Still Flyin'

Very quiet weekend. It was lovely!

Managed to read Dorothy L. Sayers: Her Life and Soul by Barbara Reynolds. It's a biography, obviously, and I found it really interesting.

Was a bit annoyed by the religious stuff at the end though. Sayers was religous, and her essays, plays and translations of various Christian subjects were extremely important to her, so I was interested to know what she thought. But it seemed like Reynolds assumed that readers would naturally agree with every aspect of Sayer's theology and that her critics were obviously idiots. And several times she quoted Sayers mentioning that although she was strong on theology, she wasn't sure about many aspects of living as a Christian - this is fascinating to me, and I would have loved more info or even just an educated guess as to what this meant to her, but Reynolds just glossed over it. I dunno, I just felt that the author's own bias towards a specific flavour of religion meant she couldn't cover that part of Sayer's life with the same nuance and shades of grey that she allowed into the rest of the book.

However, the rest of the book was great. Sayers was a fascinating person, and seemed determined to have fun with her life no matter how tough things got. There were plenty of photos and excerpts from letters, and quotes from friends and family to round out the picture.

One of the things that's been keeping me busy in the last month has been a little photography project for the PIP group on Flickr. The challenge was to take 3 photos in the style of either Cindy Sherman, or Henri Cartier Bresson.

I went with Cindy Sherman, because she seems to me to explore the stereotypes (and sometimes the fears) that people map onto women regardless of their individual personality. HCB is awesome, but he's all about the street photography, and I suck at that right now.

Sherman has done a lot of different series, and I decided it'd be best to pick one and stick with it rather than try to cover her whole career. I chose her "Untitled Film Stills" series - black and white pics that look like scenes from movies, usually there's a bit of a Hitchcock vibe. It was so much fun coming up with the little stories in my three photos. Dave took them for me, because I found messing about with a tripod and timer was too fiddly.

The first one was taken in Dave's office this weekend just gone, the second was taken while we were staying in Margaret River, the third was in our spare bedroom a few weeks ago.

Click on the images to see the large versions on Flickr (they look better large, but my LJ layout breaks if I put them in bigger than this):







The rest of the set, which includes a few alternatives and some near-misses, is here: Untitled Cindy Sherman Pastiches

Another long weekend! This is just a summary, cos there's a lot to get through!

Seng's exhibit launch, Chaos and Drama: at Behind the Monkey, just down and across from the Queens on Beaufort St. Seng's showing his photos from his time in Greece, it'll be open for the next 3 weeks (I think it's in my events in Facebook if you want a link). I had a great time, chatted with people, drank ouzo, admired the art. Then we went out for pizza.

Skipped the traditional AFL grand final breakfast and viewing. The guys got invited to another party (more on that later), so Dave and I stayed in. Happy to see the Hawks win, Geelong have been so arrogant this year. Shane Crawford is still a tool though.

Josie's 6th birthday party: kidlets all over the local park, Sean made a cake, pink *everywhere*.

Royal Show: I'll post again about this later, have got some photos I want to put up. But the short version, covering the most important aspect, is "The Dairy Pavilion was not up to the standards of previous years".

Photography adventures of my own: again, I've got some pics I want to show, will post again later.

Now it's back to work :(

I had a lovely long weekend.

Friday: slept in. Did 20min run. Packed. Dave drove us to Margaret River. Chilled out in the little apartment for a bit, then got a coffee at Blue Ginger cafe. Drove over to Prevelley Beach. Took a few pics. Got rained on. Came home, dried clothes with hair-dryer.



Friday night: Went out for dinner at the charmingly-named "Wino's". Wagyu beef with asparagus and mash. Lady Marmalade cocktails. Big Drop shiraz. Then on to the MR Hotel to watch the end of the footy. Cover band, with baby boomers dancing a kind of jive to every song, even the Bob Marley. Too much to drink - walked back to apartment.

Saturday: bacon and eggs at Wild Thyme cafe. Pics in some random bit of forest. Off to Providores, to taste awesome jams, chutneys and wine and look at their vegie garden. Had lunch there - less impressed with this than their take-home products.



Went to venison place for tastings. Back to apartment to eat cheese and pate and crackers and local pears, while watching the other footy game. Finished reading Making Money by Terry Pratchett - it was ok, not as funny as I'd hoped.

Sunday: french toast with peaches and yogurt at Sea Gardens Cafe (Prevelley again). Slow drive back home. Discovered that broken laptop makes it really difficult to get photos and music organised, but I managed.

Forgot to mention that I went to dinner and a movie with Mum, my sisters and a couple of Mum's friends, to celebrate Mum's birthday. She picked Box 3 for dinner (better than I remembered, very cheery waiter) and the latest instalment of The Mummy.

It was ok - I'll watch Brendan Fraser in anything, really. The special effects were alright. Maria Bello isn't as good as Rachel Weiss. Michelle Yeoh was great. Some poor kid had to live up to being Fraser's son; he might have some empathy with Shia LeBeouf. Screen-Dad: hot, good actor. You: ok looking, ok actor, but seeming worse just because you're standing next to your screen dad.

Tomorrow I'm off to Margaret River for a quick break. I'm thinking lots of red wine, cheese, chocolate, reading, possibly some knitting. Might go to one of the breweries to watch the AFL semi-finals. No internet, just my iPhone, so I might get to update/brag, or maybe not.

Today, instead of eating lunch with the gang, I went with Adolfo to buy tortillas. Adolfo is Mexican (recently got his Aussie citizenship, can't tempt him to eat beetroot yet though), and I figured that if he was enthused enough about these tortillas to use his lunchbreak to get them, I'd better see what the fuss was about.

So we drove out to Osborne Park, ducking and weaving through all those business warehouses and units. We got lost, asked for directions, got back on track (cutting through various alleyways) and ended up at a plain and boring unit.

But when we went inside, all I could smell was fresh tortillas! It was great. They were baking them out the back. The American guy running the place was just putting new ones into their chiller, so I got a dozen in a packet. I also got some organic blue-corn chips, but I've had those before. Adolfo bought 4 packets of the fresh ones, and spotted some that they were about to throw out because they were nearly past their due-date - so he asked if he could take some of those too. A lady reminded him that he'd only have a day or two to eat them, but I honestly think he's going to try to get through them all tonight.

Now I'm sitting at my desk, trying to concentrate, but really I'm just inhaling tortilla-scented air and wondering what to do with them when I get home. Before today I don't think I could have told you what tortillas smell like, even though I've had them several times. There are chocolates for sale at the desk next to me and I don't even care...

WA: no surprises that the Nationals picked the Liberals to form government. The Libs have done nothing for them for years, but all the rusted on supporters would scream if the long-standing arrangements were changed to bring them into the 21st century.

Now they'll be trying to get uranium mining and genetically-modified crops happening. And probably even more taxpayer handouts to mining companies who don't need the extra cash anyway. Stuff infrastructure, let's just dig stuff up and sell it.

Federal: now that Costello has ruled himself out of the top job, and Turnbull has beaten Nelson, the Libs can actually get on with some real policies or something. Nelson deserved more support than he got, but damn he was useless. Costello is as weak as he's always been. I can't believe they don't tell him to bugger off and give his seat to someone else if he's so bored with representing his electorate.

Turnbull should be interesting: he's a moderate, so the extreme right-wingers in the party backrooms won't like him; but I think the public might like him better for it. I had a bunch of stuff written about him, but have just seen that Pavlov's Cat has said what I think, only more concisely.

International: have been obsessively following the train-wreck that is McCain's campaign in the US, and learning about the New Zealand election. I had no idea that the NZ parliament has about 8 parties represented at the moment, with a minority government. They can build a majority in a bunch of different ways, and tend to do it on a case-by-case basis for each bill.

This weekend was a bit of a fizzer.

+ Photoshoot with Aiden and her pregnant belly. Good fun and got a couple of lovely pics.

- Didn't get to go to the movies with her because she has an assignment due.

- Laptop USB ports are dead. This means I can't: get photos off camera card; sync my phone; sync my iPod; process earlier photos which are on my external drive.

+ Saw my family for Dad's birthday, Mum's birthday and Adam's first birthday.

- My family can be very tiring sometimes.

- Didn't do my last run for Week 5. I lost momentum last week, because work was so stressful. But have started Week 5 again, to get my mojo back. This morning's run was good.

The week ahead should be good, not least because I've got the day off on Friday and will be going to Margaret River for a short break.

Oh man, we're changing the structure of our topic pages, across the entire project. New operation, new layout, which then means new graphics. Shit. I do not need this extra work.

On the plus side, I think it's a good change. It's more like what I would have preferred from the start. So I'm happy to do it, I just think I'm going to run out of time for doing all the other stuff I have to do. But the boss is going to try to get someone to take that other stuff on, so hopefully we'll be ok. Hopefully.

In other news: I did 2 x 8min runs this morning, and felt ok about it. And I got access to the blog for G Magazine, and it all looks pretty good. Should be going live next week...

Well, that was an interesting election. Looks like people didn't want either Labor or Liberal, so the minor parties ended up getting all the extra votes. Seems like Greens got a lot of votes from both sides of the political spectrum - normally all their preferences go to Labor, but this time a lot of them went to the Libs instead. I'm glad to see more people voting Green :)

Unfortunately, this means the Nationals have balance of power, and generally they're happy to go with whoever gives them the most pork-barrelling bonuses. So probably now we'll see lots of concessions to mining companies in the north, etc.

In non-political news, I spent a bit of time taking photos on the weekend. Have got one I'm super-happy about, one I like a lot but think can be improved, and a new idea for the series.

I'm still doing my running: am up to Week 5 now and coped well with Day 1, but Day 2 looks pretty scary...

want to post, but too busy. mostly life is good, except for the usual annoyances, like not having time to post properly :)

I saw a preview screening of Wall-E yesterday. It was awesome! I loved it. Not my favourite Pixar though, I think The Incredibles and Ratatouille still outrank it, but better than Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc.

I especially liked all the 2001 references. The two music cues were best, not just throwaway jokes but actually linking the same concepts.

Dave wants one of the ultimate Wall-E toys - it's a fully remote-controlled robot. I'm not that keen, but it's so rare that he wants a new toy I don't really have a problem with it.

Other than that, I've been catching up on US politics. Watched all of Obama's acceptance speech on YouTube, and am still wondering WTF McCain was thinking by picking Palin as his VP. It's obviously a ploy to get the evangelicals out to vote instead of staying home, but seriously, the woman has no clue about national interests, let alone international issues. I can't believe she compared herself to Hillary Clinton, what a yogurt.

Am looking forward to the weekend. Will be doing some writing and knitting tonight, maybe getting some new low-flow showerheads and taps tomorrow, and seeing a preview screening of Wall-E on Sunday. Should be fun.

Cannot get excited about the State election at all. I'll be voting for the Greens rather than the wannabes in either of the major parties. Is it just me, or is state politics around Australia becoming a dumping ground for those who couldn't make it at a federal level? Or a jumping off point for the good ones? Seems like anyone showing promise (eg ALP's Louise Pratt) gets shifted to the federal group before they have time to make an impact at state level.

Dave's parents are down from Gerro today. They're staying with us tonight, then off to visit my sister-in-law, then back with us for a few days next week.

I've been barrelling through my work and errands lately, it feels good. And got the hang of Week 3 on the Couch to 5k (had previously been going too hard on one interval). And last night Dave tidied the house for his parents, so it looks really nice now. And the book I was reading but not enjoying got better. So everything is going well :)

Am testing out Readernaut. It's still in the beta stage, but seems pretty good. Anyone want to join me there?

One of my favourite design/development studios, 37signals, links to a designer's attempt to fix the electoral ballots in the USA: How Design Can Save Democracy. I thought it was interesting. Australian ballot papers are much simpler than the US ones, but damn they're ugly - I wouldn't mind if they got a face-lift.

In other news: Dave made an awesome Mauritian Duck Curry last night. Our butcher has frozen whole ducks available!

Wow, that was a full-on weekend!

Friday night: dinner at Belgian Beer Cafe with Dave and Simon, his friend who worked at Pixar for a while. He told us a bit about Ratatouille and Wall-E, and was generally very charming and fun. Hoping to meet his wife soon, but they're here in Perth because her dad isn't well, so it might be a while before that happens.

Saturday: did W3D3 of Couch to 5K; Enjo demo at Mum's place.

Saturday night: ate Indian takeaway and played Cluedo with Mum and my sisters, to celebrate Toni's birthday. Had a great time.

Sunday: decided to go all out for the Ravelympics, but failed. Ripped back half the back to fix the increases I'd done wrong - it worked beautifully. But then I mucked up a 3-needle bind-off and while trying to fix it managed to drop stitches and make a mess of things. Chucked a tantrum, then decided that my sanity was worth more than a gold medal and put it down :) Will finish it this week though.

Sunday night: saw Tropic Thunder with Adam and Ant. Had a good laugh. It's like an American take on what Simon Pegg does with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, only with action movies. The satire isn't Orwellian or anything (Hollywood is a pretty soft target), but it was fun and a little bit surreal. Downey Jr is hilarious, as is Jack Black, bit parts were all great too.

But: is there some definition of 'raunchy' that I'm not aware of? Several reviewers called it a raunchy comedy, but I think of that as being sexy in a funny, crude kind of way. Tropic Thunder had nothing to do with sex, no women (totally fails the Bechdel test), and one or two jokes about gayness.

Have also heard a lot about it 'not being politically correct', which was a bit puzzling too - it doesn't make fun of black people, or people with mental disabilities, but it does make fun of how pretentious Hollywood is when dealing with those subjects. Tom Hanks, Sean Penn, etc are the targets.

Deadline: probably going to be ok.

Desperate PR/Marketing people trying to get me to link to their websites even after I've said no: as annoying as the whine of a mosquito in your ear. Fuck off and die. No-one wants your greenwash. If you have a good site, you don't have to beg for links. Or offer cash.

Spam-blockers that keep disconnecting: also annoying.

Knitting: not happening last couple of days. Have been bringing work home.

AC/DC fans making their own bootleg version of a new AC/DC song because they were unable to make a bootleg recording during filming: full of win! It's hilariously bad quality, but the love that went into it is awesome. Sounds just like you'd expect an Acker Dacker song to sound :)

I work with wonderful people. Sometimes our clients are freaky weirdos with no idea about the internet. Sometimes upper management is completely oblivious to what goes on. But damn, the other production staff here are so helpful, and knowledgeable, and right now a couple of them are saving my arse.

I'm going to make them a cake as soon as this deadline is passed.

I had a lovely weekend, which is good because I'm pretty sure this week is going to be crap. Our 40% completion deadline is in 2 days, and we've still only got <20% content. Fucking TAFE writers. I think they think we just press a button and their poorly-formatted Word document just wriggles into an interactive, validated, accessible website, with graphics and metadata and everything.

Ok, deep breath.
Now: my lovely weekend:

1. Got a *lot* of knitting done. Happy with this.
2. Went to the Mt Claremont farmers markets again. Ate until we were full, bought vegies and flowers, patted random dogs.
3. Dave started our new giant vegie bed, I took photos of him doing it.
4. Completed Week 2 of Couch to 5K with a run in the park on Saturday evening - kids with footies, dogs with owners, us with our ragged breathing, twilight falling - very nice.
5. Brunch with Aiden, caught up on all the gossip.
6. Dave tried new recipes: brussels sprouts, bacon and orzo; and a 'Spanish'-ish omelette.
7. Funny flag incidents during the Olympics.

Also started Week 3 of the Couch to 5K this morning - am much better with my breathing now, and although I was completely knackered at the end, I didn't actually have trouble completing it. Am also recovering faster!

I've never tried to put a YouTube video in here before, so we'll see how this goes:



Will Smith tells kids that running and reading are the keys to success :)