ooh-wee-ooh — i look just like buddy holly…

whoosh — oh lordy… dual 1GHz powermac G4 with nvidia GeForce 4… want want want… i mean, yeah, i’d be happy with an iLamp… but what i really want is an iLamp with a couple of 1GHz G4s & the new nvidia grafx processor stuffed inside, & a cinema display stuck on top of the swingarm… is that so much to ask? i mean, sure, the base would probably hafta be the size of a beachball… (hey, wait a minute… are you thinking what i’m thinking, mr jobs? uh, probably not… but that brendan fraser, mmmm…)

proto-sick? bleh… feel all kinda squoogily today… what? yeah, sure it’s a word… sheesh…

popular taste — things what i voted for what made it into the hottest one hundred this year…

• [07] weezer - island in the sun
• [15] gorillaz - 19-2000
• [18] rage against the machine - renegades of funk
• [23] pj harvey/thom yorke - this mess we�re in
• [24] gerling - dust me selecta
• [27] regurgitator - fat cop
• [36] radiohead - pyramid song
• [37] something for kate - twenty years
• [41] regurgitator - superstraight
• [43] the eels - souljacker
• [59] the strokes - hard to explain
• [71] spiderbait - outta my head
• [74] radiohead - knives out

unpopular taste — & things what i voted for what didn’t…

• the celibate rifles - i shoulda
• even - shining star
• the hive - thrill popper
• the hive - yes i bet you have
• kinobe - grass roots horizon
• life without buildings - ps exclusive
• not from there - frisco disco
• outkast - ms. jackson
• radiohead - packt like sardines…

uh, well — i’m an ordinary boy & [bang] that’s the way i like it… say, what’s with these homies dissing my girl? i mean, i taught you how to cyclops rock, & then you go & turn around & break my heart? you got that feeling? let’s keep it real…

mmmm, cheesy — what are you waiting for? click on the robot!

urgh — up late last night finishing off my flash project, the CD of which i just dropped in the post… the little robot is something that happened along the way…

stressed out wednesday — not even the appearance of a tumbling robot’s gonna pull today outta the fire… yeesh… memo to self: get more sleep…

eleven equally important things — eep, where to start? okay… let’s see… later deadlines on these four? right. that leaves seven… hmmm… delegate that one, & that one… hmmm… & that one… right… hmmm… send email & ask for an extension on that one… no problem? kewl. that leaves… uh… three! three things to do this afternoon… what a doddle… <yawn> sleepy time!

teaching robot dogs new tricks – via robots.net…

tra la la, la-la la la — tra la la, uh… yeah! oh, no, wait-a-minute… ugh. i hate waking up at work…

over hill & highways the banana buggies go — but! i don’t think anyone else noticed i’d nodded off! & it looks like i’m gonna get a new chair! to go with my new office! part of the new & improved accommodation for my team! (yay team!)

it’s my party — another new worm… W32.Myparty.B@mm is surprisingly popular… we’ve received 15 instances already this morning (& it’s only just gone eleven…)

low caffeination — ow. lousy caffeine headache. or could it be the bizarre angle i’ve just noticed my monitor is on? hmmm… i know! adjust the monitor & grab a coffee! (hey, i know it ain’t exactly rocket science…)

token link — how to draw manga (dot com)

sleep is for (later in) the weak (uh, week) — so it’s three o’clock on a (thankfully!) public holiday monday morning, &, like, i finally gotta 90% complete version of my flash project working… yay! & still with, like, days to finish it off & get the CD in the post…

delusions of grandeur — i’m almost tempted to say i’m starting to understand the way of the flash (they say it’s a whole other world), but i think that’s just the sleep deprivation talking… magnum opus still some months away… in the meantime, you may or may not be pleased to know i’ve just about gotta handle on cheesy animations…

fluckit — uh… oh, yeah. some links to, like, innarestin’ things… who woulda thunkit?

• chunky soup: making stylesheets work
• test pilot collective
• the official ninja homepage – via camworld…

(self) promotion — a joint issue of overland & jacket…

uh, guess what i did last night…

ho mancato la mia ultima lezione italiana ma ora ho visto il david byrne e posso morire felice (i have missed my last italian class but now i have seen david byrne & can die happy…)

time isn’t holding us — wow… lots of amazing stuff… in a way, it was sorta like stop making sense 2002, but in another way, it was a lot different but still good… after i saw lou reed, i thought a couple of guitarists, a bass player & a drummer & you were pretty much right to go… but tonight i figure a guitarist, bass player, percussionist, drummer & six piece string section are pretty much what you need…

a few highlights — a bit of a funked up meander through the catalogue, really… in no particular order (& without any claims to being comprehensive): nothing but flowers, look into the eyeball, like humans do, once in a lifetime, the revolution, & she was, life during wartime, broken things, naïve melody (this must be the place), u.b. jesus, what a day that was, that song from the soundtrack to that wim wenders film & lots of other stuff from the solo albums… all up, on stage for just over two hours… incredible sound, too…

best feet in the house — only decided to go at the very last minute, so i scored a general admission you can stand way the hell down the back & don’t even think about dancing or you’re outta here kinda ticket… (the state theatre — please don’t make our heritage building fall down by having too much fun…) but it was great, i was just to the left of the mixing desk, pretty much centre stage, & had a clear view of the whole deal…

to sum up — i have seen david byrne perform once in a lifetime & i’m fairly sure i’m now a better person… even if i do appear to be evolving(?) into something approximating the world’s least convincing hugh jackman impersonator…

on the plus side — i am so over george clooney…

radiohead stupid car — okay, so who was searching for that? (& did you find it? hmmm… lotsa results for stupid (duh), & quite a few for radiohead, & several for car…)

busy — very busy the last few days, & in somethin’ of a rut when i ain’t been runnin’ around at work, but hey, i could be climbin’ back to my usual levels of nigh-comatose mediocrity any time now…

it’s times like these — i almost wish i’d listened to more of the B52s & less of nirvana when i was younger… (just dusting off the disreputable theories about easily-influenced yoof & the music that allegedly shapes them… although i’m more & more convinced that if you play certain cure songs backwards you’ll hear a secret message that says, “become an administrator, become an administrator…”)

loveshack, baby loveshack! sign says, stay away fool!

versus

i’m not like them, but i can pretend…

too much coffee & database — the defence rests, your honour… or, if not exactly rests, at least sits here kinda listlessly… yes, totally bereft of lists, i… uh… what? oh, right. sorry.

all the faces, all the voices blur… [rotartsinimda na emocreb] change to one face, change to one voice… [rotartsinimda na emocreb] prepare yourself for bed… the light seems bright, & glares on white walls…

for a long time i felt, without style or grace… wearing shoes with no socks, in cold weather… i knew my heart, was in the right place… i knew i’d be able, to do these things…

déjà vo vo? or was that iced vu? uh… déjà vu vu? iced vo? what the…? hello, brain? ahem. thank you. take two…

déjà vu — did i link to sluggy freelance before? i should have… but… where did i find out about it? was it courtesy of a back issue of the lexifabricographer? my advice? if you like this sort of thing - & i realise your mileage may vary - you should set aside a few hours, order in some snacks, point your browser at the new viewer guide & start at the beginning…

flat out — so i’ve spent a couple of weeks sorting papers, & throwing out old stuff, & i spent most of yesterday shifting furniture around &, well, my flat looks kinda neat… which is kinda strange, but good… it’s like i’ve fallen into some nearly parallel dimension, or possibly some artist’s rendition of my idealised accomodation space… well, okay, make that pseudo-idealised…

arrivederla, mr personality — hey, my bristlenose catfish died. i found mr personality lying motionless on the bottom of the tank on saturday morning… the less kind among you may be asking how i knew the fish was dead, given that sitting very still on things was something of a recurring motif in the activities of mr personality, but like, he was upside down, & not breathing, so yeah, that was kinda sad… i figured out i’d had mr personality for not quite two years… he was kinda cool, in a catfishy kinda way…

il mio pesce è guasto. almeno la mia scimmia del giocattolo è qui confortarla. (my fish is dead. at least my toy monkey is here to comfort me.)

see you next wednesday — but why do i have to wait so long?

the ultimate i-just-started-windows sound — startup.wav (46K wav)

i’ve been to wollongong (but i’ve never been to me…)

office bonding discussion #1 got off to a flying start this morning… so far we’ve agreed that two of us are sulkers & one of us is a ranter… a couple of us refused to say, which led the rest of us to decide (loudly) that they’re probably sulkers… (uh, i’d be a sulker, btw…)

rome weather — hmmm… somewhere between minus two & ten degrees celsius over the next few days…

from ChrisT’s Help for Budding Travellers^TM:

I couldn’t find any roman emulators, but I found standard roman:
http://blah/Text-516.html
and then I was silly:
http://blah/java_0698.html
http://blah/when-in-rome.html
I hope this has helped.

why, yes. yes it has. thanks, chris. (love your work, btw..)

sandwich bar of the damned: a dialogue for the uninterested starring lunch lady doris (LLD) & our (meaning my) hero, frodo teddins…

FT: could i please have a chicken, lettuce & mayonnaise sandwich on multigrain bread?
LLD: on wholemeal?
FT: no, on multigrain please…
LLD: oh, right… butter?
FT: yes, thanks.
LLD: [buttering bread] ham & what else?
FT: no, chicken. chicken, lettuce & mayonnaise please…
LLD: right. salmon, lettuce &…
FT: no, not salmon, chicken.
LLD: chicken?
FT: yes, please, chicken.
LLD: oh. [chicken arranging noises] & what else?
FT: lettuce. & mayonnaise. please.
LLD: ummm… lettuce? [looking around vaguely] ummm… oh, right. what sort of lettuce?
FT: what sort of lettuce?
LLD: yeah.
FT: uh, what sorts of lettuce are there?
LLD: well, there’s regular, &, uh, the other sort.
FT: oh. uh, regular would be fine.
LLD: okay. [lettuce arranging noises] salt & pepper?
FT: yes, please. & mayonnaise.
LLD: mayonnaise? [looking around vaguely, as if hearing the word for the first time] ummm… [walks away from counter, rummages in backroom for a few minutes, walks back to counter] no, we don’t have any mayonnaise…
FT: that’s okay, it’ll be fine as it is.
LLD: we’ve got barbeque sauce…

& now i must go walking for several weeks & attempt to cast this sandwich into the cracks of doom lest the dark lord sauron (who i suspect is lunch lady doris’s supervisor) attempt to use it to take over the world…

tickety-boo — yoink! uh, ouch. international travel is kinda expensive… (also, heavy things are hard to lift, & breathing underwater is difficult without some kind of aqualung… these & other hitherto unexpected facts revealed!)

when in rome — will i do as the romans do? & which romans? is there a freely available standard regarding romans-to-be-emulated to which i might refer?

buongiorno! io sono ted. benvenuto al mio weblog. ho elettrici pantaloni! sono pazzo con desiderio per una tazza di caffè!

melbournesque — cool this morning, followed by cold & raining at lunchtime, followed by clearing skies with bonus heat & humidity this afternoon…

bootleg action figures — via boingboing…

4.24pm — woah. fast day. questo giorno è andato rapidamente!

b is for BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP — so it’s 6.30 on a sunday morning, right? no garbage collection scheduled for the crack of dawn, not much to speak of in the way of traffic… hark. what’s that dulcet tone? oh great, it’s The Alarm Clock to Wake The Dead… except… the dead aren’t home… so TACtWTD beeps for an hour solid… how loud is it? it’s loud. you can hear it throughout the building, & it’s certainly plenty loud in my bedroom… oh well, at least we’re all getting an early start to the day…

speaking of clocks — check out the industrious clock… possibly the coolest thing i’ve ever seen done in flash… (& the rest of yugop.com ain’t too shabby neither…) via evhead…

anyhoo — i finished up sticking a polite note to the door of the upstairs apartment around seven, suggesting that mebbe there’s no need to have their alarm clock on if they ain’t home to hear it… now it’s about eleven am, & i can hear someone moving about up there (they’re moving about very quietly)… TACtWTD has been doing the hour long beeping trick off & on for a few weeks now, but today’s the first (& hopefully last) time it’s gone off on the weekend… it’s not usually too bad during the week when i’m getting ready for work & have the radio on, etc… now, if i can just convince them that running their tumble-dryer after midnight is also kinda antisocial…

update on peace & quiet — the people upstairs left a nice card under my door with a picture of a sleepy dog on it, apologising (the people, not the sleepy dog) for the noise this morning… they’d accidently hit the wrong button on TACtWTD the previous morning, &, well, who hasn’t been there?

minor modifications — fixed up the buttons on that little flash thingy i made the other day, so you’ve now got a better than even money chance of getting it to do something… & i think the problem keri was having with it might’ve been due to having an older version of the plug-in… more flashinations to come in the next few weeks…

newsflash: 34 looks similar to 33 — preliminary research reveals the age of 34 to be much like the age of 33… this may or may not be good news for those contemplating getting older in the next few years…

a birthday song from chrisT

Shiny monkey robot to you
Shiny monkey robot to you
Shiny monkey robot
Shiny monkey robot
Shiny monkey robot to you

& a birthday monkey from kate — ook? brrr. snow monkey.

meanwhile, el davebot declaims, “Well well well, look who’s ancient and terrible then.” & kindly points out that the flashummywhatsit ain’t working… oh well, back to the drawing board i guess… & rest assured, i shall be very carefully perusing the Chimpbot 5000 options list before finalising my purchase…

no shopping days left ’til my birthday! thirty-four today… <grin>

last minute gift ideas — don’t despair! i’ve extended the deadline! i’m now happy to accept gifts at any time of the year! here’s an inspirational list, just to help you out!

• actionscript: the definitive guide
• playstation 2
• iMac (800MHz, superdrive… cheers!)
• moto guzzi v11 sport scura (or mebbe a ducati 900ss)

i realise those are all kinda pushing the expense envelope… but you know, i’d also be happy with anything:

• shiny; or
• monkey-related; or
• that has robot somewhere in its name.

(obviously some kind of polished stainless steel monkey robot would be a great gift… especially if it came with a ducati…)