here there's no silence...
Some of my brother's cymbal stands. They're creature-like, don't you think?
The aforementioned credit card saga is two months from being officially over but the bank has, for now, refunded the unauthorised charges.
In other good news it gives me great pleasure to report that Wipeout HD is all it was cracked up to be - it makes me want to run out and buy a Playstation 3 right now! Alas, too many other recent purchases to justify that, but it would be worth buying if only for playing Wipeout HD. As expected, great soundtrack too.
agent orange...
To answer a question about the colours of the previous photo, they're straight out the camera. After some experiments a few weeks ago I discovered that LCDs make for excellent photography lights; they're like having a lamp box with an infinite set of colour gels to play with.
The above, however, is not true to life.
The white balance was set extremely low to switch it to the opposite of the pervasive orange wash which exists here at night. It amuses me that it's considered acceptable by the public that our street lights are obnoxious and contrast-reducing orange glare-bombs when more energy-efficient lighting exists - lighting with more natural colour rendering, too.
I have an aversion to the street lighting common throughout this area (and most of Australia for that matter). Aside from being extremely wasteful from the perspective of energy use it robs us of viewing the night sky. Children these days grow up not knowing what a real star-filled sky looks like, which is kind of sad. There are a lot of other reasons that street lighting in its current form is a poor solution, but rather than ranting about it I'd like to direct those interested to read David Owen's very good article from The New Yorker, "The Dark Side: Making war on light pollution."
a life of crime...
I know, I know! It's been a month since I posted the last update and even then it didn't have accompanying text. It's been frustrating not having the time to grab the camera on a regular basis but that will change. In case you were wondering the previous photos were taken just outside Grandchester at the wedding of friends of ours.
So what's the latest? A string of bad luck and strange happenings, that's what! I must have unknowingly upset the universe (maybe not posting enough updates?) because it's like I'm cursed. My karma is off or some fraction of qi is askew, for sure. It's now a running joke with my family that I need to start "staying out of trouble". Abused by some random guy for taking a photo, questioned by police late at night and assumed to be a criminal ("when was the last time you were in trouble with the police?"), credit card details stolen and used to make unauthorised overseas transactions (and then the investigation into it messed up)... just a very summarised selection. Orders with companies delayed or complicated, products unexpectedly discontinued, clients' projects messed up by third parties and systems that've fallen over simultaneously. The list goes on. One of the few good things to have happened was receiving a Heritage Award from the National Trust Queensland - very unexpected and random.
I'd like to write more but it will have to wait. It's past 5 AM and the sky is lightening, which means it's time I got into bed.
I leave you with the above picture of a stack of dead and unhealthy hard drives which have needed replacing over the past two years.