My head is already hurting in preparation

It looks like the Newtown RSL, that was “closing” has opened again. The owner of Petersham RSL appears to be the owner of the updated RSL, and they also have some preview shots of the newly renovated club.

I’m already getting my vocal chords warmed up in anticipation of Friday kareoke (well, if they bring it back that is!).

“That tho, tho, tho, thong, thong, thong…”

For the hell of it

If you want to be like tens of thousands of other people out there, you can send your name the Comet Tempel 1 in July of 2005. You even get a certificate. I can’t help but feel massively underwhelmed for some reason.

Melbourne Cup

So another year passed and yet again, I didn’t win anything on the office sweepstakes. Next year its either scratchies or a lottery ticket for me instead. The only time I’ve ever won anything was when I was out of the office. I didn’t get back to the office in time, so someone else decided to “claim” my ticket for themselves. Yes, how convenient.

Anyhow, for something to snigger over about the day, this couple gets a bit amorous:

Thanks to the ever amazing link generator Matt for that gem.

Westpac’s IBM staff on strike

True to form, I didn’t know this was happening until a friend mentioned it to me. It seems like you never seem to know what is happening inside until the newspapers publish it.

An Interview with Samba creator Andrew Tridgell

ZDNet Australia interview Andrew Tridgell, creator of the open source project Samba. Andrew Tridgell “explains how he came to write the software that has earned him Bulletin magazine’s Smartest 100 award in the ICT sector for 2003.”

Busy weekend

The weekend just past has been a pretty busy one for me. On Friday night, after having drinks for Rob’s birthday at the Moog Bar, Rozie, Matt, Adam and I headed down to Tech-ni-kal for techno legend Kevin Sauderson. Not quite my cup of tea, but pretty much what I expected, fun party techno.

The next day (Saturday) I headed up to Glenworth Valley for Utopia. My friend Dave was playing live and he needed a lift up, so I was more than willing to help out. Unfortunately due to the time slot (4pm), Dave played to pretty much me and Rozie. A few people wandered through, but it was just too damned early for a rave really. Had a fun time and we even stopped off at Pie in the Sky (Sydney’s best damn pie shop that ain’t even in Sydney) for a much needed pie.

At night was Jupiter Jazz down at Bar Europa. It was a pretty fun night. Since we didn’t really do a top job of advertising this party of ours, we were pretty happy with how things panned out. Perhaps next time we should tell people that the party is on… Here’s the photos from the night. I played earlier on in the night to a smaller crowd, and even got to do some mixing with Native Instruments Traktor DJ Studio along with the usual vinyl that I play. It was definitely great to be able to play out some tracks that I just don’t have on vinyl.

Then on Sunday we headed up to Newcastle for the Southern Outpost and Bug Records showcase; 2300. But before this, earlier in the afternoon we stopped off to check out the Laydeez of the League Skip Rope for Art. You might have seen them before on the ads for ABC and SBS.

Later on in the night was 2300 at the King St Hotel in Newcastle for a night of electro, techno and house music. I played earlier on in the night to a very small crowd, but that was OK. I’ve never dj’ed in such a large space, and my mixing was showing that fact. I’d definitely love to have the chance to play such a nice venue again. Southern Outpost played live later on to their usual high standards (loved the Kraftwerk cover guys!), then Spill and 8-Bit with Ladyboy from Bug Records. All in all a great night with friends. It was a shame people turned up to the party so late, as the venue had to shut at 12am being a Sunday night and all. Oh well. Massive props to Sofie for all the effort she put into organising the night!!

J M Coetzee wins Nobel Prize

One of my favourite novels recently was Youth, by J.M. Coetzee. Well its look like he’s won the 2003 Nobel Prize in literature.

Wow

I never knew this place existed… The Bogan Shire (and no, I’m not referring to the Sutherland Shire)

Blumping…

Yeeck…

Australian medical alert: ‘Don’t put ice cubes up bottoms’

So the long weekend is coming which means people like to make it a rather large one. People like Paul Dillon from the Australian National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre and other government people like to issue the dangers of going to hard with alcohol and drugs. But this long weekend “Australian medical experts are warning would-be first aiders of the dangers of using ice cube “enemas” to revive friends from drug overdoses.”

Paul Dillon was quoted as saying: “The sight of the incapacitated person with their pants around their ankles having people inserting ice cubes is beyond humiliating and potentially dangerous.”

Good Food in Sydney

The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide for 2004 is out, and so are the hats. Looks like there some more restuarants to add to my todo list. harbourkitchen&bar is coming up for my first year wedding anniversary, so that’s one I can strike off the list. Time to start hammering the Entertainment Book.

Why Nerds are Unpopular

Some interesting reading from Paul Graham. A short extract:

Why? To someone in school now, that may seem an odd question to ask. The mere fact is so overwhelming that it may seem strange to imagine that it could be any other way. But it could. Being smart doesn’t make you an outcast in elementary school. Nor does it harm you in the real world. Nor, as far as I can tell, is the problem so bad in most other countries. But in a typical American secondary school, being smart is likely to make your life difficult. Why?

Strangeness

I’ll have to find the original source of this. A friend sent this on:

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.

Interesting user interface design

Over at Mad Dog, there is an interesting story about some pretty cool (real world) interface design.

Howto: Being a Wine Wanker

Courtesy of CoopersPubs, “How To Be A Wine Wanker in Six Simple Steps”.

Some links

Broken beat mixes from Alex Attias, Dego (4Hero), Gilbr, Jazzanova, Rainer Trüby and others
Broke & Beat Radio mixes from Argo, Russ Dewbury, John Arnold, RIMA (Domu and Volcov) and others.
The Vinyl Project from the Freedom Archives

The Vinyl Project is a tool for DJs, musicians, MCs, activists and most of all the people. The soundbites on this record include chilling voices on repression and glimmering assertations of resistance. The Vinyl Project collective hopes these sounds will pollinate your beats, noise, melodies and community.

“Bite My Style: Images and Shapes by Mitch” – Buy me this!

Bouldering in Sydney/AU

Found a two sites which have some guides on bouldering in Sydney and Australia in general. First up is Australian Bouldering. Pretty simple site, but more of less has the pertinent information. They have guides, interviews, photos and a magazine. The other one is vi bouldering. Very pretty site that’s based on flash… which has no real reason to be based on flash… except to be pretty. Which really annoys me. And the menu on the main page is a bloody pain. The words are on a right angle and also its bit of a game to try and click on the link that you want. *Phew* But after those interface annoyances that will probably make me never go back to that site (or just bookmark the relavant sections) the info ain’t too bad.

City Creator

Reading #!/usr/bin/girl by way of Benn Glazier’s weblog, there was a link I hadn’t seen in a while to City Creator. A super cute site where you can create your own pixelated city. It comes in two flavours, Blankton and Snoland depending on your mood.

Jeff is excited!

Amazon.com hold the exclusive sales right to the Anna Kournikova bra in the States, something which Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos seems quite excited about.

Other blogs at Dorja.com

Fellow greppers BJ and Nik have had some renovations done to their homepages.