August 31, 20082 ears are better than 1I've been listening to music via youtube.com and I came across this little string to add to a youtube's URL to make it a) high quality (if it's available) and b) stereo (if it's available). Copy this: &fmt=18 and paste it to the end of the youtube URL in the browser address bar (then press enter to reload the page with the new settings) and the video will play the best it can be. You can check out an example: youtube's default and compare it to this one with &fmt=18. Note: The HQ/&fmt=18 version will be a larger file, bigger screen size and have audio in stereo @ 44 KHz as opposed to mono 22 KHz. Just so you know the guts of the situation.
Posted by Michelle at 2:41 PM
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August 29, 2008Sing-a-long FridayI love a good cover! After having Buttercup Baby lodged in my brain for a week, it's time for a new catchy tune. This is one of my favourite songs of all time* which is usually sung by my least favourite people of all time, Paul McCartney. So it is with great pleasure that I present to you to sing along with this Friday, a McCartneyless version of "I Saw Her Standing There" thanks to my favourite Beatle, George and his mates. If, like Mick Jagger, you are unsure of the words, you can check out this version (original black and white footage - with lyrics for your Karaoke stylings) * I love this song as much for itself as the fact it was the first 45 I ever owned. I didn't buy it, nor was it given to me. I found it down at "the creek" in the farmland out behind our house when I lived in Rotorua. I was really surprised it even played on our record player. I used to love playing records - for a long time we didn't have a record player so when I was at my maternal grandparent's house I'd play my aunt's records - Tom Jones' What's New PussyCat, Nancy Sinatra's These Boots Are Made for Walkin' and The Sound of Music soundtrack on heavy rotation (especially the later) and at my paternal grandmother's I got my hands on Connie Francis' Lipstick on Your Collar. As I grew up and worked after school, I was able to buy my own albums: Peter Frampton, Kiss, Cheap Trick, Warren Zevon, The Beatles (I loved the 1964 album Beatles for Sale especially, having bought it at a School Gala day for $0.40c), and Swarbrick (actually I didn't buy that one, my mother did - I just played it a lot). What were your favourite "first songs" when you were able to take control of the music you listened to?
Posted by Michelle at 1:03 AM
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August 27, 2008Wednes Day LinksHere're a few diversions - some oldies, some goodies - all a nice break from those nasty powerpoint-to-dvd* projects on your burners at the moment:
*REPLACE WITH EQUIVALENT PROJECT
Posted by Michelle at 10:30 AM
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August 26, 2008Movie: Persepolis
I saw a wonderful movie recently and thought seeing as I liked it, you might like it too. Persepolis is faithfully brought to the screen from Marjane Satrapi's graphic auto biography. Her memories are rendered with the sombre colours and simple line drawings to tell a compelling, heartfelt and illuminating story. Marjane shares her life from when she was 10 years old, a future profit and a fan of Bruce Lee, to an adult woman against the backdrop of Iran's turbulent political landscape. The film begins with the new hope born from the uprising and overthrow of the Shah of Iran. Her family's joy and optimism for the future is short lived when Islamic Fundamentalists win the elections and come into power. Freedoms, especially for women, begin to erode: segregating schools, veiling girls and women, restricting movement of people, goods, activity and beliefs - to get caught breaking the rules is to face arrest and possible execution. Marjane is an intelligent, imaginative and practical girl who, like her close-knit and progressive family, shows almost relentless resilience especially in the face of having to leave everything she knows to ensure she becomes everything she can be.
PS: It is wonderful to be reminded in our Pixaresque animated experiences, the simple and the simply beautiful, when tied together with a wonderful narrative, can be so lusciously beamed into the cinema in the traditional 2D animated space.
Posted by Michelle at 7:10 PM
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August 24, 2008Laundry Day
After we turned the smoke alarm off (which, it seems, doubles as a flood alarm) and emptied the buckets and pots, mopped up the splashes and puddles, made the appropriate phone calls, Jet and I continued with our own laundry - starting with all the towels we'd used to divert the flood. It seems when it comes to laundry, he's especially good at ironing - is there *anything* this dog can't do?
Posted by Michelle at 4:18 PM
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August 22, 2008Sing-a-long FridayLater that same morning: so I'm in class (morning tea time so it's okay that I'm blogging!) at a course filling in my Flash Actionscript knowledge gaps (they're becoming smaller). Pretty much all I've been thinking about for the last few weeks has been this language which adds dimension and functionality to Flash. The last few days that focus has concentrated my brain to the point where, this morning, when my alarm sounded in my half-dream-state I was trying to turn it off with stopAllSounds();
Posted by Michelle at 2:52 AM
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August 20, 2008Wednes Day LinksI've been collecting links for the past week - a nice variety if you need a break from those spreadsheets and data input fields:
and for you pocketmakers (yesterday's task) out there - Make a snowflake
Posted by Michelle at 10:21 AM
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August 16, 2008August 14, 2008Melons Anonymous I have no self control with watermelon. If it's in the room with me, it is not safe. It's like being around a really hot guy who finds me attractive and we can't keep our hands off each other. It's all mouths and moans and kitchen countertops.. but not with a guy: with a watermelon.
Posted by Michelle at 2:15 PM
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August 13, 2008Rethinking when I take my lunchtimeThings that annoy me about young people today:
GET OUT OF MY WAY!!1! Meanwhile - check out this video; is this going to be a demonstration sport in London 2012? How happy is this kid with his stacking speed? *yes!* At least this up-and-coming generation/generation-whatever-comes-after-Y moves faster so our supermarket shelves and McDonald coke-cups will always be stocked. GET OFF MY DAMN LAWN!!1!
Posted by Michelle at 1:03 PM
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August 12, 2008Catch a falling star an’ put it in your pocket, never let it fade awayA little while back, Fox and I were email-chatting about how some (most) days it felt like we had very little opportunity to feel very creative. We both work in the creative online industry, but the level of creative thinking expected of us is not only low, but is wound back continuously and in the end, feels quite demoralising. Our conversation flowed from our problem, through several ideas to combat this situation, and flowed naturally into a solution: if someone could tap us on the shoulder sometime each day, and whisper an idea, that would jolt us out of the pattern of our day and give us something else to think about; something else to do. Thanks to Fox's complete lack of procrastination, and Willo's programming skills, and my ability to copy and paste, pocketmakers.com was created to suggest a new idea or task each work day to keep our beautiful minds from atrophying. The idea behind the site that there are "pockets" of time in our day when we could actively think in a creative way that may not have anything to do with our daily lives, tasks or natural talents. This thinking can manifest itself in a daydream, a tangible object, a post for a personal blog, contents for a notebook - but always a deviation from the daily grind (I don't actually mean "grind" but I can't think of a better word right now). Any of the suggested pockets can be completed in the time available - for instance, I can spend 5 minutes or 5 hours on any task - whatever is available or desirable to me. Sometimes, just thinking about how I might execute that pocket is enough to jolt me out of the sequence of the day and create some new neurons. If you fancy the idea, toodle over to pocketmakers and have a go. You might like it too.
Posted by Michelle at 11:35 AM
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August 10, 2008EasySinging in my Soul - Fly My Pretties (good Sunday music) I've learned to love the weekends since moving to Melbourne. My life as a contractor in New Zealand blurred the days of the week coloured every day with work - no complaints - but pleasure now taken in these two glorious days named Saturday and Sunday. Yesterday I slept late. How good is sleeping in? I'd arrived pre-sloshed at Willo's the night before to watch the Olympic opening ceremony and see the Scots after drinking with James at the Queensbury. Wow - a lot of things going on in *that* sentence. Another way to look at it would be: went to a previous colleagues house to see a previous work colleague after drinking with a (now) old work colleague. After my lazy start to Saturday, I had a lovely afternoon in Fox's Family Den, watching snippets of the cycle road race from Beijing, sipping punch and singing Happy Birthday to Sister Fox. Such a warm snuggly normal family day for a person who doesn't have any family close by. New Dog: Jet, and Fox's Den resident dog Ruban, spent a little bit of time getting to know each other before deciding they could play nicely together despite the size difference. Jet also spent some time teaching us all a new game called "Keep the balloon off the ground" a game he is particularly good at with easy vertical leaps and nose-bunts - that dog needs a Frisbee!
Today I woke early to rain from grey skies over Collingwood. Turning on the heating, and opening up the blinds, I snuggled up with marmalade toast, tea and Milla Jovovich's Resident Evil. Zombies before lunch beat any organised Sunday worship hands down.
Posted by Michelle at 3:55 PM
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August 4, 2008Food: Little Creatures Dining HallFox and I met up on a very very chilly Friday evening to try the new Little Creatures Dining Hall on Brunswick Street. The warm bustling atmosphere was a welcome change from the bone chilling temperature of outside. We were greated by a friendly maître d' who, like all maître d' liked Fox's name. He directed us to the bar for a drink until a table freed up for us. The Dining Hall is huge. We decided if they put in another floor, which they had plenty of room for, they could fill that too. Rows of tables, some communal, were full of people. Groups and families, noisy but not as bad as it could be in such a reverbitrating space. We didn't have to wait long to be seated at a table by the open kitchen. The menu had typical antipodean bar and family fare. Fox ordered the mushroom pie, peas and mash, while I opted for the braised lamb shank and mash. This comforting winter food was served on white enamel camping plates. My braised lamb shank was so tender, it fell off the bone and melted in my mouth. Fox's pie was bigger than her face! The portions were generous but not over-th-top, which was good. The waitress happily supplied me with a side of peas, and my meal was perfect. Tasty, succulent and hearty. We don't usually have a dessert, but the offerings were too good to pass up. We shared a delicious bread and butter pudding which rounded our meal off wonderfully. Although the place was busy, we felt no pressure to leave. The pace of the meal suited us well too, and while the waitresses where attentive and interacted well, they weren't overbearing or too chatty. We both really enjoyed our experience there and look forward to dining in the great hall again.
Posted by Michelle at 12:52 PM
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August 2, 2008DecathablogForgive me internet, for I have blogged: it has been ten years since my first post. My partner-in-crime there was Maddy aka my current room mate Fox, and together we will be quietly celebrating that we were blogging before it was even a word. Tim: drink for the birthday girl *pouring vanilla vodka into a shot glass*
Posted by Michelle at 2:00 PM
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