New Cushions!

New Cushions!
Originally uploaded by JadeMonkee.

Wee!
A bargain at $10 a piece. Kind of.
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Sad, hung (over) Simon

Sad, hung (over) Simon
Originally uploaded by Carafaele

His head hurts. Poor pumpkin.
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Outside

Outside
Originally uploaded by Carafaele

We're sitting outside on our balcony and we've just finished eating weet-bix. Simon is feeling quite delicate after drinking half a box of $10 goon last night, but he's happy because this balcony is like an oasis for him.
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My Baby

My Baby
Originally uploaded by JadeMonkee.

I am totally in love with my SqueezeBox Classics.
The fact that I have accessible music throughout the house has made such a difference to my life.
So much so that it has even taken me by surprise.
It's so wonderful.

Listening to: The Beatles - Yellow Submarine (album. Ever since Chrissie's 30th I've been interested in The Beatles, so I downloaded their entire discography the other month. I am now beginning to understand their following).
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Glasshouse Mountains

Glasshouse Mountains
Originally uploaded by Carafaele

We decided to drive home the scenic way via the Glasshouse Mountains near Beerburrum. It's starting to storm, and the mountains are encircling us on all sides, jutting up into the sky in some very strange and beautiful shapes. Gorgeous.
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Saturday

Saturday
Originally uploaded by Carafaele

What a wonderful start to the weekend! Simon and I have just been for a refreshing swim in the ocean here at Dickies Beach near Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast, and we are now having a picnic lunch in the shade of some trees. Beautiful!
Couple today with my adventures last night dancing in a retro club with my cousins, my friend Suzie, and an aging boozer named 'the grasshopper', and I don't think life can get much better!
Also, Si picked up a subwoofer today for $50! Bargain.
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A Special Message From Toby

A Special Message From Toby
Originally uploaded by JadeMonkee.

A picture says a thousand words. Or four of them, really.
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A Big Fucken Hole!

A Big Fucken Hole!
Originally uploaded by JadeMonkee.

As I was walking home yesterday (before the storm), I noticed these witches hats in the road. I didn't stop and look, however, as I was distracted by the approaching (and spectacular) storm front:



This morning, I did stop and look, and holy shit it's a big fucken hole!
It's obviously caused by water, but the last storm event was a week ago, and the witches hats only appeared yesterday. Of course that doesn't mean the hole wasn't there earlier, but I'm suprised no cars fell into it. It's HUGE!
Ok, not big enough for a car to fit in, but a wheel definitely would, and that would be enough to get it stuck.



And it's DEEP! Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera on me, so I couldn't use anything other than the crappy flash on my phone to try and illuminate the innards (it didn't work), so you can't really tell from the photo, but it would be over a metre deep.
Well, I'm impressed.
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Nice Day, Shame About the Job

What a beautiful looking day.

As I left the house this morning, and proceeded to walk up my street, I was overcome by how fantastic it all looked.
What a shame I'm now on the bus, heading to work.
Saturday was lovely, too.



Lilly and I ended up having lunch at a lovely little cafe overlooking the beach. I ordered an oven baked gnocchi, and Lilly a garlic prawn, fetta, and sun-dried tomato pizza.



We then went to the beach, saw some whales (both actual and figurative), went for a swim and a walk, bought a smoothie, and then took the scenic route home (by this stage I was getting sleepy, so I also had a nap in the car...).
It was all so beautiful that we decided to move up there in the next year.
Nice.
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The Next Morning

The Next Morning
Originally uploaded by JadeMonkee.

Turns out dinner wasn't Mexican, but Morrocon, and it was INCREDIBLE. So tasty, wow.
So that was good.
We had a few pre-dinner drinks with Daniel and Lulu, and I was feeling a little happy by the time we went to dinner (which may have contributed to my opinion about the food).
We went to a pub afterward, and then had more drinks back at Daniel and Lulu's hotel room (where we slept the night).
I got really, really drunk. It was really fun!
This is the view from their balcony.
Lilly and I are now driving around seeking breakfast. I'll let you know how it went.
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Blissed Out

Blissed Out
Originally uploaded by JadeMonkee.

Right now I'm sitting in the car in Mooloolaba, and am feeling just wonderful.
I've eased the seat back, wound the window down, kicked my shoes off, and as the cool breeze blows over my face, I smile.
I'm feeling really good right now. I think little feelings from last weekend are coming back, coz I feel like a king.
Lilly and I are up here for her cousin's wife's 30th birthday. She's just come over from Mexico, and we're going out for Mexican for dinner tonight - just in case she's homesick or something, I suppose.
So we decided to make a day/night/morning/early afternoon of it all, despite both of us having plenty of assignments to do (Lilly is, at this very moment, doing some editing work next to me in the car. I'm really enjoying hearing her read to herself).
At least I have been given a week off work to do my assignments, so my stress-factor has now been significantly reduced.
That is all. Back to relaxin'.

Listening to: Lilly, birds, waves, children, cars, smiles.
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Easy Mornings

Easy Mornings
Originally uploaded by JadeMonkee.

I think my little trip away last weekend has really refreshed my mind.
I don't know if it's now also because I am waking up to music again, but I'm getting up earlier than before, and having no problems doing it.
Then, to make my morning that much better, our favourite kitty was on the neighbours lawn, asking to be played with.
Things are really cool right now.
Let's hope I can maintain this positivity while I do my final assignments.

Listening to: Tool - 10 000 Days (it's been far, far too long since I treated myself to a bit of Tool. I just wish I had better headphones).
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New Alarm Clock

New Alarm Clock
Originally uploaded by JadeMonkee.

And it's complete!
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Scratching The Itch

Scratching The Itch
Originally uploaded by JadeMonkee.

Looks like I couldn't refuse the price the salesman at Billy Hyde gave me; $299, a full $40 cheaper than Allan's.
Simon now has an alarm clock! Woo!
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labels: speakers, music, purchase

My New Toy

My New Toy
Originally uploaded by JadeMonkee.

I bought two Logitech Squeezebox Classics off of Ebay before I left for Sydney last week, and they arrived yesterday.
I'm going to buy a set of powered speakers for one of them, and put it in the bedroom for an alarm/lull machine.
The other one I set up in the loungeroom last night as a replacement for the loud, awkward laptop that I was previously using for my music player.
It's the best thing ever.
My trusty (now 1TB) NAS streams all my music to it, so I don't need to have a PC turned on.
It plays internet radio (including those that are unmetered by my ISP, Internode), shows RSS feeds as a screensaver, has a simple-to-use search function, and the alarm clock supports different alarms for each day of the week, and can play any source the box can (Reggae Mondays, anyone?).
The software is all open-source and is very mature, so there are many add-ons and plug-ins available (although my NAS doesn't support all of them).
It natively supports ogg, flac (the two formats I care about the most), mp3 (obviously), wma, wav, aac, m4a and many others through on-the-fly transcoding (although my NAS can't transcode).
Oh! And it can be controlled by any browser (including full support for my phone browser!), meaning I can be sitting out on my verandah, and can pull out my phone to change the track/album/radio station to whatever I want. Hell yeah.
Oh! And you can play different things on both boxes (as you'd hope), or synch them together! You can also transfer playlists between the two, so I can keep on listening to the music I was listening to in the loungeroom when I go to bed.
I am in geek heaven!
I now need to decide on/purchase a pair speakers for the Squeezebox in the bedroom.
I was going to buy a cheap micro hi-fi, but I went into Allan's yesterday and saw some self-powered studio monitors with digital in (did I mention the Squeezebox has both coax and optical out?) for about the price I was willing to pay for the micro hi-fi. Not only would that be a neater package than a seperate amp, but the sound will doubtless be noticeably better.
I'm leaning toward the Edirol MA-15D's for $309, but have heard some good things about the very sexy Swan M200's, too. I haven't found a price yet, but I'm pretty confident they're more expensive. And then there's the Edirol MA-20D's (which I also don't yet have a price for, but will be more expensive).
Decisions, decisions.
As keen as I am for the speakers (so I can finally once again listen to music when going to sleep/waking up), I'll probably save for the next few weeks, rather than putting them on credit. Let's just hope I can refuse the itch.
I'm somehow meant to be fitting a new (replacement) PC into all of this, too.
*sigh* The life of a tech nerd.
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it's on!

it's on!
Originally uploaded by Carafaele

Simon and dad race kids bead toys as we wait for a table at the outback.
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Friday afternoon

Friday afternoon
Originally uploaded by Carafaele

We're having a few drinks with Michaela, Ian, and Mickey at a pub up the road from Mickey's soon-to-be bachelor pad. Michaela and Ian are having a pillow fight, and Simon and Mickey are watching Tenacious D shorts on Mickey's iphone. Tonight we're going to a german restaurant and then to a dub night with Renata.
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This Morning's Coffee

This Morning's Coffee
Originally uploaded by JadeMonkee.

Is better than most morning coffees.
It's very warm in Sydney today. Nice because I'm by Coogee beach.
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Beer Before Boarding

Beer Before Boarding
Originally uploaded by JadeMonkee.

I have half an hour before boarding my flight to Sydney, so I thought I'd enjoy a beer at the bar.
A pint of Tall Tale Pale Ale.
It's quite nice, actually.
I'm pretty excited about Sydney, but I'm disappointed that my timing was so terrible (most of my friends aren't actually in Sydney this weekend... yeesh).
But still, it'll be really nice to see what friends are there, my family, and Lilly of course (a week apart now! That's the longest we've been apart since getting together). Really looking forward to seeing her.
I just wish I remembered to by Mum a birthday present... whoops.
Yay! Sydney! I miss it so.
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Baby Cakes

This is actually the funniest thing I've seen since, well Washington or Wizard People, Dear Reader.
http://www.superdeluxe.com/sd/playlist.do?type=series&id=baby_cakes
It's done by Brad Neely, and it is perfect poetical humour.
Nothing better.
His Super Deluxe page is here (raher than just the Baby Cakes playlist I linked to above):
http://www.superdeluxe.com/sd/artist/brad_neely
Check it, motherfuckers.

PS I found it because it followed the JFK video on Super Deluxe. Yes that's right, a follow up to Washington.