Sigur Rós Movies

I decided to upload these for your viewing pleasure. I am surprised how capable my little camera is. If I'd known they were going turn out so well I might have put a bit more effort into it.

Sigur Rós Photos

First two are at Enmore, 12/4/06. The rest are The Tivoli, 15/4/06.

E3 Coverage

The annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is on right now. It's the biggest event in video games. I like get my coverage from Joystiq. Big news so far: PS3 controller just like PS2 controller. Halo 3 trailer not worth download. Grand Theft Auto coming first to Xbox360. Zelda to be launch title. Here is the coverage of the three keynotes: Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo

Update
Lots of good stuff is hitting YouTube. To YouTube uploaders, I think that's enough with the Halo 3 trailer. :)

Cancer resistant mouse may cure cancer

"The cancer-resistant mice all stem from a single mouse discovered in 1999."

Ha hah. :) They should build a big damn statue of that mouse!

Via SPH.

The Annotated Joanna Newsom, Part 1

... and I can recall our caravel¹ a little wicker beetle-shell with four fine masts and lateen² sails its bearings on Cair Paravel³ oh my love oh it was a funny little thing to be the ones to've seen the sight of bridges and balloons makes calm canaries irritable⁶ and they caw and claw all afternoon catenaries⁴ and dirigibles⁵ ...

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravel
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateen
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cair_Paravel
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catenary
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirigibles


Bridges, balloons, catenaries, dirigibles. Ahhh... Sublime. Darren Hanlon has met his match - no, his new master. :)

Ps, how many of those five words did you know? Me, one.

Thanks to Milky Moon.

Bill Maher's New Rules

Daniel put me on these. Bill Maher has a talk show on HBO and he does a final monologue which is usually pretty funny. Latest one here. Unfortunately no RSS feed.

Okay, New Rule: Anna Nicole Smith can't get pregnant until Britney's baby grows up. There are just not enough investigators at Child Family Services to keep these two infants alive at the same time.

Welcome back trapped miners

And well done to all the rescue dudes and, to the mine manager who was constantly doing press on Sky News, I think your very cool.

Big Brother 06 Housemates

Here's my mini review...

• Favourites: Katie, Anna, Jamie
• Like: Claire, Dino, John, Gaelan
• Sort of like: Michael, David, Tilli
• Don't care about: Ashley, Elise
• Annoying: Krystal
• Can't stand: Camilla
• Must die leave: Karen, Gretel

Why I love Nintendo

They care about making games fun. They know that a boring game with beautiful graphics is still boring. They are not afraid to be different. Here's an article about a guy from Time Magazine who tried out the new console, including a tennis game where you use the revolutionary new 3d controller like the handle of your racket. Via digg.

Update
The full article is here.

Fun with Google SketchUp and Earth

Presenting an original sculpture I have titled "Freedom"... I put in in Google Earth facing north roughly at the location of my house. The first shot is looking towards Mt Stuart, the second is towards Mt Louisa. Here are a couple of wider shots showing the Townsville area. My sculpture is the small object in the foreground. Google can you please hurry up with the high res coverage? For my next project I plan to terrorize the Townsville area with a giant robot of some sort. If you have SketchUp you can download my sculpture for a better look. I didn't upload to Google Earth Community (yet) so you won't find it in your Google Earth (yet).

Sesame Street Classic

Via Google Video of the Day.

Random notes...

• Today I wore a scarf to work! I thought you would want to know. Townsville turned a little wintery this week and there is quite a wind chill factor at 70 kph on a scooter.
• Someone referred to me as "Simon himself" on the TiddlyWiki mailing list. :) Heh heh.....
• Sigur Rós live was amazing. The Enmore had slightly better sound but I think the overall atmosphere was better at The Tivoli. I will post my photos and maybe some videos some time soon. I found this piece on the band from NZ television. Also playlists and bootlegs are here
• Joanna Newsom is good beyond words. I figured out what Sadie is about. It has to be her insecure religous mother. Now I know this I have to think it's one of the most beautiful and sad songs ever written.
• Everybody Hates Chris kind of sucks. I gave up watching it after about three episodes. Sorry for the bad advice earlier
• Currently reading Setting Free The Bears by John Irving. He's very good though it is possible that he is not in fact God. I am trying to read in chronological order but I started out of sequence with 158 Pound Marriage.

Interstella & Mike Cooper

I have a new band called Interstella. For more info see the brand new web site at interstella.biz. And we are supporting guitar legend Mike Cooper tomorrow night! Sweet.

My House in SketchUp

Imaginary Art Project 1
Repeatedly create your house and everything in it in SketchUp with successively more detail. Stop when your toothbrush has individually modelled bristles.

Imaginary Art Project 2
For fun, extract all objects from We Love Katamari and make them available as a SketchUp component library.

I have started on Project 1 myself: For the record this took me about 90 minutes with the amazing SketchUp. And it looks almost exactly like my house even though I didn't put accurate dimensions on anything! Next thing to add is the upstairs interior walls. And my drum kit. :)

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.

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.

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...

• A kitty in a tea cup
• A little kitty with a beany and Burt Reynolds?
• An action shot, it reminds me of Plumey
• Still life with fruit
• Just look...

Thanks PiB for helping compile this list.

Computer is back

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

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.

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.

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.

Awesome Robot Fighting

I recently commented that robot fighting was going to be really cool in a couple of years. I was SO WRONG!!!! Robot fighting is cool NOW!!!!!!! The new champion of the world is called OmniZero.2. He's the little red guy who floats like a butterfly. Check out the moves he has: the body slam, the reverse body slam, the crouching jab, the double windmill. About half way in there's an AWESOME grapple and throw. Then he takes on a robot that's about twice his size. Here is the direct link to the video at Google Video.

This footage is from Robo-One 9, held in Tokyo on 18-19 March. This video was created by a Japanese site robot-fan.net, see here. There is some pretty good coverage of Robo-One in English at robots-dreams.com, including video of the free-for-all rumble with all the top robots.

Digg it.

Update
This article was picked up by The Raw Feed! Welcome fellow readers of The Raw Feed. :) Also it made it to Engadget who picked it up off The Raw Feed. Also mentioned on Techeblog, OhMyGizmo, a City of Heros forum...

Update 2
Despite being the crowd favourite and the winner of the tech demo category, OmniZero.2 actually didn't win the combat tournament.

Update 3
The clip (but not this post) made the front page of digg.

A Clerihew

The town of Mount Tamborine
Has trees and views serene.
Spiders with webs
Will crawl up your legs.

Okay so the last bit doesn't rhyme very well. Post your best clerihew in the comments...

Amazing Cyclone Larry Video

No link because I can't find it! I saw this on Sky News yesterday. It was taken by a guy from a snack bar in the main street of Innisfail. He left his camera out on the bench pointing out the front of the shop while he and his family and/or coworkers hid under mattresses in the bathroom at the back of the store. The video shows pieces of debri being blown from left to right across the front of the shop at ridiculously high speeds. Like imagine a formula one car at top speed going past a window, only much faster and not touching the ground. At one point what looks like an entire roof zips past. The shop front glass which is heavily taped eventually bursts and glass showers into the shop. Anyway I want to find this video. I thought it would be all over youtube by now but the only cyclone Larry videos I can find are lame. In the news story there are interviews with the people from the shop as well as the cyclone footage. Does anyone have it?

End of The Stationwagon?

Drew and Zoe, the songwriting half of The Stationwagon are moving to Melbourne. I hope they find a new bass player and drummer and that The Stationwagon continues. I would guess that Melbourne would be a healthier environment for the band to grow. But I noticed they let the domain name expire so perhaps they feel it's time to draw a line and move on to new things. Like Drew's electronic project, AUX (web site, myspace page). At least we went out on a couple of high notes. And I think I will try to rescue thestationwagon.com.

Also Chinchy (official site, fan site) have finished their second CD at last. You can download their entire album of alt pop grooves at chinchy.org.

Steve Carell and The 40 Year Old Virgin

I was expecting this movie to be about as good as say Anchorman or Envy (ie, crappy but at least watchable) and better than say Kicking and Screaming (a major piece of crap). Instead it was totally excellent, in the league of School of Rock or Run Ronnie Run. (That's high praise indeed my friends). We didn't get to see much of Steve Carell's considerable talent as the dumb guy in Anchorman where we also saw co-stars Paul Rudd and Seth Rogan. Seth was also in Freaks and Geeks. The movie was co-written/directed by Judd Apatow who was the main writer on Freaks and Geeks. (School of Rock was written by another Freaks and Geeks writer, Mike White). The extra features on the DVD are awesome. You should watch the making of the waxing scene and Paul and Seth's ad-libbed "How I know you're gay" scene. Actually it's quite interesting to see how much of the movie's dialogue was ad-libbed by the talented cast. Also I discovered last night that the American version of The Office is being shown on Channel Ten at 11pm Sunday night and it stars Steve Carell. When I learned that I thought maybe that show could work after all. Though it seems weird that Americans couldn't just watch the original with American subtitles... Now I have two free-to-air shows worth recording on my media thing. (Three if you count Biggest Loser but I would never admit to watching that. Big Wal, no!!! ;) Ps, while researching this post I discovered they are making a movie of Reno 911, one of my favourite TV shows, plus there's a Tenacious D movie coming soon. Sweet!

Update 28-March
Well I watched one episode. It was the one where Jim (Tim) and Pam (Dawn) convince Dwight (Gareth) to hide in a box. It was kind of weird but I think if I try to forget the original show I can enjoy it. The cast is pretty good. The writing is basically the same.

Arctic Monkeys versus The Libertines, or Why I Need an iPod Nano

So I had put some new music onto my iPod shuffle, including the Arctic Monkeys and The Libertines, both of which I had not listened to before. I was listening to some tunes while doing housework, as I like to do, when I heard a song I really liked. It had a lazy kind of brit-punk sound and I thought, "Ahah, it's the Arctic Monkeys". I slipped the switch from shuffle to non-shuffle and listened to a whole album of amazing songs. By the time I had finished stacking the diswasher and washing the pots I was like, "believe the hype, the Arctic Monkeys really are the hottest, freshest thing in rock". Later, I discovered that I was listening to the Libertines the whole time. Imagine my embarassment! Since then I have listened to Arctic Monkeys a little but I still feel like the Libertines are my new favourite band, (even though they don't exist any more). So, if you're like me and are a little behind in discovering The Libertines I highly recommend you get hold of their self-titled album. They are a little like new-rock (Strokes, Franz Ferdinand) crossed with the Pogues and the Kinks. As for the Arctic Monkeys? Well they are pretty good also.