by simon baird

Thursday, October 30, 2008

The Middle East


http://www.myspace.com/visitthemiddleeast

Dave told me they were good ages ago but I had no freakin idea. They are incredible. Wish I had found out sooner. I think they might have broken up just recently.

Fwd: Suggested Movember Donation Email Wording

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: no.reply@movember.com <no.reply@movember.com>
Date: Thu, Oct 30, 2008 at 8:24 AM
Subject: Suggested Movember Donation Email Wording
To: "simon.baird@gmail.com" <simon.baird@gmail.com>


Hey Mo Bro,

The easiest way to get people to donate to your moustache growing efforts is to send them an email or message directing them to the 'Donate' part of the Movember website where they just enter the donation amount and their credit card or PayPal details.

Below is some suggested wording you can copy and paste into an email or networking application message and send it off. Too easy!

Good luck

.............................

Hi All,

During Movember (the month formerly known as November) I'm growing a Mo. That's right I'm bringing the Mo back because I'm passionate about tackling men's health issues and being proactive in the fight against men's depression and prostate cancer.

To donate to my Mo you can either:

  1. Click this link https://www.movember.com/au/donate/donate-details.php?action=sponsorlink&rego=1637201&country=au and donate online using your credit card or PayPal account, or
  2. Write a cheque payable to 'Movember Foundation', referencing my Registration Number 1637201 and mailing it to:

                                            Movember Foundation
                                            PO Box 292
                                            Prahran VIC 3181

Remember, all donations over $2 are tax deductible.

The money raised by Movember is used to raise awareness of men's health issues and donated to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and beyondblue - the national depression initiative. The PCFA and beyondblue will use the funds to fund research and increase support networks for those men who suffer from prostate cancer and depression.

Did you know:

  • Depression affects 1 in 6 men....most don't seek help. Untreated depression is a leading risk factor for suicide.
  • Last year in Australia 18,700 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer and more than 2,900 died of prostate cancer - equivalent to the number of women who will die from breast cancer annually.

For those that have supported Movember in previous years you can be very proud of the impact it has had and can check out the details at: [ Fundraising Outcomes ].

Movember culminates at the end of month Gala Partés. If you would like to be part of this great night you'll need to purchase a [ Gala Parté Ticket ].

Thanks for your support Simon.

More information is available at http://www.movember.com/.

 

Movember is proudly grown by Holden and Schick.

Movember is proud partners with the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and beyondblue - the national depression initiative.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

since no-one made fun of my last attempt at poetry...

wiping sticky fingermarks
little ones
off my iphone
sad
it will be a long time before they come back


it was going to
be a haiku but that was
way too difficult


ps, actually they will be back in december :)

Friday, October 24, 2008

spider catches bird

http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2008/10/23/11601_local-news.html

<strong>Yum: </strong> A huge spider devours a bird in Atherton, near Cairns.

Yum: A huge spider devours a bird in Atherton, near Cairns.


Thursday, October 23, 2008

i plot and annotate my failed geohash attempt using google maps

google maps is pretty cool.

here it is.

i get within 2.4 km.

pen spinning

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=1q7s4E94-No

more clouds

I may not have uploaded it -- it drags on a bit long and the clouds aren't as good as in the previous video -- but for the fact that purely by chance the song ends exactly at sundown. And if you have a little imagination the clouds puff in sync with the music in some places. And the sunset is quite nice. Without further ado...
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=OTtzASFfdCc

Original, arguably better video here:
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=__pDycw1Epw

yesterdays geohash location

in google maps (zoom in if you wanna see the dirt roads described in previous post)

official calculator

wtf?

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

fail point two

Fail point one was about a 25 minute bike ride. Quite enjoyable. Cruising along the river. Sunset. Afternoon traffic thinning. Sealed road except for about 50 m. Fail point two however was an adventure. To get here I back-tracked and went along the dam and then along some soft dirt and gravel corrugated roads that my bike was not made for, stopping several times to remove glove and consult iPhone for directions. It got dark rapidly. There are some houses out there and I thought I could hear banjos if you know what I mean. Also I was nearly out of fuel and imagining what it would be like to hit some extra soft gravel and drop the bike. Then a weird bird came at me. It was guarding some horse poo on the road and seriously wanted to attack me. I could sense its irrational hatred. It loomed in my headlights like a creature from silent hill one. And there was some unexplained mist or fog in the distance that I didn't feel like stopping to investigate. So I was a tiny bit glad to find that last gate. Even if it said 'welcome geohashers' instead of 'trespassers prosecuted' I might have been ready to get the hell out of there. And now I realise I had quite a ways to go down the spooky dirt road of unknown quality. Not to mention the walk to the geohash location which seemed to be 100 or 200 m off the road. I'll give you the gmap links tomorrow. Can't seem to find the copy and paste button... ;)

fail point one

I have only just learned the screenshot trick so this was done after the fact. But trust me. Red pin is the target location. Purple is locked gate.

post-fail refuel

geohash fail-abort

geohash fail-retry

Friday, October 17, 2008

Monday, October 06, 2008

radio

This is what i heard while driving into town today:

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bx0VmkYMV8
It's Wake Up, Arcade Fire's set opener at Enmore (only recorded properly by Triple J). It was to promote the fact that the whole show will be played on ABC2 tonight at 10pm. (Note well, music fans).

(I went to the bank and came back in time for...)

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=UoaeEAdDv-c
Midnight Madness. This song was blowing my mind, especially the buildup around 2:40, and filling me with unexpected joie de vivre/musique. I didn't know what it was and there was no back announce. I thought it was called Midnight Mass so after fruitless searching I found there is a playlist. Chemical Brothers. Of course.

Then there was news followed by this:
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=yfDvxCPjJBQ
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=NlGcLRLwyRQ
I was already pretty much in love with Soko after "I'll keel 'eur" but this ukelele song on the radio struck me as so beautiful my heart became dandelion fluff. (I guess I was feeling a raw emotionally. I said goodbye to two cats in two days. And I'm moving, but not to Brisbane). Here are the lyrics. She likes Daniel Johnston.

So now I'm parking the car and this comes on:
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=FSMF3h7LE2Q
It's Wide Open Road, The Triffids

Sometimes I love Triple J.

rambly

Friday, October 03, 2008

more fleet foxes

http://vimeo.com/1851415

doesn't he look a bit like daniel johns?