An Acrostic

Sitting at the Uni
Three of us smoking a spliff
Oh the laughter!
Never has Uni been so fun!
Effervescent ephemeral emerald
Delighted to meet you!
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I Speak Too Soon

I Speak Too Soon
Originally uploaded by JadeMonkee.

I just knocked my near full beer ALL OVER MYSELF. Shit.
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UQ Bar

UQ Bar
Originally uploaded by JadeMonkee.

I'm currently at the UQ Bar with Mickey (Lilly is at class), and am having a pretty cool time. Nirvana is on the jukebox, we're a little stoned, and we're on our second beer.
Shit yeah.
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Twin Bricks/Beaks

It's Twin Peaks... IN LEGO!

And while we're at it, here it is in Muppet form:

LeaveMeAloneBox

LeaveMeAloneBox perpetually closes itself, should win some kind of award - Engadget
I found this article on Engadget, and think it's pure awesome.
Check it out.

Thai Food

Thai Food
Originally uploaded by JadeMonkee.

Lilly and I went to Boon Chu (not sure about the spelling...) Thai on Wednesday night. Holy cow it's tasty.
Unfortunately, I forgot to take another photo when the Drunken Noodle arrived (thanks to Tristan for getting me on to that dish). In the photo you can see the Duck Red Curry (with Lychee and pineapple) and the Banana Leaf Chicken. And a nice bottle of Oyster Bay Merlot.
We have officially found our Thai restaurant of choice.
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Southbank

Southbank
Originally uploaded by JadeMonkee.

Jill, Rolly and their family are up in Qld right now, so they stayed at our place last night (and will probably stay again tonight).
For entertainment we decided to head to Southbank today. It's rather nice here. Great weather, pretty location. All is good.
Tomorrow, Mickey is coming up, and to make the most of it, I've taken Monday and Tuesday off of work; I love flex hours.
I'll keep you posted on the coming shenanigans.
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New Rings

New Rings
Originally uploaded by JadeMonkee.

On Saturday, Lilly and I bought rings from each other from a jewellery store that was closing down. They were 50% off, so we got them at the bargain price of $37.50 each.
They are the most wonderfully beautiful rings, each with a different type of jasper stone, each with their own story to tell.
I love them both.
It was only after choosing mine, and having left the store that I realised that mine was composed of my very favourite colour combination; burnt orange and dark green - just like my bedroom back in Turramurra.
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Disco Fever at Life Line

Disco Fever at Life Line
Originally uploaded by Carafaele

Seven Dollars Fifty... Fuck Yeah!
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Scary Puppet

Scary Puppet
Originally uploaded by JadeMonkee.

We found this on the ground at The Valley markets. I believe it was a divine gift. It's haunting. It's scary. It tells us what to do.
It's now our mascot.
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FAIL!

FAIL!
Originally uploaded by JadeMonkee.

I tried to not have caffeine today.
I have noticed that I've been becoming a little dependent on it, and so thought I'd cut down on how much coffee I'd been drinking.
But come about 1:30pm today, I couldn't take it anymore. I'd been so tired for the last few hours that I caved in.
Oh that wonderful bitter taste of instant coffee, how I have grown fond of thee due to the association with the effects of caffeine.
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GTL&L

Lilly and I have stumbled upon/created the perfect drink.
A gin, tonic, lime and lychee.
Mix a Gin and tonic as per normal, only add a dash of lime instead of the usual lemon. THEN (and this is the genius part) add a whole lychee (fresh from the tin) and tip in a bit of the syrup (about as much as there was lime juice).
Delicious.
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Ticketek's EzyTicket

Just bought tickets for the Armin Van Buurin show on the June long weekend (w00t).
Ticketek now offer "EzyTickets," which are basically tickets in PDF form (for printing at home).
I'm blogging about it because I think it's a bloody good idea.
At first I was upset because it meant no ticket stubs to keep, but after mulling on it (and seeing the actual ticket), I'm all for it.
These are the reasons why:

1. Instant - no waiting for them to arrive (which would be a blessing when you've bought them close to the show date), as well as no worries about them getting lost in the mail (which has happened to me).
2. Safe - say I accidentally leave my tickets at work, and can't get to work before the show (not the first time), I can easily just open up my email and print of a new batch - no fucking around, no turning the house upside down looking for tickets that are actually 15km away.
3. Pretty - they are good lookin things, with all the concert promotional pictures up the top of the page, and are designed to be folded to close to normal ticket size. When folded they look just like the traditional ticket, which also adds much needed rigidity for the ticket machines at some venues.
4. (and the most important reason) They kick scalpers in the nuts, because there is no telling if a ticket is genuine or not. This means that noone in their right mind would buy an EzyTicket off of someone else (if it's one of many tickets printed from the PDF file, only the first ticket presented at the gates will be let in). And I think scalpers need to be stopped at every possible avenue.

However,

...what's wrong with Moshtix's approach where your credit card becomes the ticket? Isn't that much simpler? I suppose so, but as if often the case with events for minors, the tickets are purchased using a credit card owned by someone other than those attending the event (thus the invention of the moshcard... but still...).
And of course, with Moshtix, there is no shiny ticket to keep in your glorious little memento book (much to my chagrin).

The EzyTicket does mean that you're able to sell your ticket, but only to someone that trusts you - and I think untrustwrothy folk need to be punished somehow, so that's a good thing in my opinion. I'll just add here, in favour of the EzyTicket, that the moshtix transfer method has it's faults (which I've been burned by).

But, all of the anti-scalper attributes are moot while the original tickets are still able to be sold for any given event (and they still are).
So I suppose they'll only be truly advantages if at popular scalpable events (eg Splendour or BDO) they only sell the EzyTickets, or they eventually migrate to an EzyTicket only service (which would piss off all of those that don't have a printer).
And, while they do point out the fact that the tickets are easily reproducible on the actual tickets themselves, I think at first some people buying EzyTickets from scalpers will be burned by the multiple copies, so it is up to Ticketek to make widely aware that you really shouldn't buy EzyTickets from anywhere but the Ticketek website.
And that's my $1.50 (75x longer than any normal 2 cent rant).
See you in June!

Damn Producers

I'm currently listening to King Missile's Happy Hour and at least two songs have ended with a "fade out."
More often than not I hate ending a song with a fade out - it outwardly seems the un-thought-of way to end a song -but worse than that, it's often only done because the producer wants to cut the song short.
Now the songs that "fade out" on this album - as is the case with most songs that do - were just entering an awesome solo, when the fade out begins. The listener is blessed with a few bars of rockin, and then it moves off to the distance and disappears - before it even came to fruition. Lame.
It made me wonder how many awesome albums have been turned to merely mediocre because of some producer trying to make them more publicly palatable, so that songs fit into the neat <4 minute package, so that the album can clock in under the archaic (and nowadays, arbitrary) <45 minute length still lingering from the days of the LP.
It pisses me off. I wanna hear the fucking solo! Screw you for editing it out!
I suppose this is one of the advantages of the now prevalent home-recorded digital releases - no producers as well as unlimited length albums.
Of course the disadvantages of low-quality (both in sound and music quality) recordings flooding the "market" may just nullify that.

Even Ugly People Like To Sunbathe

This is what I have learnt today, drunk and alone in our flat attempting to do uni work while watching bad tv.

Even ugly people like to sunbathe.

Happiness is

Happiness is
Originally uploaded by JadeMonkee.

A Coconut Super-Dooper Thickshake.
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Famous! Again!

Man. The fame just keeps on comin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n05jJOno8jU
But it begs the question, when do my royalties come through?

You Know What That Is?

You Know What That Is?
Originally uploaded by JadeMonkee.

It's an empty margarita glass. You can see the salt still around the edge, coz after the third, it got too much (pussy).
But otherwise delicious!
I'm quite drunk right now, having finished a bottle of tequila with Lilly. We're playing Mario Party 8. It rules. Listening to Infected Mushroom. They rule.
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Strange Road Names Trying To Tell Me Something?

Ok. I'm currently doing Dial Before You Digs at work. Pretty dull.
Pick up one, go to the location, would you look at that? Cedar Creek Rd. I used to live on a road called Cedar Creek Rd.
Pick up the next one, look at the location. Ok, weird. Grandview Rd. My mother lives on a road called Grandview Dr.
Strange coincidence.
I consider posting to my blog about it, but decide not to.
5 minutes later, pick up a dial... Turramurra St. I used to live in the suburb of Turramurra.
Is the Universe trying to tell me something? If so, what? "Always remember where you came from?" I don't know. But it's a little unnerving.

Camp as a Row of Speed Queens

Camp as a Row of Speed Queens
Originally uploaded by Carafaele

Permanent Press: All Fabric
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Pass the Pigs to Pass the Time

Pass the Pigs to Pass the Time
Originally uploaded by Carafaele

To entertain ourselves while our bi-monthly washing-of-the-clothes occurs, Simon and I are playing Pass the Pigs - a challenging and intellectual game in which we toss small pigs to recieve a score. Much like the famous pumpkin-tossing contests in the north of Scotland, only with more media coverage.

Swayzak (and pot)

I'm currently listening to a new Swayzak album I picked up yesterday titled Some Other Country.
Swayzak are a group I heard about last year when !K7 were having a CD sale, and I went spazzy and bought a whole pile of CDs.
I bought two of their offerings, Dirty Dancing, and the B-Side collection Route de la Slack.
While smoking a whole load of pot last year, I fell in love with Dirty Dancing (unfortunately Route de la Slack never grabbed me), so when I saw the new album at JB yesterday, I couldn't help but pick it up.
It's good. So far my favourite track is Claktronic, but doubtless others will grow on me with subsequent listens.
I like them.
In truth, I already liked the album before smoking pot, but the music perfectly suits the combination of Mickey's dark, red downstairs room, and a spliff. It's a shame that this album will never be able to be given that level of treatment. *sigh*
Actually, this morning (while listening to this album) I realised that my pot smoking habits will forever change from the dim lighting and moody tones of Mickey's red room, to the natural light of either Coogee Beach, misc Brisbane parks, or my back verandah; and that's a bit of a shame.
It was such a strange and wonderful time/room/experience, and it's a little upsetting that that chapter is forever closed.
But thems the breaks.

Swayzak are a recommended group.

Listening to: Swayzak - Some Other Country (Album)

Sony BMG busted for software piracy in France

I thought I'd post this because of just how ironic it is.
SonyBMG France have been caught using pirate software.
Details on Engadget.

Happy Simon

Why am I so happy right now? I shouldn't be THAT happy. I didn't have breakfast this morning, I slept in so I got to work a little late, and the very fact that I'm AT work, shouldn't add up to me being happy.
But I am.
Why?
Because I found a copy of the Ween Brisbane show last night, and I'm listening to it now. And it's as awesome as I remember.
I'm buzzing with happiness.
I am so thankful that Ween have an open taping policy, so that Brown Tracker can exist. Now, the Sydney show isn't yet up on Brown Tracker, but the very reason I took so long to find the Brisbane show is because Brown Tracker has been down until a few days ago, so there is still a chance that the Sydney show turns up there. I'll keep on looking and let you know if it appears. In the mean time, here is the link to the Brisbane show torrent.
Enjoy! Now it's just like you were really there.