More photos please

Some "different" things have been going on in my life recently. People recently saw these photos from the CD release party. Actually the person who saw them was Fernando, who apart from playing for Santos Renuentes also plays for Hilary McRae (among many other groups).

I was asked if I wanted to further practice my photography and take pictures of Hilary's first ever gig. Those pictures are here. They liked those, so since then I've taken pictures of another concert by Hilary (photos are not yet online) and another Santos Renuentes gig.

I had heaps of fun taking the pictures, but what's even better, I got to take pictures for some awesome artists. Hilary, without even considering it was her first gig, was just absolutely outstanding.

How to kill a RAZR

Last week was an up-and-down week. I was doing this new photography stuff and had lots on my mind. I had gotten back from the gym and decided to put a load of washing on. Sitting down to relax I went to check my phone for messages... I couldn't find it. A bit unusual I thought. I looked everywhere for it. Still nothing. I tried calling the phone using my friend's mobile and it was going straight to voicemail. "Damn" I thought, "I've switched it off". But then I thought about that some more. I clearly remember NOT turning it off. More thinking. Going to voicemail.... phone must be off... why is phone off?... flat battery... no, it's fully charged... load of washing... battery dead... load of washing... load of washing... LOAD OF WASHING!

I absolutely flew downstairs and emptied the washing machine. Down the bottom of the tub was a very clean looking RAZR phone. HOLY SHIT! It was off. NO SHIT! I took it into work the next day, dismantled it (nice instructions on how to do that are here, pity the people taking the pictures didn't know that if they used a high f-stop value then everything would have been in focus) dried it out with alcohol, and tried resuscitating it a day later. It didn't work. HOLY SHIT! All my contacts were stored on my phone and not my SIM. HOLY SHIT! Ok, so I did have a backup of contacts from a few months ago and I do have e-mails from people who have changed their numbers, but hell, this is a stupid process to be going through.

Proof #1764743347 that PK is very human. I love reverse engineering my reactions to stuff like this though, and how I cope. How did I cope? I went out and bought a stack of stuff, like a point and shoot camera (always needed one of these, just required the right excuse), flash kit for my Nikon D-70, oh and a stack of clothes.

Right now my awesome friend Maha has lent me a phone, a Motorola A630. I don't mind the little bugger, it's starting to grow on me. I definitely don't want to get another RAZR. They're too bloody common for my liking, everybody has a RAZR. I'm sorta leaning towards a PEBL. If anyone has some spare PEBL parts from which I can build a phone, that preferrably isn't tied into a carrier, pretty please send them my way :-)

A warning

If I ever happen to call you and get your voicemail, and I'm within reach of my computer or iPod, you will get a power ballad left on your voicemail. I promise. Recent victims have received Michael Bolton's song mentioned previously, Heart's "Alone", Pat Benatar's "Love is a battlefield" and Def Leppard's "Love Bites".

Ho hum

I'm bored at work, well, it's 6pm and I feel like dribbling on my blog. You're reading this so you must be bored too. Or maybe you're finding something to kick start your day. Look elsewhere!

I like to start my work day with a bunch of questions and my objective is to get answers to all of them by the end. Today is not one of those days as I haven't answered any of the questions and I actually have more questions than I started with. yay!

Michael Bolton. Now that you're awake, it's weird how you hear a name and then it keeps popping up. I hadn't heard of this guy for ages and last night I watched "Office Space" and have been hearing his name ever since (Michael Bolton is the name of one of the characters in the movie). This morning I listened to the Chris Moyles show on BBC Radio One and the lead in was "How can we be lovers?", i.e.


How can we be lovers if we can't be friends
How can we start over when the fighting never ends
Baby, how can we make love if we can't make amends
Tell me how we can be lovers if we can't be,
Can't be friends


What a power ballad! Whoa. I've posted up lyrics to a MB song on my blog. I could imagine Cartman from South Park singing this song...

Onto other stuff, I get along well with a couple of people here at work and we're always finding stupid stuff on the internets. Has anyone seen the VW Golf GTI "Fast" commercials? "Fast" is a little devil sort of thing in guys that influences how we drive, if you girls didn't know. I'm sure at some point they'll tailor the ads for the ladies, but at the moment it's a guys only affair. Here are some links to the ads:

"Hair"
"Take out"
"Streamlined"

Fellas, make friends with your fast. By the way, nice marketing VW.

More google videos that I'm enjoying:
Wicked electricity arc
More wicked electricity stuff
Substation explosion

Yay yay for Valentine's Day!

Hold on... this is sounding a lot like last year.

Actually, this year was a little better. I ended up giving someone a Valentine's gift, and I dropped it off at 7am on their front porch on one of the coldest Florida mornings I can remember. Of course, we ain't getting blizzards down here so I can't really complain.

So last year I actually listened to some Rammstein. Maybe if I listen to the right sort of music, I can actually convince myself that everything is ok. How about "I feel loved" by "Depeche Mode"?


It's the dark night of my soul
And temptation's taking hold
But through the pain and the suffering
Through the heartache and trembling

I feel loved
I feel loved

As the darkness closes in
In my head I hear whispering
Questioning and beckoning
But I'm not taken in

I feel loved
I feel loved

From the depths of my emptiness
Comes a feeling of inner bliss
I feel wanted, I feel desired
I can feel my soul on fire

I feel loved
I feel loved


Yeah, that'll do nicely.

Lou, the goldfish battler

UPDATED: Lou is actually looking normal now! He/she/it got rid of the buoyancy problem and is discovering the bottom of the fish tank.

I've posted about this fish before, but Lou's resilience and battler attitude has impressed me. It's a sign that even though something bad in your life may have happened (in this case, the swim bladder is all screwed up), then you can still keep charging along.

Or maybe the fish is just thinking "when the hell are they going to let me f#%ken die?"

CD release party photos and geeks

There are online here. I kind of stuffed up the gamma in Photoshop... things were a bit iffy there for a while. Also the pictures were taken from the same perspective the whole night. There were lots of people in the club and some stupidly placed VIP tables. It was the best spot I could get.

Hey has anyone seen "The IT crowd", a British take on geekism? I've just watched 5 minutes of the second episode before posting this. It's not that bad! It reaches out to the geek lust buried deep within my tricuspid valve.

The Muse, it is good.

I have just rediscovered a group that I first listened to 5 years ago. Ah, I remember fondly the days blasting out some 'Muse' in one of the project labs at my university, trying to figure out how to warp pictures into spherical coordinates so I could form a panorama. Those were the days *sigh*.

Fast forward to today and I have rediscovered them. Recently I played Muse's first album and thought "damn those guys are good". They have since released two more albums and both are effin fantastic. Definitely some good listening, definitely one of my favourite bands.

Santos Renuentes' CD release party

Woohoo! This is one thing I've been looking forward to for a while: the CD release party for Santos Renuentes. Awesome. To those in Australia reading this, you have approximately 5 hours to get down to South Beach. Sorry for the late notice...