So hot today. Saw this reflection of the Queen Victoria Building and Centrepoint Tower from York Street today waiting for the bus home…
Category: Photo Post
Images and videos that I’ve taken on-the-go
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Dr Amy Jones
What better way to test my new moblogging ability than with the ol’ standby: a picture of our cat! More details on my setup in a minute…
Later: Okay, so all the cool kids nowadays are using Flickr to upload photos to their sites. I like to be contrary, though, so I asked the Snook how difficult it would be to roll this ourselves. Within a few hours, he had it up and running. Basically, I take a photo with my Sony Ericsson T610 and MMS it to a special e-mail address. I’ll let the Snook explain how he worked the server-side mojo: “I wrote a PHP script using the Mail_Mime component from the Pear Repository which scans a message for text and image attachments, saves and resizes the image, and inserts a post into the database. I use qmail to feed incoming messages to the script.” So that’s it! This image and the short bit of accompanying text went straight from my phone to w-g. (This extra bit was added by hand afterwards.) Now I’m envisioning all sorts of fun uses for this in the future. Maybe Crazy Jesus Lady would let me put her on the site…?
Even later: I just realized I should probably translate for the non-nerds in the audience. By “moblog,” I mean “mobile web logging,” which is a completely stupid and made-up way of saying that I take pictures with my cell phone and send them to my website. Just in case you were confused.
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Boudicca II is finally here!
I got the e-mail last night that she was finally being shipped but I didn’t have a clue how long it would take. Then this afternoon Albert came by and said she’d arrived at the shop. I literally jumped up and down and squealed. Like a freak. In front of the customers. But I don’t care. Now I’m just waiting for Snookums to get home so we can open the boxes together and marvel at Apple’s sexy packaging. I guess I should clear off my desk, huh? I’ll probably be listing some of my excess Apple junk on eBay after tonight. Anybody want a copy of iLife or OS X 10.3? -
The Coolest 3-Year-Old in Town
You know what the coolest part of this photo is? It’s not my sweet Wonder Woman Underoos. It’s not my stylin’ Powder Puff Big Wheel with the ribbon streamers. It’s not my stick-straight bowl-cut bangs. It’s not even my so-retro-it-hurts white knee socks. You know what it is? It’s the approximately 53 yards of woolen lanyard plant holders hanging in the background. The 70’s were a bad time for interior design, yo.
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Australians all let us rejoice…
So, Amy’s a citizen of Australia now! Actually she’s a dual American-Australian, which is what I hope to be in about eighteen months. The ceremony was held in Mosman and I went along to celebrate with her. She basically just had to pledge allegiance and then she got a certificate and a native plant. Pretty sweet! There was a sour edge to the evening for me, though, in the form of a famous visitor in the midst: Tony Abbott! (He’s the Leader of the House and the Federal Minister for Health and Aging. He’s also a raging conservative asshole.) Didn’t he just get out of the hospital for kidney stones yesterday? And here he was, four days before a national election, spending the evening in front of a group of people who weren’t even eligible to vote for him! His speech afterwards was polished but uninspiring, I have to say. (When he started talking about Australia’s “freedom” I half-expected him to congratulate the new citizens on becoming part of the Coalition of the Willing.) You’ll be proud to note that after a short internal battle, I managed to resist the urge to question him about the Pauline Hanson slush fund and kick him in the nuts. Man, I’ll never have another chance like that again…
And I just realized that I spelled his name wrong on the photo, but I don’t really care.
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Real Embarrassing Photos: The Man Who Stole Jimi Hendrix’s Hair
I was going through some old pictures the other day when I came across this absolute gem. Yes, folks, that is the Snook. In college he had big hair, a dodgy goatee, and – what’s more amazing to me – he actually wore blue jeans! Who is this person? It blows my mind. I’m putting this out there for anybody wondering if I know what I’m getting into with this whole marriage-thing. Oh yes, you betcher ass I do. I figure a guy who can laugh at his former self – and give permission for the world to laugh along with him – is a real keeper.And yeah, I turned up some doozies of me. Stay tuned…
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My Prisoner of Azkaban costume
Well, that was AMAZING. I absolutely loved the film. But more on that in a minute. First, I need to confirm that yes, I did dress in costume. And yes, I was the only one. Not only that, but the theater was probably only 20% full anyway. So I was a big dork. But Snookums thinks I’m cool and I got a few great looks from some kids, so I feel it was a success.
First off, here I am in my Hogwarts school uniform. Details: The jumper is the Weasley sweater I made a few months back. The skirt is from portmans, and the socks were from a random stall in Paddy’s Markets.
Here I am demonstrating the proper way to “Swish and flick!” to Snookums. Yes, my wand is actually a 10mm wooden knitting needle.
I decided that schoolgirl braids were appropriate, complete with Gryffindor-colored bows. (You can really see some of the red streaks in my hair in that picture.) I wasn’t sure whether I should wear my glasses or not. They’re definitely more Potter-ish, but I didn’t want any loss of peripheral vision should we have to sit very close in the theater. I went with the glasses, and luckily it didn’t matter.
If you make fun of my chubby tummy, I’ll put the Cruciatus curse on you!
You know what this costume really needs?
Wizarding robes and a Gryffindor scarf! That’s my new scarf based on the Azkaban design. The robes are actually the Snook’s student robes. (He had to wear them every Monday dinner in college.)
Here’s a close-up of my Gryffindor badge. (You’ll recall that I made the badges last week.) I printed the badges on transfer paper and then ironed them on to some plain calico. Then I trimmed them really well and sewed them down on some black felt for stiffness. Then I trimmed the felt and basted it down on the robes.
Here’s my Dumbledore’s Army badge (from Order of the Phoenix). I accidentally placed the badges too high, I think. I didn’t realize that these robes are made to be worn hanging way back, so they could stand to move a few inches lower, possibly.
Woohoo! Bring on the movie! Bring on the cheering crowds!
Crap. The theater was nearly empty. No one! Where are the crowds? Where the throngs of Potter-fans? Am I the only person dedicated enough to take the day off and make my own costume to celebrate this cinematic event? It appears so.
I didn’t even get to hand out any of the way cool business cards I designed!
At least Dr. Amy Jones still loves me.
So I think I might have to go back to one of the weekend showings in order to give this outfit a proper airing. Any of you Sydney people interested in accompanying me? You don’t have to dress up! 🙂
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So close!
It’s not enough that I plaster the Snook all over my website… Now I’m getting him into print as well! Last week my coworker Mardi told me about a photo contest the Sydney Morning Herald Radar section was running. You were supposed to send in a “quintessential Sydney moment”, and the winner won a $900 camera phone. I forgot about it until right before the deadline so I decided to just send in a photo from my site. I went with Rodd and Amy eating cheese-on-a-stick at the Easter Show. To my surprise, the editor e-mailed me yesterday to let me know that I was a finalist. I ran to the newsagent this morning to buy the paper and check the results. Unfortunately, I didn’t win. They picked the “serious” picture of the homeless guy instead. Whatever. I still got the Snook in the paper!
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Weekend Update
Three-day weekends are just glorious, aren’t they? It’s the perfect amount of weekend time. We had one day for socializing, one day for housework, and one day for hobbies. It was brilliant.
- Friday night: Stayed up late to watch The Mummy on TV and work on my sweater.
- Saturday morning: Took Amy to the vet for her last kitten vaccination. She whined and struggled the whole way there. Not fun.
- Saturday afternoon: Workout time! Legs and biceps.
- Later Saturday afternoon: Drinkies with friends. We got to see Mr. and Mrs. Healy for the first time since their honeymoon. I also partook of a hookah for the first time in my life. Apple tobacco tastes like candy!
- Saturday night: Dinner at JuJu’s in King’s Cross with Andrew and Kathleen. It’s supposed to be one of the best and most authentic Japanese places in the city. You have to take your shoes off when you go in! At one point I got up to go to the bathroom and Andrew warned me about “weird bathroom etiquette.” My mind immediately flashed: “Ass towels!” But it wasn’t. Instead you just had to slip on these weird sports sandals to go in. The food was fabulous though. I ate fish egg udon! I just pretended that the little orange dots were spices instead of little fishy ova.
- Sunday: House cleaning. Majorly. I even went through my clothes and picked out all the crap I never wear to take to the op shop. I also rearranged everything to put my summer stuff away. *sniff*
- Sunday evening: I dug out my Handspring PDA and put fresh batteries in it. Then I installed this KnitAble software to keep track of my knitting. I catalogued my whole stash!
- Monday morning: Knit, knit, knit. The Snook brewed beer.
- Monday afternoon: Gym time again! Shoulders, triceps, and abs. And I ran 2.5 km. And the Snook brewed beer.
- Monday night: Watched Queer Eye – How great was the Mullet Man? I loved him! – and finished my sweater! And the Snook brewed beer. Well, actually he stopped for a bit to play photographer. We ended up doing a little sweater fashion show. I’m really happy with how it turned out. (In case anybody is Googling, this is the Janetta Dexter Sampler Sweater from Jacqueline Fee’s The Sweater Workshop. I had to add a few extra designs to get the length I wanted.) I didn’t know drop shoulders looked so good on me! I am now the queen of two-handed fairisle knitting. The only problem is the thing is so damn warm I’ll only be able to wear it for one month a year. *sigh*
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Craftiness
As Robert finally received his “Get Well” package from me today, I can now display the contents without ruining his surprise. First up is the official Version 2.0 of my iPod Jumper pattern. The striped one was sent off to my friend Kel, while the “Catboy” design was obviously for Rob. These are both knit in cotton, which seems to hold its shape a little better than the wool I tried before. They feature a velcro closure and a hole for the headphone jack. (Anybody else want one? I take commissions!) Next is a genuine, authentic Rockford Red Heel sock monkey. I really like how he turned out. I’d make more but unfortunately I don’t have any more of the socks; they’re so nice that I’ve kept the other pairs to wear!
