Hello, my name is Sandy. I'm an artist in Perth, Western Australia.

What would a relationship be like without words?

In the intro to A Birthday Song, the poster mentions that her parents were from two different backgrounds and don’t speak each other’s native language. I don’t know many different-language couples – might have encountered one or two while growing up. I imagine it’s rare nowadays, but when marriages were more about business, the bride and groom might not have even had the opportunity to communicate beforehand.

A relationship without common verbal language at first seems restrictive, makes me feel a little claustro-anxious. How could you talk about your aspirations and worries, how could you ask for the exact help you need? Though I suppose that’s still difficult even when you both speak the same language – when you know someone expects (or is expected) to be precise with their wording, you might expect (or be expected) to put less effort into understanding what they mean.

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Permalink. Posted 31 December, 2010. Tagged: cats, communication, language, thinking too much.

Mum made homemade charsiew for Christmas lunch. It was AWESOME, along with her perfect-texture potato salad, sweet chilli pickles, tempura prawns, mango sambal, chicken curry and noodles. Pretty shiok considering our original plan was simple salads and cold cuts. She said she just started making one thing, then another, then another. Her relaxed, creative mood just ran away with her. I love my family. ^___^

After main lunch was over, we sat around, grazing on pickles and end-pieces, talking about random things. The conversation, much to my delight, steered towards dealing with people, which is totally my thing at the moment. Admittedly, a fair bit of struggle over the last couple of years has been because of not knowing what to do with difficult people; or rather, people responding in certain ways to difficult situations.

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Permalink. Posted 26 December, 2010. Tagged: christmas, food, thinking too much.

I promised you a spicy fake bibimbp sauce recipe. It’s not spectacular, just okay and balances out the rest of the dish reasonably well.

The secret is in the proportions. You’ll have to play around with it to get it just right, but your two base ingredients are ketchup and sriracha chilli sauce. This gives you the spicyness and tang. Next, you’ll want some kicap manis (sweet soy); I’m not really sure why, but it just doesn’t really taste right without it. And finally, a tiny dash of light soy sauce.

If you cooked your beef or seasoned your veggies in a particular type of oil (like sesame), stir a little bit into your sauce too. I don’t really know if this does anything, but the superstitious side of me likes to think that keeping a common ingredient between your dish and your dressing helps them mix well. I’ll let you know if I find a more scientific way to figure this out, but for now, that’s my black magic.

When you’re done admiring your beautiful dinner in the bowl, add this spicy fake sauce to your fervent stirring and enjoy.

Permalink. Posted 23 December, 2010. Tagged: cheapness, cooking, food.

I’m sitting in a Chinese restaurant waiting for noodles and blogging on my Windows Phone 7. There’s finally a WordPress-friendly app in the Marketplace. I am content.

Switching from Apple’s sweet bosom of iPhone has taken some getting used to. The most notable difference being the barren app store, Zune Marketplace. It’s not completely barren, but does lack the selection you can find in the iTunes app store. I think the Android Marketplace might even have more. All this will change, of course, as the WinMo7 gets older. It just makes the phone less addictive in the meantime.

By the way, I’m at home now on the puter. Blogging with the app didn’t go quite as planned. Why is my cat picture so small. :(

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Permalink. Posted 17 December, 2010. Tagged: blogging, mobile, technology, windows phone 7, wordpress.

Every famous chef has their ‘thing’. If I were a famous chef, my ‘thing’ would be simple dinners – food you only need 2 or 3 ingredients for, plus your imagination to create unique variations every night. Tonight, it’s bolognaise (or bolognese).

Bolognaise is my favourite food at the moment. You only need 3 ingredients for a decent basic recipe – meat, tomato, garlic. Unseasoned beef has a nice flavour, crushed tomato is juicy with a nice flavour, garlic ties it all together. Simple.

Of course, it’s not real authentic traditional bolognese, but it is a simple unpretentious, minimalist meat dish to go with pasta – delicious enough on nights when you don’t want a fuss.

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Permalink. Posted 14 December, 2010. Tagged: cooking, food, simple dinners.

My little apartment in East Perth is now available for rent. :)

The place is done up nicely now. I wish we had the motivation to clean it up while we were living there. WE HAVE REAL CURTAINS NOW instead of the dusty, musty old yellow things and draped-up can’t-be-arsed pieces of cloth we had before. Want to see?

• This is what it looked like after some jerk upstairs flooded our floors.
• This is what it looked like after everything got fixed and the floors replaced.
• Picture #3 shows the unfurnished room with new white blinds.

Probably should have mopped before handing over the keys, but lovely Karla at Mark Hay will send a cleaner through before new folk move in.

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Permalink. Posted 4 December, 2010. Tagged: house stuff.

Most definitely, the award for Best $20 I’ve Spent Lately goes to Imperium Romanum. Yeah, not COD4 or the new Assassin’s Creed. It’s a bit embarrassing (yet secretly I’m proud) to be enjoying what must be a really nerdy, boring, administrative-type person’s game.

Like – you play a city planner. Yeah.

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Permalink. Posted 25 November, 2010. Tagged: games.

Words cannot describe how rapt I am with this new awesome snack, Cheesebuddy. Fantastically mediocre, these moreish cheese bun profiteroles are just amazing. It really is a warm doughy lump of nothing, the sort of mid-morning treat you’d give to a schoolchild when you can’t be bothered making anything more quality, but I sincerely feel my life is much better for having eaten it.

Shared a cordial platter with some of the old boys at work. Operation Cheesebuddy: SUCCESS.

If you’re curious about the mysteriously delicious blandness of Cheesebuddy, we got ours from Mercado IGA in Subiaco, $7.95 for a bag of $30.

Permalink. Posted 18 November, 2010. Tagged: food, snacks.

There’s nothing I’d rather do tonight than do nothing.

I’m trying to slow down. I don’t mean this in an “omg life so busy, popular me” kind of way. I’ve realised in the last few years that I tend to worry a lot about things. Maybe ‘worry’ is the wrong word – ruminate, over-think, analyse, over-imagine. My parents used to not tell me until the very last minute that we were going on holidays, visiting my grandma, or doing anything exciting, because I would keep myself up at night, daydreaming and anticipating.

Not sure what you’d call that. Mum said I was a hyperactive child, so maybe it’s more in my biology than in my mind. But you know, since the mind is the hub of your experience, an over-zealous biology eventually begets a busy mind.

And like most busy minded people I know, I’m hesitant to slow down – hesitant to park a project in case that part of my brain atrophies and I become never able to pick that project up again – oh, curse you, paranoia.

I’m ready to be daring about it now – even prepared to dramatise it in text form as my way of summoning the demon by name and casting it out. You get the idea. ANYWAY…

Aside from writing this post, there’s nothing I’d rather do tonight than do nothing. And play Neverwinter. Maybe have a cheese plate before bed.

Permalink. Posted 16 November, 2010. Tagged: sharing, thinking too much.

I love the zoo. We were treated to all sort of interesting sights yesterday. Within the neatly kept enclosures were loafing wild lions, busy otters, lazy gibbons and curious meerkats. On our side of the ropes, firsthand encounters with native fauna: a few Gawking Slackjaws, some Slow Walkers, the occasional posse of Great Whining Chubs and large herds of the Common Family with lively, screaming offspring in tow.

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Permalink. Posted 14 November, 2010. Tagged: animals, perth, sunbear, zoo.

Ho ho, I am good. Sent off an application to join a roster of writers – and forgot to attach work samples. Clever, Sandy.

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Permalink. Posted 5 November, 2010. Tagged: drawing, sketchbook project, work.

Just for fun, I thought I’d count my calories from yesterday. I meant to write this post up yesterday, but forgot, so this account is hazy at best.

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Permalink. Posted 3 November, 2010. Tagged: calories, food, nutrition.

Thirty of us in a room when the topic of our Halloween party came up; curiously I asked, “Is anyone here actually Pagan?” In scattered murmurs and quizzical stares came the collective response: “Why?”

:(

I’m not even talking about a group of stock-standard prime-time viewing punters here – these were smart people with varied interests and high-speed internet access. Are we really adopting the popularised American style of Halloween without knowing what on earth it’s for?

But… I can’t talk. I’d have no clue either if not for having been a teenager when The Craft came out.

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Permalink. Posted 29 October, 2010. Tagged: halloween, history, lore, traditions.

Ha-ha, pay happened three days ago and I’ve already spent most of it on frivolous caprice. :(

So I’m in the skint boat now, resigned to finding cheap, fun things to do for the rest of the fortnight. Right now, I’m downloading Age of Wonders off Steam. Looks pretty good – only $6! It’s old, but what a sweet deal if it’ll keep me busy for the next 2 nights.

I don’t mind being financially challenged in short bursts. It’s a shit long-term situation, but so long as the debts are covered and it’s just a lack of fun money, enjoying life turns into a game of hi-score chasing. Or… low-$core cha$ing.

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Permalink. Posted 24 October, 2010. Tagged: cheapness, cooking, food, games.

My Chinese isn’t very good, and my memory is fading as I get older, so thought it prudent to create a dim sum dictionary for my hungry, aging self as well as for my western friends. The term ‘dim sum’ seems to be a Perth thing – Sydney and Melbourne people tend to call it ‘yum cha’ – but wherever you are, this rough guide is about those yummy dumplings, buns and dishes that are the best brunch.

I’ll be updating this blogpost from time to time, as part of my Sandy’s Notes collection. RSS me or follow me on twitter if you want to know when updates happen.

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Permalink. Posted 23 October, 2010. Tagged: asian stuff, food, sandy's notes.

I meant to write earlier in the week. Really. I’ve been to bed a couple times actually, composing lovely blog updates while drifting off to sleep. Useful.

The last week has been… trying. Managing deadlines, expectations, communications, (drinking); you know how it goes. Hayfever seems to have sapped my energy too, leaving a snotty, irritated, disinterested pity party. Woo~

Stuff I’ve done this week:

• Moved sandylovesyou.com to posterous
• Finished some papery freelance work for LawCPD, an online law education group
• Helped launch the new Westnet website that’s been hanging over us at work for the past 9 months
• Started my sketchbook – nothing much to see yet
• Did a spot of shopping – 50% off AA’s Le Sac dress, people! Get it while it’s cheap!

Interesting things I’ve looked at:

• The disease called perfection
• ‘So’ pushes to the head of the line
• Oonce-oonce.com
• Click here to kick ass
• Storyboard templates

Permalink. Posted 16 October, 2010. Tagged: cool links, drawing, fashion, freelance, internet, shopping, work.

It’s not Christmas yet, but I had a huge coffee the other day and couldn’t stop listening to ‘Last Christmas’ covers on YouTube. There are so many; here are some: (not all are as good as the original)

Lyrics:

Last Christmas, I gave you my heart
But the very next day you gave it away
This year, To save me from tears
I’ll give it to someone special

Once bitten and twice shy, I keep my distance but you still catch my eye
Tell me baby, do you recognize me? Well it’s been a year – it doesn’t surprise me
Merry Christmas. I wrapped it up and sent it with a note saying “I love you” and meant it
Now I know what a fool I’ve been, but if you kissed me now I know you’d fool me again

A crowded room, friends with tired eyes. I’m hiding from you and your soul of ice
My god I thought you were someone to rely on. Me? I guess I was a shoulder to cry on
A face on a lover with a fire in his heart, a man under cover but you tore me apart
Now I’ve found a real love you’ll never fool me again

A face on a lover with a fire in his heart, a man under cover buy you tore him apart
Maybe next year I’ll give it to someone, I’ll give it to someone special.

Permalink. Posted 9 October, 2010. Tagged: christmas, lyrics, music.

From New Scientist.

Permalink. Posted 5 October, 2010. Tagged: film, music, science, space.

I signed up for this (next) year’s The Sketchbook Project. The concept is quite cool – you pay $25 to participate and they send you a skinny moleskine; you send it back and it goes on tour to galleries and museums across the US. After the tour, it ends up catalogued in the Brooklyn Art Library.

Exciting, huh? No idea which theme to pick; asked for a random choice so I wouldn’t think about it too much.

As a kid, I loved to draw. In uni, I got into anime art and doodled eyes in my school notebooks. Even started making my own manga, “Minako”, about a young girl who is expelled from her conservative deity-fearing village because she was caught playing with forest troll children, so she goes to visit this deity to ask wtf. She got as far as the stone forest at the base of the deity’s mountain home, before I decided to write Dragonball Z fanfiction instead – mm, sweet sweet megalomania and end of the world. Oh, my darling Minako, I’ll finish your story one day.

I have a love/hate relationship with the arts. I really enjoy ‘creative stuff’, then really not-enjoy it after just a few months of a particular hobby. I start to feel boxed in – like I’m in a comfortable hole, where I’ll peter out the rest of my days.

No. Even if it’s fun – no.

I’m getting that same feeling at work lately. Anecdotes about whoever’s grandad or uncle who’s been in whatever business all their life – romantic, but it’s not for me.

My last couple of years have been interesting. I started at iiNet as a web developer, then moved on as a web designer after a year. A year later, I assumed the role of web producer, which didn’t exist in the company at the time. Web producers pull usability, webdev, web design, marketing and communications together – then help translate the hybrid into something meaningful to the user at the other end. It’s the modern equivalent of a webmaster from the early 90s – jack of all trades (master of none).

It’s a grown up version of where I started in web in 1995. I’m not sure if I like the idea of doing this for another 15 years.

This has been on my mind a lot lately. Don’t really know where to go from here. My role comes with a huge variety of work, so I’m getting to do a lot of different things, while imagining what it would be like to specialise in one of those things.

Actually, I’m tempted to just pick a random new career path and be done with it. Might see how it goes with the sketchbook first.

Permalink. Posted 3 October, 2010. Tagged: drawing, sharing, web stuff, work, writing.

Just hangin’ with Ray Martin. Yeah.

Ray with the men.

And some pictures of food, in case you like food more than Ray Martin:

Photos were from the Redkite Corporate Quiz in Perth last Friday.

Permalink. Posted 25 September, 2010. Tagged: events, food.

While shopping for a Pan Am flight bag (travel bag, explorer bag, whatever you call it), I found it really hard to well… find stuff. Product specs were easy to find, but there wasn’t enough information to give me an idea of what to expect after spending my hard-earned money on this online shopping adventure. So here’s my review, complete with detailed pictures.

I got the Pan Am Mini Explorer bag in blue, featuring a white classic Pan American round logo – you can also get it in white with blue. It’s 10.5″ wide and about a Moleskine tall – about the size of a head, this is the step down from the Original Explorer bag. I consider this to be handbag sized; the Original is 18″ wide, starting to get into small luggage bag territory. You can get an even smaller one, the Tiny Explorer, but I’m not sure what the dimensions are for that. I got my bag from TeeNYTee.com, a US-based fashion & accessories online store run by a girl from Japan.

The outer shell is made from PVC, inner lining is cotton-polyester. It’s made in China, but doesn’t feel cheap or tacky – but then, I’m only about a month into owning it. We’ll have to see how it handles wear and tear.

No pockets, but very roomy inside. Zippers are metal, feel smooth and sturdy – I don’t get the sense that it’s about to break or get caught on a delicate piece of clothing.

Metal stud feet on the bottom prevent wear damage on the base of bag, but make an annoying sound on table tops.

This is a chunky bag, however it doesn’t feel cumbersome. Whoever designed this pretty much nailed the balance between comfort and attractiveness. Very tempted to shell out for the big version to use while travelling.

I give it a 4 out of 5.

Permalink. Posted 21 September, 2010. Tagged: fashion, shopping.

1. Went to the new Hippo Creek in Subiaco on Sunday. I’m totally satisfied with my dining experience – I got to eat snail and crocodile and the tenderest fillet steak I’ve ever had! The food is pretty pricey, so I studied up on meat cuts beforehand. I usually like my meat quite rare but turns out it’s better to get fillet steak cooked medium rare, saving the bloody-ness for rump and t-bone instead. Fine then.

2. My new bag arrived! It’s pretty chunky, bigger than I thought and completely pocket-less. Boo, not the most convenient, but it’s quite charming. Will post a detailed review of it later.

3. Toothpaste worked fine on my horrible, painful underground pimple. It stung at first, and continued to sting for about half an hour. I woke up the next morning with a nodule less angry and tender. It doesn’t hurt anymore. The skin over the previously sore spot dried up and flaked away the following evening, and now there’s just a tiny bump like the one on my cheek.

4. I’ve had the Ubuntu Netbook website open for the last 2 nights, thinking of installing it on the old netbook we have lying around. But this venture sits just outside my comfort zone. I’m scared I’ll be opening a can of frustrating, confusing worms. Somewhere in the back of my mind, Excitement and Apprehension dance a passionate tango.

5. Civilisation 5 comes out soon. Just in time for the upcoming LAN. I am so very, very pleased. :)

6. There is no number six. Sorry.

Permalink. Posted 15 September, 2010. Tagged: fashion, food, games, nerd stuff, underground pimple.

I feel ugly today. And no amount of nice people saying nice things about looking nice will change this because I have a monster underground zit hanging out of my nose like a booger. It’s not about looking ugly; it’s about feeling ugly. Bad skin days come with all sorts of yucky feelings that accompany health or hormone fluctuations. I don’t know what it is this week, but it has certainly taught me a lot in a short period of time:

Underground pimples are called ‘nodules’ or ‘cystic acne’. It’s a deep, chunky version of a papule – a solid elevation of skin with no visible fluid (thanks, Wiki), as opposed to a ‘pustule’ where you can see fluid (pus). Nodules hurt, they’re gross and you can’t pop them. You kind of just have to wait for them to go away. Causes vary from person to person, but nodules usually come from grubby skin, grubby diet or changes in hormone levels.

There’s a lot of advice online for how to get rid of underground pimples, ranging from home remedies to chemical skin peeling and all sorts of treatment. I’m not sure what works and what doesn’t; many of the remedies sound unfamiliar and effortly.

The last painful underground bump I had was on my cheek. I massaged it with tea tree oil everyday and exfoliated in the shower; eventually, it shrunk and hardened and is slowly fading away. Probably not so effective, if you want to leave no trace of a zit at the end. For this one, I’m trying toothpaste. All I can smell at the moment is mint Pronamel and I feel like a bit of a turd, sitting here with white paste under my nose.

Fingers crossed that this just does it, but in case not, I have a few more tricks I’m willing to try:

• Blasting with a hairdryer. Apparently it helps yucky stuff come to the surface. (thanks, Bec!)
• Honey and cinnamon. I have reservations about this one; could it really be this simple?
• Turmeric, though I don’t know if I’m game to risk turmeric going up my nose.
• Finally, lancing with a hot pin if I get really desperate.

Friends and workmates have been nice enough to not ask about it. Perhaps I will draw a face on it tomorrow and we can have conversations about the nu wave of tech house electro pop fusion.

More skin stuff:

• Types of acne – lumpy ones, bumpy ones, etc.
• cysticacne.net – search engine optimised site all about zits
• 5 remedies from ubeautyportal – the baking soda/sea salt one sounds orright
• Strawberrynet skincare – cos I’m thinking of getting some discount skincare to feel clean and pretty (free shipping, yay!)

Permalink. Posted 9 September, 2010. Tagged: beauty, cool links, home remedies, pimples, skincare, underground pimple.

Dear Australian Government,

Congratulations on sorting your shit out today. May the next four years be fruitful and awesome. I know there are no guarantees, and election promises can sometimes get sidetracked by practicality and the system, but here are a couple of things I reckon would be super cool if you could make happen at some point:

Make the NBN really freakin’ sweet. The more countries there are adopting a sick-as infrastructure, the more likely it is that other countries with crappier infrastructure will try to follow suit. I would love it if one day, my cousins and grandma in a less internet-advanced part of the world could have a good enough connection to play games and videochat with me. On a note closer to home, I’d really like to travel around Australia when I’m older, and not have to worry about being stranded if I need to look something up online.

Promise to never do anything stupid like an internet filter. We’re far enough away from the rest of the world as it is. You know that guy in the news who got done for having ‘artistic’ photos of underaged girls? An internet filter wouldn’t have stopped him. Plus, a filter would totally expose us to abuse and oppression – maybe you have good intentions now, but do you really want to create a risk for our future? If you believe in the wisdom of philosophers and the big names in psychology, you’ll already know that people do deviant and perverted things because they are unhappy and twisted, or they don’t know how to make themselves proper happy. Invest those filter dollars in education, mental health and rehabilitation instead. Teach a man to fish and you’ll never have to mess around with his internet.

Legalising gay marriage would be pretty awesome. Two of my friends are gay and I would be very happy for them if they could get married in Australia. Maybe I’m naive, saying we should nix the girl-boy thinking, but I like to think that love counts more. Love, and getting to live a happy life in a country that calls itself progressive & forward-thinking. Speaking of forward thinking, it would be cool if you worked on the climate change thing some more. It makes sense for us not to shit where we sleep, considering the next best place to sleep is a 5 hour flight away.

My wishlist is actually a bit longer, but I’m sure you’ve got enough to do already. Good luck and may the Greens and Independents help you towards making this nation a rippa place to live.

Yours faithfully,
Sandy.

Ps. I don’t know much about politics or issues or grown-up stuff like that. I just know what I think would be kinda cool, so sorry, AusGov, if this letter is a bit simple. I still mean it from the heart.

• Julia Gillard PM: Independents back labor (news.com.au)
• The Australian Greens (party website)
• National Broadband Network (website for the thing they are doing)

Permalink. Posted 7 September, 2010. Tagged: ausvotes.

My handbag died the other day. It was actually more of a satchel than a handbag – one of those diagonally slung travel bags; hardy, comfortable. As a substitute, I’ve been using a baby pink eco-friendly shopping bag from a clothing store in Beijing. It sucks a little bit. I spend minutes rifling around for things that I used to be able to just reach in for. I’ve had to turn the car around a few times to go back for things I forgot. It always confused me when women made a big deal over handbags, but I’m beginning to understand…

The “wallet, phone, keys” combination is at the heart of day-to-day freedom, but even the healthiest beating heart needs a strong, sturdy chest if it’s to be of any use.

Enter the humble handbag. It’s the assistant that keeps your shit together, the escort that stops the bulge in your pants, the item of expandable holding that might even give you +1 agility and +2 charm. Picking a replacement receptacle was no easy task; you need the right balance of size, shape, weight, practicality and beauty.

Size most definitely counts here. A bag too big is cumbersome like a rude guest at a dinner party, but a bag too small won’t hold the extra essentials needed for a full day out. I don’t like transferring things from bag to bag, so a ‘one size fits all’ purchase is my only option. Which means having to find the right shape and weight too. Nothing too bulky to tuck under the arm, no straps so thin they cut into my arm when the bag is full.

On practicality, pockets are a blessing. I would very much like to not rummage around for a lost 2-dollar coin please. And as for beauty, my new bag must certainly be beautiful. But what does ‘beautiful’ mean?

When I was a kid, I obsessed over pretty things. For no real reason. I didn’t really like Barbie, but I loved collecting her clothes. I kept My Little Ponies long after I got over them because they made me think of all the starry-eyed friendship, love, peace, goodwill and courage of the animated series. Such innocent ideals captured in over-priced, mass-produced plastic toys. It’s about the symbolism, for me. A crappy toy is only beautiful when it represents a good feeling. A person’s face is only beautiful when they have good character underneath. And so on.

I chose the Pan Am Mini Explorer because of its simplicity and because the other Pan Am bags were way too big. Lucky me, I found a shop that ships to Australia for a fair price – it’s teeNYtee.com in case anyone’s interested. No, this isn’t an ad for Pan Am or teeNYtee; I just wanted to share this first-world shopping adventure.

Since you tolerated this whole self-indulgent blog entry, here are some wicked things to check out:

• Awesome bear rug made from an old tabriz carpet
• Satisfy the cat – clever video on user-centered design
• Around and Around – some photographer guy’s really lovely portfolio
• Lufthansa Virtual Pilot – cute geography flash game; land the plane at its destination
• Emotional validation – how to not accidentally be a jerk (I’m not so good at this)
• quitelovely.net – QL has a new home on posterous; it’s way tidier now

Permalink. Posted 6 September, 2010. Tagged: beauty, cool links, fashion, thinking too much.

In the last couple of months, I have been introduced to the aural pleasure that is Gui Boratto. I’m not very good at naming music genres, but if it helps, I was asking for “tech house” when he was recommended. Above is a Gui remix of a recent Pet Shop Boys song. If you can get a hold of his 2009 Essentials Mix too, you won’t regret it. :)

Got archives working. w00ty! Definitely not as straightforward as I expected of WordPress; wouldn’t instinctively create a Page for it, although it probably makes perfect sense to an average smart person.

Permalink. Posted 29 August, 2010. Tagged: music, wordpress.

The company I work for announced today that it would launch a series of new broadband plans with a massive quota allocation.

• This is the press release they put out
• This is a pretty FAQ about the new plans

The biggest plan in the suite is ONE TERABYTEzomg, which is pretty cool considering I’m on ADSL1 at the moment and have been shaped for the last 3 days. :(

In my head, all this means broadband in Australia is officially getting to be a utility like water and power.

Although – strange that we take water and power for granted, harming the environment in the process; but we’re still mindful of safe, eco-friendly internet quota because it’s shape-able or bill-able. Would be interesting to see if and how these fat plans change our internet habits.

It’s webmaster time at the moment. Some late nights and random encounters that we should probably send to Clients from Hell. Padding my evenings out with Starcraft 2; just the campaign and custom maps so far. Still too scared to play a ranked match. Check out this sick third-person shooter mod, by the way. How awesome must the map-maker be. :)

Well, I’m off. Long-ass day today. Time for more funs.

Permalink. Posted 18 August, 2010. Tagged: environment, internet, starcraft 2, technology, web stuff.

The Expendables. Gratuitous, brutish, indulgent, completely unashamed of its tenuous storyline and crass dialogue. This is 2 hours of pointless, action-packed entertainment – indeed it has plumbed beyond the depths of shit and emerged victoriously brilliant out the other side.

Awesome closure to a good weekend. I scored a goal today too, and had pizza pockets for tea. :) Happy!

Permalink. Posted 15 August, 2010. Tagged: football, guy stuff, shit films appreciation, snacks.

It’s been a long time since I’ve had a blog on here. I’ve been looking with envy at all my mates’ blogs – pretty, shiny, running on WordPress. Well, I’ve had about all the envy I can swallow. After ten years of shuffling through different content management systems, I’m back.

And I’m apprehensive. Hosting a blog feels like raising a pet. You have to look after it, feed it, be responsible for its archives. As I write this, my cat is chewing a bit of plastic she found on the floor.

Does anyone remember when WordPress was still b2? I was a MovableType-er then, fresh off the Blogger boat as what we today call “social media” had just begun its maiden voyage. After that: Textpattern, a stunning CMS; tidy, for the blog developer who’s a little OCD about structure. I still run a few sites on it, though my installs are well out of date now.

With web 2.0 and the new smartphone era approaching, luck would have me awaken unto a new dawn of nightlife, drinking and being regretfully hungover the next day, with no time or motivation to dick around with plugins and server configs to set up a moblog. So off to a free service I went. First, a Romanian moblog provider that no longer exists; then to Vox for a couple of years; then to the okaysandy blog at Blogspot… and now here again.

I’m not the feverish stay-up-all-night web developer I used to be. Those days are behind me. It’s been 6 years since I pulled an all-nighter on a personal project. I’m almost 29 now; a web producer. I can’t stay up as late anymore cos I get tired and sad. I can’t remember how to just fix shit. I can’t even tell my cat to stop eating plastic off the floor.

But I would like to… kinda. It feels like I’ve been coasting a bit. About a year ago, I found myself quite anxious and depressed, so I got back into art and music – stuff I used to enjoy heaps; back into writing again, making zines. I’ve had a pretty good run since, and I’d like to get excited about my web projects again too.

So I’m doing some blogging here again. Don’t know how long for, but you know how it goes.

Wow, so here’s my first post, totally about something uninteresting… Still got it. :)

Permalink. Posted 9 August, 2010. Tagged: blogging, cats, sharing, wordpress.

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Permalink. Posted 8 August, 2010.