You scored as You might survive. You've got a 50-50 chance of surviving the rise. You can boost your chances by working with someone who knows what they're doing and is willing to give you a hand with what you're bad at. You might survive. | | 57% | You're zombie-chow. | | 29% | You will definitely survive. | | 14% |
Will you survive the zombies rising?
New smoking restrictions came in this week. I foolishly assumed that NSW had finally caught up with QLD where you're not allowed to smoke anywhere that food is served, indoors or out, and even to have a smoking area in a beer garden requires special and well controlled permits. The new rules for NSW though just make all inside areas of pubs and clubs smoke-free, which while better than nothing is far from perfect. It pretty much means that if you want some fresh air, you have to stay inside. Which sucks, because in nice weather being outside in a beer garden, or al fresco dining is just loevly. Local councils are allowed to make their own rules fortunately, and some like Manly and Mosman have said that al fresco dining on council land must be smoke free. Hopefully other councils will follow along. Imagine if Sydney City Council did? That'd be brilliant. Ideally they'd say no smoking on the street in the city as well. Though I have noticed fewer people just smoking on the streets. Used to be you'd be walking around in constant smokey slipstreams, but now they are infrequent enough that you can dodge and weave around them. So, maybe these restrictions are already encouraging peopel to give up, reducing the number of people inspired to start and basically affecting how smokers feel about inflicting their smoke on other people. It might be time to start work on making Lush keep their hayfever-inducing soap smells inside.
Nick just alerted me to the fact that a new Grand Theft Auto game is due this year. And there is a trailor for it and everything. Eagle eyed readers may notice I have added it to my wishlist, but since it will only be avilable on Xbox 360 and PS3, I'll have to add them as well.
Because of a recent present buying mix up, I have decided that everyone should have a wishlist to simplify the present buying process. So if you would ever like a present from me, go to gifttagging.com and sign up (and then tell me about it of course). I may even get you something on your wishlist for no reason at all. The link to my own wishlist will henceforth be on the top of my links column right here on this blog, but for completeness, here is the address right here - www.gifttagging.com/kimwashere.
I wanted to go see Play! which is on at the Opera House. It is a symphony of music from video games, including, of course, WoW. Originally it was just Caitlin and Me. Then I invited Jimmy. Then I mentioned it to Andrew at work. And he asked everyone at work, and now 5 people at work are coming too. Then I told Coldcorpse (another Andrew) and he asked all his friends/relatives and now he has a group of 7 as well. Then I told Sanigav (Chris) and he and his flatmate want to come up from Canberra to see it. It's all quite remarkable considering I thought it would be a hard sell, and haven't actually tried to sell it at all... I just mentioned it. Though of course quite a few of the people going play WoW with me or otherwise have an interest in video games. I hope it's good now.
I'm putting this link in here to Outlaw Vern becuase I love his movie reviews but I forgot where to find him. I did a google search with - baddest cool tough prison "movie reviews" - and found him as the last entry on the bottom of the page. I think that says something about him. If you're going to read his reviews though, I'd recommend seeing the movie first, since his reviews are more like the kind of discussion you have about a movie afterwards adn they are full of spoilers.
Travelling rings look totally cool. Here's a bit I stole from the swingaring website since they explain pretty clearly what it's about. "Traveling rings are unique outdoor physical fitness equipment that provide enjoyable and challenging exercise for the whole body. The structure consists of support posts and a top beam from which 8-10 rings, spaced 7-8 feet apart, hang on swivel chains 6-7 feet above the ground. Ring swingers "travel" from one ring to the next by using their arms, legs, and trunk to build momentum. The swivels enable the swinger to spin around and encourage more creative use." There is a video about it too. The best bit is that they are in Santa Monica which is close to where Jen lives. So my fitness goal is now to go there and be fit enough to use them. The first step is working out with kettlebells. I ordered a DVD about it which I just got today and it looks really cool. It's all about full body exercises. I've been finding the writings of Josh Hill very enlightening as well. He's the one who inspired me to buy a kettlebell (by writing about the 300 workout), and had the link to that travelling rings video. I'll be taking some before and after photos, but I won't be posting anything until the after photos are worth seeing.
Something to add to my wishlist. 
And some other toys
I bought myself a caesar salad for lunch today, from one of those places that has it in a big tub, and they scoop you out a serve, being very careful of course not to give you too much of the good stuff they arrange artfully on the top to make it look like there is lots of it. Because of this artistry, it appeared that the dressing was just on the top and not on the lettuce where it needed to be. So I made a simple request - Could I have a little more dressing please? Now, I was ready to be told that it would cost extra, and I was ok with paying for extra mats. But instead he told me, in a very grumpy way, that it already had dressing on it. He wasn't even a grumpy, old guy. He was relatively young and good looking and should have been happier with life, even if he was working in a cafe which (I was soon to discover) sells dodgey salad. Now, one of the guys had to go 'out the back' where they keep the dressing to put it on - hence the apparant inconvenience - and on eating said salad I realised it must be because they keep it in a huge vat. It was quite clearly insipid institutional style dressing usually served in university food halls and hospital cafeterias. Not the creamy goodness that you're supposed to get from a place serving real food. I have never worked out for sure how they make this vile stuff but I am beginning to suspect it is whole egg mayonaise. Either that, or it's secreted from the glands of huge pulsating insect queens much like slurm, but without any of the otherwise appealing qualities.
I was at Angus & Robertson today and I picked up a copy of their Top 100 as voted by YOU, the Australian Public. Now we all know popularity doesn't automatically mean worthwhile since a lot of people are morons. But, it's a useful indicator of what is worth investigating so you can make your own decisions. Also, it's also safe to assume that people who actually read might be a little more trustworthy than average. However, I may be biased because I'm a bibliophile. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that I'm going to try to read all the books on the list. I've said this before about other lists and given it a go. Fortunately the lists have a core that doesn't change so each time I try it, I get closer to my goal. This is the list as it stands so far. Key: read | partly read | unread - Harry Potter Series - J.K. Rowling
- The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
- The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
- Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
- To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
- The Power of One - Bryce Courtenay
- Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
- My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult
- Magician - Raymond E. Feist
- Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
- Cloudstreet - Tim Winton
- The Bronze Horseman - Paullina Simons
- It - Stephen King
- The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
- April Fool's Day - Bryce Courtenay
- Mao's Last Dancer - Li Cunxin
- Eragon - Christopher Paolini
- The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
- Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
- Good News Bible
- Jessica - Bryce Courtenay
- The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
- Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
- The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
- Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
- Nineteen Eighty-four - George Orwell
- Ice Station - Matthew Reilly
- The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
- A Fortunate Life - A. B. Facey & Robert Juniper
- Cross Stitch - Diana Gabaldon
- Perfume - Patrick Suskind
- Life of Pi - Yann Martel
- The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
- Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
- The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
- Little Women - Louisa M. Alcott
- Tully - Paullina Simons
- Shantaram - Roberts Gregory David
- Wild Swans - Jung Chang
- The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
- Angela's Ashes - Frank McCourt
- Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom
- The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
- The Potato Factory - Bryce Courtenay
- The Reef - Di Morrissey
- The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
- A Child Called It - Dave Pelzer
- Clan of the Cave Bear - Jean M. Auel
- The Memory Keeper's Daughter - Kim Edwards
- Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
- Emma - Jane Austen
- The Thorn Birds - Colleen McCullough
- The Horse Whisperer - Nicholas Evans
- Marley and Me - John Grogan
- River God - Wilbur Smith
- One for the Money - Janet Evanovich
- The Pact - Jodi Picoult
- The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom
- Animal Farm - George Orwell
- The Godfather - Mario Puzo
- The Ancient Future - Traci Harding
- The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald
- Year of Wonders - Geraldine Brooks
- Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
- Dirt Music - Tim Winton
- Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
- The Notebook - Nicholas Sparks
- The Stand - Stephen King
- A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
- Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice
- Scarecrow - Matthew Reilly
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
- A Million Little Pieces - James Frey
- Across the Nightingale Floor - Lian Hearn
- Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
- Assassin's Apprentice - Robin Hobb
- Dune - Frank Herbert
- The Bride Stripped Bare - Anonymous
- Girl With a Pearl Earring - Tracy Chevalier
- War and Peace - L.N. Tolstoy
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson
- Anna Karenina - L.N. Tolstoy
- The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde
- The Celestine Prophecy - James Redfield
- The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood
- Flowers in the Attic - Virginia Andrews
- Plain Truth - Jodi Picoult
- Kane and Abel - Jeffrey Archer
- The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
- A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
- Brave New World -Aldous Huxley
- The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory
- The Secret River - Kate Grenville
- The Devil Wears Prada - Weisberger Lauren
- Four Fires - Bryce Courtenay
- Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
- Rich Dad, Poor Dad - Robert T. Kiyosaki
- The Secret History - Donna Tartt
- The Poet - Michael Connelly
- Desert Flower - Waris Dirie
I can't believe I've only read 24 of these. I'd like to know how many books I've read.
Jen had a link to this on her blog, and I decided to get one of my own. Johari Window It's a way of comparing how you think of yourself to how others see you.
Space is a beautiful place.  Ok, it's just an artist's impression of what a primordial quasar as it might have been, but it's still rather nice. NASA has a whole lotta photos that are really fascinating.
I stumbled across a wonderful photographer today called Valerio P, whose photos are quite spectacular. Well worth a look.  Makes me want to go out and buy a wide angle lens for my camera though. Anyone wanna give me $1000?
I have discovered that the later I get out of bed, the less time it takes me to get to work. Today I got up at 8:30 and was at work at 9:30. Last week I was getting up at 8 and getting to work at 9:15. I tried getting up at 7:30 and I got here at 9. So by extrapolation I could get up at 12 and be at work by 11, thereby solving the problem of time travel. With the added advantage of there never being any paradoxes since I'd still be in bed.
Have you noticed a change in manequins recently? Ok, I started noticing a while ago, and I don't know when it started. But they all have huge, obvious nipples now. Why does a manequin need nipples? And who makes these sorts of decisions anyway? Was the manequin design business taken over by one nipple-obsessed person? Or did a bunch of them get together at a convention and decide to make a move toward anatomically correct models? Because it's not just one brand. Manequins of all types have nipples that could take your eye out, even through a thick, wooly cardigan! Notice they've got no faces though. I'm not sure how anatomically correct that is.  
I'm a regular! I have achieved that sort after status of coffee drinkers everywhere. The ability to walk into your cafe for your morning coffee and just have to nod. I am known, possibly affectionately, as "Strong latte with a well-toasted banana bread with butter".
I bought frozen raspberries the other day to use on pancakes. I had a bunch left over though, already thawed out so I tried putting them in a glass, mushing them up and mixing them with lemonade to make authentic raspberry lemonade. And it was great. A bit lumpy, but the texture just adds interest. To make it even more interesting, I mixed in some vanilla vodka and now it's fantastic. The best cocktails are made with fresh fruit, not fruit liquers, if you ask me. I'm not sure if they work out cheaper or not though. Berries cost so much. Full of vitamins though, so it's a healthier way to drink booze at least.
Discovered a brilliant new podcast called Logically Critical. It's very clever and funny and covers a wide range of topics. If you're not registered for Digg.com already you should. You can find great podcasts like this one, as well as lots of other websites and videos. You can also boost the popularity of podcasts like this one.
I went to Lennox Head over easter hol and met my newphew Cooper for the first time. I took some photos of him, even though all he can really do yet is lie there. 
The best way to convert a photo like this to black and white is to go into the channels pallette and select only the red channel. If you look at just the red channel, even the blotchiest skin is rendered smooth, with no need for the healing tool. Next, you need to split the channels, which will make a seperate new file for each colour. You can delete the blue and green channels. They will probably look horrid anyway. Convert the red file back to RGB so you can work with it. Another trick I learnt from Yervant is to then copy the main layer, and do a Diffuse Glow filter on it. That's under Filters > Distort > Diffuse Glow. The file needs to be prety big for it to work though, otherwise the filter overpowers the image. Next, drop the opacity of the glow layer til it's more subtle. Ta da. You have a lovely soft focus image.
I saw a woman today who was a walking cliche. She was overly tanned, bleach blonde, tight skirt, big boobs and obvious cleavage. I happened to be going the same way as her so I followed behind her for a couple of blocks. Out of interest, I watched the men who walked by to see their reaction to her. To their credit not one of them gave her more than a cursory glance. Being the cynic that I am, I was suprised and impressed. So grats to them for not being cliches as well.
My brother and his wife recently had a baby. He's called Cooper and he's my first nephew. Anyone who knows me at all, knows I know next to nothing about babies, and generally have little interest in them beyond that they make good subjects for photos. Which is why it was so difficult shopping for a card and present for him today. I had planned to get this gorgeous toy dog I saw in a shop in Neutral Bay, but it's going to be difficult to get back there before Saturday when I'm supposed to fly up to see them. And why would a baby want a stuffed toy anyway? He probably doesn't at his age, and as he gets older he'll probably go for cars and stuff. Stuffed toys are far more for the people giving them and for decorating the room I reckon. And looking around in the city, I didn't find a single other toy that was any better. Anything I thought would be interesting is for far older kids and I have no idea what a baby would actually like. So no present yet. I did get a card though. After much looking and gagging at just how twee baby cards are. Apart from the fact that they are, without fail, pink for girls and blue for boys which is just stupid, they are so revoltingly cutesy. Cards are in general - when they aren't crude birthday cards - but baby cards are probably second only to wedding cards in their sickly sweetness. It might seem the obvious thing for a baby card, but it's such a cliche it doesn't seem at all sincere. So, I was pleased to find a cool brand of cards that used more unusual phrasing to get the feelings across. I looked at one that said "Happy Mr Aardvark, delighted at being the first in the dictionary, sends lots of affection your way" (or something like that). I was going to get it until I saw this one.  Inside I'll write "Welcome to the world. We're glad to have you here".
I have spent a lot of time in the past weeks listening to a podcast called The Skeptics Guide to the Universe. One of the topics that came up was scientific literacy. They said literacy in the US was only at 25% which sounds ludicrously low, especially when they implied that the tests carried out were about basic science facts. I found an article though that talks about how literacy is about concepts not facts, which makes a lot more sense. Try taking this test and seeing how literate you are. I'm ashamed to say I failed! Only 8 wrong but still a fail. I intend to read the whole thing though (it explains all the answers) so it doesn't happen again. Once you take the test, leave me a comment with your score so I can gauge how clever you all are.
I destroy microphones. I've gone through at least 4 since I started using vent. The main reason is that they are tethered to the computer and I forget about that and yank on the cord constantly when I go to get up or sit on it or something. I'm also ctalk to myself when I forget to put it back on after sitting back down. The solution? Bluetooth! My PC is already bluetooth compatible becuase it's a laptop and of course my phone is too. I wasn't sure a mobile headpiece would work on a PC but after doing a little research I found out that yes, as long as it can be paired to more than one device, I could happily use one with both a PC and my phone. This means that - I can use vent without trashing another mic
- I can use vent while I am walking around the house
- I can use my phone without holding it to my ear which I hate doing and
- I can listen to podcasts/music on my phone without the need for headphone cables
Even more ideal would be if I could get vent to play through the earpiece while all the other game sounds went through regular speakers. I had planned to get this retro handset since I don't have a home phone, to make talking on the phone more pleasant. The earpiece would be much more convenient I think, but the handset would be handy to have for visitors.
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