January 29th, 2007
I’m sitting in an empty room with me the computer and the vacuum cleaner. Just another Monday afternoon at Lee’s place I hear you ask!? No - the removalists came and took all the stuff away and stuck it in a big concrete room at the storage centre.
I love storage centres because they remind me of Raiders of the Lost Ark - as I stare down the corridore of locked doors I secretly hope that behind one of them is some power relic sitting in an old nazi box hidden by the government.
Whilst I was there a guy showed up and all he had was regular cardboard boxes and no shirt on.
My internet service provider is screwing me around. I was hoping just to transfer my account over to the temp address as we’ve had internet there before. Problem is I’ve rung 4 times spoken to two people who both gave me the number I rang already and told me I need to speak to someone else.
I rang to complain but the complaint line had me on hold for an hour and I gave up. Then I rang back another number I managed to find online only to be sitting in queue a further 25 minutes. These are minutes I don’t have to waste!!!
So I may be stuck on dial up for a month. I’m not happy about that at all.
Apart from that tonight my lady friend and I are going to go to bed at a reasonable time and rest our weary bones and start fresh tomorrow. Got to clean up the house and move the remaining rubbish… possessions.
Hint for everyone. Don’t try and publish whilst the new wordpress is auto saving as it seems to mess up and delete half your post.
ggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
I don’t have time to retype it all - I miss all my internet buddies!!!
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January 28th, 2007
Just a very quick post today to give you an update on the move. I write this now from a soundless computer having packed up the surround sound for it and realising that it doesn’t appear to have an internal speaker. Tomorrow afternoon is when the removalists arrive and we’ve got a long day of packing and organisation.
We have a veritable library here so a lot of book/DVD/CD packing!
I also wanted to comment on how much I love the Fat Boy Slim - Weapon of Choice film clip. Christopher Walken is just amazing in it. It was showing in the background and it just reminded me of how good a music video it is. If you’ve never seen it or just want to enjoy it again go to Youtube - I’m sure someone there has it!
It’s good to see Spanish off and running in the poll and French catching up to Klingon.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Categories: Housekeeping |
Tags: Christopher Walken, Fat Boy Slim, French, Klingon, moving, packing, Spanish, Weapon of Choice | 4 Comments
January 25th, 2007
As you can see, if you are a regular reader the blog has changed. I figured since we were going through a bunch of changes at home then why not here at my virtual home too!
The template has more of a zen feel to it and it is now widget friendly which makes my life a little easier.
Got a new poll running too - trying to make up my mind what language to set my mind to learning! So I figure whatever you all vote on I’ll give a shot! (I’m kind of dreading one of the options now that I’m sitting here)
I’m soooooo tired and I’ve been hiding away from doing major packing, it’s really hot here. Made a joke about Tetris to one of the storage facility guys and he didn’t get it. Does everyone know what tetris is? Surely it isn’t that obscure?
Picked out a couple of the books that are staying with me. First one is Out of Sight by Elmore Leonard. Tracey is a big Elmore Leonard fan and this is her recommendation. I’m also thinking about finishing Life of Pi which I started to read a couple of years ago but I was sick at the time and reading about him on the boat wasn’t helping so I put it down. It may be time to finish what I’m is a classic.
Well that’s about all I’ve got in me after the marathon template fixing that I did this afternoon.
Remember to vote in the poll!
To all my friends I am still reading your blogs I’m just not getting to do the comments I want so I apologise!!!
Popularity: 7% [?]
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Tags: Blogs, Elmore Leonard, Life of Pi, moving, template | 13 Comments
January 24th, 2007
Ok today the packing will move into high gear after we go and pick up some new boxes and packing material. I went downstairs to got through all the boxes we had from our previous move only to discover that after 3 or 4 moves they no longer have much life left in them.
And this time we’re getting good packing tape and lots of it. Nothing I hate more when moving than using tape that peels off while you’re standing there admiring your packed up possessions.
In between all of this of course I am still working on all my blogging stuff (as I mentioned over at BAYB - my blog-fu is strong). I’ve updated this site with the new Wordpress 2.1 and so far i like what I’m seeing. I’ve also upgraded Tracey’s site Quietpaws. This evening after we get back from seeing Madeleine Peyroux I’ll probably update Crypt Hunter and then Pop Culture Heroines. Which reminds me we’ll be having a cool competition on Crypt Hunter in the coming days for a swag of goodies from the very fine people at Digging For The Truth.
Thanks goes out to Navilyn for reminding me of the Wordpress upgrade and also for pointing out that Internet Explorer was having some trouble with Pop Culture Heroines. He is a true gentleman and you should check out his blog.
Whilst plugging other people’s blogs too. My good friend and fellow author on PCH Tisha is on My Point Radio - you can go to the schedule page and get them to send you an email 5 mins before it starts (if you are too lazy to work out time zones like me!!!) If you do miss it you can always go and download it.
Now on to the title topic. I’ve got to leave out a select few books and DVDs for the coming month of being a nomad. I always tend to over do this kind of thing. Wind up with several unread books on topics I’m not interested in. I think I will limit myself to 5 reading books (I’ll need a couple reference ones left out). On the DVD front Babylon 5 is currently getting a work out for me and I’m going to keep the remaining seasons I’ve yet to watch on hand. Everything else is up in the air LOL.
But don’t worry people I will keep you informed because I know you’re all so interested!
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January 22nd, 2007
Well I have to say I was horrified to read the stories regarding things that ahem… fell off the truck or ahem… disappeared in response to the previous post. I know I asked for your comments but they fell a little close to home. As I round up some of the happenings here for the past couple of weeks allow me to share a story about a man and his stone wash denim jacket that ahem… disappeared one move.
Picture a man. Going on a journey. Maybe he is travelling from Brisbane to Canberra maybe it was the other way around. Maybe he can’t remember the exact move when the event happened. A strange occurance happened. Before moving this man owned a stone wash denim jacket. Several months after the move as the temperatures begin to fall said man turns to his wife and asks ‘where’s my stone wash denim jacket?’
Her answer is ‘I dunno.’
His eyes narrow. ‘What do you mean you don’t know?’
Eyebrow arched ‘I don’t know what happened to your ugly denim jacket.’
‘Oh I think you do know!’
‘I PROMISE I don’t know.’
‘mmmmmm’
And that is the end of that. The promise has been made I have to accept that the denim elves stole the jacket in the middle of the night.
On to more pleasant things! We have just launched our latest blog project ‘Pop Culture Heroines‘ so it would be great if everyone can get along and take a look at that blog. We’ve got two articles on there already and we are always looking for submissions!
Ripley and the role of protector in Aliens
The first of the superheroines?
And finally some really good news Quit Your Day Job was reviewed over at Bloggy Award and we got an overall experience rating of 10 which means that we’ve won the right to display the Bloggy Award Winner badge!!! I’ll be adding it to the template sometime over the next couple of days.
And just so you crayola fans aren’t left worrying - in between packing I’m working on a piece that I should have finished by tomorrow and that’ll be the last for a little while until we’re sorted and our of this place.
We have a themed Jack Fact too considering the move - credit goes out to my friend Andrew for this remarkably pointlessly gory one:
Jack Bauer once got told to move from his rented house. He killed the landlord, the real estate agent and ten people who just happened to be walking by. Jack moves for no one.
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January 21st, 2007
That about sums it up. Everyone hates the batman mug we have here at home. If you were to come over and were offered a coffee and we gave it to you in the batman mug (notice how I refuse to put a capital in there) you can assume that we don’t like you. Above is a picture of the mug, there is also a beanie toy of Draco from Dragonheart - everyone loves Draco - everyone hates the batman mug - it has a nice balance.
Why do we keep the batman mug?
I do not know.
Who has to drink out of it all the time?
Me.
Even when I make the coffee (which is lot more often than Tracey would lead you to believe) I get stuck with the damn thing. I take artificial sweetener and without thinking every time I’ll drop it into that mug.
I don’t even know how it came to be the most loathed mug in the house. It has batman written on the front and it is essentially the same in all aspects to a number of other coffee mugs that we have around the house. With the dark knights name on it you would think it would turn into a favourite?
I can’t believe that we’re the only ones in the world who have a coffee mug in their house they really hate?
That’s it.
I wanna hear from all those people out there who have a mug or even a plate that they really hate and have no idea why they still own it.
No hang on I’m going to extend it to anything - vases, furniture, paintings - every one of you must have something in your house that you hate but can’t get rid of!!
Leave a comment saying what it is and why if you know, can’t you get rid of it!!! Don’t lurk!!!
And just to show you that I don’t have a hatred towards all mugs here are my two favourites - drool all you want people (you know you want to - stop hating yourselves for it!)
Popularity: 6% [?]
Categories: Stuff about me |
Tags: Batman, Captain Kirk, mug, Spock | 6 Comments
January 20th, 2007
I’ve got to say I really thought this was a doctored picture when I first saw it. I was reading through Aquaman 33 from 1967 and I found one of the advertisements that they were running at the time. Parents are concerned when they sell plastic guns in the shops now imagine this!!!
I love how it gleefully sells the fact that it fires rockets and torpedoes! The graphic that shows the ICBM being launched next to smiling housewife (who’ll probably have to clean up the nuclear fallout before having dinner on the table) was what finally convinced me though!
Is it only break away rogue soviet states that I can get this now?
Because you have to read the fine print I’ve included a larger image of the advertisement just click on the thumbnail.
Oh and I apologise for the lame title for those of you who got it.
If everyone on “24″ followed Jack Bauer’s instructions, it would be called “12″.
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January 19th, 2007
Ok I usually think that when someone starts examining their spam or referral keywords it’s a good sign that the person has run out of things to write - well that’s not me today I’ve got two other posts in the pipeline but this piece of spam is about the weirdest I think I’ve ever gotten and I had to post it. (fine believe what you want)
It was in response of yesterday’s popcorn post - I’ve left blank links in to give you an idea of where the links were in the original piece - i have of course removed the urls:
Pestcontroler | ******@******.com | http://****** | IP: ********
Hello. Everybody has his own opinion, and here‘s mine. I love popcorn, I collect popcorn-machines. Yesterday I bought a great antique popcorn machine, a very rear! It’s really beautiful, it’s fantastic, I’m the happiest man in the world!
Bye and good luck!
Ummm yeah. I was impressed that it actually addressed essentially the topic. All the links were a combination of ‘popcorn’ related URLs. Honestly I don’t know why you would bother.
I hope somewhere there was a real man who had just bought a popcorn machine and he was indeed the happiest man in the world. Before he was absorbed into the steamy underground that is popcorn related spam.
While I’ve got you all worried about popcorn spam I thought I might plug the fact that I’m over on mybloglog and also on Spicypage both of which I’m under the user name sarge - so why not look me up and add me to your friends or join my blog communities!
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January 18th, 2007
I love the idea of extending ‘hacks’ to the real world as opposed to the computer/electronic world. It isn’t really something I’d given much thought to till today.
My Mum dropped off a care package of stuff that she’d been saving up the past year (we don’t get much of a chance to see each other). Anyway amongst this pack was a couple of packets of microwave popcorn.
I love microwave popcorn but we don’t have a microwave. I’m not sure why we don’t either. We’re not morally opposed to them - I don’t think. But we just don’t have one anymore.
So I’ve got these two packs of microwave popcorn and I’m thinking to myself tonight I just feel like some microwave popcorn. Is there a way to use it without a microwave. the simplest answer is usually the right one of course but I still thought I should check online and see if there is indeed a way to use microwave popcorn without the microwave.
Like I said before the simple answer of just tipping the contents into a saucepan certainly occurred to me but I thought maybe someone had a different way of doing it.
Turns out no.
However I did find an entry on a blog that refers to it as a Popcorn Hack and I just like that idea. Taking a normal item and ‘hacking’ it to suit your purposes. We all do it. Use something a little different than it’s instructions intend to make it suit our purposes.
One thought I had was using the ripping feature on Windows Media Player to help us with minimising our luggage. With the recent dramas of having to move so abruptly we are going to have to live very leanly in regards to having our stuff around us.
I can fit around fifty CDs onto a DVD when they are ripped to Mp3. So now we’re not going to have to lug around 300 odd CDs I’m just going to burn them all to DVD and we’ll either play them on the computer or transfer them to the iPod! I can then pack all the CDs away in storage!
Is that a life hack?
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January 18th, 2007
Well unfortunately this morning we found out that we have to vacate the premises within two weeks. We just completely forgot that our lease was coming up for renewal and it looks like the owners have decided not to continue.
It couldn’t have come at a worst time and I don’t think we’ve ever had to pack up and move within such a short timespan before. What it means is for a couple of weeks maybe even up to a month we’re going to be homeless refugees camping out with relatives.
That brings up all sorts of concerns though mainly to do with our dogs - because we have two dogs we’ll need to get a permit to stay there and from what I read it’s quite complicated so we face the problem of splitting the kiddies up because Baxter the boxer won’t handle the stress of going away to a boarding kennel.
We had to have our dogs in boarding for six months once and it took us ages to get Baxter back to his normal self. It certainly wasn’t the kennels fault it’s just that Baxie doesn’t like being away from his Mum.
Apart from that all our stuff will go into storage briefly whilst we sort out what we’re doing. Maybe we’ll make the move to Melbourne maybe there will be work here in Brisbane which is too good to pass up.
So if you notice that I’m not posting as much or as often that’s the reason why but I don’t imagine too much of a disruption (I hope!).
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