Number 3: The Dunedin Regent Theatre 24 Hour Book Sale

We stumbled into this by chance in Dunedin. Imagine a beautiful old theatre like the Muppet Show theatre. The aisles and the stage are filled with books. It is literally shoulder to shoulder with excited people picking through books which are all 50 cents each. This is at about 10:30pm at night and outside it's beanie, scarf and gloves cold. There all ages of people there. Families, old folks, hipster couples. It seems like everyone is happy and smiling at each other. Most people are clutching a stack of books they've already found. When you buy books they wrap them up in newspaper so the streets outside are filled with people with wrapped book bundles. On the stage in a small area not filled with books there is a jazz band playing. Some people are sitting in the theatre seats watching the band. Milly and I were both so moved by the joy and beauty of the books and people that we both decided then that we have to move to Dunedin.

Here are some links:

• Picture gallery featuring happy worm
• 2005 news article
• 2004 news article
• In wikipedia

my nz trip by the lazy blogger

I went too. Okay that was pretty lazy. I do promise some nz related posts in the future.

Oh alright, here's one now.

Top 5 things about NZ

5. They shrunk their coins. I don't know if you know this but Australian coins are enormous. Change for a coke zero can weigh more than the can. These things put holes in your pocket faster than an extra in Oliver Twist. They can destroy expensive wallets. NZ coins used to be the same size as Aussie coins but some time between my last time there and this time they shrunk them. Now they are about half the size they used to be. And to save themselves some effort, they kept the exact same design! Only smaller! Pure genius. Also they abolished the five cent piece and made the ten cent a bronzey colour like the old ones and twos used to be. C'mon Aussie, lets follow our Oceanic neighbours and get rid of our oversized coins.

Here's a picture: and a link.

4. The Flight of the Conchords
They have a tv show now. It's really good. They are like Tenacious D kinda but less metal and more Kiwi. Go and get it here if you're torrent savvy.

(to be continued).

iphone hype

You can get nicer videos here.

Now don't act all cynical just to be cool. Don't even start with the, "samsung this" or "nokia that". Forget it. iPhone. GREATEST THING EVAR. You know it. Sylar has one already.

But actually, Steve, can we have a iPhone DS emulator? Or at least some kick-ass solitaire. (Mmmm... touch screen cards...) Please?

tv

Last night our TV broke. It just stopped working. I liked that TV. :( It was a widescreen. It was only a few years old. I sent it to the shop but my hunch is that it could be a one way trip. I guess it's time for a new TV. Normally this would be good news but I had this little dream of buying a HD panel with 1080p and an XBox 360 with Gears of War on the same day and hooking them all up together in a little daze of happiness. In my fantasy this can be achieved for under $1500 which means the dream happens far in the future when the 360 and big HD TVs are cheaper. Now my hand is forced. Isn't it great that this is my biggest problem in life? We have three other TVs. So anyway, LCD or plasma? Let me know before tonight preferably.

My house in Google Earth

If you were paying attention to this blog about a year ago you might remember that I was very excited by SketchUp. Well I was in Google Earth and I've noticed that more and more buildings are starting to appear. There is a very dodgey looking Sydney Opera House. The Sydney Harbour bridge looks pretty good, as does the Center Point. Brisbane has a couple of buildings also. The level of detail is excellent compared to when I was last looking at Google Earth buildings. I remember looking at San Francisco. There were buildings there and it was cool but they all looked like various sized beige shoe boxes. Now we have nice looking models and even textures and so on. This inspired me to have another go at putting my house in Google Earth for real this time. I download the latest SketchUp and dug up my .skp file. I fiddled with the rotation, scale and position and submitted to the 3D warehouse. I think someone has to now approve it before it will appear. Will keep you posted. Here's a link. Better yet, here it is embedded:

i blog my weekend, the sequel

• Friday night, I go to play poker. It's the Australian Poker League. I have to sign up and get my little player id card. Since I don't know where I'm going I got trapped into joining the Brother's Leagues Club. $5.50. I was early, had to sit around for a while. I met this woman who started talking to me. Turns out she knows A. Moll. Alex is there. I talk to a tall bearded guy who works at the hospital. A woman at my table tells about when she went down to a big tournament somewhere. You have to pay your own air fares but it's worth it she says. A guy at my table spills his beer all over the table. Eventually I get knocked out about 10:20pm which is not too bad, I guess I almost made it to the top 50%. Won a few pots but didn't have much luck. I think I will play again.
• After I get home I start watching Big Brother Up Late. So far BB has bored me (first week) but I get sucked in to Emma and what's her name in the bath tub discussing nominations. Later (Sunday night, dinner and BB at K & S's), I shush people when I can't hear. So I guess I'm 100% hooked again. Oh well. :)
• Since I'm tired and feel lazy I sleep in and miss circuit with Viv. Milly goes and says it was great. She has brekky afterwards with the On Fire crew and gets hard poached eggs on her benny. (Side note: Lately this is the bain marie of our lives. To all breakfast chefs: poached eggs are meant to have SOFT yolks. And don't say I should have pacifically arksed for soft. I didn't have to ask you to NOT burn the toast did I? Gah. Well I suppose this is what you have to live with when you live in a regional centre).
• Well the rest of the weekend I mostly just sat around staring at the TV feeling laziness and vague guilt for my idleness. Oh and I watched Hostel. Ew.

i blog my weekend

I had a nice weekend. This is so I can look back some day and remember it.

• I drink a small glass of red at work. Talk to Anne about her dream to start a Montesorri school next year.
• I ride home. Everyone was upstairs on front balcony couch. I drink a beer. T is hammered on about three sips of bubbly. :)
• M was having a sleepover at Grandma's. S and K drop him off and the 5 of us go around to Danny and Louise's. Talk to D about Robert Rodriguez movies. He lends me Hostel and the Mexico trilogy. He shows me his US version of Sin City that comes with the actual book. We eat chilli with rice. Then we play kelly pool, drink beer and listen to their mp3 mix tape. D and L invite us to come fishing the next day. Milly's and T say they're going to Viv's circuit class. I said I was too but no-one believes me. :)
• Get up about 7. Go to circuit class. It was really good but hard. Viv > Sam. Feeling the effects of the beer I flake out two thirds in and have to sit down and try not to vomit. T is a champ.
• We drive to Rowe's bay and recognise D's car by it's Everton sticker. It's nearly 9am. They are on the beach with a bunch of rods setup on rod holders. D has knee high black stinger socks. He's cast-netting for bait. The water is flat and the sun hot. The beach is almost empty. We put on sunscreen. T is afraid of sunburn so she sits wrapped up in towels and umbrellas. D gives me a spare rod and I do a reasonable job of casting right over one of his lines. It's Mum's 60th so I go back to the car and get my mobile to call her in Alice Springs. We joke about motor cycles. There's pretty good signal. While I'm on the phone D catches a baby hammer head shark. He catches little white fish with black stripes and yellow bits and uses some for live bait. Later I get a few bites but catch nothing.
• We go home and meet K, S and M. I wonder how M's sleepover went. He seems a little stressed. We decide to have lunch at Clint Bradley's. We take two cars. Milly and I get to ride together alone which is nice. I order a savoury muffin that came with weird green gherkin relish and coffee and ready yesterday's paper. We talk about how T is going to be an extra in the Baz Luhrman movie. She's organising accomodation in Bowen for 5 weeks next month.
• On the way home we stop at the big Salvos. This used to be our weekly habit but it's been a long time since I've been there since we are now trying get rid of junk instead of collecting it.I bought a travel document holder. $1. We look next door at asics shoes for Milly.
• At home we stare at the telly for a while. I decide to go buy some touch up paint for my bike. I find it at Supercheap auto and also buy some other bits and pieces there including a tyre pressure tester. On the way home I practice slow U-turns in the back of Canon park.
• I consider going to see the Buddy Holly story staring Dave Clay. No-one wants to go with me so I stay home. We eat leftovers for dinner.
• Sunday morning Milly and I leave T sleeping and sneak out for breakfast at Luka Bean. I eat a bacon/egg burger. Noel and B show up. They join us. They buy food and later licorice all-sorts on a plate. We leave in a hurry and forget to pay! I phone Noel from the Willows intersection and he says he will get the bill for us. We wander around the Willows markets for a little bit and meet EJ and kids. We discuss her upcoming movie career also. Victoria and her family appear also. She is incomprehensible. Her baby is very cute. We go to Gloria Jeans and text Chris and Deet. As we wander to the car, past the new rabbit fence, back we stop in a couple of shops and cash converters. I buy a combination luggage lock and a magazine. Milly gets me a wooden thing from the wooden thing shop and trys to buy a porcelain spoon. The shop girl overcharges us $1. We tell her.
• At home I decide that my bike needs oil. I go and buy some and also put air in my tires, they are 10 PSI under inflated. I apply the touch up paint to the scratches. You spray the paint in the cap and apply with a little brush. Milly lets me paint a tiny flower in purple and silver on her green toenail polish. I realise that I don't need oil because I was looking at the indicator with the bike on the side stand. Duh. I wash the bike and also Milly's car then I clean the chain and lube it. My hands and fingernails turn black. I setup my gearsack so it's locked to the bike and also put the luggage lock on the zipper. Now I am late for bowling. I clean my hands and get dressed.
• It's M's "Gotcha" day so we are going bowling. I score a disappointing 97. I take some camera footage of the kids. Jun is very good. Shaun is also good. He scores 132. J is forced to bowl left handed. Milly scores 16. She has to go the airport to get Sacha. Shaun and I have another game quickly before everyone else is finished. I at least get above 100.
• We drive over to J & S's. T takes photos of the house for the party. We eat fish and salad and cake and watch most of Big Brother opening night. Later on after most of the guests have gone home we have a swim. It's cold. I take some underwater photos of Milly and T. J shows us his sexpo showbag. I watch some of Cars on the cinema screen. Still haven't seen all of that movie.
• We go home. Milly and T are wet. I'm not since I already got dressed. At home Milly and I watch a little tv. I read some of my bike magazine in bed and eventually fall asleep.

life without broadband

my broadband provider (Rawnet) gives used to give me ADSL2+ with 1500kbs throttled to 512kbs when I use my quota. they have free connection, free modem. This is for $25 a month. To compare my previous isp gave me ADSL1 with 512kbs throttled to 64kbps once I use my quota (10G) for $50 a month. Strangely rawnet can't afford to pay their internet bills and are currently "off the air". They've been offline for about a month. Their website says they will be back soon but I am starting to doubt it. I believe their managment board is either in Barbados lighting cigars with money, or catching a taxi from bank to bank trying to convince someone to give him 10 million dollars. I imagine it like this:

Rawnet guy: Okay I need 10 million to keep my business going.
Bank manager: Your business model of selling a service for half what it costs isn't working too well. What are you going to do?
R: We will purchase and install more DSLAMs in all the phone exchanges. We will expand into Cairns and Mackay. We will give out more $800 ADSL2+ modems. We will sponsor more sporting teams. And update our office decor. This way we can increase our customer base.
B: Thanks so much for dropping by.

I will miss you rawnet.

if you had to...

...entirely erase the memory of every concert you'd ever been to, except for one, what would it be and why?

Me: Joanna Newsom, Spiegeltent, January 25th 2007. Of course.
Milly: But what about Sigur Ros?
Me: I know. But still.
Milly: Joanna was good. But I choose Sigur Ros, Enmore, 2006. I hallucinated glowing lights.
Me: What?
Milly: I saw a white glow surrounding people in the audience. Especially their hands and fingers.
Me: Did it shoot upwards towards the stage?
Milly: Mmm [thinks]... a little bit.
Me: !!!

my new toy

if you were paying attention last september or whenever it was you would know that I was trying to get my motorcyle license. Well thanks for asking, I did get it and yesterday I picked up.... this! It's a GSX750F 1989 "Slingshot". I think slingshot is something to do with what happens when you drive very fast into something? So I'm not sure if I'm destined to be a biker but what the hell I'm giving it a try.

milly's new toy

Plus:

• Animal Crossing
• Brain Training
• Yoshi's Island
• New Super Mario

Well the last one was for me really. The DS is very cool. Especially the black one. We fondled a pink one briefly but had to go for black. Milly has pimped her's with some bling like tiny little fake rhinestones. I like Brain Training. You hold the DS sideways like a book. Then you write stuff with the stylus so it's even more like a book. It's a very statisfying user experience. Plus it has awesome sudoku just as a bonus game. I think the DS would be quite good as a book reader actually. Also can you get an mp3 player for it? I should google that.

Bittersweet

So the back bar at the Dalrymple, venue for such world-shaking events as this (spazzys) and this (radiators) is now a Dan Murphys. I want to be upset but oh boy have you seen the sweet range of alcholic beverages and the agreeable down-lighting at the Dan Murhpys? Mmm... booze...

But it seems that others are not taking it so well, for instance these two handgun wielding fans of live music appear to want retribution. "Possibly using an Irish accent"??? On the day after St Patricks day? At Dan Murphys? Why not a leprechaun mask? Tsk, no style at all. And ps, what is the second guy's mask? Is it Petey from fall out boy?

My art project

So I have this idea for an art project. I thought of it many years ago and have described it to several people. Now I will tell it to you.

Imagine a regular small room, roughly cubical in shape, painted white or some neutral colour. The wall furthest from the entry point is a video screen hooked up to a camera which is in the centre of the video screen facing outwards into the room. So effectively the screen behaves like a video mirror. Imagine looking at yourself on your own webcam, only bigger. The image should be mirrored so it actually is like a mirror. Now for the cool part -- there is a time delay on the image. So image is the mirror is of the room some minutes ago. In the room there is a small table with a clock on it positioned so the clock face is visible in the video mirror. There should be no explanation or blurb other than "time machine" or some other less cheesy title.

"Some minutes ago" could be one minute, two minutes, 30 minutes, an hour, 24 hours. This could be tuned to suit the gallery conditions and opening hours. For example a mostly empty gallery would better suit a short time delay. So you see yourself walking into the room before you get too bored and walk out. In a busy gallery you could tune the delay so you will see people who visited the piece an hour ago. The actual time delay chosen doesn't really matter.

This piece interests me because as a viewer of the piece you become, without consent, part of the piece for a future viewer. Also because the "mirror" is effectively a portal allowing you to see into the past. If you don't "get" it at first then your entry, puzzled looks, shrugging gestures and departure, becomes entertainment for a future viewer of the piece. For short time delays it will be fun to make funny faces and do a dance to see what you look like. For long time delays it still might be fun but you will be entertaining not to yourself but to future viewers.

Variation: On the table next to the clock is a flat panel LCD screen which shows the same (delayed) image as the wall. It is positioned so that the screen is visible to the camera. Because the camera records what is on that screen this causes effectively a feedback loop so that the image of the small screen on the big screen becomes another time delay into the past. And if you look closer you should be able to see yet another time delay into the past as the image within that image. Perhaps this is not explained clearly enough but it's like a hall of mirrors effect only each "reflected" mirror is some minutes into the past. This is interesting because it gives us a stepped view into the past, in theory, back to when the power was switched on. In practice of course it will be limited by the resolution of the screen and the camera.

Anyway I am telling you this because I discovered a couple of months ago that someone had my idea (or at least something pretty close to it) back in the 70s! They built something quite similar (which would have been quite tricky with the technology of the times) and I saw it at the MCA at Circular Quay back in the January!!! It was brilliant! I will tell you more about it and another really cool piece from the same exhibition it in my next post.

Ps, If anyone would like to sponsor me to create this piece I will need $4000. :)

what he said

except shorter. and also this

I got tickets

..for Joanna Newsom. Oh sweet rapture! She's playing in a tent!

(not) doing bike license training

So I was filling out the paper work you have to do I was entering the expiry date on my license. Oops. Expired two weeks ago. Sooooo long story short, I have a new license but it's nothing to do with bikes.

I have trouble making a face for ids. They should give you a mirror to practice. I try to smile and it comes out a weird closed mouth smile that makes my lips look puffy. And my eyes are open too wide for fear of looking droopy-lidded. Plus I have a five day growth. Maybe next time I'll shave and try a non-smile photo... IN THE YEAR 2011.

Op shop scores

Here's what I got this morning... Diesel Jeans (fit perfectly, $12), Country Road pants (ditto, $9), Abercrombie and Fitch shirt (NEVER BEEN WORN, $9), a few other shirts ($3 or $6). Click photo for a closer look. The book is organ music including Blur (Country House), Pulp (Common People), Bon Jovi, Oasis. Hang on.. It's this. Now I'm not sure what I was thinking with the stripey one with the zipper. My judgement may have been clouded by an overdose of caffeine.

See here for previous scores.

motorbikes

This morning I went for a lesson on one of these: It's called a Honda 400cc something-or-other. My one was blue. The instructor was very good. I basically rode around in circles in a fenced off area of carpark for about an hour in first and second gear. For variety I threw in some stopping and starting. I managed not to drop the bike or cause any major catastrophy. At one point I had to dodge a forklift that was cutting across my track. I don't think that was supposed to be part of the lesson though. My instructor has one of these: It's called a Triumph Rocket III and is the biggest and most powerful motorcycle ever produced. It has a 2.3 litre engine! I wonder if I can ride that for my next lesson. Probably not.

Poker Night 3

The night went on later than previous poker nights. The third game finished about 2am. First game was won by me (the best one to win since it had the most players), second by my brother Nathan, (visiting from Sydney), third by my brother Daniel. Some may claim there was some family collusion going on. To this I point out that Nathan knocked me out in the second game (pair of kings vs pair of queens) and I knocked him out in the third (flukey straight on the river vs two pair). Despite some email sledging neither previous winner Michelle or Alex C made it to the winners circle, though Alex came second twice (second wins your entry fee back) and took home two bags of salty plums, so he wasn't too far out of pocket. Michelle had some bad luck when she bet hard on a four card "straight". Oops! Derek picked up a second place against Nathan, and Alex S was chip leader for a while in the final three on the last game, but she couldn't close the deal. Losers enjoyed a game of (erotic) 31 Bustop. We now know the rules governing when you can re-raise and also are getting a bit better at handling side pot confusion. So all-in-all a good time was had by all and blah blah etc. Next poker night some time in September maybe.

Scooter fuel economy

My fuel gauge is coy. It's a five LED display that prefers to give gentle hints about how much petrol I have left rather than just come right out with it. So I noticed last time I filled up that my mileage was exactly 17000 kms. I thought, "Aha! I will remember that, and use it to calculate my miles per gallon or whatever the youngsters are calling it these days". So I rode for a while until the gauge intoned to me that just maybe it was that time again. When I pulled in to Shell on the way to work my mileage was exactly 17200 kms. "How about that" I thought. "This will make my sums a little easier". The tank seemed pretty dry. I filled it right up so the fuel was a couple of millimetres from spilling out. It was exactly 7.00 litres. I was a little startled by this. I thought perhaps God doesn't trust me with decimal arithmetic. So anyway, I crunched the numbers in Excel, double checked with Matlab, and I can now reveal the following analysis:

Distance: 200km
Fuel:     7 litres
Economy:  3.5 L/100km

I also discovered my round trip to work is 13 km, so that means I should fill up every 15 work days, with a 5km margin for error, (unless I take trips to the shops or the video store). Now that's some applied mathematics. A Honda Jazz is supposed to get 5.7 L/100km. A Prius is supposed to 4.4 L/100km so my scooter beats them by not by that much considering it's a scooter.