Slow down, Hello Kitty!

Watch out for strolling witches!

Long time no blog

Haven't blogged in a while, and it hasn't been because I've been busy learning how to use my camera.

I did however give it a go this weekend, playing with aperture and using a Lego figurine as the subject. Shadow couldn't help but be curious... she is a cat after all.

Sigma 10-20mm Wide Angle Lens

As with any obsession that I have, I like to throw money at it (or get every accessory possible for it). For my "new" camera, I've purchased a secondhand Sigma 10-20mm F4-5.6 EX DC HSM lens. I do plan to take landscape photos so I can somehow justify it. :P

It's a bit cute... the big lens on the little camera. Can't wait to get it to Bali!!!

My new camera

Haven't blogged in a while because I'm pretty much on Facebook now. However I thought I'd still keep this "alive" and still upload a few photos now and then... especially now that I have a new camera.

Behold, my Nikon D40X (with a couple of kit lenses).


Tarn and I are planning a trip to Bali in the near future, so I've prepared myself with this camera for many photo ops during that holiday. I bought it early so I could learn how to use it. I still stand by my "I don't know how to take good pictures", and am relying on this camera to fix that. :)

Middle Blocker

Forget basketball... we've got a centre blocker!

Yao-Ming

For the doubters...
This was taken a few weeks ago.

OH MY GOODNESS!

How exciting! The PM wants to watch my Twitter.

New Outdoor Furniture

Last week I redeemed a whole bunch of reward points on my American Express card for some Bunnings Warehouse vouchers. This weekend we made 2 trips to our local Bunnings in Mascot and then finally out to Ashfield to get this little outdoor setting.

Let me tell you, I will never complain about the parking situation at Mascot ever again. Ashfield really tested my patience with humanity.

It is complete

The Vostro was delivered to me on Wednesday afternoon.



I haven't had a lot of time to play around with it yet, other than to install a few things. I am waiting for my copy of Microsoft Office to arrive and then it will feel whole. I haven't set up my email on it yet because I don't want to use Outlook Express in the meantime.

Unboxing pictures can be found at this Ovi Channel.

More Redfern Randomness

Some kind of dinner part on the street:

Hairdressing on the same corner, a few weeks later:

Aww... nice...

Wow...

My online order status hasn't changed since yesterday, but I just got a call from Dell and my new notebook will be here tomorrow morning! *claps* I'matadbitexcited!

Edit: There was a status update in another tab...


Edit again: More updates!

New Toy on the way - Dell Vostro 1200

I've been mesmerised by the number of netbooks that are on the market at the moment. Every now and then, one will pop up on Catch Of The Day (like Woot) and I'll spaz out for 24 hours going "I want one", then "I don't need one", then "I want one", then "I don't need one". I already have my trusty Nokia N800 Internet Tablet and my Nokia N82 with wi-fi and 3g capabilities, so I really didn't need a netbook!

Prior to the netbook fascination, I had been thinking that it was time to upgrade my notebook. It's around 3 years old now and is starting to show its age. Also, Tarn's started school and needs to use it often for assignments and research, which is important and I completely understand, but I'm not so good at sharing.

I finally talked myself out of netbooks because it'd be a step backwards... slower CPU, less RAM, smaller hard drive (or none at all) and screensize, no optical drives, etc.

I found the Dell Vostro 1200 with the Intel® Core™2 Duo processor T7250. And I found it at the perfect time. 12.1" screen so it's still portable if I need it to be, 2.0 megapixel webcam, fingerprint reader (who *doesn't* need one of those!), and the usual bells and whistles. Not only were they offering $200 off, a free bluetooth mouse, and upgrading the 4-cell battery to 6-cell, but on Friday afternoon they also took another 15% off the price. Saved nearly $400 off the already low price! *claps*

Here's a picture of it... lines and numbers not included.



So now the wait... 6-10 business days. But it is on its way!!! Here's a shot of the delivery progress.

Channeling Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor

With the help of an awesome hammer drill (thanks JM & LM), we put these up so that the jasmine plant below it has something to entwine itself on, once it gets taller.

More whitegoods.

Back to Bar Fridges

Tim O'Connor has more stock! And plenty of free bags.

Traffic cam action.

Most of the time, traffic cams are boring. Today there was some kind of excitement on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Screen grab courtesy of the RTA Live Traffic Cam site.

Testing a blog application

just trying out an N800 blogging application.

Peekaboo!

Reward for sale!

Tim O'Connor still needs a lock up garage. Now he's posted a reward for help in finding one.

Random in Redfern #1

One of the charming things about living in Redfern is that some random and amusing things often pop up. Here are a couple of things that I saw today...

Frosty hanging out in a back lane. Sleazy!


A dirty full-length mirror on the corner.

A close sign!

A few years ago, one of the "bar fridge for sale" signs appeared perilously close to the front entrance of the building I used to live in.

Today, I found this right at our building entrance. SPOOKY! I think Tim O'Connor is stalking me!

Day Trip to Cockatoo Island

Over the weekend, we had our plans canceled on us so we had some unexpected free time. On Sunday we spent the afternoon on Cockatoo Island, checking out some of the Contemporary Art installations during the Biennale of Sydney 2008.

Now, I normally don't understand art at the best of times, so Contemporary Art really confused me. However I really enjoyed wandering around the old industrial site, looking at the old warehouses and buildings and rusty cranes.

Here are some pictures of the structures on the island:






Here is the obligatory tourist photos of the view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge from the island:


Here's a photo of a sign erected in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art (back on the mainland) with some buildings in the background:


And here's the only photo of the two of us on the day:

2 cats in a pot

More and more we are finding both of the minis in the same spot, which is usually odd. This time we know why they are sharing this big pot... we caught the naughty brown cat urinating in the other one.

Unboxing - LG LCD TV

This morning we turned on the TV to watch Sunday morning videos, but found that the TV had somehow blown half of itself up overnight. The left half of the screen was operational but the right half was dead.

We'd recently been talking about getting an LCD TV, so I guess this was the perfect time. We chose this LG 32" TV with built in HD Tuner. Awesome!

In true nerd fashion, I present to you... the unboxing.

The package.

The base, wrapped up.

The base, unwrapped, with protective plastic.

A box of stuff.

The stuff - Manual, Instructional DVD, Remote Control, Power cable, cable organiser, batteries, screen cleaning cloth.

The TV, wrapped up, lying on a pillow.

The TV all set up and in place.

Shadow enjoying the box before we recycle it.

Puppy reading the instructions.

Watching the Swans defeat the Tigers (sorry J3).

Dodgy

Whenever these two are in the same spot, there's sure to be something dodgy going on. You can tell by their Terminator eyes.