Sponky's Modern Life

Relocating

2007-07-17T20:07:00.000+10:00

Well, I haven't posted in exactly 4 months which is a fair indication that this blog has probably served it's usefulness.

To follow me in the future, check out my

flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/50214118@N00/ (rss feed: http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne?id=50214118@N00&lang=en-us&format=rss_200)
my new mainly crafty blog Ginger Jelly Snakes

South Park Kim

2007-03-17T17:30:00.001+10:00

south park kim
Originally uploaded by Sponky's Modern Life.

This time, updated with BOOBS!

Also, check out

Husband-person
DJBebe
Handy Man

Make your own here : http://www.vexatori.de/zib/spstudio.html

Tankage

2007-02-24T12:26:00.000+10:00

Tank
Originally uploaded by Sponky's Modern Life.

Pleased to report we have finally got our tank, at the time they predicted, too! Thanks to a week and a half of light rain, we have now got 2/3 of a tank to play with (probably all it will have in it until next summer, which is very sad), but it does mean we can get in and do some tidying in the garden. Today we put in the last of the camelias we wanted to around the front window, and tomorrow we have a few plants to put in the side garden to fill up the gaps and make it a bit more low maintenance. Now we just need to decide what to do about the stupid driveway gardens...

DJBebe gets a store

2007-02-02T07:11:00.000+10:00

I direct you all to the goods of DJBebe at etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=59351. Get thee a bib, I direct you!

Sponky goes to Africa

2007-02-02T06:57:00.000+10:00

Sooo, for the purposes of running 7x2hr workshops, I was shipped over to Nambia for 3 days of work and 4 days of sitting around waiting for my outgoing plane. Thanks to late decisions on amount of time required + peak season in Namibia for German tourists who want to sit by the sea, I couldn’t get my flights changed and had to spent 4 days (weekend + Monday/Tuesday) waiting for my return flight.

In the end, it turned out due to workshop rescheduling, I actually only had 2 days to run all my workshops, and ended up having effectively 5 days of entertaining myself (ok, well, more like three days of hanging around, and 2 days of work).

Thanks to the wonderful travel policies of my client, I got to fly business, which totally and unbelievably rocks. Beds incline to 15% which is so much better than economy that it’s no funny. Only problem is that when you wake up, you feel like you are about to fall out of bed because of the lean. Hotel at the Joburg airport for the overnight was great and had the one thing you really want in a hotel at the airport – good shielding in the windows – so I slept like a LOG!

When we arrived to Walvis Bay, this is where the strangeness started to kick in for me. We landed in the middle of a desert, and everything around looked like this. Tiny little airport terminal, sand dunes, roads under construction, that’s it. The beginnings of a small freak out start, but I keep it under control on the assertion that the place we are staying (Swakopmund) is very nice and the hotel is like a ‘palace’. We drive along for about 40 minutes through dunes, houses by side of the road, and eventually hit the ocean and head north. When I arrive at the aforementioned ‘palace’, I start to wonder if my boss was joking, or if ‘palace’ in Africa is actually ‘2 star nightmare with questionable security in the rooms, towels with holes and no fridge to keep stuff in’. This wasn’t helped by the person above or below or on the side of me playing loud music all night and keeping me awake. One small freak out call to my mother later, I managed to get to enough sleep to get on with the workshops.

Needless to say, the freak out was basically for nothing. Namibia is very very safe (unlike South Africa), all the people on my floor were work people, and, yes, the hotel was a bit daggy but we were out-booked by an insurance conference, so yes, it really was 2 star. Some other lucky folks got to stay out at a golf course in the middle of the desert (one of 4 or 5 in the WORLD) and their rooms where actually, yes, like a palace. After hooking up with some of the girls from Brisbane, I proceeded to have a great time.

Swakopmund is basically a German-African Noosa/Wollongong on the edge of the desert – lots of fancy houses, overpriced shops and places to get massages etc. Food was fantastic and really cheap – dinner out, a really nice dinner involving wine, and steak and chocolate mousse, was about $20 a head. Local fish was really great (especially when served smothered in butter and bits of lobster) and there was plenty of restaurants close to the hotel.

The mine site, was, well, a mine site. Hot, dry, in the middle of nowwhere. Lunches were a bit questionable (with the people who had been there a week bringing their own) but other than that, quite interesting (and I was only there 2 days - I am sure the novelty wore off after a week or two)

Zeenat and I hung out over the weekend – we went up to the local seal colony with some locals who took us on a ‘local tour’. This involved driving 100 km up the coast to the seal colony (apparently 100km is local), where the only things we say were a small town, some salt mines, and a few springbock by the side of the road. The seal colony had a whole mass of babies, and while being smelly (think septic tank combine with fertilizer) was very interesting and the babies where very cute. We even saw a jackal of some kind on the lookout for an easy lunch. After the seals, we visited the local lodge, which really defines ‘private accommodation’. I doubt you would find anyone but the national park guy for 50km in any direction. It’s a fascinating concept – you drive through desert, and little local towns and more desert, then end up at a tiny, but luxurious hotel which serves icy cold beer and has it’s own mobile tower.

Sunday was spent quad biking in the desert, with some dodgy, crusty local who took us on a combination of education/adventure tour. Even though we started at 8:30, when the sun is not out, and despite about 3 applications of sunscreen, I managed to get my first real tan in about 5 years. We got a small lesson on quad bike riding (including how to go down a dune face) and got to see some of the local mud fossils, places where bones have been exposed etc. It was enormous fun, and felt like you were going about 100km a hour, but it was more like 20km…

The rest of week involved eating, slaving over a hot computer, swearing at the local internet speeds, getting a massage, and generally relaxing on African time. The week went far faster than I expected, and the flight home was quite bearable. All the photos are here.

Possibly the best vacation known to man.

2007-02-02T06:52:00.000+10:00

So, you have all heard me boasting about going to Lord Howe Island for a big family get together. I am pleased to report (and once again, a big thank you to my parents) that is was possibly the best holiday spot ever and we had a GREAT time. Photos really are the best way to show you how damn good it was, so I would direct you to this set on flickr. In summary, we had:

Matching shirts courtesy of Kris and Janet
Beautiful views
Unbelievable snorkelling (including off the beach snorkelling, off the boat lagoon snorkelling and cave snorkelling) where we saw hard coral, soft coral, fishes (lion, puffer, parrot, lots of other stuff we could never work out), sharks, rays, turtles, sea hares, sea cucumber etc etc
A few drinks (and a really interesting story about what happened to the red wine)
Amazing bird life
Beach combing, adventuring and bush walking
Wild gesticulation
A Comet

So, we had a great time, and now we all need to start a fund to allow us to come again as soon as possible!

Ramblings of a modern woman

2007-02-02T06:45:00.000+10:00

So, I was reading a column by Maggie Alterton where she put together a list of things a modern accomplished woman should know how to do. It was all 'matching handbags to your shoes' and 'make a souffle' and 'program the VCR'. Hrm, not all that relevant. So I wrote my own list. Please feel free to add some more.

Say yes to doing 3 times out of 4 when doing new things. The 1 in 4 get out jail free card allows you to turn down that creepy guy and avoid doing anything that might set you on fire. (Authors note: sometimes this rule totally backfires on you e.g. Pirates of Penzance. But most of the time I am surprised how well it works and how many cool new things I have done). Also good for collecting transferable skills!
When you get good at something, work out how to teach other people to do it as well. It can be very rewarding and tell you if you really know what you are doing!
Learn to stick up for yourself and your opinions (if you don't already). Life is too short to be doing something crappy just because you didn't say no.
On previous point: Realise you may have to ditch friends AND this doesn't make you a bad person. As they say in the movies: "I like to be surrounded by good people". If your so-called friend only waits until YOU make the effort or is continually criticizing you as a way to make themselves feel better, perhaps you should lose their number in an unfortunately phone-number deleting accident.
Make the effort to take preventative care of your body - floss, go to the doctor, dentist, optometrist, put dust mite covers on your bed, take your vitamins, do extremely personal things in the privacy of your own bathroom (Nasal irrigation: ask me how), deal with that dry skin, eat plenty of fresh foods, work out how to keep those bladder infections or fungal breakouts (whatever is your personal curse) under control. It will pay off in the long run, even if you feel like an Young Nanna at the time.
On previous point: Use Suncreen. And a hat. And a shirt. Everyone has a relative with bits of their body cut off to remove sun cancer, so no excuses!
On previous point also: Take responsibility for your general physical condition - thinking about it won't make you more flexible or thinner. Go do something about it. Most useful advice I have heard on this is - doesn't matter what exercise you pick, just pick something you can keep doing. Not sure I have found mine yet but will keep trying. Curves is going well, BTW.
Don't wait for anyone else to save you. This applies to work and your actual life. Get your shit together, work out what is it you want or need to do, and then do it. Nobody likes a victim. (also another reason to ditch friends...)
Learn to drive AND also to navigate. And give useful directions (Husband-person will attest I am working on that last one still). And also how to work the public transport system. Nothing is as satisfying as getting from one place to another with only your wits, three forms of transportation and $7
Don't fool around with superglue
Learn to cook from a book but also using your tastebuds. Makes it much easier to finish a dish when you find you forgot to buy the last 4 items on your grocery list.
Tell your parents they were right. About most of it, anyway.
Know how to play at least 3 card games. Other than solitaire.
When you are in a relationship, expect to have to compromise 85% of the time. You will probably only need to compromise 50% of the time, which means 35% of the time you can be excited about having your own way!
Learn to admit that you are doing something you know is bad but you will do it anyway, thank you very much. Like: eat that cake, make a disturbingly rich Kahula milkshake, or watch episodes of Smallville in the summer break.
When you buy a new bottle of personal lubricant, take the cap off and remove the silver safety seal. Nothing kills passion trying to fool with tiny silver pieces of plastic.
Don’t ever expect not to be afraid of things. This is unrealistic. Learn how to do things despite the fact you are scared out of your wits. Most of the time you will fool everyone else, and after a while, you can fool yourself as well.

Sponky's not here right now.

2006-11-30T18:29:00.000+10:00

Goodness, workshops are boring. Week 4 of workshop hell and sometimes you just drift off. I need a preprinted card to hang around my neck, so I can tick all that apply.

Sponky's body is here right now, but her mind is not: She is:

Wrestling aliens over a pit of alligators, Shatner-style
Shopping in SE Asia for interesting fabrics for use in Bebe-Sponky designs
Feeding Husband-person flaky chocolate crossiants
Helping the Doctor get over the loss of Rose
Buying a beach house in Nambucca Heads
Upgrading to a red mini with a white roof and black leather interior
Being Joss Whedon's costume director
Drinking a cup of takeaway coffee and waiting for the Tate to open
Building up a fabric stockpile of mass distruction
Making a really good sandwich
Sleeping
Working out a way to legitimately write herself into the cast of Firefly

Sponky's end of year plan to becoming a better person

2006-11-20T18:45:00.000+10:00

To get the jump on the new year, this is my current list of ambitions for self improvement:

Stop biting nails. I am 30, goddammit, I should be able to do this by now. 'Stop and Grow' and nail file purchased, haven't bitten nails for a week.
Lose some weight. Ok, so pretending it's going to go away next week is obviously not working. So, have joined Curves as it's only 30 minutes at a time, and heck, even I can do that.
Break cycle of internet addition and get back many productive hours in my week. Step 1. Start leaving laptop at work. Step 2 . Not sure yet, will let you know.
Do stuff now, don't leave it for 'Future-Sponky'. Mostly working well, current ambitions are putting washing away on the day it comes in from the line, putting dishes in dishwasher NOT on shelf, and doing non-dishwasher dishes directly after the meal they were involved in. Laundry is going well, dish-related activities are a bit patchy.

Evil Genius in Training

2006-11-20T18:41:00.000+10:00

To those in the know in Sponky-world, you will realize that I have recently had a reasonably significant promotion. One, that in all honestly, I expected, and I can tell you, I definitely deserved. But, I had never really intended to work for my current company for long enough to get to this career level, and this promotion has actually caused me to think quite a bit about what I am doing with my time and why I am still working where I am.

I work on project-based IT jobs through a consulting firm. And the things that I did and enjoyed on a day to day basis when I started 8 or 9 years ago are very different to what I do know. I started out being a programmer, and loved nothing more than a day with a development tool, some CD's to listen to and no human contact. Over the years, I have had to get over my desire to not talk to people (why would I need to talk to people, I obviously know EVERYTHING) – really, a big part of my job is actually communication and management of perceptions. Now, my job is more ensuring the work gets done (by people on my team) rather than doing the work myself. And while I did enjoy programming, and fiddling with computers, I am starting to think I enjoy my roles at this level more - lots of talking to people, issue resolution, chasing people up and generally ensuring things get done to the quality they need to.

Who would have thought that persistent, antagonistic and organized are things you can build a career on? Apparently in this industry you can. Having said that, being permanently argumentative and 'continuously proactive' can be pretty wearing at times, and there are definitely days I don't like my job. You aren't really a consultant until you have made someone cry, and I can definitely call myself a consultant (should I be worried that you can actually get use to people crying on you?). And as you move up in experience, the type of role can vary widely between projects, and I have recently found myself going from a role where I was my own boss, to where I am one of many people at my level, reporting to a more senior person. The luxuries of setting your own standards can be difficult to give up, and as I get older, I am finding it more and more difficult to suppress my own ego and opinion in face of yet another project manager.

But in my own self-check, I am finding there is one major thing about my job at this level that I really enjoy, and enjoy much more than I would have anticipated. I do a lot of mentoring, both formal and informal - in a young workforce, it is possible to be an expert at age 30, and I like that my experiences (read: stuff-ups) can help these fantastic people who I work. I wish that more people would do this – I had a few people mentor me over the years who were great, but a lot who sucked. And most of the time, all you need is a bit of perspective and belief in yourself – everyone DOES feel this way, and you may feel way out of control, but you are a smart person and when it gets down to it, you will work it out (this is actually one of my mantras: You are smart, you will work it out – STOP STRESSING)

Unfortunately for me, the only way to remain relevant to the people I mentor, to ensure they are getting value out of me - is to keep doing the crap I don't particularly enjoy - so when they have to something similar, I can tell them what I have learnt, and they can do it better.

The other thing I am getting out of doing these sometimes crappy, stressful and generally overwhelming jobs, is I am starting to work out what I am REALLY capable of - not just what I feel like doing, but what I can do if I need to. I don't enjoy it at the time, but I think it might be useful knowledge to understand what I really can do. For when I want to take over the world.

Is it just me, or is my blog broken?

2006-11-16T22:22:00.000+10:00

Hi, is it my monitor, or is everyone seeing my side bar waaaay down the page?

Thanks.

How I get things done

2006-11-16T19:52:00.000+10:00

I received a comment the other day from Kat about my prodigious crafty output. Not tooting my own horn, but I definitely feel that I have improved the consistency of volume of output I have been producing at late (the month off work helped as well). Alot of this is due to actually being at home near my sewing machine, rather than off and about for work. Having said that, I have had actually needed to be disciplined in my approach to my sewing as I seem to be addicted to the internet. I also get a bit stuck after I start a project - I get a big whack of inspiration that gets me through the initial purchase of material and the cutting out, but then all the fun goes out of it for me and things tend to languish in a state of partial completion for weeks.

So, I have developed a new philosophy of crafty output - the 30 minute window. Rather than getting depressed about the need to spend 3 hours finishing off a quilt binding or doing some shirts, I only commit myself to 30 minutes of work at any given time (having a small attention span is the other reason for the 30 minute window). After the 30 minutes, I plan to have another activity - checking my bloglines, making tea or doing some chores. This approach works for me for a number of reasons:

1. You can fit 2 or 3 30 minute sessions in a day, even a week day. I can get 30 minutes in before work, and then another couple after dinner. So you can make progress even when you don't have a big block of time to spare (which seems to be most work days to me). The only big aspect of discipline here is you have to make the effort to DO the 30 minute session. Cheating here is useful - pining or tacking in front of the TV still counts ;)

2. You can actually get ALOT done in 30 minutes if you force yourself to time box it as a deadline... it's a little challenge to yourself to get stuff done.

3. Following on from point 2, the crappy bit of any given project I often get stuck on and procrastinate about can generally be sorted out in 1 or 2 30 minute sessions - and then the bit you imagined was painful is all over and done with

4. Even when I am tired and cranky, I can usually force myself to spend 30 minutes doing something if I have something specific planned with a specific end point - and most of the time, I do feel less cranky (if no less tired) for doing something I actually enjoy during the week rather than just working :)

5. 30 minutes at a time on one job or in one position means my back stays happy!

And on the weekends, the 30 minute window means I still get laundry etc done.

I have been advocating this approach to Kathryn, who is suffering from lack of creative expression due to a big bit of creation on her part, 10 week old Hailey (please correct me if I have her age wrong, Kat) It may be a bit early to commit to that big project, but hopefully life will settle down long enough to try out the 30 minute (or 15 minute, or 10 minute) model!

P.S. This post is a perfect example of time boxed creativity. Thanks to dragging my laptop to and from for work each day, I had it on the train home and could write this post in the 20 minutes or so to get home. And, this filled up the trip nicely!

Conversations they don't prepare you for at Core Consultant School

2006-11-15T21:27:00.000+10:00

I was at a workshop today, and in a break, one of the guys comes out with ‘yeah, so when we do this workshop in Nambia (BTW, Sponky is going to Nambia and London for a week each in January. Bribes for post of luggage carrier will be accepted, but you will not be allocated a seat in business like me (finally, my dream of flying business overseas will come true , shallow as it is)) I am going out on safari, and I am going to kill an antelope, an eland, and a….’. I missed the third thing, I was too busy being incredulous that a grown man (ok, so he was from the US, this might go a ways to explaining it) would want to go kill things for fun. When asked what he planned to do with the dead animals, explained about freight and taxidermy and mounting them on his wall. Urk. Not cool, people, not cool at all.

How the voices in your head make you a better person

2006-11-06T20:15:00.000+10:00

While in no way advocating the work of quasi-punk teen rockers Blink 182, I have always liked this lyric from their song "I Miss you":

Don't waste your time on me; You're already the voice inside my head.

I very much like this sentiment - when people become important to you, they become the voices you hear when your conscience is kicking in. Some examples:

If I am planning on going out the house with some kind of daggy outfit and unbrushed hair, the voice I hear is my mother's going 'You can't leave the house like THAT!'. At which point I will brush my hair. But not change the outfit :) Nice to see I am still rebelling against my mother even when it's actually me.
When being lazy about some kind of sewing project, and debating whether I should unpick and reattempt some annoying little detail that no-one else will know about but me - it's my Grandma Esme who provides the motivation to unpick the bloody thing and do it again. The funny thing is here, I will almost ALWAYS be happier when I do redo it.
Until recently, it was my mother's voice again that appeared when I was about to do something stupid (e.g lick a sharp knife, resulting in my tongue being sliced off). But I realised only recently that this has actually changed to Husband-person rather than my mother... And his voice is more an unbelieving 'you have got to be kidding, are you really going to do that???' rather than a rather strident 'Don't do that!' that I would hear in my mother's version

Having given this some thought, it's also interesting to note what aspects of my conscience don't have any dubbing - for example, when it comes to work matters, I have my own standards and I know when I haven't met them (althought lately, I have decided that sometimes, you can let these slip and other people never know the difference) so I am happy to critise myself in this matter.

Who do you hear when you know you could (and should) do better?

A softer world

2006-11-06T20:02:00.000+10:00

I commend to you www.asofterworld.com - weekly cartoons that are an inituitive's brain candy... short little glimpses into other people's world's of oddness, pain and suffering, and it's up to you to make up the back story.

Last week's - tragedy, suffering, coping and family acceptance in 33 words.

Sponky says NO to climate change

2006-11-05T08:23:00.000+10:00

Walk Against Warming
Originally uploaded by Sponky's Modern Life.

Just like BettySue, Kris and Janet, Sponky and Husband-person + Dr Jigsaw and the BIG J trotted off to the Walk Against Warming to express general displeasure at hot days, drought, rising sea levels, and all kinds of warming related badness. What was to be a pleasant city stroll there and back was slightly hampered by the 35mm of rain - Dr Jigsaw and the BIG J had encased their bodies (quite sensibly) in full body rain gear but we were in rain jackets and shorts, and let me tell you, we got WET! I don't think I have ever been that wet with my clothes on.

But a good time was had by all, unfortunately rained too hard to hear the speeches, but we chatted to people and had a good afternoon.

Due to the rain, Brisbane only had about 1500 people turn out. But the upshot of this was - due to the lack of ready volunteers, I got to help carry one of the banners that was all soggy with rain AND I got on the news. Channel 7 and Channel 2 for about 2 and a half seconds EACH. YEAH! I am now random wet chick at the climate march. Oh, and Husband-person and Big J were also visible for about 1/2 second on Channel 2!

Baby's got new shoes!

2006-10-13T17:30:00.000+10:00

Shoes2
Originally uploaded by Sponky's Modern Life.

Yes, they are finally here, yes, these ones fit, and YES they are totally awesome.

New camera + holiday snaps

2006-10-07T19:26:00.000+10:00

As indiciated in the previous post, we have purchased a new camera. It's a Canon digital EOS 400D SLR, and it's basically a very nice point and click camera (with the option of getting fancy with the settings once you know what they are). Makes a very satisifying CLICK when you take pictures.

You can see some of the shots here, which include shots of Tina (Husband-person's sister) and Derryn's wedding.

Pre wedding
http://www.flickr.com/photos/50214118@N00/sets/72157594316297093/

Wedding
http://www.flickr.com/photos/50214118@N00/sets/72157594316330901/

Post Wedding
http://www.flickr.com/photos/50214118@N00/sets/72157594316284770/

Other holiday photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/50214118@N00/sets/72157594315957408/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/50214118@N00/sets/72157594316270623/

How to be completely disgusted while cleaning your home

2006-10-07T10:11:00.000+10:00

Sooooo, tempted by the 40 months interest free at Harvey Norman, we just upgraded our vaccum and our camera (more on the camera in another post). Based on the reviews of my brother and Janet, we spurged and got ourselves one of these. Doing the normal "let's go home and try out our new toy" trick, we vaccumed the lounge room, which looked reasonably clean. It wasn't. It was disgusting. We vaccummed the floor about 3 times and came up with what looked like 3 cups of YUCK (no, I wasn't going to measure it). When we repeated this procedure in the bedroom and my room, similar results. So, the Dyson really does suck the living shit out of things.

But the most disgusting thing was when we vaccumed the mattress. The drum contained what can only be described as an off white talc like powder MADE UP OF OUR SKIN. I feel like I need to scrub my entire body.

Survivors

2006-09-06T07:26:00.000+10:00

For those that don't know what I do, I work in IT, primarily in a product called SAP. It's a big honking product you only install if you have a government department or multi-million dollar business.

In my current role, I was leading the team that takes all the data (the employees, the customers, the GL balances etc etc) from the old system, massages it, and sticks it in the new system. As easy as this sounds, it's enough work for 14 people for 6 months in this case.

As you can imagine, we can't ask the business to STOP while we do this, so we do most of it in advance (the stuff that doesn't change) and on the last weekend, we do all the 'open' stuff - open purchase orders, open financial documents etc. So we have 2 days to move across a HUGE volume of data.

This is what we did last weekend. It was always going to be tight - we were converting a big business to SAP, and we had budgeted 3 days to do it. What we didn't factor in was:

The system running 5 to 6 times slower than normal and 8 times slower than predicted based on our testing on smaller hardware.
Data for the new system was very patchy in quality and it took us a long long time to get the data working anyway.

So instead of things take 3 reasonably longish days for the 15 of us to do, it took us 3 full 24 hour periods to do it - with stuff carrying over to this week.

To say that this was the weekend from hell is NOT an understatement. We never had enough team members for shifts, so people worked until they couldn't stand up any more. People were removed from the building at 5am because they couldn't talk or type any more. People were fed and sent home at lunch on Sunday after being there for 1.5 days without a break.

I took in a banana folding lounge and a pillow after trying (and failing) to sleep on the floor on Friday at 1am. It got used by 3 or 4 people other than myself. I got videotaped sleeping under my desk (the bastards!). We cracked it and started writing status and fake motivational sayings on the windows of the offices we were using (which are now famous, people are coming to look at them - will try to get copies of the photos).

It's now Wednesday, and I finally have had enough sleep to be able to type complete sentences (got sent home yesterday because I couldn't talk). So would like to send out thanks to Husband-person for being so understanding and helpful, but most of all, thanks to the team who slogged it out over the weekend. They did far more hours than me, did the actual conversion work which is extremely difficult at the best of times (i.e. when you have had sleep) and brain numbing and much harder work than what I did (my role had devolved to telling them dirty jokes, threatening to get them strippers, bringing them sugar and coffee - anything to keep them functioning). I have never worked with such a committed bunch of people in my life and it has been a great privledge to be the person who got them coffee.

Addendum: If it wasn't clear from this post, we did actually hit the deadline and go-live, a day late, but we hit it. Another team held up the project in the end. Photos of the insanity can be found here.

All hail the support crew

2006-09-02T11:10:00.000+10:00

I got in from work at 2:45 this morning. I showered, poured myself into bed and didn't move until 9am (literally, if the pain in my left side is any indication). When I got up, Husband-person:

Made me scrambled egss on toast and coffee
Rubbed my back
Then drove me into town.

All hail the support crew! 2 days to go!

P.S. Six hours sleep in a night is considered a luxury by the team at this point. Some have had six hours total in the past 3 days.

Important annoucements

2006-08-28T17:54:00.000+10:00

Ok, so work has meant that I have basically been a slacky bunny when it comes to posting. Guilt has motivated me to post so here are some important announcements and events:

DjBebe and Handyman have announced their engagement, with a SHINDIG planned on the 14th of September.
Kathryn and Matt have welcomed into the world Hailey Rose (she is the receipent of this)
I have finished the top and bottom of my first queen sized quilt
My quilter is nearly here! (Saturday)

Also, a big GO TEAM GO to the ABS Data team, working their asses off to get the next business over the line on September 4. So I might be AWOL until then...

I think my imagination is broken.

2006-07-19T09:03:00.000+10:00

When I am on the train, I plug in my iPod and play a very trival but amusing mental game... "how would I make this song into video clip?"

This gives me 3 1/2 to 5 minutes to dream up ridiculous scenarios involving submarines, love stories, great atriums in space filled with choirs, robots on quests or aimals made of lego.

But recently, all of my musical daydreams have featured trains, train platforms or freaks I see on the train.

Perhaps I need to get out more.

The very model of efficiency

2006-07-09T20:37:00.000+10:00

This evening Team Sponky has:

Put a label with the date on the black and white quilt (and also discovered some loose threads that needed securing)
Made bread
Made Pizza (with help from Husband-person)
Made an enormous 3-meal serve of chicken curry for freezing and devouring on weeknights when cooking is too arduous (also with help from Husband-person)
Put away 4 loads of laundry and tided the house
Emptied the old food out the fridge
Called Kat and got the bump update (6 weeks to go...)
Watched one episode of Stargate Atlantis. Wasn't so good, will try another one before bed!

A good night was had by all

2006-07-02T08:15:00.000+10:00

Last night, Dj Bebe stayed over and sock creatures were made or finished (see here). When I wandered out this morning, I was greeted with a lounge room that was:

smelling of red wine
covered in cables from various ipod and internet activites and scraps from the sock creatures
said sock creatures were 'asleep' on the floor with eyemasks on...

All I could think was ... whoa, good night!

1am, Saturday Morning

2006-06-26T16:55:00.000+10:00

'BEEP'
Sponky: What's that?
Husband-person: It's probably just one of the computers, go back to sleep
1 minute later: 'BEEP'.
Sponky: Are you sure?
Husband-person: Go back to sleep
1 minute later: 'BEEP'
Sponky and Husband-Person in concert : The fire alarm is out of battery!

And, as Murphy always seems to have it, the one battery we need is the one battery we don't have. Husband-person bravely volunteers to go to the 24x7 petrol station to acquire the necessary battery.

Battery is replaced.
'BEEP'
Husband-person: WTF?

The manual is dragged out (yes, the fire alarm has a manual), we follow ALL the instructions to quiet a beeping alarm (clean the unit, turn off at mains, new battery, turn on mains, test unit). Testing the unit proves to be the most fun part, with Husband-person up on the stool with a pillow over the alarm in an attempt not to wake the entire neighbourhood. And yet, the beeping continues. It's now 1:45.

Husband-person: Right, this thing is not keeping me awake

At this point, fuse is turned off, fire alarm is pulled out the ceiling and Husband-person disconnects it from the mains. Battery is also removed, so technically the unit should HAVE NO POWER, yet the beeping continues. However, the unit is now detached and we can put it somewhere to shut it up. In a cupboard, covered with phone books, with the door shut - and the 'BEEP' is just as loud as if it was out in the open!

Sponky: Right, I am putting it in the fridge!

We have a beer-brewing fridge for summer brewing in the garage which is currently OFF and clean, so I climb around the Disco, over the lawn mower and put the cursed device in there and close the door. We stand there is silence, and we here another 'BEEP'.... coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE! It's like those horror movies...

At this point, we return to the house and inspect the OTHER thing on the ceiling, which we had believed to be a motion detector for the alarm system. It's not. In fact, it is ALSO a fire alarm and it's actually THIS UNIT that is out of battery and has been beeping for the last hour.

Yes, that's right folks, we spent an hour in the middle of the night changing the WRONG FREAKING BATTERY.

We finally retired at 2:15, Husband-person being incredibly unimpressed, and me laughing hysterically. That second smoke detector will NOT be getting new batteries...

Prairie Home Companion

2006-06-05T20:06:00.001+10:00

As Husband-person will attest, I will try most things once if you can convince me it's worth while (except theme parks, you will never convince me of the value of these. Also Steve Irwin.) but am a woman of reasonably specific passions: food, massages, swimming and snorkeling, music, things I can make with my sewing machine, the internet, Joss Whedon productions, all my muji friends and family...

I have to recognize that I have added a new enthusiasm of late - listening to the back catalog of A Prairie Home Companion while pottering around in my sewing room. For the uninitiated, this is a weekly variety radio program presented by Garrison Keilor, a notable American author/humorist (This is not the greatest description but finding it hard to describe him in a more accurate way). Thanks to the internet and my wireless card in my laptop, I can plug in my speakers and stream old episodes to entertain me while I sew, quilt, unpick... My mother actually got me onto this - she has been providing me the 'Lake Wobegon' monologues for years now (my parents used to listen to the original show when we lived in the US), and recently gave me a couple of full episodes... and I have been addicted ever since. Thanks, Big J!

They are about 2 hours long and feature amusing radio plays, fake ads (for catchsup, powdermilk biscuits, rhubarb pie), lots of folk, bluegrass, old-time, gospel and (occasionally) country music, interesting local guests, and of course, the weekly update from Lake Wobegon. It's generally enough variety to interest me and not so much country music that it will completely ruin my street cred (although singing the Powdermilk biscuit theme song in the shower has got me some funny looks from Husband-person). I have to admit, though, I probably am enjoying all that banjo work on the bluegrass tracks a bit much.

They have been excellent for my textile-y output, as they give my brain something to do while I am working, and I am enjoying them enough they motivate me to get off the internet and actually start doing something (which is usually my sticking point with crafty stuff).

So, if you need about 2 hours of entertainment and people aren't going to talk over the top of it so you don't miss the funny bits, I would thoroughly recommend trying an episode or two. The back catalog goes back to 1996, plus some shows from 1985, so there is plenty to choose from. I only have to listen to 1996 to March this year and then I will be up to date!

How to review music without really trying

2006-06-05T19:49:00.000+10:00

While chatting to DJ Bebe last week, I was distracting myself from my otherwise non-exciting work life by providing extremely short music reviews of new albums I have gotten recently. e.g.

Sponky - new gomez album is good
DJ Bebe - goodo
Sponky -
new snow patrol is patchy
DJ Bebe - you are my personal music reviewer

So I thought, hey I can write some music reviews and force people to read them (if I can make you read about my dreams, music reviews won't be hard to force upon you), but honestly, I haven't got the stamina to write long winded analyses of albums with artistic influences clearly delineated and lists of what strange instruments were used. So, I give you the intuitive’s music review:

Placebo: Meds - good music to kill vampires to
Augie March: Moo, you bloody choir: Excellent lush music to put on when you don't really need to listen too hard to it. Actually a little annoying (too repetitive) if you are listening to it on purpose.
Clare Bowditch and the Feeding set: What Was left – somewhat patchy, but when she gets it right, she really gets it right - see 'I thought you were God' and 'The Thing about Grief'. Still also love 'Divorcee at 23' despite the multitude of times it has been played on JJJ.
The Mountain Goats: Bablyon Springs EP & Palmcoder Yajna EP - Slow tracks are quite depressing (as usual with the Mountain Goats) but the perky tracks are defiant, aggressive and happy. Some of my favourite lyrics:"we were Norwegians, come down from the north, attacking the walls of the fortress, i was permanently at the point of exhaustion, you were gorgeous" (butter teeth) and "carpenter ants in the dresser, flies in the screen, it will be too late by the time we learn what these cryptic symbols mean" (Palmcorder Yajna)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Show your bones - music to strut to
Gomez: How we operate - Definitely the best Gomez album in a while. Title track is excellent, I expect to see it leveraged as a movie montage sometime soon. "Cry on demand" is memorable for the lines "now I realise, I realise they were wrong, because what happens in Vegas, don't take very long, to travel cross continents and onwards overseas onto our little island, our city, our home..."
Snow Patrol: Eyes Open - Pretty sure the guy playing guitar in this band can only do one thing. If you like an album that sounds the same for the entire album and is all about love - lost love, pining for love, i love you more than anything else, won't you please love me - this is for you. Don't listen too hard, it's not that meaningful.
The Dresden Dolls: Yes, Virgina - very good at what they do but definitely not for everyone. I have heard it described as a new form of jazz or punk cabaret and I can't come up with a better description, so for those that don't know about them, this band sings in the very discordant, angry piano kinda vein, with a strong line in weird song topics (e.g. Coin operated Boy, Sex Change). Don't listen to this if you are feeling fractured already - I got through 2 tracks on Thursday night after a hard day at work and decided to stop as it was making me even more angry than I already was (which I didn’t even think this was possible).

Static Queen

2006-05-25T18:12:00.000+10:00

Not sure if it is the dry weather, my leather soled shoes, wool pants or a combination of all of the above, but today at work I was able to build up a POWERFUL static charge in mere moments and then use it to scare unsuspecting co-workers.

We obviously don't have enough to do, because Marcio and I were reduced to trying to create a static shock version of that ET moment...

Apologies in advance (yes, it's a rant)

2006-05-22T21:30:00.000+10:00

I have tried to avoid writing this post as long as I can, but I can no longer hold myself back.

WHAT THE HELL HAS HAPPENED TO TV PROGRAMMING LATELY!!!
I love television. I realise this is not the appropriate, middle class view of TV (it's evil and must not be watched except for educational and news shows), but I do infact, love TV, as long as it has good actors, decent plots and reasonably good production values. Reality television is evil and must be stopped.
This is my current favourites and the list of sins the tv networks have inflicted upon them:

Carnivale (cancelled, sob, after 2 series, when it was supposed to have 6 series to tell the full story). Possibly the one of the best tv series EVER (yes, I am still trying to finish Brideshead revisited).
SVU (Channel Ten, if you change the time slot ONE MORE TIME and then show old episodes anyway, I am going to slap you)
Alias (perhaps on sometime in the middle of the night in August, we'll see)
Scrubs (moves from 11am to 10:30pm with no notice, I have given this one up because I never know when it's on)
Mythbusters (get rid of that annoying red haired girl)
Battlestar Galatica (see Alias, give up now and buy the DVD's next year)
Firefly (cancelled after 14 episodes, you bastards)
Spicks and Specks (a little too patchy, dependant on the guest quality far too much to be a good program ALL the time)CSI (see the post on George Ead's moustache)

The only show I have no actual complaint about is Las Vegas EXCEPT last season when channel 7 showed them all out of order.

TV stations of Australia: stop changing the schedule, show ALL the episodes IN ORDER in a BLOCK, take off big brother and dancing/singing with the stars and stop wasting our times with 20 to 1 and Where are they now. Entertainment is meant to be entertaining, not a hard slog through crap and boredom.

Dream Log 3

2006-05-22T19:40:00.000+10:00

They say dreams are just your brain recycling alot of crap. This dream involves crap from:

Batman begins - hmm, Christian Bale
Unreal Championship 2 - purchased for me but Husband-person is playing it alot
Every crappy horror movie ever made
Every crappy martial arts movie ever made
My trip to Japan

I am in a secret training facility for ninjas somewhere in Japan, and have completed all my training (as per the beginning of Batman Begins). There is actually a whole class of several hundred (in the worldest biggest secret training facility) and we are doing the final round of tests, which for some reason for the first part involve a whole bunch of yoga, followed by an exercise where we had to put glass louvers back into louver frames really fast.

At this point I get bored and wander off (no, you say, not Sponky) and try to work out what the rest of the the tests will be. I work out that part of the test will be some kind of one-on-one sword fighting as per Unreal Championship, facing off other trainee ninjas. For some reason the venue for this is a laundry with ALOT of ladders (thank you Jackie Chan).

It's the final part of the test that freaks me out and this bit eventually wakes me up. UNDER the laundry is the final part of the test. There is a whole bunch, for want of a better description, People Popiscles. Lots and lots of semi-concious people who have been impaled on poles, in a concrete room that is eerily lit with a red light. Alot of them are fat asian butchers with poofy hats. And the floor is full of drainage holes. Hrmmm. Obviously the secret ninja training facility has a pact with the devil (or a lesser series of demons, but I'm not sticking around to find out) so at this point I FREAK RIGHT OUT and go look for my passport. Because when you are on the run from evil, it's your passport that's going to help, right?

By the time I have found my passport, the other ninja's doing the test have slaughtered all of the People Popsicles and the floor is covered with blood, gore, people's heads etc. Grossness. And now they are LOOKING FOR ME. Because obviously not partaking of the evil slaughter of innocents makes me an enemy to demons everywhere. I escape with only my ninja sword (which has a nifty Hello Kitty mobile phone in the handle just like this one) and my trusty passport, having to squeeze through the exit which is actually the size of the hole on the Australia Post boxes. All that ninja training made me thin and flexible, obviously. I escape and realise I am in Nikko, Japan. I tack myself onto a tour group of Europeans and hope for the best.

At this point I woke up, still tramatised from the People Popiscles. Urk.

Goddammit

2006-05-22T19:36:00.000+10:00

Yes, I am over my current job, but if I go home sick it's because I AM SICK Don't call me and say 'you seemed perfectly well this morning.' Would you like me to hock up a big gob of phlegm so you can see it for yourself?

Textile Artist

2006-05-20T12:46:00.000+10:00

Despite my reservations, went back to the snobby quilt store today to purchase some materials for a circles quilt in muted tones. Once again, as predicted, the quilt store ladies were snobby, and to my horror, there was even a real life Prue & Trude pair loudly selecting 'japanese fabrics' for a 'mad, foolish quilt made of 4" squares' - women who have nothing better to do than hand made 10cm patch work squares. As someone who loves making stuff that is 30cm square so I don't have to spend years on it, I cringed and cringed and cringed.
Had a conversation about the lady who did their machine quilting, and I said, thinking about getting one of these, so I can do my own machine quilting. Response from snobby lady was 'why bother, you can pay someone to do it and you can start on the next one.' Hrm. This sums it up right there. Quilters are trying to make something pretty, even if they have to pay someone else to do part of it. I am trying to make something myself, so I can say I made it, and it's an expression of ME! Also, so I can develop cool techniques and skills - it's all about the creative process, not having something PERFECT at the end.
Like 6 1/2 stitches, I have decided I am not a QUILTER. I am actually a TEXTILE ARTIST. My credo is as follows

The overall effect is what is important, not the price of the material
It doesn't have to match
It doesn't have to be perfect
It doesn't have to be the traditional technique handed down over centuries
It has to be fun to do (within reason, every process has a painful part).

So, this means, I can buy cheap material at Spotlight if it suits me, I can put scraps in, I can use op shop material I steal from Dj Bebe and big squares of 11" are always allowed. More credo updates to follow.

A personal message to George Eads

2006-05-14T21:09:00.000+10:00

I NEVER WANT TO SEE A MOUSTACHE ON YOU EVER AGAIN.

There is so little on tv at the moment, please don't ruin CSI for me...

(According to wiki, it won't be around for long. Thank god.)

Not dead yet

2006-05-02T20:45:00.000+10:00

Yes, still breathing. Work has been well, busy, annoying, there is alot of adjectives I could use here but honestly it's BORING so here's some stuff I AM happy about these days:

We have finally worked out where the ants are coming from and have blocked the holes (yeah Husband-person) so you can now leave your cheese and cracker and salami unattended for two minutes without it getting infested.
The dishwasher cleaning routine advised by Kevin (father-in-law-person) has actually worked and cleaned out all the stinky mould left by the previous owners.
I have a new exciting sewing machine (http://janome.com/product_show.php?id=731) which Husband-person was nice enough to collect for me when I was too busy. DJ Bebe has seen it and now has knee-lift envy. Yes, it is TOTALLY awesome, thanks for asking. Would you like your name embroidered on something?
Thanks to new sewing machine, have finished baby present for my friend Kathryn (and baby is not due until August, yeah Sponky). As Kathryn reads the Long Range Craft Jamboree occasionally, pictures will not be posted for the time being but can be delivered upon request via email.
It's cool enough to wear jeans without sweating too much.
Husband-person is cute and nice and warm (always handy in these cooler months). But still needs to shave.
DJ Bebe has a big announcement (see her page for more details).
DJ Bebe brought me some olives (and I have scoffed them all, yum yum).
All my new CD's are good - Claire Bowditch, Augie March and some Mountain Goats EP.
My brother's new desk is called the 'Command Centre' (it's not just a desk, it's a submarine as well).
The Russian accents on Husband-person's new game are TERRIBLE and very amusing.
Grandparents had lunch at our place on the weekend and used the new table (of which they approved) AND they got the train and it was EASY!

Things NOT making me happy

Having trouble committing to a quilting pattern for the other quilt (black and white one) - have unpicked TWICE now and still not happy. HRM. Must commit (and JUST DO IT, as DJ Bebe says)
There is NOTHING on TV to watch while you are unpicking your quilt yet again. All hail special features on Serenity DVD - watching a Joss Whedon film with the commentary on is actually quite informative and make unpicking less boring
It's not light until 6am and it's dark again at 5:30pm
5pm to 6pm meetings
Haven't one the lotto yet, so DJ Bebe and I must postponed our plans to create an internet based recycled material crafting empire
Price of quilting material. Have worked out to make a queensized quilt I will need to spend between $300 and $500 on decent material. Poo. Not to mention the pain and suffering that will come from machine quilting it myself. Perhaps some of my next SAP bonus will go on one of these http://www.johnwattssewing.com.au/pgs/quilter1.htm

Stapler

2006-04-01T18:19:00.000+10:00

I got a new stapler at work today and the model name was 'Gazelle'. Because nothing says grace and wild beauty like a stapler.

Not a colour that occurs in nature

2006-03-21T19:06:00.000+10:00

Not a colour that occurs in nature
Originally uploaded by Sponky's Modern Life.

What you are currently viewing is a real picture of a real foodstuff that you can go out and purchase in your local supermarket. These 'Chili and Lime' cornchips were purchased for a work function but most of the attendees recoiled in horror at the colour, hence the chips left over for this shot.

THIS IS COLOUR 124. If you see it on some packaging, put down the food, and run the other way

Aeon Flux

2006-03-20T18:44:00.000+10:00

Not the best movie I have ever seen, but certainly not the worst (Ghost Dog is the record holder there). Points go to the person who did the male costumes... quilting as a design feature (see here for an example). I spent most of the movie working out how long it would take to make 1 jacket...

The Hoff in green

2006-03-17T15:49:00.000+10:00

As yesterday was St Patricks day, I sent out this fabulous shot to my friends and relations in form of celebration. Here are some of the comments I got back:

Betty Sue: DO not defile my inbox with The Hasselhof! His n i p p l e s are burnt onto my retina.
Mary-Anne: Oh, that is sooo wrong in so many ways! Gave me a chuckle though :-)
AnnTheAnalyst: ewww. I just ate too much for lunch as well.
DJ Bebe: I have a special gmail tag for hasselhoff-related stuff, just like this.
Sponky: Why?
DJ Bebe: So I know where I can get some hasselhoff whenever I need it

The pain of having a perfect joke and not using it

2006-03-15T14:22:00.000+10:00

I wrapped my banana in foil today because I broke the stem when I was getting it this morning. I have been waiting all morning for someone ask me why, so I can say 'Because the banana was worried it's thoughts were being read by aliens' but no-one has asked me yet. Sigh.

For the love of the zombie

2006-03-14T13:06:00.000+10:00

I was asked on the weekend by my mother "while on earth do you have this obsession with zombies?". A good question, given my current phase of zombie related dreams, xbox games and movies. Well, folks, she asked, now you have to listen.

I LOVE "end of the world" scenarios. Why? Because people shit me, and at the end of the world, there will be a lot less people. Also, the shoes. If it's the end of the world, the appropriate footwear will be boots (with combat pants) so my feet will always be comfortable and I won't have to shave my legs. Let's overlook that if it really was the end of the world that I would cut myself and die of blood poisioning in the first week.
As mentioned above, people shit me. When people turn into zombies, they aren't people any more, and it's perfectly ok to shoot them in the head.
While zombies are scary, you always know what you are dealing with. No creepy ghosts in the attic, no slime monsters down the drain, it's just a lot of drooling and desire for brains.
There is a easy peasy way of dealing with a zombie: SHOT GUNS. No fussing around with spells, chanting, magical circles or pendants. Just shoot 'em.

So, ask youself, don't you think you should love zombies too?

Reality TV I am not watching

2006-03-14T12:51:00.000+10:00

Trials and tribulations of the morbidly obsese
I'm a B grade celebrity whose star is fading and I'll do anything to remain on TV, even dance
Anything associated with Mark Burnett
Plastic surgery solves all!
The Commonwealth Games

Real life is getting pizza cheese stuck in your laptop... stay tuned to see if Sponky electrocutes herself when getting it out...

For those who think blogging is self indulgent...

2006-03-13T20:22:00.000+10:00

Check out the Australian Story "A Gift Horse" here. This was a real story about some woman (who wears pearls while riding horses in the Kimberley) who saw a brumbie while in a helicopter and then arranged a muster to capture that particular horse. This effort included about 12 people and the creation of 30 km of road!!! Arrgh. Just buy a damn horse already.

I have been breathing this crap in

2006-03-13T14:53:00.000+10:00

Having never given birth or cleaned out a septic system (ask Betty Sue about this one, she has GREAT story about cleaning septic systems), this task is now on my top ten of nasty stuff (I tried to think of ten, but the other most disgusting thing I can think of is when my fingers grew together due to tinea under my cast when I broke my arm, so lets say top two). When I say I, I actually mean US, as Husband-person took one look at this job and decided I couldn't do it by myself.

At my father's urging and with the help of a rough and ready demonstration at his place, we armed ourselves with paint brushes, orange oil, glen 20, metho, sheets and towels, and got stuck in.

Gross out number one: looking under the cover revealed an impressive growth of mould all over the cover and the grills which took me a good hour with a entire pack of cotton buds to clean off
Gross out number two: the amazing collection of lint in the filters, which was even more impressive because we only cleaned them out 2 months ago
Gross out number three: the delight black growths (also mould) in the unit itself
Gross out number four: When Husband-person cleaned all the crap off the wheels of the fan, with no shirt on. I came in to find his chest and arm hair encrusted with nasty black mould/dust. urk.

At various times during this process I wanted to kill myself, the airconditioner and Husband-person. However, we survived intact (except for my moment of fear when I thought Husband-person was going to take to the unit with a hammer to get the cover back on) and the airconditioner now smells of NOTHING AT ALL.

Yuch yuch yuch yuch yuch.

P.S. If anyone wants instructions on how to clean their air conditioning unit, happy to oblige. Not going to help though.
P.P.S. This process has put me off any desire to a/c the rest of the house, just from the perspective of having to clean more than one unit.

Dream Log 2

2006-03-09T15:31:00.000+10:00

Zombies. I think my love of the zombie was getting out of control with this dream. Perhaps I will have a break from zombies now I have finished Doom3.

Kris, Janito the CEO, Husband-person and I were in Janito’s blue station wagon. For some reason we KNOW the zombies are coming (Janito must have ears in the underground human experiments movement), and we are at a large shopping centre stocking up on camping gear and tinned food so we can flee for the hills. Husband-person is upset at John Howard’s overly proscriptive gun laws (dammit, nowhere to get a shotgun at such sort notice) so we settle for the interim solution of home made fire bombs courtesy of cheap and nasty bottles of scotch and ripped up shirts.

For some reason, we wait until NIGHT TIME until all the zombies have surrounding the shopping centre to flee, and have to charge our way out of the drooling horde… at this point, had a very weird portion of the dream where we are sitting around eating noodles while watching the zombie hordes roll on in, before getting back into the action.

At this point in the dream, we have a brainwave that Mark Baohm (hi Mark!) knows someone with a gun store, so we head off to his place. Once we get to the gun store, Husband-person gets all excited by the choice and we then fill up Mark’s battered old white 4WD to the brim with explosive and incendiary devices and move on to the next part of the plan: heading up to DJ Bebe…

Obviously while all this was going on, I have made a call to DJ Bebe and Handyman, instructing them to find an isolated defendable location with excellent visibility, it’s own water supply and generator. Being a country boy, Handyman know JUST the place… but it was then time to get up so I can’t tell you if we managed to survive the zombie onslaught. Let’s hope so.

Small things

2006-03-07T14:03:00.000+10:00

The status of my amazon order has changed from 'yet to be shipped' to 'shipping soon'.

Cooloola Camping

2006-02-27T11:00:00.000+10:00

Despite threatening rain, we ducked up the Sunshine Coast for a bit of 4WDing in and around the Cooloola Coast (just above Noosa) and some camping at Lake Cootharaba.

Saturday was spent tooling around state forests and lunching in the rain in National Parks. Highlight of the day... I got to drive for about 30 minutes off road... and under the motivation of learning through doing, Husband-person instructed me to drive THROUGHT a huge puddle, without either of us getting out to check the depth, mud consistency etc etc. You guessed it, I got bogged.

All credit to the Landrover door seals - we had water more than 1/2 up the wheels, defintely over the door edges, and no water got into the car. Poor Husband-person had to climb out the window, and he and Jeremy effected a speedy recovery with a snatch strap.

Lesson for the day: NEVER EVER turn your car off if the exhaust pipe is under water... diesel and water in the engine is not a good combination.

Sunday was a relaxed affair, spent willing the tent to dry (after showers the previous night) and then dropping into Mooloolaba for fish and chips on the way home (who knew you could get marinated grilled tuna steaks at a fish and chip shop).

Despite the rain, my new and exciting head cold, the garage filled wtih drying camping equipment and the mossie bites, a good time was had by all!

Peppermint Sponge (by request)

2006-02-24T07:26:00.000+10:00

What Spongebob eats while waiting for the strippers to come on.

1 envelope or 3 teaspoons of Davis Gelatine
1/4 cup hot water
½ pint cold water
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons of lemon juice
Peppermint flavouring (I note here no quantity is given, so JUST GO NUTS)
2 egg whites
Pinch of salt
Green colouring, if liked (if you don’t like, just make disturbing white peppermint sponge)

Dissolve gelatine in hot water. Heat sugar and water to boiling point; cook for a few minutes. Remove, add dissolved gelatine. Leave to cool. Add lemon juice and flavouring. Beat egg whites with salt (I prefer using a mix master, but to each his own), and fold into the mixture while it is thickening. Colour to a delicate green (but only if you like a green fluffy dessert). Place in a serving bowl and serve with chocolate sauce.

YUM!

Davis Gelatine Recipe Ideas

2006-02-22T21:40:00.000+10:00

Around Christmas, DJ Bebe presented me with this fabulous culinary guide to gelatine (yes, it has really taken me 2 months to write this post). I believe it was discovered in some of her mother’s recipe books. If you ever need to make:

Chicken and Pineapple in Apsic
Spiced Tomato Brawn
Mint Jelly Cubes
Midday salad (cucumber, pineapple and mint in layers of jelly)
Fruit Salad Sparkle (yes, ginger beer and jelly, TOGETHER)
Peppermint Sponge
Milk Jelly

Let me, know, I can photocopy the relevant pages.

Personally, the highlight for me was the gelatine based Christmas pudding. I think we will have Christmas 2006 at my house this year so I can make this delicious, rubbery dessert.

But the Davis Gelatine Book doesn’t stop there… inside it’s full of handy hints:

Drink two teaspoons of gelatine a day in fruit juice to strengthen your nails FOR FOUR MONTHS. Yuch. I am sick of jello after 2 days.
Weight control – fill your stomach with jelly and cut down on those nasty cravings
Refresh your blankets in a rinse of jelly
Stiffen your linens, cottons and silks with, yes, you guessed it, jelly. You can also stiffen your collars, lace (nothing like a stiff peniour), and your petticoats.
Prevent your nylons from snagging by rinsing in a jelly solution… ick, imagine how sticky that would be at the end of the day.

Finally, the booklet ends with a stern health warning:
“Why you should always use Davis Packaged Gelatine

Housewives are warned against purchasing Gelatine in ‘loose’ forms, that is not properly printed and sealed packets. Loose gelatine can be gelatine not manufactured for food purposes, but for Technical usage [oh my god, technical usage gelatine, no get it away] and may contain chemical impurities. Loose gelatine is easily contaminated on exposure to air, it readily takes up moisture and in that state is apt to develop bacteria.

Because it is impossible to detect technical gelatine on appearance, the Australian State Governments have wisely directed that gelatine for consumption must be properly packaged and labelled with the name of the manufacturer and the declaration ‘Edible Gelatine – for food’.”

Thank goodness for that. We may be running out of water, and the health system is a debacle, but at least my gelatine products will be pure.

More frogs

2006-02-19T20:10:00.001+10:00

IMG_3410
Originally uploaded by Sponky's Modern Life.

We discovered we are the home to not only our laundry door dwelling frog, but a whole HOST of sedgefrogs, living in the herbs, on the fence and in the grass clippings. Now everytime we mow the lawn, I am saying little prayers in hope they make the froggies get out of the way of the mower, because shooing them away from the mower doesn't seem to work.

Washing up as modern art

2006-02-19T20:10:00.000+10:00

IMG_3450
Originally uploaded by Sponky's Modern Life.

We had our first dud batch of beer (a pale ale that may have sat a bit long over Xmas). Sigh. The only thing to do was bite the bullet and undo, empty and wash all the bottles. All 30 of them. Undoing was the messy part - they foamed up when they were opened so after about 5 bottles, all which spraye me, I smelled like a brewery. And washing 30 beer bottles is never much fun - but at least I can make exciting bottle sculptures to amuse myself.

New levels of relationship confidence

2006-02-13T08:50:00.000+10:00

Our plans for Valentine's day:

Sponky: Go to see Brokeback Mountain with Miss P
Husband-person: Go to the one day match with Jeremy

Sponky: Bringing it to zombies everywhere

2006-02-13T08:48:00.000+10:00

In ongoing effots to keep me entertained, Husband-person bought me a copy of Doom 3 for the Xbox. Since Friday, all my spare time has been spent slaughtering zombies with shotguns, machine guns, a chainsaw (extremely fun but you have to get in quite close, so the zombies can then get you), plasma rifles, grenades and a chain gun (very good - cuts them right in half!).

All credit to the guys who wrote this game - it's basically a lot of walking around IN THE DARK while spooky noises play. You spent most of the time hurriedly switching between flashlight and shotgun, and listening intently to see if that is a machinery noise or the noise of something coming to kill you. I have never had such a visceral response to a computer game before - I have spent the entire time playing it with my brain going "what the fuck are you doing, turn around, go back up the stairs and pretend those zombies aren't there", with my heart rate going at a million miles an hour.

Husband-person is also getting alot of value from the game, as he is entertained by my yells of "what the fuck was that!!!", and "I shot you in the head, lie down already", and a few other things which cannot be repeated on the internet as my mother reads it.

The Man in Black

2006-02-07T17:49:00.000+10:00

Everytime an ad for 'Walk the Line' comes on tv, Husband-person and I have THIS EXACT CONVERSATION:

Me: Let's go see that
Husband-person: But what's it ABOUT?
Me: Johnny Cash, June Carter-Cash, music, drugs, love story. You know - Johnny Cash!
Husband-person: Who?

I refused to believe a person who has been on this earth 30 years doesn't know who Johnny Cash is, so I acquired some copies of his music this week and was listening to it while preparing dinner, in an effort to jog Husband-person's memory (I mean, who hasn't heard 'A boy named Sue'?). At one point during dinner preparation I turned around to see him dancing, in a style that can only be described as demented turkey dancing. Back and forth neck movements combined with an arm action last seen on MC Hammer.

Me: What are you doing???
Husband-person: Dancing. It's country (as if this was meant to explain the style of his dancing)

I might wait until it's on video and then watch it myself.

Update: Friday 7/02/06
I am forced to revise my previous animal comparison. It wasn't, in fact, demented turkey dancing AT ALL. It was demented LEMUR dancing, ala Madagascar.

Covers and Remixes

2006-01-20T22:12:00.000+10:00

While it may be a bit lazy in terms of musical homework, I am very much getting into covers and remixes at the moment - the familar is all new and interesting. Some standout ones for me:

Eddie Vedder contributing on 'I See Red' and 'Stuff and Nonsense' (7 Worlds Collide)
Holly Throsby doing 'Not the Girl you Think you are' (She will have her way). I also like New Buffalo doing '4 seasons' as it's, well, odd, and Sarah Blasko's "Don't Dream it's Over" for a gratuitous use of a choir and very slight over-production, mostly to good effect.
Jose Gonzalez doing 'Put your hand on your heart' - yes, the Kylie song (Australian Tour EP)
The entire Guerolito album
The Cat Empire does 'Hotel California' (Like a version) - possibly the only way I can sit through an Eagles song
Gary Jules in Donny Darko - 'Mad World'
Propellorheads remixing - Of her Majesty's Secret Service (Shaken & Stirred). I especially like this as the left/right balance has been tweaked so it sounds like an entire horn section is running from side to side behind you.
Soulchild remix of 19-2000 as originally created by the Gorillaz
Malcom McLaren - About her (Kill Bill 2)
The Pictures - Milkshake (Like a version)
Rebecca Barnard (Ex Rebecca's empire) - She's Rare (The Women at the Well)
Scissor Sisters - Take me out

I also have recently got 'Strung out on OK Computer', a string quartet version of OK computer (Radiohead). I quite like it, but other albums in the same vein of Radiohead as classically interpreted have gotten better reviews, so I guess it's more homework for me

I also have found the 'Army of Me' album of remixes of the Bjork song of the same name - still trying to work my way though it but homework is not always fun :(

Friday night fun

2006-01-20T21:23:00.000+10:00

I enjoyed Underworld when it came out a couple of years ago - interesting take on vampires/werewolves, action but also plot development, good costumes. So I agreed to go see Underworld: Evolution without any argument. Next time I might read the reviews.

For this movie, they decided to take the budget they spent on plot development in the first movie and blow the whole lot on mucus and fake blood. Lowlights included:

A terrible sex scene that looked like they had shaved off the pubic hair of both parties, and then gave the direction 'aim for her navel'. All this plus "Blade Runner" lighting as well.
At least one impaling
A truck-delivered scraping
The most efficient use of a roter blades since "Raiders of the Lost Ark"

Highlights were:

Some good acting from Bill Nighy. I like this guy, entertaining regardless of how good or bad the role is.
A reasonable amount of bare-chested action by Scott Speedman and Tony Curran. I liked Tony Curran better, much more manly!
Calculating how much baby powder Kate Beckinsale would need to get into her rubber suit each morning.
While not actually part of the movie, there was a preview for an interesting looking Jake Gyllenhaal movie (Jarhead) which used to good effect, a Kayne West song (Jesus Walks) that I rather like. As a side note, if the movie tonight had Jake with no shirt on, it would have gotten a much better review.

Blade 3 was better, and possibly even Blade 2. Sorry, Husband-person.

I may yet start to enjoy this cricket stuff

2006-01-10T19:31:00.000+10:00

Why the Gabba is better than the MCG

It's in Brisbane so it's not freezing
The ground is a sensible size and you can actually see the players and not little matchstick men
The toliets are near the stands
There isn't 3 flights of stairs to get to your seat!

and Twenty20 is better than ANY other form of cricket

I have a really short attention span
We can go after work
The seats are hard and I only have to sit there for 2.5 hours
I have a really short attention span
The match goes so fast it's a foregone conclusion we (Australia) will win and and so you an stop watching the cricket and amuse yourself with counting the number of laps the mexican wave has got to.

I have to admire the audacity of the organiser and BCC for even thinking 'hey, lets move 20,000 people with BUSES' (note to the wise, leave before the last wicket falls). Yeah to public transport.

There is a special place in hell for the inventor of telemarketing

2006-01-06T16:31:00.000+10:00

Like most sane people, Husband-person and I hate telemarketers. Husband-person even has a special tone of voice he saves just for them - the wrath inflicted upon the poor telephone operators is truly disturbing, given he is normally nice and pleasant, but it’s great fun to listen to.

To avoid them, at our past two residences we have invested in a silent number, which is a lovely invention and has afforded us much peace and quiet. However, due to some service providers being a bit free with our number (not mentioning any names, MajorVideoStoreChain) we have also added the tactic of only giving out mobile numbers except for health care services. It's not like we are home much anyway.

This has worked reasonably well so we went for the silent number at our new house (which will be far more permanent given we have bought it). Unfortunately, the lady who had the number previously (for the purposes of this posting, let’s call her Mrs D) obviously didn't follow the telemarketer avoidance rules and we now get 3 or 4 calls a day when we are in. GRRR.

They are all looking for Mrs D - so now when the phone rings during the day, I answer "Hello" and I wait to see who they are looking for. When it's Mrs D, they get "Sorry wrong number", and then I can just hang up. Except for the genius that rang today - when I gave them the usual routine, I got “Oh, I don’t know if I have the wrong number or the wrong name”. Honestly, if you don’t know the whose number this is, don’t try to convince me that you are calling ME.

Hell, I tell you.

Another personal achievement

2005-12-11T09:31:00.000+10:00

All my life I was told by my father, Dr Jigsaw, I was not allowed to mow the lawn as I would probably cut my feet off (yet another nail in the family clumsy coffin). After watching the poor Husband-person slave over a hot lawn these past few months (I think our lawn grows a foot a week), I volunteered to learn how to mow (which he was more than happy to teach me). And guess what - I DIDN'T CUT MY FEET OFF.We are now a sophisticated lawn maintenance tag team - he whipper snippers, I mow (except for the bits that go down the hill, he does those). And now, rather than lying in the house feeling guilty for watching him slave away, I can go outside and get all hot and sweaty myself. Yeah. I'm off to Bunnings to purchase some ear protection.

Froggy friend

2005-12-11T09:30:00.000+10:00

Froggy friend
Originally uploaded by Sponky's Modern Life.

This little guy has been sighted several times in my backyard - first in my peg basket, then on the laundry screen door as seen here. Any thoughts on the type of frog, animal geeks?

Update: This appears to be an Eastern Sedgefrog, based on my research.

The Menagerie

2005-12-11T09:28:00.000+10:00

The Menagerie
Originally uploaded by Sponky's Modern Life.

We have increased the security presence over the Xmas period (shoplifters, you know). We now have another crocheted fellow, given to Husband-person for Xmas by DJ Bebe. The bear was sent by Better Sue (apparently his name is Random!)

For those who are interested

2005-12-02T18:38:00.000+10:00

http://sponkycraft.blogspot.com/

This is more for my use than anything, but if you want to see stunning pictures of my crafty endeavours, check it out. FYI, will have a fair few pictures.

Summer is not a personal experience

2005-11-27T14:32:00.000+10:00

Today I would like to share with you my favourite quote from Garrison Keillor, American humorist and fabulous radio entertainer:

"Winter is not a personal experience; everyone else is as cold as you are; so don't complain about it too much... It could be worse." (from Wobegon Boy).

Summer is obviously the closest weather inconvience you can have in Brisbane, given the rest of the year it's pretty pleasant. You know it's summer in Brisbane when:

There is storm warnings on the TV every evening for places you have never heard of
The thunder is so loud it makes the windows rattle
It rains EVERY DAY (yeah!)
You say 'Bugger that oscillating, point that fan directly at me'
It's TOO HOT at 9am and you have only been out of bed for 15 minutes
Icecream becomes a valid main meal choice
You want to marry the man who invented air conditioning

So, in the spirit of Mr Keillor, I will paraphase:

"Summer is not a personal experience; everyone else is as hot and sweaty and cranky as you are; so don't complain about it too much... It could be worse."

Yeah, I COULD live in Cairns (Hi in-laws!) I would like to promise this will be my last post about the heat, but it's still only November - and we have 3 fun months still to go!

Handyman's new hat

2005-11-26T14:38:00.000+10:00

Today we went on a picnic with DJ Bebe and HandyMan. Birthday and Xmas presents were exchanged, swims were taken and much jello was consumed. Lessons learnt:

1. There is such a thing as TOO MUCH jello.
2. If you make Freddo frog head jello, then leave it for 2 weeks, the chocolate starts to dissolve (ick) and go the same colour as the surrounding jello. Nasty.

New phrase for our lexicon: "Easy on the heads, please"

You can click here to see more picnic shots.

Name that frog

2005-11-22T14:24:00.000+10:00

I got a VERY nice present in the mail from DJ Bebe yesterday, an amigurumi (japanese for crocheted toy) froggie. As you can see, he's a security frog:

but off hours, likes to hang with his buddies from Japan and Thailand.
I was leaning towards Farcito as a name (as Google tells me this is Italian for stuffed), however, I am not sure that this a very cool name for a surfing frog (as DJ Bebe advised he is also a surfer).

Any suggestions?

I don't think you're ready for this jelly

2005-11-18T10:13:00.000+10:00

All my life I have dreamed of making my very own rainbow jello mould (ok, not all my life, but probably 6 months when I found a picture of a jello mould with Google Images while looking for a picture of penguins). And now, thanks to Handy Man's (who shares my love of moulded jello) birthday, I have made him a birthday jello mould which we will eat with custard on a picnic in a week or two's time (it was meant to be this weekend, but circumstances beyond our control have postponed it, and Husband-person assures me jello won't go bad, so no comments about being over-organised, thanks very much).

Introducing: Serial-killer rainbow birthday jelly!

So named for the leetle teeny freddo heads that are in it (yes, it's a bit fuzzy but you get the idea):

You looking forward to that picnic NOW, Dj bebe?

Things that DO NOT go together

2005-11-15T18:44:00.000+10:00

If you put onions and nectarines in the same bag, the smell is unbelievably worse than you could anticipate. Who would have thought?

Hot, like a sauna on fire

2005-11-10T12:19:00.000+10:00

I know I asked to move back to Brisbane but honestly I had not really thought about having to go to work once I was back here. It was unbelievably hot this morning and HUMID, oh my god. I had a minor crisis in what to wear to work today and after the third change of clothes I was sweating so much I had to put on the a/c in the bedroom so I could get dressed in relative comfort and not sweat right through what I put on. This would all be fine if I was hanging around the house in singlets and shorts, but skirts, leather shoes and panty hose (yes I know pantyhose are optional, but I can't seem to NOT wear them after all those years in Melbourne, I feel like I am going to work naked, and I haven't shaved my legs in three weeks) are not at all fun in this heat. I need some kind of job that involves no shoes, afternoon naps and lots of iceblocks! Do you think swimming pools need IT professionals?

Kisses and Hugs to Husband-person who bought me a present yesterday BECAUSE HE COULD. And rather than something that dies like flowers, he got me this which I have been longing for and will last a heck of a lot longer! Despite the slightly non-exciting Natalie Imbruglia version, this cd confirms Pineapple Head is one of my favourite songs of all time.

Ham

2005-11-06T13:21:00.000+10:00

Husband-person purchased the first big bit of ham (section, chunk, portion???, what do you call random large pieces of ham) of the Xmas period today. And I found out, thanks to my teensy-weensy gluten free bread, that I could cut a piece of ham the EXACT shape of my sandwich. Kiss my ass, jigsaw chicken!

Death by a thousand spreadsheets

2005-11-02T18:59:00.000+10:00

Starting to go slightly loopy at work. My main task for the last nine weeks (!!) has been analysing a big Word document, extracting new programming requirements, and then typing these up in a spreadsheet. I then cross check this with another list, check the estimates, and move onto the next Word document. Nine weeks, people! The best part about all this is the documents I did the original analysis from have ALL CHANGED. So I get to read these fabulous 200 pages suckers again and again and again, then type up brand new versions of my spreadsheet list etc etc etc. Kill me now.

Summer is open for business

2005-11-01T19:31:00.000+10:00

Summer is offficially here - I took the first swim of the season this evening after work. Water was a little chilly, and perhaps a few to many floaties in the water (just think about the chlorine, Sponky) but overall, very nice to do some exercise that stretches out my body and makes it feel good, rather than the evil gym that just makes my body feel all cranky and twisted and horrible!

Also cheers to HandyMan and DJ Bebe for helping us out with all that pavlova on the weekend. We couldn't have done it without you!

Fancy new colours

2005-10-26T22:01:00.000+10:00

Thoughts, peoples? Too lairy?

28/10/05 Updates
To avoid blinding DJ bebe, the blue colour has been slightly revised. Also, I have worked out where the comments links went - I had made them the same colour as the background in my enthusasium. Here's hoping it now makes more sense!

Potions and Unguents

2005-10-26T21:50:00.000+10:00

I think the new indicator for getting old is how many things you put on or in your body before you go to bed and just when you get up. Between the hours of 21:00 and 09:00 on any given evening/morning I may apply, take or insert:

tinea cream for my peeling feet OR heel balm for my cracked feet

fungus cream for my recurring fungal spots

anti-bruse cream for my bruises (but this is not a new one, so perhaps we will igmore this one

tea tree powder for my prickly heat (yeah Brisbane)

special hand cream for my dry hands and elbows

nasal spray so I can breathe

anti-histamine so I am not itchy

a Multi vitamin tablet and a calcium tablet

my occlusal splint so I don't grind my teeth

voltaren for all my little sore spots

Dream Log 1

2005-10-26T21:38:00.000+10:00

I was in a secret bunker (very secret-bunker-like, full of dusty gas masks and things marked 'break glass in case of emergency') waiting for a business meeting, as you do. While waiting for the meeting, my engagement ring exploded into a million pieces, which annoyed me but the people I was waiting for showed up, so we went into the meeting and left their secretary to try to put the ring back together. I was being headhunted to run the IT department at Holden, which was bit confusing, because, despite working in IT, I am remarkably unqualified for, and I didn't want to move back to Melbourne. But AHAH! half way through this meeting, I realised it was all a secret ploy to distract me from a plot to allow a demon to sneak into our world via a portal in the floor of Mayne Hall at my old uni. When realised this, I escaped from the Holden guys, hooked up with Husband-person (in his Safety Boy uniform, of course), and we used the SECRET tunnels UNDER the university to enter Mayne Hall (I think that library extension really lodged in my subconscious) only to find DJ Bebe had managed to soothe the evil demon with amusing stories, strange hippy phrases (not sure where she learnt these, very unlike DJ), and lots of head stroking. So Husband-person and I left her to it, and went outside the lawns to ride in the little carnival planes. Mine was green. The end.

What we talked about at work today

2005-10-26T21:31:00.000+10:00

Rain. Who got it, who didn't (commiserations), how much, how long, was it heavy, big heavy drops warm like blood, did it hail, how about that thunder then, damn the grass is growing, gotta clean the gutters out, RAIN.

Yeah Rain.

P.S. We have had 121mm at our place this month. More than average (80.9), much less than the record (394.6).

Fabulous Train Folk

2005-10-26T21:23:00.000+10:00

Cheers to the three ladies and one small boy who shared my train pod on Tuesday morning. We had a lovely chat about absolutely nothing, which was a fabulous change from my normal entertainment on the train, which usually consists of me creating an imaginary "Show Down At House of Blue Leaves" style massacre where I mentally slaughter all of the annoying train peoples. Any boy, there is alot of them in Brisbane, I can tell you.

Case in Point: hello to the strange man who berated his ex-wife on the phone on the train home on Tuesday. Why bother taking a book on the train when you can hear people shouting "you are bad mother, you haven't seen him for six weeks" and "because you are a slut, that's why" half a carriage down.

Ok, so I remembered my password

2005-10-21T21:05:00.000+10:00

So, have been working on my quilt design this week thanks to the most boring hotel room known to man (I mean, where is the cable, when I am in a hotel, I would like some Spongebob!). I have based it on 210 cm square for queen sized bed.

Inspired by a fantastic log cabin variation seen in the High Country last weekend.

Did some preliminary calculations and came out with 13 m of material required based on 90cm wide and 5mm seams. Does this sound right to you, Dj bebe? Seems like WAY too much to me, but I guess there is a lot of seams in that. Anyhoo, must finish the first one first...

I think I am turning into a goldfish

2005-10-21T20:35:00.000+10:00

I used to be quite clever and have all my shit together but seem to be relying more and more on lists. Like tonight, I had to log into my email account to see what I was supposed to do this weekend, because, honestly, I would not be able to tell you

This is what I will be doing:
* preserve lemons
* berating husband for not providing me with backup dvd
* go to home brew store
* go to indian food wholesaler for LENTILS!
* go to gym (yes, it's on the list, in the hope I might actually go)
* get library books
* visit parents
* setup blog (check, one down!)

I have also already managed to forget what my password is to get into this site.