Bang...

Happy New Year bloggers.

I hope 2009 is kind to you and you all have a safe night tonight.

Fun Sunday night...

I guess it's no secret that I enjoy the odd big night out. One of my fave nights is a night called "Loose Ends". It's a very late Sunday night thing and more often than not kicks off around 11:30pm. A small crowd usually gathers. Very small. These crowd is made up of "creative" types and a few who are still partying on from their weekend, oh and the odd cockroach scurrying dancing across the dance floor off his chops. It's a fun night and it's usually over by 2:30 or 3am. The resident DJ is Matt Vaughan and he would have to be one of my fave DJ's here in Sydney.

Picture this: Muzbot on the dance floor with, oh I don't know, about 10 other people, dancing away to the original version of Cindy Lauper's "All Through The Night." It was just one highlight of the weekend. Loose Ends is not specifically an "80's" night, it's the variety of music played that makes this night slightly better than the rest.

Here's a few more classic tracks from his set:
- Madonna "Like a Virgin"
- Prince "Let's Go Crazy"
- The Cure "Close To Me"
- Howard Jones "What Is Love"
- David Bowie "Let's Dance"
- Queen "Radio Ga Ga"
- Roxy Music "Let's Stay Together"
- Belle Stars "Iko Iko"

I bet it's been a long time since anyone has danced to these tracks in a club. So, not your typical night out, but one of the best nights out. Oh, and cheap drinks before midnight. Damn it's a shame that I have to work most Mondays.

My disappointment with blogs...

Look up in the top left of this screen if your blog is on Blogger. You'll see next to "Search Blog" and "Flag Blog" there's a link that reads: "Next Blog". This link is like my channel changer on the remote. When I first started blogging, and yes, I know I'm a relatively late comer to the phenomenon which is blogging, I used to use that button a lot. Each time I'd be taken to a new blog that I've never read before. For me, it was more entertaining than TV and there was always a unique aspect to every blog. This was my new "television".

But lately, the more I hit "Next Blog" I get more ads than blogs. Actually, I get more blogs that thinly vale that their true identity is owned by a company. Sure it might look like a blog, follow the blog format to a "t" and be written by someone just like you and me but deep down each post is a product review. ZZzzzz. Snore now.

And worst of all, I'm about to sell this as a concept for work. We call it a "creative marketing opportunity".

Go on... hit the "Next blog" link now. See if you don't get a blog selling something.

Boxing day breakfast...

Merry Christmas from us both...

First home cooked meal...

Garlic prawns and a simple salad of olives, tomatoes, feta and lettuce. And a glass of sparkley. No - scratch that, a bottle of sparkley.

It's currently a bit soulless...

but my loungeroom is coming together. No boxes there anymore! And look, I even set up my MASSIVE xmas tree. What? It doesn't look that big? Must be the camera angle.

I will gradually add some soul to this room, but for now, at least I can watch my Daft Punk DVDs in comfort. I also plan to replace the lounge eventually to something a little more suitable. I'm not a huge fan of the red seat there. And I need bookshelves. I have way too many graphic design and comic books that need to be out of boxes and at my fingertips for reference.

It was such a good feeling waking up this morning and before running to the shower to get ready for work, I decided I'd throw on my boardies and go for a swim. I'm not usually a beach person, but things are a changin'. I'm going to get used to this.

So you want an update?

There's not much to report... except I've finally moved into my flat in Manly. So, three cheers and a round of applause please.
Thank you.

The moving process was relatively painless. Thanks and a big shout-out to Judo who gave me a hand and drove the van. I'm loving my new place sick right now. There's a few minor renovations that need to be completed, but I can see advantages of having the fridge in the bedroom at the foot of my bed. Beer. Ice cold beer right there at my fingertips. :)

Ikea: 'Nuff said.

Actually, no, I can say more about Ikea... Since Judo had hired a van for the move, we took advantage of this and went back to Ikea to pick up the flat-packed wardrobe, doors and other bits and bobs. When we packed the van and were ready to leave, the young couple in the Camry next to us were struggling to fit their flat-packs into their car. It was rather amusing. Judo and I conferred and decided that we would offer to take their stuff in our van for them. This provided Judo and I with even more amusement as we followed them and speculated as to what their conversation might be in their car. "Raj and Aiesha", as I affectionately called them, were very grateful for the helping hand.

Bunnings: A couple of Bunnings featured in the weekend's activities. Both times our visits coincided with lunchtime - the smell of BBQ sausages is heaven. A simple sausage and onion sandwich with tomato sauce is always a winner in my books. Throw in a smattering of decent eye-candy and you have my idea of what shopping is all about. None of this fancy shopping mall crap for me. Although, I have to admit, I was a little over Bunnings on the second trip and was losing my shopping vigor.

Boxes: Piled 4 or 5 high surround the walls and cover the floors of my new digs. I have a bed and a fantasticly organised wardrobe (Thanks Ikea and your storage solutions), but limited places to put the rest of my stuff. More creative storage solutions are required. I've decided I need at least a whole wall for a bookshelf. Damn design books and board games take up so much space. Twister anyone?

*Update*

Just a couple more thoughts from the weekend:

• As Judo and I left Ikea he pointed out that no one was actually smiling as they left the store with their goodies. Not one person seemed to be smiling.
  
• While riding home from Kookyknut's place yesterday evening I was halfway home when I realised I was heading in the wrong direction. Mental note: New home is the other side of the harbour. Duh!

Time time time, see what's become of me...

Oh, ok ok, I've not posted for a while. Well there's a lot going on and I just don't think it's that interesting to anyone else, so why bore you with the juicy details.

So instead here's a post which contains the answers to trivia - Week 5. You remember Week 5 don't you? It was oh so long ago now.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1. What is the next line in this song? (Laura Branigan "Self Control") 5 words
"Through the wall something breaking" (1 Point)

2. Name the artist and song title
Basement Jaxx "Take Me Back To Your House" (2 Points)

3. Give me the album title this song is from and the artist. (Lou Reed "Satellite of Love")
Transformer - Lou Reed (2 Points)

4. This song is about a city. Which is this city's Sister City in Spain? (Deep Dish "Sacramento")
Valencia. (1 Point)

5. Name the company and product line this song advertised? Name the song and artist. (The Ting Tings "Shut Up and Let Me Go")
Apple - Ipod - The Ting tings "Shut Up And Let Me Go" (4 Points)

6. This single was released twice. Once in 1987 and once as a remix in 1994. Which year did it chart highest in the UK? (New Order "True Faith")
1987 - charted #4 (1994 charted #9) (1 Point)

7. When this artist released this debut album in 2003 he claimed inspiration from which 90's Seattle Grunge band? (Pete Murray "Feeler")
Pearl Jam (1 Point)

8. Who performed this song originally? (Shades "Upside Down")
Dianna Ross (1980) (1 Point)

9. Name the artist and the song and the Male artist who appears in the video with her.
Nelly Furtado "Say It Right" - Timberland. (3 Points)

10. MashUp. Name the two artists and song titles. (MadMixMustang "Call Me Kylie")
Blondie "Call Me" and Kylie "Can't Get You Out of My Head" (4 Points)

(20 Points)

I'm loving this right now...

We feel fine...

"Since August 2005, We Feel Fine has been harvesting human feelings from a large number of weblogs. Every few minutes, the system searches the world's newly posted blog entries for occurrences of the phrases "I feel" and "I am feeling". When it finds such a phrase, it records the full sentence, up to the period, and identifies the "feeling" expressed in that sentence (e.g. sad, happy, depressed, etc.). Because blogs are structured in largely standard ways, the age, gender, and geographical location of the author can often be extracted and saved along with the sentence, as can the local weather conditions at the time the sentence was written."

Link: We feel fine...

*Update*
After playing around with some of the parameters look what came up... A familiar face.

The adventurous life of Muzbot…

Come with me as I take you on my latest weekend adventure. It was a very warm humid morning, almost tropical. Judo and I had been making preparations for the journey ahead so we would be ready in time to meet Dave at the rendezvous point.

Somehow things were already starting to not go as planned. We had arranged to meet Dave outside a swanky financial hub called “Westpac”, but as we approached we noticed he had walked straight past it and he stood there outside the distressed exterior of “Commonwealth Bank”. On a mission, it’s missing small details like this that can make an expedition suddenly go bad. Luckily, I was on the ball and spotted him. “Quick! Toot the horn” I shouted at Judo. Dave was alert and looked up to see our anxious faces. As he jumped into the car we bravely joked about this and the mood lifted.

Our journey to our destination was going to take us a while. Dave was in relatively uncharted territory. The landscape was familiar to me as I had made this journey on a number of occasions before. I had even travelled this way in the blackness of night on my bike, so I enjoyed feeling like the expert for a moment as we motored along cautiously.

The mood in the car seemed to be jovial. Were we masking our feelings of great terror surrounding the mysterious unknown? I was. I’d not experienced this before and neither had Judo. Dave had on one other occasion and he was doing his best to extol the delights at our journey’s end. It was hard not to take on Dave’s enthusiasm. It was on Dave’s recommendation that we pushed on.

As we approached our destination I was excited. I know that the walking ahead of us would lead us to discover secret passages, passages that not many others would dare to take. Walkers before us usually would only follow the guided paths. The paths that only head in one direction… to the end of what may be a temple filled with impossible treasure that only those who dare stumble onto. We set ourselves the goal of one and a half hours to do the round trip and be back at our parked car. Game on.

The excitement mounted and I approached with caution. There was a little uncertainty in our group as we had not picked up a map. Judo was sure that what we were seeking lay at the very end of the temple, Dave and I seemed confident that our prize was close to the start. Looking ahead we could see the first climb was going to be the most difficult. We started up.

“To the left” Dave shouted as Judo was heading off in the wrong direction. “It’s left. Quickly, through here…” He was right. We had just stumbled into the unknown. The colours and noise surrounding us were almost beyond imagination. If I wasn’t experiencing this with my own senses I would not have believed. Decisions decisions.
I looked at the warm glowing light in front of me and almost without hesitation I asked for what I had come for. “I’ll have the 15 meatballs please.” It was a first people. Ikea meatballs, chips dripping with gravy and an unknown sauce called “lingonberry”. The journey was worth it.

Muzbot's totally random iPod trivia pop quiz: Week 6

This is it. This time I know it's the real thing. We've made it through 6 weeks together. That's a milestone.

So, I may not be the world's greatest quiz master, but I gave it a go. And a huge thank you to those who mentioned to me that they thought I did an ok job of it. I really appreciated the feedback.

Well, to end, I've created the "super" round. 20 questions in 2 parts. I'm sorry that the quality of one of my questions in the second part is crap. I had the levels wrong and only noticed after the fact. Also, apologies for the weird questions this round. I put it together after I'd had some... ummmm, "Christmas cheer". So without any further blah blah blah, here's the final link to the final trivia:

Week 6 Good luck.

I'm loving this right now...

So there's good news and bad news...

What would you like first, good or bad? Ok, let's start with the good:
Trivia will be extended by one week! Woot!
Ok, brace yourself for the bad:
There is no trivia this week.

I'll be away for a few days and it won't be possible for me to compile Week 6's trivia until I return next week.

Feels like heaven...

It's boys and their toys.

It's the new R1. It's hot, and I want one.

There's something about a hot swingarm that REALLY does it for me.
- - - - - - - - - - -
*deep breath* - Now this, my friends, is the new F4:

at $185 000, it's worth us having a look at it from another angle:

and time or money have no meaning
in a place called... heaven.

Food today :: a photo essay

Breakfast. A tasty bit of crumpet. Cafe style.

Oooh, I'm still hungry. Yum, that looks good, can I have some cheese please?

Lunch. My absolute fave meal is a good Surf & Turf. These beans were fantastic.

Dinner: Sushi style. Round and round it goes...

And beer, don't forget the beer. My fave table in my fave local bar.

Muzbot's totally random iPod trivia pop quiz: Week 5

Welcome to week 5! Download now.

Well we've made it to week 5. Do you feel lucky? I do.

This week is not a bonus round week. It's 10 questions and they worth 20 points to you in total.

Cafe conversations...

I love the social atmosphere of cafes and beer gardens. They are (mostly) so relaxing and foster an atmosphere of friendly conversations. I enjoy people watching and hanging out with my close friends in these locations. Every now and then, at a table nearby, someone's voice is a little louder and you catch a segment of their conversation.

Based on my most recent post about an overheard conversation that bugged me, here are a couple that have amused me or made me want to know what the hell they were talking about:

- - - - -
"Tell me honey, what did we just do?"

- - - - -
"I'm getting too old to run."
"How old are you now?"
"34"

- - - - -
"Look at you, you radiate divinity this morning"

- - - - -
"So I said to him why don't you just Google my butt then?!"

- - - - -
"I was doing the elegant breasts. NOT the Maria Venuti type."

....That last one just cracked me up.

This is going to hurt, but...

This prop 8 thing kind of bugs me. Is marrying someone so important? Maybe the definition of a relationship is different in the USA to Australia. I can't pretend to know what love is for everyone, but I can tell you what it is for me; love is knowing all about someone, and still wanting to be with them more than any other person. Love is trusting them enough to tell them everything about yourself, including the things you might be ashamed of. Love is not about what the law says. Love is between two people. Married or not.

I've been in love. Deeply. I truly believe that your relationship's value is what you give it, not what other people give it. What is prop 8 asking for? Recognition? From who? The State? People who you don't know? People who might pat you on the back and say "good on you". Will it change someone's prejudice? Is your love about what matters to other people?

I'd like to think that your love is the bond between two people. NOT the right to marry, or legally what you'll get if you have the same rights as married people - when things fail.

But if you've loved, and things don't fail, what have you lost? Nothing.

You've loved with honesty. Loved for love's sake, not for a signature's sake.

Totally random iPod trivia pop quiz: Week 4

Welcome to week 4! Download now.

Another bonus round week. Same deal as last time, and this time I've included the space to answer the bonus points on the main form (at the very bottom).

This week should be no more difficult than previous rounds. Last week we seemed to have had a couple of drop-outs from the quiz, so the race is on. This round is worth 15 points + a possible 10 bonus points.

Cover art bonus round:
For this you'll need to give me the artist and album name.
Each album is worth half a point. Each artist is worth half a point.

1.	2.
3.	4.
5.	6.
7.	8.
9.	10.

It's a story...

"Now, you two boys slide that shotgun over here and put your hands on your head and your head against the floor!"
"This day's been coming from the beginning, huh, Kooky? Right from the start."
"Run!"
The next time Muzbot sees Kooky, it is brief, as Kooky is leaving for a concert with Jacks. After Muzbot turns the corner, Kooky never sees Muzbot again.

In a world obsessed by violence this book opens its mouth wide, takes a bite, chews it up and spits it back in your face. Come along for the ride as two unlikely outcasts team up for the adventure of everyone else's lives.

Awwww... Good mates.

Nice couple of days.

Friday afternoon, good news everyone. Clover Moore, our mayor, has finally done something for us motorcyclists. We can now park for free in the city. A big Woot to this!

Friday night: dine with this view. I'll miss the roof top when I move. But some beers and take-away and my own company made for a very relaxing end to the week. Watched the ships coming and going on the harbour.
Sat morning: Breakfast at The Bunker. My total fave breakfast local. Today was savory mince on toast, another classic from my childhood. Hey Dave look: Position "Vacant Waitress"... And there she is:
Kitchen: Demolition in progress.
Lunch: KFC. Oh yeah, give me some of those "Wicked Wings". Yum. Burp. Ride bike.Awwww, Sydney sunsets are just beautiful.

Muzbot's totally random iPod trivia pop quiz. Week 3

Here is a link to where you'll find the 3rd week's MP3: WEEK 3. (Worth 22 points.)

I was going to do an 80's themed quiz this week, but as it turns out most of the random songs that came up this week were from the 80's anyway.

I'm enjoying producing these quizzes. I've used a higher compression on the mp3 this week, so the quality is lacking, but the download should be much smaller. Good luck.

Sunday is ride day...

Look, see I do smile when I'm out and about riding my bike.

Muzbot's totally random iPod trivia pop quiz. Week 2

Here is a link to where you'll find the 2nd week's MP3: WEEK 2. (Worth 16 points.)

It's not much easier this week, but give it a go. You are allowed to use the web to find the answers if you wish, but you're still going to have to have good song recognition skills.

Week 2: Bonus points...

Cover art:
For this you'll need to give me the artist and album name.
Each album is worth half a point. Each artist is worth half a point.

1.	2.
3.	4.
5.	6.
7.	8.
9.	10.