Toy Story 3: Brilliant, But Scary

I saw Toy Story 3 yesterday in the beautiful old Cremorne Orpheum. It was a fantastic movie, very multi-layered, great story, and wonderfully made. Pixar are just completely in a league of their own.

But I have issues with it. I'll attempt to avoid spoilers as best I can.

For the third movie in a franchise, Toy Story 3 holds up so well, and there just isn't any hint of it feeling same old same old. The familiar characters are as strong as ever, and the new characters are great and well developed.

However, I did go into it trying to see it through my three year-old daughters' eyes, as I have planned to take her along to see it.

Very sadly, I think I'm going to have to cancel that plan.

In this area I have generally been fairly liberal, perhaps too much so at times. But to me, this movie just felt very full on, and there were some really dark, sinister elements in the film.

I won't give things away, but for those who've seen it, I'm referring to the Fiery Furnace. The Bear. The Nightmare Baby. The Monkey. All enough to give anybody bad dreams, let alone a three year-old.

I think also what pushes it over the edge in this respect is that Good and Evil are not clear cut, which can be pretty unsettling for children. Little e loves The Wizard of Oz, and there are definitely some scary elements in that old film. Hello, melting witch anyone?

But you always know Good is good, and Evil is evil. And Good triumphs. For me, it's when you are not sure which is which, and when there is not that defining triumph, that the age-appropriateness question comes into my head. The three year-old in me needed to see some redemption in the end for the Bad Guy, but it didn't come.

I'm not saying you shouldn't take your kids, but I just reckon err on the side of caution for the really young ones. It is pretty full-on in a lot of ways.

Anyhow, these issues aside, it is really a wonderful film. I laughed all the way through it, and cried. A lot. I'm talking streams running down my neck, and fogged-up 3D glasses. It was very moving, and it brought up a lot of nostalgic childhood emotions.

Once again, trying to avoid spoilers, some great things I liked about it were Mr Potato Head and the Fajita, Ken, The Clown on the Window Sill, Spanish Buzz. And Woody, for just being such a great, well-rounded character. And of course, animation-wise it was impeccable, just as Up was. The human characters were more natural and less clunky than the first two films, and everything just hung together flawlessly.

So, all in all, a great movie, but sadly, probably unsuitable for my three year-old.

4.5/5

For a second oppinion, Izaac's written a really good review on his Pixar site.

Cold Chillun'

'Sydneysiders have shivered through the city's coldest June morning since 1983 after the temperature dropped to 4.7 degrees just before 7.00am this morning.'

Cold!

Fortress Of Solitude

When we eventually make the move from unit block to house some time in the future, I will be looking for the following three attributes in the new place-

1. A big wall

2. A draw-bridge

3. A moat

I don't see this as being unreasonable. Or even as unloving. I'm totally for loving my neighbour, and feel that I could do this better with a little more distance between me and them. And with a moat.

"Hi, I was just wanting to borrow a cup of..

glub

glub

glub.

You might think I'm being mean, but hey, it's not like I'm putting a dragon in the moat or anything. Quite yet.

Deceased Estate

Remember a few weeks back I found that skip of old books?

At the time I speculated why on earth anyone would want to just throw their entire collection on a rubbish heap. They were mostly Christian books, and I wondered if maybe the person had lost their faith and gone 'bah! To the tip with you all!'

But this morning as I walked past the same house, the dumpster long gone, there was a sign up, advertising an auction, and it said that the place was a 'deceased estate'.

I got a bit melancholy then, thinking about this person, who had gotten a lot of knowledge and pleasure from these books, only for them to all just be unceremoniously dumped as landfill after the person died.

I am very glad that I took two of these books from the dumpster at the time, so that there is at least a bit of legacy there, and that it all didn't just go to waste.

Excursion!

Going to the movies today for work.

Heard very good things, and am looking forward to it.

Pixar doesn't disappoint!

There Is No Other

Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below.

There is no other.

~Deuteronomy 4:39

What Because?

Little e is really getting into that curious 'why?' phase.

But so far we've been spared the actual word, why. Rather than saying 'why', Little e says 'what because?'

I like the sound of it, and don't want to correct it. In fact, I like it so much I might take it up myself.

The Quiz

1. Rate yourself as a driver, out of 5
2. What would you order for your last meal? 3 courses aloud.
3. Somebody wise once said to me..
4. Something you want to get finished this week
5. In what ways are you a different person compared to a decade ago?

Little Dorrit

Last night we watched the first episode of Little Dorrit on the ABC. We missed the first bit, but gradually caught on. I really enjoyed it, and was happy to learn that it was a series, and even happier this morning to read that it's a long series, seven hours worth, I think.

The name vaguely rang a bell, but I couldn't place it, then this morning I read that it's Charles Dickens. I slapped my forehead, of course it's Dickens, you can just tell. I also didn't realise that the bad guy was a heavily made up Andy Serkis (Gollum).

We thought it was a bit convoluted and that there were too many characters to keep track of, but I think that's a bit of a Dickens trait, and that it'll wrap up nicely in the end.

Anyways, I liked it, and look forward to watching each week. Gone are the days when I felt the need to justify myself watching period dramas ('I watched it because E was watching..'). Truth is, I like them very much. There, I said it.

Anyone else watch it?

Song Of The Week

'The Sweetest Chill'

Siouxsie and the Banshees (1986)

Listen~

A Question

Is it sexist to be excited about having a female prime minister, more because she's a female than because of who she is and what she stands for?

I remember wondering the same thing when Obama became president, but for race rather than gender.

Case Study: The Fictional Hairline

Something that makes me equally cross and squeamish when I'm out and about amongst the general populous, is when I see guys trying to pull off a fictional hairline. I hate the fictional hairline very, very much, Dear Reader. With passion and gusto.

Don't know what one is? Please consider--

So basically, what's going on here, is that this guy has gone, 'hey, I think I should completely disregard the rules of nature, and shave away my natural hairline, to create a new, sculptured one, pretty much to just be a bit more awesome.'

I trace the origins of The Fictional Hairline back to the mid 90's, which was where I first encountered it in a hip hop magazine. African American guys who had had a bit of extra time up their sleeve. But then a few years back it jumped cultures, and white guys started doing it. And let's face it, it looked a whole lot less cool. But a whole lot more tool.

So what's to be done about this problem? Any one's guess. We can only hope that these fellas will wake from the stupor that they are in, and humbly realise the error of their ways. A black permanent marker could help in the short-term.

New Prime Minister?

Very interesting..

UPDATE: It's official.

Thursday Peanuts

The Foot Itch

Every Tom, Dick and Harry's changing their blog template, and this makes my feet itchy. Izaac's done it, Simone's done it, and others too.

I think about changing mine from time to time, and got really close a couple weeks back. It's one of those things, where right from the start of my blog I made the decision to basically keep it looking the same.

I like the idea of familiarity, that every time you return to something, you know what you're going to get. Change makes me nervous and unsettled, and as a reader, I like blogs and websites which remain constant and reliable. A dumb thing to care about? Probably.

Still, this commitment has left me often times feeling bored with my blog. It's like never ever moving your loungeroom furniture around. Never getting to experience having the arm chair under the window for a change.

The same dark blue with lots of silly dots everywhere (no offence blog template making people, you totally rock like nobodies business), and the same hokey header and picture. Maybe I should just have a crazy week of having a different template every day, just to get it out of my system.

So tell me. Is consistency and familiarity important to you as a reader?

Join Ussssssss

Lately, I've been having a little, casual, nonchalant squiz at Facebook when E has left it open at home, and have been feeling a bit out of the loop.

It saddens me that I don't know what you had for breakfast, or that you decided to hem your new trousers. It really does, you think I'm joking, but I'm not.

I've even been thinking a little bit about joining.

Shock!

Horror!

Hopefully I can stand firm, and not be lured onto the sharp proverbial rocks by the sweet sounding, but malicious, proverbial siren's song that is 'social networking'.

Soph's Tea Cups

I won a print of this photo in a comp over on Soph's blog, Storms Dressed As Stars.

I really like Soph's photographs, and I also like the idea of collecting stuff that friends have made. I've also developed a bit of a thing for tea cups.

I'm looking forward to putting it up in our kitchen.

A Tuesday Morning Rant

Gradually over time, I have developed a strong allergic reaction to work group emails, that go around the whole company.

You open Outlook in the morning and get excited to see 20 new emails. But two thirds are these annoying emails that invade my personal space and take up valuable seconds of my life.

If it's not 'make sure you put your dirty plates in the dishwasher, I'm not your mother', it's painful banter about the World Cup. Want to have a fun little discussion about soccer? Go and talk to your mates about it, because I frankly don't care.

There's nothing worse than two people having a lil' ol' chat, hitting 'reply all' each time.

Our Help

We wait in hope for the LORD;
he is our help and our shield.
In him our hearts rejoice,
for we trust in his holy name.

~Psalm 33:20-21

New Painting

I managed to squeeze in a painting on Saturday. I actually painted it from a little photo I took on my phone, on one of my early morning walks to the station.

It's a bit different to anything I've done before in that the tonal differences were pretty subtle, and without strong contrasts and highlights on each object.

Annoyingly the screen on my phone went black every 60 seconds, while I painted from it!

If you wanna have a squiz--

Little i

Round 15

Wish I had have been at Leichhardt yesterday arvo.

Great win for the Tige's against Canberra (18-8), putting them back in 3rd place. Gotta love Beau Ryan.

Maybe we'll make the finals for the first time since 2005..

Interesting Fact #32

To the male of the species, all wedding dresses (or 'bridal gowns', as the female of the species prefers) look identical.

The Quiz

1. Do you like scary movies?
2. A bad song you've got a soft spot for
3. Drinking glasses. Do you put them in the cupboard upright or upside down? Why?
4. Do you ever literally stop to smell the roses?
5. Something you wish you hadn't lost

Blues

Another really difficult and angsty weekend.

I'll leave it at that.

Song Of The Week

I don't know if you'll appreciate this, but this song is very, very awesome, and the Walker Brothers were very great. Sort of a cooler, less well-known Righteous Brothers. And no, they weren't really brothers.

The hand gestures to 'loneliness is a cloak you wear' at around the 30 second mark, absolutely makes my day. I love the total absence of irony. That's when people knew how to make good music.

'The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore'

The Walker Brothers (1966)

Listen~

Freed For Freedom

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

~Galations 5:1

Thursday Peanuts

Banana Split

I have a shopper's etiquette question for you.

When I'm shopping for bananas, is it bad form to separate one from a bunch?

Let's say I want to buy one banana. There is a nice big bunch of seven. They are ripe, and untarnished by brown spots.

Beside the bunch, are two single bananas. they look okay, but not quite as good as the bunch ones. A couple of brown spots here and there.

So can I take one from the nice bunch, or am I obliged to take a single? I think I should be able to, but always feel a bit guilty, and half expect security to tap me on the shoulder and say, 'I'm sorry but we are going to have to take you down to the station'.

Are there guidelines for banana bunches that I ought to know about?

Ay yi yi yi yi

I Could Have Totally Had My Cake and Eaten It Too

Bible Study is on tonight.

So is game 2 of State of Origin.

Doh.

If I were more on top of my game, I could have totally remedied this conundrum. We have been looking at Isaiah, and last week we were discussing the relationship between the Northern and Southern Kingdoms.

Can you see where I'm headed?

Had I volunteered to lead tonight's study I could've just gone "and so, dear group, how do we see this north and south mentality at play today? Well funny you should ask, let us look to channel nine, and the war that rages between the Northern Kingdom of Queensland, and the Southern Kingdom of New South Wales. Let's ponder this for forty minutes, and discuss it in the half-time ad break."

But, alas, I am too slow on the uptake to think of this genius-like idea on the spot. My genius unravels at an alarmingly slow rate.

At Any Cost

Rajo Devi Lohan, an Indian woman who gave birth 18 months ago at the age of 70, after IVF treatment, is dying, as a result of giving birth at such an old age. This is what she had to say--

"I dreamed about having a child all my life. It does not matter to me that I am ill, because at least I lived long enough to become a mother."

I wonder how the little 18 month old girl will view this logic, as she grows up with perhaps only a faint memory of her mother, but with the ongoing reality of her mothers' absence in her life.

It made me think about stuff in my own life, that I want, want, want, want, want. It's not hard to see the logical progression here, that you want something so badly, that you lose sight and objectivity over time as to the surrounding consequences of a bigger picture.

Ironically this woman had so idolised motherhood, to the point where she was willing to get it at any cost, even at the detriment of her child, the thing that she so desired in the first place.

Next Cab Off The Rank

I'm the slowest reader in all of mankind, and am still reading a book I started before Christmas. But, I'm aiming to finish this week, and then I'm going to try Jane Eyre.

I'm looking forward to it.

To be honest with you, I keep thinking 'hey I should totally do a book group with this', but don't worry, I've learnt my lesson!

The Threat of Innocence

I like Miranda Devine's articles in the Herald. Her one on the weekend was great.

An exerpt:

Why is our culture so toxic that to be taken seriously as a model or actress or singer or female celebrity of any description you have to strip off, look out of control and trashy, and degrade yourself in a cheaply lit approximation of '70s cliche porn? The more hardcore and vulgar, the more hip and ironic.

It is as if whoever are the gatekeepers and shapers of our culture are offended and threatened by that most potent element of femininity: innocence.

Good On You, Timana

''I believe I am a role model for children and I did this to show my kids this type of behaviour is wrong''

-Timana Tahu

Story here.

Times Of Trouble

If you falter in times of trouble,
how small is your strength!

~Proverbs 24:10

The Other Side Of The Coin

I feel the need to balance the other post with a more positive one. I'm great at only seeing the negative.

The weekend was nice in lots of ways, and it was great to have three days off.

On Friday we had a 'movie night' after dinner, which meant we watched a dvd with popcorn, all snuggled together on a pile of pillows on the loungeroom floor. It was really nice, and I think we'll make it a regular Friday thing.

Yesterday we went to the museum with some friends. It was nice, and the kids enjoyed it. It was fun showing the kids all the different animals, insects, eggs, etc etc.

It was a really productive weekend, and E and I got a lot of tidying and de-cluttering done. We also had some really nice down-time together. We watched a whole movie one night, without either of us falling asleep after 20 minutes... rare!! Sure the movie was depressing as hell (Sylvia), but it was nice to watch it together.

We went and had fish and chips in a park, and had a fun time together. Little e loves seafood, especially 'calla-muwway'.

Yeah, lots of good stuff.

A Monday Quiz On Tuesday

Ya'll thought I'd forgotten? No, I was just busy celebrating with Her Majesty yesterday at Buckingham Palace for her b'day. The scones and egg sandwiches were to die for.

1. Sargents or Four and Twenty?
2. Last time you went to a museum
3. Three areas you'd like to grow in
4. Last time you hand-wrote a letter
5. A website you wouldn't want to do without

Oh Man.

Being a father is bloody hard.

Last night I got pretty despondent, and woe-is-me-ish about it. It often feels to me like I try hard to be a good dad, and then some time in the day, usually at the end, when I'm tired and out of patience, I lose the plot.

This then feels like all the good stuff of the day is written off, and it's another failed day, where I have to think 'oh well, tomorrow is a new day'. But then the next day is the same.

What does this look like practically for me? The good stuff is when I try hard to be patient, loving, gentle, and generous with my time. Spending time playing, reading stories etc. And not losing my cool when the kids do frustrating things. Gently correcting, and lovingly guiding them.

The bad is when I lose control of my temper, and I get way too angry way too easily, and just let myself get out of hand, getting too heavy-handed and severe. Or getting really stubborn and pushing on with a tactic that is clearly not working, just to show that I won't be beaten. Because I'm the boss and must be obeyed.

Yuck.

I really want this to turn around soon, that I can learn self-control and gentleness, so that a few minutes don't tarnish the rest of a good day all the time. Certainly a good place to start with this is to pray more about it. I only pray about it when it reaches crisis-point, but if I really desire change in this area, it needs to be on my heart all the time.

Man, if there's one thing that being a parent does for you, it's point out and magnify your flaws. I guess this is a good thing in one way, as it forces you to grow and mature.

Anyway, I'll leave it there. Not the most fun blog post I've ever written, and maybe a bit too much information, I don't know. But I want to be honest about these things, rather than just pretend life is all smooth-sailing.

Song Of The Week

'Because They Made It This Way'

Mr. Lif (2003)

Listen~

Wait For Me, Bandwagon

I'm wondering whether I should try and get into the World Cup a little bit, at least try and keep track of it. Not to bandwagon jump, but to avoid being bored and annoyed any time it gets mentioned.

Hmm. Where to start.

Listening To...

Hoffesque

The long weekend might be time time to get the clippers out.

My hair's getting a bit out of control, and is heading into some seriously dangerous territory.

Thursday Peanuts

Brrrrrr

This morning was so cold!

Strangely it felt colder just after dawn when the sun was coming up, then it did when I was walking to the station in the dark. There was a real icy wind. It was kinda nice and exhilarating though.

I am loving my morning walks in the dark, with the moon still up, and the distant slither of gold just showing on the horizon. I was telling a friend yesterday, that that is when I feel the most optimistic and excited about things. It's also when my head is the most full of ideas.

The Jolly Postman

I read a lot of children's books, usually at Little e's bedtime. I enjoy it in some ways, but often I want to get it over with, because frankly, there are a lot of crappy kids' books.

And what's worse than reading a crappy kid's book, is reading it for the tenth time. Maybe I am particularly picky and critical, but I reckon there are not that many that are really good.

So I'm happy when I find a good one. Like The Jolly Postman (1986), by Janet and Allan Ahlberg - a husband and wife team who worked together until Janet died in 1994. He wrote the stories, and she drew the pictures.

Anyway, The Jolly Postman is awesome. Little e and I read it again last night. Like another great book by the same guys, Each Peach Pear Plum, the story revolves around characters from various fairy tales, and they all interact with each other in funny and imaginative ways. In this book, there are all these little envelopes with letters and postcards you can take out and read. How could a kid not like that?

Here are two cool bits, an aplology letter from Goldilocks to the Three Bears--

and a letter to the Big Bad Wolf, from an attorney. Gold.

Pictures from here.

iPud

There is a new generation iPhone thingy released this week.

I think I am actually more excited than I have ever been about anything in my entire life. It's all been leading up to this moment.

Apparently this one can do a forward roll and tie your shoelaces for you. While making you a sandwich.

And in breaking news, a new need has been discovered, a gaping void of missing technology. The iPhone is smallish, and the ipad is a bit kinda medium sized.

Solution?

iPud, y'all!

Pros: It is smallishly medium sized, while still being small. And a bit medium.

Cons: There aren't any, you need this so, so, so, so much it will actually hurt you, your children, and your children's children were you to be so ridiculously stupid not to buy this. Are you still reading? what is wrong with you?

Get to the Apple shop NOW.

Kids These Days

A Woman Is Like A Tea Bag

..You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.

I heard this said last night at Toastmasters, apparently something Eleanor Roosevelt said.

A bit silly, but kinda good too.

Pro Monarchy

Hey I just discovered next Monday is a public holiday!!

Seriously, Your Majesty, you seem to have a birthday every couple of months. What's the go?

But, oh man. Three day weekend, how good's that.

Sultanarama

It never ceases to amaze me just how many sultanas there are in my Sultana Bran. Every bowlful it's like all my Christmases have come at once.

In a world of false advertising and chip packets filled with air, and not chips, it's very heart-warming to know there are still some fine folk prepared to deliver the goods.

Provided..

It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good.

-Paul (Galations 4:18)

Go Tige's

4th on the ladder, after three good wins. Great to see them put away the Bulldogs on Friday, in wet conditions.

Awesome after things were going pretty bad there for a while.

The Quiz

1. Are you interested in the World Cup?
2. Three things you'd do today if you had the day off
3. Do you buy newspapers?
4. Last thing you watched on tele
5. Last thing you watched on DVD

Oh, The Horror

Last week I was doing a Google image search, and stumbled upon one of the ickiest creatures in God's Creation. I like animals, but this thing absolutely makes me weak at the knees. So much so that I can't bring myself to put a picture of it on my blog.

If you're brave, do an image search for 'coconut crab' and look for the one sitting on the side of a rubbish bin. Your dreams will never be peaceful again.

Blackout

There was a blackout this morning when I got up to get ready for work. It's nasty enough getting up at 5am, let alone doing it all in the dark.

I showered, dressed and had a coffee, all in darkness. I was too tired and lazy to look for a candle.

Still, I was impressed with my own industriousness. As one of my senses was rendered useless, the others kicked in. Heightened smell. Super-hearing. I could gauge the spaces in front of me, like a bat with sonar, my skin becoming sensitive to the slightest vibration.

My arm hairs prickled as a breeze, many miles down the coast swept in with the sea. I knew by instinct that it was a south easterly. And all this through a closed window.

Actually, it was less like this, and a lot more like me stumbling into walls, stepping on sharp toys and pouring coffee on the bench. And I thought I'd done a reasonable job doing my hair in the dark, but when I got to work I found that I kind of looked like Amy Winehouse.

Excusing An Egg

'A joke that has to be diagrammed is like trying to excuse an egg, isn't it? The only thing you can do is bury them both, quick.'

-Temple Drake, Requiem For A Nun (William Faulkner)

Song Of The Week

'Lover Of Mine'

Beach House (2010)

Listen~

The Power Of The Flannel

The two shirts I bought yesterday were flannelet. It's amazing the power this fabric has on me-- when I went to choose some music to listen to this morning, I automatically went straight for a Pearl Jam album.

Rain, Rain, Rain

Oh man, I'm getting fed up with this rain. Urk. It's getting a bit depressing. I like rain as much as the next guy, but when there's no break, it gets me down.

Hopefully the dove returns soon with that olive twig.

Sobering Moment

Sometimes you just drift along, while bit by bit you are going off the rails. But the increments are so small that you don't really realise.

A bit like old mate, the lobster sitting in a pot as it very slowly comes to the boil. One minute, warm bath, the next, seafood platter. Often it's not until you get that sobering slap to the face that you wake up to your sorry state.

Yesterday afternoon, I received one of these proverbial facial slaps.

I was in Cotton On. Yet again. I'd tried on a couple of tops, and was at the counter, waiting to pay. Then along comes some nondescript girl that works there. I didn't recognise her.

I say hi, and her face lights up with recognition, like I'm some old chum. And she goes (and this friends, was the painful slap),

"Back Again!"

Thursday Peanuts

Just Keep Walking

I walk past this fancy-pants butcher every afternoon on the way to the station, you know, the kind where a little steak looks pretty amazing but costs about $90 a gram.

Some afternoons they fire up a fry pan and cook some different stuff, chop it up small, and pop some toothpicks in. "Free" samples. I walk past, and the comforting aromas call me in, like I am a hapless sailor being sung to shipwreck by a beautiful siren.

So singeth the rib-eye:

Eat meeeeee!

Eat meeeeee!

I am freeeeeeee!

I tried for a long time to resist this call, because for a neurotic person like me, nothing is free. I take a 'free' sample, the next minute I'm being gently persuaded to part with a weeks wage for a gourmet sausage.

I have no backbone. If I take something you offer as a free gift, I will feel eternally indebted to you. You have the upper hand, and I am putty in your cruel grasp.

But the other day I succumbed. It was a Friday. I was reckless. Hungry and delirious. I grabbed a toothpick, and was paralysed with joy as the high-grade morsel melted in my mouth. I shouldn't have lingered, but I couldn't move.

The man behind the fry pan then assaulted me with reasons to buy a whole steak. He was very persuasive, and I felt myself weakening. Then, flashing before my eyes appeared the faces of my two children.

'We want an education, Daddy! We need a roof over our heads! Don't buy the steak, Daddy, don't.... for us!'

I dropped the toothpick. It twirled in the air, slow-motion, dropping to the bin.

I turned, bolted, and made for the train station barricades. I was away. But only just.

Next time I may not be so lucky.

Sinkhole

Did you see on the news that massive 'sinkhole' that gave way the other day in Guatemala?

Amazing huh.

Very Jules Verne...

Excuses, Excuses

The sluggard says, "There is a lion outside!"
or, "I will be murdered in the streets!"

~Proverbs 22:13

Words I Shouldn't Try To Say In Public #47

Benevolent.

More often than not it comes out as 'benelovent'.

Which sounds like a person with a cold trying to say 'Ben Elephant'.

Happy 2nd Day Of Winter

Well, back to the start of Winter, historically my least favourite season.

For some reason Winter has always produced for me the most sighs per square foot. It's cold, and often wet, the mornings are dark, the afternoons are dark.

This year I'm going to try and buck up and enjoy it more. Make some big whopping pots of soup. Do a painting of some bare trees. Go for a walk with a take away coffee.

What do you like to do over the Winter months?

No Bins= World Peace

I read recently that new Transport Minister John Robertson wants to put rubbish bins back on Sydney train station platforms.

I was pleased to hear this, as I've always thought it silly and unnecessary to get rid of them in the first place. The result has been that no one knows what to do with their rubbish, so they leave it on trains, leave it on the platform, throw it on the tracks.

The answer is always 'just take it with you', and sure, that's the ideal, but the majority of people aren't going to do this, and it's just made a messy place even messier.

The reason they took bins away in the first place was, I believe, as a result of the London bombings a while back. But, I don't know. This just seems dumb to me. Are 'terrorists' really going to be thwarted from their plans because of the absence of a bin?

Darn, we totally wanted to destroy this city, but we couldn't find a bin anywhere. Oh well, better go and get a real job then.

It's like saying that because a lot of motorists die from crashing into telegraph poles, we should remove all telegraph poles.

Hey.. that's not a bad idea...

Dear Mr. John Robertson,

I just totally had this rad idea that will blow your mind..

Listening To- Beach House

For a bit less than a week now, I've been obsessed with this group called Beach House.

I don't pay much attention to what the gnarly young people are listening to these days, but I was in a shop, and heard this band playing, and loved it so much that I asked the cashier who it was.

So I then went a bit YouTube crazy for a few days, and then yesterday bought their new album, Teen Dream. I really, really, really love it. I'm as excited as when I stumbled upon Bon Iver a couple of years back.

They are a duo from Baltimore, and they remind me at different times of a whole range of old stuff that I like: Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Fleetwood Mac, Siouxsie and The Banshees, Kate Bush. And they have a cool gothy vibe that I like too.

Hard to pick a favourite, but I love this one, this one and this one.

A Wiggly Origin

Anybody else notice that the guy singing the national anthem at the start of the State of Origin the other night was Sam, the Yellow Wiggle?

What's up with that?

Apparently,he also performed Dorothy The Dinosaur and Big Red Car, but they weren't televised, due to time constraints.

The Plate-Smashing Incident

I have been gradually losing interest in Master Chef, as it just seems to now be a big contrived sook-fest.

I tell you, food means so much to these people that their sob-stories rival the contestants on So You Think You Can Dance. 'When I cook with turnips it makes me gently weep, as I remember my great-grandmothers' brothers' neighbour who once bought a turnip at the shop..but now...*sob*.. now..she's dead.. This is all for you, great-grandmas' brothers' neighbour..*sob*

Harden up, princess.

But the other night the show reached the pinnacle of contrived dumbness. Matt Preston tastes a dish and says "That's disgusting!" He holds the plate in the air, and throws it over his shoulder, smashing it. Gasp! Shock! Horror! We go to an ad break.

We then come back from the ad break, and see it all again. Then, after the plate smashes he goes, "That was disgusting.... Disgustingly good!"

Oh phew, hooray. Yum, this is so nice that I'm going to throw it on the floor. Yes, there is a firm logic at work there.

And while I'm ranting, that Jonathan guy kills me. And so do the phrases 'plate up' and 'hero of the dish'.

And while I'm at it, I also hate that show Glee, and that horrible Sunbeam ad.

Other than that, I love most things. Especially you, Valued Reader.