry, you took photos of yourself in your underwear inside a tanning bed to be screened on national teevee?), that there have to be some out there... he just has that "look" about him... there has to be some solo porn in his past somewhere. I could be wrong (he could be much too "particular" to be flashing his business to all and sundry)... but give it a couple of days and we'll see if anything surfaces...

I mean I know I was lamenting the lack of gay housemates this year, but then we had Nick, who I quite liked, even if he was a little paranoid and grumpy for a while there... but they possibly needed to have backed off the gayometer on this latest one just a touch...

And for the record, I'm gunna do my list again...

Most Appealing Male Housemate: Still Thomas... he won't win, but I'll bet he makes it to like the final five.

Most Appealing Female Housemate: Currently nobody... there are only four of them currently, one original, two previous intruders and the new intruder and I really can't be bothered with any of them

Most Annoying Male Housemate: Travis again... mostly for the massacre of the English language and just not knowing when to SHUT UP!

Most Annoying Female Housemate: Intruder Laura for being a big baby this past weekend

Housemate Who Shouldn't Speak Ever: A tie between Travis and the new girl, Michelle

Housemate Who Is Growing On Me: Sadly, now that she's been evicted, it's probably Rebecca

Housemate Most Likely To Be Voted Out Next: Laura... Actually I've been doing pretty well with my predictions... I don't think I've actually been surprised by a single eviction... and tonight I'd actually already decided that it would be Emma and Rebecca getting booted before the show started, so my batting average remains pretty high.

In slightly related news (not really, but work with me here)... given the fact that it's the Queen's Birthday holiday tomorrow (see, look at that, Queen's Birthday... Queen Emma... Zach's a big queen... it all fits together seamlessly... much like Zach's corset *rolls eyes*) and I'm still getting over being all sicky (I'm much improved though, no more breathing through my mouth and I feel like a person again... so I really should make a sacrificial offering to Codral at some point), I've decided that I'm going to give myself a day off from my walk...

This is going to be the first time I've just taken a voluntary day off since I started... and only the second weekday I haven't been for a walk... so dammit, I deserve a holiday. Having said that, if I happen to wake up at the crack of dawn (unlikely) and get the guilts (possible) then I might go anyway... but there will be something nice and decadent about being able to just get up when I feel like it on a Public Holiday.

And, now, I think, to bed... even though I'm not sure that was actually a sentence...

Current Mood:

random bb hotness

We have a Big Brother related Random Hotness today! Big thanks go to AllAussieBoys for posting the images and Ticicy for making the screen caps in the first place. I haven't really had much to say in the BB oeuvre since my first couple of random rants... Emma is a snotty cow and needs to be booted (preferably in the head, but out of the house will do), most of the people I've wanted to be booted at any given Eviction have been, Travis has proven my earlier claim that he should never talk, ever... and my favourite housemate remains Thomas.

But even though these shots happened... ooooooh... nearly two weeks ago now, I just love the dynamic and had to share. It all happened when resident gayboy Nick was nominated for eviction (and was evicted last Sunday).

Anyway, Nick was taking his nomination badly (like you do) and had gone straight into the bathroom... while he was washing his hands Thomas just came up behind him, didn't say anything, but put his arms around Nick (the first shot) and essentially folded himself around him. For a second Nick just kept doing what he was doing and held himself "rigid" for want of a better term, but then he hit that moment where he gave up and he just closed his eyes and melted into the hug (the second shot). But then who wouldn't melt into a hug from Thomas... it's just a whole world of AWWWWWWWWW!

Current Mood:

big baby ramblings

God... somebody shoot me now...

Work is fine (if a little, you know, dull), but this whole bad schedule thing is killing me! I'm just so not in the groove.

I get up at 5:45 (it might as well still be 2am given how dark it is), go for my walk, get home around 7:15 or so (when the sun is only just starting to come up, provided it's not overcast, then forget about it), have my shower, eat breakfast and fudge around online for a bit, try and leave here around just after 8... get to work around 8:30 (what with the bus and whatever) or a little later... work like some kind of random crazy person until lunchtime, take half an hour for lunch, come back, work like the aforementioned crazy person until some time around 4:30 (okay, the first day it was 5, but the last two days I was just at an appropriate natural break at 4:30, so I tossed it in)... get the bus home, which, like today, involved standing around for another fifteen or so minutes waiting for the freakin thing.... then get home, get changed, fudge around online again, and maybe try and post to my blog if I didn't in the morning, and try and catch up with my blogroll, and whatever other online stuff I want/need to be doing... plus having dinner (although this week that's pretty much just involved throwing something in the microwave that I've previously cooked and had in the freezer)... squash some teevee in there somewhere, and then bed around 10:30 or so, and start the whole thing over again.

It actually sounds like it should be simple, right... but I'm trying to cram my "non working life" into my "working life", and it's like trying to, to quote Ma, fit a quart in a pint pot... it just won't go... something, somewhere has to give eventually, especially if I'm supposed to be doing this for a month and a half, but I honestly don't know what. Back the last time I was working I had everything running totally smoothly... I got to work early, I came home early, I hit everything I wanted to online and still had time to cook dinner and watch all my favourite teevee shows. But that was before the blog thing (mine and other people's) and before the morning walk and before the 8:30 food cutoff.

So I don't quite know what to do... and with going to the movies last night, that effectively put me a day behind myself... then there was a Big Brother Special on tonight I wanted to watch (oh, and for the record... new Housemate, Nick, aka The Starburst Kid... could he BE any gayer!!! Hehehe, and I just realised I was right after seeing this in the BB Diary "Are you a gay bloke Nick? Travis asks. Nick replies: Yep." Well DUR... blind and deaf mutes would know he was a "gay bloke"... but YAY, gay housemate at last! And, getting even further off topic, did anyone else feel like that whole thing was just a little bit rigged? Four girls, one gay boy, all around the right age to be a housemate, reasonably attractive, and oh look, the gay boy, who we just happened to not put into the house previously has won... I dunno)... so I just feel like I'm chasing my tail all around the place.

Okay, so I'm basically a big manbaby and I'm having a big sulky whinge... I could drop the walk or I could put the blog on hiatus or I could cut down my blogroll, or I could stop reading the diary on the Big Brother website, or I could watch less Big Brother, or a million billion combinations of all of the above. I should quite whinging and just be thankful I actually have work. Right?

Speaking of work, like I said, it's... well... it's time consuming and it's gainful employment, but it's not exactly rocket science, or terribly interesting. I said once before that being a short term temp is actually harder in a lot of ways to working somewhere long term or full time... because unless you're hired to specifically fill in for somebody else or do a general "reception/office dogsbody" type roll, you're usually just there to do a single task (or at least, I always seem to be), and nothing but that task... and it's draining... all you do all day long is that one thing... and it gets a little much.

Plus, the chairs are never comfortable...

For the record, I met "The Other Gardener" on Tuesday, and, well, it was actually anti-climactic... I think we said maybe half a dozen words to each other all day... I introduced myself in the morning (the word of the day is "proactive"), then when I was stretching later in the afternoon (see the earlier point about the chairs) she asked how I was going... other than that I just did what I was there to do and that was about it.

But the people in and around where I'm working are very clearly insane... or else it was just the kind of day it was today... one dude ending up going out on a quest to buy Vegemite because he was having a craving for Vegemite on toast... and he kept telling the woman who sits opposite me all about it, so I had no choice but to overhear it... bah! Actually I had no choice but to overhear all their crap, since that particular group don't seem that bright and talk a lot of crap.

And I also went to the farewell morning tea for someone I'd never met... yay enforced work social gatherings... actually I only bothered because, you know, free cake and no work...

While I'm thinking about it, isn't there an unspoken rule about men's public/work bathrooms that says that if there are multiple available stalls and one is occupied, you never, ever, ever, ever take the one that's right next to the occupied one... well, unless we're talking about beat sex, which, oddly enough, seems to be a blogosphere topic at the moment... well, I had that happen this afternoon... a whole room full of empty toilets (thus is the bonus and the curse of working in a building that seems to be overwhelmingly staffed by women), and the dude just felt that he had to take the one right next to me.

Oh, and try as I might, even without spending an obscene amount of money (I'm sorry, I'm SO not paying $50+ for a business shirt, fuck that shit), I couldn't find a pink shirt in my size... so no Pink Shirt Thursday for me tomorrow *sulky face*... I did, however, pick up a really nice chocolate brown shirt, so I think Friday will be Chocolate Shirt Friday, at least for me.

See, and now it's past my bedtime, and I still have to do the dishes before I go to bed.

Current Mood:

big brother musings

It's interesting that of all my recent posts, the one that got the most number of either lurkers or just random people appearing out of nowhere was my first Big Brother post for the year.

Another thing that I thought was interesting was part of Ozboi's comment "It's all so ... formulaic. Six years has really left nothing new except variations on the same themes." And it obviously got me thinking because I came to a realisation yesterday... at the beginning of every season of Big Brother what you most clearly remember is the END of the previous season... when you've known those people for three months or so and gone through all their up and downs with them and when all the random garbage and annoying personalities (for the most part) have fallen away and everything ends up much more cruisy... then that year is over, the new year begins and suddenly there's suddenly a new crop of housemates and you're back at that weird place where you don't necessarily like anybody that much and you don't know any of them very well and there are various people who aren't getting any screen time (Emma) and become somewhat forgettable, and others that are getting way too much screen time (Haley) and become annoying, but instead of comparing it to the beginning of the previous season where the exact same things happened, you compare it to your last memory.

Having said that, I'm not going to argue on the "variations on the same themes" idea... but that's actually kind of the point... we all know that Big Brother is going to be somewhat crap before we start watching it... but we know what to expect, more or less. And at the end of the day it's not about the twists or the things Big Brother inflicts on the housemates or any of that, that's always going to be highly formulaic, and honestly, repetitive, since there are only so many different things that you can do in that situation, it's actually about the twelve, fifteen, nineteen or however many people they choose to put in the house and their interactions. And that's always going to make it a completely different show.

That doesn't mean that somebody doesn't need to slap the crap out of "Jamie-eske" Harrison, take away his bandannas and cut all his crappy white boy dreadlocks off... because he looked very hot with "normal" hair in his audition tape.

From my list of "Random Theories That Are Fairly Obvious" comes the idea that the prize money for this year's winner comes from the Friday Night Live Games... they'll have to win certain amounts playing certain games, like they usually do at the end of the last couple of years when they've been given the chance to win back the money from the fines. Because there is no way they're actually going to do the whole "no prize money" thing.

And I'm officially bored with this whole "people in relationships sneaking around and people trying to find them out" thing... they did it last year and it was boring and dumb and actually didn't make that much of a difference to anything... they need to stop now.

On that topic, I'm actually much less interested in both Haley and Andrew now that we know they're a real life couple, although I find it funny that the other housemates also floated the idea that Andrew might be gay... and somebody mentioned that they don't have a gay person in the house. Although the new boy, Zoran, did set off a couple of alarm bells at one point... damn David and his trying to cover it up last year... now I just think there are homosexuals hidden under every bush!

I was, as far as I can tell, completely right about Bodie being the first one to nude up in the shower... I don't think he even made it through the first night before he was showing off his bits and pieces under the shower. Not sure what the nudie status of the rest of the boys is unfortunately. Screen caps, updates, anyone?

Speaking of which, the ever lovely All Aussie Beef has started his Big Brother postings again, and thanks to the miracle of labels, it's now much easier to see what he's been posting in a BB genre.

Most Appealing Male Housemate: Thomas

Most Appealing Female Housemate: Suzannah

Most Annoying Male Housemate: Joel

Most Annoying Female Housemate: TJ

Male Housemate Who Shouldn't Speak Ever: Joel

Housemate Who Is Growing On Me: Travis

Housemate Most Likely To Be Voted Out First: Joel

And, as mentioned above, Joel has overtaken Travis as the housemate who shouldn't speak ever and I'm pitching him as the first housemate out rather than Kate, and TJ replaced Rebecca as most annoying female housemate. I think I might throw this list in whenever I do a BB related post (I promise to keep them shorter in future, honestly), just to see what my thoughts are over time.

That's it for now... at least until the first eviction anyway... I promise!

Current Mood:

this is big brother...

You know, I'd seen the "This year on Big Brother..." commercials... and rolled my eyes and declared myself over the whole thing...

I'd heard the rumours that there will be no all swearing, all nudity, all filth "Adults Only" show... so I figured that without that, what was the point...

I'd seen the ads about "Mr X" and the lack of prize money and whatever... and shook my head and told myself I wasn't watching this year...

And yet I still ended up watching the opening show tonight... well, I'm pretty much over Ugly Betty (I was watching more out of habit than anything else), the Robin Hood thing on the ABC looks like it is going to get old fast, so I figured, what the hell.

Quick note for all concerned though... having a Mormon housemate and the possibility of a Muslim and/or a Christian housemate does not cover the whole "your housemates will reflect all walks of life" thing you've been going on about for weeks. And putting in one nerdy slightly chubby boy and one plump girl with really appalling taste in eyeshadow doesn't fulfill the whole "more average looking people" claim either. To remember what that looks like, please refer to Year 3, when you actually did have "real" people in the house and many less gimmicks (although that was the year that the house was originally split in two, so maybe that's not completely true).

The "green" house thing is a nice touch though, with the rainwater tanks and the worm farms and the recycled artwork and light fittings and chairs and whatnot... although the four minute showers could severely cramp the possibility of naked screen captures.

Let's take a quick look at my thoughts on this year's crop of housemates though... if only so I can look back on this when the whole show is over and laugh at myself about how wrong I was...

Most Appealing Male Housemate: Thomas (second row center)... he just seems sweet, plus, you know, hot (and very, very, very tall)

Most Appealing Female Housemate: Haley (top row, center)... could be annoying over time, but seems nice enough

Most Annoying Male Housemate: Joel (bottom row, center)... you really aren't appealing or funny or interesting, shut up now

Most Annoying Female Housemate: Rebecca (third row, center)... the aforementioned Mormon... but trying too hard to be perky

Male Housemate Who Shouldn't Speak Ever: Travis (third row, left)... the really "Aussie" thing is going to get old really quick!

Male Housemate Who Seems Cute Now But Could Irritate Me: Bodie (top row, right)... underwear model, so, you know, I'm looking forward to seeing the evidence, but could be in need of a slap

Male Housemate Who Will Grow On Me Over Time: Jamie (third row, right)... chubby and nerdy, but could be worth watching... it will be interesting to see how he reacts to being the "unattractive" male in the house... or at least the "not thin" male

Housemate Most Likely To Win: Thomas, just coz I like him, at this point, who knows

Housemate Most Likely To Be Voted Out First: Kate (bottom row, right)... the green eyeshadow girl...

Male Housemate Most Likely To Shower Naked: Bodie (the underwear model thing)

Male Housemate Least Likely To Shower Naked: Jamie (the chubby thing)

Male Housemate Most Likely To Be A Big 'Mo: Thomas, Andrew (top left) and Bodie all score high on the 'Mo Meter (Joel kinda does too, but he annoys me, so probably not)... although Thomas was/is married and Andrew did claim not to be a 'mo... so god only knows... it would be nice to have a 'mo in again this year, but thinking about it, I don't think they do back to back 'mo years... first year had one, third year had an intruder 'mo, then we didn't have another one until year six last year (well, two actually)... so I think we're out of luck this year, but then I said that last year

Additional Housemates I Want To Go In: Suzannah and Harrison

Additional Housemates Who Will Probably Go In: Kara and Zoran

Additional Housemates Who Will Annoy Me If They Get In: Kara and Cruz

And obviously everyone was urgently trying to get onto the BB website tonight, because I tried to log in or sign up again or whatever, and it just kept falling on it's face... so hopefully that fixes itself tomorrow morning.

I will also acknowledge that it's incredibly dorky, but I just created a new label category for BB related posts... somebody shoot me now...

Current Mood:

montage monday: linear park mark iii

Yes, I know... two back-to-back Monday Montages with shots from Linear Park... this is the last one, I promise (at least until I go down there again). I had so many good shots left over from my last excursion though, it would have been a shame to let them go to waste. And whereas last time I just used any old shot that took my fancy, this time I tried to stay more to natural things, or at least earthy tones.

See... I put way too much thought into these things sometimes...

Speaking of putting way to much into a project... before I went to bed last night I thought I would just start playing around with an idea I'd been having for BlueDragon's birthday cybercard... every year lately (partly because I'm cheap and also broke and can't send stuff to the other side of the world) I make him up a cybercard for his birthday (and for Christmas too... which has led to me doing the same thing for J)... basically just throwing some text over an appropriately scantily clad male form, a little tweak here and there, a little Photoshop gloss and we're away... but this year, because I'd spent a bunch of time yesterday morning visiting a blog I found through a link to a link to a link which was full of the aforementioned scantily clad male images... and because I downloaded a truckload of said images... I thought about doing a much less formal montage and then ones I do for the blog and then adding some transparent layers and text effects, etc... long story... anyway... I started throwing something together last night before bed... and before I knew it, not only had I done the whole montage... but it was 12:30am and I'd been working on it for about two hours... *sigh* I'm so easily sucked into a project like that...

I might have actually started the project a little earlier, but after last night's episode of CSI, I ended up on the phone to Ma, and well, we ended up talking crap for over an hour... all because Lady Heather showed up on CSI again (although the conversaion wasn't limited to Lady Heather or CSI)...

And the timing could not have been more odd... in the comments for the Inner Californian quiz I posted on Saturday, Tom mentioned that his result was the OC... which made me think of not the cute and docile boys of The OC, oh no... but Julie Cooper... who is played by Melinda Clarke... who also plays, you guessed it, Lady Heather...

I swear though, all three of the CSI episodes featuring Lady Heather ROCK! Slaves of Las Vegas, Lady Heather's Box and last night's addition, Pirates of the Third Reich... too, too, too, too, too cool...

Okay, I'm going to send this out into the universe in the hopes that someone somewhere is paying attention... What Jerry Bruckheimer and CBS really need to do is put out character-arc related DVD collections... Joss Whedon did it with Buffy... the folks over at Star Trek did it (in fact they just came out with a new Borg Collective DVD)... take three or four of each character's defining episodes and put them on a single DVD... slap an interview with that actor about their character on it... maybe get them to do audio commentary for the episodes, I don't know... but in addition to the regular cast of characters, they TOTALLY need to add one for Lady Heather! Seriously! Slap a $19.95 price tag on it, even if it is only three episodes, I'd SO buy it!

Okay, enough with the bad corporate sales pitches... lets move on...

Looking through the job ads last night, I was flicking my eyes across the government vacancies (most of which are usually either much, much too high, or much, much too low a level for me to even bother with), when a familiar name caught my eye... one of my former bosses, not at my last contract, but the last major contract before that... advertising for a Assistant Project Officer... I shot her off a quick email this morning just to say hey and kind of ask what the job was all about... maybe get the Job and Person Specification if it sounds okay... no email back from her yet though...

Also last night, David from Big Brother (or David Graham to give him his real world name) won the title of "Australia's Brainiest BB06 Housemate"... scary really... and no, for the record, I didn't watch the show... I just tuned in for the final minute and a half to see who the winner was going to be, and luckily it was David... you go Farmer Dave!

Around the same time yesterday three of my dumbass neighbours decided that they needed to stand around outside and have a conversation... which would have been fine, had it not been for the fact that they chose to stand around RIGHT OUTSIDE MY LIVING ROOM WINDOW... After sitting there with steam coming out of my ears for several minutes waiting for them to wander off of their own accord, I had to stick my head out the door and politely ask them to push off... which they did... *mutter dumbass neighbours mutter*... you would have though I'd been confronting axe murderers or wrestling tigers from the way my heart was beating a mile a minute when I came back inside though... stoopid me...

Weirdly though when witnessing something that could actually have turned nasty on Saturday afternoon I was much calmer... granted I wasn't involved... but when Ma and I were at the shops for the second time (more on that in a second), we were standing outside a card shop, drinking our Boost Juices, minding our own business, looking at stuffed toy puppies, when suddenly some random tattooed hooligan crash-tackled a second baseball cap wearing hooligan... initially I thought they were friends and were being overly bouncy and one of them had mistimed his jump and fallen down, ha ha very amusing... but then they started pushing each other and being very aggressive.... before the tattooed dude just jumped the other guy and started swinging at him... which backed the baseball capped guy's buddies up... so that they were right in front of us... Ma and I actually did that whole frozen bunny thing... we just went completely still... waiting for the predators to either finish kicking the crap out of each other and leave, or else turn on the bunnies... luckily they just did a bunch of macho bullcrap posturing and then went on their way. The only thing that I'm not terribly proud of is that because we just froze in position, Ma was actually closer to the action than I was... technically I should have moved her behind me... but both of us just froze in place... so... yeah...

Technically we shouldn't have even been there when the "fight" was going on, but we'd gone down to West Lakes in search of various low, low priced DVDs... (it's a sickness... I need help... or a support group... or something) and had done some grocery shopping... then when we got back to my place and I was putting my stuff away I realised that I didn't have a parcel of ham we'd gotten... and after not being able to find it either in the house or in the car, we realised that I were also missing tomatoes, mushrooms, half a melon of some sort (which was actually Ma's) and some beans... the dumbass dude at the checkout hadn't given us the last bag... so back to West Lakes we had to go... which wasn't too bad, since it was a really nice day on Saturday...

While we were having breakfast on Saturday morning (not at West Lakes, but at Arndale, where we normally go to the movies) I ran the idea past Ma of giving up Camera Club that I floated out into the universe in my post last Tuesday... I'd actually expected her to some up with more reasons not to than she did... I still haven't made a final decision though... we'll have to wait and see...

Current Mood:

it's time to go...

Like I said last year, it's time to go... Big Brother.

After fourteen weeks, fifteen original housemates, six intruders, two removed housemates (who didn't show up on the finale show I'm happy to say) and their two replacements.... that's twenty three housemates in all, which, I'm sure has to be the most housemates ever in, if not any BB house, then it's certainly a record for Australia...

After two Insiders (can we not do that again next year thanks BB), a mother and daughter combo and a turkey slap.... after more controversy, nudity, relationships and lies... after 14 mentions here on my blog, 106 website quizzes and over 250 hours of television...

The winner is... Jamie...

Which, I have to say, I didn't expect... I was sure it was going to be Camilla... and it also means that in the last three years, I haven't picked the winner of BB once... it's always been the runner up I was rooting for.

I must admit I really didn't understand the way the final voting graph showed up tonight... there were more evicts than saves, but yet the total for both of them still showed as a save... so I didn't quite get that one... but the end total was Jamie on 53% and Camilla on 47%...

This feeling is so weird every year... I'm all elated but at the same time a little depressed... it's all over... no more... it's that Post BB Sad...

I did really enjoy the way they did the finale though... with bringing all the housemates back into the house and letting the final two get their "Oh God!" and "You look so good" comments out of the way...

And then leaving the two of them in the house right up until the end... obviously the BB Wish Faerie was listening to my post this morning... since we got to see Jamie go insane after being announced as the winner, and then left on his own in there to run around like a crazy person.

He's a sweet boy though, even if he won't pull his pants up to save his life... part of me just wishes he'd never gotten involved with Katie though.... he could probably do better... oops... did I say that out loud?

One thing that I thought would have been really cool as Jamie left the house would have been if they'd turned all the lights off, leaving just the Diary Room anteroom light (and the passage beyond) lit... but that's just me, and I'm always up for a bit of ham fisted symbolism...

At any rate, $426,000 should at least mean Jamie can buy some actual clothes, and maybe get a decent haircut...

Well done Donkey Shlong...

Current Mood:

monday musings: sunrise

No montage this week... I took my camera out with me this morning to do something, but honestly, although I was up much earlier than I have been for weeks, I just couldn't be bothered... so instead, this is this morning's sunrise... and a good advertisement for underground power cables...

I got visited by the Census Faerie on Saturday evening... the nice lady who's doing my area swung by to give me all the paperwork and whatnot... it's on 8 August, which is actually a Camera Club night, so I'll probably do the paperwork in the afternoon some time... especially since I can do it online for the first time this year... which should be interesting... It's weird... the census happens every 5 years... but I actually don't remember 2001 census... hmmm... well maybe I do, but not well... but I do remember the 1996 one clearly because I was living with Ludo at the time, and he refused to put his details down (can't remember if he did in the end or not)... he was such a tosser sometimes...

After my adventures yesterday, I realised that part of my big toe is numb... the whole left side of the big toe on my right foot, and a little bit of the left side of my foot feels like I've been sitting on it and my foot went to sleep... but without the pins and needles... I'm guessing it's temporary and probably has something to do with kneeling on a hard tile surface for too long... or else I just pinched a nerve somehow...

Oh, and I called about that parking fine I got... and was served by an overly perky sounding girl called Crystal (which just sounds too Big Brother related to me), and she basically told me that I was shit out of luck and that the road rule was a valid one (well DUR Crystal, I did used to do the court reporting for the minor traffic infringement offences when I worked for the Magistrates Court, I knew that)... but if I wanted to big and moan some more, I'd have to put something in writing for them to review... and after looking it up, I would have to show that "the conduct allegedly constituting the offence was merely a technical, trivial or petty instance of a breach of the relevant enactment"... which I actually think that it was... So I might put together an email in the next day or so and shoot it off...

I made an appointment to have my hair cut tomorrow... would you believe it's been about two and a half months since I last had it done? And it does really need doing... it's very much at that stage now... Unfortunately, because I left it so long, I'm fresh out of hairdressers... Rachael, who I was going to get to do it, has gone off to have her baby and do the whole mother thing... and Kathy, who was my regular hairdresser for ages, hasn't returned (if she actually is going to return) from wherever it was she was going (back to Queensland I think)... so I'm going back to one of the girls who cut my hair a couple of times in the past (before I ended up with Kathy I think), Christie... maybe I need to find a new salon... you know, in all the years I've been having my hair cut at salons (which technically isn't as many as you might think, since my aunt used to be a hairdresser at some stage, and I spent the first ten or so years of my life having her cut my hair), I've never knowingly had a gay male hairdresser... and yet Ma can't seem to get anything but big gay hairdressers...

After the nightmare I had back in April installing my new Norton Anti Virus software, my computer has suddenly developed a random error between Norton and, I think, Office... JOY! They're just not playing nicely... I keep getting one of those "reinstall office" type pop-up boxes, which then tells me that Norton doesn't support the "Repair" function and I should uninstall and reinstall it... screw that... I'll just put up with the little pop-ups for the time being... they're not that frequent...

Now, I know this is going to make me sound like a massive lamo (lameo... lame-o?), but I made sure that I got one of those fresh pasta and sauce things (I think it's San Remo pasta and Latina sauce) for dinner tonight... which in itself doesn't sound so lame... except for the fact that I got it specifically... I'm not sure it's a tradition or anything, but I have done it for a fair few... actually probably for every Big Brother finale, even when I didn't watch the series. Yeah, I know... big lamo... Interestingly, the first year I did it, I'd only really watched the Uncut shows, but watched the finale anyway... and grabbed the pasta and sauce up on the way home from work as a quick and easy dinner... but while walking home I then proceeded to trip and fall, tearing up both my work pants, and my knee... and ended up sitting, eating dinner and watching the finale with my leg up on the folding table so I didn't bleed everywhere... tragic really...

And now on to my penultimate Big Brother rambling... can you feel the excitement... can you... no, me either...

Okay, I will admit, I am kind of excited about tonight... sure, it's not the final two I would have liked since David was evicted last night... but I'm still really eager to see what happens with the finale. I just wish they still kept the housemates in the house when they announced the winner... and made the winner pace back and forward collecting their thoughts for half an hour while they interviewed the runner up... rather than bringing both housemates out of the house and announcing it on stage. I know they do it so they can milk the moment and leave the announcement until the very, very, very last moment (which I'm guessing won't be much this side of 10pm, even though the show, which starts at 7pm, is only supposed to run until 9:30... you would think, after all this time, they would just say, yes, we know it's going to run long, it always runs long, lets just say it's going to go until 10pm...

The other thing I'm very willing to hold my hand up to is crying like a big girlyman on and off all the way through last night's BB... first, during the daily show when the housemate's Mamas (and Camilla's best friend) came in... I actually nearly cried just reading about it on the website... but watching it, I did cry like the aforementioned girlyman... and weirdly, when Camilla had the cry/laugh reaction sitting by the pool, I was having the exact same reaction right along with her.

Then, after David's unfortunate eviction, when they showed a lot of him being emotional and stuff, I cried again... and then when they reunited him with Sherif, I cried A LOT... and was busy going "Awwwwwwww" (especially when Gretel shooed Sherif offstage so she could ask the 10 Questions, and David just wouldn't let Sherif's hand go as he walked away)... although I did note that they went to a really, really, really wide arena shot just after they were coming up onto the stage... seemingly, just in case the big gay farmer and his (actually not that hot and slightly French sounding) dark and swarthy lover decided to have, like, a man kiss, and scare the children and old people... big raspberry for whoever was in charge of the camera choices there... we had to watch Krystal and Gaelen snog up close and personal... wasn't that the whole point of David going into the house, to be treated equally!

Actually, it was very odd, I woke up at 6:30 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep... mostly because I kept thinking about David... well, David and Sherif actually... and the fact that I amused, having put together various things that David had said over his time in the house, to think that at some point overnight Sherif probably had his legs up over his head with David showing him JUST how much he'd missed him these past three months... but it was still very odd because it was an amused thought rather than a big sexual thought...

Now it's down to Whingerella and The Headband... aka Camilla and Jamie... although I have referred to Jamie by other names in the past. I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's going to be Camilla... it's just a feeling... We'll have to see...

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montage monday: circles

See what desperation and grasping at straws can get you... on the plus side, at least it's actually a Montage... It was easier than I thought to find an appropriate number of circles, even if there are a couple of repeating themes in there.

After using my pedometer for all of my walks last week, I can announce that my average number of steps is 7282... which I'm not sure is accurate, because I'm pretty sure that the pedometer is actually a piece of crap and is reading more than one step per step a lot of the time. I'm still trying to work out if it should be more or less steps on the days when I walk faster... I never was that good with spatial mechanics... or math for that matter...

I really, truly wanted to murder my neighbour yesterday... well, for most of last week actually... but yesterday specifically. All last week he'd been laying paving stones in his front yard... which should be fine, right... except they (he and his merry band of little work monkeys) need to cut vast numbers of them to size... so they were running a circular saw or whatever it is you use to cut big ass paving stones for selected periods last week... including a large chunk of the afternoon yesterday... and his front yard is situated right outside my bedroom window! Not so good! Never have I wished so hard for a workplace accident... stoopid man... he just needs to hurry up and finish the damn house already... it's been being renovated for what seems like forever... but which is probably more like eighteen months...

I changed the wallpaper in the sidebar yesterday, and I was looking at the few images I had left in my yaniwallpaper folder, and realised they were all from a while back and I hadn't made any out of recent photos... so, of course, that led me to going off and playing in Photoshop and coming up with fourteen new wallpapers. I'm not sure if that means I'm going to change them more often than I have been, but you never know...

This is going to be my second to last Big Brother related ramble for the year... well, it might be the third to last, since there will be my usual musings next Monday in the morning, and then most likely a final post like last year's after the season finale that night...

I was nearly right with my predictions on the eviction schedule last week... instead of a double then double then final four, it looks like it's going to be last night's double, then a midweek single this week, then a double next Sunday, leaving the final two.

It has to be said that I was actually a little shocked by Krystal's eviction last night... I was sure it was going to be Claire (who did get evicted) and then Max (I've been using the "Who Will Go" poll on the BB website to back up a lot of my guesses, and that's what the results were for this Sunday)... partly because I wanted to keep Chris in for a bit longer, since he's so cute...

I actually think it's going to come down to David and Camilla as this year's final two... it could be Jamie and Camilla, but I kind of doubt it... and I think it will be Max who goes on Wednesday... and then probably Chris and Jamie on Sunday...

If it is David and Camilla then I have no idea who will win... but out of Jamie and Camilla, I think Camilla will win... we'll just have to see I guess...

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