blithespirit

send her to the ball...

2011-03-23T21:45:10Z

via reynardo ...
This is how a costumer fundraises for Haiti - so gorgeous.
Watch the video, she shows off an amazing gown she made with leaves sewn into it... and the peacock dress she'll make if she raises her target for Haiti.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EwYqj6H88s&feature=player_embedded
May I add, oh gawd, I love Dreamwidth but why oh why are we still trying to use shitty old code which makes it difficult or impossible to do incredibly basically stuff like embedding YouTube videos? Grrr!

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My latest romantic experiment - 100 dates

2009-12-07T04:33:17Z

100 dates.
You can read about it on the blog, or follow it on Twitter. (I'm @stokely, and you can also follow the #100dates hashtag).

It's basically a very old fashioned approach to dating - asking my friends and my online network to recommend people they think I might like. Hopefully, given the ease by which people can share information and recommendations online, I'll end up with a cool 'friend of a friend' network happening, and meet people I might not have met otherwise.

So, if you're feeling karmically generous, please check it out and think about whether you have a guy friend I should meet. :)

I've just put it all online today, so I'd also welcome ideas or feedback on how to tweak the project to make it work better.

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I'm talking about OpenAustralia in Melb on Monday night

2009-11-07T00:24:37Z

It may be too wonky (or too geeky) for anyone here to be interested but just in case...
I'm giving a brief talk about the eDemocracy website OpenAustralia.org at the OpenGov Melbourne meetup on Monday night - 6pm at the Order of Melbourne on Swanston Street. Details (and RSVP) here. It's going to be a small, informal thing.

Might be nice to have dinner afterwards, if anyone's inclined. :)

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For the PKD/Bladerunner fans...

2009-10-14T10:18:51Z

You'll want to see this letter that Philip K Dick wrote about Bladerunner before he died. As I wrote in the comments on i09, how wonderful he got to have a moment like that before he died. Would that we could all have a moment like that...

Also, I <3 io9. :D

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Yellowstone

2009-10-03T07:29:24Z

I caught an episode of a doco on Yellowstone national park (called, unsurprisingly, Yellowstone) while I was staying with my folks. It's a three parter, focusing on winter, spring and autumn. I saw the spring ep and it was just stunningly beautiful. For the nature lovers, I recommend. The first ep (Winter) is still available on iView , but it's only available until the end of today. Go, watch. I'm about to do the same. :)

Have I mentioned lately how much I love watching iView, unmetered, thanks to Internode ?:)

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that game

2009-09-07T21:30:25Z

Also, I would just like to say, damn you Beatles. I have no interest in guitar hero or rock band, but I want the Beatles Rock Band.
If you haven't seen the trailer, oooh, worth watching. When it hits 1:25 (moving into the Sgt Peppers era) my mind was blown. Seriously beautiful.

Trailer: The Beatles from BLINDIFORTHEKIDS on Vimeo.

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Attn: Mordwen

2009-09-07T21:21:26Z

The home birth rally in Canberra got a whole four paragraphs in the Age. I don't think I've ever *seen* a story that short in the Age. Lame.

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to market, to market

2009-09-05T02:52:50Z

Thank you, dalmeny, for posting about the fresh spring produce at the Central Market in Adelaide. You inspired me to get off my bum and get down to the farmers market in St Kilda for the first time in a long time.

I have mentioned to a few of you that I recently read and loved The Omnivore's Dilemma, and it really got me thinking about sustainable, ethical farming and eating. The problem with organic food was underscored for me recently when I tried to buy organic butter at Coles the other day. The only organic butter they had came from Europe. Craziness. Before reading The Omnivore's Dilemma I didn't think too much about the conditions animals live in under large scale free range or organic farming. Now I know a bit more, and the local food movement makes even more sense to me.

Because I've been doing some research into local farms, I recognised a few of the stallholders at the St Kilda markets this time. I bought my veges from Fiona Chambers from Fernleigh Farms, and got to thank her for having a website. It makes it a lot easier to research growers when they're online! I should also mention Michael from Mountain Creek Farm in Canberra, who was kind enough to provide me with some recommendations of local farmers when I emailed him.

If you're even slightly interested in the above, and you haven't read The Omnivore's Dilemma, I can't recommend it enough. A wonderfully written, and eye opening book. The guy managed to make the sex life of corn a fascinating read.

I came away from the market with eggs from Green Eggs, broccoli, some kind of bizarre onion, carrots, dutch cream potatoes and grass fed Warrialda beef. A roast dinner is on the menu I think. :)

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Oh LJ :(

2009-08-25T10:02:03Z

Thank you, thorfinn , for pointing this out...

"LJ has quietly broken the comment exporter, which I was using to back up comments. If I can't retain an offsite backup off my journal, I'm not interested in paying for the service."

Ouch. I didn't know about this, and it sucks. I haven't been trying to get people to leave LJ for Dreamwidth, but it's something LJ users should know about.

I have spare codes, if anyone does want one.

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If I had my time again

2009-08-16T08:07:17Z

If I could do my 20s over again, I think I'd like to be Beth Ditto (image is a tad NSFW due to boobies). That girl does her thing, has fun and loves her body. :)

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Whip it!

2009-07-17T13:12:49Z

OMG OMG OMG Drew Barrymore is directing a move! Starring Ellen Page! And it's about... roller derby? Well, whatever, I'm excited. Thanks to damned_colonial for pointing out the trailer:

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the farm

2009-07-14T01:35:41Z

I got home this morning from a long weekend at my parent's place. I resist calling it the farm, but it really felt like a farm this weekend. My parents have a very small herd of cows (four of 'em in total) and their first calf arrived yesterday. I got to see their friend Dale deliver the baby, who was a gorgeous grey colour. She was up and feeding within the first hour or so. Her face looked like Bambi, so cute. She has a pale grey face and looks a little like she has black eyeliner. (shame she's a meat cow... but I don't think my mother wants to think about that right now...)

It was a really great weekend. The wettest weekend they've had since moving to Tassie two years ago. We stayed indoors, read books, ate food and spoiled my dad (it was his 64th birthday).

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OMG, are you 12?

2009-06-27T07:01:50Z

Finally, a Buffy video I can like.
Nice critique of the stalkerpr0n that is Twilight.

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mythical creatures

2009-06-16T22:22:03Z

Just bought myself a little treat. I haven't been a stamp collector since I was a little girl, but Neil Gaiman was pimping a collection of Dave McKean mythical creatures stamps from the UK and I decided I'd like to frame it and put it up on the wall. So I'm going to!

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The war on the Chaser

2009-06-08T20:45:12Z

Is anyone else seeing the cadaverous hand of John Howard in the public outcry against The Chaser? They're satirists. They did satire. I've only seen fragments of the skit in news grabs as I don't watch their show but... I'm a lot less comfortable with the suggestion that we should be yanking stuff off air for offending people. Sigh.

(I fail to see how this fits in with racial vilification, or Footy Show levels of sexism & harrassment.)

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It's official... I can cry in any movie

2009-06-08T08:05:10Z

I've started the viewing project I've been planning to do for ages, which is watching all the films which won the Oscar for Best Picture. So last night, Crash and Million Dollar Baby. Today, Dreamgirls.

I spent the afternoon marking my student's blog assignments (sidenote: my students continue to impress me) and now I'm curled up on the couch watching a DVD, which is the best thing a sensible single gal can do in this chilly winter weather. Today's Oscar winner is Dreamgirls. I just watched the scene in which Jamie Foxx, the band manager, informs Jennifer Hudson (who I love) that she's being demoted from lead singer in favour of the willowy Beyonce. The Aretha Franklin-esque voice and figure are too much for the band to achieve crossover success. She turns to Jamie Foxx and asks "Am I ugly to you Curtis?", my heart broke and tears leapt out. Yep, I can cry in any movie.

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languages

2009-06-08T05:19:23Z

For slowlight:
A student of mine shared a link to Lang-8, which lets people blog in the language they're learning, and facilitates feedback from native language speakers. Rock!

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who

2009-06-06T11:10:08Z

I love Alex Kingston as the Dr's love interest. And the echo of "everybody lives!" from my favourite Chris Eccleston Dr Who ep. :)

and... she's an archaeologist...

and.. you know... <3 stephen moffat. :)

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have you got a problem with archaeologists?

2009-06-05T13:22:46Z

"I'm a time traveller. I point and laugh at archaelogists."
Hee. :)

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hee

2009-06-05T12:16:31Z

And, while I'm posting about geekiness, I'm getting stuck into catching up on Dr Who (I'm still only halfway through eps from 2005 omg), my first Catherynne M. Valente book arrived in the mail today (The Orphan's Tales) and I'm really looking forward to watching "The Hunt for Gollum" this weekend.

I couldn't any nerdier unless I told you my dog's name is Samwise. Oh, snap.

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oh noes

2009-05-18T11:59:49Z

tyggerjai is a very bad man. i'm currently resubbing to warcrack so we can go raid scholo and party like it's ~~1999~~ 2004.

zomg scholo with swedenborg. zomg.

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[Testing, please ignore] Cross posting via Semagic

2009-05-04T10:52:53Z

Courtesy of this poster.

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rollin' rollin' rollin'

2009-05-03T22:27:00Z

I promised myself a new bike if I stuck to my promise of taking Samwise for a walk every morning before work for a month. I got my new bike yesterday. :)
And I just rode to work for the first time since, oh, I was in high school. There was a slight hill on Chapel Street heading from Inkerman St to just above Alma which had me breathing hard (spot the unfit chick), but apart from that the route I chose was fine.
It was wondeful fun, I felt young and free :D And it only took me 25 minutes to get here, faster than the bus by 20 minutes. w00t!

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Icon love

2009-04-30T11:44:47Z

Just a quick post to show off the Dreamwidth = open source icon I found on the wiki via the iconic community.
In other news, hating now having a DW client. Web posting ftl.
Why is the little "community" icon not showing up for me? :(

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Joss Whedon versus E. M. Forster

2009-04-28T00:32:08Z

In the past couple of episodes of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse, we learn that many of the people working in the Dollhouse have "relationships" with Dolls (most recently, Topher, who we learn spends his birthday each year with a Doll programmed to be a geek guys dream date - she loves hi tech paintball sstyle games, console gaming, and of course is as gorgeous as a doll). Putting aside the ethical issues to do with wiping and reprogramming people...

It's so scarily stunted. I don't want a human, I want a doll programmed to respond only to what I want and need in another person. Really, that's not a relationship with another person at all. It means, I just want a blowup doll that looks real.

It's just making me fall back in love with George from E. M. Forster's A Room with a View. He's played by a young and gorgeous Julian Sands in the filmed version. He tells Helena Bonham-Carter:

"I want you to have your own thoughts and ideas and feelings, even when I hold you in my arms."

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