Monday, December 30, 2002
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Tonight's episode of The Amazing Race (the Singapore one) brought back a lot of fond memories of our trip there in 2001. Check it out. We were at both the Fountain of Wealth and the Zoo! We didn't swim with the manatees though. (At one point tonight I actually said out loud, "God, I hope a sea cow bites Teri on the ass.") RIP Jill and John Vito.
Belated Friday Five:
1. What was your biggest accomplishment this year?
Probably the improvement in my health. I dropped thirty pounds and started running and lifting weights. I'm really proud of doing the Nike Women's Classic 5K Run back in June, and I'm looking forward to improving my time on it again this coming year.
2. What was your biggest disappointment?
Not getting to go home to see my family and friends. Everybody's moving on and doing new things (new babies, new families, new jobs) but I feel like I'm missing it. I'm optimistic about a summer visit though. I've got a job and I'm earning money, and the Snook and I have made plans to budget and save. It'll be good.
3. Will you be making any New Year's resolutions?
Doesn't everybody? I do, but not in any sort of formal "write it down and stick to it" kind of way. I'd like to drop about twenty more pounds and get down to my target dress size. I'd also like to run a ten minute mile. I also plan to finally get all my financial stuff in order (taxes, student loans, etc.). Not the loftiest of goals, but hopefully achievable.
4. Where will you be at midnight? Do you wish you could be somewhere else?
I'll be partying with a group of our friends in Sydney. (We're actually not going to be far from the Bridge, so think of us when you see it all lit up with fireworks on TV.) I don't think there's anywhere I'd rather be. Christmas made me miss my family, but we've never had any special New Year's traditions. I'm looking forward to ringing in my third new year with the Snook.
5. Aside from (possibly) staying up late, do you have any other New Year's traditions?
Nope. We're really boring like that.
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 Blog Meetup! Yesterday the Snook and I headed into Manly (a northern beach suburb) to meet up with Kristen and her fiancé Mark. It was a beautiful day to explore a new part of Sydney. (Note to future travelers: "Manly" is a misleading name. Most of the guys I saw were less "beefcake" and more "paunchy hairy middle-aged guys in Speedos".) After walking the beach, we eventually found Kristen and Mark and headed off for some beer and food. We girls had a great time gossiping about our fellow bloggers (just kidding!), while the guys commiserated on being the lesser known partners of such fabulous blogging divas. Five hours and many drinks later, the Snook and I staggered off to catch our ferry home. It was a lot of fun.
Sunday, December 29, 2002
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The Snook and I just ordered tickets to the third day of the last Ashes test at the SCG next week. (Translation for Yanks: We're going to watch the Australian cricket players kick some more English ass.) Here's the cool part: Ticketek have introduced new "ezyTickets" that you print out on your computer. No more waiting to pick up at the box office! They get sent to you as PDFs and you print them out. They're bar-coded and they've even got folding instructions so they'll go through the regular turnstile scanners. How cool is that? See, this is the kinda stuff the Internet should be used for. It feels very tomorrow.
E-mail is working again. Grrr. It was related to the domain changes I made. Apparently I needed to redesignate the "catch-all" account for my site, but they never mentioned this anywhere in the instructions. So it's fixed.
Saturday, December 28, 2002
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I was reading this little article about the Queen's Christmas message (which we caught on TV here) when I got to the last paragraph and my jaw dropped. They killed off Jamie Mitchell on Eastenders? He was my favorite! What, did he get too popular and want to move on to other things? How did poor Sonia take it? I've been away from the show for far too long.
Friday, December 27, 2002
I've just discovered that e-mails to my w-g address are currently not going through. I'm changing some domain stuff, so hopefully that's the source of the problem and it'll be resolved soon. If you need to contact me in the meantime, there's an alternate address here.
The diary of Samuel Pepys as a weblog. Neat! I studied Pepys in a class on 17th century literature. It was much better than I expected. Restoration England was a bawdy and exciting place. I especially like the footnotes that accompany this version. To answer John's question, I think this is genius.
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Wow. I would love to have the entire text of "Romeo and Juliet" as a poster. What a cool idea. I wonder if it's very hard to read though? (Link courtesy of Steve.)
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Holy crap. Moire has alerted me to an old Hoosier tradition that dictates than if a younger sister gets married before an older one, the older has to dance in a pig trough at the younger's wedding reception. I'm not kidding. Apparently they even made special stockings for the older sister to wear. Good grief.
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LOTR: The Two Towers was good. Very good. I had read a lot of reviews beforehand and was expecting to be put off by some stuff (bad blue-screening, inappropriate dwarf humor, etc.), but honestly, none of that bothered me at all. Gimli's orc-killing contest with Legolas was one of my favorite parts of the book, and I would've missed it if they'd left it out. The Ents weren't anything like I'd imagined, but I still thought they looked good. (The Snook thinks they would've been cooler as stop-motion animation, but he was still a fan.) Even frickin' Liv Tyler didn't bother me so much. (Although, what was that business about her and Aragorn, like, breaking up before he left? And why didn't we get to see her knitting the stupid flag, since that's all she does in the damn book? Okay, I guess she did bother me a little.) All in all, I liked: all the ass-kicking, everything Legolas did, the Ents, and Gollum. I didn't like: Aragorn's nasty hair. Couldn't the king of men take a shower every now and then? (Falling off a cliff into a river doesn't count.) I'm sure Eowyn could lend him some conditioner. (That said, I wouldn't say no to some Aragorn/Legolas slash fiction, if you know what I mean, and I think you do.)
Oh, and did anyone else decide that Smeagol was not, in fact, a hobbit, but a house elf? He looked disturbingly like Dobby.
Thanks to Stefanie for sending along this interview with Hermey Elfin, "Santa's CIO". Very amusing. I guess being a dentist doesn't pay very well these days. :)
Wednesday, December 25, 2002
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 Happy Christmas!
In case you couldn't tell, the Snook and I aren't doing anything special this year. No travelling, no decorations, and no gift exchanging. (We did buy ourselves an air conditioner though, which has already been much appreciated.) Mostly we're just enjoying having two weeks home together. I've been doing lots of crafting (I'm sure you're surprised), and he's been brewing and tinkering with his computer. It's nice. We've also been indulging in our new mutual addiction to The Amazing Race. (We had three new episodes in 24 hours! God, I want to smack Flo.) Tomorrow is Lord of the Rings day, and we've already got our tickets for the first 9:30 a.m. show. I'm also hoping to get in some time at the beach this week, if the sky ever clears up. (It's been warm but cloudy.) Oh! And rumor has it Kristen's arrived Down Under, so I'm hoping to meet up with her when she hits Sydney.
See? Lots to do. I'm a little sad about not having a traditional Christmas, but I think that's just something I'm going to have to get used to while I'm here. I forced myself to get up at 3:30 last night and call home to catch everybody having dinner at my Mom's. It was pretty cool to hear the crowd noise and be passed around to all my relatives on the phone, but it's also nice to just step back from all that every once in a while, you know?
Oh, and unlike every other (lazy ass!) blogger in the known world, I will not be taking time off for the holidays. That is my gift to you, my friends. (Not that I'll have much to discuss beyond craft projects and TV shows, but you never know...)
Curious how we celebrate Christmas Down Under? Wonder no more.
Jakob has published his list of the Top Ten Web-Design Mistakes of 2002. Forget web design; how about English? Since when is "web design" hyphentated? Tsk tsk, Jakob.
Tuesday, December 24, 2002
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How much time have you wasted? As web-goddess is coming up on her second birthday, I thought it might be fun to look back and recognize all the folks that contribute here at the site. With a little database help from the Snook, I've managed to put together a table of everyone that's made over ten comments for the two years the site's been running. I bet you're wondering who the most prolific commenter was, right? It was me, of course! (But then, as a hostess I'm expected to participate in all the discussions.) In the #2 spot was Brigita, who had nearly double that of Moire. (Although, in fairness, Brigita has pretty much been here since the beginning, while I've only known Moire for the last year or so. It might be fun to compare their posting frequency, but that's too complicated even for me.)
Want to see where you fall on the list? Read on! [more...]
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Ooh, I didn't realize the Indiana quarters had been released! What a crappy design. A friggin' race car? That's our one symbol of state pride? I would've at least put some corn or Amish people on it.
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My sister sent me an e-mail to say thanks for the Gryffindor scarf. It's the funniest thing ever. An excerpt:I F***ING LOVE THE SCARF! It is the gorgeous fruit of your labors. It is the manifestation of all that is good about crafts. It is a work of art. I can't even tell you how much I just KNOW others covet it. They must. I wore it shopping all day yesterday at the mall, and though it was hot as hell and I got all sweaty, I caught smiling glances of recognition from many a potter-loving geek, mom and child. (Jim here at work thought it was a USC scarf! I set his ass straight.) I now feel I must strive to
live up to Gryffindor standards when I wear TS. I must be honorable and true - and brave and loyal. I am a Gryffindor. I rock. How great is that? I hope the others I'm making are so appreciated!
Monday, December 23, 2002
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 "Ehhh, monkey!"
Yeah, it's yet another craft. For some reason the other day I decided I wanted to make the Snook a sock monkey. It was a really quick project and I finished it in just a couple hours. I found the original instructions, but I ended up using this page more. As you can see, it turned out all wonky. (His arms, for example, are clearly not lined up.) The Snook likes it though, and he's named him "Johnny Vegas" (after the comedian that did the On Digital ads with the sock monkey in the UK).
Sunday, December 22, 2002
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 I am so going to Hell. The big thing on the Glitter discussion boards lately has been album cover purses. Basically you buy an old record album, cut up the sleeve, and fashion a bag out of it. I've been keeping my eyes open for suitable albums ever since. Friday I hit the jackpot. It's the Carpenters' "Now and Then" album. Saturday I collected all the other supplies and today I made my bag. Is it morbid to carry a fashion accessory emblazoned with the picture of pop music's most celebrated anorexic? Yeah, that's what I thought. Read on to see more pics and read how I did it. [more...]
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 Photo Roundup: Is this adorable? It's my sister Amy and little brother Joey, both wearing the Christmas gifts I knitted them this year. (Yeah, that's the Gryffindor scarf.) Joey's even playing with one of the chickens I made him! Isn't he a sweetie?
Here are a couple other random photos I've been meaning to post...
The first is my new Venus Fly Trap, which I bought at the hardware store last week. Isn't he cute? I've put him on top of the worm farm, thinking he might feast on some of the gnats that hang around there. Second is the Snook's latest brewing invention, a "heat exchange". As I understand it, the biggest problem for Australian brewers is chilling the stuff quickly enough after you've brewed it. He came up with this system, which involves a coil of copper pipe with plastic tubing on either end. The coil goes down in the big pot of brew, and one end of the hose is hooked on the cold water tap. The other end runs into a bucket. Turn it on, and voila! Heat exchange. It worked really well. (And don't worry, fellow Greenies, I made him save the water to use in the garden.)
 
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SWEEEET. Bob Dylan and Ani Difranco are playing Sydney together in February! I am so there.
Saturday, December 21, 2002
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DAMMIT. I stumbled out of bed this morning and fired up OmniWeb to check the site. My home page is My Yahoo. What's the first thing I see? Who won friggin' Survivor. It's twelve hours to the damn episode and now it's ruined. I don't know why I even bother.
Festive CouchCam! Wow, with one string of lights I decorated both my house and my weblog! That's what I call efficiency.
Later: Apologies. Unbeknownst to me, the Snook turned them off when we went to bed, and during the day the light from the window is too bright to see them. Rest assured, you'll see them tonight.
Friday, December 20, 2002
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Holy crap. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you every sketch from The State (MTV's brilliant but lamentably cancelled sketch show from the 90's). Now the Snook will finally get my references to eating Muppets and sitting in $240 worth of pudding. Awwww yeeaaaahhhhh...
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Modern men prefer skinny women. Oh, WHAT. EVER. If that's the case, you all suck. I'm just glad I found one of the few men who evidently still likes his woman womanly.
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Secret confession: Not only have I been watching Scrubs... I have a total crush on John McGinley. Yeah, he played Bob Slydell in Office Space (the Micheal Bolton fan). I can't help it! He's really, like, muscular and funny and stuff! And he's constantly ripping on the main character, who I find annoying and odd-looking. Yes, I am a John McGinley fan.
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I've had an e-mail enquiry about when we're going to begin the next book discussion. We're supposed to be reading Paul Auster's Moon Palace. It's a short book, but I figured people would probably take a long time because of the holidays. So what's the status? Could all you Book Clubbers (and aspiring Book Clubbers) take a second to comment and say if A) you've read it and you're ready to discuss, B) you haven't read it but you want to so could we please postpone just a little bit longer?, or C) you're going to take a pass on this one. (I really do recommend the book though. It's one of my favorites.)
Thursday, December 19, 2002
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Hmm. Ebert was less than 100% enthusiastic about The Two Towers. So now I'm in the awkward position of being let down, either by the movie or my favorite critic. What a dilemma.
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Ha! Y'all make fun of my knitting, but today I scored big time with it! I was sitting out at the company picnic table on my lunchbreak working on Moire's Gryffindor scarf when a guy from the office came out for a smoke. He asked me about the scarf and we struck up a conversation. It turns out that he lives about two blocks from me! Not wanting to waste this opportunity, I immediately hit him up for a ride into work. He says "sure" and a carpool is born! That lift home today seriously cut an hour off my commute. Viva la knitting!
Magic Eye + origami = cool. (I'm just bragging because I can see them. Can you?)
Wednesday, December 18, 2002
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Speaking of reality TV - Jeez! I'm just stream-of-consciousness girl here tonight - the Snook and I are now addicted to The Amazing Race. We laughed our asses off when all those teams put unleaded gas in the diesel vans the other night. I'm rooting for both of the brother teams (hot twins and chubby baldies). I like John Vito and Jill too. And how happy was I that Aaron and Arianne are gone? She was the mayor of Whineyville.
Actually, there's an upside to the whole no-Internet thing. Tomorrow night is the penultimate Survivor, and the finale is airing on Saturday. I figured there was no way I'd remain spoiler-free for two days. But with no Internet, there's no worry! So there's a silver lining there. (Don't any of you dare think of spoiling it in a comment here! I'll ban you for life!)
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The one drawback of my new job is the draconian lock they have on our Internet usage. Five minutes after I sat down at my desk, I tried to hit web-goddess to show it to my office mate. Instead I got a big "Warning! You're trying to access a non-work site! We're watching you!" message. I was like, "Huh? You mean I've got to go eight hours without checking my e-mail or reading the news?" As Snookums put it later that night, "A whole day of just work? I'd go mad." What's worse is that for my job, I need to research quite a random group of sites. For instance, today I needed some pictures of boats for a project. An hour later, my boss came by to ask why I'd been surfing the Navy's website. That's how closely they're watching us. It's spooky. So no workday surfing or posting for me, sadly. :(
Tuesday, December 17, 2002
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First day of work! Here we go...
Eight hours later: It was good. Another girl (a graphic designer) was starting too, so I made a friend right off the bat. Then we discovered that we're both sharing the same makeshift office (a meeting room) until the whole company moves over Christmas. We went through the usual induction type stuff, and then the rest of the day was spent getting our brand new PCs ready and figuring out what we're going to be working on. My tasks at the moment? Write a choose-your-own-adventure story and create some printable board games. How cool is that! I'm so glad to be moving back into the creative stuff and away from programming.
Though I'm reliant on public transport, the commute isn't terrible. I made it home in one hour tonight, but that was with a lift from the office to the train station. On normal days I'll probably have to tack a 20 minute walk onto there. (I could bus it, but I figure the exercise will do me good.) Actually I only have to do that for a week, and then once we move into the new building I'll have a new route. Again, probably looking at an hour or so. Strangely I don't mind it as much as I did in London. There's just something about riding over the Sydney Harbour Bridge that lifts the spirits, you know? (Plus I plan to utilize the time productively, i.e. knitting.)
The biggest shock of the day? The receptionist who let me in this morning is a chick from Ohio! We had some Midwestern bonding. It's so neat to finally meet some people that aren't just friends of the Snook's.
Monday, December 16, 2002
This excellent weblog has just sucked, like, two hours of my life away. But it was worth it. I now have a burning desire to accumulate lots of obscure German designer board games. :)
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I braved the hordes at the post office today to send off the last of my Christmas cards and packages. There I discovered that a new law went into effect today: anyone sending packages over a certain size must provide ID and have it recorded. I'm all for preventing terrorism and stuff, but why introduce this ten days before Christmas? All it did was double the waiting time and hassle everybody from the customers to the clerks.
Sunday, December 15, 2002
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You know in Amelie, when she returns the box of childhood treasures to Dominic Bretodeau? I feel like him right now. Thanks to the internet, I managed to track down my favorite holiday song of all time: Snoopy vs. the Red Baron. (Actually there are several versions of it, all from the same album, but my favorite one is the one with the "Christmas bells, those Christmas bells..." chorus.) I don't think I've heard this song in twenty years. I can close my eyes and remember listening to it with my Dad on the stereo one early Christmas morning. It's nice.
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Some SMC chick (i.e. a girl from my university's sister school) has made it through to the second round of American Idol auditions. I got a laugh out of reading her comments. She literally mentions her religion in every. single. sentence. "God gave me a little place... When I sing it's like God gives me a whole new voice... It's like going to Church... My faith in myself is zero, but my faith in God is 100." Dude, I almost hope she does get on the show. I'm sure it can only be improved by the addition of a fervent (and crazy-sounding) Catholic.
I'm selling an autographed CD, if anyone's interested. It's Ben Lee's "Something Borrowed, Something Blue" EP.
Saturday, December 14, 2002
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New Poll: Do you send Christmas cards? I'm one of those people that always buys them in November and then somehow never gets around to actually sending them. I've got a whole stack in front of me waiting to be addressed. So yeah, I'm sending them this year, but they're never going to make it in time. *shrug* It's the thought that counts, right?
Jakob says in the future, we'll all be Harry Potter. Interesting.
I killed QuiltBlog. I've just been sorta burnt out with the quilting here lately, and I felt guilty whenever I looked at the stagnant page. So it's gone. Instead I've added a little list of recent craft projects, which you can access down on the right. You can also see the complete list of crafts and recipes I've done since I started the site. Wow, I've made a lot of stuff!
As expected, Australia pounded the Poms again in yesterday's one-day cricket match. For those of you interested in this sport (which I am rapidly becoming obsessed with), check out How to Explain the Rules of Cricket. It uses a pie-eating analogy. (Yes, it's a joke. But it actually still kinda works. I think my baseball-analogy would work better for Americans, though, if I ever get around to writing it.)
Since I've had a couple requests for it, here's my Amazon Wish List yet again. I've added a whole bunch of stuff. Sadly, I did not add a TiVo or a Segway.
Friday, December 13, 2002
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Bow down before the Queen of Putrescence! I just cleaned out the "worm buckets", which are two plastic buckets we keep under the sink for vegetable scraps. The theory is, once one is full, you start filling the second. By the time the second is full, the first has "broken down" (i.e. rotted) a little bit and you dump it on the worms. Then you start filling that bucket all over again. Unfortunately in reality I tend to forget about the buckets for weeks and weeks. Finally today I broke down and opened them up. It was - hands down - the nastiest sight I've ever seen in my life. One wasn't too bad, and I managed to hold my breath long enough to dump it in the worm farm. The other though... *shudder* Something we put in there bred slugs. That's all I'm going to say on the subject. Never ask me about it again. I took care of it. Now I'm going to go take forty-seven showers.
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Adriaan of chaotic intransient prose bursts (otherwise known as the guy who wrote Kung-Tunes) e-mailed me yesterday to ask about my Google referral page. I haven't formally released the code yet, but he was interested so I sent him what I had. Only a day later, he's managed to combine it with the LittleGreenFootballs script (code here) and he's got it running at his site. My version uses a database, but his just uses text files. He even includes Yahoo search requests as well as Google. Pretty neat!
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TiVo announced that they'll be adding new capabilities to the set-top box. They did not, however, announce any plans to sell them where I can friggin' purchase one. :(
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Those of you already upset over my newfound Martha Stewart-ness will be horrified to learn that I took another step in that direction today: I knitted on public transport. That's right, I sat down on the train and whipped out my needles and knitted all the way to Bankstown. I am not ashamed of my craftiness. :)
Thursday, December 12, 2002
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 More craftiness... I just shipped a package of homemade Christmas presents off to Mom today, including this bib I knitted for my baby brother. Yes, those are chickens embroidered on the front. (Apparently Mom collects them now, so I'm trying to indulge her.) It turned out a bit... longer than I envisioned, but the basic shape is there. Cute, huh? After I practice up on a few more scarves, I think I'll try my hand at a sweater.
Have Faith in Leather: Leather Pants as a Signifier of Evil on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That is so the type of paper I would've written in college. I'd also like to note that I have made a pledge to buy myself a pair of leather pants when I achieve my weight loss goal. And yes, I will be a bad ass in them. (Link courtesy of Nicci.)
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Star Wars Christmas Cards. Those are so sweet! I love Yoda as Santa. (Link courtesy of Matt.)
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You Mac users might be interested in knowing that Kung-Tunes has had some major updates. This is a little application that grabs song information from iTunes and uploads it to your website. It now handles (up to 50!) recent tracks and has loads of new options. If you scroll down the page, you can see where I've used it on the right under "listening". I definitely recommend it.
Aren't college students funny? I'm referring to the assclown from the University of Newcastle in the UK who thought he would be really clever and insert "punny" names onto my Trivia Master Board. Unfortunately for him I have to manually vet each name, so you won't find "I.P. Freely", "R. Sole", "Ivor Biggun", "Mya Butreaks", or "Roger Ring" on my list. I fear the youth of tomorrow.
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 Cutest. Craft. Ever. I've had this Funky Chicken Pincushion pattern bookmarked for ages, and last night I finally decided to give it a try. They're really easy to make. (The hardest part was getting the squares, uh, square.) I did them on the machine, but you could probably hand sew them too. I stuffed them with leftover quilt batting and sewed on buttons for eyes. Aren't they so friggin' cute? I have a ridiculous urge to make about fifty and sell them at the hippie market on the weekend. They'd make awesome Christmas presents.
Sidenote: I was just going to embroider the eyes until the Snook pointed out that there's a button shop just a couple blocks from our house. I'm like, "How can anyone run a business that only sells buttons?" Curiousity piqued, I scampered off to find it. Turns out it's called "All Buttons Great and Small", and it really does just sell buttons. There are big ones and little ones and shiny ones and ones shaped like farm animals. I loved it. I wanted to possess all the buttons. Am I turning into Martha Stewart or what?
UPDATE: The link to the original website with the pattern doesn't work, so I wrote up what I could remember from memory here. Please don't e-mail me saying you can't find it!
Wednesday, December 11, 2002
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Not only is the long-awaited "Best Of R.E.M." CD coming out next Fall, but the band will begin a world tour in 2003. Looks like you European bastards are first on the schedule. Hey Max, you wanna meet up in the U.S. and see them? :)
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Today's Flash Fun: You have to try this weird Japanese game called Roomania that the Snook found. I had no idea what the instructions say, but basically you're presented with scenes from a person's house and you have to click on these little tiny people hidden in the picture. There's a counter at the bottom that tells you how many you have left before the timer runs out. You can zoom in too. (Tip: play it with the sound on. The little guys yell at you if you mouseover them.) I've tried like ten times and I can't get past level three, while the Snook claims he finished it on his third try. Come on, one of you guys has to be able to beat him...
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I'm too happy to write in a clever way, so I'll just spell it out: I GOT A JOB! I had the interview this morning. (I didn't mention it for fear I'd jinx it.) I start next Tuesday! That's right, after 431 days I will finally be returning to the 9-5 grind. Seriously, you guys, this is a major boost to my self-esteem. Now the sun is shining and so am I. Go me. :)
Tuesday, December 10, 2002
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What's the title of the story? You know, the science-fiction story about the school kids in the future in the place where it always rains and then one day out of, like, every 50 years the sun comes out? And they lock a girl in the closet and she misses it? Well anyway, Sydney is like the reverse of that right now. I woke up in the middle of the night wondering what the strange noise was. It was rain. It's been drizzling all morning too. I can tell our flowers and plants are just soaking it up. It's so weird to see puddles in the road. It's odd to me that this weather condition - which was the frickin' norm in London - is now so foreign to me. Moral of the story? Don't take your rain for granted.
Monday, December 9, 2002
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And how was your year?
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Holy crap, Netdeciders! I just discovered that everyone's favorite ginger-haired gimp has a weblog! (Check out the e-mail address if you can't figure out his identity.) How did I miss that for so long?
Updated: Also check out this, this, and this. Maybe we should start a webring or something. :)
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Happy belated birthday to Mia!
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omphaloskepsis: contemplation of one's navel as an aid to meditation
That's my new favorite word. Wouldn't it make a great title for a weblog?
Recursive Portrait. Well, my mind is officially blown for the day. (Link courtesy of John.)
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Can you sniff out the Hoax Photos? I got 9 out of 10 on the first level, and 7 out of 10 on the second. I was a little confused at times, though, whether it was the image or the caption that I was supposed to be judging. I think it's just whether you think the image has been altered. (Link courtesy of Matt.)
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The Snook sent me a link to, like, the weirdest Flash movie ever. It's sort of a tribute to Mario Brothers. I liked the music, but the "potty break" bit is a little gross. (<nerd>I played Super Mario Bros. so much on the original NES that I could defeat the game without dying once.</nerd>)
Sunday, December 8, 2002
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Thursday we got the Survivor clip show, which - by my reckoning - means we're still one week behind the U.S. Right? Good grief, I'll never be able to avoid the final episode spoilers. I should just give in now.
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The new issue of Knitty is out! I am filled with knitting inspiration and excitement. Oh, and fear too. Check out this article about the Sweater Curse. Basically it states that if you knit anything for a man before you're married, you're certain to break up. I was laughing at it until the author mentioned how making a Dr. Who scarf for her boyfriend led to the demise of their relationship. *gulp*
Can you catch Michael Jackson's kids? I was doing pretty well until he started distracting me with crappy records and flinging babies every which way. (Link courtesy of Moire.)
Saturday, December 7, 2002
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Congratulations to my friend Martin, who left our old company Netdecisions today. I think he was just about the last of my friends still working there. Good luck with the new job, Martin!
The Snook and I are off today to Homebake, a big Australian music festival. Hopefully I'll have some good pictures for you afterwards.
Later: Well, that was fun! I didn't see any bands that made me shake my booty, but we heard a lot of new stuff and enjoyed being out in the sunshine. (Yes, Moms, we put on lots of sunscreen.) The festival was in the Domain, which is a park basically in the center of the city (as you can tell from the skyline in the photos below).
 
Friday, December 6, 2002
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 Speaking of knitting... It's done! Yes, that's me modeling my very first Harry Potter house scarf. (Don't worry, Sis; it'll be winging its way to you shortly.) It took me about two weeks to finish. It was knitted double-wide and then folded over and sewn (to avoid having a "wrong" side). That means it's double-thick and warm as hell. It also ended up a little bit longer than I intentioned... It's over six feet. (Though the ones in the film are clearly pretty long too.) Here I'm wearing it doubled over and tucked through the loop. Click here to see a larger version and another of me with it just tied.
Avid fans of CouchCam might have noticed that I recently started a second scarf. Here's the surprise: It's not intended for anyone yet! In other words, if you want one, I'll make you one. You'll have to cough up a little bit of cash though, and I can't guarantee I'll have it ready by Chrismtas (in fact, I definitely won't), but if you want it, just drop me a line. I may even do more than one if there's interest. (I can, of course, do colors for the other Hogwarts houses too.) [more...]
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Which is nerdier, that I'm A) entertained by a discussion of Fibonacci sequence knitting patterns or B) planning to knit a Dr. Who scarf for the Snook? I know, it's a toss-up.
Take the Snopes Christmas Quiz. I scored a measly 40%. I know jack about Christmas.
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Note to Self: Keep your eyes peeled for cheap thrift store silk ties to construct the ultimate 1994 Sassy-girl outfit.
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Thanks to Dave Barry's Holiday Gift Guide, I now know what I'm getting everyone on my list for Christmas. Let's see, there are some Catholics who'll love these inspirational "Jesus-playing-sports" statues. I'm sure Dad would love the shotgun shell Christmas tree lights. My sister will appreciate the instructional tennis shower curtain to help her brush up on her game. And of course, the Snook will love me forever when he sees his magnetic filing cabinet flames.
(I joke, but in truth I probably wouldn't mind getting a duct tape purse. Or hey! Maybe I could make one. Hmmm, new craft project...)
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Rodd and I have been working our way through the Angel Season 1 DVD. We just got to the episode where Doyle dies. The spooky part is, according to Kim Glenn Quinn, the actor who played him, died on Monday. Weird.
Thursday, December 5, 2002
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Well, the Snook is off for his company's Christmas party today - they went lawn-bowling at Bondi, if you can believe it - so I decided to take in a movie. I've been eagerly awaiting Possession, which is based on the novel by A.S. Byatt (which I just read a few months ago). I liked the book a lot, even though I felt like most of the poetry and literary analysis were over my head. (You can read my initial thoughts about it here.) The movie, on the other hand, sucked. I thought it completely dumbed down everything I liked about the novel. Numerous characters and sub-plots are cut in favor of making a straightforward romance. It also managed the neat trick of surgically removing all the hotness from Aaron Eckhart and Jeremy Northam. (Seriously, I'm going to have to go watch Emma right now just to replace the images of Northam I currently have in my head.) I also don't get why Eckhart's character was made American instead of English. It obviously wasn't a simple casting decision; they make reference to his origin several times in the script and tie his "impulsive" behavior (stealing manuscripts) to it. What the hell is the point of that? Were the filmmakers worried that American audiences wouldn't go to a film where all four principals speak with a British accent?
Overall I just thought the movie spelled things out that I felt should have been handled more subtly. Like the lesbian relationship between Christabel and Blanche, for instance. In the book we don't know the truth, because it's impossible for Maud and Roland to have known. But in the movie we have to see them clasping hands and giving each other numerous smoldering glances. I felt embarrassed for the characters. It felt like we were seeing things that they wouldn't want us to see.
Ebert would be ashamed of me, because I'm committing the cardinal sin of film reviewing: I'm reviewing the movie that wasn't made rather than the one that was. He seemed to think that it was pretty good. I guess without reference to the original book it's still a decent film, and it's a fairly intelligent date movie. I just can't get over the fact that, for me, the love story was the least interesting part of the novel. That the filmmakers chose to focus on that at the expense of everything else shows that they never really got the point of the story in the first place.
Firestorm. I headed into the city today and finally saw with my own eyes the large cloud of smoke obscuring the sky. You can even smell it on the wind. I keep having flashbacks to camping with my folks, except I know that the fire causing this isn't nearly so nice and friendly. Fellow Sydney blogger Tracey lives near one of the areas in danger and she's posted some photos at her site. You should check 'em out. It's really weird to think of y'all on the other side of the world dealing with snowstorms and ice while we all sweat and worry about bushfires.
Synchronicity. You know how I linked to that Rudolph article yesterday? Well, check out today's Foxtrot. Hilarious! (Except his name's Hermey, not Herbie.)
Vampire Ecology in the Jossverse. That rules! (Link courtesy of John.
Moire found a fascinating article about rare genetic diseases that have become very common in Amish communities. We used to joke in Lagrange that the limited gene pool led to all the Amish looking vaguely alike. Turns out that's the least of their worries...
Wednesday, December 4, 2002
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"I'd like to be... a DENTIST!"
Matt linked to a great article about my favorite Christmas special: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I'd love to see the restored version on DVD, especially the bit about Yukon Cornelius finding a peppermint mine. (So that's why he kept licking his pickaxe!) My favorite character is Hermey, who I've been known to quote on occasion. (But nobody ever realizes what I'm quoting.) And remember everyone... BUMBLES BOUNCE!
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 This is so weird. The power has been flickering for the past couple hours and it keeps knocking out our computers. I wonder if we're having "brown-outs" from all the air conditioners running in this heat.
Later: Holy crap. It isn't the heat; it's all the fires. Snookums just pointed out that you can see them on the weather radar map. (I've archived a shot here.) That ain't rain; there isn't a cloud in the sky. All those blue dots - including the two huge ones - are smoke.
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Just received my first Christmas card of the season... from good ol' Notre Dame. Am I the only one that thinks it's highly questionable etiquette to send someone a card and then hit them up for a donation? Not to mention the fact that they obviously don't cross-reference their donation requests with the student loan records. I mean really, I already owe them, like, seven thousand bucks. But that doesn't stop them from suggesting I pass over another couple grand to get enrolled in the "Sorin Society's Founder's Circle"! Sheesh.
[Sidenote: I'm also becoming quite Hemisphere-sensitive. Get this line from the accompanying letter: "Christmas arrives at the darkest time of year, as if to remind us, in the words of St. Luke, 'that a light was born to shine on those who sit in darkness... to guide our feet in the path of peace.'" Hello? For literally half the globe, Christmas arrives at the brightest time of year! Am I being overly critical here? Does the Northern Hemisphere have some exclusive right to Christmas? Besides, isn't it sort of accepted that Christ wasn't born in the winter anyway, but that early Christians moved the celebration in order to capitalize on existing pagan Yule rituals? Why am I getting so worked up over this? It must've been the request for money. That always pisses me off.]
Monday, December 2, 2002
As my Mom reminded me today, my Thanksgiving Dinner recap is running late. It's just that I'm still cleaning up the aftermath! I should finally be done with all the dishes tomorrow, so expect something then. :)
Sunday, December 1, 2002
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Can you tell your arse from your elbow? I can't. I only got 9 out of 14. (Link courtesy of Fredo.)
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archives
You can search through the archives by post keyword using the form on the left, or you can browse by month using the links at the bottom.
"Moblog" refers to posts and images posted directly from my mobile phone.
"PW Blog" refers to posts recovered from my very first weblog, which dealt with news related to my college dorm.
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Blog Meetup! Yesterday the Snook and I headed into Manly (a northern beach suburb) to meet up with Kristen and her fiancé Mark. It was a beautiful day to explore a new part of Sydney. (Note to future travelers: "Manly" is a misleading name. Most of the guys I saw were less "beefcake" and more "paunchy hairy middle-aged guys in Speedos".) After walking the beach, we eventually found Kristen and Mark and headed off for some beer and food. We girls had a great time gossiping about our fellow bloggers (just kidding!), while the guys commiserated on being the lesser known partners of such fabulous blogging divas. Five hours and many drinks later, the Snook and I staggered off to catch our ferry home. It was a lot of fun.
"Ehhh, monkey!"
Photo Roundup: Is this adorable? It's my sister Amy and little brother Joey, both wearing the Christmas gifts I knitted them this year. (Yeah, that's the Gryffindor scarf.) Joey's even playing with one of the chickens I made him! Isn't he a sweetie?
More craftiness... I just shipped a package of homemade Christmas presents off to Mom today, including this bib I knitted for my baby brother. Yes, those are chickens embroidered on the front. (Apparently Mom collects them now, so I'm trying to indulge her.) It turned out a bit... longer than I envisioned, but the basic shape is there. Cute, huh? After I practice up on a few more scarves, I think I'll try my hand at a sweater.
Cutest. Craft. Ever. I've had this Funky Chicken Pincushion pattern bookmarked for ages, and last night I finally decided to give it a try. They're really easy to make. (The hardest part was getting the squares, uh, square.) I did them on the machine, but you could probably hand sew them too. I stuffed them with leftover quilt batting and sewed on buttons for eyes. Aren't they so friggin' cute? I have a ridiculous urge to make about fifty and sell them at the hippie market on the weekend. They'd make awesome Christmas presents.
This is so weird. The power has been flickering for the past couple hours and it keeps knocking out our computers. I wonder if we're having "brown-outs" from all the air conditioners running in this heat.
