Weekend

On Saturday I had an excellent time celebrating the wedding of Sid and Sarah. Since I don't generally post photos of people without a web presence, the evidence below is fairly lightweight...

The ceremony took place right by the Carillon:



Here I am enjoying the sun and my free balloon:



Between the wedding and reception, we all enjoyed a Hawks grand final win, Spuddy more than all of us:



Then, after much merriment, an entirely sober me was still smiling, long after my bedtime:

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Music, listening to

I upgraded to iTunes 8 earlier in the week, and it has two main new features:

(1) A grid view to let you navigate albums and artists by the pretty cover art. If you happen to listen to your music whole albums at a time rather than via playlists, the new grid view will be perfect for you. For me, it just gets in the way.
(2) The "Genius" music suggester which can create an automatic playlist from your own library, based on a selected track, as well as give you options for music you might like to buy from the iTunes store. The accuracy I've seen so far isn't bad, but the last thing I really need is more options for parting with cash.

One other thing I had a look at was Songbird, an open source iTunes-alike. If you want more customisability, and don't have an established addiction to the iTunes/iPod combo, this could easily be the option for you. It's designed to allow easy music discovery (either free or for purchase), and you can replace the often-gappy album art of iTunes with access to Last.FM (and presumably other sources) instead. It grabs data from an existing iTunes library easily, and plays even iTunes-store-purchased music quite happily. It doesn't include podcasts or movies (by default anyway) but these may well be  available add-ons, which would mean it can do anything I already use iTunes for. It recognised my iPod, but I wasn't game to risk synching from it, since some of my content wasn't visible, and could easily have disappeared.

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New playthings?

It'd been a while since I last tried out a new flavour of social network, so I splurged on a handful of online aggregators today, looking for something which compared favourably with Facebook for pulling together my various activities across blogging, music, photo and bookmarking sites. Sadly, nothing really succeeded.

Out of the multitude of available options, I had an initial play with the following: FriendFeed, Mugshot, SecondBrain, Youmeo, and SocialURL.

Of these, FriendFeed was really the only one to come close to what I was looking for, delivering a seamless RSS feed from 7 of the sites I use. Normally that would only be useful for someone-not-me, since I'm the one putting the content there in the first place, so an update to the feed shouldn't really surprise me. However, FriendFeed allows you to define "imaginary" friends, by specifying their public pages (e.g. blogs, Flickr, LibraryThing) and it turns that all into one big combined feed. To be honest, that's not immediately useful, since I already subscribe to a host of individual feeds giving me the same info, but if my PC dies or I'm away from home it would make getting updates much easier.

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Balance

More Wii news:

• I've had to adjust the Wii Fit exercises I was doing, as I've been suffering from a nasty aggravation of ankle tendonitis (something which was creeping upon me even pre-Wii). Easing off on some bits of yoga and hard stepping seems to be helping, and in the meantime my abs and back get the workout they sorely need.
• I've successfully survived an entire week of self-imposed Zelda ban, after averaging more than 5 hours a day seemed a bit extreme. Will I return to my virtual adventuring soon? Time will tell.
  

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Getting rid of the bother

I recommend having your phone offline for a couple of weeks (replacing it with VOIP), as it seems (for now) that after years of multiple telemarketer calls every single day, I have had not one in 2 weeks. My phone number remains the same, the persistent "hello... hello... is anyone there..." no longer cluttering my answering machine is a welcome change.

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Wii madness

I overdid the Wii fitness somewhat on the weekend, so have toned it back a little to avoid killing myself with activity. However, I've swapped that craziness for a solid 20 hours of Zelda playing over the past few days. Always my favourite title on the SNES and N64, Zelda has exceeded even my high expectations. Due to my lameness at game playing, I've barely scratched the surface of the game, so I have weeks more of obsession to get through before any closure-disappointment looms :)

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Another DVD batch

The latest set of titles to be devoured by the insatiable, but reclining, laziness that is my life:

Eureka S2 (awesome), Birds Of Prey (Dina Meyer), Pretty In Pink (OK), Short Circuit (Ally Sheedy), Zathura (great), LXG (looked pretty), The Neverending Story (80's flashback), The Pretender S4 and telemovies (poetic justice aplenty), Mr Show S3 (patchy), Bones S1-2 (fantastic).

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Mii fit

On Wednesday I bought myself a Wii and associated Wii Fit, since the crappy weather (and my inability to get interested in either exercise bike riding or weights again) has interrupted my regular walking exercise. Plus I've reached my weight target of 86kg and so need an extra push of motivation to add a little fitness to my leaner frame.

I didn't really know what to expect, never even having tried out a Wii before, but I'm thoroughly impressed by its ease of use (although even a little golf managed to give my back a workout!) and I think it'll be money well spent as far as a continued drive to restoring my health. Amazingly, I even did a little jogging tonight, the first time I've moved faster than a speedy walk for 3.5 years (since I gave up basketball), and the jaunty Nintendo accompaniment made it entirely palatable.

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Semi-sans email

Not that my absence from here would be especially noteworthy, but in case you try to contact me in the next week or two, I'm running on dialup (at best) while my new ADSL account is setup. The advantage is that will then give me 80 times the speed of my old "broadband", free local/STD phone calls and no more Telstra dependency. And all for $15/month less than I currently pay!

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Aforementioned DVDs

Hmmm, that didn't take long... The list of DVDs I've ploughed through since I last wrote is extensive, so here's an indicative list:

Watched - The IT Crowd S1-2, Eureka S1, I Am Legend, Michael J. Fox's Spin City Favourites, Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs, Jericho S2, The Addams Family, Addams Family Values, Flight of the Conchords S1, The 4400 S4, Resident Evil Extinction, People Like Us S1-2, Sliders S4, Southland Tales

Re-watched - Angel S1-5, Arrested Development S1-3, My Name Is Earl S1-2, Newsradio S1-5, Back to the Future 1-3, the John Hughes collection, The Pretender S1-3, Mr Show S1-2

What I'm watching now - The Pretender S4, Mr Show S3, Red Dwarf S1

What I'll be watching as soon as they arrive (today?) - Eureka S2, Birds of Prey

If I was the type of person who rated things, I'd have to choose some kind of favourite... but I'm not, so I enjoyed every single minute of the watching :)

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Yesymbak

OK, I'd be surprised if anyone's even bothering to check this blog any more, after my extended absence, but here goes with a return of sorts:

That "cold" I succumbed to last post turned out to entirely wreck my health for an extended period, my CFS flaring up as badly as it had for a decade. I am now mostly recovered due to:

• many hours in bed over April and May,
• a reduction in my work hours from 30 to 20 hours a week,
• various relaxation strategies,
• an even healthier eating regime,
• the (intentional) loss of 10kg in 19 weeks.

So now I sit here in my transformed body, fairly content enjoying some "alone time" (which is admittedly a lot of DVD watching) and with little of interest to write :)

Will I continue to post, or am I over the public persona that is Bertie? Only time will tell...

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Some more walking

I've now hit 22 walks for the month, which'll have to do as my new record as my body's finally succumbed to a cold which has been mounting since last Thursday. But I'll still have the memories of a significant first step returning to exercise:

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A start

To commemorate the equaling of my all-time-monthly-walking record of 19 (with 5 days left to go), I thought I'd take a few snapshots of new areas (or different angles of old areas) along my extended marching path.







If you like those, there are plenty more here.

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Where it's at

So what has my first week of holiday contained? Walking (as promised), DVD watching (as expected), drawing (as hoped) and lots of "me time". My energy levels remain low, and I can't seem to establish a sleeping routine that actually works, but this getting healthy business is a long-term project, so I'm not disillusioned just yet. Especially since I've already lost my first kilo.

For those wanting a bit more info on what I've been watching:

Quantum Leap - the final season
The Expurgated Micallef Tonight
The Bourne Ultimatum
Extras - The Christmas Special
The Dresden Files
National Treasure
Battlestar Galactica: Razor
Star Trek Insurrection
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
SNL - Best of David Spade

Hmmm, when I write it up like that, I'm surprised I've had time for anything else!

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Dragging

In one more week (3 actual work days), I'll be embarking on 7 weeks of leave from work, with my singular goal being to rebuild my health, and regain some semblance of living. For the past couple of months, it's been all I can do to get out of bed, and eating has been far from pain-free. I've had just enough in me to drag myself through work days (which is frustrating, because I really love my job) and then collapse back to the horizontal.

So where is this magic goal of health going to come from? On doctor's orders, I have a reasonable expectation that if I cut out almost all processed food (mostly 'cause of the sodium) and lose at least 4 (and up to 9) kilos, both my nausea and my fatigue will be minimised (I'm well past believing in a cure). Sadly, that seems all too much like common sense for good general health anyway, so I have no excuse but to follow instructions!

Cue a committed return to walking, weights, cycling and stretches... next week...

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More movies

Another batch of watched DVDs to report on...

Day Watch
The follow-up to Night Watch, sensibly enough! Not as good as the first, but still an interesting journey through a stylish fantasy world, with a uniquely Russian flavour. The effects are great, and trying to work out what exactly is going on kept me watching.

Poseidon
One word: Spectacle. Josh Lucas and Kurt Russell are excellent co-leaders, and the supporting cast was also successful in making me care enough about them to not want them to die (with one exception, watch and see if you can guess who annoyed me). Especially good was seeing Mia Maestro in a non-Alias role.

Bender's Big Score
The long-awaited first of three straight to DVD Futurama movies, this is an excellent addition to the 4 series I've rewatched so many times. 90 minutes of mind-bending time travel, in-jokes aplenty, nude aliens and Fry's butt. For the truly nerdy (i.e. me) there's even a video lecture on the maths of Futurama.

10 Things I Hate About You
I'd only seen this once (or maybe twice) before, but after my latest viewing I'm surprised this hasn't been one of my fallbacks for more frequent viewing. Lots and lots of laughs, relationships you can root for and a happy ending. Hurrah!

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One more

Slither
Eager for a Nathan Fillion fix? Not bothered by some (read as 'lots of') gratuitous gore? This just may be for you. Plenty of laughs to be had, largely through Fillion's Bill Pardy character and his realistic reactions to the craziness of alien worm infestation. Not for the squeamish, but enjoyable for others.

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This week's movies

Sunshine
Do you like happy endings? Do you like everyone to live? Then this is not the movie for you. But if you like your sci-fi with a touch of 2001 style (without the boredom) and horror (but nothing too graphic), then you should enjoy the latest movie from the director of Trainspotting.

Tomb Raider 2
Good, escapist fun, which is exactly what I was hoping for. If you didn't like (or want to watch) the first one, don't bother with this. Otherwise, switch off brain and enjoy :)

Loaded Weapon 1
A blast from the past, with quality deadpan work from Emilio Estevez and Samuel L. Jackson, Kathy Ireland, and lots of great cameos. At only 80 minutes long, it sensibly doesn't overstay its welcome, as maintaining rapid-fire sight gags for too long just gets old.

Die Hard 4.0
Ah, John McClain, how I've missed you. This is exactly how OTT action movies should be! Will the hacker be a hero? Watch and find out.

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Waves

My slow health improvement continues, with a solid work quota last week, although ending in a day of sleep on Saturday to recover. The photo above shows I didn't miss much...

Today begins my hesitant return to walking, after 5 weeks without any significant exercise.

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Harrumph

It's been a long time between posts, mostly because my last fortnight has been little more than bed-rest, with occasional breaks to eat and gradually ease back into work, plus a couple of conversations with Liv which were real bright spots.

Despite the illness, my mood has remained quite positive, probably because my eating has remained unaffected :) I'm well and truly sick of the lingering cough that remains, but pleased that the first 2 days of this week were almost full work days, and didn't result in total exhaustion. The slow process of rebuilding my superhero-like strength and stamina now begins ;)

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Finally!!!

I've spent more than two-thirds of my voting life frustrated by a Liberal government focused on their exclusively financial dogma, with no regard for anyone but the already affluent. From a purely self-centred viewpoint, it makes no difference to the comfort level of my life who is in power. I own my own home, have a solid education and well-paid job. But I'm in the minority, and I don't believe Australia can be sold as being prosperous while so many are still disadvantaged.

Yesterday's election marks a long overdue turning point, where social justice is high on the priority list. I had become demoralised reading ALP policy, knowing that the existing government had no intention of changing their ways. This morning I'm able to look at those same Labor policies with hope and enthusiasm, a genuine belief that things will improve. For example, just the initiatives mentioned in this Julia Gillard speech a few days ago illustrate a radical change in focus from the last 11 years.

I feel like a huge weight of decade-long cynicism has been lifted from my shoulders and I dare to dream of Australia becoming the country I want it to be, untainted by the impersonal, workers-as-drones, everyone-for-himself world our former government was pushing, but can no longer progress.

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Remembering

Due to my hatred of shopping, I've delayed upgrading my PC's memory for waaay too long, coping with the almost constant thrashing caused by 512 MB of RAM plus too many hungry apps. Yesterday I bought an extra gig of RAM via the magic of e-commerce, it arrived via post today, and it has now tripled my available memory in one go, making those greedy apps work much more smoothly, and making my impatience less of an issue.

Of course the ridiculous heat means I will only be able to enjoy the newfound performance boost in short, few-minute gasps before having to escape the sauna that is my computer room... Roll on winter!

[DVD] Transformers

I watched this (birthday present) with some trepidation, as I didn't want my fond childhood memories of the Transformers squashed. Luckily, there was a decent amount of transforming going on (although too light on the classic sound effect). I'm sure I missed out on some of the spectacle by not seeing it on a cinema screen, but it was still an enjoyable diversion, and fits well with the other entries in the Michael Bay ouevre already in my collection - Bad Boys, Armageddon and The Island.

Add to that the unbeatable timbre of Optimus Prime's oration and the imposing DVD case (above), and it's a tidy little package (with over 2 hours of running time value).

[DVD] Bones - Season 2

I hungrily devoured this long-awaited season, and was left satiated (how's that for some metaphor, huh?). The humour is finely balanced with the horror of the subject matter, and the characters and their relationships continue to deepen, with the knowledge of a third season currently screening in the US giving me further involving stories to look forward to.

Episode 9, "Aliens in a Spaceship", is particularly powerful and totally absorbed me, despite having no aliens and no spaceship. Plus you can't go wrong throwing Stephen Fry into the mix for a few episodes.

[DVD] Boston Legal - Season 3

I can't rave enough about Boston Legal, it just gets better with each season. It is genuinely exceptional in its storytelling and performances, and manages to deliver important messages (relevant to a broad audience, given the Americanisation of world culture) without ever getting preachy. It ranges widely in tone across hilarious, touching, powerful and thought-provoking, without ever skipping a beat. The Alan/Jerry and Claire/Clarence relationships in this season are particular favourites of mine. I also enjoyed every moment the 4th wall was kicked down, allowing the show to be enjoyed for its absurdity along with its pathos.

Wonder years

I've been trapped in my own thoughts the past few weeks, really struggling to get any coherence out of my head, Thank to Em, and a lunchtime chat with her today, the worst of my cyclic mulling has been removed. And it would be a shame to waste this taste of clarity, so I've returned to my neglected blog. (Disclaimer: The following may bear no resemblance to clarity as you understand the term...)

Here's what was crystallised by talking to Em, but was triggered by my brief period of acting director. Without realising it, I'd settled into a management routine and was no longer questioning my skills. The additional responsibility of my temporary role forced me to review many assumptions, and I found myself wanting. As I wound back to my previous role, I've been leaning back towards the hands-on technical (i.e. programming) part of my previously people-focused role. This reaction could have at least two interpretations:

1 ... Having exposed a lack of interest in taking on a broader, more challenging management role, I've decided to give building another go, shifting the career direction I'd been taking, away from the project/people management.

2 ... Scared to actually have to work at the parts of my job I already felt I was outstanding in, but proved myself wrong about, I've gone scurrying back to the black and white of code.

To be honest, I don't really know which of these is most accurate! And my perception of a lack of ability in the management area, or being able to step up another level, have had no external drivers. The feedback from others on my time in the acting role was exclusively positive. Being aware of this internal uncertainty at least allows me to work towards establishing/confirming goals for myself career-wise. While I miss the comfy rut I'd created, I at least know I need to reset my path. What will it be? Excitement awaits!

[DVD] Veronica Mars - S3

Less than 48 hours (and exactly 20 episodes) after the final season began, it also ended :(

On a positive note, the quality remained high throughout, the new characters who appeared once college started supplemented the cast really well, there were plenty of laughs, as well as some genuine suspense. While I'm disappointed the Veronica FBI season didn't get the go-ahead, and the ending left plenty of unanswered questions, it was one enjoyable ride.

In the place where I work

I'm on the verge of a move from the too-much-sun environs of 2S to hopefully window-free 5S and, since no one else was in when I arrived at 7.30 the other day, I took the opportunity to record for posterity my current luxurious space.

First a glimpse at my Mr. Happy, "I'm So Happy" Droopy and mini-dolphin, who sit beneath my monitor and remind me of... friends? ... something? ... hmmm...



Then there's the sweep of my desk, encompassing my array of snacks, piles of paper (which I'm forced to endure due to a complete lack of wall space) and my purdy VoIP phone...



Finally, the whole expanse of my double space, with meeting desk, electronic whiteboard and test PC desk, looking out over not only my team but the entire floor, master of some of what I survey...



I bet you wish you were me right now :)

I... am waiting... for a bus

7am... Friday morning... Sensational clouds...

Waiting for lunch

Here are a few photos I took while sitting by Lake G waiting to have lunch at Black Pepper with Liv, Em, K and L a few weeks back.

Blergh

A brief little note to celebrate an upcoming 5 days of R&R, the finale to a 4 month Director stint which has been enjoyable but draining. And my microwave has finally returned home!

I've watched My Name Is Earl S2, Millennium S2 and the first season of 30 Rock over the past few weeks, and now have Boston Legal S3 and Seinfeld S9 (plus the impending arrival of Bones S2 and Veronica Mars S3) to look forward to, as I head into a month with only 6 more working days, and a whole lot of holiday.

Plus I might occasionally get out of my recliner to go for some walks... we'll see...

Lunch ahoy!

I have to say that the past week was almost universally excellent, despite my lack of hot food.

I had lunch with friends on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and my stomach behaved itself amazingly well (until last night, there's something about Fridays...).

Plus, I did a bunch of drawings which are now clogging up my Media Empire.

In addition to all that (which would have been enough), work was really positive, and I actually felt like I earned my Director $'s. I'm even overly enthusiastic about the stuff which should fall into place over the next month to better position our publishing process/systems to handle our future web directions.

The dark ages

Almost 12 months to the day after my last microwave kicked it, I find myself again lacking in nuclear power. I've heard it's possible to heat food using something called a "stove", but I have yet to be convinced...

Spider-Man 3

I finally got around to watching this, and wasn't disappointed. There's a weird tonal change a bit over halfway through the movie, as an alien parasite turns Peter Parker into 70's John Travolta, but that's funny rather than jarring. Venom looks great, and the fight scenes suitably one-up the earlier movies.

Heroes

My well-practiced patience, having waited until the DVD release to watch Heroes, was amply paid off by an absorbing 3 day marathon, where each episode was better than the last. It even had me saying aloud "That's awesome" several times, despite watching it solo.

Of course I now have to wait another year to watch Season 2...

American Gothic

I was thoroughly enjoying my viewing experience of the American Gothic blast from the past until the completely-out-of-order episodes kicked in, and any narrative flow disappeared entirely. Now you may well say "Bertie, surely it can't have been that bad". And I'll reply with the ordering of the episodes, rearranging the order they appear on the DVDs and listing them in the order they should be viewed:

1-5, 19, 6-7, 14, 13, 8, 20, 9-12, 15, 21, 16, 22, 17-18

"Hmmm," you say, "I agree Bertie, that's seriously f**ked up!!!"

The problem here is that I'd watched the first 12 eps before I noticed anything wrong, and by then it was far too late.

On the positive side, the performances were excellent, with some genuinely conflicted characters, and the slowish in-episode pacing creates a uniquely unsettling mood. Not to mention that (when watched in DVD order) you can't possibly predict what's going to happen next...

Brisbane

I've slipped out of the photo-taking habit, so my Brisbane photos from the weekend are exclusively of the ride from the airport:



and the view from my balcony:



But they give a good impression of just how great the weather was, and how different the sights are to my usual Canberra vantage.

Congratulations!

While it was quite a struggle for me health-wise, I'm incredibly glad I had the opportunity to be in Brisbane for Linda and Byron's wedding this weekend. My friends, many now from distant capitals (as well as those from Canberra I don't see often) have always helped me to push through my many varieties of chronic illness, and this was no exception. Thankfully, a few doses of sleep since I got home have taken the edge off the crappiness of my body, and I now have a couple of days to relax, enjoy the rest of a 5 day weekend, and be ready to launch back into work on Thursday. 48 hours of Brisbane trip with only about 5 hours of sleep certainly makes time go by slowly, and while that can be a double-edged sword, I didn't get cut too badly this time around ;)

Not a bad weekend really

• The Eels snuck through in the first round of the finals.
  
• The Hawks also won.
  
• Had one of my Flickr photos "published"
• Sunday morning has returned to fine weather, allowing me to walk again.
• I've watched many, many episodes of Veronica Mars (Season 1), in preparation for the DVD release of the final season next month.
• My new DVD shelves have been installed, giving me room to grow my collection to even more ridiculous widths.
  

So very lazy

In the absence of having anything to say...



You scored as Wallace Fennel, You are an awesome friend and Veronica's sidekick, but you don't mind... except you're afraid of getting expelled for getting all of those permanent records.

Wallace Fennel		50%
Veronica Mars		44%
Backup (2.0)		44%
Logan Echolls		38%
Keith Mars		25%
Lilly Kane		13%
Duncan Kane		13%
Eli		0%

Which Veronica Mars Character Are You?
created with QuizFarm.com
To be honest, I expected Keith Mars, daggy and bald :)

Gorgonzola mittens

As you can see, I made a (successful) last gasp effort at my cycling, 85km in the last 3 weeks, before I switched over to walking to take advantage of the fine spring weather. So this particular graph has come to an end, but I have just returned from my 6th hour-long walk in the past 6 days, ready for my Thursday rest day.

I'm halfway through Sliders S3, and thoroughly enjoying yet another reminiscing TV experience, as well as finally completing my Fast and the Furious trilogy, with an adrenaline pumping Sunday night viewing of Tokyo Drift (aka Fastest and Furiousest).

Interesting? No. My life? Yes.

What else?

And since I finally found the receipt telling me what other DVDs I'd seen the past few weeks...

The Illusionist - You can't go wrong with Edward Norton, and this is a moody murder mystery very different to what I'd expected.

Pan's Labyrinth - Meshes the horrors of the real world seamlessly with fantasy elements to create a distinctly Guillermo del Toro vision. Don't watch this if you're looking for some chuckles, but it's the movie equivalent of a compulsive page turner, really drawing you through to the end.

Hot Fuzz - Just as good the second time around, and having watched the first season of Spaced (with many of the same creative talents involved) since I saw this at the cinema, it's enjoyable seeing just how many of the action techniques were already in place back on Spaced, just cranked up to a larger scale here.

X-Men 3 - Some cool set pieces, but ultimately lacking the sense of real threat which X2 had.

Click - Not the laugh-fest the premise suggests, really focuses more on opportunities lost, with the middle third quite dark... then again... Kate Beckinsale!

Doom - Not bad as videogame adaptations go (at least I'd actually played the game in this case). A couple of surprises, but really it's all about the first person shooter scene which comes late in the movie.

Trontastic

The past 2 weeks have been quite a health struggle, with first my fatigue and then a return of nausea. Neither has been so extreme as to require time off work, or even a return to the doctor (yet), but it's taken up all of my energy and concentration just to get through each day, meaning blogging has been low on my priority stack.

In an attempt to push past this latest illness bout, I've returned to walking, thankfully enabled by a couple of awesome, warm days this weekend. A little over 3 hours of traipsing the suburbs since I got home from work Friday, with DVD watching in between to ensure recovery.

So, what have I been watching?

Tron - I hadn't seen this since my early teens, and I was surprised how well the effects hold up. Maybe I'm viewing it through nostalgic, old-school computing eyes, but it almost made me want to return to coding again.

Alexei Sayles' Stuff - a blast from my mid-teens past, this was mandatory viewing for me on TV back in the laste 80's. And it still has plenty of laughs. If you want to see socialist philosophers advertorialising press-on nails and hair curlers, this is the comedy for you.

The Late Show Presents Bargearse and The Olden Days - Far too many years in coming to DVD, but still genuinely funny, with a few extra tastes of other Late Show sketches.

Thank God You're Here S2 - Sadly only 10 eps long, but this is an even stronger season than the first, which was already hilarious.

The 4400 S3 - Another excellent season, with heaps of surprises all too rare on TV. Thankfully a 4th season is being made, so the story continues.

Return of the G-Raph

The sad fact is that graphs are more exciting than any other content I could write about... So, rather than fight it, I've brought back the most potent weapon in my action-selling arsenal.

At a minimum, this graph shows that, contrary to my usual routine-in-everything, my cycling is either on or off. All up a total of 230km over 3 months, which is actually less than I walked during my year-of-the-repetitive-'burb-circuits. Time for me to up my effort!

Why movies are...

... awesome

• The Simpsons Movie lived up to my expectations, and really ramped up the scale of animation, and took advantage of the longer run time. Plenty of laughs, great in jokes, and pretty much every character who's ever appeared in an episode shows up.

... crappy

• $15.50 for a ticket.
• It took 3 staff 10 minutes to get through the 4 people in line in front of me.
• I got into the cinema 10 minutes after the movie was supposed to start, and still had to wait another 5 minutes before the trailers even started.
• Is "Bratz" really a movie which will appeal to Simpsons fans?

Ah, just like the good old days of "the whinge"!

Memory lane

My photo excursion with Liv this afternoon included an aimless wander at the edges of the ANU, my old stomping grounds, and it left me with only positive memories of a more complex time in my life. Since I left uni, my life has become progressively simpler and easier, and this jaunt brought that cheery truth home to me.

That's all wonderful, I hear you say, but what did it look like? Something like this...

Dodge

While I maintain my MySpace moratorium, I've been sucked into the newer, hipper version Facebook. One feature it has which has made me quite a convert is that I can set it up to import my posts from this blog and have them display as Facebook notes. Excellent idea!

[Music] The Else

They Might Be Giants new album is chock full of catchy tunes, and sits nicely alongside their many other excellent albums. While I didn't dislike The Spine quite as much as most critics seemed to, this is certainly an improvement, with every track a worthy single.

What's that? You missed my point? ... I like this album :)

[Music] New Maps of Hell

Bad Religion are still going strong in their third decade of pumping out politi-punk, and I love their new stuff as much as I did when I discovered them back in '92 with Stranger Than Fiction. You won't hear more intelligent punk rock anywhere.

En garde

While I have no real aspiration to be a Director, I've quite enjoyed my first week of EL2 acting (with another 5-11 weeks to go). The transition has been far easier for me given that:

1. my team leader role had me overseeing 60% of the staff/projects in my section already,
2. I've been in the section for 18 months, and am familiar with all the clients and most of the systems,
3. my boss is still around, just in a changed role.

Pretty much the ideal intro :)

Outside of work, I've finished watching 3 seasons of Alias over the past month, along with plenty of Scrubs, a dash of Fawlty Towers and, over the past couple of days, several movies...

Boytown - I was always going to enjoy this, Mick Molloy and Co. never having let me down before. While there was not nearly enough Bob Franklin, and the ending was a bit "down", this was a good way to wind down the end of my working week.

Ghost Rider - The effects were very cool, Eva Mendes looked great, but otherwise it was only so-so. I admit I'm not any kind of big fan of the comic, but it just plain didn't grab me as a Rider newbie.

Pulse - One word: Kristen Bell :) It did a good job of being creepy, but hasn't scared me away from my computer...

Away

Long gaps between posts for me usually means one of two things. Either I'm sick/depressed or I'm happily doing stuff, without analysing it enough to feed into musing posts. In this case it's been both. I've thankfully recovered fully from last weekend's gastro, and am eating as "normal". I haven't started back into riding my bike yet, but have been busily drawing away.

While I've had very little sleep the past week, that time has not been spent pondering my place in the universe, but just unthinkingly enjoying my current health (robust enough to dismiss illness which would have had me bedridden for weeks if it had hit 12 months ago) and lack of stress. And unthinking is good for me, but not really fodder for blogging...

Urrrgggh

To quote an email I sent out on Friday:

"I've managed to get through the first 6 months of the year without a single sick day"

To quote the doctor who came around at 1am this morning, as he gave me an anti-nausea injection, after I'd spent the last 4 hours throwing up:

"You have viral gastroenteritis"

All I've been able to stomach today is one litre of diluted apple juice, and I haven't even felt that hungry, which tells you just how sick I've been. Thankfully, my backlog of podcasts has kept me company as I've lain in bed drifting in and out of naps. I'm only up now while I wait for my iPod to recharge, before I go back to bed, knowing that tomorrow will be sans work.

Finery and drapery

My day in pictures:

Sight restoration... almost

Got home to the news that my glasses have arrived, so tomorrow I will pick up my replacement eyes and will finally be able to see sans blurriness. Expect drawings and blog posts to quickly follow!

Bkrnd Bwrtey

Blog posts and drawings will probably be thin(ner) for the next several days, as my only pair of glasses is having new (stronger!) lenses put in place. While I can see without them, it's much harder on my eyes and brain, and I need both of those for getting through hours of blurry work. Luckily I have DVDs to console me :)

Windy and windy

Here's what it looks like when I go for a scenic tour on the way to and from the National Gallery with my good friend Liv:

Realisation of entropy

A continuation of yesterday's theme, my day at work today was amazingly good. Not because everything worked out (in fact there were/are significant dramas and stresses in a number of cross-section and interpersonal relationships going on). But I realised that I'm genuinely contributing to improving things, to minimise damage where needed, while adding value to my team's decisions.

A couple of times I found myself spontaneously smiling and being grateful for where my work life sits right now. Whatever it is that I'm doing is exactly what I want to be doing (even in spite of working 8-5 with no lunch break, practically workaholic in my usual terms).

I even had the energy left over to ride 10km, and add my latest drawing ... and now I'm off to bed to rest my weary eyes, as I'm forced to wait another week or so for the inevitable news of a changed eyeglass prescription, to hopefully improve a waning focus which threatens my burgeoning artistic habit.

Sunny side up

All the work I've been putting in to developing a more positively focused mindset seems to be getting to the point of automatic now.

Exhibit A - A thoroughly frustrating and pointless day of meetings a couple of Mondays back had me ready to explode with annoyance, as I headed home. My solution? 20 minutes of weights and 10km cycling, and all the ill will towards the world was gone, allowing me to relax into an evening of DVD watching, the anomaly of a bad work day not to be perpetuated into a bad week.

Exhibit B - On Friday, I got home from work feeling pretty good about achievements over the past couple of days. As I went to put a couple of cartons of So Good in the fridge, one slipped from my hand and smashed on the ground, leaking soy milk all over the floor. With a shrug of the shoulders, I grabbed a cloth, cleaned up, salvaged what I could of the carton's contents, then went about my cheery way. This is certainly not the Bertie of the past.

Exhibit C - After an excellent time catching up with friends in Civic last night (despite any angry-looking photos you might see!), my last bus home drove away within eyesight but out of running distance. Rather than being angry about it, I strolled to the taxi rank and appreciated the much faster ride home, including an enjoyable conversation with my African taxi driver (who was actually enjoying the start of winter, saying he'd had enough of heat!). I was snugly in bed 20 minutes before I would have even been home via bus, and that's (occasionally) worth the extra $30.

None of that's to say I'm the perfect beacon of cheer, but I certainly feel more resilient in dealing with the inevitable downs of life. Not only good for me, but certainly better for those around me too :)

Engaging virtuosity

Just in case you thought I'd lost my camera, and only had time for sketches, here are some shots I took on Thursday evening, when I got off the bus and began my walk to my family's place.

Purdy!

Birdy!

Dunno

It only took 5 days for the below pic to move to #4 in my most viewed Flickr pics. While I'm happy with how it turned out, I don't think it's anywhere near my best drawing. So, somehow, despite not tagging it with "hot bikini chick" or some other obvious fodder, it eclipses all my other creative works! The web is a weird and wonderful and wacky place - that's what www stands for you know ;)

P.S. It still has a way to go to catch up with the #1 viewed pic on my Flickr account, which was pushed up to its astronomical heights by the favouriting of foot fetishists (ah, alliteration abounds):

Adventure thy name is Bertie

As misleading titles go, that's a doozy :)

However, the last few days have been very active for me, in an almost totally sedentary way. Roughly 10 hours of drawing spread across the weekend, followed by my entire team being away on a training course today, leaving me to carry the burdensome load all on my own.

Bought a replacement DVD player at lunchtime because my current one started acting up last week, and I have too many new TV DVDs to watch to tolerate that (Family Guy, The Larry Sanders Show, and Thank God You're Here, to name a few).

When I got home from work, a malfunctioning security screen kept me out of my house, luckily rescued by a quick call to my Dad, bearer of useful tools. Which only removed my excuse not to do an hour of weights and cycling, before setting up aforementioned DVD player and spending the rest of the evening in front of the TV.

Now, if you try to say all of the preceding run-on sentences out loud, in a single exhalation, you will capture the sheer, breathless magnificence which is my existence ;)

Hobbyist

A little update...

I've been busy doing weights and cycling (working hard to get my waistline shrinking rather than expanding again), as well as watching many a DVD - Blackadder, Clerks 2, and Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny to name a few.

But, more importantly to me, I've finally regained my drawing passion. I'm seeing steady improvement as I do a lot more drawing, which is heartening, and it totally absorbs me while I have pencil to paper, which is rare these days, my concentration flagging steadily as time goes on. As my proof, below are a couple of my favourites from last night and this morning.

Eurovision triumph?

OK, I take it all back. Last night's musical acts were actually much more enjoyable than I've come to expect without the excessive cheese factor usually present and there weren't quite as many ballads as I'd warned of. The song that won was the one I chose to use as my toilet break, because of its boring-ness, so it was destined to succeed. However, 2 of my selections for top 3 (Finland, Russia and Turkey) made it into the final 4, so not too bad overall.

Eurovision disaster!

Apparently the voters on the preliminary final decided rock wasn't the wave of Eurovision future, and largely blanded out the final 10 qualifying spots with ballads. I was hanging out for Andorra's pop-punk in the final, the most fun I've seen performers ever have on Eurovision, but it was not to be. Not to mention there'll be no Netherlands to wear my long-sleeved T for, and no Denmark drag queen for B (hope that doesn't spoil the night for you!). There was some great variety in the preliminary finals, countries actually taking some chances, but unfortunately safety first seems to have won through.

My hope now is for a back-to-back Finland win, with their Evanescence-alike entry.

Sweeping vistas

Or just some simple representations of a lovely autumn day...

Water the frogs

"Sorry, the frogs all jumped out when I tried to top up their water."

I was a split second of reflex action away from this being the greeting for my zookeeper housemate when she returned from holidays. Luckily, I managed to close the door quickly enough to avoid the amphibian exodus, and found an alternate way to fill their enclosure.

Gave me some cool photos though!

Tempting fate

Hmmm...

After a week of not-nearly-enough sleep, I finally managed to scrape out a whole 6 hours on Monday night, which gave me some actual energy and enthusiasm to start my 2nd day back at work, after my first was hampered with nausea and fatigue. I coped with 11.30-2pm meetings, which conflicted heavily with my eating timetable, got to catch up with JS for the first time since I visited Melbourne last November, and went for my first decent walk in a fortnight.

So, rather than risk some kind of fatalistic collapse of my universe into negativity by daring to crow about good things, I figured I might hold off on this post. But, apparently, the mere thinking of positives is enough to smash my sleep back into many fragmented moments, meaning that I woke up at 2am, after a whole 2.5 hours sleep, and it took me 3 hours to return to somnolence.

"Yeah, we've heard all this insomnia crap before, Bertie!" I hear you rant.

"Not so!" I reply.

This time, I didn't calculate how many hours sleep I would be able to get before my alarm went off, or really worry at all about the disturbance. I simply listened to a few podcasts, enjoying the extra kind-of-awake time, and eventually let nature take its course. Of course, I'm grateful for today being my day off, so a return to sub-6 hours of sleep is far more manageable.

I have no idea why I'm having trouble sleeping, and I'm not going to overthink it, just keep on exercising, being relaxed and making use of the extra hours.

Pending hegemony

I haven't really had much to write lately, my concentration being taken up with drawing, reading and spending time with friends. It's been a matter of enjoying what I'm doing enough that I haven't needed to write about it to convince myself that I'm doing something. Which is great (even if the description of it is a horrific, run-on sentence...).

On that note, I think I'm finally starting to reap the reward of actually doing some regular drawing. After numerous posts over the past fortnight bemoaning my inability to get a decent likeness of any of my chosen subjects, I think I've finally got things working, and have found a comfortable process, with acceptable results. Below is one example of today's efforts, but I'd recommend checking the others too, if you want to see where I start to feel that my pics aren't total crap and that I can actually draw a little :)

I still need to experiment a bit with getting the scans to best reflect my pencil sketches, as I think the originals definitely look better than what I've been able to upload in electronic form. Who'd have guessed I might be an analogue fan?

Yangtse furphy

More of my "pictures are lazier more poetic than words" schtick:

Tasty!

Blurry!

Futuristic!

Absentee megalomaniac

If you're wondering where I've been, when I should have been "entertaining" you with complaints and tales of repetitive action, my time has been taken up running my Media Empire.

Flippant excoriation

My DVD watching today, enumerated for your edification:

Gremlins - I haven't seen this since high school, so there were still some surprises. It's a weird mix of slapstick humour and gruesome death, along with still convincing puppetry. Plus Corey Feldman as a little kid!

16 Blocks - an excellent movie, once again showing the awesomeness of Bruce Willis, as well as another great character performance from Mos Def. Contained some genuinely surprising twists, and I'd definitely recommend this, if you want to see a variant on the world weary cop comes good genre.

The Break-Up - not really a feel good movie, I wouldn't say. Enjoyable enough, with a couple of funny patches, but probably darker than I like my romcoms (i.e. actually had moments of reality in it).