The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers @ TED

3:28 pm, March 11th, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Posted in internets, videooooos by Jarod

Let me preface this post by saying that I hate tv shows like So You Think You Can Dance. That out of them way, the following video is long … but so very worth it if you appreciate good dance.

After watching the 17 minute long video below, I appreciate good dancing.

FebuSave, job hunting and Australia Day.

9:59 am, January 26th, 2010 | No Comments »
Posted in febusave, girlthings, internets by Liz

Firstly, you may have noticed that there’s a new button in the sidebar. I’m supporting ANZ’s initiative to encourage women to start saving and be more money confident.

Did you know…

- Less than one third of women surveyed said they were very confident about managing everyday finances.

- 45% said they had saved less than they planned to over the previous 12 months

- 2.76 million women (41%) are saving no regular amount monthly

- More than half (58%) of adult women in Australia have less than $5,000 in savings with 33% having less than a $1,000

- 1 in 3 women believe they wouldn’t last longer than a month if they lost their job tomorrow

- 1 in 4 women are not at all confident about their future financial security, claiming they live pay to pay with little savings

They are not fantastic figures. And despite paying off and closing my last credit card in Feburary 2009, I have yet to have any substantial savings (of my own) either. By joining FebuSave I’ll be saving as much as I can while posting about it.

You can visit the FebuSave site (a part of the Be Money Confident site) for more information about FebuSave. You don’t need to sign up to FebuSave start saving, but sometimes committing to something publicly can help you reach your goal.

—

In other news, I am searching for full time work. I’m pretty good at stuff, and while I’ve been trawling seek for suitable options, I realise that other people might have heard of something not advertised, or that might be hard to find. There is a short summary of what I have experience in and what I am after on lizchristie.com and I would really appreciate it if you could pass it on to anyone you think might be interested, or if you could let me know of any positions you know of that might suit. I am looking for work in the Sydney CBD / Inner West area.

—

And on a lighter note – Happy Australia Day! Today on friendly miaows there is a totally suitable/unsuitable photo to celebrate the day. And I also forgot to mention – friendly miaows is in the sixties! That’s a lot of cat photos.

apple & bee

11:29 pm, January 12th, 2010 | No Comments »
Posted in girlthings, internets by Liz

I’ll be honest, I was attracted to the website well before I realised they sold nice things.

At apple & bee our aim is to make the most beautiful cosmetic, travel and baby bags without harming the environment. We use the finest materials such as certified organic cotton, bamboo silk, hemp, burlap/calico and genuine leather… because just as we’ve built our bags to last, we wouldn’t mind the planet being around for a while longer too.

And with a statement like that, you can feel warm and fuzzy while at the same time buying the aforementioned nice things. Some of the items available through their online store include this nicely sized overnight bag…

Along with a range of make up/toiletry bags that look anything but ugly…

They have baby stuff too, if you’ve decided babies are your thing.

Of course I can’t afford any of the range, but that doesn’t stop me from liking them.

Tell me this isn’t the best thing ever.

7:22 pm, January 11th, 2010 | 6 Comments »
Posted in geekery, girlthings, internets by Liz

And if you do I’ll tell you that you’re lying.

Thanks to Jacinta for saying this on twitter:

Just watched one of David Tennant’s CBeebies bedtime stories. I think I just spontaneously ovulated.

…which sent me searching through youtube to find them. Of course.

Story One
Story Two (and above)
Story Three
Story Four
Story Five

Welcome to Jarod and Liz dot com Version 7

2:17 pm, January 10th, 2010 | 5 Comments »
Posted in boythings, geekery, internets, whinging by Jarod

Wow. Another new version of the blog.

This one has been a few weeks in the making. It was meant to be released on the first of this month as a way to ring in the New Year, but hey, I got slack and lazy.

Still though, it’s all nice and pretty and shiny and such. I like it a lot. Liz is tolerating it. What more could a guy ask for.

Oh, oh, and it’s optimised for you slackers who haven’t upgraded to nice pretty widescreens yet. That’s right, it’ll do 1280×1024 (!). One more caveat is that I literally haven’t tested it with Chrome or IE. Firefox runs it fine so how bout all you guys use Firefox and save me the trouble of making it cross browser compatible? Yep. Sounds great!

Right. I think that’s it. Enjoy**

** and be sure to leave a comment if you find any abnormal looking bugs. It’s most likely user error on my end.

2009 in pie.

9:43 pm, December 27th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Posted in girlthings, internets by Liz

Getting in early in the ’so, this was my 2009′ thing, here is my 2009 in pie form:

I tried to put the legend in, but it all got too messy. So here’s the summary. (All figures are approximate…)

Sleeping – 2548 hours – 29.09%
Interneting – 1456 hours – 16.62%
Working at Allianz – 950 hours – 10.84%

I left Allianz in August – just after my one year anniversary with them had passed. My time on jury duty made me realise how unhappy I was in the corporate environment, so now I’m doing something a little more ‘relaxed’.

And by ‘relaxed’ I mean there’s 30k less in it a year, but I am much happier for it.

Eating – 728 hours – 8.31%
Working at Serendipity – 600 hours – 6.85%

My something more ‘relaxed’. Mmm, ice cream.

Live-in Sister – 420 hours – 4.80%

My sister lived with us for a little while. It was fun, squishy and fun all at once. Train didn’t like it.

Procrastinating – 364 hours – 4.16%
Watching TV – 260 hours – 2.97%
Jury Duty – 245 hours – 2.80%

245 hours I’ll never get back and that taught me that people aren’t as nice as you’re brought up to believe.

A neat little bow can be tied around this one – the person was recently acquitted of the charges after an appeal – a decision I am happy with.

“The appeal court concluded the verdict was ‘‘unreasonable’’ and the crown prosecutor’s final address caused ‘‘a miscarriage of justice’’.”

Walking places – 182 hours – 2.08%

Haven’t needed a car since we sold mine last year. Living so close to everything helps.

Sleeping In – 121.33 hours – 1.39%
Cuddles with Jarod – 121.33 hours – 1.39%

My favourite part(s) of the year by far.

Baking Sweet Things – 104 hours – 1.19%

My new ‘thing’. I like sweet things.

Showering – 91 hours – 1.04%
Cooking Dinner – 78 hours – 0.89%
Cleaning – 78 hours – 0.89%

Before you point out I spent more time showering than I did cooking or cleaning, you need to remember I share cooking and cleaning tasks with Jarod. I can’t share showering tasks with Jarod.

In Brisbane – 72 hours – 0.82%
House Hunting – 58.5 hours – 0.67%

This ended abruptly in February as my jury duty coincided with the bank deciding the house we’d put an offer on wasn’t worth that much. Never mind that it sold for 5k more two days later to someone else. We may start looking again in the next year. We’ll see.

Posting to Jarod and Liz – 53 hours – 0.61%
Brushing Teeth – 52 hours – 0.59%
Being attacked by Train – 52 hours – 0.59%

I think if I’d estimated the hours on this last year it would have been more. She is starting to settle down. A bit.

Waiting for sentencing – 30 hours – 0.34%

The most annoying part of jury duty. I was back at work and checking the papers and the nsw lawlink site daily. The decision was made in April, the sentencing in July, the appeal decision in December.

Seeing Family – 26 hours – 0.30%

The numbers have been boosted by the last three days of non stop family funtimes.

Kitty walks – 20 hours – 0.23%

Not included in the ‘Walking’ total because these are special walks.

Trying to cuddle Train – 15.6 hours – 0.18%
Waiting for Jarod to finish bike races – 10 hours – 0.11%

If I take a good book, the time goes quickly.

In Canberra – 10 hours – 0.11%
Cleaning Litter Tray – 8.632 hours – 0.10%
Bike Riding – 4.33 hours – 0.05%

Of course, a lot of things have been left out. Seeing friends, for example. Not that much of that happened this year, but perhaps next year. I don’t make resolutions or have plans, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

And yes, that image at the top is an accurate representation of the figures mentioned.

The Race to Two Hundred.

8:41 pm, December 20th, 2009 | No Comments »
Posted in bikes, boythings, internets, roundups by Jarod

It’s not been official until now, but Liz and I are racing to 200 posts on this, our humble blog. As it stands I’m at 188 (189 with this post) and Liz is at 186. That puts me three ahead with eleven to go, but I’m still behind the eight ball cause Liz has stacks of momentum (and won’t stop baking stuff!). She’s made 10 or the last 15 posts for pete’s sake.

Now in a slight retrospective, these are a few of the stand out posts (in my mind at least) that I’ve made.

2010 Kona Unit Single Speed

Gary Fisher Cobia, made into a single speed

The Salsa Casseroll Single Speed

The Giant Iguana Single Speed Frame

Strange that all of them are about single speed bikes. Well… not that strange I spose.

The Whitlams – No Aphrodisiac with Sydney Symphony Orchestra

5:57 pm, December 16th, 2009 | No Comments »
Posted in internets, mooosic, videooooos by Jarod

I don’t think an explanation should be needed. It’s just an awesome song.

Most. Awesome. Present. Ever.

6:33 pm, December 8th, 2009 | No Comments »
Posted in girlthings, internets, traaiiiiin by Liz

While running savvycat I did a couple of giveaways. The winners of one of my last giveaways was so pleased, that she hand knitted Train a bee! And then sent it to her, all the way from Canada!

Buzz!

How awesome is it?

Here’s Train eating it…

I am constantly astounded at how awesome people I meet on the Internet are. Thank you, Jessica!

Mumford and Sons – Little Lion Man

9:31 am, December 6th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Posted in boythings, internets, mooosic, videooooos by Jarod

In the category of ‘music that Liz and Jarod liked a while ago but never got around to posting‘ is Little Lion Man by Mumford & Sons.

I dare you not to be singing the chorus by the end of the song. Double dares are for those that think they won’t over emphasise the swear word.

Kate and Wing’s Wedding Reception

10:21 am, November 29th, 2009 | No Comments »
Posted in internets, local by Jarod

It was extremely fun to catch up with long lost SPB’ers. I think it’s fairly safe to say everyone had a brilliant night. Well, Liz and I certainly did.

The simple things are what made the night so memorable. The Rick Rollin‘ fortune cookies, handmade party bags, fun loving company and of course… crayons and butchers paper!

Kate and Wing, we wish you many years of happiness together and sincerely hope you framed the butchers paper Michelle, Liz, Tim and I worked on. It’ll be worth mega-bucks one day.