I hate the Eastern suburbs. Every time I go there I'm reminded why I hate it. It's a sad, pretentious blight that cares more about appearance than soul. I feel it when I come up for air from the bowels of Bondi Junction train station. It's desolate at 7pm and feels like a cutout version of a real place. I can't even figure out how to get out of the transport interchange without some sort of panic about direction.
You can't be complacent in the east, you have to be alert to the permeation of its terrible, horrible, no good very bad vibe. And that alone causes your psyche to cave in on itself. You have been warned.
30 May, 2007
29 May, 2007
28 May, 2007
Shoes
I bought two pairs of shoes today. This is a big thing becaquse I am not a 'shoe' girl. I don't have 30 favourite pairs of shoes, I mean. I have twelve pairs of shoes, which seemed a lot to my younger exes (who both only had one pair, mind - I've come to think that teenage boys never have more than two pairs of shoes) but is nothing in the scheme of things considering that four of those pairs are interchangeable sandals that I only wear in summer.
One pair I bought today replaced a particularly ugly pair of black shoes that looked too much like the kind of shoes I had to wear to school, only uglier. I replaced the black laces with red laces, which made them more fun, but it couldn't hide the fact that they were obese and ungraceful. Thankfully I've finally worn down the heel (or the outside of the heel, if you know anything about how I stand/walk) and the inner lining has worn away so I gratefully threw them out and purchased a pair of Roc boots, which now also have red laces for continuity.
I purchased the Rocs at Mathers, which has a strange hold on me. I don't know why, but every time I go into that store, I shell out $80+. Which is why I never wander in to browse - the last time I came out of the store I had bought a pair of navy sandals for $80, which were certainly not worth the money considering they were 1) navy and 2) sandals.
My favourite pair of shoes is my red sneakers, which I wear at least once a week - more often than not two or three times a week. The red sneakers must have white laces. If they don't come with white laces, I rethread them myself (in fact, I think the current pair has the laces from sneakers I had four years ago). I don't know why I like red sneakers so much, but they've become a signature item of mine.
My current pair are dying. They were a cheap $30 acquisition from Target and have served me well. Now I'm back on the Dunlops (I originally wore Dunlop Volleys until they redesigned them ugly), which only cost me $40 at Kmart, home of quality footwear.
This was actually rather pre-emptive of me because I was supposed to buy a replacement pair of laceless shoes a la my red Nine West pair (given to me by my Canadian aunt because my cousin didn't want them) which are almost worn through. These are far harder to replace because I'm not sure if I want another red pair of shoes or the funky black and white chequered ones with apple print I saw at the weekend (incidentally they are laceless canvas Dunlop Volleys), which are only $30. My feeling, however, is that those will have to come later - two pairs of shoes in one day is quite enough...
One pair I bought today replaced a particularly ugly pair of black shoes that looked too much like the kind of shoes I had to wear to school, only uglier. I replaced the black laces with red laces, which made them more fun, but it couldn't hide the fact that they were obese and ungraceful. Thankfully I've finally worn down the heel (or the outside of the heel, if you know anything about how I stand/walk) and the inner lining has worn away so I gratefully threw them out and purchased a pair of Roc boots, which now also have red laces for continuity.
I purchased the Rocs at Mathers, which has a strange hold on me. I don't know why, but every time I go into that store, I shell out $80+. Which is why I never wander in to browse - the last time I came out of the store I had bought a pair of navy sandals for $80, which were certainly not worth the money considering they were 1) navy and 2) sandals.
My favourite pair of shoes is my red sneakers, which I wear at least once a week - more often than not two or three times a week. The red sneakers must have white laces. If they don't come with white laces, I rethread them myself (in fact, I think the current pair has the laces from sneakers I had four years ago). I don't know why I like red sneakers so much, but they've become a signature item of mine.
My current pair are dying. They were a cheap $30 acquisition from Target and have served me well. Now I'm back on the Dunlops (I originally wore Dunlop Volleys until they redesigned them ugly), which only cost me $40 at Kmart, home of quality footwear.
This was actually rather pre-emptive of me because I was supposed to buy a replacement pair of laceless shoes a la my red Nine West pair (given to me by my Canadian aunt because my cousin didn't want them) which are almost worn through. These are far harder to replace because I'm not sure if I want another red pair of shoes or the funky black and white chequered ones with apple print I saw at the weekend (incidentally they are laceless canvas Dunlop Volleys), which are only $30. My feeling, however, is that those will have to come later - two pairs of shoes in one day is quite enough...
22 May, 2007
Spiderman 3 (film)
Spiderman 3 has been out for a while now but due to my general aversion to seeing blockbusters when they first come out (for I do so very hate crowded cinemas), I only just caught up with it this evening. And not without some reluctance - a trio of brothers (that is, my brother, my flatmate's brother and a friend's brother) strongly warned against seeing it, all three citing it "a waste of money - everybody cries".
So my flatmate and I, ever-sceptical of the respective tastes of those creatures known as brothers, decided we'd see for ourselves how bad it was. (A diversion: I'll never forget the night my brother made me watch 'Dead End' with him. Bloody (literally) waste of 90 minutes *grumble, grumble*). I would even go so far to credit our lowered expectations as the reason for our enjoyment of the film. But where to begin?
Firstly, I must say that I'm not a huge comic book adaptation fan. I like comic book adaptations in general, but I won't go crazy and watch every comic book adaptation. Hence, I've not seen Spiderman 2, which I believe may have impended my viewing of the sequel. (As you can tell, I'm getting more deductive day by day...).
Secondly, I must declare that I find Tobey Maguire nerdlicious. I liked him in 'Pleasantville' and 'Seabiscuit' and loved him in 'Wonder Boys'. I wouldn't throw myself at him, but I find it interesting that he's crafted a successful role as a cool nerd in most of his films. I also like the name Tobias. My camera's name is Tobias (the naming was not connected to Tobey Maguire but just thought I'd mention).
Okay, so the good stuff: the action scenes were sharp, the visual effects were awesome (especially the winnowing Sandman, that was cool) and Raimi looked as if he had fun - cue the montage of Parker becoming 'cool' including that hilarious revenge dance scene at MJ's Jazz Club.
The bad stuff: MJ is a weak character who either sings, screams or cries, (however) everyone cries, James Franco has a limited acting range (I'll never forget 'Tristan and Isolde' where he was out-acted by an eyebrow) and there are too many damn villains and sub-plots. This makes the film overly long, which is bad.
For the most part, 'Spiderman 3' is a good ride. If Raimi could have achieved the same effect with 100 mins and less slower, emotional scenes then I'd certainly rate it higher.
By the way, I've decided to change my rating system. From now on I'll be giving two ratings out of 10, one to reflect the strength of the film and the other to show how much I liked it.
Film rating: 6/10
Enjoyment rating: 8/10
So my flatmate and I, ever-sceptical of the respective tastes of those creatures known as brothers, decided we'd see for ourselves how bad it was. (A diversion: I'll never forget the night my brother made me watch 'Dead End' with him. Bloody (literally) waste of 90 minutes *grumble, grumble*). I would even go so far to credit our lowered expectations as the reason for our enjoyment of the film. But where to begin?
Firstly, I must say that I'm not a huge comic book adaptation fan. I like comic book adaptations in general, but I won't go crazy and watch every comic book adaptation. Hence, I've not seen Spiderman 2, which I believe may have impended my viewing of the sequel. (As you can tell, I'm getting more deductive day by day...).
Secondly, I must declare that I find Tobey Maguire nerdlicious. I liked him in 'Pleasantville' and 'Seabiscuit' and loved him in 'Wonder Boys'. I wouldn't throw myself at him, but I find it interesting that he's crafted a successful role as a cool nerd in most of his films. I also like the name Tobias. My camera's name is Tobias (the naming was not connected to Tobey Maguire but just thought I'd mention).
Okay, so the good stuff: the action scenes were sharp, the visual effects were awesome (especially the winnowing Sandman, that was cool) and Raimi looked as if he had fun - cue the montage of Parker becoming 'cool' including that hilarious revenge dance scene at MJ's Jazz Club.
The bad stuff: MJ is a weak character who either sings, screams or cries, (however) everyone cries, James Franco has a limited acting range (I'll never forget 'Tristan and Isolde' where he was out-acted by an eyebrow) and there are too many damn villains and sub-plots. This makes the film overly long, which is bad.
For the most part, 'Spiderman 3' is a good ride. If Raimi could have achieved the same effect with 100 mins and less slower, emotional scenes then I'd certainly rate it higher.
By the way, I've decided to change my rating system. From now on I'll be giving two ratings out of 10, one to reflect the strength of the film and the other to show how much I liked it.
Film rating: 6/10
Enjoyment rating: 8/10
20 May, 2007
Tequila is not my friend
A long day yesterday and I'm still getting over it. Began with a hike to Newtown with my flatmate because we just missed the train from Central (the next was in 29 minutes). We went to see 'Tales from Earthsea', the Studio Ghibli adapatation of the Ursula Le Guin novels. It wasn't what I expected and parts of it were unusually slow. I wouldn't recommend it, but I haven't read the books yet so who's to know whether my confusion was due to plotholes or a dissatisfaction with the animation? The voice of Lord Cob was particularly impressive though.
After that I caught a train to Rhodes to visit Ikea. Some of you may know my tabletop ironing board saga. I'll happily admit that I returned a $30 ironing board to buy the $10 Ikea ironing board. I'm not going back too soon, however - the busy, chaotic and crowded nature of the place freaks me out a little. And I hate how you go in for one thing and you have to travel through a maze of slow people dawdling with trolleys in the aisle to get to the checkouts.
Managed to get home only to zip out to BQ's housewarming. It was all very gentile - she fed us well and the company was chatty. My only gripe was that because they'd all been to high school together and the majority of them were engaged/married and buying property, I felt I had nothing much to contribute to the chit-chat. Still, I had a good time and a slice of chocolate bavarian (N.B. this language technique is called a syllepsis zeugma).
Left BQ's at around 10pm to go to Jim's 21st in the city. The idea was that I'd spend about three hours at each party and then be tucked up in bed around 2am like a good little aardvark. This didn't happen.
Arrived at Jim's party around 11pm. I had a surprising amount of fun, even though my regular crew abandoned me (they'd been there for quite a while already) and all the good booze (namely vodka) had disappeared down someone else's hatch. I got by chatting to various randoms who turned up every now and again.
Later we decided that the lack of vodka sucked so Jim and I went to get a bottle (and rum because the Punk Pirate had turned up thirsty), but the midnight liquor laws prevented us from achieving this aim by a mere 20 minutes. We managed to reap some Red Bull for the Jagermeister, though.
By then I'd drunk four Jager bombs and three Kahlua jaffas and for some insane reason decided I'd like to try mixing tequila with lemonade to see if it tasted any good. Punk Pirate decided to pour tequila shots for everyone because there were wedges of lemon sitting on a plate not doing anything. So I had two slugs of tequila that I shouldn't have had...
This pretty much pushed me over the edge so I ended up crashing in one of the beds talking to Jim, Boy Lego, Punk Pirate and Beamer. Punk Pirate was particularly open. I think I found out more about him in 20 minutes than in all the time I've known him. Then I had a nap for about three hours, only to wake up to the smudge of dawn peeking over the horizon. Boy Lego had gone home by that point. I found Punk Pirate, Jim and Beamer sitting outside on the balcony chatting. Jim was sitting on Beamer's lap and seemed pretty happy about it (all that denial about having a crush on him for nothing...). Then I decided the tequila was making me feel seedy and decided to go home.
I got home at 7am, had a shower and went to bed. The tequila - and I maintain it was the tequila alone - made my head feel like someone was scraping my brain from my skull with a blunt knife. It wasn't until about 11am, after a short sleep, some Vegemite toast and a large cup of tea that I felt human again. Needless to say I was glad that the jazz picnic excursion was cancelled so I could bum around for the day.
Don't let me ever forget that tequila is not my friend.
After that I caught a train to Rhodes to visit Ikea. Some of you may know my tabletop ironing board saga. I'll happily admit that I returned a $30 ironing board to buy the $10 Ikea ironing board. I'm not going back too soon, however - the busy, chaotic and crowded nature of the place freaks me out a little. And I hate how you go in for one thing and you have to travel through a maze of slow people dawdling with trolleys in the aisle to get to the checkouts.
Managed to get home only to zip out to BQ's housewarming. It was all very gentile - she fed us well and the company was chatty. My only gripe was that because they'd all been to high school together and the majority of them were engaged/married and buying property, I felt I had nothing much to contribute to the chit-chat. Still, I had a good time and a slice of chocolate bavarian (N.B. this language technique is called a syllepsis zeugma).
Left BQ's at around 10pm to go to Jim's 21st in the city. The idea was that I'd spend about three hours at each party and then be tucked up in bed around 2am like a good little aardvark. This didn't happen.
Arrived at Jim's party around 11pm. I had a surprising amount of fun, even though my regular crew abandoned me (they'd been there for quite a while already) and all the good booze (namely vodka) had disappeared down someone else's hatch. I got by chatting to various randoms who turned up every now and again.
Later we decided that the lack of vodka sucked so Jim and I went to get a bottle (and rum because the Punk Pirate had turned up thirsty), but the midnight liquor laws prevented us from achieving this aim by a mere 20 minutes. We managed to reap some Red Bull for the Jagermeister, though.
By then I'd drunk four Jager bombs and three Kahlua jaffas and for some insane reason decided I'd like to try mixing tequila with lemonade to see if it tasted any good. Punk Pirate decided to pour tequila shots for everyone because there were wedges of lemon sitting on a plate not doing anything. So I had two slugs of tequila that I shouldn't have had...
This pretty much pushed me over the edge so I ended up crashing in one of the beds talking to Jim, Boy Lego, Punk Pirate and Beamer. Punk Pirate was particularly open. I think I found out more about him in 20 minutes than in all the time I've known him. Then I had a nap for about three hours, only to wake up to the smudge of dawn peeking over the horizon. Boy Lego had gone home by that point. I found Punk Pirate, Jim and Beamer sitting outside on the balcony chatting. Jim was sitting on Beamer's lap and seemed pretty happy about it (all that denial about having a crush on him for nothing...). Then I decided the tequila was making me feel seedy and decided to go home.
I got home at 7am, had a shower and went to bed. The tequila - and I maintain it was the tequila alone - made my head feel like someone was scraping my brain from my skull with a blunt knife. It wasn't until about 11am, after a short sleep, some Vegemite toast and a large cup of tea that I felt human again. Needless to say I was glad that the jazz picnic excursion was cancelled so I could bum around for the day.
Don't let me ever forget that tequila is not my friend.
19 May, 2007
Firefox
So I just remembered to download Mozilla Firefox so I could try out a few web functions. I was previously working off Apple's Safari. Nothing wrong with Safari - just that it's like the kid at school who is allergic to sun so can't do any of the fun stuff that the other kids are doing. And we all know most of the really fun games are designed for the great outdoors.
Anyway, this entry is just an acknowledgement of Apple's efforts but essentially a declaration of my preference for Firefox, which is clearly superior because I can now pimp my blogs properly. Huzzah! Playing in the sun now...
Anyway, this entry is just an acknowledgement of Apple's efforts but essentially a declaration of my preference for Firefox, which is clearly superior because I can now pimp my blogs properly. Huzzah! Playing in the sun now...
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