Subtle reasons for not doing this

First things first. This shall be a (possibly) long introduction into what I do to entertain myself of the Internet. OK, no...stop thinking that... let me rephrase, what I do to kill time and ...

..

Oh damn.

There's just no way of putting this that doesn't make me giggle.


Moving on


Web comics

There's a whole bunch i read, with about half being irredeemably geeky and if you are into that, you should really be reading half-heartedly already

Scary Go Round

One I have been reading for awhile now. Think Sean of the Dead, crossed with Friends? or Dawson's Creek maybe? Regardless, keeps me entertained, and gives me a vast array of possibly amazing curses and exclamations that I can slip into my vernacular and make like I am a hipster




Kate Beaton Comics

Historical web comics. Two possible responses for each comic; You 'get' it, and feel ever so clever. Or you don't, which mostly causes me to go live in wikipedia for a while, so I gets some book smarts out of this Internets.



GarfieldMinusGarfield

Oh so sad, and far better then the originals




Last but not least A Softer World.

Just found this recently. Is awesome in the extreme. Bonus points for their 'Over Qualified' section, which would make my day if I ever got something of the ilk



Music Hunting

So perhaps this is a terrible way of doing it, but I don't really like Last.FM and all that stuff, so it's the way I do it and it works for me.

I Google other peoples top 10/top 50 lists (depending on the time of the year. top 10 midyear, top 50 at the end) and then hopefully they have demos on their list that I can peruse.

Why yes, I am aware I am basically regurgitating other peoples opinions. Yes I am aware of that. No I don't believe it make my musical taste bad or any other negative adjective, as I still choose what I like and don't like, and despite what the guy-who-hangs-around-Rev-saying-how-shit-the-music-is told you, just because other people like it, doesn't mean it's not cool or good. Yeah I know, took me a while to grasp as well, but I'm much happier now.

Anyhow, after I find a few bands that catch my ear, count my coppers and fathom that not only can I not afford the joy of music, but I cannot afford the Internet that I am currently devouring I go and download the album. So sue me. If I like it I might go see them live, or buy their next album, which will probably suck and really need the help in sales anyway.

Now I promised a friend I would lay out how I go about this, so this is for you.

First I use uTorrent, which is a bit torrent client. A good, if a bit technical, explanation of bittorents is found here.

Then I go to a site called Torrentz.com, type in the album/band name and click through the links (I prefer to use Mininova or Pirate Bay, but thats just me)

It can take a bit of practice, but you'll get the hand of it. Feel free to ring me if you get stuck

DIY project

Ok, first off, Everyone go and look up Throwies

That done? Good

Now I Have 50 of these suckers, I spent vast fortunes getting the HIGHLY COMPLICATED AND TECHNICAL parts into Australia, avoiding 'THE MAN' the whole way. I was gonna do some thing in Melbourne with them, but didn't... I don't know why...getting them on the plane was a huge hassle...


That said, I want to do something fun with them here in Canberra. but so far my ideas are limited to sticking them on my motorbike and riding around at night getting repeatedly arrested. or doing b exposure shots.. what ever happens first.

Anyone else got any good ideas?

please, help me out here... these things mock me with their wasted potential

Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours

So continuing the electropop run we have Cut Copy's new one. I guess most people have already heard this with airplay and what not, but I'll give an blow by blow

Currently 9 songs in, mostly fairly light stuff. Nothing very dirty or really bass pounding. A few radio numbers, with joining tracks, kinda like what bright eyes did a few albums back on Story..Soil. Kinda like the Nick Cave before, it's good... but nothing has really REALLY grabbed me yet. Maybe it will follow Lazarus and resurrect it self at the end

Eleven songs in, Some really bad leveling, but its ok, it was only 29 secs long.

OOO 13 songs in theres an awesome... Intro?.. that only goes for 1.10 before cutting into more of the same.. sigh


Bah, It will make it onto some playlists for me, but only as party filler or lowkey electro(nic)

Day 3

Things much easier now. Still have energy, and non energy in various intervals, but after some research, I have come to the conclusion that this may be actually a result of my caffeine addiction. Further testing needed

this to happen later...


...Not


Currently considering these

opinions? let me know. there a bit plain, but i kinda like em

Apocalyptic Calypso? thats just stupid

New Presets Album

Third song in; think the less party part of Beams, mixed with the less party part of Midnight Juggernauts.

Interesting fact, My people is apparently about refugees

Six songs in; For some reason I see this as being an awesome cleaning album. Not sure there's anything but the radio hits I would want to hear during a bender though

Interesting fact, This Boy's in Love smells like milk

Eight Songs in; I got hooked on the Beams from the Girl and the Sea, heard over a massive crowd at falls festival. I like weird lyrical songs, so I like that one more then Kitty in the Middle, or Girl. 'If I know you' while it's not as obviously awesome as girl and the sea, seems to be channeling a little bit of the hook

Interesting fact, This repeated fact idea was a poor idea

Eleven songs in; I'm not convinced. Mayhaps it's just the change in style, maybe I should just listen to it more, but this doesn't feel as fun as Beams was. but I could be convinced by more play throughs.


Coming up next, More whinging about the lack of deadly toxins in my lungs, and Cut Copy. possibly followed by shoes

Day 2.5

Middle of the day, at work

So far my non-smoking moods can be catalogued into three different ones

1. Drowsy

this was me last night. I wanted dinner at 4.30 and by 6 I wanted bed. I think I saw the end of GNW so that means I made it to what? 9.30?

2. Hyperactive nervous 'ohgodithinksomeonegavemespeedoreorsomething'

Thats what work was before twelve. I freaked out, started having hot flushes and went to the chemist to see if i was dying. turns out i'm just menepausal. thats a relief. It may also be that my patches are too strong

3. Depresive, grumpy, constantly thinking about smoking

thats what i am now, hence the mid work break to write words to the faceless internet about smoking


I dread to think about next weekend when I might actually have to be around accessible cigarettes. right now, the fact I don't have any, and the fear of killing myself by smoking while on a constant drip of nicotine is working quite well

Day 2

Bah, USB compact flash reader broken no pictures till I can fixes it


I was warned when I started this that my dreams were going to be odd, and while I still don't remember them, I do remember waking up an hour ago thinking "Gee, that was odd". Must try and recall some of the weirder ones. Though may not post them, I suspect at least one was NSFW

Legs still twitching lots, infact, I'm very twitchy all over. Woman at chemist (who incidentally sounded like she had been smoking for 50 years, and then caught something from Tom Waits) told me I wouldn't get addicted to these Circles, but man I wanted a new one bad after I had my shower.

Went to bed at about 10 last night, looking like death. Ask Fergus, he laughed. Perhaps the patches make me drowsy?

Literally Shiny

Hmmm, stuff hey?

So big stuff going on in the Aus games world, with (finally!!) talk happening regarding the introduction of an R18+ rating for games. For reference, we are the only developed country in the world that doesn't have an R18+ rating for 'Interactive Media' which means that anything that is deemed too shocking for a 15 year old to see, doesn't get released in Australia. Which sucks for adults who, you know, like to make their own choices and stuff. It also has a couple of other, unintended effects but I'll get to that in a sec.

For a little bit of background, the average age of someone who regularly buys games for themselves is 28.

The other (unintended) effect of no R rating is that when stuff does get banned/censored in Australia, there's a big spike in two things; buying overseas and shipping it in (already cheaper then buying new in Aus) or just straight out pirating it, both of these things are bad for the australian development community and bad for the (sigh) economy.

enough on that

New shoes



Most of you who are looking at this have prob seen them, but I like them lots so more photos!!



And finally, as of today, I am trying to quit smoking. there's a funny looking circle on my arm and my leg is twitching a lot. Lets all hope work doesn't stress the fuck out of me. Talking about work, I didn't get the job I was going for, but they did encourage me to keep applying, which gives me some hope.

Blogs to read?

Anyone know of any blogs worth tracking? I hit up a variety of the Gawker group several times a day, but would like some other stuff to stea... inspire me. Specifically I would love a good one about sneakers, as all my current purchases are just going on what looks good at the time, and I do so love to obsess over stuff.

On that note... I think I shall purchase these. They shall go nicely with my blue suit

Being new to blogs (except as a reader of the bigger ones) if found this article on Nick Denton and the whole Gawker group interesting. Given that I spend a few hours a day generally reading through three or four of the group's feeds, the realisation that I am essentially reading a news aggregate was a little disturbing. Of course, the reason they are successful is partly that they have decent writers interpreting the news for the unwashed masses (me) and partly because of the strength of the community comments. But isn't this true of all the bigger blogs? What would icanhascheezburger be if it didn't have a goddamn legion of fanatics scrawling words on pictures of cats?

So is fark a blog on stupid people, or a directory of news stories? What's the difference between it and Digg? Are Kotaku and Gizmodo serious publications on Gaming and IT, or just a 'best of' RSS feed? Does it even matter? I read stuff in national newspapers that has been taken verbatim from Gawker sites, and SONY even blackballed Kotaku, which doesn't make sense if they are just recycling stories from traditional stories. Interesting to me anyway

We are just too pretty for God to let us die

So, sitting here listening to Tom Waits trying to buy shoes on Ebay, I figured now was as good a time as any to get over my hatred for my writing. First post, lets see... I guess I need to talk about what I might be writing; an introduction of sorts. Well I've already mentioned music and kicks (weird term, not sure if I like it or not), so I guess that leaves stuff I steal from the Gawker group and ranting. Must remember to rant.

All in all I don't know what I want to share or achieve with this except perhaps a forum where I can share some sort of stream of consciousness vomit (why should it just be my housemates that are subjected to it).

One last thing, for those who know me, if I make any sort of promises on here, such as giving up smoking, attending weekly basketball etc etc I fully expect you to call me out on it if I fail; preferably here so the whole world (ok, the five other people reading this) can laugh and point things at me.

New Nick Cave album.

I just read the profile of Nick cave and the Bad Seeds on Last.FM where they are described as a Supergroup (wiki). Not sure I'm down with that. Bad connotations and all. Regardless, I am liking this, though their output is so consistently good it's hard to say on the first listen how it compares to their previous stuff. Yes, its good, but I haven't heard any standout songs like Nature boy or The Ship Song.

Better Then: Nocturama
Worse Then: Abattoir Blues

EDIT: Just got to More News from Nowhere (file). O.K. there's the single. This is stunning, It's got the classical references, its about sex and love and murder, and I can't tell if it makes me happy or sad; in short it's perfect Nick Cave. Listening to it again