photos, fly fishing, food, maps & cycling
My latest little design job, a straightforward wordpress theme and setup to accompany a quirky book about odd things to visit around Australia, Cassowary Crossing.
I have to say. it was nice to work with someone who has no lack of decent content. David has already filled his blog with loads of interesting stuff.
OK, next to the world’s big rivers it’s just a trickle, but it’s our trickle! The Snowy River flows from the highest mountains in the country down to the sea near Orbost.
With all the controversy about river levels and ‘environmental’ flows, it’s heartening to see that, at least when this picture was taken, it’s got a healthy flow. Judging by the colour of the water, I’m guessing it’s recently rained. In fact, the flow is so healthy that I’m sure we can see a white water rafting trip in progress! Definitely a couple of rectangular orange blobs with another one about 100m upstream. Lucky them, eh?
There’s something a bit circular about looking at an ancient relic like the Great Pyramid of Gizeh through the magic of a technology as new as this.
Yippee!!… Google Maps have gone global – there are patches of high res photography scattered all over Australia and other non-US bits! So, much as I love (and will continue to patronise) googlesightseeing, I want to start my own archive of great locations. Australia-centric, but not exclusive.
Just to kick it off, I’m starting with the main intersection on my street – because I can! Future links will be much more exciting – I promise!!
In the middle of the political mud-slinging that surrounded the wrongful deportation/detention of Australians mistaken for “illegal” immigrants. I thought I heard someone attempt to resurrect the “Australia Card”.
I trust it won’t go any further than that passing comment, but if it does gather support again, I hope we can take a grown up approach to the issue… something like this masterpiece by eclectech. That should shut them up!
What was Australia’s illustrious Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer trying to say in parliament the other day? Apparently, a video of Douglas Wood and his Iraqi dissident captors was delivered to Australian officials by “message stick”. Does this implicate Australian Aboriginals in the sorry tale? (perhaps in retaliation for not saying sorry!), have the ancient ways of transmitting information become TCP/IP compliant? Certainly a challenge for hackers to crack that one!
Alas, I think not. I don’t even think he was referring to a Sony trademarked Memory Stick, but instead to a generic, USB flash drive. Seems the digital world is moving too fast for Al, so for his benefit (and any others for whom the confusion persists), I have prepared this small picture… on the left is a Message Stick of Central Australian origin. On the right are the Sony branded item and a generic Flash drive.
Oh, and that’s Alexander in the middle. As he seems to be losing his memory, I thought he’d appreciate a picture to help him remember who he is.
I was telling a story today when someone at the table said “that’s the sort of thing you should have on your blog!”, so I thought I’d better follow through with it.
I can’t remember why, but a while ago I found myself looking at a totally insane video on the interweb showing a couple of deranged frenchmen hurtling on their cycles down loose, stony hillsides and across logs and creeks. It would have been extreme stuff on mountain bikes – but these were UNICYCLES! That’s right – one wheel! It pushed the whole thing over the line into complete and utter madness.
Anyway, apart from a deep admiration for their complete disregard for life and limb, one of the videos had a wild, alt/french/ska soundtrack… a perfect match for the action. I followed the credit in the movie to the website and they are now my new favourite band! Marcel et son Orchestre – give them a try! I only understand the barest snips of their rapid fire french, but it’s so upbeat and infectious that it doesn’t matter at all. The only problem is buying it: I’ve only found the albums on amazon.fr.
Sadly, it seems the website where I found the original video [www.monotrail.fr.st] is no more, but!! magpie that I am, I must have decided to save a copy of the video. It’s a 3.1Mb wmv file (not my choice!). I hope they (Tom, Jeremy, Ludo and François) don’t mind me posting it here… let me know guys!
It’s not politically correct to admit it, but I hate public transport. It’s bucketing rain this morning so I didn’t ride my bike (powered or unpowered), I caught the tram.
I don’t like the waiting, the fact that when I do, it’s usually cold and wet is a bummer, but I can put up with all the logistical problems, what really bugs me is the other passengers. There’s always someone with a new and surprising way of annoying their fellow passengers.
This morning’s nutter was armed with a mobile phone. It’s annoying enough listening to half of someone’s conversation on a tram, but I’m not such a grouch that I let it bother me any more. This morning, however, the woman with the offensive communication device had it on speakerphone! That’s right, we got both sides of the conversation! I believe it was her sister, I wonder if she knew she was being broadcast to the other 60 or so passengers within earshot? I think not, if she’d known, she would have tried to say something intelligent.
Actually, not to diminish the story, but it reminds me of another recent and disappointing encounter with the new breed of mobile phone. We were sitting in a cafe next to a trio of young lads, when one of them pulls out his mobile and starts playing music through it like it was the world’s smallest ghetto blaster! Imagine it, the 5mm speaker going beserk as Nirvana’s Teen Spirit squeezes it’s way out of the overloaded circuitry with so much distortion that it seems likely to explode – we should be so lucky!
I know, it’s a big call but rainbowprimates.com incorporates unimaginably awful design, the very worst elevator music, a ‘terrorist alert’ indicator and a christian chat room! What more could you want?? This site will leave you utterly speechless. It’s so bad you will almost forget to be outraged at the basic idea of selling monkeys to be dressed up as quasi-babies by empty headed americans.
I admit it, I’m a bit of a map nerd… I just love ’em – the more detail the better. You can learn a lot about a place just by looking at a map. You can learn even more by looking at an aerial photograph, and google maps has got lots of them! So far, the high res images are only in the more populous areas of North America, but striking images can be found over the whole of the continent. In fact, it’s a bit addictive – a bit of a time waster!
If you can’t be bothered with trawling through masses of photos and just want the juicy bits, check out Google Sightseeing, a winderful blog with daily updates of cool things that can be found on google maps. I’ve even had one of my submissions shown!
Oh, and before I go, here are a few of my favourites: the boneyard, the grassy knoll, the hollywood sign and Yazgur’s farm. Cool, eh?