by simon baird

Friday, April 28, 2006

The wedding of the year

Tomorrow is the one month and two week anniversary of the wedding of the year. In honour of that special occasion I present my feature on the wedding of Scott and Miranda.


This is the rental car we drove for the weekend. It's a yellow Hyundai Getz. Easy to find in carparks.


Tim, John and Scott near some very large trees.


We stayed at Lisson Grove. I think you are supposed to be a honeymoon couple in order to stay there. The complimentary two course breakfasts were outstanding but the tap water is brown and smells. So overall I have to give it a C-.


Some of the aforementioned breakfasts.


I didn't really get any photos of the ceremony due to my duties as iPod Jockey but here's a couple after it was all over. I would have to say it was one of the nicest weddings I can remember. I don't always cry at weddings but who can withstand quotes from The Velveteen Rabbit!


Scott looked quite dashing with those shoes (and the beautiful new wife.. :)


The happy couple danced to New Buffalo and delivered touching speeches. The reception was very nice with lovely food and beverages and some greek dancing. I have some other nice photos but most feature Millicent who must remain undercover.


On the road to St Bernards. The sign clearly says ducks crossing. Stupid illiterate geese.


I would not be surprised if Mount Tamborine is the spider capital of the world. This one was about the size of your hand. You can see her well-stocked larder.


Cool software of the year: SketchUp

Google was using SketchUp to create building models for Google Earth. They decided to buy the company and today they released a free version of SketchUp. Daniel just showed me the tutorial (click Help, Self Paced Tutorial) and I was totally amazed! In literally two minutes he created a 3d house with a roof, windows, doors, patio, stairs. Then he walked through the house to see how it looked from inside. And of course you don't have to make a house. With this software you have the god-like power to create amazing objects that until now could only exist in your imagination. :) This software is awesome. And the icing on the cake? It's scriptable. In ruby. OMG. Yesss. Check it out.

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Little video of Amina (Amiina) performing live at The Tivoli

Here's a little video I took at of Amina supporting Sigur Ros at The Tivoli, Brisbane on 15th April 2006. Amina are four Icelandic girls who play strings and other bits and pieces for Sigur Ros. They also make their own mostly instrumental music with unusual instruments like windup music boxes, toy bells, a saw, and wine glasses as well as little keyboards, xylophones and glockenspiels. Sometimes their mac chips in some bass or mellow beats. Anyway, hope you enjoy it as much as I did, which is quite a lot. :) If you like it then check out their palindromically titled EP, AnimaminA and a 30 minute video on YouTube of Amina from an Icelandic TV show featuring five songs and an interview. Did I mention how cute they are? See what I mean?

Update, 27-Apr-06
The song is called "Seoul" and Amina have changed their name (again, I think they were originally called Anima) to Amiina to because of a Tunisian singer called Amina Annabi. Blimey.

Friday, April 21, 2006

My favourite Stuff On My Cat cats

I'm going to treat you to my hand picked highlights from Stuff On My Cat. Here they come... Thanks PiB for helping compile this list.

Computer is back

Thank goodness and Daniel for donating a spare power supply which I succesfully transplanted.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Hardware problems

My computer at home has died. I think it needs a new power supply. This means that you have to wait a little longer for some lovely concert photos. Our trip away was wonderful thanks mostly to the kindness and good company of our friends in Sydney and in Brisbane. Thanks guys! I promise to blog more soon.

Friday, April 07, 2006

Cyclone Larry Destruction

Here's a set of nine photos in flickr taken by a friend of mine showing some of the damage Cyclone Larry did in Innisfail. I still can't get hold of the video I saw on Sky News. As far as cyclones go it was a well behaved one. They said it was heading for Innisfail and that's where it went. I was in Brisbane while the cyclone was coming. I hadn't seen much news and only heard about it on Sunday. I slept uneasily thinking it might take a turn southwards and head for Townsville. Also I thought that even if our house survived, the power would go out, the freezer would thaw, the cats would run away and the shed would get flattened. In Townsville they closed the airport and the schools and most workplaces. They evacuated northern suburbs at risk going underwater in a storm surge. But Townsville was lucky and got barely any wind. Our flight home on the Tuesday went ahead on schedule. Mediawatch last week had this segment. To sum up, a Sydney columnist called Innisfail residents a bunch of whingers. Media watch aired some intelligent and articulate responses from some locals including one from "Txt the Editor" in the Townsville Bulletin. (Go Txt'ers!) Read the transcript here.

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Home laser eye surgery kit, $99

I'm pretty sure it's not real, but I think the illustration is very funny! Don't blink! It should be on a t-shirt. Hang on, it is. Via digg.