So Melbourne International Film Festival will be upon us soon and I've been briefly glimpsing through the program to see if there are any films there I want (and inevitably will lack the time) to see. So far I've come up with a narrowed down list (excepting those films I think are likely to get a release: Moon, Coraline, Mother, In the Loop) and I've got:

( interesting only for Melbourne friends and my own reference )

Are any of the Melbourne gang going to see stuff?



Also, since this whole post is a wall of text, I'm grabbing this meme from glassbomb because as she accurately stated, its "both pointless and somehow satisfying" to do.

1) Post ten of any pictures currently on your hard drive that you think are self-expressive.
2) NO CAPTIONS!!! It must be like we're speaking with images and we have to interpret your visual language just like we have to interpret your words.
3) They must ALREADY be on your hard drive - no googling or flickr! They have to have been saved to your folders sometime in the past. They must be something you've saved there because it resonated with you for some reason.
4) You do NOT have to answer any questions about any of your pictures if you don't want to. You can make them as mysterious as you like. Or you can explain them away as much as you like. (Yeah, you can totally ask me about them if you want.)

( I probably shouldn't have stopped saving images around 2006. Oh, and NSFW )

Why is the measure of love loss?

I feel kind of devastated. Annihilated perhaps. What's that from? "so-and-so prefers to be annihilated." I keep thinking fanfic, maybe Drop Dead Gorgeous, but I can't be sure.

Thanks Lil.

If anyone wants to do this stupid time-suck of a movie quiz Empire has, and can tell me all 50 of the movies on there, I would be much obliged. I don't think I'm meant to be this invested in finding all of them. But I have 41 out of 50 right now and the ones I don't know are driving me insane. I even started typing in the most literal interpretation of the images I could think of: "Interracial Gay Marriage is Awesome" was the best movie of its year! And who could forget that contemporary classic "Cheerleaders Who Kick Arse" (yes, I did try But I'm a Cheerleader). Sigh. Be sadder than me, I dare you.

Amazon are pulling sales rankings from a number of titles in their catalogue which, they claim in their reply to an early complaint by an affected author, are '"adult" material.' [link 1] [link 2]

I'm no programmer but the effect of being stripped of their ranks seems to be that the titles tend to no longer turn up as a search result when you search under the 'all departments' menu option ie. the default option when you search from Amazon's main page. Although they do show up when you search by the 'books' department. Try it. Look at this list currently being compiled of affected books. Try typing in some of them under the two different search fields.

Titles that have been targeted for this include heterosexual and homosexual erotica, as well as books dealing with GLBTQ subjects, whether they be parenting how-to-guides for same-sex couples, books on gender and queer theory, or acclaimed and award-winning fiction and children's picture books with a gay theme.

In addition to this, targeted titles have been removed from best-seller lists.

There have already been a bunch of posts on how to make Amazon aware of your dissatisfaction with their at best irresponsible, at worst offensive and prejudiced actions. Here are two: 1. Sam 2. Aja

Here's a links round-up post

You can follow #amazonfail on twitter. I do not have a twitter and kind of went momentarily insane trying to figure out that page I just linked to, but I'm sure experienced twitterers get it.

And the reason I wrote this up - I was initially just going to type out a cryptic two word entry - Smartbitches has a googlebombing campaign going.

If you want, just link to their page: http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/amazonrank using the words "Amazon Rank."

Like so: Amazon Rank.

Alright. Soapbox is being packed away now.

Merry Christmas everyone!

I'll be away from December 28th to January 19th since I'll be in China. If you want to reach me, please email me or contact my facebook since LJ isn't accessible from behind the Great Firewall of China.

And since I won't be here for New Year's, one of my resolutions for 2009 is that I will update this thing more and make a greater effort to keep in contact with LJ friends I like and admire, but whom I've also neglected. Sorry guys.

Gone until the 19th of Jan. Have a fun holidays everyone.

Pyramids at Giza > Christ the Redeemer

Ack, it's all a marketing ploy anyway, but I'm just slightly bitter that the Easter Island statues didn't make it. And at least it's not as euro-centric as most of these lists are. NOT THAT I CARE, it's an online poll. I'm just surprised someone didn't hack into the system and put forth Hogwarts as a finalist what with all the Pottermania.

More frivolous posts to follow!

Oh, and I have a ahemfacebook here. If I haven't yet tracked you down on it with creepily thorough stalking skills, friend me if you wish to do so. I'm the inflexible Australian one in high contrast.


To conclude: it's so bloody freezing over here, I'm seriously considering the lifestyle benefits of hibernation. At least I don't have a six year old genius for a son. Not that I have anything for a son, it hasn't been that long a hiatus.

Quickly! What are some of your favourite cheap and easy-to-prepare winter snacks that keep you warm and toasty? Ignore the rest of this post, if you wish, but please answer this question.

Meanwhile, this was a post I had saved ages ago for the 5 things meme and since it's in keeping with this current post topic:

( Five favourite zestiest snack foods! )


And I didn't add it because it's not savoury (and zesty always implies savoury to me), but it still deserves a mention on a list of great snack foods: Pocky POCKY POCKY!!!!! <- (clearly insane...FOR POCKY)

I'm so hungry. You can really tell when exam season starts to apply the pressure once people start writing meaningless entries entirely about snacks. Oh God. Send for help.

ARRRRRHRGHGGHGHGHGHGHGHGH. BUGGRITBUGGRTBUGGRIT. HAAAAAAATESSEEEEEEEETHESSSSSLOOOOOOOOAAAAAAATHES.

Fookin Jonah Day and it's only 1:10pm.

So who are we all interested in seeing for Comfest 2007? I'd love to make an outing of it with people, but have no idea if my tastes overlap with anyone else's. So far, it's probably Russell Howard and Daniel Kitson for me, although both are (more) expensive (than I'd like).

In light of the fact that I bought Pratchett's Reaper Man and Jeanette Winterson's Sexing the Cherry today for a total of $18 (Australian), should I go back tomorrow and get:

1. Kublai Khan does not necessarily believe everything Marco Polo says when he describes the cities visited on his expeditions, but the emperor of the Tartars does continue listening to the young Venetian with greater attention and curiosity than he shows any other messenger or explorer of his. - $8

and

2. This is also a book about sex and drugs and Music With Rocks In. - $8

OR

1. A hardback, folio, facsimile edition of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales illustrated by my favourite early 20th century illustrator, Kay Nielsen. - $20

( resolution heavy examples of Nielsen's work - will give your dial-up hives )

They're all very difficult to get secondhand normally. People seem unwilling to part with their Calvinos and Pratchetts and finely illustrated fairy tale compendiums so it's an annoying choice to make. The problem with the second is that I'm far more partial to Nielsen's work on his earlier efforts for the East of the Sun, West of the Moon collection and as such, I'm less willing to pry my cold, mean fingers away from the clasps of my purse to siphon off my meagre supply of funds. The problem with the former suggestion is that I've read Soul Music and I can't seem to remember any of it aside from the basic plot - and that's due more to the animated version they used to show during after school hours on the ABC a decade ago. What do the Pratchett-philes think? Is Soul Music worth buying? Or is it as mediocre as my admittedly weak memory tells me?

Or maybe I should spend the money on a bulk supply of cockroach poison? Because I've seen 5 in the past 3 nights and it's really starting to freak me out. And desensitise me even further to arthropod-directed violence.

I was wondering if those music-savvy people on the friendslist could please help me identify the two following songs. My friend made me a mix CD with no tracklist and through the powers of google-fu and my own familiarity with the voices of the artists, I've managed to get them all but these two:

1. Track 9: http://www.box.net/public/ti8o9al4mg

2. Track 18: http://www.box.net/public/g77cde4d23

There's a 'play song' option so that you won't have to bother wasting your time with downloading the whole song.

Thanks in advance to anyone who tries to help.

Edit: Julz, could you please send that Holly Throsby song Dom put in your mix over to me in an email, or something? I forgot to snatch it off Loki's ipod the other week.

What do these people have in common?
Jackson Pollock, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Elijah Wood, Alan Alda and Colette.

In the picture below the cut find:
1. an eel
2. a lighthouse
3. an anchor
4. a greyhound
5. a spade
6. a man smoking.
( c'mon! waste even more of your time! )
Note: where the hell is the smoking man? I am going insane with frustration searching for him!
[Edit] Okay, Em found it. She rocks. She has my eternal devotion and love, the rest of you now mean nothing to me.

Also, does anyone know the name of that old children's television show that used to show on ABC [usually in the mornings]? It was about some old witch who had to go around collecting a set of various things each season, like rings or pearls or spoons. And each season there would be a young girl who also had to collect these artefacts because ofcourse the witch was evil and couldn't have such mystical objects within her reach incase she WRECKED HAVOC! If anyone could help, I'd be much obliged!
[edit] It was T bag! Many thanks to Nicnic for being the omniscient deity that she is. *le sigh* How great was that show?