Dandelion flowers.. yum! Sad to say, this little guy, who had in recent times called our front garden home, seems to have moved on as I haven't seen him since taking this picture a few weeks ago. Farewell little buddy!
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Tuesday, April 19, 2005
bite me!
My Mother reckons bearded dragons will bite ya if you tick them off. Do you reckon the guy below looks like he's fixin' to chomp on my finger? ...maybe I should give up on my quest to hand feed a full grown bearded dragon and just stick with hand feeding the little guys, like so:
Monday, April 18, 2005
a happy photographic accident
So little time, so much to do - but I had to pause in my assignment work to share a couple of photographs I took at a local park yesterday (click for enlarged view):
The photograph on the left, I accidentally forgot to turn off the flash (probably blinded the poor lizard, *gulp*) - but was delighted to find when I looked at the pic at home, my accident had resulted in a spiffy photograph! The photograph on the right is, of course, minus flash.
Anyway, I think bearded dragons are so cool, and this guy was patient enough to allow me to photograph him numerous times, so naturally I had to share his glorious self for others to admire! I attempted to hand-feed him some bread (which I had been feeding to the ducks, until I noticed this guy nibbling after some) and he let me get close enough to tickle his nose with it, but that made him shy away. Alas! So I dropped it in front of him and he gobbled it up happily after I had moved away. His reward for being such a well-behaved photographic subject. :-)
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Tuesday, March 22, 2005
libra odd spots
This post falls under the "too good not to share" category. I recently switched brands of sanitary liners (no, that's not the bit I simply *had* to share), and discovered that, according to Libra, sanitary liners are a perfect place to impart useless trivia/facts. What fun! Now when I make a trip to the Ladies, I can have a giggle at the stuff printed on the adhesive backing strip, and the women in the other cubicles can wonder at my sanity. I scanned a couple of these backing strips to share the fun, so go ahead and click on the sample provided (my favourite "odd spot").-----
Friday, March 18, 2005
anime, anime, anime.. and more!
Poor neglected blog! *pats it on the head* I wonder if anyone is still stopping by here, or whether people have just given up on me ever posting again. Naturally, the latter option seems more likely considering the complete lack of postage lately. I'm going to squarely lump the blame on university. Three weeks back to the grind, and not only have the lecturers/tutors piled on the work and assignments, but they're making me BLOG! For uni! GAH! Trust the university to jump all over trends, thus turning something that was a pleasure into a chore. Boohoo. :-( Woe is me!
Er, yes, and in actual fact I am enjoying being back at uni. I've got some interesting subjects happening this semester that see me studying and creating 3D animation, temporal media and interaction designs. (Yeah, I don't really know what the heck all those words mean either -except 3D animation, which is blatantly obvious- but I'm learning.. sloooowly.)
But to the topic - anime! I spent a good portion of my summer break becoming acquainted with the wonderful world of anime. For some reason I'd resisted most anime up until I attended Supanova (1) (2) last year, despite the fact the bro' has had a number of anime flicks in his video/DVD collection for years. I think I had an aversion to the mere thought of R-rated cartoons. Ignorant me! However, at Supanova, watching the Cosplayers and Kamehameha Blast-Off'ers, I realised that anime fans are like their own wacky fun society that I had to learn more about. And thus began the Great Anime Quest of Summer '04/'05..
..it all started with a raiding of the bro's anime collection. That introduced me to the thoroughly entertaining "Gunsmith Cats" and "Read or Die", the weirdness of "Akira", and the very cool character Jubei, of "Ninja Scroll". When I grow up I wanna be just like him! Make of that what you will... Also at this time, I worked my way through the local Blockbuster's modest anime collection, checking out a small number of movies, most of which fascinated me to varying degrees (except a film called "X" - it was pretty lame).
Unfortunately, this was simply not enough to satiate my growing obsession with the art form. Alas! It was time to make a few choice investments and begin my own anime collection. Much to my frustration, I discovered that, like fantasy novels (another obsession), anime titles rarely seem to be on sale. You can shop around, and shop around some more, and the prices only drop below recommended retail by a couple of dollars or so. Phooey! To date I have controlled my spending to three volumes of "GetBackers" (all that's available here in Oz so far) - a highly entertaining action/comedy TV series about a couple of dudes who run a recovery service, ie. they 'get back' stuff. It has great comedic moments and some sweet action scenes. More recently I purchased the thirteen episode series "Please Teacher" - a pretty neat drama series about a 15 year (who is technically 18) old marrying his teacher (an alien). There's a vague "erk!" factor to parts of it but otherwise it's a charmer.
Then there's my latest acquisition - volume 1 of "Azumanga Daioh". Like Seinfeld, it's a comedy show about nothing, but beyond that it defies description. Suffice to say it had me quite literally rolling with laughter at times. Detachable pig-tails will do that to ya!
So the point of this post was really a roundabout way of explaining that if it's the last you see appear on this blog in a while, it's because I'm busy with uni.. or watching anime. 'cause obsessions are good for the soul. :-P
-----
Er, yes, and in actual fact I am enjoying being back at uni. I've got some interesting subjects happening this semester that see me studying and creating 3D animation, temporal media and interaction designs. (Yeah, I don't really know what the heck all those words mean either -except 3D animation, which is blatantly obvious- but I'm learning.. sloooowly.)
But to the topic - anime! I spent a good portion of my summer break becoming acquainted with the wonderful world of anime. For some reason I'd resisted most anime up until I attended Supanova (1) (2) last year, despite the fact the bro' has had a number of anime flicks in his video/DVD collection for years. I think I had an aversion to the mere thought of R-rated cartoons. Ignorant me! However, at Supanova, watching the Cosplayers and Kamehameha Blast-Off'ers, I realised that anime fans are like their own wacky fun society that I had to learn more about. And thus began the Great Anime Quest of Summer '04/'05..
..it all started with a raiding of the bro's anime collection. That introduced me to the thoroughly entertaining "Gunsmith Cats" and "Read or Die", the weirdness of "Akira", and the very cool character Jubei, of "Ninja Scroll". When I grow up I wanna be just like him! Make of that what you will... Also at this time, I worked my way through the local Blockbuster's modest anime collection, checking out a small number of movies, most of which fascinated me to varying degrees (except a film called "X" - it was pretty lame).
Unfortunately, this was simply not enough to satiate my growing obsession with the art form. Alas! It was time to make a few choice investments and begin my own anime collection. Much to my frustration, I discovered that, like fantasy novels (another obsession), anime titles rarely seem to be on sale. You can shop around, and shop around some more, and the prices only drop below recommended retail by a couple of dollars or so. Phooey! To date I have controlled my spending to three volumes of "GetBackers" (all that's available here in Oz so far) - a highly entertaining action/comedy TV series about a couple of dudes who run a recovery service, ie. they 'get back' stuff. It has great comedic moments and some sweet action scenes. More recently I purchased the thirteen episode series "Please Teacher" - a pretty neat drama series about a 15 year (who is technically 18) old marrying his teacher (an alien). There's a vague "erk!" factor to parts of it but otherwise it's a charmer.
Then there's my latest acquisition - volume 1 of "Azumanga Daioh". Like Seinfeld, it's a comedy show about nothing, but beyond that it defies description. Suffice to say it had me quite literally rolling with laughter at times. Detachable pig-tails will do that to ya!So the point of this post was really a roundabout way of explaining that if it's the last you see appear on this blog in a while, it's because I'm busy with uni.. or watching anime. 'cause obsessions are good for the soul. :-P
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Saturday, February 26, 2005
the joys of nature (part II)
Pop quiz!
This morning I was woken (or should that be awoken?) at 5:30am by:
(a) the sweet and pleasant melodic stylings of a pair of magpies, filtering peacefully and tunefully through my window, or
(b) the raucous screechings of a pair of psychotic pink galahs, sharing their domestic woes with the neighbourhood from the neighbour's palm tree.
.....
If you answered (a), you are WRONG! wrong, wroNG, WRONG! To the bottom of the class with you! Did you not pick up on the sarcastic tone of the title? Should I have put inverted commas around the word "joys"? If, however, you answered (b), you are absolutely, one-hundred percent on the money! And a good morning to you too!
So yes, this morning a couple of pink galahs decided to act like, well, like a pair of galahs! I have never heard such hideous screechings emitted by pink galahs. At first, as I lay groggily in bed, I wondered if it was a cranky possum. You see, I could hear the local mickey bird mafia taking offence to some poor critter stumbling into their territory, and as I've experienced their treatment of possums before, this seemed a definite possibility. But as the ruckus continued, I decided it had to be some kind of bird. I could also hear a few rainbow lorikeets combining their piercing squawks with the mickey bird mafia, which is not a common occurrence.
So! I dragged myself up to a sitting position and opened my blind, and there in the neighbour's palm tree, level with my eyeline, saw two pink galahs. One was sitting quietly and hunched up at the time, while the other was extending its wings and repeatedly launching ear-piercing screeches at the lorikeets and mickeys flapping around. Then it would screech at the other galah, which would wake it from its stupor and make it screech right back! UGH! I watched this behaviour for a few minutes, trying to determine what the heck was going on. Was this some kind of bizarre galah mating ritual? Because I'm thinking, buddy, if that's how you attempt to win a girlie galah over, it's no wonder you're single! And if so, what did the other birds have to do with proceedings?
Knowing this was too blogworthy a moment to pass up, I jumped out of bed to grab my camera. Alas, the galahs, damn 'em, decided to fly away just as I returned to the window to snap their picture! No photographic evidence! It's probably just as well though, because if I had snapped a picture, you'd probably look at it and react with "aww, look at the pretty pink birdies!", which is not the sentiment I'm aiming for here.
As Alf Stewart* would say.. flamin' galahs!
*Far be it from me to willingly quote Home and Away characters, but Alf Stewart is an institution unto himself. There's even a T-shirt!
-----
This morning I was woken (or should that be awoken?) at 5:30am by:
(a) the sweet and pleasant melodic stylings of a pair of magpies, filtering peacefully and tunefully through my window, or
(b) the raucous screechings of a pair of psychotic pink galahs, sharing their domestic woes with the neighbourhood from the neighbour's palm tree.
.....
If you answered (a), you are WRONG! wrong, wroNG, WRONG! To the bottom of the class with you! Did you not pick up on the sarcastic tone of the title? Should I have put inverted commas around the word "joys"? If, however, you answered (b), you are absolutely, one-hundred percent on the money! And a good morning to you too!
So yes, this morning a couple of pink galahs decided to act like, well, like a pair of galahs! I have never heard such hideous screechings emitted by pink galahs. At first, as I lay groggily in bed, I wondered if it was a cranky possum. You see, I could hear the local mickey bird mafia taking offence to some poor critter stumbling into their territory, and as I've experienced their treatment of possums before, this seemed a definite possibility. But as the ruckus continued, I decided it had to be some kind of bird. I could also hear a few rainbow lorikeets combining their piercing squawks with the mickey bird mafia, which is not a common occurrence.
So! I dragged myself up to a sitting position and opened my blind, and there in the neighbour's palm tree, level with my eyeline, saw two pink galahs. One was sitting quietly and hunched up at the time, while the other was extending its wings and repeatedly launching ear-piercing screeches at the lorikeets and mickeys flapping around. Then it would screech at the other galah, which would wake it from its stupor and make it screech right back! UGH! I watched this behaviour for a few minutes, trying to determine what the heck was going on. Was this some kind of bizarre galah mating ritual? Because I'm thinking, buddy, if that's how you attempt to win a girlie galah over, it's no wonder you're single! And if so, what did the other birds have to do with proceedings?
Knowing this was too blogworthy a moment to pass up, I jumped out of bed to grab my camera. Alas, the galahs, damn 'em, decided to fly away just as I returned to the window to snap their picture! No photographic evidence! It's probably just as well though, because if I had snapped a picture, you'd probably look at it and react with "aww, look at the pretty pink birdies!", which is not the sentiment I'm aiming for here.
As Alf Stewart* would say.. flamin' galahs!
*Far be it from me to willingly quote Home and Away characters, but Alf Stewart is an institution unto himself. There's even a T-shirt!
-----
Friday, February 25, 2005
the joys of nature
While on a (semi-daily) walk with my Mum yesterday, I felt something land in my hair, right by my ear. Exploring the ear area returned nothing, but running my fingers through my hair I discovered an object caught up in tangles. Dragging it out, I looked into my hand and saw, to my horror, a stink bug! There followed a period of frantic hand-shaking and exclamations of "Ugh, stink bug!" until my Mum calmly assured me that it had flown merrily away, seemingly no worse for our encounter. Unlike my traumatised self!
Still, I like to think that somewhere, in a place and time not far from here, a stink bug is blogging on the stinkernet about his frightening collision with a big, hairy human head, and his incredible luck in escaping his predicament relatively unscathed.
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Still, I like to think that somewhere, in a place and time not far from here, a stink bug is blogging on the stinkernet about his frightening collision with a big, hairy human head, and his incredible luck in escaping his predicament relatively unscathed.
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Thursday, February 17, 2005
the price is right!
Woohoo! Greater Union/Birch Carroll and Coyle have dropped the Tuesday ticket price to a meagre $5 (for a limited time). Now, this certainly makes me one happy camper, as my uni timetable has me finishing at 1pm on Tuesdays so I'll be able to take advantage of this el cheapo price over the next few weeks. And it comes just in time for a number of light, fun-lookin' flicks due for release: Bride & Prejudice, In Good Company, and Hitch. I'd say the price is just right for some light entertainment.
Meanwhile, this is definitely a step in the right direction for GU/BCC. Now, if they would just rethink their decision to ban movie munchies other than their own....
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Meanwhile, this is definitely a step in the right direction for GU/BCC. Now, if they would just rethink their decision to ban movie munchies other than their own....
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Wednesday, February 09, 2005
meh!
When, oh when, is my blogblock going to pass? So many things to post, so little enthusiasm.
I could blog about...
* my brief sojourn to the lovely Outrigger Mooloolaba, right on the beachfront. I even took pictures for the specific purpose of blogging, but they'll keep, I guess.
* the number of itty bitty geckos currently sharing our residence. Highest gecko count of late: five in one night.
* the fact that it's a great time to be a Jude Law fan. I've recently enjoyed his star turns in "Closer" and "Alfie", and his voice work in the "Lemony Snicket" film. On the viewing agenda are "Sky Captain etc.." and "The Aviator" (yeah, he's in that too apparently). Also, I think the Mr. Ripley flick is on the box later this week.
* the wasted brilliance of Joss Whedon's "Firefly" concept - one season wasn't even close to enough!
* my new penchant for ankle-length, crushed cotton, Gypsy-ish skirts. I can't get enough of 'em (though I only own two) - they are ridiculously comfortable to wear and look soooo pretty.
... but I won't.
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I could blog about...
* my brief sojourn to the lovely Outrigger Mooloolaba, right on the beachfront. I even took pictures for the specific purpose of blogging, but they'll keep, I guess.
* the number of itty bitty geckos currently sharing our residence. Highest gecko count of late: five in one night.
* the fact that it's a great time to be a Jude Law fan. I've recently enjoyed his star turns in "Closer" and "Alfie", and his voice work in the "Lemony Snicket" film. On the viewing agenda are "Sky Captain etc.." and "The Aviator" (yeah, he's in that too apparently). Also, I think the Mr. Ripley flick is on the box later this week.
* the wasted brilliance of Joss Whedon's "Firefly" concept - one season wasn't even close to enough!
* my new penchant for ankle-length, crushed cotton, Gypsy-ish skirts. I can't get enough of 'em (though I only own two) - they are ridiculously comfortable to wear and look soooo pretty.
... but I won't.
-----
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