Elvis lives in my calculator

It's been so long since I've made a post, that I can't think of any titles....

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 03:55:58 GMT

Last weekend, I wrote a big long post about all the fun we had at longlongwaytogo's Scavenger Hunt, and Sam and I seeing NoFX and Bad Religion, and some other stuff. But LJ somehow deleted it when I tried to preview it, and I haven't had a chance to re-do it till now. Let's see if I can remember all the stuff I had to say....

The Scavenger Hunt was very fun. I was on a team with samelthecamel, schubomb and Linda. We came second (out of two teams!) but we still had a great time.

There was some strange dancing, I climbed a tree and scared a horse, Schu juggled Bumblebee & a cow and rode a horse (not the same one that I scared, a kiddie ride!), Linda flashed in a playground, Sam hugged a manequin and rode in a shopping trolley, and all sorts of other shenanigans occured! I'm guessing various strange photos will show up about the place soon. Meanwhile, here's all 4 of us squeezed into a photobooth!

Afterwards, Sam and I went to Thebarton Theatre to see NoFX and Bad Religion, which was great! I'm know I wrote more about it last time, but I have no idea what I said, other than the dance that Mike, Melvin and a few other guys did at the end to Everyone's A Little Bit Racist from Avenue Q as brilliant! Sam took a video of it, so maybe if your pester her, she might upload it.

Also, here's the only half-decent photo that I managed to take, because my camera doesn't like taking photos in the dark.

And I think that was about all I had to say...

This is rather awesome.....

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 05:19:58 GMT

I've finally gotten started on researching one of the German sides of my family, and I thought this was pretty cool:

Name History and Origin for KIESEWETTER

Last Name
KIESEWETTER
German (found mainly in Saxony and Silesia): apparently from Middle High German kiesen ‘to choose or test’ (see Kieser) + wetter ‘weather’, hence a nickname for someone who forecast the weather.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4

I'm descended from weather forecasters?!?!?

:D

Anyway, you may have noticed that I haven't really been around much lately. Today is the first non-Sunday that I've had off work in about 3 months, and when I have been home, I haven't felt much like posting or replying to things. I might feel more like it in the near future, but we'll have to wait and see.....

Don't you songs have homes to go to?

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 03:11:39 GMT

I've had some strange songs in my head recently. And usually, I can figure out why they're there, but not at the moment.

Last week, for no reason at all, The Rainbow Connection showed up and didn't leave for a couple of days. Yesterday, Dr Worm came to visit, which was slightly annoying, because I couldn't remember the words.

Today, I woke up with Love Cats in my head, which made a nice change from the oddness. Then while I was on the bus, the book I was reading mentioned David Bowie, and I thought "Woo! I'm gonna get Bowie in my head!" But no. For absolutely no reason, Love Will Tear Us Apart pops in and says "Hello, can I have a look around?" But Love Cats is jumping up and down going "No, that's not fair! I was here first!"

They've all buggered off for now, but I bet later on I'll be bombarded by something else....

Yay, Billy Talent's here! Please don't leave me alone with them, Billy....

EDIT: Muse has joined the party too! This is brillian! I love listening to Triple J at work. Also, I don't believe I've mentioned how excited I am about Muse's upcoming album. I'm very bloody excited!

Bugger.

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:55:23 GMT

I guess Shihad got sick of Adelaide after coming here 3 times in 6 months last year. They're playing in Perth twice in September, but they're not coming here. :(

Oh well. I'll just continue to be excited about Soundwave.

"I've got everything"

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 08:47:24 GMT

I just had a very amusing ride home with Dad.

He just got an ipod, because his fishing buddy has one, and he doesn't like feeling left out. So, after a couple of weeks of him talking nonsense, he finally bought one, and his friend put music on it for him. And he's got "everything".

"I've got Pearl Jam, I've got Green Day."
"Dad, I'VE got Green Day."
"I've got Blink 182."
"..... You're not even gonna listen to half this stuff."
"I have been listening to it."

He starts telling me that he has to work out how go get it off of shuffle, so he can choose an artist to play. I keep my mouth shut, because I know he has to figure it out for himself. Run Like Hell by Pink Floyd starts to play. After about a minute, for no reason, it changes to another song.

"Dad, do you even know who this is?"
"I don't need to know, it says it on the screen."
"It's the Foo Fighters."
"I've got everything."

Welcome to the digital age, Dad.

What I've been doing lately...

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 02:17:21 GMT

Nothing. Nothing. And more nothing.

Hang on, I bought some new socks. And I went to the zoo. And I saw Ross Noble.

Ok, so I'm a liar. That shouldn't be a surprise by now.

All of that exciting stuff (yes, even the sock buying!) happened on Thursday. Sam was getting her car serviced, so we met in the city really early (about 9:30am - slightly early for me, super early for Sam), and went to the zoo.

Because we there so early, it was pretty cool for the first hour - no screaming school kids. I've been looking through the photos I took (all 318 of them - is that a little excessive?), and there seems to be a theme to some of them - Sam meets a cow, Sam meets a goat, Sam meets a rabbit, Sam meets Steve Irwin. Maybe I'll post a few if I get them uploaded before I finish with this.

Creepy Irwin ride

Meerkat digs escape tunnel

"Damn, they're on to me!"

Lemur drives invisible bus

Um, dude, the driver's supposed to sit at the front....

Then, other stuff happened, most of which I can't recall right now. Ross Noble talked about hilarious, nonsensical things, and then we went home. The End.

Except it's not, because I don't feel like ending there.

Here's a question: is it so strange to buy a David Bowie CD at the same time as a NoFX CD? You'd think I'd be used to the odd looks I get when I buy strange combinations of things, or borrow them from the library, but I still find it weird. So what if I like completely unrelated things? I'd get pretty bored if I always listened to the same sort of music, or read the same sort of books. Plus, I think the ladies at the library are snobby literary types, so they would probably look down on me no matter what I borrow. Well, I don't care. I like having unpredictable reading habits!

More questions!

Is the plural of Mongoose:
a) Mongooses
b) Mongeese?

According to some dictionary, it's both.

What is the collective noun for a group of Lemurs?

Well, this is boring. It's "group". Surely you can come up with something more interesting than that?

Anyway, I love collective nouns. I'm also amused by this:

Venery can refer to the following:

* The practice or sport of hunting game animals, or the wild animals so hunted.
* The practice or pursuit of sexual pleasure, or the indulgence of sexual desire.

See also

* Collective noun – terms of venery (words for groups of animals)
* Sexual intercourse

Words are fun!

Happy Birthday Journal!

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 01:40:11 GMT

Yeah, I have no other reason for posting than that it's my journal's second birthday, but I'm sure I can find plenty to ramble about anyway!

I'm quite enjoying Robot Movie Month. It's very amusing to see samelthecamel falling back into her Bumblebee obsession. :P But as well as Robots, June seems to be the month of Comedies Set In The Past. It's fairly likely that Sam and I will be seeing Land Of The Lost this weekend, and I can't wait until Year One the week after!

All this talking about movies reminds me of something: Last weekend, Sam decided it would be amusing if we saw 52 movies at the cinema this year, since we seem to go just about every weekend. Since we'd missed out on seeing a movie the week before, cos I was doing family stuff, we decided that we had better start making up for the weekends that we had missed, so we saw Terminator Salvation and Star Trek (It was a long weekend, and there's not much you can do in Adelaide on long weekends).

Anyway, I keep lists of lots of things, so the one that I've been keeping of movies that I've seen has finally been useful! I worked out that there have been 23 weekends so far this year, and Sam and I have been to the cinema 21 times. I was sure it was less than that, because it felt like we hardly went in March. (Actually, we went 3 times, it just felt like less because we saw Friday the 13th in the middle of the day on a Friday, instead of our usual Sunday night.)

So, to some people, this may seem a little sad, but I really don't care, because I love movies, and I love seeing movies in the cinema. Plus, winter is the perfect time for frozen coke. Maybe if I remember, I might document our adventures....

I've just found out that a Deluxe Heirloom Edition of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is being released! This is very awesome, as I was actually thinking while I was reading it that they should release a hardcover version! It's going to have colour illustrations too. Looky:

Stop making me think, Triple J!

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 02:57:06 GMT

Because it's the 20th anniversary of the Hottest 100, Triple J are doing another Hottest 100 of all time.

But you can only vote for 10 songs. This is almost impossible for me to do, because, for anything that I like, I don't have a definite favourite, or even two or three things that I prefer above all others. I like loads of different stuff, and my favourite this week is almost certainly not going to be my favourite next week, or even tomorrow.

Nevertheless, I am trying to come up with some sort of list. I started by making a list of bands that could possibly have songs in my top ten, and without even thinking too hard, I've come up with over 30. If I start looking through all my music, that will expand exponentially. This is gonna be difficult.

Anyway, it's been a few months since I posted the list of books that I've been reading, so:

APRIL
Conjugal Rites - Paul Magrs
The Chronicles Of Blarnia - Michael Gerber
Tintin In America - Herge
Cigars Of The Pharoahs - Herge
Dearly Devoted Dexter - Jeff Lindsay
The Dark Tower: The Drawing Of The Three - Stephen King
The Book Of Lost Things - John Connolly
The Pirates! In An Adventure With Napoleon - Gideon Defoe

6 of those books I read for the first time. It didn't occur to me until I was actually reading Tintin In America that I was rereading it, and that it had broken my record of 7 months of reading new books. Oh well, that's still a very long time for me to go without rereading anything!

MAY
The Dark Tower: The Waste Lands - Stephen King
Doctor Who: The Eyeless - Lance Parkin
Hey! Nietzsche! Leave Them Kids Alone: The Romantic Movement, Rock & Roll and The End of Civilisation as We Know It - Craig Schuftan
The Blue Lotus - Herge
Dexter In The Dark - Jeff Lindsay

I didn't read very much last month, I just couldn't motivate myself to do it, even though I was reading some very good books. The Waste Lands took me two weeks to read, and Hey Nietzsche!, I started in April. BTW, I loved Hey Nietzsche!. I reccommend it very highly, but I'm no good at putting things into to words, so this will tell you about it.

Wow, that brings me very neatly back to what I was talking about before, as Craig Schuftan works on Triple J, and you can listen to podcasts of his segments here. Check out the one about My Chemical Romance and Wordsworth - it's very short, but gives you a good idea of what the book is like (but the book is much more detailed). He also made his own top ten list for the Hottest 100 of all time.

Phase 1: Collect Underpants

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 03:12:18 GMT

Sam tried to talk me into writing about the Dragonball movie, but I don't want to! I want to reminisce about Dragonball Z!

But I will mention that you were wrong about Yamcha. He wasn't the one-eyed dude (who wasn't even one eyed, he was 3-eyed, and called Tien). But I do remember him now! And all sorts of other stuff that I'd forgotten.

Some research has informed me that Dragonball Z premiered on Japanese TV in 1989, and finished in 1996. WTF???? I can't get that into my head, because for me, Dragonball Z was very much my mid-teens: 2001/2002. It just seems so odd that it's that old....

So now I have a question: When we start watching these again, do we start at Dragonball, or Dragonball Z? Looking at this made me realise that we probably saw Dragonball Z right from the start (which makes sense now that I think about it: Sam and I used to watch Pokemon before school, and we were kinda annoyed when it finished and Cheez TV started showing Dragonball Z, but then we got addicted to that.) So, do we go right back to the start?

Whatever we do, I'm really excited about seeing these again. I'd forgotten until last night how much I loved DBZ!

Also reminded me of what geeks we were in high school, with all of our plots to become Saiyans and Jedis....
We had a convulted plan that started with getting philosophy degrees, so that when we went to America, we would become Sorcerers (as proved by Harry Potter and the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone), then we were going to do a whole lot of other things that I've forgotten about, and eventually become Jedis and/or Saiyans.

Or maybe I haven't forgotten, maybe it was like the Underpants Gnomes plans:
Phase 1: Collect underpants. Phase 2: ............... Phase 3: Profit.

Zombies are the new vampires.

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 04:30:09 GMT

No really, they are. Time said so. Take that, you shiny bastards!

Since it's been a long time since I've had anything to say on the subject (I blame Freddy, Jason and Michael), it's time for a zombie post!

I'm still waiting for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, to be released over here. One source said it was going to be the end of April, which I was slightly bummed about, until I realised "Oh hey, April is half over already!"

Sam, look: Zombie Honeymoon 2! Maybe we should watch the first one some time?

Dead Snow - Norwegian Nazi Zombies!

And Diary of the Dead is finally being released on dvd - I can't even remember how long I've been waiting for this. The world needs more Romero! Speaking of which, he's making a new movie which is supposed to be released later this year.

Why do I spend so much of my time looking forward to things that haven't happened yet? Oh well, anticipation is fun!

Meanwhile, I'll just laugh at the idiots at IMDB who think that they know everything. "If you wear a heap of layers of clothes, the zombies can't bite you!" Yeah, maybe okay for people who live in cold climates, but what about the rest of the world? Also, that thing that occasionally happens called "summer". Plus, if you're running away from zombies, you'll get quite hot in all those layers. And that scarf you're wearing? Quite easy for a zombie to grab hold of and either choke you or drag you back towards them... Not to mention all your other wacky ideas that may work on humans, or in the world as it is now, but no good in the zombie apocalypse.

(Did I mention that I have thought about this far too much? I have plans! Not to the point of stockpiling food and weapons, but I have a few thoughts on what I'll do when the zombies come....)

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 04:17:01 GMT

Cheap shops are a great source of dvds!

I was at one with my mum today, and not only did I see 3 that I already own, I was very tempted by two and ended up buying two 2-dvd sets!

You do have to wade through a lot of crap, like movies made by famous people before they were famous (my dad thinks that just by having (insert name here) in them, they must be good! I'm a bit more discerning. By which I mean, I like different crap to what he does!). But then you find the odd bit of brilliance, like classic 30's horror, dodgy 50's sci-fi, old comedies, or just great-but-not-well-known movies (like Time Bandits).

Today, I bought two Boris Karloff films, and a Fritz Lang set which has Metropolis in it - I've been wanting to see it for ages! There was also a Bela Lugosi set, but it had White Zombie, which I've already got, so I didn't get it.

I thought that I'd gather together all of my cheap dvds and make them todays subject for the photo challenge!

Man, March seemed to go forever!

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 09:11:05 GMT

Books read in March:

Something Borrowed - Paul Magrs
On The Edge: My Story - Richard Hammond
Tintin In The Congo - Herge
The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - Stephen King
Serenity: The Official Visual Companion - Joss Whedon
The Dresden Files: Welcome To The Jungle - Jim Butcher
Doctor Who: The Story of Martha - Dan Abnett, et al
The Adventures of Tintin Reporter for "Le Petit Vingtieme" In The Land Of The Soviets - Herge
Death of a Transvetite - Ed Wood, Jr
Doctor Who: Beautiful Chaos - Gary Russell

That's 10 books (all of them read for the first time - 7 months!), with 2 non-fiction books and 3 graphic novels.

Total so far this year:
29 books - 6 non-ficion (I think that's some kind of record for this early in the year!)

By Lenin's beard! This time I'm going in!

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 10:40:14 GMT

I read Tintin in the Land of the Soviets a few weeks back, and the thing that struck me most was the huge improvement in the artwork that Herge made between this (his first Tintin story) and Tintin in the Congo (his second).

(Don't you just love his suit!)

I find it really amazing that by the second story, it looks like the same Tintin that I've been reading for years!

Which isn't to say that the more simple art of this story doesn't have its merits. It's not the most complex of plots, mostly about various Russians trying to kill Tintin so that he can't tell the world what's going on there, so they go well together.

By the 3rd page, it is shown that Tintin CAN NOT DIE! A beardy Russian fellow blows up a train, causing the "disappearance" of 218 people, but like any good hero of that era, Tintin only sustains a black eye and tattered clothes! He is arrested in Berlin, because obviously, as the only survivor, it must have been his fault. So, what does he do? Beats up a guard twice his size, dresses in his clothes and steals a motorbike! After crashing the bike, he fakes his own death, and while the police are investigating his "body" (which is just the clothes he stole), he steals their car, leads a high-speed chase and is hit by a train. This one is much sturdier than the African train and doesn't fall over, so Tintin suffers a black eye, and not much else. He then rides on the front of the train to Russia...

... where he is promptly arrested again. The Commissar decides that Tintin needs to meet with an "accident", so a guy with a banana is dispatched to take him out. All of this excitement makes Tintin late for his train, so he builds his own car from a pile of junk. He's the original MacGyver!

Then it's time for some propaganda:

Also, this is the only time that I remember seeing "the famous reporter Tintin" actually writing an article.

While walking around at night dressed as a ghost (it's a long story involving murderous Russians), he falls down an open manhole and into the sewer system. He seems to be trapped, but, with a mighty sneeze he busts out! And is arrested again. He escapes (of course!), steals a boat, sinks it, capsizes the boat of the police chasing him, and makes his getaway!

There are some explosions, shoddy mechanical exploits and random violence that I would love to show you, but it goes on for 10 pages. However, I do find it odd that yesterday Tintin built himself a car, but today he has to remove EVERYTHING from under the bonnet (of a different car) before realising that he has a flat tyre. Then, after his bizarre method of re-inflating it, he just crams all the bits and bobs back in, and discards what doesn't fit. But you know what? The car still works! I take it back - Tintin is a GENIUS!

Then we skip a whole chunk, which is just more arrests, cunning escapes and beating up people much bigger than himself to steal their clothes. We'll just get to the part where Tintin fights a drunk bear.

Feeling cocky, he takes on another big guy, but oh no! This guy is too big! A well placed tree comes to the rescue, and Tintin once again gets to wear enormous clothes. Which fit him suspiciously well. Perhaps Herge forgot how big the other guy was supposed to be?

After some adventures in a haunted house and the secret caviar and vodka storage lair of Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin, Tintin impersonates a pilot called "Lindbergski" and makes off with a plane, but inevitably, he crashes it. Although, it wasn't entirely his fault this time - there was a storm. But really, someone should take his licence away before we all die of laughter! I may have to start keeping a tally of how many vehicles he destroys over the course of all his adventures...

Anyway, after some impromptu propeller carving, Tintin is back in the air and on his way to Germany. On his arrival in Berlin, he gets very drunk on champagne, is arrested by undercover Russians, and rescued by a tiger! Then Snowy turns up dressed in a (very ill-fitting) tiger skin, and scares off the real tiger.

So, we head back to Berlin, arrest a Bolshevik terrorist, get a large reward and... go back to Russia?!?!? Tintin, I'm not surprised that Snowy won't get back in the car! Seeing as you're driving at 120km/h in the rain - very bad idea with your driving history! So of coure, Tintin crashes into a level crossing and goes flying though the window of a passing train, headed back to Belgium. He manages to take a hint, and an ENORMOUS crowd is at the station to greet him. I'm not sure how they knew he was coming, seeing as he wasn't supposed to be on the train. Maybe all Belgians are psychic. It would explain why Hercule Poirot is such a good detectve. I have no idea how he solved that case the other night, but then again, I wasn't really paying attention. Damn my Picross addiction!

Vehicles destroyed by Tintin (not including ones he managed to repair)
2 cars
2 boats
1 motor bike
1 home-made car

Vehicles destroyed in the vicinity of Tintin
10 carriages of a train
1 horse-drawn petrol cart

Faked deaths = 4
Arrests = 5

Now I'll finally be able to do something I've wanted to do for years: reread the rest of the Tintin books in order! Next up: Tintin In America!
(If you remember the end of Congo, there was an important story for him to cover in Chicago.)

Things and stuff.....

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 02:03:32 GMT

- I cut my hair, and it's all curlified! I like it very much.

- I have some new socks! Some are normal, and some are long and shiny. I think I might wear some of them today. Only problem is, now I need some skirts that are about knee length, so that you can still see the shiny socks. Maybe Kevin will buy me some. I can't spend all of his money on bras!

- Sam and I saw Frenzal Rhomb last night! They were awesomely awesome. And wow, that was the most violent pit I've seen in a long time. Not to say that they haven't been around, I just haven't been able to see them, since they weren't directly in front of me! HQ was really not built for that sort of thing! Stupid nightclub.....

- I really need a shower. Stupid sweaty drink spilling people.

- I'm sure there were other things I had to say.

- I've read Tintin in the Land of the Soviets. Now I'm just trying to wrangle my thoughts into some sort of order. Will be rather different to what I wrote about Congo though.

- I'm going to a wedding tomorrow. Maybe I should go look for my shoes. Parents won't be impressed if I can't find them and have to wear my Cons. Or pirate boots.

- There should be more pirate weddings!

- Punk Week only lasts for one week, not one week and one day! Because what is the point of starting it on Wednesday this week when there was no punk then????
(For those who don't know: Punk Week consists of Frenzal Rhomb last night (Thurs), Die Roten Punkte tonight (Fri) and Rise Against next Wednesday.)

- Bugger it. I can't think of anything else to write, so I'll just have to finish on this anti-climax.

Why aren't there any Japanese astronauts?

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 09:09:24 GMT

Have you ever seen a Japanese astronaut?
I'll tell you why you haven't seen one.
I'll tell you why...

Because you can't do,
A Japanese tea ceremony,
When you're an astronaut.
It's those damn fat gloves.
Fat gloves...

And you can't do,
A Japanese tea ceremony,
When you're in zero grav.
'Cause the tea goes everywhere.
Tea goes everywhere...

Fringe shows seen so far this year: 5.

Tripod were brilliant as always. And maybe one day I will get around to buying their cds!

When I told my parents I was going to see Tripod, my Dad asked "Is that the one where the guy stands on his knob?". o_0

On Sunday, I took my Mum to see Chopper's Fuckin' Bingo for her birthday. She had a lot of fun, even though she didn't get any numbers, and Dad was laughing a little bit too!

The foremost thought in any honest transvestite's mind is to die in female attire

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:23:37 GMT

It's one thing to watch bad movies. They're over in an hour and a half/two hours, and they're fun to laugh at with friends.

But reading bad books? I must be mad!
(Especially when I can tell that it's bad, because I usually like everything I come across.)

Which isn't to say that I'm not enjoying it, because I am. It's hilarious!

The book in question is Death of a Transvestite by the infamous Edward D. Wood Jr.

Glen, the main character from Wood's film Glen or Glenda, has become a transvestite assassin, and is now on death row. His last request is to be allowed to die in drag, and in exchange he tells his story to the warden.

Really, it makes sense. Because the perfect disguise for an assassin is as a woman, especially when you look as hot as Glenda does.

Bet you wouldn't have known she was a man if I hadn't told you!

I'm not listening to you now, I wasn't listening to you then

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 04:54:17 GMT

Music meme stolen from everybody!

You guys know the rules, no googling, etc ,etc.

(These aren't the first 50, I had to skip a few, because no-one would have got them!)

1. ~~In a crooked little town, they were lost and never found~~ samelthecamel
2. Wired were the eyes of a horse on a jet pilot
3. I love animals, I'm always talking about animals, I love ‘em. But the thing is, you know, whenever you see animals on telly it’s always the show off animals
4. Is there something going on around me? Is there something I should know?
5. ~~"Grab the bull by the horns" the old adage goes~~ samelthecamel
6. Education, fornication, in you are go
7. Disfigured and alone crawling in the shadows, must I live like a freak?
8. ~~Shhh quiet, you might piss somebody off~~ samelthecamel
9. ~~Two hookers and an eight ball Can you believe that I write this shit~~ samelthecamel
10. ~~You're not in this alone, let me break this awkward silence~~ samelthecamel
11. ~~1-2-fuck off, drop out, never trust a fucking hippie~~ samelthecamel
12. I’m falling down and fifteen thousand people scream
13. How did we get into this mess? The question is a hypothetical
14. ~~Look at the red red changes in the sky, look at the separation in the border line~~ lady_violaceous
15. ~~My name is Mud, not to be confused with Bill or Jack or Pete or Dennis~~bad_machination
16. ~~If beauty sits the child's kiss of laughter I amend Can you catch her if she runs?~~ lady_violaceous
17. Alright yeah yeah yeah whoo whoo whoo yeah yeah yeah whoo whoo whoo Wanna give it up, wanna beef it up, wanna make it beg for more
18. Dirty man thinks he can get away with it not too bright where's the light
19. I've anger and it's in me, nothing you say will sooth me, oh no, oh no
20. Confusion in her eyes that says it all. She's lost control.
21. If there's anything that you want, if there's anything I can do, just call on me and i'll send it along
22. Let's show this world we can be alright, without it's sponsors word
23. ~~Pressure pushing down on me, pressing down on you no man ask for~~ samelthecamel
24. I hear your winter, I hear your rain. I've failed your summer ways and I feel no pain.
25. Eerie whispers trapped beneath my pillow, won't let me sleep, your memories
26. Mic check 1 2, check it... alright! I was strollin' down the avenue, I was strollin down when I met you
27. ~~I believed in the world right in front of me~~ lady_violaceous
28. ~~Corrupt. You corrupt. Bring corruption to all that you touch.~~ samelthecamel
29. Close your eyes the rain won't wash away
30. I'm taking all you down with me, explosives duct taped to my spine. Nothing's gonna change my mind.
31. ~~Tell me what I'm s'posed to do, with all these leftover feelings of you~~ lady_violaceous
32. Hey Mr. Jack, is that the mouthwash in your eyes
33. ~~Sister, I'm not much a poet, but a criminal~~ samelthecamel
34. ~~Well we don't need no one to tell us what to do~~ samelthecamel
35. The lunatic is on the grass
36. I must again sing my dissent until you're aware
37. I'm so money, so money. Oh baby I'm so money, so money.
38. One last thing I beg you please just before you go
39. Speaking gibberish the shrieking drivel almost making sense
40. ~~I cannot take this anymore, saying everything I've said before~~ lady_violaceous
41. I was a young boy that had big plans. Now I'm just another shitty old man.
42. ~~Morning, wake up and smell all the breakfast foods that are on offer~~ samelthecamel
43. ~~A deep breath of autumns atmosphere. Exhale looks and whispers: your lips, these lies, my ears~~ samelthecamel
44. Scratch card glory or waist low pleasure? Black eyes nose bleeds don’t look back now
45. ~~Hear the sound, the angels come screaming down~~ samelthecamel
46. ~~Hell must know there have been worse things I've done~~ lady_violaceous
47. I woke up in a dream today to the cold of the static, and put my cold feet on the floor
48. Each day when I wake up and I set my best foot forward I'll make an effort to be all that I can be.
49. ~~I got my head, but my head is unraveling. Can't keep control, can't keep track of where its traveling~~bad_machination
50. It`s 8`o clock and I'm feeling fine. I'm out on a date tonight in a candle lit restaurant down by the river side

Family trees rock!

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 04:34:51 GMT

I started making a family tree at Genes Reunited just over an hour ago, and I may have already found out some cool information! This is awesome!

It seems that my great-great-great grandfather was born on a ship off of the Cape of Good Hope. Which is really cool, because I've been wanting to know for ages when my family came to Australia.

I'm gonna contact some people and see if I can come up with some more info. Whoo!

EDIT: Grrb! That sucks! I can't send messages to other people on there unless I pay for a mebership. Oh well. At least I've found somethng out!

"And if you not good, you never be like Tintin!"

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:16:07 GMT

I've just read Tintin in the Congo, and man, it's so hilariously wrong!!!

If you're planning on reading it yourself, don't look any further.

(Although, I'm not sure why I'm warning about spoilers for a comic that was published in 1930.)

Tintin goes to Africa for no particular reason, and everyone (including a young native boy called "Snowball") is very excited to see him. He has various adventures, hires a 'boy' (because it wouldn't be a Tintin story without a young male companion), defeats a crocodile by wedging his rifle in its jaws, uses a spare rifle to kill fifteen antelope, and then comes the hilarious part that longlongwaytogo told me about:

Snowy is kidnapped by an ape. Tintin states: "If I go after him he'll run away, then I'll never catch him. I'll have to trick him...", which he does by shooting another ape, skinning it and wearing the skin (along with his pith helmet). The other ape is so impressed by the hat (and actually knows the word hat) that he swaps it for Snowy. Hoorah, Tintin saves the day.

But that's not the end. The ape takes a liking to Tintin's gun, and offers to swap it for the hat. Tintin refuses and takes his hat back anyway. Then he kicks the ape in the face and warns it that "Next time, I'll get cross."

But my favourite part of the saga is when Tintin and Snowy return to camp:

And I know it's a kids book, but where's all the blood, guts and other innards from the ape he skinned? He pulls it on exactly like it's a monkey suit from a costume shop!

The next day, he accidentally derails a train, patronises its native passengers and makes them all lift the train back onto the tracks, but doesn't actually help himself (at the same time, he yells at one of the natives for not helping!).

Anyway, as you can see, he saves the day (again), everyone is happy that he gets the train moving again (completely forgetting that he was the one who broke it, and not even considering how it will work once he has left with his car....), Tintin is whisked off to the local village.

Various things happen, and Tintin is made chief of the tribe. He is a just ruler, much like King Solomon. He solves an argument about who a straw hat belongs to by cutting it up, so one man gets the crown, and the other gets the brim. Life is good in the small village. He cures illness, and defeats a nearby, warlike tribe with his modern technology (an electro-magnet that he happened to be carrying around for just such an occasion). The other tribe are so impressed, they make him their king.

Then, a random guy who's been annoying Tintin since he left Belgium finally manages to catch him, and he dangles Tintin over a crocdile infested river. Don't worry, he's okay, because a passing missionary saves him!

Meanwhile Snowy has been eaten by a snake, but he's okay too. Yeah, that'll teach you to be a snake!

Our hero then visits the Mission, teaches an arithmetic class to some native boys

(This is the whole lesson. Maybe if he repeats the question a few more times, they'll get the hang of this maths business), defeats an angry leopard with a sponge, and goes on an elephant hunt (after already having a lion hunt and a leopard hunt). The elephant chases him up a tree, so the elephant killing is left up to a curious chimpanzee. (BTW, Tintin does not know the difference between a monkey and an ape. Do some research, reporter-man!)

The guy from before shows up again, dressed as a missionary, knocks Tintin out and leaves him tied up in a boat that's headed for..... Crumbs! A waterfall! A nearby branch saves him, while Snowy goes to fetch the real missionary, who throws a rope across the river to get to Tintin. But the bad guy is on the other side, about to cut the rope! But not yet, he has to give Snowy enough time to swim across the river, against the strong current, and attack! Tintin, now free, follows. There's a fight on the edge of a cliff and they both fall over! Luckily, Tintin lands on the padded backside of a hippopotamus. The other fellow is not so lucky, he's eaten by crocodiles. And we never found out why he was trying to kill Tintin. :(

After all that excitement, Tintin finds what he thinks is a young boy, but is in for a shock:

We find out that Snowy stole a letter from the bad guy before he died, and now we know the truth! He was hired by Al Capone, who was worried that Tintin would stop his monopoly of the diamond industry. The gansters are caught, and there is much rejoicing.

After dressing as a giraffe, Tintin is picked up by some guys in a plane, because there's an urgent story in Chicago that he has to cover. They've been looking for him for a month, because obviously, his newspaper is too poor to hire any other reporters.

All in all, an enjoyable story, but only if you can laugh at how completely politically incorrect and wrong it is!

Death toll:
approximately 15 antelope
1 unidentified ape
1 boa constrictor (although I suspect the second one didn't live much longer, seeing as he was full of holes and had his own tail jammed down his throat)
4 crocodiles
1 elephant (Tintin didn't kill it, but he had no problems with taking its tusks) (I almost called them antlers. I think this lack of sleep is getting to me)
1 evil henchman
1 buffalo
and my brain. This was far too hilarious, in a "What? People used to be able to get away with this?" way.

(while writing this, I had a complete mental blank about how to spell "throat". Turns out, it has an "a" in it. *facepalm*)

I'll be reading Tintin in the Land of the Soviets soon, so maybe I'll have some tales of vodka and furry hats to tell.

I perfected the science of the idiot

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 02:32:14 GMT

So, the Fringe has been on for just over a week, and I've now seen 3 shows (all over this weekend!).

The first one was on Friday night. The Adventures of Stoke Mandeville, Astronaut and Gentleman. It's set in a parallel steam-punk world, full of Victorian values and British stiff-upper-lip-edness. (And dastardly Frenchman!) It was brilliant and very fun.

Last night, Sunday, there were two shows. The first was the Adelaide University Choral Society (aka schubomb's choir), who were singing songs by The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Who, Queen, etc, etc. Also a few songs from Jesus Christ Superstar.

I explained to longlongwaytogo my complete misinterpretation of that musical when I was about 11/12. I was in my primary school choir, and we were singing I Don't Know How To Love Him and Superstar, and I thought I Don't Know How To Love Him was meant in a religious way.... Yeah, someone wasn't paying attention to the lyrics! And then with Superstar, I felt very uncomfortable singing a song about Jesus. Luckily, I saw the musical a few years ago, so now I understand it!

Also, sorry we had to run out at the end before we could say goodbye, schubomb. We had another show to get to, and we had no idea how long it was going to take to get into the Garden Of Unearthly Delights, seeing as the line on Friday night was rather long....

We were going to Felicity Ward's Ugly As A Child Variety Show, and it was great! I won't say too much about, because Nyree wants to see it.

Ooo, my parents are gone! I'm gonna go watch Buffy!

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 06:44:21 GMT

There's a lot of things I could be putting here, like my Soundwave photos, or talking about how pissed off I am at bastard customers, but I'm going to see Dad's greyhound race in a little while, so I'll just post the list of books I read last month.

FEBRUARY
Lyra's Oxford - Philip Pullman
Book Of The Dead: The Complete History Of Zombie Cinema - Jamie Russell
Nation - Terry Pratchett
Doctor Who: Revenge Of The Judoon - Terrance Dicks
Darkly Dreaming Dexter - Jeff Lindsay
I Am America (And So Can You!) - Stephen Colbert
Postern Of Fate - Agatha Christie
Never The Bride - Paul Magrs
The Amory Wars: The Second Stage Turbine Blade, Volume 1 - Claudio Sanchez
The Toyminator - Robert Rankin

So, that's 10 books, all of which I read for the first time.

I loved Never The Bride, and I finshed reading the sequel, Something Borrowed, a few days ago. Highly reccommended. Classic books that are true stories in this world: Dracula, Frankenstein, War Of The Worlds and some others that I can't think of at the moment.

Soundwave

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 10:56:51 GMT

I guess most of you know by know that Sam and I went to the Soundwave festival yesterday. We had an awesome day, but we were so buggered by the end of it. It was only 27 degrees C (81F), but it felt so much hotter than it did at the Big Day Out, when it was over 40 degrees. I think it was because we were in the sun all day, and there were no hoses or misting tents (which was probably a good thing. Bonython Park is a dust bowl, so if there were hoses, it would have been very very muddy!)

Bands we saw:

Madina Lake
Goldfinger
Underoath
Anberlin
Hellogoodbye
The Bloodhound Gang
Billy Talent
In Flames
Nine Inch Nails

plus a few others that we only saw a few songs.

I took far too many photos that I like, so I'm gonna post them a few at a time.
(Sam would have even more - she took over 1000 photos!)

These are ones that amused me for various reasons.

Hmmm, this one needs some explanation! The drummer from Goldfinger was going to either drink a beer out of a shoe, or hold a twinkie in his butt while somebody ate it. I think you can guess which one happened!

My aim is very bad!

I missed again.

The smiley sombrero!

Look - it levitates too!

Hurrah for beer!

Trent Reznor is a shiny blob...

A slightly more in-focus blob.

If you want to see more, I have some pictures that are actually good. :P

1,2, Freddy's coming for you

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 01:34:14 GMT

I really want to go to Monroeville. Which is kinda idiotic because the only place I want to go there is the mall, not because it's an especially good mall, but because there were once zombies running around there.....

Yay, back to normal idiocy instead of whining idiocy!

So, I discovered that the Shiny-Toed Man from Halloween 5 will be explained in the next movie. Which is good, cos he confused the hell out of me. Trouble is, it doesn't seem to be on dvd yet. At least, not here..... And I think it will be awhile before Sam and I get to watch the rest of the Freddys, or all those Friday the 13ths she bought, because the Fringe starts next week, and it's hard enough trying to organise a night when we can go see a show, so organising a movie night somewhere in there will be a bit tricky.

But, I've just discovered that it would be possible to see schubomb's choir and Felicity Ward on the same night......

Oh dear.

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 01:37:38 GMT

Is it weird that I want a room like this?

You see, I was looking for Firefly pictures about an hour ago, and then I stumbled onto some pictures of a Lego Serenity that this guy had made....

Then I started looking at some other things, including this article about the evolution of lego sorting, where I realised that a few years ago, I made it to Level 11, before getting sick of my cousins messing up my system, so I regressed to Level 3, with certain favourite sets kept in a seperate box.

I know where all of this leading to, I've been there many times......

I'm not sure why, but I have a squid.

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 02:19:01 GMT

Ok Sam, I'll be the pink Beatle! So, if you're the blue one, we just need to find a John and a George.

Damn, now I want to watch Yellow Submarine again. Maybe I should just buy it....