Lorien rambles.

Mmm, yes.

nobody@vox.com(lorien) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 17:17:39 +1000

There is definitely something quintessentially awesome about designing while drinking a fine single malt. This is all I have to say about that!

Oh, and my current malt of choice is the Talisker 10 Year. Which, I have to say, is a little more sour than the Macallan 12 Year that I've been slowly making my way through.

Life is good. :)

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Wherein I try on my last pair of coloured contacts and rediscover Photoshop.

nobody@vox.com(lorien) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 22:26:37 +1100

Yonks ago, I splashed out and bought three pairs of coloured contacts (it was a special deal and reasonably priced). I had tried the grey contacts and the blue contacts, but found that the shape of them didn't quite suit my eyes and were frustratingly uncomfortable. So I never wore them for more than a few hours at a time and then ditched them altogether.

I found the last pair in the bathroom cupboard, still in their packets, but apparently expired. I figured that it was unlikely that they were rotted, so I tried them on. Once again, the colour changed totally freaked out my boy and he refused to look at me until I removed them. But not before I took a photo of them in! So here is the (almost) original shot:

Violet Contacts

Normally, I would have left it like this, without further embellishment, but I had been looking at some photographers' works and got all inspired to spend a little more time on my images. Not quite airbrushing like the magazines, but not far from it, either. As an exercise, it was fun but it did make me wish that some things would translate from the digital world into the analogue.

Violet Eyes, Touched Up

The funny thing about this is that you can barely tell that I'm wearing coloured contacts!

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This is what makes blogging so good.

nobody@vox.com(lorien) — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 22:20:09 +1100

It's like a conversation with people who are actually interested in the topic. And the diversity of responses is what makes the internet as a forum so unique.

I'm inspired in two ways by this particular example:

1. The participation re-piques my interest in contributing to the blogging world.
2. I now want to revisit my old "crappy" photos.

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On Sketching and Moleskins

nobody@vox.com(lorien) — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 23:44:11 +1000

I have pretty much spent the entire weekend reading about Moleskines, GTD and sketching kits/hacks. I would include a list of all the links that I explored, but it would take too long and I've closed most of those tabs already.

Oh, okay, fine. Start with this link at 43 Folders. And have a look here for creative inspiration for what you can do inside one of these notebooks. (Also, if anyone can tell me where I can get that pen holder clip he's got on the spine of his moleskine, I'll be eternally grateful.) As for the GTD stuff, it's all over the place. Google it.

My other key diversion was sketching in these books. I've already finished one moleskin a while ago and I'm halfway through my second. Plus, I have the larger sketchbook, but I haven't done much in it so far.

So this weekend, I stopped reading about sketching and grabbed some supplies and went to sketch the doggies. I didn't use a pen/pencil at all. It was pure watercolour and I am sadly out of practice. But I guess that's the whole point of the exercise, right?

Sketch Kit

My next step will be to find a little mint tin with a hinge so that I can make a little water colour box out of it. Those Pelikan paints are easily 25 years old and it wouldn't surprise me if they were 35 years old (they were my mother's originally).

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They're baaaaaaack.

nobody@vox.com(lorien) — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 15:49:55 +1000

Geeks of Hazzard Podcast

OMG! It's actually going to happen! Teh Geeks of Hazzard are going to start podcasting again, yes! I missed you guys goofing around, I really did.

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Dr Sketchy Melbourne - Aug 07

nobody@vox.com(lorien) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 11:16:43 +1000

I went to this month's life drawing session and it ROCKED! It took me a while to get back into the groove, but I'm pretty happy with the progress I'm making with this.

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Cutest. Dog. Ever.

nobody@vox.com(lorien) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 17:44:57 +1000

Some people might disagree, but I don't care.

Maya

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Books are back in my life!

nobody@vox.com(lorien) — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 16:07:49 +1000

I used to be an avid reader, mostly science fiction, but I've branched out a little into non-fiction more recently. And by recently, I mean in the last couple of years. I don't have much time left for reading. Even though work isn't school (so no homework), I seem to have even less free time than ever! Anyway, I've taken a couple weeks holiday which I've started off with a decent cold.Part of me was okay with that because it made me rest, spend some quality time at home, watching TV and catching up on some reading. On a whim, I picked up this book from the bookshop:

Witchling

Yasmine Galenorn

So okay, it's not exactly... what is the word I'm going for? Quality? Maybe. I liked the cover of its sequel, but it's not available yet, so I grabbed the first book. (Yes, I do judge books by the cover.) In a brief review, I'll just call it good time-filler. The kind of book you'd buy at the airport. Actually, the concept is kind of interesting, but I found the writing style a little juvenile, full of unnecessary pop references that felt like the advertising you see "slipped into" Hollywood blockbusters and such. Yes, I get that she likes her clothes and spends money like its water, but do we really need to know that she frequents Starbucks and loves Victoria's Secret? That seriously put me off. The plot itself was okay, but the writing didn't flow easily and I noticed it way too much. Hopefully the sequel shows improvement! One sentence summary: Three sisters with magic powers
fight a big evil. Can anyone say, "Charmed" rip-off?

So yeah, I read that. Took me about 8 hours to get through it, I think. Probably less, but I wasn't keeping track.

On the other end of the genre, I've returned to this book:

Green Mars (Mars Trilogy)

Kim Stanley Robinson

Which is vastly different, packed with science, mostly geology, but a great deal of physics and biology. Not to mention the politics, social dynamics and psychology. The detail is stunning but really overwhelming, especially when you're nursing a cold and aren't at your sharpest. I'm actually listening to the rest of this on audio book and I find myself zoning out during his descriptions of the changing Mars environment. Still, it's a good story and well-written. The concept is thought out to even the smallest of consequences and in relation to very human characters. I'm looking forward to finishing the trilogy before my holiday is finished.

And that's my update for now!

Listening to:

Songs from the South: The Best of Paul Kelly

Paul Kelly

Watching:

Numb3rs - The Complete First Season

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He's just too damn CUTE!

nobody@vox.com(lorien) — Wed, 09 May 2007 19:00:33 +1000

Yeah, yeah, I'm biased, but just LOOK:

Baby gots a new hoodie

*sigh*

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Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake

nobody@vox.com(lorien) — Sun, 06 May 2007 17:23:28 +1000

For anyone unfamiliar with this modern take on Swan Lake, this performance will come as a shock. Gone are the delicate, feminine swans danced by women poised in their pointe shoes, replaced by strong men, half-naked to the waist, bedecked in feathery shorts and wild, powerful moves. It's not the ballet most people think of when, if, ballet comes to their mind. It's bold and breath-taking. Even when the lead dancer isn't as strong as he should be.

All in all, I loved the show, but there were a few disappointments with the tour version of this ballet. There was no live orchestra. Canned music at a ballet? Logistically, I understand the reasons for it, and there were a few cues that were pretty tight, but still! So having the music piped out through speakers left me a little cold, but I got over it.

Upon entering the Regent Theatre (Melbourne), we were greeted with this sight:

Swan Lake "Title Screen"

The other disappointment, as I alluded to before, was the lead dancer, the swan. In the DVD that I have, Adam Cooper is the Swan and I adore it. The Prince is a minor, and irritating, character in this recording of the ballet. The Swan is all charisma, wild power and animal magnetism. You really understand this swan. Alan Vincent, however, was less convincing, shaky on more than several poses and just not "there." This time, it was the Prince, danced by Dominic North, that really stood out. He was really impressive. Perhaps, being the understudy (we went to the Sunday matinée), he had something to prove. And he did, in spades.

I've seen it on DVD, and while the performance in the recorded version is more polished and has better dancers, it does lack the immediacy of seeing it in person. So despite these minor disappointments, it was a fantastic show and worth every penny my friend spent on it! I'm so happy I was given the opportunity to catch this tour. Bec, if you ever read this blog, THANK YOU.

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