Tuesday 26 February 2008

Freeky

Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-03/ff_free

Very interesting ...

The Best Cure for Hiccups: Remind Your Brain You're Not a Fish | Wired Science from Wired.com
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/02/evolution-expla.html

Only In America

Only in America would a photo of a political candidate in traditional dress be considered a slur.  It can backfire both ways.

Aca-demi Awards

It's the one awards show that I watch - I'm entitled to have some weaknesses.  Which idiot at Channel 9 thought it would be wise to preview the late news with a snippet of Daniel Day Lewis accepting his Oscar an hour before they screened it.  I hope that f**ker got fired.

Monday 25 February 2008

The Next Step

Up until 25 February - Skipping back and forth across town makes Sax an interesting boy but it also makes it harder for him to find the time and energy to devote to his blogging duties - surviving on the confidential side as is my wont and trying to focus on the alternatives - discovered some new beauties in the local drinking scene - I'll never have to even consider the CockNBull as a viable place for sustenance again - and, if I play my cards right, I may be able to avoid the dread of the Junction altogether.  As I'm still awaiting the crucial bits and pieces to put the new velocipede together (Puck?  a gentlemanly name as any) I'm still having to maintain the old girls - Bontrager's are no better than any of the alternative tyres I've experimented with and when they holed up at the last minute on the way home I felt drastic things were required.  After all, the two snazzy new Maxxis Detanators were just taking up space so I felt they could find a new home on the girl - unfortunately, with a brake in the way it just wasn't going to work so there was only one thing for it and off it went.  Not the tyre.  Have barely touched the lever for quite some time but there's still a feeling of nerves when you're cruising along with one level of protection removed.  It does feel kind of cool though - and it looks very slick. 
Did an early morning Saturday commuter recon by kayaking into Darling Harbour - another potentially hair brained scheme (but what a scheme!) with some very large boats with very bad steering and stopping power - an interesting alternative for transport but one that the lone ranger seemed determined to thwart with moans about the dangers and the legalities of actually being allowed to get anywhere near my work place via water.  I've heard some dissenting views on this so I won't be giving up on this one just yet.  Obnoxiousness and alcohol made for an interesting weekend - saw some good films and saw some very good films (I think) but got a little bored near the end.  Got to stay on top of things.

Friday 22 February 2008

The Lloyd Spake

19 to 21 February - Confidential place is still going but I was saved from the insanity by the quick diversion of the real job - the logistics of my personal life is far more stressful than anything any corporation could throw my way.  Didn't see a lot of the fillums I potentially could have seen during the week (or alternatively, didn't see one of the films I could have seen on several occasions) but was surprisingly pleasantly surprised with the quality of a television show that managed to find its way into my consciousness - Underbelly is really good - I've always been quite fascinated with Carl Williams - how could such a pudgy harmless bloke be such a sinister crook?  But apparently he was, and I'm sure I'll find out more. 

Thursday 21 February 2008

Back To The Future

21 December was the first time I've done a real job since Berlin's semi professional stint.  Needed to do a cross town drop to the ASX so jumped on the fixie, smoked a few reds and split up George and right into the maw of Australia's premier stock trading institution.  I miss the class.

The eBook saga ...

http://blogs.smh.com.au/gadgetsonthego/archives/2008/02/ebook_fact_or_fiction.html

Tuesday 19 February 2008

Lost, lost, lost ...

18 February and before - The dramas are still belittling me with a second slideout, possibly reported, which may or may not have contributed to the eventual shutting down of the hard drive, a calamity of data loss which has not been experienced for quite some time - spent far too much time on the phone and in and out of repair centres, seeking the advice of the supposedly technical people around me and all to little avail.  Eventually got a recovery solution which brought back everything from 2 February (has it really been that long?) - everything except the one little file that we've had almost constant continuity with for over four (???) years.  What to do?  What to do?
Had a decent bike race on the week's end - the end of a tournament so wasn't really eligible for taking out the big prize but had really thought that with the right level of preparation and my current balance of luck it was going to be mine.  But it wasn't.  Good barbecue, good invitation (with no venue) and a half decent move followed by a bunch of other f**king dramas have led me to wonder what it's all about.  Again.

Thursday 14 February 2008

The Hipster Doofus

11 - 14 February - After the glories of the week's end fate decided to catch up with me in the form of an Audi (or was it a Saab) who's blind spot I managed to find myself in.  How one can be in the blind spot when one hits the front bumper I'm not exactly sure but enough damage caused to cause reasonable upset; not a huge amount of damage to my own self although this was difficult to judge as I was still recovering from the strains of Sunday's ocean voyages.  A subsequent slide out once I got back on Chevette also didn't help and for the first time in a long time I found myself nursing a series of bruises and injuries.  The automobile savaging made me think it was probably not the best idea to participate in a late notice alley cat and I was very surprised to find almost half the field was taken up by a vast collection of hipsters (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipster_%28contemporary_subculture%29), where the hell did they come from?  I've seen them around in various quantities and forms but man, that's a lot of pimped out fixies.  I don't know if I approve (and I really don't think Mr Small But Doughty approves either).  Found myself in a time warp or a space shift or some other dimensional travelling.  Am getting a vision of what the new bicycle may look like once constructed which is good but I'm hoping the Monday's outing will not prove to be an acceleration of the end of the trusty lady who has been my steed for so long.  On the subject of things breaking - the Macbook isn't faring too well with the rolling beach ball of death devolving to the even more sinister question mark folder of death.  What am I going to do?

Tuesday 12 February 2008

Coogee's Night of Nights

http://picasaweb.google.com/saxifrage2020/Stinkwater242008

Sydney!!!

F**king Sydney!  The front of your car is not a blind spot!

Second Is Better Than First

8 February - 10 February - A rather epic weekend when all was said and done - there was far too much stress and drama involved in and on the periphery of the Stinkwater 24! competition - although it must be said, it was predicted.  Perhaps I just need a muse.  After a liquid fuelled and failed brainstorm on Friday we recovered with a caffeine and B&E fuelled substorm - the Evil Melon crew were none too confident of what we were going to film but we decided the important thing was to have a narrative and where better to find inspiration for a narrative than from Grimm's Fairy Tales, the Three Clever Brothers seemed an apt tale considering there were three young chaps in the crew - production expense of putting these fine stories to film is quite high (it almost broke Terry Gilliam but then again, most of his films tend to do that) - so we had to compromise in several areas - notably the clever part and also one of the brothers (considering that one of our crew had to run away at a crucial part of filming to look for a house).  Rubbish weather didn't help the shoot and the rain threatened to shut down our trusty camera but by 1pm we had enough footage to start the editing process - little luck with the attaining of a suitable narrative force so I was forced to lend my dulcet tones - mucked around with some special effects and after much stress managed to cobble together something resembling a film.  And, as luck would have it, by the time I'd finished the editing there was a textual solution to my sextual problem - this proved to be an opportune time as it allowed for an ocean stroll around the harbour in my recently acquired floating chariot which should prove to be an excellent alternative to the dangers of riding the Sydney streets (more on that later).  Suitably fortified myself with beer (and tried to cough out the evils of the previous day) in order to brace for the impact of seeing my (our!) creation on a big screen - once I got confirmation that we were through the first cull I was at least relaxed enough to enjoy the night - met a judge, offered a bribe, found ourselves placing musical chairs an age before the curtain was drawn and then sat through a serious sometimes painfully bad, sometimes even more painfully good shorts - a fair few of well prepared, well equipped projects, was initially a bit overwhelmed by the hearty cheers that erupted before some of the starts as it indicated crews of film students of a sizeable number but was heartened when "A Bike With One Gear" found itself up on screen - only a small huzzah but from the first visual gag we at least got a couple of laughs and that was all I could really hope for.  But I probably should have hoped for more because it was delivered with a smashing second place that beat all of the slick productions (I like to think we produced something more in line with the spirit of the festival???) and even pipped the in depth documentary about toast which would have won had the filmmaker been lucky enough to interview me (there are not many who appreciate the assorted niceties of toasted bread and not many who could share my appetite I'll bet you) but it was a time to celebrate.  And celebrate we did, although some of us could have potentially taken it slightly easier as future pictures may suggest.

Saturday 9 February 2008

How to Create a Good Narrative Short Film - wikiHow

How to Create a Good Narrative Short Film - wikiHow
Is it this easy?

Perils of Creativity

4 - 8 February - It's good that there's a home away from home when you're investing in the sharing residence karma pool although it does make it difficult to keep the phone charged and the tyres pumped (but on that front, some alternative forms of transport are under way) - picked up one of these modes from the aunt and uncle's rather impressive squat on the north side - it's not everyone who's minding a house with it's own Seidler designed kitchen and personal jungle - found myself eating something which I'd managed to avoid for a surprising amount of time (and next time will be even longer I'm hoping) - closer to victory in squash than i've reached in many years - Stinkwater 24! is far more trouble than it's worth.

Monday 4 February 2008

Next Time It's Mine

31 January - 4 February - Ah, dear me, perhaps it's the rain but seem to be having trouble keeping up to date - had one of the most authentic Chinese restaurant at home meals I can remember (if not exactly altogether authentic Chinese meals) which devolved to silliness and far too fast drunken ridings home but no crashes to report (at least on the Friday night) - the Cat de Shiftoire held on Saturday afternoon in rather decent conditions proved to be too sketchy for some.  One again, I found myself coming in near the middle, made two major mistakes which were mostly due to my lack of recent experience on the streets (I totally blanked on Quay St and Chalmers St - both of which I spent a fair amount of my time on) - I've got to find the eye of the tiger and take one of these things out for a change.  That jersey is not going to fall into my lap.  In any event, Chevette handled herself beautifully in the race - combination of new chain ring and relatively recent wheels and saddle make her nothing less than a joy to ride.  And relatively clear lungs should be pushing me up a couple of positions at a minimum.  Lust Caution is a good film (http://www.avclub.com/content/cinema/lust_caution); Bruce Almighty is not such a good film - Steve Carrell's rubbery face is relatively amusing but not enough to warrant a sequel I'll wager and Jim Carrey should stop whoring himself out to the highest bidder - one just has to suppose that he wants to have some films that he can show his kids (does he even have any?). 
Had a Bite Me burger on Sunday's afternoon - all composed of high quality expensive ingredients but without the holistic burger vision that another burger joint possesses - council pickup day in Woollahra proved to be somewhat beneficial - old school portable fax machine and abba-dabba workout tool were notable scores.  And the household is slightly more energy efficient after the Polish plumber (see electrician) did his business.  Got to keep some things under better wraps when strangers call.

5-Year Old Techs?

http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/03/5-year-olds-repair-olpc-laptops-at-nigerian-hospital/
I just love the last line of this article ... "and making everyone generally want to hug."