Clothes that kill

•August 2, 2006 • 4 Comments

The WA Web Awards black tie dinner is coming up on 18th of August, and once again I have to find a dress. A task which is complicated by the fact that I don’t wear high heels. Ever.

My reasons are simple – they hurt. I don’t know what it is about my feet but it’s hard enough to find any comfortable shoes, let alone ones that require me to teeter precariously on spindly sticks. Almost always coupled with ridiculous strappy bits and cramped pointy toe space.

As well as foot pain, high heels are known to cause back pain and even deaths each year due to “falling down the stairs”-style accidents. I read that’s the case in Japan, where platform heights get ridiculous.

Essentially, I’m against clothes that kill.

The list of fashion items that have caused deaths also includes neck ties and drawstrings. The danger of neck ties should be obvious – but drawstrings have also caused nasty accidents, so many that there’s been campaigns to ban them from children’s clothing.

Oh, and how could I forget the peril of baggy pants? The remake of The Hills Have Eyes has an amusing scene near the end where the young hero is nearly caught by the hideous mutant because he trips over his baggy emo pants. I had a hard time not laughing out loud in the cinema.

Same as I have a hard time not laughing when I sit somewhere in the city and watch all the female office workers teeter past in their stilettos, stumbling on every crack in the pavement. Or worse still try to run for the bus. Is fashion that important?

best goddamn pasta in the universe

•July 2, 2006 • 2 Comments

I met the Abstract Gourmet at the last Perth Weblogger’s meetup. He visited and blogged about my favourite eatery at the moment, Italy Home Made in North Perth.

In his post, he says that I “raved in a nonchalant but coolly excited way” which is a nice way of saying I sounded like a complete idiot by making the statement “it’s, like, the best goddamn pasta in like, the entire universe, man”. What can I say. I like it there.

When I give people directions, I say “you know where The Dollhouse is?” and if not, then “you know where the Drum Shop is?” and so far, nearly everyone I know is familiar with at least one of those two locations. That’s just a small insight into most of my friends.

So here’s a hot tip: check out Italy Home Made, Charles Street, North Perth. Tell ’em Dave and Kay sent ya. It’s a kinda conventional recommendation but their bolognese sauce is just to die for.

Danzig in Australia! Danzig!

•May 23, 2006 • 4 Comments

Danzig!This is something I never thought would happen in a million, billion, trillion years: the Evil Elvis, the legendary Glenn Danzig himself, is coming back to Australia. They were here in 93 but I was in high school back then, and they only played the east coast. I still have a newspaper clipping from the show.

Have I ever mentioned that I'm a fan? In fact, if I look at every CD in my shelf, all the bands and artists that I've always wanted to see live? I've seen most of those that are still kicking around, ranging from Bob Dylan to Slipknot. But I never thought I'd get to add Danzig to that list.

Of course, he's not coming to Perth – that would be too much to ask. But no matter what, I will be there at the Sydney or Melbourne show. I don't care who or what I have to sell. Right now, I'm trying to think up some amazing scam to get us there. I have relatives in Melbourne so that's probably the show we'll aim for – because we'll be able to mooch some free accommodation.

Danzig Australian Tour Dates – Yeah!

Danzig on Squidoo – one of my Squidoo experiments (don't know how good it is yet)

Anyone got any great fundraising ideas for me?

Happy birthday Baka

•May 21, 2006 • Leave a Comment

Today we had a birthday party for Baka Celika, my Croatian grandmother. She turned 92 on Thursday. She's a tough, clever woman who's battled through some considerable hardships in her life – she's a real survivor. I can only hope I've inherited some of her strength and resourcefulness.

We had a little get-together, a champagne lunch with her favourite food – pizza (I think that runs in the family too). We brought her port and chocolates… cos when you're 92, there's not much you need or can use other than food! I reckon she'll make it to 100, no problem.

INTERNational Day Of Slayer

•May 17, 2006 • 4 Comments

http://www.nationaldayofslayer.org/ – a US-based site has nominated the auspicious date 06/06/06 as the"National Day of Slayer". From the site:

Official Statement on Participation

 

  • Listen to Slayer at full blast in your car.
  • Listen to Slayer at full blast in your home.
  • Listen to Slayer at full blast at your place of employment.
  • Listen to Slayer at full blast in any public place you prefer.
  • For those not familiar with the phenomenon, Slayer are a speed metal band from the 80's whose 1986 album "Reign in Blood" is regarded as one of the most brutal metal masterpieces ever recorded.

    I think our US friends are not thinking big enough. I'm calling for an INTERNATIONAL Day of Slayer. I reckon they probably sold more albums in Europe than the US anyway. With time zone differences, the INTERNATIONAL Day of Slayer could stretch out to around 37 hours, give or take some daylight savings (don't bother telling me that's incorrect – speed metal does not obey the laws of physics).

    Come 06/06/06, I know what I will be listening to, and it will be at full volume.
    RAINING BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODDDDDDDDDD………………….. FROMALACERATED SKYYYYYYYYY…………………………

    Hey! I made it to the Perth Webloggers Meetup

    •May 17, 2006 • 1 Comment

    I just got back…what a lovely bunch of people.

    Due to unfortunate scheduling, tonight was also the Web Women dinner, the first dinner meeting that we've had. So basically i'm exhausted, I've been talking non-stop for the last four hours and my head is chock full of new people and interesting conversations.

    Despite being assured that I wouldn't be kicked out of the club if I didn't blog about the meeting, I couldn't help myself. Just for Jon, the story of how the goatlady came to be will follow. Maybe tomorrow. Right now I'm knackered.

    OneWebDay: what a great idea

    •May 10, 2006 • Leave a Comment

    The mission of OneWebDay is to create, maintain, advance, and promote a global day to celebrate online life: September 22, 2006

    I love it – now all we need to do is find something suitably HUGE to do to participate. Fortunately, there's a little while to think about it yet. Anyone got something? Official web site: OneWebDay

    Tetris Addiction

    •April 30, 2006 • Leave a Comment

    My name is Kay and I am a Tetrisaholic.

    I've been trying to track down a copy of Tetris Worlds on PS2 for ages – it's not available in shops anymore and for some reason I never bought a copy when it was available. Anyway, eBay was my friend. Unfortunately now that I've tried it, the game really sucks from a Tetris point of view. I mean, it's good because it's Tetris, but there are some odd things. Fortunately, they are going on eBay regularly for quite high prices so i can flog it off again.

    What I did instead was buy a wireless Logitech gamepad for our Media Centre PC, load up a NES emulator, and track down a whole bunch of Tetris ROMS. I used to think that the Tetris game I used to play on our 8 bit Nintendo machine back in the late 80's was Nintendo Tetris, but after trying out a whole bunch of ROMS I've discovered that this is in fact incorrect, and the official Nintendo Tetris ALSO sucks (as does the Gameboy version). What in fact rocks (and what I had back then, on some pirate cartridge from Singapore) is an obscure Russian variation of the Nintendo version, which I have since found. The colours are prettier, the gameplay and music are awesome, and in between levels little Russian dancers come out and dance for you. The higher your score the more dancers you get. When they're finishd the song they bow and walk off again. It's the cutest thing ever. 

    When the troika started I was instantly taken 17 years backwards in time. Back to a simpler time, when 1.79 mHz was plenty.

    Anyway, I can't sit around here and natter all day. I have another two hundred-odd ROMS to try out. I got to level 23 of Arkanoid already, and I still have Dr Mario, Puzznic, and Ice Climber to play with.

    Australian city blog war

    •April 19, 2006 • Comments Off on Australian city blog war

    I just checked AustralianBlogs.com.au and did a quick city tag survey:

    Sydney: 27
    Melbourne: 25
    Canberra: 8
    Perth: 20
    Adelaide: 6
    Hobart: 1

    There’s not many of us but by jove, we’re mad bloggers, us Perth-ites. Of course, you may point out that with over 350 blogs listed and so few specifying a city, odds are that most of the 250-odd that don’t tag with a location are from the Eastern States. To this I would say that it shows Perth folk have location-based pride. Go West Aussies!

    surely not winter yet?

    •April 17, 2006 • Leave a Comment

    It’s cold this morning in my house. I don’t like it. It’s Autumn, it’s not meant to be this bad yet, surely.

    Evidence my attire so far:
    7.30am Wake up, feed cats, check on eBay auction for PS2 Tetris Worlds (I shoulda just bought it when it was in the shops). Won with 20 seconds to go. Take that! Clothing: Thrown on summer dress thingo. In flush of eBay victory excitement don’t notice cold.
    7.45am Start to realise it’s a bit chilly. Add long sleeved Fear Factory t-shirt found under chair.
    8.10am Still cold. Add tracksuit pants under dress. Go Fug Yourself would die.
    8:40am Still cold. Dig out fluffy, pink, purple and green troll-hair slippers. First appearance of the season.
    10:30am Still can’t shake chill. Making cup of tea.

    Now it’s 10:50am, I’m about to post this entry dressed like an idiot hugging a cup of tea and STILL FRIGGIN’ FREEZING.

    Global warming, my arse.

    Troll-hair slippers: First appearance of the season