•Saturday 14 November 2009 •
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Delicious pizza is they joy of the day. After a sleep (which is unheard of most mornings) and a few pottering chores we sat down to homemade pizza. I’ll add the recipe below for those for a feeling hungry.
Pizzabase:
2 cups of plain flour
2 teaspoons of sugar
2 heaped teaspoons of dried yeast
pinch of salt
enough warm water to make a soft but not sticky dough
If the dough is sticky just add more flour. Once combined kneed it on a floured board until the dough is smooth and stretchy. Replace in bowl, cover with a damp cloth and place in the microwave on high for 20 sec. Leave it in the damp and warmth of the microwave to rise for at least 30 minutes for until the dough doubles in size.
Knead it in a floured board to bring it all back together then press out onto your cooking pan. I have a pizza stone, but any shallow baking tray is fine.
Toppings:
Pretty much whatever I find in the fridge or pantry within reason. On the pizza above from bottom to top:
Crushed tomato sauce (or pasta sauce base)
Crushed garlic
Tasty Cheese
Onion
Capsicum
Black Olives
Sausage
Pineapple
Mushrooms
Place into a warm oven (180c) on the bottom rack. Cook until the topping browns, usually about 30 minutes. When you take it out of the oven, cut it into slices but let it sit for a moment or two before serving.
Posted in Holidays, November 2009, Photographic Project, Photography, food
•Friday 13 November 2009 •
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For a Friday the 13th I’ve had a pretty good day. Shopping, picking up a few bargains and spending time with my dad and his infamous Jack Russell, Mikey. Perched on top of his owner’s chair, Mikey surveys the world that he considers his.
Not a bad way to start a holiday. May all holidays be Friday the 13th.
Posted in November 2009, Photographic Project, Photography
•Thursday 12 November 2009 •
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/12/2740514.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/12/2741352.htm
Posted in Uncategorized
•Thursday 12 November 2009 •
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•Monday 9 November 2009 •
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I was told today by a fellow staff member that they feel I’m not surprised by much. I guess I’ve been in libraries long enough to have seen most things at least once, but I never considered myself jaded. There’s lots in life that surprise me, and not half an hour later I was able to prove my point to my workmate.
For several hours, a group of three boys have been fooling around in the park that surrounds the library. I noticed them at first because it seemed like two boys were picking on a third, trying to kick him while he half heartedly swatted them away. They ranged all over even climbing up on low fencing around our carpark and leaning up again the window I was looking out of.
They were soon back to their mock fighting, this time with milk crates. You can imagine how that caught our attention. I don’t know if a flying milk crate would do serious damaged to one of those meat heads. Worse still we weren’t looking forward to finding out if one could break our of our car windscreens park right along side.
We never did find out because at that moment another weapon was introduced into the battle…a giant blue plush dice. You read correctly. From somewhere, probably one of the nearby charity bins, one of the boys had found a 30cm x 30xm x 30cm blue velvet cube full of styrofoam beans. It was the surrealist thing I had seen, boys fighting in the park with milk
Serendipity is a wonderful thing
crates and a giant blue dice.
Who says life is still not full of surprises?
Posted in Surprises, libraries, teenagers, work
•Wednesday 4 November 2009 •
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Junglist not sexy enough for the gaming audience of ABC?! Well I loved the guy for his brains not his looks.
Jeremy Ray (A.K.A Junglist) mysteriously vanished from our small screens two shows ago to be replaced by Hex. The comparrison is pretty obvious and it’s not surprising that rumours started flying that Junglist was replaced because he wasn’t…femmine enough.
But Good Game already has a girl…or hadn’t you noticed? Rei is a 
gorgeous gaming chick from my end of the world. Surely she alone makes up enough of the female quota for ABC to be happy?
My concern with the new look of the show, which was also address by Junglist here , is that the show now lacks the depth of experience that it once had with the hardcore, competitive gaming guru of Junglist and the more entertainment casual gamer of Bajo.
Welcome to Hex, enjoyed the show. I don’t think there was any problem with the show, it was well presented and showed good depth of knowledge on the games.
However, I was surprised at how quickly they replaced Jung. It was very sudden and though I am happy to hear he still has a roll on the show, I am sorry that I will not be sharing my Monday nights with his gaming wisdom. He will be missed
Also, I am concerned with the depth of knowledge the show will now be able to display. As I don’t know Hex’s gaming background as yet, this doubt may well be unfounded. But, there was such a good balance between Barg and Jung, entertainment and hardcore. I fear that we’ve lost that balance, particularly in the scoring of games.
Onwards and upwards. Thanks for a great show.
In a world where female and male in-game characters are just as powerful, leathal or smart as each other, it’s a shame we can’t say the same about the real life versions.
Posted in Good Game, Video Games, games, gaming, sexism
•Monday 26 October 2009 •
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There is a tension between those who live in New South Wales and those who choose to live in Queensland. Queenslander’s talk slower, with a drawl that suggests they may be too closely related to their wives. Every call centre in Australia dreads getting a call from a number with a (07) prefix because they know no matter how simple the reqest there’s going to be trouble. Yes, I guess us southerners have always suspected that those who live in Queensland are few cells short of a full cerebrum.
But there’s something a little more sinister going on.
The Undead walk the streets of Brisbane and here’s the photographic 
evidence.
Though these zombies shuffle and limp for brains it’s all part of a charity walk that gathers thousands of zombies and parades them down the streets of Brisbane.
Yes, yes, it’s all fun and games until they bite some one and then there in plague proportions and heading over the border. Well Queensland, we suffer your cane toad and Japanese tourists, but don’t ask us suffer zombies shuffling south.
And just in case you thought it was a new phenomena, there are some brilliant images from 2008.
Posted in Australia, Brisbane, Zombies
•Wednesday 21 October 2009 •
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In light of the movies release in a few days…
I thought I’d look back at the rollercoaster ride the creation of this movie has been.
Firstly, with the sudden death of Heath Ledger many a great movie was put on hold or cancelled, one being the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus directed by my favourite, Terry Gilliam. This was on the back of another Gilliam movie falling through, the The Man who killed Don Quixote (which I’m pleased to see is now in pre-production).
Then, a group of friends got together to finish what their mate had started. This would be a cool story if they were just finishing a house or restoring a car. But Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farell finishing the work that their mate Heath started is tear jerking gold.
“Don’t feel entitled to anything you didn’t sweat and struggle for.” Marian Wright Edelman once said and I think that Terry and all those who have been on the Imaginarium journey with him can well and truly say they own this movie. But, at least a small part can surely belong to those of us who have followed the journey, feeling the pain of loss and the joy of realisation and fulfillment. Those who can empathise with the loss of a friend and the satisfaction of having made a difference. Maybe I don’t feel entitled, but privledged to have been along for the ride.
Looking forward to seeing you at the movies!
Posted in Terry Gilliam, friends, heath Ledger, movies
•Tuesday 20 October 2009 •
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•Monday 19 October 2009 •
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Humpback Whale off Sydney Head, Sunday 18 October 2009
The day did not start out well with scattered showers. We thanked forethought and the advice given on the whale tours for insisting we brought a good warm coat as it looked cold out on the water.
It looked even worse as we left the Darling Harbour. I wished I thought to bring a simple plastic bag to protect my camera with as it looked like we’d be shooting in the rain.
My fears were unfounded as we slipped through the head the day showed it could be kind to whale watchers and broke up the sky enough for us photographers to take our eyes off the sky and put it on the ocean, searching for signs of whale.
The tour guides had been tipped off on a pod of four whales making their way down the coast that they hoped to intercept as they travelled past the heads. Unusally for this time of year it was a group of four adults as individuals and mother/calf groups are more common.
There was a two foot swell outside the heads which doesn’t sound like a lot until you have to find our footing, hold onto breakfast and keep an eye our for whales all at the same time. All this became particularly hard when the whales were spotted and the captain manevoured the boat so it was side on to the waves. Now instead off just going up and down the boat seemed to roll in lazy circles taking my stomach with it. But I was too busy to pay any attention to rolling stomach’s as the whales surfaces maybe 2oo metres from the boat.
I understand we spent two hours following the pod as they zig-zagged their way down the coast as far down as Bondi. I can honestly same I don’t know where the time went. Before I really felt the desire for land the captain turned the boat back to the heads. There another pod, this time a mother and calf. Like the captain, they seemed to be in a hurry to get where they had to go and didn’t hang around to look at the boat.
Though not a dramatic whale watching experience, it was impressive to see these animals up close. To say they are big doesn’t describe them. They are the largest animals that any of use are likely to see, and too think they go straight past Sydney’s doorstep is incredible.
I think I should like to go out and wave g’day to them again when they make their trip north next April.
If you want to see some mighty impressive whale shots or read the whale blog by Jonas the Photographer click on the image below.
Posted in Photography, Sydney, whales
