For Jarod…
4:37 pm, November 30th, 2008 |
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Posted in nothingness by Liz
Because I can’t just lean over and tell him like a normal person, now can I?
World of Goo Review
7:53 am, November 30th, 2008 |
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Posted in boythings, gaming, geekery by Jarod
As Liz mentioned yesterday, I was (am?) thoroughly addicted to a game by the name of World of Goo. To know what it’s all about, hit play on the youtube’ish video below.
Yes! I know!! And it’s only twenty bucks. Twenty bucks is nothing when compared to how much fun you’ll have channelling the old days playing lemmings, the incredible machine and bridge builder.
Ok I’ll confess. I was going to try and sit down and write a proper review instead of my normal three paragraphs ones. But just looking at different levels in screenshots on the net, I’m seeing new and better ways to arrange Goo blobs for better structural integrity. Suffice to say I’ll be loading World of Goo in a few minutes.
But first. If you’re still interested check out any of these reviews. I still haven’t seen a bad one yet. Rock Paper Shotgun. The Dead Pixel Post. Evo Gamer. Eurogamer.
Just thought I should mention…
7:21 pm, November 29th, 2008 |
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Posted in boythings, geekery, girlthings, internets, whinging by Liz
Jarod has become a little obsessed with this game. About a World of Goo. The engineering side of his brain is delighted. So you might not hear from him for a bit.
I did try to play it, but Jarod would lean over and tell me how my structural balance wasn’t right, or something like that. I just wanted to play with goo.
Bike Porn
6:08 am, November 27th, 2008 |
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Posted in bikes, boythings, geekery, photography by Jarod
Dating Advice From Open Mic’ers
8:55 pm, November 25th, 2008 |
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Posted in comedy, cuteness by Jarod
It’s meant for Open Mic Musicians, but I can see a lot of parallels to Open Mic Comedy. Simultaneously brilliant and scary all at the same time.
BikeSydney’s Bike Plan
7:54 pm, November 24th, 2008 |
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Posted in bikes, boythings by Jarod
In other local bike advocacy news, BikeSydney’s just released Bike Plan is a darn good read. So get to it!
295 million bucks worth of bike lanes?
5:08 pm, November 24th, 2008 |
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Posted in bikes, boythings, local by Jarod
Two hundred and ninety five million dollars is a lot of money. It’s also what 15 Sydney councils are asking for from the Federal Government to link 245 kilometres worth of bike lanes through the Sydney CBD and surrounding suburbs (SMH Article). It’s all got to do with the “door zone” and how deadly it is to entry level commuting cyclists. Well, yes and no.
I’m one of those guys that’ll brave the traffic in order to stay away from doors. When I do commute to work, about two thirds of the roads I’m on are single lane and have parked cars in the gutter; so I’m endlessly ducking into the main flow of traffic to round the odd parked cars. It involves lots of blind spot checking, but is still safer than riding at speed on the footpath. Footpaths in the inner west are normally have broken, patchy surface, and are littered with pedestrians. Not to mention cars reversing out of blind driveways and the endless side streets to stop and give way to. Yep, I’ll take the road 9 times out of 10.
I felt quite guilty climbing into my car this morning, especially considering the radio was tuned to ABC 702 Sydney and Adam Spencer’s Breakfast Show had a talk back segment on the proposed bike paths. Being an avid cyclist, Adam was all for the bike paths, as were several people that phoned in with their support.
One caller voiced the opinion that ‘real cyclists wouldn’t use the bike paths because they’d get too congested with slow moving people’. Well yes Mr Anonymous-talk-back-caller-man, you’re right, cyclists on road bikes averaging 40kph won’t use the bike lanes. But that isn’t who the scheme is aimed at. It’s aimed at regular people who’ll ride 7 kilometres in jeans then get changed into business attire. Not those that treat 7 kilometres of their commute as a mild warm up.
While I can acknowledge that I’m in the same category as our anonymous-talk-back-caller-man, I still think that building the dedicated bike lanes is a brilliant thing. It’s not the only part of the solution, but fostering those who are pondering the idea of riding to work is extremely important. If they choose to buy themselves a road bike and commute at 40kph in a year or two, they’ll progress to riding in traffic on the road of their own accord.
For me, the 295 million dollars is about making people in the inner city feel safe about riding to work a few days a week when they’re only travelling about 10kms to do so. Bring on the dedicated bike lanes!
Locker vs. Jarod.
7:03 pm, November 23rd, 2008 |
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Posted in boythings, girlthings, local, photography by Liz
Jarod won. Eventually.
Last weekend we found a three tiered locker at Reverse Garbage (same place we got the puma sign from) and discovered both that they were permanently locked, and only $15. Bargain.
So, we bought it home, and unlocked two of the three lockers with ease. The top locker, however, was a little more stubborn.
In the process of picking the lock (okay, perhaps ‘using brute force on the lock’ would be a better description) we made it a little sharp and pointy.
A few minutes later Jarod accidentally ran his hand over it. Bleeding ensued.
Ouch.
After half an hour of containing the bleeding (it was quite a large cut, despite what the photo shows) and bandaging himself up, he was back at it and managed to break open the top locker. We now have them sitting in our spare room filled with stuff. Including books.
There’s something I like about having a old school locker filled with books outside of a school situation.
Sydney Comedy Things.
6:11 pm, November 23rd, 2008 |
2 Comments »
Posted in girlthings, local by Liz
Oh yeah. So comedy stuff. Well, the Comedy Store has re opened with the same look, but now owned by the Century Venues group.
The website is now back up and running, and advertising huge Christmas shows (’A Gala Lineup Every Night’) but with no names against the dates. Hmm.
Here’s a snippet of the announcement on the Cracker Comedy website:
It all kicks off with a little Sugar! Sydney’s iconic Comedy Store is back on sale under new management and with a killer new season to get things going.
Having recently been acquired by the Century Venues group whose stable of entertainment properties includes the Enmore, Metro & Factory Theatres and yours trully (thats right - Cracker!) the recently announced summer season is something not to be missed kicking off on Wednesday November 5 with the Sydney return of acclaimed Canadian stand up sensation SUGAR SAMMY.
The Laugh Garage’s move out into the city is also in full swing, operating opposite Hyde Park on the (Cnr Elizabeth and Park Sts) and their website still looks as dodgy as it always did. (Black backgrounds with yellow/white text and ugly visible tables do nothing for me — and yes, I do note that JarodandLiz started with a black background, but that lasted about a week). And no, I’m not saying that because we redesigned a Mic in Hand’s site, I’m saying it because it looks bad.
But, I also am interested by the show they’re hosting on New Years Eve. (New Years Eve Comedy Gala). Sure, they’re in the city, but I’m not sure how many people would be interested in watching comedy to bring in the new year? I’m interested to see how that goes. I assume it’ll either be a raging success, or um, not so good.
I must admit, I’m a little bit over the Sydney comedy scene, everything seems to stay the same. It also doesn’t help I struggle to watch a full comedy show these days, all the routines seem the same, or are predictable in where they’ll end up. While I’ve been ‘taking a break’, it doesn’t seem to have helped. We’ll see how I’m feeling at comedy festival time next year…
Rest in Peace SB600 known as ‘Flash B’
10:36 am, November 23rd, 2008 |
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Posted in boythings, geekery, photography by Jarod
I never did post the final chapter in Flash B’s short life. Apparently the damage sustained by the fall was too much for the repair shop man to fix. He suggested sending it to Nikon Australia for a more thorough autopsy, but I declined knowing they charge like wounded bulls.
So Flash B is now sitting on my desk here at home. His only purpose is to weigh down paper and as a constant reminded not to let light stands topple over.
Rest in Peace Flash B. You served me well.
My single speed bike frame gets a make over!
6:57 am, November 22nd, 2008 |
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Posted in bikes, boythings, local by Jarod
As previously mentioned, the Single Speed frame wasn’t playing nice with the paint I’d bought for it. Reluctantly, I took the advice that Beefy Steve gave me a few weeks back and took it to a professional painter to get all my blunders fixed.
A few searches for bike painters in Sydney Australia showed that there was only really one guy to go to… Peter from Star Enamellers. The single speed frame is now with him. I’ve gotta wait a few weeks cause his workload is that high, but if the quality is there, I’m happy to wait.
What am I getting done to it? The paint will be removed by giving it a bath in some chemical paint stripper then glass bead blasting it. This will also remove most of the small dings and scratches. The bigger dents will be filled in, then a few coats of matt black will be spray painted on. The result of all this is that what I’ll get back will be essentially a brand new frame.
I’m quite excited about the getting it back part. It’s just that the waiting game part sucks. Lets play hungry hungry hippos!