One of those time wasters.

5:17 pm, January 31st, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Posted in girlthings, internets, local, roundups, traaiiiiin by Liz

I got tagged to do this on facebook. And then I was meant to tag another 25 people or something. But I’m not good for that sort of thing, but I thought I could steal the meme as an excuse for a blog post. It’s a ‘25 things about you’ thing, which I’m going to turn into ‘25 things about Liz and Train’ because I can’t think of 25 things about myself.

1. Train is a very anxious kitty. She’s got a touch of separation anxiety, and a fear of strangers. And sisters.

2. I’ve attended 8 different schools while growing up. Most of the changes where in Primary School, because we moved around a lot when I was little(r)

3. Train’s favourite game at the moment is to crawl under the bed, then lie on her back peeking into the crack between the wall and the bed, and grab at my fingers while I’m sleeping. (As inevitably my arm will dangle over the edge).

4. I love Doctor Who, but I think it’s only because of David Tennant.

5. I first met Train in a Hungry Jack’s car park out west. It was so, so so dodgy, but I brought her home anyway.

6. I really don’t like Brisbane. I don’t plan on living there ever again.

7. Train is really awesome at catching flies. She pounces with surprising accuracy and often brings them to us while they’re still buzzing.

8. I met Jarod through Flickr. He sent me a message that said: “I’ll do you a deal. You stop stalking my photos on Flickr and I’ll stop stalking yours. Fair?” 24 messages later and I’d convinced him to come along to a Mic in Hand.

9. Train respects Jarod much more than she does me. All he has to do is look at her and she’ll stop whatever trouble making she’s into.

10. I came to Sydney because I got transferred down with DHL. I was planning on moving to Melbourne, but got distracted.

11. Train is creepy and likes to watch you while you shower. She’ll often poke her head around the shower curtain and just stare.

12. I used to really, really, really like comedy. I’m a bit over it at the moment, so am trying to avoid it. Although I’m still tempted to go down for the Comedy Festival so I don’t miss two years in a row.

13. I’m terrible at keeping in touch with people. I have friends all over Australia, but most of them will only hear from me once every couple of months if they’re lucky. This has a lot to do with me not being a very sociable person.

14. Train has the most awesome temper I’ve ever seen in a cat. By awesome I mean, when she gets proper angry, I actually get scared. I have never experienced that with a cat before.

15. I did the Funny Tonne at the 2006 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. I didn’t take it at all seriously, and ruined my show-seeing stats by going back to see my favourite shows up to three times again. My reviews were largely similar, although apparently a little blunt sometimes. It was so. much. fun. I wasted a whole lot of money on accommodation and seeing the extra shows, but I don’t regret a thing.

16. Train is apparently a Burmese x British Shorthair in tortoiseshell. The tortoiseshell part is the only thing I can verify.

17. I never thought I would live without a car, and yet I was still happy to sell mine last year. I haven’t really needed it since, either.

18. Train loves to sit on the worm farm in the morning sun. If we try and remove her, she’ll hunker down and not let us get a grip on her.

19. I’m not good with movies. I haven’t seen many, and am not really interested in it. Although, Jarod and I watch heaps of documentaries.

20. Train sometimes tries to escape. She’s never been further than under our stairs, and it scares us every time she goes for it. (Although it’s been a good 3 months since she last tried. This is probably also due to a ‘gate upgrade’).

21. I like Perth a lot. It’s a sleepy little town.

22. Train wont eat any food that’s given to her by Julie. We keep trying, and it always turns into wasted food.

23. I like to read, but don’t have nearly enough time on my hands — I like to read books in one or two sittings. I’m not one of those people that can read two pages a night for 6 months, I need to know the ending now.

24. I really want more cats. Like, at least 2 more. I think it’d be awesome to live in a house filled with cats.

25. I think it would be cool to set up a web cam to watch Train all day. I like to think she gets up to interesting things, but it would probably just capture her sleeping all day.

Awesome.

4:13 pm, January 31st, 2009 | No Comments »
Posted in comedy, cuteness, girlthings, internets, roundups by Liz

Although I keep feeling sorry for the kittens that fall off / get pushed around.

1K

6:51 pm, January 29th, 2009 | No Comments »
Posted in girlthings, internets, plinky by Liz

If I won $1000 I'd finish paying off my credit card, then give the rest to the Cat Protection Society. Because they do nice stuff for kitties.

My first job: KFC

8:08 pm, January 27th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Posted in girlthings, internets, plinky by Liz

My first 'real' job was with KFC. Serving people or making burgers, depending on the temperament of the manager on any given day.

I made the mistake of accepting a job where a strong minded but good friend from school would be my supervisor. Insert hours and days of arguments over petty things here.

After a few months I left and joined Woolworths as a checkout chick. Much better.
The only things I refuse to eat from KFC these days is the bacon. That stuff is just wrong.

If I could tame a wild animal…

5:46 pm, January 26th, 2009 | No Comments »
Posted in cubblefish, girlthings, internets, plinky by Liz

[Liz is playing around with Plinky]

Despite my want for a massive cat, with the size of our apartment we'd have to go for something smaller. That could fit in a tank. Like, a cuttlefish or two.

Hopefully it would keep Train in line by occasionally mesmerising her and threatening to eat her.

Pretty cool namey thing.

5:48 pm, January 24th, 2009 | No Comments »
Posted in geekery, girlthings, internets, nothingness, roundups by Liz

Don’t get any ideas, but I stumbled across this namey thing.
You can type in a name and see the popularity in graph form over the years.

Just ignore the ‘baby’ part of the whole thing.

Popularity of names starting with ELIZABETH

Popularity of names starting with JAROD

Name Voyager

Anthony and Jess’ Wedding

11:05 am, January 23rd, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Posted in boythings, girlthings, photography, roundups by Jarod

Whoa, Liz and I haven’t posted on here in ages. Why the lack of posts I hear you ask? We were Official Wedding Photographers for a weekend…. huzzah!!

As a result of this Liz and I:

• Flew to Brisbane.
• Took stacks of photos (just short of two thousand).
• Flew home.
• Post processed photos.
• Made a website for the bride and groom.
• Slept.

More to the point, we’d have loved to have slept, but with the recent semi heatwave the east coast of Australia has been getting, that’s been made quite difficult. Last night, the mercury didn’t drop below 25 degrees (and that was outside… it seems we were hotter as our double brick rental is a mighty good insulator).

But enough whinging about the heat.  Many photos were taken. Much fun was had by all. And a large number of steaks were eaten from the Hogs Breath Cafe.  Winner’ish all round!

Now, enjoy a random selection of the wedding photos I uploaded to flickr. If you want to see the rest, check out anthonyandjess.com.

Annnnnd… we’re back.

9:04 pm, January 19th, 2009 | No Comments »
Posted in geekery, girlthings, internets, roundups, traaiiiiin by Liz

Just don’t expect us to talk much until all the post processing is done.

(This was emailed to me, but seems to be from here. There’s a quiz and everything.)

GTA IV Wrapup

8:50 am, January 15th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Posted in boythings, gaming, geekery, internets by Jarod

As previously stated, I’m a big fan of the GTA series.  I’ve played every PC version they’ve released since the original top down shooter.  Yet GTA IV’s single player just didn’t excite me.

I put this down to the genre getting a little tired.  There are only so many mission variants.  Rob a bank, get chased by cops, find pay and spray, win.  Chase a bad guy, shoot his car, blow him up, win.  Steal a car, deliver it with minimal damage despite baddies shooting you, win.  I mean, how do you mix all those up so that they seem fun and innovative every time?

What did blow me away was the graphics.  Stunning visual effects made for a constantly changing environment.  It was strange that you’d realise it was raining cause the pedestrian you just hit’s umbrella went flying.  Only then would you adjust your driving style to suit a little more oversteer.

It was also either the first time that a GTA game had rag doll player models, or the first time they’d been implemented properly.  Suffice to say that shooting people in various limbs has never been more fun.

What I’ve now moved onto is GTA IV Multiplayer.  That’s right, no more stupid AI being stupid in the middle of a shootout, but real live players who have strategies and change them based on what’s going on.  The multi player is all too similar to the single player though… it can be either a hit or a miss depending on how you look at it.

First the negatives.  Either people are cheating their asses off, or something is really wrong with the code.  There’s only so many times I can stand unloading a machine gun clip or two into an enemy player’s chest/head while they’re standing still and them not die.  Whether it’s cheats or the net code, it’s just not cricket.

While I’m whinging about code and servers and such (the segue is a stretch, but stay with me), there must be only three servers in the southern hemisphere.  And sadly they’re held together with cans of baked beans, bubble gum and dirt.  In the in game browser (which is shockingly bad) I’d occasionally get one or two servers with a green connection (which I have no idea what ping it relates to), maybe two or three with a yellow connection and all the rest are red.  Give me a few more ‘green’ servers any day.

Ok, good stuff about multi player.  When you’ve got a good team death match game going, it’s nothing short of brilliant.  Sadly this doesn’t happen often as you require the afore-mentioned green server, the average IQ of the players populating the server to be over 40 and for the server settings not to be retarded.  If I had a nickel for every time I saw a server with death match game play mode, the whole map opened up and no cars…. well I still wouldn’t be rich… but I’d still want to punch the server admins in the face.

So GTA IV is good, but it’s not that good.  It’s the same old thing, but a whole bunch prettier.  The multi player is better than it was in previous versions, but only cause there was none in previous versions.

I’ll continue to play online until the green servers totally disappear or I reach the milestone of shooting through more than 6 machine gun clips into one person and them remain standing.  Whichever comes first.

Kitty Visits Uncle Phil

5:40 pm, January 13th, 2009 | No Comments »
Posted in cuteness, worms! by Jarod

This is the face Train pulled when I told her she was going to stay with Uncle Phil for a few days. To me, it’s half disbelief, half surprise, and half I’m going to nom him!

Ok, I lie. This is her sitting in amongst her kitty castle as shown below. Right in the centre of the photo is her Kitty Pheromone maker. Yummy Pheromones.

I’ll be damned if I’m not going to miss her stacks. Especially given that we have proof that the sun shines out of her ass.

Ps, hey Train, if Uncle Phil is mean to you, bite him good like!

Fake Kitty Pheromones!

8:01 pm, January 12th, 2009 | 4 Comments »
Posted in boythings, girlthings, local, photography, traaiiiiin by Liz

Train hasn’t been taken to my sister staying with us very well. She’s not good with strangers at the best of times, but to have a ’stranger’ coming and going whenever she likes is freaking her out.

She’s been staying up at night and prowling/guarding our bedroom, keeping an eye out for when Julie comes home, and will only rest (it seems) when both Jarod and I are awake and able to protect ourselves from the Scary Julie Monster.

We tried to convince Train that Julie was okay… we got Julie to feed her a couple of times, give her treats and pats and all the rest, but she doesn’t want to accept it.

While she’s stopped attacking Julie when she comes home, the anxious wandering and general fretting over everything hasn’t stopped, so we thought it was time to see if we could do something ’soft core’ about it. There’s no way I want to try giving Train tablets on a daily basis, so the Vet recommended something called ‘Feliway’ or Synthetic Feline Facial Pheromones… basically it’s in a diffuser set up, much like those stupid glade plug-ins.

You plug in the kitty pheromones, and it’s meant to make the kitty feel more at ease, as they are the same pheromones that a cat releases when they scent things.

Apparently it’ll take a few days to a week or two to notice any effects, but it’s a start.
We’ve also decided not to leave Train with Julie while we go to Brisbane (it’s entirely possible that Train will murder Julie and dispose of the body before we return), so she gets to visit my brother, instead. Hopefully she’ll remember him from last time.

Fingers crossed when we get back Train will be a little more calmer. Even if we have to reintroduce her to the Scary Julie Monster when we get back.