The Jamjar

Sunday Sunset

Squid: Born Like Stars

The adults held the egg sac using two rows of talon-like hooks on the underside of three of their four pairs of arms. The sac is formed of two thin membranes which form a hollow tube, open at both ends. The squid wave their arms to flush water through the sac - probably to aerate the eggs. Previously, it had been thought that squid would be incapable of caring for their eggs as the health of most species deteriorates rapidly after laying eggs. Most adult squid become extremely gelatinous as their muscles degenerate after egg-laying and they die shortly afterwards. But this species appeared "fairly healthy" after egg laying, notes Seibel. Even so the mother weakens as the eggs develop, as she does not feed while holding her progeny. The team believes the adult carries her eggs around in this way for between six to nine months before they hatch, by which time she is exhausted.

Broody squid carry their eggs in their arms

Sing-a-long Friday

Afro Baby

Amy email through some photos of Tandia (2 years old) today. Look! her hair is nearly as big as she is!

Sing-a-long Friday

Highly Evolved: MacPro

My workday (today) started out (as it did yesterday (1) but not as it does every day) with finding great.big.daddy.cockroaches (5) on and around my desk (makes my head itch just thinking about it). This ongoing problem has *finally* been escalated from cans of bug spray to an exterminator.

My workday (today) ended (as it did yesterday but with less computer and more free software (I won Photoshop Elements at an Adobe seminar for knowing about Seam Carving)) with this beautiful machine, fully loaded with Adobe CS4, sitting on my desk.

So you know what you're lookin' at when you're viewing the movie: Chaz (IT dude in the red shirt and all round cool banana) ordered and configured my new Apple Mac Pro computer and installed it today at work. Andrew (colleague and desk neighbour and all round MAC disliker) is the voice in the background you can hear declaring that the amount of RAM is "insane" and I am the one making funny little animal noises because this computer is so bloody gorgeous.

DVD: Forbidden Planet

Boy-oh-boy I enjoyed this 1956 science fiction classic. Though it was hard not to see Leslie Nielsen, young as he was (and looking very much like a member of the Baldwin clan at times) and remember this isn't a comedy. Faces of other cast members are familiar to me as well - mostly because they pepper themselves through my early television years: Gunsmoke, Alias Smith and Jones, The Six Million Dollar Man, Bonanza, The Virginian (quite a few cowboy series for a girl who claims to not like the genre, Michelle).

One of the most interesting things about this movie is how many themes and ideas are familiar in newer productions, like Star Trek and Star Wars. Retro memory kicked in and there was this weird time warp going on in my head where I had to remind myself that Forbidden Planet came first - the Grand-daddy of them all. You can see the title at the end of the trailer (above) are quite In-a-galaxy-far-far-away-esque.

This is no The Angry Red Planet (oh man that's my favourite - every cinemagical moment) this is serously good, and well made - no red cellophane over the lens tricks here!

Well worth a first-viewing or a revisiting.

Now, maybe it's just me, but does anyone think this selection of scene index titles for Forbidden Planet's DVD seem a little... saucy?

5. The red carpet treatment
6. Dr Morbius
7. and he does windows
8. Some dark, terrible force
9. Alataira Morbius
10. Alta's "friends"
11. Preparing for the transmitter
12. "Just a kiss" giving Alta 'tude
13. "I must have a new dress!"
14. Invisible intruder
15. Shock the monkey; the beamer
16. Bathing beauty... and the beast
17. Clarification; the Kral
18. The "plastic educator"
19. Subterranean wonders
20. The perimeter; Cookie and bourban

Plot keywords for the movie on IMDB.com include: magnet, space travel, force field, single father, concealed nudity (?? what the ??), monkey.

Sing-a-long Friday

Second Life

Michelle: How do I change my avitar's body?
Andrew: You right-mouse-click and select "appearance".
Michelle: Oh right. Cool. Where's the "fat" button - I'm gonna make my Second Life avitar really fat.
Andrew: So, you're not going to do what most people do and make yourself different in Second Life than in your real life?
Michelle: Yes, Andrew, that's why I'm making myself *fat* in Second Life! Jesus!

Extreme Skipping

Photobooth: Kent Street

Tangles

Hallway Antics

Sing-a-long Friday

Spiegeltent: Anika Moa

MON 3RD NOV @ SPIEGELTENT, MELBOURNE
Anika Moa "In Swings the Tide" Album Release

Standing barefoot next to a bottle of beer (wearing her “bist driss” for the occasion), Moa slings her guitar around her shoulder and claims, “I’m not viry good, but i’m pritty” before launching into Wise Men Say. Seconds later the entire venue noted that not only is Moa pretty, she also has an incredible voice. The purity of her melodies are nothing short of captivating, winding her fingers around some beautiful hooks with a rare kind of ease.

CarlyRae Anika Moa @ The Toff In Town, Melbourne

[picture snaffled without permission from Duke Mule Photography's Flickr stream]

Anika Moa is from New Zealand. Her set last night at the Spiegeltent was, in turns, magical and hilarious. It was so wonderful, for me, to hear that self-deprecating, frank kiwi humour - it was like being at home with the familiar sounds of good New Zealand music.

Accompanied by Nick Gaffney on drums and Chip Mathews on bass guitar, Anika seemed to have a good time too - despite (or maybe even because of) a noisey table of (possibly kiwis - at least one of them was "from the 'naki") behind me who talked and laughed through the entire set, which was especially obvious in the soulful ballads - frickin rude and distracting, I say, no matter where they were from!

Anika sung a few songs from her new album - afterall, it was the launch - and they had quite a country twang to them (but not in a bad way). She also played some of her previous work, such as Mother (teary), and Youthful (she did a fun version in a reggae style with freestylin' Anika going to town in full dreds mode in the middle of it - check this similar one from Queenstown). She peppered banter, personal stories, giggles and burps between songs - charming us all in the process.

Any gig that plays oma rapiti* has to be a fun one. Yes, the smattering of kiwis joined in.

The thing about Anika, besides being an infectiously charming woman, is that she can play the guitar; is that she can write beautiful songs; that she can sing. Her voice.. her voice. Her voice. Clear and crystal, gorgeous and full of feeling.

Monday night was a beautiful evening. I'm so glad I went, so glad I queued early, so glad when the rain came it wasn't too hard, so glad I got a seat near the front. An intimate performance in the Spiegeltent, Melbourne. I had intened to film a song to share with you, but in the end, didn't seem right to film her. I wanted to get an image for you, but in the end, I borrowed one from Flickr and one from her website.

I enjoyed the evening, and I have it stored in my memory. It's a cosy place to keep it, in my memories of home.

[picture snaffled without permission from Anika Moa's website]

*Oma Rapiti Oma Rapiti
Oma oma oma
Oma Rapiti Oma Rapiti
Oma oma oma

pika pika pika pika toro piko
toro toro toro toro toro toro pika toro

Stars & Stripes!

Wednes Day Links

Game: Launch Ball (an oldie but an addictive'y)

Video: Punches in slow motion (cheesus, no wonder boxers end up bit borked brains)

Illustration: Tom Giesler

Test: Hue Sorting

Video: Flickr cycling (awesome idea: shame most of the images produced so far aren't terribly interesting)

Video: The Corpus Clock and The Chronophage (well worth seeing again)

Data: American Election (last day folks!)

Longrain - The Movie

Heavy weather

First day of my life

It was a dark and stormy night..

Yes, it's that time of the year again. NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is here again.

Back story: I've signed up for this event (write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November) every year since 2002 and I have failed to successfully complete the event (write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November) that year, and every year since.

So that's you caught up.

Now it's 2008 and I'm signed up again (to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November) and have no doubt what so ever, that I will again fail to complete the task (to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November).

I considered changing tack this year and instead of NaNoWriMo (to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November) try NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) (post a blog entry every day during the month of November) but I just don't like the word NaBloPoMo. Plus, if I did decide to NaBloPoMo (write a blog entry every day for the month of November) you know I would, in fact, not post a single entry on this blog for the month of November!

I am so contrary.

So I am NaNoWriMoing (writing a 50,000 word novel during the month of November) and today (November 1st) is the first day and I'm off to a good start: blogging, and making a movie about last night.

Yeh, that'll get the word count off to an amazing start [insert blank face here]

Movie Trailer: