I Saw A Turtle!

I went for one of my round-the-town walks yesterday, while the weather was still good. I really need to get some more exercise, so I've taken up a semi-regular stroll, just so I can get used to the idea of leaving the house.

I walked past the man-made lake by the high school, and I saw some ducks (no real surprise there)... but I saw something else which struck me as unusual. There was a greenish helmet-shape sitting about six feet from the edge of the lake. At first, I thought it was a piece of rubbish, or someone's hat, but I crept up for a closer look and...

Hey! I saw a turtle! =)

I'm happy to see real live creatures up close, but I didn't want to disturb turtle too much. So, I took a couple of pictures, and then crept away. Unfortunately, I took said pictures with Dinkycam and they really didn't work out at all:

That greyish smoosh in the middle of the greenish smudgy stuff is the turtle. I really really have to get a new camera! Once I took the (cough cough) "photos", I crept away, and watched the turtle as it plodded off back to the lake.

Okay, so I'm getting over excited over a damn animal. It's just that I seldom get to see non-domesticated animals so close to a built-up area. (There have been a few kangaroos sighted in the empty field between the CBD and where I live, but they have been there for a while.)
This makes me both happy, and a little sad, too. A lot of other people who would have seen this would have tried to disturb the animal somehow, by either trying to take it home, or injuring it somehow. The closeness of the high school to the lake also brings some nasty possibilities to mind... though I assume the turtle would have the sense to keep away from people at a set time (who knows?).

I also saw some birds with long black curved beaks by the lake. I think they are either a type of ibis, or a jabiru, but I gotta do some research. Damn, I wish we still had that bird book we used to have years ago, but I think my Dad took it with him to Queensland...
PS. Yep. They were definitely ibises.

New News...

Hey folks!
Stuff has been happening since the last post. (But then it usually does.)

I got a haircut the other day. It cost me $10. o_O;
I feel happier knowing my head is not weighed down with useless hair. I like to keep it nice and short, so I don't have to worry about it being a mess all the time.
When my hair is short, it looks nice and straight, but, as soon as it starts to get a bit of length, it suddenly (overnight!) gets all curly and unruly... and that is about when I decide to get it trimmed back again.
Seriously, I hate my hair. At least, when it gets too long...

My Ma is laying down a new floor covering at her house.
It's a fake wood-panel effect, made of actual wood panels (but the manufactured, printed-on type). It's a huge difference from the worn out grey carpet they used to have!
The only problem is... we aren't allowed to wear shoes on it any more. groan
I respect their decision, but can see some problems with this logic:

1. Floors are made for WALKING on. Not for LOOKING at.
2. Not everyone has nice smelling feet.
3. Hard, polished floors + slippery cotton socks = "Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!"

Still, I guess it would be nice to keep the floor looking good for as long as possible... and it does make the house look much better!

The third bit of news? Krissy has a new blog!
http://stayawhilehavesomecake.blogspot.com/
It's been added to the list at right. Check it out and say hello if you like!

Pikmin!

I recently found a copy of the Nintendo Gamecube title Pikmin.
It's excellent! It plays a lot like Lemmings, except you have slightly better control over the little helpers.
You take the role of an alien whose rocket ship has crashed on an unfamiliar planet. You encounter a number of small beings, the "Pikmin", who follow you and perform directed tasks (like destroying walls, building pathways, etc). You also use the Pikmin to collect the missing parts of your rocket ship, so that you can rebuild your ride and escape from the planet before your life support systems fail.
My only (minor) complaint is the camera control. Many times I've tried to navigate my player through the landscape, only to struggle with an unfortunate viewing angle because I keep forgetting to reposition the camera. I suspect this is because the game came out early in the console's lifetime, and the designers didn't have the familiarity with the controls to come up with something more comfortable.

I played it for about three hours last night, but realised that I couldn't save my progress because my memory card was too full! On the other hand, I'll be better equipped to do the first few stages now that I know where all the parts are hidden... ;)

Sleepy Limbo

...caught in the space between...

Right now I am in between two opening shifts at work. I seem to be getting a lot of opening shifts recently... and they are a lot harder than I thought they would be.
I'm still working under the limit of 30hrs a week (it's a regulatory thing - I guess if we worked any more hours it would cost our employers too much). But... I'm really NOT a morning person, and my sleeping pattern is totally mucked up because of this.

The past two open shifts have left me very tired. I have noticed that I become very strange when I am on the edge of sleep - I mean, stranger than normal. Yesterday about an hour before the end of my shift I started giggling, and I couldn't stop. It was really embarrassing. I had to pretend I had a bad cough, and kept covering up my mouth.

After work I went straight to bed. Then I got woken up about three times by phone calls (which hung up before I got to the phone)... which only made me even drowsier. It seems that if my sleep is interrupted by something it adds an extra hour to my slumber. Which is why I don't like sleeping during the day...

Also, I'm just starting to get achey in my joints, because I suspect I'm getting that damn virus thing that my Ma has right now.
I am not happy! I know that I'm going to get really sick because my lifestyle has been erratic of late (not just work related stuff, btw, but it hasn't helped). What's more, I have three days off this week, and I know that I'll probably spend most of those in bed. Out of force, not choice...

Must... get... sleep...

Mural News

The other piece of news I have is that Trish has finished the Train Mural that I've helped paint previously. I haven't been able to go visit her studio since this post (and that time I was beyond anything resembling helpfulness).
The commissioners of the murals have been complaining about the absence of finished work, so Trish has had to complete them on her own.
:( Sorry Trish.
If I'd had a reliable work schedule, I would have been able to sort something out, but... things are still crazy right now. (We're training up a couple of new people at the moment, though, so things should improve!)

Oh the up side, this means that we only have the Lions mural, and a couple of the single-panel works, to complete... and all of the old projects will finally be finished!
*insert premature applause & fanfare*

This will clear up a lot of space in the art studio. But most importantly, she can now accept tenders for new projects, for which she will actually get $income$!
NB. She did get paid for the previous ones, but only at the beginning... which, remember was a few years and several rounds of "Work for the Dole" ago. That funding is now long gone.

With any luck, I'll be able to organise a mass visit to her place, with some of the other volunteers that I'm in the process of tracking down. Hopefully, we'll be able to have a get together by Christmas - or for Christmas, if everything opens up sufficiently before then!

Dimboola - *****!

Well, the play was excellent! Though, not all went to plan...

I managed to get the night off (yay!) and I managed to organise three of my friends to accompany me (yay!!) and I even managed to find my way to the hall on time (YAAY!!!).

But... two of my friends didn't make it. Regrettably, their car got a flat tyre on the way. (Noooo!!!) Which meant that I'd lost out on the price of their tickets... Hey, it happens.

Still, we had an excellent time.
I got to meet Andrew's¹ family, whom I've heard about but never seen. They were nice, and his Mum had a lovely chat with my friend Trish² regarding the murals already installed in Moe.

My sister played the bridesmaid, in a very fetching green dress -_-; and some lovely cork platform heels (also in green). I thought they were an op-shop find, but it turns out they were brand new from Target - reduced to $4, I wonder why?!?

The presentation was interesting... as the play takes place at a wedding banquet, the audience played the role of party guests, which meant we were also provided a three-course meal along with the cast! (The meal I had wasn't quite as nice as I'd expected for the price of the ticket, but I did appreciate the caterers accomodating for my vegan friend - who was one of the two people who didn't show up, unfortunately!)

Of course, the actors were also drinking lots of (non-alcoholic) beer, and were playing their roles very convincingly! In fact, Krissy was doing some drunken dancing during one of the "meal" periods, and actually fell over! It was an accident, but it just made it more real...
In fact, I mentioned to Andrew's family that I'd seen her do that before - which did NOT go down well with Krys afterwards. ;P

It was a wonderful performance. I'm glad I went to see it, because everyone did such a smashing job. If you're going to see it, you will enjoy yourself!

NB:
At about this point, I'd be including some Dinkycam photos because I took the little bugger along with me. But, even though it worked perfectly on the night, something went horribly wrong when I tried to upload the pictures onto my PC and they all got deleted. Oh well, it's not as if they would have worked out anyway... sigh I think I'd better fork out for a proper digital camera someday.

___________
¹My sister's partner, btw.
²The same Trish who is the co-ordinator for the mural project I may have mentioned in passing. See my next post re: that topic.

Tomorrow, The Play

I'm looking forward to tomorrow.
I'll be going to see my sister in the Moartz play Dimboola, and I'll be using the opportunity to catch up with my mural painting friends as well (assuming we all make it on time). I've been so busy with work of late, it will be good to get together with people and actually have some fun for a change!

Ah, things look like they're clearing up a bit now. Hopefully I get a few weeks of peace before the horror of eXcemas hits us all with its tinsel-trimmed poison! Oh, dear, I promised I wouldn't get all like this...

House of Leaves

Another book that I'd been searching for (and found at the library) was House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski. I'd seen it mentioned somewhere, and I thought it would be exactly the kind of book I'd like.

I read through it a couple of nights ago, and all I can say is

Wow.

Wow. Wow. Wow.

Wow.

Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Wow. Wow.

Wow.

Wow. Wow.

Wow.

Wow.¹

___________
¹You want a synopsis? Try this: it concerns a documentary film called The Navidson Record², a video archive of a series of bizarre events occurring within a suburban house. By bizarre, I mean that a new hallway appears where no such hallway could possibly exist (where, logically, a doorway would lead outside of the house). Even spookier, the new hallway is dark grey, featureless, and nightmarishly labyrinthine. Seriously, people get lost inside the house for days on end.

²I should also point out that said documentary may not even exist. The only reference to this film is contained within an essay written by a blind man³, and which was discovered by our narrator (Johnny) who found it in the man's apartment after he died. Johnny has presented the essay as he has found it, but, incidentally, there's
good reason to suspect he's not telling the true story.

³The essay also included plenty of visual artifactsº, such as photographs, sketches and supplementary materials. These are shown in the Appendices, however, a lot of the said items Do Not Exist. A lot of the interviews included never actually happened. A lot of the references included in the footnotes refer to nonexistent publications. In fact, a lot of the story Does Not Exist either, for reasons which become all too - no, wait, you can never really understand what's going on.ⁿ

ºI haven't even covered the interesting typographical layout yet. The book abounds with plenty of footnotes and cross-references (and plenty of ramblings from our friendly narrator Johnny, who incidentally has some interesting tales of his own). Soon, the footnotes themselves threaten to overwhelm the main copy itself, and the layouts change dramatically over the course of the book. And then, once the characters start to investigate this dark hallway, the very fabric of the book changes -

ⁿThe way I feel after reading this book is the same way I felt after I watched this. Nonetheless, I liked House of Leaves very muchly.

The Salmon of Doubt

But no, I haven't just been watching TV.

I finally managed to find a copy of The Salmon of Doubt, the posthumous collection of Douglas Adams' essays and articles published after his death in 2001. I've been scouring the bookshops for a copy, and gave up, when I realised, "Duh! That's what libraries are for!"

It's not the kind of book you read all at once, but rather a "pick it up and sample it every now and then" type. And, it's frickin' brilliant. He had a great sense of humour that really comes through in his writing, and it makes me miss him even more. (Is it even possible to miss someone you've never met?)

I'm afraid I'll just have to buy a copy now, assuming I actually find one for sale. I only get to keep this book for two weeks, after all!

The Man With No Name (apparently)

By the way, we've been watching the "new" episodes of Doctor Who of late, and hey, turns out I was already a fan and never even knew it!
One of those "Aha! It all makes sense now!" moments.

Seriously, though, it's about time someone started making television that was worth watching again. I was starting to lose focus now that Buffy and Angel wound themselves up.
And, what's even better, I have a lot of catching up to do...

PS. Thank you Russell!
PPS. Thank you Aron!

EDIT: I found out that David Tennant is leaving his post as The Doctor at the end of the next season (which will only be four episodes because he has other obligations during the year). Oh well...

Work...?

Uuuaahhh...

Just when I thought I was out of the frying pan...

Work has come back to annoy me again. We're really struggling with the thinly-spread staff at the moment. Long story short, I will be working a lot of hours after this Wednesday.

I hope we get some new staff soon, because I (and most of the others at work) really do NOT want to keep doing this.

Also, we have a house inspection this week. Must tidy, tidy, tidy...
It's probably way overdue. There were some pretty big dust-bunnies under my desk! Eyeww.