Originally uploaded by Scootie.
Sunday was spent very pleasantly by going to the Royal Melbourne Zoo with Joe for a bit of a photo shoot. It was a lovely afternoon and we saw some very nice animals, but we spent so much time dawdling through the zoo, communing with seals and monkeys that we didn't get to see all of it, including missing the elephants out and about. So we'll have to go back again I guess :)
patronage
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
Yet another friday at Yak, drinking the evening away :) The night started out with Kathryn, Joe and Daimo, and then later Bec and Julie joined us for a few more drinks. We even accidentally met Steph's boss Kristen, as she was there drinking with som friends of hers.
It's funny, because we often talk about not going there, about going out to some other bar, then we find that some other people are going to Yak for a few, so we 'pop in for on or two' and end up spending the rest of the evening there :) Technically we also went to The Purple Emerald last night, but that was literally only for one drink, so that doesn't count. :)
tradition
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
Today was Julia's birthday at work, and was the first time in years I've seen the return of an old tradition, the decorating of someone's desk on their birthday. The guys in her team had decided to revive it and did a pretty good job of making it obvious to everyone else that it was her birthday, without actually making it impossible to do her work :)
the lens in question
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
well, as requested, here is a shot of the lens I've been raving about. ok? :)
And Melbourne is better than anywhere else in the world, for many different reasons:
- I live here.
- my cool friends live here
- my slightly less cool friends want to live here
- I said so
:)
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
I'm on early shift this week, so I've been trying to get some shooting done using the last of the light. Did I mention the love affair with my new Lens? this shot was taken hand-held, and is still crystal clear and sharp as a tack. man I love good optics on a cheap lens :)
Probably also a good time to talk about Melbourne, and how good it is. It's pretty good. :)
silliness
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
Had lunch today with the Bulbous Berley and the Shocking Shazzie, which was a lot of fun, as they are both such giggling gerties, and full of good ideas about everything. In fact the best thing for all of us to do is to ensure that we follow their instructions at all times. Things go better that way, believe me ;)
bar staff #1
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
This friday the drinks were proudly in honour of Kate (incandescent), who left her job at OUP for pastures greener. Drinks were at the very trendy little bar called ST Jerome's, but check out the ponytail on the guy to the left! I thought those days were over ;)
getting louder
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
Loud shirt day at work today, so the photo is one of the ITS finalists, Donna and Leah. Donna's pretty cool and usually writes a lengthy email every week inviting people to Cake Friday, which are usually quite hilarious. Leah is also cool, and is also a Flickrite :)
of course there's cake
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
Well, it was Mother's day, so of course I went down to visit Mum :)
I also stopped off on the way there and on the way back to get some photos, and took a few family shots as well, with the winner being this very nice shot of my niece Courtney, waiting to help blow out the candles on the Mother's day cake. It was actually pretty good to see the family, cop a few jokes from dad, make some silly faces with Courtney, helping Cindy make a few jokes at Cam's expense, and helping Mum with the list of computer and AV problems she'd accrued since last time I was down there :)
peta is shocked
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
The reason I bought the new lens, apart from the fact that I wanted it, was that we were going to see Peta in her latest play, a performance of See How They Run by the Eltham Little Theatre. The play was extremely funny, but don't go and see it, because it's finished now :)
But we laughed and laughed and laughed. on account of it being very funny. Peta rocked, of course, as she usually does. :)
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
This friday was spent drinking. ;)
It was the last day for Jasmine, from Facilities, as she was heading off from the wide accountant-see (accountancy, monthy python, trust me it's funny). Drinks started at Yak then moved on to Lustre Loung, which has been the scene of many farewell drinks actually :)
Another super dooper piece of news from today was that I bought a new camera lens, which is very fast so it's really good for low-light work like this, and good for close ups and portraits. In fact i'm in love with it and it's hardly been off the camera since I bought it :)
do you want to know more?
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
Today was a big day for Flickr, another DILO or Day In the Life Of, where Flickrites try to take a buttload of photos :)
It was also the day of the Glenferrie festival, and believe me, where there's a festival where little kids are handed guns by the army, or being draped with snakes, I'm there!
blanc
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
Went out this friday night to celebrate the birth of the Incandescent Kate, with a dinner at Vibe (which I didn't attend, except for the cake presentation) and then around the corner to Yelza. now this is an interesting bar, because it seems like a small quaint place from the front, and then as you head out back there's a HUGE beer garden :) A good time was had by all, especially the ex colleague that Kate was flirting with all night ;)
fading light
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
Well, this weekend was completely dominated by work. work work work. Specifically a restructure of our computer room, moving 200 systems three feet to the left, with round-the-clock shifts and blah blah blah :)
Before my first shift started Joe and I went to the botanical gardens to shoot some stuff, and I got this very nice shot of the sun through the trees. If you haven't gone and checked out Joe's stuff, I suggest you do, he's pretty good :)
tricolour
Originally uploaded by Scootie.
Went out for a bit of a night shoot, which is one of my favourite things to do on a clear night. And decided that the Royal Exhibition Buildings would make a good subject. The funny thing was that I spent ages aroung the front, including some lovely shots of the fountain (go have a look for yourself)
And then just as I was about to go, I thoguht "hey, maybe one quick shot of the other side" uh huh. yeah. Hey Scootie you idiot, they light up the other side :)
The rest of the evening, wrapped around the viewing of Mikey's creation, was spent in bars with other friends :) The beginning of the evening was in Cherry bar helping our friend Elissa celebrate her birthday, and after the film viewing I went up to Yak to meet up with a few stragglers form Cherry and to meet a fellow flickrite called Stuart (s2art or flickr). So as people came and went hung out a bit with Joe and Kathryn and Daimo, then Hung out with Daimo and Elissa, then Daimo, Elissa and Stuart, then Stuart and Kate and Kerry. After some time at Yak, chatting away and drinking, Kate Kerry and I moved on to greener pastures, which weren't really that green :) Let's just say that Kate's desire to get a Pash-n-Dash resulted in us attending De Biers for some cheesy dancing, some bad drinks, and me giving Kerry a quick lesson in how to be a 'wing man' to avoid Kate's targeted boy from leaving when his friend got bored without someone to talk to.
Sunday afternoon was time for a impromptu picnic at the St Kilda botanical gardens with Felicite, Dean, Bec, Joe, Julie, Liam and Fiona :) It was a pretty nice afternoon to lay around on the grass talking shit and watching the world go by. It was such a lovely thing to do, and those guys are such great people that the afternoon soon flew by and we had to head back to Becsie's place for more fun and games. We all lolled around on the cushions in the conversation nook and chewed the fat, and Felicite and Bec gave us a dancing demonstration to their favourite tune, some of the finest cheesy dancing I've ever seen. :)
Wednesday I managed to catch up with Clanga, Vlad and Dutchie at the Napier to help celebrate Vlad and Michelle's new baby boy Isaac (Zach, Issy, etc) and have a general catch up. I think in many ways these guys are my kindred spirits, as they are all so artistic and expressive. Clang and I used to do club visuals together as IT/Multimedia guys with a bit of an eye for an image, and now Vlad has taken up the mantle, having always been a phenomenal graphic designer and stencil artist, so his stuff makes us look like little children :) Dutchie is also a designer, doing graphics and fashion, about to head off around the world for a quick tour of the fashion capitals. We always end up in deep conversations, redesigning the ugliness around us and coming up with crazy and kooky ideas. In the light of day these ideas never hold water, but it's great fun :) For example, one great idea of the night was to line Dutchie's club with mirrors on all the walls, then project Vlad's visuals onto the reflective surfaces from multiple points and angles, allowing it to reflect all around, creating a mad kaleidoscope of silhouettes and imagery. Of course, anyone who has ever actually tried to put sound into a mirrored room would tell you straight away that it's a nightmare, as the reverb and feedback is insanely difficult to deal with. So it'd look phenomenal, but nobody would see it because the cacophony of noise would drive them out!
Friday was a large-scale catchup session, with time at Yak to see Joe, Kathryn, Kate, Pommie John and Mark (fellow flickrite). Then off to BearBrass to catch up with Mick, Steph, Tanya and Katrina. Then Kate, Katrina and I went to a few more bars to try and see what we could find. Not much actually, as most of them were crap or closing, or both! ;) Much fun was had traipsing across the city looking for something interesting, chatting with Kate and Katrina, but the original plan of Kate and I hanging out and chatitng it up and dancing up a storm all night didn't eventuate, so we'll probably have to try it next week. :)
Saturday was wasted at work. Ten hours of my life spent doing a three hour job, so that's seven hours down the gurgler :)
Movie Watch: went to see Hotel Rwanda with Kate and her mum. Pretty good movie. Obviously it's a bit of a tear jerker, but not as many scenes of horrendous violent as I thought it might have. It was quite interesting to see how the main subject was treated, most of the message was carried by the reaction of the main characters, rather than simply showing what they were scared of. It was a very effective technique that also allowed them to show more fear and less gore. Kate's mum is cool, but then so is Kate, so that's to be expected :)
Also saw The Pacifier with Vin Diesel. Not too bad. A bit predictable in some ways, but still managed to draw a few laughs. Not quite in the same league as Hotel Rwanda, but it was never meant to be.
Recent DVD Viewing includes Donnie Darko, Twin Town, Pushing Tin, Broadcast News, Even Cowgirls get the Blues, and I'm currently watching Judge Dredd on TV. I know it's a bad movie, but it's a pretty good bad movie ;)
I think I'll always be a big movie fan. I can happily go see two movies a week and watch a few DVDs and still miss out on some good stuff. There are so many good movies out there it's just not possible to see everything that's worth seeing.
I'm having the same problem with Flickr at the moment, too many really really good photographers and I'me having trouble doing justice to their streams. My preference is to view each photo in its full page, stepping through each in turn, commenting as required. It's taking up a lot of my time and making me spend a lot of time looking at great photos and talking to friends. oh wait. that's a good thing! :)
pretty good weekend so far, started on Friday with a trip out to Point Cook for a friends Bucks turn. Photos will probably not be posted on Flickr ;) I'm sure you understand, and to be honest, I don't know if you want to see them. Point Cook is a funny place. It's one of those housing estates, but not for entry level housing, for the people who have enough to buy a small house closer to the city, but want something larger to raise a family in. As such there's a lot of really nice houses and heaps of families, just not much else in the way of social life.
Saturday night was spent around at Bec's place for her birthday party. Pretty good party, but then Bec is a pretty cool chic, so that's kind of to be expected. There were a few 'gate crashers' who were actually friends of a friend of Bec's flatmate, but it was still funny because they were a little paranoid about being there uninvited, but they were a good bunch of people, full of interesting conversations, so they were very welcome :) The party continued on a bit later at a nearby club, but I had to go home about 1am as I was very tired from the night before.
