things that go bump in the night

Last night while my folks were watching TV in the lounge, they heard a rather loud bang that sounded like it was out the front of our house. Peering out the front windows they were unable to see the cause of the bang as it was obviously too dark.

This morning, the light of day revealed a surprising sight. We live near the top of a hill, and parked across the road further up the hill was a car with its back window missing, plus a rather significant dent in its rear. Further investigation showed a substantial collection of glass around the base of a tree on the footpath in front of our (downhill) neighbour's home. (By the time I got around to taking a picture, our neighbour had cleared away many of the larger pieces of glass.)

We can only surmise that someone forgot to put their parking brake on. Oops! No idea when the car was moved from its crash site, but there it has sat, atop the hill, all day.

Incidentally, I declare the tree clear winner in this little stoush!



-----

ahh, joyous unproductive day!

Today was one of those pleasant, lazy days that we all need from time to time. Unfortunately that meant it was decidedly unproductive in terms of assignment work, but I did manage to fully develop the concept for one of my assignments. This is a good thing, because on Wednesday I have to present the concepts for my assignments in two separate subjects, for tutor and peer critique. The tutors keep going on about how this is a great opportunity, but I can't help but feel that it's a waste of precious teaching time! Semesters are so short with only twelve tutorials per subject, and devoting one of those tutorials to having we students get up and say "this is what I plan to do, blah blah blah" seems a bit silly to me.

But who am I to criticise the structure of university classes? Oh wait, I'm one of the people investing a huge whack of money in the university! (Well, eventually I will, at the moment I'm just generating a huge whack of debt for myself.) Sometimes I really do wonder where all that money goes..

Moving on from my bitterness, I'm quite excited about my concept. We have to develop an interactive project using Macromedia Flash, that in some way deals with the topic of "advocating sustainability". I'm planning to develop a game for younger people that promotes the use of renewable resources, in particular solar power, in an (hopefully) entertaining and educational way. Should provide a marvellous challenge for me as I've absolutely no idea what I'm capable of constructing in Flash. Wheee! But that's okay because we don't actually need to produce a fully functioning project but rather a "resolved prototype". Doesn't that just sound like good clean fun?

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how my idea is received in class on Wednesday. If my peers hate it, I think I might cry! There's always a danger in being too impressed with one's own imaginative genius, when one must lay that imaginative genius on the line in front of 25-odd bored fellow students. Character building, is what it is!

-----

tickle tickle wiggle wiggle

Sounds a bit kinky, doesn't it? In actual fact, "tickle tickle wiggle wiggle" is what's written on this super-cute toy Mum and I bought this morning. I'd like to say it's staying with me, but it's actually a gift for one of my cousin's daughters who will be celebrating her 1st birthday soon. Hopefully it will make her giggle, and not freak her out, but you can never be entirely sure with little kids!

If you've never seen one of these toys before, here's the gist: you squeeze their hand, which results in the toy vibrating (uh, still sounds kinky!) and giggling! It does this for a while, stops, then starts up again before finishing in a cute li'l voice that says "That's funny!" And yes, yes it is. :-) Completely irresistable to a soft toy fanatic like myself, it will be hard to part with it!

-----
feeling:
currently watching: Mens Basketball: Australia v. United States (yah, I know we lost)
-----

muzing # 050: procrastinating is fun!

I've made it to an half-century of blog posts, and I think I might stop numbering them now. :-)

Anyway, oh, there is some serious procrastination going on right now. I have three separate assignments I could be working on, and yet here I sit, not working on any of them! I'd like to use the excuse that my brain is tired after six hours of uni classes today, but considering a portion of one of those classes involved playing a Nintendo game, I don't think that excuse is gonna fly. Yeah, Comm Design is cool, you all wish you were studying it. ;-) I'm actually not much of a gamer, but there are far worse things than your tutor bringing his Game Cube to class, right?

So one of my assignments is to write a personal story of a "new beginning". Where do they come up with this stuff? Now, I enjoy creative writing but I'm not particularly inspired by that topic. Plus we have a ridiculously small word limit to adhere to: 700 words in total, including two responses to other students' stories. The tutor recommended we only use 450 words in our own story. That's not a whole lotta words in which to craft a story.. better go easy on the flowery descriptions. Hoho!

Meanwhile, the Olympics continue to provide a happy distraction from all constructive pursuits. The Australians slipped to third on the medal tally at the end of yesterday's competition. I sure did enjoy those few days the Aussies stood proudly in second spot! :-)

-----
feeling:
currently watching: Women's Beach Volleyball: Australia v. Mexico
-----

muzing # 049: oh blogger, what have you done?

You've stuffed up my layout, that's what! I do prefer this new navigation bar to the big ugly bannerads, but I shall have to make some fixes to my template. Hopefully not too many.

In other news, how I wish I could put my life on hold every time the Olympics come around. I love the Olympics! It's fantastic to be able to experience so many different sports, and to see elite athletes perform in all those different sports. This year the Athens Olympics just so happen to coincide with a pretty heavy assignment time for me. How very unfortunate! I'm wondering if I requested an extension with the reason of: "watching the Olympics", whether any of my lecturers would grant it. I know, I know, wishful thinking (and rather foolish).

I've got myself nicely set up, having moved an old small TV from downstairs into the computer room. So now I can watch while I work. Or watch while I *pretend* to work. Or maybe just watch and bugger the working altogether!

Go Aussies!

-----
feeling:
currently watching: Men's Gymnastics
-----

muzing # 048: what's my weakness?

Cakes! I definitely have a sweet tooth; I like chocolate, candy, icecream, chips, donuts, muffins and anything else that tastes good but is bad for me. But my favourite guilty pleasure is cake! I bring this up now, as last night I was unable to get to sleep because I was thinking about cakes. The cravings were so strong that my stomach hurt, it was awful! Unfortunately there was no cake in the house, and as midnight is not an appropriate time to go out in search of cakes, nor to bake my own when others are sleeping in the house, I had to suffer, unsated.

I'm not sure what brought on this sudden craving for cake. After all, two days ago I had a generous slice of a scrumptious chocolate cake my sister-in-law made for my brother's birthday. MmmMMmmm! You'd think that would have been enough to tide me over till the next special occasion, which brings me to my one issue with cakes. Why must they be a "special occasion" treat? I am perfectly comfortable snacking out on a muffin or a donut on any old day, but I feel I must resist the lure of cakes till a special occasion arises. Who created this silly rule? I want to eat cake every day!

This morning I pondered just what cake I shall have for my own special occasion (my birthday next month). I'm a big fan of the cakes made by The Cheesecake Shop, particularly their mud cakes. Their "White Gold Mudcake" is a definite contender, I haven't tried that one yet. Other possible choices are their "Strawberry Fields Torte" or the "Zebra Cake", both of which are pictured here.

One of my fondest birthday cake memories is of three years ago, when I had to work (back in my video game arcade days) the night shift. It was a Saturday, it just so happened to coincide with the Brisbane Lions first Premiership, and I had to head to work before the game was finished. I was in a lousy mood, muttering about the injustices of it all, and when I arrived at work was greeted by the sight of a rather large chocolate cake, provided by my boss. It was ridiculously good this cake, I can't even tell you! Rich chocolate, layers of thick icing throughout, huge globs of icing on top, and finished with a bonfire-sized mound of dark chocolate shavings. (Oh, I think I just drooled on my keyboard!) I was able to gorge myself on a slice while watching the end of the AFL grand final on the TVs in the bowling alley next door to the arcade.

Boy did I feel guilty for being so negative about having to work. Cake makes everything better. :-)

-----

muzing # 047: where there's smoke..

there was a fire, which in itself is nothing surprising considering the weather we've been having lately. An incredibly long dry spell coupled with high winds always spells trouble. What is surprising (for me at least) is that there was a fire two days ago within spitting distance of my home! Okay, I exaggerate, it was a little further than spitting distance, but certainly within viewing distance. That said, I didn't see much of it myself as I was at uni at the time, but my Dad gave me a thorough description of events afterwards.

Thankfully no homes were lost, and though the fire edged close to the local Nursing Home, firefighters were able to prevent any damage via backburning. Late yesterday afternoon I went for a stroll to investigate the damage to bushland, and took some photographs from the local park which escaped the flames thanks to a creek (of sorts). (click to enlarge, if you so desire)





There's something just that bit heart-breaking about a burnt out landscape..

On a lighter note:

I am a subtle taste, like Pine. I am a quiet, fresh taste, almost more of a scent than a flavour. You will be aware of me, but not quite remember me without being reminded. Not that I'm boring; on the contrary, I'm just a little outside the ordinary.
My secondary taste is Almond.
Mmm, the taste of almonds - anathema to many with nut allergies, and a bad sign for many more, as my taste is not unlike that of cyanide. Am I good or am I poison? A risky thing to guess about.
What Flavour Are You?

Heeheehee! :-) (With thanks for the link to Casyn, who tastes like tea.)

-----

muzing # 046: what the?!

Okay, I just hit the Publish Post button and was taken to a page that said "Session Expired" and now I've lost my entire post! ARGH!!! Session expired?? Since when has there even been an expiration date on a blog session?!

Wahh, and now I can't be bothered reconstructing my post. It will have to wait till the morning, or maybe it will just become a gem, forever lost in the barren blogger wastelands.

Woe is me.

-----
feeling:
groovin' to: "Gifts and Curses" - Yellowcard
last movie viewing: "The General" [video]
-----